Schleiermacher's Theory of Religion: Feeling, in Relation to Knowledge and Activity, and how it c... more Schleiermacher's Theory of Religion: Feeling, in Relation to Knowledge and Activity, and how it can inform the study of religion "The sum total of religion is to feel that, in its highest unity, all that moves us in feeling is one; to feel that aught single and particular is only possible by means of this unity; to feel, that is to say, that our being and living is a being and living in and through God" (p. 50). Schleiermacher puts feeling or intuition -of unity with God -at the heart of religion such that "religion's essence is neither thinking nor acting but intuition and feeling" (p. 22). In this paper, we will examine the argument behind Schleiermacher's conception of the essence of religion as a feeling and piety, its relation with knowledge and activity, and analyze how this conception differs from and impacts the popular understanding and examination of religion.
opens this book with an epigraph quoting Hafiz Sheraz's poetic verse "The cloister of the dervish... more opens this book with an epigraph quoting Hafiz Sheraz's poetic verse "The cloister of the dervishes is an eternal garden", from which Ernst borrows the title of his book. Through the title Eternal Garden, Ernst not only suggests his upcoming attempt to describe the history of a cloister of the dervishes, namely the Sufis of Khuldabad, but through the positively aesthetic connotations carried within this title he also seems to express his desire to acquaint his readers with the mystical milieu of medieval India, as if walking them through a garden seemingly bringing all its forgotten and ignored features back to life. This book will interest not only the historians interested in medieval India or Islamic history, but it will, with its in-depth examination of the Chishti order and focus on the Sufi circle of Burhan al-din Gharib, also appeal to the scholars and students of religion interested in Sufism and the history of its evolution in South Asia. At the onset, however, Ernst establishes the elusiveness of the task of producing "objective" history of Sufism in South Asia and instead purports that the main purpose of writing this book is to "present a method for reading Sufi texts historiographically" (p. xxviii). By analyzing the information carried in the fourteenth-century Sufi texts from Khuldabad, Ernst highlights the need to classify Sufi texts according to their genre, purpose and authorship, to comprehend their content better. To this end, he identifies a variety of genres: "original" malfuzat texts, "retrospective" malfuzat texts, early hagiographies, historical accounts with royalist inclinations, Sufi biographies, popular Sufi tales, and late hagiographies from 17 th century onwards etc. To ascribe each text to a particular genre, Ernst suggests the methods of identifying the intended purpose of the text, the awareness of the author's vocation and position, or a conflict of narrative present in different versions of the same account.
Schleiermacher's Theory of Religion: Feeling, in Relation to Knowledge and Activity, and how it c... more Schleiermacher's Theory of Religion: Feeling, in Relation to Knowledge and Activity, and how it can inform the study of religion "The sum total of religion is to feel that, in its highest unity, all that moves us in feeling is one; to feel that aught single and particular is only possible by means of this unity; to feel, that is to say, that our being and living is a being and living in and through God" (p. 50). Schleiermacher puts feeling or intuition -of unity with God -at the heart of religion such that "religion's essence is neither thinking nor acting but intuition and feeling" (p. 22). In this paper, we will examine the argument behind Schleiermacher's conception of the essence of religion as a feeling and piety, its relation with knowledge and activity, and analyze how this conception differs from and impacts the popular understanding and examination of religion.
opens this book with an epigraph quoting Hafiz Sheraz's poetic verse "The cloister of the dervish... more opens this book with an epigraph quoting Hafiz Sheraz's poetic verse "The cloister of the dervishes is an eternal garden", from which Ernst borrows the title of his book. Through the title Eternal Garden, Ernst not only suggests his upcoming attempt to describe the history of a cloister of the dervishes, namely the Sufis of Khuldabad, but through the positively aesthetic connotations carried within this title he also seems to express his desire to acquaint his readers with the mystical milieu of medieval India, as if walking them through a garden seemingly bringing all its forgotten and ignored features back to life. This book will interest not only the historians interested in medieval India or Islamic history, but it will, with its in-depth examination of the Chishti order and focus on the Sufi circle of Burhan al-din Gharib, also appeal to the scholars and students of religion interested in Sufism and the history of its evolution in South Asia. At the onset, however, Ernst establishes the elusiveness of the task of producing "objective" history of Sufism in South Asia and instead purports that the main purpose of writing this book is to "present a method for reading Sufi texts historiographically" (p. xxviii). By analyzing the information carried in the fourteenth-century Sufi texts from Khuldabad, Ernst highlights the need to classify Sufi texts according to their genre, purpose and authorship, to comprehend their content better. To this end, he identifies a variety of genres: "original" malfuzat texts, "retrospective" malfuzat texts, early hagiographies, historical accounts with royalist inclinations, Sufi biographies, popular Sufi tales, and late hagiographies from 17 th century onwards etc. To ascribe each text to a particular genre, Ernst suggests the methods of identifying the intended purpose of the text, the awareness of the author's vocation and position, or a conflict of narrative present in different versions of the same account.
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