Post-secularity and (global) politics: a need for radical redefinition

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 963-973 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRED DALLMAYR
Keyword(s):  
Public Life ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Charles Taylor ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
The Other ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Language Games ◽  
The Past ◽  
Self Interest

AbstractThe past two decades have produced a bulky literature on religion and politics, with many writers being influenced by Habermas's notion of ‘post-secularity’. However, despite the vast amount of literature, there is still little agreement on the meaning of this term. The article explores two main directions in which the expression has been interpreted: one direction where religious faith is in a way ‘secularised’ by being adapted to modern secular discourse; and another where faith triumphs over secularity by expunging its modern corollaries. What surfaces behind this divergence is a version of the immanence/transcendence conundrum which accentuates a presumed contrast of language games in which one linguistic idiom is said to be more readily accessible than the other. In agreement with Charles Taylor, this article challenges the assumption of an ‘epistemic break’ between secular reason and ‘non-rational’ religious discourse. Once this challenge is taken seriously, a new and more radical redefinition of ‘post-secularity’ comes into view: a definition where the prefix ‘post’ signifies neither a secular nor a religious triumphalism, but rather an ethical-political task: the task of liberating public life from its attachment to ‘worldly’ self- interest and the unmitigated pursuit of wealth, power, and military adventures.

Religion and the state in the Arab world: an overview

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-35
Author(s):  
Abdelilah Belkeziz
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
National Project ◽  
General Theme ◽  
The Past ◽  
Religion And State

This article provides an overview of the issues addressed in a series of papers on the general theme of ‘religion and the state in the Arab world’ published in Contemporary Arab Affairs over the past 12 months. The papers were initially presented at a conference convened by the Center for Arab Unity Studies and the Swedish Alexandria Institute, held in Hamamaat, Tunisia, in November 2012. Further to his own paper on the topic (published in issue 6(4) in this journal) here Abdelilah Belkeziz identifies the purpose of the whole exercise, namely to explore a range of different perspectives on the theme. He positions these perspectives on a spectrum between two extremes: at one, he contends, the case for separation between religion and state verges on hostility to religion itself; and at the other, an exclusivist version of Islam is accorded primacy over all other considerations in the running of a state and thence political discourse. He discusses the dangers inherent in both extremes and makes the case for a model of secularism that accords space to both religion and politics in the national project.

Immunoferritin localization of intracellular antigens in positively stained frozen sections

1978 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-169
Author(s):  
K. T. Tokuyasu
Keyword(s):  
Surface Tension ◽  
Water Surface ◽  
Thin Layers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Positive Staining ◽  
Frozen Sections ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ultrathin Frozen Sections ◽  
Definition Of

During the past investigations of immunoferritin localization of intracellular antigens in ultrathin frozen sections, we found that the degree of negative staining required to delineate u1trastructural details was often too dense for the recognition of ferritin particles. The quality of positive staining of ultrathin frozen sections, on the other hand, has generally been far inferior to that attainable in conventional plastic embedded sections, particularly in the definition of membranes. As we discussed before, a main cause of this difficulty seemed to be the vulnerability of frozen sections to the damaging effects of air-water surface tension at the time of drying of the sections.Indeed, we found that the quality of positive staining is greatly improved when positively stained frozen sections are protected against the effects of surface tension by embedding them in thin layers of mechanically stable materials at the time of drying (unpublished).

Applications of Through-Focus Dark Field Image Shifts to Phase Identification

1975 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 178-179
Author(s):  
Prakash Rao
Keyword(s):  
Dark Field Image ◽  
Thin Foil ◽  
Dark Field ◽  
The Other ◽  
Stereo Image ◽  
Phase Identification ◽  
The Past ◽  
Field Electron Microscopy ◽  
Dark Field Electron ◽  
Recent Extension

Image shifts in out-of-focus dark field images have been used in the past to determine, for example, epitaxial relationships in thin films. A recent extension of the use of dark field image shifts has been to out-of-focus images in conjunction with stereoviewing to produce an artificial stereo image effect. The technique, called through-focus dark field electron microscopy or 2-1/2D microscopy, basically involves obtaining two beam-tilted dark field images such that one is slightly over-focus and the other slightly under-focus, followed by examination of the two images through a conventional stereoviewer. The elevation differences so produced are usually unrelated to object positions in the thin foil and no specimen tilting is required.In order to produce this artificial stereo effect for the purpose of phase separation and identification, it is first necessary to select a region of the diffraction pattern containing more than just one discrete spot, with the objective aperture.

‘Newness which never perishes’? Schoenberg’s ambivalent reception of Haydn

2010 ◽  
Vol 51 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 215-224
Author(s):  
Alexander Carpenter
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Future ◽  
Music Tradition

This paper explores Arnold Schoenberg’s curious ambivalence towards Haydn. Schoenberg recognized Haydn as an important figure in the German serious music tradition, but never closely examined or clearly articulated Haydn’s influence and import on his own musical style and ethos, as he did with many other major composers. This paper argues that Schoenberg failed to explicitly recognize Haydn as a major influence because he saw Haydn as he saw himself, namely as a somewhat ungainly, paradoxical figure, with one foot in the past and one in the future. In his voluminous writings on music, Haydn is mentioned by Schoenberg far less frequently than Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven, and his music appears rarely as examples in Schoenberg’s theoretical texts. When Schoenberg does talk about Haydn’s music, he invokes — with tacit negativity — its accessibility, counterpoising it with more recondite music, such as Beethoven’s, or his own. On the other hand, Schoenberg also praises Haydn for his complex, irregular phrasing and harmonic exploration. Haydn thus appears in Schoenberg’s writings as a figure invested with ambivalence: a key member of the First Viennese triumvirate, but at the same time he is curiously phantasmal, and is accorded a peripheral place in Schoenberg’s version of the canon and his own musical genealogy.

Religion and Politics under the Ptolemies (300 BCE-215 BCE)

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-29
Author(s):  
Athanasios Koutoupas
Keyword(s):  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Divine Nature ◽  
The One

The article examines the relation that is developed between the policy and the religion in Hellenistic Egypt during the period of the first four Ptolemies. It presents two levels of promotion of the practice of deification of the king: on the one hand the recognition of divine nature from the descendants of each king when he or she dies and on the other the recognition of divine nature from their subjects and the various civic communities during their life.

Economic Performance and Public Finance in Kenya, 1960-2010

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kempe Ronald Hope
Keyword(s):  
Public Finance ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Emerging Economy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Government Investment ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Private Savings ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Real Growth

Countries with positive per capita real growth are characterised by positive national savings—including government savings, increases in government investment, and strong increases in private savings and investment. On the other hand, countries with negative per capita real growth tend to be characterised by declines in savings and investment. During the past several decades, Kenya’s emerging economy has undergone many changes and economic performance has been epitomised by periods of stability, decline, or unevenness. This article discusses and analyses the record of economic performance and public finance in Kenya during the period 1960‒2010, as well as policies and other factors that have influenced that record in this emerging economy. 

Vom Forst zum Wald. Entwicklungstendenzen im naturnahen Waldbau | From a Production-Oriented Forest to a Multipurpose Forest. New Trends in Near-Natural Silviculture

1999 ◽  
Vol 150 (12) ◽  
pp. 484-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolf Hockenjos
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Timber Harvest ◽  
Timber Harvesting ◽  
Natural Forest ◽  
The Other ◽  
Private Forest ◽  
Wide Spread ◽  
Great Demand ◽  
The Past ◽  
Forest Enterprises

Concepts of near-natural forestry are in great demand these days. Most German forest administrations and private forest enterprises attach great importance to being as «near-natural» as possible. This should allow them to make the most of biological rationalisation. The concept of near-natural forestry is widely accepted, especially by conservationists. However, it is much too early to analyse how successful near-natural forestry has been to date, and therefore to decide whether an era of genuine near-natural forest management has really begun. Despite wide-spread recognition, near-natural forestry is jeopardised by mechanised timber harvesting, and particularly by the large-timber harvester. The risk is that machines, which are currently just one element of the timber harvest will gain in importance and gradually become the decisive element. The forest would then be forced to meet the needs of machinery, not the other way round. Forests would consequently become so inhospitable that they would bear no resemblance to the sylvan image conjured up by potential visitors. This could mean taking a huge step backwards: from a near-natural forest to a forest dominated by machinery. The model of multipurpose forest management would become less viable, and the forest would become divided into areas for production, and separate areas for recreation and ecology. The consequences of technical intervention need to be carefully considered, if near-natural forestry is not to become a thing of the past.

TARP DVIEJŲ KOLONŲ: XVIII A. PABAIGOS – XIX A. PRADŽIOS VILNIAUS MASONŲ KASDIENYBĖ SIMBOLIKOJE

2018 ◽  
pp. 144-163
Author(s):  
Daiva Milinkevičiūtė
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Daily Routine ◽  
The Past ◽  
Secular World ◽  
National Characteristics ◽  
Conservative Christian ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Craft Guilds

The Age of Enlightenment is defined as the period when the universal ideas of progress, deism, humanism, naturalism and others were materialized and became a golden age for freemasons. It is wrong to assume that old and conservative Christian ideas were rejected. Conversely, freemasons put them into new general shapes and expressed them with the help of symbols in their daily routine. Symbols of freemasons had close ties with the past and gave them, on the one hand, a visible instrument, such as rituals and ideas to sense the transcendental, and on the other, intense gnostic aspirations. Freemasons put in a great amount of effort to improve themselves and to create their identity with the help of myths and symbols. It traces its origins to the biblical builders of King Solomon’s Temple, the posterity of the Templar Knights, and associations of the medieval craft guilds, which were also symbolical and became their link not only to each other but also to the secular world. In this work we analysed codified masonic symbols used in their rituals. The subject of our research is the universal Masonic idea and its aspects through the symbols in the daily life of the freemasons in Vilnius. Thanks to freemasons’ signets, we could find continuity, reception, and transformation of universal masonic ideas in the Lithuanian freemasonry and national characteristics of lodges. Taking everything into account, our article shows how the universal idea of freemasonry spread among Lithuanian freemasonry, and which forms and meanings it incorporated in its symbols. The objective of this research is to find a universal Masonic idea throughout their visual and oral symbols and see its impact on the daily life of the masons in Vilnius. Keywords: Freemasonry, Bible, lodge, symbols, rituals, freemasons’ signets.

Timber

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Charles Taylor ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Forestry Sector ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One ◽  
Timber Market

During the civil war, Liberia’s forestry sector rose to prominence as Charles Taylor traded timber for arms. When the war ended, the UN’s timber sanctions remained in effect, reinforced by the Forestry Development Authority’s (FDA) domestic ban on logging. As Liberians waited for UN timber sanctions to be lifted, a burgeoning domestic timber market developed. This demand was met by artisanal loggers, more commonly referred to as pit sawyers. Out of this illicit economy emerged the Nezoun Group to provide local dispute resolution between the FDA’s tax collectors and ex-combatant pit sawyers. The Nezoun Group posed a dilemma for the government. On the one hand, the regulatory efforts of the Nezoun Group helped the FDA to tax an activity that it had banned. On the other hand, the state’s inability to contain the operations of the Nezoun Group—in open contravention of Liberian laws—highlighted the government’s capacity problems.

“Ambiguist” Statesmanship

Worldview ◽  
1960 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 7-8
Author(s):  
Will Herberg
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Fixed Points ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Decision ◽  
Actual Situation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mixed Feelings ◽  
Rational Mind ◽  
The One

John Courtney Murray's writing cannot fail to be profound and instructive, and I have profited greatly from it in the course of the past decade. But I must confess that his article, "Morality and Foreign Policy" (Worldview, May), leaves me in a strange confusion of mixed feelings. On the one hand, I can sympathize with what I might call the historical intention of the natural law philosophy he espouses, which I take to be the effort to establish enduring structures of meaning and value to serve as fixed points of moral decision in the complexities of the actual situation. On the other hand, I am rather put off by the calm assurance he exhibits when he deals with these matters, as though everything were at bottom unequivocally rational and unequivocally accessible to the rational mind. And I am really distressed at what seems to 3ie to be his woefully inadequate appreciation of the position of the "ambiguists," among whom I cannot deny I count myself.

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