The First Crusade and the Ideas of Crusading Essay -- essays research

Contrary to many commonly held notions about the first crusade, in his book, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading, Jonathan Riley-Smith sets out to explain how the idea of crusading thought evolved in the first crusade. In his book, Riley-Smith sets out five main arguments to show how these ideas of crusading evolved. Firstly, he argues that Pope Urban’s original message was conventional, secondly that a more positive reaction was drawn from the laity (due to the ideas surrounding Jerusalem), thirdly, that the original message of crusading had changed because of the horrible experiences of the first crusaders, fourth, that due to these experiences the crusaders developed their own concept of what a crusade was, and lastly, that these ideas were refined by (religious) writers and turned into an acceptable form of theology. Riley-Smith makes excellent points about the crusade; however, before one can delve directly into his argument, one must first understand the backgro und surrounding the rise of the first crusade. Throughout the ten-century, particularly in France, the world had become an extremely violent place. Feudal Knights were often quarreling over land possession, looting, and looking to lay people to provide them with sustenance . Likewise, the power of these knights and the extent of violence flourished due to the increasingly lacking power and authority of the kings . The Church, in an attempt to halt the violence and anarchy attempted to take control and issued such concepts as â€Å"the Peace of God† . Similarly, at this time other movements for peace by the Church were underway, and one of the commonly held ideas was the need to transform the world to more â€Å"monkish ideals†. From these ideals also sprouted the concept of the laity having â€Å"God-given functions to perform, functions that could include fighting to protect the Church†. Pope Leo IX (1049-1054) is an example of this idea; he often used militia to fight against his opponents. In the early ele venth century, there came a pivotal figure in the ideas of Church sanctioned war, Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085). Pope Gregory was involved in the Investiture Contest, and soon turned to scholars to seek out â€Å"justification for his conviction that violence could be used in defense of the Church and could be authorized by it†. The movements generated by Pope Gregory, as well as the results of the Inve... ...f knighthood. The idea of the crusade, and the affiliated pilgrimage came to be regarded as temporary, adopted, migratory monastic life. Although none of the ideas of Robert, Guibert, and Baldric were new, in fact they were derived from the accounts of those who survived the first crusade, they romanticized the idea of the holy war and knighthood, making it more appealing to the common person, and more morally acceptable in religious circles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Riley-Smith adequately proves his argument that although the idea of crusading was not a new one; the outcome of the first crusade had a direct impact on the ideas surrounding a holy war. His book, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading, is a well developed and coherent argument that is neatly organized and concise, allowing the reader to gain a good understanding of the topic. This book was an excellent choice for first year university students, as it was an easy read, and very easy to identify the main points and arguments of each chapter. Bibliography/Works Cited Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading. The United States of America: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986.

Process of Problem Solving and Decision Making

Teamwork is important to organizations in this entire world nowadays to be successful and to have control in the market. Teamwork is basically defined as problem solving group of people who have a variety of skills and strengths to obtain the most perfect solution. Teamwork is one of the main goals for organizations to make sure that they are on the right track in obtaining their visions. There are many ways that organizations put their contributions in increasing the power of teamwork such as team building where it helps the employees to work in groups rather than individuals. Teamwork will help the organizations in the process of problem solving and decision making where it consists of several process that is cause analysis, creative problem solving, decision making and anticipate and plan. Firstly, find and analyse the cause to configure which errors or problems to be corrected or to be improvised. Teamwork is important in this process where it is more effective where it will save the cost and time in finding the cause to the problem. Each members of the team can concentrate in sectors where there they could possibly find the problem that they are searching. There are methods that practiced in some organizations such as the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) where it believes that the optimum solution only can be found if they discovered the root cause. By having the solution with RCA, it can also be used for identifying the immediately obvious symptoms for the future errors. After the cause of the problems have been discovered, the team can proceed to the next step that is creative problem solving. Creative problem solving is founded by Alex Osborn and Dr. Sidney J. Parnes in the 1950s where they made the process of finding and generating creative solutions to produce great ideas in solving problems. Despite that, to generate more ideas in solving the problems, teamwork is needed because generating many ideas must come from more brains and minds. Brainstorming can be practiced in this process where each of the group members in the team who have personal skills and abilities can give their own ideas and thus more ideas can be generated in solving the problem. These may help in having more alternatives to obtain an optimal solution regarding the problem faced. After the team has acquired a number of solutions, the decision making process will start where the team will now select the best alternatives in solving the problem. Decision making can be defined as an outcome of mental process which will lead to selecting the best solution among other alternatives. In order to obtain the optimal solution, the objectives must be reviewed first and the alternative chosen must be evaluated by those objectives. Moreover, a good decision making is essential for the success of the organization where they usually involve in some issues where it makes decision making difficult such as uncertainty, complexity, high risk consequences and also interpersonal issues. The last step in the process of problem solving and decision making is anticipating and plan to assure success. This is important after the alternative has been chosen because the team must further plan to make sure that the alternative goes well while facing the problem. It is a waste of time in the process of decision making when they do not plan on how to use the alternative effectively. After making plans for the alternative, the team can now anticipate the future effects of the alternative to make sure whether it is successful or not. If it does not work out, the team must fall back to the decision making process where they will choose another best alternative to be used. Last but not least, teamwork is a very useful in the process of problem solving and decision making because it helps much in saving the organization’s time and money as there will be more people can use their own point of view based on their abilities and skills in order to find the root of the problem, generating ideas in finding solutions, making decisions on the ideas and anticipate and plan the chosen ideas. Organizations should implement the mutuality among the members because it is very useful to assure their success and to work effectively although it is essential that team members acquire communication skills and use effective communication channels between one another to help in improving their interaction between one and another.

How Personal Habits Can Help in Assignment Crafting

A paper is due shortly, and you have the blank word document open on your laptop? This is an incredibly frustrating situation to be in. However, there are personal habits you can practice to avoid stress from last minute, frantic assignment writing. There are steps that can be done beforehand and while alleviating the mental anguish of tackling a homework task having the busy schedule of a student. These are some useful personal habits that come in handy when writing a paper. By practicing these, you can help alleviate compounded stress, which will help in assignment crafting and essay production. Take Great Notes in Class Think of taking notes in class as gathering material for your papers. Before you even start doing research, you can just sit down at your laptop with a lot of existing material. Notes are an excellent starting point. What makes notes great though? If you’re a visual person, draw shapes, arrows and pictures when recording material. Write down key terms, underline them, and create lists and charts. If typing is quicker than writing by hand, bring your laptop to class. That way, you can have a notebook or document in front of you when you start your paper assignment. Think Positively Although it may be difficult to be positive when you’re about to spend a lot of time on writing a paper, thinking positively will make the process less difficult, and your attitude will reflect in your writing. The same goes in the opposite direction. The negativity that gives way to stress will ruin the flow of paper writing as well as will make it more difficult to finish the task. Being positive has the ability to make the task at hand feel smaller and more manageable. Stress impairs cognitive function, and your mind needs to run smoothly when approaching a paper writing assignment. Organize Your Work With an assignment due date hanging over your head, being organized makes it more likely that you will have everything you need in order to finish the paper on time. Having the assignment requirements in front of you means you’re less likely to make any mistakes regarding content and structure. Being organized and having notes at your disposal will also help you generate a good plan. Planning a paper may seem intimidating, but organization makes it a breeze. Having all the paperwork you need in one location makes the first step of starting the paper an easy one. You can quickly create an outline that will help work on your assignment and organize your thoughts. Try to shake your habits regarding paper writing. All the above-listed strategies to assignment crafting will help prevent you from struggling to get a paper done the night before it is due and turning in sloppy work the next day. Have your class notes in front of you, tackle the assignment with a positive mindset, organize yourself, and arrive with a plan in mind. All these things will make you realize how simple assignment crafting can be.