The Lion King: The Sacrament Of Initiation

When it comes to baptism, what automatically comes to mind is bathing of holy water and immersing into a life of God. Well that isn’t the same for literature. Typically in literature, a character’s “baptism” is when a character’s belief, perspective or motivation is changed throughout the novel. A great example of a symbolic baptism is in the novel Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, dealing with the character Noah.

Nowadays, religion is tied into pop culture from our childhood have this connection that we don’t recognize until later on in life. The Lion King is one film that is associated with religious themes due to it having a story that is similar to some texts. It is a Walt Disney animated film that incorporates a community of animals in a kingdom that is ruled by a lion king named Mufasa. Mufasa has a son named Simba and the story revolves around his adolescent growth and how he is supposed to be next in line to become the future king. The idea of the “Circle of Life” ties into several religions but most specifically it goes hand in hand with Christianity. A ritual is performed on him by Rafiki as a newborn and he is presented to the kingdom with a new life. This aspect is similar to how Christians perform baptism and the significance of having new life brought onto earth. Also the kingdom crowding around this ceremony highlights the similarities even bigger due to how many people gather for the religious ceremonies.

They pray the prayers of the faithful and the Lord’s Prayer. After this has done the priest will give his final blessing to the parents, God parents, baby and also family. The significant symbols that are important for baptism are baptismal font , water , oil , candle and white cloth.

The Lion King is another example where we see the physical, mental and emotional growth of Simba. When Mufasa dies, Simba tries to bring him back to life by nudging him and telling him to come back. Simba reminisces of

Ever since its inception, Christianity has been epitomised by a range of religious practices that explore the sacred beliefs that have been upheld and spread around the world. These practices thus continue to bear a significant influence over the lives of adherents and how they seek to express their faith in Christianity. One such religious practice is that of baptism which functions as a significant milestone in the life of any

Simba enters a "belly of the whale" when he almost gets killed by Scar. Scar backs Simba off to the edge of a cliff. He hung off the edge of it as his father did before his death, and that is when Scar uses this opportune time to admit that he killed Scar and that Simba didn't have anything to do with it. Simba then leaps up

Baptism serves a vital role in the development of Christianity as a living religious traditions in most denominations. It is the ritual used in the

The Lion King is one of the most famous Disney animated feature of all time. It has captured the hearts of children and adults everywhere around the world and has made over Three Hundred and twelve million dollars. But The Lion king is much more than a movie that has made a lot of money, it actually is the story of a hero's quest or journey. The hero's journey is reflected everywhere, from a television show to great works of literature, and even movies. A Hero's journey consists of separation, transformation and initiation, and the return of what a hero experienced throughout his/her journey. The story of The Lion King shows how the protagonist Simba follows the Hero's Journey.

As a child, I can remember watching the Lion King movie several times because my family loved this timeless movie. I always just thought of it as a story about the “circle of life” that we all hear so much about in church and from our parents. However, for this assignment I chose to watch this movie once more; giving particular attention to details and thoroughly examining Simba’s life stage development in relation to Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages and Jean Piaget’s cognitive development stages. Needless to say, I was able to find significant evidence relating to these developmental theorists. The story not only displays the hardships of maturation, and the perplexities associated with growing, but it also deals with the search for one’s own identity and responsibility.

Simba takes his rightful place on pride rock on his road back home. Simba is resurrected he is accepted back into the Pride and he returns with the Elixir and the pride lands are returned to normal. Simba went through the journey from start to finish in what that viewer saw as continual growth and development of courage.

In conjunction with water being a sign of initiation into the church so are the symbolic acts of the priest during the sacrament. “The symbolic act of laying hands by the priest, parents and godparents during the anointing of the initiate with chrism emphasizes the sacrament’s communal character.” (Mueller 139) As all of the parties involved are members of the church, baptism is the first act of initiation of us into our own Christ filled community known as the church. Involving various active member of the church brings together the church of past, present and future alike. The priest acts as Christ, who through his own

Baptism was/is the first sacrament needed to become a Catholic, it relieves a person from any sins that were committed in a former life; this creates a

In the movie The Lion King, there are many different types of archetypes shown in many ways. The archetypal pattern that is shown in the movie is end of childhood/loss of innocence. This pattern is about the tragedy of growing up. This is demonstrated in the movie by the loss that Simba experiences with his father. This would be recognized as an individual loss of innocence, because Simba had to learn how to cope with the death of his father. In the movie, Simba would be classified as the hero. A hero is usually the central character with courageous qualities, that must undertake a difficult task. That is exactly what Simba does, he demonstrates this by stopping the antagonist, Scar.

The stages in which take place for a pre-catechumenate can be very powerful. This moment in time is crucial when embracing the faith of the Catholic Church. Pre-catechumenate is a time to challenge the mentality of what it means to be in the Church and why it is important to become a follower of Jesus Christ. The RCIA or Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults brings forth the life of the Church into the lives who want to embrace it.

Often held as a rite of passage and entrance into the Christian church, baptism is much more than just symbolic ritual. Baptism was commanded by Jesus Christ in the Great Commission recounted in the book of Matthew. Even though we are simplistically called to be obedient by being baptized the Christian church has long debated the aspects of this ordinance. Denominations are divided on the basic meaning, types and modes of baptism even two thousand years after the founding of the Christian church. Just as the other ordinance, the Lord’s Supper, congregations find themselves at odd with tradition, biblical interpretation and even individual understanding. However, the simple message of this awe inspiring act can be explained out of the