Political Orthodoxy Research Articles

Nicaea as political orthodoxy: Imperial Christianity versus episcopal polities

Fourth-century Christianity and the Council of Nicaea have continually been read as a Constantinian narrative. The dominancy of imperial Christianity has been a consequent feature of the established narrative regarding the events within early Christianity. There is a case for a revisionist enquiry regarding the influence of the emperor in the formation of orthodoxy. The role of bishops and its political characterisation had definitive implications upon Christianity as it would seem. Recent revisions on Constantine by Leithart and Barnes incited the enquiry. The enquiry was made possible through document analysis; this mainly took the form of a literature study. The orthodoxy that emerged at Nicaea in 325 CE was reflective of the political–orthodoxy trajectory that Christianity took beyond the 4th century. Between imperial intervention and clerical polities, one was a definitive dynamic to the then emergent Christianity. The influence of the emperor, which was an apparently definitive feature characterising the era, was compositely relevant as a catalyst in the formation of the Christianity that emerged during the 4th century. The implication that centuries before the Council of Nicaea Christianity had been characterised by significant phases of socio-cultural dynamics relegates the influence of the emperor. The emperor Constantine and his association with the Council of Nicaea characterised an era of imperial ecclesiastical politics in Christianity, and so did the Jewish–Christian Schism and a monarchical episcopate that shaped the orthodox matrix of the church. This research deduced that the function of imperial intervention should be analysed in conjunction with diverse factors characterising the Christianity emergent at Nicaea, particularly ecclesiastical polities.

The concept of "Russian World" as a demonstration of symphony religion and power

The article is devoted to the concept of World as one of the main manifestations of religion and power in modern Russian Orthodoxy. It is proved that the religious-political construct of symphony of spiritual and secular authority in political Orthodoxy is perceived as a modern interpretation of the Byzantine principle of interaction between church and state; for the consolidation of the world status Orthodox outpost in the struggle with the West, it is widely used medieval apologists ideological narratives, like - Third Rome; trying to construct a virtual ideological confrontation with the imaginary non-spiritual West and political Orthodoxy, his supporters are actively using the ideological clich? siege fortress, which remained the legacy of the persecuted Orthodox Church of the Soviet era. It is traced that the process of the emergence and formation in the Russian religious discourse of the phenomenon of political orthodoxy chronologically coincides with the sharp change in the political course of the Russian Federation in the 90 years of the twentieth century and the political and social request for a strong leader. It is analyzed that in the new political realities the active collaboration between the church and the state began, which became the key to the formation of new ideological constructs. It was investigated that the ideological doctrine of the world, the main apologist of which is the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill (Gundyayev), is a typical postmodernist construct, in which a number of elements of several ideological paradigms are used. The concept of the world is based on mythological thinking, the Russian imperial pathos, which is designed in the form of a narrative about a separate civilization, and elements of Orthodox fundamentalism, which are actualized in opposition to Russia and Orthodoxy to the outside world.

Confucian Orthodoxy and Political Orthodoxy:A Probe into ZENG Guofan's Political and Ethical Thoughts

Confucian Orthodoxy and Political Orthodoxy:A Probe into ZENG Guofan's Political and Ethical Thoughts

Rejuvenating Orthodox Missionarism among the Laymen: The Romanian Orthodox Fellowship in Interwar Transylvania

The paper discusses the interwar activism of Orthodox laymen and the founding of the organization of Romanian Orthodox Fellowship. By arguing that they subsequently answered to the call of the Transylvanian Orthodox bishops, it addresses how this initiative of Orthodox laity and clergy meant to counterbalance both the Greek-Catholic oriented propaganda in the intellectual milieus and the corrosive influences of modernity, stemming from secular circles. Another aim targeted by the paper is to emphasize that Archbishop Andrei Șaguna™s 19th century reflections about the status of the sobornicity between the clergy and the laymen in the institutional structures of the Orthodox Church received their actual confirmation with the formation of the Romanian Orthodox Fellowship of intellectuals and their theological framework with the theological reflections of Fr. Liviu Stan (1909-1973). Keywords: Orthodox Church, laymen, Orthodox theology, social mobilization, nationalism, Greek-Catholic Action, intellectuals, religious rivalry, national identity, political Orthodoxy

Political Time in a Westminster Democracy: The Canadian Case

ABSTRACTStephen Skowronek’s idea of political time is tested by applying it to Canada. Skowronek identified a recurring cycle in US presidential politics, in which a coalition was forged around a distinctive set of ideas, dominated the political scene, and then crumbled, making way for a new coalition; a president’s ability to act as an agent of change depended on his place in this cycle. The concept of political time offers insights for the study of Westminster democracies, but Skowronek’s typology cannot be transplanted from the US to the Canadian context. A political orthodoxy cannot be easily identified in Canada, and prime ministers cannot be clearly labeled as affiliated with or opposed to the ideas of a given era. Some seem determined to play a corrective role, accepting much of the orthodoxy but reconstructing some elements of it. This problem of classification is amplified by the very short term of some prime ministers, by the very long term of others, and by a multiparty system, which has meant that Canadians often end up with prime ministers who are out of synch with the dominant ideas of their age. When applying Skowronek’s ideas to Canada, they emerge as overly structural and not sensitive enough to the possibility that leaders can fail to perform according to type.

The Culture of War and Militarization within Political Orthodoxy in the Post-soviet Region

This article is focused on “Political Orthodoxy”, an ideological trend and sociocultural phenomenon with regard to its impact to militarization and justification of war from religious point of view. The author pays his attention to elaboration the idea of “Orthodox civilization” by the part of Orthodox nationalist teoreticians striving to transform Orthodoxy into “political religion”, he scrutinizes development of eschatological ideologems and war apologia that appeared alongside this process. He examines the models of mythological outlook connected with Political Orthodoxy as manifested throughout the last decade, in particular with reference to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Through the lens of the latter the author gives examples of practical embodiment of religiously influenced militaristic discourse, shows some epiphenomena (side effects), in particular, hate, aggravation of the conflicts, separation into ‘friends’ and so on.

THE ROLE OF KUNCHEN ZHAMYAN SHADPA DORJE AS A SOCIAL AND POLITICAL FIGURE OF TIBET

Purpose. This article about an outstanding personality, which has made an enormous contribution to the formation and development of the Tibetan theocracy. Results. Kunchen Zhamyan Shadpa Dorje has played a significant role in the formation of Tibetan nationhood, as a credible political figure. Being credible and completely independent hierarch, he has always taken a principled political position, in spite of the folding of the circumstances and the confrontation between political rivals. It is therefore possible to perceive his position as political orthodoxy, which corresponds to the political interests of tradition and they aimed at protecting its high position. The article reflects the role and place of Kunchen Zhamyan Shadpa Dorje in the socio-political situation in Tibet at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, as a religious leader. This aspect of Tibetan life activity is still not fully researched. Practical implications. That’s why this article is of great practical significance in the field of buddology, Oriental Studies, religious studies, and has scientific interest for wide range of readers interested in Buddhism and its history.

Ideology and Religion

The article explores the genesis and varieties of the phenomenon of ideology, and its relationship with religion. It begins with the origins of the notion and term in Antoine Destutt de Tracy and Karl Marx, and then continues up to the most recent developments of conservative and liberal ideological schemata. The author pays particular attention to the totalitarian ideologies of Communism and Nazism. The article argues that ideology sometimes tried to replace religion, and sometimes mimicked it. In any case, it exercised a profound impact on churches. This impact is in most cases polarizing for the church, when the latter identifies itself with ideology and thus dramatically reduces itself. Among the instances of such an impact are “political Orthodoxy” in Ukraine, and the “Russian world” in Russia. The author concludes that the church should learn to distinguish what is ideological and what is theological.

Implementation of Mao Zedong’s Yan’an “Talks” in the Subei Base Area – The Chen Dengke 陈登科 “Phenomenon”

Mao Zedong’s 1942 “Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art” were officially established as the foundation of national policy on culture after the founding of the People’s Republic, but from the very outset they had direct implications for writers and artists in the Communist base areas of the time. As a case study of the implementation of the spirit of Mao’s “Talks” prior to 1949, this paper will discuss how illiterate peasant soldier Chen Dengke (1919–98) was educated by Party cultural cadres in the North Jiangsu (Subei) Base Area, enabling him within the space of just four years to produce a novella and a novel. In order to critically examine the auto/biographical and “slice of life” writings on which this paper relies, brief discussion will be provided of temporal considerations and genre boundaries of this class of writing in the context of the ever-changing political orthodoxy with which writers were required to comply during the Maoist period. The creation of what has been called the Chen Dengke “phenomenon” is not only a fascinating story, but also illustrates the operation of Communist Party cultural policy during the Sino-Japanese and Civil Wars.

Remaking History


 
 
 Of the three powers—Wei, Shu, and Wu—that divided China for the better part of the third century, Wei has received the most attention in the standard literary historical accounts. In a typical book of Chinese literary history in any language, little, if anything, is said about Wu and Shu. This article argues that the consideration of the literary production of Shu and Wu is crucial to a fuller picture of the cultural dynamics of the Three Kingdoms period. The three states competed with one another for the claim to political legitimacy and cultural supremacy, and Wu in particular was in a position to contend with Wei in its cultural undertakings, notably in the areas of history writing and ritual music. This article begins with an overview of Shu and Wu literary production, and moves on to a more detailed discussion of Wu’s cultural projects, both of which were intended to assert Wu’s legitimacy and cultural power vis-à-vis Wei and Shu’s claims to cultural and political orthodoxy. Ultimately, this article implicitly asks the question of how to write literary history when there is scant material from the period under question, and suggests that we perform textual excavations and make use of what we have to try and reconstruct, as best as we can, what once was. A good literary history of the Chinese medieval period, the age of manuscript culture and that of heavy textual losses and transfigurations, should be written with the awareness of the incomplete and imperfect nature of the data we do have, and incorporate the phenomenon of textual losses and transfigurations as well as some reflections on the underlying reasons into its narrative and critical inquiry.
 
 

Public debt crisis, austerity and deflation: the case of Greece

Greece is the country in which the eurozone's public debt crisis began in late 2009. The policy response of the EU elites was to provide financial assistance on condition that a strict austerity-cum-deregulation policy is applied under the watchful guidance of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF (the so-called Troika). Five years later, the country is in an economic, social and political limbo, as a debt-deflation process has set in. Greece, however, is not a special case. Rather, it illustrates the failures of the prevailing economic and political orthodoxy in the EU. At best, it can serve as an example of the cost of ignoring the lessons of the 1930s Great Depression.

Political theology, orthodoxy and parliamentary sermons in Sweden, 1789–1866

SUMMARYThis article investigates the concept of political theology by analysing parliamentary sermons in Sweden in the period 1789–1866. The bishops who delivered the sermons and their political contribution have received little scholarly attention, which this study is intended to remedy. Parliamentary sermons were printed and disseminated throughout the country as epitomes of the state's official ideology, which makes them important documentary evidence of past concerns. The study examines two key areas of thought evident in the sermons: the importance to the state of religious unity; and the monarch as a religious symbol. It was believed that the faith of the people and an organic relationship between church and state would provide society with a certain stability, and this view was reinforced – first by Romantic philosophy and later by confessional theology – in response to marked social challenges. Generally speaking, the state was not thought able to survive without help from the church, even as religious and political reform was underway. At start of the period in question, meanwhile, Sweden's monarchs were seen as imparting the faith to their subjects in finest Old Testament fashion; however, in the first decades of the nineteenth century this view weakened, as the foundation for a stable society was instead sought in the cooperation of king, people and God. After the 1840s, direct references to the monarchy were rare in the parliamentary sermons – from that point the king had a largely symbolic religious role in instilling the faith in his subjects and promoting the unity of the Church of Sweden.

Enabling Democratic Dissent

Dissent, in its distinctive contribution to democratic practice, neither reduces to protest nor advances toward consensus. It is a double-sided discourse with both a solid footing in public culture and a sharp edge for cutting through political orthodoxies. Rhetorical invention is its dynamic. Dissenters must maneuver, like mythical tricksters, to sustain the vitality of democracy. The viability of their democratic interventions depends on the invention of legitimizing gestures. The topos of complementary differences—a pivotal term for articulating points of interdependency between dissenters and the broader public—illustrates the kind of inventive resource to which the field could productively turn its attention.

The Religiousness of “Confucianism”, and the Revival of Confucian Religion in China Today / 关于“儒”的宗教性与儒教在当代中国的复兴

AbstractThe English term “Confucianism” may refer to three different concepts in the Chinese language: the school of Confucianism, scholastic tradition of Confucianism, and the religious tradition of Confucianism. From a sociological perspective, Confucianism as an official political orthodoxy no longer exists. However, Confucianism as a cultural tradition remains, and it is expressed in various aspects of the Chinese social life, which echoes the diffused characteristics of a typical Chinese religion. In this research, we try to demonstrate that the religiousness of Confucianism fulfills the cultural and ethical needs of the on-going new religious movement in China. Also, it helps modern people in their search for a life of meaning in times of cultural crisis and socialanomie.

Mobilizing against neo-liberalism? Global affirmative action in context

This article uses the example of Northern Ireland to illustrate how political mobilization may be deployed to challenge structural forms of inequality. The experience suggests that regulatory models can be designed for particular contexts to shape approaches that present challenges to dominant economic and political orthodoxies. The intention is not to overstate the significance of this specific transitional context but simply to highlight elements that might feature in any attempt to mobilize successfully around human rights and equality, and against aspects of neo-liberal thinking.

The ‘gong beat’ against the ‘uncultured’: contested notions of culture and civilization in Mongolia

This article explores the Mongolian concept of ‘culture’ (soyol) and its transformation in the state socialist and post-socialist eras. The notion of culture and those without it – the soyolgui or ‘uncultured’ – played enormously important parts in the construction of the new society of the Mongolian People’s Republic. The history of the twentieth century shows a transformation of this highly normative concept from a category associated with teachings, doctrine, ethics and nurturing to one linked to modernist notions of hygiene, secular education, urbanism and cosmopolitanism. In addition, however, it became a category that included a set of historical styles and works thought of as national ‘cultural heritage’ (soyolyn öv). This was the result of a movement that in the late socialist period led to the critical re-evaluation of earlier Eurocentric uses of the ‘culture’ concept, and that sought new applications of the notion of ‘civilization’ – in particular by popularizing the metaphorical term ‘nomadic civilization’ (nüüdliin soyol irgenshil). I argue that these strands of thought have become central to the new nationalist politics of post-socialist Mongolia and form the basis of what remains by way of political orthodoxy, following the collapse of Soviet ideology.

Historical re-enacting and affective authority: performing the American Civil War

Drawing on historical materials, manuals and semi-structured interviews, this paper examines the performative dimensions of American Civil War battle re-enacting. Unlike traditional leisure-based national rituals such as public holidays and days of remembrance, it is argued that the main political power of this re-enactment rite is not social integration of the group or selective portrayal of history but providing participants with certain moods and motivations that result in subsequent activism. This principally occurs through secondary performances where re-enactors voluntarily give talks and demonstrations at museums and schools where they propagate literal understandings of history and challenge the popular belief that the war was fought over slavery. While social theory has highlighted the role of leisure within new social movements, this has typically been orientated to political progressivism. In contrast, Civil War re-enacting provides insights into the significance of play for political orthodoxy.

Cuban Miami on the Air: Narratives of Cubanía

Radio has been a fundamental aspect of Cuban culture on and off the island since the first broadcast in Havana in 1922. When Cubans fled the island after the revolution of 1959 for the USA, particularly Miami, radio quickly became a vital medium for navigating a new country and for consolidating a Cuban exile identity. Politically, radio in Miami has been an effective means for articulating hardline exile politics. But with generational turnover and increasingly moderate stances on Cuba by more recent arrivals and US-born Cuban Americans, how is radio changing? How are narratives of what constitutes cubanía – Cubanness – shifting in an increasingly diverse Cuban Miami? This article takes up these questions through an examination of an immensely popular morning program that aired in 2009 in southern Florida called the Enrique y Joe Show. I examine how the Enrique y Joe Show, produced and performed by US-born Cuban Americans, utilized a form of irreverent Cuban humor called choteo to represent and satirize the hardline Cuban exile politics that have been dominant on Miami's radio waves for decades. Ultimately, their performances deploy choteo to articulate Cuban American identity divorced from a particular political orthodoxy. The coda reflects on changes in Miami's radio landscape since 2009.

Education for Sustainable Development: The Role of Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria

The vision of education for sustainable development is “A world where everyone has the opportunity to benefit from quality education and learn the values, behavior and lifestyles required for a sustainable future for positive societal transformation”. Tertiary institutions have a role to play in this regard. However, as stated by Scott & Gough (2006), “It is not the job of the university to promote particular political orthodoxy (in the form of sustainable development for example); it is their job to educate students to examine critical policies, ideas, concepts and systems, then to make up their own mind”. Tertiary institutions can also collaborate with communities to promote and sustain development. This paper looks at how tertiary institutions can be efficacious in promoting the values of sustainable development in Nigeria, and the possible challenges it is likely to encounter and recommendation made. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n3p303

Beyond essentialism: negotiating Alevi identity in urban Turkey

In Turkey, the Alevi cultural ‘revival’ of the 1990s has been followed by a multifaceted identity-formation process that involves conflicting religio-cultural agendas, intersecting discourses and differing politico-ideological affiliations. Lacking a focus, this process continues to trigger an enriching public debate on Alevi identity, which has been coined an ‘enigma’ and is considered to be associated with ‘ambiguity’ and ‘ambivalence’ by many. What lies beneath the veil of ambiguity has to do with the ‘anti-essentialist’ transformation of Alevism, which reaches beyond religious, cultural and political orthodoxies. As a result of diverse political loyalties, contestation of discourses on Alevi culture and identity and the equivocal character of the Alevi subject, the Alevis seem to be resisting essentialism. In urban Turkey, an anti-essentialist discourse potentially influencing Alevism, I argue, enables the Alevi self to act with a sense of reflexivity and to search for ways to avoid political, cultural or religious orthodoxies.