Pope John XXIII was a highly influential, religious leader in the Catholic Church, whom was elected Pope on 28th October 1958. Although he was thought to be a transitional pope, John XXIII was often addressed as the ‘good pope’ due to his significant involvement in Catholicism. He challenged the role of the Catholic Church and emphasised the importance of interfaith dialogue. John XXIII’s most significant impact is the creation of the Second Vatican Council, which taught the Catholic Church to “open the windows” to engage with the modern world. Pope John XXIII was also passionate in promoting social justice, world peace and human rights. The statement clearly defines the impact John XXIII contributed to, as he reformed and revitalised the Christian tradition to adapt to the modern world of the 1960s, as well the ecumenism of all Christian denominations.…
In the book ‘’Guns, Germs and Steel’’ By Jared Diamond explores a brief history of the human world and how it has become what it is today. When Jared Diamond takes a visit to New Guinea, he is encountered by a local politician on the beach whose name is Yali, and as they walked and talked together, Yali asked a simple question “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?’’ .That question made Jared go on the journey of his life. The book explains how three major powers: Guns, Germs, and Steel brought by the Europeans, conquered the world and raises a simple question on why many societies and civilizations were different back then and how it has shaped the fates of humanity as it is today.…
The article, Guns, Germs and Steel, written by Jared Diamond, is an argument about how and why things happened differently in history in different continents. It’s about looking deeper into why things happened the way they did. Why did western Eurasian societies become more powerful? What enabled these parts of the world to develop more quickly and in turn be able to conquer less developed societies around the world? The important message to grasp from this article is not about how certain continents or areas becoming developed quicker, but why those specific areas were the ones to develop quicker. An example of this that Diamond discusses, is how New Guineans were still living in the “Stone Age” 200 years ago when Europeans came to New Guinea with materials (called cargo) that were very valued. The question was, why did the people of New Guinea have a scarce amount of cargo when the white Europeans had so much of it? (page 14)…
Christopher Hitchens’ New Atheist novel, “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” written in 2007, highlights everything that is wrong with religion, and how its effects are detrimental to society. Hitchens critiques Christianity, Judaism, and even Hinduism and Buddhism, for their atrocities and blasphemous beliefs and makes a very valid point as to why many individuals have turned away from religion. Though quite persuasive in some cases, other times the novel makes points that seem weak or trivial in regards to the “evilness” of religion. Each chapter of Hitchens’ book emphasizes a certain wrongdoing religion has committed, or how religion has poisoned society.…
As a child, more than likely, we are taught by our parents certain values into our development. Values such as saying grace, your prayers before bedtime or church on Sundays. Religion is not hollow, meaning that it is not singular. McCutcheon explains in his article differences between commonly confused subjects, differences of studying religion in a church instead of a: synagogue, mosque or temple. He also explains how to study religion within an academic atmosphere, attitudes that should be avoided and perspectives that should be obtained in order to thoroughly understand world religion.…
Decisions are one of the most detrimental aspects of life. They range from what we do today to what we think of the newest trends. People always believe that their decisions are made at their own discretion, however, more often than not, the things we do are a result of the thoughts, actions, and ideas of the people around us. The effects of influence are everywhere, yet no one seems to notice. In the article “The Invisible Influence”, Jonah Berger discusses the positive and negative impacts it has on our lives. In the book Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card shows how easily children can be swayed by the environment they grow up in, which leads them to make skewed decisions, both good and bad. In both texts, the authors illustrate how the looming presence of influence drives many of our decisions in our daily lives.…
John Oswalt, in his book The Bible among Myths, provide the readers with a brief, yet extensive of the variance and likeness Old Testament and Ancient near East religions. In the introduction he provides a brief outline of scholarly concerning the Old Testament literature and Ancient near east literature and how viewpoint change in nearly 50 years. Oswalt states at the time he was acquaint with to the subject scholar believe the Old Testament and its religious studies stood alone from others ancient near east religions.…
One of the cruel ironies of the Holocaust was the Jewish people’s loss in faith of God. They were persecuted for their religious beliefs and by the end of the war many, if not most, of the Jews had lost their trust in their lord after seeing the horrors of the Nazis. Elie is one of these prisoners who loses his faith while in the concentration camps with his father. In the book Night, Elie Wiesel uses the motif of his and his fellow prisoner’s faith to show the waning of their hope and humanity while in the concentration camps. When Elie’s faith in humanity is diminished, so is his belief in God.…
The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark offers a sociological view of the growth of Christianity during the first four centuries A.D. The book provides a new perspective on how Christianity won the West. According to Stark, early church historians and the New Testament itself claimed that Christianity grew in number despite an unsuccessful plight to the Jewish population of Rome. Stark rejects many of conventional claims such as this one, and claims that Christianity grew rapidly because of miraculous demonstrations that drew large numbers of converts. Mr. Stark uses a quantitative approach to explain his theories on how Christians could have gained so many converts without miraculous methods.…
“The Gospel of Wealth” was written by Andrew Carnegie in 1889. He was one of the richest men in American during the Gilded Age. Carnegie had a strong belief that wealthy people should spend their money to benefit the society while they were still alive. He said “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.”…
In Hardin's " Tragedy of the Commons," and Diamonds, "The World as Polder: What Does it Mean to Us Today?," One can see how Hardin's main points relate to Diamonds, because both dissect the unsustainable aspects of our society. Both authors use different methods to get their point across, however their main points are very similar. Although Diamond closely looks at past societal collapses, and what aspects of their society caused their collapses, Hardin's current view of the modern worlds unsustainable population, has many characteristic to the older society's that Diamond discusses in his essay. For example Hardin look at our increasing population and how we are over indulging in our resources, that will soon run out if we're not careful. While on the other hand, Diamond describes how over population was a major reason for the Easter Islanders collapse.…
individualism is “a social theory favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control”. what this means is that the individual has control over what goes on in the society rather than a government or any one force controlling what the individual does, individualism could be shown in many different forms. examples of different forms individualism could be shown is through the way you dress, your moral beliefs, or even your actions.Individualism is shown through romantic, revolutionary, and colonial text in Sinners in the hands of an angry god, speech to Virginia conviction, and self reliance…
In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses themes to display thoughts throughout the book. The theme that seems to be the center point of the story is religion. Religion is on the character’s minds with every action they do. When something goes wrong in the town, religion is sought out as a cause. When the witch trials begin, the devil is supposed to be the source of the troubles. Arthur Miller vividly uses religion to show the readers how important religion is to the people of Salem.…
Religion plays a big influential factor in the development of the western civilization. A major impact to this development is how Christianity transformed the Roman Empire. The church started in Jerusalem with the twelve apostles mainly doing missionary work, and Christians like Paul were witnessing to God-fearers, people who admired Jewish monotheism but thought the Jewish law was too demanding. Paul explained that they could worship the same God without the Jewish law, and during this time of sharing the gospel, Christians were being persecuted on and off by emperors such as Roman Emperor Nero. It became a worse worry for Christians as Emperor Diocletian called for the first systematic persecution of Christians during his ruling. These were tough times for Christians, but they stayed faithful to there religion and to God. Soon Christianity was made legal and was made the only legal religion in the Roman Empire at the time. This shows how Christians shaped the Roman Empire from being hated and persecuted to making Christianity the only legal religion in the Roman Empire.…
How did Buddhism, Christianity and Islam spread across the world, and why are they practiced so far away from their origins?…