God,Justice and Society

Abstract

This non-evaluative overview of God, Justice, and Society: Aspects of Law and Legality in the Bible summarizes Jonathan Burnside’s introduction to biblical law and his demonstration of its value as a resource for modern legal issues     

The Moral Theologian,Oliver O'Donovan and International Law

Abstract

Oliver O'Donovan renders a singular contribution to the theory and history of international law by identifying the spiritual impoverishment of the discipline following the triumph of state-centred contractarianism in the theory of international relations, with Hobbes, Locke, Kant and, for the present, John Rawls. This contractarian approach to international society has an inherent tendency, which O'Donovan highlights, to ground international order in the hegemonic claim of one or two countries to represent the values of the whole of humanity. With a combination of rational moral theology and biblical interpretation (Revelation), O'Donovan reasserts an international order grounded in the autonomous identities of the nations, which God has recognized as equal. With a theory of political legitimacy which rests upon representation of national identity, O'Donovan points the way to an international order based upon mutual respect among nations under natural law, in the classical medieval sense finally represented by Grotius and Suarez. This article describes again what the natural law tradition meant in the hands of Aquinas and Vitoria, in order to highlight the fact that the ontological dimension of natural law theory provides a way to meet the intolerable insecurities which theories of nationalism appear to generate. Then the article goes on to offer one way to bring natural law thinking up to date for contemporary audiences by drawing upon Paul Ricoeur's phenomenological theory of mutual recognition and respect among the nations as a way of going beyond the contractarian tradition in contemporary international law and relations theory.     

Interrogating Neoconservative Religion

Abstract

Richard John Neuhaus had a stronger basis than most neoconservatives for claiming a theological kinship with Reinhold Niebuhr, but Niebuhr was not a neoconservative or a culture warrior, and Niebuhr did not claim a moral consensus for his concept of “biblical religion.”     

Greening the University Curriculum: Appraising an International Movement

The declaration of the ‘United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development’ (ESD), Resolution 57/254, February 2003, provides the best yet occasion for higher education institutions (HEIs) to ‘green’ their curricula. The idea for the Decade emerges from a progression of high-level international conferences, beginning with Stockholm, 1972, that have seen ESD thinking move from general statements of intent to increasingly detailed specifications for action. There has also been a growth in awareness that the changes to the curriculum for sustainable development must suffuse all areas of education provision. They cannot be restricted to the environmental disciplines or ‘ecoliteracy’ modules or even to the classroom, but must be demonstrated by the whole of an HEI's approach to the world. Obstacles to implementation include: funding and perverse subsidies, departmental and disciplinary barriers, ivory-tower traditions in teaching that externalize and objectify the subjects studied and persistence of the obsolete mind-sets of the ‘industrial age’. These barriers may mean that change in HEIs will have to be driven by external processes, such as the transformation of primary and secondary education where the fragmentation of knowledge is less entrenched. However, there now seems to be growing agreement that HEIs should equip all their students with ‘environmental literacy’ and that sustainability should be central to concerns both in HEI curricula and in operational practice.     

共产国际代表与中国非基督教运动

爆发于20世纪20年代的中国非基督教运动,是在俄共(布)与共产国际远东局、青年国际的直接指导下,由中国共产党发起并领导,也包括国民党等组织成员参与的政治斗争。俄共及共产国际将不断发展的基督教及其事业,以及在中国青年中滋长的亲美思想,视为中国人走俄国革命道路的障碍,因此,发动非基督教运动旨在打击西方在华宗教势力,削弱西方影响,唤起中国青年的民族主义情绪,并且在青年中扩大共产党的影响。他们通过反对基督教会实现反帝目标的策略在实践中获得一定成效。但基督教在中国社会生活中的地位毕竟与东正教在俄国的情况有很多差别,共产国际代表以俄国革命反宗教斗争的经验,来影响中国的非基督教运动,不免有过左的倾向,而这种倾向直到红军长征结束之际才开始被纠正。     

On the Values of Biblical Law and their Contemporary Application

Abstract

In God, Justice, and Society: Aspects of Law and Legality in the Bible (Oxford University Press, 2011), Jonathan Burnside sets himself a dual task: on the one hand (and primarily), to examine historically many biblical texts whose subject-matter has counterparts in modern law, and to identify their values; on the other to argue for the relevance of these texts to public debate on such issues in modern law. His semiotic methodology has much in common with my own (as he has graciously acknowledged). In this paper, stimulated by his work, I seek to sketch the academic context from which it arises, and pose some further questions prompted by reflection on his work.     

也谈浙江省自治运动--兼与冯筱才先生商榷

20世纪20年代浙江省的自治运动以花样多、历时久而闻名于世。通过研究前人较少注意的《三色宪法》和《浙江省自治法》等制定过程,可发现浙江自治运动失败的原因固然很多,但众多的利益维度不是削弱而是增加了运动的持久性,使浙江成为全国自治运动历时最久的省份,只是没有实际成果而已;运动的失败恰好证明了“军阀扼杀自治”,只是不能简单机械地理解“军阀”。     

对日媾和与美菲同盟条约的缔结

冷战之初,面对中国内战局势的变化和美国改变对日政策可能导致的日本重新军国主义化威胁,菲律宾将确保国家安全的希望寄托于美国,积极寻求与之订立"太平洋公约",但该构想不符合当时美国的战略考虑,屡遭拒绝。朝鲜战争的爆发,促使美国加快对日媾和。由于媾和方案在安全和赔偿方面未能满足菲律宾等国需求,遭到反对。为平息盟国不满,美国改变对"太平洋公约"的态度并提出自己的方案,但该方案将日本包括其中,被菲否定。经过博弈,在美国提供正式安全保证的前提下,菲律宾最终接受了媾和方案。     

Religion and the Enlightenment: A Review Essay

Recent studies of the Enlightenment suggest that its relationto religion is far more complex than a simple process of increasingsecularization. The book by Sheehan shows, by examining translationsof the Bible into English and German in the Enlightenment, howreligion was reshaped, leading eventually to the dogma-freeChristianity proposed by Matthew Arnold. Israel's book arguesthat alongside the relatively cautious mainstream Enlightenmentthere was always a radical Enlightenment, heavily indebted toSpinoza, that was rationalist, atheist, and libertarian, andanticipated the dominant liberal values of the present day.Neither of these important studies, however, considers two areasthat remain under-researched: the popular Enlightenment (‘Volksaufklärung’),that is to say, the diffusion of Enlightenment thought amonguneducated people; and the Catholic Enlightenment which flourishedparticularly in Italy, Austria, and south Germany.     

汉代道德与法律的关系研究——以汉代“劫质”案例考察为中心

道德与法律作为调节社会关系、维护社会秩序、规范人们思想行为的重要手段倍受汉代统治阶级重视。在汉代道德与法律两者之间并非是一种简单的并存关系,其中在汉代道德观念中体现着深刻的法律思想,而在汉代法律思想和司法实践中同样体现着厚重的道德观念,而汉代道德与法律的关系也处在不断变化与发展的汉代社会之中。而本文通过对汉代“劫质”案的考察就集中体现了笔者对汉代道德与法律关系问题的一种诠释。     

The Movement, modernity and new International Relations writing in South Africa

Books reviewed in this article:
Korwa Gombe Adar and Rok Ajulu, Globalization and emerging trends in African states' foreign policymaking processes: a comparative perspective of Southern Africa.
Patrick Bond, Against global apartheid: South Africa meets the World Bank, IMF and international finance.
Greg Mills, The wired world: South Africa, foreign policy and globalization.
Philip Nel, Ian Taylor and Janis van der Westhuizen, South Africa's multilateral diplomacy and global change: the limits of reformism.
Ian Taylor, Stuck in middle GEAR: South Africa's post–apartheid foreign relations.     

时际国际法与中国对南沙群岛享有无可争辩的主权

本通过对时际法的理论和实践的阐述,结合中国自宋代在南沙群岛行使管辖权这一事实,分析了中国对南沙群岛享有无可争辩的主权。     

国际法视角下的1972年《中日联合声明》

1972年的《中日联合声明》掀开了两国关系新的一页。然而,时至今日,国内学界对这份文件的研究仍停留在表面。本文从国际法的角度,探讨了这份《声明》的法律性质,并且分析了《声明》中关于“战争状态结束”的条款,以及台湾条款和赔偿条款。本文最后得出结论：台湾问题是影响中日邦交正常化谈判的关键因素,日本通过很多外交手段为其对台政策留下了回旋的余地。     

At the End Returning to Questions of Beginnings

Abstract

This article engages directly with Jonathan Burnside and raises a set of further questions concerning how we read biblical law and the manner in which we might endeavor to teach it in the context of the critical and/or secular classroom. Respecting the wide-scope of Burnside’s approach and material covered, further attention to the historical and cultural contexts of biblical law, as well as a more transparent presentation of its complexity, allows us to be responsible readers of biblical law, appreciating its theological and legal sophistication.