scholarly journals The Political Impact of the Festival - Biblical Statements

1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 326-339
Author(s):  
Georg Braulik

Liturgy possesses a socio-critical potential which greatly surpasses political activism. It bypasses the systems of a "complex society", such as socialisation, communication and economics, through its factual logic which stands independent of faith. This political fo-rce is already developed by the feast on Sinai, to which Israel is lead out of Egypt (Ex 5:1-3). There, Israel receives the Torah, in order that its life as the people or community of Yahweh may be successful in the Promised Land. The community is to renew itself on occasion of the three pilgrimage festivals. For this purpose, Deuteronomy developed two basic types of popular liturgy within the scope of its theology of the people of God. The first is constituted by the passion commemoration of the passover (Dt 16:1-8). It aims at the social liberation of everyone in Israel, in commemorating their being lead out of Egyptian slavery. The second type is presented in the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles (16:9-12, 13-15). They initiate a fraternal society devoid of poverty, and already realise this in a realistic-symbolic way, through the communal meal of rejoicing in which all are to participate before Yahweh. According to this model, the eucharistic celebrative joy of the first Jerusalem congregation (Acts 2:44-46) reveals its community-changing force in the fact that "no poor were to be found any more" among the believers (Dt 15:4 in Acts 4:32-34).

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danilo T Perez-Rivera ◽  
Christopher Torres Lugo ◽  
Alexis R Santos-Lozada

Between July 13-24, 2019 the people of Puerto Rico took the streets after a series of corruption scandals shocked the political establishment. The social uprising resulted in the ousting of the Governor of Puerto Rico (Dr. Ricardo Rosselló, Ricky), the resignation of the majority of his staff something unprecedented in the history of Puerto Rico; this period has been called El Verano del 19 (Summer of 19). Social media played a crucial role in both the organization and dissemination of the protests, marches, and other activities that occurred within this period. Puerto Ricans in the island and around the world engaged in this social movement through the digital revolution mainly under the hashtag #RickyRenuncia (Ricky Resign), with a small counter movement under the hashtag #RickySeQueda (Ricky will stay). The purpose of this study is to illustrate the magnitude and grass roots nature of the political movement’s social media presence, as well as their characteristics of the population of both movements and their structures. We found that #RickyRenuncia was used approximately one million times in the period of analysis while #RickySeQueda barely reached 6,000 tweets. Particularly, the pervasiveness of cliques in the #RickySeQueda show concentrations of authority dedicated to its propagation, whilst the #RickyRenuncia propagation was much more distributed and decentralized with little to no interaction between significant nodes of authority. Noteworthy was the role of the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States of America and around the world, contributing close to 40% of all geo-located tweets. Finally, we found that the Twitter followers of the former governor had indicators of being composed of two distinct populations: 1) those active in social media and 2) those who follow the account but who are not active participants of the social network. We discuss the implications of these findings on the interpretation of emergence, structure and dissemination of social activism and countermovement to these activities in the context of Puerto Rico.


2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-152
Author(s):  
Sabine Hake

Abstract In the social imaginaries that sustained Nazi ideology from the 1920s through the 1930s, Arbeitertum, translated here as “workerdom,” played a key role in integrating socialist positions into the discourse of the Volksgemeinschaft. Workerdom proved essential for translating the class-based identifications associated with the proletariat into the race-based categories that redefined the people, and hence the workers, in line with antisemitic thought. The writings of the prolific but largely forgotten August Winnig (1878–1956) can be used to reconstruct how workerdom came to provide an emotional blueprint, an identificatory model, and a compensatory fantasy in the reimagining of class, folk, and nation. The influential Vom Proletariat zum Arbeitertum (1930), as well as select autobiographical and fictional works by Winnig, are used to uncover these continuities through the political emotions, dispositions, and identifications that can properly be called populist. In the larger context of worker’s literature, conservative revolution, and völkisch thought, the Nazi discourse of workerdom not only confirms the close connection between political emotion and populist (un)reason but also opens up new ways to understand the continued attractions of populism as a particular kind of politics of emotion based on the dream of the people.


Author(s):  
Henrik P. Bang

Habermas is widely criticized for adumbrating an essentialist, deliberative, and consensual approach to democracy that neglects the significance and importance of contingency, conflict, and emotions in the struggle for hegemony and collective identification. However, his conception of system and lifeworld raise the claim that no society could exist without providing for a minimal degree of political cooperation between professional actors in the political system and spontaneously acting laypeople in the social lifeworld. Contingency, conflict, and emotions are obviously at play in this political conception of how to ground system and lifeworld in mutual relations of power, knowledge, trust, and respect. The goal is not to reach a stable consensus or succumb to conflict and chaos but to avoid that system becomes uncoupled from lifeworld, thus undermining the reciprocal connection between political authorities and laypeople required to make and implement authoritative decisions which are ‘for', ‘of', ‘with', and ‘by' ‘the people'.


2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-219
Author(s):  
Jean-Frédéric De Hasque

The comparison of meetings and protocol of the Lions Clubs in a ritual, offers an opportunity to measure the political impact of this community and the effect the meetings have outside the circle. The study also allows us to understand the importance of the Lions Clubs in Africa, where it cannot be reduced to a meeting of wealthy people seduced by the opulence and the opportunity to find new sources of profit. Lions are compared by population to diplomats because of their appearance, wearing uniforms and medals and are received by the highest political authorities from other nations. In the West this behaviour is seen as a caricature of governance but for members the meetings offer occasions for work and friendship. This appears like political religion because of the hidden goal: to conquer the independence of Africa in the Lions Clubs. This objective is facilitated by the explosion in the number of African members showing the social movement that rages at the top levels of society. The African elite, by its transformation of charity into political rally, proposes a new form of pan-Africanism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentine Ugochukwu Iheanacho

Jean-Marc Éla, in his book My Faith as an African (1988), articulates a pastoral vision for the church in Africa. According to Éla, the “friends of the gospel” must be conscious of God’s presence “in the hut of a mother whose granary is empty.” This awakening arises from the capacity of theologians “to catch the faintest murmurs of the Spirit,” and to stay within earshot of what is happening in the ecclesial community. The vocation of an African theologian, as a witness of the faith and a travelling companion of God’s people, obliges him/her “to get dirty in the precarious conditions of village life.” Decades later, this thought of Éla echoes in Pope Francis’ pastoral vision: “I would prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its security” (Evangelii Gaudium, 49). The purpose of this article is to espouse the pastoral vision of Éla in light of the liberating mission of African theologians. This mission goes beyond armchair theologising toward engaging the people of God “under the tree.” With the granary understood as a metaphor for famine—and famine itself being the messenger of death—the article will also argue that the “friends of the gospel” are not at liberty to shut their eyes and drift off to sleep with a clear conscience, amidst a declining African social context.


2003 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Willinsky

In addressing the question of how new technologies can improve the public quality and presence of academic research, this article reports on the current online use of research by policymakers. Interviews with a sample of 25 Canadian policymakers at the federal level were conducted, looking at the specific role that online research has begun to play in their work, and what frustrations they face in using this research. The study found widespread use of online research, increasing the consultation of this source in policy analysis and formation. The principal issues remain those of access, indexing and credibility, with policymakers restricting themselves in large part to open access sources. Still, online research is proving a counterforce to policymakers' reliance on a small number of academic consultants as gatekeepers and sources for research. What is needed, it becomes clear, is investigations into whether innovative well-indexed systems that integrate a range of academic and non-academic resources might increase the political impact of research in the social sciences and education.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 347
Author(s):  
Safutra Rantona ◽  
Asmaul Husna

Nineteen months have passed, but the action of the political religious social movements which born post religious sacrilege case on Elections Jakarta turned out to be far from over. The movement originally was a step of consolidation in order to evoke the political consciousness of Muslims, now began to be infiltrated by other groups with particular interests. These interest groups considered to sharpen the conflict and cause the political noise never ended across this country. This article try to expose how the social-political issues played massif and structured in virtual spaces by interest groups in order to form the force and gained the power of politics. And how the relationship between religion, state, and people are pitted in order that the collective identity look sharper. So no wonder that the people of Indonesia now seems to have split in two major axis, Religious versus Nationalist.Sembilan belas bulan telah berlalu, namun aksi dari gerakan sosial politik religius yang lahir pasca kasus penistaan agama pada Pilkada DKI Jakarta ternyata belumlah usai. Gerakan yang semula merupakan sebuah langkah konsolidasi guna membangkitkan kesadaran politik umat islam, kini mulai ditunggangi oleh kelompok lain dengan kepentingan tertentu. Kelompok kepentingan inilah yang ditengarai memperkeruh konflik dan menyebabkan kegaduhan politik tak kunjung usai di seantero negeri. Artikel ini mencoba memaparkan bagaimana isu-isu sosial politik kemudian dimainkan secara massif dan terstruktur dalam ruang-ruang virtual oleh kelompok kepentingan guna membentuk kekuatan politik dan demi meraih kekuasaan. Serta bagaimana relasi antara agama, rakyat, dan negara dibenturkan agar identitas kolektif terlihat lebih tajam. Maka tak heran jika kini rakyat Indonesia seolah telah terpropaganda dan terbelah dalam dua poros besar, Agamis dan Nasionalis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 536-542
Author(s):  
V. L. Muzykant ◽  
M. A. Muqsith

The article considers the relationship between the 2020 regional elections in Indonesia under the covid-19 pandemic, public space, and political activism in the social media. The covid-19 pandemic has changed the social, political and cultural fabric of the contemporary world. First, the covid-19 threatened the countrys healthcare system, then it affected other aspects of social life, including the political sphere. The pandemic has been exacerbated by the spread of misinformation about the covid-19, which is also known as the infodemic. Thus, the covid-19 pandemic influenced the choice of holding elections or delaying it until the situation is under control. The development of the social media encourages political activism in the political public sphere and makes it more diverse in the sphere of egalitarianism. The political public sphere becomes increasingly dynamic and critical to various policies. Indonesia did not postpone the 2020 regional elections under the covid-19 crisis. According to the health protocol, this decision had its pros and cons in the digital space. The authors show that political activists in the social media called for prioritizing health rather than the process of democratization through elections, while the government supporters insisted on having elections even in the covid-19 pandemic situation. Finally, the 2020 regional elections were held but were followed by various incidents. The question is whether the governments argument to hold elections under the covid-19 pandemic was reasonable or, on the contrary, contributed to the wider spread of the covid-19 in Indonesia. Deliberative democracy should consider civil participation as the main pillar of the political system, which is relevant for the new social reality as based on the new social media technologies.


1994 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. F. Craffert

Redefining Paul’s conflict in Galatia: The letter to the Galatians through the lense of the social sciences Traditional attempts at identifying Paul’s oppponents in the letter to the Galatians are methodologically stamped by a history-of-ideas approach; this is accompanied by at least two interpretive traditions (one focusing on the Reformation question of righteousness by works or by faith, and the second by the inclusion of Gentiles in the people of God). After a social- scientific methodology is introduced, three facets of Paul’s social realities are discussed: communication in a predominantly oral culture, Judaism as a first-century religious phenomenon, and the household institution. It is suggested that these provide us with an opportunity for redefining the conflict as a conflict on Paul’s honour and authority.


Author(s):  
Pierre Rosanvallon

This chapter explores a new politics of presence, which takes on a variety of forms. For society itself presence is a new way of understanding what belongs to the realm of the political. It has also given rise to a “new militancy of presence,” the role of which has grown as traditional representative organizations have declined. Charitable organizations long served to “educate the social gaze,” but in recent years many other groups have begun to fill this role. For example, there are groups that specialize in publicizing the plight of the children of illegal immigrants threatened with expulsion, and other groups that take up the cause of laid-off workers. The role of these groups is not simply to defend the interests of the people they represent. It is rather to give them social existence, to bring them recognition as a community, and to raise their plight as a political issue.


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