Author: Andre Coleman

The practice of terminating pregnancy based on the predicted sex of the baby is called Sex Selective abortion. Practice of sex selective abortion is very common is India, China, Pakistan and some other countries as well. The most common reason for the performing this act is to have male child instead of female one where their cultural norms value male child more over female child. This is about abortion, of course but it’s also a much larger problem: the worth of a woman’s life. In a culture where sons inherit properties and they carry on family name but daughters don’t, more ever girls are more vulnerable to infanticide, abuse and neglect. (CHLOE, 2011).

This paper presents how ethical is the abortions that are sex selective and what are the steps taken to prevent such practices. This will also focus on the beliefs of people of India.

Background

The incidents of female fetuses’ abortions are recent phenomenon due to the change and development in the medical technologies and diagnosis processes. But their roots can be traced to the female infanticide. The British rulers in India noted their experiences into their diaries during their travel to India. In 1835, one of the British officials James Thompson, while speaking to the landowners of Utter Pradesh, addressed one of them to be a son-in law of other. That comment created a sarcastic laugh among the farmers. When asked for their laughs, they said that he could not be son-in-law as there were no daughters in village. Thompson added that it was considered to be a most serious calamity to have a female child. And female children were seldom allowed to live. (Miller, 1983)

Most abortions are done because of unplanned pregnancy or having a child causes danger or crisis to woman.

Therapeutic Abortions – Therapeutic abortions result from a medical reason where giving birth to a child may endanger woman’s health and life.

Selective Abortions – Selective abortion are those small fraction of abortion that occur in the cases where particular fetus is perceived as having undesirable characteristics. There are few reasons why the selective abortion is practiced.

The unborn child is a girl, and parents due to cultural or other reasons, want a boy.

When the fetus is defective.

The pregnancy is intended to give birth to a child with specific genetic properties, and fetus doesn’t have them. (Selective abortion)

According to the study published in journal The Lancet, the number of the abortions due to reason of the sex of child has been increasing in last few years and the increase in numbers are alarming. The researchers state that there have been 4 to 5 million sex selective abortion performed during last three decades and the problem is still worsening. (CHLOE, 2011)

From 2001 census of India, it’s very clear that there has been an unusual high sex ratio for the young children that have sparked the concern about the use of sex-selective abortions to satisfy parental preferences of sons. According to National Family Health Survey, also known as NFHS-2 , sex ration of male to female child is abnormally high that is 107-121 males per 100 females in 16 of India’s 26 states. There has been an extensive use of ultrasound technology and amniocentesis during pregnancy, particularly in Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab. The study also showed the ‘masculine’ SRBs and worsening or persistent female mortality disadvantage despite overall mortality decline, the reasons behind that are female child neglect and the wide spread use of female infanticide in above mentioned and other places in India (Rajan, 1999). In a study conducted, the researchers stated that after firstborn girl, selective abortions of girls have been increased in India. And most of the population of India lives in the states where selective abortions of girl child are common. (Prbhat Jha, 2011)

The future mother and father’s families attend the sex-selection testing procedures and many a times the abortion is done against the will of the mother. The government has shown red eyes to those families pressurizing the expecting mother to undergo abortion. (Quinn, 2012)

fig.1.jpg

(Natrajan, 1972)

Ethical views on Abortions and Sex-selective abortions

As Rosalind Hursthouse states, any action is considered right given certain circumstances, from a virtual ethical perspective if and only if it is what the moral agent would do in same kind of circumstances. Here we will consider the case of pregnancy, when considering that when the one’s decision to abort of not is called a ‘right action’ when compared to its alternatives actions? (Caouette, 2012)

A difficult case for the defenders emerges when there is a case of abortion for the removal of unwanted fetus because the fetus is of unwanted gender: Sex selective abortion. Sex selective abortion has always meant to be the elimination of female fetuses. In some countries it is not limited to fetuses, it also extends to infanticide. Abortion means killing a person, Warren states for instance, is no more serious than killing a guppy then abortion of human because of sex differences would be permissible. Many defenders would feel uncomfortable by such a conclusion. Many thinkers hold that abortion in general is morally problematic. However some arguments against sex-selective abortions can be understood based on the only assumption that human fetus is not a person with rights, but this assumption is related to abortion in the general only not to sex-selective abortion. (Kaczor, 2011)

As here we are talking about India, we would focus more on the issues in context to India. Even though India has been worshipping Goddesses since long, some of the expectant mothers from India have been pressured by family and culture that privilege males into aborting their female fetuses. The government is becoming very strict now; new law makes the entire family to have a jail for at least 7 years, if the reason is found to be the female gender of fetus for the abortion. (Quinn, 2012)

There has been always a role of the clinician to get these all deed done. So government has also decided to fine the clinicians involved in the cases of abortion due to gender discrimination. In some less-developed part of India, a daughter is seen as a financial burden to the family members in future. The reason behind this is considered to be the culture of giving dowries at the time of marriage of the daughters. The author adds that, there are ethical questions regarding the abortions of female fetuses. The number of men in India outnumbers the number of women by 40 million. Indian government wants the women population to grow but on the other hand it is restricting the woman’s reproductive rights of allowing her what she wants to do with her body. (Quinn, 2012)

Moral and Ethical principles

According to Mettanando Bhikkhu professor at Oxford and Harvard university, there are five fundamental questions that divide the thinking, moral principles and ethics to individuals. They are:

Who am I?

What is this world?

Is there any afterlife?

What is the meaning of my life?

Why this has to happen to me?

According to the answers one give o above mentioned fundamental questions, the people can be characterized as either from a modern society or from a traditional society. The modern society believes scientifically and the traditional one has the religious views.

Abortion is considered as a eternal controversy. There have been two different views from the moral principles of the different groups.

Pro-life: The human life is very sacred. Abortion is considered morally wrong and should be criminalized as it is equal to murder.

Pro-choice: this group thinks that woman has right to terminate the pregnancy regardless of the reason for that. (Bhikkhu)

Whatever the specific reason for the abortion, most feminists believe that the women concerned are in the best position to judge whether the abortion is an appropriate response to the pregnancy or not. Generally the woman never wants abortion that is influenced by the sex of fetus. The women should get entire control on their reproductive lives and be free from male dominance or family dominance. (Dickens, 2002).

Religious views:

Hinduism:

If we talk about life according to Hindu scriptures, it is basically a dualistic model consisting of atam (spirit) and prakriti (matter). According to carak samhita, a Hindu medical text, at the time of conception only the soul is already joined. Though there are different opinions regarding ensoulments in Hindu scripture. According to the Garbh Samhita, the encoulments take place in the seventh month of pregnancy. Though there are some different opinions regarding the consciousness in to the womb. Vishnu puran, a famous hindu scripture, describes the consciousness in the womb. (Moad, 2004)

The practice of abortion is negatively described in ancient Hindu scriptures, The Vedas. In the text Rg Samhit, possibly originating before 1200BC, ‘Lord Vishnu is the protector of the child re-birth’, implying that fetus actually deserved even divine reverence. While Atharva Veda expresses following plea in regard to those who perform abortion:

“With what bonds the overslaughed one is bound apart, applied and tied up on each limb – let them be released, for they are releasers; wipe off difficulties, O Pushan, on the embryo slayer.” VI-112.3

“Enter thou after the beams, the smokes, O evil; go unto the mists or also the fogs; disappear along those foams of the rivers: wipe off difficulties, O Pushan, on the embryo slayer.”VI-113.2 (Moad, 2004)

Female is seen as Goddess in Hinduism and aborting fetus because of the gender is considered a biggest sin. Evidently, embryo slayer is seen as a killer and a suitable candidate to bear sufferings and sins of the rest of vedic community. In another Hindu scripture Visnudharmasutra, one who performs abortion is similar to attempting the worst sin in Hindu society, killing a Brahmin. (Moad, 2004)

Christian:

Christian and Jewish groups oppose sex-selection abortion very strongly. While the prolife-movements is pushing too hard these days leading to vote on the bill to ban the sex-selection abortions, some Christian churches remained silent on the measure and took positions opposite to it. The church belonged groups Methodist Federation for social Action, justice and witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ and Presbyterian Voices for Justice voiced their opposition to the sex-selection abortion ban. They are also supported by a number of groups including: Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, National Council of Jewish Women, and Union for Reform Judaism, Hadassah, Women of Reform Judaism, .and the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism. (Ertelt, 2012)

The Institute on Religion and Democracy asks why so many churches are not taking any stand to oppose the act of sex-selective abortions. The Institute on Religion and Democracy voted and strongly condemned sex-selective abortion as “as a particularly lamentable and violent expression of sexism.” “Churches should be among first to stand and oppose the act of sex-selective abortions” said IRD President Mark Tolley. Most of the church groups are concerned about issues like social justice and global problems that range from lack of access to drinking water to plight of those persons victimized by sex trafficking, Yet the gender-selective abortion should be considered as global problem only, Mark added. (Ertelt, 2012).

Buddhism:

It is very clear from the sources that sex-selective abortions have been disapproved by Buddhism as well. Superficially, situation seems not unlike the Roman Catholism, where the abortion though disapproved in the strongest terms by the churches drawing a canonical tradition. The most fundamental is consciousness (vi~n~naa.na), the fifth. More ever to specify the consciousness the criteria of moral status is nearly impossible to isolate (Barnhart, 1997).

Sex-selective abortion practice in India

As there has been always a social and Indian cultural demand to have male child, there was high curiosity among the expecting parents to know the gender of fetus. So, sex determination itself became a business for the clinicians. Sex determination became big business in India after it was introduced into 1970s. The billboards were stating that, “Invest Rs.500 now and save Rs.50000 later”. These kinds of advertisements were encouraging the expecting parents and save future dowry (Kusum, 1993). Posters in the train station promoted the sex-determination together with an abortion for just Rs.70. Certain clinicians used to distribute the flyers advertising their services. (Jeffery, 1984)

However not all the clinicians are personally happy by doing these, sex determinations and abortions. (Professional obligations vs Personal ethics)

Curlin_2009_physicians_obligations.png

Courtesy: (Professional obligations vs Personal ethics)

Social Context:

To understand the practice of sex-selective abortion in India, one has to thoroughly understand the roots of cultural norms and basis of son preference in India. The concept of ‘Son Mania’ in India is multi-faceted and deeply embedded in Indian culture (Ramanamma, 1980). In the ancient India text Athrva Veda, there are mantras written to change the sex of fetus from female to girl. A son’s birth considered to be ‘a sunrise in the abode of god’ and ‘to have a son was as essential as to have food once a day’, where as daughter’s birth was considered a cause for greatest sadness and disappointment (Ramanamma, 1980).

Indian society is patrilocal, patriarchal, and patrilineal. The sons are supposed to carry family name. Sons are also charged with the duty and task to support their parents in old-age. Whereas on other hand daughters get married and become part of husbands’ family, they don’t make any further contribution to birth parents. There is a saying in India that, “bringing up a daughter is like watering to neighbor’s plant.” (Jeffery, 1984).

Since most reasons for the preference for sons are economically based, it is really very ironic to find that the extreme level of sex-ratio that is more boys to girls are found into the higher casts who tend to have wealth (Miller, 1981).

Since come into the practice, the physicians always have been a strong support to those parents who want the sex-selective abortion done. This argument also involves the right to let the families make their personal decision. If we think a case of a woman having two or three daughters and still she deliver a girl child then her life will become difficult and she will have too many daughters. One of the famous Bombay gynecologists state that, “How can you deny the mother to have a son instead of daughter? Who are we to take away her right to decide that she should have a daughter or son? It is better to get rid of the unwanted child than to suffer the whole life” (Kusum, 1993). Although practitioners might have interests in this because of financial interest, its considerable that their views will be their interest oriented rather than in the interest of overall ethical situation.

Government’s Response

Since the problem of male to female ratio is worsening, India has shown the history of activism and policy attention to Female -selective abortions. It started all the way in 1988 from the state of Maharashtra. Maharashtra banned the use of amniocentesis for the purpose of sex-determination. Fines and prison were made mandatory for those who administer the test as well as woman and her family undergoing the test. Within the same year, there were doubts raised regarding effectiveness of the ban on the sex-determination, because the private sector remained unregulated. The lack of government action was cited by a group of activist in Mumbai, which advertised the sex-determination and sex preselection. (Miller, Female-Selective Abortion in Asia: Patterns, Policies, and Debates, 2001)

The Indian government has opposed the practice of female infanticide and the practices of sex-selective abortions, but has been very slow and ineffectual in applying the law strictly around the country. The dowry prohibition act was passed by Indian government in 1961 itself approximately a decade ago the sex-determination techniques were introduced in India. Despite its revision in 1983 and 1985, this law has been poor in implementation (Bumiller, 1990).

Maharashtra state provided the first policy model to take serious steps against these kind of practices. (Miller, Female-Selective Abortion in Asia: Patterns, Policies, and Debates, 2001)

The salient features of Maharashtra Regulation of Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act are as follows (Kusum, 1993):

Pre-natal diagnosis is permitted only to detect any kind of fetus abnormalities that includes sex-linked genetic diseases.

The test can only be undertaken by a high risk pregnant woman who should meet one or more of the following criteria:

Age over 35 years

History of 2 or more abortions or miscarriage

History to the exposure to any hazardous substances

Hereditary genetic disorder

The uses of all kind of prenatal diagnosis techniques are banned for the purpose of determination of sex of fetus.

Three authorities were made to operate all these policies, State Appropriate Authority, State Vigilance Committee, and Local Vigilance Committees.

The woman who experienced two or more therapeutic abortions in past technically becomes eligible under this act. Secondly, while determining the ex-linked genetic disorder the can theoretically reveal the sex of fetus to the physician. So needless to say, corruption, increased in illegal practices made the practice of sex-determination unabated. (Kusum, 1993)

Conclusion

Sex-selective abortion should be best called Female-selective abortions. India is a very large democracy. The laws in country are very difficult to apply thoroughly because of the corruption and such other issues in Indian government. The clinicians, most of them never apply their own ethical and moral principles to such cases, everyone is busy collecting wealth. Morally my own beliefs, my faith in my religion, my nation never allow me to attempt such sin. A son and a daughter should be considered equal. We are living in 21st century, where there is nothing that a woman cannot do and a man can do.

Personally I believe that the sex-determination should not be banned but there should be awareness among the expecting parents about the importance of life. The woman should be made think that what if her mother had aborted her?

Everyone has got right to live, to take lives, is not in our hands. There is no country in the world that has placed sex-selective abortion high on its policy agenda, though the United Nations included pre natal sex selection in its Program of Action in Cairo Conference on Population and development in 1994 (Miller, Female-Selective Abortion in Asia: Patterns, Policies, and Debates, 2001)

We should respect human rights as well. India is a developing nation and it should be thought that women are an intact part of Indian workforce.

To conclude with, I strongly take my position against the use of sex-determination and the practice of sex-selective abortion around the globe, we all will have to re-think and develop a inner sense of equality and freedom.

Salafism (al-Salafiyyah) is a contemporary Islamic global movement, which is concerned with a search for the pure teachings of Islam as prescribed in the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad’s tradition (sunnah) by rejecting any external influences and human involvement in the interpretation of religious texts. The proponents of Salafism define themselves to be the inheritors of the pre-modern Ahl al-Hadits (people of the Prophet tradition). In their view, this school of thought was the only group that remained faithful to the pure teachings of Islam as prescribed in the Quran and the Sunnah so that it was considered the saved sect. They base their claim on a hadith (the Prophet Muhammad sayings) that the Prophet Muhammad was reported to have said that there would always be a group of his people who remained committed to the truth, whom the Salafis identify as the Ahl al-Hadith (Duderija, 2011). By claiming to be the inheritors of the Ahl al-Hadith and followers of its footsteps, the proponents of contemporary Salafi movement attempt to assert that they have privilege and take pride to be the guardians of the pure Islam in modern period.

The proponents of contemporary Salafism identify themselves, and are proud to be, as “salafi” (plural: salafiyyin), the followers of al-salaf al-shalih(the righteous ancestors). For them, the term “salaf” refers to the first three Muslim generations in the early Islam, who were considered as the best Islamic generations as they were directly guided by the Prophet Muhammad and his Companions. This self-ascription is based on their belief that their understanding and practicing Islam is in complete accordance with the footsteps and methodology of the salaf (manhaj al-salaf). ‘Abdullah ibn Baz, one of the main Salafi authorities, said that Salafi ideology is “derived from the Qur’an, Sunnah and Consensus (ijma`) which govern the method of acquiring din [religion] and understanding the Qur’an and Sunnah according to the principles agreed upon by the righteous predecessors (salaf)” (Cited in Duderija, 2011:54). Due to this strong emphasis on the Salaf as the only model of understanding and practicing Islam, Salafism can be said as a movement of “return to the forefather” (Marshallsay, 2004).

Major Authorities of the Contemporary Salafi Movement

Within contemporary Salafi movement, the most influential proponents are the Middle Eastern Muslim scholars with Saudi nationality or Saudi-educated, university educated, many gained PhDs in Islamic sciences from Saudi universities. These include Nashir al-Din al-Albani (d.1999), ‘Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz (d. 1999), Muhammad ibn Shalih al-Uthaymin (d. 2001), Muqbil ibn Hadi al-Wadi’i (d. 2001), Rabi’ ibn Hadi al-Madkhali (b. 1931), Yahya al-Hajuri, and Shalih al-Fawzan. The dominance of Saudi Arabian or Saudi-educated religious scholars (ulama) asserts the centrality of Saudi Arabia as the birth of modern Salafism. As the main representative of the Salafi movement, these ulama become major references that Salafi leaders and ordinary followers in the Muslim world turn to for guidance and advice in their lives.

Outside the Middle East, leading personalities of Salafism in Western countries such as Jamal Zarabozo and Bilal Philips (Duderija, 2011) mostly become the mouthpiece of these Middle East authorities, translating their Salafi messages for the Western Salafi followers. The same is true for the leaders of the Salafi movement in Indonesia. Most of them went to Saudi and Yemen universities or Islamic religious learning institutions (ma’had) to study Islamic knowledge. These include Abu Nida, Ahmad Faiz, Yusuf Baisa, Jafar Umar Thalib, Ayip Syafrudin, Luqman Baabduh and Muhammad Umar Sewed (Hasan, 2007; 2009). Compared to their locally trained Salafi proponents, these Middle East graduates commonly enjoy more authority and recognition from their followers due to their highly-esteemed learning in Mecca or Medinah, two holy cities of Islam. Yet, all of these Salafi exponents make the Saudi and Yemeni Salafi authorities as major, and to some extent, the only references in learning and preaching Salafi ideas among Indonesian Muslims.

The Middle East Salafi authorities write treatises on Salafi ideas exclusively in Arabic. But, this is not a major barrier for Salafi followers from non-Arabic speaking countries to understand the messages of these Salafi ulama. The Salafi followers and sympathizers have attempted to translate the works of these Salafi ulama into local languages. For this purpose, in Western countries, they have established publishing houses, including Tarbiyyah Publications in Toronto, Invitation to Islam and Al-Khilafat Publications in London, and Salafi Publications and Maktabah Darussalam in Birmingham. Mobilizing the information and communication technologies, they have created websites such as www.salafipublications.com, www.tarbiyyahbookstore.com, http://sunna.com, www.salaf.com, and www.fatwa-online.com. Individual Salafi authorities websites have been also established by the Salafi supporters, such as www.binbaz.com (on the works of ‘Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz), www.rabee.net (on the works of Rabi ibn Hadi al-Madkhali), and www.ibnothaimeen.com (on the works of Muhammad ibn al-Uthaymin) (Duderija, 2011).

The Puzzle of the Origin and Meaning of Salafism

For decades, there has been conviction among Western and Western-educated scholars that history of Salafism is a history of Islamic modernism; that Salafi ideas are regarded as similar to those of Islamic modernist movement; and the Salafis are representatives of Muslim modernist. It is believed that Salafism dates back to the 19th Islamic modernism, which was associated with Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (d. 1897), Muhammad ‘Abduh (d. 1905), and Rashid Ridha (d. 1935), whose principles and ideas include rejection of taqlid (blind following), promotion of ijtihad (independent interpretation), and support of progress and rationality in its responses to the decline of the Muslim world. As Lauziere (2010) identifies, this conception can be seen in the “standard” academic works of Islamic thought such as Brill’s Encyclopedia of Islam, Malcolm Kerr’s Islamic Reform (1966), M. A. Zaki Badawi’s The Reformers of Egypt (1978), and Daniel Brown’s Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought (1996). Some recent studies by scholars of contemporary Islam, such as Ali Hassan Zaidi (2006) and Dumber and Tayob (2011), also connect Salafi orientations with Muslim reformists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

However, this conception is problematic in some respects. First, there is no convincing evidence to the claim of the connection among Salafism, al-Afghani, and ‘Abduh. According to Lauziere (2010), there are no primary sources including al-‘Urwat al-Wuthqa, a flagship journal of al-Afghani and ‘Abduh, that substantially prove the claim that al-Afghani and ‘Abduh coined the term Salafism and used it to identify themselves and their reform movement in the 19th century. It is true that Abduh mentioned the term al-Salafiyyin (the Salafis) in Al-Manar (Al-Manar 5, 1902 cited in Lauziere 2010) to designate Sunni Muslims who were against Ash’ariyyah, a 10th century school of speculative Islamic theology, [1] in terms of theological issues based on their strict adherence to the creed of the forefathers (Lauziere, 2010). But, ‘Abduh clearly did not claim to be a Salafi nor identified his followers as Salafis. He simply referred al-Salafiyyin in the context of theological debates as Sunni Muslims who differed from Ash’arites based on their strict adherence to ‘aqidat al-salaf (the creed of the forefather) (Lauziere, 2010).

Moreover, Rasyid Ridha, one of Muhammad ‘Abduh’s main disciples, recognized the fundamental differences between Salafism and Islamic modernist school, which his mentor promoted. According to Ridha, following the Salafi creed did not necessarily make one committed to Islamic modernist school. During his time, Ridha identified Salafism as Wahhabism to which he called al-Wahhabiyyah al-Salafiyyah. Later, in 1928 he and some of his disciples declared their passage to becoming Salafis not only with respect to Islamic theology but also in fiqh or Islamic jurisprudence (Lauziere, 2010).

Second, the unconfirmed claim of ideological connection between contemporary Salafism and the early 20th century Islamic modernism can be seen in the issue of how each defines the term Salaf. While the two movements shared the idea of the importance of the pious ancestors, they differ in the issue of to what extent the Salaf is defined and how it should be modelled. The proponents of Islamic modernism conceived that the term Salaf includes virtually the Muslim scholars of all schools of thought in the medieval period whose success and achievements should be contextually propagated and imitated within modern Muslim contexts. The early 20th century Salafism understood the Salaf as Muslim scholars in religious science as well as in ‘secular’ science of the golden age of Islam in the medieval period that should be contextually followed.

In contrast, the proponents of contemporary Salafism restrict the Salaf to the first three generations in the early Islam, namely the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (al-shahabat), those after them (al-tabi’in) and the next generation after them (atba`u al-tabi’in). They also include religious scholars (‘ulama`) in the first and second centuries of Islam who were considered to adhere to the way of these first three Muslim generations, particularly Ahmad bin Hanbal and the followers of his textual school. These Salaf generations and Salafi ‘ulama` were considered rightly guided forefathers and, hence, role models to whom Muslims are obliged to follow their ways in any circumstances. In addition, when the proponents of contemporary Salafism speak about the Salaf, they use it in its narrow religious sense. Practically, they exclude, show suspicion and hostility towards social, cultural and scientific heritage of the Muslim forefathers. In their view, the perfect method of modelling the Salaf in the contemporary Muslim societies is preserving and imitating their footsteps without contextualizing them in the present contexts.

Third, the issue of the unconfirmed ideological connection between Salafism and the late 19th century Islamic modernism can be discerned in differences between them with respect to methodology and objectives. In response to the decline of the Islamic world, the Islamic modernism of al-Aghani and ‘Abduh was committed to islah (reform) in Muslim society through promotion of i’tidal (moderation and balance) by which Muslims were expected to conduct conciliation between Islam and Western civilization. It encouraged the appreciation and adoption of social, political and scientific achievements of Western civilization and at the same rooted firmly in Islamic principles and civilization. In other words, al-Afghani and ‘Abduh’s Islamic modernism was a moderate approach to Islam and Western civilization in that it was able to balance between revelation and reason, and between strict Islamic conservatism and blind following of the West (Lauziere, 2010).

Contemporary Salafism, in contrast, aims to revive the golden age of Islam by adhering strictly to the ways of the first three Muslim generations in the early Islam understood and practiced Islam to protect its purity from forbidden religious innovation. From this perspective, the making of the Salaf as a perfect model requires strict applying the Salaf method in social and cultural vacuum, without contextualizing their ideas and practices within present contexts of the Muslim world. Subsequently, this movement regards revealed texts as the only primary sources so that its proponents tend to be anti-rationalistic approach to revelation. The proponents of contemporary Salafism are also suspicious of anything not textually written in the scripture, taught or done by the Prophet Muhammad, his companions and religious scholars adhered to their ways. Conservatism, or even ultra conservatism, is highly represented in contemporary Salafi movement.

As a result, there is no adequate evidence to claim ideological connection between the late 19th and early 20th century’s Islamic modernism and the contemporary Salafi movement. There is no support that Al-Afghani and ‘Abduh proclaimed they were Salafis or exponents of the Salafi movement or their ideas were in accordance with contemporary Salafism. The modernist conception of “Salafism” substantially differs from the contemporary Salafism’s understanding of the same term. Within contemporary Salafi movement, salafism is conceived first and foremost as label by Sunni purist-literalist-traditionalists to designate their particular approach to Islam.

Conceptual History of Salafism

Undoubtedly, the uncertainty of the origin and meaning of Salafism within modern scholarship has caused the substance of Salafism remain puzzling. Fortunately, a recent study by Henri Lauziere (2010) is helpful in solving this puzzle and gaining relative certainty in the issues of the origin and meaning of Salafism. He argues that the puzzle of the meaning and origins of Salafism is attributable to the “faulty scholarship” and the fact that there is little scholarly attention to the examination of the history of knowledge production of Salafism (Lauziere, 2010:369).

The First Use of the Term “Salafism”

Historically speaking, Salafism as a religious orientation is not purely a modern phenomenon. Rather, it rooted in the Islamic scholarship in pre-modern history of Islam. The early use of the term Salafism (Salafiyyah) as an approach to religious texts is found in a number of religious scholars’ works in the medieval period. For example, Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1238) writes in his al-Fatawa al-Kubra:

As for the Salafiyya it is as [Hamd ibn Muhammad] al-Khattabi and Abu Bakr al-Khatib [al-Bagdadi] and other have stated: The way of the Salaf is to interpret literally the Qur’an verses and hadiths that relate to the Divine attributes (ijra’ ayat al-sifat wa ahadits al-sifat ‘ala zahiriha), and without indicating modality and without attributing to Him anthropomorphic qualities. So that one is not to state that the meaning of “hand” is power or that of “hearing” is knowledge (Cited in Haykel, 2009:38).

However, as Haykel (2009) and Dumbe & Tayob (2011) suggest, the historical precedent of the Salafi orientations even dates back earlier to the 9th century theological and juridical debates between the Ahl al-Ra’y (people of opinion), which was associated with the Mu’tazilah, [2] and Ahl al-Hadith (people of the Prophet Muhammad’s tradition), which was related to Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855), the inspirer of the Hanbali school of law (Hanbaliyyah). [3] Particularly, the early use of the term Salaf and its derivatives in this period can be traced back to the Ahl al Hadits. It is reported that Ibn Hanbal said:

It has been transmitted from more than one of our ancestors (salafina) that they said ‘the Qur’an is the speech of God and is uncreated’, and this is what I endorse. I do not engage in speculative theology and I hold that there is nothing to be said other than what is in God’s Book (Qur’an), the traditions of His messenger or those of his companions and their followers- may God have mercy on them. It is not praiseworthy to engage in theological discussion in matters not contained therein (Cited in Haykel, 2009:38).

These statements not only refer to the early use of the terms Salaf and Salafism within Islamic scholarship, but also points out the way of thinking that the early ‘Salafis’ advocated in regard to theological issues such as the nature of the Qur’an as God’s messages revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. With respect to the approach to the interpretation of religious texts, the Ahl al-Ra`y represented Muslims scholars who sought explanations from personal opinions and borrowings from other cultures and intellectual traditions, while the Ahl al-Hadits sufficed themselves with literal meanings of the texts and tradition of the Prophet and his companions believed as pure and original sources of Islam.

Another corresponding term, madhhab al-salaf (the school of forefathers), is found in the literature of Muslim scholars of medieval period. As Lauziere (2010:372) suggests, written sources also indicate that medieval Muslims scholars used this term primarily in the theological debates within early schools of theology in Islam. The notion of madhhab al-salaf was used to designate those who hold a theological purity in a time when early Muslims were not faced yet with speculative theology (ilm al-kalam) resulted from the encounter of Islam and other world civilizations. The proponents of madhhab al-salaf showed hostility towards Islamic speculative theology (‘ilm al-kalam) which was influenced by Greek inspiration and rationalism such ‘ilm al-mantiq (syllogistic logic) and falsafah (philosophy). Contrary to Islamic theologians (mutakalimin) such as Mu’tazilis and Asharites, the people of the madhhab al-salaf distanced themselves from intellectualizing the divine issues, such as al asma` wal sifat (the divine names and attributes). However, the word Salafi or Salafism was not commonly used by medieval purist Muslims to refer to themselves and their approach to Islam. Instead, the common epithets used to refer to the purists at the period were not derived from the word salaf, but rather from the terms associated with the Prophet Muhammad’s tradition, such as Ahl al-Sunnah (people of the prophetic tradition), Ahl al-Hadist (people of prophetic sayings and sayings) or al-Atsari (the follower of the prophetic report) (Lauziere, 2010:373).

The Origin of the Confusion of Salafism: Louis Massignon and the Salafyah Review

A recent study by Lauziere (2010) revealed the origin of the confusion between Salafism and Islamic modernism in scholarly literature. He argues that puzzle of Salafism lies in the fact Massignon and scholars who quoted him were not aware of the complex development of the Salafi epithets within Muslim scholars in the Middle East. They simply relied on al-Majallah al-Salafiyyah, a monthly reformist journal published by Salafiyya Bookstore in Egypt -whose key role in Salafi discourses will be examined in the following section- that reached overseas including Paris. Being established in 1917, the journal was edited by ‘Abd al-Fattah Qatlan and rendered by him into English as Salafyah Review. The journal was purported to serve as a marketing vehicle for reaching a wider readership of the Salafiyyah Bookstore. More importantly, the journal was created in the period in which the reform spirit overwhelmed the Salafiyyah Bookstore before the coming of the Saudi-Wahhabi influence on the type of literature it published. So, in line with the reform spirit, the journal aimed to spread the achievements of the pious ancestors (al-salaf) in a wide range of scientific, cultural and intellectual fields. In line with this spirit, the content of the journal encompassed various themes such as literature, linguistics, and astronomy in addition to religious topics (Lauziere, 2010:379).

It was through this journal that the term Salafism caught the attention of Western scholars (Lauziere, 2010). Louis Massignon, a well-known French orientalist and the major contributor to the leading journal Revue du monde musulman, subscribed to Arabic journals including al-Majallah al-Salafiyyah. When the first issue of the journal reached his journal office, Massignon provided explanation of the Majallah al-Salafiyyah to the readers of his journal. He said that “the Salafiyyah was an intellectual movement that emerged in early 19th century India at the time of Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi (d. 1931) [and] Siddiq Hasan Khan (d. 1890), the founder of the Ahl-i Hadith movement, had later rehashed its ideas” (Cited in Lauziere, 2010:380). Then, he added that “from there, [the Salafiyyah] was spread by Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Syaikh ‘Abduh and established itself in Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo and even in the Maghrib and Java” (Revue du monde musulman 34, 1916-18 in Lauziere, 2010:380). But, later Massignon abolished the connection of the Salafiyyah with the 19th century Indian movement and focused more on its link with al-Afghani and ‘Abduh. Then, he associated Salafiyyah with a relatively transnational Islamic modernism in the 19th century, whose proponents were committed to reform in Islam and Muslim societies (Lauziere, 2010).

However, Massignon’s claim of Salafism is problematic as it raised questions with respect to conceptual and historical foundations of Salafism he based on. It is not clear how he came to this claim though it is known that he studied Islam in Baghdad and made contacts with some reform-oriented Muslim scholars like Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi. Due to this, it can be said that Massignon misinterpreted the term Salafiyyah and inadequately made Salafism and Islamic modernism of al-Afghani and ‘Abduh synonymous (Lauziere, 2010).

Nevertheless, as Lauziere (2010:381) shows, some leading scholars welcomed Massignon’s definition of Salafism and even took its validity for granted despite its factual limitations. The famous The New World of Islam, published in 1921, repeated this misinterpretation when made reference to Salafiyyah. In 1922, the leading journal The Moslem World published by Hartford Seminary did the same when it translated an article of Massignon from the Revue du monde musulman. This is further misinterpreted by Henri Laoust, a scholar who spread Massignon’s ideas in French, when in his seminal article in 1932 defined Salafism based on Massignon’s conception. Even influential scholar Sir Hamilton Gibb took Massignon’s claim of Salafism for granted in his famous Modern Trends in Islam. Hence, it is through this intellectual transmission that the term Salafism with the sense of Islamic modernist movement was created within Western scholarly literature on Islam.

The Evolution of Salafism

If there is no connection with al-Afghani and ‘Abduh’s Islamic modernism of the late 19th century, who first used the Salafi label as understood today? And how was it defined? As Lauziere (2010) argues, to remedy this puzzle requires considering the origin and development of the term Salafism from the perspective of conceptual history.

According to Lauziere (2010, the growing popularity of Salafi epithets as well as overlap between Salafism and Islamic modernism can be attributed to a key role played by the Salafiyah Bookstore (al-Maktabat al-Salafiyyah). It was established in 1909 in Cairo by Muhib al-Din al-Khatib (1886-1969), a Syrian activist, well-known figure in the Egyptian publishing business, and pupil of “Salafis-cum-modernists” ‘ulama`, Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi (d. 1914) and Tahir al-Jazairi (d. 1920). Al-Khatib’s involvement in cultural and political affairs opened the opportunity to establish the bookstore aimed at spreading his interests in Islamic scholarship and reformist ideas under the label Salafiyyah (Salafism). The name Salafiyyah for the bookstore was inspired by al-Khatib’s mentor, Tahir al-Jazairi, who had inclinations to the madhhab al-salaf (school of the forefathers) with respect to Islamic theology.

But, it seemed that al-Khatib misinterpreted the term Salafiyyah or understood it in a broader sense than al-Jazairi meant (Lauziere, 2010). This is reflected in the way he and his partner, Abdul Fattah Qatlan (d. 1931), operated the Salafiyyah Bookstore, particularly in terms of the type of literature they published. Being motivated by desires to encourage educated Arab readers to rediscover the glory of their religious, social and cultural heritage for the advancement of their society, al-Khatib and Qatlan were not confined themselves in printing and selling books on the Salafi theology. Rather, they published works on progressive nature of Islam’s golden age as well as a wide range of issues not connected to religious reform. They used the Salafi epithets to refer virtually to any Islamic intellectual heritage in medieval period, not in a narrow sense of a particular school of theology. In addition to treatises on religion, the Salafiyyah Bookstore published works on Arabic literature, Arabic grammar, and work of medieval Muslim philosophers such al-Farabi (d.950) and Ibn Sina (d.1037). In short, the literature that the Salafiyyah Bookstore published and sold in the 1910s was in accordance with the spirit and concerns of Islamic modernism (Lauziere, 2010:378).

The selection and publication of this type of literature suggest that al-Khatib and Qatlan attempted to revive the works of the great Muslim scholars and underline the Muslims’s contribution to modernity in the West of modern age. Under the label Salafism, they sought to emphasize the compatibility between revelation and modernity as shown by the works of great and pious forefathers (Salaf) in the past by which Muslims in the modern age should model for the revival and advancement of the Islamic world. In turn, all this resulted in turning Salafiyyah into a common and popular term among producers and consumers of Arabic literature in the Middle East and other Muslim regions (Lauziere, 2010:382). More importantly, an impression built up that the Salafiyyah Bookstore intertwined the term Salafism with Islamic modernism projected to the revival of Arabs and Muslims in the modern period. The label Salafism it used was then considered as to represent the success and greatness of the Islamic past. The bookstore expanded the scope of the term Salafism beyond its initial theological meanings and gradually created the association between Salafism and the project of Islamic modernism (Lauziere, 2010:377).

The later development of the Salafiyyah Bookstore, however, determined the association of Islamic modernism and Salafism and brought about decisive changes in the nature and development of Salafism after the establishment of the Saudi Kingdom in the early 1920s. The bookstore experienced a shift with respect to choices of works for publication. This began with the change in the choice of works for publication. In the early 1920s, al-Khatib and Qatlan began to print works that appeared contradictive to the progressive and rationalist ideas of the Islamic reform movement though they kept promoting Islamic modernism. For example, the Salafiyyah Bookstore published works of those who strongly opposed the secular and controversial works of ‘Ali ‘Abd al-Raziq and Taha Husayn. It also published anti-rationalist treatises by Hanbali and his school followers ordered by Saudis. This shift in the choice of publications was more clearly discernable in the establishment of the Saudi branch of the Salafiyyah Bookstore in Mecca in the late 1920 initiated by Qatlan in partnership with a Hijazi Muhammad Salih Nasif (d.1971). In 1928, to suit the local needs, this Saudi branch began to publish works on Ahmad ibn Hanbal and his supporters as well pro-Wahhabi books such a theological treatise by Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292-1350), which was printed with the request and fund from Ibn Sa’ud (d. 1932), the first monarch of Saudi Arabia (Lauziere, 2010:383).

This shift within the Salafiyya Bookstore’s choice of publications, according to Lauziere (2010), should be seen in the context of political change in the Muslim world in the mid 1920s. The fall of the Ottoman Empire and the abolition of Islamic caliphate in the early 1920s brought about political and cultural turbulence within the Muslim world. At the same time, however, the rise of the Saudi Kingdom in Hejaz offered Muslim ummah (global Muslim community) a great hope of social and political renaissance in the Muslim world. Therefore, many Muslims intellectuals and religious scholars, including Rasyid Ridha, supported the young Saudi state and turned toward religious conservatism, particularly Wahhabism, [4] founded by Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792), and endorsed as an official school of Islam and promoted by the state. Al-Khatib showed the same response to these circumstances. He opted to support the young Saudi state and showed respect to the Wahhabism and its proponents. These religio-political stances influenced the activities of his Salafiyyah Bookstore. This was reflected in the change of choices of editing and publishing when it began to publish the Wahhabi treatises and pro-Saudi works.

Although Lauziere missed to capture the complexity of social and political transformation in the Muslim world in the first quarter of twentieth century, his argument was sufficient to overcome to the puzzle of Salafism by making sense of the evolution of Salafism. By publishing pro-Wahhabi works to cater the religious and political needs of the Saudi elite and proponents of Wahhabism, the Salafiyyah Bookstore brought its commercial label Salafism closer to Wahhabism. Though the Cairo Salafiyyah Bookstore still published modernist themes, the popularization and commodification of the Salafi epithets by the Saudi branch of the Salafiyyah Bookstore had brought the Wahhabi religious orientation to the fore. The unfounded intellectual association between Salafism (Salafiyyah) and al-Afghani and ‘Abduh’s Islamic reform as well as the absence of the monopoly over Salafism as a marketing brand that al-Khatib and Qatlan might have opened opportunity to the proponents of the Wahhabi-oriented purist movement kept using Salafiyyah as the label of their publications ignoring any modernist agenda as initiated by the original Salafi Bookstore in Cairo (Lauziere, 2010). It can be added that given that they shared the strong reference to the pious forefather (al-salaf al-shalih) with respect to theological issues with the Salafiyyah Bookstore, at least in its early years of operation, the proponents of Wahhabism had no difficulties in taking the advantage of using Salafism as their label of spreading the purist ideas of Ibn al-Wahhab.

Through these religious-political processes, consequently, the Salafi epithets experienced re-definition and counter-definitions. More importantly, this gradually created the impression that the term Salafism and Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia were synonymous. The opening of the Saudi-connected Salafiyyah bookstores outside Saudi Arabia, such as in Syria and Pakistan, enforced this impression (Lauziere, 2010). Undoubtedly, this evolution of Salafism explains the state of the contemporary development of the Salafi movement with Saudi Arabia as its major supporter. Due to the fact that it is a contemporary phenomenon that assigns the epistemological value to traditions, Adis Duderija (2007:2011) labels the proponents of this contemporary Salafism as “Neo-Traditional Salafis”.

In its later development, in the 1960s Wahhabi-inspired Salafism encountered with religious-political ideas brought by the Islamic activists who fled from their ruling governments’ repression and persecution found Saudi Arabia safe haven. This has to do with the Saudi Arabia’s policy under King Faisal (d. 1975) to support Islamic solidarity in its attempts to oppose Egypt’s pan-Arabism promoted by President Jamal Abdel Nasser (d. 1970), which was regarded as a threat to the existence of the kingdom (Lacroix, 2010).

Among these refugees were the members of al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun (the Muslim Brotherhood), a religious-political movement that first emerged in Egypt in 1928 and then spread to the Muslim world. The political aspects of the ideology of al-Ikhwan al Muslimun encountered with the puritanical ideas of Wahhabism (Wahhabiyyah) brought about an intellectual hybrid identified as al-Sahwa al-Islamiyya (th

Edward Schillebeeckx and Louis-Marie Chauvet both provide insight and theological discourse on the sacraments. However, their approach and core theology is quite different. Edward Schillebeeckx’s Christ: the Sacrament of the Encounter of God provides a strong personalist understanding of the sacraments. Louis-Marie Chauvet, on the other hand, concentrates on the symbolic order of the sacraments working through models. He calls these models objectivist, subjectivist and the Vatican II model in his book The Sacraments: The Word of God at the Mercy of the Body. This paper compares their diverse approaches to the sacraments; highlighting the specific areas of concentration: institution, grace, service (diakonia), mystery, Trinity, and use of the Emmaus story, as found in their two books.

Biographical Summary

The Belgian-born theologian, Fr. Edward Cornelis Florentius Alfonsus Schillebeeckx, O.P. (1914 – 2009) focused on dogmatic theology, although his doctoral thesis was on the redeeming economy of the sacraments. The original version of his text, Christ: The Sacrament of the Encounter with God, appeared in 1960 during the early and preparatory phases of Vatican II.

Fr. Louis-Marie Chauvet was born in the Vendee region in west central France on January 26, 1942. Ordained in 1966, he is a French Roman Catholic Priest and a professor of sacramental theology at l’Institut Catholique in Paris, France. His earlier work, Symbol and Sacrament, was published in 1995 and The Sacraments: The Word of God at the Mercy of the Body was published two years later, in 1997.

Contrast in Overview

Schillebeeckx’s publication that appeared during the early preparatory phases of Vatican II was underscored by his personalist understanding of the sacraments. His preliminary releases and conceptual theological analyses were very influential in the composition Lumen Gentium. Much of his work places significant emphasis on the people of God. For Schillebeeckx, the sacraments are an intersection of faith and life. He operates out of an understanding that the human person is unique and of irreducible value and dignity. The sacraments fulfill the need to create and distinguish the singular human gift of encounter. In Christ, God became human. We are therefore compelled to recognize that there is a distinct divine character about being human. For Schillebeeckx, human beings are essentially special because they are made in the image of God.

In contrast, Chauvet’s views include an emphasis on causality and symbolic order. Although he expresses his view that grace is received in the sacraments he is careful to avoid a commitment that it is the sacraments that are the cause of grace.

Chauvet does not view human beings apart from language nor see them as inventing language. He states, “aˆ¦ one cannot be a human being without language.” He equates language to a mother’s womb stating, “aˆ¦ in relation to the subject, language is no longer regarded as an instrument but as a womb: the subject arises and is maintained within it.”

For Chauvet there is an order of language, which creates the possibility of dialog concerning the sacraments. This points to a symbolic order that allows Christians to attain their identity. As he states, “This symbolic womb, within which each person is born as Christian through initiation, is unique. One becomes a Christian only by adopting the ‘mother tongue’ of the church. Sacraments are an important element of this tongue.” For Chauvet, the sacramental rites are not the direct causality of grace. They are faculties that allow access to God through an act of ritual, which allows the encounter. Human beings encounter God through the symbolic rituals of the Church (i.e., the Body of Christ) through language, scripture, rite, and symbolic exchange. As Chauvet states,

If symbolic exchange is part of what allows the young human to become and perdure as a subject, it is constitutive of the fact of being human; it is irreducible to a simple ‘experience’ from which, by analogy one could approach the mystery of communication between God and humanity. This means that the relation of believers with God is not only as in symbolic exchange but is inscribed in this type of exchange that structures the subject. Again the theological takes ‘place’ in the anthropological.

In contrast Schillebeeckx views sacramental symbols quite differently. He sees sacramental symbolic action as ecclesial worship. This concept is summarized,

The ecclesial acts, in which Christ, through his eternally actual redemptive act, makes himself here present, are in their human religious form, precisely this kind of act of ritual symbolism performed by the religious community which is the Church. Because they are the Church’s activity in worship through symbols, St. Thomas calls the sacraments the insigne’s of the Church.

Sacraments are ecclesial symbolic actions; the Church herself receiving a visible bestowal of grace from God. The Church is the body of Christ, giving human love for God through worship, and also receiving the body of Christ through the Eucharist. The Church’s grace adds nothing, but instead shares in the fullness of the grace of Christ. Schillebeeckx identifies the symbolic action of the sacraments as, “aˆ¦ acts of Christ in and through his Church.”

For Schillebeeckx, the substance of a sacrament is in part an epiclesis, “aˆ¦ in the form of a request (in forma deprecativa) that is to say, a prayer in which we plead with the Father by the power of the Spirit and together with Christ.” Chauvet agrees. He discourses on the inseparability of Christ with His church in his particular view of the Eucharist. For Chauvet, “aˆ¦ the Church cannot offer Christ-in-sacrament without being itself offered through and in him.” This notion of the subjective anamnesis from Chauvet runs parallel to the notion of Christ as the sacrament of encounter purported by Schillebeeckx. Schillebeeckx also views a twofold element and the second part is, “aˆ¦ a definitive bestowal (in forma indicativa).” In comparison, Chauvet’s “second sense” speaks of, “Christ-in-sacrament by the church.”

Institution

Schillebeeckx views the sacraments as an office and charism of the Church. He defines them as an “aˆ¦ official act of the Church as redemptive institution.” The Church is the locus where grace and redemption become visible. It is also the visible saving activity of God in Christ, which allows the Church to be a saving institution. This locus becomes visible in two ways; institutionally and through charism in an; “aˆ¦ outward manifestation of inward communion in grace with God.”

On the other hand, Chauvet does not embrace the hierarchical notion of the institution of the sacraments. It is for this reason that he rejects the idea of a sacrament as an instrument, a channel or a germ. This rejection hinges on the notion that the sacraments appear as representations of the efficacy ex opre operate as equated with and as “a corollary of the ‘power’ of the priest.”

Chauvet does embrace the institution of the Church as the minister in the name of Christ, when it comes to the administration of the sacraments. As he writes, “Christian identity is not self-administered; to obtain it, one must receive baptism and one does not baptize oneself; one is baptized by another person acting as the minister of the church in the name of Christ.”

Grace

From Chauvet’s perspective, grace is freely given. Like the manna in the desert, it is underserved, free of charge, and unable to be quantified or calculated. Grace is not only the gift given freely by God, but it is also the return-gift given by the one who receives the underserved grace. There must be some level of gratitude from the recipient. By way of example, Chauvet states, “aˆ¦ this does not mean that the presence of Christ in the Eucharist depends on the subject’s disposition, since it is God who through the Holy Spirit realizes it.”

What the human subject would return to God is faith and love. However, if one was not disposed to do so, God’s gift of grace would decay like the manna in the desert. Chauvet accepts Karl Barth’s rejection of “ex opre operato” (i.e., from the work accomplished) as a correct response. This is an appropriate response by Chauvet only if Barth’s fears are valid and the subjectivist model, which purports that the sacrament is an instrument for the production and transmission of grace, effects the negation of the freedom of God in salvation. Barth respects the freedom of God’s word in salvation and Chauvet concurs, but asserts that the sacraments are still instruments. A sacrament is either an objective instrument for the production of grace, or an instrument for the transmission of grace.

Grace is important, central, and permeates most of the text throughout Schillebeeckx’s discourse. This is demonstrated by the fact that the word grace, appears more than 500 times throughout his book. Schillebeeckx understands grace as an unfailing gift based on the foundation of Christ’s love for the Father. He describes how grace works in the sacraments using words such as infallible, ecclesial visibility, and the encounter with God. He states, “aˆ¦ only in grace does God’s presence in man blossom forth into an intimate and living communion.”

Grace comes from one mediator, who is Christ! Christ Himself is the Church and therefore Jesus is the visible realization of divine grace. Christ is grace. Because of this, divine grace is tied to the human saving acts of Jesus. Still, “aˆ¦ the Church is the visible expression of Christ’s grace and redemption realized in the form of a society, which is a sign (societas signum).” Schillebeeckx calls sacramental grace, “aˆ¦ a ‘curative’ grace-one which restores us to health-and as such has the additional effect of actually compensating for any lack or impotence on our part, so long as our disposition remains sincerely religious.” Grace is like a seed. When we submit to the grace of God, this seed can take root. In so doing, Christ Himself corrects what is at fault with us, therefore allowing us to transcend our own weakness.

Service (Diakonia)

The notion of service for Schillebeeckx is rooted in Christ’s service as the Son of God. This is true, not only from the standpoint of Jesus’ life, but also by His sanctifying sacrifice for the salvation of humanity. Human service is restricted to acts in praise of God, through “aˆ¦ ritual worship of the community.” This is supported by Avery Cardinal Dulles, who, referring to observations by Richard McBrien, agrees “aˆ¦ that in some of the early presentations, such as Schillebeeckx’s Christ the Sacrament of Encounter with God, there is a narrow sacramentalism that accords insufficient place for diakonia (service) in the Church’s mission to the world.”

Service is mentioned 32 times by Schillebeeckx in his book, but not in relation to human diakonia. For Schillebeeckx, service is what the Church does as manifest in the servant model or change-agent model of the Church, seen “aˆ¦ primarily as an instrument of social change whose task is the wise and courageous allocation of its own moral and material resources for the sake of the Kingdom of God among humankind”

Chauvet embraces St. John’s theological model of the ethics of service to others. He specifically mentions how the,

aˆ¦ fourth Gospel intentionally substitutes the washing of the feet for the institution of the Eucharist; it replaces the command concerning the ritual memorial of the Lord Jesus (‘do this in memory of me’) with a command concerning his memory translated into acts: ‘I have set you an example that you also should also do this as [kathA?s] I have done to you (John 13:15).’

The notion of diaconal service as a response to the primary gift, which is God’s love, is important to Chauvet. He states, “In the measure in which the ethical life of service to others is lived as a response to this primary gift [God’s love], and therefore takes its source in the sacraments, in that same measure it finds its Christian identity. [aˆ¦] This is why it would be absurd to think or say that one could be a Christian without the ethical concern for othersaˆ¦”

Mystery

Chauvet believes, “aˆ¦ the Bible is replete with mysteries or sacraments in conformity with the use of ‘mystery’ in the Jewish writings of the apocalyptic current replete with revelatory signs of God’s secret design for the world.” On the other hand, he does not claim that he can explain the mystery of God’s communication with humankind. He believes that in theology, “aˆ¦ no question should be silenced by the excuse of ‘mystery.’” He turns to the paradigm of scriptures, then to theological discourse and finally the sacraments. Chauvet states, “Under the paradigm ‘Scriptures’ we can classify everything that pertains to the knowledge of God’s mystery revealed in Jesus Christ.” Chauvet does admit that mystery is valid in both the incarnate Word, who is Jesus, and through the hypostatic union. Mystery for Chauvet is primarily Christological, both in the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery. He purports that it is also Trinitarian. In addition he believes that mystery is neither to be used as an excuse to forgo theological discourse and investigation nor evoked as excuse to discontinue the quest for understanding the scriptures.

Schillebeeckx certainly accepts the Christological centered mysteries as well as the Trinitarian mystery. He also views the seven sacraments as a celebration-in-mystery of the life of Christ. Jesus is both human and divine. His human acts of redemption have temporal significance. Avoiding any docetic tendencies, Schillebeeckx asserts, “His human existence itself is wholly and entirely a presence of God among us.” He clearly ties the mystery of the life of Christ to the mystery of the Church in the sacraments. As he states, “Just as Christ through his risen body acts invisibly in the world, he acts visibly in and through his earthly body, the Church, in such a way that the sacraments are the personal saving acts of Christ realized as institutional acts in the Church.”

Schillebeeckx and Pope Pius XII coincide, as he points out in his reflection on the encyclical Mystici Corporis. Schillebeeckx also touts the merits of Dom Casel’s work in this regard. For Casel, Christ is personally present in the sacraments. In the Eucharist, Christ Himself is present through transubstantiation. In the other sacraments however, His presence is by virtue of His act of redemption. For Schillebeeckx, the presence in mystery of the sacraments rests on the personal acts of Christ.

Trinity

Schillebeeckx refers to the Trinity a number of times throughout his book. The Trinity dominates many areas of his sacramentology and is reflected in many of his theological preponderances. As an example, there are statements such as, “aˆ¦ that absolute generosity which the Trinity simply is remains the universally dominant background of the mystery of saving worship in Christ.” It is the ex opre operato where the “aˆ¦ sacramental reality of the mystery of the redeeming Trinity in Christ” is manifest in Passover and Pentecost.

He believes it is impossible to understand and grasp the “essence of redemption” without understanding that redemption is the “historical revelation of the mystery of the Trinity.” For Schillebeeckx, both baptism and confirmation are necessary in order for initiation to be “aˆ¦ fully achieved by incorporation into Christ both as Son of the Father and as co-principle of the Spirit.”

Chauvet, on the other hand, confines his discourse on the Trinity primarily within one section of his book. He continually separates the sacramental mystery from the Trinitarian mystery. He links Christ and God the Father, through the Paschal Mystery and the Parousia of the Ascension. Chauvet also creates a clear diagram for the Paschal Mystery of Christ, but he focuses on the sacramental grace within the power of the risen Christ through the Spirit.

In Chauvet’s words, “aˆ¦ we must think of God as somehow human in God’s divinity, [which] leads us back to the cross of Jesus (relation Father/Son) and to the Spirit (without which the relation Father/Son is theologically unthinkable)”. Chauvet understands the relationship of Father and Son within the context of anthropology, while the Holy Spirit is drawn from a cosmological context as pneuma. In this context, the Spirit transcends all boundaries (“blows where it chooses”). Chauvet maintains a polarized view of the sacraments: One is a “Christological pole [aˆ¦] and the other is a pneumatological pole”. For Chauvet, it is in the Christological pole that one beholds the “pole of humanity”. It is in the pneumatological pole where one discovers the “aˆ¦interaction of the pole of God.”

Use of Emmaus

Both Chauvet and Schillebeeckx refer to the road to Emmaus in their texts. For Chauvet, the Emmaus encounter, which we find in the Gospel of Luke, provides three levels of framework: the geological, the theological, and the symbolic. It is within the context of the symbolic that the two disciples encounter their conversion. It is a “round trip” that leads them through their experience of gaining faith and a new vision, which opens their eyes to the risen Christ. It was imperative for them to abandon their own “tomb of death” and understand the primacy of Jesus as the Messiah and not simply a prophet. Chauvet understands that the eyes of these disciples were not opened at the Eucharistic table during the Last Supper. For these two disciples, it was when they, were able to “assent to the mediation of the Church” on the road to Emmaus that their eyes were opened.

Chauvet also creates a diagram demonstrating that it is inside the circle of the mediation of the Church that salvation can take place. This diagrammatic representation in his book depicts the Church encircling faith, as gained from scriptures and ethics in the human function. In his diagram, Jesus Christ is positioned above the Church to empower faith by grace through the sacraments. The circle of the Church is not closed; it is a dotted line, since the world is wider than the Church.

Schillebeeckx refers to Emmaus as, “aˆ¦ our hidden road [aˆ¦] on which we are accompanied by our Lord.” He aligns his thinking with St. Ambrose who understood the sacraments as the place where Christ encounters us face to face. As Schillebeeckx reflects, “It is the mystery of Christ’s sanctification in and through His Church, and is expressed in God’s agape, His condescending and generous love in Jesus Christ, in the love of His Church as the bride of Christ, and in man who as a believer emerges from himself and transcends his own limitations.”

Schillebeeckx is clear,

With regard to substance, a sacramentally structured evangelization or catechesis presents a Jesus Christ who is not simply an ‘example’ but the genuine ‘sacrament’ of God. To present a Christ who would be first of all an example to imitate is to veer toward a path of moralism, a discouraging, even a fraudulent path since the example to imitate is inimitable. Christ must be announced primarily as the sacrament of God (and as a consequence he is to be “imitated” in a way completely different from that promoted above). As a sacrament, that is to say, as the gratuitous gift of God and, more precisely, as Savior. He is our ferryman to God’s shore. We do not have to desperately run after him to join him: he himself comes toward us, as at Emmaus, and takes us in his boat to carry us to the other shore. It is, before all else, this truth that the sacraments are witnessing to us; a pure gift from God deposited in our hands (the body of Christ-Amen).

Summary

Chauvet believes that the sacraments are ritual symbols. This begins with the understanding that man is a linguistic creature. Humanity does not exist except in communication and this communication is permeated by sign and symbol. Human beings are not organisms from the start, but individual persons, and therefore ontogenetically the human being is compelled to be a being in relationship. This personal relationship unfolds from language and therefore Chauvet posits that sacraments are the language and the communication of God with humanity. Chauvet reaches the operational level of the sacraments by first understanding the role of language as mediation and womb and this then brings him to the symbolic order. It is only within the Church that humanity can encounter scriptures, sacraments, and ethics. This is done through participating in sacramental and liturgical rituals. The Word of God is truly at the mercy of the Body of Christ, who is the Church.

It is logical and natural that Chauvet would conclude his book on the sacraments with a discourse for pastoral ministers. His challenge is to accept the pastoral task for preparation of those seeking baptisms and weddings, accept the task of confronting those received into the Church with the Gospel and the profession of faith, and avoid falling into rigorism by remaining pastorally prudent.

Schillebeeckx honestly admits that all of his efforts to define the sacraments provide only a pale outline. It is in the sacrifice of the Mass and in the sacraments where we meet our Lord in His concealed presence creating a, “aˆ¦ longing that we must turn at once into Christian action.”

Reflecting on Schillebeeckx’s theology of the sacraments, Richard McBrien, author of Catholicism provides a clear summary when he states,

Apart from the sacramental principle, there is no basis for contact (encounter) between God and the human community. God is totally spiritual, and we are bodily creatures. Thus, it is only insofar as God adapts to our material condition that God can reach us and we can reach God. The embodiment of the spiritual in the material and the communication of the spiritual through the material is the sacramental principle. [aˆ¦] The essence of the Church, therefore, ‘consists in this, that the final goal of grace achieved by Christ becomes visibly present in the whole Church as a visible society’. The Church is not only a means of salvation; it is the principal sign, or sacrament, of salvation. It is not only an institution but a community. Indeed, it is an institutionalized community. The important missionary implication is not whether the whole world enters the Church but whether the Church itself gives credible witness to the presence of Christ and of God within the community.

For Schillebeeckx the sacraments of the Church are how the Church provides the reality of Christ to humanity. God unites Himself to humanity in Christ, who is humankind’s undeserved gift and greatest sacrament. Through this unity we are given the gift of identity as well as the gift of communication by which God can address us. The Church then, as the body of Christ, is and remains as sacrament for humanity. In our corporeal existence, we are therefore given access to the institutional sacraments, which are both significant, visible and accessible events as well as a means to our salvation.

Endnotes

So lets define the difference between apology, forgiveness and reconciliation. The following definition is from the Webster Dictionary. Apology is a formal justification, defense, excuse; an admission of error accompanied by an expression of regret. It implies an attempt to avoid or remove blame or censure. Steve Cornell posted on the web a really great insight into the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. Here he summarizes a key distinction:

“It’s possible to forgive someone without offering immediate reconciliation. It’s possible for forgiveness to occur in the context of one’s relationship with God apart from contact with his/her offender. But reconciliation is focused on restoring broken relationships. And where trust is deeply broken, restoration is a process-sometimes, a lengthy one”.

So why the importance of distinguishing the difference? Steve continues to explain why recognizing the difference is important:

“The process of reconciliation depends on the attitude of the offender, the depth of the betrayal, and the pattern of offense. When an offended party works toward reconciliation, the first and most important step is the confirmation of genuine repentance on the part of the offender (Luke 17:3).” So another word that can be used for reconciliation is ‘Transformation’. So when we sin we separate ourselves from God’s love or put a barrier between God and ourselves. We have deliberately, by our own free will, performed an act of disobedience against God. We can apologize to God, but it does not hold the person accountable to change or transformation of oneself. But if we ask for forgiveness resulting in reconciliation, we then are asked by God for a commitment to change in which a transformation takes place of ones lifestyle.

The sacrament of reconciliation can also be used as a sacrament of healing. A healing of not only our spiritual self but also our emotional and psychological being. Sin leaves ugly scars on a person. These scars can be emotional and psychological which can have physical effects. A person can go to a physician and be healed from the physical aspect but if the scars go deeper into the spiritual being of a person then one is not completely healed. A good example are women who have had an abortion. No term can adequately express the heartbreak that abortion causes, but for the purposes of identification we will call it Post-Abortion Trauma. Common feelings associated with Post-Abortion Trauma include guilt, grief, anger and regret. These feelings frequently manifest themselves through anti-social, self-destructive, and other abnormal behaviors. Many who suffer from Post-Abortion Trauma experience flashbacks, nightmares, and varying degrees of depression. The woman who holds a Christian worldview is very likely to begin, at some point after her abortion, to feel like a “second-class citizen” in God’s economy, even though she may know this to be incompatible with Scripture. She usually will either turn away from the church completely or try to “prove herself” by being good long enough until God will finally forgive her. Many post-abortive women, as we have already described, are secretly convinced that their transgressions are literally in a class by themselves, beyond the reach of God’s forgiveness. The more important task, then is to accept on an emotional level what they may already know on an intellectual level: that God’s forgiveness is already available, and that they must decide to reach out and grasp it firmly. There are three important aspects to this “firm grasp” on forgiveness: (1) knowing Who ultimately has paid the debt, (2) allowing intimacy with God to be restored and (3) understanding the difference between punishment and consequences.

The Bible clearly teaches that God has made provision for the forgiveness of wrongdoing. But the post-abortive woman often has a very difficult time believing that forgiveness is available for her selfish and catastrophic choice. Thus, in apparent contradiction to (or ignorance of) her own theology, she cannot accept God’s forgiveness. Instead, she continues to live in a compartmentalized state in which her head knowledge and her heart knowledge do not match. Like the person described in the Matthew 18 parable, she has been told of her Lord’s forgiveness; but her guilty emotions still demand that she pay her debt herself.

Restoring intimacy is the second aspect of forgiveness, and it is perhaps best understood in the parent-child relationship. When a child chooses to do something wrong, a healthy, loving parent needs only to know that the child is genuinely sorry for her actions for reconciliation and intimacy to be restored. In the same way, God only needs for us to verbalize our responsibility and sorrow for our action in order to restore intimacy with Him.

Finally, the third aspect of forgiveness has to do with understanding the difference between punishment and consequences, which are all too easily confused. For the post-abortive woman. a consequence might be infertility. It is tempting for her to interpret this as a sign of God’s continued judgment and rejection. Instead, she needs to understand God’s care for her, and His limitless capacity to redeem the fallout from unwise choices in a fallen world. God, as a loving parent, is as grieved as we are about the losses brought on by our choices. But living with the consequences of our choices is a key part of the uncoerced relationship God desires to have with us.

The sacrament of confession unveils us and humbles us before God. Confession removes barriers of sin so that the love from the Father can be completely received by us and then we in turn are strengthened to return that beautiful unconditional love back to the Father and share it with others around us, particularly our spouse. Christ conquered the death of sin at the cross- He became sin itself, died and defeated it through the resurrection. Ironically, it is through Christ, that our sin brings us to new life. The more we reveal of ourselves, the more we are forgiven- where there is much forgiveness there is much love and gratitude. Our anger dies, our bitterness dies, our resentment dies, our critical spirit dies, and our desire for revenge dies. We are now set free so that we ourselves may forgive and live a joyful, fulfilling marriage in and through the grace of Christ. It may be that at one time or another we have found the sacrament of Reconciliation a burden. Perhaps we even can remember an occasion when we said, “I wish I didn’t have to go to confession.”

But certainly in our saner moments we find Reconciliation a sacrament that we love, a sacrament we would not want to be without.

Just think of all that the sacrament of Reconciliation does for us!

First of all, if a person has cut himself off from God by a grave and deliberate act of disobedience against God (that is, by mortal sin), the sacrament of Reconciliation reunites the soul to God; sanctifying grace is restored to the soul.

At the same time, the sin itself (or sins) is forgiven. Just as darkness disappears from a room when the light is turned on, so too must sin disappear from the soul with the coming of sanctifying grace.

When received without any mortal sin on the soul, the sacrament of Reconciliation imparts to the soul an increase in sanctifying grace. This means that there is a deepening and strengthening of that divine-life-shared by which the soul is united to God.

And always, any venial sins which the penitent may have committed and for which he is truly sorry are forgiven. These are the lesser and more common sins which do not cut us off from God but still hinder, like clouds across the sun, the full flow of his grace to the soul.

It is a spiritual medicine which strengthens as well as heals. That is why a person intent upon leading a good life will make it a practice to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation often. Frequent confession is one of the best guarantees against falling into grave sin. It would be the height of stupidity to say, “I don’t need to go to confession because I haven’t committed any mortal sins.”

All these results of the sacrament of Reconciliation-restoration or increase of sanctifying grace, forgiveness of sins, remission of punishment, restoration of merit, grace to conquer temptation-all these are possibleonly because of the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, which the sacrament of Reconciliation applies to our souls.

Jesus on the cross already has “done our work for us”. In the sacrament of Reconciliation we simply give God a chance to share with us the infinite merits of his Son.

“Your sins are forgiven.”

(Luke 5:20)

t was many years and many struggles later that I realized that it is in the solitude of the confessional when I most live by the way (or power) of the cross. It is in the confessional that I become soulfully naked and surrender my sinful life to God. He then gifts me with new life (His Grace). It is through God’s grace that the possibilities for life become endless and exciting. Philippians 4:13 reads “I can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power.” Realize the sacraments are living. God is actually present in the sacrament of reconciliation through His grace (the power of the Holy Spirit). God loves humility so when I completely reveal my weaknesses and failings to God in the sacrament of reconciliation, God gifts me with His grace and through His grace HE inwardly strengthens me against future sin and temptation. The Holy Spirit fills me with love, joy, peace, true happiness and a feeling of being content no matter what my life circumstances may be. Ultimately, in the confessional, I am slowly being set free from the bondage of sin because in my deepening love for God I loose desire to sin.

There are number of controversies surrounding womans role in the church with woman in ministry being one of them. Should a woman preach. Is it appropriate for a woman to be a leader in the church? What does the Bible say about this issue? Although, a woman being a priest is an acceptable view in various churches it is still not widely accepted. This is one of the most debatable issues surrounding the life of the church with no ultimate conclusions made. Some people believe that the main role of a woman is to be a caring mother and loving wife. While others think that a woman is able to preach and can be an amazing priest or leader. However, this is definitely not the matter of men vs. women, or in other words, the discrimination of a gender. It is issue of woman’s role in the church, which basically arises from mistakenly interpreting Bible. In this paper I will explore the three diverging views on women in ministry in the church – (1) women can be a part of the church, serving as the preachers. (2) Women should fulfill their primary goal – to take care of the family, (3) Both men and women can be great leaders. One way to look at women in ministry in the church is to be supportive. In traditional Judaism a woman’s primary role is to be a mother, a wife, a housekeeper. Is this statement limits a woman’s eagerness to serve? The answer is no. Since traditional Judaism also claims that women have a big influence on all families’ spiritual life. Looking back to the ancient times, “Greek men considered women by nature intellectually inferior to men”. (Bell, 1994, p.197) They are the ones that teach their children about the truth of God. They are the ones who raise priests, rabbis, and the highest rulers of the church. The fact that women were not allowed to go to the synagogue does not necessarily mean that they have no rights into the ministry in the church and have no voice regarding the issues of the church. Religion does not simply appear only in the synagogue. The basics of the religion emerge at home, where women are spreading the Good News. “ There have been instances in which women have begun ministries, missionary endeavors, or Christian organizations only to be later displaced by men in leadership positions.” (Tucker & Liedeld, 1987, p. 435). This argument proves that women are able to set a good example, to be good leaders and serve others. “By showing hospitality, sharing the gospel, and giving generously to the needy, the women of the early Church contributed greatly both to the spread of Christianity and to the support of the Christian community of which they were a part.” (Lynn, White). Most of the times it is not a women’s decision to serve in the church, but the calling of Holy Spirit, that cannot be contempt.

On the other hand, there are many disagreements about woman being a priest. One of the main disagreements is that firstly she has to accomplish her main goal – childbearing and housekeeping. Men and women were created for different purposes, to fulfill his/her duties. Woman was sent to this earth in order to take care of the family. Having an important role in ministry in the church would not allow her to devote herself fully for the family. What is the purpose of serving in the church, if one’s children are not fed and crying at home? It is believed, that woman is not able to serve and take care of the family at once. If she is fully devoted to God, then there is no time left for teaching her own children. Another point, which is proved by Bible is that women should not have an authority over men, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man” (1 Tim. 2:12) or another verse emphasize that women should not teach or preach in the churches, “<...> women should remain silent in the churches” (1 Cor. 14:34). As it is mentioned in the book “Daughters of the Church”, “Then the argument runs: woman is not inferior, but God himself has ordained a submissive role for Church her that excludes certain church activities.” It is widely discussed that women are not allowed to have an important role in the ministry in the church simply because Jesus was a man. Also, his twelve apostles were all man. Catholic Church declares that “While He was on earth, Jesus chose men to be His apostles and He passed on authority to these men to carry out His work of preaching the good news and forgiving sins.” (The Priesthood, 2010) It is believed that there is a reason for that. Looking from this perspective, woman’s calling is to take care of the family, be modest and let the men to take a role in the ministry at the church. “When women care about the Church and sense the Holy Spirit calling them to share the Good News and nurture believers, the stained-glass ceiling used by Church to limit women’s authority quickly becomes oppressive. ” (Finger, Sandhaas, 2011, p. 67) In order to appreciate what God has said, one have to consider, that the boundaries for women to be an authority over men, does not necessarily mean that they cannot be teachers or spiritual leaders. “The Bible also does not restrict women from teaching children. The only activity women are restricted from is teaching or having spiritual authority over men. This logically would preclude women from serving as pastors to men. This does not make women less important, by any means, but rather gives them a ministry focus more in agreement with God’s plan and His gifting of them.” (Lynn, White) Therefore, women primarily should concentrate on their family and do not try to get involve into the life of the church and to obtain an authority over a man. Last, but definitely not the least, is the perspective that both women and men can encompass significant roles in the ministry at the church. I strongly support this view, since it can be proved by Paul’s saying that, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28) According to Bible, both men and women are created by the image of God. If people would interpret this statement correctly, without any routing around, it would be clear that actually women are equal to men. As long as woman and man are in Christ – they are one and the same. One’s calling or mission is not superior to the other. Theologians Tucker and Liefeld claim that “Christians-both male and female-should, like the Son of Man, come to serve, not to be served. Questions about authority in the church, and particularly about the ministry of women, might be resolved more biblically if attention were given to the fact that “ministry” means “serving”. (Tucker, Liedeld, 1987, p. 441). This statement concludes that women can also preach and serve if their calling would be interpreted as “serving”. As it was mentioned before in this paper, women are able to teach and to preach as good as men do. Therefore, if there appears a situation when women’s help is needed, she always can endure her ministry in the church. The most important thing is that women would not neglect her family. For proper interpretation of this issue Bible has to be understood in a full context. Most of the debates come from New Testament passages, however, Old Testament has many great proves of women in ministry. First of all, it is written in Genesis, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Gen 1:27) This issue goes along with the Imago Dei doctrine, since everybody is equal in the eyes of the Lord. God has no intentions to set a barrier between the genders. Also, there are many examples of women in ministry in early church. One of them is Deborah, who was considered as a prophetess. She was a judge of Israel, who demonstrated great leadership to the entire nation. Also, four daughters of Philip are excellent examples of how the Holy Spirit works trough women and allows them to contribute to making God’s promise come true. There are much more great examples how women did their contribution to the spread of Christianity and helped to fulfill God’s will. To my way of thinking, to restrict women’s role in all of the life of the church is an obvious denial of gospel. The only issue that could appear is that women can be too spiritually devoted. If this problem appears, she should focus on her primary duties. To be a mother and at the same time a spiritual leader is a big challenge. Therefore, this is the main issue why women could not be fully engaged in the life of the church. However, I do not find it inappropriate if a woman devotes herself only to God and serves people, if she has a calling from Holy Spirit. A great example is a Mother Teresa, who devoted her life for serving other. Till these days she is the most honored woman in the life of church. She had a great impact on millions of people and fulfilled her mission on earth in the best possible way. A famous orthodox priest once said, “Today women make enormous and significant contributions to human societies. Their nurturing rule role within the family as grandmothers, wives, mothers and daughters provide a stabilizing influence upon the structure of the family. Indeed as Christians, women provide the church irreplaceable assistance.” (Seraphim) From all of these examples, I can state that women can indeed have a great impact on other people, therefore the distinctive line should be eliminated regarding women versus men preaching and serving in the church. Based on the discussion provided in this paper, should women have a role in the ministry in the church? There are many diverse opinions regarding this issue, however, I would state that both, men and women could be a good leaders and both could have an important role in the ministry in the church as long they have a calling and it does not contradict their primary duties. I would claim that the issue of the role of women in ministry in the church is ambiguous. To my way of thinking, the main problem is false interpretation of the Scripture. People often take few Bible verses and interpret them in their own way, without a full context, meaning and deeper understanding of the traditional Judaism culture. It is ussualy based on narrow thinking; which is mixed with pagan understanding and is useful for some particular layers of society. In the traditional Judaism women were highly valued and had an important role to educate their children. Only because of an excessive responsibility that they had in family and their devotion to the beloved ones, they could not be fully engaged in ministry in the church. After all, every woman, no matter who is she, a mother or a wife, if she is dedicated to serving God, if she feels that she is called by Holy spirit to take care of others, she has to appreciate this gift from God and not be afraid to fullfill the God’s will. Women, who are actively involved in church’s life, are surrounded by many different assessments. Nowadays women are working in various theology departments or conferences. Even in LCC International University we have women proffessors, who are dedicated to their work and are willing to share their experience, knowledge and complete their missionary work. The main problem is that our thinking is biased and it is framed that only men can dominate and be great leaders. In my opinion, as long as you have a gift from God to lead, to teach, then there is no longer an issue if the leader is a man or a woman. If it fulfills God’s wish to spread the Good News, everyone could be a teacher. Overall, both men and women should be engaged in the life of church, and both can bring their contribution to all levels of ministry.

In todays day and age, there is a general perception that womens rights reached its momentum with the start of the Womens Liberation Movement of the 20th century, specifically between the 1970s-1980s. However, from the Islamic point of view, women’s liberation was not started by some radical political groups of the West, but was revealed by Allah to Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) in as long ago as the 7th century. The Qur’an and the Traditions of the Prophet (Hadith and Sunna) guarantee every Muslim woman certain rights and duties.

II. Women in Ancient Civilizations

In order to get achieve a better insight of the status of women today, it is worthwhile to preview how women were treated in previous civilizations and religions that precede Islam (Pre-610 C.E).

India: During the era of the Aryan civilization (2500 B.C), women were accorded almost the same status as men. Women were educated, had a say in their marriage decisions and own their own properties. Even prostitutes were admired for their expertise in the art of music and dance and widows were allowed to remarry. This trend took a nose-diving turn with the start of the Medieval era (1500 B.C) and unfortunately resulted in practices like Satti( dying with the husband at the funeral pyre), Jauhar (wives immolating themselves when they realized that their husbands were going to die in enemy hands) and child marriages.

Rome: was a typically male dominated society; so much so that in the Roman Republic a man could legally kill his wife or daughter if they questioned his authority. Women were also kept out of positions of power. They were not allowed to be senators, governors, lawyers, judges or any of the other official positions involved in running the Roman Empire. Women were also not allowed to vote in elections.

Athens: In the 5th century women in ancient Athenian societies were given no legal rights and were allowed to leave the house only for short distances with a chaperone. It was a common belief that women were emotional creatures who were dangerous to themselves and needed to be taken care of by men. Although women might own some personal items and have charge of a slave or two, they could not own property or enter into contracts.

III. Rights of a Muslim woman

In the Qur’an Allah frequently addresses both the man and the woman. In one passage Allah reveals:

“For Muslim men and women, for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and women who are patient, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in charity, for men and women who fast, for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage much in Allah’s praise – For them all has Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward.” (33:35)

i) Social Status:

As a daughter

-In Pre-Islamic Arabian tribes, the practice of female infanticide was a norm. However, according to the Quran, this practice is prohibited in Islam:-

“And when the girl (who was) buried alive is asked, for what sin she was killed.” (81:8-9).

-Moreover, the Quran even rebukes the unwelcoming attitude of some parents:-

“And when one of them is informed of (the birth of) a female, his face becomes dark, and he suppresses grief. He hides himself from the people because of the ill of which he has been informed. Should he keep it in humiliation or bury it in the ground? Certainly, evil is what they decide”. (Quran 16:58-59).

-Parents of a daughter are expected to treat her with justice and equality:-

“Whosoever supports two daughters until they mature, he and I will come on the Day of Judgment as this (and he pointed with his fingers held together).”

-The education of girls is supported:-

“Seeking knowledge is mandatory for every Muslim.”

As a wife

Islam views marriage as an equal partnership. When a person gets married they neither marry a slave nor a master. It is the basic, fundamental ideological fundamental of a Muslim that servitude belongs to God alone. Hence the Quran states:-

“And among His signs is this: That He created mates for you from yourselves that you may find rest, peace of mind in them, and He ordained between you love and mercy. Lo, herein indeed are signs for people who reflect.” [Quran 30:21]

To foster the love and security that comes with marriage, Muslim wives have several rights: the first one is to receive ‘mahr’ from the husband, which is a gift as part of the marriage contract A wife has the right to kind treatment. The Prophet (P.B.U.H)) said:

“The most perfect believers are the best in conduct. And the best of you are those who are best to their wives.”

As far as divorce is concerned, God provides general guidelines for the process of divorce with emphasis throughout on both parties upholding the values of justice and kindness in formalizing the end to their marriage:-

“And when you divorce women and they have [nearly] fulfilled their term, either retain them according to acceptable terms or release them according to acceptable terms, and do not keep them, intending harm, to transgress [against them].” (Surah 2. 231)

God encourages the husband and wife to appoint arbitrators as the first step to aid in reconciliation in the process of divorce. If the reconciliation step fails, both men and women are guaranteed their right to divorce as established in the Qur’an, but the question lies in what is the procedure for each. When a divorce is initiated by the man, it is known as talaq. The pronouncement by the husband may be verbal or written, but once done, a waiting period of three months (‘iddat) must take place in which there are no sexual relations even though the two are living under the same roof. The waiting period helps prevent hasty decisions made in anger and enables both parties to reconsider as well as determine if the wife is pregnant. If the wife is pregnant, the waiting period is lengthened until she delivers. At any point during this time, the husband and wife are free to resume their relationship, thereby stopping the divorce process. At this time, the husband remains financially responsible for the support of his wife.

The divorce initiated by the wife is known as khu” (if the husband is not at fault) and entails the wife giving her dowry to end the marriage because she is the “contract” breaker. In the instance of talaq where the husband is the “contract” breaker, he must pay the dowry in full in cases where all or part of it was deferred.

As a mother

Mothers have greater right and deserve more kindness, help service, good treatment and companionship than the fathers because the mother is the first one to care for the children and she suffers more directly with daily hardships in their upbringing. This tradition indicates that a mother has three times the rights of that of a father due to the sufferings she experiences during the various stages of her child’s life; in pregnancy, delivery, nursing, and raising the child.

“And We have enjoined on man to be dutiful and good to his parents. His mother bore him in weakness and hardship upon weakness and hardship. The duration of carrying him (in the womb) and weaning is two years. So thank Me and to your parents; unto Me is the final destination.” [31:14]

ii) Economic Aspect

a) Woman’s Right to Property (Inheritance):

“

“From what is left by parents and those nearest related there is a share for men and a share for women, whether the property be small or large, a determinate share.” (Surah 4, Ayah 7)

b) Financial Security and Inheritance Laws: Financial security is assured for women. They are entitled to receive marital gifts without limit and to keep present and future properties and income for their own security, even after marriage. No married woman is required to spend any amount at all from her property and income on the household. The woman is entitled also to full financial support during marriage and during the “waiting period” (iddah) in case of divorce or widowhood. Some jurists require, in addition, one year’s support for divorce and widowhood (or until they remarry, if remarriage takes place before the year is over). A woman who bears a child in marriage is entitled to child support from the child’s father.

c) Employment: Whilst women carry the heavy burden of bearing and rearing children, they may still be at par with men, that is, they have the right to seek employment as long as this does not interfere with her primary role as a wife and a mother. In Islam, however, the value and importance of women in society and the true measure of their success as human beings, is measured with completely different criteria: their fear of Allah and obedience to Him, and fulfillment of the duties He has entrusted them with, particularly that of bearing, rearing and teaching children.

iii) Political Rights

Any fair investigation of the teachings of Islam into the history of the Islamic civilization will surely find a clear evidence of woman’s equality with man in what we call today “political rights”.

This includes the right of election as well as the nomination to political offices. It also includes woman’s right to participate in public affairs. Both in the Qur’an and in Islamic history we find examples of women who participated in serious discussions and argued even with the Prophet (P) himself

During the Caliphate of Omar Ibn al-Khattab, a woman argued with him in the mosque, proved her point, and caused him to declare in the presence of people: “A woman is right and Omar is wrong.”

Although not mentioned in the Qur’an, one Hadeeth of the Prophet is interpreted to make woman ineligible for the position of head of state. The Hadeeth referred to is roughly translated: “A people will not prosper if they let a woman be their leader.” This limitation, however, has nothing to do with the dignity of woman or with her rights. It is rather, related to the natural differences in the biological and psychological make-up of men and women.

According to Islam, the head of the state is no mere figurehead. He leads people in the prayers, especially on Fridays and festivities; he is continuously engaged in the process of decision-making pertaining to the security and well-being of his people. This demanding position, or any similar one, such as the Commander of the Army, is generally inconsistent with the physiological and psychological make-up of woman in general. It is a medical fact that during their monthly periods and during their pregnancies, women undergo various physiological and psychological changes. Such changes may occur during an emergency situation, thus affecting her decision, without considering the excessive strain which is produced. Moreover, some decisions require a maximum of rationality and a minimum of emotionality – a requirement which does not coincide with the instinctive nature of women.

Even in modern times, and in the most developed countries, it is rare to find a woman in the position of a head of state acting as more than a figurehead, a woman commander of the armed services, or even a proportionate number of women representatives in parliaments, or similar bodies. One can not possibly ascribe this to backwardness of various nations or to any constitutional limitation on woman’s right to be in such a position as a head of state or as a member of the parliament. It is more logical to explain the present situation in terms of the natural and indisputable differences between man and woman, a difference which does not imply any “supremacy” of one over the other. The difference implies rather the “complementary” roles of both the sexes in life.

IV.Conclusion

In this report, the status of women in Islam has been described as purely given in the Quran and revealed by the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H). However, the role of women has not only been shaped by Islamic text but also by the history and culture of the Muslim world. Moreover, the issue of women in Islam has been viewed as highly controversial through the centuries. While it is believed that these revelations on women’s liberation in the Quran made major improvements in the oppressed status of women in pre-Arab societies, the deterioration of this status took place soon after the death of the Prophet (P.B.U.H).

With the growth of the Women’s Liberation Movement in the West, many feminist writers came to view the practice of wearing the ‘veil’ as a symbol of women’s oppression and subservience to men. The hijaab in Islam is given as a way for women to conceal their attractiveness and appear dignified so that attention is drawn more to their character than physical beauty. Islam enjoins modest dress for both men and women, and in a Muslim society, the men as well as the women typically dress conservatively. The Qur’an tells them to dress modestly and cover their hair in all public situations, others insist that their whole body including hands and face are to be covered, yet others understand the guidance to mean a more general attitude of modesty both in dress and attitude. Many Muslim women freely choose to dress modestly in order to avoid the public scrutiny, judgments, and social dynamics associated with physical appearance. By dressing in ways that do not draw attention.

Additionally, polygamy is seen as a sign of inequality amongst men and women. This concept is clarified stating that polygamy was introduced as a means to protect women and children who may otherwise be taken advantage of. Moreover, there are strict conditions placed on men to provide equal time and money to all their wives. The rights of divorce are also open to the wife if she is unfairly treated. The Prophet Muhammad was married to his first wife, Khadijah, for 25 years, and he did not take other wives until after her death. His marriages to several widows and divorcees in later years were primarily contracted for political and humanitarian reasons, as was expected of a man in his position. His home life was characterised by love, consideration, kindness and respect.

Despite all these teachings in Islam it is no secret that some brutal traditions are still prevalent in many Muslim societies. In many parts of Pakistan, female infanticide is still on the rise. According to the Edhi Foundation, some 1000 babies were found dead in different parts of Pakistan in the year 2011. Even though the Hijaab is meant to be a symbol of modesty and social identity there are innumerable societies where the purdah is more of a cultural restriction than a matter of choice. Domestic violence against women is almost a norm in many societies where women don’t come forward to claim their rights.

Literally, Sunnah means a clear path or a beaten track but it has also been used to imply normative practice, or an established course of conduct. It may be a good example or a bad, and it may be set by an individual, a sect or a community.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, the Arabs used the word ‘Sunnah’ in reference to the ancient and continuous practice of the community which they inherited from their forefathers.

The Sunnah, according to the scholars of hadeeths, is everything that has been related from the Messenger (SAW), of his statements, actions, tacit approvals, personality, physical description, or biography. It does not matter whether the information being related refers to something before the beginning of his prophetic mission, or after it. The statements of the Prophet include everything the Prophet said for various reasons on different occasions. The actions of the Prophet include everything that the Prophet did that was related to us by his Companions. This includes how he made ablutions, how he performed his prayers, and how he made the Hajj pilgrimage.

The tacit approvals of the Prophet includes everything that his Companions said or did that he either showed his favor towards or at least did not object to. Anything that had the tacit approval of the Prophet is as valid as anything that he said or did himself.

An adequate answer to the question as to whether the Sunnah is a mere supplement to the Qur’an or a source in its own right necessitates an elaboration of the relationship of the Sunnah to the Qur’an is tried in the following paragraphs:

The Holy Quran is the foundation of Islamic Law. It is the miraculous speech of Allah that was revealed to the Messenger, may the mercy and blessings of Allah be upon him, by way of the angel Gabriel. It has been transmitted to us with so many chains of authority that its historical authenticity is unquestionable. It is written down in its own volume, and its recitation is a form of worship.

As for the Sunnah, it is everything besides the Holy Quran that came from Allah’s Messenger. It explains and provides details for the laws found in the Holy Quran. It also provides examples of the practical application of these laws. It is also either direct revelation from Allah, or decisions of the Messenger that were then confirmed by revelation. Therefore, the source of all the Sunnah is revelation.

The Holy Quran takes precedence over the Sunnah in two ways. For one thing, the Holy Quran consists of the exact words of Allah, miraculous in nature, down to the last verse. The Sunnah, however, is not necessarily the exact words of Allah, but rather their meanings as explained by the Holy Prophet (SAW).

The Position of the Sunnah in Islamic Law

During the Messenger’s lifetime the Holy Quran and Sunnah were the only sources of Islamic Law.

The Holy Quran provides the general injunctions that formed the basis of the Law, without going into all the details and secondary legislation, with the exception of a few injunctions that are established along with the general principles. These injunctions are not subject to change over time or with the changing circumstances of the people. The Holy Quran, likewise, comes with the tenets of belief, sets down acts of worship, mentions the stories of the nations of old, and provides moral guidelines.

The Sunnah comes in agreement with the Holy Quran. It explains the meanings of what is unclear in the text, provides details for what is depicted in general terms, specifies what is general, and explains its injunctions and objectives. The Sunnah also comes with injunctions that are not provided by the Holy Quran, but these are always in harmony with its principles, and they always advance the objectives that are outlined in the Holy Quran.

The Sunnah is a practical expression of what is in the Holy Quran. This expression takes many forms. Sometimes, it comes as an action performed by the Messenger. At other times, it is a statement that he made in response to something. Sometimes, it takes the form of a statement or action of one of the Companions that he neither prevented nor objected to. On the contrary, he remained silent about it or expressed his approval for it.

The Sunnah explains and clarifies the Holy Quran in many ways. It explains how to perform the acts of worship and carry out the laws that are mentioned in the Holy Quran. Allah commands the believers to pray without mentioning the times that the prayers had to be performed or the manner of performing them. The Messenger clarified this through his own prayers and by teaching the Muslims how to pray. He said: “Pray as you have seen me praying.”

Allah makes the Hajj pilgrimage obligatory without explaining its rites. Allah’s Messenger explains this by saying:

“Take the rites of Hajj from me.”

Allah makes the Zakat obligatory without mentioning what types of wealth and produce it is to be levied against. Allah also does not mention the minimum amount of wealth that makes the tax obligatory. The Sunnah, though, makes all this clear.

The Sunnah specifies general statements found in the Holy Quran. Allah says:

“Allah commands you regarding your children: to the male, a portion equal to that of two femalesaˆ¦” (Holy Quran 4:11)

This wording is general, applying to every family and making every child an inheritor of his or her parents. The Sunnah makes this ruling more specific by excluding the children of Prophets. Allah’s Messenger (SAW) said:

“We Prophets leave behind no inheritance. Whatever we leave behind is charity.”

The Sunnah qualifies unqualified statements in the Holy Quran. Allah says:

“aˆ¦and you find no water, then perform tayammum (dry ablution) with clean earth and rub therewith your faces and handsaˆ¦ (Holy Quran 5:6)

The verse does not mention the extent of the hand, leaving the question of whether one should rub the hands up to the wrist or the forearm. The Sunnah makes this clear by showing that it is to the wrist, because this is what Allah’s Messenger did when he performed dry ablution.

The Sunnah also comes emphasizing what is in the Holy Quran or providing secondary legislation for a law stated therein. This includes all the hadeeths that indicate that Prayer, the Zakat, fasting, and the Hajj pilgrimage are obligatory.

An example of where the Sunnah provides subsidiary legislation for an injunction found in the Holy Quran is the ruling found in the Sunnah that it is forbidden to sell fruit before it begins to ripen. The basis for this law is the statement of the Holy Quran:

Do not consume your property amongst you unjustly, except it is a trade among you by mutual consent.

The Sunnah contains rulings that are not mentioned in the Holy Quran and that do not come as clarifications for something mentioned in the Holy Quran. An example of this is the prohibition of eating donkey flesh and the flesh of predatory beasts. Another example of this is the prohibition of marrying a woman and her aunt at the same time. These and other rulings provided by the Sunnah must be adhered to.

The Obligation of Adhering to the Sunnah

A requirement of believing in Prophet-hood is to accept as true everything that Allah’s Messenger (SAW) said. Allah chose His Messengers (SAW) from among His worshippers to convey His Law to humanity. Allah says:

“aˆ¦Allah knows best with whom to place His Messageaˆ¦” (Holy Quran 6:124)

Allah also says:

“aˆ¦Are the Messengers charged with anything but to convey the clear Message?” (Holy Quran 16:35)

The Messenger is protected from error in all of his actions. Allah has protected his tongue from uttering anything but the truth. Allah has protected his limbs from doing anything but what is right.

Allah has safeguarded him from showing approval for anything contrary to Islamic Law.

In conclusion, it may be said that both sides are essentially in agreement on the authority of Sunnah as a source of law and its principal role in relationship to the Qur’an. They both acknowledge that the Sunnah contains legislation which is not found in the Holy Quran. The difference between them seems to be one of interpretation rather than substance. The Qur’anic ayat on the duty of obedience to the Holy Prophet (SAW), and those which assign to him the role of the interpreter of the Qur’an, are open to variant interpretations. These passages have been quoted in support of both the views, that the

Sunnah is supplementary to the Qur’an, and that it is an independent source. The point which is basic to both these views is the authority of the Holy Prophet (SAW) and the duty of adherence to his Sunnah. In the meantime, both sides acknowledge the fact that the Sunnah contains legislation which is additional to the Qur’an. When this is recognized, the rest of the debate becomes largely redundant.

He (SAW) is the most beautifully complete of Allah’s Creations. This is clear from how Allah describes him in the following verses of Holy Quran:

“By the star when it sets. Your companion has neither gone astray nor has he erred. Nor does he speak of his own desire. It is only revelation that has been revealed.” (Holy Quran 53:1-4)
QUESTION:
Kamali asserts that “The essential unity of Sharia’ah’ lies in the degree of harmony that is achieved between revelation and reason. Ijtihad is the principal instrument of maintaining this harmony”. Discuss how personal reasoning (Ijtihad) has helped to develop Islamic jurisprudence?
ANSWER:
1. Introduction:

Ijtihad played an important role in the development of Islamic legal theory. The aim of this essay is to discuss the concept of Ijtihad in the development of the Islamic legal theory. Thus it will not be out of place to give a brief introduction of the concept of Ijtihad.

2. Ijtihad:

The Arabic word Ijtihad is derived from the ‘Juhud’ which means ‘expending of maximum effort in the performance of an act’. In Islamic jurisprudence Ijtihad means the effort made by the Mujtahid in seeking knowledge of the Ahkam (Rules) of the Sharia’ah through interpretation. (Nyazyee, Ch. 14: P. 263).

This definition implies the following:

That the Mujtahid should expend the maximum effort, that is, he should work to the limits of his ability so much so that he realize his inability to go any further.

That, the person expending the effort should be a Mujtahid. An effort expended by non-Mujtahid is of no consequence, because he is not qualified to do so.

The effort should be directed towards the discovery of the Rules of the Sharia’ah that pertain to the conduct.

The method of discovery of the Rules should be through interpretation of the texts with the help of other sources. This excludes the memorization of such Rules from the books of Fiqh or their identification by the Mufti. Thus, the activity of the Faqih and the Mufti cannot be called Ijtihad.

3. The Three Modes of Ijtihad:

The Jurists in general practice three types or modes of Ijtihad. In reality, the activity of the jurist cannot be split up into separate modes. Ijtihad is single seamless process, but for simplification and ease of understanding this activity is divided into three types as follows;

In the first mode, the Jurist stay as close to the text as he can. He focuses on the literal meaning of the texts, that is, he follows the plain meaning Rule.

When the first mode of literal construction is exhausted by the Jurists, he turns to syllogism, which is Qiyas. This mode is confined to strict types of analogy. These are called Qiyas Al-Ma’na and Qiyas Al.illah.

The second mode of Ijtihad is confine to the extension of the law from individual texts, while in the third mode the reliance is on all the texts considered collectively. This means legal reasoning is undertaken more in the line with the spirit of the law and its purposes rather than the confines of the individual texts.

4. Role of Ijtihad in the development of Islamic legal theory.
Early notion of Islamic legal theory and the concept of Ijtihad:

At the time of the Holy Prophet (SAW) the only source of the Sharia’ah was revelation. That revelation had two types, one was the direct speech of Allah, namely the Holy Quran, and the other was indirect speech of Allah which the Holy Prophet (SAW) expressed in his own words, that is termed as Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (SAW).

The Holy Quran by nature is implicit. It does not provide details of each and every individual case, rather it describes general principles, examples etc. the Holy Prophet (SAW) used to explain and implement those principles and general rules in individual cases, that is Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (SAW), in that sense the Sunnah is the explanation of the Holy Quran, though as it is mentioned earlier that explanation was also directed by the God.

Although as it is mentioned earlier that the only source of law at that time was revelation, but some time the Holy Prophet (SAW) practiced Ijtihad in its narrow sense in the absence of reveled rule(s) as the Holy Prophet (SAW) said, ‘when I do not receive a revelation I adjudicate among you on the basis of my opinion’ (Abu Dawud, 1984:1017). However, the difference of that Ijtihad with ordinary Ijtihad bil ray is that whenever, He (SAW) mistook, a verse would be revealed in order to inform him the correct decision. For instance, once the Holy Prophet (SAW) was asked by a woman about the rule of dhihar. The Holy Prophet (SAW) answered her “I don’t think that the rule is different from that of divorce”. Then Allah revealed verses regarding the hukum of dhihar, which was not similar to divorce and then the hukum of dhihar had been corrected.

The companion of the prophet used to do Ijtihad at that time also. When the Prophet was not available or when the Prophet sent them to somewhere, they use to do Ijtihad in the absence of explicit Qur’anic verse or Sunnah of the Prophet. They use to interpret the verses of the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet as well as in cases of completely new issues they use to do Ijtihad on the basis of the principles of Sharia’ah. The advantage of them was if they mistook they could correct themselves by asking the Prophet or Allah would revealed the correct rule(s). Therefore, Sharia’ah was very much based on the revelation at that time, i.e. either Allah would reveal the hukum of a certain mas’ala or He would approve the decision(s) of the Prophet and his companions or He would disapproved and correct their decision(s). Hence, despite the fact that the practice of Ijtihad was started from that time, but it did not get the status of a source of Islamic legal theory then.

Development of Islamic legal theory and the concept of Ijtihad:

After the death of the Holy Prophet (SAW), the gate of revelation has been closed for ever. Therefore, in order to deal with new problems, the companions of the Holy Prophet (SAW) used to depend on the Ijtihad. However, it did not substitute the Holy Quran and Sunna at all, rather whenever they faced a new phenomenon regarding which they did not know any Qur’anic verse or Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (SAW), they used to ask the other companions whether they knew any Hadith of the Holy Prophet (SAW) concerning that. They used to do Ijtihad in the absence of the revealed rule and whenever they found any Hadith regarding that case they use to abandon their Ijtihad and followed that Hadith.

Because of the quick expansion of the Muslim world in first century, a huge number of people embraced Islam. A number of the companions of the Holy Prophet (SAW) migrated to different places in order to teach the new Muslims the science of Islam. People gathered around them to learn Islam. Through their teaching they created groups of scholars. Those groups were the producers of the different schools of thought.

Two distinctive trends of thought emerged at that time, namely Ahl al-Ray and Ahl al-Hadith. The trend of Ahl al-ray can be traced back to the second caliph Hazrat Umar (RA) and a renowned companion Hazrat Abdullah ibn Mas’ud (RA), whereas the trend of Ahl al-Hadith can be traced back from two renowned companions and scholars Hazrat Zaid Bin Thabit and Hazrat Abdullah Bin ‘Umar (RA) (Abdur Rahim,2003:55). Ahl al-ray are those who depend on personal opinion (Ijtihad bil ray) in order to solve the problems and analyze the Ahkam of Sharia’ah and extract the major causes of those in order to draw out those to new phenomena’s. Ahl al-Hadiths are those who depend on only authentic evidences. There strategy is to express exactly what is in the authentic narrations. They do not involve in causation of the Ahkam of Sharia’ah and extend those to new phenomena’s. Nevertheless, the more the Muslims faced new problems the more the former trend became prominent, because of their wide practice of Ijtihad they could solve the new phenomena’s better than Ahl al-Hadith School of thought. However, Ahl al-Hadith school of thought did not completely deny or overlook the concept of Ijtihad. Ijtihad also played a big role in the development of that school of thought. However, their concept of Ijtihad was narrower than that of Ahl al-Ray as discussed in the following section of the essay. Hence, it could be said that by the end of first century, Ijtihad became an important source of Islamic jurisprudence through the practice of it by the companions of the Holy Prophet (SAW) and their followers, although there were difference of opinion among them about the definition, scope and way of practice of it.

Institutionalization of Islamic legal theory and the role of Ijtihad in it:

The last companion of the Holy Prophet (SAW) died in the end of the first hijra. Around that time the process of institutionalization and compilation of Islamic jurisprudence started. The notion of Madhhad (School of thought) emerged at that time in different places. Although there were countless Madhhabs, but, apart from four Madhhabs others are not existed now a day. We will discuss here the development of those four Madhhabs and the concept of Ijtihad in those.

Hanafi school of thought: Hanafi school of thought is based on the jurisprudence of Imam Abu Hanifa. The Usul of Imam Abu Hanifa as he describes, is as follow:

“If I find any hukum in the Holy Quran, I confined myself with that. If I do not find that there, I accept Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (SAW) which has come to me through authentic narrators. When I do not find that in the Holy Quran and in the Sunnah, I follow the opinion of the companions meaning their general consensuses. In case of their disagreement with each other I accept or abandon which ever I want, but I do not prefer others opinion over theirs’. In case of the opinion of others, I have the right of Ijtihad as well as they have”.

The Maliki School of thought: The Maliki Madhhad is based on the jurisprudence of Imam Malik (93-179 A.H.). The method of his jurisprudence which is the method of Maliki Madhhad as well is that, in order to find out the hukum of a certain issue he first used to look in the Holy Quran, if it is not available in the Holy Quran then he used to look it in the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (SAW). Similarly if the Quran describes the principle or indirect hukum of the issue he also used to search the Sunnah in order to find out the details of that. He used to consider the practice of Ahl-Medina as Mutawatir Hadith. If he did not find the solution in the Holy Quran or in Hadith he would refer to the general consensus of the companions who were known as faqih, if there were no general consensus regarding that matter then he would follow the individual opinions of the companions or would do Qiyas. If it was an abstract matter where there is no room for Ijtihad bil ray then he would follow the opinion of a companion, else he would prefer Ijtihad bil ray.

Al-Shafi School of thought: Imam Al-Shafi emerged during the period of the compilation of the above mentioned two school of thought’s jurisprudence. He is credited as the inventor of Usul al Fiqh. However, Kamali argues that the Usul al-Fiqh was existed before but until the time of Al-Shafi it was not in a form of science. Imam Al-Shafi authored a book regarding the principles and rules of jurisprudence namely Al-Risalah, which is considered as the first book on Usul al-Fiqh (Kamali, 1991:3, 4). The motivations which prompted Al-Shafi to introduce the usul al-Fiqh are some inconsistencies which he observed in the discourses of his predecessors. He mentioned those in the beginning of his book kitabul Umm.

It is appear from the reform activity of Al-Shafi that the objective of that was to make the Ijtihad systematic and to demolish the tendency of unconditional imitation of the predecessors Fatwas and hence to reopen and widen the scope of Ijtihad. Although, he excluded Ray from the category of Ijtihad, especially he was critical about Istihsan, and emphasized more on qias but he made the point clear that he is against ‘the following of one’s personal whim and amounts to unjustified legislations.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, it can be argued that Ijtihad played an important role in the development of Islamic legal theory. It appears from the essay that some of the school of thought emerged as a reaction against Taqlid or blind imitation of predecessors and the objective of them was to reopen and widen the gate of Ijtihad.

QUESTION:
In Islamic legal theory the law preceded society and is considered to be eternal as Allah. Explain, how today’s states, with elected governments and independent judiciaries apply these rules of law.
ANSWER.
Introduction:

The Holy Quran is a complete code for mankind and provides guidance for man in all walks of his life. It has its own concepts of ethics, politics, economics and sociology.

It is an irony of fate that, now a days the demand for the enforcement of the Islamic law has come to surrounded by such a thick mist of misgivings that a mere reference to it raises a storm of criticism not only in non Islamic but even in Islamic countries also. Thus for instance, the questions are asked: Can a centuries old legal system be adequate to fulfill the requirements of our modern state and society.

To be sure, these questions are not the outcome of any antagonism towards Islam but mostly of sheer ignorance which must quite naturally breed suspicion.

The first task, therefore, is to explain to people the meaning and applications of Islamic Law, Its objectives, its Spirit, its Structure and its categorical and unchangeable injunctions along with the reasons of their permanence.

They should also be informed of the dynamic element of Islamic Law and how it guarantees the fulfillment of ever increasing needs of the progressive human society in every age.

Islamic Law:

The establishment of political authority which may enforce Islamic Law requires a Constitutional Law and Sharia’ah clearly laid down its fundamentals. The Sharia’ah has provided answers to the following basic questions of Constitutional Law.

What is the basic theory of the state?

What is the source of the authority of its legislation?

What are the guiding principles of state policy?

What are the qualifications of the ruler of an Islamic State?

What are the objectives of an Islamic state?

In whom does the sovereignty reside and what are the different organs of the state?

What is the mode of distribution of power between different organs of the state, viz.: Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary?

What are the conditions of Citizenship?

What are the rights and duties of Muslim Citizens and what are the rights of non Muslim citizen?

The guidance which the Sharia’ah has provided in respect to these questions constitutes the Constitution of Islam.

Besides laying down the fundamentals of Constitutional Law, the Sharia’ah has also enunciated the basic principles of Administrative Law. Beside that there are precedents in administrative practice established by Holy Prophet (SAW) and the first four rightly guided Caliphs of Islam (Khulfah-e-Rashidin). For instance, the Sharia’ah enumerates the sources of income permissible for an Islamic State and those which are prohibited. It also prescribes the avenues of the expenditure. It lays down rules of conduct for Police, the Judiciary and Administrative machinery.

Elected Governments and Islamic Law:

The Holy Quran and Holy Prophet (SAW) encourage Muslims to decide their affairs in consultation with those who will be affected by that decision. The concept of consultation is known as SHURA in Islam. Shura is an Arabic word for “consultation”.

Majlis al-Shura and a Parliament

Many traditional Sunni Islamic Jurists agree that to be in keeping with Islam, a government should have some form of council of consultation or Majlis al Shura, although it must recognize that sovereignty belongs to ALLAH ALMIGHTY and not the people. Jurists have written that members of the Majlis should satisfy following three conditions:

They must be just,

They have enough knowledge Islamic Injunctions to distinguish a good caliph from a bad one, and

They have sufficient wisdom and judgment to select the best caliph.

Many contemporary Muslims have compared the concept of Shura to the principles of western parliamentary democracy. For example: What is the Shura principle in Islam?

It is predicated on three basic precepts. First, that all persons in any given society are equal in human and civil rights. Second, those public issues are best decided by majority view. And third, that the three other principles of justice, equality and human dignity, which constitute Islam’s moral core, are best realized, in personal as well as public life, under Shura governance.

Judiciary and Islamic Laws:

Islam is the religion that Allah wants for mankind from the time that He sent Holy Prophet (SAW) shows great concern for the judicial system and those appointed to carry out its responsibilities. Islam prescribes for it many legal injunctions. How else could it be, when Islam is the religion of mercy, equality, and justice? It is the religion that comes to free people from worshipping Creation and bring them to the worship of Allah. It is the religion that comes to remove people from oppression and iniquity and bring them to the highest degree of justice and freedom.

Allah’s Messenger (SAW) was the greatest of judges. He used to act in the capacity of judge in the city of Medina, which was the first Islamic state. He used to appoint people to be judges in other cities

In the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, the head of state continued to be the one to appoint judges, govern their affairs, protect their independence, and keep the governors and political appointees and even the Caliphs subject to the judge’s verdicts. Hazrat Umar bin al-Khattab (R.A.), the second Caliph, was the first person to make the judge an independent entity, distinct from the Caliph and the governors.

So it was Islam that not only called for independent Judiciary but also the first religion and state that actually setup the independent Judiciary.

Conclusion:

The Islamic Law, the Law which Holy Prophet (SAW) delivered unto mankind for all times to come, this Law admits of no difference between man and man except in faith and religion. Those religious and social systems and political and cultural ideologies which differentiate between men on grounds of Race, Country or colour, can never become universal creeds or world ideologies for the simple reason that one belonging to a certain race cannot get transformed into another race, one born in certain country cannot tear asunder his entity from that place, nor can the whole world condense into one country, and the colour of negro, a Chinese and a white man cannot be changed. Such ideologies and social systems must remain conned to one race, community, or country. They are bound to be narrow, limited and nationalistic and cannot become universal.

Islam, on the other hand, is universal ideology. Any person who declares belief in LA ILAHA ILLALLAH MUAMMAD-UR-RASULLULLAH enters the pale of Islam and entitles himself to the same rights as those of other Muslims. Islam makes no discrimination on the basis of race, country, colour, language, or the like. Its appeal is to the entire humanity and it admits of no narrow minded discriminations.

This law is eternal. It is not based on the customs or traditions of any particulars people and is not meant for any particular period of human history. It is based on the same principles of the nature on which man has been created. And as that nature remains the same in all periods and under all circumstances, the law based on it unalloyed principles should also be applicable to every period and under all circumstances. And this universal and eternal religion is Islam.

The secularization of 19th century England was multicausal. Various factors contributed to this process. Among them were post-effects of The Enlightenment namely humanistic philosophy that manifested itself with the spread of deism and Enlightenment aesthetics. Other factors included science and natural theology. Natural theology was the attempt of the church to stave off secularization, but in fact hastened the process. Clearly science was more responsible for the secularization of nineteenth century England than Enlightenment humanistic philosophy. This essay will explore the watershed of natural theology and its demise in nineteenth century England.

Recognizing the intellectual context and environment that existed at the turn of the 19th century helps illuminate why humanistic causes contributed to England’s secularization. There was, as Thomas Kuhn states, a “paradigm shift” in society. The industrial revolution led to massive urbanization that often occupied previously religious building for commerce and industry. Cathedrals, abbeys, and churches gradually became merely additional spots in a city and no longer the city centres or primary places of gathering. There was a shift from superstitions and spiritual explanations for different phenomena to physical and reason-based explanations especially between the 17th century before 1660 and the Enlightenment of the 18th century. (155) For example, before this paradigm shift people dealt with the insane via exorcism because their insanity was attributed to Satan. (Brook 1993, 155) Afterwards, new medical elites deemed these practices madness and attributed insanity to non-spiritual causes. Among these events specific groups formed, which were led by this appeal of rationality over conventional religion such as the aesthetes and deists.

The aesthetes, such as Irish author Oscar Wilde, deists and other groups resented bourgeois society particularly the rigid conservatism, oppressive hypocrisy and suppression of intellectualism of the church. Historians of Victorian intellectual life such as David J. DeLaura have recognized that numerous Victorian atheists and agnostics left the Christian church because they believed Christianity was becoming immoral.

“The loss of religious faith in such representative early Victorian agnostics as F. W. Newman (John Henry Newman’s brother), and J. A. Froude was not due to the usually suggested reasons of the rise of evolutionary theory in geology and biology. The dominant factor was a growing repugnance toward the ethical implications of what each had been taught to believe as essential Christianity –the doctrines: Original Sin, Reprobation, Baptismal Regeneration, Vicarious Atonement, and Eternal Punishment.” (DeLaura 1969, 13).

Murphy’s journal article The Ethical Revolt Against Christian Orthodoxy in Early Victorian England (1955) in The American Historical Review explains how it was predominantly ethical rejections of Christian Doctrine that led to the secularization of 19th century England. He presents case studies of three individuals F. W. Newman (1805-97), J. A. Froude (1818-94), and Mary Anne Evans (1819-1880). Murphy explains that contrary to the popular views, that once Darwin and Lyell demonstrated that neither the origin of the earth nor the origin of man according to Genesis was congruent with scientific discovery that the majority of thinking people became agnostic or atheist, secularization occurred during the Victorian age predominantly due to conflicts between orthodox dogma and meliorist ethical bias of the times. (Murphy 1955, 801) Murphy argues that science did provide important ammunition once the attack on orthodoxy had begun, but it did not produce the attack. The records of these three people leave no trace of having read Lyell and they all had left the church 10-20 years before Origin of Species was published. Newman grows up in a Christian home but later writes a book Phases of Faith where he describes that he is disturbed by the dominant Christian doctrines believing them to be unethical. Newman finds through critical reasoning that the sacrifice of Christ serving as atonement was not logical because attacking the infinite strength of Christ was evading not satisfying justice as Christ was not really harmed. (Murphy 1955, 803) Murphy explains that Froude “did not waste time on fine points of science or Biblical scholarship, but came straight to the main point: the intolerable ethical primitiveness of the vicari-ous-atonement principle” (808) Froude states the atonement principle’s claim that the guilt of a man’s sin be transferred, even voluntarily, to an innocent Christ is a perversion of justice. Furthermore to then state that a man’s sin is a loss that God suffers by which He would need satisfaction that needed to be paid, without it mattering by whom, is an insult to God’s persona. Finally, Evans deviates from the faith because she believes that it is unethical and untrue that religious faith is a necessary prerequisite to attaining moral excellence. In an article entitled “Evangelical Teaching: Dr. Cumming” (Westminster Review, October 1855) she writes about Dr. Cumming, a self-righteous admired London preacher to be teaching Christian doctrine found “to be subversive of true moral development and therefore positively noxious. ” (Evans 1855, 1) Thus, these case studies demonstrate how the secularization of 19th century England occurred due to meliorist rejections of ethical issues found in church doctrine.

However, what even more greatly contributed to the secularization of nineteenth century England was the development of science. “Science was viewed as a vehicle of social and intellectual liberation.” (Brooke 1993, 155) Natural Theology attempted to make theological claims about the existence of God by observing nature and drawing conclusions via the design argument instead of making claim’s based on God’s own self-revelation via scripture. The design argument is proposed by Paley in his work Natural Theology (1802) “There cannot be design without a designer; contrivance without a contriver; order without choice; arrangement, without anything capable of arranging.” (12) Paley believes nature is a mechanism, and hence was intelligently designed. He made this connection because he was writing while England was experiencing the Industrial Revolution.

American Philosopher Alston in Perceiving God defines natural theology as “the enterprise of providing support for religious beliefs by starting from premises that neither are nor presuppose any religious beliefs” (Alston, 1991b, p.289) Natural theology as defence of Christian theology proves fatal. Swiss theologian Barth rejects Natural Theology. He states that this belief causes a bifurcation of knowledge of God into natural knowledge of God and revealed knowledge of the triune God, which is scientifically & theologically intolerable. “Barth argues that unless rational structure [is] bound up with the actual content of the knowledge of God it [becomes] a distorting abstraction.”(Torrance, 1970, 128). American philosopher Platinga views Natural Theology as an attempt to prove or demonstrate the existence of God. This is a problem because it supposes that belief in God rests upon evidential basis. Hence belief in God is not a basic belief and self-evident. Belief in God necessitates being grounded on a more basic belief, but doing this gives the more basic belief greater epistemic status than belief in God. Platinga argues that belief in God is itself basic and does not need justification with references to other beliefs.

Natural theology provided deists and atheists new ammunition to establish their own arguments. If God could be explained exclusively with empirical evidence, then His non-existence could also be explained exclusively with empirical evidence if that evidence could be attributed to another origin. Lyell in his Principles of Geology (1830) argues for “uniformitarianism” stating that the same physical and geological forces observed in the present have been active over a colossal span of time in the past. Darwin in On the Origin of Species (1859) poses a similar argument along with counter-teleological arguments of natural selection, presenting “directionality within nature without implying progression or purpose.” (McGrath 2010, 36)

Biologist Thomas Huxley and Physicist John Tyndall make significant contributions in delegitimizing natural theology and using science to secularize England. Huxley debates and rebukes Oxford bishop Wilberforce when Wilberforce denounces Darwin’s evolution theory in their debate of 1860 at the British Association meeting at Oxford. This was but one of many events concerning the clergy’s lost domination of intellectual life in Britain. When the British Association for the Advancement of Science was founded in 1830 clerics composed 30% of its total members. During the period 1831-1865 forty-one clergy were in association. Then in the period 1866-1900 only three remained. (Brooke 1993, 50) “Between 1660 and 1793 the scientific world established more than 70 official scientific societies (and almost as many private ones) in urban centres as far removed as St. Petersburg and Philadelphia”. (Brooke 1993, 152) Huxley and his colleagues use the conflict thesis of science vs. religion to attack the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. Draper’s History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science (1874) and White’s History of the Warfare of Science and Theology in Christendom (1896) made the Conflict thesis well know arguing that it is the nature of science & religion to be in opposition. Draper in his work states, “The history of Science is not a mere record of isolated discoveries; it is a narrative of the conflict of two contending powers, the expansive force of the human intellect on one side, and the compression arising from [traditional] faith and human interests on the other.” (Draper 1874, vi) Northwestern University History Professor Heyck argues that Victorian scientists “wanted nothing less than to move science from the periphery to the centre of English life” (Heyck 1982, 87) Tyndall in 1874 gave a speech in Belfast, a very religious city, before the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He argues that science holds greater authority than religion or non-rationalist explanations. In his attack on religion Tyndall upholds rationalism, consistency and scepticism.

Thus, at the close of the 19th century, the concept was cemented into the English psyche that science and religion were in grave conflict and that, as such, science needed to be divorced from religion or non-rationality. Natural theology had been warped into a new breed of naturalistic science where the observations of nature provided evidence for an evolutionary origin not needing a religious explanation.

Although post-effects of the enlightenment clearly did contribute to the secularization of 19th century England, they were not as significant as the contributions of science. Secularization in England had to do with changing society so that it was no longer under the control or influence of religion. The argument that meliorist objections to the ethical components of Christian Doctrine were the driving force that disempowered the church does not hold. Issues regarding ethics did decrease the membership of churches, but it did not disempower the church like science did. Science through the rise and fall of natural theology gave birth to a whole new generation of figures such as Huxley and Darwin who undermined the role of the church in society. Ethical grievances marginalized specific groups of people such as the aesthetes from the church but it did not remove the church’s influence over society to the same degree that scientific development did. The demise of natural theology led to a series of publications and conferences that took away the church’s predominant role in the field of science and society. Post enlightenment effects such as questions on ethics acted as a catalyst for secularization, but it did not lead to significantly greater removal of church influence. The enlightenment and science are inextricably linked but the effects science and natural theology had on removing church influence and supremacy in Victorian England caused greater paradigm shifts in society than ethical conflicts as evinced by the sources.

Thus, it is clear that science to a far greater extent led to the secularization of nineteenth century England. The evidence demonstrates that Natural Theology did not strengthen but instead weakened the church. By attempting to demonstrate God’s existence and presence by empirical analysis exclusively theologians provided a platform for a new emergence of deism and atheism. Lyell, Darwin, Huxley, and Tyndall acted as catalysts to this process as they used the premises of Natural Theology to draw new conclusions about the origins the earth and living organisms. Draper and White towards the end of the nineteenth century concluded that science and religion had become enemies in their conflict thesis undermining religious activity as non-rational. Post effects of the enlightenment, such as the meliorist objections to the ethics of church doctrine and the emergence of new anti-religious groups such as the aesthetes did contribute to England’s secularization but to a lesser extent. Hence, science was the predominant factor in the secularization of England in the 19th century.

Word Count: 2054

The above essay is all my own work: the source of all material used in its compilation has been duly cited and all help received is acknowledged. The essay does not substantially duplicate material previously or simultaneously submitted to academic staff at any academic institution.

Jesse Alvarez

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ is said to be his attempt to bring supernatural terrors to a naturalistic setting. Some critics have argued that the moral truths of the poem are not only unintelligible but also irrational. But for other critics, this irrationality is what gives the poem its greatest quality. In analyzing and critiquing Coleridge’s poem, an in depth analysis of the irrational is needed. This irrationality is not Coleridge’s failure to explain the supernatural but actually an evidence of its Christian moral code and that the poem’s irrationality emerges because of Coleridge’s inner conflict with his conversion from Unitarianism to the Anglicanism religion. This hermeneutic must be in mind when attempting to interpret Coleridge’s poem.

Before we can look at modern critics such as Christopher Stokes, J Robert Barth, John T Netland, and even Jerome J. McGann, we must first look at how earlier critics have looked at Coleridge’s work through a Christian eyes. The article “Coleridge And The Luminous Gloom: An Analysis Of The ‘Symbolical Language’ In ‘The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner’” by Elliott B. Gose, Jr. examines the poem through a Christian perspective only because Gose believes “the poem is filled with Christian trappings” (239). Gose shows how symbols carry a Christian ideology and spends considerable time on examining how the sun (whether glorious or red) represents God while the other forces in the poem represent the forces of nature. In the end, Gose claims that nature is subordinate to God and that the Mariner’s voyage does not deal with a physical voyage but it represents a “Romantic urge to explore the eternal soul and the temporal emotions” (244). But throughout the article, Gose fails to fully explain the other stranger elements in Coleridge’s poem. For instance, he brings up life-in-death, who wins the Mariner in a gamble, but then dismisses her by stating how “she is obviously outside the Christian hierarchy and is connected with a whole strand of non-Christian figures, incidents, and images in the poem” (242). He interprets this from the obscure explanation given from the gloss and continues with the rest of the poem still in Christian ideological framework. More modern critics will point out how though much of the poem seems to use Christian terms, the more stranger elements and the ambiguous details create distance between familiar and unfamiliar which gave trouble to many earlier Christian critical readings of Coleridge’s text.

Gose’s confusion with the gloss and its obscure Christian emphasis can be explained in “Reading And Resistance: The Hermeneutic Subtext Of The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner” by John T Netland. He suggests that the poem displays an “incongruous mixture of pagan and Christian symbols” (38) and examines the use of the gloss as a hermeneutic. Although the “gloss-writing editor” is responding to the original poem and seeks to interpret it for a modern audience, the editor marginalizes the Mariner’s experiences and emphasizes the Christian overtones of the poem. Netland states the gloss and the poem itself create a unique tension “between contrasting religious imaginations” (41). One is a world of categorized and rational set of religious experiences (inferred from gloss) while the other a spiritual, mystical, irrational religious sublimity (from the poem). Netland states that Coleridge may have gotten his idea from Bibles at that time with their gloss notes that gave a clearer interpretation of the biblical text. This is very similar to Jerome J. McGann’s examinations in his brilliant article, “The Meaning Of The Ancient Mariner”, where McGann briefly details the poem’s history from its initial criticism to Coleridge’s embracing of Christian ideology to his Higher Critical analytics of the re-interpretative process of the Bible to Coleridge’s attempt in mimicking this layered hermeneutic upon his own work. McGann points to the fact that Coleridge’s poem was originally a literary ballad among all the other lyrical ballads found Wordsworth’s printed work, Lyrical Ballads. With the second edition, and with Wordworth’s concerns, Coleridge made alterations to make the poem less a literary ballad and more a lyrical ballad. Coleridge may have realized what he was doing was similar to what occurred in Biblical narratives. Coleridge had argued in length on issues of Higher Criticism that Scriptures were “not an unmediated and fixed biblical text but an evolved and continuously evolving set of records which include the Church’s later glosses on and interpretations of the earlier documents” (47). McGann remarkably suggests that Coleridge’s revised version of his poem shows four clear layers of development: “(a) an original mariner’s tale; (b) the ballad narrative of that story; (c) the editorial gloss added when the ballad was, we are to suppose, first printed; and (d) Coleridge’s own point of view on his invented materials” (50). The last shows Coleridge’s own theory of religious and symbolic interpretation. McGann believes that “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is Coleridge’s imitation of “a culturally redacted literary work” (51).

But coming back to Netland’s article, the gloss, he believes, becomes an inadequate hermeneutic for analyzing the poem. Netland suggests that the gloss is inadequate as a hermeneutic since the editor reduces the Mariner’s spiritual journey, actions, and sufferings into a straight-forward neat plot to emphasize Christian redemption. Netland states that “the Marineraˆ¦has experienced something of the religious sublime (whether real or delusive), and his compulsive retellings of his story point to the inexplicable profundity of his experience” (51). The writer of the gloss fails to understand this and the gloss represses the Mariner’s heightened religious experience. Netland suggests that we instead respond like the stunned Wedding Guest which is far more consistent to Coleridgean hermeneutics when analyzing the journey of the Mariner.

But can the gloss be ignored? McGann disagrees and states that the changes (as well as the addition of the gloss) from 1798 to 1817 show an important story in Coleridge’s development of the purposes of his poem. Many believed that these changes were “a reactionary movement in which a daring and radical poem is transformed into a relatively tame work of Christian symbolism” (42) when Coleridge retreated from his radical views to his later Christian ideology. McGann, in his article, dives deeply into Coleridge’s understanding of the Higher Critical analysis of the Christian Bible to show Coleridge’s Hermeneutic Model of his poem originating from his ideas of the process of the Bible’s creation. Coleridge saw how God’s Word was “expressed and later reexpressed through commentary, gloss, and interpretation by particular people at different times according to their differing lights” (43). Coleridge’s poem is presented as just this type of reinterpreted text retaining its own ideological coherence even through the fragmentation from reinterpretation. McGann states that the poem shows Coleridge’s process of “textual evolution” and the symbolic meaning of that process is a Christian redemptive one.

We can see how the very nature of religion affected Coleridge in his earlier 1798 version and his later 1817 version (with gloss) and can conclude that the poet himself and his faith must be examined. J. Robert Barth’s book, Romanticism and Transcendence: Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Religious Imagination, delves deeply into Coleridge’s theories, struggles, and faith. Although, he spends the first four chapter exploring Wordsworth’s works and how it practices Coleridge’s theories of imagination, he examines closely the nature of religion in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in chapter 6. Although Coleridge had theological speculations, he was a “practical Christian” (89). Coleridge believed in living out the practical aspects of his faith. Barth does not give a complete examination of Coleridge’s poem, but hones in to what he believes gives strength and beauty to Coleridge’s poetry. The notion of “polarity” (a “balance or reconciliation of opposites” (6)) is central to Coleridge’s theories of imagination. Opposite objects, qualities, or “tensions exist within the same ‘field of force’” (6). Barth also looks at prayer as a means of bringing these two forces into harmony (natural and supernatural). Coleridge is concerned with prayer but at a deeper level as a means of “uniting the creature with the Creator” (90). Coleridge’s guilt and need for redemption is bound to his longing for forgiveness and friendship with God. Coleridge calls prayer the “the effort to connect the misery of Self with the blessedness of God” (90). It is a means of connecting the natural to the supernatural, the temporal to the eternal, and the immanent to the transcendent. Barth states that even though Coleridge does move from his Unitarian ideology to his Christian ideology, a shift that can be seen in the poem and its revision, this idea of prayer is still deep within Coleridge’s soul. Although, Barth explores prayer within the poem during Coleridge’s conversion, this shift of faith can be explored further as means for a proper hermeneutic in interpreting Coleridge’s poem.

Christopher Stokes’ article “‘My Soul In Agony’: Irrationality And Christianity In The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner” explores the struggle between the physical and the spiritual world in Coleridge’s poem. His poem contains strange elements that seem unintelligible and irrational. Stokes states that these elements stem from Coleridge’s Unitarian moral theory that he subscribed to at the time. Because these strange elements are unintelligible, there is an ambiguity between the supernatural events and orthodox religion. Though much of the poem seems to use Christian terms, there is still details that are ambiguous and this creates distance between familiar and unfamiliar. Stokes states that these ambiguous moments create a divided tone and he claims this is from Coleridge’s difficult transition from Unitarianism to Anglican Christianity. Coleridge struggled with Christianity’s concept of “original sin” and a closer examination must be conducted to understand why he possibly struggled with it.

The concept and doctrine of “Original Sin” was developed by the early Roman church and was based on Paul’s teachings found in the Book of Romans. In the Old Testament (specifically from Genesis), Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden and the result was that they were cursed and banished out of the Garden. Because of the actions of Adam and Eve, “sin” (a propensity to disobey God) originated in the Garden and continued to all future generations. Paul teaches a reinterpretation of this Genesis story. In Romans 5.12, Paul states that “just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” At the time of Paul’s teaching, audiences of the early Gospels will be familiar with the story of Jesus (especially since Mark and Matthew may have been circulating prior to Romans being written). The audiences would understand that Jesus died as a sacrificial lamb for the sins (actual personal committed sins; a personal disobedience) of all man. But Paul goes to reinterpret Christ’s death to add that Jesus died to not only remove our personal sins but also to remove the hold of original sin on humanity which results in death. “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5.19). This meant that all humanity was guilty for their personal sins and guilty for the sin of Adam and Eve that was passed to generations.

Later under the Roman church, Saint Augustine of Hippo taught that all of humanity was in a state of sin that came from Adam. Man is born with sin and a weakened free-will that gravitates toward sin. Adam and Eve’s sin and guilt is carried onto each generation (Kelley, 34-38). This was the concept of “Original Sin.” This is a belief that is still held today by Catholics and Protestants (although, it may vary based on demonization).

But Unitarians do not believe in the concept of “Original Sin.” They do not believe that the sin of Adam and Eve corrupted all of humanity and that we still carry their guilt. They state “it would contradict the love and justice of God to attribute to us the sin of others, because sin is one’s own personal action” (JoI?zsef, 107). This was a key to why Coleridge struggled in his conversion to Christianity and is evident in his poem. Stokes, in his article, explains the struggle readers have with the strange and irrational elements in the poem are reflective and evidence of Coleridge’s struggle in his departure from Unitarian ideology to Anglican ideology. An example can be seen with the killing of the Albatross which many critics agree is a strange element to the poem. The Mariner simply kills the bird with no thought prior and the only shock is from the Wedding Guest. The crew at first thought it wrong, but then agreed that the bird was bad luck. Without the gloss notes (and in the original 1798 version), it seems that even nature is unmoved by something that seemed like a crime and the reader isn’t given any reason that the killing set any clear event in motion (a “determinative effects of motives” based on Unitarian moral theory (5)). The albatross’ death is a “powerful but initially unintelligible event” but has “no obvious moral or religious significance” (6).

Coleridge, after his conversion and firming in Christian ideology, comes to term with original sin and revises his work (through additions, subtractions, and including a gloss for the poem) giving it a more Anglican tone. The gloss becomes an Anglican hermeneutic bringing the poem under a Christian ideology and moral order. The poem under the gloss gives it a Christian “salvational trajectory” (20). It is only through the gloss (and Coleridge’s later revision in 1817) that we learn that “the ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen.” Stokes understands the common critical belief that “the Mariner conspicuously relies on Christian rituals and beliefs . . . the Christian doctrine fails to explain his world of excessive suffering and irrational events” (11). But he states that before we dismiss these strange elements as irrational, we must explore Coleridge’s religious thinking at the time of writing the poem and both its revisions. It is only through the examination of his personal faith and conversion that we can develop a proper hermeneutic to interpret Coleridge’s poem.

It would be erroneous to assume irrationality as a failure of the poem’s Christian moral code. One must look at Coleridge’s conversion as well as his struggle with the Christian doctrine of original sin that creates the irrational or at least creates ambiguous language. It is only through this hermeneutic that we can fully understand and appreciate Coleridge’s poem where he attempts to understand and present to us the concepts that are beyond understanding.

What Contributions did your individual make to the Renaissance, Reformation or Scientific Revolution? Why is your individual unique and why were his/her contributions necessary to advance European and western civilizations?

Based on the Information, I have gathered Galileo Galilei was born in 1564, and died in 1642.Galileo had made quite a few major contributions to the renaissance. One of Galileo’s Improvements towards the Renaissance was to the branches of physics and Mechanics. In 1586, He Improved Science and had deployed the telescope and eventually changed our view of the nature and the solar system universe completely, and later on he had became aware of the sunspots. His most adventurous moment was in January 1610, he had watched Jupiter for the first time telescopically, and had found out that the plant has 4 satellites. Galileo’s Pisa experiment was unique because he proved that an item with a heavier mass doesn’t mean it will fall quicker, in fact an item with a lighter mass had fallen much quicker than one with a heavier mass. Also, I believe that Galileo was a big role in why the renaissance had moved towards advancing in European and western civilizations. I think that without Galileo we would have never advanced in science as far as we did in the renaissance. Galileo had a quite impact on the scientific revolution in the renaissance; he had brought the studies of physics to today’s culture. He had also made quite a few different objects, he had invented the first telescope to let us view our nature in a different way and he also brought us the method of a hydrostatic balance. He had let us see science in a whole new different way than we would have without his improvements during the renaissance period.so like I said before I believe the Galileo had a huge impact on the renaissance Era as we still use some of his inventions today! Galileo had made some big inventions during the renaissance era and had helped improve science for today people, without him and all his contributions to science in the renaissance, reformation, and scientific revolution I don’t believe that science would be what it is today because of everything he had done!

Who influenced your individual and who did your individual influence in turn? In Other words, how did your individual rely upon previous scholars and how did your individuals work affect others and the world today?

Based on the information I have gathered, I have to come to a conclusion that Copernicus influenced Galileo. Copernicus created the sun-center, also known as the heliocentric theory! This astronomy theory had concluded that the center of the universe had to be the sun, and that all the other objects in the universe had rotated around it but the sun had never moved. Galileo had a pretty big impact on Science. Galileo additionally created many advances in scientific fields and inventions that area unit still relied upon in some type or another to the present day. I believe that Galileo had influenced Isaac Newton, Who had created the Laws of Motion. Galileo had branched modern science off into the Astronomy field. Galileo was also tackling the problem of motion. I believe without Galileo we would not be in modern science like we are today, because he had invented the telescope so we could see nature’s solar system in a whole different view. He had also invented the hydrostatic balance for the determination of relative densities. One of Galileo’s major improvements to the renaissance was the theory of falling bodies. He had stated that a body will move along a flat surface. .i believe that Galileo had influenced a lot more people also, i mean a lot of people still continue to talk about his inventions and accomplishments today. Galileo was a very brilliant man and he is very intelligent and also he is very well known for what he did, he is still talked about quite a bit in today’s science classes!

Question 3: Describe a “day in life of your individual. Where did you individual live, and what did he/she experience on a daily basis. Your response should NOT be a history of the life of your person.

Though Galileo is nearly universally proverbial by his name, he was born urologist on Feb fifteen, 1564 in Pisa, a city of northern European nation. His father, a poor member of a decent family from Florence, was Vincenzo. Vincenzo was distinguished by his skills as a musician and a man of science. Galileo was a bright kid and initially his father steered his kid aloof from a career in arithmetic. He had hoped that Galileo would eventually create his fortune in business. However Vincenzo was wise enough to visualize that his son had alternative skills and interests that may higher suit him in some type of knowledgeable career. In 1581, at the age of seventeen, Galileo’s father sent him to review drugs – a profession that paid way more than one within the educational world – at the University of Pisa. Interest and talent notwithstanding, Galileo was compelled to quit the University in 1585 Galileo’s 1st real contribution to physical science came within the year 1604 with the looks within the heavens of a “new” star. I believe that Galileo’s day of life had started as the sun rose, Galileo had woken up and ate breakfast, and then he had briefly checked on his latest inventions. Galileo then had made his way over to the University and started to advance his career in the field of study of Astronomy! Galileo had always believed that Astronomy was going to be today’s future which in a way it did. But After Galileo was done at the university, he then returned back to his lab to advance in his latest inventions which at this time just happened to be the telescope. Galileo then had slowly started to end his night as he invented he had then started to settle down and slowly started to bring his day to an end. Galileo had invented quite a few different inventions while he attended the university and while he advanced his career into the Field of Astronomy and many other areas! Galileo had a very interesting and very long “day of life” as you would say. His Day of life consisted of many different contribution towards his advancements in his inventions. He had also attended a university to advance and extend his career in many different ways.

Sources:

Hard Copy Source:

Hauptman, Fleischmann, Science Biographies Volume 4

Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Education 1996, Biography

Internet Sources:

Works Cited.

Graney, Christopher. “Seeds Of A Tychonic Revolution: Telescopic Observations Of The Stars By Galileo Galilei And Simon Marius.” Physics In Perspective 12.1 (2010): 4-24. Academic Search Premier. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.

Works Cited.

A. M. Nobili, et al. “Dynamical Response Of The Galileo Galilei On The Ground Rotor To Test The Equivalence Principle: Theory, Simulation, And Experiment. I. The Normal Modes.” Review Of Scientific Instruments 77.3 (2006): 034501. Academic Search Premier. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.

Works Cited.

Morgan Reynolds, Inc. “Galileo Galilei And The Science Of Motion October.” Galileo Galilei & The Science Of Motion (2004): 1-38. History Reference Center. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.