Major Religions in Western Europe

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how religion has influenced Western Europe society: culturally, politically and economically. The author focuses on the Greek and Roman religions and their impact on other religions such as Christianity.

From the Paper:

"One may begin a description of the ways in which religion has influenced the West by looking at the role of religion in Greece and Rome, since these two great empires were undoubtedly highly influential in terms of molding at some level every important aspect of Western European society. Of course, Roman and Greek religions did not arise from the thin air; they are based on older traditions and remained (especially in the case of Rome) syncretistic religions throughout the course of their respective empires. Greek and Roman settlements allowed for the incorporation of local beliefs into the state religion in a way that helped to ensure that those peoples who had been subjugated by the colonial powers would be less inclined to object to their loss of political autonomy. The fact that Greek or Roman rulers would allow local gods and semi-divine figures to be incorporated into the pantheon of the major gods did not negate the fact that various peoples were being subjugated but it must have made their continuing (if forced) inclusion in the empire easier to bring about (Sissa 119)."

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