Culture/ Religion/ Tradition vs Modern/ Secular/ Foreign

Religion and the Rise of Modern Culture

Culture and Religion

Australia has two distinct Indigenous peoples: Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples belong to diverse, contemporary communities, each containing individuals with different perspectives, life experiences and aspirations. While there are many shared interests based on their status as Indigenous Australians, it should be expected that there is a div...

Hygiene in the early modern medical tradition

"reading" the body as well as the texts. Helen King examines how the healer could read the body and avoid being deceived by it, and what made reading a female body different. In Chapter 3, it is the case histories in the Hippocratic Epidemics that are subjected to scrutiny, with particular focus on one specific case of a girl who died after a nosebleed. In Chapters 4 and 5, the author turns to ...

Eye on religion: miracles in the Chinese Buddhist tradition.

Books on Buddhism for general readers rarely mention miracles. Instead, the emphasis is usually on the life of the Buddha, his teachings, and the monastic order, the so-called “Three Treasures.” This is a heritage left by the European scholars who first became interested in Buddhism in the 19 century. Take the example of T.W. Rhys Davids, who founded the Pali Text Society in 1886 in England, an...

Why religion deserves a place in secular medicine.

As a science and practice transcending metaphysical and ethical disagreements, 'secular' medicine should not exist. 'Secularity' should be understood in an Augustinian sense, not a secularist one: not as a space that is universally rational because it is religion-free, but as a forum for the negotiation of rival reasonings. Religion deserves a place here, because it is not simply or uniquely ir...