Augustine of Hippo

For this question, I have picked the gospel of John. The book of John was written by Apostle John meaning “Yahweh has been gracious.” John was the youngest of Jesus’ apostles. The gospel of John was written around 80- 90A.D in the city of Ephesus. Ephesus by that time was the center of commerce and culture. The majority of John’s audience was no longer Jewish converts but rather people who lived in a world dominated by culture and thoughts of Greece and Rome. Apostle John sought to appeal to…

In In Defense of War, Nigel Biggar argues that war can be a just means to correct acts of injustice taken by many countries, and that it is the duty of other countries to defend those who cannot defend themselves; just war, therefore, must be a humanitarian, defensive action. Biggar supports this thesis by first explaining the two basic principles of just war: jus ad bellum-- regarding the justice of going to war in the first place-- and in bello-- regarding justice in the course of fighting…

Throughout history, the human race has struggled with whether it is essentially good or inherently evil. Even the greatest minds have had difficulty finding a definitive answer to this perplexing conundrum. Saint Augustine of Hippo, Hobbes, and Nietzsche all pondered this and were unable to come up with a simple answer. Fortunately, the debate that has lasted for millennia is coming to a halt. However, in order to successfully analyze the ways of humankind, a clear framework must be established.…

In a 1992 symposium on sex work and women’s roles in society called Prostitution: From Academia to Activism, Andrea Dworkin delivered a powerful speech entitled Prostitution and Male Supremacy wherein she defined prostitution as being “the use of a woman’s body for sex by a man, he pays money, he does what he wants” (Dworkin 1992). In fact, although its formal definition refers to any person working in sex for money, the word prostitute is still directly linked to women and girls unless stated…

Yuhang Jia To What Degree Did Catholic- Protestant Conflicts During the 1600s Lead To the Rise of Witchcraft? World History II Ms. Chinn April 1st, 2016 Protestant Reformation was the period during 1517 -- 1648 that ends the Middle Ages and begins a new era in the history of Western Civilization. It was mainly about the conflicts between the protestant and Catholic Church. Witchcraft is the use of magic powers, especially evil ones, to make things happen. In Europe…

FREUD'S SELF-ANALYSIS Freud's self-analysis started in the mid 1890's and reached its climaxes between 1895 and 1910. In certain authors’ opinions, it was continued up to his death in 1939. Nevertheless, we have to set a clear boundary between the time of his productive, creative stage and his profession as a psychoanalyst. The first phase was full of unexpected aspects and inventiveness. It included: 1) his routine self- analysis where he performed checks of his complexes—those emotional ideas…

Slavery is a system that has been around before written records existed. But this system has not been uniform in defining what a slave is nor if a slave has any privileges. Epitomising this is the Mesoamerican examples of the Aztecs and the Maya. While the Mayans’ slaves were hereditary, the Aztecs’ were personal, so slaves’ children were free. Moreover slaves could own other slaves in this society, very rare in slavery throughout the world. Consequently it is perhaps naïve to define slavery as…

The rubber meets the road when it comes to observing our spiritual disciplines. Do we genuinely believe the truth of the Holy Scriptures? Do we faithfully desire to obey Jesus? Will any of this make a difference? Undoubtedly, some form of these questions arises to our mind when engaging with spiritual disciplines. For me, this has been an area for me to humbly cry as the loving father in Mark 9:24 cries out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Personally, I strive to take II Peter 1:5-7 seriously and…

Jane Dowe was a girl from Lorain County-suburb in Ohio who became addicted to heroin and forced into prostitution because of car accident when she was 14. In the accident her arm was shattered and she had six surgeries to fix it. She spent two weeks on morphine. Due to her pain, the hospital prescribed pain killers. She would take the pills until she needed a refill. When the prescription ended, she turned to the streets to support her addiction. When she could no longer afford the pills, she…