This document provides an overview of major belief systems from the classical period, including Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Greek Rationalism, Legalism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Christianity. It discusses their origins and founders, core beliefs around existence after death, how they challenged social hierarchies and spread geographically. Key points covered include that Hinduism and Buddhism believe in cyclical existence until spiritual liberation, while Zoroastrianism and Christianity believe in linear existence. Buddhism and Christianity appealed more to lower classes and women. Major religions spread through missionaries, conquest, trade routes and migration.

1. CLASSICAL
BELIEF SYSTEMS
Intro

2. Hinduism, Judaism,
Zoroastrianism, Buddhism,
Greek Rationalism, Legalism,
Confucianism, Daoism &
Christianity
Belief Systems of the Classical
Period

3. Belief systems in CONTEXT
 Historians view belief systems in the
context of time and place.
 For example: Buddhists in India in the 300s ce were
not the same as Buddhists in Southeast Asia in the
1800s ce though some of the core beliefs remained
unchanged.
 Historians view belief systems as an
influence ON culture AND influenced BY
culture.
 For example: Christianity changed Roman culture
and the Renaissance in Europe influenced
Christianity.

4. Hinduism
Oldest
Belief System

5. Judaism . . . Monotheism

6. Greek Rationalism

7. Zoroastrianism
Good vs Evil / Heaven

8. Politics, Social Structure, Fam

9. Gautama - the
founder
Spread to East
Asia

10. Christianity Jesus of Nazareth –
Founder
Began as a Jewish sect &
spread through the Roman
World

11. Hinduism, Judaism,
Zoroastrianism, Buddhism,
Greek Rationalism, Legalism,
Confucianism, Daoism &
Christianity
Belief Systems of the Classical
Period

12. Foundations
 There is no recorded founder of
Hinduism – it is the oldest
institutional religion of the early
belief systems.
 Judaism began in the Middle East
around the 1200s bce when it had
its own political empire.
 First monotheistic religion

13. Foundations
 Daoism emerged in East Asia in the
600s to 300s BCE from the
teachings of Laozi
 Zoroastrianism arose in Persia in
the 500s BCE from the teachings of
Zarathustra

14. Foundations
 Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha),
the founder of Buddhism, was
originally a Hindu in the
upperclass.
 Buddhism emerged in South Asia
out of Hinduism starting in the 500s
bce.

15. Foundations
 Jesus of Nazareth, the founder of
Christianity, was a lower-class Jew
living in Roman controlled Middle
East at the beginning of the
common era.
 The Jesus movement became
Christianity with non-Jewish
converts.

17. Existence after Death
 Hinduism and Buddhism – Existence is
cyclical until one breaks from the cycle
and becomes eternally spirit.
 Zoroastrianism & Christianity – Existence
is linear; one lives and then becomes
eternally spirit.

18. Challenges to Society
 Both Buddhism & Christianity, more than
the other belief systems, challenged the
social class systems and women’s status.
 Especially in the early centuries, these
religions appealed to lower classes and
women.

19. Spread
 Groups within Buddhism and Christianity
supported missionaries – men and
women who purposely took the message
of a religion into different regions.
 Religions also spread through conquest,
along trade routes, and through
migrations.

21. Spread
 Buddhism spread from South Asia into East
and SE Asia.
 Buddhism by the 500s ce was stronger in
areas where it spread than where it
originated.

23. Spread
 Judaism spread after the Romans exiled
Jews to new territories in Europe
 Christianity spread into the Roman
Empire, into North and East Africa, and
beyond.
 Christianity by the 1200s was stronger
in areas where it had spread than in
where it originated.

26. Spread & CHANGE
 As religions spread and new
interpretations arose – there were
changes, splits into different sects (or
groups), and new influences
 In classical period – Buddhism split into
Mahayana and Theravada

29. Texts
 The founders of Buddhism and
Christianity did not record their own
statements or life story.
 Which belief systems are connected to
these texts?
Vedas and Upanishads
Torah
Gospels & Epistles
Analects
Sutras / Dhammapada

30. Hinduism, Judaism,
Zoroastrianism, Buddhism,
Greek Rationalism, Legalism,
Confucianism, Daoism &
Christianity
Belief Systems of the Classical
Period

31. Greek Rationalism…What’s up with that???
In Greece, some intellectuals like
SOCRATES, PLATO, and ARISTOTLE
abandoned mythology and created a
philosophy that emphasized. . .
 Natural laws govern the world & humans can
understand those laws through reason
 Using reason to describe human behavior
(first histories – Herodatus)
 questioning of earlier “wisdom” and
assumptions
---had a major influence on Western Civilization