Joliet Catholic Academy

starting to be acceptable. During the Middle Ages, between 600 and 1450 A.D, Europe saw Islam make its way into Sspain and the dramatic change brought about by the Christian Schism of 1054 CE. However, there certainly were ideals, like the Roman Catholic Church, that were left relatively unscaved by the turmoil. The Umayyad Caliphate was primarily located in Syria until around 750 CE when they were overthrown and the Abbasid Caliphate took over. This forced the Umayyad Caliphate to relocate to…

To “seek the good,” which leads to “happiness” is what humans are essentially seeking within their lives. Boniface attempts to acquire this happiness by trying to gain control of the secular government of Phillip IV the Fair of France through his pope title. In a similar thought, Dante believed the spiritual power of God established the government for the sake of man to be judged in the “terrestrial world,” but God has the highest judgment and the only one that matters. Furthermore, Marsilius of…

Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher who questioned the reflection of an individual. However, Kierkegaard was most known for fighting against the perversion of the individual by the Christendom (83). He believed the Christendom was ruining the overall essence of how to be a true Christian. Kierkegaard then came up with the belief that the Christendom, which he calls the crowd, is the untruth. This is because he believes the only way to be a true Christian is to be an individual, which is…

For example, In 1517 Martin Luther wrote what is known as the 95 theses because he didn’t agree with the doctrine and the practices of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church at one time required people to pay indulgences if they wanted to be free from purgatory. The abuse of the indulgences is what led Martin Luther to take a stand against the Catholic Church. Luther believed the church shouldn’t be known for the purchases of indulgences. He felt what they were doing went against God and what…

Chaucer’s Agenda (An analysis of Chaucer’s iconoclastic attack on institutions in 1300 BCE) “To our understanding of that complex series of religious and secular events still generally known as ‘the English Reformation’ (Whiting). Indeed, Chaucer wrote some very controversial tales about many radical pilgrims of his day, and for the first time brought skepticism into the minds of the commoner. Do you believe that Chaucer had an agenda, an intention to his satirical outlash? For he did attack…

Julian of Norwich, in her Revelations of Divine Love, synthesizes the asceticism which had permeated the Roman Catholic Church from its earliest history with the philosophical advancements made by Saint Thomas Aquinas only one hundred and fifty years before her. She does this seamlessly and almost certainly unintentionally, demonstrating that the philosophical developments of Saint Thomas Aquinas were familiar concepts to her such that they shaped her mystic religious view. Despite the…

A reoccurring theme in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a hunger for power, authority and respect. We are introduced to characters in The Crucible who will do anything for the sense of authority or power, one of them being Reverend Parris. Reverend Parris is one of, if not the most, power-hungry characters in The Crucible because prior to the plot of the play, the audience learns he was greedy in his church, during the play the audience witnessed many moves made out of his need for authority, and…

In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the doors of a church in Wittenberg, Germany. At that time, the Catholic church had twisted the original meaning of scriptures to encourage the buying of indulgences, which were paid passes out of purgatory, the costly visiting of relics, most of which were fake, and the submission to the ultimate authority of the pope, who was one of the most powerful men in the world. To add to this injustice, the church purposely refrained from…

In 1215, The Magna Carta was brought up in a field in England known as Runnymede. The Magna Carta was a charter that was targeted against the deranged king of England at the time, King John. The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote up the charter to make peace between King John and barons who despised him. Dan Jones explains the history of King John and the Magna Carta in an article he had wrote for the Smithsonian. In his article, “The Mad King and Magna Carta,” the author Dan Jones begins with a…

Short Answer Questions 1. The Investiture Struggle was a power struggle between the church and the monarchy. This rivalry had been brewing for a very long time, but it reached it’s climax in the depute between king Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII. The church had recently taken the power to appoint the Pope from the king and established the College of Cardinals to do the job. Henry IV was against this idea, eventually retaliated and was promptly excommunicated. The struggle went on for quite some…