The impact of religions on world civilizations - Thomson Lopes SJ

The impact of religions on world civilizations

A) Early civilizations:

      1)      Government: Priests enjoyed a favoured position in the society and they exerted tremendous influence on the administration. In many earlier civilizations, the King was deified (Egypt) or else he was considered the high priest.

      2)      Law and Order: Political rulers in primitive times often associated themselves with a god. Thus the edicts of the ruler were considered to be divine. Codes of law were frequently looked upon as having been given to a ruler by some god (Hammurabi was believed to have received the Code of law from the sun god. Religion provided a framework for moral and ethical laws.

3)      Social division: In some civilizations, religion was responsible for bringing about the social division.

4)      Literature: In most of the early civilizations, literature consisted of books on mythology or religious epics. Education was nothing more than studying the religious text and formulae.

5)      Philosophy: In some civilizations, religion fostered thinking and thus the development of philosophy as a search for truth. For instance, one of the principal goals of the Greek philosophy as a search for truth.

6)      Art and sculpture: The paintings and sculptures of civilizations were dominated by religious figures, gods, goddesses or scenes from religious stories or beliefs.

7)      Architecture: Architecture developed around building beautiful temples for gods and goddesses who needed to be placated as the entire life was governed by them. Some of the temples are extant till today and reveal the magnificient architecture of those times.

8)      Science: Scientific progress was fostered by religion. Astronomical data was used to prepare calendars. This data was important to place certain feast days. Much of the scientific literature was preserved and passed on through religion.

9)      Unity: Religion unified people. Unity of thought and action was obtained. Taboo was used in order to control social group.

B) Medieval times: In medieval Europe, the influence of the Church on the life of the common man is clearly visible. The Church was very powerful. Some Kings sought the support of the Church to enforce their own power. However, the Church being beyond the nation, there were clashes of authority between the state and the religion. With the advent of renaissance, the Church began to decline.

C) Modern times: The modern times see a separation of religion and state. This is firstly due to the advancement of democracy. Democracy recognizes freedom of religion. So, it is not necessary that the people of a nation belong to a particular religion. Also, now, even religion is subject to law. In spite of this, some countries still remain theocratic.

            The scientific development has fostered a secular attitude in the society. People are more inclined to reason than to faith. However, religion has begun to manifest its concern in thought and action about social and economic problems. In this way, religion still has an influence on the society.