The Modes and Intentions of Biography

2007 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-84
Author(s):  
Graham Hassall
Keyword(s):  
Inner Life ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Individual

This paper explores a range of modes, intentions and problems of Baha'i biography, in order to offer some initial observations on the ways in which biographical literatures frame understandings of the individual in the context of community. It distinguishes between documentary, hagiological and critical modes of biography as these have emerged in the diverse literature of the world's religious traditions, as well as in the secular literature of the modern period. It suggests that much Baha'i biography has continued the traditions of remembrance and exempla, although more critical works have also begun to appear. The quest to write spiritual biographies that explore a subject's inner life and journey remains difficult, due mostly to limitations on sources, since few subjects give adequate exposure to their inner thoughts. Rather than privilege one tradition above any other, Baha'i biographies have to date drawn on the skills of the craft elaborated across generations, religions and cultures, while beginning to draw also on Baha'i scripture for inspiration productive of new insights into how lived lives can be depicted in literature.

scholarly journals Buddhist Endowments by Śaiva Kings under the Maitrakas of Valabhī in Western India (5th–8th Cent.) and the Yodhāvaka Grant of Dharasena iv, [Valabhī] Year 326

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 107-134
Author(s):  
Annette Schmiedchen
Keyword(s):  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Western India ◽  
Specific Character ◽  
Religious Tolerance ◽  
Personal Beliefs ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Royal Inscriptions ◽  
Ambivalent Relationship ◽  
The Individual

Abstract The phenomenon of interreligious patronage on the Indian subcontinent in the pre-modern period is best attested in royal inscriptions recording religious endowments. It is striking that most pre-Islamic Indian rulers patronised priests, monks, ascetics, and religious establishments of multiple faiths. The personal religious affiliations of the kings often contrasted remarkably with the patronage patterns followed by them according to the testimony of their epigraphs. The strongest indication for the individual confessions of rulers is given by the religious epithets among their titles. While the ambivalent relationship between the personal beliefs of the kings and their donative practices has been repeatedly described as an expression of Indian religious “tolerance” or of the specific character of Indian religious traditions, this paper emphasises that there were several reasons for the dichotomy. This will be investigated on the basis of the epigraphic material of the Maitraka dynasty, which ruled in Gujarat from the 5th to the 8th centuries. The article also contains an edition and translation of the hitherto unpublished Yodhāvaka Grant of Dharasena iv.

scholarly journals Revivals of ancient religious traditions in modern India

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-77
Author(s):  
Knut A. Jacobsen
Keyword(s):  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Printed Books

The article compares the early stages of the revivals of Sāṃkhyayoga and Buddhism in modern India. A similarity of Sāṃkhyayoga and Buddhism was that both had disappeared from India and were revived in the modern period, partly based on Orientalist discoveries and writings and on the availability of printed books and publishers. Printed books provided knowledge of ancient traditions and made re-establishment possible and printed books provided a vehicle for promoting the new teachings. The article argues that absence of communities in India identified with these traditions at the time meant that these traditions were available as identities to be claimed.

Temporary Housing and Unsettled Population: Drivers of Urban Change in Early Modern Marseille and Rome

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 118-140
Author(s):  
Eleonora Canepari
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Modern Cities ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Mobile Population ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This paper argues that unsettled people, far from being “marginal” individuals, played a key role in shaping early modern cities. It does so by going beyond the traditional binary between rooted and unstable people. Specifically, the paper takes the temporary places of residence of this “unsettled” population – notably inns (garnis in France, osterie in Italy) – as a vantage point to observe social change in early modern cities. The case studies are two cities which shared a growing and highly mobile population in the early modern period: Rome and Marseille. In the first section, the paper focuses on two semi-rural neighborhoods. This is to assess the impact of mobility in shaping demographic, urbanistic, and economic patterns in these areas. Moving from the neighborhood as a whole to the individual buildings which composed it, the second section outlines the biographies of two inns: Rome’s osteria d’Acquataccio and Marseille’s hôtel des Deux mondes. In turn, this is to evaluate changes and continuities over a longer period of time.

The Measuring Process

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John von Neumann
Keyword(s):  
Physical Process ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
Measuring Process ◽  
Ordinary Space ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Fundamental Requirement ◽  
Related Process

This chapter argues that, first, it is inherently correct that measurement or the related process of subjective perception is a new entity relative to the physical environment, and is not reducible to the latter. Indeed, subjective perception leads one into the intellectual inner life of the individual, which is extra-observational by its very nature, since it must be taken for granted by any conceivable observation or experiment. Nevertheless, it is a fundamental requirement of the scientific viewpoint—the so-called principle of psycho-physical parallelism—that it must be possible so to describe the extra-physical process of subjective perception as if it were in the reality of the physical world; i.e., to assign to its parts equivalent physical processes in the objective environment, in ordinary space.

Di Yunge

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saul Noam Zaritt
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
Yiddish Literature ◽  
Political Purpose ◽  
European Immigrants ◽  
Artistic Achievement ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Eastern European Immigrants

Di yunge is a group of American Symbolist Yiddish writers and critics that achieved prominence during the first two decades of the twentieth century and remained active through the mid-century. The name of the group is Yiddish for ‘the young ones’, referencing not only the youth of its founding members but also the sense of newness and dramatic change that they intended to bring to Yiddish literature of the period. The group was made up largely of Eastern European immigrants to the United States who had experienced the failed Russian Revolution of 1905 and the pogroms that followed in its wake. These young writers arrived in America disillusioned with socialist and nationalist politics and instead sought out new forms of cultural expression that focused on artistic achievement in Yiddish rather than any political purpose. Taking European and Russian forms of Symbolism as models, Di yunge is the first movement in Yiddish literature to emphasize the importance of the aesthetic, focusing on the poetic potential of the everyday and on the inner life of the individual writer. Di yunge was comprised of several of the most important Yiddish writers of the twentieth century, including the poets Mani Leib, H. Leivick, Zishe Landau, I.J. Schwartz, Yoysef Rolnik, and Moyshe-Leyb Halpern and the prose writers David Ignatoff, Joseph Opatoshu, Isaac Raboy, and Lamed Shapiro. Members of Di yunge were among the first to infuse Yiddish literature with the forms and themes of international modernism.

Vedānta

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen H. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Indian Philosophy ◽  
True Self ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The West ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Classical Systems ◽  
Sri Aurobindo ◽  
Hindu Community ◽  
The Individual

Indian philosophical speculation burgeoned in texts called Upaniṣads (from 800 bc), where views about a true Self (ātman) in relation to Brahman, the supreme reality, the Absolute or God, are propounded and explored. Early Upaniṣads were appended to an even older sacred literature, the Veda (‘Knowledge’), and became literally Vedānta, ‘the Veda’s last portion’. Classical systems of philosophy inspired by Upaniṣadic ideas also came to be known as Vedānta, as well as more recent spiritual thinking. Classical Vedānta is one of the great systems of Indian philosophy, extending almost two thousand years with hundreds of authors and several important subschools. In the modern period, Vedānta in the folk sense of spiritual thought deriving from Upaniṣads is a major cultural phenomenon. Understood broadly, Vedānta may even be said to be the philosophy of Hinduism, although in the classical period there are other schools (notably Mīmāṃsā) that purport to articulate right views and conduct for what may be called a Hindu community (the terms ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hinduism’ gained currency only after the Muslim invasion of the South Asian subcontinent, beginning rather late in classical times). Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902), the great popularizer of Hindu ideas to the West, spoke of Vedānta as an umbrella philosophy of a Divine revealed diversely in the world’s religious traditions. Such inclusivism is an important theme in some classical Vedānta, but there are also virulent disputes about how Brahman should be conceived, in particular Brahman’s relation to the individual. In the twentieth century, philosophers such as Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, K.C. Bhattacharyya and T.M.P. Mahadevan have articulated idealist worldviews largely inspired by classical and pre-classical Vedānta. The mystic philosopher Sri Aurobindo propounds a theism and evolutionary theory he calls Vedānta, and many others, including political leaders such as Gandhi and spiritual figures as well as academics, have developed or defended Vedāntic views.

15 Legal Conceptions of Statehood

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biaggini Giovanni
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
The State ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Individual

This chapter traces the evolution of legal conceptions of the state. In relation to the topic, the chapter discusses the structures and boundaries of various state administrations. It first looks at the changing conceptions and characterizations of the term ‘state’ since its first appearance in writings during the early modern period. The chapter then considers the conceptions of statehood and administration together, and their implications for the Europeanization and internationalization of law. Afterwards, the chapter delves into a more thorough discussion of administration as a multifaceted concept. From here, the chapter provides some concluding remarks on the process of Europeanization as a plurality as a result of the different conditions and conceptions of administration within the individual states.

scholarly journals Dystopian literature and the sociological imagination

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 155 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Seeger ◽  
Daniel Davison-Vecchione
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Sociological Imagination ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
Utopian Literature ◽  
Historical Reality ◽  
Dystopian Literature ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

This article argues that sociologists have much to gain from a fuller engagement with dystopian literature. This is because (i) the speculation in dystopian literature tends to be more grounded in empirical social reality than in the case of utopian literature, and (ii) the literary conventions of the dystopia more readily illustrate the relationship between the inner life of the individual and the greater whole of social-historical reality. These conventional features mean dystopian literature is especially attuned to how historically-conditioned social forces shape the inner life and personal experience of the individual, and how acts of individuals can, in turn, shape the social structures in which they are situated. In other words, dystopian literature is a potent exercise of what C. Wright Mills famously termed ‘the sociological imagination’.

scholarly journals Missionaries as bridge builders in Buddhist kingdoms: Amity amid radical difference

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-77
Author(s):  
Eva M. Pascal
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Spiritual Practice ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Core ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Contemporary Christian ◽  
The World

Buddhism and Christianity are major world religions that both make universal and often competing claims about the nature of the world and ultimate reality. These claims are difficult to reconcile and often go to the core of Buddhist and Christian worldviews. This article looks at the age of encounter in the early modern period for ways Christians and Buddhists forged friendship through common spiritual commitments and action. Beyond seeking theological and philosophical exchange, convergences along spirituality and practice proved important vehicles for friendship. With the examples of Christian–Buddhist friendship from historical case studies, this article explores the ways contemporary Christian expressions of spiritual practice and advocacy allows Christians to connect with Buddhists. Early modern encounters have important lessons for furthering Christian–Buddhist friendship that may also be applied to other religious traditions.

A Vision of Health

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica M. Emerich
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Holistic Health ◽  
Collective Good ◽  
Health It ◽  
Holistic Model ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Face ◽  
Vital Component ◽  
The Individual

This chapter articulates the LOHAS vision of health as a three-part holistic model of self, society, and the natural world. In turn, “holistic” has been described in LOHAS more through Eastern perspectives rather than Western religious traditions in that it presupposes a state of interconnectedness of all phenomena—mind and matter, animal and human, global cultures and ecosystems. For example, the holistic worldview of Buddhism (a frequently called-upon tradition in LOHAS literature), understands that interdependence means that “humanity is only one actor” in the environment and that all actors must remain in balance for the system to be healthy. But this flies in the face of late consumer culture, where the individual reigns supreme, and where LOHAS is predominantly lodged. The final section examines how that problem is overcome, how Mother Nature becomes intertwined with the healed self as part of the healing and a vital component of the model of holistic health. It shows how healing the self becomes exonerated from the “narcissism” of the New Age and instead becomes reframed as the stepping stone to a collective good, capable of initiating global transformation based on the notion of holistic health.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document