Seamus Heaney’s translation of the epic poem “Beowulf” successfully explores the reconciliation of Christian, mythological and Pagan influences. It analyses the text’s depiction of the archetypal hero and it’s symbol allusions through the indeterminable battle between Good and Evil, the concept of Fate, and the ‘superhuman’ within a mortal realm. Beowulf utilises poetic themes of religion in the way it manages to blend pagan and Christian morals and values and displace paradoxical notions. Heaney manages to combine his Christian perception of the loving but demanding virtues of an all-powerful and Judgmental God with the insane futility of the Germanic’s thirst for vengeance. Myth helped define the ancestral Germanic people’s existence, in
The latter is used in Mathew, Luke, and John tied to Jesus current ministry, the suffering, dying, and resurrection, and acts of deity. I see latter tied to the nations and one people that were created after his resurrection. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Clearly, Wright points out another attribute of Jesus purpose here on earth. Jesus mission as a servant of the Lord crowns him as servant to Israel and the nations. As Christians, we are servants of the almighty.
The Screwtape Letters is a book about C.S. Lewis’ insight into the human mind from the perspective of two demons, Screwtape and Wormwood. Screwtape sends his nephew, Wormwood, words of advice on how to stray the “Patient” away from the “Enemy” and towards “The Father Below”. Lewis had to put himself in the place of the elder demon, Screwtape, as an experienced tempter for Christian men. The Screwtape Letters is a book that uses Christian morals and values and takes the opposite side of them to try and condemn a young man to an afterlife in Hell.
127-128). Satan uses lies to gain the attention of people as he temps them (p. 42). This action can be counteracted by Christ and the freedom that comes with His unconditional love. Christ offers freedom with the redemption of sin. Anderson (2006) writes on seven steps to freedom in Christ.
Bradford goes on to write “praise the Lord, because He is good, and His mercies endure forever…let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, show how He hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor” (Baym 61). Further more, John Winthrop also includes many religious passages in his literary works. On the journey to America Winthrop offered “A Model of Christian Charity” as a sermon of expectations for the Puritans in the New World. This sermon reminds the people of their obligation to God. Winthrop writes “there are two rules whereby we are to walk one towards another: justice and mercy…the moral law or the law of the Gospel” (Baym
Jesus: The Miracle Hero “He came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross my debt he paid, from the cross to the grave from the grave to the sky lord I lift your name on high” A song by Donnie Mcclurkin sung by Christians today in reference to Jesus Christ. Like a hero Christ went through heroic stages: The call to adventure, The road of trails and The Master of the two Worlds. Joseph Campbell explains that the "first stage of the mythological journey '' is called ''the call to adventure'' (48). The hero is either subconsciously drawn into the adventure, or "the hero can go forth his own volition to accomplish the adventure” this usually occurs when the hero realizes there is another world other than what he is
Fletcher notes Everyman is possibly a translation from a Dutch play Elckerlijc (Fletcher, 1918 pp, 112). The development of the Morality Play was in part from the desire to teach principles of Christian living in such a way that common, uneducated people could understand. A Morality Play is a dramatized moral allegory. The majority of actors in a Morality Play personify abstract qualities or concepts, such as virtues, vices, or death. The hero is usually a representative of all humanity.
Lewis and Joy both took the road to Atheism and then landed on the road to Christianity. In the book, A Grief Observed, Lewis compared the pain of death to being mildly drunk, or concussed. Lewis felt as though there was a blanket between him and the world. [6] He questioned, “Where is God?’ Although he questioned God and experienced another great loss, Lewis knew that he could not let his faith in God fade. He had to press on and look to God for his purpose in life and believe that God would strengthen him in his time of bereavement.
“Powers & Principalities.” Commonweal (2011): 14-17.Academic Search Premier.Web.21 Mar.2013. The author explores the modern concept of devil. He argues that author C.S Lewis has perpetuated the modern caricature of evil in his novel “The Srewtape Letters” through the real goals was to set evil within the terms of Christian apologetics. He also observes that in several motion pictures, such as “The Devil Wears Proda” evil is personified less as a cosmic power battling God for sovereignty than as a small-time dealer in individual favors as the source of humorous mischief. The Devil is no joke.
Overall the Puritans were a religious group with a core of specific beliefs that are at the essence of the Puritan Faith. Those two beliefs are the belief that man is predestined or divided into two groups, the damned and the elect. The second core belief is that of free grace versus a doctrine of works. This means that man cannot save himself by changing his ways and doing good deeds. Instead it means than humanity is only saved by the free grace and mere good will of God and that whosoever believes in Christ and has faith may escape Hell.