...There is a lot of focus on what a Christian should or should not read in today’s society. We often are told that we should not read secular fiction because they do not show Gods work. I would disagree with this idea. In 2nd Samuel, the prophet Nathan tells David a story about a poor man whose lamb was stolen and killed by a rich man to feed a traveler.(2 Samuel 12:1-4 English Standard Version). Nathan told this story so David could understand better what he had done. We can also look at the parables of Jesus, none of which were true stories. Although these stories are fictitious, they were written to create an atmosphere that makes the reader think about their actions and how we should treat others. I think there is a lot that we can learn from non-Christian fiction as well. When we look at fiction, such as Lord of the Rings, many Christians will not read them. Some will say it is because it a fantasy, or because it involves magic and demons. There is so much more that can be taken away from the story. The books exhibit loyalty to your friends and neighbors. We are shown the struggles between good and evil inside a person, and we are shown that faith in something can be real. Stories just like that are found all throughout the Bible. I do think many books out there that are not appropriate for a Christian life, and it is important to know the difference. If we only limit ourselves to only Christian writings, we, in turn, limit ourselves from many great works of...
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...Around Them Writers are sometimes known to be products of their society, meaning that what they write on paper is a direct reflection of what is transpiring around them. May it be social events, tragic occurrences, or even personal loss, a writer’s interaction with the world will more often than not find its way onto paper. In this essay we will examine writers such as Francesco Petrarch, William Butler Yeats, and Saint Augustine, and analyze the ways and assess the impact that each of these authors have had on the world through their personal interactions with it. Francisco Petrarch is regarded by some to be the father of Humanism. The majority of Petrarch’s works focuses primarily on the value and welfare of the individual. His literature centers on an ideology that rejects religious beliefs and embraces the interests, needs, and welfare of humans. Petrarch adopted this humanistic viewpoint during his climb of Mont Ventoux. At the top of this mountain he declares, “…angry with myself that I should still be admiring earthly things who might long ago have learned from even the pagan philosophers that nothing is wonderful but the soul…” (Kallendorf, The Historical Petrarch). This event, coupled with his survival of the historical Bubonic Plague and the sudden, tragic death of Laura (his un-met lover), inspired him to write The Canzoniere, which is a collection of over 300 poems. The central theme of The Canzoniere is Petrarch’s love for Laura, a woman he allegedly met...
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...sociologically based theoretical works on fundamentalism, Riesebrodt (1993 [1990], p. 9) defines fundamentalism as “an urban movement directed primarily against dissolution of personalistic, patriarchal notions of order and social relations and their replacement by depersonalized principles.” In the follow-up book to the five-volume Fundamentalism Project, Almond et al. (2003, p. 17) define fundamentalism as “a discernible pattern of religious militance by which self-styled ‘true believers’ attempt to arrest the erosion of religious identity, fortify the borders of the religious community, and create viable alternatives to secular institutions and behaviors.” Put most directly...
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...of Professional Studies Adult Degree Programs Central Christian College of Kansas [pic] In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Business - Organizational Leadership [pic] By Jeff Dugger May 2011 Copyright ( 2011 by Jeffrey Paul Dugger ABSTRACT A RESEARCH STUDY OF HOW THE LEADER BUILDS A HEALTHY TEAM Author First/Last Name This applied leadership study was conducted to …… TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER ONE: Statement and Description of the Leadership Issue 4 Introduction 4 Statement of the Leadership (Thesis Statement) 4 Statement of Purpose 4 The Setting 5 History and Background 5 Scope of the Project 6 Importance of the Project 6 Conclusion 6 CHAPTER TWO: Survey of Secular Literature 8 Introduction 8 Leadership Principle One: Healthy teams are established through skilled communication, personal integrity and enabling of others 8 Leadership Principle Two: Healthy teams grow as they educate, motivate and innovate 10 Leadership Principle Thee: Healthy teams are sustained by strong group dynamics, organized behavior and visionary intuitiveness 11 23 Conclusion 13 CHAPTER THREE: Survey of Christian Literature 14 Introduction 14 Leadership Principle One: Healthy...
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...Definition and Beginnings of Theatre Arts Theatre or theater is a branch of the performing arts. While any performance may be considered theatre, as a performing art, it focuses almost exclusively on live performers creating a self contained drama. A performance qualifies as dramatic by creating a representational illusion. By this broad definition, theatre had existed since the dawn of man, as a result of the human tendency for storytelling. Since its inception, theatre has come to take on many forms, utilizing speech, gesture, music, dance, and spectacle, combining the other performing arts, often as well as the visual arts, into a single artistic form. The word theatre means "place for seeing". The first recorded theatrical event was a performance of the sacred plays of the myth of Osiris and Isis in 2500 BC in Egypt. This story of the god Osiris was performed annually at festivals throughout the civilization, marking the beginning of a long relationship between theatre and religion. Elements and Principle of Theatre Arts There are six elements necessary for theatre: Plot, Character, Idea, Language, Music, and Spectacle. Script/Text, Scenario, Plan: This is the starting point of the theatrical performance. The element most often considered as the domain of the playwright in theatre. The playwright’s script is the text by which theatre is created. It can be simplistic, as in the 16thcentury, with the scenarios used by the acting troupes of the Commedia dell’ arte...
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...Renaissance and Discovery (pg 317-349) 1) Jacob Burckhardt’s interpretation of the Renaissance in the 14th and 15th century, was that through the revival of ancient learning, new secular and scientific values began to supplant traditional religious beliefs. Some scholars believe that Burckhardt’s description was too modernizing and accused him of overlooking the continuity of the Renaissance and the Middle ages. His critics especially stress the still strongly Christian character of Renaissance humanism. 2) The term of Renaissance in fifteenth and sixteenth- century Italy meant “re-birth” or “revival”. In the 14th century many Italian scholars believed that the arts had been declining in quality for 1,000 years. They admired the art and writing of the Classical Age (400 B.C.-A.D. 400), the time of the Greek and Roman empires. To revive the glory and grandeur of the ancient past, these scholars eagerly studied classical literature, architecture, and sculpture. 3) Renaissance humanism is simply the focusing on the individual and learning. Before the Renaissance, people of Europe focused on the city-states and the knowledge they had attained before not worrying what new knowledge was out there. Then came the Renaissance and brought focus to those things. 4) The Renaissance was a break from the Middle Ages because it brought new ideas and new ways of thinking into society, but without the Middle Ages (medieval civilization), the Renaissance wouldn’t have...
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... | |Analytic | |Continental | |Eastern | |Islamic | |Marxist | |Platonic | |Scholastic | |Philosophers[show] | |Aestheticians | |Epistemologists | |Ethicists | |Metaphysicians | |Logicians | |Social and political philosophers | |Literature[show] | |Aesthetics | |Epistemology...
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...A religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence.[note 1] Many religions have narratives, symbols, and sacred histories that aim to explain the meaning of life, the origin of life, or the Universe. From their beliefs about the cosmos and human nature, people may derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle. Many religions may have organized behaviors, clergy, a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, holy places, and scriptures. The practice of a religion may include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration (of a deity, gods, or goddesses), sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service, or other aspects of human culture. Religions may also contain mythology.[1] The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with faith or set of duties;[2] however, in the words of Émile Durkheim, religion differs from private belief in that it is "something eminently social".[3] A global 2012 poll reports 59% of the world's population as "religious" and 36% as not religious, including 13% who are atheists, with a 9% decrease in religious belief from 2005.[4] On average, women are "more religious" than men.[5] Some people follow multiple religions or multiple religious principles at the same time, regardless of whether or not the religious principles they follow traditionally...
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...Essay RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL REPRODUCTION* Frederick Mark Gedicks† Roger Hendrix†† (forthcoming in St. John’s Law Review (Fall 2004)) And the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here am I." Then he said, "Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. —Exodus 3:2, 4-6 Now as Saul journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” —Acts 9:3-6 The Passion of The Christ is the best movie I have ever seen. It was graphic and faithfully stayed with the Gospel texts. The neck of my shirt was soaked with tears during the scourging, and I felt like a softball was lodged in the back of my throat as the movie concluded. The nearest feeling that I can compare it to was an * Copyright © Frederick Mark Gedicks & Roger Hendrix. All rights reserved. This essay is based on a lecture delivered by Professor Gedicks at the St. John’s University College of Law...
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...A SPECIAL ISSUE ON INDIA The Uniform Civil Code Debate in Indian Law: New Developments and Changing Agenda By Werner Menski ∗ A. Introduction: What Happens if One Asks for the Moon? Postcolonial India’s modernist ambition to have a Uniform Civil Code, impressively written into Article 44 of the Indian Constitution of 1950 as a nonjusticiable Directive Principle of State Policy, concerns not just an Indian problem but a universal predicament for lawyers and legal systems. What is the relationship between personal status laws and general state-made laws? To what extent should the formal law allow for, or seek to restrain, the legal implications of religious and socio-cultural diversity? To what extent does a state, whether secular or not, actually have power and legitimacy to decree and enforce legal uniformity? There are many more agendas at play here than simply the central issue of legal authority, focused on the power of the law, or simply “religion” v. “law”, or “culture” v. “law”, as we are often still led to believe. I present here the recent developments in India’s law relating to the much-debated Uniform Civil Code agenda to illustrate that Indian law today increasingly turns its back on supposedly European or “Western” models, and has been developing its own country-specific and situation-sensitive methods of handling complex sociolegal issues. This may contain some important lessons for European lawyers, specifically in terms of managing cultural diversity through...
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...A SPECIAL ISSUE ON INDIA The Uniform Civil Code Debate in Indian Law: New Developments and Changing Agenda By Werner Menski ∗ A. Introduction: What Happens if One Asks for the Moon? Postcolonial India’s modernist ambition to have a Uniform Civil Code, impressively written into Article 44 of the Indian Constitution of 1950 as a nonjusticiable Directive Principle of State Policy, concerns not just an Indian problem but a universal predicament for lawyers and legal systems. What is the relationship between personal status laws and general state-made laws? To what extent should the formal law allow for, or seek to restrain, the legal implications of religious and socio-cultural diversity? To what extent does a state, whether secular or not, actually have power and legitimacy to decree and enforce legal uniformity? There are many more agendas at play here than simply the central issue of legal authority, focused on the power of the law, or simply “religion” v. “law”, or “culture” v. “law”, as we are often still led to believe. I present here the recent developments in India’s law relating to the much-debated Uniform Civil Code agenda to illustrate that Indian law today increasingly turns its back on supposedly European or “Western” models, and has been developing its own country-specific and situation-sensitive methods of handling complex sociolegal issues. This may contain some important lessons for European lawyers, specifically in terms of managing cultural diversity through...
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...I will be reviewing Lynn Hunt’s Inventing Human Rights, in which Hunt focuses on the conceptualization of human rights and the paradox of self-evidence. Hunt introduces her perspective regarding novels as the fuel for a change in political ideas, “The austere Swiss natural law philosopher Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui insisted that liberty could only be proved by each man’s inner feelings: ‘Such proofs of feeling are above all objection and produce the most deep-seated conviction.’ Human rights are not just a doctrine formulated in documents; they rest on a disposition toward other people, a set of convictions about what people are like and how they know right and wrong in the secular world” (Hunt 27). Especially in the eighteenth century, novels were a way to escape from the everyday and dive into a character. It is only natural, then, that the reader begins to project themselves onto the...
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...CREED CASE LAW REVIEW May 2012 INTRODUCTION When the Ontario Human Rights Code became law in 1962, creed was one of the original grounds of discrimination. This was likely to deal with the fact that at the time, there was significant overt discrimination against religious minorities. Over time, Canada’s legal and societal approach to creed rights has evolved significantly. However, it continues to be one of, if not the, most complex and controversial area of rights law. Perhaps more than any other ground in human rights codes, creed rights tend to give rise to strong opinions, even among those who may not otherwise have much to say about human rights. Everything from what is creed (and what beliefs and practices are protected under the ground of creed), how creed claims are proven, how creed must be accommodated and what to do where creed bumps up against other rights have led to judicial interpretation and public debate. In Quebec, the provincial government appointed a Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences 1 in response to public discontent concerning accommodation of, among other things, creed rights. This may be in part because creed is unique in some respects. It encompasses not just innate personal characteristics but also covers associated practices and beliefs. Rights in relation to religion have been recognized as not just equality rights, but also among the “fundamental freedoms” of every Canadian as listed in s. 2 of the Canadian Charter...
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...Philippine literature is the literature associated with the Philippines and includes the legends of prehistory, and the colonial legacy of the Philippines. Most of the notable literature of the Philippines was written during the Spanish period and the first half of the 20th century in Spanish language. Philippine literature is written in Spanish, English,Tagalog, and/or other native Philippine languages. Contents [hide] * 1 Early works * 2 Classical literature in Spanish (19th Century) * 2.1 Poetry and metrical romances * 2.2 Prose * 2.3 Dramas * 2.4 Religious drama * 2.5 Secular dramas * 3 Modern literature (20th and 21st century) * 4 Notable Philippine literary authors * 5 See also * 6 References * 7 External links | ------------------------------------------------- [edit]Early works Doctrina Christiana, Manila, 1593, is the first book printed in the Philippines. Tomas Pinpin wrote and printed in 1610 Librong Pagaaralan nang mga Tagalog nang Uicang Castilla, 119 pages designed to help fellow Filipinos to learn the Spanish language in a simple way. He is also credited with the first news publication made in the Philippines, "Successos Felices", ------------------------------------------------- [edit]Classical literature in Spanish (19th Century) On December 1, 1846, La Esperanza, the first daily newspaper, was published in the country. Other early newspapers were La Estrella (1847), Diario de Manila (1848) and Boletin Oficial de Filipinas...
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...India, or Bharat, the fifth largest and the second populated country in the world, is one of the few countries which can boast of an ancient, deep-rooted and diverse culture, which stretches back to 5000 years. In ancient times, India was known as 'Bharata Varsha', the country of the legendary king of Puranic times called Bharat, and was believed to be a part of the island continent called 'Jambu Dvipa'. Geologically speaking, India formed part of the Gondwana land and was attached to Antarctica and Australia, before it was liberated from the Antarctica complex about 135 million years ago and started drifting towards the north and finally joining South Asia about 45 million years ago. The Siwalik foothills of the north-western Himalayas served as home to the fossil primate genus known as Ramapithecus, which lived some 14 million years ago. Researches have also found that a species resembling the Australopithecus lived in India some 2 million years ago. Some anthropologists believe that the Chotanagpur region witnessed the transformation of Homo Erectus to Homo Sapiens. This claim is based on the findings of hand axes and blades in the region of Pathalgarwa and the discovery of Harappan pottery in the nearby areas. Early Civilisations Extensive archaeological excavations carried out at Mohenjodaro in the present Pakistan in 1922 brought to light the existence of a highly sophisticated and urbanized culture known as the Harappan Civilization in India, which dominated the north-western...
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