Othering Europe: Ambivalence in Moroccan Discourse Towards Modernity under the Dogmatic Understanding of Islam and the Political Affiliation to the Monarchy

This paper is a study of the reaction of the Moroccan intellectual elite against/towards European modernity in the nineteenth century. The primary focus is on the Moroccan failure to formulate and develop a positive and reasonable response to European expansionism and menace. This threat may seem military in its core as it was related to colonialism, yet the encounter was essentially cultural and the reaction of the Moroccan elite took its grounds from religious and cultural stands. This is simply because Europe was not only a colonizing Other, but also a cultural opponent with which Morocco had armed conflicts, long-standing rivalries, and even cultural dialogues. This paper develops an argument that the Moroccan intellectual elite exemplified via ambassadorial travel writers, the Makhzen’s envoys to Europe, failed to see Europe as a possible model or at least to open some horizons of cultural dialogue and encounter. Due to cultural reasons and historical circumstances, this intellectual elite rejected Europe and modernity. The present paper limits itself to the question of ambivalence shown by Moroccan ambassadorial travel writers in their narratives. It argues that their travel accounts were torn between the writers’ religious thinking and political affiliations. It postulates that ambassadorial travel writers showed ambivalence in their connection to the idea of modernity. Their narratives were governed by the dichotomy of admiration of the material progress of Europe and rejection of Europe as a possible cultural model.

Da'wa in Social Media: The Views of Ustad Hanan Attaki and Felix Siauw to The Hijrah Phenomenon

This article examines the views of Ustad Hanan Attaki (UHA) and Ustad Felix Siauw, who use social media as a medium of preaching. The utilization of the internet as a new way of preaching Islam has helped shape contemporary forms of religious thinking and behavior for Muslim youth in Indonesia. One of them is marked by the emergence of the trend of hijrah in their community. This study aimed to explain the Islamic views of UHA and Siauw, which have implications for the emergence and development of the hijrah trend. This research focuses on extracting data through observations on a number of predetermined social media accounts, field participation and interviews, and puts forward literature studies on the fragmentation of religious authority as a result of the emergence of a number of popular ustadz who use social media as a new space for preaching. Regarding the fragmentation of religious authority, this article is based on the thesis of Eickelman and Anderson, which states that the current religious authorities are those who have succeeded in transmitting religious texts and preaching them through new media. In more detail, this study discusses two important issues, namely the trend of Islamic da'wa on social media and, in particular, the implications of the Islamic views of UHA and Siauw for the emergence of the trend of hijrah Muslim youth. This article concludes that according to UHA, hijrah is a message of Islamic da'wa that not only tells about individual repentance but also as a current trend that young Muslims must follow. Meanwhile, Siauw interprets it as an effort to awaken the spirit of Muslims to achieve the establishment of the Islamic Khilafah.

Changing Times

Returning to England, Herbert found James I’s court and government in disarray but was forced to witness events from the side-lines due to illness. Chapter 6 explores his re-engagement with his family, estates, and court politics and his interest in the religious conflict of the period. It looks at his response to the trial of the earl and countess of Somerset for Sir Thomas Overbury’s murder, the removal of the Howard family from royal office, and the rising influence of the earl of Pembroke and his protégé, Sir George Villiers. It examines Herbert’s intellectual engagement with the soteriological conflict between Gomarists and Arminians in the United Provinces over the doctrine of predestination and his growing interest in Arminian and Socinian religious teaching. The development of his religious thinking is captured in letters written to Sir Robert Harley during 1617 to 1619, critiquing hard-line Calvinist teaching on salvation, and clearly influenced the writing of De Veritate which he drafted during the same period. The chapter ends with his return to court circles and successful application (with the support of Villiers, created earl and later duke of Buckingham by the besotted king) to advance his career as ambassador to the court of Louis XIII following the outbreak of rebellion in Bohemia.

The Language of “Overthrown Religion”: Tvardovsky about God

Purpose. In the literature about A. T. Tvardovsky, the theme of the writer's religiosity was rarely touched upon. The memoirs of contemporaries retained contradictory facts, by which it is difficult to judge Tvardovsky’s true convictions. This article presents the results of the study of the language of the writer. His poetry served as the material, and “Workbooks” were also involved. Results. Analysis of the poetic language showed that the life of the church, its language were familiar to a native of the Smolensk hinterland, as to every person of his time. Numerous References to various church realities are indicative – objects, buildings, people, sacraments, holidays. The subject of the research is the lexeme “God” and the peculiarities of its functioning in the poetic language of Tvardovsky, as well as, for comparison, in his documentary prose. For the early Tvardovsky, the rejection of the “old world” and its beliefs for the sake of Marxist-Leninist ideology is relevant. One of the vivid evidence of this refusal is the reduction of the constants of the religious thinking of the Russian person to sayings, idioms, and mentioning God in vain. The most categorical atheistic statements are put into the mouths of the heroes of the poems, for example, Nikita Morgunok and Terkin. The word God in idiomatic expressions is usually desemantized. Leaders, political and cultural idols are most often compared with God. Later, Tvardovsky significantly softens his atheistic positions, showing signs of spontaneous faith. He writes the penitential poem “By the Right of Memory”, becomes more careful and selective in expressions. Prose speech is enriched by a more conscious mention of God, mainly in contexts of supreme judgment, repentance and miraculous help. Tvardovsky opposes aggressive ideological policies that rudely try to replace one religion with another. In this process, he sees a metaphysical transition to the side of Evil. Conclusion. Tvardovsky experienced a spiritual evolution from militant autheism to a spontaneous faith, in which he was most worried about the problems of Higher Judgment and repentance. The highest value for him continued to be a person.

LITERARY AND PICTORIAL SOURCES OF THE SHEETS PAINTED BY THE YENISEI OLD BELIEVERS OF CHAPEL CONCORD

The article is devoted to the monuments of modern Old Believers’ culture – hand-drawn wall sheets with large text fragments created by the Old Believers of the Chapel Concord living on the Yenisei. These sheets are both a continuation of the Old Russian and Old Believer traditions and a form of modern propaganda art. In this article, the works of the Old Believers of the 20th century are considered in the context of their historical origins. Statement of the problem. Since the Old Believers’ culture as a whole is characterized by deep knowledge of the previous book culture and traditionalism of thinking, for comprehensive assessment of the painted sheets as a cultural phenomenon, it seems necessary to establish to what extent the creators of these monuments, which have an ultramodern form, were guided by tradition. The purpose of the article is to identify the literary and pictorial sources of the painted sheets of the Yenisei chapels and to characterize the features of their use. Review of scientific literature. The monuments were recently put into scientific circulation by a group of scientists who conducted archaeografical expeditions in Yenisei Siberia. The published works by A.A. Prigarin, E.V. Bykova, A.V. Kostrov, and A.A. Storozhenko are mainly devoted to the problem of visualization of images and characteristics of the environment for these sheets. Methodology. Classical historical, philological and comparative methods are used in the work. The results of the study. Specific sources of such sheets as “Two Roads – Two Ways”, “Ship of Faith” (“Ship of the Cross”), “World Wide Web. The World Wide Net” revealed the exact textual and pictorial quotations used by their creators from various editions of the facial Apocalypse, and the Life of Basil the New. In addition, the tradition is shown, within the framework of which the sheet “The inner state of the human heart during a righteous and sinful life” was created. Conclusion. A detailed analysis of the hand-drawn pictures that exist among modern Yenisei Old Believers of the Chapel Concord, shows that with all their modern content and form, they continue and creatively develop the age-old Old Believers’ tradition, which is based on a high book culture and religious thinking. Deep knowledge of this tradition is precisely confirmed by a variety of not only textual, but also pictorial quotations from the Apocalypse and other authoritative eschatological writings.

Logic and the Basis of Theology: an Investigation into the Help Logic Can Give to the Understanding of Different Theologies, Following the Contributions to Both Disciplines of Arthur Prior, 1914-1969

<p>My thesis is that modem symbolic mathematical logics have an important contribution to make to theologies. I demonstrate this firstly in a 'theoretical section' (i) by showing what logics are and why they can be trusted; (ii) by showing how all theologies may be correctly treated as axiomatic systems; (iii) by outlining some modern logics which can assist theological thinking, including a logic I construct for this purpose called the Theologic. I demonstrate this, secondly, in an 'applied logic' section, by looking at (iv) the theology of one current branch of Christianity in detail, outlining its logical problems and the consequences of trying to avoid them; (v) 'post-modern' Christian theologies, firstly those that suggest that the word 'God' is a symbol rather than a name, and secondly at three feminist theologies two of which are logically quite radical; (vi) pantheism, in particular at Spinoza's ideas and Lovelock's Gaia; (vii) two religions, Buddhism and Confucianism, which, in their basic religious thinking, can be said to have no gods. I find that all religions I have studied - and they are representative of religions actual, proposed and imagined - have serious logical flaws, some known of old, others brought to light by the modern logics. The consequences of making the religions more logically sound are generally unacceptable to the members of the faiths. The suggestion that the gods use a different sort of logic to us is generally logically unacceptable. This does not leave abandoning religion as the only other possibility: the work of theologians in future, assisted by mathematical logic, may be (a) to bring about changes in basic beliefs, and (b) to assist in the birth of new, logically sound, religions. These investigations are carried out in the spirit of A N Prior, who came to logic through a Christian upbringing which gave him an interest in theology, a desire to make that theology more consistent, and as Professor of Philosophy at Canterbury College (as it then was) taught me. My upbringing was similar. We both, in the end, found conventional Christianity too illogical to believe. Time having past, I have been able to examine the logic of other, and newer, theologies.</p>

Logic and the Basis of Theology: an Investigation into the Help Logic Can Give to the Understanding of Different Theologies, Following the Contributions to Both Disciplines of Arthur Prior, 1914-1969

<p>My thesis is that modem symbolic mathematical logics have an important contribution to make to theologies. I demonstrate this firstly in a 'theoretical section' (i) by showing what logics are and why they can be trusted; (ii) by showing how all theologies may be correctly treated as axiomatic systems; (iii) by outlining some modern logics which can assist theological thinking, including a logic I construct for this purpose called the Theologic. I demonstrate this, secondly, in an 'applied logic' section, by looking at (iv) the theology of one current branch of Christianity in detail, outlining its logical problems and the consequences of trying to avoid them; (v) 'post-modern' Christian theologies, firstly those that suggest that the word 'God' is a symbol rather than a name, and secondly at three feminist theologies two of which are logically quite radical; (vi) pantheism, in particular at Spinoza's ideas and Lovelock's Gaia; (vii) two religions, Buddhism and Confucianism, which, in their basic religious thinking, can be said to have no gods. I find that all religions I have studied - and they are representative of religions actual, proposed and imagined - have serious logical flaws, some known of old, others brought to light by the modern logics. The consequences of making the religions more logically sound are generally unacceptable to the members of the faiths. The suggestion that the gods use a different sort of logic to us is generally logically unacceptable. This does not leave abandoning religion as the only other possibility: the work of theologians in future, assisted by mathematical logic, may be (a) to bring about changes in basic beliefs, and (b) to assist in the birth of new, logically sound, religions. These investigations are carried out in the spirit of A N Prior, who came to logic through a Christian upbringing which gave him an interest in theology, a desire to make that theology more consistent, and as Professor of Philosophy at Canterbury College (as it then was) taught me. My upbringing was similar. We both, in the end, found conventional Christianity too illogical to believe. Time having past, I have been able to examine the logic of other, and newer, theologies.</p>

Typification of representative philosophical and religious perceptions of Ukrainian internet audience

The article aims to identify the particularities of philosophical and religious thinking inherent in the social network audience of Ukraine. Discourse analysis was chosen as the primary method to analyse a set of posts in the form of quotes with accompanying visual components and comments to them that were posted on “Facebook” in 2020 on the pages of public groups “Ukraine is Free World”, “For Ukraine”, “Dialogue.UA” and private groups “Ukrainians Global Network”, “Ukraine is You”, “Ukraine Onlineツ. The author analysed a total of 630 posts with God’s obligatory explicit or implicit component (The Higher Power), which bring out the existential issues of life, raison d’être, human values. The meaning of life is increasingly prominent in the philosophical and religious discourse of the Ukrainian sector of social networks. The idea of the meaning of life is presented on two levels: ideological and social. At the worldview level, ideas about the meaning of life are concentrated in the systemic principle: “Freedom is worth dying for”. At the social level, ideas about the meaning of life are concretised in the following concepts: socio-demographic, aesthetic, religious, hedonistic, hygge, success. The next most common issue is a subject of love understood by the Ukrainian audience of social networks as a system of traits: an active position with the other, value-based principles of a code of conduct, the meaning-making basis for self-realisation, recognising and acceptation the humanity of others, orientation on vital activity, goodwill, and unity, overcoming loneliness, a mode of self-determination. The subjects of time, different issues related to dying and death are ranked last. The tendency of philosophical and religious thinking has shaped the Ukrainian sector of social networks. It has the following special features: 1) view of the world and personal choice of life strategies is based on first-hand knowledge; 2) absence of abstract, unrealistic considerations; 3) strong link with a particular socio-cultural context; 4) focus on solving problems related to anthropological dimensions of philosophising: man as a unique being, the place of man in the world and his role in the processes of being, freedom and responsibility, time as a characteristic of human.

EVIDENCE FOR MONOTHEISM BETWEEN RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

The research is about the Islamic faith and it is interested in proving the monotheism issue from an Islamic and rational point of view. This will be fulfilled through a survey of evidences from Sunnah and a reading into philosophic approaches of the most well-known Arab-Islamic philosophers andthinlres such as ELFARABI, Ibn-SINA, el kendy, Ibn Roched and Cheik Mohamed Abdou ….This research aims mainly at: - Firmly establishing Religious thinking attempting to reconcile religion and philosophy. - Drawing a path where Ideology and philosophy could huddle together in harmony.

Udawanie i zabawa jako formy zaangażowanie religijnego

Pretense and play are present in a variety of religious traditions. They are used in religious thinking about the world as well as in ritual behavior. As a form of simulation, pretense and play are more than cultural forms because they occur in human and animal behavior. Simulation is based on complex cognitive and communicative processes and requires metacognitive and metacommunicative abilities. In religious practice, pretense and play tend to turn into serious and “authentic” behavior accompanied by the sense of reality characteristic for religious experience. It seems that the ability to cross the frames of pretense and play towards seriousness and authenticity is part of the logic of simulation. Categories of pretense and play can be used to explain the dynamic character of religious faith. The latter can be understood as shifting between two modes of experience: the reality mode (the world seen as “it is”) and the simulation mode (the world of “as if”).