Polemical Language Research Articles

Maßnahmen der Isolation. Neuplatonische Einflüsse in der medizinischen Metaphorik spätantiker Religionsgesetze

Abstract This study investigates the medical rhetoric employed in religious legislation of Late Antiquity, arguing that imperial policies against dissidents often resembled infectious disease control measures, such as social distancing and banning gatherings, and were aimed at protecting the vulnerable. The Christian clergy was concerned not just about maintaining their monopoly of sacraments, but also about demonic contagion. This kind of infection rhetoric has its roots in Christian polemical language which is itself based on far older ideas known from Plato and the Neo-Platonists, and the more general view shared by other philosophical schools, on the sympathy of the universe and the concomitant harmony of souls. The Neoplatonic school in particular had developed the view that ‘bad’ souls chose their demons and that these demons were responsible for natural catastrophes and diseases, and infecting the air with their presence. Christian authors endorsed this view. Religious dissidents of Late Antiquity were exiled and deprived of their freedoms of speech, of assembly, and of movement, and this is for several reasons, such as the avoidance of martyrs, forced conversion, and the deterrence of others. The concept of contagion is also among the reasons but has so far been underappreciated.

Nathanael Vette. Writing with Scripture: Scripturalized Narrative in the Gospel of Mark

Nathanael Vette. <i>Writing with Scripture: Scripturalized Narrative in the Gospel of Mark</i>

The position of the polish bishops’ conference on LGBT+ – philosophical, theological, clinical and political aspects

IntroductionPracticing medicine cannot disregard cultural conditions. Philosophy and religion are elements of culture. For several years in Poland, various circles have discussed the extensive LGBT issues. A document of Polish Bishops on this subject appeared on 28.08.2020. In 2018, 91.8% of people over 16 years old in Poland declared affiliation to the Roman Catholic Church (Statistics Poland 2020).ObjectivesThe aim of the study is to present different perspectives of effects of that publication, including ethical evaluation and references to clinical practice.MethodsStatements of protagonists and antagonists of this document in Polish were analyzed. Collected arguments were divided into types: philosophical – by philosophy branches (e.g. ethics, philosophical anthropology), theological and clinical.ResultsAs of 29.09.2020 – 85,200 results in the Google Search after typing (in Polish) “Polish Episcopal Conference LGBT”. The use of philosophical arguments by both parties results from the adaptation of different systems, e.g. regarding philosophical anthropology, some assume the immutability of human nature, others – its variability and susceptibility to shaping, e.g. human sexuality. Some emphasize the importance of non-discrimination, while others indicate the need to consider human essence in determining directions of actions.ConclusionsProfessionals should help everyone, regardless of conditions, in accordance with conscience and contemporary medical knowledge [Polish Code of Medical Ethics]. They should try to understand patients and the context of symptoms. Familiarizing oneself with arguments of both sides helps in this. But polemical language makes dialogue difficult. What for one is a “venerable tradition”, for another is a “stereotype” or “discrimination”.

What Is a Person? Realities, Constructs, Illusions by John M. Rist

Reviewed by: What Is a Person? Realities, Constructs, Illusions by John M. Rist Eileen C. Sweeney John M. Rist. What Is a Person? Realities, Constructs, Illusions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. vii + 288. Cloth, $34.99. John Rist's What Is a Person? is a scholarly, rich, and trenchant study of the history of the concept of personhood in Western thought. However, its sharp critique of modern and postmodern accounts of personhood, though thought-provoking, also uses jarringly polemical language, which further undermines the book's flawed overall argument. The first section, "Constructing the Mainline Tradition," carefully mines ancient and medieval sources, tracing with nuance and complexity the different threads in the notion of person. The threads are religious, philosophical, legal, and literary, and the philosophical sources are multiple. Rist does not privilege Boethius's definition in Contra Eutychem et Nestorium of person as "individual substance of a rational nature" (3) so influential in Christian theology, but explores different approaches from the Stoics and Neoplatonists, as well as from Plato and Aristotle. For example, from Cicero by way of Panaetius we get the four layers of personhood: personhood (1) in virtue of a common nature, (2) as a unique individual, (3) as the subject of historical circumstances we do not choose, and (4) as the professions we do choose (27–28). In the Stoic tradition, the individual person is grasped as "uniquely distinct" with the soul as the "source" of its "essential diachronic unity" (33). Augustine, though not at first, ultimately asserts that the human person is not the soul alone but the "miraculous combination" of body and soul (49), both "objective reality" and "subjective historical structure" (55). Rist argues that these multiple sources get lost in the emphasis on Boethius's definition, especially as these sources are pulled into the Aristotelian framework in the Middle Ages, and that, moreover, as Aristotelianism came under attack, the notion of personhood constructed too exclusively in its terms was further weakened. Rist also points out two important "gaps" in Aquinas: first, the claim that individuals cannot be known but only sensed qua individual, and second, that individuation is through matter (67–68). The latter leaves Aquinas struggling to maintain the individuality of the person, not just the body, and the former fails to recognize, as Augustine did, that we do know individual persons, for example, through biography and history (67–68). What is compelling about this story is the careful elucidation of multiple strands grounded in very different kinds of philosophical principles. However, this makes the conceit of the book even more surprising and untenable, namely that there is a mainline tradition, all the pieces of which are absolutely necessary and must be combined with the view that the dignity of persons is conferred by the creator God. The mainline tradition is a fiction; even according to Rist himself, it never coalesced. And what did not coalesce it makes no sense to hypostasize as the object of relentless (and mostly construed as malevolent) attacks from Scotus to the present day. Before he begins his journey through modernity and the nineteenth century toward "the final solution" (from the title of part 4: "Persons Restored or Final Solution," 200), Rist claims that thinkers after Aquinas "have much to contribute" to the mainline tradition. However, he continues, they do not add to or support the "worth" of the person but "merely" add "new information" (69, emphases in the original) because—though Rist never really argues for this claim—it is impossible to establish the worth of persons unless one holds that it is divinely given. Further, Rist's analysis of the modern "contributions" of "new information" (69), even when incisive, is always the story of the undermining of personhood, whether intentionally or in the attempt to save or refound it. Part 2, discussing Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Richardson, Hume, Smith, Rousseau, and Kant, is entitled "No God, No Soul: What Person?"—and the answer is clearly "none." Part 3 delves into the "swamp" (Rist's term) of the nineteenth century to find five attempts to "save" the person but which, he says, point "variously to homogenization, debasement and ultimately nihilistic despair as the destiny of the...

Colonialism and Modern Architecture in Germany by J.P. Short

Reviewed by: Colonialism and Modern Architecture in Germany by J.P. Short J.P. Short Colonialism and Modern Architecture in Germany. By Itohan Osayimwese. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017. Pp. 352. Cloth $49.95. ISBN 978-0822945086. When in 1908 Adolf Loos issued "Ornament and Crime," his manifesto of purified modern design, he famously opposed austerity of form to the tattoo, "cultural evolution" to the "primitive," and inscribed the temporalization of cultural difference in the polemical language of modernism. Not long after, Germany emerged as locus classicus of the new functionalist style. In Colonialism and Modern Architecture in Germany, Itohan Osayimwese aims to undercut this polarity, to find in Germany—"sacrosanct in architectural history as the birthplace of the Bauhaus" (5)—not purity and identity, but rather heterogeneity and difference. She sets out to revise the classic account of German architecture by recasting its context as global. Perhaps most surprisingly, she pursues this under the sign of colonialism—albeit colonialism "broadly construed" (18), from the 1850s into the 1930s. She aligns her book with the revised history of expressionism that foregrounds the colonial context of avant-garde primitivism: a reflection of the critique of European modernist appropriations of colonized cultures catalyzed by the seminal 1984 MoMA exhibition Primitivism in Twentieth-Century Art. But her work is not a critique of the modernist elision of colonial ideology so much as an argument for the proximity of colonialism and architectural modernism; or, at its most far-reaching, a claim that colonialism is a constituent element of modernist form. Osayimwese ties her revision of architectural history closely to the newer global history of the Kaiserreich. The idea is to "upend the image of German insularity," to see "a country deeply embroiled in global currents," and thereby "globalize the [End Page 409] history of modern architecture" (20). Observing that architectural "experimentation was at a fever pitch" just as "the German empire was embroiled in the colonial fray," she "offers a history of modern architecture … that takes into account [its] formal colonial endeavors, informal imperial practices and deep involvement in global developments" (6). Osayimwese identifies five aspects of this history: architecture and colonialism in the universal exposition, ethnographic responses to indigenous architectures, a colonial architectural competition, prefabricated architecture, and the colonial pavilion at the 1914 Werkbund Exhibition in Cologne—a seminal event in the history of modern German architecture. But, in formulating her argument, she is mostly cautious, substantially deferring claims about flows of influence, exchange, or appropriation between metropole and colony in favor of simultaneity and proximity. Architectural reformism, in her restrained formulation, "became implicated with Germany's official colonial project" (4). This hesitation no doubt reflects the limitations of her archive and the relatively marginal place of colonial architecture for Germans. The challenge appears already at the world expositions. Strikingly, Germany never had one, leaving Osayimwese to focus mostly on the German presence at the St. Louis World's Fair. Her constellation of colonial exhibits, applied arts, and exhibition architecture is compelling, but her conclusions remain tentative. She traces the strong influence of the exhibit of German applied arts, but not on colonial architecture, while her account of the German East Africa exhibit does not definitively connect it to modernist design. What emerges is but the "possibility" that the exhibit "furnished grist" for German architects (59). And, the account of "architect-ethnographers" is just as circumspect, protesting that any conclusions about influence might never be possible. That these traveling architects embarked mostly on modernizing programs in places like Japan and the Ottoman Empire, together with the focus on world expositions, suggests that globalization might have been more appropriate as a key concept than the less capacious colonialism. But then, in 1913, the German Colonial Society agreed to cosponsor a competition for a model colonial house with the German Werkbund. Here, the spirit of reformism reflected a paradoxical marriage of "Heimatschutz," or architectural preservation, emphasizing the traditional and the local, and colonialism, ideologically predicated on modernization. The question is, as Osayimwese puts it, how "Heimatschutz as an ennobling of local practice" could "coexist with colonialism's devaluing of indigenous cultures" (122). A burgeoning anthropological science, which constructed the colonies as fields of ethnographic...

Can Ecological Restoration Meet the Twin Challenges of Global Change and Scaling Up, Without Losing Its Unique Promise and Core Values?

The words we use to describe phenomena in science shape our understanding of those phenomena, much more so than we often realize. This is especially true in fields driven by strong policy agendas, like restoration ecology and the practice of ecological restoration. The twin challenges of accelerating global change and upscaling global restoration practice make it more imperative than ever to define the terms and the scope of ecological restoration clearly, and differentiate it from other ameliorative land management practices like rehabilitation. Poor definitions and loose use of language will otherwise lead to muddled conception and planning of projects, confused and disappointed stakeholders, and failure to exploit the enormous potential of this radical conservation strategy for both human well-being and the recovery of biodiversity and ecosystem functions. It is also important to be aware of the rhetorical devices that have given some momentum to the so-called “novel” ecosystems concept within the restoration community. The advocates of this concept initially used it to alert restorationists to the gravity of the global change challenge. But it has been unfortunately formulated through increasingly polemical language to effect a major and dangerous policy shift: abandoning the pursuit of the ambitious but still valid promise inherent in the phrase “ecological restoration,” in favor of the management of degraded landscapes for diminished ecosystem goods and services. While we are always “restoring the future,” there is no good reason to abandon the goal of restoring ecosystems to their historical trajectories, and the historical reference system remains an essential tool for the identification of the specifics of this goal. The author considers the contributions to the symposium from these perspectives. He concludes that if we clarify the language we use about restoration, and are appropriately mindful of the dynamics of global change and the complex social and ecological dynamics of large-scale restoration, this discipline and practice can indeed mature to become the gold standard and cutting edge for conservation in this century.

Asiatics and Chinamen

This article compares two clusters of polemical language. One is comprised of critical uses of the term “Asiatic” in Russian political discourse from the 1890s to the 1910s. The other is Chinese usage, in the 1920s and 1930s, of the term “Zhina,” a Japanese version of “China” which was perceived as injurious to Chinese national pride. The article traces how, in both cases, political and cultural agents criticized their own country and society by adopting an outsider’s perspective – that of the foreigner, who would classify Russia as an “Asiatic” country and call China “Zhina.” The conclusions are relevant for understanding the sources of nationalist rhetoric in modern Russia and China, with implications reaching beyond these two countries.

Polemical Language: Hebrew and Latin in Medieval and Early Modern Jewish-Christian Debate

This article explores medieval and early modern Jewish-Christian polemic rooted in the specific properties of the Hebrew and Latin languages and argues that such discourse constitutes a neglected and significant aspect of the polemical literature of these time periods. The discussion focuses on two particular classes of “linguistic” polemic. The first, introduced here as the “directionality trope,” involves discourse concerning the contrasting directions of Hebrew and Latin writing—a feature of these languages that was much discussed between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. The second concerns polemics rooted in the grammatical differences between Hebrew and Latin—specifically, the absence in Hebrew of a case system and the presence therein of final forms for certain letters. In showcasing the prominence of such discussions in Christian and Jewish texts spanning the medieval and early modern periods, this article introduces a new linguistic frontier to scholarship on the rich, albeit acrimonious, history of Jewish-Christian debate.

The Anglican and Roman Catholic ecclesial traditions: the heritage of Unitatis Redintegratio

Unitatis Redintegratio (UR), the Decree on Ecumenism of the Second Vatican Council, was both the outcome and instrument of ecumenical engagement between Anglicans and Roman Catholics, and continues to have a formative influence on their dialogue. In the lead-up to the Council, personal contacts between Church of England leaders and the nascent Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity played a significant part in a change of atmosphere towards other Christian traditions at the Vatican. UR notes the ‘special place’ which the Anglican Communion holds in the communion of churches: the 1966 meeting in Rome between Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey and Pope Paul VI would lead to The Malta Report (1968) and the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC). The ‘Principles of Dialogue’ set out in UR – avoiding polemical language; integrating spiritual and academic learning; expounding positions clearly, and committed openness – are affirmed in the light of the experience of ARCIC. The Agreed Statements of ARCIC I and II, focused around the motif of koinonia, are assessed in view of the topics for dialogue listed in UR: Christology; Ecclesiology (including the Blessed Virgin Mary); Sacred Scripture; Life in Christ in communion; Teaching on sacraments and ministry; and Christian personal, family, liturgical and social life. The significance of eschatology in relation to unity in Christ is highlighted, both with reference to Anglican difficulties about gender relations and authority, and to the three-fold use of ‘complete’ in UR. What might it mean for ecumenical dialogue, and ecclesial relationships, to work from the future backwards rather than just from the past forwards – i.e. in terms of faith rather than sight?

Disputes About Purity in Late Medieval Iberia. Interreligious Contacts and the Polemical Language of the Mudejars

The state of ritual purity, known as ṭahāra in Islam, has often been the subject of religious controversy between members of the various religious communities in the Iberian Peninsula. In this paper, I examine the religious language in Mudejar polemics by looking at the use of specific terms such as ṭuhr ('purity'), istinjā' ('ablution after relieving oneself') and manjūs ('unclean'). My analysis shows that, although we find some returning passages from the Torah and the Gospels in these texts, the form in which these are dis- cussed depends both on the period in which each polemic was written and on the particular target audiences. The language and terminology are found in Arabic, Hebrew, and sometimes in Romance written in Arab characters; or even a combination of all three. The approach and language utilized to talk about purity in these Mudejar polemics depends on whether the Mudejars address the Christians or the Jews (they used a harsher tone in the latter case). These differ- ences are probably connected to asymmetrical power relations between the Mudejars and these two groups.

Europe's Communication Deficit and the UK Press: Framing the Greek Financial Crisis

As Europe's leaders battle to solve the Eurozone debt crisis, Europe's ‘communication deficit’ becomes ever more pertinent. So does the role of national media, which, in the case of Britain, are often accused of fuelling Euroscepticism among the public. This study aims to contribute to this debate and explore the UK media's performance in the early stages of the Greek financial crisis. We address how the British press makes sense of Europe through an issue that pertains in a small economy but entails risks for the whole of Europe; and we ask to what extent this coverage conforms to the allegation that European politics is portrayed through domesticised media frames and polemical language. Although our findings validate existing concerns pertaining to journalists' professional practices that shape the reporting of Europe, they also show evidence of an effort made by British newspapers—albeit mostly broadsheets—to overcome stereotypical interpretations.

The identification and examination of the elements that caused a schism in the Johannine community at the end of the first century CE

A group of people within the Johannine community (2:18) contributed towards destroying the fellowship of this community. Because 1 and 2 John do not provide direct evidence of the identities of the community’s heretically inclined members, they are defined in different ways by different scholars. A search for socio-religious circumstances which contribute towards determin-ing the opponents and adherents of the author which created the agenda for the reconstruction of the phenomena that caused this schism. The nature of the schism comprises “Pneumatological,” “Christological” and “ethical” issues encoded in the polemical language of slogans, dialectic discourse, confessions and denials. The schism in 1 John proves to be a matter of different interpretations of a shared tradition.

Clinical Success, Political Failure?

ABSTRACT This paper argues that the dominant language used by the domestic violence movement to conceptualize relationship violence inadequately captures the psychological complexities involved in abusive lesbian relationships. As a corrective, a language based on feminist and psychoanalytic concepts is presented. Against the backdrop of this language, the author reflects on the lived experience of lesbian clients who have come to therapy for relationship violence. It is concluded that a language based on the ethos of postmodern feminism and neo-Kleinian concepts and technique more appropriately addresses the complexities involved in abusive lesbian relationships within a therapeutic context than the polemical language of the domestic violence movement.

Videnskab og hverdagssprog. Grundtvigs betragtning af modersmålet i teori og praksis, belyst ved hans afhandling Om Ordsprog

Science and everyday language. Grundtvig’s View of his Native Tongue in Theory and in Practice. As Illustrated by his Article - Om Ordsprog (On Proverbs) 1817By Bodil SchmidtPreserved in the Grundtvig archives are several collections in Grundtvig’s own handwriting of proverbs and popular sayings. In his magazine - Dannevirke - he argued for the preservation of this treasure of Danish proverbs, and urged his readers to assist in their collection.In his demand for a strengthening of the native tongue, Grundtvig was at one with his contemporary romantic poets and philosophers. His article argues for the originality of the Danish language and at the same time protests against the theories that it descends from Icelandic or German. Since his aim is practical, Grundtvig’s article is written in a less philosophical and polemical language than most of the other articles in the magazine. After a lengthy introduction criticising the position of poetry in the 18th century, Grundtvig defines the concept of “proverb” and lists the areas in which proverbs are of importance: language, morals, poetry, history. He follows this with a detailed guide as to how they could be collected. He makes the point, amongst others, that proverbs are useful in the translation of the ancient chronicles of Saxo and Snorre, which he was currently working on. He declares that the aim of his scientific efforts was to protect and enrich the Danish language so that it was qualified to re-awaken the Danish national spirit.A comparison of certain quotations with the common themes of Grundtvig and his colleague in the field, Christian Molbech, shows a marked difference in linguistic style. Where Grundtvig’s language is living, popular and concrete, Molbech’s is academic, stiff and abstract. The quotations included also reveal a decisive difference in the two writers’ view of the people and in their understanding of what the spirit of the people (folkelighed) actually is. Molbech regards “the rough peasant” as a natural creature with no real consciousness and therefore one whom there is no point in trying to enlighten, whereas Grundtvig believes that though the people may be idle and apathetic, they can and must be re-awakened.According to the author of the article there is a parallel between Grundtvig’s attack on the contemporary language of philosophy and our current debate on language being defined politically or ideologically. For Grundtvig, it was obvious that whoever wishes to be understood should use clear and unambiguous language, as close to everyday language as possible. The author asks why, in spite of the advances of science, democratic Denmark should accept that contemporary philosophers, theologians, sociologists and humanists employ a language that we only half understand. Do the Danes still doubt their basic common sense to distinguish between what is true and false? She quotes the proverb: All that glitters is not gold.