Introduction
Religious studies and theology study different beliefs concerning the spiritual life, culture, history, conflict, their characteristics, and the expression they have concerning the current society. The relationship between religious study and theology is that religious studies focus on exploring several religions, such as Christianity, Buddhism of Muslim, while theology studies the God the religions worship. Religious studies and theology were practiced at St Francis of Assisi, and Clare had its religious study and theology practiced. The church had its culture, and it interacted with other religions, such as Muslim, for theology (Stouck, 2008). Below is an essay on the culture of Francis and Clare, the relationship between the church and others, and the effect the society has on the Franciscan culture.
Francis and Clare’s Culture and Their Counter-Cultural
Francis had his cultural belief as devotion to God which he expressed by showing love to all God’s creation, including man and animals. Francis showed love to people by caring for the sick and the needy (Stouck, 2008). Saint Francis had its culture described by the virtues they worked under. The virtues included having humility, spreading and advocating for peace, being compassionate to others, practicing modesty, hospitality, and theology.
Clare of Assisi is the television and computer patron and the known founder member of the order of poor ladies, who later became the order of poor Clare’s. From the rule of life, Clare’s culture, together with her sister, was characterized by taking no meat, wearing no shoes, praying, and they were always silent.
St Francis and Clare’s culture was counter-cultural in many different ways. Clare, in most cases, followed and imitated Francis’s culture. Francis’s love for animals made him become a vegetarian, which Clare and her sister imitated too. Francis advised people always to remain humble, which Clare and her sister practiced by remaining silent most of their time. Clare also imitated Francis to the extent that she named alters Francis and Franciscus. Francis also benefited from Clare in that despite him being her spiritual father figure, she encouraged, took good care of, and aided him during his final illness period (Stouck, 2008). The impact their cultures brought to society, especially their fellow Christian, was that many people stopped taking meat, making them lose some cultures such as hunting.
St Francis’ Relationship
With God
The relationship between st Francis and God began after he was saved. Earlier, Francis used to leave a luxurious life. When he heard God’s voice when Francis was sick, God called him to repair the church falling into ruins. He abandoned the life, and instead, he rebuilt his relationship with God and became the patron of the other ecologists. Francis prayed to God all his life to make him a peacemaker wherever he goes, show love in return for hereto having faith, hope, joy in sadness days, and be the source of light in dark times. How Francis worked show God used to answer his prayers, and hence the relationship was mutual. Again, his relationship with the church was good (Stouck, 2008). When he was saved, Francis opened his church which 12 more but from how the church grew and how they accepted all that he told them to be from God, his relationship with them was good, and he never wronged them as the number of the church members kept on increasing day after the other.
With Neighbors
Francis interacted with the neighbors, such as lepers and even those from different religions, such as the Muslims. When he met a leper while in his ministration, he prayed for him without inquiring whether he was a Christian or not. While on a crusade, Francis met a sultan, and even though it’s known that Christians and sultans are known to have interfaith conflict, Francis answered him calmly in the dialogue the two had (Stouck, 2008). From how he treated both the leper and the sultan with respect, love, and honor, he taught people how to treat neighbors, whether a pope or a leper.
With Creation
Francis’s love and devotion were mostly expressed through how he interacted with animals. Due to his love for animals, he rarely used to take the meat to express love, compassion, and mercy by not killing them. From all this and his benevolence towards animals, he became the patron saint for both animals and the environment. in his preaching. He valued animals to the extent that, just like human beings, he preached that animals would be in paradise and enjoy eternal life, too (Stouck, 2008). Francis was bird-depicted, for he saw them as symbols of spiritual growth and freedom.
Franciscan Values’ Effect on Relationship and Relation to World
The main values of Franciscans are benevolence, vision, charity, peace, and selflessness. Francis and care culture and practices have reflected these values in many ways. Francis and Clare show benevolence and love to both people and animals. The two helped the poor and the needy by supporting the children in children’s homes, and Clare founded the Poor Clare’s to support the needy women. Francis showed charity by helping the leper regardless of his religion. He also handled the sultan well despite having interfaith conflicts (Stouck, 2008). All through his reign, Francis spread peace and love.
The lessons learned from st Francis of Assisi are many. one is not to forget your purpose as God’s creature. Francis emphasized that one cannot get anything from the earth after death, but their impacts will be seen ad felt even in their absence. Another lesson from him is to be persistent and not give up easily. Francis always repeated that sanctity is always characterized by suffering. He emphasized that we should not stop despite the trials and experiences but always face the challenges joyfully, just as he did to unite the church with Christ (Stouck, 2008). He used to leave a luxurious life, but he changed after being called by God, and this showed that our past could not describe our future. Instead, the future is in our hands.
Another lesson from the story of St Francis is that it’s okay to be confused. Before going for a crusade, Francis was aware that he would face interfaith battles, but after traveling for two days, he heard God’s voice telling him to go back home. He saved the church back home; hence the lesson is that being confused in life is okay. Despite the life Francis used to leave before he was saved, he fought many battles in prayers, and it was simpler than how he faced his challenges. Francis imitated what Christ used to do, such as fasting and praying to face trials. The last lesson is always to face challenges and enemies peacefully and with love (Stouck, 2008). Despite Christians having a history of war with the Muslims, Francis was very relaxed and peaceful when talking with the Muslims he met during the crusade (Stouck, 2008). Again, he felt that he was supposed to fight him because of the love he always advocated. He never showed anger when talking to the Egyptian sultan.
Conclusion
Clare and Francis counterculture in that Clare always imitated Francis while Francis relied on Clare for support and encouragement. Francis had a good relationship with God, the church, neighbors, and the animals, for he obeyed God and treated all creatures with quality. Francis and Clare’s culture and practices reflected the Franciscan values of benevolence, peace, vision, charity, and selflessness and positively impacted society.
References
Stouck, M.-A. (2008). Medieval saints: A reader. Amazon. Web.