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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32403 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 23, 2023

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There's a certain strain of converts who just puzzle me. They're generally liberal, so why they think Islam is going to be softer on sin I have no idea. Some of it is the kind of mistaken Afro-nationalism that imagines Islam as the 'true' faith of native Africans and Christianity as being imposed on the enslaved, so converting to Islam is going back to your true roots. But white converts don't have that.

And generally white converts do seem to convert because of the traditional and orthodox views that Islam retains, that it hasn't compromised with the modern world. But every so often you do get the types who seem to treat it as 'oh, everyone is Buddhist now, how about I try Islam?' for their fix of Exotic Eastern Religion. And the likes of this woman, who back in 2006 claimed she could be both Christian and Muslim, that being an Episcopal minister didn't mean she couldn't also be Muslim. Even for The Episcopal Church, which tolerates a certain looseness in adherence to doctrine, this was a step too far.

Redding's views, even before she embraced Islam, were more interpretive than literal.

She believes the Trinity is an idea about God and cannot be taken literally.

She does not believe Jesus and God are the same, but rather that God is more than Jesus.

She believes Jesus is the son of God insofar as all humans are the children of God, and that Jesus is divine, just as all humans are divine — because God dwells in all humans.

What makes Jesus unique, she believes, is that out of all humans, he most embodied being filled with God and identifying completely with God's will.

She does believe that Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected, and acknowledges those beliefs conflict with the teachings of the Quran. "That's something I'll find a challenge the rest of my life," she said.

She considers Jesus her savior. At times of despair, because she knows Jesus suffered and overcame suffering, "he has connected me with God," she said.

That's not to say she couldn't develop as deep a relationship with Mohammed. "I'm still getting to know him," she said.

Since the original topic was fantasy authors, I can't help but bring up the inimitable Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker (born Phillip Barker), recently posthumously cancelled for having written a pro-nazi alternate history novel (published by the same company as The Turner Diaries) and serving on the editorial board of the Journal of Historical Review. He was also a recognized scholar of Urdu and other languages. Truly an interesting guy.

I'm going to guess that most of this (exceedingly rare - Western converts to Islam are a rarity in genral, after all) type are mostly just your garden-variety "truthseeker" type, and Islam (generally some personal, Westernized interpretation of Sufism) is just one "truth" to be tried on among the many for some time, a flavor of the day. The important thing is not the part of the truth journey they're on at whatever moment, it's the journey itself.

Sufism does seem to be the favoured version, I think because of the devotional poets who, since the 19th century to Western ears, seem a lot more approachable in terms of religious fervour. All cuddly mysticism and the touch of the exotic.

It's a terrible misrepresentation, but it's the same kind of fate Buddhism suffers with the "eat, pray, love" treatment or Kabbalah did when red-thread kabbalism became a fad back in the 90s among celebrities.

I think that's the phenomenon David Chapman writes about a lot in his essays on Buddhism -- how Westernized "therapeutic Buddhism" has very little in common with how Buddhism is actually traditionally practiced, and if anything resembles more 19th century German Idealism, of all things?

There's a strong history of contact between real Buddhism and German Idealism. Schopenhauer is the most well known of the lot to be influenced by Buddhism. Less well known are the various Germans who just went to Asia, became monks and never came back. Many great works of scholarly Buddhism were written by this sort of monk.

The point is there is a very deep continuum between Buddhism as traditionally practice and the stuff that goes on in corporate mindfulness trainings in the West. The core of Buddhsm always has been a particular lineage of meditation teachings. Anyone seriously investigating those teachings seriously is a Buddhist; whatever the particular cultural-religious penumbra he surrounds it with.

Interesting, thanks.

EDIT: ... did I say anything wrong?

I don't think you said anything wrong. What was the worry?

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