scholarly journals Junípero Serra’s Canonization or Eurocentric Heteronomy

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (s1) ◽  
pp. 267-294
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Welizarowicz

Abstract The article assesses the recent canonization of Junípero Serra, Spanish Franciscan missionary and founder of the California mission system. I begin by introducing the priest and outlining the genesis of his assignment. I then discuss the model of missions’ operation and problematize their results. The rise of Serra’s legend is situated within the historical context of California’s “fantasy heritage”. I later outline the chief arguments and metaphors mobilized by the Church in support of the new saint. In the central part of the essay, I address and critically examine the ramifications of a document Serra authored and which the Church took as the priest’s passport to sainthood. I argue that the document inaugurated the epistemic and social divides in California and, marking the Indian as homo sacer (Agamben), paved the way to the Indigenous genocide in the mission and American eras. Following this, I offer a semiological (after Barthes and Lakoff) interpretation of the canonization as a modern myth, argue that metaphors invoked in support of the priest inverted the historical role played by Serra and, finally, ponder the moral ramifications of this canonization.


Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-199
Author(s):  
Gil Fishhof

<?page nr="159"?>Abstract Taking the eastern lintel of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as its primary focus, the present study examines the way by which the image of the centaur functioned in a specific historical context – that of the Crusades – to help the Christians define the character of their enemy; and in so doing also define their own concepts of society and order.In addition, society in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was complex, presenting multilayered relations between the ruling Franks, the various indigenous Eastern Christian communities, and the Muslim population. Among the Latins themselves power structures were also multifaceted, balancing, to name just a few, between the King, the Patriarch, and the various Lords. As this paper would like to contend, the imagery of the eastern lintel was designed to manifest the different concerns of these groups and agents, enabling alternative readings by each of them according to their particular perspectives.



2021 ◽  
pp. 153270862110347
Author(s):  
Norman K. Denzin

This one-act play occurs on Juneteenth 2021, a day when protest directed at the Catholic Church and statues of Saint Junipero. Serra swept through the California mission system. Our play centers on the Carmel Mission, the site of Serra’s burial, one block from Clint Eastwood Mission Ranch Horel and Restaurant.



2004 ◽  
pp. 114-128
Author(s):  
V. Nimushin

In the framework of broad philosophic and historical context the author conducts comparative analysis of the conditions for assimilating liberal values in leading countries of the modern world and in Russia. He defends the idea of inevitable forward movement of Russia on the way of rationalization and cultivation of all aspects of life, but, to his opinion, it will occur not so fast as the "first wave" reformers thought and in other ideological and sociocultural forms than in Europe and America. The author sees the main task of the reformist forces in Russia in consolidation of the society and inplementation of socially responsible economic policy.





2019 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 327-334
Author(s):  
Inga V. Zheltikova ◽  
Elena I. Khokhlova

The article considers the dependence of the images of future on the socio-cultural context of their formation. Comparison of the images of the future found in A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s works of various years reveals his generally pessimistic attitude to the future in the situation of social stability and moderate optimism in times of society destabilization. At the same time, the author's images of the future both in the seventies and the nineties of the last century demonstrate the mismatch of social expectations and reality that was generally typical for the images of the future. According to the authors of the present article, Solzhenitsyn’s ideas that the revival of spirituality could serve as the basis for the development of economy, that the influence of the Church on the process of socio-economic development would grow, and that the political situation strongly depends on the personal qualities of the leader, are unjustified. Nevertheless, such ideas are still present in many images of the future of Russia, including contemporary ones.



2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-105
Author(s):  
Jacek Wojda

Big activity passed Popes, with the least Francis Bergoglio, is a question about receptiontheir lives and action, especially in times of modern medium broadcasting. Sometimes presentedcontent could be treated as sensation, and their receptiveness deprived of profound historical andtheological meaning. This article depends of beginnings of the Church, when it started to organizeitself, with well known historically-theological arguments. Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ andgot special place among Apostles. His role matures in young Church community, which is escapingfrom Jewish religion.Peter tramps the way from Jerusalem thru Antioch to Rome, confirming his appointing to thefirst among Apostles and to being Rock in the Church. Nascent Rome Church keeps this specialPeter’s succession. Clement, bishop of Rome, shows his prerogatives as a successor of Peter. Later,bishop of Cartagena, Cyprian, confirms special role both Peter and each bishop of Rome amongother bishops. He also was finding appropriate role for each of them. Church institution, basedon Peter and Apostles persists and shows truth of the beginnings and faithfulness to them innowadays papacy.Methodological elements Presented in the introduction let for the lecture of Gospel and patristictexts without positivistic prejudices presented in old literature of the subject.



2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaco Beyers
Keyword(s):  

The calling of the church. The question as to the calling of the church is not a practical but a theological issue. The church can easily keep itself busy with activities that seem important. However, are these activities really the motivation behind God’s call to the church? This article investigates the calling of the church as perceived from various relationships: church and world, church and culture and church and church. Church and world addresses the age-old argument that the church is in the world but not of the world. The church does have an obligation in the world towards politics and ecology. Another factor addressed in the article is the way in which the church copes with the secularised society. Regarding culture, the premise is that the church has no obligation towards culture. Culture merely becomes a means to an end for the church. The church wants to exist in a ‘free culture’, as Barth suggests. When discussing the calling of the church, an ecclesiology of some sorts is in fact presented. This is reflected in the paragraph on church and church. The church is always seen in relationship with God’s intention with the community He assembles. This might be the true calling of the church: to be a community that calls others to community.



2004 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 95-105
Author(s):  
Margaret Harvey

It is often forgotten that the medieval Church imposed public penance and reconciliation by law. The discipline was administered by the church courts, among which one of the most important, because it acted at local level, was that of the archdeacon. In the later Middle Ages and certainly by 1435, the priors of Durham were archdeacons in all the churches appropriated to the monastery. The priors had established their rights in Durham County by the early fourteenth century and in Northumberland slightly later. Although the origins of this peculiar jurisdiction were long ago unravelled by Barlow, there is no full account of how it worked in practice. Yet it is not difficult from the Durham archives to elicit a coherent account, with examples, of the way penance and ecclesiastical justice were administered from day to day in the Durham area in this period. The picture that emerges from these documents, though not in itself unusual, is nevertheless valuable and affords an extraordinary degree of detail which is missing from other places, where the evidence no longer exists. This study should complement the recent work by Larry Poos for Lincoln and Wisbech, drawing attention to an institution which would reward further research. It is only possible here to outline what the court did and how and why it was used.



2012 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 501-514
Author(s):  
Jean-Paul Willaime

Protestantism includes Church-type as well as Sect-type ecclesiastical organizations. Its study therefore allows the Weberian typology to be elaborated. In terms of the way in which religious groups define their legitimacy, their ritual, ideological and charismatic characteristics acquire greater or lesser importance. As regards the Church-type, the author proposes a distinction between a ritual-institutional and an ideological-institutional model. In the Protestant world, legitimacy is better established through ideology (theology) and the authority of the ‘doctor-preacher’ than by ritual and charismatic function. Protestantism represents another mode of Church-type religious institutionalism as well as another mode of Sect-type religious association.



2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-231
Author(s):  
Clara M. Austin Iwuoha ◽  

The demons of racism, bigotry, and prejudice found in society at large are also found in the Christian Church. Despite the very nature of Christianity that calls on Christians to be a counter voice in the world against evil, many have capitulated to various strains of racism. Some Christian denominations have begun to explore racism in the Church and have developed responses to addressing the issues in both the Church and the world. This article examines the historical context of race and religion in the Christian Church, and addresses the current efforts of some Christian denominations to become proactive in the struggle against racism. Jesus, in His Word, calls believers to pursue peace and oneness. The paper holds that racial harmony and racial unity are possible, but there are many false, old and d beliefs that will have to be crushed under the hammer of God's Word in order to get to a place of real peace.



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