4: THE EVOLUTION OF WESTERN THEISTIC BELIEFS

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This Unit is a collection of religious texts, classical religious philosophical analyses, and a bit of history. The purpose of this Unit is to provide some background information to help you understand how religions and religious philosophies develop.

Chapter 22, Selections from The Gospel of Mark, presents parts of the Gospel of St. Mark, which is arguably the most accurate of the gospels, so that you, the reader, can get a glimpse into the actual words and teachings of Jesus and try to extract a philosophy from it. Chapter 23, “Q”, Jesus, and the Early Church by Jonathan Miles, looks at the development of and beliefs in early Christianity to provide a foundation for appreciating how Christianity has evolved throughout its history. Chapter 24, Maimonides and Jewish Philosophy, presents some philosophical analyses by the revered Jewish Philosopher as an example of a theological/philosophical analysis on religious texts. Chapter 25, Selections from The Quran, contains the first two sections of the Quran to give an example of what this religious text (that is often unfamiliar to many Western students) is like.