Minority in Politics: The Javanese Christian Church and Post-Ahok Politics

This study focuses on Christian minorities and their response to the rise of Islamic politics in Indonesia following Ahok’s trial for alleged blasphemy. It will be suggested that the case brought against Ahok has changed the attitude of preachers of the Javanese Christian Church or Gereja Kristen Jawa (gkj) towards politics. After Ahok was prosecuted, some gkj preachers have delivered political sermons focusing on calming the churchgoers to prevent them from reacting overtly to the rise of Islamic politics in Indonesia. This indicates that preachers have become more melek politik or politically aware. While the gkj remains distant from the practice of politics, it conducts political education for members of the clergy and the politicians affiliated with the church. Through informal interviews with several gkj preachers and qualitative research, this study has avoided making generalizations. Specifically, differences in the Sunday sermons of the gkj attended by the author as well as other gkj and non-gkj churches that the author visited in 2017–2019 will be analyzed.

POLITICAL THEOLOGY AND THE LEGITIMATION OF CATHERINE’S COUP OF 1762: “SOLEMN EULOGY” OF KONSTANTIN (BORKOVSKIY)

The paper analyzes the role of political theology of Russian 18th century in the legitimation ideology of Catherine II aimed at justification of the palace coup of 1762. The subject of analysis is the sermon delivered by Konstantin (Borkovskiy) in Moscow on July 10th, 1762, and dedicated to explanation of the events of the coup. The author shows that Konstantin’s sermon deploys two main systems of argumentation: providential appeal to the history understood as uncovering of God’s plan for Russia (Augustinism), and the cult of monarch supported by the historical and Biblical comparisons and the direct glorification of monarch’s specific qualities. These parameters of Konstantin’s sermon could be compared with the earlier block of political sermons of Elizabeth’s age and the other texts which were justifying the coup (official manifestoes, poetical panegyrics). Such comparison allows author to conclude that Augustinism, being an intellectual tool to justify the fall of the monarch, was an unchangeable element of the legitimation ideology of the age, while the glorification of the monarch, being a tool to explain the enthronement of a particular person, was acquiring its ideological content depending on the circumstances. And even though the legitimation strategy of the 1762 coup included secular ideological systems (for instance, natural and Roman law, anti-absolutist rhetoric), the political theology remained pivotal element of Catherine’s legitimation ideology.

On a Virtuous Official and a Good Citizen: Canon Augustyn Lipiński’s Philosophy of Exercising Power (Based on the Sermon Preached in Krakow on 8th May 1810)

The Polish version of the article was published in Roczniki Humanistyczne 61 (2013), issue 2. This article is devoted to a presentation of the contents of one of the political sermons preached in Krakow Cathedral on 8th May 1810. A Cathedral Canon, Rev. Augustyn Lipiński delivered it on the feast of St Stanislaus in the presence of King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony and Duke of Warsaw, his court and the dignitaries who accompanied him: the Minister of War, Prince Józef Poniatowski, the Prefect of the Krakow Department, Prince Henryk Lubomirski, and many department and municipal officials. In its content the sermon was devoted to authority and the way to exercise it. It is constructed as a polemic with contemporary currents striving after secularization of the ethos of the official. The preacher expressed his conviction that a virtuous official and a good citizen are ones who regard the good of the country and of their fellow-citizens more highly than their own good or even their lives; they are ready to serve them and the king who is exercising power by the will of Providence, and they never look to their own gain in this service – either material profits or fame.

A Model Minority? The Dissenting Press and Political Broadcasting in the Georgian Revolution

In 1660–88, Protestant Dissenters had been stigmatized as naturally rebellious and regicidal. However, from 1689–1716, they reshaped their image and became something of a ‘model minority’ in terms of their producing a number of loyalist political sermons in favour of George I far out of proportion to their actual percentage of the Christian population of England. How did they attempt to effect a change in public attitudes towards them, altering their reputation from radical fringe element to model minority? This essay uses James J. Caudle’s database/bibliography of the political sermons of 1714–17 in order to analyse patterns in the geography of Dissenter communities and publishing houses.

MUSICALITY IN POLITICAL SERMONS OF NAHJ AL-BALAGHA LITERARY REVIEW OF TECHNICAL IMAGES IN THE PRESENCE OF IMAM ALI (PEACE BE UPON HIM)

Music forms an important part of influence on the audience and plays an important role in attracting intellects and minds. Rhetoric is one of the texts most in need of applying the potential of expression in order to influence the audience, because the artistic sermon (rhetoric) relies on absorption and persuasion; among them, political sermons are most in need of using emotional stimuli, so that the category of influence and persuasion can be realized and the audience acknowledges and believes in the thought that theorator (author) claim. Accordingly, the current research studies the quantity and quality of the use of music in the political sermons of Nahj al-Balagha, focusing on technical images based on descriptive-analytic method. The most important result of this study is that Imam Ali (as) has used visual images with the potential of music and uses two types of verbal and spiritual music, thus has realized making the peak of beauty, pictorial, and influential. The fact that verbal music is diverse in Nahj al-Balagha's political sermons and involves a variety of rhymes, pun and replication, but spiritual music is merely limited in implication and does not include confrontation and marriage.

Bridging Religion and Politics: The Impact of Providential Religious Beliefs on Political Activity

Past research shows that religious beliefs can shape political activity. Yet current literature leaves open many questions about the mechanisms at work. I point to the key role of a particular religious belief found across denominations: providentiality, or the belief that God has a plan that humans can further. When these beliefs are connected to politics, providential believers are likely to be active and dedicated participators. I test this notion using survey data collected during the 2012 election campaign from congregants in Little Rock, Arkansas. In general, providential believers are less likely than their non-providential counterparts to participate in politics. However, when providential believers report hearing political sermons from their clergy, they are significantly more likely to participate. These findings illustrate one pathway by which religious beliefs can influence politics: through a cue that links providentiality and politics.