Christianity And Christianity In The Movie : Case For Christ

Christianity began its succession into the most dominant worldwide religion after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days build another made without hands.” Upon Jesus’ death and resurrection, he completed this task setting forth the development of Christianity. Since Jesus left no formal authoritative power, organization, or agreed upon scriptures, a wide variety of sects gained popularity in the development of Christianity. Most of these sects were later deemed as heretic, one of the most notable being Gnosticism. Gnosticism was a dualist religion believing the material world evil and the invisible spirit realm good. This belief obligated Gnosticism to follow Docetic interpretations. Docetism is the belief that Jesus was never truly man but rather a divine from the spirit world. All forms of Christianity, however, believe Jesus is son of God sent as humanity’s savior from damnation. Docetism, along with other aspects of Gnosticism, drove other Christians condemn Gnosticism as heresy. Gnosticism, however, is more comparable to Canonical Christians than realized. Specifically, the distinction between Docetism and strict Canonical belief is not only insignificant but also justifiable due to Canonical contradictions surrounding Jesus’ existence.

Case For A Creator is not a story, but a collection of interviews. The book is a very powerful apologetic book. It bring light to many unanswered questions that graze the mind of believers. Lee Strobel is a journalist, author, and a well known apologetic speaker. As a young reporter, Strobel would write for the Chicago Tribune. He wrote from an atheistic view point questioning and bashing Christian's behaviors. After becoming a Christian he goes on a mission, interviewing famous religious scientist and professors to prove Christianity through undisputed science.

Christianity is one of the most influential religions on both ancient and modern Western society, with the religion based on the teachings of the prophet Jesus Christ who lived approximately between the years of 5 BC and 33 AD. It is claimed that Christ was the son of God whose spirit was embodied and sent to Earth as a human being to bring peace and prosperity to the less fortunate, and absolve the world of its sin. Jesus preached a doctrine of a supreme monotheistic god who ruled over the universe, as well as ethics and morals especially centred on the concept of faith and forgiveness. If one was to live their life in accordance to the Will of God and the teachings of Christ found in the written word of the Holy Bible, one would be absolved of their sin and ascend to the spiritual realm of God, known as Heaven, after their physical death.

Christianity was born and flourished in an empire where the common language was Latin and Greek. Two important people like Paul and Constantine further influenced and were a major part of the development of Christianity. The history of the Jews leading up to the time of Jesus had a major impact on the development of Christianity. “When Christianity was clearly identified as a distant religion, the new religion was considered by its members to be the fulfillment of Judaism rather than a new religion.” “Since Jesus was a Jew and preached to the Jews, Christianity was closely linked to Judaism.” The development of Christianity was due to several historical, political, and social circumstances.

Award-winning journalist, Lee Strobel wrote The Case for Christ to retrace and enlarge his journey toward becoming a Christian. Strobel once atheist, and now Christian, shares how he began to look upon the Bible and God. As an atheist, Strobel lived the life of selfishness and only worried to please himself. When his wife began to go to church he wasn’t very pleased until after he saw the positive and attractive change in her. This is the start of his curiosity and investigation about Christianity. He wanted to understand what changed her like this. He wanted to relate with his wife so he decided to study about this and attend church services with her. Strobel began his journey and interviewed thirteen leading scholars who defended their views concerning the historical reliability of the New Testament. Strobel splits the case for Christ into three basic sections: Examining the Record, Analyzing Jesus, and Researching the Resurrection.

• Writes about James, brother of Jesus, who was called the Christ. Stoned to death in A.D. 62. Pg.78

The Christ figure is a recurring symbol in American literature. Throughout Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, various interactions and events portray McMurphy as a Christ figure. There are frequent visual and concrete references to Christ throughout the novel. Also, the reader discovers that the other patients view McMurphy as an inspiration and someone they wish to emulate. This cooperation enables him to oppose Nurse Ratched and do what he thinks is best for the patients.

The author's main purpose for writing A Myth of a Christian Nation is to explain how the world has claimed to be founded on christian principles but has neglected to see that this is a lie that we as christians and people in society have told ourselves to make it seem like we are “ one nation under God”. Boyd also focuses in on and introducing our role in the kingdom of God vs the kingdom of the world and our role in politics and society.

We will also look at a few of today’s top music leaders and how their songs give hints that there does not life than just things of this earth. We will go through the pro side of that where now that churches need to be able to connect with all walks of life because they appeal to more people than they used to. The other thing I will be talking about is how in recent years we have had a rise in popularity in Christin music. C.S. Lewis put it best when he said, “The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will lead us to good because He loves us.” I will also go through my opinion on if I believe it is ok to have Christianity in pop culture. Studying this topic, the past few months I have learned so much in

Rome’s embracing of Christianity was not immediate and was often flaky, In Part 4: From Jesus to Christ, the laws protected Christians and other times it persecuted them. For example Professor White stated, “Christianity was considered to be protected by the legal status of Jewish tradition within the Roman Empire” . What helped and also was too noticeable for the Romans was the evolving presence of Christians, they kept growing and growing. Over time the Christians grew in numbers that surpassed Judaism. As mentioned in the video the presence of Christianity became noticeable also because of the lack of participation that Rome had during pagan celebrations. “Jews were not forced by law to participate in pagan rituals, pagan rituals are a part of the normal fabric of life in a Roman city” , said Professor Fredriksen.

It is hard to imagine that movies, music, art, literature and other aspects of pop culture are influenced by different themes in Christianity. Whether it is Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia sacrificing himself to save his kingdom; or Harry Potter defending the wizard and muggle world from the devilish Lord Voldemort; or Superman possessing God-like powers; or Gandalf the Grey from The Lord of the Rings bringing together a fellowship of men, elves and dwarves through his prophetic and benign character, one can find many connections in different films to aspects of the Christian faith. The list for films with a Jesus-like character is endless but a personal favorite is the story of Anakin Skywalker from the Star Wars series. Anakin’s attributes

As a minister, worship leader, and actor, I’ve constantly had to balance these roles. Either in a church environment or in a theatrical environment. Christian theology and theatre have never intersected for me. I’ve always kept each role separate in its own category. I felt each role was different enough that they would never cross over into each other’s world. Or maybe, they have crossed over and I just did not realize the connection.

Throughout history, Christianity always had a reputation, or a “name” following it. Different perspectives approached the reputation that was attached to Christianity in different manners. Justin Martyr and Porphyry had objectives when defining whether this “name” really defined Christianity and the past. They wondered whether the past really represented Christianity. Additionally they honed in on the question of was the past that people represented as Christianity really the roots of Christianity? All around Porphyry and Justin was perceptions of what Christianity rooted from and stood for.

The Passion of the Christ is one of many films about the life of Jesus but this particular one is different to the others. Released in 2004, directed by Mel Gibson and filmed in the ancient Aramaic language, `The Passion' focuses mainly on the death of Christ and shows us the full extent as to what he suffered to save mankind.

Many Americans flocked to see Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ.” On over 2.000 screens across America the viewed the “harrowing depiction of Jesus' last 12 hours in wide-screen vivid color.” (Allen 2004) People viewed images of Jesus being flogged, crucified and left to die. This violence caused some Christians discomfort with theology, and some Jews’ fear that it will “incite violence against them because of its portrayal of Jews’ involvement in Jesus’ death.” (Allen 2004)