Regina Schwartz On Religion Summary

Huffington post says, “religious practice and affiliation has greatly declined in the united states in the last 50 years”(Blumberg). Change has happened and it’s not bad but its evolved into something different from the

Most of the human ‘Homo sapiens’ is born into a religion. That religion could be Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Christian or Atheism, etc, a set of beliefs which someone inherits from his family, and till the death, that man will likely stay with his or her religion because almost every human has tendency to be religious. On the other hand, the reality of the religion does not matter to him unless someone conducts any investigation to get to the religious truth. In the essay ‘Homo religiosus,’ Karen Armstrong says that, today’s religious followers accept the religion into which they were born, without doing the hard work required. This means that someone follows his ancestor’s religion from the beginning for his life and he or she is not able to prove his ancestors were wrong because he or she has faith in his own religion. Faith is the main concept of the religion because people have deep faith in their own religion. In addition, faith is nothing but mere fantasy and faith has no basis in reality. Therefore, people have no ability to conduct investigations to find out the religious truth. In addition, elements and places of religion vary from religion to religion. Religion is one of the most prehistoric institutions which have been noticed to practice in any society past and present even in the ancient world where cave paintings were popular. Institutions, like politics and entertainments, have been greatly influenced by the religious faith. The truth of religion might give

As you I decided to pick the same article about this modernizer of Judaism, Sandra Lawson. I think her trendsetting mindset would be inviting to those who may feel lost and unaccepted due to their race or sexual orientation. I read your reply to my essay summary and you made an interesting point about the Catholic religion not being accepting of those who may be different than ourselves. Many of my friends have stopped going to my parish church mainly due to a particular strict elderly retired priest who fills in at times. His sermons contained guilt-ridden homilies and he speaks of having fear in the Lord. He often spoke negatively about divorced and made people feel bad about themselves. I think this present Pope is attempting

Karen Armstrong, author of “Homo Religiosus,” claimed that without the physical rituals and traditions, religion morphed into a belief. Simply put, Armstrong argued that religion requires not only blind faith but also customs and practices that affect one’s physical and mental behaviors. It is through these rituals and taboos that the religions grows and forms, and yet also changes when deemed necessary. Additionally, Armstrong constantly compares religion to different art forms. She does this to convey the message that much like art, one must focus and study religion for lengthy periods of time to be properly understood. However, this connection also suggests that art and religion can perform an analogous role to humankind when required, as they both evolve and change when a society 's infrastructure does. Throughout her essay “Homo Religiosus,” Armstrong focuses on the similar role that both art and religion play in society to discuss her claim that religion is not just a belief, but rather has to do with changes in physical and mental behaviors that in return create change in society and the religion one needs.

For me, one of the things that really resonated was Allen’s point about people’s positions and how they come to hold these certain positions. Allen made the claim that many people hold a certain position simply because they heard it from someone else or read it, not because it was based off of scripture. I have personally seen this happen when it comes to the topic of Calvinism. I have experienced both sides of the argument of people holding positions yet they cannot tell me exactly how the bible explains their position on an argument. Like Allen said, the Calvinist debate is not something that will just go away. We as southern Baptists need to have a correct biblical understanding when it comes to the Calvinist debate. If we disagree with

Just like a domino effect, the change in gender roles’ appreciation has impacted in individuals’ spirituality as well. When leaving aside the binary thinking, we are allowing for more openness in regards expression of, basically, anything. As quoted from Mr. Baker’s presentation, “spirituality poverty is about openness and having room for God’s on going work in one’s life and relationships”. When applying this to gender, we should think about those individuals who do not feel comfortable with their body – those who identify themselves with a different sex than their biological

Complementarity in the Christian faith is the belief that, "God has created men and women equal in their essential dignity and human personhood, but different and complementary in function with male headship in the home and in the Church." This view of gender roles is drawn from Biblical interpretations and emphasizes the equality as well as the valuable dissimilarities of men and women. Susan T. Foh, a Christian author, has redefined the concept of complementarity in her own terms, coining the phrase "ontologically equal, but functionally subordinate" (Foh, 391). Her interpretation also comes directly from Biblical sources, but the meaning behind her careful phrasing does present some disparities between the two concepts.

The final way in which the religious front has changed is public faith in religious leaders. There was far more faith in religious leaders in the past than there is today. They were trusted, respected and looked up to but now are often treated with suspicion, and thought of as simple- minded for their belief in a God. This could likely be due the advent of the internet and social media. There was a great amount of trust in religious leaders until the news about Roman Catholic priests abusing young boys and similar stories emerged. According to the General Social Survey, the mistrust is higher among those who are not regular attendees. This mistrust may stem from a fear of the unknown. It is not familiar, therefore it is something to fear. Also, popular stories of failures of well-known people in the ministry has also undermined people’s

Christianity has been facing many obstacles from all the non religious world views. There has been a lot of contemporary influence in this modern churches and Christian gatherings as they try to fit in and accommodate the changing world views. Due to all this influences, everything about Christianity is being questioned especially on issues of sex, divorce, marriage and birth control. There has also been a rise in non denominational churches started by individuals or a group of people with no ties or relationships to already established churches

Christianity’s gravest setbacks are in the realm of values. American culture is shifting away from orthodox Christian positions on homosexuality, premarital sex, contraception, out­of­wedlock childbearing, divorce and a range of other social issues. More and more Christians feel estranged from mainstream culture. They fear they will soon be treated as social pariahs, the moral equivalent of segregationists because of their adherence to scriptural

The Catholic church has been declining in active church membership in the recent times. Catholic leaders are concerned about this because, a low amount active practitioners will result in fewer active practitioners in the future. There are numerous reasons for this, but the main reason for this occurrence is that many people, especially younger people tend to disagree with the values of the church and their stance on social issues. For example, people tend to have unfavorable views on the church due to their stance on gay marriage, divorce/remarriage, and birth control. However, the solution to combat this problem is to encourage church leaders to be more liberal and less traditional with their teachings. Although the church leader, pope Francis

Every twist in the plot indicates a larger cultural trend. It illuminates themes such as social life, family life and sexuality accompanied by the upsurge of the market society. The story revolves around the relations of two would be prophets. The first one was a merchant who had a dose of evangelical perfectionism and rejected that traditional reform. The second one was a carpenter (Lynd, 2015). The story resembles how Americans ventured into religious beliefs and rejected traditional religion. The second great awakening as William Mcloughlin states, is more than a series of evangelical revivals, but a shift that people sought new ways to govern and order their lives. The book also broadens one thinking and understanding of America’s religious history. It is not all religious mutations that survive. Those that challenged the new middle class family and conventional morality

The second great force at the turn of the century is itself global: the emergence of women in the public sphere, including the public face of religion. This is in part a function of women's growing economic and political power, but also a result of religion itself coming into the public sphere in new ways. Many aspects of religion have long been considered private and relegated largely to the context of home and family, where women have often been the primary practitioners, though men might dominate in institutional leadership positions. As both religion and women move out of the private into the public sphere, new challenges arise. For example, central facets of family and home – particularly love and sex – which have more traditionally been the purview of women and of religion have entered the realm

Most religions, according to Fordham University’s Theology professor Christiana Peppard, creates a societal structure that often fails to include millennials because millennials are open minded and millennials often think religions as a barricade to their open minded self. According to Peppard, millennials are not interested in any institutional religion is because a lot of millennials are very skeptical about religious institutions and view it as chaotic and corrupt. As it is stated by the Pew Research Center, about half of the current religious “nones” were raised in a religious household; it indicates that a lack of religious belief has led them to move away from their childhood religious belief. Likewise, some people tend to move away from their childhood organized religion because, as they grow adult, they begin to dislike the “hierarchical nature of religious group” (pew research). Moreover, Although a common goal of all religion is to bring peace in this world, the failure of religions to turn everyone to work towards this goals is both very puzzling and very much unsettling. Even more troubling is that often these religious ideals itself is the reason for many wars, murders, and social tensions.

Yet, it is for teaching sexual abstinence through funded programs, and it supports civic affirmation in Christianity, such as prayer in public schools (Borg, 2011, p. 297). The “Emerging Christianity” is a new way of adapting old traditions of Christianity to accommodate to our changing society. It is being practiced in seminaries and congregations. “Emerging Christianity” is closer to the teachings of Jesus because it includes everyone and it is centered around the three things Jesus emphasized himself; compassion, justice, and peace. “Emerging Christianity” does not say anything about excluding homosexuals, those who get abortions, and the teachings of evolution. Yet, it focuses on practices and teachings of the Christian tradition, especially to the older generation, allowing them to rediscover God whom they might have become skeptical of. Life is about following Jesus and becoming one with God, and overall “Emerging Christianity” does just that, by inflicting fewer judgments and teaching Christianity for a better understanding (Malloy, 2007, p. 27).