The Athenaeum

My CV, Etc.

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Download SESbio.pdf

"Islam, Monotheistic but not Monolithic"

"One" Magazine, a publication of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA - a papal charity) was kind wnough to publish this article for me.  pl

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"A religion of law. After the initial age of development and ferment, the Islamic idea system stabilized into the forms that continue to dominate Islamic groups:

• Islam became a religion of laymen, a religion without an ordained clergy or hierarchy. Those who are often referred to as such in the West are usually religious scholars; they are scholars of the law, not clergy.
• Islam became a religion without sacraments, a religion in which family and life cycle events (like marriage) are governed by rulings and contracts rather than sacramental grace.
• Islam became a religion of law, a system in which the formulation of divinely sanctioned law was the primary and defining activity of the religion. Forms of Islam that moved away from this definition of the faith have sometimes been tolerated, but only that."  pl

http://www.cnewa.org/mag-article-bodypg-us.aspx?articleID=3256

Miltary History Thread

"If Col. Lang would be willing to give us a place on his site, I thought it might give us amateur military historians a place to discuss and compare our notes about these disastrous military campaigns."

This thread will remain open indefinitely for discussions of the military art.

W. Patrick Lang

"The Queen"

Download the_queen.doc

Download the_queen.pdf

A review by Alan Farrell