Book Reviews

Abstract

I begin with an attempt to discern the contours of the "debate" contained in the edited volume Theology and the Political: The New Debate. While the Radical Orthodox contributors are eager to critique those outside the fold, only two authors seem to talk back to them: Kenneth Surin and Mary-Jane Rubenstein. I agree with Surin's rejection of ontological hierarchy and Rubenstein's recommendation of Nancy's notion of "being-with," and I use their arguments to critique Radical Orthodoxy's ontology and their simplistic approach to "secular" authors, respectively. Insofar as one must discuss ontology in relation to theology and the political, I propose that we must actually develop a new ontology rather than simply reassert some version of the Thomistic synthesis. Finally, I fault the relative lack of reference to actual political practice, and above all the complete absence of Latin American liberation theology, in a volume ostensibly discussing "theology and the political."     

The Inglorious

Abstract

The essay argues that Sheldon Wolin's case for decoupling democracy and liberalism, which he makes in both editions of Politics and Vision (1960 and 2004), significantly depends on the historical argument Henri Cardinal de Lubac made in his book Corpus Mysticum: L'Eucharistie et l'Eglise au moyen âge (1944 and 1949). Such a claim for the importance of this dependence deepens our understanding of the significance of both Wolin and Lubac for contemporary debates about religion and democracy. To this end, the essay has two proximate goals: (1) by displaying Wolin's use of Lubac's arguments concerning the shifting use of the term corpus mysticum, we will have a better theological understanding of Wolin's complex criticisms of liberal democracy; and (2) in the midst of claims to uncertainty about the political implications of Cardinal de Lubac's thought, we will see some of the conclusions that one political theorist came to after considering a theological argument. Finally, this particular instance of a mutually critical dialogue of faith and political reason raises crucial questions for thinking about the ends of democracy.     

Bonhoeffer,Christ and Culture

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reflect theologically on recent research into the changing nature of civil society with a view to exploring the implications of these changes for the way churches and other faith communities might contribute to civil society in the future. The article looks at the mismatch between government rhetoric concerning the role of churches and faith communities in building up civil society, and the actual experience of faith communities becoming engaged in formal civil society activities such as regeneration and social cohesion which has often felt disempowering and awkward. The article then looks at the growth of non-institutional society (i.e. broad-based organizations and direct action campaigns) which tends to lie outside government control and raises the theological and strategic question as to whether more liquid and flexible forms of political participation have something to offer churches seeking to become more appropriately engaged in postmodern flows of society and the increasing marginalization within them.     

知己知彼，百战不殆

《史学理论研究》在1992年第4期刊登了我的一篇短文:“牢固地建立史学理论这门学科”,文中探讨了三个问题:第一,能否说史学理论这门学科已经牢固地建立起来了?我提出三个标准,现在看来,有的已经达到,有的基本上达到,有的尚需努力才能达到。第二,下一步需要做什么?我认为首先应巩固阵地,不要让已经取得的成就丢失掉。第三,如何正确地贯彻执行邓小平同志的三句话:“思想更解放一点,胆子更大一点,步子更快一点”?我认为在这些方面,编辑同仁做得很好,成绩不小,值得庆贺。1994年第4期又刊出我的“当代中国史学的成就与困惑”长文,该文试图总结197…     

The Struggle for Identity: A Personal Reflection

This article explores Agamben's revisionist presentation of the anarchy of the Son and the void of power in the Trinity in his genealogy of economy and government in the West. It argues for a reading that sustains the actual self-depiction of orthodox theology on these points of doctrine in order to evaluate and critique orthodoxy's impact on politics in the West. Only after a thorough assessment of orthodoxy's doctrinal self-understanding can Agamben's reading of potential or suppressed meaning in orthodoxy be appreciated and possibly applied.     

如何书写具有中国特色的文明史

21世纪以来,受西方文明史研究的影响,中国的文明史研究迅速热络起来。不仅有一批西方文明史著作被翻译出版,中国学者自身编写的文明史著作也纷纷出版。不过从总体来看,目前在文明史研究和写作中占据主导地位的还是西方的文明史书写范式.     

第二轮志书风俗志编纂刍议

了解地情必从风俗开始。第一轮志书对风俗多有记载,第二轮修志有的不入志,有的尽管记有风俗的内容,但异议者不少。文章从正名、辨体、创新等方面阐述了对风俗志编纂的看法,以期提高风俗志的编纂质量。一是正名。针对风俗内容不同志书篇目名称不一致的现状,认为还是定名风俗或风俗志比较好,这既符合方志的传统,包容性也比较大,又可以与民俗学中的民俗志有所区别。二是辨体。此处辨体主要讨论两个问题:1.风俗志的体例内涵。篇目设计上应独立成志,不要放在某个门类下;记述方式既不能混淆古今风俗,又要理清风俗发展的变化脉络,要注意利用阶段性的、转折性的材料,把风俗事项的变化写好,以体现风俗在传承基础上的变异性与时代性。2.省市县风俗志的差异化。三是创新。针对目前风俗资料比较分散的实际,认为地方志办公室可以把风俗志编写作为一个课题,委托高校的专家学者撰写。并针对风俗文本资料少的现状,指出进行田野调查和口述历史是必不可少的。地方志办公室可以和相关部门合作,进行田野调查,以便更好地收集资料。同时还要重视风俗展现的景观化,不断提高风俗志的可读性。     

浅议志书统计表标题词序排列问题

目前,一些志书统计表标题词序排列存在错误,特别是有关复杂定语的排序错误较多。复杂定语的修饰、限制方式有两种:一是并列式的,其排列次序不太固定,可以任意调换,但约定俗成的次序最好不要改动。二是递加式的。这种递加式的复杂定语,必须严格遵循逻辑关系排列词语,要以表示领属的在先、表示数量的其次、表示性状的再次、表示性质的最后的排列为原则。     

Geographies of the camp

Facing the current growing global archipelago of encampments – including concentration, detention, transit, identification, refugee, military and training camps, this article is a geographical reflection on ‘the camp’, as a modern institution and as a spatial bio-political technology. In particular, it is about the past and present camp geographies and the apparatus of dispositifs that make them an ever-present spatial formation in the management of custody and care characterizing many authoritarian regimes as well as many contemporary democracies. I especially focus on the works of Paul Gilroy, Giorgio Agamben and Reviel Netz to discuss camp spatialities, the normalization of camp geographies, and related biopolitics. In doing so, I advance the argument to resist on present-day proliferating manifestations of camp and ‘camp thinking’, calling for the incorporation of ‘camp studies’ into the broader field of political geography to considering the geographies of the camp as constitutive hubs of much broader, modern geo-political economies.     

第二轮志书《家庭》章记述重点探讨

家庭是社会的细胞 ,它始终以其特有的方式反映社会变迁的历史进程。第二轮修志工作应认真记述家庭结构、家庭关系、家庭功能、家庭生活方式的变化 ,以及人们家庭观念的更新 ,要根据第二轮志书中《家庭》章的记述重点设置节目。     

浅谈第二轮志书篇目创新的几个基本问题

章谈了第二轮志书篇目创新的三个基本问题：一、准确把握地情是篇目创新的关键,全面而准确地反映地情是修志的任务,衡量篇目创新的标准之一应是看篇目是否能恰当地表现地情。二、坚持继承与发展的辩证统一,是篇目创新的基本原则。三、坚持志体的主导、主流地位,是地方志健康发展的保证。     

Illusions of a Future: Ishiguro,Liberalism, Political Theology

ABSTRACT

This article explores the fate of political theology in Kazuo Ishiguro's speculative fiction Never Let Me Go (2005) and, by implication, in contemporary fiction more broadly. To pursue a reading of Christianity that extends from Hegel through Lacan to ?i?ek, the article argues that political theology’s future may perversely lie in a materialism emptied of all transcendental guarantees: political theology is the historically privileged master fantasy or illusion which reveals the fantastic or illusory status of our entire relation to the real in (neo-)liberal modernity. In conclusion, the article argues that Ishiguro’s fiction may thus be read less as a melancholic dystopian study in total ideological capture or surrender than as the representation of a state of immanent freedom beyond the power relations of (neo-)liberal subjectivity.     

Arendt in the refugee camp: The political agency of world-building

Refugee camps are frequently conceived as spaces in which social and political life is reduced to biological concerns of survival or ‘bare’ life. Yet, for researchers who focus on life in the camp as it is lived, through material adaption, social negotiation and resistance, this Agambenian perspective is unsatisfactory. Instead, a relation is made apparent between practises of everyday life and the manifestation of a politics. This paper argues for the importance of Hannah Arendt's writings for a new understanding of how refugee camp inhabitants can develop and sustain political agency. First, it will highlight the relation by observations and analysis of ‘the jungle’ in Calais, France. This unofficial camp, although short-lived, has influenced a broad spectrum of research including examination of spatial political practice. Second, applying a phenomenological reading of Arendt's work, I argue that political agency emerges through the concept of world-building. World-building results from the conjunction of human activities – from the quotidian, like labour and work, to the exceptional cases of action – and their orientation towards a specific type of visibility. World-building manifests as camp inhabitants erect spaces of meaning that engage a plurality of persons, transforming them into political agents.