Category: Christian Worldview

Hidden Worldviews: Eight Cultural Stories That Shape Our Lives is a book by Steve Wilkens and Mark Sanford that is written to help Christians understand eight competing narratives within American culture that have significant influence and power both outside and within the contemporary church. The hope is that this book will help Christians understand these views and more fully integrate every aspect of life in line with a Christian worldview. Wilkens and Sanford show that worldviews in practice do not originate from a set of propositions but rather emerge like a story. A Worldview serves as an underlying story about reality (what the world is like) that gives us identity and provides a framework for our convictions which serve as the basis for our ethics (“shoulds”) and values (priorities). All worldviews offer definitions of the fundamental human problem and how we might fix it. When you boil it down, every worldview attempts to answer the question “What must we do to be saved?” Perspectives and habits from our culture creep into our lives and corrupt our worldview without our awareness. These worldviews are popular philosophies that have few intellectual proponents but vast numbers of participants: individualism, consumerism, nationalism, moral relativism, naturalism, the New Age, postmodern tribalism and salvation by therapy. The book examine the everyday expression of these worldviews, what we can learn from them, and their shortcomings.

Individualism- I Am the Center of the Universe

Individualism is the belief that the individual is the primary reality and that each person’s unique interests and goals should be pursued by whatever means are deemed proper. We are to strive for autonomy and self-sufficiency and rely on others only as they contribute to our personal pursuits. All other people, groups, or organizations are secondary considerations. When I am the primary reality and center of the universe, I see others as a tool for maintaining my status or a competitor for my place. Individualism absolutizes the individual and cannot adequately address our social nature. When I buy into individualism I serve as my own moral conscience and think that it is immoral for others to impose their standards on me. Individualism has a flawed view of human nature and of freedom and achievement. One of the first questions we need to ask about any worldview is, Who gets to be God? Individualism, by placing the individual at the center of the universe, attempts to put us in the God-position.

Consumerism- I Am What I Own

At the most basic level, we have to consume things to live. Scripture is clear that we are consumers and that we are to enjoy it. But the danger is degenerating into consumerism, starting with something good and making it an absolute good. Consumerism absolutizes consumption by believing that we can find fulfillment by accumulating wealth and everything that comes with it. It tells us that all our needs can be satisfied by what we consume. This is one way that advertising sells. Advertisers prey on our fears and insecurities. For example, a car is not simply a car. It means freedom, status, power, or security for us. In the process people are reduced to objects to satisfy our fulfillment. This philosophy makes it difficult to value people. Relationships become transactional, trade-offs to fulfill our needs. Consumerism reduces everything to categories that can be resolved with wealth. One of the main problems with consumerism is that we are not the ultimate source or owner of the things that we have. God is ultimate and our role is to wisely steward the resources that God has given us for his glory. It is probably not an overstatement to say that consumerism is the most potent competitor to a Christian worldview in our culture.

Nationalism – My Nation, Under God

Nationalism is the imbalanced and distorted form of something that is good-patriotism. The seeds of nationalism are found when there is belief that one’s own nation is uniquely favored by God and an integral part of God’s plan. In the U.S., nationalism is often found in conservative Christian circles. When you combine the superpower status of the United States with the rather widespread belief that the United States is (or in some cases, as) a Christian nation, nationalism becomes a seductive worldview for Christians. Patriotism is not a bad thing but when someone loses their perspective and offers their highest loyalty to a specific state, it becomes dangerous and destructive. Nations are not eternal entities but are created things. They come into and go out of existence. Nationalism is tempting when nations have sufficient strength or goodness to inspire deep-seated loyalties. The danger is that nationalism overreaches in its demand for loyalty and views “the other” as a challenger. It ignores the transnational nature of Christianity. The concept of a Christian nation obscures the fact that the Christian’s primary solidarity is not with those who pledge allegiance to a particular flag, but those who confess Jesus as the Lord, regardless of their nationality.

Moral Relativism – The Absolute Truth About Relativism and Something Like Relativism

The idea of moral relativism is rooted in the postmodern idea that we cannot be free from our biases about observable reality. The Enlightenment suggested that we can only know what we observe. Postmodernism questions whether we can be free from our biases about observable reality. Truth claims are now considered presumptuous and dangerous and those who claim to know truth are oppressors and must be resisted. The authors believe that there is a difference between genuine moral relativists who don’t believe in absolute moral truths and “moral relativists” who don’t actually believe that everything is relative. People are rarely total subjectivists. Most assume that what they observe is true. Some are not really moral relativists but anti-legalists, reacting to legalists who insist on rules but seem unconcerned about people, therefore appearing arrogant and intolerant. There are a number of philosophical and moral problems with moral relativism. No one can live by it. You can’t argue that moral relativism is true if nothing can be known to be true. Morality that begins with me must logically and necessarily end with me. Justice is undermined because the issue of fairness is a matter of opinion. Relativism’s universal demand for tolerance and freedom has nothing to support it. The very goodness of the ideas that make moral relativism attractive to many—peace, humility, freedom and tolerance—creates a problem for moral relativism. They function as universal moral goods, the very thing that moral relativism denies. Moral relativism wants to absolutize our freedom and volition, but it ignores ethical limits on their legitimate expression.

Scientific Naturalism – Only Matter Matters

In naturalism, all that exists is physical and nothing exists except the material. The fundamental components of reality are atoms, elements, or energy. The universe is a closed and deterministic system. The laws of nature are not created entities or purposeful but they are unchanging and without exception. There is no room for God, miracles or souls. Reliance on God stands in the way of real solutions. Naturalists argues that if we apply reason to what is real (matter) and true (the laws of cause and effect), we can solve all real problems. As a result, science is a form of salvation. Some of the problems with scientific naturalism include the diminished status of human beings, the undercutting of the reality of people as moral beings, the trustworthiness of rationality and, from an existential perspective, it inadequately defines human progress or purpose. Science provides tools for explaining what we can do, but by itself does not offer much direction about what we should do. Naturalism finds the intellectual realm incompatible with the divine and sacrifices the spiritual component of our lives. Scientific naturalism attributes unique powers and possibilities to humans but cannot explain why. It sets forth moral goals but provides no explanation for moral characteristics. It assumes we have moral responsibility while claiming that cause and effect explains everything.

The New Age – Are We Gods or Are We God’s?

The aim of the New Age movement is to help people actualize their dormant potential and recognize their inner divinity. The main constraint and problem for people is ignorance of untapped power and energy residing inside them. In place of the dualism that sets God as distinct from nature, New Age offers the monistic view that everything is divine or at least that everything is infused with the divine. It is an eclectic perspective where intuition is given prominence while logic is demoted. Many Christians appropriate New Age-type ideas and form beliefs or base actions on private experiences or interpretations, ignoring Scripture, reason, or tradition. The New Age perspective replaces the one-sidedness of materialism with a one-sided spiritualism. It promotes self-salvation from ignorance of our dualistic illusions.

Postmodern Tribalism – My Tribe/My Worldview

Postmodern tribalism is rooted in an incredulity toward metanarratives that affirm a universal story, absolute truth, and ideas of unbiased neutrality. Postermodernism elevates particularity and believes that we can’t find our identity or meaning through abstract concepts like human nature. Tribe members share a powerful sense of identity defined by common language, meaning, experiences, ideas and a feeling that the group is necessary for survival. One important dimension of intercultural interaction within postmodern tribalism is that not every tribe has equal power. There are strong feelings of being an underdog. There are expressions of pain, fear, insecurity, exclusion and maybe hostility. We have moved from “melting pot” to “multiculturalism” to “postmodern tribalism.” People are retaining their cultural identities rather than submerging them into a larger culture. Proponents are hostile to a Christianity whose claims to universal truth have been used by a dominant culture to erase particularity and conquer enemies. One’s concept of reality, morality, salvation, origin, and purpose ultimately depends on one’s tribal traditions, not a transcendent God. Postmodern tribalism undermines individual moral responsibility by making people the products of their culture. One danger is that when tribalism absolutizes culture’s determinative power over an individual, this puts culture in the place of God.

Salvation by Therapy – Not as Good as It Gets

Millions of people today view therapy as a means, and some view it as the means, to a good life. The therapist has replaced the pastor or priest for relational and behavioral assistance. The breadth of psychology explains why many view it as a competitor to religion, and even an alternative religion. Many mental health professionals work from assumptions about human nature and freedom, our purpose, and a definition of the essential problem that err in their assumptions about human nature. Many psychological approaches assume a high level of determinism. One of the fundamental problems with salvation by therapy is that it starts from inadequate and reductionistic concepts of human purpose and reduces the human problem to a psychological problem.

What strikes me as noteworthy and unique about this book is that it aims to provoke Christians to adopt a Christian worldview. In most other worldview books, there are attempts at demonstrating the inadequacies of other systems of thought and to convince readers that Christianity offers something better. However, this book takes seriously the influence of non-Christian thought structures in our culture that influence what Christians value and how they think and act. Christians often confess a fundamental belief in the lordship of Christ and a commitment to the teachings of Scripture but fail to see the various ways in which the life-shaping perspectives in North American culture have formed the way we really believe that life works. It is not theories that mold the lives and beliefs of most people. Instead, the most powerful influences emerge from culture but are often below the surface. Wilkens and Sanford call them “lived worldviews” because we are more likely to absorb them through cultural contact than adopt them through a rational evaluation of competing theories. We don’t primarily think our way in worldviews, we experience them. Our worldviews come to us more like a story or faith commitment than a system of ideas that we select among a buffet of intellectual options.

These stories are widespread within American culture and don’t come at us as a competing worldview but fragmented ideas from multiple directions. Most real lives are a composite of these forces. Christians are not exempt from this and if we do not examine both our confession and lifestyle, we will often find our lives adulterated by elements from various worldviews that dilute and corrupt our Christian life. What is so dangerous about these hidden worldviews is that they can cause us to interpret our experiences and the purpose of life very differently from a Christian worldview.

This book aims to bring about the rearrangement of our identity, convictions, ethics, and actions into greater alignment with reality as understand from a Christian worldview. Worldviews are ultimately about full-orbed, multidimensional, real human lives, and how we can get the most from them. The goal in assessing and evaluating our values is not to preform an intellectual exercise but a recognition that what we believe and how we live will transform us and the world in which we live. The goal of a fully enacted Christian worldview is transformation. God is worthy of his people thinking and living their lives in greater conformity to the truth and to his purposes. Wilkens and Sanford want to bring about transformation of the mind and of our whole lives.

It is noteworthy that many of the competing views fall short because they fail to adequately understand the problem within human nature or have only a one-sided view of the solution. It is often the case that other views do not have a big enough view of the problem or a big enough view of salvation. Many times Christians can offer qualified agreement to certain values within iterative views but in God’s story, they are a symptom of a larger problem. Reductionism in competing worldview represents a misdiagnosis of the fundamental problem of human existence. Christianity offers a robust understanding both of the problem within the world and in human nature and of the solution to these problems in the person and work of Christ.

Wilkens and Sanford have helped me understand that a worldview’s power over us is magnified when we are not conscious of its influences. Without careful, conscious reflection, our Christian story can easily be hijacked by alien stories that take our lives in directions we don’t want to go. These alternative stories affect our commitment to Christ. Because what we are not conscious of can hurt us, it is important to take an inventory of our true convictions. I often find myself relaxing when watching shows and going out to shop but this book shows how critical it is to be on guard against the alternative narratives that are being preached through these mediums. I am not consciously evaluating the statements in light of the values and principles of the kingdom. I have not taken seriously the ways in which I am tempted to accept and then ultimately embrace the attitudes and values within American culture.

How might I put this into practice in my ministry context

I oversee the ministries in our church from nursery through high school. There are so many helpful insights that will be useful in my ministry context. I see this book as an excellent resource in communicating the ways in which alternative stories find their way into our lives. Our students have imbibed so much of what American culture preaches through music, films, and social media that it is sometimes difficult to combat. However, this book has helped me to see that some of the difficulty is rooted in its “hiddenness.” When these competing ideas are openly explored it is much easier to expose and respond to them. This book examines these competing voices by articulating them and helping the reader to discern both the strengths and the weaknesses of these alternative narratives. I plan on talking through these ideas with my leaders and preaching a series on these hidden worldviews to our students. It is critical that we address these alternative stories that are embraced and advocated for in our culture and are so often operating at the subconscious level. The very dangerous thing about many of these narratives is how they are syncretized in the modern church and embraced as if they are part of a Christian worldview.

One of the big concerns for families and for pastors is the significant number of students who grow up in church and leave the faith soon after high school or college. Wilkins and Sanford cite Steve Garber’s book The Fabric of Faithfulness and points out his insightful findings about those who stand firm in the faith during their young adult years. Without exception, those who successfully integrate faith with life followed three practices. First, they developed a relationship with a mentor who practiced an active Christian life. Second, they met regularly with peers who were deeply committed to living out their Christianity. Finally, they had developed a Christian worldview sufficient to meet the challenges of the competing worldviews they encountered after leaving college. When our minds do not undergo continuing transformation through reflection, our stories inevitably deviate from God’s plotline. Our relationships frame the context of our stories, and it is within the accountability of such relationships that we align our stories to God’s story. It is critical that we see other believers living out the Christian story and that we consciously embrace the values and principles of the kingdom and reject those ideas that are antithetical to the gospel.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, religion dominates society as the main element of life and work but nature can be seen attacking religion in many ways. Religion in the novel is a prominent factor in the feelings of society towards Hester. Nature, on the other hand, sympathizes with the main character and such, giving hope and God’s light. These two factors go up against each other as religion attacks and nature heals throughout The Scarlet Letter.

Nature in the novel can be seen as a passive element as it sympathizes with the main characters. At the beginning of the novel, nature is presented as a rose bush next to the prison. This symbolizes hope towards the prisoners as it is the only life that is living on the plot of the prison and it is the only thing they see before entering and after leaving prison. Later in the story, as Hester and Pearl visit the Governor’s mansion, Pearl is seen violently screaming at roses outside the mansion. “Pearl seeing the rose bushes, began to cry for a red rose, and would not be pacified” (Hawthorne 98). This depicts her want for a rose, her want for hope. Nature further interrupts the story in the secluded meeting between Hester and Dimmesdale. During this meeting, Hester has the courage to pull off the scarlet letter A and throw it on the ground. Nature pities Hester for her experiences with the scarlet letter in society with “a flood of sunlight” (Hawthorne 179). Another use of nature in the novel is with the alchemist, Roger Chillingworth, with his herbal medicine, that he learned from the Native Americans when he was captured on arrival. Overall, nature assists any characters in the novel and mainly grants them hope and freedom from the struggles of society and religion.

Religion in society is a very important factor as it affects relationships, status and etc. The Scarlet Letter prominently centers around religion as the main character, Hester, is affected by such. She is caught being an adulterer and is subjected to societal punishment with the lifelong sentence of wearing a scarlet letter “A”. Hester is at the head of the community conversation and sees herself used as a “living sermon against sin” (Hawthorne 59). Further, religion alters the views of Hester on Pearl, as at some point, she thought she was a demon-child, mainly because of “some of her odd attributes” (Hawthorne 90). Due to her hardships within society, Hester chose to live on the outskirts of Boston, making a living by making various items using her embroidery skills. She is well renowned for this except for wedding dresses as no one in the town wants to buy a dress from her for a religious event. Basically, religion and Puritan values base daily life in 19th century Boston, with strict consequences if any of the values are broken, as did Hester.

In the novel, religion and nature combat each other in many ways, changing the interactions of characters, the feelings of society, and other ideas. In the prison, situated in Boston, “a wild rose-bush…fragrance and fragile beauty,” is seen to greet prisoners with the feeling of hope (Hawthorne 46). This is ironic as prison represents, “the black flower of civilized society,” which is basically society’s moral and religious views, combating nature’s rose bush, which gives a sense of hope to the prisoners as they enter and leave (Hawthorne 46). Hart has similar views, stating, “Hawthorne contrasts the beauty of nature with the community prison to identify Puritan societal corruption.” Furthermore, along with the black rose representing the values of society, the Black Man, is shown to represent the views of nature among Bostonians. Depicted as a form of evil, he is usually referred to in conjunction with the forest. This places society’s views of the forest to be mostly negative, as that area is uncontrolled and without Puritan values. Another event in which nature sympathizes with going against religion is when Hester and Pearl meet up with Dimmesdale in the forest. With the action of Hester throwing the scarlet letter on the forest floor, nature thus reacts by filling the forest with sunlight, forgiving Hester of her sin. Furthermore, Paula Mas Ferrer states, “She escapes from the discomfort of society through nature. Pearl is an elf child and [her] natural habitat is the forest. She is neither good nor evil,” depicting that nature can easily thwart societal values (3). The split between religion and societal values and nature can be simply stated as, a “gloomy and energetic religious sect, pioneers in a virgin land, with the wolf and the Indian at their doors” (J. Hawthorne).

Boston, during the time of writing, was very much under the influence of prominent Puritan leaders and Puritan values. This led to a strict justice system and a strict social network among Bostonians. In The Scarlet Letter, the strict punishments and social outcasting can be seen clearly with Hester and Pearl. In contrast, nature forgiving and pitying the protagonists can also be seen. With two opposing influences, Hester has a hard time in Boston, especially with her child Pearl.

Fyodor Dostoevsky is considered not only one of the most influential writers in Russian history but one of the most respected authors in all of contemporary literature. His most successful novel, Crime and Punishment, is heralded as a masterpiece and its literary influence is still felt to this day. Dostoevsky himself became very religious following his release from jail, and his influence from this can be seen in the many references, religious symbols and themes throughout Crime and Punishment. In this essay, I will be analyzing and presenting the allegories, motifs, and symbols presented in Crime and Punishment that are pertinent to Christianity and religious philosophy. ‘I ought to be crucified, crucified on a cross not pitied! Crucify me, oh judge…’ (Part 1. Ch.2)

The most significant theme in Crime and Punishment is that of redemption and “resurrection”, references and images are used such as New Jerusalem, Christ’s death on the cross, and the raising of Lazarus. Raskolnikov’s arc as a character easily resembles that of the story of Lazarus, a biblical story that itself is referenced within the novel. According to the Christian Gospels, Lazarus was a man that had been dead and buried for several days, and his sisters Martha and Mary seek Jesus for help, and Jesus raised him from the dead. This story is one that greatly parallels Raskolnikov’s “death and “resurrection” as a character. Burdened with intense fits of delirium, paranoia, and despair, and after being fiercely pursued by Porfiry Petrovich, Rodya goes to see Sonya, and she reads him the story “Where is the raising of Lazarus? Find it for me, Sonia.”(Part 4, Ch.4)

This pushes Raskolnikov to make the decision to face his crimes and confess, but before he goes, Sonya gives him a cross made from cypress wood, which is believed to be the same wood that was used in Christ’s crucifixion. While the cross typically symbolizes Jesus’ self-sacrifice for the sins of humanity, in Raskolnikov’s case it represents his transformation as a character. However, the cross does not symbolize that he has achieved redemption or that he has undergone some sort of religious epiphany, but that he has begun on the path toward atoning for the sins that he has committed as a man and as a citizen. Raskolnikov doesn’t see his confession as atoning for the murder of the woman, but rather as humbling himself before society, and that his “superman” ideology was foolish and hypocritical. His murder of the pawnbroker is, in part, a consequence of his belief that he is above the law and an attempt to establish the truth of his superiority, but his inability to quell his feelings of guilt proves to him that he is not a “superman.”

Porfiry even asks Raskolnikov what happens to the conscience of a man who commits a crime because he mistakenly thinks he is extraordinary, and Raskolnikov replies, rather ironically, that such a person, if he has a conscience, will suffer for it. “‘If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be his punishment—as well as the prison.’ ‘But the real geniuses,’ asked Razumikhin frowning, ‘those who have the right to murder? Oughtn’t they to suffer at all even for the blood they’ve shed?’ ‘Why the word ought? It’s not a matter of permission or prohibition. He will suffer if he is sorry for his victim. Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth,’ he added dreamily, not in the tone of the conversation.” (Part 3, Chapter 5). The fact that Sonya is the one who gives him the cross also has special significance, she is a very devout Christian, despite the fact that she is a prostitute. Her love and concern for him, like that of Jesus, is ultimately what saves and renew him.’

She made the sign of the cross over herself and over him, and put the wooden cross on his neck.’ (Part 6. Ch.8). Raskolnikov ultimately was not stable enough to bear the weight of the crime he committed and it shows through his hectic and paranoid thoughts, causing his superhuman view of himself to be diminished, symbolizing his “death” and from confessing and serving his sentence, he hopes to begin anew, or his “resurrection” as it were. An interesting anecdote to this is the subtle ways the number three is present throughout the novel, possibly representing the Holy Trinity; God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. During the murder scene, Raskolnikov hits Alyona on the head 3 times with the axe. Afterward, “he took out the axe, washed the blade and spent a long time, about three minutes, washing the wood where there were spots of blood, rubbing them with soap.”(Part 1, Chapter 7)

He also runs down 3 flights of stairs to escape from the crime scene, possibly alluding the fact that Raskolnikov cannot escape God, or that he is unable to come clean on his own accord and needs some form of saving grace to obtain redemption, which we somewhat get through Sonya. The mainly Russian Orthodox city of St. Petersburg also serves as an important symbol to the story, not only as the setting, but it also has historical and geographical significance. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Russia began reconnecting with Europe after a long period of isolation, and Russia and St. Petersburg in particular became heavily influenced by Western European culture, especially Protestantism, and a sharp divide formed between its noble classes and working peasant class. St. Petersburg in Crime and Punishment is dirty, crowded, and depressing. Drunks are passed out on the street in the middle of the afternoon, women beat their children and beg for money, and everyone is crowded into cramped, noisy apartments.

The clutter and chaos of St. Petersburg is symbolic in two aspects. It represents the state of Russian politics and society during the nineteenth century, but it also serves to represent Raskolnikov’s delirious and collapsing mental state as he spirals toward insanity. His mental state and the conditions of his environment are intertwined. From the very beginning, the city is described as having an “odor”. It is crowded and disorderly, and all of it is contributing to establishing Raskolnikov’s character. This kind of environment suits his tendency towards Nihilism towards the beginning of the story, and makes it interesting to see how he plays of most of the other characters, several of whom we know are experiencing the same feelings as him but from different backgrounds such as Svidrigailov or Katerina Ivanovna. Ironically it is only when Raskolnikov is sent to prison in the cold and desolate Siberia that he is able to regain his composure and see through the nihilistic attitudes and ideas he had developed. Lastly, water in Crime and Punishment comes to represent life and renewal and has different meanings for different characters.

In Christianity, water is used as a symbol for baptism, or “washing away” of one’s sins and transgressions. For some characters, it represents a new beginning and personal growth. In Raskolnikov’s case, as a character he is somewhere on the edge of good and evil, whichever state of Raskolnikov’s mental health is leaning towards, positive or negative, is indicative of the type of experience he will have with water. For instance, after the murders, the police call Raskolnikov into the station, and after a brief interview with Porfiry Petrovitch, he asks for a glass of water, and after drinking it, he faints, indicating that the power of the truth is too powerful for him to accept the weight of the murder on his conscious. When he wakes up, someone has brought him a glass of yellow water. The glass, being just as literally clouded and impure as his conscious is metaphorically impure, and the closer he moves to water, the closer he comes to redemption.

Raskolnikov even tries to “wash away” the blood on the ax after committing the murders. Another example of water being used to symbolize character development is Svidrigailov. He has a fear of water, to the point where he says he can’t stand water in paintings. This fear of water is symbolic of his inability to seek salvation, and it certainly is no coincidence that when Svidrigailov eventually kills himself, he does so by going into the pouring rain and in the darkness of an alley. He tells Sonya, the only options for Rodya to atone for what he’s done are: a bullet in the head, or Siberia.”(Part 6, Chapter 6). The difference between Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov in these situations is ultimately reflective of Christian teaching, in order to be forgiven, either by God or by the state, one must admit their sins and denounce his pride. Svidrigailov opts for a quick and painless death as opposed to facing the long list of horrible things he has done, including cheating on his wife and molesting a 15-year girl that killed herself out of trauma from the abuse she received at Svidrigailov’s hand. In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky makes it abundantly clear, those that who think of themselves as higher than God will be humbled in one way or another. Dostoevsky Fyodor, Crime and Punishment. Tr. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, New York: Random House, 1993

Individuals that strive to engage and adhere to religious seminars are more inclined towards maintaining a quality state of wellbeing. Occupying similar outlooks usually allows individuals to associate with one another and hence form communities hence, promoting social development. Religions provide guidelines and a framework for people to contribute towards moral actions, which in turn, may stimulate the establishment of a charity based event as the community bonds together. The principles that religions carry out are still prevalent in today’s society and has also promoted the initiation of global corporations. The notions that religion results in happiness are reflected in Pew’s research which examined the welfare of several individuals from various countries and concluded that those who carried a religious belief to some extent, were generally more contented opposed to those who were unaffiliated.

Pew Research Centre is a “nonprofit” and nonpartisan” research facility that aims at exploring the controversies or beliefs that alter our interactions and perceptions of one another. Within the research, they categorised people into “Actively Religious” individuals who attended any seminars at least once a month, “Inactively Religious” individuals who recognise themselves as carrying religious faith, however, attends assemblies less frequently and “Unaffiliated Religious” individuals who don’t carry religious incentives.

Religion is often recognised as a set of beliefs tethered together to form a structure that followers can look up and act. These precepts often encourage an individual to act virtuously when in interactions with others which can assist their social development. Buddhism, for example, encourages its devotees to be “ strong in their faith and to speak the truth”. Its Eightfold path to Nirvana, also inclines its followers to abstain speaking falsely or abusively, instead, with equanimity and composure. Christianity also carries resembling principles as seen in Hebrews 13:1-5 which states that our community must “keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters” and to demonstrate “hospitality to strangers”. This behaviour often allows Buddhists and Christians to form greater relationships with one another and develop socially whilst maintaining a tranquil mindset. A study carried by Robert Waldinger, a psychiatrist at the Harvard medical school, delved into the lives of 724 men of varying status to identify factors that influenced their state of happiness for 74 years. Their results concluded that “people who are more socially connected to family, to friends, to the community are happier. They’re physically healthier and they live longer than people who are less well connected.”. This indicates that the guidance provided by Buddhism regarding social development ensures that an individual has a quality state of wellbeing as they sustain powerful, positive relationships. Christian Today’s statement is validated through the research demonstrating how religions ethics promotes happiness.

Socialisation between those who carry similar outlooks also allows for the establishment of communities which can expand and encourage engagement of its members. Communities are evidently based around religions such as Christianity and Buddhism where those occupying synonymous perspectives can form relationships. These communities allow people to all act in conjunction and partake in activities such as meditation or study. The study taken by Pew found that within the US, there was a correlation between individuals belonging to a community/ organisation and their state of happiness. Those who interacted more with their peers or were open-minded tended to occupy a quality state of wellbeing which is reflected in Pews Research as countries in which religious individuals contributed to seminars tended to be happier.

Several religions usually consist of ethics in which the followers are encouraged to adhere to as it allows the individual to act virtuously whilst possessing composure. Common ethical teachings within the Old Testament in Christianity is the Ten Commandments which provide an insight into the framework of life by dictating the actions that an individual must adhere to in order to live out a reposeful life. Commandments 1-4 refers to how a follower must “Love your God with your whole heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:36-40) whereas the remaining refer to what actions one must abstain from. The Beatitudes also provides resembling ideas on how strengthening relationships with God assures salvation for an individual. A similar approach is also employed throughout Buddhism through the application of the Five Precepts which aims at encouraging a positive demeanour and avoiding the “three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance”. The Eightfold Path to reach Nirvana allows devotees to seek wisdom and mental discipline allowing them to perceive their surroundings with greater insight. When conformed to, both Christianities and Bhuddisms ethics, an individual would develop self-independence and management over their life as they are encouraged to act morally. Christian Today’s outlook is, therefore, reinforced as those who require assistance would be able to follow the guidelines of religion and benefit mentally as well as develop social relationships, thus, improving their wellbeing.

Health is a major, contributing factor to the quality state of wellbeing within an individual and religion may play a vital role in maintaining it. Several religions condemn the act of smoking or drinking as they perceive it as an act of escape from reality, it may disrupt their relationship with God as they forget prayer and it may distort one’s intellect resulting in a depleting state of wellbeing. Christianity encourages its followers to abstain from any sinful behaviour regarding intoxication as “your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. The bible also states that “it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble” indicating that any action which may distort relationships, such as intoxication, should be restrained. Buddhism occupies a similar outlook as Precept Five and the Eightfold path mentions that one must abstain from intoxicants and drugs that distort the mind. Pews research has concluded that religion may be a vital role in the behaviour of individuals. Within Australia, 96% of citizens were found to be “Actively Religious” and not partake in smoking compared to the 83% who didn’t affiliate with religion and avoids substance abuse. Statistics regarding drinking provided similar conclusions as 96% of religious individuals abstained from drinking compared to the 87% non-religious people. A study carried out by the Oxford Academic Nicotine and Tobacco Research examined 236 individuals on their journey to resolve issues concerning tobacco abuse and those who succeeded were found to possess a quality state of wellbeing in comparison to those who continued. Chrisitan Today’s statement is supported as when steered by religion, individuals are often directed to a path that abstains from any action that may harm their cognitive or physical health resulting in a greater condition of happiness.

Religion has stimulated the gesture of giving through its guidelines and ethics that functions as a framework that individuals are encouraged to apply to stimulate happiness. The establishment of several charities has been heavily dependant on the virtues proposed by major religions such as Christianity. The Bible affirms that one must “feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your (their) light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you (them) will be as bright as noon.” Isaiah 58:10 indicating that an individual would develop mentally as they give. Buddhism approaches charity with a similar attitude, as it promotes social interaction with love and compassion with Dana, a concept where one voluntarily gives wisdom or materials for those in need. Several charities that have been erected as a result of ethical notions work towards sheltering and providing aid in any form as “whoever in your kingdom is poor, to him let some help be given.” Cakkavatti Sihanada Sutta. The foundations of charities such as St Vincent De Paul are heavily dependant on Catholicism as aspires to serve the helpless individuals through provisions of love, respect and hope. Regarding Buddhism, the Karuna Trust is another operating charity within India that aims at encouraging the development of skills and confidence for those confronted with extreme poverty. Thousands of these organisations have been initiated such as World Vision, Tzu Chi Foundation, Salvation Army, Australian Buddhist Foundation, and several others. A study carried by the Harvard Business school, “Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior”, concluded that those who were stimulated to donate more were often confronted to an increased feeling of “altruism and feelings of competence”. As a result, an individuals state of wellbeing is improved when contributing to a charity which reinforces Christian Today’s statement. Charities prospering nowadays are heavily dependant on religious principles and the happiness of communities and individuals can be sparked when engagement is made.

Religion has benefitted those who adhere to its ethics than those who are unaffliated through several factors such as the encouragement of social interactions with positive behaviours or the establishment of charitable events. Religion plays an essential role in promoting the wellbeing of individuals and communities as demonstrated by Catholic Today’s statement which is aided by research within scientific and religious fields.

Classical antiquity spiraled down with the fall of ancient empires like Greece and Rome. Consequently, Christianity and Islam, along with their cultures, began to grow and even trade routes like the Silk Road and the Trans-Saharan developed, marking the start of the Post-Classical era. Although these trade routes were new and innovative, Muslims and Christians had opposing views on trade in general. At first, Muslims tolerated trade because of their religious laws while Christians were against it because of prophetic references from the Bible. As time went on, their views swapped with Muslims being against trade and Christians being for trade mainly because of the negative/positive characteristics that could be brought upon a person from trading.

Document 1, which is an excerpt from Summa Theologica, has a prophetic reference from Matthew. That reference explains that a man shouldn’t do something to another man if they didn’t want that happening to them. This goes to Christianity’s backbone of honesty and fairness. The rich merchants were considered greedy and dishonest, leading Christians to believe those merchants would not enter eternal life in paradise. Since the Christians had the Bible, where the words were straight from God, their need to obey those words couldn’t be reasoned with. For example, porcelain was one of the many goods traded along the Silk Road and if a merchant were to cheat their way into receiving a higher price from it, they were looked down upon. The historical context of this document goes before the expansion of Catholicism. The Bible was the holy text of Christianity being that it was the direct words of God and his prophets. At this time, Christianity lured the poor and not the rich, which makes sense since this excerpt reprehended the rich. However, the general Christian attitude towards merchants became more positive due to the Roman Catholic Church rising in power. They considered them hard-working, they started to appreciate their skills, and showered merchants in a more positive light. Yet, they continued to have negative views towards dishonesty and cheating because of the negative way it was portrayed in the Bible.

Document 3, which are the words from Kitab al-ibar, explains commerce and the negative characteristics a merchant possesses. However the Prophet Muhammad was a trader, so Muslims believed that being a merchant was acceptable as long as they were truthful because of what was said in the hadiths. The hadiths mentioned on the subject of trading were: if a merchant was truthful, they would have a successful and blessed trade, but, if they were dishonest, their trade would be unsuccessful and they would lose blessings from it. This corresponds to what is said in the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, because those are the words from Allāh and his messengers so the Muslims would abide by them. The historical context of this document was that it was written by a Muslim scholar on the topic of universal history and not just in the Islamic world. It was written in Arabic and used religious and patriarchal points which showed the dominance of Islamic values at that time. The attitude towards merchants started to become bitter because of those negative characteristics sprouting out from the back of people’s minds once again. The Qur’an states the same thing as the Bible, where dishonesty and cheating will not get one a place in Jannah. They believed that dishonesty and cheating would affect one’s soul. However, since they knew the trade was a necessary practice, they accepted the merchants slowly but still continued their dislike of dishonesty and cheating like the Christians.

Frederich Nietzsche is one of the most strikingly influential philosophers of the modern era and his works have permeated through the intellectual discourse of the 20th century and beyond. This essay will seek to explain Nietzsche’s conception of genealogy, and its impact on perceived morality and examine the degree to which his scathing criticism of Christianity is justified.

The core tenet of Nietzsche’s conception of genealogical analysis, particularly in “On The Genealogy of Morals” is to demonstrate that any given system of values -in this case, the state of modern morality was the result of recurring and contingent shifts in socio-historical developments and not that of an immutable and unchanging essence. Genealogy, in other words, was for Nietzsche the questioning of the emergence of moral values through his historical philosophy. Instead of the unquestioned acceptance of morality as a binary spectrum of “good” and “evil” and an eternal absolute, Nietzsche, through Genealogy of Morals, hoped to present and scrutinize an even-handed account of the development of morality as a somewhat unintended process of evolution subject to the sways of historical and social powers.

Neitzsche’s introduction of the Master-Slave moral dichotomy serves as a prime example of the workings of his method of Genealogy. In Nietzsche’s terms, holders of Master morality are the strong-willed and nobility. According to Nietzsche, they possess courage, truthfulness, and open-mindedness, and derive their values with a “spontaneous idea” of the good, from which he, the Master, derives the bad: the Master needs not approval nor valuation from others to formulate his values, and is concerned with the consequences of actions not a reflection of arbitrary definitions of “good” or “bad”. Slave Morality, on the other hand, is of the weak and subservient – “Slaves” The ideal of the good is derived from what is “helpful”, and bad is “what is harmful”. Their values are based on the uncritical acceptance of habit, of circumstantial definitions of the moral spectrum. The slave is often reactive, receiving traits that do not have a share in creating.

In Nietzsche’s narrative of Genealogy, the priestly aristocratic caste of pre-modern history took power through a “slave revolt in morality”. Weak and impotent by nature, the ascetic priests’ ideals of purity- abstinence from lust, violence, greed, and gluttony – Invert the “good” qualities of the ruling Master morality into what is known as “evil”. Nietzsche argues that the holders of Master morality’s projection of power, superiority, and abundance were inverted by the aristocratic priest through a process of ressentiment. The internalization of perceived inferiority, weakness, and long-brewing impotence molds the priestly caste into a resentful force against Master morality and their vengefulness into the “Creative, value birthing” force that is ressentiment – a mental objective mastery of the weak and slavish’s source of suffering. In contrast to the “plastic powers” of the masters – the slaves’ ressentiment ferments hatred and bitterness to overthrow dominant “Master” values. For instance, prowess was transfigured into arrogance, and its lack thereof into humility, abundance, and amplitude into greed and gluttony, and its absence into meagerness. In short, all traits of master morality were redefined into a category of “Evilness” and its opposite into “good” and ”virtue” as morality is inverted and moral superiority is constructed.

Another instance of Nietzsche’s use of genealogy is his analysis of the origin of bad conscience. Similar to his analysis of the slave revolt in morality, Nietzsche argues that the breakdown of primitive, hunter-gatherer society and the formation of permanent settlements disfigured the primal instincts of brutality and relentlessness – violence lost its purpose and man has to rely on “consciousness” to survive. Thus, the internalization of man occurs – cruelty against others is turned inwards as man struggles against himself and wages war against his instincts. Such is how self-reflexivity and ultimately conscience, in Nietzsche’s eyes, were created. Nietzsche extends this argument to the creation of guilt – which, according to Genealogy, originated from credit-debt relationships of pre-modern society, where the failure to uphold promises was remedied by debt. Such a mechanism of punishment and extraction eventually evolved into the modern conception of guilt as the instincts of cruelty are reflected and turned inwards.

Applying the master-slave dichotomy to the foundation of Judeo-Christianity, Nietzsche claims that Judaism and its struggle against the prowess of Roman rule is a case of ressentiment in motion – the inversion of Master values stem from ressentiment against Roman superiority from the “Priestly nation of ressentiment par excellence” – Judea. The voluntarism of the Judeo-Christians – their ability to choose not to act in the ways of the masters that is Rome, gave way to a self-perceived moral superiority for choosing not to accept the traits and values of their enemy and birthed a new evaluative framework that is Christian morality. “Those who suffer are good and are blessed with god”: the features of the lowly and the weak become the virtue of “good” in this revolt of morality against the noble traits of the Roman masters – transformed into “evil” and “vice”. The effects of Nietzschean Genealogy on the meaning of morality and in particular, that of Christian morality is thus made clear. Nietzsche’s Genealogy provides its readers with a sweepingly subversive account of the birth of Judeo-Christian morality and redefines its origin from a universal, moral spirit that is god, to a system that has had variable traits and values imposed upon it by the ebb and flow of socio-historical forces. His meta-ethical analysis of morals strips Christianity and its values of sacredness and permanence, challenging the philosophical common sense that morality is a universally applicable force.

Nietzsche’s criticism of Christianity in Genealogy, while unprecedented, presented a plethora of cogent arguments against the value of Judeo-Christian morality to life. First, Nietzsche, in his Genealogical analysis, reveals Judeo-Christianity as an essentially anti-life ideology that is nihilistic and life-denying in nature. To elaborate, Nietzsche pinpoints the notion of fear and vengefulness of God and seeks to explain its origin as a moral sentiment of debt to ancestors in pre-modern society – that over, the sense of debt derived from ancestral piety morphs into pious fear and “casts God as the ultimate ancestor who cannot be repaid.” The bad conscience of the debtor, argues Nietzsche, “eats into” him with the impossibility of “paying the debt”: that the causa prima of man itself in the Christian narrative is burdened already with the original sin. Christianity’s diabolization of nature and existence leaves human life as inherently worthless as it leads man towards a nihilistic antithesis to life, redemption after death. Nietzsche paints Christianity as an even more harmful force than the “Oriental” religions such as Buddhism – Christianity sees earthly life as a “sinful condition” that, without the salvation of eternal heaven, will be subject to the eternal torture of hell. Nietzsche sees such concepts of Christian salvation and the final judgment merely as the manifestation of priestly ressentiment – against life.

Second, Nietzsche also engaged in the debasing of Christian morality by demonstrating its ultimate lack of foundation. The analysis of morals in Genealogy has presented the argument that morality’s commonsensical place in society’s minds as an eternal, universal essence applied to all can no longer stand. Rid of its veneer of unquestionability, Christian morality as Nietzsche envisions is merely a result of historical developments in inter-societal conflicts. Not only is Christianity without a universal morality, but its “corrosiveness” – the devaluation of life-affirming values of strength and nobleness, and its revaluation of slave morality pose harm to life and society. Worse yet, the deep entrenchment of Christian morality in European society signifies that, once its “collapse” occurs, society’s lack of foundational values may plunge it into an age of nihilism as Nietzsche had feared.

However, despite the exhaustive and somewhat revolutionary approach that Nietzsche took to re-evaluate and challenge common perceptions of morality and its values, Genealogy still succumbs to academic critique, particularly in its treatment of historicality. While Nietzsche’s genealogical method spells a thorough and detailed process through which Christian morality was derived, its mode of argumentation leaves ambiguity as to whether there is any engagement of historical “truth”. Its broad and sweeping accounts of Judaic and pre-Christian history can seem, from a purely historical standpoint, unsubstantial and possibly unconvincing. Further, Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity seemingly focuses most heavily on the negativity of its teleology – that man is born with the life-negating burden of the original sin and that suffering in life is prescribed with the end of attaining eternal salvation after death. However, one may argue that the humanistic elements within the doctrines of Chrstianity – humane compassion and kindness, as an example, can be somewhat life-affirming even in the Nietzschean sense – however fundamentally ungrounded they are in a universal morality and regardless of Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity’s condemnation of earthly existence.

In conclusion, Nietzsche’s On The Genealogy of Morals offers a blazing and valourous analysis of modern morality that exposes its readers to a vastly comprehensive, meta-ethical perspective on the origins and values of the Judeo-Christian ideology. Genealogy’s premise and its critique of morals, while inviting constant controversy and critique in its outlast against Christianity, redefined the modern philosophical discourse of religion and morality for ensuing generations and groundbreakingly pushed commonsensical morality into the spotlight of scrutiny.

Spoken of the different gifts from the Holy Spirit, Paul also asserted that he has given different gifts to the church. God’s plan in doing this is that members should work together as one body. Paul used the analogy of a body that has many parts to illustrate the body of Christ.

Maybe they are Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free, Christians have been said to be one body by the same Spirit (v.13). Interestingly, each part has its role, without which the body is incomplete or cannot function well. It implies that a single part cannot disregard the others without serious consequences neither can the body be healthy and effective in its functions if the whole body were made up of one single part (vv.18-19). The body metaphor illustrating the different gifts in the church recognizes the importance of unity in diversity in the body. It also stresses the issue of independence among the members of the church.

Paul also used this picture in his letter to the brethren in Rome (Romans 12: 4-5). So, by comparing members of the church of Christ to the different parts of a human body, he presented two complementary truths that the church in Corinth failed to comprehend: 1) each part of the body makes a valuable contribution to the whole body, thus, whenever any part is missing, the entire body suffers; 2) the diversity in the composition of the different gifts is actually intended to achieve unity for accomplishing God’s purpose.

The church is a body of believers who have come together to worship God and fellowship with one another. In the early Church, the need for mutual support and encouragement could hardly be overemphasized. Some Corinthian Christians believed strongly in the importance of the gift of speaking in tongues and, therefore, boasted about it.

But in his letter, Paul made it clear that the most important gifts are those that contribute to the good of all (v.7), build up, and help the whole church (1 Corinthians 14: 6.12). Of course, this was briefly expressed by Paul in the parallel he draws between the church, which has many parts with each performing its special role, and the human body, with many parts only to make up one body for effective functioning (v.12). Paul did not fail to emphasize that the gifts are graciously given according to God’s will (Ephesians 4:7). Of course, God does not give spiritual gifts indiscriminately because they are expected to be used for specific purposes in the church. Therefore, Paul’s explanation was meant to discourage Christian brethren from being boastful and considering themselves more important than others by virtue of the gifts they possess.

More so, every member has been specially endowed with some spiritual gifts, which are generally geared towards the well-being of the whole community (v.7). Therefore, every part is relevant and useful to the body, because no one part can be independent and function effectively.

Similarly, Christians are not meant to be in isolation and expect to be all that Christ wants them to be. This presents the principle of teamwork, as each member synergizes with others so that the church can fulfill her God-given task. In fact, the real test of spiritual gifts as to whether they come from God is that they contribute to the common good and edify the community of faith.

The truth is most pre-colonial West Africa was informed by traditional belief systems, namely the gods, and enforced by practices and taboos. Divination through oracles, the word of the paramount ruler or a decision by a council of elders represented the truth. European colonial masters introduced Christianity, the scientific method, and the Western legal system to West Africa. Islam arrived much earlier, along the trade routes from North Africa (ICG, 2010; Paden, 2005; Kenny, 1996).

During colonization, both Abrahamic religions and the scientific method coexisted, while laws were enforced by the European legal systems. There were attempts by Islamic leaders in the north, over the decades, to replace traditional African beliefs; notable among those efforts was the Uthman Dan Fodio jihad, which envisaged a purification of Islam and the entrenchment of sharia law (see Anderson, 2002; Kenny, 1996). Christian missionaries and colonial authorities spread their faith through the erstwhile pagan south, while Islamic practices were left untouched in the north. Although Islam and Christianity were widely accepted in West Africa, traditional practices, such as Ifa, as a divination system, rather than being replaced, remained widespread in society and even spread from West Africa, and can now be found in the United States, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Brazil and other parts of the world (Abimbola, 1994).

The post-colonial era presents a mixture of pre-colonial and colonial practices: Abrahamic religions; atheism; the scientific method; the English and French legal systems and their laws; taboos; and traditional African beliefs and practices of appeasing the gods (Odebode and Onadipe, 2011; Ellis, 2008; McCall, 2004; Anderson, 2002; Abimbola, 1994). Just as Islamic leaders and Christian missionaries sought to replace traditional religious practices, the scientific method now seeks to replace all belief systems. This is not solely an African phenomenon. It was envisaged by Jawaharlal Nehru in his quest for a ‘scientific temper’, as outlined in his book titled The Discovery of India (Nehru, 1985[1946]). The notion of scientific temper, a pan-Indian debate, was to instill a spirit of scientific inquiry in Indian society (Mahanti, 2013) and establish the cultural authority of science over religion (Raza, 2018). The term depicts a clash of ideas, in principle, advocating religious belief as a hindrance to the spread of scientific ideas in society.

Research by the Pew Research Center (PRC, 2010) shows that side by side with their high levels of commitment to Christianity and Islam, many people in Africa retain beliefs and rituals that are characteristic of traditional African religions. In four countries, over 50% believe that sacrifices to ancestors or spirits can protect them from harm. In 14 countries, more than 30% say they sometimes consult traditional healers. The research also notes that, while recourse to traditional healers may be motivated in part by economic reasons and an absence of healthcare alternatives, it may also be rooted in the belief in the efficacy of that approach.

The discovery of the Okija Shrine in Anambra State, south-east Nigeria, which was patronized by prominent politicians, Christians, and other elite groups seeking divine intervention in various endeavors, exemplifies the continued existence of beliefs in the efficacy of African religious practices among social groups (Ellis, 2008). The popularity of the Bakassi Boys, a vigilante group noted for using charms to fish out criminals, and the rise of folk justice (Smith, 2004; McCall, 2004) may have evolved from the disenchantment of the public with the slow pace of the Western judicial system and the belief that supernatural interventions can be used to arrest criminals believed to have evaded justice using spiritual powers.

The World Value Survey Wave 6 (Inglehart et al., 2014) emphasizes the importance of religion in Nigeria, and the data is similar for other African countries. Eighty-nine percent of Nigerians agree that when science and religion meet, religion is always right; the figure is 84% in South Africa. When asked to rate, on a 1 to 10 scale, ‘How important is God in your life?’, 64% of Nigerian respondents choose 10, and 90% choose 8 or above. What is interesting is that these beliefs are held by those well-educated in the scientific method. In Nigeria, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, a former university lecturer with a Ph.D. in mathematics, heads the Redeemed Christian Church of God; Pastor William Kumuyi, a former university lecturer with a first-class degree in mathematics, heads Deeper Christian Life Ministry; and Pastor Daniel Adekoya, a former medical researcher with a Ph.D. in molecular genetics, heads the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries. These three churches have the largest congregations of Pentecostal Christians in Nigeria and branches all over the world. For these pastors, being a scientist does not lead to the rejection of religion; both can coexist.

Equally interesting is that churches in many African countries also provide clinical medical services. Hospitals are run by religious missions such as the Catholic Mission, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Pentecostal churches, and other denominations. In addition, many churches in Nigeria have established universities where the scientific method is taught and practiced. In Nigeria, the Redeemed Christian Church of God established the Redeemer’s University; the Ajayi Crowther University was established by the Anglican Communion; Mountain Top University was established by the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries; Bowen University was founded by the Nigerian Baptist Convention; and Anchor University was started by the Deeper Christian Life Ministry.

A study of trust in cultural authorities in Nigeria (Falade and Bauer, 2018) found high levels of trust in scientists and religious leaders compared to trust in the military, politicians, the judiciary, foreign non-government organizations (NGOs), and local NGOs. Factor analysis shows that whoever trusts a religious leader in Nigeria is also likely to trust a scientific expert. A study of PhDs in a South African university also shows that 43% of doctorates acknowledged faith in an omnipotent god, across all faculties (Falade, 2019a).

The scientific method is thus at the nexus of competing cultural authorities in West Africa. In crises, this authority is often challenged by Christian and Islamic religious beliefs and practices (hereafter referred to as ‘modern’ beliefs) as well as African religious rituals, traditions, and practices (hereafter referred to as ‘traditional’ beliefs).

Bauer et al. (2019) propose two model images of how science works against a background of goodwill in society: the ‘lighthouse’ and ‘bungee jump’ models. The lighthouse model sees science as a beacon of light reaching into the sky and towering over the chaos (storm) beneath, attracting attention and pointing direction. The bungee jump model sees science as a high-holding beam with an elastic line, going through a temporary and sudden decline in authority followed by a resurgence when it is not crushed on the rocks (crisis) below.

In the context of competing cultural authorities, and using the lighthouse and bungee jump models, this paper examines how the uptake of science communication in Africa is affected by modern and traditional beliefs and practices. The paper also examines the impact of previous experiences with science, rumors, and conspiracy theories. It examines studies from Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea and compares them with a Brazilian study and historical perspectives from Europe.

References

1. Abimbola, W (1994) Ifa: A West African cosmology system. In: Blakely, TD, van Beek, WEA and Thomson, DL (eds), Religion in Africa. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
2. Anderson, U (2002) Working with spirits among Muslim Hausa in Nigeria. Working Papers in Cultural Anthropology, 11.Google Scholar
3. Bauer, MW (2009) The evolution of the public understanding of science -discourse and comparative evidence. Science, Technology, and Society 14(2): 221 -240.Google Scholar | SAGE Journals
4. Bauer, MW, Pansegrau, P and Shukla, R (2019) Image, perception and cultural authority of science -by way of introduction. In: Bauer, MW, Pansegrau, P and Shukla, R (eds) The cultural Authority of Science: Comparing across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar
5. Collins, FS (2006) The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
6. Durkheim, E (2001) The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (C Cosman, Trans.). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
7. Einstein, A (1940) Science, and Religion. Nature 146: 605 -607.Google Scholar ‘https:journals.sagepub.comservletlinkout?suffix=bibr12-209660831900200102

“It’s not simply learning,… It’s stability. Stability is essential in the lives of children.” -Pedro Noguera. Children worry about having dinner every night if their car will work in the morning if mom or dad will come back home, or if the heat will be turned back on. The church introduces this issue with the Catholic Social Teaching of the Call to Family, Community, and Participation and Life and Dignity of the Human Person. It is a social injustice that children experience instability due to divorce, homelessness, and toxic stress. A few schools have noticed this and wanted to help the children. They started programs that are designed to help kids.

Homelessness is an important factor of instability in children’s lives. “Low family income tends to negatively affect social-emotional, cognitive and academic abilities as children grow up.”(The Effects of Growing Up in an Unstable Environment.) When a family doesn’t have a definite place to stay every night or a place to call their own it creates long-lasting issues for not only the children but also the whole family. An example of an issue that could arise socially and emotionally for a child is if they want to have a sleepover with a friend they can’t. Not being able to participate in fun activities with friends early on could make a child feel like an outcast and very lonely. “Twelve percent of all Americans change residences in a given year”. (How Instability Affects Kids). This statistic is very interesting because there are a large number of people. For instance, if a family keeps moving frequently then the child(ren) may never learn social or academic skills. This could result in lower academic scores. Parents not having a job can affect grade retention, lower educational attainment, and internalizing or externalizing behaviors. (The Effects of Growing Up in an Unstable Environment. )

Divorce or parental separation can result in instability issues. “Children from single-parent families had twice the incidence of psychiatric illness, suicide attempts, and alcohol abuse problems.” (Kelly, John). Children automatically find a parent to choose as a “favorite” and sometimes it can have negative outcomes. Divorce is a long-term event that can last for a very long time and overwhelm a family. When children have to go back and forth between their parents’ houses it becomes frustrating and overwhelming. Unfortunately, some parents ask their kids questions about the other parent trying to get insight into the other parent. (How Instability Affects Kids).

Though stress is a part of life and we can not avoid it, some stress is very bad. Toxic stress is when someone lives through devastating or life-changing times. “Children exposed to toxic stress are at a greater risk for poor health outcomes such as heart disease and depression in adulthood.” (Fail, Too Small to). Heart disease and depression are outcomes of instability because all of the stress can hurt the heart and brain. If all a child is doing is fighting and moving around their whole life of course they will become depressed. They may become depressed because they don’t create strong friendships. Although stress is unavoidable and is part of life it is not ok if children have to worry about things that are adult topics. Toxic stress is not something that children should have to deal with. Parents should make sure that everyday children are getting the fundamentals of life. They do not need to be dealing with devastating disasters such as losing their home or not having food.

Programs such as Little Sibs have proven to be an effective way to help kids learn healthy coping mechanisms. Little Sibs is when a high school student is partnered with an elementary student. The coordinator(s) of this program spend a lot of time and thought about who is paired together. The high school student and elementary student spend quality time together, this helps the child feel a sense of stability and community.

A way to help instability is during school hours to have teachers spend one-on-one time with children. Some children may be too scared to ask questions in front of a whole class. That is why schools should make it a routine for children to get individual attention from a teacher or guidance counselor. I understand that this will be difficult but it is possible and important for children. When a teacher shows each child individual attention it gives children reassurance and a sense of importance. Children have a good memory of who gives positive attention. If a child is discouraged too many times they may stop trying to better themselves. Adults need to be positive but still honest with a child. A way to critique children is to tell them two things they did right and one they did wrong. This helps children because it starts with a positive and ends with a positive.

The Catholic Church is very involved with the issue of instability in children’s lives. Pope Francis had a meeting and gave a long speech to the ]community. “Stability of the family is integral for the future, and such stability is created when founded upon the faithful and lasting relationship of a man and woman.” (Brockhaus). The Pope goes on about how important giving attention to children is. He expresses how the future relies on children so it is our job to make sure they succeed as much as they can.

A study found that depriving children of a loving environment can cause them to have lower IQs and even stunted growth leading to a shorter stature. They also tended to have more behavioral and psychological problems than children who came from a more loving home. (The Effects of Growing Up in an Unstable Environment). The Catholic Social Teaching of Call to Family, Community, and Participation is very important. This catholic social teaching is involved with instability in children’s lives because every child deserves a family and community that is supportive and loving. There is a lot of work to do to help every child in the world have the best possible life but it is possible.

The Catholic Social Teaching of Life and Dignity of the Human Person. Every person in this world has dignity and a purpose. No matter what mistakes people make God will always love everyone. If we want to be the best possible followers of God then part of that is helping other people. Jesus came down to Earth to show everyone how to properly teach others to be the best person they can be. We have had a prime example of a good Christian person. The life of children is the most important thing in the world. Children are innocent and do not know how hard the world can be. However, if they have positive and responsible role models in their lives they can learn how to teach other people to be good Christians.

The issue of instability is important because instability needs to be resolved or at least become less of an issue. It is a big task to help children with instability it is possible through God. If we do not help these children then we can not complain if the world is not how we want it.

In conclusion, children need more position attention and interaction with positive role models. These role models could be teachers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, guidance counselors, or high school students. It will be hard but the children are the future and we need to make sure that we give them all the resources and help so they can live their best lives.

Work Cited

1. Brockhaus, Hannah. “Pope Francis: The World Needs Stable Families, Relationships.” Catholic News Agency, Catholic News Agency, 8 Jan. 2018, https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-the-world-needs-stable-families-12849.
2. Chen, Grace. “Pros and Cons of Public Preschool: The Debate.” Public School Review, 22 Oct. 2008, https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/pros-and-cons-of-public-preschool-the-debate.
3. Fail, Too Small to. “The Impact of Childhood Instability on Early Brain Development.” Too Small To Fail, http://toosmall.org/blog/early-brain-development-and-childhood-instability.
4. Greenwell, Andrew M. “Catholic Social Teaching: The Family, Gift and Sanctuary of Life – Marriage & Family – Home & Family – News.” Catholic Online, Catholic Online, 17 Jan. 2012, www.catholic.org/news/hf/family/story.php?id=44434.
5. “How Housing Instability Impacts Individual and Family Well-Being: HUD USER.” How Housing Instability Impacts Individual and Family Well-Being | HUD USER, https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-featd-article-020419.html.
6. “How Instability Affects Kids.” Institute for Family Studies, https://ifstudies.org/blog/how-instability-affects-kids
7. Kelly, John. “Does Single Parenting Affect Children?” HowStuffWorks, HowStuffWorks, 8 Jan. 2010, https://lifestyle.howstuffworks.com/family/parenting/parenting-tips/single-parenting-affect-children.htm.
8. “Pope Francis Releases Message for World Mission Day 2019.” Vatican News, 9 June 2019, www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-06/pope-world-mission-day-2019-message.html.
9. “The Effects of Growing Up in an Unstable Environment.” Serenity Malibu, 12 Mar. 2019, https://www.serenitymaliburehab.com/effects-growing-unstable-environment/.
10. Swallow, Deanna. “The Power of Positive Praise.” North Shore Pediatric Therapy, North Shore Pediatric Therapy, 27 Apr. 2014, https://nspt4kids.com/parenting/the-power-of-positive-praise/.   

“Helping others is the most important thing a Christian should do”.

In this essay I am going to discuss whether helping one another is the most important thing a Christian should do; I am going to discuss both sides of the argument and I will discuss what the strongest arguments are to conclude.

Firstly, some people may agree with the statement because people like Christians believe in the 7 principles of catholic social teaching and it educates that human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and people do their role. They believe we should have self-love and good quality of life, “we all have a right to freedom and necessities of life”, we should care towards others and uphold these rights for human life. The first catholic social teaching, dignity of each human person, calls us to value human life as it belongs to God.

Nevertheless, some people may disagree because they may believe, the other 9 commandments, might be equally or more important. Out of the two great commandments the Lord gave us, the first one was to, “love the Lord, with all your heart, mind, and soul”, (Matthew 22:35-40) therefore, it could be controversially more important than helping one another. The Lord is the center stone of the Christian faith, therefore that may have more significance than, ‘people’, and showing acts of kindness towards other humans.

Also, some people may agree with the statement because we are all, “created in the image and likeness of God” (Genesis 1:26-28) and therefore every individual has a right to life and should be respected, we should help one another as God calls us to “love thy neighbor as thyself”. Matthew 22:35–40, – one of the two greatest commandments. Part of loving others is to aid and help others. Therefore, it has prime value in the Catholic church as God calls us to support others, and this comes under human dignity. The Mater et Magistra (Mother and Teacher) Papal encyclical teaches us that we should follow the three instructions of: see, judge, act. It permits us to judge the influence of our n actions when we aim for equality.

The people affected by the unjust circumstances are the main situations we act to bring change. If we observe others in need, we should act, helping them becomes our responsibility as a follower of Jesus. When it came to the time of judgement, Jesus said “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat…”, implying Jesus asks us more importantly, to serve others, as when we serve others, we are serving Christ.

In contrast, some people would also disagree because people like, terrorists and people who cause damage and destruction to the world, helping them, that would not be justice. You could argue not everyone requires respect and aid from others, therefore it may not be the ‘most’ important thing. In Galatians 6:10, it talks of how “we have an opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers”. Therefore, you could argue we should put other Christians before the public and therefore it is not the most important thing to serve others.

In conclusions, I believe the strongest argument are those, agreeing with the statement as loving others helps us in loving the lord, it helps us grow as a Christian and it can be called the most important thing a Catholic should do, as if we serve others, then we are following both the great commandments, as Jesus tells us, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”.