How did the christian belief that gods kingdom is open to everyone influence domestic thought?
yeah…please i need somebody to answer this because i have a test tomorrow at school and i dont have this in my notes.
I would suggest that it had an egalitarian effect. If God’s kingdom is open to everyone, that means that everyone is equal in the eyes of God, at least in so far as entering the "kingdom" is concerned. So women have an equal status to men, slaves an equal status to masters, the governors an equal status to the governed, etc. It also means that conquerors have an equal status to the conquered, the rich have an equal status to the poor, etc. So it doesn’t do away with social status issues, nor does it cancel inequality in society. But it would have the effect of diminishing or moderating such distinctions. By contrast, consider religions where there is the component of being part of God’s "chosen" group. That suggests not only that such distinctions should exist, but that there is no reason to diminish them or to moderate them. So the Chosen are favoured by God and those that are not chosen are lost and have no value to God. If that is true, there is no grounds to behave moderately and people who are not chosen can be maltreated.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I would suggest that it had an egalitarian effect. If God’s kingdom is open to everyone, that means that everyone is equal in the eyes of God, at least in so far as entering the "kingdom" is concerned. So women have an equal status to men, slaves an equal status to masters, the governors an equal status to the governed, etc. It also means that conquerors have an equal status to the conquered, the rich have an equal status to the poor, etc. So it doesn’t do away with social status issues, nor does it cancel inequality in society. But it would have the effect of diminishing or moderating such distinctions. By contrast, consider religions where there is the component of being part of God’s "chosen" group. That suggests not only that such distinctions should exist, but that there is no reason to diminish them or to moderate them. So the Chosen are favoured by God and those that are not chosen are lost and have no value to God. If that is true, there is no grounds to behave moderately and people who are not chosen can be maltreated.
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