Ralph Waldo Emerson's 'The Divinity School Address'

This religious aspect to these absolute monarchs caused the people to have respect for their rulers. People thought “Fear God, Honor the King.” (Document 5) It meant that people should have faith in their Kings and fear the course that God has set for them. They believed that monarchs were sent to do the good deeds of god and that using their power for evil was a horrible sin.

When he said, "Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself guilty of treason towards my own country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings” (9). He is saying that this is what he entails to achieve for his God. Trying to grant the audience a diverse viewpoint, rather than discrediting their own. During his speech, Henry made biblical references such as, “Different men often see the same subject in different lights" (2). The word light was used by Henry, to show again that his views are like gods, and he is not against them.

He thought this because he believed it involved that the elect that salvation that the elect could get could also be gained by the non elect person as a result of their own effort to salvation. Which I believe from my religion to not be true. I believe that anyone has the open and free will to receive salvation it's not only given to a specific group of people. But Calvin did not believe this to be true he believed that the reprobate are the people that God intentionally chooses to neglect, I don't believe that God neglects anyone that does not neglect him. John Calvin believed firmly in election and predestination and he backed his beliefs with biblical statements.

In Fred Sanders’ sermon “Theology of the Trinity,” which focuses on 1 John, Sanders explains that John summed up his theology of God in a single statement: “God is light” (Biola University “Fred Sanders”). Although Sanders notes that summarizing is not always helpful, especially when discussing specific, complicated truths, John’s statement is actually sufficient to summarize the entire Gospel because different nuances of light are implied. First, Jesus is the ‘light’ who accurately “…reveals the Father” because “Light is naked truth” (Biola University “Fred Sanders”). Moreover, the idea of light reminds us that God is holy. As Sanders states, “Darkness is absolutely incompatible with the God who is light…

God brought Jesus back from the dead. He provided the way for you to have a personal relationship with Him through Jesus. When we realize how deeply our sin grieves the heart of God and how desperately we need a Savior, we are ready to receive God's offer of salvation. To admit we are sinners means turning away from our sin and selfishness and turning to follow Jesus. The Bible word for this is "repentance" - to change our thinking about how grievous sin is, so our thinking is in line with God's.

He especially reacted against the sacraments of penance and purgatory. Luther built his case based on his studies of Paul’s letters to the Romans and the Galatians. For him, saving grace comes not from the righteousness we perform, but is entirely an alien (foreign) righteousness from Christ credited to our account. He called this the doctrine of Justification by Faith alone. While Luther understood faith as the means of justification, he also understood the ground of justification to be nothing more than the grace and mercy of God shown to sinners because of the perfect life and work of Christ.

Orthodox Christianity recognizes that God is both all-powerful and good. The challenge presented to Christianity, however, is if God is both omnipotent and upright, why would he allow evil and suffering in the world? David Hume succinctly writes,

Bultmann is known for his belief that the historical analysis of the New Testament is both futile and unnecessary. Bultmann argues that all that is integral is the "thatness" of Jesus, meaning that only Jesus existence preaching and death by crucifixion matters in his life as these are based on historical facts. Therefore Bultmann dismisses the images of Jesus as a teacher and a healer as unimportant. As these deal with Jesus’ character such as his role as a teacher and his explanations of the message of God many find viewing images of Jesus as the easiest way of interpreting Jesus and his message. However Bultmann is greatly criticized for his views on Christology by Christologists today.

In the discussion with the Pharisees about divorce (Cf., Deut 24:1), instead of arguing about what is liable or about the juridical motivations, the Lord places the issue directly at the level of creation. His answer is a fundamental resolution, not a casuistic solution: “what God has joined together, let no one separate” (v. 9). Christ knows very well the pro-divorce praxis of his time and he rejects it. The principle which he refers to is not to be understood as temporal moment in the history of salvation; on the contrary it is to be taken as the original authentic will of the Creator. The unbreakable unity of marriage reflects its genuine meaning which, in fact, calls back to creation itself: a marriage acknowledged in this way becomes a means of salvation for the partners.

Blake underlines the unjust and uncompassionate institutionalized religion as a human construct. Blake suggests that the origins of such social ills are forged by divided selfhood, creating a ‘God’ and social order in their own image. Poem is a remarkably ambitious examination of institutionalized virtues and its progressive enrichment. Blake epitomizes the reasoning through…Man only sees the portion of existence that is comprehendible to his corporeal understanding. Man is unable to apprehend the quintessential idea that virtue is equal to vice; for virtue cannot exist if there is no vice.

This awakening promised access to salvation through a person’s actions and declared the truth of personal salvation. The reformers of the era called for a recreation of the protestant faith something that had been set in place for over hundreds of years. Through this awakening church leaders wanted to reinvent the Christian faith and broke into groups such as the Mormons, Millerites, and the Shakers. This era proved the American characteristic of reinvention through the recreation of the Christian faith to the denominations likings, much similar to the

Bryan opposed to the Modernists traditional view that men were a born sinner and in need of forgiveness through Christ. Therefore, the debate on the “Scopes Trial” cause conflicting issues

Christianity has always been subjective and ambiguous, which allows for theories and speculation to develop regarding the religion’s values and characteristics. A key matter in theology seeks to understand those values and to identify a model of living that guides people away from corruption to remain in God’s image. Athanasius of Alexandria’s On the Incarnation and Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Anti-Christ address this issue with viewpoints that directly contradict each other. Athanasius examines the Incarnation to defend his position that natural human desires corrupt mankind and suggests there is nothing to prevent evil and sin other than God’s salvation while Nietzsche asserts that corruption occurs from a loss of instinctive nature and proposes

These beliefs depend on a fear of God rather than sole worship, as He is portrayed to be a spiteful, all-powerful being. In my teaching, the fear of God was not placed within me. Instead, a deeper trust in God’s saving powers was instilled upon my beliefs, which attempted to draw belief from love rather than fear. God was portrayed as an all-loving being attempting to free us from the control of sin, which quite evidently contradicts the image of a vengeful God. Religion has shaped the way the