Representations of social class in popular literature
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
Many of the texts studied in literature portray Canada as a country that is divided by social class. Three of these novels in particular are Who Do You Think You Are?, The Wars and In the Skin of a Lion. The first of these novels is a set of small stories that chronicles the main character's...
Experience reflection mill valley Islamic center
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
Understanding the Muslim faith today for outsiders is more important now than any point in recent history. An increasing number of the world's headlines today come from countries with predominately Muslim influence. In an age of such political correctness in use of terminology, it is important...
Reaching for a Larger History: A comparative book review
Book review - 4 pages - Literature
Hugh Kearney's The British Isles: A History of Four Nations and Gary Nash's The Unknown American Revolution both attempt to introduce an often missed dimension into their respective subjects. Although each book has a unique style and approach (because of differences in scope, audience,...
Mere Christianity: Discussion
Thesis - 2 pages - Philosophy
Mere Christianity was compiled, and expanded, from a series of radio lectures by C.S. Lewis. They have a conversational style, but they present some very deep and difficult ideas. In his introduction to the volume, Lewis describes how he took these lectures upon himself as a means of joining the...
Abraham Kuyper and John Calvin: Calvinism and Neo-Calvinism compared
Thesis - 4 pages - Philosophy
On November 9, 1891, the Dutch pastor and statesman Abraham Kuyper spoke to the first Christian Social Congress in the Netherlands on a profound and continually relevant subject—poverty. The address was peculiarly relevant to that time, even past-due, as Kuyper himself announced in his...
Lord over logic
Thesis - 4 pages - Philosophy
The seeming necessity of logical principles, such as the fundamental “law of non-contradiction”, has led many thinkers to consider these principles primordial, basic, and uncreated. I can sympathize with the attitude that gives rise to this belief. In my own personal history of studying...
Dejection and the eighth deadly sin: A Christian-critical engagement with Coleridge's "Dejection: An Ode"
Thesis - 7 pages - Literature
For the ordinary reader encountering Coleridge's “Dejection: An Ode,” the poet's dejection may seem irrelevant. The most explicit reason proffered for his dejection is that visitations of affliction have suspended “what nature gave me at my birth,/ The shaping spirit of...
Framing Jane Eyre: The mystery of St. John's letter
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
In the final pages of Jane Eyre, one encounters a mystery more impenetrable than the madness of Jane Poole. As many have noted, Charlotte Bronte has given us a novel of character, rejecting plot as the driving force in her story. One reads Jane Eyre to watch the slow unfolding of the person she...
Faery lands forlorn: A window onto one region of the imagination of John Keats
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
Dooyeerdians tend to admit that indefinability characterizes an irreducible mode of being. At first, of course, this admission appears ludicrous. The modalities exist as a language for describing how the logical part of one encounters non-logical (not illogical) reality. But if they are pressed...
Confessions of self-displacement in Great Expectations
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
One sometimes suspects, while reading Great Expectations, that Dickens could have been good friends with Bishop Tutu. One of the particular satisfactions of the novel is the often tender justice meeted out for character's sins. Very few characters who actually appear for any length of time remain...
The face of nature in Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
A cruel realization overtakes the sensitive convert to Naturalism. Seldom has there been a more sensitive convert than Thomas Hardy, who, although he flirted with Anglicanism because of his family and with the Baptists because of a friend, ended his days with a troubled faith in the indifferent,...
Bavinck and Vollenhoven on faith
Thesis - 8 pages - Philosophy
In 1918, Herman Bavinck published an articled entitled “Philosophy of Faith” in the Annuarium of the Societas Studiosorum Reformatorum; thirty one years later, Dirk Vollenhoven presented a paper entitled “Faith: Its Nature, Structure, and Significance for Science” at a Roman...
Autism and Apophaticism
Thesis - 4 pages - Philosophy
A postmodern philosophy of religion, of the relationship between God and men, is based on a unique set of beliefs about God, language, what it means to be as human, and the way the world is given us to inhabit (including ourselves). Perhaps the profoundest movement within this philosophy occurs...
Transformations of literature: augustine's 'confessions' and virgil's 'aeneid' - published: 07/07/2009
Thesis - 5 pages - Literature
Both St. Augustine's Confessions and Virgil's epic The Aeneid marked a new direction in literature for the West. Each one was inspired by the works of previous authors, but was willing to forge a new literature for their times. In the Aeneid, Virgil established Rome as indebted to the Greek...
The empowered woman in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale
Book review - 7 pages - Literature
Speaking of his king's command to “stay [his wife's] tongue,” (The Winter's Tale, 2.3.110) Antigonus very succinctly states the theme of female empowerment in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. Throughout the play, Shakespeare employs various strategies to communicate this idea. One...
A review of T.H. White's book The Once and Future King
Book review - 5 pages - Literature
An epic historical fantasy with a point that transcends the genre, T.H. White's classic four-part novel is a time telescope with a mirror at the end in place of a lens. As with most classical literature, White's tale contains a higher intention hidden beneath the folds of his satirical prose,...
Success and its pressures as depicted in The Great Gatsby and Things Fall Apart
Thesis - 5 pages - Literature
Analysis of today's society reveals a deep-rooted desire for success. Indeed, it is human nature to strive to achieve, and it is encouraged to the point where ambition and competition become a way of living. For some, this translates into a life of blind devotion to a cause that is increasingly...
John Marshall and Mercy Otis Warren
Thesis - 12 pages - Literature
Though John Marshall and Mercy Otis Warren shared little ideological ground when it came to politics, they did come together in their respective revolutionary histories to condemn the treason of Benedict Arnold. During the war, the treason stirred up a good deal of emotionalism; the United...
Allegorical styles of writing
Thesis - 18 pages - Literature
Imagine you are standing at the edge of a rift. On this side of the rift lie life, reality, and the simplicity of the literary tale. On the other side of the rift is a world of mystery and ideals where morals and greater meanings are waiting to be discovered. Strung across the rift are a series...
A review of The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom
Book review - 3 pages - Literature
In “The Closing of the American Mind”, Allan Bloom argued about what he believes is the failure of contemporary American universities and colleges. The very first thing he mentioned in his book was that “almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes,...
Discussion on Descartes' meditations
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
Descartes comes to the conclusion “that the mere fact that I [Descartes] exist and have within me an idea of a most perfect being, that is, God, provides a very clear proof that God exists” (Descartes 51). He comes to this conclusion through a series of steps. First, Descartes believes...
Origin of oneness: A model of the mystical experience
Thesis - 7 pages - Philosophy
The purpose of this essay is to both connect and clarify the concept of Oneness present in most every spiritual tradition's mystical realm. Certainly such traditions as Buddhism and Taoism tell, in detail, of a transcendental reality that permeates throughout “all the myriad things.”...
Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger's importance in the Harry Potter series
Thesis - 5 pages - Literature
Many different events and characters contributed to the success which Harry achieved during the entire seven-book series in his goal of defeating Lord Voldemort, and saving the wizarding world from the despair it was experiencing. The one thing which helped him the most throughout the series were...
Saul Williams
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
Sometimes it is by sheer coincidence that things are discovered. This chance is sometimes called serendipity, fate, luck, providence and many other words. Christopher Columbus was looking for a new way to get to India in 1492, and he accidentally wound up landing in The Americas. It was another...
Francesco Petrarca
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
Francesco Petrarca, more commonly known as Petrarch, was an Italian man who wrote poetry in the 14th century. He was born in Arezzo, a town in central Italy, but did not spend much time there. During his childhood, his family followed the pope in a literal fashion, moving from Arezzo to Avignon...
Aristotle's Philosophy of Natural Change
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
Aristotle was born into a privileged family because his father was the “personal physician to the Macedonian king, Amyntas II.” (Lindberg 45) Since they were always around royalty and high-status people, Aristotle entered into Plato's Academy in Athens when he was seventeen and stayed...
Syncretism and identity: Finding I - Thou in historical dialogue
Thesis - 12 pages - Philosophy
Identity is fundamental to the distinction between faiths and cultures. Proper respect in dialogue hinges on a relational flow in dialogue. Power struggles and anxiety over engagement with the unknown other has caused dialogue to exist as an I-it relationship where the other becomes objectified....
Number symbolism in the Bible and early Christian works
Thesis - 6 pages - Philosophy
For those who were trained in the art of interpreting them, the numbers themselves had special meanings. The result was that people in antiquity could talk to each other in a code language, that only those initiated into the symbolism of numbers could understand. Unless we understand this code,...
Religious and personal development in freemasonry - published: 22/06/2009
Thesis - 6 pages - Philosophy
Freemasonry started in the 16th century as an organization for spiritual and personal development for free thinkers. At a time when whole new conceptions of the world were opening up, some people wanted to explore new realms of personal evolution. Freemasonry provided a place for such people to...
Mimetic rivalry in 'Envy' and 'Safe conduct'
Thesis - 8 pages - Literature
Mimetic desire is the desire of an object, not because of a rational choice to fulfill one's own needs, but instead because that object fulfills the needs of a rival subject. It is meta-desire, desire of someone else's desire. Mimetic desire develops out of an attempt to imitate the rival...
