Christian Socialist Kim Chang-joon's Path to Liberation and the Reunification of Korea

This paper examines the life of Christian Socialist Kim Chang-joon and explores the themes of independence, liberation, reunification, and peace between both Koreas. It divides Kim's life into four stages: his participation in the March First Movement, his involvement in Christian socialism, his practice of social thought in Manchuria, and his activities toward reunifying the two Koreas after liberation from Japanese colonial rule. In the first phase, Kim became an active nationalist. His national consciousness developed into Christian socialism through his pastoral work. When he experienced Japanese colonial oppression while working with this ministry, he abandoned religious life and focused on socio-political activism in Manchuria. He founded the Christian Democratic Alliance and participated in the Democratic National Front to reunite the two Koreas after liberation. This article demonstrates how Kim set an example for how churches and Christians can strive for and attain liberation, reunification, and peace in the Korean context.     

Foreign Policy and an American Christian Democratic Party

This article explores the implications of the Judeo-Christian tradition's influence on the United States for the foreign policy of an American Christian Democratic Party. If there were to be such a party in the United States, it would not have to create a new set of ideas and principles out of whole cloth. In fact, an articulation of an American Christian Democratic foreign policy would largely consist of an effort of resourcement, rediscovering and applying anew foundational principles at the core of the American experiment. This article develops this insight in two main foreign policy areas: national security and economic.     

Exiles' strategies for lobbying in international organisations: Eastern European participation in the Nouvelles Équipes Internationales

European and international organisations after the Second World War united not only Western European politicians but also Eastern European exiles. The latter are often represented one‐sidedly: either as powerless members or as important trailblazers of future European unity. This article tries to analyse their role more systematically by means of the case of the Nouvelles Équipes Internationales, the Christian Democratic ‘International’. It states that exiles could sometimes exert influence on congress resolutions and opinion making, but they remained very dependent on the Western agenda and in fact they carried coals to Newcastle, as Christian Democracy presented itself as the opposite of communism. Moreover, it shows that most exiles very rarely expressed their disappointment concerning the limited efficiency of their actions, and in fact contented themselves with their recognition and presence. As a consequence, many possibilities for exile action were missed, as can be illustrated by exiles who aimed at more than the recognition of their legitimacy.     

Church,Community and Democracy

Abstract

The doctrine of church shapes Christian practice around community, producing a Christian worldview that privileges communal life. Authoritarian and/or sectarian conceptions of church will by definition undermine the practice and sustainability of democracy. Democratic practices are needed to avoid authoritarianism within the church and to promote dialogue between the church and the larger community. Resulting, qualified understandings of community may allow for helpful reformation of the doctrine of church and create space for a communitarian corrective to the overly secular and individualistic conceptions of democracy that are currently dominant.     

Resistance,Charity, and Rebirth in Roberto Rossellini's Rome,Open City

Abstract

With its use of contemporary events, location shots, and a plot that mixes comedy, tragedy, and passion play, Roberto Rossellini's 1945 film Rome, Open City founded the movement known as “Italian Neo-Realism.” The film vividly presents the Christian teaching on the relation between religion and politics. Rossellini asserts that a Christian Europe can be reconstructed only on a foundation of charity rather than hate, vengeance, or even justified punishment for Nazi crimes. It is not on the basis of tales of resistance that Italians and Europeans can be reborn, Rossellini argues, but on the basis of the Christian command to “love your enemies.” European rebirth means the installation of a moral order that makes parenthood feasible and respectable. By reflecting on Rossellini's masterpiece, I examine the triumph and the tragedy of the Christian Democratic Europe that Rome, Open City foretold and helped to found.     

Power and Religion in a Modern State: Desecularisation in Australian History

Secularisation is a concept with many meanings making it difficult to analyse historically. Yet it is the default master narrative in much Australian historiography. Secular historians typically criticise the role of religion in history as being either too unengaged or, if engaged, too intrusive and negative in its impact. This article challenges both assumptions, taking five “nodal points” in Australian history and arguing that they are better given a “Christian” than a secular interpretation. Australia's first European settlement was a high‐minded reform experiment, based partly on a humanitarian Christian vision. The Church Acts gave the population ready access to Christian influence, resulting in a highly “Christianised” nation. When federated, that nation refused to give ascendancy to any one Christian denomination, but largely assumed that its polity was that of a “Christian commonwealth.” Out of its Christian commitment, in the middle of the twentieth century, it withstood control by atheistic communists of its industrial and political life. In the first decade of the present century, a surprising number of politicians have sought to define its national identity largely in terms of its Christian heritage rooted in the Classical/Christian tradition.     

‘One man,one vote; one woman,one throat’: Women in New York city politics, 1890–1910

This essay challenges the assumption that women did not go into politics until they had the right to vote. In New York City at least, it was the other way around. Motivated by the municipal reform movement of the 1890s which sought to defeat Democratic Tammany Hall, women steadily took on more responsibility for electing good men to office, through meetings, canvassing and the production of literature. They did so both through their own non‐partisan reform organization and in highly partisan women's Republican Clubs. Proliferating in the 1890s, Republican women's clubs provided a steady stream of workers to elect Republican candidates, even when they opposed reformers. The Democratic Party was slow to organize women, not doing so seriously until after New York women got suffrage in 1917. However, some Democratic women organized their own clubs, which endorsed Tammany Hall candidates but did not work for them intensively.     

"And the Bones Come Together": Women'sReligious Expectations in Southern Africa, c. 1900–1945

African religious beliefs invaded Christian missions and provided the backdrop for interaction between African converts and women missionaries. African women came to missions not as tabulae rasae; their culture had stamped them with expectations and insights with which they imbibed and moulded the Christian message. They viewed religion as a resource. Their cultural expectations reinforced missionary promises and facilitated Christian conversion. As religious specialists women gained status, respect, social and economic security in pre-colonial society because they provided necessary and important services. These expectations lingered among African women at the missions. Thus, within patriarchal Christian denominations African women often exhibited an assertiveness which missionaries misunderstood and maligned. Mission conflicts were based on missionary attempts to make African women dependent upon their Christian spouses. This role was contradictory to African beliefs and Christian African needs. Differences were further exacerbated by gender discrimination within the church, which affected both European and African women, and colonialism, which provided the background for Christian occupation of the colony. Although familial obligations and cultural expectations were points of contention, motherhood, literacy, and leadership training provided meeting points of mutual concern for African women and missionaries.     

Lega democratica and the making of Italy’s center-left

This article analyzes the history of the Lega democratica, a group of Catholic intellectuals active between 1975 and 1987, and its impact on Catholic debates in Italy’s Second Republic. Despite its small membership, the group’s heritage influenced Italy’s post-1994 center-left and shaped its leadership. Such relevance is explained by describing the Lega democratica’s legacy on four issues. First, on Catholic pluralism: the group was central to a decade-long failed attempt to reconcile different souls of the Italian Catholic laity, which anticipated the end of the Christian Democratic party. Second, after Aldo Moro’s murder the Lega democratica theorized the impossibility of a ‘historic compromise’ between Communists and Christian Democrats: such a development framed their post-1994 attitude. Third, the group’s history reveals a growing generational split on how to achieve political reform (mediation vs. rupture). Finally, the emerging idea of a ‘primacy of civil society’ in the political sphere partly defined the Ulivo coalition’s ideology.     

Delegitimation and anticommunism in Italian neofascism

Abstract

Although anticommunism was a key element of the identity and political strategy of the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), it has remained a largely unexplored theme in historiographic research. This article reconstructs its origins, developments, and outcomes, from the birth of the MSI in the aftermath of World War II to its dissolution in 1994. Far from being an immutable feature of neofascist political culture, anticommunism took on very different roles and meanings depending on the political climate of republican Italy. In a more radical key, anticommunism both facilitated and hindered political dialogue with the other parties, firstly and foremost the Christian Democratic Party (DC). Taken to excess, anticommunism also accentuated neofascist hostility to democracy. This led to a lasting delegitimation of the MSI at a systemic and ethical-political level, and the party’s alienation in the years of the First Republic.     

The Italian Communist Party,local government and the Cold War

The Italian national elections of 18 April 1948 handed power to the Christian Democratic Party. The Italian Communist Party had, however, gained significant municipal control in the local elections of 1946. For the Communists, the local level became the testing ground where administrative practices, political initiatives, social alliances and economic projects were developed. The leaders and the intellectuals worked to outline the cultural framework of a political project which could challenge national politics from town councils. Meanwhile, with a view to making gains in the local elections of 1951–1952, propaganda was used in an attempt to diffuse and proselytise municipal political programmes among different social classes in a divided socioeconomic environment.     

"Testimonies from the Field": The Coming of Christian Science to Australia, c. 1890–1910*

The account of the coming of Christian Science to Australia given in this article is based on testimony contributed by early adherents to the two main church publications, The Christian Science Journal and the Christian Science Sentinel , supplemented by Church records and other sources. The first two decades are covered, from the earliest known intimations of interest to the death of Mary Baker Eddy in 1910, when a Christian Science presence in Australia was assured. Interest shown by writer Miles Franklin, and her association with Melbourne adherents such as leading feminist Vida Goldstein, provides the starting point. The focus is on positive responses. It is postulated that in addition to the documentary and expressive value of the testimonies, they point to problems of class and health in turn-of-the-century Australia. A preponderance of women in both the testimonies and the practice is evidenced, and the openness of progressive women to new approaches is noted. With reference to male testimony, it is suggested that further research into responses to American ways in religion by the urban midle class would be very valuable.     

Another Meditation on the Third Commandment

This article presents several normative and conceptual challenges to the prospects of the creation of a Christian political party in American politics. Given that political parties differ from interest groups insofar as they seek to govern, and as governing includes the exercise of coercive force, constructing a Christian political party that is recognizably and uniquely Christian and capable of successfully wielding political power will be an exceedingly difficult task.     

何以心系中国——基督教医疗传教士与地方社会（1835-1911）

在近代来华的基督教医疗传教士的记述中较多地记载了他们初到一地,虽曾遇到当地士绅和官府的排斥,却也得到一些普通民众的热心帮助;随着熟悉和了解程度的加深,他们与中国地方社会、普通民众多能成为和睦相处乃至相扶相助的邻里和街坊。此外,由于基督教医疗传教士在华的社会生活条件优于西方,医疗工作得到当地社会和普通民众的高度尊敬和慷慨捐助,致使他们很多人“心系中国”。在这个意义上,基督教医疗传教士在中国社会取得成功,并非仅由于西方近代医学在治疗方面的优越及其个人的奉献精神,还在于中国作为一个高度世俗化的社会,普通民众的质朴、良善和地方社会的慈善传统。更重要的是,中国地方社会和普通民众对基督教医疗传教士的接纳和善待,深刻影响到这些随不平等条约而强行闯入的西方人对中国社会的重新认识和文化反省。     

The underclass in the first crusade:: a historiographical trend

This study explores a recent trend in the historiography of the First Crusade, specifically the behaviour of the Jewish and Christian ‘underclass’. This term is used to refer to women in the Jewish society of Latin Europe and to the ‘common folk’ in the neighbouring Christian society; both of these groups did not traditionally dictate social and political norms in their respective milieus. The argument is that historians traditionally accorded both sectors a leadership role in the Rhineland pogroms, based on medieval sources, but that they have recently revised the record and claimed that events were actually driven by the traditional (adult male) leadership, i.e. rabbis and nobles. The article studies the sources that served as the bases for the traditional and revisionist perspectives and traces the chain of historiographical development through the views of prominent historians. It also suggests contemporary issues that appear to underpin the revisions.     

The politics of the ‘Church’ in the Italy of Pope Wojtyła

Abstract

This article analyzes the development of different political tendencies with the Italian Church during the pontificate of John Paul II. Two different strategies enabled the episcopal conference to maintain stability for a long period, in which time Cardinal Ruini played a key role, first as secretary and then president of the bishops. In his years the conference of bishops accepted that the political unity of the Catholic world was over, but it still tried to retain a strong political influence even though the mediation of the Christian Democratic Party was no longer available. With the end of Wojty?a's pontificate, however, this period came to a close and the different tendencies that make up the rich and complex world of the Italian Catholic Church have become more visible.     

Strathern's Melanesian ‘dividual’ and the Christian ‘individual’: a Perspective from Vanua Lava,Vanuatu

What happens to people's concept of the person when their ‘dividuality’ engages with the Christian concept of the ‘individual’? According to Vanua Lava kastom, when people die they go to sere timiat, the place of the dead. But do they still go there when the person had been a Christian during their life time? Where is the Christian heaven and hell? Is there a separate Christian ‘soul’? Will the dead be eternally separated from each other and their ancestors? Can kastom and Christian concepts be reconciled? Depending on denomination and degree of conversion (devout, nominal, or ‘back‐slider’) people have found multiple answers that help them conceptualise their final resting place. Their answers are of relevance for theoretical debates in anthropology about dividuality, individuality and engagement with modernity.     

The campaigns and elections of congresswomen Edith Green and Julia Butler Hansen

The Third Congressional Districts of Oregon and Washington face each other across the Columbia River. It is not surprising that for more than a decade each district had been represented in Congress by the same representative or that they were both Democrats. Though Oregon's Third District is much more urban and compact than Washington's, they share some of the demographic and economic characteristics which are usually associated with Democratic constituencies outside of the South, namely, a relatively high proportion of persons employed in manufacturing or other heavily unionized occupations, who are relatively mobile, or of fairly recent ethnic stock. What is not so expected is that both incumbent Congressmen were Congresswomen — Edith Green of Oregon and Julia Butler Hansen of Washington. Mrs Green and Mrs Hansen were chosen as the specific subjects of this study because they had both demonstrated political longevity in retaining Congressional office throughout see‐sawing political changes in party domination in both their states and the national administration. They were both longstanding members of the Democratic Party. They were both from the Pacific Northwest, giving them common regional interests, and indeed, while from different states, their districts are continuous with the Columbia River as a common boundary adding specific common district interests. Each had attained what are generally recognized as powerful positions within the structure of the Congress as chairpersons of important subcommittees: Mrs Green as Chairman of the Special Subcommittee on Education of the House Committee on Education and Labor; Mrs Hansen as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Appropriations for the Interior and Related Agencies of the House Appropriations Committee. And finally, both women were in their early sixties.     

Liberated from the Liberator: Frederick Douglass and Garrisonian Political Theology

I argue that Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison held very different political theologies, even while they seemed to work productively together from 1841 to 1847. Examining Douglass's self-presentation on both sides of his split with Garrison, I conclude that he stifled his Christian moral vision in order to comply with Garrisonian theological ideals while working in New England. After moving to Rochester, New York, Douglass was free to give full voice to his authentic Christian political vision. I explore their differing approaches to the Bible's authority, theological anthropology, and the moral permissibility of force, which influenced their political responses to slavery. Scholars such as John Stauffer and John Sekora have argued that his departure facilitated esthetic and racial forms of emancipation for Douglass; I argue that leaving Garrison allowed Douglass to express not only his authentic literary and black identities, but his true Christian identity as well.     

The interweaving of sacred and secular: metaphysics,reform and enlightenment in the rivalry between Dom Deschamps and Claude Yvon, 1769–1774

ABSTRACT

The Benedictine Dom Léger-Marie Deschamps and the philosophical Abbé Claude Yvon may indeed be minor eighteenth-century figures, and they both may be considered to have emerged from the Catholic side of something Helena Rosenblatt has dubbed the Christian Enlightenment, but neither of these figures is neatly “conservative” (as Mark Curran defines it), nor are they fully “radical” (in the sense of having contributed to the Radical Enlightenment). Rather, Deschamps and Yvon are among a number of eighteenth-century figures who do not fit neatly into the expected parameters of Catholic, Christian, Religious or Radical Enlightenment. This article argues that the entanglement of both heterodoxy and orthodoxy, and of sociopolitical progressivism and conservatism, is characteristic of Yvon’s and Deschamps’s particular engagement with what Vincenzo Ferrone describes as the cultural revolution of the eighteenth century. This study of these under-examined Catholic scholars further suggests that conventional and tidy scholarly narratives of the history of Enlightenment should be further problematized.