‘The Empire Floats Back’. Ariane Mnouchkine, her L’Indiade and the Nāṭyaśāstra

Author(s): Gautam Chakrabarti / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

This paper seeks to explore certain prescriptive theorisations of the Nāṭyaśāstra and link them, in a comparative vein, with the often radical directorial approaches and experiments in post-WW2 European dramaturgical practice, especially as seen in the work of the eminent French metteur en scène, Ariane Mnouchkine (1939–), who founded the avant-garde stage ensemble Théâtre du Soleil in 1964, in Paris. Mnouchkine’s L’Indiade ou L’Inde de leurs Rêves (1987–1988), based on the learning experiences which Hélène Cixous—who wrote the play for and with her—and she had had in India during their stay and travels there, was an almost ground-breaking exploration of Indic motifs and stagement-configurations. The play will be viewed here from the perspective of ‘total theatre’, as also envisaged in the Nāṭyaśāstra. Finally, this paper will also seek to engage with theatrical and ritual boundaries in Mnouchkine’s work by looking at the reception of Indic forms of ritual-theatre in L’Indiade.

“Brad Pitt Halal” and the Hybrid Woman: Gender Representations and Religion through Turkish Soap Operas

Author(s): LAROCHELLE Dimitra Laurence / Language(s): English Issue: 24 (2)/2019

Through this article we aim to present the results of our empirical research concerning the impact of religion on gender representations projected through Turkish soap operas. Since 2000, Turkey aims to become a model of a Muslim but democratic and modern country in the region especially for other Muslim countries. Even if AKP is not an explicitly religious party, the statements effectuated from times to times by its representants indicate an important convergence between the religious values and the party’s political and social priorities. Within this context, Turkish soap operas, function not only as tools of the country’s soft power outside Turkey’s borders and of promotion of its neo-Ottoman political orientation but also as tools for the promotion and the perpetuation of the government’s world view inside the country. The taboo of the sexuality and the importance of motherhood, the underrepresentation of LGBTQ community members, of ethnic or of religious minorities, the “sin” and the attribution of justice are some of the elements we discuss in the present article.

“Diversidade Católica” Case: Relations and Tensions between Homoaffectivity and Religiosity in Digital Circulation

Author(s): Moisés Sbardelotto / Language(s): English Issue: 24 (2)/2019

In societies in mediatization, an increasingly intense process of communicational empowerment of persons and collectives emerges, which can also be seen in the realm of religion. In socio-digital platforms such as Facebook, there are numerous cases of unofficial, non-institutional, alternative religious presences, which may publicly exhibit internal conflicts within religions. In this context, this article analyzes the communicational action of the group “Diversidade Católica” (Catholic Diversity) on Facebook, specifically the process of preparation and divulgation of the 1st National Meeting of LGBT Catholics, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2014. To understand this phenomenon, this paper reflects on the concept of mediatization of religion and the emergence of “lay-amateurs” in digital practices. As a conclusion, it is pointed out that the digital environment becomes an alternative public space for religious minorities, who can also say a “public and networked word” about religions, such as Catholicism, exponentiating its religious “diversity” in the fabric of social relationships. Inside the alleged homogeneity of a religion such as Catholicism, there is the emergence of its pluralism and polysemy in the communicational metamorphosis of practices and beliefs, that are reinvented in relation to what is dominant, hegemonic, traditional and conventional in the Catholic historical context.

“DRUŠTVENA PRAVDA U ISLAMU” SEJJIDA QUTBA

Author(s): Džemal Latić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 18/2014

The twentieth century, during which occurred at least two “Nights of Islam” (the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Caliphate in 1924, and the establishment of the Zionist state on the ground of Plaestine 1948), has brought a new reading / understanding of the Qur'an, which is now, along with a number of other “nights” in the Muslim world, focused on one of its layers that deals with the improvement, renewal (ar. Islah) of Muslim societies and states. After having been pretty much neglected for centuries, social (al-ijtima'iyy), but later also political (siyasi) tafsir was experiencing its revival in the mid 20th century, a still ongoing trend. A kind of foundation stone to this tafsir (Qur'anic commentary) in modern times was laid by Sayyid Qutb (1906th – 1966th), an Egyptian writer, literary critic, reformer and mufassir (interpreter of the Qur'an), and his work Al- Adala al-Ijtima'iyya fi'l-Islam (Social Justice in Islam) has not only revealed the Quranic layers that concern society and organization of the state to the humiliated Muslim population, but also encouraged a new paradigm in understanding the Qur'an. “Qutb's Social Justice is undoubtedly a major work that has affected the generations of Arab-Muslim intelligentsia in the period after the World War II” (Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi '). The main principes of Islamic justice, according to Qutb, are: 1) the absolute freedom of conscience, 2) the complete equality of all people, 3) the permanent mutual solidarity of all members of society.

“el-Cezire” Üzerine Bir Literatür Çalışması (Fethinden Abbasilerin İlk Dönemine Kadar)

Author(s): Cuma Karan / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 1/2016

This is a general resource study dealing with the region of al Jazeera and its three main parts; Diyar-ı Bekr, Diyar-Mudar, Diyar-ı Rabi’a and their history, geography and cultural structure. This study includes the process from the Islamic conquests to the first period of Abbasids. In this study, after emphasizing the historical importance of el-Cezire and its three regions, some information about the borders of these regions are given and then resources in this field are determined. Also, within the bounds of possibility we try to give information generally about the main resources of the Islamic history such as Taberi, İbn Esir, İbn Kesir, in addition to these resources, together with the recent academic researches , some specific studies related to geography of the region are discussed.

“Hope Which is Open to Anyone...”

Author(s): Pope John Paul II / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2019

The Holy Spirit, poured out ‘without measure’ by Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is “the One who builds the kingdom of God within the course of history and prepares its full manifestation in Jesus Christ ... which will come at the end of time.” In this eschatological perspective believers are called, during this year dedicated to the Holy Spirit, to a renewed appreciation of the theological virtue of hope, which “on the one hand encourages the Christian not to lose sight of the final goal which gives meaning and value to life, and on the other, offers solid and profound reasons for a daily commitment to transform reality in order to make it correspond to God’s plan.”

“ISLAM, AUTHORITARIANISM, AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT: A GLOBAL AND HISTORICAL COMPARISON”

Author(s): Bulat G. Akhmetkarimov / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

“Le sacrifice d'Abraham” dans les pratiques rituelles: l'identité sociale et les interactions culturelles (en Bulgarie)

Author(s): Krasimira Krastanova / Language(s): French Issue: 1-2/2000

“MUALLIMOV FORUM” – DIJALOŠKA ARENA O STRATEŠKIM PITANJIMA ISLAMSKE ZAJEDNICE

Author(s): Zehra Alispahić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 82/2020

This article presents a detailed insight into eight yearly column of the magazine titled Muallim’s forum which was published in continuously in the period 2008-2016. This column addressed thirty issues of great significance for the strategic development of the Islamic Community of this region but also of Bosniak community in general. Contributors to this column were renowned university professors, muftis, main imams, imams, religious studies’ teachers and prominent experts in field of practice. Any serious analysis of processes in the Islamic Community of these areas will show that Muallim’s forum and the way it treated some issues and initiated some very significant processes in the Islamic Community of the region, determined its priorities in accordance to its basic mission and encouraged the movement towards a realisation of these processes. Results of some of these processes we are already witnessing especially within the organisational segment of the functioning of the Community.

“MUALLIMOVA HUTBA” – DIJALOŠKI I PROSVJETITELJSKI SUSRET ULEME U STASANJU I NJIHOVIH UČITELJA

Author(s): Meho Šljivo / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 82/2020

The magazine Novi Mullim published 26 hutbas with reviews by renowned ulama in issues published from December 2007 to the Spring of 2011. This article analyses the content and the critical review of these hutbas published in the mentioned time period. The text attempts to point out the fact that such public presentation of hutbas and reviews of these hutbas presents an innovative approach to scholarly evaluation of hutba. The author here presents some remarks and observations regarding the methodology of this approach. Thus, the author concludes that in view of the overall mission of the Islamic Community, this approach which implies that reviews of hutbas are presented to the public represents a positive example of transparency. In the column “Muallim’s hutba” each sentence of hatib, his each thought was the subject of detailed analysis of reviewers who sometimes approached their reviewers’ task with the utmost critical vigour. Finally, the author asserts that from present time distance this column can be regarded as an encouragement for further improvement of the skills of hatibs which have been lacking some methodological and technical aspects.

“Pomba Gira keeps an eye on us”: The presence of the Orixá in Rio de Janeiro Brothels

Author(s): Thadeus Blanchette,Ana Paula Da Silva,Amanda De Lisio / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2018

“City of Women” (2006 [1947]) both highlight how African-Brazilian religions have maintained connections to sexual practices considered to be “perverse” by Christian moralities. The present article describes the presence of the orixás in today’s brothels in Rio de Janeiro. We emphasize the use of Candomblé and Umbanda as counter-hegemonic forms of spirituality which protect women involved in the sale of sex and are used as symbolic languages criticizing a moral order that highlights female passivity. Through the language of the saints, that which cannot be said becomes public in Carioca brothels, highlighting agencies in a space nominally dominated by men.

„Wszyscy muszą nauczyć się milczenia” (fragmenty Listu apostolskiego Orientale lumen)

Author(s): Jan Paweł II / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2016

In the liturgical experience, Christ the Lord is the light which illumines the way and reveals the transparency of the cosmos, precisely as in Scripture. The events of the past find in Christ their meaning and fullness, and creation is revealed for what it is: a complex whole which finds its perfection, its purpose in the liturgy alone. This is why the liturgy is heaven on earth, and in it the Word who became flesh imbues matter with a saving potential which is fully manifest in the sacraments: there, creation communicates to each individual the power conferred on it by Christ. Thus the Lord, immersed in the Jordan, transmits to the waters a power which enables them to become the bath of baptismal rebirth.4 Within this framework, liturgical prayer in the East shows a great aptitude for involving the human person in his or her totality: the mystery is sung in the loftiness of its content, but also in the warmth of the sentiments it awakens in the heart of redeemed humanity. In the sacred act, even bodiliness is summoned to praise, and beauty, which in the East is one of the best loved names expressing the divine harmony and the model of humanity transfigured, appears everywhere: in the shape of the church, in the sounds, in the colors, in the lights, in the scents. The lengthy duration of the celebrations, the repeated invocations, everything expresses gradual identification with the mystery celebrated with one’s whole person. Thus the prayer of the Church already becomes participation in the heavenly liturgy, an anticipation of the final beatitude.

„Z kronik współczesnej mistyki” – Adam Zagajewski i Nowa Fala (opowieść postsekularna)

Author(s): Piotr Bogalecki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2018

The subject of the present analysis are Adam Zagajewski’s early works, written in the 1970s: the books of poems Komunikat, Sklepy mięsne and List, the novel Ciepło, zimno, the short story Boże Ciało, the critical literary texts, and finally, a little known essay W kilku punktach, published under the pen name Jan Garlicz. An attempt was made at the postsecular interpretation of these texts with particular emphasis on the analysis of the different from the author’s later works attitude toward language and the Christian symbolism. In the offered rendition a significant topic and the irreducible context turns out to be the question of the possibility of non-religious, creative use of the Christian heritage by the secularized members of the Polish People’s Republic society.

„Zelenanie sa“ katolíckej sociálnej náuky: Humánna ekológia

Author(s): Marián Sekerák / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 3/2019

In recent years, the term "human ecology" has become a shibboleth within the Catholic Social Doctrine (CSD). In magisterial jargon, it describes a broader understanding of ecological issues, as well as a specific approach to environmental protection. In the paper, the meanings of this term from the perspectives of the last three popes (St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis) are elucidated. The CSD is committed to such an approach to the environment which is based on the principles of ecological interdependence between terrestrial nature and human societies. Moreover, the CSD strongly emphasizes not only the vertical relationship between nature and humans, or human communities amongst themselves but also the horizontal relationship of the individual towards her/his Creator, i.e. God. Such an anthropocentrism is then rather weak when compared to one that completely subordinates nature to the total autonomy of man.

„Zobaczyć świat w ziarenku piasku”. Przyczynek do refleksji nad „literaturą a religią” z perspektywy pogranicznej

Author(s): Jean Ward / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2018

This consideration of some approaches to the relationship between literature and religion in what Charles Taylor termed “a secular age” is written from a Polish-English “border perspective.” It takes account especially of the work of Nicholas Boyle, Michael Edwards, David Jasper and Kevin Hart; but its inspiration derives from the opening line of William Blake’s poem Auguries of Innocence, both in the original and in the Polish translation by Zygmunt Kubiak. The analysis of this one line suggests some elements of a possible approach to “literature and religion,” especially but not only in a “secular age.” The combination of the original and the translated versions implies an ideal: to appreciate the mystery of every “grain of sand” as a separate, individual world (“a world”) and at the same time to relate that particular wealth to the whole, discovering the world (“świat”) in that grain of sand. This is clearly an impossible ideal, but one that is worth pursuing in the humble spirit also implied by the poem’s opening quatrain.

„В името на Кирил и Методий“. Кирило-методиевската идея и социалистическата пропаганда

Author(s): Dessislava Naidenova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 17/2017

The paper aims to describe and analyze the dynamics of transformation undergone by the symbolism of the Cyrillo-Methodian oeuvre in the socialist propaganda in Bulgaria. The work and lives of the two saints represent the different national paradigms and state priorities before and after 1944. In the years from 1878 to 1944, St. Cyril and Methodius became a symbol of Bulgarian national identity. They were used in political propaganda to justify the Bulgarian territorial claims in the Balkans in an attempt to achieve the national ideal. On the contrary, after the socialist propaganda during the years of World War II, the Cyrillo-Methodian work became a symbol of Slavic unity and solidarity with the Soviet Union. The idea of Cyril and Methodius as a symbol of internationalism and fraternal unity of the Slavic peoples was developed by socialist propaganda in the years after 1944 and has in fact dominated the scientific interpretations of their work from that time on. The paper is based on unpublished communist addresses from the feast of St. Cyril and Methodius in 1942 and 1943 and other documents from the Central State Archives in Sofia and the Scientific Archives of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

„Митология“ и „религия“ в латинската християнска литература на IV–V в.

Author(s): Rosen Milanov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

Christianity illuminated the world in the age of Antiquity but it differed significantly from the life of the ancient world. The Christian writers of IV–V cc. treat the ancient mythology in a negative way. The present article discusses the characteristics of ancient mythology which were unacceptable from a Christian point of view. Why are the concepts of ‘mythology’ and ‘religion’ opposed in the minds of the Christian writers? Christian literature depicts a different world. What are the characteristics of this world? What demonstrates its realityand veracity? The answers to these questions are given in the article “Mythology and Religion in Latin Christian Literature of IV–V cc.”

„Що нещо е църквата?“ или отново за формирането на конфесионалната идентичност

Author(s): Albena Hinkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5-6/2015

The article focuses on the problems of religious and national identity, as well as on the ways and means of their formation through periodic printing in the 1850s and 1860s. The analysis is influenced by Eric Erisson’s ideas of identity-building and typology proposed by Manuel Castells. The majority of the empirical textual material concerns issues of the struggle for an autocephalous Bulgarian church during the Revival, which implies a wider involvement of the problems and conceptual tools of theology and church history. The author uses the theoretical basis of literary history and the history of journalism. The conclusion is that the cultural attributes of confessional identity are based mostly on the idea of equality

مبادئ التربية من أجل المواطنة وسبل الارتقاء بها في العصر الحديث

دراسة تحليلية من منظور التربية الإسلامية

Author(s): Abdulfettah Ahmed Shehata / Language(s): Arabic Issue: 23/2019

In this paper, the author presents the concept of citizenship, the concept of citizenship pedagogy, the importance of citizenship in society and the scope of its application during the time of the Messenger of Allah, p.b.u.h., and the just caliphs, and finally concludes that the principles of citizenship pedagogy are as follows: First: The principle of rights and duties. This principle consists of the legal aspects that regulate the relationship between the state and its citizens, their attitude towards its institutions, the numerous rights its citizens enjoy, such as: political, economic, social and cultural, as well as the duties that bind its citizens. Therefore, building healthy relationships between individuals and the government requires acquainting people with all their rights so that everyone may enjoy them. Second: The principle of belonging. Belonging to the homeland is defined in a positive sense, supported by an individual’s affection for his/her homeland, thus confirming the existence of a connection with it. An individual’s belonging is defined by their pride and loyalty to the homeland, pride in his identity and belonging to the homeland, preoccupation with and awareness of its problems (...)

مفهوم تجديد الخطاب الديني وآلياته

Author(s): Abdulfettah Ahmed Shehata / Language(s): Arabic Issue: 21/2017

The renewal of faith discourse relies on a set of tools to fulfill its role of approaching others, whether Muslim or non-Muslim. These tools contribute to spreading a moderate and correct understanding of faith, while also confronting outdated ideas that harm Islam and undermine the proper image of it. The more important ones include: reliance on orthodoxy, keeping faith discourse realistic, keeping it simple, clarifying the purpose, objecthood and proper use of modern technologies, connecting authenticity with modernity, setting priorities, harmonising faith discourse on major issues, spreading a culture of life, upbuilding and advancement, and confronting the idea of takfīr.