Author: Andre Coleman

Church history following the time of the fourth century is an intermingled chain of conflicts following one another. The main principles of conflict were that of the Trinitarian and Arian conflict that lasted for a major part of the 4th century. Also seen during this century are conflicts between Apollinarius of Laodicea which has begun the Christological controversy this showed dominancy in the upcoming centuries as well. Other controversies of this century include the Origenist, the pneumatomachean, the Donatist, the Antiochene schism, as well as many repercussions for the Church. However, the turning points in church history can be assigned to the Council of Nicea, the Council of Chacedon and the Benedict’s rule to bring about change in the church.

The most controversial issues were about doctrinal differences in regards to the nature of Trinity. To be more direct in this point, the issue encompassed intratrinitarian relation between “Father’ and “Son”. It mostly argued over whether the Son came from the being of the Father, later was in the injection of the Person of the Holy Ghost, as well as the Person of Jesus Christ. The doctrines that collided in regards to the Person of Jesus Christ were if he was in two natures or out of two natures, did he have a human soul or a human mind and human soul, it was also assess that Jesus had neither.

The legalization of Christianity came during the time of Constantine in 313 A.D before though the religion was banned during the time of Ancient Rome. The majority of the Christian teachings were spread by St. Paul who founded a majority of churches in Greece and Asia Minor. There was mass execution of the Christians for their monotheistic beliefs. However, the conversion of the Constantine the great was a turning point of early Christianity. In 313 A.D. Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan which legalized Christian worship.

It was during the time of the 325 A.D. that Constantine had ordered for the gathering of the First Council of Nicaea. The main propose of this proposed council was to bring to light the Arian controversy and find a solution to it. This teaching doctrine is attributed to Arius from Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. The doctrine’s main concern was the relationship between God and the Son of God. Through Arianism asserted that Jesus, the Son of God was a subsidiary entity to the God, the supposed Father. His teachings are thought to be in opposition to mainstream Trinitarian doctrines. During the First Council of Nicea the teachings of Arius were condemned. The council than formulated the Nicene Creed of 325 to attempt to describe the relationship between Father and the Son. Other achievements of the council include that calculation into the date of Easter and proliferation of the canon law.

For the first time in early Church history representatives of numerous bishops of the early Church gathered to agree upon a doctrinal statement. This council also saw the significant role that can be played by a ruling authority, at that time the emperor, to call together the gathering under his authority and then using the power of the state to make the councils orders affected and implemented. However, there were many political powers at work to deem away from the council’s orders. A period of conflict had followed after Constantine’s time with succession of Arian emperors in the Eastern Empire. This included the succession of Constantius the second and Valens. Other polytheistic powers within the Empire sought to restore pagan religion through the office of the emperor; examples of this can be seen in Arbogast and Julian the Apostate.

The Council of Chalcedon also had a significant influence on church history and was a turning point during early church history. The Eutychian controversy was played a major in calling for the council. The council was called upon by Emperor Marcian with the approval of Pope Leo the Great. The Council of Chalcedon issued a decree that issued a notion of a single nature to Jesus Christ and insisted on the completeness of both the natures of person and hypostasis. It also issued disciplinary canons that would govern the Church administration and its authority.

The most significant result that came immediately after this council was a major schism. Many bishops in the council were uneasy about the language used in Pope Leo’s Tome which asserted the acceptance of two natures that were prominent to Nestorianism. There were many churches that rejected the Chalcedon in order to favor Ephesus since he advocated miaphysitism, as a result those churches broke from the rest of the Church to form separate divisions. The most prominent among the broken churches were than of the Church of Alexandria.

The public sphere of Rome, which included religious norms, social settings, as well as some other cultural divides, has been known to greatly affect the Roman political system throughout, from its inception to its fall. Our world has seen many great empires and perhaps the most popular one by name is the Roman Empire. A great number of books have been written on this subject, many movies have been made, and the Roman Empire remains rich in our minds to this date. The Roman history involves some great moments as it recounts such great leaders as Julius Caesar (see Picture 1), the birth of Christ and his exploits, and then the setting up of the Church and the Vatican by Constantine. Just like any other state or empire, the Roman Empire was also much affected by the people that were its subjects. These people had their own religion throughout the various epochs of the Empire, and these people had their own norms and practices. The Roman citizen was instantly recognized by his toga (See Illustration 1) and the Roman army by his uniform (See Picture 2) The political structure of the Roman Empire was affected by the way that its citizens had behaved during the various times, including their religion, their social structure, gender relations and economics. This paper shall follow the course of the Roman Empire through history, from its inception to its decline and fall and relate how the various factors were able to influence the Empire in different ways. It is also important to realize that the Roman public was able to influence the political structure of the Roman Empire.

The culture of the Roman Empire was influenced by many factors. The Roman Senate declared Augustus (See Picture 3) as the Emperor of Rome in 27BC. This was the beginning of the Roman Empire that was destined to last for the next five hundred years, adding more and more territories to its name. The diversity in the Roman Empire came because of the number of regions that it was able to incorporate into its boundaries. The Roman Empire included ancient Britain, Arabia, and Romania. Augustus was a good ruler and he was able to stabilize Rome both politically as well as socially. A lot of development in the areas of art, literature, and philosophy took place in the Roman Empire, as it continuously borrowed from various civilizations and cultures. Among the most important of things that came out of the Roman Empire include the religious and ethical elements of Judaism, the teachings of Christianity, the study of astronomy and astrology, and so much more information from other Eastern countries like Persia and Egypt. This spread of information gave power to the Roman politics since they were able to use this knowledge to introduce new reforms in their political structure, as well as add some mystery to it. The Romans left such a mark of their culture on the world that people and artists, centuries later, such as Michelangelo in the 16th century A.D, This is how the Roman culture was able to spread its architecture and literature all over Europe, and we can still find their elements in various Western traditions today.

One of the areas where we see the most of Roman influence is that of mathematics. Many of the theories and principles that are employed in mathematics have been the product of Greek/Roman minds such as Archimedes and Pythagoras. Their ideas have formed the basis of what we call geometry. Many innovations and inventions have been made based on these ideas and hence we see a large influence of Roman mentality in things like weapons and architecture. Much of theoretical as well as practical science has also been laid down by the Romans. They established the field of botany and many of the early Roman scientists worked to collect a horde of information about many of the plants that existed in the region. Aristotle and his Theophrastus (often referred to as the father of botany) classified and named these plants. Although no apparent connection exists between the advancement in mathematics and the political structure, we find that as more and more mathematical concepts were introduced and adopted in Rome, the politicians also were able to adopt their versatility. One of the concepts that arose out of mathematics was economics and the Romans were able to carry out trade on a better level. This gave a boost to the Roman Empire and the politicians were able to use mathematics to their advantage.

Many of the ideas of economics and politics that the Western world follows toady have also been derived from Ancient Romans. The Roman’s system of the senate is still employed by many Western countries today. In addition, the Romans were the first ones to introduce the ideas of interest in business and loans and we all know that the whole economic arena of the world today works on the principles of interest. Many of the Greek/Roman philosophers, such as Aristotle and Socrates, also played their role in Roman influence and we see that many Western countries have their contemporaries who are always building upon the original ideas and concepts. The Roman influence on art is phenomenal. We find that many of the artists of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment era used to follow the art techniques of the Romans. Many of the sculptures and murals painted by Michelangelo (See Illustration 2) are evidence of the fact that he was motivated and inspired by Roman art. These theories, aspirations, and ideas were passed from the Greeks to the Romans and then to other nations in Western Europe.

The most comprehensive aspect of the social life and the Empire that the Romans were able to develop and spread to the rest of Europe includes the details of the Roman Law. The Romans were able to take the basic framework provided by the Greeks and transform it into an extremely sophisticated and scientific legal system. “The history of Roman law spans almost a thousand years from the law of the twelve tables (449 BC) to Justinian’s codes (aroung 530 BC). The twelve tables still reflect a relatively primitive and pre-scientific legal system. However, from the 2nd century B.C, the Romans began to apply the methods and categories of Greek philosophy to legal problems (which the Greeks themselves had never thought of). A legal profession began to emerge and the production of scholarly treaties on Roman law started.” It was in the second century AD that the Roman legal science was able to reach its peak. This happened when the economic and political conditions of the ‘principate’ became favorable to the scholarly activity of Roman jurists. However, this classical age of the Roman jurists ended in the 3rd century and no one has been adequately able to explain that. “The following centuries saw a general decline of Roman legal culture, which was not stopped by the efforts of emperor Justinian to revive classical Roman law in the 6th century.

Justinian did manage, however, to preserve a great part of the literary legacy of the classical jurists by incorporating their writings in his codes. The Digest, which is the most important part of the codification and was published in 533, is a gigantic collection of fragments from classical text books and commentaries. While it was unknown in Western Europe in the early middle ages, it was rediscovered around 1070 in Italy. From that time onward, Roman law and especially the teachings of the classical jurists preserved in the Digest became the basis of continental European. It has been said quite rightly, that the Digest is one of the most influential books in European” .

Perhaps the most important aspect of the Roman culture that was able to affect the political structure the most was religion. Rome had grown up to be a formidable empire by 120 AD (See Map). The history of Rome is embedded with wonder. Much of what Rome was to become in the later stages of its life was due to the ancient yet colorful religion, one that is now known as Roman mythology. The Romans had gods and goddesses for every element, and for every occasion. These gods were in a continuous state of tension, balancing the good and evil, while keeping the humans happy as well. It is in this religion that we find the basic impetus for the Roman Empire, its political structure, and its social environment. Perhaps Ovid was best able to present this relationship between the gods and humans in his Metamorphoses. The first story of a human involves a sinner, punished for his offence against the gods. Lycaon’s case represents one example of the wickedness of all humanity in the Iron Age. Lycaon (“wolf man” in Greek) is the reason for the flood, Jupiter explains, but not the origin of evil (Ovid does not mention the famous story of Pandora’s box). Lycaon’s metamorphosis into a beast reveals his true nature; the description translates literally, “his mouth gathered savagery from the man himself.” The reaction of the other gods to Jupiter’s punishment of Lycaon resembles a senate of yes-men; at first it sounds as if the gods feel pity for humanity, but soon their selfish motives are revealed: without men they will lose their sacrifices. Jupiter claims that he wants to make the world safe for lesser divinities, nymphs, fauns, satyrs, but as we will soon see in the stories to follow, the biggest threat to pretty young nymphs are the amorous gods themselves

After the ancient religions in Rome, came the slightly modern ideas that pertain to cynicism and stoicism. One of the most famous of the Stoics was Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (See Picture 4). His whole political system was dictated by the Stoic way of life as he was in favor of the human being devoid of all emotions, where things like envy, fear, etc were all thought to have come out of false judgments of the human minds. The focus of much of Aurelius’s philosophy had to do with the ethics that were involved in the Stoic way of life. These ethics involved the four basic virtues of wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance. Aurelius was also an advocate of going through continuous meditation and exercises in order to keep the mind and the body in a state of togetherness. In Meditations, Book II, part 1, Aurelius writes: “Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill… I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together…” This is not just him making a statement; rather it is giving the reader a practical technique of reminding oneself every day, repeatedly, of the problems that the person might face, and how they can be solved. This is somewhat reminiscence of what later became to be known as the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’. This Stoic way of life was greatly reflected in Aurelius’ political structuring of Rome.

But perhaps the one religion that had the most impact on the Roman empire and its political structuring is Christianity. The fall of the Roman Empire brought about a rise of Christianity and the Christian Church and this affected many changes in the view of the world. Some of the rulers of Christianity, like Saint Augustine (354-430 AD), upheld that the Bible should be considered the only legitimate source of information about important questions and this led to a great devotion to the Bible as the main source of intellectual reserve for the Western civilization for many years to come. Many of the Christians fell into the dark ages right after the fall of the Roman empire as well and only a few found salvation in the religion. The evolution of the Christian church in terms of contributions by various rulers are discussed herein.

Constantine I (See Picture 5) was one who helped contribute a lot to the rise of the Christian church as he was one of the most advantageous advocates of the Orthodox Church. He was a Roman emperor who legalized Christianity and founded Constantinople, and by doing so he single handedly laid the foundations of the Greco-Christian Empire of Byzantium. He adopted Christianity as the religion of his state and gave freedom to the priests and bishops to practice Christianity without bounds. Another emperor who was instrumental in the expansion and vital to the race of Christianity was Theodosios I (born 347 AD). In 380, he proclaimed Christianity as the official religion of the state. He also convened the second Ecumenical Council and finalized the Articles of Faith. As with these two aforementioned Emperors, there was many who ruled Byzantine and helped it progress in terms prospective growth as well as religious development of Christianity.

By the 11th and 12th centuries, Christianity saw a divide into the East and the West sections due to the vast land distances that the religion covered. There was hardly even any contact between the Christians of the East and the Christians of the West because of the great geographical distances between them. They did, however, remain to be the same religion, and were only kept apart in their cultural and historical upbringing by imaginary lines of directions. Thus were born many different independent and self-governing churches that answered to either the Western or the Eastern Orthodox Church. All these churches were in contact with each other and were bind together by the ‘canon’ law and followed the same traditions, literature, ecclesiastical calendar, and customs.

The Roman Empire remained a powerful one for more than 300 years, but it also met its doom when it disintegrated into two parts, the Western and the Eastern empire. No one is quite sure exactly when the division occurred but everyone agrees that it was a gradual transformation. It all started because of power struggles between the rulers of the area. There were many times in the history of Rome when the rulers were undecided as to the determination of successors to their thrones. After 330 A.D, Rome was often engaged in civil wars between martials, all of whom wanted to be the rulers of Rome. The Roman economy aslo played a vital role in its division. Eastern Rome found better uses for its slaves and there was a change in the social and economical system of that region. The Eastern part of the empire developed a different political system, one that resembled the fuedal system of today, and this gave a boost to their economy. The Western part, however, stuck to conventional norms and soon their middle class disappeared in the wake of excessive taxing and the Western Roman Empire fell. Since Byzantine was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the region came to be known as the Byzantine Empire.

The Eastern Empire survived because it had a more developed urban culture and it was not invaded as much as the Western one was. Since the Byzantine Empire had been a part of the grander Roman Empire, it retained much of the Roman laws and its heritage, although the legal code was updated. The official langiage of the region remained as Latin in the beginning and was changed to Greek later on. Many new churches, including the famous Church of Agia Sofia (Holy Wisdom), were also contructed. Some of Byzantium’s contribution to Western Europe include great works of literature and art, a framework for an extremely efficient and highly centralized administration, and trading norms and regulations. Perhaps the biggest contribution comes out of the setup of the Orthodox Church that defined the cultural, political, social, and religios life of the region and its people for many a years to come.

The Orthodox Church originated with Christ himself and can be said to be as old as Christianity itself. The Orthodox Church is geographically considered to be an Eastern Church because it is basically a creation Middle Eastern, Hellenic, and Slavic history and culture. Most of the growth and progress of the Orthodox Church, whether it is historical or spiritual, has been done on its own, almost entirely with segregation from Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. The divide between the two parts, the East and the West, cannot be easily identified, but this divide occurred mostly in the 11th and 12th centuries. There was hardly even any contact between the Christians of the East and the Christians of the West before this and because of the far greater distances of those, these two, however same religions, were kept apart in their cultural and historical upbringing by imaginary lines of directions. There are many different independent and self-governing churches that answer to the Eastern Orthodox Church. All these churches are always in contact with each other and are bind together by the ‘canon’ law

The Orthodox Church’s administration was directed over managing the people around the land, people, which were known as a ‘community.’ There were many such communities all over the ancient Russian and Greek regions of the land and each city of the era had a community that served the Orthodox Church. The highest rank amongst the governors of these communities was the bishop, who was assisted in his duties by priests (or presbyters) and deacons. The idea of martyrdom was common to the people of the Orthodox Church as it attracted much persecution from the other forms of governments that were in operation in those times.

The administrative ideas about holding a ‘council’ were always very important to the Orthodox Church and they believed that the council was the only able body to administer the laws and rules of the Church unto the people of the area. These councils were setup so that any problem that could not be solved by one person alone was put to the vote and many able heads were put together to work out the will of God on the problematic issue. The first council was converged in Jerusalem and it was convened so that the Apostles could come to a decision upon a serious issue. Many different types of council were setup, local ones and the famous Apostolic Council. It was only in the fourth century, when an Emperor of Constantine embraced Christianity that the Christian Empire was founded.

Another important aspect of religion that greatly affected the Roman Empire were the Seven Ecumenical Councils. The Seven Ecumenical Councils were the most important councils of the Orthodox Church. The first one was convened in Nicea in 325 A.D. By Constantine the great and the last one again in Nicea in 787 A.D. The main topics that the Councils addressed were mostly on the nature of Jesus’ advent on Earth. The first Council was very sure in its decision and it described the nature of Christ as being the same as of God Himself. The ‘Father and Son’ image of God Jesus was discussed in the second Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople in 381 A.D and it decreed the Trinitarian ideology that there were three states of God: Father, Son and Spirit. The Macedonians were condemned as heretics in this second Council. The third Ecumenical Council was held in Ephesus in 431 A.D. Nestorians were deemed as heretics and Jesus was proclaimed to be both complete God and complete man in one person and thus Mary became “theotokos”, or “God Bearer” because she gave birth to both God and Man. The Third Council also declared that both the parts of the Creed were final and complete. The Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Councils were all on the debate of whether the Christ was God or man and all of them declared him as being both occurring in the same form. There were some ideas by the Monophysites and the Monoethlites that Jesus’ humanity dissolved in the presence of his divinity. So Jesus was only divine. There was vehement condemnation of this theory and all the Councils announced that Jesus is complete God and complete man. There was an intermediate council between the Sixth and Seventh one and it was called the Qinisext Council (Trullo) and was held in Constantinople 692 A.D. This council was held for the completion of the fifth and sixth one and it was held for purely administrative reasons from where the canons were ratified. The seventh Ecumenical Council was held in Nicea in 787 A.D and is also called “The Sunday of Orthodoxy.” The main debate of this council was what to do with all the images of God and Jesus.

So, we find that just like any other political regime is affected by the way that the people orient themselves in it, so was the Roman Empire affected by the various cultural and social aspects of its citizens. And as it is with most of the states, we also find that religion had the biggest part to play in determining the political structure of the Roman Empire. This religious intervention had been instilled in the Roman culture and politics ever since the prehistoric times, where the ancient religions governed the way that the emperors would rule the empire. These religious undertones were also responsible in setting up the social structure of Rome, as it differentiated between the men of different classes. The elites in Rome enjoyed a privileged class where they were free to engage in artistic and intellectual ways of life. Some of the Romans, those who could afford to, would import slaves from distant land and would flaunt them as being more talented than the average Roman slave. This ‘sophistication’ of the Roman citizens allowed for many other innovations in the social, and hence, the political system of Rome. It was required to make special laws for the foreigner and the slaves, and the elites also enjoyed some special rights. No slaves were allowed to enter the government, while it was the elites’ birth right to be a Senator. Thus, the more sophisticated the Romans became, so did their political structure.

The reason for the public sphere being so much effective in influencing the political realm in the Roman Empire is because it was a very sophisticated empire. We tend to think of those times as being the ancient ages, yet the Romans were very ahead of their time and they were able to live a life that was essentially very different from those people who lived all over the rest of the world. The Romans had confidence, they had ability, and they had their pride, all of which made them into a culturally and socially strong nation. This strength of their nation was also reflected in their political sphere as their citizens were very closely tied up to the government (the senate was elected democratically from the common citizens). Thus the public sphere was greatly able to affect the political structure of Rome, as discussed above in this paper.

Picture 1

Julius Caesar, perhaps the most famous Roman of them all

Illustration 1

The Roman toga: dress sharp to be a politician

Picture 2

The gladiator’s suit, a soldier’s uniform

Picture 3

Augustus, the first Roman Emperor

Illustration 2

Michelangelo’s Ceiling of the Sistine Vault

Map

The Romans had conquered most of Europe by 120 A.D.

Picture 4

Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic

Picture 5

Constantine I, the Christian Roman

Work Cited

Aurelius, Marcus, Meditations Book II, Part 1, London: Modern Library, 2003

Ovid, Allen Mandelbaum, The Metamorphoses of Ovid, New York: Harvest Books, 1995

MacMullen, Ramsay, Romanization in the Time of Augustus, Yale University Press, 2000.

Veynw, Paul, editor, A History of Private Life: I From Pagan Rome to Byzantium Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992

Wikipedia, “Culture of Ancient Rome,” Online, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_culture (Accessed November 28, 2005)

Pictures and Maps

Portrait Gallery, Online, http://www.roman-empire.net/republic/laterep-gallery-index.html (November 21, 2005)

Reenactment Event at Corbridge, Online, http://www.cavazzi.com/roman-empire/diverse/reenactment-corbridge-2002.html (November 21, 2005)

Rome: Map of the Empire, Online, http://intranet.dalton.org/groups/Rome/RMap.html (November 20, 2005)

Wikipedia, “Caesar Augustus,” Online, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus (November 21, 2005)

Wikipedia, “Constantine I,” Online, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I_%28emperor%29 (November 22, 2005)

Wikipedia, “Marcus Aurelius,” Online, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius (November 22, 2005)

Wikipedia, “Roman Culture,” Online, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Toga1.png (November 21, 2005)

Web Gallery of Art, “Frescoes in the Sistine Chapel,” Online, http://gallery.euroweb.hu/art/m/michelan/3sistina/1chapel.jpg (November 22, 2005)

What is the relationship between the Pneumatology contained in the Pauline corpus* and the experience of the writer and his intended readers? What implications does your answer have for the development and application of Christian Pneumatology in the 21st century?

Introduction
Pneuma comes from the Greek and means wind or spirit and ology is a body of thought on a given subject thus theology, sociology etc.. Pneumatology is the theology of the Holy Spirit as understood in the Christian tradition. References to the Spirit of God are to be found throughout the Old Testament, in the New Testament and in the Pauline body of writings. Moltmann (1992) contends that for many years the Holy Spirit was the ‘Cinderella’ of modern theology but the rise of the ecumenical movement and in particular the second Vatican Council saw growing awareness of the role of the Spirit. The subsequent growth of Pentecostal and Charismatic movements has since generated a renewed interest in this neglected area of theology.

This assignment looks at the relationship between Paul’s experiences, the Pneumatology contained within his work, and the intended recipients of his letters. On the basis of the answers to this question conclusions will be drawn as to their implications for the development and application of Christian Pneumatology in the 21st century.

Christians were preaching the words of Jesus before Paul came along, first as the Church’s persecutor and then as its foremost advocate. For many Christian thinkers Paul is the foremost Christian theologian, others see his work as detracting from the teachings of Jesus as found in the Gospels. Bultmann (1972) maintains that in order to understand early Christianity one must first understand Paul. Whatever position scholar’s take with regard to Paul’s work he is most certainly not an Apostle who will be ignored. Paul is known for his tirades against enforced Jewish Orthodoxy and his mission to the Gentiles, in fact he is seen by many as the foremost apostle to the Gentiles.

Paul’s Theology
The body of work that is attributed to Paul documents his experiences and demonstrates the development of his theology on the basis of such experiences (Becker, 1993). Becker maintains that:

…the theology of Paul is the theology of experience under the influence of the gospel and of the Spirit connected with it, . . . [so that] if Paul designs his theological statements on the basis of his experience of the gospel, then the content of the gospel must consequently be the measure and criterion of everything — in short, for the interpretation of all reality (Becker, 1993::xi).

Paul came from Tarsus and was not a disciple of Jesus he had heard the preaching of the Hellenistic Church and had a dramatic conversion experience on the road to Damascus. Paul was a fervent and pious Jew and his conversion experience led him to question the Torah. This was because Paul was convinced that salvation came through the grace of Christ alone and not through personal righteousness and adherence to the Law (Bultmann, 1972). However, he believed that the Law did show the Jews (and the Gentiles) what righteousness was. Certain of the Jews tried to achieve this through an enforced legalism and Paul said that this was not possible. The Law exposed sin and people’s inability to truly adhere to the Law. This, as Stendahl (1963) points out was because of his concern about what would happen to it with the coming of the Messiah and what would happen to the Jews who were God’s chosen elect.

An Eschatological and Anthropological View
Bultmann (1972) maintains that Paul’s conversion was not the result of repentance but rather obedient submission to the call of the judgement of God through Christ and it is this that is the basis of his theology. Eschatology or the doctrine of the end times and God’s judgement on the present world is central to Paul’s thinking and the presence of the Holy Spirit demonstrates this feeling of ‘now and not yet’. For Bultmann, Paul’s own understanding of the human situation is the key to understanding Paul’s theology. Thus Bultmann (1972) argues that Paul’s theology is anthropological ie. a doctrine of human beings before the life of faith and under the life of faith. Bultmann (ibid) contends that the pneumatology that is found in the Pauline corpus can be confusing because Paul uses the term pneuma in a number of different ways. This it seems is due to his understanding of humanity as embodied subjects who have both a psyche and a spirit or pneuma.. Bultmann says:

When Pauls speaks of the Pneuma of man he does not mean some higher principle within him or some special intellectual or spiritual faculty of his, but simply his self, and the only question is whether the self is regarded in some particular respect when it is called pneuma (Bultmann, 1972:206).

Pneumatology and Christology
In Paul’s theology the Holy Spirit is almost indistinguishable from Christ and in fact in Paul’s view the two are inseparable to such an extent that the notion of the Holy Spirit as Ruach or the breath of the Father seems to have disappeared from Paul’s theological scene. Thus Gaffin (1998) demonstrates that in Paul,

The presence of the Spirit is the presence of Christ. There is no relationship with Christ that is not also fellowship with the Spirit. To belong to Christ is to be possessed by the Spirit. Elsewhere, within the comprehensive sweep of the prayer at the close of Ephesians 3, for “you to be strengthened by [the] Spirit inwardly” is nothing other than for “Christ to dwell in your hearts through faith” (Eph. 3. 16–17) (Gaffin, 1998:10).

It is arguably the case that Paul viewed the Spirit in this way because of his own experiences whereby acceptance of Christ means the indwelling of the Divine Spirit and this bears witness to our spirit that we are God’s children (Romans, 8:16). The Spirit therefore is evidence of Christ’s presence in the believer. This is a view that has been adopted by many present day evangelical Christians but would perhaps not have been so popular in the early Church. In the Gospels (and even in some of Paul’s work) the Holy Spirit is related to yet distinguishable from, the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is a person who is worthy of worship in his/her own right.

When Paul had his conversion experience he pledged obedience to Jesus Christ. It is in Paul’s writings that Luther discovered the doctrine of justification by faith In many instances in the Pauline corpus the Holy Spirit is seen almost as a guarantee of salvation because he/she witnesses to the presence of Christ. Scholars maintain that the letter to the Romans was written to address the specific needs of the churches in Rome. This may also have related to Paul’s own experiences and circumstances but the general consensus is that the main purpose of Romans (which has the most references to peumatology) was to edify the Roman church. At that time there were threats to the unity of the Church due to problems between the Jewish Christians and the Gentiles. Hahn (2000) maintains that Paul’s plea for the Church to live in the Spirit rather than according to the flesh was necessary in a Church that whose unit was under threat.

Paul speaks to the Church of being in the flesh or in sin, being a slave to sin. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, is what sets a believer free from sin and gives a person life. Bultmann (1972) says:

Man, called to selfhood, tries to live out of his own strength and thus loses his self-his life-and rushes into death. This is the domination of sin. All man’s doing is directed against his true intention-viz, to achieve life (Bultmann, 1972:246).

It is the person who has faith who receives life, here again we see the connection between Paul’s pneumatology and his own personal experience of being given new life at the moment of conversion. This is when a person turns from death to life through the ministry of the Spirit. Paul speaks to both Jew and Gentile when he says that human beings are confronted by righteousness through the Law but are unable to achieve it. Only God, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit can make a person righteous so that they can stand before God as a righteous person (Bultmann, 1972). With the righteousness of faith comes the freedom of the Spirit as expressed in the first letter to the Corinthians.

For all things are yours…whether the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours

The Spirit takes on a number of different roles in Paul’s writings and is closely connected to the concepts of eschatology and of soteriology or salvation history. Paul’s pneumatology is a pneumatology of freedom. In Paul’s thinking the Christian is set free from the cares of the world to enter the service of God as he himself had done. Through baptism and the gift of the Spirit a person is freed from sin and death and Galatians (5.25) is encouraged to walk in the Spirit If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit (Bultmann, 1972). It would seem that the whole of Paul’s experience and thus the theology that is found in the Pauline corpus is permeated by his pneumatology. The whole of the Christian life is based on Paul’s idea of freedom in the Spirit thus 2 Corinthians 3.17 tells us that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. The believer is freed from the Law. The legalism of some of the Jews had made them slaves to the Law-when it was supposed to do the opposite.

It is through faith and the gift of the spirit that the believer is adopted as a child of God a process Pauls calls the Spirit of adoption to Sonship. As adopted children of God we choose to walk in the Spirit rather than the flesh. It is the gift of sonship that frees believers from slavish adherence to the Law. Bultmann (1972) writes:

Christian freedom is freedom from all

This freedom however is only granted in God. Paul’s pneumatology points to a Christian way of life that is marked by or filled with God’s Spirit (Reumann, 1991:79). This stems from Paul’s own experience since devoting his life to the work of God.

Other ways in which the Pauline corpus refers to pneumatology are (as his letters to the Church at Corinth demonstrate) in terms of spiritual gifts such as prophecy and speaking in tongues. Here Paul was dealing with the excesses of some Christians and was giving instructions on how the gifts of the Spirit should be used wisely.The Spirit is also seen as the sanctifier of the believer’s life. Although the believer becomes righteous and free from the Law through faith, this is often a future righteousness that depends on the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion
.Based on the above brief survey of the Pauline corpus it is arguably the case that Paul had a very distinct pneumatology. However, his tendency to speak of Jesus and the Spirit almost interchangeably could be problematic in a contemporary, religiously diverse society. The early Church in the main, had a theology of the Spirit which did not tie the Spirit to the Son. This was achieved in 381 with the addition of the filioque clause. Originally the Spirit proceeded from the Father (this remains the case in the Orthodox Church) the filioque changed this to the Spirit proceeding from the Father through the Son (Moltmann, 1992). In some respects therefore it is arguably the case that Paul’s theology has a tendency to limit the role of the Holy Spirit, and the fourth Century addition to the Nicene Creed eventually split the Eastern and Western Churches in 1054. Limiting the role of the Spirit in this way, I would argue, is detrimental to the pneumatological freedom that is also found in the Pauline corpus. A pneumatology that speaks of the freedom of the Spirit is arguably a vital part of any movement to renew the Christian faith in the twenty first century. Without this freedom contemporary Christianity could be said to be in danger of distancing itself from its roots and becoming something that should not be confused with the teachings of Christ. Thus Pneumatology in the twenty first century should be developed as one of the major themes relating to liberation in scripture. A pneumatology of freedom not just in the Christian life, but from all forms of injustice and oppression. As the Prophets would have it knowledge of God is demonstrated by the way in which we treat those who are oppressed.

Bibliography
.Becker, J. 1980 Paul the Apostle: The Triumph of God in Life and Thought Philadelphia Fortress Press
Becker, J. 1993 Paul: Apostle to the Gentiles Westminster, John Knox Press.
Bultmann, R. 1972 Theology of the New Testament: Volume 1 London, SCM Press
http://dualravens.com/fullerlife/BiblicalPneuma.htm Gordon Fee and the Quest for a Biblical Pneumatology accessed 11/10/05
Moltmann, J. 1992 The Spirit of Life A Universal Affirmation London, SCM Press
Reumann, J 1991 Variety and Unity in New Testament Thought Oxford, Oxford University Press
Stendahl, K. 1963 “The Apostle Paul and the Intorspective Conscience of the West” Harvard Theological Review Vol 56 1963 pp 422-434
Gaffin, R. 1998 “Life Giving Spirit: Probing the centre of Paul’s Pneumatology”Jets 41/4 December 1998573-589 http://www.etsjets.org/jets/journal/41/41-4/41-4-pp573-589-JETS.pdf accessed 11/10/05
Hahn, R. Pneumatology in Romans 8:Its Historical and Theological Contexthttp://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyan_theology/theojrnl/21-25/21-05.htm accessed 12/10/05

Introduction

Disciplinary incidents are central to moral development because disciplinary practices assist to inculcate “moral standards and values that provide the basis for self-controlled behaviour” within the child (Brody & Shaffer, 1982, p.32). Amongst the various disciplinary methods, physical punishment is widely practised across different cultures and countries. The present study focused on non-abusive physical punishment and adopted the definition by Straus (1994) that physical punishment “is the use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain, but not injury, for the purpose of correction or control of the child’s behaviour” (p.4). This definition was used to delineate non-abusive physical punishment from harsher forms of abusive punishment. The term “corporal punishment” is synonymous and has been used interchangeably with physical punishment. We used the term “physical punishment” in this study because it specifically indicates that punishment is meted out in a physical and bodily manner.

A survey conducted in Jamaica revealed that physical punishment is frequently practiced in home and school (Smith & Mosby, 2003). Physical punishment is also common in south-west Ethiopia (Admassu, Belachew, & Haileamalak, 2006). This disciplinary method, however, is not peculiar to developing countries. Even in socially privileged countries, physical punishment is also used as a disciplinary method. Approximately 60% of Hong Kong Chinese parents admitted to using physical punishment as a form of discipline (Tang, 2006). In America, 94% of 3- and 4-year olds have been physically punished by their parents at least once during the past year (Straus & Stewart, 1999), and 85% of Americans believed that “a good hard spanking is sometimes necessary” (Bauman & Friedman, 1998). Beliefs in its positive disciplinary effects contributed to the widespread use of physical punishment (Straus, 1994) and there are evidence-based studies supporting the idea that physical punishment suppresses undesired behaviour (Gershoff, 2002; Larzelere, 2000; Paolucci & Violato, 2004). For example, studies in Larzelere’s (2000) meta-analysis provided evidence that non-abusive spanking used by loving parents reduced subsequent noncompliance and fighting in 2- to 6-year olds. In relation to Larzelere’s (2000) findings, Gershoff (2002) found a large mean effect size for immediate compliance following corporal punishment. However, as noted by Gershoff (2002), these beneficial outcomes are only temporarily because physical punishment neither teaches children the reasons for behaving correctly, nor does it communicate what effects their behaviours have on others. Hence, physical punishment may not facilitate moral internalisation of the intended disciplinary message (Gershoff, 2002). Moreover, the demerits may outweigh the merits of punishment because studies suggested that physical punishment carry with it unintended and adverse effects (Holden, 2002; Rohner, Kean, & Cournoyer, 1991; Straus, 1994). In response to the increasingly condemnatory international views about physical punishment, 25 states, to date, abolished all forms of physical punishment on children (Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, 2009).

Burgeoning research has related physical punishment to a variety of negative effects. These effects ranged from social-emotional and psychological problems, such as mental distress and withdrawal (Eamon, 2001), to behavioural problems, such as antisocial behaviour and increased aggression (Deater-Deckard, Dodge, Blates, & Pettit, 1996; Sim & Ong, 2005; Straus, Sugarman, & Giles-Sims, 1997; Tang, 2006). Straus et al. (1997) suggested that a “dose response” to physical punishment for children may exist, such that more frequent and longer usage of punishment will lead to increased probability of behaviour problems. These potentially adverse effects of physical punishment may also carry over into adulthood in the form of increased psychopathology and violent behaviour (Eron, 1996); substance abuse, depression, family violence, and suicide (Afifi, Brownridge, Cox, & Sareen, 2006; Straus, 1995; Straus & Kantor, 1994). Eron (1996) indicated that the more harshly 8- and 9-year olds were punished, the more aggressive and antisocial they were in late adolescence and young adulthood. Afifi and colleagues (2006) also found individuals who were physically punished, as compared to those who were not, had higher risk for major depression, alcohol abuse or dependence and externalising problems in adulthood, and these effects were not attenuated after controlling for sociodemographic variables and parental bonding. In addition, Straus (1995) found significant positive correlation between the level of punishment experienced as a child and level of depressive symptoms and thoughts of committing suicide in adulthood, after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES), martial violence, and witnessing violence as a child.

In the past decade, at least three meta-analyses were conducted to review research on the effects of physical punishment. Larzelere (2000) reviewed a total of 38 studies and found both beneficial (as discussed above) and negative effects of physical punishment. From 17 causally relevant studies, the author highlighted apparent detrimental effects of physical punishment. He first pointed out that physical punishment predicted increased subsequent negative externalising behaviour, supporting the “violence begets violence” viewpoint. One of the studies reviewed was the controlled longitudinal studies of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (Larzelere & Smith, as cited in Larzelere, 2000), which provided not only consistent but also causally relevant evidence that physical punishment is associated to subsequent increase in antisocial behaviour. Secondly, Larzelere (2000) indicated that physical punishment predicted increased mental health problems. The links between physical punishment and both increased negative externalising behaviour and mental health problems were further supported by another meta-analysis, which evaluated 88 published works spanning a 62 year period. Gershoff (2002) found that physical punishment was indeed significantly associated to increased aggression, increased delinquency, increased antisocial behaviour, and decreased mental health, to name a few.

All 20 studies involving mental health in Gershoff’s (2000) meta-analysis found frequency of corporal punishment to be positively and significantly related to a decrease in children’s mental health. Straus and Kantor (1994) reported that after controlling for low SES, those who experienced corporal punishment in adolescence were still at higher risk for depression, suicidal thoughts and alcohol abuse. Although Paolucci and Violato (2004), who conducted another meta-analyses and evaluated 70 studies between 1961 and 2000, did not find exposure to corporal punishment led to increased risk of developing cognitive problems (e.g., suicidal thoughts and attitudes toward violence), they found that people who experienced corporal punishment were at a small but increased risk for developing behavioural (e.g., aggression and antisocial behaviours) and affective problems (e.g., psychological impairment and low self-esteem).

Physical punishment appears to have a dampening effect on self-esteem in its victims. However, studies have been inconclusive and evidence-based literature in this area is much thinner, as compared to the large number of published articles on physical punishment and increased externalising behaviours, such as children’s aggression, which is one of the most studied in the literature on parenting (Paolucci & Violato, 2004). Only 3 studies (Adams, 1995; Larzelere, Kein, Schumm, & Alibrano, 1989; Sears, 1970) cited in Larzelere’s (2000) meta-analysis, investigated the association between physical punishment and self-esteem. Specifically, Larzelere et al. (1989) found the amount of spanking received negatively predicted self-esteem but the negative correlations between punishment, self-esteem, and perception of fairness of punishment were reduced to non-significance after controlling for parental positive communication. The other study included in the meta-analysis did not find a significant correlation between physical punishment and subsequent self-esteem (Sears, 1970). Joubert’s (1991) study, which was not included in the meta-analysis, also found no evidence indicating spanking to have any effect on children’s self-esteem scores, regardless whether spanking was administered by mothers or fathers, or both.

On the other hand, one of the three studies as cited in Larzelere’s (2000) meta-analysis found lower self-esteem among 6- to 12-year olds, especially those who were hit with high frequency (twice a week), even after controlling for ethnicity, cognitive enrichment and poverty (Adams, 1995). Furthermore, recent studies, which were not included in the meta-analysis, also found similar results. Using data from 1,397 children, Eamon (2001) found 4- to 9-year-old children who received more frequent spanking exhibited more socio-emotional problems like low self-esteem. In another study, Amato and Fowler (2002) investigated the relationship between parental use of corporal punishment and children’s self-esteem, using data collected from 3,400 households with a child within the age range of 5-18. Similarly, parent’s use of corporal punishment was found to predict lower self-esteem.

Bauman and Friedman (1998) argued that physical punishment retards the development of self-esteem, and Paolucci and Violato (2004) used findings of corporal punishment being associated with psychosocial problems, such as depression, as supporting evidence that physical punishment is related to impaired self-esteem. Coercive disciplinary techniques are also linked to decreases in children’s level of confidence and assertiveness, and increases in feelings of humiliation and helplessness (Gershoff, 2002). One explanation for these findings is the fear of punishment makes people attempt to escape. However, when escaping from punishment is not possible, feelings of learned helplessness and depression may develop (Paolucci & Violato, 2004).

Self-esteem, as defined by Rosenberg (1965), is a positive or negative attitude towards the self. Interestingly, self-esteem stability in childhood and adolescence does not differ between genders (Trzesniewski, Donnellan, & Robins, 2003). Research has shown that self-esteem has a pervasive impact on an individual’s life in numerous areas. Emotionally, individuals with low self-esteem have a tendency to exhibit higher levels of anxiety, experience more frequent psychosomatic symptoms, feelings of depression, lack of personal acceptance and submissiveness (Battle, 1992). Low self-esteem is also an important predictor for disruptive and maladaptive behaviours (Aunola, Stattin, & Nurmi, 2000; Vandergriff & Rust, 1989). An individual’s social functioning can also be affected by his level of self-esteem. Children with high self-esteem are more popular among peers and participate more actively in social groups, unlike those with low self-esteem, who experience more difficulties forming friendships (Battle, 1992; Growe, 1980). Self-esteem has also been supported by research evidence, to be positively related to academic self-efficacy. This significant relationship is found in Western countries (Jonson-Reid, Davis, Saunders, Williams, & Williams, 2005; Smith, Walker, Fields, Brookins, & Seary, 1999), as well as in Singapore (Ang, Neubronner, Oh, & Leong, 2006).

An important trend in the international research focuses on the effects of physical punishment on children (Ripoll- Nunez & Rohner, 2006). Considering that self-esteem has a wide range of influence on an individual’s life and the current literature remains inconclusive on the effects physical punishment have on self-esteem, we chose to investigate the relationship between non-abusive physical punishment administered by adolescents’ main disciplinarian and adolescents’ level of self-esteem. Self-esteem plays a vital role in an individual’s development, and if physical punishment has negative effects on adolescent’s self-esteem, it is likely that his level of self-esteem will affect his psychosocial and educational development, and his overall well-being. For instance, his academic success and ability to socialise contribute to his current and future well-being.

The relationship between physical punishment and adolescents’ outcome cannot be simply described as two distinct categories, such that physically punished adolescents will experience negative outcomes, and adolescents who have never been physically punished will not. Instead, this relationship may lie on a continuum and the frequency of physical punishment may play an important role in the punishment-outcome link, such that increase in frequency of punishment will lead to increased probability of negative outcomes. Since a “dose response” towards physical punishment was suggested by Straus et al. (1997), and a positive relationship between the frequency of physical punishment and negative outcomes was concurred by Larzelere (2000) and Gershoff (2002), and more specifically, Adams (1995) and Eamon (2001) found lower self-esteem, especially among those who experienced frequent use of physical punishment, we chose to investigate the punishment-self-esteem link by focusing on the frequency of punishment. With increased frequency of physical punishment, lower self-esteem can be expected.

The weight of the existing research seems to favour the viewpoint that non-abusive physical punishment carries with it negative baggage. However, unlike physical abuse, the conclusion that non-abusive physical punishment indeed has detrimental consequences on adolescents’ well-being cannot be substantiated. Researchers at the opposite end of the debate cite conflicting evidence and physical punishment remains the most controversial topic in the domain of parental discipline (Holden, 2002; Larzelere, 1996).

The main debate remains on whether non-abusive physical punishment is completely harmful or it has negative effects only when used within certain conditions. As summarised by Ripoll- Nunez and Rohner (2006), the “conditional defenders” of corporal punishment argued that the effects of punishment may be positive, negative, or both depending on the conditions in which it was administered. As proposed in Gershoff’s process-context model (2002), the link between physical punishment and its impact on the child is not direct and isolated. Instead, contextual factors of varying levels of influence may moderate the processes linking punishment and child constructs (Gershoff, 2002). This is supported by the fact that majority of the 94% of 3- and 4-year-old Americans who experienced physical punishment did not experience negative outcomes, such as developing into clinically aggressive adults or criminals. Critics of past research argued that many studies which linked physical punishment to negative effects have methodological flaws because they did not take into account the influence of moderating variables, which when included, tended to attenuate the relationship between punishment and negative outcomes (Rohner, Bourque, & Elordi, 1996). Since not all individuals who experienced non-abusive physical punishment experienced negative outcomes, the present study further examined two potential moderators of the punishment-self-esteem link: namely, adolescents’ perceptions on the fairness of physical punishment and caregiver acceptance-rejection.

Typically, research in this area has relied on parental reports of physical punishment. However, parents may underreport the use of physical punishment due to social desirability. Parents may feel threaten to disclose the frequency with which they physically punish their children because it is not advocated in contemporary society, hence providing inaccurate data (Shum-Cheung, Hawkins, & Lim, 2006). Moreover, if parent is the source of data on both the punishment and children’s behaviours, they may attempt to justify their punishment through the parental report of child behaviour (Bauman & Friedman, 1998). Following, we collected retrospective account of physical punishment from the recipients of the disciplinary practice, and further explored the possible moderating effect their cognitive perceptions on the punishment, may exert on the punishment-self-esteem link.

The impact of punishment on adolescents is not unidirectional because adolescents are not simply passive recipients of the punishment. Instead how adolescents perceive the punishment may affect the impact it has on their outcomes. As noted by Holden (2002), noticeably absent from research is studies of children’s perceptions and reactions to punishment. It has been suggested that effects of physical punishment may be moderated by the meaning children ascribes to the punishment (Benject & Kazdin, 2003). Ignorance of this may lead to an inaccurate picture on the effects of punishment because the key to understanding how physical punishment affects its victims lies in understanding how they react to the punishment physiologically, affectively, and cognitively (Gershoff, 2002). Holden (2002) further posited that this reaction involves at least two processes, namely, immediate physiological and sensory reaction, followed by the secondary cognitive appraisal stage. In line with Ripoll- Nunez and Rohner’s (2006) suggestions on variables that are important in the research of physical punishment and its effects on children, we explored the potential moderating effect of adolescents’ perceptions of fairness of physical punishment, which has been considered to ameliorate the negative outcomes of punishment (Rohner et al., 1991; Rohner et al., 1996). Grusec and Goodnow (1994) suggested that children, who perceive punishment as fair, will be more willing to accept the intended disciplinary message, which then facilitates internalisation. Since adolescents are the recipients of parental disciplinary practices, the knowledge of their perceptions on the fairness of punishment will open the window to their internal mental processes, which is how they interpret and internalise the punishment. This provides a more complete understanding of the relationship between punishment and self-esteem. Concerns regarding whether adolescents are mature enough to make sensible judgments about the fairness of discipline can be allayed because Konstantareas and Desbois (2001) found 4-year-old preschoolers capable of making judgments about the fairness of discipline by mothers, and in a study conducted in Singapore, parents’ and 10- to 12-year-old children’s responses on fairness of discipline were similar (Shum-Cheung et al., 2006). Therefore, if adolescents perceive physical punishment as fair, the effects of punishment on their self-esteem may not be deleterious. Following, the negative association between physical punishment and self-esteem can be expected to be stronger at lower levels, as compared with higher levels of perceived fairness.

Little is also known about the conditions under which punishment occurs (Bauman & Friedman, 1998) and if information regarding the context in which the punishment is meted out is not captured, only a snapshot of the impact of punishment on adolescents will be known. Opponents of physical punishment have acknowledged that physical punishment by itself is unlikely to produce negative child outcomes. However, when combined with other risk factors in the family, negative effects of physical punishment may surface (Bauman & Friedman, 1998). Therefore, certain factors in the adolescent’s family may influence the cognitive appraisal process of the punishment and, consequently, buffer the negative effects.

Corporal punishment is considered to be beneficial when administered by emotionally supportive parents who share positive interactions with their children (Paolucci & Violato, 2004). As discussed above, Larzelere et al. (1989) reported that positive parental communication moderated the punishment-self-esteem link. Therefore, information regarding other aspects of parenting, such as the warmth dimension, will provide a much fuller understanding towards the relationship between physical punishment and self-esteem.

As construed in the parental acceptance-rejection theory (PARTheory), parental acceptance and rejection form the warmth dimension of parenting (Rohner, 1991). Perceived parental acceptance-rejection may be one of the most important parenting dimensions to consider because no cultural or ethnic group was found where perceived parental acceptance-rejection failed to correlate with the predicted personality dispositions (Rohner & Britner, 2002). PARTheory predicted rejected children, as compared to children who perceived themselves as being accepted, are more likely to have an impaired sense of self-esteem, amidst other negative effects (Rohner, 1991; Rohner & Britner, 2002). Rohner (1991) used Mead’s (1934) “significant other” concept to explain how parental rejection may affect self-esteem. PARTheory assumed that everyone tends to view ourselves as we imagine “significant others” view us. Therefore, if parents who are children’s most significant other reject them, they are more likely to define themselves as unworthy, and consequently develop an overall sense of negative self-evaluation, including feelings of negative self-esteem and self-adequacy (Rohner, 1991). Although the term “parent” is used in PARTheory, Rohner (1991) explained it refers to the major caregiver of the child, not necessarily the parents. Therefore, we used the term “caregiver” instead of “parent” in this study.

Variations in perceived caregiver acceptance-rejection among adolescents may magnify or minimise the effects of physical punishment and this has been supported by cross-cultural evidence. Rohner et al. (1991), for example, found severe physical punishment to be related to psychological maladjustment among Kittitian youths and the effects became more substantial when it was paired with caregiver rejection. Similarly, results from another study conducted in Georgia showed that the association between perceived harshness of punishment and psychological maladjustment disappeared once perceptions of caregiver acceptance-rejection were accounted for (Rohner et al., 1996). In the context of Singapore, perceived parental acceptance-rejection was also found to play an important moderating role. Sim and Ong (2005) found perceived father’s rejection moderated the link between slapping and daughter’s level of aggression, and perceived mother’s rejection moderated the canning-aggression link among Singapore Chinese preschoolers of both genders. All these studies uniformly showed that children’s perception of caregiver acceptance-rejection has a significant impact on the association between physical punishment and its outcomes. Thus, at higher compared to lower levels of perceived caregiver rejection, a stronger negative association between physical punishment and self-esteem can be expected.

We collected data on adolescents’ perceptions of caregiver acceptance and rejection, and frequency of physical punishment by their main disciplinarian, rather than their main caregiver. This is because our study used a Singapore Chinese sample, and it is common within this group that the main disciplinarian may not be the main caregiver. In Chinese societies, traditional roles of disciplinarian and caregiver are respectively played by fathers and mothers, and this role differentiation still applies in Singapore (Quah, 1999). In cases where the disciplinarian and caregiver are different persons, the adolescent may experience more punishment from the disciplinarian as compared to the caregiver, and the impact of punishment from the main disciplinarian will not be reflected if punishment administered by the caregiver was measured.

Since the main disciplinarian is the adult who administers punishment, effects of punishment may be moderated by the adolescent’s perceived acceptance from his main caregiver, who plays the key caring role and spends the most time with him. Collecting data on adolescents’ perceptions of caregiver acceptance-rejection allowed us to examine the punishment-self-esteem link through the relationship between caregiver and adolescent.

As pointed out by Larzelere (2000), one of the needs in the research on physical punishment is for studies to take a developmental perspective because reviews by Larzelere (2000) and Gershoff (2002) found outcomes of punishment varied by the child’s age. For example, Gershoff (2002) found that with increased age, the association between corporal punishment and aggressive and antisocial behaviours became stronger. Following, we used a retrospective design to investigate the association between physical punishment and self-esteem, and the impact the two proposed moderators may have on this link, at two age frames, namely when the individual was 11- to 12-years old (early adolescence) and 15- to 16-years old (middle adolescence). Although physical punishment is at its zenith when children are aged 3-5 (Straus & Stewart, 1999), and its frequency decreases as children grow older, physical punishment is still prevalent during adolescence (Straus et al., 1997). Straus (1994) found more than 60% of parents in America reported hitting 10- to 12-year olds, and even at ages 15-17, one out of four adolescents is still physically punished.

The two age frames were chosen partly because this study was retrospective in nature, and memories of punishment incidents during early childhood may be weak due to the long time passage that passed. Additionally, an average Singapore student aged 11- to 12-years old and 15- to 16-years old, is in preparation for the national examinations, namely, the Primary School Leaving Examination and GCE ‘O’ Levels, respectively. Being the periods of their major examinations, memories during these periods may be much clearer and distinct, and this will provide the study with more accurate data.

Children below age 8 have not developed the concept of global self-esteem, thus another reason for focusing at these two age frames is that at ages 11-12 and 15-16, adolescents will have developed the ability to “view themselves in terms of stable dispositions, which permits them to combine their separate self-evaluations into an overall sense of self-esteem” (Berk, 2006, p.449). Moreover, unlike in early childhood, individual differences in self-esteem from early to middle adolescence become increasingly stable (Trzesniweski et al., 2003), which allowed us to explore the punishment-self-esteem link more precisely.

According to Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development (as cited in Berk, 2006), he organised life into eight stages that extend from birth to death, of which two stages were related to the present study. During the latency stage, where 11- and 12-year olds will be categorized, they enter school and are required to develop a sense of competence through the social interactions in school. With a wider range of socialisation opportunities, their relationships with parents may no longer be the most significant but it remains influential because little or no encouragement from parents, teachers, or peers may lead them to doubt their ability to succeed (Berk, 2006). However, 15- and 16-year olds are in the adolescence stage, where the need to develop an independent identity that is separated from the family, becomes the key developmental task, and relationships with peer groups become the most significant relationship. Hence the attenuation of familial influence for adolescents aged 15-16 may decrease as compared to when they were 11- to 12-years old.

Moreover, 15- and 16-year olds fall in Piaget’s formal operational stage, which represents the apex of cognitive development (Siegler & Richards, 1982). Unlike the subsequent stage, 11- and 12-year olds are in the concrete operational stage and can only “operate on reality”. But formal operational adolescents developed the ability for abstract thinking and can engage in hypothetico-deductive reasoning and propositional thought, to conjure more general logical rules through internal reflection (Berk, 2006). Additionally, they can apply their abstract reason abilities to all areas of life (Siegler & Richards, 1982). Following, it may be the case that adolescents’ perceptions of caregiver acceptance-rejection play a greater role, than perceived fairness of punishment, in moderating the link between punishment and self-esteem, when they are aged 11 to 12. Because their social circle though expanded, still centres around their parents and how accepted or rejected they perceived their caregiver to be may still play a significant role unlike during middle adolescence. At ages 15-16, adolescents’ perceived fairness of punishment may matter more than perceived caregiver acceptance because their relationship with their caregiver is not the most critical factor in their psychosocial development. Additionally, their growing need for independence from their parents as well as their capacities to think through their own best interests with their greater cognitive awareness, may influence them to place more emphasis on their personal thoughts, and on their friends’ views but less on what their caregiver thinks of them.

Within the realm of punishment research, it is also important to acknowledge the existing attitudes towards physical punishment within the particular culture. As pointed out by proponents of physical punishment, aside from the family, the cultural context also buffers potential negative consequences of physical punishment (Bauman & Friedman, 1998). Acceptance of physical punishment varies across cultures and it may contribute to variations in child outcomes across different groups because cultural values and beliefs affect whether punishment is used more instrumentally or emotionally, and how children emotionally respond to it (Gershoff, 2002; Larzelere, 2000). Larezelere’s (2000) highlighted five studies which presented evidence of significantly differential effects of spanking by ethnicity. Deater-Deckard et al. (1996), for example, found maternal use of physical punishment predicted externalising behaviours only for European American, but not African American children. The authors suggested that this may be due to the stronger acceptance and preference for physical punishment among African American, in contrast to European American parents, hence affecting the manner in which punishment is used and children’s perceptions of its appropriateness. Similarly, Gunnoe and Mariner (1997) found spanking to be negatively related to African American girls’ later aggressive behaviours, but positively related to European American boys’ later aggressive behaviours.

Majority of the studies, which investigated the link between physical punishment and self-esteem, were conducted in Western countries, such as America. However, attitudes towards childrearing in Western countries are different from those of the Asian cultures in Singapore (Tong, Elliot, & Tan, 1996). Unlike Western cultures, which display a lower tolerance of physical punishment, this form of discipline is popular within the Asian culture. “Spare the rod and spoil the child” is an old saying which reflects the prevalent parental attitude, especially among Singapore Chinese parents, who continue using caning to discipline children and view physical punishment as an effective disciplinary method (Elliot, Thomas, Chan, & Chow, 2000). Being a multi-ethnic society, ethnic differences exist in childrearing techniques, which may lead to differences in usage of physical punishment across ethnic groups. A study conducted by Quah (1999) on the Singapore family found Chinese parents tended to use physical punishment more than other parents, while Malay and Indian parents were most likely to use reasoning, and authority was most frequently used by parents in the group Other. Considering that ethnicity may affect the outcome of physical punishment, this research recruited only Singapore Chinese participants.

Introduction

As a church musician, I’ve served as a music director and accompanist of local churches for many years including the life in S. Korea. I always thank God that he gave the music as my talent to praise and worship him. Also, God has always given me the chances to do something for the church, and my spirit has grown stronger through serving the church.

However, when I just started my ministry at the church, my philosophy was more like a regular musician. I think I sometimes pride myself on my musical talent at church. I was inflated with pride. At that time, I dreamed fancy concert stage for the church service. I was a greedy music director to make something with using church members. Therefore, I sometimes got angry a lot when especially my ministry didn’t work well with the people. Now I realize that I was musically qualified but not theologically. I only had technical approach to my ministry, but my philosophy of ministry was not organized yet. Thus, here is my philosophy of music ministry even though I am still rookie of the area.

For many years, the music in the church has been debated a lot. There have been congregations who have built huge churches in a relatively short amount of time and have attributed the role of music as a leading factor in their growth. Others have avoided this trend and their music seems to be stuck in another era. How should we view music in the evangelical church? What kind of music ministers are needed for today’s church? And how should this be fleshed out in the life of the local church? These questions are necessary to be answered if the church is to fulfill its role for the glory of God. Evangelical worship music should be both objective and subjective, expressing our awesome wonder and praise of God who is beyond our imagination and also our love of, and communion with, God in Jesus Christ who lives in us through the Holy Spirit.

Use of Music in the Worship and Biblical Foundations

Should we have music in the church? In Corinthians, Paul told the Corinthians to sing with the spirit and also with the mind (I Cor. 14:15). In Psalm 33, the Psalmist exhorts us to “sing to the Lord a new song”, and “give thanks with the lyre”. In addition, Paul encouraged the believers to “speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5:19). In Revelation 5:9, when the book was given to the Lamb, the surrounding elders and creatures sang a new song. This song is recognition of the person and work of Christ and that He alone is truly worthy. After the first Lord’s Supper, Christ sang a hymn with his disciples (Mark 14:26). We do not know the exact meaning of this song, but the example of singing is evidenced by our Lord, Jesus Christ.

In Exodus 15, after the Israelites were protected from Pharaoh and his army and were led safely through the Red Sea, it shows that Moses sang a song. He had just witnessed the great deliverance that God had ever performed on behalf of His people and Moses burst forth in a song to signify the event. In Isaiah, we see many prophecies about the coming Messiah. One of the works that he will perform is losing the tongue of the mute and enabling them to sing for joy (Is. 35:6). The ones who have been redeemed by Christ will have a song in their heart and on their lips as a response to his saving work. This list could continue for many pages, but I believe the point is adequately made, so music is a right expression for the believers to respond to God. It has been employed by the people of God throughout the bible from Moses to David and to even Christ Himself.

Our Effort to be a real Worshipper

I have often struggled to find most important elements in the worship. I feel the need of growing myself more as a worship leader to help others experience great worship. By the way, what is great worship? Perhaps, it is still difficult to tell shortly, but I was able to feel some key components of Christian worship through the classes I have taken at SWBTS. Not only academic elements, but also I was able to learn practical approach to worship.

Today’s Church and Where Should Our Ministry Go from Now?

There are still a lot of churches where losing the heart of worship although their outward appearance seems rich and brilliant. God wants our real heart of worship, and we, worshipers, have to be ready to put all of our effort to find that for God. Also, we, ministers have to be ready to sacrifice ourselves for others in the service. Since my philosophical attitude got organized more than past, I would like to mention one clear sentence that “the great worship should be about God not about us.” God will be moved by our real heart of worship, not by fancy concert or models that impress people.

There are some similarities in many churches’ service. The similarities are kind of trend in contemporary churches. They use a lot of contemporary Christian music for their own worship service. In fact, I agree that using contemporary materials are absolutely recommendable for today’s churches. It can be good motive to bring out younger generations’ hearts. Nonetheless, it is not always good elements for true worship. Perhaps, the problem is coming from worship leaders. Today’s worship leaders should recognize that we are not pop stars or pop musicians. Worship leaders sometimes misunderstand that powerful sound and energetic passion make true worship. It may catch the attention of audiences in church, but it is not going to catch God’s attention. I believe that true worshiper should give a bridge to connect between worshipers and God. Are worship leaders today interested in making the bridge? Or are they are just interested in reaction of audiences? Unfortunately, most of today’s young worship leaders are interested in the response of audiences not God’s response.

Once more, Worship has to focus on God’s glory, and also true worship will give recovery of our souls. In other words, we will need to see changes of worshipers if the worship was received by God. Not only approaching the trend of today’s Christian music for worship, but also we need to approach to worshipers’ soul.

As mentioned, some of worship today suffers from the shallowness of those who are prone to flashy displays. Worship doesn’t have to be luxurious or brilliant for audiences. However, I was also one of them who had misunderstanding of worship. When I just started my ministry at the church, my philosophy was more like a secular musician. I was sometimes pride myself on my musical talent at church. I was inflated with pride. At that time, I dreamed fancy concert stage for the church service. I was a greedy music director to make something with using church members. Therefore, I sometimes got angry a lot when especially my ministry didn’t work well with the people. Now I think I got more peace in my mind than past. Even though, my philosophy of worship became simpler than past, I feel more Jesus from my recent service. Now I understand why I need to try to make my ministry becomes all about the “state of the heart” for worship first, and then state of the art. God wants our heart of worship that can make connection between God and us, and I am ready to put all my effort to find it for God.

Qualities for the Minister of Music

The minister of music should be characterized by the guidelines found for those charged with church leadership in Timothy and Titus. He is to be “above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, able to teach, not addicted to wine, or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money, he must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity, not a new convert…. and he must have a good reputation with those outside the church” (I Tim. 3:2-7). None of the above qualities can be lacking because the testimony of the church and its Savior is at stake.

He, music minister, should view himself not as a musician who happens to be employed by a church, but a minister who happens to be a musician. He must be gripped by the great commission and see his calling first as making disciples by teaching them to obey the things of God. His primary focus should not be on having larger musical productions for the sake of musical productions, but teaching the word through music and also through his lifestyle and conduct (2 Tim. 4:2).

The training of the minister of music should include musical training, but more important element is that we must have a solid biblical foundation. What is worse, singing a song with bad tone quality or with bad theology? I would propose the latter is much worse. The minister of music must be able to spot the misleading notion in the texts of music and clean them up from congregational use. Does this mean that the musical growth under his care is of no value? The answer is obviously no! But theological clarity is the most important goal for the music minister (Titus 1:9).

In addition, the minister of music should be involved in the pastoral ministry. The minister should seek to comfort the sick and bereaved. He should find to make disciples on purpose. His ministry must be one of building the body in many ways. The burden of the flock must not be laid on one man alone, but on several overseers of which the minister of music should qualify to be a part. The music minister should take great care to minister to the ones hurting even if they do not happen to be involved in the music ministry of the church. He should also be actively involved in the community with the local schools and other events and organizations in order to build a relationship with the lost in the surrounding area (2 Cor. 5:11).

The minister of music should also be a man of discernment (Phil. 1:9). There have been many men who have tried to change things too fast. He or she must take time to view the current situation and move prayerfully and slowly to institute changes. The music minister’s concern must be for the good of the people and he must be careful not to needlessly offend them. He should know that people do not care what you know unless they know how much you care.

He also must be a man who knows how to manage his time and efforts well. He must be driven by a desire to accomplish certain tasks by formulating a daily schedule to execute the details. He should learn how to hand over responsibilities throughout the church without losing his responsibility.

Team Ministry

As music minister, the ability of sociality is one of the most important elements. I have seen many ministers who sometimes failed in their ministry area due to their limited socializing skills. Our natural personality is also one of the elements that are very effective a lot to our team ministry. Some might say that bad personality or unopened mind will never be able to success in team ministry. Nevertheless, I believe that there is still possibility, although he or she doesn’t have natural-born like good personality as minister. We can put our effort to improve our weak area, and here are my ideas to be better a leader in team ministry.

First, keeping the faith one another is most important element in our team ministry. We sometimes doubt about others’ abilities. Thus, sometimes we tend to do too many things alone for any event in church instead of sharing the work one another. Even though, there is sometimes skeptical moment in our team ministry or somebody’s ability seems weaker than others, we should remind ourselves that everyone in our church are called by God not by you or me!. We should try to give a chance to others to get involved in. Since they got chances, they might have some trial and error process which is natural. Then it is time to help them. Helping their weakness is minister’s another job, and it is starting point of team ministry.

Because the team ministry is organized by people not by only one person, there might be some trouble one another. Some might demand too strongly, and do not agree with others. If their opinions are different with yours, then we should take a time and think again instead of just being against to them. If you believe your opinion is still right, then you need to have specific plan to persuade them. We should never forget that people in your team ministry are supposed to be on your side, and you need to use them in a good way. They are not there in order to be against to you. They are with you to be helpful for team ministry.

As I suggested, we, music ministers, need to improve our weak portion. Do not just give up the portion which has been weak to you. It is like an assignment from our God. We need put our energy and effort, so that your leadership will grow. We are in the position of leader in our team ministry, and all the assignments are already given since we became ministers. As mentioned in the introduction part, our fundamental thing such as natural personality is not that big matter. All we need to do is putting our effort and devotion as a leader in the team ministry. Ministry is demonstrated within the community of faith with the love and edification of God’s people-brotherly love and mutual benefit. Music of edification is an astonishing tool in teaching and in bringing people together. Church is like a tumbler and rocks bump into each other and get refined: bad rocks becomes powder, good rocks become more glistening.

Music Ministry in the Local Church and Functions of Church Music

The local church’s most visible aspect is often music program. The first element that is visitor will likely notice could be something about the music. When that person leaves, what impression will he or she have of the service? The goal for the church is that people leave not with the idea of how marvelous the production was or how finely the choir or soloists sang, but with a sense of the power and majesty of God.

Knowing that music should be a part in the worship of God, what should it sound like? The music in biblical times did not know of electronic sounds. Their focus always seemed to be on what was sung rather than how it is was sung. When Paul instructs his readers to sing with their hearts, he was emphasizing the personal nature of right singing.

We know that while men look at outward things, the Lord looks at the heart (I Sam. 16:7). Music that is acceptable to God must first find its root in the heart. The unbeliever does not have a heart for God. His heart is wicked and needs to be changed by the grace of God (Rom. 3:11). Right music should come from a heart that is right with God due to the fact that God changes its nature.

I use the word ministers because this responsibility lies not only with the minister of music, but with the senior pastor as well. The pastor must heed his call to give his people the constant, frank word of God. A scriptural worship service must have biblical expository messages (Acts 20:27).

The pastor and music minister relationship is vital for the health of the church. A pastor must not place unhealthy demands upon the minister of music by asking him to make sure certain emotional chords are struck with the congregation. The minister of music must see the preaching of the word as a vital part of the growth of the church. Both men must have a common view of the worship in the church and if this is not developed, there must be a calling to different places of service unless these differences can be reconciled.

When those involved with the service begin to formulate it, there must be a concern for the glory of God. There is a need for the service to be relevant for the participants, but what is a more relevant starting point than coming face to face with the God who made them and calls them to repent and trust in Him (Rom. 10:9-10)? He alone is the supplier of every need and deserves all the attention. He has spoken sufficiently through His Word and everything that takes place must have its root in the teachings of scripture (John 17:17).

The focus on the musical end of the service should be on congregational singing. Calvin rightly stated that the first choir is the congregation. This should be fleshed out by much corporate singing. Included should be songs of praise, confession, meditation, supplication, stewardship, dedication, thanksgiving or remembrance and dismissal. These songs do not have to be present in every worship service, but over the life of the church all should be found. The inclusion of all these forms will help the believer have a full worship experience before God and will aim at transformation of the believer.

A full-orbed gaze upon the music ministry should see that many songs are being used in the worship of God. If only a few songs are used over and over, there is a tendency to fall into the trap of singing only what is known and can slip into sentimentality. The use of songs just to evoke an emotional response should be avoided and the people must be taught to learn new texts and melodies. There must be careful attention to place new and fresh applications of favorite songs. Those adaptations must seek to bring the focus of the song back to the text (Matt. 15:8). The attitude of the heart must match the words of the lips.

Before a music minister makes significant changes he should recognize where his people are musically. Then, he should plan and begin to see that spiritual and musical growth will take place. There should be a moving in the direction of improving vocal quality and encouraging the singing of songs where the music is well played and well crafted. God deserves our best and we should endeavor to achieve the best of our ability, but this goal should be secondary for the biblical development of the people (2 Peter 3:18). When a minister of music leaves a church or after a period of time has passed since his arrival, the people should have learned the value of texts and quality music. The minister of music should not seek to manipulate the people by using songs that excitement for the moment, but encourage a deeper spiritual effort for an eternity.

When the minister of music is developing the worship service, it is important that he keep in mind the varied musical tastes of his congregation. He must be careful to employ many styles in the service, not with the hopes that a few people will be satisfied part of the time, but so that he can reflect the diverse ways in which God created us. No church should seek to please only one group of people, for that is antithetical to the fact that God calls people from all walks of life and of all nationalities (Rev. 5:9, 14:6). There is much value in selected singing by choirs or special groups provided the focus on such singing is not on entertainment but on true expressions of worship. The choir serves as a great help for the overall singing of the people and provides necessary leadership. It is encouraging for the congregation to hear ordinary people using their voices corporately to worship the Lord, but the focus of the group must not be on style or feeling, but on what they are singing. Musically, the words must be clearly articulated and there must not be any obvious musical flaws that would detract from the text. That is why it is important to include the text of the music in the bulletin for the congregation to follow. It would be a travesty if the congregation went away humming the tune without remembering the words. The soloist is in particular danger here. When the average person is selecting a song to sing, the basis of choice is often only what they like or what will complement their voice. Much caution should be employed and the text must have prime value. St. Augustine well said that if he enjoyed the voice of the singer more than the words that were sung, he confessed to have sinned.

The outward appearance of our music, as well as other spiritual exercises, must not have showy, self-centered features (Matt. 6:2, 5, 16). The singing of songs that provide themselves to the flashy nature of the voice or that is chosen to showcase the talents that God has given can evidence this. It will also be an obstruction to true worship when the purpose of singing becomes driven by entertainment rather than an expression of the heart. Many churches have a visual emphasis for the musical performance with the hopes that they will make the audience’s emotions into a certain state that allows them to respond to God.

When it comes to the worship of God, we must be careful to get out of the way and place the focus on the one who is worthy to be praised (Rev. 4:11). Today, there have been two trends in church music. One is to reject all that is new and the other is to reject what is old. There is so much rich heritage in what has passed before us that we abandon it to our danger. These writings are not perfect, but they do take the weight of centuries of God’s faithfulness to people. The observation of many generations is important. With the new material, there must be proper discrimination because we do not have the testimony of time on its side. We must evaluate the content and musical elements and then use it often. There needs to be an encouragement of new material as we live our lives of faith and trust, but it should be carefully selected.

Planning My Music Ministry

On reflection, my music ministry has had a lot of mistakes and fails. I was a totally rookie as a music minister when I first started it. Without enough experience, my ministry did not work out well, and there was often no specific planning on every Sunday. I was a kind of self-educated music minister, so that it was not often enough to be a well-prepared music minister. With all the experience, now I feel the importance of planning as a music minister. The first thing should be making a plan. We all know God will give us a mission and even plan our steps for us, but we have to do our part. We should not just sit around, and waiting on God to bring everything for our ministry.

Planning the service must not seek to manipulate the people by appealing to their emotions alone. They must diligently expound the scriptures. The building up of the body should be the goal of the whole service. The ministry of the church must be viewed not by what is only outwardly successful, but by an adherence to the Word of God. There must be an understanding that true worship is not the one-hour event on Sunday morning, but the whole life of the believer that is poured out and sacrificed before the Lord (Rom. 12:1).

I have planned many events for my church and local communities. Most of the events were successful, and I thank God that he gave all the blessings for my effort. The most of successful events were made by well-planned arrangements. By the way, what is the well-planned arrangement? When I was a younger music director, I thought that it was all about my detail preparations and efforts. However, I often missed most important part for the planning. The first step had to be praying. I believed myself and my knowledge first then I pray after everything had already done by my plan. Yes, it was the reason why some of my events impressed only men not God. I shouldn’t forget that in a Christian music ministry, I am representing God, so I have to be with him before I start my journey. However, the first step is often missed and forgot by a lot of ministers in the world today. After the first step which is asking God before we plan something, we can start all other steps. The material we received in the class would be wonderful resources to plan any event, and also you can find thousand of materials that can help our practical plan for music ministry. Nevertheless, again, we should always not forget the first step that is praying, and take that first step with all of our faith. In fact, there are many big musical events coming up this year and next year I have to plan and direct, but I know that anything will not be successful enough if they are not planned by God not by me.

According to Bennett, in his book “You Can Plan and Select Music”, he says “Even those who have extensive musical training and degrees are often found lacking in the tools to plan and select music for the church”. Also, Bennett says “Too often, the church musician is one who may be well trained in music but may not understand the relation between music and worship in the church situation”. In fact, when I first started the music ministry at my current church, I struggled a lot because there was a lack of practical knowledge although I was pretty well-trained musician. However, since I started to study and read some practical music ministry books, my ministry has been better. Even though we are well-trained musicians, there can be a lot of variables during our music ministry lives. Therefore, we really need to know and be ready in more practical way than rigid theory. Bennett also mentions that “We all need reminders; like all arts, we learn our basic skills and procedures from books but we learn best from actually doing it”.

Learning music ministry in the U.S. might be a little different than music ministry in my native country. Thus, it may be applied in different way a bit, depending on what country’s church you serve and each church’s background or denomination.

Conclusion

Music ministry is challenging, and rewarding experience. It must be driven by a desire to please God and not men and seek to glorify Him in all aspects of life. When we look at the surrounding families and see their need, we realize that it is not a need for a more exciting church service, but a saving relationship with Christ (John 3:16). Only when we have a passion for God’s glory and true passion for those individuals without Him will we exhibit a biblical understanding of music ministry (I Cor. 10:31). It has been many years since I was involved in church as a music minister, and now I think I got more peace than past. My philosophy for music ministry might have become simpler than past, but I feel more Jesus from my recent service. I try to make my ministry becomes all about the “state of the heart” for worship first, and then state of the art. Also, I have to be ready to sacrifice myself for others in the service. I am a musician, but also preacher who can speak in music. The church has always been very good place to me, and I thank God for giving me the most wonderful place for me to present my music to heal and save the souls. I will use my talent as much as I can in my life, and praise him where ever I may be.

We must first look at the history of Israel to find the emergence of the main religious sects. Israel was sinning against God, not following the laws of Moses, intermarrying with other nations, and worshiping other gods. God sent prophets to speak to the Israelites to bring them back to him, but if they would not listen. The prophets would often prophesize events that would come because of the disobedience, but also restoration also. The events that lead to this split within the Jewish culture happened around the deportation and exile of an unknown number of Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II, starting with the first deportation in 597 BCE (Coogan, 1999, pg 350) and continuing after the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple in 587 BCE (Jer 52,12-13). Fast forward to 539 BC, the Persians had captured Babylon; and Cyrus the great had allowed the Israelites to return back to Israel. Ezra 1:1-2: In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: “‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.”It was during these times that it is believed the two main sects; the Pharisees and Sadducees emerged. W. D. Morrison puts it: “Long before the names Pharisee and Sadducee appear in the pages of history the divergent tendencies which these two parties represented were in existence within the Jewish community. It has, in fact, been contended that the foundation of their differences goes back into pre-exilian times, and that the priests and prophets of the old Israelitish monarchy are the true precursors of the Sadducees and Pharisees. But the complete transformation which Jewish society underwent after the return from Babylon” (W Morrison, 2007, pg 13). Although it was not until the Maccabean period that these two groups properly emerged as prominent groups within the Jewish culture

Pharisees

The name Pharisee in its Hebrew form means separatists, or the separated ones, The Pharisees were ‘common’ people, which consisted of laymen and scribes. According to Maayan Jaffe “The Pharisees offered answers for how to live in a post-Temple world and for how to engage with the sacred in their daily lives. Likewise, the Pharisees had a commitment to scholarly debate. Their responses and their inclination for argument for the sake of Torah would eventually constitute Rabbinic Judaism. (The rabbis of the Amoraic period, for example, completed redacting the Jerusalem Talmud circa 400 C.E. and the Babylonia one circa 500 C.E.)” (Jaffe pg 14, 2008)”. While Encyclopedia Britannica gives the reader further information on the beliefs of the Pharisees “The Pharisees, on the other hand, believed that the Law that God gave to Moses was twofold, consisting of the Written Law and the Oral Law, i.e. the teachings of the prophets and the oral traditions of the Jewish people” (Encyclopedia Britannica online). The Basic role of The Pharisees was to keep the law. “The Pharisees were very zealous for the Law of Moses, but they also considered themselves the guardians of the oral traditions that scholars developed over generations. The oral traditions interpreted the Law of Moses. For example, the Law said to keep the Sabbath. They were not to work on God’s holy day. Yet, what was work and what was not? The oral traditions filled in the details that Moses left out. For instance, how far could a person walk on the Sabbath without it being work? The interpreters decided that the distance was 2000 cubits which is about 2/3 of a mile. This was known as a Sabbath’s day journey. Where did they get that number? When the Hebrews carried the Ark of the Covenant in the wilderness, God commanded them to walk 2000 cubits behind the ark. They decided that was God’s way of telling them how far one could walk on the Sabbath”

(Doug Reed, pg 1, 2011) The Pharisees also maintained that an afterlife existed and that God punished the wicked and rewarded the righteous in the world to come. They also believed in a messiah who would herald an era of world peace.

Sadducees

The Sadducees, by contrast, were the chief priests and people of the highest social and wealth class of the time, who were installed by the Roman government, primarily for the purpose of ‘keeping the peace’ between Rome and the Jews. They were often wealthy and part of the ruling class in Jesus’ day. Many of them comprised the priesthood, but unlike the Levites, were not from the ancestral line of priests (royal priesthood, descendents of Aaron) that controlled the temple in Jerusalem. “They only recognized the Torah as the inspired word of God. They acknowledged neither the prophets nor the oral traditions that came after the first five books of the Bible. Consequently, they did not believe in the resurrection or any life after death. They were often at odds with the Pharisees over this matter.” (Doug Reed, pg 1, 2011)

Essenes/Qumran

The Essenes were a branch of Pharisees who emphasized a communal life and ritual purity, including full-body immersion for spiritual cleansing. Perhaps the best-known Essene is John the Baptist, “And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey” (Mark 1:4-6). According to the Jewish Dictionary: “A branch of the Pharisees who conformed to the most rigid rules of Levitical purity while aspiring to the highest degree of holiness. They lived solely by the work of their hands and in a state of communism, devoted their time to study and devotion and to the practice of benevolence, and refrained as far as feasible from conjugal intercourse and sensual pleasures, in order to be initiated into the highest mysteries of heaven and cause the expected Messianic time to come” (Jewish Encyclopedia pg 19-20, 1906), it goes on to say: “that ten thousand of them had been initiated by Moses into the mysteries of the sect, which, consisting of men of advanced years having neither wives nor children, practised the virtues of love and holiness and inhabited many cities and villages of Judea, living in communism as tillers of the soil or as mechanics according to common rules of simplicity and abstinence. In another passage he speaks of only four thousand Essenes, who lived as farmers and artisans apart from the cities and in a perfect state of communism, and who condemned slavery, avoided sacrifice, abstained from swearing, strove for holiness, and were particularly scrupulous regarding the Sabbath, which day was devoted to the reading and allegorical interpretation of the Law.”

Zealots

The Zealots were yet another offshoot of the Pharisees. The Zealots believed that they could bring the beginning of the Messianic era (which included an end to foreign domination of Judea) by starting a rebellion against Rome. The dictionary also refers to Zealots as “a member of a radical, warlike, ardently patriotic group of Jews in Judea, particularly prominent from a.d. 69 to 81, advocating the violent overthrow of Roman rule and vigorously resisting the efforts of the Romans and their supporters to heathenize the Jews.” (Dictionary.com 2008)

The Oxford History of the Biblical World, ed. by Michael D Coogan. Pub. by Oxford University Press, 1999. pg 350

Jews under Roman RulebyW. D. Morrison pg 13 2007

Dictionary.com was launched in 1995, under the name of Lexico Publishing, LLC and was acquired by IAC in 2008. Today, it is the most-visited, most trusted, online dictionary.

1906 Jewish Encyclopedia pg 19-20

Jaffe, Maayan. Baltimore Jewish TimesHYPERLINK “http://search.proquest.com/socialsciences/indexingvolumeissuelinkhandler/25578/Baltimore+Jewish+Times/02008Y01Y04$23Jan+4,+2008$3b++Vol.+300+$281$29/300/1?accountid=44543?300. 1 (Jan 4, 2008): 14.

Encyclop?dia Britannica
Author(s)

As of 2008, 4,411 named contributors

Country

Scotland (1768-1900)

United States (1901-present)

Language

English

Subject(s)

General

Genre(s)

Referenceencyclopaedia

Publisher

Encyclop?dia Britannica, Inc.

Official site

Publication date

1768-2010 (printed version)

Media type

As of 2010, 32 volumes (hardbound)

ISBN

ISBN 1-59339-292-3

OCLC Number

71783328

LC Classification

AE5 .E363 2007

Thorncrownjournal Doug Reed 2011

VALUES: Values describes, important belief in life shared by the member in the same culture about what is good and what is not. Values also create influence on a particular person’s life and acts as a guideline. Compared with the great leaders, I also have some mutual values such as non-violence, truth, do good and helping the poor, fight against violence against women, drugs and others but, I stick to my own culture. It is a different value compared with the two leaders.

BELIEFS: Beliefs are the rules, habit, and truth in our minds which are followed in our life for the survival. People have different beliefs in life that are usually passed by our parents and generations. The information source is the level of belief. It is also marked as assumptions, which made by ourselves. Compared to the great leaders, I added my culture as my belief and I am easy going man and I accept what is given to me by my parents. But, Mother Teresa and Gandhi have different beliefs. But their views are good.

ATTITUDES: Attitudes are the combination of certain subjects from value and beliefs. Each people have different attitudes due to several reasons. Personal attitudes and values are almost similar and attitudes may be either positive or negative. Comparing my attitude with leaders, some of the attitudes are common and some differs.

METAPROGRAMS: Metaprograms are filters to perception. There is several metaprograms. While comparing with the metaprogams of the good leaders mentioned above. My answers are different when comparing all the metaprogram with the Mother Teresa and Gandhi.

TRAITS: Traits means how they interact with the people. It also means qualities or characteristics of a person. There is positive personal traits and negative personal traits also. Good leaders have traits such as honest, forward looking, intelligent and so on. Like that I mentioned some personal traits of the great leaders. While comparing, I have a personal trait that is thinking before doing. Comparing with them the only trait which I have different from them. Well the difference is because of the time this leaders were present that stands as history.

STRATEGIES: Strategies allows us to work on achieving our goals. It is also a plan of action for the desired goals, also could be achievement of goals or solution to a problem. The personal strategy varies according to their nature. Here the two leaders have different strategies and my strategies are also different from them. But, some good leaders have some common personal strategies also.

CONCLUSION:

To conclude, that above I compared my values, beliefs and so on with the leaders. I analyses the each part of both leaders are different according to their personality and those leader have brought about changes in many people’s life and fought for them.

PART B : Personal Development Plan (PDP)
1) What is My Current State
I. What are my strengths that might influence my approach to leadership?

Patience

Hard working

Humanity

I don’t give up

I know my right and will fight for mine and for the people

ii. What are my weaknesses that might influence my approach to leadership?

not well manage

Quick judge

not aggressive

sometimes don’t speak up

soft hearted

iii. What are the common feedbacks (positive or negative) that I receive from others that might influence my approach to leadership?
POSITIVE FEEDBACK:

I socialize and make friends and enjoy

Patience

Willing to work

Kind

NEGATIVE FEEDBACK:

Not well manage

Not aggressive

Lack of skills

Lack of experience

iv. What other performance indicators can I notice that might influence my approach to leadership?

Quantitative indicator

Directional indicator

Financial indicator

v. Conclusion: In conclusion I will say that I have to improve/focus on my leadership skills and personal weaknesses like:

Time management

Emotions control

Internal Communication

Expose myself and speak up more

2) What is my Desired State?

Is to become a successful leader in any field of work either in a business field or political, sporting or any kind of leader, would lead the organization to its goal.

What do I have to improve/achieve?

Improve on my management skills

bring about maturity in the way of thinking for a particular organization

I would like to achieve my desired state by improving my leadership skills

Why do I want to achieve that? What does it give me?

Happiness

Motivation

Good satisfaction

Satisfaction in life

Achievement

iii. What are my short-term outcomes?

My short term outcome its help me in dealing with peoples and also help in work place to communicate and increase my performance and also creates better understanding and builds responsibility.

iv. What are my long-term outcomes?

My long term outcomes are it helps to increase my productivity and improve the standard of life

How Do I Get There- What is needed?

Through hard work and dedication

what must I improve/learn/experience to achieve that desired state?

improve my understanding and socalise

integrate with people to know their needs

participation

ii) What are the possible resources to learn/experience/improve?

Newspapers

Handouts

Internet

4) Timeline?
I) When do I want or need to achieve the desired state?

For short term

12 august to 24 December

For long term

1 august 2012 to 13 December 2016

ii) What is my schedule to work on these focus area?

Everyday life we go through different people and learn from their experiences and we set goals and work on them 2nd feb to 23th of dec spend 4-5 hours a week.

Personality Type Report

Your Personality Preferences

EXTROVERT

You are social and outgoing. You are most comfortable when with other people and experiencing the world first hand. Interaction with others and first hand experiences energize you. It is not unlike you to start conversations with strangers. You have a preference for the outer world: people, activities, and things. Other people provide you with a mirror, sounding board to help you develop ideas and plans. Being alone may sap your energies. Your concept of the world is derived from experiencing it firsthand and then drawing conclusions.

SENSORY / INTUITIVE

You appear to be an equal mix of both sensory and intuitive types. This may cause you some conflict at times. On the other hand the balance of the two may work just fine for you. There is certainly nothing wrong with having a fair share of both types if you are happy. Below you will find descriptions of both types.

SENSORY

You usually gather information with your senses: what you can see, hear, taste, touch and smell in the physical world. The facts gathered from the sensory data you process are the building blocks of your model of our world. You concentrate your energies on what actually exists and do not ponder what might exist too much. You are usually practical and rely on your common sense to guide you through the world. You see things as they are and have little or no need to search for underlying meanings.

INTUITIVE

While you do process information through your senses you add a twist to your processing by relying on intuition and serendipity. You look for undercurrents of meaning and abstractions in what you experience physically. You do not just see things just as they are, but as what they could be. While you may rely on common sense at times, you trust inspiration far more.

PERCEIVING

You like to have as much information as possible before making a decision. Putting off a final decision until the last moment does not make you uncomfortable. Indeed once a decision is made, a course plotted, you may feel a bit uneasy, because you feel bound to a certain course of action. You would much prefer to wait and see what happens. You enjoy the opportunity to improvise. Commitments are not etched in stone to you, and are changeable.

FEELING

You make decisions subjectively based upon your values and what is important to you. How people will be affected by your decisions is important to you. You are likely to make decisions based upon what you feel is acceptable and agreeable rather than what is logical. Your truths are founded in your values and those of the society you live in. It is important to remember that we are discussing how you evaluate data and make decisions, and that you rely on your feelings to do so in no way implies you are overly emotional.

Your Personality Type

Your personality preferences suggest you may be one of two personality types, so both these types are listed below.

Extrovert/Sensing/Feeling/Perceiving

Your caring and generous nature makes helping others a pleasure for you. You are so full of energy, friendly and charming that some might describe you as the life of the party. You are not overly judgmental and accept others as they are. You steer your course through life by relying on your common sense. You are an optimist. New experiences are food for your soul.

In relationships you are the one that can bring light to the gloomiest situation. You are easygoing and very accepting of others. You are full of energy and need to share adventures with your friends and loved ones. You need attention and approval. You may not need a deep emotional bond, but you do need your relationships to be fun. You have a genuine concern for the plight of others. Famous People of Your Type:

St Mark, Dale Evans, Gracie Allen, Bob Hope, Eva Gabor, Willard Scott, Goldie Hawn, Kyle Petty, Arsenio Hall, Mary Lou Retton, Kathy Lee Gifford, Woody Harrelson.

Occupations Suited to Your Type Include:

Animal handler, coach, designer, fitness instructor, flight attendant, fund-raiser, merchandiser, musician, nurse, performer, law officer, athlete, pr specialist, real-estate agent, salesperson, teacher, travel agent, and veterinarian.

Extrovert/Intuitive/Feeling/Perceiving

You are a very creative optimist who never has a shortage of new ideas. You accept others as they are, like to be helpful, and are compassionate. Your freedom and independence are very important to you. Your well-developed insight into others and communication skills allow you to inspire those around you. You have a good sense of humor and love to have fun.

In relationships you may turn intimacy into an all-encompassing pursuit. You are very aware of what those around you are thinking and doing. Your people skills allow you to make friends instantly and make almost anyone comfortable. You tend to idealize your relationships. You like your relationships to be very intense–you want to feel everything. The warmth and affection you give others is very deep and genuine.

Famous People of Your Type:

Franz Joseph Haydn, Samuel Clemens, Will Rogers, Buster Keaton, Theodor “Dr.”Seuss Geisel, Mickey Rooney, Carol Burnett, Paul Harvey, Elizabeth Montgomery, Bill Cosby, Dom Delouise, Dave Thomas, Martin Short, Meg Ryan, Robin Williams, Sandra Bullock, Robert Downey.

Occupations Suited to Your Type Include:

Actor, artist, clergy, consultant, entertainer, entrepreneur, personal service provider, journalist, marketer, media specialist, mediator, recruiter, sales person, business owner, teacher, and writer.

The Enneagram is a personality system which divides the entire human personality into nine behavioral tendencies, this is your score on each…

Type 1

Perfectionism

||||||||||||||

58%

Type 2

Helpfulness

||||||||||||||||

70%

Type 3

Image Focus

||||||||||||||

54%

Type 4

Individualism

||||||||||||||

58%

Type 5

Intellectualism

||||||||||||||||||

74%

Type 6

Security Focus

||||||||||||||||

66%

Type 7

Adventurousness

||||||||||||||||||||

82%

Type 8

Aggressiveness

||||||||||||||||||

74%

Type 9

Calmness

||||||||||||

50%

type

score

type behavior motivation

7

20

I must be fun and entertained to survive.

5

18

I must be knowledgeable to survive.

8

18

I must be strong and in control to survive.

2

17

I must be helpful and caring to survive.

6

16

I must be secure and safe to survive.

1

14

I must be perfect and good to survive.

4

14

I must be unique/different to survive.

3

13

I must be impressive and attractive to survive.

9

12

I must maintain peace/calm to survive.

Your main type is Type 7

Your variant stacking is sx/sp/so

Your level of health is very low, i.e. very unhealthy

Your DISC personality test report

Your specific distribution of scores on the DISC personality test is an indication of your unique personality. You can think of this as your DISC Personality ‘DNA’. In the pie chart below you see your distribution of scores.

The highest percentage is likely to be your most dominant personality factor, the second highest your next most dominant personality factor and so on. As such for you the DISC factors are ordered as: Compliance, Steadiness, Dominance and Influence.

The graph below shows how each team role fits you. After the graph, each team role is explained in detail, in the order of its importance to you.

1. Describe your personal experience of God and the understanding of God you derived from biblical, theological, and historical sources.

Throughout history, people developed the idea of a higher being, who is referred to as ‘god’ in general. Some people simply deny the existence of god or any other spiritual being. And other people who accepted the existence of ‘god’ explained the identity of ‘god’ in various ways. Deism sees the cosmos as a closed system with its maker outside it; so denies God’s direct control of events and his miraculous intrusions into this world. Pantheism recognizes no creator-creature distinction, but sees everything, including good and evil, as a direct form of God.

Christianity joins with the Jewish and the Muslim faiths in proclaiming radical monotheism, which states that God is One and that God is the God of all. Distinctive to Christian theism is the belief that the personal creator is as truly three as he is one. God is a single being who exists, simultaneously and eternally, as a communion of three persons: Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The three Godhead are eternal which means they coexist from past through future. In Matthew’s account of Christ’s baptism, as Jesus the Son went up from the water, the Spirit of God descended upon Him as a dove and the Father testified from the heaven of His beloved Son (Mt 3:16-17). This scene clearly portrays the simultaneous existence of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

The Christian understanding of God is specific in that Christians believe that God has been, and continues to be, historically involved with the people of Israel and has made a new covenant with all people in Jesus Christ. In other words, we believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments bear witness to God’s active love for creation as revealed in Jesus of Nazareth.

God revealed himself through various channels including the Scripture, experiences and nature. Although there are many ways in which God reveals God’s self, the best place to find out about God is through the Scripture that God gave us. In the book of Exodus, I personally found God’s character and the qualities that are ascribed to him. Exodus 3:7-8 says that

The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey–the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. (NIV)

These are the words that God said to Moses from the burning bush. I believe that in this communication with Moses, God revealed who he was. God whom I believe in is the God who has seen the misery of his people, heard them crying out and has been concerned about their suffering. In another translation, it is said that God knew their suffering (NRSV). In the context of this chapter, “my people” indicate Israel people in Egypt. Israel people at that time in Egypt were slaves under the Pharaoh. They were ignored people in bondage to the Egyptians. There must have been other nations considered much higher and nobler than the Israelites but the bible said that God who is the creator of the whole world saw slaves with his own eyes and heard them crying out.

Hebrew word for ‘to know’ in Exodus 3:8 is ‘??? yada` {yaw-dah’}’ and it implies to know by experience (Bible Work 7). In other words, God who created the whole world attentively observed and listened to slaves who were disregarded in this world and he knew of their suffering by experience. The God whom I believe in is not one who just sits on a throne in heaven and is not concerned about what happens in this world. But God in Christianity is the God who knows his people and has a close relationship with them.

Exodus story indicates that God is purposeful, powerful, and sovereign in relation to this world. He has a plan for the history of the universe, which is to save his people from sins, and in executing it he governs and controls all created world. He is all powerful so he cannot be bound by any of the limitations of space or time that apply to us and he is always present everywhere.

Personally, God has been there in many forms for me. All of these attributes can be found in many parts of my personal experience with God. I have experienced God of Immanuel, who has been with me always. Jesus came to this world as Immanuel (Mt. 1:23) and his last words before he ascended into heaven was also Immanuel, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Mt. 28:20). When I decided to go to seminary in Korea to be a pastor, I rejoiced in confidence because God was there with me. When I went to Korean Army, I endured the difficult time because God was there with me. When I came to America alone for further study, I did not fear to live in a strange land because God was there with me always. Throughout my life, the one thing that I am sure is that God has been always with me and loves me, who am the weakest among all.

2. What is your understanding of evil as it exists in the world?

First of all, as Augustine said in his article, ‘On the nature of good‘, I believe that ‘God is good and every creation is good’ (Augustine, Chapter 34). And every creature came to exist by God without exception. Then how do we explain the origin of evil from the perfect good Creator? In regard to the matter of the origin of evil, I am of the same opinion with Augustine.

Evil is lack of some good things. As it throws a shadow over us when we turn against the Sun, evil originate from a lack of goodness of God.

I believe that God is the perfect Creator. One of the perfect things God created was man. Adam and Eve who were the perfect creature of God had a choice to follow God or to go against God. Without free will to choose, neither good nor evil could have been chosen. If man is ever to choose good, he must have the freedom to choose evil as well. Therefore, God did not create evil but perfect freedom to choose and human freely chose evil. After Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, evil became a reality in this world.

In his Book, ‘the City of God‘, Augustine recognized that evil in this world and goodness of God’s Kingdom co-exist on the earth throughout its history. However, Augustine believed that God would finally turn evil in this world into goodness of God’s Kingdom (Augustine, Chapter 13.4). By the original sin, I believe, all of us fell down from the image of God and evil came to prevail in us. However God also prepared the way through which we can be restored to God’s Image and be saved from our sins. The only way of salvation is Jesus Christ.

3. What is your understanding of humanity, and the human need for divine grace?

On the last day of creation, God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). The image of God refers to the immaterial part of man. We were created to be set apart for God (Gen 1:28). He enabled us to commune with God. We were created in likeness mentally, morally, and socially. When we were created in God’s image, we were intended to become God’s agent so that we can take care of the world (Gen. 1:26,28).

However, Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God. And they became alienated from the Creator. That historic event brought all mankind under divine condemnation. Human nature became corrupt, and therefore, totally unable to please God. Before Adam and Eve sinned, they both had direct contact and fellowship with God. But as a result of transgressing against God, Adam and Eve lost it all. They were both banished out of the garden, God pronounced a curse on them and their descendants and on the earth in general. Death entered into the big picture and all of us are born into this world with sinful nature.

In his love and grace, God made a plan to save us. In Ephesians 2:4-7, Apostle Paul tells us that “God made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions“. We cannot overcome our sinful nature and death but, through Jesus Christ, God had already made provision for us to be saved. By faith through grace, we can be saved (Eph. 2:8-9). Jesus Christ is the grace of God who showed us the way of salvation. By dying on the cross, Jesus paid the full and complete price for our sins so that we do not have to pay for it. The only way of salvation is by faith through Jesus Christ. And even the faith we have comes from God. Thus our salvation is entirely the work of God. Whoever believes in Jesus Christ will be saved by the grace of God.

4. How do you interpret the statement “Jesus Christ is Lord”?

“Jesus” is our Lord’s human and personal name, meaning savior. “Christ” is our Lord’s official title. It is the Greek synonym for the Hebrew “Messiah,” meaning the Anointed One.

The statement “Jesus Christ is Lord” implies the belief that Jesus who was born of the Virgin Mary is our savior who redeems us from our sins. In other words, to accept Jesus Christ as Lord means to accept two natures in Jesus Christ; the nature of divinity and the nature humanity. Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God at the same time. Existence of these two different natures in Jesus Christ is crucial because that matters to salvation.

The doctrine of the virgin birth is very important (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23, Luke 1:27, 34). Jesus’ birth was the result of the Holy Spirit working within Mary’s body. Mary was a ‘vessel’ God used to perform the miracle of the Incarnation. Denying a physical connection between Mary and Jesus would imply that Jesus was not truly human. Scripture teaches us that Jesus was fully human with a physical body like ours. Jesus was fully God as well as he is fully human with an eternal and sinless nature (John 1:14, Acts 20:28, Hebrews 2:14-17). Jesus was not born with sinful nature. The virgin birth circumvented the transmission of the sinful nature and allowed the eternal God to become a perfect man.

The deity of Christ is the central belief of Christianity as well as Jesus’ humanity. The bible clearly claimed that Jesus had the right to forgive sins, which is something only God can do (Mark 2:5-7, Acts 5:31, Colossians 3:13). Jesus was also said to be the one who will “judge the living and the dead” (2 Timothy 4:1) as an ultimate judge of this world. Apostle Paul called Jesus “great God and Savior” (Titus 2:13), and pointed out Jesus’ existence in the form of God prior to his incarnation (Philippians 2:5-8). In John 1:1, deity of Christ is clarified as the same God with Father, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). John here affirms both the deity of Christ and the Trinity. Jesus is God who incarnated in human flesh, the living Word of God.

5. What is your conception of the activity of the Holy Spirit in personal faith, in the community of believers, and in responsible living in the world?

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the triune God. The Holy Spirit is God in the same way that the Father is God and the Son is God. Scripture and the church tradition, including Nicene Creed (“We believe in the Holy Spirit… who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified“), indicates that the Holy Spirit, known also as the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jesus Christ, is of the same essence as the Father and the Son.

The Holy Spirit worked at the beginning of a church. Apostle Paul indicated an organism of a church as the Spirit baptized body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). And the one who leads us to become a new creation in Christ through worship is the Spirit of God (Eph. 2:18, Phil. 3:3). Each local gathering is a part of this one universal believing community as a body of Christ, and as Christ’s agent the Holy Spirit leads and guide us to grow into Christlike maturity and fulfill God’s mission (Eph. 4:11-16).

The Spirit also works in a life of an individual believer. The Holy Spirit convicts lost people with respect to sin, righteousness, and judgment and by God’s power repentant and believing souls are saved. In sanctification, Holy Spirit indwells the Christian as one grows in the likeness of Christ and in his service. Scriptures tells us the Spirit who works throughout our journey of salvation. The Spirit leads us to repent our sins (John 16:7), makes us born again (John 3:3-5). And the Spirit empowers us to bring holiness in our life and helps us to bear fruits in our life (Galatians 5:22-23).

6. What is your understanding of the kingdom of God; the Resurrection; eternal life?

As the Psalmist confessed, “Your Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations‘ (Ps. 145:13), I believe that God is the king of his covenant people. And as Apostles’ Creed (“from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead“) and the Nicene Creed (“He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead“) said, I believe that Christ will be our ultimate judge at the last day and God will reign over the whole world. As the Nicene Creed stated coming of God’s Kingdom (“his kingdom will have no end”), there must be the coming kingdom of God in the future in which God’s reign affects the whole world.

However, the Kingdom of God is more than a vision of coming God’s reign in the future. The kingdom of God speaks of a present reality though not in entirety and a future result where the reign of God over all of creation will be perfected and made whole. In Luke 17:20-21, Jesus responds to a Pharisee who asked when the kingdom of God would come, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say here it is or there it is because the kingdom of God is within you.” As well as we experience coming of God’s reign over the world in the future, we will experience the Kingdom of God here and now although it is a foretastes of the fullness of God’s Kingdom.

The resurrection of Christ on the third day after his crucifixion and his ascension to be with God until He comes again for the final time of judgment also marks the path of all those who claim faith in Christ. At the time when the Good News of Jesus Christ spreads to the whole nations, he will surely come to the world again (Mt. 24:14) from the heaven in a cloud with power and glory (1 Thessalonians 4:16). At that time people who accepted Jesus Christ as their savior will be risen from the dead (1 Thessalonians 4:15-16). Christ’s resurrection marked Christ’s victory over sin and death both physically and spiritually, we too as Christians who bear the marks of Christ gain the right to have the same victory both physically and spiritually.

Eternal life is the end product of our resurrected souls. As the Apostles’ Creed (“the life everlasting“) and the Nicene Creed (“the life of the world to come“) insisted, I believe that those who have been saved by Christ will share the joy of eternal fellowship with Christ. Heaven means eternal joy in Christ and those who reject Christ will be judged to the eternal condemnation.

7. Explain the role and significance of baptism in the ministry to which you have been called.

Sacraments are acts instituted by Christ and administered by a church having an outward form and conveying God’s grace. Baptism is one of two United Methodist sacraments the other is the Lord’s Supper. These sacraments are means of grace within the covenant community. They are visible signs and seals of something internal and invisible and the means by which God works in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The scriptural mode of baptism is found in the New Testament. It records that Jesus was baptized by John (Mt. 3:13-17), and he commanded his disciples to teach and baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:19). Whoever accepts Jesus Christ as their savior is eligible to be baptized. Baptism conveys God’s grace that redeems us from our sins through the atonement of Christ. Therefore, baptizing of a person, whether as an infant or an adult, is a sign of God’s saving grace. In baptism, we witness that God’s grace is poured upon everybody regardless of their condition.

Even though baptism is the special channel through which we experience God’s grace of the atonement of Christ, baptism does not guarantee our salvation. As John Wesley insisted in his sermon, “Scripture Way of Salvation“, salvation is a lifelong process of responding to God’s grace. By being baptized, we become a covenant people of God who have a promise that the Holy Spirit will work in our lives. However, salvation is not automatically obtained by baptism but by accepting Christ as our savior, trust in Christ and grow in holiness to be near unto God.

Baptism represents an act of initiation for Christian believers into the Church. By being baptized, we make a covenant of relationship between God and also between congregations in a church. As baptized Christians, we join the universal church and make a promise our loyalty as the body of Christ.

8. Explain the role and significance of the Lord’s Supper in the ministry to which you have been called.

God provides us various ways in which we can grow in God’s grace. The Lord’s Supper, also known as Communion, or Eucharist, is one of the Christ’s gifts to the church, in which we experience God’s grace. Following Jesus’ example and instruction, when the church celebrates the Lord’s Supper we receive gifts of bread and wine. In this sacrament, we celebrate our fellowship with Christ and with each other.

The invitation to the Table comes from the risen and present Christ. In United Methodist, whoever loves him, repents their sins, and seeks to live as a Christian disciple is invited to participate in the Lord’s Supper. By responding to this invitation we affirm and deepen our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

It is not easy to understand how bread and wine become Jesus’ body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. So it is mystery. Some churches insist that the Lord’s Supper is merely a memorial of Christ’s sacrifice and a sign of Christian fellowship. Some churches including historic Reformed churches insist that bread and wine in Communion conveys a unique spiritual power although Christ’s body ascended into heaven. Lutheran churches insist that Christ’s actual body is present with the elements of bread and wine. And the Roman Catholic churches insist that even the essence of bread and wine are changed into Christ’s true body and blood, with maintaining their physical reality persisting (transubstantiation). United Methodist believes that the real presence of Christ is communicated to the believers.

To participate in the Lord’s Supper is not merely to recall the event 2000 years ago. But when we receive bread and wine with faith, it becomes dynamic action within us and we experience the grace of body and blood of Christ which is re-presented to us in the Lord’s Supper. The past event of our Lord’s death, resurrection and ascension comes into the present so that its power once again touches us, changes us, and heals us.

We gather at the table with joy. Our eating and drinking is a celebration of our risen Lord. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ is present with us at the table and so we give joyful thanks for what God has done and is doing in our lives and in the world. We come to the table in hope. We look forward with joyful anticipation to the coming reign of God.

9. How do you intend to affirm, teach and apply Part II of the Discipline (Doctrinal Standards and Our Theological Task) in your work in the ministry to which you have been called?

What we believe as Christians matters. What we believe tells us who we are. Part II of the Book of Discipline contains Methodist heritage in faith and theology and heart of Methodist doctrines. In other words, Part II of the Book of Discipline tells us who we are as Christians, particularly Methodists. It is important for Methodists to study this in order for us to have a clear understanding of our heritage, doctrine, and the faith we profess together. Our Christian faith is built on tradition which fathers in faith handed over to us. We will also add our profession of faith upon it and turn it over to the next generation. Therefore, as a pastor, to lead people into right direction to Christian faith by affirming and teaching what we believe and who we are is crucial.

In order to fulfill this mission, I will preach the gospel verified in our tradition and theology. A pastor should not preach the gospel according to his or her own theology but we should profess communal faith built upon tradition. Through preaching and small group study, I will teach Methodist heritage. To learn who our fathers of faith were and what they believed will help us to know our identity and to understand the place where I am now. On the basis of our tradition, we should do our best to leave our footmarks so that our children can see and follow faith of their parents and go in the right direction. To leave footmarks of our faith is to teach our children and show them how to live out what we profess in our lives. I will teach our children the Methodist heritage and doctrine in Sunday School at a level they can understand.

10. The United Methodist Church holds that the living core of the Christian faith was revealed in Scripture, illumined by tradition, vivified in personal experience, and confirmed by reason. What is your understanding of this theological position of the Church?

The scripture is the primary source of Christian faith. It is clear that the Scripture is the primary vehicle by which we grow in faith. The scripture has great authority in teaching and guiding us in faithful living and right understanding as to the nature of God and humanity. All the scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). When we read the bible, the Holy Spirit guides us to find the truth which illuminates our life.

Church tradition is an important practice for theological reflection and interpretation of the Scripture. Christian faith has built upon our ancestors’ confessions of faith for a long period of time, and that formed church tradition. Tradition is a source of authority and a lens through which Scripture is interpreted inside it.

Experience is an important practice for Christian faith because the scripture and theology must be understood on the basis of our experiences. Communal experience within a faith community helps us to understand God’s word toward us here and now.

Reason is used to examine authenticity of theological reflection and an interpretation of the scripture. By reason we ask questions of faith and seek to understand God’s action and will. However, reason as a practice for Christian faith does not mean to have a speculative thought but it indicates to conceive under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Wesley’s quadrilateral indicates the importance of checks and balances between four practices. To focus upon one practice brings danger to a church to lose its balance and have a radical view on Christian faith. Thus, to keep the balance between these four practices, with holding primacy of the scripture, is crucial.

11. Describe the nature and mission of the Church. What are its primary tasks today?

In regard to the nature of the church, I agree with the Nicene Creed which describes the church as “one holy catholic and apostolic.” The church, in this case, meaning universal Christian church, is one in Christ. The church is holy so it is called apart from the secular world. Although only the part of holiness is seen at the church in the present time, we will see the fullness of holiness at the time of coming of Christ in the end. The Church is universal for all people. As it is written in 1 Cor. 12:27, Church is likened to the Body of Christ whereby the coming together of the various parts form one perfect and organic body with Christ as the head. This analogy means that the church will embrace both the fullness of Christian teaching and the diversity of people who make up the church and function as the each parts of the body. The church is apostolic so it stands in continuity with the apostolic witness.

I believe that the mission of the church can be found at the Twenty-five Articles of Religion which indicates three necessary elements of the church: faith(“congregation of faithful men“), preaching(“in which the pure Word of God is preached“) and sacrament(“and the Sacrament duly administered“) (13th Article of Religion, 1784). The church is the gathering of people of faith, spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ, and administers sacraments.

The ultimate goal of the church should be to make people disciples of Jesus Christ. Through preaching, teaching, worship, and nurturing, the Church is God’s ordained vehicle whereby others can be disciplined and experience the grace in which we stand as the body of Christ.

The primary task of the Church today is to be a true mission church. As the body of Christ, bound to God and to one another through Christ, church always lives in a community. To lose dynamic organism of a church means to lose its vital power. A part which is not united with the whole is useless. For that reason, a local church should be connected with people and groups around it and be united with the universal church spiritually. If a church is connected and united, it should be transformative. If a church has a vital organic power, it will transform the world in which they live as a living plant bears fruits. God being connected to us came down in the form of flesh to dwell among us. Jesus’ ministry was to preach the Good News and to live out the message of love with people around him. The church that truly impacts people’s life is the church that knows people around her, shares joys and sorrows of the people, and give them hope in Jesus Christ.

12. Describe your understanding of the primary characteristics of United Methodist polity.

First, the system, known as “itinerancy”, is the most distinguishing feature of Methodism. In many polities ministers are “called”, but in Methodist polity they are “sent”. One consequence of this system is that local congregations are generally receptive to whoever minister is sent. This gives ministry an objective quality that is not dependent on the personal characters of individuals or the expectations of parishes. One of the most valuable consequences of this polity is the relative success that United Methodist Church has had in placing women and minorities in parish situation.

Second, United Methodist Church determines church policy in conferences, which function as deliberative bodies. There are several levels of such conferences. The annual conference is the basic corporate body of which the primary function is to connect local churches to one another. All ordinations take place at the annual conference. The highest deliberative body in Methodism is the General Conference. The conference legislates general policy for the church as a whole. The annual conferences are grouped geographically into the jurisdictional conference, of which there are presently five in the US. Central conferences are concerned with the work of the church outside the US. Churches within a specific area of an annual conference may assemble in district conferences. Annual meetings among local congregations or groups of contingent congregations, to which a member of an annual conference is assigned, are known as charge conference.

Third, one of the unique features of Methodist governance is a structure of official leadership through which the supervisory function takes place. The executive function of the bishop includes a number of powers-particularly associated with the appointment of clergy to charges. The bishop works through district superintendents. They act as liaisons between the local parishes and the bishop. The several district superintendents in a conference are called the bishop’s cabinet. The district superintendent presides at the charge conferences.

Fourth, an involvement of lay people in the deliberative and legislative bodies of the church has been important. Governance in contemporary Methodism is a shared responsibility of clergy and lay people. Lay preachers and lay leaders continue to work in local churches.

ASSIGNMENT 1INTRODUCTION

If we take a look at the Bible, it is interesting to note that 40% of the material in the bible consists of narratives, stories and is actually the most common type of writing. The primary faith confessions of both Christianity and Judaism tell us that God has revealed Himself in extraordinary ways in human history. This special encounter with God is really the crux of Biblical witnesses to God. This is why scripture is the story of God. This simply gives the idea that in interpreting the Bible, we should take seriously this dimension of story.

Summary of Howard

The Old Testament historical narratives are not just interesting stories about people who lived in Old Testament times, but they are also stories filled with hidden meanings, much more important than the plain and outward meanings. These stories do not always teach some clear morale directly, however, narratives are written in story-form. They have a meaningful string of interrelated events involving specified characters and some kind of plot. The ultimate purpose of Old Testament narratives is to inform us about things certain people have done within the larger story of God’s plan. This plan of God is to offer redemption to mankind through a promised Saviour.

The Biblical narratives comes in three distinct levels, much like the subject of God’s will. First it is His will for all of humanity. Secondly His will for His covenant people and thirdly His will for the individual person. The top level of Biblical narrative refers to the big picture which is the universal plan of God for redeeming all mankind through the promised messiah descended through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David. In a nutshell, the entire Bible can be understood in three major units.

In Genesis to Malachi we can read that a rescuer is coming, the rescuer is here and it is Jesus. In Acts to Revelation we read that Jesus is coming again. We see that the middle level of Biblical narrative records God’s work through a selected portion of humanity and the nation of Israel and the Church. Also included in here would be stories involving individuals or covenant people that have a major impact on a lot of other people. In Romans 5 we see that Adam’s deeds affected all of humanity. Noah’s faithfulness to God affected all of humanity and everyone that are descendents of Noah. Abraham was the father of many nations and Moses was God’s mediator for the Sinaitic Covenant in Israel. The life of Jesus and the apostles impacted all of humanity and the church is the proof and demonstration of God’s wisdom (Phillipians. 3:10-11).

We can see that the lowest level of narratives are stories that take place at an individual level, describing events in the lives of people that do not have an obvious larger impact, such as Joseph, Judas, Paul and Barnabas (Genesis 37-50). It is not every individual passage that bears witness to Jesus directly (John 5:37-39) but everything does fit in the puzzle somehow to the ultimate level narrative. On the other hand, there are some typology stories that do not make much sense. Try to read Old Testament narratives and always appreciate the individual stories, but be sure to understand the stories as elements in a much larger meta-narrative unfolding bringing God’s Messiah into the world (Howard, 1993).

Summary of Osborne

Preaching from Old Testament narratives resembles playing the saxophone and it is easy to play the saxophone poorly. The one contributing factor is the deficient theology that neglects the Old Testament as a source of Bible exposition. It relegates it merely to illustrative material, but most difficulties stem from a deficient methodology. The other problem pertains to homiletics. A lot of preachers have adopted a style of exposition that is not conducive to preaching Old Testament narratives. The striving for a narrative’s meaning puts the interpreter into the world of literary analysis. The biblical authors are constantly and urgently conscious of telling a story in order to reveal the imperative truth of God’s works in history. It also tells the story of Israel’s hopes and failings. By paying close attention to the literary strategies through which that truth was expressed, may actually help us to understand it better. It will also enable us to see the minute elements of complicating design in the Bible’s sacred history. Osborne came to the following conclusion, “There is no reason why history and literary artistry cannot exist side-by-side”. An Interpreter can notice the literary art of a story because literary artistry is not an end in itself, but a means to understanding the theological point of a narrative. The test is not whether literary analysis contributes to aesthetic appreciation but whether it advances understanding. Is it sharpening the ear and the eye to the author’s intentions?” It is well known that Old Testament narratives do more than make theological points. They attempt to persuade and change the Bible’s main form of exposition. The narrative is most appropriately characterized as primary rhetoric, its primary objective being to persuade its audience. Bible expositors must prepare to interact with the literary features of the text in order to discover a story’s theological point. A preacher’s effectiveness in the pulpit depends on the amount of hours he spends with exegesis and study. The guidelines suggested above can help preachers to do great and reliable exegesis that is sensitive to the literary features of Old Testament narratives. Some sermon preparation still remains incomplete although expositors do thorough exegesis marked by sensitivity to the literary art of a narrative. It is important that the preacher tackle the homiletical side of the task. As Osborne states, great preachers have all worked as hard on presentation as they have on exegesis, yet many expositors stumble. They end up preaching the bare facts of a text instead of the text itself (Osborne, 2006).

Personal lessons

Sermons on biblical narratives succeed or fail with the pastor’s ability to present the scenes of a story in vivid color. In Old Testament narratives other concerns overshadow the need for realistic fullness; but realistic fullness may be one of the greatest concerns of a modern pastor. Pastors need to engage readers in the story with sensory details. Painting scenes like this requires ample historical-cultural research in Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases and books on archaeology. Such research leads to sharp, accurate images. Imagination can degenerate into fantasy and, in an effort to tell a good story, a pastor can scuttle or trivialize the biblical material. Imagination must be linked to the text just as interpretation must be tied to the text, otherwise the pastor may misrepresent the Scriptures and say in the name of God what God did not say. A careful exegesis of the text will give direction to the imagination and even set the parameters it must not violate. Good images also result from precise vocabulary. Pastors should cultivate a suspicion of adjectives and adverbs and instead use lively verbs and colorful nouns. Should an expositor use colloquial expressions that portray biblical characters as “happy campers” or that describe them “adjusting their sunglasses”? Certainly this can be overdone, but at times, it may prove effective. Reading can stimulate a pastor’s creativity and provide ideas for arranging the details of Old Testament stories to gain the maximum effect. Pastors should at least read sermon manuscripts or listen to sermon tapes by masters of the craft.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we can really the historical instincts of the biblical writers and must assess and use their works positively and constructively.

Bibliography
HOWARD D.M. JR. 1993. An Introduction to the Old Testament Historical Books. Chicago: Moody Press.
OSBORNE G.R. 2006. The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation (2nd ed., rev. and exp.). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.
ASSIGNMENT 2
INTRODUCTION

The Bible is full of wonderful books to read. The Book of Joshua is one of the Bible’s great books of courage and faith. God told Joshua: “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them and to the Israelites” (Joshua 1:2). In the Book of Joshua God is encouraging us to be strong and courageous.

Discuss the authorship, date and main divisions of the book of Joshua.

Author: The Book of Joshua does not name its author. They say that Joshua must have written most of the book. The last part of the book was written by another person after the death of Joshua. In the book several sections were edited and compiled before the death of Joshua.

Date of Writing: It is recorded in history that the Book of Joshua was written between 1400 and 1370 B.C.

Main Divisions: The Book of Joshua speaks about the life of the Israelites after the exodus from Egypt. Joshua was a great leader and in the book it shows his 20 years of leadership of the people. During that time he was also anointed by Moses. The twenty-four chapter divisions of the Book of Joshua can be summarized as follows:

The events following Moses’ death, the invasion and capture of the land.
The division of the country and the conduct of the Reubenites, etc.; two farewell addresses by Joshua shortly before his death to the people of Israel.

Key Verses: Joshua 1:6-9 says, “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous…..”. Joshua 24:14-15, “Now fear the LORD and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve……” (Got Questions, 2002).

What major discrepancy (difference, conflict) do some scholars see between Joshua and Judges? As a Bible-believing Christian, how can you account the difference in a way that defends the truthfulness of both books?

The book of Joshua and the book of Judges speak about the story of Israel’s settlement in the land of Canaan and their first couple of centuries in the land. In the first part of the book of Joshua, the book describes the actual entry of the Israelites into the land and the early battles for control of certain very important cities. The second part of the book shows in detail how the land was divided among the tribes of Israel, as well as a covenant ceremony in which the people committed themselves to the worship of God. There were continued struggles in the land as people led isolated campaigns to free the Israelites from oppression at the hands of surrounding people. In the book there is a rise of new leaders coming to the front. When we take a closer look at the two books there is a much more complex situation that begins to stand up both the historical and theological questions. It is not only about the reliability of the accounts as just normal history but also about the nature of Israel’s entry into Palestine.

Because of what I mentioned in the above paragraph, we can look to some of the historical questions raised at the beginning. Why is it that there are still no answers to those specific historical problems? Perhaps it is more obvious now that some of those historical problems are important to us. Maybe it is because we have not heard the biblical text as the faith community of Israel intended it to be heard. We have asked historical questions when the books are not history. The books bear witness to the work of God in the world, both His self-revelation in history and the community’s response to that revelation. These are both positively and negatively. Maybe before we rather ask “what really happened?” a historical question, we should ask “what is the community telling us about God”? This is a confessional and theological question (Bratcher, 2008).

Which of the five settlement theories that Mangano discusses is acceptable to Bible-believing Christians? Why are the other four unacceptable? Hint: we hold one belief that leads us to reject all four: what is it?

The Pan-Canaanite Conquest Model

According to (Kurinsky, nd) the Conquest Model is definitely precisely the same as the biblical narrative. If we look closer the model reveals some discrepancies. The more serious discrepancy is the biblical text presented that the whole land was not conquered at once. In Joshua 13:1-6 the Lord said to Joshua: “You are old and advanced in years and very much of the land still remains to be possessed”. When the Lord said that Joshua was too old suggested that a very long time was necessary for warfare. In later chapters we read that other non-Hebrew groups also continued to stay in the land. Some were Jebusites and other were Canaanites. In the book of Judged a similar picture is shown. Definitely not all the land were taken and not all the people were killed. There are also some historical problems. Some historians dreamed of rebuilding David’s empire. They were hoping that King Josiah would do it for them, however, these lands did not come under Israelite control until years later. Even though some schools of archaeology hold that the Bible has little historical relevance, they must still use the Bible to negate it!

The Peaceful Infiltration based its model on the romanticism of the Bedouin desert tribes. The Peasant Revolt is not describing exactly how and why Yahwism would have come into the mix at all. It must have been the fact that God gave them the Promised land, the divine command to go into the land and the freedom to escape from Egypt. They didn’t know where the idea of Yahweh came from but this new religion gave them freedom. The Symbiotic Theory speaks about the Exodus narrative and its paradigm of God’s deliverance and its repeated reiteration throughout the pages of the Hebrew Bible. The Eclectic Theory is probably the most relevant and blends the four theories in degrees (Kurinsky, nd).

The Book of Joshua continues where Deuteronomy ended. Examine Joshua’s reflection of the concepts listed below. Provide a brief description of each. Relate your discussion of each term to information from the Pentateuch.

Promise of the land

There would never be another leader quite like Moses. He had led the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt to the very borders of the Promised Land of Canaan. Joshua, who had been Moses’ right-hand man, was God’s choice to carry on where Moses left off. As Joshua faced the task God made him a special promise. These were strong words of encouragement and Joshua needed them. Canaan, the land promised by God to Abraham’s descendants, was not lying empty and waiting for the people of Israel. It was occupied by a collection of different tribes settled into city-states, built thick on the plains and along the route from Egypt to Syria and Mesopotamia. If the Israelites were to inhabit the land they must fight for their territory and displace people already there (Kurinsky, nd).

Circumcision

The covenant of circumcision operates on the principle of the spiritual union of the household in its head. The covenant was between God and His people, the Israelites. Abraham, Ishmael and all the men were circumcised with him. Those who thus became members of the covenant were expected to show it outwardly by obedience to God’s law. It is the costly demand which God takes of those whom He calls to Himself and marks with the sign of His covenant (Kurinsky, nd).

Passover

In Christian thought, as in Judaism, the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the dedication of the first-born have been traditionally regarded as closely connected events of the historic times. By selecting the Passover lambs (which could vary between twelve and twenty-four months) they had made their first response of faith to God. Passover was the annual festival that celebrated their deliverance by God from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12:2-3) Kurinsky, nd).

Manna

A substance which was the Israelites’ chief food during their forty years’ journey in the wilderness. When Israel grumbled at the lack of food in the wilderness of sin, God gave them bread from heaven. The manna was used by God to teach lessons for spiritual instruction as well as physical sustenance. Israel was told that with the failure of other food, His provision of manna was to make known that man need not live from bread alone, but by the Word of God. God used the provision of manna on six days and not the seventh to teach Israel obedience and convicted them of disobedience. Jesus Christ uses the manna, the God-given bread from heaven, as a type of Himself, the true bread of life (Kurinsky, nd).

From the Pentateuch

Modern scholars add to the five books of the Pentateuch the book of Joshua, because of the content and still more, the literary structure. The book of Joshua shows that it is intimately connected with the Pentateuch and describes the final stage in the history of the Hebrew nation. It has become customary to speak of the first six books of the Old Testament. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua as the Hexateuch, that is, the six-roll book. The justification for this arrangement may be seen, for example, from this very simple consideration that the divine promise that the descendants of Abraham should occupy Canaan, is shown in the book of Joshua. Some would argue the book of Joshua is the final book of a Hexateuch and that we should name it the Hexateuch rather than the Pentateuch. Joshua does record the taking of Canaan which fulfills the promise to Abraham. While Joshua is considered part of the narrative of the Pentateuch, the book was not considered to be part of that part of the instruction. Perhaps the Pentateuch was designed to end without promises having come true so that all people can learn to obey God in faith. God’s commission to Joshua was to lead the people. Joshua is shown to be similar to Moses and God used Joshua to make the promises come true. During their preparation for battle, three events occurred:

The men were circumcised, Israel celebrated the Passover and Joshua encountered the heavenly army of God (Hirsch, 2002).

CONCLUSION

Joshua really wanted to know God and showed an earnest desire to know the will of Christ and a cheerful readiness to do it. We must all fight under Christ’s banner and we will conquer by His presence and assistance.

Bibliography
GOTQUESTIONS.ORG. 2002. Book of Joshua. Viewed 13/03/2010. http://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Joshua.html.
BRATCHER D. 2008. History and Theology in Joshua and Judges. Viewed 13/03/2010. http://www.crivoice.org/conquest.html.
KURINSKY S. n.d. The Birth of the Israelite Nation Part I – Settlement in Canaan. Viewed 13/03/2010. http://www.hebrewhistory.info/factpapers/fp039-1_israel.htm.
HIRSCH E.G. 2002. Book of Joshua. Viewed 14/03/2010. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=545&letter=J&search=joshua.
ASSIGNMENT 3
INTRODUCTION

The Israelites began a series of cycles of sinning, worshipping idols, being punished, crying out for help, being rescued by a judge sent from God, obeying God for a while then falling back into idoltary.

Discuss the theological message and aim of the book of Judges, paying special attention to these two key passages:

Judges 2:11-23

Real Heroes are hard to find these days. Modern research and the media have made the weaknesses of our leaders very apparent. The music, movie and sports industries produce a stream of stars who shoot to the top and then quickly fade from view. Judges is a book about heroes, 12 men and women who delivered Israel from its oppressors. These judges were not perfect, in fact, they included an assassin, a sexually man and a person who broke all the laws of hospitality. In spite of all their shortcomings, they were submissive to God and God used them. Baal was the god of the storm and rains and therefore he was thought to control vegetation and agriculture. Ashtoreth was the mother goddess of love, war and fertility. Temple prostitution and child sacrifice were a part of the worship of these Canaanite idols. God was angry with Israel and he allowed them to be punished by their enemies. Anger, in itself, is not sin. God’s anger was the reaction of His holy nature to sin. One side of God’s nature is his anger against sin, the other side is his love and mercy towards sinners. God often saved His hardest criticism and punishment for those who worshipped idols. Why were idols so bad in God’s sight? To worship an idol violated the first two of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3-6). The Canaanites had gods for almost every season, activity or place. To them, the Lord was just another god to add to their collection of gods. Israel, by contrast, was to worship only the Lord. Despite Israel’s disobedience, God showed His great mercy by raising up judges to save the people from their oppressors. Mercy has been defined as not giving a person what he or she deserves. This is exactly what God did for Israel and what he does for us. Our disobedience demands judgement (Mangano, 2005).

Judges 21:25 (see also 17:6, 18:1, 19:1)

Throughout this period of history Israel went through seven cycles of:

Rebelling against God.
Being overrun by enemy nations.
Being delivered by a God-fearing judge.
Remaining loyal to God under that judge.
Forgetting God when the judge died.

In our lives we tend to follow the same cycle, remaining loyal to God as long as we are near those who are devoted to Him. When we are on our own, the pressure to be drawn away from God increases. Determine to be faithful to God despite the difficult situations you encounter. Why would the people of Israel turn away so quickly from their faith in God? Simply, the Canaanite religion appeared more attractive to the sensual nature and offered more short-range benefits. One of its most attractive features was that people could remain selfish and yet fulfill their religious requirements. They could do almost anything they wished and still be obeying at least one of the many Canaanite gods. Today, as in Micah’s day, everyone seems to put his or her own interests first. The people of Micah’s time replaced the true worship of God with a homemade version of worship. The Danites had been assigned enough land to meet their needs. However, because they failed to trust God to help them conquest their territory, the Amorites forced them into the mountains and wouldn’t let them settle in the plains. Rather than to fight for their territory, they preferred to look for new land in the north.

Having concubines was an accepted part of Israelite society, although this is not what God intended. A concubine had most of the duties but also some of the priviledges of a wife. Although she was legally attached to one man, she and her children usually did not have the inheritance rights of a legal wife and legitimate children (Mangano, 2005).

CONCLUSION

During the time of the judges, the people of Israel experienced trouble because everyone became his own authority and acted on his own opinions of right and wrong. Let us submit all our plans, goals and desires to God.

Bibliography
MANGANO M. 2005. Old Testament Introduction. College Press NIV Commentary, Joplin: College Press.
ASSIGNMENT 4
INTRODUCTION

The religious truths found in the book of Ruth relate more to practical life than to abstract theology. In this book there is a need to be loyal, loving and have kindness to see the value of persons and the need to understand one another. The book of Ruth tells us that no matter how bad things are, goodness can really exist if we are willing to make the effort.

Explain the following concepts from Ruth’s theological standpoint. Refer to other passages of Scripture as well.

Lovingkindness

“Lovingkindness”, a translation of the Hebrew word, is an expression which denotes in a deep and profound way a loyal relationship and a desire to do good for the other person, comes into view quite early in Ruth. It is the Hebrew word used in Ruth 1:8 to express the true, caring concern that Ruth and her sister-in-law Orpah had for their husbands. Naomi’s wish is that the Lord might show similar kindness to them, even if she herself, because of the situation in which she has found herself, is unable to be good toward them as they deserve. Ruth’s genuine and deep love for Naomi is also expressed in the oath that she makes to Naomi, sealing it by calling upon the Lord’s name. As the story continues, Boaz describes Ruth’s deeds as “goodness” and “lovingkindness”. The question of reward may be raised here and it is important to note that the Book of Ruth pictures Ruth as acting from a pure lovingkindness toward Naomi, for there was definitely no reward in sight (a very significant theme since the narrative time is within the time of the “judges”). However, in the progress of the Narrative, the author does make it clear that the kind deeds of human beings form the basis of their supplication to the Lord to bestow His blessings. The ultimate in “lovingkindness” is the lovingkindness of the Lord Himself. As the story builds toward its chiastic apex, we find that Ruth “happens” to glean in the fields of Boaz; and when receiving this news, Naomi, in her expression of praise to God, declares, “Blessed be he of the Lord, who has not left off His lovingkindness to the living and to the dead” Very closely related to the “lovingkindness” of the Lord is His manifest providence for the family of Elimelech, Naomi and Ruth is the concept of redemption (In the Beginning, nd).

Kinsman redeemer

The book of Ruth shows that the custom extended farther than the husband’s brother. Here an unnamed kinsman has the primary duty and only when he refuses does Boaz marry Ruth. Israel was originally tribal in nature and the idea was never entirely lost. Many of her family relationships are to be understood in terms of tribal customs known all over the world. Kinship consisted basically in the possession of a common blood and was strongest nearest to its origin in the father’s house, but it was not lost in the further reaches of family relationship. At the head of the family stood the father and the father founded a father’s house, which was the smallest unit of a tribe. The strong cohesion of the family extended upwards from the father to the sons and daughters. Hence the term family could mean a father’s house. Sometimes the whole of Israel was called a family. The word brother also connected various things. In its simplest meaning it referred to those who had common parents. In polygamous Israel there were many brothers who had only a common father. These too were brothers, though the brotherhood was not the same as that of men who had a common mother. Wherever there was a family, there were brothers, for all were bearers of kinship. There were limits to the closeness of relationship permitted when a man came to seek a wife. She had to be someone of the same flesh and blood. She could not be of such close relationship as a sister, mother or child’s daughter. The forbidden areas were there. There were significant obligations laid on kinsmen. Since a woman, married to a man, would normally have the priviledge of bearing his son and heir, in the case of the untimely death of the husband without a son, the law of levirate marriage came into force. Then in the matter of inheritance, a man’s property was normally passed on to his son or sons. Failing these, it went to his daughters and then in order to his brethren, to his father’s brethren and finally to his kinsman who was nearest to him (Pounds, 2008).

Foreigner

The story of Ruth and Naomi is the story of all generations. As a Jewish woman, Naomi enjoyed many blessings because she was familiar with the Law and with some prophecies. She had heard about salvation and about the dealings of God with her fathers. In time of suffering, she fled from Judea, as though fleeing from Christ (who came from the tribe of Judah) to live an easy life in Moab. This is similar to a soul that tests the grace of God but denies Him in time of trial and runs back to the world seeking satisfaction. Just as there is a Naomi in every generation, there is also a Ruth. Ruth grew up in Moab (the house of her pagan father), but has heard of the Living God. She went out by faith to Bethlehem to meet the Incarnate Word of God and to find in Him her rest and satisfaction. The Lord Jesus Christ came “for the fall and rising of many” (Luke 4:34). Naomi fell because she scorned the grace of God while Ruth, the Moabitess, rose by her living faith in Him. The genealogy of Christ mentions her name (Matt 1:5) which reveals to us that, although she was a gentile, her blood ran in the veins of the Saviour of the world. As for Ruth, she fled from Moab to Canaan worshiping the true God and granting all believers the beginning of the royal lineage. Ruth, the foreigner, took permission from her mother-in-law to go and gather the fallen heads of grain after the reapers. She was serious about that, not taking much rest. Ruth representing the Gentiles and she went out to gather the grain heads that the farmers had laboured on. As Ruth went to Boaz’s field, he had a conversation with her that entailed:

Calling the foreigner his daughter and enjoying son ship (adoption to God).
Asking her to stay close to his maidens, to stay with Christ and His saints.
To keep her eyes on the field like it was her own.
To drink from the vessels with the young men as to drink from the springs of the Holy Spirit through the Church (Saint-Mary, nd).
Compare the attitude towards foreigners in the book of Ruth to that of either Judges or Joshua.

After the death of Joshua there followed the period of disorganisation, tribal discord and defeat, which is described in the book of Judges. The people cried out to the Lord and He raised up Judges who saved them. It is clear that this imparts a new meaning into the word “judge”, namely that of a leader in battle and a ruler in peace. We may see in them a type of a Christ, who came to be our Saviour. For a few years the tribes of Judah and Simeon advanced devotedly south to the conquest of Bezek, Jerusalem and Hebron. The Joseph tribes likewise captured Bethel, but then came failure. Israel ceased to eradicate the Canaanites, no more cities were taken and the tribe of Dan actually suffered eviction from its teritory. Such tolerance of evil started the extended period of chastening that followed. The people of Israel suffered under constant temptation to adopt the fertility rites of their Canaanite neighbours. Yahweh had indeed helped them in the wilderness, but Baal seemed better able to make the crops grow. Even foreign oppression served as a medium of divine grace for Israel’s edification. The people were more corrupt than their father’s.

In stark contrast to Judges, the book of Ruth shows a family tree for the greatest of the kings of Hebrew history, David, because this was omitted from the books of Samuel. It was a political pamphlet,

Thesis statement main argument The astronomer Galileo Galilei contributed to the field of astronomy majorly by observing the sky with a telescope he had built, observations which resulted in his discovery of many astronomical phenomena further proving that the Earth was not the center of the solar system.

Statement of purpose (scope of the essay): Following a brief biography of Galileo Galilei, this paper will determine the state of the scientific knowledge prior to Galileo’s astronomical discoveries, explain what Galileo’s contribution to astronomy was, and discuss how his findings subsequently changed humanity’s conception of the universe.

Body

Topic sentence of paragraph 1: Besides being known as a very influential astronomer, Galileo Galilei was also known for being an Italian scientist and philosopher.

Birth date: February 15, 1564; Place of birth: Pisa, Italy. (“Galileo Biography,” 2013)

Death date: January 8, 1642; Place of death: Arcetri, Italy. When he died, he was blind and very ill, and was under house arrest for heresy. (“Galileo Biography,” 2013)

Galileo first started in a monastery school because he wanted to become a monk, but he eventually left the monastery and attended the University of Pisa to study medicine, like his father wished. However, he never completed his medicine degree and instead found an interest in mathematics and philosophy. (Bellis, 2013; “Galileo Galilei,” 2013)

Galileo taught for three years at the University of Pisa, but transferred to the University of Padua when his three-year contract at Pisa ended. (Bellis, 2013)

In 1609, Galileo heard rumours of a spyglass having been created by a Dutch spectacle-maker. Galilei decided to create his own spyglass, later renamed a telescope, and eventually made it more powerful than the Dutch spyglass. One night, he pointed his telescope towards the sky and his astronomical discoveries began then. (Bellis, 2013)

Topic sentence of paragraph 2: Prior to Galileo’s astronomical contribution, the Catholic Church and the Bible were the principal sources of explanation for most of the phenomena that occurred on Earth and in space.

In that time period, the geocentric model, suggested by Claudius Ptolemy at the beginning of the 2nd century A.D., argued that the Earth was in the center of the solar system and that the other planets and the Sun revolved around it. This model was widely accepted and encouraged by the Catholic Church. (Moche, 2009; Redd, 2013)

However, a more recent model had been brought forward by Nicholaus Copernicus, in 1543. This model was called the heliocentric model and declared that the Earth was not in the center of the solar system, but rather that this place was occupied by the Sun and that all the planets, including the Earth, rotated around the Sun. (Moche, 2009; Redd, 2013)

Galileo Galilei supported the Copernican theory (“Galileo Biography,” 2013), but this theory was considered against the teachings of the Church. As a result, Copernicus’ writings were banned by the Church. (Machamer, 2009; Moche, 2009)

Topic sentence for paragraph 3: Galileo Galilei made more than one contribution to the field of astronomy by observing the sky with his telescope, but his major discoveries were the first moons of Jupiter and the phases of Venus.

His two major discoveries provided proof that the heliocentric model, introduced by Copernicus, was truly the one that was representative of the solar system. (Moche, 2009; Weisstein, 2007)

The moons of Jupiter (*the names of those moons will be included in the final essay*) that Galileo observed rejected the geocentric model’s argument against the Copernican theory. This argument stated that if the Sun was the center of the solar system, Earth would lose its moon because it circulated around the Sun; Earth could only keep its moon if it was in the center. However, with the moons of Jupiter (later named the Galilean moons in honour of Galileo) rotating around Jupiter, the scientist community could only face the fact that a planet could keep moons, even though it was not in the center of the solar system. (Moche, 2009; “Galileo Biography,” 2013)

The phases of Venus further encouraged the heliocentric model. The phases of Venus indicated that Venus must circle the Sun for its phases to be visible from Earth, just like the phases of the moon were. In the geocentric model, Venus would show no phases and would always be a crescent shape because the Sun would not be in the center of its orbit. (Moche, 2009; “Galileo Biography,” 2013)

Topic sentence of paragraph 4: Although Galileo’s observations and discoveries were not first accepted by the religious community, evidence of Galileo’s findings started to circulate and the Church was eventually forced to admit that Galileo had been right. (“Galileo Biography,” 2013; Bellis, 2013)

Galileo had already published multiple books (*the names and dates will be included in the final essay*) prior to being charged of heresy by the Church and placed under house arrest. (“Galileo Biography,” 2013; Bellis, 2013)

While being under house arrest, Galileo continued to write and publish books (“Galileo Biography, 2013; Bellis, 2013), although he was becoming blind from having stared too much at the Sun with his telescope for another of his astronomical discoveries. (“Our solar system,” 2011)

In 1758, the Church was forced to face the truth and lifted the ban on most of the books that supported the Copernican theory and the heliocentric model. In 1835, it abandoned its opposition against this model completely. (“Galileo Biography, 2013)

In the 20th century, some popes acknowledged the revolutionary work done by Galileo. In 1992, Pope John Paul II publicly apologized and showed regret on how the case of Galileo had been delt with. (“Galileo Biography,” 2013; Bellis, 2013)

Conclusion

Restatement of thesis statement: Galileo Galilei significantly contributed to astronomy primarily by observing the sky with a telescope, which resulted in his discovery of many astronomical phenomena proving that the Earth was not the center of the solar system.

Summary of main points: Prior to Galileo’s findings, the Church believed in the geocentric model, introduced by Claudius Ptolemy. However, Galileo’s discovery of the moons of Jupiter and the phases of Venus instead supported the heliocentric model, suggested by Nicolaus Copernicus. Galileo’s contribution took a long time to be recognized, but it allowed for a better understanding of the way the solar system functions.

Other discoveries based on the astronomer’s contribution: Galileo’s use of a telescope to observe the sky also allowed him to observe the Sun’s dark patches known as sunspots, part of the star cloud of the Milky Way, the rings of Saturn that he identified as “ears,” and the Moon’s crater-covered surface. (Moche, 2009) There is also recent evidence that Galileo may have discovered Neptune nearly two centuries before it was official found by satellites and modern telescopes. (Redd, 2013)

APA References

Bellis, M. (2013). Galileo Galilei. About.com Inventors. Retrieved April 13, 2013, from http://inventors.about.com/od/gstartinventors/a/Galileo_Galilei.htm

Famous Astronomers and Astrophysicists (2012). Retrieved April 13, 2013, from http://cnr2.kent.edu/~manley/astronomers.html

“Galileo Biography.” (2013). Biography.com. Retrieved April 13, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/galileo-9305220

“Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).” (2013). BBC History. Retrieved April 13, 2013, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/galilei_galileo.shtml

Machamer, P. (2009). Galileo Galilei. Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. Retrieved April 13, 2013, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/galileo/

Moche, D. L. (2009). Astronomy: A self-teaching guide (7th edition). [ebrary version]. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/champlaincollege/docDetail.action?docID=10342867

“Our solar system: Galileo’s observations of the Moon, Jupiter, Venus and the Sun.” (2011, February 10). Solar System Exploration – NASA. Retrieved April 13, 2013, from http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/scitech/display.cfm?ST_ID=2259

Redd, N. T. (2013). Galileo Galilei: Biography, inventions & other facts. Space.com. Retrieved April 13, 2013, from http://www.space.com/15589-galileo-galilei.html

Weisstein, E. W. (2007). Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Scienceworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved April 13, 2013, from http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Galileo.html

*** Most of these sources are preliminary sources (i.e.: websites). For the final essay, I will find books or other academic sources to replace them, particularly for Galileo’s biography.***