Activity For CONWOR

Activity for CONWOR
Research about the history of the following religion (Buddhism,

Christianity- Catholicism, Christianity-Protestantism , Hinduism, Judaism,
Islam)
Put your answer in a Short sized bond paper. Submit it on Monday Oct.
14,2019.
Questions:
a. What is the Concept of good according to the religions mentioned

b. What is the concept of evil according to the religions mentioned.
c. What are the steps needed by a person to become good and prevent
himself/herself from becoming evil.
d. What are the symbols of each religion.
Buddhism History
When Gautama passed away around 483 B.C., his followers began to
organize a religious movement. Buddha’s teachings became the
foundation for what would develop into Buddhism.
In the 3rd century B.C., Ashoka the Great, the Mauryan Indian emperor,
made Buddhism the state religion of India. Buddhist monasteries were
built, and missionary work was encouraged.
Over the next few centuries, Buddhism began to spread beyond India. The
thoughts and philosophies of Buddhists became diverse, with some
followers interpreting ideas differently than others.
In the sixth century, the Huns invaded India and destroyed hundreds of
Buddhist monasteries, but the intruders were eventually driven out of the
country.
Islam began to spread quickly in the region during the Middle Ages,
forcing Buddhism into the background.
Buddhism encourages us to be wary of antithetical concepts, not only

good and evil, but success and failure, rich and poor, even the duality
between enlightenment and delusion. We distinguish between the
opposing terms because we want one rather than the other, yet the
meaning of each depends upon the other. That may sound abstract, but
such dualities are actually quite troublesome for us. If, for example, it is
important to live a pure life (however I understand purity), then I need to
be preoccupied with avoiding impurity. If wealth is important for me, then
I am also worried about avoiding poverty. We cannot take one lens
without the other, and such pairs of spectacles filter our experience of the
world.
What does this mean for the duality of good versus evil? One way the
interdependence of good and evil shows itself is this: we don’t feel we are
good unless we are fighting against evil. We can feel comfortable and
secure in our own goodness only by attacking and destroying the evil
outside us. And, sad to say but true, this is why we like wars: they cut
through the petty problems of daily life and unite us good guys here
against the bad guys over there. There is fear in that, of course, but it is
also exhilarating. The meaning of life becomes clearer.
We all love the struggle between good (us) and evil (them). It is, in its own
way, deeply satisfying. Think of the plots of the James Bond films, the Star
Wars films, the Indiana Jones films. In such movies, it’s quite obvious who
the bad guys are. Caricatures of evil, they are ruthless, maniacal, without
remorse, and so they must be stopped by any means necessary. We are
meant to feel that it is okay—even, to tell the truth, pleasurable—to see
violence inflicted upon them. Because the villains like to hurt people, it’s
okay to hurt them. Because they like to kill people, it’s okay to kill them.
After all, they are evil and evil must be destroyed.
Catholicism
The history of the Catholic Church begins with the teachings of Jesus Christ, who lived in the 1st century
CE in the province of Judea of the Roman Empire. The contemporary Catholic Church says that it is the
continuation of the early Christian community established by Jesus.
Christianity spread throughout the early Roman Empire despite persecutions due to conflicts with the
pagan state religion. In 313, the struggles of the early church were lessened by the legalization of
Christianity by the Emperor Constantine I. In 380, under Emperor Theodosius I, Christianity became the
state religion of the Roman Empire by the decree of the emperor, which would persist until the fall of
the Western Empire, and later with the Eastern Roman Empire until the fall of Constantinople.
After the destruction of the Western Roman Empire, the church in the West was a major factor in
preserving classical civilization, establishing monasteries, and sending missionaries to convert the
peoples of northern Europe as far north as Ireland. In the East, the Byzantine Empire preserved
Orthodoxy well after the massive invasions of Islam in the mid-7th century.
Protestant
Protestantism originated from the Protestation at Speyer in 1529, where

the nobility protested against enforcement of the Edict of Worms which
subjected advocates of Lutheranism to forfeiture of all of their property.
[1] However, the theological underpinnings go back much further, as
Protestant theologians of the time cited both Church Fathers and the
Apostles to justify their choices and formulations. The earliest origin of
Protestantism is controversial; with some Protestants today claiming
origin back to groups in the early church deemed heretical such as the
Montanists.
Since the 16th century, major factors affecting Protestantism have been
the Catholic Counter-Reformation which opposed it successfully especially
in France, Spain and Italy. Then came an era of confessionalization
followed by Rationalism, Pietism, and the Great Awakenings.
Good and Evil – Protestant vs. Catholic Definitions
With respect to good and evil, Catholics define “good” as God, or nearly
so. All good things have their source in God, because His essence is
perfect goodness, the very definition of good comes from Him. Goodness
then, in created things, is seen as an adherence to God’s good purpose for
them. All created things have good in them, because as created by and
sourced from God Himself, from which no evil can be found, we find a good
purpose for all things. Evil is then a “privation of perfect goodness”. Evil
is only found in creatures as a departure from God’s good purpose and
rejection of His Will, existing as a result of corruption of free will, not
sourced from God nor an alternative demi-god, nor does it have any
substance itself. Much like darkness is a lack of light, evil is a lack of
goodness.
Although Saint Thomas Aquinas defined and explained these concepts in

detail, he can hardly be said to have merely invented them
philosophically. Anyone who reads his works will find them absolutely
saturated with references mainly of Bible verses, but also of the Early
Church Fathers. Drawing from his photographic memory, he doesn’t just
juxtapose sound bites and create a meandering and flawed proof from
them. He instead clarifies non-negotiable main concepts (such as “God is
good”), using that to better understand more obscure passages, and
brings it all together in a coherent philosophical system. This system is
not of his own invention, nor does it depart from Biblical or Church
teaching, but uses reason to better understand the necessary
consequences of truths of the Faith. Because of this use of reason, Luther
banned Aquinas, saying he imposed human understanding on divine
revelation. This rejection of the philosophy that underlies Catholicism is
where the faiths begin their divergence and is what must be overcome in
most cases for Protestants and Catholics to understand each other.
When asked what evil is, Protestants may answer similarly to Catholics,
that it is going against God’s will. However, here is a critical point,
Protestants believe that evil has substance. When pressed as to where
evil comes from, however, you may not get a coherent answer.
Protestants who believe that Divine Providence acts directly in everything
(not merely permissively) might say that God uses evil to achieve a good
end, but that He is not the source of evil in order to adhere to the Biblical
concept that God is perfectly good. Consequently, if God is not the source
of evil, yet evil has substance, then it must come from an alternative
source. Considering a created thing from a source other than God, out of
necessity we have introduced another creator. This cannot be true, since
Christians do not believe in multiple gods. If however, evil has its origins
in our one true God, then He would be lacking in perfect goodness, a thing
we already know He cannot do. The only rational conclusion is that evil is
a lack of goodness, without substance. But those who reject rationalism
may just accept this quandary of the nature of evil as a mystery of the
faith, albeit one that has not been divinely revealed, but conjured up as a
rejection of Catholic reasoning.
As a result of believing that evil has substance, many Protestants believe

that some things are inherently evil and others inherently good, as
opposed to the Catholic belief that everything is inherently good, but may
become evil if abused or misused. This misconception as to the nature of
things invariably leads to wrong attitudes and actions regarding them. For
example, although the Bible clearly encourages a time for feasting
throughout and holds as holy the union between a man and a woman,
puritanical sects believe that our flesh is strictly sinful by nature and so
they destroy the good pleasures that God has given us. Often Catholics
are criticized for this Biblical delight in material pleasures, as if it is less
holy to take joy in God’s creation than to make yourself miserable with
self-righteousness. Ironically, monks and nuns are also criticized for their
acetic life set apart for worship and work offered to the Lord, but that’s a
different story. In her novel, Villette, Charlotte Bronte writes in criticism of
Catholic enjoyment of life:
“Each mind was being reared in slavery; but, to prevent reflection from
dwelling on this fact, every pretext for physical recreation was seized and
made the most of. There, as elsewhere, the CHURCH strove to bring up her
children robust in body, feeble in soul, fat, ruddy, hale, joyous, ignorant,
unthinking, unquestioning. ‘Eat, drink and live!’ she says. ‘Look after your
bodies; leave your souls to me. I hold their cure – guide their course: I
guarantee their final fate.’ A bargain, in which every true Catholic deems
himself a gainer. Lucifer just offers the same terms; ‘All this power will I
give thee, and the glory of it; for that is delivered unto me, and to
whomsoever I will, I give it. If thou, therefore, wilt worship me, all shall be
thine!'”
Charlotte Bronte’s character, Lucy Snowe, bases this criticism on a

common false conception of what it means to be holy as well as an
assumed disconnect between the physical and spiritual world, believing
that the only thing of value is spiritual good, all pivoting on the definition
that evil is a thing in itself and things in this world are either good or evil.
You can see then, how different definitions leads to different
understanding, different understanding to different actions, and different
actions to deep divides. Even if we disagree in these essentials, it is
imperitive to be aware of them, to define the real difference between
Catholics and Protestants, in order to understand what these faiths are
really about and therefore what we are really about

Activity For CONWOR

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Activity For CONWOR

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Activity for CONWOR

Research about the history of the following religion (Buddhism,

a. What is the Concept of good according to the religions mentioned

Buddhism encourages us to be wary of antithetical concepts, not only

Protestantism originated from the Protestation at Speyer in 1529, where

Good and Evil – Protestant vs. Catholic Definitions

Although Saint Thomas Aquinas defined and explained these concepts in

As a result of believing that evil has substance, many Protestants believe

Charlotte Bronte’s character, Lucy Snowe, bases this criticism on a

You might also like