Timothy Larsen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199287871
- eISBN:
- 9780191713422
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287871.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
John Henry Gordon wrote for G. J. Holyoake’s Reasoner. Gordon became the first full-time Secularist lecturer in Britain when he was appointed by the Leeds Secular Society. After a dramatic ...
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John Henry Gordon wrote for G. J. Holyoake’s Reasoner. Gordon became the first full-time Secularist lecturer in Britain when he was appointed by the Leeds Secular Society. After a dramatic reconversion, he eventually became a Baptist minister and a lecturer in favour of disestablishment for the Liberation Society.Less
John Henry Gordon wrote for G. J. Holyoake’s Reasoner. Gordon became the first full-time Secularist lecturer in Britain when he was appointed by the Leeds Secular Society. After a dramatic reconversion, he eventually became a Baptist minister and a lecturer in favour of disestablishment for the Liberation Society.
Timothy Larsen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199287871
- eISBN:
- 9780191713422
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287871.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
John Bagnall Bebbington, in addition to writing and lecturing in favour of Secularism, was also a patron of freethinking endeavours. He was the chairman of the Temple Secular Society and the editor ...
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John Bagnall Bebbington, in addition to writing and lecturing in favour of Secularism, was also a patron of freethinking endeavours. He was the chairman of the Temple Secular Society and the editor of the Propagandist. He was particularly influenced by the thought of David Hume. He gave the reasons for his reconversion in Why I Was An Atheist and Why I Am Now A Christian.Less
John Bagnall Bebbington, in addition to writing and lecturing in favour of Secularism, was also a patron of freethinking endeavours. He was the chairman of the Temple Secular Society and the editor of the Propagandist. He was particularly influenced by the thought of David Hume. He gave the reasons for his reconversion in Why I Was An Atheist and Why I Am Now A Christian.
Benjamin Harshav
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520079588
- eISBN:
- 9780520912960
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520079588.003.0020
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
The Jewish Secular Polysystem that arose in Eastern Europe had the character of an almost-State. Indeed, in the crowded Jewish communities or city quarters, the population lived within such a Jewish ...
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The Jewish Secular Polysystem that arose in Eastern Europe had the character of an almost-State. Indeed, in the crowded Jewish communities or city quarters, the population lived within such a Jewish quasi-State; but when the Jewish population moved from the shtetl to the big city and scattered overseas, there was nothing to hold the package tightly together in the territory of other languages and nations. The Jews' affiliation and “identity” were no longer automatic as they were for a member of a “normal” ethnic group, for whom dwelling in his own land and affiliation with a linguistic and religious entity are self-evident. Under these conditions—without a State, a political framework, or an exclusive and continuous territorial base—decisive importance was accorded to unifying forces that would motivate the individual to take part more than casually in various institutions of the intrinsic polysystem.Less
The Jewish Secular Polysystem that arose in Eastern Europe had the character of an almost-State. Indeed, in the crowded Jewish communities or city quarters, the population lived within such a Jewish quasi-State; but when the Jewish population moved from the shtetl to the big city and scattered overseas, there was nothing to hold the package tightly together in the territory of other languages and nations. The Jews' affiliation and “identity” were no longer automatic as they were for a member of a “normal” ethnic group, for whom dwelling in his own land and affiliation with a linguistic and religious entity are self-evident. Under these conditions—without a State, a political framework, or an exclusive and continuous territorial base—decisive importance was accorded to unifying forces that would motivate the individual to take part more than casually in various institutions of the intrinsic polysystem.
Robert Tobin
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199641567
- eISBN:
- 9780191738418
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199641567.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter posits an overlapping sense of alienation among Southern Protestants and Irish intellectuals during the 1930s and 1940s, as both groups found themselves out of step with the pieties of ...
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This chapter posits an overlapping sense of alienation among Southern Protestants and Irish intellectuals during the 1930s and 1940s, as both groups found themselves out of step with the pieties of the Catholic nationalist culture predominant at the time. It identifies secular Catholic intellectuals Seán O'Faoláin and Owen Sheehy Skeffington as central figures in Irish society and the importance of the journal The Bell. It evaluates Butler's attempts to frame his notions of communal belonging in philosophical terms, placing his writings in the context of his own wide reading, the ideas of George W. Russell, and the influence of Catholic Vocationalism in 1930s Ireland. It introduces his fascination with various social utopian experiments from history, analyses his attitude to his own Christian inheritance, and evaluates his essentially secular brand of Protestantism. It notes the evolution of traditionally Protestant institutions such as the Irish Times and Trinity College Dublin in accommodating social change.Less
This chapter posits an overlapping sense of alienation among Southern Protestants and Irish intellectuals during the 1930s and 1940s, as both groups found themselves out of step with the pieties of the Catholic nationalist culture predominant at the time. It identifies secular Catholic intellectuals Seán O'Faoláin and Owen Sheehy Skeffington as central figures in Irish society and the importance of the journal The Bell. It evaluates Butler's attempts to frame his notions of communal belonging in philosophical terms, placing his writings in the context of his own wide reading, the ideas of George W. Russell, and the influence of Catholic Vocationalism in 1930s Ireland. It introduces his fascination with various social utopian experiments from history, analyses his attitude to his own Christian inheritance, and evaluates his essentially secular brand of Protestantism. It notes the evolution of traditionally Protestant institutions such as the Irish Times and Trinity College Dublin in accommodating social change.
Lauren Shohet
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199295890
- eISBN:
- 9780191594311
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199295890.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
Chapter 5 traces masques' representations of political alternatives throughout the seventeenth century, masques' prominently varied epistemological investments, and their deployment in creating an ...
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Chapter 5 traces masques' representations of political alternatives throughout the seventeenth century, masques' prominently varied epistemological investments, and their deployment in creating an adaptive theatrical history that spans the full century. Self‐consciously inheriting both the elite dramatic tradition of the court masque and more popular traditions associated with other kinds of masquing, the seventeenth‐century masque engages multiple aspects of public culture. Case studies in masques that taxonomize political alternatives include Campion's royal Caversham entertainment, Middleton and Rowley's public The World Tossed at Tennis, Thomas Jordan's Interregnum Fancy's Festivals, and Anthony Sadler's Restoration Subjects Joy. Case studies exploring how masque sponsors epistemological reflection include Milton's Ludlow masque Comus, Kynaston's Corona Minervae, Nabbes's Microcosmus, and John Sadler's Mascarade du ciel. The chapter closes by tracing how masques, and masque adaptations of earlier plays, attempt to construct an account of English theater across the Stuart, Interregnum, and Restoration eras, when masques persist as a distinctively English form of early opera. Case studies here include Jonson (The Masque of Augurs), Shirley (Cupid and Death, The Triumph of Beauty), John Crown (Calisto), Davenant's Shakespearian adaptations, and Dryden (The Secular Masque).Less
Chapter 5 traces masques' representations of political alternatives throughout the seventeenth century, masques' prominently varied epistemological investments, and their deployment in creating an adaptive theatrical history that spans the full century. Self‐consciously inheriting both the elite dramatic tradition of the court masque and more popular traditions associated with other kinds of masquing, the seventeenth‐century masque engages multiple aspects of public culture. Case studies in masques that taxonomize political alternatives include Campion's royal Caversham entertainment, Middleton and Rowley's public The World Tossed at Tennis, Thomas Jordan's Interregnum Fancy's Festivals, and Anthony Sadler's Restoration Subjects Joy. Case studies exploring how masque sponsors epistemological reflection include Milton's Ludlow masque Comus, Kynaston's Corona Minervae, Nabbes's Microcosmus, and John Sadler's Mascarade du ciel. The chapter closes by tracing how masques, and masque adaptations of earlier plays, attempt to construct an account of English theater across the Stuart, Interregnum, and Restoration eras, when masques persist as a distinctively English form of early opera. Case studies here include Jonson (The Masque of Augurs), Shirley (Cupid and Death, The Triumph of Beauty), John Crown (Calisto), Davenant's Shakespearian adaptations, and Dryden (The Secular Masque).
Johannes Quack
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199812608
- eISBN:
- 9780199919406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812608.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Against the background of the larger history of rationalism in India, this chapter focuses specifically on organised rationalism in Maharashtra in the second half of the 20th century. Various groups ...
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Against the background of the larger history of rationalism in India, this chapter focuses specifically on organised rationalism in Maharashtra in the second half of the 20th century. Various groups such as the Indian Secular Society (ISS), the Maharashtra Rationalist Association (MRA) and the Satyashodhak Movement, as well as people such as Basava Premanand and Lakshmanshastri Joshi are introduced with respect to their influence on the establishment of ANiS in 1989. This chapter also discusses why ANiS split soon after it's foundation into two separate organisations: Akhil Bharatiya Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (ABANS) led by Shyam Manav and Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (ANiS) headed by Narendra Dabholkar.Less
Against the background of the larger history of rationalism in India, this chapter focuses specifically on organised rationalism in Maharashtra in the second half of the 20th century. Various groups such as the Indian Secular Society (ISS), the Maharashtra Rationalist Association (MRA) and the Satyashodhak Movement, as well as people such as Basava Premanand and Lakshmanshastri Joshi are introduced with respect to their influence on the establishment of ANiS in 1989. This chapter also discusses why ANiS split soon after it's foundation into two separate organisations: Akhil Bharatiya Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (ABANS) led by Shyam Manav and Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (ANiS) headed by Narendra Dabholkar.
Heine Steven
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195386202
- eISBN:
- 9780199918362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195386202.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter offers a critical analysis of the role of sacred space in relation to secular Tokyo in order to better understand the significance of the fundamental contradiction concerning practice ...
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This chapter offers a critical analysis of the role of sacred space in relation to secular Tokyo in order to better understand the significance of the fundamental contradiction concerning practice and belief. It considers on the basis of the author's personal reflections seen in terms of cross-cultural perspectives how contemporary urban sacred sites seek to preserve a deteriorating past that is greatly affected, for better or worse, by the main factors of modernization. These factors include rapid commercial development and an aggressive emphasis on an efficient use of space as an end in itself accompanied by ecological degradation that causes a deterioration of the natural landscape. Sacred sites must absorb the ongoing impact of a general trend toward secularity, or unbridled mercantilism and consumerism, which tends to dismiss the past as merely anachronistic and thus deviates from and diminishes traditional religious institutional structures. This chapter makes use of on-the-ground observations in inquiring as to where the secular leaves off and the sacred begins in comparison with sacred sites typical of Western cities.Less
This chapter offers a critical analysis of the role of sacred space in relation to secular Tokyo in order to better understand the significance of the fundamental contradiction concerning practice and belief. It considers on the basis of the author's personal reflections seen in terms of cross-cultural perspectives how contemporary urban sacred sites seek to preserve a deteriorating past that is greatly affected, for better or worse, by the main factors of modernization. These factors include rapid commercial development and an aggressive emphasis on an efficient use of space as an end in itself accompanied by ecological degradation that causes a deterioration of the natural landscape. Sacred sites must absorb the ongoing impact of a general trend toward secularity, or unbridled mercantilism and consumerism, which tends to dismiss the past as merely anachronistic and thus deviates from and diminishes traditional religious institutional structures. This chapter makes use of on-the-ground observations in inquiring as to where the secular leaves off and the sacred begins in comparison with sacred sites typical of Western cities.
Noëlle Vahanian
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823256952
- eISBN:
- 9780823261444
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823256952.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Beginning where the great masters of suspicion ended, this book aims for a renewal of theological thinking not by way of an argument against the death of God or on behalf of the postmodern turn of ...
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Beginning where the great masters of suspicion ended, this book aims for a renewal of theological thinking not by way of an argument against the death of God or on behalf of the postmodern turn of religion, but instead by extending and radicalizing an iconoclastic and existentialist mode of thought. A theological thinking whose point of departure assumes and accepts the critiques of religion launched by Nietzsche, Freud, Marx, and Feuerbach can make no metaphysical or ontological claims: theology is a strictly secular discourse, like any other discourse, but it is aware of its limitations and wary of great promises-its own included. It is a thinking that takes theological desire seriously as a rebellious force working within, but against an anthropomorphic, phallogocentric worldview. Its faith is that secular theological desire can be a force against the constitutive indifference of thought, the myopic fundamentalism of any literalism, the rule of nobody, or even the biopower that produces docile subjectivities in an age of capitalism. Theological thinking thus becomes a meditative act of rebellion and a way not to forget not to say nothing. Meditative and aphoristic instead of argumentative, this book offers an original and constructive engagement with issues such as indifference, belief, madness, and love.Less
Beginning where the great masters of suspicion ended, this book aims for a renewal of theological thinking not by way of an argument against the death of God or on behalf of the postmodern turn of religion, but instead by extending and radicalizing an iconoclastic and existentialist mode of thought. A theological thinking whose point of departure assumes and accepts the critiques of religion launched by Nietzsche, Freud, Marx, and Feuerbach can make no metaphysical or ontological claims: theology is a strictly secular discourse, like any other discourse, but it is aware of its limitations and wary of great promises-its own included. It is a thinking that takes theological desire seriously as a rebellious force working within, but against an anthropomorphic, phallogocentric worldview. Its faith is that secular theological desire can be a force against the constitutive indifference of thought, the myopic fundamentalism of any literalism, the rule of nobody, or even the biopower that produces docile subjectivities in an age of capitalism. Theological thinking thus becomes a meditative act of rebellion and a way not to forget not to say nothing. Meditative and aphoristic instead of argumentative, this book offers an original and constructive engagement with issues such as indifference, belief, madness, and love.
Timothy Larsen
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199570096
- eISBN:
- 9780191725661
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199570096.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Biblical Studies
Charles Bradlaugh was the most important leader of organized atheism in nineteenth-century Britain, and for some years Annie Besant was the most popular speaker in the movement after him. Bradlaugh ...
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Charles Bradlaugh was the most important leader of organized atheism in nineteenth-century Britain, and for some years Annie Besant was the most popular speaker in the movement after him. Bradlaugh was the president the of the National Secular Society and Besant was a vice president. Both of them had an education steeped in Scripture and both had a lifelong obsession with the Bible. Bradlaugh was essential an anti-Bible lecturer and his magnum opus was a biblical commentary on the Pentateuch. Likewise Besant, although she denounced the Bible as ‘this indictable book’, nevertheless habitually employed scriptural language when she wanted to articulate her own thoughts and experiences.Less
Charles Bradlaugh was the most important leader of organized atheism in nineteenth-century Britain, and for some years Annie Besant was the most popular speaker in the movement after him. Bradlaugh was the president the of the National Secular Society and Besant was a vice president. Both of them had an education steeped in Scripture and both had a lifelong obsession with the Bible. Bradlaugh was essential an anti-Bible lecturer and his magnum opus was a biblical commentary on the Pentateuch. Likewise Besant, although she denounced the Bible as ‘this indictable book’, nevertheless habitually employed scriptural language when she wanted to articulate her own thoughts and experiences.
Michael C. J. Putnam
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300083330
- eISBN:
- 9780300130454
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300083330.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This is the first book devoted to Horace's Carmen Saeculare, a poem commissioned by Roman emperor Augustus in 17 bce for choral performance at the Ludi Saeculares, the Secular Games. The poem is the ...
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This is the first book devoted to Horace's Carmen Saeculare, a poem commissioned by Roman emperor Augustus in 17 bce for choral performance at the Ludi Saeculares, the Secular Games. The poem is the first fully preserved Latin hymn whose circumstances of presentation are known, and it is the only lyric of Horace we can be certain was first presented orally. The book offers a close and sensitive reading of this hymn, shedding new light on the richness and virtuosity of its poetry, on the many sources Horace drew on, and on the poem's power and significance as a public ritual. A rich and compelling work, this poem is a masterpiece, and it represents a crucial link in the development of Rome's outstanding lyric poet.Less
This is the first book devoted to Horace's Carmen Saeculare, a poem commissioned by Roman emperor Augustus in 17 bce for choral performance at the Ludi Saeculares, the Secular Games. The poem is the first fully preserved Latin hymn whose circumstances of presentation are known, and it is the only lyric of Horace we can be certain was first presented orally. The book offers a close and sensitive reading of this hymn, shedding new light on the richness and virtuosity of its poetry, on the many sources Horace drew on, and on the poem's power and significance as a public ritual. A rich and compelling work, this poem is a masterpiece, and it represents a crucial link in the development of Rome's outstanding lyric poet.
Stathis Gourgouris
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823253784
- eISBN:
- 9780823261215
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823253784.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This book reconfigures recent secularism debates, by showing (1) how the secular imagination is closely linked to society’s radical poiesis, its capacity to imagine and create unprecedented forms of ...
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This book reconfigures recent secularism debates, by showing (1) how the secular imagination is closely linked to society’s radical poiesis, its capacity to imagine and create unprecedented forms of worldly existence; and (2) how the space of the secular animates the desire for a radical democratic politics that overturns inherited modes of subjugation, whether religious or secularist. For Gourgouris, secular criticism is a form of political being: critical, antifoundational, disobedient, anarchic, yet not negative for negation’s sake but creative of new forms of collective reflection, interrogation, and action that alter not only the current terrain of dominant politics but also the very self-conceptualization of what it means to be human.Less
This book reconfigures recent secularism debates, by showing (1) how the secular imagination is closely linked to society’s radical poiesis, its capacity to imagine and create unprecedented forms of worldly existence; and (2) how the space of the secular animates the desire for a radical democratic politics that overturns inherited modes of subjugation, whether religious or secularist. For Gourgouris, secular criticism is a form of political being: critical, antifoundational, disobedient, anarchic, yet not negative for negation’s sake but creative of new forms of collective reflection, interrogation, and action that alter not only the current terrain of dominant politics but also the very self-conceptualization of what it means to be human.
Arvind Sharma
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195679489
- eISBN:
- 9780199081714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195679489.003.0022
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter examines another way in which human rights discourse could be considered Western. In the West alone human beings are seen as standing apart from and in radical opposition to nature and ...
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This chapter examines another way in which human rights discourse could be considered Western. In the West alone human beings are seen as standing apart from and in radical opposition to nature and other animals. Thus, human rights are Western in the sense that this type of a concept of the human, as one who stands over against other animals and nature, is essentially Western. However, the understanding of a ‘human being’ in relation to animals which is described as Western could also be considered Abrahamic, in the sense that there might be a certain consistency to this view in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. While it is possible to regard them all as ‘Western’ religions, the fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a secular document means that perhaps its conception should be considered more secular than religious.Less
This chapter examines another way in which human rights discourse could be considered Western. In the West alone human beings are seen as standing apart from and in radical opposition to nature and other animals. Thus, human rights are Western in the sense that this type of a concept of the human, as one who stands over against other animals and nature, is essentially Western. However, the understanding of a ‘human being’ in relation to animals which is described as Western could also be considered Abrahamic, in the sense that there might be a certain consistency to this view in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. While it is possible to regard them all as ‘Western’ religions, the fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a secular document means that perhaps its conception should be considered more secular than religious.
Ankhi Mukherjee
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804785211
- eISBN:
- 9780804788380
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804785211.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
T. S. Eliot’s and J.M. Coetzee’s lectures titled “What is a Classic?” seem to suggest that if the classical criterion is of vital importance to literary criticism, the classic in turn is constituted ...
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T. S. Eliot’s and J.M. Coetzee’s lectures titled “What is a Classic?” seem to suggest that if the classical criterion is of vital importance to literary criticism, the classic in turn is constituted by the criticism it receives down the ages. The chapter examines this co-dependence: the classic is that which survives critical questioning, and it in fact defines itself by that surviving. The chapter also examines the role of international literary criticism in mapping the time and space of a globalised English Studies.Less
T. S. Eliot’s and J.M. Coetzee’s lectures titled “What is a Classic?” seem to suggest that if the classical criterion is of vital importance to literary criticism, the classic in turn is constituted by the criticism it receives down the ages. The chapter examines this co-dependence: the classic is that which survives critical questioning, and it in fact defines itself by that surviving. The chapter also examines the role of international literary criticism in mapping the time and space of a globalised English Studies.
Muhamad Ali
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781474409209
- eISBN:
- 9781474418799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474409209.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
It discusses Muslim’s definitions of knowledge and education in terms of faith and progress, and the ways that they distinguished worldly from religious subjects and promoted the teaching of both. ...
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It discusses Muslim’s definitions of knowledge and education in terms of faith and progress, and the ways that they distinguished worldly from religious subjects and promoted the teaching of both. Muslim reformers, particularly modernist but also traditionalist, were open to new developments in educational subjects, vocabularies, and technology, as long as they did not see any violation of their understanding of Islam. Islamic modernity was manifested as a combination of faith and reason, and as a mixture of the traditional and the modern, and a combination of the religious and the worldly.Less
It discusses Muslim’s definitions of knowledge and education in terms of faith and progress, and the ways that they distinguished worldly from religious subjects and promoted the teaching of both. Muslim reformers, particularly modernist but also traditionalist, were open to new developments in educational subjects, vocabularies, and technology, as long as they did not see any violation of their understanding of Islam. Islamic modernity was manifested as a combination of faith and reason, and as a mixture of the traditional and the modern, and a combination of the religious and the worldly.
Benjamin Harshav
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520079588
- eISBN:
- 9780520912960
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520079588.003.0015
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
The ideologies and parties that had engulfed Jewish society at the beginning of the century exhausted their debates and disappeared in the Diaspora, and their survivors blended into the puzzle of ...
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The ideologies and parties that had engulfed Jewish society at the beginning of the century exhausted their debates and disappeared in the Diaspora, and their survivors blended into the puzzle of political and pragmatic parties vying for power in the State of Israel. The imaginative efforts to establish a Secular Jewish Polysystem without a territorial power base did not last: Yiddish and Hebrew died out in the Diaspora as base languages of a society, and with them went their literatures and cultures. Their assumption that an autonomous Jewish secular culture in Diaspora was possible did not transfer to English or other languages. The Nazi Holocaust and Soviet anti-Semitism put an end to the forms of Jewish culture in Europe and assimilation worked at full blast: in terms of personal commitment, the attachment of any individual to Hebrew or Yiddish literature or to the intrinsic Jewish establishment was a matter of one generation, two at most.Less
The ideologies and parties that had engulfed Jewish society at the beginning of the century exhausted their debates and disappeared in the Diaspora, and their survivors blended into the puzzle of political and pragmatic parties vying for power in the State of Israel. The imaginative efforts to establish a Secular Jewish Polysystem without a territorial power base did not last: Yiddish and Hebrew died out in the Diaspora as base languages of a society, and with them went their literatures and cultures. Their assumption that an autonomous Jewish secular culture in Diaspora was possible did not transfer to English or other languages. The Nazi Holocaust and Soviet anti-Semitism put an end to the forms of Jewish culture in Europe and assimilation worked at full blast: in terms of personal commitment, the attachment of any individual to Hebrew or Yiddish literature or to the intrinsic Jewish establishment was a matter of one generation, two at most.
Benjamin Harshav
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520079588
- eISBN:
- 9780520912960
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520079588.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter states that the definition of Jewishness in the Religious Polysystem was legal and essentialist: A Jew was defined by being a Jew and was included in the whole network; whereas in the ...
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This chapter states that the definition of Jewishness in the Religious Polysystem was legal and essentialist: A Jew was defined by being a Jew and was included in the whole network; whereas in the new, Secular Jewish Polysystem, it is voluntary and aspectual. The system itself may contain all aspects and institutions of modern life, but the individual may join voluntarily only some of those and join the polysystem of another nation for other aspects. This openness of coterritorial systems was convenient for the trend of assimilation to other societies, which increasingly enveloped more descendants of the Jews. In other words, the existence of a Jewish Secular Polysystem, even in its heyday in Poland and the Soviet Union between the two world wars, was not coextensive with the Jewish population.Less
This chapter states that the definition of Jewishness in the Religious Polysystem was legal and essentialist: A Jew was defined by being a Jew and was included in the whole network; whereas in the new, Secular Jewish Polysystem, it is voluntary and aspectual. The system itself may contain all aspects and institutions of modern life, but the individual may join voluntarily only some of those and join the polysystem of another nation for other aspects. This openness of coterritorial systems was convenient for the trend of assimilation to other societies, which increasingly enveloped more descendants of the Jews. In other words, the existence of a Jewish Secular Polysystem, even in its heyday in Poland and the Soviet Union between the two world wars, was not coextensive with the Jewish population.
Manlio Graziano
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780231174626
- eISBN:
- 9780231543910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231174626.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter presents the history of modern terrorism as a tool of secular nationalism, and how and when a "religious" terrorism was born.
This chapter presents the history of modern terrorism as a tool of secular nationalism, and how and when a "religious" terrorism was born.
Wilfred M. Mcclay
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748626014
- eISBN:
- 9780748670673
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748626014.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter focuses on the tensions between secularism and a resurgence of religious belief and practice in post-9/11 United States. Arguing that religion’s new lease of life stems from the ...
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This chapter focuses on the tensions between secularism and a resurgence of religious belief and practice in post-9/11 United States. Arguing that religion’s new lease of life stems from the inadequacy of other alternatives, the author, Wilfred M. McClay, considers the role of religion in upholding human dignity and moral order in a postmodern world. With reference to a range of religious practices and denominations, the chapter goes on to consider key religious questions relating to 9/11, connections and tensions between church and state, the role of civil religion, and the re-emergence of political and denominational divisions that resist neat alignments. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the future of post-secular America, warning against wholesale investment in either inevitable secularism or religious restoration.Less
This chapter focuses on the tensions between secularism and a resurgence of religious belief and practice in post-9/11 United States. Arguing that religion’s new lease of life stems from the inadequacy of other alternatives, the author, Wilfred M. McClay, considers the role of religion in upholding human dignity and moral order in a postmodern world. With reference to a range of religious practices and denominations, the chapter goes on to consider key religious questions relating to 9/11, connections and tensions between church and state, the role of civil religion, and the re-emergence of political and denominational divisions that resist neat alignments. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the future of post-secular America, warning against wholesale investment in either inevitable secularism or religious restoration.
Peter van der Veer
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231170802
- eISBN:
- 9780231541015
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231170802.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This essay discusses Confucianism in China in the Axial Age, Jesuit visitors, the late Qing, and its revival in the post-Mao PRC in the light of the question of the distinctiveness of Chinese ...
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This essay discusses Confucianism in China in the Axial Age, Jesuit visitors, the late Qing, and its revival in the post-Mao PRC in the light of the question of the distinctiveness of Chinese civilization.Less
This essay discusses Confucianism in China in the Axial Age, Jesuit visitors, the late Qing, and its revival in the post-Mao PRC in the light of the question of the distinctiveness of Chinese civilization.
Rajeev Bhargava
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231170802
- eISBN:
- 9780231541015
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231170802.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This essay looks back to ancient Indian civilizations and finds continuity in theological, social, and political conditions of movement across religion, leading Bhargava to postulate diverse secular ...
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This essay looks back to ancient Indian civilizations and finds continuity in theological, social, and political conditions of movement across religion, leading Bhargava to postulate diverse secular ages.Less
This essay looks back to ancient Indian civilizations and finds continuity in theological, social, and political conditions of movement across religion, leading Bhargava to postulate diverse secular ages.
