Islam 1

Video Viewing Guide: Download now.

IASAS Friday, QUIZ Tuesday

Quiz Tuesday on Judaism, Christianity, questions and terms on Wednesday's post.

HW:
All: Read this Powerpoint giving background on Islam.
A4: I'll make a short podcast covering what we didn't finish in class Wednesday--questions 5-8--when I'm feeling better. So check back here by Saturday 7p for that.


Enjoy IASAS. Me, I'm going to crawl somewhere and die.

Judaism and Christianity pt. 2

Interesting Current Events:

Limony Snicket:

Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.

Republican Presidential Candidate Front-Runner Mitt Romney in his Financial Investment Company days. 

Blind Spots: Watch this video as a critical thinker. What's missing?



Cultural Diffusion: How many influences will we probably find in Judeo-Christian (and Islamic) beliefs?



10 min. prep for Discussion: Chart sources of conflict,  similarities and differences, between Judaism and Christianity. Include:

• Jewish and Christian scriptures (Hebrew Bible, "New Testament," Gospels)
• Who the "Chosen People" are to Jews? To Christians?
• Beliefs in afterlife: is there one? Who goes to Heaven? Who goes to Hell? Why?
• Different values re: Law, Good Works, Faith.
• Interpretation of Hebrew prophets (esp. Isaiah) to Jews, to Christians.
• Interpretation of "Messiah" to Jews, to Christians.

Terms you should know:
Judaism:
Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac
Monotheism

Covenant
Promised Land (Canaan and Palestine)
Hebrew Bible

Christian Bible: "Old Testament" and "New Testament"

Moses' Law 
Ethical Monotheism

Torah
Babylonian Captivity/Destruction of First Temple (586 BCE)
Writing of "Genesis" (500 BCE-100 CE) 

Prophets (especially Isaiah)
Persian Liberation/Second Temple Period
Here's your textbook chapters on Judaism and Christianity in a smaller file. Skim pp. 168-72 and find answers to these questions.

1. Is there much evidence of Jesus' life from non-Christian sources in the Roman Empire?

2.You know the Babylonians destroyed Israel's first temple, and that they rebuilt it under the Persians. When was the next catastrophe for the Second Temple?

3. Jesus died around 29 CE. How long did it take for Christianity to grow from a small cult in an unimportant corner of the Empire into a major religious movement? How can you explain its late growth?

4. How did Roman Religion die? Because everybody chose Christianity and just dumped Jupiter and Juno and all the other pagan gods? Or is there a political reason?

5. What institution grew in Christianity as it spread throughout the empire? How was it organized?

6. What is "orthodoxy" and "heresy"? Who defined these?

7. What did Augustine contribute to Christian dogma in the late 4th century? What effects would these have on people in Europe from this time on?

8. How did Christianity triumph in the Roman Empire? When?

Monotheisms: Judaism and Christianity (UPDATED)

Update Tue. 3.45p: 
I was brain-dead after school yesterday from the sleepless night before grading your DBQs all night. Plus some of my annotations didn't save to the Diigo server. So: the point of these readings are to get some answers to the basic questions we rose yesterday:

1. What are some of the causes of the conflicts between Jews and Christians, Jews and Muslims, Christians and Muslims? You won't get much on the Islam part yet, but there's a lot in tonights readings that sheds light on the disagreements between Jews and Christians. (Remember Ishmael, though. That's one element of the Muslim-Jewish tension, among many, many more.)
2. What are the main similarities and differences of these three monotheisms?
3. Source, contextualize, corraborate, close read: how might historians "read" all of these texts? (This one requires a strong imagination and agile mind. It's also one of the most interesting questions in the world. Socrates would have loved it.)

Highlight and annotate at least 2 or 3 points on each reading--even if you don't see annotations from me. Feel free to comment on others' annotations if you see them: extend, qualify, challenge.

----------------------------

Check your SAS gmail for an invitation to Diigo. You can highlight and leave sticky-notes on websites with it.

Add the Diigo toolbar to your browser so you can highlight easily.


Diigo V5: Collect and Highlight, Then Remember! from diigobuzz on Vimeo.

In class today we covered most of the Judaism readings. There are a few more for you to read (they're short). Be sure you're signed into Diigo before reading them. I've left question in sticky-notes for you to answer. Answer them by highlighting the passages on each page that you think give the answers or deserve mention, and leave brief sticky-notes explaining why you highlighted them. (That's probably 2 or 3 highlights per reading:

• Passover
• The Shema
• Four proverbs
• Psalms 19, 137
• Song of the Suffering Servant: Isaiah 42:1-9 

Next, go through the same highlighting/annotating about the following primary sources from the Christian scripture (the "New Testament"):

• Early Christianity
• The Christian Scriptures
  • Background from the Jewish Bible
  • The Baptism of Jesus
  • A Miracle based on faith (Mark 5: 25-34)
  • On Forgiveness, Sermon on the Mount
  • The Beatitudes
  • The Golden Rule
  • Salvation and Damnation linked to Deeds (Matthew 7: 13-23)
  • The Ascetic ideal
  • The Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus
  • The Last Supper

Monday Seminar Prep

Concepts from Class:

• 9-11: Saudi and Pakistani allies v. Iran
• Arab Spring: Tunis, Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya
• Cold War: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
• CIA support of Osama Bin Laden's mujahideen ("holy warriors," Muslim "crusaders") against Soviets
• 1979 Iranian Revolution
• 1953 CIA-MI6 Coup d'Etat in Iran for British Petroleum
• Guns v. Butter
• Occupy Wall Street

 

Rotating Weekly 3-Minute Speech:

Start a Google Reader account.

1.     Sign into your SAS gmail

2.     Go to http://reader.google.com

3.     Subscribe to 

• http://fulltextrssfeed.com/feeds.washingtonpost.com/rss/opinions/right-leaning
• http://fulltextrssfeed.com/feeds.washingtonpost.com/rss/opinions/left-leaning

4.     You will be scheduled to give a 3-minute presentation on the current event of your choice. It must follow these conditions:

a.     You can make a connection to the ancient empires, politics, religion, and/or economics of anything we've discussed so far this year

b.     You prepare an outline and present it to me two days before your speech

c.      You create a Slide Presentation using conscious design values (present it to me when you present your outline)

For Thursday's Seminar:

Remember, you have to bring in hand-written notes with sources and main ideas.
Use at least 3 of the articles listed here.
Make connections between those articles--all about the USA today--and the ancient Roman Republic and Empire.



Seminar Questions: 

1. Are there any strong parallels between modern America and the Decline of the Roman Republic after the Punic Wars?

• Required by Thursday: Read World History: Patterns of Interaction, pp. 155-62 on the Roman Republic's Rise and Fall. (I'll have a podcast ready on this subject soon, but this is a decent overview.) Focus on:
• Social issues after the Punic Wars
• Economic issues after the Punic Wars
• Political breakdown after the Punic Wars (especially the Gracchus brothers)

• Required by Thursday: For a current events controversy about the wealth gap in the United States, read this New York Times article by billionaire Warren Buffett (remember, take notes as you read), and then watch Jon Stewart discuss it (and notice he features opposing points of view in the video, though he's obviously biased against them):

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

2. Using the Roman Empire as our model, in what ways is the United States today an empire?

• pp. 162-5 for the Roman Empire background. Read weblinks (coming soon) on USA.

3. Are there any strong parallels between contemporary America and the Roman Empire during its decline?

• textbook pp. 173-77 for background on Rome. Read weblinks (coming soon) on USA.

4. In what ways can it be argued that 9-11 was or was not the result of "imperial" US foreign policy?

• For starters, watch the first ten minutes (required) of this video on the background of US policy over the last 50 years in the Middle East:

Thu, 10-6: Roman--and American--Republics

In Class: The Flaws of Republican Government, Past and Present


Practice Seminar: 

• What were the main causes of the failure of Republican democracy in ancient Rome?
• List them by category > specific examples
• Are there parallels to the USA today?
• Case study: Warren Buffett's "Buffett Rule"
  

Roman Republic Podcast is done.  You don't have to watch it now, but remember it when it comes test-review time. It includes many connections between past and present, and occasional analysis and insight that our boring textbook tragically lacks.

I did my best to squeeze the entire 500 years of the Republic into about 30 minutes. Download it here. Again: if you use iTunes to watch it, you can jump around to the chapters that you want to review quickly and easily. (Subscribe to the podcast channel in iTunes by going here.)

Here's the YouTube version. It has no chapter navigation, so iTunes is really a smarter choice.

Tue, Oct. 4: DBQ in Class, Roman Republic and Empire HW

In Class: 
DBQ.

After you finish/HW: Prep for Next Week's Socratic Seminar

Next week (date to be announced), we're having a seminar on the questions below. Start preparing now.

The most important instructions:

1. Start preparing now. You have a lot of research and note-taking to do between now and next week. You won't be able to do it all the night before.
2. As you gather evidence, record your sources. In the seminar, you have to back up your evidence with where you got it. 
1. "How do I do that?"
• Take notes, and after each note, write where it came from (Book or Website name, Article title):
3. Organize your evidence under the questions below.

Seminar Questions: 

1. Are there any strong parallels between modern America and the Decline of the Roman Republic after the Punic Wars?

• Required by Thursday: Read World History: Patterns of Interaction, pp. 155-62 on the Roman Republic's Rise and Fall. (I'll have a podcast ready on this subject soon, but this is a decent overview.) Focus on:
• Social issues after the Punic Wars
• Economic issues after the Punic Wars
• Political breakdown after the Punic Wars (especially the Gracchus brothers)

• Not required, but good TV for better understanding: For a really good dramatization of Rome at the time of the assassination of Tiberius Gracchus, watch the series starting below. (The rest of the series is on a "Rome" playlist on my World History Youtube Channel.)

• Required by Thursday: For a current events controversy about the wealth gap in the United States, read this New York Times article by billionaire Warren Buffett (remember, take notes as you read), and then watch Jon Stewart discuss it (and notice he features opposing points of view in the video, though he's obviously biased against them):

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

2. Using the Roman Empire as our model, in what ways is the United States today an empire?

• Required for Mon., Oct 10 : Read pp. 162-5 for the Roman Empire background. Read weblinks (coming soon) on USA.

3. Are there any strong parallels between contemporary America and the Roman Empire during its decline?

• Required for Mon., Oct 10: Read textbook pp. 173-77 for background on Rome. Read weblinks (coming soon) on USA.

4. In what ways can it be argued that 9-11 was or was not the result of "imperial" US foreign policy?

• Required for Mon., Oct 10: For starters, watch the first ten minutes (required) of this video on the background of US policy over the last 50 years in the Middle East: