Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Medieval Religious Institutions

When looking different things up for research paper ideas I came across many different medieval institutions (mainly religious) that are still around today. These institutions came about during the crusading era and in some cases played very large roles in certain conflicts. Two I found that had full fledged websites, membership info, etc. were the Dominicans and The Franciscans. Their respective websites are http://www.op.org/ and http://www.franciscans.org/. I find it very interesting that an institution can have trouble lasting a few years in modern society, but these have lasted for many hundreds of years. It raises the question with me as to why religious ideals can last, when ethical and moral based groups cannot. Those types of groups may change drastically over the years to maintain stability, but the Bible, Koran, etc. are the same book they always have been.

2 comments:

  1. Maybe it is an appeal to an immediate perceived past. People with appropriate ideals can root themselves in the tradition (or what they perceive the tradition) of these organizations to be. This allows for a kind of incremental change with the times within the orders without compromising their underlying ideals.

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  2. There's a lot of these institutions out there. Within Christianity, like you mentioned, there are some very modern ones that have websites and offices. Funnily enough, for a high school project I looked into several of these institutions, and while I don't remember the name I do remember reading up on how one of these institutions had a pledge process, very much like a college fraternity.

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