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Word of the Week: W/C 20.10 and 27.10.14 - Diaspora

18/10/2014

 

1. The dispersal of any people from their original homeland


2. The dispersion of the Jews beyond Israel. 
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As it is half-term this is technically a “Word of the Fortnight” - but fitting that it should last a long time as it is in the nature of diaspora to extend beyond expectations. It is also fitting as during half-term our students disperse all over the globe - but luckily for us it will not take millennia for us to be reunited!


A diaspora is any mass movement of people away from their homeland, the scattering of a population; there have been many over the course of history - but for the purpose of this post I want to focus on one particular peoples’ diaspora - that of the Jews. This diaspora is so important is is often called The Diaspora - capital T, capital D.



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It began in the 6th century BC when the elite Jewish population of Israel was exiled to Babylon, although they were eventually freed many decided to remain abroad and so the dispersal began.  This pattern was repeated under the Persians and many Jews also fled to Egypt founding a new community there. The most famous scattering of the Jews happened under Hadrian in 135AD. The Romans had already destroyed the 2nd Temple in 70AD and after the revolt by Simon Bar Kokhba in 132AD the Romans effectively ran out of patience. They put down the revolt in a brutal fashion and then forbade the Jews from settling in Jerusalem or its environs. This led to Jews being dispersed all across the known world where they remain to this day.


It was only in 1948, after the horrific events of the Holocaust, that the leaders of the western world felt that the Jews should be returned to their homeland and the modern state of Israel was founded. Today 48% of the world’s Jews live in Israel. I am not going to get into rights and wrongs of this decision and the very difficult debate that surrounds Israel-Palestine; I only hope that we see peace in the near future.


What remains the case is that The Diaspora had a huge impact upon the Jewish faith, turning it from a Temple religion focused on sacrifice offered by a priest , to a religion of the Book focused on the Torah and the role of the Rabbi (teacher). It has also been a source of artistic and creative inspiration ranging from the Psalms in the Bible (“By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembered thee, oh Zion”) to modern day literature and music. As ever, out of something negative came something positive - such is the human spirit and the spirit of Diaspora Jews especially.

Dig Deeper: The Moral Maze

18/10/2014

 
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Earlier this month and excellent series returned to the airwaves that should be obligatory listening for any A-level RS student and those wishing to study RS, PPE or Moral Philosophy. The Moral Maze is presented by Michael Burke who chairs a panel of experts as they question a number of "witnesses" about a particular ethical problem.
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The great thing about this format is not only are you informed about an ethical issue (the first episode of this series, which can be found here, is about whether we should talk to terrorists) but you also get to listen into a very good debate and series of critical questions. After the witlessness have been interrogated by the panel there is then a review of their evidence which normally sparks more debate. The panel are always passionate and really express their strong opinions.


You can download this as a podcast (here) and listen to it at any time meaning there is no excuse! What a great way to get informed and further your exposure to Moral Philosophy.

Dig Deeper: Lectures by the British humanist Society

16/10/2014

 
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Two Lectures coming up over the next few months run by the British Humanist Society have caught my eye:

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein on Plato At The Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away

This talk refutes the assertion of some that philosophy is dead, and has no intellectual substance or future in this scientific era.  She offers insight into the significant progress philosophy has made and why it is critical to our lives today and she does so in a witty and imaginative way. Plato is resurrected and into the twenty-first century where he embarks on a speaking tour during which he engages in a debate between a Freudian psychoanalyst and a tiger mother; encounters the host of a right-wing news programme who denies that can be morality without religion; and is made to consider Google and the idea that knowledge can be crowdsourced rather than reasoned out by experts. This would be great talk for Y12's Theory of the Forms.

Time: Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7:00pm start - 9.00pm 
Date: 20 October 2014
Venue: Nunn Hall, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL

Find more information here

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Simon Blackburn's Bentham Lecture: Hume the Humanist?

David Hume strove to understand human nature better in terms of psychology and our natural impulses, rather than our relationship to any gods or goddesses. He was a fierce naturalist, an empiricist, and a sceptic. But was Hume a humanist in the sense we know today? Some would say yes - and others might want to unpack this question a little bit more.

The popular moral philosopher and BHA Vice Preisdent Professor Simon Blackburn will cast a little light on what we think we know about Hume's beliefs about the universe, and embark on a close examination of Humanism itself.  This would be great for Y12 studying arguments for the existence of God

Time: Doors open at 6.00pm for a 6:30pm start - 8.30pm (followed by a drinks reception)
Date: 26 November
Venue: UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT (Anatomy G29 J Z Young LT)

Find more details here

w/c 13/10/14: Sacrament

12/10/2014

 



1. a ceremony regarded as imparting spiritual grace

2. An outward sign of an inward mystery

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The term sacrament is a rite (religious event) of particular significance in the Christian church. Often these mark a change of status and are “rites of passage” – but the most common of the traditional sacraments can occur any day of the week and is participation in Holy Communion.

They are predominantly associated with the Roman Catholic Church which describes them as: "efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions."  (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1131-1134)

The Catholic Church teaches that there are seven:

·         Baptism

·         Confirmation

·         Eucharist (Communion)

·         Penetance (Confession)

·         Anoiting of the sick (Last rights)

·         Marriage

·         Ordination


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When a believer participates in a sacrament they are not outwardly altered - however the belief is that they have been altered in the eyes of God. This is most obviously seen in Catholic attitudes towards marriage. When the couple have become "one flesh" in the eyes of God they cannot be separated by any action of mankind. This means that divorce and remarriage is tantamount to adultery. Scraments are an outward sign of an inward, invisible, mystery.


The observant of you will have noted that all seven are not achievable by one person as you cannot be both ordained and married in the Catholic faith. However, when they were formally agreed at the Council of Trent (1545 – 63) it was set out that as a whole they are necessary for salvation as they were instituted by Christ himself.

This final point was disputed by the Anglican Church when it split from Catholicism at the Reformation and eventually this Church only formally recognised two: Baptism and Communion. They reasoned that these two are the only ones that are set out by Christ in the Gospels. There is also much more division in the Anglican Church about their importance. Some “high” Anglicans take them very seriously and might in fact advocate the use of all seven sacraments, whilst other “low” Anglicans only see them as symbolic and not necessary for our relationship with God. The Anglican Church is a broad Church!

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Rowan Williams (former Archbishop of Canterbury) celebrating Holy Communion
For scholars studying these events in believers’ lives there has often been a great deal of interest in their role as “rites of passage” – a term coined by Arnold van Gennep (d. 1957). These events mark and manage the transition from one status to another in a person’s life. They could focus on range of transitions; birth, puberty, coming of age, marriage and death. They exist in all major faiths and play a crucial role in maintaining the values and hierarchy of religious or cultural groups.

As the West has become a more secular society it is interesting to note two things about rites of passage: Baptism and marriage have, to a relatively large extent, been maintained and remain important to many families who no longer go to church on a regular basis. Meanwhile other secular alternatives have arisen to take the place of, and supplement traditional rites; Baby-showers, 18th birthday parties, retirement parties amongst others have all become common place.

Can you think some other secular rites-of-passage? What is your experience of the sacraments? Can they really have an effect on our salvation? Or are they just a way of the Church maintaining its authority?

w/c 06/10/14; Eschatology

5/10/2014

 


An area of Theology and Philosophy concerned with the final events of history or the ultimate destiny of humanity.  

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This seemingly complicated and scary sounding word is concerned with the end of the world – so it is actually rather scary! The word comes the greek eschtos meaning “last” and logy meaning “the study of”. Many religions have become involved in discussing and theorising about what will happen when this world ends; In Hinduism there is a belief in a cyclical sequence of eons; Judaism considers these matters in the Book of Daniel; Islam believes in a day of Judgement and Christianity focuses on the Parousia, judgement by God and the resurrection of the dead.
 

A common notion that many religions share is that the end of this world will provide an opportunity to right the wrongs of this life; those who are evil will be punished and those who have been wronged in the life will receive justice. This is seen most obviously in Christianity in passages such as the The Sheep and the Goats, The Story of Dives and Lazarus and The Beatitudes. The last of these is a series of statements made by Jesus about what the Kingdom of Heaven will be like and what attitudes people should cultivate here on earth. Statements such as: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek; they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. These statements all give the sense that no matter what this current life is like, God will make amends in the next.


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For some this thinking is wishful and naïve at best and deceitful and controlling at worst. Karl Marx famously suggested that “Religion is the Opiate of the people” – by this he meant that religion numbs people by proposing that that their lot will be better in the end if they stay subservient to the Bourgeoisie. George Orwell takes up this idea in Animal Farm  in the character of Moses, the tame Raven. He suggests to the other animals that although they are suffering now all will be made OK when they die and go to Sugar Candy Mountain where clover is in season all year and sugar lumps grow on trees. Towards the end of the story he helps the pigs to suppress the other animals by pedalling this myth and so makes them work all the harder.

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Do you think that the Problem of Evil will be solved by the next life? Or do you think Eschatological thinking is tantamount to wishful thinking?

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