The religious, Pt. 1
Nov. 7th, 2006 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
franceslievensLast weekend I had the opportunity to entertain ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
frenchani, by showing her Brussels and singing about birds, which got me a tiny applause. The strangest thing that could happen to two atheist/agnosts like us, was that it ended up being a weekend filled with various religious things. There were the quite visible purple rucksacks of the participants of the Catholic congres that was being held in Brussels. There was the wandering through Les Musées des Beaux Arts to view Jeroen Bosch' Temptation of Saint Anthony. And on Sunday we went to an exhibition on religions and religious beliefs, held at Thurn & Taxis.
I wanted to see the last exhibition for pure professional reasons: Is it doable to see it with kids from ten to twelve years old? Since the exhibition didn't go into detail and was more about what me andfrenchani already knew, I think it's enjoyable for younger children as well, at least if you have a good guide or teacher explaining away. Most interesting were all the different media used in the exhibition: films, pictures, sounds. No wonder the entrance fee was elevated (11 EURO), but you even got a little performance for your money.
In between the different bits and pieces of religious objects, there were artistic installations that tried to evoke certain religious feelings or the similarities between the diverse religions. Most intriguing was the room in which different soundbites of religious music and sounds were brought together into one new composition. Bach flowed in perfect harmony with Arabic prayers.
The ideas behind the exhibition weren't neutral, though. This wasn't simply a showing of different religous artifacts. They were deliberately placed in a way for the audience to see the similarities between them, but also to ask itself questions about these religions. More than once the face of Elvis Presley propped up, as a sort of running joke, but also as a question: Has fan behaviour something religious about it? Is going to Graceland the same as going to Lourdes?
The compilers of the exbition also had a soft spot for the strange, the beliefs and practices that are rather far removed from your everyday Catholic Belgian. Christianism was mainly represented by South-American variants that mix Christian beliefs with elements that date back to animist religions. Maybe they only had video material of these kinds of christianism. Or maybe (and I think this was the real reason) they wanted to show their audience something they weren't familiar with. When you aim your exhibition at a Belgian audience, wanting to show them different religions, you don't show them what they're familiar with. You show them the difference, and then they can find out for themselves if it really is that different from Christianism as they know it.
Still there was lots of showing and no tell. It is nice to see different images of gods, to actually be able to look at syncretism, and not only read about it. But it didn't teach much. It left me hungry, as it were.
Other people have other opinions, though. My protestant colleague was left hungry for what she knew. Protestant churches were hardly shown, except for the Pentecost Movement and maybe the Evangelic Church. She thought this wasn't interesting for her school children. But why show the school children what they already know? Isn't it interesting they are able to view something they really don't see in school? Hinduism and Buddhism aren't taught in Belgian schools, whereas four versions of Christianism all have their representative.
"I don't teach Shintoism," miss Protestant says. She might not, but she mustn't forget that there are Buddhists and Hindus living in this country. I've got a couple of them in my morality course. Maybe it is interesting for them to be able to show the others what it's like in the countries they come from. And maybe it is interesting for the children to see that there are more religions in the world than simply the struggle between Islam and Western beliefs we see constantly on the television.
frenchani, by showing her Brussels and singing about birds, which got me a tiny applause. The strangest thing that could happen to two atheist/agnosts like us, was that it ended up being a weekend filled with various religious things. There were the quite visible purple rucksacks of the participants of the Catholic congres that was being held in Brussels. There was the wandering through Les Musées des Beaux Arts to view Jeroen Bosch' Temptation of Saint Anthony. And on Sunday we went to an exhibition on religions and religious beliefs, held at Thurn & Taxis.I wanted to see the last exhibition for pure professional reasons: Is it doable to see it with kids from ten to twelve years old? Since the exhibition didn't go into detail and was more about what me and
frenchani already knew, I think it's enjoyable for younger children as well, at least if you have a good guide or teacher explaining away. Most interesting were all the different media used in the exhibition: films, pictures, sounds. No wonder the entrance fee was elevated (11 EURO), but you even got a little performance for your money.In between the different bits and pieces of religious objects, there were artistic installations that tried to evoke certain religious feelings or the similarities between the diverse religions. Most intriguing was the room in which different soundbites of religious music and sounds were brought together into one new composition. Bach flowed in perfect harmony with Arabic prayers.
The ideas behind the exhibition weren't neutral, though. This wasn't simply a showing of different religous artifacts. They were deliberately placed in a way for the audience to see the similarities between them, but also to ask itself questions about these religions. More than once the face of Elvis Presley propped up, as a sort of running joke, but also as a question: Has fan behaviour something religious about it? Is going to Graceland the same as going to Lourdes?
The compilers of the exbition also had a soft spot for the strange, the beliefs and practices that are rather far removed from your everyday Catholic Belgian. Christianism was mainly represented by South-American variants that mix Christian beliefs with elements that date back to animist religions. Maybe they only had video material of these kinds of christianism. Or maybe (and I think this was the real reason) they wanted to show their audience something they weren't familiar with. When you aim your exhibition at a Belgian audience, wanting to show them different religions, you don't show them what they're familiar with. You show them the difference, and then they can find out for themselves if it really is that different from Christianism as they know it.
Still there was lots of showing and no tell. It is nice to see different images of gods, to actually be able to look at syncretism, and not only read about it. But it didn't teach much. It left me hungry, as it were.
Other people have other opinions, though. My protestant colleague was left hungry for what she knew. Protestant churches were hardly shown, except for the Pentecost Movement and maybe the Evangelic Church. She thought this wasn't interesting for her school children. But why show the school children what they already know? Isn't it interesting they are able to view something they really don't see in school? Hinduism and Buddhism aren't taught in Belgian schools, whereas four versions of Christianism all have their representative.
"I don't teach Shintoism," miss Protestant says. She might not, but she mustn't forget that there are Buddhists and Hindus living in this country. I've got a couple of them in my morality course. Maybe it is interesting for them to be able to show the others what it's like in the countries they come from. And maybe it is interesting for the children to see that there are more religions in the world than simply the struggle between Islam and Western beliefs we see constantly on the television.
