Nothing has so radically transformed the world as the distinction between true and false religion NB: This is one of the most thought-provoking studies in the history and philosophy of religion that – in my limited reading – I have come across. The author Jan Assman (1938-2024) was a German Egyptologist, cultural historian, and religion… Read More The Price of Monotheism
Note: The author highlights very interesting aspects of the current situation of Israeli Zionism, the most relevant is the assimilation of the Zionist Jews of Israel within the nation-state model of the Western societies. Moreover, by negating the reality of the exile, a general condition of the people of the world, the essence of Judaism… Read More Giorgio Agamben on Zionism and Judaism (2024)
The architect of the Constitution railing against Hindu Raj while also being conflicted about Dalits adopting Christianity or Islam as this would ‘denationalise’ them exemplifies his life of contradictions. Ambedkar also warns, “If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will, no doubt, be the greatest calamity for this country.… Hindu Raj must be prevented… Read More Ambedkar’s pact with a Hindutvadi
Apocalyptic thought in the aftermath of the world wars George Prochnik and Anson Rabinbach In what way does writing about catastrophe, either predictively or retrospectively, risk kindling a new blaze? Conversely, is it possible to identify aspects of such texts that work against the drive to catastrophe? Conventional wisdom suggests that temporal distance from historical… Read More In the Shadow of Catastrophe: An Interview
NB: A citation from Franz Neumann, Behemoth, The Structure and Practice of National Socialism; (1936, repub 1963, p 27). (The counter revolution) ‘…tried many forms and devices, but soon learned that it could come to power only with the help of the state machine and never against it… the Kapp Putsch of 1920 and the… Read More Misusing a judicial observation to unearth temples under mosques will lead to disaster
Unintelligible as it is, new book is part of a ‘manifesting’ trend offering the young and spiritually lost an illusion of control Martha Gill What links these two news stories? The first: “manifesting” has been declared Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year. The self-help practice, based on the magical belief that mental rituals can move the… Read More Not quite religion, not quite self-help: welcome to the Jordan Peterson age of nonsense
Siyavash Shahabi Life in Iran under a totalitarian regime is a relentless performance, a dance of endurance. It’s like Tehching Hsieh and Linda Montano’s “Art/Life: One Year Performance 1983–1984,” where they tied themselves together by an 8-foot rope, day after day. The rope held them close but kept them apart, bound by rules but divided… Read More The Art of Survival in Iran’s Repressive Regime
NB: A tragic yet beautiful story a gay boy and his conservative parents; and of Divine scripture. To me, it signifies nothing less than this: If God does not mean love, God means nothing. Maybe we can yet learn from such real life stories. The most telling lines in the story below are these: “There… Read More After their son came out, this conservative Christian couple went into a closet of their own
NB: An important thinker, Fr Pannikar combined compassion with thoughtfulness; and sought dialogue as a means of addressing the worlds problems. I empathise with him, and am sorry to note (for my part) the absence of divine compassion for the innocents of Gaza; not to mention the millions of innocents who suffered and died in… Read More Eruption of Truth: An Interview with Raimon Panikkar (1918-2010)
First posted May 01, 2016 NB: The Berrigan brothers represent the best in the tradition of non-violent resistance to war and bellicose nationalism. Here is what they said in a public statement issued at the height of the Vietnam war, in 1968: “We confront the Catholic Church, other Christian bodies and the synagogues of America with their… Read More Daniel Berrigan, Defiant Priest Who Preached Pacifism Dies at 94 (2016) / Catonsville 9 Statement written by Dan Berrigan, S.J.
After the truth-shower 