The four elements of religion described above – the significance of gods and spirits, the power of holy rituals, the telling of sacred stories and belonging to faith communities – seem in their own ways to be a core aspect of the human condition in the twenty-first century. While media reporting seems to constantly prioritise stories of war, conflict and controversy, it is equally the case that local, national and international society requires a remarkable degree of cooperation. Although many dimensions of the religious experience can be ‘politics-free’, both history and contemporary events remind us that these combined elements of religion can have a political impact on individuals, nations and international society. Merton’s experience of redefining power and influence through sacred symbols is true for millions of people practising thousands of different religious rituals each day. For religious adherents, rituals symbolise spiritual truths but they can also redefine how power can be understood in the material world.

What is common to both fundamental and contextual religious traditions is an understanding that politics is in some sort of interactive relationship with the intentions of, or traditions shaped by, gods (or God) and spiritual forces. Although monarchs differ in the extent of their powers – from figureheads controlled by parliaments to absolute rulers to variations of these – they all draw their power from some form of religious or spiritual authority. Asia constitute in absolute terms the world’s Muslim population. That’s why stories about bans and mandates on burqas – garments that cover the entire face and body worn by some Muslim women – make headlines. The fourth element common to most religions is the need for believers to belong to a faith community in order to practice sacred rituals and reinforce the truth of sacred stories. Therefore, sometimes religious and political groups can appeal to the same stories or ideas even though the interpretation or intent may differ significantly. But, as we never can have sensible experience of objects corresponding to such transcendent ideas and as the concepts of the understanding, without which human knowledge is impossible, can only be known to apply to objects of possible experience, knowledge of the soul, of the cosmos, and of God is impossible, in principle.

For some religions, however, time itself is an illusion and the main focus is living in the now according to sacred ideas rather than the connection of past-present-future. However, if the seeds are frozen at lower, cryonic temperatures, all molecular motion comes to a halt. These men, hidden in the anonymity of their choir and their white cowls, are doing for their land what no army, no congress, no president could ever do as such: they are winning for it the grace and the protection and the friendship of God. Only a few years later, this sacred story was used for very different purposes by US president George W. Bush, who celebrated the 2003 invasion of Iraq by quoting a Jubilee text from the Book of Isaiah: ‘To the captives come out, and to those in darkness be free’ (Monbiot 2003). Sacred stories, ideas and teachings from the past have a richness and power that can influence political affairs today and the aspirations we hold for tomorrow. On Rosh Hashanah, Jews often say to one another, “May you be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life.” The High Holiday period is a choice between life and death, righteousness and sin, and those who repent are on their way to being inscribed in the “Book of Life,” which brings with it the promise of a good year.

Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do. 8r lol @knickerlicker reduces my vocabulary to four letter words – I figured why not make a blog? We will explore four elements of culture, illustrating each element through individual and international political experience. Other numerical ordering schemas included the Ogdoad (group of eight gods) of Hermopolis, which embodied the inchoate world before creation and consisted of four pairs of male and female deities with abstract names such as Darkness, Absence, and Endlessness. The first of these is mainly poetry, while the second covers the mythology of the Norse gods. Encyclopaedia of Islam New Edition (also called Second Edition) Online sets out the present state of our knowledge of the Islamic World. The second element of religion are rituals that re-order the world according to religious principle. The issue is not so much one of imperial expansion, of which we are accused, as of the tendency to assimilate all governments or parties in the world that support our immediate policies or call upon our help by invoking the notion of free institutions and democratic values.