Hellenistic Empires

2021 ◽  
pp. 167-197
Author(s):  
Christelle Fischer-Bovet
Keyword(s):  
Persian Empire ◽  
Monetary Policies ◽  
Local Elites ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Recent Scholarship

The incessant rivalries between the Ptolemaic and the Seleucid empires, the two largest empires issued from Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian Empire, generated an expansion and a growing complexity of their administration. Moving beyond past colonial approaches, recent scholarship points to their sustainability, as they were among the longer lasting empires in the eastern Ancient Mediterranean. Their institutions proved resilient, internal decay and revolts leading at times to reconstruction under the same dynasty. The capacity of these empires for war-making and state-making are compared, as well as their military and economic goals, including their different monetary policies. These empires were able to penetrate many aspects of their multicultural societies through their integration of segments of the local elites into their state machinery, which was facilitated by the central ideological figure of their kings, who supported and infiltrated local religious traditions, though perhaps less in the Seleucid case.

Municipal statecraft

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Lauermann
Keyword(s):  
Urban Policy ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Place Branding ◽  
Standard Operating Procedure ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Growth Machine ◽  
Local Elites ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Entrepreneurial City ◽  
Standard Operating

The entrepreneurial city is no longer (only) a growth machine: recession and austerity, new forms of financialization, and diverse experiments in urban policy have diluted local elites’ focus on growth. But entrepreneurial urban governance remains remarkably resilient despite its inability to deliver growth. Indeed, in many cities entrepreneurial tactics – e.g. municipal speculation, place branding, and inter-urban competition – are simply standard operating procedure. Recent scholarship on entrepreneurial urban governance demonstrates a need for re-theorizing the assumed interdependence between entrepreneurial practices and growth politics. This calls into question the nature of the ‘entrepreneurs’ of the entrepreneurial city, that is, the nature of municipal states. They increasingly (i) apply entrepreneurial practices to multiple governance agendas in parallel to growth, (ii) evaluate their portfolios in both speculative and more broadly experimental ways, and (iii) challenge top-down narratives about inter-urban competition through inter-urban diplomacy. Each of these characteristics shows the disruptive potential of interventionist forms of municipal statecraft.

Conclusion: Barth’s Dreams

2019 ◽  
pp. 257-264
Author(s):  
S. Mark Heim
Keyword(s):  
Free Choice ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Kingdom Of Heaven ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Conversation Partner

This concluding chapter to the collection of experiments with Karl Barth and comparative theology explores the two great moments in Barth’s relationship to religions: critique of all religion as idolatry and affirmation that God is free to act in and through religions without restraint. Heim leads with reflection on how his own theological work has been shaped both by interreligious engagement and Barth’s confessional theology. He points out the particular usefulness of Barth’s critique of religion in a time when much recent scholarship has highlighted the problems with the history and use of that term. In addition, Barth is a valuable conversation partner for other religions because of his fierce commitment to the particularity of divine revelation. Late in life, Barth affirmed that God may employ a variety of “parables of the kingdom of heaven,” which opens the possibility that other religious traditions may work in this way. Heim concludes with the suggestion that the “first act of Barth’s insistence on God’s free choice and promise to be present to us in Christ (coupled with recognition that the Christian religion deserves no presumption of that presence) could be balanced by a second act that affirmed God’s freedom to be present and active without restriction.”

Qur’anic Exempla and Late Antique Narratives

2020 ◽  
pp. 127-139
Author(s):  
Marianna Klar
Keyword(s):  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Contextual Framework ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Biblical Figures

The Qur’anic corpus is characterized by a pervasive technique of deploying narratives as exempla relevant to its own addressees. Minimal or more expanded references to biblical figures such as Noah and Moses are utilized in order to illustrate key exhortatory themes in a large number of suras, a feature that has struck readers of the Qur’an from ancient times to the present. Recent scholarship has replaced a search for straightforward parallels in narratives from the Judaeo-Christian tradition with a growing trend for a re-evaluation of the Qur’an’s contextual framework, and a rethinking of the references to other literatures and religious traditions included therein.

The Practice of Native American Christianity

2000 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 834-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. McNally
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
American Religious History ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Christianity ◽  
American Christianity ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Native Communities ◽  
Recent Scholarship

The fields of Native American religious traditions and American religious history have reached something of a shared critical juncture. Although there has been a long standing scholarly interest on writing about missions to Native Americans from a variety of viewpoints, recent years have seen the publication of a number of fresh considerations of the diversity and texture of Native American Christianity—or better, native Christianities. Native communities have long woven the stories, signs, and practices of the Christian tradition into the fabric of their lifeways, in rich and resourceful ways, even under the direst of colonizing circumstances. But only recently has scholarship begun to take this fuller texture into account: most recently, Native and Christian (1996), edited by James Treat; Native American Religious Identity (1998), edited by Jace Weaver; Sergei Kan's Memory Eternal: Tlingit Culture and Russian Orthodox Christianity through Two Centuries; Clara Sue Kidwell's Choctaws and Missionaries; and Christopher Vecsey's multivolume study of the varieties of native Catholicism, of which volume two, The Paths of Kateri's Kin (1998), is of most interest here. This recent scholarship reflects new perspectives of native scholars entering the field and more publications that anthologize a range of native Christian viewpoints into single volumes. It has also to do with more sustained accountability among normative scholars to native communities and the way that consultants in those communities imagine their religious lives.

scholarly journals Quran as Scripture in Classical Muslim Scholarship

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1013
Author(s):  
Brannon Wheeler
Keyword(s):  
Primary Source ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Basic Information ◽  
Religious Identities ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Authoritative Text ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Sacred Object

Recent scholarship focuses on the plasticity of the concept of “scripture” as it is defined by different religious traditions. Based on its contents, the Quran is most commonly compared to the Bible, yet such an approach misses the distinct way that the Quran is understood as an authoritative text by classical Muslim scholarship. Even “basic” information—knowing the number of words, the names of surahs, the structure of the text—is essential to understanding how Muslims see the Quran as scripture and the foundations upon which it is built. Muslims regard the Quran as the word of God, revealed to the prophet Muhammad, the primary source for determining the beliefs and practices of Islam. The text of the Quran is used in the teaching of Arabic and is the focus of Islamic learning. It is regarded as interceding on behalf of those who revere it, is recited as a part of regular rituals, and is treated as a sacred object in ritual and everyday settings. The exegetical and ritual use of the Quran is a fundamental means for Muslims to both relate and distinguish themselves from other religious identities, especially those such as Jews and Christians, with whom they share a common scriptural tradition.

Text and Tradition in Early Modern North India

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
North India ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Northern India ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Literary Cultures ◽  
Literary Histories

Early modern India—a period extending from the fifteenth to the late eighteenth century—saw dramatic cultural, religious, and political changes as it went from Sultanate, to Mughal, to early colonial rule. Witness to the rise of multiple literary and devotional traditions, this period was characterized by pulsating political energy and cultural vibrancy. Text and Tradition in Early Modern North India brings together recent scholarship on the languages, literatures, and religious traditions of northern India to highlight the importance of reconstructing multilingual literary histories. Focusing on the rise of vernacular languages, the volume underscores the manifold connections across regions, languages, communities, and traditions to reveal the diversity of literary and religious practices in this multilingual world. Analysing the emergence and development of literary cultures of north India, Text and Tradition also highlights processes of exchange and influence across these cultures. Spanning across various disciplines, the chapters here shed new light upon not only existing literary and religious traditions, but also those that may have disappeared but which should not be forgotten.

Recent Scholarship in Spanish Literature

1968 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-124
Author(s):  
Alexander A. Parker
Keyword(s):  
Spanish Literature ◽  
Recent Scholarship
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