Why Do We Consider The Beatitudes Counter Cultural?

“Happiness is in the enjoyment of man’s chief good. Two conditions of the chief good: 1st, Nothing is better than it; 2nd, it cannot be lost against the will” (Augustine 264-267). As human

Webster defines joy as “a very glad feeling.” But The Holman Bible Dictionary defines joy as, “the happy state that results from knowing

Having new opportunities in life is exciting, but when those opportunities become the obstacle to pursue happiness, life may lose its meaning. Something similar happened during the industrial revolution when society changed. However, the church was present to advocate for those whose happiness was taken away.

God is happy and generous when he is kind like in Bradstreet’s poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband”. Once her and her husband have passed on she hoped that “The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray”(Bradstreet 10). She wanted God to give them a place in heaven in which they could celebrate their love forever. With God being so kind he was also generous to some. Anne Bradstreet hoped that he would bestow this kindness upon her when she

When one first looks at the beatitudes, one might think that they are a set of blessings that apply only to a certain group of people and that they have no influence on the ‘common folk’ who struggle to barely fulfill the 10 commandments. But if one reduces it to that, they miss out on the true purpose of the beatitudes and lose its hidden value.

The message of Jesus is allegorical and counter cultural. An allegory is a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. A counterculture is a subculture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, often in opposition to mainstream cultural mores.

In their fallen nature people seem to naturally be drawn towards things that only bring temporary happiness. All the while God stands by watching people. With open arms he welcomes them, but people miss the point and go to their flesh’s desires. When people run to those things, just like Bilbo and the dwarves, people are disappointed and left in the darkness of failure. When people let the Holy Spirit live in them, He redirects each person into Christ's open arms where they are satisfied and

He has worked with and seen similar minds think how the happiness level could rise and here’s what they came up with, “But as he well knew, the very commandment tended to undermine its fulfillment, even to make us sad.” This quote is well said because it doesn’t stand true to what it claims. People have the right to believe in what they want, but it’s hard to believe in something when half of America doesn’t even know it exists. However an object or goal can keep the mind striving to finish that goal, even if it is impossible. Don’t stop trying to achieve an impossible goal because it keeps life going, and happiness comes along the way sooner or later.

“They were not simple folk, you see, though they were happy. But we do not say the words of cheer much anymore. All smiles have become archaic”. Saying this happiness is tainted. Saying they don’t really know they are happy in this city of happiness. This is symbolic and relates to many different cultures. The Chinese believe in the Yin and The Yang that the good cannot exist without the bad. Like people don’t know happiness if they have never felt sadness. If we were in a utopian society than we would not need all these things to be happy. This story is open to say we have the choice for the greater good. I am going to talk about another example of

Since their beginning, Humans have debated over the true cause of happiness. Some people argue that wealth brings happiness, while some say that love is the only real way to acquire happiness. Some even devote their entire lives to a god in an attempt to gain an inkling of genuine, long-lasting happiness. Every human has some belief system when trying to find true happiness, but many go their entire life without experiencing it except for in brief, fleeting moments. Through the use of various literary elements, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” and “Federigo’s Falcon” both indirectly suggest that happiness gained through others or physical possessions is doomed to live a short life, but happiness derived from contentedness within oneself cannot be extinguished by anything except for death itself.

The Grand Inquisitor suggests that Christ’s refusal of these temptations places the “burden” of freedom on all humankind and this freedom ultimately causes unhappiness. Although freedom can create unhappiness the Grand Inquisitor fails to recognize that freedom can also generate happiness in humans. Christ defends freedom so humans have the opportunity to create happiness by making their own

We will also look at a few of today’s top music leaders and how their songs give hints that there does not life than just things of this earth. We will go through the pro side of that where now that churches need to be able to connect with all walks of life because they appeal to more people than they used to. The other thing I will be talking about is how in recent years we have had a rise in popularity in Christin music. C.S. Lewis put it best when he said, “The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will lead us to good because He loves us.” I will also go through my opinion on if I believe it is ok to have Christianity in pop culture. Studying this topic, the past few months I have learned so much in

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave his followers a template for living a life with Gods blessings. Many believe that these guides known as the Beatitudes are unrealistic because they are not usually considered ones of blessing. The people in the Roman empire, where Jerusalem was located, and where Jesus taught, would have grown up with stories of the Greek and Trojan war. Their heroes were very much unlike those that Jesus taught would be blessed. Achilles and Odysseus, who many would consider blessed by the gods, could not line up with these teachings. Among those in their history who could have lined up with this teaching, Socrates might come close, but his life hardly seems to reflect blessings. Jesus’ teaching was revolutionary because

The beatitudes are just a sample of the many teachings that this book has to offer.

     Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the first Beatitude. It tells us that we should accept people for who they are and not the material things they have. You should not treat a person who lives in a nice house and drives a nice car any different then someone who lives in a less desirable house and drives an old car. You should treat everyone how you would like to be treated. Just because someone can not afford some of the things as you might be able to does not mean that they are a bad person. We should accept everyone into our community.