Crusades And The Church Essays (757 words) - Christianization

Crusades And The Church Crusades and the Church At the time of the Crusades, the official church had become corrupt and politically motivated. It should be noted, too, that crusaders did not take vows to go on crusade. The very term crusade, in English or in any other language, is a much later invention. What we call crusades, contemporaries knew as pilgrimages or even simply journeys. Aside from a tiny elite, people were illiterate and even if they could read, there was no access to a Bible or any scriptural teaching. It was an age of superstition and magic, where visions, signs and wonders were claimed by many. The masses' only source of knowledge about God was whatever the often corrupt and greedy clergy decided to teach. The early crusades broke new grounds for the power of the Church. It gave the Pope the highest order of command and brought about new religious vows. The crusade was a holy war, which differed from earlier wars against the enemies of Christendom in that it was waged by command of the pope. In order to ignite the fire of the Crusades, the Pope had to take existing theology about violence and warfare and turn it on its head. Until this time a Christian soldier had to do penance for any violence in order to reduce the time he would spend in purgatory before going to heaven. Violence was considered a necessary evil, but nevertheless still evil. Popes Gregory VII and Urban II changed that. They said that an act of warfare against the infidel, i.e. the Muslims, was in itself an act of penance, and if a Christian were to lose his life so doing, he would go straight to heaven. Many Crusaders extended this concept to include killing Jews too. With many people facing what they believed could be countless years in purgatory, it is no wonder that tens of thousands willingly gave themselves to the cause of killing the infidel. Regardless of motivation, an individual underwent a specific ceremony before he could be considered a crusader. The ceremony evolved somewhat over the centuries, but its general outlines remained the same. A would-be crusader sought out an ecclesiastical authority (a priest, bishop or higher cleric) and swore to carry out an armed pilgrimage in support of the Holy Places. He then usually received a cloth cross which he could place on his clothes to signify his new status. Crusading vows were usually taken in response to official preaching of a crusade by licensed churchmen. They were supposed to be taken only by fighting men or those who could otherwise contribute to a military effort, and they were not to be taken without the permission of the crusader's wife, since his long absence would deprive her of what was delicately called marital rights (Pope Innocent III, in need of troops for his crusading proposals, changed this in the thirteenth century, but in doing so he violated longstanding Church tradition and the plain intentions of canon law). The crusader's property and people were then placed under the protection of the Church, and he was to begin preparing to leave. If he did not discharge his vow within a certain period of time, he might be excommunicated by the church until he kept his word. Crusaders were often offered an indulgence in return for participation in the hardships of a crusade. The indulgence was later seriously abused, and the word acquired a justifiably obnoxious connotation. But in the beginning it was another of those carefully thought out doctrinal innovations that attended the reforms of the tenth and eleventh centuries. In brief, the indulgence assumed that if an individual were truly penitent for his sins, he might obtain remission or forgiveness for the temporal penalties of those sins by performing some arduous, virtuous or unpleasant task to compensate for them. This remission could apply to penalties imposed by the Church on earth (i.e., to penance prescribed for sin), and it might also apply to penalties imposed by the Church in the next world (i.e., to time spent in purgatory). Most medieval people were deeply interested in their fate in the next world, and the indulgence was a powerful incentive

Arbitrary Geometric Adresses essays

Arbitrary Geometric Adresses essays These are illustrations of the Spaceship Earth Epcot building in Florida. This directly reflects complex geometrical properties, for this is a unusually prodigious geodesic dome. The geosphere is 165 feet in diameter, 180 feet high (it stands 15 feet off the ground), encompasses 2,200,000 cubic feet of space, weighs 15.5 million pounds, has an outside surface of 150,000 square feet, and is covered by 11,324-silvered facets on 954 triangular panels. The exterior tiles are made of Alucobond material, a composite of ethylene plastic which has been chemically bonded between two aluminum panels. The name comes from ALUminum Composite BOND. This material can withstand the Florida climate and is self - cleaning. A specially designed gutter system prevents water from cascading off the sphere; rainwater is channeled through the structure and sent to underground drains, where it replenishes the World Showcase Lagoon. The pilings for Spaceship Earth extend far into the ground. It seems to be un der debate at times, but the debated numbers are usually between 110 and 130 feet with a range of 110 to 185 feet. 3D Objects: an investigation on the geometric drawing of 3D objects in space Orthographic projections of 3D objects is essentially related to a net of a complex 3D object. In other words, look at the illustrations; as you can see, you are given the nets of the Front, Side, and Top of a 3D object, and upon adding these together in 3D space, you get the given object. This is not often used in 3D animation, however, in order to be a professional graphics designer, the studying of orthographic projections is exclusively induced. There are many different types of 3-D drawings. One fairly simple way to get started drawing in 3-D is to try an isometric drawing. An isometric drawing of a cube looks like this: ...

Ethics and Global Climate Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethics and Global Climate Change - Essay Example The countries of the present world which are more developed than other countries with respect to economic factors are greater contributors to the emission of harmful particles into the climate. In the same manner, the economically developed countries also holds higher power of addressing the issue of reducing global warming when it comes to inculcating cost towards utilization of various innovative equipments that can significantly reduce global warming. Stephen Gardiner, in his article addressing issues of climate change, argued that the nations which are economically developed or the rich nations should take charge of bearing the most amount of costs required for the purpose of addressing consequences of global warming or eradication of the entire issue of global warming. Stephen Gardiner argued this way principally on the grounds of strong perspectives of economics and liability. In terms of economical aspect, Stephen Gardiner presented reasoning behind his argument on the basis o f an Integrated Assessment (IA) model. The model unites important aspects of the systems of economy and biophysics with the aim of realizing the alternative effects of both the climate as well as policies related to economic perspectives on each other. The model primarily aims at determining a perfect policy for the climatic factors that can exploit in maximum the activities related to the welfare of society. This model along with various other Integrated Assessment models provided an astonishing result that quite less counteractive effects towards global warming would appear in the next coming years due to the fact that costs associated with reduction of global warming is more than the amount of benefits that can be acquired. Thus, the supporters of this model such as Stephen Gardiner cited the argument that on the basis of economic costs, the countries which are economically developed should strive towards adapting consequences of global warming rather than reducing. However, with several considerations of arguably true facts, it was put forward by Stephen Gardiner that the developed or the rich nations should undertake steps which would benefit the countries economically. Considering the liability perspectives, Stephen Gardiner considers the developed or rich nations to be more responsible towards contributing to the worse conditions of the climate in recent times. Taking an approach of â€Å"backward-looking†, Gardiner held that these nations should bear the most amounts of costs considering their past impacts upon the climatic conditions. The industrialized countries are held to be more responsible towards carrying the costs that have been imposed due to emissions during the past years. Moreover, on scientific grounds, the developed economies of the world have largely contributed towards generating emissions during the past years due to massive industrialization. Thus, Stephen Gardiner argued with the logic that it should be the responsibility of t he developed nations to compensate higher proportion towards addressing issues of global warming for overusing. Persuasive Factors of Stephen Gardiner’s Belief Considering various issues related to the strategies for reducing adverse impacts of global warming, Stephen