Religious thought is perhaps the most important human innovation in history. Across the world, different human communities first developed ideas that we now know as Animism: religious practices that revolve around the idea  that all things (especially in nature) have a distinct spiritual essence or "soul." All things have agency and can cause change in the world, so Animism  focuses on the supernatural and how one can cultivate relationships with more powerful beings or forces in the world. Animism really is not a "religion" in the modern sense of the word, and people across the world exhibited animistic beliefs in different ways. Animism merely describes practices that establish a relationship between places and people, usually one that recognizes places, animals, and plants have power over people. But as societies became more complex, new ideas gave rise to organized religions that borrowed from and sometimes eclipsed Animism. This development does not mean that Animism is a "primitive" religion or that it is only practiced by "uncivilized" people. Instead, the rise of organized religions reflects complex social changes that impacted human organization, relationships, and understandings.

Between 1000 and 500 BCE, there was a dramatic revolution in which humans understood their role in the world,

their relationship to the supernatural, and their obligation to ethics. It manifested itself as secular ethics and as

religious beliefs as well. The western breakthrough in philosophy and ethics has to be seen more as an issue of

transmission than as an original contribution. In 1949, German philosopher Karl Jaspers coined the phrase “Axial

Age” to refer to the period between 900 and 300 BCE when the intellectual, philosophical, and religious systems

that came to shape subsequent human society and culture emerged. A variety of religions and doctrines started

developing around this time, some of which are still in practice today. Typically, each belief was rooted in a specific

geographical area, and each developed its own value system, but they often shared some elements. Jaspers’

thesis has since been criticized for failing to take into account certain outliers and underlying factors. However, most scholars agree that profound changes in religious and philosophical discourse did indeed take place in a striking parallel development, but they disagree as to the underlying reasons.

Content Summary 

Introductory Activity for the Axial Age with webquest