The Protestant Reformation And Martin Luther Religion Essay

The Protestant Reformation And Martin Luther Religion Essay The time of the Protestant Reformation was a time of great change in western society. The Roman Catholic Church would see its authority challenged in a way that was unprecedented and the world would bear witness to the beginning of many religious feuds and rivalries, some of which live on to this day. The roots of the movement lie in several different ideas that started to spread among the common people of Europe, starting in about 1500. People began to believe that they could access the grace of God through a personal relationship with him, without the need of the Church and its authorities as an intermediary. Many no longer saw the Pope as Gods right hand man, but instead as a religious profiteer who cared much more about making money than about tending to the spiritual needs of his followers. A feeling of anticlericalism was quickly spreading throughout the land. In response to the new found spiritual awakening experienced by many, Europe began to see new religious teachers and groups spring up all over. The Christian Humanists, Sir Thomas More, Erasmus, and many others helped to spread the new movement with their teachings, however out of all the great scholars of the Reformation, there are two who stand out more than any other. The teachings of Martin Luther and John Calvin resonate even today and they are still held up as heroes of Christianity by many. Martin Luther was undoubtedly the most persistent and most successful of all the reformers of his time. He challenged the Church loudly and directly and refused to back down over what he saw as both great errors in doctrine and great failures in spirituality. Luthers most important teaching originated from his own personal experiences before he began his fight against the Roman Church. He had always struggled with his own perceived sinfulness and could never understand how he could attain anything but the wrath from a just God. However, the textbook tells us that in an event known as the experience in the tower Luther came to understand that Gods mercy would grant him salvation. From then on, Luther taught that the removal of sin and bestowing of righteousness could only be obtained by faith in God, or justification by faith. In 1517 Luthers teachings began to take aim at the Church. It started when a friar began selling indulgences to the townspeople of Wittenberg, where Luther was living at the time. Luther witnessed the people of his town be scammed out of their money by the people who were supposed to be helping, by their religious leaders. This event filled Luther with a passionate anger and on October 31, 1517 he issued his most famous work, his ninety-five theses. This work displayed another of Luthers most important teachings, that the Pope only had authority to issue a pardon on the punishments that he had inflicted. For the next twenty years Luther would continue to publish more of his writings, helping him to expand and refine his teachings. He would teach for the rest of his life his most important message, that it was not through good works, the seven sacraments, or an indulgence that one achieved salvation, but through faith alone. Luther also insisted that the Bible was the one and only word of God and that it was the last word on Christianity. He would back up his opinion on this by tirelessly working for years translating the bible into German and trying to make it accessible to all people so that they could read and interpret it for themselves. Finally, Luther incorporated into his new Church only two of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, baptism and the Lords Supper, however he disputed the Churchs claim that the Priest performed a miracle and transubstantiation occurred. John Calvin was also a great teacher of the Reformation. While Luther had already gotten the ball rolling, by the 1530s, Calvin was also making great contributions to the new belief system. Unlike Luther, Calvin was also a great organizer and worked not only at teaching the people his ideas but also at creating a new Church. Calvins teachings paralleled Luthers very much, and, like Luther, he also had a life changing experience he referred to has sudden conversion that set him on the course of religious work for the rest of his life. Like Luther, Calvin strongly believed that it was by faith alone that one could win salvation. He also incorporated only the baptism and Lords Supper into his teachings, tossing aside the other five sacraments of the Catholic Church. However, Calvin also had his own ideas about some aspects of Christianity. For instance, Calvin believed in the idea of predestination. According to the text, unlike Luther, who believed that people could be predestined for salvation, but not for damnation, Calvin made no distinction. Calvin believed that people were predestined by God for both salvation and damnation, and that nothing could be done in ones life to change that fate, but that they should be thankful for Gods just decision regardless. Calvin was also, as said earlier, a great organizer. He spent the last twenty years of his life working day and night to put together his Church. This is another area where Calvin and Luther differed. Where Luther only required that churches accept his teachings of justification by faith and the Bible as the word of God, and allowed them to keep any other traditional Church practices, Calvin was much stricter. Calvin did away with the luxuries of the traditional mass, getting rid of ornaments, singing, and other things he viewed as trivial, in favor more plain and minimal sermon. Calvin also held his followers to a stern code of morals. The textbook tells us that Calvin banned frivolous activities like dancing in favor of constant self-examination. Finally, thanks to his Institutes of the Christian Religion, his written work that he continued refining for the last thirty years of his life, his followers had a place to turn for any questions they might have had relating to religious p ractice and faith. Though the Protestant Reformation saw many great teachers contribute to one of the most significant events in western history, it is clear that Martin Luther and John Calvin left the greatest legacy of any. Today, nearly five hundred years later, we still talk about these men and their involvement in both society and religion. Even though they are no longer here, their work lives on and their ideas continue to find new adherents every day.

Marketing Strategy Essay

Discuss the type of product the company will offer and identify its primary characteristics The type of product the company will offer is a bracelet called Life Alert band. The characteristics of this device are size and the ease of use along with a lifetime guarantee. The Life Alert band is light and portable that no one will even know it’s on his or her wrist. It’s the size of a thick rubber band and comes in different wrist sizes. It has one easy to access button with an emergency icon that only needs to be pushed once to alert the Life Alert call center in the event of an emergency. The bracelet has several hidden sensors that monitor a person’s pulse and blood sugar and wirelessly sends this information to the Life Alert monitoring centers. If a change is detected in any of the monitors the bracelets sends a signal to the centers for immediate action. The Life Alert medical counselors immediately call the patient to see if they are ok. If no response is received they dispatch emergency responders right away. The bracelets uses flash memory to keep the device slim and flexible. It has a flexible band that can bend slightly. The material of the bracelet is a made of hard rubber that protects the electronics and its sensors. The bracelet requires a one-time setup much like a cell phone has to be programmed by Life Alert in order to ensure communication is occurring with their monitoring centers. The device has wifi built in for local communication. Users who have a wireless network can browse directly to the bracelet using a web browser. This gives them access to all the information the bracelet is recording. Discuss the product branding strategy Entrepreneur magazine states that a branding strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand messages. Where you advertise is part of your brand strategy (Enterpreneur, 2011). In this case a brand is name that consumers associate with a device or service. Life Alert has many devices, all which bare its name on it. For example wireless companies such AT&T sell cell phones from different manufactures but all of them have the name AT&T on them and their logo. This goes for any large company that sells multiple products even if the products are manufactured by another company. Another good example is Apple. Apple has mp3 players, desktops, laptops, and other computer peripherals, all have the Apple logo on them. Therefore, the branding approach for the Life Alert bracelet will be the umbrella branding approach. The umbrella approach will help Life Alert in promoting their popular name even further. In a survey taken by ACNielsen International Research, 87% of Life Alert members said that Life Alert’s protection is a main or important factor in their decision to keep living at home rather than going to a retirement institution (lifealert911, 2011). Life Alert members on an average spend 6 more years living alone because of their services. The bracelet will not only enhance their product line but attract more customers. The introduction of this bracelet will increase their customer base and maybe appeal to those who have a serious illness. The bracelet will become the main entity of the product line with Life Alert’s name and logo. Discuss how the product fits within a product line and the depth and breadth of the line. Life Alert’s bracelet is a unique product that has carved a niche in the medical devices industry. It fits into health care products that offer emergency services for monitoring and addressing health related issues. It addresses a void in the industry and aims to support independence in aged adults by providing state of the art monitoring and emergency services. The distinctive aspect of the Life Alert bracelet is that it is both broadens and intensifies in scope in terms of its breadth and depth. It fits well into the product line Life Alert offers. It’s an extension of the current product offerings. Some of the functionality the bracelet offers cross’s over to other product categories. For example the bracelet now becomes competitive with blood glucose meters. Regardless, the bracelet extends the depth and breadth of the company. Explain how the product and target market strategies fit with the organizational strategy. The organizational strategy is based around a few key factors. The company’s business domain is clearly defined and is focused towards Mature 50+ adults who wish to live an independent lifestyle. The factors that are considered are mainly geographical location, age, retirement lifestyle and medical needs. The strategy is effective as it concentrates on a few key product and ervices. Life alert employs niche marketing to devise a product strategy aimed at that targets mature 50+ adults residing mostly in Florida, which is a popular retirement destination, who are currently living a retired lifestyle and desire a degree of independence and who may or may not have specific medical needs. The Life Alert bracelet fits into the organizational strategy for Life Alert. Introducing the bracelet will solidify the stance in the market. The organizational strategy for Life Alert is to be most innovative company in assisting the elderly. Life Alert can take advantage of its existing organizational strategy to support and market the bracelet. The company can further expand its diversified portfolio of services by using its existing infrastructure and the multifaceted use of its core resources. By including and expanding on existing product offerings the company can reduce cost and maximize return on resources. Life alert bracelet can utilize the infrastructure for Life Alert Necklace, security, monitoring and emergency response services with minor additions. All of these services employ the same core organizational set up, which is the monitoring center, which maximizes service offering with minimal investment. The marketing strategy includes Ads in local newspapers or niche publications, Opt-in web sites that make use of keywords to connect with potential customers, direct mail campaigns, as well publicity through Television developed for mature audiences. The bracelet can be incorporated under these existing marketing tools since it’s directed towards the same target audience. The ease of competitors’ entry into Life Alert’s market segment is minimal as the company employs a profitable business model where users pay an initial set-up charge for the systems and the company generates revenues each month through subscription-based monitoring costs. The company also distributes medical alert system to more than 300 resellers and is one of the largest wholesale medical alarm distributors in the nation, with over 200,000 medical alert devices in service. The bracelet can be an adjunct to the existing portfolio and use the same monitoring system and distribution strategies in use. The business strategy also supports innovation and product development and at present only a couple companies offer a medical alarm with two-way voice. With an additional service such as the bracelet the company will be a step ahead of its competitors and can utilize its R&D budget to support the new product. The company’s ability to customize services and marketing different price points for packages will allow customers to use the bracelet with other Life Alert products and services. The new product aligns well with the company’s organizational strategy and the same marketing strategy can be applied towards the Life Alert bracelet.

Impact of Advertisements on Consumers Choice Essay

Bovee and Arens (1994) define advertising as the non-personal communication of information, usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature (about products and services) or ideas by identified sponsor through various media. An advertising medium is the means or conveyance by which sales message is carried to prospective customers. Advertising is many things to people. It promotes and affects our daily lives. At times people view it positively that they might find it entertaining while other advertisements are cursed, insults and deceives it. There are also times where advertisements can mislead consumers buying behaviour. Advertisers work on consumer’s attitude to achieve their goal. Influencing and affecting their buying behaviour. Perhaps advertising is the most obvious venue where the concepts of attitude formation change can be seen in application. Persuasive communications (advertisements) can be transmitted through various media print, (newspapers, magazine, books) audio (radio and telephone) audio visual (television and movies) and electronic (internet and e-mail). Consumerism is here to stay. Tomorrows consumers will be better educated, more affluent and more critical. They will probably be less concerned with status and symbols and be more anxious to get information about the product. Background of the Study Most people may not realize it, but advertising has become pervasive if only by the sheer number of advertisement people are exposed to everyday. While advertisements are generally thought as a way to sell things an underlying element can at times be missed. It is that advertising can influence and change people attitudes and can be a potent form of influence. In fact many people blamed advertisements for encouraging materialism on people because advertisers present their products as a â€Å"must have†. Those who acquire them are depicted as more confident or more popular and this gets people to buy more products. The expression that â€Å"today we live in age of advertising† is so common to hear that it has in fact become almost trite so much that the average man has not bothered to pause even briefly and bring to mind the innumerable benefits it bring to society. The rising level in the standard of living would not have been possible in the absence of advertising. For an individual to make effort to examine an advertisement. It should first and foremost capture the individuals attention. According to Fiske (1995), attention involves the process of encoding where by people take information that is outside of them and represent in their heads. It is interesting to know that while watching the favourite shows in T.V., advertisements seem to be a part of it. Sometimes they even consume more hours than the shoe itself. Nowadays, advertisement seems to rule television and radio being a sponsor on shows because of different advertisements being shown the consumers was being confused about what product to select and use because of how the advertisers promote their product. Advertising can influence buying behaviour patterns. There are also some deep rooted attitudes, practices and values that cannot be changed by advertisements. Advertising is claimed to accomplish the four basic task of: informing, persuading, reminding and changing behaviour. Statement of the Problem 1. What are the different forms of medium used by advertisements? 2. What are the factors that affect buying behaviour of the consumers? 3. How can you measure the effectiveness of an advertisement ? 4. What are the level of effectiveness in the following medium? : a. Radio b. Television c. Print ad(newspapers and magazines) 5. What are the attitudes of the following consumers towards different forms of advertisements? : a. Children (8-12) b. Teenagers(13-19) c. Adults (20-onwards) 6. Are there differences in people attitudes towards advertisements considering the following : a. Educational attainment b. Socio- economic status Significance of the Study Everyone will benefit from this study because everyone is considered as a consumer. There is hardly any person who has no personal idea concerning advertising because it is everywhere. Advertisements have become not only a source of entertainment but also of information. These touch our way of life in infinite variety of forms, some subtle, others obvious and there are those that are even blatant.

Influences of Regionalist Liturature in the 20th century

The late 19th century and early 20th century were periods of rapid growth for America. As there were gold rushes in the West, new farms arising in the Great Plains, and the genesis of new factories in the North, each region developed its own subculture. The culture developed by each of these regions was directly reflected in the Regionalist literary works written at that time. Regionalism is a branch of Realism that includes literary works that focus on characters, dialect, customs, and other features of a specific region. Realism pertains to literary works that describe middle-class life and heavily focuses on character. Realism makes use of plausible, real events and characters. Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and Willa Cather are notable authors stemming from the Realist movement that occurred around the turn of the century. Mark Twain’s â€Å"Corn Pone Opinions† comments on the fickleness of the human mind, using the example of a slave minister. Bret Harte’s â€Å"T he Outcasts of Poker † tells the tale of a gambler and other rabble rousers who were shunned from the Western mining town of Poker , which had recently seen a moral reprise. Willa Cather’s My Antonia narrates the life of Jim Burden, an upper-class boy who grows up on a Blackhawk, Nebraska farm with his immigrant friend, Antonia Shimerda. Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and Willa Cather address Realism and more so Regionalism in their respective works â€Å"Corn Pone Opinions,† â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flats,† and My Antonia. Mark Twain