What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
Is a secular outlook on the world an essentially modern phenomenon, or does it have precedents in the second-wave era?
“Religion is a double-edged sword, both supporting and undermining political authority and social elites.” How would you support both sides of this statement?
How would you define the appeal of the religious/cultural traditions discussed in this chapter? To what groups were they attractive, and why?
In what different ways did these religious or cultural traditions define the purposes of human life?
Looking Back: What relationships can you see between the political dimensions of second-wave civilizations described in Chapter 3 and their cultural or religious aspects discussed in this chapter?
Next Steps: For Further Study
Karen Armstrong, The Great Transformation (2006). A comparative and historical study of the major religions by a well-known scholar.
Robert N. Bellah, Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (2011). An impressive but controversial account of the origins of religion in general and those of second-wave civilizations in particular.
Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom (2003). A history of the first 1,000 years of Christianity, cast in a global framework.
Huston Smith, An Illustrated World’s Religions (1994). A sympathetic account of major world religions, beautifully illustrated, by a prominent scholar of comparative religion.
Arthur Waley, Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China (1983). A classic work, first published more than half a century ago, about the major philosophies of old China.
Jonathan S. Walters, Finding Buddhists in Global History (1998). A brief account that situates Buddhism in a world history framework.
BBC, “Religions,” http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/. A succinct introduction to the history, beliefs, and practices of many of the world’s religious traditions.