The Guide For The Perplexed

 "This is an angry book filled with symbolism which confuses as well as expands its meaning beyond its apparent depth" (Byam 284).

One of the most controversial aspects of Christianity is the interpretations gathered by its followers because multiple sects formed based on different opinions of how to correctly interpret and comprehend the scripture. While not he was not the first to question how to interpret the scripture, the third century scholar Origen had significant influence on how Christians should decipher their religion within his text, Origen: On First Principles. Origen describes the scriptures as having three meanings behind them: bodily, spiritual, and soul meanings. Each intended to illuminate the Christian understanding of how to practice the faith correctly. However, this is not to say that each piece of scripture has each layer of meaning behind it. For instance, each passage of scripture could have only one type of interpretation or any combination of the three.

1. System Thinking: System thinking is nothing but instead of focusing on only one particular issue, we have to analyze and try to understand the entire system on the whole. With this kind of analyzation, we can easily find a solution to the problem as the problems are not confined to only a particular area or time. We might find a solution for a particular issue, somewhere in the whole system by analyzing the entire system completely. We should try to relate the actions and the consequences on the whole as the issues occur at different time levels, not confined to only one particular time level. We have to have knowledge of the relation between different departments of an organization and the relation between them and the functionality between the departments as to how they are related in an organization. We generally focus on only one particular issue rather than seeing the bug picture and that shouldn’t be done. In system thinking we analyze the big picture.

As his ideologies became more widespread, it became obvious that Marcion’s views on creation were radically reinterpreted (or misinterpreted, better yet), as well as his opinions on the doctrines of incarnation and the resurrection. Ultimately, the church at large came to the conclusion that his doctrines contradicted several fundamental points in Christian doctrine.  It forced the church to make a case for the value and status of the Jewish scriptures it had adopted as its own, and it prompted

Thoughts can be fleeting, however some of the feelings resulting from thought and can have a long lasting impact on the mental state of a person. In my metacognitive exploration I found an interesting comparison between the way in which I think and approach my past feelings and the methods which Tim O’Brien, from The Things They Carried, and Paul D from Beloved express their thinking about the past. I have discovered that the expression of thoughts, including memories and feelings, is the key to a healthy mental state of a person.

Maimonides begins his text with a description of the first purpose of the treatise. The first purpose of the treatise is to explain to the audience how to understand the terms from the books of prophecy and their meanings. Maimonides defines the three types of terms found in the parables as equivocal, derivative, and amphibolous. Some terms are equivocal, meaning the terms themselves, are open to more than one interpretation. Other terms are derivative. These terms are based on a completely different source. The final type of term are amphibolous terms. These terms are both equivocal and derivative. Maimonides identifies his audience by stating that he wrote this text for those who have some religion and philosophy experience but are having trouble reconciling the difference.

　　In the essay “Reading and Thought”, Dwight MacDonlad talked about the kind of poor reading people are attached to in modern society. MacDonald believed reading materials such as Times and New York Times are too overwhelming for the readers. Readers tend to skim through the reading materials because most of the reading do not have any connections with their daily lives. Moreover, MacDoanld claimed that the readings people do these days are not thoughtful. The readings are rather irrelevant toward the readers. It is because the journalists to produce dull pieces of readings which are meant to be skimmed through without having too much thoughts involved. As the journalists do not have much consideration of the materials they produced. To the journalists the readings they produce are just a series of news that should be read driftly and left behind with no thoughful idea needed to be informed. These effects caused modern society to have a poor reading habits because people do not reflect and give time to think about the readings they did. Readers casually accept the readings even though they do not have provide any resourceful information for the readers.

Maimonides is a twelfth century, Jewish philosopher, and author of The Guide of the Perplexed. In the essay, Maimonides explains how educated individuals with knowledge of the divine science are to understand God’s secrets. He states that the secrets are explained through parables and riddles. Those who explain the secrets cannot fully describe them so they must use obscure language. Educated men in Maimonides’ essay have knowledge manifested to them through God by lightning flashes that are dictated by how willing the men are to allow themselves have a more internal understanding of the knowledge presented to them.

In Dwight MacDonald’s Reading and Though, he disagrees with Henry Luce’s Idea of functional curiosity. Luce coined the term “functional curiosity,” meaning “the kind of searching, hungry interest in what is happening everywhere.” MacDonald’s opinion of functional curiosity is that it only encourages practice in reading rather than giving beneficial information. He considers today’s literature as flimsy and overwhelming. MacDonald assumes that all reading done in today’s society is “shallow thinking.” I agree with MacDonald that there is a great amount of mediocre literature floating around, but he does not take into account the technological advancements, the lifestyles of people today, and students.

Katherine Farmer's tutorials were very helpful. I wish I had known about these very useful videos when I first began MSU. I found the video on how to navigate through the library most helpful. Learning to navigate through the linrary by myself for my first graduate semester was an adventure. I completed my undergrad at UofL and as a freshman it was required to take a Gen 101 class that taught us about our campus and useful resources on campus such as the library and tutoring services available. These videos reminded me of my Gen 101 class and I think they should be listed as a requirement to help assist online students. I also found the APA video helpful and will use it as a guide to make sure my references are in the correct format. Thanks

I hope you had a great weekend! I wanted to go ahead and send you the reading assignments for the final two Lit Lab dates of Year 1, Days 6 & 7. In this session, we will look closely at these comprehension strategies: Schematic Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, and Inferring. You will need to bring and be familiar with the book, "Strategies that Work" by Harvey Goudvis. Also, please save your copy of Appendix Four which was given to you last week. We will use this again.

It was a means of instructing Jewish Christians on how to dwell faithfully within their Jewish traditions (170). For these reasons, the book of James consists of numerous topics with seemingly little order in their compilation. His overall design appeared to be to provide wisdom, which he did by discussing ideas such as Christian trials and tribulations, poverty and oppression, favouritism, godly speech, faith and good deeds, and the law. In the end, James purpose was to reveal Jesus to be an instructor of wisdom and to call Christians to live by His law (172). Due to its wide range of topics, some scholars suggest that James is likely a form of wisdom literature, the purpose of which was to instruct its readers on living wisely (157). This seems to be an accurate supposition as James begins his correspondence by calling people to incur wisdom through

Pope John Paul II once said, “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth – in a word, to know himself – so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.” (Fallible Blogma) Based on this significant and powerful quote, one can infer that faith and reason are directly associated and related. It can also be implied that the combination of faith and reason allows one to seek information and knowledge about truth and God; based on various class discussions and past academic teachings, it is understood that both faith and reason are the instruments that diverse parties

To speak of the Hebrew Scripture is to speak of story, a story stretching from the very beginning of time to only a few centuries before the beginning of the Common Era. It is to speak of richness of content, of purpose and of reality and to engross oneself in an overarching narrative that, depending on your personal convictions, continues to the present day. Within this richness is found a wide variety of different events and experience, told through a series of genre ranging from foundational myth to apocalypse, law giving to poetry, genealogy to wisdom and many more. Within this diversity however, three broad sections can be discerned that speak to a shared purpose and content, these are the sections of Law, Prophecy and Writings. It

The period known as “Medieval Exegesis” lasted from approximately A.D. 600 – 1500. Little original exegesis was done, with most biblical students concentrating on compiling the works of the patriarchal exegetes. During this period however, a four fold meaning of Scripture, originally developed by Augustine, became the primary method of biblical interpretation. The principles of this method stated that in each passage of Scripture there were four meanings, letter, allegory, moral, and anagogy (eschatological). During this