Worship

Book Title	Worship
Book Author	John Bowker
Total Pages	200
Book Views
Language	English
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Worship – Themes In Religious Studies Series Edited by Jean Holm with John Bowker

From the Book

First, the problem of language.

Islam’s insistence that the Arabic of the Qur’an cannot be ‘translated’ reflects the impossibility of finding in another language an exact equivalent of many of the most important terms in a religion.

The very word, Islam, means something much more positive to a Muslim than is suggested in English by ‘submission’.

Similarly, it can be misleading to use ‘incarnation’ for avatdra in Hinduism, or ‘suffering’ for dukkha in Buddhism, or ‘law’ for Torah in Judaism, or ‘gods’ for kami in Shinto, or ‘heaven’ for Tien in Taoism, or ‘name’ for Nam in Sikhism.

Next, the problem of defining – drawing a line round – a religion. Religions don’t exist in a vacuum; they are influenced by the social and cultural context in which they are set.

This can affect what they strenuously reject as well as what they may absorb into their pattern of belief and practice.

And such influence is continuous, from a religion’s origins (even though we may have no records from that period), through significant historical developments (which sometimes lead to the rise of new movements or sects), to its contemporary situation, especially when a religion is transplanted into a different region.

For example, anyone who has studied Hinduism in India will be quite unprepared for the form of Hinduism they will meet in the island of Bali.

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