Variety Xian Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Variety Xian Experience - Essay Example It is safe to state that faith is the bedrock of Christianity as a religion. "As a system of faith, Christianity manifests 'faith' in all the various meanings that this term has acquired in the history of religion: as loyalty to the divine, based on the prior loyalty of the divine to the world and to humanity; as the confidence that God is trustworthy in truth and love; as dependence on the Father of Jesus Christ, who is the source of all good in this life and in the life to come; as the commitment to direct thought and action in accordance with the divine word and will; and as the affirmation that certain events and declarations, as given by divine revelation, are a reliable index to that will and word. It is the last of those meanings that provides a basis for describing in an epitome what it is that Christianity believes, teaches, and confesses. It is all about having faith in God," (Pelikan 2005). Prayer is the door that opens unto a storehouse of treasures. Even Jesus Christ ope nly confessed that, "ask and it will be given you; seek and you find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened," (cf. Matthew 7:7-8). Th... Confessions, II, 2). Therese Elizabeth enthused about the sweetness and the wonder of the divine guidance she received from God (cf. J.M.J.T, p.14). No better way to summarize the magnanimity of God's consolations towards mankind than in these words of Kempis: " Christ will come to you offering His consolation, if you prepare a fit dwelling place for Him in your heart, whose beauty and glory, wherein He takes delight, are all from within'. His peace great and His intimacy wonderful indeed," (cf. Imitation, II, p.208). Certainly, from these primary experiences, it could be noted that the individuals who have realized the importance of prayer naturally make it easier for people back then up until the present time to actually be able handle life challenges successfully. Being the main channel of communication between God and his faithful followers, prayer plays a great role on the process by which true Christian s are able to create a fine relationship between them and the God that they worship. It is undeniable that prayer indeed plays a huge role within the development of the belief and faith that Christians put upon God. SINCE earliest times men have felt the need to pray to God. Realizing their own insignificance and inability to reach him without help, they have invented numerous "aids" to prayer. Some persons use prayer books. They read prayers that have been written for various occasions, hoping that these will help them to gain God's favor. Others pray to saints, asking them to intercede with God in their behalf. Another common practice is that of memorizing prayers and using a rosary to keep track of how many times these are said. However, even some religious leaders in churches that use these aids consider them

Volunteer assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Volunteer - Assignment Example volunteers to have a chance to give back, one can see too that it is not just the hungry and the unemployed that are being served here, but that those who serve are also getting so much in return. What I personally got from this experience is something that is very hard to quantify and to put into words, and I suspect that for every volunteer it is different too. What I can say for myself is that this experience opened my eyes to the reality of poverty, how it is sometimes beyond the personal capacity of a person to prevent, that it is something that can hit anybody at any time. Looking at the mix of people who were served too, one can see that this is not just about food, it is also about being able to rely on something that is constant and nourishing, in a world that can be so unpredictable and dangerous, being out on the streets and unable to find work and the means to support oneself. Going to the soup kitchen, they can expect nourishment, and they can expect to have this repriev e from the randomness of their lives five days a week. It is a lifeline. On the other hand for volunteers this is also a kind of lifeline, something that is likewise constant and something that volunteers can rely on, as a kind of refuge too, in a way. People need this kind of avenue for giving back to New York as well (Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen). Looking at the people too, and hearing about some of their lives, what they have been through and what they are currently going through, I realize that sometimes life can hit you hard and there is sometimes no way to prepare for what is going to come next. This contextualizes the readings and discussions in class, in terms of bringing this subjective and personal perspective into homelessness and poverty. Reflecting further, I realize poverty in New York is something that can happen to me too, and that therefore I am really doing this work partly for myself. In normal times these kinds of thoughts and insights will not enter my mind, and it

Variety Xian Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Variety Xian Experience - Essay Example It is safe to state that faith is the bedrock of Christianity as a religion. "As a system of faith, Christianity manifests 'faith' in all the various meanings that this term has acquired in the history of religion: as loyalty to the divine, based on the prior loyalty of the divine to the world and to humanity; as the confidence that God is trustworthy in truth and love; as dependence on the Father of Jesus Christ, who is the source of all good in this life and in the life to come; as the commitment to direct thought and action in accordance with the divine word and will; and as the affirmation that certain events and declarations, as given by divine revelation, are a reliable index to that will and word. It is the last of those meanings that provides a basis for describing in an epitome what it is that Christianity believes, teaches, and confesses. It is all about having faith in God," (Pelikan 2005). Prayer is the door that opens unto a storehouse of treasures. Even Jesus Christ ope nly confessed that, "ask and it will be given you; seek and you find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened," (cf. Matthew 7:7-8). Th... Confessions, II, 2). Therese Elizabeth enthused about the sweetness and the wonder of the divine guidance she received from God (cf. J.M.J.T, p.14). No better way to summarize the magnanimity of God's consolations towards mankind than in these words of Kempis: " Christ will come to you offering His consolation, if you prepare a fit dwelling place for Him in your heart, whose beauty and glory, wherein He takes delight, are all from within'. His peace great and His intimacy wonderful indeed," (cf. Imitation, II, p.208). Certainly, from these primary experiences, it could be noted that the individuals who have realized the importance of prayer naturally make it easier for people back then up until the present time to actually be able handle life challenges successfully. Being the main channel of communication between God and his faithful followers, prayer plays a great role on the process by which true Christian s are able to create a fine relationship between them and the God that they worship. It is undeniable that prayer indeed plays a huge role within the development of the belief and faith that Christians put upon God. SINCE earliest times men have felt the need to pray to God. Realizing their own insignificance and inability to reach him without help, they have invented numerous "aids" to prayer. Some persons use prayer books. They read prayers that have been written for various occasions, hoping that these will help them to gain God's favor. Others pray to saints, asking them to intercede with God in their behalf. Another common practice is that of memorizing prayers and using a rosary to keep track of how many times these are said. However, even some religious leaders in churches that use these aids consider them

Tikopia of Melanesia Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Tikopia of Melanesia - Research Paper Example CONCLUSION: A summary of key points 1.0 Introduction: Tikopia of Melanesia Tikopia of Melanesia is known to have gone through so many changes in society. The ‘Ticopia’ was an expression that the people of Solomon Islands used to make themselves distinctive from other people from neighboring islands, as a result forming the Tikopia community. From the past decade to the present, the communities’ culture remains unchanged, thus, portraying an interesting deal of information to be learnt about their way of life and work. Agriculture is their main means of subsistence, the tropical climate favoring the people to get good agricultural produce. They can be referred to as the emerging agriculturalists or horticulturalists. The Tikopia live on the island of Tikopia, which is in the Southwestern Pacific Ocean. From about half a century ago, the population of the Tikopia had grown dramatically, a factor that caused anxiety and concern among its leaders, there was the fear o f food shortages. As a result of this, they had to look for a solution on ways to control population growth. The community practiced some zero population measures which included warfare, sea voyaging and celibacy. These reduced their population and it is a good example of a reproduction policy (Nowak & Laid, 2010). This will form the basis of discussion in this paper. Thesis Statement: The Tikopia are a cultural group with unique kinship and reproductive practices aimed at promoting their idea of zero population growth and changes in the society so as to ensure survivability. 1.1 Subsistence Practices: The Tikopia of Melanesia practice precise techniques of agriculture. They are mainly Horticulturalists who rely on water from the sea for planting their main diet, however, on few cases they substitute fishing as part of their diet. The community is located near a sea that provides a wide variety of fish including shell fish. The Tikopia normally look for dried swamps and clear forest s, which usually provides them with trade routes and markets. The community does practice an intensive system of agriculture which has features of a perm-culture. The agricultural practices of the community depend on the density of the population, in the thick populated areas, some people practice fishing and pig rearing while others practice forest gardening. The foods that they grow include coconut, vegetables and yams which thrive best in the tropical environment, therefore, high yields of great quantity of foods are achieved. The access that the group has over empty land gives them control over a lot of resources. The Tikopia also incorporate technology into their subsistence practices. This is by practicing flood control, irrigation and terraces. In addition to this, technology has assisted the community in building roads, bridges and ports. Technology also allows the community to have control over their production and distribution (Nowak & Laird, 2010). Â  In the Tikopia soci ety, it is mostly men who do all the hard work such as building fences, clearing forests and planting processes. The women prepare food and take care of children. Both men and women play key roles in their society’s subsistence practices. The community uses redistribution and exchange of balanced reciprocals to ensure that their goods and services are transported. Balanced reciprocals exchange refers to an agreement where there is return of an item, which is equivalent to another item or one with a greater value. Redistribution refers to a tribute, an individual’

Analyse of the Two Key Moments Essay Example for Free

Analyse of the Two Key Moments Essay Just before this key moment starts, the guards takes Rebecca Nurse out of her cage, on its way to the place where people are hanged. She is astonished that John is confessing. The key moment starts with Proctor refusing to say that he saw Rebecca Nurse in the Devils company, or anybody else. Danforth demands that Proctor prove the purity of his soul by accusing others, but Hale advises that it is enough that he confesses himself. Parris agrees, but Danforth demands that Proctor should sign a document. Proctor says that he has confessed to God, and that is enough. He asks Danforth whether a good confession must be public. Proctor wishes to keep only his name, and Danforth thus refuses to accept his confession. Danforth orders Proctor to be hanged. Hale begs Elizabeth to plead with Proctor to sign a confession, but Elizabeth states that Proctor has his goodness now, and God forbid that she take it from him. The characters have turning points in the key moments, and I am going to discuss what happens to Hale, John Proctor and Danforth in this key moment. Hales beliefs in witchcraft changes, so does his faith in the law. In Act 4, he tells the accused witches to lie, to confess their supposed sins in order to save their own lives. This change of heart and hopelessness, makes Hale gain the audiences sympathy but not its respect, since he lacks the moral character of Rebecca Nurse or, and as it turns out at the end of Act 4, John Proctor. Although Hale recognises the evil of the witch trials, his response is not resistance but surrender. He thinks that survival is the highest good, even if it means helping oneself to injustice, which honourable and truly heroic characters can never accept. John Proctor changes himself and provides a final charge of the witch trials. Offered the opportunity to make a confession that he has seen the Devil, he almost surrenders, even signing a confession letter. His great pride and fear of public opinion drove him to hold his truth, adultery, from the court, but by the end of the play he is more concerned with his personal honesty than his public reputation. He still wants to save his name, but for a personal and religious view, rather than the publics reasons. Proctors refusal to provide a false confession is a true religious and personal determination. His confession would dishonour his friends who are convicted who are brave enough to die as support to the truth. Also it will dishonour himself, staining not just his public reputation, but also his soul. He then decides to change his mind and tells Danforth that he does not want to lie, this bringing him to heaven. He has now redeemed his sin. As Elizabeth says to end the play, responding to Hales plea that she convince Proctor to publicly confess: He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him! In this key moment Danforth shows that his greatest interest is to protect the reputation of the court when he prompts Proctor to sign a confession, thus preventing the response of his death. I think that Danforth has changed internally but not externally. I think he believes that the witchcraft is fake, but externally he is still a strict and craving for a good reputation. If he did believe people at the end of the play, then he would not convict John Proctor, but he did because it was to late then, and his reputation would be ruined, as he has convicted people before. It is a crucial moment for the audience because they think Proctor is a bad and not a honourable man when he signs the paper. It is dramatic irony, but not as much. The audience know that Proctor does not see the Devil, to save his life by confessing and showing you don not lie, he says he has been seeing the Devil. But he suddenly changes, he rips the piece of paper representing his confession, and explains that his name is more important, he wants to show he is a heroic man, so he says he never has see the Devil, which is true, and the audience see how he is a better man, and is going to die being an honourable and a heroic man. A crucible is a melting pot, where substances are heated to a high temperature to get rid of impurities. Miller is suggesting the play is like to purge by fire, a form of cleansing. This is a metaphor for spiritual improvements as the result of a confession being exerted. It is known as cleaning or cleansing yourself by confessing to seeing the Devil. There is many ways to explain the name of the book and here are some more: first witches supposedly boil potions in cauldrons and a synonym for cauldron is crucible. Secondly, it has a metaphorical meaning: the society of Salem is being heated and stirred in an attempt to remove the impurities and leave only the pure members of the society. One of the central themes of the play is the spiritual development of John Proctor. It is a powerful and complex play. All of the action takes place indoors and it is very black, simplistic and it emphasises the lifestyle of the people and it echoes the claustrophobic atmosphere of the play. The play focuses on ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. In the play Miller is discussing the forces of evil. In the attempt to cut out evil there is certainly a degree of irony. The irony in this play is that evil and tragedy actually occur from the actions of the unwise and over eager characters such as Danforth and Parris and to a certain extent Hale, who became responsible for deaths, misery and cruelty. Miller is suggesting that humans are vulnerable to evil and he aims to show that the evil generated in Salem was through a combination of circumstances for which no one person could be held entirely responsible but yet none were guilt free. The Crucible was based on real events and characters. The people of the 17th Century Salem, witchcraft were a very real and forceful threat. Many people were accused of being witches, and were tortured and executed. The discrimination of witches spread to a lot of places around the world. Witches thought to commit crimes have various proofs of a witch including the testimony of a fellow witch, the common belief or accusation of those who live with suspected witch, cursing followed by some mischief or the person disagrees with the person when questioned. Miller was interested in McCarthy trials in the 1940s/50s and made the book parallel to it, Salem witch trials of 1682. Miller may have oversimplified matters, in that while there were no actual witches in Salem, there were certainly Communists in 1950s America. However, one can argue that Millers concern in The Crucible is not with whether the accused actually are witches, but rather with the refusal of the court officials to believe that they are not. McCarthyism limits, which wronged many innocents and this parallel was felt strongly in Millers own time. In real life, at Millers time, Abigail Williams was 12 years old, but in the play she is 17, but why did he change the age? He did this to make Abigail Williams a better character to make her do all the mischievous things she does in the play. At the age of 17, you are mature and able to make an opinion, and act more like an adult, unlike a 12 year old where you are still to young to do things adults do. Danforth was not a real person, he was made up, but the wonderful thing about him is that he is made up of 3 characters. These three characters were the judges, but they would not be as dramatic and neither strong, unless there is one person who rules, making that character more remembered, and more important to the play.

The Ionic Column :: Art Columns Architecture History Essays

The Ionic Column Throughout history, art has become the main source for entertainment, enlightenment, and acknowledgement. It entertains those who are bored in the everyday life. It enlightens those who seek another world and those who seek beauty with wild imaginations. It acknowleges those who seek development in nature and their own world. From the cave drawings of Paleolithic art in Lascaux , to the Ancient Egyptian pyramids, and to the classical Greek sculptures, art is a never ending cycle of productions and reproductions passed on from one generation to the next, and from one culture to the next. Art throughout history plays an important role because it tells us about man's development in culture, language, and life. Everyday, the works of art from the past have been reproduced to inspire and attract. As a key strategic method to attract people, advertisement is the common benefactor for the reminesences of art throughout the periods, such as, the classical Greek Ionic columns. So there are ne w uses of older art works in many places, including magazines, newspapers, television, internet, and shopping malls. ( Prof. Smith lecture). In this essay, a trace of the Ionic column may be found from a page in The Wall Street Journal that may have distinctive similarities and differences in its physical usage and psychological meaning. A new usage of an old work of art is found in the Wall Street Journal which has words formed into the shape of an Ionic column in black and white, found in a classical Greek order. The newspaper was dated October 9, 1996 and the new use of this classical Greek order was found in the last page of section B12. This Ionic shaped column is big and long, considering the fact that the size of the newspaper is bigger than 11 by 17 inches. The image of the size in the new use column may have been to imitate the actual size of Greek column approximately of over 12 feet tall. (Refer to picture of 5 columns and the Wall Street Journal). This ionic column is so detailed by the formation of companies' name, letterings, showing distinctive characteristics from other classical Greek orders. It has fluted shaft and the capital was decorated with volutes or two pairs of scrolls with graceful curves joined by a thin abacus, which is a square block to support the entablature.

Jim Jones Essays -- Cult Suicide Essays Papers

Jim Jones The mass suicides, that took place under the influence of Reverend Jim Jones, can be explained from a sociological perspective. By looking at how the group dynamics played into the outcome one gets a better idea of the whys? of the massacre. The sociological explanation is but one way to explain this horrific event. It is , however, the only one explored in this essay for reasons of concision. At one level, the deaths at Jonestown can be viewed as the product of obedience, of people complying with the orders of a leader and reacting to the threat of force. In the Peoples Temple, whatever Jim Jones commanded, the members did. When he gathered the community at the pavilion and the poison was brought out, the populace was surrounded by armed guards who were trusted lieutenants of Jones. There are reports that some people did not drink voluntarily but had the poison forced down their throats or injected. While there were isolated acts of resistance and suggestions of opposition to the suicides, excerpts from a tape, recorded as the final ritual was being enacted, reveal that such dissent was quickly dismissed or shouted down. Jim Jones utilized the threat of severe punishment to impose the strict discipline and absolute devotion that he demanded, and he also took measures to eliminate those factors that might encourage resistance or rebellion among his followers. Research showed that the presence of a "disobedient" partner greatly reduced the extent o which most subjects in the Milgram situation (1965) obeyed the instructions to shock the person designated the "learner." Similarly, by including just one confederate who expressed an opinion different from the majority's, Asch (1955) showed that the subject would also agree far less, even when the "other dissenters" judgment was also incorrect and differed from the subjects. In the Peoples Temple, Jones tolerated no dissent, made sure that members had no allegiance more powerful than to himself, and tried to make the alternative of leaving the Temple an unthinkable option. Analyzing Jonestown in terms of obedience and the power of the situation can help to explain why the people acted as they did. Once the Peoples Temple had moved to Jonestown, there was little the members could do other than follow Jim Jones's dictates. They were comforted by an authority of absolute power. They were l... ...ons consistent with the ideology and policy are good. The individual conscience is not reliable. Under these conditions the individual expects humiliation, ostracism and punishment because of his inability to live up to the criteria and lives in a constant state of guilt and shame. Since the organization is the ultimate judge of good and evil, this guilt and shame is used to manipulate and control members. The organization becomes an authority without limit in the eyes of members and their power is nowhere more evident that in their capacity to "forgive". We live in a dangerous world, a world often caught in the midst of disastrous group dynamics. Cult leaders use their knowledge to bemire the minds of unsuspecting victims. Until, recently cult's were able to run freely in public without anything more than slight amusement at the dress or the ethereal spouting. There was a time in the not so distant past that cult members were allowed to approach anyone in a place as public as an airport to share their ‘beliefs' and their tainted language. They were allowed access to our children and to our minds. It has been a long time coming, but the world is finally catching on.