Book: Faith Travels by Streetcar (Ed. Dr. Stefan Maneval.)
Chapter: “Salvaging Sacred Time: Approaching Islamic Ritual through Byung-Chul Han” (Amro Ali)
Chapter abstract:
In “Salvaging Sacred Time” the Egyptian-Australian sociologist Amro Ali discusses the importance of religious rituals for the perception of time. He draws on the work of German-Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han who identifies a “decay of time” following the Enlightenment. Ali contradicts this thesis insofar as he shows that Islamic rituals, such as the five daily prayers obligatory for devout Muslims and the pilgrimage to Mecca, still have a structuring, life-stabilizing effect, and furthermore create a sense of community and life-giving orientation.
Book Abstract
How do faith, norms, and objects of daily use relate to each other? Does faith necessarily imply a limitation of freedom? How do members of religious and non-religious communities give visibility to their beliefs, and how are they perceived from the outside?
Both religious and secular normative practices which structure and regulate public and private life often involve objects of daily use. Focusing on the rules, convictions, and conventions of the monotheistic religions – Judaism, Islam, and Christianity – as well as on secular beliefs, Faith Travels by Streetcar combines photos of such objects and texts written by scholars of various disciplines: sociology, philosophy, Arabic, Islamic and Jewish studies, as well as Protestant Theology.
The objects included in Faith Travels by Streetcar relate to norms and rules surrounding food consumption, clothing and fashion, as well as education and play. While on the one hand showing that rules and norms which limit the freedom of the individual exist in all societies, the items displayed in this volume also highlight how these norms and rules are constantly contested and subjected to negotiation, dispute, and change. The permeability and fluidity between faith, norms, and deliberate limitations of one’s freedom for the sake of the common good or a belief is mirrored in the art installation by Tim Greaves, created for an exhibition curated by the editor, Dr. Stefan Maneval.
The book is in English and German.
