Essay on Our Relationship With the Supernatural Being, Each Other and Self

Our Relationship With the Supernatural Being: The Aeneid

In the Aeneid, the activities of the goddesses and gods, who continuously intercede in human affairs as enemies or partisans, follow the human activities. For instance, Juno possesses an endless stream of resentments against the Trojans (Sellar 314). Aptly, with her voice making a first appearance in the poem, she uses an outrageous tone. Juno is the main barrier to Aeneas' unsuccessful attempts to finding a home. The conflict between the supernatural beings and the manner in which the other gods are forced to take part in the movements of the Trojans portrays that the people of Italy and Greece would "manage to embody the gods physically as well as with a charisma which is visible in normal individuals" (Sellar 328). From this, we see why the gods in the Aeneid fail to obey Jupiter's orders, build conspiracies and are envy. In such a discussion of the relationship between the people and the supreme beings, it is possible to view the culmination of the holy dread of olden days before the gods. Although at the same time, this independence to describe the gods as much as possible to be similar to humans merely stresses how much "everything in history fulfills the orders of destiny" (Sellar 83). Hence, the Aeneid is full of a blend of political and religious relationships between the Virgil and the people who existed in the Augustan Age.

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In the Aeneid, we observe the conflict between the gods and the goddesses as well as how the people indirectly and directly interact with the gods. Even though Venus communicates with his son, portraying their close relationship, the tale contains locations where Aeneas prays to Jupiter to save his people. This scene demonstrates that even though the margin between people and the gods is unclear, humans do recognize the existence and destiny of Jupiter, and hence, Aeneas denotes him as an all-powerful god (Seller 307). Besides discussing the conflicts between the gods, Virgil describes the goddesses' intentions and their plans of getting support from other gods and win over Jupiter. Such ways of explaining certain events and characters aids in depicting the gods not as superior beings that control events from above, but as dynamic protagonists of destiny, who, through their plots and characters control humans.

Our Relationship with Each Other: The New Testament

In the New Testament, there are several instances of the phrase "one another." from reading the Bible stories, we come across Jesus telling his followers to "love one another" (Sang). When referring to the term "each other" the Bible particularly implies a set of instructions or exhortations on how we ought to relate with each other as human beings or God's creation. From Peter and Paul's epistles, the expression "bear one another's burden", conveys how individuals ought to act or form relationships with one another (Sang). The 'each other' phrases in the New Testament discusses the purpose of creating up communities and relationships. We are all created in God's image. He is a Trinitarian God who is three persons in one. Through this, we understand that we are all created to be in a relationship with each other similar to how God the father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Trinity closely relate with each other. The New Testament phrases exist to discuss several circumstances and promote improved interpersonal relations between Christians.

Consequently, in Romans 12:10, we also find phrases such as "be devoted to one another in love" (Sang). When the word of God tells us to love each other, Jesus wants us to establish a whole agape love (God's sacrificial and unconditional love) towards one another. Additionally, the New Testament summarizes the ten commandments in the form of loving God and loving our neighbors (Sang). Loving our neighbors alludes to having a relationship of 'love' to each other.

Nevertheless, this phrase may fail to discuss every circumstance. While it is wide enough to apply, at times, we need a few extra details for diverse status quo in our interactions with others. The New Testament also discusses how to deal with specific relationships which have been broken or taking mitigative measures in avoiding disunity with others and the community in general. God calls us to be of one mind as members of the same body of Christ. Individuals are to have that sole objective of upholding the kingdom of God. If every individual was to adopt similar attitudes of deciding to love and honor others above themselves and the desires of others instead of elevating ourselves over others, could aid in building greater unity and relationships with each other.

Our Relationship with the Self: The Analects

According to the Analects of Confucius, every individual holds a unique place in the society, they fulfill specific duties and follow the rules. Confucius hopes that if humans are aware of their expectations, they ought to behave accordingly. In the Analects, Confuciusportrays the theme of our relationships with the self through the portrayal of a "perfect gentleman" or rather an ideal person. His discussion focuses on what it takes to be an ideal self. Confucius talks of the perfect gentleman as being moral (Eno 2). In his writing, Confucius describes how to create a good relationship with oneself by becoming a gentleman. He believes that through spending the time to find mistakes in other people, one would be in a position to find errors within the self. "The Master claims, it is not other people's mistake to acknowledgeth aptitudes that should concern you, instead its one's failure to appreciate their abilities" (Eno 4). Through discovering mistakes in one's self, an individual would then be in a position to correct them and be a step closer to becoming an ideal person.

Confucius believes that when an individual spends a lot of time with family or friends, they will listen to them and through this, one would puck up traits of becoming an ideal gentleman. "The Master also claims that when you come across a person who is better than us, we ought to start thinking of becoming their equals. When we meet people, who are not as good as us, we should look within and evaluate our self" (Eno 7). An individual should also engage with others to get a better understanding of other beings as well, and through conversations, one can find out what he knows about being the ideal self.

By looking at the framing of the Chinese social bonds and cultural relations which control the society's communicative standards, it is visible that Confuciusmainly impacts the Chinese culture of intrapersonal relationships. The writings of the Confucius' in the Analects has an aim of reforming the individual system in an attempt to produce a republic rooted in a meritocracy. Thus, the Confucius applied the idea of creating a relationship with the self, through acts of self-cultivation, and personal love.

Works Cited

Eno, Robert. "The Analects of Confucius: An online teaching translation." Indiana University-Bloomington (2015).Retrieved from http://www.indiana.edu/~p374/Analects_of_Confucius_%28Eno-2015%29.pdf

Sang, Robert. "4 Themes in The One Another Statements of The New Testament." Drawing on the Word. N. p., 2018. Retrieved from https://drawingontheword.com/the-one-another-statements-new-testament/

Sellar, William Young. The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Virgil. Vol. 1. Clarendon Press, 1883.