An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Hanane Benadi (IASH-Alwaleed Postdoctoral Fellow 2020-21):
God’s Presence in Times of Uncertainty
Abstract:
The postcolonial historian Dipesh Chakrabarty once remarked that the social sciences have “problems handling practices in which gods, spirits, or the supernatural have agency in the world.” This is largely due to their secular foundations which perceive humans as the only agents in the world while attributing passivity to God and other spiritual entities. However, in recent years, efforts have been made within a number of social scientific disciplines to explicate new ways of understanding God’s and other spiritual beings’ agency that is not grounded in secularism. This paper first surveys current anthropological attempts to develop new theoretical frameworks that will allow us “to ethnographically describe God as a social actor.” It then turns to examine the problematisation of God’s agency and presence by young Muslims following the collapse of the Egyptian revolution. More specifically, it explores how narratives about God’s presence in the ongoing political conflict in Egypt are created, mobilized, and contested by young Muslim activists, and analyzes the role these narratives play in redefining activists’ understandings of the divine and divine agency. Finally, the paper draws on Jonathan Lear’s work on irony to explore how young Muslims grapple with the challenge of maintaining their commitment to a God that is unknownable during times of crisis.
Please contact iash@ed.ac.uk for a link to join the seminar.