At the beginning of Global Experience class, my semester goal was to listen and learn about new perspectives so I could broaden my knowledge. I assumed “broadening my knowledge” included exploring current, global issues. Simply put, I entered the class with a resistant attitude to actually change my way of thinking; I subconsciously thought I could conserve my current perspective while adding on new layers. Over the past month and a half, many articles and people battled my close-minded view. I expected Amy Levine’s Agree to Disagree presentation to illustrate differences in Jews’ and Christians’ interpretations with specific Old Testament verses, but she validated both religions’ interpretations because, “they are following their own set …show more content…
I was taught to defend my beliefs in all situations. In the trolley dilemma we discussed in class, I continually used my opinion that each life is worth the same value to support my decision to sacrifice the single person in both cases. This opinion is rooted in my “good” religious morals, yet I used it to defend a decision others concluded not to be morally permissible. David highlighted the difference between pushing a person and pulling the lever; the person being pushed was not in possible danger beforehand. When I reflected on it after, I realized I no longer wanted to support my previous choice because the person who was not in danger should not be sacrificed for the people who chose to risk their lives. If I was the bystander person, I would not want someone to push me, so it is unfair for me to be willing to push someone else. I was so worried about contradicting a lifelong belief that I resultantly ignored the complexities of and differences among the individual cases we were discussing. With the help of my classmates and the straightforward hypothetical situation, I uncovered my reasoning flaws and eventually changed my opinion because I concluded exceptions could be made in some …show more content…
The culture, the story we are enacting, is enveloping me constantly; I never realized how much the culture affects my behavior and actions. This new awareness has led me to question, “Why do I put on makeup?”, “Why do girls want to date taller boys?” and many other societal norms. The pressures of the story enacted around me are so ingrained and interwoven that the bars on my cage are blurry. How often am I really making my own decisions? If I do not understand the captivity of the culture, I will continued to be trapped by
N.T Wright (2008) stated that “When we read the scriptures as Christians, we read it precisely as people of the new covenant and of the new creation” (p.281). In this statement, the author reveals a paradigm of scriptural interpretation that exists for him as a Christian, theologian, and profession and Bishop. When one surveys the entirety of modern Christendom, one finds a variety of methods and perspectives on biblical interpretation, and indeed on the how one defines the meaning in the parables of Jesus. Capon (2002) and Snodgrass (2008) offer differing perspectives on how one should approach the scriptures and how the true sense of meaning should be extracted. This paper will serve as a brief examination of the methodologies presented by these two authors. Let us begin, with an
Robinson, B. A. (2008, March 30). Books of the Hebrew Scripture . Retrieved May 7, 2011, from Religious Tolerance: http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_otb3.htm
How old is the earth? What is the Bible’s historical timeline? Does the Bible contain only historical facts? Does the Bible contain any historical facts? Is there a reason Jews spoke Hebrew in the Old Testament era, yet some Jews spoke Greek in the New Testament era? These are the types of questions a reader may think through when reading John H. Sailhamer’s book Old Testament History. Graduating with a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. from University of California at Los Angeles; John Sailhamer is currently professor of Old Testament Studies at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also the author of titles such as: NIV Compact Bible Commentary, The Meaning of the Pentateuch, and An
Hill, Andrew E. and Walton, John H. A Survey of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000.
Arnold, Bill T., and Bryan E. Beyer. Encountering the Old Testament A Christian Survey. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008. Print
Culture often means an appreciation of the finer things in life; however, culture brings members of a society together. We have a sense of belonging because we share similar beliefs, values, and attitudes about what’s right and wrong. As a result, culture changes as people adapt to their surroundings. According to Bishop Donald, “let it begin with me and my children and grandchildren” (211). Among other things, culture influences what you eat; how you were raised and will raise your own children? If, when, and whom you will marry; how you make and spend money. Truth is culture is adaptive and always changing over time because
LaSor, William Sanford, David Allan Hubbard, and Frederic William Bush. Old Testament Survey: The Message, Form, and Background of the Old Testament. 2nd Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing co., 1996.
“At a time when people are seeking to become more culturally aware it is important to note distinctions which make cultures different and unique from one another” (Giger, 2013, p. 163). “Culture involves much more than race, ethnic background, and language” (Smith, 2013, p. 32). Culture is a combination of learned behaviors, beliefs, and values that are reinforced through exposure to social interactions within one’s immediate social group or surrounding society. A personal interview was conducted with Andrea Sinkler, is an African-American female, whose culture influence is mainly attributed from her association with family and social interactions.
Stephen Greenblatt addresses culture as “The ensemble of beliefs and practices that form a given culture function as a pervasive technology of control, a set of limits within which social behavior must be contained, a repertoire of models to which individuals must conform.” (Greenblatt 1) Here, what Greenblatt is attempting to convey is that culture is the set or collection of expectations that a group or society assigns and enforces. For example a society may express its beliefs and expectations about the role of a woman or a child, what is appropriate to wear, how one should act, and so on.
...its members to adhere to it could be established that it does in fact hold a huge influence over the way and nature we use our body. Culture through its system of symbols, that are structurally formed, through habitus, serves to teach us how to behave in order to become a fully fledged member of our given society. These symbols are further reinforced through the intuitions of family and education, the media, fashion and perceived societal norms. This affects the many ways in which we use our body, from the technique of walking through to sleeping, whilst also helping us to classify our social identity of gender and age. It is only through learning, continual practice and adhering to constant self control of one’s self, that we are able to do this successfully making every action we make a taken for granted “gymnastic art, perfected in our own day” (Mauss 1934:456).
Most Christians do not think about the canon of scripture or know what it is or means in theology. Most take for granted the Bible they have and never question how it came into being. Today, we have 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament. There was a time, however, that we did not have a canon. Bruce defines canon as books of the Bible that were recognized to be considered scripture (p. 17). The importance of the canon and how it was developed was intriguing to professor and author F.F. Bruce. He dedicated his book The Canon of Scripture to explore and explain the formulation of the canon we have today. Bruce taught in universities, including the University of Manchester, where he began to lecture students on the entire canon of scripture. Bruce wrote many books and commentaries and was general editor to The New International Commentary on the New Testament. He spent a vast amount of his time researching the formation of the canon with emphasis on the New Testament. The contents of this review will highlight how F.F. Bruce offers his interpretative definition, review, and criticisms of the full canon of Scripture.
Dirks, Jerald. The Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam : similarities & contrasts. Beltsville, Md.: Amana Publications, 2004.
Hindson, E., & Yates, G. (2012). The essence of the Old Testament: A survey. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group.
As students, we may think that we have not yet reached the stage of our lives that what we are doing is giving a big impact to the world. But in this project, I learned that in order to make a big difference to the world, you must start by making a difference to a person’s life.
Culture, a word almost everyone hears whenever there is sociological discussion that transcends various formats ranging from scholarly articles to local news station broadcasts. Culture contains a myriad of definitions depending on the perspective and lenses which are used to view it. Since it is a difficult concept to grasp at first, we do not realize the true scale of culture and its responsibility in dictating many actions within our daily lives. Different cultures are found all throughout the world, from the ever increasing western culture to smaller tribal cultures such as the wintu in California (“Vanishing Voices”). What must be taken into account is the fact that culture is heavily intertwined within society, since they both interact