Master of Arts in Education
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Item Perceived injustice and absurdity the social and moral issues of the selected stories from the Pentateuch(2019-09) Gapasin, Rowell G.Literature is commonly associated with scholars busying themselves with lofty ideas in their ivory towers. It is stereotyped as boring, or a tool for condescension, or even a device for harmful propaganda. Maybe these assumptions are true but there is no room for doubt that literature really is a force - whether beneficent or malevolent - that silently dominates the world in its important affairs such as politics, religion, law, culture, mores, etc. from the moment of iits conception until its future demise. Countless names have been idealized, immortalized and even hallowed through literature - from legendary names such as Romeo and Juliet, Cupid and Psyche, Robin Hood, William Tell, King Arthur and Beowulf; to nonfictional personages such as Jesus Christ, Queen Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Confucius and Siddharta Gautama. These names and all their notable acts have been ingrained within the consciousness of countless peoples in numerous eras, all because of the immortalizing powers of the written art and the prodigious skill of its persuasive author. One of the literature’s infinite potentials also includes the fact that it can present truth and reality in ways that empirical observations cannot. The human mind favors to believe and remember the anecdotal over the empirical. Stories heard are regarded as truer and more convincing, than perceived events. Misconceptions that have survived the tests of time, some even becoming stereotypes, have all existed through literature. Though this maybe a negative feature of literature, it is difficult to deny that it is a priceless avenue in promoting philosophical truths and other ideas and facts worthy of being known, expressed, and preserved. This study sought to reveal the perceived themes of injustice and absurdity in the selected stories of the Pentateuch as reflected in the characters and the plot. Moreover, this study explored on the dynamics of the perceived truth in interpretation that are different from the acknowledged interpretations of the Bible. In turn, this paper had created a propsed theory that can be used in the analysis of ancient texts. The following were the questions that this study had sought to answer: 1. What are the perceived issues in the Pentateuch as revealed in the chosen stories along: a. injustice; and b. absurdity? 2. How are the perceived issues in the Pentateuch reflected through its: a. plot; and b. characters? The following are the major findings of the study: 1. it was discovered in the analysis that injustice and absurdity have been inseparable, almost a single idea, with each other in the text. The issues along these themes are reflected in the characters and the plot. a. The issues along injustice are God’s interference on choice and will, mass-scale destruction and murder, and God’s punishment of the characters for things done by him. 2. The issues of injustice and absurdity had been reflected in the text. Ultimately, it is God’s interference that caused these issues to come to existence and was reflected in the characters and the plot. a. the characters where the issues of injustice and absurdity had interwoven with was God, and by extension: Adam and Eve, Cain, Noah, Ham, the builders of the tower of Babel, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, Jacob, Esau, Moses, the Pharaoh, the Egyptians and the Israelites. b. The issues unveiled in the plot was God’s interference as reflected through: the predetermination of the unborn generations; God’s obstruction of freedom; mass-scale destruction and murder; God’s interference of choice and will; obliging an incapable patriarch to decide for the fate of his progeny; and the punishment the characters from things and events caused by God himself. Based from the findings of the study, the following were concluded: 1. The perceived issues in the Pentateuch along the ever-present themes of injustice and absurdity were: God’s obstruction on choice and freedom; Mass-scale punishment; and God punishing the characters from the acts caused by himself. 2. The perceived issues reflected through the characters and plot proves that creative and critical analysis will always reveal novel angles even to established stories. In relation to the findings and conclusions, the following were recommended: 1. Another study on the justice and absurdity as reflected in the selected stories of the Pentateuch to verify or dispute the findings of this study could be conducted. 2. An additional study on the themes on injustice and absurdity in the characters not yet explored in this study could be explored. Other recommendations: 1. An additional study that refutes this paper’s arguments with the use of deconstructionism may be undertaken. 2. A study on the other sacred texts of other religions that is patterned from this paper’s methods could be performed.