In the sense of indicating historical continuity of faith and practice, the term "Catholicism" is at times employed to mark a contrast to Protestantism, which tends to look solely to the Bible as interpreted on the principles of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation as its ultimate standard.[2] It was thus used by the Oxford Movement.[3]
For some, however, such as the priest and theologian Richard McBrien, the term refers exclusively and specifically to that "Communion of Catholic Churches" in communion with the Bishop of Rome.[4] In its Letter on Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stressed that the idea of the universal church as a communion of churches must not be presented as meaning that "every particular Church is a subject complete in itself, and that the universal church is the result of a reciprocal recognition on the part of the particular Churches". It insisted that "the universal Church cannot be conceived as the sum of the particular Churches, or as a federation of particular Churches".[5]
According to McBrien, Catholicism is distinguished from other forms of Christianity in its particular understanding and commitment to tradition, the sacraments, the mediation between God, communion, and the See of Rome.[6] According to Orthodox leaders like Bishop Kallistos Ware, the Orthodox Church has these things as well, though the primacy of the See of Rome is only honorific, showing non-jurisdictional respect for the Bishop of Rome as the "first among equals" and "Patriarch of the West".[7] Catholicism, according to McBrien's paradigm, includes a monastic life, religious institutes, a religious appreciation of the arts, a communal understanding of sin and redemption, and missionary activity.[8]
source: wikipedia
tirsdag den 22. januar 2013
judism
Judaism (from the Latin Iudaismus, derived from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, and ultimately from the Hebrew יהודה, Yehudah, "Judah";[1][2] in Hebrew: יהדות, Yahadut, the distinctive characteristics of the Judean ethnos)[3] is the religion, philosophy and way of life of the Jewish people.[4] A monotheistic religion originating in the Hebrew Bible (also known as the Tanakh) and explored in later texts such as the Talmud, Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenantal relationship God established with the Children of Israel.[5] Rabbinic Judaism holds that God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of both the Written and Oral Torah.[6] Historically, this assertion was challenged by various groups such as the Sadducees and Hellenistic Judaism during the Second Temple period; the Karaites and Sabbateans during the early and later medieval period;[7] and among segments of the modern reform movements. Liberal movements in modern times such as Humanistic Judaism may be nontheistic.[8]
Judaism claims a historical continuity spanning more than 3,000 years. Of the major world religions, Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions.[9][10] The Hebrews / Israelites were already referred to as "Jews" in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title "Children of Israel".[11] Judaism's texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i Faith.[12][13] Many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law.[14]
Jews are an ethnoreligious group[15] and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2010, the world Jewish population was estimated at 13.4 million, or roughly 0.2% of the total world population. About 42% of all Jews reside in Israel and about 42% reside in the United States and Canada, with most of the remainder living in Europe.[16] The largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism (Haredi Judaism and Modern Orthodox Judaism), Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. A major source of difference between these groups is their approach to Jewish law.[17] Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Jewish law are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, and that they should be strictly followed. Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more "traditional" interpretation of Judaism's requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of general guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews.[18][19] Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law; today, these courts still exist but the practice of Judaism is mostly voluntary.[20] Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, but in the sacred texts and rabbis and scholars who interpret them.[21]
source: wikipedia
Judaism claims a historical continuity spanning more than 3,000 years. Of the major world religions, Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions.[9][10] The Hebrews / Israelites were already referred to as "Jews" in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title "Children of Israel".[11] Judaism's texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i Faith.[12][13] Many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law.[14]
Jews are an ethnoreligious group[15] and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2010, the world Jewish population was estimated at 13.4 million, or roughly 0.2% of the total world population. About 42% of all Jews reside in Israel and about 42% reside in the United States and Canada, with most of the remainder living in Europe.[16] The largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism (Haredi Judaism and Modern Orthodox Judaism), Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. A major source of difference between these groups is their approach to Jewish law.[17] Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Jewish law are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, and that they should be strictly followed. Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more "traditional" interpretation of Judaism's requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of general guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews.[18][19] Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law; today, these courts still exist but the practice of Judaism is mostly voluntary.[20] Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, but in the sacred texts and rabbis and scholars who interpret them.[21]
source: wikipedia
jehovahs witness
Jehovah's Witnesses emphasize use of God's biblical name, represented in the original texts by the Tetragrammaton, and in English they prefer to use the name, Jehovah.[150] They believe that Jehovah is the only true God, the creator of all things, and the "Universal Sovereign". They believe that all worship should be directed toward him, and that he is not part of a Trinity;[151] consequently, the religion places more emphasis on God than on Christ.[152][153] They believe that the holy spirit is God's power or "active force" rather than a person.[154]
The Tetragrammaton
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus is God's only direct creation, that everything else was created by means of Christ, and that the initial unassisted act of creation uniquely identifies Jesus as God's "only-begotten Son".[155] Jesus served as a redeemer and a ransom sacrifice to pay for the sins of mankind.[156] They believe Jesus died on a single upright torture stake rather than the traditional cross.[157] They believe that references in the Bible to the Archangel Michael, Abaddon (Apollyon), and the Word all refer to Jesus.[158] Jesus is considered to be the only intercessor and high priest between God and mankind, and appointed by God as the king and judge of his kingdom.[159] His role as a mediator (referred to in 1 Timothy 2:5) is applied to the 'anointed' class, though the 'other sheep' are said to also benefit from the arrangement.[160]
source: wikipedia
source: wikipedia
mormons
Joseph
Smith taught that all existence was material,[333] including a world of "spirit matter" so fine that it was invisible to all but the purest mortal eyes.[334] Matter, in Smith's view, could neither be created nor destroyed;[335] the creation involved only the reorganization of existing matter.[336] Like matter, "intelligence" was co-eternal with God, and human spirits had been drawn from a pre-existent pool of eternal intelligences.[337] Nevertheless, spirits were incapable of experiencing a "fullness of joy" unless joined with corporeal bodies.[338] The work and glory of God was to create worlds across the cosmos where inferior intelligences could be embodied.[339]
Though Smith initially viewed God the Father as a spirit,[340] he eventually began teaching that God was an advanced and glorified man,[341] embodied within time and space.[342] Both God the Father and Jesus were distinct beings with physical bodies, but the Holy Spirit was a "personage of Spirit".[343] Through the gradual acquisition of knowledge,[344] those who received exaltation could eventually become like God.[345] The ability of humans to progress to godhood implied a vast hierarchy of gods,[346] with God himself having a father.[347] Those who became gods would reign, unified in purpose and will, leading inferior intelligences to share immortality and eternal life.[348]
The opportunity to achieve exaltation extended to all humanity; those who died with no opportunity to accept saving ordinances could achieve exaltation by accepting them vicariously in the afterlife through ordinances such as baptism for the dead.[349] Children who died in their innocence were guaranteed to rise at the resurrection and receive exaltation.[350] Apart from those who committed the eternal sin, Smith taught that even the wicked and disbelieving would achieve a degree of glory in the afterlife.[351]
Smith had by some accounts been teaching a polygamy doctrine as early as 1831,[383] and there is evidence that Smith was a polygamist by 1835.[384] Although the church had publicly repudiated polygamy,[385] in 1837 there was a rift between Smith and Oliver Cowdery over the issue.[386] Cowdery suspected that Smith had engaged in a relationship with his serving girl Fanny Alger.[387] Smith never denied a relationship, but insisted it was not adulterous, presumably because he had taken Alger as a plural wife.[388]
In April 1841, Smith wed Louisa Beaman, and during the next two and a half years he may have married or been sealed to 30 additional women,[389] ten of them already married to other men, though this was generally done with the knowledge and consent of their husbands.[390] Ten of Smith's wives were under the age of twenty, while others were widows over fifty.[391] The practice of plural marriage was kept a secret.[392][393]
Polygamy (or plural marriage) caused a breach between Smith and his first wife, Emma.[394] Although Emma knew of some of her husband's marriages, she almost certainly did not know the extent of his polygamous activities.[395] In 1843, Emma temporarily accepted Smith's marriage to four women boarded in the Smith household,[396] but she soon regretted her decision and demanded that the other wives leave.[397] In July, Smith dictated a revelation pressuring Emma to accept plural marriage,[398] but the two were not reconciled until September, after Emma began participating in temple ordinances and received an "endowment".[399][400]
source: wikipedia
Smith taught that all existence was material,[333] including a world of "spirit matter" so fine that it was invisible to all but the purest mortal eyes.[334] Matter, in Smith's view, could neither be created nor destroyed;[335] the creation involved only the reorganization of existing matter.[336] Like matter, "intelligence" was co-eternal with God, and human spirits had been drawn from a pre-existent pool of eternal intelligences.[337] Nevertheless, spirits were incapable of experiencing a "fullness of joy" unless joined with corporeal bodies.[338] The work and glory of God was to create worlds across the cosmos where inferior intelligences could be embodied.[339]
Though Smith initially viewed God the Father as a spirit,[340] he eventually began teaching that God was an advanced and glorified man,[341] embodied within time and space.[342] Both God the Father and Jesus were distinct beings with physical bodies, but the Holy Spirit was a "personage of Spirit".[343] Through the gradual acquisition of knowledge,[344] those who received exaltation could eventually become like God.[345] The ability of humans to progress to godhood implied a vast hierarchy of gods,[346] with God himself having a father.[347] Those who became gods would reign, unified in purpose and will, leading inferior intelligences to share immortality and eternal life.[348]
The opportunity to achieve exaltation extended to all humanity; those who died with no opportunity to accept saving ordinances could achieve exaltation by accepting them vicariously in the afterlife through ordinances such as baptism for the dead.[349] Children who died in their innocence were guaranteed to rise at the resurrection and receive exaltation.[350] Apart from those who committed the eternal sin, Smith taught that even the wicked and disbelieving would achieve a degree of glory in the afterlife.[351]
Smith had by some accounts been teaching a polygamy doctrine as early as 1831,[383] and there is evidence that Smith was a polygamist by 1835.[384] Although the church had publicly repudiated polygamy,[385] in 1837 there was a rift between Smith and Oliver Cowdery over the issue.[386] Cowdery suspected that Smith had engaged in a relationship with his serving girl Fanny Alger.[387] Smith never denied a relationship, but insisted it was not adulterous, presumably because he had taken Alger as a plural wife.[388]
In April 1841, Smith wed Louisa Beaman, and during the next two and a half years he may have married or been sealed to 30 additional women,[389] ten of them already married to other men, though this was generally done with the knowledge and consent of their husbands.[390] Ten of Smith's wives were under the age of twenty, while others were widows over fifty.[391] The practice of plural marriage was kept a secret.[392][393]
Polygamy (or plural marriage) caused a breach between Smith and his first wife, Emma.[394] Although Emma knew of some of her husband's marriages, she almost certainly did not know the extent of his polygamous activities.[395] In 1843, Emma temporarily accepted Smith's marriage to four women boarded in the Smith household,[396] but she soon regretted her decision and demanded that the other wives leave.[397] In July, Smith dictated a revelation pressuring Emma to accept plural marriage,[398] but the two were not reconciled until September, after Emma began participating in temple ordinances and received an "endowment".[399][400]
source: wikipedia
Women in the Roman empire
Freeborn Roman women were considered citizens throughout the Republic and Empire, but did not vote, hold political office, or serve in the military. A mother's citizen status determined that of her children, as indicated by the phrase ex duobus civibus Romanis natos ("children born of two Roman citizens").[89] A Roman woman kept her own family name (nomen) for life. Children most often took the father's name, but in the Imperial period sometimes made their mother's name part of theirs, or even used it instead.[90]
Bronze statuette (1st century AD) of a young woman reading
The archaic form of manus marriage in which the woman had been subject to her husband's authority was largely abandoned by the Imperial era, and a married woman retained ownership of any property she brought into the marriage. Technically she remained under her father's legal authority, even though she moved into her husband's home, but when her father died she became legally emancipated.[91] This arrangement was one of the factors in the degree of independence Roman women enjoyed relative to those of many other ancient cultures and up to the modern period:[92] although she had to answer to her father in legal matters, she was free of his direct scrutiny in her daily life,[93] and her husband had no legal power over her.[94] Although it was a point of pride to be a "one-man woman" (univira) who had married only once, there was little stigma attached to divorce, nor to speedy remarriage after the loss of a husband through death or divorce.[95]
Girls had equal inheritance rights with boys if their father died without leaving a will.[96] A Roman mother's right to own property and to dispose of it as she saw fit, including setting the terms of her own will, gave her enormous influence over her sons even when they were adults.[97]
As part of the Augustan programme to restore traditional morality and social order, moral legislation attempted to regulate the conduct of women as a means of promoting "family values". Adultery, which had been a private family matter under the Republic, was criminalized,[98] and defined broadly as an illicit sex act (stuprum) that occurred between a male citizen and a married woman, or between a married woman and any man other than her husband.[99] Childbearing was encouraged by the state: a woman who had given birth to three children was granted symbolic honors and greater legal freedom (the ius trium liberorum).
Because of their legal status as citizens and the degree to which they could become emancipated, women could own property, enter contracts, and engage in business,[100] including shipping, manufacturing, and lending money. Inscriptions throughout the Empire honor women as benefactors in funding public works, an indication they could acquire and dispose of considerable fortunes; for instance, the Arch of the Sergii was funded by Salvia Postuma, a female member of the family honored, and the largest building in the forum at Pompeii was funded by Eumachia, a priestess of Venus.[101]
Source: wikipedia
Girls had equal inheritance rights with boys if their father died without leaving a will.[96] A Roman mother's right to own property and to dispose of it as she saw fit, including setting the terms of her own will, gave her enormous influence over her sons even when they were adults.[97]
As part of the Augustan programme to restore traditional morality and social order, moral legislation attempted to regulate the conduct of women as a means of promoting "family values". Adultery, which had been a private family matter under the Republic, was criminalized,[98] and defined broadly as an illicit sex act (stuprum) that occurred between a male citizen and a married woman, or between a married woman and any man other than her husband.[99] Childbearing was encouraged by the state: a woman who had given birth to three children was granted symbolic honors and greater legal freedom (the ius trium liberorum).
Because of their legal status as citizens and the degree to which they could become emancipated, women could own property, enter contracts, and engage in business,[100] including shipping, manufacturing, and lending money. Inscriptions throughout the Empire honor women as benefactors in funding public works, an indication they could acquire and dispose of considerable fortunes; for instance, the Arch of the Sergii was funded by Salvia Postuma, a female member of the family honored, and the largest building in the forum at Pompeii was funded by Eumachia, a priestess of Venus.[101]
Source: wikipedia
roman empire 2
Rome had begun annexing provinces in the 3rd century BC, four centuries before reaching its greatest territorial extent, and in that sense was an "empire" while still governed as a republic.[9] Republican provinces were administered by former consuls and praetors, who had been elected to one-year terms and held imperium, "right of command".[10] The amassing of disproportionate wealth and military power by a few men through their provincial commands was a major factor in the transition from republic to imperial autocracy.[11] Later, the position of power held by the emperor was expressed as imperium.[12] The Latin word is the origin of English "empire," a meaning it began to acquire only later in Rome's history.[13]
The Augustus of Prima Porta (early 1st century AD)
As the first emperor, Augustus took the official position that he had saved the Republic, and carefully framed his powers within republican constitutional principles. He rejected titles that Romans associated with monarchy, and instead referred to himself as the princeps, "leading citizen". Consuls continued to be elected, tribunes of the people continued to put forth legislation, and senators still debated in the curia. It was Augustus, however, who established the precedent that the emperor controlled the final decisions, backed up by military force.
The reign of Augustus, lasting more than 40 years, was portrayed in Augustan literature and art as a new "Golden Age." Augustus laid out an enduring ideological foundation for the three centuries of the Empire known as the Principate (27 BC–284 AD), the first 200 years of which is traditionally regarded as the Pax Romana. During this period, the cohesion of the Empire was furthered by participation in civic life, economic ties, and shared cultural, legal and religious norms. Uprisings in the provinces were infrequent, but put down "mercilessly and swiftly" when they occurred,[14] as in Britain and Gaul. The sixty years of Jewish–Roman wars in the first half of the 2nd century were exceptional in their duration and violence.[15]
The success of Augustus in establishing principles of dynastic succession was limited by his outliving a number of talented potential heirs: the Julio-Claudian dynasty lasted for four more emperors—Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero—before it yielded in 69 AD to the strife-torn Year of Four Emperors, from which Vespasian emerged as victor.
Vespasian became the founder of the brief Flavian dynasty, to be followed by the Nerva–Antonine dynasty which produced the "Five Good Emperors": Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and the philosophically inclined Marcus Aurelius. In the view of the Greek historian Dio Cassius, a contemporary observer, the accession of the emperor Commodus in 180 AD marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of rust and iron"[16]—a famous comment which has led some historians, notably Edward Gibbon, to take Commodus' reign as the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire.
In 212, during the reign of Caracalla, Roman citizenship was granted to all freeborn inhabitants of the Empire. But despite this gesture of universality, the Severan dynasty was tumultuous—an emperor's reign was ended routinely by his murder or execution—and following its collapse, the Roman Empire was engulfed by the Crisis of the Third Century, a period of invasions, civil strife, economic depression, and plague.[17] In defining historical epochs, this crisis is sometimes viewed as marking the transition from Classical Antiquity to Late Antiquity. The emaciated illusion of the old Republic was sacrificed for the sake of imposing order: Diocletian (reigned 284–305) brought the Empire back from the brink, but declined the role of princeps and became the first emperor to be addressed regularly as dominus, "master" or "lord".[18] The state of autocratic absolutism that resulted is the Dominate, which endured till the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. Diocletian's reign also brought the Empire's most concerted effort against the perceived threat of Christianity, the "Great" Persecution.
The unity of the Roman Empire was from this point a fiction, as graphically revealed by Diocletian's division of authority among four "co-emperors", the Tetrarchy.[19] Order was shaken again soon after, but was restored by Constantine, who became the first emperor to convert to Christianity, and who established Constantinople as the new capital of the eastern empire. During the decades of the Constantinian and Valentinian dynasties, the Empire was divided along an east-west axis, with dual power centres in Constantinople and Rome. The reign of Julian, who attempted to restore Classical Roman and Hellenistic religion, only briefly interrupted the succession of Christian emperors. Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule over both East and West, died in 395 AD after making Christianity the official state religion.[20]
Beginning in the late 4th century, the Empire began to disintegrate as barbarians from the north overwhelmed the control of Christian Rome. Most chronologies place the end of the Western empire in 476, when Romulus Augustus was forced to abdicate to the Germanic warlord Odoacer.[21] The empire in the East—known today as the Byzantine Empire, but referred to in its time as the "Roman Empire" or by various other names—ended in 1453 with the death of Constantine XI and the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks.[22]
Source: wikipedia
The reign of Augustus, lasting more than 40 years, was portrayed in Augustan literature and art as a new "Golden Age." Augustus laid out an enduring ideological foundation for the three centuries of the Empire known as the Principate (27 BC–284 AD), the first 200 years of which is traditionally regarded as the Pax Romana. During this period, the cohesion of the Empire was furthered by participation in civic life, economic ties, and shared cultural, legal and religious norms. Uprisings in the provinces were infrequent, but put down "mercilessly and swiftly" when they occurred,[14] as in Britain and Gaul. The sixty years of Jewish–Roman wars in the first half of the 2nd century were exceptional in their duration and violence.[15]
The success of Augustus in establishing principles of dynastic succession was limited by his outliving a number of talented potential heirs: the Julio-Claudian dynasty lasted for four more emperors—Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero—before it yielded in 69 AD to the strife-torn Year of Four Emperors, from which Vespasian emerged as victor.
Vespasian became the founder of the brief Flavian dynasty, to be followed by the Nerva–Antonine dynasty which produced the "Five Good Emperors": Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and the philosophically inclined Marcus Aurelius. In the view of the Greek historian Dio Cassius, a contemporary observer, the accession of the emperor Commodus in 180 AD marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of rust and iron"[16]—a famous comment which has led some historians, notably Edward Gibbon, to take Commodus' reign as the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire.
In 212, during the reign of Caracalla, Roman citizenship was granted to all freeborn inhabitants of the Empire. But despite this gesture of universality, the Severan dynasty was tumultuous—an emperor's reign was ended routinely by his murder or execution—and following its collapse, the Roman Empire was engulfed by the Crisis of the Third Century, a period of invasions, civil strife, economic depression, and plague.[17] In defining historical epochs, this crisis is sometimes viewed as marking the transition from Classical Antiquity to Late Antiquity. The emaciated illusion of the old Republic was sacrificed for the sake of imposing order: Diocletian (reigned 284–305) brought the Empire back from the brink, but declined the role of princeps and became the first emperor to be addressed regularly as dominus, "master" or "lord".[18] The state of autocratic absolutism that resulted is the Dominate, which endured till the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. Diocletian's reign also brought the Empire's most concerted effort against the perceived threat of Christianity, the "Great" Persecution.
The unity of the Roman Empire was from this point a fiction, as graphically revealed by Diocletian's division of authority among four "co-emperors", the Tetrarchy.[19] Order was shaken again soon after, but was restored by Constantine, who became the first emperor to convert to Christianity, and who established Constantinople as the new capital of the eastern empire. During the decades of the Constantinian and Valentinian dynasties, the Empire was divided along an east-west axis, with dual power centres in Constantinople and Rome. The reign of Julian, who attempted to restore Classical Roman and Hellenistic religion, only briefly interrupted the succession of Christian emperors. Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule over both East and West, died in 395 AD after making Christianity the official state religion.[20]
Beginning in the late 4th century, the Empire began to disintegrate as barbarians from the north overwhelmed the control of Christian Rome. Most chronologies place the end of the Western empire in 476, when Romulus Augustus was forced to abdicate to the Germanic warlord Odoacer.[21] The empire in the East—known today as the Byzantine Empire, but referred to in its time as the "Roman Empire" or by various other names—ended in 1453 with the death of Constantine XI and the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks.[22]
Source: wikipedia
Roman empire
The Roman Empire (Latin: Imperium Romanum) was the post-Republican period of ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean in Europe, Africa, and Asia.[7] The 500-year-old Roman Republic, which preceded it, had been destabilized through a series of civil wars. Several events marked the transition from Republic to Empire, including Julius Caesar's appointment as perpetual dictator (44 BC); the Battle of Actium (2 September 31 BC); and the granting of the honorific Augustus to Octavian by the Roman Senate (16 January 27 BC).
The first two centuries of the Empire were a period of unprecedented stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana ("Roman Peace").[8] It reached its greatest expanse during the reign of Trajan (98–117 AD). In the 3rd century, the Empire underwent a crisis that threatened its existence, but was reunified and stabilized under the emperors Aurelian and Diocletian. Christians rose to power in the 4th century, during which time a system of dual rule was developed in the Latin West and Greek East. After the collapse of central government in the West in the 5th century, the eastern half continued as what would later be known as the Byzantine Empire.
Because of the Empire's vast extent and long endurance, the institutions and culture of Rome had a profound and lasting influence on the development of language, religion, architecture, philosophy, law, and forms of government in the territory it governed, particularly Europe, and by means of European expansionism throughout the modern world.
Source: wikipedia
The first two centuries of the Empire were a period of unprecedented stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana ("Roman Peace").[8] It reached its greatest expanse during the reign of Trajan (98–117 AD). In the 3rd century, the Empire underwent a crisis that threatened its existence, but was reunified and stabilized under the emperors Aurelian and Diocletian. Christians rose to power in the 4th century, during which time a system of dual rule was developed in the Latin West and Greek East. After the collapse of central government in the West in the 5th century, the eastern half continued as what would later be known as the Byzantine Empire.
Because of the Empire's vast extent and long endurance, the institutions and culture of Rome had a profound and lasting influence on the development of language, religion, architecture, philosophy, law, and forms of government in the territory it governed, particularly Europe, and by means of European expansionism throughout the modern world.
Source: wikipedia
Biomass is biological material from living, or recently living organisms, most often referring to plants or plant-derived materials.[1] As a renewable energy source, biomass can either be used directly, or indirectly—once or converted into another type of energy product such as biofuel. Biomass can be converted to energy in three ways: thermal conversion, chemical conversion, and biochemical conversion.
Historically, humans have harnessed biomass derived energy products since the time when people began burning wood to make fire.[2] In modern times, the term can be referred to in two meanings. In the first sense, biomass is plant matter used either to generate electricity (via steam turbines or gasifiers), or to produce heat (via direct combustion). Wood remains the largest biomass energy source today;[2] examples include forest residues (such as dead trees, branches and tree stumps), yard clippings, wood chips and even municipal solid waste. In the second sense, biomass includes plant or animal matter that can be converted into fibers or other industrial chemicals, including biofuels. Industrial biomass can be grown from numerous types of plants, including miscanthus, switchgrass, hemp, corn, poplar, willow, sorghum, sugarcane, bamboo,[3] and a variety of tree species, ranging from eucalyptus to oil palm (palm oil).
The adoption of biomass-based energy plants has been a slow but steady process. Over the past decade, the production of these plants has increased 14%.[4] In the United States, alternative electricity-production sources on the whole generate about 13% of power; of this fraction, biomass contributes approximately 11% of the alternative production.[5] According to a study conducted in early 2012, of the 107 operating biomass plants in the United States, 85 have been cited by federal or state regulators for the violation of clean air or water standards laws over the past 5 years. This data also includes minor infractions.[4]
Biomass mass derived energy also holds the promise of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, a significant contributor to global warming, carbon dioxide acts as a “greenhouse” gas by trapping heat absorbed by the earth from the sun. Although the burning of biomass energy releases as much carbon dioxide as fossil fuels, biomass burning does not release “new carbon” into the atmosphere while burning fossil fuels does.[6] This is because carbon dioxide released from fossil fuels was carbon that was fixated via photosynthesis millions of years ago that had been locked in the hydrocarbons of fossil fuels.[6]
Industry professionals claim that a range of issues can affect a plant’s ability to comply with emissions standards. Some of these challenges, unique to biomass plants, include inconsistent fuel supplies and age. The type and amount of the fuel supply is completely reliant factors; the fuel can be in the form of building debris or agricultural waste (such as deforestation of invasive species or orchard trimmings). Furthermore, many of the biomass plants are old, use outdated technology and were not built to comply with today’s stringent standards. In fact, many are based on technologies developed during the term of President Jimmy Carter, who created the Department of Energy in 1977.[2]
The Energy Information Administration projected that by 2017, biomass is expected to be about twice as expensive as natural gas, slightly more expensive than nuclear power, and much less expensive than solar panels.[7] In another EIA study released, concerning the government’s plan to implement a 25% renewable energy standard by 2025, the agency assumed that 598 million tons of biomass would be available, accounting for 12% of the renewable energy in the plan.[8]
Source: wikipedia
Historically, humans have harnessed biomass derived energy products since the time when people began burning wood to make fire.[2] In modern times, the term can be referred to in two meanings. In the first sense, biomass is plant matter used either to generate electricity (via steam turbines or gasifiers), or to produce heat (via direct combustion). Wood remains the largest biomass energy source today;[2] examples include forest residues (such as dead trees, branches and tree stumps), yard clippings, wood chips and even municipal solid waste. In the second sense, biomass includes plant or animal matter that can be converted into fibers or other industrial chemicals, including biofuels. Industrial biomass can be grown from numerous types of plants, including miscanthus, switchgrass, hemp, corn, poplar, willow, sorghum, sugarcane, bamboo,[3] and a variety of tree species, ranging from eucalyptus to oil palm (palm oil).
The adoption of biomass-based energy plants has been a slow but steady process. Over the past decade, the production of these plants has increased 14%.[4] In the United States, alternative electricity-production sources on the whole generate about 13% of power; of this fraction, biomass contributes approximately 11% of the alternative production.[5] According to a study conducted in early 2012, of the 107 operating biomass plants in the United States, 85 have been cited by federal or state regulators for the violation of clean air or water standards laws over the past 5 years. This data also includes minor infractions.[4]
Biomass mass derived energy also holds the promise of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, a significant contributor to global warming, carbon dioxide acts as a “greenhouse” gas by trapping heat absorbed by the earth from the sun. Although the burning of biomass energy releases as much carbon dioxide as fossil fuels, biomass burning does not release “new carbon” into the atmosphere while burning fossil fuels does.[6] This is because carbon dioxide released from fossil fuels was carbon that was fixated via photosynthesis millions of years ago that had been locked in the hydrocarbons of fossil fuels.[6]
Industry professionals claim that a range of issues can affect a plant’s ability to comply with emissions standards. Some of these challenges, unique to biomass plants, include inconsistent fuel supplies and age. The type and amount of the fuel supply is completely reliant factors; the fuel can be in the form of building debris or agricultural waste (such as deforestation of invasive species or orchard trimmings). Furthermore, many of the biomass plants are old, use outdated technology and were not built to comply with today’s stringent standards. In fact, many are based on technologies developed during the term of President Jimmy Carter, who created the Department of Energy in 1977.[2]
The Energy Information Administration projected that by 2017, biomass is expected to be about twice as expensive as natural gas, slightly more expensive than nuclear power, and much less expensive than solar panels.[7] In another EIA study released, concerning the government’s plan to implement a 25% renewable energy standard by 2025, the agency assumed that 598 million tons of biomass would be available, accounting for 12% of the renewable energy in the plan.[8]
Source: wikipedia
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