I. SUMMARY Reading Selection 1: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, 1-12 According to MacCulloch, Christian history is a story which was told and believed by Jesus’ disciples. He calls Christianity a “personality cult” in which he describes Jesus as a historical figure who was admired and present as God by the early believers. The Christian story is long enough with two millennia for historians to study, yet is a short story as Christianity is young when compared to some other religions and to the history of all humans.…
Christians rely on the Bible as the inspired word of God.” For the past few months we have been reading The Unexpected Christianity Century: The Reversal and Transformation of Global Christianity by Scott Sunquist, and it has been such an amazing read. Sunquist explains that in the early and late 1900s, many people believe that this time period would be the century for Christians. This observation was brought on from the amount of mass empires and civilizations that…
Mirlene Fleurime An enduring issue that has been discussed or debated over time is technology during the years 1300 - 2014 technology has evolved. From the Paper Trail to The Gutenberg Print and Press to the creation of telephones and ect. These inventions has helped us over time. One way technology has changed is the Print and Press.…
Counterclaims to non-Christian Beliefs Are the teachings of Jesus Christ actually credible and reliable? Was Christ’s resurrection different from any other mans’? Is Christ merely a legend? In the essay, author, C.S Lewis seeks to persuade readers with counter claims against Christian beliefs. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Lewis was raised in the Anglican Church.…
In a Catholic institution, theology acts as a department for finding truths within human comprehension; these truths are found based on God’s “self-revelation [and] ‘understanding’ what God has revealed” as opposed to just Scripture since not all of the ancient texts are universally accepted and had to go through intense examination if they are (Cavadini…
A canon began to form and people began to refer to New Testament writings which is made up of Paul who referred to the Jewish Bible. Soon Christians accepted the New Testament to be equal to the Jewish Bible. Ehrman mentions that this was accepted because Jesus’s followers took Jesus’s interpretations to be equal to the Jewish Bible…
Anti-Semitism in the Gospel of John Many people today discredit the validity of the Gospel of John because it includes content that may be interpreted as anti-Jewish. This material could be a reflection of the emerging division between Jewish Christian and Jews. In this paper, I will be inspecting the Gospel of John to validate the presence of anti-Semitic material. Exploration of the historical background of this time will be analyzed to determine the derivation of anti-Semitism within this gospel based on the Gospel of John’s negative representation of the Jews and their traditions.…
We regard the Scripture as a church book. It is a norm for us from ancient Christian, but it can not have a nominative character for all Christian today, says Karl Rahner. This approach is close to Migliore’s approach.…
How should we Christians relate to the pagan world and their works? This is a question that has been examined by many of the great Christian minds throughout history and their answers vary. Tertullian for example considered non-Christian philosophy to be the root of heresy and an evil the destroys the faith of any Christian foolish enough to study it. On the other hand, Justin the martyr beloved that some pagan works were really the seeds of Christendom planted before the coming of Christ. Justin's view comes the closest to realizing the perfect biblical view for two primary reasons, some pagans followed God without knowing him by name and God used even immoral or ignorant pagans to plant the seeds for the coming of his Son.…
Nearly 20 percent of all international immigrants reside in the United Sate today. People can see how religious and cultural differences divide each individual in a multicultural society like America. America is a cultural melting pot that exposes a person to many cultures other than their own that they would not otherwise. Knowledge alone is not enough to shape our multicultural society like America.…
The Gnostic gospels have been the subject of much debate for centuries, especially regarding the Orthodox Church’s opposition to the validity of gospels outside of those canonized gospels of the New Testament. Author Elaine Pagels consolidated her research on this topic in the book titled The Gnostic Gospels. This text provides some insight into the struggles that helped shape beliefs of the Gnostics and the early Orthodox Church as they responded to attacks of heresy from one another. The purpose of this review is not an all-inclusive review of the entire book, but a focused look at two important chapters: one that addresses various interpretations of the resurrection of Christ and another that deals with the question of which church should…
Having analyzed subjects and the purpose of both books, we shall now analyze the manner in which the two company publications work together to convey one message that is essential. As the gospel of Luke reveals Jesus ' shift toward Gentiles when rejected by His own people, the Jews, Acts additionally reveals the shift of the church from being mostly Jewish to the changes that happened consequently as well as mostly Gentile. Right from the start of the church in Acts 2 the church was composed only of those born converted or Jewish to Judaism. The important turning point in Acts is Cornelius ' redemption, combined with the two following meetings in regards to the redemption of Gentiles (Acts 10:1-11:18; 15:1-29). After this, the church becomes mostly Gentile with Paul 's missions to the Gentile world, as well as the rejection of the gospel by many the Jews dwelling in Palestine and through the Diaspora (Acts 13-28).…
During the time of Jesus, the canon was already very well developed. “Apocrypha” is a word that would mean the same thing as noncanonical books of the Old and New Testaments. The apocrypha is divided into four…
Cadbury has recently been embroiled in a row with the Church of England after the chocolate maker dropped the word “Easter” from its annual Easter egg hunt, but there are those who are baffled at the Church’s reaction because they say Easter is not really a Christian festival but one of pagan origin. In an op-ed published on The Guardian on Apr. 4, Peter Ormerod voiced out his confusion over the negative reactions of the Church of England and even UK Prime Minister Theresa May to Cadbury’s rebranding of its Easter egg hunt. He pointed out that the name of the Christian festival does not have anything to do with Christianity and that Jesus’ disciples did not celebrate His resurrection by looking for substances that resemble chocolate.…
In establishing the boundaries of apocryphal books and the limits of the canon, K2 demonstrates that the boundaries of the canon amongst different groups varied (p. 151). Maybe PUT FIRST SECOND THIRD. Christians restricted the canon to books that were from the apostolic time, and therefore “closed” (p. 175). This shows that K2 assumes that early Christians were not “open”, and did not receive later, “apocryphal” texts as…