Faith Verses Orgainized Religion Essay - 1576 Words

In the novel A Portrait of The Artist as Young Man by James Joyce, readers see Stephen go through life with faith, surrounded by others with faith and religious activities. After a while, Steven loses sight of true faith, forgets God and becomes an artist. Compared to â€Å"Portrait†, many skeptics in today’s culture have a mind set that organized religion does more harm than good. Many of these people make persuasive arguments that are or can be conclusive. In some cases they think or say, no matter what domination, a church, which is considered part of the organized religiosity, has too much power or it is filled with politics. Also some make the argument that, rituals take away from God and put emphasis on one’s self. The main†¦show more content†¦Stephen consumed him self with acts and rituals so much that it could be said he lost faith, because his focus was on the wrong thing. Stephen loses his faith; the rituals took him away from God and p ut emphasis on what he wants to be, an artist. The rituals of his religion pushed him to the edge. As Stephen was in the mind-set of sanctification he started to go through the motions. Stephen did everything according to feeling, for example when he felt like he was not saved he repented to gain God’s power. â€Å" A restless feeling of guilt would always be present with him: he would confess and repent and be absolved, confess and repent again and be absolved fruitlessly† (Portrait, pg 109). Stephen was utterly and entirely in control of his own thoughts, he knew at any second he could go back to the way he was. Stephen wanted to be free and express him self for who he was and not who every one wanted him to be. After a long struggle between this ritualistic attitude, he felt tied to the rituals of his religion. Stephen felt like that faith he once had was never truly his to grasp and never to be a reality in his life. His world was centered on a love; hate egocentrism of his late faith. The sermon that was outlined before Stephen repentance could of have something to do with Stephen’s wrong mindset. This sermon was to demonstrate the power that people would have through Jesus Christ, power that Stephen aspired for. â€Å"Further the priest