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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (33044)	10/15/2001 3:36:49 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Originally, there was no great distinction between the polity and the cultus. In some instances, kings were regarded as divine, or at least priestly. In ancient Israel, God caused various Judges to arise, to lead the people, and when Israel demanded a king, he eventually anointed His Beloved, David, to establish the dynasty. People would not have known what to make of the assertion that religion is personal, since it would be obvious that there was a cosmic order into which earthly kingdoms, tribes, or cities fit. In the case of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, the assumption is that there is only one God, and that His sovereignty will eventually extend over the whole earth. Various sectarian differences have arisen over this Messianic expectation. In Judaism, political Messianism practically died at Masada, which is why so many pious Jews refuse to recognized the validity of Israel, as it has not awaited the advent of the Messiah. Christianity never had anything like political Messianism, expecting the Second Coming as a supernatural apocalypse. Islam has had both a more spiritualized expectation, and a more political exquivalent. The last great outburst of political Messianism in the Muslim world was in the Sudan, with the Mahdi and his followers, in the 19th century. However, the strain is present in today's "Hyper- Muslims". In any event, the more normal way of spreading the message and preparing for the Messianic Age is evangelization. However, Judaism has not been notable for such proselytization since the Roman period, when Christianity went off on its own, at its base, with semi- Judaized gentiles. Christianity, of course, had it embedded into its mission to go forth and evangelize. Islam had an evangelizing mission, but it was tied to its political fortunes, and therefore has been largely turned inward since the consolidation of the Muslim world. Judaism had an indiscriminate mix of political and cultic duties in the Torah, but after the destruction of the Second Temple, Rabbinic Judaism "spiritualized" many of the cultic practices, and disentangled the secular and religious laws. There has not been a similar change in Islam, so that there is often a crisis in Muslim countries about whether or not to follow shari'ah, which is the totality of the Muslim law, without distinction between secular and religious. That is why there is a basic problem with modernity in the Muslim world, even before some of the convictions that make terrorists. Finally, it makes a lot of sense that there should be an institution through which people can learn about God and discover those customs and practices which enable them to feel ensconced in their faith. God addresses himself to all. For those of us who do not find anything that quite suits, there may be a wistfulness that there is no community of faith to which we belong......