Religious experience can generally be explained or characterized as an experience that someone has had, which they may feel has some religious importance to them. That reality of the experience will vary depending on the religious tradition that the experience is a part of. Religious experience is not the same thing as Mystical experience, even though they are quite close, not all of the religions qualify as mystical.
The Beginning Of Christianity
The beginning of Christianity started about 2000 years ago in Judea (now what we call Israel), with someone named Jesus Christ as well as a group of his faithful 12 disciples. Jesus was a Jew, he observed the Jewish faith and very well knew the Jewish law. In Jesus’ early 30s, he would travel from one village to another and teach to people who were sick or heal those who are suffering. As Jesus started to teach more often, it would start to stir the hearts of many, many people and create instant instability in the cities and towns. When Christianity first started it was only the Catholic religion but soon over time it expanded to many types of groups, called denominations. For example, the major ones are:
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- Catholic
- Orthodox
- Lutheran
- Reformed/Prebystyrian
- Methodist/Wesleyan
- Anglican/Episcopalian
Compare and Contrast the experiences of Christianity in the time of the Middle Ages and Today
Christianity in the present time now is remarkably different from how it was in the Middle Ages, however, there are also some things that stayed relatively the same. One of the major things that have changed over the years is Dissent however, The concept that has not changed as much as the others is the Church’s system.
Dissent, Dissent is the concept of physically punishing or even killing people who disagree with the church's teachings. People of other faiths were also treated quite harshly. Jews, who lived within Christian land were, at the very best, just tolerated. Through more harsh conditions Jews would be forced to leave England by Edward the First, in 1290. However, at the current time, in Australia, the conditions are completely different. Currently, we DO NOT punish people for their race or religion and we accept people for what they believe in.
Church System, the church system is often thought of as quite a dominant force, this participated in its highly developed organization, which, in the Middle Ages developed a system of law and economy that was quite sophisticated and still is today. During the Middle Ages, the church was split into two unequal sections. The larger of the sections was the secular church, the secular church was attended by general, everyday People. The smaller section was the regular church, the regular church consisted of people who has sworn to vows of obedience and poverty. Most of these people lived in places that were governed by a ‘rule’ book of instructions.
Comparing these situations and catholic living experiences to our current world today they are quite similar in many ways, but also a bit different. The section above talks about how the law and economic systems in the church were quite sophisticated in the Middle Ages, thus relating to our current church because we are very sophisticated in our economic systems and take great pride in that. But the difference between the church systems nowadays is that the people living in the smaller section (the regular church) do not have to live by a ‘rule book’ of instructions.
So, overall, in the church's systems almost 2000 years ago compared to now, we can see major changes, but also some surprising similarities contrasting them.
Reflect and Evaluate the good contributions Christianity has on individuals and society
The actions and movement of Christianity have changed our world entirely. In fact, some people would say that Jesus, the teacher of Christianity has had more impact on the world than any other person in history. Christianity has had a major impact on what we Christians believe today, because if the Jews, nearly 2000 years ago didn’t believe that they had known a great, then the world would not be where it would be today.
All over the world, there have been approximately 2.5 billion copies sold in more the. 2,200 languages. If you think about it, there are around 2 billion Christians in the world, 14 million Jews, and Approximately 1.3 billion Muslims. That means that more than half of the world’s population considers the Bible a major influence on their faith. If that doesn’t say that Christianity has impacted the world then I don’t know what does. But the main question is, how has it impacted the world?
Christianity has had a positive effect on individuals by giving people a feeling of being a part of something. It gives a group of people access to other people who believe in the same God as you. This is something very powerful because you are a part of something much greater than yourself. Christianity has created a very powerful hope, belief, and faith that not many other social aspects are able to recreate. The Bible also talks about faith and how strong it can be in the Bible verse Isaiah 41:10.
As well as having a positive effect on individuals, it has also had a very positive and major effect on larger aspects of life, particularly education. In the 16th Century, there was a driving force for public education in Europe. Protestants particularly promoted literacy because people needed to be able to read the Bible, which they viewed as an essential authority on certain matters. By doing this they have written the Bible in around 2,20p languages, which opens up Christianity to even more people. And, because of that major movement of Christianity in schools, currently in private schools and some public schools they offer education on Christianity which widens the faith of Christianity. The Bible also talks about this but in a more spiritual sense. In verse Proverbs 18:15, it says “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
In conclusion, due to the past actions in medieval times, it has widened our hearts and our eyes to how important Christianity is in our lives, and how much it has impacted our growing and developing society.
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