Orsi ends his presence analysis with a modest prediction, in which he hopes that in the future, presence will have overtaken absence’s role in religious studies. As he states, “...it may be that...one day historians and scholars of religion will find it impossible to believe there ever lived on this planet counterparts of theirs who thought it was possible to study history or religion without the gods...” (251). Instead of the conventional histories and religious studies perspectives shaped by modernity, scholarship will account appropriately for the gods. However, releasing the gods in this modern age is much more difficult than Orsi realizes. Because of modernity’s influence across the world and on other religions, people have adapted
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With the Islamic Revival consuming Cairo since the 1970s, the religious and cultural landscape of Egypt has changed significantly. Saba Mahmood defines the Islamic Revival as “a term that that refers not only to the activities of state-oriented political groups but more broadly to a religious ethos or sensibility that has developed within contemporary Muslim societies” (3). This sensibility has manifested greatly in “marked displays of religious sociability” such as “the adoption of the veil (hijab), a brisk consumption and production of religious media and literature, and a growing circle of intellectuals who write and comment upon contemporary affairs in the popular press from a self-described Islamic point of view” (3). In her book, Politics of Piety, Mahmood performs ethnographic research on the increasingly popular women’s mosque movement in Cairo. By attending the mosque, participating in vigorous scholarly debate, and developing their exegetical skills, these women undergo a “process of cultivating and honing a pious disposition,” one that has the power to shape and alter the political landscape of Egypt (140). In this context, some Muslims manifest their religiosity not by cultivating the presence of God(s) but by building an Islamic society from within. This is one of the modern manifestations of …show more content…
Again, in the Islamic Revival landscape, the contours of traditional religious activities have become stretched and taken on new meanings and significances. With modernity calling for the separation of one’s political and public life from ones private and religious life, the people have fostered a religious movement that seeks to reinvigorate a truly Islamic society, for “The activities of ordinary citizens who, through the exercise of their agency in contexts of public interaction, shape the conditions of their collective existence” (8). One way to bring about this new society is by listening to Islamic sermons on cassette tapes. The tapes are played so often and so much that even if one chooses not to actively purchase or listen to the messages of such tapes, he or she is still continuously exposed to a constant barrage of Islamic exegesis. As Hirschkind mentions, “Listening invests the body with affective potentialities...Contemporary sermon listening, in other words, inherits and extends a practical tradition for the formation of a pious sensorium” (79). Again, while the development of a completely pious living is accomplished through and for God, the emphasis of an ethical, communal space for living in a modern and still religious world
With the Islamic Revival consuming Cairo since the 1970s, the religious and cultural landscape of Egypt has changed significantly. Saba Mahmood defines the Islamic Revival as “a term that that refers not only to the activities of state-oriented political groups but more broadly to a religious ethos or sensibility that has developed within contemporary Muslim societies” (3). This sensibility has manifested greatly in “marked displays of religious sociability” such as “the adoption of the veil (hijab), a brisk consumption and production of religious media and literature, and a growing circle of intellectuals who write and comment upon contemporary affairs in the popular press from a self-described Islamic point of view” (3). In her book, Politics of Piety, Mahmood performs ethnographic research on the increasingly popular women’s mosque movement in Cairo. By attending the mosque, participating in vigorous scholarly debate, and developing their exegetical skills, these women undergo a “process of cultivating and honing a pious disposition,” one that has the power to shape and alter the political landscape of Egypt (140). In this context, some Muslims manifest their religiosity not by cultivating the presence of God(s) but by building an Islamic society from within. This is one of the modern manifestations of …show more content…
Again, in the Islamic Revival landscape, the contours of traditional religious activities have become stretched and taken on new meanings and significances. With modernity calling for the separation of one’s political and public life from ones private and religious life, the people have fostered a religious movement that seeks to reinvigorate a truly Islamic society, for “The activities of ordinary citizens who, through the exercise of their agency in contexts of public interaction, shape the conditions of their collective existence” (8). One way to bring about this new society is by listening to Islamic sermons on cassette tapes. The tapes are played so often and so much that even if one chooses not to actively purchase or listen to the messages of such tapes, he or she is still continuously exposed to a constant barrage of Islamic exegesis. As Hirschkind mentions, “Listening invests the body with affective potentialities...Contemporary sermon listening, in other words, inherits and extends a practical tradition for the formation of a pious sensorium” (79). Again, while the development of a completely pious living is accomplished through and for God, the emphasis of an ethical, communal space for living in a modern and still religious world