scholarly journals Discovering the two faces of religious charismatic action – traditional and modern: a model

1999 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 273-304
Author(s):  
Jane Williams-Hogan
Keyword(s):  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Natural World ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
New Religions ◽  
The World ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Rational Calculation ◽  
Traditional Societies ◽  
And Control

In this paper, the author examines the issue of charisma and prophecy in secularized societies. In traditional society the charismatic personality or the prophet brought a universalizing and rationalizing message which simultaneously expanded and penetrated the sphere of external order in the world, giving people the ability to manipulate and control the natural world. The disenchanted world is the end product of this process, when no more mysterious forces come into play, and when one can in principle master all things through rational calculation. The gift of rationality almost randomly bestowed in the ancient world becomes, for Weber, the rightful inheritance of the modern individual. Clarity brought by charisma in a dark and foreboding world loses its brilliance and its ability to beckon when the world is filled with light. In investigating charisma in only traditional societies, Weber saw charisma as one dimensional, solely as the force of rationality. So envisioned, charisma dissipates in the very act of realizing itself through the transformation of the world. Given Weber's analysis, therefore, one would not expect to find genuinely new religions emerging within our transformed and rational modern society. In the examination of the founding something that is best identified by the sociological term charisma, though obviously in modern guise, is clearly evident. This points to the possibility that charisma is not static but has the dynamic capacity to be responsive to the structural characteristics of the society in which it operates.

Why Do We Keep Coming Back to Institutions?

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Keyword(s):  
Sociology Of Knowledge ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Institutional Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World ◽  
Organizational Institutionalism

The article examines contemporary philosophical and theoretical trends that lead to the dispersion and fragmentation of theories and research methodologies and even of the subject of inquiry. This process is dismantling the basic ontological distinctions that have long determined both the epistemological and the cultural characteristics of European society and science. These theoretical leanings have their own social and cultural roots in the rapidly increasing complexity of modern civilization. That civilization is relinquishing what Max Weber saw as a crucial distinguishing feature of modern society: its ability to comprehend the structure and functioning of the surrounding world. The author finds that one result is the emergence of a “new naivety” in which insurmountable difficulties in attaining rational understanding justify postulation of the ontological independence of actors, objects, etc., as well as the resurgence of various forms of metaphysics. The importance of an emotional relationship toward the world, which increasingly manifests itself as a universe of singularities, is expanding in step with the loss of a rational horizon for subjectivity in modern society. The historical perspective of the institutional approach has several epistemological advantages for dealing with these tendencies. The institutional approach maintains continuity with the project of modern historiography as such by concentrating on phenomena that have a comparable duration and sustainability and by facilitating examination of problems in the sociology of knowledge, for which a wide range of analytical techniques has been developed in order to analyze the interaction of institutions with different scales (for instance, within the framework of organizational institutionalism) among others. The historical analysis of institutions also has a significant practical value by disabusing us of a naive view of the world (including the natural world) as some kind of natural and unmediated given and by making us aware of the contingency of our historical existence. The institutional approach and modern historiography share a common mission as an emancipatory exercise in self-knowledge.

scholarly journals Switching Behavior and Control Policy of Congestion: Examples from Taiwan Highway System

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (03) ◽  
pp. 657-667
Author(s):  
Kwong Tai Siu ◽  
Yulin Xu ◽  
Yee Man Tai ◽  
T. S. Choi ◽  
K. Y. Michael Wong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Control Policy ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Switching Behavior ◽  
The Road ◽  
Traffic Conditions ◽  
Road Condition ◽  
The World ◽  
And Control ◽  
Highway System

The highway system is an important component of the modern society as it allows an efficient intercity communication. However, with the increase in the number of cars, the traffic congestion becomes a widespread problem around the world. Here, we study the traffic conditions in Hsuehshan tunnel in Taiwan. When there is traffic congestion, there is a remarkable fraction of vehicles choosing an alternative path, even if it cost more time than jamming on the highway. In addition, we evaluate through statistics and the government’s policy to improve the road condition of the tunnel.

Kaebyŏk

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-53
Author(s):  
Don Baker ◽  
Seok Heo ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
New Religions ◽  
The World ◽  
Great Transformation ◽  
Won Buddhism ◽  
The Many ◽  
Important Shift

One of the distinguishing characteristics of Korea’s new religions is an expectation of kaebyŏk, a “Great Transformation” which will eliminate the many conflicts human beings are facing today and produce a world in human beings will find themselves instead in cooperative and mutually beneficial relationships with both their fellow human beings and the natural world. Kaebyŏk once referred to the creation of the world. The use of kaebyŏk in Korea to mean “re-creation” first appeared in the teachings of Ch’oe Cheu, the founder of Tonghak. It was reiterated by Kim Hang, the author of Correct Changes. Kang Ilsun, revered by the Chŭngsan family of religions, further elaborated on the reasons kaebyŏk is imminent and how we can hasten its arrival. Park Chungbin, the founder of Won Buddhism, then suggested that kaebyŏk of the material world was already happening and proposed steps we should take to ensure that we keep pace spiritually. These four Korean religious leaders stimulated an important shift in the Korean world-view which has influenced not only followers of Korea’s new religions but the spirituality of Koreans in general.

Golden State of Grace?

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 20-33
Author(s):  
Lois Ann Lorentzen
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Religious Expression ◽  
Sacred Place ◽  
Grateful Dead ◽  
New Religions ◽  
The World ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Religious Landscape

Non-Californians rarely refer to the Golden State as a sacred place or religious landscape. Yet, California fascinates, in part, due to its religious extravagance–think Jim Jones, Heavens Gate, the Crystal Cathedral, Harold Camping’s predicted end of the world, the Grateful Dead. Everything is here, and then some. This essay looks at California as an epicenter of religious expression and a global microcosm for hybrid religions, new religions, and experimental religious practices. The essay analyzes migration, the California/Mexico border, genders/sexualities, race/ethnicity, commercialization, embodiment/disembodiment, and the natural world as lenses on California’s religious landscape.

‘ “Counting is a bad procedure” ’: Calculation and Economy in Jacques Derrida's Donner le temps

Derrida Today ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-43
Author(s):  
Céline Surprenant
Keyword(s):  
Narrow Sense ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The World ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Rational Calculation ◽  
To Come

In Jacques Derrida's formalisation of the problem of the gift in Donner le temps (1991), where Derrida offers a joint reading of Marcel Mauss’ The Gift and Baudelaire's La Fausse monnaie, there is an apparent rejection of rational calculation (and of economism) in a narrow sense. This exclusion is only one of the steps in the deconstruction of the metaphysics of the gift, and of other motifs such as, for example, invention, forgiveness, and hospitality. In another step, calculation and economy are the terms of logico-formal paradoxes, and engages us to think of the incompatible demands of calculability and incalculability between which reason is torn, and which Derrida has discussed, for example, in ‘The “World” of the Enlightenment to Come (Exception, Calculation and Sovereignty)’ (2003). In this paper, I argue that in his evaluation of Mauss’ moderate view of economy and exchange, Derrida has limited Mauss’ notions of economy and rationality to reason as calculation. This evaluation jars with Derrida's deconstruction of calculation in his reading of Hegel and Rousseau among others, as I begin to show, Hegel, for whom ‘counting was a bad procedure’.

Invasive Shot Hole Borers Euwallacea fornicatus, E. kuroshio, and E. perbrevis (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae)

EDIS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Demian F. Gomez ◽  
Jiri Hulcr ◽  
Daniel Carrillo
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Invasive Species ◽  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Economic Impacts ◽  
Forest Resources ◽  
Economic Damage ◽  
Ambrosia Beetles ◽  
Invasive Insects ◽  
The World ◽  
And Control

Invasive species, those that are nonnative and cause economic damage, are one of the main threats to ecosystems around the world. Ambrosia beetles are some of the most common invasive insects. Currently, severe economic impacts have been increasingly reported for all the invasive shot hole borers in South Africa, California, Israel, and throughout Asia. This 7-page fact sheet written by Demian F. Gomez, Jiri Hulcr, and Daniel Carrillo and published by the School of Forest Resources and Conservation describes shot hole borers and their biology and hosts and lists some strategies for prevention and control of these pests. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fr422

Knowledge and Awareness of Dengue Fever

2018 ◽  
pp. 219-222
Author(s):  
Y. Arockia Suganthi ◽  
Chitra K. ◽  
J. Magelin Mary
Keyword(s):  
Dengue Fever ◽  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Infection Transmission ◽  
Standard Guideline ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Prevention And Control Measures ◽  
Dengue Prevention ◽  
And Control

Dengue fever is a painful mosquito-borne infection caused by different types of virus in various localities of the world. There is no particular medicine or vaccine to treat person suffering from dengue fever. Dengue viruses are transmitted by the bite of female Aedes (Ae) mosquitoes. Dengue fever viruses are mainly transmitted by Aedes which can be active in tropical or subtropical climates. Aedes Aegypti is the key step to avoid infection transmission to save millions of people in all over the world. This paper provides a standard guideline in the planning of dengue prevention and control measures. At the same time gives the priorities including clinical management and hospitalized dengue patients have to address essentially.

Design Policy Driven Development of Chinese Industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei HU ◽  
Kun ZHOU ◽  
Hongshi ZHOU
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Design ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Yangtze River Delta ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
Delta Area ◽  
Chinese Industry ◽  
Design Competition ◽  
The Government ◽  
Macroeconomic Regulation And Control ◽  
And Control

Governments all over the world are paying great attention to economic innovation and the development of design in modern society. They are spending more and more recourses on making rules for Industrial Design Policy and measuring its implementation. As a method to make macroeconomic regulation and control by the government, the effectiveness and importance of design policy has already been widely admitted. In a macro-background of the three turns of Chinese design policy, taking the design policy of Guangdong province as an example, this article will analyze how local/regional government should respond to the national design policy. Based on the investigation and analysis of the winners of the "Guangdong Governor Cup Industrial Design Competition", this paper discusses how industrial design competition as a part of the design policy to support the development of industrial design. After making a comparison with the design policy of the Yangtze River Delta area, this article tries to enhance and perfect the current policy path.

A Māori Girl Watches, Listens, and Learns – Coming of Age from an Indigenous Viewpoint: Mauri (Merata Mita, 1988)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Fox
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Feature Film ◽  
Indigenous Woman ◽  
Spiritual Dimension ◽  
The World ◽  
Life Force ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines Merata Mita’s Mauri, the first fiction feature film in the world to be solely written and directed by an indigenous woman, as an example of “Fourth Cinema” – that is, a form of filmmaking that aims to create, produce, and transmit the stories of indigenous people, and in their own image – showing how Mita presents the coming-of-age story of a Māori girl who grows into an understanding of the spiritual dimension of the relationship of her people to the natural world, and to the ancestors who have preceded them. The discussion demonstrates how the film adopts storytelling procedures that reflect a distinctively Māori view of time and are designed to signify the presence of the mauri (or life force) in the Māori world.

Teetotalism in Malawian Protestantism: Missionary Origins, African Appropriation

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-182
Author(s):  
Todd Statham
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Church Membership ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Home Culture ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
Marginalised Groups ◽  
Traditional Societies ◽  
And Control ◽  
Abstinence From Alcohol

Although beer had a profound cultural, economic and religious significance among traditional societies in central Africa, teetotalism – in other words, abstinence from alcohol – has become widespread in Malawian Protestantism (as elsewhere in African Christianity), and in many churches it is regarded as a mark of true faith. This article examines the origins of the antipathy to alcohol in the Presbyterian missionaries who evangelised Malawi in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who drew a parallel between the ‘problem of drink’ among the working poor in their home culture and central Africans, to urge sobriety and its concomitant values of thrift and hard work among their converts. Yet research shows that it was new Christians in Malawi themselves (and not the missionaries) who took the lead in making temperance or teetotalism a criterion for church membership. By drawing upon the experiences of other socially and politically marginalised groups in the British Empire at this time, it is suggested that these new Christians were likely motivated to adopt temperance/teetotalism in order to assert to foreign missionaries their ability to lead and control their own churches and countries.

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