Divine Source Research Articles

Voluntary and involuntary motor behaviours in the varieties of religious experience

Abstract Religion is a widespread feature of human life. Religions typically include both distinctive varieties of experience, and also a set of foundational beliefs. An additional, but often overlooked, part of many religions is their expression through specific actions, which we here designate religious motor behaviours. Here we describe these religious motor behaviours, and offer a taxonomy based on the conceptual schemes of movement neuroscience and neurology. Thus, religious rituals include both behaviours characterised by decreased motor output (e.g., ritualistic silence), and behaviours characterised by increased motor output (e.g., ritual dances). Neurology often also distinguishes between movements that are experienced as voluntary or involuntary. We show that this same distinction can also apply to religious experiences, since these may be characterised either by a heightened sense of personal control, or a sense of being controlled by an external, divine source. We then use these conceptual structures of movement neuroscience to investigate examples from a wide range of religious contexts. We thereby categorise religious motor behaviours into different classes, focussing on specific examples: repetitive ritual actions; motor behaviours where the experience of volition is altered, such as automatisms; and possession-like states. We suggest that a scientific approach to these behaviours should include their predominant phenomenological presentation, the accompanying subjective experience of volition, and the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms. This investigation shows rich parallels between religious motor behaviours and motor behaviours observed in neurological disorders, including those that present with functional neurological symptoms. Our approach does not and should not pathologise religious motor behaviours, but rather draws attention to a rich set of non-clinical motor phenomena that highlight important social, cultural and psychological elements of human movement control. Movement neuroscience and religious activity have unexplored overlaps and can usefully learn from each other.

Oneness in the Laws of Social Norms and the Incoherence of Polytheism and Atheism

The research represents a scholarly endeavor to open a new dimension in the realm of social norms, deliberating on monotheism amidst the challenges of polytheism and atheism. It delves deeply into the study of the characteristics and attributes of social norms, recognizing their exclusive emanation from a singular divine source. The research problem is structured around resolving the debate within scientific circles that Allah alone cannot govern the human world independently; rather, there exist superior entities capable of influencing and altering destiny, sometimes substituting the divine with mythical entities or alternative systems. The primary objectives of the research include establishing the concept of Allah's unity and its manifestations within social norms. Utilizing a critical-analytical methodology, the study highlights the necessity for deeper exploration of social norms through various approaches. Each investigation, guided by scientific rigor and objectivity, inevitably concludes with a firm conviction in the excellence of Allah and His continuous governance of existence. Furthermore, both ancient and modern atheism face methodological crises in comprehending creation's origin, while polytheism acknowledges Allah's partial authority, yet perceives completeness only through associating additional forces to complement what they perceive as divine imperfections.

Islamic Constitutionalism in Pakistan

Abstract This article questions the lumpy character of understanding Islamic constitutionalism through all-pervasive models operating across time and space and reliance on classical texts as the ultimate reference for jurisprudence. It focuses on conflict and compromise among stakeholders in individual Muslim countries. Pakistan represents a ‘differentiated social formation’ underscored by dichotomy between modernity and tradition. The former is defined by a secular legal-institutional mechanism of authority inherited from British India, which seeks to accommodate the latter’s Islamic agenda through ideological symbolism, legal formalism and — under Gen. Zia’s martial law — cultivation of a divine source of legitimacy to counter the constitutional source of legitimacy in the form of mass mandate. In the face of outcry from modernists, the ulema fell back on a defensive strategy to safeguard their gains.

Duncan Black MacDonald's Intellectual Odyssey: A Critical Analysis of his Theological and Philosophical Contributions

From the very early days of Islam, its opponents tried to suppress the call for truth. Despite receiving an adequate and reasonable response, few of these opponents went beyond the limit instead of accepting the truth. This is still in practice by the people of same school of thought in modern times. But especially among Westerns, it took a form of irrational allegations. Most prominent of them were William Muire, and Margoliouth. Duncan Black MacDonald who tried to create misunderstandings through self-created assumptions upon the basic pillars of Islam as the very personality of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), state of revelation and Quran being a divine source. The Present research study is an analysis of the objections raised by D. B. MacDonald. He was a pioneering Scottish-American scholar whose work in Islamic studies and comparative theology left a significant mark on the academic landscape. His intellectual journey spanned a wide collection of disciplines, including theology, philosophy, and Islamic studies, positioning him as a crucial figure in the understanding of Islamic thought and its interactions with Western religious traditions. This research paper aims to present critical analysis of MacDonald’s theological and philosophical contributions, examining the status of his irrational allegations.

Faith and Works … Or Works and Faith? A Performative Faith in Samoan Churches

Christianity is the main religion in the Pacific Islands, and what is unique about Christianity in the Pacific is that religion cannot be separated from everyday life experiences. This is because the worship and veneration of a divine source is the foundation of Pacific cultures and worldviews. In the Samoan context, faith in the Christian God is not only a rational activity but a concrete, practical experience embracing the physical and emotional manifestation of one’s faith in God. This essay is a contextual theology paper examining the significance of applying authentic expressions of the gospel from a Samoan cultural worldview while acknowledging Christian traditions passed down by Western missionaries of the 19th century. Faith in God, without good works, is impossible in the Samoan context. This is because service to God and one another is imperative to social cohesion and prosperity. The physical manifestation of one’s faith through active, committed service to the church ministry is a sign of good faith, evident through excessive monetary offerings, responsibility for fulfilling specific roles in the ministry and a commitment to all church programs. The Samoan cultural nuance of community and service helps form an authentic expression of Samoan Christian identity.

POINTS OF LINGUISTIC STUDIES AND LANGUAGE TEACHING PERTINENT TO ISLAMIC VALUES

Purpose: This paper reveals the points of linguistic studies and that of language teaching which are relevant to Islamic values. Introduction: Interdisciplinary discussions on linguistic underpinnings including functional linguistics and language teaching principles, and Islamic perspectives have insufficiently been explored. Hence, the study focusing on such a relation gains significance. Method: Using an exploratory descriptive method, the data of this study were collected by exploring the linguistic axioms and language instructional principles which are relevant to Islamic knowledge conveyed in Qur’anic verses and Hadits. Having been collected, they were analyzed by thematic scrutiny, described, and concluded. The findings show that the linguistic points that are associated with Islamic values are the Divine source of language origin, the endowment of language acquisition devices, the compliance with maxims of quality and quantity in cooperative principles, that of politeness rules, and the existence of language variants. Conclusion: Concerning language teaching, the ideas that are appropriate to Islamic values include the importance of communicativeness and collaboration, the comprehensibility of instructional language, content-bound materials, and effective and efficient strategies.

Образ верховного правителя восточного государства на примере Японии

The article examines the essence of the image of the ruler of the countries of the East in medieval times, the origin of power and its connection with sacredness. The author draws attention to the uniqueness of the ruler, his divine source of power, a rather strong sacralization of power, directly related not only to the individuality of the ruler, but also to religion. The religious side played one of the leading roles in the choice of political system, the establishment of supreme power and the relationship between the people and their ruler.

The Threads That Weave Me

The Threads That Weave Me

“A Name Which to Them is Sacred”: Quakers and Religious Trademarks in American Enterprise

Abstract This article examines disputes surrounding the ownership and appropriation of the name “Quaker” in American enterprise in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. I focus specifically on efforts by the Society of Friends – colloquially known as the Quakers – to prohibit the use of the name of any religious church, denomination, society, or association in commerce, thereby rendering religious trademarks unregistrable. By exploring disputes around the Quaker name, I argue that the Society of Friends strategically appropriated terminology provided by trademark law (product origin, goodwill, distinctiveness) to claim ownership in the Quaker name while simultaneously arguing that religious names were sacred and thus could not be owned as a form of intellectual property. This historical debate provides insights to crucial questions about the spectral operation of trademark law in the United States. For instance, how are the taxonomies and logics of trademark law ‘possessed’ or spectrally animated by other pre-existing cultural/theological dimensions of ownership? Conversely, how does trademark law then reconstitute pre-existing logics around naming within religious organizations, for instance by providing new frames (the name as defense for consumer confusion or as guarantor of divine source) for understanding American religious practice?

Stars and Planets as a Divine Source of Design: Talismanic Shirts

For centuries, people believed that supernatural forces would solve the problems and disasters that they could not know the source of and could not solve. They tried to protect themselves by using objects and formations that they knew or believed to be sacred. Human beings living on earth believed that they were under the influence of the stars and the planets. People have benefited from the positions of the stars and planets in determining the appropriate time to find solutions to the problems in life and to gain success. They have applied to astrology for these purposes. In the production of talismanic shirts, which are designed with the belief that they will protect the wearer from evil, help from astrology taken by paying attention to the positions of the planets and stars.At the same time; space, planets and stars were also considered as design images on the shirts.
 In the production of the shirts, the fabric has been given the feature of paper and the positions of the stars and wanderers have been transferred to the shirt by creating a composition with prayers. The first example of works known as talismanic or healing shirts are found in the Qur'an, in the chapter of Yousef. The first example of the talismanic shirts found in the Topkapı Palace from the Ottoman Empire period is the shirt of Cem Sultan dated 1477.The shirts are decorated with prayers, verses, vekfs, cefrs, which are in a visually strong composition in certain forms and are in connection with each other, were custom made without the use of sewing.
 In this study; Inspired by the stars and planets, the talismanic shirts, which’ production timing was determined according to the positions of the stars and planets, were examined. For these purposes,a literature review has been made and some shirts have been examined and visualized.
 Keywords: Blessing, Shirt, Planet and Stars, Design, Talisman

And God Created a Woman – Contemplation of Beautiful Femininity in the Perspective of Christian Anthropology

The text of the article is inspired by the question: how to interpret the beauty of femininity revealed in the work of creation in order to understand it in all its richness? The thought of John Paul II helps us in this, taken from his theology of the body, which critically assesses contemporary reductionist trends with a materialistic tint. At the same time, based on the above-mentioned author, we expand our reflection based on other Christian authors with an analogous inspiration. Against the utilitarian proposal, there is an argument about the paradisiacal delight of female beauty experienced by the first man. Only starting from this perspective can one speak of a man's first vocation: to have and hold a woman as a gift. This logic of gift leads us to discover that the erotic is not necessarily associated with lust, or worse, with subsequent downfall. It remains a gift given to man if the erotic is inscribed in what is ethical. Hence the conclusion that the erotic sphere is capable of directing our experience positively, towards the experience of being moved by the other. We are not only at the level of satisfying natural needs. In this way, we discover a completely different dimension of beauty. Beauty revealed by the erotic thrill accompanying the contemplation of femininity. Here we come to the conclusion that it has the power to transcend our purely human, often reduced, understanding of the forces dormant in human nature. It even leads to a statement about the supernatural power of eros, towards fullness, towards what is ultimate. Only then will we be able to understand what role the Creator assigned to the experience of Adam's admiration for the beauty revealed in Eve's femininity. The communion of a man and a woman born in beauty directs us to the divine source - the communion of Persons in the Holy Trinity. In a sense, the beauty revealed in a woman, the more carnal it is, the more it reveals to us the most profoundly spiritual and infinite spheres. The final answer to the question about the beauty of femininity and its role in meeting a man is the figure of the one we call All Beautiful - Mary.

Athina Anastasaki

Athina Anastasaki shares her name with the Greek goddess of wisdom and war, so it might be tempting to ascribe her chemical acumen to some divine source. But she attributes her success in science to a lifelong love of learning and the guidance of good mentors rather than any intervention from mythical figures. Anastasaki grew up in Athens, Greece, and spent her summers swimming and hiking on the island of Crete, where her parents were from. “I spent my best part of the year in Crete—I feel this is part of my soul,” she says. Anastasaki recalls a childhood spent looking over X-ray films with her mother, a radiologist, and doing schoolwork alongside her father, a geology professor, as he kept up with the literature in his field. This academic atmosphere meant that she learned to like studying—“but not because I was told to study,” she says. A high school

Balancing the Inequities in Applying Natural Property Rights to Rights in Real or Intellectual Property

Eric Claeys’s book, Natural Property Rights, introduces a Lockean-based theory of interest-based natural property rights. Central to Claeys’s theory are the concepts of justified interests and productive use. A justified interest, Claeys writes, exists when an individual demonstrates a stronger interest in a resource than anyone else in the community and uses the resource productively in a manner that is “intelligent, purposeful, value-creating, . . . sociable,” and leads to survival or flourishing. Claeys’s theory demonstrates “how a standard justification for property gets implemented in practice” and how a community’s “goods” build on the individual’s goods. 
 Claeys’s community “goods” focus, however, is antithetical to a Lockean private property ownership theory, which prioritizes an individual’s interest, except for the provisos—no waste and enough and as good. Although Claeys adequately addresses the differences between his and Locke’s theories, Claeys’s regard for both community and individual interests causes one to question whether his theory is truly Lockean-based.
 Claeys’s book consists of four parts: Natural Law and Natural Rights (Part I), Property’s Foundations (Part II), Property Law (Part III), and Property in Law and Policy Generally (Part IV). This Article addresses Parts I and II and explores the defenses and justification for Claeys’s interest-based natural property rights theory under a Lockean framework. 
 This Article also addresses the defects in a Lockean natural rights theory, including Claeys’s application of that theory. Locke’s theory focuses on the natural rights of a specific community. Such a focus often disfavors people situated in out-of-power positions, for example, a land ownership dispute between indigenous people and recent immigrants that have organized themselves under laws that do not recognize the existing rights (natural or otherwise) of the indigenous people. Yet, both Claeys and Locke contend that natural rights emanate from a divine source (God) that intended humankind to use the things of nature for its survival and flourishing. But, when fundamentally different views exist concerning a resource’s ownership or productive use, rights conflicts arise. These conflicts often result in one community’s natural rights trampling another’s. This Article introduces a balancing interest test as a possible resolution to this conflict. The proposed balancing interest test seeks to maximize the common good in the most equitable way by finding an equitable mean between conflicting interests. Finally, this Article explores whether Claeys’s theory can justify natural property rights in intellectual property, specifically patents.

«Средневековый BLM»: образ чернолицего в персидской суфийской поэзии

Introduction. The black-faced are mentioned in different Muslim texts — from the Quran to Sufi poems. One can trace not just diverse but rather opposite interpretations, and researchers have to face certain problems when it comes to analyze some related images. Goals. The study attempts an insight into functioning and semantic features inherent to images of the black-faced in Sufi poetry. Materials and methods. The work analyzes a number of classical Persian and Arabic writings, such as The Walled Garden of Truth by Sanai, and others. The employed research methods include those of textual reconstruction, contextual analysis, and descriptive poetics. Results. The paper shows in medieval Islamic culture the black-skinned were often treated not just as second-class individuals, they were sometimes not even viewed as humans. In the Quran, a black face symbolizes disgrace and infidelity. The blacks in Islamic culture were discriminated twice: by skin color and on religious grounds, since most of them were pagans that actively resisted Islamization. This circumstance served a legal rationale for their enslavement. Thus, for many Arab writers a black was a slave, an uncivilized ungodly pagan. These characteristics one can find both in Arabic and Persian literatures. But in Persian Sufism the image of the black-skinned gets revisited. Their outward blackness is the trace of the black light of the divine selfness rather than just an ugly imperfection. The Divine selfness is dark for it cannot be conceived, and is above all human ideas about it. However, the Divine selfness is the being itself, so every existent thing had received being from this Divine source. In this context, Sanai writes that a black-faced is singed by the black light (or fire) of the Divine selfness, and is thus involved with this being. Besides, Sufis tended to view the low social status of the black as a means of liberation from worldly attachments and social connections, each black-skinned individual be thus believed to have united with the One Divine selfness to annihilate his own self (fana). Conclusions. So, the image of the black-faced performs functions similar to those characteristic of a wide layer of characters from other religions in Sufi literature: just like images of infidels, pagans, Zoroastrians, and Christians — this was reinterpreted by Sufi authors in a positive manner.

An Intellectual Foundation for the Grammatical Sentence in Arabic

This research paper discusses the intellectual foundation present in the grammatical structure of the verbal and nominal sentences in Arabic by identifying and analyzing specific intellectual foundation evidence that goes in line with the Islamic idea of monotheism based on the notion of the presence of factors, subject, adjuncts, predication, diacritics etc. The introduction discusses the concept of language and its origins. The findings helped explain the origin of Arabic language, and its creation. It also discussed the idea whether Arabs belong to the Arabic Language or vice versa. The body of the research paper included the intellectual foundation for of Arabic sentence structure. Evidence included the idea of the factor that affects other parts of the sentence, which is fundamental in syntax. It explained the importance of the subject in the structure of the verbal sentence grammar. This idea agrees with the idea that everything is caused by a cause. Examples include the presence of adjuncts and the passive voice where a subject (causer) is present although it is unknown. The findings show that sentence in Arabic is based on the idea of monotheism and that the origin of the Arabic language far exceeds other languages. The findings also show that Arabic is a representation of a monotheistic society or that it is of a divine source.

When the East Meets the West: Analysing Rached Ghannouci’s Synthesis of Democracy in Islam

Democracy is being pushed aggressively on a global scale as the best and final form of government without even an alternative offered to the opposing views by the champions of the system in the 21st century. The main arguments presented by the apologies of democracy is its feasibility of providing and guaranteeing freedom of speech, liberty of choosing a leadership, accountability and transparency. However, this view is being perceived with cynicism in other parts of the world particularly the Islamic world where the absolute sovereignty and laws are referred to from a divine source. Most of the contemporary Islamic scholars are not against democracy except where its principles such as man-made laws are regarded as supreme over the Shari’ah law. But, Rached Ghannouchi, a Tunisian activist and a political leader believed that there is a perfect way to synthesise between the Western liberal democracy and Islamic governance through the side line of political Islam and the full Islamisation of democracy in practice. Ghannouchi’s combination of ideology, philosophy and activism earned him a status of an Islamic democratic philosopher in the 21st century. This study critically examined the efforts made by Ghannouchi in Islamizing democracy using a rhetorical analytical approach of linking and comparing the early Islamic philosophy on democracy and Ghannouchi’s ideas to arrive at a position of policy implication for democratic governance in the Muslim world.

Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Legacy of Boston Personalism

Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Legacy of Boston Personalism

Revelation and Qur’anic prophecy in its historical surroundings a presentation of the classic and contemporary Orientalist sayings

This research intends to reconsider (stability and repetition) or circular motion in the Orientalist lesson related to the Holy Qur’an and the sources of revelation and prophethood, given that the researcher barely finds anything new in studying the classic or recent Orientalist sayings. The reason for this is not the shortcoming of components of the Orientalist method but the submission to the religious and intellectual ideology of the Orientalists, who often adopt the denial of the divine source of the Holy Qur’an and claim that The Holy Qur’an had been formed from a mixture of biblical knowledge (Jewish and Christian)with the surrounding cultures in the Arabian Peninsula or abroad to organized and reformulated based on the creative mindset of the Prophet Mohammed and his inner inspirations he pretends.

William Shakespeare's All Is True , Lord Chamberlain's "Truth," and Civil Religion

Abstract: The first title for Shakespeare's Henry VIII — All Is True —may reflect standard early modern usage signifying that all is an aspect of 'troth' or loyalty, all is common understanding, or all is received from a divine source. In the play, the Lord Chamberlain, Shakespeare's only character so named, serves the Henrician monarchy's "truth" by serving Henry's religious and monarchic goals as the Jacobean Lord Chamberlain similarly served James I's goals, assuring audiences of the integrity, truth, and legitimacy of the monarchy and its faith. The play shows the Lord Chamberlain working to strengthen the loyalty of Henry's realm to the putatively divinely sanctioned sovereignty flowing through the monarch. He does so to create a legitimate image of the Tudor regime pivotal to the Jacobean monarchy's need for support for its 1613 religious goals and the "troth" inherent in English civil religion.

Triplex Via and the ‘Gap Problem’ with Cosmological Arguments

AbstractAquinas’ five ways are often criticized because, unless further argumentation is supplied, their conclusion is not obviously identical to the God of classical theism. Such criticism overlooks the semantic and hermeneutic functions of natural theology. By fixing the referent for the word ‘God’, the five ways allow the philosopher to provide an intelligible account of divinity. This knowledge of the cause through its effects follows the systematic structure of the triplex via (causation, negation, and eminence), a program that guides Aquinas’ account of divine attributes all the way through Summa Theologiae I qq.2-26 and Summa Contra Gentiles I. By following this rational itinerary the demonstrative power of the ways can be better assessed, looking at them not as an apologetic exercise, but as a first step in the seek for a deeper understanding of the divine source of Creation.