The Axial age refers to a period of time from approximately 800-200 B.C.¹ in which unprecedented developments occurred in four separate centers of civilization: West Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and northeastern Mediterranean.

Just the mention of some of the individuals who lived during this period of time alerts us to the importance of the age: Zoroaster, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Buddha, Vardhamana Mahavira, Confucius, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. In different ways, these individuals responded to an array of new issues stirred up by increasing urbanization, political instability, the emergence of self-consciousness, and the impulse to understand the world and the human place in its as comprehensively as possible. These social and intellectual dynamics led to intense reflection on the nature and destiny of the individual, the fundamental question about morality, and the character of ultimate reality. As a consequence of their creative engagement with these issues, the sages of the Axial Age produced the intellectual and moral matrix out of which the world's religions were born: subsequent religious are in large measure the developments of the ideas and insights of the Axial Age.

1. The Axial Age, the period between 800 and 200 B.C., saw a remarkable burst of creativity almost simultaneously in separate areas of the Eurasian continent.

A. In East Asia, in the area we now call China, Confucius and his followers provided the religious, philosophical and political foundations for more than 2000 years of Chinese culture. At the same time, Daoist philosophers produced a compelling alternative to Confucianism.

B. In South Asia, a counter cultural movement of ascetics and mystics composed a collection of teachings called the Upanishads that gave nascent Hinduism its characteristic features. Near the same time and place, both Buddha and Mahavira attained new insights that inaugurated Buddhism and Jainism.

C. In West Asia, in Palestine, the prophets of Judah helped shape the emerging religion of Judaism [to be a little more factual, Judaism did not develop until very late after the 1st Temple was destroyed in 586-587 B.C.. Before this, it was the religion of the Jews and not Judaism] . Also in West Asia or in Iran, Zarathustra had recently established Zoroastrianism, [http://www.zoroastrianism.com] which served as the state religion of three powerful empires and contributed decisive new ideas that later are found in Judaism and Christianity.²

D. Finally, in the northern Mediterranean, in the land of ancient Greece, Thales, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle essentially invented Western philosophical tradition.

E. Just as fascinating as the density of genius in this era is the similarity of ideas and modes of thinking that these people developed. They are struggled with many of the same fundamental issues, such as the nature and destiny of the self, the basis and practices of morality and the highest goods of human life.

2. The 20^th century German philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) identified this extraordinary period as die Achsenzeit, or the Axial Age, signifying that his era was pivotal in human history.

   A. During the Axial Age as Jaspers observed, “The spiritual foundations of humanity were laid simultaneously and independently....And these are the foundations on which humanity still subsist today.

   B. What was happening at this particular time and in these particular places that might account for the prodigious output of critical ideas and the appearance of some of the greatest humans the world has ever known?

3. We can point to several social and political developments that contributed to the opening of the Axial Age.

   A. The Axial era occurred at a time and in places of increasing urbanization and mobility. This trend had significant effects on social structures and the human psyche. Urban life often disrupts ones sense of idenity and places traditional values and beliefs in doubt.

   B. Second, the Axial centers were generally characterized by political and legal upheaval.

   1.The Chinese Axial Age, for example overlapped a brutal epoch in Chinese history known as the period of Warring States. India, Judah, and Iran underwent similar periods of turmoil and transformation.

   2. Rapid political and social change, of course generates uncertainty and insecurity, but interestingly, such times are often the most creative and innovative for religious and philosophical thought.

   C. Sages in all the Axial centers became increasingly anxious about death and preoccupied with what, if anything is beyond death?

1. Pre-Axial humans of course were not unconcerned about death but their sense of identity was more firmly rooted in their participation in the family, clan, or tribe.³ Accordingly , death could be accepted knowing the family would survive one's personal demise.

2. By the Axial Age, attitudes toward death began to reflect a greater concern about the experience of dying and the afterlife. Increasingly, death was regarded with dread and speculation about what might lie beyond was filled with hope and with terror.

3. Reflected in this shift in attitudes about death is the rise of a sense of individuality and a greater consciousness of the human being as a moral agent, accountable for his/her own actions.

As humans began to think of themselves as separate autonomous individuals, death became a more dreaded reality. Self-hood promotes a feeling of isolation or, at least differentiation from the rest of the human community and the rest of reality, making it more difficult to accept dying as part of the natural process of living.

D. The growing sense of self hood and anxiety about life's transience also stimulated conjectures about the nature of the person and spurred the search to discover something within the human individual that might endure dissolution of the body. That is, something eternal and immortal.

1. As part of this quest, Axial sages developed a new way of thinking about the world and the place of humanity in it. S.N. Eisenstadt, one of the early scholars to study the sociological dimensions of the Axial Age, calls this way of looking at life transcendental consciousness, that is, the ability to stand back and see the world more comprehensively and critically.

2. Transcendental consciousness produced novel conceptions of the world's ultimate reality. In some cases, the Axial sages were not content to accept the old anthropomorphic gods and goddesses as the highest realities or powers governing the universe. They imagined sublime conceptions of ultimate reality, such as the Hindu Brahman and the Chinese Dao.

3. Thinking about the highest realities also lead these individuals to a greater interest in epistemology, that is how we know what we know and what limitations of our knowledge are. Attention to epistemology, accordingly promoted a greater sense of self consciousness and awareness of humanity's place in the universe.

E. Finally, the Axial Age marks a dramatic change in the very function of religion in human life. During this era, the purpose of religion shifted from what theologian John Hick calls cosmic maintenance to personal transformation.

1. By cosmic maintenance, we mean that religion functions chiefly as a ritual means for human beings to collaborate with the divine powers to assist in keeping the world in good working order. (Everyone was a modern day Al Gore)

2. During the Axial Age however, religion takes on an unprecedented new role in human life: providing the means for the individual to undergo change in order to achieve immortality or happiness.

3. Self hood and the heightened awareness of suffering and death prompted some religions to imagine the painful realities of this life. Reaching these goals might mean accepting the demands of a particular god with the power to bestow immortality or paradise.

F. Jaspers was certainly correct in his contention that his laid contemporary humanity's spiritual foundations. At the moment, in these lessons I will focus on Asia. If we live long enough we might move on the Greece later.

IV. From this point on, we will examine a number of religions and compare them to each other. This will cover about a 600 year time span.

Must reading: Jaspers. The Origin and Goal of History. part 1, chapters 1-4.

Also, Eisenstadt. The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations. The Introduction

Questions to consider?

1. Are there other historical periods that compare with the Axial Age?

2. The Axial Age seems to emerge in connection with human self consciousness. What might account for the rise in self consciousness?

Other suggested web sites.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org

http://www.avesta.org

http://www.confucianstudies.com

http://www. harappa.com

http://www.jinvani.com

http://vipassana.com

Other books:

Carrithers, Michael Buddha: A very Short Introduction

Adler, Joseph, Chinese Religious Traditions

Fronsdal, Gil, trans. Dhammapada: A New translation of the Buddhist Classic with Annotations.

Huyler, Stephen p. Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion

Ivanhoe, Philip J. and Bryan W. Van. Norden Reading in Classical Chinese Philosophy

Foltz, Richard C. Spirituality in the Land of the Noble: How Iran Shaped the World's Religions.

Miller, Barbara Stoler, trans. The bhagavad-Gita: Krishna's Counsel in Time of War.

Mascaro, Juan, trans.The Upanishads