Cultures of Calvinism in Early Modern Scotland

Author(s):  
Steven J. Reid

This chapter highlights recent work on the history of Calvinist culture in Scotland between the Reformation of 1560 and the end of the reign of James VI and I (1567–1625). It looks at both disciplinary culture and the ways in which Calvinism manifested in familial, social, noble, and intellectual life. While cumulative research on the system of church courts and the ‘culture of penitence’ has led to a much better understanding of everyday religious life, this chapter suggests a variety of directions in which future research could be taken. These include examining the pace at which Reformed culture embedded itself in Scottish society post-Reformation; the role of the nobility in religion; the experience of religious life in relation to gender and sexuality; the legacy of Renaissance humanism; and the roles of Reformed scholasticism and neo-Latin in intellectual life.

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Esethu Monakali

This article offers an analysis of the identity work of a black transgender woman through life history research. Identity work pertains to the ongoing effort of authoring oneself and positions the individual as the agent; not a passive recipient of identity scripts. The findings draw from three life history interviews. Using thematic analysis, the following themes emerge: institutionalisation of gender norms; gender and sexuality unintelligibility; transitioning and passing; and lastly, gender expression and public spaces. The discussion follows from a poststructuralist conception of identity, which frames identity as fluid and as being continually established. The study contends that identity work is a complex and fragmented process, which is shaped by other social identities. To that end, the study also acknowledges the role of collective agency in shaping gender identity.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
KAARLO HAVU

Abstract The article analyses the emergence of decorum (appropriateness) as a central concept of rhetorical theory in the early sixteenth-century writings of Erasmus and Juan Luis Vives. In rhetorical theory, decorum shifted the emphasis from formulaic rules to their creative application in concrete cases. In doing so, it emphasized a close analysis of the rhetorical situation (above all the preferences of the audience) and underscored the persuasive possibilities of civil conversation as opposed to passionate, adversarial rhetoric. The article argues that the stress put on decorum in early sixteenth-century theory is not just an internal development in the history of rhetoric but linked to far wider questions concerning the role of rhetoric in religious and secular lives. Decorum appears as a solution both to the divisiveness of language in the context of the Reformation and dynastic warfare of the early sixteenth century and as an adaptation of the republican tradition of political rhetoric to a changed, monarchical context. Erasmus and Vives maintained that decorum not only suppressed destructive passions and discord, but that it was only through polite and civil rhetoric (or conversation) that a truly effective persuasion was possible in a vast array of contexts.


Author(s):  
David H. Price

Renaissance artists represented the Bible as the preeminent monument of classical culture well before humanist scholars began their revolutionary efforts to recover the ancient forms of biblical texts. Once Renaissance humanism and the Reformation turned decisively to biblical philology (and began overturning the authority of the Vulgate Bible and medieval theology), artists supported their creation of innovative conceptualizations of the Bible. Remarkably, the three most influential artists of the Northern Renaissance—Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and Hans Holbein the Younger—made profound contributions to all the major Renaissance and Reformation Bibles in Germany and Switzerland and to the biblical humanist movement generally. The chapter concludes with an introduction to the history of biblical humanism, including the emergence of new authoritative Bibles beginning with Erasmus’s first edition of the New Testament in the original Greek.


1975 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. S. Walsh-Brennan

An analysis of 11 children convicted of homicide, one girl and ten boys, indicates a maternal over-dominant relationship in eight of the males studied. The murderers were Found to have more co-operative personalities than other children Found guilty of non-capital offences and showed both normal intelligence and personality factors. Despite a history of ‘blackouts' in several cases, all were Found on investigation to be free from both major and minor epilepsy. Difficulty was experienced in determining the presence or absence of parental alcoholism, promiscuity and criminal convictions. All of the ten boys and the girl came from normal homes and apart from minor offences none were involved previously in serious anti-social behaviour. Future research is indicated on two aspects: role of the working mother with particular reference to maternal dominance, and the ‘Cycle of Deprivation Theory’.


2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Biebricher

AbstractThe essay aims at an assessment of whether and to what extent the history of governmentality can be considered to be a genealogy. To this effect a generic account of core tenets of Foucauldian genealogy is developed. The three core tenets highlighted are (1) a radically contingent view of history that is (2) expressed in a distinct style and (3) highlights the impact of power on this history. After a brief discussion of the concept of governmentality and a descriptive summary of its history, this generic account is used as a measuring device to be applied to the history of governmentality. While both, the concept of governmentality and also its history retain certain links to genealogical precepts, my overall conclusion is that particularly the history of governmentality (and not necessarily Foucault's more programmatic statements about it) departs from these precepts in significant ways. Not only is there a notable difference in style that cannot be accounted for entirely by the fact that this history is produced in the medium of lectures. Aside from a rather abstract consideration of the importance of societal struggles, revolts and other forms of resistance, there is also little reference to the role of these phenomena in the concrete dynamics of governmental shifts that are depicted in the historical narrative. Finally, in contrast to the historical contingency espoused by genealogy and the programmatic statements about governmentality, the actual history of the latter can be plausibly, albeit unsympathetically, read in a rather teleological fashion according to which the transformations of governmentality amount to the unfolding of an initially implicit notion of governing that is subsequently realised in ever more consistent ways. In the final section of the essay I turn towards the field of governmentality studies, arguing that some of the more problematic tendencies in this research tradition can be traced back to Foucault's own account. In particular, the monolithic conceptualisation of governmentality and the implicit presentism of an excessive focus on Neoliberalism found in many of the studies in governmentality can be linked back to problems in Foucault's own history of governmenality. The paper concludes with suggestions for a future research agenda for the governmentality studies that point beyond Foucault's own account and its respective limitations.


1994 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 261-274
Author(s):  
T. N. Cooper

The great interest generated by the theme of this year’s conference reflects the central importance of children in the history of the Christian Church, yet at the same time their omission from much of historical writing. For all but the recent past this is largely the result of the difficulties with the source material itself, and this is certainly true for historians of the Church during the medieval and Reformation periods. The main concern of the administrative records of the Catholic Church was with adults and, in particular, ordained men. It is to the schools that we must look for the most useful references to children and, more specifically, to the choir schools for evidence of the role of boys in the liturgy.


125 scholarly articlesThe Oxford Encyclopedia of Martin Luther is a collaboration of the leading scholars in the field of Reformation research and the thought, life, and legacy of influence – for good and for ill – of Martin Luther. In 2017 the world marks 500 years since the beginning of the public work of Luther, whose protest against corrupt practices and the way theology was taught captured Europe’s attention from 1517 onward.Comprising 125 extensive articles, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Martin Luther examines:• the contexts that shaped his social and intellectual world, such as previous theological and institutional developments• the genres in which he worked, including some he essentially created• the theological and ethical writings that make up the lion’s share of his massive intellectual output• the complicated and contested history of his reception across the globe and across a span of disciplinesThis indispensable work seeks both to answer perennial questions as well as to raise new ones. Intentionally forward-looking in approach, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Martin Luther provides a reliable survey to such issues as, for instance, how did Luther understand God? What did he mean by his notion of “vocation?” How did he make use of, but also transform, medieval thought patterns and traditions? How did Luther and the Reformation re-shape Europe and launch modernity? What were his thoughts about Islam and Judaism, and how did the history of the effects of those writings unfold?Scholars from a variety of disciplines – economic history, systematic theology, gender and cultural studies, philosophy, and many more – propose an agenda for examining future research questions prompted by the harvest of decades of intense historical scrutiny and theological inquiry.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-110
Author(s):  
Jakub Štofaník

The article focuses on the role of religion among working-class inhabitants of two industrial towns in the Czech lands, Ostrava and Kladno, during the first half of twentieth century. It analyses the enormous conversion movement, the position of new actors of religious life, and the religious behavior of workers. Looking at the history of the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, the study understands religion as one of the constituent factors of society and its historic change. Traditional, new, and nonconformist religious actors appear as active agents in the private and public life of industrial towns. They mobilized workers, young people, and women, and they produced the major arena in which social, cultural, and church history come together.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-132
Author(s):  
Collin Cornell

Abstract In spite of renewed scholarly interest in the religion of Judeans living on the island of Elephantine during the Persian period, only one recent study has addressed the religious significance of the fired clay female figurines discovered there. The present article seeks to place these objects back on the research agenda. After summarizing the history of research, it also makes a new appraisal of the role of these objects in the religious life of Elephantine Judeans. Two factors prompt this reevaluation: first, newly found examples of the same figurine types; and second, Bob Becking’s recent research on Elephantine Aramaic texts attesting the phenomenon of “lending deities.”


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