Sacred Texts and Environmental Ethics: Lessons in Sustainability from Ethiopia

2022 ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
David K. Goodin
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Sacred Texts

Ecological and ethical duty

1996 ◽  
pp. 16-26
Author(s):  
Dionisiy Lyahovych
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Ethical Duty ◽  
Environmental Value ◽  
The People

Ecological ethical duty is a kind of philosophical and theological reflection on environmental issues, and at the same time finding the appropriate foundation for environmental ethics. By the term "ethical duty" we mean the search for environmental value, the nature of which would have the effect of inducing the appropriate personal and social behavior and thus influenced the customs and culture of the people.

Redefining the Miraculous: al-Ghazālī, Ibn Rushd and Said Nursi on Qur'anic Miracle Stories

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isra Yazicioglu
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology ◽  
Natural Order ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
Ibn Rushd ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
Indirect Confirmation ◽  
Said Nursi

Miracle stories in sacred texts have been a source of both fascination and heated debate across religious traditions. Qur'anic miracle stories are especially interesting because they are part of a discourse that also de-emphasises the miraculous. By looking at how three scholars have engaged with Qur'anic miracle stories, I here investigate how these narratives have been interpreted in diverse and fruitful ways. The first part of the article analyses how two medieval scholars, al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) and Ibn Rushd (d. 595/1198), engaged with the implications of miracle stories. Taking his cue from miracle stories, al-Ghazālī offered a sophisticated critique of natural determinism and suggested that the natural order should be perceived as a constantly renewed divine gift. In contrast, Ibn Rushd dismissed al-Ghazālī’s critique as sophistry and maintained that accepting the possibility that the natural order might be suspended was an affront to human knowledge and science. In the second part, I turn to Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1870–1960), whose interpretation offers a crystallisation of al-Ghazālī’s insights as well as, surprisingly, an indirect confirmation of Ibn Rushd's concerns about human knowledge and science. Nursi redefines the miraculous in light of miracle stories, and interprets them as reminders of ‘everyday miracles’ and as encouragements to improve science and technology in God's name.

Looking at Words

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 67-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Brent Plate
Keyword(s):  
Print Culture ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
Words And Images ◽  
The Way

Regardless of their semantic meaning, words exist in and through their material, mediated forms. By extension, sacred texts themselves are material forms and engaged in two primary ways: through the ears and eyes. This article focuses on the visible forms of words that can stir emotional and even sacred responses in the eyes of their beholders. Thus words can be said to function iconically, affecting a mutually engaging form of "religious seeing." The way words appear to their readers will change the reader's interaction, devotion, and interpretation. Examples range from modern popular typography to European Christian print culture to Islamic calligraphy. Weaving through the argument are two key dialectics: the relation of words and images, and the relation of the seen and the unseen.

Infusions and Fumigations

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 115-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Wilkens
Keyword(s):  
Ideal Point ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Social Acceptability ◽  
Medical Procedure ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
Point Of Entry ◽  
Linguistic Model ◽  
Written Texts ◽  
Different Types

Written texts, especially sacred texts, can be handled in different ways. They can be read for semantic content; or they can be materially experienced, touched, or even be inhaled or drunk. I argue that literacy ideologies regulate social acceptability of specific semantic and somatic text practices. Drinking or fumigating the Qurʾan as a medical procedure is a highly contested literacy event in which two different ideologies are drawn upon simultaneously. I employ the linguistic model of codeswitching to highlight central aspects of this event: a more somatic ideology of literacy enables the link to medicine, while a more semantic ideology connects the practice to theological discourses on the sacredness of the Qurʾan as well as to the tradition of Prophetic medicine. Opposition to and ridicule of the practice, however, comes from representatives of an ideology of semantic purity, including some Islamic theologians and most Western scholars of Islam. Qurʾanic potions thus constitute an ideal point of entry for analyzing different types of literacy ideologies being followed in religious traditions.

Possession and Repetition

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 243-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yohan Yoo
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Lay Buddhists ◽  
Iconic Status ◽  
And Function ◽  
To Receive

This article demonstrates the need for the iconic status and function of Buddhist scripture to receive more attention by illuminating how lay Korean Buddhists try to appropriate the power of sutras. The oral and aural aspects of scripture, explained by Wilfred Cantwell Smith, provide only a limited understanding of the characteristics of scripture. It should be noted that, before modern times, most lay people, not only in Buddhist cultures but also in Christian and other traditions, neither had the chance to recite scriptures nor to listen to their recitations regularly. Several clear examples demonstrate contemporary Korean Buddhists’ acceptance of the iconic status of sutras and their attempt to appropriate the power and status of those sacred texts. In contemporary Korea, lay Buddhists try to claim the power of scriptures in their daily lives by repeating and possessing them. Twenty-first century lay believers who cannot read or recite in a traditional style have found new methods of repetition, such as internet programs for copying sacred texts and for playing recordings of their recitations. In addition, many Korean Buddhists consider the act of having sutras in one’s possession to be an effective way of accessing the sacred status and power of these texts. Hence, various ways of possessing them have been developed in a wide range of products, from fancy gilded sutras to sneakers embroidered with mantras.

Seeing, Touching, Holding, and Swallowing Tibetan Buddhist Texts

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 137-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Cantwell
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Buddhism ◽  
Sensory Experience ◽  
Tibetan Buddhist ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Rich Material ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
Book Culture

The iconic dimension of holy books has drawn increasing scholarly attention in recent years (e.g. Iconic Books and Texts, James Watts, ed., London, Equinox, 2013). Asian Buddhism provides rich material for considering the ritualization of engagement with sacred texts. In Tibetan Buddhism, this aspect of book culture is perhaps especially pronounced (see, for instance, Schaeffer 2009, especially Chapter 6; Elliott, Diemberger and Clemente 2014). This paper explores the topic in relation to the engagement of the senses in Tibetan context, through seeing, touching, holding and tasting texts. It would seem that it is not the sensory experience in itself, but rather the physical experience of a transmission and incorporation of the sacred qualities from the books into the person which is emphasized in these practices. Parallels and contrasts with examples from elsewhere are mentioned, and there is some consideration of the breadth of the category of sacred books in the Tibetan context in which Dharma teachings may take many forms.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document