Irish Revolt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Irish Revolt - Essay Example Popularly it is known as the Irish Revolt. When this Irish revolt happened the British were at the back foot due to the war against Germany and its economy was in shambles. So it was very difficult for the British to control the insurgency in Ireland. During this period there was a great deal of political violence and upheavel. The violence used by the British to suppress the rebels led to an over-whelming support for them. To seek complete independence the Irish Republican Army waged a guerilla war against the British from 1919-1921. Though the World War I had weakened the British but still the Irish knew that it would be a Herculean task to engage Great Britain in a conventional war. So, the Irish nationalists collectively took a decision to bleed Great Britain slowly by starting an unconventional war against it through guerilla war tactics and intelligence played a very vital role in this. Michael Collins was the Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army. He pinched th e British so much through his deadly tactics that he had an award of 10,000 over his head for 'dead or alive'. The IRA was particularly gruesome on those who took the bait to pass on information about Collins and immediately liquidated the person. Collins was equally vehement in acting against the British intelligence officers and played a vital role in executing a number of them. The British wanted to give a body blow to the Irish revolt by executing Collins and even raised a local force by the name of Black and Tans for the job. Despite that the local intelligence sources of the IRA were so effective that they on a number of occasions pre-empted the raids. There were a section of counterintelligence operatives in the IRA known by the name of Inner-Circle, and who were responsible for the penetration of various British installations. Their network spanned many nations and was able to penetrate deep in to various British facilities extending from Ireland to America and gathered hidd en messages that were later decoded and that in turn helped in the Irish Revolutionaries. The Inner Circle also established a central records center, known by the name of Brain Center within Dublin to effectively control and co-ordinate the counter-intelligence activities. This brain center also had detailed dossiers on many high ranking officials and the known intelligence officers and sympathizers of the British. The British intelligence service tried to penetrate the intelligence arm of the IRA and in its bid even planted a fake spy known by the name of Digby Hardy but the Irish intelligence had a inkling about his past and gathered lots of incriminating evidence against him. Eventually, hardy was expelled from Ireland. It came as a major humiliation for the British Intelligence and equally showcased the efficiency of the Irish Intelligence. In their penetration efforts IIS operatives were more consistent and successful than their British counterparts. The IIS had a number of Dub lin Castle officials on its payroll and extracted valuable information from them regarding the British military tactics and policies against the Irish Nationalists. The prominent among them were Ned Broy and James MacNamara. The IIS chief Collins also had a very valuable asset inside the British military intelligence who regularly passed information about the

BADM grad assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

BADM grad - Assignment Example This is carried out either by making a proposal or provision of other options. Certain tasks are then pressed down to corporate units where there is maximum experience. People with input tasks are later on requested to offer applicable information through efficient decisions based on evaluation of facts, instead of looking for judgment on management. RAPID decision-making model can be used to clarify process tasks and accountabilities the dedication to the point the organization takes action. Good transaction judgment provides a grasp on the trade-offs in accordance with the roles and tasks of all workers in the organization. Roles and responsibilities create an awareness of the group that will fulfill the decision of the organization. The RAPID model is best suited for decision-making teamwork, while the RACI model is best suited for implementation teams. The RAPID model will also focus more on the function of every member in the team while making the decision in order to entice the recruitment of more experienced people. The RACI model intentionally operates within execution plan to initiate numerous downstream decisions that surface frequently. Even though both decision-making models follow al principles concerning assigning of tasks and responsibilities, the high effect of the RAPID model calls for transparency around import ant decision-making roles for all individuals in the team. The IOPT model is a simple instrument that determines that style to be used when creating answers to a survey. The evaluation of the IOPT model involves four styles and patterns. The â€Å"Snowflake† graphic, transparencies, â€Å"your way† table and Chickenpox are the styles employed by the IOPT models. The â€Å"Snowflake† graphic are templates that recognize features linked to different planned patterns. The patterns have been designed to superimpose individual groups’ profiles. These

The Building Blocks of Life Worksheet Essay Example for Free

The Building Blocks of Life Worksheet Essay Part 1: Mitosis and Meiosis Short-Answer Response Use Ch. 5 of BioInquiry and the â€Å"Comparing Mitosis and Meiosis† video as resources for Part 1 of this assignment. Write 75- to 100-word answers to the following questions. Why are the process of mitosis and meiosis both important to a living organism? Mitosis is the process of asexual reproduction of cells. This process is important in order for living organisms to continue to live. If mitosis didn’t happen the living organisms would die when the original cells died off rather than the original cells making new cells that are exactly the same. Meiosis is the process of sexual reproduction where gametes are produced. This is the process of offspring being made. Animals, humans, and other forms of life that reproduce by meiosis would become extinct without meiosis. When would an organism need to undergo the process of mitosis? Meiosis? Mitosis is the process an organism would undergo to reproduce the cells needed to live such as any cell that makes replicas of itself in order to continue to live or to repair itself. Meiosis is the process that is required to reproduce offspring. In order for there to continue to be life forms on earth meiosis is important to continue the cycle of life. Both processes of cell production are important. They work differently but has similarities. They are both just important in the cycle of life. What would happen if meiosis did not occur? If meiosis didn’t occur it would cause endangerment and extinction of species and life forms. Meiosis is an important process to continue all species that reproduce sexually. Meiosis allows sperm and egg to produce gametes which is the beginning of a baby. Without this process populations in all species  would be affected unless the species reproduces asexually. Reproducing asexually means that there is no fusion of gametes to create offspring. Asexual reproduction happens with one parent. It is common in bacteria, fungi, and plants. Part 2: Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration Matrix Complete the matrix. Use the following questions to aid in completion: What is the purpose of this pathway? Reactants: What does this reaction need to proceed? Products: What is produced because of the reaction? The role of ATP: Does it supply energy or store energy? Cellular respiration Photosynthesis Pathway Glycolysis Krebs cycle Electron transport Light-dependent reaction Light-independent reaction Purpose Break down one molecule of glucose into two molecules of pyruvate Part of a metabolic pathway involved in the chemical conversion of carbohydrates Mediating biochemical reactions that produce adenosine Triphosphate Provide energy for the light-independent reaction To make food and carbohydrates can be synthesized Where it takes place Cell cytoplasm Matrix of the mitochondrion Mitochondria Thylakoids Stroma Reactants ATP, NADH, Pyruvates, CO2, Coenzyme A, PGAL Acetyl CO-A, Oxaloacetate, Citrate, Alpha Ketoglutarate Hydrogen ions, Oxygen, NADH, FADH2 Light, water, ADP, NADP+ ATP, carbon dioxide, and NADPH Products H2O, NADH, ATP Carbon dioxide and ATP Water, ATP O2, ATP, NADPH ADP, NADP+,glucose The role of ATP Oxidizing glucose Finish oxidation of glucose and produce majority of NADH and the only FADH2 ETS accepts energy from carriers in the matrix and stores it to a form that can be used to phosphorylate ADP, Producing ATP for Energy Transports solar energy in the form of ATP to power other chemical reactions Uses ATP from ETC to convert CO2 into G3P. References Pruitt, N. L., Underwood, L. S. (2006). BioInquiry: Making connections in biology (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Sons.

The novel Great Expectations Essay Example for Free

The novel Great Expectations Essay Great Expectations was written by Charles Dickens in the 19th century (1860-1861). It is said to be one of the classics of the English literary heritage and several film adaptations have been made of it. It first appeared in a weekly magazine called All the year round. Great Expectations is a book in which Dickens returned to the theme of a youths discovery of the realities of life. An unknown person provides the young hero, Pip, with money so that Pip can live as a gentleman. Pips pride is shattered when he learns there source of his Great Expectations. Only by revising his values does Pip restore his life on a foundation of empathy rather than on social position. In this coursework I shall be comparing two film versions: David Leans 1944 black and white version starring John Nutts and the 1997 colour version directed by Alfonso Cuaron which features, Ethan Hawke; Gwyneth Paltrow; Anne Bankcroft and Robert Deniro. I intend to compare the opening chapters in the two film versions, in which the young Pip/Finn encounters a scary convict who later becomes a momentous figure in Pips life.  Both films start with the adult voice of Pip/Finn reflecting on his childhood. The David Lean (1944) version closely follows the actual text whereas Alfonso Cuarons Version follows a sequential order but digresses greatly from the text. As the credits began rolling there are a variety of styles of music. The first style that we hear is a full orchestra and it then harrows down to only one flute which plays a childish style of music which is obviously representing the young PIP. Afterwards it goes into a romantic mood and after that a sad mood. It finally becomes a symphony of emotion to signify the films happy ever after ending. In the opening scene we start with a long shot of Pip and the tracking of pip across the field. At the camera is tracking Pip we see many images of death, for example as Pip is running the audience see a number of Jibbets. As Pip is running the audience is able to see how closely David Lean has followed the text. The marshes are seen to be just a long black horizontal line and the river a long horizontal line but not much thicker. The sky is also just a row of angry red lines and dense black ones. The camera again zooms in on Pips face to show us his apprehension as he climbs over the wall. The audience is able to see many gravestones are crooked and a lot of plants and weeds are overgrown. This suggests that this churchyard is uncared for. This adds tension to the opening scene because we wonder why this young child is there. All throughout the opening scene there is wind sound affects. The wind is an eerie sound which also adds to the tension of the scene. When I was watching Pip I felt a lot of sympathy because I had seen from the gravestone that both of his parents had died and learned that his only relative was his sister who he lived with and she wasnt exactly a ray of sunshine. Alfonso Cuarons version also starts with the credits first which is unusual for a modern day film. As the credits begin there is soft music with very exotic instruments such as a rainpie. The letters of peoples names appears in a fluid pattern, which gives us a watery feeling. This s a good technique as it sets the audience up for the opening scene where things are not necessarily as they seem. The first thing the audience sees is the character of Finn Pip) looking at the fish and then climbing into the boat. Finn takes out a notebook and begins to draw. At this point there is virtually no tension as there is an ordinary boy who is playing in the sunshine and frankly looks quite happy. There is none of the heart tugging emotion that is apparent in Leans black and white version. Finn then climbs out of his boat and carries on looking for more fish to draw. All of a sudden there is a big cloud of red forming underneath the water then a hand comes out of the water and grabs Finn and we realise that this is the convict. This method is more effective than Leans version because it is so unexpected; there is virtually no tension at all up to this point. Whereas Leans version builds the tension up so high that we actually expect something to happen to PIP. I assume that David Lean directed his film as he did in order to retain the essential authenticity of the book. This was important for Lean to do because the book has a way of taking you out of your own reality and this was what the people of 1944 needed to get away from the Second World War. Whilst the 1997 version is not trying to reproduce a historical piece- it is a modern version of the plot transposed to America. I believe that Cuaron did this in order to make the film more realistic, so that the audience could feel that this can happen to anybody. In doing this Cuaron lost the essence of the plot, with its fairytale ending. The similarity that I have seen in the two films is the contrast of Pip/Finn compared to the convict. The directors are both trying to balance Pip/Finns innocence compared to the convicts corruption. Lean does this by keeping Pip polite and sincere all the time while the convict is strangling and pushing him etc. Cuaron does this by making the convict swear to scare Finn; I feel that Cuaron does this because he thinks he needs to do more to shock the modern day. The main differences between the two versions are the location, setting and background. For example Cuarons version had an American actor doing Finns voiceover, it took away some of the reality of the film because I feel that Great Expectations is so typically English. I can agree to some extent that both films had a strong opening which is essential in a film. The reason for this is because if there is a weak opening t the film you will not want to watch the rest of it; the same when reading a book if the first few chapters are not engaging you will not want to finish the book. Generally I preferred David Leans version because it kept to the book. Maybe I might have differently if I hadnt read the book first, but the 1997 version deviated from the book so much that I was confused which character was meant to be which. Lea I felt was also much more effective in setting up the story. Although both films id follow a chronological order, David Leans 1944 version kept very closely to the text where as the coloured version altered the location and dialogue of the novel.  David Lean built up the tension first using sound effects I.e. wind and bustling trees, the dreariness of the marshes and using the numerous visions of death I.e. the jibbet and the crooked gravestones.

Comparison and History of the Catholic Church

Comparison and History of the Catholic Church Did Early Modern (c. 1450-1700) Catholics have a better appreciation of the need for rituals than Protestants? INTRODUCTION The years 1450 to 1700 were a time of great transition and contradiction in Europe. The intellectual, scientific, and cultural enlightenment of the Renaissance was blooming prodigiously, yet the dominant societal force was almost invariably religion, particularly Roman Catholicism, whose sole domination gave way to an uneasy – at best – power-sharing relationship with its so-called bastard child, Protestantism, whose birth was circa 1517. Though Protestantism was a just reaction to the hypocritical corruption and tyranny of the bloated Catholic bureaucracy, whose raison d’etre had become as much about the perpetuation of its own control over Western civilization than about spirituality and enlightenment, both strains of Christianity nevertheless were intensely patriarchal, hierarchical, and structured, and as such relied heavily on a variety of traditions and rituals to perpetuate social and religious continuity and stability during a time of turmoil. It was a tw o-way dynamic, also – it is difficult to overestimate the degree to which common people in the Early Modern period framed their existence and its meaning through Christianity: The pattern of the cosmos, the history and destiny of the world, and the ordering of social, political and domestic relations were all explained in biblical and theological terms. †¦ Faith and ritual affected people at many different levels, making spiritual, intellectual, emotional and visceral appeals. Public and private affairs alike were deeply infused by religion.[1] Given that the notion of separation of church and state was foreign to commoners and even most educated people of the time, the line between the Church and governments was blurry or nonexistent, and thus the Church occupied the metaphysical and psychological persona and space of The Great Father Figure, with whom interaction was governed by, and who maintained order and meted out blessings and punishments through a variety of rituals: prescribed rites, ceremonies, and sacraments. These ranged from the mundane to the sublime; the vulgar to the dignified and were interwoven into the fabric of everyday life for tens of millions of people during the aforementioned 250 years. While doubtlessly there was much sincerity of intention from the Church (Catholic or Protestant in variety) in terms of attempting to bring spiritual edification to its followers, the Church also had what seemed to be an almost genetically encoded need to exert and perpetuate its power. Rituals were a key component t hese ongoing efforts, because after all, â€Å"ritualization is first and foremost a strategy for the construction of certain types of power relationships effective within particular social organizations,†[2] in this case power and relationships that were both benevolent and punitive in both nature and habit. Though the average citizen was still devoutly religious and found much solace in religious practices and rituals, the Catholic Church’s fortunes had ebbed somewhat by 1450 in comparison to the virtually unrestricted power it had enjoyed for several centuries prior. The devastating human cost of the bubonic plague, a.k.a. The Black Death, had not only severely undermined the conventional economic structures that held Europe together, but had also severely undermined the populations’ faith in the power of Catholic Church. The Church, despite predictable assurances and dicta proclaiming their power over sickness and death as the living representative of Christ on earth, was utterly powerless to curtail the shocking and inescapably vast tragedy of the Black Plague. Between 1347 and 1351, it is estimated that the Plague killed between a third and half of Europe’s entire population – tens of millions of people. The Church promised they could cure the sick and ba nish the disease, but they of course could not, as their entrenched hostility to science had left them with a blind spot with respect to medicine, to say nothing of their complicity in perpetuating the socioeconomic structures which facilitated unsanitary living conditions suffered by most common people – the chief reason for the spread of the Plague. Ironically, however, the morose and somber zeitgeist that was predominant in Europe after the Black Plague, the result of the collective grief of a civilization having lost a colossal part of itself, resulted in some people clinging even more tightly to the structures and rituals of their religion. Though life itself was fragile, fleeting, and often seemed to unfold with a cavalier cruelty, the structure and order of religious ritual provided the belief, authentic or not, that there was some structure and order to the greater universe. â€Å"†¦Sterility, bankruptcy, or death could strike anyone at any time, but rituals pro vided a countervailing principle of order†¦ Rituals brought the cosmic order into daily life by giving person access to divine power.† [3] Nonetheless, the inescapable conclusion drawn by many people was that the Church, rituals or no rituals, was impotent to stop the greatest human tragedy anyone had experienced. As such, the atmosphere in the decades comprising the tumultuous wake following the Plague was one in which people were far more willing and interested in secular and scientific approaches to problems like disease, poverty, and other common woes. This shift contributed heavily to both the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation itself. The advent of the Renaissance, agreed upon by most scholars as being around the middle of the 15th century, coincided with what is termed Early Modern Catholicism, a religion that found itself directly competing for the people’s relevance and trust with subversive elements within Renaissance science, art, and literature which began in Italy and quickly spread throughout Europe. Some elements of the Renaissance were intentionally subversive in attacking the Church; others had subversive effects inasmuch as the scientific or philosophical conclusions they reached were not in accord with Church doctrines. In particular, scientific advancements rooted in the use of empiricism – which demanded verifiable, tangible proof instead of faith in abstractions or religious dogma – presented a direct challenge to the authority of the Church. The collective work of a succession of scientists, including Copernicus, Gilbert, Kepler, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, and Newton, seriousl y undermined a variety of official Church positions that seem ludicrous in retrospect, such as the insistence that the solar system – and indeed, the universe – revolved around the Earth. The Catholic Church’s reaction to the shifting tides was its own rather fierce effort to reassert its power and relevance in both earthly and spiritual domains through a variety of methods ranging from clumsy and violent suppression of ideas it deemed impertinent or blasphemous, to a Reformation within itself (the Council of Trent, 1545-1563) to counter the great schism in Christianity caused by the Protestant Reformation. A constant theme, though, was a perpetual Catholic insistence on the use and value of rituals both for less noble purposes of control and power, as well as more noble humanitarian and spiritual purposes. Even the Protestants, breaking so strongly with the Catholics as they did, recognized the value of rituals and utilized them to both perpetuate and increase their numbers and institutional strength as they competed with Catholics to win the souls and minds of the Renaissance-era Europeans. To understand these rituals is to understand, at least from one perspective, an era so far removed from our own that it is difficult for many people to comprehend the times as much beyond ornate barbarism. Europe of the era was more than such a one-dimensional reality; it was, as all history is, a history of human beings struggling to make sense of their lives, people who â€Å"during the Early Modern period exhibited a highly sophisticated sensitivity to rituals. As the English jurist, John Selden put it in his Table Talk (London, 1689), ‘to know what was generally believed in all ages, the way is to consult the liturgies.’†[4] Indeed we shall, paying close attention to whether Catholics or Protestants seemed to have a better comprehension of why people might embrace and/or cling to ritual. CATHOLIC VIEWPOINT After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church ascended to the role of the most powerful and far-reaching organization on the planet, thanks in part to the vestigial influence it inherited from its incestuous intertwinement with the civic element of the Roman Empire itself –Emperor Flavius Theodosius had declared Christianity the state religion in 391 A.D., an extremely fortuitous turn of events given the centuries of vicious persecution endured by Christians at the hands of the Roman government. However, the Catholic Church claimed its legitimacy and roots as far back as the initial years after Christ’s death, holding the (later controversial) institutional conviction that its papal lineage was descended directly from the apostle (and later saint) Peter, whom is considered under Catholic tradition to be the first Pope. The Pope was, and is considered to this day to be the Vicar of Christ, acting on His behalf and wielding His authority; the Pope carries the of ficial title ‘Vicar of Christ and the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church.’ In keeping with such an inflated sense of importance, the Pope is considered infallible, a state of perfection the Church maintains was and is granted by Jesus himself: Christ endowed the Churchs shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. The exercise of this charism takes several forms†¦ The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful who confirms his brethren in the faith he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals. When the Church through its supreme Magisterium [the Pope] proposes a doctrine ‘for belief as being divinely revealed,’ and as the teaching of Christ, the definitions ‘must be adhered to with the obedience of faith.’[5] Other relevant tenets of Catholicism included the notion of a separation of man from God due to sin. The Church offered a chance to be reunited with God through a combination of faith and good works, and served as an essential intermediary between man and God/Christ. The byzantine structures and rituals of the Church served as means of manifesting the means for reconnection and for better or for worse, the Church – from the Pope on down – has always had an authoritarian and arbitrary control over what those means were and are, including the invention and perpetuation of any number of rituals which are not necessarily literally prescribed by Biblical texts (though the Catholics would argue they in fact are). Nonetheless, the Church believes the infallibility of the Pope endows it with the power to do whatever it deems fit to enable mankind to reconnect and reunite with God through the Church, which is a sine qua non intermediary between God and man – in fact, acco rding to Catholic doctrine, â€Å"the Churchs first purpose is to be the sacrament of the inner union of men with God.[6] The sacraments, plural, are in fact a key component of Catholic ritual, and are considered actions that are integral demonstrations and requirements of faith. ‘Sacramentals,’ or signs and symbols that manifest spiritual power, often went hand in hand with the sacraments. The sacraments were intended to confer the grace of the Holy Spirit on the faithful; sacramentals were intended to facilitate cooperation with God by serving as reminders of His glory. There are seven sacraments: Baptism – the initial sacrament, involving the immersion in or pouring of water on the head of a newborn. It is intended to free the person from original sin and ‘mark’ the person as belonging to Christ and embark him or her on a Christian path. Confirmation – the second chronological sacrament, intended to signify a deepening and solidifying of a person’s walk with Christ and membership in the Church. It is generally administered to young adults who have undertaken biblical study and church-sponsored activities to deepen their faith and illustrate their commitment to good works. The Eucharist – unlike the first two sacraments, the Eucharist is administered numerous times – weekly participation is generally considered mandatory, if not obligatory. Perhaps the most important Catholic sacrament, the Eucharist involves the sharing of bread and wine between Church and churchgoer to honor Christ’s sacrifice of his body and blood in a ritual He described to his disciples during the Last Supper (Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20). The Catholic Church holds that during this ritual, the bread and wine literally become, in every manner except physical appearance, the body and blood of Christ and invokes the spiritual ramifications therein. This divine process is known as transubstantiation; the bread and wine are transformed into both the physical and spiritual substance of Jesus’ body and blood. Reconciliation – known currently as the confession process and consists of a priest bestowing spiritual healing on a person who has increased his or her distance from God by sinning; it involves four elements: the confession of sin; the person’s authentic contrition and wish to reconcile; the priest’s recommendation for penance, i.e., what the person can do to make up for the sin(s); and lastly, the priest’s absolution. This sacrament, more than any other, cements the Church’s mandatory role as an intermediary between God and man. Anointing of the Sick – a special blessing and spiritual healing administered to a sick person, which also includes last rites for the dying. Holy Orders – the sacrament by which a lay believer is endowed with the privileges, powers, and responsibilities of church leader, specifically a bishop, priest, or deacon. Only a bishop can administer this particular sacrament. Matrimony – a couple marries in the presence of a church official, though by tradition the couple is understood to be administering the sacrament to one another. Once a couple has accepted the sacrament of marriage, the Church holds that the union cannot be dissolved. Though ostensibly purely religious or spiritual in nature, the sacraments in fact touched every major rite of passage in a person’s life – birth, the transition to adulthood, marriage, sickness, and death, as well as everything in between – the temptation to sin, the acts and consequences of sin, the celebration of the idea that Jesus gave his life so that sin would not permanently estrange mankind from God. In addition to mandating participation in the sacraments, the Catholic Church also recognized the value of allowing them to intermix and intermingle with the various local secular (and sometimes even pagan!) customs and celebrations that went along with the same rites of passage. In this way, the church made itself indispensable by insinuating itself into every facet of daily life. And for good measure, the church fortified its societal value by declaring itself indispensable for good measure, on no less an authority than the Son of God Himself. If the sacraments were the ritualistic cornerstones of the Church’s religious and social interaction with the flock, then sacramentals were the symbols and tools used to facilitate the rituals, and in some cases assumed ritual elements themselves. Sacramentals included such actions as the making of the sign of the cross to bless oneself; the use of holy water to bless a physical space, object, or another person; the display of blessed icons; and exorcisms. Though linked in some sense, the sacramentals were not necessarily dependent on sacraments’ ceremony within churches, i.e., they permeated everyday life outside of the church, thereby extending its authority. The words of a modern Catholic, theologian Scott Hahn, perhaps best sum up the best intention these Early Modern Catholic rituals and their elements: â€Å"God [has] a particular and characteristic way of dealing with His people down through the ages. He made covenants with them, and he always sealed these coven ants not with an abstract lecture on the nature of salvation and law, but with an outward sign, a physical sign.†[7] Perhaps, then, the sacraments and sacramentals were the physical symbols of these covenants. But benevolent as they may have been in intent, they were not always benevolently exercised – or exorcised, as it were – in practice. Indeed, the latter sacramental in the aforementioned list, exorcism, was a way in which the Church wielded the punitive element of its vast power over its followers. To challenge the role of the church in any way was an act of heresy punishable in any number of fashions ranging in magnitude from excommunication to exorcism to execution. For a religious institution priding itself – publicly, at least – on facilitating spiritual redemption and forgiveness of sin, the Church unfortunately was an active participant in a litany of barbaric and genocidal pursuits that relied on the circular logic of its own self-declared absolute spiritual authority to legitimize activities that as often as not had to do with irrational, cruel, or selfish human agendas, more than bona fide efforts spiritual edification or purification. (Regrettably, the former was often cloaked in the guise of the latter.) Nothing if not consistent in its methodology, the Church utilized a panoply of rituals, of varying degrees of formality compared to the sacraments, including sacramentals in an arbitrary fashion, to maintain order and mete out justice. According to Church writings, One of the most remarkable effects of sacramentals is the virtue to drive away evil spirits whose mysterious and baleful operations affect sometimes the physical activity of man. To combat this occult power the Church has recourse to exorcism, and sacramentals.[8] Exorcism, though certainly more rare than, say, weekly celebrations of the Eucharist, provided ample pageantry, drama, and the ability to instill fear and awe in the populations which, despite the advances of the Renaissance, were still heavily steeped in superstition. One particularly noteworthy (and gruesome) story is recounted in great detail within a 1703 report entitled The Cheats and Illusions of Romish Priests and Exorcists, delivered to the Archbishop of Canterbury in England to foment anti-Catholic sentiments amongst Protestants. The report, translated from French to English, describes the unfortunate fate of a one Father Urbain Grandier, the Catholic parish priest of St.-Pierre-du-Marchà © in Loudun, France, who was accused of witchcraft in 1630 by a group of nuns. The sisters claimed Grandier had wielded his considerable spiritual authority to command demons to possess them and force them to exhibit a variety of unholy behavior. In reality, Grandier was guilty of indiscre et disregard of his vows of celibacy and otherwise living a more ostentatious life than the Church deemed proper for a priest, which had made him some enemies within the Church hierarchy and local community. To complicate matters, Grandier had earned the specific wrath of his superior, Cardinal Richelieu, about whom Grandier had penned an unflattering and acerbic tract. The nuns made a public spectacle of their putative possession; â€Å"They uttered cries so horrible and so loud that nothing like it was ever heard before. They made use of expressions so indecent as to shame the most debauched of men, while their acts, both in exposing themselves and inviting lewd behavior from those present would have astonished the inmates of the lowest brothels in the country.†[9] An exorcist was dispatched who, not coincidentally, was an enemy of Grandier, and in addition to conducting the exorcism ritual in public, he also urged the nuns – who were faking the entire spectacle â₠¬â€œ to continue and heighten the freakishness of their antics. He was soon joined by other exorcism â€Å"experts† from Loudon and within short order, thousands of people were watching daily as the exorcists shouted, read Bible verses, sprinkled holy water, genuflected, and theatrically performed sections of the Catholic Rite of Exorcism, a codified, specific, and comprehensive ritual of its own. In short order, the public outcry against Grandier became so overwhelming that the Cardinal was ‘forced’ to arrest him. He was tortured brutally by a surgeon ordered to probe for the ‘Devil’s Mark,’ an arbitrary defined body feature which could be anything from a mole to a birthmark, supposedly serving as evidence the Devil had branded his servant: â€Å"the barbarous surgeon would make them see that the other parts of [Grandier’s] body were very sensible, he turned the probe at the other end, which was very sharp pointed, and thrust it to th e very bone; and then the abundance of people [outside] heard complaints so bitter, and cries so piercing, that they [were] movedto the heart.†[10] It only got worse from there. The Cardinal refused to allow Grandier a civil trial and instead, forged a confessional document which – laughable now, but frightening at the time – was a contract between Satan and Grandier bearing ‘signatures’ of hellish figures such as Astaroth, Beelzebub, and Leviathan, and Lucifer himself. (See Figure A.) The Cardinal deemed this evidence enough to deny Grandier any recourse through the government courts and his tribunal sentenced Grandier to a horrific form of torture known as ‘the boots,’ which were â€Å"wedges that fitted the legs from ankles to knees. The torturer used a large, heavy hammer to pound the wedges, driving them closer together. At each strike, the inquisitor repeated the question. The wedges lacerated flesh and crushed bone, sometimes so thoroughly that marrow gushed out and the legs were rendered useless.†[11] Grandier confessed nothing under the torture – which was carried out by the local priests. He cried out to God that his accusers were hypocrites with their own agenda, enraging the priests, who tried to silence him by dumping holy water on him. Eventually, the sadistic priests were so enraged by their failure to extract any information about ‘accomplices’ out of him that they burned him alive and conscious (generally, the victim was at least strangled to unconsciousness first), in front of a huge crowd. In this, one of far too many examples in the Early Modern Era, the grotesque rituals of exorcism and witchcraft, one as ungrounded in rational science as the other, had served a dual purpose – to reinforce the Church’s position as a mighty force against the Devil, who ostensibly roamed the earth in search of victims and accomplices, and also to send a clear message to those who were listening that it was both unwise to stray too far from the Church’s teachings and even less wise to cross paths with Cardinal Richelieu, who clearly had no qualms about vulgar and public displays of power. The Church could be benevolent if the flock toed the line, i.e., the seven sacraments, but indescribably cruel and merciless when threatened or insulted – utilizing the same symbols and rituals employed in its benevolent acts. Of course, without a public appetite for grotesque spectacle – hardly unique to the Early Modern period, the Church rituals would not have been quite so effective. In any case, the success of the Church’s carrot-and-stick approach to herding the flock can hardly be doubted. Another self-justified ritual that the Catholic Church utilized to ensure its own relevance and staying power was the system of indulgences. Indulgences were pardons granted by the church for all or part of a temporal punishment mandated by sins, as opposed to the eternal punishment, pardon for which was granted by the sacraments of baptism and reconciliation. As the Church states, An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.[12] An arbitrary penance for temporal punishment, for example 10 days of feeding the poor because one had suffered from impure thoughts, was assigned as part of reconciliation, but an indulgence granted by the Church – who believed it had an inexhaustible bank account of spiritual goodwill could dispense with any such temporal punishment if it chose to. Indulgences were usually meted out in time measurements: days, weeks, etc. Further complicating matters was the Church’s belief that those believers who died without having dispense with the totality of accumulated punishments for their temporal sins would have to wait in Purgatory – a halfway house of sorts between earth and Heaven – until those temporal sins were paid off. The Church granted itself the power to bestow indulgences not just to individuals for their own sins, but also to family members on behalf of relatives whose souls were believed to be Purgatory’s state of limbo. If this paradigm were not already complicated and suspect as it was, the Church further muddied the practical and moral aspects of indulgences by allowing money to enter into the equation. The most notorious example, in fact, was one of the straws that broke the proverbial camel’s back and helped cause the Protestant Reformation. In 1517, Pope Leo X announced that indulgences would be awarded to those Catholics who gave alms to assist in the spectacularly ambitious (and expensive) rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The project had not been undertaken for entirely spiritual motivations; Pope Julius II, a notorious egomaniac, had wished for a burial place whose grandeur would match his own sense of self-importance, given the association with St. Peter himself. The notion of even using the term ‘alms’ in conjunction with the project was also suspect, given the Church was not exactly known for being impoverished; if any financial strain was present, it was of the Church’s own making. Nonetheless, the sale of these indulgences was sanctioned blessed by the Vicar of Christ, who appointed a loyal lieutenant to tour Europe collecting money. This most enthusiastic salesperson was a Dominican Friar named Johan Tetzel, who was Leo’s commissioner of indulgences for Germany. The certificates he issued (see Figure B) provoked outrage from many fellow Catholic figures (or at least those who possessed enough personal power to dare challenge the Church) because of their suspect language: â€Å"By the authority of all the saints, and in mercy towards you, I absolve you from all sins and misdeeds and remit all punishments for ten days.† Some took this to mean the Church was willing to forgive sins in advance and therefore was sanctioning sinful behavior; worse, the language was inconsistent with Catholic theology, insofar as indulgences were intended to render unnecessary the punishments mandated by temporal sin. (The sin i tself was already forgiven and required no absolution; penance was the requirement and the indulgences were penance vouchers, if you will.) In addition the muddled theology, Tetzel’s marketing campaign was shameless. As he traveled around Europe gleefully raising money, he employed the slogan â€Å"as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.†[13] For many Catholics, even the most loyal and faithful, the rituals had become detached from their spiritual moorings. PROTESTANT VIEWPOINT One church figure who found the selling of indulgences repugnant was Martin Luther, a Franciscan monk and priest at the Castle Church in Saxony. He was deeply concerned that those with more money could buy their, or their dead relatives’, way out punishment for temporal sins, or worse, that some of the poor – who would often travel to the Vatican to donate what little money they had – were being exploited by the Church instead of receiving its blessings without the strings of money. A bold man, Luther preached three sermons criticizing the current method of administering indulgences between 1516 and 1517. Indulgences were not Luther’s only point of deep disagreement with the Church. He believed the Church’s self-perceived role as mediator between God and man, and the rituals it employed in that role, had become dangerously distorted and had lost their spiritual authority. Accordingly, he wrote his 95 Theses, which gained widespread distribution thro ughout Europe within two months, thanks to a new invention of the Renaissance – the printing press. 95 Theses directly challenged the Church, accusing it of greed and debasing itself by overindulgence in worldly matters, and asked for a debate and clarification from the Church regarding the theological basis for the administration of indulgences. (Luther was careful not to assert that the Pope did not have the right to grant them, just that the methodology was suspect and corrupt.) Additionally, and perhaps more shockingly, Luther openly questioned the infallibility and supreme authority of the papacy. Pope Leo X was outraged and demanded on several occasions that Luther recant and declare his submission to the Church, but Luther refused and Leo excommunicated him in January 1521, then declared him a heretic and banned his writings in July of the same year. Luther was spared a more gruesome fate, a la witch, by virtue of his good relationship with Elector Frederick of Saxony, who was expected to become the next Holy Roman Emperor and whose good graces Pope Leo wished to maintain. Frederick arranged to have Luther taken into protective custody, and Luther spent the remainder of his life dependent upon the protection of sympathetic princes. Luther’s boldness unleashed a series of transformations known as the Protestant Reformation, that had profound political effects on Europe that would reverberate for years to come in clashes of Protestants vs. Catholics – many of them bloody. But from a religious and social perspective, Luther ushered in a re-examination, and ultimately, a reorganization of the way Christianity defined and facilitated the relationship between God and man, including the role and use of rituals. The essence of Luther’s grievances was not necessarily his objection to indulgences, though perhaps they were the catalyst. Luther represented a new philosophy, which eventually was embodied in the various offshoots of Protestantism, all of which refused to accept that the Church was a required intermediary between God and man, nor were the arbitrary and complex procedures – often manifested in required rituals such as the sacraments – necessary for salvation or the maintenanc e of faith. In essence, the Church had become more style than substance. Eventually, due to the philosophical groundwork laid by theologians such as St. Augustine and expounded upon and propagated by Luther, the Protestant movement came to hold salvation was earned by the act of faith alone, not faith and good works as the Catholic Church insisted. Luther wrote: Beware, therefore, that the external pomp of work

Just Another Scar :: Personal Narratives

Just Another Scar It began on one smoldering hot day in Tucson. This was another usual day for the residents of Tucson, so hot we could cook an egg on the sidewalk. My dad was outside working on the car, sweating more and more with every turn of the wrench. My brother was shooting hoops in our driveway trying to improve his skills. With the sun shining down and the bouncing of my brother’s basketball I realized I needed to be outside having fun and getting tan as well. I grabbed my sunglasses, laced up my Nike’s and headed outside for some fun in the sun. I played an intense game of one-on-one with my brother. Of course he beat me drastically. My dad had paused occasionally to cheer me on and then continued working on the car. The sun was getting hotter and I was getting weary of playing basketball. I decided to take a ride on my bike. I had this incredible bike that I got the year before for my 13th birthday. It was a vibrant teal color with black stripes below the handlebars and along the side. It was my first mountain bike. I checked my tires to make sure there was enough air and pulled my bike out into the driveway. Our driveway is not concrete so it was hard to get started and ride my bike to the road through the deep piles of gravel. Once I got onto the road it was exhilarating. The sun was scorching, so it felt good to have the cool breeze blowing through my hair. I turned right onto the street and started to ride, I had just gotten used to changing gears while streaming down the road so I was ecstatic. I live in a neighborhood that has tons of hills, so I knew right away that my bike ride was going to be a fun one. I wore shorts and a tank top so I felt the sun beating down on me from above. There was a slight hint of barbeque in the air and it made my mouth water. The trees were rustling around me and I was off! I darted around the first corner of my neighborhood and sped off down the hill that followed. I was good enough to take my hands off the handlebars while I was riding because the momentum of the bike kept me going straight, it was like being on a roller coaster, throwing my arms up in the air and ride. Just Another Scar :: Personal Narratives Just Another Scar It began on one smoldering hot day in Tucson. This was another usual day for the residents of Tucson, so hot we could cook an egg on the sidewalk. My dad was outside working on the car, sweating more and more with every turn of the wrench. My brother was shooting hoops in our driveway trying to improve his skills. With the sun shining down and the bouncing of my brother’s basketball I realized I needed to be outside having fun and getting tan as well. I grabbed my sunglasses, laced up my Nike’s and headed outside for some fun in the sun. I played an intense game of one-on-one with my brother. Of course he beat me drastically. My dad had paused occasionally to cheer me on and then continued working on the car. The sun was getting hotter and I was getting weary of playing basketball. I decided to take a ride on my bike. I had this incredible bike that I got the year before for my 13th birthday. It was a vibrant teal color with black stripes below the handlebars and along the side. It was my first mountain bike. I checked my tires to make sure there was enough air and pulled my bike out into the driveway. Our driveway is not concrete so it was hard to get started and ride my bike to the road through the deep piles of gravel. Once I got onto the road it was exhilarating. The sun was scorching, so it felt good to have the cool breeze blowing through my hair. I turned right onto the street and started to ride, I had just gotten used to changing gears while streaming down the road so I was ecstatic. I live in a neighborhood that has tons of hills, so I knew right away that my bike ride was going to be a fun one. I wore shorts and a tank top so I felt the sun beating down on me from above. There was a slight hint of barbeque in the air and it made my mouth water. The trees were rustling around me and I was off! I darted around the first corner of my neighborhood and sped off down the hill that followed. I was good enough to take my hands off the handlebars while I was riding because the momentum of the bike kept me going straight, it was like being on a roller coaster, throwing my arms up in the air and ride.

Behaviorism: Walden Two by B.F. Skinner Essay -- Psychology

Behaviorism: Walden Two by B.F. Skinner Castle closed the book deliberately and set it aside. He had purposefully waited half a decade to read Walden Two after its initial publication, because, years after parting from Frazier and his despotic utopia, he could not shake the perturbation the community inspired. But, eight years later, he had grown even more frustrated with himself at his apparent inability to look at the situation calmly. In a fit of willfulness, he had pulled the unopened volume from its top shelf, and now he was hoping that that had been a good idea. His daily temperament, to say the least, had suffered from his continual aggravation. Something had to be done about this. As an experiment, he guessed, Walden Two was a success. He himself had seen the happy community and clearly remembered the horrid time he had had debunking it. It was certainly harder to criticize Walden Two than it was to debunk democracy and the outside society; Frazier had made sure to drive that point home. The inhabitants were clearly at peace, and he was struck by the story Burris told of the woman who sat in a chair, enjoying her rest and carefully not looking at her own garden. He hadn’t known that Burris’s doubts were so strong that he had to make his own observations. Castle’s mostly academic mind approved heartily. He supposed the woman was happy. She was obviously too old to be a second-generation Walden Two inmate, and so had not been subtly forced to be unselfish and content. She willingly subscribed to the Code and accepted the rules that told her not to gossip, to refrain from gratitude, and not to admire her own flowers. She led a placid, comfortable life and he supposed that most elderly people, havin... ...ything was automatically on the same level of constant happiness. Walden Two was memorable as a community, not for its individuals. Its people were a mass of subjects, and Frazier did not admit that there were people who could not be made to conform. Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s were medical problems that could not be ignored and they threw the idea of â€Å"nurture, not nature† on which Frazier’s concepts rested, entirely off-balance. Behaviorism could not control every single aspect of life; that would be like trying to teach someone with no right arm to knit using his hands. And Castle knew that if he could resent being treated as part of a unit instead of a unique individual, millions of others would, too. Feeling a savage flood of perhaps incomplete triumph, Castle practically threw the book back onto its shelf. He, for one, refused to give in to Frazier. Behaviorism: Walden Two by B.F. Skinner Essay -- Psychology Behaviorism: Walden Two by B.F. Skinner Castle closed the book deliberately and set it aside. He had purposefully waited half a decade to read Walden Two after its initial publication, because, years after parting from Frazier and his despotic utopia, he could not shake the perturbation the community inspired. But, eight years later, he had grown even more frustrated with himself at his apparent inability to look at the situation calmly. In a fit of willfulness, he had pulled the unopened volume from its top shelf, and now he was hoping that that had been a good idea. His daily temperament, to say the least, had suffered from his continual aggravation. Something had to be done about this. As an experiment, he guessed, Walden Two was a success. He himself had seen the happy community and clearly remembered the horrid time he had had debunking it. It was certainly harder to criticize Walden Two than it was to debunk democracy and the outside society; Frazier had made sure to drive that point home. The inhabitants were clearly at peace, and he was struck by the story Burris told of the woman who sat in a chair, enjoying her rest and carefully not looking at her own garden. He hadn’t known that Burris’s doubts were so strong that he had to make his own observations. Castle’s mostly academic mind approved heartily. He supposed the woman was happy. She was obviously too old to be a second-generation Walden Two inmate, and so had not been subtly forced to be unselfish and content. She willingly subscribed to the Code and accepted the rules that told her not to gossip, to refrain from gratitude, and not to admire her own flowers. She led a placid, comfortable life and he supposed that most elderly people, havin... ...ything was automatically on the same level of constant happiness. Walden Two was memorable as a community, not for its individuals. Its people were a mass of subjects, and Frazier did not admit that there were people who could not be made to conform. Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s were medical problems that could not be ignored and they threw the idea of â€Å"nurture, not nature† on which Frazier’s concepts rested, entirely off-balance. Behaviorism could not control every single aspect of life; that would be like trying to teach someone with no right arm to knit using his hands. And Castle knew that if he could resent being treated as part of a unit instead of a unique individual, millions of others would, too. Feeling a savage flood of perhaps incomplete triumph, Castle practically threw the book back onto its shelf. He, for one, refused to give in to Frazier.