Amish of Pennsylvania and Modern life
‘The Amish are among the most unusual Christian denominations, seemingly frozen in the 19th century.’ by Jack Zavada. The Amish originated from Switzerland in 1693 and descended from the strict teachings of Jacob Amman which led to a split of other Mennonites. Amish communities sprang up in Switzerland, Alsace, Germany, Russia and Holland, but unfortunately there are no more Amish people remaining in Europe. Many of the Amish started to immigrate to North America to avoid the religious persecution and the compulsory military service that was in Europe in the 18th century, and settled in eastern Pennsylvania.
The Old Order Amish of Pennsylvania are a group of people who are unique villagers living a life of ethics, cultural traditions, and family organization which are the three elements of happiness. Observations of these may also lead to the claim that the Amish life is more than just the life of one who deviates from such practices and beliefs, thus showing that justice is within the souls of these settlers.
Wealth, security, and freedom of the Amish are clearly demonstrated through the strict avoidance of any modern technology that can be used for a typical nowadays work. The Amish greatly value family dynamics and the importance of maintaining a close- knit community. Therefore, the use of modern technology for farming fields, traveling long distances, and even entertainment purposes is seen as a sign of weakness among the families. The Amish do not acknowledge electricity, tractors, automobiles, televisions, cell phones, or any form of technology. They believe in working hard to achieve their tasks, even if it is a simple task which could be as simple as cleaning a house or t...
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...ee elements. This can be seen as materialistic goods as well as the desire to minimize work by hiring others are ignored within the community. Our souls however, do not have this balance since the constant craving of materialistic things consumes our everyday thoughts and actions. Our appetites grow stronger by the day, enabling us to realize that we can never be rich enough to possess all the goods we want in life. Our wants seem to be unlimited, meaning that we can never fully reach the wealth, sense of freedom, and internal security that enable the Amish to embrace the highest level of happiness in life. Therefore, based on Plato’s account of the just person, the Amish are seen as people that are more just than we are since they do not possess an internal conflict within their soul, a conflict that has influenced our selfish thoughts and actions for years.
Developed from the Radical Reformation in the 1300’s, a group was formed called the Anabaptists. These Anabaptists were a joint group between the Mennonites, the Hutterites, and the Amish. The Amish people came from a split in the Swiss Mennonites in 1693 when a man named Jacob Amman and his supporters left their church to begin their own. Jacob Amman was born in Switzerland as an Anabaptist in 1644, and is considered the founder of the Amish religion.
The family provides a dense web of social support from cradle to grave. […] Family members help each other during an emergency, a fire or flood, and, of course, at a death”. The Amish community would not have withstood the drastically shifting eras had it not been for their foundation built on solid family and community relationships. Within Amish homes, bonds between siblings, parents and their children, as well as potentially extended families ties including aging grandparents or other relatives, are of utmost importance. Importantly, these interrelationships are not left within the household as the Amish community holds an interconnectedness inclusive to the community that creates an additional support network. This patchwork community of benevolence is not a gift, but a reward. There are expectations and consequences, as the BBC reports “[…] Members are expected to believe the same things and follow the same code of behaviour (called the Ordnung). The purpose of the ordnung is to help the community lead a godly life. […] If a person breaks the rules they may be 'shunned', which means that no-one (including their family) will eat with them or talk to them”. Expectations must be met for an Amish individual to earn and maintain their spot within the community. Despite guidelines wavering depending on each community and their location, the Amish are expected to follow God and seek salvation in a preset and dictated manner. Punishments for breaking the ordnung are strictly enforced and the insubordinate individual is completely excommunicated as a result of their disobedience. Since family connectedness is universally valued amongst Amish communities, if an individual is shunned, they will lose not only their community status but communications will be severed between immediate family members. When applied to education, if prohibited by that particular Ordnung, pursing a higher
The Amish religion was started by Jacob Amman as a Mennonite movement, but was originally part of the protestant Anabaptists. Jacob was trying to restore some of the early practices of the Mennonites but was unsuccessful and ended up creating a new religion. The Amish were then persecuted by the Catholics and protestant Christians when in Europe so they took William Penns offering and move...
Individualism and conformity seem to be the exact opposites of each other, but what if being individual meant conforming to the way of everyone else, and what if conformity was the key to being apart of a community? In the essay by Andrea Fishman “Becoming Literate: A Lesson from the Amish” the author looks at the conformity in the Amish culture in regards to education. However, in the essay by Stuart Ewen “Chosen People” Ewen discusses how mainstream America prides itself on individualism. Both essays explore the complexity of being an individual in societies that thrive on conformity.
In the novel Poor People, written by William T. Vollmann asks random individuals if they believe they are poor and why some people are poor and others rich. With the help of native guides and translators, and in some cases their family members, they describe what they feel. He depicts people residing in poverty with individual interviews from all over earth. Vollmann’s story narrates their own individual lives, the situations that surround them, and their personal responses to his questions. The responses to his questions range from religious beliefs that the individual who is poor is paying for their past sins from a previous life and to the rational answer that they cannot work. The way these individuals live their life while being in poverty
In the Amish world, children are brought up following all Amish family traditions and church traditions. At age 16, Amish teenagers do away with these traditions for several months to several years and go out into the “English”, modern world to experience what life is like outside of the Amish community in a tradition called Rumspringa. The hopes of Rumspringa are that Amish teenagers will see the evil in the modern world and turn back to the Amish church and community and will choose to be baptized into the faith. At this time, the parents of these Amish teenagers choose to overlook the new habits and actions of their children. The Amish parents want the best for their children and feel as though allowing them to party and live wild for a time away from them is the best way to teach their children. The parents have the approach to be hands off and ignore the behavior during Rumspringa. This is not an effective manner of parenting for these teenagers at such an influential time in their lives.
In the 1700s, the Amish settled mainly in the Midwest after fleeing persecution in Germany (Rearick, 2003). They are branched off of Christianity and came shortly after the Protestant Reformation (Weyer, Hustey, Rathbun, Armstrong, Reed, Ronyak, & Savrin, 2003).
Osages. “Osages: Their Character, Manners, and Condition. His First Impressions. Their Actual State. Their Religious Knowledge and Belief. Religious Customs. Portraiture of an Osage." The Religious Intelligencer ...Containing the Principal Transactions of the Various Bible and Missionary Societies, with Particular Accounts of Revivals of Religion (1816-1837) Mar 15 1828: 658. ProQuest. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
The Amish are a traditional community of a protestant and Anabaptist background. They are derived from a group who fled during the Protestant Reformation in
The Amish culture consists of many unique beliefs that makes their ways unlike that of any other culture. They lead a life of simplicity and yet have very harsh ways of doing things. The Amish is perhaps the most diverse culture in the entire United States. The Amish of Pennsylvania and Ohio greatly differ with the rest of American society. "Although the Amish look like they stepped out of the rural nineteenth century, in fact they do change," (Amish Cultures). Their lives move more slowly than ours, but they definitely are not stuck anywhere. They move on slowly but surely. Instead of accepting new technology like the rest of American society, they choose to examine change carefully before they approve of it. If the new idea or gadget does not succeed in keeping their lives simple and their families together, they will most likely reject it. Family is among the most important values the Amish stress. They don't like to let anything break their family ties. The fact that they have lived this way for hundreds of years and not allowed the "modern" world to deter them from their pursuit of their service to God, is truly unbelievable. As mentioned earlier, the Amish do not like anything technologized in fear that it will break the family up. In actuality, they are completely right. If you take a look at an Amish family and compare it to an average American family, you would see major differences. The average American family would be very divided. You'd find the children and parents watching T.V., accessing computers, surfing the internet, playing video games, etc. In the Amish family, everyone would gather together to eat, work, and play. The Amish keep their materials basic. This way they are certain no technological advance can pull them apart. "Old order groups all drive horses and buggies rather than cars, do not have electricity in their homes. Bottled gas is used to operate water heaters, modern stoves and refrigerators. Gas-pressured lanterns and lamps are used to light homes, barns, and shops," (The Amish People 14). The Amish place very large emphasis on humanity, family, community, and separation with the rest of the world. They place value on simplicity and self-denial, whereas, typical Americans cherish comfort, convenience and leisure.
Osage Indians were organized into cosmological principles that defined the dimensions pertaining to the universe. The houses were arranged on each side of the main road to symbolize the underworld and the sky above. In the center of the village, two leaders resided along with the people who were assigned as sky or earth people. The population was split into five groups, referred to as bands. Each band had its own village, maintained by religious leaders called “Little Old Men”. Men and women had to marry outside of their clan and outside of their
The Amish people are recognized to the public as the “best” people in the world. They read and act upon everything the Bible says and not in any way want to cause any harm to other people, but this is a misconception. It is true that the Amish are positive people and believe in the bible with their entire heart, but they are also human and make mistakes like the “English” folk. Whether the mistakes they make are lying or something that is much more dangerous, they do all this quietly and sometimes with no punishment. This is looked down upon in the “English” world because the church and victims should not stay quiet to preserve the Amish name. In the Amish community they know it is a man and woman and
Hesiod’s Theogony and the Babylonian Enuma Elish are both myths that begin as creation myths, explaining how the universe and, later on, humans came to be. These types of myths exist in every culture and, while the account of creation in Hesiod’s Theogony and the Enuma Elish share many similarities, the two myths differ in many ways as well. Both myths begin creation from where the universe is a formless state, from which the primordial gods emerge. The idea of the earth and sky beginning as one and then being separated is also expressed in both myths.
These duties, which vary in accordance with the metal an individual possesses in his soul, are clearly outlined in Plato’s Myth of the Metals. Thus, a just man from the bronze class will possess different characteristics than a just man in the silver or gold classes. Despite these differences, both men may still be considered virtuous human beings. The most virtuous man, however, is an individual who possesses not only the qualities of his own class, but also those of the remaining two classes. For example, an individual from the gold class must certainly have a wise soul. However, if this individual is also appetitive and spirited like the individuals in the bronze and silver classes, then he is a most virtuous and just
In order to understand how unity and harmony tie the ideal state together, one must first understand the coloration of unity with justice. Simply defined justice, according to Plato, is specialization. Each person doing their own craft is what justice entails. However, this definition of justice leads to something larger within the individual and the state. According to Plato, "... we must compel these Guardians and Auxiliaries of ours to second our efforts; and they, and all the rest with them, must be induced to make themselves perfect masters each of his own craft. In that way, as a community grows into a well ordered whole, the several classes may be allowed such measure of happiness as their nature will compass" (P, p. 111). The theory of justice as specialization leads to the happiness of the whole.