Liturgical Traditions in the Literature of the Sangam Periods

Society is a system in which various parts work together. The message of worship traditions in Sangam literature is taken up for analysis in this article. Ancient man began to worship nature out of fear. It can be known that the cults appeared after being subjected to many threats. Due to many searches, a system established by man is considered as a tradition of worship. In Tamil society, it can be seen that there is spirit principle, ancestor worship, polytheism, etc. These literatures show that not only the five gods which are elements of nature, but also mountains, states etc. have played a major role in nature worship. They also had a practice of worshiping the human being. The tradition of worshiping the deceased in the midst of the war dead is a very proud and admirable practice practiced in the Tamil community. Tolkapiyam gives us a grammatical account about the middle-stone worship tradition. The name of the hero, his merits and his specialty etc. are mentioned in the middle stone. It is special that Tolkapiya also gives us a grammatical account of this middle-stone worship tradition. To worship the middle stone god, the custom of sacrificing a lamb with a stone and beating the rice stick is found in Sangam literary works of Akananuru and Purananuru. In the Silapathikaram which appeared in the later period of the Sangam literature, there is also the worship of nature and the worship of middle stone. There is also a practice of sacrificing the head to the deity by scratching its own head.  Following this, the practice of head sacrifice can be seen in sculptures at places like Mahabalipuram and Uchippillaiyar Temple. It can be known that the practice of head sacrificing existed from eighth century AD. After this period man took up Samarasa worship. Samara worship began to take root to fulfill the purpose of treating all the deities as one and treating the deities as one form and worshiping the same object as deity without distinction. It is also said that the Lord should be worshiped in the state of light. This study reveals the traditions of worship through nature worship, middle stone worship, samrasa worship and various other worships

Bertrand Russsell's Religion without God

The task of this paper is to reconstruct Bertrand Russell project for religion without God and dogma. Russell made two attempts in this direction, first in the essay “Free Man’s Worship” (1903), and then, in theoretical form, in the paper “The Essence of Religion” (1912). Russell’s explorations of religious impulses run in parallel with his work on technical philosophy. According to Russell from 1903–12, religion is an important part of human pursuits. However, whereas the ordinary man believes in God, the freeman embraces a religion without fear and dogma. He strives for a union with the universe achieved in contemplation made from many perspectives through “impartiality of vision”. For this reason freemen renounce the Self and the Will. Russell abandoned his project for religion without God mainly because of Wittgenstein’s criticism. In his later writings he continued to criticize the religion of the ordinary man, without to further develop a positive philosophy of religion, though

Cockfighters in the Legal, Religious, and Social Perspectives

This study examines the issues related to religious behavior in terms of religious beliefs, religious observance, motivation of doing cockfights, and social perception of cockfighters. From the data analysis found that: first, according to Islamic law, cockfighting is haram, while according to the positive law cockfighting accompanied by gambling is a crime. Secondly, according to their involvement, the cockfighters can be grouped into: tokang tanggha', bhutto, and petaro (gamblers). Thirdly, in the context of belief, the cockfighters remain consistent in his religion (Islam). Fourth, religious observance for cockfighters is simply the practice of social worship. Fifth, is the motivation for cockfighters, among others, are friendship, art, gambling, prestige, and media of communication to solve the social problems. Sixth, the public perceives the actor of cockfighting as someone who still does not get guidance from Allah.Copyright (c) 2016 by KARSA. All right reserved DOI: 10.19105/karsa.v24i1.101

Idolatry, Indifference, and the Scientific Study of Religion: Two New Humean Arguments

We utilize contemporary cognitive and social science of religion to defend a controversial thesis: the human cognitive apparatus gratuitously inclines humans to religious activity oriented around entities other than the God of classical theism. Using this thesis, we update and defend two arguments drawn from David Hume: (i) the argument from idolatry, which argues that the God of classical theism does not exist, and (ii) the argument from indifference, which argues that if the God of classical theism exists, God is indifferent to our religious activity

Hit Men and Midwives: Christian Witness at Work and at Worship

(Excerpt) Well, it has finally come to this: even a liturgical institute has to discuss evangelism. Almost certainly some people will look at the combination of liturgy and witness and observe from one point of view or another how this sort of thing could never have happened a generation ago

What We Have Seen and Heard and Touched

(Excerpt) This year\u27s Institute of Liturgical Studies has been carrying on an extended conversation on the relation between liturgy, witness, and service. It is a pleasure to join that conversation as a liturgist for whom liturgical catechesis of adults has been a longstanding avocation

Fetishism and the social value of objects.

The idea of the fetish has a particular presence in the writings of both Marx and Freud. It implies for these two theorists of the social, a particular form of relation between human beings and objects. In the work of both the idea of the fetish involves attributing properties to objects that they do not 'really' have and that should correctly be recognised as human. While Marx's account of fetishism addresses the exchange-value of commodities at the level of the economic relations of production, it fails to deal in any detail with the use-value or consumption of commodities. In contrast Freud's concept of the fetish as a desired substitute for a suitable sex object explores how objects are desired and consumed. Drawing on both Marx and Freud, Baudrillard breaks with their analyses of fetishism as demonstrating a human relation with unreal objects. He explores the creation of value in objects through the social exchange of sign values, showing how objects are fetishised in ostentation. This paper argues that while Baudrillard breaks with the realism characteristic of Marx's and Freud's analyses of fetishism, he does not go far enough in describing the social and discursive practices in which objects are used and sometimes transformed into fetishes. It is proposed that the fetishisation of objects involves an overdetermination of their social value through a discursive negotiation of the capacities of objects that stimulates fantasy and desire for them

Highlights of The Concept of Islamic Education Majid 'Irsan Al-Kilani

This article tries to reveal the concept of Islamic Education Majid Irsan al-Kilani, namely through the analysis of the five papers he is closely linked to education, among other things: 1) Ahdaf alTarbiyah al-Islamiyya fi Tarbiyah al-Fard wa Ikhraj al-Umma wa Tan-Miyah al-Ukhuwwah al-Insaniyyah (Vision-Mission of the Islamic Education in Teaching Personal, cadres of the People and Develop Fraternity Human Brotherhood), 2) philosophy of al-MT al-Islamiyya: Dirasah Muqāranah Baina philosophy of alTarbiyahal-Islamiyya wa al-philosophy al-Tarbawiyyah al-Mu'ashirah (Philosophy of Islamic Education: A Comparative Study of Islamic Education Philosophy and Contemporary Educational Philosophy), 3) al-Fikr alTarbawi'indaIbn Taimiyyah (Islamic Educational Thought Perspective of Ibnu Taimiyyah), 4) Hakadza zahara Jil Shalah al-Din wa Hakadza 'Adat al-Quds (Emerging Shalahudin Generation and the return of al-Aqsa), 5) Tathawwur understand al-Nazhariyyat al-Tarbawiyyah al-Islamiyya (History conception of Educational Islamic epistimologi)