|
Christian Views On Suicide
Early Christians believed that suicide is sinful and an act of blasphemy. Modern Christians do not consider suicide an unforgivable sin (though still wrong and sinful) or something that prevents a believer who died by suicide from achieving eternal life. The rate of suicide among Catholics is consistently lower than among Protestants, with Jewish suicide usually lower than both, except during times of persecution against Jews, for instance, during World War II. But religion is not the only factor in per capita suicide: among Catholics in Italy, the suicide rate is twice as high in Northern Italy than in the southern parts. Hungary and Austria have majority Catholic populations but they are number 2 and number 5 in the list of countries that have the highest suicide rate. And in Ireland, the Catholic and Protestant populations have the same low rate of suicide. French sociologist Émile Durkheim wrote that the higher rate of Protestant suicide is likely due to the greater degree of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Early Christians
Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish diaspora throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. The first followers of Christianity were Jews who had converted to the faith, i.e. Jewish Christians, as well as Phoenicians, i.e. Lebanese Christians. Early Christianity contains the Apostolic Age and is followed by, and substantially overlaps with, the Patristic era. The Apostolic sees claim to have been founded by one or more of the apostles of Jesus, who are said to have dispersed from Jerusalem sometime after the crucifixion of Jesus, c. 26–33, perhaps following the Great Commission. Early Christians gathered in small private homes,Paul, for example, greet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor
"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" () (Exodus 20:16) is one of the Ten Commandments, widely understood as moral imperatives in Judaism and Christianity. The Book of Exodus describes the Ten Commandments as being spoken by God, inscribed on two stone tablets by the finger of God, broken by Moses, and rewritten by Yahweh on a replacement set of stones hewn by Moses. The command against false testimony is seen as a natural consequence of the command to "love your neighbour as yourself". This moral prescription flows from the command for holy people to bear witness to their deity. Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of covenant with God. Ancient understanding The Hebrew Bible contains a number of prohibitions against false witness, lying, spreading false reports, etc. For a person who had a charge brou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
God In Christianity
In Christianity, God is the God and eternity, eternal, supreme being who Creator god, created and God the Sustainer, preserves all things. Christians believe in a Monotheism, monotheistic conception of God, which is both Transcendence (religion), transcendent (wholly independent of, and removed from, the material universe) and Immanence, immanent (involved in the material universe). Christians believe in a singular God that exists in a Trinity, which consists of three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Christian teachings on the transcendence, immanence, and involvement of God in the world and Love of God in Christianity, his love for humanity exclude the belief that God is of the same substance as the created universe (rejection of pantheism) but accept that God the Son assumed Hypostatic union, hypostatically united human nature, thus becoming man in a unique event known as "the Incarnation (Christianity), Incarnation". Early Christianity, Early Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Death
Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose shortly after death. Some organisms, such as '' Turritopsis dohrnii'', are biologically immortal; however, they can still die from means other than aging. Death is generally applied to whole organisms; the equivalent for individual components of an organism, such as cells or tissues, is necrosis. Something that is not considered an organism, such as a virus, can be physically destroyed but is not said ''to die'', as a virus is not considered alive in the first place. As of the early 21st century, 56 million people die per year. The most common reason is aging, followed by cardiovascular disease, which is a disease that affects the heart or blood vessels. As of 2022, an estimated total of almost 110 billion humans have died, or rou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waldensian Evangelical Church
The Waldensian Evangelical Church (''Chiesa Evangelica Valdese'', CEV) is a Protestant denomination active in Italy and Switzerland that was independent until it united with the Methodist Evangelical Church in Italy in the Union of Methodist and Waldensian Churches. Founded in the 12th century by Peter Waldo as a proto-Protestant group, since the 16th century Reformation it has adopted Calvinist theology and blended into the wider Calvinist tradition. It is one of several Protestant denominations with pre-Reformation roots, and is appraised by various denominations of Protestantism as its major successor. The Church, after the Protestant Reformation, adhered to Calvinist theology and became the Italian branch of the Calvinist churches. As such, the church is a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. In 1967, the church had 30,000 members in Italy (plus some 15,000 affiliates in Argentina and Uruguay), and was a founding member of the Federation of Evangelical Churc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afterlife
The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's Stream of consciousness (psychology), stream of consciousness or Personal identity, identity continues to exist after the death of their physical body. The surviving essential aspect varies between belief systems; it may be some partial element, or the entire soul or spirit, which carries with it one's personal identity. In some views, this continued existence takes place in a Supernatural, spiritual realm, while in others, the individual may be reborn into World#Religion, this world and begin the life cycle over again in a process referred to as reincarnation, likely with no memory of what they have done in the past. In this latter view, such rebirths and deaths may take place over and over again continuously until the individual gains entry to a spiritual realm or otherworld. Major views on the afterlife derive from religion, Western esotericism, esotericism, and metaphy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheol
Sheol ( ; ''Šəʾōl'', Tiberian: ''Šŏʾōl'') in the Hebrew Bible is the underworld place of stillness and darkness which is death. Within the Hebrew Bible, there are few—often brief and nondescript—mentions of Sheol, seemingly describing it as a place where both the righteous and the unrighteous dead go, regardless of their moral choices in life. The implications of Sheol within the texts are therefore somewhat unclear; it may be interpreted as either a generic metaphor describing "the grave" into which all humans invariably descend, or an actual state of afterlife within Israelite thought. Though such practices are forbidden, the inhabitants of Sheol can, under some circumstances, be summoned by the living, as when the Witch of Endor calls up the spirit of Samuel for King Saul. While the Hebrew Bible appears to describe Sheol as the permanent place of the dead, in the Second Temple period (roughly 500 BC – 70 AD), a more diverse set of ideas developed. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Excommunication
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in Koinonia, communion with other members of the congregation, and of receiving the sacraments. It is practiced by all of the ancient churches (such as the Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodox churches and the Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox churches) as well as by other Christian denominations; however, it is also used more generally to refer to similar types of institutional religious exclusionary practices and shunning among other religious groups. The Amish have also been known to excommunicate members that were either seen or known for breaking rules, or questioning the church, a practice known as shunning. Jehovah's Witnesses use the term disfellowship to refer to their form of excommunication. The word ''excommunication'' means putting a specific indiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Attempted Suicide
A suicide attempt is an act in which an individual tries to kill themselves but survives. Mental health professionals discourage describing suicide attempts as "failed" or "unsuccessful", as doing so may imply that a suicide resulting in death is a successful or desirable outcome. Epidemiology In the United States, the National Institute of Mental Health reports there are 11 nonfatal suicide attempts for every suicide death. The American Association of Suicidology reports higher numbers, stating that there are 25 suicide attempts for every suicide completion. The ratio of suicide attempts to suicide death is about 25:1 in youths, compared to about 4:1 in elderly. A 2008 review found that nonfatal self-injury is more common in women, and a separate study from 2008/2009 found suicidal thoughts higher among females, as well as significant differences between genders for suicide planning and suicide attempts. Suicide attempts are more common among adolescents in developing countri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Burial
A Christian burial is the burial of a deceased person with specifically Christian rites; typically, in consecrated ground. Until recent times Christians generally objected to cremation and practiced inhumation almost exclusively. Today this opposition has largely vanished among Protestants and Catholics alike, and this is rapidly becoming more common, although Eastern Orthodox Churches still mostly forbid cremation. History and antecedents of Christian burial rites Early historical evidence The Greeks and Romans practiced both burial and cremation, with Roman funerary practices distinctly favoring cremation by the time Christianity arose during the Principate. However, the Jews only ever buried their dead. Even God himself is depicted in the Torah as performing burial: "And odburied him (Moses) in the depression in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor. No man knows the place that he was buried, even to this day." (Deuteronomy 34:6). Similarly, early Christians used only burial, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Repentance In Christianity
Repentance (a term related to ), in Christianity, refers to being sorrowful for having committed sin and then turning away from sin toward a life of holiness. In certain Christian traditions, such as Catholic theology, Lutheran theology, Orthodox theology and Anglican theology, repentance plays a key role in confession and absolution. It can specifically refer to a stage in Christian salvation in which an individual gains awareness of God's standard, acknowledges their past or present wrongdoings, and deliberately turns away from sin toward God; its numeration as a stage in the '' ordo salutis'' varies with the Christian denomination, with the Reformed theological tradition arguing it occurs after faith. Christian denominations that adhere to the liturgical kalendar, such as Catholicism, Lutheranism, Moravianism and Anglicanism, focus on repentance during the season of Lent, while emphasizing its importance in the life of the believer throughout the year. Origins In the He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the Western tradition. A Doctor of the Church, he was from the county of Aquino, Italy, Aquino in the Kingdom of Sicily. Thomas was a proponent of natural theology and the father of a school of thought (encompassing both theology and philosophy) known as Thomism. Central to his thought was the doctrine of natural law, which he argued was accessible to Reason, human reason and grounded in the very nature of human beings, providing a basis for understanding individual rights and Moral duty, moral duties. He argued that God is the source of the light of natural reason and the light of faith. He embraced several ideas put forward by Aristotle and attempted to synthesize Aristotelianism, Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
