Seven Equivocal Theses about Amazonia

1985 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
O Velho

This paper underlines the importance of the debate now being carried on in Brazil with reference to Amazonia and stresses the symbolical character with which it has been clothed. This debate is more than a clash between intellectual and political conceptions, the conflict-ridden encounter of the nation with its own destiny is dramatized within it. Seven theses stand out, representing the main prospects in question and their variants. In dismantling them one by one, the author proposes alternatives and above all suggests a kind of analysis epistemologically oriented by successive shiftings of viewpoint. This mobile approach makes it possible to reveal the partial truth of each thesis over the others. Theses (1) and (3) refer to the inexorable and all-encompassing character of capitalist expansion in rural areas, qualities which are regarded as likely to cause the reactive social movements themselves to succumb. It is shown that economic and political processes are often episodic, reversible, and subject to political interventions, especially to selective action on the part of the State. Theses (2), (4), and (5) affirm that the peasantry possesses its own conceptions of the land, that it is autonomous at productive level, and that it resists the advance of capitalism. It is demonstrated that these theses oversimplify, deny ambiguities, and are based on a logic that wrongly presupposes two homogenized social processes and blocs. Alternatively, the existence of multiple actors should be recognized, oriented by various strategies which are redefinable because they are not deterministically derived from socioeconomic conditions; the peasantry is not fighting to defend the essence of an idealized peasant being, but a particular series of ad hoc negotiable values, in the face of different concrete situations. In the discussions of theses (6) and (7), the author comes to grips, on the one hand, with the view that explains the apparent mobilizing success of the Roman Catholic Church through its ‘option on behalf of the poor’ and, on the other hand, the political criticisms usually directed at intellectuals who question traditional conceptions, when these supposedly favour the underprivileged.


Author(s):  
Vira Volonyts ◽  

This article gives a detailed analysis of historiographical sources concerning the problems of the activity of the Roman Catholic Church on the territory of Right-bank Ukraine at the end of XVIII – in the beginning of XX c. The scientific research on this topic is composed according to the chronology of problematic principles, therefore three consistent stages and their characteristics are given: I period – the first part of XIX c. – the beginning of XX c. – the time of establishing and developing Ukrainian historical studies and setting up Ukrainian national historiography. During that period scientists studied the peculiarities of domestic and foreign policy of the activity of the RCC in Right-bank Ukraine. The majority of scientists acknowledged an evident pressure of the RCC on the orthodox region and pro-Polish position of Church from the one side, but from the other - limiting anti-Catholic policy of Russian government. II period – 1917-1991 – the Soviet period. During this time the party ideologization of Ukrainian historical studies was realized and Ukrainian foreign historical studies as alternative ones were formed, which examined the history of the Catholic church from the perception of social political processes in Ukrainian society. III period – 1991 – the beginning 0f 2000 – the modern period, that is characterized by deprivation of ideological stereotypes and implementation of new ideas, active cooperation with foreign centers. The variety of researched issues enlarged and now the subjects of scientific researches become the questions of legitimate regulation of church, its independence from temporal power, cultural educational and charity activities, financial economic provision of churches and monasteries, peculiarities of the state and development of the Roman Catholic orders, participation of the Roman Catholic priesthood in Polish liberation movement. However, until that times, scientific research is left beyond investigation of the Catholic priesthood cooperation with representatives of Ukrainian national movement in a region, social cultural church initiatives, artistic heritage of the Roman Catholic orders and so on.



Horizons ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-119
Author(s):  
Massimo Faggioli

In the ongoing aggiornamento of the aggiornamento of Vatican II by Pope Francis, it would be easy to forget or dismiss the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Vatican I (1869–1870). The council planned (since at least the Syllabus of Errors of 1864), shaped, and influenced by Pius IX was the most important ecclesial event in the lives of those who made Vatican II: almost a thousand of the council fathers of Vatican II were born between 1871 and 1900. Vatican I was in itself also a kind of ultramontanist “modernization” of the Roman Catholic Church, which paved the way for the aggiornamento of Vatican II and still shapes the post–Vatican II church especially for what concerns the Petrine ministry.



2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 251
Author(s):  
María Gómez Requejo

Las ceremonias que se tenían lugar cuando se producía el fallecimiento de un monarca de la casa de Austria, tanto las pre como las post mortem, eran el  vehículo de un lenguaje simbólico cargado de representaciones y emblemas que le recordaban al súbdito tanto el poder del rey muerto como el que iba a tener su sucesor y asimismo ponían de manifiesto la unión de la dinastía con la Iglesia Católica. Enfermedad, muerte y exequias se convierten, con estos monarcas, en un espectáculo fastuoso que requiere escenografía, actores, vestuario, guion  y un público –los súbditos- del que se busca una participación ya sea consciente y activa o pasiva, como mero espectador, pero en todo caso necesario para que el espectáculo cumpla su objetivo: persuadir del poder real. Abstract The ceremonies around the death of a Habsburg king in Spain, where the vehicle to a symbolic language, full of representations and emblems, used to remind to his loyal subjects not only the power of the dead king and the one his heir and successor was going to hold, but also the relationship between the dynasty and the Roman Catholic Church. With the Habsburg’s, the illness, death and exequies of the monarch were converted into a sumptuous show that needed: a set, actors, lavish costumes, script and audience –the loyal subjects- to which audience participation, whether it be active or passive, was essential to fulfill its objective: to be persuaded of the king’s power.



2021 ◽  
pp. 315-316
Author(s):  
Martin Wight

Professor Carr relies on an antithesis: ‘Every political situation contains mutually incompatible elements of Utopia and reality, of morality and power.’ Carr provides ‘the most comprehensive modern restatement, other than Marxist or Fascist, of the Hobbesian view of politics. It is from politics that both morality and law derive their authority. For Hobbes, the kingdom of the fairies was the Roman Catholic Church, seducing mankind with its enchantments. For Professor Carr, it is the League of Nations, which is no other than the ghost of the deceased Pax Britannica.’ Carr’s tome is ‘the one lasting intellectual monument of the policy of appeasement’. The first edition, published in 1939, praised Chamberlain’s policy as ‘a reaction of realism against Utopianism’, and defended the 1938 Munich agreement whereby Britain, France, Germany, and Italy agreed to the cession to Berlin of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. In the 1946 second edition ‘these passages are omitted’, Wight notes. ‘Wielding the realist critique at the expense of the moral critique, it is natural that Professor Carr should have moved since 1939 from support of collaboration with Germany to support of collaboration with Russia. But the Teheran–Yalta theory of world relationships is itself being swept from present realism into past Utopianism.’ In Wight’s view, ‘The student could have no better introduction to the fundamental problems of politics, provided always that he reads it side by side with Mr. Leonard Woolf’s deadly reply in “The War for Peace”.’



Author(s):  
Belinda Jack

Censorship, book burnings, and secret reading highlight the relationship between reading and power, and hence the relationship between limiting access to reading and political control. But from the very beginning there have been dissidents who refused to give up the intellectual freedom provided by their reading in the face of despotic regimes. ‘Forbidden reading’ considers the history of book burnings undertaken by repressive political regimes, religious authorities, and maverick leaders. It also discusses the Inquisitions and indexes of banned books first led by the Roman Catholic Church, but then later by other religions. Finally, it looks at different forms of censorship, including press censorship during times of war, censorship of ‘undesirable’ content, and self-censorship.



Horizons ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 420-424
Author(s):  
Carter Lindberg

I am honored to participate in this theological roundtable on the five-hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. I do so as a lay Lutheran church historian. In spite of the editors’ “prompts,” the topic reminds me of that apocryphal final exam question: “Give a history of the universe with a couple of examples.” “What do we think are the possibilities for individual and ecclesial ecumenism between Protestants and Catholics? What are the possibilities for common prayer, shared worship, preaching the gospel, church union, and dialogue with those who are religiously unaffiliated? Why should we commemorate or celebrate this anniversary?” Each “prompt” warrants a few bookshelves of response. The “Protestant Reformation” itself is multivalent. The term “Protestant” derives from the 1529 Diet of Speyer where the evangelical estates responded to the imperial mandate to enforce the Edict of Worms outlawing them. Their response, Protestatio, “testified” or “witnessed to” (pro testari) the evangelical estates’ commitment to the gospel in the face of political coercion (see Acts 5:29). It was not a protest against the Roman Catholic Church and its doctrine. Unfortunately, “Protestant” quickly became a pejorative name and then facilitated an elastic “enemies list.” “Reformation,” traditionally associated with Luther's “Ninety-Five Theses” (1517, hence the five-hundredth anniversary), also encompasses many historical and theological interpretations. Perhaps the Roundtable title reflects the effort in From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017 (2013) to distinguish Luther's reformational concern from the long historical Reformation (Protestantism), so that this anniversary may be both “celebrated” and self-critically “commemorated.”



2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-94
Author(s):  
Andrzej Lubowicki

The Catholic Youth Association (Pol. KSM) operates within 41 dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland and, according to data from 2019, has approx. 20,000 members in almost 1,000 parish units and community circles. Numerous initiatives undertaken by KSM include, among others, activities aimed at protecting creation. This study presents several of the most important ecological projects implemented by KSM: 1. Bug, the River of Life - Education for Youth, Youth for Sustainable Development; 2. Youth of this Earth; 3. Electro Responsible; 4. Kayaking Patrol of St. Francis; 5. Youth for the Environment; 6. Youth Environment.



Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Milda Alisauskiene ◽  
Apolonijus Zilys

This paper analyzes the phenomenon of anticlericalism in contemporary Lithuania, applying a sociohistorical approach. It starts with a discussion on the problem of criticism of religion and anticlericalism in contemporary societies, and particularly Lithuania. The empirical part of the paper provides a statistical data analysis of two surveys, conducted in 2012 and 2018. The secondary data analysis showed that age and place of residence of Roman Catholics in Lithuania were statistically meaningful factors for the formation of anticlerical stances. Younger respondents expressed more critical stances towards the clergy, while respondents living in large cities of the country had more relaxed stances towards clergy than those living in small towns and rural areas. Living in a proximity to a Roman Catholic church in rural areas determined the prevalent anticlerical attitudes among the Lithuanian population.



Author(s):  
Paul Vermeer ◽  
Peer Scheepers

AbstractBackground: Today the Dutch religious landscape is characterized by two opposite trends. On the one hand, there is a massive and dominant trend of religious disaffiliation which mostly affects the Roman Catholic Church and the mainline Protestant churches, while on the other hand the Netherlands also witnesses the emergence of several independent, evangelical congregations of near megachurch size. Purpose: Against the background of these opposite trends, this paper focuses on the second trend and tries to explain why some people join an evangelical congregation. Methods: For this purpose, quantitative data gathered among the audiences of six thriving evangelical congregations are analyzed in view of the following research questions: (1) What was the previous religious affiliation of the people who switched or converted to one of the six participating evangelical congregations? and (2) Which factors induced the switch or conversion to these congregations? Results: Results of bivariate and multivariate analyses show that these congregations attract both mainline and orthodox Protestant switchers as well as a significant number of secular converts, whose decision to join these evangelical congregations is induced by early socialization experiences, their intrinsic religious orientation and the switching of their partner. Closer scrutiny into the background of the apparent secular converts reveals, however, that several of these converts are probably re-affiliates. Although these secular converts indicated to be a religious none in their early teens, their conversion to evangelicalism is in part still induced by certain, early religious socialization experiences. Conclusions and Implications: This insight puts the alleged success of these evangelical congregations in more perspective. It shows that their success is more a matter of circulating, religious believers and not so much a matter of successfully reaching out to the unchurched. In all likelihood, then, thriving evangelical congregations will remain an exception in secular societies like the Netherlands and evangelical church growth in no way marks a break with the ongoing trend of religious disaffiliation.



1979 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 335-340
Author(s):  
C.M. Stafford Poole

Of all the communities and religious orders in the Roman Catholic church that are involved in missionary activity, the Congregation of the Mission, while one of the more extensive, is undoubtedly the least known. Founded in 1625 by Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), its original purpose was the giving of parish missions in the de-Christianized rural areas of France. The rural missions remained a special concern of Saint Vincent's community and it was in this sense that the term “mission” was originally used. Prior to the French Revolution the term missionary was used almost exclusively of members of Saint Vincent's group. In the mid-eighteenth century they also came to be known as Lazarists, a name derived from their motherhouse, the famous Saint-Lazare. Though this name has been used in other countries, the Congregation of the Mission has come to be known by different names in different localities: for instance, Vincentians in the English-speaking world, Padres Paúles in the Spanish-speaking world, and Saint Vincent's Fathers in Nigeria.Reacting against the excessive esprit de corps of numerous religious groups of his time, Vincent de Paul decreed that the work of his missionaries should be without fanfare or publicity. He even forbade some of them from writing histories of the community lest this should lead to corporate pride. It was an unfortunate precedent. This tendency, plus a general lack of historical consciousness, has caused the work of the Congregation of the Mission to be unpublicized and unknown, even by the members themselves.



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