Subject: Re: Religion as community
From: Jennifer Kelly (jekelly@bu.edu)
Date: Thu Feb 13 1997 - 20:38:03 GMT
On Fri, 14 Feb 1997, Jonathan Moritz wrote:
> >> Salinger books, and Salingers characters reading "The Way of a Pilgram"
> >> in Franny and Zooey. I think that this book also lead to sort of a
> >> spiritual gain, but not necessarily a religion...
>
> >...Without imagination, even
> >imperfect imagination, there can be no religion, or no putting ourselves
> >in some sort of other realm as it were.
>
> A liberal Jewish rabbi, Harold Kushner, author of "When Bad Things Happen
> To Good People", suggests that "religion" as related to the word
> "ligament", meaning that religion is meant to bind people together in
> community, or to play with the words above, "to put us in the realm of the
> other". I believe this fits with Zooey's comments to Franny concerning
> "There isn't anyone out there who isn't Seymour's Fat Lady". Under this
> view of religion, the "actual rules" in a fundamentalist approach are
> commonly used to divide us. Harold Kushner goes to the extent of saying
that
> Jewish worship in Hebrew when people don't understand might not be such a
> bad thing - if they don't know what they are saying, they won't disagree!
> But being together in community, we are drawn out of ourselves.
>
> Is this consistent with Zooey's advice of religious detachment? I think
> maybe, insofar as we become detached from our own self interest. ???
>
> Jonathan.
>
> ______________________________________
> Jonathan Moritz
> School of Education (Hobart), University of Tasmania
> GPO Box 252-66, Hobart TAS 7001, AUSTRALIA
> Telephone (03) 62 26 2545, Fax (03) 62 26 2569
> WWW: http://www2.educ.utas.edu.au/~Jonathan.Moritz/
>
Some horrible anthropologist wrote a book called "Imagined Communities."
(I say horrible because I am not so keen on anthropologists...too few
little details making one big picture.) His ideas aren't bad though.
Basically he suggests that people form communities because they can
imagine that others are doing the same things as they are at the same
time and for the same reasons. It is the common interests that bind
people together, not a lack of self interest. Anything and everything we
all do is in self interest...even religious detachment. Please don't get
too caught up in this I am only spouting.
Jennifer Kelly
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