Gorman Beauchamp makes commentary in his article Three Notes on Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God about three different facets of the novel. The first is about a widely criticized judgement by Richard Wright. Wright claimed that the novel had no theme, no message, and no thought. Beauchamp does not agree with that, but he does agree with one of Wright’s other points: Hurston’s characters were not serious enough. Beauchamp writes, “Hurston’s characters ought to be doing less laughing and…
is right and wrong. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Shakespeare’s The Tempest, characters are placed in situations that test their morals. In these two works of literature, the authors explore moral issues using plot, themes of freedom and confinement, and the actions of characters. The plots of Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Tempest contain various nefarious plots. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character, Janie, kills her husband, Tea Cake, after he…
remarkable human emotion with the power to relentlessly protect and encourage an individual. It serves as humanity’s fiercest and most devoted protector, as stated in the short essay “Is It Foolish to Fear?”. In the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, preacher Jonathan Edwards demonstrates that fear can be an impressively influential motivator. At the same time, however, fear is believed to be useless and even harmful to humanity. Nevertheless, this is disproven by the assertion that…
De Rerum Natura sings a poem of nature. It celebrates the regularity in the universe. A systematic universe is explicable. Seeing an unvarying world, Lucretius believes a set of natural laws dictates our world making it predictable. Every observable action occurs out of necessity from insentient natural laws. In other words, it is not created to serve a purpose or acts as a means to a favorable end. Surprisingly, the laws are few and Lucretius deduces them from empirical observation and logical…
The people of God have always been missional. God chose and led his people on a path that would bring him glory and bless the nations. God wills to be known as the one God of the universe, and he will use his people to do it. Though Israel often rejected the idea of blessing the nations, they are a tool in the hands of the almighty. “The mission of God is to preserve and maximize the blessing that is inherent in the multiplication and spread of the nations while removing the blight of human…
the existence of God Descartes applies the ‘Cogito ergo sum’ (‘I think therefore I am’) argument from the second meditation to prove another foundational truth, which is the existence of God. He uses his personal Christian belief and definition of God to build upon this proposition and tries to prove that something besides him exists by contemplating his idea of God. This essay will explain and assess Descartes’ aetiological and cause of existence arguments for the existence of God by…
Thesis: The church is holy through love for God. Because the church is holy, the church has the duty to love and take care of all people. Holiness is a dedication to God. The People of God, who are the church, individually aim to dedicate themselves to holiness. Particularly, to dedicate oneself to holiness means to love God. God loves and protects us, so we should fully commit to loving Him back. James Martin claims in his book, My Life with the Saints, “I knew that I couldn’t expect anyone’s…
Introduction The Wager, by French scientist and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, presents an argument for believing in God based on an individual getting the best afterlife. He argues that we all must make a wager either for or against the existence of God. This wager which will result in either heaven, hell, or no consequence. Based on Pascal’s premises, I believe his argument is unsound. This paper will be divided into three sections in which I will discuss my evaluation of Pascal’s Wager. In…
be falsified. He says that “one ought to bring oneself to believe in God because it is rational to wager or bet ‘that God is’”. The wager Pascal discusses encompasses the idea of finite and infinite gains and losses. According to Pascal, if you gain, you gain all and if you lose, you lose nothing. This concluding that one must wager to believe or not. I will offer an explanation of why he believes it is rational to wager that God exists. I will then argue that although rational, Pascal fails to…
The idea of a supreme has been around since the beginning of time, and many different arguments have been used in attempt to prove the existence of a god. One of the most well-known arguments for the existence of the Judeo-Christian God is Anselm’s ontological argument. Ontological arguments use natural theology which attempts to prove God existence by using logic, reason, and shared evidence. Scripture, religious experience, and divine revelation are all used as tools. Many great philosophers…