Alone in the world? Indeed, and liberatingly so

How do we know that we can trust our viewpoints, our dogmatic principles and our religious convictions to constitute veracity, if not truth? Where can an arbiter be found for our deliberations to establish the trustworthiness of our viewpoints or belief systems, when we differ one from the other on religious matters, and in the context of religious conviction also differ in political and social endeavours? Van Huyssteen deserves commendation for his contribution to this discourse in developing the concept of a postfoundationalist epistemology in an attempt to justify theology’s integrity, and endorse theology’s public voice within our highly complex and challenging world. He suggests that the concept of human uniqueness might be the common denominator in the contributions of theology (in its specific understanding of the unique status of humans in God’s creation) and science (in its understanding of the unique stature of Homo sapiens in terms of biological evolution). However, the author, in this article, argues that given the radically diverse disciplines of science in our highly developed technological – and indeed within our current Covid-dominated context (on the one hand) and the pre-scientific context of religion (on the other hand), it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine how it can remain possible to find something like a common issue, a shared problem, a kind of mutual concern or even a shared overlapping research trajectory that might benefit precisely from this envisaged interdisciplinary dialogue. Is it possible that ‘alone in this world’ could mean something different than what Van Huyssteen suggests?Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: How do we know that we can trust our viewpoints, and our religious convictions to constitute truth? Van Huyssteen develops the concept of a postfoundationalist epistemology in an attempt to justify theology’s integrity within the discourse with science. However, the author in this article argues that it has become increasingly difficult for systematic theology to find a shared overlapping research trajectory that might benefit this interdisciplinary dialogue.

Death Cults and Dystopian Scenarios: Neo-Nazi Religion and Literature in the USA Today

In this article, I investigate the literary representation of the religious convictions and political strategy of neo-Nazi ideologues who are influential in rightwing authoritarian movements in the USA today. The reason that I do this is because in contemporary fascism, the novel has replaced the political manifesto, the military manual and proselytizing testimony, since fiction can evade censorship and avoid prosecution. I read William Luther Pierce’s Turner Diaries and Hunter together with his text on speculative metaphysics and religious belief, Cosmotheism. Then, I turn to Harold Covington’s Northwestern Quintet with The Brigade, reading this with Christian Identity and his own conception of Nazi religious tolerance. Finally, I look at OT Gunnarsson’s Hear the Cradle Song, reading this together with discussions of racism in Californian Odinism. I propose that what this literature shows is that the doctrinal differences between the three main strands of neo-Nazi religion—Cosmotheism, Christian Identity and Odinism—are less significant than their common ideological functions. These are twofold: (1) the sacralization of violence and (2) the sanctification of elites. The dystopian fictions of fascist literature present civil war scenarios whose white nationalist and genocidal outcome is the result of what are, strictly speaking, supremacist death cults.

The 1870s

The 1870s were generally happy and successful ones for Twain and his family as they became part of a congenial community in Hartford, Connecticut, and writings flowed from his pen. During this decade, Twain wrote Roughing It (1872), The Gilded Age (1873), and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He lampooned greed and corruption in The Gilded Age and numerous essays. Tom Sawyer contains several stories about Sunday school escapades and revival meetings based on Twain’s childhood. Twain’s friendship with Joseph Twichell, the pastor of the Asylum Hill (Congregational) Church in Hartford, was deep, meaningful, and long-lasting. Their relationship as well as an examination of Twain’s view of Christ, human nature, sin, salvation, Christianity, and the church helps illuminate Twain’s religious convictions during the 1870s.

Views and customs of Jizzakh people regarding parturition

In this article, traces of ancient devout beliefs within the views of the peoples of the Jizzakh oasis on childbearing are displayed in the following cases; that is, within the rites and ceremonies held in the holy shrines and shrines; within the sanctification of certain attributes, in the traditions and ceremonies organized by the bakhshis in the homes of the people, and in the advantageous encounter with Islamic conventions indeed today, it is explained on the basis of ethnographic information obtained in the course of field investigate. At the same time, there are well known sees that epitomize the appearances of antiquated religious convictions that have been preserved in these traditions and ceremonies; the transformational forms in them and the ethnolocal aspects of the ceremonies performed are proved.

The Philosophical Subtext of a Scandal (Viacheslav Ivanov, Eduard von Hartman, and ‘Universal Co-crucifixion’)

The essay examines the notorious sacrificial rite that took place in Nikolay Minsky’s apartment in May of 1905. The event is viewed as a direct reflection of the philosophical and religious convictions of Viacheslav Ivanov. Ivanov’s “scandalous” behavior, which so shocked and repulsed his contemporaries, fits in neatly with his general understanding of the world, which is clearly expressed in his essays, scholarly work, and poetry of that time. Special attention is given to the concept of “universal co-crucifixion,” which is derived from the New Testament through the mediation of the philosopher Eduard von Hartman. At the end of the essay the question is raised about the potential application of the same concept to the personal relationship of Ivanov and his wife, Lidia Dmitrievna Zinov’eva-Annibal.

Expert views on the evolution – creation controversy. A survey report

This paper presents sample results from a poll conducted among experts (scientists, philosophers and theologians) regarding the roots of the controversy between the evolutionary account of human origin and religious convictions about creation. It appears that the position one takes in this controversy is influenced much more by one’s opinions than professional background. The controversy is usually only seemingly ‘solved’ at the level of a priori assumptions, erroneous definitions of ‘evolutionism’ and ‘creationism’, semantic viewpoints, epistemological positions and pragmatic choices. The core issues in the controversy (e.g., the role and meaning of chance in random evolutionary factors versus divine providence, or problems stemming from a body-soul dualistic anthropology) are widely neglected and do not play a significant role in deciding one’s views on the matter. -------------- Received: 28/08/2020. Reviewed: 30/09/2020. Accepted: 09/11/2020

A Feast in Carthage: Testing the Limits of ‘Secularity’ in Late Antiquity

A now conventional model, developed by Robert Markus, sees late Roman cities as fundamentally secular landscapes. Focusing on Augustine's sermon against a feast of the genius of Carthage (Sermo 62), this article argues that narratives of ‘secularity’ have neglected pagans’ own attitudes and the circumstances that drove ordinary Christians’ participation in civic rites. Behind Augustine's charges of ‘idolatry’ lay the religious convictions of the feast's non-Christian sponsors and behind their expectations of Christian attendance lay the recent destruction of a pagan shrine on church property. For Augustine's listeners to construe the feast as religiously irrelevant was an expression not of routine social solidarity, but of fear before powerful patrons. What was ‘secular’ was open to doubt and negotiation, both here and in empire-wide celebrations such as the Kalends of January; the boundary between the ‘pagan’ and the ‘secular’ can be located only with careful attention to the diversity of opinions about each particular rite.

When Women Reject Women’s Ordination: Reframing and Semanticizing in the Speeches of Two Female Seventh-day Adventists

This study analyzes two public speeches of two North-American Seventh-day Adventist women who oppose women’s ordination, in order to understand how they reconcile inequity perpetuated by their religious position that denigrates women. The two women in this study address the apparent disadvantage by reframing the issue and reordering their reality. Whereas one speaker creates other formidable sub-issues that make exclusion of women from church leadership imperative, the other speaker resorts to the elusive notion of female privilege. I demonstrate how their discourse surrounding ministry and headship illuminates the fact that gender relations and religious convictions are ordered through permeable boundaries of arbitrary lexico-semantics.

Introduction

While some are wary of trends that encourage the interpenetration of faith and business, others welcome such integration, seeing in Christianity and other religious traditions dispositions that could challenge unhealthy characteristics and consequences of modern capitalism. Some have in fact come to believe that religious faith represents a wellspring of resources and concern that might help reshape corporate America by re-humanizing business and fortifying its ethical moorings. Given the world-changing energy evangelicals possess, evangelical business leaders in particular are candidates to initiate such reform as they attempt to do business in ways that are compatible with their religious convictions. For better or worse, evangelical executives could also advance a religious agenda if they join together in common cause, as some have suggested characterizes the faith at work movement. While evangelical business leaders certainly state that their faith influences their work, the nature and effect of such influence is often unexpected.

Islands of Influence

While some are wary of concerted attempts by well-connected evangelicals to advance a religious agenda in corporate contexts, evangelical executives demonstrate little desire to turn companies into explicitly “Christian” organizations or to transform the core values and objectives toward which businesses are oriented, or indeed much evidence that there is any shared agenda around which they might coalesce. While the Social Gospel movement of the early twentieth century—a precursor to contemporary emphases on faith at work—was concerned with structural and institutional change, this preoccupation does not characterize evangelical executives today. Even those who share core religious convictions and overriding dispositions toward business express their convictions in diverse ways. But this diversity is not simply idiosyncratic. Rather, it is conditioned by executives’ professional histories and the norms and priorities that characterize their particular occupational contexts. There is, therefore, no one evangelical approach to faith and work.