Early Childhood School Essay Example for Free

Early Childhood School Essay Education To Be More was published last August. It was the report of the New Zealand Governments Early Childhood Care and Education Working Group. The report argued for enhanced equity of access and better funding for childcare and early childhood education institutions. Unquestionably, thats a real need; but since parents dont normally send children to pre-schools until the age of three, are we missing out on the most important years of all? B A 13-year study of early childhood development at Harvard University has shown that, by the age of three, most children have the potential to understand about 1000 words most of the language they will use in ordinary conversation for the rest of their lives. Furthermore, research has shown that while every child is born with a natural curiosity, it can be suppressed dramatically during the second and third years of life. Researchers claim that the human personality is formed during the first two years of life, and during the first three years children learn the basic skills they will use in all their later learning both at home and at school. Once over the age of three, children continue to expand on existing knowledge of the world. C It is generally acknowledged that young people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds tend to do less well in our education system. Thats observed not just in New Zealand, but also in Australia, Britain and America. In an attempt to overcome that educational under-achievement, a nationwide programme called Headstart was launched in the United States in 1965. A lot of money was poured into it. It took children into pre-school institutions at the age of three and was supposed to help the children of poorer families succeed in school. Despite substantial funding, results have been disappointing. It is thought that there are two explanations for this. First, the programme began too late. Many children who entered it at the age of three were already behind their peers in language and measurable intelligence. Second, the parents were not involved. At the end of each day, Headstart children returned to the same disadvantaged home environment. D As a result of the growing research evidence of the importance of the first three years of a childs life and the disappointing results from Headstart, a pilot programme was launched in Missouri in the US that focused on parents as the childs first teachers. The Missouri programme was predicated on research showing that working with the family, rather than bypassing the parents, is the most effective way of helping children get off to the best possible start in life. The four-year pilot study included 380 families who were about to have their first child and who represented a cross-section of socio-economic status, age and family configurations. They included single-parent and two-parent families, families in which both parents worked, and families with either the mother or father at home. The programme involved trained parent ¬educators visiting the parents home and working with the parent, or parents, and the child. Information on child development, and guidance on things to look for and expect as the child grows were provided, plus guidance in fostering the childs intellectual, language, social and motor-skill development. Periodic check-ups of the childs educational and sensory development (hearing and vision) were made to detect possible handicaps that interfere with growth and development. Medical problems were referred to professionals. Parent-educators made personal visits to homes and monthly group meetings were held with other new parents to share experience and discuss topics of interest. Parent resource centres, Located in school buildings, offered learning materials for families and facilitators for child care. E At the age of three, the children who had been involved in the Missouri programme were evaluated alongside a cross-section of children selected from the same range of socio-economic backgrounds and Family situations, and also a random sample of children that age. The results were phenomenal. By the age of three, the children in the programme were significantly more advanced in language development than their peers, had made greater strides in problem solving and other intellectual skills, and were Further along in  social development. In fact, the average child on the programme was performing at the level of the top 15 to 20 per cent of their peers in such things as auditory comprehension, verbal ability and language ability. Most important of all, the traditional measures of risk, such as parents age and education, or whether they were a single parent, bore little or no relationship to the measures of achievement and language development. Children in the programme performed equally well regardless of scio-economic disadvantages. Child abuse was virtually eliminated. The one factor that was found to affect the childs development was family stress leading to a poor quality of parent-child interaction. That interaction was not necessarily bad in poorer families. F These research findings are exciting. There is growing evidence in New Zealand that children from poorer socio-economic backgrounds are arriving at school less well developed and that our school system tends to perpetuate that disadvantage. The initiative outlined above could break that cycle of disadvantage. The concept of working with parents in their homes, or at their place of work, contrasts quite markedly with the report of the Early Childhood Care and Education Working Group. Their focus is on getting children and mothers access to childcare and institutionalised early childhood education. Education from the age of three to five is undoubtedly vital, but without a similar Focus on parent education and on the vital importance of the first three years, some evidence indicates that it will not be enough to overcome educational inequity.

Smart Sensor Stick For Blind Information Technology Essay

Smart Sensor Stick For Blind Information Technology Essay The issue that needed most attention when dealing with problems faced by 90 of blind people in society is lack of sense of direction . Considering this sensitive issue, I have decided to present this report to the company on need-base analysis for Smart Sensor Stick for Blind, based on companys predefined criteria. This design after improvements and modifications would also be able to guide a person to park his car safely. In addition we would test our design against sustainability criteria and core stratifies for set of advantages and disadvantages associated. Specification This project aims to equip a blind person with an audible signal, signaling for an obstacle at a distance. This would give a blind person confidence taking right decisions. A sensor is mounted on the lower end of the stick which could sense an obstacle from a distance. Another sensor could hear the incoming sounds like of a ghastly approaching car and send to microcontroller. Microcontroller send signal to the speaker from where the blind person would hear and small chip on the blinds stick would decide to send an alarm to the person. The same should also be helpful for parking a car with accident based on the critical distance alarm. Design parameters Following are some design considerations in terms of design parameters and assumptions made for use and environment where would be working. Parameters Critical distance: 1 meter for both blind person movement and car parking Alert alarm: the microcontroller should decide and send warning to the blind person before he comes close to one meter of the obstacle. The same is applicable for the car parking guidance. Time period: the warning or alert system should take 1mili second or less for whole operation Cost: the system is very simple and should be very cheap. Modified parameters Design: the design is simple so that a layman is able to handle and operate it very easily. Additional parameters Energy-efficiency: it should meet guidelines of Green IT since it consumes low energy for longer life span. It only consists of low energy consuming sensor Mica2, it is shown in the Figure below and please refer to detail datasheet from the manufacturer Crossbow in the Appendix III (C r o s s b ow Te c h n o l o g y, 2008). Figure : MIca2 mote (C r o s s b ow Te c h n o l o g y, 2008) Safety: since it would be used by special people so it should be harmless in design. For example, should not produce electric shock or sharp edges. Reliability: we had added an extra sensor in the earlier design in order to make it more reliable, in case one fails other take charge. But one is made active other passive in line with energy efficiency design parameter as discussed above. Assumptions Following are underlining assumptions are used in order to better test and use the product in real scenarios. 1 meter is enough distance for a person moving at an average speed to take his decision to safety. The person is not duff so that product is best used, so it works well for people with blindness problem only. The warning distance for parking a car is 2 meter which is sufficient for car being parked at a normal speed. As the improved design would be solar energy supported we suppose that there is abundant supply of sunlight. Description of the Final Design This project aims to provide audible signals to the blind person to direct them to make decisions based on reliable information, so that they are directed to the safe path by avoiding the collisions after equipping them with the above mentioned system. Design description In order to design the above product as shown in the block diagram in Figure 1, we mounted two sensors on the stick (i.e. while stick used by the blind), one on lower end and other on the middle. The similar diagram in provided in the appendix I, as used in another work (Technologies, 2010). This is done primarily to achieve the reliability in case of one of the sensors get fail. This sensor is able to sense the obstacle from 10 meters and sends the signal to microcontroller. After receiving the signal the microcontroller plays an alarm or alert so that person holding the stick comes to know that there is hurdle in front of him and he should change the course until he is able to fine a free way (Rajendra Prasad Mahapatra, 2009). Similarly, this system can be mounted on a car with one sensor in front and other back of the car. Block diagram Following a simple block diagram for our modified design is given below: Obstacle Sensor 1 Obstacle Sensor 2 Distance Meter Decision Microcontroller Specked Power Source Figure : Block diagram Pseudo code Here we have shown a simple pseudo code for functioning of above design. While (signal) //search for signal { if (mode==1) { blind-mode)} // see for operation mode Else (parking-mode) Send (signal) // send alarm to controller to send alarm to speaker Microcontroller (signal){ Alert-alarm} } } do; Figure : Pseudocode for system design Design evaluation In this section, we will give critical evolution of the current product and give recommendations based on the suggested modifications and improvements. Discussion As per detailed analysis and considerations we have find out the current design need improvements. These improvements have been are in the form of previous design modifications and some additional features. These changes will make the final product more reliable, environment friendly, and safe to handle and operate. Recommendations An extra sensor is needed to be added in order to add reliability. Since, failure of device could endanger the person holding it. It wound compromise the energy efficiency, as we suggest making one of sensor in active mode and other in passive. It would take charge of signaling an obstacle as soon then first one fails. The overall modified design would meet the Green IT standards to safe energy and run so be cost effective. It has been noticed that an electronic device during its life time consume more energy-bill than it was used to buy it. It will be operated on two Mica2 (Please refer to the appendix III for datasheet) motes running on single battery and one active at time. The device should be able to handle two modes of operation; namely, blind-mode and parking-mode. It should switch between two modes with just single click of button. The transfer from one mode to another mode is made as transparent as possible. Another important modification in current design is safety procedures so make sure that device safe to be operated by a special person. The device is steel made for durability but with plastic cover to avoid injury. Moreover, since it operates though on small power supply should be eclectic shock proof since it has plastic and rubber cover. Sustainability Sustainability The sustainability in simple words is the, ability of the product to be sustained indefinitely (Design, 2004). Sustainable design The sustainable design can be defined as, The design of system that can be sustained indefinitely. And Sustainable product designed therefore be defined as, the design of the objects and sustainability of the systems in which they operate (Design, 2004). Now, we discuss Sustainability when considered against the primary factors, environmental or eco, financial, and social: Primary sustainability factors Following are three primary factor of sustainable product design: Environmental Sustainability Since bingeing, human have been destroying nature in order to conquer it. However, to achieve sustainability it is essential to accept the fact that human is dependent on the nature for their wellbeing and safety. Without a healthy natural environment, it is impossible to have healthy society and economy. The mistreatment of environment has resulted in a number of consequences that are posing immediate threat to society and economy. According to Edwin Datschefski all materials exist in closed loop systems (cycles), all energy comes from renewable sources (solar), no harmful substances are emitted (safe), and throughout the products life cycle it is no more than 10% of the resources used by an equivalent product in 1990 (efficient). The cyclic and solar system illustrated is illustrated in the Figure 3, as shown on the next page of this report. Environmental Sustainability Figure : the cyclic and solar system illustrated (Design, 2004) Financial Sustainability It is essential for two reasons, one that a businessman would pursue it if it is financially viable and second financial wealth is important for quality of life. However, on contrary they not need to be conflicting (Design, 2004). Carefully designing products within their business, social and environmental systems can result in a solution that have long term financial viability and consistently generate financial profits and wealth. A financially sustainable system has the following characteristics: Consistent revenue by meeting customer customized products Not rely on finite resources Increase profit margin by lowering cost Protect financial wellbeing of customers Not have any significant financial liabilities The following diagram in Figure 4, illustrate the different between a traditional business and a sustainable business. Figure : Business vs sustainable business Social Sustainability Sustainability is about creating and maintaining quality of life for the people, though environmental and social factors are important but they are sources to that end. Social sustainability involves protecting the mental and physical health of all stakeholders, encouraging community, treating all stakeholders fairly, and providing essential services. It is also important that essential services are effectively delivered to everyone who needs them. 10 relevant design strategies You are required to select 10 strategies from this list and outline why you believe each one you choose is relevant to your own final product design. Design business system first In order to make our product sustainable we have to try it in the integration with it business environment where it is to be deployed or used. In order to achieve this we have made certain assumptions about the testing environment. Clarity core function Consumers some time may not buy product for just sustainability function they need the manufacturer to focus on main functionality, some time they could ignore other benefits for the said. We have made sure that our product is good in itself not be sold with providing ice on the cake. Product service systems Typical aim of manufacturing is provide a high value product with low cost, by this often poor value to the customer. PSS is not new idea; it can offer substantial benefits to all the parties involved. This involves offering a service while lending them a product, not losing the ownership and has incentive to maximize product life cycle. Multi-functionalism In designing the product it would reduce product cost. In our system design we have provided with two functions in one product, i.e. blind-mode and parking-mode. Modularization We have taken care of this strategy as our product is designed in a way that it has two modules for two modes of functions and they can easily be fitted together to use either of the functions. Minimize material variety We have not taken care of this strategy since in our product design the two materials are used in manufacturing the product which offer other related benefits. For example, steal is used to made white stick durable and covered it with plastic to make it safe to be used by blind persons to avoid unwanted injuries. Low embodies energy materials All materials have energy consumption cost associated with them during manufacturing. We would use pre-manufactured material in our production of the final product to avoid this. Avoid glass Glass is often thought are environmentally friendly as it could be recycled, non-toxic, and manufactured from natural resources that are abundant. But due to its hardness it is difficult to recycle and inefficient to transport. Renewable energy In our final product design, we have suggested to use small solar panel with the blind stick or car in order to fulfill the green energy criteria. So the product would be self powered so that it make use of other attached benefits such as cost reduction and ease of use. Simplification Since our product is supposed to be used by we have made sure that product is simple enough to handles and maintained by hat person. The design is very simple and a novice can assemble it easily. Contribution to the primary factors In this section we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages associated with above ten strategies in terms of three core strategies such as; economical, financial and social sustainability. Design business system first This strategy would help us deal with the deal with the social sustainability and eco and financial strategy indirectly since it would involve customer to design the product. Clarity core function The products with sustainable strategy are to replace the non sustainable product and manufacturer have the financial benefit but at the cost of paying environmental penalty. It has made sure the social sustainable strategy since it taken care of customers need is met. Product service systems Our product does not involve this service sine it involve increase use of energy and thus compromising other code design issues. Paybacks are slower and customers are tied to the conditions. Multi-functionalism It is eco friendly, since it would reduce the resources use and financially viable since it would increase our product demand. The customer has benefit of increased convenience and value for money. On the other hand drawback is the consumer may buy fewer products. Modularization Our product is eco friendly since it would reduce disposal of the product and by increasing the appeal for our customers they would repeat the business which gives us financial viability. It is social friendly since product has better taken care of customers needs over the life of the product as extended product life would offer good value for the money. It has draw also since increased product life cycle may reduce sales turn over. Minimize material variety It encourages recycling and increases the economy of sale with simplified logistics and reduced end life treatment cost. This could also result in using of inappropriate material leading to inefficiency and earlier disposal. Low embodies energy materials It would be eco friendly since it would reduce energy usage and financially beneficial since materials with low energy usage can be cheaper. Avoid glass It has reduces risk of injury to the waste disposal workers so is socially sustainable. Has financial benefit since it has reduced transport cost. And eco friendly as it avoid damage to the recycling facilities. The one environmental drawback is that its substitutes are even less desirable. Renewable energy It is eco friendly as it would discourage fossil fuel energy usage. It would give financial benefits as improved functionality would increase its demand. It is socially sustainable since product is mobile and never run out of battery. The disadvantages are increased units cost but are cheap in the long term usage. And product can be more bulky. Simplification The product would run longer and reduces waste and cost. Financial appeal is that it would reduce; development, manufacturing, and assembly costs. Socially sustainable since it is easy to be used by the bind person and made easier to meet our customers demand. The cons are that simplification may reduce functionality and efficiency. Financially simple products may be perceived as less valued. And social drawback is that simple products may be less capable of handling individual need. In our final design we have tried to lower the impact of related disadvantages of this strategy in order to increase the advantages. Conclusion We have studied the current designed according to the companys set criteria and suggested our modification and additions to make product more efficient and reliable. We have given our recommendations for new design and evaluated it against some sustainability strategies for its advantages and disadvantages and why the certain important design considerations were made. We have further evaluated the above ten strategies against financial, economical, and social core sustainable strategies to make use of related benefits it brings to us.

Abraham Lincoln :: essays research papers

Abraham Lincoln On the stormy morning of Sunday, February 12, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, wife of Thomas, gave birth to a boy. He was born on a bed of poles covered with corn husks. The baby was named Abraham after his grandfather. In 1811 the Lincolns moved to a farm on Knob Creek which was also near Hodgenville. In 1811 or 1812, Abraham's younger brother, Thomas, died in infancy. Abraham spent a short amount of time in a log schoolhouse. He began to learn his ABC's from a teacher named Zachariah Riney. He attended school with his sister, Sarah. Late in 1816 the Lincoln family moved to southern Indiana and settled near present day Gentryville. A cabin was constructed near Little Pigeon Creek. It measured 16 X 18 feet, and it had one window. Abraham's mother, Nancy, passed away on October 5th, 1818, she died of milk sickness. In 1819, Abraham would barrow books from his neighbors to read. In 1821 Abraham attended school taught by James Swaney for about 4 months. Also in 1824 Abraham attended school taught by Azel Dorsey. In 1827 Abraham's sister, Sarah died giving birth to her son. In 1831, Lincoln decided to leave his family and go off on his own. In July he moved to New Salem, Illinois, where he boarded at Rutledge's tavern and became acquainted with the owner's daughter, Ann. New Salem was a frontier village consisting of one long street on a bluff over the Sangamon River. On August 6th, 1832 Lincoln was defeated while running for the Illinois State Legislature. Lincoln began to operate a general store in New Salem along with William F. Berry. Again, In 1834, Lincoln ran for the Illinois State Legislature, but this time he was elected. During the summer, John T. Stuart advised Lincoln to study law. On December 1 he took his seat in state government in Vandalia. In 1837 Lincoln, 28, was admitted to the Illinois Bar on March 1, and he moved to Springfield on April 15. He became a law partner of John Stuart and lived with Joshua Speed. Lincoln now had income from a law practice as well as a state legislator. November 4,1842 Lincoln married Mary Todd. The first son of the Lincolns, Robert Todd, was born August 1, 1843 at the Globe Tavern. In 1844 Abraham and Mary purchased a home from Dr. Dresser in Springfield for $1500. It was located at the corner of Eighth and Jackson. The family moved in on May 2nd. In 1849 Lincoln failed in his attempt to be appointed commissioner of the General Land Office, and he returned to a full time law practice in Springfield as his

gdp analysis :: essays research papers

U.S. Economic Outlook: 2005-06 GDP Analysis   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In order to ensure competent and accurate forecasts for both 2005 and 2006, I obtained GDP information from a few different sources. Accessing the information without having to register at a â€Å"nominal† fee was a bit interesting at times, but nonetheless I found a couple of sites that all forecasted GDP and all of it’s components within a tenth of a percent of each other.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The one I found easiest to follow and analyze was the TD Quarterly Economic Forecast that I accessed at their website, www.td.com/economics. According to information provided here and enclosed information from Reuter’s and Comerica, Real GDP growth is expected to tail off from about 4.4% in 2004 to 3.2% by the end of 2006. All three of these articles identified 2004 as the best year for our economy growth wise in the current business cycle by far. Consumer spending and business investment growth are predicted to decline pretty sharply over the next two years, while the housing / residential construction sector is expected to show negative growth. This, in itself may be an indication that there may be a reverse trend in the property / real estate market, bringing prices down and keeping that market honest. All of these forecasts are contributing factors to the predicted dip in both final domestic demand as well as final sales. Good news though is that export growth is expected to increase, which will reduce the amount of growth in imports, directly correlating to a drop in the nation’s unemployment rate. Increasing the number of jobs will infiltrate more money on the domestic front and eventually serve as a shot in the arm to a parched economy. All in all the U.S. economy is in pretty good shape and here to stay. Optimally, we would like to see this year and next build upon last year’s incredible figures and shoot consumer spending further through the roof.

Science and Religion Essay -- History, Witchcraft, Magic

Humans do not engage the world in a neutral way. Instead, we see world through the reality that our culture creates. Without culture, humanity would have to continuously reinvent the wheel, perhaps even literally. It casts a web of reality over us that is inescapable. We are constantly in the grip of our culture. Therefore, it isn’t surprising to find societies with cultures which differ greatly from ours who come to very different conclusions about what reality is. When we are confronted with these differences in world views, we are often quick and confident to assert that our way of life is superior to others. This is behavior isn’t unique to tribes indigenous to foreign lands who believe in so-called â€Å"primitive† religions. It is even true of the Western world’s modern science. Science is another example of the cultural frameworks we use to understand the world around us. If this is the case, then science too must be part of a web of reality created by our culture, and is therefore not superior (nor inferior) to religion, but rather runs parallel to it. However, the Western mind generally recoils from the idea that science does anything but describe reality in hard, empirical detail. As mentioned, since these cultural frameworks envelope us, we often to not regard them as socially negotiated ways of engaging the world, but rather as absolute and unquestioned reality. The same is true of both religion and science. The unquestioned nature of this cultural framework was described by anthropologist Evans-Pritchard in his seminal work, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande. In this ethnography, Evans-Pritchard examines how completely encompassing the Azande tradition of magic and witchcraft is to the people.... ...thin the same process. In this way, science seems superior to other methods of engaging the world. However, as we have seen, science has its limitations in describing certain categories of knowledge. It cannot be used to make ethical judgements or learn an ultimate truth. Such areas are outside its scope. In this way, magic and religion provide answers which science cannot. So science is not necessarily superior to religion and magic, neither is it inferior to it. It is another way of engaging the world, one which answers a different set of questions and solves a different set of problems from magic and religion. So long as a cultural framework benefits the society which implements it, it is useful. Furthermore, when these cultural frameworks are as deeply intertwined with everyday reality as is the case with the Azande’s witchcraft, they become necessary.

Simon Armitage – Comparison of Two Poems

Simon Armitage's poetry is basically all about regular objects and people which have been twisted to make the objects and people seem peculiar and strange. His poetry makes many people think about the poem and why it is like this. I have been studying his poetry in depth to see what is behind the poems, all together I have analysed five poems; the poem without a title which is sometimes called ‘I am very bothered'; this is about an incident involving a young boy at school in a science lab, ‘Poem' is about the good and the bad events that a man has done to his family, ‘It ain't what you do it what it does to you' is about what a person has and has not done, ‘Cataract operation' is what a person sees after they have had a cataract operation and ‘About his person' is about personal belongings found on a deceased man and how they represent his life. Many of his poems relate to each other; ‘Poem' and ‘I am very bothered' are both in sonnet form suggesting they relate to love in one way or another. In ‘I am very bothered' love is expressed through a thirteen year old boy in a science lab asking him to marry him in an extraordinary way, the incident is very ambiguous and many images are painted in the readers head with images about love but in an odd way, he uses words such as â€Å"rings† and â€Å"eternity†, these give the idea of love but Armitage uses these words to describe a boy asking someone to marry him by burning their fingers. This is very odd but Armitage has twisted the sonnet form and the love words in to make the poem a very extraordinary poem. The sonnet form is also used in ‘Poem', it is very surprising that the sonnet form is used in this poem as the reader at the end of the poem is left with hatred due to what the character in the poem has done. ‘I am very bothered' and ‘Poem' are both about treating someone badly but ‘I am very bothered' is in first person and is only about one extraordinary incident the character did when he was thirteen but ‘Poem' is in third person and is about a lifetime of what an ordinary character did right and wrong. In this poem love is expressed through the characters family; the reader can tell the character in the poem loved his family as he â€Å"praised his wife for every meal she made† and â€Å"always tucked his daughter up at night, the man seems like an ordinary family man but at the end of each stanza from the sonnet it informs the reader of what he has done wrong in his life; he â€Å"punched her in the face†, this makes the reader shocked and surprised of what the character has done in the poem. This makes the poem seem strange and peculiar. The comparison between the things the character did wrong and right is big but strange; although the character does a lot more good things than bad he is remembered for all the bad things he has done by the reader, this might be because the bad events are at the end of each stanza and the bad events are very shocking and hurtful towards his family. The poet wants the reader to think that the man is very normal, he reflects the man through the poem; the title is very ordinary and boring just like the man, the use of the word ‘and' makes the poem seem ordinary, the use of words with only one syllable makes the poem seem ordinary and the rhythm of the poem is also very plain and boring. Armitage uses iambic pentameter, he uses this in many of his poems like ‘It ain't what you do it what it does to you' and ‘Poem'. Iambic pentameter is used in many sonnets; its meaning is ten beats per line. ‘It ain't what you do it what it does to you' is a poem about what a man has and hasn't done. To describe these two things he has used two different types of language; colloquial and formal. Armitage has used colloquial language before in ‘I am very bothered', in that instance he uses it to describe what a character has done when he was thirteen, a thirteen year old would probably use colloquial language. But in ‘It ain't what you do it what it does to you' he uses colloquial language to describe what the character has not done; â€Å"bummed† and â€Å"wobbly†, this explains to the reader that it is nothing special that he has done. Armitage even uses this language in the title â€Å"Ain't†. Using formal language to describe what the character has done it gives some feel and thought into the poem â€Å"inertia†, â€Å"toyed† and â€Å"padded†. It also gives the reader a sense of wonder and awe. The structure of the poem is very plain and simple, just like you would see on a normal poem you would read; it uses four quatrains. Armitage normally uses the structure of the poem to give his poems some feel and compassion, for example using sonnets in â€Å"I am very bothered† and â€Å"Poem† but for â€Å"It ain't what you do it what it does to you† he uses a straight forward structure, it might be because he wants the reader to think the poem is very ordinary and what the character has done is very ordinary too. Throughout the final stanza of the poem there is some enjambment â€Å"tiny cascading sensation/somewhere inside us† as the lines flow from one to another, mirroring the effect of the fluid feeling â€Å"cascading sensation† he is trying to describe. There is also some enjambment in the middle of the poem describing something the character has done, â€Å"skimmed flat stones across black moss†, the enjambment gave the affect of the stones leaping like they do on black moss. The alliteration of the ‘s' does this also by using the ‘s' every two syllables. Alliteration is also used in ‘I am very bothered' in this circumstance Armitage uses alliteration to describe a burning sensation by using a ‘b' sound â€Å"Bunsen burner/branded/burning†. Some of the last stanzas in Armitage poems refer back to the title; in ‘It ain't what you do it what it does to you' the last line of the poem is â€Å"That feeling I mean†, not only is at a line which makes the reader refer back to the title it is also a type of question. It is asking the reader if they know what the character is talking about. Armitage also does this in ‘Poem'; â€Å"Sometimes he did this, sometimes he did that. † Armitage characteristically refuses to judge the man leaving the reader with a question. The last line refers back to the title in a poem called ‘Cataract operation', the last line is â€Å"I drop the blind but not before a company of half dozen hens struts through the gate, looks around the courtyard for a contact lens†, in this short passage there is two references becoming back to the cataract; one where the character drops the blind and where the hens look around the courtyard for a contact lens, in this instance an image is painted in the readers head of hens pecking around a garden just like a blind person would be doing when trying to find something. Cataract operation' is about a washing line becoming a â€Å"pantomime†; this is very economical as in just one word it illustrates how lively, colourful and entertaining the washing line is. Armitage uses a lot of metaphors to show how lively the washing line is, the metaphors give the reader a clear but strange image of what the washing line is doing; â€Å"the cancan of a rara skirt, the monkey business of a shirt. † In this passage alone there are two metaphors inside it; the skirt isn't really doing the cancan but it seems and looks like it is and the shirt is not really doing monkey business it just looks as if it is. By using metaphors it paints images inside the reader's head of what the washing line looks like, it looks alive! This is the only poem where metaphors make the ordinary extraordinary; it takes a very imaginative mind to think of metaphors. As well as the passage containing metaphors it also contains personification; the cancan is usually done by people. Personification is very rarely used in the poems Armitage writes, the poems I have read that are written by Armitage are all about people anyway so personification is not needed. There is also rhyme in ‘Cataract operation'; â€Å"hens† and â€Å"lens†, â€Å"skirt† and â€Å"shirt†. But the rhymes in the poem are disguised as they are not where you would expect them to be, Armitage may be using this to represent the poem; the poem being strange and unthinkable. The simile at the start of ‘Cataract operation' is a visual representation of the sun rising and being born for the next day â€Å"The sun comes like a head through last night's turtleneck. â€Å", this is the only simile of the poem, another simile is seen in â€Å"About his person†, this simile symbolises death â€Å"a rolled-up note of explanation planted there like a spray carnation†. These two similes are to do with two very different things even though ‘Cataract operation' and ‘About his person' are very similar poems; they both have rhyming couplets inside them and are both 20 lines wrong, but they are also very different; ‘About his person' is all about death, violence and finality but ‘Cataract operation' is about liveliness, entertainment and magic. The two similes represent this. ‘About his person' is about personal belongings found on a deceased man and how they represent his life. The language used in the poem is very plain and ordinary, maybe representing the character in the poem. The poem is basically a list of what has been found, very simple and straight forward unlike ‘Cataract operation' where it is very hard to understand what is happening. In ‘Poem' a list is also used with the repetition of the word â€Å"and†, it makes the poem seem ordinary just like ‘About his person'. End stopping words are used in the poem; â€Å"Stopped† represents the finality of the man but is used in the poem to describe an analogue watch that was found on the man. â€Å"That was everything† is also and end stopping phrase at the end of the poem, this cuts off the poem dead just like the character was. The items found on the man give the reader series of pictures or images that are factual snapshots. The choice of words in this list shows how a poet can play with multiple meanings to great effect. The title itself can be read in two ways, as can the final line. Many of the words have very violent overtones of finality – ‘expiry', ‘beheaded' – and all of these meanings are consciously worked on by the poet. These words describe objects that are found on the man, this is a bit ironic as the man that the objects are found on is dead. All the poems I have analysed that are written by Armitage all link together in one way or another. At first impressions Armitage makes his poems look extraordinary but when looked in depth the poem is actually ordinary but in a twisted way, e. g. in ‘Poem' the reader thinks that the character is a very nasty man by doing very horrible things to his family. Armitage does this by putting the nasty events the character does at the end of each line, the reader then remembers the character by what he has done wrong. But when the poem is looked into, the amount of good things the man did nicely actually overrules the things he did nastily. The character now looks like an ordinary man but as the nasty events are out of the blue it makes the reader think that the character is very malevolent. Armitage uses metaphors, similes, personification and imagery to make the poems he writes extraordinary. Imagery is the key thing in poetry, if the reader can not imagine the poem coming to life then the poem is useless, Armitage uses imagery to paint images inside reader's head that makes the poem seem strange and odd. Armitage's poetry makes the reader think twice of what is put in the poems. Colloquial and formal language is also used to describe what a character has done in a poem, if Armitage wants the reader to think that something is boring he uses colloquial language and if he wants the reader to think that something is amazing and exciting then he uses formal language. Armitage makes the reader think what he wants them to think and from this he controls the readers mind to think of something that is very extraordinary. Simon Armitage – Comparison of Two Poems Simon Armitage writes about a range of different topics. In the two poems I have chosen, he focuses on people and personal experience. I will briefly describe both poems and show how each poem reveals something about Human nature. I will begin with the poem â€Å"About his person†. This poem lists all the items a dead man had upon him when he was discovered. In many ways, these objects represent the mans life. It reads like a police report. Although the poem cannot tell us anything about the mans thoughts, it tells us a lot about the mans life. The poem is deceptively simple. There is a pun in the title. â€Å"About his person† is a formal way of saying â€Å"he had on him† but it also emphasises that the poem is about a dead person. This is an example of how Armitage uses ambiguous language. Also, his technique of colloquial language makes his poems more meaningful. Both poems are about ordinary people. Another example of ambiguous language is: â€Å"A give-away photograph stashed in his wallet, A keepsake banked in the heart of a locket†. We ask ourselves, is the photograph â€Å"stashed in his wallet† the equivalent of a keepsake in a locket, or were they two separate items. The photographs makes us think that he may have had loved ones. After all it is human nature to love someone. Armitage uses a simile in line twelve. Up until line twelve the diction is factual and plain. In line 12, he compares the note of explanation to a spray carnation. Carnations being funeral flowers, are associated with death or a funeral and reminds us that that somehow the man died. The use of language points towards how humans experience depression and even suicide. In this poem, each item is described precisely. Armitage begins the list with a normal à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½5.50 in the mans pocket, â€Å"exactly†. He mentions â€Å"a library card on its date of expiry†. The card is invalid. Just like the mans life it means nothing, its worthless. The poem also mentions a â€Å"mortise lock† also known as a death lock, â€Å"an analogue watch, self-winding, stopped†. These items are listed in terms of death. Could this list of deathlike items be a reason for a human to commit suicide? We are intrigued by the final line, â€Å"A final demand†, what does this mean? The postcard is also a mystery but it indicates family or loved ones. â€Å"A ring of white unweathered skin†, â€Å"No gold No silver†. Obviously, the man used to wear a ring but he no longer does. Was he divorced? Or maybe his wife died. We can link those last few lines to line six about the first of April (i.e. April fools day.) This indicates that someone was fooled. Perhaps, he was fooled by his wife. The last line, â€Å"That was everything†, finalises the poem. His whole life shown by the list, everything. The poem is structured in rhyming couplets. It is short and precise and consists of 10 â€Å"two line stanza's†. The poem has a simple form. The poet uses imagery e.g. The photo in his wallet leads us to imagine that he had loved ones. The â€Å"carnations† make us imagine a memorial service. We are born and than we die, it is nature. â€Å"No gold or silver† but a mark where a ring had once been indicates a failed relationship. He was being selfish if, he had committed suicide but we are still sympathetic. The poem gives a pessimistic outlook on life. The poem is sad, mourning and depressing. There isn't much feeling but there is a lot of meaning. The tone is deadpan. There is a slow rhythm to indicate death and sorrow. The rhyming within couplets gives an air of finality and completeness. The poem â€Å"I am very bothered† is written differently. It is like a direct confession. The colloquial language used is very appropriate. There is not much rhyme in this poem. It is quite simple just as a thirteen-year-old boy would write; he uses words such as â€Å"butterfingered†. The first stanza tells us he is bothered about many things he has done in his life and not least the time he burned her hand in the â€Å"chemistry lab†. The word chemistry makes us think of love and emotion. The poem is typical of how far a human being would go to get some-ones attention but we have to remember that the boy is only thirteen and incapable of expressing his love for the girl he wished to marry. The girl is anonymous, why? , Perhaps to avoid embarrassment. He â€Å"played the handles† of the scissors as if it were a game. An example in this poem of Armitage's ambiguous language is: the â€Å"naked lilac flame†. The two different meanings I have discove red are, the flame is unprotected and can do damage, and the boy may have been thinking of a naked girl. The writer addresses the girl as â€Å"you† as if she was present. The words â€Å"unrivalled stench† and â€Å"eternity† emphasise how serious the burning actually was. Was the boy branding the girl as his just as farmer's brand their herd â€Å"eternity† is a strong word. It means forever but it also makes us think of eternity rings. â€Å"did they meet in later like and get married? The girl will be scarred. She will always remember the incident. The poem is quite personal but also sarcastic. The poem is about forgiveness, shame and guilt. The writer manipulates us in the last stanza: â€Å"Don't believe me, please, if I say That was just my butterfingered way, at thirteen, Of asking you if you would marry me.† He asks us not to believe him but I think it is obvious that he wants us to believe him. He is felling guilty. The poem begins with and slow sorrowful rhythm but speeds up towards the end. There is a pleading, sorrowful and emotional tone. The first stanza is a bout the planning of what he will do. It is almost as if he takes a deep breath before he starts the second stanza where he actually carries out the â€Å"experiment†. It describes what he does and what happens. The third stanza is about his regrets. The poem reads like a script and there is some rhyme. As I mentioned before the word naked gives us two different images, as does the word â€Å"eternity†. Is a sign of never-ending love but we may also think of eternity rings. The poem goes from the writer finding enjoyment in what he did to his confession of what he did. The poem is an example of human nature i.e. The boy loves the girl, is uncapable of showing his feelings and so he hurts her. It seems ironic but it happens. This poem reveals that people make mistakes and usually the want forgiveness. Armitage's use of language has helped reveal a lot about human nature particularly in the second poem, which is quite typical, of what a thirteen year old boy might do to gets a girls attention.

City of God vs. The Protestant Reformations Essay

Introduction: The belief that God is present to the human mind and soul, and can be found is part of the Christian tradition. Many Christian philosophers seem to regard this as the concern only of specially devout persons and of no interest for philosophical purposes. The evidence for it, they think, it too slender to be taken seriously by academic philosophers without particular interest in religion, who tend to regard anything in the nature of religious experience as suspect. So, philosophical discussions about religion are usually concerned with rational arguments for and against theism, usually of a technical kind. In this article, I want to discuss the Augustine world with the reformist will as proposed by Martin Luther. One of the great cornerstones in the history of Christian thought, The City of God is vital to an understanding of modern Western society and how it came into being. Begun in A.D. 413 by Saint Augustine, the great theologian who was bishop of Hippo, the book’s initial purpose was to refute the charge that Christianity was to blame for the fall of Rome (which had occurred just three years earlier). Augustine’s City of God, a monumental work of religious lore, philosophy, and history, was written as a kind of literary tombstone for Roman culture. After the downfall of Rome, Augustine wrote this book to portray the corruption of Romans’ pursuit of earthly pleasures: â€Å"grasping for praise, open-handed with their money; honest in the pursuit of wealth, they wanted to hoard glory.† Augustine contrasts his condemnation of Rome with an exaltation of Christian culture. The glory that Rome failed to attain will only be realized by citizens of the City of God, the Heavenly Jerusalem foreseen in Revelation. On the other hand Hans J. Hillerbrand in his book â€Å"The Protestant Reformation† says â€Å"When the reformers who had first ventured a new interpretation of the gospel had passed from the scene, the question which had haunted the Reformation from its very inception–where is truth?–was still contested by the proponents of the old and the new faith. But one fact was beyond dispute: Western Christendom was tragically divided†¦into no less than five religious factions†¦.Though these divisions were the result of intense religious conviction, they could not help but lessen the intensity of religious belief in Europe. The Reformation of the sixteenth century was the last period in the history of Western civilization when men were preoccupied with religion, argued it, fought and even died for it. Its consequences are still with us†. Argument: The two cities in city of God and the two wills in Lutheranism No book except the Bible itself had a greater influence on the Middle Ages than the â€Å"City of God†. Since medieval Europe has been the cradle of today’s Western civilization, this work by consequence is vital for an understanding of our world and how it came into being. St. Augustine is often regarded as the most influential Christian thinker after St. Paul, and this book highlights upon a vast synthesis of religious and secular knowledge. It began as a reply to the charge that Christian otherworldliness was causing the decline of the Roman Empire. Augustine produced a wealth of evidence to prove that paganism bore within itself the seeds of its own destruction. Then he proceeded to his larger theme, a cosmic interpretation of history in terms of the struggle between good and evil: the City of God in conflict with the Earthly City or the City of the Devil. This, the first serious attempt at a philosophy of history, was to have incalculable influence in forming the Western mind on the relations of church and state, and on the Christian’s place in the temporal order. It is more than a question of setting down on paper a series of abstract principles and then applying them in practice. Christianity is more than a moral code, more than a philosophy, more than a system of rites. Although it is sufficient, in the abstract, to divide the Catholic religion into three aspects and call them creed, code and cult, yet in practice, the integral Christian life is something far more than all this. It is more than a belief; it is a life. That is to say, it is a belief that is lived and experienced and expressed in action. The action in which it is expressed, experienced and lived is called a mystery. This mystery is the sacred drama which keeps ever present in history the Sacrifice that was once consummated by Christ on Calvary. In plain words–if you can accept them as plain–Christianity is the life and death and resurrection of Christ going on day after day in the souls of individual men and in the heart of society. It is this Christ-life, this incorporation into the Body of Christ, this union with His death and resurrection as a matter of conscious experience, that St. Augustine wrote of in his Confessions. But Augustine not only experienced the reality of Christ living in his own soul. He was just as keenly aware of the presence and action, the Birth, Sacrifice, Death and Resurrection of the Mystical Christ in the midst of human society. And this experience, this vision, if you would call it that, qualified him to write a book that was to be, in fact, the autobiography of the Catholic Church. That is what The City of God is. Just as truly as the Confessions are the autobiography of St. Augustine, The City of God is the autobiography of the Church written by the most Catholic of her great saints. Evidently, the treatment of the theme is so leisurely and so meandering and so diffuse that The City of God, more than any other book, requires an introduction. The best we can do here is to offer a few practical suggestions as to how to tackle it. The first of these suggestions is this: since, after all, The City of God reflects much of St. Augustine’s own personality and is colored by it, the reader who has never met Augustine before ought to go first of all to the Confessions. Once he gets to know the saint, he will be better able to understand Augustine’s view of society. Then, no one who is not a specialist, with a good background of history or of theology or of philosophy, ought not to attempt to read the City, for the first time, beginning at page one. The living heart of the City is found in Book Nineteen, and this is the section that will make the most immediate appeal to us today because it is concerned with the theology of peace. However, Book Nineteen cannot be understood all by itself. The best source for solutions to the most pressing problems it will raise is Book Fourteen, where the origin of the two Cities is sketched, in an essay on original sin. On the other hand the protestant reformation deals with the religious movement which made its appearance in western Europe in the sixteenth century, and which, while ostensibly aiming at an internal renewal of the church, really led to a great revolt against it, and an abandonment of the principal Christian beliefs. The causes of the great religious revolt of the sixteenth century must be sought as far back as the fourteenth. The doctrine of the church, it is true, had remained pure; saintly lives were yet frequent in all parts of Europe, and the numerous beneficent medieval institutions of the church continued their course uninterruptedly. Whatever unhappy conditions existed were largely due to civil and profane influences or to the exercise of authority by ecclesiastics in civil spheres; they did not obtain everywhere with equal intensity, nor did they always occur simultaneous in the same country. Ecclesiastical and religious life exhibited in many places vigor and variety; works of education and charity abounded; religious art in all its forms had a living force; domestic missionaries were many and influential; pious and edifying literature was common and appreciated. Gradually, however, and largely owing to the variously hostile spirit of the civil powers, fostered and heightened by several elements of the new order, there grew up in many parts of Europe political and social conditions which hampered the free reformatory activities of the church, and favored the bold and unscrupulous, who seized a unique opportunity to let loose all the forces of heresy and schism so long held in check by the harmonious action of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities. Luther’s theology is his understanding of God that can be summarized as Gottes Gottheit, which means â€Å"God is God.† In the deepest sense, Luther believes that God is above all and in all. God, through his creative power, reveals that he is free and immutable. He alone can bring life into existence. He alone sustains life. He alone freely wills. Moreover, what God wills can not be impeded or resisted by a mere creature. God is all-powerful and therefore, God’s will is alone immutable. Any person, therefore, that appeals to the freedom of human will attempts to usurp for themselves an attribute that belongs only to God. The free and immutable will of God is, in Luther’s writings, fundamental to a right and proper faith. Without it, God is not God and Scripture would, therefore, have to be annulled. In BOW, Luther constantly emphasizes these two characteristics of the will of God and points out their significance for the Faith. In addition, Luther argues that God has two wills as pertains His nature: (1) the revealed will of His word and, (2) the hidden or inscrutable will. These characteristics of God’s will provide the basis for understanding and interpreting Luther’s conviction that the human will is enslaved. For Luther, the free will of God is not simply God’s limitless and unobstructed ability to choose between any set of variables in any set of circumstances. Rather, it is God’s unique ability to transcend all these variables and circumstances to perform, or not perform, any action that He desires. God’s will is not contingent upon the will of any other being. In ceaseless activity, God creates the possibilities. As such, the free will of God is most plainly revealed to humanity through His creative acts. God freely chooses to create our present reality and likewise, He freely sustains this reality. In fact, reality does not exist except by the will of God. To this all-encompassing extent then, Luther asserts that God is all in all. Nothing is that God does not declare to be. And, it is this creative power that manifests God’s freedom, His free will. In recognizing Luther’s pronounced emphasis on God’s sovereignty, Paul Althaus declares: â€Å"God is the first or principal cause, all others are only secondary or instrumental causes. They are only the tools which he uses in the service of his own autonomous, free, and exclusive working; they are only the masks under which he hides his activity†. The second characteristic of God’s   will that is crucial to Luther’s understanding of the bondage of the human will, is its immutability. That is, God’s will can not be changed, altered or impeded. The immutability of God’s will is the logical conclusion to the freedom of God’s will. God’s sovereignty and almighty power demands that whatever God wills happens by necessity. Nothing occurs contingently. God’s will does not act independently of reality, as the human will does, but rather, God’s will creates reality. In Luther’s theology, the will of God is not contingent and so likewise, the foreknowledge of God is also not contingent. For whatever God wills, he foreknows and so, whatever He foreknows must, by necessity, happen. For if it did not happen, then God would be fallible and His will contingent which Luther declares â€Å"is not to be found in God!†   It is the immutable will of God, acting freely, that provides the Christian with â€Å"the assurance of things hoped for† (Heb 11:1), namely that the promises of God will be fulfilled. As Luther suggests, â€Å"the Christian’s chief and only comfort in every adversity lies in knowing that God does not lie, but brings all things to pass immutably, and that His will cannot be resisted, altered or impeded. â€Å"Indeed, for Luther, the conviction that God’s will is free and immutable must be central to the Faith. Yet, Luther’s theology presents a problem: if God wills everything and everything He wills comes to pass then one must conclude that God wills the salvation of few and the damnation of many (cf. Mt 22:14). Luther answered this dilemma by teaching that God has two wills, the revealed and the hidden. As Luther declares in BOW, God’s decree to damn â€Å"the undeserving . . . [who are] compelled by natural necessity to sin and perish† does indeed seem horrible. Moreover, all rational and philosophical knowledge of God can not avoid the terrible reality of this conclusion, for as Luther concedes, the â€Å"injustice of God . . . is traduced as such by arguments which no reason or light of nature can resist†. Luther understands this horrible decree in light of God’s justice in two ways. For Luther, the answer to these questions is twofold: (1) we must simply believe that God’s justice is righteous because in Christ God has proven His love and compassion and, (2) we should not probe into the hidden or inscrutable will of God wherein God operates paradoxically, i.e. righteousness made evident through unrighteousness. Luther’s twofold answer to the questions of damnation reveals a high view of God’s sovereignty and majesty. Moreover, the answer is in accordance with Luther’s view that God’s will is uniquely free and immutable. The answer also demands that the Christian simply trust in God. The Christian must believe all that is revealed in Scripture, not merely those things that are pleasant to the senses, and as such, we are compelled to accept the fact that God actively chooses to reject certain people. Nevertheless, if God has said in His Word that He is loving and gracious, and He has revealed himself to be such through His forbearance with the Israelites and the glorious plan of salvation through Jesus Christ, but what right can we judge the manner in which God oversees and sustains the world? For Luther, this is precisely the point at which the Christian must heed the words of God, spoken through the prophet Isaiah: â€Å"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts† (Isa 55:8-9). Luther would likewise appeal to God’s answer to Job in Job 38-41 and the words of Paul in Romans 9:20 as yet other examples of the futility of comprehending the incomprehensible and inscrutable will of God. Luther, therefore, answers the critics of predestination and defends God’s decree to affect unbelief in people by appealing to this inscrutable wisdom and will of God, a will that cannot be understood by any attempt of human reason. Because God is God, He has the right to condemn man for sins that God works in Him.10 And so, it is by faith that the Christian simply trusts that God is righteous, loving and gracious in so working. Luther consoles the Christian by exhorting them to look only to the revealed will of God that promises salvation to all who receive Christ. Thus, He does not will the death of a sinner-that is, in His Word; but He wills it by His inscrutable will. At present, however, we must keep in view His Word and leave alone His inscrutable will; for it is by His Word, and not by His inscrutable will, that we must be guided. Yet, for Luther, knowing that God does possess a hidden and inscrutable will of God provides valuable insights for the Christian. The inscrutable will of God tempers the revealed will of God. The doctrine of the free, immutable and inscrutable will of God, therefore, contributes three important foundations to the Christian Faith: (1) God is sovereign, all-powerful and therefore, even evil is under the sway of His goodness and as such, the Christian can be certain that the promises of God will be realized, (2) humanity is not free to earn or demand anything of God and so, God’s gift of salvation can truly be called free and gracious and, (3) the Christian, in response to these truths, is properly humbled and learns, in reverent adoration, to fear God, who acts freely and immutability for His glory. In consequence of his view of God’s will, Luther’s view of the human will is necessarily placed in total subjection to the Divine. It is in this respect that Luther stands in contrast to Erasmus. Luther’s discussion of this topic is theocentric, beginning with a discussion of God and His attributes whereas Erasmus belies an anthropocentric view, beginning with human experience. For Luther, that God’s will is immutable logically demands that man’s will is mutable. For if God’s will is not contingent but immutable and free, no other will can be also be immutable and free otherwise these wills could impede one another and consequently, these wills would no longer be immutable and free but rather, they would be subject to one another. As such, Luther rightly proclaims the inconsistency of the term free will. In Luther’s writings, there are three primary considerations to consider in evaluating the characteristics of the human will: (1) the human will is mutable, (2) as a consequence of the Fall, the human will is enslaved to sin and, (3) the human will requires the grace of God, offered through the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ Jesus, to affect any positive change in a person’s life. Luther’s position on the Divine and human wills was not a small matter to him. In Table-Talk, Luther once stated in regards to his position that â€Å"I know it to be the truth, though all the world should be against it; yea, the decree of Divine Majesty must stand fast against the gates of hell.† The belief that humanity is enslaved to sin and that it is only by sovereign election that God saves a person formed the basis for Luther’s conviction of justification by grace through faith. Grace is one the most important principles of biblical interpretation to Luther and no where is divine grace more evident than in the doctrine of election. And, it is this sola gratia principle of Luther’s faith that preserves the eternal significance of Christ’s death and resurrection. It is by his sacrifice, not by our own works, that God graciously extends salvation to the elect. As Luther often remarked, to assert the freedom of the will is to deny the necessity of Christ’s atoning work. Conclusion Augustine produced a wealth of evidence to prove that paganism bore within itself the seeds of its own destruction. By means of his contrast of the earthly and heavenly cities–the one pagan, self-centered, and contemptuous of God and the other devout, God-centered, and in search of grace–Augustine explored and interpreted human history in relation to eternity. Saint Augustine examines the failure of Roman religion and the flaws in human civilization, thus creating the first Christian philosophy of history. Against the ‘city’, i.e., society, of many gods, there is but one alternate society, this Augustine calls The City of God, adopting the expression found in several of King David’s psalms. Not only is the society of many gods the society of polytheists, it is also the â€Å"city† of pantheists, atheistic materialists and philosophical Cynics. In the case of the Cynics and atheists, these false gods are the myriad gods of self, indeed, at least as many gods (selves) as there are believers in them. Thus there are two â€Å"cities†, two loves, two ways to understand the big questions of existence, two destinations. Says Augustine:   Ã¢â‚¬Å"The one City began with the love of God; the other had its beginnings in the love of self.† XIV:13. â€Å"The city of man seeks the praise of men, whereas the height of glory for the other is to hear God in the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own boasting; the other says to God: ‘Thou art my glory, thou liftest up my head.’ (Psalm 3.4) In the city of the world both the rulers themselves and the people they dominate are dominated by the lust for domination; whereas in the City of God all citizens serve one another in charity. . .† References 1. http://www.newadvent.org The Catholic encyclopedia The Journal Of Religion, J. Jeffery Tyler, volume 85, Part 1(2005), pages 317 – 319 Althaus, Paul. The Theology of Martin Luther. Translation of 2nd edition by Robert C. Schultz. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Fortress Press, 1966 –. Luther’s Works, Volume 31: Career of the Reformer I. ed. Philip S. Watson. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Fortress Press, 1957.