The Interplay Between Knowledge and Action

While covering Tuesday's reading in class, the concept that knowledge is action is quite an abstract and hypocritical to me. However, as i gained a greater understanding during class, I saw the connection between the two. The two contrasting view points about the relationship between knowledge and action, to me, represent the ongoing battle between the importance of ritual versus understanding. The mimamskasa believe that action takes a greater role than actual knowledge, putting a greater emphasis on religious ritual. The Vedantas stress the value of knowledge in relation to understanding the Upanishadic values. The thing that i found fascinating is that this struggle between the importance of ritual and understand still occurs in religion today. For example, within the christian tradition, the Catholic denomination stresses the importance of ritual within religious practice. This contrasts from the other christian denomination, such as the Quakers, which totally strip down the ritual to the bare minimum. This concept also relates to islamic tasfir in the sense that certain sects care more about interpretation and knowledge while others believe in literal practice. the point I'm am trying to make is that within certain religions, some followers practice without fully understanding why they practice it in a certain way, while other denominations focus more on understanding and how that translates into meaningful action.

Andrew