EPIC OF GILGAMESH

(Sumerian Civilization)
Gilgamesh is two-thirds god and one-third man, making him the strongest and wisest of all
mortals. As King of Uruk, Gilgamesh attracts the attention of the goddess Ishtar, a cruel, spiteful
woman who treated her past lovers terribly. Gilgamesh declines her offer of marriage.

 Enraged, Ishtar complains to Anu, the King of the Gods, and convinces him to create a
fearsome bull to smite Gilgamesh. This bull kills five hundred men in just two snorts, but
the monster proves to be no match for Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu.
 Prior to Ishtar's proposal for marriage, Anu fashioned another demigod, Enkidu.
Gilgamesh bested Enkidu in battle, and the two became great friends. Enkidu was
cursed, however, when he touched the gate of a magic portal while on a hunt. Enkidu
dies soon after the battle with the bull.
 Gilgamesh meets Utnapishtim, who was granted immortality by the gods after he built a
giant ark to survive an ancient flood. Utnapishtim advises Gilgamesh to return home to
Uruk and rule. Gilgamesh dies a beloved king, having never achieved his dream of
immortality.

From the Epic of Gilgamesh, we see that religion and culture in Mesopotamia shines
through. We see a masculine identity with a gender divide pervade through the culture. Sex and
religion play major roles, and are important to the future of cultures and Empires. We see that
the masculine identity is important in their culture just by looking at the description of Gilgamesh
and Enkidu. We see that a leader/king is someone who is masculine and strong, who towers
over the rest. The role of women and gender is also seen in the Epic. We don’t have a definitive
description of the role of women at this time in Mesopotamia, but we do know they are not on
the same level as men, nor are they looked at as respectable. Women are thought to have
made decisions based on emotion and their rational instinct, but men are thought to have a
mindset which is the total opposite. This is where a goddess like Ishtar is a huge example to the
gender division; although she is a woman, she is seen to use her mind more like a man. The
role of the mother is not necessarily pointed out throughout their culture, but in the Epic there
are references to the mother, who is a divine goddess, who gives Gilgamesh his two-thirds god.
Sex is a huge role in the culture and even in the religion of Mesopotamia during this time period.
Sex, an emotional and instinctive act, is what makes a man mortal in this culture. It’s also seen
as a form of pleasure, especially when it is non-productive, making it evens more of a mortal
act. Sex plats a role in religion too, because when a man takes part in the act, it rids him of the
possibility of becoming immortal, and is also a way for the gods to guide or hate a mortal such
as Ishtar and Gilgamesh. Religion in the culture of Mesopotamia is seen everywhere. It is seen
in the roles gods play in everyday lives and also gives reference to the Greeks and their
mythology. Overall, culture and religion is extremely influential and relevant in the Epic of
Gilgamesh.
 SIGNIFICANT
What is the moral or main lesson of the Epic of Gilgamesh?

The Inevitability of Death is an inevitable and inescapable fact of human life, which is the
greatest lesson Gilgamesh learns. Gilgamesh is bitter that only the gods can live forever and
says as much when Enkidu warns him away from their fight with Humbaba.

BOOK OF THE DEAD

(Egyptian Civilization)
Summary

The god Temu, the spirit of creation, manifests first as Ptah and then as the word spoken by
Ptah, which brings creation into existence. Ptah creates first himself, then the other gods, and
finally creates Egypt, by speaking the divine words that make the gods aware of themselves;
thus, all of creation exists as different aspects, or “faces,” of Ptah, and of his words. Immediately
after he speaks these first powerful magic words, while the earth and the waters of primordial
chaos are still in the process of separating themselves, Ptah promises eternity to the dead who
are not yet born. On that same day, the god Anubis, protector of the souls of the dead, allots to
each person a destiny and holds all these fates in readiness.

For mortals, the immediate earthly manifestation of Ptah is Ra, the sun, and it is in this form that
they most often contemplate the one God. Priests use many names to refer to the different
faces of God; these names vary from place to place, but the names that the gods give
themselves are hidden, because in their names lies their essence, and so their power. By a
stratagem, Isis learns the hidden name of Ra and, with a power derived from his, becomes
queen of the goddesses. Her power is illustrated by the story of her healing of her mate, the god
Osiris.

Osiris is murdered by Set, his brother, who in his malice cuts the body of Osiris into pieces and
scatters them across northern Africa. Isis, weeping, gathers these pieces together and rejoins
them, and from the corpse conceives Horus, their son. Then she brings Osiris back to life, leads
him before the gods, and brings him into new forms, with new powers. It is through this rebirth
that Osiris becomes the principle of birth and rebirth. He is the fountainhead through which the
earth receives life, from the first new life of sprouting corn and all the life it brings in its turn, to
the rebirth in the afterlife of the pharaohs.

All the dead who receive the proper rites and who perform the sacred rituals are reborn in the
afterlife as new forms of Osiris and share his glory. Like him, their bodies are made whole and
perfect when they are resurrected in Osiris’s name and in accordance with the prescribed
formalities. The secrets of embalming, the processes and forms for charms and incantations
and funereal rites, are given to mortals by Isis, who thus gives them a means of being reborn.
As she re-creates Osiris’s body, so it is for the dead reborn in Osiris’s name. As the dead
approach Osiris in the afterlife, they recite the ritual incantations learned in life, and their
impurities, manifestations of Set, fall away from them. Meanwhile the living, left to perform rites
of ablution and purification, sprinkle cleansing water on the dead and make offerings. One after
another the dead approach Osiris, and those who are justified are rejuvenated and are blessed
by Isis and by Horus, who hold a special position within the hierarchy of immortals.

Horus, one of the greatest of the Egyptian panoply of gods, has as many as twenty different
forms. In a sense he is one aspect of Osiris; in another sense he is an aspect of Ra. In most of
his aspects, however, and perhaps because of his relationship to Ra, he is closely associated
with light. In a battle with Set, Horus loses one eye, but pursues Set, the spirit of evil, and
castrates him, making Set powerless. Horus is therefore especially revered by the dead, for by
Horus’s victory over the darkness of Set the dead can see to approach eternity, and by Horus’s
victory over the evil of Set the dead can be sanctified. Horus’s face, in the aspect called
Harmachis (translated as “Horus on the Horizon”), is immortalized as the face of the great
Sphinx of Gizeh.

Horus leads the dead into the presence of Osiris and acts as intermediary for the dead during
the process of judgment. Horus is especially suited for this role by virtue of his aspect as an
avenger of his father and of the miraculous circumstances surrounding his conception. Making
his petitions for the dead to his father in the presence of his mother, his pleas are granted. Then
the dead make a special appeal to Osiris to restore the physical body and protect it from decay,
as he renewed his own after it was dismembered by his brother Set.

The gods live in a paradise in the sky, and there the justified dead live with them. When Nut, the
goddess of the sky, bends over forward and places her palms flat on the earth before her, her
arms and legs form the pillars that uphold the sky. Across this sky pass the sun and moon, and
through it sails the Celestial Boat, carrying the gods and the dead permitted to join them. Their
souls arrive by ascending a ladder or by passing through a gap in the mountains. There they
live in peace and serenity in the presence of the gods, renewed daily by the power of Osiris.

The existence of the Book of the Dead was known as early as the Middle Ages, well before its
contents could be understood. Since it was found in tombs, it was evidently a document of a
religious nature, and this led to the widespread misapprehension that the Book of the Dead was
the equivalent of a Bible or Qu'ran.

- The first modern facsimile of a Book of the Dead was produced in 1805 and included in
the Description de l'Egypte produced by the staff of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt. In
1822, Jean Francois Champollion began to translate hieroglyphic text; he examined
some of the Book of the Dead papyri and identified them as a funerary ritual.
- In the mid-19th century, hieroglyphic fonts became available and made lithographic
reproduction of manuscripts more feasible. In the present day, hieroglyphics can be
rendered in desktop publishing software and this, combined with digital print technology,
means that the costs of publishing a Book of the Dead may be considerably reduced.
However, a very large amount of the source material in museums around the world
remains unpublished.

SIGNIFICANT

The ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead democratized access to a pleasant afterlife for ordinary
Egyptians. The Book of the Dead (and related funerary literature) is merely the latest form of the
same spells which were available only to royalty and to the nobility in the earlier Pyramid Texts
and Coffin Texts.

Henceforth, anyone could be resurrected and receive renewed vigor just like the great god
Osiris — the dying and rising god par excellence.
 ANALECTS OF CONFUCIOS
(Chinese Civilization)
The Analects of Confucius Summary

an anthology of brief passages that present the words of Confucius and his disciples, describe
Confucius as a man, and recount some of the events of his life. The Analects includes twenty
books, each generally featuring a series of chapters that encompass quotes from Confucius,
which were compiled by his disciples after his death.
Book I serves as a general introduction to the various disciples in the work. Book II deals largely
with issues of governance. Books III and IV are seen as the core texts, outlining Confucius's
ideology. Much of the work concerns itself with the concept of the Tao or the Way, the chun-
tzu or the gentleman, Li or ritual, Te or virtue, and Jen or goodness. There are additional terms
in the work, but these comprise the core concepts. Taken together they form the backbone of
Confucian ideals.

Confucius believed that the welfare of a country depended on the moral cultivation of its people,
beginning from the nation's leadership. He believed that individuals could begin to cultivate an
all-encompassing sense of virtue through ren, and that the most basic step to
cultivating ren was devotion to one's parents and older siblings. He taught that one's individual
desires do not need to be suppressed, but that people should be educated to reconcile their
desires via rituals and forms of propriety, through which people could demonstrate their respect
for others and their responsible roles in society. He taught that a ruler's sense of virtue was his
primary prerequisite for leadership. His primary goal in educating his students was to
produce ethically well-cultivated men who would carry themselves with gravity, speak correctly,
and demonstrate consummate integrity in all things.

From the time of Confucius, the Analects have strongly influenced the philosophy and ethical
values of China and, later, other East Asian countries. A man who was unfamiliar with the
Analects was considered uneducated and not morally upright. Together with other works that
make up the Four Books, the Analects teach the main Confucian virtues: Decorum, Justice,
Fairness, and Filial Piety.

For nearly two thousand years, the Analects were the foundation of Chinese education. The
rigorous imperial examinations, which thousands of young men took each year in the hopes of
gaining employment as functionaries in the imperial government, required a thorough
knowledge of the Analects and the teachings of Confucius. The Analects did not cease to be the
central part of Chinese education until the creation of the Chinese republic and the reforms of
1905-1908 which abolished the imperial examinations. After the Communist takeover, the
Analects and Confucianism, fell into disfavour with the government, but its teachings are so
ingrained in Chinese society that they continue to shape the morality and thought of millions of
Chinese.

SIGNIFICANT

The analect of confucius moral lesson

Learn by observing yourself and others.

Take pleasure in acquiring knowledge.

Learning without thinking is useless. Thinking without learning is dangerous.

A man without virtue cannot long abide in adversity.

He who works for his own interests will arouse much animosity.

The self-restrained seldom err.

The wise man desires to be slow to speak, but quick to act.

Fix your mind on the right way; hold fast to it in your moral character.

Emulate the good qualities you see in others, and check yourself for the bad ones.

Learn as if you were not reaching your goal, and as though you were afraid of missing it.

Make conscientiousness and sincerity your leading principles. Have no friends inferior to
yourself. And when in the wrong, do not hesitate to amend.

Do not do to others what you would not like yourself.

If a man put duty first and success after, will not that improve his character?

If a ruler is upright, his people will do their duty without order.

When one is in a hurry, nothing is thorough.

He who demands much from himself and little from others will avoid resentment.

The wise man is intelligently, not blindly, loyal.

Love of knowledge without a love to learn, finds itself obscured by loose speculation.

Poetry is able to stimulate the mind, it can train to observation, it can encourage social
intercourse, it can modify the vexation of life.

The wise man makes duty, not a living, his aim.

TAO TE CHING
(Chinese Civilization)
Traditionally attributed to Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, the true authorship of the Tao TeChing,
as well as the date around which it was written (usually said to be 6th c. BCE to 4th century
BCE), is often debated. The Tao TeChing is one of the most famous Chinese classic texts and
one of the founding texts of Taoism, an ancient Chinese philosophical and religious tradition.

The Tao TeChing includes short verses regarding a number of central aspects of Taoism, such
as action, the duality of nature, knowledge, and virtue. However, the true basis of the Tao
TeChing, as well as of Taoism overall, is the “Tao”--an abstract concept most commonly
translated as the “Way.” The Tao refers to, in rough terms, the natural order and progression of
the universe. While Taoism describes nature as the interaction of two opposite but
complementary forces, the Tao itself is unified, eternal and indescribable, and such aspects of
its nature are emphasized throughout the Tao TeChing. The goal of adherence to Taoism is to
harmonize oneself with the Tao, and therefore with nature and with the universe.

Tao TeChing" by Lao Tzu has a worldwide cultural significance. There are different national
traditions of studying of this treatise. The current importance "Tao TeChing" is that the text
contains the basic concepts of traditional Chinese culture. In Russia, the "Tao TeChing" is
analyzed about 200 years. This article discusses various aspects of dialectics wei 為 and wuwei
無為, contained in the treatise of Lao Tzu Tao TeChing . Aspects of wuwei 無為 found in most of
the chapters of the treatise ‘Tao TeChing’. In the Tao TeChing Lao Tzu says about the special
spontaneous activity ‘make non- action.’ Dialectics wei 為 and wuwei 無為 is the foundation of
the political doctrine of the Far Eastern civilization , Chinese civilization. Philosopher and writer
Leo Tolstoy had understanding the evolution of concepts of Tao and wuwei 無為. Leo Tolstoy
was the first translator and publisher of Lao Tzu Tao TeChing in Russian. Over 30 years he
studied the Tao TeChing , and came to the conclusion that the essence of Taoism is the
essence of Christianity . Based on the ideas of Leo Tolstoy, we can build the interaction
between Christianity and Taoism. 
SIGNIFICANT

What are the best life lessons we can take from the Tao TeChing?

1. Don’t pay attention to forms, pay attention to the natural principles from which all
forms originate. For instance, don’t pay attention to the issues that continually arise in
current events, but instead see how the rising and falling of different issues follows
nature.
2. Remain at the center. Some days are up, some are down, but the center remains ever
stable. The center is where all forms emanate. If you are not at your center, then it is
easy to get pulled into forms, as you don’t recognize their source.
3. Seek the opposites that are at play in all affairs. Even for situations that seem entirely
one sided, the hidden opposite may still be the prime motivator. When you recognize
the opposites, you can find a center from which to act or not act.
4. Life in alignment with natural principle is effortless. This doesn’t mean you should
cling to effortlessness. Seek the center, and the effortlessness happens, even in the
presence of effort.
5. Essence, vitality, and spirit are all necessary parts of a coherent understanding of
nature. Most belief systems stress one or more of these, at the expense of the others.
Sages integrate all three, and so they know that heaven is spread out upon the earth,
in this present moment.

OLD TESTAMENT
(HEBREW)

• The Book of Genesis (from the Latin Vulgate, in turn borrowed or transliterated from
Greek "γένεσις", meaning "Origin"; Hebrew: ‫ְּבראִׁשית‬,
ֵ "Bərēšīṯ", "In [the] beginning") is the
first book of the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) and the Old Testament.

• It can be divided into two parts, the Primeval history (chapters 1–11) and the Ancestral
history (chapters 12–50).

• The primeval history sets out the author's (or authors') concepts of the nature of the deity
and of humankind's relationship with its maker: God creates a world which is good and fit
 for mankind, but when man corrupts it with sin God decides to destroy his creation,
saving only the righteous Noah to reestablish the relationship between man and God.

• The Ancestral History (chapters 12–50) tells of the prehistory of Israel, God's chosen
people. At God's command Noah's descendant Abraham journeys from his home into
the land of Canaan, given to him by God, where he dwells as a sojourner, as does his
son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. Jacob's name is changed to Israel, and through the
agency of his son Joseph, the children of Israel descend into Egypt, 70 people in all with
their households, and God promises them a future of greatness. Genesis ends with
Israel in Egypt, ready for the coming of Moses and the Exodus. The narrative is
punctuated by a series of covenants with God, successively narrowing in scope from all
mankind (the covenant with Noah) to a special relationship with one people alone
(Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob).

• In Judaism, the theological importance of Genesis centers on the covenants linking God
to his chosen people and the people to the Promised Land. Christianity has interpreted
Genesis as the prefiguration of certain cardinal Christian beliefs, primarily the need for
salvation (the hope or assurance of all Christians) and the redemptive act of Christ on
the Cross as the fulfillment of covenant promises as the Son of God.

• Tradition credits Moses as the author of Genesis, as well as Exodus, Book of Leviticus,
Numbers and most of Book of Deuteronomy, but modern scholars increasingly see them
as a product of the 6th and 5th centuries BC.

ASPECTS AND MODALITIES Text, Context and Experience Text and context are in constant
tandem and the sine qua non of biblical theology. There is no text without context. A competent
and responsible student of the Bible cannot and must not separate this tandem. To take a
biblical text and not to set it within the multilayered context (historical, religious, social or
literary) will leave it incomplete and represents a criminal act. But the pairing of text and
context does not remain in tandem for long; they inevitably turn into a threesome by adopting a
third “member”. Each text has an author, or at least an editor, of the existing text; we have
seen, however, that every text has a context. The text starts its real life when it is read as it is
written for a certain reader (Ex. 17:14; Iz 8:16;

Isa. 29:11-12; Isa. 30:8; Hab. 2:2). This inevitable third, the reader, the consumer of the text,
brings the text to life, but also inevitably adds to the text his or her own experience – the
experience of the text read. It is true that some texts have lived their life even before the author
wrote them or recorded his or her experience, the experience of the author of the text, but the
reader of the same text through his or her experience actually turns the text into an event and
experience. 1 God’s active presence is recorded in the Old Testament, written down and
experienced. In the interaction of this triad of text, context and the experience of the reader,
this author primarily wants to examine and suggest a dialogue between the text and the
experience of the reader without ignoring the multi lay redness of the context, that is the
encounter in the dialogue between the text and the experience of the consumed text, primarily
as regards the experience of the Old Testament and the context of Israel. It is also an attempt to
contextualize the motif of God’s active presence in relation to the Christian framework as a real,
lasting eventuality (!). But before embarking on this task, we must warn of possible dangers and
methodological temptations in the exegesis and hermeneutics of the biblical text. The primary
purpose of this warning is to truly situate the emphasis on the textual record and the experience
of the reader relative to the “presence of God” in the relevant context. Further, there are
additional questions, for example, the one about the human approach to God (Ex. 34:30; Hos.
3:5), or just God’s presence irrespective of that. Another question is how to harmonize the
duration of God’s presence with the occasional the phonic self-manifestations of God. The
danger lies in the conviction that we exercise the exegesis of a relevant biblical text while
actually focusing on a word or phrase which has captured our attention for some reason, or has
become our favorite hobby-horse. Any competent exegesis and relevant hermeneutics focus not
only on the literary diversity of the text, but also on the multi lay redness of the context. From a
literary point of view, a text has both the immediate literary context and sectional context. In
addition to these two contextual “strata” and additional stratum, context may include the
context of the 1 Adele Berlin elaborates on the text as an experience of the reader and a certain
event in her text, The Role of the Text in the Reading Process. She also stresses multiple
contexts, including the so-called “internal literary” context. It is a more complex process than a
mere reading into the text that which produces the text which is experienced in a certain way.
The reader is influenced by the choice of words and not only the chance choice of individual
terms in a biblical text. The reader notices the choice of words (first step), and the careful reader
then makes a selection of words and terms deemed significant for the interpretation of a biblical
passage (second step). Finally, the reader decides how to integrate that which has been lexically
sifted through or diagnosed as significant into a well-defined and meaningful interpretation. 53
D. Berković: Aspects and Modalities of God’s Presence in the Old Testament whole book of the
Bible. 2 Further analysis of the actualization of God’s presence in Old Testament texts will
benefit from a preliminary definition of terminology and the clarification of the difference
between aspect and modality. This will be followed by a brief definition of the notional pillar,
i.e., the identity of the biblical God, and then a few comments on the religious-theological or
religious-cultural elements which may characterize God’s manifestations or presence even as
blasphemous, scandalous or naive. Aspects and Modalities When we speak of aspects, we
primarily think of manifestations of God’s personality and presence (salvific and gracious, divine-
providential, the relationship between God’s righteousness and justice) which thus illustrate and
point to aspects of God’s character through his acts or presence. God’s the phonic acts
particularly point to providential, salvific deeds in situations of crisis; the same applies to the
manifestation of God’s power as a retributive aspect (Ps. 18). The term modality applies to
manifestations of God’s presence (expected and unexpected), unavoidable anthropomorphisms
in which God’s presence draws near, as well as powerful the phonic manifestations such as
natural phenomena (earthquake, fire, smoke), but also the apparently less dynamic aspect of
God’s presence or dwelling. Biblical texts often present many of these modalities of God’s
manifestation as almost opposite from those commonly expected, and thus often not
immediately recognized, i.e., “a man” in the story of Jacob (Gen. 32) and the “three men” who
visit Abraham (Gen. 18:2). On the other hand, the prophet Elijah expected God’s the aphonic
 intervention in the form of the powers of nature (1 Kings 19:11-12) while God manifested
himself in “a gentle whisper”

NEW TESTAMENT
(HEBREW)

Summary of Matthew

 Matthew traces Jesus’s ancestors back to the biblical patriarch Abraham, the founding
father of the Israelite people. Matthew describes Jesus’s conception, when his mother,
Mary, was “found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” (1:18). Matthew focuses very little
on Mary herself, and praises Joseph for not abandoning his fiancée.

 Jesus is born in Bethlehem, where he and his parents are visited by wise men from the
East bearing gifts. The wise men follow a star to Bethlehem. Their king, Herod the Great,
hears the rumor that a baby named Jesus is the “king of the Jews” (2:2). Herod orders
all young children in Bethlehem to be killed. To escape the king’s wrath, Joseph, Mary,
and Jesus flee to Egypt. Joseph and his family return to Israel after Herod’s death, but
then move to Nazareth, a town in the northern district known as Galilee.

 Years pass, and Jesus grows up. A man in a loincloth, who lives by eating wild honey
and locusts, begins to prophesy throughout Judea, foretelling of Jesus as the one who
will come to “baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (3:11). This prophet, John the
Baptist, who is likely a member of the ascetic Jewish Essene community, eventually
meets Jesus. John baptizes Jesus, and Jesus receives the blessing of God, who says,
“This is my Son, the Beloved” (3:17). Jesus is led into the wilderness for forty days
without food or water to be tested by Satan. Jesus emerges unscathed and triumphant,
and begins to preach his central, most often repeated proclamation: “Repent! For the
kingdom of heaven has come near” (4:17). His ministry begins.

Key teachings of Jesus

The Gospel of Matthew is rich with teaching statements by Jesus that give us insights
into how he would like his followers to live.

Jesus did not set about teaching doctrines or “theology.” Instead, he demonstrated
many of his teachings, although he also made many commandments throughout his
ministry (Matt. 28:20). Many times “The Sermon on the Mount” is referred to as Jesus’
basic teachings in a capsule. We encourage you to read the Sermon on the Mount
(Matt. 5-7) to absorb the full richness of the concepts and language.

Below are 20 key teachings of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew; this is not a complete
list. There are many other teachings of the Christian church, but these are some of the
ones we get from looking at just Jesus’ life and ministry. Many have direct parallels to
key events in his life.

1. The Christian life is marked by baptism (Matt. 3:13-17).

2. God is available to help us not give in to temptation (Matt. 4:1-11).
3. Jesus asks us to repent—turn away from wrong, confess wrongdoing (Matt. 4:17).
4. Jesus says, “Follow me” and you will help find other followers (Matt. 4:18-22).
5. Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow me”(Matt. 16:24-27).
6. Repeatedly Jesus notes, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus seems to be telling
us ways to experience heaven on earth now, and he also refers to a future realm where
we will be in the presence of God and Jesus (Matt. 4:23; 13:18-52; 18:1-5).
7. Jesus showed compassion for all and helped them: the poor, the despised, the
outcasts, and wants us to do the same (Matt. 4:24-25;9:9-13).
8. Jesus says he is like “new wineskins” or a completely new thing (Matt. 9:14-17).
9. The many stories and healings of Jesus teach us, “Have faith; it is enough” (Matt. 9:18-
31).
10. Jesus emphasizes, “Be sincere, not a hypocrite” (Matt. 6:1-6).
11. Jesus and God are one (Matt. 10:40; 16:13-20).
12. Jesus warns, “Don’t let family get in the way of following me” (Matt. 10:35-38; 12:46-
50).
13. Jesus has authority over the law and tradition (Matt. 12: 1-8; 15:1-9).
14. Jesus fulfills Old Testament scriptures (Matt. 1:22-23; 17:9-13).
15. Jesus preaches, “Love your enemies; do not hate, be reconciled” (Matt. 5:38-48; 5:21-
24).
16. Jesus reminds us, “You must become like a child to enter the kingdom” (Matt. 19:13-
15).
17. Jesus’ disciples become a community of faith, which forms the beginnings of the
Christian church universal (Matt. 28:16-19).
18. The events of Jesus’ last week on earth are the culmination of his ministry and
teachings, climaxing with his death on the cross. A man who has never sinned dies to
save all the rest of us who have sinned (Matt. 21-27).
19. Jesus says, “I am alive! Go and tell everyone else” (Matt. 28:7-10).
20. He adds, “I will be with you forever” (Matt. 28:20b).

SIGNIFICANT
Be clear with what you want.

When you find “it,” take the leap.

Be forbearing and love those who criticize you.

Keep your promises and be careful with what you say.

8. Forgive others… countless times if you need to.

9. You cannot please everyone. Move on.

18. Stop worrying and live for today.

Let go of differences in denominations, religions, and beliefs.

ILLIAD & ODYSSEY

(GREEK CIVILIZATION)

The Iliad: The Iliad tells the final chapter in the story of two major Bronze Age “Greek” alliances
battling each other.  It ends when the Achaeans (people mainly from what we now call Greece)
sack Troy/Ilium (located in modern day Turkey).  It's a long, meandering epic,
but it primarilyrevolves around the "godlike Achilles'" struggle to confront his hubris and
become humanized.

Both in scope and type, consider the Trojan war as similar to that between different European
factions in WWI and WWII, or between the North and South in the American Civil War: this was
a seminal, history-shaping event, and an intra-cultural war: a war fought among people of the
same basic culture; although the two sides are protected by different gods, all the gods belong
to the same basic pantheon or family of what we now call "Greek gods".

The Odyssey, in contrast, mainly takes place outside of that common culture and describes
contact with pre-Mycenaean Mediterranean cultures.   The story focuses on Odysseus and his
family's struggle to recover from the Trojan war's after effects and, primarily, with Odysseus
struggle to make it back home.  So The Iliad describes the clash between two equally brilliant
and beautiful groups of “Greeks”, and The Odyssey describes contact with the “Other”,
represented as monsters and witches.
SIGNIFICANT

The moral values in the story include loyalty, compassion, self-control and perseverance. Each
one has a tale or two associated with it. Loyalty is an importantmoral value in
The Odyssey because Odysseus is devoted to his family. He is determined to return home to
his wife despite all of the obstacles in his way.

- We’re interested in part in how familiar and "normal" these stories feel,
how unexotic they are, because they are the foundation for how Western culture thinks
of storytelling, and how this storytelling in turn shaped our conception of what it means to
be a human being.   While the Jews gave Western culture its religious foundation, the
Greeks gave us our culture, the parts of our lives we don't even notice because it is the
very air we breath – our sense of heroism, of the individual, of the individuals
relationship to others, or our very means of expressing our emotions and the way we tell
stories.  Jewish stories opened our way of conceptualizing God, but the Greeks gave us
our way of thinking about ourselves as human beings.  The word for this is "humanism"
or Greek Humanism.
- The importance of Homer to Ancient Greek History. No other texts in the Western
imagination occupy as central a position in the self-definition of Western culture as the
two epic poems of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. They both concern the great
defining moment of Greek culture, the Trojan War.

The Republic
(Greek Civilization)
Why do men behave justly? Is it because they fear societal punishment? Are they trembling
before notions of divine retribution? Do the stronger elements of society scare the weak into
submission in the name of law? Or do men behave justly because it is good for them to do
so? Is justice, regardless of its rewards and punishments, a good thing in and of itself? How
do we define justice? Plato sets out to answer these questions in The Republic. He wants to
define justice, and to define it in such a way as to show that justice is worthwhile in and of
itself. He meets these two challenges with a single solution: a definition of justice that
appeals to human psychology, rather than to perceived behavior.

Plato’s strategy in The Republic is to first explicate the primary notion of societal, or political,

justice, and then to derive an analogous concept of individual justice. In Books II, III, and IV,

Plato identifies political justice as harmony in a structured political body. An ideal society

consists of three main classes of people—producers (craftsmen, farmers, artisans, etc.),

auxiliaries (warriors), and guardians (rulers); a society is just when relations between these

three classes are right. Each group must perform its appropriate function, and only that function,

and each must be in the right position of power in relation to the others. Rulers must rule,

auxiliaries must uphold rulers’ convictions, and producers must limit themselves to exercising
whatever skills nature granted them (farming, blacksmithing, painting, etc.) Justice is a principle

of specialization: a principle that requires that each person fulfill the societal role to which nature

fitted him and not interfere in any other business.

At the end of Book IV, Plato tries to show that individual justice mirrors political justice. He

claims that the soul of every individual has a three part structure analagous to the three classes

of a society. There is a rational part of the soul, which seeks after truth and is responsible for

our philosophical inclinations; a spirited part of the soul, which desires honor and is responsible

for our feelings of anger and indignation; and an appetitive part of the soul, which lusts after all

sorts of things, but money most of all (since money must be used to fulfill any other base

desire). The just individual can be defined in analogy with the just society; the three parts of his

soul achieve the requisite relationships of power and influence in regard to one another. In a just

individual, the rational part of the soul rules, the spirited part of the soul supports this rule, and

the appetitive part of the soul submits and follows wherever reason leads. Put more plainly: in a

just individual, the entire soul aims at fulfilling the desires of the rational part, much as in the just

society the entire community aims at fulfilling whatever the rulers will.

Plato’s strategy in The Republic is to first explicate the primary notion of societal, or political,

justice, and then to derive an analogous concept of individual justice. In Books II, III, and IV,

Plato identifies political justice as harmony in a structured political body. An ideal society

consists of three main classes of people—producers (craftsmen, farmers, artisans, etc.),

auxiliaries (warriors), and guardians (rulers); a society is just when relations between these

three classes are right. Each group must perform its appropriate function, and only that function,

and each must be in the right position of power in relation to the others. Rulers must rule,

auxiliaries must uphold rulers’ convictions, and producers must limit themselves to exercising

whatever skills nature granted them (farming, blacksmithing, painting, etc.) Justice is a principle

of specialization: a principle that requires that each person fulfill the societal role to which nature

fitted him and not interfere in any other business.

At the end of Book IV, Plato tries to show that individual justice mirrors political justice. He

claims that the soul of every individual has a three part structure analagous to the three classes

of a society. There is a rational part of the soul, which seeks after truth and is responsible for

our philosophical inclinations; a spirited part of the soul, which desires honor and is responsible

for our feelings of anger and indignation; and an appetitive part of the soul, which lusts after all

sorts of things, but money most of all (since money must be used to fulfill any other base

desire). The just individual can be defined in analogy with the just society; the three parts of his

soul achieve the requisite relationships of power and influence in regard to one another. In a just

individual, the rational part of the soul rules, the spirited part of the soul supports this rule, and

the appetitive part of the soul submits and follows wherever reason leads. Put more plainly: in a

just individual, the entire soul aims at fulfilling the desires of the rational part, much as in the just

society the entire community aims at fulfilling whatever the rulers will.
 THE AENIED
(Greek Civilization)

On the Mediterranean Sea, Aeneas and his fellow Trojans flee from their home city of Troy,

which has been destroyed by the Greeks. They sail for Italy, where Aeneas is destined to found

Rome. As they near their destination, a fierce storm throws them off course and lands them in

Carthage. Dido, Carthage’s founder and queen, welcomes them. Aeneas relates to Dido the

long and painful story of his group’s travels thus far.

Aeneas tells of the sack of Troy that ended the Trojan War after ten years of Greek siege. In the

final campaign, the Trojans were tricked when they accepted into their city walls a wooden

horse that, unbeknownst to them, harbored several Greek soldiers in its hollow belly. He tells

how he escaped the burning city with his father, Anchises; his son, Ascanius; and the hearth

gods that represent their fallen city. Assured by the gods that a glorious future awaited him in

Italy, he set sail with a fleet containing the surviving citizens of Troy. Aeneas relates the ordeals

they faced on their journey. Twice they attempted to build a new city, only to be driven away by

bad omens and plagues. Harpies, creatures that are part woman and part bird, cursed them, but

they also encountered friendly countrymen unexpectedly. Finally, after the loss of Anchises and

a bout of terrible weather, they made their way to Carthage.

Impressed by Aeneas’s exploits and sympathetic to his suffering, Dido, a Phoenician princess

who fled her home and founded Carthage after her brother murdered her husband, falls in love

with Aeneas. They live together as lovers for a period, until the gods remind Aeneas of his duty

to found a new city. He determines to set sail once again. Dido is devastated by his departure,

and kills herself by ordering a huge pyre to be built with Aeneas’s castaway possessions,

climbing upon it, and stabbing herself with the sword Aeneas leaves behind.
SIGNI
FICANT

What is the moral lesson of the story of the Aeneid?

I suppose the moral would be to follow your destiny no matter what, and to not even let your

heart get in the way. Aeneas was viewed as a hero. But what did he do that was so heroic? In

reality he just kept putting his own needs and desires aside for the good of others. Dido loved

him and killed herself because he chose his destiny over his love for her. This was seen as a

good thing to the Romans because it demonstrated that he would do anything and get through

any obstacle to reach his destiny/goal. No matter what the gods do to him, he still gets there. No

matter what woman loves him, he still will leave her. 

And I'm sorry but I would have to disagree about the desire part, if Aeneas actually did follow his

desires he would have been doomed. It's about suppressing your desires to reach your destiny.

RAMAYANA MAHABHARATA

So, just to let you know what you are in for, here is a very brief summary of the Ramayana, the
adventures of lord Rama. Rama is the son of King Daśaratha, but he is also an incarnation of
the god Vishnu, born in human form to do battle with the demon lord Ravana. Ravana had
obtained divine protection against other demons, and even against the gods - but because he
scorned the world of animals and men, he had not asked for protection from them. Therefore,
Vishnu incarnated as a human being in order to put a stop to Ravana. King Daśaratha has three
other sons besides Rama. There is Lakshmana, who is devoted to Rama. There is also
Bharata, the son of Daśaratha's pretty young wife Kaikeyi, and finally there is Śatrughna, who is
as devoted to Bharata as Lakshmana is to Rama.

When Daśaratha grows old, he decides to name Rama as his successor. Queen Kaikeyi,
however, is outraged. She manages to compel Daśaratha to name their son Bharata as his
successor instead and to send Rama into exile in the forest. Rama agrees to go into exile, and
he is accompanied by his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana. When their exile is nearly over,
Sita is abducted by the evil Ravana who carries her off to Lanka city (on the island of Sri Lanka).
Rama and Lakshmana follow in pursuit, and they are aided by the monkey lord, Hanuman, who
is perfectly devoted to Rama.
After many difficulties and dangers, Rama finally confronts Ravana and defeats him in battle.
What happens after that is a matter of some dispute in the different versions of the Ramayana.
Did Rama accept Sita back into his household? Or did he send her away because she had been
in the possession of another male? You will see different versions of the ending in the two
different editions of the Ramayana that you will read for this class.

The Story of the Mahabharata Briefly

In some ways, the entire story of the Mahabharata is an explanation of how our world, the world
of the Kali Yuga, came into being, and how things got to be as bad as they are. The Ramayana
has its share of suffering and even betrayal, but nothing to match the relentless hatred and
vengeance of the Mahabharata. The culmination of the Mahabharata is the Battle of
Kurukshetra when two bands of brothers, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, the sons of two
brothers and thus cousins to one another, fight each other to death, brutally and cruelly, until the
entire race is almost wiped out.

The five sons of Pandu, the Pandavas, are the heroes of the story. The eldest is King
Yudhishthira. Next is Bhima, an enormously strong fighter with equally enormous appetites.
After Bhima is Arjuna, the greatest of the warriors and also the companion of Krishna. The last
two are twins, Nakula and Sahadeva. These five brothers share one wife, Draupadi (she
became the wife of all five of them by accident, as you will learn).

The enemies of the Pandavas are the Kauravas, who are the sons of Pandu's brother,
Dhritarashtra. Although Dhritarashtra is still alive, he cannot manage to restrain his son
Duryodhana, who bitterly resents the achievements of his cousins, the Pandavas. Duryodhana
arranges for his maternal uncle to challenge Yudhishthira to a game of dice, and Yudhishthira
gambles everything away, even himself. The Pandavas have to go into exile, but when they
return they engage the Kauravas in battle. Krishna fights on the side of the Pandavas, and
serves as Arjuna's charioteer. The famous "Song of the Lord," or Bhagavad-Gita, is actually a
book within the Mahabharata, as the battle of Kurukshetra begins. When Arjuna faces his
cousins on the field of battle, he despairs and sinks down, unable to fight. The Bhagavad-Gita
contains the words that Krishna spoke to Arjuna at that moment.

The Pandavas do win the battle. Duryodhana is killed, and the Kaurava armies are wiped out.
But it is hardly a happy ending. Yudhishthira becomes king, but the world is forever changed by
the battle's violence. If you are familiar with the Iliad, you might remember how that epic ends
with the funeral of the Trojan hero Hector, a moment which is utterly bleak and sad. The same is
true for the Mahabharata. There are many truths that are learned in the end, but the victory,
such as it is, comes at a terrible price.
 THE BHAGAVAD GITA
(Indian Civilization)
The Bhagavad Gita (/ˌbʌɡəvəd ˈɡiːtɑː, -tə/; Sanskrit: भगवद्गीता, IAST: bhagavad-gītā, lit. "The Song
of God"[1]), often referred to as the Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture in Sanskrit that is part of
the Hindu epic Mahabharata (chapters 23–40 of the 6th book of Mahabharata).
The Gita is set in a narrative framework of a dialogue between Pandava prince Arjuna and his
guide and charioteer Krishna. At the start of the Dharma Yudhha (righteous war) between
Pandavas and Kauravas, Arjuna is filled with moral dilemma and despair about the violence and
death the war will cause. He wonders if he should renounce and seeks Krishna's counsel,
whose answers and discourse constitute the Bhagadvad Gita. Krishna counsels Arjuna to "fulfill
his Kshatriya (warrior) duty to uphold the Dharma" through "selfless action".[web 1][2][note 1] The
Krishna-Arjuna dialogue cover a broad range of spiritual topics, touching upon ethical dilemmas
and philosophical issues that go far beyond the war Arjuna faces.[1][3][4]
The Bhagavad Gita presents a synthesis[5][6] of Hindu ideas about dharma,[5][6][7] theistic bhakti,[8]
[7]
 and the yogic paths to moksha.[6] The synthesis presents four paths to spirituality
– jnana, bhakti, karma, and raja yogas.[8] These incorporate ideas from the Samkhya-
Yoga and Vedanta philosophies.[web 1][note 2]
Numerous commentaries have been written on the Bhagavad Gita with widely differing views on
the essentials. Vedanta commentators read varying relations between Self and Brahman in the
text: Advaita Vedanta sees the non-dualism of Atman (soul) and Brahman as its essence,
[9]
 whereas Bhedabheda and Vishishtadvaita see Atman and Brahman as both different and
non-different, and Dvaita sees them as different. The setting of the Gita in a battlefield has been
interpreted as an allegory for the ethical and moral struggles of the human life.[4][10][11]
The Bhagavad Gita is the best known and most famous of Hindu texts,[12] with a unique pan-
Hindu influence.[13][14] The Gita's call for selfless action inspired many leaders of the Indian
independence movement including BalGangadharTilak and Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi referred
to the Gita as his "spiritual dictionary".[15]

1. God as the embodied Self

2. In the opening chapter, the Bhagavadgita draws a clear distinction between Krishna
and Arjuna as separate individuals, Krishna as the charioteer and Arjuna as the
warrior who was about to engage in the war. In reality, Krishna was the Supreme
Being, and Arjuna was an embodied soul who was caught in the cycle of births and
deaths (samsara). In our daily lives, we do not perceive the oneness of existence.
We see people and objects as distinct and separate. This is the ordinary state or the
state of duality, in which, because of delusion and ignorance, we do not recognize
God, who is hidden in all or our own divine nature.
3. The Bhagavadgita clearly states (15.7) that the embodied Self (jivatma or dehatma)
is an aspect of God only. There may be differences between different schools of
Hinduism regarding whether the Self is the same as God, but all of them agree that
 the Self is pure consciousness, eternal and divine even in the bound state. Although
it is surrounded by impurities, it is never tainted by them. The scripture concurs with
this assertion.
4. In the mortal world, all are embodied souls (jivatmas), or God in a state of ignorance
and bondage. Presiding over the senses and organs in the body, he enjoys the
sense objects. Residing in the body and becoming the digestive fire, he digests four
kinds of food. The deluded ones do not see him when he is present in the body, or
when he departs from it. Only the pure ones who are endowed with eyes of wisdom
see it

God as the pure Self (ahamatma)

The Bhagavadgita repeatedly affirms that you are an eternal Self, and in your purest state you
are not different from God. He is everywhere and in everything (sarvatrasamavastitam), as the
inmost, eternal Self (antrayami), who can be discerned only when you are pure with the
predominance of sattva and when you stabilize your mind and senses in the thoughts of God by
withdrawing them. The Self, which is another name for God (Isvara) is indestructible, infinite,
pure, all knowing and all pervading.
Hence, having realized that he is eternal and indestructible, a seeker should worry about neither
death nor destruction nor the impermanence of life. Instead, for purification and liberation he
should engage in righteous actions and contemplate upon the Self as the inmost being, Lord,
enjoyer, observer, controller, witness, supporter, Lord of the elements, Lord of the sacrifices,
and knower of the field. Unfortunately, many people find it difficult acknowledge their own
divinity and eternal nature. Hence, they see themselves from a narrow perspective and
experience mental afflictions.
Although it is passive and uninvolved, the Self is the support for the physical self and all the
happenings in the field of Nature. Because of the Self the organs function, breath flows in the
body and the body itself remains alive and active. At the time of death, the Self departs from
here to the other worlds according to the karma accumulated by the being. Upon attaining
liberation, he becomes one with God or returns to his purest, blissful state. If not, he goes to the
ancestral world and remains there until his karma is exhausted and returns to earth to continue
his mortal existence. The idea that God is Self in the body is mentioned in the scripture both
explicitly and implicitly. Lord Krishna vouches that he is the Self (ahamatma).
God as the Supreme Self (paramatma)
In the Bhagavadgita, Lord Krishna states several times that he is the Supreme Being
(Purushottama), the supreme Lord (paramatma), who upholds the three worlds,
pervading them, and who remembers all his deeds, teachings and incarnations. In
the past, he taught the same secret knowledge which he taught to Arjuna to several
worthy people. He is the creator, upholder and destroyer, and responsible for both
bondage and liberation.
Lord Krishna further states that ignorant people, deluded by the gunas, fail to
recognize him when he is amidst them, or they may disrespect him, not knowing his
supreme state. Even gods and seers do not know his true origin because he was
before all. He is unborn, without a beginning and end, lord of the worlds
(lokamaheswaram) and first among the gods.

God as the source of all (ahamsarvasyaprabhava)

The Bhagavadgita states that God is also the source of universal abundance and the
ultimate cause of all actions. Hence, no one should claim ownership or doership to
avoid the consequences and the resultant karma. Because of him only qualities such
as beauty, prosperity and energy do manifest in creation. Different states of virtue
such as nonviolence, equanimity, contentment, austerity charity, fame, infamy also
arise from him only. The seven great seers, the four Manus were born from his mind.
Knowing thus, the wise ones worship him with intense fervor as the source of all.

Other aspects

The aspects which we have discussed so far are the different states (bhavas) of Brahman.
Apart from them, the Bhagavadgita also mentions other aspects and functional roles of
Brahman, some of which are presented below.

1. God as the upholder of Dharma

2. God as the creator, sustainer and destroyer
3. God as the teacher and revealer of secret knowledge
4. God as the protector of the pious and the devoted
 5. God as the punishing and enforcing power
6. God as Time and Death
7. God as the Lord of the sacrifice
8. God as the concealer and deluder
9. God as the manifested and the unmanifested
10. God as the nourisher and friend in need

SIGNIFICANT

7 Lessons From The Bhagavad Gita

1. This physical world is all delusion. Do not fret, fear or ruminate… Hold fast to the awareness
that you are following a path, the exact path, which you are intended to be following.

2. Choose your path, based on your nature; whether it be Karma yoga(the path of action), jnana
yoga (the path of knowledge or wisdom), raja yoga (the path of meditation) or Bhakti yoga (the
path of devotion or love)… all path’s lead to divinity. All paths are divine. You are divine.

3. How you enter truth is irrelevant; whether you call your path Christian, Hindu, Jewish,
Buddhist, Islam etc is not important, all paths lead to divinity. If your focus is on right action,
action for the greater good, offering this action without attachment, you will arrive in the light.
You are light.

4. The importance lies in the letting go, just be. Be. Trust in the Self.

5. Act out of love with no attachment to the outcome.

6. Have Faith in the knowledge of oneness.

7. Simply know that there is so much more, infinitely more, beyond what can be seen, felt, heard
by your physical senses.

Once you hold this truth in the palm of your hand, the depths of your belly, the crevices of your
soul – all feelings of attachment to scriptures, books, or gurus will fall away, unnecessary to
your enlightened being; you will suffer the pains of this world no more, and you will know what it
is to be light and free in the light of being.

My yoga practice helps me to connect to this oneness, each and every time I take to the mat. In
all of my humanness, as I go through my daily life, I strive also to be mindful off the mat; to see
all others as myself, to see myself as all others. My intended focus
on: Kindness. Gratitude.Detachment.Love.Yoga.Atma.

DIVINE COMEDY
(ITALIAN CIVILIZATION)

Dante’s The Divine Comedy is the beginning of Italian literature and the single most significant
work of the Middle Ages because its allegory emphasizes the importance of salvation and divine
love in a work that is inclusive and tightly structured. It is so thoroughly infused with Christian
ethics that any overview has to touch on major Christian themes, beginning with the plot being
set during Easter week 1300.

The work is a complex narrative with many allusions to biblical stories, classical myths, history,
and contemporary politics; however, the plot’s symbolism provides clarity in that it celebrates
the ideal of universalism, where everything has its place in God’s world, and its ultimate goal of
salvation triumphs over the contemporary reality of the power struggle between worldly and
religious leaders.

The structure of the entire work, as well as of its parts, is symbolic of the story it tells, as the use
of numbers shows. The number 3 (symbolic of the Trinity: God as the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost) and the number 10 (the “perfect” number: 3 × 3 + 1) are the most conspicuous
examples. The Divine Comedy has three “cantiche,” or parts (Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven).
Each cantica has thirty-three cantos, or songs, with the exception of the first cantica, which has
thirty-four cantos, adding up to a total of one hundred (the perfect number squared: 10 × 10).
Each canto is written in terzarima, that is, in tercets that rhyme in an interlocking manner.

The first canto of Inferno, is considered to be an introduction to the whole work (making the
structure even more symmetric: 1 + 33 + 33 + 33 = 100) because all three parts of The Divine
Comedy are present in the first canto’s symbolic landscape. Dante finds himself lost in a dark
forest. Looking for orientation, he decides to hike up a mountain, whose sunlit top represents
Purgatory, while the sky and the sun represent Heaven. However, Dante’s path is blocked by
three animals on the mountain’s slope: a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf, which represent the
three main types of sin that correspond to the three main divisions of Hell.
The spirit of Virgil appears and promises to get Dante to salvation the long way: through Hell,
Purgatory, and Heaven. Dante’s doubts are assuaged because Virgil has been sent by three
heavenly ladies (the Virgin Mary, Saint Lucy, and Beatrice); in the combination of human reason
with divine grace, Dante’s salvation may yet be achieved. After they enter Hell in the third canto,
Dante learns through conversations with Virgil and individual souls that each sin is punished
according to its severity, systematically going from the lighter sins of incontinence (giving in to
one’s desires) to the more severe sins of violence (actively willing evil) and fraud (adding
malice). Hell, which is presented as a huge funnel-shaped underground cave, extends in ever-
smaller and more-constricting circles to the middle of the earth; there, in the pit of hell, sits
Satan himself, forever stuck frozen in the ice of the lake Cocytus, chewing on the three worst
human traitors: Judas, Brutus, and Cassius.

Climbing past Satan, Dante is headed toward salvation. While all sinners in Hell will remain
there forever to suffer their horrible punishments because they did not admit their sins, souls in
Purgatory are already saved and eventually will go to Heaven because they confessed their sins
before death. Therefore, the mood has completely changed: The souls are not stuck in
everlasting isolation but learn in groups from examples of the virtue and vice that correspond to
their penance. Purgatory is presented as a huge cone-shaped mountain and the only landmass
in the southern hemisphere. Purgatory proper is organized in seven rings according to the
traditional seven deadly sins (pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust). At the top of
the mountain is earthly paradise (the Garden of Eden); this is as far as human reason can lead,
so Virgil leaves and Beatrice becomes Dante’s guide.

Cleansed of his own sins, Dante rises naturally toward Heaven. In keeping with the Ptolemaic
worldview, Heaven is organized in spheres with the earth in the center. Dante identifies ten
spheres that he relates to the so-called four pagan virtues of fortitude, justice, temperance, and
prudence in varying degrees (first to seventh Heavens), the three Christian virtues of faith,
hope, and charity (eighth Heaven), the Primum Mobile (the ninth heaven, which moves all
others), and the Empyrean (the tenth Heaven outside of time and space, where God dwells).
The Empyrean as a state of being also contains the Celestial Rose, where all blessed souls
reside. The souls do not reside in the individual heavens where Dante encounters them but are
put there so that he may more easily understand their place in the divine order. The blessed
souls in Heaven form a true, though strictly hierarchical, community that exists in an all-
permeating feeling of love and bliss, which comes from the joy and peace of being in the proper
place in God’s creation. Dante evokes in images of light what lies beyond human experience,
such as the radiance of the blessed souls and Dante’s vision of God.

The Divine Comedy (Italian: Divina Commedia [diˈviːnakomˈmɛːdja]) is an Italian long narrative

poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321.
It is widely considered to be the preeminent work in Italian literature[1] and one of the greatest
works of world literature.[2] The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of
the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It
helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written (also in most present-day Italian-
market editions), as the standardized Italian language.[3] It is divided into three
parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
The narrative describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise or Heaven,
[4]
 while allegorically the poem represents the soul's journey towards God.[5] Dante draws on
medieval Christian theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy and the Summa
Theologica of Thomas Aquinas.[6] Consequently, the Divine Comedy has been called
"the Summain verse".[7] In Dante's work, Virgil is presented as human reason and Beatrice is
presented as divine knowledge.[8]
The work was originally simply titled Comedia (pronounced [komeˈdiːa]; so also in the first
printed edition, published in 1472), Tuscan for "Comedy", later adjusted to the modern
Italian Commedia. The adjective Divina was added by Giovanni Boccaccio, and the first edition
to name the poem DivinaComedia in the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce,
[9]
published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari.
SIGNIFICANT

5 Spiritual Lessons
from Dante’s Divine Comedy
1. “Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself in a dark wilderness, for I had
wandered from the straight and true.” 

All of us who read the opening lines of the Comedyhave wandered from the narrow way and
find ourselves—to one degree or another—immersed in the hellish mire of sin.  Dante wants to
sear this reality in our minds as we read his work and are invited to join him in a grand journey
through the realms of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

If you read the Comedy on a superficial level, you miss the fact that Dante purposely intended it
to contain multiple levels of meaning—“spiritual senses,” as we call them in Sacred Scripture. 
Thus the Comedy depicts Dante’s physical journey through Hell (literal sense), but, as Dorothy
Sayers observes in her masterful Thomistic notes to the text, this is actually the least important
part of the work.  What goes on here represents the final state of man’s perdition (anagogical
sense).  It further signifies Dante’s—and in turn our own—downward journey through ignorance
and sin (moral sense) before we begin to ascend the mountain of conversion in the Purgatorio.

Applying this to our lives, we can benefit a great deal already from this opening canto: “How I
entered, I can’t bring to mind…when I first left the way of truth behind.”  Dante’s descent into
Hell (the vicious cycle of sin) begins almost imperceptibly, as in a dreaming state.  Every one of
us often falls in this same way.  We start with something “small,” something that hardly seems a
sin, and before you know it you’ve ended up with a seemingly unbreakable vice.  If you read
C.S. Lewis, in particular his Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce, you see the markings of
Dante all over the place, as when he has the master demon instructing his understudy not to
cast great temptations before Christians at first, lest they notice that they’re being tempted and
fly to God.

This line of Dante also reminds us of the reason the Church Fathers, in commenting on the
disturbing words of Psalm 137, emphasize that we need to bash nascent sins, to nip them in the
bud before they flower into abhorrent, eradicable vices.  Thus Dante bids us to ask: what sins
are we slumbering in, and what evil in our lives do we need to bash this day?

2. The souls in Hell “have lost the good of intellect.”

Man’s Last End is the Beatific Vision, which, as Aquinas tells us, is an act of the intellect, i.e.
contemplation of God.  “This is eternal life,” Jesus says “to know the one true God.”  Here the
damned do not know God and do not see themselves rightly.  This is especially true in the case
of Francesca, the damned lover who still thinks she loves even though she clearly hates her
husband (whom she cheated on).

As Christians we can ask a spiritual director or a spiritual friend for advice on a matter that is
plaguing us.  We can put little resolutions into practice every day to tame our desires and keep
us from being tossed about on the whirlwind of our passions like Francesca.

3. In Dante there is a special place in Hell for those who refuse to choose between the
Lord and some other god.

Canto 3 is interesting because here—outside of Hell—Dante creatively places “those sad souls
whose works in life merited neither praise nor infamy…who were for themselves alone, not
rebels, and not faithful to the Lord.”  In this vestibule reside the people who knew the demands
of the Gospel and didn’t outright reject it, yet they were not brave enough to stand up for what is
right and take up their cross to follow Christ.  How many people today say that they are
“personally” in favor of virtue and against evils like abortion, but never really make up their
minds to speak or do anything about it!

Dante’s third canto is a chilling reminder that we can’t sit on the sidelines of this life if we want to
be happy in the next.  As for the “paltry souls” in this canto, the punishment that fits their crime
consists in the fact that they are “pricked to motion now perpetually by flies and wasps” as they
“leer with envy at every other lot,” i.e. the lots of those who made a choice in life for good or
evil.  Hence, although these “worthless wretches who had never lived” are not technically in
Hell, they wished they were in Hell, which Dante wants us to consider as perhaps being even
worse.
4. Charon, the ferryman of the dead in classical mythology, makes his appearance in a
similar role in the Comedy, as do many other figures of antiquity. 

For me the lesson here is simple, and it is readily illustrated by spending a few minutes in
meditation upon his figure in Michelangelo’s portrayal of the Last Judgment in the Sistine
Chapel.  The lesson is: have fear of God and don’t do the sin you want to do, or else you
have to meet this guy.  Actually, the reality behind Dante’s image of “crossing the melancholy
shores of Acheron” is infinitely worse, but the image is sufficient enough to give my untamed will
pause for at least a little while.

5. Our disordered passions are like a “hellish cyclone that can never rest.”

 Canto five hauntingly reminds us to keep our desires subject to our reason and not the other
way around.  The lustful punished here are not in the depths of hell—their corruption is, in a
certain sense, not as disgusting as the corruption in those whose intellects and wills are
perverted—yet they remain in Hell nonetheless and have “no hope for rest…lashed and
scourged in the black air.”

How easily do we today let ourselves be tossed about by our passions, naively believing like
Francesca that we ought to follow every whim of our passions for love’s sake!  We get divorced
because we no longer feel the passion of love as we once did, we have premarital sex because
Cupid struck us with his arrow and “couldn’t help it,” and we put ourselves in situations where
we’re doomed to fail—like Francesa and Paolo who claim to be “alone and innocent” reading
about Lancelot’s affair.

We, too, all too often find ourselves caught in situations where we say with Francesca, “That
day we did not read another page.”  Behind Dante’s playful euphemism here stands a lesson for
us all to live by.  Let us today avoid the near occasions of sin and ask God to help us see
ourselves as he sees us, so that we can ever more dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of
Hell.

One THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS (ARABIC CIVILIZATION)

Though each collection features different stories, they are all centered around the frame story
of the sultan Shahrayar and his wife, Scheherazade. After finding out that his first wife is
unfaithful, Shahrayar kills her and swears to marry a different woman each night before killing
her the following morning to prevent further betrayal. Scheherazade, his vizier's daughter,
concocts a plan to end this pattern. She marries Shahrayar, and then begins to tell him a story
that night. However, she stops the story in the middle, so that he will be excited to hear the rest
the following night. The next evening, she finishes that story and then begins another, following
the same pattern for 1,001 nights, until Shahrayar has a change of heart. The stories she tells
comprise the collection.
"Aladdin's Lamp" tells of a peasant boy who is tricked by an evil magician into retrieving a magic
genie lamp from a cave. However, Aladdin outsmarts him, keeping the lamp for himself.
Through the genie's power, Aladdin grows rich and marries the sultan's daughter. When the
magician steals the lamp back, Aladdin and his wife thwart and kill the villain. The magician's
brother then attempts to avenge the dead man, but is equally defeated, so that Aladdin lives
happily ever after.
In "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," hardworking Ali Baba stumbles upon a thieves' hideout full
of treasure, protected by a magic entry. When Ali Baba accidentally reveals the secret to his
richer brother Cassim, Cassim gets trapped in the hideout, and killed by the thieves. The villains
then try to track down and kill Ali Baba, but their plans are consistently thwarted by the quick-
witted slave Morgiana.
In "The Three Apples," a fisherman finds a chest in the ocean containing a woman's body. Both
her father and her husband try to take the blame, but the caliph discerns that the husband had
killed her, believing her unfaithful. He had brought her three rare apples when she was sick,
then got mad when he saw a slave with one of the apples, claiming he had received the fruit
from his girlfriend. Believing the slave, he killed the woman. He then learned that his son had
actually given the apple to the slave, who then lied to stir up trouble. The ruler's vizier Ja'far
ascertains that his own slave is the culprit, and the caliph pardons everyone.

"The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor" are told by a famous sailor to an impoverished
porter, to explain the trials and tribulations that the sailor suffered at sea. Over the course of his
seven voyages, Sinbad faced: various shipwrecks; strange beasts such as giant eagles, rocs,
and giants; malicious figures such as the Old Man of the Sea; and many other obstacles. Even
though he dealt with danger on every voyage, Sinbad continued to sail, lured by the thrill and
excitement of the sea. Finally, after seven voyages, he decided to settle down with his wealth.
"The Fisherman and the Jinni" tells the story of a fisherman whose nets retrieve a yellow jar
from the sea. He opens it to release a dangerous genie, who has been trapped for hundreds of
years and had decided to kill the man who rescues him. The fisherman tricks the genie into
returning to the jar, and then tells him the story of "The Vizier and the Sage Duban," detailed
below. After the story, the genie promises to reward the fisherman, and indeed shows him a
magic lake full of strange fish. The fisherman sells the fish to the sultan, who explores the area
of the lake to meet a sad prince who had been turned half to stone. He helps the prince, and
then rewards everyone involved.
In "The Vizier and the Sage Duban," a wise healer named Duban heals King Yunan's leprosy,
but Yunan's vizier convinces the king that Duban is out to kill him. Yunan has Duban executed
on that suspicion, and Duban gifts him a magic book before he dies. After the wise man is
beheaded, the king flips through the book, and then dies himself from a poison that Duban has
left on its pages.
Finally, "The Three Princes and the Princes Nouronnihar" details the journeys of three brother
princes who each wants to marry their cousin Nouronnihar. Their father, the Grand Sultan,
promises that whichever brother finds the most valuable item will win the woman's hand. They
each find amazing items - a magic carpet that transports its owner, a tube that shows whatever
the viewer wishes, and an apple that heals anyone. When the brothers learn that Nouronnihar is
ill, they pool the items and manage to save her life.
GOOD
What important lessons have you learnt from 1001 Nights (a.k.a Arabian Nights)? In other
words, what do you think the moral of the story is?
a) Be Merciful.
b) Use your intelligence in hour of crisis 
c) Don’t cheat anyone
d) Think before you act.

THE QUR’AN
(ARABIC CIVILIZATION)

In essence, the message of the Quran is to bring to our attention that we were not created in
vain, and that we will be held responsible for our conduct on this earth. In the Quran, God
indicates that He created the human to be His trustee on earth. This is actually an honor given
by God to the human being, dignity to be the trustee of God even though He doesn’t need our
worship and our obedience. It is for our own benefit.

The message of the Quran is to say or believe that guidance that is coming from the Creator of
the universe is the ultimate guidance, for God has the ultimate wisdom, power, and knowledge.
And God alone is the ultimate authority and should be obeyed without qualification, obedience
that is based not just on fear or reward but on the love of God.

It indicates again that one should look forward, like you mentioned for example in terms of daily
life, one should look after the Quran for guidance. The Quran generally gives broader guidance
in most aspects within concepts, and there are some details there, but normally to the broader
guidance so as to conduct our lives according to the will of God. And the Quran finally indicates
that since a human being is a free agent, he or she can choose to obey God or disobey, to
believe or reject faith.

Then that kind of privilege has a responsibility that goes with it because ultimately we have a
responsibility to return back to God. There will be resurrection. There will be life after death in
which people would be rewarded, or otherwise, according to their conduct.

So that in a way can be put as a capsule or a capsulized nature or summary on the Quran,
because it is in my humble belief as a Muslim that all prophets of God have taught this exact
same core message as the Quran taught.

SIGNIFICANT
Muslims believe the Quran to be the book of divine guidance revealed from God
to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel over a period of 23 years and view the Quran as God's
final revelation to humanity.[9][59]
Revelation in Islamic and Quranic contexts means the act of God addressing an individual,
conveying a message for a greater number of recipients. The process by which the divine
message comes to the heart of a messenger of God is tanzil (to send down) or nuzūl (to come
down). As the Quran says, "With the truth we (God) have sent it down and with the truth it has
come down."[60]
The Quran frequently asserts in its text that it is divinely ordained. Some verses in the Quran
seem to imply that even those who do not speak Arabic would understand the Quran if it were
recited to them.[61] The Quran refers to a written pre-text, "the preserved tablet", that records
God's speech even before it was sent down.[62][63]
The issue of whether the Quran is eternal or created became a theological debate (Quran's
createdness) in the ninth century. Mu'tazilas, an Islamic school of theology based on reason
and rational thought, held that the Quran was created while the most widespread varieties of
Muslim theologians considered the Quran to be co-eternal with God and therefore
uncreated. Sufi philosophers view the question as artificial or wrongly framed.[64]
Muslims believe that the present wording of the Quran corresponds to that revealed to
Muhammad, and according to their interpretation of Quran 15:9, it is protected from corruption
("Indeed, it is We who sent down the Quran and indeed, We will be its guardian.").[65]Muslims
consider the Quran to be a guide, a sign of the prophethood of Muhammad and the truth of the
religion.

Students will use scroll shaped pieces of paper and colored pencils to create their own Egyptian
Book of the Dead.

Objectives:

Cognitive: Students will learn about the Book of the Dead and its importance to Ancient
Egyptian culture.

Affective: Students will identify with ancient Egyptians through learning about their culture and
religion.

Psychomotor: Students will use scroll shaped pieces of paper and colored pencils to create
their own Book of the Dead.

 The student will describe relationships between a culture and it’s art.
 Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures.

Concept:

The Egyptian Book of the Dead provided instructions for a mythic journey from this world to the
afterlife.

Activity:

Students will create their own Book of the Dead using colored pencils and scroll shaped paper.

Visual Aids:

 2 examples of illustrations from the Book of the Dead

  Colored pencil visual
 Papyrus visual
 Demonstration materials
 Example of project (if possible)

Disciplines

History: Students will learn about the Book of the Dead.

Criticism: None.
Studio: Students will create their own Book of the Dead.
Aesthetics: Student will make personal aesthetic choices.

Vocabulary:

Scribe: Person who was in charge of recording events and writing documents in hieroglyphics.

Egyptian Book of the Dead: Written by scribes and illustrated by artists, this series of books
was like a map to the Afterlife.

Afterlife: The Egyptians idea of Heaven\Paradise.

Papyrus: Paper made out of reeds in ancient Egypt.

Osiris: God of the Dead.

What You Need:

 newspaper
 colored pencils
 scroll shaped paper
 yarn/string

What You Do:

Motivation:

Today what we’re going to learn about Ancient Egyptian culture and then we are going to write
and illustrate a book. But first, who can tell me what they know about the Ancient Egyptians
already?

(Most likely “King Tut” will be mentioned.)

The ancient Egyptian didn’t really fear death that much. Do you know why?

They believed in something called an afterlife, which is an equivalent to the modern day concept
of Heaven. They believed that after they passed away, they would go to this afterlife and live
happily ever after. The Egyptians believed that the afterlife was just like earth except perfect
because it was ruled by Osiris.
Have you heard of Osiris? Osiris was the Egyptian God of the Dead.

But in order to get to the Afterlife, the person who had died had to do something special. Have
any ideas?

What the person had to do was find his own way to the afterlife. While doing this, he had to do
things to please certain gods he met along the way and navigate sacred rivers. One of the most
important things he had to do was have his heart weighed against the feather of Matt (Truth) by
Thoth, the god of truth. If the feather and the person’s heart were equal in weight, the person
could proceed to the next obstacle in his journey. Basically, the person had to overcome a
series of obstacles, like an obstacle course, to make it to the Afterlife.

Here is where the Book of the Dead comes in.

What do you think the Book of the Dead was?

The Book of the Dead was like a guidebook on how to get to the Afterlife. But it wasn’t really a
book like we think of a book, it was a really long scroll made out of papyrus.

What’s papyrus? (Show papyrus visual)

What’s a scroll?

It was kind of like a map that showed the person which way to go and what to say to the gods
he encountered along this obstacle course. Without this book the person might never make it to
the Afterlife. So, would you say that this book was important to the Egyptians? And why?

The Egyptian Book of the Dead, (Show #1 Book of the Dead visual and point out symmetry,
color and balance. Then show #2 and do the same.)

ust like any book, the Book of the Dead had a beginning, middle and end. The difference is that
this book started after the person had died.

What we are going to do today is make our own Book of the Dead.

So what we have to do first is pick a main character.

 Where are we going to start to story? (After the character has died.)
 What do you think this character will have to do in this book? (overcome obstacles to get
to the afterlife.)

I’m going to throw you a curve ball. You can pick any character you want, anything at all, except
a human. What characters do you think you might pick? This character doesn’t even have to be
alive. It could be a broken dish trying to battle kitchen appliances to get to super glue. Anything
you want. Do you think an example might help? (Show scroll example. Discuss symmetry, etc.)
Demonstration:

Our materials today are: Scroll shaped paper, colored pencils, and string. The second thing we
have to do, after picking our character, is to figure out what kind of obstacles they will need to
overcome. Then we need to figure out how to divide the space, kind of like drawing a comic
strip. (Demonstrate this.) Then have the first frame showing your character dead or broken or
whatever. After that, you go ahead and illustrate the rest of your character’s journey to the
afterlife. Remember the balance and the colors that the Egyptians used when you do this. Then
go ahead and add the text. Then, after it’s dry, you can roll it up and tie so it looks like a scroll.

Retention Assessment:

1. What kind of book are we making today?

2. Where and when did this book originate?
3. What purpose did it serve?

A Few Rules Are:

1. Follow your classroom rules.

2. Don’t get too loud.
3. Treat your art tools with respect.

Closure:

(Repeat Retention assessment questions.)

Now, I’d like you to tell me a little bit about the characters you chose and what they have to do
to get to the Afterlife. (3 or 4 students will share their ideas.)

Time flow:

 Intro: 25 min.
 Demo: 10 min.
 Studio: 35 min.
 Cleanup: 5 min.
 Closure: 10 min.