Augustines Confession Today Essay Example for Free

Augustines Confession Today Essay In my opinion I feel as if Augustines Confessions is still very much relevant and timeless in todays world in the aspect of religion and spirituality, morality, and love. In Confessions Augustine undergoes a transition from his original view on religion to a different view. He begins to be cautious of sin in his life and in the lives of those around him. Most of all, Confessions helps in understanding the Journey of man in his search for a more spiritual connection, the struggles they may be faced with, and he right path to be chosen, which is a struggle that many can relate to today. When looking at this in Confessions you see in Book VIII, Augustine tells us of his transition to Christianity. He describes how he was able to overcome his struggle with his internal battles and become a follower of Christ. Augustine describes his struggle as having two wills, one carnal, one spiritual, were in conflict with one and other. Augustines is having an internal battle between his pleasure seeking side and his spiritual side. The quote This was the controversy raging in my heart, a controversy about myself, against myself is where Augustine recognizes this internal conflict between his good and bad side. This is when he embraces Christianity. This statement is relevant today in many ways. The statement does not Just apply to religion. In life in general, there will always be internal battles that you will have to face. Whatever it may be, you will have to decide what the right path to take it is and this will be what defines you as a person. During Augustines Journey you notice in ook VI of Confessions that Augustine is struggling with his feelings on sex, women, and love. He begins his spiritual Journey and has to change his perspective from being a young man that has an overwhelming desire for sex and women to a lifestyle that is in compliance with the church. This means that he can only have sexual relations within the confines of marriage. Augustine comments on his struggle with this as he describes himself as a slave for lust. After he sends his mistress away he says: And so, since I was not a lover of wedlock so much as a slave of lust, I procured nother mistressnot a wife, of course. Thus in bondage to a lasting habit, the disease of my soul might be nursed up and kept in its vigor or even increased until it reached the realm of matrimony. Nor indeed was the wound healed that had been caused by cutting away my former mistress; only it ceased to burn and throb, and began to fester, and was more dangerous because it was less painful. Augustine uses words such as wound, bondage, and disease of my soul suggesting that Augustine sees this as a bad habit that needs to be fixed. In book VI you can see that is thoughts on women and love are pushing towards the churchs thoughts on it. Yet, his body is still struggling with this his lustful desires. After reading Confessions you can see what the Augustine goes through in order to achieve his goals of spirituality. As well as through his first-person narratives you gain an understanding as to what may lead to conversion and the path towards spirituality. Through reason and the strength to overcome the struggles with internal battles, such as morality and lust, the Journey can be completed. Augustines Confession Today By savannahr87

Majority or Minority Influence :: Politics, Compliance, Conversion

This essay concerns social influence in general. Aspects of social influence as such as majority influence and minority influence will be discussed in terms of their underlying psychological processes and how they differ. Majority influence or conformity refers to the desire to belong or to fit in within a particular group which involves adopting certain attributes, behaviour and attitudes of a particular group. As a result individuals consequently experience group pressure (in Baron, Branscombe & Byrne 2008). Minority influence on the other hand, refers to the influence that the minority exert over the majority in that the majority come to accept the beliefs and behaviours of a minority (in Baron et al. 2008). A considerable body of research has been injected into the nature and impact of both majority and minority influences. Moscovici (1980 in Hogg and Vaughan 2007) claimed that both majorities and minorities exert influence in different ways. One psychological process underlying majority influence is through direct public compliance. The dual-process dependency model which was postulated by Deutsch and Gerard, (1955 in Hogg and Vaughan 2007) proposes two important motives for conformity: normative social influence and informational social influence. Normative social influence refers to the need to be accepted and approved by society. This involves individuals to modify their behaviours and to adopt new/current ones that are associated with the particular social group so that they are not rejected (in Hogg & Vaughan 2007). An example of this situation can be reflected in Asch’s (1956 in Baron et al. 2008) study of conformity in which participants conformed to the majority group but at the same time maintained their own private opinions and disagreed. This process is known as compliance (in Bailey, J.et al. 2008). The second motive that explains why people conform according to Deutsch and Gerard, (1955) is based on informational social influence. According to Festinger, (1950, 1954 in Hogg & Vaughan 2007) this type of influence is associated with uncertainty. Here individuals are uncertain and lack knowledge as to how to behave in certain situations. Festinger referred to this as social comparison in which individuals are not fully confident about their beliefs, attitudes and opinions and therefore yield to majority in order to be correct. This occurs particularly under ambiguous conditions and is clearly demonstrated in Asch’s (1956 in Hogg and Vaughan 2007) and Sherif’s (1936 in Hogg and Vaughan 2007) studies in which participants converged on similar answers particularly when the tasks became extremely difficult for them to be able to rely on their own judgments (in Bailey et al.

Literature on HSBC Essay

Legacy HSBC Group. HSBC Bank is a key component of the HSBC group which was specifically established for trading with India and China in the hey days of the British Raj in 1865, after a necessity for the same was felt by Thomas Sutherland who identified that Hong Kong lacked local banking facilities. The bank has been primarily dominant in the Asia Pacific region and has pioneered modern banking facilities in these areas. It is now seen to take up its earlier mantle and is creating a new wave of modernised banking in the emerging economies of East and South East Asia. Based in London and with operations around the world, HSBC Holdings plc is reported to be the biggest bank and financial services banking company in the World with operations around the World in 9,500 offices and presence in 80 countries across the globe. Its share holders are said to be spread in 100 countries. HSBC Personal Banking. HSBC has a number of progressive personal banking schemes as it calls itself the Worlds local bank. (Express Banking, 2006). Some of the initiatives it has are schemes such as express banking which is designed to save time. This includes paying a bill online, thereby encouraging internet banking, use of cash machines and mobile phone top ups. (Express Banking, 2006). The bank is also extensively offering gifts for such schemes to include attractive offers as a 42 inch Phillips Plasma television for using its cash machines. (Express Banking, 2006). Its personal insurance services are similarly attempting to induce customers to go online. Thus a 10 percent discount is offered when a person buys on line car insurance. The no claims discount limit has also been raised to 70 % and there is a monthly installment option which has also been included. (Car, 2006). It has also services which can be availed by customers by providing prior intimation of their renewal dates to the bank and once again are provided attractive prizes for the same. The mortgage services offered by HSBC are also very innovative and provide not just for a loan but complete services such as mortgage offers, choices for repayments, varied interest rate option and tailoring these to the prices. (Mortgage, 2006). There are separate services on offer to first time buyers who can also remortgage as well as use the home to borrow more. Similarly the home insurance features also offer very heavy discounts for switching to HSBC Home Insurance, promise to settle claims over the phone without completion of forms and provide for replacements. HSBC Business Banking. HSBC business banking facilities are also unique. It has 12 months free banking facility extended to a current account holder which provides for borrowing at fixed rates large sums up to ?25,000. The service also includes foreign exchange rates for foreign currency payments for HSBC net customers, provides for management of trading in China and a commercial card enables a 56 days interest free credit. Banking for business is carried out through the commercial centres which provide multiple facilities to customers. For business there are other factilities that are being provided such as business internet banking as well as HSBCnet which provides larger companies with a complete range of services on the internet including invoice finance. There are a wide range of business insurance packages that have been made available by the bank, to include virtually all the possible contingencies for which insurance is required by business such as small business for turnover less than ? 1 million or less than 10 employees, commercial packaged insurance, customer packaged insurance, business car insurance and keyman insurance for prinicpals. The insurance package also covers share holders and partners, professional indemnity and trade credit. (Insurance, 2006). International Business Banking. The international services provided by the Bank include import and export bills clearance, guarantees and documentary credit. The Bank also provides many other forms of assistance to businesses to include opening of a business overseas. (International, 2006). The debit and credit card processing facilities include acceptance of debit and credit card at the place of work, over the internet, by mail order, fax or even on telephone. The finance and loans services being provided to the business by HSBC includes flexible overdraft, cash against invoices, protection against bad debts, small business loans at fixed interest rates upto ? 25000, flexible loans, financing of commercial properties, equipment, mortgages, vehicles and so on. Business managers are also provided with cash flow management services and fixed bond rates on high interest Deposit Bonds over ? 5,000. HSBCnet is an advanced service provided for businesses which enable these to carry out futuristic online banking. This is considered ideal for small businesses who do not want to invest in an internal financial management organisation. Thus it provides tools such as cash management, reporting and trading along with analytics and research. (hsbcnet, 2006). The customers are continually provided high quality services on HSBCnet such as management of foreign currency transactions as easy as domestic transaction, payments and account transfers at par with operations of a domestic account. The basic advantage provided is that a customer does not have to change his platform to access different types of services. Chapter 4 – Findings Findings are derived from qualitative and quantitative analysis. Data analysis is meant to calculate â€Å"correlations† between variables. The intention is to find relations among the variables. Correlation is a measure of the degree of linear relationship between two variables. A positive correlation occurs when both variables either increase or decrease. Negative correlation occurs, when one variable increases and the other decreases. The detailed findings of the primary and secondary research carried out based on qualitative and quantitative collation are as per succeeding paragraphs.

Essay Theodore Roosevelt One of Our Greatest President

Theodore Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents. He created the FDA and improved the position of the presidency greatly. Before Theodore came to be president, the position of presidency was slow and wasn’t very interesting so he made the executive branch more powerful by starting new reforms and a strong foreign policy. The life of a president is hard. It is full of stress, responsibilities, and a strong dedication the welfare of your country. Theodore had to deal with all of these presidential stresses, taking up much of his time. Do you know, though, that despite being a president, he led a life of excitement and freedom that many other presidents had never before experienced? Theodore, â€Å"Teddy† as his first wife Alice called him,†¦show more content†¦They got into a relationship and married later. Alice and Teddy’s time together was, sadly, brief. In 1884 a double tragedy struck Teddy (Theodore Roosevelt the White House). On February 12, Alice gave birth to a daughter, Alice Lee. Two days later, Roosevelts mother died of typhoid fever and his wife died of kidney disease within a few hours of each other--and in the same house. (Miller Center) After the death of Teddy’s mother and Alice, Theodore moved out to the Dakota Badlands to escape his grief. Once there, Teddy â€Å"soaked into the frontier lifestyle† and bought two ranches, the Maltese Cross Ranch and the Elkhorn ranch, and invested $40,000 in cattle for the Maltese Cross Ranch (Unites States. National Park Service. History: Theodore Roosevelt: Rancher). â€Å"He flourished in the hardships of the western frontier, riding for days, hunting grizzly bears, herding cows as a rancher, and chasing outlaws as a frontier sheriff† (Miller Center).Teddy also was suited to the rancher look; he wore spurs, belt buckles, and had some pearl handled revolvers made by Tiffany’s, which was a famous jewelry store. He also had a fring ed cowboy shirt made from buckskin. The whole outfit would have cost $100 which would amount to $1,000 today (Unites States. National Park Service. History: Theodore Roosevelt: Rancher). Theodore headed back to the East after a harsh winter killed off most of his cattle in 1886 (Miller Center). One of the reasonsShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Theodore Roosevelt s The Arena 1099 Words   |  5 Pageshe â€Å"Man in The Arena† is a poem written by President Theodore Roosevelt. Surprisingly, â€Å"Man in The Arena† is a very short poem, despite the amount of material presented. President Theodore Roosevelt was known for remarkably long winded speeches, which contrasts with the style and length of the poem. Theodore Roosevelt conveys a motivational message that has a vast impact our nation is founded on. The poem is relatable to a picture on google art project by â€Å"Ettore Bugatti†, depicting a Bugatti thatRead MoreTheodore Roosevelt : A Visionary Leader1554 Word s   |  7 Pagesensure the welfare of society, we have two parties that control almost everything. This was not how Theodore Roosevelt led our country. He was a visionary and ethical leader. This paper explains why by describing Theodore Roosevelt’s use of visionary leadership to protect America’s natural resources by being an emotionally flexible leader and using his inspirational motivation. Theodore Roosevelt was an Ethical Leader because he put service before self by resigning from the position of AssistantRead More A Human For Nature Essay1585 Words   |  7 Pagesand nature throughout history, one significant figure stands out in my mind: Theodore Roosevelt. Without him, the most beautiful and serene places in North America may have been destroyed or fallen to the hands of developers. 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Due to the varying technological and communicativeRead More Comparing Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt Essay1555 Words   |  7 PagesComparing Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt During the 20th century many different presidents went in and out of the doors of the White House serving the country the best they could. However, two of these men hold a place in American history as perhaps the greatest leaders that had ever served our country. Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson are two extraordinary men that symbolize the hope and aspirations of the American people during such a tumultuous time in United States historyRead MoreThe Bull Moose3345 Words   |  14 PagesMoose America has seen the likes of some of the greatest, most dynamic, most influential leaders to walk this earth, but one of the most electrifying of them all seized his opportunity and created a history and a legacy like none other. A man so influential, in fact, that his niece’s husband, another president of the United States, looked up to him as his idol. An unfortunate turn of events left a window wide open for this outstanding man, Theodore Roosevelt, to follow his destiny and leave a lastingRead MoreThe President Of The United States1783 Words   |  8 Pageshave been appointed to the very important role of proving to you that Theodore â€Å"Teddy† Roosevelt remains our nation’s finest President, and is more than deserving of the monument that will serve as a testament to his achievements as our country’s greatest leader. Serving as the 26th President of the United States of America, Roosevelt was in office from September 14, 1901, as a result of the d evastating assassination of President William McKinley, to March 4, 1909, when his second term came to an endRead MoreHistory Of The Monroe Doctrine Of 1823 Essay1076 Words   |  5 Pagesdocument helped the Mexican President Juarez in successfully revolting against the Emperor Maximillian of the French. I will also cover how the British affected the document and also how President Roosevelt wanted to extend the Doctrine with his â€Å"Roosevelt Corollary.† This document all began with the 5th president of the United States, James Madison. He tried to come up with some ideas to prevent Spain from repossessing the Western Hemisphere. So he went to former presidents Jefferson and Madison forRead MoreThe Achievements Of The Nobel Peace Prize1906 Words   |  8 PagesWinning the Nobel Peace Prize is an amazing feat and accomplishments that very few people receive. Only two US presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, and Barack Obama have received the award. Roosevelt was the first ever American to win this award. His life story and eventful experiences help shape him as the person we recognize as an impactful person in history. Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27th of 1858 into a Dutch family living in New York. As a child, he struggled with his asthma. ManyRead MoreTheodore Roosevelts Shaping of America Essay1080 Words   |  5 PagesTheodor Roosevelt, our 26th president, was a gruff politician who had a huge impact on America. He is known for his accomplishments in the political, social, and business world during the Progressive Era. His accomplishments helped shape America, and because of this influence, he is one of the faces found on Mount Rushmore. Theodor Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, in New York, New York. As a child he was frail and timid, and as a result, most of his education was through tutors in his home