Critical Evaluation: Secular Lives, Sacred Hearts: The role of the Church in a time of no religion | | | | Introduction: We are living in a society today where the word Church will bring up many contentions and unsociable remarks. The Church needs to think about the apathy that frequents the locals, in the communities who choose not to come to a regular worship service. Alan Billings has written a book entitled, “Secular Lives, Sacred Hearts, The role of the Church in a time of no religion”. This book encapsulates the dilemma the Church is in and consequently the demise of a generation of Church goers. But, this book does offer hope for the spirituality of those who do not attend church regularly.
Though the tree can be universally symbolic, it is easy to see the solitary tree as the representation of the Christian cross or indeed the tree of life. The very title of the play has the word ‘Godot’ which bears resemblance to God, and hence it becomes inevitable to regard the play as having a bearing on Christianity. A prominent biblical reference in Samuel Beckett's play is the crucifixion myth or the story of two thieves. The opening conversation between Vladimir and Estragon provides the initial proof that the "Godot=God" hypothesis can be an accurate one. Vladimir’s dialogue “One of the thieves was saved” introduces one of the central tenets of Christianity that human beings are essentially sinful and have to be saved.
She sought refuge in the hills of England. She was very appreciative. She thought it was wealth. She thought of the undulating land as blessed or sacred as can be seen in parenthesis in line 14, ‘As if God’s finger touched but did not press.’ As a result of Browning’s Evangelist childhood, her poems were filled with biblical allusion. Browning over-exaggerates the features and beauty of the nature of England almost making them come alive with her use of personification.
Text G will entail religious attitudes due to the context of the time as Britain was characterized by Christian values and patriotism whilst Text H is written during a period of rising atheistic attitudes and less patriotism. The tone of both texts diverges from one and other. Text G has a serious and critical tone, for example, the complex sentence, 'the people bring in such a vast dish of it at a time, it disgusts one'. Here, the author of the text is criticizing the Country's culture and the use of the prop pronoun 'one' furthers this serious tone. The serious tone of the text adds to the formality of the text as when considering the formality, the text falls into Joo's formal face of formality.
Reformation of the Church Despite the similarities of scripture and the beliefs of followers during the Lutheran and Catholic reformation their differences kept the two sides apart as enemies. During the start of the sixteenth century, people were displeased with the corruption and specials favors the church offered to few individuals which started a great Reformation. People from all social classes began to resent the power behind the church and question their authority to decide who gets into heaven. While the starting point of the Lutheran Reformation was when Martin Luther posted his theses, that caused the beginning of a long needed Reformation across Europe. The ideas of the Reforms came from the side of Martin Luther and the common people of the Catholic church who had started to question the clergy of the Catholic Church such as the pope.
In particular, when speaking of Spies, the lines are not as clear as they do not accept the tenets of Christianity but see activities such as prayer or forgiveness as useful to the secular world. Because of this area of debate, the idea of absolutes is not possible. Without absolutes, how can we actually give someone guidance on how and where to go in their lives? Without a spiritual path that is laid out and definite, where does someone with a troubled soul go? I am grateful for the door that the book opens by illustrating how the two worlds of psychology and Christianity can be married yet as in any marriage, there is always areas that are not
Whereas, in the Amish culture, they subscribe to basic Christian beliefs, are centres on the community as well as show modesty, spiritual reflection and peacefulness. In which Rachel, Eli and Samuel uphold as their beliefs. The two cultures’ ideals are in direct contrast. The two cultures’ differences are seen in many of the scenes, such as scene fourteen, where Rachel offers her late husband’s clothes to John Book. She tells Book that the coat has no buttons but instead had hooks and eyes as buttons are viewed as being “prideful and vain, not plain” by the Amish.
However, I find now that I always thought about the past. I didn’t realize how much religion still influences the present and the future. I have learned to appreciate a minority religious groups’ struggle to integrate while maintaining a semblance of their values. I have found reasons for willingness to accept and value differences of religious beliefs. John Blake writes about his interview with pastor, Andy Stanley, in his article “A New Challenge for Andy Stanley.” In the article, Stanley says, “What preachers once taught as biblical truth-slavery is sanctioned by God; women aren’t allowed to preach; gambling and dancing are sins-is now rejected by many churches.” This not only confirms that America’s society does change to accommodate other beliefs, but also that these changes can be good things.
The word Baroque comes from the Portuguese, and means “fake jewellery” or “irregular pearl”. The term refers to something impure, a deception, and a caprice of the nature and the extravagance of the thought. During Baroque, the European Catholic Church needed to react against a large number of revolutionary cultural movements that caused a new science and religion dissident inside the dominant Catholicism: THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION. It was the aesthetic expression of the Counter-Reformation. On one hand the Protestant Church constructed buildings for the pray in a sobriety way and without decoration, on the other hand The Catholic Church use the baroque’s grandiosity and complexity.
The overall theme seems to have a religious feel to it. There are also elements of scientific curiosity that give this poem a more down to earth feel. Blake does a really nice job of raising some very interesting questions that easily create doubts and cause internal conflict inside the reader. Blake raises questions about the origin of life and creation of the universe. Blake makes a reference to heaven, “And watered heaven with their tears,” that certainly suggests a religious tone to the poem.