Ideological Readings of the Fourth Gospel

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warren Carter
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Political ◽  
Fourth Gospel ◽  
Ideological Criticism ◽  
John's Gospel

This article outlines a theoretical framework of ideological criticism and illustrates it with a number of recent discussions of John’s Gospel that utilize ideological and postcolonial approaches, often from specific personal, political, and social ‘locations’ of enquiry. It also examines analyses of John’s engagement with the personnel and structures of power of the imperializing-colonizing Roman empire. By identifying a significant body of current scholarship that employs these approaches the article demonstrates the vitality of questions asked and insights gained; arguing that the political contexts and implications both of the Gospel and of any reading are unavoidable, it invites mainstream Johannine studies to examine its own, often unspecified, ideological commitments.

Religion and the Construction of a Christian Roman Polity

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-113
Author(s):  
Francesco Rotiroti
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Theories Of Religion ◽  
Ancient Christianity

This article seeks to define a theoretical framework for the study of the relation between religion and the political community in the Roman world and to analyze a particular case in point. The first part reviews two prominent theories of religion developed in the last fifty years through the combined efforts of anthropologists and classicists, arguing for their complementary contribution to the understanding of religion's political dimension. It also provides an overview of the approaches of recent scholarship to the relation between religion and the Roman polity, contextualizing the efforts of this article toward a theoretical reframing of the political and institutional elements of ancient Christianity. The second part focuses on the religious legislation of the Theodosian Code, with particular emphasis on the laws against the heretics and their performance in the construction of the political community. With their characteristic language of exclusion, these laws signal the persisting overlap between the borders of the political community and the borders of religion, in a manner that one would expect from pre-Christian civic religions. Nevertheless, the political essence of religion did also adapt to the ecumenical dimension of the empire. Indeed, the religious norms of the Code appear to structure a community whose borders tend to be identical to the borders of the whole inhabited world, within which there is no longer room for alternative affiliations; the only possible identity outside this community is that of the insane, not belonging to any political entity and thus unable to possess any right.

Getting Over Athens

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Wiater
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Model ◽  
Dionysius Of Halicarnassus ◽  
The One

This chapter examines the ambivalent image of Classical Athens in Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ Roman Antiquities. This image reflects a deep-seated ambiguity of Dionysius’ Classicist ideology: on the one hand, there is no question for Dionysius that Athenocentric Hellenicity failed, and that the Roman empire has superseded Athens’ role once and for all as the political and cultural centre of the oikoumene. On the other, Dionysius accepted Rome’s supremacy as legitimate partly because he believed (and wanted his readers to believe) her to be the legitimate heir of Classical Athens and Classical Athenian civic ideology. As a result, Dionysius develops a new model of Hellenicity for Roman Greeks loyal to the new political and cultural centre of Rome. This new model of Greek identity incorporates and builds on Classical Athenian ideals, institutions, and culture, but also supersedes them.

Gods Save the King

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Maria Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
The Political ◽  
Roman Religion ◽  
Religious Conflicts ◽  
Fear Of God ◽  
Moral Superiority

In Alexander Ross’s Mel Heliconium (1642) and Pansebeia (1653), the ancient gods and the stories surrounding them are the product of the greatly successful civil theology of the Roman Empire. Ross’s first mythography was written to intervene, on the royalist and Laudian side, in the political and religious conflicts of the Civil Wars. In such times, the virtuous Romans and their use of religion could provide a positive example for governing England. Ross’s portrayal of Roman religion dissociates it from the disreputable beginnings of paganism and emphasizes its monotheism, rationality, moral superiority, and charity. In their undisputed political wisdom, ideal princes of the Roman Empire championed religion because they knew that this would stabilize their reign and keep people in order through the fear of God. Ross’s mythographical work attempts to re-create the ancient function of the fables, by using them to restore the people’s fear of God and king.

Imperial Presidency and the Neo-patrimonialization of Disorder in post-Authoritarian Nigeria

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-77
Author(s):  
Adeniyi S. Basiru
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Political ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Imperial Presidency ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Presidential Democracies ◽  
Data Source ◽  
Public Disorder

The president and the network of offices that are linked to him, in modern presidential democracies, symbolize a neutral state that does not meddle in order-threatening political struggles. It however seems that this liberal ideal is hardly the case in many illiberal democracies. Against this background, this article examines the presidential roots of public disorder in post-military Nigeria. Drawing on documentary data source and deploying neo-patrimonial theory as theoretical framework, it argues that the presidency in Nigeria, given the historical context under which it has emerged as well as the political economy of neo-patrimonialism and prebendalism that has nurtured it, is a central participant in the whole architecture of public disorder. The paper recommends, among others, the fundamental restructuring of the Nigerian neo-colonial state and the political economy that undergird it.Keywords: Imperial Presidency; Neo-patrimonialism; Disorder; Authoritarianism; Nigeria.

Johannine Commentaries in the Early Church

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Lamb
Keyword(s):  
Early Church ◽  
Fourth Gospel ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
The Face ◽  
Greek Tradition ◽  
John's Gospel ◽  
Scholastic Tradition

This chapter sets the making of commentaries on John’s Gospel, particularly within the Greek tradition, in the context of ancient Greek scholarship and the emergence of a scholastic tradition within the early Church. These commentaries drew on established philological conventions in order to clarify ambiguities and complexities within the text. At the same time, they served to amplify the meaning of the text in the face of new questions, controversies and preoccupations. Commentators used John’s Gospel ‘to think with’. With its allusive prose and symbolic discourse, the Fourth Gospel provoked commentators to respond to on-going doctrinal debate and to work out wider questions about Christian doctrine and identity.

scholarly journals The epistemology of democracy: The epistemic virtues of democracy

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-70
Author(s):  
Snjezana Prijic-Samarzija
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social System ◽  
Epistemic Justification ◽  
Collective Intelligence ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Political ◽  
Epistemic Values ◽  
Epistemic Virtues ◽  
Political Justification

The new and vibrant field of the epistemology of democracy, or the inquiry about the epistemic justification of democracy as a social system of procedures, institutions, and practices, as a cross-disciplinary endeavour, necessarily encounters both epistemologists and political philosophers. Despite possible complaints that this kind of discussion is either insufficiently epistemological or insufficiently political, my approach explicitly aims to harmonize the political and epistemic justification of democracy. In this article, I tackle some fundamental issues concerning the nature of the epistemic justification of democracy and the best theoretical framework for harmonizing political and epistemic values. I also inquire whether the proposed division of epistemic labour and the inclusion of experts can indeed improve the epistemic quality of decision-making without jeopardizing political justification. More specifically, I argue in favour of three theses. First, not only democratic procedures but also the outcomes of democracy, as a social system, need to be epistemically virtuous. Second, democracy?s epistemic virtues are more than just a tool for achieving political goals. Third, an appropriate division of epistemic labour has to overcome the limitations of both individual and collective intelligence.

scholarly journals Colonial Policies and Post- Independence Development in Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 04 (04) ◽  
Author(s):  
Obinna Nwodim ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Data ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dependency Theory ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Policies ◽  
Indirect Rule

This paper argues that the British colonialists introduced indirect rule to deliberately slow down development in Nigeria and therefore examines how policies influenced the nature and character of socio-cultural and political activities in Nigeria, as well as made it dependent on the west for the sustenance of its economy. It adopts the Dependency Theory as theoretical framework. The study is qualitative and thus obtained secondary data from text books, journals, newspapers and magazines both online and offline, which were content analyzed and formed the basis of conclusion. It observed that the colonial masters had deliberate policies that negatively affected the post-colonial development of Nigeria. It recommended, amongst others, a comprehensive restructuring and overhaul of the political and economic structures that impede development, as well as the reawakening of the consciousness of Nigerians for veritable development.

scholarly journals VAGUENESS AND DISSOCIATION IN ENGLISH POLITICAL NEWS DISCOURSE

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-76
Author(s):  
Katarina Damjanić
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
English Language ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Political News ◽  
News Discourse ◽  
Discourse Interpretation ◽  
Newspaper Articles

The main goal of this paper is to indicate the importance of the issues of vagueness and dissociation in discourse interpretation. The discourse that is taken into consideration is the discourse of political news written in the English language. This particular discourse is widely available to readers and deals with important political issues, which is why the choice of words and phrases should ideally be unbiased and accurate. If not, the readers may misinterpret the discourse and have a wrong impression of the political issue. In this research, newspaper articles are taken as an example of political news discourse. All articles analyzed were written in online British and American broadsheet and tabloid newspapers and they all dealt with the migrant crisis and 2019 Hong Kong protests. By taking into consideration the political context and the theoretical framework used in this research, 44 instances considered to be examples of vagueness and dissociation were identified, which were found in 14 newspaper articles.

scholarly journals LATIN AMERICAN AND BRAZILIAN CONSTITUTIONALISM: THE RIGHTS OF THE TRADITIONAL PEOPLES

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 172-196
Author(s):  
Monique Falcão ◽  
Ricardo Falbo
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional Changes

This article presents the XXI’s constitutionalism as the doctrine of the constitutional law hich supposes to be a theoretical framework able to assure the interpretation of the political and social processes from which political constitutions emerge. Thus, the 88’s Brazilian Constitution proceeded to the recognition of the fundamental rights and norms regarding theprotection of minority rights. The purpose of this work is to investigate if this supposed innovative characteristic of the 88’s Brazilian Constitution is able or not to set historicalconstitutionalism as the continuity or maintenance of the conservative processes of the politicaland social status quo in the country. This article intends to discuss the nature of constitutional changes and the impacts of these changes on the development of constitutionalism in Brazil by analyzing the extent to which political, social, and cultural latin-american processes influenced changes in Brazilian constitutionalism.

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