Suchergebnisse

Touching and holding books does not usually evoke the language of sensation. Touching a book indexes the reader in relationship to the book. Holding a book of scripture indexes a person as faithful to the beliefs and practices that are commonly associated with that scripture. In portraiture, the direction of a book's indexical function is usually clear. Scribes, professors, lawyers and politicians pose in their libraries, often with book in hand, to depict themselves as scholars. The fact that scriptures are books makes a vocabulary of textual agency available for describing their symbolic function. The indexical link between book and person gains force from the fact that books and people share the quality of interiority. We think of both books and people as material containers of immaterial ideas. Therefore, images of people with books invite viewers to consider the relationship between their invisible ideas. However, art that portrays a god or goddess holding a scripture conveys a tighter indexical relationship, often to the point of collapsing any distinction between them.

Scripture condemns various forms of sexual behavior-but not all. Same-Sex in Scripture identifies in Mt. 19:12 an acknowledgement by Christ of the person born without an impulse towards the opposite sex, and reasons that inasmuch as all creation is good (1 Gen. 31, 1Tim. 4:4) this individual in partnership with someone of the same sex, in following Christ's commands of love, has moral status in the Kingdom of Heaven. Geis argues the insufficiency of Nature as a criterion for sexual behavior given the many exceptions from which the criterion when applied to human sexuality suffers. Only Christ's unexceptioned commandment of love has the binding force salvific law requires. Same-sex behavior can comport with this law, just as heterosexual behavior, as is clear from the role Mt. 5:28 gives the heart in sexuality. It is a position that achieves the middle between the extremes of this contentious debate.

"In the public sphere, it is often assumed that acts of violence carried out by Muslims are inspired by their religious commitment and encouraged by the Qur'an. Some people express similar concerns about the scriptures and actions of Christians and Jews. Might they be right? What role do scriptural texts play in motivating and justifying violence in these three traditions? Scripture and Violence explores the complex relationship between scriptural texts and real-world acts of violence. A variety of issues are addressed, including the prevalent modern tendency to express more concern about other people's texts and violence than one's own, to treat interpretation and application of scriptural passages as self-evident, and to assume that the actions of religious people are directly motivated by what they read in scriptures. Contributions come from a diverse group of scholars of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, who have varying perspectives on the issues. Highlighting the complex relationship between texts and human actions, this is an essential read for students and academics studying religion and violence, Abrahamic religions, or scriptural interpretation. Scripture and Violence will also be of interest to researchers working on religion and politics, sociology and anthropology of religion, sociopolitical approaches to scriptural texts, and issues surrounding religion, secularity, and the public sphere. This volume could also form a basis for discussions in churches, synagogues, mosques, interfaith settings, and government agencies"--

Selected papers on the developments of service sectors in India