Cultural Links
Jerusalem Pilgrims : Spirituality, Rationality, and the Iconic in the Ministry of St. George's College View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stephen W. Need
Pilgrims to Jerusalem and the Holy Land often find questions about the authenticity of holy places unsettling. But genuine questions lead to new horizons. The Anglican St. George’s College in Jerusalem offers holistic “study-pilgrimages” which bring prayer and devotion together with academic study. Following the hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer, the interplay between the spiritual and the rational on a pilgrimage is characterized here as a “conversation” and imagined as an element within a personal relation with the divine as understood by Martin Buber. These ideas are explored further through a consideration of the classical theology of icons found in the writings of John of Damascus and Theodore the Studite in the eighth and ninth centuries, and rooted in the Christology of the Council of Chalcedon (451 CE). Overall, pilgrimage and holy places are seen as “iconic” and the conversation between the spiritual and the rational as having its roots in the relational interplay between the human and the divine. It is maintained that spirituality and rationality can co-exist on St. George’s College courses within a creative inter-relation which draws pilgrims into the presence of God, showing that questions of the authenticity of sites are only part of a much wider pilgrim experience.
Featured Indigenous Spirituality from a Human Rights-based Approach View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Núria Reguart-Segarra
The 21st century is witnessing a revaluation of the role of religion and spirituality in society. In the midst of this process, there is one human group whose spiritual practices and traditional ways of living are becoming increasingly important. Indigenous peoples are nowadays emerging as powerful actors in socio-political debates and environmental movements across the world, although they are still victims of structural problems and gross human rights violations, which tend to reflect in the land grab of their ancestral territories for economic exploitation. Such practices, while also infringing numerous human rights, completely preclude the ability of these peoples to fully enjoy their freedom of religion or belief, which comprises not only the sacred places their territories host, but also their territories as such, due to the intrinsic sacredness attributed to them. At the same time, their spirituality also accommodates invaluable traditional ecological knowledge that has proven to be essential in the fight against climate change, whose worst effects they are already experiencing first hand. These differential factors have led to the delegitimization of indigenous religious beliefs and value systems, which have been deemed inferior and unworthy of protection. That is why looking at indigenous spirituality from a human rights-based approach stands as a necessary consequence of the decolonization of international law. This paper analyzes indigenous peoples’ freedom of religion or belief and identifying the major obstacles it nowadays has to face, after which some recommendations are made in order to try to trace the way forward.
"Islamic” Human Rights as a Consequence of Islamic Religious Self-conscience: A Qur’ānic Dictate
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Michalis Marioras
The basic principles of Islamic teaching on Human Rights are contained in the Qur'ān. They derive entirely from absolute divine authority, while in general there are several similarities with the corresponding Christian teaching. The Qur'ān introduces very serious provisions concerning Human Rights and as a result various, official Islamic Declarations-positions have emerged in the modern era. In addition, there is an abundance of texts that capture the views of important Muslim intellectuals as well as state constitutions. However, all of this ends up being exclusive to Islamic states and Muslims, as all rights are regulated exclusively by the sharī‘a. Thus, while for example religious tolerance seems to be accepted, in fact it only concerns Muslims, as it is not clearly addressed to all people without exception. Therefore, it is clear that in the Islamic world there are official texts and positions concerning Human Rights. Ιt is equally clear that they mean exclusively Muslims, since they cannot have universal application due to the inflexible interpretive framework delimited by the sharī‘a. A really interesting way out of this impasse is the interpretative re-approach of the Qur'ān and the reduction of the great weight of the sharī‘a.
