Susan T. Foh 's The Christian Faith

The first chapter of Christian Thought and Practice, by Natalie Kertes Weaver introduced theology of Christianity. This was broken up into five major topics. The topics are: terms used in the study of religion, a functional understanding of Christian theology, facets of Christian theology, types of theology, and audiences and practitioners of Christian thought. The author explains the importance in detail of all of the above points.

Now I will outline the feminist objection to the christian ethic being one of self-giving love as presented by Barbara Andolsen. The word agape is often used to discuss Christian love, because it is the greek word most of often used in New Testament passages concerning love. Christian agape is most commonly characterized as self-sacrificing love with little regard for oneself, while self-love is deemed as a sin to be overcome. (Andolsen) Outka claims that humans have a propensity to self-love and the love command was intended to correct the natural tendency for self-assertion. (Outka 1972:300) Feminist theologian, Valerie Saiving Goldstein argues that the believe in the natural tendency for self-love is based on a masculine experience, so the

In her writing titled “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson”, Mary lies out for the reader her experience of being held in captivity by Indians during the King Philip’s War. Perhaps one of the most significant aspects of this writing is the glimpse that the reader gets into Rowlandson’s faith and religion. Faith was a major aspect of life in the Colonial Period. It was of widespread belief that God was to be feared, and that he was the only way to redemption (Kizer). Mary Rowlandson was no different, but the extreme conditions of her captivity caused her faith to occasionally waiver. Most of the time throughout her journey in captivity, she depended on God, and the

Karen Armstrong, author of “Homo Religiosus,” claimed that without the physical rituals and traditions, religion morphed into a belief. Simply put, Armstrong argued that religion requires not only blind faith but also customs and practices that affect one’s physical and mental behaviors. It is through these rituals and taboos that the religions grows and forms, and yet also changes when deemed necessary. Additionally, Armstrong constantly compares religion to different art forms. She does this to convey the message that much like art, one must focus and study religion for lengthy periods of time to be properly understood. However, this connection also suggests that art and religion can perform an analogous role to humankind when required, as they both evolve and change when a society 's infrastructure does. Throughout her essay “Homo Religiosus,” Armstrong focuses on the similar role that both art and religion play in society to discuss her claim that religion is not just a belief, but rather has to do with changes in physical and mental behaviors that in return create change in society and the religion one needs.

Many people would agree that without faith, the world would be in chaos. The book Christian Foundation by Kathleen Fischer and Thomas Hart gives an interpretation on faith in our time. Many people would question the definition of faith. Faith is a gift, which is given by God to have trust in him and belief in him. This book is a great entry in anyone's life that has speculation on his or her own faith. The book has many ways into understanding ones own religion. It discusses the Bible, Jesus, Church, God's existence and Images of God. All of these chapters helped me get a better interpretation of what my religion entailed.

Most of the human ‘Homo sapiens’ is born into a religion. That religion could be Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Christian or Atheism, etc, a set of beliefs which someone inherits from his family, and till the death, that man will likely stay with his or her religion because almost every human has tendency to be religious. On the other hand, the reality of the religion does not matter to him unless someone conducts any investigation to get to the religious truth. In the essay ‘Homo religiosus,’ Karen Armstrong says that, today’s religious followers accept the religion into which they were born, without doing the hard work required. This means that someone follows his ancestor’s religion from the beginning for his life and he or she is not able to prove his ancestors were wrong because he or she has faith in his own religion. Faith is the main concept of the religion because people have deep faith in their own religion. In addition, faith is nothing but mere fantasy and faith has no basis in reality. Therefore, people have no ability to conduct investigations to find out the religious truth. In addition, elements and places of religion vary from religion to religion. Religion is one of the most prehistoric institutions which have been noticed to practice in any society past and present even in the ancient world where cave paintings were popular. Institutions, like politics and entertainments, have been greatly influenced by the religious faith. The truth of religion might give

Book 3 of Mere Christianity contains 12 separate chapters, which has far too great a scope to address properly here, so a glimpse will have to suffice. In the first, Lewis examines three components of morality; the relations between men, the interior moral mechanics of a man, and the relationship between a man and the God who made him. Lewis makes the case that, since we are destined to live forever in one state or another, it is desperately important that we pay attention to the sort of Being we are becoming. Lewis points out that most of humanity can agree that keeping relations between men running smoothly are important, but varying world views and religions-or lack of religion, have produced some disagreements on the necessity of keeping one’s own ship in order, as it were, and it completely breaks down when the relationship between a man and his Maker are addressed, as there is virtually no agreement there.

The Old Testament of the Holy Bible gives many examples which provide modern man with guidelines for the use of scientific method. Millam (2008) explains that there is an underlying order in nature demonstrated by the patterns and regularities of God’s creations. These regularities can be seen in the forces of nature and are stable throughout space and time (Millam, 2008). The original classification of species, use of precise measurement, and even the first account of scientific research, are all included in the Old Testament of the Holy Scriptures. God gives scientists some clear frames of reference for seeking knowledge and truth in science.

February 28, 1993 would haunt the nation’s government for what they have done. For 51 grueling days, the Waco, Texas siege would confuse our nation on who to defend; the Branch Davidians at Mount Carmel or the FBI. In this essay, I will argue that the FBI had to be the main culprit in this event by ending the standoff in flames from the tear gas used. But first, I want to discuss how David Koresh got sealed in the world of religion.

The Case for Christ was written by Lee Strobel and Jane Vogel. The book is almost like a really big essay with a bunch of different sections, each one proving or disproving a certain point. The book focuses on disproving the existence of Jesus Christ but in the process of disproving the existence of Jesus he proves just how real Jesus is. I personally chose this book because I am a Christian and it looked interesting to see why other people who don 't already believe start to believe. Also I feel like the more I know about Jesus the more I know about God, since they are one in the same. I found this book to be extremely interesting because of all the textual and factual based evidence proving that Jesus existed.

In the first chapter of “Christianity Rediscovered” by Vincent J. Donovan he is introducing us to the idea that missionaries now have a poor reputation due to their history. He says “History has offered the opportunity to deflect and distort the meaning of missionary work in every age”. For a long time a missionary was a person spreading the word of God and after years of doing so we have diminished many different beliefs, practices, cultures and history. At the time it was thought to be the right thing, to spread out and share the gospel to help people find meaning and acceptance. In today’s age a missionary is a lot of different things, in many cases it is more focused on the health and physical wellbeing of the people. Many people still share the gospel through missionary work, but in other cases it is more of a material aid. Donovan introduces the book as a voyage of discovery he wants us to put our normal beliefs aside to see his perspective of living a missionaries life and struggling with the fact of if you are helping or hurting.

Mahatma Ghandi once said, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”(Gandhi). Forgiveness is something that you have to own up to and owning up to something you have done is not always the easiest thing to do. Even though it is hard to do, the strongest people can admit when they have done something they were not supposed to. In Christianity, a religion of selflessness and forgiveness, the story of Saint Sebastian may be one of the most unique life stories. Although he is named the Patron saint of Athletes and Soldiers, his life might best exemplify his quest for forgiveness and spreading Christ 's love

Finally, a healthy marriage included complementarity of spousal roles (Kostenberger & Jones, 2004). Complementarity is when two parities in a relationship have equal value, but play different roles, typically with one role submissive to a leadership role (Kostenberger & Jones, 200). Despite more modern philosophies about biblical headship and submission, marriage is by design complementary. A major controversial issue of complementarity in a marriage is the idea of headship, or the inherent role of leadership of the male. According to Wilson (2006), submission has a negative connotation in postmodern American culture, however, submission is to be thought of as a, “disposition, demeanor, or character trait, and not as though it is consisted simply of this action or that one” (p. 45). Wilson (2006) insisted that godly or biblical authority, as an aspect of headship, is distinct as it is authority used to encourage and inspire, not abuse or condescend–this being contrary to secular views of headship. Biblical, or godly, headship also includes sacrifice; the man is the head whether he or his wife embrace this true, and also whether or not they function, as this is a God’s ordained position for the husband (Wilson, 2006). The practical application of leadership and submission are roles followed, out of respect for God and love for one another. The husband’s role is to lead as the head of the family, while the wife’s role is to submit to her husband’s leadership (Baker,

As I thought about all the topics we have read and studied in this class there was one topic that I really did enjoy and changed the way I thought about the topic and gave me a whole new perspective on how I look at religion now. I chose the topic of feminism and Christianity and how the authority of the women gender role in religion has been a struggle for many years. I think Lynn Japinga did a very good job in writing about this topic in her book, “Feminism and Christianity: An Essential Guide”. Japinga includes in her book the use of the male dominated language in the Bible, the blame for the original sin, and the lack of women gender clerical role authority within the religion world.

J. Robert Clinton elaborates on the fact that God’s call to a leader to increase his faith in ministry is one of the strongest challenges a leader will face. Faith challenges almost always stretch one beyond his present understanding. Faith challenges are directly linked to effective ministry. Leaders are people with God-given concepts, and one of their essential functions is to inspire followers with that vision and hope. They can’t fulfill this task without faith. A faith challenge involves three features: (1) a revelation from God concerning some future plan, (2) a realization by the leader that God is challenging him to act on the basis of this revelation, and (3) a mindset that determines to make leadership decisions based on this firm