Universal Authority Research Articles

7-е правило III вселенского собора: его история и рецепция в контексте вопроса о неизменяемости Символа веры

This publication discusses the history of the origin and reception of the definition of the Third Ecumenical Council on the Creed. This definition, drawn up in connection with the rejection of the statement of faith by Theodore of Mopsuestia, should, according to the plan of St. Cyril of Alexandria, to secure the Nicene Creed the status of the only symbolic text used in Baptism and the admission of heretics into church fellowship. The author shows that, although this rule was drawn up at the Council, it did not receive official approval and was not solemnly promulgated. In this regard, it did not enjoy authority in the Churches of Asia Minor and the Syrian region, where the forms of the Symbol, close to the modern Constantinople Creed, dominated. The article proves that at the Council of Chalcedon (451) a synthesis of various local traditions regarding the practice of reading the Creed was made: the so-called “Statement of the faith of 150 fathers”, traditionally associated with the Council of Constantinople in 381, received universal authority and began to be considered an authentic form of expression of the “Nicene faith”. To both versions of the text, which were henceforth considered one Creed, the Council attached the wording of the Ephesian ban on changing the Creed. At the same time, the concept of the immutability of the "catholic faith" in content was separated from the immutability of the Symbol by letter, with the possible emergence of new formulas (the latter should not have claimed the status of “symbols”). This idea relatively quickly received a reception in the East. In the West, the recognition of the Constantinople version of the text of the Symbol as authoritative occurs only in the 6th century, and initially in Rome. The Roman bishops, on the other hand, held for the longest time the literal inviolability of the Creed, even after the spread of the Filioque in the Latin West.

Protiv obrazovne hijerarhije - putuj, pouči, pokori

Relying primarily on the analyses and suggestions by Rancière and Lévi-Strauss, the authors of this paper endeavour to present a critique of the hierarchically valued landmarks of travelling and education. The first part of the paper is dedicated to Western travellers and their 'civilizing' treatment of other landscapes and peoples, previously unknown. The second part of the paper identifies an analogous pattern when it comes to relationship established in the educational process, where the new and the unknown also have to be mastered, conquered, and subdued by unquestionable knowledge. The conclusion suggests the possibility of deconstructing the predefined system of civilization and/or knowledge, with a view to creating the possibility for the affirmation of differences without domination, as well as learning without an unambiguous explanation, a possibility that may perhaps materialise with the abandoning of the illusion about the universal authority of Knowledge and its possessor.

Air Mobility, Ten Heads and Universal Authority: Constructing Ravana in the Folk Imagination of Sabaragamua - A Folkoric Study

The OUSL Journal is a peer-reviewed open access journal published by the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL). It is the first scholarly journal in Sri Lanka focusing on research in the field of Open and Distance Learning (ODL), and is being published since 1997. The journal provides a platform to publish research and pedagogy relating to teaching and learning at the University level, and in particular to Open and Distance Learning (ODL). It also provides a forum for research and review articles related in the areas of Agriculture, Natural Sciences, Education, Engineering, Humanities and Social Sciences and Health Sciences.

Biblical Interpretations of the Korean Emotional Attachment

This paper aims to explore biblical interpretations of Jeong, Korean emotional attachment and to seek for its pastoral implications in the Korean cultural context. For this study, I employ a literature review method as a research methodology and I bring the Asian paradigm reading biblical texts that the Dr. Kwok Pui-Lan, a Chinese-American theologian emphasizes on universal authority of the Bible and autonomy in interpreting the Scripture. The intimate and compassionate relationship between Ruth and Naomi and between the father and the prodigal son can be interpreted as Jeong-filled relationships because of their experience of attachment, in-group identity, co-existence of gentle and hateful emotions, and the sharing of Simjeong. An positive association of Jeong and empathy might be an effective resource in offering pastoral counseling and in caring people. Korean the balanced and integrated understanding of the association of Jeong with empathy matters for Korean pastoral counselors and care-givers.

The Great Commission, Papal Bulls and the Doctrine of Discovery: from the 4th Century to Current Law

When we study Canada's Indian Residential Schools, we frequently hear words reconciliation, of discovery and What we do not hear is the great commission. This paper traces history of great commission, papal bulls and doctrine of discovery. The purpose is to continue a study into what caused Indian Residential Schools to come into existence. The first paper in this study was The Deep History of White Supremacist Laws and Canada’s Indian Residential Schools: Agriculture, Civilization, Great Chain of Being and Great (March 16, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3805447 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3805447 The current paper expands on history of Great Commission: idea that Christianity is one true religion, that Catholic Church has universal authority over all humans, that Christians are compelled by God to treat every non-Christian either as a potential convert or someone who should be killed. In my view, Great Chain of Being and Great Commission are irreconcilable with reconciliation between Christians and indigenous peoples. This paper traces history of papal bulls that purported to give indigenous lands to Christians monarchs. This paper notes that purported objective of of discovery was to prevent Christian monarchs from going to war against each other over discovered lands once pope had declared which Christian monarch had right to spread Christianity in those lands. This paper examines history of how of discovery was a complete failure. Christian monarchs constantly ignored papal bulls and constantly went to war against each other for discovered lands. Further, not only were papal bulls about Great Commission and discovery, they were primarily about white supremacy and enslavement of Africans and indigenous peoples. It is a grave mistake to use vocabulary of invaders (doctrine of discovery) instead of more accurate vocabulary of what was really going on: white supremacy. Do not exaggerate importance of of discovery and related papal bulls. If they ever did have influence, their power over Christian monarchs ended in 15th century.

Dabo Swinney, Universal Whiteness, and a “Sin Problem”

Clemson University head football coach Dabo Swinney was asked to respond to Colin Kaepernick’s protest of police killings of unarmed black men and women by kneeling for the national anthem. Swinney’s response was surprisingly comprehensive and illuminating into his stance on race, religion, and sport. He crystallizes his overall interpretation of societal problems with the statement, “It’s so easy to say we have a race problem, but we got a sin problem.” In this essay, I examine “whiteness” as that which endows whites with a kind of universal authority to establish norms as well as provide a protective cloak of invisibility that effectively hides the identity of those constructing the norms. I argue that Swinney’s unconscious display of his own whiteness coupled with the additional cloak of universal sin, that purportedly knows no color, serves to downplay and dismiss Kaepernick’s call for racial justice.

Development in Theological Method and Argument in John of Damascus

Terminological confusion exacerbated by councils divided the church in late antiquity. John of Damascus addressed the resultant terminological impasse by providing the re-established Jerusalem patriarchate with theological polemic that reemphasized the preeminence of the Council of Nicaea. John’s early works relied on scripture and patristic argument, but after his philosophical works, his theological method couched scripture and patristic argument in terms of a new philosophical acumen. Building on this change in theological method, I argue that John’s theological argument also underwent development using the term “perichōrēsis” as a case study, resulting in a provisional date-list of John’s polemical works. I then argue that development in John appears to have an ecumenical motivation by analyzing his redeployment of the theological technical term “perichōrēsis” from his Christology to his Trinitarianism. I argue that John subordinates his Christology to a terminologically clarified Nicene Trinitarianism in order to address concerns of his local inter-locutors by re-casting local christological debate in three ways: 1) he couched his Christology in terms of a specifically Nicene heresiology shifting fifth- and sixth-century theologians off-stage, whether Cyril of Alexandria, Severus of Antioch, or Maximus the Confessor, pushing Gregory of Nazianzus to the fore as universal authority; 2) he avoided the critique of Aristotelianism by couching his Christology in terms of the Nicene locus classicus, John 10.30; and finally, 3) he adroitly granted but restated the theological premise of his interlocutors turning their argument on its head. Thus, John grounds his innovative theological polemic in the tradition while providing his bishop and the newly re-established patriarchate with a more progressive and ecumenical theological method, argument, and polemic.

The Babylonian Captivity (1520)

The Babylonian Captivity (1520) Erik Herrmann "By the waters of Babylon we sit down and weep, when we remember thee, O Zion. On the willows there we hang up our lyres" (Ps. 137:1). Overcome with grief, Israel could not sing for their captors. They were at a loss for words. Apparently this was not a problem for Luther. Luther would sing—he would sing high and loud and the captors would know that there still was a God in Israel. "I know another little song about Rome and the Romanists. If their ears are itching to hear it, I will sing that one to them, too—and pitch it in the highest key!" Babylon was a powerful trope. The Apocalypse made it a symbol of all the decadence and prolificacy of the kingdoms of the earth, that wicked harlot of the world. In the City of God, Augustine had identified it with the worldliness of the city of man which was also epitomized by pagan Rome. Petrarch, disgusted by the worldliness of the papacy in Avignon and the consequent influence of the French crown on the Roman church, called to mind the ancient Chaldean captivity so that Avignon was the new "Babylon of the west," holding the rest of the church hostage to its excesses. When Martin Luther invoked the phrase in 1520, it was filled with such reminiscences and more. Luther's title of his most important Latin treatise was the most tragic of ironies. The people of God were not merely enslaved by a foreign, pagan power. The hierarchy of the church, the very head of the church, had itself become this pagan tyrant. Such was Luther's charge and its effect was simultaneously divisive and galvanizing. Georg Spalatin was worried that Luther's tone would [End Page 71] only exacerbate the conflict. Erasmus believed the breach was now irreparable. Bugenhagen hated the text on his first read and loved it on his second. Even King Henry VIII famously got into the fray. Although the treatise may be Luther's proverbial "mic drop," his argument and criticisms emerge from themes and precedents in late medieval theology and life. First, there is the sacramental theology and practice shaped by the rise of scholastic theology since the twelfth century. Not only were sacraments given a distinct definition and enumeration, but the main questions on the sacraments as vehicles of grace were increasingly answered through the use of philosophical concepts, especially those of Aristotle. Luther's extended critique of this scholastic development is a central feature of his argument in this treatise.1 Here, however, we will touch on two other areas of the treatise's medieval context: the growing discontent over the feudal relationships that shaped papal claims to temporal as well as spiritual authority, and Luther's appeal to elements of medieval pastoral care in sacramentology. In both cases, the evolution of the causa Lutheri is the context in which the "irreparable breach" emerges. The Context of Medieval Feudalism The expansion of the church's property and wealth as it assimilated into the structure of feudal society began gradually but was punctuated by several key moments. Crucial were the Gregorian reforms.2 The theocratic claims of nobility and monarchy along with the exercise of proprietary rights over church affairs increasingly threatened even the church's spiritual authority. Yet over against these secular abuses, Pope Gregory VII's (c. 1015–1085) claim to the papacy's universal authority was decidedly enacted by the pursuance of additional feudal relationships. Consequently, prelates and great abbots became significant land owners and as such could exercise significant temporal authority and amass wealth through its benefices by rents (or Zinsen in German) and tithes. The Avignon papacy was able to bring greater consolidation to this web of feudal relationships, and because there was no greater prelate than the bishop [End Page 72] of Rome, there was to be no greater ecclesiastical fiefdom than that of the papacy. While this also made the church susceptible to the power and pressure of noble laymen, papal privileges were such that the "spiritual citadel" handled and distributed its divine treasures in much the same way that secular lords...

Authority as a contingency plan

Humean constructivists object to Kantian constructivism that by endorsing the constitutivist strategy, which grounds moral obligations in rational agency, this position discounts the impact of contingency in moral life. In response to these charges, I argue that Humeans misrepresent the challenge of contingency and fail to provide adequate resources to cope with it. In its formalist variety, Humean constructivism fails to make sense of an important category of ethical judgments, which claim universal authority. The substantive varieties of Humean constructivism recognize that some ethical judgments aspire to universality, but fail to fully justify such an aspiration. These versions of constructivism represent a setback in regard to the achievements of Kantian constructivism. In conclusion, I briefly resume the advantages of advocating a Kantian conception of rational authority as a response to contingency.

The narrative-theological function of Matthew's baptism command (Matthew 28:19b)

The triadic name given in the baptism command of Matthew 28:19b has often been considered awkward in its context and perhaps anachronistic in light of later Christian Trinitarian doctrine. This article argues that Matthew 28:19b is rather a fitting climactic conclusion to a narrative-theological motif throughout Matthew’s Gospel where triadic or at least dyadic language is employed within revelatory contexts that affirm Jesus’ divine sonship and messianic mission: either in small apocalypses or within apocalyptic discourse. This argument finds its crux in the baptism of Jesus itself (3:13–17) which is presented as an apocalypse in which the heavenly fatherly voice reveals the identity of the Son and anoints him with his Spirit, with the stated goal of “fulfilling all righteousness.” The revelation is presented by Matthew so that it is directed to the public within the narrative and implicitly to the reader disciple. The baptism revelation is then closely associated both with the lengthy citation of Isaiah 42:1–4 in Matthew 12:18–21, another triadic text, and with the visionary transfiguration account (17:1–8). Other passages are analyzed in order to trace the pattern throughout the Gospel. In the resurrection narrative (28:1–20) it is demonstrated that the resurrected Jesus is portrayed as a now heavenly, yet still embodied, revealer who is worshipped such that the Great Commission passage (28:16–20) is presented as a divine revelation. Within this “ultimate apocalypse” the risen Jesus commands his followers to make disciples of the nations by teaching and baptizing in the triadic name. The baptism command, in light of the triadic motif throughout the Gospel has the rhetorical effect of inviting Matthew’s reader-listener disciples to identify with Jesus in his own triadic baptism such that they too have an affirmed filial relationship with God and receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit to continue and extend Jesus’ messianic mission into the world under his universal authority and with his promised presence.

Private Uniform Law & Global Legal Pluralism: The Case of ICC's Incoterms and UCP

Global legal pluralism comes in many forms and carries various implications. In this paper we shall trace the phenomena of legal pluralism in the field of commercial law. It is commonly held, that legal certainty is of paramount importance to merchants. Therefore, efforts to harmonize commercial law on the international level are pertinent, albeit with limited success. As states proved unwilling or unable to create uniform commercial law, a variety of private initiatives were established to achieve this end, the most prominent examples being the International Commercial Terms (Incoterms) and the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP), both promulgated by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). From the perspective of global legal pluralism, such private-made uniform commercial law is an instance of legal pluralism. Interestingly, in this case it is not state law as the universal rule, which encounters conflicting normative claims of a sub-state social field, but it is a privately created normative regime, that claims universal authority over the fragmented domestic commercial law regimes. According to conventional legal theory, such claim is simply ridiculous, as it seems to be impossible for private uniform law to operate successfully. However, an analysis of English and German case law reveals, that the Incoterms and the UCP in fact are effectively operating as uniform law, and thus as a privately made functional equivalent to international instruments such as the Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG). This paper, therefore, argues that beyond theoretical discussions in textbooks, judges do practice what global legal pluralism suggests.

Constructing, promoting and controlling the littérature coloniale of interwar France: an anatomy of the Grand prix de littérature coloniale (1921–1938)

In creating the Grand prix de littérature coloniale (1921–1938) and appointing the award’s panel, the Minister of the Colonies, Albert Sarraut, endowed littérature coloniale with its first institution and ushered in new synergies between the political centre of the Empire and writers self-identifying as ‘colonial’. Pan-colonial in scope and bundling all overseas territories into a single entity that only made sense in relation to the metropolis, the form of literary colonialism that the metropolitan Grand prix promoted and its claim to universal authority over the textual representations of the Empire were contested by regional cultural awards mushrooming across French colonies and protectorates in the interwar period. The author argues that the fast-changing politics and policies of the Grand prix and the discourse surrounding its attribution were all weapons through which this battle for the ownership of colonial literature between the métropole and its periphery was fought, quickly outweighing discussions about aesthetic merit. They also show why metropolitan colonial literature and its regional variants gain from being analysed jointly, in their interrelatedness, by exploring understudied links between geographical space (both real and imagined) and the distribution of financial and symbolic capital across the French Empire during the interwar period.

Undefined Terms

Between 1200 and 1350, the meaning attributed to the terms ‘emperor’ and ‘empire’ evolved in France to reflect the growth in power of the Capetian-Valois kings and a concomitant decline in the authority exercised by contemporary Romano-German rulers. Both terms were ubiquitous in France in this period. The fact that neither was adopted to describe the expansion of royal power was because, as this article will demonstrate, its growth was considered a consolidation of existing rights and was limited by deep-seated concerns for legitimacy, neither of which fostered imperial comparisons. At the same time, a multi-layered understanding of imperial terminology developed in France. On one level, ‘empire’ and ‘emperor’ became interchangeable with ‘kingdom’ and ‘king’. Yet imperial vocabulary remained highly malleable. Philip IV’s conflict with the papacy led to the development of specific arguments intended to undermine any subordination of French royal authority to external parties. However, far from becoming irrelevant, the terminology of empire became integral to contemporary French political discourse. It offered solutions to otherwise insoluble problems. The article establishes the way in which the office of emperor came to be understood as, simultaneously, a limited form of temporal kingship but one that encompassed a universal role disassociated from government. Imperial terms were transmuted in French thought from an association with the exercise of universal temporal authority to signify a specialised function. This function was usually, but not exclusively, understood as leadership of the crusade.

Making the States’ Translation (1637): Orthodox Calvinist Biblical Criticism in the Dutch Republic

In the study of the history of biblical scholarship, there has been a tendency among historians to emphasize biblical philology as a force which, together with the new philosophy and the new science of the seventeenth century, caused the erosion of universal scriptural authority from the mid-seventeenth century onwards. A case in point is Jonathan Israel's impressive account of how biblical criticism in the hands of Spinoza paved the way for the Enlightenment. Others who have argued for a post-Spinozist rise of biblical criticism include Frank Manuel, Adam Sutcliffe, and Travis Frampton. These scholars have built upon longer standing interpretations such as those of Hugh Trevor-Roper and Paul Hazard. However, scholars in the past two decades such as Anthony Grafton, Scott Mandelbrote and Jean-Louis Quantin have altered the picture of an exegetical revolution inaugurated by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), Spinoza (1632–1677), and Richard Simon (1638–1712). These heterodox philosophers in fact relied on philological research that had been largely developed in the first half of the seventeenth century. Moreover, such research was carried out by scholars who had no subversive agenda. This is to say that the importance attached to a historical and philological approach to the biblical text had a cross-confessional appeal, not just a radical-political one.

Canon Law and Episcopal Authority: The Canons of Antioch and Serdica by Christopher W. B. Stephens

Reviewed by: Canon Law and Episcopal Authority: The Canons of Antioch and Serdica by Christopher W. B. Stephens David Wagschal Christopher W. B. Stephens Canon Law and Episcopal Authority: The Canons of Antioch and Serdica Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015 Pp. xi + 288. $105.00. The post-Nicene church, until at least the 350s, was much less occupied by purely doctrinal controversies than the traditional narrative allows; the canons of Serdica should be seen as a direct response to the canons of Antioch; and the rise of Constantine provided an entirely new, universal model of leadership that would be taken up in different ways by both East and West, foreshadowing much future conflict. These are the central theses of Stephens’s Canon Law and Episcopal Authority, a work that has the unusual distinction of being of interest to historians, theologians, and canonists alike. The starting point for Stephens’s analysis is the venerable problem of the dating of the canons of the “Council of Antioch.” The traditional connection of the canons with the Dedication Council in Antioch in 341 has long been questioned. Following the research of Eduard Schwartz in the early twentieth century, scholarly opinion today tends to fix the canons ca. 330, or even a little earlier—while Constantine was still alive and in the context of the deposition of Eustathius of Antioch. Stephens re-opens this debate in the first two chapters of his study through a careful re-examination of the historical accounts of the council, the subscription lists, and the canons themselves. He argues that if we understand the “Dedication Council” as a later conflation of a series of local Antiochian councils from 337 to 342—a kind of collective council—then the most likely date for the canons is 338. This would place them immediately following the death of Constantine, when the Eastern church was struggling with the return of the Nicene exiles. This context, Stephens contends, fits the content of the Antiochian canons exceptionally well. If we accept that the Antiochian canons were composed in 338, then the situation of the church immediately following the death of Constantine (337) suddenly comes into new focus. This is the subject of the third and fourth chapters. For Stephens, the Antiochian canons represent a manifesto of eastern conciliarism: ultimate authority rests with provincial and supra-provincial councils. The Serdican canons, much more securely connected with the status of the exiled Nicene bishops and issued only four years after Antioch (in 342), represent a western rejoinder: ultimate authority rests with the bishop of Rome. Traditionally, both councils have been read as primarily concerned with doctrinal matters, but Stephens contends that this is a later and partisan reading. Joining the chorus of scholars who are attempting to free themselves from traditional Athanasian accounts, Stephens notes that Antiochian gatherings did not in fact see themselves as anti-Nicene in any way, and that the Serdican councils were only minimally concerned with theology. If the creeds and accounts associated with either set of councils are examined closely, we discover that doctrine was simply not a high priority for either. [End Page 651] Instead, Stephens contends, the real issue in the years following Constantine’s death was authority. Constantine, in his very person, had introduced to the church the possibility of a universal authority. Nicaea (but not Nicene theology) symbolized this universalism, and this was the real reason for the council’s enduring appeal at the mid-century. With Constantine’s death, however, and the empire divided, the church was faced with an institutional dilemma: how could this new universal authority continue to be exercised? Antioch and Serdica provided two very different answers as bishops, east and west, experimented with the new medium of ecclesiastical law. In the final two chapters, Stephens places Antioch and Serdica into the broader context of the development of law and authority in the fourth century. Here Stephens draws on much recent legal-historical literature as he struggles with the perennial issue of late antique law’s apparent ineffectiveness. Stephens is keenly aware of how the modern expectation for law as a universally enforced and binding system is constantly frustrated in the sources. He looks to...

Gaze of the other and self-knowledge: The animals as provocation

Primarily relying on the texts of Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard, Deleuze and Guattari and Theodor W. Adorno, this article contemplates the provocation that cats, often representative of animals in general, been able to direct us towards philosophy. Aside from the proverbial penetrativeness of the cat's gaze which has a physiological cause, a historical and phenomenological reconstruction of its significance points to the valuable incentive that it has represented for the understanding both unity and singularity of life forms, the awareness of our epistemic limits, the release of anthropocentric prejudice, the articulation of existential situations and the insight into a humanistic policy of discrimination. The author concludes that the cat's character, in its best literary and philosophical offshoots, warns of impingement that the Western rationality committed to everything that could not be included under its claim to universal authority, and suggests that the way of redemption for the wrongdoing leads across selective adoption and criticism of the same heritage, but now in such a manner that it could be considerate and responsible toward both discursive and the unavailability of the Others.

La Iglesia como sistema de dominación en la Antigüedad Tardía ed. by José Fernández Ubiña

Reviewed by: La Iglesia como sistema de dominación en la Antigüedad Tardía ed. by José Fernández Ubiña William E. Klingshirn La Iglesia como sistema de dominación en la Antigüedad Tardía. Edited by José Fernández Ubiña, Alberto J. Quiroga Puertas, and Purificación Ubric Rabaneda. [Colección Historia.] (Granada: Universidad de Granada. 2015. Pp. 358. €23,00 paperback. ISBN 978-84-338-5763-7.) Max Weber defined domination (Herrschaft.), the cornerstone of his sociology of political, religious, and economic organizations, as "the probability that a command with a given specific content will be obeyed by a given group of persons" (Economy and Society, edd. Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich [Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1978], p. 53). The culmination of a three-year international research project based at the University of Granada, this book seeks to investigate the applicability of Weber's theory of domination to the political establishment of Christianity in the later Roman empire. Given Weber's continuing importance and influence, this is an exciting prospect. Unfortunately, while a few of the book's authors do engage with Weber—above all, Gonzalo Bravo Castañeda, the only author to actually quote him—most do not, except indirectly in their titles, introductions, or conclusions. This will prove a disappointment to readers interested in a comparative approach to the sociology and politics of the early Church. Yet because the papers, written by experts, are so informative for the wide range of religious and political topics they do cover, the book as a whole is far from being a disappointment. The book's overall structure reinforces its Weberian intentions. Part One is introduced by the most theoretical piece in the book, Bravo Castañeda's assessment of church and empire as "systems of domination." The remaining papers in this section survey the confluences between theology and politics—Arian/Nicene Christian and Muslim—in the fourth-century Roman empire (Andrew Fear), Visigothic Spain in the late sixth century (Pedro Castillo Maldonado), and alAndalus in the early eighth century (Luis A. García Moreno). Part Two examines [End Page 570] the role that bishops and monks played in the consolidation of ecclesiastical domination. Bishops are featured in papers on the definition of episcopal power in the pre-Constantinian period (José Fernández Ubiña), the historiography of the schism surrounding Meletius of Antioch (Alberto Quiroga Puertas), and the collaboration between bishops and barbarian rulers in the fifth- and early sixth-century West (Purificación Ubric Rabaneda). This part concludes with an essay on monks and the practice of charity as reflected in Spanish monastic rules of the sixth and seventh centuries (Francisco Salvador Ventura). Part Three focuses on the instruments of domination. Under this heading are gathered a more diverse group of papers. Immacolata Aulisa studies the process by which imperial territory was organized into ecclesiastical dioceses, governed by bishops, and furnished with church buildings. Chantal Gabrielli investigates the political value of martyr cults in Donatist and Caecilianist North Africa. Jamie Wood analyzes preaching as a form of education and persuasion in Augustine's De catechizandis rudibus. and Martin of Braga's De correctione rusticorum. Amparo Pedregal examines models of exemplary women (martyrs, ascetics, wives, and mothers) as mechanisms for church control. Céline Martin identifies definitions of paganism in Visigothic legislation of the sixth and seventh centuries as forms of domination. And in the final paper—there is no conclusion—Raúl González Salinero traces the transformation of anti-Jewish polemic into legislation and violence against those who along with heretics and pagans "evaded [church] control and refused to accept its claims to universal authority" (escapaban a su control y se resistían a aceptar su pretendida autoridad universal, p. 308). In their introduction, the editors express the hope that their work will be useful in future investigations of the subject (p. 19). One might begin by suggesting that further research place more emphasis on two points with which Weber was greatly concerned and which have continued to draw the attention of scholars (Mark Haugaard, "Domination," in Encyclopedia of Social Theory, ed. Austin Harrington, Barbara L. Marshall, and Hans...

Consensus in the Islamic Legal System

All Muslims regard the Qur’an as authoritative. The Sunnah, on the otherhand, although authoritative to the majority of Muslims, does not enjoy suchuniversality.1Yet to the Sunnis and Shi‘ahs, both of them are so authoritativethat they are unquestionable sources of Islamic legal system. Thus, they aresources “from” which Islamic law is directly derived. So what makes “consensus”(ijmā‘: whether of the Muslim community or of the scholars) such acompelling candidate for an additional source of the legal system as far asSunnis are concerned? I contend that (1) the early jurists viewed this as thesafest way to inoculate and safeguard that system (and the other sources) fromindividual abuse and personal manipulation and that (2) without consensusand why it was originally construed and framed (notwithstanding how it wasapplied) by the jurists, the Qur’an and the Sunnah (despite their inherent religiousand theological authority) would be meaningless or inadmissible aslegitimate sources of law. But before I discuss consensus, I would like to addressthe two authoritative sources of law.All Muslims accept the Qur’an as God’s own words and therefore as themain source of the legal system (fiqh). Before the jurists began to deliberateand codify fiqh, the Shari‘ah was already embedded in the Qur’an and Muslimswere living their socio-religious and politico-economic lives in accordancewith its teachings. Therefore, when the jurists were ready to put thelaws into written form, they located all its original rules and expounded uponthem. However, universal recognition differs from universal agreement on themeaning of specific injunctions. In addition, it certainly differs from the claimthat the Qur’an covers every foreseeable legal injunction, for it does not.For a variety of reasons, the the Sunnah, does not enjoy any universal authority,among them (1) Some Muslims have questioned how the Prophet’steachings have been preserved and passed on, (2) classical and modern scholarshave raised serious doubts about the authenticity of certain hadiths, and ...

Creating an 'Ethical Space' for Information Ethics: The Role of Communication Rights

In their article, In search of a code of global information ethics, Rafael Capurro and Johannes Britz speak of the need for an “ethical space” as an “open space of reflection” about the visions and options in the digital age, against the background of the influence of information and communication technologies on local cultures within a globalizing world. This paper develops this insight against the background of the discussion within the ecumenical arena in such organizations as the World Council of Churches on the development of an “ecumenical space” for open discussion to help develop an alternative to increasingly worldwide structures of communication, finance and the economy. In such a perspective, civil society is seen as an indispensable part of the “ethical space” within which a global ethic needs to be elaborated, alongside the institutional political system of government and the institutionally orientated political society. This paper will explore how the idea of communication rights encourages civil society to play a constitutive role in advancing such a communication ethic, by becoming active in claiming and reclaiming spaces of debate and dialogue to engage in transparent, informed and democratic debate. At the same time, churches and religious organizations, as belonging to worldwide communities, are themselves challenged by such a perspective to not claim for themselves absolute and universal authority, but rather to engage in dialogue with each other and with the secular public sphere.

Caliph and the 'Islamic State' - Lessons of History

The declaration of a so-called ‘Islamic State’ in parts of Syria and Iraq on 27 June 2014/1 Ramadan 1435 by Sunni Jihadist renegades led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (a.k.a. Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri, or Abu Du’a, born 1971)2 claimed a universal authority throughout the Muslim ummah in the manner of the caliphs of old. The veteran Iraq observer Patrick Cockburn objectively describes IS to be “the most powerful and effective extreme jihadi group in the world… violent and sectarian… highly fanatical.” Abu Bakr sends a powerful message resonating in the minds of militants across the Islamic world, by denying the legitimacy of the political and religious leaders of 1.6 billion Muslims. “I do not promise you, as the kings and rulers promise their followers and congregation, luxury, security and relaxation,” he said in his Khutbah in Mosul; “instead I promise you what Allah promised his faithful followers” [i.e. Paradise through martyrdom]. In his audio message posted online on 1 July 2014, Ibrahim stated it was the duty of all Muslims to immigrate to his self-styled ‘Islamic State’, and he named a list of countries from the Central African Republic to Myanmar and Xinjiang (in Chinese Turkistan) where violations are being committed against Muslims. “Your brothers on every piece of this earth are waiting for you to rescue them,” he declared; “By Allah, we will take revenge! by Allah we will take revenge! even if after a while.”