“The notion of "humanity" as a form of transcendence derives, I think, from the conviction that intellectuality possesses an absolute power, from the demand that our best behavior depends on our ability to think abstractly, in terms of a universal rule, about something called humanity, that we need to understand humanity abstractly so that we can act responsibly towards those who represent it.” ThinkingNeedsFormHumanityTermAbilityDependsDemandBehaviorUniversalAbsolutesNotionConvictionTranscendenceAbsolute Power Author:Talal Asad
“Believers are often thought of as people who have some kind of private conviction or repudiation of something, whereas "the faithful" refers to a relationship, which was also incidentally the earlier sense of "faith" in premodern, preliberal Christianity. This is not to say, incidentally, that "faith" refers simply to external behavior as opposed to internal belief but that it refers to an act.” PeopleKindBeliefChristianityBehaviorConvictionBelieverFaithfulInternals Author:Talal Asad
