Comparing Tekakwitha 's Biographers Paint A Completely Pious Life

In early first and second century Christianity the church was being built with a good amount of gentile pagan people from throughout Rome. The conversion to Christianity was not very popular and there was a chance in early Christianity to be persecuted or even murdered just for the belief in Christianity. Even with this being known there was a draw of pagan converts to join and be a part of this movement known as Christianity. In this essay we will talk about a few things that may have been part of the draw of pagans to Christianity, and give an example of why some pagans may have found Christianity distasteful.

Through my academic essay of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Dictee I will answer the following two questions: What was the relationship between all the sections in the book? Why are they named like that, after a muse? After having answered the questions I will give a brief overview of few sections that where talked about through the book and writing style that was used.

It is believed that Tecumseh was born in 1768 in central Ohio. He was the second son of a Shawnee warrior who was killed at the Battle of Point Pleasant. In his dying breaths, his father commanded his eldest son Cheesuaka, to train Tecumseh as a warrior and to never make peace with the whites. Cheesuaka was good to his word and became an excellent warrior and a teacher. He grew close with his younger brother, and after their mother moved to Missouri he acted as a foster parent as well. Tecumseh was a model child, and although it is claimed that he ran in terror from his first battle, his courage never faltered from then on. Tall, muscular, intelligent, and highly charismatic, Tecumseh proved to be a master battle tactics and an excellent

a. Pagan philosophers studied the Bible and found that it contrad- icted each other. b. They also found that Genesis implies multiple gods. i. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said that gathering knowledge was pagan and unholy, unless it was “sanctified by a holy mission.” c. Christians were often blamed for the fall of Rome. C. Aurelius Augustinus (Saint Augustine)-Bishop of Hippo, Catholic prelate 1.

This book also includes two secondary characters. The Jesuit priests Claude Chauchetiere and Pierre Cholonec. Greer who provide a strong cultural background for both the characters to help people understand the contrasts between the interesting character of Catherine, who switches between the Jesuits and the Iroquois convert. Claude Chauchetière , a Jesuit missionary seems to be harsh on Catherine through out the book. During the chapter Gangaauagué: A Mohawk Childhood, this statement really stood out to me. “Chauchetière insists that Catherine was repelled by torture, even before she converted to Christianity: “She never had a savage woman’s spirit of cruelty; she could not bear to see anyone harmed, not even a slave, and she thought it a sin to watch a prisoner torture and executing It was a fact of Iroquois life, formative experience that surely played a part in shaping the program of ascetic penance she developed as an adult and a Christian.” (Greer, pg. 47) This quote shows the true colors of Catherine and her development from changing from Mohawk to Christianity. It is interesting to see the feeling that Claude is portrayed as in this quote, it gives you a sense of comparison between Christianity and the Mohawks and the changes she has to make when she switches between the two. Through out this book, it is interesting to

Christians are usually viewed in the same way, from one perspective. The perspective in which Christians are viewed is one created by themselves. Robert L. Wilkin’s main purpose for the book The Christians as the Romans Saw Them was to provide his audience with another viewpoint, one of Greeks and Romans. Wilkin describes this book as “a portrayal of pagan criticism of Christianity from its beginning in the early second century to the time of Julian in the late fourth century,” (Wilkin, xvii). Wilkin’s intent in his writing of the book is to analyze what pagan observers once said and then, attempts to coincide their views with the religious and social impacts of the world.

pagan) works can be approached differently through comparison of Christianity and paganism as a whole, along with the idea that Christ perfects all. Chesterton writes, “The primary fact about Christianity and Paganism is that one came after the other” (Heretics 53). Therefore, the pagan Roman works remain pagan, but are also “pre-Christian.” Combined with the fact that philosophy’s dissatisfaction was completed by Christ, it follows that a Christian can uncover more depth in Christianity by studying pagan works with eyes of faith. Chesterton observes, “A pagan was generally a man with about half a dozen” religions (53). Augustine saw the “wholesomeness of the Christian religion” as satisfaction for the ancient pagan thinkers, who desperately tested these “half a dozen” religions in vain, one after another (City of God 2.28). This “wholesomeness” also offers overwhelming freedom. Chesterton writes, “It is a curious fact that the moderns have mostly rebuked historic Christianity, not for being narrow, but for being broad. They have rebuked it because it did prove itself the desire of all nations, because it did satisfy the cravings of many creeds, because it did prove itself to idolaters as something as magic as their idols, or did prove itself to patriots something as lovable as their native land” (The New Jerusalem 112). Chesterton believed the “Church was infamous because it satisfied the Greek intellect and wielded the Roman power” (112). Continuing the notion that Christianity perfects all, Augustine writes that if philosophers “have said aught that is true and in harmony with our faith, we are not only not to shrink from it, but to claim it for our own use from those who have unlawful possession of it” (Christian Doctrine 2.40). Augustine shows that if men like Moses received pagan knowledge, pagan works contain not only “false and superstitious fancies” but also “liberal instruction which is better adapted

Through the use of sight, readers can imagine the beauty of Cogewea and feel the passionate feelings Alfred Densmore has for her. “Alfred Densmore, the cold, calculating business man out from the East for adventure and money, was half in love with this wild tawny girl of the range”(page 81). However mentally he keeps telling himself that he cannot think that way. “The Idea struck him as absurd. Never! Never I don’t dare.. They are alright as objects of amusement and pleasure, but there it must halt” “..She is no mate for a gentleman of the upper society” (Page 81). Alfred Densmore knows as a man that he cannot fully understand and control his attractions for Cogewea. The features on her like her dark skin and her “black eyes”(p.81) are commonly used to portray a forbidden seduction, the difference between love and lust. Alfred Densmore knows as a privileged Euro Canadian, he cannot marry Cogwea, he cannot have a formal relationship with her and with people like her because he will be passed on with judgement. Also, Alfred portrays the common patronization of politics that native Canadians were mostly often associated with in the past, that is the luck of knowledge and savagery. However the idea of bringing shame to one’s race and family was and still is an issue for both Euro Canadians and Native Canadians. It would be just as hard to bring a white man home for a native woman because of the fear of judgement and dismissal from the

Mediaeval Christians were educated in a culture derived from antiquity. They learned to admire the heroes of ancient Rome and Greece, and their great poets and philosophers. Lucretia, Regulus, Cato, Virgil and Aristotle, for example, seemed obviously to have been virtuous people. But Christian doctrine appeared to go against this conclusion: all people are affected by Original Sin, in such a way that they cannot act well consistently, and so be virtuous, without divine assistance. The route to this divine assistance was through faith – precisely what these pagans lacked. Moreover, if such pagans were genuinely virtuous, then it would be unjust for God to damn them, and yet there seemed to be biblical warrant that no one without faith is saved. This, in outline, is the problem that pagans posed to Mediaeval Christian thinkers.

Christian and Pagan values and symbols have strong roles in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Although there are more Christian values that are plausible, the Pagan influences are also shown, but they are not as apparent. Christianity can also be seen through the constant mentioning of God. The poem begins with a celebration of a Christmas feast that takes place at King Arthur’s court in Camelot. Worshiping one God is represented through attending mass.

What does this all mean? It means the poet must have worn the poem during a time of the rising of Christianity and the disappearing of Christianity. One can examine how religion influences the actions of others by analyzing the characters. Pagan ideas were brought forth through many characters but were quickly simmered down with

The account of Saint Thecla, as found in the literary piece, The Acts of Paul and Thecla, reveal the fervid passion of a woman in her pursuit of the monotheistic God, risking life and limb on her quest to make His gospel known. While the woman herself remains in question, her legacy continues as a strong representation of the role of women in the early Church – a position often denied to many women by the patriarchal nature of the institution. Thecla defied the early leaders, pushing herself into a realm where only men had dared to enter, and succeeded in bringing an entire region under the wing of her Christian religion. Thecla was a leader, a visionary – but, first and foremost, she was a woman.

Justin writing to the Emperor about how Christine teachings parallel similar to the pagan mythology, making it irrational for pagans to persecute Christians. (1 Apology, Ch. 21-22).

The resemblance between The Martyrdom of Polycarp and this text supports this presupposition. Both of the saints were questioned three times, both were burned, to both the mob brings death and for both God presented miracles in flames. Even more, the Scripture’s citations are the same, relying on Pauline epistles and the Gospel of Matthew. The mimetic, sacrificial and pedagogical aspects come into the forefront of both texts, as well as the undoing of existing political structures and building Christian ones.

Born as Winifred Murray on March 18, 1896 in which she was baptized at St. Patrick’s Church in Michigan. Murray’s family was very religious, and her father, Daniel Murray, served as Jane’s first catechist until she made her first confession (Laesch). In 1914, Murray entered the Novitiate of the Dominican Sisters at St. John’s home, where she not only received the habit, but she also gained name Sister Jane Marie of the Holy Rosary on April 6, 1915. The year 1928 is when Murray got involved with liturgy in which she attended a convention via invitation at Marygrove College in Detroit. It was there that Murray recalled having a life-changing experience at the meeting for International Federation of Catholic Alumnae. It was at this meeting in the college chapel that Murray experienced “the reality of the liturgy in action” for the first time, including active participation (Laesch). This experience with the liturgy excited Murray very much, and Sr. Jane Donnelly who was another member in attendance to the meeting witnessed Murray’s excitement and introduced her to Orates Fratres, a periodical that was a new liturgical journal (Laesch). It was evident that Murray had a true interest in liturgical matters, because upon receiving them, she studied various copies of Orate Fratres magazine. Mother Eveline Mackey saw Murray’s enthusiasm and