Conclusion: Theology as Failure

2019 ◽  
pp. 175-182
Author(s):  
Marika Rose

This conclusion draws together the themes of the book, exploring what a theology of failure looks like in relation to four overarching themes: freedom, materiality, hierarchy, and universalism. This account of ontology, desire, and Christian theology suggests not only that completeness is impossible but also that purity is impossible. The internal rupture that both constitutes and disrupts every individual economic identity is also the rupture between the social economy of the relationship between the individual and others, language and the body, theology and philosophy, God and the created order. Theology can no more remain immune from its others than it can completely encompass them. Once there was no secular; and yet the genealogy of the church, of Christian theology, is constantly interrupted, contaminated, and enriched by the profane, the abject, and the horrific. Theology is failure; the task, then, is to fail better, to liberate our others in order to begin the difficult work of learning how to love them.

1975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Barth

Encompassing the body of Pauline theology, Ephesians (volumes 34 and 34A of the acclaimed Anchor Bible series) has been called “the crown of St. Paul's writings,” yet both its authorship and addressees are the subject of continuing dispute. Through line-by-line examination of its vocabulary, its difficult style, its Qumran and Gnostic affinities, its parallels with and distinctions from the undisputed Pauline corpus, its use of the Old Testament, and its dialogue with orthodox and heretical Judaism, Markus Barth demonstrates that Paul was almost certainly the author. And, after exploring previous explications of this hymnic and admonitory epistle in detail, he concludes that it was intended for Gentile Christians converted after Paul's visits to Ephesus. On this basis, Barth reexamines the relationship between Israel and the church, discounting the thesis that Ephesians suggests an “early Catholic,” or high-ecclesiastic or sacramental doctrine. Instead, he finds in this letter a statement of the social reconciliation which conditions the salvation of the individual. And reevaluating the section describing the relation between husband and wife, he offers an alternative to the traditional notion that Paul degrades women or belittles their rights and their dignity. In these two volumes Barth has followed the structure of Ephesians: upon the praise of God (chapters 1-3) are based the admonitions (chapters 4-6). But just as the epistle is an integral whole, so is the author's commentary. Through his special understanding and love of the apostle Paul, Markus Barth reopens to modern man the ancient message of love, worship and joy.


Nirmana ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-120
Author(s):  
Natalia Widiasari

Advertising plays an important role in narrating the social side of a company which is often referred to as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Corporate social campaigns are often seen as dubious, however, audiences as individuals interpret advertisements based on their values and experiences. TBSI (The Body Shop Indonesia) advertisements were conceptualized and analyzed using narrative transportation. Interviews are conducted with nine informants from various backgrounds. The results of the study are described in themes, namely (1) insight, (2) the relationship between CSR messages and the participant's value system, and (3) narrative responses to CSR advertisements. The result of the study states that advertising does not necessarily make the value from a social issue to be embedded or instilled in someone. Narrative and commitment to these values depend on the individual, person by person.


Author(s):  
Joseph Mensah Onumah ◽  
Angelo Nicolaides

A discourse of human rights applies to the relations between individuals and relations between them and the state. However, from an Eastern Orthodox perspective, Biblical law diverges, and applies to even the responsibilities of entities towards themselves and their responsibilities towards God the Creator. There is a seemingly increasing declaration that human rights standards are being kept, but it is also apparent that the issue has been wavering globally for numerous years. It is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the destruction of the democratic fabric of the social order on which the defence of human rights is finally contingent. The question this article seeks to answer is what is the understanding of the Eastern Orthodox faith when it comes to human rights issues and what is the Church in general doing to assist in mitigating these? What is the relationship between Orthodoxy and human rights and what part does it play in the advancement of human rights? How can Orthodox teachings contribute to the protection of the dignity of the individual? The concept of ethics and human rights are positive formulations, the two seen as quality features of the Universal Creator, with ethics being the relevant catalyst to human rights and relations. Human rights are therefore expected to shape the living of man as ethics motivates human performance.


Author(s):  
Matthew Croasmun

This book aims to solve an age-old problem in New Testament scholarship: namely, how to understand the relationship between “sins” as human misdeeds, and “Sin/Hamartia, ” the cosmic tyrant, in Romans. It appropriates the critical framework of emergence in philosophy of science to describe the emergence of cognition and agency at the individual, social, and mythological levels. The cosmic tyrant Sin is described as a real person, emergent from a complex system of human transgressions. The work argues that this emergence is analogous to the emergence of mind from the complex neurological system that is the brain. The dominion of Sin is described as downward causation exercised on Sin’s supervenience base (individual sinners), in dialog with liberationist accounts of social sin. This interdisciplinary engagement sets the table for placing Paul’s discourse of the “Body of Sin” within the context of various ancient discourses regarding the social body. The Roma cult in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire serves as an instance of an ancient collective “person” emergent from a complex social system to compare with Paul’s description of Sin/Hamartia. This comparison allows for a discussion of Sin/Hamartia in Paul in terms of ancient political and gender ideology.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-74
Author(s):  
Dominika Byczkowska-Owczarek

This article presents examples of the relationship between culture, dance, and the body in the fields of communication (with oneself, the community, God/deity), the social hierarchy, social values, relations between the individual and the group, and relations between genders, from the perspective of the sociology of the dance. The sociological perspective also indicates the various historical, ritual, control, and regulatory roles that traditional and modern dances play in the communities in which they arise and are performed. The second part of the text contains a case study of the Japanese ankoku butoh dance. The author presents the philosophical roots of the dance (e.g., Japanese mythology, Zen Buddhist philosophy) and the creator’s personal experiences (childhood trauma and post-war social situation) as factors that influenced the dance’s development. The example of ankoku butoh illustrates the interrelation between cultural meanings and dance movements.


Author(s):  
Joshua S. Walden

The book’s epilogue explores the place of musical portraiture in the context of posthumous depictions of the deceased, and in relation to the so-called posthuman condition, which describes contemporary changes in the relationship of the individual with such aspects of life as technology and the body. It first examines Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to view how Bernard Herrmann’s score relates to issues of portraiture and the depiction of the identity of the deceased. It then considers the work of cyborg composer-artist Neil Harbisson, who has aimed, through the use of new capabilities of hybridity between the body and technology, to convey something akin to visual likeness in his series of Sound Portraits. The epilogue shows how an examination of contemporary views of posthumous and posthuman identities helps to illuminate the ways music represents the self throughout the genre of musical portraiture.


2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 687-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
RACHAEL DOBSON

AbstractThis article argues that constructions of social phenomena in social policy and welfare scholarship think about the subjects and objects of welfare practice in essentialising ways, with negativistic effects for practitioners working in ‘regulatory’ contexts such as housing and homelessness practice. It builds into debates about power, agency, social policy and welfare by bringing psychosocial and feminist theorisations of relationality to practice research. It claims that relational approaches provide a starting point for the analysis of empirical practice data, by working through the relationship between the individual and the social via an ontological unpicking and revisioning of practitioners' social worlds.


1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Provan

It is well known that the seeds from which the modern discipline of OT theology grew are already found in 17th and 18th century discussion of the relationship between Bible and Church, which tended to drive a wedge between the two, regarding canon in historical rather than theological terms; stressing the difference between what is transient and particular in the Bible and what is universal and of abiding significance; and placing the task of deciding which is which upon the shoulders of the individual reader rather than upon the church. Free investigation of the Bible, unfettered by church tradition and theology, was to be the way ahead. OT theology finds its roots more particularly in the 18th century discussion of the nature of and the relationship between Biblical Theology and Dogmatic Theology, and in particular in Gabler's classic theoreticalstatementof their nature and relationship. The first book which may strictly be called an OT theology appeared in 1796: an historical discussion of the ideas to be found in the OT, with an emphasis on their probable origin and the stages through which Hebrew religious thought had passed, compared and contrasted with the beliefs of other ancient peoples, and evaluated from the point of view of rationalistic religion. Here we find the unreserved acceptance of Gabler's principle that OT theology must in the first instance be a descriptive and historical discipline, freed from dogmatic constraints and resistant to the premature merging of OT and NT — a principle which in the succeeding century was accepted by writers across the whole theological spectrum, including those of orthodox and conservative inclination.


Sociology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Frisk

The article discusses four dominant perspectives in the sociology of heroism: the study of great men; hero stories; heroic actions; and hero institutions. The discussion ties together heroism and fundamental sociological debates about the relationship between the individual and the social order; it elucidates the socio-psychological, cultural/ideational and socio-political structuring of heroism, which challenges the tendency to understand people, actions and events as naturally, or intrinsically, heroic; and it points to a theoretical trajectory within the literature, which has moved from very exclusive to more inclusive conceptualisations of a hero. After this discussion, the article examines three problematic areas in the sociology of heroism: the underlying masculine character of heroism; the presumed disappearance of the hero with modernisation; and the principal idea of heroism as a pro-social phenomenon. The article calls for a more self-conscious engagement with this legacy, which could stimulate dialogue across different areas of sociological research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-299
Author(s):  
Valerii P. CHICHKANOV ◽  
Aleksandra V. VASIL'EVA

Subject. This article analyzes the effectiveness of public administration in the social sphere. Objectives. The article aims to standardize the decision-making process for managing the region's social development through statistical analysis techniques. Methods. For the study, we used correlation and cluster analyses. Results. The article highlights weaknesses in the development of the social sphere and assesses the relationship between the individual areas of its development, and the effectiveness of its financing. It offers algorithms that take into account the patterns of social development and the specifics of certain types of economic activity. Conclusions. The results obtained were used to develop algorithms to optimize the development of the social sphere at the regional level. The socio-economic differentiation of the Russian Federation subjects in a number of regions requires an analysis of the specifics of the development of the social sphere of the region under consideration and adjustments to the proposed algorithms.


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