1 / 14

THE WORLD BEFORE ISLAM

THE WORLD BEFORE ISLAM. THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW SUBCULTURE. ISLAM, ISLAMIC, ISLAMICATE. DEFINING THE USAGE: ISLAMIC = ASSOCIATED RELATIVELY CLOSELY WITH THE ACT OF islam AND ITS SPIRITUAL IMPLICATIONS

march
Download Presentation

THE WORLD BEFORE ISLAM

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. THE WORLD BEFORE ISLAM THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW SUBCULTURE

  2. ISLAM, ISLAMIC, ISLAMICATE • DEFINING THE USAGE: • ISLAMIC = ASSOCIATED RELATIVELY CLOSELY WITH THE ACT OF islam AND ITS SPIRITUAL IMPLICATIONS • ISLAMICATE = ASSOCIATED WITH ISLAM MORE INDIRECTLY, THROUGH FORMING A PART OF THE OVERALL CIVILIZATION IN WHICH MUSLIMS WERE LEADERS

  3. ISLAMICATE CIVILIZATION • Shares largely the same roots as those of Western (Occidental) civilization: • Urban commercial tradition • Hebrew religious challenge • Classical Greek philosophical and scientific culture

  4. THE AGRARIAN-BASED CULTURE • The revenue of the lands created the dilemma between social privilege and equal justice • Cultural life dependent upon revenues • Arts dependent upon patronage and appreciation of a limited number of rich • The art of legally enshrined justice – giver of just laws

  5. THE FOCUS OF HIGH CULTURE • Temples: under the learned priests • The Royal Courts: under kings and their dependents • The market: under independent merchants • ALL THREE FOCI OF HIGH CULTURE DEPENDED ON AGRICULTURE FOR THEIR WEALTH, AND ON CITIED SOCIETY

  6. TRAITS OF AGRARIANATE CITIED SOCIETIES • Presence of Writing or Recording • Possibilities of specialization • Large-scale intermingling of differing groups • Lively development of rich culture • Accelerated pace of historical change • Development of social conscience

  7. “OIKUOMENE” = INHABITED PART OF THE WORLD • History of all the peoples interrelated • People came to have wider perspective on matters taken for granted in local societies • “Cosmopolitanism” of the future Irano-Semitic cultural tradition • Administrative efficiency marked the age • Growing sense of personal individuality

  8. THE PROPHETS OF AXIAL AGE • ZARATHUSTRA (Zoroaster) in Iran and BIBLICAL PROPHETS concerned with the private individual • Spoke to human beings in the name of a Supreme and Unique God • Demanded unconditional allegiance to divinely inspired vision • Cosmic struggle between good and evil

  9. IRANO-SEMITIC PROPHETS • Market not the Temple provided the cultural setting • Aroused individual conscience and rational possibilities • Indic thinkers: explored resources of the self; Hellenic thinkers explored external nature; Irano-Semitic prophets, HISTORY

  10. HISTORY IN IRANO-SEMITIC RELIGIOUS THOUGHT • Moral Progression in History • Summon to personal conscience to confront a cosmic moral order • Struggle for justice a matter of historical action • Interpersonal, egalitarian justice supreme value in civilized life, even at the expense of arts and other forms of luxury

  11. UNIVERSAL/CONFESSIONAL RELIGIONS • Founded upon personal demands • “Individual” personal “confession” of moral and cosmological belief, adherence to lay community • Sacred Scriptures, claiming universal validity • World beyond death

  12. LIFE-ORIENTATIONAL TRADITIONS Jewish-Christian Zoroastrianism Abrahamic Magian- Mazdean Islam

  13. POPULISM IN MONOTHEISM • “POPULISM” = concern for the ordinary moral needs and capabilities of the common people • Looking to justice in history through community – when worshippers formed one community • Centered on problems of interpersonal justice – Last Judgment • One responsible life time, community • Egalitarian justice, every person equal before Law

  14. POPULISTIC TEMPER • Full-scale personal moralism – justice and equality on interpersonal relations • To do what is useful rather than what is decorative • Perfection in the common duties, respect for law and order • Ascetic virtuosity, personal self-discipline • Exclusivity – one true faith, all else false

More Related