【正文】 and elsewhere. Rediscovery of Greek culture played a vital part in the Renaissance in Italy and other European countries. Spirit of innovation 創(chuàng)新精神 The Greek people invented mathematics and science and philosophy。 They first wrote history as opposed to mere annals。 They speculated freely about the nature of the world and the ends of life, without being bound in the fetters of any inherited orthodoxy. Supreme Achievement至高無上的成就 The Greeks achieved supreme achievements in nearly all fields of human endeavour: Philosophy, science, epic poetry, edy, historical writing, architecture, etc. Lasting effect 持續(xù)的影響 ① Countless writers have quoted, borrowed from and otherwise used Homer’s epics, the tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles and Euripides, Aristophanes’s edies, Plato’s Dialogues,ect. ② In the early part of the 19th century, in England alone, three young Romantic poets expressed their admiration of Greek culture in works which have themselves bee classics 經典之作 : Byron’s Isles of Greece, Shelley’s Hellas and Prometheus Unbound and Keats’s Ode on a Grecian Urn. ③ In the 20th century, there are Homeric parallels in the Irishman James Joyce’s modernist masterpiece Ulysses. Division Two： The Bible and Christianity Christianity is by far the most influential in the West. JudeoChristian tradition constitutes one of the two major ponents of European culture: Judais m and Christianity. The Jewish tradition, which gave birth to Christianity. (猶太教是基督教的前身 ) Both originated in Palestine, which was known as Canaan. The ancestors of the Jews — the Hebrews. The Hebrews history was recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible. The Bible was divided into two sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is about God and the Laws of God. The New Testament is about the doctrine of Jesus Christ. The word “Testament” means “agreement”, the agreement between God and Man. The Old Testament consists of 39 books, the oldest and most important of which are the first five books, called 1 The Fall of Man was recorded in Genesis, Pentateuch, the Old Testament, The Bible. 1 Noah’s Ark was recorded in Genesis, Pentateuch, the Old Testament, The Bible. 1 The content of historical Books: . 586 . Dealing with history of the Hebrew people from their entry into Palestine around 1200 ., till the fall of Palestine into hands of Assyrians and Chaldeans in 586 . 1 The History Books ① The development of system of landed nobles. ② The development of monarchy. 君主專制 ③ Establishment of the two Kingdoms. 兩大王國的初步形成 ④ The settlement in the highlands ⑤ Age of great prosperity under Saul, David and Solomon. 1 Towards the end of the fourth century four accounts were accepted as part of the New Testament, which tells the beginning of Christianity. 1 The Birth of Jesus was recorded in Matthew (馬 修 福音書 ) 1 The first English version of whole Bible was translated from the Latin Vulgate in 1382 and was copied out by hand by the early group of reformers led by John Wycliff. What difference between Christianity and the other religions? Christianity based itself on two forceful beliefs which separate it from all other religions. One is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that God sent him to earth to live as humans live, suffer as humans suffer, and die to redeem mankind. The other is that God gave his only begotten son, so that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (加爾文主義也有這樣的觀點 ) What is the great significance of the translations of the bible? It is generally accepted that the English Bible and Shakespeare are two great reservoirs of Modern English. Miltion’s Paradise Lost , Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Byron’s Cain, up to the contemporary Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, and Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Division Three： The Middle Ages the Middle ages In European history, the thousandyear period following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century is called the Middle Ages. The middle ages is so called because it was the transitional period(過渡時期 ) between ancient times and modern times. To be specific, from the 5th century to 15th century. In 476 . a Germanic (日耳曼 ) general killed the last Roman emperor and took control of the government. 西羅馬 476 滅，東羅馬 1653 年滅 Feudalis m in Europe was mainly a system of land holding (土地所有 ) — a system of holding land in exchange for military service (軍事力量 ). The word “feudalism” was derived from the Latin “feudum”, a grant of land. The Catholic Church made Latin the official language and helped to preserve and pass on the heritage (傳統(tǒng) ) of the Roman Empire. The word “catholic” meant “universal”.(廣泛的，無處不在的 ) St. Jerome, who translated into Latin both Old and New Testament from the Hebrew and Greek originals. Vulgate (拉丁語圣經 ) Augustine —→ “Confession” and “The City of God” The most important of all courses was Jerusalem. (耶路撒冷 ) Crusades went on about 200 years. There were altogether eight chief Crusades. 1 The crusades ended up with the victory of Moslems.(穆斯林 ) By 1291 the Moslems (穆斯林 ) had taken over the last Christian stronghold. They won the crusades and ruled all the territory in Palestine that the Crusaders had fought to control. 1 Carolingian Renaissance Carolingian Renaissance is derived from Charlemagne’s name in Latin, Carolus. The most interesting facet (一面 ) of this rather minor renaissance is the spectacle (有見解 ) of Frankish or Germanic state reaching out to assimilate (吸收 ) the riches of the Roman Classical and the Christianized Hebraic culture. 1 National Epics(民族史詩運動 ) The epic was the product of the Heroic Age. It was an importan