The Baha'i Studies Listserv
Wikipedia on Antinomianism outside Christianity. You seem to be only familiar
with the Christian forms which are radical salvation by faith alone, but the
other forms of Antinomianism are not this.
Buddhism
See also: Crazy wisdom
Among Buddhists there are three main types of 'antinomianism' which may act as
a gloss for 'left-handed attainment' (Sanskrit:Vamachara):
naturalist/spontaneous antinomianism, ritualist/philosophical antinomianism,
and empirical antinomianism.[citation needed]There may also be those who
subscribe to all or some combination of these three types.
Naturalist antinomians believe that enlightened beings may spontaneously break
monastic codes of conduct while living out a natural state of enlightenened
mind. Another view is that an enlightened mind responds to circumstances based
on Buddhist morality, rather than the legalism of the monastic codes, and that
the "break" is not therefore spontaneous. There are tales of Buddhists who
perform acts that appear to be bizarre or immoral, sometimes referred to as
'crazy wisdom' (Tibetan: yeshe chölwa).[46] The movement of theNyönpa in
Seventeenth Century Tibet has strong associations with antinomian behavior as
well.
Ritualist antinomians, such as some Tantric Buddhists, may practice which
seemingly may appear to be breaking the codes of conduct in specific religious
rituals designed to teach non-duality or other philosophical concept. (refer
Panchamakara; Ganachakra).
Empirical antinomians may break or disregard traditional ethical or moral rules
that they believe are unconducive to the individual's contemplative life. They
view such codification as having arisen in specific historical-cultural
contexts and, as such, not always supportive of Buddhist training. Thus the
individual and the community must test and verify which rules promote or
hinderenlightenment.[47]
[edit]Hinduism
Main articles: Aghori, Tantra, and Vamachara
[edit]Islam
See also: Naskh (tafsir)
In Islam, the law—which applies not only to religion, but also to areas such as
politics, banking, and sexuality—is called sharīʿah (شريعة), and it is
traditionally organized around four primary sources:
the Qurʾān, which is Islam's central religious text;
the sunnah, which refers to actions practised during the time of the prophet
Muḥammad, and is often thought to include theḥadīth, or recorded words and
deeds of Muḥammad;
ijmāʿ, which is the consensus of the ʿulamāʾ, or class of Islamic scholars, on
points of practice;
qiyās, which—in Sunnī Islam—is a kind of analogical reasoning conducted by the
ʿulamāʾ upon specific laws that have arisen through appeal to the first three
sources; in Shīʿah Islam, ʿaql ("reason") is used in place of qiyās
Actions, behavior, or beliefs that are considered to violate any or all of
these four sources—primarily in matters of religion—can be termed "antinomian".
Depending on the action, behavior, or belief in question, a number of different
terms can be used to convey the sense of "antinomian": shirk ("association of
another being with God"); bidʿah ("innovation"); kufr ("disbelief"); ḥarām
("forbidden"); etc.
As an example, the 10th-century Sufi mystic Mansur Al-Hallaj was executed for
shirk for, among other things, his statement ana al-Ḥaqq(أنا الحق), meaning "I
am the Truth". As al-Ḥaqq ("the Truth") is one of the 99 names of God in
Islamic tradition, this would imply he was saying: "I am God."[48] Expressions
like these are known as Shathiyat. Another individual who has often been termed
antinomian is Ibn al-ʿArabi, a 12th–13th century scholar and mystic whose
doctrine of waḥdat al-wujūd ("unity of being") has sometimes been interpreted
as being pantheistic, and thus shirk.[49]
Apart from individuals, entire groups of Muslims have also been called
antinomian. One of these groups is the Ismāʿīlī Shīʿīs, who have always had
strong millenarian tendencies arising partly from persecution directed at them
by Sunnīs. Influenced to a certain extent byGnosticism,[50] the Ismāʿīlīs
developed a number of beliefs and practices—such as their belief in the imāmah
and an esoteric exegesisof the Qurʾān—that were different enough from Sunnī
orthodoxy for them to be condemned as shirk and, hence, to be seen as
antinomian.[51] Certain other groups that evolved out of Shīʿah belief, such as
the Alawites[52] and the Bektashis,[53] have also been considered antinomian.
The Bektashis, particularly, have many practices that are especially antinomian
in the context of Islam, such as the consumption of alcohol, the non-wearing of
the ḥijāb ("veil") by women, and gathering in the cemevi in preference to the
mosque.[54]
Left-hand path
Main article: Left-hand path and right-hand path
In contemporary studies of esotericism, antinomianism is regarded as "a central
ingredient in Left-Hand Path spiritualities,"[55] and understood as
"nonconformity through the concept of transgression".[56] This extends the
modern usage of the term, from simply implying that "moral laws are relative in
meaning and application",[57] to include the avowed irreligion manifest in
modern Satanism.
[edit]Nonreligious usage
In his study of late-20th-century western society the historian Eric
Hobsbawm[58] stated that there was a new fusion of demotic and antinomian
characteristics that made the period distinct, and appeared to be likely to
extend into the future. For him there is now a readiness by the mass of people
to have little sense of obligation to obey any set of rules that they consider
arbitrary, or even just constraining, whatever its source. This may be
facilitated by one or more of several changes. These include the tendency to
live outside settled communities, the growth of enough wealth for most people
to have a wide choice of styles of living and a popularised assumption that
individual freedom is an unqualified good.
George Orwell was a frequent user of antinomian in a secular (and always
approving) sense. In his 1940 essay on Henry Miller, “Inside the Whale”, the
word appears several times, including one in which he calls A. E. Housman a
writer in "a blasphemous, antinomian, ‘cynical’ strain", meaning defiant of
arbitrary societal rules.
Gnosticism
Early Gnostic sects were accused of failure to follow the Mosaic Law in terms
that suggest the modern term "antinomian". Some Gnostic sects did not accept
parts of the Old Testament moral law. For example, the Manichaeans held that
their spiritual being was unaffected by the action of matter and regarded
carnal sins as being, at worst, forms of bodily disease. Marcionism, though
technically not gnostic, rejected the Hebrew Bible in its entirety. Such
deviations from the moral law were criticized by proto-orthodox rivals of the
Gnostics, who ascribed various aberrant and licentious acts to them. A biblical
example of such criticism can be found in Revelation 2:6–15, which criticizes
the Nicolaitanes, an early Gnostic sect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinomianism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_wisdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aghori
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vamachara
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchamakara
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganachakra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-hand_path_and_right-hand_path
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naskh_(tafsir)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_and_religion
Sent from my iPad
On Apr 18, 2013, at 17:27, Matt Haase <matthewhaa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The Baha'i Studies Listserv
> But by the same token, the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf states that one's
> past and future sins would be forgiven them if they counted forty waves while
> saying, "God is the Most Great" in Akka. There is also the Baha'i teaching of
> the progression of the soul after death, so every soul will eventually be at
> peace with God - but some may take longer than others, which is the incentive
> to live a good life now. It seems like a better deal than claiming that we
> get one chance, and one chance only, otherwise we will spend eternity in
> Hell. Those are just my thoughts anyway.
>
> "The Apostle of God—may the blessings of God and His salutations be upon
> Him—hath also said: “He that looketh upon the sea at eventide, and saith:
> ‘God is Most Great!’ at sunset, God will forgive his sins, though they be
> heaped as piles of sand. And he that counteth forty waves, while repeating:
> ‘God is Most Great!’—exalted be He—God will forgive his sins, both past and
> future.”
>
> http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/ESW/esw-9.html
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 6:14 PM, Don Calkins <don59...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> The Baha'i Studies Listserv
>> Antinomianism is an extreme form of "salvation by faith alone".
>>
>> As I understand it, Abdu'l-Baha accepted two ideas -
>> Faith without works is dead;
>> Deeds without faith is sterile.
>>
>> Doesn't fit with any discussion of antinomianism I've read.
>>
>> Don C
>>
>> On Apr 18, 2013, at 2:39 36PM, Stephen Kent Gray wrote:
>>
>>> Sounds like moral and ethical principles and not laws should be the center
>>> of this Age. Sounds like an Age of Antinomianism, no rules other than the
>>> Golden Rule.
>>>
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinomianism
>>
>>
>> -----------
>> It doesn't matter whether the sun shines if you never go outside.
>
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