Abdal Hakim Murad – Monotheism, Images, Idols

Abdal Hakim Murad
Share Page

AI: Summary ©

The "arid but man-made" position is often used to push for Islam, and the "arid but man-made" position is often a political vehicle. The history and cultural significance of Islam is discussed, including its use as a source of pride and misogyny, its cultural significance, and its impact on society. The use of images and idols in religion and their various forms of birth, as well as its use as a source of pride in the face ofied pride, has been discussed, including its use as a symbol of religion and its portrayal of the presence of God and the Son of God. The "arid but man-made" position is often a source of pride and misogyny, and the "arid but man-made" position is often a source of pride and misogyny.

AI: Summary ©

00:00:00 --> 00:00:04
			Cambridge Muslim college training
the next generation of Muslim
		
00:00:04 --> 00:00:04
			thinkers.
		
00:00:06 --> 00:00:10
			Current European arguments about
Islam and Muslims often seem to be
		
00:00:10 --> 00:00:15
			trapped somehow between two big
compulsions. On the one hand we
		
00:00:15 --> 00:00:19
			notice in our culture, and
multiculturalist worship of the,
		
00:00:19 --> 00:00:22
			as they say, inviolable otherness
of the other.
		
00:00:23 --> 00:00:28
			The philosopher Slavoj Zizek calls
this almost the hegemonic ethical,
		
00:00:28 --> 00:00:32
			spiritual attitude of today's
intellectuals. And this, he thinks
		
00:00:32 --> 00:00:36
			is intolerable because as he puts
it, the assertion of otherness
		
00:00:36 --> 00:00:40
			leads to the boring, monotonous
sameness of otherness itself.
		
00:00:42 --> 00:00:46
			So, this arid but dominant
intellectual position tends to
		
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49
			place Muslim on a similar ability
with all other signs of otherness,
		
00:00:49 --> 00:00:53
			whether these be post
heteronormative sexual identities
		
00:00:53 --> 00:00:58
			or animals with rights or Cinti
antinomianism. It's a pas
		
00:00:58 --> 00:01:03
			permissiveness whose rigidity is
always exposed when the permitted
		
00:01:03 --> 00:01:08
			tolerated other expresses its own
lack of permissiveness, as with
		
00:01:08 --> 00:01:10
			the Danish cartoon crisis, for
instance.
		
00:01:12 --> 00:01:16
			The second compulsion according to
Eric Rasmussen is the super ego
		
00:01:16 --> 00:01:19
			injunction to enjoy transgressive
pleasures.
		
00:01:20 --> 00:01:24
			This is the second compulsion,
hence BASE jumping, rave culture,
		
00:01:24 --> 00:01:28
			tattoos, and the baiting of
disliked minorities, whether
		
00:01:28 --> 00:01:32
			through the creation of
deliberately offensive images, or
		
00:01:32 --> 00:01:36
			mosque closures, or inquisitorial
immigration criteria, which has
		
00:01:36 --> 00:01:40
			become a kind of bread and
circuses crowd pleaser. However,
		
00:01:40 --> 00:01:44
			in Congress in a liberal society,
the teasing of Muslims and
		
00:01:44 --> 00:01:47
			sometimes others, such as Roma
communities, and Catholic prelates
		
00:01:47 --> 00:01:53
			has become a spectator sport. We
playfully enraged the other in his
		
00:01:53 --> 00:01:57
			or her sanctuaries. But as
Dziedzic adds, the price we pay
		
00:01:57 --> 00:01:59
			for the absence of guilt is
anxiety.
		
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05
			We're going to accept this Jackie
and take on things we might find a
		
00:02:05 --> 00:02:09
			diagnostic which helps us to
understand the striking the
		
00:02:09 --> 00:02:14
			anxious state of current European
culture and politics. The Muslim
		
00:02:14 --> 00:02:19
			other the current Semitic ghetto
dweller causes agitation because
		
00:02:19 --> 00:02:23
			of his repressive folkways, and
hence, despite Europe's Olympian
		
00:02:23 --> 00:02:27
			superiority, and philosophy of
liberal indulgence, it
		
00:02:27 --> 00:02:32
			increasingly censors and
suppresses. The visibility of
		
00:02:32 --> 00:02:36
			Muslim otherness in Europe is to
be occluded or abolished in a new
		
00:02:36 --> 00:02:41
			wave of secular iconoclasm. Unable
to bear the sight of minarets, the
		
00:02:41 --> 00:02:46
			Swiss constitution bans them. Thus
to has Paris prohibited
		
00:02:46 --> 00:02:50
			congregational worship in public,
and two months ago, Denmark
		
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52
			criminalized the wearing of the
niqab.
		
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57
			The actual meaning of these signs
of otherness appears to be less
		
00:02:57 --> 00:03:02
			salient than their performance as
signs their icons, which have to
		
00:03:02 --> 00:03:06
			be smashed by the populist of the
increasingly coercive nation
		
00:03:06 --> 00:03:06
			state.
		
00:03:07 --> 00:03:13
			European is itself increasingly
seems to require Donato memoria is
		
00:03:13 --> 00:03:17
			an extirpation of the other
symbols. The most thorough and
		
00:03:17 --> 00:03:22
			Frank instantiation having been
Serb and Croat policies of
		
00:03:22 --> 00:03:26
			systematically uprooting mosques,
cemeteries and inscriptions during
		
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29
			the 1990 to 1995 Bosnian War
		
00:03:31 --> 00:03:35
			but Europe has more than one
orthodoxy, or in this case, more
		
00:03:35 --> 00:03:39
			than two. And perhaps the most
tempting of third ways has been to
		
00:03:39 --> 00:03:43
			save Islam from charges of
irreducible otherness, and
		
00:03:43 --> 00:03:46
			possibly from itself by blurring
all of the dichotomies
		
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51
			when Chomsky remarked at the
Danish cartoons showcased as he
		
00:03:51 --> 00:03:55
			says ordinary racism on the cover
of freedom of expression, fellow
		
00:03:55 --> 00:03:59
			travelers rushed in to defend
Islam from charges of a vulgar and
		
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01
			foreign icon of phobia.
		
00:04:02 --> 00:04:06
			Against the chauvinism of growing
numbers of Europeans. These voices
		
00:04:06 --> 00:04:10
			earnestly prized Islam out of
standard definitions, presented by
		
00:04:10 --> 00:04:14
			essentialist on both sides, Islam
turns out to be far from Icona,
		
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17
			phobic, and beyond pulsar
intellectuals are called to
		
00:04:17 --> 00:04:21
			challenge the Zealots by pouring
out the unexpected treasures from
		
00:04:21 --> 00:04:26
			the cornucopia of Muslim
representational art. Quite a few
		
00:04:26 --> 00:04:31
			recent exhibitions and major art
galleries have constituted
		
00:04:31 --> 00:04:35
			showcases of Muslim picture making
including a famous one in
		
00:04:35 --> 00:04:35
			Copenhagen.
		
00:04:37 --> 00:04:41
			The political adroitness of this
turn is evident and almost
		
00:04:41 --> 00:04:45
			certainly benign. What concerns us
as scholars, academics,
		
00:04:45 --> 00:04:50
			theologians, is its tendency to
establish a stable and valid
		
00:04:50 --> 00:04:53
			disaggregation of Islamic
civilization or at least to try
		
00:04:53 --> 00:04:56
			and render normative or recurrent
exception.
		
00:04:58 --> 00:04:59
			Now given the famous
		
00:05:00 --> 00:05:04
			Many centeredness of Islam, a very
ecumenical faith world which
		
00:05:04 --> 00:05:07
			encompassed in its pre modern
expression far more cultures and
		
00:05:07 --> 00:05:11
			perspectives than was possible in
pre modern Christianity. We can do
		
00:05:11 --> 00:05:15
			no more than reach for such
majoritarian or recurrent
		
00:05:15 --> 00:05:19
			patterns, rather than seek to
identify us oppose it. Unanimous
		
00:05:19 --> 00:05:24
			Muslim Magisterium, Christianity
often accomplish accustomed to its
		
00:05:24 --> 00:05:28
			own firm regulatory hierarchies
and detailed, Creed's has often
		
00:05:28 --> 00:05:33
			struggled to recognize the very
plural vocal nature of the Jewish
		
00:05:33 --> 00:05:38
			and Islamic Semitism. Surely,
religions of the law must be more
		
00:05:38 --> 00:05:41
			tightly regulated than the
religion which has proclaimed a
		
00:05:41 --> 00:05:46
			gospel freedom. Yet Jewish and
Muslim interpretations of the
		
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49
			image question are indeed
divergent, and also perhaps
		
00:05:49 --> 00:05:54
			strangely, really very marginal in
the major theological and legal
		
00:05:54 --> 00:05:59
			manuals. The law books where many
Christian and initiate uninitiated
		
00:05:59 --> 00:06:02
			secular minds, expect to find a
detailed and comprehensive code
		
00:06:02 --> 00:06:06
			for believing life useful
stereotype of what a Muslim
		
00:06:06 --> 00:06:09
			flipbook is like, actually hardly
mentioned the crime of image
		
00:06:09 --> 00:06:13
			making, which is certainly never
subject to canonical punishments
		
00:06:13 --> 00:06:17
			of the HUD type in any school of
Islamic law, but falls always if
		
00:06:17 --> 00:06:21
			the judge is bothered at all, into
the category of tau zero, where
		
00:06:21 --> 00:06:25
			the punishment or lack of it is
left entirely to the discretion
		
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28
			and local wisdom of the
magistrate.
		
00:06:29 --> 00:06:32
			But we will still need to check
the Islamic record for any
		
00:06:32 --> 00:06:36
			recurrent patterns of thought
about images. And to do this we
		
00:06:36 --> 00:06:41
			begin not with the Scriptures but
with their late antique point of
		
00:06:41 --> 00:06:45
			emergence there sits in Laban. The
Cradle of Islam has to be
		
00:06:45 --> 00:06:49
			understood in terms of continuity
with wider Mediterranean habits.
		
00:06:50 --> 00:06:54
			The lesson driven home by Glen
Bower sock Garth Foden in most of
		
00:06:54 --> 00:06:59
			the currently significant history
writing, Islam is not some kind of
		
00:06:59 --> 00:07:03
			unique singularity. Its founding
moment is not a strange, exotic
		
00:07:04 --> 00:07:04
			outlier.
		
00:07:06 --> 00:07:10
			nascent Islam, of course knew very
well the Rabbinic Judaism of the
		
00:07:10 --> 00:07:14
			medina Hasidim vehement in their
culture despite for indigenous
		
00:07:14 --> 00:07:20
			Arab fetishism, not only the 10
commandments, but numbers 3352,
		
00:07:20 --> 00:07:24
			Deuteronomy 416 and the Hebrew
Scriptures in general use the word
		
00:07:24 --> 00:07:30
			Purcell and she could synonymously
for images and idols. The various
		
00:07:30 --> 00:07:34
			cherubim and animal reliefs of the
temple were taken to be exceptions
		
00:07:34 --> 00:07:38
			that underlined this rule and the
Shulhan arrow, perhaps the most
		
00:07:38 --> 00:07:42
			influential legal source book for
today's orthodox repeats that
		
00:07:42 --> 00:07:46
			quote, It is forbidden to make
complete solid or raised images of
		
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49
			people or angels or any images of
heavenly bodies, except for
		
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51
			purposes of study.
		
00:07:53 --> 00:07:57
			Of the axial religions, both
Buddhism and Christianity refused
		
00:07:57 --> 00:08:02
			image making for the first two
centuries of their existence. Both
		
00:08:02 --> 00:08:06
			it seems then alter their position
through Greek influence. Both
		
00:08:06 --> 00:08:09
			remain subject to sharp internal
arguments about the viability of
		
00:08:09 --> 00:08:13
			sacred images and in the case of
Christianity, these debates are
		
00:08:13 --> 00:08:16
			closely associated with some of
the religions greatest historical
		
00:08:16 --> 00:08:22
			traumas. The era of iconoclasm,
launched by Byzantines bishops was
		
00:08:22 --> 00:08:26
			the greatest disruption ever
experienced by the post Caledonian
		
00:08:26 --> 00:08:30
			great church, and the Reformation
fiercely reopened the debate in
		
00:08:30 --> 00:08:35
			the West. To this day, the dolls
of Amis children have no faces.
		
00:08:36 --> 00:08:41
			Byzantines and reformed allergies
to image making seem to overlap,
		
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44
			as one would expect with many of
the Islamic debates we're dealing
		
00:08:44 --> 00:08:49
			with as Denise Messel puts it the
three ways of the one, a ternary
		
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52
			of interlocking families have
discussion and debate.
		
00:08:54 --> 00:08:57
			On this argument, some might even
see Islam as Hilaire Belloc
		
00:08:57 --> 00:09:00
			famously did in his book on
Harris's as a first and more
		
00:09:00 --> 00:09:05
			successful reformation. Calvin
rejects priestcraft relics,
		
00:09:05 --> 00:09:09
			indulgences, organs and images and
so does Islam.
		
00:09:10 --> 00:09:13
			airlock actually construes Islam
as functionally a Protestant
		
00:09:13 --> 00:09:16
			Christian heresy, rather than a
new religion.
		
00:09:17 --> 00:09:20
			So when the Norwich chapel in
which my own family worship became
		
00:09:20 --> 00:09:25
			in 1977, a mosque no awkward
iconoclastic episode was required,
		
00:09:25 --> 00:09:29
			which might obstruct the approval
of the city planning or
		
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32
			conservation department. The walls
and the windows. Were already
		
00:09:32 --> 00:09:33
			playing.
		
00:09:34 --> 00:09:38
			Ditto also for the Huguenot Church
on London's Brick Lane which had
		
00:09:38 --> 00:09:42
			served for a century also as East
London's major synagogue before
		
00:09:42 --> 00:09:43
			becoming a mosque.
		
00:09:44 --> 00:09:48
			Perhaps then, if our purpose is to
do other than Muslims in the face
		
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51
			of European prejudice, we should
be looking at this sort of
		
00:09:51 --> 00:09:56
			convergence, rather than at the
effulgence of Muslim figural art.
		
00:09:56 --> 00:09:59
			One can belong to Europe and not
be an icon love him.
		
00:10:01 --> 00:10:05
			And yet the two most interesting
recent discussions of Muslim
		
00:10:05 --> 00:10:10
			iconology by an old bezel song and
fan litigant, interrogate the
		
00:10:10 --> 00:10:15
			simple understanding of a one with
three cognate ways. Islam on their
		
00:10:15 --> 00:10:20
			appreciation is indeed distinctive
and its habitual. iconology is new
		
00:10:20 --> 00:10:21
			and revealing.
		
00:10:22 --> 00:10:25
			For bears on assault in some
suggestive and luminous passages
		
00:10:25 --> 00:10:29
			in his book, The Forbidden image,
Israel's burning bush, and its
		
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32
			unpronounceable name for God's
signal the people's remaining in
		
00:10:32 --> 00:10:38
			waiting. Since the defining
messianic breakthrough still lies
		
00:10:38 --> 00:10:42
			in God's future, then alone, will
the fullness of Temple worship be
		
00:10:42 --> 00:10:47
			established, Jewish law confirmed
and a decisive theology become
		
00:10:47 --> 00:10:51
			possible. Meanwhile, living in
exile or under Roman or other
		
00:10:51 --> 00:10:55
			Gentile rule provision, ality and
circumspection
		
00:10:56 --> 00:11:00
			entail concessions. The famous
Rabbi Akiva even allowed Jewish
		
00:11:00 --> 00:11:04
			craftsmen to fabricate idols for
the Gentiles, and was happy to
		
00:11:04 --> 00:11:07
			drink from a goblet bearing the
image of 14
		
00:11:08 --> 00:11:12
			Jews in iconified, Europe
regularly illuminated their
		
00:11:12 --> 00:11:15
			manuscripts with biblical
vignettes. Those who lived in the
		
00:11:15 --> 00:11:19
			abode of Islam usually did not.
Everything seemed to be
		
00:11:19 --> 00:11:21
			provisional, while the Jews
waiting.
		
00:11:23 --> 00:11:27
			There's also contrasts contrast
this very starkly with Islam. He
		
00:11:27 --> 00:11:31
			writes, In Judaism, there is a low
upper limit to art because Israel
		
00:11:31 --> 00:11:34
			is in waiting. And the face to
face vision that art might procure
		
00:11:34 --> 00:11:38
			would be an illusion, in other
words, idolatry. That is not the
		
00:11:38 --> 00:11:42
			case for Islam. There is no
waiting but an eternal present
		
00:11:43 --> 00:11:45
			under the dazzling light of
revelation.
		
00:11:46 --> 00:11:49
			He goes on to explain that there
is no questing or urging in
		
00:11:49 --> 00:11:53
			Islamic art no dynamically
streaming figures, for God is not
		
00:11:53 --> 00:11:57
			absent, and man is not fallen,
only a kind of Platonic
		
00:11:57 --> 00:12:01
			recollection is required. Art
therefore simply brings to the
		
00:12:01 --> 00:12:04
			visible surface, the nature of
things.
		
00:12:06 --> 00:12:09
			A confirmation of this comes from
two recent Christian essays on the
		
00:12:09 --> 00:12:14
			famous Mughal miniature based on a
Jura engraving of St. Jerome, now
		
00:12:14 --> 00:12:16
			held in the Qatar Museum of
Islamic art.
		
00:12:17 --> 00:12:22
			One of these two authors Jabara
Dwyer he is a Maronite, Lebanese
		
00:12:22 --> 00:12:25
			Catholic, and Rajat she had it is
a well known Palestinian Anglican,
		
00:12:26 --> 00:12:31
			but both reflecting on this image
comment on the peacefulness of the
		
00:12:31 --> 00:12:37
			Muslim recalibration of the
picture. Islam they right cannot
		
00:12:37 --> 00:12:40
			bear the straining of the
Christian saint, his irata phobia
		
00:12:40 --> 00:12:45
			is determination to treat exile in
the natural world as mortification
		
00:12:45 --> 00:12:50
			rather than reunion. Islam's
insistence on God's mercy makes
		
00:12:50 --> 00:12:53
			the images original purpose, a
punitive meditation on suffering
		
00:12:54 --> 00:12:58
			unintelligible wherever Muslims
attempt to painting, even for the
		
00:12:58 --> 00:13:03
			Emperor's discreet private case,
the veiling of God, accomplished
		
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06
			by the Western Christian pessimism
about nature proved just
		
00:13:06 --> 00:13:10
			intolerable. And hence the rich
palette of torn human emotions,
		
00:13:10 --> 00:13:15
			which makes figurative art great,
simply struggles to find roots in
		
00:13:15 --> 00:13:15
			Muslim soil.
		
00:13:18 --> 00:13:20
			There's also also discusses the
conventional argument that the
		
00:13:20 --> 00:13:24
			Quran hardly concerns itself with
the question of images.
		
00:13:25 --> 00:13:28
			He insists that this reflects the
assumption carried within the text
		
00:13:28 --> 00:13:32
			of the in conceivability. In any
case of a Muslim icon.
		
00:13:33 --> 00:13:36
			Judaism needed the commandments to
limit the risks of its often
		
00:13:36 --> 00:13:40
			anthropomorphised scriptural
theology. The Quran evidently
		
00:13:40 --> 00:13:45
			dispenses with them, Lisa CAMI 3d
shape. The Quran announces which
		
00:13:45 --> 00:13:49
			as the mystics point out, means
not just that God has no likeness
		
00:13:49 --> 00:13:53
			but literally that nothing
resembles a likeness of God.
		
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56
			Introducing a double distance or
double apparatuses.
		
00:13:58 --> 00:14:03
			The interdiction is fully supplied
in the verse in Surah 112 Nothing
		
00:14:03 --> 00:14:08
			is like him. The macro level, cool
one I had, the explicit
		
00:14:08 --> 00:14:11
			prohibition of something
impossible would be otiose and
		
00:14:11 --> 00:14:11
			strange.
		
00:14:13 --> 00:14:16
			Based on song, of course, does
notice the luxuriant and
		
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19
			luxurious, who might have images
of hunting scenes and buxom
		
00:14:19 --> 00:14:24
			maidens. But like Creswell before
him, he observes that image making
		
00:14:24 --> 00:14:27
			an Islamic civilization was a
private, rather than a public
		
00:14:27 --> 00:14:31
			pursuit, maintained not on walls,
but in books, which were usually
		
00:14:31 --> 00:14:35
			kept closed. Sumptuous Ottoman
albums in which miniaturists
		
00:14:35 --> 00:14:39
			depicted the sagas of Prophet
Sultan's Persian kings, dragons
		
00:14:39 --> 00:14:43
			and demons were understood to be
for the personal delectation of a
		
00:14:43 --> 00:14:47
			palace elite, on whom formal
religious edicts might sit rather
		
00:14:47 --> 00:14:51
			lightly. Such cognoscenti also
maintained distinctively
		
00:14:52 --> 00:14:56
			transgressive traditions of
pederasty and wine consumption as
		
00:14:56 --> 00:14:59
			part of a refined quarterly
culture with roots in ancient
		
00:14:59 --> 00:14:59
			Persia.
		
00:15:00 --> 00:15:04
			These pictures are still Islamic
eight, not Islamic. They're no
		
00:15:04 --> 00:15:08
			more indicative of Islamic
concerns than is, for instance,
		
00:15:08 --> 00:15:13
			the purchase of Leonardo's
painting, Salvator Mundi, recently
		
00:15:13 --> 00:15:17
			by angels, buying agents
understood to be acting for King
		
00:15:17 --> 00:15:22
			Salman of Saudi Arabia. muddied
culture is not necessarily
		
00:15:22 --> 00:15:26
			reflective of the deep impulses of
a developed civilization. Abu
		
00:15:26 --> 00:15:31
			Dhabi spent 10s of millions on a
Picasso exhibition in 2008, but
		
00:15:31 --> 00:15:36
			only a handful of locals attended.
Katari led by Damien Hirst, but
		
00:15:36 --> 00:15:40
			his motto death without redemption
is probably not shared by most
		
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42
			Doha residents.
		
00:15:43 --> 00:15:47
			The second and most recent author
is the art critics fan litigant.
		
00:15:47 --> 00:15:51
			His book appeared in the wake of
the Danish cartoon debacle, and he
		
00:15:51 --> 00:15:54
			reflects on the UN's post on
depictions of the Holy Prophet,
		
00:15:54 --> 00:15:58
			which I quote, as he says,
character tooled him in ways that
		
00:15:58 --> 00:16:02
			sometimes seemed racist, and oddly
reminiscent of anti semitic
		
00:16:02 --> 00:16:03
			caricatures of old,
		
00:16:05 --> 00:16:09
			the icon or dual European self
definition as non Semitic. Again
		
00:16:09 --> 00:16:11
			fixes on the image question.
		
00:16:12 --> 00:16:14
			But actually, the real trigger for
his book seems to have been
		
00:16:14 --> 00:16:19
			acquired a moment 2007 exhibition
by Amsterdam artists get the
		
00:16:19 --> 00:16:22
			uncocking which took the form of
fine grained photographs of
		
00:16:22 --> 00:16:26
			statues, which had been defaced by
the Reformation and its building
		
00:16:26 --> 00:16:27
			stone.
		
00:16:28 --> 00:16:32
			Well, Cochon holds no religious
brief, he challenges us to view
		
00:16:32 --> 00:16:35
			the headless statuary as less
aesthetically fulfilling than our
		
00:16:36 --> 00:16:40
			imagining of the intact originals.
There is here an aesthetic realism
		
00:16:40 --> 00:16:44
			of iconoclasm, which is not simply
a provocative, warranting of the
		
00:16:44 --> 00:16:48
			modernist turn away from
representation by violently
		
00:16:48 --> 00:16:52
			insisting that stone cannot do
justice to the Imago Dei or to our
		
00:16:52 --> 00:16:58
			complex and fleshly, not stony
humanity. These photographs forced
		
00:16:58 --> 00:17:02
			us to wonder whether any serious
humanism with a sacred or profane
		
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05
			can be carried by representational
art.
		
00:17:07 --> 00:17:11
			Due to gun teases us with this
thought, but he then traces
		
00:17:11 --> 00:17:16
			monotheism is travails with images
back to their origins in Plato.
		
00:17:17 --> 00:17:20
			This incidentally has been
considerably clarified by
		
00:17:20 --> 00:17:24
			Robinson. In an article on early
Christian and icon ism, published
		
00:17:24 --> 00:17:29
			last year in the Journal religion.
Early Christians declined the use
		
00:17:29 --> 00:17:33
			of images not out of obedience to
the second commandment, but
		
00:17:33 --> 00:17:37
			because they were themselves
invested in complex Hellenistic
		
00:17:37 --> 00:17:40
			arguments about the religious
efficacy of images,
		
00:17:41 --> 00:17:44
			logic and sketches Plato's
distinction between true and false
		
00:17:44 --> 00:17:49
			images, idols an idol on the form
of being only accessible to Gods
		
00:17:49 --> 00:17:51
			and true philosophers, and the
latter being necessarily
		
00:17:51 --> 00:17:54
			contaminated by human psychic
residues.
		
00:17:56 --> 00:17:59
			When Christians identified the
logos as identical with God, the
		
00:17:59 --> 00:18:03
			Son, He says, They faced a problem
from which Philo and Judaism had
		
00:18:03 --> 00:18:07
			been exempt. The sun is quite
substantial with the father, but
		
00:18:07 --> 00:18:09
			he too is an image of the Father.
		
00:18:10 --> 00:18:13
			Like the Semitism, Christianity
affirmed that man is in God's
		
00:18:13 --> 00:18:19
			image, and yet so to is Christ,
physical images then logic and
		
00:18:19 --> 00:18:22
			says we're apt to involve the
Christian in a destabilizing
		
00:18:22 --> 00:18:27
			paradox. Judaism, by contrast,
could maintain the logos in it on
		
00:18:27 --> 00:18:31
			the incarnated form, and Islam
also, although its thinkers tended
		
00:18:31 --> 00:18:34
			quite often to vacillate between
considering scripture or the
		
00:18:34 --> 00:18:38
			normal hamady, or both to be a
sort of Lagace principle.
		
00:18:40 --> 00:18:43
			With the two reformations, the
founder of Islam in the seventh
		
00:18:43 --> 00:18:47
			century and Calvin's in the 16th.
This unresolved tension broke
		
00:18:47 --> 00:18:51
			surface again, how could an artist
depict the intersection of
		
00:18:51 --> 00:18:55
			infinity but the sublunary world
they were in Cambridge, there were
		
00:18:55 --> 00:18:59
			many arguments. Launcelot Andrews
at Pembroke College insisted that
		
00:18:59 --> 00:19:03
			images of Christ were Nestorian
because they could show only one
		
00:19:03 --> 00:19:06
			of Christ's natures. And Calvin,
who had his followers here
		
00:19:06 --> 00:19:11
			preached as follows. Behold, they
paint and portray Jesus Christ who
		
00:19:11 --> 00:19:15
			as we know is not only man but
also God manifested in the flesh.
		
00:19:15 --> 00:19:19
			And what a representation is that
he is God's eternal Son in whom
		
00:19:19 --> 00:19:23
			dwells the fullness of the
Godhead, yea, even substantially,
		
00:19:24 --> 00:19:27
			seeing it is said substantially,
should we have portraitures and
		
00:19:27 --> 00:19:31
			images, whereby only the flesh may
be represented. Is it not a wiping
		
00:19:31 --> 00:19:34
			away of that which is chiefest in
our Lord Jesus Christ, that is to
		
00:19:34 --> 00:19:38
			wit of His divine majesty. Yes,
and therefore whatsoever a
		
00:19:38 --> 00:19:42
			crucifix, dance, mopping and
mowing in the church, it is all
		
00:19:42 --> 00:19:44
			one as if the devil had to faced
the Son of God.
		
00:19:46 --> 00:19:50
			Again in Cambridge, the populace
readily further worried that the
		
00:19:50 --> 00:19:53
			extreme difficulty of a crystal
logically proper iconology would
		
00:19:53 --> 00:19:58
			lead the masses into idolatry. And
this to really echoes a very
		
00:19:58 --> 00:19:59
			familiar Islamic concern
		
00:20:00 --> 00:20:04
			Not everyone bowing to an image,
even when sanctioned by the church
		
00:20:04 --> 00:20:08
			is theologically sophisticated.
And again, Islam and the Reformers
		
00:20:08 --> 00:20:13
			here seem to share a concern for
the dangers of an elite Hellenized
		
00:20:13 --> 00:20:17
			theology which was hardly suited
to illiterate practitioners of a
		
00:20:17 --> 00:20:21
			mass religion. Instead, the ayah
Sophia is tempting images would
		
00:20:21 --> 00:20:25
			one day be prudently whitewashed
and replaced with Scripture, the
		
00:20:25 --> 00:20:29
			word made word as it were, much
less liable to be idolatrous Lee
		
00:20:29 --> 00:20:33
			misunderstood. Only then, did the
mighty structure truly point
		
00:20:33 --> 00:20:37
			everyone rather than just
theologians, towards the Bible's
		
00:20:37 --> 00:20:37
			God?
		
00:20:39 --> 00:20:42
			Well, if this is the case, then
perhaps we need to revise our
		
00:20:42 --> 00:20:46
			earlier judgment, which proposed
an Islamic age rather than Islamic
		
00:20:46 --> 00:20:50
			nature for Islamic miniature
painting. Of course, despite the
		
00:20:50 --> 00:20:53
			determination of iconic or Western
art historians to make a case for
		
00:20:53 --> 00:20:57
			it even sometimes, an Islam
affiliate case, the cartoon
		
00:20:57 --> 00:21:00
			characters of most Muslim
figurative art are deliberately
		
00:21:00 --> 00:21:05
			two dimensional, humorous and
crude their emotions, always jerky
		
00:21:05 --> 00:21:09
			and puppet like fingers in mouths,
they're barely capable of
		
00:21:09 --> 00:21:14
			expression. When surrounded on
their pages by the superb hieratic
		
00:21:14 --> 00:21:17
			abstractions of Islamic
calligraphy. Their status as a
		
00:21:17 --> 00:21:21
			minor art becomes flagrant
painters needed to earn their
		
00:21:21 --> 00:21:25
			keep. But as John Renard observes,
they ensure that their figurative
		
00:21:25 --> 00:21:29
			art was never representational.
Indeed, the images are almost
		
00:21:29 --> 00:21:32
			purely indicative rather than
substantive. As low as for raw PCs
		
00:21:32 --> 00:21:36
			matters. Islamic miniature
painting, renders superficially
		
00:21:36 --> 00:21:39
			Anthro anthropomorphic forms into
abstractions.
		
00:21:41 --> 00:21:43
			Even the Mogul image of St.
Jerome, which we spoke about
		
00:21:43 --> 00:21:47
			accomplishes this. And hence these
cartoons are surely at their most
		
00:21:47 --> 00:21:51
			aesthetically impressive when the
childish faces are no longer
		
00:21:51 --> 00:21:55
			trying to say anything, when they
are raised, smeared by the wet
		
00:21:55 --> 00:22:00
			finger of a pious passion. For
this veiling by the smear however,
		
00:22:00 --> 00:22:03
			shocking to the European curator
is not the modern desecration of
		
00:22:03 --> 00:22:07
			our thier morphic nature,
represented by say, Lucien Freud,
		
00:22:07 --> 00:22:12
			but something quite different, a
sign of ineffability man alone,
		
00:22:12 --> 00:22:17
			not his image is the image of God.
We might say that the faces are
		
00:22:17 --> 00:22:19
			smeared up, not down.
		
00:22:20 --> 00:22:23
			This truth theistic humanism is
well summarized by Titus
		
00:22:23 --> 00:22:27
			Burckhardt, who writes this, the
portraying of divine envoys,
		
00:22:28 --> 00:22:33
			Russel, prophets, and Viet and
saints Alia is avoided, not only
		
00:22:33 --> 00:22:36
			because such images could become
the object of an idolatrous cult,
		
00:22:36 --> 00:22:40
			but also out of respect for what
is inimitable in them, they are
		
00:22:40 --> 00:22:44
			the vice judgments of God on
earth. It is to them that the
		
00:22:44 --> 00:22:48
			thier morphic nature of man
becomes manifest. But this thier
		
00:22:48 --> 00:22:51
			morphism is a secret, whose
appearance in a corporeal world
		
00:22:51 --> 00:22:56
			remains ungraspable. The inanimate
and congealed image of the man God
		
00:22:56 --> 00:23:00
			would be merely a shell, an error,
an idol.
		
00:23:02 --> 00:23:05
			This general summary other
considerations have habitually be
		
00:23:05 --> 00:23:10
			made by Muslim skeptics. It's not
only that an image of a created
		
00:23:10 --> 00:23:14
			entity when purporting a spiritual
or aesthetic purpose necessarily
		
00:23:14 --> 00:23:18
			falls blasphemously short of the
luminous reality, after all, who
		
00:23:18 --> 00:23:22
			had preferred the rook be Venus
over the lady herself.
		
00:23:23 --> 00:23:26
			But image making passes the
sublime through a more or less
		
00:23:26 --> 00:23:31
			fallen human filter, precipitating
the congealing of which Burkhart
		
00:23:31 --> 00:23:35
			writes, feminists nowadays object
to much Christian iconography as
		
00:23:35 --> 00:23:40
			pushing God down into agenda,
which is why Mary Daly thought
		
00:23:40 --> 00:23:44
			that Christology is idolatry.
While Rosemary Ruth found a new
		
00:23:44 --> 00:23:48
			Christological paradox by
theorizing on the non masculinity
		
00:23:48 --> 00:23:49
			of Jesus.
		
00:23:50 --> 00:23:54
			Similarly, race activists
habitually protest representations
		
00:23:54 --> 00:23:57
			of the incarnate God as white, and
black Muslims in America have seen
		
00:23:57 --> 00:24:02
			this as a token of Islam's
universality. Only an icon ism,
		
00:24:02 --> 00:24:07
			being without images can save us
from intermediary representations,
		
00:24:07 --> 00:24:09
			which introduce racial or gender
specifics.
		
00:24:11 --> 00:24:16
			Moreover, Muslims that included
observe that iconographic genres
		
00:24:16 --> 00:24:20
			are vulnerable to a decline into
sentimentality, which can make the
		
00:24:20 --> 00:24:23
			spaces the condition
uninhabitable. Observing the
		
00:24:23 --> 00:24:27
			iconography of many churches,
young visitors often find
		
00:24:27 --> 00:24:32
			themselves alienated. Those images
of the Sacred Heart which wants
		
00:24:32 --> 00:24:35
			there to facilitate the
religiosity of the masses, now
		
00:24:35 --> 00:24:38
			often seem to obstruct it. Those
who have worked with the young
		
00:24:38 --> 00:24:42
			often find that it is a clear
space, which celebrates geometry
		
00:24:42 --> 00:24:45
			and stylize tessellations and
vegetal motifs which best
		
00:24:45 --> 00:24:49
			proclaims monotheism, universal
and urgent charm.
		
00:24:51 --> 00:24:54
			Cambridge Muslim college training
the next generation of Muslim
		
00:24:54 --> 00:24:55
			thinkers