Predestination

In the midst of the Civil War and in the wake of the bloodiest battle in American history, where nearly 52,000 Americans lost their lives, and just as many lost their will to fight, Abraham Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address to a crowd of 20,000 relatives of the deceased. Only an afterthought following the main eulogy, Lincoln’s address would go onto be the most celebrated speech in American history. From the first words of his address, Lincoln establishes a reverential, formal tone. He…

THE CRUCIBLE In 1952, Arthur Miller published The Crucible, a dramatization of the events of the Salem witch trials. However, it does not fall prey to the common misconception that the trials were simply a case of mass hysteria or superstition. Rather, the play highlights the social causes behind the deaths of the Salem ‘witches,’ finding drama within the conflicts among individuals and between the individual and society, within the consequences of extreme individualism and isolation. The play…

anticipate an “Utopia of human virtue and happiness,” they realize the natural flaws in humanity and therefore, build a prison and cemetery (41). The founders perceive that savagery and death remain unavoidable. Moreover, Puritans also practice predestination, or the theory that unearthly forces predicate one’s fate. The town minister Arthur Dimmesdale, who also participated in the adultery, views himself as “irrevocably doomed” (157). By intertwining with Hester in a barbaric act, yet escaping…

As a Christian, I believe that we were born to have the ability to make choices. God gave us free will, he did his only son to die on the cross for our sins. That is also where in some cases predestination does get in the way, where some believe that people are born a certain way, God chose his followers, and destined to accomplish certain tasks. For instance, a prisoners had a choice to not kill someone or abuse another person but they chose to…

Nature continually influences Americans; therefore, most American authors work to understand what nature means to them and the people. In the 1600s, Puritans like William Bradford believe nature – the woods – was an unknown filled with the Devil. Nature to them did not represent God in a positive manner, but instead God created the Devil’s territory to punish the fallen. This perspective changed by the 1800s as Enlightenment philosophy grew. Transcendentalist writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson…

Observing Ellie Wiesel’s words expressed as “I had ceased to be anything but ashes, yet I felt myself to be stronger than the Almighty, to whom my life had been tied for so long,” point to the pain and suffering that the speaker offers. Humans that go through unfathomable suffering know the excruciating pain when they go through it. At the same time, it is an echo of three different perspectives. First, the words delineate the enigmatic pain signifying death and suffering; second, it suggests…

French Theologian John Calvin served as a pastor during the Protestant Reformation. Growing up Roman Catholic, he had values and traditions instilled which were thought to be critical in one 's relationship with God. However, after his exposure to reformation he experienced a shift in ideals, theology, and belief. This time of his life simply brought into light a spectrum of Christianity which had yet to be acknowledged in a depth which came across offensive and seemingly harsh. Now referred to…

Imagine everyone you know has turned their backs on each other, the pure society you once lived in is gone, and all it takes for you to be hung at any given time, is for one person to mention your name as a participant, whether you actually were or not, of the most horrible crime one could commit; conjuring the devil. This is a description of an event in the late 1600’s, which we know of as, the Salem Witch Trials. This society, was made up of Puritans. The religion, Puritanism, was a religion…

The heresy of Pelagianism received it 's name from a man named Pelagius. Pelagius was a well known monk and theologian who also gained recognition from his work as an educator in Rome. Despite residing in Rome, Pelagius was of British decent. The heresy of Pelgianism is a heresy that deals with human nature. Pelagius taught that humans could fulfill the commands and wishes of God by exercising the freedom of human will that is not in contact with the grace of God. This statement essentially…

longer existed in everyday life. He termed this process as the “disenchantment of the world”, a phrase borrowed from Friedrich Schiller. Weber argued that the Reformation with its emphasis on individual vocation, and in particular the canon of predestination, created the ideal ideological state for a wide sweep in methodical rationalisation and thus creating the modernisation. Weber particularly argues this in the…