Gilgamesh Individual Development

Development of the Individual Everything that has happened today has been based off of what happened yesterday. The past has developed the present and created an environment that has allowed advancements. Through the centuries of mankind, there has been significant ideas and thoughts that have changed and evolved. This can be seen in ideas such as the individual. The individual has dramatically changed through the ages and developed mankind into what we know today. This essay will examine Western Civilization and the progression of the individual through specific documents and readings. The individual started out as a mere spec in the eyes of God(s). This can be seen in the Near East with the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is considered …show more content…
The Hebrews had a concept of what being an individual meant. These people believed in one God and that there was an individual relationship with him. This is different than the previous sections, beforehand there was no personal relationship with God. This was also the first section that revealed the idea of having one God to live under. The Hebrews had the concept that mankind was built in God’s image and they had purpose in this world. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth…” . This passage was examined in Genesis, which is the Hebrew bible and the old Christian testament. This allowed men to believe they had power and control in their natural world. The individual became a concept at that time which created the stepping stones for …show more content…
The Reformation period allowed for the individual to interpret the world as each individual saw it. This involved the concept of realism. The Reformation granted the common man the ability to interpret life. From this, different ideas of religion and beliefs came about. Since the Catholic church would exile anyone who went against their rules, people began to break off into separate sub levels of Christianity. Some of the groups were baptism, lutheran, and Calvinism, which are all relevant even to modern society. Each of these subgroups were based off personal interpretation. This changed the world for man because the individual beforehand only had one choice in religion. They were told what to believe in and what to do about their beliefs. “The covenant of life is not preached equally to all, and among those to whom it is preached, does not always meet with the same reception. This diversity displays the unsearchable depth of the divine judgement.” This quote shows precisely what reformation opened up to the individual. There was an understanding that not everyone is going to believe in one singular idea. The reformation allowed for everyone to find a home with their beliefs and