scholarly journals Editorial: changing views on Empire and Imperialism

2004 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. L. WESSELING

Words can be confusing and titles can be misleading, particularly if titles consist of one simple word. Two titles suffice to illustrate this phenomenon. In 2000, a book appeared with the title Empire and in 2002 another book appeared with exactly the same title. In the first Empire, Michael Hardt, an American literary theorist, and Antonio Negri, an Italian political philosopher, argued that although classical imperialism is over, Empire is alive and well, albeit in a new form. For them ‘Empire’ means the following: ‘Our basic hypothesis is that sovereignty has taken a new form, composed of a series of national and supranational organisms united under a single logic of rule. This new global form of sovereignty is what we call Empire.’ This is a rather special definition of Empire because what one usually has in mind when using that word is something very different. It is the Empire that the other book, written by the British historian Niall Ferguson, is about. This book describes, as the subtitle indicates, The Rise and Demise of the British World Order. But it is also about something more, as is apparent from the rest of the subtitle: and the Lessons for Global Power. These lessons are intended for the rulers of the Empire of today, the Americans. While the first Empire is the Bible for anti-globalists, Ferguson's book can be considered as the New Testament of the advocates of America's imperial ambitions.

1973 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernst Käsemann

In the Protestant tradition the Bible has long been regarded as the sole norm for the Church. It was from this root that, in the seventeenth century, there sprang first of all ‘biblical theology’, from which New Testament theology later branched off at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Radical historical criticism too kept closely to this tradition, and F. C. Baur made such a theology the goal of all his efforts in the study of the New Testament. Since that time the question how the problem thus posed is to be tackled and solved has remained a living issue in Germany. On the other hand, the problem for a long time held no interest for other church traditions, although here too the position has changed within the last two decades. In 1950 Meinertz wrote the first Catholic exposition, while the theme was taken up in France by Bonsirven in 1951, and by Richardson in England in 1958. Popular developments along these lines were to follow.


2021 ◽  
Vol Exaptriate (Varia) ◽  
Author(s):  
Borče Arsov

The Konikovo Gospel (KG), The Kulakia Gospel (KuG) and The Boboščica Gospel (BG) are among the first known translations of the New Testament in Macedonian vernacular dating from the 19th century. They are all written in Greek alphabet. In this article we present the most specific examples demonstrating a stylization tendency towards a wider dialectal base and/or towards a more elevated style. The most important conclusion is that of all the analysed gospels the most stylized text is the oldest among them, the KG (1852), especially its second hand. The stylization steps are less common for the KuG (1860) and even less for the BG (1880). It is possible to say that the texts analyzed in this paper, together with the other translations of the New Testament in Macedonian vernacular from the 18th and the 19th centuries, open, more or less, a clear path towards the formation of one Biblical language, leading to the translations of the Bible in contemporary Macedonian standard language in 1976, 2003 and 2007. L’Évangéliaire de Konikovo (EK), l’Évangéliaire de Kulakia (EKu) et l’Évangéliaire de Boboščica (EB) sont les premières traductions sérieuses duNouveau Testament en langue vernaculaire macédonienne du XIXe siècle. Ils sont tous écrits en alphabet grec. Cet article présente les exemples les plus spécifiques des textes montrant une tendance à la stylisation par élargissement de la base dialectale et/ou par élévation du style. De toutes les traductions des évangiles en langue vernaculaire macédonienne de Macédoine du sud du XIXe siècle ayant été analysées, on peut conclure que le texte le plus stylisé et en même temps le plus ancien est celui de l’EK (1852), et surtout sa deuxième main. Les démarches de stylisation sont moins perceptibles dans le texte de l’EKu (1860) et encore moins perceptibles dans celui de l’EB (1880). On peut dire que les traductions analysées, mais aussi les autres traductions du Nouveau Testament en langue vernaculaire macédonienne de Macédoine du sud des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles ouvrent, plus ou moins, une voie vers la formation d’une langue biblique, voie aboutissant aux traductions de la Bible en macédonien standard contemporain en 1976, 2003 et 2007.


Author(s):  
Paul Gifford

‘Religion’ can be used to mean all kinds of things, but a substantive definition––based on the premise of superhuman powers––can clarify much. It allows us to attempt to differentiate religion from culture, ethnicity, morality and politics.This definition of religion necessarily implies a perception of reality. Until recent centuries in the West, and in most cultures still, the ordinary, natural and immediate way of understanding and experiencing reality was in terms of otherworldly or spiritual forces. However, a cognitive shift has taken place through the rise of science and its subsequent technological application.This new consciousness has not disproved the existence of spiritual forces, but has led to the marginalization of the other-worldly, which even Western churches seem to accept. They persist, but increasingly as pressure groups promoting humanist values.Claims of ‘American exceptionalism’ in this regard are misleading. Obama’s religion, Evangelical support for Trump, and the mega-church message of success in the capitalist system can all be cultural and political phenomena. This eclipsing of the other-worldly constitutes a watershed in human history, with profound consequences not just for religious institutions but for our entire world order.


1993 ◽  
Vol 49 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Van Dyk

Evolution: The misunderstanding between theology and biology Theological reaction to the theory of biological evolution ranged from an outright rejection to positive acceptance. Both these extreme viewpoints are, however, often mistaken in their basic assumptions. Rejection of evolution is often based on fundamentalist preconceptions th a t are both unnecessary and inconsistent with the Bible. On the other hand, acceptance of the theory of evolution is often based on an idealistic definition of evolution that is incongruous with the materialistic definition used by biologists.


2009 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter M. Venter

Inclusivism and exclusivism: A study of two trendsThe identity of the church can be either inclusivist or exclusivist. Van Ruler’s theocratic theology views the church as being an inclusive community in service of God’s kingdom. It is the vehicle God uses to introduce his kingdom into the world. According to Van Ruler, however, the church also shows a unique character based on its relationship with Jesus Christ. Although the church can take many forms, Van Ruler’s opinion is that the Christian Church could be advised by Old Testament Israel in this regard. This study shows that both inclusivist and exclusivist trends are present in the Old as well as the New Testament. The New Testament inherited the debate between these two opposing stances from the time of the Second Temple. Returning from exile, Sadocitic priests propagated an exclusivist identity for the Judaeans. Their viewpoint was based on the programme of Ezekiel 40–48, as is illustrated in the literature of Ezra–Nehemiah, the Priestly Writing, Chronicles and Jubilees. On the other hand, indeed there was an inclusivist approach as well, as is depicted in the books of Jonah, Ruth, Trito-Isaiah and even Numbers and Joshua. The conclusion drawn from the study is that both exclusivist and inclusivist trends are present in the Bible. Although the church does not have any other option in the present postmodern world but to be primarily an inclusive community, it should also show some form of exclusivism.


2016 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-151
Author(s):  
Mogens Müller

The old Greek translation of the sacred books of Judaism, the so-called Septuagint, became the first Bible of the Christian Church. Among other things, this meant that much of the vocabulary and many of the theological concepts of the Jewish sacred texts were already available in a Greek form. On the other hand, this fact also had the consequence that the understanding of the underlying Hebrew text and its eventual interpretation by the translators were taken over by the New Testament authors, beginning with the apostle Paul. The first part of this article summarizes parts of the discussion of the role of the Septuagint as the ‘Bible’ text of the New Testament and its impact on the formation of New Testament theology


2003 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-408
Author(s):  
Kim Sorensen

Revelation and reason are pivotal in Strauss's project. Yet nearly three decades after his death, questions remain about the essential meaning of this core dimension of his project. Scholarship of recent years has tended to approach his project by situating its position in relation to revelation and reason—to one or the other or to both. Among those who hold Strauss in high regard and inclusive of his former students, those often called Straussians, the view is far from clear. Was Strauss's allegiance with reason alone, that is, with Athens and classical political philosophy? Did his vocation as a political philosopher and his loyalty to the party of Athens preclude his being open to revelation, that is, open to the possibility that the Bible conveys truth regarding the good life? Or was he beyond a dogmatic attachment whether to reason or to revelation?


Author(s):  
K. T. Tokuyasu

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).


Author(s):  
Ingrid Diran

Agamben describes his posture as a reader as one of seeking a text’s Entwicklungsfähigkeit, or capacity for elaboration.1 In examining Agamben’s practices of reading, we can attend to the opposite phenomenon: the counter-elaboration that a text, in having being read by the philosopher, performs upon Agamben’s own thought. This reciprocal elaboration might constitute a paradigm for Agamben’s use of reading, according to his own idiosyncratic definition of use as an event in the middle voice, in which (according to a definition of Benveniste) the subject ‘effects an action only in affecting itself (il effectue en s’affectant)’ (UB 28). With this definition in mind, we could say that Agamben effects a text (he writes) only to the extent that he is also affected by another text (he reads). This is why Agamben’s position as a reader proves particularly important to any assessment of his work, quite aside from the problem of influence or intellectual genealogy. For this same reason, however, assessing Agamben’s relation to Antonio Negri – a figure with whom, by most measures, he is at odds – poses an unexpected challenge: how can Agamben’s thought be a use of Negri? Answering this question means not only assessing the critical distance between the two thinkers, but also taking this distance as a measure, in the Spinozan sense, of mutual affection.


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