Alchemist Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Alchemist Reflection - Essay Example his paper seeks to highlight an important lesson learnt in the novel and provide a personal reflection with regard to the triumphs and tribulations encountered in a quest to achieve one’s goals in life. The novel has a lot of life’s lessons that are presented by various characters and their attitudes and beliefs with regard to what is important in life. The most significant lesson garnered from the novel is the importance of faith and belief in self. This is because having a strong and unshakable faith or belief in self leads to the unlocking of one’s potential which is negated by self-doubt. Belief and faith in self is manifested as attitude which influences and determines an individual’s perception and opinions about life and their role in shaping their fortunes. This belief in self and a strong positive attitude is exemplified by Santiago in his quest to fulfil his dreams(Coelho 116). Santiago had strong faith in his destiny which translated to having a positive attitude towards his endeavour to fulfil his dreams. Attitude is a fundamental component of human nature, and its manifestation plays a huge and significant role in people’s lives. In essence this means that the positivity or negativity of an individual’s attitude plays a significant role in the outcome of one’s endeavours. The novel provides exemplary instances where the roles of belief, faith and attitude in a person’s life are brought out indicating their significance. This is in line with quote ‘when you want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it’(Coelho 22).Santiago’s strong belief and positive attitude can be applied in the context of the above quote; in the sense that his actions and experiences exhibit the tenets and implications of the quote above. In line with the quote, the universe conspires to enable Santiago fulfil his dreams in the sense that he meets people on his journey that help him gain useful insights towards realizing and

Synothic Problem Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Synothic Problem - Research Paper Example In the New Testament, one can find 4 Gospels, Acts, 21 Epistles, and the book of Revelation.2 This paper will focus on the four gospels. These gospels are the written by Jesus’ apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. However, among the four, the gospel according to John has a different chronology, pattern and wording. This is unlike the other 3 remaining gospels. The gospels according to Matthew, Mark and Luke are also known as the Synoptic Gospels. What is the meaning of the Synoptic? The dictionary meaning of the word is â€Å"presenting or taking the same or common view, specifically often relating to the first three Gospels of the New Testament.†3 It is quite redundant that the term synoptic gospels are being used with reference to the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke when just by the term synoptic one can already refer to the gospels. The 3 gospels have a sense of parallelism with regard to structure, language, chronology, and even some points of arguments.4 â€Å"The problem of the relationship between the three ‘Synoptic Gospels’ (Mt., Mk., Lk.) posed by the amount of subject matter which they share and the many similarities in wording and order. In modern times most scholars have held (1). that Mk. was the earliest of the Synoptic Gospels and that it was used as a source by Mt. and Lk., and (2). that for the non-Marcan material common to Mt. and Lk., their authors drew independently on a lost common source (or sources) known as ‘Q’ (q.v.). This ‘two-document hypothesis’ (that Mt. and Lk. are based on Mk. and ‘Q’) was developed mainly in Germany in the 19th cent., was given classic expression by B. H. Streeter, and came to be almost universally accepted. In the second half of the 20th century, a few scholars challenged the priority of Mk. and several denied the existence of ‘Q’.†5 When analyzing this statement by Livingstone, the term â€Å"problem† being used is actually not much of a problem. It is more of a clarification of the