“A Monster of iniquity in my self”: Queer Sacramental Temporality in Thomas Shepard and Michael Wigglesworth

2021 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-222
Author(s):  
Taylor Kraayenbrink
Keyword(s):  
Charles Taylor ◽  
Devotional Literature ◽  
Devotional Practice ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
Queer Temporality

Abstract This article contends, through a reading of Thomas Shepard and Michael Wigglesworth, that puritan devotional practice contains a queer temporality that emphasizes the recurrent experience and recording of personal sinfulness. This queer temporality, articulated in puritan devotional literature in sacramental terms, poses an important challenge to the secularization account Charles Taylor offers in which puritan religious emphasis on righteous conduct leads to ultimately secular projects of social and individual reform.

Literacy, Spirituality of Reading, and Catholic Literary Culture in Sixteenth-Century Spain

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rady Roldán-Figueroa
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Literary Culture ◽  
Devotional Literature ◽  
Attitudes Toward Reading ◽  
Devotional Practice ◽  
Catholic Clergy ◽  
Popular Interest

AbstractClerical attitudes toward reading and the book can help explain the spread of literacy as well as the marked popular interest in devotional literature in sixteenth-century Spain. The author argues that the Spanish clergy played an important, although underestimated, role in the dissemination of literality (i.e. knowledge of letters) in the early part of the sixteenth century. The article demonstrates how the catechetical efforts of Catholic clergy contributed to the long term forging of a confessional literary culture, a literary culture informed by Catholic religious ideas. The author moves away from customary scholarly focus on the coercive role of the clergy, examining instead how members of the clergy crafted a spirituality of reading. The article thus explores how the Spanish clergy elaborated a constructive understanding of reading that fused together the practice of reading, understood as spiritual/devotional practice, with the contents of the faith. Synodal constitutions as well as diverse genres of devotional literature are brought to bear as the author explains how the Spanish clergy endeavored to make a lay Catholic reader.

From Crusades to Colonization: Violence in Secular and Religious Political Theory

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Xavier Scott
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
International Law ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
State Power ◽  
Charles Taylor ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Beliefs And Values

This paper examines the transition in political philosophy between the medieval and early-modern periods by focusing on the emergence of sovereignty doctrine. Scholars such as Charles Taylor and John Rawls have focused on the ability of modern-states to overcome conflicts between different religious confessionals. In contrast, this paper seeks to examine some of the peace-promoting features of Latin-Christendom and some of the conflict-promoting features of modern-secular states. The Christian universalism of the medieval period is contrasted with the colonial ventures promoted by the Peace of Westphalia. This paper’s goal is not to argue that secularism is in fact more violent than religion. Rather, it seeks to demonstrate the major role that religion played in early modern philosophy and the development of sovereignty doctrine. It argues against the view that the modern, secular state is capable of neutrality vis-à-vis religion, and also combats the view that the secular nature of modern international law means that it is neutral to the different beliefs and values of the world’s peoples. These observations emphasize the ways in which state power and legitimacy are at the heart of the secular turn in political philosophy. 

Vorarlberg. Baukultur für alle. / Vorarlberg. Building culture for all.

ARCHALP ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 126-137
Author(s):  
Marina Hämmerle
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Corporate Identity ◽  
Master Planning ◽  
Urban And Regional Planning ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
Great Contrast ◽  
Rhine Valley ◽  
Urban And Regional Development

We cannot understand the development of Vorarlberg’s architectural culture without its spatial, topographical, and socio-economic context. There is a great contrast between rural valleys and the busy, semi-urban Rhine Valley. With their exemplary buildings, states and municipalities model the production of excellent, contemporary architecture. Industrial and commercial architecture has achieved an impressive corporate identity as well. However, we rarely find the same quality in residential construction. Because of the high cost of real estate and construction apartment buildings have grown up like mushrooms, intruding upon areas formerly predominated by detached housing. Urban sprawl has eliminated the borders between the 29 municipalities of the Rhine Valley, resulting in a giant suburban landscape. To remedy this process, the players cooperate with the regional authorities as they carry out their vision of urban planning, including guidelines and ideas. Because planning and production have become so complex, urban and regional development has turned into an immense challenge. Provincial and municipal authorities value openness, participation, common good, ecology, and sustainability and involve citizens and adapt the process to their needs. Still, they must consider subsidy rules and regulations, which, until now, have privileged private property over common good and have prioritized ecological standards over architectural quality and the concerns of urban planning. Since 1997, the Vorarlberg Architecture Institute, has inspired, challenged, and spoken for the architectural-cultural scene. It continues to mediate and complement the discourse and activities of the Central Association of the Architects of Vorarlberg. In addition, the Chamber of Architects strives to improve competition procedures. The Energy Institute Vorarlberg supports ecology and promotes sustainability. The Quality Association “vorarlberger_holzbaukunst” has promoted the renaissance of timber construction. Carpenters and architects actively support the prefabrication and development of new technical solutions. Similarly, the members of the Werkraum Bregenzerwald, a craftsmen’s association, continue and transform the cultural heritage in sophisticated and resource-friendly ways, as evidenced by many buildings and the “Werkraumhaus” itself. Vorarlberg’s hospitality industry plays an important role in supporting and promoting the architectural culture. However, thoughtful and coordinated master planning is necessary to expand the quality of individual architectural projects to urban and regional planning and construction. This transition will be the most important challenge for the period of urban densification. Vorarlberg may be Alpine – even rural – but it is urban without doubt.[English translation by Ingeborg Fink].

A Review on Recent Trends in Nanomaterials and Nanocomposites for Environmental Applications

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kannappan Panchamoorthy Gopinath ◽  
Malolan Rajagopal ◽  
Abhishek Krishnan ◽  
Shweta Kolathur Sreerama
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Environmental Remediation ◽  
Carbon Capture ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
Term Basis ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Water And Soil Pollution

Background: Depletion and contamination of environmental resources such as water, air and soil caused by human activities is an increasingly important challenge faced around the world. The consequences of environmental pollution are felt acutely by all living beings, both on a short and long-term basis, thereby making methods of remediation of environmental pollution an urgent requirement. Objectives: The objective of this review is to dissect the complications caused by environmental degradation, highlight advancements in the field of nanotechnology and to scrutinize its applications in environmental remediation. Furthermore, the review aims to concisely explain the merits and drawbacks of nanotechnology compared to existing methods. Conclusion: The current and potential applications of nanomaterials and nanocomposites in the prevention, control and reduction of air, water and soil pollution and the mechanisms involved have been elucidated, as have their various merits and demerits. The applications of nanotechnology in the fields of carbon capture and agriculture have also received attention in this review.

Human Double Embeddedness

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Marandiuc
Keyword(s):  
Charles Taylor ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Recognition ◽  
Authentic Self ◽  
Human Subjectivity

The chapter proposes that human beings are conditioned by a double embeddedness: humans are immersed in inescapable frameworks of meaning and shaped by relationships of significance. In dialogue with Charles Taylor, the chapter discusses how these two elements are constitutive features of human subjectivity and how they relate to each other. In order to operate, subjectivity needs a horizon of meaning, which accrues in relationships of attachment that, in turn, thrive under the canopy of common meaning. After discussing the specificity of one such framework, the culture of authenticity, the chapter delves more deeply into one of its paradoxical dimensions: recognition. It is shown how human recognition from loving others is an ineliminable trait for an authentic self, the implication of which is that relationships of significance constitute relational homes that “house” the human self as it grows and flourishes and as it heals when broken.

Lutherans and the Suffering of Christ

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Heal
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Devotional Literature ◽  
Physical Pain ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Mining Region

Chapter 5 focuses on one particular type of Lutheran devotional image: the crucifix. It examines transformations in Lutheran Passion piety from the early Reformation to the era of Paul Gerhardt (1607–76), using this to illustrate the increasing significance accorded to images. Luther himself had condemned the excesses of late-medieval Passion piety, with its emphasis on compassion for Christ and the Virgin Mary, on physical pain and on tears. From the later sixteenth century onwards, however, Lutheran sermons, devotional literature, prayers and poetry described Christ’s suffering in increasingly graphic terms. Alongside this, late-medieval images of the Passion were restored and new images were produced. Drawing on case studies from the Erzgebirge, a prosperous mining region in southern Saxony, and Upper Lusatia, the chapter investigates the ways in which images of the Passion were used in Lutheran communities during the seventeenth century.

Scepticism about Inference to the Best Explanation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Weintraub
Keyword(s):  
Epistemic Position ◽  
Important Challenge

Scepticism about inference to the best explanation is far less often discussed than scepticism about another ampliative form of inference, enumerative induction. Both of these inference forms are widely used, and scepticism about either can pose an important challenge. This chapter aims to redress the imbalance by giving scepticism about inference to the best explanation the attention it, too, deserves. The chapter’s conclusion is that inference to the best explanation, even to the observable, may be in a worse epistemic position than enumerative induction. The reason for this is that there are sceptical arguments that target inference to the best explanation which do not have inductive analogues, but the converse is not true.

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