A Reply to the foregoing Criticism

This paper discusses the vetlatori dance performed on the occasion of a baptised infant's death in the Valencia region of Spain until about fifty years ago. Analyses of historical sources that emphasise the noble spirituality of the vetlatori dance are shown to be based on romantic views of traditional culture and emotions related to the loss of an infant, rather than on authentic information. Ethnographic and ethnomusicological data are presented to illustrate that the music and dances performed during the vetlatori dance were meant for entertainment rather than for spiritual impact. Recourse is also had to oral sources, particularly interviews carried out in the 1960s and 1980s with former infant wake participants who experienced the vetlatori dance, and who confirmed the popular nature of the music, song, and dances that were performed. Analysis of written sources and of the choreographic and musical characteristics of the dance also shows that the kind of music performed was typical of festive celebration in the Valencia region. Functional outcomes for such wakes are also proposed.     

The Interview: From Formal to Postmodern

Standard oral history textbooks will contain a chapter on theinterview with the do's and don’ts of basic structuredand unstructured interviewing. This specialist book is intendedto give sufficient critical detail concerning the differenttypes of interview, including their uses, benefits, and shortcomings,to assist all newcomers to the subject. Oral historians arenot likely to need such comprehensive knowledge, but the textis not lengthy and is for the most part clearly written, soit does not become a burden. In fact its brevity     

Transcendence and Apocalyptic: A Reply to Barber

Abstract

This essay takes up Dan Barber's challenge to think Christian theology non-analogically. It does so by re-affirming and re-conceiving transcendence according to a kind of apocalyptic exigence. Apocalyptic transcendence, it is argued, occurs according to a mode of action that is irreducible either to the univocal production of pure immanence, or to the analogical mediation of transcendence within immanence. Rather, apocalyptic transcendence is operative as a mode of action by which immanence is suspended and the territorial conceptions of this-worldly sovereignty are denied. Through engagement with the work of John Howard Yoder, it is argued that apocalyptic thus gives way to doxology as that mode of engaged and embodied action that alone exceeds the presumed need for effective ontological production.     

A Reply to the Foregoing "Protest."

THE POLISH PEASANT IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. Monograph of an Immigrant Group. By WILLIAM I. THOMAS and FLORIAN ZNANIECKI. 5 vols. The University of Chicago Press. 1918. Reviewed by M. A. Czaplicka.     

Poesis and Immediacy: A Reply to Davis

Abstract

It is argued here that the Christian doctrines of Trinity and creation make imperative the notion of "mediation" as God's mode of existing in himself and toward us, as well as our mode of existence in God's grace. This is the case in Saint Thomas's account of grace, and it is also the basic configuration of Sergei Bulgakov's sophiology. Josh Davis's understanding of grace, by opting for immediacy as our mode of dependence on God, ultimately fails to give a full account of human cooperation, and in so doing establishes a competitive relation between human and divine agency.     

精神分析学说与后现代主义

此文是作者在“国际精神分析学说研讨会”(四川成都 ,2 0 0 2年 4月1 5— 1 8日 )上的发言稿。作者彼得·洛温伯格 (PeterLoewenberg)是加利福尼亚(洛杉矶 )大学的历史和政治心理学教授、南加利福尼亚精神分析学院的教务长。此外他还是高级心理咨询师。此文将西方的精神分析学说和后现代主义思潮联系起来 ,扼要地论述了它们之间的共通之处 ,这种视角和观点不仅在我们国内是前所未见 ,在国外也是颇为新颖的。因此它为我们加深对后现代主义和精神分析的了解提供了新的线索和启发。专就史学领域来说 ,此文涉及了后现代主义拒斥“大叙述”而偏爱“微观叙述”等问题 ,对我们了解后现代主义如何影响当代西方史学 ,或有助益。     

The Postmodern Problem

Abstract

Mormon political theology must reconcile two distinct projects: the care for the Church's concrete, temporal existence in the World, and the welcoming of the future Kingdom of God on earth. Because of this duality, political theology finds itself highlighting the distinction between the World and the Kingdom of God and at the same time pointing out common ground and attempting to establish peace between the Church and the World. The alleged contradictions of Mormon political thought are, according to this conception, to be understood not as confrontations between idealism and brute reality (or “utopianism” and “assimilation”), but rather as the bringing together of the two goals of Mormon political reflection, pursued by two sides of political theology. These two sides, apologetic and prophetic political theology, are distinguished not by their political content, but rather by their particular kinds of political rhetoric.