Third Way

During the middle ages, the Catholic Church became the most powerful institution of the period. The dramatic division between the body and soul took place for the first time in history was a consequence of

“We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”(Churchill). That was a quote spoken by Winston Churchill who was a large part of World War 2. He clearly states his values in the studysync excerpt, “Blood, Toils, Tears, and Sweat. Sophie Scholl a 14 year old also stood by her values in, Hitler's Youth: Growing up in Hitler's shadow. People can respond to conflict in many different ways, the best way to respond to conflict is by holding values close to heart and not giving in to the social standard.

I had always thought everything revolved around me, and whenever someone said something I didn’t like, I immediately started arguing with them. In one of my favorite games, “Final Fantasy VIII,” one of the characters says “Right and wrong are not what separate us and our enemies…..There's no good or bad side. Just two sides holding different views.” Though I barely played the game since “FFX” came out soon after it, those few words stuck with me. People have different views and if you don’t like their view, then good for you. People have different views upon things and if you don’t like their views, you don’t have to accep them but can still listen to

According to Genesis 1:2 “God has imprinted his own image and likeness on human beings”(Genesis 1:2).The Church sees the living image of God himself in every person. This picture finds, and should dependably discover once again, an ever more profound and more full unfurling of itself in the riddle of Christ, the Perfect Image of God, the One who uncovers God to the human individual. The entire of the Church's social regulation, actually, creates from the rule that asserts the sacred poise of the human individual (Compendium of the social doctrine of the church par 105,107)(4).

Early Christian writers face the question of whether the human body is a good thing or a bad thing. Confessions of St. Augustine and St. Paul’s Epistles use the word, ‘flesh,’ to either depict the human body, man’s immaterial nature, or the nature of sin. The flesh is the obvious difference between the Lord and humans; thus, it describes the sinful nature that humans possess. Both St. Augustine and St. Paul describe the human body as something that can be contaminated; however, St. Paul distinguishes a difference between the spiritual body and the natural, physical body which is the flesh, “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians

Referencing to when Jesus told Peter to sheath his sword in the presence of the guards arresting him, theologians who agreed with Boniface’s claim believed that one sword was subordinate to the other, and in this case, the spiritual sword was higher than the temporal. Among the reformist movements, whether they be Lutheran, Calvinist, Zwingli, or Anabaptist, the idea of subordinate positions between the sacred rule and secular rule continued to be a major point of difference. In this Catholic condition, there was no real separation of church and state, allowing for the church to have control over both, with only God able to accentuate any mistakes: “If, therefore, the earthly power err, it shall be judged by the spiritual power; and if a lesser power err, it shall be judged by a greater. But if the supreme power err, it can be judged only by God, not by man.” This gave the church, ie the Pope, power and no checks or balances if (when) they were to abuse that

The Reformation proved to be somewhat of a complicated time period, but why? This question carries with it many more, but the real mystery at stake here is whether everyone’s actions were solely in the act of God, or if they were hiding something deeper at hand.

The Catholic approach attempts to find the truth by the interpretation and explanation of Scripture includes three exegetical methodologies which are: reading, interpreting, and understanding. Specifically, exegesis takes into account a thorough critical analysis of the meaning of biblical scriptures in terms of their historical and literary context. These methods play a role and contribute to our understanding of Scripture and this includes: 1) ideological criticism, is the examination of bias, assumption, or strongly held beliefs which may influence biases; 2) literary criticism, which focuses on context of the written text including the author, language, time it was written, genre, plot, characters and symbolism; 3) sociohistorical criticism, explores the “conditions of life” (i.e. geography, customs, traditions, religious practices, cultures, social norms, and family life. For example, ideological and sociohistorical criticism is evidenced in the letter to the Ephesians about morality of slavery. This letter reflects the time it was written as slavery was accepted and considered to be the “norm” in those days. However, the author suggests to the Ephesians that they “should be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,

“Good day, to his Most Catholic Majesty and other people present here. I nearly was killed by a lightning strike on my way back from university. I prayed to the Virgin Mary to save my life for I will become a monk. The path that I had chosen for myself required commitment, devotion, hours of prayers, fasting, and continual confessions. I quit law school by my own will and against my father’s to join the Augustinian Friars. A trip to Rome with my fellow friars was the cause of me questioning myself about certain Catholic practices. What I saw in Rome disillusioned me. I began to experience my doubts and unpleasant thoughts about the teachings of the Catholic Church as I watched inept, facetious, and cynical clergy perform their duties. I had

Compare and contrast the ‘crisis’ and ‘process’ views on Holiness as championed by Brengle and Coutts respectively. How well do these views align with the Scripture?

The Church’s significant change known as the Counter-Reformation spanned 100 years and was a drastic challenge to the Church, which has highly shaped the modern day Catholic Religion. It is said to be one of the most defying moments in Church history that changed how thousands of Catholics viewed their religion. However, in order to understand how this event has both positively and negatively impacted the Church, it’s necessary to know why exactly the Counter-Reformation occurred.

One of the key teachings from the Catholic Church is that all human life is sacred. We know this because we are all created in the image and likeness of God. In Genesis 1:26-27 it reveals, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness' ... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”. This means that we are what we are because of God, we are spiritual because God is spirit: "The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" (Genesis 1:2)This is one of the many examples of how we are all created in the image of God. We are all created to have the potential to express these godlike capacities distinctively because God has made us all unique. As we are created in the image and likeness of God we reflect God’s sacredness.

During Sunday School recently, someone wisely noted that our minds are like a parachute; they only work when they are opened. This article reminded me about how true that is. When we close ourselves off, using defensive activities, to the realities around us, we often miss the opportunities for Christ to speak and commune with us as he intends. Johnson and Burroughs (2000) tapped into a deep truth about how our flesh, both consciously and unconsciously, protects and constricts our relationship with Christ and experiencing him fully. The world will never experience the freedom from sins hold until they relinquish control to him and experience brokenness; submissively accepting God’s grace. Only then, will the flesh and sin

I saw babies in glass jars that had been preserved for babies born of nuns, often the personal whores of priests. The Catholic doctrine requires all priests to adhere to strict celibacy rules, yet the proof of their sexual encounters with nuns, servants of the Church, proved the hypocrisy of that body’s “heads.” When I attended the church there, I recalled the urgency these men gave to the fact that men and women should be celibate until marriage - that God hated a fornicator, and that married persons must practice monogamy. The utter hypocrisy of these men was on display in these glass jars before me. I felt sickened to my core. As we continued our tour, we came across some devices I had never seen before: the Judas’s Cradle, the Wheel, the Breast Ripper, the Heretics Fork. These were torture devices used during the inquisition by the Church to make heretics denounce their hate for Satan and give names of other people who did not believe in a once orthodox view of Catholic dogma, itself as far from the teachings of the early church as the east is from the west. These devices represented the evil that man can do and the disrespect to the belief system they were killing for. In

Part of the inner struggle to remain holy is found in the pursuit to follow the