6.1 Biblical Tradition
Goals
Discuss the significant events in Hebrew history.
Understand the important role of monotheism in Judaism and Christianity.
Understand the important role of the prophet in Judaism and Christianity.
Discuss the qualities that distinguish Judaism and Christianity from polytheistic religions.
Discuss the qualities that distinguish Judaism from Christianity.
This chapter traces a very long history from the beginnings of the biblical tradition to the emergence of Christianity as a state religion in the Roman Empire, a history so complex that one hesitates to generalize about its shape and significance. Nonetheless, certain points deserve to be highlighted both because they are instructive in their own right and because of their continuing impact on the shape of Western culture.
First, the biblical tradition reflects the emergence of monotheism (a belief in one God) as a leading idea in Western culture. Second, the entire biblical tradition had a very strong ethical emphasis rooted in the biblical notion of prophetism—the belief that people could be called by God to denounce injustice in the face of hostility either from their own religious establishment or from equally hostile civil governments. Both Judaism and Christianity insisted on a personal God who was actively involved with the world of humanity to the degree that there was a covenant between God and people and that the world was created and sustained by God as a gift for humans.
6.2 Biblical Influence on Western Culture
Goals
Discuss the profound influences of Judaism and Christianity on Western culture.
Discuss the artistic influences of Judaism and Christianity.
The biblical belief in the providence of God would have an enormous impact on later Western culture in everything from shaping its philosophy of history (that history moves in a linear fashion and has a direction to it) to an optimism about the human capacity to understand the world and make its secrets known for the benefit of people. Finally, the Jewish and Christian tradition produced a work of literature: the Bible. The significance of that production can best be understood in the subsequent chapters of this book. It will soon become clear that a good deal of what the humanistic tradition of art, literature, and music produced until well into the modern period is unintelligible if not seen as an ongoing attempt to interpret that text in various artistic media according to the needs of the age.