With weary eyes, wretched souls, and wounded hearts, people pray to God for deliverance. Throughout salvation history, in times of suffering, grief, and strife, fear motivates people to seek refuge in God. Simultaneously, love inspires people to remain steadfast in God, trusting that, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well” (Julian 80). Both fear and love dynamically shape the Christian search for God. The following essay will, firstly, examine how Israel’s state of fear and oppression in Exodus, in contrast with John’s assurance of love, shapes understandings of God; secondly, explore how fear “pushes” and love “pulls” Augustine closer to God; thirdly, discuss the respective comfort and liberation theologies of Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther, and Elizabeth Johnson as remedies for fear and advocations for love; and ultimately show that fear motivates people, pushing them towards God’s sanctuary, and love inspires people, pulling them towards God’s salvation.
Fear steals the spotlight in Exodus where suffering besets the Hebrews slaving away as the dregs of life under cruel Pharaoh. Hebrew servitude to the Egyptian Pharaoh eliminates any essence of Israel’s identity. Constant suffering drives the Hebrews to demand deliverance from oppression. From their fear, they cry out to God in anguish. They beg God to save them from affliction and believe the Egyptians should equally suffer to atone for the brutal treatment of Hebrew slaves. Therefore, the Hebrews shade God with wrathful wonder, both powerfully and vengefully, to invigorate the desolate state of Israelite morale. To provide security from fear, the Hebrews anthropomorphize God with a “mighty hand” which will strike Egypt (Exodus 3:...
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...d future uncertainties, because love will always remain the guiding force in their lives, God’s divine love that moves the sun and stars.
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In New York City, in the year 1819, Julia Ward was born into a strict Episcopalian Calvinist Family. Loosing her mother at a young age, Julia was raised by her father and an aunt. Not long after her mothers death Julia's father, a successful banker in the city, passed away, leaving Julia in the sole custody of her uncle. During her childhood she had been brought up believing in the strict and conservative views of Calvinism. Julia's mind was filled with the ideas and principles behind predestination and ramus logic, always encouraged to look for the hand of God first and then base everything else in society off of the premises she was taught (30). After the death of her father, Julia began searching for deeper meaning. She went through an intense period of revival as she attended church and became more and more involved with religious activities in the city. She soon began to notice, however, that men dominated this new conviction. Men wrote the sermons, men published the books, and men told her what she needed to do to become closer to God. Soon Julia's strict Calvinist kick would end (48). Prompted by Mary Ward, Julia took a winter "off" from any outside influences to get her thoughts in order. After this time she began to read and research Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson's introduction into Transcendentalism offered Julia the presence of God without the dominating male authority. Transcendentalism theory stressed the immanence of God and his active presence in everyone's life. She agreed with the idea that the bible was not meant to be taken literally, but that one's own intuition could lead to an understanding of God. These new and radical views for her time, coupled with her Calvinist upbringing, seems like it would be the recipe for disaster.
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In Women, Church, God: A Socio-Biblical Study, Caleb Rosado uses a socio-biblical approach to discuss the role of women in the church today and how they were treated in the Bible, during the patriarchal times. Rosado looks at the connection between what people believe now, their culture, and how they treat women in regards to how one perceives God. This book contains ten chapters in which several topics are discussed, including the nature of God, the treatment of women in the Bible, patrimonialism, servitude, and servanthood.
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Today, women share the same equal rights and opportunities as men; nevertheless, that has not invariably been the case. Before the Jazz Age era, gender discrimination between men and women in society was considerably popular. Women were seen as inferior to men. Their jobs were to care for the home, children, and other domesticated duties while men were able to work, get an education, and become doctors or lawyers. Many women like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, Zora Hurston, to mention a few, seen the unfairness in women's rights and fought for equal rights for women through different movements, efforts, protests, and even marches to abolish women’s rights. As a consequence, women now pursue not only higher education and higher paid jobs/ businesses, but their rights. One of the world’s most controversial issues among churches of today is the role of a woman. Many people are confused about the duty of a woman and how she is supposed to serve God because of history. History taught us to never deny someone of gender, race, or even diversity since he or she has human rights. However, this issue should not be viewed as men versus women because this is not a political issue; instead, it should be viewed as the structural of a church. Women should not be priests, pastors, or even rabbis for God condone women for being priests, pastors, and rabbis as well as proscribed.
In 1988, the Council for Biblic¬al Manhood and Womanhood published the Danvers Statement, affirming that "In the church, redemption in Christ gives men and women an equal share in the blessings of salvation; nevertheless, some governing and teaching roles within the church are restricted to men." I am hesitant to single out one organization for focused argument, but this statement accurately represents a sentiment within the faith that I find disturbing. In this paper, I will use the redemptive trend hermeneutic to deconstruct the CBMW's affirmation, while providing my own views on why I find both women in ministry and the redemptive trend hermeneutic as valid.
The question of why bad things happen to good people has perplexed and angered humans throughout history. The most common remedy to ease the confusion is to discover the inflicter of the undeserved suffering and direct the anger at them: the horror felt about the Holocaust can be re-directed in the short term by transforming Adolf Hitler into Lucifer and vilifying him, and, in the long term, can be used as a healing device when it is turned into education to assure that such an atrocity is never repeated. What, however, can be done with the distasteful emotions felt about the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Surely the citizens of those two cities did not themselves directly provoke the government of the United States to deserve the horror of a nuclear attack. Can it be doubted that their sufferings were undeserved and should cause deep sorrow, regret, and anger? Yet for the citizens of the United States to confront these emotions they must also confront the failings of their own government. A similar problem is found in two works of literature, Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound and the book of Job found in the Tanakh. In each of these works a good man is seen to be suffering at the hand of his god; Prometheus is chained to a rock by Zeus who then sends an eagle to daily eat Prometheus' liver while Job is made destitute and brought to endure physical pain through an agreement between God~ and Satan. To examine the travails of these two men is to discover two vastly different concepts of the relationship between god and man.
There are many themes running through the Old Testament myth of Exodus – slavery, rescue and redemption, guidance, commandments on how to live, the creation of a nation, and God’s power over other gods. In this paper I will explore what appears to be the chief reasoning behind the creation of the Exodus myth – the explanation of the creation of a monotheistic religion and the similarities of the Exodus myth to the ancient myths, as well as how one should approach the reading of the myth.
Russell, L. M. (1985). ‘Authority and the Challenge of Feminist Interpretation’. In: Russell, L. (ed.). Feminist Interpretation of the Bible. Oxford. Basil Blackwell. pp.137-146.
As the confrontation grew over the future of Israel, and the Pharaoh’s anger and dissatisfaction becomes more apparent, God’s frustration was seen. Moses spoke to the Pharaoh, but with no success God began to send plagues like Moses had warned. The Pharaoh did not budge, but instead his heart hardened as a type of punishment by God for the Pharaoh not heeding God’s warnings . Since the Pharaoh did not listen to God, he would have to suffer through all the plagues by his own demise. As a result, ten plagues were sanctioned on Egypt due to the Pharaoh’s disobedience to God, which resulted in the release of the Hebrews. The Pharaoh released the Hebrews from bondage, and Moses began to lead the people to the Promise Land, sanctioned by God with the ancestors. The journey to freedom began in Exodus 12:37-39, but Israel wasn’t free yet. The Pharaoh began to chase after the Hebrews, not because of willfulness, but as the act of YHWH’s hardening of his heart . YHWH has purposely set this up for the reason, as said by YHWH, “I will get glory over Pharaoh!” (Ex. 14:1-4) . The Egyptians, through the departing of the Red Sea for the Hebrews with the closing on top of them, will see YHWH’s glory. The outcome of this power struggle will put the Pharaoh down, and the people shall come to know “I am Yahweh.” (Ex. 14:1-4) signifying that YHWH is king
Class notes. Man’s Desperate Need of Righteousness and God’s Glorious Provision of Righteousness. Faith Christian University. Orlando, Florida. August 2011.