Art For A Long Time example essay topic

The early days of both Christianity and Islam are reflected in the art created during that time period. The leaders of both religions encouraged art that depicted the beliefs of their specific religion. Christian leaders were somewhat fearful of pagan portrayals through the arts, and so they actively discouraged the creation of those kinds of art works. Faithful Islamic people obeyed the Que " an, which forbade images of living things. The Carolingian dynasty began when Charles the Great or Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Unlike many rulers until his time Charlemagne had an interest in the arts and higher learning. Under his rule monasteries were encouraged to develop learning and the arts. I think that one of the most significant contributions of Charlemagne was the preservation of manuscripts. Monks not only copied these manuscripts carefully, but they also began illustrating them. These illustrations gave us some of the greatest art work of that time. This was a time of renewed interest in literature as well as the art styles of early Rome.

Artwork began to reflect more the artists own creativity and less on what was politically or religiously correct at the time. I wish that I could say that society as a whole has learned valuable lessons from the censorship of earlier times. Unfortunately, I don't believe that to be entirely true. I can easily remember the horror expressed by members of my own family because I allowed my son to read Harry Potter.

They were and still are convinced that he will forget about God and turn to witchcraft just because I allowed him to read those books. My family isn't alone in this effort to censor the Potter books and films. I know that some churches have dedicated themselves to "educating" parents on the evils of Harry Potter. I was once approached in a bookstore on the release date of one of these books. The woman was determined that I understand why these books should be destroyed or at the very least kept out of the hands of "impressionable children". In my opinion, not letting a child read a story because he may get ideas from it is ludicrous.

I find it rather telling that although early Christians tried to dispense of anything pagan we have a rather thorough understanding today of pagan art and philosophy. Censorship simply doesn't work in my opinion, but I would bet that it will still be around in one thousand years. I was discussing this class with a neighbor not long ago and she made a comment about Humanities covering different religions. I laughed and assured her that Humanities still covered some of the world religions. Her comment to that was "I would take an F in the class before I would defile my mind reading about false religions". This isn't an uneducated woman, or one that I would say lacked common sense.

She is however very involved in her church. She has no television because "the things on television are evil". This is not really of concern to me other than her children have mentioned to my son that we are evil sinners and are going to go to Hell because we own a television set. At the same time, her efforts to censor what happens in my house do cause tension at times. While I am quite prepared to allow her to live peacefully with her own beliefs and practices she isn't inclined to do the same for me. The teachings of her church have convinced her that it is her duty to God to counsel me on my sinful ways and encourage me to be a "real Christian".

She belongs to a rather small religious organization (Thank God) but I shudder to think of what could happen if the Pope decided suddenly that television was evil. Large influential groups can and do still have an impact on society as a whole. If incidents like this were rare perhaps I would feel differently about organized religion. Unfortunately, I hear about similar events often. We are acquainted with a family who are devout Jehovah Witness'.

Not too long ago their 5 year old daughter spoke to her grandmother about her sinful nature. Why was she sinful? Because she buys presents for Christmas and places them under a Christmas Tree. As a result of having to see that tree and those presents the family would not be visiting grandmother's house during the holidays anymore. Needless to say the grandmother was upset and unsure of how to respond. Further discussion with the child's parents revealed that they felt the grandmother should refrain from decorating a tree or buying presents for other non Jehovah Witness members of the family.

They feel justified by their religion to attempt to wipe out decades of tradition for this family. I have a strong dislike for anyone who tries to cram their own beliefs down my throat. Opinions are one thing, but when a person tries to influence my lifestyle because of their own beliefs I see it as something quite different. To me that is attempted censorship, and while small groups have little chance of making any real changes for most of us, they will continue in their efforts to convert the world to their own beliefs.

When it comes to opinion of right and wrong many of us in today's world behave much the way people did hundreds of years ago. I think that we will see individuals and groups trying to censor everything from reading material to works of art for a long time to come. Some of these groups may be successful in making a few things harder for us to see or hear about. They won't wipe it out though. As I said, censorship just doesn't work.