The Hajj on YouTube

Next Wednesday I begin my set of lectures on Islam.  To introduce that, here is a link to YouTube where the Saudis have allowed a live feed to this year's Hajj

The Hajj live on YouTube

Can religion.....

Can religion be studied academically?  Can one apply the discipline of one trained to analysis of historical periods to faith?

I do this... but is it a sign of one with no faith?  Or was Descartes correct that one can isolate parts of your mind, yourself really, into discrete sections that do not touch each other.  The man who turned me from an interest in legal and constitutional history to the study of religion in history advised that you should only study a religion not your own.  In that way only he thought, could you study with proper scholarly detachment.  Among Canadian historians of religion, he is the only one I know of who actually did this, however.  He is Michael Gauvreau, simply the best historian of religion in this country.  The others are very good, but seem to focus on aspects of Christianity they have a personal connection to.  I cheated a bit when I got my union ticket [PhD] - I focussed on Canadian Anglicanism.  A cheat because while I researched and wrote my dissertation, I was a Catholic - but I was raised in the Anglican Church of Canada and have kept a soft spot for this complex institution.

Not exactly religion

Descartes finishes his drink and the barman says: "Want another?" Descartes says: "I think not" and vanishes.

U.S. Statistics

The American government is forbidden by the first amendment to their constitution from collecting information on religion. So statistics are estimated using standard social science polling techniques by private organisations and reported in the popular media.

Here is the newest, which might make proponents of American exceptional ism revise their hypothesis:


http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/1618445

Mughal Art

If anyone is lucky enough to be in England between November and next April, add this exhibition at the British Library to your agenda:


Mughal Art at the BL

Humour and Religion

I was set to thinking today [but not too deeply] about humour and religion.  I use humour when teaching my history of religion classes, but not in the sense that I make jokes about any particular religion.  I may be mad, but I am not stupid... or is that I may be stupid but I'm not mad?  Anyway, I think more to the point, can religion - its history and beliefs - be communicated to others with a light touch?  Or is it so deadly serious that humour has no place?

In my last class [my only face-to-face teaching], I touched briefly on the Hasidim - how they see joy as central to their beliefs.  Even when times are dark, the Hasidim believe one should be filled with joy.  Why?  Well, because creation overall is from God and must therefore be wonderful and joyful.  The vicissitudes of life are temporary and perhaps [well one hopes this] aberrant and not the norm.

There are preachers who use humour on occasion - but it is rare.  Only rarely do you see any kind of joy or laughter when the topic of religion arises.

I do not think it appropriate to laugh at any part of a religion - say in the adolescent style of that American TV show Saturday Night Live.  But religion can be discussed, debated, learned, explored with a light touch - with a smile of recognition or of surprise.

That's my intent and goal, anyway.

the Calm and the Passion

I have often wondered at the difference meanings given to the words passion and spirituality across Christian denominations.  In some evangelical Protestant churches these terms connote wild outbursts of emotion, passionate singing, shouting out Amen in church services.  For more sedate Anglicans and Catholics, and especially the Orthodox and Uniate churches of the East, it means deep, silent meditation that might produce tears in the one meditating, but more often a total silence and separation from emotion.