History Of Monasticism In World Religions

Monasticism is the lifestyle that was created by monks and nuns. This kind of lifestyle is when a person decides to seclude themselves and devote their life and time to their religion. This is important to realize because this kind of lifestyle has been around for centuries. Many people had decided to become monks and nuns for many different reasons. For example, a person could want to take up the monasticism lifestyle in order to find out their true self. Other reasons men and women would want this kind of lifestyle can include forgiveness of any sins, to get that feel of freedom, or they want to honor their religion as much as they can.

Another reason that a woman would want to live this kind of lifestyle is because they don’t want to live with their husband’s family after their husband had died or they could have not wanted to get married at all. Even though the Christian and Buddhist monasticism study different religions they still maintain some of the same lifestyles. In both the Christian and Buddhist monasticism they didn’t like having the personal distractions. From what I understand they believed these kinds of distractions would cause too many issues and a person wouldn’t be able to focus on themselves.

Also, both types monasticism really believed in setting rules. These kinds of rules were to ensure self-disciplines. These kinds of practices seemed to be very easy to adapt into. This allowed these kinds life style to spread throughout the world. During the 221 B. C. E. -800 C. E. Chinas government was having some trouble, that means that people were looking for new idea to follow. That is why Buddhist Monasticism was traveling so efficiently throughout China. Since Buddhist monasticism was becoming more and more popular this kind of lifestyle played a large influence in Chinas economic and political views.

The spread of Christian monasticism really started to spread when missionary activity really started to become more of a thing. Missionaries really helped with the spread of Christian monasticism because it allowed people who lived in the country but also people who lived in larger towns to see their types of views and ideas this religion had (book). It is important for us as students to really realize how impressive the spread of these types of beliefs acutely were.

Today, all people have to do is to get on a social media to explain what they are trying to tell you. But, back in that era they had to work so much harder to really get people to listen to them. Also, these types of beliefs really shaped the future. As long as we understand what kind of impact they provided it will be a lot easier for us to understand the basis of other religions and movements.