Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

II. Perspectives
practices of the culture in a community or
and
As people become more mobile, comfortable
place.
independent of their home communities, they
and
the opportunity and challenge of crafting their
face
and/or religious identities. Some people
spiritual
places have come into this faster than others,
and
to sociologist Peter Berger, for most of
According
people would rarely, if ever, encounter
history,
of a different religion; to be of a certain
someone
in a given village would be self-evident,
religion
inevitable and taken for granted. With
natural,
and secularism, people had the
globalization
opportunity of imagining other possibilities.
new
describes modernity as “a gigantic
Berger
from destiny to choice” in which
transformation
“must choose what they believe, how
people
define themselves, how they are to live”
they
in Tippett 2006a). People now encounter
(quoted
even neighbours, with very different
others,
beliefs and world views. Has this
religious
how we value and perceive religious
changed
What else has been affected?
knowledge?
cosmopolitan cities around the world,
In
diversity is being championed and
religious
as well as feared and resisted. It adds
celebrated,
the richness of human experience as well as
to
the insecurity of those who feel threatened
to
change. Reverend angel Kyodo williams has
by
religious diversity. Where diversity
investigated
been welcomed, williams observes that
has
identities and sense of thriving is not
people’s
on religious sameness. Instead, the
dependent
sense of mobility and spaciousness
heightened
accompanies religious diversity outweighs
that
unease. However, some communities do feel
the
by religious diversity. In light of what
threatened
what it means when people say they
Consider
religious or spiritual, or when they specify
are
What relationship do spirituality and
1.
belief have to knowledge, in
religious
How are religious knowledge
2.
norms, traditions and
communities,
(a) religious people
(b) those who are spiritual but not religious
of the themes within diversity is tolerance,
One
refers not simply to accepting people who
which
different, but also tolerating people who you
are
not like or agree with, or who do seemingly
do
is worth considering what skills might be
It
of the knower in navigating the
required
of religious pluralism effectively and
landscape
We briefly explore the relationship
respectfully.
religious knowledge and the concept
between
truth below. How might we evaluate the
of
6
For ref lection
The spiritual and religious
that they are spiritual but not religious.
creating another layer of friction.
terms of:
(a) what is considered a reliable source of
knowledge
who has the authority and/
(b)
legitimacy to decide what is
or
knowledge?
institutions seen differentlyby:
(c) those who are neither spiritual nor
religious?
strange or nonsensical things.
you have read, why might this be the case?
competing claims of different religions?
Does religion seek truth?
intellectual tradition has broader meaning, as well as
specic connotations. Learn more about the relationship
What kind of knowledge is religious knowledge? There
between ‘ilm and the pursuit, acquisition and application
are diverse perspectives about how knowledge is
of knowledge by following the link.
perceived in religious traditions and in, for example,
mainstream pop culture, TOK and the IB Diploma
Search terms: Islamic concept of
knowledge al-islam
Programme. Consider the Arabic word ‘ilm (
), which is
commonly translated as “knowledge”, but in the Islamic
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