Taking a Look at Christianity

Christianity is a Theism worldview that focuses on the belief in one personal and relational God that created all that exists (Hiles, & Smith, 2015). God created man in his likeness to care for all that has been created, to know and worship God, and to love and obey God (Diffey, 2015). Man is to rule and have dominion over the earth, be fruitful and multiply, filling the earth (Genesis 1:28). Christians rely on the support of the Holy Bible to guide them in the word of God. The Bible consist of four basic acts, the Creation, the Fall of Humanity, Redemption, and Restoration (Diffey, 2015). Christians believe that God sent his only Son to die on the cross for their salvation. In this paper will be a focus on the Christian worldview discussing God, humanity, Jesus,

As a project we were told to study a religion from an outsider’s perspective. We, as students, would attend that specific religion’s place of worship to observe their rituals and routines. Then after service we would conduct an interview with the participants to answer our personal questions such as “Why do they do the things they do?” or “How often do they do this?” I chose to study Christianity even though I am a Christian. I thought it would be interesting to see if most Christian churches practice Christianity the same way. However, prior to attending services I researched the history of Christianity.

One of the many decisions that has to made in life is what, if any, religion they will practice. Christianity, the belief in God, and Jesus as his son, or Judaism, to follow the direction of the Torah are some of the major religions that a person may choose. This decision may be one of the biggest decisions of a person’s life, and each religion has similarities and differences, and pro’s and cons. Two of the major religions, Judaism and Christianity, are alike in their inspiration of sacred texts, but are different in their identity of Jesus, and practice of worship.

Christianity is a faith based religious tradition, of which the follower is considered to be a Christian adherent. Thus, being a living tradition, Christianity is continually subject to change in accordance to the needs of the adherent and reaffirming the Christian tradition within a contemporary context. The aspects, which attribute the present existence of Christianity and its dynamism therein, include sacred texts and writings, ritual and ceremonies, beliefs and believers, and ethics. Ultimately, the aforementioned characteristics strive to form and continually validate answers to the enduring questions of life through a process of change, which simultaneously highlights Christianity as a living tradition.

The purpose of this book is meant to create a foundation for Christian lifestyles. It addresses the origin of Christian values, and portrays the evolution of Christian worldviews throughout history. It briefly explains the biblical narrative and develops ideas in which Christians are able to live out their faith and deal with other worldviews existing in our world today.

The history of religion continues to play an important role in defining why certain aspects of religion are the way they are today. Understanding religion’s history can also help one appreciate the importance, value, and determination that certain individuals went through in order for that particular religion to gain freedom and acceptance in society. Throughout history, Christianity has shown exactly this. By learning about its history, one can gain an understanding of how it emerged into being one of the most popular religions in the world. Furthermore, better understanding of the religion, both historically and contemporarily, can help dispel any negative preconceived notions about Christianity.

Determination is perhaps the most important quality for success. To be determined, you must have an eager need for your goal. One who is seriously determined, must also be persistent, this is how we see change and difference made. The early Christians in early Rome showed more than enough of both determination, and especially persistence. Without their efforts, Christianity would not be the number one religion in the world, with over two point one billion members (Infoplease); and not to mention its nearest competitor, Islam, almost half as large with one point three billion members. (Infoplease) They had an enormous impact on our world today, as the religion is once again growing into more and more parts of the country. (Infoplease)

In this essay I will be looking at the theories of Edward Burnett Tylor and Émile Durkheim, and comparing them to see which theory I think gives a better explanation about what religion is, or whether religion is actually definable. On the one hand we have Tylor’s theory that tells us that religion is belief in spiritual beings and that religion is just a step on the way to reaching full evolutionary potential. Durkheim’s theory, however, says that religion is very much a social aspect of life, and something can only be religious or “sacred” if it is something public (Durkheim 1965:52). Ultimately these theories do not give us an outright explanation about what ‘religion’ is, but there are aspects of the theory that can be used to gain an understanding or idea.

religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence. Many religions worship one God. A God is a superhuman being or spirit worshiped as having power over nature or human fortunes. Like many religions, it has to be founded by someone who has had a revelation. Every great religion acknowledges revelation in the wide sense that its followers are dependent on the privileged insights of its founder or of the original group or individuals with which the faith began. In the essay I will explain how Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism were founded.

Christianity is a widespread religion that reaches many different cultures and places all around the world. Since it is such a widespread religion there are many types of interpretations that can be developed based off the words and teachings of the Bible. Most commonly we have the normative view of Christianity. The normative view can most basically be understood as the highly shared teachings of churches. Another type of interpretation that encompasses all beliefs that are not compliant with the normative view is called esoteric. Here we will compare the interpretations of Daskalos, the Great Teacher of Cypress, and his Researchers of Truth against the normative view of Christianity as understood by both Catholics and Protestants.

Tylor sought to find the simplest, most basic definition of religion. Tylor came to think of religion, in its most minimal form, as a matter of belief and thus defined religion as ‘the belief in spiritual beings’ . With this basic premise, Tylor proceeds to ask how people came to believe in these spiritual beings. Tylor argued that Animism was both the first and the most basic religion and therefore the foundation of all religions. Tylor defined animism having two dogmas: a belief in spiritual beings and a belief in the human soul which lives on after bodily death: ‘Thus Animism in its full development, including the belief in souls, and in a future state, in controlling deities and subordinate spirits, these doctrines practically resulting in some kind of active worship.’ Tylor argued that the development of belief in souls was a natural result of efforts to explain phenomena such as dreams, shadows, trances, visions, apparitions, reflections, loss of consciousness, and death. Tylor thought he could explain why all known societies have conceived of the idea that all humans have souls, through arguing that belief in souls evolved from naturally occurring phenomena.

Christianity is one of the most common religions of the world and was founded in the early stages of time as we know it. Christianity was formed by the power of one man, Jesus Christ, whose life was unexplainably different from anyone else’s of his time. The influences of his character, beliefs, customs, and teachings, are the foundation of the religion today. Throughout time and as more knowledge was gained and received, the customs of the religion changed and new smaller groups broke free from tradition and formed themselves into their own organizations. Every event that happened shaped the religion, but the messiah or better known as the Son of God, played the most important role. Jesus Christ born circa 6 B.C in Bethlehem which is the south city of Jerusalem was born of Virgin Mary and Joseph, but as the author states, “Christians have believed that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The details are fully explained in the rabbinic interpretation which is provided in the Old Testament. (Fisher, 2014, 305) There is very little written about Jesus’s early life. But what is said in The Gospel of Luke (2:41-52) conveys that when Jesus was 12 years old, he had accompanied his parents on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and they became disunited. After a few days, he was found in a temple conversing affairs with some of Jerusalem’s elders. Throughout the New Testament, there are a few trace references of Jesus working as a carpenter while he was a young adult. Moreover, at age 30

I have spent my entire life growing up in the greater philadelphia area, and throughout my time here I have only been exposed to one type of religion which is Christianity. I grew up going to a Catholic school, and I quickly learned that Jesus was the one true God. From this moment on I believed that Jesus was the only way to praise and worship God. Since I was brainwashed into this I was under the impression that we would be learning about all prehistoric religions that were all incorrect. However, I learned quickly that although these religions were prehistoric some of their rituals did relate to Catholic practices. Religions provide us with a base for morality and help us to answer the questions like how humans got here. Christianity is the religion that I believe in, however i think it is important to evaluate and understand other religions because they provide us with different views on our human condition.

Religion has a strong effect on humanity often changing people’s lives and helping them to walk out of their “darkness”. However, certain religions have different beliefs, as their truth. One of these, Christianity, is one of the most popular religions all around world. Roughly,There are roughly 2 billion Christians, approximately 31.7 percent of whole world population, in 2010 (PewResearchCenter). Although there are many followers of Christianity, there is not enough evidence to present Christianity as “the one true religion” as is tradition, evidence in their documents, and believers’ faith.

Hypocritical. Judgmental. Old-fashioned. Unchanging. These are all adjectives that have been used to describe Christianity time and time again. However, one could argue that these are critiques of Christians rather than Christianity as a whole. Thus, a serious question is raised: what portions of Christianity are derived from the people following the religion rather than the genuine beliefs of the religion itself? In order to answer this question, one needs to analyze the characteristics of the faith, the people who follow it, possible alternative faiths they may abide by, as well as what could have caused this transition from genuine Christianity