Theism:

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American Thought A Walk Away From God
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• God Creator, Father, Redeemer, Friend,
  Protector, Guide, Provider, and Judge
  
• Faith
• Personal Relationship

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Puritan Literature

• William Bradford
• Of Plymouth Plantation
• Anne Bradstreet
• Upon the Burning of Our House
• Edward Taylor
• Huswifery

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• God Creator Clockmaker
• God-given Reason
• Natural Law

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Cavalier Literature

• Benjamin Franklin
• The Autobiography
• Thomas Jefferson
• The Declaration of Independence

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• Nature/Creation
• Emotion
• Intuition

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Romantic Literature

• William Cullen Bryant
• To a Waterfowl
• Thanatopsis

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• Oversoul
• Human divinity
• Revelations from Nature

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Transcendental Literature

• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Nature
• Self Reliance

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• Science
• Tangible evidence indicates what is Real
• God is absent

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• Darwin Evolution
• Man is the victim of Nature
• Heredity, Environment, Chance

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Naturalistic Literature

• Stephen Crane
• The Open Boat

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• Search for meaning
• Fragmentation
• The Lost Generation

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Modern Literature

• Sherwood Anderson
• Sophistication

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• Call off the search for meaning
• Life is meaningless
• Existence precedes essence
• The individual creates his own meaning

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Existential Literature

• Alice Walker
• Expect Nothing
• Theodore Roethke
• The Waking
• Gwendolyn Brooks
• The Explorer

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• No absolute truth
• Moral relativism
• Tolerance

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Postmodernism

• Tolerance is the word of the era. In the absence
  of absolutes one must tolerate all views as
  equally valid

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Postmodern Literature

• Christian analysis
• Ravi Zacharias
• Just Thinking
• Josh MacDowell
• Tolerance
• Charles Colson
• The Corruption of Conscience

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(No Transcript)
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Why We Do What We Do (Quotes from Jr. Honors stu
dents about the most important idea they learned
in the course. Each is about the term paper.)
I have furthered my writing skills this year and
can write better than I ever have been able to
before The term paper made obvious how and w
hy man has drifted away from Gods truthWorking
on the paper has given me further insight into
postmodern views and beliefs. An understanding
of these ideas then gives me a stronger
foundation in my ministry. After all, I cannot
share my beliefs without first understanding
those of others.
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I benefit from this knowledge of truth simply
because it will allow me to carry out more
intelligent conversations regarding truth.
As we studied how each era lost sight of God,
I realized my own need to place all my trust in
God as the sole provider of truth in my life.
Truth should be found in the Holy Bible, not in
the lyrics of the music I listen to or the
beliefs of a certain celebrity. No truth is
from God!
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After learning how God has slowly diminished in
our society, I have taken into great
consideration renewing my relationship with
himEspecially after learning the postmodernist
view of God, I have changed the way I liveMy
relationship with him has become stronger.
I started to think about my own view of truthI
realized that my view of truth was somewhat away
from absolute In a way, writing this term paper
got me to start thinking about my own
relationship with Christ and how I wanted to
improve it. I believe learning how far away our
society has walked away from God impacted me
the most.
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All this information will have a positive impact
on my life because I can make sure that I do not
follow the path away from God and His truth. I
can choose to take the narrow road and hopefully
lead others to the truth God provides.
It makes me as a Christian think about how much
more corrupt truth may become if I do not stand
my ground. Truth has already gone from absolute
and based on God, to relative and tolerant. I
believe that after seeing this I will take a
better stand for Gods truth and my faith, and
try to turn the tide, so truth may gain its
reputation back.