An adequate understanding of religion must take into account its distinctive qualities and patterns as a form of human experience, as well as the similarities and differences in religions across human cultures. ... It is an aspect of human experience that may intersect aspects of life and society. ... In this way, the religious reality whether conceived as a divine commandment, the will of God, Buddha nature, or the Taos acknowledged to be the true and proper basis of all life. ... Religions typically hold that human beings have a higher nature that exists in tension with a lower nature, and...

• Word Count: 1578
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The message of Enlightenment intellectuals was not one of relying on faith or traditions of the past, but rather, solely in human reason... They felt that humans innately sought after pleasure, and things that would bring comfort to society as a whole. ... Hamann was himself quite suspicious of the Enlightenment thinkers because of their insensitivity to human suffering. He felt that Enlightenment ideals reduced people and all of nature to nothing more then mere numbers and data. ... A healthy worldview would protect nature from self-interested people, he feels. ...

• Word Count: 1018
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

This leads to estrangement from fellow human beings and estrangement from one's essential human nature. ... Abraham showed that one can be forced to disregard ethics if God commands it, which is the paradoxical nature of religion. He saw that God can accomplish what to the human mind is absurd, and by having faith in the absurd, one can recover what was lost. ... Instead of seeing scientific knowledge as the means of human redemption, he regarded it as the greatest obstacle to redemption. ... Instead of seeking to make God and Christian faith perfectly intelligible he sought to emphasize ...

• Word Count: 1488
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Some Egyptian Christians, however, refused to follow the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon (451), which defined the person of Jesus Christ as being "one in two natures-. The doctrine of "two natures- appeared to them to imply the existence of two Christs, divine and human, and was therefore tainted with Nestorianism. They upheld the terminology of St Cyril, who had spoken of "one incarnate nature of God the Word-. Those Egyptian Christians who rejected the Council of Chalcedon "a council accepted both in Constantinople and in Rome "faced charges of Monophysitism, the belief that Ch...

• Word Count: 839
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

They maintained that Jesus was a human martyr, rather than divine. ... All of the mythical variations of the Gnostics refer specifically to Aeons, the immediate godlike entities which exist between the True God and humans. ... Because human nature is comprised of both the flawed physicality of the false creator and the fragment of divine essence derived from the True God, ignorance is cultivated, preventing countless humans from realizing gnosis. Although death releases the divine "spark" from a human, if sufficient gnosis has not been previously undertaken, the "spark" will be returned to the...

• Word Count: 2211
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Therefore, Christianity expanded and was transformed by this and its nature and expression significantly developed as a result. ... Rather than testing human capabilities, Paul promoted the idea of keeping faith in the works of God, through constant prayer and reading of God's word. ... Paul accommodated the nature of all individuals but urged the believer to use self-control, to make his body a slave to God and to try and resist temptation. ... One example is 1 Corinthians 13 where Paul talks about the true nature of love which is often proclaimed at Weddings across many Christian denom...

• Word Count: 1093
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In general, all forms of Christianity affirm human freedom and the ability of his or her desire to do well. But there have been pessimistic views on the actual ability of men to dominate the evil inclinations of human nature (Bennett, 1997). ... The purpose of human life, according to Christianity, is to participate in the life which is gift of the god. ...

• Word Count: 2426
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

This Dutch Calvinist believes that God constantly reveals himself through "nature, history, and human conscious" (Fackre 50), however because of the fall of man, humankind cannot comprehend God's revelation. ... Berkouwer states, "[the] activity of God in created reality is not observed and acknowledged due to the radical darkening of the human heart which did, and does still, withdraw itself from ...

• Word Count: 660
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

During the Great Awakening in the 1730's- 1700's, a revitalization of religious piety swept through the American colonies. Many fundamentals of the Great Awakening were based on the evangelical upsurge taking place in the Northern colonies and on the other side of the Atlantic, most notably in Engl...

• Word Count: 567
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Moreover, the geographic, rather than ideological, basis of the religion (the fact that it comprises whatever all the people of India have believed and done) has given Hinduism the character of a social and doctrinal system that extends to every aspect of human life. ... He came to earth in a human form (as Jesus) and died on the cross to take the penalty for our sins. ... Certainly they would all affirm that his life and example should be followed and that his teachings about love and fellowship should be the basis of human relations. ... Paul and the other writers of the Scripture believe...

• Word Count: 1270
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In relation to Meyer's vampires, the character Edward Cullen is a part of a Clan of vampires that do not drink human blood and regard it highly as animalistic and primitive. ... Sex in general is a part of human nature and it is natural to have those types of desires and to act them out. ... I personally think this philosophy leads to sexual repression, and even worse repression of other feelings (like being able to love, trust or convey feelings with another human), something I have a personal experience with and have only recently worked out of. ...

• Word Count: 1158
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Luther stresses the importance of the usage of contemporary "multimedia", which includes the extensive application of hymns permeating the sacramental nature of the catechesis. ... Instead of giving the comfort and assurance of Christ, Augustine's approach suggests to deprived humans nothing more than to increase their vigor in the righteousness of works through the liturgy and service of the Gospel defined in terms of personal participation and advancement. ... Reference to Augustine's endeavor is taken by the Roman Church today insofar as it helps to build another brilliant, yet ...

• Word Count: 1628
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Slavery consisted of individuals that worked for so called slave masters who treated them not as human beings but as their personal property. ... Can a religious person who abides by Gods word be so cruel to another human being? ... The beatings that are referred to in this passage are not necessarily physical in nature; however, they are the punishments that God will give to the sinners who disobey his will and testament in the Bible. ... Douglass is, therefore, strengthened in his fight for freedom because he understands that his true nature through the will of God is to be spiritually, ment...

• Word Count: 1984
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

This section of this paper also examines the detrimental nature of mandatory celibacy which has become a prerequisite for the ordination of priests in the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, the four sections of this paper identify the impacts of the hierarchical order of the Roman Catholic Church on the Human Rights of women. ... And would also be a violation today, under Article 2 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which stipulates that everyone is entitled to equal rights and freedoms without distinction of any kind e.g. sex, religion etc. ... Stan points out that Be...

• Word Count: 2952
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In addition, he makes claim to the fact that the only witnesses to this supernatural reality are humans who were themselves representative of the Jewish priests working in collusion with the Roman church (which is entirely unsupported by any evidence of history) that supposedly put Christ to death. ... Paine continues to have a problem with the superstitious nature of the stories combined with the fact that the power of the so-called prophets is constantly being put in terms of evil. ...

• Word Count: 1321
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Jews believe that they are "the chosen people" and that a Messiah or messenger will come to redeem humans and that the kingdom of Gods will be made on earth. ... Although there are differences in these two religions both share the principle of harmony in relationships, life and nature. ...

• Word Count: 1758
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

At the heart of the gnostic concern was the revelation of the hidden Gnosis (Greek meaning "knowledge"), the possession of which would free one from the fragmentary and illusory (or evil) material world (bodily existence) and teach one about the origins of the spiritual world to which the gnostic belonged by nature. ... What makes these Christian accounts so extraordinary is not the claim that his friends had seen Jesus after his death because ghost stories, hallucinations, and visions were even more commonplace then, than today, but that they saw an actual human being. ...

• Word Count: 1846
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate