In addition to this, the Sermon on The Mount (a three-chapter section of The Book of Matthew), is one of the largest collections of Jesus’ moral teachings. Notably, the Beatitudes, are thought to offer insight into the ethical beliefs of Jesus Christ himself. The Beatitudes go on to tell us that the poor ins spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, peacemakers, and those who are persecuted due to their righteousness are blessed (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel & Roy, 2016, p. 121-122). The core idea here is a belief in the Golden Rule to love one’s neighbor as one might love his or herself. Jesus teaches people to be compassionate (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel & Roy, 2016, p.122).
2. How are these religions similar and different?
Similarities Between All Three Religions
In looking at all three of the given religions, there is inevitably some overlap between Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity. The major goal of every religion is to make human lives more meaningful and to help people understand death (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel & Roy, 2016, p. 113). These three religions have all set out their own rules and regulations to help people live their lives righteously. They also have ideas on death. Though, the fact that they have a way to understand death, is the only thing that unites them on that front as their views on death are very different from one another. Things that are common among all three
Religions across the globe have their own distinctive rites and rituals, idols, traditions, and values. Each have in common a desire to explain something unexplainable by common wisdom, or attributing some aspect of life to some higher power. Many religions have at their heart etiological stories, which explain some sort of natural phenomenon through the physical manifestation of their deity or deities. From high winds and thunderstorms to love, fertility, and the sun, such religions focus on the physical world in this life. Other religions try to explain the "next" life or the afterlife. These religions usually give a moral code to live by, with stricter adherence to this code offering a better afterlife.
Through Zoroastrianism these religions set up the basis for many of their ideals like heaven and hell, judgment, everlasting life, etc. without Zoroastrianism as there basis they would never share the commonality or universal theme throughout them all which is the afterlife. Although they may not agree on where they go, they do agree that there is life after death which never would have been a commonality between the three without the influence of Zoroastrianism.
The beatitudes are eight statements taught by Jesus. Each Beatitude calls us towards holiness, commitment and promotes positive human values. They are concerned with virtue and how a believer in Jesus Christ can achieve that virtue. The Beatitudes are a map of life, a series of directives helping us on our journey to be with God. They are simply stated, but are profound in meaning. They guide, point and teach. In the Beatitudes, Jesus taught his followers how to let love reign the world, and when love overcomes all other things there will be a state of peace. They show Adherents the values that Christ cares about. These values if followed can not only bring a believer into a state of peace and happiness, but also right into the Kingdom of God after our journey on this earth is over. Teachings of the Beatitudes can apply to our lives today as they are timeless in teaching and ‘confronting us with
The book also focuses on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus discusses those that are blessed and why they are blessed and also the kingdom of heaven. Jesus discusses faith-community and what is required of disciples including reconciliation with others. The book discusses Jesus and his righteousness. Jesus gives instructions in dealing with those who cause harm to is folowers and believers. The book addresses the question as to whether to literally or figuratively take the commands of Jesus.
There are three stories from Jesus' Galilean ministry that stick out to me. The stories that stick out to me are, The Sermon on the Mount, the story of the Pharisees trying to trick Christ, and the third is the story of when Jesus fed 5,000 people! All these stories show the power of God and the transparent teachings of Christ.
During the first few weeks of class we’ve gone through various texts in order to better our understanding of human knowledge. We have talked about Christianity St. Matthew “The Sermon on the Mount”, Plato and “The Allegory of the Cave”, “The Four Idols” of Sir Francis Bacon, Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”, and even Carl Jung and “The Structure of the Psyche”. All these texts may have been written in different eras and different places, but they have one thing in common, and that is their understandings of human nature and knowledge, and how they demonstrate to us epistemology (how we know) and metaphysics (what human beings know).
The attitudes towards religion is often determined by how well the religion can give themselves off, especially when it comes to answering the question on how to deal with suffering. With Christianity, Jesus taught his followers that suffering is eliminated through salvation, which is by repentance and dependence on God. While with Buddhism, Buddha taught suffering is universal and that the only way to deal with it is by forsaking oneself and following the Middle Path, thus achieving a worked out salvation. Though these teachings do resemble each other in meaning, they differ in their purpose.
Now that we have talked about the three, and said the things that make them different and unique we are going to say their differences and what they have that is alike. They all believe and worship the same God they just call it a different name because of the languages they each speak. They are all consider a religion called Abrahamic religion. All three religions share the Old Testament, and all have a thing called a Holy Book. They all believe in afterlife which means that they believe after someone dies that they will go and live on in another life as something else.
Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism are all religions that connect in more than one way. One major way that these religions connect is through the afterlife, otherwise known as the unconditioned reality. Hinduism and Buddhism have very similar views on the afterlife while Daoism has a slightly different view. In the end, they all have the same goal which is to achieve the final state that lasts forever. Even though this is true, that does not mean they do not differ in more than one way. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism rely strongly on theoretical, practical, and sociological standpoints. A large part of the theoretical standpoints, are myths about the gods and how things are. A large part of sociological standpoints are festivals, and temples. Lastly, practical is practiced through mediation, yoga, and payers. In Hinduism, there are various sects that worship a total of roughly 360,000,000 different gods. As you could imagine, this would be difficult to generalize in just one essay, so the branch of Hinduism I will go over just includes the basic trinity and Vedic gods. Along with this, this essay will include information on the two major types of Buddhism and how one attains enlightenment. Finally, we will go over how one is to attain immortality through Daoism, along with the beliefs of the traditional Chinese Folk religions.
Gwendolyn Brooks' "The Preacher Ruminates: Behind the Sermon" gives an eerie look into a minister's mind. Indeed the poem's premise is made clear from the opening line: "It must be lonely to be God" (1). The poem proceeds to note that while God is a much-revered and respected figure, he has no equal. The preacher's revelation provides the reader a unique perspective into religion. Brooks points out due to God's position of omniscience, it is not possible for a figure like Him to have friends. Throughout Brooks' poem, the preacher implores the reader for answers to his questions, finally concluding that to be God is indeed a lonely life and
The Sermon on the Mount is a sermon given by Jesus Christ found in the book of Matthew in the Holy Bible. The beginning of this sermon includes a list of blessings called the Beatitudes. Jesus uses these to explain God’s favor towards those who are striving for righteousness. For those who had come to believe and follow Jesus as the son of God, every word that he spoke in the Sermon on the Mount was intended as words of encouragement for Jesus’s disciples and were taken as such. For those who were skeptical, the crowd, that Jesus was truly the son of God, Jesus’s words took on a totally different meaning. The Beatitudes, simple words that promote the humility of man, were explicit words of encouragement for Jesus’s disciples. Yet at the same time, to the crowd listening, the Beatitudes were an implicit invitation to become men of God by believing that this man is God in the flesh, God in spirit, God almighty, God omniscient, God omnipresent, and God omnipotent.
The sermon at the mount is a collection of teachings and sayings that Jesus preaches to people at Galilee. It takes place after Jesus had been baptized by John the Baptist. This is the longest teaching by Jesus in a single preaching. It is found in the New Testament in the book of Matthew. It transverses chapter five to seven of the Gospel of Matthew. The main theme of sermon of the mountain is how people should relate with other people and God. The sermon is preached at a mountain when Jesus saw the crowd and his disciples’ were following him, he sat at a level ground on the mountain and started to preach. The Preaching’s can be divided it four major parts; The Beatitudes, Lord’s Prayer and parables.
There are many different religions with many different beliefs, traditions, practices, and rituals. These differences are a very important part of understanding and appreciating the culture and history behind the specific religion. However, the practices that certain religions have in common can aid even more in furthering the understanding of specific beliefs of other religions. Since most religions cultivate from the practices and beliefs of other religions, they use those core values and beliefs and transform them into what they believe is a better way practicing. Religions use similarities within each other and twist them into their own. There are certain beliefs within every religion that shape their practices such as their morals or their most essential or absolute value, their position on human beings’ problems and solutions, and their view on life and death within their religion. Pure Land Buddhism (a form of Mahayana Buddhism) and Vaishnavites (a group within Hinduism) are great examples of this very concept.
The point of this assignment is to discuss the passage chosen, as well as information regarding the historical/cultural background of the passage and applying it to my life as a human being. It is also important that I apply this information on the passage to the Christian life or church ministry. The passage I have chosen for this assignment is from Matthew chapters 5-7 and is labeled “The Sermon on the Mount”. The Sermon on the Mount is the longest and most prominent of the five discourses of Jesus in Matthew. The whole point of the Sermon on the Mount was to show people who converted to Christianity how to live. It is to show how Christians should live in their actions, words, thoughts, and others ways of life. With that being said, this way of life was preached by Jesus Christ as he “went up on the mountain” to deliver his powerful message. The information for this passage is in, of course, the bible and our textbook “Encountering the New Testament”, as well as many other resources on the web that are related to the bible and passage.
The sermon commences with the eight beatitudes, with prescribed blessings that follow them. These beatitudes advocates righteousness in our hearts, unlike the pretentious righteousness that the can be associated with the law. The qualities that the beatitudes tell you to embody, puts Christ followers at somewhat of a disadvantage because of the selfish, deceitful nature of humans. The blessing or reward that accompanies these beatitudes aren’t for this world, and by this it introduces the notion of kingdom that is far greater than this world. This supports the concept of sacrificing and enduring persecution in this world, so you are rewarded in eternity. The sermon then strikes a metaphoric comparison with followers of Christ being the salt of the earth, and the light of the world. In Leviticus 2:13 it shows us how salt was categorized as being divine back then. This means that Christ followers are supposed to posses a sense of divinity, and shouldn’t lose this quality by conforming to the things of the