New blog

Last week I was elected new secretary of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists for the next 2 years. I have created a new blog, UU Without Borders, to present some of the issues related to the task of the ICUU and what is going on internationally. During this period, this Hanif blog will remain dormant. Thanks for your reading all this time and I hope that we meet again at the new blog.

It's Freezing Time Here

I have a hectic time ahead: first, I'm a panelist at the upcoming Congress of the European Association for the Study of Religions in Bremen, Germany. Then, I will give a lecture on Servetus and Islam at the Michael Servetus Institute in Villanueva de Sigena, Spain. And then, I will attend the meeting of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists in Oberwesel, Germany again. Actually, I may be elected the new Secretary of this organization.

All these activities and trips, and the fact that I am in the final stages of building the new website of the Unitarians and Universalists of Catalonia, require that I stop or delay some other activities, such as, for example, this blog, which will remain "frozen" from now on.

So, I will resume my blogging activity here in a few weeks (hopefully, and if there is no major upheaval or change in my life). See you then, and enjoy other blogs meanwhile. There are quite a few which are really good (surely better than this one) out there.

Lots of fun at Satan's Party

All images in this post are © by Aquelarre.org

Cervera is a quiet and peaceful town in rural Catalonia, about 100 miles from Barcelona. Founded only a thousand years ago upon a convenient hill, for many years it had a remarkable university and still preserves a good part of its medieval wall. Nowadays it would remain mostly unnoticed, if its peace was not disturbed for three days every year, during the last weekend of August. Then it is the time of Aquelarre, the meeting with the Male Goat himself.

More than 30,000 people (and growing) attend the big festival every year. Although there is a big market of esoteric articles, lectures, and magical objects during the whole weekend, the climax of the party comes on the Sabbath night, when people gather at the main square of the town. After the cock's dance, a huge image of the Male Goat is displayed, which is welcomed by a traditional devils' dance (groups of people who dance and jump around using sticks topped with firecrackers, typical of many festivals of Catalonia). Then over a hundred "witches" and "demons" worship the Goat among the fire and dance. The climax of the gathering comes, literally, when the Male Goat ejaculates white foam over all those who gathered at the square. The dancing and partying goes on and on for most of the night.

Next day, everybody pack their things and drive back home. The party is over, the town goes back to its traditional peace and quiet. It was all a harmless festival, a big joke, an excuse for having fun and attracting tourists. Until next year, when the Goat comes back.

Blog Day

OK, so today is BlogDay, and these are my recommendations. Most of these RSS feeds are included in my amazingly useful NetVibes page (which is, in a way, also a recommendation):

1. Gabriel Jaraba, periodista [Spanish] - My friend and fellow UU from Barcelona is keeping track of the blogging phenomenon, the challenges that it represents for journalism and traditional media, and how our culture is changing faster than many of us can manage to digest. A must for all those who are interested in the mutant world of communication and mass media (and a good place to practice your reading skills in Spanish!).
2. Trinities - So, you are a Unitarian and, in spite of all your two Ph.D. and a doctorate, you still don't understand the Trinity? Now you don't have any excuse left, because this blog is the perfect place to learn about the history and recent developments of the second most convoluted thing in the world (after the playing rules of American football).
   
3. Ecclesia Gnostica in Nova Albion - What do you get if you mix Christ and the Goddess? Well, probably something close to modern Gnosticism. Jordan Stratford's blog is beautiful, well written, and it will give you many unexpected insights about an old religion that is now enjoying a renaissance.
4. Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean - For history geeks like me, Prof. Philip Harland's blog is probably the best place to learn about the "social and religious life among Greeks, Romans, Jews, Christians and others in the Roman empire."
5. Informed Comment - Although not always an easy or comforting read, UU and Middle East expert Juan Cole's blog is one of the best places to learn what is really going on in Iraq.
   

Sources Needed

It has been a while now since Scott Wells raised the issue in his Boy in the Bands blog about when and where John Murray actually said the famous "great commission" speech that has been a favorite quote in UU sermons and publicity materials in the last 15 years or so. This is the quote:

Go out into the highways and byways of America, your new country. Give the people, blanketed with a decaying and crumbling Calvinism, something of your new vision. You may possess only a small light but uncover it, let it shine, use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men. Give them, not hell, but hope and courage. Do not push them deeper into their theological dispair, but preach the kindness and everlasting love of God.

Some suggestions about possible sources were added in Scott's blog but still no concrete results were obtained. The question was also forwarded to the UU-History mailing list, with a similar lack of success. E-mails have been written to Murray Grove and to some prestigious contemporary UU historians, but the answer has been delayed. The further back into the past we all have been able to go has been somewhere in the early 1980s, which is not much because the quote is supposed to be from the late 18th or early 19th century!

Up to now, all that we know is that the "great Universalist commission" has been an unreferenced quote in UU sermons for too long and now everybody has lost track of it.

If it was a single case, it might be just OK. Many famous quotes are now unquoted or attributed to Benjamin Franklin or Winston Churchill (the default world sources for quotable quotes), or somebody else who actually only repeated what had already been said before.

However, I am afraid that it is probably not the only one. I have found still another which has resisted my attempts at finding out the source. And it is also quoted by UU clergy in countless sermons. This is is, supposedly, by the famous founder of Unitarianism in Transylvania, Ferenc (Francis) Dávid:

We need not think alike to love alike.

The sentence is so powerful and compelling, that has gone well beyond Unitarian circles and it can be found even in collections of romantic love quotes. However, I still have not found the source for this quote. Of course I am limited by my almost zero knowledge of the Hungarian language, which is likely to be the original language of the quote and it is in Hungarian Unitarian books where I should probably look first to find it. Up to now, I have not located it in the English language texts available to me.

And it is intriguing because it is different from the tone that Dávid actually employed. Dávid was not an ecumenically minded man. He went from Lutheranism to Calvinism and then to Unitarianism and always defended his convictions passionately. He was a polemist, not a pacifist. Together with the Italian physician, Giorgio Blandrata (his mentor in things antitrinitarian), he wrote some pretty harsh books rejecting the Trinity and the Roman Catholic church.

One quote by Dávid which is well attested (e.g. by Judit Gellérd) is this one, written in a tone and using concepts which are familiar for those of us who have read Michael Servetus:

There is nothing clearer in the great Scripture that the science about God’s unity. The Bible consistently calls God the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. . . . But the Antichrist could not spoil this, but, through the sophists, added to it and made the only God one being, but three in persons. . . The simple teachings of the Apostles thus have been corrupted and God’s true being was obscured.

With such vain obscurities the Antichrist locked out the true Christ from the Church and from the hearts of the people. . . the Christ of whom the Apostles wrote and whom God commended us as his beloved Son. The Antichrist masked the essence of both the Father and the Son. To give authority to its dogmas, the Antichrist added creeds to this, namely the Nicene and the Athanasian Creed in which God is three.

So, when did Dávid pronounce the famous sentence? During the 1568 Diet of Torda, right before the famous third Edict of religious toleration was issued? When he climbed the rock to preach and convert Kolozsvár? During his final trial for "religious innovation"? If any of you can help me find this one, I will be very thankful. Otherwise I will try again when I meet the Transylvanians at the upcoming ICUU World Meeting.

Yazidis

Little has been said these days about the Yazidis, who were the main target of the recent suicide attacks near Mosul, in the Iraqi Kurdistan. Common people in the West already have a hard time to distinguish Shi'a from Sunni Muslims, so it is understandable that yet another and much smaller group may go unnoticed. But this one is really interesting, at least for people who like to learn about religion.

The Yazidis are not Muslims. They are not Christian, Jew, or Zoroastrian, either. Theirs is a different religion, which includes elements from Abrahamic and Iranian religions but also many elements that look completely original and unique. Their numbers are unknown, reports ranging from 100,000 to 700,000 members, with some diaspora mainly in Europe and the US. They are ethnically Kurds, and live not only in Iraq, but also in Georgia, Turkey, and Syria.

Yazidis believe in one God, who in the beginning created Seven Angels (or "Mysteries"). One of these angels, Melek Taus, is greater than the other six and is therefore subject to worship from believers. A misunderstanding of confusing Melek Taus with Satan makes Yazidis a frequent target of Muslim and Christian fanatics' violence.

Why Satan? The One God also created the world and the first man, and asked His angels to bow to him. All of them did, out of obedience. Only Melek Taus did not bow, and God praised him and put him above his angelic brothers. Therefore he is often confused with the rebel angel of Christian and Muslim theologies. Melek Taus is also symbolically represented as a peacock. He and the other six Angels are in charge of the world now.

Yazidis also believe in reincarnation. Their New Year is in Spring (but is not the same as the Iranian Naw-Ruz), and they also have other festivals along the year. They pray to the Seven Angels and particularly to Melek Taus, but they have no particular standards for prayer. They respect the four Elements --earth, fire, water, air--, for example by not being allowed to spit. They also have some diet restrictions.

A good source of information about Yazidis is found in Iranica. The Wikipedia article is also good and includes many links and bibliography for further information on this mysterious and exciting religion that, while mostly peaceful, is nevertheless prone to be victim of bloody, irrational violence.

So there may be a common UU theology after all...

Great sermon. Check it out.