THE HUMAN AS RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR
A Search into the Religious and Secular Ideologies of Our Time
Keywords:
Religion, Religionless Secular Ideologies, Religion and Ideology, Difference between Religion and Ideology, Religion and Secular Ideologies, Secular Ideologies of Our Time, Religious Ideology as a Political Phenomenon, RSS/BJP Ideology in Religion and Politics, Critical Review of Hindutva IdeologyAbstract
“The earth is like honey to all beings and all beings are like honey to the earth. The shining immortal person who lives in the earth lives in your body” (Br. Up. II.5.1).
“The Lord God formed man from dust and breathed into him his spirit and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7).
These two texts from the Hindu and the Christian traditions show how a human person is both mundane and divine. The human being is born of the earth and at the same time participates in the divine nature. He/she is a wonderful combination of the earthly and the heavenly. This is the reason why the humans feel a constant tension between these two poles of their existence.
References
Albert Camus, The Rebel.
M. S. Golwalkar, We, Our Nation Defined, cited in Panikar, Communal Threat and Secular Challenge, xiv.
Marx and Engels, On Religion, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975, 39.
Paul Tillich, Christianity and the Encounter of the World Religions, New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1964, 5.
R. C. Zaehner, Hinduism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962, 16.
Time, January 1, 2000.
V. D. Savarkar, Hindutva, Delhi, 1989, cited in K. N. Panikar, Communal Threat and Secular Challenge, Madras: Earthworm Books, 1997, 157-158.
V. D. Savarkar, The Indian War of Independence, First published 1909, New Delhi: 1970 edition, cited in Panikar, Communal Threat and Secular Challenge, xi.
Vatican II, The Church in the Modern World, 19.
