The End of Asceticism

Abstract

In this article the author explores the process by which asceticism lost its central place in (Protestant) Christian tradition in early modernity by comparing the ascetic teaching of fifteenth-century Carthusian writer Nikolaus Kempf with the views of Martin Luther and Immanuel Kant. The article identifies a number of philosophical and theological changes that took place that made it impossible for modern thinkers to understand asceticism in its traditional sense, and instead led to interpretations of asceticism as “works righteousness” and superstition. These changes included a new emphasis on the freedom of the individual, which corresponded to a mistrust of moral authority, a new understanding of morality that de-emphasized moral education, and a new understanding of knowledge that disconnected knowledge and virtue.     

瓦当佛韵

秦汉瓦当代表了中国古代瓦当艺术的一个辉煌时代。汉代以后,瓦当艺术整体上已经开始走向了巅峰之后的衰落。但也出现了一些新型纹样的瓦当,佛像瓦当即是一类。南北朝时期佛教开始在中国广大地区流传开来,在皇家的大力提倡与积极参与下,全国各地广建寺院,开窟造像,参禅礼佛之风盛行。佛教的力量不仅开始渗透人心,而且也渗入到了大众生活的许多层面,佛像瓦当在这种背景下应运而生。     

观鸟无小事之“老鸟”被训记

正奇特的语言和文字,从印度洋吹来的温润的风,未知而又丰富的生物,召唤着我,踏进了那滴在印度洋上的泪珠——斯里兰卡。虽然语言文字不同,迎接着不同大洋吹来的风,但是我坚信,对于爱鸟,任何地方的观鸟人都会没有异议地表示赞同。因为只有它们,才能为我们的大自然点缀上最靓丽的一朵会跳跃、会飞翔的花朵。至于我印象最深刻的关于爱鸟的一件事,曾以为,小朋友对爱护鸟类这种事情是还没有概念的,但是我经过这件事之后,发现我错了,这件事在平常人眼中看是一件小事,而在我看来,它的     

续志中人口志的记述问题

首届志书的人口志多对人口数量记述比较完整。人口素质记述欠缺,对人口与社会的关系基本上未涉及。续志应把人口数量记述得更完整,把人口素质记述得更丰满。并把人口与社会的关系反映出来。心理素质和思想道德素质在目前缺乏翔实数据。应着重记人口的身体素质和科技素质。关于人口与社会关系,续志应努力反映出人口与社会经济、化程度、生态环境的关系,以补前志之不足。     

中国壁画颜料成分组成的探讨

中国壁画颜料的成分很复杂,应用历史也很长,唐代乾陵壁画是中国壁画技术应用的里程碑。本文研究源于三个公元8世纪的壁画,比较了中国古文中有关矿物颜料与植物染料的描述。当我致力于搞清各种颜料名称及成分时,我遇到了很大的困难,大量的颜料名称混杂不易辩别矿物颜料和有机颜料。壁画中大量应用的是本地产的矿物颜料,如：朱砂、赤土、孔雀石、蓝铜矿、雄黄、雌黄、高岭土、白垩土等。除了已知的矿物颜料和名称外,还有一些未确定的成分,如云母,很少在艺术史书籍中提及。壁画研究中最少涉入的领域是植物染料的应用,我认为植物染料是一种真正的壁画颜料,公元五世纪的书籍“起名要素”就是一个佐证。最重要的是,我从几种例子中发现了证据,就是植物成分与其它植物染料或矿物颜料混合应用在壁画中。本文希望能促进人们对不同物质在各种环境中习性的认识和了解,以期对保护实践活动有所帮助。我希望对壁画材料提一点自己的看法。     

观鸟无小事之“老鸟”被训记

<正>奇特的语言和文字,从印度洋吹来的温润的风,未知而又丰富的生物,召唤着我,踏进了那滴在印度洋上的泪珠——斯里兰卡。虽然语言文字不同,迎接着不同大洋吹来的风,但是我坚信,对于爱鸟,任何地方的观鸟人都会没有异议地表示赞同。因为只有它们,才能为我们的大自然点缀上最靓丽的一朵会跳跃、会飞翔的花朵。至于我印象最深刻的关于爱鸟的一件事,曾以为,小朋友对爱护鸟类这种事情是还没有概念的,但是我经过这件事之后,发现我错了,这件事在平常人眼中看是一件小事,而在我看来,它的     

走到世界的尽头 乌斯怀亚

<正>我能想到的最浪漫的事,就是牵着你的手,一起走到世界的尽头。这个"世界的尽头",就是阿根廷乌斯怀亚,有人类居住的最南端的城市,出了乌斯怀亚港口1000海里,就是渺无人烟的茫茫冰河南极洲。皑皑雪山下"美丽的海湾"乌斯怀亚,位于南半球的顶端火地岛南海岸,走到这里,就走到了世界的尽头——出港口,过德雷克海峡,就是无人居住的冰封南极极地。这里依山傍水,小镇的建筑色彩绚丽,山顶常年积雪,山下的森林却郁郁葱葱,风光旖旎     

Vallejo and the End of History

This article studies the intersections of racial, gender, and national subjectivities in Marta Rojas's novel, Santa Lujuria o Papeles de blanco (1998). I examine the entanglement of fiction and historical memory as well as the (re)appropriation and (re)construction of the slave experience as a vindication of anti-imperialist discourses. By focusing on the depictions of conflicts of race and class set in the colonial period, I also analyze the racialized discourse of blanqueamiento (racial and cultural whitening) and the myth of the eroticized mulatta. Furthermore, I maintain that this novel contributes to the intellectual articulation of new forms of racialization in the Cuban context, while confronting the traditional rhetoric of White supremacy.     

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.     

Emancipation as a Matter of Style

Abstract

This article will focus upon the relationship between humour, politics and theology. More precisely, it will inquire whether there is some kind of correlation between style of humour and political standpoint in two contemporary Marxist authors that also have an interest in theology, the British literary critic Terry Eagleton and the Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj ?i?ek. If Eagleton’s style is characterized by the strategic use of wit, influenced by the late Dominican friar and philosopher Herbert McCabe, ?i?ek’s use of humour in his philosophy is more about the telling of jokes that supposedly illustrate a political predicament, thus creating a humorous disidentification on behalf of the reader with her or his circumstances. The article ends with the suggestion that there is indeed a relationship between humour, politics and eschatology in Eagleton and ?i?ek, but that their different senses of humour also correspond to differing political agendas. But one should beware of generalizing this insight, as all authors might not be as stylistically gifted as those two.