Wednesday, August 28, 2019

East and West. Religions and Laws







I wrote a book on the history of religions
“East and West. Religions and Laws”

https://www.amazon.com/East-West-Religions-Galina-Popovici/dp/1073688038/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=galina+popovici&qid=1565575437&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Бесплатная доставка в любую страну:
https://www.bookdepository.com/East-West-Galina-Popovici/9781073688036?ref=grid-view&qid=1565569227973&sr=1-4

CONTENTS

Introduction
Part I

Pre-Christian religions

1.    Paganism                                                                                 12
2.  Sumerian civilization                                                               15                          
3.  Civilization of ancient Egypt                                                  19
4.  Judaism                                                                                    24
5.  Religions of East Asia                                                             31
                  Taoism. Confucianism. Buddhism.
     Eastern teaching about life
6.   Zoroastrianism                                                                        42

Part II

                                              Christianity

7.   The creed of Jesus Christ                                                        50
8.   The spread of Christianity in the first millennium AD           60
9.    Early Christianity                                                                   63
       10.   Christianity after the Church split                                         65
     Orthodox Church.
      Catholic Church.
       11.   Reformation and Protestantism                                              68
     Beginning of the reformation
     The peasant war in Germany (1524-1525)
     Significance of the Reformation
     Protestant denominations
       12.   Religion in the USA                                                               80
     Constitution of the United States of America.
        Religion in the USA today
13.   Orthodox church in the second millennium CE                     85
14.   Orthodox Church in Russia                                                    88
       Baptism of Russia.
       Anointing of Ivan IV, the Terrible to the kingdom
       The split of the Russian Orthodox Church.
       Moscovy of XVI-XVII centuries through the eyes of Europeans
       Rapprochement of Russia with Europe.
       Peter I the Great
      Russia after Peter I.
       Peter Chaadaev on East and West
       Church and Peasant Reform 1861
       Protestant denominations in Russia
       in the second half of XIX century.
       Religion in the USSR and the Russian Federation
    15.    East and West                                                                          126
       Horizontal and vertical relationships in society

       Acknowledgements                                                               131
       References                                                                              132


INTRODUCTION

    At some level of development, people began to ask how the world works and how to live. They tried to explain why there is day and night, winter and summer, why there are storms, droughts, fires, floods, or what happens to a person after his death. Religions tried to answer these questions. Answers have changed with the development and transformation of society.
    At first, people believed that the world was inhabited by invisible spirits, elements of nature deities and souls of deceased ancestors, supernatural beings, good and evil. It was believed that they are actively involved in people's lives. These first beliefs were called pagan or folk.
    With the evolution of mankind, religions appeared that were based on a common belief in one God or a group of gods. As a rule, religions provided for participation in prayer and rituals, and often contained a moral code regulating human behavior.
     In the beginning, when people lived in tribes, there was no need for laws, since all relationships, like in the family were determined by feelings of love, hatred, or jealousy.
   The word civilization is derived from the Latin word civitas — city, and civis — a resident of the city. When people began to live in cities and united into states, there was a need to order their relations between themselves and the state, i.e. create a code of laws. To be a civilized person is to abide the laws.
    Historically, codes of law were formulated on the basis of moral teachings of religions. The laws of society — civil laws — usually apply for a period of time. They change with the development and transformation of society.
    At first, some religions had two tasks: they explained the material structure of the world and answered the question of how to live. But already in the middle of the first millennium BCE, Eastern religions appeared: Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, which answered the question of how to live and gave no explanation for the appearance and structure of the world. It was believed that the world always existed. In these religions, believers worship their teachers — Lao Tzu, Confucius, and Buddha.
    Over time, the theme of the material organization of the world turned to science. But the answer to the question of how to live has remained for religions. In the sixteenth century, Nicolaus Copernicus showed that the Earth is not the center of the universe. Scientists have found that the creation of the world given in the Old Testament is wrong. Many atheists appeared among educated people. Together with the scientific mistakes of the Christian religion, atheists automatically rejected the achievements of religion in the moral field. They threw out the baby with the bathwater.
   Religions define culture as a lifestyle built by a group of people and passed on from one generation to another. Culture tells people how to behave in one or another occasion, and usually this behavior is determined by the prevailing religion of a given society.
    I will give a few examples.
    In Buddhism, it is believed that life is suffering, so you should rejoice at the death of any individual, even the closest one, because he was freed of suffering. Of course, a person can be hurt if someone close to him died, but he should not show his grief.
  I will tell one case from Thailand, a Buddhist country. The man died. He was 82 years old. He was laid in the monastery hall, in an open coffin for 3 days, during which people came to show respect to him. When we entered, his joyful, smiling sister greeted us and behaved as if we were at a birthday party, not at a funeral. Everyone smiled and rejoiced.
    The opposite attitude to death is in the Christian culture, where a person's life is considered the highest good. If a loved one dies, you don’t have to hide your pain.
    Another case. In some Arab countries, Islam prohibits women from driving a car, going outside without being accompanied by their husbands, obliges them to wear the burqa. Girls are brought up in the belief that such a life is the right and only possible one.
    Once I talked with a female student from an Arab country. I told her that she was trying to get a diploma that she would not need in her country since she would not be able to work or even drive a car. She replied that she was studying not for her diploma, but for her development. In her country, she will marry and take care of her husband and children, live happy, she hopes, family life. The student said that she is very sorry for American women whose lives are spent in work and stress: 8 hours of work, where a woman should strive to be the best or at least a good worker, otherwise they will take someone else; the road with its peak hours, where people often lose time and nerves, and then they hurry to kindergartens or schools to pick up children. The life of American women is constant stress. The student said she would not want such a life. I must note that Arab students studying in America come from rich or at least well-off families. I do not know how a woman from a less prosperous social class would answer my question.
    Another student told me that her husband can take a second wife when they return home because men are now allowed to have four wives. That was the greatest fear of her life.
     Anyone who has been abroad can cite many such examples. 
     Even atheists have to admit that they live according to Christian culture if they live in countries where the Christian church is predominant.
    This book examines the relationship and interdependence of religion and laws, their history and their influence on the fate of humanity, the influence of religions on the culture and history of the East and the West.























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