American Literature 245 Starter Kit                                               J. Roth

 

Religion and Science are the two great Western historical forces that have shaped who and what we are (Western civilization).

 

RELIGION’S INFLUENCE

 

THE Christian BIBLE (divided into two parts:  The Old Testament and The New Testament)

 

 

The OLD TESTAMENT (pre-Christian, Pre- Year 0 on the Western calendar)

 

The NATURE OF GOD—omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient

The NATURE OF MAN—ADAM, EVE and ORIGINAL SIN

The ISRAELITES and the FIRST COVENANT

 

The NEW TESTAMENT

 

The coming of JESUS and the Gospels

PETER, the Keys to the Kingdom and authority

The Church of Rome--CATHOLICISM 

The POPES and the power of the priests

 

The Renaissance and the Printing Press (the 1400’s and on)

 

The REFORMATION and PROTESTANTISM  (The 1500’s and on)\

 

LUTHER, CALVIN, HENRY VIII and the CHURCH OF ENGLAND

 

 

 


PURITANISM (God revealed through the Bible)

 

QUAKERISM (God revealed through the heart--the “inner light”)

 

DEISM (God revealed through His creation—Nature)

 

 

 

(The REFORMATION and PROTESTANTISM (the 1500’s and on) continued)

 

 

PURITANISM (God revealed through the Bible)

 

  • The “New” COVENANT

 

  • Omniscience and the logic of salvation)

 

  • ORIGINAL SIN revisited and the role of grace

 

·         ELECTION leads to regeneration and good works

 

·        TYPOLOGICAL THINKING

 

 

QUAKERISM (God revealed through the heart--the “inner light”)

 

An INWARD LIFE (quietness) leads to

 

·        “That still, small voice”

 

·        A reverence for God the Creator

 

·        Exercise true justice and goodness

 

·        Love God in all His manifestations

 

  • Equality

 

·        A life where “practice doth harmonize with principles”

 

DEISM (God revealed through His creation—Nature)

 

  • God is the FIRST CAUSE of all things (the CREATOR of all things)

 

  • Just as the study of art reveals the artist, so too can the study of creation reveal the Creator)

 

  • Therefore, investigate NATURE (employ science) to know God

 

SCIENCE’S (TECHNOLOGY’S) INFLUENCE

 

THE NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE (Western tradition)

 

(To quote James Burke, The universe is whatever you say it is.)

 

·        ARISTOTLE--THE STATIC UNIVERSE

·        THE OLD TESTAMENT VIEW—a geocentric universe--the earth is the center

·        PTOLOMEY a geocentric universe the earth is the center--14 centuries

·        COPERNICUS, KEPLER, GALILEO—from heliocentric (the sun is the center) to adrift somewhere in the cosmos.

·        THE ENLIGHTENMENT (1600’s—early 1700’s)

·        DARWIN and ENTROPY

 

 

CULTURAL ODDS AND ENDS

·        DESTABILIZING INFLUENCES

 

Gun powder—potential for mass destruction

Printing Press—potential for mass education  

 

 

·        THE RENAISSANCE (Italy--1300’s, rest of Europe--1400’s)

 

·        THE NATURE OF CULTURE—when cultural bubbles collide /technology

egocentrism, ethnocentrism, aristocentrism

 

·        THE “NEW WORLD” to an “evangelical” culture

 

·        “CROWD” DISEASES