1. According to Nietzsche, Christianity’s “slave morality” enabled it to achieve supremacy over ancient paganism. What were the fundamental values of paganism and how was Christianity able to defeat it?
In his premier essay “On the Geology of Morals “, Nietzsche lays significant accusations on the nature of Christianity as a bullying religion designed only for the weak, the slaves, and the poor. Critics of this early work affirm that the circumstances under which the essay is constructed lays firm breeding grounds for violence and victimization of other forms of religion or doctrines (Fraser par. 2). Paganism was such religion that suffered a great deal as a result of the upsurge of Christianity. In this context, Nietzsche blames the advent of master and slave morality as the primary drivers that enabled Christian indoctrination that sabotaged Paganism. According to Kreeft, paganism emanated from the countryside. In these regions, the country-dwellers resisted conversion to Christianity for a very long time during the Roman rule. Thus, these folks became the last to abandon their pagan ancestral roots for the pre-Christian belief (Kreeft, 1987 par. 4). Historical evidences reveal that paganism had at least three essential elements that made it great and which at the same time were the focal points that caused its demise (defeat) by Christianity. These elements were the sense of piety (pietas), objective morality, and the meaning of worship and mystery. Other fundamental values of Paganism that made it vulnerable to Christianity was its un-patriarchal nature, belief in reincarnation, and its multifaceted nature. Its forms included Shamanism, Druidism, and Wicca (David sec. 1).
According to David, Paganism was the enemy of many Christians and among several people in the sub-Christian culture. Therefore, the Church of Rome was resolute to cast it out by any means available. To facilitate its agenda, the Roman Church successfully built up an image of evil around Paganism so that ordinary people think Pagans are Witches that perform all sorts of crimes in their worship such as human sacrifice. The church also camouflaged out and absorbed several Pagan festivities such as the birth of Jesus. As a familiar figure, the Roman Church successfully convinced Emperor Constantine to move the revelries of the Birth of Jesus Christ to 25th Dec. It therefore, confirmed with the Romans festival of Mithras (sec. 4).
Moreover, for centuries Christianity ruthlessly suppressed the Pagan religions and its followers throughout the world. It did this using a number of tactics that included enforcing the concepts of morality, torture, genocide, and propaganda. Under Friedrich Nietzsche, the church fostered the notion of popular culture as opposed to the Pagan self-actualization concept of the world and life. The church’s mass culture led to populace conformity to Christian doctrines and paralyzed Paganism. One of the fundamental tenets of nature religions such as Paganism is the concept of "life-affirmation". This notion embraces the realities of the human world over the idea of a world beyond. Through propaganda and teachings, the church loaded the human creations with confusing values about the concept of life-affirmations and eventually weakened it. The Roman Church promulgated opposing ideas to Paganism and entrenched them in standard moral systems particularly in Christianity and utilitarianism. In so doing, the Church ultimately developed high artificial boundaries that constrained the growth of Paganism.
2. Who were Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb? What were their ideas and what is their contemporary influence?
Hassan al-Banna is one of the 20th Century most significant Islamic figures. Born in Mahmudiyah town in Egypt in 1906, Hassan founded the Society of the Muslim Brothers (al-ikhwan al-muslimun). The society since its inception in 1928 is considered by many as the oldest Political Islam organization amassing a massive following throughout Egypt and beyond (Mushtaq sec. 3). Prior to his death in 1949, al-Banna functioned as the General Chaperon of the Muslim Brother. Under his sturdy and charismatic leadership, the society became the utmost significant social movement in national politics throughout the Middle East. The Muslim Brotherhood also served as a prototypical example for the upswing of religious movements across the Muslim world. According to Mushtaq, Hassan was severely disturbed by effects of Westernization on his society. He was particularly distressed by the rise of secularism and the breakdown of Muslim traditional morals (sec. 2). In his four-year stay in Cairo, Al-Banna was exposed to the steamy political turmoil of the Egyptian capital in the early 1920s. The political and social experience at the Capital heightened his cognizance of the extent to which western and secular culture had penetrated the very fabric of the Muslim society. His idea that the battle of saving Islam from the Western onslaught would only be won by preventing the youth from drifting away from the Islamic cultures.
Hassan’s contemporary influence on the social, political, and religious tenets of the Muslim world stemmed from his early immersion in the literatures of the founders of Islamic reformists. One such reformist was Egyptian Muhammad 'Abduh (Mushtaq sec. 2). However, it was the Syrian Rashid Rida, Abduh’s disciple who influenced Al-Banna the most. According to several sources, Rida’s fundamental distress was the waning of the Islamic civilization relative to the West’s culture. Therefore, Al-Banna’s idea too rose from his belief that this drift could only be reversed by returning the Muslim populace to the unadulterated form of Islam. The pure Islam was free from all the accretions that had weakened the force of its original message. As a result, his contemporary influence is still felt in other Islamic modernists. These pro-Islam faithful believe that the foremost danger to Islam's survival in this modern age stems less from the dogmatism of Al-Azhar and the Ulema than from the ascendancy of Western secular philosophies.
Just like Al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb has also had a very weighty impact on the Muslim World since late 1960s. As a result, current Western writers have engrossed in him as one of the two greatest influential Muslim thinkers of his generation beside Sayyid Maududi (El-Kadi, 2014 par. 1). He too was displeased with the malaise of the Western Culture and non-Islamic ideologies in the Islamic world. His transformation into a religious and socio-political revolutionist occurred after his introduction to Maududi’s Islamic philosophies. According to Maududi’s ideas, Islam is a complete system life, and it is the obligation of every Muslim Soul to establish Allah’s order on earth. Therefore, upon his return to Egypt from the US, Qutb devoted himself to the idea of bringing complete transformation in the social and political system of Islam. His central idea was the formation of the Egyptian Islamic state after the nation was thoroughly Islamized in Islamic ways. His contemporary influence is evident in the vanguard revolutions that try to impose Islamization on the Muslim Societies that have strayed to the Arab nationalistic creeds.
3. Why, according to Nasr, did minority groups like the Alawites, Christians, and Shi’ites (when they were without power) find Arab nationalism an attractive political option?
The minority socio-political groups found the Arab Nationalism both an interesting cultural and political system because it offered a profound capacity to integrate all the major and exceptional cultural elements these groups. As a both a religious and a whole set of socio-economic, political and socio-cultural systems, the Arab Nationalism suited a variety of people from different nations. This attribute enables the Arab Nationalism to form close liaison with other societies of the same singularity of purpose. Hence, the kind of lifestyle enlightened by this nationalism suits all the fields of human existence (Weijian sec. 2)
4. What was the Battle of Karbala and the Ashoura, how, according to Nasr, how did they shape traditional Shi’ite values and consciousness?
Both religious and historical accounts reveal that the Battle of Karbala took place in Karbala. Karbala is situated in the present day nation of Iraq (Umar sec. 5). The encounter involved a trifling group of devotees and relatives of Hussein ibn Ali (Muhammad's grandson) and a massive army of the Umayyad caliph. In this battle, Hussein and his entire army were massacred while women and children were imprisoned. The battle substantially shaped the values and cultural consciousness of the Sunni and Shia Muslims and occupies a central place in their history and cultural traditions. As a result, the Shi’ite’s culture has been shaped to place high prominence on the role of religious conviction in the public and political life of Muslims. Therefore, this community has entrenched high weight on the Sharia (Islamic law) as their standard code of conduct. Thus, the law defines a broad range of social, cultural issues such as marriage, commerce, and inheritance (Religion Library par. 1)
5. According to Nasr. Although the Ayatollah Khomeini dressed and looked like a traditional Shi'a imam, he radically transformed Shi’ite Islam changing it into a revolutionary force. What part did Khomeini’s doctrine of vilayet-e Fattah play in this transformation?
Influence matters a lot in history. When assessing the comparative prominence of historical figures in the recent past, it is practically impossible not to notice the motivating figure behind the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Historical data show that the Iranian Revolution was an entirely new paradigm shift that was fashioned to supersede the preexistent system. Ayatollah Khomeini was the symbol of the revolution. His leadership and doctrines instantaneously urged the Iranian confines to shake the entire Middle East to its very basic foundations. His revolutions transformed the Iranian Shiism community into a national, revolutionary doctrine. His practical implementation of the vilayet-e principles is credited with the transformation of the Iranian Islamic ideals into political ideologies. Therefore, his vilayet-e Fattah doctrine ensured that Islamic State of Iran follows the legal, cultural tradition (sharia) prominent in the Shia world.
6. How, according to Max Weber, did the rise of Calvinism lead to the rise of modern capitalism?
Since its publication early in the 1900s, Max Weber's theory of Protestantism, precisely Calvinism, has played an acute role in the advancement of the capitalistic spirit throughout Europe. Weber’s theory has attempted to explain why capitalism significantly thrived in Europe and the United States but ominously less in other places (Cohen pg.1346). Even though the urge to acquire wealth has always existed, capitalism fueled this desire even more. According to Weber capitalism, was entrenched in rationality and thus was much more than capital accumulation. It fueled the pursuit of profit by means of continuous capitalistic enterprise development. Modern capitalism, therefore, developed because in capitalistic societies any plan that did not grasp the opportunity to generate profit was doomed to extinction. Categorical in his view of capitalism was a meticulous labor force and continuous re-investment of capital. Weber asserted that the perfect combination of these factors took place in most strongly Protestant nations, such as England and Germany. The Protestant Ethics in these countries encouraged the spirit of capitalism and capitalist activity. Therefore, capitalism grew to underline the economic system in the western world.
7. How did Muhammad influence Charlemagne, according to Pirenne, and how did the rise of Islam affect the future of Europe?
In discussing the meaning and role of Islam in the transformation of Europe, it is paramount to turn before everything else to two essential elements. First is the exact organization of Europe and secondly to the structure of Islam in its essence and historical deployment. Islam is hierarchic in both of its essential structure and the way it has manifested itself through history in Europe. Several sources reveal that Islam has been part of Europe’s culture for numerous years. For instance, the conflicts between Arabs and the Byzantine Empire and the subjugation of Russia and Ukraine by the Golden Horde in the early 7th, 8th and 14th centuries respectively. Europe and Muslim communities have been conjoined for many years. As a parting shot to his arguments Pirenne asserts that the rise of Islam projected a profound effect on Europe. According to his earlier works, Pirenne argues that Muhammad influenced Charlemagne in such a great way. His influence resulted in the meteoric rise of Islam in Europe. According to him, the Islamic faith spread with great rapidity and that the Muslims themselves did not convert to other cultures. Rather, they seized and imposed their Islamic systems of administration, way of life, language and justice to their new lands.
The Islamic upsurge terminated the Graeco-Roman civilization in Europe and its heartlands, in the Northern Africa and the near and Middle East. In these vast territories, historical data reveals that Islam appeared with surprising rapidity. Under the direct influence of Muhammad and Charlemagne, this new Islamic culture inherited all the resources and wealth in the continental Europe. Therefore, according to Pirenne, the loss of this Middle East and North Africa territories to Islam axed most of the commercial and cultural interactions Europe shared with these lands.
8. What, according to Steven Haynes, is a “witness people” myth and how has it affected the Middle East conflict according to RLR?
Enunciated by Augustine, the witness people myth is an ancient Christian myth that casts the Jews as a witness people in the contemporary religious discourse. According to Haynes, this myth dictated the official attitude people expressed towards the Jews in medieval Christendom. It remained a dominant force in the Christian imagination for several years. Currently, this notion is evident in the never-ending circle of conflict between Israel and the Islamic states in the Middle East. As a result, the Middle East territories especially the Arab Muslims and the Hebrew Jews have continued to express extreme violence and hatred.
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