Portfolio Reflection

Kelsey Bruinekool

HIST 134 - Ancient World History

Section # 112327

Instructor - Dr. Alec Thomson

April, 28th 2017

 1

Yesterday is todays history, that has evolved over many years, and that will continue to

change with time. One of the most important aspects to take away from the history of my ancient

ancestors would be religion, morals and traditions influencing culture and society. Religion is an

organized system of beliefs and practices revolving around, or leading to an awe-inspiring

spiritual experience. There is no culture ever recorded, even in ancient human civilization that

has not practiced some form of religion. Even in earlier days, religion was indistinguishable from

what we know as mythology today. It would consist of rituals of a belief in higher powers, who

created and would continue maintain the universe and heavens. There are some individuals that

have made biggest influences and contributing to society.

Christianity, one of the most popular religions today, was once shamed upon because it

was a religion for the poor and needy. During Constantine the Greats reign of the Roman

Empire (306-337 AD), was probably one of the most influential moments of Christianitys

history. Christianity would begin to take over Rome and Constantine would take over the role an

advocate of the Christian faith. The story is, that Constantine saw a cross in the sky, and Christ

himself told Constantine to take the cross into battle and spread the faith of God. He believe that

that was a sign from God and that he was to be his prophet, after that encounter he supposedly

converted to Christianity and would spread the good faith of God until his death. He would

ultimately end up supporting and maintain the church so people could have somewhere to

worship. I think another thing that he that was influential to making the roman society better, was

allowing people to pick what religion that they would like to worship. However since

Constantine was converting to Christianity himself, many supporters would follow his word

because they believed that he would lead them to promising afterlife. Constantine the Great is

definitely one of the most influential people in ancient history, he brought a community together
 2

no matter their religion. Although the ultimate goal was to convert them to Christian, by getting

them more comfortable and interaction with other cultures and religions people can open up to

other religions. I feel like this brought people together that would form a strong society.

Augustus was another leader that I though stood out in ancient history as far as being

influential to creating a better society, by religion, morals, and traditions. Augustus was founder

of the Roman Empire and built it basically from scratch. Having fought his way into power,

Augustus used religion as a tool to protect his position and promote his political agenda.

Augustus used religion as a strategy, and was determined to become the peoples spiritual leader.

Augustus was known to be meticulous in his ways. He lived in a simple house, with a simple

bed. When he wasnt fasting he would only eat plain foods, like cheese or bread. Wanting to be

the man that would return Romes greatness, he would reconstruct the traditional values Rome

once had. One writer says He renewed many traditions which were fading in our age and

restored 82 temples of the gods neglecting none that required repair at the time. Augustus

complete his goals, and would eventually restore traditional religion rituals and social rules.

Many believe that during the reign of Augustus, Rome had finally resurfaced. I feel like

Augustus did the right thing by trying to do right by God, and spread his beliefs. I think that

traditions and morals are extremely important to a society because it brings people together for a

common cause.

Another leader that I thought was influential to his society was Muhammad who lived

from 570-632. Muhammad was known to be an exceptional man, he was handsome and was

always in good clothing. Muhammad finally believed that the message he kept hearing was true,

and he had been called to be a messenger of this spiritual revelation. God meaning, Allah was the

same god that was worshiped by the Christians and the Jews. Muhammad believed that Allah
 3

had chosen him to be the one that would uncover the existence of one God, or Allah the God,

and to be the last and greatest prophet. He wanted to be better than the earlier prophets like

Abraham, Moses, and the Hebrew prophets, who also spread the word of god in their religion.

Muhammad preached a religion known as Islam, followers being called Muslims. He had trouble

to bring in followers, his family being some of the first to change faith to Islam. One of is early

messages was sternness and strength, he wanted his followers to be humane, ethical and

charitable. I felt that this was influential because he wanted to bring peace to his society. This

take a lot of power and work, and thats exactly what he did in order to show the people the

Islamic culture. I also think that the death of Muhammad was very influential as well because he

was literally a Prophet whose messages inspired his people and actually worked for the

betterment of society and united the Islamic faith and culture. Not long after his death a written

text that was called the Koran was written from messages that had been saved from Muhammad

himself. The Koran has been known as the Islamic text since and would bring out many more

followers of Islam, and even help form the Five Pillars of Islam.

Overall I feel like these three off my ancient ancestors where some of the bravest and

influential men that I had learned about. Most of them came from very little or nothing, or had no

family to support them. However they still devoted their lives to create a better society. I think

out of this the most was learning different religions and cultures. I think what drew me to

Constantine the Great the most was that he actually allowed people to believe in whatever faith

that they wanted, he just wanted a stronger community. Augustus stuck out to me because he

wanted to restore many past traditions and I feel that traditions are very important when trying to

better the society, to bring people together. I think that these brave men gave me a new

perspective of society and makes me want to learn more about other peoples culture and faith.