As referred to in the introductory paragraph, society in the Medieval Ages was focused on religion, and the Great Schism divided their sacred Roman Catholic Church. The Church provided the citizen’s with a sense of leadership, especially considering the hardships they were facing at the time. The Black Plague was running rampant, and citizens needed something to keep them spiritually sane. It is evident that the Church, during this time, was unable to provide its usual function of spiritual and moral support, so the Church steadily lost its power and prestige. In turn, this affected all elements of society and their functions, as citizens were now confused and scared since the Church was no longer a support figure to them.
The Interpersonal Model of Revelation, also known as the Indirect Model of Revelation, says that the act of revelation is best thought of as a religious experience. Because God is mysterious and of a higher order, the experience itself cannot be fully interpreted because it is like nothing that one could have ever experienced, and therefore human beings are responsible for the interpretation and distribution of this information onto others. The purpose of this revelation according to the model is to establish a relationship between the divine and the mortal. The make up of the revelation is that as time goes on, the sacred and the human will be united. This implies that the so called “truths” of faith are incomplete and that we as humans are constantly
Soul-building evils are meant to force human beings to live through adversity and in turn strengthen our characters (Sober, pg. 111). Another criticism that exists to this second premise is called defense, which attempts to explain how evil can exist logically, given the existence of God (an all-PKG God) (“The Problem of Evil”). However, defense does not presuppose the existence of God or the existence of evil. If God and evil can
Christian references throughout Beowulf are used in a story originating from a pagan culture. These connections to Christianity only exist because of the monks who originally transcribed the poem onto paper. The most prominent apostolic implication is simply the many references to God. God is tagged with various titles such as “Eternal Lord”, “The Almighty Judge”, and “Head of the Heavens” and sometimes as blatant as "God", “The Almighty”, and “Creator”. Biblical practices and references are also found throughout the writing of the poem.
This passage describes how the sinners feel which are afraid because of god’s consequences. He threatened to drop them in hell making them want to change their ways in sinning. Jonathan
For example, states in his sermon that, “The devil is waiting for them, hell is going for them, the flames gather and flash about them,” (pg.46), which is basically explaining how sinners are going to burn in hell and they deserve it. Also Edwards states that, “the fire bent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out,” (pg.46-47), which he means that those who sin deserved to struggle in their own hell. Edward is telling the sinners to burn up in hell because they sin. Edwards explain to sinners what is going to happen to them and he also describes how sinners were going to hell. For example, he states, “The wrath of God is like great waters that are damned for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose.” (pg.47), he explains how sinners’ lies spread quickly and makes them sinners.
This means even those who are good could still go to hell. However, the ones who were granted this spiritual ticket to heaven from birth could lose that right if they do not live a pious lifestyle. The Puritans believe any happenstance around them was a sign of hell if bad, or heaven if good (Ping). Unfortunately, the colonial lifestyle they lived was harsh and these many bad sighs occurred often for the Puritans. Satan played the role
He learns that to continue to pity the sinner’s sufferings is to show a lack of understanding of Gods justice and mercy. In Canto III Virgil and Dante pass through the Gate of Hell that is inscribed “Abandon all hope, you who enter here,” it is through these gates in The Vestibule of Hell where we get our first glimpse of Gods justice. The offenders are titled by Dante as, the Opportunists, in life these souls never chose a side; they never fully supported good nor evil, for their own personal advantage. Accompanying these souls are the Angels that refused to take sides in the Rebellion of Angels. In hell these souls eternally chase a blank banner; allegorically this represents the futility of their activity on earth.
He dismantles many of these arguments by attacking the assumption of God’s omnipotence. The first argument that Mackie writes of is the expression that good cannot exist without evil. Many theists maintain that good and evil are necessary counterparts in the same sense that any quality has its logical opposite. An example; redness can occur only if non-redness occurs. Mackie continues to cast doubt on the metaphysical principle that a quality must have an opposite.
Boethius used this theory to illustrate how God is not able to relate to humans as he is not in time with them, nor one of them. This means that he can also not interact them including punishing and rewarding humans. Boethius explains that if God were to interact, punishing and rewarding, it would mean he would be experiencing time as one and so undermining Boethius’ theory of god being eternal. This idea is more consistent with the idea that God is immutable and is not contingent. On the other hand, Boethius also states that humans do not have free will.