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Man s Relationship With a Higher Being Man s relationship with a higher being, if there is such a thing, is a very controversial issue. A person s beliefs can cause them to do and say things that someone with different beliefs would not say or do. Some people believe in several gods while some believe in just one God. And there are those who don t believe in any form of aligner being. People with these different beliefs can all lead relatively normal and similar ways of life, but in most cases man s relationship with a higher being influences man s beliefs, decisions, and way of life.
This gives an excellent explanation of why there are so many different belief systems in the world. Religion means different things to different people. The purpose of religion is summed up well in the book The Worlds Religions: Understanding the Living Faiths, by Peter B. Clarke.
The purpose of religion according to Emile Durkheim, a distinguished French scholar and sociologist (1858 - 1917), is given as: Religion has twain functions cognitive and practical. By cognitive Durkheim meant that religion makes the world intelligible to people, providing them with their notions of time and space, cause and effect, and the ability to think about and understand the nature of society and the world. Religions practical function, helping people to conduct their lives, would continue to be of the utmost importance. Through its various rituals, religion releases energy within the committed followers of a religion in a particular community.
This energy gives rise to a sense of security, happiness, belonging and inner strength. (Clarke 13). Durkheim is saying that religion gives man an explanation for things in life that can t be explained while providing a strong sense of belonging and a firm belief system. Religion helps man to make decisions and it provides support and guidance throughout life. This applies to all religions. Even religions that are completely opposite share many the same traits and ideas.
For example in the Hebrew culture it is believed that there only one God. God created everything and controls everything. In the Greek culture there are several gods which each have their own special region to control like the sky, sea, earth, etc. These two belief systems are demonstrated in the literature of these two cultures. They share many similarities and differences. One of the main similarities between the Hebrew and Greek belief systems is the incredibly strong faith and trust in their gods.
One main source of Hebrew literature issue The Bible as / in Literature, by James S. Ackerman. The Bible as / in Literatureillustrates the strong beliefs in God through short stories. A few stories in particular down exceptional job of illustrating the strong belief in God. In the following stories people chose to risk dying without a child, dying period, and being alone in the world just do what they believe is right. In The Story of Ruth, Ruth stays with the mother of her dead husband and she remains faithful to her mother-in-law and is eventually rewarded with a new husband, Boaz, and she conceives a child.
This story shows how god rewards faithfulness (Ackerman 158). In The Great Flood, God asks Noah to build an ark and put two of each kind of animal in it to live till the earth is dried up, after the flood. God is flooding the earth because he is not happy with man and Noah is to be spared because he has always done as God asked and never strayed from God. This story shows how God rewards those who never disobey him (55). In Murder, Cain kills his brother Abel because he is jealous that God has not accepted his sacrifice and has accepted Abel s.
Cain is punished severely by God for this. This story shows how Hebrew people always are attempting to please God and how horrible they feel if they can t do so (36). In The Fiery Furnace, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to worship the king Nebuchadnezzar rather than God. They are put into a extremely hot, burning, furnace test their God. The three men remain unharmed. This story shows how God protects themes who honor him no matter what the circumstances are (316).
These three stories illustrate the Hebrew s very strong beliefs in God. The main source of literature regarding the Greek faith is the Greek myths. The books The King Must Die, by Mary Renault and Adventures in World Literature, b James Applegate are excellent examples of the Greek beliefs in literature. These two books have short stories, much like the The Bible as / in Literature, that illustrate the beliefs of the Greek culture. One of the main differences in the Greek culture s belief system is the idea of many gods rather than one God. This is the most significant difference between Hebrew and Greek beliefs.
In The King Must Die a boy, Theseus, makes a transition into to becoming a man. Theseus never doubts what he believes the gods have planed for him. Theseus risks death several times to do what he believes is right according to his faith, like when he fights the king of Eleusis, when he fights Xanthos, and when he becomes a bull dancer. The most prominent characteristic that Theseus has is his trust in the Gods. The best example of Theseus having strong trust in the gods, especially Posiedon, is when the lottery is going on and Posiedon comes to him and asks him to go to Crete and be a bull dancer. Posiedon says Do as you please, son of Aigeus.
Look, there is your father. Forget my voice, which you will not hear again, and learn to reign as he does. Be free. You are not mine, unless you choose. Theseus thinks It is too late to be Aigeus son. (Renault 164). This paints a good picture of Theseus faith in Posiedon and his trust inthe plan that the gods have for him.
Throughout the book These rarely acts without consulting the gods for guidance. Another example of strong beliefs in literature is the story of Antigone from the book Adventures in World Literature. In this story Antigone s brother Polyneices is killed by the king and since he is the kings enemy he is denied burial and left to rot. Antigone and her sister Ismene symbolically bury him by throwing dirt on him, by doing this they are going against the law. When asked if she confesses to the deed Antigone says, I deny nothing (Applegate 149). In the end the king s son kills himself because he hates his father because Antigone, who was to be his wife, is dead along with Ismene.
Antigone faced death to do what she felt was right. This reflects the strong beliefs of the Greek culture in doing what is right. In the end there is one thing that relates all of the religions, societies, and cultures together and that is persecution. No matter where in the world a society exists there is always some form of persecution that occurs. For the Hebrews it was the persecution of Jesus Christ who proclaimed himself to be the son of God.
Jesus taught his fathers teachings differently than the most respected men of that time and he was persecuted and killed because of it. In Greek literature it was Theseus who was persecuted for believing he was the son of Posiedon. His peers laughed at him when he claimed to be the son of and, but he held strong to this belief and it carried him through life. Antigone was persecuted for acting according to her beliefs and doing what she thought was right.
And Bert Cates, the main character in Inherit the wind, by Jerome Lawrence, was persecuted in a modern society for teaching that god had not created man, but man had created god. Finally, while it is an unpleasant characteristic, persecution seems to be the only characteristic that is present in all cultures, societies, and religions. Maybe it is time that people begin to treat differences in beliefs and relationships with higher beings as special characteristics that make all people different rather than treating them as down falls that make people inferior. So, it is man s relationship with a higher being that influences man s beliefs, decisions, and general way of life, but it is man that is left to deny or accept another man s beliefs, decisions, and way of life. Ackerman, James S. , Thayer S. Warchaw, and John Sweet eds.
The Bible as / in Literature. Dallas, TX: Scott Foresman and Company, 1976. Applegate, James, Gordon Browne, Gretchen C. Hankins, Thomas M.
Folds, and M. Elinor Brown eds. Adventures in World Literature. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovic h, Inc. , 1970. Clarke, Peter B. , James Harper, and Lindsay Mc Teague eds. The Worlds Religions: Understanding the Living Faiths.
Pleasantville, N. Y. , 1993. Grosvenor, Melville, Gilbert Melville, and Franc Shor eds. The Great Religions of the World.
Washington D. C. : National Geographic Society, 1971. Lawrence, Jerome and Robert E. Lee.
Inherit the Wind. New York: Bantam Books Inc. , 1985. Renault, Mary. The King Must Die.
New York: Panther Books Inc. , 1958.
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Research essay sample on Worlds Religions Greek Culture
