Moral Discipline Research Articles

Women Writing Music in Late Eighteenth-Century England: Social Harmony in Literature and Performance (review)

Reviewed by: Women Writing Music in Late Eighteenth-Century England: Social Harmony in Literature and Performance Ellen T. Harris Leslie Ritchie, Women Writing Music in Late Eighteenth-Century England: Social Harmony in Literature and Performance (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2008). Pp. xi, 269. $114.95. The place of women in eighteenth-century music-making has generally been relegated in modern scholarship to that of domestic performer or, in the realm of professional music, to ardent fan or patron. Leslie Ritchie seeks to overturn this long-held conviction, in part by expanding the definition of “women writing music.” She lays out the five tenets underlying her argument in the introduction: first, the assumed connection between social harmony and music harmony was not absolute (4–11); second, performance was part of the creative process; third, public and private performances were less differentiated than previously thought (“to speak radically, there is no such thing as private music” [19]); fourth, “derogatory assumptions . . . underlie the modern distinction between art songs and popular songs,” which existed on a continuum (21); and fifth, eighteenth-century music-making was “profoundly multidisciplinary” (24). Then limiting her discussion to vocal music, Ritchie includes not only composers but authors of song texts and singers as part of the process of writing music. Ritchie rebuts the belief that women who participated in making music shied away from public notice and desired anonymity. Her examination of the list of compositions registered at Stationers’ Hall during the eighteenth century shows that of the composers only 8 percent were women, but of these, 73 percent identified themselves by name, “rather than as ‘A Lady’ or ‘A Woman of Quality’ or a similar denomination” (72). Indeed, the desire for recognition and a kind of copyright led some women (and men) to claim registration without having actually done so. Further, the importance of the role of women in the creation of music can be seen in the statistic that 42 percent of the performers named on registered musical compositions were women. Ritchie also seeks to complicate the notion that music harmony and social harmony were synonymous. Although she acknowledges the place of music in the [End Page 538] lives of many eighteenth-century women, especially as described by their male contemporaries, as a useful discipline, a reinforcement (through text) of social mores, and an important part of courtship ritual, she argues that “women’s pleasure in music can be understood as both subservient to and, sometimes, subversive of moral discipline and the social purposes that musical practice was thought to serve” (31). She divides women’s song repertoire into three “dominant categories” of charity (Caritas), pastoral (Arcadia), and politics/nation (Britannia), and discusses specific examples that demonstrate “the ways in which women strategically exploited these categories’ boundaries” (28). There is a great deal of value in Ritchie’s evidence and argument. As a musicologist working with both musical and literary materials, I know the pitfalls of a multidisciplinary undertaking, and Ritchie handles the terrain with some panache. She certainly does not slight the music: her book is rich with musical example and facsimile, and she doesn’t shy away from musical analysis. In fact, I wonder what readers will think of the sentence: “Harmonically, the tune is set in D major, and uses various inversions of the chords of D major, b minor, G major and A major (as well as an E major chord that functions as an applied dominant for A major) in its simple accompaniment” (122–3). Unfortunately, Ritchie does not provide the music for this example. I can only assume that difficulties in acquiring the necessary permissions led to the situation whereby some of the most detailed analyses are not accompanied by examples, but simpler songs given less detailed discussions are provided in full (e.g., the modified strophic song, “Crazy Jane” [112–5]). There are more serious problems, however. The conclusions drawn by Ritchie are too often unwarranted from the evidence she provides. She claims that James Grassineau in his Musical Dictionary of 1740 defines “harmony” with a set of binary opposites (“one / many; pleasing / codified; natural / scientific” [4]), which simply are not there. Similarly, she draws from Grassineau’s definition of “testo...

Discipline and Doctrine: Inculcating Moral Habits in Le Livre de éthiques d’Aristote

This essay considers the first vernacular translation of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, produced by Nicole Oresme for Charles V of France. It argues that Oresme’s original presentation copy, produced on a seemingly unlimited budget for an interested patron highly literate in his own language, constitutes a best-case scenario for the adaption of a previously clerical and academic text for lay use. More fundamentally, Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, MS 9505-06 sets out to extend the clerical habitus of virtue — defined in the Nicomachean Ethics, and mediated through centuries of primarily monastic practice — to elite laymen. Oresme thus seeks to translate not only the doctrine of the Latin Ethics but also the mental and moral discipline associated with Latinity, adapting the experience of reading — in this case, the experience of moving back and forth among text, annotations, chapter headings, glosses, and miniatures — to instil in his aristocratic readers a vernacular ethical habit that will allow them to better govern themselves and the kingdom. In the process, the Ethiques not only challenges clerical privilege but also defines a lay vocation parallel to, but not necessarily lesser than, the clerical way of life.

Prédicatrices de salon à Héliopolis: vers la salafisation de la bourgeoisie du Caire ?

Begun in the early nineties, the "circles" or halaqat have found increasing success in the bourgeois neighborhoods of Cairo. Far from producing a new, progressive discourse, as one might expect of educated, activist women who are pioneers in the taking up of religious responsibilities, the Egyptian preachers spread a conservative message of moral discipline and patience in struggle. This expression of religious feeling takes place in large meetings in female prayer rooms, as well as in private meetings conducted by rich, pious women in Cairo's bourgeois neighborhoods. In conformity with their sexualized, segmented notion of space, these women categorically refuse to insert themselves into public spaces, instead delegating these to men. Despite all this, however, these women hardly conform to the stereotype of the wife who is submissive to male supervision; they argue and dispute a variety of social subjects. Their dynamism, their political consciousness, and their increasingly central role in religious matters, lead us to redefine what role they really play in the public sphere as well as their function in of « re-Islamicizing » Egyptian society, a process which has been underway since the 1980s. Analysing the discourse and practice of these women permits us to explore the notion of an « informal » feminism in female spaces.

Nefarious crimes, contested justice: illicit sex and infanticide in the Republic of Venice, 1557-1789

This captivating history exposes a clandestine world of family and community secrets-incest, abortion, and infanticide-in the early modern Venetian republic. With the keen eye of a detective, Joanne M. Ferraro follows the clues in individual cases from the criminal archives of Venice and reconstructs each one as the courts would have done according to the legal theory of the day. Lawmakers relied heavily on the depositions of family members, neighbors, and others in the community to establish the veracity of the victims' claims. Ferraro recounts this often colorful testimony, giving voice to the field workers, spinners, grocers, servants, concubines, midwives, physicians, and apothecaries who gave their evidence to the courts, sometimes shaping the outcomes of the investigations. Nefarious Crimes, Contested Justice also traces shifting attitudes toward illegitimacy and paternity from the late sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Both the Catholic Church and the Republic of Venice tried to enforce moral discipline and regulate sex and reproduction. Unmarried pregnant women were increasingly stigmatized for engaging in sex. Their claims for damages because of seduction or rape were largely unproven, and the priests and laymen they were involved with were often acquitted of any wrongdoing. The lack of institutional support for single motherhood and the exculpation of fathers frequently led to abortion, infant abandonment, or infant death. In uncovering these hidden sex crimes, Ferraro exposes the further abuse of women by both the men who perpetrated these illegal acts and the courts that prosecuted them.

The Purple Robe Incident and the Formation of the Early Modern Sōtō Zen Institution

The transition from the medieval to the early modern Buddhist order was directed in large measure by a new regulatory regime instituted by the Tokugawa bakufu. These new directives issued from Edo increasingly regulated every aspect of both political and religious life during the first half of the seventeenth century. As the bakufu extended its control over domains through a pyramidal hierarchy of order towards the center, similar formations of regulation governing Buddhist sectarian order emerged in an increasingly formalized fashion. At the same time, power did not operate in a unilateral direction as Buddhist institutions attempted to shape regulation, move toward a self-regulatory model of governance, and otherwise evade control by the center through local interpretations and implementations of law. This essay takes up how state regulation of religion was managed by Soto Zen Buddhism, with particular attention given to rules governing the clerical ranks and the robes worn by clerics of high rank. The 1627 purple robe incident is examined as an emblematic case of the new power relationship between the new bakufu's concern about subversive elements that could challenge its hold on power; the imperial household's customary authority to award the highest-ranking, imperially-sanctioned purple robe; and Buddhist institutions that laid claim on the authority to recognize spiritual advancement. KEYWORDS: Soto Zen Buddhism-Tokugawa bakufu and religion-hatto-purple robe incident (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) BUYO INSHI ... was the pen name of an anonymous writer from the late Edo period whose essay, Seji kenmonroku ..., was critical of many aspects of Edo society at the time, including what he considered the degenerate activities of merchants, government officials, and Buddhist clerics. 1 While speculation about his identity has ranged from the possibility that he was a shogunal retainer or a moneylender to his being a judicial clerk, his wish to remain anonymous because of his biting remarks has made it difficult for modern scholars to trace his true identity (Aoki 1999; Tsuji 1955, 172.73). The Seji kenmonroku section on religious institutions includes the following commentary about the Soto Zen sect in which he decries the moral and spiritual degeneration of Zen clerics who were unable to live up to new sect and government regulations on clerical training. He also sharply criticized the practice of bribery to purchase clerical ranks and higher-rank colored robes as well as the general atmosphere in which money dictated clerical success. [Recently], Buddhist clerics, from all the sects, have been breaking both governmental and sectarian regulations. Neither having the [required] years [of experience] nor moral discipline, they walk the path of greed. To take up an example or two, I will start with the Soto school. According to the rules set by the first Shogun Ieyasu, for a cleric to be considered fully qualified, he must attend clerical training retreats for twenty years. For the same cleric to become an abbot of a temple, twenty-five years are necessary. These rules were determined through discussions between the sect and a high-ranking cleric of a different sect.2 The clerical training includes a ceremony where clerics sit across from each other to hold a question-and-answer session regarding the Dharma. Even though difficult or unexpected questions might be asked, one is supposed to be able to give an appropriate reply. However, these days, the ceremony is conducted with the participants having previously agreed upon the contents of both the questions and the answers. Unlike the true Zen question-and-answer session, the ceremony today is like a preset performance of sword and spear techniques, rather than real combat .... Having gone through the clerical training only in form, they can still become a fully-recognized cleric or a temple abbot without the twenty years of training and without the proper number of Dharma years, if they prepare a bribe of ten ryo . …

Sobre a formação de professores para a disciplina Educação Física em Santa Catarina (1937-1945): ciência, controle e ludicidade na educação dos corpos

As décadas de 1930 e 1940 configuram no Brasil uma tentativa de modernização e construção de uma identidade nacional. A prática dos exercícios físicos nas escolas foi concebida como política de construção de cidadãos saudáveis e produtivos que correspondessem ao projeto que se inaugura com o estímulo à industrialização no país. Esperava-se que ocorresse uma mudança "civilizadora" no comportamento, gerida pela escola dos anos 1930, em virtude da formação do Estado e da construção de uma "segunda natureza" altamente controlada por dispositivos disciplinares, dentre eles a Educação Física Escolar. Santa Catarina seguiu o enredo das preocupações nacionais, instituindo a Escola de Educação Física do Estado, cujo objetivo era formar professores dessa disciplina, além de desenvolver, orientar e unificar a sua prática em todos os estabelecimentos de ensino. A pesquisa investigou a crescente importância da cultura corporal, estudando as prescrições para a prática da disciplina presentes na Revista de Educação (1937-1938) e em Relatórios da Inspetoria de Educação Física do Estado. Foram identificados três eixos que merecem destaque e estão articulados entre si: bases científicas das lições, controle das emoções ou disciplina moral, caráter lúdico pela prática de jogos. Tais eixos resumiam a funções atribuídas à Educação Física: modelagem do cidadão nacional, potencializando força física e disciplinando-o moralmente.

Policing ambiguity: Muslim saints‐day festivals and the moral geography of public space in Egypt

ABSTRACTIn this article, I explore how the festive culture of mulids, Egyptian Muslim saints‐day festivals, troubles notions of habitus, public space, and religious and civic discipline that have become hegemonic in Egypt in the past century and how state actors attempt to “civilize” mulids by subjecting them to a spectacular, representative order of spatial differentiation. I argue that habitus must be understood as a political category related to competing relationships of ideology and embodiment and that the conceptual and physical configuration of modern public space is intimately related to the bodily and moral discipline of its users. [veneration of saints, festivals, habitus, public space, state, Islam, Egypt]

The influence of family types on moral values and disciplines behaviour of secondary school students in Cross River State

No Abstract. SOPHIA: An African Journal of Philosphy and Public Affairs Vol. 10 (1) 2007: pp. 211-219

The Impact of Chinese Cultural Values on Taiwan Nursing Leadership Styles: Comparing the Self-Assessments of Staff Nurses and Head Nurses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of Chinese culture on nursing leadership behavior in Taiwan nurses. A descriptive study compared staff nurses' assessment of Chinese value in the leadership behavior of their head nurses. Data analysis was made on a convenience sample in Taiwan of 214 head nurses and 2,127 staff nurses who had worked with their head nurse for at least one year. Six medical centers and regional hospitals in northern (Taipei), central (Taichung) and southern (Kaohsiung) Taiwan were recruited for this study. Instruments included the demographic questionnaire, Chinese Value Survey, and Kang's Chinese Leadership Behaviors Module Scale. Results indicated that head nurses scored significantly higher than staff nurses in terms of all cultural values and leadership behaviors. Both staff nurses and head nurses scored the highest mean scores in personal integrity (Yi) and human connectedness (Ren) and the lowest in moral discipline (Li). Staff nurse perceptions of leadership behavior indicated the role of parent to be higher than either the role of director or mentor. Head nurses perceptions of leadership behavior emphasized the role of the director more than either parent or mentor. There were no significant differences between the staff nurses and head nurses in terms of expectative leadership behavior, which gave the role of director higher mean scores than those of either the parent or mentor. Positive and significant associations (r = .266 to r = .334) were found between cultural values and perceptions of leadership behavior. Cultural values predicted 10.6% of leadership behavior variance. The three demographic characteristics of location in northern Taiwan (beta = .09), intention to leave (beta = -.14), and general unit (beta = .10) and the two cultural values of human connectedness (Ren) (beta = .16) and personal integrity (Yi) (beta = .16) together reported a cumulative R2 of 14.6% to explain variance in leadership behavior perceptions. Results of this study identified the important cultural values "Ren" and "Yi". Managers and administrators could add the consideration of such cultural values into nursing leadership to enhance the organization in which Taiwan nurses work.

Beyond Text in Legal Education: Art, Ethics and the Carnegie Report

This paper argues that the development of ethical education in law schools ought not to be restricted to the use of textual resources. In the first part of the paper, the continuing dominance of text as the object of analysis in legal theory, legal scholarship and legal practice is illustrated. The dangerous implications of this continuing dominance on the capacity to see and recognise the great variety and depth of suffering and vulnerability is also discussed. It is argued that recourse ought to be had to those traditions of moral philosophy that emphasise the importance of cultivating vision as a form of moral discipline - a discipline, in turn, that can benefit a great deal from the use of non-textual resources, and in particular, from both the appreciation of and involvement in the visual and movement-based arts. In the second part of the paper the treatment of ethical education in the recent Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Report on Educating Lawyers is discussed. It is argued that we ought not to subsume the development of ethical education under the canopy of professionalism - a canopy already saturated with text, both in the form of the substantive and procedural law that is expected to be applied, and in the form of the evaluation of professional conduct in accordance with the relevant professional code. Finally, in the third part of the paper, a number of policy recommendations are made.

Bhikkhuni Ordination Debate

This paper examines the recent events following the bhikkhuni revival in Sri Lanka, and looks at the position of the Burmese Sangha, which has traditionally seen itself as the custodian of an ‘authentic’ Buddhist legacy, thrown into a debate by the action of a Burmese bhikkhuni who was recently ordained in Sri Lanka. It introduces the early initiatives of revivalist monks in Burma as well as the viewpoints of Burmese Sangha and the nuns in regard to the bhikkhuni issue. Since most debate on the position of nuns take place without much reference to the local political contexts in which they stand, the state monastic organization in Burma is introduced to aid understanding of the framework in which the nuns operate today. At another level, the paper draws attention to the tension created between the international bhikkhunis who promote liberal ideologies of gender equality, individual rights and universalism into a faith based community, and local nuns who adhere to the traditional norms of religious duty, moral discipline and service to the community, and questions the ultimate aim in endorsing such secular ideals.

Moral Judgment and Student Discipline: What Are Institutions Teaching? What Are Students Learning?

College students find themselves in conflict with their college or university when they make choices counter to the expectations of the institution. Typically, these expectations for conduct are outlined in a published code of conduct, which is, in a sense, a moral code for student behavior. “The special function of the construct of moral judgment is to provide conceptual guidance for action choice in situations where moral claims conflict,” (Rest, Narvaez, Bebeau, & Thoma, 1999, p. 499). This statement highlights the essence of a question often raised in college and university judicial affairs offices across the country—do students who violate conduct codes operate at a lower level of moral judgment than those who do not?

The impact on the cultural diversity to employees' job satisfaction between mainland China and Taiwan: a comparison of Taiwanese invested companies

This study explores how the Chinese values (Integrations, Confucian Work Dynamism, Human-heartedness and Moral Discipline) impact employees' satisfaction (ES). Employees who work in mainland China for companies whose parent companies are based in Taiwan were surveyed. The results can be summarized as the following: ‘Integration’, ‘Confucian Work Dynamism’ and ‘Human-heartedness’ are significantly different between Taiwanese and Chinese employees, while ‘Moral discipline’ is not; Taiwanese employees have higher ES than Chinese employees; Taiwanese employees view ‘career planning’ is the most important, while Chinese employees think ‘management system’ is most important; For Taiwanese employees, ‘Salary and benefit’, ‘Working load’ and ‘Management system’ have effects on ES; Age and Education have effects on Chinese employees.

Dove non arriva la legge. Dottrine della censura nella prima età moderna (review)

Dove non arriva la legge. Dottrine della censura nella prima eta moderna. By Lucia Bianchin. [Annali dell'Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento: Monografie, 41.] (Bologna: Societa editrice il Mulino. 2005. Pp. 389. euro25.50 paperback.) The book analyzes the ideas about censorship expressed by Jean Bodin, Pierre Gregoire, Justus Iipsius, Johannes Althusius, and Johann Angelius Werdenhagen. The views of these authors on a subject crucial to late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Europe were not influenced by the actual organization of the papal control system on culture and book circulation, but relied mostly on a reappraisal of ancient Roman censorship. The moral and political censorship implemented by the Roman republic was generally described, in the texts here examined, as a powerful means to enforce social discipline and to prevent conflicts and dissent fatal to the state. Bianchin outlines first the historiographical background of her research, discussing some recent contributions concerning the processes of confessionalization and social-disciplining in both Catholic and Protestant areas, between the Peace of Augsburg and the Thirty Years' War. She then compares the Catholic censorship system-intended to prevent printing and reading of books dangerous to the faithful-and the Protestant one, instrumental in enforcing strict religious obedience through the control of moral and social behavior. The third chapter turns upon the ancient Roman magistrate called censura, charged with maintaining the census-a list of the citizens and of their properties compiled for fiscal and military purposes-and supervising public morality. Neglected in medieval legal tradition, the ancients' model met with a revival during the sixteenth century. At the beginning of the earlymodern period, Bianchin points out, legal literature testifies to a new interest in the indicium censorium, a sort of judgment founded on equity, sanctioning vices, bad habits, and moral infringements not subject to the law: But only in the first chapter of the sixth book of Bodin's Republique (De la censure) does the account of the establishment and development of the Roman censura lead to a doctrine of censorship that entrusts to the state the task of imposing moral discipline and restraining offenses like gambling, idleness, drunkenness, vagrancy, and licentiousness. The Bodinian idea of moral control-easy to connect to the rigorous concept of state sovereignty asserted in the Republique-provided a basic reference to later writers dealing with the role of censorship in the organization of the state. In his Syntagma juris universi (1582), then in the De Republica libri sex et viginti (1596) the French canonist Pierre Gregoire follows faithfully Bodin's argument, claiming moreover for the government a wider control over private life and marriage. He, nevertheless, warns against the excesses of censores, the cause, in his opinion, of the ruin and disuse of the Roman magistrate. …

Selective Appropriation, Medical Ethics, and Health Politics: The Complementarity of Baker, McCullough, and Me

Baker and McCullough (2007) criticize a 1979 article by this author for insufficiently appreciating how physicians have appropriated ideas from moral philosophy. This rejoinder argues that the two articles are complementary. The 1979 article summarized evidence that leading physicians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries appropriated ideas from moral philosophy and related disciplines that reinforced their political goals of self-regulation and dominance of the allocation of resources for health. In retrospect the 1979 article also urged bioethicists to appropriate ideas from other disciplines, including moral philosophy, which would contribute to improving the health of populations.

Pastoral Care East of Eden: The Consistory of Geneva, 1568–82

Reformed churches in early modern Europe gave special prominence to moral discipline and created institutions to oversee public behavior and promote personal sanctification. These moral tribunals—known variously as consistories, kirk sessions, presbyteries, or Kirchenrat—have been of particular interest to social historians, who have found in disciplinary records a rich deposit for understanding popular belief and daily life in the age of Reformations. Today a veritable “cottage industry” (to use Judith Pollman's apt phrase) of specialized studies exists exploring the form and function of reformed discipline throughout sixteenth-century Europe, from Emden to the French Midi, from the Scottish lowlands to Transylvania. Accordingly, perceptions of these disciplinary institutions have changed significantly. Whereas consistories were once often portrayed as repressive agents of social control concerned primarily with punishing misbehavior and promoting a kind of puritan moral austerity, recent scholarship has shown that these disciplinary institutions played an important role in defining confessional boundaries and preserving the sacral unity (and witness) of the eucharistic community. The importance of Calvinist social discipline in the process of confessionalization and state-formation in early modern Europe is now widely acknowledged. At the same time, specialists have gained new awareness of the penitential and pastoral dimensions of reformed discipline. Consistories concerned themselves not simply with supervising and controlling public behavior and belief, but also with educating the unlearned, defending the weak, and mediating interpersonal conflicts. As Robert Kingdon recently commented regarding John Calvin's consistory in Geneva, “Discipline to these early Genevans meant more than social control. It also meant social help.”

Radical Orthodoxy’s Poiēsis

For Radical Orthodoxy participatory poiesis is the only form of authentic postmodern theology and determines its dependence upon, as well as the character of, its narrative of the history of philosophy. This article endeavors to display how the polemical anti-modernism of the movement results in a disregard for the disciplines of scholarship, so that ideological fables about our cultural history pass for theology. Because of the Radical Orthodox antipathy to philosophy, its assertions cannot be proven rationally either in principle or in fact, and its followers are reduced to accepting its stories on the authority of their tellers. The moral and rational disciplines are replaced with a postmodern incarnational neo-Neoplatonism in which the First Principle and sensual life are immediately united, without the mediation of soul or mind. With this disappearance of theoria, surrender to the genuinely other, or even attentive listening, become impossible.

The Meaning of Religious Practice by Emmanuel Levinas: an Introduction and Translation

Published for first time in 1937, Emmanuel Levinas's short article Meaning of Religious Practice is perhaps best characterized as pre-Talmudic. At this time, Levinas had not yet met prestigious master M. Chouchani, under whom he would undertake a serious study of Talmud. Although he cites mitzvot in an example, Levinas's reflection on religious practice in Judaism is not applied to categories of Halakha but rests instead on a phenomenological description of execution of ritual. In contrast to reformers of Judaism, Levinas does not conceive of ritual in purely utilitarian terms, that is, as good for personal hygiene, moral discipline, religious symbolism, and mental and emotional arousal. Nor does he understand it as expression of a purely subjective or private religious life, situated on margins of universal order of reason and nature. Levinas, this modern interpretation gets its plausibility only from nonessential features of ritual. The true meaning of Jewish religious practice lies elsewhere. Levinas argues that execution of a ritual constitutes an interruption of the natural attitude that we habitually adopt in our everyday dealings with things. The ritual suspends our natural tendency, for example, to eat indiscriminately, giving us moment for pause and benediction. In so doing, it makes world and everything in it exotic, altogether strange, and miraculous. What Greeks experienced at very heart of philosophy, namely, (to thaumaston [Wonder is feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in (Plato, Theatetus 155d)]), Levinas finds in world revealed by Jewish ritual: For Jew, by contrast, nothing is entirely familiar, entirely profane. To him, existence of things is something infinitely surprising. It strikes him as a miracle. He experiences wonder at every instant at fact-so simple and yet so extraordinary-that world is there. In final analysis, then, meaning (signification) or essence of Jewish religious practice is to be found in event

The Politics of Risk and Young Offenders’ Experiences of Social Exclusion and Restorative Justice

The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 sets out a new framework for the governance of youth crime, with the primary aim of preventing criminality among young people by addressing the risk factors associated with offending. One of the main technologies of risk management is that of responsibilisation through restorative justice interventions. But the ethos of restorative justice envisages more than just holding young people responsible for their offending; it also professes a commitment to the restoration of victim–offender relations and the reintegration of young offenders into mainstream community life. However, in the prevailing penal climate, the principles of restorative justice have been narrowly interpreted to give undue weight to the responsibilisation of young offenders by challenging perceived deficits in their moral reasoning. The exclusionary socio-economic constraints that limit young offenders’ choices and ability to reintegrate have been obscured. The end result is that restorative justice has become harnessed to the interests of reinforcing ‘moral discipline’ rather than engaging with ‘social justice’. The argument is elaborated through the use of a recently completed research study conducted in the South-West of England, in which young offenders share, through in-depth interviews, their experiences of restorative justice and social exclusion.

A Singular Example of the Wrath of God: The Use of Sodom in Sixteenth-Century Exegesis

What did the Reformation do for sodomy? The more or less established view, developed by social and cultural historians and contributors to the history of sexuality, is that it did relatively little. The evidence of the normative discourses of theology and law suggests that definitions and understandings of sodomy after the Reformation movements of the early and middle sixteenth century differed little from what had been proffered in the legal and moral writings of the medieval period. According to these defi nitions, which varied in their particulars, sodomy was a sin of unnatural lust which included, but was often not limited to, sexual contact between persons of the same sex. It was a sin whose origins could be traced to the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose inhabitants' penchant for unnatural sex led directly to their destruction in a hail of sulfur and fire—a dramatic event that was to stand as a warning both to those tempted to indulge in this vice and to those innocent of that particular sin who would nonetheless tolerate it in their neighbors. This view is found reflected in a wide range of writings from homiletic, exegetical, and penitential productions of late antiquity and the early, high, and late Middle Ages. And, indeed, while Protestant reforming ideas and practices changed many things in Europe of the sixteenth century, they seem to have left untouched this conception of the sin of the Sodomites. Confessions divided on many theological issues appear to have had no quarrel over what sodomy was, where it had come from, and what ought to be done about it. Definitions, then, remained more or less the same through the course of the Reformations; what changed was the capacity of local and regional jurisdictions to enforce legal proscriptions. And so, if the Reformation movements had any impact on the public discourse on sodomy, that impact was limited to the contribution the reforms made to the development of instruments of moral discipline and their facilitation (in some instances) of harsher responses to persons accused and convicted of the crime of sodomy.