.对《Chosen Peoples》的笔记(1)

摘要

Chapter 1. Nationalism and Religion
一般而言，Nationalism被视为一个现代的世俗意识形态（a modern, secular ideology），取代了前现代、传统社会中宗教所扮演的角色。但作者认为，Nationalism与Religion的关系并不是相互对立的。
作者分析了Elie Kedourie在Nationalism与Nationalism in Asia and Africa这两本书中对这二者关系的阐述，并指出了三种理解：1. Secular replacement; 2. Neo-traditional；3.Nationalism as a secular version of millennial political religion. 而这三种理解又被两个论证所巩固，一个伊斯兰地区兴起的Religious Nationalism，另一个则是Anderson所提出的想象的共同体。作者个人的看法是：1.这些理解与论证说明，Religion is vital to both the origins and the continuing appeal of both nations and nationalism in the modern world; 2.然而，Religion之于Nationalism的重要意义，并不在于heterodox religion or millennialism. What is vital for nationalism and the nation is the very core of traditional religions, their conception of the sacred and their rites of salvation.

Chapter 2. The Nation as a Sacred Communion
这一章以Anderson的理论为靶来展开论述。通过分析the concept of Imagined community，作者认为，Anderson及其支持者，以及其他modernists一样，都忽略了Religion。  
Nation is not merely an object of contemplation and imagination. The community of the nation is surely imagined by its members, but it is even more willed and felt…Of course, in practice, will and emotion are interwoven within imagination. But the important point is that collective will and devotion are vital to the definition and persistence of the nation…The scared objects, cults, and rites are in no way obsolete. … The nation itself is invested with sacred qualities that it draws from older beliefs, sentiments, and ideals about the nature of community territory, history and destiny.
 
紧接着，作者给出了一系列定义：
Nationalism: an ideological movement for the attainment and maintenance of autonomy, unity and identity on behalf of a population some of whose members deem it to constitute an actual or potential nation.
Nation: a named human population occupying a historic territory and sharing common myths and memories, a public culture, and common laws and customs for all members.
National identity: the maintenance and continual reininterpretation of the pattern of values, symbols, memories, myths and traditions that from the distinctive heritage of the nation, and the identification of individuals with that heritage and its pattern.
至于宗教，作者区分了substantive and functional，来自于韦伯与涂尔干，略。
3 level analysis，1）official level concerned with conventional and elite-sponsored designation  both of the nation and nationalism, and religion； 2）second level concerned with popular expressions and manifestations of religious sentiments and national ideals，3) basic level concerned with the sacred foundations. The sacred foundations are the elements of the heritage of memories, myths, symbols, values, and traditions of the community that are regarded as sacred, which refer to the four underlying dimensions of the nation, conmmunity, territory, history and destiny.
A scared communication of the people/Vox populi/The return to the nature and roots/The cult of Authenticity/Heroes and Messiahs——All of the above are the main themes and beliefs of the belief-system of nationalism, or a new religion of the people.
Chapter 3-5. Chosenness and Ethnic Election: Covenant and Mission
The choseness of has served as one of the main bases and cultural resource for a modern sense of national identity, whether coventional or missionary. 
Covenant: people enter into a covenant with the deity, who promises them a special and exalted role among the people of the world, provided they follow his precepts/ regard themselves as the active witness and agent of God's plan for the world
Mission: people and their leaders are entrusted with a task or mission on behalf of the deity, and of his early representatives/ ....as the instruments of God's plan
a myth of ethnic election, the conviction of being chosen for a covenant or mission or both by the deity
Chapter 6-9 Sacred Homelands/ Golden Ages/ the Glorious Dead
Sacred Homelands: An interpretation of the meaning of terriory and ancestral homeland emphasizesthe the importanceof long-term popular values, symbols and traditions of sacred land.
a long-standing attachment to particular terrains regarded as sacred and as belonging to the community, and it to them;
Golden Ages: New regeneration of nation, points towards a glorious destiny for the reborn nation, which has rediscovered its true self in its golden ages. The future of nation always depends on their collective understanding and faith in their pasts.
a yearning to recover and realize the spirit of one or more golden ages, epochs of communal heroism and creativity;
TGD: Destiny through sacrifice
a belief in the regenerative power of mass and individual sacrifice to ensure a glorious destiny, and the importance of commemorating and celebrating the community and its heroes.