Russian Nationalist Orthodox Theology: A New Trend in the Political Life of Russia

Abstract

Presently nationalist circles seem to promulgate a synthesis of Russian Orthodox Christianity with Marxism and ultra-patriotism. Russian nationalist Orthodox theology teaches that Jesus Christ was Russian or Slavic; it leans toward violence and is apt to quickly change the target oppressor who is broadly defined as anyone who is non-Russian or non-Orthodox. Russian nationalist Orthodox theology may be used at the Presidential Elections 2008 to boost an ultra-nationalist candidate.     

New World,New Politics,New Labour: Third Way Revisionism and Prophetic Political Theology

Abstract

Tony Blair's vision of a ‘third way’ political programme is formative of New Labour's second term revisionism, claiming to transcend traditional left-right distinctions and embody the principles of ‘equal worth’, ‘opportunity for all’, ‘responsibility’ and ‘community’. Drawing upon a variety of sources, Anthony Giddens among them, the following material sketches the lineaments of the ‘third way’ agenda Having identified its political aspirations and principal theoretical components, the article suggests a number of areas representing potentially fruitful points of contact for further theological reflection.     

State of Change: Concept Metaphor of Pauline Principalities and Powers for a Political Theology of Peacebuilding

ABSTRACT

This essay responds to the need for a constructive account of the state that does not over-determine religious community-state relationships in peacebuilding scholarship and practice because experience and historically embodied stances towards the state defy affirmations about the state that produce a static formula. It offers a concept metaphor rooted in the three-fold eschatological reality of the state at home in a world of pluralism that emerges from reflections on fieldwork in Colombia. The metaphor stresses the need to break the state’s claim to ultimacy as the initial movement of engagement that allows for redemptive transformation. The notion of the state as a dynamic process is consistent with the stance Colombian communities have embodied in an ever-changing environment of conflict and peace.     

Spiritual-Material Noninterventionism: Reformed Influences on Bodin's Political Theology

ABSTRACT

Jean Bodin's political philosophy drew on a key Reformed principle: the necessary separation between the spiritual and material realms. This principle, as Bodin understood it, required that the sovereign avoid interference with his subjects’ property. As such, the separation of the spiritual and material served Bodin's voluntarism, permitting man, who occupied a middle state between the spiritual and material, to impose his will on the world, but also made man (and particularly woman) vulnerable to abusing this state through witchcraft. Tracing this principle through Bodin's thought demonstrates another connection between the sovereign and the witch.     

狄尔泰的体验概念

“体验”是狄尔泰生命哲学的主要概念。“体验(Erlebnis)这个词是从拉丁词experior得来,意为去证明(toprove)或是去验证(totest),通常是指从感觉而非推理得来的信息,直到19世纪末20世纪初这个词才有了广泛的运用”。“正是狄尔泰首先赋予这个词以一种概念性的功能,从而使这个词随即发展成了一个受人喜爱的时兴词,     

Sorcery and Sovereignty: Bodin’s Political Economy of the Occult

ABSTRACT

While much has been written on Six Books on the Commonwealth and his Demonmania, scholarship on Jean Bodin generally treats these as two separate areas of inquiry. Moreover, discussions of Bodin’s economic writing, especially his Reply to Malestroit are nearly universally lacking in these discussions. In this paper, I analyze all three of these works together, arguing that Bodin’s political economic perspectives on money, population, and the state form the ground for his interest in witches, sorcery, and the occult. By highlighting the historical context of rising mercantilism and the widespread peasant rebellions that contested it, I argue that Bodin’s maintains a unified and coherent philosophy across his political, economic, theological, and demonological works. This materialist reinterpretation of Bodin argues that his philosophy chiefly concerns a defense of mercantile state wealth accumulation, in which witch hunting plays a crucial role of population discipline and reproductive pronatalism.