Extending the Canon: Some Implications of a Hindu Argument about Scripture

1992 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis X. Clooney
Keyword(s):  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Sacred Texts

Can the sacred texts of non-Christian religious traditions be revelatory for Christians in a fashion that is more than vague and merely theoretical? This question is central within the larger project of understanding the significance of the various world religions for Christians, and the effort to answer it must proceed according to three specific tasks.First, it is necessary to describe the ways in which the Christian tradition predisposes and constrains Christian believers on the issue of whether non-Christian texts can be revelatory words of God for non-Christians, for Christians, or for both. The formulation of this description requires reflection on the Christian tradition and its sources: Christian ideas of revelation, scripture, the Word of God, and possible words of God.

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.

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.

scholarly journals Getting off the Omnibus: Rejecting Free Will and Soul-Making Responses to the Problem of Evil

Open Theology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-42
Author(s):  
Brian C. Macallan
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
John Hick ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Greater Good ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Powerful Process

AbstractThe nature of suffering and the problem of evil have been perennial issues for many of the world’s religious traditions. Each in their own way has sought to address this problem, whether driven by the all too present reality of suffering or from philosophical and religious curiosities. The Christian tradition has offered numerous and diverse responses to the problem of evil. The free-will response to the problem of evil, with its roots in Augustine, has dominated the landscape in its attempt to justify evil and suffering as a result of the greater good of having free will. John Hick offers a ‘soul-making’ response to the problem of evil as an alternative to the free will response. Neither is effective in dealing with two key issues that underpin both responses – omnipotence and omniscience. In what follows I will contrast a process theological response to the problem of evil and suffering, and how it is better placed in dealing with both omnipotence and omniscience. By refashioning God as neither all-knowing nor all-powerful, process theodicy moves beyond the dead ends of both the free will and soul-making theodicy. Indeed, a process theodicy enables us to dismount the omnibus in search of a more holistic, and realistic, alternative to dealing with the problem of evil and suffering.

Religious Interaction in Early Medieval Kamarupa: An Insight into the Kalikapurana

2021 ◽  
pp. 037698362110520
Author(s):  
Rashmi Rekha Bhuyan
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Brahmaputra Valley ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Other World

Like all other world religions, Brahmanism and Buddhism, the two prominent religious traditions of India, have histories of development and transformations since their inception. Depending on the socio-economic and political scenario, religions are subject to change, often in their basic beliefs and rituals, and at a certain point of time, the interaction between diverse religious traditions also becomes inevitable. Although opponent by nature in their early philosophies, Buddhism and Brahmanism got entwined at a certain phase of history, when many Buddhist deities and rituals were accommodated within the purview of Brahmanism and vice-versa. In the history of Brahmanical tradition, this interaction is traceable in the narratives of Puranic texts composed during the first millennium years of the Christian Era (ce). For the present study, one such Puranic text: the Kalikapurana, composed in Kamarupa (early Assam) during the early-medieval period, has been taken into account to understand the process of interaction between Brahmanism and Buddhism in the historical context of early Assam. Being primarily Brahmanical religious texts, the Puranas contain traces of Buddhism only in ‘covert’ form: in the form of myth. Focussing on some myths narrated in the Kalikapurana, the present study will discuss the existence of Buddhism in the early-Brahmaputra valley prior to the coming of Brahmanism. It will help us to understand the strategies adopted by the immigrant Brahmins to accommodate the prevailing traits under the purview of Brahmanical Hinduism.

Religious Traditions in Politics: Confucianism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youngmin Kim ◽  
Se-Hyun Kim ◽  
Ji Hye Song
Keyword(s):  
Chinese History ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Late Imperial China ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Religious Aspects

Because of the missionary activities of Jesuits in late imperial China and the world religions paradigm that emerged in the late 19th century, scholars tend to view Confucianism as a world religion. However, Confucianism does not fit into disciplinary boxes neatly. Accordingly, Confucian religiosity has been the subject of much debate among scholars. The answer depends largely upon how one defines religion and Confucianism. However, Confucianism and religion are not self-evident categories, but historically conditioned entities. Central to the theoretical discussion of Confucian religiosity has been the idea of transcendence. To many, Confucianism does not seem a type of religion because it does not put God at the center of attention. To others, Confucianism upholds immanent transcendence as its ideal, which does not impose an other-worldly standard but instead suggests human perfectibility. By invoking the notion of immanent transcendence, scholars caution us not to take European Christianity for granted and not to close our eyes to the array of alternative forms of religion. In addition to this theoretical debate, there have been other types of study on religious aspects of Confucianism. Anthropologists and historians have been studying practices of Confucian religious rituals in Chinese history. Rituals were a powerful method that rulers, throughout the dynasties, have employed to legitimize their rule. As with other rituals, imperial authorities patronized various rituals in the hope of attaining the support of their subjects. However, from its inception, Confucian rituals became complex interpretive arenas in which various social actors disputed, accommodated, negotiated, and rearticulated the Confucian orthodoxy according to their interests. Throughout the 20th century, mainland Chinese politicians and intellectuals often stigmatized Confucianism as the cause of China’s downfall. However, Confucianism, which had been regarded as only a hindrance by the Communists, currently appears to be a resource with which to remake China.

scholarly journals Introduction: Evidence for entheogen use in prehistory and world religions

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-62
Author(s):  
Michael Winkelman
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Serotonergic System ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Serotonergic Receptors ◽  
Hominin Evolution ◽  
The World

This introduction to the special issue reviews research that supports the hypothesis that psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, were central features in the development of religion. The greater response of the human serotonergic system to psychedelics than is the case for chimpanzees’ serotonergic receptors indicates that these substances were environmental factors that affected hominin evolution. These substances also contributed to the evolution of ritual capacities, shamanism, and the associated alterations of consciousness. The role of psilocybin mushrooms in the ancient evolution of human religions is attested to fungiform petroglyphs, rock artifacts, and mythologies from all major regions of the world. This prehistoric mycolatry persisted into the historic era in the major religious traditions of the world, which often left evidence of these practices in sculpture, art, and scriptures. This continuation of entheogenic practices in the historical world is addressed in the articles here. But even through new entheogenic combinations were introduced, complex societies generally removed entheogens from widespread consumption, restricted them in private and exclusive spiritual practices of the leaders, and often carried out repressive punishment of those who engaged in entheogenic practices.

scholarly journals Missionaries as bridge builders in Buddhist kingdoms: Amity amid radical difference

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-77
Author(s):  
Eva M. Pascal
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Spiritual Practice ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Core ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Contemporary Christian ◽  
The World

Buddhism and Christianity are major world religions that both make universal and often competing claims about the nature of the world and ultimate reality. These claims are difficult to reconcile and often go to the core of Buddhist and Christian worldviews. This article looks at the age of encounter in the early modern period for ways Christians and Buddhists forged friendship through common spiritual commitments and action. Beyond seeking theological and philosophical exchange, convergences along spirituality and practice proved important vehicles for friendship. With the examples of Christian–Buddhist friendship from historical case studies, this article explores the ways contemporary Christian expressions of spiritual practice and advocacy allows Christians to connect with Buddhists. Early modern encounters have important lessons for furthering Christian–Buddhist friendship that may also be applied to other religious traditions.

The Philosophy of World Religions

1984 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hick
Keyword(s):  
Human Race ◽  
World Religions ◽  
The Real ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Universal Language ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Transcendent Reality ◽  
Realistic View ◽  
Basic Distinction ◽  
The One

I Am grateful to Mr Peter Byrne (‘John Hick's Philosophy of World Religions’, S.J.T., Vol. 35, 289–301) for highlighting some of the central issues for a philosophy of religious pluralism. He starts from the now widespread realisation that it is not a morally or religiously acceptable view that salvation depends upon being a member of the Christian minority within the human race. A more realistic view must be pluralistic, seeing the great religious traditions as different ways of conceiving and experiencing the one ultimate divine Reality, and correspondingly different ways of responding to that Reality. These ways owe their differences to the modes of thinking, perceiving and feeling which have developed within the different patterns of human existence embodied in the various cultures of the earth. Thus, on the one hand the religions are responses to a single ultimate transcendent Reality, whilst on the other hand their several communal consciousnesses of that Reality, formed from different human perspectives, are widely different. To understand this mixture of commonality and difference I have suggested that we should make use of a basic distinction which occurs in some form within each of the great traditions. In Christian terms it is the distinction between God in himself, in his eternal self-existent being, independently of creation, and God-for-us or God as revealed to us. In more universal language it is the distinction between the Real (Sat, al-Haq) an sich and the Real as humanly experienced and thought.

scholarly journals JESUS DE NAZARÉ E AS SEPARAÇÕES DO SEU TEMPO

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Ildo Perondi
Keyword(s):  
Word Of God ◽  
Correct Interpretation ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Law ◽  
Current Reality

O judaísmo oficial da época de Jesus era marcado por muitas separações, como puro - impuro; judeu - estrangeiro; homem - mulher; escravo - livre. Muitas dessas separações eram fruto das tradições que foram desenvolvidas no período pós-exílio e prejudicavam, sobretudo, os pobres e marginalizados. Jesus de Nazaré enfrentou várias delas. Mesmo sendo acusado de não cumprir a Lei, Ele desmascara a hipocrisia daqueles que, baseados na tradição, acabavam anulando e desprezando a própria vontade e os mandamentos de Deus para observar as suas próprias tradições (Mc 7,9). Em sua prática, Jesus supera essas separações e acolhe as pessoas excluídas, promovendo a justiça. Ao propor uma ruptura diante do ensinamento dos mestres da época, Jesus não vai contra a revelação das Sagradas Escrituras, mas, usando de critérios objetivos, dá aos textos sagrados a justa interpretação, colocando a Palavra de Deus a serviço da vida do povo e revelando o verdadeiro rosto de Deus. Esta prática de Jesus ilumina a realidade atual marcada por sintomas de discriminação e intolerância. JESUS OF NAZARETH AND THE SEPARATIONS OF HIS TIME The official Judaism of the time of Jesus was marked by many separations, as pure X impure; Jew X Foreign; man X woman; slave X free. Many of these separations were the fruit of the traditions that developed in the post-exile period and especially affected the poor and marginalized. Jesus of Nazareth confronted several of them. Even though he is accused of not complying with the Law, he unmasks the hypocrisy of those who, based on tradition, eventually nullifying and neglecting God's own will and commandments to observe their own traditions (Mk 7, 9). In his practice, Jesus overcomes these separations and welcomes the excluded, promoting justice. In proposing a break from the teachings of the masters of the time, Jesus does not go against the revelation of the Holy Scriptures, but using objective criteria, he gives the sacred texts the correct interpretation, placing the Word of God at the service of the people's life and revealing the true face of God. This practice of Jesus illuminates the current reality marked by symptoms of discrimination and intolerance.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document