Chapter 5

Margin Review Questions

What different answers to the problem of disorder arose in classical China?

• Warring States Period• Legalism-Humans are stupid and the state needs

to act in the best interest of society. Laws are strict and punitive

• Confucianism-Social harmony would be restore if the government provided a sound moral example

• Daoism-get back to nature-really an attempt to limit government and return to localized authority

How did the Daoist outlook differ form that of Confucianism?

• Emphasis on education and moral improvement useless

• Focus on nature/patterns rather than human relationships

In What ways did Buddhism reflect Hindu traditions and in what ways did it challenge them?

• Ordinary life is an illusion• Karma and rebirth• Overcome ego• Meditation• Release from the cycle of rebirth• Challenge-rejection of religious authority of

Brahmins• Gods• Rejection of caste system

What is the difference between Theravada and Mahayana expressions of Buddhism?

• Theravada-Championed by Monks and nuns-withdrew from society-more psychological than religious

• Mahayana-Help was need to reach enlightenment-more community based-gods/heaven and hell-offers salvation-transforms Buddhism to popular belief system

What aspect of Zoroastrianism and Judaism subsequently found a place in Christianity and Islam?

• God and an evil counterpart/last judgment/resurrected bodies/defeat of evil by savior/remaking of the World

• Singular God/separate from nature/engaged in social justice/moral righteousness

What was distinctive of the Jewish religious traditions?

• Single god-Yahweh• Contract with God• Created World• Interacted with humans• Element of social justice

How would you compare the lives and teachings of Jesus and the Buddha? In what different ways did the two

religions evolve after the death of their founders? • Jesus-Poor working family/small town-Buddha

elite/city• Both spiritual seekers/mystics/personally

experienced another level of reality• Teachers• Call for personal transformation• Jesus-ties with supernatural entity-Buddha-

ignored supernatural

• Public life-Jesus three years/Buddha forty years

• Neither planned to found a new religion• Messages emerge after death• Transformed to god like status after death• Christianity becomes exclusive

religion/Buddhism-no• Issue of interpretation major in

Christianity/minor in Buddhism

In what ways was Christianity transformed in the five centuries following the death of Jesus?

• Jesus becomes divine• Jewish sect to major world religion• Begins at the bottom of Roman society and is

latter accepted by the ruling class• Polytheism is banned in Rome• Hierarchical organization• Seeks unity, but did not happen