Final Blog Project

The following link is where my Final Project will be presented.


http://theswastikasymboloriginandmigration.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Blog Entry #11

The articles for this week speak about the influence that modernity and the West has on the image of Islam. The term 'Islam' is meant to be applied loosely, since Islam as a religion, culture, people and image, as depicted by the West, is a multidimensional term. In which the meaning of the term is not meant to be outlined, but is meant to be explored in its context to the West. Last weeks articles (and my previous blog) speak to the common misconception about the veiled woman. The West continued to hold prejudice against Muslims, and specifically stereotypes associated with Muslim women and children. The image of the veiled woman in the west is the personfication of the oppression of women and how mistreated they are by Muslim men. Since the recent attacks of 9/11, the image of the veiled woman instills fear amongst westerners who are ignorant to Islamic law. Ignorance that is rightly justified by lack of experience with Islam. Especially so, when a large experiencial event occured on 9/11, via the taliban. Because of this event, terms such as "muslim", "taliban" amd "Islam" become intertwined and used interchangably, despite their true differences.

Blog Entry #10

In Islam in the eyes of the West the author describes central points between the doctrinal differences between Christianity (the West) and Islam. However, before laying out these commonalities and differences the author first outlines why the Western perspective of Islam may be misconstrued. For example, how the terms "Arab", "Muslim" and "terrorist" have become interchangable in American forms of media and each term has been widely accepted as a violent image. The bigger example of the ignorance of the West are the images of the veiled woman. This image, for the West, takes on the assumption that Muslim women are oppressed and that they suffer more disadvantages that other women in the world, ie. Christian women. Moreover, little positive attributes are attributed to Islam by the West, making Christianity appear to be superior. Similarly, the article points out that Islamic law was dismantled by the European powers in the countries that they conquered, only leaving drastically modified sections that applied only to personal and family law.

The Prophet Muhammad's divinity was criticized by Christians in two ways; his engaging in battle and his marriages to many women. Christians claimed that because of these two reasons, Muhammad and Jesus were not on the same exalted level. For Muslims, the opposite was true. For them, Jesus' celibacy and nonviolence were unrealistic models for people to follow. In Islam, Jesus did not die on the cross and is still alive in heaven, awaiting the day when he will resurrect to complete his prophetic mission, during which time it is believed that he will marry and judge others, according to the law.

Blog Entry #9-Group Topic

The Cologne Mani Codex was influenced by many Christian writings such as the apocryphal acts of the apostles and the writing's of Paul. The CMC depicts the life of Mani and his struggles to and from the Jewish Christian baptist sect from southern Babylon. The text was compiled after Mani's death in 270 and was is plausibly from the upper Egypt area. However, it seems interesting that despite being found in upper Egypt, the texts do not seem to be influenced by ancient Egyptian religion at all. The CMC discusses theology and ritual practice of the baptist sect, and even emphasizes Mani's issues with the practice of baptism and purification within the tradition. Mani found multiple baptisms to be unecessary, as one baptism should be sufficient.

The CMC speaks about Mani the way that the Gospel of Thomas speaks about Jesus by "emphasizing the role of the solitary one". Since this was only discussed in part in the article, I decided to include more from the Gospel of Thomas in my blog. Unlike the other canonical gospels, Thomas' account is a narration of Jesus' life and mainly comprises of dialogues surrounding Jesus. I found it particularly interesting that the Gospel of Thomas does not show concern for concepts such as; god, original sin, christ, or divinity. Thomas' focus is on the historical Jesus. Like the CMC, the Gospel of Thomas is also codexed.

Blog Entry #8

The above picture is courtesy of the Seattle Art Museum and is of the Nestorian tablet, discovered in 1625. Made out of stone stele and is inscribed with both Chinese and Assyrian characters from a Nestorian preist of 781. The actual tablet stands at almost ten feet high!

As a religion major, this weeks readings interested me mainly through the discussion of Nestorian Christianity and its relation to Chinese culture through the 6th century. The Nestorian Church moved and flourished in China without the need for institutionalization and was tolerated by Chinese society, which is why their influence on each other is so prominent in this weeks articles.

Nestorian Christianity denounce the role of Mary as the Virgin Mother, and exemplify her as only giving birth to the human Jesus. Where two versions of Jesus Christ existed, the man and the divinity. They maintain that Mary played no role in his divinity and therefore should not be credited the way she is in Roman Catholicism. Moreover, Roman Catholicism claims there to be three versions of Jesus; the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Horses and the Golden Age of Tang is significant because of its obvious equality given to men and women in regards to horseback riding, and other small game hunting such as falconry. Horsewomen of Chang'an of the Tang dynasty were given equal oppertunity as horsemen.

Blog Entry #7- Group Topic

"The Caves of the Thousand Buddhas” from the Dunhuang and surrounding areas provide socio-political insight into daily life of the people of the Dunhuang. Scripture, art and documents found from the cave sites provide us with examples of how Buddhism influences the Dunhuang in ways other than art.

Minor influences brought to the Dunhuang from Buddhism include the habit of tea drinking, which Buddhists would drink during meditiation in order to assist acheiving enlightenment. More complex influences include that of astronomy. Buddhist paintings discovered along the Silk Road associate each day of the week with regions of the sky and a bodhisattva, as influenced by the Indian Buddhist pantheon (the seven planetary divinities). Manuscripts from the Library Cave combine Buddhist texts with Confucian classics, and contained educational exercises, multiplication tables, and writing practices. Buddhist monasteries even operated schools that taught Confucian classics to its students, in addition to Buddhist texts.

Chinese aristocrats from the northern Silk Road took up horseback riding, falconry and hunting. Many Buddhist paintings depict and describe falconry among the Chinese Tang. Activites for pleasure even possessed Buddhist influence.

As a side note, I found it intriguing that after Tibetans took over Dunhuang in the 8th century there was a paper shortage in China that forced documents to be reused in order to save paper. Therefore, Buddhist texts were often recorded on the backside of secular texts that were kept in the Library Cave.

Blog Entry #6

This image is of Prince Siddhartha, before reaching nirvana and becoming Buddha.

I found the three jewels; Buddha, dharma, and sangha the most interesting concept in this weeks readings. They are called jewels because they are rare and unaccessable. Medical metaphors are often used to associate between the three jewels. The Buddha being the doctor, dharma as the medicine and sangha as nurses. The Buddha's job is to find the Way and then show the path to liberation to others. Dharma acts as the path itself, and sangha are one's compassions along the path. The jewels offer refuge and protection to buddhists, where escape from samsara (cycle of rebirth) and reaching nirvana is the ultimate goal. This is where the idea of reincarnation plays off of the human condition. As stated in previous blog entries, humans are weak and in order to subdue fears of death, the concept of samsara calms human insecurities about the unknown. For this reason, I believe in reincarnation, despite my Roman Catholic upbringing. It is calming to believe that deceased loved ones still roam the earth, either as spirits or as other individuals.

Text and scripture play a large role in any religious tradition, and it was surpiring to read that there are many debates regarding Buddhist scripture, including the language Buddha spoke. Just like the New Testament of the Bible, the dharmabhanaka in Mahayanian Buddhism was composed centuries after the death of Buddha. Therefore, disputes regarding their accuracy become prominent.

I also a interested in why Buddhism flourished in China. The readings state that if the Chinese government had been stronger after the Tang, Buddhism would have never taken hold into China the way it did. This is a perfect example of how politics and government play a larger role in religion than one might assume.