Prayer and the Death of Christ
Christian living today entails a number of important doctrines and actions, all aimed towards uplifting the individual's soul to a better relationship with God. As such, the Bible acts as a guide towards better Christian living and having a close and fulfilling relationship with the divine. Particularly, two doctrines that are central to Christian living include prayer and the death of Christ. Particularly, prayer helps the Christian individual to communicate with God on various levels, while Christ's death has profound meaning as the central premise of Christianity.

Theological Definition

The Bible Encyclopedia (n.d.) defines prayer as a "conversation with God," in which the individual addresses God directly. Prayer can be offered either orally or mentally. A person can be in constant or occasional prayer, and it can be either spontaneous or formal. In the Bible, several phrases have been used to describe prayer, including "beseeching the Lord"…...

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References

Bible Encyclopedia (n.d.) Prayer. Retrieved from:  http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/prayer.html 

Bredenhof, W. (2012). The meaning of Christ's Death. Retrieved from:  http://www.theseed.info/sermon.php?id=855 

Elwell, W.A. (2014). Death of Christ. Bible Study Tools. Retrieved from:  http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/death-of-christ.html 

Von Buseck, C. (2014). Three Keys To Answered Prayer. Christian Broadcasting Network. Retrieved from:  http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/biblestudyandtheology/discipleship/vonbuseck_threekeysprayer.aspx

Christian doctrine evolved to contain a variety of philosophical perspectives and theological analyses. Early shapers of Christian thought and discourse included Irenaeus, Clement, Tertullian, and Origen. Each of these figures shaped Christian discourse and changed the doctrine of the religion indelibly. Because each came from a different historical and cultural milieu, and used different languages to express their ideas, Christianity became a complex and even diverse faith.
Irenaeus's theodicy provided the fundamental features for how Christians would address the problem of evil: how an omniscient and benevolent God would simultaneously allow, condone, or even seem to encourage evil. The importance of theodicy to the evolution of Christianity cannot be underestimated, as subsequent Christian theologians have built upon the teachings of Irenaeus to better resolve the problem of evil. John Hick in particular has provided modern Christians with a sound theodicy built on the foundation of Irenaeus's teachings. However, it was not…...

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Works Cited

"Origen." Christianity Today. Retrieved online:  http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/scholarsandscientists/origen.html

He says, "The South was right, my friends, there is no doubt about it" (Taft and Holleman). Thus, the Christian Identity movement is strongly connected with one's personal feelings towards Jews and those of non-Anglo-Saxon origin, seeing them as obstacles. Robin succinctly defines these problems when he lists the basic beliefs of the Christian Identity movement. Robin states that the Christian Identity members believe in a "very conservative interpretation of the Christian Bible" in addition to their beliefs about race and descendants" (Fairley para. 21).
Although their beliefs are certainly rooted in ancient history, the Christian Identity movement does not act in a way that truly supports Christian beliefs for two reasons. First, they both ignore the doctrine that Christianity is for everyone and use violence. The fact that Christianity is for everyone is seen not only through the way that many mainstream churches act today, but also through Biblical…...

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Works Cited

Fairley, Allison. "Christian Identity Movement." The University of Virginia. 1998. The

Religious Movement's Homepage. 5 June 2009.

Ruthven, Malise. Fundamentalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Tuft, Carolyn & Joe Holleman. "Inside the Christian Identity Movement." The Ross

St. Justin was one of the earliest Christian apologists, and his Apology of the second century helps trace the laying of the Christian dogmatic foundation. The faith, as expressed by Justin, contains several of the elements that established the Christian religion as a religion founded by God Himself -- and as Justin composed his Apology as a defense of Christianity against paganism, it takes pains to explain exactly what Christians were expected to believe. Justin is mentioned by Tertullian as being both a philosopher and a Church martyr who, along with a handful of other early Christian martyrs, was slain in ome for defending the Faith. That Faith was largely recorded in Justin's First Apology, one of the earliest records of Church teaching on the subject of the Eucharist. Justin's writings survive today because they like so many others were preserved and collected along by the early faithful and…...

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Reference List

Barnett, P. (2003). Is the New Testament Reliable? IL: InterVarsity Press.

Lindberg, C. (2006). A Brief History of Christianity. UK: Blackwell Publishing.

Robinson, J.A.T. (2000). Redating the New Testament. Eugene, or: Wipf & Stock

Publishers.

Greek bishops could also marry, although such alliances prevent them from rising in position in the church, where Roman priests took celibacy vows. Regarding doctrine, some could Latin approach as more practical and judicial, while the Greek was more speculative about the nature of the Godhead.
Question

Martin Luther founded the Lutheran branch of Protestant Christianity. Luther rejected the authority of the Catholic Pope. The Bible alone was the ultimate authority for Luther. Salvation was by grace and by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Luther retained the sacraments of baptism, penance and Holy Communion and he held that in the Holy Communion the consecrated bread and wine are the Body and Blood of Christ

However, he rejected the ideas of purgatory, indulgences, invocation of the Saints, and prayers for the dead.

In contrast, while John Calvin also rejected the Pope, he believed that God alone could dispense salvation, holding to the doctrine of…...

Paul notes that "For baptized persons, moreover, marriage invests the dignity of a sacramental sign of grace," (Ch. 8). Fourth, marriage mirrors the union of Christ and the Church. The union of marriage should be viewed as a sign and as proof of Christ's love.
The characteristics of marriage according to Paul include the following. First, marriage assumes "full human" characteristics by being of "the senses and of the spirit at the same time," (Ch. 9). Marriage and conjugal love permits people to contemplate their role as human beings, and the meaning of being human. The purely physical and mundane features of marriage are thereby elevated to become teaching tools for the soul. Marriage is, in this sense, a uniquely human duty. Conjugal love should be appreciated as a special feature of human life, as a means by which men and women can cultivate a relationship with God and the…...

At its core, McGrath's work is an attempt to take a logical structure to the deeply rooted mysteries of the bible. His purpose is to draw conclusions regarding the nature of Christian Theology through the application of scientifically derived, systematic logical constructs. Does he succeed? In some ways yes, he does expose the complexities-or contradictory-ideals that have persisted since the dawn of the philosophy. McGrath is very adept at drawing parallels that can cause an individual to question the very nature of Christian Theology. Ultimately, however, in my opinion, McGrath takes full advantage of his analysis to not simply lay open the main theories of Christianity to be picked at and over analyzed but rather, through analogy makes the supposition and the case-quite persuasively-that Christians think the way they do because of an unrelenting, unwavering trust or "faith" in a divine presence they cannot…...

In such situations, it becomes a necessity to have all the fields of learning and engagement to be within the identified fields for the youth. The society is a diverse avenue or entity that needs a clear pathway for understanding (Clinton 72). If the youth and all the people in the world are subjected to religious teachings without making affirmed considerations of the needs of the society, it becomes a hard way for many people to be successful.
The religious teachings must appreciate the importance of its followers interacting with the other members of the secular society. This establishes a fair ground where the young can grow and develop. If the society becomes very restrictive like within a Christian atmosphere, it becomes hard for the available avenues of growth and development to be executed by the available members. The young will not be at a stable avenue of relaying their…...

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Work cited

Benton Mark Steven. Adolescent Faith Development as Related to the Influence of Christian School Teachers in Church of Christ K -- 12 Schools. ProQuest, 2008. Print 109

Bowen Kurt. Christians in a Secular World: The Canadian Experience. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 2004. Print 204

Clinton, Tim, and Hawkins Ron. The Popular Encyclopedia of Christian Counseling: An Indispensable Tool for Helping People with Their Problems. Harvest House Publishers, 2011. Print

Cocklin, Sarah, Bruess, Clint and Greenberg, Jerrold; Exploring the dimensions of human sexuality. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett, 2011 print.

Christian gospel is love. Christian love is conceived of as the divine love of God for Creation, but equally as important to Christ's teachings is human love. Human love can manifest in a number of different ways or types of relationships. Marriage and friendship are two of the most important and universal types of human relationships that are based on love. In spite of differences in culture, language, and ethnicity, all Christians perceive and communicate love in similar ways. Christian love as a strong theological component, as for the first time in recorded history, God became equal to love: "God is love," (1 John 4:8). The Bible also shows how and why love can be psychologically as well as spiritually transformative, which is why the theme of love remains constant throughout the New Testament. Essentially, there are three distinct but related types of love in Christian doctrine: agape, eros,…...

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Works Cited

Carmichael, E.DH Friendship: Interpreting Christian Love. New York: T&T Clark, 2004.

Cooke, Bernard. "Christian Marriage: Basic Sacrament." In Scott, Kieran and Warren, Michael. Perspectives on Marriage. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press, 2006.

Lawler, Michael G. "Marriage in the Bible." In Scott, Kieran and Warren, Michael. Perspectives on Marriage. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press, 2006.

Scott, Kieran and Warren, Michael. Perspectives on Marriage. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press, 2006.

At first, the passage in Romans seems unequivocal -- a rebellion against established authority seems to be the same as a rebellion against God. But a closer and more considered examination of the situation suggests that this is not the case. First, Romans was written with a very specific government in mind -- the Roman government, as a matter of fact. It considers authority as the earthly servant of God. At the same time, this passage suggests that free will exists, in that men have the ability to rebel against God and authority. Therefore, individual authorities could rebel against God and use their authority in ways that were not in his service. This would make the authority no longer the arbiter of sin, and rebellion would be almost morally necessitated.
For many who rebelled during this nation's revolution, and even those who came to the continent in the preceding century…...

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Work Cited

Augustine of Hippo, Saint. City of God. Accessed 26 April 2009.  http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120104.htm 

Romans. New International Bible. Accessed 27 April 2009.  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2013

Most interpretations believe that the 70 weeks refer to periods of years. The author does not give any substance to the claim for such a literal interpretation of the final week.
Another potential difficulty with the text under discussion is also other instances of literal interpretation, such as the 144,000 and the reference to Jews rather than to the Church as a whole. The author appears to believe that the references to Israel and the people of God in the Bible texts used refer literally only to the Jews rather than to the church or "faithful" in general, as is more commonly believed.

The common replacement of Israel with the conception of any faithful today is referred to as "replacement theology." The author is strongly against such an interpretation, and believes that the literal one should hold.

Finally, the most interesting as well as difficult aspect of this quite fundamental interpretation of…...

Christian
This course changed my concept of what it meant to be a Christian in three fundamental ways, all focused on what it means to me to be a Christian in modern society, rather than on the theological underpinnings of Christianity. This course helped me realize that Christianity is not merely a system of belief, which is how many people conceive of religion. Instead, Christianity must be a combination of action and belief. However, it also made me more committed to some of the fundamental underpinnings of Christian theology, which I had admittedly abandoned in my own desire to equate being a Christian with being a good person and trying to do the right thing. However, reading this book, I came to the realization that I was failing to embrace all of Christianity. Just as it is necessary, but not sufficient, to be a good person in order to honestly…...

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References

Towns, Elmer. (2007). Core Christianity. Chattanooga: AMG Publishers.

Christian knows the earliest verses in the ible. The ook of Genesis proclaims powerfully, that man was created in the image of God. We are also told that Man was created so that he could hold "dominion" over all of other God's creation. Yet, soon after, there was the Fall. And God cast Man out of the Garden of Eden to suffer on earth burdened by the pains of the Original Sin. Through Christ's advent and resurrection, we are informed that Christ was also the image of God and also in the image of Man; and, that we have a way out from our sinful ways. The doctrine of the Image of God emerges as a powerful mandate for good Christian Living. The rewards are eternal salvation and the restoration to how we were originally created. As the book of Revelations relates, the consequences of not doing so would…...

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Bibliography

Baker, W.H. (1991). In the image of God: a biblical view of humanity. Chicago: Moody Press.

Edwards, R.B. (1972). Reason and religion; an introduction to the philosophy of religion. New York,: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Kazantzakis, N. (1960). The last temptation of Christ. New York,: Simon and Schuster.

Masson, R. (1982). The Pedagogy of God's image: essays on symbol and the religious imagination. Chico, CA: Scholars Press.

In contrast, the exterior was almost undecorated" (25). Another significant church that was built contemporaneously with the Hagia Sophia was the cruciform Church of the Holy Apostles (536-546), which featured five domes (Nickel).
Figure 3. Cross-domed church. Most important type of ground-plan of the Middle Byzantine period. In addition to the central dome, more elaborate examples have domes over the corner chapels -- quincunx. From the tenth century onwards, the cross-domed church becomes widespread throughout Bulgaria. In Russia it develops into the dominant church type of the Middle Ages, the cruciform domed church. (Church of Theofokos, Monastery of Hosios Lukas, Greece, tenth century)

Source: Nickel 25

Constantine clearly set the architectural bar very high, and Christian architects would be hard pressed to match the Hagia Sophia in terms of size, organization and decorations, but the structure was clearly a model for future efforts. In this regard, Nickel reports that, "Compared with these…...

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Works Cited

Curran, John R. Pagan City and Christian Capital: Rome in the Fourth Century. New York:

Oxford University Press, 2000.

Giliberto, Tracy. (2010). Fish Eaters. [Online]. Available:   building.html.http://www.fisheaters.com/church 

Hodges, Richard. (1996, May). "Aphrodite's Temple at Knidos." History Today 46(5): 61-63.

A worldview essentially denotes the framework of beliefs, ideas, philosophies, or ideologies that shapes how an individual or a group of individuals make sense of the world (Cosgrove, 2006). For instance, a three-year-old child believes that the world revolves around them. Equally, a secular humanist’s life is driven by the belief that only the material world exists. In essence, everyone has a worldview – whether conscious or unconscious. For Christians, the Bible is the ultimate influencer of their worldview. Christians believe that the sole reason for human existence is to serve God. This means that every action, decision, and emotion is driven by the desire to serve God. That is the fundamental attribute of a worldview – it influences every aspect of an individual’s life. It affects how an individual interprets the character of the world, human nature, and the purpose of life (Hiles & Smith, n.d.). Christians have their…...

1. The Essence of Thomas Aquinas's Natural Law Theory: An Exploration of Its Foundations and Implications

Discuss the metaphysical and ethical principles that underpin Aquinas's natural law theory.
Analyze the concept of the eternal law and its relationship to the natural law.
Examine the role of human reason in discerning the precepts of natural law and their binding force.

2. The Harmony of Faith and Reason in Aquinas's Summa Theologica: A Critical Examination

Trace the development of Aquinas's understanding of the relationship between faith and reason.
Explore the arguments Aquinas presents for the compatibility of faith and reason.
Evaluate the strengths....

Essay Topics on the Afterlife

The concept of the afterlife has captivated human imagination for centuries, inspiring countless philosophical and religious inquiries. Here are some essay topics that delve into this intriguing subject:

Philosophical Explorations:

The Metaphysical Nature of the Afterlife: What philosophical arguments support or refute the existence of an afterlife?
The Immortality of the Soul: Are human souls eternal and destined for life beyond the physical body?
Meaning and Purpose in a World with an Afterlife: How does the belief in an afterlife shape our understanding of life's meaning and significance?

Religious Perspectives:

The Afterlife in Christianity: Explore the Christian doctrine....

Apocrypha: Unveiling the Controversial and Enigmatic Texts

The term "apocrypha" originates from the Greek word "apokryphos," meaning "hidden" or "not publicly known." It refers to a collection of biblical texts that are not included in the Hebrew Bible or Christian canon, but are considered non-canonical by some religious traditions. The apocryphal texts have been the subject of theological debate and controversy throughout history, as their authenticity and divine inspiration have been questioned.

Historical Context and Origin

The apocryphal texts emerged during the intertestamental period, between the composition of the Old and New Testaments. During this time, Jewish literature flourished, producing a wide range....