Peaceful coexistence within society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Peaceful coexistence within society - Essay Example This is because conflict and violence have resulted in the immigration of business investors, development experts as well as a massive number of their population who could have participated in developing their nation. Conflict between neighbors or countries may also result to loss of lives especially of innocent skilled people who may promote the rapid economic development of a nation (Council of International Relations 2008, n.p) There are various policies that have been formulated and implemented by different stakeholders to ensure that there is a peaceful co-existence within the society for instance; famous presidents like Franklyn D. Roosevelt advocated for peaceful co-existence between nations, an action which saved the world from a large extent of barbarism. Currently, various peace policies have been implemented to ensure that societies and nations live peacefully, for example, the UN Peace Building Commission that was developed in 2005 which has thirty-one member state and it is geared towards promoting peace between the member state nations through the development and monitoring of peacebuilding activities.Hard work in every development activity is the pathway that leads individuals from poverty; it is imperative for everybody aspiring to be successful to commit himself/herself in all activity he/she conducts. The fruits of hard work are also important in reducing immoral activities among the society such as robbery and violence that are generally conducted by idle people.

Criticism of Industrial England Essay Example for Free

Criticism of Industrial England Essay In Hard Times Charles Dickens criticizes several aspects of life among the lower classes working in factories in England during the nineteenth century. This paper will examine three of the subject Dickens condemns in Hard Times: Grandgrindism, the divorce laws in England at the time and bad education for children. Hard Times is set in Coketown, England. It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it . . . It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents* of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, . . . It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye (Dickens, 28). Coketown is typical of the industrialized factory towns that grew under the concept of Grandridnism, a term Dickens coined from a composite of popular philosophies of the day: utilitarianism, cutthroat capitalism, and self-interest among members of the upper classes. Dickens uses his character Stephen Blackpool to censure both the unions and the laws in England. Blackpool refuses to join the union that has formed in Coketown, consequently he is blackballed by the union and unable to find work even though he is an excellent worker. Here Dickens seems to be replacing one taskmaster, the company owners with another, the union, both of whom are more interested in their own interests than that of the workers. Blackpools troubles are increased because of his marriage. His wife went bad and took to drinking, left off working, sold the furniture, pawned the clothes, and played old Gooseberry (Dickens, 95). Unfortunately Blackpool is unable to get a divorce. To do so he would have to go to Doctors Common with a suit, and youd have to go to a court of Common Law with a suit, and youd have to go to the House of Lords with a suit, and youd have to get an Act of Parliament to enable you to marry again, and it would cost you (if it was a case of very plain sailing), I suppose from a thousand to fifteen hundred pound (Dickens, 99). Each of these tasks was beyond the means of Blackpool the combination of them was staggering. Clearly only the rich can get a divorce. When Blackpool expresses dismay at the legal requirements, Tis just a muddle atoogether, an the sooner I am dead, the better (Dickens, 99), he is chastised. Pooh, pooh! Dont you talk nonsense, my good fellow, said Mr. Bounderby, about things you dont understand; and dont you call the institutions of your country a muddle, or youll get yourself into a real muddle one of these fine Here Dickens is criticizing not only the divorce laws, but any laws that unfairly discriminate against the lower classes so much that they would rather die soon than have to live under the laws. Dickens disapproves of the education of the day with its emphasis on utility and absence creativity and concern for the individual student. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, Sir! (Dickens, 1). While Hard Times offers pertinent criticism of the living conditions of industrial workers in industrialized England, unfortunately Dickens fails to do is provide solutions for these problems. That is not to say his efforts were and are in vain. Change will only come after issues have been made known to the public at large and the ruling class in particular. Due to the increasing prosperity of people in the United States early in the twenty-first century it is difficult to identify with the characters in Hard Times. However its relevance is recently more significant as difficulties as an increasing amount of working conditions for factory workers in the third world reveals conditions similar to and even more harsh than those experienced by the people in Dickens novel. Hard Times is a valuable book for today just as it was when published. Works Cited Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

shoeless joe :: essays research papers

W.P. Kinsella William Patrick Kinsella was born may 25, 1935 in Edmonton, Alberta. His father was a contractor and his mother was a printer. As an only child, Kinsella spent his early years in a log cabin near Lac Ste.-Anne, sixty miles northwest of Edmonton. He rarely saw other children and completed grades one through four by correspondence. " Having no contact with children, I considered myself a small adult" (Authors and writers for young adults, 130-131). His parents, grandmother, and aunt read to each other and told stories, Kinsella began writing fantasies when he was five or six; mostly baseball fantasies. Why did Kinsella like to write about baseball so much? The family moved to Edmonton when he was ten, and his father, a former Semi pro baseball player began taking him to baseball games. In eighth grade, Kinsella won a prize for "Diamond Doom," a baseball mystery. At age eighteen, he published his first story, a science fiction tale about a totalitarian society, in the Alberta Civil Service Bulletin. Kinsella worked as a government clerk, manager of a retail credit company, account executive for the City of Edmonton, owner of a n Italian restaurant, and taxicab driver while attending the University of Victoria where he received a B.A. in 1974. Then he attended a writer's workshop at the University of Iowa, earning a master of fine arts degree in 1978. He taught at the University of Calgary from 1978 to 1983. But he hated the academic life so he quit to write full time. Kinsella was married to Mildred Clay from 1965 to 1978. He married the writer Ann Knight in 1978 and they settled in White Rock, British Columbia and Iowa City, Iowa when not traveling to attend major league baseball games. Kinsella has two daughters, Shannon and Erin. In 1982 Kinsella wrote a best selling novel, "Shoeless Joe". "Kinsellas 1982 mythical baseball fable drew on the author's long-term love of the game" ( Wilson, Kathleen. 229). This book is about a middle-aged man that lives on a farm with his wife, Annie and daughter, Karin. One day when this man, Ray Kinsella, is walking through his cornfields he hears the voice of an major league baseball announcer. It says, " if you build it, he will come". Ray soon finds out that "it" is a baseball field and "he" is Rays father who used to play AAA ball.

Ann Mulcahy, Xerox Case Study Essay

Fiedler’s Contingency Model: The Contingency Model that was developed by Fiedler’s and his associates was aimed to link the leadership style with the situation and circumstances surrounding each leader. (The Leadership Experience. p.68). Now will try to assess the leadership style of Anne Mulcahy to test the extent to which she was a relationship-oriented leader or a task-oriented leader. One of the first things she talked about on the short movie that we watched in class was that a lot of her time in the first few months â€Å"was spent listening† to employees and customers which shows how much she cared about them and their needs. In page 3 of the article written by Betsy Morris, she clearly says that â€Å"nothing spooked† her as much as thinking about the 96,000 people who worked for Xerox â€Å"if this thing went south†. In addition to passionately listening to her customers and employees, she was very humble asking for any kind of help from employees or investors. This is probably driven by her desire to keep Xerox alive for the people regardless to endless calls from financial advisors to file bankruptcy. Anne once asked if anyone in the company could teach here Balance Sheet 101, so she could relate her decisions to how the balance sheet would be effected. This was not the first time she asked for help, which in my opinion, was unusual but very encouraging to other employees to seek help whenever needed. She also personally met with top executives and was open with them to discuss every detail about the company and encouraged their involvements in the decisions. All of these and other evidences show the extent to which she was a relationship-oriented leader. On the other hand, she was also focusing on setting clear financial growth goals for the company even of the decisions made would harm some individuals. In other words, she was favoring the  company’s sustainability and long-term interest over the individual’s interests. She, for example, reduced the work force by 30,000 in order to accomplish the 5% annual growth by 2005. Therefore, in this situation, she made a tough decision and was a taskoriented leader. Also, when she took home binders and insisted to understand the financial side in making the right decisions, she possessed a high level of task-oriented. The case also tells us in page 6 that she had not taken a single weekend in two years, which shows how much she was focused on her goals for the company. Regarding the situation in which she worked, she had respect and trust between her and the subordinates. When there should be a tough decision to make, she would not hesitate like the case with auditors that she entirely replace Path-Goal Theory: In this theory, the leader is focused in motivating the people around him or her to achieve the ultimate organizations’ goals. (The Leadership Experience. p.77). One example to show that this was applicable with Anne Mulcahy is that when she met with the 100 top executives to assess their character and encourage them to do more for the better of the company. Ursula Burns had a better offer at another company and knew the situation of Xerox but with conversations with Anne Mulcahy, she was convinced to stay and focus to work harder. In this meeting, Anne was successful in motivating the top executives to link themselves more toward the company’s goals than to turn around. Mulcahy’s Core values, traits and characteristics: Core values are â€Å"fundamentals beliefs that an individual considers to be important, are relatively stable over time, have an impact on attitudes and behavior’. (The class PowerPoint). Anne Mulcahy has both end values and instrumental values. For example, one of her values is that she is extremely loyal to Xerox that she defined herself as the â€Å"culture† of it and never accepted any blame to her employees. She had faith that by working together with subordinates, she would accomplish her goals, and she did. She is very â€Å"subborn† as the case described that she never paid attention to her outside advisors to consider bankruptcy. In fact, her strong values forced the advisors to finally quit trying to convince her to file for Chapter 11. She believed in team work and encouraged employees to be always focused. She gave her employees confidence by having open dialogues with them and asking them to contribute their ideas and opinions. She had the extraordinary ability to stay focused even in hard time and in times of crises. She cared about the employees and their future and rewarded them by all means that she even â€Å"gave all employees their birthdays off†. Anne’s leadership vision and mission for the organization: Anne’s had the ability to envision the future of Xerox and its people. It is unbelievable how she ignored the many calls by â€Å"advisors’ to consider bankruptcy. She was so focused and could see the future of Xerox again. In the entire case, there was not a single line that indicates weakness or hesitant in her decision. In fact, it is the contrary. â€Å"Do not even go there.’ Whatever you think the advantages are from a financial standpoint, I think they are dismal and demoralizing for a company that wants desperately to turn around and regain its reputation.† This says all about her vision of the company. Her mission was to make sure that she works hard to have Xerox survive for the 95,000 who worked for it. The case says that Anne would sometimes visit three cities in one single day. This daily efforts was her mission to achieve the ultimate goal to get bak to Xerox its reputation again. â€Å"If this place is going to fail, it is not going to be because Anne Mulcahy slept.† This line says it all about her mission and her strategic leadership.

Review of “Mass Man” by Derek Walcott

Mass Man by Derek Walcott, is a poem written in free verse, that describes some aspects of playing mass in a Caribbean setting while alluding to the history behind the celebrations. In the poem Walcott’s role is that of an observer. He is on the outside meticulously processing all that he witnesses while procuring it in his memory so that it can later be recorded for posterity. No detail is too inconsequential; no action above scrutiny. As an observer of a custom whose history is tied to the oppression of the people who created it, Walcott is not celebrating with his countrymen, rather, he is mocking that they celebrate their freedom by impersonating and imitating their former oppressors. Walcott’s very description of the things that he sees is therefore derisive and laden with double meaning. In stanza one of the poem, Walcott is showing how black men, the ordinary descendants of slaves, are trying to imitate those who once enslaved them, via their mass costumes. â€Å"Through a great lion’s head clouded by mange / a black clerk growls. At first glance, it reads that a black man, who is a clerk, is wearing a costume that is supposed to be the head of a great lion, but instead the costume looks haggard and diseased. Its symbolic representation however, is tied to the literal representation through the common history that unite both connotation. The black clerk represents the slaves that once inhabited the island, whereas the lion’s head denote their British oppressors. That the lion’s head is â€Å"clouded by mange† suggests the imperfection of the great British conquerors. Next, a gold-wired peacock withholds a man† indicates that the costume is overpowering the man who occupies its space. Here Walcott continues with his allusion to slaves and slave owners. The slave owners, like the peacock were proud, believed themselves superior, and exercised control over the slaves, much like the costume is getting the better of the man. Just like the costume â€Å"withholds† the masquerader, so too did the slave owners use everything within their power to suppress to the slaves. Slaves were separated from their kinsmen and divided into groups so that there were no common languages between them. Their culture were stripped from them as they were not allowed to practice their religious beliefs, rituals or anything that connected them to who they were before they became the property of the slave owners. They were not even allowed to learn how to read and write. They were deliberate strategies to quell even the thought of rebellion and to keep them oppressed. Walcott, continues his comparison of the slave owners to a proud peacock with â€Å"a fan, flaunting its oval, jewelled eyes. † By appealing to the reader’s sense of sight, Walcott is able to present an image that parallels the false pride of the slave owners. Walcott’s uses alliteration – â€Å"fan flaunting† – to place further emphasis on how supercilious the slave owners believed themselves to be. They held their language, religion, education, customs and culture as something that should provoke the admiration of the slaves, as in their eyes those were the things that it made them superior. The persona’s expression of â€Å"what metaphors! † shows that he is not afraid of using his acuity on himself. Here the persona is mocking himself for having used such interesting metaphors in the preceding lines. What coruscating, mincing fantasies† continues his wry tone. In referring to how the men are pretending to be superior to what they really are, one can almost hear Walcott’s terse vocals. Stanza two of the poem continues in the third person narrative mode, as the persona gives additional information based on his observations. The first line – â€Å"Hector Mannix, waterworks cle rk, San Juan, has entered a lion† simply informs the reader of the costume portrayal of one of the mass men. There is no concrete evidence that determines whether it is the same lion costume mentioned in the previous stanza. Next, Walcott uses a simile to compare Boysie’s gait while in his mass costume to that of Cleopatra’s – â€Å"Boysie, two golden mangoes bobbing for breastplates, barges / like Cleopatra down her river, making style. † In those two lines, Walcott continues with his allusion to the slave masters attitude of superiority and self-importance. There is a subtle change in the fourth line of stanza two. While the undertone in the first half is reflective, the fourth line keeps us strictly in the present. The mass men call out to a child to join them in their celebration, then commented on the child not being able to dance in an offhanded manner. Symbolically, there appears to be a disconnection between the fourth line and the rest of stanza two, as the subsequent lines resumes the tone of the first three lines. â€Å"But somewhere in that whirlwind’s radiance / a child, rigged like a bat, collapses, sobbing† tells of the inhumanity of older people to younger children both in the present situation of playing mass, and in the past where children were also forced into labour as slaves. The persona used alternating point of views, switching from third to first person and even second person narrative mode. While both stanza one and two is written in third person narrative mode, stanza three shifts to first person mode. â€Å"But I am dancing, look, from an old gibbet / my bull-whipped body swings, a metronome! † is a metaphor that evokes an incredibly perfervid image of slaves being hung. While Walcott’s allusions to slavery in the previous stanzas were somewhat muted, with this metaphor, there is no dubiety about what he is referring to. It is a prodigious metaphor that compares the persona’s dancing form to the motion made by the bodies of slaves who were left swaying on the gibbet after they had been hung. The appeal to the readers’ visual and auditory senses are graphic. One can see the scourged body of a slave who had been hung, tied to a post, swaying, keeping time to some unheard rhythm that only his/her dead ears can hear. Walcott’s tone here is very sardonic. Walcott used a simile (â€Å"Like a fruit bat dropped in the silk-cotton’s shade / my mania, my mania is a terrible calm†) to compare his madness to a fruit bat descending into the shade of a silk cotton tree. â€Å"Like a fruit bat dropped in the silk-cotton’s shade† is an image that relates to slavery in the West Indies. When Walcott says, â€Å"my mania, my mania is a terrible calm† he is being introspective. His repetition of â€Å"my mania† emphasizes the scope of his preoccupation with the past, while his use of the oxymoron â€Å"terrible calm† shows the depth of his rumination. The fourth and final stanza of the poem, like the previous stanza, utilizes a different narrative mode. In the fourth stanza, the persona through the use of â€Å"your† has employed the second-person narrative mode. In this stanza, the mass portrayals have finished. It is the morning after, when those who took part in the revelry seek penance. â€Å"Upon your penitential morning, / ome skull must rub its memory with ashes† conjures up images of priests rubbing ashes on the foreheads of those individuals who come seeking atonement for the sins they committed while playing mass. Walcott’s tone here is flippant, as if to scoff at the idea that getting ashes on one’s forehead means that one is so easily forgiven for sins that have become ritualistic. Walcott is referring to himself when he said, â€Å"some mind must squat down howling in your dust, / some hand must crawl and recollect your rubbish, / someone must write your poems. † It is exactly what he has been doing as an observer. He is saying that the same way in which someone has to clean up after the mass, so too, does he have a job to do. His job is to observe, remember and document all that he has witnessed for future generations. The poem Mass Man, though complex, was quite elementary in its symbolism. Walcott’s use of mass as a facade to talk about the deeper affairs of slavery, while connecting both events, was skillfully done. His detachment from what was occurring around him, allowed him to see and interpret the mass portrayals in a way that someone who was personally invested in the celebrations would not.

Principles of Dimensional Modeling

Principles of Dimensional Modeling Abstract: Dimensional modeling is the name of a logical design technique often used for data warehouses. DM is the only viable technique for databases that are designed to support end-user queries in a data warehouse. It is different from, and contrasts with, entity-relation modeling. ER is very useful for the transaction capture and the data administration phases of constructing a data warehouse, but it should be avoided for end-user delivery. This paper explains the dimensional modeling and how dimensional modeling technique varies/ contrasts with ER models. DM: Dimensional Modeling is a favorite modeling technique in data warehousing. DM is a logical design technique that seeks to present the data in a standard, intuitive framework that allows for high-performance access. It is inherently dimensional, and it adheres to a discipline that uses the relational model with some important restrictions. Every dimensional model is composed of one table with a multipart key, called the fact table, and a set of smaller tables called dimension tables. Each dimension table has a single-part primary key that corresponds exactly to one of the components of the multipart key in the fact table. This characteristic star-like structure is often called a star join. A fact table, because it has a multipart primary key made up of two or more foreign keys, always expresses a many-to-many relationship. The most useful fact tables also contain one or more numerical measures, or facts, that occur for the combination of keys that define each record. Dimension tables, by contrast, most often contain descriptive textual information. Dimension attributes are used as the source of most of the interesting constraints in data warehouse queries, and they are virtually always the source of the row headers in the SQL answer set. Dimension Attributes are the various columns in a dimension table. In the Location dimension, the attributes can be Location Code, State, Country, Zip code. Generally the Dimension Attributes are used in report labels, and query constraints such as where Country=UK. The dimension attributes also contain one or more hierarchical relationships. Before designing a data warehouse, one must decide upon the subjects. Contrast with E-R: In DM, a model of tables and relations is constituted with the purpose of optimizing decision support query performance in relational databases, relative to a measurement or set of measurements of the outcomes of the business process being modeled. In contrast, conventional E-R models are constituted to remove redundancy in the data model, to facilitate retrieval of individual records having certain critical identifiers, and therefore, optimize On-line Transaction Processing (OLTP) performance. In a DM, the grain of the fact table is usually a quantitative measurement of the outcome of the business process being analyzed. The dimension tables are generally composed of attributes measured on some discrete category scale that describe, qualify, locate, or constrain the fact table quantitative measurements. Ralph Kimball views that the data warehouse should always be modeled using a DM/star schema. Indeed Kimball has stated that while DM/star schemas have the advantages of greater understandability and superior performance relative to E-R models, their use involves no loss of information, because any E-R model can be represented as a set of DM/star schema models without loss of information. In E-R models, normalization through addition of attributive and sub-type entities destroys the clean dimensional structure of star schemas and creates snowflakes, which, in general, slow browsing performance. But in star schemas, browsing performance is protected by restricting the formal model to associative and fundamental entities, unless certain special conditions exist (Kimball, 19960. The key to understanding the relationship between DM and ER is that a single ER diagram breaks down into multiple DM diagrams. The ER diagram does itself a disservice by representing on one diagram multiple processes that never coexist in a single data set at a single consistent point in time. Its no wonder the ER diagram is overly complex. Thus the first step in converting an ER diagram to a set of DM diagrams is to separate the ER diagram into its discrete business processes and to model each one separately. The dimensional model has a number of important data warehouse advantages that the ER model lacks. The dimensional model is a predictable, standard framework. Report writers, query tools, and user interfaces can all make strong assumptions about the dimensional model to make the user interfaces more understandable and to make processing more efficient. The wild variability of the structure of ER models means that each data warehouse needs custom, handwritten and tuned SQL. It also means that each schema, once it is tuned, is very vulnerable to changes in the users querying habits, because such schemas are asymmetrical. By contrast, in a dimensional model all dimensions serve as equal entry points to the fact table. Changes in users querying habits dont change the structure of the SQL or the standard ways of measuring and controlling performance (Ramon Barquin and Herb Edelstein, 1996). Conclusion: It can be concluded that dimensional modeling is the only viable technique for designing end-user delivery databases. ER modeling defeats end-user delivery and should not be used for this purpose. ER modeling does not really model a business; rather, it models the micro relationships among data elements (Ramon Barquin and Herb Edelstein, 1996).

The First and Greatest Commandment

The First and Greatest Commandment Free Online Research Papers The Bible is the sacred text of all Christians. Although there are differences between the bibles of some Christian denominations, essentially all Bibles are divided into two parts – the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament gives the history of the Israelites, God’s chosen people. It is filled with myths, stories of love and hate, peace and war, adultery, murder, victory and loss. It also includes stories of Prophets, messengers of God, who came to remind the people of how God expected them to act, but more importantly to foretell the coming of a Messiah who would be a savior to the people. After years of compilation these stories and messages of prophets now make up the Old Testament. The New Testament is the story of the growth of Christianity, and the coming of the long awaited Messiah. This covers the time shortly before this coming, the birth of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, as well as his life and the lessons he taught during his time on earth. The New Testament also recounts his death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. The rest of the New Testament tells how his followers dealt with his absence, how they carried on his work and spread his message, and waited for the promised â€Å"Second Coming† of the Lord. The New Testament begins with four books called Gospels, which means â€Å"Good News†. They are (in order as in the bible): Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John . Although all four gospels recount events of Jesus’ life, the Gospel according to Mark is unique among these four. It is the shortest of all four gospels; however, one of its most important features is that (according to the Two-Source Hypothesis) it is thought that the gospels of Matthew and Luke took much of their information from Mark (as well as another hypothetical source â€Å"Q†). There are large sections from these two gospels that are word-for-word exactly as the same as sections are in Mark. This is significant because Mark was believed to be written first, therefore, it is considered to be a â€Å"cornerstone† for which the other gospels were built. Although the book does not officially have an assigned author, and it if officially labeled the â€Å"Gospel According to Mark†, the author is traditionally thought to be John Mark, a follower of Jesus some time after Jesus’ death and resurrection (most likely between A.D. 55 and 70, since this is the date that the book is thought to be written). John Mark traveled with Jesus’ apostles Peter as well as worked by his side in Rome. It is because of John Mark’s relationship with the apostle Peter that the gospel of Mark is categorized as having apostolic origins, meaning that it was written by either an apostle of Jesus or someone who had a close connection with an apostle. John Mark is also mentioned in some of Paul’s epistles, because he traveled with Paul and Barnabas (who was his cousin). Because of his close relationship with these influential figures in Christian history, particularly Peter the apostle, it is no wonder that the gospel of Mark is a narrative, and even a lot like a biography of Jesus, recounting very detailed events of his life and exact lessons that he t aught. While working with Peter he must have been privy to all kinds of stories of the man whom he was so devoted to and for whom he and all other Christians sacrificed so much. He, of course, also heard many stories of Jesus’ teachings, which he and other apostles, disciples, and missionaries were teaching others. One of those stories of Jesus’ message, recounted in the Gospel According to Mark, 12: 28-34, is commonly referred to as â€Å"The First Commandment and Greatest Commandment†. In this narrative gospel of Mark, Jesus is preaching when a scribe ventured to ask him which was commandment was the first, or in other words, which one was most important to follow. His response to â€Å"love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength† (Mk. 12:30) and to â€Å"love your neighbor as yourself† (Mk. 12:31) is what this passage centers around. At hearing Jesus’ response, the scribe who initially questioned him responded by stating that he knew these things were important above all other things, particularly, â€Å"burnt offerings and sacrifices required by the law† (Mk. 12:33). The importance that Jesus sees in understanding and abiding by these commandments is emphasized by the author, John Mark, by writing that when Jesus saw that the scribe understood he told him, â€Å"You are not far from the kingdom of God†. The location of this passage in the Bible is not surprising because it is surrounded by passages (particularly in chapters 11 and 12) which are similar in that Jesus’ authority to teach and beliefs are being challenged by the authority figures in the Jewish faith, particularly those who run the Jewish Temple. It is important to notice that Jesus answered by stating not one, but two commandments, that had been given to Moses and the Israelites many years ago – found in Deuteronomy 6:5, as well as in Leviticus 19:18. These passages are in not only what Christians refer to as the Old Testament, but are in the Torah (the sacred scripture of the Jewish faith), which Jesus would have been very familiar with as a practicing Jew. Equally important, is the fact that these passages are based on the core idea of love. As a result of these two details which cannot be overlooked, I think that the message of â€Å"The First and Greatest Commandment† is to establish Jesu s as the new lawgiver with the message to love God and to love others. We must know and understand these commandments, as well as apply them to our lives, and it is when we are able to do these things, that we may fully enter into the kingdom of God. When reflecting on Jesus’ answer to the scribe, one must notice that Jesus states two passages from the Old Testament. This may seem insignificant; however, it is highly significant. Also notice that in the surrounding passages, as well as in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, the books surrounding the Gospel of Mark, Jesus authority is constantly being questioned and he is being put to the test by Scribes and Pharisees. The Jewish leaders were uncomfortable with Jesus’ practices because he did not follow the Mosaic Law, or Covenant (the set of rules and regulations that strictly guided the Jews â€Å"religious and community life and acted as their ‘constitution†, which also includes the Ten Commandments) as strictly as they believed he should. Jesus healed the sick on the Sabbath and ate with sinners and lepers, things that the scribes and Pharisees would never dream of doing. In quoting the sacred texts of the Jews, it was established that Jesus was a devoted, and practicing Jew, something the Scribes may have been confused by, because with his teachings Jesus made a statement to the Jews that he was the new covenant, the new lawgiver. The thought of something with more authority than the Mosaic Law of the Old Testament was highly disturbing to the Jewish leaders because they neither knew, nor wanted another way. The Old Testament can also be referred to as the â€Å"Law of Fear and Servitude† because it focuses primarily on rules, laws, and punishments. Jesus came to preach a very different message one of hope and love, which he summed up in two sentences. That is why the New Testament is referred to as the New Law, or the â€Å"Law of Love and Liberty†. As Sullivan explains, this is why St. Thomas Aquinas considered the New Law to be infused, to come from within. The Old Testament was about outwardly appearance, while the New Testament was about individual intimate relationships. Although Jesus certain ly taught the importance of obedience to God, he taught that instead it is better to do obey the Lord because of love, not fear of punishment. As a result of that love for the Lord, we are inclined from within ourselves to follow the law of God because we love him (thus, the title â€Å"Law of Liberty†). And with that same love, it is only logical that we would treat our neighbors with that same love, as we would want to be treated. Because the New Testament is a reflection on Jesus and his teachings, this passage in Mark is a perfect model of Jesus’ different form of teaching, and how he established himself as the new lawgiver, or new covenant to the people with his message to love God and to love others. As previously mentioned, the surrounding Gospels of Matthew and Luke also include this same passage; however, they differ greatly, as Agnes Norfleet notes in Between Text and Sermon. In the other gospels, the environment in which Jesus is questioned is very tense, accusatory, and unreceptive. The individuals questioning (more so challenging) Jesus are not questioning in order to receive answers, they are searching for a way to catch Jesus saying something that could be taken in an offensive way to the Jewish faith and tradition, in hopes of convicting him on a charge of blasphemy or another related crime. After hearing Jesus’ response his questioners are merely more aggravated and set on his conviction than before. The same passage, but in Mark, is a great contrast! The environment in Mark is pleasant and accepting. More importantly, the scribe who questions Jesus reflects on the answer he is given and finds that he agrees. When he states he thinks these commandments must be â€Å"more important than the burnt offerings and sacrifices required by the law†, he expresses understanding because he is able to apply Jesus’ message to his own life. Unlike the Jewish leaders in the surrounding books and passages, he is able to see the big picture and look past the â€Å"Law of Fear and Punishment† and see the message of â€Å"Love and Liberty† that Jesus preaches. This is exactly what Jesus wants all of his followers to do! He wants his followers to take his message and not merely accept it, but to judge for themselves and if in accord, to apply it to their lives! The importance Jesus places on this, as well as the desire he has for us to understand and act on his love is sealed when he tells the wise scribe, â€Å"You are not far from the kingdom of God†. The Gospel of Mark 12:2-34 can be interpreted and debated hundreds of ways, but I believe that the theological message of the passage was to establish Jesus as the new lawgiver, as well as to preach his message: to love God and to love others. Once able do this, his followers would be able to realize that they could live out his message by understanding and applying it to their everyday lives. When his followers could fully live out this â€Å"First and Greatest Commandment† they, like the scribe, would be in a place in which they longed to be, and Jesus longs for all of humanity to be, and that is â€Å"not far from the kingdom of God† (Mark 12:34). Bibliography Cory, Catherine A. and David Landry. The Christian Theological Tradition. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2003. The International Student Bible for Catholics: New American Bible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1987. Norfleet, Agnes W. Mark 12:28-34. Interpretation: Between Text and Sermon 51, no. 4 (October 1997): 403-406. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed March 8, 2008). Sullivan, S.J., John J. The Commandment of Love: The First and Greatest of the Commandments Explained According to the Teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas. 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