There are always two sides to a story, or two ways to look at something. It all depends on the way that you look at things. When reviewing the works of St.Bonaventure, through Step one in the Ascent to God and the Consideration of Him through His Footsteps in the Universe, and from Step two, we learn of to opposing opinions that St. Bonaventure had about different perspectives of the world around us, for different purposes, and with different results. By reading these two pieces I am able to understand them, and how their opposing perspectives differ. I also chose "Harmony with Nature" by Matthew Arnold, and "Gods Grandeur" by Gerald Manley Hopkins to compare in relationship with Step two. I also am comparing the ideas of "Genesis", and "Did God Create the Universe?" by Paul Davies with relationship to Step One. In the readings that I have chosen, I will describe in detail how the author of each writing viewed the natural world, and how their approaches varied from one another. In Step one from St. Bonaventure's Itenerarium, which was devoted to the consideration of the world around us, I first feel as though St. Bonaventure is talking about the goodness of the world around us. He talks about how the world is created from God, and humans in the image of God. He refers to the "mirror, through which we may pass over to God,"(St. Bonaventure 55). This means that when you look in a mirror you see a reflection of the image you are looking at, but St. Bonaventure says that image is God, and if God created us in his image than we must be good. St.Bonaventure even refers this goodness, saying "the goodness of God that lavishly adorned all things,"(St. Bonaventure 55). St. Bonaventure is expressing the idea repetely expressing the id... ... middle of paper ... ...ng. 2002. 55-56. Saint Bonaventure. " The Consideration of God in His Footsteps in This Visible World." The Intellectual Journey. 2nd edition. Ed John Apczynski. Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson Custom Publishing. 2002. 113-115. Arnold, Matthew. " Harmony with Nature." The Intellectual Journey. 2nd edition. Ed John Apczynski. Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson Custom Publishing. 2002 119. Hopkins, Gerald Manley. " Gods Grandeur." The Intellectual Journey. 2nd edition. Ed John Apczynski. Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson Custom Publishing. 2002 121. Genesis. " The Story of Creation." Intellectual Journey. 2nd edition. Ed John Apczyski. Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson Custom Publishing. 2002 59-63. Davies, Paul. " Did God Create the Universe." The Intellectual Journey. 2nd edition. Ed John Apczyski. Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson Custom Publishing. 2002 75- 88.
Cronon, William “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995, 69-90
The Biblical account in Genesis, probably written by Moses around 1500 B.C., and the story of creation and flood in Ovid's Metamorphosis, written somewhere between 8 and 17 A.D., have weathered the criticism and become the most famous. The Genesis account, however, may be the most prominent of the two accounts. Within these accounts, are many similarities, as well as differences, which make these two writings well respected, while holding their own in the literary world. Though both accounts of the creation and flood are well respected on their own, when compared side to side, they are drastically different.
From the lone hiker on the Appalachian Trail to the environmental lobby groups in Washington D.C., nature evokes strong feelings in each and every one of us. We often struggle with and are ultimately shaped by our relationship with nature. The relationship we forge with nature reflects our fundamental beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. The works of timeless authors, including Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard, are centered around their relationship to nature.
In The Battle for the Beginning, MacArthur directs believers to recognize the scriptural claim that first three chapters of Genesis concerning creation are the record of a literal and historical event. MacArthur senses a growing shift amongst modern evangelical believers who seek to revise or interpret the events of creation in a non-literal or naturalistic way. Macarthur reasons that a non-literal or naturalistic interpretation discounts what the scriptures says, and ultimately undermines Christian theology. For MacArthur the Bibl...
Throughout the world there are various cultures with varying religions and creation stories to explain the creation of the Earth and it’s inhabitants. Of these creation stories two with similar and also different characteristics is the Creation story in the book of Genesis which is a part of the 1st Testament in the Hebrew Bible and explains the creation of Earth and humans, and the Theogony which is the greek creation story that describes the origins of the Earth and the Greek Gods. Both the Theogony and the Creation in Genesis show nature as a blessing for humans but it can also affect them negatively, However the myths differ in the ways that the Earth and humans were created and how humans interact with the deities of the creation stories.
Jonas, Hans. The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity. 2nd ed. Boston: Beacon Press, 1991.
Roncevic, Mirela, and Mark T. Bay. "American Gods (Book Review)." Library Journal 126.14 (2001): 153. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
Ham, Ken. "Creation in public schools?!." answers in genesis. N.p., 2002. Web. 7 Nov 2010.
of Gods existence. The factors that go into their views on reason will be compared and accented within this essay. The order of the universe is knowable to Descartes. He proves these by
ABSTRACT: Jean-Luc Marion claims that God must no longer be thought of in terms of the traditional metaphysical category of Being, for that reduces God to an all too human concept which he calls "Dieu." God must be conceived outside of the ontological difference and outside of the question of Being itself. Marion urges us to think of God as love. We wish to challenge Marion’s claim of the necessity to move au-delà de l’être by arguing that Marion presents a very limited understanding of Being: he interprets the Being of God as causa sui. The thought of Edith Stein will be employed in order to bring out a fuller sense of the metaphysical notion of the Being of God. Stein offers us a rich backdrop against which we can interpret more traditional readings of God as Being, thereby challenging Marion’s claim of the caducity of Being.
In William Paley’s paradigm, the world is perfectly designed by a benevolent God who purposefully created everything and “superadded pleasure to animal sensations” (RP 47 ). Paley strongly believes the existence of a God who is wise and benevolent enough to create everything on earth with happiness and a purpose. For Paley, science is a tool to complement the greatness of religion and prove the importance of Design (RP 46). In order to support his paradigm, Paley illustrates the contrivance and work of God in nature with the methodological assumption of First Cause (the belief in the existence of God) and Final Cause (the belief that a God creates an object with a purpose). Additionally, the metaphysical assumption of a close, active God underlies the paradigm as a premise that influences e...
Rust, Peter. 1992. How Has Life and Its Diversity Been Produced? Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 44 (2): 80-94.
1) Oxford Readings in Philosophy. The Concept of God. New York: Oxford University press 1987
Spanner, Derek C., Biblical creation and the theory of evolution. 1st ed. Spanner. Exeter: Paternoster, 1987.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Nature.” The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ed. Brooks Atkinson. New York: Modern Library, 1992.