Friday, November 30, 2012

A Legacy Buried, But Not Gone: The Importance of the Ancient Near East for Modern Religious and Political Life -- Sightings

 The ancient Syrian city of Aleppo is much in the news these days as it serves as a center of opposition to the Assad regime.  It's a city that has a long and illustrious history, though it is not as well known to us, or at least wasn't until recently.  In this piece, University of Chicago Ph.D. candidate reminds us of the important connections ancient and modern have with each other, using the ancient history of Aleppo as a starting point.  Study of the ancient world, indeed the study of history, does have value.  
Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion
The University of Chicago Divinity School 
Sightings  11/29/2012
  A Legacy Buried, But Not Gone: 
-- Sam Boyd
Adopting the legacy of ancient heroes and heroines is nothing new. The famous third century CE philosopher, Porphyry, dedicated his major work to Cleopatra, an oddity since Porphyry’s connection to this famous last of the pharaohs is by no means obvious or logical. It seems as though queen Zenobia of Palmyra had established herself in the legacy of Cleopatra so closely that she even took on the pharaoh’s name. More recently, when Saddam Hussein came to power in the Baathist regime, he immediately began to build a replica of Nebuchadnezzar II’s palace. This Neo-Babylonian structure had multiple lives in antiquity, including being the site of Alexander the Great’s death. Saddam Hussein’s contribution to the afterlife of this structure had profound religious and symbolic power: by copying the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, and even adopting the name of the Neo-Babylonian king as a secondary name, Hussein sought to shape his role in the modern world. Just as Nebuchadnezzar II had destroyed ancient Judah and its capital Jerusalem, Saddam Hussein hoped to oversee a similarly destructive outlook towards Israel. He also aspired to create an enduring legacy like Nebuchadnezzar’s and Alexander’s.
Robert M. Whiting, “Amorite Tribes and Nations of Second-Millennium Western Asia,” in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East (edited by Jack Sasson; Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2000).


This month’s Religion & Culture Web Forum is entitled “Pussy Riot, the Media and Church-State Relations in Russia Today” by Katja Richters (University of Erfurt). What role was played by the Russian Orthodox Church in the arrest and sentencing of the band Pussy Riot earlier this year? And what are the implications of this case for church-state relations in Russia today? In this month's web forum, Katja Richters argues that the "reluctance on behalf of the Moscow Patriarchate to become more actively involved in the [Pussy Riot] lawsuit combined with the disunity its leadership displayed in its approach to the punk prayer gave rise to a vacuum that could be filled in many possible ways by both the media and the state. The latter took advantage of this situation by presenting the [Church] as a victim which it needed to protect." At the same time, Richters stresses, "the relationship between the [Church] and the Kremlin is much more complex than the recent developments would suggest." Read Pussy Riot, the Media and Church-State Relations in Russia Today


1 comment:


I think the origins of our spirituality will always be important to us sentimentally.

It's a connection to something bigger than ourselves and a recollection of history.


Anyways, here it is:

Which, it has a point.