Reinforcement and Punishment in Our Daily Life Essay Example for Free

Reinforcement and Punishment in Our Daily Life Essay Reinforcement is a term in operant conditioning and behaviour analysis for the delivery of a stimulus, (immediately or shortly) after a response, that results in an increase in the future rate or probability of that response. The response strength is assessed by measuring frequency, duration, latency, accuracy, and/or persistence of the response after reinforcement stops. Experimental behaviour analysts measured the rate of behaviours as a primary demonstration of learning and performance with non-humans. For example, rate is measured as the number of times a pigeon pecks a key in a 10 minute session. Reinforcement is the stimulus, event, or situation whose presentation is dependent upon a response. B. F. Skinner, the researcher who articulated the major theoretical constructs of reinforcement and behaviourism, defined reinforcement according to the change in response strength rather than to more subjective criteria, such as what is pleasurable or valuable to someone. Accordingly, activities, foods or items considered pleasant or enjoyable may not necessarily be reinforcing (because they produce no increase in the response preceding them). Stimuli, settings, and activities only fit the definition of reinforcement if the behaviour that immediately precedes the potential reinforcement increases in similar situations in the future. For example child who receives a cookie when he or she asks for one. If the frequency of cookie-requesting behaviour increases, the cookie can be seen as reinforcing cookie-requesting behaviour. If however, cookie-requesting behaviour does not increase, the cookie cannot be considered reinforcing. Reinforcement theory is one of the motivation theories; it states that reinforced behaviour will be repeated, and behaviour that is not reinforced is less likely to be repeated. The sole criterion that determines if an item, activity, or food is reinforcing is the change in probability of behaviour after administration of that potential reinforcement. Other theories may focus on additional factors such as whether the person expected the strategy to work at some point, but in the behavioural theory, reinforcement is descriptive of an increased probability of a response. Primary reinforcement A primary reinforcement, sometimes called an unconditioned reinforcement, is a stimulus that does not require pairing to function as reinforcement and most likely has obtained this function through the evolution and its role in species survival. Examples of primary reinforcement include sleep, food, air, water, and sex. Other primary reinforcement, such as certain drugs, may mimic the effects of other primary reinforcement. While this primary reinforcement is fairly stable through life and across individuals, the reinforcing value of different primary reinforcement varies due to multiple factors (e. . , genetics, experience). Thus, one person may prefer one type of food while another abhors it. Or one person may eat lots of food while another eats very little. So even though food is a primary reinforcement for both individuals, the value of food as reinforcement differs between them. Secondary reinforcement A secondary reinforcement, sometimes called a conditioned reinforcement, is a stimulus or situation that has acquired its function as reinforcement after pairing with a stimulus that functions as reinforcement. This stimulus may be a primary reinforcement or another conditioned reinforcement (such as money). An example of a secondary reinforcement would be the sound from a clicker, as used in clicker training. The sound of the clicker has been associated with praise or treats, and subsequently, the sound of the clicker may function as reinforcement. As with primary reinforces, an organism can experience satiation and deprivation with secondary reinforces. 3. 1 Increase of desire Positive reinforcement A positive reinforcement may be used as part of a behaviour intervention plan (BIP). Unlike negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement are strategies used to help increase targeted behaviours in students who are experiencing academic or behavioural problems at home and school. How is Positive Reinforcement Used? Positive reinforcement helps students learn behaviours necessary to be successful academically and socially. For example, a students behaviour goal may be to increase the amount of time he stays on-task in class. Positive reinforcement would be used as a reward for improving over a period of time. Positive reinforcement includes any actions, consequences, or rewards that are provided to a student and cause an increase in desired behaviour. They may include rewards and privileges that students like and enjoy. For example, a student may earn physical rewards such as school supplies, healthy snacks, or choice of free-time activities. When choosing a positive reinforcement, it is important for the IEP team to know the child well. If possible, it can be helpful to allow the child to help choose the type of positive reinforcement he would like to earn. Examples: Positive reinforcement increase a students targeted behaviours. Positive reinforcement is similar to rewards, but they are also intended to increase behaviours over time. They are not just a one-time reward for good behaviour. 3. 2 Drawbacks of Positive Reinforcement Positive reinforcement may seem to be an ideal technique to increase certain positive behaviours. Managers may be able to motivated employees using positive reinforcement techniques. However, there can be some drawbacks. First, the use of positive reinforcement techniques may result in people becoming more extrinsically motivated. Extrinsic motivation may undermine creativity. In Amabiles (1985) experiment, people were asked to write two poems. Before writing the second poem, some people were given a questionnaire in which they were asked to rank the importance of some reasons for writing. In one condition, these reflected extrinsic motivation. In another condition, they reflected intrinsic motivation. In the control condition, people did not receive a questionnaire with reasons for writing. The poems in the extrinsic-orientation condition were judged to be less creative, on the average, than the poems in the control condition. Second, the ideal employee may be one who is intrinsically motivated and does not require constant supervision. Intrinsically motivated employees may be less likely to be late. They also may be more likely to excel at their jobs. Thus, positive reinforcement techniques may not lead to ideal employees in a company. 3. 3 Effect of Positive reinforcement for children Positive Reinforcement Can Improve Your Childs Behaviour: Using positive reinforcement is an easy way to nix behaviour problems. You can use positive reinforcement can help you encourage your child to do everyday tasks you need her to perform. Turning off an annoying song when a child asks their parent is an example of negative reinforcement (if this results in an increase in asking behaviour of the child in the future). Another example is if a mouse presses a button to avoid shock. Do not confuse this concept with punishment. There are two variations of negative reinforcement: oAvoidance conditioning occurs when behaviour prevents an aversive stimulus from starting or being applied. oEscape conditioning occurs when behaviour removes an aversive stimulus that has already started. A lot of students are confused about negative reinforcement. Whats the difference between that and punishment? Perhaps some examples of negative reinforcement would be helpful (remember, its reinforcement so the behavior increases, and because its negative, the reinforcement is removed after the response). Negative Reinforcement strengthens behaviour because a negative condition is stopped or avoided as a consequence of the behaviour. Punishment, on the other hand, weakens behaviour because a negative condition is introduced or experienced as a consequence of the behaviour. Here are two examples of Negative Reinforcement: 1. A rat is placed in a cage and immediately receives a mild electrical shock on its feet. The shock is a negative condition for the rat. The rat presses a bar and the shock stops. The rat receives another shock, presses the bar again, and again the shock stops. The rats behaviour of pressing the bar is strengthened by the consequence of the stopping of the shock. 2. Driving in heavy traffic is a negative condition for most of us. You leave home earlier than usual one morning, and dont run into heavy traffic. You leave home earlier again the next morning and again you avoid heavy traffic.

The Supreme Court Essay -- Supreme Court Governmental Congress Essays

The Supreme Court At the apex of our federal court system stands the United States Supreme Court. It stands as the ultimate authority in constitutional interpretation and its decision can be changed only by a constitutional amendment. Two documents are responsible for its creation which is the Constitution, which explicitly creates the Supreme Court, and the Judiciary Act of September 24, 1789. The Supreme Court is the only court named in the constitution laying out the Courts basic jurisdiction, identifying the mode of selection and tenure for justices. Under Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution provides that "[t]he judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." Article III establishes the Court as the chief authority of the judicial branch making it equal to the executive and legislative branches (Lieberman, 2003, p 3). The Judiciary Act of 1789 not only set up the federal court system and used the Court’s jurisdiction under the Constitution as a basis for granting it broad powers that are recognized everywhere. According to Abraham (1983), â€Å"There is no gainsaying the importance and the majesty of the most powerful of courts, not only in the United States, but the entire free world (p. 19).† The French political observer Alexis de Tocqueville noted the uniqueness of the Supreme Courts in the history of nations and jurisprudence. He stated, â€Å"The representative system of government has been adopted in several states of Europe, but I am unaware that any nation of the globe has hitherto organized judicial power in the same manner as the Americans. . . . A more imposing judicial power was never constituted by any people (qtd in Abraham, 1983, p. 27). Issues as the number of justices, their qualifications and their duties have been settled by law and tradition rather than being specified in the Constitution (Baum, 1992, p. 13). The Courts composition was addressed in the Judiciary Act of 1789 under Section 1 stating â€Å"That the Supreme Court of the United States shall consist of a chief justice and five associate justices. . . â€Å". The number of justices changed several times during the Courts first century. A number of changes were to the number of justices after the Judiciary Act of 1789 in part to accommodate the justices’ duties in... ...embers are crucial in affecting the interpretations of the Constitution and important amendments relevant to citizens (Champion, 2003, p. 203). References Abraham, H. (1983). The Judiciary: The Supreme Court in the Governmental Process (6th ed). Newton, MA: Allyn and Bacon Inc. Baum, L. (1992). The Supreme Court. (4th ed). Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Inc. Champion, D. (2003). Administration of Criminal Justice: Structure, Function and Process. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Lieberman, J. Supreme Court of the United States. Microsoft ® Encarta ® Online Encyclopedia 2003. Retrieved 22 September from the World Wide Web: http://encarta.msn.com Supreme Court Cases. Retrieved 17 September 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/index.html The History of the Supreme Court. Retrieved 12 September 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supremecourt/supcthist.html Van Dervort, T. (2000). American Law and the Legal System: Equal Justice under the Law. (2nd ed). Albany, NY: West Legal Studies Zalman, M. (2002). Criminal Procedure: Constitution and Society. (3rd ed). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Anglo-Saxon Religious Poetry

Anglo-Saxon Religious Poetry The influence of Christianity came to England from Ireland with the arrival of St. Augustine’mission. The ancient vernacular poetry unredeemed in its worldliness and paganism was sanctified by the Christianization of England. In consequence there was a marked change in the content and emotion of English poetry while leaving it form and general technique unaltered. Instead of seeking themes common to old-Germanic the Christianized Anglo-Saxons adopted a new world of Latin Christianity along with themes and attitudes common to entire Christian world.This enabled the Anglo-Saxon poets to work on Biblical stories, associating them with Hebrew imagination. The special class of poetry which is called Christian poetry and this religious poetry flourished in about the 8th century in North England. Alliterative verse came to the aid of clerkly Latin to give expression of the faith of the Laity and make it popular. The subject of the poet’s song is no w the story of Christ and the deeds of saintly heroes. Caedmon The English poet who took the first attempt to write poems on Christian themes was Caedmon.What scholars know of Caedmon's life comes from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. He is known best during the time fl. 658-680 AD. , and Bede tells us that he was an illiterate herdsman to a monastery of Whitby who one night in a dream learned how to sing beautiful Christian verses praising God's name. Following his dream, Caedmon became the foremost Christian poets. Earlier he had so little gift of song that he used to leave the feast when he found the harp approaching him he used to leave the feast.One night as he lay asleep in the stable a mysterious being appeared to him in his dreams and commanded him to sing. At his bidding Caedmon at once sang in praise of the Lord, the Creator, verses which he had never heard before. When he awoke he remembered these verses and made others like them. Thus the unlettered C aedmon was miraculously transformed into the first religious poet of England. Caedmon is remembered today for his poetic paraphrases of The Bible.He paraphrased in verse the book of Geneis, Exodus, Daniel and Judith. He is supposed to have sung about  creation of the world, the origin of man, his reign, of exodus, the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection of Christ, the ascension of Christ into heaven, the advent of the Holy Ghost and the teaching of the apostles. He also sang of future judgement, the horrors of hell and the joys of heaven. Research and scholarship however, no longer admit all the poems attributed to Caedmon by Bede to be directly his work excepting the nine-lined poem quoted by Bede in his account of Caedmon’s first inspiration. Genesis A and B The most interesting of the poems in the Junius Manuscript is Genesis.Genesis A of 3000 lines is an account of Satan’s rebellion against God and his fall with the angels into Hell, narrating the subs tance of the first 22 chapters of the Biblical book of Genesis. The poem contains an interpolated passage of 600 lines strikingly different in language and style from the main body of the poem. This has been named Genesis B, a rudimentary Paradise Lost, describing the temptation of Adam and Eve, their Fall and Satan’s rebellion Exodus It relates to the escape of the Israelites and the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea.It is boldly and vigorously written and has an older Epic note. It is written more in the convention of heroic poetry rather than scriptural lore. Exodus brings a traditional â€Å"heroic style† to its biblical subject-matter. Moses is treated as a general, and military imagery pervades the battle scenes. The destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea is narrated in much the same way as a formulaic battle scene from other Old English poems Daniel Daniel, as it is preserved, is 764 lines long. There have been numerous arguments that there was or iginally more to this poem than survives today.It is a paraphrase of the first five chapters of the Biblical book of Daniel. The poet uses his materials for homiletic purposes and tries to inculcate such Christian virtue. The primary focus of the Old English author was that of The Three Youths, Daniel and their encounters with the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. Prosaic in tone, it also bears an interpolatory passage relating to the poem of Azariah. Judith The finest of the poem attributed to Caedmon is Judith of which a fragment of 350 lines, survive. It is a perfect poem full of action and passion.The Old English poem â€Å"Judith† describes the beheading of Assyrian general Holofernes by Israelite Judith of Bethulia. It is found in the same manuscript as the heroic poem Beowulf, the Nowell Codex, dated ca. 975-1025. The Old English poem is one of many retellings of the Holofernes-Judith tale as it was found in the Book of Judith, still present in the Catholic and Orthod ox Christian Bibles. What is certain about the origin of the poem is that it stems from the Book of Judith. After the Reformation, the Book of Judith was removed from the Protestant Bible.However, it is still present in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles. Similar to Beowulf, Judith conveys a moral tale of heroic triumph over monstrous beings. Both moral and political, the poem tells of a brave woman’s efforts to save and protect her people. Judith is depicted as an exemplar woman, grounded by ideal morale, probity, courage, and religious conviction. Judith's character is rendered blameless and virtuous, and her beauty is praised persistently throughout the poem.Cynaewulf Beside Caedmon, the other most important Old-English religious poet is Cynaewulf. Cynewulf lived roughly c.770-840 AD, yet very little is known about his life. The only information scholars have on Cynewulf's life is what they can discover from his poetry. Two of Cynewulf's signed poems were disco vered in the Vercelli Book, which includes Cynewulf's holy cross poem â€Å"Elene† as well as Dream of the Rood. Where many scholars will argue that all of the poems in the Vercelli are in fact Cynewulf's, the noted German scholar Franz Dietrich demonstrates that the similarities between Cynewulf's â€Å"Elene† and The Dream of the Rood reveals that the two must have been authored by the same individual.The four poems attributed to him trough his runic signatures are Christ. Juliana, Elene and The Fate of the Apostles. Unsigned poems attributed to him or his school are Andreas, St. Guthlac, The Phoenix, The Dream of the Rood. The four poems, like a substantial portion of Anglo-Saxon poetry, are sculpted in alliterative verse. All four poems draw upon Latin sources such as homilies and hagiographies (the lives of saints) for their content, and this is to be particularly contrasted to other Old English poems, e. g.Genesis, Exodus, and Daniel, which are drawn directly fro m the Bible as opposed to secondary accounts. Christ Of all his works the most important and popular poem is Christ, a fragmentary didactic poem in three parts – the first celebrating the Nativity, the second Ascension and the third Doomsday, narrating the torments of the wicked and the joys of the redeemed. Andreas and Guthlac These are poems related to lives of Saints. The first narrates the story of the adventures and sufferings and success of St. Andreas in his travels related to missionary work. Juliana and EleneThese are legendary stories of St. Juliana and the discovery of the True Cross by the mother of Emperor Constantine, St. Helena. They are poems with little artistic merit except for their adventurous element and the rareness in Anglo-Saxon poetry of being dedicated to women. In terms of length, Elene is by far the longest poem of Cynewulf’s corpus at 1,321 lines. It is followed by Juliana, at 731 lines, Christ II, at 427 lines, and The Fates of the Apostle s, at a brisk 122 lines. Three of the poems are â€Å"martyrolical,† in that the central character(s) in each die/suffer for their religious values.In Elene, Saint Helena endures her quest to find the Holy Cross and spread Christianity; in Juliana, the title character dies after she refuses to marry a pagan man, thus retaining her Christian integrity; in Fates of the Apostles, the speaker creates a song that meditates on the deaths of the apostles which they â€Å"joyously faced. † Elene and Juliana fit in the category of poems that depict the lives of saints. These two poems along with Andreas and Guthlac (parts A and B) constitute the only versified saints' legends in the Old English vernacular.The Ascension (Christ II) is outside the umbrella of the other three works, and is a vehement description of a devotional subject. The exact chronology of the poems is not known. One argument asserts that Elene is likely the last of the poems because the â€Å"autobiographica l† epilogue implies that Cynewulf is old at the time of composition, but this view has been doubted. Nevertheless, it seems that Christ II and Elene represent the cusp of Cynewulf’s career, while Juliana and Fates of the Apostles seem to be created by a less inspired, and perhaps less mature, poet.The Fates of the Apostles It deals with the various Christian Gospels in an Elegiac manner. It is the shortest of Cynewulf’s known canon at 122 lines long. It is a brief martyrology of the Twelve Apostles written in the standard alliterative verse. The Fates recites the key events that subsequently befell each apostle after the Ascension. It is possible that The Fates was composed as a learning aid to the monasteries. Cynewulf speaks in the first-person throughout the poem, and besides explaining the fate of each disciple, he provides â€Å"advice† and â€Å"consolation† to the reader.Cynewulf’s runic signature is scrambled in this poem so that the meaning of the runes become a riddle with no unequivocal meaning. Runic signature All four of Cynewulf's poems contain passages where the letters of the poet’s name are woven into the text using runic symbols that also double as meaningful ideas pertinent to the text. In Juliana and Elene, the interwoven name is spelled in the more recognizable form as Cynewulf, while in Fates and Christ II it is observed without the medial e so the runic acrostic says Cynwulf.The practice of claiming authorship over one’s poems was a break from the tradition of the anonymous poet, where no composition was viewed as being owned by its creator. Cynewulf devised a tradition where authorship would connote ownership of the piece and an originality that would be respected by future generations. Furthermore, by integrating his name, Cynewulf was attempting to retain the structure and form of his poetry that would â€Å"undergo mutations† otherwise. From a different perspective, Cynewu lf’s intent may not have been to claim authorship, but to â€Å"seek the prayers of others for the safety of his soul.†It is contended that Cynewulf wished to be remembered in the prayers of his audience in return for the pleasure they would derive from his poems. In a sense his expectation of a spiritual reward can be contrasted with the material reward that other poets of his time would have expected for their craft. The Phoenix The poem is about a mythical bird which burnt itself to be reborn from its own ashes, symbolic of Christian soul. The Dream of the Rood The poem is set up with the narrator having a dream. In this dream or vision he is speaking to the Cross on which Jesus was crucified.The poem itself is divided up into three separate sections. In section one, the narrator has a vision of the Cross. Initially when the dreamer sees the Cross, he notes how it is covered with gems. He is aware of how wretched he is compared to how glorious the tree is. However, he comes to see that amidst the beautiful stones it is stained with blood In section two, the Cross shares its account of Jesus’ death. The Crucifixion story is told from the perspective of the Cross. It begins with the enemy coming to cut the tree down and carrying it away.The tree learns that it is to be the bearer of a criminal, but instead the Christ comes to be crucified. The Lord and the Cross become one, and they stand together as victors, refusing to fall, taking on insurmountable pain for the sake of mankind. It is not just Christ, but the Cross as well that is pierced with nails. The Rood and Christ are one in the portrayal of the Passion—they are both pierced with nails, mocked and tortured. Then, just like with Christ, the Cross is resurrected, and adorned with gold and silver. It is honored above all trees just as Jesus is honored above all men.The Cross then charges the visionary to share all that he has seen with others. In section three, the author give s his reflections about this vision. The vision ends, and the man is left with his thoughts. He gives praise to God for what he has seen and is filled with hope for eternal life and his desire to once again be near the glorious Cross. It is the finest of religious poems in OE, the finest narrative of the Passion in medieval verse (late 7th century, later modified; preserved in the Vercelli Book). The tree of which the Cross was made relates the story the first English dream-poem Anglo-Saxon Religious Poetry The influence of Christianity came to England from Ireland with the arrival of St. Augustine’mission. The ancient vernacular poetry unredeemed in its worldliness and paganism was sanctified by the Christianization of England. In consequence there was a marked change in the content and emotion of English poetry while leaving it form and general technique unaltered.Instead of seeking themes common to old-Germanic the Christianized Anglo-Saxons adopted a new world of Latin Christianity along with themes and attitudes common to entire Christian world. This enabled the Anglo-Saxon poets to work on Biblical stories, associating them with Hebrew imagination. The special class of poetry which is called Christian poetry and this religious poetry flourished in about the 8th century in North England. Alliterative verse came to the aid of clerkly Latin to give expression of the faith of the Laity and make it popular. The subject of the poet’s song is now the story of Christ and the deeds of saintly heroes.CaedmonThe English poet who took the first attempt to write poems on Christian themes was Caedmon. What scholars know of Caedmon's life comes from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. He is known best during the time fl. 658-680 AD., and Bede tells us that he was an illiterate herdsman to a monastery of Whitby who one night in a dream learned how to sing beautiful Christian verses praising God's name. Following his dream, Caedmon became the foremost Christian poets. Earlier he had so little gift of song that he used to leave the feast when he found the harp approaching him he used to leave the feast. One night as he lay asleep in the stable a mysterious being appeared to him in his dreams and commanded him to sing.At his bidding Caedmon at once sang in praise of the Lord, the Creator, verses which he had never heard before. When he awoke he remembered these verses and made others like them. Thus the unlettered Caedmon was miraculously transfo rmed into the first religious poet of England. Caedmon is remembered today for his poetic paraphrases of The Bible. He paraphrased in verse the book of Geneis, Exodus, Daniel and Judith. He is supposed to have sung about  creation of the world, the origin of man, his reign, of exodus, the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection of Christ, the ascension of Christ into heaven, the advent of the Holy Ghost and the teaching of the apostles.He also sang of future judgement, the horrors of hell and the joys of heaven. Research and scholarship however, no longer admit all the poems attributed to Caedmon by Bede to be directly his work excepting the nine-lined poem quoted by Bede in his account of Caedmon’s first inspiration.Genesis A and BThe most interesting of the poems in the Junius Manuscript is Genesis. Genesis A of 3000 lines is an account of Satan’s rebellion against God and his fall with the angels into Hell, narrating the substance of the first 22 chapters o f the Biblical book of Genesis. The poem contains an interpolated passage of 600 lines strikingly different in language and style from the main body of the poem. This has been named Genesis B, a rudimentary Paradise Lost, describing the temptation of Adam and Eve, their Fall and Satan’s rebellionExodusIt relates to the escape of the Israelites and the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea. It is boldly and vigorously written and has an older Epic note. It is written more in the convention of heroic poetry rather than scriptural lore. Exodus brings a traditional â€Å"heroic style† to its biblical subject-matter. Moses is treated as a general, and military imagery pervades the battle scenes. The destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea is narrated in much the same way as a formulaic battle scene from other Old English poemsDanielDaniel, as it is preserved, is 764 lines long. There have been numerous arguments that there was originally more to this poem than sur vives today.It is a paraphrase of the first five chapters of the Biblical book of Daniel. The poet uses his materials for homiletic purposes and tries to inculcate such Christian virtue. The primary focus of the Old English author was that of The Three Youths, Daniel and their encounters with the Babylonian king  Nebuchadnezzar II. Prosaic in tone, it also bears an interpolatory passage relating to the poem of Azariah.JudithThe finest of the poem attributed to Caedmon is Judith of which a fragment of 350 lines, survive. It is a perfect poem full of action and passion. The Old English poem â€Å"Judith† describes the beheading of Assyrian general Holofernes by Israelite Judith of Bethulia. It is found in the same manuscript as the heroic poem Beowulf, the Nowell Codex, dated ca. 975-1025. The Old English poem is one of many retellings of the Holofernes-Judith tale as it was found in the Book of Judith, still present in the Catholic and Orthodox Christian Bibles.What is certa in about the origin of the poem is that it stems from the Book of Judith. After the Reformation, the Book of Judith was removed from the Protestant Bible. However, it is still present in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles.Similar to Beowulf, Judith conveys a moral tale of heroic triumph over monstrous beings. Both moral and political, the poem tells of a brave woman’s efforts to save and protect her people. Judith is depicted as an exemplar woman, grounded by ideal morale, probity, courage, and religious conviction. Judith's character is rendered blameless and virtuous, and her beauty is praised persistently throughout the poem.CynaewulfBeside Caedmon, the other most important Old-English religious poet is Cynaewulf. Cynewulf lived roughly c. 770-840 AD, yet very little is known about his life.The only information scholars have on Cynewulf's life is what they can discover from his poetry. Two of Cynewulf's signed poems were discovered in the Vercelli Book, which i ncludes Cynewulf's holy cross poem â€Å"Elene† as well as Dream of the Rood.Where many scholars will argue that all of the poems in the Vercelli are in fact Cynewulf's, the noted German scholar Franz Dietrich demonstrates that the similarities between Cynewulf's â€Å"Elene† and The Dream of the Rood reveals that the two must have been authored by the same individual. The four poems attributed to him trough his runic signatures are Christ. Juliana, Elene and The Fate of the Apostles.Unsigned poems attributed to him or his school are Andreas, St. Guthlac, The Phoenix, The Dream of the Rood. The four poems, like a substantial portion of Anglo-Saxon poetry, are sculpted in alliterative verse. All four poems draw upon Latin sources such as homilies and hagiographies (the lives of saints) for their content, and this is to be particularly contrasted to other Old English poems, e.g. Genesis, Exodus, and Daniel, which are drawn directly from the Bible as opposed to secondary accounts.ChristOf all his works the most important and popular poem is Christ, a fragmentary didactic poem in three parts – the first celebrating the Nativity, the second Ascension and the third Doomsday, narrating the torments of the wicked and the joys of the redeemed.Andreas and GuthlacThese are poems related to lives of Saints. The first narrates the story of the adventures and sufferings and success of St. Andreas in his travels related to missionary work.Juliana and EleneThese are legendary stories of St. Juliana and the discovery of the True Cross by the mother of Emperor Constantine, St. Helena. They are poems with little artistic merit except for their adventurous element and the rareness in Anglo-Saxon poetry of being dedicated to women. In terms of length, Elene is by far the longest poem of Cynewulf’s corpus at 1,321 lines. It is followed by Juliana, at 731 lines, Christ II, at 427 lines, and The Fates of the Apostles, at a brisk 122 lines. Three of the poe ms are â€Å"martyrolical,† in that the central character(s) in each die/suffer for their religious values.In Elene, Saint Helena endures her quest to find the Holy Cross and spread Christianity; in Juliana, the title character dies after she refuses to marry a pagan man, thus retaining her Christian integrity; in Fates of the Apostles, the speaker creates a song that meditates on the deaths of the apostles which they â€Å"joyously faced.† Elene and Juliana fit in the category of poems that depict the lives of saints. These two poems along with Andreas  and Guthlac (parts A and B) constitute the only versified saints' legends in the Old English vernacular.The Ascension (Christ II) is outside the umbrella of the other three works, and is a vehement description of a devotional subject. The exact chronology of the poems is not known. One argument asserts that Elene is likely the last of the poems because the â€Å"autobiographical† epilogue implies that Cynewulf is old at the time of composition, but this view has been doubted. Nevertheless, it seems that Christ II and Elene represent the cusp of Cynewulf’s career, while Juliana and Fates of the Apostles seem to be created by a less inspired, and perhaps less mature, poet. The Fates of the ApostlesIt deals with the various Christian Gospels in an Elegiac manner. It is the shortest of Cynewulf’s known canon at 122 lines long. It is a brief martyrology of the Twelve Apostles written in the standard alliterative verse. The Fates recites the key events that subsequently befell each apostle after the Ascension. It is possible that The Fates was composed as a learning aid to the monasteries. Cynewulf speaks in the first-person throughout the poem, and besides explaining the fate of each disciple, he provides â€Å"advice† and â€Å"consolation† to the reader. Cynewulf’s runic signature is scrambled in this poem so that the meaning of the runes become a riddle w ith no unequivocal meaning.Runic signatureAll four of Cynewulf's poems contain passages where the letters of the poet’s name are woven into the text using runic symbols that also double as meaningful ideas pertinent to the text. In Juliana and Elene, the interwoven name is spelled in the more recognizable form as Cynewulf, while in Fates and Christ II it is observed without the medial e so the runic acrostic says Cynwulf. The practice of claiming authorship over one’s poems was a break from the tradition of the anonymous poet, where no composition was viewed as being owned by its creator. Cynewulf devised a tradition where authorship would connote ownership of the piece and an originality that would be respected by future generations.Furthermore, by integrating his name, Cynewulf was attempting to retain the structure and form of his poetry that would â€Å"undergo mutations† otherwise. From a different perspective, Cynewulf’s intent may not have been to claim authorship, but to â€Å"seek the  prayers of others for the safety of his soul.† It is contended that Cynewulf wished to be remembered in the prayers of his audience in return for the pleasure they would derive from his poems. In a sense his expectation of a spiritual reward can be contrasted with the material reward that other poets of his time would have expected for their craft.The PhoenixThe poem is about a mythical bird which burnt itself to be reborn from its own ashes, symbolic of Christian soul.The Dream of the RoodThe poem is set up with the narrator having a dream. In this dream or vision he is speaking to the Cross on which Jesus was crucified. The poem itself is divided up into three separate sections. In section one, the narrator has a vision of the Cross. Initially when the dreamer sees the Cross, he notes how it is covered with gems. He is aware of how wretched he is compared to how glorious the tree is. However, he comes to see that amidst the beautif ul stones it is stained with blood In section two, the Cross shares its account of Jesus’ death.The Crucifixion story is told from the perspective of the Cross. It begins with the enemy coming to cut the tree down and carrying it away. The tree learns that it is to be the bearer of a criminal, but instead the Christ comes to be crucified. The Lord and the Cross become one, and they stand together as victors, refusing to fall, taking on insurmountable pain for the sake of mankind. It is not just Christ, but the Cross as well that is pierced with nails. The Rood and Christ are one in the portrayal of the Passion—they are both pierced with nails, mocked and tortured. Then, just like with Christ, the Cross is resurrected, and adorned with gold and silver. It is honored above all trees just as Jesus is honored above all men.The Cross then charges the visionary to share all that he has seen with others. In section three, the author gives his reflections about this vision. Th e vision ends, and the man is left with his thoughts. He gives praise to God for what he has seen and is filled with hope for eternal life and his desire to once again be near the glorious Cross. It is the finest of religious poems in OE, the finest narrative of the Passion in medieval verse (late 7th century, later modified; preserved in the Vercelli Book). The tree of which the Cross was made relates the story the first English dream-poem  Christ is portrayed as a young Germanic hero:Long years ago (well yet I remember)   They hewed me down on the edge of the holt, Severed my trunk; strong foemen took me, For a spectacle wrought me, a gallows for rogues. High on their shoulders they bore me to hilltop, Fastened me firmly, an army of foes!   ‘Then I saw the King of all mankind In brave mood hastening to mount upon me. Refuse I dared not, nor bow nor break, Though I felt earth's confines shudder in fear; All foes I might fell, yet still I stood fast.   ‘T hen the young Warrior, God, the All-Wielder, Put off his raiment, steadfast and strong; With lordly mood in the sight of many He mounted the Cross to redeem mankind. When the hero clasped me I trembled in terror,   But I dared not bow me nor bend to earth; I must need stand fast. Upraised as the Rood I held the High King, the Lord of Heaven. I dared not bow! with black nails driven Those sinners pierced me; the prints are clear,   The open wounds. I dared injure none. They mocked us both. I was wet with blood From the Hero's side when He sent forth His spirit. ‘Many a bale I bore on that hill-side Seeing the Lord in agony outstretched.   Black darkness covered with clouds God's body, That radiant splendor. Shadow went forth Wan under heaven; all creation wept Bewailing the King's death. Christ was on the Cross.It appears from a survey of Old English Christian poetry that the poets chiefly aimed at popularizing the holy writ and only occasionally added pious commentaries to the original.

comparative essays - 1256 Words

Introduction Many people today have their thoughts on how the Earth was created. Christians take a biblical perspective of how the universe was created by a creator. One thought that Christians believe is that God created the earth and accomplished this in six days and rested on the seventh day. This is the model of how a week is set up and the model that we currently follow. Jon W. Green states â€Å"though differences of opinion exist for various doctrinal issues within Christianity, few are more divisive than controversies surrounding the days of creation and the age of the Earth.† As stated previously many people have thoughts and are curious as to how the Earth itself came into existence. When it comes to the scientific community there†¦show more content†¦(Mortenson, 2011) Young Earth Creationist believe in the idea of the Hebrew word Yom. (Morris, 2011) This word translates to mean a literal day and is used in Genesis to describe each day of creation. We as Christians must take the Bible as true, this being the whole bible including the Old Testament. In regards to the age of the Earth, young earth creationist take Genesis 5 as a genealogy of the Earth. The genealogies of Genesis 5 as well as 11 give people an idea of the years and happenings from Adam to Abraham. Scholars can mostly agree that Abraham lived about 2000 BC. All of these facts then set the date of creation at approximately 6000 years ago. (Mortenson, 2011) Old - Earth View In response to the young earth six day creation of the Earth idea, secular scientist have developed the idea of the Big Bang theory. According to the big bang theory, the universe began by expanding from a minuscule volume that possessed extremely high density as well as extreme temperatures. Initially the universe was significantly smaller than a pore on your skin. (Takahashi, 2000 ) It is thought that this happened about 10-20 billion years ago. According to Yuki D. Takahasi (2000) in his article â€Å"Big Bang: How did the Universe begin?† He states 3 main observations that point to truth in the Big Bang Theory. Number one is astronomers have found that the universe continues to expand which means that theShow MoreRelated comparative advantage Essay1035 Words   |  5 Pagesnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The theory of comparative advantage is perhaps the most important concept in international trade theory. As the economies that exist in our world our becoming increasingly more intertwined, it is becoming even more important. Nearly every country in the world depends on other countries to supply them with goods that they cannot produce in their own country. I believe that comparative in necessary in today’s economy. 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