Global spread of Monotheistic Faiths: Islam goes with traders from E.

Med to Indian Ocean and beyond Seafaring W. European Colonisers took their language and religion to Americas, Africa, Asia and Pacific. Migration on religious grounds: Christian Europeans went abroad, as proselytizers and to flee persecution.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Mono-esthetic: Cousin faiths through Abraham, sacred texts of the Torah, Bible, Quran. Tenets: belief in revelation, prophets, judgments and afterlife. Values: justice, truth, compassion, respect, love, tolerance, humility and courage. Borrowed and learned from each other beyond theology; scholarship, philosophy, science, math, medicine, architecture and technology.

How did Christianity emerge from a marginalized to dominant sect? Judaism, Jews, synagogues already scattered throughout Mediterranean. Christian message compelling;: all are equal to God; life not just about here and now Persecution, binds believers, martyrdom Adoption by Roman Empire as state religion, spread by hierarchical structure. Consolidation of Church unity and authority: Hierarchical structure and organization developed theology, defined faith and repressed heresies. Council of Rome sets Biblical canon of OT and NT books. Latin bible compiled end of divinely inspired texts and teachings declared.

Crusades and their legacy: Exclusive Christian right to Jerusalem proclaimed; justified by notion of just war; Crusaders battle cry: God wills it. Exacerbated East/West split, anti-Semitism, notion of Jewish and Muslim other.

Religion in Europe:

Roman Catholicism vs. Byzantine Orthodoxy: A culmination of prior tensions rooted in language, geography, disputes over jurisdiction. Doctrinal disagreements; over papal authority, icons, nature of trinity, celibacy of priests. Each branch excommunicates the other. End of religious unity in W Europe, Catholics oppressed in England; Protestants fled catholic France.

Rise of Islam: Arab Muslims cousins of the Jews, common lineage of Abraham. Main prophets of Islam: Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad each divinely inspired, but not God incarnate. five pillars of faith: declaration of faith in Allah, prayer, fasting, Zakah (charity) and Hajj.

Early heretical Christianities that didnt succeed: Ebonites: considered Jesus the Jewish Messiah but not divine. Marcionites: concluded there are different Gods, the wrathful Hebrew God and the God of love. Gospels of Judas and Thomas: their liberal message, you dont need authority, was a challenge to the new churchs authority.