False Objectivity Definition

It is said that man, to survive, has always needed something or some belief to hold on; be it science, religion or magic. Man without a belief lacks hope (Walker, 1997). Lack of hope makes a man vulnerable to unforeseen circumstances. To avoid this vulnerability man has been holding onto different belief systems.

For this paper I am boiling the redemptive trend hermeneutic down to two components. First is the concept of momentum – asking if an interpretation or application of the passage continues in the spirit of previous Scripture. For example, Webb argues that both testaments “make significant modifications to the institution of slavery relative to their broader cultures” (74), therefore reading a passage such as Titus 2:9, “tell slaves to be submissive,” as pro-slavery would be a contradiction of what had previously been accomplished within God’s people. Second is the concept of now and then (with a shout out to The Blue Parakeet), where the redemptive thrust, projected by the Bible, along with general cultural ebbs and flows, may have changed our contemporary world so much that components of the original text have become confusing, dated, or perhaps even irrelevant.

Richard, R. P. (2010). God's judgments: interpreting history and the Christian faith. Bibliotheca Sacra, 167(665), 113-116. Retrieved from

Analyzing The Light and the Glory: A Comprehensive Review of the Most Popular Christian Interpretation of American History Ever Written

Recently, scholars have analyzed King’s (2003) chapter You’ll Never Believe What Happened is Always a Good Way to Start, with the intent to discover King’s rhetorical techniques and overall purpose. At the time of his speech, the world was “predominantly scientific, capitalistic, Judeo-Christian” (p.12). Firstly, Cassandra Plettell (2017) found that King utilizes ethos to demonstrate how stories may alter an individual’s perception (p.2). Similarly, Emma Murphy (2017) found that King uses ethos and pathos that “portrays the idea that stories have the ability to greatly impact individuals’ lives” (p.2). Then, Ajodeji Edna Adetimechin (2017) found that King uses ethos, pathos, and logos to convince his audience of the influential power that stories “have in shaping perspectives” (p.2). In general, they have found that King’s purpose is regarding the influential powers of stories with the use of ethos, pathos and/or logos. In addition to Plettell, Murphy and Adetimechin’s finding, I would like to go a step further and argue that King’s overall purpose is to persuade the audience that the Genesis creation story has formulated a culture that lacks forgiveness, compassion, and unity (King, 2003, pp.24-27). Inclusively, I will argue how King utilizes his personal experiences with stories, emotional appeals, and writing arrangement in order to gradually persuade his highly intellectual audience.

One of the most outstanding characteristics of humans is that we have a moral conscience- the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, as well as understand the consequences of actions beforehand. Nonetheless, religion remains important to society because it helps to refine and provide a deeper understanding of humans’ moral responsibility. There are instances where either people ignore religious practices in favor of reason and logic or follow only religious teachings that suit a particular situation. Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a novella that typifies the failure of religion to unify people and provide a common course for understanding life. The story talks about Santiago’s fight against fate and the probability of escaping death that is foretold beforehand. The priest symbolizes religion in the novella and readers observe that his actions are similar to those of ordinary people. Ordinarily, we expect the priest to uphold religious practices and bring people together when society is divided on an issue.

Smith and Bradford use religion as a literary tool to persuade the reader towards their own interests. There are similarities and differences in the motivation to use religion by these two authors, yet the use is still prevalent in their writings. The reasons for these similarities and differences are found in the greater interest of each individual author.

Throughout centuries, humans have expressed different perspectives toward a single idea. The subject of religion invites challenging discussions from skeptical minds because religion is diversely interpreted based on personal faith. The authoress sets her novel in a fictional town, Cold Sassy, where religion plays a predominant role in people’s lives. Through Will Tweedy’s narration she explores the religious opinions of the town’s most prominent citizen Rucker Blakeslee, Will’s grandpa. Although Blakeslee spent his whole life in a religiously conservative town, he has a radical approach toward religious concepts such as predestination, suicide, funerals, faith, and God’s will, thus forcing him to challenge the traditional views of

Subsection Summary: Religious skepticism staged a dramatic comeback in the form of a wave of revivalism.

Kyle, I like how you pointed out that Haskell stated that he agrees with Novick on several issues, but that it is the issue of objectivity and its view where they differ. Personally, I think Haskell’s attempt to show the reader that he shares common ground with Novick. While, I agree that “responsible research” as you stated, can attempt to show an objective viewpoint, I think there will always be some opinionated motive to a historian’s research. The question that I would like to ask is if neutrality is shown, as Novick suggests, through “generations of historians” that are merely writing their histories because of the views of their predecessors (Novick, 16)? Regarding Novick’s views on this point, I feel that a historian who lived during a period that they are writing about will hold a different perspective than a historian who was born after and writes about an event later. In regards to presenting some form of objectivity, I ponder that a historian can do this by stating their personal bias and including the stance of other historians on the same topic.

Religio-historical objects are things of crafted pieces of writing that reveal the realities of religious subjects through the perspective visions of their author (C.J Bleeker). Compared to an artist who has a muse, writers also have a “muse” something that influences their writing. Whether it is a personal experience, religious belief, or common morals writers derive the context within their writing from many different aspects of life. One thing most authors derive their ideas from is their religion or just any religion that interest them. Authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Flannery O’Connor, writings often include many allegories and symbols to religious faiths.

Machen stated that the New Testament books “are regarded by all serious historians as genuine products of the first Christian generation.” (PAGE 18) The statement merely could be false without Machen’s willingness to terminate as un-serious all historians who ignore the validity and authority of the New Testament. The argument of the New Testament authenticity is still conflicted between in liberalism and typical denominations. A weakness in Machen’s argument on Doctrine was while Machen indicates that the New testament could be understood through the perspective of the “primitive Jerusalem church” (PAGE 22), no supportive agreement was found what the primitive church looked

(p. 16). The author points out that regardless of the discipline being discussed, everyone formulates their belief system based on their own particular worldview.

In “Reasonable Religious Disagreements,” Feldman discusses the role of intolerance and relativism in argumentation in regards to how epistemic peers who have a share of the same evidence reasonably maintain their own belief, all the while, maintaining that the other party of the disagreement is reasonable in their belief as well. This essay will concentrate on the benefits of Feldman’s observation and the benefits of critical thinking in argumentation as well as elaborate on the main reason as to why people so desperately agree to disagree in relation to media coverage.

Religion also plays an important function in allowing the authors to comment on society and faith’s role in it. For example, both authors seem to be suggesting that our religion is only compatible in society as we know it, that is to say that it is not compatible with other situations. In The Children of Men a major disruption to the working of society, mass infertility, has led to a total destruction of the Christian faith. In Brave New World, an unstoppable surge of machinery and technology has led to the disregard of religious moral and the introduction of a new set of hedonist attitudes, both scenarios being deplored by the reader. This could also be seen as the authors’ asserting that a civilized society desperately needs stable religion and morals, given that the utter breakdown in The Children of Men is arguably as shocking as the superficial worship of machinery and pleasure in Brave New World.