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adb7530
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In fact Hell seemed a more potent reality than God, because it was something that I could grasp imaginatively.
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Karen Armstrong |
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482ce9e
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When one conception of God has ceased to have meaning or relevance, it has been quietly discarded and replaced by a new theology. A fundamentalist would deny this, since fundamentalism is antihistorical: it believes that Abraham, Moses and the later prophets all experienced their God in exactly the same way as people do today. Yet if we look at our three religions, it becomes clear that there is no objective view of "God": each generation h..
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Karen Armstrong |
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931896e
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But it was more than that. Paris represented life, sensuality, freedom, and fun. And that somehow made it impossible.
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Karen Armstrong |
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bca3756
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Today we often assume that before undertaking a religious lifestyle, we must prove to our own satisfaction that "God" or the "Absolute" exists. This is good scientific practice: first you establish a principle; only then can you apply it. But the Axial sages would say that this was to put the cart before the horse. First you must commit yourself to the ethical life; then disciplined and habitual benevolence, not metaphysical conviction, wou..
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Karen Armstrong |
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fc32b93
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When they have contemplated the world, human beings have always experienced a transcendence and mystery at the heart of existence.
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god
sacred
transcendence
mystery
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Karen Armstrong |
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9756e16
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Mythology was never designed to describe historically verifiable events that actually happened. It was an attempt to express their inner significance or to draw attention to realities that were too elusive to be discussed in a logically coherent way.
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myth
meaning
reality
mythology
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Karen Armstrong |
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3dd8b35
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and by a militant rejection of all later accretions, which included medieval fiqh, mysticism and Falsafah, which most Muslims now regarded as normative. Because the Ottoman sultans did not conform to his vision of true Islam, Abd al-Wahhab declared that they were apostates and worthy of death. Instead, he tried to create an enclave of pure faith, based on his view of the first ummah of the seventh century. His aggressive techniques would be..
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Karen Armstrong |
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1765df1
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De wetenschappelijke consensus is dat het verhaal van de uittocht niet historisch is. [...] Omstreeks 1200 v.C. is er in dit gebied voor het eerst sprake van een volk dat 'Israel' heet. Sommige wetenschappers stellen dat de Israelieten vluchtelingen waren uit de verzwakte stadstaten uit de kustvlakten. Wellicht sloten andere stammen uit het zuiden zich daar bij hen aan. Mogelijk brachten deze hun god JHWH met zich mee, die oorspronkelijk af..
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Karen Armstrong |
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5b2bcae
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De profeet Jeremia [...] had zo zijn bedenkingen tegen een geschreven wet: de 'pen van de schrijvers' kon de traditie door een simpele schrijffout vervalsen en een geschreven tekst kon een oppervlakkige manier van denken in de hand werken, gericht op informatie in plaats van wijsheid. In een studie over moderne joodse bewegingen stelt de vooraanstaande geleerde Chaim Soloveitchik dat de overgang van een orale traditie naar geschreven tekste..
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Karen Armstrong |
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Jezus van Nazaret, een Galilese genezer en duivelbezweerder die de ophanden zijnde komst van het koninkrijk vna God verkondigde. Anti-Romeinse gevoelens kwamen vooral op bij grote nationale feesten, en Jezus werd rond het jaar 30 ter dood gebracht door Pontius Pilatus toen hij naar Jeruzalem kwam om Pesach te vieren.
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Karen Armstrong |
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Shu required that "all day and every day" we looked into our own hearts, discovered what caused us pain, and then refrained, under all circumstances, from inflicting that distress upon other people. It demanded that people no longer put themselves into a special, separate category but constantly related their own experience to that of others. Confucius was the first to promulgate the Golden Rule. For Confucius it had transcendent value."
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Karen Armstrong |
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The humiliation of the ummah was not merely a political catastrophe, but touched a Muslim's very soul. This new weakness was a sign that something had gone gravely awry in Islamic history. The Quran had promised that a society which surrendered to God's revealed will could not fail. Muslim history had proved this. Time and again, when disaster had struck, the most devout Muslims had turned to religion, made it speak to their new circumstanc..
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Karen Armstrong |
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ff713c6
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But his friend and colleague the Egyptian scholar Muhammad Abdu (1849-1905) was a deeper and more measured thinker. He believed that education and not revolution was the answer. Abdu had been devastated by the British occupation of Egypt, but he loved Europe, felt quite at ease with Europeans and was widely read in Western science and philosophy. He greatly respected the political, legal and educational institutions of the modern West, but ..
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Karen Armstrong |
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36bb4d5
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As soon as I stopped trying to exploit my literary skills to advance my career or enhance my reputation, I found that I was opening myself to the text, could lose myself to the beauty of the words and in the wisdom of the writer. It was a kind of ekstasis, an ecstasy that was not an exotic, tranced state of consciousness but, in the literal sense of the word, a going beyond self.
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Karen Armstrong |
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b2ce408
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O calatorie in strafundurile mintii implica mari riscuri personale, deoarece s-ar putea sa nu fim in stare sa suportam ce gasim acolo,
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Karen Armstrong |
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6de3386
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He insisted that it was impossible to understand a single word of the Book of Nature without knowing the language of mathematics.
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Karen Armstrong |
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8152720
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We shall often find in our story that the religious behavior of people who have not been major beneficiaries of modernity articulates a strongly felt need for the spiritual,
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Karen Armstrong |
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c11f2c2
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the attempt to become a compassionate human being is a lifelong project.
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Karen Armstrong |
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816a098
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After the loss of so much of the learning of the past, the destruction of manuscripts and the slaughter of scholars, it was more important to recover what had been lost than to inaugurate more change. Because the Mongol military code made no provision for civil society, the ulama continued to govern the lives of the faithful, and their influence tended to be conservative. Where Sufis such as Rumi believed that all religions were valid, by t..
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Karen Armstrong |
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a0ed7c8
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But there were ulama who refused to accept the closing of the "gates of ijtihad." Throughout Islamic history, at times of great political crisis--especially during a period of foreign encroachment--a reformer (mujdadid) would often renew the faith so that it could meet the new conditions. These reforms usually followed a similar pattern. They were conservative, since they attempted to go back to basics rather than create an entirely new sol..
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Karen Armstrong |
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4c372c2
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Ibn Taymiyyah was a worrying figure to the establishment. His return to the fundamentals of the Quran and sunnah and his denial of much of the rich spirituality and philosophy of Islam may have been reactionary, but it was also revolutionary. He outraged the conservative ulama, who clung to the textbook answers, and criticized the Mamluk government of Syria for practices which contravened Islamic law as he understood it.
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Karen Armstrong |
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ccbc0ee
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Ibn Khaldun wanted to discover the underlying causes of this change. He was probably the last great Spanish Faylasuf; his great innovation was to apply the principles of philosophic rationalism to he study of history, hitherto considered to be beneath the notice of a philosopher, because it dealt only with transient, fleeting events instead of eternal truths. But Ibn Khaldun believed that, beneath the flux of historical incidents, universal..
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Karen Armstrong |
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54e4dfe
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He claimed gleefully that he had no opinions at all, because he had no self. A poet, he believed, was 'the most unpoetical of any thing in existence; because he has no Identity'.75 True poetry had no time for 'the egotistical sublime',76 which forced itself on the reader:
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Karen Armstrong |
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bc18fff
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Iubirea inseamna, in esenta, a fi insetat de ceva ce ramane absent. De aceea iubirea omeneasca este atat de dezamagitoare.
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Karen Armstrong |
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e5003c7
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Mir Dimad (d. 1631) and his pupil Mulla Sadra (d. 1640) founded a school of mystical philosophy at Isfahan, which Majlisi did his best to suppress. They continued the tradition of Suhrawardi, linking philosophy and spirituality, and training their disciples in mystical disciplines which enabled them to acquire a sense of the alam al-mithal and the spiritual world. Both insisted that a philosopher must be as rational and scientific as Aristo..
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Karen Armstrong |
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63762fa
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imaginatia este principala facultate omeneasca la care recurge religia. Jean-Paul Sartre a definit-o ca "abilitatea de a gandi ceea ce nu exista". Fiintele umane sunt singurele fapturi inzestrate cu capacitatea de a-si reprezenta ceva ce nu este prezent sau nu exista inca, dar care este pur si simplu posibil. Astfel, imaginatia a fost sursa unor realizari majore la stiinta si tehnologie, ca si in arta si religie. Oricum ar fi definit El, id..
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Karen Armstrong |
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71c948b
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so Enlightenment philosophers developed a new form of theism, based entirely on reason and Newtonian science, which they called Deism.
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Karen Armstrong |
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125c495
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Dupa cum a explicat Grigorie de Nyssa in Comentariu la Cantarea Cantarilor "fiecare concept pe care mintea il intelege este o piedica in calea celor care cauta". Telul contemplatorului era sa mearga dincolo de idei si de imaginile de orice fel, caci ele ii puteau distrage atentia. Apoi va ajunge la un anumit simt al prezentei care era indefinibil si care depasea, fara indoiala, nivelul relatiilor dintre oameni. Aceasta atitudine se numea he..
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Karen Armstrong |
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f9e00a0
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Si totusi, un Dumnezeu personal poate deveni o mare raspundere. Se poate transforma intr-un simplu idol , facut dupa chipul si asemanarea noastra, o proiectie a nevoilor noastre limitate, a temerilor si a dorintelor pe care le avem. Putem presupune ca El iubeste ce iubim noi si uraste ce uram noi, accentuandu-ne prejudecatile, in loc sa ne oblige sa le depasim. Cand nu izbuteste sa impiedice o catastrofa sau atunci cand pare ca vrea o trage..
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Karen Armstrong |
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64c2405
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Our Master's Way," explained one of his pupils, "is nothing but this: doing-your-best-for-others (zhong) and consideration (shu)."3" --
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Karen Armstrong |
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e07fa51
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Remember that in a threatening environment, the human brain becomes permanently organized for aggression.
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Karen Armstrong |
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13d3539
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our version of the same event is also likely to be a reflection upon our own situation and suffering rather than a dispassionate and wholly factual account. We
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Karen Armstrong |
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9a70467
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Het hoofdthema [van het verhaal van Kain En Abel] is het gevecht tussen eigenliefde en de liefde voor God. 'Kain' betekende 'bezit'. Kain wilde alles voor zichzelf houden en streefde enkel zijn eigenbelang na. 'Abel' betekende 'degene die alles in verband brengt met God'. Deze kwaliteiten waren in elk individu aanwezig en streden voortdurend om de voorrang.
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Karen Armstrong |
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e9d609d
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Het was absurd, stelde Filo, om het eerste hoofdstuk van Genesis letterlijk op te vatten en te denken dat de wereld in zes dagen was geschapen. Het getal 'zes' was een symbool voor volmaaktheid.
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Karen Armstrong |
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33e7b27
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Het was niet het opzet van de eerste christenen om zich van het jodendom af te scheiden. De enige Jezus die we echt kennen, de Jezus is die wordt beschreven in het Nieuwe Testament, dat niet als objectief wetenschappelijke geschiedenis bedoeld was. Er zijn geen andere contemporaine bronnen over zijn missie en dood. Zelfs de reden voor zijn kruisiging valt niet met zekerheid vast te stellen. De evangelien wijzen erop dat men dacht dat hij de..
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Karen Armstrong |
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We weten niet wie de evangelien geschreven hebben. Toen ze voor het eerst opdoken circuleerden ze anoniem, en ze werden pas later toegeschreven aan belangrijke figuren uit de jong christelijke kerken. De auteurs waren joodse christenen.
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Karen Armstrong |
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1f78dac
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Humiliate your enemy is dangerous.
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love
enemy
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Karen Armstrong |
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d16318c
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included: no religious doctrine or practice can be authentic if it does not lead to practical compassion.
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Karen Armstrong |
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0ab0cfa
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the sacred reality is not simply transcendent, "out there," but is enshrined in every single human being, who must, therefore, be treated with absolute honor and respect."
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Karen Armstrong |
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c3e8fb8
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Again, what works well in the spiritual domain can become destructive and even immoral if interpreted literally and practically in the mundane world. It
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Karen Armstrong |
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80e2edc
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Enmity shapes our consciousness and identity.
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Karen Armstrong |
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The people we hate haunt us; they inhabit our minds in a negative way as we brood in a deviant form of meditation on their bad qualities. The enemy thus becomes our twin, a shadow self whom we come to resemble.
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Karen Armstrong |
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the anonymous Chinese author we know as Laozi pointed out that no matter how good his intentions, violence always recoils upon the perpetrator.
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Karen Armstrong |
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e6249f6
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In fact, the causes of conflict are usually greed, envy, and ambition, but in an effort to sanitize them, these self-serving emotions have often been cloaked in religious rhetoric.
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Karen Armstrong |