Week 12 – Christianity compared to Greek mythology

Week 12 –

How would you compare the teachings of Christianity, as described in the New Testament passages we read for this week, to the values cherished by earlier civilizations we have discussed (particularly the Greeks, and the values expressed in Homer’s works)?

Conversely, can you see anything in common between Christianity and some of the great ancient thinkers we have discussed?

First of all I’d like to state the obvious difference and that is that Christianity is a monotheistic religion with only one true God and Greek mythology is a polytheistic religion with many gods, where each god takes care of a certain thing in life. (e.g. Athena – the goddess of war).

Christians focus on how they can help other people, while Greeks focus on how to help themselves. Greeks also focus on life they are currently living, but Christians focus on being good in this life so they can have a good afterlife.

Greeks don’t have only gods, they also have demigods. (e.g. Hercules – son of Zeus and a woman named Alcmene).

Both religions have speakers for their God/gods. In Christianity we have priests, nuns and pastors and Greeks have prophets or storytellers. Both religions believe that their God/gods is above humans and that they listen when people seek for help, which is why people pray.

They both seek explanation of mysterious life events in their religion. Both wanted the answer to why there’s evil in this world or how the world was created.

Overall, there are many differences, but there are also some similarities.

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