Reflection 8
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School
University of Toronto, Scarborough *
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Course
A01
Subject
Religion
Date
Nov 24, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
1
Uploaded by ProfArt11715
After watching
Black Mountain,
there is an overarching discourse beyond the
surface of religious war against Hindus, Muslims, and Christians that involves
the contestations between syncretic beliefs and fundamental values. First,
syncretism follows a liberal approach where a group adheres to a
combination of values of separate religions formed through the
reconstructions impacted by religious globalization. In the documentary,
syncretism involves non-conformists who follow the path of Sufism, the
cultural synthesis of Hinduism and Islam. Contrarily, fundamentalism
preserves religious traditions in their primordial states, forbidding any
changes that would tarnish them. In India, right-wing fundamental Hindus
motivate nationalist pilgrimages to guard the borders in concern with the
potential threats of Christian or Muslim adversaries. With their polar beliefs in
mind, there is a conflict regarding the shape of national identity as religion
plays a huge role in the political and social framework of India. The film thus
presents the tensions between syncretic ideas and radical religious
standards.
The idea that religion is
syncretic
is one that goes against the pre-existing
western notion of religion. The fundamentalist idea of religion would paint it
as an absolute, where there is a set of rules and functions for a religion.
However, a syncretic view helps understand the nuance between religion
both externally and internally. Externally, it allows us to see religions in the
way they interact and internally we can see variance of the same religion
among different people who practice it. It is important for us to understand
this variance of the same religion so we can understand why people do what
they do in accordance to the religion they believe.
The syncretic view welcomes different religions,
while the fundamentalist
view is very exclusive. While the syncretic view allows people to change
beliefs and keep habits of another religion, the radical view cannot accept
other religions to get further on their land. The former thinks since similar
ideas exist, people from different religions should accept each other, while
the latter confirms there is only one god, and thus people who believe in
other gods are not their friends.
Their conflict is not only about their view of
religion but also political things such as the border of a country.
I really like how you brought up the fact that fundamentalism is heavily
based on the religious texts and following them. I think it's a very interesting
contrast to syncretism, which does not focus so much on texts and instead is
more about integrating different aspects into a single religion.
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