scholarly journals Inculturation and the Guadalupana

Lumen et Vita ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Shea SJ
Keyword(s):  
Potential Model ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Our Lady Of Guadalupe ◽  
Cultural Symbols ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Popular Piety ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Point Of Departure

In his recent Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis emphasizes “the importance of understanding evangelization as inculturation.  Grace supposes culture,” he writes, “and God’s gift becomes flesh in the culture of those who receive it” (EG 115).  Expressing themes that have recurred throughout his life and ministry, Francis proceeds to lauds the role of popular piety in the life of a people, maintaining that its accessible, incarnate features exemplify the embodiment of an evangelical faith in culture.  Echoing Aparecida, Francis describes popular piety as a “spirituality incarnated in the culture of the lowly” and “the people’s mysticism” (EG 124).It would be difficult to find a more significant example of the convergence of these themes than the celebrated image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to which Francis himself expresses devotion.  What is it about this symbol that has captivated the hearts of so many?  Using Francis’ words in Evangelii Gaudium as a point of departure, this paper analyzes the Guadalupan image and event as a potential model for inculturation.  It focuses upon three key features of the image from which can be gleaned broader principles for inculturation, namely: (1) its interlacing of cultural and revelational symbols in such a way that the cultural symbols are affirmed as well as transformed, (2) the use of inculturated symbol as a way of maximizing what Rahner refers to as “the overplus of meaning” communicated through “primordial” words and symbols that evoke deeper, transcendental aspects of human experience, and (3) finally the use of inculturated symbol to mediate interpersonal faith-encounters that can be  shared through the renewed culture and the bonds of community.

The Geography of Insight

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Foley
Keyword(s):  
Collective Knowledge ◽  
Key Features

This book, based on a philosopher’s experiences as dean over almost two decades, argues it is appropriate for the sciences and humanities to have different aims and for the values informing their inquiries also to be different. It maintains there are four core differences: (1) it is proper for the sciences but not the humanities to seek insights not limited to particular locations, times, or things; (2) the sciences but not the humanities value findings as independent as possible of the perspectives of the inquirers; (3) the sciences should be wholly descriptive while the humanities can also be concerned with prescriptive claims, which give expression to values; and (4) the sciences are organized to increase collective knowledge, whereas in the humanities individual insight is highly valued independently of its ability to generate consensus. Associated with these differences are secondary distinctions: different attitudes about an endpoint of inquiry; different notions of intellectual progress; different roles for expertise; different assumptions about simplicity and complexity; and different approaches to issues associated with consciousness. Taken together these distinctions constitute an intellectual geography of the humanities and sciences: a mapping of key features of their epistemology. In addition, the book discusses the role of universities in an era attached to sound bites and immediately useful results, and the importance of there being a healthy culture of research for both the sciences and humanities, one that treasures long-term intellectual achievements and whose presiding value is that with respect to many issues it ought not to be easy to have opinions.

Our Faith in Creation, God’s Faith in Humanity: Edward Schillebeeckx and Pope Francis on Human Transcendence and an Anthropocentric Cosmos

2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 845-863
Author(s):  
Daniel Minch
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Edward Schillebeeckx ◽  
Theological Foundation

Edward Schillebeeckx’s theology of creation can serve as a foundation for authentic Christian self-understanding in relation to the ecological crisis. Schillebeeckx provides a Thomistic view of humanity and creation as both autonomous and “given” from God. Schillebeeckx’s anthropocentric “creation faith” and nuanced view of secularization provide a way of preserving the uniqueness of humanity without devaluing nature. Structural parallels with Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ are developed in order to provide a fundamental-theological foundation for determining the proper role of human beings in relation to creation.

Pearls From Bones: Relics, Chortens, Tertons and the Signs of Saintly Death in Tibet

Numen ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Martin
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Religious Culture ◽  
Tibetan Buddhist ◽  
Devotional Practice ◽  
Cultural Pattern ◽  
Other Substances ◽  
Critical Links ◽  
Point Of Departure

AbstractAlthough there has been much work, in recent years, on the sacrum of Christianity, and some important studies have appeared on Buddhist relic cults and related facets of Buddhism, so far very little has been written on Tibetan Buddhist relics. This paper, while offering some material for a historical perspective, mainly seeks to find a larger cultural pattern for understanding the interrelationships of a complex of factors active in Tibetan religious culture. Beginning with problems of relic-related terms and classifications, we then suggest a new assessment of the role of the Terton ('treasure revealer'). Then we discuss 'miracles' in Tibet, and the intersection of categories of 'signs of saintly death' and relics. Much of the remaining pages are devoted to those items that fall within both categories, specifically the 'pearls' that emerge miraculously from saintly remains and images that appear in bodily or other substances connected with cremations. After looking at a number of testimonials on these miraculous relics, we examine the possibility that these items might be 'deceitfully manufactured', looking at a few Tibetan polemical writings which raise this possibility. In the conclusion, we suggest that there are some critical links between three spheres of Tibetan religiosity: 1. sacrum which are not relics, 2. relics, and 3. signs of sainthood. Finally, we recommend an approach to religious studies that takes its point of departure in actual practices, and particularly the objects associated with popular devotional practice.

Shame and Honor: Aristotle’s Thumos as a Basic Desire

Apeiron ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-95
Author(s):  
Victor Saenz
Keyword(s):  
Moral Education ◽  
Social Value ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Exemplars ◽  
Virtuous Agent ◽  
Rational Desire ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
Rational Motivation

Abstract One of three basic types of desire, claims Aristotle, is thumos (‘spirit,’ ‘passion,’ ‘heart,’ ‘anger,’ ‘impulse’). The other two are epithumia (‘appetite’) and boulêsis (‘wish,’ ‘rational desire’). Yet, he never gives us an account of thumos; it has also received relatively little scholarly attention. I argue that thumos has two key features. First, it is able to cognize what I call ‘social value,’ the agent’s own perceived standing relative to others in a certain domain. In human animals, shame and honor are especially important manifestations of social value. Second, thumos provides non-rational motivation to pursue what affirms the agent’s social value and avoid what denies it. Interpretations that hold thumos just is anger, or that its object is the fine (kalon), I argue, are mistaken. My account also explains the role of thumos in moral education. In a virtuous agent thumos will be affectively attuned to the correct social rankings; it will take the practically wise, the lovers of the fine, or moral exemplars, as authorities.

Determinants of U.S. Exports to China

2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Bosworth ◽  
Susan M. Collins
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Peer Group ◽  
Initial Point ◽  
The United States ◽  
Market Size ◽  
Gravity Equations ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
The Eu

This paper examines U.S. goods trade with China, focusing on the performance of exports. Throughout the analysis, we explore whether U.S. trade is unusual by contrasting it with trade from Japan and the EU-15.1 The issue is examined from three perspectives: the commodity composition of exports, the role of multinational corporations (MNCs), and the determinants of trade as specified in a formal “gravity model.” As an initial point of departure, we show that the commodity composition of U.S. exports to China is similar to the pattern of exports to the world as a whole, and that the operations of U.S. MNCs have only minor implications for trade with China. Consequently, we emphasize the estimation of a set of “gravity equations” that explore the role of market size and distance from the United States. Distance exerts a surprisingly large effect on trade. Finally, although exports to China may be a small share of U.S. GDP, they are relatively substantial compared to U.S. exports to other countries. In other words, the measure of U.S. trade performance in China is distorted by the low level of its exports to all countries. We present evidence that the United States underperforms as an exporter relative to a peer group of high-income European countries and Japan.

scholarly journals Socio-legal studies and the humanities – law, interdisciplinarity and integrity

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie L. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Human Experience ◽  
Normative Values ◽  
Moral Sensibility ◽  
Hard Data ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
Psychological Significance ◽  
The One ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This paper was delivered as a plenary lecture, designed to respond to the one-day special conference focus upon links between socio-legal studies and the humanities.1 The paper focuses in particular upon the relationship between law and the humanities. It may be argued that the role of empirically sourced socio-legal research is well accepted, given its tangible utility in terms of producing hard data which can inform and transform policy perspectives. However, scholarly speculation about the relationship between law and the humanities ranges from the indulgent to the hostile. In particular, legal scholars aligning themselves as ‘black letter’ commentators express strong opinions about such links, suggesting that scholarship purporting to establish links between the two fields is essentially spurious, bearing in mind the purposive role of law as a problem-solving mechanism. The paper sets out to challenge such assertions, indicating the natural connections between the two fields and the philosophical necessity of continued interaction, given the fact that certain aspects of human experience and nature cannot be plumbed by doctrine or empiricism or even by combinations of the two. Law must be understood to stand at the nexus of human experience, in a relationship of integrity, where the word is understood to mean both morally principled and culturally integrated. In particular, the development of human qualities, of character and moral sensibility informing normative values – and, ultimately, engagement with the world of law – is a process of subtle cultural as well as psychological significance, and may benefit from interrogation deriving from the wider fields of human discourse.

Mystery in the poetics of romantic tragedy genre (“The Spaniards” by Mikhail Lermontov)

2021 ◽  
pp. 67-81
Author(s):  
E. V. Golovenkina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Mikhail Lermontov ◽  
Inner World ◽  
Loss Of A Child ◽  
Moral Choices ◽  
Ideal Sphere ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Tragic Conflict

This paper focuses on the role of the poetics of mystery in the formation of the romantic trag-edy genre. “The Spaniards” by Mikhail Lermontov is considered as a characteristic example of this genre, manifesting “melodramatization” of tragedy and tendency towards genre-generic synthesis. The action of “The Spaniards” is based on events related to the sphere of the mysterious, which are exceptional in life and common in melodrama. Central to the plot is the motif of the loss of a child. The secret of Fernando’s birth and “ignobility” form the con-flict and organize two storylines (love and family) and two (everyday life – melodramatic, and existential – tragic) levels of conflict. Mystery also plays an important role in revealing the inner world and expressing the romantic ideal of the hero. The ability to comprehend the mysterious, to pass beyond human experience and logic is not only the motivation of his ac-tions, but it also connects the hero with the ideal sphere. The study examines how the charac-ters’ anticipation of the “terrible” motivates their moral choices. Analyzing the interaction of lyrical motifs, the author suggests the motif of mystery as important for implementing the main (tragic) conflict, unlike melodrama, where the functions of mystery are plot-forming, stimulating the spectator’s interest and maximizing the dramatic tension. Mystery in the plot and the lyrical concept of the tragedy contributes to the understanding of the essence of the romantic conflict, has a suggestive impact on the audience, and deepens the psychologism.

Uniendo lo humano y lo divino. La gramática, la ontología y la forma del lenguaje en la conversación de san Agustín en Ostia (conf. 9, 24)

Augustinus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-136
Author(s):  
Pablo Irizar ◽  
Guinevere Rallens ◽  
Charles Kim ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Experience ◽  
Second Line ◽  
First Line

The fracturing of language at Babel (Gn 11.1-9) is one of the defining events which, for Augustine, gives language its current fallen characteristics and limitations. But does the fallen state of language necessarily imply that language creates a chiasm rather than a bridge between the human and the divine? And if so, is language used in vain to invoke God? This paper addresses these questions through an analysis of the role of language in Augustine’s Ostia ascent narrative (conf. 9, 24). According to a first line of interpretation, language creates a chiasm rather than a bridge between the human and the divine in the ‘Ostia ascent’. According to a second line of interpretation, though fractured, language does not create a chiasm but rather a bridge between the human and the divine. By identifying and intertextually analyzing three facets of the function of language in conf. 9, 24, namely the grammatical, the ontological, and the modal, this paper aims at substantiating the second line of interpretation. Part one explores Augustine’s use of the expression per uerbum (Jn 1.1-15) to analyze the grammar of human and divine language. Part two analyzes the ontological function of language as a mechanism of mediation by showing that the ascent in conf. 9, 24 is similar to the structure of manifestation evident in the transition from forma dei to forma serui (Phil 2.6-7) in Augustine’s s. 264. Finally, part three shows that for Augustine, the conversion from the schola superbiae of rhetoric pride to the humility of the schola pectoris implicitly requires the mode of language as a precondition for ascent in conf. 9, 24. As such, this paper concludes, the three facets of language, namely the ontological, grammatical and modal, function in conf. 9, 24 to unite, mediate and transform the human experience of the divine.

scholarly journals Understanding the prime mover

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Hammarlund ◽  
Kristina Riegert
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Role Model ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Prime Mover ◽  
Cultural Symbols ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Role Of Religion

•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. •

Unsettling Brian Eno'sMusic for Airports

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-333
Author(s):  
VICTOR SZABO
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Dominant Mode ◽  
Air Travel ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Recorded Music ◽  
Personal Consumption ◽  
Ambient Music ◽  
Commercial Spaces

AbstractIn the liner notes to his albumAmbient 1: Music for Airports(1978), Brian Eno (1948–) defined Ambient music in contradistinction to Muzak's ‘derivative’ instrumental pop arrangements. Ambient music's historians and critics have often followed Eno by describing Ambient music as an alternative to conventional ‘background’ or ‘programmed’ music for commercial spaces. Such descriptions can be misleading, however, given that Ambient music's dominant mode of reception is selective personal consumption, not public administration. This article investigates the aesthetics of Eno'sAirports, and elucidates the organizing role of the Ambient genre, within their primary reception context of personal recorded music listening. A comparison with The Black Dog'sMusic for Real Airports(2010) shows how Ambient music then and now reflexively affords atmospheric use by translating a sense of physical dwelling and passage into mixed musical moods. By expressing ambivalenceaboutthe reality of airports and air travel, these Ambient records characteristically convey apprehension about the technological administration of human experience – a phenomenon that includes personal recorded music listening.

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