Chapter four is centered on the story of the expansion of the great salvation religious traditions – Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam. But this chapter also weaves in accounts of developments in technology, trade, population, and even factors of geography and climate. What do these more “material” developments have to do with religion and religious change? Does the chapter argue for any particular relationship between religious and material developments? If so, what is that argument, and what do you think of it?
How were the cultures and empires of Rome and China similar and different?
