Bradley Holt,Thirsty for God: A Brief History of Christian Spirituality

Abstract

In this essay, I consider the relationship between more radically open conceptions of democracy and the recent "return of religion" as the return of distinct, particular religions. The radical democracy of figures such as Derrida, Badiou, and Hardt and Negri is found to be not radical enough to be open to the particular religious other. Derrida's "religion without religion" does violence to the particularity of concrete religious traditions, Badiou appropriates Paul's universalism while abandoning the particularity and difference in his conception of collective identity, and Hardt and Negri advocate a "politics of love" while severing that love from its ground— namely, God. I then show a way of rethinking both society and Christianity so that Christianity finds a place in society and society makes room for Christianity. A radical Christianity devoid of self-privilege and triumphalism provides a model for an intersubjectivity of love in which the other really comes first. Paul's radical conception of membership in the body of Christ accomplishes precisely what radical democracy fails to do: it allows for heterophony as well as polyphony, and incoherence as well as commonality. It is only when church and society allow the possibility of incoherence and heterophony that they are truly open to the other, and it is only when they are truly open to the other that they satisfy the demands of a truly radical democracy and radical Christianity.     

改革开放以来的中国基督教史研究

改革开放以来,中国历史学发展的新景象之一就是中国基督教史研究的兴起。这一新兴领域的发展,首先,体现于多种研究范式的存续和转移,文化侵略、中西文化交流、现代化、全球化等范式下的研究成果体现了各自不同的解释力与学术影响。其次,则体现于研究焦点的流变,从基督教与中国社会的现代性变迁、基督教与中西关系,直到关注中国基督教自身的个性化发展,呈现了从研究基督教外围向内部移动的趋势。最后,体现于这一领域的开放性和成长性。基于中国基督教的区域史、性别史、宗教史、宗派史及人物史仍有相当的研究空间,同时随着网络资料和海外档案的获取能力加强,跨文化史料与视野下的研究,将成为这一学科新的增长点。     

Adaptations: History,Gender, and Political Economy in the Work of Dugald Stewart

Summary

This paper notes and explores the attraction of Dugald Stewart's moral philosophy for women readers and a few women writers. Student lecture notes reveal the chronological development of his ideas, as he drew upon the works of Thomas Reid, Adam Smith, and Adam Ferguson, and responded to political events. Particular attention is paid to Stewart's comments relating to women and gender, through discussions of education, the institution of marriage, and population questions. After 1800, he shifted away from a speculative conjectural history towards a philosophy of moral progress rooted in common sense philosophy and a belief in perfectibility. He taught a system of practical morality relevant to the education of children and strongly emphasised the importance of the association of ideas in childhood. For women readers, the message was contradictory in that he united an apparently conservative reinforcement of the relations of the sexes with a belief in the improvement of the condition of women through education in a modern, progressive, and commercial society.     

The Sense of History: On the Political Implications of Karl Löwith's Concept of Secularization

Written during the period of his emigration to the United States, during and just after World War II, the originality of Karl Löwith's book Meaning in History lies in its resolute critique of all forms of philosophy of history. This critique is based on the now famous idea that modern philosophies of history have only extended and deepened an illusion fabricated by a long tradition of Christian historical reflection: the illusion that history itself has an intrinsic goal. This modern extension and deepening of the chimera propagated by Christian historical reflection is what Löwith terms "secularization." Drawing on the arguments in Meaning in History as well as those proposed in other contemporaneous and earlier writings, including Löwith's heretofore unpublished correspondence with Leo Strauss, this article attempts to set in relief the frequently neglected, yet eminently political implications of Löwith"s idea of secularization. Among the problems implicitly considered in relation to the theory of secularization in Meaning in History is a theme frequently addressed in earlier writings: the motives that led German intellectuals like Friedrich Gogarten, Martin Heidegger, and Carl Schmitt to adhere to the Nazi movement.     

牧区天灾与美国"牧畜王国"的衰落

美国的第二次工业革命在内战以后迅速兴起。工业社会的勃兴和城市人口的剧增使美国原有的肉类生产远远满足不了国内外市场的需求。这种巨大的需求推动了美国西部的牧业开发。内战以后,在密西西比河以西至太平洋沿岸,牧牛业和牧羊业迅速发展起来,形成一个疆域辽阔的“牧畜王国”。西部牧区成为美国新的重要肉产品生产基地,放牧业成了当时最赚钱的行业之一。“牧畜王国”繁荣兴旺了二十余年,到1885年以后盛极而衰。在导致“牧畜王国”衰落的诸多因素中,牧区天灾是一个重要的因素。牧场主们竭草而牧的掠夺式经营更加重了牧区天灾的危害性。     

Plasticity and the Future of Philosophy and Theology

Abstract

This article develops a theoretical and political critique of the contemporary notion of the deconstruction of Christianity, primarily in the later work of Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy. The deconstruction of Christianity relies upon an understanding of temporality and messianicity derived from Heidegger and Benjamin, and we challenge this privileging of messianism in contemporary philosophy and theology. Messianism is contrasted with plasticity, and plasticity is shown to have resources to overcome the impasses of contemporary thought in a counter-messianic way. To oppose messianism is not to oppose theological thinking, but to open a creative and productive political space for a radical theological and philosophical reflection.     

In the Shade of the Oaks of Mamre: Hospitality as a Framework for Political Engagement between Christians and Muslims

Abstract

This essay is the initial sketch of a theological framework for political dialogue based on traditions of hospitality. This essay is intended to further a normative commitment to pluralism by creating a space for Christians and Muslims to engage in political dialogue on issues of governance. Using the story of Abraham and the three strangers, the essay analyzes hospitality as a possible model for interreligious political dialogue. The essay follows the narrative of the story recounted in Genesis 18 and Surah 51 of the Qur'an focusing on Abraham's greeting of the strangers as expressing a "duty of hospitality"; the "sharing of a meal" as an act of mutual vulnerability; and the gift of Isaac as exemplary of hospitality's possibility for grace and transformation. The goal is to show that a shared theological tradition could be the basis for political dialogue.     

钱穆的中西史学比较观

中西史学比较研究是钱穆史学思想的重要内容 ,钱氏往往是以此来阐明史学的本质、方法、功用和中国史学精神。其中西史学比较研究主要包括中西史学关于历史中人与事关系的认识、史学的通变观、史学的体例和体裁、史学编纂方法、史学功用、史学发展形式等方面。钱穆的中西史学比较观是建立在他的民族文化生命史观基础上的 ,意在为他的中国史学优越论和中国历史文化优越论提供理论和历史的依据。它既有积极合理性 ,也表现出文化保守性和民族狭隘性。     

Renewing the Political Perspective: Reflections on James Ceaser,Political Science,and Liberal Democracy

Abstract

This is a response to the contributions to the symposium on David Walsh's trilogy on modernity: After Ideology (1990), The Growth of the Liberal Soul (1997), and The Modern Philosophical Revolution (2008). After expressing appreciation for the careful reading the work has received, it enters into a reflection on the underlying unity of the studies. This is intended to address the common concerns that center on the issue of how the modern world is to be understood. It emphasizes the impossibility of separating the attempt to understand modernity from the need to take responsibility for it. This is the perspective that has illuminated the totalitarian catharsis, the durability of liberal political regimes, and the existential turn within modern philosophy. In the latter part of the essay, a response is offered to specific objections and characterizations that individual symposiasts raise.     

日本宋代政治史研究的现状与课题

近五十年来的日本宋代政治史研究,深受内藤湖南、宫崎市定倡导的“君主独裁政治”论的重大影响。在此引导下,日本的宋代政治史研究不断发展,有关政治的大致框架得到了澄清,但在研究领域、理论和方法等方面仍有改进的必要。今后需要引进微观政治学、宏观政治学、国际政治学等理论和方法,扩大研究领域,跨出制度史研究的框架,并努力发掘新资料和扩大对以往资料的多方面利用,从而推进“谁?何时?什么?怎样搞?”这种政治结构的研究。     

Death and the Making of West Berlin, 1948-1961

This essay traces shifts in attitudes towards death, practicesof burial, and rituals of mourning in West Berlin from the 1948currency reform to the 1961 construction of the Berlin Wall.It shows that West Berliners in the years immediately followingthe Second World War maintained an arduous devotion to theirdead—particularly the war dead. Yet as the war becamea less immediate experience over the course of the 1950s, broadcultural shifts took shape, including a renewed sense of optimismand an emerging feeling that the suffering associated with thewar could be and was being redeemed. Meanwhile, a cult of thedead long venerated as part of the very foundation of Germanculture gradually became ‘less German’ and ‘moreWestern’ over that same period. In this way, it also becamea means of distinguishing West Berlin from its Communist neighbourto the East. By focusing on shifts in perceptions and practicessurrounding death, the essay reveals part of the process bywhich moral and ethical values were reconstructed after Nazism,and how the racist collectivism of the Third Reich graduallygave way to the broadly individualist, democratic-socialisthumanism that would form the basis of an expressly West Germanpolitics and society.     

Tocqueville and the End of History

Abstract

We argue for the relevance of a contemporary return to Shakespeare because his work prompts thinking about the “Body Politic,” perhaps the most vivid and enduring image in speech describing political community ever proposed. Shakespeare's meditation on this image invites us to reflect on the conditions under which a body politic can be made whole; that the constitution of any formal commonwealth requires a self-conscious articulation of the body politic and that this articulation could not happen without the parts themselves being aware of their partial character within the whole political order. The need for the consent of those parts in the political order to which they would belong thus becomes suddenly more evident. Shakespeare's plays show that this need for consent always emerges within discrete political communities. As such, the constituent parts of those communities must grant consent, exercise and enjoy their rights, and participate in the whole within the limitations circumscribed by their political boundaries and borders. His dramatic works thus help us reconsider contemporary attacks on the nation-state and illuminate the body politic as an essential means for bringing into being the preconditions and framework required for healthy political life, including liberal democracy, to flourish.     

问鼎上层文化:胡适的哲学史研究

胡适是中国哲学史研究的开山者。他的《中国哲学史大纲》(卷上)作为中国第一部真正的哲学史著作,建立了哲学史学科的新体系,开创了现代学术史的新纪元。(1)它以科学的方法和可信的史料,创造了全新古典哲学史体系、构想与规范,使哲学史作为一门科学戛然独立,并迈向了中国古代哲学史研究的近代化进程;(2)它用疑古与实证的方法实践,完成了新学科的创立及从“形”到“质”的转变,开启了崭新的治学门径,对具体的学术研究起到了示范作用。(3)它从形式到内容整体手段的全方位更新,不仅具有冲击传统惯性的强劲的反封建之风,又有开拓学术研究新风尚之意义。胡适的哲学史研究,新见迭出,影响深远,具有划时代的意义。     

Radical (Evangelical) Democracy: The Dreams and Nightmares of Martin Luther King,Jr. and Antonio Negri

Abstract

This essay critically examines the theories of radical democracy offered by Martin Luther King, Jr.'s vision of the beloved community and Antonio Negri's vision of the multitude. The radical democratic visions of King and Negri continue to critically inform progressive reflections on democratic theory and propel new dreams of democracy. Despite their similarities, the differences between Negri and King are substantial. I argue that Negri's dream of the multitude and King's dream of beloved community have been shaped by different conceptions of radical democracy. While Negri works out of a tradition of Italian Marxism, King works within a critical tradition of prophetic evangelicalism. Thus, the political task, according to King, is to translate Jesus' teaching of the Kingdom of God into a beloved community on earth. King's creative negotiation of transcendence and history provides the requisite theological and political resources to develop a truly transcendent and immanent vision of a radical democratic society that is attentive to the demands and dignity of "all God's children."     

重新审视中西比较史——《大分流：欧洲、中国及现代世界经济的发展》述评

一、标新立异《大分流》美国学者彭慕兰 (KennethPomeranz)的新著《大分流 :欧洲 ,中国及现代世界经济的发展》一经出版 ,即在学术界引起轰动 ,2 0 0 1年获得美国历史学会的费正清奖和世界历史学会年度奖 ,在国外 ,围绕着这本书和其他一些对中国史和世界史进行再评价的史学新著开展过多次讨论 ,在中国 ,这本书也正在引起越来越多的关注。何谓大分流 ?大分流的英文原文是“GreatDivergence” ,它有多种译法 ,已见之于报章的就有大分流、大分岔、大歧变、大裂变等 ,译者在听取学术界同仁意见后最终选定了“大分流”。1 8世纪在西欧发生的工…     

儒家天人观的政治哲学反省

把握普遍的必然性是人的天性。天是中国古代思想家所能认识到的最高意义的本体性存在,理解天人关系是中国古代思想家把握普遍的必然性的基本途径。思孟学派的天人合一论更多地注意到了天人之间的统一性,表达了古代思想家在更抽象的水平上把握客观世界的心理取向。宋代理学家用形而上的思想方式理解和把握天,从而使必然意义的天与可感觉的天和有神性的天分离开来,儒家的天人观也因此而达到了最高的境界。     

一部颇具新意的拓荒之作——评《当代中国政治思想史》

河南大学出版社新近出版的《当代中国政治思想史》一书 ,不论在学术价值、理论建树方面 ,还是在推动学科建设、为现实提供借鉴方面 ,都不失为一部创见迭出、极富新意的开拓性佳作。该书也有某些不足之处     

抗战胜利前后中间党派对民主的诠释：以经济民主为中心

加世纪40年代,中间党派及自由知识分子为反对国民党垄断国家资源的一党专政体制,提出了融政治民主、经济民主、教育民主、国际民主于一炉的社会民主主义理论。这种民主观试图扩大民主的范围,其目标是社会方方面面皆民主化,以保障人权和实现社会正义,体现了超时代的理想主义色彩。中间党派对社会民主主义的颂扬,具有反抗国民党专制统治的进步意义,是近代中国民主宪政运动史留给后人的一笔精神财富。     

中西历史比较的规范与理路

中西历史比较研究必须遵循科学的学术规范与理路。“个案”研究是比较考察的基础,只有将所要比较的历史现象都搞清楚,才能进行深入的比较。为了进行高起点的比较,还需全面地批判借鉴有价值的成果。此外,还必须辩证地去分析问题,以求探索历史现象真正的异同。