The Altar By George Herbert

In the Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, the main character, Lauren Olamina, leaves behind Christianity, a religion that she identified with her whole life and creates a new religion known as Earthseed. Earthseed is a naturalistic way of faith, based on the idea that God is changeable, therefore life, too, could change. Lauren Olamina creates Earthseed because she believes that it is what her people need in order to not only alter their chaotic and misguided ways, but to live a pro-active and positive life.

In this paper, I will review Charles Ryrie’s book The Holy Spirit. I will detail what I feel the book is about. I will emphasize various points given by the author that stood out to me. Finally, I will give my personal evaluation of the book.

Change is constant with a society that is always recreating itself. From the Enlightenment period to the Industrial Revolution there is a massive difference when comparing these two societies of their norms and daily life.

Early in the poem, Jarman points out the “sermon’s trenchant commentary on the world’s ills” (2-3), illustrating a mutilation of the connectedness of the congregation focusing instead on the very real but nonetheless generic ills of the world. Furthermore, the phrase “hand-wringing” (4) seems to describe the shaking of hands as the congregation members greet each other with the peace of Christ, again listing the routine of the congregation. Although, it appears to be more inclined towards a description of a helpless, passive anxiety that corresponds well with a sermon designed to impose guilt without inspiring action. Jarman goes on to compare the persistent nature of sin even in moments of peace with “motes of dust ride, clinging” (8). In this line, Jarman suggests that the congregation is sinful even after all the doctrinal procedure done to become clean from sin. Even the structure of the octave suggests a conventional and never changing sonnet form with 14 lines, a perfect Italian rhyming scheme, and a fascinating iambic pentameter alone, that inspires nothing more than an

How do you build to the next issue she addresses, though? Surprisingly, you meet it head on the way the author chooses to, but unlike the Mexican culture works up to it. Anzaldúa has no qualms in exploring her homosexuality and the male/female identity. Raised a Catholic, she made the choice to be homosexual, she declares. She recognizes that in some it is genetically inherent and that can be understood, but her Catholicism makes it a choice.

The novel, “Afterlife” by Gary Soto was mostly about how this guy named Chuy who was killed in a Club, Club Estrella to be specific. He was killed in the men’s bathroom for complimenting someone else’s shoes, which were yellow. He got stabbed 3 times, and was left there till dying. He then became a ghost, a ghost who couldn’t be heard, seen or touched. He could see everything that was going on, but couldn’t do anything about it. After the ambulance had taken him away, he was already dead, or i mean the body was already dead. When his parents got the news Chuy went to visit them to say one last goodbye, he also visited his school, and the girl he used to like for a long time. He then found this girl named Crystal, who had killed herself taking

In William Barney’s article, “The Quest for Room,” he analyzes the differing opinions between the North and South regarding the expansion of slavery into the newly acquired Western territories. The author argues that the West would have been important to slaveholders as a place to expand slavery if the territories had not been free-soil. The reason for this article was to show us how prominent the sectional differences were in the nineteenth century because of the argument over slavery. This, in turn, led to the secession of the Southern states from the Union as they formed the Confederacy; this dug the nation into a deep-pitted civil war.

Currently there is six million Natives living in between the United States and Canada, and only "25,000 Blackfoot Indians between the two countries"(Reddish). In the short story "Borders" by Thomas King, the treatment of natives is shown to light in a common practice. While trying to cross the United States-Canada border to visit her oldest daughter in Salt Lake City, Utah, a woman and her youngest son, of Blackfoot Indian decent, are stopped at the border. She is questioned about her nationality and calmly states "I am Blackfoot, neither American or Canadian"(King, 918). She is not allowed to enter the United States nor Canada and is stuck in a neutral zone. News channels and Newspapers cover this story as the bureaucratic dilemma ensued, many people were shocked with the treatment of Native Americans. They are eventually allowed to pass through to the United States, however this leaves many people wondering about the treatment of Natives Americans, which King displays through conflict.

“I’m a woman…Phenomenal woman, that’s me.” This quote from Maya Angelou’s poem “Phenomenal Woman” characterizes the common theme between the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the speech, “Ain’t I a Woman”, by Sojourner Truth, and “Phenomenal Woman”. The common theme between these three different pieces is the idea of a strong, independent woman, which ties into feminism and the concept of being equal to men. Even though these three pieces are each diverse genres, they are all conveying the same general theme in their own way. Throughout any of these texts, it is evident that the authors are pushing the idea that a female is not inferior to any man just because they have a different body structure or a different gender.

Religious spaces, characterized by Thomas Tweed, are “differentiated,” “interrelated,” and “kinetic.” As a sacred city with spiritual significance in three major religions, Jerusalem is depicted thoroughly in the Hebrew Bible and illustrated as one of the spaces Tweed defines. The Bible emphasizes that Jerusalem was chosen by God and honored by Israelites, which differentiates it as a special, singular space; the description of Solomon’s Temple shows that the Holy City was interrelated to economic power and involved in the judgment of civil cases. Moreover, the conquest, development and destruction of Jerusalem illustrate the city as a kinetic space, reflecting the unsettled history of the Iron Age. These characteristics all make Jerusalem a religious and political center from the ancient Near East time to present day, guiding the footsteps of believers around the world.

In 1937, Zora Neale Hurston spent seven weeks in Haiti writing what would become her most well-known and acknowledged piece of work. Their Eyes Were Watching God was born on September 18th, 1937, in New York. The novel told a hopeful tale of a woman finding a secure sense of independence and identity in the 1920s. Janie Mae Crawford is the protagonist of the novel. She knows family only in the form of her grandmother, who she refers to as Nanny. Each relationship that Janie is involved in blooms and withers away like the pear tree that symbolizes Janie's life.

In the novel Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler paints a picture of a dystopia in the United States in which the current societal problems are overly exaggerated into the worst-case scenario. Butler describes a world plagued with high unemployment rates, violence, homelessness, a flawed police system, and a crumbling education system. Butler focuses the story on the poor and the homeless by only giving characters with this background a voice in order to show the reader that society’s views and stereotypes of these groups are flawed. Butler shows the lack of attention they receive and over exaggerates the problem in order to show the extreme consequences if it is not properly addressed.

Strangers in the Land of Paradise by Lillian S. Williams explores the settlement of African Americans in Buffalo in the time of the Great Migration. In this book, Williams discusses the process in which migrants from the South made their own black communities in Buffalo while bringing their beliefs and traditions with them, and having those beliefs evolve over time in a new setting. Her work sheds light on the experiences of blacks in Buffalo during a time where many changes were occurring; the Civil War had just ended and the Industrial Revolution was underway. She also speaks on how Buffalo was unique in that it became the final point for those escaping the racism and violence in the South, since it was the last point before crossing into Canada. In her own words, “the book examines the growth and development of Buffalo, the movement of European immigrants and African American migrants into the city, and their ability to secure an economic foothold. It tests the extent to which family and friendship networks for blacks were a significant force in their migration and acculturation. It also describes the establishment of institutions that African Americans created to shape their modern, urban community" (p. xiv).

Some of these words evoke very strong emotions. The word "reverence" makes me imagine a crowd of worshipping masses, as it means "feelings of deep respect or devotion" ("Reverence"). This is a rather obvious conclusion to draw, as the poem at its heart is very much about God's stature. One can assume that the preacher is probably not one to criticize God, given his profession, and thus the praise heaped upon God by the narrator is appropriate.

Edward Taylor’s “Meditation Six” uses a coin-based conceit to explore the ambivalence of the persona; using the coin, Taylor describes his spiritual value to God in material terms. The first stanza reflects an uncertainty within Taylor about his worth to God. He equates himself to gold, asking if he is “thy gold” (1) or merely a vessel for God’s wealth—the congregation. The speaker worries he may only appear to be worthful to God, but he is worthless underneath and “brass in heart,” alluding to the Brazen Serpent of the Bible. Working through his ambivalence, the speaker compares the impression of the grace of God to the stamp on a coin, and he asks if God has left such an impression on him, stamping value onto worthless metal. Taylor writes that he is “a golden angel” in God’s hand, meaning he is valuable to God, which ends his ambivalence as he concludes that he is worthful as a man. In the final stanza, the speaker asks God to make his soul the plate, a blank coin, onto which God stamps value with his “superscription in a holy style” (16). The speaker then becomes a coin with value to God, part of God’s hoard, whereby Taylor acknowledges that he is one of many. A surrender ends the conceit and poem, the speaker asks if he may be an angel, period slang for an English coin, in God’s eyes and if God may be his Lord.