scholarly journals Christian Terror in Europe? The Bible in Anders Behring Breivik’s Manifesto

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Strømmen
Keyword(s):  
Modern State ◽  
Terror Attack ◽  
Far Right ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Way

AbstractIn the attempts to understand the ideology underpinning the terror attack in Norway 22nd July 2011, and the growth of far-right extremism in Europe more generally, Christianity and the uses of the Bible are a largely neglected feature. In this article, I examine the way in which the Bible is used in Anders Behring Breivik’s manifesto, arguing that this provides an important example of the role of Christianity in far-right discourse. I show that the Bible functions as a legitimating device, glossing violence as defense of a Christian Europe; as a motivational instrument, positing God as a fellow fighter; and, as an origin for Europe. The Bible is situated in a pre-modern state where its signifying powers are policed. At the same time, it is wrenched out of this solidified framework, cut up and pasted into the manifesto hypertext in order to serve as a contemporary ally to an anti-Muslim and anti-multicultural cause.

The Quranic Jesus: Prophet and Scapegoat

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-220
Author(s):  
John Ranieri
Keyword(s):  
Major Theme ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
The Way

A major theme in René Girard’s work involves the role of the Bible in exposing the scapegoating practices at the basis of culture. The God of the Bible is understood to be a God who takes the side of victims. The God of the Qur’an is also a defender of victims, an idea that recurs throughout the text in the stories of messengers and prophets. In a number of ways, Jesus is unique among the prophets mentioned in the Qur’an. It is argued here that while the Quranic Jesus is distinctly Islamic, and not a Christian derivative, he functions in the Qur’an in a way analogous to the role Jesus plays in the gospels. In its depiction of Jesus, the Qur’an is acutely aware of mimetic rivalry, scapegoating, and the God who comes to the aid of the persecuted. Despite the significant differences between the Christian understanding of Jesus as savior and the way he is understood in the Qur’an, a Girardian interpretation of the Qur’anic Jesus will suggest ways in which Jesus can be a bridge rather than an obstacle in Christian/Muslim dialogue.

scholarly journals The Motive of Peace in the Works of B. Pasternak and M. Bulgakov

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-770
Author(s):  
Li Fei ◽  
Maria S. Rudenko
Keyword(s):  
Russian Culture ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Spiritual Tradition ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
House Music ◽  
The Master And Margarita ◽  
The Way ◽  
Master And Margarita

The concept of peace entered into Russian culture from the Bible and became its important spiritual tradition. With the development of secular literature, peace has gradually come out of the sacred field and become the significant aesthetic concept rich in connotation. In their works, Pasternak and Bulgakov reflect on the peace in the field of existence and art, especially the ontological value of family and love, thoughts about history, death and creativity. The concept of memory plays an important role in the artistic world of the two writers. Bulgakovs and Pasternaks books are testimony to rebirth and immortality, which is the way they participate in the sacred cause. The paper analyzes the place and role of the motive of peace in the novels of B. Pasternak Doctor Zhivago and M. Bulgakov The Master and Margarita in their similarities and differences. In this regard, the images of the house, music, creativity as the focus of the artists world are compared, the typological related figures of the beloved muse and the savior are considered, the specificity of the disclosure of the theme of immortality in creativity is noted.

“The Stone Which the Builders Rejected”

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
James P. Byrd
Keyword(s):  
White Supremacy ◽  
The South ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Righteous Indignation ◽  
Secession Crisis ◽  
The Way

This chapter narrates the role of the Bible in the secession crisis that erupted after Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860. While Benjamin Morgan Palmer and other southerners saw slavery as “a divine trust,” many northerners agreed with Lincoln’s quotation of scripture—“A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand,” meaning the nation could not endure if it remained divided over slavery. In response, southerners scoured the scriptures for arguments to support white supremacy, fearing that many non-slaveholding whites in the South would refuse to support secession. In all, the Bible contributed to the righteous indignation on both sides, helping to pave the way for war.

Nation Building

2020 ◽  
pp. 52-60
Author(s):  
Yael Tamir
Keyword(s):  
Nation Building ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Administrative Service ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
The Way

This chapter investigates what makes nations so powerful and special. It presents two reasons that come to mind: one obvious the other unexpected. The obvious one is institutional and relates to the alliance between the nation and the state. The unexpected, more surprising, reason concerns the fact that the very same features that make nations attractive allies of the modern state — namely, being natural, historical, and continuous entities — are mostly fabricated. The chapter also explores the way nationalism shaped the modern state and provided it with tools necessary to turn from an administrative service into a caring entity that takes on itself not merely the role of a neutral coordinator but also that of a compassionate and attentive mother(land). Ultimately, the chapter examines the social and political outcomes of the lean state and ponders whether some of the advantages of the nation-state could be recovered.

And who shaves God? Nature and role of paradoxes in science and religion communications: A case of foolish virgins

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-201
Author(s):  
Markus Ekkehard Locker
Keyword(s):  
Science And Religion ◽  
Experience Of God ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Meta Level ◽  
Language And Communication ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Self Reference ◽  
The Way

Speaking of truth inescapably confronts us with paradoxes, i.e., correct deductive propositions like a Cretan claiming that all Cretans lie which (due to negative systemic self-reference) end up as circular contradictions, indeterminable questions, or dilemmas. Faced with the numerous paradoxical statements (apparently 82) found in the Bible, the German Protestant reformer Sebastian Franck (14991542), for example, conceded that any truth of God cannot be found in language but only in the immediate silent experience of God. Likewise, believers in an uncompromising search for true facts about this world would certainly agree with (though arguably misappropriate) Wittgenstein in claiming that Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. Paradoxes this article claims must neither be feared, nor avoided, nor become subject to hopeless attempts in searching for logic solutions. Paradoxes lead the way to truth in demonstrating that questions of truth, or truth claims, cannot be adequately addressed within the same system of communication (ortho-system) in which they are raised. The encounter with paradoxes (e.g., a God who creates but is uncreated) elevates language and communication onto a meta-level (or system) of communication in which new means (like for instance Gdel's numbering) are needed to speak of what is real but apparently cannot be true. These means, however, will turn out to be likewise paradoxes that furthermore call for new and creative ways of speaking of such truths that previously could not be communicated. The creative admission of paradoxes into communication philosophy will not solve age-old problems or dilemmas; however, it will playfully open up the conversation of science with religion to the creative means of the arts were truth is not argued but performed in paradoxes.

scholarly journals The birth of language or the necessity of rule

2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-424
Author(s):  
Jean-Paul Martinon
Keyword(s):  
Categorical Imperative ◽  
Language Games ◽  
Not Given ◽  
Moral Imperative ◽  
Written Text ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way ◽  
Name Of God

AbstractAs is well known, the biblical sixth commandment, “Thou shall not kill”, is intimately linked to the First Commandment, “I am the Lord”. By linking the two at the top of Moses's two-column table, language is given priority: the name of God can be uttered only when the possibility of death has been set aside. In this way, the linking of these two commandments marks not only the birth of language, but also, more importantly, the start of ethics. As such, commandments one and six form the basis of practically all Western ethics from Kant's categorical imperative (the unconditional maxim needs a First Word to enter into force) to Lyotard's language games (for which all utterances are charged with the moral imperative to respond), for example. But how on earth does this famous linguistic and ethical structure fare in a context whereby the written text is not given priority, in a situation where prohibitions are inherited orally? This paper will attempt to expose the thorny issue of the role of the sixth commandment in the context of Rwanda. This will imply neither the exposition of the history of the arrival of the Bible in Rwanda nor the way it helped to consolidate the colonial regime. This paper will also not examine the neglect of the prohibition against murder during the genocide of 1994. Instead, the essay will examine the linguistic and cultural problems one faces when determining the birth of ethics in two radically different contexts.

scholarly journals Biblical Blood-Lines: From Foundational Corpus to the Far Right Bible

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 555-573
Author(s):  
Hannah Strømmen
Keyword(s):  
Western Culture ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Far Right ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Dominant Discourses ◽  
The Way

In this article I explore the way in which popular perceptions of the Bible have become drawn into the ideology of the contemporary far right. By examining the far-right ideology that inspired Anders Behring Breivik’s terrorist attacks in Norway on 22 July 2011, I demonstrate how the Bible goes from operating as a foundational corpus for ‘Western culture’, to being employed as a militant mouthpiece calling for violent defence of this culture. Analysing the simultaneous recourse and resistance to Enlightenment interpretations of the Bible in this far-right milieu allows for a better understanding of the connections between dominant discourses about the Bible and more marginal and extreme ideologies.


The Incompatibles? Socialism, Academia, Populism

Populism ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Brass
Keyword(s):  
Market Competition ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Accumulation Process ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
State Capture ◽  
Historical Role ◽  
Similar Path ◽  
The Way

AbstractTraced here is the historical role of academia in the way revolution and socialism have vanished from the leftist agenda, together with its political and ideological effects and implications. Thus a similar path was followed from the late 19th century onwards by the reformism/revisionism of katheder-socialists, and from the 1980s onwards by the ‘new’ populist postmodernism in academia. Both privileged culture and reified peasant and ethnic identity, thereby replacing Marxist theory and concepts (class, revolution, socialism, state capture) with other forms of empowerment (parliamentary, resistance-to-the-state) that did not involve a transcendence of the accumulation process. In each instance, reformist/revisionist compromise with capitalism, together with a failure to address both the presence of the industrial reserve army labour and the resulting intensification of labour market competition, has helped to pave the way for the rise of the far right.

scholarly journals Orwell's Animal Farm: Ideological State Apparatuses and the Crisis of the Modern State

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 815-822
Author(s):  
Munir Ahmed Al-Aghberi
Keyword(s):  
Business Groups ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Modern State ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
The Media ◽  
Animal Farm ◽  
The Masses ◽  
The Way

The present paper explores the crisis of the modern democratic state based on Althusser’s concept of the Ideological State Apparatuses and Chomsky’s investigation into the suspicious role of the media. Orwell’s novel Animal Farm was examined by way of casting the light on the junctures of intersection between history and culture. Re-reading the novel through the perspective of Althusser's ISA and Chomsky’s experienced lens help understand the way of the modern world where the various media means drive the masses into the end determined by the ruling business groups.

scholarly journals Artikel 2 van die Nederlandse Geloofsbelydenis as geloofsvooronderstelling in die gesprek tussen wetenskap en geloof

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan A. Erasmus
Keyword(s):  
Word Of God ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Scientific Results ◽  
Science And Faith ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Made In ◽  
The Way

Artikel 2 van die Nederlandse Geloofsbelydenis bely dat God deur twee middele geken word, te wete deur middel van die skepping, onderhouding en regering van die wêreld (waaronder die wetenskap) en deur die heilige en goddelike Woord (die Bybel). Hierdie belydenis is van groot belang vir die gesprek tussen Wetenskap en Teologie. In hierdie artikel word gepoog om die verskille, maar ook die ooreenkomste tussen hierdie twee middele van openbaring uit te lig, elkeen tot sy reg te laat kom, maar hulle ook in balans met mekaar te stel. Die wyse waarop te werk gegaan word, is die volgende: eers word gestel wat vooronderstellings is, asook die plek wat vooronderstellings in die beoefening van wetenskap sowel as geloof inneem. Daarna word nagevors watter perspektiewe artikel 2 van die Nederlandse Geloofsbelydenis as geloofsvooronderstelling vir die wetenskaps- en teologiebeoefening respektiewelik bied. Hieruit word ’n aantal gevolgtrekkings gemaak wat kan help om die problematiek in die wetenskap-geloofsgesprek op te los. Die kernbevinding van hierdie artikel is die volgende: Vanweë die verskil in die aard en die doel tussen Bybelfeite en wetenskaplike navorsingsresultate kan en sal klaarblyklike harmonieprobleme tussen die Skrif en die wetenskap ontstaan. Hierdie is egter slegs klaarblyklike probleme, omdat ’n verrekening van die verskil in die aard en die bedoeling van die wetenskapresultate en die Bybelfeite hierdie probleem sal oplos.Article 2 of the Belgic Confession as faith presupposition in the science-faith debate. Article 2 of the Belgic Confession confesses that God can be known by two means: firstly by studying the creation, preservation and government of the universe (i.e. science) and secondly by studying the Word of God (the Bible). This confession is very important for the discussion between science and faith. In this article the similarities, but also the differences between these two means of revelation are researched. The aim is to set them in balance and in order to let each one come to its own right. The way the research is done is as follows: In the first place the role of presuppositions in both science and faith are determined. Secondly research is done on the perspectives obtained for both science and faith when Article 2 of the Belgic Confession is taken as a faith presupposition. Finally conclusions are made in helping to resolve the differences in the science-faith debate. The main finding is that harmony problems between facts from the Bible and scientific results will occur because of the difference in nature and meaning between these two entities. However, when the set difference in nature and meaning are taken into account, these problems can be resolved.

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