Religious Pluralism for the Modern Christian

Today’s Christian is bombarded with the existence of alternative faiths to his own through modern communications technology. While most adherents to the faith have little theological knowledge of the beliefs and practices of others, the relative closeness and openness with which they operate is strikingly new. From the foundation of the church up until the last century Christians, unlike Muslims and Jews, Hindus and Buddhists, have operated, in the most part, in ignorance of the other faiths and their followers. It has been seen for centuries, by Christians, that the only way to salvation is through Christ and that those who practice amongst the other religions are in need of spiritual instruction to overcome their geographical deficiencies. However, the explosion of world-wide communications, especially through the Internet most recently, paired with the religious freedom movement experienced throughout much of the western world has opened the eyes of many Christian practitioners to the existence of other religions and to the idea that perhaps there are sufficient, quality alternatives to the Christian method.

Death in Confucian China

Death is an idea which exists in the cultural construct of all peoples. As civilizations grow in size, wisdom, and wealth the question of death becomes apparent: Some societies, such as the Greeks, fear death, while others, like the Egyptians, embrace death. The Chinese, however, fail to fall into either of these extremes. For the Chinese, death exists and that is all. There is no inherent good or bad about the mortality of humanity for death just is so. Following, I will show that this is consistent with the Confucian view of death and why this is the viewpoint that Confucius takes.

The Industrialization and Subsequent Destruction of Traditional Agriculture

The three problems of food which most negatively affect the environment are the practice of Confined Animal Feeding Operations, the change in agricultural practices over the last century, and the conversion from farming as a family oriented operation to what today exists as a corporate expedition into agriculture.

Confucian Filial Piety and Science in China

This essay will attempt to show that the Neo-Confucian ideal of the family structure and Confucian system of patriarchal domination, especially the practice of filial piety, in conjunction with the conservative approach with which Confucian practitioners take towards social change shaped the formation of scientific works and methods, and the public policies which govern them, within China prior to the European intervention into the empire.

Plinius, Reddo Humanitae

Plinius, Reddo Humanitae

Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus) was an author and philosopher of first century C.E. Rome.  He is the nephew of Pliny the Elder, who is best known to us as having penned the Historiae Naturalis, the first true attempt at an all-inclusive encyclopedia of the natural world.  The majority of the Younger’s work comes to us from his compilation of letters.  The letters are arranged throughout ten books in chronological order.  However, the individual letters are not kept in any particular order as seen by his letter to Speticius Clarus: “I have now made a collection, not keeping to the original order as I was not writing history, but taking them as they came to my hand” (Pliny 1).  It is believed by many that Pliny’s letters are the first attempt at the intentional publishing of letters for public reading.  Many of his letters are merely asides between acquaintances, however there are portions of his letters which show the true history and culture of the Roman civilization throughout Pliny’s lifetime.  Much of what is known of Roman architecture of this time period is what has been learned through the letters.  Further

Back on the Horse

Haven't posted any of my work in more than four years. Despite my absence there's plenty for me to post. Good or bad, I'm going to get most of my collegiate work online. Let's call it pay back for the professors who accused me of plagiarizing myself.

On the Singularity of the Trinity

On the Singularity of the Trinity

The Doctrine of the Trinity has been the basis of Church policy and practice for over 1600 years.  In building up what is supposedly a monotheistic religion around multiple divine beings, the Church has sectioned itself off from the rest of western religion.  Potential Jewish and Muslim converts, who were not raised in neo-Trinitarian societies (virtually everywhere outside of the Americas and Western Europe), find themselves taken aback and confused by the Doctrine.  What's worse is that many of the Church's parishioners, who claim allegiance to the Trinity, do not themselves understand the full meaning of their words when they ascribe thanks, "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."  While it may have been sufficient from the Middle Ages up through the Renaissance for the common person to have almost no understanding of the beliefs they were practicing, it is not so today; today a much greater portion of the population has the ability to read and write, practice religious or denominational freedom, and seek a general understanding of their religious institutions' practices.  The Trinity is an exclusivist ideal at heart; that is, it is difficult to understand without a previous experience in Christianity and therefore, necessarily keeps outsiders out.  Exclusivism is quite contradictory to traditional Christian thought on the conversion, in which it has been practice to make as much of the world Christian as possible, sometimes regardless of peoples' personal preference.  This exclusivism breeds a superiority complex in many Christian believers; the fact that one cannot understand, or at least make the claim of understanding, the Doctrine without being in the faith in earnest, makes those within Christianity feel that they are somehow better than those outsiders who they should in all reality be attempting to convince, but are really merely holding contempt for.