History of the World’s religion begins tackling the sources that make up the life of Jesus by stating that the New Testament has been thoroughly searched and questioned then any other book throughout all of history (398). However many coutless of people critics and supporters who have analyzed these writing the verdict that truly count are those made by historian and scholars. On account of this, the next statement made has great implication as the authors state that the overall verdict reached by historians is that early Christians modified the New Testemant though to what degree is still uncertain. Furthermore it goes to inform its readers that historian agree that what little the authors of the New Testament did record was both “colored by the preconception of the early Christians and amplified” (398) --Overall, it is clear authentic historical evidence for Jesus and his life is scarce, geographically uncertain, what teachings his follows did mange to put together was done in a confusing manner scattered with colorful teachings as they attempted to modify his words. manuscripts being modified lack of authentical historical matirla on Jesus, confusion on who wrote what and where the souces came from and finally a totally lack of souce matrial from objective observes-- If this is truly the case then not only is the foundation for christany rather shaky buielt only on one’s faith in but the New Testemant is then in fact an unreliable historical record based on bias interpretation that has little place for calling itself the most authentic and accurate documentation of the ancient world. In summing up their overview of the lack of historical records for the life of Jesus they do modestly state that this view is tentative and as w...
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... to paleographers, historians who study ancient texts, there are over 5,800 manuscripts of the New Testament (compared to only seven existing manuscripts of Plato's writings) dating between second and fifteenth centuries AD.. The original documents for the New Testament date between 50 AD and 95 AD. Overall there are more than 25,000 early translation of the bible partial and complete manuscript copies of the New Testament. Furthermore, there are also some 86,000 quotations from the early church fathers and with these quotations alone scholars could reconstruct the whole New testament if we did not have a single copy of the Bible(Evidence that demands a verdict p 50). No other ancient book has this remarkable preservation and documentation and as these ancient manuscripts (the popular handbook of archaeology and the bible-Joseph Holden and Norman Geisler) 102-109.
Religion reinforces the beliefs of individuals within a society. Additionally, religion has played a vital role in society since it influenced the way they lived and the rituals they may or may not have practiced. Different regions of the world during ancient time held a distinct set of beliefs, each based on different or similar principals. Deriving from the polytheistic set of beliefs, monotheism came in place of many Gods, holding just one god accountable for the creation and the existence of mankind. Christianity and Buddhism share similarities and differences, but most importantly the impact that each had on the culture is what is mostly referred to.
Modern scholars believe that the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, was composed by four or five writers between 1000 to 400 BCE based on much older traditions. The New Testament was composed by a variety of writers between 60 to 110 CE. The contents of the New Testament were formalized by Athanasius of Alexandria in 367 CE, and finally canonized in 382 CE (Geisler and
The Change in Modern Religion “In modern society religious beliefs and religious behaviors are changing rather than declining” Assess the argument for and against this view. The term Modern Religion in this essay will refer to the religion in the 20th century (i.e. from the 1900’s). Also to reduce confusion I will focus mainly on religion within the UK I will term the phrase religious beliefs and religious behaviors to be related with the exclusive definition of religion. Which means a belief in god or a high being and participating in religious practice.
Buddhism rejects the idea of immortality of life and Gods. The founder of Buddhism Siddhartha Gautama was an Indian aristocrat, also referred to as the Buddha or the Enlightened One. After Siddhartha’s death, his followers made him a God into eternal life. Buddhism is the third largest membership of its faith after Christianity and Islam. This belief was highly democratic and like Christianity no one was excluded. Anyone (male, female, young, old, the rich or the poor) can follow in the Four Truths and the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path was to allow spiritual bliss whereas, Nirvana simply demanded “The Right,” the right way to; ideas, thought, speech, actions, living, efforts, consciousness and meditation. Buddhism’s popularity stems from the “democracy of spirit.” Buddhism split into two major branches: the Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism. Theravada Buddhism is the strict version of Buddhism as is the life of a Catholic priest; they live their life in a monastery (Sangha), whereas, a Catholic priests and Nuns live in a Rectory. Both men and women can partake in nirvana; the purest form of Buddha’s teachings. The Mahayana Buddhism is more liberal than its counterpart. Theses followers believe that there are many Buddha’s not just the founder himself. So in fact Buddhism can be either polytheistic or monotheistic depending on who you talk to.
All over the world, there are many people who believe in something or someone of a higher power. There are about five billion people who believe in a higher power (Tiemann 526). There are six world religions that have followers all around the world. The six world religions are Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Many of these religions are monotheistic, which is the belief of only one god or one higher power. There are also polytheistic believers, which is the belief in many or more than one god. These six world religions have a lot in common and they also have their differences that make their certain religion or belief special to them.
Christianity and Judaism are major world religions which, though they worship the same God, have marked differences which have caused two thousand years of strife and animosity between the two religions. In his book We Jews and Jesus, Samuel Sandmel likens the link between Judaism and Christianity to a type of parent-child relationship, saying, “Early Christianity was a Judaism; within a century after the death of Jesus it was a separate religion. It was critical of its parent, and hostile to it, and elicited from its parent reciprocal criticism and hostility.”1 Opposing views of Jesus Christ caused the initial rift between Judaism and Christianity and is the primary source of the tension between the two religions which has continued for the last two millennia. Therefore, in order to understand how Judaism and Christianity relate to one another, it is essential to understand the way Jesus is perceived in each religion. The way that Christians view Jesus is quite well known, but Judaism’s view of him is much lesser known, so it is important to explore Judaism’s perceptions of Jesus, beginning with New Testament times, and to examine the ways in which these feelings and opinions have changed over time.
For centuries now Christians have claimed to possess the special revelation of an omnipotent, loving Deity who is sovereign over all of His creation. This special revelation is in written form and is what has come to be known as The Bible which consists of two books. The first book is the Hebrew Scriptures, written by prophets in a time that was before Christ, and the second book is the New Testament, which was written by Apostles and disciples of the risen Lord after His ascension. It is well documented that Christians in the context of the early first century were used to viewing a set of writings as being not only authoritative, but divinely inspired. The fact that there were certain books out in the public that were written by followers of Jesus and recognized as being just as authoritative as the Hebrew Scriptures was never under debate. The disagreement between some groups of Christians and Gnostics centered on which exact group of books were divinely inspired and which were not. The debate also took place over the way we can know for sure what God would have us include in a book of divinely inspired writings. This ultimately led to the formation of the Biblical canon in the next centuries. Some may ask, “Isn’t Jesus really the only thing that we can and should call God’s Word?” and “Isn’t the Bible just a man made collection of writings all centered on the same thing, Jesus Christ?” This paper summarizes some of the evidences for the Old and New Testament canon’s accuracy in choosing God breathed, authoritative writings and then reflects on the wide ranging
Religion is an ever-growing idea that has no set date of origin. Throughout history religion has served as an answer to the questions that man could not resolve. The word religion is derived from the Latin word “religio” meaning restraint in collaboration with the Greek word “relegere” which means to repeat or to read again. Religion is currently defined as an organized system of beliefs and practices revolving around, or leading to, a transcendent spiritual experience. Throughout time, there has yet to be a culture that lacks a religion of some form, whether it is a branch of paganism, a mythological based religion or mono/polytheistic religion. Many religions have been forgotten due to the fact that they were ethnic religions and globalizing religions were fighting to be recognized, annihilating these ancient and ethnic religions. Some of these faiths include: Finnish Paganism, Atenism, Minoan Religion, Mithraism, Manichaeism, Vedism, Zoroastrianism, Asatru, and the Olmec Religion. Religion is an imperative part of our contemporary world but mod...
Jesus, a name known by billions throughout the world. To each, this name means something different; savior, friend, philosopher, prophet, teacher, fraud, fake, liar. Some even believe that He is just an imaginary character from the minds of those who wrote about Him. The Westminster Dictionary of Theology describes apologetics as, "Defense, by argument, of Christian belief against external criticism or against other worldly views" (Apologetics 31-32). Though there are still many mysteries that surround the ongoing debate about Christianity, evidence can now prove some of what Christians took by faith before. Now, more than ever, there is information to prove the existence of this man that walked the earth more than two thousand years ago. Little remains of His life and works except for that which is contained within the pages of the Holy Bible. Throughout the past century alone, there have been numerous discoveries, both scientific and archeological; to further prove the existence of a man called Jesus and reinforce the Bible as a legitimate historical document. The validity of Christianity and Jesus Christ himself has been the center of religious controversy for centuries. Though His identity has not and probably never will be proven, He did exist. This paper will use apologetics to prove this so. Sufficient evidence proves the existence of Jesus and forms a firm basis for Christianity.
earliest copy was found in 400 BC. This is compared to the New Testament that
In this paper, I will examine Jesus’ resurrection from the dead because, according to many scholars, there is no other event in the life of Jesus that is as significant. In order to better comprehend the magnitude of this event, I will begin by looking at what can be discerned from the Resurrection of Jesus. Then, I will explore the two different kinds of resurrection testimony that there are: the confessional tradition and narrative tradition. For the confessional tradition, I will look at a few examples including St. Paul’s confession in First Corinthians which is composed of four parts: Jesus’ death, the question of the empty tomb, the third day, and the witnesses. For the narrative tradition, I will briefly examine the two sources of information
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been hailed by people of many religious and cultural backgrounds as the greatest discovery of manuscripts to be made available to modern scholars in our time and has dramatically altered our understanding of the origins of Christianity. Perhaps the most fundamental reexamination brought about by the Scrolls is that of the Gospel of John. The Fourth Gospel originally accepted as a product of second century Hellenistic composition is now widely accepted as a later first century Jewish writing that may even contain some of the oldest traditions of the Gospels . The discovery of the scrolls has led to the discussion of undeniable and distinct parallels between the ideas of the society at Qumran and those present in the Gospel of John.
The definition of religion changes all throughout the world. A neighbor, a coworker, a traveler, a student studying abroad would provide all sorts of different views and opinions on what religion means to them. It can be difficult at times to relate to other religions and provide factual information that has no bias and fully demonstrates the religion but it is important to find a common ground between factual and bias to create a better perception of what religion has to offer others. When narrowing in on three certain religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, there are similarities in beliefs or doctrines but they may symbolize for completely different things.
World Religions 110 has been such an amazing class to me. It will be hard to put into words how much I loved taking this class and learning about the different religions. Not only did we learn about religions, but also I feel we also learned about character, compassion, and actualization. Out of all the different topics to discuss, I feel the most important to me are: Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity.
It has been an outstanding five weeks. This was the course that I've been waiting to take since I started Capella back in April of 2004. Finally after weeks of reading World Religions by Huston Smith, I have developed an understanding of some of the world's religions. I can never be an expert in this field, and I don't want to, but at least I have an idea where these religions originated and have a general concept of the beliefs behind each religion. Each of the religions we covered have one thing in common that stick out, and that is promoting peace and harmony.