Growing up I was not forced to be a certain religion by my parents. Sure we read excerpts from the Bible, sang songs about God loving us, celebrated Christian holidays, and were taught to believe in a higher power, but we never attended a church service as a family. As I grew older, I made the decision to attend youth group meetings at the First Baptist Church in my hometown. I now realize that I made this choice based on the social aspect. I share this because it made me eligible to attend a Christian worship service. I have always felt somewhat out of the loop, because it always seems like everyone around me knows more about religion, specifically Christianity, than I do. When I made the decision to attend a Catholic mass I asked a friend, who has been a part of the faith since she was little, to go with and help me understand things a little better. I did not think that I would feel out of place with Anne there. I definitely was wrong and realized how hard it is to even try to pretend you know what is going on. I wish I had read the chapter on Catholicism in How to Be a Perfect Stranger first, so that I could have maybe understood the process a little better. We made the decision to attend mass here on campus at Smith Chapel. On Sundays, Father Ray, a local Catholic priest, comes to campus to give the homily. This threw me off, as I assumed that Chaplain Fritz would be the one leading the service. Anne explained that only ordained priests are allowed to preach and deliver communion at mass. I thought that this might be due to the fact that not all religions offer communion. Also, because they believe in transubstantiation, which means they think that after the wine and bread is blessed, it becomes the blood and body of Christ. As we walked in the door, people handed us a sheet of a paper and a hymnbook. The paper had different prayers and statements that the congregation said at different points, one of them being the Nicene Creed. This stuck out to me as something that we had discussed in class. The creed is basically a proclamation of faith that is widely used between the East and West divisions of the church. I found myself reading its lines many times, because of the statement “and from the Son.” It is hard to believe these few words, known as the filioque, can create such a huge uproar. As we learned in class, this line was added onto the creed by the Western Church, which created hard feelings in the Eastern Orthodoxy. According to Fisher’s book, Living Religions, this is because the Eastern Orthodoxy continued to teach, “that the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the father.” I think this shows how strongly people believe in their faith, because of how much controversy it created. Next, we entered the main chapel where people were freely sitting in rows of pews. Anne explained that an actual Catholic church has a tabernacle, which is missing at Smith Chapel. From texts in class I learned that casual dress is acceptable, which surprised me. I guess growing up I always pictured everyone at church being dressed up in special “Sunday clothes.” As people entered the chapel, they walked up front to a table that contained what Anne referenced as hosts. They took one and moved it into the paten, which holds the bread. It was the pieces of bread that are a part of the communion later in the service. She explained that usually in a Catholic church there is holy water that a person blesses himself or herself with, and that the host count is nonexistent. At this point, I started to realize that it might have made more sense if I would have gone to the Catholic Church here in Indianola. However, I did not realize at the time how many unique things I would have discovered there (which I apologize for). I will probably go to mass at the actual Catholic Church sometime to view these differences. Once everyone was seated and it was starting time, congregants stood up and began a hymn. It was really interesting to see just
Could one religion be better than another? Thousands of barrels of blood have been shed over the idea that “my religion is better than yours” and until these days still, not only academic, but armed conflicts are being fought about the question. The comparison of religions is therefore of great importance and one ought not to tell it off too quickly. For a person to judge something, he first needs a certain standard to judge that something accordingly. Because of this, before I start answering the…
World Religions Christina M. Epps Strayer University World Religions Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are three world religions. It is a common misperception that these three religions have nothing in common. While Christianity, Islam, and Judaism do have many differences, thay also have some of the same ideals. One similarity that the three religions share is there belief in one God, the God of Abraham (The Origins of Islam, 2012). All three religions also believe in angels and demons (ReligionFacts…
Philip Levine A certain point of view: the gospel according to mark by Goerge Burges The gospel according to mark is a prolific story which takes look at people's view of Jesus, and critiques of several aspects of religion, and a further critiques humanity and human nature. The story does this by making Espinosa imitate the role of Jesus Christ, as well as by making the Gutres his followers and making them a symbol of human nature as well. Finally paints a view of how humanity will continue…
the end of the eighteenth century. "A Comparison of the Institutions of Moses with those of the Hindoos and other Ancient Nations" was published by the British Unitarian minister, Joseph Priestley in 1799. His interest in Asian religion was caused by his desire to protect Christianity from its radical Enlightenment critics. His aim was to show Christianity's superiority to other religions. Priestley paid attention to the influence on Hebrew religion, questions of re-establishing the superior…
Clash of the Cultures The book Things Fall Apart , by Chinua Achebe dispels the commonly held view Europeans had of Africans before colonization as savage and godless heathens. Achebe explains the very advanced social order in Umuofia and the complex Ibo religion. Things Fall Apart is a rare outlook on the colonization of Africa from the perspective of the Nigerian natives. This essay will compare and contrast the views of the European’s and Ibo’s politics, beliefs and economies. Europe was ruled…
Buddhism was one of the five major religions of the classical era. It began in India and quickly spread throughout Asia. Buddhism did not make a huge lasting impression on India but it thrived in China for centuries. These documents show different aspects of Buddhism including its teachings, its popularity, and its reasons for disbelievers. Buddhism taught of enlightenment and worldly pleasures which was very different from the still practiced ways of Confucianism; these differences from Confucianism…
Individual Assignment Colonial Geography Report GEO 155 Week 2 Individual Assignment Major Religions of the World Matrix GEO 155 Week 3 Individual Assignment European Union and United States Comparison Report GEO 155 Week 4 Individual Assignment Production Patterns in Less and More Developed Countries Worksheet GEO 155 Week 5 Individual Assignment United States and China Comparison Worksheet GEO 155 Week 5 Learning Team Assignment International Product Presentation…
Although Lawson’s Religions of Africa has the strengths of being compact and normative for leisure reading, the productivity of Lawson for this introductory class is the way his approach and content raise the important questions of research methods, gender selectiveness, and comparison of writing styles for our discussions. As stated previously, Religions of Africa is compact and normative which can be considered strengths for a reader who wants a general overview of a couple of religions in Africa,…
life? Religion is associated with culture as it contains practices and rituals. In today’s world, there have been many wars fought over many different things, they can range from freedom, oil, and religion. Religion being a matter of belief and in most cases a blind following of rules puts the various religions in a crash path due to the differences in opinions and also the availability of information. The question as to whether religion causes war is as debatable as the comparison of religions themselves…
give my opinion on what I think America can improve to increase freedom in the country. In an other hand the impact of American freedom on other countries will be introduce and explain. I’m also gonna talk about the French freedom and do a little comparison with American freedom. Freedom in my opinion is characterize by the capacity of acting, speaking or thinking without any restrictions. And if I need to give an example of what is the opposite of freedom, I’m thinking directly of the word slave,…