christian religion essay

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What do Christians believe? Answering this question is no simple matter. Christianity in general encompasses a wide range of denominations and faith groups. Thus, within the broad umbrella of Christianity as a religion, Christian beliefs vary widely as each denomination subscribes to its own set of doctrines and practices.

Definition of Doctrine

Doctrine is something that is taught; a principle or creed of principles presented for acceptance or belief; a system of beliefs. In Scripture, doctrine takes on a broader meaning. In the Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology this explanation of doctrine is given:

"Christianity is a religion founded on a message of good news rooted in the significance of the life of Jesus Christ. In Scripture, then, doctrine refers to the entire body of essential theological truths that define and describe that message ... The message includes historical facts, such as those regarding the events of the life of Jesus Christ ... But it is deeper than biographical facts alone... Doctrine, then, is scriptural teaching on theological truths."

Christian Creeds

The three major Christian creeds, the Apostles' Creed , the Nicene Creed , and the Athanasian Creed , together constitute a fairly comprehensive summary of traditional Christian doctrine, expressing the fundamental beliefs of a wide range of Christian churches. However, many churches reject the practice of professing creeds, even though they may agree with the content of the creeds. They refuse to accept or acknowledge the creeds in a desire to follow no text except that which is written in the Bible.

Major Christian Beliefs

While many theological differences exist among Christians, most hold a set of beliefs in common. C.S. Lewis explores this common core of Christian beliefs in his book Mere Christianity . These positions deal with how God reveals himself and relates to humans; the character of God ; God's plan of salvation; God's design for the church ; and end times events.

The following beliefs are central to almost all Christian faith groups. They are presented here as the core beliefs of Christianity. A small number of faith groups that consider themselves to be within the framework of Christianity do not accept some of these beliefs. It should also be understood that slight variances, exceptions, and additions to these doctrines exist within certain faith groups that fall under the broad umbrella of Christianity.

God the Father

There is only one God ( Isaiah 43:10; 44:6, 8; John 17:3; 1 Corinthians 8:5-6; Galatians 4:8-9).
God is omniscient, meaning he "knows all things" (Acts 15:18; 1 John 3:20).
God is omnipotent, meaning he is "all-powerful" (Psalm 115:3; Revelation 19:6).
God is omnipresent, meaning he is "present everywhere" (Jeremiah 23:23, 24; Psalm 139).
God is sovereign (Zechariah 9:14; 1 Timothy 6:15-16).
God is holy (1 Peter 1:15).
God is just or " righteous " (Psalm 19:9, 116:5, 145:17; Jeremiah 12:1).
God is love ( 1 John 4:8 ).
God is true (Romans 3:4; John 14:6).
God is the creator of everything that exists (Genesis 1:1; Isaiah 44:24).
God is infinite and eternal. He has always been and will ever be God (Psalm 90:2; Genesis 21:33; Acts 17:24).
God is immutable. He does not change (James 1:17; Malachi 3:6; Isaiah 46:9-10).

The Trinity

God is three in one or a Trinity ; God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:16-17, 28:19; John 14:16-17; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Acts 2:32-33, John 10:30,17:11, 21; 1 Peter 1:2).

Jesus Christ the Son

Jesus Christ is God (John 1:1, 14, 10:30-33, 20:28; Colossians 2:9; Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 1:8).
Jesus was born of a virgin (Matthew 1:18; Luke 1:26–35).
Jesus Christ became a man (Philippians 2:1-11).
Jesus is fully God and fully man (Colossians 2:9; 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 4:15; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus Christ is perfect and sinless (1 Peter 2:22; Hebrews 4:15).
Jesus is the only way to God the Father (John 14:6; Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22).

The Holy Spirit

God is Spirit (John 4:24).
The Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4; 1 Corinthians 2:11-12; 2 Corinthians 13:14).

The Bible: The Word of God

The Bible is the "inspired" or " God-breathed ," Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21).
The Bible in its original manuscripts is without error (John 10:35; John 17:17; Hebrews 4:12).

God's Plan of Salvation

Humans were created by God and in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27).
All people have sinned (Romans 3:23, 5:12).
Death came into the world through Adam's sin (Romans 5:12-15).
Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2).
Jesus Christ died for the sins of each and every person in the world (1 John 2:2; 2 Corinthians 5:14; 1 Peter 2:24).
The death of Jesus Christ was a substitutionary sacrifice. He died and paid the price for our sins so that we might live forever with him. (1 Peter 2:24; Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45).
Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead in physical form (John 2:19-21).
Salvation is a free gift of God (Romans 4:5, 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9; 1 John 1:8-10).
Believers are saved by grace; Salvation cannot be earned by human efforts or good works (Ephesians 2:8–9).
Those who reject Jesus Christ will go to hell forever after they die (Revelation 20:11-15, 21:8).
Those who accept Jesus Christ will live for eternity with him after they die (John 11:25, 26; 2 Corinthians 5:6).

Hell Is Real

Hell is a real place of punishment (Matthew 25:41, 46; Revelation 19:20).
Hell is eternal (Matthew 25:46).
There will be a rapture of the church (Matthew 24:30-36, 40-41; John 14:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12).
Jesus Christ will return to the earth (Acts 1:11).
Christians will be raised from the dead when the Lord returns (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17).
There will be a final judgment (Hebrews 9:27; 2 Peter 3:7).
Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10).
God will create a new heaven and a new earth (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1).
Elwell, W. A., & Elwell, W. A. (1996). Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology; Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.
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Home > Christian Resources > What Makes an Excellent Religion Essay

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What Makes an Excellent Religion Essay

Published: March 23, 2023

Written by: Cherin

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Writing religious essays is not uncommon. Everyone bumps head to head with it one way or another during our years in school. And we can all agree that this kind of essay is neither the most exciting nor the easiest to write. However, writing an excellent religious essay is also not impossible.

So, how can you write an excellent essay effectively without using custom essay writing services? As with all things, to excel you must have a firm understanding of the topic and the ability to analyze and evaluate the content analytically. A well-written, well-structured, and well-researched religious essay will be excellent. And here are some good how-tos for you.

Select Exciting and Controversial Topics

First impressions are (almost) everything — the same goes with a religious essay. A distinctive and thought-provoking subject will capture your readers right off the bat. Moreover, exciting and controversial topics can engage your readers through analytical thinking as well.

Avoid general or abstract problems; concentrate on a particular element of the faith that attracts you. You can also choose a contentious subject to ignite discussion and urge users to consider opposing points of view. Remember to handle the problem honestly and avoid any personal preconceptions or stereotypes. Thereafter, conduct a substantial study on the issue and acquire a thorough grasp of it. Reading pertinent books and papers, having classes or workshops, and discussing the case with your teacher or classmates are examples.

Read more : Writing a Perfect Religion Essay for College Students

Advanced and Complex Research Is (Very) Critical

After presenting your case and supporting proof, you should assess and evaluate the information. The research stage is critical because it allows you to comprehend and see the viewpoints of others. It would be beneficial to begin by assessing the evidence’s strengths and flaws, enabling you to construct a better case.

Consider different points of view to help you predict and handle possible counterarguments. It is also significant to recognize and address any constraints of your case carefully and analytically. Finally, examining primary and secondary sources such as books, papers, religious writings, and history records can provide additional background and ideas to support your case. You can even look through some Christian blogs that you can follow and get a different perspective on things too!

Coherent Essay Structure

The framework of your essay is critical for providing a convincing case. To accomplish this, arrange your thoughts methodically and offer a distinct opening, body, and end. You can click here for a more detailed and thorough run-through of how to write each section of your essay.

The introduction should give background information on the subject and express your thesis statement, which should be straightforward, concise, and pertinent.

You should explain your case and provide proof to back up your messages in the body section . It is critical to ensure that your proof is pertinent, trustworthy, and up to date, as this will reinforce your case and show your knowledge of the subject. Using instances and case studies to back your concept further is also beneficial.

Finally, in the essay’s conclusion , recap your significant points and repeat your thesis statement while leaving the reader with a concluding thought or call to action, urging them to interact with the subject further or contemplate the ramifications of your case.

Examples and Evidence

To build and enhance your case, it is critical to provide various proof and instances from relevant and trustworthy sources. Examples include direct quotations, current data, and models from religious writings, history records, or personal encounters. You can comprehensively grasp the subject and create trust with your audience by providing varied and well-researched proof.

In addition to giving proof, you must examine and evaluate it to demonstrate how it supports your case. This entails scrutinizing each piece of evidence closely and describing how it adds to your argument. You can show your ability to think analytically and rationally about the problem.

Consider discussing counterarguments or competing views in your argument. You can improve your case and show your ability to interact with various viewpoints by predicting and reacting to possible counterarguments. This can also assist you in developing a more detailed and complicated grasp of the subject.

By presenting diverse evidence, assessing and reviewing that evidence, and tackling possible counterarguments, you can build a more vigorous and compelling argument that will likely persuade your audience of your point of view.

Solid Statement

An outstanding religious essay requires critical study and assessment of the information provided. Evaluate the evidence’s benefits and flaws and demonstrate how it supports your case. You should also consider opposing views and explain how they pertain to your assertion.

Your essay’s final statement should recap your significant points and repeat your thesis statement. You should also offer some closing views on the subject and recommend areas for future study. Keep the end brief and concentrated, and avoid presenting new material in the essay’s conclusion.

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Christian Ethics

Other essays.

Christian ethics is guided by God’s revelation in Scripture above other systems of thought as it seeks to love God and neighbor in every moral and ethical issue.

The highest ethical duty of a Christian is the same as the greatest commandment: love God and love your neighbor. Scripture is the Christian authority for ethics, just as it is for theology. This is because God is our ultimate authority and standard, for he himself is goodness. While Christians know God’s character through reading Scripture, unbelievers are able to partially and imperfectly understand what is good through the created order and their consciences. And while Christians ultimately derive their ethics from Scripture, different parts of Scripture (like the Mosaic legal code) must be read in their redemptive historical context and not simply applied from one distant culture to another. Philosophical systems that attempt to provide ethical norms can be helpful for the Christian thinking about ethics, but Scripture must remain the authority for any Christian ethical endeavor. Finally, while there are many issues today that the Bible does not speak directly to, there are biblical principles that can be relied upon to make an informed moral judgment.

A person’s highest ethical duty is to love God with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength. Their second highest ethical duty is to love their neighbor as themselves. For a Christian, fulfilling these moral obligations takes place in obedience to the Law of Christ and submission to the teachings of God’s Word. The ultimate goal is to glorify God in everything that is said, done, thought, and felt. Other broad ethical goals include being a blessing to others and growing as a virtuous person.

Given this positive vision, it is quite sad that many people—both Christian and non-Christian—tend to see believers as legalistic and condemning. In a world that is in rebellion against God, those who uphold God’s moral standards will have to shine light into darkness and will have to speak against sinful practices that may be widely accepted in society. But the Bible does not merely present an ethical code which consists of restrictions and “thou shalt nots.” Yes, there are things to avoid, but there are also many positive moral duties that the Scriptures require. If we properly form our ethical views from the Bible, we will find that we ought to both shun evil and perform good works. There is a categorical difference between good and evil, and right and wrong, and the Christian life can be a joyous experience of doing good; Christian ethics should be a delight.

Christian Ethics and Scripture

Evangelical Christians should not find it controversial to say that the Scriptures—God’s Word—is our authority and standard for ethics, just as it is for theology. This is because God is our ultimate authority and standard. There cannot be a higher standard for ethics than God, not because he is all-powerful, but because he is the source of goodness itself. Moral goodness is defined by the nature of God, and everything he commands is in accordance with his perfect and righteous goodness. We must obey every word of God because every word he gives us flows from his character, and his character is infinite and absolute moral perfection. God does not measure himself against an abstract standard of goodness; he does not consult anything other than his own nature when he issues commands and moral rules. His moral commands are not arbitrary and they could not be other than what they are since they are based on God’s unchanging moral goodness. Since God’s commands are found in Scripture, the Bible is our authority for ethics.

Knowledge of God’s moral demands does not only come from reading Scripture, however. Although special revelation is definitive, everyone on earth has some knowledge of God’s moral standards through general revelation. We need to be careful about equating what’s “natural” with what’s good, but God has created the world in such a way that there is a general correspondence between moral truths and what is naturally best for people. People can often see what is best to do (or not do) when they apply their reason to the facts of the situation they are in. God has also created human beings to operate with a basic sense of his moral law through their consciences. Reason and conscience are not as reliable or authoritative as the teachings found in Scripture, but they are nevertheless useful sources of moral knowledge. Christian ethics interprets general revelation through special revelation but uses both sources to gain insight into ethics.

Christian Ethics and the Mosaic Law

Despite agreement amongst evangelicals about the importance and authority of Scripture for Christian ethics, there are debates about the role of the Mosaic Law in Christian morality. This is not the place to engage in discussions of covenantal continuity and discontinuity, biblical theology, or hermeneutics, but it does seem safe to say that Christians are not directly under the authority of the Mosaic Law, since the Law was part of the Mosaic covenant. Christ’s inauguration of the new covenant has brought about a change in law, as the Book of Hebrews makes clear. The church is not a theocracy, and Christ has brought about an end—by fulfillment—of the old covenant sacrificial system. Nevertheless, since all of Scripture is God-breathed and useful, many particular laws in the Mosaic Law still find application today in both the church and society. Forbidding murder and theft, for example, are laws which reflect the eternal moral character of God. The two greatest commands identified by Jesus are enshrined in the Pentateuch and apply to all of Christ’s disciples. Sometimes, however, there are cultural factors that require Christians to discern the principle of the law rather than applying it in a woodenly literal way. One common example is the command in the Mosaic Law to build a parapet or rail around the roof of your home. Since people in that culture spent time on their flat-roofs, falling off a roof was a potential danger. People do not spend time on slanted roofs, however, or the roofs of grass huts, so that law does not apply everywhere. The principle behind the law, though, is that we are take reasonable precautions to keep people safe, and that is an ethical idea that applies in every culture. The principle is the same, even if some of the forms of application in a particular culture can differ.

Christian Ethics and Philosophy

Outside of Scripture, philosophers have proposed various systems for the evaluation of ethics and morality. Some have sought the justification for ethics in the consequences that stem from certain behaviors. In these systems, something is considered good if it produces good consequences that outweigh the negative consequences. Some people assess the consequences for the individual alone, but most would look for the greatest good for the greatest number of people. In practice, this can be almost impossible to evaluate, but the sensibility behind it seems fairly widespread and beneficial. Other ethicists have ignored consequences and focused on the intrinsic moral value of actions and agents. Perhaps the most famous example is the categorical imperative of Immanuel Kant. He argued that we should only act out of a good will, and a good will does its moral duty for the sake of duty alone and not for the sake of consequences. He said that we should only act in such a way that we could make our conduct a universal law that everyone would follow. Take the case of lying: Would we wish it to be a universal practice that everyone tells the truth or that everyone lies all the time? If we cannot wish for everyone to lie all the time, Kant would argue that lying must be strictly forbidden without exception. Another school of ethics has focused more on the cultivation of a virtuous character and the motives of the agent who acts. In this model, actions should further develop virtue in the one who acts.

There is room in Christian ethics for all of the considerations mentioned in the paragraph above. None of those systems can stand on their own; they need to be built on the foundation of God’s truth. The Bible makes it clear that things are right or wrong in relationship to God’s character. Thus, morality is objective, and we must obey God’s commands. This does not mean, however, that consequences are entirely irrelevant. Although the morality of an act is not based on consequences alone, there are many warnings and encouragements in Scripture that hold out either the positive or negative consequences of obeying or disobeying God. We are to look at the consequences for disobedience, and we are to look at the rewards for following God’s path. We are also to act to bless others, and this requires assessing the consequences of our words and actions. God is producing spiritual fruit in the lives of his children—he is forming a virtuous character in them that reflects the character of his Son. Thus, acting and growing in virtue is an important component of Christian ethics.

The ethical status of an agent and action is assessed at more than one level. Sometimes all we can do is judge the action itself, but the action alone is not sufficient for moral evaluation. Perhaps we know that someone shot another person, but was it murder or justified self defense? To properly assess ethical conduct requires knowledge of the action, the circumstances in which the action occurred, the agent’s character and intentions, and possibly some of the consequences. The Pharisees may impress others by their religious good works, but God looks at the heart. Even praying and giving gifts to the poor displease God if the heart’s motives are wrong.

Christian Ethics in Today’s World

There are, of course, an enormous number of practical ethical issues that Christians face today. Some issues in certain societies are relatively recent, like legalized abortion and same-sex marriage. Other issues are more universal and perennial, like general sexual issues or the justification of self defense and war. Sometimes God has spoken clearly and directly about an ethical issue (e.g. do not steal), but there are other topics that could not have been directly addressed in the Bible (e.g. issues that require contemporary technology, like genetic engineering or in vitro fertilization ). Even when the Bible does not specifically speak to an issue, there are biblical principles that can be relied upon to make an informed moral judgment.

"The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity"

Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr. (Crozer Theological Seminary)

Date: November 29, 1949 to February 15, 1950 ?

Location: Chester, Pa. ?

Genre: Essay

Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr. - Education

King wrote this paper for the course Development of Christian Ideas, taught by Davis. The essay examines how Christianity developed as a distinct religion with a set of central tenets and how it was influenced by those pagan religions it assimilated. King repeats material from an earlier paper, “A Study of Mithraism,” but he extends the discussion here to the influence of other mystery religions. 1 Davis gave the essay an A, stating: “This is very good and I am glad to have your conclusion. It is not so much that Christianity was influenced by the Mystery Cults, or borrowed from them, but that in the long process of history this religion developed. It, Christianity, is the expression of the longing of people for light, truth, salvation, security.

“That is, with this study you have made, we see the philosophy both of Religion and History. Underneath all expression, whether words, creeds, cults, ceremonies is the spiritual order—the ever living search of men for higher life—a fuller life, more abundant, satisfying life.

“That is essential. Never stop with the external, which may seem like borrowing, but recognize there is the perennial struggle for truth, fuller life itself. So through experience, knowledge, as through other forms, the outer manifestations of religion change. The inner spiritual, continues ever.”

The Greco-Roman world in which the early church developed was one of diverse religions. The conditions of that era made it possible for these religions to sweep like a tidal wave over the ancient world. The people of that age were eager and zealous in their search for religious experience. The existence of this atmosphere was vitally important in the development and eventual triumph of Christianity.

These many religions, known as Mystery-Religions, were not alike in every respect: to draw this conclusion would lead to a gratuitous and erroneous supposition. They covered an enormous range, and manifested a great diversity in character and outlook, “from Orphism to Gnosticism, from the orgies of the Cabira to the fervours of the Hermetic contemplative.”\[Footnote:] Angus, The Mystery Religions and Christianity, p. vii.\ 2 However it is to be noticed that these Mysteries possessed many fundamental likenesses; (1) All held that the initiate shared in symbolic (sacramental) fashion the experiences of the god. (2) All had secret rites for the initiated. (3) All offered mystical cleansing from sin. (4) All promised a happy future life for the faithful.\[Footnote:] Enslin, Christian Beginnings, pp. 187, 188.\

It is not at all surprising in view of the wide and growing influence of these religions that when the disciples in Antioch and elsewhere preached a crucified and risen Jesus they should be regarded as the heralds of another mystery religion, and that Jesus himself should be taken for the divine Lord of the cult through whose death and resurrection salvation was to be had. 3 That there were striking similarities between the developing church and these religions cannot be denied. Even Christian apologist had to admit that fact.

Christianity triumphed over these mystery religions after long conflict. This triumph may be attributed in part to the fact that Christianity took from its opponents their own weapons, and used them: the better elements of the mystery religions were transferred to the new religion. “As the religious history of the empire is studied more closely,” writes Cumont, “the triumph of the church will, in our opinion, appear more and more as the culmination of a long evolution of beliefs. We can understand the Christianity of the fifth century with its greatness and weakness, its spiritual exaltation and its puerile superstitions, if we know the moral antecedents of the world in which it developed.”\[Footnote:] Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, p. xxiv.\ 4 The victory of Christianity in the Roman empire is another example of that universal historical law, viz., that that culture which conquers is in turn conquered. This universal law is expecially true of religion. It is inevitable when a new religion comes to exist side by side with a group of religions, from which it is continually detaching members, introducing them into its own midst with the practices of their original religions impressed upon their minds, that this new religion should tend to assimilate with the assimilation of their members, some of the elements of these existing religions. “The more crusading a religion is, the more it absorbs.” Certainly Christianity has been a crusading religion from the beginning. It is because of this crusading spirit and its superb power of adaptability that Christianity ahs {has} been able to survive.

It is at this point that we are able to see why knowledge of the Mystery religions is important for any serious study of the history of Christianity. It is well-nigh impossible to grasp Christianity through and through without knowledge of these cults. 5 It must be remembered, as implied above, that Christianity was not a sudden and miraculous transformation, springing, forth full grown as Athene sprang from the head of Zeus, but it is a composite of slow and laborious growth. Therefore it is necessary to study the historical and social factors that contributed to the growth of Christianity. In speaking of the indispensability of knowledge of these cults as requisite for any serious study of Christianity, Dr. Angus says: “As an important background to early Christianity and as the chief medium of sacramentarianism to the West they cannot be neglected; for to fail to recognize the moral and spiritual values of Hellenistic-Oriental paganism is to misunderstand the early Christian centuries and to do injustice to the victory of Christianity. Moreover, much from the Mysteries has persisted in various modern phases of thought and practice.”\[Footnote:] Angus, The Mystery Religions and Christianity, p. viii.\

This is not to say that the early Christians sat down and copied these views verbatim. But after being in contact with these surrounding religions and hearing certain doctrines expressed, it was only natural for some of these views to become a part of their subconscious minds. When they sat down to write they were expressing consciously that which had dwelled in their subconscious minds. It is also significant to know that Roman tolerance had favoured this great syncretism of religious ideas. Borrowing was not only natural but inevitable. 6

The present study represents an attempt to provide a survey of the influence of the mystery religions on Christianity. In order to give a comprehensive picture of this subject, I will discuss Four {Five} of the most popular of these religions separately, rather than to view them en masse as a single great religious system. The latter method is apt to neglect the distinctive contribution of each cult to the religious life of the age and, at the same time, to attribute to a given cult phases of some other system. However, in the conclusion I will attempt to give those fundamental aspects, characteristic of all the cults, that greatly influenced Christianity.

The Influence Of The Cult Of Cybele and Attis

The first Oriental religion to invade the west was the cult of the Great Mother of the Gods. The divine personage in whom this cult centered was the Magna Mater Deum who was conceived as the source of all life as well as the personification of all the powers of nature.\[Footnote:] Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration, p. 114.\ 7 She was the “Great Mother” not only “of all the gods,” but of all men” as well. 8 “The winds, the sea, the earth, and the snowy seat of Olympus are hers, and when from her mountains she ascends into the great heavens, the son of Cronus himself gives way before her, and in like manner do also the other immortal blest honor the dread goddess.”\[Footnote:] Quoted in Willoughby’s, Pagan Regeneration, p. 115. 9 \

At an early date there was associated with Cybele, the Great Mother, a hero-divinity called Attic who personified the life of the vegetable world particularly. Around these two divinities there grew up a “confused tangle of myths” in explanation of their cult rites. Various writers gave different Versions of the Cybele-Attis myth. However these specific differences need not concern us, for the most significant aspects are common in all the various versions. 10 We are concerned at this point with showing how this religion influenced the thought of early Christians.

Attis was the Good Shepard, the son of Cybele, the Great Mother, who gave birth to him without union with mortal man, as in the story of the virgin Mary. 11 According to the myth, Attis died, either slain by another or by his own hand. At the death of Attis, Cybele mourned vehemently until he arose to life again in the springtime. The central theme of the myth was the triumph of Attis over death, and the participant in the rites of the cult undoubtedly believed that his attachment to the victorious deity would insure a similar triumph in his life.

It is evident that in Rome there was a festival celebrating the death and resurrection of Attis. This celebration was held annually from March 22nd to 25th.\[Footnote:] Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, p. 166.\ The influence of this religion on Christianity is shown by the fact that in Phrygia, Gaul, Italy, and other countries where Attis-worship was powerful, the Christians adapted the actual date, March 25th, as the anniversary of our Lord’s passion.\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 199\ 12

Again we may notice that at this same Attis festival on March 22nd, an effigy of the god was fastened to the trunk of a pine tree, Attis thus being “slain and hanged on a tree.” This effigy was later buried in a tomb. On March 24th, known as the Day of Blood, the High Priest, impersonating Attic, drew blood from him arm and offered it up in place of the blood of a human sacrifice, thus, as it were, sacrificing himself. It is this fact that immediately brings to mind the words in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “But Christ being come an High Priest … neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood … obtained eternal redemption for us.”\[Footnote:] Heb. 9:11, 12.\ Now to get back to the festival. That night the priests went back to the tomb and found it empty, the god having risen on the third day from the dead; and on the 25th the resurrection was celebrated with great rejoicing. During this great celebration a sacramental meal of some kind was taken, and initiates were baptised with blood, whereby their sins were washed away and they were said to be “born again.”\[Footnote:] Weigall, The Paganism In Our Christianity, pp. 116, 117.\ 13

There can hardly be any doubt of the fact that these ceremonies and beliefs strongly coloured the interpretation placed by the first Christians upon the life and death of the historic Jesus. 14 Moreover, “the merging of the worship of Attis into that of Jesus was effected without interruption, for these pagan ceremonies were enacted in a sanctuary on the Vatican Hill, which was afterwards taken over by the Christians, and the mother church of St. Peter now stands upon the very spot.”\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 117.\

The Influence of Adonis

Another popular religion which influenced the thought of early Christians was the worship of Adonis. As is commonly known Antioch was one of the earliest seats of Christianity. It was in this city that there was celebrated each year the death and resurrection of the god Adonis. This faith had always exerted its influence on Jewish thought, so much so that the prophet Ezekiel\[Footnote:] Ezekiel 8:14.\ found it necessary to scold the women of Jerusalem for weeping for the dead Tammuz (Adonis) at the very gate of the temple. When we come to Christian thought the influence seems even greater, for even the place at Bethleham selected by the early Christians as the scene of the birth of Jesus was none other than an early shrine of this pagan god—a fact that led many to confuse Adonis with Jesus Christ.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. cit., p. 110\ 15

It was believed that this god suffered a cruel death, after which he descended into hell, rose again, and then ascended into Heaven. Each following {year} there was a great festival in commemoration of his resurrection, and the very words, “The Lord is risen,” were probable used. The festival ended with the celebration of his ascention in the sight of his worshippers. 16 Needless to say that this story of the death and resurrection of Adonis is quite similar to the Christian story of the death and resurrection of Christ. This coincidence had led many critics to suppose that the story of the burial and resurrection of Jesus is simply a myth borrowed from this pagan religion. 17 Whether these critics are right in their interpretation or not still remains a moot question.

However when we come to the idea of Jesus’ decent into hell it seems that we have a direct borrow from the Adonis religion, and in fact from other religions also. Both the Apostles Creed and the Athanasian {Creed} say that between the Friday night and Sunday morning Jesus was in Hades. Now this idea has no scriptural foundation except in those difficult passages in the First Epistle of Peter\[Footnote:] I Peter 3:19–4:6.\ which many scholars have designated as the most ambiguous passages of the New Testament. In fact the idea did not appear in the church as a tenet of Christianity until late in the Fourth Century.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. cit., p. 113.\ 18 Such facts led almost inevitably to the view that this idea had a pagan origin, since it appears not only in the legend of Adonis, but also in those of Herakles, Dionyses, Orpheus, Osiris, Hermes, Balder, and other deities.\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 114.\

The Influence of Osiris and Isis

The Egyptian mysteries of Isis and Osiris exerted considerable influence upon early Christianity. These two great Egyptian deities, whose worship passed into Europe, were revered not only in Rome but in many other centers where Christian communities were growing up. Osiris and Isis, so the legend runs, were at one and the same time, brother and sister, husband and wife; but Osiris was murdered, his coffined body being thrown into the Nile, and shortly afterwards the widowed and exiled Isis gave birth to a son, Horus. Meanwhile the coffin was washed up on the Syrian coast, and became miraculously lodged in the trunk of a tree. This tree afterwards chanced to be cut down and made into a pillar in the palace at Byblos, and there Isis at length found it. After recovering Osiris’ dismembered body, Isis restored him to life and installed him as King in the nether world; meanwhile Horus, having grown to manhood, reigned on earth, later becoming the third person of this great Egyptian trinity.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. cit., p. 119.\ 19

In the records of both Herodotus and Plutarch we find that there was a festival held each year in Egypt celebrating the resurrection of Osiris. While Herodotus fails to give a date for this festival, Plutarch says that it lasted four days, giving the date as the seventeenth day of the Egyptian month Hathor, which, according to the Alexandrian claendar used by him, corresponded to November 13th.\[Footnote:] Frazer, op. cit., p. 257.\ Other Egyptian records speak of another feast in honour of all the dead, when such lamps were lit, which was held about November 8th.\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 258.\ 20

It is interesting to note that the Christian feast of all Souls, in honor of the dead, likewise falls at the beginning of November; and in many countries lamps and candles are burned all night on that occassion. There seems little doubt that this custom was identical with the Egyptian festival. The festival of all Saints, which is held one day before that of all Souls is also probably identical with it in origin.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. cit., p. 121.\ This still stands as a festival in the Christian calendar; and thus Christians unconsciously perpetuate the worship of Osiris in modern times. 21

However this is not the only point at which the Religion of Osiris and Isis exerted influence on Christianity. There can hardly be any doubt that the myths of Isis had a direct bearing on the elevation of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to the lofty position that she holds in Roman Catholic theology. As is commonly known Isis had two capacities which her worshippers warmly commended her for. Firstly, she was pictured as the lady of sorrows, weeping for the dead Osiris, and secondly she was commended as the divine mother, nursing her infant son, Horus. In the former capacity she was identified with the great mother-goddess, Demeter, whose mourning for Persephone was the main feature in the Eleusinian mysteries. In the latter capacity Isis was represented in tens of thousands of statuettes and paintings, holding the divine child in her arms. Now when Christianity triumphed we find that these same paintings and figures became those of the Madonna and child with little or no difference.\[Footnote:] Ibid, p. 123\ In fact archaeologists are often left in confusion in attempting to distinguish the one from the other. 22

It is also interesting to note that in the second century a story began to spread stating that Mary had been miraculously carried to Heaven by Jesus and His angels.\[Footnote:] The spreading of this story has been attributed to Melito, Bishop of Sardis.\ In the sixth century a festival came to be celebrated around this event known as the festival of Assumption, and it is now one of the greatest feasts of Roman Catholicism. It is celebrated annually on August 13th. But it was this very date that the festival of Dianna or Artemis was celebrated, with whom Isis was identified. Here we see how Mary gradually came to take the place of the goddess.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. cit., p. 125.\ 23

The Influence Of The Greater Mysteries At Eleusis

In the first century of the Christian era the Eleusinian mystery cult was more favorable known than any of the cults of Greece. 24 Its fame and popularity was largely due to the connexion of Eleusis with Athens. The origin of this cult is obscure and uncertain. Some writers traced its origin to Egypt while others upheld Eleusis in Greece as the place of its birth.

In order to understand the type of religious experience represented by this important cult, we must turn to the myth of the rape of Demeter’s daughter by Pluto. It is stated with sufficient elaboration in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. In this myth, Persephone is depicted playing in the meadows of Mysia in Asia with the daughters of Oceanus and Tithys. While playing she was stolen by Pluto and carried off to the underworld to be his bride. The mother, frenzied with grief, rushed about the earth for nine days in search for her lost daughter, 25 As a result of her wandering, she came to Eleusis where she was seen, although not recognized, by the four daughters of Kekeas sitting near a public well called the Fountain of Maidenhood. After telling a fictitious tale of her escape from pirates, she won the sympathy of the girls who took her home and at her own request was given a job to nurse their infant brother, Demophon. After making herself known, she commanded the people of Eleusis to build her a temple. In connection with the temple, she established certain ceremonies and rites for her worship.

During her short stay at the temple of Eleusis, the whole earth grew barren. Men began to die for the lack of food while the sacrifices to the gods decreased in number because the animals were dying out. The other gods pleaded with her to relent but she refused to do so until Persephone was restored to her. Pluto, (also called Hades) therefore, at the request of Zeus released her but not before he had caused her to eat a pomegranate seed which magically required her return after a period of time. Demeter, in her joy at the restoration of her lost daughter, allowed the crops to grow once more and institute in honor of the event the Eleusinian mysteries which gave to mortals the assurance of a happy future life. 26

The significance of this story is immediately clear. It was a nature myth portraying a vivid and realistic picture of the action of life in the vegetable world in regards to the changing seasons. Every year nature passes through a cycle of apparent death and resurrection. In winter, all plants die, this represents the period of Demeter’s grief over her daughter. Spring, the time when all plants come back to life, indicates the return of plenty when the goddess maintains all life until autumn when her daughter returns to Hades and the earth becomes once more desolated.\[Footnote:] Willoughby, op. cit., p. 42.\ 27

The myth is also an example of poignant human experience, reflecting the joys, sorrows, and hopes of mankind in the face of death. The mysteries of human life and death are vividly enacted by Demeter, Persephone, and Hades. Hades, the god of death, stole the beloved daughter, Persephone, from Demeter, the life giver, who refused to admit defeat until she secured her daughter’s resurrection. In this legend, human beings, who are always loved and lost, are depicted as never or seldom loosing hope for reunion with their God. These fundamental human experiences and the life of nature are the main substances of the Eleusinian Mysteries. 28 To the searchers of salvation, the Eleusinian cult offered not only the promise of a happy future, but also a definite assurance of it.\[Footnote:] Nilsson, Greek Popular Religion, p. 54.\

Now when we observe the modern Greek Easter festival it seems certain that it preserves the spirit if not the form of the old Eleusinian worship. In the spring, those who had shared Demeter’s grief for the loss of her daugher welcomed the return of Persephone with all the joy that the returning life of vegetation might kindle. And today similar experiences are represented by Greek Christians. After mourning over the dead Christ, represented most conspicuously by a wax image carried through the streets, there comes an announcement by the priest, on the midnight before Easter Sunday, that Christ is risen. At this moment the light from the candle of the priest is passed on to light the candles of his companions; guns and firecrackers are discharged as they prepare to break the Lenten fast.\[Footnote:] Fairbanks, Greek Religion, p. 288.\ 29 As in the Eleusinian mysteries the modern Greek Christian finds this a moment of supreme joy. So we might say that Eleusinianism was not blotted out by Christianity. On the contrary many of its forms and some of its old content has been perpetuated in Christianity. 30

The Influence of Mithraism

Mithraism is perhaps the greatest example of paganism’s last effort to reconcile itself to the great spiritual movement which was gaining such sturdy influence with its purer conception of God.\[Footnote:] Dill, Roman Society From Nero to Marcus Aurelius, p. 585.\ Ernest Renan, the French philosopher and Orientalist, expressed the opinion that Mithraism would have been the religion of the modern world if anything had occured to halt or destroy the growth of Christianity in the early centuries of its existence. All this goes to show how important Mithraism was in ancient times. It was suppressed by the Christians sometime in the latter part of the fourth century a.d.; but its collapse seems to have been due to the fact that by that time many of its doctrines and practices had been adopted by the church, so that it was practically absorbed by its rival. 31

Originally Mithra was one of the lesser gods of the ancient Persian pantheon, but at the time of Christ he had come to be co-equal with Ahura Mazda, the Supreme Being. 32 He possessed many attributes, the most important being his office of defender of truth and all good things. In the Avesta,\[Footnote:] This is the sacred book of the religion of Iran.\ Mithra is represented as the genius of celestial light. He emerges from the rocky summits of eastern mountains at dawn, and goes through heaven with a team of four white horses; when the night falls he still illumines the surface of the earth, “ever walking, ever watchful.” He is not sun or moon or any star, but a spirit of light, ever wakeful, watching with a hundred eyes. He hears all and sees all: none can deceive him.\[Footnote:] Cumont, Mysteries of Mithra, pp. 2, 3.\ 33 Tarsus, the home of Saint Paul, was one of the great centres of his worship; and there is a decided tinge of Mithraism in the Epistles and Gospels. Such designations of our Lord as the Dayspring from on High, The Light, the Sun of Righteousness, and similar expressions seem to come directly from Mithraic influence.\[Footnote:] Weigall, op. cit., p. 129.\ 34

Again tradition has it that Mithra was born from a rock, “the god out of the rock.” It must also be noticed that his worship was always conducted in a cave. Now it seems that the general belief of the early church that Jesus was born in a cave grows directly out of Mithraic ideas. The words of St. Paul, “They drank of that spiritual rock … and that rock was Christ” also seem to be {a} direct borrow from the Mithraic scriptures. 35

The Hebrew Sabbath having been abolished by Christians, the Church made a sacred day of Sunday, partly because it was the day of resurrection. But when we observe a little further we find that as a solar festival, Sunday was the sacred day of Mithra; it is also interesting to notice that since Mithra was addressed as Lord, Sunday must have been “the Lord’s Day” long before Christian use.\[Footnote:] Ibid., p. 137.\ It is also to be noticed that our Christmas, December 25th, was the birthday of Mithra, and was only taken over in the Fourth Century as the date, actually unknown, of the birth of Jesus. 36

To make the picture a little more clear, we may list a few of the similarities between these two religions: (1) Both regard Sunday as a holy day. (2) December 25 came to be considered as the anniversary of the birth of Mithra and Christ also. (3) Baptism and a communion meal were important parts of the ritual of both groups. (4) The rebirth of converts was a fundamental idea in the two cults. (5) The struggle with evil and the eventual triumph of good were essential ideas in both religions. 37 (6) In summary we may say that the belief in immortality, a mediator between god and man, the observance of certain sacramental rites, the rebirth of converts, and (in most cases) the support of high ethical ideas were common to Mithraism as well as Christianity. In fact, the comparison became so evident that many believed the Christian movement itself became a mystery cult. “Jesus was the divine Lord. He too had found the road to heaven by his suffering and resurrection. He too had God for his father. He had left behind the secret whereby men could achieve the goal with him.”\[Footnote:] Enslin, op. cit., p. 190.\

Although the above paragraph makes it obvious that there are many similarities between these two religions, we must guard against the fallacy of seeing all similarity as direct borrowing. For an instance, the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist have been mentioned as rites, which were preactice {practiced} by both Christians and pagans. It is improbable, however, that either of these were introduced into Christian practices by association with the mystery cults. The baptismal ceremony in both cases (Christian and Pagan) was supposed to have the effect of identifying the initiate with his savior. But although baptism did not originate with the Christians, still it was not copied from the pagans. It seems instead to have been carried over from Jewish background and modified by the new ideas and beliefs of the Christians. The eucharist, likewise through similar in some respects to the communion meal of Mithraism, was not a rite borrowed from it. There are several explanations regarding the beginning of the observance of the Lord’s Supper. Some held that the sacrament was instituted by Jesus himself. Others saw it as an out-growth from Jewish precedents. Still others felt that, after the death of Jesus, the disciples saw in their common meal an opportunity to hold a kind of memorial service for him.

On the whole, early Christians were not greatly concerned about the likenesses between the Mithraic cult and their own. They felt at first that these competitors were not worthy of consideration, and few references to them are found in Christian literature. When Mithraism became widespread and powerful, it attracted so much attention that certain Christian apologists felt the need to present an explanation for the similarities in their respective characteristics. The only one they could offer was quite naive, but it was in keeping with the trends of thought in that age. They maintained that it was the work of the devil who helped to confuse men by creating a pagan imitation of the true religion. 38

There can hardly be any gainsaying of the fact that Christianity was greatly influenced by the Mystery religions, both from a ritual and a doctrinal angle. This does not mean that there was a deliberate copying on the part of Christianity. On the contrary it was generally a natural and unconscious process rather than a deliberate plan of action. Christianity was subject to the same influences from the environment as were the other cults, and it sometimes produced the same reaction. The people were conditioned by the contact with the older religions and the background and general trend of the time. 39 Dr. Shirley Jackson Case has written some words that are quite apt at this point. He says: “Following the lead of the apostle Paul, the Christian missionaries on gentile soil finally made of Christianity a more appealing religion than any of the other mystery cults. This was accomplished, not by any slavish process of imitation, but by {a} serious attempt to meet better the specific religious needs that the mysteries had awakened and nourished, and by phrasing religious assurances more convincingly in similar terminology.”\[Footnote:] Case, “The Mystery Religions,” The Encyclopedia of Religion, Edited by Vergilius Ferm, pp. 511–513\

The greatest influence of the mystery religions on Christianity lies in a different direction from that of doctrine and ritual. It lies in the fact that the mystery religions paved the way for the presentation of Christianity to the world of that time. They prepared the people mentally and emotionally to understand the type of religion which Christianity represented. They were themselves, in verying degrees, imperfect examples of the Galilean cult which was to replace them. They encouraged the movement away from the state religions and the philosophical systems and toward the desire for personal salvation and promise of immortality. Christianity was truly indebted to the mystery religions for this contribution, for they had done this part of the groundwork and thus opened the way for Christian missionary work. Many views, while passing out of paganism into Christianity were given a more profound and spiritual meaning by Christians, yet we must be indebted to the source. To discuss Christianity without mentioning other religions would be like discussing the greatness of the Atlantic Ocean without the slightest mention of the many tributaries that keep it flowing. 40

Christianity, however, [ strikeout illegible ] survived because it appeared to be the result of a trend in the social order or in the historical cycle of the human race. Forces have been known to delay trends but very few have stopped them. The staggering question that now arises is, what will be the next stage of man’s religious progress? Is Christianity the crowning achievement in the development of religious thought or will there be another religion more advanced?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Angus, S., The Mystery Religions and Christianity, (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York: 1925),
Cumont, Franz, The Mysteries of Mithra, (The Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago: 1910).
Cumont, Franz, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, (The Open House Publishing Co., Chicago: 1911).
Dill, Samuel, Roman Society From Nero To Marcus Aurelius, (Macmillan and Co., New York: 1905), pp. 585–626.
Enslin Morton S., Christian Beginnings, (Harper and Brothers Publishers, New York: 1938), pp. 186–200.
Frazer, J. E., Adonis, Attis, Osiris, (London, 1922), Vol. I.
Fairbanks, Arthur, Greek Religion, (American Book Co, New York: 1910).
Halliday, W. R., The Pagan Background of Early Christianity, (The University Press of Liverpool, London: N.D.), pp. 281–311.
Hyde, Walter, W, Paganism To Christianity in the Roman Empire, (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia: 1946).
Moore, George F., History of Religions, (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York: 1913), Vol. I, pp. 375–405.
Nilsson, Martin P., Greek Popular Religion, (Columbia University Press, New York: 1940), pp. 42–64.
Weigall Arthur, The Paganism in Our Christianity, (Hutchinson and Co. London: N.D.).
Willoughby, Harold R., Pagan Regeneration, (University of Chicago Press, Chicago: 1929).

1. See “A Study of Mithraism,” 13 September–23 November 1949, pp. 211–225 in this volume.

2. S. Angus, The Mystery-Religions and Christianity (London: John Murray, 1925), p. vii: “These Mysteries covered an enormous range, and manifested a great diversity in character and outlook, from Orphism to Gnosticism, from the orgies of the Cabiri to the fervours of the Hermetic contemplative.”

3. The preceding three paragraphs are similar to a passage in King’s earlier paper, “A Study of Mithraism,” p. 211 in this volume.

4. Grant Showerman, introduction to Franz Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (Chicago: Open House Publishing Company, 1911), pp. xi–xii: “Christianity triumphed after long conflict … It took from its opponents their own weapons, and used them; the better elements of paganism were transferred to the new religion. ‘As the religious history of the empire is studied more closely,’ writes M. Cumont, ‘the triumph of the church will, in our opinion, appear more and more as the culmination of a long evolution of beliefs. We can understand the Christianity of the fifth century with its greatness and weaknesses, its spiritual exaltation and its puerile superstitions, if we know the moral antecedents of the world in which it developed.’”

5. The preceding two sentences are similar to a passage in “A Study of Mithraism,” p. 211 in this volume.

6. The preceding paragraph is similar to passages in two of King’s earlier papers: “Light on the Old Testament from the Ancient Near East,” 14 September–24 November 1948, p. 163 in this volume; “A Study of Mithraism,” p. 212 in this volume.

7. Harold R. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929), p. 114: “Of these Oriental mystery religions the first to invade the west was the cult of the Great Mother of the Gods,… The divine personage in whom this cult centered was the Magna Mater Deum who was conceived as the source of all life as well as the personification of all the powers of nature.”

8. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration , p. 114: “She was the ‘Great Mother’ not only ‘of all the gods,’ but ‘of all men’ as well.”

9. Willoughby quoted from Apollonius Argonautica 1.1098 ff. ( Pagan Regeneration , p. 115).

10. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration , pp. 116–117: “With [the Great Mother] was associated a hero-divinity called Attis who personified the life of the vegetable world particularly.… Around these two divinities, the Great Mother and the god of vegetation, there grew up a confused tangle of myths in explanation of their cult rites. Various writers, pagan and Christian, gave different versions of the Cybele-Attis myth.… The specific variations in all these diverse statements do not concern us, for certain significant elements were common to all the various versions.”

11. Arthur E. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity (n.p.: Putnam, 1928), p. 121: “Attis was the Good Shepherd, the son of Cybele, the Great Mother, or, alternatively, of the Virgin Nana, who conceived him without union with mortal man, as in the story of the Virgin Mary.”

12. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 121–122: “In Rome the festival of his death and resurrection was annually held from March 22nd to 25th; and the connection of this religion with Christianity is shown by the fact that in Phrygia, Gaul, Italy, and other countries where Attis-worship was powerful, the Christians adopted the actual date, March 25th, as the anniversary of our Lord’s passion.”

13. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 122–123: “At this Attis festival a pine-tree was felled on March 22nd, and to its trunk an effigy of the god was fastened, Attis thus being ‘slain and hanged on a tree,’ in the Biblical phrase. This effigy was later buried in a tomb. March 24th was the Day of Blood, whereon the High Priest, who himself impersonated Attis, drew blood from his arm and offered it up in place of the blood of a human sacrifice, thus, as it were, sacrificing himself, a fact which recalls to mind the words in the Epistle to the Hebrews: ‘Christ being come an High Priest … neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood … obtained eternal redemption for us.’ That night the priests went to the tomb and found it illuminated from within, and it was then discovered to be empty, the god having risen on the third day from the dead; and on the 25th the resurrection was celebrated with great rejoicings, a sacramental meal of some kind being taken, and initiates being baptised with blood, whereby their sins were washed away and they were said to be ‘born again.’”

14. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , p. 123: “There can be no doubt that these ceremonies and beliefs deeply coloured the interpretation placed by the first Christians upon the historic facts of the Crucifixion, burial, and coming again to life of Jesus.”

15. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 115–116: “Now one of the earliest seats of Christianity was Antioch; but in that city there was celebrated each year the death and resurrection of the god Tammuz or Adonis,… This faith had always exerted its influence on Jewish thought, and, indeed, the prophet Ezekiel had found it necessary to scold the women of Jerusalem for weeping for the dead Tammuz at the very gate of the Temple; while, in the end, the place at Bethlehem selected by the early Christians as the scene of the birth of Jesus (for want to [ sic ] any knowledge as to where the event had really occurred) was none other than an early shrine of this pagan god, as St. Jerome was horrified to discover—a fact which shows that Tammuz or Adonis ultimately became confused in men’s minds with Jesus Christ.”

16. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , p. 116: “This god was believed to have suffered a cruel death, to have descended into Hell or Hades, to have risen again, and to have ascended into Heaven; and at his festival, as held in various lands, his death was bewailed, an effigy of his dead body was prepared for burial by being washed with water and anointed, and, on the next day, his resurrection was commemorated with great rejoicing, the very words ‘The Lord is risen’ probably being used. The celebration of his ascension in the sight of his worshippers was the final act of the festival.”

17. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , p. 117: “This coincidence has, of course, led many critics to suppose that the story of the burial and resurrection of Jesus is simply a myth borrowed from this pagan religion.”

18. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 118–119: “But there is one feature of the Gospel story which seems really to have been borrowed from the Adonis religion, and, in fact, from other pagan religions also, namely, the descent into Hell. The Apostles Creed and Athanasian Creed say that between the Friday night and the Sunday morning Jesus was in Hell or Hades;… It has no scriptural foundation except in the ambiguous words of the First Epistle of Peter; it did not appear in the Church as a tenet of Christianity until late in the Fourth Century.”

19. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 124–125: “The popular and widespread religion of Osiris and Isis exercised considerable influence upon early Christianity, for these two great Egyptian deities, whose worship had passed into Europe, were revered in Rome and in several other centres where Christian communities were growing up. Osiris and Isis, so runs the legend, were brother and sister and also husband and wife; but Osiris was murdered, his coffined body being thrown into the Nile, and shortly afterwards the widowed and exiled Isis gave birth to a son, Horus. The coffin, meanwhile, was washed up on the Syrian coast, and became miraculously lodged in the trunk of a tree,… This tree afterwards chanced to be cut down and made into a pillar in the palace at Byblos, and there Isis at length found it.… Afterwards, however, he returned to the other world to reign for ever as King of the Dead; and meanwhile Horus, having grown to manhood, reigned on Earth, later becoming the third person of this great Egyptian trinity.”

20. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 125–126: “Herodotus states that the festival of the death and resurrection of Osiris was held in Egypt each year, though he does not give the date;… Plutarch also records the annual Osirian festival, and says that it lasted four days, giving the date as the seventeenth day of the Egyptian month Hathor, which, according to the Alexandrian calendar used by him, corresponded to November 13th. Now we know from old Egyptian records that a feast in honour of all the dead, when such lamps were lit, was held … about November 8th.”

21. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 126–127: “But the Christian feast of All Souls, in honour of the dead, likewise falls at the beginning of November; and in many countries lamps and candles are burnt all night on that occasion.… there seems little doubt that this custom was identical with the Egyptian festival.… the festival of All Saints, which is held one day before that of All Souls and which was first recognised by the Church in a.d. 835, is undoubtedly identical with it in origin. This still stands as a festival in the ecclesiastical calendar; and thus Christians unconsciously perpetuate the worship of Osiris and the commemoration of all his subjects in the Kingdom of the Dead.”

22. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 129–130: “There were two aspects of Isis which commended themselves particularly to her worshippers: firstly, that of the lady of sorrows, weeping for the dead Osiris, and, secondly, that of the divine mother, nursing her infant son, Horus. In the former capacity she was identified with the great mother-goddess, Demeter, whose mourning for Persephone was the main feature in the Eleusinian mysteries;… In her aspect as the mother of Horus, Isis was represented in tens of thousands of statuettes and paintings, holding the divine child in her arms; and when Christianity triumphed these paintings and figures became those of the Madonna and Child without any break in continuity: no archaeologist, in fact, can now tell whether some of these objects represent the one or the other.”

23. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 131–132: “At about this time a story, attributed to Melito, Bishop of Sardis in the Second Century, but probably of much later origin, began to spread that Mary had been miraculously carried to Heaven by Jesus and His angels; and in the Sixth Century the festival of the Assumption, which celebrates this event, was acknowledged by the Church, and is now one of the great feasts of Roman Catholicism,… It is celebrated on August 13th; but that was the date of the great festival of Diana or Artemis, with whom Isis was identified, and one can see, thus, how Mary had gradually taken the place of the goddess.”

24. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration , p. 36: “Among the cults of Greece none was more favorably known in the first century of the Christian era than the Eleusinian mysteries.”

25. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration , p. 41: “In order to understand the type of religious experience represented by this important cult, it is necessary clearly to keep in mind the main points of the Eleusinian myth which was developed to explain and justify the cult rites. These are stated with sufficient elaboration in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter,… According to the story, Persephone,… was stolen by Pluto and carried off to the underworld to be his bride.… The mother, frenzied with grief, rushed about the earth for nine days.”

26. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration , p. 42: “Demeter, in her joy at the restoration of her lost daughter, allowed the crops to grow once more and instituted in honor of the event the Eleusinian mysteries which gave to mortals the assurance of a happy future life.”

27. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration , p. 42: “The experiential basis for this story is quite clear. It was a nature myth, a vivid depiction of the action of life in the vegetable world with the changing of the seasons. Each year nature passed through the cycle of apparent death and resurrection. In winter vegetable life was dead while Demeter, the giver of life, grieved for the loss of her daughter. But with the coming of spring the life of nature revived again, for the sorrowing mother had received her daughter back with rejoicing. Through the summer the mother abundantly maintained the life of nature until autumn, when again her daughter returned to the underworld and earth became desolate once more.”

28. Willoughby, Pagan Regeneration , pp. 42–43: “It was also a reflection of poignant human experiences, mirroring the joys, sorrows, and hopes of mankind in face of inevitable death. The three actors of the Eleusinian tragedy,… enacted the mystery of human life and death. The god of death himself stole the beloved daughter away from the life-giver; but the divine mother would not give up her loved one, and in the end she accomplished her daughter’s resurrection. Here was human experience made heroic and divine; for man has ever loved and lost, but rarely has he ceased to hope for reunion with the loved one. The Eleusinian myth told of these fundamental human experiences as well as of the life of nature.”

29. Arthur Fairbanks, A Handbook of Greek Religion (New York: American Book Company, 1910), p. 288: “Certainly the Greek Easter festival seems to preserve the spirit if not the forms of the old Eleusinian worship. In the spring, those who had shared Demeter’s grief for the loss of her daughter welcomed the return of Persephone with all the joy that the returning life of vegetation might kindle. And today the Greeks mourn over the dead Christ, represented most realistically by a wax image borne through the streets on a bier; then at midnight before Easter Sunday the Metropolitan at Athens, the priest in smaller towns, comes out of the church announcing that Christ is risen; the light from his candle is passed to the candles of his companions and on to candles throughout the crowd, guns and firecrackers are discharged, and as they prepare to break their Lenten fast the multitude drop all restraint in the expression of wild joy.”

30. Fairbanks, Greek Religion , p. 293: “This religion was not blotted out by Christianity. On the contrary, whatever real life it had was perpetuated in Christianity, since the conquering religion had adopted many of its forms and some of the old content in these forms.”

31. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , p. 135: “It was suppressed by the Christians in a.d. 376 and 377; but its collapse seems to have been due rather to the fact that by that time many of its doctrines and ceremonies had been adopted by the Church, so that it was practically absorbed by its rival.”

32. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 135–136: “Originally Mithra was one of the lesser gods of the ancient Persian pantheon, but … already in the time of Christ he had risen to be co-equal with, though created by, Ormuzd (Ahura-Mazda), the Supreme Being.”

33. The previous five sentences are similar to a passage in King’s earlier paper, “A Study of Mithraism,” pp. 213–214 in this volume. Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra (Chicago: Open Court, 1910), pp. 2–3: “In the Avesta, Mithra is the genius of the celestial light. He appears before sunrise on the rocky summits of the mountains; during the day he traverses the wide firmament in his chariot drawn by four white horses, and when night falls he still illumines with flickering glow the surface of the earth, ‘ever waking, ever watchful.’ He is neither sun, nor moon, nor stars, but with ‘his hundred ears and his hundred eyes’ watches constantly the world. Mithra hears all, sees all, knows all: none can deceive him.”

34. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , pp. 136–137: “Tarsus, the home of St. Paul, was one of the great centres of his worship, being the chief city of the Cilicians; and, as will presently appear, there is a decided tinge of Mithraism in the Epistles and Gospels. Thus the designations of our Lord as the Dayspring from on High, the Light, the Sun of Righteousness, and similar expressions, are borrowed from or related to Mithraic phraseology.”

35. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , p. 137: “Mithra was born from a rock, as shown in Mithraic sculptures, being sometimes termed ‘the god out of the rock,’ and his worship was always conducted in a cave; and the general belief in the early Church that Jesus was born in a cave is a direct instance of the taking over of Mithraic ideas. The words of St. Paul, ‘They drank of that spiritual rock … and that rock was Christ’ are borrowed from the Mithraic scriptures.”

36. Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity , p. 145: “The Hebrew Sabbath having been abolished by Christians, the Church made a sacred day of Sunday, partly because it was the day of the resurrection, but largely because it was the weekly festival of the sun; for it was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance. But, as a solar festival, Sunday was the sacred day of Mithra; and it is interesting to notice that since Mithra was addressed as Dominus , ‘Lord,’ Sunday must have been ‘the Lord’s Day’ long before Christian times.… December 25th was the birthday of the sun-god, and particularly of Mithra, and was only taken over in the Fourth Century as the date, actually unknown, of the birth of Jesus.”

37. The preceding five sentences are similar to a passage in “A Study of Mithraism,” pp. 222–223 in this volume.

38. The preceding two paragraphs are similar to a passage in “A Study of Mithraism,” pp. 223–224 in this volume.

39. The preceding four sentences are similar to a passage in “A Study of Mithraism,” p. 224 in this volume.

40. The preceding two sentences are similar to a passage in “A Study of Mithraism,” p. 224 in this volume.

Source: MLKP-MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954-1968, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Mass.

Home — Essay Samples — Religion — Christian Worldview — The Origin Of Christianity

The Origin of Christianity

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Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology

Overview Essay

Christianity and Ecology

Heather Eaton, St. Paul University

See also Ernst Conradie's article on Christianity and ecology in the Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology

Christians have been grappling with the ecological crisis for several decades, in many ways and in distinct contexts and traditions. Ecological issues have seeped into all aspects of Christian theologies, church leadership and practices, noting that Christianity must always be understood as diverse, with multiple historical and existing cultural traditions and challenges. The overall aims are to orient Christianity towards ecological sustainability, and to transform the traditions and practices. An ecological influence on Christian traditions is now worldwide and growing and is considered here under the rubric of ecotheology. There are countless people developing ecotheology across traditions and theological disciplines. A few will be mentioned throughout, noting there are many more.

Ecotheology is prominent in theological studies, seminaries, workshops, conferences and parishes. This work represents a significant range of perspectives, traditions and topics, as well as differing emphases on interpretation, ethics, leadership, ritual and social practices. Ecotheology, while confessional, provides critiques of Christianity as well as comprehensive reforms, generating constructive and creative transformations. These include assessments of biblical and other texts and teachings, and revisions of meaning on such themes as creation, revelation, redemption and soteriology. There are three prevalent methods: retrieval, such as the Earth Bible Project, (Norman Habel, Elaine Wainright, Vicky Balabanski); reinterpretation, such as expanding the precept of a ‘preferential option for the poor’ to include the Earth (Ivone Gebara, Leonardo Boff), and; reconstruction, such as with Process theology (John Cobb, Catherine Keller), ecological sin (Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople) and the renewal of creation theologies (Sallie MdFague, Jürgen Moltmann, John Haught, Elizabeth Johnson, Celia Deane-Drummond). There are deliberations on ecological hermeneutics (Ernst Conradie, Kim Yong Bok), ethics (James Nash, Larry Rasmussen, Sigurd Bergmann) ecojustice (Dieter Hessel, Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Mary Grey, John Hart) and ecofeminism (Rosemary Radford Ruether, Gebara, Heather Eaton). Rituals, symbols, and spiritual practices are being revised (Paul Santmire, Denis Edwards, Nancy Wright). There are reflections on cosmology, science and worldviews (Thomas Berry, Ian Barbour, Charles Birch, Anne Primavesi, Ilia Delio), as well as religiously motivated activism against local ecological deterioration. Ecotheology crosses into systematics, ethics, history, biblical studies, rituals and liturgies, and spirituality, and spans the diversity of Christianities. Ecotheology is a fertile field of study in theology and Process thought, feminist analyses, Black, Mujerista and Ecowomanist theologies, postcolonial and animal studies, and other topics and approaches. Ecotheology is vast in scope and includes revitalizations of all these aspects, and often has an emphasis on justice, and social, political and ecological ethics.

Ecotheologies may accentuate either the ecological or theological aspects, and unites around goals of connecting Christianity with nature, promoting constructive human-Earth relations, and resisting ecological decline. As a whole ecotheology represents significant developments in, and renewal of, Christian thought, worldviews, and practices. The consequences are both comprehensive reforms of Christianity, as well as new expressions, noting that experiences and interpretations of adherents vary widely as does the variance between beliefs and actions, and principles and practices. Distinct approaches have been developed in Catholic, Anglican, Reformed, United, Evangelical, Eastern and Greek Orthodox, Methodist, Lutheran and more, and these are further differentiated in countries and contexts. In fact, within the spectrum of Christianity all the major ecclesial traditions are involved. In addition, there is a range of traditionalist, reformist, progressive and radical. Regardless of the diversity, from the 1970’s to the present, the force and flourishing of ecotheology is astounding.

Challenges and contributions

Several challenges and contributions occur at the intersection of Christianity and ecology. These can be internal to theology, on how theology engages with other religions and disciplines, or how to relate to global diversity, or respond to the complexity of ecological issues. Examples of each are given, noting that work in ecotheology is extensive, and is making contributions to all of these topics.

Early publications stressed an urgency to respond to ecological issues as well as to address prevalent, albeit simplistic, claims against Christianity, such as the in infamous essay by Lynn White suggesting that Christianity’s devaluation of nature is a cause of the ecological crisis. [i] Of course, there is no direct cause and effect between Christianity and ecological disregard. Also, many other factors, such as economics and capitalism, and the lack of ecological literacy, have created the cultural conditions for ecological crises to develop. Nonetheless, ecotheologians reexamined the worldview and basic values ingrained in Eurowestern consciousness and Christian theological presuppositions. They engaged in extensive ideological excavation of the ideals and theories embedded in the worldview(s) that have led to pervasive and unfettered ecological decline in Christian-influenced cultures. For example, they had to address the historical, and contemporary, Christian anthropocentrism, an emphasis on humanity’s transcendence over the natural world, and the claims nature was void of divine presence. Throughout much of Christian history is the idea that the natural world is fallen, corrupt, imperfect or irrelevant. The result is death. Humans must then be saved, redeemed or restored from nature, with a promise of eternal life. Although each religious worldview has some perception that life does not end with death, the Christian tradition has potent otherworldly imagery that has both depreciated Earth life and supported notions that salvation means from this world . This led ecotheologians to criticize otherworldly interpretations of redemption, salvation, and resurrection. Dualist imagery, which was operative across all Christian traditions - heaven/earth, spirit/matter, culture/nature, mind/body, men/women, divine/demonic – was excavated and exposed, and assessed as neither accurate nor informative. Christian worldviews were rethought at a foundational level.

Other challenges concerning beliefs around Christologies, a closed canon, biblical inerrancy, and Christian imperialism and colonialism also had to be addressed. It became clear that Christianity, as with all religious views, must remain fluid, attentive to presuppositions, values, orientation and impact. Religions should be supple, receptive to new insights, and able to abandon out-dated or unworkable beliefs, interpretations and dogmas in order to be relevant to the exigences of the era.

All this work is part of the critique and internal reformation of aspects of the Christian traditions. It sparked intense re-evaluations of Christian thought, with different emphases according to the tradition, context and operative beliefs. These intro- and retrospections have resulted in the retrieval of texts and teachings that connect the natural world to divine presence, and in multiple ways. Revising elements of Christianity, and encouraging Christians to participate, should be seen as a rapid yet deep and ongoing transformation, in response to increasing and complex ecological issues.

Developments in Christian ethics also represents both challenges and contributions. The challenges are how to include ecological concerns in customary approaches to ethics, and/or to expand approaches to ethics to be responsive. For example, feminist ethics became influenced by ecofeminism, and social justice discourses were transformed by global efforts in ecojustice, environmental racism, climate justice and ecological activism. Issues and analyses of inequality, discriminations, economic exploitation, structural violence and systemic domination were expanded to include ecological aspects, and in turn influenced a range of Christian ethics and appeals for ecological and social justice.

It is important to note that Christian ecotheology is developing as other disciplines are being pressured to be ecologically relevant. New knowledge from sciences, reports about climate instability, the state of ocean life, deforestations, extinctions, water quality, plastics, and myriad ecological deteriorations is emerging constantly, and requiring responses. Christianity, among other disciplines and religions, had to undergo an ecological conversion.

Other challenges and contributions come from collaborations with the emerging field of religion and ecology, which is occurring in tandem with Christian ecotheology. Today, the alliance of religion and ecology is a multifaceted global agenda, and countless programs. The Forum on Religion and Ecology has been a leader and supporter of many initiatives. Most religions have engaged in similar reconstructions as has Christianity. The collaborative efforts across religious traditions evokes questions about the nature of religion, religious epistemologies, sensibilities, orientation and sources, and the importance of theories of lived and critical religions. Challenges exist, at times, when ecotheologians enter the field of religion and ecology, as theology tends to overlook other religions, including the histories, diversities and complexities. In general, theology operates with deficient theories of religion and epistemology. Thus, at times there is an uneasy placement of ecotheology within academic spheres of religion and ecology. However, while some streams of eco-Christianity remain in traditional boundaries, others venture into the field of religion and ecology and embrace new questions and insights. The dialogues between ecotheology and the field of religion and ecology are important, albeit distinct depending on competence, experience and interest in these more comprehensive frameworks.

For example, every religion and culture present a creation or origin story which provides meaning and orientation to human life and fulfills the need to grapple with the perennial questions of time, space, origins and destiny. Such stories are usually longstanding and may have lost their relevance or effectiveness in the face of new knowledge, global exchanges, or the plurality of viewpoints. Christianity has examined the biblical origin story and reflected on various meanings of the role of humanity as ecological steward, gardener, or Earth-keeper rather than as having dominion. Religious traditions have been challenged by discoveries from sciences about Earth origins, biospheric development, and the evolution of life, as well as the processes of the universe out of which emerged the solar system and planet Earth. Some Christian traditions have integrated evolutionary biology and cosmology into a new understanding of ‘origins’.

There are several other noteworthy challenges that pertain to religions engaging on ecological issues. One is the radical diversity and plurality of cultures, views, values and beliefs. How do we assess these? For example, the social construction of nature is contested. Is a forest a sacred grove, an ecosystem, animal habitat, lumber, real estate, or an eco-tourism destination? Is the natural world a set of resources with instrumental value or a living community with intrinsic value? A great deal depends on the answer, and yet an ecological sustainable vision is imperative. However, which vision? In whose interests? How can a community decide which vision to embrace? What vision will inspire? There are diverse and competing visions, and the processes of change from one to another are not straightforward. It is crucial to embrace radical diversity and plurality and unity: an ecological vision with agreed values, ethical principles and cooperative actions.

A connected challenge is that some problems cannot be grappled with contextually, as they are global in scope and/or the administrators are trans or multinational. Some pertinent concerns are climate change, international land grabs, corporate rights on fresh water sources or icebergs, energy (transnational pipelines), mining privileges, food insecurities, corporate ownership of food, environmental refugees (who surpass political refugees), environmental illnesses, and more. These issues require several disciplines to understand and cross many contexts. They are global, local and contextual realities. The term ‘global issues’ is too vague, and contextual is inaccurate, resulting in additional challenges for a robust ecotheology to address.

The last challenge to be mentioned is that a correlation between Christian-influenced cultures and ecological exploitation, extractive economies, extreme consumption, and climate emissions is evident. In tandem, Christian bodies have done little to restrain deforestation, species extinction, water contamination, and so on. There are tensions between ecotheology from the global South, where poverty, ecological decline, and often political instability are intense, and that of the affluent post-industrialized, high consumer and waste production regions. Questions arise as to the key priorities, and the fundamental global inequities around ecological resources, access, ownership and decline. These cultural, denominational and theological divergences can be a call to greater equality and justice and cooperation, and/or a distraction to an overall agreement that Christians need to address ecological issues locally, nationally and internationally. Planetary solidarity is becoming a prophetic call.

Countless contributions around Christianity and ecology are effective and active in their communities. At the local levels there are innumerable contributions of conferences, workshops, retreat centres, and church groups addressing everything from the range of ecotheology topics to public policy on waste, water, transportation, and climate activism. At the national level, many denominations and theological organizations have incorporated forms of Earth ministries, Earth-keeping, stewardship, climate justice and more into their national policies.

Internationally, The World Council of Churches and their initiative of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC), has provided leadership and sustained programs in many Christian traditions, countless contexts and on multiple issues for decades. The importance of connecting Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation has been recognized worldwide, and has opened possibilities of working locally, with Indigenous peoples for example, of opening national offices, and devising international campaigns on climate justice, nonviolence, and poverty. Another important contribution is the document, Laudato Si: On Care of Our Common Home, from the Catholic Institutional church, released in 2015, as part of the Catholic social teaching encyclicals. It is a comprehensive overview of the need to connect integral ecology to peace, justice, education and governance, as well as to understand the mechanisms that create poverty, ecological ruin and social injustices. This document has resonance around the world, within multiple Christian traditions and with other religions. These speak to the need for programs and visions that are sufficiently clear yet open-ended to encourage creativity, participation and action. There are multiple robust efforts addressing religion and ecology from diverse organizations, such as The Earth Charter, Alliance of Religion and Conservation, the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, The Parliament of Religions of the World, United Nations Environment Program, World Wildlife Fund, Earth Democracy, Global Peace Initiative of Women, and more, and each encourages collaboration.

There is no doubt that the field of Christianity and ecology, representing efforts of all kinds, is a much-needed response to the ecological challenges of this era and for the future. The internal challenges to Christianity have been somewhat replaced with an engagement with ecological issues. This means that Christianity - adherents, churches, theological schools, retreat centres, national offices – has many options, and places of transformation. While some issues are local, others relate to ecosystems and bioregions, or are planetary, such as climate instability. This supports the need to collaborate across regions, religions and disciplines. Christianity is a religion: a worldview offering meaning and orientation, as well as a political, economic and ethical force. Christian themes of revelation, liberation and solidarity are compelling for ecological concerns. Human experiences of wonder, humility, grace and gratitude are of utmost importance, as are the ethics of equality, resistance and sacrifice. The commitments of justice, flourishing, equality, preferential option for the Earth, and the goodness of creation can be integrated deeply, and be a transformative power. It can take the form of ritual, education, persuasion, policymaking, activism and resistance. Prophetic voices are needed. The conviction of the centrality of love, hope, faith, and an ever-renewing spirit provide energy and inspiration, and at times consolation.

Some consider this era to be a new religious moment. Not only is the ecological crisis provoking concern, new thinking, social engagement and cross-sector collaboration. It is evident that there is a need for global commitments to ecologically sustainable communities, and ones that will preserve the elegance and beauty of the whole Earth community. Thomas Berry, a Catholic priest and historian of religions, addressed the question of vision. Much of his work was an inquiry into what could be an adequate, ecological, and spiritual vision. For Berry, it must comprise a sufficiently broad horizon commensurate with scientific knowledge of the emergent universe, of time, space and Earth dynamics, incorporate a suitable grasp of the histories and complexities of religions, be ecologically literate, and deeply inspiring. Such a vision must give humanity a way to live within the rhythms and limits of the natural world, and as a member of this Earth community. The insights about the origins and developments of the universe, the emergence and dynamics of evolution, and Earth’s integrated and entangled processes reveal how embedded humans are in what Christians can refer to as the deep incarnation. For some this knowledge, perspective and vision offers the most power and promise for an overall orientation for a viable future.

Lynn White,(1967), The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis,” Science (155: 1203-1207.

Photo Essay: What My Faith Means to Me

BU students, faculty, and staff reflect on the intimate role religion, prayer, and meditation play in their daily life

Cydney scott, bu today staff.

Boston University began as a Methodist seminary, the Newbury Biblical Institute, in Newbury, Vt., in 1839. And since its beginnings in Boston in 1869 as Boston University, it has been open to people of all sexes and all religions, many who carve out time from their daily studies and work to find moments to pray, meditate, and reflect.

BU photographer Cydney Scott has long wanted to capture the many ways members of the BU community express their faith.

“One of the great things about being a photographer is that I have the privilege of stepping into aspects of life that are unfamiliar to me,” Scott says. “Religious faith is one of them. Religion and faith give people solace, guidance, and a sense of community, among other things.”

Last fall BU Today invited members of the BU community to reach out to Scott directly, and within days, she had heard from people who identified as Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Mormon, and more. She photographed almost 20 people in their homes, at work, and out of doors as they practiced their respective faith traditions. The COVID pandemic made it impossible to photograph most of them in their churches, temples, mosques, and other places of worship, so instead, Scott sought to capture each one in ways that reflect how they pray, worship, and integrate their faith into their daily lives. Each participant also wrote a short essay describing what their faith means to them.

The resulting photos are deeply personal and intimate, speaking to the breadth and diversity of the BU community and the myriad ways people observe and celebrate faith in their lives.

Emily Mantz (Sargent’21,’23), Christian

Emily Manz (SAR’23) says grace over her dinner in her Stuvi2 apartment. A tan young woman with black curly hair bows her head over her clasped hands as she sits at her desk in her dorm room.

“There are many ways that I practice my faith on a daily basis. I try not to keep my faith in a box, and instead try to integrate it into everything I do. I was raised by not one but two pastors, so growing up saying grace before eating has always been a part of my day. During my undergraduate years I was heavily involved with BU’s Inner Strength Gospel Choir. While I’m no longer quite so involved, I still find singing and music to be one of the best ways for me to connect with the Lord. I attend church every Sunday and volunteer at the nursery there as well. Finally, I pray and read my Bible every day, twice a day. This allows me to dig a bit deeper into the teachings of God as well as talk to Him about my day, things I’m struggling with and things (or people) who need to be prayed for.

“To me, my faith is my lifeline. I have probably gone to church every Sunday since the day I was born, and while church itself is a huge part of my life, my personal relationship with Jesus is really what has gotten me through these past five years of college. Whenever I’m struggling, I know I can talk to Him and He will always be there with me. Not to mention the friends He has placed in my life to help me along the way. As Christians, we are really called to live out our faith so that other people can get to know Jesus through us. I try to exude that by upholding values of kindness, forgiveness, and patience in all aspects of my life, no matter how hard it may be.”

Aimee Mein (COM’22), Buddhist

A photo of Aimee Mein (COM’22) meditating in her room. A white woman wearing a dark blue cami and pants sits with legs crossed and hands placed in her lap.

“My faith is the lens through which I see the world. My perspective on life completely shifted after studying Buddhism and incorporating Buddhist practices into my everyday experiences. Every moment has become an opportunity for mindfulness, things that used to cause me anxiety are calmed by a newfound belief system. Even my struggles with mental health have improved. Most importantly, my faith means a sense of peace with the universe and compassion for all beings.”

Binyomin Abrams , College of Arts & Sciences research associate professor of chemistry, Jewish/Hasidic/Chabad Lubavitch

Photo of Rabbi Binyomin Abrams, left, learning the Torah with Rafael Kriger (CAS’22) in his Metcalf Science Center office. A Jewish man with a long beard and wearing a yarmulke sits on the other side of a desk and faces a younger Jewish man also wearing a yarmulke. The Torah sits between them

“I’m Jewish, specifically a Lubavitcher (Chabad) chossid. Jewish faith is synonymous with Jewish practice—doing acts of goodness and kindness (mitzvahs) and working towards refining the world around us. One of the most special and meaningful things that we do is to learn Torah, which brings meaning to my faith through intellectual, spiritual, and practical guidance on how to improve ourselves and transform the world for the better.”

Martha Schick (STH’22), United Church of Christ

Photo of Martha Schick (MDiv’22) lighting a candle in Gordon Chapel. A white woman with short hair wearing a mask lights a candle with a long match in a darkened chapel

“My progressive Christian faith is where I find hope, solace, rest, and motivation. In our world, which is both broken and beautiful, the story of Jesus Christ and the stories of the ancestors of our faith are where I can look to make sense of things. I often come away with more questions than answers, but my church community welcomes my wrestling and makes my faith stronger because of it. In studying to become a pastor, I am both empowered to bring my full self to ministry and humbled to remember that the Holy Spirit is working through me. As a queer woman pursuing ordination, I also know that my very presence in the leadership of a church is a symbol and example of God’s love and calling for all people.”

Muhammad Zaman , College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering and of materials science and engineering and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, Muslim

Photo of Professor Muhammad Zaman during Zuhr (noon) prayers at the ISBU prayer room in GSU. a man wearing a white mask kneels on an ornate rug with hands in prayer in front of him.

“I am a practicing Muslim and consider my faith as a driver for my work. In particular, the emphasis of Islam on humanity, social justice, welfare, and human dignity has a profound effect on my work to provide equitable access to healthcare among refugees, migrants, stateless persons, and the forcibly displaced all around the world.”

Chloe McLaughlin (STH’22), United Methodist Church

Photo of Chloe McLaughlin standing with hands wide as she stands at a wooden podium in Marsh Chapel.

“Faith has always been a huge part of my life. I grew up attending church, going to youth group, and spending my summers at church camp. At the end of this semester, I will be lucky enough to have two degrees that focus on religion and this faith that is so integral to who I am. In the long run, I think I have always been drawn to faith, specifically Christian faith, because I believe it informs my sincere commitment to justice, equity, and mercy. Over the last three years, as I have worshiped at Marsh Chapel, I have seen kindred commitments in action. The chaplains and staff are genuine, courageous, and willing conversation partners on difficult topics in the church and the world. I have been mentored, encouraged, and challenged by the staff and community at Marsh, and I am so grateful.”

Mich’lene Davis (SSW’25), Christian/Pentecostal

Photo of the Davis family. A Black man reads the bible to his wife and three children, two of which are seated on a sofa beside him

“‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen’ (Hebrews 11:1). The wind blows, no one can see it, but you feel it and know that it is there. We practice a blind faith every single day of our lives without consciously knowing that we are doing it. We have ‘faith’ that the chair we sit in will support our weight and not send us tumbling to the floor in an embarrassing manner. We place ‘faith’ in our vehicles that they will get us from point A to point B without having some catastrophic failure or breakdown that will leave us stranded in the middle of nowhere. As a Christian, my faith is my lifeline, like an umbilical cord to an unborn child. Everything I believe about God and His one and only son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, is what feeds my mind, soul, and spirit. I have faith to believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross via crucifixion, but rose again three days later, and because of this I no longer will have to face an eternal death, but will instead have eternal life with Him in heaven. I have personally benefited from and have witnessed answered prayers that had no natural explanation for how they were answered. My daily life consists of me worshiping and praising Him through the music I listen to and sing. Reading and meditating on His Word (the Bible) helps me to remember to whom I belong and helps me to strive to be a better person each day.”

Caitlyn Wise (Sargent’23), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Photo of Caitlyn Wise (SAR’23), a young white white woman with long blonde hair, sitting in a chair amidst a circle of chairs all facing the center.

“Faith gives me the confidence to live courageously each day. Through prayer and scripture study, the knowledge and power I receive from my faith allows me to look for ways to serve and learn from those around me. Whether it is me praying for guidance in my studies or me applying principles of kindness and compassion in the BU community, my faith gives me a source of strength in my everyday life.”

Adit Mehta (CAS’22), Jainism

Photo of Adit Mehta, a tan man with black hair and beard, sitting cross-legged and wearing a white top and pants, on the floor in his room. He reads a book using the light from the window.

“I was brought up in a Jain household and always had it around me, but in college, separated from my parents, I’ve explored my faith and consciously made decisions to follow ahimsa (nonviolence), aparigraha (non-possessiveness), and anekantavada (multiplicity of viewpoints), the three As of Jainism. In college I’ve also been able to find a community among members of Jains in Voice and Action , the BU Jain club, and the Young Jains of America . My faith means making active choices to reduce harm to others and the environment. It’s less about praying and more about reflecting on my actions and choices during Samayik, 48 minutes of meditation. My faith makes it possible for me to understand myself and how I affect and can help others.”

Zowie Rico (CAS’23), Lunar Witchcraft

Photo of Zowie Rico (CAS’23), a white woman dressed in orange overalls, as she reads her Tarot and Prism Oracle cards in her Stuvi2 apartment

“My spirituality is something very new for me. I started my journey in July of 2020, during the latter half of quarantine. Before that, I wasn’t really a spiritual person. Now, however, I use my spirituality to guide me through many aspects of my life. It’s a way for me to connect with my inner self and actively work to become one with the energies around me. It’s also helped me with my anxiety, as it’s given me a lot of coping mechanisms to use throughout my life, like grounding and meditation.

“My spirituality is a part of many aspects of my daily life. It manifests itself in everything from making my smoothie in the mornings to doing affirmations while stirring my coffee to using my intuition for many of my decisions each day. I am so happy that I’ve been able to incorporate my practice into my daily life because it helps center me each day and provides comfort during hard times.”

Jewel Cash, BU Summer Term program manager, Christian

Photo of 7 Black women seated and holding hands around a rectangular dining table with an assortment of food on it

“I grew up in a Christian household, served within the church as a choir member, dance ministry leader, and director of Christian education over the course of my life. My faith has always been an important part of my life. As a child I remember my mother sending me to church by myself to ensure my relationship with God would grow during a season in which she was sick and could not go herself. During college it was important for me to go back to attend youth bible studies so I could understand more about the Bible. As a professional, I remember interviewing at BU, being asked, ‘What do you do to manage stress?’ and surprisingly responding without hesitation ‘Pray. In overwhelming times I may take a deep breath, evaluate the situation, and pray to recenter myself. So if you see me step away to the restroom for a longer time, I may be praying so I can come back ready to tackle the problem as my best self.’

“My religious faith means a lot to me. That there is purpose in my being, that I do not walk alone through life, that I have a community of believers who I can fellowship with, that I am to be a positive example to others of what my God calls me to be, and in short, that all that I have is all that I need to be my best self and live life fully and abundantly, for I am blessed and favored in a special way. It means I am not perfect, but as I pray, praise, and push, I am progressing. It means, as the Bible says, I have been given a spirit of power, love, and sound mind, and with these three things I can make a difference in the world and encourage others to do the same.”

Ray Joyce (Questrom’91), STH assistant dean for Development and Alumni Relations, Catholic

Photo of Ray Joyce, a white man with gray hair and black glasses, reading a daily devotional in his West Acton home.

“My faith really means everything to me. It’s how I live through each day, the good and the bad. In the current political climate, I find it’s essential to keep centered. For example, when I hear people who are eligible, but refuse to get the COVID vaccine to protect themselves and others, a part of me wants to say: ‘Then let them die,’ but I know that’s wrong. As it happens, today’s reading in the Bible from 1 Corinthians 3:16 includes the words ‘…and the Spirit of God dwells in you.’ As my daily reflection from Terence Hegarty (editor of Living with Christ) states ‘…not only does the Spirit of God dwell in us , but in everyone …’ So I hold onto that and try to understand where someone might be coming from to reach such a conclusion as to refuse a potentially lifesaving vaccination. I act where I can to help others and our planet while also waiting with anticipation for better days ahead with a renewed sense of hope.”

Mary Choe (CAS’24), Baptist

Photo of Mary Choe (CAS’24), an Asian woman wearing a black mask, as she reads her daily scriptures in a cafe

“Hebrews 11 states: ‘Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.’ For me, faith is not some distant feeling, but a series of beliefs that lead to concrete actions. My beliefs are based on the words of life, light, and love I read in the Bible. Much like life itself, faith is hardly easy or linear. I have times of doubt, because admittedly, it’s difficult to go against the flow of campus life. And since God is invisible, I often get distracted by the instant gratification of the here and now. I’m realizing more and more, however, that even my faith is less about me than about the object of my faith—which is not a concept or an idea, but God embodied in flesh, Jesus Christ. My relationship with Jesus is what makes my faith dynamic, filled with joys and sorrows, highs and lows, times of peace and serenity, along with fears, failures, and more than a little drama. But I take comfort in knowing I’m not on this journey alone. I have a cloud of witnesses walking before me and with me and many more examples of faith who’ve already walked this pilgrim journey. Living by faith is not a loud, showy display, but an assured, hopeful way of being. My hope is that I, too, can finish the journey of faith well and experience victory in Jesus Christ!”

Swati Gupta (SDM’23), Hindu

Photo of Swati Gupta (GSDM’23), a brown woman with neck-length black hair, in her prayer/meditation space in her Boston home. She holds a cup made of copper and has head bowed as multi-colored candles are lit in the space.

“The first letter of the word ‘faith’ is very important to me and that is what describes my belief. For me, ‘f’ stands for flaw. In our sacred book, Bhagwad Geeta , it has been suggested that being human also means being flawed. Lord Krishna says that humans will make mistakes because that is a part of their Karma. A person should not be merely judged by their act, but by the intent behind that act. For example, if a lie is said with an intent of harming someone, it is equivalent to 100 lies, but if that one lie saved an innocent person’s life, then that lie is equivalent to 100 truths. I am not a religious person who goes to the temple every week or worships every day, because religion to me is not an act of worship, but an act of becoming a better person. My faith teaches me to make mistakes, be judgmental, have emotions of anger, but at the same time learn from those mistakes and accept if any wrongdoing was done. Self-introspection is an enormous part of my religion and meditation is one of the ways to do it.”

Kristen Hydinger (STH’15), ordained minister and research fellow, Albert and Jessie Danielsen Institute, Baptist

Photo of Rev. Kristen Hydinger, a white woman with brown hair and wearing a blue jacket, walking down a Boston street. Trees and leaves around her reflect Autumn in their color (yellow)

“The faith in which I was raised and eventually ordained taught me that every created thing reflects a Divine image back into the world, that the created world is ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’ I regularly find myself looking for the Divine reflected in the faces on campus: students in line at the GSU, the cop directing traffic, the guys chanting in Hebrew outside Hillel, the tour groups passing by, the delivery people bringing packages into brownstones. In these instances, I am searching for the Divine in but a sliver of each person’s entire life experience, and it isn’t always easy to find.”

Kristian C. Kohler (STH’25), ordained minister, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Photo of Kristian, a white man wearing a dark green and black plaid shirt, singing in the Marsh Chapel choir.

“As a Lutheran, faith to me is a bold trust in the amazing grace of God. In short, God is love. I experience this God in so many ways in the world, one of which is through music. Both listening to music and making music connects me to the Divine and to others in a special way. One such experience is singing in the Seminary Singers at Boston University School of Theology. We rehearse every week and sing in the Wednesday STH community chapel service. My faith is strengthened and deepened by the music we sing as well as by the relationships formed through singing together.”

Jonathan Allen (LAW’19), BUild Lab Innovator-in-Residence, Interfaith

Photo of Interfaith leader Jonathan Allen sitting on a long stone bench along the Charles River. The sun can be seen peaking from behind the buildings in the background for a scenic photo.

“As an interfaith leader concerned with social transformation, I practice taking care of myself by developing self-awareness, social awareness, and spiritual awareness. Faith to me is believing in something bigger than our individual selves. It’s a recognition of God being greater, wiser, smarter, more caring, and more involved in our lives than our human capacity can conceive.

“Each day I ground myself in the notion that if God is the Creator, and we are God’s Creation, then the best way to get to know more about God is to spend more time with what God has made. I believe that we need each other regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, educational level, religious background, or even political party.

“Irrespective of our religious affirmations, God’s love and heart for justice transcends doctrine. We have an obligation, a collective responsibility, to treat all living things with dignity and respect. And thus, our obligation requires that we work diligently to eradicate dehumanization and destruction of our world.”

Kayla Marks (Pardee’23), Jewish

Photo of Kayla Marks (Pardee’23), a Jewish woman with long brown hair, demonstrating the lighting of one candle and the reciting of a blessing. She holds a lit match as she prepares for the lighting.

“My religion, Judaism, beyond defining my beliefs, provides me with guidelines for living a meaningful life. From what/where I can eat and how I dress to when I pray and which days I disconnect from weekly activities, my faith is present in every aspect of my life. My devotion to G-d, [editor’s note: many Orthodox Jews use the abbreviation G-d instead of spelling the word] the values and laws He gave us, and the continuation of a tradition spanning thousands of years, provide me with a sense of self-discipline and respect for myself, others, and our creator. Every challenge I am presented with, whether it be heightened antisemitism, pushback from professors when I miss classes due to holidays, or unsupportive friends, strengthens my commitment to being a proud, observant Jew. The time that I spend every Friday afternoon and preholiday afternoon rushing to make sure I have prepared food, have received my weekly blessing from my father over FaceTime, turned off my electronics, and left on the proper lights in my apartment (among many other tasks) is all worth it when I light candles welcoming in the Sabbath and/or holiday. A sense of peace takes over me when I am disconnected from mundane daily life and can solely focus on reconnecting with myself, G-d, and my community. Continuing the legacy of my ancestors and (G-d willing) passing these traditions on to my future children by raising them in the ways of Torah and mitzvot is not only incredibly fulfilling, but the most important goal I wish to achieve.”

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Photojournalist

Cydney Scott has been a professional photographer since graduating from the Ohio University VisCom program in 1998. She spent 10 years shooting for newspapers, first in upstate New York, then Palm Beach County, Fla., before moving back to her home city of Boston and joining BU Photography. Profile

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Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 13 comments on Photo Essay: What My Faith Means to Me

Beautifully done Cydney and all!

Thank you for the article. Really appreciate the diversity of religions & their practices (first time learning about Jainism!). Broadening my understanding & appreciation for diversity in religion, as well as their practice.

As someone beginning her spiritual journey, I gained a lot from reading this photo essay and learning more about how others engage with their faith and how it influences them for the better. Thank you for showing me a window into these different lifestyles. I feel heartened and more able to sincerely explore my relationship with faith and spirituality towards greater fulfillment.

This is the best article I’ve ever photo essay I’ve read in some time. Beautiful images that capture the spiritual lives of BU’s community.

Thank you for this great article and touching photos. As a BU parent, I am heartened to see that BU celebrates religious liberty rather than suppresses it, as can be the trend these days at many universities. Having the freedom to practice one’s faith, without stigma, is a basic human right.

Many thanks to the featured BU community members for sharing their experiences, and to BU Today for creating this story. I really enjoyed it!

Tremendous piece—wonderful photos and wonderful essays. Thank you for sharing!

Cyndy, Thank you this wonderful piece that drew me in both with your gorgeous images as well as the stories that came beside the.

Beautiful Spiritual revelations lighting a dark and disturbed world!

When I was a student at B.U. I took Greek and Hebrew at the STH (CLA ’77). I am thrilled to open up the B.U. Website and explore this article by Cyndy Scott. Exploring the faith of B.U. people has broaden my experience. I had not heard of Jainism. Thank you for this. Now, I am an ordained Presbyterian minister now living in Canada. I will share this article with my congregation.

Thank you for such an inspiring and wholesome article. Keep up the amazing work!

I really enjoyed reading through this. I am pentecostal holiness myself. I grew up in the bible-belt (GA). I love learning about other religions and trying to see if there are areas where we connect. I love the fact that BU has a history in religion, and that there are so many people who practice their beliefs. I love reading how their religion(s) help them in their daily lives. #Diversity

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Christian Philosophy of Religion: Essays in Honor of Stephen T. Davis

C. P. Ruloff (ed.), Christian Philosophy of Religion: Essays in Honor of Stephen T. Davis , University of Notre Dame Press, 2015, 374pp., $65.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780268040376.

Reviewed by Eric O. Springsted, The Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton

This festschrift dedicated to Stephen T. Davis is a handsome and wide-reaching tribute by many of the most esteemed members of Davis' guild in the philosophy of religion. Davis' own four decade career has been a prolific one, and his many contributions have been important ones. His writings have spanned a wide range of topics -- the Bible, the problem of evil, reason and belief, for example. But what perhaps he is best known for his his deliberate crossing of the lines that many think separate philosophy and theology. Philosophically, he has been an apologist for Christianity and religious belief. But he also taken on topics with philosophical treatment that are specifically theological, with hoped for theological results.

Given Davis' own interests, it is no surprise that a festschrift dedicated to him would be just as wide ranging. In order to give some order, it is divided into four sections: "Doctrine and Christian Belief," "The Nature of God and Christian Belief," "Reason and Christian Belief," and "Scripture, Theology, and Christian Belief." With the exception of three essays that had been previously published, all are original. Still, as is the case with many festschriften , there is no single focus of the book other than perhaps the tribute to Davis' own wide ranging interests. Some of the essays seek to engage directly Davis' contributions to the field, but most are, in his honor, making their own contributions to the field. While that range defies any easily apparent way to deal with this volume as a whole, it perhaps does, in its very diversity, raise as an example some important questions about the field and its unity and even what it is trying to do.

In this regard, the short essay by Gerald O'Collins, SJ ("The Philosophical Theology of Stephen Davis: Does It Coincide with Fundamental Theology?") at the end of the book is the place to start. O'Collins, borrowing from John Macquarrie, distinguishes appropriately between philosophical theology, which requires faith, and the philosophy of religion which does not. On this definition, O'Collins notes that much of Davis' work has been in philosophical theology. It is not so much about religion as it seeks to be a contribution to a believer's understanding of his or her religion. O'Collins then goes on to look at the field of Fundamental Theology, a field that has long been important in Roman Catholic thought. It, too, is an attempt of faith seeking understanding, and it, too, has both an apologetic and doctrinal function. It gives a way to understand certain basic questions of the Christian faith. After a brief survey of these issues and Davis' writings, O'Collins suggests that there is indeed a partial convergence and that there should be a further dialogue.

That suggestion and invitation can be a way to examine the approaches of the rest of the contributions to this volume. Indeed, it provides an entry to some deep questioning about the relation of philosophy and theology by so many of the practitioners who have contributed to this volume and the many who follow them and which is well represented by journals such as Faith and Philosophy . It has long seemed to me that that relation has never been clear and that it is getting less clear rather than more. This is not so much a matter of a tension that arises because one is trying to bring philosophical clarity and argument into the religious sphere as it is a problem about the way that the subject matter of belief gets treated in the first place. What I have in mind is that a great deal of apologetic writing and writing philosophically on doctrines seems to get done without actually engaging what believers are really doing, and what they have been doing for a very long time, or even what they meant when doctrines were first formulated.

On this account, let me cite what I think is one of the best and most interesting essays in the volume, Linda Zagzebski's "Faith and Testimony." Zagzebski distinguishes between theoretical reasons, which are "logically or probabilistically connected to the truth of p ," third person reasons, and deliberative reasons which are first person reasons. Trust in others is an example of the second. Such reasons are essentially connected to belief, but they are also epistemic reasons and directed to truth. She then goes on to argue that faith in God is a matter of trusting God, and it often comes about by trusting witnesses and testifiers. There are all sorts of good reasons, as well as bad reasons, to trust witnesses. But the important point is that they are directed to reasons for me to believe what the speaker is saying. Theoretical reasons do not touch these reasons. And in this regard, she notes, theoretical reasoning can only argue to the fact that the evidence is good or bad for belief (Locke) or that if belief is justified because it is properly basic (Plantinga.) But that is still not why I believe. Deliberative reasons are why I believe. The distinction is important, and Zagzebski has written a very nice piece on it. But her point is also methodologically wide ranging and can be used to divide the way that philosophy and religion come together even when the practitioners in question are all believers and all philosophers.

In this case, the difference is not so much about whether the author is a believer or not (in this volume all are, I presume). It is more a difference between philosophers who are looking at what believers do and how they come to it and those who are arguing a position in itself, without any close examination of how this actually connects to the phenomenon and grammar of religious belief. In the case of the latter, as my old teacher and colleague, Diogenes Allen, once put it, you begin to realize that while the argument is getting increasingly heated, it is all the while being fought out at the fence; you are never getting anywhere close to the house where the people actually live. Now, that is perhaps a good defensive strategy, but it is in the end not a matter of faith seeking understanding. In that case, it is a matter of a certain kind of apologetics; it may well show that critics do not have a knock down case and thus there is space for belief, although without needing to say how belief fills it in. I think Plantinga's justly celebrated work on the problem of evil is an example. It does show that the classic problem of evil, as Hume and many others argued it, does not logically make Christian belief impossible. But it does not show how Christians actually deal with evil. In this respect, it is not really philosophical theology.

I have cited Zagzebski's article as a good example of a philosopher actually clarifying belief. It has the added virtue of pointing one to the place she should be looking if she really wants to understand belief. Hers is not the only article that does this. The articles by Anselm K. Min on divine immutability and God's ability to love, Kelly James Clark's on narrative, and C. Stephen Evans' on moral arguments for God, are also good examples and show in varying degrees that one does not have to forsake philosophical sophistication while dealing with the believer's actual reasons.

That much has chiefly to do with the relation of reason and Christian belief. But it can be extended to the way that doctrines have been treated by believing philosophers, a project of the last generation and one to which Davis made many contributions. The project can be an important one, but it can also be a wildly self indulgent one as well and sometimes highly misleading. For example, William Hasker's essay on the Trinity, "How to Think about the Trinity," while highly ingenious in arguing philosophically for "social Trinitarianism," also commits the theological methodological error of not bothering to any great degree to examine what was meant by the doctrine in its original and transmitted formulation. He does give (albeit cursorily) what he says is the Fathers' reading of New Testament passages such as "The Father and I are one." He quickly concludes that the "relationship between Jesus and the Father is undeniably a personal relationship , in the full sense of the term." As he goes on, "the full sense of the term" seems to involve a sense of the person that is largely modern and Personalist. When he further suggests that St. Augustine "committed himself to precisely the social Trinitarian doctrine" I am afraid he is just plain wrong. While Augustine did work out ways to talk about the "persons" of the Trinity, the fact of the matter is that he also thought that the term "person" was misleading and therefore unfortunate. That is to say, while he thought there was a relation between the members of the Trinity, he did not think it was a "personal relationship in the full sense of the term." Or, if it was, it was a sense that belonged to God and that we have not understand very well at all, and what we take "personal relationship" to be needs serious revision. But he really would have liked another term.

So, there is a lot of historical theology that has been ignored here, and that is very frequently, as far as I can tell, a problem that has continually beset the project of treating doctrines with analytic philosophy even when it has been sympathetic, as it is here. The sense that words and concepts have historical contexts is not taken into consideration often enough. In this regard, an examination of some of the extensive recent historical and contemporary theological work on this issue, such as in the recent volume Rethinking Trinitarian Theology: Disputed Questions and Contemporary Issues, which does examine what terms such as "person" and "relation" have meant in Christian doctrine without begging the conclusion on social Trinitarianism, would have been a salutary exercise.

On the other hand, sometimes the project has done this valuable work, and this volume witnesses to that stream as well. For example, Eleonore Stump's essay on the doctrine of divine simplicity in Aquinas is masterful in showing what Aquinas' issues and explications were when discussing divine simplicity, and she shows their ongoing importance. I would also commend Min's essay on the immutability of God. Rather than being baffled by the apparent contradiction between God's immutability and the apparent need to be mutable in order to love, at least love reciprocally, Min shows insight into what immutability has always meant to say -- that it is God's fullness of being, which cannot be added to or subtracted from, that allows God to "love us, relate to us, and suffer with us in a way that simply transcends the way we can ever love, relate to, and suffer for another". The key is, and this is the key to doing Christian theology proper, that Min is able, via an examination of Aquinas, to use the doctrine of immutability to develop an ontology of divine love and hence to say something significant about what love is in the Christian tradition. That is important because, deep down, the word may not in Jesus' mouth mean quite what we mean when we use it. In this regard, he lets theology, as it should, upset our common understandings. Solving the problem may well depend upon what you understand the problem to be.

I cite Allen once again. He characterized the field of philosophy of religion as one that is not originary but rather one that arose because there is body of literature that is the result of philosophers writing on religious topics and theologians writing philosophically. The field is the investigation of this crossover literature. It is to the credit of philosophers of religion such as Davis that they have sought to say something important to faith as a result of having examined and argued about this body of literature. But the project is one that still needs focus, and as a project of philosophical theology , it perhaps above all needs to figure out whether its audience is in the final analysis other philosophers, which is fine, or whether it is actually making a contribution to faith seeking understanding.

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Christianity: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edn)

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(page 112) p. 112 Conclusion

Published: September 2014
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Christianity has endured longer than the greatest empires and had more influence than the grandest cultural achievements. Its texts still shape lives and many of its institutions still function. The Conclusion shows that a major reason for this success is the religion’s variety and potential for adaptation. The confluences and divergences between Church, Biblical, and Mystical Christianity are one aspect of Christian history, their interrelations with varied social contexts the other. In our contemporary world, Christianity is as vibrant—and as deeply divided—as at any point in its history. Attempts to forge unity between its various parts have largely been abandoned. How will liberalism and popular participation develop Christianity in its third millennium?

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Spiritual Diversity in the Christian Religion Essay

Introduction.

Christianity is a historical religion that revolves around Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior of humankind. It claims its origin right from the Garden of Eden in the creation story where the first man and woman fell into sin. Jesus came to rescue man and reconnect him to God.

Understanding of these facts and others has led to emergence of diverse spiritualism based on discoveries of historical documents like the Nag Hammadi discoveries in 1945. Such documents challenge the person and life of Jesus. It is important to note that the differences are not at all major but they are indeed very critical.

The Nag Hammadi discoveries comprised of scripts suspected to have been those of a religion in the early centuries. They comprised of The Gospel of Truth, The Gospel of Thomas, and The Gospel of The Egyptian among others. The religion depicted in these documents show a sharp difference to what the bible says and evidence show that they were based on heresies.

Most of the Christian bishops classified them as such and saw them as obstacles to the spread of the true gospel. The documents were written and circulated by people who purported to be spreading the true gospel of Jesus. It was hard to know the truth as they used Christian vocabularies and largely related to the Jewish customs.

The scripts spread much faster than the other gospel mainly because they claimed to spread tradition about Jesus that was hidden from other people. However, the discovery of similar documents in different times of history and different places theologically, only serves to show the extent to which this religion had spread (Robinson, 3).

A campaign against these ‘misleading’ religious beliefs was started and it was not until the time of the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century when Christianity became the official religion that the Christian bishops felt a relief and the battle was won. Books and documents labeled as heretical were banned.

Anyone found in possession of such books was charged and imprisoned on criminal offense. It is highly suspected that it was during this time that some supporters of this ‘gospel’ hid some manuscripts from destruction and survived until their discovery in the nineteenth century.

The Differences

God is the center of the differences many Christians hold. Many take God to be an ‘out of this world’ person who is all-powerful and all knowing. On the other hand, others regard it as blasphemous to consider human beings to be the image of God.

Others still see God not as a human being but as a force beyond the confines of the universe. While some Christians claim that Jesus’ death on the cross was to bring salvation, others believe that the most important thing about Him is the life he lived on earth. They attach more importance on the wonderful moral teachings he taught.

Some Christians think of the resurrection as the physical restoration of His body while some believe resurrection was only a symbol and not real. Hell is real for others and considers it the punishment that the unrighteous ones will receive after the present life. To others, hell remains a metaphorical expression of the life without God. Further issues include baptism and the Holy Communion. These are just the few differences that present the base for spiritual diversity among Christians. Gnosticism is just one form of spiritual diversity.

The word gnosis literary has the meaning of wisdom which according to its proponents, it is a divine form of wisdom; meaning that, it is an experience with a supernatural being, in this case, God.

This word may also mean learned or intellectual wisdom and this indicates clearly that Gnosticism is all about the pursuit of human wisdom, knowledge, or intellect and not about spiritual connection with God. The Gnostic tradition dates back to the Vedic philosophy, paganism, Greek traditions, and Zoroastrianism, which implies that it is beyond the Christian traditions. It assumes that, there was once a universal religion, which changed over time due to the spread of people across the world.

The different cultures and environments also contributed to these changes. Therefore, there are people enshrined with these traditions and faith that are no longer their primary intellectual source. The Gnosticism of coming of Jesus was because of the higher power needs; to restore the mystery traditions, therefore, Jesus is not at all superior but a rejuvenation of the old traditions. It is claimed that Jesus’ Gnosticism united the older mysteries to form one larger and powerful system.

Feature of Gnosticism

Gnosticism has its own feature and characteristics that make it unique. Gnosis is ‘esoteric’; this means the inner teachings that are responsible of the religious intellect.

This knowledge is not available to everyone but only to a select few. The gnosis teachings are deemed mystical because of their ancient origin wisdom, which is claimed as the mother of today’s religious system. They are termed occultism and religious at the same time, occultism because of their secrecy and hidden nature and, religious because they lead back to the world ideals.

Ancient Gnostic teachers taught that, knowing God was the result of knowing oneself. It involved knowing who they were, what they were to become, where they were, and where they were going, where they were coming from, and why they were being released from it, what birth is and what is rebirth.

According to Gnosis, investigation of these matters would result to the knowledge of God. The Gnostic system viewed the world as having two entities meaning that, they had a dualistic view of the world where two equal divine forces are depicted. These forces are God and man where their respective governing of the world is put to measure (Jonas 17). The Gospel of Thomas further depicts the concept of dualism.

The Gospel of Thomas

This ‘gospel’ is one of the Gnostic gospels discovered in the Nag Hammadi discovery whereby, Jesus acknowledges having the same power as Thomas by refusing him to call him master. It is estimated to have been authored around 140 A.D. mainly because it is thought to have been written after the New Testament, which dates 60-140 A.D. Jesus is shown to claim that if anyone drunk from his mouth was bound to become as himself.

The teachings here show Jesus as a spiritual guide only, and not as the Lord and the savior, the orthodox Christians regard him. This gospel has many similarities with eastern religions like Buddhism where the founder is only a spiritual leader and not in any way superior. Historically, there are indications that Thomas the disciple of Jesus may have gone to India thus the emergence of suggestions of an influence of Indian tradition in the gospel.

The Creation Story

The Nag Hammadi discovery tells many stories differently from the commonly referred to, texts in the Bible. The origin of the human race found in the book of Genesis in the Bible was found in some manuscripts in the discovery. The story is vividly explained from the serpent’s perspective.

The serpent is a representation of divine knowledge or wisdom in Gnostic circle. In this text, ‘the Lord’ is threatening Adam and Eve with death in a bid to prevent them from getting knowledge while the serpent is convincing them to obtain knowledge. Later, ‘the Lord’ expels Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden when they finally heed the words of the serpent to partake knowledge.

Other scripts in the Nag Hammadi discovery seem to depict women as highly placed in the society, something very uncommon especially in those days. There are poems put across in feminine voice that seem to be of a divine power or a goddess. Here is an example of such a poem:

For I am the first and the last

I am the honored one and the scorned one

I am the whore and the holy one

I am the wife and the virgin….

I am the barren one, and many are her sons….

I am the silence that is incomprehensible….

I am the utterance of my name (Robison, 3).

The Gospel of Mary

The Gospel of Mary is another indication of Gnostics’ way of elevating women. It is not exactly clear which Mary is referred to here, but it is largely assumed she is Mary Magdalene. The first six pages of the gospel have not been found to date but the account begins with Christ and his disciples in a discussion after Christ had resurrected.

The gospel shows Christ prohibiting his disciples from teaching spirituality as an external experience but instead instructs them to teach it as an internal experience (Robinson 17). Later, Christ leaves the scene but his disciples are left confused and in great fear. In the text, Mary describes to the disciples her personal experience with Christ including the visions she had seen in a bid to encourage the disciples. She tells them things that the savior had told her when they were together alone.

Though Peter and Andrew acknowledge that Mary is spiritually superior to them, they differ with her sharply and claim that the savior could not have possibly said the words Mary claims He said. Mary depicts the Gnostic principle of inner experience here; it teaches that sin is an indication of the desperate cry of balance by the soul. This insight shows that sin results from the soul’s imbalance and not from moral ignorance.

Spirituality is a matter of personal belief on a deity or superior being. It is mainly passed on from generation to generation by the documents left behind, parental guidance and the prevailing conditions in the society. The study above of the different spiritual diversities in Christianity serves as an indication of how small issues can end up separating people in the world. As such, there is bound to be differences in the way these documents are interpreted, which has resulted to diverse spirituality all through history.

Works Cited

Robinson, James. The Definitive Translation of the Gnostic Scriptures . New York: Nag Hammadi Library, 1997.

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IvyPanda. (2019, August 20). Spiritual Diversity in the Christian Religion. https://ivypanda.com/essays/spiritual-diversity/

"Spiritual Diversity in the Christian Religion." IvyPanda , 20 Aug. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/spiritual-diversity/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Spiritual Diversity in the Christian Religion'. 20 August.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Spiritual Diversity in the Christian Religion." August 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/spiritual-diversity/.

1. IvyPanda . "Spiritual Diversity in the Christian Religion." August 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/spiritual-diversity/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Spiritual Diversity in the Christian Religion." August 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/spiritual-diversity/.

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Al-Hammadi Hospitals Company's Analysis
The Gospel of Thomas as a Gnostic Text
Creation in Gnostic and Christian Views
Comparative Analysis of the View of God, Jesus, and Salvation among Adoptionists and Gnostics
Christianity and Sacred Scripture
Origins and History of Christianity: The Early Christian Church Believers and Gnosticism
The Acts and the Gospel According to Paul
Linking Pay and Performance
Alzheimer’s Disease: Definition, Stages, Diagnosis
Martin Luther's Translation of the Bible
History of Easter Sunday
The Heart of Christianity in a Time of Change
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The Christian religion

Christianity is a religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians believe in one God who created the world and all that exists in it. They also believe in the Bible as the authoritative source of religious teachings. Christian values include faith, love, forgiveness, and compassion. Christians typically practice their religion by attending church, praying, and reading the Bible. Some Christian denominations also perform Baptism and communion rites.

The Christian religion, like other religions, has its strengths and flaws in today’s culture. Perhaps the advantages outweigh the drawbacks as this is one of the most prevalent religions on Earth. Thousands of Catholics and Christians exist despite the fact that there are more followers of various faiths. Perhaps it’s because they perceive the shortcomings or perhaps it’s due to their parents’ teachings that it’s a sin to follow this religion.

The Christian religion has many holidays which are joyous celebrations. The most common of these holidays is Christmas. This holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ who Christian’s believe to be their savior. Another popular Christian holiday is Easter which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This holiday is very important to Christian’s as it signifies that after death there is still life and that they too will one day be resurrected from the dead just as Jesus was.

While Christianity does have its fair share of holidays, there are also many religious rights and wrongs, do’s and don’ts, if you will. Christians believe in one god who they call ‘God’ or ‘Lord’. They believe that he created the world and everything in it including humans.

They believe that humans are special to god and are the only beings who have souls. Christians also believe in the Bible as the word of god. This is a book which contains stories and passages which Christian’s use as guidance in their lives. It is meant to teach them how to live good lives and how to treat others.

Christians are expected to follow the Ten Commandments which include things such as ‘Thou shalt not kill’ and ‘Thou shalt not steal’. These commandments are designed to keep people from harming others and breaking the law. Christians are also expected to love thy neighbor as thy self. This means that they should help others, be kind to them, and forgive them when they wrong you. Christianity is a religion that is based on peace and love.

While the Christian religion does have many strengths, there are also some weaknesses. One of these weaknesses is that it is often seen as a ‘white man’s religion’. This is because it was started by white men and is still predominantly followed by white people.

This can make it difficult for people of other races to feel welcomed into the Christian community. Another weakness of Christianity is that it has been involved in many wars and crusades throughout history. This has led to a lot of bloodshed and hatred between different Christian groups as well as between Christians and non-Christians.

Overall, the Christian religion is a very large religion with many followers around the world. It has its strengths and weaknesses like any other religion but it is still a religion that is based on love and peace. Christian’s believe in one god and the Bible as his word. They also believe in the Ten Commandments and in loving thy neighbor. While Christianity has been involved in many wars, it is still a religion worth following.

Christianity, on the other hand, has a much more favorable atmosphere than these other religions that are as big as it is. One of the few faiths, where punishment for sins isn’t harsh, is Christianity. Even if you have lived a sinful life, if you repent in the end, you will be saved and given eternal life in the Christian religion.

They instead believe in a cycle of birth and rebirth, where your next life is determined by your actions in this one. If you have sinned, you will be reborn into a lower life form such as an animal. Because of this, many people are put off such religions as they do not want to risk being reborn into something worse than they are now. The Christian religion is much more forgiving and offers the chance for redemption no matter what you have done wrong in your life.

The Christian religion also has a far more interesting history than most other religions. Christianity started out as a small sect of Judaism in around 30 AD. It rapidly grew however after the crucifixion of its founder, Jesus Christ. Christianity then spread throughout the Roman empire and eventually the whole world. Today, Christianity is the largest religion in the world with over 1.2 billion followers. This is almost a third of the world’s population. Christian history is full of interesting stories and characters such as Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, and Pontius Pilate.

Christian doctrine is also much more accessible than that of other religions. Christian texts such as the Bible are readily available and can be read by anyone. There are also many Christian denominations, each with their own interpretation of Christian doctrine. This means that there is a Christian church or denomination for everyone, no matter what your beliefs may be.

Everything you do wrong will be dealt with severely. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, whether it’s in this life or the next. In Hinduism, punishing the body is seen as a component of one’s spiritual journey to salvation. This isn’t at all similar to Christianity. Many Christians live in high-class society. Christianity is one of the most appealing religions because sins can be readily addressed and Christians may live comfortable if not wealthy lives without guilt.

There is an appeal to Christian thought that speaks to people across cultures. The Christian religion is not about a set of rules or a list of dos and don’ts. Christianity is about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Christianity offers hope, forgiveness, and eternal life. These are things that every person longs for.

The Christian religion is based on faith in God. Christians believe in one God who created the world and everything in it. They believe that God is perfect, holy, and just. They also believe that humans are sinful and in need of God’s forgiveness.

Christians also believe in the Bible as the authoritative source of truth. They believe that it was written by human authors under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is a reliable guide for Christian living.

Christians also believe in the importance of evangelism, or sharing the gospel with others. They believe that everyone needs to hear about Jesus Christ and be given the opportunity to receive forgiveness and eternal life.

The Christian religion is a growing religion with over 1.2 billion followers worldwide. Christianity is the largest religion in the world and it is continuing to grow. There are many reasons why Christianity is such a popular religion. One reason is that Christianity offers hope and meaning in life. Another reason is that Christianity is a forgiving religion. Lastly, Christianity provides a sense of community and belonging.

The Christian religion is a popular religion because it offers hope and meaning in life. Christianity teaches that there is life after death and that humans are created in the image of God. This gives Christians a sense of purpose and worth. Christianity also teaches that Jesus is the only way to know God. This provides hope for salvation and eternal life.

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100 religious argumentative essay topics to write about [updated], dr. wilson mn.

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Includes Religious Argumentative Essay Topics , Good bible argumentative essay topics, Great argumentative essay about Christianity, Title for religion essay, Top Christian essay topics for youth, Good Christian topics to write about, Unique biblical essay topics, and Good topics related to faith.

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Religious Argumentative Essay Topics

Between Islam and Hinduism, which one has stricter beliefs?
Mohammed and Buddha who had better teaching?
Does Islam have more supporters and power than Hinduism?
Is the atheist group likely to end in the future?
Is polygamous in Islam a good thing?
Christians and Islam, which of these two groups have better moral habits?
Should catholic priests be allowed to marry?
What is the right age to become a pastor?
Faith is a personal thing, so theological matters don’t need to be debated.
Why the writings of Josephus are a fake.
When sharia law becomes dangerous: why change is needed.
Should the freedom of worship be introduced to every part of the world?
Between the Bible and Quran which of these two religious books are mostly read?
Do Christians follow the instruction in the Bible?
Is behavior important in determining someone’s religious faith?

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Good Bible Argumentative Essay Topics

Who is better, someone who prays often or someone who does good deeds?
Is the Bible the most important tool in a Christian’s life?
Is it proper for people to change their religion each time they want?
Should schools have religious subjects in their curriculum?
Should praying in public in our schools be reintroduced?
Is there a link between increased moral decay in our schools and the removal of religious activity?
Do priests play any role in promoting good moral standards in society?
According to religious books is abortion a crime?
Why women should be allowed to choose to wear the burqa in countries where Islam is a minority.
The Christian missionaries paved the way for the destruction of native tribes.
Why Buddhism is a religion and not a philosophy as generally supposed.
The Vatican should change its position towards homosexuality.

Unique Biblical Essay Topics

Jesus Christ was based on earlier demi-gods like Mithras and Dionysus.
The Gnostic texts show that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.
Why there’s good reason to believe that there is a code in the Torah.
Why it is vital to not confuse Islam with extremism.
The rights of Muslim women need to be changed.
Why religion and politics should never mix.
Why the Dead Sea Scrolls change our accepted views of Jesus and Christianity.
A Jewish perspective on why Jesus was not the messiah
If you were to seek counseling sessions would you go to a Priest, Imam, or Monk?
How do Christians take abortion, and it is right to carry out an abortion?
Can faith in God improve one’s emotional and mental wellness? (Religious Argumentative Essay Topics)
Does religion have a role to play in extreme groups and terrorists?
Is religion in modern society fulfilling its intended role?
According to Christian standards is gay marriage acceptable?
Is there any fulfillment in knowing there is life after death?
Does being associated with certain religions make you a content human being?
Is praying in faith a safer substitute for conventional medicines?
Are all calamities associated with the sinful nature of man?

Great Argumentative Essay About Christianity

Are there any challenges faced by interfaith families?
Do parents’ religious faith affect their children in any way?
Are there any religious practices that have been passed over time?
Should the church be involved in state matters?
Is cloning religiously correct?
In Christianity is the slave trade acceptable?
Is it proper to marry a person of different religious background?
Should religion set guidelines on whom to marry?
Should the church officiate same-sex marriages? Why?
Currently, is the church playing its golden rule of upholding morality? Christianity Argumentative Topics
Which is more important faith or works?

Includes Religious Argumentative Essay Topics , Good bible argumentative essay topics, Great argumentative essay about Christianity, Title for religion essay, Top Christian essay topics for youth, Good Christian topics to write about, Unique biblical essay topics, and Good topics related to faith

Good Christian Topics To Write About

Which is the 7th day, Saturday or Sunday?
Who was worse, Cain or Judas?
Can persecution of Christians lead to the extinction of Christianity?
Is it possible to distinguish between a false and true prophet of God?
Should all churches unite and become one?
Between Moses and Abraham, who is the most influential?
Should teenagers be allowed to have a church wedding?
Is there life after earth? ((Religious Argumentative Essay Topics)
Is it okay to cohabit before you do a church wedding?
Can the Bible be referred to as the most popular book in the world?
What makes people change to another religion?
What is the right age for someone to marry?
Is material wealth important to a Christian?
How often should a Christian pray?

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Title For Religion Essay

Do angels exist in the current world?
Is going to church important?
Is sex before a wedding day right or wrong?
Have the 10 commandments been altered?
At what age should one be ordained as a pastor?
Is possible to be a true Christian and never pray?
What does it mean to have an idol in a Christian life? Argumentative Essay Topics About Religion
Are the religious movements impacting society?
The impact of the story of Jesus on Christian life.
The Origin of Buddhism
The importance of the book of Genesis.
Is there is common ground between religion and science
Who has impacted the world more, Islam or Christianity
Are some of the current Christian religious practices adopted from ancient pagan religion
What is the origin of Christmas? Was it Biblical?
Life after death, is it assured to everyone?
Is the belief in purgatory Biblical?
How often should a person forgive?
Is Jesus the only way to heaven?

Good Topics Related To Faith

Does science have any role in Christianity?
What is a generation in the Bible?
Is it okay to eat any type of food?
Should religion predict the mode of dressing for its followers?
Is it justified to alter the Bible in any way?
Should a Christian drink alcohol?

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Essay on Christianity
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100 Religious Argumentative Essay Topics To Write ...
Argumentative Essay Topics About Religion. Are the religious movements impacting society? The impact of the story of Jesus on Christian life. The Origin of Buddhism. The importance of the book of Genesis. Is there is common ground between religion and science. Who has impacted the world more, Islam or Christianity.