A more appropriate title perhaps would be: Bogged Down in Palestine.
On the previous post, Reveries part One, I argued that, for good or ill, religious institutions are able to, maybe even prone to, protect and structure nascent political movements especially in the face of oppressive regimes. I think that this applies to the Middle East in ways that I am not ready to defend.
Yesterday, when I reread what I had written for this second post in the series, I felt that it was at once too simplistic and too heavy. Other serial posts that appeared on this blog were easier to construct. Though I am tempted to post what I wrote with revisions and just let it all hang out so to speak, I would only be adding to the noise. It’s a consolation to think that far better people than I have been bogged down in Palestine.
The Eastertide reveries were a way into a number of topics that have been troubling me lately. On the way I did come across interesting material I was not aware of before, notably by Scott Atran
Posts on religion in the Middle East will appear in the future, but at the moment I will only venture to say that I am a strong supporter of the state of Israel, if not necessarily the policies of all of its elected political parties. And, I suspect that resolving numerous problems in the region would be facilitated by paying close attention to how religion organizes the lives of its adherents, or to put it the other way around, how religion is structured as a response to the environmental challenges of its members and to the human mind.
The parts of the Eastertide reveries dealing with Afghanistan and Canadian politics will be posted separately later.
Which in the mean time leaves only… to pray for peace in Jerusalem.
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