A uniquely firm and strong message, James 5:1-6 also lends itself to misinterpretation. As Pilch points out, “James does not really denounce wealth as such,” but rather, “condemns the injustice and inhumanity that so frequently accompany it,” (p. 367). James refers to atonement for labor exploitation, for example, and for unbridled greed at the expense of others. It is fully possible to preach compassion, tolerance, and inclusivity while also warning against the pitfalls of materialism. Pilch also shows how the James passage denounces social status and advocates for a true Christian community.The Pope’s writings reflect the balanced perspective related to gospel readings that can be reinterpreted as harbingers of their era. Pope Francis speaks of our living in a “turning point in history,” marked by tremendous income and status disparities (p. 38). As much material and technological progress that has been made, the vast majority of the earth’s inhabitants continue to live in dire straits. Power is unequally distributed: not just wealth but actual agency. A preacher needs to acknowledge the realities of disparities and cultivate kindness and compassion in the congregation. Wealth distribution is not a straightforward solution. Rather, the...
The Pope urges social and political institutions to become more ethical: something that requires personal responsibility. A top-down method of imposing communism or other regimented, authoritarian regimes does not work, but inspiring individual human beings to reach their highest potential by caring for others and refusing to succumb to mob mentality does work. The core ethical principles are outlined in the gospel, but anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear can hearken to the call for improving the quality of life for all human beings. While Francis does come close to offering too much naive sympathy for armed uprisings in the passage about violence and inequality, it is true that conflict theory and strain theory do account for the motivation that leads people to commit heinous deeds. Desperation, poverty, and systematic disenfranchisement causes animosity, which is exactly what James was trying to say.
" The point made by the poet is similar to the poem above. The reference to John, The Father of our souls, shall be, John tells us, doth not yet appear; is a reference to the Book of Revelations, at the end of the Bible. That despite the promises of an Eternal life for those who eschew sin, we are still frail and have the faults of people. We are still besought by sin
" It caused missionaries to deal with peoples of other cultures and even Christian traditions -- including the Orthodox -- as inferior. God's mission was understood to have depended upon human efforts, and this is why we came to hold unrealistic universalistic assumptions. Christians became so optimistic that they believed to be able to correct all the ills of the world." (Vassiliadis, 2010) Missiology has been undergoing changes in recent years
On the threshold of the Civil Rights movement, Baldwin would publish Notes of a Native Son. Though 1953's Go Tell It On The Mountain would be perhaps Baldwin's best known work, it is this explicitly referential dialogic follow-up to Wright's Native Son that would invoke some of the most compelling insights which Baldwin would have to offer on the subject of American racism. This is, indeed, a most effectively lucid examination from the perspective of a deeply
Slave Narrative and Black Autobiography - Richard Wright's "Black Boy" and James Weldon Johnson's Autobiography The slave narrative maintains a unique station in modern literature. Unlike any other body of literature, it provides us with a first-hand account of institutional racially-motivated human bondage in an ostensibly democratic society. As a reflection on the author, these narratives were the first expression of humanity by a group of people in a society where
high degree of misinformation I had received from traditional teachings about the church and the beginning of Christianity. Moreover, I was struck by the notion that most other people in the Western world receive this same degree of intentional misinformation, so much so that I have even heard people defend the idea that knowledge of the historical church is irrelevant to modern Christianity. Reading through the class material, I
conservative intellectual movement, but also the role of William Buckley and William Rusher in the blossoming of the youth conservative movement Talk about structure of paper, who not strictly chronologically placed (ie hayek before the rest) - in this order for thematic purposes, to enhance the genuiness of the paper (branches of the movement brought up in order of importance to youth conservative revolt) For instance, Hayek had perhaps the
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