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This is a lecture on what were the key contributions of Judaism and Christianity to democracy.
We're going to talk about Judaism, we're going to talk about Christianity, going to talk about Islam as well,
and then we will talk about the Renaissance and Reformation.
The first thing we have to understand is what Jews believe. Jews were early Hebrews,
They contain most of their information in the Torah, the first 5 books, and here is a picture of a Torah scroll,
and they actually roll it up and then they read it,and in those words, in those books,
they believe that God wanted them to live moral lives, meaning that they act in the correct way,
and this following of these rules became known as Judaism.
They believe that they were created in God's image and that they have the right to choose between good and evil,
so this was the concept that everybody was moral and can make these choices.
And then Jewish law, or in the Bible itself, they say that Moses got the Ten Commandments and these were the basis laws,
and here are kind of a picture of what these basis laws are. The first four are for God, and the last six are for man,
and they are very, very basic, and its concept that they're focusing on ethics and morals, not politics.
And they really believe that their prophets were leaders, and their teachers were messangers from God,
and they were really opposing injustice and oppression, and this was really a new concept within the world that somehow,
their community believers had to oppose this, and you had a duty to do this.
One of the most famous followers of this religion was Jesus, and he was born of Roman/Jewish decent.
Here's a painting by Michalangelo of what he thought Jesus looked like.
He was a devout Jew, and he stressed the importance of people's love for God,
neighbors and everyone, and really the equality of all believers.
And when he visited Jerusalem in 29 A.D., the Roman Governor saw him as a threat and had him crucified.
And he became known as Jesus Christ because "christos" is the Greek word for messiah or savior, and was known as Jesus the savior.
Now, one of his disciples is this guy by the name of Paul, here's Michelangelo painting Paul being converted on the Roof to Tarsus,
and he begins to teach his concepts around the world, and this becomes a new religion called Christianity, based upon that word "Christ".
So he said that Jesus died for your sins, and that he was the son of God, and Christianity is a universal religion and we must all follow this religion.
So the combination of these concepts,because Jesus borrowed a lot of ideas from Judaism and Paul is teaching Jesus's ideas based on Judaism,
becomes known as Judeo-Christian, or the Judeo-Christian tradition.
And these kind of spread throughout the world.
In 70 A.D., the Romans kick the Jews out of their ancient homeland, this becomes known as Diaspora.
They go to Spain, they go to North Africa, they go to Europe, they go all over.
And then Christianity becomes a very powerful religion and actually becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire.
So these Judeo-Christian ideas become kind of intermixed with the Roman Republic,
Now, at the same time, there is another religion, and here I have three symbols of the major monotheist religions:
We have Judaism with the Star of David, Christianity with the Cross, and Islam with the crescent moon.
And Islam was based upon the teaching of the prophet Mohammed, he emphasized dignity of all human beings and brotherhood,
and it was actually a requirement in Islam to help those in need, and rulers had to obey the same laws as the people they ruled.
So these were the kind of basis concepts that were kind of floating around,
and we are going to kind of fast forward. we are fast forwarding to about 1400's to1500's.
Now the Roman Catholic church had become the most powerful institution in Europe at this time.
And what happened was that all these people who were catholic started reading these ancient Latin manuscripts
that the Romans had, as seen by Leonardo Da Vinci, as he painted the concept of the Truvian man.
and this concept was based upon Roman teachings, that you could restore all these old concepts and ideas,
and you're going to mix them together with modern religion to create a new world,
and you're going to educate people for public service rather than just for the church.
So we have a more individualistic world, we have a less religious world and a more individualistic and secular world.
The Roman Catholic church actually had a lot of problems because of the Renaissance,
and one of the guys who challenges this concept is this guy Martin Luther, and he begins this concept called the Reformation.
He protests the Catholic church and he starts a brand new religious movement called the Protestant movement,
and now we have a division within the Catholic church.
Many people call themselves Christian when in reality they are really some type of Protestant.
You have to think of Christian as kind of the top of the pyramid and below that tree you have Protestant and Catholic.
And in Catholic you have Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox and that type of thing,
and below protestant you have Anglican and Baptist and Lutheran and Presbyterian,
but ultimately with these two intellectual movements, the Renaissance and the reformation, is its challenging the authority
of the government and of the church, which leads to more government by the people which we call Democracy,
because both of these movements place more emphasis on the importance of the individual.
So how did Judaism and Christianity influence the democratic tradition today?
Well, you're emphasizing the importance of the individual. Basically minority mights, individual rights,
not just the rights of the group, but the rights of the individual. Thank you.
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