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{"id":13799,"date":"2013-04-04T08:43:07","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T12:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=13799"},"modified":"2013-04-04T08:43:07","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T12:43:07","slug":"do-time-lords-pray-or-meditate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/do-time-lords-pray-or-meditate.html","title":{"rendered":"Do Time Lords Pray or Meditate?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A comment left on this blog recently brought up the question of the Doctor\u2019s monkishness<\/a>. The episode \u201cThe Bells of St. John\u201d isn\u2019t the first time the Doctor has been a monk. Indeed, the first time he encountered<\/a> the Great Intelligence<\/a>, it was at a monastery where he had previously spent some time<\/a>. In that case, however, it was a Buddhist<\/a> monastery, whereas in \u201cThe Bells of St. James\u201d it was a Christian one.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ He\u2019s also come head to head with that other time lord known as the \u201cMeddling Monk\u201d as well as head to not-head with the Headless Monks. And the Doctor\u2019s old acquaintance from Gallifrey,\u00a0 K\u2019anpo Rimpoche<\/a>, seems to have had monk-like qualities as a hermit on Gallifrey, even before settling in among Tibetan monks on Earth.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of monk business on Doctor Who, it would seem.<\/p>\n

The episode \u201cThe God Complex\u201d asked what time lords pray to. Given the Doctor\u2019s penchant more for meditation than prayer to an anthropomorphic deity, perhaps the question itself reflects particular assumptions about religion that are inappropriate.<\/p>\n

But given how that we see the Doctor in monasteries or meditating quite a few times, can we make sense of these scenes without assuming that he does something similar even when it is not depicted on screen?<\/p>\n

And if so, then what, if anything, might one\u00a0speculatively\u00a0say about the religion of the time lords, or specifically of the Doctor?<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"