Photographing A Christening While Studying the Reformation

A couple of weekends ago I had the unique opportunity to attend and photograph a Christening in the Catholic Church. This was an interesting event to attend while learning about the Catholic Church and the reformation. Most of my exposure to the Catholic Church and to Catholic people came while serving my mission in Mexico where I’d always run into some very dedicated Catholics every where I went, but actually participating in a religious ceremony with them a couple days ago opened my eyes. Their decorum in this ordinance and love for Christ and their love for love is explicitly evident and that cannot be denied. Though, I do not agree with the religious practices in the baby baptism, I still feel that what happens in those churches is a way of acting in faith even if it isn’t the way that I believe in. Those people chose to be in that room and I think the Lord sees that and accepts that faith acted upon. All of this brings me back to Martin Luther and his thoughts on faith. In “Martin Luther’s Conversion,” he mentions that “The righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written: the righteous shall live by faith.” This stands out because we all were created by God and He loves us and accepts our types of devotion to Him no matter what they are. This concept of sola fide is interesting to me. I might have this wrong, but my understanding is that the Protestants believed in this concept with Martin Luther and the Catholics were more the works part of faith. If the catholics were works based people back in the reformation, I believe that this has shifted in a way. I can see that these people had a lot of faith in their practices, but then again the question is, “does that faith only happen within a religious ceremony?” I guess that is a question that we can all ask ourselves. Do we really live what we believe or is it all to merely look a certain way. The reformation, even though it was a hard time for some people, it was a time where all faiths and beliefs were challenged. It served as a reminder that whatever was believed in needed to be firmly believed in to be able to last the test of time and pressure from the outside sources that were surrounding the religious people of the time.
Art in this stained glass window brought me to a familiarity that I couldn't feel within the ceremony, but it did remind me of Christ. 

Lessons of Leonardo

Picture of Slave Castle in Cape Coast

This last Christmas I had an opportunity to visit my family currently living in Accra, Ghana. While there we had the sobering opportunity to visit a slave castle located in the city of Cape Coast. This year, 2019, marks 400 years since the first slaves were forcibly removed from Western Africa and transported to the United States of America. Coincidentally, this year also marks 500 years since the death of Leonardo Da Vinci. Now, I know that the events surrounding those two dates are not correlated in any way, but I started thinking about what messages did Da Vinci try to share in his lifetime that were not understood not only 100 years after his death but also 500 years after his death - today? 

Da Vinci was widely known for his intrepid experiments in engineering, but he also preached the need to create structures that complement the environment around us, as opposed to ones that impede the world. Also, as a true humanist, he desired the betterment of his fellow men and detested unnecessary suffering. In his painting, "The Last Supper" you see the emotion on the faces of each apostle, and their value as humans is communicated through the unique emotions.

East Coast of Atlantic Ocean 

There are still many in the world who do not understand what Da Vinci understood. Needless suffering, abuse, human trafficking, and slavery are still running rampant in the world. The need to protect the environment and work with the environment is lost on seemingly all governments. As I sat at the foot of the slave castle looking out into the Atlantic Ocean I saw mounds of garbage and plastic floating near the shore.

It struck me that one lesson was lost in this very spot several hundred years ago - the value of the human soul and that another important lesson is being lost - the value of the world we live in. If we each took the time to be just a little more learned about a few more things, could we leave a better world than we found?

Leonardo Da Vinci is the ultimate example of the "Renaissance Man". As more people seek a greater breadth of understanding of the world around us, as he did, we can all better embrace ideas that were realized by him more than 500 years ago. By doing so we can avoid mistakes both 400 years old, and those unique to our time.

What need have we for the Bible?

"Religion aside, the Bible revolutionized modern language and influences the way people communicate today."

The translation of the Bible is one of the most seminal moments in history because it expanded human thought and continues to influence the world. This event was the culmination of several hundred years of events and spans multiple languages.

A little bit of history

It all started with Jerome, a Catholic priest, in the 4th century A.D. when he made the Vulgate by translating the bible from its original text to Latin which was the predominant language at the time. The Vulgate became the source material used for every mass for hundreds of years. When the clergy read scripture to the congregation, it was from the Vulgate.

Now, fast forward a few hundred years with me to the Renaissance where classic Greek and Roman culture were reborn. While it was heavily marked by progressive thought, it also was a revolutionary era in which artists, politicians, and laypersons challenged the status quo. This included monks like Martin Luther and devout member of the congregation such as John Wycliffe and John Calvin.

For years, the Catholic church outlawed the Bible in common languages. Eventually, after years of smuggling illegal copies of translations into peoples homes, there was a schism between the king of England and the pope. In retaliation, the king of England formed the church of England and authorized its members to have the Bible in English.

Who cares? (you should more than you do)

Any non-christian reader might be thinking "woopdy-doo. So what?" To which I would say, "consider how difficult it is to translate something." William Tyndale performed an English translation of the New Testament from Greek and the committee commissioned by King Henry VIII also relied on Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic source material. While translating, the translators kept the syntax and poetic structure of these languages to best reflect the style of the language they were originally written in. As a result, the English language was rebranded in a way that was never done before.

What this means for us

The dissemination of the English Bible throughout the world meant everyone could read and experience the language in a new undiscovered way. Religion aside, the Bible revolutionized modern language and influences the way people communicate today. In our storytelling, many people reference classic works which reference the Bible. When the United States was founded, many of the principles espoused by the founding fathers were based in Biblical literature. And finally, it can affect you and the way you communicate. Things we say like "turn the other cheek," "go the extra mile," or "by the skin of your teeth" all come biblical passages.

In conclusion, the translation of the Bible led to the evolution of the English language and influences literature, storytelling, and how we communicate today.

The Divine in Schooling

              

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Education and work should fit the higher needs too

As a college student I’ve struggled trying to find out what subjects of study inspire me. I’ve struggled even more trying to keep myself motivated within my studies. Questions like “will this job even matter?” and “Will studying this make a difference for anyone?” haunt me as I try to plan out and pursue my college degree. Perhaps I’m an idealist, but I want to study things that bring me some of Maslow's belonging, esteem, and self-actualization, rather than studying a subject that'll make me enough money to survive. I left accounting this year because I found none of that fulfillment in financial statements.

It was both humanism and religion, traditionally thought as opposing each other, that have helped me find a new passion of study and work.

The Butterfly Effect of the Printing Press

The Butterfly Effect is the theory that everything is conditional upon something else and small occurrences can result in massive occurrences. We may not always know the cause of such massive occurrences, but they're there. The term "the butterfly effect" suggests that something as massive as a tornado or a hurricane could have been started from the smallest wind coming from a butterfly's wings, therefore suggesting that nothing is an accident and everything has a stimulus.

Sacred Things: Literature in Light of the Reformation

The Reformers' Views on Literature

Photo by Syd Wachs on Unsplash

In 1523, the father of the Protestant Movement, Martin Luther, wrote a letter to a friend to congratulate him on a well-written poem. Luther remarked that the only thing he wanted for the youth of his religious movement was education in literary arts, ultimately vowing “that there should be as many poets and rhetoricians as possible, because I see clearly that by no other methods is it possible to train men for the apt understanding . . . and felicitous treatment of sacred things.” Luther believed that art should be used to understand the sacred, rejecting the Catholic church’s tendency to replace the sacred with iconoclastic art pieces. Rhetorically, art's purpose was to bring the audience to a greater understanding of God.

Examples of Faith from the Reformation

The Reformation was a time of religious upheaval all across Europe. When Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis on the church “bulletin board” in 1517, he could never have foreseen the vast effect his action would have on the whole of Europe, and the entire world. At first the Catholic church reacted by somewhat candidly writing up their “Consilium de Emendanda Ecclesia,” outlining some things they recognized as needing reform. It turned out that it wasn’t enough, and people began breaking away from the Catholic church and practicing Lutheranism and other protestant faiths. Protestants were calling out for a more authentic, personal sort of worship, and a direct learning of the Word of God by individuals. The effects were wide spread and in many cases, like that of one of my ancestors, immensely life changing, as some were forced to choose between their home countries and their faith.

Sola Scriptura: How Reformers’ Emphasis on Scripture is Mirrored Today

Of all the changes that came about during the Reformation, few compare in impact than the transformation of engagement with the Bible. The transformation can be thought of in three main ways.

John Calvin and the Bible

• First, the Bible became more accessible. Before the Reformation, the Bible was only found in Latin, which was primarily studied by priests. Consequently, most Catholics had to rely on their priest to be their middle man with God. However, after Martin Luther translated the Bible into German, scripture study became something common Christians could take part in. Individuals “could now read the Bible in their own language… with features intended to help a person read and interpret the Bible for themselves." (Museumofthebible.org)

Martin Luther – A Clever Leader

Martin Luther

Reform is a critical theme within the Reformation Period. Reform can be defined as to correct, to improve, and to make changes. Such historical restructure could not have survived without Martin Luther, a leader with empowering use of logos and personal virtue of integrity. Many of us can learn from Martin Luther to spark reform within our own lives and leadership.