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Impact of religion in history
Impact of religion in history
Perspective of history
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History is often constructed from stories that were passed down by word of mouth and those that were put to record. When stories are shared by word of mouth the human mind has the ability to exaggerate the truth and the lines between fact and fiction can become blurred. Most of this exaggeration comes from the human nature to try and manipulate the truth to benefit oneself. The Strange Story of Thomas of Elderfield is a perfect example of what verbal passing of a story can do. I will first give a short synopsis of the story, then I will explain why this story was of great enough significance to document and finally I will explain what a person of the time would most likely take from this tale. There was a man by the name of Thomas of Elderfield …show more content…
Modern historians of the day can confirm the majority of the story up until the duel and the ensuing punishment. The court record provided document evidence of the crime and the court case. Everything after the duel is up to interpretation as to the actuality of it. We know from the first paragraph of The Worcester Story that the writer wanted to display religious favoritism towards England. “Yet God has deigned to honor England, the corner of the whole world, beyond all kingdoms of the earth, and to favor it with a certain prerogative of dignity” (Malmesbury, par. 1). With this statement we know that the writer wanted to make it prominent that God was the key part of the story. While the court record is known to be based in fact, the second part of the document could very well have some fallacies within it. This was recorded to help reinforce the belief that Christians had in God. Without having an official record of what happened following the duel, various Christians of the time may have adapted this story to better suit their needs, which would help them convert others to …show more content…
Thomas kept his fate despite being alienated by just about everyone in society. He was an outcast near death with more reasons than most to abandon his faith in God. Throughout it all Thomas remained steadfast in his faith in God. When Thomas was at his weakest, he put forth all of his energy into prayer. Someone reading this would more than likely see the miracle performed by God and it would reaffirm their faith in God. Despite what justice the courts delivered God showed his mercy to Thomas who held steadfast in his faith. Preachers of the time would probably tell this tale to help demonstrate the core ideas of Christianity. Missionaries could also use this tale as a way to bring non-Christians into their
Throughout The Shoemaker and the Tea Party, Alfred Young clearly walks us through the ordinary life of George Robert Twelves Hewes. Some main topics discussed are: average people in historical events, how groups of people view the past, and how memories are shaped over time. Hewes is not the only person discussed in the story, yet this book is essentially a biography of his life. Young touches all of the topics through talking about the different times in Hewes’ life. Ultimately, within this essay, I will demonstrate the understanding of The Shoemaker and the Tea Party, and effectively discuss the main topics during the course of this story.
A deeply pious man, John considers the Bible a sublime source of moral code, guiding him through the challenges of his life. He proclaims to his kid son, for whom he has written this spiritual memoir, that the “Body of Christ, broken for you. Blood of Christ, shed for you” (81). While John manages to stay strong in the faith and nurture a healthy relationship with his son, his relationship with his own father did not follow the same blueprint. John’s father, also named John Ames, was a preacher and had a powerful effect on John’s upbringing. When John was a child, Father was a man of faith. He executed his role of spiritual advisor and father to John for most of his upbringing, but a shift in perspective disrupted that short-lived harmony. Father was always a man who longed for equanimity and peace. This longing was displayed in his dealings with his other son, Edward: the Prodigal son of their family unit, a man who fell away from faith while at school in Germany. John always felt that he “was the good son, so to speak, the one who never left his father's house” (238). Father always watched over John, examining for any sign of heterodoxy. He argued with John as if John were Edward, as if he were trying to get Edward back into the community. Eventually, John’s father's faith begins to falter. He reads the scholarly books
Every hero goes through multiple stages accompanying many obstacles on his or her journey. Although the journeys may differ in detail, structurally, they resemble a sound format. Along the designed adventures, the heroes come into contact with characters that possess fixed personalities or “archetypes.” The stages and archetypes of stories are somewhat predictable, but may take shape in peculiar forms. Both exemplifying heroic characteristics, Sir Gawain from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by J.R.R. Tolkien and Thomas Becket from Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot structurally go on the same archetypical journey, but diverge in the lessons they learn and where the characters start and end in their journeys.
Sargent, Michael G. “Mystical Writings and Dramatic Texts in Late Medieval England.” Religion & Literature , Vol. 37, No. 2 (Summer, 2005), pp. 77-98
“Recovering the Scandal of the Cross,” (Green, Baker) presents an alternative means of thinking for Christians theologically. The author’s task of interpreting culture and communicating within a culture is incredibly difficult. Much of the biblical teaching of God is rooted into communicating to a specific group of people and a certain culture. Yet God has chosen the Bible as the method of communicating himself to the world. Green and Baker begin to lay the groundwork of historical influence of atonement from Anselm and Irenaeus. They later introduce ideas from Charles Hodge and penal substitution. There are four major models of explanations of the atonement: Christus Victor, penal substitution, satisfaction and moral influence. Although others are mentioned in the book, this sets the stage of the historic dilemma from which they can view atonement in their discussion of tradition.
But, Lord, you alone know that I did not renounce my faith. The clergy will ask themselves why I fell. Was it because the torture of the pit was unendurable? Yes. I could not endure the moaning of those peasants suspended in the pit. As Ferreira spoke to me his tempting words, I thought that if I apostatized those miserable peasants would be saved. Yes, that was it. And yet, in the last analysis, I wonder if all this talk about love is not , after all , just an excuse to justify my own weakness (p.
As he proceeds through brief insights on his past, he illuminates the reader and the grandmother on clues as to where he began losing this faith. A large portion of The Misfit’s expulsion of religion is due to the way he feels he was wrongly treated when regarding his conviction for murder. “I was never a bad boy that I remember of,” (18) and that authorities “said what I had done was kill my daddy but I known that for a lie” (18-19) The Misfit claims, yet he was punished regardless, indicating to him a sort of inconsistency with the Christian promise that morally good people do not suffer as he did in the way of his jailing. or cut last sentence and separate to be more concise) He acknowledges that praying would most likely grant him some sort of moral satisfaction or salvation from sin, yet claims “I don’t want no help” (19). This shows how he has lost touch with religion and no longer sees the benefit to having faith in Christianity as a result of the lack of help he received while enduring hard times in jail. The Misfit concludes his denunciation of Christianity by claiming that Jesus had “thrown everything off balance” (21) and made a mistake in raising the dead. The fact that a man would make the life’s work of Jesus out to be an issue in society proves a loss of faith in Christianity, a belief system founded on the idea that Jesus Christ saved society. The heart of The Misfit’s conflict with religion lies in the opinion that he, a morally sound and religiously faithful man, was wronged, punished, and left out to dry by the promises to save him from suffering made by the religion he once trusted. In this way, The Misfit has lost his faith in religion as a result of the emotionally and physically challenging times he endured throughout the process of his
Leeming, David Adams. “The Middle Ages.” Element of Literature, Sixth Course. Austin: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston, 1997. 72-88. Print.
Lynch, Joseph H. The Medieval church: A Brief History. New York: Longman Group UK Limited, 1992.
As the inspector begins to investigate the murders of the boys he collects history books that he believes will give him insight into Richard III and his horrible crime. The first history book he comes upon is a historical reader which bears “the same relation to history as Stories from the Bible bears to Holy Writ.” This book explains the tale of the princes in the tower using short paragraphs and full page illustrations which teaches an important moral, but adds no insight to the real story of Richard III. The second text he uses to investigate the crime is a proper school history book. The first realization he comes to while reading this book is that all school history books seem to separate history into easy to digest sections associated by the different reigns that never intersect or overlap. The second realization is that Richard III must have had a towering personality to have made himself “one of the best-known rulers” in two thousand years o...
1 Nestor the Chronicler, compiler. Cross, Samuel & Olgerd Sherbowitz-Wetzor, editors. The Primary Chronicle. Cambridge: The Medieval Academy of America. pg. 115
Walaskay, Paul W. "The Trial and Death of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke." Journal of Biblical Literature 94.1 (1975): 81-93. JSTOR. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.
The legend of Robin Hood has survived in ballad, book, poem, play, and modern media. The story of Robin Hood has been of great interest among a select group of historians. It is highly debated whether he actually existed. Many historical texts of the time describe outlaws that closely match the description of Robin Hood. The legend of Robin Hood was originally based on a real person.
“The Wonders of the Invisible World”, written by Cotton Mather, is an account of the Salem Witch Trials. He retells information that has been passed down to him without actually being present at the trial and simultaneously explains his theory to why witches were suddenly emerging in Salem, Massachusetts. There were quite a few holes in the Salem Witch Trials, especially regarding whether or not these events occurred the way they are said to. Mather’s book shows us how intense the Puritan ideals were, attaching anything out of the ordinary to a higher power and in doing this shows the flaws of the religion which caused to Salem Witch Trials.
In the 14th century, war, and violence were prevalent. The Canterbury Tales were written during the Hundred Years War, when the Catholic Church was dealing with the Western schism, and “Against the darkest period of his life…” (Bloom 14). The story is centered on a group of thirty pilgrims who are traveling to the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury (Bloom 14). The pilgrims are all focused on a theme which is backed by the story’s underlying tone of religion.