World Religion
Question #1: What is the theory of religion emerging from the civilization of the Goddess? How does it relate to the Axial Age theory of religion?
From the evolution of religion, faith in the goddess, mostly at the time of death, was perceived by the ancient Cretans as a complex term. The argument for this is that religious beliefs differ among people. However, to some people, believing in the goddess was not complex because it was simply Bellah’s evolutionary model’s tendency. In various shrines of early religious settings, female imagery was highly associated with the cycle of life and death. Apart from these, various religious symbols were related to Cretan discoveries. These included the molded pair of female breasts (Downing, 14). These molded breasts represented the unity of life and death. The symbol of breasts was a promise for the beginning of a life cycle, mostly for infants. The Minoan goddess guarantees new life in the human sphere and the non-human contest concerning new life. The female imagery is closely associated with the sacred tree’s imagery, a common element of Minoan’s religious symbol.
About the Axial Age theory of religion, various conflicting ideas are drawn based on the fact that the Axial Age meant modern religion and erosion of the old religion. The axial Age theory of religion is the beginning of a new way of doing things. During that time, Zoroastrianism was the most widespread religion. It was also observed that most people became more reflective during the Axial Age than the goddess’s era. Unlike the past, the Axial Age was characterized by external symbolic memory technology, away from the old religion’s female imagery. As a result of the existing external memories like scriptures, lists, and other writings, individuals began to reflect on themselves by analyzing their thoughts and life challenges that made them question the old religion model. For this reason, a modified type of culture and a new way of living was ushered by the Axial Age.
Question #2: Compare and contrast the Iranian axial traditions in terms of their ethical systems, notions of transcendence, and afterlife ideas.
The Iranians make significant history from among various groups that moved out of Central Asia to other parts. What differentiates them from other traditions is that they moved towards the south. Concerning their axial ethnic tradition, they comprise of Iran’s, Pakistanis, and Indians. They are commonly known as the Indo-Iranians, but they describe themselves as Aryans, a name whose origin is got from Ariya, which in English is translated as “noble.” With this insight, its Iranians are, therefore, known as the nobles. The Iranian tribes communicated in a dialect best known as Avestan. Apparently, this dialect only exists in a collection of sacred literature called the Avesta. The people who moved to India communicated using Sanskrit as their native language. Indo Aryans were identified as Indians and Irano-Aryans as airyana waejeh. It did not take long when they evolved into “Iran.”
The Iranians, known as the “nobles,” originated from two sources; the Rig Veda and the Avesta. The religious life of Iranians can be constructed using various aspects. However, like all the other ancient traditions, Iranians also had their gods to whom they paid tribute. These gods were of different kinds, each associated with a different aspect of everyday life. Most important to them were the deities responsible for controlling the natural world. Among the gods included the earth and the sky, moon, and the sun (Zan and Asman) (Mah, and Hvar), including the wind (Vata, and, Vuyu). Additionally, even threes near lakes and streams were venerated though less considered gods (11). Adding to the novel world of spirits and gods, the Iranians also believed in the abstract. This was seen as the impersonal principle of order. According to the Sanskrit, the abstract was known as Rita, while the Avesta called it Asha. Nevertheless, both the names meant a natural reality that maintains the cosmic order. Both Asha and Rita had cosmological as well as moral dimensions. Among all the Iranian traditional societies, complying with these moral laws brought about peace and wellbeing for all people (13). About the afterlife, Iranians performed rituals in ceremonies where the gods’ primordial sacrifices were re-enacted to maintain the moral order and cosmic. In this case, a new life replaced the old one (14).
Question #3: In what ways did the transformations related to urbanization and new technology during the axial age affect the moral self’s primacy in the religions of the age?
The Axial Age is described as a time when several major spiritual and religious traditions became prominent in Eurasian societies. Due to its remarkable history and strong dispute associated with it, the Axial Age has been a central point of focus for most people. The main reason behind the research focused on it is due to the belief that the Axial Age boundaries and nature remain a challenge to understand. The Axial Age also drove a change in cognitive styles, altered transformations related to urbanization, and new technology, which heavily affected the moral self’s primacy in the age religions. Most importantly, it is regarded as the period for modern religions and the modern world (Baumard, p. 4).
The characteristics of the Axial Age were more behavioral than cognitive. It’s perceived that the main transformation was that of the emergency of selfless, and self-discipline. These all became common at the beginning of the Axial Age and are now central in the world religious setting. All these transformations different from ancient times, guide people into a new way of living in which self-discipline and morality are central. Besides, the Axial Age theory of religion is described by many as just the tip of the iceberg. Meaning a more automatic and intuitive psychological transformation. During that time, religious beliefs and commandments were introduced to punish the wrong doors and reward good character. This was regarded as disadvantageous to the moral-self primacy because they instead allowed justification and legitimization of a wide range of new behaviors existing amongst the upper-class Eurasian people.
Zoroaster’s theology greatly contributed to changes that affected the moral self’s primacy in the age of religion. Under his theology, two areas of concern were identified; all movements towards simplification focus on beliefs that nudged Iranian religion to the direction of monotheism, and the other was the idea that spiritual beings could be separated into two groups describing them as forces for either evil or good (23). The requirement to identify with either evil or good highly instigated the transformation of the Axial Age that affected moral self in a religious setting. Based on the notion of good and evil, the Axial Age obligated all people to accept their roles for their words and actions’ moral quality. However, during the postaxial age, such claims on individual lives seemed so unremarkable. It is a good thing for people to take moral responsibility for their actions; however, in religious history, the call for this was complex because people are both divine and human (26).
In conclusion, the concept of religion is complex in nature. As such, understanding it entails carrying out a comprehensive analysis of the theory of religion emerging from the civilization of the Goddess to the Axial Age theory of religion. In this paper, it is noted that the Axial Age is more associated with modernity in religion and the world. As noted, various conflicting scenarios are depicted. This reveals the idea of modernity linked to the Axial Age.
Works Cited
Baumard, Nicolas, et al. “What changed during the axial age: Cognitive styles or reward systems?” Communicative & Integrative Biology, vol. 8, no. 5, 2015, p. e1046657.
Downing, M. “Prehistoric Goddesses: the Cretan Challenge.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion I/, pp. 7-22.
“The Life of Zoroaster.” The Age of Sages, 2013, pp. 2-26.
“The Noble Ones.” The Age of the Sages, 2013, pp. 1-19.
“Zoroaster’s Legacy.” The Age of the Sages, 2013, pp. 3-36.