Alexander The Great

1. Alexander The Great Son of Philip II, King of Macedonia Student of Aristotle Expanded the Greek Empire into Turkey, Asia Minor, Persia, Egypt.

2. Fall of Greece When Alexander the Great died, there was a huge gap in power. Alexander's empire was divided among his generals. These new divisions soon began fighting.

3. Rise of Rome While the Greeks were in decline, a new civilization in Italy (the Romans) rose to power. Rome invaded Greek territory. The Greeks were defeated at the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC. Rome completely destroyed and plundered the city of Corinth as an example to other Greek cities. From this point on Greece was ruled by Rome. Despite being ruled by Rome, much of the Greek culture remained the same and had a heavy influence on Roman culture. 

4. 146 BC Battle of Corinth Roman Troops conquerd the city of Corinth. Rome invented no art forms, constructed no original system of philosophy, and made no scientific discoveries. They made good roads, systematic legal codes and efficient armies; for the rest they looked to Greece. ~ Bertrand Russell (History of Western Philosophy)

5. Roman Empire Founded in 500 BC By 240 BC it ruled Italy

6. 60 BC 180 AD

7. Growth from 44 BC to 180CE

8. Greek and Roman Gods

9. 313 CE Constantine decreed that Christianity would henceforth be tolerated. Constantine set about imposing some structure upon the faith to turning it from a movement into an institution. One could argue that Jesus may have founded the Christian Faith, but that Constantine founded the Christian Church.

10. In 325, Constantine called a council of all bishops for them to agree on a basic formula of the Christian faith. Video (up to 5:16)

11. Constantine backs the authority of the bishop (Paulian) exiles and confiscates the property of heretics. Persecuted become persecutors!

12. As Rome Grew, so did Christianity Many Pagan symbols were incorporated into Christian holiday traditions. Video

13. Rise of Christianity Christianity began in 1st century AD Jerusalem as a minor Jewish sect. It spread initially in the Near East, ultimately becoming the state religion of Armenia in either 301 or 314, of Ethiopia in 325, of Georgia in 337, and then the state religion of the Roman Empire in 380. During the Age of Exploration (15th to 17th cent.), Christianity expanded throughout the world, becoming the world's largest religion.

14. St. Paul (10 – 64) Born in Tarsus (Turkey) Trained as a Rabbi in Jerusalem Combined Greek and Jewish theology with Christ’s teachings. Dualist Human body is evil Human soul (spirit) divine Like Plato saw the body as our major source of problems Unlike Plato he said faith in God (rather than reason) as the solution to the conflict..

15. Christianity prior to Constantine was illegal! Believed that their God was the only God and that their Savior was the only savior. Believed that Jesus had commanded them to spread the faith by converting others.

16. This was contrary to Roman imperial policy, which attempted to respect all other religions and even to integrate them into official state religious observances. The Christians refused to accept this attitude and so were continually angering imperial authority. Christianity was made illegal and its members were often persecuted by the government.

17. In order to steer clear of the government, Christians formed inner city groups (ecclesiae) with their own internal governments under spiritual and secular overseers (bishops). The bishops stayed in touch with each other through letters (epistles), secret meetings (councils), and by keeping the records of the faith in secret books (bible means simply "book").

18. The members developed secret signs and symbols by which to recognize each other, the cross in various forms, the outline of a fish, variations on the Roman numeral three, and so forth. According to one ancient story, when a Christian met a stranger in the road, the Christian sometimes drew one arc of the simple fish outline in the dirt. If the stranger drew the other arc, both believers knew they were in good company. 

19. Neo-Platoism 100 AD to 700 Philosophers tried to reconcile Plato’s philosophy with Christianity. Forms – the Ideal is perfect, the material is imperfect. Plato said we use reason to discern truth, the Neo-Platoists say we use faith.

20. Schisms in the Catholic Church With no true central authority within the Christian faith, philosophers began to expand on and explore implications of Christ’s teachings. Different schools of thought developed and with them came disagreements about the “True” faith.

21. Gnostic Christians and Pauline Christianity Pauline Christianity placed all of the emphasis on Jesus' death and resurrection, and the saving power of that death and resurrection. Gnostic Christianity, on the other hand, placed its prime emphasis on the message, the wisdom, the knowledge, the gnosis (knowledge) Jesus transmits, and even the secret knowledge that Jesus transmits.

22. Gnostics were dualists, teaching that there are two great opposing forces: good versus evil light versus darkness knowledge versus ignorance spirit versus matter. Since the world is material, and leaves much room for improvement, they denied that God had made it.

23. How can the perfect produce the imperfect, the infinite produce the finite, the spiritual produce the material? Gnostic’s solution was to say that there were thirty beings called Aeons, and that God had made the first Aeon, which made the second Aeon, which made the third, and so on to the thirtieth Aeon, which made the world.

24. Bishop of Lyons (Irenaeus)Source Refutation of Heresies, a defense of orthodox Christianity against its Gnostic rivals. On the existence of Aeons, Irenaeus argued that this did not help resolve the issue. Each of the thirty Aeons must be either finite or infinite, material or non-material, and somewhere along the line you would have an infinite being producing a finite one, a spiritual being producing a material one.

25. Gnostics taught that Christ did not really have a material body, but only seemed to have one. It was an appearance, so that he could communicate with men, but was not really there.  They went on to say that Jesus was not really born, and did not really suffer or die, but merely appeared to do so.

26. Irenaeus in opposition pointed to the teachings of the Apostle John wrote (1 John 4:1-3) that anyone who denies that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of antiChrist.

27. Gnostics said that Jesus had had two doctrines: one a doctrine fit for the common man, and preached to everyone, and the other an advanced teaching, kept secret from the multitudes, fit only for the chosen few, the spiritually elite. They, the Gnostics, were the spiritually elite, and although the doctrines taught in the churches were not exactly wrong, and were in fact as close to the truth as the common man could hope to come, it was to the Gnostics that one must turn for the real truth.

28. Irenaeus argued that if Jesus did have a special secret teaching, to whom would He entrust it? Clearly, to His disciples . . . And was the teaching of the Twelve different from that of Paul? Where, then, do we look for Christ's authentic teaching? In the congregations that were founded by the apostles, who set trustworthy men in charge of them, and charged them to pass on the teaching unchanged to future generations through carefully chosen successors.

29. Irenaeus maintained that the Gospel message is for everyone. He was perhaps the first to speak of the Church as "Catholic" (universal). • Unity of the church • Distinguished the Catholic church from Judaism. • Accused his Gnostic rivals of Heresy. Irenaeus died in 202 CE

30. Heresy A heresy is a belief that doesn't agree with the official tenets of a particular religion. A person who chooses to believe in heresies is called a heretic. 1st & 2nd Century – no authority = No Heresy

31. 313 CE Constantine decreed that Christianity would henceforth be tolerated. Constantine set about imposing some structure upon the faith to turning it from a movement into an institution. One could argue that Jesus may have founded the Christian Faith, but that Constantine founded the Christian Church.

32. In 325, Constantine called a council of all bishops for them to agree on a basic formula of the Christian faith. Video (up to 5:16)

33. Constantine backs the authority of the bishop (Paulian) exiles and confiscates the property of heretics. Persecuted become persecutors!

34. Augustine of Hippo(345 – 430) One of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity Strongly influenced by Neo-Platonism. Dualist - humans have souls – animals do not. Free Will (Choice) Intrinsic motivation Doing good leads to feelings of virtue Doing evil leads to guilt. People who choose evil deny themselves an afterlife

35. Augustine developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God distinct from the material City of Man. “Give me chastity and continency, but not yet” Concepts of original sin and just war Unbelievers persecuted because of cruelty; Christians persecuted because of love. Science and Philosophy not in the service of theology were suspect.

36. AD 385 – executions for heresy begin. Priscillian (Bishop of Villa) Held Gnostic beliefs Charges with witchcraft. Tried and Tortured; confessed and was executed.

37. 475 Fall of Rome 475 – 1000 Dark ages