The Human And The Divine Essays - Deities, Philosophy Of Religion

The Human And The Divine 1) Introduction Through out history, as man progressed from a primitive animal to a human being capable of thought and reason, mankind has had to throw questions about the meaning of our own existence to ourselves. Out of those trail of thoughts appeared religion, art, and philosophy, the fundamental process of questioning about existence. Who we are, how we came to be, where we are going, what the most ideal state is....... All these questions had to be asked and if not given a definite answer, then at least given some idea as to how to begin to search for, as humans probed deeper and deeper into the riddle that we were all born into. As time passed, the works of many thinkers and artists added up and it became inevitable for the people who wanted to find some answers to the ancient question, the question of existence, to trace back to the times of the older thinkers to get an idea as to what we have been thinking about as an important source for reaching the goal. Also, for the people who want to study the ways of the people back in history, it is equally important to make a study of the thinkers and artists of that time in order to define the characteristics and personality of that age. So, as the goal of this report is to find out what the people of ancient western world thought in view of the concept and relationship between the human and the divine, it is inevitable for us to also look into the thoughts and arts of that time. 2) Cicero and Virgil In the works of Cicero, we see him asking questions about social responsibility, about what it is that gives value to a human life. Cicero conveys to us his belief that it is most natural for a person to show the most defined characteristics such as magnanimity, and loftiness of the soul, and courtesy, etc. , and that because of this, it is only true for a person to take on the responsibilities of this world with this kind of attitude in tact. He tells us why we must not live only for our own advantage; because it is against our nature as humans to do so, because without the basis of this human characteristics, the whole human society would fall apart. The qualities we value most in our fellow human beings are the most natural to us because they were endowed to us from the gods so that the race of human beings and the human society could go on existing. We can know this from his words; People who argue like this subvert the whole basis of humans community itself - and when that is gone, kind actions, generosity, goodness, and justice are annihilated. And their annihilation is a sin against the immortal gods. For it was they who established the society which such men are undermining. Cicero's belief in the natural goodness of the human race was stead-fast because he believed that it was endowed to us from the gods. In Virgil's Pollio, which christians believed to have prophesied the birth of Christ, we can see what he thought of the conditions of the human race of his time and also of what he thought the coming of god will do for the good of his people. Virgil percieved the humans race as being in the Iron Age (In Ovid's Metamorphoses, we see the concept of humans becoming more and more dirtied as they moved though time from the Golden, Silver Ages, to the Bronze, Iron Ages), the age of corruption which the coming of Pollio will disinfect for us. He writes, Time has concieved and the great sequences of the Ages starts afresh. ...... With him, the Iron Age shall end and the golden Man inherit all the world. ..... And it is in your consulship, yours, Pollio, that this glorious Age will dawn and the Procession of the of the great months begin. Under your leadership all traces that remain in our iniquity will be effaced and, as they vanish, free the world from its long night of horror. Through this, we can