I’m going to be combining two books into one post this time. I think I feel I cannot write a whole entry about either of these books and I still want to post about them. Then when I was on my way to class today I was thinking about my blog (oh, that might sound obsessive) and I thought that both books are actually about religion and politics(broadly speaking, anyway). Although one is a graphic novel and not at all as dry as a subject like “religion and politics” may sound, I thought this was my solution to my short-review problem.
Image may be NSFW.
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Anyway, the first book is Religious Commitment and Secular Reason by Robert Audi. This is supposed to be one of the modern classics when it comes to religion and politics, together with the books by John Rawls. Both philosophers are supporters of liberal democracy and formulate an ideal of ‘discursive citizenship’ in which citizens have to engage in discussion on the basis of secular morals to come to the right kind of policy. Of course, Audi differs from Rawls on certain points, but this is the general idea.
Audi’s book isn’t a book that I’d usually pick up. Of course, the problem of whether religion and politics can be combined is a rather interesting one, but ethics or political philosophy tends to be a bit dry. And I have to be honest, so was this book. Yet, some of Audi’s ideas are interesting. He manages to combine a respect for religious people with a strict separation of church and state. And he makes some great observations on how people shouldn’t only be able to give secular reasons in supporting policy decisions, but should also feel motivated by them. Yet, his argument clearly comes closer to an ideal than reality. If you stop to think about what he’s asking from virtuous citizens, you soon realise how many things could go wrong. And he seems to sidestep the fact that most citizens don’t want to base their decisions on sophisticated rational considerations a bit too easily. The feeling the book left me with was thus more of a fear that the combination of religion (or any other form of “belief” like a radical believe in socialism or capitalism, etc) will always lead to subordination of certain groups and conflict.
The other book I read that is related to this idea of subjecting certain groups of people, and how religion and politics can intertwine Image may be NSFW.
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dangerously is Persepolis 1: the Story of an Iranian Childhood by Marjane Satrapi. Surely, this book fall into a wholly different genre then Audi’s book does. Persepolis is a graphic novel about a girl growing up in revolutionary Iran. It is rather interesting to see the Iranian revolution from the viewpoint of a little girl. Seeing her move from a belief in being a saviour to being a communist so rapidly and her pointing out the duplicity in much of the ideals of her elders is.. and I feel weird saying it, kind of funny. Of course, there is nothing funny about the way the revolution turned out, but it was refreshing to see it through the medium in which it was represented here. I have to say that I really liked the style of the drawings. Yet, I have to say that I feel hesitant about saying that I enjoyed reading this book. There was something about it that makes me unable to say that I did. Having read a few more things about the revolution for classes I felt that this book put things too simply sometimes. I know that it’s a memoir and that the simplistic nature of the stories probably also have to do with the fact that it is supposed to tell the story from the viewpoint of a child (and believe me, that sometimes works to make it funny), but I couldn’t help but feel that it was lacking somehow. I wish I could explain it better, which is why I hesitated to write about this book at all. I’ve heard that Embroideries by Satrapi is more enjoyable however and I’m looking forward to finding it and reading it someday.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
