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Although religious and secular authority have been in conflict practically since religion was first formalized into specific institutions and centers of power, the evolution of religious authority which occurred after 1500 set the stage for the conflicts of the contemporary world by distributing religious authority to the religious populace, rather than a small group of priests and leaders. By imbuing each individual member of any given religion (but mostly Christianity) with the supposed blessing and authority of a god, religion actually increased its influence exponentially precisely by making that influence appear diminished.
When religious authority was centered in the hands of a relatively small priesthood, it could be easily attacked and confronted because there was a single target of criticism. However, when religious authority was distributed among the faithful as a result of the Catholic Church's split and the rise of Enlightenment ideas, confronting or challenging religious authority became an almost impossible task, because it was distributed among each individual, individuals who could come together to assert their influence (while voting, for example) but then recede quietly. Secular authority,...
The Praise of Folly. London: Hamilton Adams and Co., 1887. Print.
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1922.
Print.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. London: Jacob Thomson, 1922. Print.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract. New York: Cosimo, 2008. Print.
Swift, Jonathan. A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works. London: Dover Publications,
1996. Print.
Desiderius Erasmus, the Praise of Folly (London: Hamilton Adams and Co., 1887) 12.
John Milton, Paradise Lost (London: Jacob Thomson, 1922) 4.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the Social Contract (New York: Cosimo, 2008) 59-60.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the Brothers Karamazov (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1922) 67-68.
Works Cited
Erasmus, Desiderius. The Praise of Folly. London: Hamilton Adams and Co., 1887. Print.
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1922.
Print.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. London: Jacob Thomson, 1922. Print.
This work provided an intensive discussion historical forces that were to lead to modern humanism but also succeeds in placing these aspects into the context of the larger social, historical and political milieu. . Online sources and databases proved to be a valid and often insightful recourse area for this topic. Of particular note is a concise and well-written article by Stephen Weldon entitled Secular Humanism in the United States.
Whether or not God chooses to forgive the choice not to accept Christ in life, any punishment for that in the afterlife is a matter for God, not man, to consider. Likewise, the decision to forgive earthly sins based on repentance and acceptance of Christ is also a matter for God's infinite wisdom and not man's fallible intellectual powers. In all likelihood, there are explanations besides genuine remorse for one's
Conclusions There is no one standard for what is considered right and wrong in the world of American religion. The American religion that exists today may be described as "Agnostian-Secularian" meaning it is made up of multiple faiths, beliefs and convictions, some more Christian based and some more abstract in nature. By and large the American 'religion' or modern society is varying accepting of people of many different faiths and idealisms. Though
In fact, there is a sense here in which the will to do good deeds restores God to the universe as the fountainhead of morality, with the famous "categorical imperative" substituting for specific divine commandments. However, those who are not already convinced that moral truths are possible -- who are not already "morally certain" -- tend to find this argument circular (Palmer 259). For the rest of us, it is
Weber and BureaucracyIntroductionAuthority and power are concepts integral to the way society is organized and managed. These concepts are so crucial�but also so differently interpreted by scholars and theorists�that they have been the subject of extensive debate and analysis in sociology and political science. For instance, one scholar and theorist was Max Weber, who proposed various ideal types of leadership and authority to support a working society. Considering Weber�s approach
United States it is under the federal tax code that the nonprofits organizations are primarily regulated and defined. These organizations are formal and don't have to pay the federal taxes since these are created for providing services to the public as it has been described in the revenue code as well. Profits aren't distributed by these organizations either. With only the religious groups as exception, rest of the nonprofit