Gandhi’s Metaphysics as Encountering the 'Unreasonable'

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 31-54
Author(s):  
Michael Allen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Growth ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Cultural Adaptations ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Moral Learning ◽  
Devotional Practices ◽  
Cultural Resonance ◽  
Conflict Resolutions

In this article, I reconsider Gandhi's relationship to liberal democracy. I argue that a properly Gandhian approach to this relationship should emphasize the role of the satyagrahi facilitating conflict resolutions and progress in truth. Above all, this approach calls upon courageous, exemplary individuals to pass over and join the viewpoints of 'unreasonables' marginalized by the liberal state. However, I also argue that contemporary Gandhians should explore cultural adaptations of the satyagrahi-role appropriate to highly materialistic, multicultural liberal-democracies. In these societies, the traditional figure of the ascetic or saint may lack popular cultural resonance. Moreover, moral learning and spiritual insight often derives from popular culture and entertainment as much as religious traditions, or devotional practices. Contemporary Gandhi’s scholars should thus consider the prospects for 'alternative satyagrahis' embracing some materialist values and cultural motifs, as appropriate sources spiritual growth and soul-force.

Editor’s Corner: Critics or Caretakers?

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-39
Author(s):  
Philip Tite
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Short Piece ◽  
Short Essay ◽  
Academic Study

A short essay, in responding to an online roundtable (the Religious Studies Project), explores the role of progressive ideology in the academic study of religion, specifically with a focus on debates over Russell McCutcheon's distinction between scholars functioning as cultural critics or caretakers of religious traditions. This short piece is part of the "Editor's Corner" (an occasional section of the Bulletin where the editors offer provocative musings on theoretical challenges facing the discipline).

Learning Morality with Siblings: The Untold Tale of a Mid-Twentieth Century Taiwanese Family

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Jing Xu
Keyword(s):  
Training Model ◽  
Sibling Relationship ◽  
Text Analytics ◽  
Chinese Families ◽  
General Picture ◽  
Projective Tests ◽  
Moral Learning ◽  
Peer Community ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis

Abstract This article uses a new theoretical and methodological framework to reconstruct a story of two children from fieldnotes collected by anthropologists Arthur and Margery Wolf in rural Taiwan (1958 to 1960). Through the case of a brother–sister dyad, it examines the moral life of young children and provides a rare glimpse into sibling relationship in peer and family contexts. First, combining social network analysis and NLP text-analytics, this article introduces a general picture of these siblings’ life in the peer community. Moreover, drawing from naturalistic observations and projective tests, it offers an ethnographic analysis of how children support each other and assert themselves. It emphasizes the role of child-to-child ties in moral learning, in contrast to the predominant focus of parent–child ties in the study of Chinese families. It challenges assumptions of the Chinese “child training” model and invites us to take children's moral psychology seriously and re-discover their agency.

scholarly journals Japanese Concepts of Angels: Analyzing Depictions of Celestial Beings in the shōjo Manga Kamikaze Kaitō Jeanne

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dunja Sharbat Dar
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
The Other ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Cultural Perspectives ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
Hermeneutic Approach ◽  
Shojo Manga ◽  
Insight Into

White wings, long hair, 'pure' faces: the appearance of angels frequently follows similar aesthetics connected to Christian imagery. Angels and Christian religion also are popular themes in manga, Japanese comics, often intermingled with Buddhist or Shinto notions. Since imagery in popular culture resonates and shapes vernacular and cultural perspectives, manga like Kamikaze Kaitō Jeanne (KKJ) provide an important insight into the conceptualization of angels in Japan. This article therefore analyzes the contrary role of angels in KKJ as the Other, the mysterious, serene one, while simultaneously angels are depicted as part of the circle of life every creature undergoes in Buddhist cosmology. Based on a visual hermeneutic approach, this article demonstrates how the intermix of both visual and religious traditions in Japan shape the depiction of angels in Japanese popcultural media.

scholarly journals Peranan Tuan Guru Ormas Islam Nahdlatul Wathan di Lombok Wadah Ajaran Keagamaan dan Sosial (Islam)

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 221
Author(s):  
Jun Mawalidin
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Expression ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Library Research ◽  
Mass Organization ◽  
Very High ◽  
High Place

<p class="05Abstrak">Abstract</p><p class="06IsiAbstrak">The teachings of Islam for the Sasak people get a very high place in carrying out their daily religious life in accordance with the teachings of their religion. The purpose of this study is to analyze theoretical analysis on Islamic religious traditions that have existed in the Sasak community since the beginning of their entry, placing more emphasis on strengthening religious practices or rituals that at a glance place great importance on religious expression. This research method uses the library research method about the role of the Nahdlatul Wathan Islamic mass organization figure in Lombok. The results showed that Nahdlatul Wathan focused on three areas of development, namely education, social and da'wah. The presence of Tuan Guru on the island of a thousand mosques gives a different feel. Bahklan is a characteristic of society, its influence can be felt in various fields, not only in the field of education, in politics but also in the executive field. </p><p class="06IsiAbstrak"><strong>Keywords:</strong> Tuan Guru, Community, Lombok, Nahdlatul Wathan.</p><p class="061AbstrakIndonesia">Abstrak</p><p class="061IsiAbstrakIndoneia">Ajaran Islam bagi masyarakat sasak mendapatkan tempat yang sangat tinggi dalam menjalankan kehidupan keagamaannya sehari-hari sesuai dengan ajaran agama yang dianut. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah melakukan telaah teori analisis pada Tradisi keagamaan Islam yang terdapat di masyarakat Sasak sejak awal masuknya, lebih menekankan pada penguatan-penguatan amalan atau ritual keagamaan yang secara sepintas sangat mementingkan ekspresi keagamaan. Metode penelitian ini menggunakan metode <em>library research</em> tentang peranan tokoh ormas islam nahdlatul wathan yang ada di lombok. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Nahdlatul Wathan fokus pada tiga bidang pembangunan, yaitu pendidikan, sosial dan dakwah. Kehadiran Tuan Guru di pulau seribu masjid memberikan nuansa yang berbeda. Bahklan merupakan ciri khas masyarakat, pengaruhnya dapat dirasakan di berbagai bidang, tidak hanya di bidang pendidikan, di bidang politik tetapi juga di bidang eksekutif.  </p><p class="05Abstrak"><strong>Kata kunci:</strong> Tuan Guru,<em> </em>Masyarakat, Lombok, Nahdlatul Wathan.</p>

scholarly journals When Populist Leaders Govern: Conceptualising Populism in Policy Making

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 71-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Attila Bartha ◽  
Zsolt Boda ◽  
Dorottya Szikra
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Willingness To Adopt ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Policy Content ◽  
Distinguishing Features

The rise of populist governance throughout the world offers a novel opportunity to study the way in which populist leaders and parties rule. This article conceptualises populist policy making by theoretically addressing the substantive and discursive components of populist policies and the decision-making processes of populist governments. It first reconstructs the implicit ideal type of policy making in liberal democracies based on the mainstream governance and policy making scholarship. Then, taking stock of the recent populism literature, the article elaborates an ideal type of populist policy making along the dimensions of content, procedures and discourses. As an empirical illustration we apply a qualitative congruence analysis to assess the conformity of a genuine case of populist governance, social policy in post-2010 Hungary with the populist policy making ideal type. Concerning the policy content, the article argues that policy heterodoxy, strong willingness to adopt paradigmatic reforms and an excessive responsiveness to majoritarian preferences are distinguishing features of any type of populist policies. Regarding the procedural features populist leaders tend to downplay the role of technocratic expertise, sideline veto-players and implement fast and unpredictable policy changes. Discursively, populist leaders tend to extensively use crisis frames and discursive governance instruments in a Manichean language and a saliently emotional manner that reinforces polarisation in policy positions. Finally, the article suggests that policy making patterns in Hungarian social policy between 2010 and 2018 have been largely congruent with the ideal type of populist policy making.

scholarly journals PERAN ORANG TUA DALAM PERTUMBUHAN SPIRITUALITAS ANAK: SEBUAH STUDI EKSEGETIS EFESUS 6:1-4

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-129
Author(s):  
Waharman Waharman
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Growth ◽  
Sunday School ◽  
Early Age ◽  
School Services ◽  
The Family ◽  
Role Of Parents ◽  
The Church

The role of parents for their children in spiritual growth is very important, and starting from an early age, teaching for children's spiritual growth is not only given to the church, or during Sunday school services but the most important and most important is the role of parents in the family for her children. If noted, there are still many parents who do not realize the importance of their role as parents to educate the spiritual growth of their children. Therefore through this paper, we try to remind the important role of parents in the growth of children.

Reimagining the Nation-State: Indigenous Peoples and the Making of Plurinationalism in Latin America

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 773-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROGER MERINO
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
State Transformation ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
Local Resources ◽  
The People ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives ◽  
Political Foundations ◽  
Political Differences ◽  
The One

AbstractIn the last two decades, the concept of plurinationalism has appeared in discussions about nationalism, statehood and multilevel governance, being formulated as a new state model that accommodates cultural diversity within the liberal state with the aim of solving nationalistic conflicts in countries marked by profound ethnic grievances, mainly in Europe. However, these discussions have paid less attention to the meaning of plurinationalism in ex-colonial contexts, particularly in recent experiences of state transformation in Bolivia and Ecuador, where the role of indigenous peoples in the plurinational project has been crucial. To fill this gap, this article explores the legal and political foundations, challenges and local and international dynamics in the building of the plurinational model in both countries. Under a critical engagement with Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), this article argues that plurinationality from indigenous perspectives departs from multicultural liberal models associated with current European plurinational views, and addresses two challenges: a global political economy of resource extraction, and a racialized state structure working as a barrier to actual plurinational implementation. These limitations explain an intrinsic tension in the Bolivian and Ecuadorian experience: on the one hand, plurinational governments try to unify the people around the ‘national interest’ of developing extractive industries; and on the other hand, they attempt to recognize ethno-political differences that often challenge the transnational exploitation of local resources.

Countering misinformation and disinformation during contentious episodes in a divided society: Tweeting the 2014 and 2015 Ardoyne parade disputes

First Monday ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Reilly
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Information Flows ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Minimal Impact ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Crisis Events ◽  
Public Demonstrations ◽  
Acute Crisis

Whereas there has been much research into the manufacture of ‘fake news’ to sow disunity within liberal democracies, little is known about how information disorders affect deeply divided societies. This paper addresses that gap in the literature by exploring how digital media are used to share misinformation and disinformation during contentious public demonstrations in Northern Ireland. It does so by reviewing the literature on social media information flows during acute crisis events, and qualitatively exploring the role of Twitter in spreading misinformation and disinformation during the 2014 and 2015 Ardoyne parade disputes. Results indicate that visual disinformation, presumably shared to inflame sectarian tensions during the parade, was quickly debunked in information flows co-curated by citizens and professional journalists. Online misinformation and disinformation appeared to have minimal impact on events on the ground, although there was some evidence of belief echoes among tweeters who distrusted the information provided by mainstream media.

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