"we went on to greece, and the greeks led us to the edifices where they worship their god, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. for on earth there is no such splendor or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. we know only that god dwells there among men . . we cannot forget that beauty." . . vladimir then inquired where they should all accept baptism, and they replied that the decision rested with him. background information: in this passage from the primary chronicles, vladimir i of kiev has instructed advisers to inspect the religions of the world and to report their findings back to him. what most impressed vladimir’s advisers when they visited the churches? the number of people in attendance the role of their emperor the appearance of the church the welcoming nature of the worshippers

"We went on to Greece, and the Greeks led us to the edifices where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such splendor or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We know only that God dwells there among men . . . we cannot forget that beauty." . . . Vladimir then inquired where they should all accept baptism, and they replied that the decision rested with him.

Background information: In this passage from the Primary Chronicles, Vladimir I of Kiev has instructed advisers to inspect the religions of the world and to report their findings back to him.

What most impressed Vladimir’s advisers when they visited the churches?

C: the appearance of the church

from thales, who is often considered the first western philosopher, to the stoics and skeptics, ancient greek philosophy opened the doors to a particular way of thinking that provided the roots for the western intellectual tradition. here, there is often an explicit preference for the life of reason and rational thought. we find proto-scientific explanations of the natural world in the milesian thinkers, and we hear democritus posit atoms—indivisible and invisible units—as the basic stuff of all matter. with socrates comes a sustained inquiry into ethical matters—an orientation towards human living and the best life for human beings. with plato comes one of the most creative and flexible ways of doing philosophy, which some have since attempted to imitate by writing philosophical dialogues covering topics still of interest today in ethics, political thought, metaphysics, and epistemology. plato’s student, aristotle, was one of the most prolific of ancient authors. he wrote treatises on each of these topics, as well as on the investigation of the natural world, including the composition of animals. the hellenists—epicurus, the cynics, the stoics, and the skeptics—developed schools or movements devoted to distinct philosophical lifestyles, each with reason at its foundation.

with this preference for reason came a critique of traditional ways of living, believing, and thinking, which sometimes caused political trouble for the philosophers themselves. xenophanes directly challenged the traditional anthropomorphic depiction of the gods, and socrates was put to death for allegedly inventing new gods and not believing in the gods mandated by the city of athens. after the fall of alexander the great, and because of aristotle’s ties with alexander and his court, aristotle escaped the same fate as socrates by fleeing athens. epicurus, like xenophanes, claimed that the mass of people is impious, since the people conceive of the gods as little more than superhumans, even though human characteristics cannot appropriately be ascribed to the gods. in short, not only did ancient greek philosophy pave the way for the western intellectual tradition, including modern science, but it also shook cultural foundations in its own time.

you can talk about what you learned about them. and you can talk about what happened on you're journeys with them. and then you can put all of the thing you learned about them in you're diary.