This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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History of Religions
History of the 3 Monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and of the main different Christianity confessions (Roman Catholicism, Eastern Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism and Protestantism)
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Pedagogical Approaches
New pedagogical approaches to teach history of religion
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Role of Religions in Civilization
How to didactically promote among students of different confessions, the capacity of a critical analysis and understanding of the role played by religions in the history of mankind
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Interreligious Students’ Competences
Set of teaching contents, to be used by teachers to highlight and valorize the universal values of tolerance and universalisms that all Monotheistic religions and religious texts contain to promote and sustain mutual understanding among students
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Managing Multi-Religious Classes
Teaching Sources to help teachers dealing with multicultural and multi-religious classes
Map
An interactive didactical map interactive didactical map giving access to sites with a religious relevance.-
Introduction
A comparative review of the liturgical celebrations, ceremonies and dietary rules existing in the different religions.
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Celebrations
Description and comparative analysis of the celebrations of different religions and confessions
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Ceremonies
Description and comparative analysis of the ceremonies of different religions and confessions
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Dietary Rules
Description and comparative analysis of the dietary rules of different religions and confessions
Events
The Pathway through Religions project has been promoted trough conferences and articles.
Conferences
The Pathway through Religions project was presented in a number of events in order to report about the activities carried out and the results achieved
Press Review
The Pathway through Religions project partnership made contacts with web sites focusing on the fields of educationPartnership
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Contractual Partners
From this section it is possible to access to a description of each contractual partner of the Pathway through Religions project.
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Schools
From this section it is possible to access to the information about the schools involved in the Pathway through Religions Project in the European countries involved.
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Associated Partners
As a result of the exploitation activity a number of associated partners officially joined the project in order to contribute to the improvement of the project impact on their target groups and to ensure the project sustainability by continuing using the project deliverables in the next years.
This section of the Pathway through Religions portal provides administrative information for the project contractual partners and for the European Commission and it is password protected.
History of Religions
Homepage > Teachers’ Guide > History of Religions
History of the 3 Monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and of the main different Christianity confessions (Roman Catholicism, Eastern Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism and Protestantism)
History and Philosophy of Religions
1. What is Ontology?
Ontology (from the Greek òn - òntos - Being and Logia, from logos-Thought/Speech) is the part of philosophy that studies the concept and structure of the being, without any other specification.
Greek philosophy discussed the being with Parmenide (VI-V century BC), refusing any idea of becoming or multiplicity. Plato is the first to distinguish a being in the full, absolute sense, and a being of different degree, intensity, value, perfection. Author of the so-called "Parmenide parricide", he conceives the being as immutable and at the same time multiple / becoming, because he considers it not only to be pure, but to be "something."
The question of being was explicitly formulated by Aristotle (384-383/322 BC): he assumes kinds of beings different from one another, claiming that Parmenide's fault is primarily to assert that being is simply “said”, while "being is said in many ways." In the first century BC Aristotle's achromatic writings were reordered (as notes for his lessons), and the rolls that made up the various books were placed after the books on Physics, in Greek "meta- physics." The circumstance turned into the idea that metaphysics took care of what transcends nature: Being, First Principle, Cause, Soul, God, life after death.
In the second century BC, King Ptolemy II commissioned 70 Jewish intellectuals who emigrated to Alexandria in Egypt to translate the Bible from Hebrew into Greek, thus fostering the encounter between Jewish tradition and Hellenic culture. God – in the Greek translation - says: "I am who am." The reference to the verb Being in the Greek culture becomes full of philosophical meaning, and the expression of the essence of God is interpreted as being itself.
With the coming and diffusion of the great monotheistic religions (see next paragraph), and even more thanks to the Christian medieval philosophy, the research of Being, from the search for a first principle beyond tangible and concrete reality, becomes "the science of being of the divine ", thus in close relationship with theology.
The question of the meaning of Being therefore means believing that reality is not limited to what is experienced through the senses, and it is confronted with the reality beyond appearance, within both the secular and the religious horizons.
Greek philosophy discussed the being with Parmenide (VI-V century BC), refusing any idea of becoming or multiplicity. Plato is the first to distinguish a being in the full, absolute sense, and a being of different degree, intensity, value, perfection. Author of the so-called "Parmenide parricide", he conceives the being as immutable and at the same time multiple / becoming, because he considers it not only to be pure, but to be "something."
The question of being was explicitly formulated by Aristotle (384-383/322 BC): he assumes kinds of beings different from one another, claiming that Parmenide's fault is primarily to assert that being is simply “said”, while "being is said in many ways." In the first century BC Aristotle's achromatic writings were reordered (as notes for his lessons), and the rolls that made up the various books were placed after the books on Physics, in Greek "meta- physics." The circumstance turned into the idea that metaphysics took care of what transcends nature: Being, First Principle, Cause, Soul, God, life after death.
In the second century BC, King Ptolemy II commissioned 70 Jewish intellectuals who emigrated to Alexandria in Egypt to translate the Bible from Hebrew into Greek, thus fostering the encounter between Jewish tradition and Hellenic culture. God – in the Greek translation - says: "I am who am." The reference to the verb Being in the Greek culture becomes full of philosophical meaning, and the expression of the essence of God is interpreted as being itself.
With the coming and diffusion of the great monotheistic religions (see next paragraph), and even more thanks to the Christian medieval philosophy, the research of Being, from the search for a first principle beyond tangible and concrete reality, becomes "the science of being of the divine ", thus in close relationship with theology.
The question of the meaning of Being therefore means believing that reality is not limited to what is experienced through the senses, and it is confronted with the reality beyond appearance, within both the secular and the religious horizons.
Online Resources
- Definition of OntologyThe meaning of the term Ontology in the Oxford dictionary
- Concept of OntologyAn excursus on the various meanings of ontology from the definitions of different philosophers in different periods
- Parmenides and the Question of Being in Greek ThoughtPage dedicated to an analysis of the first section of Parmenides' Poem, the Way of Truth, with a selection of critical judgments by the most important commentators and critics
- What is Parmenides' BeingPage dedicated to an explanation of a philosophical enigma by Abino Nolletti
- The Nature of Forms: Self-Predication in PlatoOntology problem in Plato's Middle Period Metaphysics and Epistemology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Plato: The Republic, Allegory of the CaveSynopsis of the Republic, Book X, where Plato speaks about the Allegory of the Cave (The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - IEP)
- Aristotle, MetaphysicsSummary and explanation of the Metaphysics of Aristotle (The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - IEP)
- Aristotle, The Role of SubstanceExplanation of the Role of Substance in the Study of Being Qua Being from Aristotle’s Metaphysics (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
- Aristotle, MetaphysicsEnglish version of: Metaphysics By Aristotle (written 350 B.C.E) translated by W. D. Ross
- Aristotle and the Science of Being qua Being.Ancient and Modern Interpretations about the Science of Being qua Being of Aristotle
- Medieval philosophySome Main Topics in Medieval Philosophy Copyright © 2016 by Paul Vincent Spade (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Practical Activity
- To be, or not to be?The activity tries to explain to students a difficult concept such as ontology in a way which may be easier for them.
