A Sociology of Sacred Texts

Numen ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Davies
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Academic Press ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
Future Conference ◽  
The Social ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractIn 1992 Sheffield Academic Press will publish a selection of the papers given at this Conference, which was held in Newcastle in July 1991. The Conference was organized by the Department of Religious Studies at Newcastle University. The Head of the Department at the time was Professor John Sawyer. The publication will be edited by the new Head of the Department, Jon Davies, and by Isabel Wollaston, currently a British Academy Post Doctoral Fellow at Oxford. Two of our students-Carol Charlton and Michael Burke-worked extra hours to make sure the organisation functioned. Our thanks are due to them and to all participants. This article is in part a summary of the Conference and of those papers which will appear in the book. It is also a contribution in its own right to an understanding of the relationships between the social sciences [sociology and anthropology] and theology. Several cross-cutting social, personal and professional loyalties can, and often do create degrees of distance, dispute and misunderstanding between the two disciplines. As it happens, this Conference managed to find a respectable acreage of common ground; but it is perhaps useful to mention some of the possible areas of controversy, if only because any future conference will probably have to deal with them more directly than we chose to! Readers will of course realise that the book is still being prepared and that the papers discussed here may well be altered or added to. The premise of this article is that all "TEXTS", be they sacred or secular, ancient or modem, canonical or provisional, are the products of human social transactions, a human context, with all that this means for the processes of text-creation and the business of conscious, purposeful, fallible, writing and editing. Texts and contexts change together; and change each other.

Approach to the Social Sciences in Religion Past and Present

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-20
Author(s):  
Robert Segal
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
The Social

The social sciences do threaten theology/religious studies even when they do not challenge either the reality of God or the reality of belief in the reality of God. The entries in RPP ignore this threat in the name of some wished-for harmony. The entries neither recognize nor refute the challenge of social science to theology/religious studies. They do, then, stand antithetically both to those whom I call "religionists" and to many theologians, for whom there is nothing but a challenge.

Teaching the West and the World from the Massachusetts Framework

1998 ◽  
Vol 180 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-78
Author(s):  
Paul Gagnon
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
World History ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
The West ◽  
The Social ◽  
Curriculum Framework ◽  
Massachusetts History ◽  
Common Problems ◽  
Selection Of

This article summarizes how teachers may implement the Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework as they design and teach courses in Western civilization and world history. It discusses the integration of history, geography, and the social sciences, together with suggested approaches to common problems such as the balance between Western and world studies, selection of main topics and questions, professional development, student assessment, and challenges teachers may confront.

How Not to Use Evolutionary Theory in Politics: A Critique of Peter John

2000 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Dowding
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
Evolutionary Explanation ◽  
Evolutionary Account ◽  
The Social ◽  
Poor Understanding ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Poll Tax

In a recent issue of this journal Peter John (1999) suggests we can use an evolutionary account to explain policy change. In particular he suggests we should see the battle of ideas about policy formation as an evolutionary process and gives as an example the introduction and abolition of the poll tax. John is correct in two claims in his article. First, traditional models of policy-generation tend to ignore the role of ideas, concentrating attention upon the bargaining and power struggles between different sets of competing interests. Secondly, he is right that evolutionary explanation has a place in the social sciences. But these two thoughts are best kept apart and the way he packages them suggests a poor understanding of evolutionary explanation and of the role ideas may play within it. There are at least three problems with his account. First, the object at which he directs explanation —in his example the poll tax—is misspecified. Secondly, he fails to specify a mechanism for the natural selection of ideas, leaving his claim about the promise of evolutionary accounts vague and unsatisfactory. Finally, he fails to distinguish learning as an intentional process from selection as an evolutionary one.

scholarly journals Managerial Self-efficacy and Discretionary Behavior Improving Work Environment for Small Firm Performance

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 259-266
Author(s):  
Mohammed-Aminu Sanda
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Work Environment ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Employee Motivation ◽  
Organizational Goals ◽  
The Social ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Discretionary Behavior

This study explores the self-efficacies and discretionary behaviours exhibited by managers of small Ghanaian firms with the purpose of understanding how the interplay of these two attributes impacted on employee motivation and performances. The selection of participants was guided by the snowballing technique. Data was collected by distributing self-completion questionnaires entailing managerial self-efficacy and discretionary behavior items to 100 study participants who were managers of small firms in two Ghanaian metropolises. The collected data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially using the statistical package for the Social Sciences software. The results show that the managers had strong senses of affective attachment to their firms due to the use of their self-efficacies to generate dynamic influences on their firms’ performances. They also exhibit discretionary behaviours that motivate their employees to work together to achieve organizational goals. The study concludes that the absence of interplay between the managers’ self-efficacies and their discretionary behaviours constrains the efficient and effective performances of their firms.

scholarly journals Isu Global dan Tantangan Pembelajaran Pendidikan IPS

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muh Sholeh
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Good Citizenship ◽  
Global Issue ◽  
The Social ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Classroom Level

Global issues able to seize the attention of the global community and broad influence, including encouraging community groups take bold decisions. Social Studies stakeholders keeping the spirit of good citizenship, so as to be able to address global issues such well through learning more meaningful to be able to dampen the negative impact of the growing global issue. Social Studies is simplification and the selection of the disciplines of the social sciences and humanities, as well as basic human activity that is organized and presented scientifically and psychologically for educational purposes. Global issues is a challenge in implementing the learning Social Studies. Efforts to address these challenges can be carried out at the institutional level and the classroom level. Institutionally, Social Studies curriculum should be adapted to the global challenges, academic forum intensity increased quantity and quality. At the classroom level, teachers and lecturers need to increase its capacity through training and creative in implementing meaningful learning in order to attempt to produce good citizens can be realized.Keywords: Global Issues, Challenges Learning, Socia Studies

scholarly journals Current Antifungal Drug Prescribing to Treat Oral Thrush in Sulaimani City-Iraq

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Hezha Omer Rsaul
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Amphotericin B ◽  
Fungal Infections ◽  
Antifungal Drugs ◽  
Oral Candidosis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mucous Membranes ◽  
Oral Thrush ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Selection Of

Oral thrush or oral candidosis is one of the most widespread fungal infections of the mucous membranes in human. This study aims to evaluate the pattern of prescribing of three antifungal drugs: nystatin, amphotericin B, fluconazole, and miconazole by the pharmacists and assistant pharmacists, which are used to treat oral thrush. A questionnaire was circulated to a random selection of pharmacies in Sulaimani city of Iraq between March 2017 and June 2017 and responses to were received from 101 pharmacies. The results were analyzed and the responses demonstrated as absolute and relative frequencies using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Program (SPSS) version 21.  Among the participants (65.3%) were males and (34.7%) were females. The participant's age range was (20 – 70) years. The majority (52.3%) holds a postgraduate degree as their highest educational level and they graduated after 2010. Miconazole and nystatin were the most popular choices of an antifungal agent that pharmacists would use, followed by fluconazole and amphotericin-B. The possibility of using miconazole was positively linked to recently graduated participants.

scholarly journals Stop Smoking the Easyway: Addiction, Self-Help, and Tobacco Cessation

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-214
Author(s):  
Donncha Marron
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Tobacco Cessation ◽  
Nicotine Addiction ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Stop Smoking ◽  
The Social ◽  
Smoking Addiction ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Free Capacity

This article examines Easyway, a popular clinical and self-help method for the treatment of smoking addiction established by the late Allen Carr in 1984. It begins by addressing how smoking has come to be constituted as a neuropharmacological addiction and some of the issues and concerns raised against this in the social sciences. After situating its theoretical and empirical focus, the article then proceeds with an interpretative thematic analysis of a selection of Easyway self-help texts. The aims here are as follows: firstly, to show how Easyway, as a discourse, constitutes the problem of nicotine addiction in novel and distinctive ways; secondly, to elaborate how the Easyway texts seek to govern readers—paradoxically, through their free capacity for reflection, introspection, and action—to overcome their situated addiction to smoking; and thirdly, to identify and locate the significance of the author’s implicit claims to charisma in underpinning his authority to know and treat nicotine addiction.

Towards an African Qur'anic Hermeneutics

2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-76
Author(s):  
Michael Mumisa
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
Christian Perspective ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Status ◽  
African Perspective

The 20th century has been witness to great developments in theology, philosophy of language and the social sciences. Postmodernism has emerged as an influential philosophical thought. All of these 20th century phenomena have influenced how people approach sacred texts and how they comprehend and interpret them. Muslims have not been immune to these developments, and accordingly there has been a realisation among Muslim theorists that the existing interpretations of the Qur'an and Sunnah (imitado Muhammadi) may be limited and not able to suffice the needs of a changing world. The Islamic world has also been rapidly expanding to incorporate races, cultures and environments of various kinds. Consequently, racial and cultural problems have emerged causing a great need among progressive Muslims, particularly the youth, women, people of colour, and other concerned Muslims for a re-reading of the sacred texts so that they become existentially meaningful in the here and now. Such a reading will have to take into consideration differences of perspective and social location. Although this article proposes an African Qur'anic hermeneutics within the liberative discourse, it is not necessarily proposing an African Muslim perspective of liberation since there can be no such a thing as an ‘African perspective’, ‘feminist perspective’ or even ‘Christian perspective’ of liberation. By confirming the ‘us’ versus ‘them’, or dominant versus ‘other’ in the liberation process, it serves to confirm the status quo which we seek to change.

Europakonzeptionen

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Guiding Principles

This anthology expands the perspectives of academic research on Europe. In the contributions it contains, which examine issues at the points where the humanities, cultural studies and the social sciences overlap, the diversity of critical and reflective analysis becomes clear, which in particular makes Europe’s cultural profile visible. They encourage discussion on the guiding principles of European integration, but above all on an image of Europe in which Europeanisation is understood as a process of permanent opening. Accordingly, Europeanisation is not simply the product of national conceptualisations, but focuses on the roots and elements of European common ground. This volume sets new standards in future research on Europe and puts them forward for discussion.

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