Josef Pieper's Hope

Religion has been a controversial topic for people with conflicting beliefs regarding a spiritual figure. Some authors today tend to stay away from the topic of religion fearing criticism from readers who disagree with their religious beliefs. Victor Villaseñor’s book, Rain of Gold is a non-fictional book that looks at the progression of the lives of Lupe and Juan who originated in Mexico. The book begins with Villaseñor describing the harsh condition in Mexico during a war that forced Lupe and Juan’s family to a journey to the United States. However, the journey was no simple task for the families. Even though Lupe and Juan come from different families, the similarities they had during their journey to the United States made

“As surely as each of them brought a toothbrush with him, he also brought with him his loves and hates, his fears of death and his fears of life, his anxieties, his longings, his pride his doubts…and so did the one who traveled to New Haven to hear them lecture.” This statement from page three of Telling the Truth left me naked and vulnerable as I continued to read the following words of this brilliant work by Fredrick Buechner. As a young college student, pursing ministry, I can’t help but be challenged as I read recognize my self in these words. Every time I get up to preach, I bring with me the world that lives inside of me, and so does everyone who is listening. I am speaking to broken hearts, different personalities and family situations, people who are experiencing extreme financial and marriage trials. Each of who is seeking new life shed on them. Whether they are searching Christ or not, they are undoubtedly searching for and absence or void in their lives to be filled. Thus sets the plot for this work that guides readers on a journey to what it means to tell the truth and

People look to God as the pinnacle of motivation, where people “find rest in God alone, [their] hope comes from him” (Scriptures). When severe calamity and hardships are presented to humans, their faith that their God will protect them weakens. When Eliezer Wiesel, a survivor of the Holocaust and author of the memoir Night, faces the Nazis’ dehumanizing acts that strip him of his faith, the development of how a once “former mystic” turns into a hopeless corpse is presented to the audience (Wiesel 67). Throughout this account, Wiesel implements rhetorical questions as a way to emphasize the theme that when people lose faith, they are not only losing their God, but they are losing their hope for survival.

Elie Wiesel is not only a talented author but a survivor of the holocaust who documented his horrific experiences in his memoir “Night”. In the beginning of the book Elie Wiesel was one of the most religious people in his town of Saghet who had a dream of living a monastic life. However, as a result of the harrowing injustices he endured he continuously lost faith in his religion. Within the book the reader is reminded again and again that when extreme adversity is experienced, faith is often lost.

The Christian worldview is a complex idea that covers several topics and splits off into various subcategories. The foremost viewpoints of Christians are their belief in God, Jesus, and the Trinity. Christians believe that human nature plays a significant role in their lives and the struggles all humans have. Jesus was trying to accomplish the restoration of the fallen world, and Christians draw on the teachings of Jesus today. This reflects a large portion of Christian worldview beliefs. This paper will attempt to explain Jesus, God, Humanity and the Restoration from the perspective of the Christian worldview, as well as analyzes the writer’s thoughts and reflect on her own beliefs.

A common questioning of a higher power beyond the physical realm lingers in society: Who and what is God?. However, many of these theological questions cannot be answered until we, of course, die. Due to human’s innate curiosity to understand the forces beyond their own, especially in terms of religion, humans find their own reasons to believe in God in the process of discovery. Religion is a sense of belief and worship to praise a higher power (God), and it provides a guide for human beings to have the opportunity to come together and live as one image of God’s children.

Night, is a novel written by Nobel prize winner Elie Wiesel, it was based on his own nightmarish experience at Jewish Concentration camps from 1944 to 1945.

James Hal Cone (born August 5, 1938) is an American theologian, best known for his advocacy of Black theology and Black Liberation Theology. Cone was born in Fordyce, Arkansas and grew up in Bearden, Arkansas. Cone received his call to the ministry and became a pastor at age sixteen in 1954. He and his family attended Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Moss, C. (2013). How persecuted were early Christians? In C. R. Moss (Author), The myth of persecution: How early Christians invented a Story of Martyrdom (pp. 127-162). New York: HarperOne.

Over the past two years I have learned a significant amount about my faith. I learned that it wasn’t strong enough, I’ve learned that I need to pray the Jesus helps increase my faith, and I’ve also learned the importance of faith when it pertains to Christianity. In his document, Discipleship and the Cross, Dietrich Bonhoeffer takes a look at the Christian faith as he describes what he feels it should represent. There were certainly some most excellent points that Bonhoeffer pointed out that actual like up with my idea of Christian faith. In the duration of this paper, I would like to explore those ideas, and compare them to what I think.

Richard Hooker was one of many English priest of the Church of England and a prominent theologian of his time in the sixteenth century. Some scholars consider Richard Hooker as being in the conventional Reformed theology and that he only sought to oppose the Puritans. Richard Hooker a devoted Anglican went beyond the liberal Calvinism and studied and read the best scriptural understanding of his day. Richard Hooker avoided the limits of theoretical Calvinism and grew in knowledge in Renaissance learning. Richard Hooker grew in his personal opinions and gave up the narrow minded perceptions’ he formerly held. Richard Hooker protected the Elizabethan church against the Roman Catholics and the English Puritans. Richard Hooker defended the authority of the Anglican tradition of Bible,

Secondly, every Christian is obligated to bring Christ to others and make him known. I often ask myself, "What must I do to revive the faith? What must I do to bring them the Good News? How can I help them to deepen their faith? As the beginning passage from Gaudium Et Spes stated:

As human beings, we suffer losses of many kinds and sizes in our life time. While some of these losses are small and do not hurt much, some are big and hurt deeply. Those that are accompanied by pains that are difficult to bear include the loss of a loved one through death or divorce, cheating or unfaithfulness in a trusted relationship or loss of good health when a diagnosis of a terminal illness is made. In all these instances of loss, pain and grief are experienced and an emotional wound is created which needs healing.

Faith and reason are the two wings that help the man to rise to the truth. Faith and Reason (Fides et Ratio) are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth. This expression leads Pope John Paul II 's encyclical "Fides et Ratio". After reading this encyclical, I was amazed in how Pope John Paul II, in so few many words is able to synthesize the core of his letter, the subject of truth, something essential in life and history of men. Thus, as Pope John Paul II sponsors the capacity of human reason to be aware of the truth and demand that faith and philosophy again find their profound unity. He, as head of our Church wanted to affirm the need to reflect on the truth. It is somewhat less true that human beings through the ages, have raised important questions about their own identity, and which also is its origin, as well what will happen after their death, on these issues in search of truth itself and what is its foundation, the reason finds its most gifted beauty in faith support.

One of the themes in the novel, The Old Man and the Sea, is that one should persevere even in the most challenging situations. The old man’s, Santiago’s, lone struggle with the fishes and the forces of nature over a period of almost three months demonstrated an almost mythical persistence. The purpose of this essay is to evaluate whether this theme has any value compared to God’s word. The Bible often discusses the theme of perseverance in the midst of adversity. Even though one views Santiago’s endurance and tenacity with admiration, the root causes of that perseverance is different from the reasons for a Christian’s perseverance in the world.