Religion & Science, Strayer 16

10/1/2015

There you go. Have at it.

Bingham

10/1/2015 10:23:51

BPQ1: Why did Christianity take hold in some places more than in others?

Christianity integrated most fully into regions where European colonial powers ruled, where there was an overwhelming European presence, where the established society had been defeated and disrupted, and where no literate world religion was already established.

It had the least impact when it had to operate with the permission of non-Christian rulers, when it sought to convert in a society that was stable and well established, and when it sought to convert in a region where a literate world religion already existed.

Bingham

10/1/2015 10:26:37

Don't forget to use the "people, places, things" file on the unit info page.
http://www.binghamsplace.com/early-modern-era.html

Bethany

11/1/2015 12:27:48

Did anybody else remember Wahhabism from Deblij? I think it was explained in the War on Terror chapter. I was just thinking that Wahhabism is a good example of something that began in the early modern era and still has implications today in regard to terrorism and Saudi Arabian culture. Also, Strayer's explanation of Wahhabism seems much more objective than I remember De Blijs being. Anyways, I just thought that was interesting, and hopefully me posting will I instigate some activity on the forum :)

Bingham

11/1/2015 12:46:21

Yeah Bethany, Strayer is trying really hard to be objective here. My opinion falls more in line with de Blij's. This conservative movement is the foundation of what is going to explode in Islam in the 20th century and impact lives everywhere. Have you been following the story in France?

Bethany

11/1/2015 13:07:10

I know a bit about the attacks there, but I haven't been keeping up with the aftermath.

Bingham

11/1/2015 12:43:21

Okay, fine. Just so you know, this chapter is vitally important to the story.

Bethany

11/1/2015 13:19:33

So many of the "enlightened" were deist. How did Darwin's and Marx's theories typically influence the religion of the enlightened? Also, what exactly caused this more secular attitude associated with the enlightened? I know they had extreme confidence in human reason and I'm sure thought themselves masters of their own fate and such, but then why was this not the case with the scientists such as Newton that spurred the Scientific Revolution?

Bethany

12/1/2015 09:34:12

M?1- In what ways did the Protestant Reformation transform European society, culture, and politics?

Social:
-introduced the idea that all vocations are of equal merit
- diminished the role of women by ending the veneration of Mary and other saints, leaving Jesus as the only object of worship.

Cultural:
-split the Roman Catholic church for good
-placed emphasis on the individual and on faith
-increased education and literacy for women
-triggered the Catholic Reformation, leading to less corruption in the church and the formation of missionary groups such as the Jesuits.
-encouraged a skeptical attitude towards authority and power

Political:
-led to many wars between and within states over religion.
:Thirty Years War
-This violence led to an agreement that each state is sovereign and therefore in charge of it's own religious affairs. Ultimately religious tolerance and coexistence was established.
:Peace of Westphalia
-gave kings and princes a justification for their independence from the church and an opportunity to gain land and taxes formerly possessed by the church.

Bethany

12/1/2015 09:38:11

MQ2- How was European imperial expansion related to the spread of Christianity?

-the desire to spread Christianity motivated imperial expansion
-imperial expansion was seen as an extension of the Crusades in Spain and Portugal
-missionaries spread Christianity beyond European communities
-colonial settlers and traders brought Christianity with them, seeking to replicate it in their new homelands
-processes born of imperial expansion (military conquest, forced labor, social disruption, and disease) made it seem to natives that their old gods had been bested, leaving them more open to conversion.

Bethany

12/1/2015 09:39:27

Just realizing that my last point in my above answer isn't really related to the spread of Christianity, but more to the reception of Christianity. So, because it's off topic I wouldn't include it in your answer :)

Bingham

12/1/2015 11:07:03

Yeah, that's a good point. In scoring your chapter 15 tests, I'm seeing people regurgitating stuff said in class or random things they remembered from the chapter regardless of whether it answers the question asked. I said it the first day back from break, you need to 1. Read the question and address ONLY what is asked, 2. Get the chapter read over the weekend and NOT the night before, and 3. Post and interact on the forum. And more generally and specifically, 4. Do what I tell you to do. Apparently most of you think you get this class/exam better than I do. I suggest you look at your chapter 15 score and learn about reality. Maybe you've faked your way through other classes, but that stuff is over. There's more to winning than wanting to.

Bethany

12/1/2015 11:57:50

MQ3- In what ways was European Christianity assimilated into the Native American cultures of Spanish America?

Andes:

- Sought to reinterpret Christian practices while incorporating local elements
: Female dancers in the Taki Onqoy movement sometimes took the names of Christian saints, seeking to draw power from these figures.
: Andean Christians would sometimes sacrifice llamas to strengthen a village church
: Andean Christians would make shirts and coverings for images of both the Virgin Mary and Huacas out of the same material.

Mexico:

- Immigrant Christianity was assimilated into patterns of local culture
: Parishes were organized around pre colonial towns or regions
: Churches were built on or near the sites of old temples
: Saints took over the roles of precolonial gods as local spirits, the true owners of the land. Illness was attributed to an angered saint instead of an angered precolonial god. As was part of Mexican tradition, an angered saint could be appeased through offerings, celebration, or a new covering.

-Mexican Christians took part in rituals derived from the past, with little sense that this was incompatible with Christian practice. These practices provided spiritual assistance to those areas of everyday life not directly addressed by Christian rites. These practices, however, also showed signs of Christian influence.
: Wax candles, typically used in Christian services, were now used to worship a precolonial god
: (Also listed above:) Illness was attributed to angered saints, only appeasable through offerings, celebration, or a new covering.

Bethany

12/1/2015 12:44:29

MQ4- Why were missionary efforts to spread Christianity so much less successful in China than in Spanish America? Please feel free to add on this one, I feel like I'm missing stuff.

Political Context
: When they were introduced to Christianity, the Native Americans were defeated, their societies disrupted and their confidence shaken. The Chinese, on the other hand, first encountered Christianity during the powerful and prosperous Ming and Qing dynasties.

Spiritual Needs of the People
: In China, the spiritual needs of the people were thoroughly nourished. Elites practice Confucianism, while the majority of Chinese practiced Buddhism, Daoism, or any host of local religions venerating local spirits or ancestors. In the Americas however, the Native Americans' gods had been discredited, leaving Christianity as an obvious choice to fill this spiritual void considering it was the religion of the victors.

The all or nothing nature of Christianity
: Christianity required Chinese converts to abandon much of traditional Chinese culture, such as the practice of having concubines. The idea of giving up their cultural heritage was not appealing to most Chinese. This was again not quite as much of an issue in the Americas because the traditional Native American religions were discredited by the European conquest. Native Americans were more willing to leave these traditions behind. Also, much cultural blending and assimilation took place in the Americas, despite European attempts to stop it, putting Christianity in more familiar, comfortable terms for natives.

Political Authority
: While the Christian Spanish were in political control of Native Americans in Spanish America, the Chinese governed themselves, giving Christian Europeans less influence there.
- While in the Americas the Europeans had the power to try to coerce the Natives into abandoning idols and other traditions, in China they had no such power. When the Pope claimed control of Chinese Christians and attempted to forbid traditional Chinese "idolatry", the Emperor responded by banning all Western proselytizers from China.

Bethany

12/1/2015 13:06:21

MQ5: What accounts for the spread of Islam in the early modern era and for the reemergence or renewal movements within the Islamic world?

Reasons for the continued spread of Islam:

- Wandering Muslim holy men, Islamic scholars, and itinerant traders, none of whom posed a threat to local rulers, spread Islam as they were often useful to those rulers and their village communities, offering a connection to the wider, prestigious, prosperous world of Islam.

- Conversion to Islam didn't require a sudden abandonment of old religious patterns in exchange for new ones. It was more a matter of assimilating Islamic culture into local religious systems.

- Islam also spread through the movements of Muslim Africans to the Americans via. the Atlantic Slave Trade.

Reasons for the reform:

- To Orthodox Muslims, the religious syncretism accompanying Islamization virtually everywhere became increasingly offensive, and even heretical.
- This syncretism led some Muslim scholars and religious leaders to examine the ways that the general practice of Islam had come to deviate from the teachings of the Quran, resulting in a return to purer ways.

Hank Bond

14/1/2015 12:26:52

MQ#6
What were the parallels and differences between cultural changes in Europe and Asia? For a long and complex question such as this I will have skipped over details, so please add if anything is missing

Parallels:
- Chinese Qing era, there was a large approach to analyzing historical documents in an effort to expand the sciences (which was under heavy criticism from the Neo-Confucians), while similarly in Europe, there was a break away from the dated ideas of the natural world dictated by the church, as scientists sought to discover what they "preached" as the truth through science.

-The major religions out of Europe and Asia that spread quickly and widely were Christianity and Islam

-In China and Europe a draw to paintings and literature which were becoming public

Differences:
-Indias Bhakti devotees sought to unify Indian deities while in Europe there was a growing divide between people due to differences in religion and secular beliefs

-Asian religions never went through the violent religions wars that Europe self inflicted on the scale of Europe during this time period.

-In China the Ming and Qing dynasty were very much in touch with the revival of the old ways, while India and Europe gave rise to new religions. (However that does not mean that China wasn't growing, this did bring a rise in new ideas of Neo-Con. and others. So in a way it was a rebirth)

Kimani

25/1/2015 10:15:34

For margin question 2, chapter 17, it asks what was and wasn't revolutionary about the American revolution. I made a T-chart and my why not" side came up a bit sparse. All I had was "it was a conservative movement meant to preserve liberties instead of create new ones" Anything else I should add to that? Also, I might as well put up my "why" side.
Why it was revolutionary;
-the American revolution did not grow out of social tension within th colonies but with Britain
-accelerated established democratic tendencies of colonial societies
-initiated political dismantling of New World Empires
-created the bill of rights making it the first sustained efforts to put political ideas of the enlightenment into practice
How does that all sound?

Elizabeth

25/1/2015 12:11:56

For the non-revolutionary side, I think that you could elaborate with the fact that it didn't grow out of social tensions among the colonies but instead grew out of a sudden and unexpected effort by the British government to tighten its control over the colonies and extract more revenue from them.

Elizabeth

25/1/2015 12:14:18

Since revolutionary means it brought about great change and the American Revolution was more of a reaction to change that the British government caused rather than changes the people in the colonies wanted to make

Kimani

25/1/2015 14:03:10

yeah, that sounds better, thank you!!!

Jackson Wagner

28/1/2015 07:00:50

This is MQ#1 for Chapter 17.
In what ways did the idea's of the enlightenment contribute to the Atlantic revolutions?

Radical notion that human political and social arrangements could be engineered and improved by human act

The idea's of kings divine right to rule, state control of trade, aristocratic privilege, and a single church authority were no longer sacred and came under attack

Liberty, Equality, free trade, religous tolerance and human rationality were more commonly discussed idea's, along with the idea of popular sovereignty

The idea of it being possible and even desirable to start over in human commuinities.

Jason T link

25/12/2020 15:30:04

Grreat post thankyou

Religion & Science, Strayer 16

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