Author: Andre Coleman

There is no gainsaying that Christianity has a strong background in morality. What is not completely obvious and to which much scholarly work is being done and continue to be done is the extent of moral premium that Christians place on moral values of other religious traditions. This paper intends to show how such Christian claim inhibits profound interreligious dialogue. It argues that Christianity is not the sole custodian of morality. It is the view here that such Christian moral claims need not be necessarily placed as superior in dialogue with other religious traditions. Other religions have values from which Christianity could learn. Such disposition will create better ground for interreligious dialogue that enhances personal and interpersonal morality. The research shall be guided by the following: questions what moral values could be learned from religious pluralism? How does this help the Christian understanding of love, human dignity and Christian ethics? It is perceived that Christian moral interaction with other religions would certainly lead to increased religious vitality and would reduce perceived Christian arrogance and ignorance of other religious traditions. Overall, it is from this background that this paper will seek to interpret moral paradigm in religious pluralism.

Introduction

The denial of religious pluralism is in a way an affirmation that there exist other religious traditions. Moreover, the postmodern age has brought a lot of innovations into the world. Among these innovations is the study of humanity and religion. It affirms the position that a realistic understanding of our contemporary contexts implies that religion is not one, but there are religions. Religion as a theological category must therefore open up dialogue with its environment and people. Reverend Marcus Braybrook affirmed that, “‘each faith has a precious gift to share with the world,’ because each conveys a message that is both unique and universal.” [1] This dialogue of theological experience must seek to address the people’s moral past, present, and their future in such a way that it will create vibrancy and meaning. Religion as theological category is not a historical narrative, it is a lived, living and yet to live history that should be context driven and able to accommodate other disciplines for its task and goal.

A realistic understanding of our contemporary contexts then will entail a reconstruction of religious moral principles as theological method and content, especially the period from Vatican II to date. These challenges will guarantee a constant shift in position in order to accommodate the growing demand and yearning of how these theological tasks could and should be engaged today. Relationship is important in religion; this is what makes religion meaningful to us. God himself exists in relationship. The relationship of the trinity is the essence of the God head. For religion of the Christian Church to remain relevant in the face of these challenges, it must open up itself to accommodate the different experiences that are involved in the process of interreligious dialogue.

Moreover, religious traditions of Africa, Asia and elsewhere are in no way inferior to the Abrahamic religions of which Christianity stands out as the main pillar. This is an affirmation to the fact that these religious traditions by their tenets have had enduring answers to the profound mysteries of the human condition. Moreover, in the context of religious plurality, dialogue as affirmed by pontifical council for interreligious dialogue: dialogue and proclamation entails, “all positive and constructive interreligious relations with individuals and communities of other faiths which are directed at mutual understanding and enrichment in obedience to the truth and respect for freedom.” [2] In line with this reflection, it means therefore that “these religious traditions should be approached with greater sensitivity on account of the spiritual and human moral values enshrined in them. They commend our respect because over the centuries they have borne witness to the effort to find answers to those profound mysteries of the human conditions.” [3] In affirmation, Cantwell reasoned, “the awareness of multiformity is becoming vivid and compelling.” [4] Moreover he argued, “We (Christians) have marched around aliens Jericos the requisite number of times. We have sounded the trumpets. And the walls have not collapsed.” [5] It means that those aliens too, have some values that have been fortifying their cities. Thus there is a need for Christians to engage these other religious groups in a meaningful dialogue to quell down the hostilities that separates them in their understanding of God. Wilfred Cantwell in his treatment of Religious pluralism outlined three problems that borders on comparative-religious study as intellectual, moral and theological.

The aim of this paper will be to treat the moral aspect and show that Christianity is not the chief custodian of morality. The argument will hold that other religious traditions too has some form of moral values of which Christianity could learn through the interpersonal relationship with such religions. The question would be what moral values could be learned from religious pluralism? How does this help the Christian understanding of love, human dignity (Christian ethics)? Interestingly, Mark Chaves &Philip S. Gorski asserts that “although religious pluralism is not identical with religious competition, pluralism has commonly been treated as an indicator of competition, and analyses of the relationship between religious pluralism and religious participation have been the primary source of evidence in favour of the idea that religious competition leads to increased religious vitality.” [6] Christian interpersonal relationship with other religions would certainly lead to increased religious vitality and would also reduce the Christian arrogance and ignorance of other religious traditions. This would promote a pluralist disposition rather than the often perceived exclusivist Christian attitude. Martin Buber spoke of the “the basic movement of the life of dialogue” as “turning towards the other.” [7] Without meeting face-to-face and entering into a conversation with an adversary on equal terms-subject to subject -the process of dialogue would be impossible. Jesus himself in conversation with the Samaritan woman insist that the time come when worship will not be restricted to any particular place, but when true worshippers will, “worship the father in spirit and truth”(Jn. 4.23). By this he opened up the horizons and avenues to grant credibility to all religions. Pope John Paul II, also give this express recognition of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the members of other religious traditions when he spoke of their, “firm belief” as being “an effect of the spirit of truth operating outside the visible confines of the mystical body” [8] A pneumatological perspectives and convictions seem to be the way forward in crafting a model for Christian interpersonal relationship with other religions. John Paul II in Redemptoris missio insists that “Spirit presence and activity are universal, limited neither by space nor time.” [9]

Because of scope and limitation, I will limit my analysis on Islam and African Traditional Religion. Although, I am also aware that even in ATR, there are several “African functionalist approach” to moral issues; however, I will limit my paper to Tiv religious practices as paradigms for interreligious dialogue.

The format shall be, Introduction, Overview of religious pluralism as Theological Enterprise (Vatican II to Date), Issues of morality as a theological task in today’s world, Exclusive Christian Morality, Moral paradigms in Islam , Moral paradigms in African Traditional Religion (ATR), Barriers to ethical relation between Christianity and other religions, and finally, a Conclusion/suggestions.

Overview of religious pluralism as Theological Enterprise (Vatican II to Date)

The period between Vatican II to date has brought a significant shift to the church’s understanding of herself to other religious traditions. This shift has also marked a turning point to issues of dialogue and appreciation of religious pluralism. Jacques Dupuis testify that,”the council’s perspective was pastoral rather than doctrinal.” [10] He argued, “the council quite deliberately had no intention of making such a choice.” [11] The intention, on the contrary, “was to rally the highest possible majority on the council floor in favor of a change of attitude of Christian, and the church toward the members of other religion.” [12] It was with this understanding that the Roman Catholic traditions saw the need to adopt theological reflection to local circumstances, began receiving official support with the Vatican II; where in the decree on the churches’ missionary activity (Ad Gentes no.22), [13] and also pastoral constitution on the church in the modern world (Gaudium et Spes no.2). [14] All of these documents show that such adaptation received explicit appropriation. In the subsequent years, the missionary theology of Pope Paul VI developed this thought, especially in his address to the Bishops of Africa in 1969 and in the apostolic exhortation, on evangelization in the modern world in 1975 ( Evangelii Nuntiandi no.2-3) [15] . Here the Pope insists that the church must strive to proclaim the gospel to all peoples, and to seek by every means to study how the church could bring the Christian message to modern man. The Pope expressly stated that, “the split between the gospel and culture is without a doubt the drama of our time, just as it was of other times. Therefore every effort must be made to ensure a full evangelization of culture, or more correctly of cultures.” [16] All these efforts by the church were geared to show that morality as theological tasks and its engagement for today’s world demand a radical shift. Moreover, this shift that took place in the Roman Catholic Church during the Vatican II which addressed the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world created a space for religious pluralism to flourish. This was started with the affirmation of the freedom of conscience and freedom of religions of all people by Pope John XXIII (Pacem in Terris) [17] and the acceptance of interreligious dialogue as an avenue for evangelization by Pope Paul VI (ecclesiam suam) [18] which became the road map for dialogue. Nostra Aetate [19] provided the shift in relation of the Church to non-Christian faith. It opens with acknowledging the common foundation of all religions (No. 1) , and it also affirms other religion as having doctrine, moral and sacred rites (No. 2). In essence, it affirms that no one religion has monopoly about human revelation and God. Marinus Iwuchukwu testifying to this position said, “Nostra Aetate presents a road map towards effective interreligious dialogue and a firm theological assumption of a de jure religious pluralism for the church and all Christians.” [20] Thus in the words of the Holy Father, Pope John XXIII, “it was time to open the windows of the church to let in some fresh air.” [21]

Consequently, John Paul II who came after these previous popes took this advice very seriously. In the pontifical council for Interreligious Dialogue: Dialogue and proclamation [22] , he reflected on orientation about interreligious dialogue and the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Redemptoris mission, [23] Pope John Paul II assures non-Christian of the love of God made manifest in Christ (No.3); raises questions and answers on the universal salvation in Christ (Inclusive pluralism) (No. 12-20). He also recognizes the Holy Spirit as the principal agent of mission (Nos.21-32). Marinus in his praise of John Paul’s II efforts argued that, “John Paul II, in his pontificate advocated better harmony and cordial engagements among world religions in search of a more peaceable world and he firmly believed in advancing the propagation of the gospel by engaging other religions of the world in healthy interreligious dialogue.” [24] This shift between Vatican I and II created a significant growth and development mostly in the Roman Catholic Church theology. As could be seen above, express indications of the church’s willingness to dialogue with other non-Christian religions became clear with post Vatican II. All these efforts are geared towards the church’s willingness to dialogue and appreciation of other religious moral values and traditions. Thus, “Vatican II became first in the conciliar history of the church to speak positively, albeit guardedly, about other religions.” [25]

On the contrary, this opening of the window seems only to be letting in little air into the church’s understanding of her faith in line with other cultures. The fact of religious pluralism de jure is yet to gain acceptance in the Christian church cycle. Their acceptance seems to be on the de facto levels. In practice, exclusivists and inclusivists approaches seem to be towering higher in the church than religious pluralism. Thus the contemporary theologians under the umbrella of post-colonial theologians are still knocking for the doors to be open as well. They insist that ‘system theology’ which was colored by Western ideology and categories must be decolonized and pluralized so that systematic theology will strive and flourish. In African and Islamic contexts, this flourishing could only be found through the model of inculturation (contextualization) and doctrines. It means that the basis for this shift must be built on the lived experience of the people, and not on church’s theological pronouncements. The church has done much in theory; but much needs to be done at practical level. Significant importance is the moral appreciation and values of other religious traditions. The church in many respects still sees herself as the sole custodian of morality, and other religious traditions have to learn from her. This kind of understanding is inimical to the true spirit of dialogue and religious pluralism. The church must open herself to learn from these other traditional moral values.

Issues of morality as a theological task in today’s world

In the light of the above, morality as a theological task has made it imperative that theology must develop large ears and open her eyes to the realities around. Realities that are born out of lived experience of a particular cultural context, and that theology must be decolonized in order to fit the pluralist project. Robert Young observes, “deconstruction’ is a deconstruction of the concept, the authority, and assumed primacy of, the category of ‘the west.” [26] Morality as Monolithic and monoculture context of the west which dominated the universalized approach to theology has become unproductive and meaningless to other cultural contexts. The contemporary theologians have become very critical of the ready-made theology of the west that was imported and transported to many cultures of the world. In place of the above, and the future of Christian morality, they propose two positions: “pluriversality and Identity” [27] . In praise of this position, Mignolo who is considered one of the leading figures of postcolonial thought said,

[t]he celebration of bi-languaging is precisely the celebration of the crake in the global process between local histories and global designs, between ‘mundialization’ and ‘globalization, from languages to social movements, and a critique of the idea that civilization is linked to the ‘purity’ of colonial monolanguaging. [28]

Here he explores further the colonial epistemic difference through the possibility of a bilingual or bi-langauging epistemology as the way forward in the study of theology in contemporary contexts. This project is vital because it will create location which is the production of moral knowledge, culture and religion. Thus for Mignolo, it means we have to speak from the colonial difference in order to give voice to the margins-subaltern voices through the process of bilanguaging (plurality). All his efforts were to create location and identity for local histories to become avenues for doing theology in contrast to global designs of the west. Closely related to the postcolonial thought are the liberation theologians. They understood theology not as self-transcendent, but as being in solidarity with the poor and the oppressed. In fact Liberation theology attributes a hermeneutical significance to the experience of the oppressed. This experience of oppression affects how morality is read, interpreted, and applied. The African theologian also is faced with the task of retrieving moral cultural values and interpreting them in the light of lived experience. Fiorenza maintained that this experience serves as “retroductive warrant.” [29] According to Fiorenza and Galvin, a ” warrant is retroductive to the extent that it offers the most feasible and comprehensive explanation of the phenomenon, accounts for unexpected and unanticipated phenomena, and enables the scientific endeavor to move on in practice.” [30] It was precisely from this background that Gustavo Gutierrez who is widely regarded as the father of Liberation theology kick-started the agitation to challenge theology on the plight of the poor and the oppressed. He rejects the idea that theology is a systematic collection of timeless and cultural transcending truths that remains for all generations. He concludes by saying that, “the attempt of Liberation theology to reflect on the experience and meaning of faith based on the commitment to abolish injustice and build a new society must be verified by the practice of that commitment itself.” [31] Thus he warns that “liberation theologians must be careful not to fall into an academic self-satisfaction of acquiring ‘new’ vision of Christianity.” [32] Segundo who came after him, became more systematic in treating this matter. He took off to free the subject matter through the instrument of “Hermeneutical cycle.” [33] In his words, “Hermeneutical cycle is a way of ushering in theology that would take their cue from flesh-and-blood of human beings to fashion the kingdom of God out of the human materials of our great but oppressed continent.” [34] He questions the absolutist position of faith, he contends that the whole concrete content of faith and all the attitudes and beliefs in which it is embodies are dependent on the relative context in which they occur. For him, “the problem of Catholic theology begins when one tries to define the precise content of these revelatory processes.” [35] He maintains that Christian option does not absolutize a value or a doctrine but rather it is an educational process dealing with values. All these efforts are to promote universal salvation in Christ as against there is no salvation outside the church “extra ecclesiam nulla Salus” that was previously held by the church. This made the church to shift her position about human salvation. All these efforts are not to promote ‘religious indifferentism’ or ‘syncretism’ but to promote inclusivist pluralist understanding of religions.

Exclusive Christian Morality

The fact that all humans are created in the image and likeness of God, makes all humans morally good. Exclusive Christian stand on morality therefore does not make her position supreme. It means that Christian morality by itself cannot define adequately the moral view of a pluralistic world. Right of existence of other religions, morality and religious values must to a very large extent have to contribute and compliment Christian moral values in a way of interpersonal relationships. Peter phan in his celebrated book affirms this when he said, “being monoreligious is going to become ever rarer in postmodern age.” [36] He insists that, “Instead, migration, globalization, and postmodern thought have created a situation where boundaries are porous and most people will be genuinely religious only if they live interreligiously.” [37] Basic to postmodernist epistemology, Phan insist “is respect for and celebration of particularity and “otherness” in all dimensions of human life, from race and ethnicity to gender to religion to culture. Diversity and plurality, which otherness implies, are seen not as curses to human flourishing to be exorcised or as threats to human unity to be suppressed.” [38] Thus he opined that culturally, socially and religiously, “church must not only respect but also incorporate into its own life and worship the teachings and practices of other religions in order to be enriched and transformed by them.” [39] Edward Schillebeeckx, a Dutch theologian, in his understanding of religious pluralism and dialogue asserts that,

Because modernity has given rise to multiplicity of world-views and institutions, and it is no longer the case that one, specifically Christian, view of the world is given social endorsement, the world has become a kind of market place in which different and divergent views of the world and mankind are on sale, from which one can choose. [40]

For him, “the problem is no longer the one formulated at the level of the earlier awareness of the problem: Is Christianity the one true religion, or is it a better religion than all the rest? … The problem rather is how can Christianity maintain its own identity and uniqueness and at the same time attach a positive value to the difference of religions in a non-discriminatory sense?” [41] Thus he argued that it was not possible that any one religious tradition or faith could exhaustively accommodate all that is good and valuable from God. His religious pluralism seems to be theocentric. God is the center and all other religions participate in his being with equal proportion for their being and goal. No religious tradition can claim monopoly of God’s knowledge and participation. He concludes that “multiplicity of religions is not an evil which needs to be removed, but rather a wealth which is to be welcomed and enjoyed by all.” [42] He affirmed “[t]here is more religious truths in all the religions together than in one particular religion.” [43] Thus he affirms the need for dialogue and even incultulation.

Moral paradigms in Islam

The quotation of Aliosa Inyumba, former head of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, Kigali, September, 2006, aptly describe the importance of dialogue. This has addressed the conflict between Christianity and other religions. He said, “[I] it is a very difficult thing to enter into dialogue with someone who has no respect for you as a person, being quite happy to see you dead. And yet without renewed dialogue, you cannot put an end to the suspicion that perpetrates the conflict.” [44] Christianity has over the years occupied the position that it is the only religion that has all answers on issues of morality. African Traditional religion and Islam have been branded as religious groups that have only to learn about morality of Christian tradition. This is an erroneous and ill-informed conception. That fact remains a closer study of these two religious traditions also revealed that Christianity also has a lot to learn from them on moral matters. John B. Cobbs and Ward M. McAfee attests that “it is possible for Christians to learn from other religious traditions and their wisdom. And that it is also possible to formulate the Christian faith in the light of what they learnt from other religions.” [45] Christians are called to rethink their faith in the light of the challenges posed to them by other traditions. In the light of these, dialogue becomes inevitable. The emphasis is not to reject what is distinctive in the Christian message but to “enrich one another through our differences.” [46]

In his treatment of Christianity and Islam McAfee argues that both Christianity and Islam have much in common. To him, both traditions proclaim one God and share insights on communal values (life of prayer and practice). Both “teach common humanity and respect for it.” [47] To this he affirms that “traditions no longer have the luxury to refuse invitation to dialogue.” [48] He insists that “we must develop the wisdom to see both what Christianity and Islam share in common and areas where we must agree to disagree.” [49] McAfee is of the opinion that “we need a better theology capable of both encouraging peaceful dialogue and resisting our own assumptions that we should dominate.” [50] He advised for the removal of log in one’s eyes before seen the splinter in the other. He cautioned that violence should not be associated with Islam alone, historically, “‘each of these three faith traditions’ was birthed in a time of great social upheaval.” [51] Christianity is not immune to history of violence; it has its fair share of religious and social upheavals of its time. Overall, McAfee concludes that the Christian self-righteousness and contempt for Islam is profoundly inappropriate.

Moral lessons that could be shared between these religions are based on the fact that “[t]he message of Muhammad’s revelations was one of both divine authority and social justice.” [52] The social justice issues dominated the teaching of Islam as propounded by Muhammad. Islam egalitarian is underwritten by the hajj, the annual pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca. McAfee explained, “on this pilgrimage, each Muslin is to be clothed in a simple white garment so as to eradicate any and all distinctions during this holy congregating of the Muslim community.” [53] Moreover, the message of Jesus was one of radical equality and so was the tendency of Muhammad’s reform in his time and place.

Another great moral lesson Christian could learn from their Muslim brethren is the moral character of the jihad. Jihad is the most misunderstood word in the Muslim faith, however, it has a moral lesson if properly understood. John W. DE Gruchy contests that “[t]he origin of jihad is the need to establish an egalitarian and just political orde

In this report I am going to tell about the life of a good Muslim in 21st century. Basically in this report I discuss that what are the current issues through which Muslims suffer and what should they do according to Quran and Sunnah to over come from all of these issues and how they can be a good Muslims how can they spend life as a good Muslim in 21st century we discuss all it here in the lights of Hadees and Sunnah Muslim should follow Islamic point of view to better understand their lives and follow the proper path according to the shariyat because this is only way through which we can please ALLAH and take reward from. Islam is the only one who gives us understanding about good and bad deeds and through following the Quran this understanding developed in us and we are able to become good Muslims in this modern time of 21st century.

Shedding Complexes and Avoiding Violence

Only some may know the reality about Muslims and Islam, but the image of Muslims every where is not good. Islam and Muslims has been projected as a threat to peace. Some perceive it as a threat to their personal security. we Muslims have these perceptions about ourselves as we are not as we ought to be, i.e., as Muslims are described in Quran and Sunnah each of these perceptions has some connection with truth, but it’s not true as it stands.

Developing an excellent ummah in 21st century

In our journey to develop an excellent ummah that can be exemplary to all the people of the world we need to look inward of the major challenges within the Muslim societies today.

Violence within the Muslim societies and countries around the world

We should acknowledge that there are many problems in the ummah which must have to be resolved. It ranges suicide bombing through “terrorist attack” on innocent Muslims and non-Muslims around the world. The problem of violence with in the ummah must be resolved by Muslims we must work together in a concerted effort to create a peaceful society in the context of 21st century global world.

Sectarian conflict within Muslim societies

It is very bad that the whole world is watching that how Muslims killed the other Muslims. The sectarian violence involving Sunni Shiah conflict must be resolved Muslim leaders throughout the world must begin to preach on the universal message of Islam. It should never reach the level of violence and killing which we are seeing today

Low educational level of Muslims worldwide today

Muslims worldwide are facing the challenges of being uneducated and ignorant ummah we see many Muslims that have very low education achievement because Muslim parents are not sending their children to school due to poverty and lack of realization of the importance of education If this trend continues we will see the majority of Muslims will be on the lowest in the society

Mohammad a 21st century prophet:

The teachings of Muhammad (SAWW) changed the life of Arab but that was not just for the nation before 21st century but also for us to follow the Islam and Sunnah and the teachings of Islam even prophet Muhammad (SAWW) character changed the person Umar Ibn Al- Khattab who preaches the idol made of dates he become the leader of whole Muslim due to teachings of Muhammad (SAWW)

We the Muslims believe that the teachings of the Muhammad are not just for the one time but we can take benefit from these teachings even though we are living in 21st century we can represent a good nation through follow the teachings of Islam

21ST Century Muslim leadership

Muslims in the 21st century facing lots of challenges not only here but also in West we always rely on our past scholars but now we have many different challenges which we have to face and try to find out another ways to overcome this we have a great problem of knowledge and terminology. The translation is not only just translation of words but we should see the realities in it which comes from the religious reference.

The way we translate the concept of Islam is wrong and the notion, terminology is also wrong I really think that if there is challenge for us in 21st century here and everywhere is to be able ( and its not something that just come from the scholar it can be come from every single Muslim it is

Some thing which is very essential in our religion that our religion is just not the religion of elites it is the religion of every single mind & single heart to come back to understand our terminology and the priorities of our religion Islam

Great problems of Muslims of 21st century

The problem is the psychological crisis based on the lack of knowledge and lack of deep understanding of Islam because the whole process of this religion is all about liberation of all kind of alienation the first enemy is your own ego the second is perception through which we see world from our own viewpoint that is lack of humanity.

Prophet Muhammad (SAWW) saying is:
“Ifshus Salam baynakum”: spread peace among yourselves, between yourselves, with the people everywhere.

Because the highest objective of Islam is peace among all Muslims.

Muslims should get rid of Haram

The Muslims of 21st even in every century are smart enough to understand that what the concept of Haram in Islam there is many things which we should avoid for example:

Turning away from remembering god

Using gold or silver utensils

Black magic

Swindling & fraud

Altering a dead person will

Murdering or wounding another or severing one of his limbs

Drink alcoholic beverages

Stealing

Spreading corruption and evil ways

Taking Riba so onaˆ¦

These all things are Haram in Islam and the Muslims if they want to represent themselves as a good in front of world or especially in front of ALLAH one should leave these types of acts because of these acts Muslims can be out from the boundaries of Islam which will be very big punishment from Allah

Follow Halal

Halal is the thing or an action which permissible to use or engage according to Islamic law If we want to be a good Muslim we should always try to eat and do Halal things Muslims should earn from the Halal way according to shariyat not in means of cheating and fraud because for Halal in Quran there are strict laws.

The Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi WA sallam, said: ‘Seeking Halal earning is a duty after the duty.’ In other words working to earn a Halal living is itself a religious obligation second in importance after the primary religious obligations like prayers, fasting and hajj.
“O ye who believe! Eat of the good things wherewith we have provided you, and render thanks to Allah if it is (indeed) He whom ye worship” (2:172)

ALLAH likes Halal things and ordered Muslim to eats Halal and does all Halal things. As I show in above heading that Allah doesn’t like Haram acts. In 21st century there are lots of Haram things which from Muslims addicted so if we want to b a good Muslim in 21st century we prove our selves as a good Muslim to avoid these things in the modern world.

In Surah 5:5 of the Quran, it is written: “The food of the People of the Book [Jews and Christians] is lawful for you as your food is lawful for them.”
Abu Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet (Saw) said:
“O People! Allah is al-Tayyib (Pure), and He only accepts that which is pure! Allah has commanded the believers what He has commanded the Messengers, for He said, ‘O Messengers! Eat from the pure foods, and do right,’ and He said, ‘O you who believe! Eat from the pure and good foods We have given you.’”
Being a good Muslim

The typical Muslim will be always honest in abiding the laws & principles of Islam. to praying five times prayers which is the basis that we know that there is only one GOD who is Allah and Muhammad(SAWW) is the last prophet of Allah

A good Muslim not only follows the Islam by him self but also teach about it and force to follow by his fellow beings and understand that it is necessary to fasting 30 days in the month of ramzan. A good Muslim always lowers his gaze while talking to others especially to the women and keeps distance with stranger women other than his wife daughter mother sister. A good Muslim follows brotherhood and feels the emotions of other Muslims. Quran tells us that a good Muslim should perform HAJJ at least once in his whole life.

But now the Muslims are busy in many bad activities and now the Muslims of 21st century are far away from the teachings of Islam shariyat and Sunnah they just live their present life by forgot they this life is not long-lasting it will be end soon they should understand the life after death which is long-lasting and which is thousand times better than this present life.

The charm the luxuries and the entertainment of this of this world make Muslims blind they don’t understand that they are doing wrong things.

Allah’s Messenger (SAWW) said:
“If any one of you improves (follows strictly) his Islamic religion then his good deeds will be rewarded ten times to seven hundred times for each good deed and a bad deed will be recorded as it is.”
[Sahih Bukhari – Book #02, Hadith #40]
Muslim youth in 21st century

As the 21st century come to an end we have to look through that what we have done and what we loose in responding to Quranic challenges to create a good society because is also seeking the one who is the ideal of entire humanity because our prophets also wants to see that what are the results of their hard work in terms of spreading Islam and too full fill the Allah’s desire this is such an tough task and in this regard Quran reminded us continuous that

“A man receives but only that for which he strives; that his endeavors will be judged, and only then will he receive his recompense in full.” (53:39-41)

Due to which Muslims has to strive to earn their final reward in full. How to maintain momentum in strive to remain a true Muslim. Muslim youth who is the main target of modernization that was taking place an uncontrollable pace In the Muslim world.

Two decades 1960 & 1970 independence of the two nations Asia and Africa created the new national identities The period was ripe for considering the role of the past heritage, religious, moral and cultural, in the new age of rationalism and secularism. and the nation developed in modernization without give importance to Islam this is the act of non Muslims they developed church instead of developing mosque and madarsa to spread Islamic teaching which is unfair to the Muslims due to which Muslims also struggle to spread Islam through our leaders

Through marriage and parenthood Islam seeks to impart moral education. even the young girls also face greater challenge in maintain their moral tact when they out in society there are very little understanding the ways in which Muslim girls existence because any girl do hijaab people consider her as old fashion but that girl shows Islam towards us and she lives according to Islam.

Our leaders should arrange programs for the youth to understand them the meaning of Islam and make recommendations to implement to create the awareness of Islam among youth to be a good Muslim.

“May Allah guide us of all the path of prosperity submission to the will of God”
CONCLUSION

In this report I discusses about the life as a good Muslim 21st century and through the research I recognized that in the modern world of 21st century the Muslims have to do hard struggle to be a good Muslim In front of Allah and to please Allah through follow Islam Quran Sunnah and in the lights of Hadith and should get rid of bad things as soon as possible and spread Islam to create awareness of Islam not to worry about the people because once you reach that destiny Allah will your hands and give you reward in the term of JANNAT.

Introduction

This essay, will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of culture in the process of development. As it will be demonstrated, culture can both be a catlystic agent just as it can be a stumbling block for development process. Whether we like or not,we have to understand that culture plays an indespensable role in the way people respond to diferent development policies.Thus according to Spackman,in what he called “Postmodern appraoch” , an economic policy that leads to sustainable development opt to take into account a psychological angle also known as development with a focus on personal needs and growth; secondly, it should consider a spiritual dimension given that this trend constitutes the deepest root of human existence . Such policy he added will provide “legs” and not “clutches” .This policy is also referred to as People Centered Development (PCD) in short. (Speckman2007:24-25). The aim of this essay however is not to discuss which policy is the best but the advantages and disadvantages of culture on development process and,for the sake of this paper , I have decided to base my discusion on five important elements. These are: Sexism and Patriarchy; the impact of Lobola (dowry) on Development; African understanding of knoweledge, the understanding of Culture visavis of different deseases mainly HIV and AIDS and finally, culture and environmnet.

What is culture?

According to the Oxford Dictionary (1999), Culture is defined as “arts and other manifestations of human itellectual achievement regarded collectively.the custums institutions and achievemtnet of a particular nation people, or group.”(Oxford Dictionry, 348:1999). For an Africans the topic concerning the impact of culture and development progress is crucial because on one hand, we are eager to keep our culture of which we are proud of but on the other hand, as a leader, we are compelled to guide people toward a sustainable development. (Speckman2007:44).

Christianity as a culture: From the definition provided above, one may also suggest that culture is not only what our ancestrors left to us which were transmited to us through oral traditional. After our grand parents had converteed to Christianity they somehow adopted a new culture that we inherit.In other word, I wsh to argue that Christianity itself and the way we adopt it contitute “culture” which deserve a special attention while discussing the isue of the impact of Culture and Development. For instance, some Zulus will say I don’t practice ancestros worship because I am a Christian. In order words, this implies I don’t practie that cultural practice because I have adopted another one. Thus the topic: “christianity and Deveopment”.

What is development? : Acording Oxford Dictionary, (1999) simply one maysimply say that Development is “a specified state of growth or advancement.” (We will argue that s mant African scholars such as Kalenkole and Mbiti have argued Africans are very religius people and yet remained poor.” (Oxford Dictionary, 1999:392).

What is the relation between Culture and Development?

Historically speaking, Schech and Haggis(2002) argue that the origins of the notion of development in the sense of promoting social progress lie in the same set in the nineteeth century as which are associated with the origins of the concept of culture . They added, “Indeed culture and development sometimes mean almost the same thing until discourses of development planning and cultural specificity diverged in the ealry decades of the present century.” (Schech and Haggis, 2002:5). Thus in Africa, specifically in South Africa, given the place ocupied by culture, one may argue that if we are projecting for a sustainable development, it is indispensable to scrutinize both the strenghts and the weaknesses that cuture can bring about and, when possible try to challenge critically some of our cultural practices and believes that appear to be as an obstruction to Development.But at all time, we first have to be conscious that we can not impliment efficient development policies while ignoring the presence of culture. Larry Yost nd Hugh Tracy were right in their eighth principle of Community Development Work when arguing the importance of involving the local leadership ‘since the ultimate responsability for continuing development rests with the local citizen’ (Yost and Tracy: 1997;21).

Beside that, either one is an economist or traditionalist; we all heartily and sincerely endorse the striving for economic development. In other words, Economic development expresses one of our fundamental hopes and aspiration. Moreover, in its report published in 1996, the UNDP (United Nations Development Program), defined human development as” the endeconomic growth a means.” (Human Development Report 1996). (http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1996/).

Disadvantages of Culture:

Speaking about the disadvantages of culture on development, one may argue that sometime people because of their ignorance or lack of knowledge can deny even what is indispensable for their survival on the basis of their cultural beliefes. Thus, as it has been argued by Spackamn, people need to be empowered as toward decision making.And, in my view, any theologian and any educated person who cares about the Development of Africa should think critically about the impact of “culture.According to Spackman, culture can have positive impact on development just as it can have negative repercussion on development. Thus, this situation often plunge us into a dilemma because on one hand we are eager to keep our culture of which we are proud of but on the other hand, as leaders, we are compelled to lead people toward a sustainable development. (Speckman2007:40-44),

Impact of Sexism ad patrirchy on development

As mentioned before, this paragph will be discussing sexism in Africa and its impact on development. I will demonstrate how sexism and patriarchy have contributed all along many years to the oppression of women and, consequently this situation has also lead to the oppression of men and the impoverishing of Africa.

Definition of Sexism: According to Cambridge Dictionary, Sexism is the belief that the members( in this case women) of one sex are less intelligent , able skillful, less accepted/valued by God than the members of the other sex. Especially that women are less than men are. (Cambridge Dictionary2005:1166).

Mercy Amba Oduyoye argues that Women’s status in most societies is far lower than that of men. In her view, this situation is due to cultural stereotype specified under attributes and responsibilities. (Oduyoye, 2007:22).Beside that, even the way the Bible has been often interpreted has immensely contributed to women oppression.

In most African society, at the death of parents in most only male children will inherit and never a girl.Thus in African society and all over the World, there is a tendency to consider a boy more valuble than a girl.when there is shortage of income in the familly, often it isthe girl who has to interrupt her studies in favor of the boy. Secondly, though a woman is said to be a partner, in most decision making, either within the society or within the familly practically, she does not have much to contribute if not nothing. In other word she is just there as an auxilliary to her husband. Once divorced, a woman loses respect and finds herself despised if she does not quickly remarry. The whole education has been in preparation for marriage, so a failure here is a total failure. No woman is destined to stay single if so she has done something wrong. (Oduyoye, 2007:22). Apart from sexism found in the culture, we also find that even the way Bible has been interpreted does not encourage women’s emancipation. To use Nyangweso words, ‘Marriage is endocentric. This is a universal experience that cries for reexamination.'(Nyangweso2007:61). From the Hebrew Testament to the New Testament, the position occupied by women is often portayed to be lower to that of men. Thus, Oduyoye argues that “gender stratification has distorted the quality of human relations and it continues to deny the parity between women and men to accept female and male as equivalent expression of being.” (Nyangweso2007:62).

How then do sexism and patriarchy impact negatively on African’s development?

By oppressing women, some men think that they will monopolize the power and order will be established. However, a careful observer will agree with me that by oppressing women, men are doubly oppressed. First, men are deprived from the closest source of support. As when woman and man have equal access to education and make their economic decision together, this can boost their economy. In the previous decades we saw that in some part of Africa like Senegal, women were not allowed to attend school and this in my view was oppressive toward a man as he has by himself to provide not only for himself but his wife and children whereas a woman well educated will have access to better job and financial resources. And this will solve not only her financial problem but also will be able to raise the household income. (Oduyoye, 2007:22).By doing so the man is secured from working doubly. And more interesting, a husband will have peace of mind knowing that after his death his wife and children will not be mistreated by the rest of his family. Women’s contribution was not really valued in terms of Development .That is why pne may ague that sexism constitute a stubling block as women are considered as passive agents in the process of the development whereas ,if they were to be valued, their input should have boosted our Development. I dare to say that taking as reference to our modern time where men and women appear to ocupy the same position and deliver the same service.Thus tooday we have Nurses, Doctors, Enginneer, Political parties Leaders such as DA in South Africa and so on.In one word, one may say that African Development will not progress untill all of those who are oppressed by sexism and partiacrhy are free. Thus the UNDP’s statement (Unitied Nations development Programme), ‘Gender equality and women’s empowerment are central to achieving for inclusive, democratic, violence-free and sustainable development in Africa” and therefore a condition to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)’. www.undp.org/porvety

The impact of our religious and social beliefs on development.

Land and devolpment: Culture has a huge impact on land development. Werner Sombart argued that ‘any economic system is nothing but a manifestation of the existing culture. And, a culture exists because of a certain spirit.’ (12).Thus in section I wish to discuss some of both positive and negative impacts of Culture on Agriculture and environmnet in general given its role in Development. Speaking about African culture and development, it is important to understand that knoweledge as a crucial component of technology raises some pertinent questions in Arfrican culture. Its cultural construction raises questions like: What value is placed on different forms of knowledge? (And by whom)Who has access to, or access to exploit knowledge? Consequently, individual are not free to engage in research given that only a certain group of people has access to that field.Often, it is found that our Culture imposes some practices that don’t encourage development. For istance, in some areas where the tradition is still highly observed, we find that there are some places which are reserved strictly for ancestors worship as well as some restrictions to cultivate some products. This can be a challenge when the government want to develop a such area either in terms infrustructrure, roads or practice an Agriculture which will benefit many.Often, when the Government insists and go against the will of the resident of that area, it is found that the project is never successful given that as the ABCD methods states a true development project, has to be initiated by people and with people. (Class notes)

Impact of Lobola on development: Beside the issue of land, another pertinent issue in our modern time which arises from culture to be discussed is the issue of Lobola and weding ceremonies .Today, in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa, the issue of Lobola present a stumblig block to development for different individuals. Originally, Lobola was meant to express a link between the two families. According to one of my South African friends, lobola was ‘like” a gift of appreciation to the best familly. Howerever, as time goes on, this practice has changed its aim and has tendency to become a business whereas life does not always allow it. Consequently, most couple ends up in debts.Speaking about development, this practice does hinder financially the new couple from achieving other goals such as education of quality of both their children and themselves because they can not afford it.In the future, this situation affect both the familly and the Nation as we can only produce a service of quality if we have rceived an education of good quality. Furthermore, any carefull observor, will argue with me that the economical situation doe no more allow to feast for a long period.Thus to enforce the new couple into endless parties and ceremonies just in the name of culture is irrespective to what is defined as Sustainable Development as According to The United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, “development is sustainable if it meets the needs of the Present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”.Here the point I am trying to make is that there are many cultural practices that may seem to be fastidious whereas they don’t encourage savings. (http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1996/)

Deseases, Culture and Development: Today, no country in the World is unacquainted of HIV and AIDS. According to the report generated by the UNDP in 2007, South Africa was experiencing the most severe AIDS in the World. 5.7 millions of People living with HIV and almost 1,000 AIDS’ deaths occuring every day. In its efort to fight this deasease, South African Goverment together with Who (World Health Organization) spent millions of Rand in order to support people who are infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.

(http://www.avert.org/aidssouthafrica.htm) One of the reasons why this desease continue to spread extremely beyond major is our behavior due to our cultural beliefs and practices .Some of the practices to consider here are levirate mariage and poligamy. Levirage mariage implies that when the father of the house dies, his brother has to replace him. And, often this happen inspite of the wish of the wife of the desease.Consequently, this practice perpuates the spread of HIV in case one of the new couple is already infected. Apart from levirate mariage, polygamy which is accepted in most African Culture like Zulu culture for instance is another obstacle.Furthermore, beside levirate mariage and Polygamy, the way our tradition conceives and deals with deaseses such as HIV and Aids and many others such as Swine Flu, Cholera and so on often end in disastrous result. On 30th of November 2006 for instance, the SACC adressed its concern about a traditional healer who claimed to have cured 500 HIV-positive people with the use of herbs which acording to the invistigation done it was just a way of attracting people to draw their attention to traditional medications.( http://www.mg.co.za/article/2006-11-29-church-council-outraged-over-aidscure-claim) Beside that, some traditional healer do often suggest method which rather than leading to the cure encourage the spread of HIV. This, being because they have another understanding of the disease. Some believe that by sleeping with a virging girl they would get rid of the desease , others argue that the use of Condoms is not in accordance with our culture.I remember in my culture that there is an odd say “ntawurya umunwa wugaye “meaning “no man can eat the mouth closed” implying that a man could never have sex and stop the semens from entering the female private part.Others will go even further by arguing that condoms are Western’s assert used to spread the desease among Black People in other to exterminate them. Consequently, these believes have been the cause of death of many talented and energetic young people indispensable for the development of Africa. Thus while encouraging our young generation to assume the continuity of our Culture, we should be keen to think critically about certain practices that hinder the Development of our people. Beside that, each African should endeavour to reduce the cost of supporting people living with HIV and AIDSas it has huge repercussion on national economy.

Impact of HIV on Development

South African Government spends millions of rand each month to fight the desease and especially in the support of people living with HIVand AIDS by providing ERVs and other medications including the distribution of free condoms.These huge amount of funds which are used to support people living whith HIV and AIDS constitute a big lost as there should be used to support many other projects such as Education, scientific research,the fight against Women oppression and crime, and different studies that may help to kep our Environmnent from degradation and many other projects which in return will contribute to the Development process. By criticizing the investment in the fight against HIV and AIDS, I am not arguing that it worthless project.I do believe that People who are infected and affected by HIV and AIDS are still people who deserve dignity and support. This being because first of all, they remain human like others and, most of them are indispensable for our Development. However, the point I am trying to make is that the support of people living with HIV and AIDS is very costy .Therefore, wherever possible we should be willing to divorce ourself from any practice that favor the spreading of HIV and AIDS in this case certain cultural pratices and believs mentioned above.

Impact of Christianity on Development.

Speaking about the church as one aspect that has shaped our culture (cfr introduction), While speaking about Development and Culture, it might look easy to criticize what had been passed on to us by our forefathers. One of the reasons is because; these cultural practices appear to be too old. Some of them are not even in practice today.They are just part of our history though we claim them to be part of our culture .And; often we just refer to them when it suits us as a way to defend our manhood, political argument and so on for instance. However, if we will have to engage critically, I think we should speak more about what appears to be a burning issue. Thus in my view, it is essential while discussing culture and development not to leave aside Christianity. This being as discussed before, the way we practice Christianity can constitute a culture.Though it is universally known that Chrisitianity is a religion, I wish to ague that Christian life is itself a culture. Thus, just as one can engage critically with his/her culture, we should also be bold to discus some of the impacts of Christianity on Development.

Positive impact of Christianity on Development: One of the positive impacts of Christianity for us as African is that it has free us from diferent ancestoral practices which don’t encourage development. This is for istance the total dependency on spiritual agencies and forgeting that we are the custodians of the earth.Beside that, Christianity does encourage hard working. Thus looking unto Jesus, Paul (He who does not work should not eat). And, today, some churches have sort to preach the prosperity Gospel. This kind of Gospel has some good aspects of development in a sense that it does encourage people to know that it is their father’s will that they may prosper (verse).Some individuals argue that one of the reason why Europ is more developed than africa is because we as African put the spiritual realm first and undermine our ability to create.This is often explained by the fact that in Europ, during the modern period, Europe develop dramatically especially in terms of technology and economy.

Negative impact of Christianity on Development

Though one may say that Christianity enclose numberous positive aspects for development, one has also to be aware of the negative impacts that Christianity can revert on Development and often due to the way, we interpret the scriptures. Often, church leaders do teach that we have to live a poor life. We have to look on things above. We should not keep our tresearues on earth here roast and will eat them. Thus, a missinterpretaion of such verses has leaded some of believers to be satisfied with their porvety and therefore hinder them from seing any need for development. Beside that, another negative aspect of Christian teachings is its impassibility visavis to issues regarding development and politic.Scholars in nowadays came to the conclusion that such attitude reveals ignorance given that the church operates within the society and whaterver strikes the society also strikes the church (Simangaliso….). It is therfore good time that the church starts to engage with not only spiritual issues but also social issue.

Conclusion

In Conclusion, this essay has discussed the impact of Culture on Development. I have demonstrated how some facets of culture such as partiacrchy, sexims and Chrsitainity do impact both positively but most largely negatively on Development progress.Most extensively; I have discussed how culture in Africa has hindered the development process. I came to the understanding that there is no culture which is universal and there is no culture which is eternal. Consequently, each cultural practice should be understood from its historical and socialogical context and applied in contemplation with the current political, social and economic situation.

Reference
Ife,J.(2002), Community Development,(2nd edition), Pearson ,Sydney Australia NIV Bible
Nyangweso.,M 2007,FemaleCircumcision, Maryknoll, New York :Orbis
Oduyoye, Mercy Amba, 1986.Hearing and Knowing: Theological Reflections on Christianity in Africa,Maryknoll:Orbis.2001
Simangaliso, R, 2005, Theology and Education, the role of the Church in education for social transformation: A Methodist contribution, Cecil Renaud Library Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Speckman MT, 2007, A Biblical Vision for Africa’s development ?, Cluster Publication

Church council outraged over Aids-cure claim

http://www.avert.org/aidssouthafrica.htm
www.undp.org/porvety
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1996/
Schech,S and Haggis,J.(ed)(2002) Development: A Cultural Studies Reader ,Publisher Blackwell
Yost,L and Tracy,H(ed).(1997) (class notes)

The letters sent between Abelard and Heloise discuss many controversial characteristics of their time period. They converse about sex, virginity, a woman’s role in the society, and punishment which in turn shows the ethics, religious views, and morals of their time. In contrast to these topics it also portrays the problems the church and society had when faced with these ideas that did not follow along according to the Bible. The ethics and rules of living were heavily connected to the church in Abelard and Heloise’s time unlike modern times. In this society the clergy was the most respected albeit feared power in the land. As such people were expected to follow and adhere to everything said in the Bible. They were supposed to live their lives accordingly to the Bible. Any knowledge was supposed to be used to further exemplify God and never to be used to refute God, his rules, or his teachings. If it were to be used as such then people were as saying heresy and excommunicated from the church and scorned by others. Every aspect of this time period and society were centered around the church. In this highly restricted society the letters sent between the two lovers allows us insight into the topics of the sanctity of virginity, sex once married, the penalties for sex without marriage, and the roles women were expected to play without any complaints or persuasion in the society of Abelard and Heloise.

The sanctity of virginity was a great prize during Abelard and Heloise’s time, around the twelfth century. It was prized and held to high esteem but for the wrong reasons. Many believed the longer a woman held onto her virginity the closer she would become to God. Abelard reckons that, “The more God is pleased by the abstinence and continence which women have dedicated to him, the more willing he will be to grant their prayers.”(123) Men of this society believe virginity should be in devotion to God but Abelard believed it was to please society that many women did it, not to please God. While Heloise does agree she says “Men think being pure of flesh, a virgin, is a virtue.” She also believes that that virtue comes from the soul not from the body. Being a virgin was considered something we as humans do to please God when in fact it is actually more of a spiritual or religious trait. Society only placed a value upon outward appearances as a virgin but allowed lustful temptations to be thought as long as it was not acted upon. Abelard considered virgins not pure if they thought dirty because the body and soul are one and the same. Society respected the display of virginity but cared little if a person actually believed in what they were doing or if a person actually wanted to do what they were doing. Not only were people curious about virginity but they were also clueless about the relationship once sex is permitted after marriage. Many believed God has allowed sex once one is married to the one they have married. Even though Abelard does believe this he still feels animosity while having sex with his own wife especially “during the days of Our Lord’s Passion” (147). Although sex is to be allowed after marriage the church did have rules as to when a couple could be together. Sex altogether is accepted during Abelard and Heloise’s era but it hinted at as being bad since the church must regulate it. Since the church can say when it alright and not alright to have sex then this associates that there must be some type of evil or ungodliness regarding sex. Abelard never admits that he agrees with what the rabble think of him and Heloise he does say that the people think “it was desire, not affection which bound you to me, the flame of lust rather than of love” (116). Abelard does not know why he has transgressed what he has, taking Heloise’s virginity and having sex on holy days, so like any person he has to place the blame on someone or something else so he blames it on the emotion of lust which leads him to give up his love of Heloise though she still loves him.

Due to their society ingraining in them the ever powerful rule of God, Abelard and Heloise expect God to punish them for their sins. Abelard accepts God’s punishment without any hassle and does not question it. Heloise on the other hand goes on to say that all the laws of being equal under the eye of God were reversed when it came to their judgment. Heloise is confused because God did not punish her and Abelard while they were committing the sins of sex before marriage but instead decided to punish them after they became married. She considers it reversed because while they did the bad deed no bad befell them but once they had obeyed God’s rule the punishment fell upon them harshly. Heloise complains to Abelard about how harsh God’s punishment is on them but Abelard believes it was all part of God’s will. He believes that Heloise was sent to him by God to cause him to be castrated forcing him closer to God. This shows that in this society people were confused and had very different views on God’s punishment but even so they did accept it.

Throughout their letters Abelard is quick to remind Heloise about her place in society reinforcing the role women played in this society. The most obvious role of women in this society was that women were secondary to men. Heloise further reinforces this patriarchy upon herself when she notices Abelard places her name first on the letter before his own. Heloise tells him that it should not be so and that she is inferior to his since she is a women and as such his name should come before his (127). Abelard does agree and states that that is the natural order of the world. As common practice in this society women are underneath men and wives are expected to always, always serve their husbands. A women has many other expected roles too. Above all, and the most degrading of all she is expected to be good in bed. Another expected role from a women is to always make her husband happy. Many times Abelard says things like a good wife makes her husband a happy man. All in all society only want and believe a woman should make a man happy, love him, and serve him. Even with all of this women can still be viewed as evil or corruption in this society. Heloise says “men are most easily brought to ruin through their wives” (131) Heloise never objects to the views Abelard projects onto her or other women in this society. Heloise perfectly shows way of thinking of a typical women in this society. She says that she will change her clothes, her mind, and her body all to prove Abelard as the one owner of her body and will. She even goes on to say she wants nothing but Abelard and that she “looked for no marriage-bond, no marriage portion… I prefer love to wedlock and freedom to chains” (113). She would give up her life and everything she has for Abelard.

These letters above all else show the corruption and the influence of man upon the church of God. Heloise states that if man does not offend or deny the opinions of clergy men they will receive the highest of praise. Any form of thinking that disrupts or goes against what the church is preaching is branded as heresy and usually leads to the threats on the person’s life or even the death of the person. Many people decide which verses and tenets of the Bible to follow and ignore the ones that do not benefit them in the short or long run. The clergymen in Abelard and Heloise’s era and our era flaunt their wealth even though the Bible tells about modesty they choose to ignore it. Abelard thinks this is wrong in the churches of his time. Another fault that is prominent in this society but not thought upon as evidenced in the absence of Abelard’s thoughts upon it is racism. Abelard says Ethiopian women are not as pretty as white women but they are better in bed. And he also says that the color of the Ethiopian women are a “disfigurement” (140).

The discussions had through letters between Abelard and Heloise about virginity, sex, marriage, God’s punishment have allowed us sight into the twelfth century’s morals, ethics, and it truly highlights the problems within the church that have continued on until this modern day. While virginity is cherished, sex after marriage is allowed by the Bible, the punishment of God is expected when a sin is committed, and the roles of women are enforced in this society there are many flaws. Virginity is prized only on the outside, sex is allowed after marriage but still regulated by the church, punishment is expected but viewed differently by each person, and society treat women second to men. Even though Heloise questions God’s punishment and is confused about it she never once questions her role in society she accepts it. This goes to show how strong a society can impact a single person.

Stephen Pattison article entitled Some Straw for the Brick: A Basic Introduction to Theological Reflection introduces a model of theological reflection called “critical conversation”. In this model the conversation is between three parties, namely the students own faith presuppositions, the particular situation/context being looked at and the Christian tradition. Pattison is by no means suggesting that the critical conversation model is the only model of theological reflection. He has chosen it because it’s derived from others forms of theological reflection and lists seven advantages to it. ( pg. 139).

According to Pattison, purpose of this model of theological reflection according is to help people think through and analyse their own experiences, the issues and the situations that they face and in so doing the practical theology gets underway. As far as Pattison is concerned the critical conversation has more to do with asking the right questions than arriving at the right answers. He also appears to suggest that theological reflection has less to do with academic ability than with inventiveness and imagination, creativity that seeks to discern patterns in a particular situation.

Why critical reflection one might ask? Pattison’s answer to that question is as follows:

a). It helps us to bring about an understanding of human and religious experience in contemporary society whether superficial or complex. He suggests that, more complex the situation, require a depth in the conversation by drawing resources from other secular knowledge base, i.e. or Christian theology.

b). It connects belief and practice to everyday life.

c). Prevent people from making false assumptions.

d). Helps one to grow deeper in faith and appreciation of theology.

Theological reflection must become the filter of the ministry of the church. Critical reflection serves as a critical tool for the purposes of practical theology

It is active enquiry, .dynamic, deep searching and open ended. Not intended to produce universally acclaimed answers by everyone and in every places in all cases. Theological reflection should not be seen as relevant to all people in all situations because of the different contexts. It is worth pointing out that theological reflection undertaken by individuals may well reveal more about the person and their perspective than it does about a secular situation or Christian theological tradition. To avoid that Pattison recommends that individuals be self-critical when doing theological reflection on their own. Theological reflection should be done as a group exercise instead. Helen Cameron illustrates the importance of this through her group work with TAP. Clearly this important point is articulated by all the other writers whose work form part of this review. Theological reflection in group setting is conducive to a deep and enhanced critical conversation likely to produce aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦Any enquiry must aim at enriching the individual but crucially must be for the benefit of the Christian community. Such an outcome is bound to give new meaning and new orientation to the ministry of the church as has been the case throughout the church’s history.

The weakness of this model of theological reflection is that it can be too subjective as it appeals to people’s particular theological bias, temperament and cultural leaning. Relativism, idiosyncratic are.. mutually interrogative method can lead to further questions, does not provide eternally valid answers which can be applied to everyday life. Asking questions and engaging in critical conversation is not an adequate way of conceiving theological reflection. Pg. 142 (limitations) Also the conversation may no be academic enough. One other criticism to be said about Pattison’s model of theological reflection is that it assumes everyone can do it. The fact of the matter is not everyone has the skill Ballard page 2.

Elaine Graham Elaine Graham etal recognises that the subject of theological reflection has been research extensively resulting in the production of numerous publications. However for her and fellow writers their article entitled Method or Mystique in Theological Reflection: Methods offers a challenge to the vague manner theological reflection is viewed. They point to the fact “received understanding of theological understanding are largely under- theorised and narrow, and too often fail to connect adequately with biblical, historical and systematic scholarship” (pg.1). As such they aim to help the reader “engage in patterns of theological reflection that are richer in the source they draw on more rigorous and more imaginative.

Their introductory chapter gives a history outline of the discourse. We have an account, of understanding practical/pastoral theology as a discipline concerned with practical training which is broader and understands theology as critical reflection in a variety of settings. Graham etal, sites Donald Scon who argues for a shift from theoretical knowledge, technical rationality and scientific precision which is all theoretically and not practically based consequently eroding public trust of experts. According to them, professional knowledge of expertise is only acquired in a particular context or situation that is implicit and problem based. Furthermore the learning takes place by responding with flexibility to situations, willingness to be a proactive learner and risk taking. (pg. 4) This view that knowledge comes by experience is also shared by Kolb in his book on model of experimental learning. (pg. 5) As such theology ought to be understood as a process rather than product. Christian practice, alongside systematic biblical and historical theology is crucial to theological reflection. In their view such engagement with these traditional Christian resources is weak. It is to this interrelated problem of traditional Christian resources that Theological Reflection: Methods reverts.

My third article for review is entitled Characteristics of Theological Action Research by Helen Cameron etal. The article comes from the book written by her and others called Talking about God in Practice. In it a methodology of research called Theological Action Research is introduced. TAR is a brain child of Action Research Church and Society made up of two teams that are ecumenical and interdisciplinary chosen. The team members are all theological practioners and researchers, made up of a team from Heythrop and the other team from outside.

ARCS objectives are realised when dialogue goes on in each team and also across the teams. The teams demonstrate willingness to share good practice and ideas of theological research between teams. As a model TAR has four stages called a cycle of theological reflection and are the following; experience, reflection, learning and action. The methodology require that each stage of the cycle is carefully examined and documented using its action research process and social sciences methods of collecting data. Theology plays a key part in all the stages of the practice right from the beginning to the very end. That also includes the shared reflections of the practitionrs and researchers.

We can conclude that the lessons learnt are the following:

Theological reflection and theology is directed at life situations in every human experience whether be a believer, church community including those who confess to be atheists. According to Metz, as he made reference to Karl Rahner’s a critical observation of Vatican II. “God is a universal theme, a theme concerning all humanity or it is simple no theme at all”. (pg 57 M.K). Rahners ascertion is an attempt to address an abserd belief which was sectarian and excluded others in taking part the faith dialogue/God. It is also true to say that when theology becomes self-absorbed by ignoring the world’s reality of human suffering, poverty injustice etc. it loses its purpose.

The theological reflection model looked at in this review appear narrowly focused ataˆ¦aˆ¦. with a particular racial group, principally white European and middle class. We live in a diverse aˆ¦.. The church is a reflection of society that is multicultural, ethnic

Robert Kinast in his article on the subject makes the same point that theological reflection is a threefold movement, which begins with the lived experience,

Writing a successful theatre dissertation is a process which requires balancing two core ideals. You must on the one hand display creativity, however at the same time you must demonstrate that you understand the key concepts of your study, and that you are capable of producing a confident piece of academic research and writing. In any theatre degree the primary skill that you are looking to display is creativity. Therefore your theatre dissertation should fulfil that creativity whilst at the same time demonstrating all that is necessary in a serious piece of academic writing.

Whilst there are many ways to ensure that your theatre dissertation is stylistically impressive, there are several practical steps which need to be taken in order to ensure that marks are not taken off for easily avoidable mistakes.

A good idea is to begin by reading another theatre dissertation to gauge what might be required from your piece of work. Copies of past theatre dissertations are often to be found in University libraries. In your theatre dissertation you are looking to carry out a sustained study of a specific topic. The question you eventually chose for your theatre dissertation must show a clear objective and the topic must be well researched. If your question is a vague one then your theatre dissertation will in turn be vague and less impressive, and it will also be more difficult and more time-consuming to research. When proposing a topic you should look at several factors such as the relevance of that topic, your interest in that topic and the feasibility of that topic.

Once you have settled on a topic and a question for your theatre dissertation then you can narrow down which past theatre dissertations you should study. Through producing your dissertation your aim is to expand and deepen your knowledge of the subject.

The most vital step when setting out to produce a top quality theatre dissertation is to work out a timetable, which you will then religiously stick to. This will assist you in obtaining the relevant source material, and at the same time will also be an insurance against unexpected catastrophe. Once you have finished writing you will also need time to carefully and thoroughly proofread and copy edit everything you have written, checking for spelling and grammar errors, and making sure that everything is formatted correctly. This will help to make sure that your theatre dissertation is factually and stylistically consistent. Finally your theatre dissertation should be clearly referenced. It is very important that the style of referencing should be consistent throughout. Referencing is important for many reasons, specifically to avoid any unfounded accusations of plagiarism. Poor referencing can also lead to docked marks.

*

When writing a good theatre dissertation it is vital that you pace yourself properly in order to best avoid a panic in the final few days, and to give yourself time to reflect on your research and to encourage your creativity. Another important early step on writing your theatre dissertation is to determine what kind of analysis you are being asked to make, and then to look at the plays or concepts you are writing about. Ideally your theatre dissertation should be a sustained argument. When writing your theatre dissertation you should show just as much creativity as you would in practical work. You need to work out how you are going tot go about studying the topic of your dissertation – in this way your theatre dissertation is a test of independent thought.

Displaying a creative streak in your work is, whilst important, rarely going to be sufficient. You also need to be able to show through your theatre dissertation the ability to produce a serious academic analysis of your chosen topic. Independent enquiry into the topic of your choice is essential. You must have familiarity with appropriate research methods. Theatre studies cannot be separated from social context and historical moment. Mere simple description of your subject will not be enough, and will not show that you have gained a thorough understanding of the issues and concepts of your degree course. A successful theatre dissertation should be full of analysis, critical evaluation and discussion of your topic. It is of vital importance that you show what it is that you have learnt. A theatre dissertation tests your ability to present a sustained academic argument in clear, logical prose. Your theatre dissertation must show that you are confident in creating the scholarly apparatus necessary to support your argument. A well structured, confident theatre dissertation should be your final goal.

*

Your theatre dissertation will more likely than not need a title page and a page of contents. There is often other vital information which needs to be included at the beginning of your theatre dissertation such as a plagiarism declaration. At the end of your theatre dissertation there needs to be a bibliography of the sources used. As has been mentioned before your theatre dissertation needs to be thoroughly and correctly referenced throughout.

Stylistically it is important that you avoid colloquialisms or sloppy grammar in your theatre dissertation, although a theatre dissertation doesn’t need to be overly formal. You should always ensure that you stick to the central thread of your argument. Most dissertations are divided into five or six chapters. Paragraphs should, ideally, be approximately five or six sentences long, and should have good linking words and phrases. Your text should be easily navigable for the reader with obvious ‘signposts’. When writing you should try to avoid personal language such as ‘I’ as far as possible, unless instructed otherwise. You should more likely than not double space your text. When using long quotations of four lines or more you should indent on the left hand side of the page. You should not rely overly on source material for your theatre dissertation, as this does not go far enough to show independent and original thought.

Through following the correct practical steps and by staying stylistically fluent and consistent then you can produce a high quality theatre dissertation.

Discuss the recent developments in the west end musical scene; this should include an analysis of the ‘mega-musical’ mania, the trend to create new musicals based on existing songs (song migration) and stage transfers of successful films.

From Sophocles through William Shakespeare to Eminem, writers have sought to use the rhythms of language to accentuate the story they are seeking to share. The pre-Caxton society relied on an oral tradition to deliver stories of fact and fiction. Cultures spanning the entire globe and all ages of civilization have instinctively adopted musical storytelling; it is prominent in various forms even now – be it around a camp fire, at a tribal ceremony, an inner city playground or on a West End stage.

In today’s world, language and music are at our fingertips. They are both instantaneous. And they can be married in a second. Technically, music is intricate. Most writers will say the same about language. But in an inspired moment they can conjoin and express something wonderful both sonically and linguistically. The act of constructing such a moment can be the end result of many less fruitful moments – but there is always the chance that it could just happen instantaneously. Our logistical minds tell us that it just is not possible; that we would never be able to express ourselves beautifully and eloquently in musical form. And yet the compulsion to try and do so has arrested most people, even if only for a quickly aborted solitary moment. So perhaps here lies the fascination with musicals. They show ‘life as we know it’ happily residing in an alternate reality – where music and language are easy bed partners and everything goes to extremes. Or does it?

The West End is one of London’s most popular tourist attractions. It has built its reputation, in tandem with New York’s Broadway, as the commercial mecca of musical theatre. Las Vegas has the showgirls but Broadway and the West End share the showtunes. Indeed, while their identities are undeniably distinct, the relationship between them is close; same sex twins rather than identical ones. Each has their own nuances of behaviour – the younger twin Broadway hunts that bit more keenly for the next off-beat musical whirlwind; the older West End plays percentages but plays them with palpable success.

The term West End was originally coined as a geographical short cut – a way of describing a part of London synonymous with theatre. Since its inception into London vernacular the phrase ‘West End’ has mutated to describe something meta-geographical. While once upon a time it merely represented an actual place, now it also describes the gateway to an invented world of glitz, glamour and show. The West End may still be the home of theatre, but the kind of theatre that it houses has become very easily classifiable. The listings do not lie. And neither do they try to. The West End is a haven for small ideas done big; big names, big shows, big spectacles, big budgets, big risks.

The social and artistic significance of theatre as an art form has not suffered in the time since the West End theatres were constructed. But the immediacy of rival entertainments, chiefly television and film, has undoubtedly provided so comfortable an alternative for the borderline theatregoing public that its popularity has. Ultimately, the public’s relationship with theatre has somewhat inverted itself; once the entertainment of the people, theatre has become high-brow, elitist, exclusive even. Or so we are led to believe. Every year the people entrusted with running the country’s theatres are ensconced in attempts to make theatre more accessible. Nicholas Hytner at the National Theatre has incorporated a sponsorship deal with Travelex with the express purpose of enabling its shows to be available to people for as little as ?10 a ticket. Theatrical output is continuing to diversify in new directions. The National Theatre still produces the time-honoured classics that will appease their traditional supporters. But they also invited outside companies including Theatre de Complicite, Improbable, Shunt and Kneehigh to co-develop their new work.

Arts Council funding dictates a certain amount of programming for in-house producing theatres throughout the country. It is impossible to equate the artistic worth of a proposed project while it exists solely as an outline on a piece of paper. But it is easier to quantify the greater social import of the same project. Therefore the involvement in various local outreach initiatives including young people’s theatre and new writing programmes serves duplicate purposes. But in doing so it runs the risk of wrestling a certain amount of control from the artistic directors, or at least diluting the intent of their work.

But the West End is not really concerned with any of this. The theatres are privately owned and have little social obligation. West End theatre is a notoriously unpredictable money market. Make a big success of yourself and you can eventually buy it up – which is exactly what Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh have ended up doing. Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group are the proprietors of twelve of the capital’s larger theatres. By January 2006 Delfont Mackintosh will control another seven, and will have begun constructing the Sondheim Theatre – the first theatre to be built on Shaftesbury Avenue since 1931. The long-term plan of Delfont Mackintosh is to refurbish and modernise theatreland. But one cannot help but think that their extreme makeover will be restricted to the facilities and layout – and that the entertainment will remain as traditional as ever.

The musical-as-we-know-it grew out of the 19th Century tradition of music hall, which itself was the bastard son of drink and rowdiness. After removing the alcohol from drunken singalongs, and relocating from the pub to theatres, the 1860s saw the popularity of the newly-arrived music hall go from good idea to massively popular entertainment. The humbling beginnings of the musical cannot help but reveal the nucleus of the idea; it was born of accident – of people seeking to have pure, unadulterated entertainment. In that respect, it has no one form; no one philosophy; indeed no real sense of philosophy; no real sense of purpose other than fun, fun, fun!

As the musical was developing it was the bastion of popular music of the time. Through Gilbert and Sullivan, Irving Berlin, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill and Cole Porter, the men and women behind musical were the most revered song writers at work in the Western world. Ten years into the post-war era there was a marked shift. The ‘musical standards’ that made dry, wry and witty observations about upper middle class were about to be trumped by rock and roll. And John Osbourne’s 1956 ‘kitchen-sink-drama’ Look Back In Anger was going to have repercussions outside the world of the well-made play.

The birth of transmittable media was only going to swell the amount of music being produced. In the early days of the wireless radio, families gathered to listen to the songs of Ivor Novello or Noel Coward. By the mid-1960s many families had television sets in their front rooms; radio broadcasts were a competitive business; and air transport links had made the world traversable for all those who could afford it. Music was a commodity that could be sent from one side of the world to the other. And in the slipstream of the music were the musicians themselves.

Through television and radio, songwriters and musicians had an identity. They became icons – the most celebrated people on the planet. And their music was nowhere near the West End stage. For the first time since their inception musicals were not using the popular music of the time. Rock’n’roll was being held in musical purgatory by traditionalists unhappy at its low-brow ideals. While cinema was running as fast and far as it could with the concept of the film musical, the stage was seeking to deliver variations on earlier themes. Elvis Presley made numerous musical films – as did The Beatles. In the 1960s the West End was awash with Broadway imports – the influence of Leonard Bernstein, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe and other transatlantic success stories was diluting the integrity of the West End as the older brother of the musical. But the psychedelic overtones of that time were to create musical anomalies; while some composers flirted with the concept of rock, others weren’t afraid to dive headlong into its bottomless pit. After its anti-Vietnam stance and inclusion of group nudity caused outrage on Broadway, Hair opened in the West End in 1968. From being the chosen playground of mild-mannered conservatives, the musical was being politicised – and modernised. Within five years, the ‘Age of Aquarius’ had been further capitalized upon by Godspell, Oh Calcutta and even Jesus Christ Superstar – which proved to be the foundation on which the new dawn of the musical would be built. Today’s twin Godfathers of musical composition for Broadway and the West End carry the bright torch of yesteryear; Stephen Sondheim represents his forefathers’ fascination with the off-beat, with Andrew Lloyd Webber never straying from the musically conservative beat.

There are various factors that dictate the recent successes and failures in West End theatre. But the starting point for every West End production is money – a fact beautifully demonstrated by the plot of one of the West End’s most popular current productions ‘The Producers’. Essentially, the capitalist dawn that swallowed up free love has made currency the new leading man in musical theatre. Producers need big ideas and big songs to legislate for big budgets. So instead of trying to predict what people may like and creating a musical story around it, the West End decided to reduce the risk and simply take the music that people already like and create a story around that.

In some ways the origin of song migration is old revue style shows – popular hits belted out with no real desire to create an accompanying piece of drama or comedy. Coupled with the screen to stage success of musical films like The Lion King, a producer was now able to weigh up potential West End shows safe in the knowledge that a stable of worldwide smash hits could enable a musical to run for years, even with a bad review. Suddenly the sheer bankability of Lloyd Webber was looking like an outlandish risk alongside the music of Abba, Queen or even (the critically lauded but never supergroup status) of Madness. Negotiations are in process for the trend to continue, with Bob Marley, The Beatles and Elton John just some of the musical legends in line to have their songs shoe-horned into some money-spinning stage extravaganza that makes almost no sense at all. Not that the public really care. They want to go and sing-a-long like the pub dwellers of the 1840s that unknowingly helped begin the process of musical theatre. And who shall we choose to lead the sing-song? Well, preferably someone famous off the telly, of course.

The West End is a remarkably lucrative place. For his unscheduled stint in the opening cast run of The Producers at the end of 2004, Nathan Lane was being paid ?42,000 a week for the lead role as Max Bialystock. It is a clear indication of the simple transaction between moneymen and talent; the star name guarantees the box office receipts. The West End has been flooded with stars – some of whom have no musical pedigree – because celebrity is deemed to have finally overridden talent. The good, bad and ugly (in no particular order) of recent years include David Hasselhoff, Martine McCutcheon and Denise Van Outen.

And if you don’t want to spend money on star names, then you’d better be sure to have some seriously impressive stage gimmicks; Miss Saigon famously had a helicopter, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang got in to hot water when the eponymous flying car failed to take off in previews, and Phantom of the Opera has a plunging chandelier moment that will wake up anyone snoozing in the stalls. So with standard tickets averaging out at around ?40, the theatregoer demands a truly amazing experience. But amazing and original are poles apart – and that’s why when the formula is right, all you need to do is repeat it. There are exceptions. The Bombitty of Errors was a rap interpretation of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, and was a small but perfectly-formed global success. Stomp became a phenomenon through gradual word of mouth and because it is a different kind of spectacle. Jerry Springer: The Opera began life as an idea at a scratch night at the Battersea Arts Centre and grabbed the attention of every newspaper and fundamentalist Christian in the Western World. But such shows grow from humble beginnings and are swept away on public curiosity.

As in any art form, there are people willing to take risks because they believe their work has a market. Bombay Dreams and The Far Pavilions identify a recently developed appreciation of Asian music and culture. The off-Broadway hit Batboy continues in the tradition of earlier pacesetters The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Hedwig and the Angry Inch for kitsch rock operas. But some of these are accidental intruders in the world of the West End. They weren’t sure if they were really invited but came anyway.

One group that certainly were invited are blockbuster films; whether they have songs in them or not. Seemingly the films don’t even have to have been that successful. The Witches of Eastwick had a successful run in the West End. But more than likely, the film will have a readymade audience. The Full Monty was relocated to middle America from Sheffield to make it a Broadway success. Billy Elliott is well into previews, but the advance word is that it will be a significant hit. Or better still, just take a film with songs already in them – you don’t stand to make as much money, but the guarantee of an audience is that much stronger. Mary Poppins has been well-received by most, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is in its third year.

There are currently 36 theatres in the West End of London’s theatreland. As of Monday 2 May 2005, 27 are currently housing a production. 17 of those are musicals. This ratio is fairly consistent – and shows no signs of relenting. Essentially a hit West End musical needs a hook; star name, hit songs, hit movie, famous composer, popular revival. Something that can be reduced to a two-word phrase. If you haven’t got any of those, then heaven help you. Because the West End public certainly won’t.

Transcendence and Immanence

Simone de Beauvoir, in her groundbreaking mid-20th century work The Second Sex, presented the concepts of “transcendence” and “immanence” as integral features of her theoretical analysis of the structures of patriarchal oppression in Western society. This essay will explore these concepts in terms of Beauvoir’s feminist analysis. In this context, it will be argued that these concepts cannot be considered to be “gender biased” if “bias” is understood in terms of a negative or unsubstantiated scholarship. Rather, as will be argued, Beauvoir’s use of these concepts to describe how the lives of women and men in society are distinctly culturally gendered is not only substantiated when considered in its own historical context but also illuminates our understanding of gender roles in Western society in the early 21st century.

In The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir presents the concepts of “transcendence” and “immanence” in the course of attempting to answer the fundamental question of “what is a woman” (Beauvoir 1949). Beauvoir contends that the view of generic terms such as “masculine” and “feminine” as being symmetrical only applies in the technicalities of legal documents, for in Western society and culture the two are radically distinct (Beauvoir 1949). She contends that the masculine is the normative “default” in Western society, and that the feminine is defined against this:

She is defined and differentiated with reference to man, and not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute – she is the Other.

(Beauvoir 1949, p.5)

Of course, Beauvoir is aware of that the conceptual binary Self/Other is a principle of differentiation that applies to more than simply the relations between men and women. For example, she notes its referents throughout the cultural history of the West, with analogies to myth, as well as its use to support racist attitudes with respect to Blacks and Jews, and its related use to support class-based oppression (Beauvoir 1949). This is a clear strength in her work for, as critics widely acknowledge, Beauvoir was never solely preoccupied with oppression based upon gender, but recognized and struggled against oppression in a variety of forms (Simons 1999).[1]

It is against this context of oppression that Beauvoir defines her concepts of “transcendence” and “immanence”. Beauvoir argues, in The Second Sex and other writings, that related to this conceptualization of Self/Other is another dichotomy that is a basic feature of oppression: the differentiation of the human population into two groups – those who achieve transcendence through creative and dynamic life-enriching activities, and those relegated to lives of immanence concerned simply with the maintenance of life in its basic conditions (Beauvoir 1949).

It is important to recognize that these are not simply theoretical concepts but, rather, are intended by Beauvoir as descriptive of the daily lives of humanity. From this perspective, “transcendence” and “immanence” are defined in terms of the everyday work and actions of human beings. Thus, transcendent work includes writing, exploring, inventing, creating, studying, while immanent work includes such work as cooking, cleaning, bureaucratic paper pushing and even biological actions such as giving birth (Veltman 2004). The key point to grasp in this differentiation is that activities which involve immanence are basically futile in that they consume time and energy, but accomplishes nothing of fundamental significance (Veltman 2004).

Of course, in making this differentiation Beauvoir is not arguing that these activities are not often essential. After all, we all need to provide for ourselves, or have provided for us, cooking, cleaning and other services. Similarly, child birth is a basic fundamental requirement for the continuation of the human species. Moreover, as critics of Beauvoir have noted, it is important to recognize complexities in her understanding of these concepts throughout her various works. For example, Beauvoir acknowledges that immanent work may sometimes be creative, just as activities of transcendence can often involve numbing repetition (Veltman 2004). Good examples of each would be the case of a mother knitting clothes for her children to wear as a creative activity of immanence, while an author painstakingly proof-reading her novel would be an example of repetitive transcendent activity.

Given this complexity, it would be useful to differentiate between the concepts of transcendence and immanence based upon their respective relations to two key qualities: (1) existential justification, and (2) durability across time. As one critic notes of Beauvoir’s depiction of these concepts:

Since activities of immanence merely sustain life and achieve nothing more than its continuation, they also cannot serve to justify life as its raison d’etre. Rather, existential justification can be established only within transcendent activities that move beyond the maintenance of life itself. . . . If a life is to have reason for being rather than persist solely without reason, it must reach outward toward the future through the production of something creative, constructive, enlightening or otherwise durable.

(Veltman 2004, p.124)

Having thus explored and delineated the parameters of Beauvoir’s concepts of transcendence and immanence, the question of whether these concepts are “gender biased” remains to confront us. It is undeniable, for example, that Beauvoir uses the concepts in The Second Sex in order to explore the processes by which women have been oppressed throughout history in general, and in the context of mid-20th century Western society in particular. As Beauvoir argues in The Second Sex:

…the situation of woman is that she – a free and autonomous being like all human creatures – nevertheless finds herself living in a world where men compel her to assume the status of Other. They propose to stabilize her as an object and to doom her to immanence since her transcendence is to be overshadowed . . . .

(Beauvoir 1949, p.20)

Clearly, Beauvoir’s use of the concepts of “transcendence” and “immanence” in her work is situated within a broader context of social and cultural oppression of women by men. Moreover, it is also clear that Beauvoir has a definite “agenda” in her work in that she does not regard this oppression dispassionately. Rather, she repeatedly questions how women can throw off this oppression and achieve transcendence in their daily lives:

How can a human being in woman’s situation attain fulfilment? What roads are open to her? . . . . How can independence be recovered in a state of dependency? What circumstances limit woman’s liberty and how can they be overcome? These are the fundamental questions on which I would . . . throw some light. This means that I am interested in the fortunes of the individual as defined not in terms of happiness but in terms of liberty.

(Beauvoir 1949, p.20)

The above passage is significant in understanding the issue of “gender bias” in Beauvoir’s use of the concepts of “transcendence” and “immanence” in that we can see that she is not unbiased in her objectives. Clearly, Beauvoir makes no effort to obscure or hide the fact that she is biased in favour of promoting women’s liberty and their capacity to transcendent activity. This being said, however, it cannot justly be extrapolated from this conclusion that Beauvoir’s use of these concepts displays a “gender bias” in the sense of a negative or scholarly unsubstantiated argument. Indeed, as has been noted above, Beauvoir grounds her work in carefully delineated arguments that reference a wide range of theoretical and philosophical models in Western civilization. Moreover, it is noteworthy how in her use of the concepts Beauvoir takes extraordinary care in their description and application. For example, as noted above, she is careful to note subtle complexities in the use of the concepts in everyday life with reference to how immanent activities may be creative, while some transcendent activities may be repetitive and boring.

In conclusion, while it may justly be said that Beauvoir is “biased” in her use of the concepts of “transcendence” and “immanence” as descriptive models of the structures that support the oppression of women in everyday life, and in her objectives to subvert this oppression and promote the liberty of women, it cannot be said that her work display “gender bias” in this area. This term implies a level of “prejudice” that potentially undermines the value of a work given the particular interests or agenda of the author. Given the extraordinary care and attention of Beauvoir in her use of these concepts to reinforce her arguments with respect to the oppression of women in Western society, and the fact that these arguments have withstood the text of time and the critique of leading authorities and scholars over the past half-century, Beauvoir’s use of “transcendence” and “immanence” cannot be represented as displaying “gender bias”.

Works Cited

Beauvoir, S. (1949). The second sex. Trans. H.M. Parsley.

London: Penguin.

Butler, J. (1986). “Sex and gender in Simone de Beauvoir’s “Second Sex””. Yale French Studies, 72: pp.35-49.

Simons, M. (1999). Beauvoir and “The Second Sex”: Feminism, race and the origins of existentialism. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Veltman, A. (2004). “The Sisyphean torture of housework: Simone de Beauvoir and inequitable divisions of domestic work in marriage.” Hypatia, 19.3: pp.121-143.

Society considers art as a reflection of what is happening in the world, as well as the different types of personalities that people portray. Consequently, society expects that the modern spectator go beyond merely sharing the artist’s experiences to interpret for him or herself the meaning of these. The cathartic role of the modern spectator has thus been reduced, as he or she is no longer the passive participant, seated in a theater hall or cinema, merely watching a piece of art. Instead, he or she has been made to take up an active role of learning from the works of art, in order to create change for him or her and the society as a whole. The discussion includes what is meant by the cathartic role of the modern spectator, how it has diminished in the new form of theater, and whether it is possible for him or her to reclaim it.

1 Eva Berczeller. “The Aesthetic Feeling and Aristotle’s Catharsis Theory.” The Journal of Psychology 65, (1967): 261-71.

2 Esta Powell. Catharsis in psychology and beyond: a historic overview. Accessed 13 January 2011 http://primal- page.com/cathar.htm

Schultz and Schultz’s definition of catharsis considers it as a psychic process where unconscious thoughts and feelings are made conscious, therefore, allowing the individual to express himself in manner that can be understood.3. Similarly, Szczeklik considers catharsis from as a technique by which an individual lets go of his emotions which are related to unpleasant experiences in the past.4

Aristotle considered catharsis as the process by which spectators set themselves free from the emotions that a piece of art triggers in them, such that they obtain relief and a sense of inner peace. In other words, experiencing catharsis had moral and ethical implications because it helped to moderate passions and strong emotions, therefore restoring the balance in one’s life. The pleasure of releasing one’s emotions resulted in a relief from disturbances such as pity and fear. He saw catharsis as aiming at creating a nice and gratifying feeling of relief to the spectator. Evidently, the word catharsis takes on different meanings in different fields of knowledge, but what these definitions have in common are the aspects of cleansing or purging, releasing of emotions brought about by a person’s experiences. Esta Powell affirms this by saying that, catharsis takes different forms but its essence remains the same, since it is a release from some burden (either physical or mental) and brings healing through its purging effect. 5 Consequently, the underlying notion of purging that has made scholars acknowledge catharsis as a healing, cleansing, and transforming experience, a technique that can be used to bring about a therapeutic change.

______________

3 Esta Powell. Catharsis in psychology and beyond: a historic overview, Accessed 13 January 2011 http://primal- page.com/cathar.htm

4 Andrzej Szczeklik. Catharsis: on the art of medicine. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2005

5 Duane Schultz and Sydney Schultz A history of modern psychology. Belmont, ca: Wadsworth/Thompson. 2004.

In the sphere of theater, catharsis is used to refer to any discharge of emotions; in this case, an audience releases his or her emotions while watching a drama in any suitable method and channel. The spectator therefore has a role to play in theater, in that; he or she is deemed to express the emotions aroused by theatric activities.

How does catharsis occur in theatre? According to Esta Powell, artists use different strategies to trigger strong emotional displays in their audiences. Many artists use the effect of surprise and unexpectedness to bring about catharsis. For example, in the Greek tragedy “Oedipus rex,” Oedipus experiences catharsis when he feels culpable of murdering his father, marrying his mother, who later commits suicide and the loneliness he feels as a result. 7

Scheff believes that human beings strive to engage in activities that will enable them free themselves from hurtful emotional experiences, and therefore obtain a sense of calm. He gives the example of a spectator who cries about a character who dies in a play. This, he notes, is simply a reawakening of feelings of loss in the viewer’s life and he or she is reliving unresolved personal experiences. He explains this by saying that theater provides for the audience a safe distance from personal experiences. This is because the social environment of a theater lessens the effect of emotions arising from unpleasant events, as the audience believes that an individual is sympathizing with a play character and not with himself.9

____________

7 Esta Powell. Catharsis in psychology and beyond: a historic overview, accessed 13 January 2011 http://primal- page.com/cathar.htm

8 Andrzej Szczeklik, Catharsis: on the art of medicine. Chicago: (The University of Chicago Press, 2005).

9 Thomas Scheff Catharsis in healing, ritual, and drama. Lincoln, ne:( iuniverse.com, 2001).

However, the cathartic role of the spectator has diminished due to modernism. The two major personalities, who have opposed the norms of traditional theater and called for a revolution in its practices, are Bertolt Brecht and Antonin Artaud. Tuirenn Hurstfield notes that theater artists Bertolt Brecht and Antonin Artaud were both frustrated by the traditional theaters’ illusions of imitating reality. In retaliation, they advocated for change. Artaud, feeling the idea of theatre had been lost, moved towards his theatre of cruelty while Brecht, refuting the drama of his time as still following Aristotle’s idea of catharsis, moved towards a non-Aristotelian mode of theater.10 In what he calls a new form of theater, that is, epic theater. Brecht argues that the spectator is no longer just an observer, but also an actor.

Brecht distinguishes this situation from that of what he calls dramatic theatre, or in other words, Aristotle’s view of theatre, where the spectator is merely an observer, sharing the experience of the actor. He considers catharsis as a way of bringing about greater social change. Pericles Lewis affirms this by saying that Brecht’s idea of epic theater appealed to reason rather than the expression of emotions and sought to turn the spectator into an observer, who stands aside, separates himself from the action of the play, and studies it. In this respect, what Brecht was doing was to stand against a dominant tradition in theater, which aimed to have the spectator involved in and sharing the experience of the play. In addition, Brecht was against identification or sympathy between the spectators and the actors, which was characteristic of Aristotle’s idea of catharsis.

_____________

10 Hurstfield Tuirenn, Bertolt Brecht and Antonin Artaud’s revolutionary theatre practices, last modified Aug 28, 2008, http://www.suite101.com/content/bertolt-brecht-antonin-artaud-a66380

11 Pericles Lewis, The Cambridge Introduction to modernism Cambridge: (Cambridge Press, 2007).193- 194.

Pericles Lewis notes that Brecht advocates for a separation between the spectator and the action of the play as well as its characters, so that he is able to reflect on his theatric experience in a rational manner, void of the influence of emotions. In other words, Brecht maintained that the spectator’s experience should not stop with the emotional reaction that the play elicits, but should cause a distanced reflection based on that emotional reaction. 12

In conclusion, it appears then, that the modern spectator cannot reclaim his or her cathartic role, since scholars place more emphasis on what moral lessons the theatric activities can offer him or her, other than the emotional relief. This is difficult for the modern spectator because we are not only rational but also emotional beings. Creating a balance between the two aspects of human existence puts the modern spectator in a dilemma, as he cannot ignore the feelings that a theatric spectacle elicits in him. At the same time, he has to reflect on the didactic intentions of the artist or the creator of the play. The modern spectator has to see beyond the feelings he has of the action as well as the characters in the play, and consider the social or political action that he is supposed to take because of his emotional reaction. In other words, the sentiments that any piece of art elicits in the spectator should serve as motivation for him to implement the lessons learnt. They should assist him in bringing about the so desired social and political changes in our world today; otherwise, art will have failed in its ultimate role.

________________

12 Pericles Lewis, The Cambridge Introduction to modernism Cambridge: (Cambridge University Press, 2007). 191.

This piece uncovers both the physiological and scientific actions behind the presentation of the voice. As an actor, theatre practitioner or theorist, we become aware that the presentation of communication is not a mere ability to speak, but an action from a complex organ which is bound up with our emotions and understanding which directs our physiological reflexes. For Linklater, the conveying of emotion must mean the feeling of emotion since our voice is powered by our very breath. Breath is chemically and physically linked to the body’s capacity and state of serenity. The natural relaxed voice occurs when the body is harmonious, relaxed and warm but any element of stress, excitement distraction can cause breath influxes which create tension and resonance which creates a new tone and inflection. (Linklater, 1976)

Linklater’s next piece continues that communication with the voice is not always the conveying of speech. However, in Western theatre it is recognised that speech and language is a primary form of expression. The voice and the actor must therefore become one. Both must be in their neutral state but not joined as they are in the actor’s human life but rejoined, both neutral and aligned to negotiate the new adornment of character in which to convey new expression. In this sense the actors own imagery behind their speech must be put aside and a new imagery must come from the character, this must occur organically, through exercises and development. Only here can the actor and their voice become unique and spontaneous in their role.

Furthermore the learning of lines must be absorbed into the heart creating an understanding between the actor and their role. The actor must know more than the character in order to respond instinctively and naturally vocally within the action. (Linklater, 2006)

Berry: Vocal Development

In this chapter Berry focuses on the theory behind the vocal exercises he developed. These exercises help to convey how Linklaters ideas can be worked. For Berry the voice of the actor must be separated from the voice of the person and preconceived ideas. The way the individual communicates, their own anxieties and tensions must be removed in order to release full vocal potential. Berry laments that one can only get the best vocally if exercises are partaken. There are three stages of development for Berry. The first is relaxation and breathing. In this stage the actor develops the ability for vocal power by increasing the use of the lips and tongue. The second stage is the application of this to the actor’s role. They must be aware that their own vocal inhibitions are bound up with their acting voice, and that what they hear is not what the audience hears. Relying on their own voice would lead to a predictable style of acting, instead the actor must use these exercise to free the voice and allow the emotion of the role to become one with the voice, preventing the need for predictable pushing out and expression of emotions. Finally the third stage is the belief in both the exercises and an understanding of the second stage to create vocal freedom. The development of the voice through these three stages of exercises will create a new freedom, allowing the voice to respond instinctively to the action, beyond thought and technicality of the actors thoughts, but instead naturally and freely. (Berry, 1978)

Lecoq: The Art of Mime

Contrary to mime’s generic image of speechless and silent expression, Lecoq’s writings on mime express the important of the voice and indeed the concepts of freedom in movement and vocal as discussed above. Fundamentally Lecoq rejects the notion of mime being the expression of words without sound. The cliched image of the mime, with exaggerated movements and facial expression, Lecoq would suggest fails to convey the practice of mime and its true art form. Mime in its simplest form is the idea of imitation. Here we can understand the art of dramatic mime that Lecoq discusses. This is creation of a theatrical situation with the body, often involving the impersonation of people’s. Such artists create the illusion of the person they mimic, vocally, in body and action. Their art lies in the ability to be this person in alternate scenarios. The actor must feel the movement, gestures and emotions as if they are their own, only the theatrics occurs when the addition of the actors true self is added, their ownership of the movements produces the essence of mimicry. Symbolic mime requires the actor to partake in absolute mime, creating the environment and opening the audience’s imagination. This requires a consistency of action, an understanding of the weight, placement and true abilities of the objects in the illusion. Finally there is the use of plastic mime, the use of the body as a language perhaps used with the constraints of face masks. The body must convey the story whilst the face illuminates the emotion. Lecoq theories a system for conveying mime through exercises designed to able the body. However, Lecoq laments that this system of exercises once used must be discarded of a true and spontaneous performance is to be conveyed. The body moves spontaneously, with reflective action and the system of exercises must not prevent this. All rhythm is organic and no two rhythms are the same and this is key to the creation of the art of mime. (Lecoq, 2006)

Jos Houben: The Neutral Mask

Once again this piece focuses on the freedom of expression necessary in acting. Through mask work, Shrubsall speaks of Houben’s techniques, as inspired by Mosho Feldenkrais and Jacques Lecoq. The ability to separate and un-clutter one’s own psychology which lays behind all our human movement, readying the body for meaningful spontaneous movement using techniques such as understanding the relationship between different parts of the body and their related movements. This is conveyed in the important of the mask in acting. The mask will only exist if there is a connection between the actor and the mask. They must become the mask. When the actor looks to the sky, the mask must convey this use of sight, his head expressing the movement and his back and shoulders responding as such. This piece is about the use of organic and functional movement, free from judgement and prior interpretation. (Shrubsall, 2002)

Murray: Practical Exercises

In this chapter Murray attempts to produce a series of exercises in which to share the experience of Lecoq’s theatre and understanding how to prepare one’s body for theatre as expressed by Lecoq. Murray defines the fundamental principles behind Lecoq’s theories and hence his exercises. It is the idea that essentially movement provokes emotion and the body remembers this. This chapter focuses mainly on the teaching of these actual exercises rather than the theory behind but considers most primarily the body’s relationship between push and pull, balance and imbalance in the creation of Lecoq’s work on tragedy, melodrama the neural mask and commedia del’arte. (Murray, 2003)

Conclusion

There is a theme within these readings, that of body and movement in space and time incorporating ideas of freedom without influence. In order to grasp this freedom the readings suggest that the use of exercises is of prime importance for the natural, free vocal and bodied actor. The muscles of the mind and body must be warm and content in order to open up the actor’s full potential. There is the suggestion that acting without such consideration is meaningless and insincere. That to act is to be free from our human constraints.