9. Discuss the following quotes in pairs.

* Appendix 3 p.153

• “A people free to choose will always choose peace. ... Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” (40th American President: Ronald Reagan)

• “Non-violence is a powerful and just weapon which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.”(Martin Luther King Jr.)

• “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” (Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi)

• “Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. ... The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.” (John F. Kennedy)

• “Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict -- alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence.” (Dorothy Thompson)

10. Choose one quote from exercise 9 and write an essay of about 400-500 words; express your viewpoint and support it with facts and examples.

Remember to:

• make a plan before you start to write

• organise your report logically

• use the key vocabulary of the unit

• look at Appendix 2 p. 148 for proper linkers

• support your opinion with examples

• check your report for errors when it is ready

• apply audio and visual aids if necessary

Part II. Oneness of sciences Unit 1. Politics and religion

1. Work with a partner to discuss the following questions.

* Appendix 3 p. 153

1. How do religion and politics interact?

2. Why has it become one the main issues to discuss?

3. What do the studies in this field examine and research?

4. Give the examples in the history of Politico-religious relations.

2. Read the text quickly and find the answers to the questions from exercise 1.

One of the most interesting features of the study of religion in reсent years has been the resurgence of interest in its relationship with the political world. They are in fact the two most vital and dynamic subjects for man's ordinary everyday living and for his being conscious that he is living.

They need not be looked upon as the two most awful of troublesome matters, unless ignorance is to be bolstered as a virtue, or unless one is afraid that perhaps he might learn the truth which might hurt. They ought to be treated together as though being one subject if we search for a lasting peace without any isolating escapism and without compromising any of the truths that are innate in our physical and human environments. The specter of compromise - with some popularised misconceptions for some long ago forgotten truths - is the specter of adulteration. Enduring peace with a fulfilling happiness in knowledge and ability, it will be shown, is possible.

The nature of a people may result in a religious denomination and, conversely, religions can cause nations to evolve into certain cultural and political patterns. Some cultural patterns set autonomic limits on the growth of a nation; other nations can survive only under pressure or through their turning parasitic, while others have the makings of leadership in certain fields or even in paramount world leadership. Many great cultures and many great nations have happened on our earth. Those will be mentioned through which certain edifying legacies surviving to our times can be associated.

Studies have appeared examining the way in which religious phenomena - ideas, symbols, individuals, institutions - influence the whole system of governance at local, national and international levels. Equally, attention is now being given to the ways in which the political system - leaders and institutions - respond to these religious claims. In short, the issue of the relationship between religion and politics is now a matter of serious academic attention. The intertwining of religion and politics, both as a descriptive reality and as a subject for prescriptive reflection, has an exceedingly long history that extends back to the earliest eras of intellectual discussion. This reflects the inherent qualities of 'religion' and 'politics' that seemingly inevitably drive them together into a complex, varied and dynamic relationship. From an historical point of view, as Finer points out, in the earliest times, religion formed part of a 'vast cosmology ... into which all things are fitted'. This cosmology included matters religious, having to do with the divine, and matters political, having to do with the exercise of power. Within this context, those who monopolised political power also typically claimed religious authority. This arrangement appears, in various forms, in many ruler cults and sacral kingdoms across the ancient Middle East, Asia, and South America, as well as in Hellenistic Greece and Imperial Rome. In this way, a pattern evolved bringing religion into the most intimate association with politics, die two forming a single or monistic whole.

A relationship between politics and religion, be it formal or merely cooperative, in either case may be on a noble plane or it may become sinister when one of the functionaries thereof tries lustfully to usurp the prerogative of the other. Mankind's bliss of a past "golden age" required no history. But competitive usurpations began making history. So, the history of mankind is the history of sin and the battle and rescue of mankind from sin.