Kebra Negast

For class on Wednesday, we have to read an excerpt from the book Kebra Negast. This excerpt tells the story about the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. The story goes something like this. The Queen of Sheba had heard of the wisdom that King Solomon possessed. She decided to travel to him and figure out where he got all of his wisdom from. After finding the king, he said to the Queen that his wisdom comes from the Lord. With this, the Queen of Sheba stopped worshipping the God of the Sun and started worshipping the Lord, the creator. She then went back to her homeland, which is Ethiopia, and spreads the worship of the Lord throughout the country. Here is a link to the complete, but shortened version, of the story. (There are other details to the story, but they are not relevant.) So, how does this story change one's perspective on Ethiopia?

For me, personally, because of my lack of knowledge of Ethiopia, this story has changed my perspective of the country immensely. I never knew that they had so much of a strong religious history. This religious history shows me how much of a religious influence a queen had on her nation. She was able to convert many of her citizens to the religion that she was practicing. It shows me the amount of respect and trust that her citizens had for her. Then I think about how my perspective of Ethiopia would change, if this story was not real. After thinking about it, I feel that my perspective would not change. Even if the story isn't true, the mere existence of the story shows their respect in the queen, because of her role as the main character of the story.

Conceptual Blending and Religion?

I just finished reading Conceptual Blending and Analogy by Gilles Fauconnier. This was a very interesting article on conceptual blending. Conceptual blending is a theory of the human brain. The theory says that the human mind takes different complex and abstract thoughts and turns them into everyday language, in a sense. To explain it more simply, we as humans, almost manipulate various ideas in different ways so that can understand it easily. (Here is the whole article on conceptual blending.)

So this idea of conceptual blending, how can it be applied to the study of religion? We always emphasized in class that studying religion should be completely objective. We need to look at these religions from the outside, and not let it interfere with out own beliefs. (I found a really cool website on the study of religion, click here to see it.) With this in mind, we not only study the different beliefs of the religions, but we also study the different groups of people practicing the religions. We want to figure out why and how these people are believing what they are. This is where the idea of conceptual blending comes into play!

In studying religion, we can use the theory of conceptual blending to help answer the question of how people of different religions believe what they believe. They blend different abstract ideas together that are given to them in their sacred scripture and relate it to their everyday lives. This what Christianity does with the Bible, Judaism does with the Torah, etc. The idea of conceptual blending is essential to really understanding different religions around the world, because we are able to get a glimpse into the followers' beliefs.

Religion in Happy Feet!

A week ago we watched a part of the movie Happy Feet in my religious studies class. The movie is about a penguin named Mumble. Mumble can't sing, but he is able to tap dance. The colony kicks him out of the community, because they think his inability to sing is the reason why there is a scarcity of fish. On his journey, Mumble uses his tap dancing skills to get his colony noticed by humans. This allows the colony to get more fish, because the fishermen will stop fishing there. With this gesture, the colony accepts Mumble back into the community. (Here's more information about the movie!)

Afterwards, we connected the movie to religion two different ways. One concept is that Mumble is a prophet of sort. What the colony did to him was similar to what happened to other prophets in other religions. They were exiled from a group for their beliefs, but they were allowed to go back to their communities after they were able to show evidence for the validity of their beliefs. Another way we connected the movie to religion is the sense of the importance of community. In most religions, people cherish the sense of community that they create with others who believe in the same things that they believe in.

I think that this sense of community being in most religions is very interesting. People are always drawn to be a part of groups that share the same beliefs that they do. This is the same with many religions. This gets me thinking about why this sense of community in religion is so important. Is it because people like to know that other people have the same beliefs that they have and that they aren't crazy? Is it because they feel a greater power by being in a large group than by being alone? Are there other benefits to practicing religion in a large group of people?

After writing this blog, I actually found an article that answers this question about community. HERE IT IS.

In the second book of St. Augustine's On Christian Teaching, he writes about very interesting concepts that can be used to interpret the Psalms. Two main arguments he makes in his writings are the following. One thing Augustine specifies is the vast use of symbols in sacred texts. The second important concept that he makes in the second book is the ambiguity that is present in sacred texts, because of the type of writing they used during that time. Both of these points can very easily be used to interpret the Psalms.

In the Psalms, there are many symbols used throughout them that do not literally mean they have written down. For example, Psalm 23 verse 1 states, "The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want." This does not literally mean that God is a shepherd and the people that believe in God are livestock. It has a symbolic/metaphoric meaning. It is saying that God will guide all his followers on the right path, just like a shepherd does. (Click here for more Christian symbols in texts!)

In addition, the Psalms were written thousands of years ago. Due to this, the Psalms are written with language that is hard for us to understand today. (Click here to see the Psalms in their traditional forms!) However, because of translators, there have been many translations of the Psalms that make it much easier to interpret the Psalms for the average person. (Click here to see the "modern" version of the Psalms!) It is very evident that the second version of the Psalm is a lot easier to understand. It is important that we are aware of this ambiguity when reading the Psalms to make it easier for us to interpret them.

Interpretation of Religion?

There are so many things that I want to talk about, but I don't really know where to start. I guess I will start with the source of all of my many thoughts. In class today we talked about the different questions that are brought up in religion. What are important about the Psalms? Is religion scary? Is there a hard shell around religion, or is it intertwined with society? Is God a reflection of our social world? We discussed a lot of potential answers to these questions. The problem was that all of the answers made a lot of sense. This makes me think that religion is not always a clear cut set of beliefs and rituals.

The idea that religion is not a cookie cut interpretation for everyone makes me feel that religion can be open to interpretation. Some people might see a passage in sacred text differently than someone else does. Isn't this the whole idea of the "journey with God?" Everyone has a different way of bringing God into their lives, by interpreting texts and general rituals a little differently than everyone else does. I think that this individual interpretation is essential for anyone believing in God, because they have to find God for themselves, and not find God through what other people say about him.

This thought has got me thinking of different religions and different sides on this idea. It seems like some religions strive for people to interpret God for themselves and allow followers to see God a little differently from one another. However, there are some religions that have a set way that they want God to be interpreted. There is no way, in a religion with this mindset, that God can be seen even a little differently. Their views on him are pretty much identical. I guess this whole thing boils down to the interpretation of religion and the flexibility that is allowed in some religions and not in others. Is this caused by a certain group of people that are practicing the religion? Is it because of their scripture?

Psalm 18

Psalm 18 tells a story about David. (According to the beginning of the Psalms.) The main story line is that David asks for help from God. God, then answers to David's prayer. The ending is mostly David thanking God and telling him that God is the reason that he is having/living the life that is he living now. It seems like this Psalm's story is not very different than all of the other Psalms' stories. So, what makes this Psalm so unique?

The one element that really sprung out at me was the poetic language. I really enjoyed reading verses 7 through 19. I love the different imagery of God with nature, that the author of the Psalm has created here. My favorite verses are verses 13 and 14. "From the brilliance before Him His clouds moved ahead- / hail and fiery coals. / The LORD thundered from on high. / Elyon sent forth His voice- / hail and fiery coals." I love the image that these two verses create in my head. I have always thought that rain, hail, and lightning were mystical and magical phenomenon. I am excited that the author of this Psalm thought so too.

I think that all of these images of God as either a fighter or an aid in battle is not scary at all. I think that it shows the reader God's power in the world. He is the most power being on Earth because of all the things that he is capable of doing and the lengths he will endure to do what he wants to do. He is able to show us his power in the writings with different suggestions showing his ruling over both the natural world and the human world.

Here's the whole text of Psalm 18.

I was having trouble thinking of a topic to write about for my free response blog for class this week. I decided to google religion and see what kinds of websites would come up. The first few pages of websites were filled with typical religious websites talking about different religions, their beliefs, and sacred texts that have been put online. However, afterwards, I found a fascinating website through Valaparaiso University. (Click here to see the website.)

The website is an interactive website on church membership and religious affiliation in the United States. There are different links for different religions. After clicking the link, a map of the United States comes up showing the number of people practicing that religion in every county. For example, clicking on the Mormon religion would show a map of the United States. The map has counties shaded that have a high number of Mormons, predominately Utah for that particular religion.

I kept clicking on all of the religions to see what parts of the United States had the most people practicing a certain religion. It was kind of like an addiction, I couldn't stop. Finally, I found what I thought was the coolest part of the website. There was a link showing the leading religious bodies in all of the counties in the United States. It was so interesting to me how much each of the religions seemed to have a distinct area on the United States map. (Expect for Catholicism.) This got me thinking of how much the environment influences a persons' religious affiliations. I mean if religion could not be determined by environment, then this wouldn't happen, right?