Analysis of the Interpretation of the Meaning of the Karampuang Traditional House in Sinjai Regency

Karampuang traditional house is one of the cultural heritages that has symbols and meanings believed from generation to generation. This study aims to determine what symbols are contained in the Karampuang traditional house, both verbal and non-verbal, and to analyze the symbols. This research used qualitative method which the data were collected by using some techniques including: observation, in-depth interviews, documentation study, literature study, and field notes. The study used two data sources, primary data and secondary data. The technique of determining informants in this study was the purposive sampling technique. There were six informants. A traditional house consists of two houses. There are two renowned traditional houses, to wit; Arung and Gella. Arung’s house faces West, while Gella's traditional house faces East. The Roof of the house has two layers with a timpa laja’ in three layers. The roof Gella's is not double-decked and two-tiered; while the Arung’s composed of three of the timpa laja. In regard to the Islamic symbols in traditional houses, the houses are constructed with 30 house poles, as a symbol of the number of juz in the Quran. The 5 poles running north to south symbolize the 5 pillars of Islam; while 6 poles from west to east are a symbol of the six articles of faith. The ladder of the Karampuang traditional house only has one ladder with odd steps which the position is different from the house in general.The door of the house is located in Elle 'ri olo which is parallel right againts Salima'. Above the door, there is a stone that functions as a counterweight so that the door can be partially or completely open. The floor of a house made of bamboo is also called salima as a symbol of the rib which stretches from north to south called tunebbe'. The kitchen is located at the front that can be clearly seen when climbing the house’s ladder; in front of the door is a kitchen with two stoves located.

Religion and Latin Western Europe, 600–1500

The medieval Catholic Church evolved. That is, over the course of the Middle Ages everything about the religion changed, yet the changes occurred within well-established patterns and principles that remained constant. Among those patterns were: oscillations between episcopal and papal ideologies of ecclesiastical unity; a papacy whose theoretical claims to authority never matched its actual power; and a commitment to pastoral care. The Church also insisted on doctrinal and institutional conformity, manifested especially in its reliance on creeds that presented non-logical propositions as articles of faith. The result was to generate heresies, but in responding to heresies the Church also educated the laity in matters of faith, while allowing considerable latitude in matters of private and lay devotions. Among such devotions, the ‘bridal mysticism’ of devout women stands as an example of both the limitations and intellectual depth of the religion.

Jacobus Capitein: Champion for Slavery and Resisting Mimic?

Jacobus Eliza Johannes Capitein (1717-1747) was a man of many firsts-the first black student of theology at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, the first black minister ordained in the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands, the author of the first Fante/Mfantse-Dutch Grammar in Ghana as well as the first translator of the Ten Commandments, Twelve Articles of Faith and parts of the Catechism into Fante/Mfantse. However, he is also remembered as the first African to argue in writing that slavery was compatible with Christianity in the public lecture that he delivered at Leiden in 1742 on the topic, De Servitute Libertati Christianae Non Contraria. The Latin original was soon translated into Dutch and became so popular in the Netherlands that it was reprinted five times in the first year of publication. This contribution will pose the question: Was Capitein a sell-out who soothed the Dutch colonial conscience as he argued with scholarly vigour in his dissertation that the Bible did not prohibit slavery and that it was therefore permissible to continue with the practice in the eighteenth century; or was he resisting the system by means of mimicry due to his hybrid identity - as an African with a European education - who wanted to spread the Christian message and be an educator of his people?

Epistemic Fragments

This is an attempt to think through the idea that human knowledge has no fundamental ground. It seemed best to present this gesture in fragments rather than argument. In the questioning pursuit of absolute certainty, one ultimately finds the promise of such certainty itself to be what is most questionable and uncertain. With this newfound uncertainty, the ground falls away and an abyss opens up which makes one wonder if and how we know anything at all. What is miraculous is that, despite this epistemic abyss, we nonetheless can and do know—just not in a firmly grounded, absolutely certain way. We rather seem to make recourse to “commonsensical” articles of faith which make understanding possible for us as much as they limit us. Perhaps these brief fragments are ultimately concerned with human knowledge and human finitude, as they are an attempt to humble aspirations toward certain, grounded knowledge in one regard, yet they hopefully gesture toward what may actually be possible for human knowledge in another.

Faith, Theology, and Contemplation

How does Aquinas conceive of the connections between faith and theological contemplation? How does he defend the scientific nature of theology? What is the role of the assent of faith, and is Aquinas guilty of voluntarism? Aquinas’s espousal of the notion of theology as a science sub-alternated to divine scientia allowed him to defend a non-charismatic notion of theology (i.e. one that does not depend on the cognitive gifts of the Holy Spirit to assist us in grasping the articles of faith). The chapter further argues that all rational disciplines (with the exception of those that operate with principles that are known per se) rely on first principles that cannot be argued for within the relevant discipline itself. Finally, the chapter argues that Aquinas’s view that we cannot both know and believe something at the same time actually softens the boundary between theology and philosophy, which is of considerable importance when we address the perennial question as to how Aquinas conceives of the relation between theology and other disciplines.

A-1 The comparison of angels among Judaism, Christianity and Islam

The human mind is unable to acquire the knowledge of metaphysical and unseen worlds which fall in the category of faith such as angels , concept of life and death , hereafter, and the belief in heaven and hell, except through the divine guidance given to the messengers and Prophets by Almighty Allah .The faith in angels is one of those believes mentioned in all the divine religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All these three divine religions agree on the existence of angels in general. As this is one of the six articles of faith of our true Islamic religion, and this is one of the most important article of faith in Judaism and Christianity too. Belief in angels is the most widely discussed doctrinal elements in the sacred books of all these religions. It is a matter of fact that all these three divine religions have a firm belief in the existence of angles but they differ only regarding their details such as their names, classes, descriptions, characteristics and actions. This article analyses and addresses the main question about angels in sematic and divine religions which is; how do the divine religions present angels and which are the similarities and differences between them.

Organization

How is the church organized? One of the Articles of Faith (6) states: “we believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church, namely apostles, prophets, pastors [bishops], teachers, evangelists [patriarchs], and so forth.” The New Testament reveals only a few bare...

Doing good the wrong way

Using a narrative summary, this article synthesizes NGO history, highlights the political economy and pro-NGO arguments; and uses these to examine what contemporary NGOs in the global South do. It raises contradictions between what these organizations do and historical arguments that justified their growth in the development sector. It shows that NGOs are doing good the wrong way, a contradiction obscured by the functional approach used to measure their effectiveness in research and evaluation. The article argues that because this approach focuses on the linear logics of NGO aid projects, they are assessed against what they choose to do and not what history argued they would. Arguments for the return of the Developmentalist State and changes from the looming end of the liberal international order, inherently flag the need to establish NGO contribution to development without comparisons to the State or market; then strategically adjust the NGO ‘Articles of Faith’.