How did Constantine attempt to appeal to various groups within the Roman Empire? Discuss the evidence for change in Constantine's projection of his image during the course of his reign. Constantine at or just before the battle of the Milvian Bridge had some element of a Christian divine revelation, though it is often said that Constantine favored the Christian religion on the basis of political power and influence, it does appear this was not so due to the fact that the Christians were a very small minority in the empire. After a long period of sporadic and severe persecutions of the Christians in the Roman Empire, Constantine appealed to them in different ways. First he decreed an edict of toleration, which in essence greatly appealed to the Christians who were a minority in his empire, as it allowed them to practice their faith without government persecution.
The complete devastation of Christianity in Japan led few whom have survived the harsh persecution go underground and establish a hidden Christian community. Starting from late 1630's, these hidden Christian community, also known as Kakure Khirisitan FT , usually disguised themselves as Buddhists, or Shintoists, and worshipped Jesus and Mary in the place where the eyes of surveillance would not reach. They camouflaged most of their rituals and hid or transformed all equipments necessary for proper worships. For Kakure Khirisitan, This was the only method to continue their faith and pass on the teachings of Christianity FT, but the consequences of changing the religious practices & teachings by themselves without any support from religious authorities, such as foreign priests, was immense. In here might lie the roots or fundamentals for Japanese response to Christianity today.
Catholics believe that the Holy Eucharist is the true presence of Christ while Presbyterians believe that it's only a symbolic presence of Christ. The Presbyterians believe Christ sacrificed himself once for all. Communion, one of the seven sacraments, is a core part of a Catholic mass however Presbyterians do it far less often. The two also differ in authority. The Roman Catholic Church’s sources of authority include the Bible, the tradition of the church, the Creeds and the Pope.
In general, there are similar ethical beliefs amongst Christians due to Judaism being the only root of Christian ethics. In general Christian ethics is deontological and authoritarian and what is deemed right or wrong is based on belief in God. The ethics of Christianity is based on the holy bible, which is a library of books that expresses Christian faith. As the bible was written over a long period of time and includes many different teachings and morals, there is no overall biblical morality that can be chosen therefore different denominations choose different parts of the bible to support their beliefs. For instance in Genesis it says that ‘God breathed the breath of man into Adam’s nostrils’ and from this Roman Catholics can argue that as God has given life, only he can take it away so things such as abortion, euthanasia and murder are absolute wrongs.
Most devout Christians would take offense if someone claimed that the story that proves their existence is in fact a myth. A myth is not just some story to the people, but rather a truth. They forget that a story can be false. According to the text Exploring Religion, “Myths are distinguishable from other forms of sacred stories in that they are more fabulous than realistic, more imaginative than factual, and more evocative than analytical” (Schmidt 185). Myths help us to make sense of things, and also give us purpose.
Great Heaven and Earth bore Kottos and Gyes and Briarues, for example. Hesiod’s heaven is for the gods, born of Earth, “starry Heaven, first, to be an equal to herself, to cover her all over, and to be a resting-place, always secure, for all the blessed gods” (Hesiod, n.d., p. 56). Hesiod’s hell was not a place to go because of sin and therefore punishment but a place the Titans were sent to when they lost the war. Hesiod describes the gods as squabbling and fighting one
c A Critique of Anderson's Theory Liberty University Theology and Spirituality in Counseling COUN-507 April 24, 2012 A Critique of Anderson's Theory In Neil T. Anderson’s book entitled The Bondage Breaker, he presented a theoretical model to overcome negative thoughts, irrational feelings and habitual sins. Anderson’s theoretical model also compared to Hawkins concentric circle theory of personality including strengths and weaknesses. Anderson believed that there are a few common misconceptions about bondage which include “ demons being active when Christ was on earth, but their activity has subsides; what the early church called demonic activity we now understand to be mental illness; some problems are psychological and some are spiritual; Christians cannot be affected by demons; demonic influence is only evident in extreme or violent behavior and gross sin; freedom from spiritual bondage is the result of a power encounter with demonic forces” (Anderson, 2000, pp. 19-23). In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, Paul specified that “believers are engaged in a spiritual battle against forces which stand against the knowledge of God (Anderson, 2000).
This is hardly the personal and morally correct spiritual values that the church prides itself on? As lollards we follow the ways of Luther and his lutheranism which should be made into the religion of England, Protestantism. Part of our martyr Wyclif's beliefs were predestination. We still believe in this today, it means that only preselected people can enjoy the luxury and salvation of heaven when they die. Catholicism up to this
Just for the sake of fairness I would have to say that just about any film concerning the life of Jesus is going to be considered controversial to some. These two stories were written and told by authors with contrasting religious beliefs and presented in convincingly different ways. Jesus Christ Superstar was written almost forty years ago by Andrew Lloyd Webber is a church of England Christian and is patron of a charity called the "Open Churches Trust" to get churches open to the general public. Mel Gibson born and raised a Traditionalist Catholic. Traditionalist Catholics generally prefer to be referred to either simply as Catholics or Roman Catholic.
The belief in a miracle can come from either experiencing them or religious reasons and explanations. People that believe in miracles usually believe in the religious evidence that we are provided with. Christians and Catholics will believe that miracles can happen because there are a lot of stories in the bible that seem to break the laws of nature and almost seem impossible to believe in, for example Jesus healed poorly people and he rose from the dead. In our society people believe that rising from the dead is humanly impossible and then jump into assumptions that this event must of had some sort of supernatural explanation; others will not believe it at all. Catholic people think that if you believe in God miracles seem more obvious to you and if you deny and test the existence of God then it will be harder to see the miracles happen.