Religious Context: Pre-Benedictine Reform Period

Author(s):  
Susan Irvine
Author(s):  
Arezou Azad

Covering the period from 709 to 871, this chapter traces the initial conversion of Afghanistan from Zoroastrianism and Buddhism to Islam. Highlighting the differential developments in four regions of Afghanistan, it discusses the very earliest history of Afghan Islam both as a religion and as a political system in the form of a caliphate.  The chapter draws on under-utilized sources, such as fourth to eighth century Bactrian documents from Tukharistan and medieval Arabic and Persian histories of Balkh, Herat and Sistan. In so doing, it offers a paradigm shift in the way early Islam is understood by arguing that it did not arrive in Afghanistan as a finished product, but instead grew out of Afghanistan’s multi-religious context. Through fusions with Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, early Abrahamic traditions, and local cult practices, the Islam that resulted was less an Arab Islam that was imported wholesale than a patchwork of various cultural practices.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Charu C Mishra

(International Seminar on Making of Gandhi, 10-12 March 2011, Shivaji Univ. Kolhapur) Abstinence is a voluntary act of restraint from indulging in bodily activities that are widely experienced as giving pleasure. Most frequently, the term refers to Sexual abstinence or abstention from alcohol or food. The practice can arise from religious prohibitions or practical considerations. Abstinence has diverse forms. Commonly it refers to a temporary or partial abstinence from food, as in fasting. Because the regimen is intended to be a conscious act, freely chosen to enhance life, abstinence is sometimes distinguished from the psychological mechanism of repression. The latter is an unconscious state, having unhealthy consequences. Freud termed the channeling of sexual energies into other more culturally or socially acceptable activities through “sublimation”. Abstinence may also arise from an ascetic element, present in most faiths, or from a subjective need for spiritual discipline. In its religious context, abstinence is meant to elevate the believer beyond the normal life


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manoj Kumar Sinha

Since 1991, India has cautiously and slowly opened almost all the sectors, except a few related to strategic importance, for foreign investors. Degree of openness of various industrial sectors for FDI has been increased to the extent of 100 percent by consistently liberalizing industrial policies of the sectors. The purpose of the paper is to study pattern and trends of sectoral distribution of FDI within the background of the first generation reforms and liberalized industrial policies during 1991-2001. The paper has used series of the dynamics and stylistic indices and statistical tools such as three level indices, index of rank dominance, and correlation matrices for explaining the pattern of FDI distribution across sectors during 1991-2001. The results show that electrical, transportation, chemical, telecommunication, and service sectors are most dominating sectors and represent almost 75 percent of total FDI received during 1991-2001. Index of rank dominance indicates distribution of FDI across the sectors is top heavy.


This chapter reviews the book Love, Marriage, and Jewish Families: Paradoxes of a Social Revolution (2015), edited by Sylvia Barack Fishman. Love, Marriage, and Jewish Families deals with topics that intersect Jewishness, religion, nationality, gender and sexual identities, and life course perspectives. It shows that Jewishness cannot be understood without intersectional analysis of its national and cultural context (illustrated by the United States and Israel), religious context, its temporal context, and its life course context. Fishman explores the ways in which the U.S. and Israeli contexts are significantly different with regard to Jewish families and family orientations; how childrearing among gay and lesbian couples entails different challenges than among heterosexual couples; the added dimension to combining work and family in the case of religiously observant families; and how the overwhelmingly secular outside society can serve to empower haredi women in a shift toward egalitarianism.


Author(s):  
Walter Pohl

When the Gothic War began in Italy in 535, the country still conserved many features of classical culture and late antique administration. Much of that was lost in the political upheavals of the following decades. Building on Chris Wickham’s work, this contribution sketches an integrated perspective of these changes, attempting to relate the contingency of events to the logic of long-term change, discussing political options in relation to military and economic means, and asking in what ways the erosion of consensus may be understood in a cultural and religious context. What was the role of military entrepreneurs of more or less barbarian or Roman extraction in the distribution or destruction of resources? How did Christianity contribute to the transformation of ancient society? The old model of barbarian invasions can contribute little to understanding this complex process. It is remarkable that for two generations, all political strategies in Italy ultimately failed.


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