In the excerpt from the novel Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Viramontes the protagonist Estrella goes through various changes as an outcome from prior experiences. To convey those changes Viramontes uses some literature elements such as tone and paradox. Things starts when Estrella comes upon Perfecto’s red tool chest. When she opened the box she was disoriented because she did not understand what were the functions of the the tools.
When it comes to knowing and learning the religions of the world one must approach them with a critical mind. One cannot simply just believe every religion and know have their own view points. David Van Biema presents his ideas about Christianity and Jesus in “The Gospel Truth?”. Van Biema’s main point is about how “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John… is notoriously unreliable,” . Van Biema writes about how one cannot be completely sure about whether to believe if Jesus actually said what is written in the bible, he continues to say that Jesus may even be an “imaginative theological construct” .
Misquoting Jesus In one of his best-selling book, Misquoting Jesus, Dr. Bart Ehrman, a well-known and respected New Testament professor and critic, seeks to show that the New Testament is a corrupt document changed through evolutionary processes of scribal adjustment, early Christian theological apologetics, as well as poor scholarship. Ehrman is able to make textual criticism an argument because the study of the text has shaped his life into the person he is today. In the introductory section of the book, he explains his story. After his transformation as a young man, he studied at the Moody Bible Institute, Wheaton College as well as Princeton Theological Seminary.
In Helena Maria Viramontes’ novel, Under the Feet of Jesus, Estrella starts off as angsty and confused, but then shifts to a state of contentment and understanding, caused by life experiences. These character traits are revealed through the selection of detail, figurative language, and tone. Initially, Estrella is immediately characterized as “very angry” when she finds Perfecto’s “foreign” toolbox. She uses a tone of confusion that illustrates her unfamiliarity with the objects in the tool box by using words such as “funny-shaped”, and using a simile comparing her confusion with the tools to the alphabet which Estrella “could not decipher”.
Mark’s Jesus is an enigmatic messiah. Jews would have expected a messiah to exhibit supernatural powers, possess a priestly command of divine word and law, and be vindicated by God, as is the case with Mark’s Jesus (Ehrman 104). Additionally, Mark’s first readers would have recognized it as a biography, as biographies celebrating the qualities of great figures were common in the Greco-Roman world (Ehrman 97-99). However, the qualities in Jesus that Mark celebrates confuse those who encounter him in the gospel of Mark. Mark’s messiah is thus misunderstood: people are amazed by his words and deeds, but they do not understand that the messiah must suffer and die and that the vindication Jesus brings is a moral victory over sin and not a military
The scene in which Jesus cleanses a leper in the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark seems to contain several important meanings. Prior to understanding the significance of this healing, it is imperative to acknowledge and investigate an important gap that is present. Mark states that “a leper came to” Jesus, but he fails to elaborate on Jesus’ location and why he was easily approached by a leper (Mk 1:40). From Leviticus 13 we know that the laws regarding lepers were very clear and strict. The law regarding leprosy states, “The leprous person who has the disease…shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease.
Luke was born a Greek and a Gentile in Antioch, Syria. He was a physician and it is believed that he may have also been a slave, as it was not uncommon in his day for slaves to be educated in medicine so the family would have a resident physician. Luke is the only Gentile to have written books in the Bible. He is the writer of the third Gospel and it is believed that Luke lived a long life and died c. 74 in Greece. Luke's gospel shows special sensitivity to evangelizing Gentiles.
The Summary of the Gospel of Luke Just around two thousand years ago, a woman in the village of Nazareth was chosen to be the mother of the son of God, as was announced by an angel. Similarly, as was announced to a woman named Elizabeth, a relative of Mary, that she would have a baby who would be the one to prepare the way for the Son of God. The boys are both born, and grow to be young men, and are presented in the Temple and circumcised. As they age into adults, they begin their missions with baptisms. John, now called John the Baptist, baptizes Jesus in the Jordan River, thus resulting in the beginning of Jesus’ mission.
Two examples of the different views of the Romans and early Christians are Marcus Cato by Plutarch and the Gospel According to Matthew. In these separate works, the differences of their attitudes, actions, and beliefs on human
Earle Cairns in his book "Christianity Through the Centuries" claims that the dethronement of the gods of the peoples defeated by the Roman armies created a spiritual emptiness that was filled by the arrival of the Christian faith. With the Christian invasion around the world, the gods of the Greco-Roman pantheon fell into disrepute, what has been called by historians “the twilight of the gods” (Götterdämmerung). With the advent of the church, the gods of various tribes and nations of the Roman empire collapsed and ceased being worshipped. The historian Will Durant describes that the weathered paganism sought to syncretize itself to Christianity through the worship of pagan gods disguised as Catholic saints, and by means of thought and Greek
Rhetorical Analysis of Jonathan edwards’s Sinners in the hand of an angry god: jeremiad Jonathan edwards, is known as one of the most important religious figures of the great awakening, edwards became known for his zealous sermon “sinners at the hand of an angry god”. During his sermon he implies that if his congregation does not repent to christ they are in “danger of great wrath and infinite misery”. Throughout this sermon edwards uses literary devices such as strong diction, powerful syntax and juxtaposition to save his congregation from eternal damnation. Throughout Edwards’s sermon the use of turgid diction is exceedingly prevalent.
The Gospel of Mark was written by an early Christian companion of the apostle Peter. Hence the author of this Gospel is also named John Mark. This Gospel was also written in Rome. The Gospel of Matthew was recorded by Jesus follower Matthew. The Gospel of Luke was written by a doctor with the name of Luke, a follower of Paul.
In theology class this year, I watched the movie The Case For Christ. The movie is set in the 70s and about a husband, who is a journalist, and wife who are atheists. Something significant happens to change how the wife, Leslie, thinks, and she questions her beliefs before converting to Christianity. Lee, her journalist husband, feels like his wife is lost, so he searches for a way to prove to her that God does not exist. Throughout his research, Lee struggles to accept the evidence piling up before him and refuses to believe God exists and loves him.
In its novel beginning, due to the numerous sexual controversies, the leaders of the Church tried to tone down and even eliminate information in circulation; attempting to construct their ‘right structure.’ Essentially, the leaders identify the Gnostic teachings as heresy, excluding them as part of the official canon. After centuries of this inner cleansing of different text, the Christian Church eventually claims they maintained their views from the actual beginning; which in truth is not the case. Conclusively, how much credible information is still missing remains a
A short critique - “The Reformed Pastor” by Richard Baxter Richard Baxter’s writings on the “The Reformed Pastor” is a wake up call to every shepherd of the flocks to examine their soul’s condition and their flocks as well. So, the minister, coming into ministry with much infirmity, has before him a great responsibility and yet difficult office to undertake and to accomplish. Every minister’s success in accomplishing God ordained duties and responsibilities depends on the thoroughness of his examination of his own soul – “It is most necessary, therefore, that men of so much infirmity should take heed to themselves, and be careful in the oversight of their own souls.” While he takes care of his own soul diligently, the same way he needs to care for his flocks welfare – soul’s betterment. Richard Baxter’s writing had been a humble yet an authoritative call to reform ministers’ actions and live their lives as if the souls of his flock depend on his actions.
