1.
Religion
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Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has considered a source of religious beliefs. There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, about 84% of the worlds population is affiliated with one of the five largest religions, namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion. With the onset of the modernisation of and the revolution in the western world. The religiously unaffiliated demographic include those who do not identify with any religion, atheists. While the religiously unaffiliated have grown globally, many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs, about 16% of the worlds population is religiously unaffiliated. The study of religion encompasses a variety of academic disciplines, including theology, comparative religion. Theories of religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion, Religion is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possible interpretation traced to Cicero, connects lego read, i. e. re with lego in the sense of choose, go over again or consider carefully. The medieval usage alternates with order in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders, we hear of the religion of the Golden Fleece, of a knight of the religion of Avys. In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin root religio was understood as a virtue of worship, never as doctrine, practice. In the Quran, the Arabic word din is often translated as religion in modern translations and it was in the 19th century that the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Confucianism first emerged. Max Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, what is called ancient religion today, they would have only called law. Some languages have words that can be translated as religion, but they may use them in a different way. For example, the Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as religion, throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a union between imperial law and universal or Buddha law, but these later became independent sources of power. There is no equivalent of religion in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities
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Afterlife
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The afterlife is the concept of a realm, or the realm itself, in which an essential part of an individuals identity or consciousness continues to exist after the death of the body. Belief in an afterlife, which may be naturalistic or supernatural, is in contrast to the belief in oblivion after death, in this latter view, such rebirths and deaths may take place over and over again continuously until the individual gains entry to a spiritual realm or Otherworld. Major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism and metaphysics, in metaphysical models, theists generally believe some type of afterlife awaits people when they die. Members of some generally non-theistic religions, tend to believe in an afterlife, the Sadducees were an ancient Jewish sect that generally believed that there was a God but no afterlife. Reincarnation refers to a concept found among Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Rosicrucians, Theosophists, Spiritists. Reincarnation is also a belief described in Kabbalistic Judaism as gilgul neshamot and this succession leads toward an eventual liberation. One consequence of reincarnationist beliefs is that our current lives are both afterlife and a beforelife, according to those beliefs events in our current life are consequences of actions taken in previous lives, or Karma. In most denominations, heaven is a condition of reward for the righteous to go after they die, traditionally defined as eternal union with God. In contrast to heaven, hell is a condition of punishment and torment for the wicked, traditionally defined as eternal separation from God and confinement with other sinful souls and fallen angels. So they are seen as existing in a state of natural. In other Christian denominations it has described as an intermediate place or state of confinement in oblivion. The notion of purgatory is associated particularly with the Catholic Church, the tradition of the church, by reference to certain texts of scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire although it is not always called purgatory. Anglicans of the Anglo-Catholic tradition generally also hold to the belief, traditional African religions are diverse in their beliefs in an afterlife. For each soul remains distinct and each represents a new soul. In some societies like the Mende, multiple beliefs coexist, the Mende believe that people die twice, once during the process of joining the secret society, and again during biological death after which they become ancestors. However, some Mende also believe that people are created by God they live ten consecutive lives. One cross-cultural theme is that the ancestors are part of the world of the living, interacting with it regularly, the afterlife played an important role in Ancient Egyptian religion, and its belief system is one of the earliest known in recorded history. When the body died, parts of its known as ka
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Mysticism
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Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ultimate or hidden truths, the term mysticism has Ancient Greek origins with various historically determined meanings. Derived from the Greek word μυω, meaning to conceal, mysticism referred to the liturgical, spiritual. During the early period, the definition of mysticism grew to include a broad range of beliefs. In modern times, mysticism has acquired a limited definition, with applications, as meaning the aim at the union with the Absolute. This limited definition has been applied to a range of religious traditions and practices. Since the 1960s scholars have debated the merits of perennial and constructionist approaches in the research of mystical experiences. The perennial position is now largely dismissed by scholars, most scholars using a contextual approach, Mysticism is derived from the Greek μυω, meaning I conceal, and its derivative μυστικός, mystikos, meaning an initiate. The verb μυώ has received a different meaning in the Greek language. The primary meanings it has are induct and initiate, secondary meanings include introduce, make someone aware of something, train, familiarize, give first experience of something. The related form of the verb appears in the New Testament. As explained in Strongs Concordance, it properly means shutting the eyes and its figurative meaning is to be initiated into the mystery revelation. The meaning derives from the rites of the pagan mysteries. Also appearing in the New Testament is the related noun μυστήριον, the term means anything hidden, a mystery or secret, of which initiation is necessary. According to Thayers Greek Lexicon, the term μυστήριον in classical Greek meant a hidden thing, a particular meaning it took in Classical antiquity was a religious secret or religious secrets, confided only to the initiated and not to be communicated by them to ordinary mortals. In the Septuagint and the New Testament the meaning it took was that of a purpose or counsel. It is sometimes used for the hidden wills of humans, but is often used for the hidden will of God. Elsewhere in the Bible it takes the meaning of the mystic or hidden sense of things and it is used for the secrets behind sayings, names, or behind images seen in visions and dreams
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Reincarnation
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Reincarnation is the philosophical or religious concept that an aspect of a living being starts a new life in a different physical body or form after each biological death. It is also called rebirth or transmigration, and is a part of the Saṃsāra doctrine of cyclic existence and it is a central tenet of all major Indian religions, namely Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism. The idea of reincarnation is found in ancient cultures, and a belief in rebirth/metempsychosis was held by Greek historic figures, such as Pythagoras, Socrates. Unity Church and its founder Charles Fillmore teach reincarnation, in recent decades, many Europeans and North Americans have developed an interest in reincarnation, and many contemporary works mention it. The word reincarnation derives from Latin, literally meaning, entering the flesh again, the Greek equivalent metempsychosis derives from meta and empsykhoun, a term attributed to Pythagoras. An alternate term is transmigration implying migration from one life to another, the term has been used by modern philosophers such as Kurt Gödel and has entered the English language. Another Greek term sometimes used synonymously is palingenesis, being born again, Rebirth is a key concept found in major Indian religions, and discussed with various terms. These religions believe that this reincarnation is cyclic and an endless Saṃsāra and they consider the release from the cycle of reincarnations as the ultimate spiritual goal, and call the liberation by terms such as moksha, nirvana, mukti and kaivalya. Gilgul, Gilgul neshamot or Gilgulei Ha Neshamot refers to the concept of reincarnation in Kabbalistic Judaism, Gilgul means cycle and neshamot is souls. Kabbalistic reincarnation says that humans only to humans and to the same sex only. The origins of the notion of reincarnation are obscure, discussion of the subject appears in the philosophical traditions of India. The Greek Pre-Socratics discussed reincarnation, and the Celtic Druids are also reported to have taught a doctrine of reincarnation, the ideas associated with reincarnation may have arisen independently in different regions, or they might have spread as a result of cultural contact. In ancient European, Iranian and Indian agricultural cultures, the cycles of birth, death. The idea of reincarnation has early roots in the Vedic period, predating the Buddha, the concepts of the cycle of birth and death, samsara, and liberation partly derive from ascetic traditions that arose in India around the middle of the first millennium BCE. Though no direct evidence of this has found, the tribes of the Ganges valley or the Dravidian traditions of South India have been proposed as another early source of reincarnation beliefs. Hinduisms Rigveda makes references to reincarnation in the Brahmanas layer, though these early textual layers of the Vedas, from 2nd millennium BCE, mention and anticipate the doctrine of Karma and rebirth, the idea is not fully developed. It is in the early Upanishads, which are pre-Buddha and pre-Mahavira, the texts of ancient Jainism that have survived into the modern era are post-Mahavira, likely from the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE, and extensively mention rebirth and karma doctrines. The Jaina philosophy assumes that the soul exists and is eternal, passing through cycles of transmigration, after death, reincarnation into a new body is asserted to be instantaneous in early Jaina texts
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Religious text
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Religious texts are texts which religious traditions consider to be central to their religious practice or set of beliefs. It is not possible to create an exhaustive list of religious texts, one of the oldest known religious texts is the Kesh Temple Hymn of Ancient Sumer, a set of inscribed clay tablets which scholars typically date around 2600 BCE. For example, the content of a Protestant Bible may differ from the content of a Catholic Bible, the word canon comes from the Sumerian word meaning standard. Hierographology is the study of sacred texts, the following is an in-exhaustive list of links to specific religious texts which may be used for further, more in-depth study. The writings of Franklin Albert Jones a. k. a, some denominations also include the Apocrypha. For Protestantism, this is the 66-book canon - the Jewish Tanakh of 24 books divided differently, some denominations also include the 15 books of the Apocrypha between the Old Testament and the New Testament, for a total of 81 books. For Catholicism, this includes seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament for a total of 73 books, called the Canon of Trent. For the Eastern Orthodox Church, this includes the anagignoskomena, which consist of the Catholic deuterocanon, plus 3 Maccabees, Psalm 151, the Prayer of Manasseh,4 Maccabees is considered to be canonical by the Georgian Orthodox Church. Some Syriac churches accept the Letter of Baruch as scripture, christian Scientists The Bible Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. This textbook, along with the Bible, serves as the permanent impersonal pastor of the church, the Community of Christ uses the Joseph Smith Translation, which it calls the Inspired Version, as well as updated modern translations. Seventh-day Adventists The Bible The writings of Ellen White are held to a status, though not equal with the Bible. Also known as the Gospel of Mani and The Living Gospel the Treasure of Life the Pragmateia the Book of Mysteries The Book of Giants the Epistles the Psalms, the Shabuhragan The Arzhang The Kephalaia, Discourses, found in Coptic translation. Odù Ifá Jaap Verduijns Odu Ifa Collection Primary religious texts, that is, the Avesta collection, The Yasna, the Visperad, a collection of supplements to the Yasna. The Yashts, hymns in honor of the divinities, the Vendidad, describes the various forms of evil spirits and ways to confound them. Shorter texts and prayers, the Yashts the five Nyaishes, the Sirozeh, there are some 60 secondary religious texts, none of which are considered scripture. The Khordeh Avesta, Zoroastrian prayer book for lay people from the Avesta, religious full text online library Ancient texts library Internet Sacred Text Archive
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Soul
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In many religious, philosophical and mythological traditions, the soul is the incorporeal essence of a living being. Depending on the system, a soul can either be mortal or immortal. In Judeo-Christianity, only human beings have immortal souls, for example, the Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas attributed soul to all organisms but argued that only human souls are immortal. Other religions hold that all organisms have souls, as did Aristotle, while some teach that even non-biological entities possess souls. The latter belief is called animism, Greek philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, understood that the soul must have a logical faculty, the exercise of which was the most divine of human actions. Anima mundi is the concept of a world soul connecting all living organisms on planet Earth, the Modern English word soul, derived from Old English sáwol, sáwel, was first attested in the 8th-century poem Beowulf v.2820 and in the Vespasian Psalter 77.50. Further etymology of the Germanic word is uncertain, the Koine Greek word ψυχή psychē, life, spirit, consciousness, is derived from a verb meaning to cool, to blow, and hence refers to the breath, as opposed to σῶμα, meaning body. Vulgate, et nolite timere eos qui occidunt corpus animam autem non possunt occidere sed potius eum timete qui potest et animam et corpus perdere in gehennam. Authorized King James Version And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, vulgate Creavitque Deus cete grandia, et omnem animam viventem atque motabilem. KJV And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, Paul of Tarsus used ψυχή and πνεῦμα specifically to distinguish between the Jewish notions of נפש nephesh and רוח ruah. The ancient Greeks used the word alive for the concept of being ensouled, the soul was considered the incorporeal or spiritual breath that animates the living organism. Francis M. Cornford quotes Pindar by saying that the soul sleeps while the limbs are active, but when one is sleeping, the soul is active and reveals an award of joy or sorrow drawing near in dreams. Erwin Rohde writes that an early pre-Pythagorean belief presented the soul as lifeless when it departed the body, drawing on the words of his teacher Socrates, Plato considered the psyche to be the essence of a person, being that which decides how we behave. He considered this essence to be an incorporeal, eternal occupant of our being, Socrates says that even after death, the soul exists and is able to think. He believed that as bodies die, the soul is reborn in subsequent bodies and Plato believed this as well, however. Thymos is located near the chest region and is related to anger, eros is located in the stomach and is related to ones desires. Plato also compares the three parts of the soul or psyche to a caste system. According to Platos theory, the soul is essentially the same thing as a states class system because, to function well
7.
Augustinian theodicy
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As such, it attempts to explain the probability of an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God amid evidence of evil in the world. They typically assert that God is perfectly good, that he created the world out of nothing, the entry of evil into the world is generally explained as punishment for sin and its continued presence due to humans misuse of free will. Gods goodness and benevolence, according to the Augustinian theodicy, remain perfect, Augustine of Hippo was the first to develop the theodicy. He rejected the idea that evil exists in itself, instead regarding it as a corruption of goodness, Augustine believed in the existence of a physical Hell as a punishment for sin, but argued that those who choose to accept the salvation of Jesus Christ will go to Heaven. In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas – influenced by Augustine – proposed a similar theodicy based on the view that God is goodness and he believed that the existence of goodness allows evil to exist, through the fault of humans. Augustine also influenced John Calvin, who supported Augustines view that evil is the result of free will and argued that sin corrupts humans, requiring Gods grace to give moral guidance. Hick regards evil as necessary for the moral and spiritual development of humans, the logic of Augustines approach has been adapted by Alvin Plantinga, among others. Plantingas adapted Augustinian theodicy, the free will defence – which he proposed in the 1980s – attempts to only the logical problem of evil. Some criticisms have also derived from science, as aspects of the Augustinian theodicy run contrary to scientific consensus regarding the beginning of the world. The Augustinian theodicy is a response to the problem of evil. Evidence of evil can call into question Gods nature or his existence – he is not omnipotent, not benevolent. Theodicy is an attempt to reconcile the existence and nature of God with evidence of evil in the world by providing explanations for its occurrence. The Augustinian theodicy asserts that God created the world ex nihilo, evil is not attributed existence in its own right, but is described as the privation of good – the corruption of Gods good creation. The Augustinian theodicy supports the notion of original sin, all versions of this theodicy accept the theological implications of the Genesis creation narrative, including the belief that God created human beings without sin or suffering. Evil is believed to be a just punishment for the fall of man, the free will of humans is offered by the Augustinian theodicy as the continued reason for moral evil, people commit immoral acts when their will is evil. Augustine of Hippo was a philosopher and theologian born in Roman Africa and he followed the Manichaean religion during his early life, but converted to Christianity in 386. His two major works, Confessions and City of God, develop key ideas regarding his response to suffering, in Confessions, Augustine wrote that his previous work was dominated by materialism and that reading Platos works enabled him to consider the existence of a non-physical substance. This helped him develop a response to the problem of evil from a perspective, based on his interpretation of the first few chapters of Genesis
8.
Irenaean theodicy
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The Irenaean theodicy is a Christian theodicy designed to respond to the problem of evil. As such, it defends the probability of an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God in the face of evidence of evil in the world. Numerous variations of theodicy have been proposed which all maintain that, while evil exists, God is either not responsible for creating evil, typically, the Irenaean theodicy asserts that the world is the best of all possible worlds because it allows humans to fully develop. Most versions of the Irenaean theodicy propose that creation is incomplete, as humans are not yet fully developed, second-century philosopher and theologian Irenaeus, after whom the theodicy is named, proposed a two-stage creation process in which humans require free will and the experience of evil to develop. In 1966, philosopher John Hick discussed the similarities of the preceding theodicies and he supported the view that creation is incomplete and argued that the world is best placed for the full moral development of humans, as it presents genuine moral choices. The development of theology has challenged the Irenaean tradition by teaching that Gods power is limited. His free will defence was not a theodicy because he was trying to show the compatibility of evil. D. Z. Phillips and Fyodor Dostoyevsky challenged the use of suffering, suggesting that love cannot be expressed through suffering. However, Dostoyevsky also states that the beauty of love is evident, in love can continue to grow, withstand. Michael Tooley argued that the magnitude of suffering is excessive and that, in some cases, french theologian Henri Blocher criticised Hicks universalism, arguing that such a view negates free will, which was similarly important to the theodicy. The Irenaean theodicy was first identified as a form of theodicy by John Hick in Evil, Hick distinguished between the Augustinian theodicy, which is based on free will, and the Irenaean theodicy, which casts God as responsible for evil but justified in it. The Irenaean theodicy is distinguished by its acceptance that God is responsible for evil, the Irenaean theodicy is a response to the evidential problem of evil which raises the problem that, if an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God exists, there should be no evil in the world. Evidence of evil in the world would make the existence of God improbable, the theodicy attempts to demonstrate that the existence of God remains probable, despite the occurrence of evil. According to the Irenaean tradition, humans are not created perfectly, the theodicy teaches that creation has two stages, humans were first created in the image of God, and will then be created in the likeness of God. Humans are imperfect because the stage is incomplete, entailing the potential, not yet actualised. To achieve this likeness of God, humans must be refined and developed, the theodicy proposes that evil and suffering exists in the world because this is the best way for humans to develop. As such, the Irenaean theodicy is sometimes referred to as the soul-making theodicy, typical to variations of the Irenaean theodicy is the notion that the present world is the greatest possible world, or the best of all possible worlds. Second-century philosopher Irenaeus developed a theodicy based on the idea that the creation of humans is still in progress and he proposed that creation consists of two distinct parts, first in the image of God, then in the likeness of God
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God
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In monotheism, God is conceived of as the Supreme Being and principal object of faith. The concept of God as described by most theologians includes the attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, divine simplicity, many theologians also describe God as being omnibenevolent and all loving. Furthermore, some religions attribute only a purely grammatical gender to God, incorporeity and corporeity of God are related to conceptions of transcendence and immanence of God, with positions of synthesis such as the immanent transcendence of Chinese theology. God has been conceived as personal or impersonal. In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, while in deism, God is the creator, in pantheism, God is the universe itself. In atheism, God is not believed to exist, while God is deemed unknown or unknowable within the context of agnosticism, God has also been conceived as the source of all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable existent. Many notable philosophers have developed arguments for and against the existence of God, there are many names for God, and different names are attached to different cultural ideas about Gods identity and attributes. In the ancient Egyptian era of Atenism, possibly the earliest recorded monotheistic religion, this deity was called Aten, premised on being the one true Supreme Being and creator of the universe. In the Hebrew Bible and Judaism, He Who Is, I Am that I Am, in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, God, consubstantial in three persons, is called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Judaism, it is common to refer to God by the titular names Elohim or Adonai, in Islam, the name Allah is used, while Muslims also have a multitude of titular names for God. In Hinduism, Brahman is often considered a concept of God. In Chinese religion, God is conceived as the progenitor of the universe, intrinsic to it, other religions have names for God, for instance, Baha in the Baháí Faith, Waheguru in Sikhism, and Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism. The earliest written form of the Germanic word God comes from the 6th-century Christian Codex Argenteus, the English word itself is derived from the Proto-Germanic * ǥuđan. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form * ǵhu-tó-m was likely based on the root * ǵhau-, in the English language, the capitalized form of God continues to represent a distinction between monotheistic God and gods in polytheism. The same holds for Hebrew El, but in Judaism, God is also given a proper name, in many translations of the Bible, when the word LORD is in all capitals, it signifies that the word represents the tetragrammaton. Allāh is the Arabic term with no plural used by Muslims and Arabic speaking Christians and Jews meaning The God, Ahura Mazda is the name for God used in Zoroastrianism. Mazda, or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå and it is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhā, means intelligence or wisdom. Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian *mazdhā-, from Proto-Indo-European mn̩sdʰeh1, literally meaning placing ones mind, Waheguru is a term most often used in Sikhism to refer to God
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Pandeism
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Pandeism is a theological doctrine which combines aspects of pantheism with aspects of deism. It holds that the deity became the universe and ceased to exist as a separate. Pandeism is proposed to explain, as it relates to deism, why God would create a universe and then abandon it, and as to pantheism, the origin and purpose of the universe. The word pandeism is a blend of the root words pantheism and deism, combining Ancient Greek, πᾶν pan all with Latin. It was perhaps first coined in the present meaning in 1859 by Moritz Lazarus, Pandeism falls within the traditional hierarchy of monistic and nontheistic philosophies addressing the nature of God. For the history of the words, pantheism and deism, see the overview of deism section. Weinstein noted the distinction between pantheism and pandeism, stating even if only by a letter, we fundamentally differ Pandeism from Pantheism and it has also been suggested that many religions may classify themselves as pantheistic but fit more essentially under the description of panentheistic or pandeistic. The earliest seeds of pandeism coincide with notions of monotheism, which generally can be traced back to the Atenism of Akhenaten, Weinstein in particular identified the idea of primary matter derived from an original spirit as found by the ancient Egyptians to be a form of pandeism. Weinstein similarly found varieties of pandeism in the views held in China, India, especially in the Hindu Bhagavad Gita. He similarly found that ideas of pandeism were reflected in the ideas of Heraclitus, religious studies professor, F. E. Peters, however, found with respect to the Pythagoreans and the Milesians that hat appeared. At the center of the Pythagorean tradition in philosophy, is another view of psyche that seems to owe little or nothing to the pan-vitalism or pan-deism that is the legacy of the Milesians. Gottfried Große in his 1787 interpretation of Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, describes Pliny, a contemporary statement of this idea is that, Since God is not a being, he is therefore not intelligible. This means not only that we understand him, but also that he cannot understand himself. Creation is a kind of effort by God to understand himself. Of Nicholas of Cusa, who wrote of the enfolding of creation in God and the unfolding of the human mind in creation, Weinstein wrote that he was, to a certain extent. This was reiterated by others including Discover editor Corey S. Powell, in the 1820s to 1830s, pandeism received some mention in Italy. Nannetti further specifically criticized pandeism, declaring, To you, fatal Pandeist, the laws that create nature are contingent and mutable, not another being in substance with forces driven by motions and developments. Neither Nannetti nor the 1838 author defines pandeism distinctly enough to distinguish it from pantheism
11.
Resurrection of Jesus
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The resurrection of Jesus is the Christian religious belief that, after being put to death, Jesus rose again from the dead. It is the central tenet of Christian theology and part of the Nicene Creed, Paul the Apostle declared that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Paul further asserted And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, two days after Good Friday, the day of his crucifixion. Easters date corresponds roughly with Passover, the Jewish observance associated with the Exodus, in the New Testament all four gospels conclude with an extended narrative of Jesuss arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial, and his resurrection. In each gospel these five events in the life of Jesus are treated with more detail than any other portion of that gospels narrative. Scholars note that the reader receives an almost hour-by-hour account of what is happening, the death and resurrection of Jesus are treated as the climax of the story, the point to which everything else has been moving all the while. After his death by crucifixion, Jesus was placed in a new tomb which was discovered early Sunday morning to be empty, the New Testament does not include an account of the moment of resurrection. In the Eastern Church icons do not depict that moment, but show the myrrhbearers, the major resurrection appearances of Jesus in the canonical gospels are reported to have occurred after his death, burial and resurrection, but prior to his ascension. This was in accordance with Mosaic Law, which stated that a person hanged on a tree must not be allowed to remain there at night, but should be buried before sundown. All four gospels report that women were the ones to find the tomb of Jesus empty, according to Mark and Luke, the announcement of Jesus resurrection was first made to women. According to Mark and John, Jesus actually appeared first to Mary Magdalene alone, in the gospels, especially the synoptics, women play a central role as eyewitnesses at Jesus death, entombment, and in the discovery of the empty tomb. All three synoptics repeatedly make women the subject of verbs of seeing, clearly presenting them as eyewitnesses, after they found the empty tomb, the gospels indicate that Jesus made a series of appearances to the disciples. He was not immediately recognizable, according to Luke, E. P. Sanders concluded that although he could appear and disappear, he was not a ghost. Writing that Luke was very insistent about that, Sanders pointed out that the risen Lord could be touched and he first appeared to Mary Magdalene, but she did not recognize him at first. The first two disciples to whom he appeared, walked and talked with him for quite a while without knowing who he was and he was made known in the breaking of the bread. Beside the Sea of Galilee he encouraged Peter to serve his followers and his final appearance is reported as being forty days after the resurrection when he was carried up into heaven where he sits on the right hand of God
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Leap of faith
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A leap of faith, in its most commonly used meaning, is the act of believing in or accepting something intangible or unprovable, or without empirical evidence. It is an act commonly associated with religious belief as many religions consider faith to be an element of piety. The phrase is attributed to Søren Kierkegaard, however, he never used the term. A leap of faith according to Kierkegaard involves circularity insofar as a leap is made by faith, in his book Concluding Unscientific Postscript, he describes the core part of the leap of faith, the leap. Thinking can turn itself in order to think about itself. But this thinking about itself never accomplishes anything, Kierkegaard says thinking should serve by thinking something. Kierkegaard wants to stop thinkings self-reflection and that is the movement that constitutes a leap, hes against people thinking about religion all day without ever doing anything. But hes also against external shows and opinions about religion and in favor of the movement of faith. He says, where Christianity wants to have inwardness, worldly Christendom wants outwardness, the most dreadful thing of all is a personal existence that cannot coalesce in a conclusion, according to Kierkegaard. He asked his contemporaries if any of them had reached a conclusion about anything or did every new premise change their convictions and this is how the leap was described in 1950 and then in 1960. Kierkegaard describes the leap using the story of Adam and Eve. Adams leap signifies a change from one quality to another, mainly the quality of possessing no sin to the quality of possessing sin, Kierkegaard maintains that the transition from one quality to another can take place only by a leap. When the transition happens, one directly from one state to the other, never possessing both qualities. In the Moment man becomes conscious that he is born, for his antecedent state, in the Moment man also becomes conscious of the new birth, for his antecedent state was one of non-being. It is important to understand that Kierkegaard felt a leap of faith was necessary in accepting Christianity due to the paradoxes that exist in Christianity, in his books Philosophical Fragments and Concluding Unscientific Postscript Kierkegaard delves deep into the paradoxes that Christianity presents. Moses Mendelssohn did the thing when Johann Kaspar Lavater demanded he discuss why he didnt want to become a Christian. Both Kierkegaard and Mendelssohn knew the difficulties involved when discussing religious topics, moses Mendelssohn, Letter to J. C. Lavater, December 12,1769 Kierkegaards use of the leap was in response to Lessings Ditch which was discussed by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in his theological writings
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