Understanding the foundations of Western civilization is of greater significance to us today. Like the long-standing Chinese civilization, Western civilization has developed to this day with deep cultural roots and historical origins. Generally speaking, the modern Western civilization as a result of history has three important foundations. Only by understanding these three foundations can we understand the essence of Western civilization.
GreekCultural form
The various cultural forms pioneered by the Greeks, such as mythology, historical facts, sculpture, tragedy, philosophy, and the Olympia Games, all have beautiful characteristics, reached a very high level of aesthetics and wisdom, and set an eternal model for later generations of Western civilization.
Although these achievements in cultural forms cannot directly promote economic development and the strength of the country, they can cultivate sentiment and improve the aesthetic level, thus greatly sublimating the spiritual realm. This fully demonstrated the free personality and romantic ideals of the Western society in later generations, and radiated the shining light of enlightenment.
The institutional form of Rome
The various pragmatic institutional forms pioneered by the Romans, including political systems, legal norms, public administration, engineering technology, etc., all have practical significance for the world and can greatly promote the strength of the country and the prosperity of the economy. These institutional forms have been passed down through history and have become an important foundation for the establishment of modern Western civilization.
To this day, important political settings in modern Western countries, such as bicameral systems, separation of powers, and checks and balances, all originated from the Roman republican systemThe legal norms pursued by the countries of continental Europe are mainly derived from Roman law;The military service system, tax policy, and financial management system of modern Western countries were also heavily influenced by the Romans. It can be seen that the Roman civilization had a super-powerful real-world influence.
Teach beliefs and values
* Religion not only provided Westerners with religious beliefs, but also brought a set of corresponding value systems, the most important of which were the spirit of contract, the sense of integrity, the concept of freedom, the belief in the kingdom of heaven, the monogamous family ethic, and the checks and balances of power between the church and the king. These values have had a profound impact on the spiritual concepts and practical life of Westerners.
In addition, the ** religious civilization also absorbed a lot of cultural genes from Greek civilization and Roman civilization, and brought the fragmented Western European society and the Eastern European society that maintained unity into a new state of civilization in history. To this day, Western civilization is still known as the **religious civilization,**religious belief is still the basic belief and foundation of Western people.
The cultural form of Greece, the institutional form of Rome, and the beliefs and values of the ** religion together constitute the three indispensable foundations of modern Western civilization. There is a very complex historical relationship between these three, involving many historical backgrounds and cultural genes, which can never be explained clearly in a few words.
Civilization is like an organism, not a machine made up of parts. Whether it is Greek civilization, Roman civilization, or religious civilization, they have all experienced a process of taking root, blossoming and bearing fruit and grafting each other, and have experienced the development and evolution of "birth, old age, sickness and death".
Therefore, in order to truly understand the three foundations of Western civilization, we must be inseparable from systematic knowledge. For this reason, I especially recommend three good books that systematically explain Greek civilization, Roman civilization and religious beliefs"The Light of Ancient Greek Civilization", "The Splendor of the Ancient Roman Empire", "*Religion and Western Culture".
The Light of Ancient Greek Civilization": This book takes the birth, rise, and decline of Greece as the main line, takes population migration, geography, civilization, and war as clues, and lifts the fog of ancient Greece layer by layer from Greek mythology, city-state system, religious philosophy, tragicomedy and other dimensions, and shines a panoramic view of the development of civilization in the past 2000 years.
The Splendor of the Ancient Roman Empire: This book systematically tells the origin and development of Roman civilization, the internal and external reasons from the monarchy and the republic to the imperial system, and recreates the historical scene. This paper introduces the evolution of the Roman imperial dynasties and the decline and fall of empires, and expounds the cultural forms of Rome such as religion, law, architecture, art, and literature in different categories. "The Splendor of the Ancient Roman Empire" not only shows the magnificent development process of the Roman Empire and the heroic deeds that inspire the hearts of the people, reveals the historical lessons of the super-empire's languishing and sinking in the midst of internal and external difficulties, but also devotes itself to discovering the vivid humanity and noble virtues from historical facts. In addition to the text, the book also presents a large number of images in order to lead the reader to experience the grandeur and history of the ancient Roman Empire as if it were in the real world. Everyone can follow this book to reminisce about the ancient Roman Empire, stirring up in our hearts the noble virtues and grand ideals that have not been evoked in us for a long time.
Teaching and Western Culture: This course systematically introduces the basic situation of the development and evolution of teaching and its profound impact on Western culture. In fact, since the spread of religion in the Greco-Roman world in the 1st century AD, and especially since the 4th century CE when religion gained legitimacy in the Roman Empire, religion has been inextricably linked to Western culture. **Religion has been the only religious belief practiced by Westerners for more than a thousand years, and although it has also experienced the impact of the Enlightenment in modern Western society, it has successfully fought the battle. It is the most convenient and effective way to explain the development of Western culture after the Roman Empire from the perspective of teaching. The purpose of this book is to organically connect the complex and all-encompassing Western culture and systematically present it in front of Chinese college students and all Chinese who want to understand Western culture.
These three books were written by Zhao Lin, a professor at the School of Philosophy of Wuhan University and an academic member of the Hong Kong Institute of Chinese Language and Culture. These three books not only systematically explain the three foundations of Western civilization, but also have a sense of China-related issues, and the text is clear and easy to understand, which is suitable for all readers who care about China's transformation and want to understand the essence of Western civilization. We are also fortunate to have itMr. Zhao Lin's autographed book, the number is limitedClick on the product card below to collect it with one click.