When you look up the word passion there happens to be two completely different definitions. One definition, the most common one, says that passion is a “strong and barely controllable emotion.” However when you look right below it there is another definition that reads, passion is “the suffering and death of Jesus.” In the play Equus by Peter Shaffer, you see how intertwined the ideas of passion, worship and religion are. A schizophrenic 17 year old boy named Alan lives his life in the grey area between these two definitions and ultimately combines them to make one. Dysart, a psychologist, tries to help Alan distinguish the differences between these two separate ideas. But, by helping him to become what many people would call “normal,” he could destroy the passion that he so envies in Alan. Dysart sees the beauty in the disease that allows Alan to feel something special even if it is for the wrong reasons, and he ultimately feels that he is the one to blame for squashing the passion. …show more content…
Growing up with a mother who praised horses and loved God, Alan was very confused. His father, who was a forbiting man. The His father, at one point, changed a poster that was hanging above Alan’s bed from a picture of Jesus to a picture of a horse head on. This idea of the horses and god being one really confused Alan. From this point on, the horse, or Equus, rules **Alan. Alan is taught by his mother that sexuality and religion come as one. This makes Alan believe religion and sexuality come together as one, and because his father changed the picture, he almost changes from worshipping god into an awe of horses. Dalton’s stables are his shrines and the horses are his Gods.** In this play the ideas of worship and passion co exist due to the idea that Alan has a passion for worshipping horses. He goes as often as he can to worship them through rituals. His passion to worship ultimately** over came
Do our genes affect our decisions? Can the environment alter our genetic makeup? In Sharon Moalem’s work “Changing Our Genes,” he writes about how the environment around us and our ancestors has contributed to the making of our genes. Genes are the instructions to make proteins which is ultimately the making of us. In Kevin Beaver’s “Genetic Influences on Adolescents,” he emphasizes the groundbreaking research in the similarities of children’s eating habits compared with their siblings and how genetics is a contributing factor. Our genes do not define us, but they do play a role in what our choices in life will be. One of the choices we make is regarding our lifestyle, specifically, how active we are and what we choose to consume. Additionally, Liam, a 12-year-old boy in the documentary film Overfed and Undernourished who has obesity realized that in order to avoid healthy problems at such a tender age and to live a longer more active life he needs to combat his excess weight. Also in “The Epidemic of
In the pugnacious article "Thrift: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Virtue," the writer Daniel Akst uncovers the characterization and slant of the utilization of thrift. Throughout the article, Akst gives a few perspectives and cases of certain powerful individuals and their perspectives. Alongside the different perspectives of the individuals, there are numerous quotes from well respected people. When Akst uncovers his actual position on thrift towards the closure of his factious article, he trusts that thrift makes solidness. The targeted group that Akst aims for is the general population of money spenders in America. His intention of composing this article is to advise individuals about thrift and that by thrifting you make budgetary opportunity. The rhetorical analysis strategies that will be exemplified are pathos, as well as logos. Daniel Akst is successful in his contention that thrift makes opportunity with illustrations of hurried speculations, quotes of persuasive individuals and measurable proof.
The Sacred Romance Drawing Closer to the Heart of God by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge is an interesting book that’s supposedly filled with useful information about how to live like a Christian and become more like Christ. However, this book has many issues. Brent Curtis and John Eldredge attempt to get us as readers to understand how to live and be more like Christ by comparing the pains and sufferings we all go through in our everyday lives to that of arrows piercing our hearts. As Curtis and Eldredge talked about arrows piercing our hearts I realized there have been times in my life that happened to me. Finally, after reading the book I realized that this book has the potential of being an interesting read but, it’s many errors leave us as readers confused.
The play illustrated by Adu-Gyamfi & Schmidt (2011), “Everyman” written by an anonymous writer late in the fifteenth-century (p. 265-287), interconnects religious allegories with worldly moral lessons on several main reasons that good deeds and works are required and needed, but they do not save humanity from spiritual death. The play conveys a story about Everyman’s (representing human individuals) natural life journey to death. The morality of the play helps the audience appreciate the history of Christianity. The focal point throughout the play is about humanities, life plan and a journey that requires every man to construct an unworldly firm foundation built up strong to help overcome any uprooting storm within a lifetime. Its personification comes in the form of the characters Everyman, Goods, and Goods Deeds, who embodied the concept of teaching lessons to humanity of the significance of living a Christ-centered life and learning to allow the heart restored and guided by God to help aid good judgement (Adu-Gyamfi & Schmidt, 2011). Thomas F. Van Laan (1963) describes Everyman’s play, “The human action and its allegorical significance together form a distinct structural pattern which not only imposes discipline but also contributes its own intrinsic meaning”. From the start of the first phase 5-6, the first point of view of the play engages, “…That of our lives and ending* shows / How transitory we be all day.*…” (Adu-Gyamfi & Schmidt, 2011). The play displays how
Unfortunately, for a person to behave morally some motivation might be necessary. Emotional appeals are used by authors to create strong feelings within the audience, some of which include fear, pity, and guilt. A documentary call Scared Straight attempted to use fear of prison life as a reason for the featured teens to alter their lives. However, author Kathy Feinstein disputed that idea in her article, stating that the “Change Within” program used in the video was not ultimately successful. In Jonathan Edward’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” he too, uses the appeal to fear to persuade his audience of unbelievers to convert and accept Christ. With the evidence and effects of appealing to fear, along with the arguments made by Feinstein, this tactic is still the best motivational force for three reasons.
First, it is important to consider the detailed description of the passions that is provided by Thomas Aquinas in My Way of Life. He describes the passions to be movements of the sense appetite towards bodily goods and away from bodily evils (MWL 189). They move in a cyclical pattern that begins with an inclination toward a good, then a movement is made to secure the good, and finally the
Passion is a deceiving word. While passion can be something beautiful, it can also be quite terrifying. Passion is a consuming, motivating, thing. The passion we feel through things is expressed through art, actions, and the way that we live. We work hard for what we’re passionate about and ignore the things we are not. The Great Gatsby is a complicated, confusing, and fast paced novel, in which all significant events that occur are due to the passion that different characters have towards one another. The Great Gatsby defines passion as the way one feels when they love another person.
The Story of Christianity is a book written by Justo Gonzalez; a native of Cuba. Gonzalez serves on the faculty of the Interdenominational Theological Center which is located in Atlanta Georgia. He attended Yale University, where he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in historical theology; in fact Dr. Gonzalez is the youngest person at Yale to be awarded a Ph.D. He is also one of the first generation Latino theologians and instead of growing up Catholic, comes from a protestant background. In addition to writing many other books, Gonzalez is also Cokesbury’s publishing chief narrator of the Christian Believer study video lessons course and the recipient of the Ecumenism Award from the Theological Consortium in Washington, which he received as a
The book Integrative approaches to psychology and Christianity second edition by David Entwistle introduces the text by explaining how psychology can go in a direction, and Christian theology approach can lead in a different direction. He continued by stating the need for understanding and studying human behavior because people come from different walks of life and different expectations. It leads us to form unique perspectives to help give us an understanding of the individuals you encounter. The Entwistle 's book addresses the relationship between Christianity and culture, Christianity and science, and Christianity and psychology.
Passion. Something that many think they have, when in reality do not. Best described as an incontrollable emotion, passion is often seen as taking a huge role in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Although characters show the qualities associated with being passionate, their true attitudes can be summed up by a different word: obsessive. In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare develops the idea that trying to force passion can lead to obsession. In other words, when people deceive themselves into thinking they have passion, they can become obsessive. This is shown repeatedly in Romeo’s character. First through his immediate change of love from Rosaline to Juliet; secondly when he tries to kill
The crux of Emile Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of Religious Life lies in the concept of collective effervescence, or the feelings of mutually shared emotions. Through a hermeneutical approach, Durkheim investigates the reflexiveness of social organization, the balance between form and content, and the immense cooperation in collective representations. In his work, society is the framework of humanity and gives it meaning, whereas religion acts as the tool to explain it. Since society existed prior to the individual, the collective mind must be understood before the concept of the individual can be grasped. However, one component seems missing from his social theory – what underlies society in terms of rituals and rites? Only when this
Love comes in many forms like falling in love. Sometimes people are driven to extremes because of love, also known as their passion. This passion is the cause of wars, suicides, killings and love. Thinking that their thoughts and feelings are the absolute truth drives the passion that causes these deaths, love and change. Hamlet and Claudius can be categorized by their immense passion for what they believe to be true. These passions cause them to become increasingly rash and ultimately are the cause of their demise.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet and King Lear are not only exhibitions of human experience but also studies in the spiritual life of man. Through these two plays Shakespeare has elaborately attempted to get a meaning out of life, and not to show its mystery or madness despite the fact that madness as simulation has been a source of fascination in these two tragedies. In Shakespeare’s Madness and Music, Kendra Preston Leonard says that Hamlet and King Lear ultimately focus on crises of family and power and involve a recurring early modern trope: madness (1). Concerning madness, Foucault says in Madness and Civilization, that it constitutes the knot more than the denouement, the peripety rather than the final release (32). Foucault sheds light on the
Eliade, in his book “The Sacred and Profane,” poses an interesting conjecture that all people are inherently religious. What one does and the decision they make in their lives are all reflections on what they find sacred. Sacred in this context is an extension of one’s belief held up in high esteem to the point where what is deemed sacred is god like. Religion is the frame that interprets what is sacred and gives it a name and a face. Christians, for example, view Christmas as a sacred time as it is the season of the birth of their savior; Jews view the Passover as sacred as it represents a time in their religious history where God passed over the Jews while sending a message to their enemies. What is sacred can manifest itself in any shape, form, or time; truly entering the fourth dimension of space. If something sacred is god like, what is sacred to those who do not have a God? How can something be sacred if there is not a frame of reference for the thing to be sacred? How can every decision a person makes be reflect what they find sacred, if they do not have a religious language to reflect this phenomena?
Philia, eros, and agape are three different Greek terms for the word. These three terms explain the different types of love a human being can acquire. Philia is a love of friendship, which is grounded in commonality. However, eros is a kind of love that seeks something from the other person or thing. Lastly, agape is the love that wills the good of the other and is completely self-giving. The meanings of these Greek terminologies, philia, eros, and agape, allow us to better understand and discuss our relationship with God and human fulfillment.