As students, we should live in the spirit of peace for the good of all human beings and for the care of creation. At this moment in history, we are saddened to see the daily suffering of a great number of people from never-ending wars, starvation, poverty, and disease. We are also concerned about the negative consequences for humanity and for all creation resulting from the degradation of some basic natural resources such as water, air and land, brought about by an economic and technological progress which does not recognize and take into account its limits.
Almighty God envisioned a world of beauty and harmony, and He created it, making every part an expression of His freedom, wisdom and love (cf. Gen 1:1-25).
At the center of the whole of creation, He placed us, human beings, with our inalienable human dignity. Although we share many features with the rest of the living beings, Almighty God went further with us and gave us an immortal soul, the source of self-awareness and freedom, endowments that make us in His image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26-31; 2:7). Marked with that resemblance, we have been placed by God in the world in order to cooperate with Him in realizing more and more fully the divine purpose for creation.
At the beginning of history, man and woman sinned by disobeying God and rejecting His design for creation. Among the results of this first sin was the destruction of the original harmony of creation. If we examine carefully the social and environmental crisis which the world community is facing, we must conclude that we are still betraying the mandate God has given us: to be stewards called to collaborate with God in watching over creation in holiness and wisdom.
God has not abandoned the world. It is His will that His design and our hope for it will be realized through our co-operation in restoring its original harmony. In our own time we are witnessing a growth of an ecological awareness which needs to be encouraged, so that it will lead to practical programs and initiatives. An awareness of the relationship between God and humankind brings a fuller sense of the importance of the relationship between human beings and the natural environment, which is God's creation and which God entrusted to us to guard with wisdom and love (cf.
In the journal of Environmentalism as Religion, Paul H. Rubin discuss about how environmental is similar to religion. Rubin want everyone to know that the environment and religion are somehow similar in a way, which they both have belief system, creation stories and original sin.
At the start of the play, all of the characters enter the abandoned farmhouse of John Wright, who was recently hanged by an unknown killer. The Sheriff and County Attorney start scanning the house for clues as to who killed Mr. Wright, but make a major error when they search the kitchen poorly, claiming that there is nothing there ?but kitchen things.? This illustrates the men?s incorrect belief that a kitchen is a place of trivial matters, a place where nothing of any importance may be found. Mrs. Peters then notices that Mrs. Wright?s fruit froze in the cold weather, and the men mock her and reveal their stereotype of females by saying ?women are used to worrying over trifles.? The men then venture to the upstairs of the house to look for clues, while the women remain downstairs in the kitchen where they discuss the frozen fruit and the Wrights. Mrs. Hale explains that Mrs. Wright, whose maiden name was Minnie Foster, used to be a lively woman who sang in the choir. She suggests that the reason Mrs. Wright stopped being cheerful and active because of her irritable husband.
As time passes, our population continues to increase and multiply; yet, on the other hand, our planet’s resources continue to decrease and deplete. As our population flourishes, human beings also increase their demands and clamor for the Earth’s natural products, yet are unable to sacrifice their surplus of the said resources. Garret Hardin’s work highlighted the reality that humans fail to remember that the Earth is finite and its resources are limited. Hardin’s article revealed that people are unable to fathom that we indeed have a moral obligation to our community and our natural habitat — that we are not our planet’s conquerors but its protectors. We fail to acknowledge and accept that we only have one Earth and that we must protect and treasure it at all costs. Despite all our attempts at annihilating the planet, the Earth will still be unrelenting — it will still continue to be present and powerful. Human beings must recognize that we need this planet more than it needs us and if we persist on being egocentric and covetous, in the end it is us who will
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis1:1.) God’s perfect wisdom created everything. In Genesis 1 and 2 we can see that God has loving and gentile nature when He created the earth and heavens. God created man in his image and we are the only creation that God breathed in the breath of life for human beings (Genesis 2:7). God did not do this for any of other creations but only for humans. The Bible has many scriptures that tell us how creative God is. Genesis 1;26 states “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created all of this for us to have fellowship with him.
The setting and symbolism of the play act as a portal that allows for the dramatic development of the message and themes. Throughout the play, Glaspell continually uses the setting to demonstrate the differences between men and women during that time period, and further, how the lives and roles of women were devalued and considered unimportant. From the start of the play, the audience immediately gets a feel for the run-down atmosphere of the farmhouse, the life Mrs. Wright must of led, and more importantly, the distinct separation between the male and female sexes. Not only are the genders separated biologically and geographically throughout the play, they also differ in mindset, behavior, and overall thoughts regarding the motive of the murder. This can be seen when Mr. Henderson, Mr. P...
Pico begins his essay by informing his readers that he knows where humans stand in the divine order of the world. Pico believes that humans were the last creatures created by God, and that God's purpose, in creating them, was to fulfill his desire for someone to appreciate the great wonders and beauties of his world:
We were designed for one purpose, to honor and love our creator (Matthew 6:24). When we look at ourselves, and others we find that we each have individual humanistic characteristics. Each with different thoughts of how we perceive God and what we think he wants from us. By using our talents and gifts wisely and just we are giving praise back to our creator (1 Timothy 6:17).
Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, seems to describe the ultimate women’s suffrage story. No longer will men have an upper hand against women after reading this story. Cleverness will be the key to retaining power from the men in this story. The one thing that woman are criticized for, the idea that women tend to look at the ‘little picture’ instead of the ‘whole picture’, will be there path to victory. Two stories of revenge are told in this story, the revenge of suppression and revenge of being portrayed as ‘unsophisticated, unintelligent’ women. First we have the story of Mrs. Wright and the struggles with her husband, John. Married women throughout history have been portrayed and played the role as being inferior to the husband in marriage. This seems to be the case with Mrs. Wright. Even though John’s public image was somewhat respectable, it was obvious that behind close doors the story was different. There is evidence of abuse in this marriage. First, the discovery of the broken door leads me to conclude that John was very physical and anguished. Second, it is assumed that Mrs. Wrights husband had broke her canary’s neck. The canary, which of course had to be caged, was represented as the old Minnie Foster herself. The canary is a beautiful, free spirited bird that had a sweet voice, as Minnie had at one time. This was the end of the line and ‘Minnie Foster’ was about to be reborn. She would stand up for all those abused and suppressed house wives across the world and makes the first ‘final’ decision she had ever been allowed to make. The bird’s cage was her jail. The bird’s death was her freedom for the fate of the bird was the fate of her husband. John was discovered with a rope tied around his neck, the freedom of a women who could no longer be held down. This was the first implementation of women’s power in the story. The women at Mrs. Wright’s home played an important role in the story as well. The ‘professional’ detectives were busy about the house finding clues to indict Mrs. Wright in the murder case. They ridiculed the women in the house by ‘putting them in their place’ as typical ladies, so worried about small things and useless ordeals. Mrs. Hale noted the stitches in the quilt to be erratically stitched as if something were wrong.
The primary setting of “Young Goodman Brown” is the forest. The Puritans believed that the woods were evil because of the presence of Indians and witches, that they believed performed satanic rituals in the forest. Goodman Brown says to himself “There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree” (317). Goodman Brown also tells his fellow traveler “My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him. We have been a race of hon...
Introduction of the characters occurs as the play opens so they are all privy to the same information and have an opportunity to discuss the investigation. The characters themselves are symbols. George Henderson, who is the county attorney, is perceived to be very intelligent and will be able to convict Mrs. Wright of the murder of her husband. Henry Peters, the sheriff, is not as well educated as the county attorney but desires to uphold the law. Lewis Hale, a neighboring farmer, is the person who discovers Mr. Wright's body. Mr. Wright who is dead, is the symbol that allows the play to evolve. These are the men of the play. Mrs. Peters, who is the sheriff's wife, has come to the Wright's home with Mrs. Hale to retrieve some personal items for Mrs. Wright, who is in jail. Mrs. Hale, the wife of Mr. Hale and neighbor to the Wrights, has come to gather Mrs. Wright's possessions to take back to the jail. Mrs. Peters...
Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find lots of clues that might link to solving the murder, while men experience lack of success. They realize that Minnie spender most of her days she spends alone, while her husband is working. Women believe that Minnie’s every move used to be controlled by her husband and it did not made her happy. By analyzing the house Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters can notice small stuff like quilt that the segment was sew less carefully than previous, draws a picture that Minnie was bothered by something lately. Most clues of them all has to be the cage and the bird itself. After discovering that, they knew that because John Wright killed something Minnie Wright loved, she decides to kill him. Those trifles eventually proves that Minnie Wright murdered her husband. Men never got to the solution of this murder, because they were not able to think like Minnie Wright. In men eyes dead birds are just dead birds, therefor women never let them know about their discovery. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters felt sorry for Minnie, because of her abusive husband and did not pay attention that she actually murdered another person. This is where the feminism theme shines through, after all the information women gained while being in the kitchen, they can accuse Mrs. Wright of murder or set her free. The kitchen becomes no longer a place that shows a woman’s role, but a place of
In order to grasp the allegory Hawthorne uses in Young Goodman Brown, the story needs to be considered in a way that recognizes the blending of its historical background at the time of the Salem Witch trials and its relationship to religious symbolism within that perspective. By understanding the Puritan beliefs about sin, the forest and their own inherent faith, it becomes easier for the reader to understand the deeper meaning of Goodman Brown’s journey into the forest.
Second, man was created in God’s image–which gave man rational mind and independent will so that man will be aware of God. (273), praise God (261) and live in a good life with God. (Enoch’s life 294).
In recent decades, concern about environmentalism has risen on a worldwide scale. Environmentalism is defined by Merriam Webster as the “advocacy of the preservation, restoration, or improvement of the natural environment; especially: the movement to control pollution” (Merriam Webster). In the United States, we have the Environmental Protection Agency, but the positions and policies that come from that department are highly politicized. Within the Christian community specifically, the controversy is not necessarily because of environmentalism itself as there is a mainstream consensus that Christians are to be good stewards of Creation. Rather, the debates are really centered on what “good stewards” should do. Some of the biggest controversy
Shakespeare’s most famed play Hamlet is perhaps his most well-known work. The five-act play follows Prince Hamlet as he attempts to kill his uncle, King Claudius who murdered hamlet’s father in cold blood and married Hamlet’s mother. Hamlet’s fatal flaw, however, is procrastination, the theme of which causes his eventual downfall. The question then is, “Why does Hamlet procrastinate so badly when the fate of his father’s soul rests in his hands?” The answer is simple: Hamlet is so strong in his moral code is subconscious cannot and will not allow him to kill King Claudius. He mind causes him to delay his task as much as he possibly can because his morality will not allow him to take a life.