Vernacular historiography and self-translation in early colonial Nigeria: Ajiṣafẹ's History of Abẹokuta

Emmanuel Olympus Moore (aka Ajiṣafẹ) (c.1875/79–1940) was a pioneer of Nigerian Yorùbá literature and popular music. Ajiṣafẹ was one of the most significant Nigerian popular cultural figures of his generation. Written during the amalgamation of Nigeria, his History of Abẹokuta (1916) (Iwe Itan Abẹokuta, 1924) is a seminal text for our understanding of Abẹokuta and the Ẹgba kingdom. This article examines the bilingual passages of the History in which Ajiṣafẹ invokes oral history to construct a religious ethnography of the early Ẹgba polity. Self-translation enabled vernacular authors to mediate constituencies. The English and Yorùbá texts of the History differ in their engagement with Yorùbá cosmology. Ajiṣafẹ's texts converge in his defence of the Odùduwà dynasty; Abẹokuta, in a constitutional Yorùbá united kingdom, would be the seat of ecclesiastical power. Civil authority in Nigeria could be stabilized through an Abrahamic renegotiation of divine kingship. To establish his treatise within a genealogy of world Christianity, Ajiṣafẹ utilized self-translation as a rhetorical device to reconcile the working of providence in precolonial and colonial African history. Ajiṣafẹ's History, ultimately, is an Abrahamic exposition of the role of God's providence in bringing about the complete unification of Nigeria in September 1914.

A Biopsychosocial Approach to Understanding Panic Buying: Integrating Neurobiological, Attachment-Based, and Social-Anthropological Perspectives

The global COVID-19 pandemic has focused the attention of researchers, civil authority and the general public on the phenomenon of “panic buying,” characterized by the excessive purchase of specific materials—particularly food and hygiene-related products—in anticipation of an expected shortage. This phenomenon has been well-documented in response to several natural and man-made disasters, but its global scope and severity in the context of COVID-19 are unprecedented. This response can negatively impact health, food security, and disease prevention efforts. Attempts to modify such behaviors are more likely to succeed if they are based on insights from both the biomedical and the social sciences. From a biological perspective, the phenomenological overlap between panic buying and psychological disorders such as hoarding disorder and compulsive buying raises the possibility of a shared neurobiological underpinning. Evolutionary models suggest that these behaviors represent an attempt to enhance individual and group survival in the face of a threatened scarcity of resources. These phenomena may be influenced by specific genetic variants which are also implicated in hoarding-related psychological disorders. From a psychological perspective, attachment theory provides a conceptual framework that serves as a bridge between prior life adversity, current deprivation, and an increased attachment to material objects. Such a framework is of relevance when considering panic buying during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been associated with significant disruptions in attachment bonds. From a social-anthropological perspective, hoarding and related behaviors have been associated with social exclusion and rejection, as well a lack of social support. These risk factors have affected large sections of the general population in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the governmental responses to it. This perspective also emphasizes the symbolic significance of the hoarded objects themselves. In this paper, an attempt is made to integrate these three perspectives and thereby formulate a biopsychosocial model of panic buying in response to this global health crisis. The existing scientific literature on panic buying is examined in the light of this model. Finally, suggestions are proposed as to how this model might inform social strategies aimed at preventing or reducing panic buying.

Triple relations: The society, armed forces and civil authority in the context of political transition: The case of Syria

The study of civil-military relations, from the standpoint of political science, gains particularly relevance in the periods of transition, i.e. the attempt to change the existing regime through protests or rebellion of the dissatisfied masses. How the armed forces will react, i.e. whether they will remain loyal to the regime or take the demonstrators' part, depends, inter alia, on the closeness of the ties between the armed forces and society. The ethnic, national, religious and other structure of the armed forces, their main mission, the position in relation to the security services, as well as participation in the implementation of repressive measures, are some of the indicators of the relation between the armed forces and society. The objective of this paper is to study the impact of the social structure of the armed forces on their decision to (not) support the protests, based on the following hypothesis: If the structure of the armed forces is mostly composed of members of the ruling ethnic, sectarian, tribal and similar groups, it is more likely that they will support the regime. The hypothesis was tested on the case of Syria, where the armed forces decided to stay with Bashar al-Assad, which was analyzed through their sectarian-Alawite character, i.e. the identity of the Alawites religious sect, the main features of the Assad rule and the armed forces position in that regime. Using the case study method, it can be concluded that the case of Syria shows that if the social structure of the armed forces is a reflection of the structure of the ruling elite, they remain loyal to the regime because their survival depends on that regime.

WORD AND DEAL: TOUCHES TO THE PORTRAIT OF THE CHURCH LIFE IN YADRINSKY UYEZD IN MAY 1917

The article deals with the state confessional politics of the Provisional Government period. The emphasis is made on the regional aspect. The focus of attention is a specific episode of the events development in Yadrinsky uyezd of Kazan Governorate. In May 1917, one of the volost food committees by the “application of parishioners of all parishes” issued a resolution on the new rules of financial and bread support to the local clergy. Establishment of such norms exceeded their authority and caused a natural response. Fortunately the rural deans’ councils searching protection turned to the Provincial Commissar of the Provisional Government, pointing to the ineligibility of actions on the part of the local civil authority. The emphasis in the petition of the clergy was immediately placed on serious negative consequences, which the accepted document was capable to cause. The situation was not unusual: conflicts of secular and religious authorities took place in other volosts and uyezds. This happened against the background of peasants’ unrest. Provincial authorities in a categorical form ordered the uyezd leadership to “put in proper place” their local organization. In the analyzed example, the situation was resolved safely: by the decision of Yadrinsky uyezd committee of public safety, the standard act of the local body was cancelled, but the situation as a whole required not a point solution, but a holistic approach. In order to prevent such excesses in the future, special “Conciliation Commissions for the Settlement of Conflicts Arising between Parishioners and the Clergy in Kazan, uyezd towns and villages» were organized.

نشأة وتطور منظمات المجتمع المدني في المجتمع الإسلامي مقارنة بالغرب

To look at the question of what is usually caused by the correlation of the problems posed by that issue, interrelated and interrelated, where it is difficult to address one of them without looking at the rest of their counterparts lesson, analysis and establishment, it is exactly what confronts the researcher when he wants to address the issue of civil society in Islam, or Islam's view of civil society, and the many questions and problems that we must stand on and address the most important details, especially on issues of religion and the state and freedoms and rights and their relations with civil society itself on the one hand and regardless of the possibility of establishing this in the Islamic world, or with the perception of Islam from the neighborhood W being a religion, or the right religion for those same issues and for this same relationship on the other hand. Civil society came from the West and grew up as a concept and term there, and spread as a reality and history to reduce the role of the state and besieging its role in society, and to completely separate them from religion or between civil authority and religious authority, so that it can establish new views on the freedoms and rights of individuals from a secular and liberal perspective, And the desperate defense of them, and to consolidate them in society and strengthen them among the various components. Based on this general purpose of civil society in which the need to separate the religious and civil spheres in the state and society, and the need to ensure the rights and freedoms of the people from this perspective, we can ask about the possibility of civil society in Islam, or more broadly, To question the extent to which the beliefs, laws, and historical experiences of Islam accept the concept of civil society and absorb it. The question arises legitimacy when we know what civil society is, its theoretical and intellectual standpoint, its principles, values and management of its objectives. History has responded to the Western experience in managing the affairs of its societies from its philosophical and political perspective of the relationship between religion and power, and in relation to human rights and freedoms: • How can Islam absorb this experience? Is it permissible for Islam to think about this without prejudice to the ideological, legal and historical peculiarities? • If possible, what are the controls to ensure this privacy? • Is the Islamic community (which is originally a religious community), does not need a civil society to manage the affairs of rights and power in a community? • Do the historical experiences of Islam have the same goals, principles and different values of civil society, which justifies us borrowing it from the West and its integration into the environment of Islamic society? • Although the concept of civil society originally appeared in the West, does this mean that Islamic culture, like all other cultures and human knowledge, never contributed to the goals and values of this concept? We ask these questions, to declare a central thesis based on that: since the civil society in the West began from the West's treatment of the philosophy of politics and sociology and the question of the state, religion, freedoms and rights, to produce its values and goals, Islam in terms of religion and culture has raised and addressed the same questions and has its own answers, This established a special concept for civil society, and allowed for the formation of civil society organizations in his societies and among his people. مقدمة:

Towards redeeming marriage custom from ‘triangular captivity’: The missional dilemma of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe

Marriage in the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe (MCZ) is under siege. This scenario was bequeathed by the British imperialists. This siege is evident because the ecclesiastical theology of marriage in the MCZ is fastened on both African culture and the civil order. Firstly, marriage is anchored on African culture because the MCZ is an African church and it grows its mission using African epistemology. Secondly, marriage in the MCZ is affixed on civil authority because adult membership in the the MCZ is defined by being ‘properly married’ for those who have spouses. The triangular net is evident because marriage starts and proceeds culturally, the government legalises marriages and the MCZ uses marriage certificates to grow its membership, whilst the clergy solemnise marriages as government agents using the civil Marriage Act Chapter 5:11. The aim of this article was to investigate how the MCZ’s mission is informed by both African culture and civil order given that it regards marriage as the canon of adult membership, blousing of women and badging of men, participation in the sacrament of Holy Communion, confirmation into full membership, leadership positions, accredited as local preachers and acceptance into ministry. In responding to this aim, the article uses a qualitative research method to interrogate the MCZ policy books and minutes of conferences that address the theology of marriage. The research will conclude by challenging the MCZ to come up with a theology of marriage that unties itself from the cultural and civil net of this rite to interpret its ecclesial mission.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article is interdisciplinary in the sense that it addresses the issues of ecclesiology, missiology, theology, African culture, gender, church polity and the power of civil authority. The research calls the MCZ to define its marriage theology not contaminated by civil ideologies and African philosophy.

Jansenism

One of a number of theological tendencies within early modern Catholicism, Jansenism derives its name from Cornelius Jansen (b. 1585–d. 1638), bishop of Ypres. The term, coined by Jansen’s Jesuit critics, came into general use only in the 1640s, when his Augustinus (1640) was posthumously published in Leuven. Its appearance marked a fresh outbreak of an ancient dispute within Western Christianity concerning the nature of divine grace and its operation in both the individual believer and the Christian community. Jansen’s supporters intended the book as a rebuttal of a doctrine of grace, which was traced to the 5th-century heretic Pelagius, and which they ascribed to the Jesuits and their sympathizers. The Augustinus, and the reaction to it, crystalized a range of theological positions that, over the following decades, garnered support among clerical and lay Catholic groups in Flanders, France, Rome, and further afield. It is impossible to reduce those either accused of or professing Jansenism to a common set of doctrines, but they did share certain attitudes. The doctrinal authority of the Church Fathers, particularly Augustine, was supreme; their religious anthropology was pessimistic; their moral views were rigorist; and they were sensitive to issues of authority and conscience. Over the following two centuries, the efforts by theologians, pastors, and spiritual directors to define the role of individual conscience under the influence of divine grace involved Jansenists in successive contestations of papal, episcopal, regal, and civil authority. Although Jansenism’s cradle was Flanders, it is more usually associated with France, where it influenced religious and political life until the Revolution. Rome was another Jansenist theater, where pressure groups alternately supported and anathematized it, leading to a number of ill-conceived, politically motivated, and highly publicized papal condemnations of Jansenist texts. The movement found sympathizers all over Catholic Europe, especially in zones of religious tension like England, Holland, and Ireland. Later, versions of Jansenism became popular with reforming Catholic administrations in the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, and Portugal. In the late 18th century, French clerics and laity with Jansenist sympathies contributed to the suppression of the Jesuits. They also supported religious reforms intended to undermine both royal and papal authority. The failure of these schemes, together with the success of Napoleon’s 1801 Concordat, ended Jansenist-inspired political activities. Jansenist sympathies, however, survived; the 19th century saw the literary retrieval of the movement, especially in its Port-Royal version. From the mid-20th century, the study of Jansenism shed some of its denominational and romantic baggage to become a useful if not always well-used category for the study of early modern Catholicism.

Disorder, Crime, and Sin

This chapter explores the disorder in Richmond during the war years. Drunk off-duty soldiers were impulsive and fought on the street. As a result, the military and civil authority implemented new laws to reduce this particular kind of chaos. The chapter also covers crimes such as thievery, mugging, and murder; finally, it delves into what citizens at the time considered ‘sinful’ acts: sexual encounters and affairs.

Spinoza, Sin as Debt, and the Sin of the Prophets

In Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, Margaret Atwood examines different forms of debt and their various interrelations. Her work invites, but does not provide, an account or philosophy of debt or its deep implication in Christian beliefs such as sin, satisfaction, and atonement. This paper aims to bring to light insights into the link between debt and some aspects of Christian belief, especially the ideas of sin and satisfaction. It draws upon another unlikely source-the Ethics and political treatises of Spinoza. Spinoza’s view at least implies that the idea that sin (understood as the voluntary actions of a free agent) creates a ‘debt’ that is ‘paid’ by punishment is a potentially dangerous ‘fiction.’ Spinoza intuits that the subsumption of the idea of debt into notions of retribution, vengeance, satisfaction, or atonement, are driven by ‘superstition,’ envy, and hatred, and through imitating others’ hateful ideas of oneself. The idea of ‘debt’ is an artefact of civil authority that can only assume affective, normative purchase through internalizing fear of the implicit threat of punishment inherent in law. I will seek, finally, to suggest an implicit critique in Spinoza of the imaginative subsumption of debt into the space of religio.