Reflection Paper

Introduction

This paper is meant to be the reflection paper on Lynn Mitchell’s Christianity and Ethics course by video. In this video, the topic of Christianity and the Christian view is highlighted.  The paper is providing a summary of the lecture, describing the questions and thoughts the lecture evoked, and enumerating new things I have learnt from the lecture.

Christianity and Ethics

Lynn Mitchell PhD is the Professor of Religious Studies at University of Houston. He is teaching a course named “The Bible and Modern Science.” In his video, Dr. Mitchell tells about dissimilar things like the history of the relationship of science and religion. Also, the doctor Mitchell presents the comparison of the ethics from a Christocentric and a philosophical points of view. He describes the relations between Christian concept and western philosophical customs having regard to contemporary and also classical ethical issues and the relation to existing political and social matters.

First of all, in the eighth lecture, Lynn Mitchell describes the neo-platonic perspective concerning religion, philosophy, and ethics. He starts his speech with the neo-platonic concept of God. Next, he smoothly passes to the concepts of soul, matter, and hierarchy of good. He mentions Aristotle and his prejudiced point of view that a female was a mis-form of male. Then, Lynn Mitchell thoroughly describes the concepts of Creation, Fall, and Revelation. It is important to remember that, first of all, human beings are the part of the creation. Thus, humans do not own the nature. People are not gods and will never be, though neo-platonists thought that people are parts of God, as there is a part of Him in every humans being.  

Also, the narrator mentions Luther and Calvin. Martin Luther’s and Calvin’s thoughts are alike as they agreed that religious power rested on the Bible and had faith in the priesthood of the believers. Luther also believed the Creation was good. All people are essentially good and can hope for the redemption. Calvin mainly agreed with him. However, Calvin believed people are too disadvantaged not participating in their own redemption. Human being’s redemption could be only the act of God. Calvin and Luther believed in the significance of the Bible. They thought everybody has to serve God in his or her individual calling. Both, Calvin and Luther, rejected the canon that good deeds were necessary for salvation. Calvin additionally rejected the distinction between “secular” or “sacred” duty and the popular notion that work is the essential evil. Instead, he thought, work was a calling from God. Thus, one glorifies God in his work by working industriously and joyfully. People were working for God to feed own families and to be able to help other people. Thus, people were working hard enough to invest some money that left over. Generally speaking, Calvin did not create capitalism, but he taught that one of the rewards of work is prosperity. This philosophy of work permitted capitalism to prosper where it was adopted.

Lynn Mitchell also pays attention to the fact that human beings should be treated as merely a part of the nature. They are the basics for understanding and the basics of creation. This makes humans the basics for understanding the science and technology. Bible is not a science book; however, theologians and scientists have been arguing for centuries over the terms written in the Bible. Science and religion may combine with one another. Believers and non-believers need to broaden their minds. Until then, people maintain divided.

Generally speaking, Lynn Mitchell clarifies how people should read the Bible. The significance of learning how to read the Bible appears as the history of science in Europe and in the USA has been based of what science is and what faith is and how to relate the two, which is not actually founded on knowledge.

Conclusion

It is obvious that the main aim of Lynn Mitchell is to help people – Christians and atheists – to understand the Bible. During the centuries, the major notions concerning the words in the Bible altered and modified. Many words may be interpreted in the dissimilar ways and still remain within the frames of the Bible. A lot of confusion and controversy about science and the Bible is the outcome of someone not sitting down and clarifying to people how to read this book. This video helped me personally to incorporate what I am learning to concern science with my faith. Now, I realize that ethics depends on what you believe, and Christian ethics is the ethics of the entire living, not merely the religious part of life.