Religion Dispatches
…erican adoption of both religions are variants of Black thought about “the East,” and deserve to be thought of as Black forms of Orientalism—not in a pejorative sense, but in an affirmative and romantic sense. So at one point the book was at least twice as long, before I decided that the Islam/Orientalism piece needed to be a book of its own. Even then, the Black Israelites book continued for five more chapters concerning interactions and race rel…
Read More…lightened by them. Perhaps it will spark a desire, among those in both the East and the West, to share stories and engage in meaningful dialogue about the role of religion. Please read, share, and leave feedback in comments. – Shuang “Sherry” Liang 作者：Dan Mathewson 达伦·阿伦诺夫斯基的《诺亚方舟：创世之旅》，已成为永不消停的文化战争的最新角斗场。上映一周多来，有关它所引发的争议的报道终于令人欣慰地要接近饱和状态了。 我相信，只需稍微关注这场争论，你就能发现已听过无数次的内容了：保守派基督徒对[请插入流行词]“很生气”。不论是格莱美颁奖礼（集体婚礼中有同志新人）、美国艺术娱乐电台、奈尔·德葛拉司·泰森（从事科学传播出名的美国天文学…
Read More…th regards to the missionary message of ICEJ’s ministry and of its annual Feast in Jerusalem. This year, in a pre-feast ICEJ video clip, the International Director of ICEJ, Juha Ketola, interviewed messianic leader Asher Intrater. Intrater runs a wide network of missionary entities in Israel, which focus on evangelizing Jews. As in the past, Intrater is scheduled as a speaker at this year’s Feast in Jerusalem. (For more on Intrater, see my piece o…
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…ake the side of the elephant.” It’s a complicated relationship to say the least. Especially when so many elephants get killed in the aftermath of such conflict. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn anything from other creatures, for inquiring into the complex possibility of ecological spiritualities and humanisms might be morally creative and productive—not least in that they confront us with the complicated histories and legacies of the human ani…
Read More…zation has forced a conversation about what constitutes “real Islam.” Southeast Asia is home to many Islamic practices that are vernacular and syncretic which present a problem for legalistic models of Islam, such as Salafism. Before the age of new media, Muslims in Europe or the Middle East could not have cared less about how a Malaysian bomoh reflects on their tradition. But as much as some Muslims might regard figures like Mat Zin as obnoxious…
Read More…orld, our universe, not the flat earth with arcing sun of the ancient near east. A Nimbus of White Light The choice that most concerns me is Aronofsky’s creation of an all white world, in the image of God. In flashbacks to the first humans they are surrounded with a nimbus of light transparent enough to see their lily-white skins. Noah speaks of the destruction of the whole world and eventually, with great reluctance, the re-peopling of the worl…
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…a in the south, a story about drone strike in Marib, just two hours to the east, is also emerging. But lunch is a very important time in Yemen. Three other reporters join us and we order rice, salta—a traditional Yemeni lamb dish—chicken, soup and piles of fresh bread. Because of Pesach, I don’t touch the bread. I’m eating my salta with a spoon instead of scooping it with a handful of bread and Khalid raises his eyebrows. In Yemen, a meal without…
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…bbouni “is, in fact, excellent Mishnaic Hebrew” because “It is attested in Codex Kaufmann of Mishna Ta`anit 3.8.” This sounds impressive until one actually reads Codex Kaufmann, a priceless source for early Rabbinic Hebrew. What Buth neglects to mention is that this form appears only once, as opposed to over 50 instances of the normal Hebrew forms “rab” or “rabbi.” He also doesn’t mention that, by contrast, this Aramaic term for “lord” is overwhel…
Read More…LeCompte and company made their ownpilgrimage to Sabbathday Lake and other East Coast Shaker sites; it was longtime company member Kate Valk’s first trip. The Wooster Group has a unique way of working with source material, beginning with a meticulous recreation of that source. The performers wear visible earpieces and microphones over their plain cotton dresses so as to stay in sync with the recording. The Shakers too, we find out, though famous f…
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…0 and his untimely death in 1931, Gibran was for all intents and purposes American, part of a thriving immigrant community in first Boston and then New York, where he lived, painted, and wrote in a studio apartment on East 10th Street. Adapting Gibran’s most famous book into a narrative film won’t be easy, which is why it hasn’t been done before, but Salma Hayek is just as qualified to do so as anyone else, perhaps more so….
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