Gerald Massey and America

1939 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 356-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Arthur Hawley

Gerald Massey, once hailed by Landor as comparable to Keats, to “a chastened Hafiz,” to Shakespeare when at his best in his sonnets, has earned the reward of forgotten prophets. This poet, who espoused the cause of chartism in the England of his day, who worked for the common people, who helped shape democracy, was eclipsed by Tennyson, his contemporary and rival. Massey, who came to the defence of F. D. Maurice with these lines:God bless you, Brave One, in our dearth,Your life shall leave a trailing glory;And round the poor man's homely hearthWe proudly tell your suffering's story,brought to America the seed of the social gospel. It was this same Massey whom George Eliot met and admired in London and later portrayed in Felix Holt, the Radical.

Author(s):  
Jagabandhu Sarkar

Swami Vivekananda was the pioneer of the 19th century renaissance by religious revolution in India. He was one of the foremost leaders who were very much concerned about the poor and subjugated persons of the society. Vivekananda realized that there is need of reformation in society. Vivekananda wanted to revive the lost confidence of the common people in society. He visited extensively within the country to understand their problem. He wanted to eliminate all the social evils of the society which are major obstacles for the mankind. These social evils are poverty in general, untouchability, illiteracy, intolerance, religious superstitions etc. He always pleaded for the fraternity, humanity and harmony. He realized that the ultimate goal can be achieved through self-development of human values, not only by laws. In this short discourse, I would like to highlight Vivekanada’s philosophical realization towards the mankind and his ideo of Rerormation. KEYWORDS- Reformation, Untouchability, Self-realization, Harmony, Humanism, Brahman, Narayana, Brotherhood.


Author(s):  
Moshe J. Rosman

This chapter evaluates the social conflicts in Międzybóż in the generation of the Besht. It characterizes the alignment of various social groups in the town, and suggests implications that these may have had for the Besht's status in the town and for the development of early hasidism. Discussions of social conflict in the Jewish communities of eighteenth-century Poland generally tend to consider the phenomenon in terms of the élite class versus the ‘common people’. According to the usual construction, rich, politically powerful individuals, particularly those with close ties to Polish magnates, monopolized control over the institutional resources of the Jewish community in order to benefit themselves and exploit or oppress the poor and powerless. There is evidence that, to some extent, this paradigm fits the circumstances of the Jews in Międzybóż during the time of the Besht's residence there.


1983 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-488
Author(s):  
Charles D. Sheldon

Merchants in the Tokugawa period were placed at the bottom of the shinōkōshō hierarchy of samurai-peasants-artisans-merchants. This social hierarchy was produced by a combination of social reality at the time Japan was unified in the late sixteenth century and an ancient Chinese physiocratic theory, never taken very seriously, in practical ways, in China. Once the country was unified, the social mobility of the previous years, of a kind which permitted men of ability to climb from the lowest ranks to join the military nobility—Hideyoshi is the prime example of this mobility—was viewed, by Hideyoshi above all others, as a cause of prolonged chaos and internecine warfare. With the argument that war had been abolished and common people therefore no longer needed weapons, Hideyoshi carried out his ‘sword-hunt’. He thus established the most fundamental of the class distinctions, between the samurai, the ruling class, who now enjoyed a monopoly of bearing arms, and the common people, who were henceforth expected simply to produce the food and other necessities of life, and to pay their taxes, which remained high even though warfare was supposedly ended.


Author(s):  
Robert M. Seltzer

This chapter studies the role that Hasidism played in the thought of the modernized Jewish intelligentsia of Eastern Europe toward the end of the 19th century. Simon Dubnow played a pivotal role in the emergence of this new image of Hasidism. In his autobiography, Dubnow describes in some detail the influence on him at that time of Leo Tolstoy and Ernest Renan. The influence of Renan's History of Christianity is quite evident in the structure of Dubnow's History of Hasidism as well as in some of Dubnow's solutions to problems of interpretation. Like Renan, Dubnow opened with a discussion of the social and intellectual background of a movement that can be traced to a founder known only for a long time through oral sources which retained the character of legend or saga. Applying Renan's statement that such pious biographies have a historical core, Dubnow stripped the life of the Baal Shem Tov, as recorded in the Shivhei ha-Besht, of its supernatural elements to reveal a simple, humble man who loved nature, especially the forests of the Carpathian mountains; a man who had immense affection for the common people and disdain for the proud, aloof scholars of his time and who preached a lofty doctrine of religious pantheism and universal brotherhood.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-64
Author(s):  
John F. Lingelbach

In light of the wide acknowledgement that humanism influenced the Protestant Reformation, one must ask the question about how much of what Protestantism maintains owes a debt to this modern ideology often juxtaposed in contrast to Christianity. Given the remarkable role of such a controversial ideology during a seminal period of the modern church, this study seeks an answer to the following question: how did the humanism movement of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries impact the lives and work of the main Magisterial Reformers? This research is important and necessary because discovering the answer to this question leads to an understanding of the larger question of how humanism impacts the Protestant tradition. Understanding the nature of this impact sheds light on what Protestantism means and may induce some Christians to contemplate why they call or do not call themselves “Protestants” or “humanists.” This present study progressed through four phases. First, the study sought to describe the humanism of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Second, it sought to describe the impact this humanism had on society. Third, the study analyzed how the social impacts of the humanism of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries served to advance or hinder the causes of the main Magisterial Reformers. Finally, it synthesized the findings. This paper argues and concludes that the humanism of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries impacted the lives and work of the main Magisterial Reformers by facilitating their desire to include the common people in a religious world previously dominated by the elite.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (07) ◽  
pp. 24683-24789
Author(s):  
Dr. D. Murali ◽  
Vinutha BA

The precious data from online origin has developed into a extended research. The mass media and news media provides the daily events to the common people. Huge amount of information is been achieved by an online social media suchlike Twitter, which contains more information about news-associated content. It is necessary to find a way to filter noise, for these resources to be useful and grab the content that is depend on the similarity to news media. Despite after the noise is eliminated the excessive data still remain in the data so it is essential to prioritize it for utilization. We are introducing three factors for prioritization. The unsupervised technique finds the news topics that are common in the pair of social media and news media, and then ranks them by the applicability factors such as MF, UA and UI. Initially the temporal prevalence of the appropriate topic in news media focus (MF). Secondary the temporal prevalence of the appropriate topic in social media illustrates the user attention (UA). Finally the interconnection among the social media users who specify this topic demonstrates the power of the society who is discussing; it is termed as the user interaction (UI).  


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 25-31
Author(s):  
Gill Oluwatosin Adekannbi

The killing of Tiberius Gracchus along with hundreds of his supporters in factional violence has left an imprint of moral controversy. When perpetuated by the aggrieved or oppressed masses, violence is seen as an act of aggression or rebellion. However, it tends to be termed political expediency when initiated by the ruling power or its agency. Using interpretive approach, this paper sets aside justifying the murdering of Tiberius as removal of a potential tyrant who was causing public disturbance. The research, after highlighting how violence became imminent when other legitimate efforts at resolving political conflicts failed, shifts to the moral question arising from resorting to violence as the ultimate tool for achieving a political goal. Corrupt members of the Roman Senate and their supporters would share the view: ‘so perish also all others who do such things’. However, the paper notes the benefits of Tiberius’ agrarian reforms to the poor citizens and the potential benefits of the changes to the state. The conclusion is: the champion of the people had acted well enough but inconclusively to reach his goals. It remained for him and his supporters to stand against being outmaneuvered by the corrupt politicians. If violence had been used by Tiberius and his followers against the senate to succeed, the common people would have declared this as both morally justifiable and politically expedient. Hence, it is theorised that, when moral questions are unanswered in politics, violence looms and no one may have the monopoly of it.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-406
Author(s):  
LeAnn Snow Flesher

The pericope in Jas 2:14–17 has become iconic in our modern church culture. Although we quote from it regularly—“faith without works is dead”—we do not live it faithfully. In reimagining the body of Christ, the theme of this issue, it seems that the book of James and Luther’s response to it reflect the tensions we live in today. We are a society with a legal system built off the ideology of retributive justice. We are a society that claims to be built on Christian principles, yet James points to a very different justice system. James 2:13 states that “Mercy triumphs over judgment!” Although James never condones breaking the law (2:10–11), he does encourage mercy in place of judgment (2:13), especially when engaging the poor. Luther called biblical James a “book of straw,” as he touted his own mantra, sola fide, leaving us with a very significant dilemma. How should we understand saving faith? Does it simply require praying “the sinner’s prayer and shaking the pastor’s hand?” or ought it to be coupled with “works” becoming to one who has chosen to follow Jesus?


1915 ◽  
Vol 61 (254) ◽  
pp. 339-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. W. Mott

Nearly twenty years have elapsed since Mr. Shand published in Mind an article entitled “Character and Emotions”; in this he formulated the hypothesis that the sentiments are complex derivatives of the primitive emotions. Thus, in the analysis of love and hatred he showed that “the same four emotional dispositions of fear, anger, joy, and sorrow, which are essential to the system of love, are present also in the system of hate.” Many eminent psychologists have adopted, or partially adopted, his views, among whom may be mentioned Professors Stout, McDougall, Westermarck, Sully, Caldecott, and Boyce Gibson. A great feature of this interesting work is its literary merit, and the infinite care and skill displayed by the author in his study of the emotions and tempers by an analysis of the characters portrayed by the great dramatists, poets, and novelists. Mr. Shand recognises the fact that the success of the dramatist and novelist depends upon the study of individual characters, and he gives numerous examples which we shall refer to later, but we will first call attention to two quotations which appear opposite the title page. “And this subject of the different characters of dispositions is one of those things wherein the common discourse of man is wiser than books, a thing which seldom happens. Wherefore, out of these materials (which are surely rich and abundant) let a full and careful treatise be constructed, so that an artificial and accurate dissection may be made of men's minds and natures, and the secret disposition of each particular man laid open, that from a knowledge of the whole the precepts concerning the cures of the mind may be more rightly formed. and not only the characters of dispositions impressed by nature should be received into this treatise, but age, country, state of health, make of body, etc. And, again, those which proceed from fortune, as in princes, nobles, common people, the rich, the poor, magistrates, the ignorant, the happy, the miserable,” etc. —Francis Bacon, De Augmentis Scientiarum, B. vii, Ch. iii.


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