Prosecution of the Early Church Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Prosecution of the Early Church - Essay Example Prosecution only strengthened ideas and dogmas promulgated by the early church leaders and became a driven force of church expansion and developments. The period of the Early Church covers the periods when the books of the New Testament had been written. (100-4010 AD). The main record of the Church's earliest expansion depends on two divergent, but necessarily complementary literary sources; the Christian apologists and the pagan authors. The outline of the picture presented by both is remarkably consistent, though here and there details may be hazy and liable to more than one interpretation, very rarely however in matters of substance. A further feature of Christian history is its continuity from the first century down to our own day; indeed it may be said of the Church that no other institution of comparable antiquity is so completely documented. The amount of original manuscript that survives is naturally infinitesimal in quantity compared with the volume of works preserved for us by generations of copyists; yet where it does exist, it rarely contradicts, and nearly always confirms the literary and historical tradition. Inscrip tions form an important body of original material, but in an era of insecurity, and sometimes of actual persecution, purely Christian sentiments were more often not openly expressed. Historians suppose that persecution of the Early Church has a great impact on its expansion and proliferation of its ideas to other territories and countries. The Early Days of the Church In the earliest years, the Romans saw Christianity as a sect of Judaism. Suetonius, in his life of Claudius, records the expulsion of the Jews from Rome, who 'continually created disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus'. Suetonius apparently did not even realize that Chrestus, or Christ, was not a living Jewish leader of that time2. The Jews themselves reacted strongly enough against the new religion which they regarded as striking at the very foundations of their law, and their opposition would have been far more formidable than in fact it was, had they not been temporarily annihilated politically after the destruction of the Second Temple by Titus in 70. There is only a thin line dividing religious from political persecution, since the former is so often a pretext for the latter; thus, Pelikan is chiefly concerned with the relations of Christians with the civil power, and first and foremost with the civil power of Rome3. It would be wrong to lay any but the ultimate responsibil ity for the martyrdom of St Polycarp and a few others at the door of Antoninus. In general he followed in the relatively humane policies of his predecessors Hadrian and Trajan, whereby Christians were not to be hunted down nor, if charged, condemned, unless they could be proved to have broken the laws--an escape clause which included refusal to sacrifice to the Emperor as a god. A long period of comparative peace for the Church was abruptly ended by the accession of Antoninus' adopted son, Marcus Aurelius (161-180)4. The Period of Marcus Aurelius A

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY Essay - 1

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY - Essay Example The role of PSI was to demarcate the areas that required improvement or modifications. The issues identified by PSI were not specific to CVS; rather, it included the complaints from customers regarding cancellation of orders, and wastage of time at the pick-up spot. Analyzing the situation and its complication, the first question that comes in the mind is what could be the solution, or what steps must be taken in order to make the difference? Since the problems are common with other pharmacy stores, it demands something innovative, and in this regard, one has to answer the question, could disruptive innovation and quality management help in overcoming the difficulties of this company? Companies can innovate three ways. Firstly, New and Improved products should be introduced to target the high-margin customers to whom old products are not satisfying enough. Secondly, to the customers who can’t afford much, cheap alternatives should be launched of the existing expensive products which can fulfil their requirements without being a burden to their pockets, and lastly, new products should be introduced in order to create new markets and bring fresh consumers. (Christensen et al., 2004) Disruptive innovation refers to mode of expanding and establishing new customer base, by adding services or introducing newer products and technology that may disrupt the existing market linkages. In contrast to disruptive innovation there is sustainable innovation that does not affect the existing market linkages; rather it aims at adding value to the products or services. However, defeating incumbents with sustainable innovation is very hard. The problems with CVS are common in almost all the companies that deal in pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, the margin for innovation remains very narrow, because the stakes are too high, and the safety of the customer is top priority. The problems