DOCSLIB.ORG

Ibn Al 'Arabī, Hick and Religious Pluralism

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Ibn Al 'Arabī, Hick and Religious Pluralism Asian and African Area Studies, 7 (2): 145-157, 2008 Ibn al ‘Arabī, Hick and Religious Pluralism Mehmet Sait Reçber* Abstract In this paper, I analyze and give a critical examination of some basic issues of religious pluralism by reference to the mystical philosophy of Muhyi al-Din Ibn al ‘Arabī, who thought that various religious beliefs are to be considered as an outcome of different forms of the divine manifestation. In so doing, in order to show the relevance of Ibn al ‘Arabī’s thought to the contemporary debate of religious pluralism—in the philosophy of religion in particular—I fi rst give a brief description of John Hick’s religious plural- ism. Then I examine Ibn al ‘Arabī’s thinking on the issue and attempt to display the philosophical as well as theological problems it raises. I conclude that Ibn al ‘Arabī’s approach fails to address the problems facing religious pluralism inasmuch as it falls into the trap of a relativism which trivializes philosophical and religious truths-claims and also the ontological commitment of the traditional religious beliefs. Although the diversity of religious beliefs has always been a subject of philosophical and religious concern, it will be no exaggeration to say that it is only in the recent couple of decades that the issue has been so lively debated. The diversity of religions is a fact, but this needs to be carefully distinguished from that the idea of religious pluralism which is advanced as a theoretical explanation for such a phenomenon. The question of the diversity of religious beliefs should be evident: each religion puts forward a different set of religious truth-claims ranging from the nature of God to the human salvation. There is, to start with, a signifi cant difference between the theistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the non-theistic religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. The most common feature of the theistic religions is their agreement on the personal nature of God, a conviction which is not shared by the non-theistic religions. However, there are further differences within the theistic as well as non-theistic religions themselves. Thus, for instance, the doctrines of the divine trinity and incarnation, which are essential to the Christian faith, are in sharp contrast to Islamic concept of deity, which forcefully underlines the absolute unity (oneness) and transcendence of God. * Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Ankara University Accepted April 17, 2007 145 Asian and African Area Studies, 7 (2) Now, it may seem as a natural disposition to wonder how all these religions can equally be true or justifi ed in their truth-claims. Is there a shared ground behind this diversity? In other words, to what extent is the contention that “all religions refer to the same Being or God” justifi ed? Apart from the naturalistic and, arguably, reductionist explanations for the diversity of religious beliefs, there have been different religious approaches at this point. These attitudes are often characterized as exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism. Religious exclusivism argues for the truth of just one religion to the exclusion of the others; only the religion can gain warrant or truth and the rest of religions therefore are unwarranted or simply false. The salvation can thus be attained only through the faith and practice of one particular religion. Religious inclusivism, on the other hand, stands for the idea that although the religious truth is ultimately restricted to one religion, the followers of the other religious traditions can somewhat be included in the salvation. And fi nally, religious pluralism holds that all religious traditions are somewhat equally warranted inasmuch as each of them refl ects at least a partial truth with regard to the ultimate religious Reality or Truth. Hence they all can justifi ably lead to salvation [Quinn and Meeker 2000: 3]. Given that faith involves propositional truth-claims one might rightly think that an exclusivist attitude is somewhat inevitable. The truth of any religious belief that p will make any proposition that contradicts with p false. As Ward points out, “To believe a proposition is to think that it is true. To think that it is true is to affi rm that reality is as it is described by that proposition. … Thus an affi rmation by its nature excludes some possible state of affairs; namely, one which would render the proposition false. If an assertion excludes nothing, it affi rms nothing” [1990: 110]. A realist concept of truth thus seems to be essential to the traditional understanding of religious belief.1) Truth therefore matters for one’s faith. The exclusivist standpoint has often been criticized, by the pluralists in particular, to be an ar- rogant attitude refl ecting a self-appreciated superiority to other faiths. John Hick, who is the leading defender of religious pluralism in the contemporary philosophy of religion, thinks that an exclusivist view of religious belief is unjustifi ed and therefore he instead proposes an improvement through a revision or transformation in all major religious traditions [1989: 2]. It is however a question whether a pluralistic view can do justice to the nature of religious belief, apart from the philosophical and theological questions which it seems to have generated. In the greater part of this paper, I shall conduct a critical examination of the credentials of the religious pluralism by a particular reference to the mystical thought of Muhyi al-Din Ibn al ‘Arabī (1164-1240). Before this, however, in order 1) A pluralist such as Hick [1993: 3] too seems to have agreed to this fact. 146 REÇBER: Ibn al ‘Arabī, Hick and Religious Pluralism to see the relevance of Ibn al ‘Arabī’s thought to the contemporary debate, I shall provide a brief account of Hick’s religious pluralism. Hick’s religious pluralism seems to have an epistemological motivation to the extent that he propounds the pluralistic hypothesis as an explanatory answer to various forms of religious experi- ence. Considering varieties of religious experience as instantiated in different religious traditions, the pluralistic hypothesis is meant to provide an explanation by postulating a common reference for them. Each type of religious experience is considered to be a response to the Real. However, the Real in itself, as the Ultimate Reality, is beyond all experiential categories. In developing his pluralistic hypothesis, Hick starts with the observation that the world is religiously ambiguous and this, in his view, makes a naturalistic as well as a religious interpretation of religious experience equally possible. Following a middle route between a naturalistic and a religious interpretation of religious experience, Hick argues for “the third possibility that the great post-axial faiths constitute different ways of experiencing, conceiving and living in relation to the ultimate divine Reality which transcends all our varied visions of it” [1989: 235-236]. What makes the post-axial religious tradi- tions (such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism) particularly distinctive, on this account, is the fact that they all aim at a radical transformation of the human reality from being self- centered to the Reality or Divine-centered. In all these traditions, in Hick’s view, there is an attempt to free the human life from a self-centered state by associating it to a further fact, called it God, Reality or Truth [Hick 1988: 2]. What seems to have led Hick to think that all these diverse religious experiences should be considered in the same boat is his meta-epistemological intuition that all human experience is actively processed by the epistemic make-up of their subjects. At this point, Hick makes a reference to the Muslim Sufi thinker Junaid’s idea that “the colour of the water is the same as that of its container” and also to the similar observation of St Thomas Aquinas that “things known are in the knower according to the mode of the knower” [1989: 240-241]. From this, Hick concludes that all the forms of religious experience are inevitably shaped by the noetic structure of the subjects who are in turn infl uenced by the “religio-cultural systems [in which] … the Real is thought and experienced…”[1989: 241]. At the bedrock of Hick’s thought is the Kantian meta-epistemological intuition that the human mind, through its categories and concepts, regulates our sensory experience or perception. This, along with the Kantian lines, leads Hick to make a distinction of noumena and phenomena in grounding religious experience: the Real in itself is postulated as the noumenal ground of the religious experiential phenomena. Unlike the Kantian categories that are ‘universal and invariable,’ the categories of religious experience, Hick argues, are ‘culture-relative.’ Even so, various phenomenal experiences of the Real are considered to be 147 Asian and African Area Studies, 7 (2) empirically genuine or the authentic manifestations of the Real [1989: 241-244].2) Thus Hick maintains: …our human religious experience, variously shaped as it is by our sets of religious concepts, is a cognitive response to the universal presence of the ultimate divine Reality that, in itself, exceeds human conceptuality. This Reality is however manifested to us in ways formed by a variety of human concepts, as the range of the divine personae and metaphysical impersonae witnessed to in the history of religions. Each major tradition, built around its own distinctive way of thinking- and-experiencing the Real, has developed its own answers to the perennial questions of our origin and destiny, constituting more or less comprehensive and coherent cosmologies and eschatologies. These are human creations which have, by their association with living streams of religious experi- ence, become invested with a sacred authority.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Religious Diversity in America an Historical Narrative
    Teaching Tool 2018 Religious Diversity in America An Historical Narrative Written by Karen Barkey and Grace Goudiss with scholarship and recommendations from scholars of the Haas Institute Religious Diversity research cluster at UC Berkeley HAASINSTITUTE.BERKELEY.EDU This teaching tool is published by the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley This policy brief is published by About the Authors Citation the Haas Institute for a Fair and Karen Barkey is Professor of Barkey, Karen and Grace Inclusive Society. This brief rep- Sociology and Haas Distinguished Goudiss. “ Religious Diversity resents research from scholars Chair of Religious Diversity at in America: An Historical of the Haas Institute Religious Berkeley, University of California. Narrative" Haas Institute for Diversities research cluster, Karen Barkey has been engaged a Fair and Inclusive Society, which includes the following UC in the comparative and historical University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley faculty: study of empires, with special CA. September 2018. http:// focus on state transformation over haasinstitute.berkeley.edu/ Karen Munir Jiwa time. She is the author of Empire religiousdiversityteachingtool Barkey, Haas Center for of Difference, a comparative study Distinguished Islamic Studies Published: September 2018 Chair Graduate of the flexibility and longevity of Sociology Theological imperial systems; and editor of Union, Berkeley Choreography of Sacred Spaces: Cover Image: A group of people are march- Jerome ing and chanting in a demonstration. Many State, Religion and Conflict Baggett Rossitza of the people are holding signs that read Resolution (with Elazar Barkan), "Power" with "building a city of opportunity Jesuit School of Schroeder that works for all" below.
    [Show full text]
  • The Problem of Religious Pluralism
    Scholars Crossing Faculty Publications and Presentations Department of Philosophy 2008 The Problem of Religious Pluralism Michael S. Jones Liberty University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/phil_fac_pubs Part of the Christianity Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Jones, Michael S., "The Problem of Religious Pluralism" (2008). Faculty Publications and Presentations. 4. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/phil_fac_pubs/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Philosophy at Scholars Crossing. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of Scholars Crossing. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Problem of Religious Pluralism Michael S. Jones, PhD The “problem of religious pluralism” engages several distinct but interrelated issues. The “problem” arises when one considers the variety of religious beliefs and practices in the world and, taking into consideration both their similarities and differences, attempts to formulate a coherent position on their origin, truthfulness, soteriological efficacy, and value in general. Of these questions, the one that has received the most treatment is the question of the soteriological efficacy of the world’s religions. That all religions contain some truth is not generally disputed: Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Islam have the truth of monotheism, for example; some versions of Hinduism are also theistic in their final analysis of ultimate reality (see, for example, the theologies of Sankara and Ramanuja) and have well-developed theodicies, epistemologies, and absolutist ethical systems; the central role of self-giving love in Mahayana Buddhism certainly has biblical parallels, and so on.
    [Show full text]
  • A Critical Evaluation of John Hick's Religious Pluralism in Light of His Eschatological Model
    Andrews University Digital Commons @ Andrews University Dissertations Graduate Research 2009 A Critical Evaluation of John Hick's Religious Pluralism in Light of His Eschatological Model Haejong Je Andrews University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dissertations Part of the Philosophy Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Je, Haejong, "A Critical Evaluation of John Hick's Religious Pluralism in Light of His Eschatological Model" (2009). Dissertations. 70. https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dissertations/70 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Research at Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF JOHN HICK’S RELIGIOUS PLURALISM IN LIGHT OF HIS ESCHATOLOGICAL MODEL by Haejong Je Adviser: John T. Baldwin ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH Dissertation Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary Title: A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF JOHN HICK’S RELIGIOUS PLURALISM IN LIGHT OF HIS ESCHATOLOGICAL MODEL Name of researcher: Haejong Je Name and degree of faculty adviser: John T. Baldwin, Ph.D. Date approved: April 2009 Introduction to the Problem The philosophy of John Hick, who is famous for his religious pluralism, has received vigorous study in terms of its epistemology, authority, the concept of God, and Christology. However, less attention has been given to his pareschatology. As explained below, initial investigation shows that there is a need for in-depth study of Hick’s religious philosophy in this area.
    [Show full text]
  • Diversity Without Pluralism: Religious Landscape in Mainland China
    religions Article Diversity without Pluralism: Religious Landscape in Mainland China Yongjia Liang Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, 11 Arts Link, #04-25, Singapore 117570, Singapore; [email protected] Received: 3 October 2017; Accepted: 9 January 2018; Published: 12 January 2018 Abstract: The paper explores religious diversity and pluralism in the religioscape of mainland China with three examples. While religious diversity is de facto practice, “religious pluralism” is not socially recognised, culturally legitimised, or discursively institutionalised. On the one hand, state co-option of religious groups is achieved through particular definition of “religion” without the conceptualisation of pluralism, leaving undefined religious activities to cultural policy or national security measures. On the other hand, practices that might be identified as religious elsewhere does not usually self-identified as such, not to say seek for the right of religious freedom. To explain the absence of articulated/institutionalised “religious pluralism” in China, the paper provides three examples—civil activism against tomb-levelling campaign, “the Society of Disciples” (mentuhui), and a ritual service provider. The paper argues that the religioscape of mainland China is one with de facto religious diversity without the ideology of religious pluralism, because the diverse religious practices do not make a conscious reference to pluralism, remain non-institutional, disinterested in religious freedom, and, most important of all, below
    [Show full text]
  • Pluralism and Religious Freedom
    Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe Volume 15 Issue 6 Article 2 12-1995 Pluralism and Religious Freedom Alan Geyer Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C. Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Eastern European Studies Commons Recommended Citation Geyer, Alan (1995) "Pluralism and Religious Freedom," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 15 : Iss. 6 , Article 2. Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol15/iss6/2 This Article, Exploration, or Report is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PLURALISM AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM by Alan Geyer Dr. Alan Geyer (United Methodist) is Professor of Political Ethics and Ecumenics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC; Resident Ethicist at Washington National Cathedral; and Senior Scholar of The Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy. Many of his numerous scholarly writings dealt with East-West issues. This was a paper delivered at the Conference on "Christian Faith and Human Enmity" Kecskemét, Hungary, August 24, 1995. Any American invited to speak about the role of religion in the political conflicts of Europe must begin by acknowledging the intensity of religious and political conflicts within the United States. In many ways, our American constitutional tradition of separation of church and state that has been a vital guardian of religious liberty--yet its specific implications remain confused and are bitterly embattled at present.
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Syncretism As a Worldwide Mission Challenge: a Biblical and Missiological Response
    Religious Syncretism as a Worldwide Mission Challenge: A Biblical and Missiological Response Boubakar Sanou ABSTRACT—Globalization has put the major world religions within the reach of almost everyone in the world today. Worldwide migration patterns, international travel and trade, progress in communications technology, and international media activities have introduced people to nearly all religious traditions. More and more thinkers, including some Christians, are advocating a pluralistic theology of religions, thus asserting the subjectivity of religious beliefs. As a result, many people are increasingly picking and choosing among various religious traditions and their practices to meet personal needs. Three major factors contributing to religious syncretism are discussed in this article. A biblical and missiological response addressing the challenge posed by religious syncretism to Christian mission is suggested. Keywords: Mission, Syncretism, Postmodernism, Religious pluralism, Culture, Discipleship. I. Introduction Religious syncretism is frequently referenced in the Bible. In part, the Ten Commandments are God’s instructions against religious syncretism because the first three commandments (Exod 20:1-7) charge the Israelites “to distinctively stand before God without reliance on any other gods” (Van Rheenen, 1997, p. 173). Just as the Israelites were warned against rejecting Yahweh and serving other gods (Deut 11:16; 2 Kgs 10:23), the New Testament also speaks strongly against dual allegiance and syncretism (Matt 6:24; 1 Cor 10:14; Rev 22:15). Syncretism is a worldwide religious challenge. According to Manuscript received May. 24, 2013; revised Aug. 1, 2013; accepted Aug. 27, 2013. Boubakar Sanou ([email protected]) is a PhD candidate in Mission Studies at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, U.S.A.
    [Show full text]
  • Pluralism, Tolerance and New Age
    PLURALISM, TOLERANCE AND NEW AGE By Marsudi Utoyo SEKOLAH TINGGI ILMU HUKUM SUMPAH PEMUDA Abstract Understanding of religious pluralism that is taught in the context of Pancasila is a perspective seats the all religions in the same position so that the position of all religions in equal assume. Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, other religions and beliefs based understanding local cultures is a reality that still exists in Indonesia. Pluralism is carried here departs from socio-religious, in which religious pluralism as a basis that bring forth to respect other religions and other beliefs that exist in Indonesia. In Article 29, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia in 1945, the state provides the freedom and tolerance on the life of religious freedom. The cornerstone of religious life is based orthopraxis religious life meaning, truth, glory, and majesty of God Almighty which we live and ring in the faith that we profess, should be evident in the praxis of everyday life in the form of attitudes and religious tolerance. Keywords: Pluralism, Tolerance, New Age. I. INTRODUCTION A. Background Pluralism has some perspective, social, cultural and political. In a social perspective, pluralism counteract the domination and hegemony groups or religious sects, as well as negating the concentration of social power on one group or stream. While the perspective of cultural pluralism prevent loss of flow due to religious school destroyed by the mainstream hegemonic, and on the other hand the arrogance counteract mainstream religious denominations that are often tempted or historically- empirical abuse and oppression flow or any other religion.
    [Show full text]
  • RELIGIOUS PLURALISM in ISLAM Dr
    Volume 1, Issue 2 Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization Fall 2011 RELIGIOUS PLURALISM IN ISLAM Dr. Adnan Aslan ABSTRACT This paper is aimed at enumeration of some of the Quranic principles to suggest an account of 'Islamic pluralism'. The Quran accepts plurality as a natural phenomenon. Allah SWT states in the Quran: ―O Humankind! Verily we have created you of a male and female; and we have distributed you in nations and tribes that you might know one another and recognise that, in the sight of God the most honourable of you is the most pious. Verily God is wise and all knowing‖ (49:13). The aim of Islam is to integrate such diversity into unity through the sacred principles of the Quran; it explains the reason and purpose for such racial and religious multiplicity. After arriving in Medina, the Holy Prophet SAW introduced a new structure and value system which was connected through religion and citizenship instead of tribal links. He formed the constitution of Medina which stated the terms of relationships with Jews of Medina. The Prophet SAW extended the act of citizenship and co-operation to the Christians of Najran. The paper glances through Islamic history in order to identify a common official attitude of Muslim authority towards non-Muslim subjects. Key words: Pluralism, Religious, Quran, Proposition, Medina ▬▬▬▬▬ In this paper, I would like to first enumerate some of the Quranic principles with regard to the issue of religious pluralism as propositions, with the aim to give an account of 'Islamic pluralism'. I will formulate these propositions on the basis of Quranic verses which suggest a pluralistic attitude as against argument to those which suggest an inclusivist attitude.
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Pluralism and Islam
    1 Religious Pluralism and Islam (Lecture delivered to the Institute for Islamic Culture and Thought, Tehran, in February 2005) John Hick The subject of the relationship between the religions is extremely important, even more so today than in the past. For centuries almost every war between the nations has involved religion, not as its primary cause, but as a validating and intensifying factor. However I am going to treat religious diversity now as a topic in the philosophy of religion, although in the course of doing so it will emerge that some conceptions of this relationship are much more easily exploited to justify and encourage war and exploitation than others. Why is this a philosophical problem? Each religion is accustomed to think of itself as either the one and only true faith, or at least the truest and best. Must not the situation, then, simply be that one of them is right and the rest wrong, either absolutely or only relatively wrong? But here is a consideration which makes this view of the situation problematic. In the vast majority of cases throughout the world, probably 98% or so, the religion to which a person adheres (and also against which some rebel) depends on where they were born. Someone born into a Muslim family in a Muslim country, or indeed a Muslim family in a non-Muslim country, is very likely to become a Muslim. Someone born into a Christian family is equally likely to become a Christian. And the same is true of Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Taoists. It is very unlikely that someone born into a Buddhist family in Tibet will grow up as a Christian or a Muslim; very unlikely that someone born into a Muslim family in Iran or in Pakistan will grow up as a Christian or a Buddhist; and so on round the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Pluralism in Religious Studies
    Religious Pluralism in Religious Studies Amanda Porterfield Religious pluralism is a term for religious diversity that imputes positive meaning to religion and encourages appreciation of religion’s many forms. As a term used to describe religious diversity in the United States, religious pluralism conveys respect for the contributions that religious traditions have made and continue to make to American society. Implying that religion is common ground in a shared democratic culture, people who use the term often convey idealism about religion’s role in upholding democracy. This idealism presumes that different traditions are intrinsically compatible; indeed, resources to be drawn upon for national unity and strength. Within academic studies of religion, religious pluralism has played an important role in expanding the horizons of many students and encouraging intellectual curiosity and open-mindedness. In this respect, religious pluralism fosters the liberal education, scholarly inquiry, and open exchange valued in academic life. Compared to exclusionary approaches to religion that hold one faith tradition up as true or superior and consider others to be false or inferior, religious pluralism marks an important advance in endeavors to understand peoples and cultures on their own terms. At the same time, though, religious pluralism operates to some extent like a religion itself, a conceptual framework of interpretation that rests in a universal and finally mystical understanding of religion and its essential importance for human existence. 2 Religious pluralism thrives in academic settings where instructors lead students to slip imaginatively into different religious worlds and belief systems. With students expected to be open-minded learners respectful of others, the classroom is well-suited for such explorations.
    [Show full text]
  • Conclusion: a Prehistory of Hindu Pluralism
    Conclusion A Prehistory of Hindu Pluralism A CONTINUING LEGACY: THE MAKING OF A HINDU SECTARIAN COMMUNITY Who invented Smārta-Śaivism? Was the tradition created ex nihilo through the abstract discourses of an intellectual elite, or did it emerge organically through the unfolding of social dynamics over the course of the early modern centuries? As with the purported “invention” of Hinduism, to identify the moment and cir- cumstances of birth of a particular sectarian tradition raises a number of vexing theoretical questions about historical causation—the process by which a genuinely new cultural edifice comes into being. My aim in this work has been to sketch the unmistakable impressions of public theology on the embodied, socially embedded boundaries of Smārta religious life, its role in shaping emerging modes of religious identity—a process that cannot be reduced either to hegemonic domination or to elitist fancy. Indeed, the impact of Smārta-Śaivism on contemporary religious cul- ture in Tamil Nadu extends far beyond the boundaries of maṭha or sampradāya, “monastery” or “lineage.” Much in the way that the “Sacred Games of Śiva,” the distinctive legend of place of Madurai, has historicizable discursive origins in the public theology of the seventeenth century, the same can be said for the wider public Smārta culture of the Tamil region. The subsequent inauguration of a public regional culture, from the Śrīvidyā inflection of Carnatic music (Shulman 2014) to the public esotericism of contemporary Chennai (Kachroo 2015), bears the dis- tinct impressions of the actors and events of early modernity. The Smārta-Śaiva community—with its perduring alliance between Śaṅkarācārya renunciant lineages, the monastic institutions they maintain, as- sociated temple complexes such as the Kāmākṣī Temple of Kanchipuram, and a 183 184 Conclusion laity comprised largely of south Indian Smārta Brahmins—an integral feature of Tamil Smārta culture today, began to emerge under specific and eminently ob- servable social circumstances in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
    [Show full text]
  • History and Religion Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche Und Vorarbeiten
    History and Religion Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten Herausgegeben von Jörg Rüpke und Christoph Uehlinger Band 68 History and Religion Narrating a Religious Past Edited by Bernd-Christian Otto, Susanne Rau and Jörg Rüpke with the support of Andrés Quero-Sánchez ISBN 978-3-11-044454-4 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-044595-4 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-043725-6 ISSN 0939-2580 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck ∞ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com TableofContents Historyand Religion 1 Section I Origins and developments Introduction 21 Johannes Bronkhorst The historiography of Brahmanism 27 Jörg Rüpke Construing ‘religion’ by doinghistoriography: The historicisation of religion in the Roman Republic 45 Anders Klostergaard Petersen The use of historiography in Paul: Acase-study of the instrumentalisation of the past in the context of Late Second Temple Judaism 63 Ingvild Sælid Gilhus Flirty fishing and poisonous serpents: Epiphanius of Salamis inside his Medical chestagainstheresies 93 Sylvie Hureau Reading sutras in biographies of Chinese Buddhist monks 109 Chase F. Robinson Historyand
    [Show full text]