Tag: religion

THE DEVIL’S TUNES AND THE MUSIC OF ANGELS

December 25, 2013 by Kenan Malik

The devil has the best tunes? Perhaps. But the music of angels can be damn fine too. So, here is a Christmas soundtrack splicing some of my favourite gospel tracks with songs in which the devil pops up (most of which derive, of course, from the blues/gospel tradition). For the music of the angels I could easily have created a whole soundtrack simply of Mahalia Jackson songs, but I have restricted myself to just two, which open and close the […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: blues, gospel, music, religion

RELIGION’S QUANDARY

December 17, 2013 by Kenan Malik

My latest essay for the International New York Times is on the quandary faced by contemporary religious institutions, and the light this throws upon Pope Francis’ attempt to transform the Catholic Church. Here are the opening paragraphs and a link though to the INYT article (where it published under the headline British Catholics’ Quandary). I will publish the full essay on Pandaemonium next month. They call it the Francis effect: the impact of Pope Francis in galvanizing the Catholic faithful. […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Britain • Tags: anglicanism, atheism, catholicism, christianity, islam, linda woodhead, pope francis, religion, secularism

WHAT DID THE GREEKS EVER DO FOR GOD?

December 11, 2013 by Kenan Malik

I have been publishing on Pandaemonium a series of ‘lost pages’ from The Quest for a Moral Compass, my forthcoming book on the history of moral thought, due to be published in April. In completing the book, I had to cut the original manuscript quite considerably. Much of what has been lost is better off left on the cutting room floor. There are, however, some sections coherent enough to be worth reading. Previous such ‘lost pages’ included abandoned sections on Machiavelli, Descartes, John Locke, Greek cynics, atomists, skeptics and […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, History of moral thought, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: aristotle, christianity, evil, god, greek philosophy, morality, plato, religion, socrates, st paul, unmoved mover

BUDDHIST POGROMS AND RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS

November 21, 2013 by Kenan Malik

There is perhaps no religion that Western liberals find more amenable than Buddhism. Politicians fawn over the Dalai Lama, celebrities seek out Buddhist meditation, many scientists and philosophers insist that Buddhism has much to teach us about human nature and human psychology. Even many of the so-called New Atheists have fallen for Buddhism’s allure, albeit as a philosophy rather than as a faith. For most of its Western sympathisers, Buddhism is a deeply humanist outlook, less a religion than a […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, International • Tags: aung sang suu kyi, buddhism, islam, myanmar, religion, religious violence, rohingya, sri lanka

WHAT IS SACRED ABOUT SACRED MUSIC?

November 18, 2013 by Kenan Malik

The death last week of composer John Tavener has led me to think about the idea of the ‘sacred’ in music. A profoundly religious man – he was a convert to Russian Orthodoxy – Tavener’s faith and sense of mysticism suffused much of his music. Historically, and in the minds of most people today, the sacred in music is, as it was with Tavener, inextricably linked with religious faith. Yet, I think that we lose something of what is ‘sacred’ about sacred […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Culture & Books • Tags: art, britten, classical music, leszek kolakowski, messiaen, modernism, religion, religious art, rothko, sacred, stravinsky

SATAN’S WORK [GOD AND EVIL, PART 2]

October 16, 2013 by Kenan Malik

This is the second part of my essay on ‘God and evil’, exploring the problem of evil for Christianity and other monotheistic religions. The first part, which I published on Sunday, looked at the question of Original Sin. This second part examines the idea of Satan, and the tension in monotheistic religions between the idea that God is a necessary bulwark against evil (‘If God does not exist, everything is permitted’) and the fact that belief in God leads many to accept […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: augustine, bible, blake, book of job, christianity, dostoevsky, evil, free will, god, hell, judaism, original sin, religion, richard swinburne, satan

GOD AND EVIL

October 13, 2013 by Kenan Malik

No, not a screed on the evils of religion, but an exploration of how monotheistic faiths (and Christianity in particular) account for evil in the world. It is another in the ‘Lost Pages’ series – sections of The Quest for a Moral Compass, my book on the global history of ethics, that I had to cut from the final version for reasons of space. Previous excerpts were on Machiavelli, Descartes, Locke and Greek cynics, skeptics, atomists and relativists. Since this extract is long, […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, History of moral thought, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: augustine, bible, book of job, christianity, evil, free will, god, original sin, religion, satan

RELIGION IS NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE

August 15, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Linda Woodhead is one of the most acute observers of contemporary religion. Professor of sociology of religion at Lancaster University, director of the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society research programme, and organizer of the Westminster Faith Debates, her empirical work has helped shape the understanding of the ways in which the meaning of faith has transformed in recent decades. I am delighted that she has written an essay for Pandaemonium on the changing landscape of religious identity in Britain. The essay presents an […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion • Tags: britain, catholicism, christianity, church of england, fundamentalism, linda woodhead, religion, secularism, thatcherism

WHAT DO BELIEVERS BELIEVE? (NOT WHAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT)

August 11, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Linda Woodhead is professor of sociology of religion at Lancaster University and Director of the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society research programme. She is also one of the most acute observers of contemporary religion and religious identity. She has been conducting a series of surveys with YouGov on social and personal morality for the Westminster Faith Debates, of which she is the organiser. Linda is writing an essay for Pandaemonium on the changing character of religious identity, which I will publish that next […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Britain • Tags: abortion, assisted suicide, atheism, catholicism, christianity, islam, linda woodhead, morality, religion, same sex marriage, secularism

ON THE RELIGIOUS & CULTURAL LIMITS TO FREE SPEECH

August 7, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Earlier this year I took part in an exchange of letters with Nada Shabout, director of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies at the University of North Texas, which focused on the question: ‘Should religious or cultural sensibilities ever limit free speech?’ The first four letters were published in Index on Censorship magazine which had organized the debate. There was no space to take the debate further in print, but we agreed to continue the discussion, with the new […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: danish cartoons, debates, free speech, islam, islamophobia, offence, racism, religion, religious freedom, rushdie affair

AN ESSAY ON THOMAS PAINE (JUST A LITTLE BIT CENSORED)

June 24, 2013 by Kenan Malik

In my talk on pluralism and the giving of offence, I mentioned my 1994 essay on Thomas Paine that had been censored by the Independent because I opened it with a quote from The Satanic Verses. Here is that essay, in the form in which it was finally published. And this is the quote from The Satanic Verses that was felt to be too offensive. It describes the moment that Salman, the scribe who writes down the revelations that Mahound receives from […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Free Speech • Tags: christianity, edmund burke, enlightenment, free speech, offence, religion, rushdie affair, the satanic verses, tom paine

TO CAST THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN A RADICAL LIGHT

June 20, 2013 by Kenan Malik

There is no period of history that has been more analysed, debated, celebrated and disparaged than the Enlightenment. Unlike, say, the Renaissance or the Reformation, the Enlightenment is not simply a historical moment but one through which debates about the contemporary world are played out. From the role of science to the war on terror, from free speech to racism, there are few contemporary debates that do not engage with the Enlightenment, or, at least, with what we imagine the […]

Categories: History, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: christianity, descartes, dualism, enlightenment, ernst cassirer, hobbes, jonathan israel, kant, locke, max horkenheimer, monism, peter gay, radical enlightenment, reformation, religion, religious freedom, spinoza, theodor adorno

EQUALITY AND THE GODLESS

May 16, 2013 by Kenan Malik

I have been in Brussels to attend a conference on the Radical Enlightenment, and to interview Jonathan Israel, the keynote speaker, for an essay I am writing about his work and argument. Israel has transformed our understanding of the Enlightenment with his superlative trilogy published over the past decade: Radical Enlightenment, Enlightenment Contested, and Democratic Enlightenment. At the heart of his argument is his insistence that there were two Enlightenments. The mainstream Enlightenment of Kant, Locke, Voltaire and Hume is the […]

Categories: History, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: enlightenment, equality, jonathan israel, locke, radical enlightenment, religion

FREE SPEECH AND CULTURAL SENSITIVITIES: A DEBATE

March 21, 2013 by Kenan Malik

I have just taken part in an exchange of letters with Nada Shabout, director of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies at the University of North Texas, which focused on the question: ‘Should religious or cultural sensibilities ever limit free speech?’ These first four letters are published in the latest edition of Index on Censorship magazine. There was no room to take the debate further in print, but we are continuing the discussion. The new exchanges will be published […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: danish cartoons, debates, free speech, islam, islamophobia, offence, racism, religion, religious freedom, rushdie affair

FROM THE VAULTS: ON TARIQ RAMADAN’S MEANING

March 10, 2013 by Kenan Malik

I am still closeted away, finishing my almost-finished book on the history of moral thought. So, here is another of my old book reviews, this one on Tariq Ramadan’s The Quest for Meaning. It was first published in the Independent in August 2010. In an age in which public intellectuals are often highly divisive figures – think of the storms surrounding Noam Chomsky, Richard Dawkins or Bernard-Henri Lévy – few generate more controversy than Tariq Ramadan. Political activist, Muslim scholar, […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion • Tags: humanism, islam, religion, tariq ramadan