Reading Essay

Paul Tillich, "The Nature of Religious Language," – Reading Response #1
I think the question that Tillich is trying to define is that God is the fundamental question of theology. Without a doubt, God is the answer to the question of theology. Yet, where can we find the answer? For Tillich, he believes that the answer is implied in the analysis of being. Tillich turns the question of God to the question of being from which the answer to the question of God lies. Examining the question of being - What is being-itself? is not to examine the particular being or a group of beings. Rather, it is to examine the question of what it means to be.

What the Buddha Taught – Reading Response #2 (Option B)
I find it difficult to classify Buddhism as a religion. The Buddha was simply a human being and never claimed to be more than that. He was not the incarnation of God or a prophet of God. All of his insight he attributed to his own effort and intelligence. He believed that all doctrine should be questioned, even the Buddha’s. Buddhism is more of a path for the individual to travel, than a faith or belief.

Jeremias – Sermon on the Mount -   Reading Response #4
In reading the Sermon on the Mount I found Jeremias to show that this was gospel not law and that we may not live it perfectly, but in the power of His Spirit we must work at living it.   Living the Sermon on the Mount means, fundamentally, submitting to the authority of Jesus.
The Sermon on the Mount is intended to identify the ways in which the followers of Jesus should behave in living a life of acceptance of God’s gracious invitation to enter the kingdom of heaven.