Abstract This paper compares and contrasts two Baptist confessions. The paper discusses the Anabaptist confessions and the American Baptist confessions. This comparison examines the doctrinal differences, the construction and ordinance of these confessions. It then goes on to discuss how the confessions impacted the religious movement.
From the Paper "Comparing and Contrasting Two Baptist Confessions Introduction This paper shall compare and contrast two Baptist confessions. The two Baptist confessions selected for this purpose are the Anabaptist confessions and the American Baptist confessions. Confessions tended to be used to establish protocol, dispel grounds for dispute, and promote correct actions when assessing the faith. This comparison will examine the doctrinal differences, the construction and ordinance of these confessions, and how the confessions impacted the religious movement. The Anabaptist Confessions The Anabaptists dated from the Prereformist and the Reformist periods and strongly resembled the dissenting movement that preceded it; dissenters and Anabaptists alike identified the structure of faith as one that needed to be affirmed and continuously reaffirmed throughout the course of the practitioner's life."
Abstract The paper shows that while the use of psychological interrogation methods is currently permissible by the courts in Canada, Great Britain and the U.S.A., many researchers argue that psychological interrogation is, in essence, no different than blatant coercion. Confession Law has slowly evolved over time alongside the evolution of interrogation methods. The paper discusses how prior to the 18th Century, English Common Law accepted confessions without any restrictions, which allowed confessions extracted through torture to be accepted as viable representations of objective truth. Today, the bottom line on the admissibility of confessions is that they are "typically excluded if elicited by physical violence, by a threat of harm or punishment, by a promise of leniency or immunity from prosecution, or by failure to notify a suspect of his or her constitutional rights to counsel and silence" (Kassin & McNall, 1991). The paper shows that despite these seemingly stringent laws regarding the admissibility of confessions, psychological interrogation methods are adept at circumventing the law, and continue to employ methods that run the risk of eliciting false confessions. This paper reviews the literature on Psychological Interrogation methods, false confessions and the implications of both.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Psychological Interrogation Tactics
Inside the Interrogation Room
Custodial Legal Advice & The Right to Silence
Psychological Interrogation Functioning as Coercion
Police Interrogations and Confessions Communicating Promises and Threats by Pragmatic Implication
False Confessions Occurrence of False Confessions Creation of False Confessions An Empirical Study On Recall
Discourse Study
Interrogative Suggestibility & Delinquent Boys
Psychological Characteristics of False Confessors
Consequences of False Confessions
From the Paper "Interrogation, as defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary, is the act of "questioning; formally and systematically." Interrogations within criminal justice systems are used to gather information relevant to investigations, and more importantly, to elicit confessions from suspects. Methods of interrogation have changed drastically throughout history, but the ultimate goal of obtaining confessions has held constant. While the whips and chains of the past have now exited the western world's interrogation rooms, many scholars argue that today's suspects are still subjected to psychological tortures. Psychological Interrogation is the most recent approach used by law enforcement officials to extract information from suspects."
Tags: applied, brutality, deprivation, police, psychology, sleep, social
This paper reviews an experiment relating to false confessions as conducted and reported by Saul M. Kassin and Katherine L. Kiechel (1996) in the article "The Social Psychology of False Confessions: Compliance, Internalization, and Confabulation".
Abstract This paper examines research about coerced-internalized false confessions, which occur when innocent suspects actually believe that he or she is guilty of the crime; many of which are the result of police interrogation in which deceptive and deceitful practices may be used and accepted by the judicial system. The author points out that the article "The Social Psychology of False Confessions" tested the hypothesis that the presentation of false evidence can lead individuals who are vulnerable to confess to an act, which they did not commit, and, more important, to internalize the confession and perhaps confabulate details in memory consistent with that new belief. The paper relates that the researchers used an experimental method, which the paper describes, and concludes that this experiment was well-executed and well-reported.
From the Paper "There were two independent variables in this experiment. First, the subject's level of vulnerability was manipulated by varying the pace of the task. Therefore, the confederate read at either a fast or slow pace. Second, the experimenters varied the use of false incrimination evidence. The confederates either "witnessed" or acknowledged the mistake or some confederates did not "witness", or see the subject touch the ALT key. The dependent variable was the confessions. Three forms of social influence were evaluated: compliance, internalization, and confabulation. To assess compliance, the experimenter handwrote a confession and asked the subject to sign it. "
Abstract This paper explains that 8% of wrongful convictions are due to forced confessions prompted by the police. The author states that twelve-year-old Stephanie Crowe was found stabbed to death on her bedroom floor in 1998; however, the Crowe family's nightmare had only just started because her 14-year-old brother Michael was coerced by Escondido, California police detectives, who were so desperate for a confession to close this horrific crime that they overlooked crucial evidence, into confessing to the murder. The paper relates that the charges of murder were dropped before trial in February, 1999 after last-minute DNA testing found spots of Stephanie's blood on a sweatshirt worn by a transient man seen in the neighborhood the night of the killing.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Crime
The Investigation
The Transient
Mass of Evidence
Under Suspicion
The Interrogation of Michael Crowe and Joshua Treadway
What Was Wrong With The Interrogation?
Aftermath of the Confessions Preparing for Trial
Forensic Flip-flop
Preview of Evidence
The Richard Tuite theory
The Evidence in the Container
The Hearing
Prosecution's Confidence Enhanced
Defense's Rebuttal
The Crucial Hearing
Groundbreaking Evidence
A Conviction at Last
From the Paper "The detectives interrogating Michael Crowe crossed a clearly and explicitly defined line when they told Michael only by admitting he killed his sister they could help him and by telling him his parents no longer wanted him. According to a Crime Library Article, the police "used lies, false promises, isolation from parents and attorneys, even threats of adult prison and predatory older inmates" as techniques to elicit a confession. The treatment of Michael by detectives was clearly not according to protocol. The interrogation of Michael Crowe was against protocol and clearly was an enormous mistake made by detectives."
Abstract This paper centers its discussion and analysis on St. Augustine's "Confessions," discussing in detail its dominant theme of "salvation as God's grace to humanity". The writer assumes the position that, according to St. Augustine, salvation is the path towards goodness and determines the purpose of humanity in life. The writer discusses in detail, with evidences from the "Confessions," how this thesis is proven in accordance to St Augustine's experiences and eventual conversion to being a Christian. The writer concludes that, ultimately, "Confessions" tells its readers that Salvation is the primary mover, influence, and factor that drive humanity to the path of goodness, whether this is prescribed by Christianity, or by St Augustine himself.
Outline:
Introduction
"Men are born with Sin"
Only God can save humanity from sin through good works
Conclusion
From the Paper "For St Augustine, humanity must not only surrender itself to God's will by acknowledging its inherent sinfulness, but it must also ask for God's mercy for this reason alone (inherent sinfulness of humanity). And because humanity's sinfulness is inherent, every individual on earth is subject to God's will and mercy, in the same way that every individual becomes a sinful individual because of the original sin, and, as posited by St Augustine earlier, by humanity's propensity to commit sins."
"For this section, the thought, "Men are born with Sins" is proven as an inherent and inevitable quality of humanity: it is inherent because humans are born with sin (i.e., the original sin), and it is inevitable because St Augustine believed that humans cannot not commit sins. Thus, in order to absolve the self from this inherent and inevitable nature of humanity's sinfulness, St Augustine recommended seeking God's mercy and following His will."
Abstract This paper explains that St. Augustine underscores his positions and personal views on the Incarnation and the Trinity (Father, Son and the Holy Spirit) in his book "The Confessions" ("Confessions"). In the last three books, Augustine presents a very detailed account of Genesis and the creation of man and his environment by interrelating the work of the Holy Spirit into the act of creation. The paper points out that this book, in which Augustine relates his conversion through his own spiritual journey from hedonist to teacher to bishop to priest, serves as one of the most important and influential works praising God.
From the Paper "In Book Eleven, Augustine contemplates the possibilities that lay in wait upon his death, possibilities that surely would have come to fruition if he had not converted to Christianity, being damnation and eternal punishment at the hands of Satan and his hosts in Hell. In Part 16, Augustine poses the question, "But do I ever pass away? O my soul, commit whatsoever you have to him, for at long last, you are now becoming tired of deceit. Commit to Truth. . . and you will lose nothing. What is decayed will flourish again; your diseases will be healed'."
Tags: conversion, personal development, environment death mother
Abstract This study will discuss the life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau as he examines it in his Confessions and in a way which St. Augustine would understand. The thrust of the study will be the religious component present in Augustine's own Confessions and absent from Rousseau.
From the Paper "This study will discuss the life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau as he examines it in his Confessions and in a way which St. Augustine would understand. The thrust of the study will be the religious component present in Augustine's own Confessions and absent from Rousseau. Augustine would likely have read Rousseau's work, identified with his very human failings and longings, and suggested that the French revolutionary turn to God and Jesus Christ for the solace and serenity he obviously has not found in politics, writing, philosophy, and other wholly earth-bound pursuits.
In the middle of his Confessions, Rousseau stops to assess the first thirty years of his life, and to briefly preview for the reader the next thirty years, drawing a stark comparison between the two periods..."
Abstract This paper discusses the depiction of gender roles in "Beowulf" and by St. Augustine in his "Confessions." The paper argues that pagan gender roles as described in "Beowulf" were different than those prescribed by St. Augustine in his "Confessions," demonstrating that Christian beliefs may have eliminated the "warrior-woman" of ancient times, leaving only the submissive role as a model for women to follow. The paper contains notes about the translation of "Beowulf" at the end.
From the Paper "After six months in Cassiacum, Augustine was baptized in the church of St. John the Baptist in Milan. Then he and his mother started out on a trip to Africa, stopping at Civita Vecchia and at Ostia, where death claimed Monica. Mourning for his mother, Augustine penned the finest pages of his Confessions. Monica was a good mother, but Augustine regretted that, as a young man, he did not follow her example of Christian faith. However, Augustine credited Monica with planting the seeds of faith in his heart. He called his conversion a return to the faith she had instilled in him as a child. "So be fulfilled what my mother desired of me--more richly in the prayers of so many gained for her through these confessions of mine than by my prayers alone" (Confessions, Book IX.13.37)"
Abstract This paper discusses Augustine's explanation in his "Confessions" that man is continuously "scattered" by his own impermanence, and shows that, in Books X and XI of "Confessions", the concept of "scattered humanity" is presented as a condition that is simultaneously undesirable and unavoidable to mankind. Through his discussions of memory, temptation, and time, Augustine portrays the human condition as that of utter temporality, corruptibility, and changeability. The writer explains that Augustine sees man as "divided up in time" by his changeable will and the corruptibility of his concentration. Thus, it is only through God's grace that man can hope to be freed from his temporality to rest within God.
From the Paper "Book X begins with a discussion of memory. Augustine envisions memory as something that is not always present. Things are stored in one's memory but must be thought about and brought forth again out of one's mind. In contrast, for God all things are present at all times. God does not remember things and all things are continuously existent to God. However, within man's memory there is a remembrance of the eternal. There are ideas, according to Augustine, that one can recognize as being self-evidently true. These ideas must then "have been in [man's] mind even before [he] had learned them," simply waiting to be recognized. If man recognizes a self-evident truth, then he is actually assembling the disordered and forgotten pieces of a universal and eternal memory. The universal memory is the root of man's search for God."
Tags: contemplation eternity creation, original sin, distraction joy
Abstract The paper discusses Rousseau's "The Confessions", an autobiographical account of the author's personal experiences and his development as an individual. The paper notes that Rousseau confesses his deeds, both good and bad, his impetuous and passionate thoughts and acts, and his love affairs, with all the incriminatory details. The paper further discusses that the story is not told in repentance but with the rare delight and satisfaction that the artist takes in the aesthetic qualities of his own life. The paper also notes that while the modern reader is struck by the passionate character and intelligence of the narrator, to his contemporaries Rousseau was a controversial and even heretic figure.
From the Paper "This fact is evident in Rousseau's love affairs, all of which are recounted faithfully in his book. His quarrel with religion becomes even more obvious when he confesses that he was inspired by lust and passion when he first became acquainted with the devout Madame de Warrens: "a religion preached by such missionaries must lead to paradise!" It should not be concluded that Rousseau was in any way an atheist, as he himself declares that he was not entirely devoid of religion. His quarrel was not with the Supreme Being as such, but with the over-dogmatic Catholicism that inspired him with a sense of awe because of its idolatry and its blind submission to the dogmas: "I had that particular aversion our city entertains for Catholicism, which is represented there as the most monstrous idolatry, and whose clergy are painted in the blackest colors." Rousseau feels entrapped by the strict code of Catholicism. The witty comparison that he makes between the bells that called him to mass and those that called him to breakfast, i.e. to partake of the pleasures of life, is very telling: "If the bells of the viaticum alarmed me, the chiming for mass or vespers called me to a breakfast, a collation, to the pleasure of regaling on fresh butter, fruits, or milk."
Abstract This paper examines the work "The Confessions of St. Augustine" by Augustine of Hippo, who was the bishop of Hippo in Roman Africa for 35 years, during the time of the decline of Roman civilization on that continent. It discusses how the work is an autobiographical account of his life and how Augustine shows the depth of his religious belief and writes extensively about his own inner turmoil about such events in his life as the time when he was a child and stole pears from a neighbors tree, a crime that haunted him for the rest of his life.
From the Paper "Robert J. O'Connell emphasizes the problem created for readers by the mixture of autobiography and philosophical discussion, especially in trying to reconcile the autobiographical portion of the book, covering Books I-IX, and the final four books. Augustine examines the present state of his soul in Book X. That examination begins, however, with a lengthy discussion of "memory." Some authors see Book X as a later interpolation, but this does not explain how Augustine interprets those parts of the Scripture that he includes. The meaning of the last three books has been argued for centuries, and the implication is that when the meaning is understood, their relationship to the preceding books will be made clear: "The problem of the work's unity may well be one with the problem of its meaning" (O'Connell 6)."
Abstract This paper will discuss the 'confessions' of Saint Augustine, and reveal how original sin plays a large part in his views of human nature. By organizing this study along the text of Augustine, we can relate how this philosophy occurs earlier in Christianity.
A discussion on whether the narrator of a story can be trusted with reference to Homer's "Odyssey", James Hogg's "Private Memoirs" and "Confessions of a Justified Sinner" and the "General Prologue" to Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales".
Abstract This paper considers how given that the simplest definition of "narrator" is probably "one who tells a story", we must ask ourselves two things, how much information does the narrator have access to and how willing is s/he to give all of these facts to the reader. It examines how we assume that the most reliable of narrators is one who knows all the facts and tells them and attempts to show through an analysis of Homer's "Odyssey", James Hogg's "Private Memoirs" and "Confessions of a Justified Sinner" and the "General Prologue" to Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" that unfortunately, it is not quite that simple.
From the Paper "The omniscient narrator is able to fulfill at least the first of the conditions which we suppose make a narrator reliable; he knows all the facts. He is, in effect, the narrator-as-God, and, as such, is the complete antithesis of human narrators who appear as characters story they tell e.g. Telemachus and Odysseus, who narrate parts of The Odyssey for themselves. Human narrators, of course, are subject to human frailties. They can tell us everything they know, but they may not want to - and when they do, they can only tell it as they see it, from their own, unique point of view."
Abstract This paper examines how these two literary works are both thought-provoking accounts of man's relationship with God. While both spiritual journeys recognize the grace of God, each author uses different techniques to guide the reader to make his or her own decisions. The writer relates that, while "The Divine Comedy" is a fictional account with the reader as the intended audience, ?Confessions? is based on Augustine's personal conversion experience and is written not only for the reader, but for God as well.
From the Paper "While Dante reaches the same conclusion as Augustine does, his story is filled with allegories and symbols to prove his point. Perhaps the most vivid descriptions we discover in "The Divine Comedy" are the descriptions of hell in Inferno section of the story. The inclusion of Hell is also a significant difference from Augustine's ?Confessions.? Dante's descent into hell is frightening and filled with suffering. The fact that Hell is divided into sections according to levels of sin illustrates how the poet placed an incredible amount of thought into his work."
An exploration of Thomas De Quincey's preoccupation with the romantic notion of the dual self and the significance of this view in the conflicting narrative voices in "Confessions of an English Opium Eater".
Abstract Through an examination of the interplay between the controlled and impassioned personas, it is ascertained whether De Quincey's portrayal of a divided self in his novel "Confessions of an English Opium Eater", is as clear-cut as the romantic view, or, whether his ego is a rendezvous of indeterminable personas. The meta-narrative repercussions of this interplay on structure, language and authorial perspective is also examined.
From the Paper ""Nietzsche's claim that 'the ego is a rendezvous of persons' (Letwin: 1987: 84) is aptly reiterated by Thomas De Quincey: 'A self-conquest may reasonably be set off in counterbalance to any kind or degree of self-indulgence' (De Quincey: 1998: 2). De Quincey exemplifies a distinctly Romantic approach to the complexities of divided selfhood, a view that originates in Plato's concept of the dual self, 'a rational self battling against the irrational self' (Letwin: 1987: 85). In De Quincey's autobiographical work, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, a tension exists between an impassioned, exaggerated 'self', and an analytical, cohered, 'self', demonstrating an apparent interplay between subjective emotional self and objective creator."
