Ideas that shaped the Declaration of Independence

by | Apr 2, 2018 | Essays

The purpose of this paper is to identify the ideas that shaped the Declaration of Independence. Specifically, you will research and describe the philosophy of government that shapes the Declaration of Independence. You will explore the influence of natural rights, contract theory, religious liberty, and limited government. At the end of this assignment, you should have a deeper understanding of the ideas that shaped the Declaration of Independence.
Your paper must address the following 3 questions:

1. What were the main ideas that shaped the Declaration of Independence?

2. Based on the Eidsmoe reading, how important were biblical principles?

3. Based on McClellan’s discussion of the Declaration of Independence, which political ideas are not found in the Declaration of Independence?

In your paper try to demonstrate the following:

1. Differentiate the main principles of the Declaration of Independence.

2. Analyze the influence of the contract theory of government on the Declaration of Independence.

3. Define and explain the influence of major thinkers on the Founding Fathers, including Montesquieu, Blackstone, and Locke.

4. Trace the influence of the natural law/natural rights tradition on the American Founding.

5. Explain the Founding Fathers’ central convictions regarding both law and government.

This paper must be in Turabian style.??This paper requires an introduction that provided excellent background on the topic and clearly previews major points. ??The paper includes title page and 3 full pages of content. The paper is laid out effectively and uses reader-friendly aides (e.g., section summaries, tables of contents, indices, appendices, etc.) when appropriate. ??The paper requires at least one scripture quite from the Bible. The instructor is looking for the paper to be written from a Christian perspective.??This paper requires at least 6 references, three of the low tier references need to be from the textbook readings below (see which chapter to pull from): ??James McClellan book Liberty, Order, and Justice (Chapter 2)??James Eidsmoe book Christianity and the Constitution (Chapter 4)??Donald S. Lutz book The Origins of American Constitution (Chapters 6-9)??Please choose three more references that you base the bulk of your paper.

Sample Solution

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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