An Adaptable Development of Ecclesiastical Art

"Nehru Ghandi" Compton's Living Encyclopedia. Compton's Learning Company, 1996. Online. America Online. (7 June 1996).

Also they were though of as conspirators because they because they had "secret meetings," and that it only appealed to the low-lifes of the town due to their gullibility. Around the year 90, many Jews wanted condemn any Jew who had accepted Jesus as the messiah to rid Judaism of any trace of Christianity (Weaver 49). During the time that Nero was emperor of Rome, there was "the great fire" in Rome. Nero, faced with a troublesome Roman community, blamed the Christian people for this event and persecuted them (Von Voorst 71). Despite all this, Christianity continued to grow.

New York, New York: DK Publishing, 1999. Edwards, David L. Christianity: The First Thousand Years. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1997. Ellegard, Alvar. Jesus: One Hundred Years Before Christ.

Later he was to create Lutheranism. Those who create and follow new forms of Christianity have betrayed their true religion. Believing in the Christ is bad enough, betraying Christianity and still believing in a new type is even worse. Throughout history and to the present day, the belief in Christianity has been the cause of many evil scams and tragedies. A perfect example would be the indulgences and fake relics sold during the Catholic Reformation.

He considered Catholics to be less than loyal citizens because they owed their allegiance to the Pope. At first Catholics we... ... middle of paper ... ... the Vatican. Overall while the Church had some initial resistance to Nazism it was not strong enough and should share in some of the blame. After all it was the Catholic Centrist Party who gave the Nazi Party majority in the Reichstag, although this can be seen as a last chance effort to retain power by the Catholic party. In conclusion, both Churches are to blame for not playing a more active role in criticizing the Holocaust.

Available HTTP: http://www.necronami.com/d/paganism-celtic/craft.intro.txt, 30 Nov. 1996. The Sabbats. Online, Teleplex Communications, Inc. Available HTTP: http://www.teleplex.net/SCNPA/sabbat.html, 8 Dec. 1996.

Luther knew that the Catholic Church was distorted; he believed that the sale of indulgences, in particular, was the major source of corruption. In response, Luther nailed on the door of the Wittenberg Church a placard with 95 theses, or statements, criticizing the sale of indulgences and attacking other church policies. He also published hundred of essays advocating his idea that a person could be made just, or good, simply by faith in God’s mercy and love. Luther’s idea became known as justification by faith. Consequently, Luther was excommunicated from the Church for refusing to withdraw his teachings and criticisms of the Church.

The theory of Just War can be found back over centuries to the philosophy of St. Augustine and beyond. Augustine was one of the first important figures to be challenged by the concerns raised by justified warfare. Christianity, despite significant prosecution, grew out of the Roman Empire, which was Pagan. The evolving Christianity was fundamentally pacifist, giving rise to the refusal of Christians to fight in the Roman army; violence was against Jesus’ teaching to turn the other cheek, never seek revenge, not to defend themselves and to forgive seventy times seven. Similarly, they could not justify fighting for a pagan empire, and since initially, they were expecting Jesus to return soon, warfare was not considered an important priority.

Images have been used through out history to depict everything from people to gods and everything in between. It was a way for those who could not read to understand the bible stories and lessons. When Christianity started to become more popular early theologians believed that images were considered to be idolatry. When Iconoclasm started they believed that images were bad as well, but people started to find a purpose for images and the issue of images in religion was some what concluded with Bernard of Clairvaux who believed they were good as long as the were used to honor God. Theologians through out time have all had many different ideas on what images should and should not be used for in Christianity.

The two major societies presented in Beowulf are the Danes and Geats and they are supposed to completely represent Christianity and just that, however; paganism was seeped into the epic poem purposely by the author. As they have to suffer under Grendel’s constant attacks, the Danes “turn to their heathen gods for help” and “at pagan shrines they vowed offerings to idols, swore oaths that the killer of souls might come to their aid” which are all things that Pagans would do (175-177). Because the author has Christian rulers but has them doing what Pagans would do in this same situation his goal in presented. This is exactly what Pagans do, they worship Gods and ask them for materialistic things such as winning wars and battles.