St. Anthony's Transition According To Searle: The Setting Out

A parallel novel, The Cloud of Unknowing, was anonymously written in the fourteenth-century about the journey of transitioning from a secular life to a God centered life. It begins with the writer addressing the reader in a fatherly manner- this way, the reader is able to connect with the writer even when the journey gets rough. The author states the journey to know God is contemplative, through giving up all previous understandings of God and traveling through a “cloud of unknowing” to obtain a oneness with God. The author also notes that the journey will not be easy and that frustration can happen, but that frustration should be channeled into focus as greater understanding will come as the frustration ends. The hard part of this journey, according to the author, is in having a desire or willingness to work over time to come to oneness with God.

In The poem “The Flesh and The Spirit” author Anne Bradstreet uses: human values, personification, desires and pleasures, as key elements to portray to the reader the internal battle of man; his desires for physical satisfaction and holy redemption. I think this is significant because, it is through this specific literary work Bradstreet addresses the major issues, of mans conflict within. It is through this text I also believe that Bradstreet had not only unintentionally addressed issues important during her lifetime, but which can also be applied to the generations that will come after her passing. She in her own way broke down, what this supernatural crusade translates to in the real world. Through the next few paragraphs this paper will explain the significance of this poem’s theme “ the internal human conflict of gaining materialist pleasures versus obtaining holy deliverance”.

Before becoming the missionary that we know today, Brother Andrew was spiritually dead. “I put the Bible in my duffle bag, as far down as it would go, and forgot about it”(26). All he desired was adventure, which he thought he could find in war. God had a different plan. At Andrew’s lowest point God was able to grab hold of him which changed his spiritual character. “Lord, if you will show me the way, I will follow you”(46). This prayer was his first change in character: a spiritual change. His spiritual change was the first step towards becoming all God wanted him to be.

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

In trying to reconstruct my past to correlate it with James W. Fowler’s stages of faith, who I am now is the lens through which I remember the past. I am rehearsing the past with a present view. James W. Fowler purports faith begins to develop between ages three and seven. I grew up in a rural area in South Carolina. We lived on a farm until I was twelve. Although my dad stopped farming when I was six or seven, we lived in the same house until I was thirteen. My earliest memory with regard to Fowler’s first stage of faith development, Intuitive/Projective Faith was prior to attending elementary school. I don’t remember my exact age, however, my siblings and I were quite imaginative during play time. We conjured these elaborate scenes and characters and envisioned ourselves as owners of mansions and castles. We were encouraged by our parents, particularly, our dad, to dream big dreams.

in the Timken Museum located in Balboa Park. Although this exhibit was small, the employees were extremely helpful and the artwork was organized very well, with just enough lighting hitting each painting and an enjoyable sense of oldness created from the colors scattered about the rooms. The way the pink walls were slightly faded and could easily be resembled to an old lady’s favorite color, the colors that were displayed developed the thought that the artwork throughout the rooms were aged. Each

Saint Anthony the Abbot in the Wilderness explains that the cultural climate at this time in Italy was full of vivid colors, passion towards the era, and tells a story without using a single word. In the same way, this body of work is one of eight panels which is similar to different chapters in a book, displaying Saint Abbot life. This painting shows Saint Abbot as a hermit travelling through a desert in the Egyptian wilderness. The sky is dim so it appears to be getting dark. He passed by a Church, which looks to have a vibrant appeal, it seems the further he gets from the Church, the more isolated it becomes. The landscape is bare, there are naked trees and bland rocky hills. Saint Abbot was surrounded by small animals, they were often

Shortly after the tragic event of losing her house and possessions, Mrs. Bradstreet surges into an internal conflict over the symbolism of the fire, and how its significance is related to God. Religious/Puritan ideology read that all events and actions are controlled by God, which is utilised to respond to the activities or feelings one is currently experiencing. Bradstreet’s insight and knowledge between God and personal significance allows the exchanges in the internal conflict, accepting development and adaptability to the predicament.

While spending time at Day Mārī Antonios Anthony spent time talking to visitors and visiting God in the mountains. A couple of times while being in the mountains Anthony when back to his home town to preach against “enemies” who were preaching against God’s word. Many monks followed Anthony into the mountains to learn his ways and to become one with God. Through Anthony’s conflicts with the devil he created organized monasticism and some of his rules were followed until the 20th century. Sadly, St. Anthony died on January 17, 356 at the very old age of 105 years old.

He explains the Johnathan Edwards’ view of the sacrament was in fact based on his personal experiences and shifted through time. He argues with Edwards’ that the person who does not believe in God should not be allowed to attend the Lord’s Supper (Crisp, 63). Yet, Edward’s also believed that a person should live a pious life pleasing to God (Crisp, 57).

As the rigidity of the Roman Catholic Church’s power, influence, and corruption reached a climax during the Romanesque period, humanity’s desire for a more pleasurable life began to increase. The Middle Ages brought about a transition that began to replace spiritual emphasis in life and highlighted intellectualism and religious skepticism. Though the church’s power was not necessarily undermined, it was certainly revolutionized and dampened. Examples of this humanistic transformation were represented through the union of Gothic and Scholastic ideals. Rather than simply scare the population into being religious and pious, the Gothic era welcomed the population- beginning with France, followed by the rest of Europe through the airy, dream-like, colorful, and uplifting beauty of the Gothic Cathedrals. This radical change would not have come about were it not for Aristotle’s nominalist philosophy during Antiquity, which pioneered the future revival of this somewhat liberal thinking.

Individuals can proclaim faith throughout their lives and call themselves avid believers, but when faced with a life or death situation, there are two extremes that they will conform to. In the face of death, individuals will either deny their faith or reverently stand up for their beliefs. Throughout a lifetime, life and death situations rarely transpire, however, when they do, an individual will succumb to whichever extreme is most convenient for the circumstance. Foreshadowing and irony are often key elements used to detect which extreme the character will turn to, as well viewing the story from an analytical perspective to infer how the character changes throughout the story. The interchangeability of beliefs is one of the negative traits

“Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you've conquered human nature” (Charles Dickens). Humans have an innate desire to satisfy their wills. It is this essential property which we cannot be without that makes us who we are. In Dante Alighieri's Christian epic, The Inferno, it becomes apparent that Dante the Pilgrim’s journey symbolizes our search for meaning in life as he experiences a range of universal emotions present in today’s society. Just as Dante the Pilgrim observes past sinners on his path to salvation, the road to discovering purpose involves learning from life and reflecting on it. Additionally, Dante’s emotional trials and tribulations connect the reader with their own daily psychological struggles.

Matthew Lewis’, The Monk: A Romance (1796), is a bildungsroman primarily depicting Ambrosio’s development into adulthood and subsequent transgression from ‘saint’ to ‘sinner’. However, the maturation of Antonia is also presented, and the dual coming of age narratives are marred by monstrous events. I theorise that, monstrosity not only incites the catalyst for their maturation and is the means by which they develop; it is the device by which their fates are determined. Thus, Lewis parallels their evolution into adulthood with social transgression in order to highlight the fatuity of idolatry.

As the Bishop’s doctrine is summarized, Hugo continues to implement literary devices such as personification and imagery to help the reader visualize the sinner’s condition. “Man has upon him flesh,” the Bishop states, “which is at once his burden and his temptation.” This “flesh” is personified so as to become an actual living figure of opposition. “He drags it with him and yields to it,” the Bishop teaches, “He must watch it, cheek it, repress it, and obey it only at the last extremity”. The “flesh”, of course, symbolizes the struggle of the natural man and the temptations that the sinner succumbs to. Hugo’s choice of words like “drag” and “burden” generate the feeling of heaviness found in the temptation that the mortal man bears.