Barthes and Religion

2020 ◽  
pp. 121-136
Author(s):  
Michael Moriarty
Keyword(s):  
Mystical Experience ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Strong Interest ◽  
A Value

Recent publications have enabled a much fuller understanding of Barthes’s religious (Protestant) background. The work published in his lifetime shows a negative attitude to religion, to Christianity in particular, fairly typical of French left-wingers of the period; but certain religious preoccupations continue to inflect his thought. In the lectures published as Comment vivre ensemble he discusses religious communities of various kinds. The notion of the Neutral is asserted as a value against the arrogant and intolerant certitude of faith. He shows a strong interest in Eastern mysticism, as distinct from Christian varieties of mystical experience. Yet the experience of bereavement sends him back to reading Pascal and to passages of Proust with a marked religious resonance. Thinking about his mother’s relationship to religion leads him to think again about what Christianity could mean and to ponder the possibility of a faith without violence. The chapter concludes by asking whether, along the lines of Barthes’s distinction between politics (an object of suspicion) and the political (a value to be affirmed), it is possible to make a similar distinction between religion and the religious.

Occupy Movement, Religion and Social Formations

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-24
Author(s):  
Matt Sheedy
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Social Formation ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Occupy Movement ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures

The Occupy movement was an unprecedented social formation that spread to approximate 82 countries around the globe in the fall of 2011 via social media through the use of myths, symbols and rituals that were performed in public space and quickly drew widespread mainstream attention. In this paper I argue that the movement offers a unique instance of how discourse functions in the construction of society and I show how the shared discourses of Occupy were taken-up and shaped in relation to the political opportunity structures and interests of those involved based on my own fieldwork at Occupy Winnipeg. I also argue that the Occupy movement provides an example of how we might substantively attempt to classify “religion” by looking at how it embodied certain metaphysical claims while contrasting it with the beliefs and practices of more conventionally defined “religious” communities.

Liberals, Democrats and the Agenda of Politics

1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Vernon
Keyword(s):  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Choice ◽  
Personal Freedom ◽  
A Value ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Democratic Procedure

Democrats sometimes wonder why liberalism, as a theory which values choice, should seek to restrict democratic choices by limiting the political agenda. This article tries to answer this question by emphasizing a value which is common to liberal and democratic arguments: that as far as possible states should rest on persuasion rather than compulsion. On this basis, it is argued that personal and political choice situations are not analogous, that not all the arguments for personal freedom are exhausted by the arguments for fair democratic procedure, that it is not irrational to fear that one might be in an unpersuaded minority, and that even democratic political outcomes cannot be substituted for personal conclusions. Some democratic theories do not accept the value assumed here: but they pay too high a price.

Christians in Iraq: The Transition from Religious to Secular Identity

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-24
Author(s):  
Herman G.B. Teule
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Political Choices ◽  
Positive Results

In the Middle Eastern societies, Christians traditionally define themselves as religious communities or churches. This is a continuation of the Ottoman millet system, where religion determined the place one had in society and the patriarch was responsible for the insertion of his community into the state. It not only preserves the traditional ecclesiastical divisions based on dogmatic divergences and church politics but also transposes them to the political field.For a few decades, many lay politicians in Syria considered this system as detrimental to Christian interests. They developed the idea of a common ethnic identity for all churches using Syriac. New political circumstances in Iraq made it possible to give a political translation of this idea by the creation of Christian political parties, defending common ethnic minority rights. Despite some positive results, attempts at creating unity failed, not only because a lack of unanimity about certain political choices but also about the idea of ethnic identity itself.

scholarly journals Religious Engagement and the Migration Issue: Towards Reconciling Political and Moral Duty

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 236
Author(s):  
Joanna Kulska
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Religious Engagement ◽  
The Face ◽  
Religious Actors

The increasingly acknowledged post-secular perspective has resulted in the emergence of some new approaches theorizing this phenomenon. One such approach has been the concept of religious engagement, which calls for the redefinition of the perception of religious non-state actors towards including them as important partners in the process of identifying and realizing political goals. According to this view, due to the multidimensional role played by religious communities and non-state religious actors, they need to be recognized as pivotal in creating a new form of knowledge generated through encounter and dialogue of the political decision-makers with these subjects. Among numerous others, the challenge of migration calls for enhanced debate referring to both political and ethical issues. When such a perspective is applied, the question is raised of the duties and limits of nation-states using more or less harsh political measures towards refugees and migrants based on the concept of security, but also short-term political goals. In the face of a state’s lack of will or capacity to deal with the problem of migration, the question of religion serving not only as the service-provider but also as the “trend-setter” with regard to fundamental ethical questions needs to be considered.

scholarly journals Collective Bargaining and Management Rights

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-324
Author(s):  
Roger Chartier
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
The Political ◽  
Specific Function ◽  
Joint Management ◽  
A Value ◽  
Absolute Certainty ◽  
New Thinking ◽  
Basic Purpose

Summary In the last analysis, the firmest and deepest foundation of management rights is the need for an efficient coordination of multifarious activities and often divergent interests, with an aim to achieving the basic purpose of the business concern. Efficiency, however, is essentially a value whose définitions are all the more numerous and varied as science, in its present applications to industry, cannot lay claim to absolute certainty and accuracy. And even if it could, this would not alter in any way the political nature of decision-making. Such considerations lead to a re-examination of the notions of collective bargaining and joint management, as well as they induce new thinking on the specific function of management, which reaches beyond decision-making into the realm of coordination of means, activities, interests, and bargains.

scholarly journals Some Remarks on the Res Publica in Cicero

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
A Value ◽  
The People ◽  
Common Opinion ◽  
Latin Term ◽  
Main Characteristic Feature ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Res Publica

In recent decades, modern scholars who interpret the meaning of the concept «res publica» proceed from Cicero’s statement that est ... res publica res populi, that is, «the affair or property of the people». Most of them notes that the famous orator only expressed a common opinion shared by all the citizens of Rome. Moreover, in their opinion, res publica should not be considered as a «state», which is characteristic of previous generations of scientists, but as a value concept associated with a direct expression of the sovereignty of the Roman people, which characterizes the system, the cornerstone of which is law and order. The opposite of res publica is tyrannical rule. At first glance, such an interpretation of res publica seems to bring us closer to Roman realities and makes it possible to abandon the use of modern concepts, which often distort the essence of events and phenomena of the classical period. However, this interpretation raises questions when we are faced with how Cicero’s contemporaries, and he himself, practiced this term. As a result, the author of the article believes that the expression «res publica res populi est» is Cicero’s invention, who intentionally translated the Greek term πόλις by the Latin term res publica, which had a polysemantic character and vague definitions. His interpretation deliberately obscured the meaning of the slogan res publica in the political struggle (the «optimates» spoke only about res publica, while the «populares» used the construction res publica = res populi (plebi)), and on the other hand, such an interpretation was needed in order to with its help, imagine the ideal state system, which is at risk if the tyrant captures power. Actually, according to Cicero, the main characteristic feature of res publica is its opposition to the tyrant’s power, because the latter threatens the existence of the Senate and, accordingly, the prominent position of the «best» people.

scholarly journals PANDANGAN POLITIK JARINGAN ISLAM LIBERAL DI INDONESIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-174
Author(s):  
Ana Sabhana Azmy ◽  
Amri Yusra
Keyword(s):  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
The Political ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
A Value ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Reading Materials

This article aims to look at the political views of the Jaringan Islam Liberal (Liberal Islam Network) in Indonesia. As a community that wants to carry out reforms with the spirit of modernization and rationality in religion, seeing it in political and democratic contestation in Indonesia is interesting. So this article questions two things; how does Jaringan Islam Liberal view the relevance of religion and politics? and how does Jaringan Islam Liberal view the implementation of democracy? The method used in this paper is a literature study that seeks to collect data from journal articles, books, and other related reading materials. This article shows that the Jaringan Islam Liberal (Liberal Islam Network) rejects forms of political Islam that try to formally fight for the superiority of Islamic value systems and symbols in the political sphere. They also reject the idea of an Islamic state and the formalization of shari'ah, and sees democracy as a value that must be implemented in a country. This is because it is in accordance with the basic rights that must be owned by individuals, which are known as human rights.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Chenoweth
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Virgin Islands ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Background Information ◽  
The Political ◽  
Society Of Friends ◽  
British Virgin Islands ◽  
History Of

This introductory chapter sketches the questions and goals of the overall project and the needed background information about Quakerism. It introduces the Tortola Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (“Quakers”) which formed in the British Virgin Islands about 1740 and addresses how archaeology can approach the study of religion and religious communities. This chapter also serves as an introduction to Quakerism itself, including its ideology based on individual, un-mediated communion with God, and a brief history of the group from its foundation in the political and economic turmoil of mid-seventeenth-century England, to the “Quietism” of wealthy “Quaker Grandees” in Philadelphia, to a nineteenth and twentieth century history of schism and reunion around pacifism. The Quaker structure of Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly meetings is introduced, and connected to both community oversight and support structures. Finally, this chapter introduces three main Quaker ideals—simplicity, equality, and peace—which will be interrogated throughout the work as they change in their interactions with Caribbean slavery and geography.

scholarly journals A crisis of measurability? Critiquing post-operaismo on labour, value and the basic income

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick Harry Pitts
Keyword(s):  
Value Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Form Analysis ◽  
A Value ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Form Theory ◽  
The Law ◽  
Made In

This article critiques post-operaist conceptualisations of immaterial labour from the perspective of Marxian value-form theory. Critiquing the idea of the ‘crisis of measurability’ created by immaterial labour and the contention that this makes redundant the law of value, it contests the novelty, immediate abstractness and immeasurable productivity post-operaists attribute to contemporary labour using the New Reading of Marx. The first part explores this theoretical conflict, asserting that post-operaismo refutes Marx’s value theory only insofar as it holds a productivist understanding of value to begin with. The second reflects upon the political implications through a consideration of the post-operaist advocacy of a universal basic income. Appeals to reward, recompense and redistribution rest upon the veracity of the claims made in the post-operaist treatment of labour, value and their immateriality and immeasurability. A value-form analysis exposes flaws in the assumptions about value and labour that support their case for a universal basic income.

Arguments for deliberative participation in local economic development

2014 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltán Bajmócy ◽  
Judit Gébert
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
A Value ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common

According to the common sense, experts, backed up by scientific methods, describe the “possible states of the world” in a value-neutral way. Then, in the political arena, delegates build on these proposals, but also consider values and interests. The present paper attempts to revise such an understanding of local economic development (LED) and argues that many of the deficiencies deriving from such a view can be remedied by deliberative participation, which is not merely a theoretical necessity, but also a practical possibility.With regard to the issue of public participation and deliberation, the paper identifies two main approaches in the LED literature: the “political” and the “apolitical”, of which the latter is mainly characterised by economic theorising. We take a closer look at the “apolitical” approach and demonstrate that in fact it is very much political. Therefore, we call for the transgression of the borderline between politics and expertise in LED, and suggest a joint democratisation of these interrelated terrains. We argue that deliberative participation is able to contribute to the quality of both the expert proposals and the working of the politics.

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