| 1. |
- Bergenhorn, Mats
(författare)
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Öppna universum! : slutna traditioner i Salman Rushdies Satansverserna
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis in islamology shows how Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses (1988) examines questions concerning religion, nationality, race, and power, compromise and authenticity in a time when different global processes have created new ways of perceiving and relating to different traditions. It examines how The Satanic Verses portrays how people apprehend themselves and others when the conditions for these traditions are changing, and the potential threats of religious fundamentalism, nationalism and racism. The thesis makes use of Mikhail Bakhtins theories of literature and language not only to analyze the novel and its artistic devices but also as a means of approaching and conceptualizing a multiplicity of different historical and contemporary discourses. Bakhtins thoughts about heteroglossia, hybridity and centrifugal and centripetal forces are useful for an understanding of different ways of perceiving discourses about religion, nationality and race. His understanding of genres as ways of seeing, through which we perceive and visualize the world, is used in the thesis to analyze The Satanic Verses' treatment of these issues. The thesis shows how The Satanic Verses depicts how conceptions of Englishness and Britishness are being used in racist doctrines and acts. The novel throws into light some of the consequences that these doctrines and acts have for those who are living in Great Britain but not considered part of these conceptions. The analysis of The Satanic Verses' treatment of religious issues is divided into three parts. In the first part the thesis suggests that the novel can be read as a critical dialogue with episodes, characters and beliefs from Islamic traditions as they are perceived, delineated, interpreted and put to use in both Muslim and non-Muslim accounts and acts. The second part offers an analysis of The Satanic Verses' criticism of Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic revolution of Iran. The thesis shows how the novel uses allusions to the reports of Muhammeds' nightly journey to Jerusalem, isra, and the following ascension, miraj. The last part depicts The Satanic Verses' critique of some of the consequences of Hindu nationalism and some of its conceptions of India.
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| 2. |
- Carlsson, Leif Å
(författare)
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Round Trips to Heaven : Otherworldly Travelers in Early Judaism and Christianity
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the beginning of the Common Era, a number of religious texts were written recounting heavenly journey adventures. These narratives have come to constitute a recurring theme in research regarding ancient religions. Round Trips to Heaven features several early Jewish and Christian heavenly journey texts. Most of them are included in the apocalyptic literature. During the earlier research, the heavenly journey motif was understood to be one of many elements in this literature. It was not until the latter part of the 20th century that the stories of the heavenly journeys were treated as a type of their own among these texts. The approach of this study serves to illuminate the function of the texts and the circumstances and settings in which they were composed and later passed on, something which scholars have only recently begun to acknowledge. Of vital importance is the status of the heavenly travelers as well as their relationships with other members of the Tradition Group considered to have authored the texts. Two main types of heavenly journeys appear in the accounts. One type has the function of providing an identity for the heavenly traveler, and the other constitutes a paradigm for the events awaiting mankind after death. The concluding section of the book is a relatively long exposition of 3 Baruch. This text, which in its entirety portrays a heavenly journey, informs the reader about death. In common with a number of other heavenly journey texts, 3 Baruch has both Jewish and Christian elements. Moreover, it clearly reflects a universal perspective. A similar perspective is also found in several of the other heavenly journey narratives which provides a reasonable explanation for how they could be used in both Jewish and Christian contexts.
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| 3. |
- Hellner Taylor, Kristina
(författare)
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"Who are you to tell us our history?" : kultur och religion i hawaiianers möte med amerikansk mission
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The life and history of the Hawaiians has been documented ever since the contact with Western adventurers at the end of the 18th century. In connection with the arrival of American missionaries in 1820, these missionaries introduced and established a puritanical doctrine and method of communicating knowledge by way of the written word. The encounters between the different cultures have been described as peaceful. It has, however, proven that these descriptions are not entirely truthful – there is another side to the story. It is thus reasonable to ask how the introduction to the Christian doctrine and so-called Western civilisation unfolded. Many Hawaiian academics and researchers emphasise that the way history has hitherto been written, which is considered colonial both in composition and expression, should be revised. It has become apparent that situations of conflict and resistance existed from the first encounter with Westerners, a fact that has not been made clear in the writing of history to date. Hence, relevant questions are: How have "we" Westerners interpreted and understood the Hawaiian culture and history? How has this understanding and interpretation been perceived by the Hawaiians themselves? In this thesis, focus is directed at the encounters that occurred between missionaries and Hawaiians chiefly in the first half of the 19th century. In these situations of encounter, a number of problems arose as a consequence of disparate opinions concerning the outlook on the human body, modes of dressing, sexuality, education, knowledge and, not least, opinions on social relationships. The strategies of dealing with these issues and situations, from the part of the Hawaiians as well as the missionaries, are in this context of utmost importance. Higly significant and also discussed, is the role of the missionaries as civilizational colonialists, and the colonial context in which the missionaries not only acted, but also generated. Thus, the aim and direction of this thesis is to locate, document and discuss discrepancies between the two cultural groups in the apprehension of history, civilization, culture, behavior, morality and religion. Furthermore, the intent is to question previous writings of Hawaiian history, and its angles, with the purpose not only to find a wider but also a new understanding of Hawaiian culture and histoy.
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| 4. |
- Kull, Ann
(författare)
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Piety and Politics : Nurcholish Madjid and His Interpretation of Islam in Modern Indonesia
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation in the field of Islamic studies offers a critical analysis of Nurcholish Madjid's attempt to interpret Islam within the framework of modern Indonesia. Nurcholish, who recently passed away at the age of sixty-six, had been active in the reform of Islamic thought for over thirty years, and while remaining deeply coloured by the local Indonesian context, was also part of a global and century-old tradition of reform. Nurcholish developed a contextual approach both to the Qur'an and to a variety of other sources from Muslim history. In this regard the "Constitution of Madinah" and the works of Ibn Taymiyya had been of particular importance. Nurcholish's understanding of Ibn Taymiyya, for example, was instrumental in the formation of his own inclusive view of religion; however, such an understanding of Ibn Taymiyya is not common. Throughout his career Nurcholish attempted to negotiate Islam and modernity by way of a contextual and collective ijtihad. His intent had been to formulate common values that favour social justice, religious pluralism and tolerance, as well as democracy. He failed, however, to address the issue of gender equality in a systematic manner. Spirituality and the Islamic concept of takwa, or ?god-consciousness?, played a continuous and increasingly important role in Nurcholish's interpretation of Islam. These ideas also provided the foundation for the realisation of his societal and political aims. He was therefore active in the spheres of both piety and politics. The aim of this dissertation is twofold. Firstly, it is a study in the tradition of the history of ideas, and thus attempts an analysis of Nurcholish's ideational production and methodological approach. Secondly, it aims to locate Nurcholish's ideas and activities within the Indonesian context. To this end it provides a presentation of his life, intellectual influences and an overview of relevant historical facts. In addition it presents a variety of material collected during several periods of fieldwork in Jakarta. This material discusses the diffusion of Nurcholish's ideas through higher Islamic education, the socio-religious organisation Paramadina, and his role as an independent public intellectual. His target groups had been the Indonesian middle class and elite, many of whom have been drawn to his ideas over the years. Then again Nurcholish's ideas and activities have been subject to criticism from both conservative and secular elements in Indonesia. This study includes an examination of these critiques as well.
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| 5. |
- Möller, André
(författare)
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Ramadan in Java : The Joy and Jihad of Ritual Fasting
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- FASTING DURING THE holy month of Ramadan is both a joy and a jihad for the Islamic community in Java, and it is arguably the most highly esteemed Muslim ritual in Indonesia (and beyond). To be given the opportunity to abstain from food, drink and sexual relations from the early morning hours until sunset during an entire month in a tropical climate - only to fill the nights with additional and supererogatory Ramadanic rituals - is thus waited upon each year and seen as a true blessing. This is, according to the Javanese, what rightly can be denoted as the "greater jihad." It is thus a struggle or exertion (jihad) that is both harder and more important within Islam than the "lesser jihad", or physical warfare, and it is directed towards one's own self and worldly desires. Taking into consideration that this month of fasting is of such immense importance to Muslims in Java and elsewhere, it is rather surprising to see how little scholarly activity it has caused. Indeed, the academic attention directed towards Islamic rituals in general has been rather unsubstantial, and Ramadanic fasting makes no exception in this respect. Ramadan in Java: The Joy and Jihad of Ritual Fasting aims at reducing this gap in the literature on Islamic cultures, and provides its readers with ways of approaching and understanding Ramadan - and various different Islamic phenomena - in Indonesia and in other parts of the Muslim world. It is argued that we preferably may approach Islam from three different angles, that is, to discuss it from the normative, the written, and the lived perspectives respectively. In this study, thorough attention is thus directed not only to the classical and normative Islamic texts and the lived reality in Java, but also to the popular and contemporary Indonesian literature on Ramadan.
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| 6. |
- Steen Larsen, Lars
(författare)
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Western esoterism : Ultimate Sacred Postulates and Ritual Fields
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The greater part of Western Esoterism holds beliefs in five important matrices. This branch of esoterism, rooted in a Hermetic milieu, is labelled dialectical esoterism because of the dialectical relationship between the ‘lower’ (man, earth) and the ‘higher’ (heaven, the divine, God). These five matrices are: I: Purpose (pronoia), rather than karma or sin. II: The dialectical relationship between Man and God (or the divine), including the healing of other people, society and/or the Earth. III: The inter-dependency of Dualism and Monism, including the mind and/or the world as a stairway to heaven. IV: Scientific laws are synonymous with spiritual principles. V: The holistic cosmos, including the concept of ‘sympathy’ between its parts. The aim of this thesis is to make clear that Western Esoterism is unique because of the presence of the five matrices and deals with both ‘beliefs’ (recognition) and ‘doing’ (religious practices, e.g. astrology, alchemy, magic and clairvoyance). As a consequence it is also demonstrated that foreign religious ideas and practices can be assimilated because they are transformed and hence adopt new meanings in order to fit the important USP of Western Esoterism.
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