... in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified." ~ Galatians 2:15-16 "In my heart reigns this one article, faith ... in my dear Lord Christ, the beginning, middle and end of whatever spiritual and divine thoughts I may have, whether by day or by night" ~Luther's Introduction, 1538 The Epistle to the Galatians is the ninth book in the New Testament, and it ... was originally written by the Apostle Paul in an effort to inform the Galatians...

• Word Count: 525
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In reading the Gospels according to Mark and Matthew I was fascinated by many things. I have never read the Gospels before, and was taken back by the differences between the two interpretations of the meaning of Jesus" life, death and resurrection. Mark's interpretation is very fast paced, and reminds me of the script for an action movie. Unlike Matthew's explanation, Mark has little tolerance ... for dialogue and personal reflection. Matthew warms up his audience by giving the some historical background before documentation of a miracle by Jesus; Mark covers three miracles in the first chapt...

• Word Count: 274
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... contemplation of memory and an analysis of himself, where he observes the wonders of the external world and relates it to an introspective study of himself. The last two books are a study of scripture where he concentrates heavily on Genesis and the methods of god's creation of the ... Eve stealing Apples in the Garden of Eden. Many have said that The Confessions are very much like a parallel of the Parabal of the Prodigal Son which appears in Canonical gospels of the New Testament specifically Gospel of Luke (Luke 15:11-32). ... same time very agnostic which is probably what made him ver...

• Word Count: 656
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... important to her (which are also the values of the LDS) were bound to slip in somewhere within the story. "Dracula," written by Bram Stoker in 1897, a fantastic book partially based upon the congenital fears of a people in the Victorian era; the night, perverse sexuality, compulsion, blood lust, aggression and impurity. He feeds on, particularly, (young) women. After he sucks upon the erogenous necks ... of his innocent victims, they are forever his in body and mind ... as an unconscious collective. The character Count Dracula is a serial exogamous, an adulterer; every woman he bites b...

• Word Count: 1158
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Reginald Scot. One day while performing his duties as justice of the peace at the magistrate's court in Rochester, a young girl named Margaret Simons was being brought up on charges of witchcraft (www.historyofmagic.com). Scot was so shocked by the charges and allegations brought forth by the council, that he was determined to find out the reality of witchcraft. Scot collaborated with the French entertainer named Cautares ... , and gained knowledge of many feats. In 1584, Scot's work entitled "The ... ...

• Word Count: 2173
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... cross. As they present these last scenes from the life of Christ, the distinctions between acting and life becomes blurred and the actors take on more and more of the qualities of the characters that they depict. Arcand's message is thus an inclusive one: All people (of whatever religion or philosophy) can be transformed by a spirit of grace (from the Christian to the animistic) and can become ... better people. Gibson's movie is meant to be a realistic enactment, not of a passion play but of the Passion itself, and ... inclusion but rather victimization and anger. His message is that ...

• Word Count: 444
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... controversial critique, delivered six years after he resigned from the Christian ministry, was read to the students of Harvard's Divinity College on July 15th, 1838. Just under a decade later Frederick Douglass, a former slave, published his criticism in Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass. These writers, in spite of their criticism, were strong believers in faith, and both included positive spiritual alternatives in their literature ... and converted others to Christianity the more brutal he was to his slaves. Douglass recalled that although Captain Auld's home became a preacher...

• Word Count: 1276
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... temptations lay forth upon us and to stay true to God and yourself. There are various forms of chastity, which comes from the cardinal virtue of temperance. The three forms of chastity are that of spouses, that of widows, and that of virgins. On the flip side of this beautiful idea of chastity there are many offenses which go against God's will. These offenses include, lust, masturbation, fornication, and ... , is one of these forms. Another form of rape is called acquaintance rape, which is rape forced upon someone with whom the assailant is acquainted with. In my opinion, I think rape ...

• Word Count: 615
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... between God and his people. A wedding banquet during this time period was a joyous occasion, with great importance placed on the lives of the betrothed. "The Gospel of Matthew," like all the New Testament Gospels, was composed as a literary work to interpret the theological meaning of a concrete historical event to the people in a particular historical situation " (Boring 89). Mt 22:1-14 utilizes this ... parallel, it would be preposterous for someone to enter the kingdom of heaven by merely arriving and failing to completing penance and feeling remorseful for sins committed. "The theo...

• Word Count: 979
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... natural; which no painter up to his time had ever done" (Vasari, G. 1550). The Trinity space is defined by columns depicting the start of the Chapel, the theological space ,God the Father at the apex of the picture, standing behind the crucifixion of his son Jesus and the Holy Spirit as the dove descending down towards the dying Jesus. All three are haloed ... remember the time and medium that this master piece was created in. The artist was responsible for everything, organizing a team of stone-masons and apprentice painters, too designing and laying out the complex composition of the ...

• Word Count: 1305
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... several individual contributions to the development of Christianity, including initiating the Protestant Reformation. Although Luther conducted these acts hundreds of years after Paul's existence, Paul's teachings had an enormous impact on Luther's work. Luther adopted the concept of justification by faith from the teachings of Paul. Similarly to Paul, he provided emphasis on the gospel of forgiveness and salvation. Paul states, ... "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one who believeth& ... proving Luther adopted his ideas fr...

• Word Count: 670
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... faith. Tradition, faith, and community drive the religion today this is my perspective on Christianity. The word religion means to bind together, this is a key idea to members of the Christian community because the worshipers are very community driven and want to help others by giving back. The idea of helping the community is what initially binds the people within the religion together. Also ... get there. Tradition is engrained in the lives of every Christian in the world, from attending church on Sundays to how Christians celebrate Easter or Christmas. All of those are traditions tha...

• Word Count: 886
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Jesus, it is best to begin with a contrasting religious expressing such as Buddhism. One should note that through seasons and times, ecumenical discussions occur on a wide scale from papers to conferences to councils (such as Vatican II). Importantly, the work done here is not to entirely discredit each other's ... would not die until he had enough wise monks and nuns, lay men and lay women followers. (Buddha, p.153) On the other hand, Gautama was not enthralled always with the prospect of having a woman monk or follower. Initially, according to Karen Armstrong as she writes in Buddha, ...

• Word Count: 2981
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... and made the first attempt to create a closed canon of the New Testament. Marcion and the Western Valentinians appear to have been the most feared by catholic theologians. Until recently, our knowledge of gnostic thought was almost exclusively dependent upon the reports of its critics (e.g., Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Tenullian, Origen, Plotinus); but a cache of documents found at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945 has ... provided originals of some treatises alluded to by those critics and has enabled scholars to see ... with Star Trek "Away Team" badges affixed to their arms. Consider, moreover...

• Word Count: 1846
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... death can come at any time. Muslims do not believe in any stages of death, they believe that everything that happens by the will of God. They think that this world is a test and the real life is life after death. They prepare themselves of the Day of Judgment. On the Day of Judgment only ones who proved themselves pious and righteous will go to Heaven ... identity to almost absorb in the second. Although both the accounts give satisfactory information about the Holy Spirit, still the provision of such details intact substantial importance, as the way the concept is understood make a grea...

• Word Count: 2426
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... the Holy Land, she receives the "gift of tears", which is witnessed by uncontrollable, regular weeping incidences over the sufferings of Jesus (2001). Not much is made known to the reader concerning her family, although her relationships appear strained and pale in comparison to her connection with Jesus Christ. Having taken on the life of devotion to her Lord, remaining married to her ... and even the meaning behind her constant tears is explained to her by Jesus. Near the end of "The Book of Margery Kempe," when her husband is aging, he has a terrible fall causing him to become handic...

• Word Count: 1321
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

"Oroonoko" is a work of fiction by Aphra Behn, published in 1688. The piece focuses on the life of an African king's grandson, Prince Oroonoko who demonstrates several similarities to Jesus Christ. In fact, many believe that the story of "Oroonoko" is a retelling of the biblical scriptures - particularly the crucifixion of Christ - based on events of the Surinam native culture. This theory has stirred controversial discussions between scholars ... death (Chibka, p. 523). Oroonoko was illustrated as virtually the ideal human and a reflection of Adam from Eden. Oroonoko and Jesus both depicted c...

• Word Count: 1045
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... us which separates us from non-Christians. Other than baptism, the Eucharist is the only sacrament shared by both the Methodist and Catholic churches. This is because Christ specifically instructed his followers to "Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22: 7 - 23). However interpretation still differs on this ritual, to the Catholics "The holy Eucharist completes Christian initiation. Those who have been raised ... Catholic church places an importance on matrimony, considering marriage itself a sacrament. "The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves ...

• Word Count: 1047
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... might follow death. It is charged by some that this belief in an afterlife is an innovation of Christianity, and possibly an admixture with Greek philosophy. Christianity focuses on the belief of life after death as a central and indispensable tenet of their faith, however a wide range of ideas exist. Christian denominations base their beliefs of the afterlife on the various interpretations of biblical passages. Conservative Protestant denominations tend to ... then totally annihilated, ceasing to exist in any form. Conservative Christians hold four key principles concerning the Bible's...

• Word Count: 1279
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... there cannot be anything such as a division of power. This concept can be linked with the theology of Trinity that God, the Spirit of God and the Son of God are from a singular source and, the existence of one has no effect on the existence or powers of others (Roberts). A controversy prevailing in the late 2nd Century, as supported by Marcions and heretics that Christ has come to ... is not mentioned in his writings which lead to the fact that life-long penance was imposed on sinners by the bishop. The public penance, as described by Tertullian, was for a limited period and mostly carr...

• Word Count: 2524
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... scene immediately following the rape furthers the holy symbolism. Rosetta washes herself in the river, which is analogous to a baptism. Like in baptism, Rosetta cleanses herself of sin and is reborn. Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns one back toward God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist and summon man to ... the film present Cesira's spiritual journey from blindness to death to enlightenment and rebirth. At the beginning of the film, Cesira is absolutely indifferent to the society encapsulated by war an...

• Word Count: 2867
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... admitting 'A'isha's fault in interfering in politics because she was a woman, Sunni sources attempt to mitigate her culpability by transferring blame to Talha and al-Zubayr, her two male companions who failed to "protect the wife of the Prophet from danger on the battlefield."18 This approach assigns 'A'isha a passive role in the Battle and thus allows Sunnis to ... begs the question, why is Mary, "who was specifically given the first apostolic charge by Jesus himself to announce the news of his resurrection," not officially recognized as one of Jesus' apostles while Paul, who...

• Word Count: 3461
• Approx Pages: 14
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... theology as a reflection for religious conversion, specifically conversion to Christianity. Two Concepts of Fundamental Theology Based upon the concept previously introduced, [Conversion] the author goes on to define two concepts of Fundamental theology; he starts by stating that in the context of fundamental theology, the decision to become a Christian can be a responsible exercise of human freedom. He further states that Christian faith, in his estimation cannot ... with another, more familiar to most Roman Catholics. Fundamental theology is traditionally defined as that discipline wh...

• Word Count: 2454
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... beings, and secondly it reinforces the idea that God gave human beings power over everything else that was being created. This notion of human power is represented when God brings the birds and other animals to the human to be named, which was a symbolic gesture used to convey ... power. Copies of the Old Testament were circulated orally for a great deal of time before they were actually written down. When information is communicated orally, it is natural for there to be some discrepancies ... stories most likely developed throughout the centuries. The Biblical editor was definitely awa...

• Word Count: 357
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Beginning during the reign of Nero, and continuing throughout most of the Roman Empire, the comparatively young religion of Christianity was used as a scapegoat for various misfortunes and wrongdoings that occurred within society. This persecution, however, only strengthened the Christian will and helped it to develop into the religious power that eventually overcame the Roman Empire. Christianity first arose under the rule of Tiberius, when a man ... , the people had witnessed a steady decline in public dignity and morality, and in the calibre of their leaders. By the year 64 AD, Rome was in ...

• Word Count: 342
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: Undergraduate