Beowulf's View On Life And Death

In Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Julius Caesar says “Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once” (Shakespeare and Mason). This view is shared by Beowulf and his men in the Seamus Heaney Translation of the epic poem Beowulf. The warrior mentality which centered on bravery, fame and glory emphasizes the fact that even the lives of the mightiest warriors meets the same fate as the lowliest of cowards. The goal of Beowulf and his men was to achieve many great deeds for which they will be remembered after their death; whereas, the Christian view on life and death is to glorify God in all they do throughout their earthly lives. Beowulf and his men believed immortality could
Believers in Christ take an approach to death which closely resembles this quote by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a Roman Senator who lived in the first century A.D. He said, “The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity” (Mrs. Choleva I don’t know how to cite this.). Our earthly lives reflect but a small portion of eternity. The Christian perspective is that all who know they have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in the resurrection will live on with him in heaven forever. It is not the perception of Christians that their great works on earth will grant them eternal life, but that is not to say works do not play a role in faith. The New International Version (NIV) of the Bible says in James 2:17-18 that “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” For Believers, faith and works go hand in hand; you cannot have one without the other. Christians do not do good works with the hope of being remembered after their death, but because their faith prompts them too. Putting others ahead of oneself plays a quintessential role in the faith professed by believers. Christians serve, or at the very least should serve, out of the goodness of their hearts and out of the yearning to be more like Jesus who served. Works are not a means
Death is in the nature of human beings. It is an inevitable truth which levels the playing field in a sense. Rich and poor, weak and strong, Muslim and Christian all face an unavoidable earthly death at the end of their lives. The rich may be able to delay their fate while the poor cannot, but death is one thing which can be counted on. Earthly immortality cannot be achieved. Even the greatest, most prominent and influential people to ever live are now all simply past tense. They are talked about, some are even taught about in schools; yet these people came to earth as mortals, and they left as mortals. One’s memory can live on after death due to the magnitude of one’s life on earth; but the person himself cannot live on through his works, and that is the key difference. There is but one way to achieve immortality, and it is not through earthly