The Latin doctors of the Church on sexuality

The Latin doctors of the early Church, Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine, are well known for their advocacy of virginity or chastity. Jerome was so vociferous in his praise of the virgin life that he was accused of denigrating marriage as the Manichaeans had done. Ambrose earned the title of Doctor of Virginity for his many writings on the subject, and Augustine's well-known conversion was associated with his adoption of a celibate life. The preponderance of tracts and letters on virginity and general continence within the corpus of patristic writings suggests that their view of sex might be summarized by two words: ‘avoid it’. However, the view of sexuality that shaped their visions of chastity was more complex than that, and this paper will explore the sexual beliefs that underlie such an important part of patristic writings. While they shared an advocacy of the celibate life, the three Latin doctors did not share a single view of sexuality. In fact, they represent two distinct positions on the subject. Jerome and Ambrose present one view that was shared by many of the earlier church Fathers, including Tertullian, Gregory of Nazianzen and others. Augustine represents a change in the analysis of human sexuality.     

There will always be a Gaza war: Duration,abduction, and intractable conflict (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

This article reflects on the idea of intractable violence in Palestine/Israel by considering the work of temporality. It considers the latest round of intense violence during the summer 2014 Gaza war in terms of Henri Bergson's notion of ‘duration’, in conversation with Steve Caton's reflections on conflict and duration during his fieldwork in Yemen. Duration provides insight into how collective publics understand, interpret and act in situations of intense conflict; how these knowledges and actions are influenced, discerned but not predetermined, by the way memory shapes perception.     

Men and anti-violence initiatives: transnational feminist reflections from Afghanistan and Pakistan

Abstract

This article looks at how international development’s rhetoric for enlisting men to take up anti-violence against women’s work is translated into reality. Based on fieldwork conducted in Afghanistan and Pakistan, I argue that whilst there have been success stories of men’s behaviour changing, the localisation of gender concepts and ideas into local frameworks has not been as successful. Furthermore, inattention to how gender relations are shaped by conflict and violence results in the dilution of feminist values around work on violence against women. This inattention also privileges middle-class men’s activism at the expense of activism by women and men from lower-socioeconomic backgrounds. The article concludes with a call for further transnational feminist dialogue and interventions in the area of men’s involvement, so that current and future initiatives are critical, reflexive and relevant.     

EVERYTHING POSSIBLE AND NOTHING TRUE: NOTES ON THE CAPITOL INSURRECTION

On 6 January 2021, an overwhelmingly white, Christian mob stormed the US Capitol building in Washington DC as part of a rally to ‘Save America’. Moving beyond media reports and the analyses of popular pundits, the authors provide an ethnographic outline of some of the complexities and contradictions on display that day. Thinking with Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Ladurie, Ursula LeGuin and others, these notes frame the rally preceding the attack on the Capitol in terms of historical narrative, carnival aesthetics and Christian symbolisms of salvation. The rally and attempted insurrection displayed multiple social and symbolic inversions, combining yearnings for order and stability with parody, playful optimism and violent threat. Unlike many other pre-Lenten carnivals, here it was never entirely clear which social order was being overturned and which was being reinstated, one result of the deeply divided world views that currently characterize much of the US population.