The word “Witchcraft” dates back many hundreds of years and means literally “The craft of the wise”. This is because the Witches of the old were the wise ones of their village, knowledgeable in the art of healing, legal matters and spiritual fulfillment. A Witch had to not only is a religious leader, but also…
In telling the story of Isaac it is very important to tell about his father Abram. Once Lord ordered Abram to leave his country, his people and his father’s household and to go to the land that God was going to show him. After that God made promises which were fulfilled in the rest of…
Scientology is a fairly new religion. Founded in the twentieth-century by a man by the name of L. Ron Hubbard. He began his studies long ago and wrote a book in 1950 called Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. He claimed that this book was one of the first tools used to solve the…
The New Testament is mainly based on the life of Jesus and the early church. He is known as the son of God though his parents were Mary and Joseph. Jesus was born in a stable in city of Bethlehem as there was no room in the inns. Once he was born, Mary had no…
As a boy, David was a shepherd. He took care of his father’s sheep. He was a very courageous boy. When a wolf tried to steal a sheep, he didn’t run, he stood his ground and killed the wolf. One day his father told him to go to the land where his brothers were fighting…
The two extremes in which the Buddha speaks of are: that conjoined with the passions and luxury, low, vulgar, common, ignoble, and useless. The second is: that conjoined with self-torture, painful, ignoble, and useless. The avoidance of these two extremes is the path to enlightenment of the middle path as the Buddha had. The middle…
The Egyptians had a very influential religion that can be analyzed using the five elements of religion. The characteristics of the Ancient Egyptian religion can be divided into the five elements of religion: authority, faith, rituals, moral code, and concept of the deity. First, the authority of the Egyptian religion. The main authority of the…
The Greek Orthodox Church is one of the three major branches of Christianity, which “stands in today’s society as one of the communities created by the apostles of Jesus in the region of the eastern Mediterranean, and which spread by missionary activity throughout Eastern Europe” (Meyendorff 5).The word orthodox comes from Greek, meaning right-believing. Currently…
The Byzantine Empire, the survivor of the Roman Empire, flourished into the oldest and longest lasting empire in our history. It began with Constantine the Great’s triumph of Christianity. He then transferred his capital from Rome to the refounded Byzantium in the early 4th century, year 330 AD, and named it Constantinople after himself. This…
MARK’S THEOLOGY REFLECTED IN WRITING Mark and the other evangelists used basically five ways to change, edit or enhance Jesus’ sayings to reflect their own views of Christianity. According to the Five Gospels Book, plagiarism and changing of writing was not a crime, but actually very common Mark’s time. Besides, Mark never knew Jesus first-…
After the Exodus from slavery in Egypt, the wandering Jews lived in tents or booths, called Sukkots. They were pitched wherever they happened to stop for the night. Today it is called the Sukkot the festival of booths remembering both the ancient agricultural booths and those of the Exodus. The harvest festival of thanksgiving, Sukkot,…
Sufism, otherwise known as Islamic Mysticism, is a branch of Islam. It deals with special powers that are contained in the Qur’an. It is a more philosophical approach, where a person tries to become one with nature, and feel the power of God. The term mysticism can be defined as the consciousness of the One…
Siddhartha Gautama was born about 563 BC in what is now modern Nepal. His father, Suddhodana, was the ruler of the Sakya people and Siddhartha grew up living the extravagant life of a young prince. According to custom, he married at the young age of sixteen to a girl named Yasodhara. His father had ordered…
The Shinto religion was started in the Tokugawa period (1600-1868) of Japanese history. The Tokugawa Enlightenment inspired a group of people who studied kokugaku, which roughly translated means nativism, Japanese Studies, or Native Studies. Kokugakus intent was to recover Japanese character to what it was before the early influences of foreigners, especially the Chinese. Some…
Birth Saint Francis was born Giovanni Bernadone in either 1181 or 1182 in the Italian hill town of Assisi. His parents, Pietro and Pica, were members of the rather well-to-do merchant class of the town. Pioetro Bernadone was away in France when his son was born. On his return, he had the boy’s name changed…
Born at Rostkovo near Prasnysz, Poland, about October 28, 1550; died at Rome during the night of 14-15 August, 1568. He entered the Society of Jesus at Rome, October 28, 1567, and is said to have foretold his death a few days before it occurred. His father, John Kostka, was a senator of the Kingdom…
Saint Augustine was born on 354 CE in Tagaste, Africa. His given name was Aurelius Augustinus. His father was Patricius, a pagan who was baptized Christian before he died, and his mother was Monica, a baptized Christian with an influential role in the life of her son. Augustine is regarded as one of the most…
The Soubirous family lived in the far north of the little town of Lourdes, in the Lapaca district. A large stream flowed there, and on this stream there were seven mills; one of them known as the Boly Mill, and this had been the residence of the Soubirous. Francois Soubirous leased the mill from relatives…
The position of priesthood in the church has been evident since the earliest existence of the church. Jewish priests first were established in the seventh century BC performing religious ceremonies. They were even more established around 950 BC due to the establishment of the Temple in Jerusalem. The major role of the traditional Jewish priest…
January 23, 2000 marked the twenty-seventh anniversary of the Roe v. Wade case. It all started out in a small town in Texas where a woman under the alias Jane Roe filed a case in district court for a woman’s right to choose abortion. At this time law in Texas prohibited abortion. Eventually the case…