Report on Religious Field Research Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Report on Religious Field Research - Term Paper Example (Jungman, 2012) During the first 280 years in Christian history, Christianity was ruled out in the Roman Empire and Christians were heavily persecuted. This arbitrary changed after the â€Å"conversion† of the Roman Emperor Constantine. He allowed Christians to worship and made Christianity legal with the Milan’s Edicit in A.D 313. In A.D 325, Constantine summoned the council of Nicaea in an attempt popularize Christianity. Constantine postulated that Christianity would unite the Roman Empire which at that time was fragmenting gradually. This generated positive results towards the development of Christianity at the time. (Jungman, 2012) However Constantine did not fully accept Christianity, instead he mixed some Roman pagan beliefs which are still intact up to date. The impetuous behind Constantine’s action of blending Christianity and Roman paganism was that Christian was a foreign religion and Romans could not have just left their religion and embrace a foreign one fully. Some of the Christianized beliefs include: (i) Cult of Isis was a mother –goddess from Egyptian religion. It was absorbed and harmonized with Christianity and it was replaced by the Virgin Mary. Many titles that were meant for Isis were attached to Mary, i.e., â€Å"Queen of Heaven†, â€Å"Mother of God†, theotokas (â€Å"God –bearer†) among other adoration names. Mary was given supreme positions as the roles far much ahead than the bible ascribes to her. This was done in order to attract the Isis worshippers to Christianity. Failure to do this, any efforts would lead to frustration. (George, 2009) (ii) Mithraism was a renowned religion in the Roman Empire which was practiced in the 5th century A.D .It was popular among the Roman soldiers sand also the Roman Emperors. Mithraism lacked the â€Å"official â€Å"status in the Roman Empire, it was accepted as the de facto official religion not until the Roman Emperors replaced Mithraism w ith Christianity. The key aspects of Mithraism was sacrificial meal (theophagy, eating ones god), sacraments among other conspicuous features. Constantine and the successors found it easy to substitute Mithraism with the Lords supper /Holy Communion which unfortunately prompted some early Christians to attach mysticism to the lords supper, rejecting the biblical idea of remembrance worship and meditation of Christ’s sacrificial death and the blood He shed. (Charles, 1982) (iii) Henoticism is a distinguishing feature of roman pagan religion. It involves believing in the existence of many gods but focuses primarily on one particular god which is considered to be the most superior god. For instance, Jupiter was the supreme Roman god. The Roman sailors normally worshipped Neptune, which was the god of the oceans. Christianization of Roman paganism involved the replacing of Roman gods with saints just as the Roman chain of gods had a god of love, god of peace, god of war, god of s trength among other gods which were claimed to exist(Charles, 1982.) The â€Å"Papacy† that exists in the hierarchy of Catholic Church is a continuation of what was created by the Roman Emperors,

Ebay and Market Entry Challenges Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ebay and Market Entry Challenges - Essay Example eBay maintains the seller platform much like the United States that is set on fixed auction philosophy, which limits real-time discussion with sellers. GMarket is also more innovative in setting up excitement with buyers and sellers, acting as a middleman for various lottery schemes that provide more incentives (Ihlwan, 2006). eBay attempted to simply export in its market entry strategy, using the same business model that had found success in the United States. In a market where GMarket was an innovator creating incentives-based packages, eBay was having a tough time being the dominant auction and selling site of choice. eBay’s fixed price selling concept was considered unfavorable by Chinese customers used to more direct sales tactics between buyer and seller. The use of mobile technology in China is also limited based on distribution of cellular technology and cultural adoption of this modernized selling format. Therefore, the ability to gain more market share through mobile technology sales was limited or eBay (Chan, 2007). Lack of ability to use mobile sales and marketing in this region limited the brand visibility of eBay with potential target markets and thus made it difficult to establish brand loyalty for eBay. The inability to use technology to improve the competitive position of eBay posed significant expansion problems. Pricing was another reason why eBay found difficulty in Asia, where the fixed price auction format made it appear to buyers and sellers that product listing costs were much higher than competition. The ability of sellers to contact customers and the flexibility of GMarket gives the buyer the ability to instantly reduce prices or add certain incentives, which makes eBay look rigid in pricing structures that is a turnoff to the price-sensitive Chinese buyers. Thus, it should be said that place, product, price and promotion were all negatively impacted by competition and the current sales platform being used by eBay. Simply export ing American talent and technology to this market was a poor market entry strategy since the Chinese online sales environment differed culturally than in the United States. It was a mistake to think that Chinese buyers would maintain the same market characteristics and therefore eBay entered this market without adaptable tools to better fit market conditions and buyer/seller attitudes and brand familiarity with other auction and sales competition. eBay simply did not have any quality tools to differentiate the business from competition other than mobile marketing which is not a common sales practice in the Asian markets. References Chan, Isabelle (2007) â€Å"EBay Has Its Eye on Southeast Asia â€Å", 29 Oct 2007, Business Week. Retrieved August 27, 2012 from http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/oct2007/gb20071029_295570.htm Ihlwan, Moon (2006) â€Å"Gmarket eclipses eBay in Asia†, 28 June 2006, Business Week. Retrieved August 27, 2012 from http://www.businessweek. com/globalbiz/content/jun2006 /gb20060628_910393.htm?chan=search RUNNING HEADER: Google and Asian Online Censorship Google and Asian Online Censorship BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE DATE HERE Google and Asian Online Censorship In Asia, Google faced many problems with establishing a market presence and gaining consumer revenues associated with its search engine business. In China, the government censors much of