I have a natural tendency to take a strictly observational approach when learning about or studying anything having to do with religion, but this approach also makes me slightly skeptical of all of the religious stories I read or learn about. Of the various views of Francis’s stigmata that were presented in this paper, I find myself siding with Spoto. I like the fact that he looks at any possible historical influences that occur when people of the time tried to give a description of Francis’s stigmata, and approve of and agree with his suggestion that Francis’ saw his suffering from illness as a parallel to Jesus’ suffering on the Cross, and saw his physical marks from his illness as something similar to Jesus’ Stigmata. It was this intensity that Francis had with his worship of God that allowed him and his followers to honestly believe that Francis had been blessed with the
I have a natural tendency to take a strictly observational approach when learning about or studying anything having to do with religion, but this approach also makes me slightly skeptical of all of the religious stories I read or learn about. Of the various views of Francis’s stigmata that were presented in this paper, I find myself siding with Spoto. I like the fact that he looks at any possible historical influences that occur when people of the time tried to give a description of Francis’s stigmata, and approve of and agree with his suggestion that Francis’ saw his suffering from illness as a parallel to Jesus’ suffering on the Cross, and saw his physical marks from his illness as something similar to Jesus’ Stigmata. It was this intensity that Francis had with his worship of God that allowed him and his followers to honestly believe that Francis had been blessed with the