Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachelle Gilmour
Keyword(s):  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Martha Nussbaum ◽  
Divine Retribution ◽  
Divine Violence ◽  
Book Of Samuel ◽  
Babylonian Exile

Much of the drama, theological paradox, and interpretive interest in the book of Samuel derives from instances of God’s violence in the story. The beginnings of Israel’s monarchy are interwoven with God’s violent rejection of the houses of Eli and of Saul, deaths connected to the Ark of the Covenant, and the outworking of divine retribution after David’s violent appropriation of Bathsheba as his wife. Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel explores these narratives of divine violence from ethical, literary, and political perspectives, in dialogue with the thought of Immanuel Kant, Martha Nussbaum, and Walter Benjamin. The book addresses such questions as: Is the God of Samuel a capricious God with a troubling dark side? Is punishment for sin the only justifiable violence in these narratives? Why does God continue to punish those already declared forgiven? What is the role of God’s emotions in acts of divine violence? In what political contexts might narratives of divine violence against God’s own kings and God’s own people have arisen? The result is a fresh commentary on the dynamics of transgression, punishment, and their upheavals in the book of Samuel. The book offers a sensitive portrayal of God’s literary characterisation, with a focus on divine emotion and its effects. By identifying possible political contexts in which the narratives arose, God’s violence is further illumined through its relation to human violence, northern and southern monarchic ideology, and Judah’s experience of the Babylonian exile.

The LORD Kills and Brings to Life

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Rachelle Gilmour
Keyword(s):  
Dark Side ◽  
Ethical Evaluation ◽  
Divine Violence ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Book Of Samuel ◽  
The Relationship

Through the example of David’s census in 2 Sam 24, key issues related to divine violence in the book of Samuel are introduced: the occurrence of inexplicable divine violence; the interplay of divine and human sovereignty; God’s emotion; and the relationship between forgiveness and punishment. The parameters for the use of the term ‘divine violence’ in this study are defined, taking into account the distinction between subjective and objective violence and Walter Benjamin’s technical use of the term. The methodology of this study is outlined. Debate regarding a proposed ‘dark side’ of God will be addressed through contemporary thinkers who challenge the dominance of retributive frameworks in ethical evaluation. An account of the characterisation of God will be given that acknowledges a diversity of traditions in the text and focuses minimally on narrative gaps. Political contexts for the divine violence will be proposed, both monarchic and exilic.

The LORD will Exalt the Power of his Anointed

2021 ◽  
pp. 191-200
Author(s):  
Rachelle Gilmour
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Reasoning ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
The Political ◽  
Divine Violence ◽  
Book Of Samuel

To conclude, the limits of Kantian retribution for ethics are reviewed and the diversity of approaches to ethical reasoning that may be applied to divine violence in the book of Samuel are emphasised. Three ethical, literary, and political considerations of this study are highlighted. Firstly, the study is organised around instances of subjective violence, but attention to systemic, objective violence has raised alternative evaluations of the ethics of the violence. Secondly, different kinds of emotions/cognitions of God are correlated with the formulations of divine violence. For each emotion/cognition resulting in violence, a corresponding example is given where the same emotion/cognition results in blessing. The contiguity of different formulations of divine violence in 2 Sam 24 suggests a coherence to God’s characterisation despite the diverse traditions, not a ‘light’ and a ‘dark’ side to God. Finally, the political visions of divine violence in the book of Samuel are oriented towards an ideology of the Davidic kings. Although human monarchic sovereignty is expansive, it is also limited by divine violence.

Ethnohistorical Archaeology and the Mythscape of the Naga in the Chiang Saen Basin, Thailand

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Piyawit Moonkham
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Building Construction ◽  
Local People ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
The People ◽  
Divine Retribution ◽  
The Town

Abstract There is a northern Thai story that tells how the naga—a mythical serpent—came and destroyed the town known as Yonok (c. thirteenth century) after its ruler became immoral. Despite this divine retribution, the people of the town chose to rebuild it. Many archaeological sites indicate resettlement during this early historical period. Although many temple sites were constructed in accordance with the Buddhist cosmology, the building patterns vary from location to location and illustrate what this paper calls ‘nonconventional patterns,’ distinct from Theravada Buddhist concepts. These nonconventional patterns of temples seem to have been widely practiced in many early historical settlements, e.g., Yonok (what is now Wiang Nong Lom). Many local written documents and practices today reflect the influence of the naga myth on building construction. This paper will demonstrate that local communities in the Chiang Saen basin not only believe in the naga myth but have also applied the myth as a tool to interact with the surrounding landscapes. The myth is seen as a crucial, communicated element used by the local people to modify and construct physical landscapes, meaning Theravada Buddhist cosmology alone cannot explain the nonconventional patterns. As such, comprehending the role of the naga myth enables us to understand how local people, past and present, have perceived the myth as a source of knowledge to convey their communal spaces within larger cosmological concepts in order to maintain local customs and legitimise their social space.

scholarly journals Power Imbalance and the Dark Side of the Captive Agri-food Supplier–Buyer Relationship

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Glavee-Geo ◽  
Per Engelseth ◽  
Arnt Buvik
Keyword(s):  
Financial Performance ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Curvilinear Relationship ◽  
Power Imbalance ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Key Informants ◽  
Economic Satisfaction

AbstractThis paper highlights the dark side of power imbalance regarding its consequences in agri-food supplier–buyer relationships. We report on findings from two studies. The first study is based on a sample of 105 key informants, while study 2 is based on a sample of 444 key informants, all from the cocoa agri-food supply market of Ghana. While the first study focuses on the antecedents of power imbalance and its consequences, the second study explores the role of cooperatives/collective action in minimizing supplier exploitation. Data from these studies were analysed using the partial least squares technique (SmartPLS). Analysis of these findings shows switching costs’ impact on power imbalance to be curvilinear, while power imbalance has a curvilinear relationship with opportunism. The negative consequences of power imbalance are further exacerbated by dependency and the lack of joint action. Furthermore, we found the negative impact of power imbalance on financial performance to be stronger for non-cooperative members than for cooperative members, while, counterintuitively, we found the positive impact of economic satisfaction on financial performance to be stronger for non-cooperative members than for cooperative members.

Walter Benjamin

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Children's Theater ◽  
Youth Movement ◽  
Language Play ◽  
Childhood Play ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Political Philosopher ◽  
English Speaking World

Cultural theorist and political philosopher Walter Benjamin (b. 1892–d. 1940) reflected on the thought processes and imaginative life of the child both in dedicated writings and, tangentially, in his major works. As a young man Benjamin wrote essays critical of high school education, and he was a supporter of the German Youth Movement until he became disillusioned with its nationalist tone. Subsequently Benjamin’s engagement shifted toward early childhood and took many forms: he collected antique children’s books; recorded the sayings and opinions of his infant son; made radio broadcasts for children; composed a memoir of his own childhood years in Berlin; and devoted a number of prose fragments to aspects of drama for young people, play, toys, and the numinous qualities of childhood reading. Influenced by the German Romantic view of the purity of a child’s vision that removes the subject-object barrier, Benjamin suggests in these works that in the course of developing an intense relationship with its immediate locality the child simultaneously absorbs and animates the innate qualities of the natural or manufactured object. Benjamin also regarded language play, witnessed in the utterances of his young son and the magical resonance of his own childhood misunderstandings, as essential to the formation of memory images and the imagination. He does not, however, present an idealized vision of childhood, since children are engaged in a cycle of destruction as well as renewal, and play with the detritus of daily life is essential to the growth of the child’s autonomy—as indeed are acts of mimesis and an immersion in the imaginative world of the book and its illustration. Alongside these observations on the child’s intellectual and imaginative development, Benjamin assumes the role of mentor in broadcasts for children that seek to encourage a historical and political consciousness in the young. He returns to his student interest in education in essays on the nature of colonial and proletarian pedagogy, and in a manifesto on proletarian children’s theater. Initially, little critical attention was paid to Benjamin’s writings on childhood in the English-speaking world, partly because of their gradual appearance in English translation. It is only in recent decades that the significance of Benjamin’s illuminating reflections on childhood, play, and education has become apparent, and that the autobiographical Berlin Childhood around 1900) has gained recognition as an expression in serial “thought-images” of the speculation on memory and materialist historiography that is essential to his philosophy.

scholarly journals A Dual Role of Heme Oxygenase-1 in Cancer Cells

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shih-Kai Chiang ◽  
Shuen-Ei Chen ◽  
Ling-Chu Chang
Keyword(s):  
Cell Death ◽  
Heme Oxygenase ◽  
Cancer Progression ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Causative Factor ◽  
Protective Role ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Heme Oxygenase 1 ◽  
Cellular Iron

Heme oxygenase (HO)-1 is known to metabolize heme into biliverdin/bilirubin, carbon monoxide, and ferrous iron, and it has been suggested to demonstrate cytoprotective effects against various stress-related conditions. HO-1 is commonly regarded as a survival molecule, exerting an important role in cancer progression and its inhibition is considered beneficial in a number of cancers. However, increasing studies have shown a dark side of HO-1, in which HO-1 acts as a critical mediator in ferroptosis induction and plays a causative factor for the progression of several diseases. Ferroptosis is a newly identified iron- and lipid peroxidation-dependent cell death. The critical role of HO-1 in heme metabolism makes it an important candidate to mediate protective or detrimental effects via ferroptosis induction. This review summarizes the current understanding on the regulatory mechanisms of HO-1 in ferroptosis. The amount of cellular iron and reactive oxygen species (ROS) is the determinative momentum for the role of HO-1, in which excessive cellular iron and ROS tend to enforce HO-1 from a protective role to a perpetrator. Despite the dark side that is related to cell death, there is a prospective application of HO-1 to mediate ferroptosis for cancer therapy as a chemotherapeutic strategy against tumors.

scholarly journals Employee–Spouse Perceptual Congruence in Employee Work-to-Family Enrichment Affects Family and Work Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Relationship Conflict

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianlan Chen ◽  
Yu Tian
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Exhaustion ◽  
Family Cohesion ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
Relationship Conflict ◽  
Work Outcomes ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Perceptual Congruence ◽  
Family Enrichment

Various studies have demonstrated that work-to-family enrichment (WFE) benefits employees in both the work and home domains. However, these findings may overstate the benefits of WFE and ignore its potential dark side. We advance the research on WFE by integrating conflict theory into the concept of WFE to investigate whether and how employee–spouse perceptual congruence in employee WFE influences employee family cohesion and emotional exhaustion. The results of polynomial regressions on 225 employee and spouse dyads revealed that the perceptual congruence in employee WFE between employees and spouses was negatively associated with relationship conflict. Additionally, asymmetrical incongruence effects were found, wherein spouses perceived a higher relationship conflict with employees when their perceptions of employee WFE were lower than those of the employees. Furthermore, spouses' perceived relationship conflict with employees mediated the influences of employee–spouse perceptual congruence in employee WFE on employee family cohesion and emotional exhaustion.

scholarly journals Who’s Afraid of the Audience? Digital and Post-Digital Perspectives on Aesthetics

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lotte Philipsen
Keyword(s):  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Practical Analysis ◽  
The Way

This article analyses how works of art that make use of or refer to digital technology can be approached, analysed, and understood aesthetically from two different perspectives. One perspective, which I shall term a ‘digital’ perspective, mainly focuses on poetics (or production) and technology when approach- ing the works, whereas the other, which I shall term a ‘post-digital’ perspective, focuses on aesthetic experience (or reception) when approaching the works. What I tentatively and for the purpose of practical analysis term the ‘digital’ and the ‘post-digital’ perspectives do not designate two different sets of concrete works of art or artistic practice and neither do they describe different periods.[1] Instead, the two perspectives co-exit as different discursive positions that are concretely ex- pressed in the way we talk about aesthetics in relation to art that makes use of and/or refers to digital technology. In short: When I choose here to talk about a digital and a post-digital perspective, I talk about two fundamentally different ways of ascribing aes- thetic meaning to (the same) concrete works of art. By drawing on the ideas of especially Immanuel Kant and Dominic McIver Lopes, it is the overall purposes of this article to ana- lyse and compare how the two perspectives understand the concept of aesthetics and to discuss some of the implications following from these understandings. As it turns out, one of the most significant implications is the role of the audience. 

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