Suchergebnisse

The subject of women and scriptures is very important, especially for Arab and Muslim women who are witnessing a phase of religious revivalism, which is keen on redefining Islam in many different ways. Moreover, to raise issues by women on women's rights in the context of the Arab world opens the discussion for reform and for a new interpretation of religious symbolism, rituals, and traditions. Historically, the interpretation of sacred texts by male exegetes and theologians exclusively has contributed to the oppression of women and to their exclusion from sacred space. However, rising literacy and awareness of their rights have led Arab women to increasingly access scriptural knowledge. Since the 1970s, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim women including scholars, historians, literary critics, psychologists, feminist theologians, activists, and devout women attending to their rituals in the synagogue, the church, or the mosque, have studied the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Qur'an throughout the Arab world.

Created by a United Nations Resolution, a sovereign Jewish State came into being on May 14, 1948, choosing for itself the name of "Israel." What had been non-existent for more than 18 centuries now became a reality, a homeland for the Jews. It was a fulfillment of centuries-old longings of many for a return to their own land, an alternative to the kind of life possible in the nations of their dispersion, a haven of refuge for those who escaped the horrors of the holocaust. Born in a state of emergency, the State of Israel continues an emergency existence historically and politically. Over three million people now occupy a land that in area is smaller than our State of Vermont, and in which there was an already existing population of Arabs, Christian and Moslem, and Palestinians, many of whom have citizenship rights and property, to say nothing of the million or more who live in camps. Many have been made homeless in order that others may have a homeland. Since 1948 there have been full-scale wars, acts of terrorism, appeals to Arab unity, appeals to Jewish unity, special summit meetings between Israel, Egypt, and the United States, but the single issue which impinges on the total agenda is the land.

"Religion is poetry plus, not science minus" is a bon mot that I find not only charming but perceptive. Taking a cue from that way of putting things, let me develop a suggestion that an accurate historical awareness will add to, not subtract from, our understanding of in this case scripture. At one time, the historical or historicist interpretation of religious matters was seen as subtracting; as leaving something out. It was called "reductionist"; and was contrasted with theological, or with phenomenological or other, assessments. I will contend, rather, that a true historical view enhances, rather than reduces, our apprehension of humanity's spiritual life. I hope to show how this is so.

Kyrgyzstan in 2004. My hostmother Nurgul and her best friend Ainura decided to show me an important site just outside the village. Together with my two hostsisters, nine and fourteen years old, we set off and twenty minutes later we arrived at an overgrown site: a field, the size of a football pitch, surrounded by what could havebeen the overgrown remainder of ruined walls. It was an awe-inspiring sight – the snowcapped Altai-mountains in the background, lush vegetation around us, an azure sky above, and not a sound to be heard. This was, my hostmother explained, the place where Manas, the Kyrgyz national hero, had built a fortress, and it was a sacred site. We circumambulated the site while listening to more stories about Kyrgyzstan's hero of a thousand years ago. Then, just before we turned to walk home, my hostmother suggested to her friend to "read the Qur'an". We squatted down in that typically Central Asian way and fell silent. Then Ainura cupped her hands in her lap and began to "read the Qur'an". Only there was no Qur'an. And her recitation was in an Arabic I could not even remotely recognise. We finished our prayer with the "omeen"3 gesture and made our way home.