The Formation of an Abrahamic Religion within the Framework of West European Culture

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• published: 27 May 2013
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Lecture: "Hellenization, Romanization, Humanization: The Formation of an Abrahamic Religion within the Framework of West European Culture" The topic of this lecture is the formation of an Abrahamic religion -- the Christianismós -- in its historical context, that is, in the Western - the Latin - part of the Roman Empire and its legacy.The forces which shaped this Jewish reform movement to become the Roman Catholic Church and, later, the Reformed (Protestant) Churches are, boldly, labelled Hellenization, Romanization, and, for modern times, Humanization. The specific way, in which Western culture received, modified, used the ancient heritage implies the conservation, or further development of, non-religious segments of cultural and public life (the arts, law, ethics, the sciences, history, the educational system, human rights, and freedom of religion).These segments contributed to as well as conditioned the formation of the so-called 'Abrahamic religion'.This lecture attempts to display just how much this complex historical process is the central theme of comparative religious history of the Mediterranean and European Christianity. Being concepts created by theology, this process simply cannot be described - or explained - as of 'Abrahamic origin' or just another 'Urgeschichte' (foundation myth, archaiología). Professor Hubert Cancik was born in 1937 in Berlin. Throughout his career, he taught at Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen until his retirement in 2003. He lectured at both the Catholic Theology faculty as well as the faculty of Cultural Sciences, covering such topics as Introduction to Old Testament Studies, The Classics, The History of Ancient Religions, and the History of Reception and Scholarship.