Anabaptist

Senior Research Project The definition of a Utopian society is “a world or society in which life is ideal or perfect in every way. It is the ultimate goal of all mankind.” While what is ideal or perfect is arbitrary to each person, a society should strive for the maintaining and betterment of their own society. The Hutterites society is a colony of farmers that share their goods through the betterment of their own society along with their wealth. However the Hutterite society is a utopian…

often render him and Candide unable to fully engage in the world around them; instead of focusing on analyzing the positive aspect in an experience, which is the downfall of such philosophy. An example of this would be when, instead of helping the Anabaptist from drowning, Candide and Pangloss ponder on why it was for the best. As an enlightenment writer Voltaire disagrees with his fellow philosopher arguing that some suffering in life has no explanation and cannot justify the belief that god…

In the film, The Devil’s Playground, a group of Amish kids are experiencing what the world is like outside the culture of being Amish. These kids are undergoing all the different activities to do that regular “English” kids get to experience on a day to day basis. Each day, an Amish kid of age will go out into the real world and experience what other kids do. According to the Amish, this is called, “rumspringa.” When an Amish teen of 16, he or she will be able to go out into the real world to…

Evil Prevails Good One cannot escape evil. No matter how much good one intends to accomplish, it is difficult to overthrow evil by it. Initially known as Francois-Marie, Voltaire is a profound writer of the eighteenth century known for his controversial pieces. Utilizing strong message-conveying mechanisms, Voltaire employed satire and wit to transmit his controversial messages to the people of the eighteenth century. Although the government did not appreciate Voltaire’s attempt to satirize it,…

Throughout the novel Candide Voltaire employs satire as a method of criticizing organized religion and to mock and dispel the popular philosophical thoughts of the time. As Candide traveled across the world in search for his true love, he meets characters that have different religions and belong to different philosophical systems of thoughts. The religious characters are hypocritical and commit detestable sins ranging from sexual brutality to greed and theft and are the most intolerant…

The Reformation was not bound to any one class, nor any one place in the world. Each man who led a following to change some aspect in the church was a step in the church’s transition to more modern ideals. The church was entering a time where change was occurring; people were beginning to think differently and express their opinions more. This all made the church vulnerable to verbal and physical attacks from different men in different countries; leading the Swiss Reformation, Hueldrich…

to those of Voltaire. Rousseau believed that all humans were naturally good at heart but became corrupted with society and law, which was rivaling to Voltaire’s thought that reason and an education could steer a human away from being a savage. An Anabaptist named James who meets Candide in the beginning somewhat backed up Rousseau’s claims when tells that, “Mankind must in some things have deviated from their original innocence; for they were not born wolves…” (Voltaire 23). Even though James…

Eighteenth century Europe can be described as being in a transitory state of philosophy and politics. The Enlightenment was meant to give the individual the tools to better understand the world around them through spiritualty, philosophy, science or a combination there of. However the discourse and teachings of this archetypical narrative were far from monolithic in nature. The quest for knowledge resulted in the mass creation of theoretical explanations for issues such as morality, class…

The United States of America, often dubbed the “Land of Opportunity,” has always been viewed as a place where even the lowest of the low could go to try to make a name for themselves. A nation of the liberty to pursue ambitions, a haven for outcasts, a new world for people to establish for themselves. Since its birth, people have flooded into its ports and worked the malleable land into homes and farms and cities. These same people sought refuge from cruel and unyielding governments and found…

religion. It defied the teachings of the Church on the nature of penance, the authority and power of the pope and the efficacy of indulgences. That created a dispute that would result in the Reformation and the birth of the Lutheran, Reformed, and Anabaptist traditions within Christianity. Martin Luther did not intend the Thesis to be a program for reform, or an attack on the Pope, etc. He was only questioning the indulgences. The main purposes of the 95 Thesis was because the Church was no…