scholarly journals Forms of Coercion in Peaceful Christian Missions

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-141
Author(s):  
Marius Ščavinskas

The article analyses forms of coercion employed in so-called peaceful Christian missions. Two forms of coercion are distinguished: social, implemented by the ruler towards his subjects, and political, imposed by a conqueror. However, the fact that on certain occasions missionaries employed both social and political forms of coercion is also taken into consideration. These occasions were cases when missionaries who faced a polarised nobility lacking a strong political leader (the nobility and/or the ruler would be the backbone of a successful mission) would undertake the formation of political structures, thus absorbing secular functions as well. This happened to the first bishops who worked among the Prussians and Livonians (Christian, Meinhard, Berthold and Albert). On the other hand, the analysis revealed that peaceful missions, as they have been perceived in historiography, contained certain forms of coercion defined by the term ‘social coercion’. Thus the logical question arises: what kind of missions can be qualified as military/coercive which in historiography are most frequently named ‘Schwertmission’? The article suggests the conclusion that, in their nature, Schwertmission were different from the so-called ‘sword missions’, yet were loaded with social coercion. Hence, Schwertmission and Crusade are not identical concepts, though they are still used as such in historiography.

PMLA ◽  
1934 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 1116-1128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don M. Wolfe

Though Milton and Mirabeau were devoted to almost identical ideals of civil liberty, their personalities offer a peculiar contrast. Milton was an idealist, a theorist, a poet; he was abstemious in food and drink, inclined to seclusion, religious by nature. Mirabeau, on the other hand, was a soldier, an orator, a political leader. Whereas Milton was thoughtful and reserved, Mirabeau was animated, impulsive, ever seeking the center of action, forever restless and impatient. Sensual and gluttonous, he was as much a slave to his passions as any of the Englishmen Milton condemned for being so; and in his last moments he turned away, more in kindness than in derision, the priest who sought to shrive him. Notwithstanding these essential differences, Mirabeau found in Milton a kindred spirit; he found in him that flaming love of liberty, that passion for essential freedoms, that lofty and unselfish devotion to country to which he himself aspired. Milton's influence on Mirabeau, many times suggested but never evaluated, is one of significant interest to students of Milton's politics. A close study of two Mirabeau tracts, Théorie de la Royauté après la Doctrine de Milton and De la liberté de la Presse, reveals not only that Mirabeau's reading of Milton strikingly verified his own political conclusions: it presents evidence that Milton's voice at a critical period of the Revolution became the weapon of its most powerful leader. French cries for liberty found expression in the tracts of the Puritan poet.


TERRITORIO ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 26-37
Author(s):  
Elena Granata ◽  
Paolo Pileri

The mafia in Northern Italy has been able to consolidate its presence by counting on the advantages offered by impoverished contexts with weak social relationships and weak economic and political structures. On the other hand, the mafia itself has been at the centre of processes that have impoverished and weakened communities in a vicious circle, which people have only recently become aware of. The authors reflect on the habitats of the mafia, alluding to those conditions which afford opportunities and to the fragility, porosity and permeability of institutions and to the legal and procedural uncertainties, which facilitate ambiguous and at times criminal behaviours.


Phainomenon ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 18-19 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-40
Author(s):  
Michael Marder

Abstract In his rather fragmentary theory of attention, Emmanuel Levinas draws inspiration from phenomenology, while endeavoring to furnish it with an ethical foundation. On ·the one hand, he assigns to attention a crucial role coextensive with intentionality (the idea that, in each case, consciousness is consdous of, or directed toward, something). On the other hand, he mobilizes the methodology of reduction for the purpose of uncovering an ethical substratum of experience in the relation to the Other, which is deeper still than the life of consciousness it animates. Husserlian reduction is not radical enough for Levinas’s philosophical taste, since it fails to recognize. that this life comes into being thanks to the appeal emanating from the Other, whose calling out to me forces me to pay attention, even when it seems that I am attending only to inanimate things. The ethical relation to the Other lies not only at the bottom of all social and political structures, but also at the source of consciousness and of its attentive directedness to that of which it is conscious. Before I am able to intend or to attend to anything whatsoever, I am targeted by the Other, who reverses the movement of intentionality and, at once, breaches and founds my psychic interiority.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Rathje ◽  
Azim Shariff ◽  
Simone Schnall

People presumably strive to maximize their own benefit whenever possible, so it is puzzling when they vote for leaders who may not have their best interest at heart. We tested whether support for a political leader is diminished when supporters learn they are financially disadvantaged by the leader’s policies. In a pre-registered, two-stage experiment (Time 1 n = 601, Time 2 n = 343), Trump voters predicted their expected tax refund (or payment), and then reported their tax outcome immediately after the filing deadline. Afterwards, we confronted half of the participants with the discrepancy between their actual and predicted tax outcome. Having lower-than-expected tax outcomes was not associated with reduced support for Trump either on its own, or in combination with being reminded of this outcome. However, it led participants who were dissatisfied with their tax outcome to downgrade the importance of lowering taxes, possibly in an effort to reduce cognitive dissonance and justify continued support for Trump. Subjective tax outcome satisfaction, on the other hand, did predict Trump support, but was dwarfed in magnitude by other variables such as system justification and political orientation. Overall, we find little evidence that economic self-interest played a role in support for Trump.


10.26458/1714 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Ilie Mihai

It is well known that in election years, political parties compete in measures and promises that are more or less extravagant, designed to attract votes from voters.The situation is understandable to a certain extent, this practice being common in other countries as well, important being not to "jump the horse" as unfortunately happens in Romania, where in four years the politicians, in their desire to obtain a mandate in local or parliamentary elections, replete with all kinds of promises, without regard to the impact that their application might have on the stability of the overall economy.As the electoral legislation has become more stringent, attracting voters by giving them attentions and gifts (buckets, packages of food with sugar, oil, etc., or gourmet) was forbidden and election promises have climbed the first rung of the strategy of attracting voters.On the other hand, the old local and central political structures at the end of their mandate try, for the last hundred meters, to adopt populist, hoping both to renew mandates and to solve personal interests relating to special pensions bonuses and all sorts of pecuniary advantages, according to the principle "after us the deluge".  


1999 ◽  
Vol 173 ◽  
pp. 249-254
Author(s):  
A.M. Silva ◽  
R.D. Miró

AbstractWe have developed a model for theH2OandOHevolution in a comet outburst, assuming that together with the gas, a distribution of icy grains is ejected. With an initial mass of icy grains of 108kg released, theH2OandOHproductions are increased up to a factor two, and the growth curves change drastically in the first two days. The model is applied to eruptions detected in theOHradio monitorings and fits well with the slow variations in the flux. On the other hand, several events of short duration appear, consisting of a sudden rise ofOHflux, followed by a sudden decay on the second day. These apparent short bursts are frequently found as precursors of a more durable eruption. We suggest that both of them are part of a unique eruption, and that the sudden decay is due to collisions that de-excite theOHmaser, when it reaches the Cometopause region located at 1.35 × 105kmfrom the nucleus.


Author(s):  
A. V. Crewe

We have become accustomed to differentiating between the scanning microscope and the conventional transmission microscope according to the resolving power which the two instruments offer. The conventional microscope is capable of a point resolution of a few angstroms and line resolutions of periodic objects of about 1Å. On the other hand, the scanning microscope, in its normal form, is not ordinarily capable of a point resolution better than 100Å. Upon examining reasons for the 100Å limitation, it becomes clear that this is based more on tradition than reason, and in particular, it is a condition imposed upon the microscope by adherence to thermal sources of electrons.


Author(s):  
K.H. Westmacott

Life beyond 1MeV – like life after 40 – is not too different unless one takes advantage of past experience and is receptive to new opportunities. At first glance, the returns on performing electron microscopy at voltages greater than 1MeV diminish rather rapidly as the curves which describe the well-known advantages of HVEM often tend towards saturation. However, in a country with a significant HVEM capability, a good case can be made for investing in instruments with a range of maximum accelerating voltages. In this regard, the 1.5MeV KRATOS HVEM being installed in Berkeley will complement the other 650KeV, 1MeV, and 1.2MeV instruments currently operating in the U.S. One other consideration suggests that 1.5MeV is an optimum voltage machine – Its additional advantages may be purchased for not much more than a 1MeV instrument. On the other hand, the 3MeV HVEM's which seem to be operated at 2MeV maximum, are much more expensive.


2005 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 129-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reimer Kornmann

Summary: My comment is basically restricted to the situation in which less-able students find themselves and refers only to literature in German. From this point of view I am basically able to confirm Marsh's results. It must, however, be said that with less-able pupils the opposite effect can be found: Levels of self-esteem in these pupils are raised, at least temporarily, by separate instruction, academic performance however drops; combined instruction, on the other hand, leads to improved academic performance, while levels of self-esteem drop. Apparently, the positive self-image of less-able pupils who receive separate instruction does not bring about the potential enhancement of academic performance one might expect from high-ability pupils receiving separate instruction. To resolve the dilemma, it is proposed that individual progress in learning be accentuated, and that comparisons with others be dispensed with. This fosters a self-image that can in equal measure be realistic and optimistic.


Author(s):  
Stefan Krause ◽  
Markus Appel

Abstract. Two experiments examined the influence of stories on recipients’ self-perceptions. Extending prior theory and research, our focus was on assimilation effects (i.e., changes in self-perception in line with a protagonist’s traits) as well as on contrast effects (i.e., changes in self-perception in contrast to a protagonist’s traits). In Experiment 1 ( N = 113), implicit and explicit conscientiousness were assessed after participants read a story about either a diligent or a negligent student. Moderation analyses showed that highly transported participants and participants with lower counterarguing scores assimilate the depicted traits of a story protagonist, as indicated by explicit, self-reported conscientiousness ratings. Participants, who were more critical toward a story (i.e., higher counterarguing) and with a lower degree of transportation, showed contrast effects. In Experiment 2 ( N = 103), we manipulated transportation and counterarguing, but we could not identify an effect on participants’ self-ascribed level of conscientiousness. A mini meta-analysis across both experiments revealed significant positive overall associations between transportation and counterarguing on the one hand and story-consistent self-reported conscientiousness on the other hand.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document