Religious music

God Laughs The long-named book, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, is written by A.J. Jacobs who does a wonderful job of blending all the Bible's rules, including the Bible's outdated old testament ordinances, with modern-day life which gives the book a very comedic aroma. The awkwardly funny author has a way of wrapping up the reader into his Biblical journey by having many stories with their own unique part to them, but they…

The truth, or validity, of a statement can make the difference between holding your readers’ attention or losing it. What value does a paper hold if the author cannot present the truth? The Bible is very clear, when speaking of truth. Zechariah 8:16 says, “These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace” (EVS). And here again, Psalm 43:3 says, “Send out your light and your truth, let them lead me; let them…

Nothing seems particularly exasperating or controversial about Good News Bible at face-value. It is a rather popular translation millions of copies have been sold. According to Wikipedia it has “been endorsed by Billy Graham and Christian groups such as the Catholic Church (Today's English Version, Second Edition), the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Presbyterian Church (USA).”1 This is not surprising as most, if not all, of the book's elements are well-incorporated with the intent of…

In Anne Bradstreet’s poem “Verses on the Burning of our House,” the speaker discusses her attempt to reconcile the loss of her earthly possessions with religious tenets and, in doing so, highlights the struggle of Puritans to maintain the religious ideal of valuing only spiritual worth, as depicted through the concept of weaned affections. Frequently in her poem, Bradstreet emphasizes the dichotomy between her emotions as she experiences the transpiring events and what she wants to feel through…

In his book Fundamentalism, Steve Bruce starts by admitting that religion is a “very rich diet” for most. Most people are not willing to put their entire lives into religious traditions and choose instead to practice religion with few rituals, helping fund their religious communities, and trying to work with what their religious leaders say is a moral, good life. After all, not everybody can be a monk or priest, as there have always needed to be people keeping the secular life functioning,…

In a small classroom at Liberty University, students enrolled in an upper level psychology course have discussed the various models of the integration of psychology and Christianity as proposed by David N. Entwistle (2015). The models that were discussed include Enemies, Foreign Spies, Domestic Spies, Colonialists, Rebuilders, Neutral Parties, and Allies. One specific part of the curriculum for the class includes the input of each student on which of these seven models seem to be the strongest.…

is clear that audiences can learn from the morals and values taught in biblical movies CITATION (Screening Scripture p.viii). Parallel narrative techniques used by biblical filmmakers represent an excellent example of a novel format through which religious teachings could be conveyed to mass audiences; through direct, immersive comparison with their modern lives. The value of this medium should not be understated: “even if no movie has saved anyone’s soul, cinema can provide thought-provoking…

Defending the Word When people say that the Bible has authority, it simply can be translated to mean credibility. People are constantly attacking the Word of God and its authority, which means Christians everywhere, must be ready to defend the Word and its truths. The Bible draws its authority from the internal and external evidences we can find in Scripture and in our world. Internally, the Bible, though written by a human hand, is the inspired Word of God that have been spoken through the…

Introduction Infinitely imperative to contemporary Christian faith, Bible study “involves engaging the mind and focusing attention on Scripture in an attempt to understand and apply truth to every part of my life”. Only through Bible study can we learn about God and become more like Christ. Through the Bible itself God encourages us to “meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (Josh 1:8). Though emphasis…

1 CHAPTER 1: COVENANT AND COVENANTS The Bible is a big book with many stories, laws, genealogies, and even dedicates a great amount of space to instructions for construction. Some of the content seems easy enough to understand. Other content seems strange. All of this content comes bound together as one book, but there are two so-called “Testaments” (old and new) as well as sixty-six individual books written over the span of about 1,500 years. Do all of these books fit together somehow? Is this…