The Axial Ages and the Transformation of Religion, an Essay fanfic

This essay is based on the essay question "Discuss the reasons that Armstrong gives from the triumph of ‘logos’ over ‘mythos’ during ‘The Great Western Transformation’" and details the reasons humanity made an abrupt change from the "mythical thinking" of nature and indigenous religions and turned towards more transcendental religions (Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and the philosophy of Ancient Greece). It also goes on to discuss the idea proposed by scholar and theologian Karen Armstrong that there is a second Axial Age (change in forms of religion) underway at the moment...that religion is being reinvented for the 21st century.

I have taken out all the footnotes and bibliography as the format on fictionpress thoroughly messes it up. However, this essay originally had 40 footnotes, just in case you think I'm making things up :)

Between approximately 800 B.C.E. and 200 B.C.E., the face of religion changed dramatically. Society began discarding the old mythical religions and turning to more philosophical or spiritual explanations of the divine and the nature of humanity. Karl Jaspers coined the term ‘Axial Age’ to describe this period, and noted theologian Karen Armstrong has expanded significantly on Jaspers’ original research. Armstrong succinctly describes the factors behind this process, from the impact of urbanisation and unstable political environments to the violent characteristics of the era. Armstrong has also furthered Jaspers’ theories by proposing the idea of a Second Axial Age in modern times, most notably characterised by the work of Friederich Nietzsche.

Before the Axial Age, society was largely based around mythical concepts. Local gods were seen as pivotal in the functioning of the world, and natural phenomena were attributed to the actions of deities. Hunter societies also had a large body of myth surrounding the practice of killing animals, in some cases to absolve the guilt of killing. Most religions were polytheistic, the followers believed in a collective (or pantheon) of gods. Often, the gods were seen as having human characteristics and anthropomorphic forms, they were thought to have loved and warred amongst themselves, as well as somewhat governing the affairs of humans.

However, in the time of the Axial Age in China, India, Greece and amongst the tribe of the Hebrews, new concepts began to be explored in relation to religion. In China, thinkers like Confucius, Lao-Tse and Mo Tzu began to ponder ethical and metaphysical implications pertaining to human existence. These thinkers’ concepts led to the formation of Confucianism, and Daoism and Jainism respectively. In India, philosophical and religious teachings began to dramatically change, ranging in type from scepticism, materialism, sophism and nihilism. This paved the way for later teachers like Gautama Buddha and Mahavira. In Greece the pre-Socratic philosophers emerged, pondering the nature of the universe and mankind with an emphasis on rationality and beginning a concerted trend away from mythical thinking and religion. In the Hebrew tribes, prophets like Elijah, Isiah and Jeremiah preached a transcendental, monotheistic God that was completely different from the gods of the neighbouring tribes. Karen Armstrong describes this shift as a turn from the world of mythos or mythical thinking that was concerned with the foundations of life and nature, to logos, critical analysis based on rationality and pragmatism that explained the function of people in the world. In most areas, the concepts that were explored did not implicitly deny the existence of their gods; however these cultures actively sought to reinterpret their old ways of perceiving their gods, reinventing them into something that was far more understandable rationally. Myths in many instances were retained also, but not with the same weight and authority that they had previously been regarded.

These changes were enabled by several critical factors, and they happened gradually. Urbanisation was one major change that had a profound effect on the perception of myth. With large populations increasingly coming to live in urbanised cities, the separation from nature was more apparent. Deities that were once considered essential in governing areas of land surrounding villages were now made redundant by the move towards urbanisation. Many pantheistic deities were originally (or still were) nature gods and goddesses, and with the growth of cities, many faded from daily practice. The myths that surrounded many of these deities were often deemed irrelevant stories and largely ignored, as they did not address the spiritual and ethical needs of an urbanised population.

One of the fundamental factors that made such urbanisation possible was the shift from a subsistence agrarian lifestyle to a surplus-producing society that relied increasingly on trade. With the advent of profit and wealth, a growing gap between rich and poor appeared; a concept which was largely unfamiliar to a subsistence culture. With this, inequality and exploitation become more apparent, and life was perceived as more unjust. These issues were not dealt with by the traditional forms of religion, which addressed natural phenomena and that nature of the gods rather than that of man. The inability of mythical thinking to explain the exploitation of the disenfranchised and disadvantaged reinforced the relegation of myth and mythic thinking as irrelevant.

Furthermore, there was a shift of power: the king and the priest were no longer perceived as being as powerful as they had in the past. The influence of the priesthoods and royalty was waning, and the power was being shifted to the commercial sector, a logical progression for societies whose large, urban centres were increasingly reliant on trade and commerce. However, the result of this was decreasing support of the concept of theocracy: that a society should be ruled by god-appointed rulers, who perpetuated religion. The story of the Rape of Lucretia, a Roman legend of how the Latins rid themselves of their king based on the inappropriate actions of the heir to the throne demonstrate the ethos that was permeating these societies. Not only were the Latins proud of their actions in deposing their line of kings, but there was an increasing awareness that the actions of men would effect later generations. The Romans showed this by deposing their royalty before the errant prince even had a chance to become king, and then strove to set up a republic to preserve the liberties of their people against tyrants. Change was in the air during the period we have retrospectively named the Axial Age, and men were less afraid to step beyond the established traditions of society and attempt to create new modes of living. This sociological and ideological trend eventually led to the reformation of religion as well.

Another key factor in the transformation of these societies was that of violence. Like modern times, the period of the Axial Age was filled with uncertainty. Scientific and technological advances such as the discovery of iron led to weapons that were much more effective in warfare. The political and commercial conditions were not always stable; society was fearful and pervaded with the notion that “something was awry”. Myth itself was also inherently violent; rituals and practices condoned a violence that many were beginning to shy away from. Confucius lamented the aggressiveness of the ancient Chinese civilisation and then attempted to recreate their belief system to bring out the kindness and charity within it, so that instead of being used to condone violence, his worldview of Confucianism could be instantly identified as a system that promoted peace and unity. Men like Confucius were appearing in all these societies, living in times fearful of what the next day would bring, philosophers and religious minds began to reject their violence-condoning mythic thinking and seek new ways to usher in an era of peace.

Transcendentalism was an important component of Axial Age thinking. As mentioned previously, religious forms were not rejected as totally as they are today. There was a pervading sense of searching for the truth, and reinventing mythical thinking into logos which was rational and beneficial. Transcendentalism was one of the major forms that this new version of logos took. There was a definitive shift from the concept of gods as being like humans to the gods (or often, monotheistic God) being beings that were entirely unlike humanity and surpassed it in every way. The focus then became on becoming like these gods (or God) and achieving transcendence and ultimate understanding. Around 33 C.E. the Hebrew God YHWH, who emerged during the Axial Age, was adopted by the followers of Jesus the Nazarene, who later became Christians. Christianity was a movement that swept throughout the Roman Empire, from East to West, and became one of the most powerful religions for the next two thousand years. China established its governments based on the principles of Confucianism under the Han Dynasty (c.209B.C.E.-25C.E.), in India the Buddha emerged teaching an internal transcendence that was entirely self reliant, and in Greece philosophers like Plato, Socrates and Aristotle emerged and began expanding on the works of the pre-Socratic philosophers. The works of these Greek philosophers were also retrospectively fitted into the teachings of Christianity during the Middle Ages. Over time, the new and revolutionary concepts of thinking that were pioneered in the Axial Age became institutionalised and entrenched, and began creating their own body of myths to support the dogma and ritual that had been inserted into the original thinking based on logos. What began as the triumph of rationality, over two thousand years, became hackneyed and irrational. Society reverted to mythos.

And so, a Second Axial Age occurred. Philosophers of the twentieth century in the Western world began to start thinking along the lines of logos once more, seeing how ingrained the world religions had become. Friederich Nietzsche bravely proclaimed that “God is dead” and proposed moving past religion into a state of secular perfection. Nietzsche’s bold proclamation received a mixed reception; however society took note of his particularly inflammatory declaration. Society began to move towards a more secular future, prompting scholars like Peter Berger to declare that by the dawn of the twenty-first century, religion would be obsolete. Berger’s assumptions were obviously a little premature; however cultures like those of the European nations, the United States of America, Australia and New Zealand began to embrace the concept of the separation of Church and State. The number of adherents in religion began to dwindle, and in the Enlightenment philosophers and theologians began to once more reinvent the concept of the divine to conform to the ethic of logos.

In many ways, the re-emergence of logos once more in the Second Axial Age has had many of the same factors as what happened over two thousand years ago in the First Axial Age. Throughout the Middle Ages much of Western society reverted to agrarian communities, and as a result of the feudal system much of society was marginalised to a subsistence existence. With the Industrial Age, once more cities swelled, and technology progressed exponentially and eventually created the most devastating weapons the world has ever seen, promoting once more a fear of impending doom. The societies of the West have become incredibly wealthy, and education is free, although once more, some sectors of society are marginalised. With the advent of the Internet, information is accessible to anyone, and ideas and concepts are being shared across the world on an unprecedented scale.

In such a world, the concepts of religion that have been held are no longer working. Armstrong states in an interview that religion should make a difference, and if it no longer has an impact on society it needs to be re-examined and re-interpreted for the times. In the Enlightenment such attempts was seen, with concepts like Deism arising. Deism proposed that God was separate from the world, having created it and set it in motion. The analogy compares God to a watchmaker that has stood back and watched his creation tick over. However, many of these new forms of Western religion quailed in the face of a powerful Church and failed to reform any of the institutionalised versions of Christianity.

Armstrong has examined facets of the new battle between mythos and logos in detail in her book Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Increasingly, the reaction of the religious in the face of secular doubt is to turn inward looking and deny the validity of logos. The faithful are encouraged to ignore any contradictions logos brings to the tenets of their religion, and value the mythos of their religion as paramount. This interesting phenomenon has manifested itself all over the world and fundamentalism is becoming a powerful political and religious force. Armstrong proposes that this denial of the logos of modernity is in fact a reaction against modernity itself, and attempt to make the world sacred once more after such a rapid de-mythologizing in the wake of Nietzsche’s death of God and the Second Axial Age. Fundamentalists’ chief rivals are the proponents of secular modernity, whom they see as in opposition to true religion and grossly misled by the technological, industrial and philosophical progress humanity has made. While the outcome of the conflict between fundamentalism and secular modernity is uncertain, it is worth noting that in this Second Axial Age logos has not completely triumphed, indeed, it is mythos that has re-invented itself in opposition to modernity. The outcome is not yet certain as to whether logos or mythos will triumph.

The first Axial Age has had a profound effect on global society. The reinvention of the philosophical and religious worldview from the mythic tradition of thinking to the rational has had dramatic ramifications for the cultures involved. The combined factors of urbanisation, commerce and violence resulted in a reinterpretation of society’s perception of itself and the world. With the Enlightenment and philosophers like Nietzsche, the mindsets of mythos and logos are once again being analysed in an attempt to better fit our concepts of God, humanity and the universe to religion and philosophy; prompting a Second Axial Age.