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Caligula's Notion Of God

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Father Capon states that if what Helen’s notion of God is misconstrued, most likely by her Roman Catholic past. He suggests that she is thinking more along the lines of a Roman god of old or, for that matter, any other god but the Christian God. He goes into further detail by telling her a story of Caligula. Caligula, a Roman Caesar, fell ill and a loyal senator pleads to the gods to take his life in exchange for Caligula’s. When Caligula recovers from his illness he forces the man to take his own life to complete the bargain struck with the gods. This story focuses on the misunderstanding of the Christian God because God is incomprehensible because God does not state “Deliver or be damned”.
To contradict that last statement, there are stories in the Old …show more content…

The Bible is a large book with many side-stories that all relate to one aspect, God. A God that goes against everything humans have believed prior to the death of Jesus because in that moment the Christian God became truly confusing and a weirdo. The God that became man to suffer and die for all of humans’ sins. It is unfathomable for a divine being to prostrate itself for its followers but that is the point when Christians realized that their God was as much a part of them as they were of themselves. Just as Jesus spent his time tax collectors, whores, the poor, and the meek; God spends his time with humans. Helen uses the term “cheap Grace” in regards to what Father Capon has been attempting to convey to her. In her mind, a priest that knows of her adultery and condones her actions by telling her she is forgiven before she has stopped will allow her to continue being an adulterous but a sinless one. To Helen, adultery is a sin therefore until she stops she will be condemned. To Father Capon, she is forgiven and will be forgiven because of the “simple Gospel reason” that Jesus has forgiven us through his

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