Cultural Practices in Yanomamo Culture Research Paper

Cultural Practices in Yanomamo Culture - Research Paper Example This tribe did not have any contact with the outside world until the 1950s before which they lived in complete isolation. They were able to adapt themselves to their environment through means of cultural adaptation by following their cultural standards and practices (Trachoma among the Yanomami, Web). The Yanomamo tribe consists of hunters and horticulturists who frequently move to new areas when the soil becomes exhausted. More than half of the Yanomami live within the Amazon forest while some live along the major rivers. Similar to their living conditions, the Yanomamo also follow different rituals and beliefs. Their religious beliefs are also based on the principles of animism. They believe that the forests entail a spiritual existence along with its other uses of food and plants etc (Yanomamo, Varying Adaptations of Foraging Horticulturalists, Web). One of the main cultural practices followed by the Yanomami is Polygny which is the most common form of polygamy. Polygny is a practice in which a man has more than one wife at the same time. In the Yanomamo society, arranged marriages are common and the marriage is often based on survival and other economic factors. The men are given a higher position or role and the women are treated as servants and properties of other members of the society. The female members of this community are not allowed to participate in most of the activities but the preparation is done by the females themselves.

Final Moral Dilemma Case Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Final Moral Dilemma Case Analysis - Assignment Example The patient vocally rejects all prescriptions and treatments. Moreover, the patient is struggling physically and rejects blood withdrawals and intravenous access. The hospital’s psychiatric team affirmed that the patient was unable to make personal judgments. It was also realized that the patient lacked an authorized custodian to make decisions on his behalf. In this perspective, the government could not locate any relatives or family members. This instance was transferred to our institution’s moral panel. The morals panel with the assistance of legal support was capable of putting a non-RESUSITE order. Nursing care was inculcated to medicate the patient by not letting him realize that medical pills have been trampled and blended in his food. The medicines were recommended to relieve the pain and irritation; antipsychotics were prescribed as well (Ferrell, Coyle, & Teton Data Systems, 2010). Ethical Problem and Conflicting Obligations The aspect making this condition an ethical crisis is that the patient’s rejecting treatment is not valued. Moreover, he is getting palliative care without his knowledge. The patient constantly involves physical struggling if anybody touches or attempts to draw blood from his body for medical purposes (Locsin & Purnell, 2009). The patient could allow nurses to redress and bathe him as well as change his diaper. I nursed this patient a couple of instances and developed a feeling that he had full knowledge of what was transpiring around him. The Issues The primary issue is that the patient’s decision of not desiring some of the treatment methods should have been respected. It was absurd and illegal to medicate the patient without his knowledge. Important Facts The pertinent facts are that the patient should not suffer by indulging him in numerous medical methods that do not appeal to him. What emotions have an impact? As a health care giver, I felt culpable for not regarding his resolution. Moreover, trea ting and medicating him without his conscience made me feel guilty. Conversely, I was calmed down by the fact that his pain was relieved. Identify Key Participants/Stakeholders The prime partakers were primary care providers, patient and the legal/ethics department. Legitimate Decision Maker The hospital is accountable for the patient’s safety, hence the legitimate decision maker. Who Is Affected and How? The patient is the most affected since he gets sedative treatment without his agreement. The nurses are also affected since they are liable for the patient’s care. Level of Competence of the Most Affected Individual The level of competence of the patient is that he is mentally disable and has been declared to make right choices. Participants’ Obligations The task of every healthcare giver is to protect, treat and be the patient’s supporter. The hospital’s responsibility is to safeguard the patient’s lawful rights and their safety. The ethic s department accountability is to establish the best way out of this condition without instigating any injury to the patient. Determination of Moral Perspective Participants think in aspects of duties and tasks since the nurses believe in matters of protecting and advocating any patient. The hospital believes in matters of safeguarding all patients’ lawful rights. Exhibition of Moral Perspectives The hospital does not instigate or warrant any liabilities in this context whereas the nurses work to protect and devote for

Relationship Between Russia and China

Relationship Between Russia and China The new era of Russia and China Tension in Ukraine, Natural Gas Contract and the future Chuqing Hu chuqing[emailprotected] The recent history The relationship between China and Russia has always been complicated. In early 1960s, also Russia (the formerSovietUnion) had been support China to rebuild the country after war diminished, friendship between the two countries diminished mainly due to the dissension on the war between China and India. During the war, the SovietUnion made public its stand to support India which significantly deteriorated its relationship with China. The incompatibility wasn’t softened until 1980s when MikhailGorbachev became the president of SU and started to remedy the relationship with China. Since then, China and Russia has been on their way to a new era of competitive cooperation, or we can also call it â€Å"cooperative competition.†[1] Year 2014, a new era evolved after the tension of Ukraine In the past few months, as stated by U.S. president Barack Obama, â€Å"Russia’s aggression towards former Soviet states unnerves capitals in Europe while China’s economic rise and military reach worries its neighbors.†[2] From March 2014, the issue in Ukraine treaded on sensitive ground for China, and it has contorted itself to find a neutral diplomatic position.China has long been holding the position of not to interfere in the internal affairsof other countries. However, this belief was kind of dimmed when China failed to state its position to the referendum in Crimea, Ukraine. China’s action was viewed as a silent support to Vladimir V.Putin as other western countries all clearly stated their opposition against the referendum. [3] China’s silence brought new harmony to its relationship with Russia and this has been viewed as the turning point of the strategic alliance between two of the most powerful countries in the world. Two months later, on May 20th, 2014, Russia clinched a US$400-billion deal to feed China around 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas via pipelines at a chummy price of $350-$400 per thousand cubic meters(TCM), shaking up an industry that is used to fetching $500-$600 per TCM from Asian markets. The deal prompted much commentary on the agreement’s potential to reshape global energy markets and tilt the balance of influence in Ukraine and, more broadly, inEurope. [4] Apart for the contract, Putin’s visit to China in May also brought about various strategic business alliances between the two countries, which include mining, electricity, border trade, automobile, etc. A formal alliance or a double jeopardy Some people would imply that China and Russia are forming a formal alliance in order to compete with the U.S. and Europe. However, although the two countries are in honeymoon in the past few months, uncertainties still exist and I assume it’s too early to call it a formal alliance. Foremost, since the two countries have different visions regarding their future, both economically and politically, the discrepancy of the visions of two countries will make the alliance not as strong as some people imagined. What matters most to China? Growth, growth and growth. China has been struggling with the slowdown of its GDP growth in the past year and the promise of 8% annual growth was broken due to the slackness of industrial manufacture and the rising cost of capital. At this moment, a long-term energy contract with a quite favorable price will a good stimulator to its economics. At the same time, Chinese government is also concerned with the destabilization aroused with its own borders. An alliance will also enhance the protection of its national interests since Russia is a neighbor as well as a friend. What matter most to Russia? Recovery, recovery and recovery. After deep recession, Russia has been long for a recovery in both its economics and international political status. Russia was known for its aggression when it was once on its greatest prosperity. In the recent years, as the financial recovery was on its way, Russia again started to strive for more political interests, especially towards former Soviet states. However, it’s also crystal clear that because of tension between Russia and the U.S., the western world will be never on Russia’s side regarding international affairs. The only and most power ally Russia can rely on has to be China. Putin’s visit and the multi-billion contract showed Russia’s generosity and its high expectation for the relationship. However, if Russia keeps raising its aggression after the tension in Crimea, this will put China in a very awkward situation – to keep supporting Russia with equivocatory and to risk its future to be sanctioned by the western or to break its friendship with Russia and risk what happened in the 1950s to happen again? It’s a double jeopardy for China. â€Å"China’s leaders can’t afford to side with Russia, and they cannot side with Russia’s forceful policy.† According to Titus C. Chen, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University in Taiwan.[5] Neither of them is an ideal choice for the Chinese authority since China definitely doesn’t want to be friend with Russia and be enemy with rest of the world. Envisioning the future There are mutual strategic needs as both China and Russia want to create a multipolar world which is not dominated by the U.S., particularly as China is now facing threats from the US-led alliance in Asia These two powerful countries although holding different goals in the alliance, are a formidable pair and can alter the international system. China knows that, Russia knows that, and the rest of the world is more or less afraid of that. The pair will accelerate the economic growth in both Russia and China, which is favorable for both of the countries. This suggests that, as long as Russia doesn’t get outrageous in its foreign policy, the friendship will be very well maintained in the near future. However, due to the historical mistrust, the lack of a common threat and conflicting interests in Central Asia, the sustainability of the partnership is questioned.[6] Besides China and Russia, U.S. is also playing and important part in the relationship. If U.S. keeps pushing China or Russia aggressively to the corner, this will certainly reinforce the China-Russia Alliance. If U.S. changed its position in order to drive a wedge between the two countries, the situation will become more unpredictable but also more interesting.   The tough road between Russia and China, multiple contributors, Voice of Russia, 2014 China-russia-and-the-outlook-for-the-liberal-international-system, Ali Wyne , www.warontherocks.com, Jun 2nd 2014 China Torn Between Policies and Partnership, Andrew Jacobs and Somini Sengupta, New York Times, March 12th, 2014 Russia-China Gas Deal Narrows Window for U.S.Exports, Richard Martin,Forbes, May 30th, 2014 China Torn Between Policies and Partnership, Andrew Jacobs and Somini Sengupta, New York Times, March 12th, 2014 Are China and Russia Moving toward a Formal Alliance?, Dingding Chen, The Diplomat, May 30th, 2014

Patient Safety Essay -- Nursing

Introduction Keeping patients safe is essential in today’s health care system, but patient safety events that violate that safety are increasing each year. It was only recently, that the focus on patient safety was reinforced by a report prepared by Institute of medicine (IOM) entitled † To err is human, building a safer health system†(Wakefield & Iliffe,2002).This report found that approx-imately 44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur each year due to medical errors and that the majority was preventable. Deaths due to medical errors exceed deaths due to many other causes such as like HIV infections, breast cancer and even traffic accidents (Wakefield & Iliffe, 2002). After this IOM reports, President Clinton established quality interagency coordination task force with the help of government agencies. These government agencies are responsible for making health pol-icies regarding patient safety to which every HCO must follow (Schulman & Kim, 2000). Patient safety must be the first priority in the health care system, and it is widely accepta-ble that unnecessary harm to a patient must be controlled.Two million babies and mother die due to preventable medical errors annually worldwide due to pregnancy related complications and there is worldwide increase in nosocomial infections, which is almost equal to 5-10% of total admissions occurring in the hospitals. (WHO Patient Safety Research, 2009). Total 1.4 million patients are victims of hospital-acquired infection. (WHO Patient Safety Research, 2009). Unsafe infection practice leads to 1.3 million death word wide and loss of 26 millions of life while ad-verse drug events are increasing in health care and 10% of total admitted patients are facing ad-verse drug events. (WHO Patient Safety Re... ...Qualified health care personnel are required to maintain safe health care surrounding. Most im-portant part of the problem is to find the problem, and then only we can fix it. Conclusion It is right of a patient to be safe at health care organization. Patient comes to the hospital for the treatment not to get another disease. Patient safety is the most important issue for health care organizations. Patient safety events cost of thousands of deaths and millions of dollars an-nually. Even though the awareness of patient safety is spreading worldwide but still we have to accomplish many things to achieve safe environment for patients in the hospitals. Proper admin-istrative changes are required to keep health care organization safe. We need organizational changes, effective leadership, strong health care policies and effective health care laws to make patients safer.

Natural Law and Sexual Ethics by Janet Smith Essay

I am honored to be among the lecturers in this series on natural law. Many of the speakers are among my heroes and friends. One of my heroes, Alasdair MacIntyre, used one of his favorite terms in his talk: he spoke of â€Å"plain persons† and their grasp of morality and natural law in contradistinction to the experts and professional philosophers and their grasp of these matters. A few years ago in Dallas he gave a talk entitled â€Å"Do plain persons need to be moral philosophers? † When I was asked to give the response to his talk, I was most honored because I considered Prof. MacIntyre one of the foremost moral philosophers in the world and it was a thrill to comment on his work. I felt dreadfully underqualified — I felt like some high school kid going up against Larry Bird — until I realized that I need not respond as an expert, as a moral philosopher of his caliber, but that I could respond as the quintessential plain person — for that is what I am. After all, I am Janet Smith, daughter of John and Anne Smith; I grew up at 5 Hill Street and went to Home Street School — I could go on but it is all very plain. The point I am making here is not merely a flip one — designed to ease us into more serious matters through an attempt at humor. There is a serious point here — natural law, is the â€Å"plain person’s† morality — in a sense it is simply plain old common sense. There are profound and sophisticated ways at explaining natural law, but the practiceof reasoning in accord with natural law principals, according to the theory itself, is natural to plain persons — that is, natural to all mankind for natural law holds that many of the most fundamental principles of moral reasoning are obvious, that is easily known by all. Yet, in spite of the plain commonsensicalness of natural law, it can seem shocking and provocative in many ways, for like natural law, plain old common sense does not command a lot of followers these days and can be shocking when juxtaposed to the values of our times. My talk is going to be very basic in several respects. It will review some of the basic principles that other speakers have covered, some in depth, some more in passing. It will also be very basic in being the one talk that attempts to make an application of natural law to concrete moral issues; issues in the realm of sexual ethics. My job is not to justify natural law ethics but to explain it and apply it. As did many of the earlier speakers I will largely be following the thought of Thomas Aquinas on these matters and of Aristotle from whom Aquinas learned many of the principles that informed his teaching on natural law. I shall also incorporate into my arguments the thought of another stellar natural law theorist, still alive and well: I shall make use of the work of Karol Wojtyla, now known as Pope John Paul II. I will refer to him as Wojtyla simply because I do not want to be thought to be invoking his authority as Holy Father; I cite him simply as a philosopher who has made great advances of our understanding of natural law, particularly in regard to sexual ethics. So let me begin with a review of the principles of natural law. As several other speakers have noted, Aquinas maintains that the first principle of natural law is â€Å"do good, avoid evil†. As he notes, that is a self-evident principle and obvious to all; if we want to be moral we should do good and avoid evil. No controversy here. The question is, of course, what is good and what is evil and how to we come to know which is which? Some think we can’t know what is good and evil so the best we can do is live by the conventions of our times. Others think it best to let our passions be our guide to whatever we want to do. Others think only revealed religion can give us absolutes. These three positions capture the predominant views of our times. Aquinas holds none of these positions. He argues that reason should be our guide to morality. Not only does he hold that the first principle of natural law, â€Å"do good, avoid evil† is self-evident, he argues that there are other self-evident first principles, such as â€Å"harm no man†. These he says are imprinted in the minds of all by God; I believe other precepts such as â€Å"provide responsibly for your offspring†, â€Å"give to each man his due† and â€Å"seek knowledge† would qualify as precepts that Aquinas thinks all men know. Men (and I use the term generically here and throughout) may act against these precepts out of passion or because ignorance of some fact operative in a situation, but all would agree that such principles are moral truths. Aquinas goes on to say that what he calls primary precepts of natural law are naturally and immediately known by man; he cites the 10 commandments as examples of these types of precepts. These precepts are justified by the primary principles. From the most general principle â€Å"give to each man his due†, from an understanding of what one owes to one’s mother and father, it is clear that one â€Å"should honor one’s father and mother. â€Å"Now this is not to say that one discovers the moral law by discovering these precepts in a deductive manner moving from the most general to the more particular. Rather, it seems that often moral discovery, as the discovery of other general truths, moves from the particular to the universal. That is, an individual could witness or participate in a transaction and quite immediately make the moral judgment that the act is good or bad. That is, for instance, an individual could witness someone honoring or dishonoring his parents and judge the action to be good or bad; from this action and others of the same sort one may come to formulate the â€Å"law† that one should give each man his due. But it is because we already naturally know — in an unexpressed and unformulated way — that one should give each man his due, that we are able to see readily that honoring one’s parents is good. Much in the same way that we, without musical training, can judge certain tones to be off pitch, we have moral â€Å"perceptions† that some actions are good and some bad, without having any explicit training about such kinds of actions. I speak of these as moral â€Å"perceptions† not because they are equivalent to sense perceptions, but because of their immediacy and their unformulated quality; indeed, I believe them to be rational in several important respects, not least because they are cognitive acts and they are in accord with reality. Let me speak now about rationality and the Thomistic claim that â€Å"one should act rationally. † Indeed, one could formulate the first principle of natural law not only in the most basic formula â€Å"do good, avoid evil†; in Thomistic terms, several formulas serve to express the same truth: for Aquinas, the following phrases are synonymous: â€Å"act in accord with nature†; â€Å"act in accord with reason† or â€Å"act rationally†; â€Å"act in accord with virtue†; â€Å"act in accord with the dignity of the human person†; â€Å"act in accord with a well formed conscience†; indeed, â€Å"act in a loving way†, properly understood, serves as well. While it would be of great profit to elaborate how each of these phrases is synonymous with the other, I want to devote most of my efforts here to explaining how â€Å"act in accord with nature† and â€Å"act in accord with reason† are synonymous and worthy guides to moral behavior. First we must try to get as clear as we can what it means to say â€Å"act in accord with reason† or â€Å"act rationally†. In our day, reason often gets a bum rap. This is a fault not of Aristotle or Aquinas but of Descartes and Kant and their followers. Since they retreated into the mind and abandoned the senses and emotions and nature as guides to truth, they made reason seem like something coldly logical, impersonal, abstract and completely devoid of experiential and emotional content. In their view, mathematics and geometry are seen as the quintessential rational acts; to be rational is to operate totally within one’s mind and to be completely unemotional. Another view of rationality that dominates modern times is the view that only that which can be measured scientifically deserves any recognition as objective truth. No truths other than those substantiated by scientific proofs — truths that can be quantified largely in the laboratory — count as truth. No proof other than scientific proofs count as truth; only science and that which approximates to scientific truth is truly rational. Neither view is the view of reason and rationality held by the ancients and medievalists — those who defined the view of natural law I am defending here. The ancients and medievalists did not think rationality was possible without the senses and the emotions for both are tools to reading reality; they provide the intellect with the material needed to make a good judgment. The etymology of the word â€Å"rational† is rooted in the word â€Å"ratio† which means â€Å"measure or â€Å"proportion†. One is being rational when one’s thought and action are measured to, are proportionate with, or when one’s thought and action correspond with reality (which itself is measured or governed by discernable laws; more about this momentarily). The thought that leads to acting in accord with reality is called rational. Now this thought need not be and perhaps only rarely will be the kind of abstract, cold, logical reasoning of a Descartes, Kant, or research scientist. This thought can be intuitive, creative, poetic, inductive, deductive, indeed, whatever human thought can be. It is all called rational thought not because it proceeds by syllogism or because it is subject to certain scientific tests; it is called rational because it corresponds with reality — and this includes all of reality, the spiritual and the transcendental as well as the logically provable and the scientifically measurable reality. Such thought cannot proceed without abundant data from our senses and our emotions. The intellect processes such data and orders it; it determines what values are important in the data and decides on the appropriate response. If one acts rationally, one then acts in accord with the ordering done by the intellect. While the intellect should govern the emotions, it is not a natural law teaching that all rational behavior will be devoid of emotion. Again, the emotions can provide essential data to the intellect. Emotions that are well-habituated may lead one quite spontaneously to respond correctly to situations. One may spontaneously get angry at witnessing some act of injustice and, if one knows one’s emotions to be well-ordered, one could respond quite immediately and correctly to the situation — and even angrily to the situation. Indeed, at times it may be an appropriate response to reality to rant and rave. One doing so, is properly called rational, in spite of our common parlance. This talk of the mind and of rationality as something that is measured to reality suggests, as mentioned above, that reality is a thing that can be grasped. Natural law depends upon such. It rests upon the claim that things have natures and essences that we can know and correspond our actions to. There are many reasons for making this claim. One is the fact that things act in a predictable fashion; when we learn the properties of oil and water, for instance, we can predict certain things about their behavior. The fact that we build bridges which stand, that we make artificial hearts that work, that we put men on the moon, also indicates we are able to measure our thoughts to the external world and to act in accord with it. Moreover, natural law operates on the premise that nature is good; that is, that the way things naturally are is good for them to be; it holds that the operations of things and parts of things contribute to the good of the whole. The wings of different birds are shaped in certain fashions because of the sort of flying that they must do to survive; different digestive systems work in different ways because of what is being digested. Indeed, natural law holds that the natural instincts of natural things are good; they lead them to do what helps those things function well and helps them survive. Since natural things have an order there is said to be a ratio or order to them; not one of which they are conscious but one that is written into their functioning. Natural law holds that we live in a universe of things that have a ratio to them and that we shall get the best out of these things if we act in accord with the ratio or nature that is written into them. Now, man is a natural thing. He, too, has parts and operations and instincts that enable him to function well and to survive. Man differs from other creatures in that he has free will; that is, he can either cooperate with his nature or act against his nature, whereas other natural things have no such freedom. What enables man to be free is his reason, his rationality; he is able to weigh and measure different courses of action and to determine which actions are good or bad. According to natural law, those actions are good which accord with his nature and with the nature of other things. Since man is by nature a rational animal, it is good for him to act in accord with his reason. By acting rationally he is acting in accord with his own nature and with a reality that is also ordered. When he acts rationally, he acts in accord with his own nature and reality and in accord with the nature and reality of other things. Now, let’s get concrete. Let’s talk about acting in accord with the nature of a few specific things. Take tomato plants, for instance. Tomato plants have a certain nature. In order to have good tomato plants one must act towards these plants in accord with their nature; one must water them, give them sunlight and good soil if one wants to produce good tomato plants. Such is acting in accord with nature in respect to tomato plants, such is rational behavior in respect to tomato plants. If one’s tomato plants fail to produce tomatoes, one knows that one is doing something wrong; if one’s tomato plants produce good tomatoes, one knows one is doing something right. Prof. Charlie Rice, whose book Fifty Questions on Natural Law that I understand several of you are reading, speaks of the rationality of putting oil and not molasses in the engine of a car. One needs to act in accord with the nature of things if one wishes them to perform well. So now let us, moving quickly, move to human nature. If a human being wishes to function and perform well, what does his nature require of him? Let us begin with his physical nature. There is a considerable consensus about what makes for physical health and what is conducive to physical health. Those who don’t get sick, who are able to function well in their daily activities, who are not overweight, we call healthy. We know how to produce such individuals. We are regularly and rightly advised to eat well, exercise regularly, and to get plenty of sleep. Those who do so generally flourish physically — because they are acting in accord with nature, with reason, and with reality. Psychological health is also understood to some extent; we know we need friends and rest and interests to sustain our psychological health; that is our nature; that is reality. Nor are we in the dark about what makes for moral health or moral goodness. We recognize the goodness of the various virtues such as self-discipline, reliability, justice and fairness, kindness, truthfulness, loyalty, etc. those who exhibit these qualities we generally recognize to be good — that is morally good — human beings. Parents who have children who display such qualities are rightly proud of them; their â€Å"tomato plants† turned out well. So, in regard to sexual behavior, to sexual moral health, so to speak, what qualifies as acting in accord with nature, with reason? How do we determine what it is? Now, for Aquinas, these are not difficult questions, though, apparently, they are extremely difficult questions for modern times. We are terribly confused about what proper sexual behavior is. College newspapers are filled with news of campuses that are devising codes of moral sexual behavior — codes that are designed primarily to stop or reduce the incidence of date rape on campus. These codes suggest, mandate, require — I am not certain what is the correct word — that in sexual activity neither individual proceed to the next level of sexual activity without obtaining the permission of the other individual. These codes reflect what has been the principle governing sexual behavior in modern times for sometime — whatever one feels comfortable with and whatever one agrees to is morally o. . This is basically what we are teaching to our young people and they are doing much what one would expect given that teaching. As long as it feels good, and they have consented to it, there is no reason for them not to do â€Å"it†. Is this working; is this principle leading to moral health or moral sickness? What can we say about the moral sexual health of our society? What does the fact that 68% of African-American babies are born out of wedlock suggest? The figure is now 22% in the white community and rapidly growing.

Paul’s Teachings Essay

1. Essay on the Epistle to the Galatians The New Testament Book Epistle to the Galatians is ascribed by the Catholic Church to St. Paul but now believed to be written by early Christian missionary Paul of Tarsus to the early Christian communities in Galatia, then a Roman province. It was an intensely personal letter wherein Paul primarily tackled the circumcision issue during those early days of Christianity. The issue of circumcising Gentile converts, considered to be culturally offensive to Romans, was then being hotly debated. In the Epistle, Paul cautions against the introduction of Jewish practices, such as circumcision, into the community of Christians. The circumcision debate written in Galatians was important for St. Paul because he wanted to point out to the Gentiles that the prescriptions that regulated the day-to-day lives of the Jews under the Law of Moses are meant to lead men to salvation through Christ. Some Galatian converts or Judaizers at that time insisted that observance of the Law, including circumcision, abstinence and certain ritual purifications, was prerequisite to being good or perfect Christians. During the Old Testament, circumcision served as a man’s public pledge to the complete observance of Mosaic Law. In Paul’s argument against circumcision, he mentions Old Testament figures such as Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Sarah and Hagar in order to explain and illustrate â€Å"what it means to follow God’s advice† ( 4:21, Galatians). Using the story of the birth of Isaac and Ishmael, Paul stresses that Christians should genuinely believe and follow all of God’s advise, not only religious traditions but more so, following the examples of Christ. In addressing the circumcision issue in the Epistle, Paul thereby explains that by itself, the Mosaic Law had no power to save because salvation needs individual faith and the grace of Jesus. 2. Essay on the Books of Timothy I, Timothy II and Titus The New Testament Books First Epistle to Timothy, Second Epistle to Timothy and Epistle to Titus are three Pastoral Epistles attributed to St. Paul but now believed to be from Paul of Tarsus. They are collectively termed as the Pastoral Epistles chiefly because the letters are addressed to pastors or heads of the early Church regarding proper handling of the ministry. Together, the Epistles instruct the Bishop Timothy and the Christian worker Titus on the general principles regarding community order and faith. Specifically, the greater part of the Timothy I is devoted to instructions on the proper ordering of Christian community life for it to function smoothly. It also admonishes Timothy on the duties of the bishops and deacons in terms of preaching, praying in public and care for the Church members. Timothy II, on the other stresses the faithful dispensing of the responsibilities by church leaders and provides encouragement to the Bishop. The Pastoral Epistles talk of the proper conduct of both men and women; proper behavior when inside the Church; respect for old and young people; treatment of elderly and rules for the enrollment of widows and other prescriptions for good and Christian behavior. They also talk of how to remain steadfast in faith by rejecting false teachings and safeguarding the truths in the Church. Such is a suggestion of the pressures against and the corresponding struggles to strengthen the faith within the community. The administrative activities, especially as found in Timothy I tell us that the early Church then was already, or at least beginning to be, structured and orderly and made up of united members. This is seen, for one, in the discussion on the selection of church leaders. These three Epistles definitely communicate to us the difficulties of the early Church. The part in Timothy II wherein Paul exhorted the Bishop to be patient in the face of persecution is best illustrates the serious problems they encountered. The recommendations in the Timothy I and Titus regarding the kind of character needed for the leaders of the Church suggest the earnest efforts to build and fortify what we know now to be a heavily challenged Church back then. In gist, Timothy I and II and Titus portray the picture of the Christian community during the incipient period of the Church. The Books show that times were hard but that the early Christians, herein guided by Paul, mustered their faith and effort for the ministry.