‘A World to Be Transfigured’: Shaping a Cold War Vision of Orthodoxy from the South

2021 ◽  
pp. 231-248
Author(s):  
Vlad Naumescu

This chapter explores a transformative moment in the religious Cold War that led to a new vision of Orthodox Christianity articulated in an educational project for the youth. Pointing to the interconnected histories of cold war politics and postcolonial nation-building it shows how a religious minority in South India managed to transcend the boundaries of the nation-state and establish an international Orthodox alliance that could help them handle tensions within the church, respond to secular challenges and become leaders in global ecumenism. Channelling these apologetic struggles into the educational field, the Indian Orthodox Church pioneered a Christian curriculum for the Oriental churches which provided an alternative for their own communities, transcending ideological differences and cold war divisions and reaffirming the role of religion in the secular world.

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Hammarlund ◽  
Kristina Riegert

•As a pervasive historical construct that is both foreign and familiar, the USA has a looming presence in Swedish media discourse. Swedish journalists’ views of the USA can best be described as ambivalent — critical of a unilateral or too passive US foreign policy, while at the same time being heavily influenced by many aspects of the American economic model and culture. This article presents the results of an analysis of Swedish editorials, debate, commentary and cultural articles about the USA in time periods between 1984 and 2009. During these three decades USA actions are broadly framed against the backdrop of Cold War, globalization and cultural contestation paradigms respectively. The USA is seen as a formidable power, one that should be checked by others on the international stage. Cultural symbols based on historical European narratives about the US are called upon to illustrate reckless unilateralism (‘Space Cowboy’ Reagan) or the future-oriented entrepreneur as a role model for Sweden (during the Clinton years). The final decade under the cultural contestation paradigm is also ambivalent — the role of religion in the USA appears foreign to Swedish eyes, whereas the USA’s cultural misunderstandings with others appear familiar. •


2002 ◽  
pp. 45-54
Author(s):  
Z.V. Shved

Over the last decade, interest in the heritage of such national thinkers who have worked in the space of sociocultural and religious studies has become relevant. That is why, in our opinion, the appeal to Vyacheslav Lipynsky's creative work is justified. Today, his legacy can be used not only to understand the history of society and the state, but also to understand some aspects of our present. Therefore, you should listen more carefully to the thoughts of this thinker.


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-95
Author(s):  
Matthew Kerry

The secularizing efforts of the Spanish Second Republic met fierce resistance from Catholics and the Church. Local authorities spearheaded secularization in an unclear legal context, yet they also attempted to mediate between different demands, while protecting Catholic sentiment and respecting property rights. Cemeteries and funeral processions were a key battleground in a ‘culture war’ which straddles the nineteenth-century preoccupation with the role of religion in the lives of Spanish citizens and the intensity of interwar conflict, the bitter struggles to occupy public space, and the mobilization of antagonistic conceptualizations of the ‘people’.


2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-294
Author(s):  
Wendy Kennett

AbstractThe recent decision of the United Kingdom Supreme Court in Regina (Hodkin and another) v Registrar General for Births, Deaths and Marriages concerned the registration of the premises belonging to the Church of Scientology in London as a place of worship, specifically for the purpose of enabling a marriage to take place there which would be valid in law. This article examines the continuing significance of a registered place of worship in the English law rules on formalities of marriage. It provides a brief history of the role of religion in the solemnization of marriages in England and Wales, and the emergence of the “place of worship” as a constituent element in the celebration of a valid marriage. The role of marriage at a registered place of worship in the current legislation governing the formalities of marriage is considered, along with the impact on that scheme of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. The exceptional character of the approach adopted by English law is highlighted by a comparative survey of laws on the solemnization of marriages, which also demonstrates some of the problems arising out of alternative solutions. Finally, recent attempts to reform the law are noted, followed by some concluding remarks on possible future developments.


1989 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 299-310
Author(s):  
C. Peter Williams

Henry Venn, the CMS honorary secretary between 1841 and 1872, is rightly regarded as the great exponent of self-supporting, self-propagating, and self-governing churches. I have argued elsehwere that his principles took many years to assume their final shape and that, when they did, they contained what was regarded as an ecclesiological anomaly—that there should be separate bishops for different races in the same geographical area. Between about 1856 and 1872 Venn became increasingly daring in his proposals, abandoned his support for the idea of a single European bishop wherever there were European settlers and was instrumental, not only in having Samuel Crowther appointed as the first black bishop in West Africa or in responding positively to suggestions of an Indian bishop for South India, but also in proposing, both in India and in China, that the needs of a truly culturally integrated independent ‘native’ church demanded that its structures should be separated from those of the imported European church.


2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (02) ◽  
pp. 287-310
Author(s):  
Nathalie Clayer

Abstract Drawing on studies that envisage the local as a site where nation-state building and the affirmation of sovereignty are produced rather than simply reproduced, this article proposes to shift the focus to the local level. By exploring the case of school policies in interwar Albania, at the very heart of the assertion of the new state’s sovereignty, it studies the control of local space as the locus of these processes. More specifically, it focuses on the power relations surrounding the role of religion in school space, state appropriation of school buildings structuring religious spaces, and the effect of the inscription of actors involved in these negotiations—be they agents of these policies or not—into social spaces.


Exchange ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-126
Author(s):  
Teddy Chalwe Sakupapa

Abstract This contribution explores the interaction between religion and politics in a religiously plural and ethnically multidimensional Zambian context. Given the political salience of both religion and ethnicity in Zambian politics, this research locates an understudied aspect in the discourse on religion and politics in Zambia, namely the multiple relations between religion, ethnicity and politics. It specifically offers a historical-theological analysis of the implications that the political mobilisation of religion has for ecumenism in Zambia since Edgar Chagwa Lungu became the country’s president (2015-2018). Underlining the church-dividing potential of non-theological (doctrinal) factors, the article argues that the ‘political mobilisation of religion’ and the ‘pentecostalisation of Christianity’ in Zambia are reshaping the country’s ecumenical landscapes. Accordingly, this contribution posits the significance of ecumenical consciousness among churches and argues for a contextual ecumenical ecclesiology.


1994 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. C. Frend

Thus Gibbon opened the thirty-seventh chapter of the History of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, a lengthy chapter devoted to the twin topics of ‘the institution of monastic life’ and ‘the conversion of the northern barbarians’. The connection between the history of the Roman Empire and the Christian Church was indeed indissoluble. The Church was destined to follow the pattern of the empire by gradually degenerating as it grew in strength from original purity in the life of Christ and the Apostles to become a corrupt and baleful influence on the fortunes of secular society. Looking back over twenty years of research and writing (1767–87) he wrote near the beginning of his final chapter, ‘In the preceding volumes of this History, I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion and I can only resume in a few words, their real or imaginary connection with the ruin of ancient Rome.’ He goes on to list ‘potent and forcible causes of destruction’ by barbarians and Christians respectively. As he finally laid down his pen on 27 June 1787 at Lausanne, he concluded with a sentence whose strict accuracy has sometimes been doubted: ‘It was among the ruins of the Capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised twenty years of my life, and which, however inadequate to my wishes, I finally deliver to the curiosity and candour of the public.’ The date of this decision was 15 October 1764. Here we survey briefly the role of ‘religion’, i.e. Christianity in the ruin of the Roman Empire.


2020 ◽  
pp. 51-63
Author(s):  
Edward Ozorowski

e arguments presented here can be qualified as a part of the more extensiveproblem concerning relations between the Christian religion and human nature.We have only limited ourselves to paying attention to the essential componentsof the religious phenomenon&Y. It seems, however, that in the context of all thesetheological theses and church rites, the question should be posed about howthey arise from human existence as well as how they can serve it since only thenwould their fully anthropological value be fully manifested. What is more, oneshould refer to a religious phenomenon as such and consider Christianity in itscontext. Christian religion, in spite of its essential separateness from other religions,shares many common features with them. Christians, therefore considerimportant the philosophical question of whether religiousness defines man to thesame extent as the category homo sapiens, homo socialis, homo faber, etc. does&_.e problem of the role that religion plays in human life is also significant. Manyscholars, for example, emphasize the personality-forming role of religion andits role in maintaining man’s mental health;`.Man is then the point of reference when proving the raison d’être of theChristian religion. It is not enough to say that the Church comes from God, wemust also justify that it is necessary for people.Similarly, the problem of verification of the Christian religion does notonly consist in proving that the present-day Church comes from Christ and thatin its historical duration it remains faithful to the will of its founder, but alsoin justification of the thesis that it represents the value necessary for people. Since according to the scholastic principle of verum, it can be considered ensand bonum at the same time. e latter is, however, an anthropological issue.Also dogmatic and moral theology, not to mention practical theology andtheology of internal life, which by their very nature deal with man, is characterizedby an anthropological attitude. We have already mentioned that contemporaryCatholic theology is strongly inclined towards anthropology. It must beadded here that the interests of dogmatics and moral theologians should not belimited to the mere interpretation of revealed truths about man, but should alsotake into account the confrontation of these truths with the experience of a manabout himself. en the relevance and validity of dogmatic theorems will becomeclearer and indications of moral theology will become more convincing.


2009 ◽  
pp. 170-174
Author(s):  
O.S. Bykova

With the development of Ukraine as an independent state, interest in its history and especially in the turning points of history is increasing. One such period was the famine of 1921-1923. At this time, contradictions between the Soviet government and the Russian Orthodox Church were particularly acute. In 1922-1923, a campaign was taken to seize church values ​​to help the hungry, in which the Church was unable to increase its authority through active assistance to the population and which significantly reduced the role of religion in the lives of Soviet people. The consequences of these events are still relevant today.


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