Re-writing Protestant history in the novels of Glenn Patterson

This article considers the representation of the history of Belfast in Glenn Patterson's 2012 novel The Mill for Grinding Old People Young. It situates this novel within the context of Patterson's previous work and the history of the Northern Irish novel, as well as with the representation of maritime Belfast in the Titanic centenary year. This novel will be read as a recovery and rehabilitation of a Protestant history which could be problematic for Patterson, an avowedly liberal writer, but instead this context allows for an exploration of the uses of history in contemporary Northern Irish cultural and political discourse.     

French-Caribbean Refugees and Slavery in German Protestant Maryland

The late eighteenth century saw the immigration of thousands of French refugees from France and its Caribbean colonies to the United States. An examination of one family of these refugees, Jean Payen de Boisneuf and his relatives the Vincendières, reveals that the values that the refugees imported, such as plantation slavery and Catholicism, could be antagonistic to social norms in the regions they chose to settle.     

晚清入华新教传教士译业述评

晚清入华的英美新教传教士在中国士人协助下,开展了规模空前的西学中译工作,其间发生“原语主义”与“译语主义”的论争。而晚清译业的实践证明,译语主义指示了沟通中西化的行之有效的路径。     

Convergence and Divergence in the Australian Space Economy

Australia's space economy has changed rapidly since the 1970s through processes of globalisation, economic restructuring and demographic change. Trends in population distribution and patterns of employment and investment in economic activity highlight both spatial diffusion and concentration. Migration to ‘sun belt’ regions and suburban growth in the mega metro regions is creating population-led demand for production and services, thus creating investment growth and new employment in some consumer-oriented economic activities. However many internationally linked and national market serving economic functions are increasingly concentrated in the two largest cities at strategically located old and new nodes of agglomeration. No longer can population growth be equated directly with increased economic activity, and there are significant spatial mismatches between the outcomes of demographic and economic processes across the nation's cities and regions.     

基督教新教传教士与中国盲文体系的演进

盲文的产生为盲界打开了认识光明世界的门扉,为盲教育开辟了通衢,而近代的盲人特殊教育又与人性尊严、人权神圣和人类平等不可或分地联结在一起,人类的文明形态因特殊教育的出现而迈进了一大步。中国盲文由基督教新教传教士率先引介创制,由康熙盲字到大卫·希尔等诸种盲文法,再到心目克明。20世纪20年代后,中国盲文的改进转由国人接棒,反映出一国语言文字的改进最终有赖于国人自身,他们才是自己母国语言的主体和传承人。     

Proselytizing Nationalism: Protestant Missionaries and the Arab Awakening Debate

This article examines the historiographical debate concerning the origins of Arab nationalism as postulated by George Antonius in his book, The Arab Awakening: The Story of the Arab National Movement and the theory of historical construction. After establishing the theoretical framework of the study with an overview of Hayden White's views on how history is written, it progresses into a study of the historiography of Arab nationalism. Here, the scholars Sylvia G. Haim, C. Ernest Dawn, Rashid Khalidi, and Fruma Zachs and their writings are chronologically dissected, with each academic analyzed via White's theories of historical construction. Through studying their respective positions, it is shown that these texts are culturally relative according to the era in which they were written. It is argued that no work of scholarship can be fully removed from outside influences. Specifically, politicization of academics and the consequences of such endeavors are shown as inextricable from the created narrative. Because of the need for culturally relative knowledge so that it can be applicable to audiences outside of academia, scholars who write for an express purpose (such as answering a question for the benefit of others) should not be considered inherently biased. This article poses that academics have a moral obligation to disseminate knowledge to their respective societies due to their assumed removed status as academics. By doing so, human error is acknowledged and room is made for improvement within the field of history. Knowledge does not need to be created for its own sake, but rather so that it might be utilized by society at large. It is suggested that to foster a deeper understanding of a scholar's relationship with society, there should be an increase in academics' civic engagement. This additionally requires serious reflection and enquiry into the standards that would consequently need to be implemented to maintain the integrity of the produced scholarship.     

The Forgotten History of the Protestant Crusade: Religious Liberalism in Ireland1

Irish historians do not generally identify religious liberalism as a feature of the 1820s. Instead, they have mapped religious conflict onto increasingly binary conflicts in the socio‐economic, cultural, and political spheres. The “Second Reformation” missionary movement put evangelicals and Catholics on a direct collision course and, consequently, historians have argued that it was a key factor in the emergence both of Irish Catholic nationalism and Protestant defensive co‐operation. However, the Crusade also produced a strong Protestant backlash alongside the growing sectarian conflict. In County Limerick, for example, two versions of Church of Ireland opposition emerged during 1820, among high church clergy including Bishop Jebb and among liberal Protestant gentlemen. Instead of closing down debate into rigid binary opposition along sectarian lines, the Limerick evidence shows that the Crusade produced a much more complex religious, social, and political debate than historians have recognised which, in turn, made possible a wider range of responses to key Irish problems.     

概念史视野中的晚清天主教与新教

晚清之前,国人对基督宗教的认识实际上只是天主教。19世纪相当长的时间里,天主教仍然被许多中国人用作基督宗教的总称。新教传教士为与天主教相区别,使用辨正教、更正教等词汇强调自身正统,两教在概念上展开对正的争夺。天主教由总称变成基督宗教之一派,以及新教译名之流行,是新教传教士提升新教地位的努力与晚清维新思潮相结合的结果,由此产生的新教胜于旧教观念,对现代中国人的历史和宗教认知造成很大影响。