Islam Creator of the Modern Age
2. Holding Sacred that which is not Sacred
~ 76 ~
to please it, escape its punishments and elicit its
favours.
“Sacredness
is
manifested,”
observes
the
Encyclopaedia Britannica,
in “sacred officials, such as
priests and kings; in specially designated sacred
places such as temples and images, and in natural
objects, such as rivers, the sun, mountains, or trees.
The priest is a special agent in the religious cult, his
ritual actions represent the divine action. Similarly,
the king or emperor is a special mediator between
heaven and earth and has been called by such
names as the ‘son of heaven,’ or an ‘arm of god.”
33
The following important anthropologists are listed
by the
Encyclopaedia Britannica
as holding
sacredness to be the basis of religion: Nathan
Soderblom, Rudolf Otto, Emile Durkheim, Max
Scheler, Gerardus Vander Leeuw, W. Brede
Kristemsen, Friedrich Heiler, Gustov Mensching,
Roger Caillois, Mircea Eliade.
34
Modern scholars of religion are right in saying that
the basic idea behind religion is the concept of
holiness, which they claim is a natural feeling.
However, when some other object besides one God
