Essay Example: Christianity in Modern Society

Christianity has very little value to offer our world today. To what extent do you agree with this question?

I vehemently disagree with this statement because I believe we need the values of Christianity to be present and to play an influential part in today’s society. Examples of these aforementioned values are present in Jesus’s teachings and the way he lived his life. I will use a triad of different parables, each demonstrating a different aspect of human values, which are a paramount feature in society as a whole. Parables of the lost son, the adulterous woman, and the good Samaritan are to be discussed here. These three parables contain morals that are still extremely valuable today but tend to be forgotten sometimes by modern-day civilizations

The lost son is a parable demonstrating the act of forgiveness even in the worst situations. In this story, Jesus talks about a father and two sons. The younger of the two sons asks for his inheritance and goes off and squanders it in times of famine. He realises that life with his father was better and goes back home, to a father who welcomes him. However, the older brother is discontent and throws a flurry of questions at the father, questioning him in his anger. However, the father manages to keep him at bay, saying all he has is the older son’s property. I believe that in this parable, Jesus is trying to convey to the crowd three principles.

The first of these is that retributive justice is not always applicable to every situation but that there is a higher path, in the form of forgiveness. In today’s society, punishment is the first thought that comes to mind after someone has done something wrong, whereas this parable challenges this ideology. If humanity were to interpolate this way of thinking into how this way of thinking into the way it ran, it might see more positive changes in a person’s behaviour. If we give people time, via forgiveness, to recuperate and self-reflect on what they had done, they are a lot more likely not to do that again. In contrast, a punishment proportionate to the crime might cause a negative effect. The second thing that society can benefit from this parable is that intertwined in the making of unwise decisions are jealousy and envy. This is demonstrated in the character of the older son. You could argue that World War 2 started due to Adolf Hitler’s jealousy of the Allied forces. This led to a catastrophic battle to the death, with a staggering amount of deaths on both sides. Last, Jesus criticises any person who does not think for the sake of others but out of selfish motives. The character of the older son portrayed this idea, showing his true colours when the father heartily embraced the younger son. By adding the older son, he challenges all the people who say and act as if they are truly something but are only that in nominal

On the other hand, the moral of the Lost son can not apply to every situation in modern-day life. This is because punishment and recuperation go hand in hand. An example of this is prison time. People who perform a crime are subsequently told to serve the time. If people are to be informed that there will be no punishment in response to their wrongdoings, it might result in people doing bad things more frequently, overall increasing the crime rate. With a certain punishment entitled to a certain crime, people will know to stay in line. Moreover, the story states that the son comes to his senses and comes back home. This might not be because the son realises what he has done is morally wrong but because life is easier, better and there are fewer hardships with the father. Since the moral of the parable is sinners turning back to the father, this view could be contradictory to the whole purpose of the story. If the son returned home due to his selfish gain, this whole parable could be rendered futile to today's generation

Despite this possible interpretation of the text, the parable can still stand as one which can still insinuate that the purpose that the son's return to the father was a good one since the son states that he would go and prostrate himself before the father, and beg for his forgiveness. This would not be the action of someone who was thinking of their selfish gain. If someone was to stoop so low as to kneel before someone and beg for forgiveness, they are likely to have honest intentions.....