All Things Religion

Mr Daisey and the Apple Factory

2012-01-12T19:11:00.005-05:00

Mr Daisey and the Apple Factory (This American Life, 6 January 2012)

Abstract:

Mike Daisey was a self-described "worshipper in the cult of Mac." Then he saw some photos from a new iPhone, taken by workers at the factory where it was made. Mike wondered: Who makes all my crap? He traveled to China to find out.

Link: Mr Daisey and the Apple Factory

Shit Christians Say To Jews (Youtube)

2012-01-10T20:42:00.000-05:00

Thomas Aquinas Music Video (Youtube)

2012-01-10T20:38:00.001-05:00

The stunning trio of Bambi, Vicki, and Angelica sing the popular Bananarama tune with lyrics about the great philosopher Thomas Aquinas. Vicki is the cool one. Angelica is the smart one. Bambi is blonde.

Buying the Body of Christ

2012-01-10T19:06:00.002-05:00

Buying the Body of Christ, by Rowan Moore Gerety (Killing The Buddha, 3 January 2012)

Excerpts:

Nineteen clicks of the mouse, the electronic brandishing of a credit card, thirteen dollars of my savings. A box of communion wafers was on its way to my apartment. Five days later, it arrived: five hundred whole-wheat discs emblazoned with a cross, packed like bags of Lay’s into two puffed plastic sacks. The size of a half-dollar, an eighth of an inch thick. My roommate, a lapsed but confirmed Catholic, couldn’t get enough of them, inhaling one after the other as if to bring some junk-food jingle to life. Analogies to Styrofoam notwithstanding, they are a low-fat snack. (In Quebec, they have even been marketed that way; prior to consecration, the host is only bread.) I watched him toss the wafers back like popcorn—the unrealized body of Christ, purchased on the Internet.

The wafers I bought were manufactured by the Cavanagh Company of Greenville, Rhode Island, which now makes 80 percent of the “altar breads” consumed in the US. The automation in Cavanagh’s facility is on par with that of Pepperidge Farm or Frito-Lay: they use custom-converted versions of the wafer ovens that turn out cream-filled vanilla wafers, and bake according to a patent-protected process that gives their wafers a sealed edge—to avoid crumbs. Cavanagh’s engraving plates stamp crosses and Christian lambs in their dough, while other companies use the same equipment to emboss their wheaten products with trademarks and brand-unique tessellations. Their batter is tested with an electronic viscometer. Their flour blend is a trade secret.

Link: Buying the Body of Christ

How Luther Went Viral

2012-01-03T00:11:00.003-05:00

Social Media in the 16th Century: How Luther Went Viral (The Economist, 17 December 2011)

Excerpts:

It is a familiar-sounding tale: after decades of simmering discontent a new form of media gives opponents of an authoritarian regime a way to express their views, register their solidarity and co-ordinate their actions. The protesters’ message spreads virally through social networks, making it impossible to suppress and highlighting the extent of public support for revolution. The combination of improved publishing technology and social networks is a catalyst for social change where previous efforts had failed.

That’s what happened in the Arab spring. It’s also what happened during the Reformation, nearly 500 years ago, when Martin Luther and his allies took the new media of their day—pamphlets, ballads and woodcuts—and circulated them through social networks to promote their message of religious reform.

Scholars have long debated the relative importance of printed media, oral transmission and images in rallying popular support for the Reformation. Some have championed the central role of printing, a relatively new technology at the time. Opponents of this view emphasise the importance of preaching and other forms of oral transmission. More recently historians have highlighted the role of media as a means of social signalling and co-ordinating public opinion in the Reformation.

Now the internet offers a new perspective on this long-running debate, namely that the important factor was not the printing press itself (which had been around since the 1450s), but the wider system of media sharing along social networks—what is called “social media” today. Luther, like the Arab revolutionaries, grasped the dynamics of this new media environment very quickly, and saw how it could spread his message.

Link: Social Media in the 16th Century: How Luther Went Viral

The 'Iranian Schindler' who saved Jews from the Nazis

2011-12-21T22:14:00.002-05:00

The 'Iranian Schindler' who saved Jews from the Nazis, by Brian Wheeler (BBC News, 21 December 2011)

Abstract:

Thousands of Iranian Jews and their descendants owe their lives to a Muslim diplomat in wartime Paris, according to a new book. In The Lion's Shadow tells how Abdol-Hossein Sardari risked everything to help fellow Iranians escape the Nazis.

Link: The 'Iranian Schindler' who saved Jews from the Nazis

Global Christianity A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population

2011-12-21T19:50:00.004-05:00

Global Christianity A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population (Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life)

Abstract:

A comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries finds that there are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 2010 global population of 6.9 billion. Christians are also geographically widespread – so far-flung, in fact, that no single continent or region can indisputably claim to be the center of global Christianity.

A century ago, this was not the case. In 1910, about two-thirds of the world’s Christians lived in Europe, where the bulk of Christians had been for a millennium, according to historical estimates by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity.2 Today, only about a quarter of all Christians live in Europe (26%). A plurality – more than a third – now are in the Americas (37%). About one in every four Christians lives in sub-Saharan Africa (24%), and about one-in-eight is found in Asia and the Pacific (13%).

Links:

Ramayana Row Divides India

2011-11-09T21:07:00.003-05:00

Ramayana Row Divides India, by Sudha Ramachandran (Asia Times, 10 November 2011)

Excerpts:

India's liberal intellectual tradition has received a stunning blow with the removal of an essay that celebrates diversity from Delhi University's BA history (honors) syllabus. The decision marks the "surrender of academic freedom to political pressure", eminent Indian historian Romila Thapar has lamented. The essay in question is the late A K Ramanujan's Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translations. Written in 1987, the essay drew attention to the "astonishing" number of "tellings" of the Indian epic, Ramayana (the story of Ram) over the past 2,500 years in different languages, regions and mediums.

"Just a list of languages in which the Rama story is found makes one gasp: Annamese, Balinese, Bengali, Cambodian [Khmer], Chinese, Gujarati, Javanese, Kannada, Kashmiri, Khotanese, Laotian, Malaysian, Marathi, Oriya, Prakrit, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sinhalese, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan - to say nothing of Western languages. Through the centuries, some of these languages have hosted more than one telling of the Rama story. Sanskrit alone contains some 25 or more tellings belonging to various narrative genres. If we add plays, dance-dramas and other performances, in both the classical and folk traditions, the number of Ramayanas grows even larger," Ramanujan wrote.

Link: Ramayana Row Divides India

Synagogue rises from ruins in German town with Jewish tradition

2011-11-09T19:03:00.002-05:00

Synagogue rises from ruins in German town with Jewish tradition, by Igal Avidan (Deutsche Welle, 8 November 2011)

Excerpts:

Jews had lived in Speyer for 1,000 years, before being deported and murdered in the Holocaust. A former church has been converted into a new synagogue, which is making the community visible once again.

"We are here and we don't want to hide from anybody," said Daniel Nemirovski, who manages the affairs of the organization known as the Jewish Community of Rhineland Palatinate.

Here, on the pastureland not far from the main station in Speyer, is the former home of the Catholic St. Guido Foundation. After it was closed in 1996, it suffered the same fate as an adjacent church. In that same year, new immigrant Jews founded their cultural association.

Frankfurt architect Alfred Jacoby converted the abandoned church into a synagogue for the area's new Jewish population. He finds it particularly appealing to be involved with this re-establishment of Jewish life in the area. "My design has connections with the Christian history of Speyer," he said.

Link: Synagogue rises from ruins in German town with Jewish tradition

Blessing a Building — Building a Blessing: How the New Synagogue in Mainz Has Its Cake and Eats It Too

2011-11-09T18:59:00.002-05:00

Blessing a Building — Building a Blessing: How the New Synagogue in Mainz Has Its Cake and Eats It Too, by Gavriel Rosenfeld (Jewish Daily Forward, 29 September 2010)

Excerpt:

The construction of a new synagogue is always an occasion for celebration, so it was with particular pomp that the Rhineland city of Mainz recently dedicated its new synagogue and Jewish community center. The dedication ceremonies, held September 3, featured an array of German politicians, including German President Christian Wulff. Many of them blessed the new building and underscored its symbolic significance. Yet, while the synagogue received its share of blessings, it also gave physical expression to them in its architectural form. Designed by the German-Jewish architect Manuel Herz, Mainz’s striking new synagogue complex traces its inspiration back to the third “blessing” in the Amidah — the Kedusha. The connection between the word and the synagogue’s appearance is not immediately obvious. But Herz’s drawings for the building reveal that its sawtooth form partly derives from the jagged pattern produced by the word’s five Hebrew letters: kuf, daled, vav, shin and hay.

Link: Blessing a Building — Building a Blessing: How the New Synagogue in Mainz Has Its Cake and Eats It Too

Eid: Being LGBT and Muslim

2011-11-08T21:37:00.003-05:00

Eid: Being LGBT and Muslim, by El-Farouk Khaki (Huffington Post, 7 November 2011)

Excerpts:

Eid in Arabic means feast or festivity. Muslims celebrate two religious Eids: Eid ul-Fitri is the celebration at the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. It is the more festive celebration after a month of abstinence and self-control; children receive money (Eidi) or presents and new clothes, so do some adults. Everyone will wear his or her finery.

The Eid that we are celebrating now is the more somber festival and has multiple names including Eid al-Adha or Eid e-Qurban (both meaning Festival of Sacrifice) and Eid ul-Hajj (Festival of Hajj). It celebrates the end of the Hajj or the pilgrimage to Mecca during which Muslims around the world celebrate along with the almost 3 million pilgrims in Mecca.

The story of Eid ul-Adha is mostly narrated as the story of the miracle of God replacing Abraham's son with a ram at the moment of intended sacrifice by Abraham of his son Ismail. The miracle is celebrated with the sacrifice of an animal and the distribution of the meat to family, community and the poor. It is a grand tale of patriarchy and submission.

Link: Eid: Being LGBT and Muslim, by El-Farouk Khaki (Huffington Post, 7 November 2011)

Watch the Hajj Live on Youtube

2011-11-03T23:59:00.002-04:00

Abstract:
The Hajj is an ancient ritual, but now, through the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information's YouTube channel, millions of people from around the world will be able to experience and comment on the event via livestream on Youtube.

Links:

Exploring Ties Between Halacha and Shariah

2011-11-03T20:38:00.003-04:00

Exploring Ties Between Halacha and Shariah, by Ben Sales (The Jewish Daily Forward, 2 November 2011)

Excerpts:

Abraham and Isaac — or, as some would have it, Ibrahim and Ishmael — took center stage when some of America’s most prominent Modern Orthodox rabbis and Muslim imams discussed their respective legal systems and foundational texts, and their implications for Jewish-Muslim relations today.

The October 30 seminar “Ancient Texting” brought together 15 rabbis expert in Halacha, or traditional Jewish law, and 15 imams steeped in Shariah, traditional Muslim law, for a recent daylong seminar at Manhattan’s historic Temple Emanu-El, a Reform congregation. While much of the day’s discussion was theoretical and textual in nature, conversations often revolved around issues concerning both communities. The speakers also touched on areas of conflict between them, such as differing positions regarding Israel, and problematic texts in the tradition of each faith.

Link: Exploring Ties Between Halacha and Shariah

Where Did Religion Come From?

2011-11-02T20:26:00.002-04:00

Where Did Religion Come From? By Robert N. Bellah (SSRC, The Immanent Frame)

Excerpt:

When an interviewer for the Atlantic Monthly blog asked me “What prompted you to write this book?” I apparently replied, “Deep desire to know everything: what the universe is and where we are in it.” I don’t deny that I said it—it’s just that I would have thought I would have given a more pedestrian reply, because I am a sociologist, with a Ph.D. in my discipline and some 40 years experience as a professor at Harvard and Berkeley. And I am quite aware that early in the last century Max Weber, in a famous 1918 talk called “Science as a Vocation,” warned that “science has entered a phase of specialization previously unknown and this will forever remain the case.” It does seem that he didn’t apply this dictum to himself, but he was talking about the future when huge projects like his own would no longer be possible. So what is this “deep desire to know everything” in a world of super-specialization? When I look at books like Robert Wright’s The Evolution of God, Nicholas Wade’s The Faith Instinct, Pascal Boyer’s Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. and Scott Atran’s In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion, recent books that might seem parallel to my own new book, I can only say Weber was right—these books should not have been written, or, to be charitable, they may be good journalism but they are not serious contributions to understanding.

Link: Where Did Religion Come From?

Holy smoke: Islamic preachers are drawing on a Christian tradition

2011-11-01T23:18:00.002-04:00

Holy smoke: Islamic preachers are drawing on a Christian tradition (The Economist, 29 October 2011)

Excerpts:

Screaming hordes of teenage girls are a common sight at pop concerts and film premières. They are less usual when waiting to hear a religious preacher. But such girls—one gasping “I can see him, I can see him” through the folds of her niqab—awaited Moez Masoud, an Egyptian televangelist, recently in Cairo. He is part of a growing band of Islamic preachers who are true celebrities, says Yasmin Moll, a researcher at New York University, who attended Mr Masoud’s talk.

They draw on a Christian tradition pioneered in the 1950s by such preachers as Billy Graham. For the past ten years Amr Khaled, an Egyptian one-time accountant turned televangelist star, has led the way. Previously television preachers fitted the stereotype of white-haired, bearded sheikhs in white robes, monotonously exhorting the faithful, in classical Arabic, to follow the strictures of Islam more exactly.

In 2001 Mr Khaled burst onto screens with his show “Words from the Heart” and his brand of modern, moderate piety. Sharp-suited, mustachioed and speaking colloquial Egyptian, Mr Khaled and his audience (of men and women) discussed the concerns of young Muslims, such as whether Islam forbids cinema-going.

Link: Holy smoke: Islamic preachers are drawing on a Christian tradition

Holy relevance: Faith can influence economic behaviour—but not always directly

2011-11-01T22:59:00.003-04:00

Holy relevance: Faith can influence economic behaviour—but not always directly (The Economist, 29 October 2011)

Excerpts:

As Protestant Europe, in its own eyes virtuous and thrifty, wrestles with the debt problems of the continent’s Catholic and Orthodox countries, the idea that religious affiliation may influence the way people save, work and spend is more appealing than ever. The toppling of Arab tyrants has lent urgency to a similar enquiry: do Islam and Islamism permit the legal and social conditions that make for prosperity?

Clearly many modern religious leaders have strong ideas about economics. In western Europe, organised Christianity often acts as a modest voice in the ranks of the egalitarian left. This month’s anti-banker protests in London initially found a friendly base for their tent city at Saint Paul’s cathedral. (In recent days, Richard Chartres, the bishop of London, has asked them to leave, while acknowledging that they had raised important issues.) In America religious voices both praise and decry the capitalist order. Also on the borderline between economics and ethics, many religious leaders have taken up the cause of climate change, and urged people to change their behaviour—though this week an Australian cardinal, George Pell, bucked that trend by addressing a group of climate-change sceptics in London.

But all the most interesting theories about religion and behaviour refer to unconscious influences. The best-known was devised by Max Weber, a father of modern sociology, who drew a connection between the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Noting that Protestant parts of Germany were doing better (in the 19th century) than Catholic ones, he thought the “inner loneliness” of Protestants—who can never be sure if they are saved in the eyes of God—made them work harder. Unlike many other forms of faith, Protestantism has no mystical rite to absolve sin.

Link: Holy relevance: Faith can influence economic behaviour—but not always directly

U.S. Hispanics Choose Churches Outside Catholicism

2011-11-01T04:00:00.003-04:00

U.S. Hispanics Choose Churches Outside Catholicism, by Barbara Bradley Hagerty (NPR Morning Edition, 19 October 2011)

Excerpts:

As their numbers grow, Latinos are not only changing where and how they worship; they're also beginning to affect the larger Christian faith. You can see evidence of that in the Assemblies of God, once a historically white, suburban Pentecostal denomination. When you walk into the denomination's largest church, it's sensory overload: The auditorium is jam-packed with hundreds of Latino worshipers singing in Spanish, swaying and dancing.

In little more than a decade, New Life Covenant Church in Chicago has grown from 68 people to more than 4,000 members; it had to abandon its old building and meet in Clemente High School. When you include the other churches New Life has started, its membership comes to some 12,000 people.

Link: U.S. Hispanics Choose Churches Outside Catholicism

Dalai Lama: Inner Peace, Happiness, God and Money

2011-11-01T01:06:00.000-04:00

The Dalai Lama on Inner Peace, Happiness, God and Money

Averroes (BBC Podcast)

2011-10-29T08:12:00.004-04:00

Averroes (Ibn-Rushd) (BBC Podcast [45 minutes])

Abstract:

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosopher Averroes who worked to reconcile the theology of Islam with the rationality of Aristotle achieving fame and infamy in equal measure In The Divine Comedy Dante subjected all the sinners in Christendom to a series of grisly punishments, from being buried alive to being frozen in ice. The deeper you go the more brutal and bizarre the punishments get, but the uppermost level of Hell is populated not with the mildest of Christian sinners, but with non-Christian writers and philosophers. It was the highest compliment Dante could pay to pagan thinkers in a Christian cosmos and in Canto Four he names them all. Aristotle is there with Socrates and Plato, Galen, Zeno and Seneca, but Dante ends the list with neither a Greek nor a Roman but 'with him who made that commentary vast, Averroes'.

Averroes was a 12th century Islamic scholar who devoted his life to defending philosophy against the precepts of faith. He was feted by Caliphs but also had his books burnt and suffered exile. Averroes is an intellectual titan, both in his own right and as a transmitter of ideas between ancient Greece and Modern Europe. His commentary on Aristotle was so influential that St Thomas Aquinas referred to him with profound respect as 'The Commentator'.

Link: Averroes (Ibn-Rushd) (BBC Podcast [45 minutes])

Islamic Philosophy Online

2011-10-29T08:01:00.002-04:00

Islamic Philosophy Online

Abstract:

Welcome to the premier Islamic philosophy resource on the Web. We are dedicated to the study of the philosophical output of the Muslim world. Islamic philosophy is also sometimes referred to as Arabic philosophy or Muslim philosophy. This site contains hundreds of full-length books and articles on Islamic philosophy, ranging from the classical texts in the canon of Islamic philosophy to modern works of Muslim philosophy.

Link: Islamic Philosophy Online

Baptism brings together Muslims and Christians in Drenka celebrations

2011-10-27T08:05:00.005-04:00

Baptism brings together Muslims and Christians in Drenka celebrations, by Essam Fadle (Daily New Egypt, 1 September 2008)

Excerpt:

Last month, 49-year-old Om Khaled was on her way to the Virgin Mary Monastery in Drenka, Assiut to baptize her three-month-old son. The Muslim woman, following an age-old tradition in her hometown, was fulfilling a vow to God (nadr) to baptize her son according to Christian rituals if she were to ever get pregnant.

During the monastery celebrations, held every year from Aug. 7 to 21, Muslims making similar vows flock to the monastery, where the Holy Family is believed to have taken refuge during their visit to Egypt. According to Father Yacoub Suleiman, spokesman of the Virgin Mary Monastery, about 40 Muslims seeking to baptize their newborns arrive every day. The number reaches 100 during the last three days of celebrations.

Link: Baptism brings together Muslims and Christians in Drenka celebrations

All about the Hajj

2011-10-27T07:52:00.005-04:00

All about the Hajj, the annual Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca:

Performing Hajj
Virtual Hajj (from PBS / Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet)
Mapping Faith: The Pilgrimage to Mecca (CNN)
The Hajj Goes High Tech (Time)
The Hajj: A Google Earth View
The First Ten Days of Dhul-Hijjah
The Virtues of Fasting the First Nine Days of Dhul-Hijjah

Toward Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority

2011-10-25T00:42:00.006-04:00

Toward Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority (issued by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace)

Primary Text: Unofficial Preliminary English Translation

News Reports/Summaries:

America: Vatican Issues Major Document on Global Financial Reform (24 October 2011)
Catholic News Service: Vatican document calls for global authority to regulate markets (24 October 2011)
National Catholic Reporter: Vatican Note on the Economy the First Ripple of a Southern Wave (25 October 2011)
NPR: Occupy Wall Street Most Unlikely Ally: The Pope (25 October 2011)
Washington Post: The Vatican Meets the Wall Street Occupiers (27 October 2011)

Survey highlights struggles of young Hispanic Catholics

2011-10-25T00:30:00.002-04:00

Survey highlights struggles of young Hispanic Catholics (National Catholic Report, 24 October 2011)

Excerpts:

Currently, Hispanics make up 45 percent of the millennial generation of U.S. Catholics. Within the next generation, it is likely that Hispanics may become the majority among American Catholics. We begin this essay with a description of the demographics that distinguish this youngest generation of adult Catholics.

Hispanic millennials differ from non-Hispanic millennial Catholics in important ways: Only a minority of Hispanic millennials (39 percent) have never been married, while among non-Hispanics a majority (62 percent) have not been married; twice as many Hispanics (27 percent) as non-Hispanics (12 percent) are living with a partner. Nowhere is the gap between the Hispanic millennials and the descendents of the great waves from Europe more evident than in years of school completed. Twenty-nine percent of the Hispanic millennials but only 3 percent of non-Hispanics have not completed high school; 9 percent of Hispanics but 35 percent of non-Hispanics have a college degree or more.

Link: Survey highlights struggles of young Hispanic Catholics

Jesus at Occupy Wall Street: ‘I feel like I’ve been here before’

2011-10-25T00:24:00.003-04:00

Jesus at Occupy Wall Street: ‘I feel like I’ve been here before’ by Lisa Miller (Washington Post On Faith Section, 20 October 2011)

Excerpts:

What would Jesus think of the occupiers, who have been derided by their opponents as a ragtag group of tax evaders, interested only in sex, drugs and rock and roll? In the flesh, their unsavory appearance can make the heart of even the most convicted lefty hesitate before embracing their cause.

The Jesus of history would love them all. What Jesus really said, and what he meant, are the subjects of culture’s greatest controversies, but one thing is sure. Jesus gave preferential treatment to society’s outcasts. Lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes — all would attain heaven before the ordained elites. Jesus believed that God was about to right the world’s wrongs with a great upheaval — soon — and at that time, a radical reversal of the social order would occur. As he says in the gospels, the meek will inherit the earth.

Jesus would have sympathy, too, with the occupiers’ first complaint: that in America, the poorest have too little and the richest too much. In first-century Judea, a powerful ruling class held nearly all the wealth and most people lived at subsistence levels.

Link: Jesus at Occupy Wall Street: ‘I feel like I’ve been here before’

Battling for Gay Rights in Allah's Name

2011-10-25T00:19:00.002-04:00

Battling for Gay Rights in Allah's Name by Kari Huus (MSNBC)

Abstract:

Like other aspiring reformers before her, Ani Zonneveld takes positions that make her unpopular with her religion's spiritual leaders, in this case America's Islamic elders. Not only does she lead prayers — a task normally reserved for men — but she is an outspoken advocate for gay, bisexual and transgender Muslims. Later this year, she plans to officiate at the Islamic wedding of a lesbian couple, which is perfectly acceptable by her reading of the Quran.

“The community we are building is very different from most of the mosques you would walk into,” said Zonneveld, a 49-year-old Malaysian-born singer-songwriter. “We are very inclusive of all Muslims, gay Muslims, mixed-faith couples. … We also don’t segregate (the genders) when we pray, and we allow women to lead prayer. Our values are very egalitarian and we really live those values out.”

Muslims for Progressive Values, which Zonneveld co-founded in 2007 with Pamela Taylor, a feminist American Muslim, is based on 10 principles. They include a commitment to equality of genders and for LGBTQ (or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning) people, repudiation of militarism and violence and the need for “critical engagement with Islamic scripture.”

Link: Battling for Gay Rights in Allah's Name

The Jewish District in Medieval Vienna (German narration)

2011-10-25T00:08:00.002-04:00

The Jewish district in medieval Vienna (Vimeo video with German narration)

Abstract:

In the Middle Ages Vienna was home to a thriving Jewish community, one of the largest and most important in Europe. Famous Rabbis taught and worked here and made Vienna into a center of Jewish knowledge. This lively and creative environment was forced to an abrupt end in 1420-21 with the expulsion and murder of the Viennese Jews. This virtual tour allows us to walk through the Vienna of the 14th Century and showcases the Jewish festivals and customs of that time, helping us understand how the life of this medieval Jewish community was organized.

Link: The Jewish district in medieval Vienna

Anglicans and Old Catholics

2011-10-23T20:51:00.002-04:00

On Anglicans and Old Catholics:

Part 1: The Origins of Old Catholicism
Excerpt:
This year is the 80th anniversary of the agreement between Anglicans and Old Catholics, best known as the ‘Bonn Agreement’. Originally, the relations between the Anglican Communion and the Old Catholic Union of Utrecht were called an intercommunion, but since 1961 the term ‘full communion’ is being used. The anniversary that falls this year is a good opportunity to pay some attention again to Old Catholicism and its special bond with Anglicanism on our blog. The establishment of the Old Catholic churches – we wrote about it last year here - is usually being related to the aftermath of the First Vatican Council. The Old Catholic were those Catholics that refused to accept the doctrine of Papal Infallibility and the Universal Jurisdiction. One has to remember, however, that the origins of Old Catholicism lay much earlier. We shouldn’t forget, above all, that every church which really deserves to be called by that name has its roots in the church of the first centuries. For both Old Catholics and Anglicans this is especially important. The former bishop of Old Catholics in Germany, Joachim Vobbe, said once that “it applies to every church that it begun on the day of Pentecost”.
Part 2: There is no way towards unity, unity is a way
Excerpt:
Swiss Old Catholic theologian, Urs Küry (1901-1976), wrote: “if we want to determine more precisely the attitude of the Old Catholic Church to the Anglican Communion, we have to start with the agreement concluded in Bonn in 1931″. Since we are writing this post on its 80th anniversary, such attitude would seem logical, but, like in the case of the history of Old Catholicism, we would like to reach deeper into the problem. As we mentioned, the Dutch Roman Catholic Church of the Old Episcopal Order (which was the official name of the “Jansenistic” church in the Netherlands) perceived Anglicans as Protestants, and, likewise, Anglicans saw their sister church rather in the Dutch Reformed Church, even though the doctrine of that church resembled in so many points Puritan teachings. Significant is what happened in Utrecht during World War II, which was a decade (!) after the conclusion of the Bonn Agreement. When the Nazis interned priest-in-charge, the local Anglican Congregation asked the Reformed Church for pastoral care, even though there were then three Old Catholic parishes in Utrecht, including the cathedral parish.

Islam in China

2011-10-23T05:41:00.002-04:00

Islam in China: A Website on All Things Chinese, Muslim and Islamic

Abstract:

Islam in China is a website on all things at the intersection Chinese, Islamic, Muslim and everything in between. The aim of this website is to explore the culture, history and traditions of Chinese Muslims regardless of their ethnic background.

Link: Islam in China: A Website on All Things Chinese, Muslim and Islamic

Saudis Listen to Call for Green Hajj

2011-10-12T20:23:00.002-04:00

Saudis Listen to Call for Green Hajj, by Joseph Mayton (Green Prophet, 20 June 2010)

Excerpt:

For far too long, Osman explains, “we have believed that no matter what happens the world will always be there as if it is permanent like God, but the reality is that we are destroying it and if we don’t take action soon, it will be gone. Or at least we will be.” What better place to begin educating and imprinting a sense of environmentalism than a place where three million Muslims visit each year to carry out one of the five pillars, or obligations, of Islam?

Link: Saudis Listen to Call for Green Hajj

Occupy Wall Street protesters have a sukkah

2011-10-12T20:15:00.002-04:00

Occupy Wall Street protesters have a sukkah (JTA, 12 October 2011)

Excerpt:

A sukkah was erected in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. The sukkah, which was built Wednesday at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, was sponsored by Occupy Judaism NYC, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Kolot Chayeinu and CBST.

Link: Occupy Wall Street protesters have a sukkah

Anarca-Islam

2011-10-12T20:10:00.004-04:00

Anarca-Islam, by Mohamed Jean Veneuse (Anarchist Library)

NB: A thesis submitted to the Department of Sociology. Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada (August, 2009)

Abstract:

As an anarchist and a Muslim, I have witnessed troubled times as a result of extreme divisions that exist between these two identities and communities. To minimize these divisions, I argue for an anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian Islam, an ‘anarca-Islam’, that disrupts two commonly held beliefs: one, that Islam is necessarily authoritarian and capitalist; two, that anarchism is necessarily anti-religious. From this position I offer ‘anarca-Islam’ which I believe can help open-minded (non-essentialist/non-dogmatic) Muslims and anarchists to better understand each other, and therefore to more effectively collaborate in the context of what Richard JF Day has called the ’newest’ social movements.

Link: Anarca-Islam

Study: Teens leave churches seen as judgmental

2011-10-12T20:01:00.005-04:00

Study: Teens leave churches seen as judgmental, by Adelle M. Banks (USA Today News, 7 October 2011) [RNS]

Excerpts:

New research by the Barna Group finds they view churches as judgmental, overprotective, exclusive and unfriendly towards doubters. They also consider congregations antagonistic to science and say their Christian experience has been shallow.

The findings, the result of a five-year study, are featured in You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith, a new book by Barna president David Kinnaman. The project included a study of 1,296 young adults who were current or former churchgoers.

Researchers found that almost three out of five young Christians (59 percent) leave church life either permanently or for an extended period of time after age 15. One in four 18- to 29-year-olds said "Christians demonize everything outside of the church." One in three said "Church is boring."

Link: Study: Teens leave churches seen as judgmental

Eruv Tavshilin

2011-10-12T19:56:00.003-04:00

Eruv Tavshilin (Chabad.org)

Excerpts:

It is forbidden on a holiday to do any act in preparation for the following day,1 even if the following day is Shabbat. However, the sages created a halachic device, called an eruv tavshilin, which allows one to cook food on a holiday day for use on a Shabbat that immediately follows it.

If a holiday day -- whether the first or second day of a holiday -- falls on a Friday, an eruv tavshilin is set aside on the day preceding the holiday (Wednesday or Thursday afternoon), so that we will be permitted to prepare for Shabbat (cooking as well as any other necessary preparations) on the holiday. Only one eruv is required per household.

Link: Eruv Tavshilin

Cooking Defines Sephardic Jews at Sukkot

2011-10-12T19:40:00.003-04:00

Cooking Defines Sephardic Jews at Sukkot, by Julia Moskin (New York Times, 11 October 2006)

Excerpts:

LIKE its trees, Brooklyn’s sukkahs sprout in unlikely places. All over the borough, observant Jewish families spent the first week of October building sukkahs, outdoor rooms with open roofs, in preparation for the holiday of Sukkot, which began last Friday and ends this Friday. Perched on asphalt roofs and in concrete gardens, they will eat under the stars for a week to commemorate the Jews’ biblical wanderings in the desert.

For one food-loving community within Brooklyn’s sizable Jewish population, Sukkot has additional significance. “We always cook a lot, but for Sukkot, we do even more,” said Aida Hasson, who grew up in Beirut and is part of Brooklyn’s tight-knit community of Middle Eastern Jews.

Link: Cooking Defines Sephardic Jews at Sukkot

Steve Jobs' Mantra Rooted in Buddhism: Focus and Simplicity

2011-10-06T22:52:00.005-04:00

Steve Jobs' Mantra Rooted in Buddhism: Focus and Simplicity, by Susan Donaldson James (ABC World News, 6 October 2011)

Excerpts:

Long before Steve Jobs became the CEO of Apple and one of the most recognizable figures on the planet, he took a unconventional route to find himself -- a spiritual journey that influenced every step of an unconventional career. Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56 of pancreatic cancer, was the biological child of two unmarried academics who only consented to signing the papers if the adoptive parents sent him to college. His adoptive parents sent a young Jobs off to Reed College, an expensive liberal arts school in Oregon, but he dropped out and went to India in 1973 in search of enlightenment.

Jobs and his college friend Daniel Kottke, who later worked for him at Apple, visited Neem Karoli Baba at his Kainchi Ashram. He returned home to California a Buddhist, complete with a shaved head and traditional Indian clothing and a philosophy that may have shaped much of his corporate values.

Link: Steve Jobs' Mantra Rooted in Buddhism: Focus and Simplicity

An Ethically-Challenged Apple?

2011-10-05T21:31:00.005-04:00

An ethically-challenged Apple?

Apple admits child labour was used to build iPods and iPhones in Chinese factories (Daily Mail, 27 February 2010)

Excerpt:
Technology giant Apple has admitted that child labour has been employed at some of the factories that build its iPods, computers and mobile phones. An audit found that at least eleven 15-year-old children were found to be working in three factories that supply Apple in the last year. It said that child workers were now no longer being used at the sites, or were no longer underage.
Steve Jobs Ignored Poisoned Workers' Plea for Help at Apple Factory, by Ray Downs (The Christian Post, 1 September 2011)

Excerpt:
Two years ago, workers at a factory in Suzhou, China, were poisoned when Taiwanese electronics supplier Wintek, which was working under contract with Apple to make the touchscreens, replaced alcohol with N-hexane in the manufacturing process to speed up production. Prolonged exposure to N-hexane has been known to cause damage to the central nervous system, and when workers affected by the chemical wrote to Jobs, asking him for help in medical treatment and compensation for lost wages, they allegedly never heard back from anybody at Apple, much less Jobs.
The Dark Side of Apple: One Man's Monologue of Misery, by Asher Moses (Sydney Morning Herald, 30 September 2011)

Excerpt:

For the past 15 months or so Daisey been touring the world stunning audiences with his two-hour tale of the appalling conditions and underage labour that goes into making our iPhones, iPods and iPads. The show, the Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs (review), has been running since Saturday at the Sydney Opera House and is due to conclude on Sunday.

Imperial History of the Middle East

2011-10-05T21:27:00.002-04:00

Imperial History of the Middle East

Abstract: 5,000 years of Middle East history and empire building in 90 seconds.

Link: Imperial History of the Middle East

Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals

2011-10-05T00:14:00.004-04:00

Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals (Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 2006)

Excerpts:

By all accounts, pentecostalism and related charismatic movements represent one of the fastest-growing segments of global Christianity. According to the World Christian Database, at least a quarter of the world's 2 billion Christians are thought to be members of these lively, highly personal faiths, which emphasize such spiritually renewing "gifts of the Holy Spirit" as speaking in tongues, divine healing and prophesying. Even more than other Christians, pentecostals and other renewalists believe that God, acting through the Holy Spirit, continues to play a direct, active role in everyday life. Despite the rapid growth of the renewalist movement in the last few decades, there are few quantitative studies on the religious, political and civic views of individuals involved in these groups.

To address this shortcoming, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, with generous support from the Templeton Foundation, recently conducted surveys in 10 countries with sizeable renewalist populations: the United States; Brazil, Chile and Guatemala in Latin America; Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa in Africa; and India, the Philippines and South Korea in Asia. In each country, surveys were conducted among a random sample of the public at large, as well as among oversamples of pentecostals and charismatics.

Link: Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals

Preachers confront 'last taboo': Condemning greed amid Great Recession

2011-10-02T20:23:00.004-04:00

Preachers confront 'last taboo': Condemning greed amid Great Recession, by John Blake (CNN Belief Blog, 1 October 2011)

Excerpt:

The Great Recession is more than an economic crisis. It has become a spiritual dilemma for some of the nation’s pastors and their parishioners, religious leaders say. Three years after an implosion of the nation’s financial system helped push the country into its worst economic nosedive since the Great Depression, pastors are still trying to figure out how to address people’s fears from the pulpit.

Link: Preachers confront 'last taboo': Condemning greed amid Great Recession

Cross-Cultural Health Care: Case Studies

2011-10-02T19:56:00.006-04:00

Cross-Cultural Health Care: Case Studies

Abstract:

These case studies investigate concepts of culture and their impact on health beliefs, discuss the impact of the patients' social and cultural factors on their ability to access health care, and explore how health care providers can work effectively with patients from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Link: Cross-Cultural Health Care: Case Studies

Resources Celebrating Rosh Hashanah

2011-09-28T20:04:00.003-04:00

Resources for celebrating Rosh Hashanah:

Symbolic Sephardic Foods for Rosh Hashanah (Philadelphia Jewish Voice)
Recipes for Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah, Calcutta Style (MochaJuden.com)

Digital Dead Sea Scrolls

2011-09-26T22:54:00.005-04:00

Digital Dead Sea Scrolls Official Site

Abstract:

The Israel Museum welcomes you to the Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project, allowing users to examine and explore these most ancient manuscripts from Second Temple timehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs at a level of detail never before possible. Developed in partnership with Google, the new website gives users access to searchable, fast-loading, high-resolution images of the scrolls, as well as short explanatory videos and background information on the texts and their history. The Dead Sea Scrolls, which include the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence, offer critical insight into Jewish society in the Land of Israel during the Second Temple Period, the time of the birth of Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. Five complete scrolls from the Israel Museum have been digitized for the project at this stage and are now accessible online.

Links:

It’s not ‘class warfare,’ it’s Christianity

2011-09-19T19:50:00.003-04:00

It’s not ‘class warfare,’ it’s Christianity, by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite (Washington Post On Faith, 19 September 2011)

Excerpts:

This is what the Bible actually says about the economic practices of Jesus’ followers: “Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common... There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles feet; and distribution was made to each as any had need.” Acts 4:32-35.

...

Capitalism isn’t “God’s Plan,” it’s an economic system that runs on the human desire for more, our own self-interest. This is not necessarily evil. It can actually be a very productive system, but it is not beneficent. In order for there to be good values in our economic life, capitalism needs to be regulated so it does not wreck the whole ship with unfettered greed (as happened in the banking industry starting in 2008), and it needs to be supplemented with social safety nets and tax policy to achieve an approximate (not absolute) “freedom from want” as in Franklin Roosevelt’s wonderful phrase. It was Roosevelt who translated “freedom from want” into a series of government programs to make it a reality such as Social Security, unemployment insurance, aid to dependent children, the minimum wage, housing, stock market regulation, and federal deposit insurance for banks.

Link: It’s not ‘class warfare,’ it’s Christianity

The Future of Neurotheology

2011-09-15T00:13:00.002-04:00

The Future of Neurotheology, by Andrew Newberg (Science+Religion Today, 24 December 2010)

Excerpts:

Neurotheology is still very early in its development. Truly combining neuroscience with religious and spiritual phenomena was only possible with the advent of modern brain imaging techniques. Before the development of these techniques, the rudiments of neurotheology were developed based primarily on animal models and speculation. Today, we have begun to uncover substantial information regarding the relationship between the human brain and religious and spiritual practices and experiences

In the next five years, neurotheology will likely continue to advance our understanding of how the brain is associated with religious and spiritual phenomena. Most likely, the brain imaging studies that have become an important aspect of neurotheology will continue to expand. There are many types of practices and experiences that remain to be evaluated using brain imaging techniques. Traditions might be compared, as well as the wide variety of practices within each tradition. Imaging studies, along with other clinical studies, will help us better understand not only what happens in the brain at the time of a particular practice, such as meditation or prayer, but also how such practices affect us over time. Already, we understand that practices like meditation and prayer can lower anxiety and depression, and even help the brain remember better. Such improvements are associated with long-term changes in the brain’s function. Thus, religion, spirituality, and God all can change your brain.

Link: The Future of Neurotheology

A Jew, a Muslim and a Christian Woman Dialogue

2011-09-14T19:29:00.003-04:00

A Jew, a Muslim and a Christian Woman Dialogue, by Renee Ghert-Zand (Foward, The Sisterhood Blog, 13 September 2011)

Excerpts:

Just before the tenth anniversary of 9/11, I noticed that a new blog called “SheAnswersAbraham” went live on the Web. The timing was not coincidental, as it is a deliberate effort by a group of three women – a Jew, a Christian and a Muslim – to put an interfaith conversation about sacred texts out into the world with positive energy.

Each Friday, a different sacred text will be the subject of commentary and personal reflection from each of the three faith perspectives. The sources of the texts will follow a rotation through the different traditions. The first text discussed was “And God said, ‘Let us make a human in our image, according to our likeness….’”from Genesis 1:26.

The authors of the blog want to be known only by the pseudonyms “Tziporah,” “Grace,” and “Yasmina.” Readers can glean some basic information about their backgrounds from the short bios posted on the blog.

Link: A Jew, a Muslim and a Christian Woman Dialogue

China's influence in Africa includes church construction

2011-09-14T19:23:00.002-04:00

China's influence in Africa includes church construction, by Fredrick Nzwili (Episcopal News Service, 14 September 14 2011)

Excerpts:

At All Saints Roman Catholic Basilica in Nairobi, African workers were recently singing lively Christian worship songs as they broke ground for the construction of a new office block for the Nairobi archdiocese.

However, they were not working for an African or British construction company. China Zhongxing Construction is building Maurice Cardinal Otunga Plaza, one of many church contracts Chinese construction companies have won in recent years as China has expanded its influence in Africa. Now, Chinese firms build many bridges, roads and stadiums across the continent.

Link: China's influence in Africa includes church construction

Pastrami Egg Rolls and the Jewish Love of Chinese Food

2011-09-14T19:16:00.002-04:00

Pastrami Egg Rolls and the Jewish Love of Chinese Food, by By Josh Ozersky (Time, 14 September 2011)

Excerpts:

The scene was a freakish one at RedFarm the other night. The tiny modern Chinese restaurant, which opened a few weeks ago in Manhattan, was a veritable who's who of the food media. Rachael Ray was at a table next to mine; Top Chef's Gail Simmons was sitting next to me with RestaurantGirl.com's Danyelle Freeman; Ace of Cakes star Duff Goldman was a couple of tables away. And circulating freely about the room, making small talk and working the crowd, was neither the chef, the brilliant Joe Ng, nor the owner, Jeffrey Chodorow, but instead a portly, bespectacled Chinese-food nerd named Ed "Eddie Glasses" Schoenfeld, who had put the restaurant concept together. Ng, who lets his cooking do the talking, is essentially a silent partner.

Now, if you're wondering how a Jewish guy from Brooklyn has come to be the public face of a Chinese restaurant, then you probably aren't Jewish. The connection between Jews and Chinese food is so well established that it's been commented on in academic papers and mused about by Chinese and Jewish thinkers alike. There was even a Gilmore Girls episode about it, and what more proof can you need than that? Eddie Glasses is merely the most extreme expression of the trend, a Jewish guy who made himself, by sheer geekery, a Chinese-food guru.

Link: Pastrami Egg Rolls and the Jewish Love of Chinese Food

For Muslim family, faith complicates grief for loved one lost on 9/11

2011-09-12T01:01:00.003-04:00

For Muslim family, faith complicates grief for loved one lost on 9/11, by Jessica Ravitz (CNN, 29 August 2011)

Excerpts:

His smiling image has been cut out of a snapshot and carefully added to a photo of his father, so it looks as if the boy is standing beside the man. It smacks of a bad Photoshop job, but it gives the two a shared moment, even though they never met. The boy's sister, Fahina, created the montage. She is 15 and clings to scant memories and aging photographs. But Farqad, almost 10, has nothing.

...

Farqad was born two days later, after terrorists hijacked planes and killed nearly 3,000 -- including 38-year-old Mohammad Salahuddin Chowdhury, who worked atop the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

...

"I can't imagine not having any memories," said his firstborn, Fahina, unable to hold back her sobs. "Someday, Farqad's going to search online and see everything. I have to help him understand."

...

"For a Muslim person to go through this, it's something no one can understand," she said, the tears still falling. "Extremists used the religion as an excuse to do terrible things. It's so much easier to be mad at people than to get to know them."

Link: For Muslim family, faith complicates grief for loved one lost on 9/11

Jewish bikers meld leather, chrome ... and faith

2011-09-05T19:18:00.002-04:00

Jewish bikers meld leather, chrome ... and faith, by Jennifer Miller (Washington Post, 30 July 2011)

Excerpts:

On a Friday morning in May, Betsy Ahrens, 64, rode through the streets of Virginia Beach on a friend’s bright red Honda Gold Wing motorcycle. Ahrens was just one of 250 bikers to travel through the city by police escort that day, and pedestrians gawked, slack-jawed, at the processional. Drivers halted at intersections, aiming their cellphone cameras. A few people waved at Betsy, but tentatively, as though to greet a biker — however friendly she seemed — would be to welcome in potential chaos, the volatility associated with leather and chrome.

As the snake of bikes wound past strip malls and quaint neighborhoods, Ahrens wondered what the onlookers were thinking. She hoped they could make out the Judaism-themed patches fixed to the riders’ leather jackets: the blazing insignias of the Lost Tribe, the Jewish motorcycle club of Richmond and the Tidewater region of Virginia; the Chai Riders of New York City and its environs; the Hillel’s Angels of New Jersey; and Shalom n’ Chrome of Charleston, S.C. Ahrens decided that next year, her cohorts needed to fly more Israeli flags from their bikes.

Link: Jewish bikers meld leather, chrome ... and faith

Coming Out Twice: Sexuality and Gender in Islam

2011-08-29T18:03:00.003-04:00

Coming Out Twice: Sexuality and Gender in Islam: A Conversation with Scott Kugle, by Susan Henking (Religion Dispatches, 24 August 2011)

Excerpts:

As scholar Scott Kugle knows well, to be both Muslim and gay means the possibility of having to “come out twice”—with the likely chance of encountering either homophobia or Islamophobia (or both), depending on the context.

But in recent years, a new discussion of Islam and sexuality has emerged, led in large part by professor Kugle, who teaches South Asian and Islamic Studies at Emory University. Having written many books on Islam, including Homosexuality in Islam: Islamic Reflection on Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Muslims (2010), he is currently working on a collection entitled Voices of Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Muslim Activists (forthcoming in 2012, NYU Press).

Link: Coming Out Twice: Sexuality and Gender in Islam: A Conversation with Scott Kugle

Adapting a Ramadan tradition to the all-American diner

2011-08-28T18:34:00.002-04:00

Adapting a Ramadan tradition to the all-American diner, by Raja Abdulrahim (Los Angeles Times, 20 August 2011)

Abstract:

Pre-dawn meals, or suhoor, during Ramadan are typically quiet family affairs, but Muslims who live away from home sometimes organize group outings to all-night diners such as Fred 62 in Los Feliz.

Excerpts:

In a country known for its all-night diners, it may have been just a matter of time before the all-American love for breakfast at any hour became wedded to an important Muslim observance. After all, fasting is just as valid when the pre-dawn meal comes with a side of home fries.

"We definitely are seeing young Muslims celebrate Ramadan in a way that is uniquely American," said Soha Yassine, youth coordinator at the Islamic Center of Southern California.

Large communal dinners are a signature part of Ramadan, a time of prayer and dawn-to-dusk fasting. But the pre-dawn meal known as suhoor is typically intimate, prepared at home and shared among members of a household.

For young Muslims in America — more likely than their counterparts elsewhere to live on their own, often far from relatives — suhoor meals with friends have become a way to replicate the family experience and make it their own.

Two years ago, Yassine and her friends ate suhoor at Denny's so often that she began following the restaurant chain on Twitter to get updates about the changing late-night menu. That year, she met her now-fiance at a suhoor party for Los Angeles natives and transplants at a friend's home.

Link: Adapting a Ramadan tradition to the all-American diner

"God is Not a Christian": An Interview with R. Kirby Godsey

2011-08-23T03:55:00.002-04:00

"God is Not a Christian": An Interview with R. Kirby Godsey. By Timothy Dalrymple, (Patheos.com, 15 August 2011)

Abstract:

R. Kirby Godsey is an accomplished scholar with separate doctorates in philosophy and theology, a university president with an extraordinary record, and no stranger to controversy. When he was president of Mercer University, he published a book that ruffled feathers in Baptist circles and beyond. His new book, Is God a Christian?, claims that "the stakes for mankind have grown too high for any of us to engage our faith as if our understanding of God represents the only way God's presence may be known in the world." It's already provoking heated debate. For our Book Club conversation, Godsey discussed the book with Timothy Dalrymple.

Link: "God is Not a Christian": An Interview with R. Kirby Godsey

Son of Evangelical Royalty Turns His Back, and Tells the Tale

2011-08-23T03:50:00.002-04:00

Son of Evangelical Royalty Turns His Back, and Tells the Tale, by Mark Oppenheimer (New York Times, 19 August 2011)

Excerpts:

In every line of work, there are family businesses. But no business is more defined by dynasties and nepotism than evangelical preaching. Lyman Beecher, Bob Jones, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Robert H. Schuller, Jim Bakker: all had sons who became ministers. It is never easy stepping into Dad’s shoes, of course. But when the family business is religion, it is especially perilous. That is one of the central laments, anyway, of “Sex, Mom, & God,” a new memoir by Frank Schaeffer. To secular Americans, the name Frank Schaeffer means nothing. But to millions of evangelical Christians, the Schaeffer name is royal, and Frank is the reluctant, wayward, traitorous prince. His crime is not financial profligacy, like some pastors’ sons, but turning his back on Christian conservatives.

Link: Son of Evangelical Royalty Turns His Back, and Tells the Tale

Read an Ancient Jewish Scroll

2011-08-23T03:42:00.003-04:00

Read an Ancient Jewish Scroll, by Peter Tyson (NOVA, 23 November 2004)

Abstract:

One of the most spectacular finds in Israel’s Cave of Letters, as reported in NOVA’s “Ancient Refuge in the Holy Land,” was a packet of personal documents that belonged to a young Jewish woman named Babatha. Probably born around A.D. 104, Babatha became a woman of means who, by the time of her death around 132, owned valuable properties left to her by her father and her two husbands. In this interactive, have a close look at one of the 35 papyrus scrolls in the Babatha archive—a registration of land dating from the year 127—and get an inkling of what life was like for a well-to-do Jewish woman living under Roman rule in the second century. For more background on Babatha’s extraordinary life, see the article "Babatha's Life and Times" below.

Link: Read an Ancient Jewish Scroll

Calligraphy Qalam

2011-08-14T18:19:00.002-04:00

Calligraphy Qalam

Abstract:

Calligraphy Qalam provides a variety of interactive tools and information to help you learn more about calligraphy in the Arab, Ottoman and Persian traditions.

Link: Calligraphy Qalam

All-Nighters for a Football Team During Ramadan

2011-08-11T23:33:00.002-04:00

All-Nighters for a Football Team During Ramadan, by Jeré Longman (New York Times, 10 August 2011)

Excerpts:

The clock reached midnight as Sunday ticked into Monday, and someone yelled, “It’s go time!” Football season could officially begin. New balls appeared, and players at Fordson High School prepared to do what had long been done in this hometown of Henry Ford: build something with assembly-line precision and reliability.

They were boys like other boys in countless towns, taught that football was important, but not as important as family and faith. Fordson High School’s enrollment is more than 90 percent Muslim, and this week of two-a-day practices coincides with Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, when adherents refrain from eating and drinking during daylight hours.

Link: All-Nighters for a Football Team During Ramadan

Mixed Messages: Growing Up With Two Religions

2011-08-11T22:09:00.002-04:00

Mixed Messages: Growing Up With Two Religions, by Elettra Fiumi and Lea Khayata (Tablet Magazine, 3 August 2011)

Excerpt:

When Samuel Oliver turned 12, he asked his parents why he wouldn’t have either a bar mitzvah or a confirmation. His Jewish mother, whose family includes Holocaust survivors, and his father, who grew up in a religious Christian home, at first brushed off his question. Then they decided it required further investigation.

Link: Mixed Messages: Growing Up With Two Religions

Mixed Messages: Growing Up With Two Religions

White collar workers push Hindu numbers ahead of the pack

2011-08-11T18:56:00.002-04:00

White collar workers push Hindu numbers ahead of the pack, by Andrew West (Sydney Morning Herald, 11 August 2011)

Excerpts:

The 2011 census collectors began their work only last night but one result is already clear - the number of Australians who identify as Hindu is likely to have doubled since the last population survey in 2006. High immigration from the Indian subcontinent during the past five years, especially among white collar professionals and university students, has also made Hinduism a more visible faith, especially in parts of western Sydney, where new temples and worship houses are being built.

According to the 2006 census, 148,117 people identified as Hindus, representing a 55 per cent increase on the 2001 figure. Community leaders expect the number will leap to between 270,000 and 300,000. "I think the explanation is very simple if you look at the immigration data,'' the secretary of the Hindu Council of Australia, Sanjeev Bhakri, told the Herald. ''The regular immigrants, mainly professionals meeting a demand in workforce, and also students, are pushing the numbers right up." While some Indian immigrants are Christian, including Catholics from Goa, Mr Bhakri estimates 90 per cent are Hindu.

Link: White collar workers push Hindu numbers ahead of the pack

When East Met West Under the Buddha’s Gaze

2011-08-10T21:01:00.003-04:00

When East Met West Under the Buddha’s Gaze, by Holland Cotter (New York Times, 10 August 2011)

Excerpts:

After what seemed like an endless run of geopolitical roadblocks, “The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Art of Gandhara” has finally come, six months late, from Pakistan to Asia Society. Is the show worth all the diplomatic headaches it caused? With its images of bruiser bodhisattvas, polycultural goddesses and occasional flights into stratosphere splendor, it is.

That all but a handful of the 75 sculptures are from museums in Lahore and Karachi is in itself remarkable. Any effort to borrow ancient art from South Asia is fraught, even in the best of times. For an entire show of loans to make the trip, and in a period when Pakistan and the United States are barely on speaking terms, is miraculous. (Without the persistent effort of Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, the exhibition would almost certainly never have happened.) So the show has a cliffhanger back story as an attraction, and some monumental work, like the fantastic relief called “Vision of a Buddha’s Paradise.” (Dated to the fourth century A.D., it’s a kind of flash-mob version of heaven.)

Link: When East Met West Under the Buddha’s Gaze

Ten Notable Apocalypses That (Obviously) Didn’t Happen

2011-08-10T19:37:00.003-04:00

Ten Notable Apocalypses That (Obviously) Didn’t Happen, by Mark Strauss (Smithsonian.com, 12 November 2009)

Abstract:

Apocalyptic predictions are nothing new—they have been around for millennia. Here are ten notable predictions that did not occur.

Link: Ten Notable Apocalypses That (Obviously) Didn’t Happen

New Old-Time Religion: Catholicism in Evangelical Clothing

2011-08-10T03:11:00.001-04:00

New Old-Time Religion: Catholicism in Evangelical Clothing, by Max Lindenman (Patheos.com, 8 August 2011)

Abstract:

Catholics in America's Bible Belt are learning the lingo of fundamentalism. Will it change fundamental Catholicism?

Link: New Old-Time Religion: Catholicism in Evangelical Clothing

10 Ways Muslims Can Start A Food Revolution

2011-08-08T21:31:00.002-04:00

10 Ways Muslims Can Start A Food Revolution, by Yvonne Maffei (Muslim Voices, 29 March 2010)

Excerpts:

Halal and healthy should be our focus. You don’t have to be a medical expert to notice that among the Muslim community living in the United States, there is a prevalence of high sugar, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, all of which can lead to chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and heart attacks, even in young individuals. There doesn’t seem to be a lack of great home cooks or halal restaurants within the Muslim community. Many traditional recipes from immigrant Muslim home countries actually originate in healthy ingredients and cooking methods.

Link: 10 Ways Muslims Can Start A Food Revolution

Buddhist wonks? No, Buddhist Geeks

2011-08-08T19:13:00.003-04:00

Buddhist wonks? No, Buddhist Geeks, by Mitchell Landsberg (Los Angeles Times, 8 August 2011)

Abstract:

Vincent Horn, 28, is representative of a new kind of American Buddhist: young, U.S.-born converts who have intertwined their religious practice with a certain 21st century techie sensibility.

Link: Buddhist wonks? No, Buddhist Geeks

Latino and Latina Religious Landscape, Religion and Spirituality in the Latino and Latina Context, Relational Character

2011-08-04T21:39:00.002-04:00

Religion and Spirituality: Latino and Latina Religious Landscape, Religion and Spirituality in the Latino and Latina Context, Relational Character, by Socorro Castañeda-Liles

Excerpts:

The belief that all U.S. Latinos and Latinas are Catholic is a popular misconception. Although the Spanish conquest of the Americas did produce a large Catholic population among Latino and Latina ethnic groups, a diverse and permeable religion and spirituality characterize life among those groups. That permeability is born of an integration (rather than a fragmentation) of beliefs that are then expressed in rituals and customs. In César Chávez and Dolores Huerta's decision to carry the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on a banner into the streets during the United Farm Workers (UFW) strike against unjust grape growers in the 1960s, and in the custom of hanging rosaries from rear-view mirrors, we see examples of how religion and spirituality shape the ways in which Latinos and Latinas approach, perceive, and respond to life situations. This does not mean, of course, that all Latinos and Latinas are equally religious or spiritual. Rather, it indicates that Latinos and Latinas creatively weave religion and spirituality into the fabric of their daily lives.

Latino and Latina communities comprise Catholics, Protestants, Espiritistas, Espiritualistas, and Santeros, among other faith traditions, all of them living in a creative interaction with one another. It is not unusual for a Mexican Catholic to attend Mass on Sunday morning and later that same day consult with a Santera or Santero or with an Espiritista about a particular matter. It is not uncommon for a Protestant to possess an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is not out of the ordinary to meet a Puerto Rican Guadalupan (a devotee of Our Lady of Guadalupe). Religion and spirituality among U.S. Latinos and Latinas form a colorful tapestry woven from diverse, yet related, cultural and ethnic ways of understanding and coming into a relationship with the sacred. Thus, to suppose that all Mexicans are Catholic, that Protestant Latinos and Latinas do not venerate symbols like Our Lady of Guadalupe, or that all Caribbean Latinos and Latinas practice only Santería or Espiritismo is inaccurate.

Link: Religion and Spirituality: Latino and Latina Religious Landscape, Religion and Spirituality in the Latino and Latina Context, Relational Character

Engaging the Latino Areopagite: How the Church is Engaging Hispanic Peoples in the U.S.

2011-08-04T21:26:00.002-04:00

Engaging the Latino Areopagite: How the Church is Engaging Hispanic Peoples in the U.S., by Gilberto Cavazos-Gonzalez

Abstract:

This paper was originally presented on Oct. 6, 2004 at the US Catholic Mission Association Symposium: God's Missionary People: A New way of Being Church (Louisville, KY).

Link: Engaging the Latino Areopagite: How the Church is Engaging Hispanic Peoples in the U.S.

"Clearly this is not a pacifist God we serve"

2011-08-04T21:18:00.003-04:00

"Clearly this is not a pacifist God we serve" by Margaret M. Mitchell

Margaret M. Mitchell is Dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School and Shailer Mathews Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Literature.

Excerpts:

These words were posted by Joseph Farah on WorldNetDaily.com at 1:00 a.m. on November 26, 2001, in the aftermath of 9/11. The full column, “The Bible and self-defense,” presented a battery of biblical evidence, from Old and New Testaments, for why Christians should “buy firearms as a first step to fighting terrorism.”

This article—by the evangelical Christian editor of WorldNetDaily.com, author of The Tea Party Manifesto: A Vision for an American Rebirth, and famous “Birther,” who has in print aggressively questioned both the American citizenship and the Christian identity of President Barack Obama—was quoted in full by Anders Behring Breivik in his compendium, “2083: A European Declaration of Independence,” published online hours before the Oslo attacks on July 22. Copying over 85 percent of the column verbatim (which he credits on p. 1334, not by author but by URL), Breivik makes a few telling changes to this source, which he treats as authoritative guidance from the American evangelical on the correct Christian view of arms and self-defense.

While Breivik accepts Farah’s biblically-based arguments about God’s endorsement of armament (though deeming them in need of further amplification via “Battle Verses of the Bible,” from another American evangelical biblical interpreter, Michael Bradley of Bible-Knowledge.com, of St. Charles, MO), he corrects the antiquated English diction of the KJV on the one hand (in 1 Sam 25:13 and Neh 4:18, carefully replacing it with the NASB translation), and updates the context from 9/11 America to the war of “cultural conservative Europeans” against “the cultural Marxist/multiculturalist elites and the ongoing Islamic invasion through Islamic demographic warfare against Europe.”

Link: "Clearly this is not a pacifist God we serve"

Hispanic Latino/a Peoples, Cultures, Religiosity

2011-08-04T20:58:00.002-04:00

Hispanic Latino/a Peoples, Cultures, Religiosity

Abstract:

This site, which is the project of Martín de Jesús Martínez at the Mexican American Catholic College in San Antonio, Texas, compiles links to online resources on Hispanic Latino/a Peoples, Cultures and Religiosity.

Link: Hispanic Latino/a Peoples, Cultures, Religiosity

'Christian terrorist'? Norway case strikes debate

2011-08-01T03:48:00.002-04:00

'Christian terrorist'? Norway case strikes debate, by Jesse Washington (Associated Press, 31 July 2011)

Excerpts:

When the "enemy" is different, an outsider, it's easier to draw quick conclusions, to develop stereotypes. It's simply human nature: There is "us," and there is "them." But what happens when the enemy looks like us — from the same tradition and belief system?

That is the conundrum in the case of Norway and Anders Behring Brevik, who is being called a "Christian extremist" or "Christian terrorist."

As westerners wrestle with such characterizations of the Oslo mass murder suspect, the question arises: Nearly a decade after 9/11 created a widespread suspicion of Muslims based on the actions of a fanatical few, is this what it's like to walk a mile in the shoes of stereotype?

"Absolutely," said Mark Kelly Tyler, pastor of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. "It clearly puts us in a position where we can't simply say that extreme and violent behavior associated with a religious belief is somehow restricted to Muslim extremists."

"It speaks to cultural assumptions, how we are able to understand something when it (comes from) us," Tyler said. "When one of us does something terrible, we know that's not how we all think, yet we can't see that with other people."

Link: 'Christian terrorist'? Norway case strikes debate

Iranian Blinded by Acid Pardons Her Attacker

2011-08-01T03:43:00.002-04:00

Iranian Blinded by Acid Pardons Her Attacker, by Nasser Karimi (Associated Press, 31 July 2011)

Excerpts:

An Iranian woman blinded and disfigured by a man who threw acid into her face stood above her attacker Sunday in a hospital operating room as a doctor was about to put several drops of acid in one of his eyes in court-ordered retribution.

The man waited on his knees and wept.

"What do you want to do now?" the doctor asked the 34-year-old woman, whose own face was severely disfigured in the 2004 attack.

"I forgave him, I forgave him," she responded, asking the doctor to spare him at the last minute in a dramatic scene broadcast on Iran's state television.

Ameneh Bahrami lost her sight and suffered horrific burns to her face, scalp and body in the attack, carried out by a man who was angered that she refused his marriage proposal.

Link: Iranian Blinded by Acid Pardons Her Attacker

Extremists Lure Young Minds

2011-08-01T03:35:00.003-04:00

Extremists Lure Young Minds, by Justin Norrie (The Sun-Herald, 31 July 2011, p. 18)

Excerpts:

MANY Turkish-Australians were stunned to hear that one of their own was allegedly involved in an attack on a Muslim convert. Tolga Cifci, 20, was one of three men charged this month over the attack on Christian Martinez, who was allegedly lashed 40 times with an electric cable as a religious punishment under sharia for drinking alcohol. The Sun-Herald understands that Mr Cifci's father, a successful local businessman, became concerned last year when his son fell under the influence of hardliners who had recently arrived in the area.

Link: Extremists Lure Young Minds

Rev. Mary M. Simpson, a Pioneer in Episcopal Clergy, Dies at 85

2011-07-29T03:32:00.002-04:00

Rev. Mary M. Simpson, a Pioneer in Episcopal Clergy, Dies at 85, by Daniel E. Slotnik (New York Times, 23 July 2011)

Excerpts:

The Rev. Mary Michael Simpson, the first Episcopal nun to be ordained a priest and the first ordained woman to preach a sermon in Westminster Abbey, died Wednesday in Augusta, Ga. She was 85. The cause was kidney failure, said Sister Carol Andrew of the Order of Saint Helena, of which Canon Simpson was a member. Canon Simpson was ordained a priest on Jan. 9, 1977, and installed as a canon of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Manhattan later that year, when the role of women in the Episcopal Church was a matter of heated debate.

Link: Rev. Mary M. Simpson, a Pioneer in Episcopal Clergy, Dies at 85

Chinese Catholics on edge of schism

2011-07-29T03:26:00.002-04:00

Chinese Catholics on edge of schism, by Francesco Sisci (Asia Times, 21 July 2011)

Excerpts:

The latest choice is Joseph Huang Bingzhang, 43. On July 15, he was ordained as bishop of Shantou in the southern province of Guangdong, next to Hong Kong, without papal approval. Pope Benedict XVI reacted the day after, saying he was deeply saddened. Without papal blessing, the appointment was illegitimate, and the new bishop and all bishops who took part in it willingly, under no duress, should be automatically excommunicated.

As some 140 new bishops are expected to be appointed over the next few years, and the bilateral mechanism between China and the Holy See for agreeing on the choice of new bishops is breaking down, then the possibility of an objectively schismatic Church of China is becoming quite real. It would be a church theologically quite close to Rome but without the "pope's interference", much like the Anglican Church.

Link: Chinese Catholics on edge of schism

Reading between the lines of the Vatican rift

2011-07-29T03:22:00.003-04:00

Reading between the lines of the Vatican rift, by Francesco Sisci (Asia Times, 28 July 2011)

Excerpt:

The rift between China and the Holy See is deepening as it enters the rutted territory where Rome and Beijing historically have something in common: convoluted political procedure. The issue is extremely complicated, but for once, it is worth delving into the details, as they are very revealing of the political predicament in China regarding the crucial question of freedom of belief.

Link: Reading between the lines of the Vatican rift

Brooklyn churches look to tradition, community building to attract young adults

2011-07-29T03:09:00.003-04:00

Brooklyn churches look to tradition, community building to attract young adults, by Elizabeth Paulsen (Episcopal News Service, July 25, 2011)

Excerpts:

The ongoing struggle to get young people in the pews at churches across Brooklyn is motivating some clergy in the Diocese of Long Island to develop new ministries that challenge the popular way of how churches reach out to 20-somethings. Predominate tactics -- a rock band, projector screens and altars stripped of traditional decors -- have failed to resonate with 20-somethings. Instead, it's the traditional aspects of the Episcopal faith and its liturgy that young people are now drawn to, clergy say.

The Rev. Robert Griffith, who has been working with St. Paul's Church in Carroll Gardens, has created an initiative called Imago Dei, or Image of God, that is working to understand the Millennial Generation -- those born after 1980 -- and its views of faith in hopes of devising new ways to bringing them closer to Jesus Christ. "It's not that they aren't interested. What they are looking for is the traditional -- silence, reflection, candles," Griffith said.

Link: Brooklyn churches look to tradition, community building to attract young adults

India's Grassroots Revival

2011-07-29T03:02:00.003-04:00

India's Grassroots Revival, by Tim Stafford, originally published in Christianity Today Vol. 55 No. 7 (July 2011), Page 28

Excerpts:

With a new India rising up, a different kind of Indian Christianity is rising up with it. During a three-week journey across India, I discovered a vibrant, growing Christian community unfolding at the grassroots—a church thoroughly Indian, not Western.

The new-economy India is found in gleaming office towers where techsavvy Indians compete in a global market and climb the corporate ladder. The newly Christian India is found mostly at the bottom rung of society, among men and women like Shivamma, typically poor and illiterate "broken people" (the literal meaning of Dalit). Numbering 140 million or more, Dalits and Tribals (a grouping similar to the Dalits) have begun to shake the foundations of India's social order. They think in ways their ancestors never could have imagined. More of them are following Christ than at any other time in India's history, ministry leaders told CT.

Link: India's Grassroots Revival

Chinese Muslims in Niujie Mosque (Great Mosque of Beijing)

2011-07-29T02:51:00.004-04:00

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Chinese Muslims Singing and Praying in the Niujie Mosque (Great Mosque of Beijing)

Historic Arabic medical manuscripts go online

2011-07-29T02:43:00.002-04:00

Historic Arabic medical manuscripts go online (Wellcome Trust Press Release, 28 July 2011)

Abstract:

Arabic medicine was once the most advanced in the world, and now digital facsimiles of some of its most important texts have been made freely available online. The unique online resource, based on the Wellcome Library's Arabic manuscript collection, includes well-known medical texts by famous practitioners (such as Avicenna, Ibn al-Quff, and Ibn an-Nafis), lesser-known works by anonymous physicians and rare or unique copies, such as Averroes' commentaries on Avicenna's medical poetry.

The Wellcome Arabic Manuscript Cataloguing Partnership (WAMCP) combines the efforts of the Wellcome Library, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and King's College London Digital Humanities Department and is funded by JISC and the Wellcome Trust. It offers a rich digital manuscript library available online for free, which represents a significant resource for a wide range of researchers - including Arabic studies scholars, medical historians and manuscript conservators - to aid and enhance their work.

Link to database: Wellcome Arabic Manuscripts Online

Link to article: Historic Arabic medical manuscripts go online

Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE

2011-07-28T04:40:00.002-04:00

Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE)

Abstract:

The Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) is a global program, social network and grassroots social justice movement led by Muslim women, celebrating Muslim women's legacy as diverse leaders and promoting women's empowerment and activism. WISE uses principles from the Quran and shariah, or Islamic law, to advance women's human rights with religious authenticity and recognizes the interrelated social, economic, and political factors that contribute to gender-based inequality.

Link: Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE)

Pictures of Muslims Wearing Things

2011-07-28T04:14:00.002-04:00

Pictures of Muslims Wearing Things

Abstract:

Former NPR analyst Juan Williams, among other ignorant people, has an irrational fear of Muslims, and thinks you can identify them based on what they look like. Here I will post pictures of Muslims wearing all sorts of things in an attempt to refute that there is such a thing as "Muslim garb" or a Muslim look.

Link: Pictures of Muslims Wearing Things

End Gender Apartheid in U.S. Mosques

2011-07-28T04:02:00.004-04:00

End gender apartheid in U.S. mosques, by Asra Q. Nomani (USA Today, 10 July 2011)

Excerpt:

Last year, Thompson launched a "Pray In" campaign in Washington-area mosques, and this was our fourth action . With us, Ify Okoye, 27, a Nigerian-American Muslim convert, and Krysta Camp, 28, an American-Muslim convert, strode forward to reclaim in the 21st century rights that women enjoyed in the 7th century when the prophet Mohammad let women pray in the main hall of his mosque without forcing them behind any partition. During the other pray-ins, mosque officials called D.C. and Fairfax County (Va.) police and threw us out, charging us with trespassing. This time, we got to pray, but we had to hear shouts and insults.

Link: End gender apartheid in U.S. mosques

Ramadan and Weight Lifting

2011-07-28T03:55:00.003-04:00

Ramadan & Weight Lifting: How to Maintain Muscle & Strength (Stronglifts.com, 6 August 2009)

Excerpts:

During [Ramadan], practicing Muslims fast from dawn till dusk. This is a complete fast: you eat nothing, but also don't drink. Not even water. Weight lifting can be hard during Ramadan. Especially since it falls during the warmer summer months this year and the following ones. This post will teach you how to train and what to eat for best results during Ramadan.

Link: Ramadan & Weight Lifting: How to Maintain Muscle & Strength (Stronglifts.com, 6 August 2009)

Ladakh: Great Buddhist Monasteries

2011-07-21T20:53:00.003-04:00

Ladakh: Great Buddhist Monasteries, by Ajay Jain (Yatra.com/Yahoo India News, 20 July 2011)

Excerpts:

You have to hand it over to the Buddhists. For centuries they have gone about practicing and preserving their religion, not diluting its essence over generations, and continuing to command the respect and veneration of the followers of this faith. Their art and architecture has been admirable throughout - and they managed to perch their installations on sites you can barely trudge up to. Modern day builders cannot emulate these.

When in Ladakh, you are never too far from a monastery. And no matter how hard you try, you cannot say, “You have seen one, you have seen them all.” Each is unique. The ones you must go to - in a rough decreasing order of preference.

Link: Ladakh: Great Buddhist Monasteries

How Bible Stories Evolved Over the Centuries

2011-07-20T00:50:00.003-04:00

How Bible Stories Evolved Over the Centuries (NPR All Things Considered, 17 July 2011)

Excerpts:

Many Christians believe that the words of the New Testament are set in stone. But scholars at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary are chronicling just how much those words have evolved over time. For 11 years, they've combed through the earliest Greek manuscripts of each book in the New Testament and found more than 17,000 pages of variations. Their ultimate goal: the world's first comprehensive, searchable online database showing how the New Testament has changed.

The database is already up. The first explanations go live this fall with two books of the New Testament — Philippians and First Peter. Now, scholars have known about many of these variations for years, but some of the changes might surprise many Christians.

Link: How Bible Stories Evolved Over the Centuries

Online Resources for Hearing Impaired Muslims

2011-07-20T00:25:00.003-04:00

Online resources for hearing impaired Muslims:

Muslim Deaf
Al-Ishara
Deaf Umrah

Deaf Muslim Signs the Holy Qur'an:

First Deaf Umrah:

Framing Muslims

2011-07-19T23:52:00.004-04:00

Framing Muslims

Abstract:

Framing Muslims is an international and interdisciplinary international research network exploring the representation of Muslim identities in contemporary cultural discourses. It looks at the way Muslims are depicted (and depict themselves) across a range of areas in political, legal, public and media discourses. We are interested in tracing the recurrence of certain structures governing these representations - such as stereotyping or narrow types of agenda setting – how these appear, and how they might be circumvented or subverted by users.

Link: Framing Muslims

Striving Towards a Green Ramadan

2011-07-19T23:45:00.003-04:00

Striving Towards a Green Ramadan, by Ameena Jandali (11 August 2010)

Excerpts:

Ramadan is a time to nurture the spirit of sacrifice, God-consciousness and self-awareness. It is an opportunity to learn the twin lessons of moderation and conservation as we forgo food and drink and embrace the ideal of less is better. It is a month long training camp to imbibe these habits that should then be applied to the rest of the year.

Yet, we often lose sight of these goals incumbent upon us during this time, and veer to the opposite extreme of going to excess in our food, drink and consumption to compensate for our daytime fast, thereby missing out on the focus and purpose of this blessed month.

Additionally, we often forget the importance of stewardship that is conveyed in Qur’anic verses that describe human beings as vicegerents on earth: “It is He (God) who has appointed you (humankind) as vicegerents on earth.” (Qur’an: 25:39); and as conveyed in the prophetic saying, “The world is green and beautiful and We have appointed you stewards towards it.”

Link: Striving Towards a Green Ramadan

Meet the Mexican Muslim Tree Huggers

2011-07-19T23:35:00.003-04:00

Meet the Mexican Muslim Tree Huggers, by Zaufishan (Illume, 5 July 2011)

Excerpts:

Beginning as a meeting once upon a time in Mexico, Trees Give Life is the co-effort of Arif Malik and performing artist Mohammed Yahya. We talk to the organisation founders about why they are planting trees for religion. Less than a year old, the Trees Give Life campaign began with a trip to Latin America, one of the latest parts of the underprivileged world to embrace the Muslim faith. Founder of the campaign, Arif Malik was inspired by Islam’s environmental principles to reach out and make a difference.

He says, “As Muslims need to be more aware of our planet as we have been entrusted to take care of the planet and that includes you as an individual, as a society and community and state. So I decided that If I was to make a difference then I would not rely on anybody apart from myself and the Creator and that this was my small contribution… in trying to save the planet.”

Link: Meet the Mexican Muslim Tree Huggers

Muslim Green Guide to Reducing Climate Change

2011-07-19T23:23:00.003-04:00

Muslim Green Guide to Reducing Climate Change, by UK Lifemakers Foundation and the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IFEES)

Abstract:

A Muslim Green Guide to help households reduce climate change has been published jointly by UK Lifemakers Foundation and the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IFEES), with the charity, Muslim Hands, meeting production costs. This booklet explains the impact of climate change using Islamic references and also explains why Muslims must do their bit for the environment. The Green Guide is unique in that it is a simple, practical handbook that looks at different aspects of the household and suggests changes from an Islamic prospective that can have a big impact on climate change. These include decisions about domestic food, water, laundry, heating, electricity, transport and recycling. Also at the end of the 20 page booklet is a green checklist that gives households something positive to aim towards.

Link (PDF): Muslim Green Guide to Reducing Climate Change

This is what a Muslim Vegetarian Looks Like

2011-07-19T23:13:00.003-04:00

This is what a Muslim Vegetarian Looks like (A World of Green Muslims, 30 December 2010)

Excerpts

“Are Muslims allowed to be vegetarians?” and “Why would any Muslim want to be a vegetarian?” usually follows the polite explanation that I don’t eat meat. Over the years my responses to these questions changed but I now usually respond with a rather non-committal ‘well, it depends on the person’. I have been asked to speak as a Muslim vegetarian on a couple of occasion and whilst I was more than happy to do it, I often felt uneasy ‘representing’ Muslim vegetarians due to the diverse views and opinions we hold.

Link: This is what a Muslim Vegetarian Looks like

A Green Dargah

2011-07-19T23:06:00.005-04:00

A Green Dargah, by Rekha Pal (Washington Bangla Radio, 15 April 2011)

Excerpts:

The holy and world-famous Ajmer Sharif dargah in Ajmer, Rajasthan, is finally getting an eco-friendly makeover. From switching to solar power electrification to recycling the mazaar flowers to make itr (perfume), it is perhaps the first shrine in the world to go green.

Dargah Sharif or the Holy Dargah is one of the most sacred Muslim shrines in India. Revered by both Hindus and Muslims, it is the tomb of Khwaja Moin-ud-din Chisti, a Sufi saint who came from Persia and devoted his life to the service and uplift of the poor and downtrodden. Khwaja Sahib arrived in Ajmer at the age of 52 around 1190 AD on his divine mission, unique in the annals of Islam. He made Ajmer his abode from 1192 to 1236 AD and established the Chisti order of fakirs in India.

Link: A Green Dargah

The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism (2 Parts) [E-Book/Scribd]

2011-07-19T22:58:00.002-04:00

The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism (Part 01) by Henry Corbin

The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism (Part 02) by Henry Corbin

A Prayer for Spiritual Elevation and Protection (Ibn 'Arabi) [E-Book/Scribd]

2011-07-19T22:49:00.001-04:00

al-Dawr al-ala(Hizb al-wiqaya) By Ibn Arabi (ENGLISH)

The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam's Mystical Tradition (E-Book/Scribd)

2011-07-19T22:08:00.002-04:00

the Garden of Truth the Vision and Promise of Sufism Islam 039 s Mystical Tradition

Beauty and Islam: Aesthetics in Islamic Art and Architecture (E-Book/Scribd)

2011-07-19T21:57:00.004-04:00

Beauty and Islam Aesthetics in Islamic Art

Sacred music in Manchester: beyond belief

2011-07-19T21:43:00.003-04:00

Sacred music in Manchester: beyond belief, by Riazat Butt (The Guardian [UK], 4 July 2011)

Excerpt:

In the back room of a Manchester church, a woman fishes a stereo and some CDs out of a carrier bag . As the evening sun streams through the frosted windows, choir leader Jacqui Allen calls to order the dozen people exchanging small talk around her. Then something extraordinary happens. The choir sings gospel songs such as Face to Face and Joyous in a way that makes the spine tingle, the heart soar and the tummy flip. The same thing happens at its rehearsals every week, but this one is different. The choir of the New Testament Church of God is preparing for its biggest appearance to date – alongside US gospel singer Candi Staton – for the Sacred Sites arm of the festival, which puts international performers in places of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim worship across the city. "I feel very privileged, motivated and encouraged to know the festival is not an in-house event," says Diane Plummer, a choir member since its inception five years ago. "It will bring the community into a place they don't normally go." Fellow singer and parishioner Cory Bernard says the choir has "never done anything like this before. I don't know what people expect. There are lots of stereotypes about gospel choirs. I think they will hear passion and something different." The church noticeboard testifies to the event's popularity, with three pages' worth of congregants requesting tickets for friends and family.

Link: Sacred music in Manchester: beyond belief

Hareni Mekabel Alai (Jewish Devotional Ritual)

2011-07-19T20:40:00.005-04:00

Videos of Sufi Devotional Rituals/Practices (Dhikrs, etc.)

2011-07-19T20:16:00.018-04:00

Background Readings:

Selection of video clips on various Sufi devotional rituals/practices (Dhikrs, etc.) from YouTube:

Sufi Dervishes (Turkey):

Hadhra (Tunisia):

Naqsbandi Dhikr (Germany):

Naqshbandi Sufi Whirling Dervishes of Montreal:

Naqshbandi Whirling Dervishes of Indonesia

Bosnia Dhikr Naqshbandiyya

Chechen Dhikr

Chechen Dhikr Imran

Chechen Dhikr

Chechen Dhikr in Pankisi Valley

Chechen Qadiri Dhikr:

Sufi Dhikr with Sheikh Hassan Dyck ("La ilaha ilallah")

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Allah Hoo Allah Hoo (full version)

Also available in a 2-Part version:
- Part 1
- Part 2

Hu Hu Hu Allah:

Alhamdulillah Allah:

Women's Driving Protest May Signal Changes in Saudi Arabia

2011-06-25T23:26:00.003-04:00

Women's Driving Protest May Signal Changes in Saudi Arabia, by Isobel Coleman (Washington Post, 24 June 2011)

Excerpt:

Saudi restrictions on women are not going to melt away. More likely, a growing middle-class acceptance of women’s rights, promoted by activists, business leaders, educators, journalists and even moderate religious leaders, will exacerbate the long-simmering tensions between tradition and modernity, between fundamentalist and moderate Islam, that have gripped Saudi society for decades. Why? Because control over women is at the heart of the harsh version of Islam that Saudi theocracy imposes on the country.

Link: Women's Driving Protest May Signal Changes in Saudi Arabia

Social Media Rebooting Religion

2011-06-25T21:59:00.002-04:00

Social Media Rebooting Religion, by Elizabeth Drescher (San Francisco Chronicle, 5 June 2011, p. F4)

Excerpts:

Are Facebook and Twitter changing religion? It seems clearer and clearer that the ever-growing dominance of social media - especially on mobile computing devices like smart phones and tablets - is bringing religion back into the daily lives of many, while challenging religious institutions to revise notions of spiritual identity and community in both online and face-to-face worship.

Link: Social Media Rebooting Religion