“After Enlightenment, Return to the Marketplace”

2021 ◽  
pp. 33-64
Author(s):  
Karen Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
John Locke ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Private Search ◽  
Broken World

Ever since John Locke argued that religion was essentially a “private search” and must be radically excluded from political life, we have prided ourselves in the West on the separation of church and state. John Esposito, of course, has famously ignored this shibboleth. In the past, students were not content to acquire a purely academic understanding of their faith; their aim was not to earn a doctorate or a professorship. Instead, they expected to be spiritually transformed by their studies—an experience that propelled them out of the classroom and back into the mundane, messy, and tragic world of politics. This essay traces this theme in Indian and Chinese traditions as well as in the three monotheistic faiths. All insist that poverty, inequity, cruelty, and exploitation are matters of sacred import and that after achieving Enlightenment one must, as the Buddha insisted, “return to the marketplace” and work practically and creatively to heal the suffering of humanity—a message that is sorely needed in our tragically broken world.

scholarly journals Church and State: A Conflicting Collaboration

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentine Ugochukwu Iheanacho
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Church And State ◽  
The State ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Church

St Jerome, both in his wittiness and in his critique of the romance between the church of his time and the Roman Empire in the fifth century, believed that “The church by its connection with Christian princes gained in power and riches, but lost in virtues.” The church and the state, whether in the past or in the present, have two particular things in common: peace and order. Both institutions detest disorder and rebellion, but ironically, in their efforts to bring about the desired peace and order, they often disturbed the peace through their quarrels and quibbles. With a keen sense of history, this essay studies the reluctance with which the church in the West and in the East embraced secular authorities in the civil administration of society for the sake of “peace” and “order.”

Buddhism in Film

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon A. Suh
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Contemplative Practice ◽  
Film Festivals ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Ritual Process ◽  
Skillful Means

Film serves as one of the most recent contributions to the variety of Buddhist visual forms that can offer a perspectival shift in interpretation for its viewers akin to other meditative devices such as mandalas. As a relatively recent subject of study, Buddhist films present innovative opportunities to visualize the Buddha, Buddhism, and the self in nuanced ways. Buddhist film can be understood as a spiritual technology that reshapes vision, and the act of viewing becomes a ritual process and contemplative practice. Ranging from films with an explicitly Buddhist theme and content to more abstract films without obvious Buddhist references, Buddhist films have become the subject of scholarly studies of Buddhism as well as occasions to reimagine Buddhism on and off screen. Buddhist films found in Asia and the West have proliferated globally through the rise of international Buddhist film festivals over the past fifteen years that have increased both the interest in Buddhism and the field of Buddhism and film itself. Most studies of Buddhism in film indicate that what constitutes a Buddhist film continually evolves and, as such, can be seen as a contemporary instantiation of the skillful means of the Buddha.

Catholic Social Teaching and American Politics: How Can a Church Contribute to Civic Dialogue in a Liberal Democracy?

The Forum ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Christopher Manuel
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
Civic Dialogue

AbstractThis article examines how the Catholic Church has sought over the past 30 years to participate meaningfully in political life and civic dialogue in the US – a nation constitutionally predicated on a strict separation of church and state, but which accommodates compromises, and a society historically hostile to its minority Catholic population.

John Locke and the Authority of Church and State

Anglophonia ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 289-296
Author(s):  
Graham Alan John Rogers
Keyword(s):  
John Locke ◽  
Church And State

Managing rivers for conservation and ecotourism in the Kruger National Park

1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 227-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. J. Venter ◽  
A. R. Deacon
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Good Condition ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Flow Through ◽  
Three Rivers

Six major rivers flow through the Kruger National Park (KNP). All these rivers originate outside and to the west of the KNP and are highly utilized. They are crucially important for the conservation of the unique natural environments of the KNP. The human population growth in the Lowveld during the past two decades brought with it the rapid expansion of irrigation farming, exotic afforestation and land grazed by domestic stock, as well as the establishment of large towns, mines, dams and industries. Along with these developments came overgrazing, erosion, over-utilization and pollution of rivers, as well as clearing of indigenous forests from large areas outside the borders of the KNP. Over-utilization of the rivers which ultimately flow through the KNP poses one of the most serious challenges to the KNP's management. This paper gives the background to the development in the catchments and highlights the problems which these have caused for the KNP. Management actions which have been taken as well as their results are discussed and solutions to certain problems proposed. Three rivers, namely the Letaba, Olifants and Sabie are respectively described as examples of an over-utilized river, a polluted river and a river which is still in a fairly good condition.

Church and State

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. DeJonge
Keyword(s):  
Church And State ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The World ◽  
The Church

Chapter 3’s discussion of kingdoms and orders in the context of political life leads naturally into the topic of this chapter: the church, the state, and their relationship. The present chapter locates the state (or, better, political authority in general) in relationship to Chapter 3’s categories by presenting it as one of the orders by which God’s structures the world. It is an important actor in the temporal kingdom, where God has ordained it to preserve the world through law. The church in its essence is an agent of the spiritual kingdom, bearing God’s redemptive word to the world. The themes of preservation and redemption, the kingdoms, and the orders find many of their concrete expressions in themes of the church, the state, and their relationship.

The New Islamic State

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhad Khosrokhavar
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
The West ◽  
Patriarchal Family ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
The Creation

The creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) changed the nature of jihadism worldwide. For a few years (2014–2017) it exemplified the destructive capacity of jihadism and created a new utopia aimed at restoring the past greatness and glory of the former caliphate. It also attracted tens of thousands of young wannabe combatants of faith (mujahids, those who make jihad) toward Syria and Iraq from more than 100 countries. Its utopia was dual: not only re-creating the caliphate that would spread Islam all over the world but also creating a cohesive, imagined community (the neo-umma) that would restore patriarchal family and put an end to the crisis of modern society through an inflexible interpretation of shari‘a (Islamic laws and commandments). To achieve these goals, ISIS diversified its approach. It focused, in the West, on the rancor of the Muslim migrants’ sons and daughters, on exoticism, and on an imaginary dream world and, in the Middle East, on tribes and the Sunni/Shi‘a divide, particularly in the Iraqi and Syrian societies.

The excavation of a Buddhist temple complex of the Qocho Uyghur kingdom in the middle of the west zone of the Tuyoq caves in Shanshan County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-112
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
The West ◽  
Autonomous Region ◽  
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region ◽  
Buddhist Temple ◽  
Temple Complex ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
And Storage

AbstractIn 2016, remains of a ground-level Buddhist temple complex were found in the middle of the west zone of the Tuyoq caves in Shanshan (Piqan) County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. This Buddhist temple complex consisted of the Buddha hall, dorms for monks, and storage facilities. In the Buddha hall, many murals of bodhisattvas, devas, and donors were found, and artifacts such as household utensils made of clay, wooden architectural components, textiles, and manuscript fragments were unearthed. The date of this Buddhist temple complex was the Qocho Uyghurs kingdom from the latter half of the tenth century to the latter half of the fourteenth century; the excavation is very important for understanding the distribution of the construction centers and the iconographical composition of the Buddhist cave temples and monasteries in the Qocho Uyghurs kingdom period.

scholarly journals History, piety and factional politics in the Arabic chronicle of the Maldives: Ḥasan Tāj al-Dīn’s Ta’rīkh and its continuations

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 195-220
Author(s):  
Andrew C. S. Peacock
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Islamic History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Conversion To Islam ◽  
Personal Experiences

AbstractThe Arabic chronicle (Ta’rīkh) of the Maldives composed by the qadi Ḥasan Tāj al-Dīn (d. 1139/1727) and continued by his nephew Muḥammad Muḥibb al-Dīn (1118/1706-1199/1785) and his grandson Ibrāhīm Sirāj al-Dīn (d. after 1243/1827) is major but unexploited source for not just Maldivian but also Indian Ocean history more broadly. Covering Maldivian history from the purported date of the islands’ conversion to Islam in 548/1143, the Ta’rīkh is also imbued with a specific pious and ethical agenda. It seeks to situate the Maldives in the broader context of Islamic history stretching back to the Rāshidūn Caliphs, while using the past to impart ethical lessons to its audience, ostensibly the Maldivian sultans. However, its authors were also deeply involved in the Maldives’ tumultuous political life, and their presentation of events is also influenced by their own personal experiences and factional affiliations. This article explores the pious, ethical and political agenda of the Ta’rīkh.

The Primacy of Politics

1951 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
James K. Pollock
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Active Participation ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Important Work ◽  
The Past ◽  
Generous Time ◽  
The Status ◽  
Do So

In presenting my valedictory to this distinguished Association which has honored me by selecting me as its President, I should like to point out by way of introduction what has happened to this office, and therefore to me, during the past year. I have heard of one of my distinguished predecessors some twenty-five years ago who had little else to do as President of this Association than work all year on his presidential address. This was important work and I have no word of criticism of it. But the Association has changed, and today it leaves to the harried wearer of its presidential toga little time to reflect about the status of political science and his own impact, if any, upon it. An active Association life, now happily centered in our new Washington office, is enough to occupy the full time of your President, and universities as well as this Association might well take note. Therefore, in presenting my own reflections to you this evening in accordance with the custom of our Association, I do so without the benefit of the generous time and scholarly leisure which were the privileges of some of my distinguished predecessors.Nevertheless I do base my presidential address today upon my own active participation in the problems of government, as well as upon my scholarly experience. I have extracted it in part from the dynamics of pulsating political life. It has whatever authority I may possess after having been exposed these twenty-five years to the cross-fire of politics, domestic and foreign, as well as to the benign and corrective influences of eager students and charitable colleagues.

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