Christian Ideas Research Articles

Three Types of Coexistence of Pagan and Christian Elements in the Late Roman Intellectuals’ Mentality

The paper considers three types of coexistence of pagan and Christian elements in the consciousness of Late antique intellectuals who were Latin writers in the period from of the 4th to 6th centuries, representatives of the upper stratum, Christians such as Ausonius, Paulinus of Nola, Sidonius Apollinaris, and others. The authors come to the conclusion that the attitude to the pagan heritage combined in the minds of Late Latin intellectuals with Christian ideas in three versions: passive-eclectic, contrast-nihilistic and respectful-condescending, which was conditioned both by life circumstances and chronologically.

Negative Theology in Contemporary Interpretations

The tradition of negative theology has very deep roots which go back to the Late Greek Antiquity and the Early Christian period. Although Dionysius is usually regarded as “the Father” of negative theology, yet he has not initiated a revolution in the religious philosophy, but rather brought together various elements of thinking regarding the knowledge of God and built a system which is a synthesis of Platonic, neo-Platonic and Christian ideas. The aim of this article is to illustrate the views of some more modern theologians on the nature, types and levels of apophaticism in the Greek Patristic tradition, trying to establish the role that negation can play in facilitating man’s attaining to the knowledge of God.

Review of Keith Ward's The Christian Idea of God

Review of Keith Ward's The Christian Idea of God

Katolicy w państwie liberalnego pluralizmu. Miesięcznik Znak wobec sekularyzacji (lata 1989-2000)

Catholics in the liberal pluralism state. Facing secularisation in the monthly Znak (1989–2000): The aim of this paper is to analyse the philosophical, sociological, politological, theological and press articles on the issue of secularisation that were published in the monthly Znak during 1989–2000. A definition of secularisation is employed that was coined by Charles Taylor in A secular age (Taylor, 2007). It is understood as the endurance of religion in a plural society. The paper delineates three stands that the Znak Catholics have taken when facing secularisation: (1) an open catholicity; (2) a liberal faith; and (3) an ambiguous one. (1) The first approach involves confronting one’s liberal, secular partners in public debates, with a focus on finding some of their points acceptable according to the Church doctrine. Nevertheless, it is burdened with the anxiety of losing one’s own identity. (2) The second approach emphasises some of the connections between liberal and Christian ideas. A particular meaning of liberty and authenticity in human existence is stressed. (3) In the third approach, although it does not admit to its malevolence, the liberal ideas are treated with sharp criticism. Liberalism is accused of limiting the role of religion in a plural society. In the conclusion to the paper, an attempt is made to present the current relations between liberalism and Christianity in Po‑ land. A deep recent transformation is revealed. It is believed that Znak will lose its function as a continuity sustainer in the next few years.

WELTKRIEGSPHILOSOPHIE AND SCHELER'S PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Purpose. The research is aimed at understanding the philosophical and journalistic heritage of M. Scheler during 1914-1919. "The philosophy of war" is regarded as the middle link between the phenomenological and anthropological stages of its philosophical evolution. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is the philosophical legacy of Max Scheler, as well as the work of domestic and Western researchers devoted to this issue. Problems of Weltkriegsphilosophie become comprehensible based on the historical, logical and comparative principles of historical and philosophical analysis, which allowed to theoretically reconstruct the cultural and historical context, philosophical sources and ideological intentions of the German philosopher. Originality. For the first time in domestic historical and philosophical thought, it proved that the works by Max Scheler of the First World War played an outstanding role in the formation of philosophical anthropology as a separate philosophical trend. Conclusions. The basis of the Weltkriegsphilosophie by Max Scheler is the philosophical comprehension of the war in which the thinker tries to see the high sacral meaning, where the sacrifices that the nation brings to the altar of victory are not in vain: the nation is rallying this sacrifice, its readiness for it. According to Scheler, war is the most effective means of forming the so-called "love communities", to which he refers combat brotherhood, family and nation as a "collective personality", which recognizes itself through war. The philosopher is disappointed to some part with militaristic enthusiasm in his later military journalistic works and calls for a spiritual and moral renewal of Europe, fed from Christian roots. At the heart of this renewal should be the principle of personal solidarity, based on the Christian idea of love. However, Catholic universalism is an insufficient means for the formation of a "love community" and a new man who is co-creator of God that constitutes the main core of the philosophical anthropology of Max Scheler, which emerges in the 20s of the twentieth century. Based on this, the article affirms the existence in Sheler’s works of an intermediate stage between his phenomenology and philosophical anthropology – Weltkriegsphilosophie (philosophy of the World War).

"Surkean surkea uutinen"

Artikkelissa analysoidaan miesparin lähetystyöhön siunaamisesta virinnyttä keskustelua Seurakuntalainen-nettilehdessä hyödyntäen Sari Charpentierin 1990-luvun parisuhdekeskustelun yhteydessä esille nostamaa pyhän järjestyksen käsitettä. Artikkeli liikkuu kahden keskustelun ja tutkimusperinteen – kirkollis-teologisen ja sukupuolentutkimuksen – välisillä rajapinnoilla. Analyysissä nousee erityisesti esille se, miten voimakkain sanakääntein tapahtunutta kommentoitiin. Materiaali todistaa Suomen evankelis-luterilaisen kirkon niin kutsuttujen konservatiivien ja liberaalien välisistä jakolinjoista. Kommentoinnissa vähemmistöksi jääneissä ”liberaaleissa” kommenteissa tapahtunutta puolustettiin muun muassa lähimmäisenrakkauteen ja syrjimättömyyteen vetoamalla. Palstaa hallinnut ”konservatiivinen” kommentointi keskittyi Raamatun arvovallan puolustamiseen tavalla, joka sisälsi selkeitä heteronormatiivisia ja kristillis-konservatiivisia, mutta samalla myös maallisemmista argumentaation tavoista nousevia käsityksiä. Katson, että kommentointia voidaan lähestyä ja sanoittaa pyhän järjestyksen kaltaisten selitysmallien avulla. Lähettipäätöksen herättämä keskustelu voidaan kytkeä myös muihin näkökulmiin, joiden avulla on nähtävissä sen yhteys nykyiseen kulttuuriseen tilanteeseen ja heteronormin horjumiseen myös Suomen evankelis-luterilaisen kirkon piirissä.

Secularization without End: Beckett, Mann, Coetzee

Secularization without End: Beckett, Mann, Coetzee

Naming God: Christian Philosophy of Language, Wierzbicka’s Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Intercultural Dialogue

Who is He, to Whom we address words God, Theos, Deus, etc.? How far goes possibility for adaptation of religious and philosophical language from other (non-Western) cultures? Do people, by using certain words and terms, denote being of God, or are they just conventional names? Those questions were raised quite early in theological debates in early stages of Christianity, and answers were given by such prominent Church Fathers as Gregory of Nyssa and Basil the Great. The problem resurfaced millennium later, when Western missionaries encountered nations and people whose religious and philosophical concepts were far different from their own. Should they accommodate local terms to fit the Christian concept of God, or should they introduce Western terminology? This translational and linguistic problem leads to the question: are there universal concepts which (despite of cultural affiliation, based on the common human experience) could communicate the Christian idea of God? Findings of Wierzbicka, and her own claim is: yes – there are semantic primes, through which we can translate our ideas (with minor imperfections). But this last question goes beyond the reach of mere secular linguistics, and enters the domain of theology. For it is theological claim that in our human nature we are capable of addressing Triune God.

“Corporate Economy”. The Origins of Modern Neo-corporatism Practicein Western European Countries

Object. Modern Western European society to a large extent develops on the basis of theoretical views and practice of corporatism. The study of the origins of the theory and experience of corporate construction is important for understanding the features of the modern stage and the future development of the region. Corporatism, the new “corporate economy” in the national economic science has not yet become the subject of independent research. The purpose of the study is to determine the factors that contributed to the development of corporatist concepts, developed in the “neo-corporatism” theory, in the analysis of the historical experience of the use of corporatist practices, in the consideration of manifestations of this concept in the current thought and activities of Western European countries. Methodology. The study is based on the dialectical approach using historical-genetic, system-structural and historical-typological methods. Results. Corporatism organically combined religious and secular views. In the 1920s-1930s, a number of European States set the goal of building a corporate state. During this period, corporatism was seen as an alternative to Soviet socialism and Western European liberalism. In the middle of the twentieth-century interest in corporatism revived, there is a new “neo-corporatist” theoretical and practical reality. As history shows, Western Europe, corporatism is never left out of the political and economic life. Summary. Modern corporatism is not interested in the ideas of social Christianity, it is not associated with the ideology of fascist “corporatism”. Today, as an instrument of reconciliation of different social interests, it is organically integrated into the system of public administration, thus allowing balanced socio-economic policy, to have a positive impact on economic growth, to ensure a stable level of employment and income distribution. But this social model has shortcomings. In particular, it is unable to respond quickly and adequately to the need for structural adjustment of the economy, to increase requirements for management and labor. Negative aspects are the decrease in flexibility and openness towards innovation and the opacity of decision-making.

Note su religione e Gestalt politica nel primo Hegel

SOMMARIO: 1. “La grande tragedia del popolo ebraico” - 2. Il superamento della scissione tra religione, filosofia e politica - 3. La “terza forma di religione” e la ricostruzione dell’ethos pubblico. Notes on religion and political Gestalt in the young Hegel ABSTRACT: The young Hegel identifies in the Jewish theocracy a model based on the split between divine and human, finite and infinite which confines man in an irrecoverable subordination and separation from nature and the rest of mankind. Hegel contrasts it with the idea of the Greek polis and its religion as a strengthening of ethical and political unity. Christ hasn’t succeeded in bridging the rift which marks not only the Jewish culture but also reproduces itself in modern intellectualism, which proceeds by separations and oppositions and culminates in the abstractness of modern law. Christ founded a community of love, renouncing the confrontation with reality, supinely accepted; nevertheless, the Christian idea of incarnation, together with the Greek suggestion of the unity of the being as a whole, seems to be decisive for the Hegelian attempt to think of the philosophical unity of opposites, indicating a way that is also religious (as visible union of the community in the cult) and political (as sacrificing of that which is particular and egoistic). In the transition from the Frankfurt to Jena, Christianity is recovered by Hegel as a premise for a new religion that ought to overcome the oppositions of modern intellectualism and rediscover the unity of the popular ethos .

Autobiography as a Quest for Identity

What is the difference between biography and autobiography? The former is more revealing and hence is more in demand. According to Graham Greens autobiography is only ‘a sort of life’. It is more selective. He observed that ‘it begins later and ends prematurely. If one cannot close a book of memoirs on the death bed, any conclusion must be arbitrary’. The reader of an autobiography becomes an interested witness to the writer’s account of his life. He is a keen observer of an author’s obsession with his identity and the crises of his life. The reader can find lessons for his own life from the author’s account. Necessarily, he is more an active participant of the creative process while reading an autobiography than while reading a novel. The reader is bound to find parallels between the experiences of the writer and his own. The history of autobiographical writing dates back to the ‘confessions’ of St. Augustine written in the second half of the fourth century. The difference between Christian idea of confession and autobiography as it developed in the eighteenth, nineteenth and our century must be noted. Peter Abbes says that ‘confessions, in their traditional form, crave forgiveness, autobiography desires understanding. Confessions are devoted to salvation, autobiographies to individuation’. It is only with Rousseau that the form of memoirs took its present shape – ‘simply myself’. The importance of the individual reader was understood by autobiographers after Rousseau. Gibbon, Goethe, Ruskin, Wordsworth, John Stuart Mill, Newman, Darwin and a host of others gave the field of autobiography its pride of place. In our century autobiography has been used as a means for relentless self-exploration and for organising our experience.

Transformation of Early Christian Ideas about Judaism (Based on the Analysis of Christian Polemic Literature of the II-III c. and its Historical and Cultural Context)

II–III c. gave the world what is now called “Judaism” and “Christianity”. Two religions, which are now perceived as original and separate from each other, at that time had many intersection points. Christianity had not yet rid itself of its Jewish past, and in the Jewish environment there were many people who accepted Jesus’ messianism and converted to a new faith. However, more gentiles people in the II c. come to the Christian community, while the Jewish are closing themselves from the outside world. Christian literature directed against the Jews (Adversus Judaeos) contributed to this. Although studying the treatises created in this period from in different provinces of the Roman Empire, we can see how much more refined and reasoned these works become. However, it is evident that, in the process of the development of the Adversus Judaeos texts Christian authors rarely invest their own knowledge of Judaism, but only draw us the image of the Jew of that time, borrowing arguments from the writings of their predecessors. In this article we will trace the transformation of the image of the Jews and the emergence of the concept of “Judaism” in the Christian environment on the basis of three polemic works — Justin’s “Dialogue with Trypho” (mid-2nd c.), “On the Passover” by Melito (160–170) and Tertullian’s “Against the Jews” (2nd half of 3rd c). At the same time, the analysis of the historical and cultural context of the places there the treatises were created, shows that the extent to which the image of Judaism was perceived in the Christian anti-Judaic treatises was influenced by the position of these two communities in ancient society. Furthermore, the notion “Judaism” emerges in the Christian environment, which Christian authors counter posed to “Christianity”, creating a counterculture, through which they indicated the distinctive features of their religion, showed its advantage.

The Anatomy of Dance Discourse: Literary and Philosophical Approaches to Dance in the Later Graeco-Roman World by Karin Schlapbach

174 PHOENIX persuasively advocates both sides of the debate here and in the notes—that Sulpicia was a woman and that Sulpicia was the fiction of a male author. Fulkerson concludes that, while the question cannot be answered based on the existing evidence, “much is gained, and little lost, in treating the poetry of S. as an authentically recovered female voice from antiquity” (53), in accord with her philosophy about the collection as a whole—to accept the collection in the form that has been handed down to us. In Section VII, “Style, Metre, and Syntax” (53–58), Fulkerson lays out the technical similarities and differences between the AT and the works of Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid, drawing attention to the unique style of each group of poems within the AT. The last section, “Manuscript Tradition and Text” (58–59), examines the manuscript tradition of the Corpus Tibullianum, with special attention to the inclusion of the AT. Following the text is commentary on each poem. The notes on the first poem of each group begin with a brief introduction to the group and its “author.” Fulkerson situates each poem and its themes in Augustan elegiac generic practices. She treats individual verses by couplets, reprinting each couplet before annotating words and phrases. Entries include useful cross-references to her introduction, copious comparanda from Greek and Latin poetry, references to ancient and modern sources, and explanation and selective bibliography for the cultural and historical context. Fulkerson’s eloquent and often witty prose makes this commentary a pleasure to read. Her clear explication of the poems and their place in the canon of Roman erotic elegy is a valuable resource both for scholars in the field and for intermediate students just beginning their studies of this genre. Fulkerson’s treatment of the AT has convinced this reviewer to include these poems, regardless of their authorship or dating, in all of her future assessments of Roman erotic elegy. University of Tennessee, Knoxville Jessica Westerhold The Anatomy of Dance Discourse: Literary and Philosophical Approaches to Dance in the Later Graeco-Roman World. By Karin Schlapbach. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 2018. Pp. x, 339. A striking photograph appears on the cover of Karin Schlapbach’s new book on ancient dance. A snapshot of what seems to be a dance rehearsal captures the silhouette of a performer in mid-pose, practicing under the watchful eye of two sitting figures, all surrounded by the industrial architecture of the studio with a harbor visible outside. One of the two attentive spectators is the American dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham, seen here in a wheelchair only a few months before he died in 2009. The choice of book cover does not seem to be a random one at all. The Anatomy of Dance Discourse offers an insightful review of ancient literary and philosophical approaches to dance from the fourth century b.c.e. to the fifth century c.e., encompassing traditional Graeco-Roman and Christian ideas of body performance while also providing a narrower focus on the cultural context of the second century c.e. The relevance and timeliness of Schlapbach’s monograph are twofold: it opens up a new dimension for accessing prose and poetry from classical and late antiquity by employing the direct physical and dynamic reality of dance as a tool for reading and imagining, while also highlighting the crucial features of ancient dance practice and experience as straightforward referents to current performance theories in a broader sense. The book, in fact, takes advantage of the growing interest in dance from the past two decades, both BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 175 within and outside classics. The result is a magnificent piece of work, which artfully filters and assimilates the valuable contributions of previous scholarship in order to consolidate a new stage within the field of ancient Greek and Roman dance studies.1 As the book’s title suggests, Schlapbach defies commonly held assumptions about the ephemeral—and therefore elusive—nature of dance by carrying out an incisive examination of the elements of ancient dance discourse, the structural and narrative complexities of dance practice, and the ways that this discourse related to other artistic disciplines...

Russia as a particular form of the universality of the christian world: for the problem of the dialectics of interaction of russian and european spirit

The main contents of the article are an analysis of the speculative (Hegelian) dialectic of the relations of the European world and Russia interpreted as the universal and specific moments of the Christian idea. Taking as a basis the dialectic of history, the authors claim that in its movement to the concrete universality of the Christian idea the “European humanity” (Husserl) discovers within itself its own negativity, its Other (Russia). Through this Other the European spirit mediates itself, sublates the moment of abstract universality of the rationalism of the understanding which is characteristic of the time of Enlightenment (“modernity”, “industrialism”) and enters the “posthistorical” epoch of concrete universality of the global Christianity postindustrial civilization. This Other of the spiritual Europe (or the West as a whole) is Russia whose historical destiny was connected with the acceptance of Eastern European mentality (Russia as a “post-Byzantine” component of the united European Christian humanity) and its grandiose culture. While grasping European spirit, Russia found itself in a constant military-political and ideological “struggle against the West”, starting with the clash with the 13th century Teutonic knights or the 17th century Polish interveners and finishing with the “Cold War” and contemporary Ukraine crisis. The authors claim that the above said dialectical controversy between Europe and Russia has achieved its final tension and has come close to its spiritual overcoming (sublation, reconciliation, negation of negation) out it itself. The result of this process shall be a really universal Europe within whose frames Russia will be able to acquire its “positively reasonable” status.

Franciscans and the Elixir of Life: Religion and Science in the Later Middle Ages by Zachary A. Matus, and: A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz by David I. Shyovitz

Reviewed by: Franciscans and the Elixir of Life: Religion and Science in the Later Middle Ages by Zachary A. Matus, and: A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz by David I. Shyovitz Kersti Francis Zachary A. Matus, Franciscans and the Elixir of Life: Religion and Science in the Later Middle Ages, The Middle Ages ( Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press 2017) 216 pp., ill. David I. Shyovitz, A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz ( Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press 2017) 352 pp., ill. From Kellie Robertson's excellent and incisive Nature Speaks to these two exciting examinations of religious cultures and the supernatural, 2017 was a year of interrogating the idea of "nature" for the University of Pennsylvania Press. David I. Shyovitz, who discusses the relationship between the supernatural and twelfth- to thirteenth-century Ashkenazi thought, and Zachary A. Matus, who analyzes the influence of Franciscanism on alchemical practice in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, tackle two seemingly unrelated subjects in their books. But, these disparate works are mutually invested in articulating the precise boundaries of medieval understandings of natura, as well as engaging in subtle yet critical revisions of current methodologies in the fields of religion and the history of science. This latter aim is most prevalent in Shyovitz's groundbreaking book, which begins by setting up the general state of the field to date. He convincingly demonstrates that there exists a scholarly dichotomy between conceptions of medieval Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews that promotes the former as cosmopolitan, rational, and cultured. On the other hand, medieval Ashkenaz has been sidelined in the field because of the prevailing view that the Jews of Northern France and Germany were superstitious, isolated, and ignorant of the surrounding cultural shifts and intellectual developments that accompanied the so-called twelfth-century renaissance in the predominantly Latin Christian [End Page 244] West. Though he acknowledges that, recently, scholars have started to break down this stark binary to allow for a more nuanced view of Ashkenaz in the later Middle Ages, the "myth of Sephardic supremacy" continues to dominate the field (4). Against this, Shyovitz proposes a innovative thesis: Rather than consider their emphasis on the supernatural as "backwards" or a sign of their isolationism, scholars should, instead, interrogate the ways in which rabbinical thinkers of medieval Ashkenaz deploy the supernatural to gain a deeper insight into their relationship with the scientific and philosophical developments occurring simultaneously across Europe. It is this methodology that drives A Remembrance of His Wonders, which sheds new light on the relationship between medieval theologies, understandings of nature and the supernatural, and scientia. By considering the supernatural in this way, Shyovitz persuasively reveals that the workings of the natural world more broadly, and the human body in particular, were critical sites of inquiry for Ashkenazic theologians. Instead of decrying an interest in lycanthropy, wonders, magic, and occult forces as signs of their ignorance, we should view these facets of Ashkenazic thought "as markers of intellectual sophistication, and of integration into a broader European culture that was investing unprecedented energy into investigating the scientific workings and spiritual meaning of its natural surroundings" (3). As part of this novel argument, Shyovitz contends that his investigation indicates that Jewish and Christian thought in medieval Northern Europe was far more integrated than has hitherto been thought. Indeed, A Remembrance of His Wonders argues that "Jewish texts contain detailed knowledge of medieval Christian ideas and doctrines, knowledge that could only have developed from direct exposure to, and overt incorporation of, the developing Christian 'incarnational' world-view that sought theological and devotional meaning in the material, embodied world" (4). Accompanying this argument is an insightful reminder to historians that is reinforced in Zachary Matus' Franciscans and the Elixir of Life: we need to be extremely careful when discussing medieval science. For Shyovitz, this means reconsidering what we consider appropriately scientific. Just because Ashkenazic thinkers weren't rooted in Arisotelian philosophy or the Greek-Arabic tradition, he argues, it doesn't mean that they weren't scientific in their interests and approaches to the natural world. Similarly, our modern scholarly distinction between mysticism and science is flawed...

Visitors to the House of Memory: Identity and Political Education at the Jewish Museum Berlin by Victoria Bishop Kendzia

Reviewed by: Visitors to the House of Memory: Identity and Political Education at the Jewish Museum Berlin by Victoria Bishop Kendzia Johannes Zechner Visitors to the House of Memory: Identity and Political Education at the Jewish Museum Berlin. By Victoria Bishop Kendzia. New York: Berghahn, 2018. Pp. xi + 161. Cloth $110.00. ISBN 978-1785336393. Since museums began to appeal to ever broader audiences, the intellectual clout of university-based researchers has diminished. Institutions such as the Jewish Museum Berlin are attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year; the readers of academic books and journal articles clearly pale in comparison with that figure. Especially in the fields of history and culture, these museums also function as important arenas for debates over identity and belonging. Whereas previously many publications about the Jewish Museum were issued by the institution itself, Victoria Bishop Kendzia's book promises to offer a welcome external and critical perspective on its activities. Visitors to the House of Memory focuses on processes of "choreographed remembrance" (7) through which young people interact with the Jewish Museum's permanent exhibition and architecture. To that end, Bishop Kendzia analyzed group visits by classes in history and/or political science from seven Berlin high schools. [End Page 682] Combining methods drawn from European ethnology and museum studies, she acted as a participant-observer and conducted qualitative interviews informed by questionnaires completed by the students before and after their visits. True to the disciplinary spirit of self-reflexivity, she early on reveals her Canadian-British-Jewish family background and her move to Berlin some years ago. In theoretical terms, the study is clearly influenced by approaches from the "new museology," which has expanded the scope of interest from technical questions of collecting and exhibiting to the broader spheres of politics and society. Thus, Bishop Kendzia conceptualizes the Jewish Museum as "a site of political education" (19) somewhere between museum and memorial, where manifold understandings of the past and lessons for the future are negotiated. Visits to the Jewish Museum are understood by her as situational and spatial performances in which the participants are actively engaging with the exhibits instead of merely passively absorbing information. The major results of the study lend further support to a finding now almost universally accepted in the scholarship: memory and remembrance are necessarily fragmented and versatile, not—as some politicians or propagandists might wish to be the case—monolithic and constant. Based on a notion of "flexible, shifting identity" (x), Bishop Kendzia reveals sometimes glaring differences in attitude and behavior between the various groups of visitors to the Jewish Museum under observation. This is especially striking because all grew up in Germany after 1989 and were educated within the same school system. As an interesting case in point, most high school students from West Berlin expressed a much deeper Betroffenheit in relation to the Holocaust—which is not, however, the main focus of the Jewish Museum—than their counterparts from the East. In the same vein, they expressed more seriousness and rigidity while displaying a "moved Germanness" (97), perceptible, for example, in body language and volume of voice. As for the underlying reasons for this phenomenon, Bishop Kendzia dares only to speculate: she convincingly mentions the influence of teachers and parents, who were socialized in separate cultures of remembrance, but also the importance of Christian ideas of atonement. An informative comparison can be made with a control group from the Neukölln district, comprising a large number of immigrants, mostly from Turkish or Arab backgrounds. Those high school students from West Berlin seemed less familiar with the "performative guilt trope" (134) mentioned above, which is why they behaved less confidently in their interactions and were more alert to the watchful gaze of the museum staff. Bishop Kendzia uses this example to argue for a different educational approach in which the Jewish Museum—and other museums, one might add—should pay greater attention to cultural inclusivity and controversial multiperspectivity. Visitors to the House of Memory clearly benefits from the author's standpoint between outsider and insider and from repeated reflections about her own positioning [End Page 683] vis-à-vis students, teachers, and staff of the Jewish Museum. In...

Religião e protoglobalização. A globalização contemporânea como decalque laico da universalização religiosa moderna

Este estudo exploratório pretende analisar como determinados axiomas teológicos bíblicos forneceram fundamentos para o ideário universalista do cristianismo como primeira religiosa com um horizonte expansionista à escala global. À luz desta perspetiva teórica situada no perímetro epistemológico da história religiosa, do imaginário e das mentalidades, podemos problematizar o fenómeno da protoglobalização que emerge na Época Moderna como tendo, na sua raiz, um móbil religioso, como religiosas são a sua legitimação e explicação. E foi ainda do meio religioso que surgiram os primeiros instrumentos e soluções globais para atender aos desafios trazidos pelo processo de conhecimento do mundo, em que os povos abriam as portas para serem conhecidos e receberem, em paz ou em guerra, as interinfluências dessa abertura. Esquecemos, em grande medida, o tempo seminal do atribulado início desta globalização que hoje vivenciamos de forma plena, mas não menos atribuladamente. Alguns desses instrumentos criados, com motivação religiosa nos séculos XVI e XVII, para responder ao mundo aberto são hoje reproduzidos, esvaziados desse referente, de modos e por meios variados, de que as multinacionais são a melhor expressão. Mas o processo moderno de secularização acabou por cortar o fio de ligação com o religioso, assumindo um cunho laico e civil.

The Experiment of Night: Jan Patočka on War, and a Christianity to Come

In the wake of the present-day crises, social conflicts and growing divisions, Patočka's reflections on war and totalitarianism appear abiding. Moreover, the enigmatic language, which Patočka uses, especially in his late Heretical Essays, sounds provoking and paradoxical. This article elaborates on the hypothesis that Patočka's reflections provide us with something more than a historical analysis interpreting the wars of the 20th century, and the 20th century as a war. I will argue that Patočka finds an intrinsic link between modernity, as a particular mode of being, and war and totalitarianism as unavoidable consequences of such a mode of being. To describe this situation, Patočka puts forth the dialectic of the light of day and the darkness of night. Paradoxically, in a somewhat mystical turn, Patočka gives preference to the night as the driving force of transgressing modern logic and the defective mode of modern being which throws crowds to the hell-fire of modern warfare. Against this background, this paper will present an innovative reading of Patočka's reflections as a specific search for an adequate spiritual response to the discontents of modernity. I will suggest that the trajectory of Patočka's thought can be read through the lens of a particular philosophy of religion, even though Patočka never elaborated on this avenue explicitly. Thus, I will propose that Patočka's thought opens up the possibility of reconsidering a heretical idea of Christianity that is coming after Christianity.

‘Freedom from Fundamentalism’: Christian Brethrenism and the Rise of Latin American Protestant Evangelical Social Christianity

ABSTRACT This article sheds light on the issue of agency in the making of world Christianity at the level of theological discourses. Within a wider context of persistent paternalism, British Brethren missionaries progressively released leadership to local Latin Americans, in large part due to their congregational polity, which lacked paid clergy and hierarchy. The Brethren tradition of pioneering publishing projects created channels through which Latin American evangelicals wrote their own theologies and developed a new brand of Protestant social Christianity. This allowed Latin American Protestant evangelicals to diffuse social Christian ideas to a wider constituency. Thus, while Christian Brethrenism provided raw ingredients for the fundamentalist movement in the north, it should also be credited with providing a perceived escape hatch from it in the south. This article breaks fresh ground by paying particular attention to unstudied personal papers, archival documents, and bilingual interviews with many of the main players.

Christian Ideas as “Nonsense”: The Continuing Legacy of Kant’s Worldview

Abstract The present article challenges the bifurcation of the world established by Kant, a bifurcation that continues to plague contemporary thinking about science, religion, and morality. This challenge is aided by Whitehead’s alternative worldview.