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

religious knowledge lose something, or
Does
something, if it changes over time? How has
gain
understanding and perception of religious
our
changed over time?
knowledge
studies scholar Reza Aslan has
Religious
what it means for religion to change,
considered
in Islam. Islam’s prophets, he
particularly
are “intimately connected to the worlds
says,
of which they arise”, and the transition
out
one world, or era, to another has been
from
a “reformation”. Aslan’s assertions are
called
and invite us to think carefully
provocative,
the relationship between religious
about
and the past, and the role and
knowledge
of individuals in the development of
influence
knowledge. Aslan expresses some of his
religious
especially Aslan’s final point above,
Consider
the tension between the influence of
regarding
versus the influence of individuals
institutions
how a religion is defined. The history
on
religion is rich with stories about how
of
and institutions gain and lose the
individuals
and authority to make claims about
legitimacy
knowledge. What gives legitimacy to
religious
lose authority? How has this varied over
and
and across contexts?
time
we encountered the view of Stephen
Earlier,
who talks about Buddhism without
Batchelor,
What does it mean for individuals to
belief.
religion in whatever manner they want
interpret
To what extent is this a religious, political
to?
moral freedom, and how does it variously
or
around the world? Because stewards
manifest
religious systems can wield significant power,
of
problem of competing interpretations can
the
to power struggles and violence—between
lead
between institutions, and between
individuals,
and individuals.
institutions
to Aslan, this process of reformation,
According
“passing of institutional authority into
the
hands”, has been ongoing in
individual
since the end of the colonial era. For
Islam
prior to that, the religious authorities
14centuries
maintained a firm grip on the meaning
had
teaching of Islam, for example because
and
a few people could actually read the
only
As the authority of different religious
Qur’an.
has weakened, across the world,
institutions
to factors including better education,
due
communication between communities
literacy,
democratic governance systems, more
and
have asserted themselves. Now
interpretations
around the world are living “their faith
Muslims
enormous diversity and eclecticism” (Aslan
in
in Tippett 2014) against a backdrop of
quoted
that are still trying to understand
nation-states
religion fits alongside a constitution, a legal
how
and human rights.
system
multiplicity of interpretations has the
This
to promote tolerance and pluralism,
potential
it can also lead to strife. In the absence of a
but
religious authority, such as a Muslim
centralized
or Vatican to mediate over 1.6 billion people,
Pope
debate can become a cacophony of voices
the
one another. As a result of all this,
outshouting
speaks of multiple Islams and disputes the
Aslan
of a monolithic Islamic World, a notion
existence
has become a “fact” of religion, history and
that
interchangeably used with another
geography,
invented term—“the Arabworld”.
recently
6II. Perspectives
views as follows.
There’s this misunderstanding, amongst most people
of faith that prophets sort of grow up in some kind
of cultural or religious vacuum. That a prophet is
somebody that just plopped down to earth from
heaven, and with a ready-made message, in which
they found a brand new religion. But prophets don’t
invent religions. Prophets are reformers of the
religions that they themselves grow up in.
Jesus did not invent Christianity. Jesus was a Jew. He
was reforming Judaism.
The Buddha did not invent Buddhism. The Buddha
was a Hindu. He was reforming Hinduism.
When we use the term reformation, what we mean is
the fundamental conict that is inherent in all religious
traditions, as I say, between who gets to dene the
faith. Is it the institution? Or is it the individuals?
(Aslan quoted in Tippett 2014)
religious claims? How do claims-makers gain
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