The Christian Peace of Erasmus

The aim of this essay is to show that Erasmus’s concept of peace should be understood as a form of irenicism rather than pacifism. I argue that Erasmus’s basic claims on war and peace do not qualify him as a pacifist, first of all because his concept of peace is non-universal: it is exclusively Christian since it does not include Muslims and Jews unless they have converted to Christianity. Secondly, Erasmus’s willingness to fight the Turks and his call for a Christian war against them suggests that he was not a pacifist. Since the peace Erasmus preached for was exclusively Christian, it cannot be identified as pacifism in its accepted universal sense, but rather as a commitment to the peace of Christendom, and therefore his concept of peace should more precisely be described as irenic. By shedding new light on Erasmus’s notion of war and peace, this essay suggests that his alleged religious tolerance should be considered anew.     

试论王韬的基督教信仰

王韬与来华传教士、教会以及基督教之间的关系,时间上以1850年代为中心,尤其集中在1854—1857年期间,并以麦都思的去世为时间与信仰上的一个转折点。此间王韬不仅接替其父王昌桂协助麦都思等完成《圣经》翻译,而且还近于重新改写翻译了《宗主诗篇》,积极参与宣教站宣教材料的编写及传播事务,同时还向麦都思提交了一份与自己受洗相关的申请书,王韬与基督教之间的关系至此亦达到顶点。但即便如此,撇开当时的社会文化因素,王韬的不断被自我强化的中国文化立场、世俗与知识理性、比较宗教意识、根深蒂固的文人情怀与生活习气,让他始终陷入到基督教信仰与非基督教信仰的夹缝之间,并最终让他完成了一个晚清民间文人信仰追求、怀疑与自我放逐的思想人生之路。     

陈垣基督教信仰考

关于陈垣是否宗教徒,此前学界一直未有定论。从教会档案、民国期刊以及胡适的回忆等各种资料可以佐证,陈垣是北京缸瓦市教会基督教徒。在缸瓦市教会他是一位威望甚高的教友,对教会管理事务有一定参与;在基督教界他对中国基督教教会的改造和本色化均有关注,也有亲身参与,但主要是以授课或者演讲的方式间接参与。从陈垣的散佚文章和著作的部分早期版本,可以看到他对基督教信仰的表达、他的宗教经验及有关于“罪”的信仰告白等,这些也进一步印证了他的基督教信仰。     

Free Christian Speech: Plundering Foucault

Abstract

This article explores the meaning of free speech through an analysis of Michael Foucault's lectures on parrhesia in order to show how questions of freedom are bound up with questions of truth. The activity of speaking freely is a function of truth-telling rather than merely subject to regulative principles that underwrite claims of sovereignty. The Christian proclamation of the gospel extends Foucault's insights into a theological register and supplies a foil for considering some of the shortcomings of his constructive proposal. By surveying parrhesia in the New Testament, together with some attendant political implications, this article attempts to explain the political transformation enacted by those who bear witness to the gospel without sovereign benefits. The freedom of such speech, it is asserted, is irrespective of these benefits.     

Speaking of Books: Christian Marriage

Book reviewed in this article:
Glenn W. Olsen (ed.), Christian Marriage: A Historical Study     

Christian papyri from the Oslo collection

In Bellum Civile V Caesar forces the poor fisherman Amyclas to take him across the Adriatic on a stormy night. Caesar is contrasted with Amyclas as being indocilis privata loqui. The present paper shows that Caesar is indocilis privata loqui both in this episode and in the entire epic because he consistently uses the linguistic register of the military, imperatives and violent vocabulary.     

September 11: A Christian Fundamentalist Interpretation

Abstract

This article analyses sermons preached by Free Presbyterian ministers in the United States following the World Trade Centre tragedy and the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. It explores how these religious fundamentalists made sense of the event theologically. While terrorists carried out the attack, ultimately God was believed to have been responsible. It was considered God's way of punishing the American nation for its sin. Ministers' use of the Old Testament and God's covenantal relationship with ancient Israel is both the theological and historical backdrop to their explanation of September 11. Concentration on the Old Testament and fundamentalists' exegetical approach means that politics and religion are tightly intertwined. Emphasis on the militaristic portions of the Old Testament also helps justify the war in Iraq. Although Free Presbyterian doctrine is based on institutional separatism and believers' withdrawal from "the world" the sermons connect parishioners to their wider society through a shared sense of patriotic loyalty and national loss.     

Europe's Christian Democratic Parties and American Possibilities

In this paper, I survey the histories of Europe's Christian Democratic parties and suggest that inasmuch as they show that religiously framed party politics can have significant and positive effects on both institutions and supporters, it is difficult to see how those lessons translate straightforwardly to the American social and political order. Even if they did, making a success, both electorally and substantively, of a Christian Democratic movement in the United States would require a degree of statesmanship that certainly seems in short supply these days.