How Do Religions Grow and Change?
Driving Question: How did belief systems transform as they spread along networks?
Trade networks continued to expand as portable belief systems developed and spread. Beliefs and ideas spread along long-distance trade routes, thanks to merchants, armies, and religious missionaries. As beliefs spread, some religions blended with local cultures and took on new traditions.
Learning Objectives:
- Investigate how and why belief systems spread.
- Assess how belief systems changed as they moved into new regions.
- Use quick-sourcing skills to analyze how belief systems impacted communities and networks during this historical era.
Vocab Terms:
Religious artwork can tell us a lot about how religions changed as they moved to new places. Buddhist artwork is a great example of this. In this activity, you’ll analyze several images as you start thinking about how religions change as they spread.
As portable belief systems spread to new places, they changed the societies there. However, converts to the new religions also adapted the beliefs to suit their local conditions.
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Guiding Questions
Trade networks moved much more than just physical goods. Belief systems were also spread through trade. These primary-source excerpts will help you understand how.
The maps in this activity are part of OER Project’s collection of maps. You might want to help students dig deeper into the Spread of Buddhism and Christianity map or the Spread of Islam map.
You can find the full index of maps here.
You can find believers for just about every religion in every corner of the world—but how did they get there? Find out through this mapping exercise.
Merchants were one of the most important means by which religions spread to new places. Putting yourself in their shoes as they try to explain their religion will help you understand how religions changed.
Historically, belief systems have been shared along trade routes and at times, have been transformed once they’ve entered a new region. This was certainly the case with Buddhism.
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Guiding Questions
Being able to organize your writing in a logical way and use clear language is a crucial element for all kinds of writing. Look for these elements in a sample student essay.
