The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (836 page)

Gedaliah, fast of
.

Jewish fast commemorating the death of Gedaliah. (2 Kings 25. 25–6; Jeremiah 41). A fast to commemorate this event is held on 3 Tishri.

 
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(Jap., ‘release’). In Zen Buddhism, release or liberation into enlightenment; hence also the equivalent of
zazen
, the meditative way that leads to enlightenment.

 
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(Jap.). ‘Outside’ way of sharing Zen aims. see
FIVE WAYS OF CH'AN/ZEN
.

 
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(b. 1926).
Influential American cultural anthropologist who advocates ‘examining culture as an assemblage of texts’. The role of religion in organizing experience, in particular in providing responses to those experiences which lack ‘interpretability’, is explored in a number of works, including
The Religion of Java
(1960) and
Islam Observed
(1968).

 
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Gefühl
(feeling)
:

see
SCHLEIERMACHER, F.

 
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Gehenna
,
Gehinnom

(Heb., Valley of Hinnom). A valley south of
Jerusalem
, used as a waste tip. It became a place where the wicked are abandoned with none to remember them, and where they are tormented after death. Gehenna is the Gk. form of the name.

 
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(1810–74).
Leader of
Reform Judaism
. In 1837 Geiger convened the first meeting of Reform
rabbis
and as rabbi of the Berlin Reform congregation, he was director of the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judenturms from 1872 until his death. He perceived Judaism to be solely a religion and was thus anxious to encourage
assimilation
into the national life, as well as freedom of thought and enquiry. He summarized his view of Judaism in a popular series of lectures
Das Judenthum und seine Geschichte
(3 vols., 1865–7: Judaism and its History).