Forming Christian Perspective - Essay Example

Forming Christian perspective Q1. Reading ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ when being a child, I treated C.S.Lewis books as a fairy tells, but it turned out they were full of Christian values. Later, when observing Christians and getting to know Christianity better, those core beliefs once read could have influenced me when discovering Christianity in a real life. To my mind, what defines Christians is a way they correspond religious believes with a social activity. Christianity characterizes by a local brotherhood of those sharing the same appreciation of Christ and saints, the same material and spiritual values Christians confess, and a missionary work Christians do to spread good and own religion. Firstly, it’s a great worshiping of the Prophet Jesus (the Christ), and of number of saints what defines most of Christianity. Despite being a monotheistic religion, Christians refer less to God while more to Christ (whom Christians see as a God’s son) and to other iconic figures, primary historical postures (saints) when praying. Christians relay on stories about Christ and saints, on the wisdom they were proclaiming, truth they were teaching, and try to follow examples of Christ and saints in own lives. Christ and saints are also used as bailsmen on heaven, thus when asking for something Christians often turns to them, than to God directly. Even those branches of Christianity which negate saint iconic figures, commonly recognize a preacher who’s talking to God. To gain insight into God’s purpose, Christians need to receive a translation from authorities and thus, Christian turns to the Church. Christian Church (the Church) is less important for Christians than a local church they specifically belong to. Christianity is a single religion, but it’s also a worldwide. There’s a lot of different confessions and variations of Christian belief, and therefore most close Christians are with their local churches where a local pastor preaches regularly, for the same audience for quite a period of time. Christians tend to came to a church for soul businesses as much often as for social businesses and in this way, create a community. Christians love to be united to share a one way, and a local church unites Christians together. Christians pay a great attention on sharing. Love and care for their neighbors define Christianity as it’s the famous claim Christ had made. Christians contribute money for churches (for some confessions, there’s a specific percent from income to contribute) and for other good deeds which are primary, of local needs. Christ was also teaching to feed those starving, and help those in need, thus it’s common for Christians to settle some socially valuable enterprises together within a local church. However, in most of case it doesn’t mean that Christians themselves confess a material modesty. Quite oppositely, modern Christians are trying to earn and spend big money as any other people, yet they stick to the idea of sharing of material and spiritual values. There’s a missionary work Christians believes is need to be done for those who don’t worship Christian God and Christ yet. Historically, sometimes this Christian missionary work was turning into great conflicts (crusades, inquisition and etc.) and the Church used to be involved in games of politics. When recalling colonial times, Christians also brought their religion on new lands, as for example, it was in America. Nowadays representatives of different Christian confessions are those ringing the doorbell and asking if one has a time to talk about God and Christ. Basically, it’s a new way of sharing I define Christians for. Q2. There’s a song by Joan Osborn ‘One of us’ where in chorus singer asks a rhetorical question, ‘What if God was one of us?’ The point is that God wasn’t one of us, and Christians know it very well. They believe God is the origin of life on Earth, and that humankind is created in the image of God, but when asking to bring this image, or to describe the conception of God most likely Christians would be confused. Atheists often blame Christians for this believing in something senseless, but it does make sense when knowing that for Christians God is transcendental, and therefore, cannot be captured and/ or explained in human terms. God has neither face, no name in Christianity. Some Christians may call the God ‘Jehovah’, some imagine him being a wise old man with a long snow-white beard (which is simply a human stereotypic image of wisdom, sense and greater justice etc.) living somewhere in heaven. Yet despite all the attempts to make a human sense of something gehuman, it’s never possible. Thus, Christians use to say, the ways of God are inscrutable. They hope for God, but rarely expect of him a direct answer, direct actions on their life, because something gehuman (despite observing the entire human mind and soul with vices and virtues) is never able to come before people and make the explanations. For this reason Christians use mediums to discover God’s original will. The greatest medium was Jesus (the Christ), the main Prophet for Christians who lived about two thousand years ago. Being a son of God, but born as a human, Christ had grown up among other humans, was preaching for humans, and therefore, knew their nature very well. Being the Prophet, similar to Moses for Jews, or Muhammad for Muslims, Christ made sense of God’s will and God’s truth, and managed to explain God’s message in human terms. Christians are thankful for this mission Christ had made, and therefore Christians worship him. Additionally, Christ’s death was most heroic adventure in human terms as the Prophet sacrificed his life, the main human value, for those things he truly believed in. Thus, Christians wear the symbols of crucifixion to express their appreciation of Christ. The reason why following Christ’s example, and why name themselves after the Christ can also be explained this way. It’s most likely that Jesus was a true historical figure, and therefore a human being, indeed. There’s a shroud left with a print of Jesus face, there are tales about miracles Christ had made and about a great wisdom, the Prophet was well-known for among his followers (specifically, apostles). Yet despite being very close to God, Christ was a human who would understand other humans praying. He had a face, and he had a name. From this perspective, the Church is the after-Christ medium between God and Christians, and pastors are in churches to treat sacred texts for a modern local auditory. When reading the Bible and etc. from a modern perspective it’s most likely to have no sense, especially for a new man and unprepared reader. Ancient killings and Christians metaphors should be adapted to nowadays concerns to guide Christians in their everyday life. Another important role of a local church is gathering Christians together. Since mediaeval times the Church was a powerful social institution, but with a view of new confessions and new Christianity branches appearing, the Church was becoming more and more local, treating sacred texts specifically, for a local audience. Thus, nowadays the Church firstly means for Christians a local socially valuable enterprise. Read More