Bloggers give grounds for optimism

Posted by Rob Ainsley, Sacred website editor

I've been entertained during my coffee breaks this week by the reading through the latest crop of blogs that refer to the Sacred Exhibition.

I maintain an updated digest of blog references to Sacred on our blogs roundup page. But not all blogs that mention us make it in there, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they say what's been said before better; sometimes they don't really say anything at all; sometimes they go to the opposite extreme and embark on a 45-paragraph conspiracy-theory soapbox about how the Shepherd of Hermas is the only true Gospel, etc.

Here's an example of a blog which I haven't included in the roundup for different reasons. Full marks for originality to Gerry Sarnat MD, whose 'SCAT 2 - London Bridges' is written in blank verse. His entry for Sunday 8 July says this about Sacred:

Yet in a half hour, I attend
An ecumenical tear-jerker
At the British Library: twenty
Or so Jewish, Christian, and Muslim
Youth sing songs together in all three
Languages, part of a Sacred Texts
Exhibit on monotheism.

Must admit, I'm not always entirely convinced by Dr Sarnat's poetical approach - the previous verse ends 'Illumined past Ottoman chutzpah', which seems oddly like that randomly-generated filler text you get in junk emails. But at least it's a change from the rambling minutiae of most online diaries.

However, I often enjoy those rambling minutiae. Such as the subject of post-exhibition sustenance: one which has exercised the minds of many bloggers, not least Tim the curry fan, mentioned in my previous post. For example, after Trowsers' hard session of Qur'an- and Bible-viewing, she (?he) returned home with Cassie and "cooked penne with tomato pesto".

But what many people want to complement their Sacred experience is coffee (mentioned in 40 blogs). Lindajoy went for a girly chat with a friend to a coffee shop after her visit, happily switching between debates about the authenticity of Dead Sea Scroll fragment 7Q5, and whether Nicole Kidman can act.  In contrast, Supafly preferred to stoke up on caffeine before the exhibition, perhaps to help speed round all 202 exhibits. JP's enthusiastic account of his visit did not mention coffee, but evidently he is as keen on the bean as me, because his blog drew the comment from a friend, "[I] take it there were a few espressos thrown in?".

Is there a serious point here? I could try to make something out of spiritual versus bodily sustenance, about how man cannot live by pasta quills and latte alone, or perhaps how cappuccinos are named after the colour of a Capuchin friar's habit. But I suspect it's more a little celebration of life, and that for so many visitors, these wonderful Sacred texts are part of life, not some dusty old museum exhibits.

Coffee drinkers or not, every blogger bar none so far has had positive things to say of this exhibition. Grounds for optimism, then.

Comments

[Zachary G Wilson]

Mr Ainsley
I appreciate your publishing bloggers writings on the Sacred website! It's fun to read. If you have the time and inclination would you be so kind as to respond to the questions i posed directly to you in my blog? You cant miss the post, its a letter addressed to you personally. Thank you very much, and keep up the good work fueled no doubt by good espresso...

[Ali Cook]

Dear Rob Ainsley,

On the weddings music 'bench', I heard today an extremly beautiful Iraqi-Jewish (if I remember correctly) wedding song. Do you have any more information on this and the other tracks on all the music 'benches' at the exhibition? Do the CDs in the shop contain all the music featured in the exhibition?

Thankyou!

[Response to Zachary Wilson from the Learning Team]

Dear Zachary,

Thanks for your comments on the Sacred Stories interactive. When choosing the stories for the interactive, our intention was to show that the same stories appear across different religions. The objective was to get students thinking about the way stories evolve and the fact that particular stories are shared or adopted by different religions.

As you will read if you click on the ‘more information’ tab in the David and Goliath story, we acknowledge that the story is included in the scriptures of all three Abrahamic faiths. Similarly, you’ll notice in the Islamic section that we tell the story of Mary and Jesus. The theme of shared values has been central to the whole Sacred project.

With thanks,
The Learning Team

[Rob Ainsley]

Ali Cook - here's the answer to your query about the music in the exhibition.

It's an Iraqi-Jewish wedding song, entitled 'Emeth atah hathanen (You are the true bridegroom!, performed by a group called Rivers of Babylon (Group). The text is by Abiathar (Hazaq). It's one of the most popular wedding songs in the Jewish-Babylonian (Iraqi) tradition.

It comes from the CD 'Treasures: songs of praise in the Iraqi-Jewish tradition', performed by Rivers of Babylon. The catalogue number is BL:1CD0199324

All the tracks on the soundpoints include the commercial details of the recording (where appropriate) plus the BL sound archive reference. Because the recordings are from our own collection, they may not be available commercially for various reasons.

Thanks for your interest

Rob Ainsley, Sacred website editor

[Zachary G Wilson]

The Learning Team
Your intention "to show that the same stories appear across different religions" and your objective "to get students thinking about the way particular stories are shared or adopted by different religions" is a noble and worthwhile endeavor, but i think you failed in the execution.

You did not explicitly state that the story of David and Goliath is a HEBREW story that appears in Christianity, or that it has been shared or adopted by Christianity, you flatly state that the story simply IS Christian. I am curious: did you get the OK from any Protestants or Catholics to make this particular claim? I would be surprised if Christians and Christianity were not reticent to claim outright that the story of David and Goliath is one of theirs. The words "shared" and "adopted" generally imply cooperation between more than one party. Again, i would be surprised if Jews and Judaism actually consented to "share" or allow for the "adoption" of one of their most sacred texts into an entirely new (dare i say alien?) religion. Also curious if you got the OK from any Jews. Same goes for the story of Jesus and Mary, with regards to Christians and Muslims.

I maintain that, at best, you committed a faux pas. For an institution as venerable as the British Library, this really surprises me. I would love to be convinced that i am barking up the wrong tree, or something like that.
Good luck!
Zachary G Wilson