St. Augustines Role in the Development of Christianity Essay

St. Augustines Role in the Development of Christianity - Essay Example St. Augustine’s Role in the Development of Christianity The name of St. Augustine is also among such courageous and dauntless personalities, who devoted their life for the uplift of Christianity in his surroundings without displaying any irresoluteness in the face of hardships. St. Augustine of Hippo enjoys very respectable status in the list of the Christian saints, who had rendered exceptional services for the growth and development of the contemporary world’s largest religion i.e. Christianity. He not only dedicated his entire life for the development of Christianity, but also introduced, interpreted and elaborated the fundamental concepts of the belief in order to convey the Christ’s true message to the masses during the era when adopting and supporting Christian teachings served as taboo and forbidden act in the eyes of law and society at large. The Christians were persecuted, tortured and even killed at the hands of pagans and Jews in Africa and Rome respectively. â€Å"Christians posed a problem for Roman rulers beca use Christians refused to worship Roman gods. This refusal was seen as opposition to Roman rule. Some Roman rulers also used Christians as scapegoats for political and economic troubles.† (mmoloneyiths.com) Augustine was born in Numidia, North Africa in 354 A.D. It was the time when Christian faith was in its budding in the entire region. The paganism prevailed all over Africa, and the people, converted to this new faith, were looked upon with extreme suspicion and abhorrence. Being the son of a pagan father, Patricia, and devout Christian mother, Monica, the young Augustine had least interest in Christianity in his early youth. Being an energetic and carefree youth, he spent most of his time in dissipation and revelry making. Hence, he was neither interested in paganism, nor did he display any inclination towards her mother’s conversion. However, he had developed great taste for philosophy and maintained aptitude for reading. â€Å"After a rather unremarkable childhoo d, Augustine drifted through several philosophical systems before converting to Christianity at the age of thirty-one. At the age of nineteen, Augustine read Cicero's Hortensius, an experience that led him into the fascination with philosophical questions and methods that would remain with him throughout his life.† (ccel.org) Since St. Monica, his mother, had dedicated her life for the cause of her religion, she vehemently lamented over Augustine’s sticking to the pagan faith. Somehow, the circumstances observed astounding change, and Augustine started abhorring dissipation; eventually his social life was confined to reading and brooding. The remarkable mysterious call, inviting him to adopt the path of virtue and glory was too powerful to resist. Consequently, he embraced Manichaean faith viewing it as the right path to be followed. Somehow, his discussions with his friend Simplicianus and his mother’s insisting forced him to study the new religious doctrine. St . Ambrose of Milan played decisive role in his conversion, and he adopted Christianity not just to imitate others; rather, he entered the faith on the concrete foundations of his deep study, meditative examination and thorough analysis of the Christian teachings. Augustine has recorded the account of his conversion in his wonderful â€Å"The Confessions.† After conversion, Augustine dedicated himself for the cause of Christianity. He declared his conversion to Christianity as the outcome of countless bounties of his Lord upon him. He studied, taught and spread the basic philosophy of religion, and

Dq week 9 m 9 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dq week 9 m 9 - Essay Example Instead, this particular business approach may take some time to put in place as it involves everybody connected to the business and require resources, has proven to be capable of giving more benefits than just profits as the result (Cortez 2011). Organizational sustainability is one other thing that is challenging business leaders, and from the look of things, the competition in the business world requires that organizations are sustainable and competent. Sustainability is therefore a Business tool that also requires going through processes and business leaders, for it to work must exert efforts (Wikstom 2010). According to a good number of business Scholars, the argument that most businesses are now adapting to CSR is true. Organizations have also reputation drastically hence causing it to attract the attention of a variety of consumersrealized that CSR is not only based business ethics but that it is capable of changing the company. Menz, for instance, is one of the Scholars who s ays that many corporate companies, which never considered CSR to be an effective tool in business, have now experienced a growing interest. This is due to the fact that as profit-oriented companies, the world climate changes, lack of enough resources and the developing social pressures is forcing them to realize the importance and positive impact of it. Menz says that these organizations are now realizing the social need of creating holistic goals and objectives. It is usually termed as the â€Å"triple bottom line,† which is the current consideration of economic, environmental, and social features of the construction of corporate strategies (Menz 2010). Hadders, on the other hand, comes up with his â€Å"Quadruple Bottom Line Scorecard,† which he uses to measure the performance measurement system for organizations. It offers a calculated map that helps business leaders to measure the performance in their companies in a much better way. Hadders argument about organizat ional sustainability is more or less the same as that of most scholars because he stresses that effectiveness and adaption are two of the main things that drive business sustainability. He also says that sustainability in business requires both knowledge on its effects in the society and the ability for organizations to learn and modernize in response (Hadders 2010). Angelo Cortez answers the question on whether the markets really care about social and environmental performance using the Tokyo Stock Exchange. In his text, he makes it clear that the top Japanese organizations are some of the world’s best example with markets, which are concerned with social and ecological performance. In Japan, over twenty of the top manufactures actively promote and maintain sustainability and provide yearly financial reports in the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Together with countries such as Germany and U.K, Japan practices progressive sustainability reporting through the government assistance, and one of them is the Ministry of Environment which assists in drafting the strategies for ecological accounting and reporting (Cortez M. 2011). John Grinde in his view strongly blames the environmental harm on human activities, and argues like the rest of scholars that it is the