Category Archives: Ideas

Art, Pilgrimage and London Stations

Among the many interests of the researchers on the AHRC funded project Pilgrimage and England’s Cathedrals, Past and Present [http://www.pilgrimageandcathedrals.ac.uk/about] is the role of art and material culture in English cathedrals: what sort of art is displayed in, and commissioned by, cathedrals, and how do people react to and interact with such art? I was fascinated, therefore, to learn of ‘Stations of the cross’, described on its own website as a

‘unique exhibition—held in 14 locations across London—[that] uses works of art to tell the story of the Passion in a new way, for people of different faiths. In this pilgrimage for art lovers, viewers will travel across London, mapping the geography of the Holy Land onto the streets of a “new Jerusalem”.’ [http://www.coexisthouse.org.uk/stations2016.html]

In some denominations of Christianity, the Stations of the Cross depict and reconstruct the last journey of Jesus through Jerusalem, from being condemned to death to being laid in his tomb. Around Easter especially, this relocation and replication of sacred time and place can take on a particular resonance. The rationale of the London Stations of the Cross art trail is to break up the traditional grouping which miniaturises the last journey within one space.  Instead, it spreads the 14 stations across London.  Artworks in a variety of locations (cathedrals, art galleries, churches, outdoor sites) are designated as particular stations, inviting contemplation of the works of art, their locations, and their contemporary resonances with each station’s traditional story.

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Some points on the Caliphate Past and Present

For non-Muslims the word caliph might bring to mind Harun al-Rashid, a caliph who features in a number of the fantastical tales of The Thousand and One Nights, as well as in for instance poems by Alfred Tennyson (‘Recollections of the Arabian Nights’) and W.B. Yeats (‘The Gift of Harun al-Rashid’), and in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses. The office of caliph and the institution of the caliphate have a complex and fascinating history. The recent proclamation by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), of a caliphate in Syria, prompted me to say a bit about this and comment on its current significance.

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Money, austerity and debt

On the 11th February in the midst of some of the most serious flooding the country has seen, Prime Minister David Cameron declared “money is no object”. Keen to justify ‘austerity’, Cameron had previously encouraged a household budget mentality that could count, save and spend a tangible and sensual money as a means of avoiding or erasing debt. To hear him speak of money as something intangible and beyond sensual apprehension forced pause for thought. So if money is “no object”, what is it?

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Islamic finance has something to teach us all and may have more freedom to flourish here in the UK

 During the last days of 2013 I found myself trying to explain to an old acquaintance why, although a non-Muslim myself, I have spent the last few years researching and writing about Islamic finance. Evidently I didn’t make a very good job of it, because eventually he pronounced that the only thing Islamic culture has ever contributed to the world is ‘some nice blue tiles’. Leaving aside any personal offence I may have taken, and without invoking the much disputed term Islamophobia (which I find problematic), this left me wondering why some people of Christian heritage seem so determined to deny that the Islamic tradition has anything to teach us at all. I believe that the area of finance and economics is one where an encounter with the Islamic tradition can be very rewarding for those not brought up in it.

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Defining religion

Front cover of Graham Harvey's Food, Sex and Strangers

Now and again, academics need to ponder the use of the words that appear to define their disciplines. Anthropologists have worried about “culture”, while “literature” has been debated in English. It isn’t that we claim ownership of particular topics, or that we think we have privileged access to phenomena that interest us. Usually the opposite is true. It’s possible to discuss everything as “culture” or “literature”. Scholars often revel in fertile debates when different disciplines say something provocative or fresh. Scholars of religion have been vigorously debating the meaning of the term “religion” recently. We’ve been considering where the boundaries lie between religion and whatever is “not religion”. Perhaps there are no boundaries. Those who are “not religious” (whether because they define themselves as “spiritual but not religious” or as atheists or secular humanists) often say or do things that clarify what it is that the study of religions focuses on.

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