Is there a Messianic Secret in Mark Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Is there a Messianic Secret in Mark - Essay Example This miracle is when Jesus heals the twelve year old girl. Everyone thought that this girl was dead, but she arose for Jesus. This miracle could not have been staged because Jesus did not know the man that beseeched him. Jairus was a ruler of a local synagogue.1 This example and other examples show Jesus’ willingness to help people, but his reluctance to have publicised his actions R. Alan Cole suggests Mark wrote of the miracles to show Jesus’ compassion and his authority, but Mark did not give a clear theological reason like the other gospels.2 These miracles could be proof that Jesus was the Messiah. Mark was not secretive about the miracles, but very forthcoming. In the first chapter of Mark, Jesus rebukes a demon and silences him. The silencing of the demons shows that there was information that Jesus did not want his followers to know.3 These actions can be attributed to Jesus, if Mark related the story correctly. Jesus did not want whatever the demon had to say spoken. The power over this demon can prove that Jesus was Messiah. It could be said that the demon was going to expose Jesus, so Jesus shut him up. Another possibility is the demon did say something damning, so Mark related fiction. The latter is doubtful, because if Mark wanted to shroud this incident in secrecy he could have omitted the whole passage. Throughout the gospels, not only Mark, Jesus constantly commands the disciples to remain quiet about his miracles and teachings. Some scholars believe this reason for Jesus’ command to remain silence was because Jesus was the Messiah.4 This theory follows that there was a Messianic Secret, but was it Jesus’ or Mark’s? Why would Jesus not want followers to know he was the Messiah? One preacher explained it this way, by commanding his disciples to stay silent, Jesus was saving the glory and praise for God the Father. Unlike other false prophets who say â€Å"look at me†, Jesus wanted people to worship

Industrial Relation in Australia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Industrial Relation in Australia - Essay Example To understand the transformation, it is useful to briefly dismiss two common explanations for union decline. The first is that unions declined because workers' became more skeptical about them. In fact, attitudes tend to be a mirror image of union strength. When union membership swelled during the 1970s, Australians became more likely to tell pollsters that they thought unions had "too much power", and less likely to agree that unions had been "a good thing for Australia". Correspondingly, as unions waned during the 1990s, the fraction of people who thought that unions had "too much power" or that "Australian would be better off without unions" steadily decreased. Another argument that is sometimes made is that deunionisation was a result of the decline in real wages that took place under the Accord. Yet as David Peetz points out in his book Unions in a Contrary World, this explanation implies that unionization should have declined more during the 1980s (when real wages fell) than th e 1990s (when real wages rose). In fact, the reverse is true - the biggest fall in unionization occurred during the 1990s. The most significant factor in Australian deunionisation has been changes to the legal regime governing unions. Peetz points out that between 1990 and 1995, conservative governments in five out of six states introduced legislation aimed at prohibiting compulsory unionization (banning "closed shops"), encouraging individual bargaining, and making the transition to non-award coverage easier. In the late-1980s, more than half of all union members were required to be a union member as a condition of their employment. In the 1990s, freed from the requirement to belong, large numbers chose to opt out. Unsurprisingly, the unions hit hardest were the ones that were most reliant on compulsory unionism laws. The new regime was locked in place in 1996, when the newly-elected Howard Government virtually abolished compulsory unionism nationwide, and made it more difficult for unions to recruit and strike. The next most important driver of deunionisation has been raising competition. Spurred by microeconomic reforms, tariff cuts, and a revitalized Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the markets for buying most products and services are now substantially more competitive than they were in the 1970s. When firms enjoy a monopoly or oligopoly position, it is easier for them to pay higher wages to their employees. Prices are higher in non-competitive markets, and in the jargon of economics, this generates "rents". These rents are then shared between employers (who enjoy higher profits than they would in a competitive market) and workers (who earn more than in a competitive market). When monopolies are broken down, and markets become more competitive, management has to start cutting costs. This places pressure on management to adopt stronger anti-union tactics in order to reduce the wage bill. The third explanation for falling union density is the growth in