[文学]西方文化概论2.ppt

The Bible and Christianity 1. The origin of the Bible: Among all the religions by which people seek to worship, Christianity is by far the most influential in the west. Every phase of man’s life is touched by this religion, so much so that it has become part and parcel of Western culture. Some 3800 years ago the ancestors of the Jews---- the Hebrews, wandered through the deserts of the Middle East. They were traveling merchants, moving from one trading post to the next. And that was how they came to be called “Hebrews”, which means “wanderers”. About 1300 B.C, the Hebrews settled in Palestine, known as Canaan at that time. Their history was handed down orally from one generation to another in the form of folk tales and stories, Genesis: It is a religious account of the origin of the Hebrew people, including the origin of the world and of man. Through all the ages, people of all lands have sought to understand the world in which they live, to understand themselves as human beings. Big questions all people have tried to answer are: how did the world begin? How did life come to be? And what is man? A. The Fall of Man: Before God began to create heaven and earth, the earth was darkness over the deep and Gods breath hovering over the waters, God said, Let there be light. and there was light” . Then God creates dry land and seas and plants and trees which grew fruit with seed; the sun, moon and stars in the firmament; air-breathing sea creatures and birds; and on the sixth day, the beasts of the earth according to their kinds. Then God said, Let us make man in our image .In the image of himself, God creates a man named Adam. with birds, animals and flowers. But then God finds Adam feel lonely and sullen. God thinks that Adam is lonely because theree is no woman with him. So he causes the man to sleep, and makes a woman from one of his ribs. Waking up, Adam finds a soft human body besides him and names his companion W