God, the All- powerful, the Creator...

After reading the section God's Names on page 310 in Voorst's Anthology of Word Scripture, I wondered if there were too many names for God. Names such as "Modeler" "Compassionate" the All-powerful" "the Creator"  "the Giver of Peace" and so forth essentially describe God's characteristics and role. The names also glory and pronounce his importance. I think all of the names are unnecessary if you already know about God and his role. However, if you do not know about God, these names can be used to help define him and what he does.

Why can't Muhammad's Wives Remarry after his Death ?

        On page 157, Armstrong states that, “the revelation went on to ordain that Muhammad's wives should not remarry after his death..." This statement is confusing to me because a marriage could possibly give his wives protection and financial stability which they cannot obtain on their own after his death. This is one of the reasons why Muhammad married widows whose husbands died in war. Muhammad was allowed to remarry after his first wife. He also married Zaynab only because he was attracted to her when he already had several wives. Looking at these facts, it is hard to find a reason why his wives should not find another person to love or care for after his death. The only reasons I have concluded about why Muhammad's wives should not remarry is because they would end up being harassed due to their involved with Muhammad and they would already have all the means needed for financial stability and protection.

Intergreting into a New Community

            Leaving a community behind for new community is tough, even if the new community will be stronger and better. To help integrate and build an improved community with the people from Mecca and Yathrib, Muhammad came up with several techniques. One technique was having the people from Mecca live with people of Yathrib until they are comfortable and on their feet. Another technique was a brother system. In this system, the people from Mecca were assigned a person from Yathrib to be their brother to connect the community and build kinship. In addition, the whole community had to promise not to fight one another no matter how much their differences and feelings of hatred surfaced. These techniques helped build the community and shared ideology. However, I think other natural conflicts were bound to surface such as stepping on toes, in other words, annoying one another. This could have easily fueled out bursts and attacks on one another, which were trying to be prevented. Muhammad tackled this issue head on. By putting people together as brothers or in the same house, they were forced to get along if they wanted to live in peace.

Born a Female

           In the text Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography, we learned that it was typical for ancient Mediterranean families to abandon new born infants if it was a girl. In the current text we are reading, Muhammad, A Prophet for Our Time, it is stated that Arabs killed new born infants if they were a girl, (29). At first, I saw this as a trend and a similarity between both cultures. After our discussion in class, I realized that this was the way many people from many cultures handled having unwanted female children. There was no birth control or contraception available during this time, so they took the only option they had. Although, it is rare that we leave infant children in trash cans today, and we do have contraception, there is still abortion and unwanted infants go to an orphanage. In some sense and depending on the position you take we haven’t grown much from our old ways. The only major difference is that we now think males are a burden as well as females and we are more polite when we throw away unwanted infants.

        In addition, as pointed out in class, new born females were thrown away but, men and women praised female Gods in multiple cultures. This is because the parents never saw their female new born to be a goddess. Women were never able to live up to that standard because men would always knock them down if they tried. People still have this tendency today. They think one way and act in another way.  

Memory Narrative v. Myth Narrative v. Meaning Narrative

           Narratives are the one of most enjoying ways to learn because it can not only be written but also spoken or even acted. Children will know spoken narratives before they learn how to read. Fingarette explains three different types of narratives in chapter 4, which are: memory narratives, myth narratives, and meaning narratives. The memory narrative “gives history as a memory" (Fingarette 66).  The myth narrative “explains, justifies, illuminates our life on earth"(Fingarette 66). Lastly, the meaning narrative “present us with the meaning of life displayed as a series of meaningfully connected events in time- a  piece of history, in short," (Fingarette 66). Personally, I think all three narratives are needed to help us understand history because there isn't one way to learn. Furthermore, there can always be truth in a myth.However, with a myth narrative it may be hard to spot elaborations and can cause uncertainty. Hopefully, that uncertainty will drive us to think deeper and research our questions. 

How does Confucius feel about non-human animals?

While reading the handout given in class, Anthology of World Scriptures I wondered how does Confucius feel about non-human animals? On the top of page 143 there is a story of Confucius’ stable burning down. He does not ask about the horses but if anyone has been hurt. I inferred that he values human life over the life of a horse. But, could the horses also represent money because they can be sold or used for work? If so, then this reveals that money holds little value for Confucius.

The Power of Li

    I find it interesting that every day we carry out the power of Li probably without realizing it. It is natural to do what another asks if no harm comes to us or complete a ceremony by shaking hands with another. But, what do we make of someone who realizes the power of Li and abuses it?  An example could be someone who constantly asks the people around them to do things for him/her. The person requests are not just simple tasks but annoying and unnecessary because they are lazy and controlling. I think in this example, the power of Li would be broken because it would turn into manipulation, which is not an aspect of Li.

Never Ending

          I find it interesting how the meaning of historical Jesus can change over time. Once one is close to completing his or her study of the historical Jesus, something new is bond to come up about that alters their interpretation. This process seems frustrating. However, if this someone’s passion, they will be excited that there is now something new to be discovered and analyzed. It is a never ending cycle because there is a possibility that there will never be a source to confirm our interpretations. We can only get as close as we possibly can to it. This relates exactly to what Crossan states on page 200 " Christianity must repeatedly, generation after generation, make its best historical judgment about who was Jesus then and, on that basis, decide what that reconstruction means as Christ now." Nothing is set in stone.