Christianity and Secularisation in the West and the Middle East: A Theological Stance

In this article I argue that Christianity is essentially secular. Hence, secularisation not only has a theological connotation concerning Christian faith but also it is the highest and most perfect realisation of Christian religion, since it signifies the cross that is in the centre of Christian faith. As Christians take upon themselves secularisation as an existential choice, namely the powerlessness of God and of the human being, they simultaneously take the worldly‐human existence as “here” and “now” upon themselves. I will argue that this is the culmination of Reformation. Further, I want to demonstrate that secular Christianity, in the sense given in this article, remains a challenge for both Western and Eastern worlds. In order to accomplish this I will reflect in the first part of this article — from a theological point of view — upon some sociological interpretations or theories concerning mainly secularisation in Western Europe and also the contemporary socio‐political scene in the Middle East. In the second part of the article I will present several Western and Eastern theological positions that defend secularisation, and through their contributions I will construct my own theological stance for secular Christianity.     

西欧文艺复兴对神学文化传统的批判继承

从中世纪向近代过渡的社会背景．使得西欧文艺复兴在利用古典文化资源的同时,对基督教神学文化传统也进行了批判继承。人文主义者以“借神颂人”的形式。借助“上帝”的权威来否定教会的“原罪”说,颂扬个人的自由、尊严与世俗欲望,促激起人文主义启蒙思想的诞生．也使得这一思想必然要打上神学传统的烙印。人文主义者还将自由平等的精神贯穿于学术活动之中．对基督教原典《圣经》及其它教会文件进行重新的翻译与考订,由此而产生了著名的“圣经人文主义”学派。促进了反教廷神权的宗教思想的勃发。文艺复兴对神学文化的批判、选择与吸收,有力地显示了文化创新与文化传统关系的客观历史规律。     

Money Games: Currencies and Power in the Contemporary World Economy

Abstract: A well‐known cliché has it that “money makes the world go round” Certainly, monetary arrangements, specifically exchange‐rate mechanisms, can serve to show the degree to which markets and states intersect to direct the workings of the world economy. It is common to assume that the singular model over recent decades has been a neoliberal one based on independent floating exchange rates. I challenge this assumption by showing that a number of different combinations of money and power have operated in the recent past, creating a number of distinctive “money games”. Only one of these, the globalist/transnational, is facing a particularly severe crisis. The others, what I term the classic/territorial, integrative/shared, and imperialist/substitute provide available alternatives. The recent history, geographical features, and future prospects of the various money games are the main concerns of the essay. The analysis welcomes the recent financial crisis as providing an opportunity to further pluralize political‐economic visions beyond the perceived dominant one‐size‐fits‐all neoliberal ideology of the globalist regime.     

试论元代云南金银货币与实物货币的流通

元代全国实施的是统一的钞锭政策,而惟独云南例外.云南行省的货币流通状况与其他行省相比较呈现了多元化的特征,不但以贝币为主要通货,而且也有金银货币和盐币、缯帛等其他实物货币.云南行省多种货币流通格局的出现,从表面看是元朝给了云南特殊的货币政策,但从根本上讲与云南商品经济发展的总体落后、省内各地区间发展的不平衡、云南历史发展的特殊性以及历史上形成的独特货币体系不无关系.     

The Magic of Money and the Magic of the State: Fast Money Schemes in Papua New Guinea

As Keith Hart (1986) articulated in his neat phrase ‘two sides of the coin’, money and the state are inextricably intertwined. However, academic discussions of the state tend to fall under the heading of ‘governance’, with implicit reference to democratic ideals, while money is regarded as ‘economics’, a field dominated by ideas of the market. In this paper, I use material from U‐Vistract, a mass Ponzi scam to show how quasi‐magical ideas of money and wealth have grown out of the disillusioning experience of the state in its failure to deliver ‘development’. These imaginings of prosperity entail a different kind of state, based on the moral reform of Christian citizens and political leaders and the reorientation of the banking system to deliver benefits to ordinary people. As the Royal Kingdom of Papala, U‐Vistract sought to be seen to be like a Christian state and so deceived its investors into thinking that they were participating in a moral project that would allow them to redress the short‐comings of the Papua New Guinean state. As the scam took on the appearance of the state, so the state came to be seen as a scam.     

States,Money and the Persistence of Colonial Financial Hierarchies in British West Africa

This article contributes to debates about the persistence of colonial hierarchies in global finance by examining the reproduction of key features of colonial monetary and financial systems through the end of formal colonialism in West Africa, with a focus on Ghana. The article draws together engagements with Marxian theories of money and of the colonial state, and an examination of a key period which has often not received sufficient direct attention in debates about colonialism and financial subordination: the breakdown and end of formal colonial rule, roughly between 1930 and 1960. The central puzzle addressed in this article is how, despite the explicit desire on the part of nationalist political leaders to overturn colonial financial systems, these wound up being reproduced through the negotiation of political independence. The article shows how the entanglements of colonial monetary and financial systems with processes of state formation posed severe limits on efforts to articulate a ‘developmental’ colonialism after World War II. Efforts to work around these limits ultimately reinforced the reliance of the colonial and postcolonial state on extractive and hierarchical structures of global finance. In short, the article shows how the contradictory position of the state in colonial capitalism is vital to understanding the persistence of colonial monetary and financial structures.     

An Indecent Proposal: The Theological Core of the Book of Ruth

ABSTRACT

Traditionally, biblical commentators either tone down the sex-ual tension within Ruth 3 or celebrate it with sensationalistic exuberance. However, theologians have not attempted to integrate the provocative nature of the passage into a theological understanding of the book or the character of Ruth. This essay outlines the reasons why Naomi's plan is rightly interpreted as an attempt at sexual entrapment. Ruth follows this plan until the very last minute when she reveals herself and her intentions to Boaz. Both of these ac-tions―showing fidelity to both Naomi and Boaz―exposed Ruth to potential harm and as such serves as a picture what ?esed entails.