Green Allies: Speculative Realism,Evangelical Christianity,and Political Pluralism

This essay addresses the question of how to build political coalitions to address global warming. For speculative realists such as Levi Bryant, responding to climate change demands materialist ontologies that recognize the efficacy of things themselves, e.g. fossil fuels. And yet, I argue, Bryant does not sufficiently address the political assignment of building political coalitions with people who endorse different ontologies. To illuminate this possibility, I show how the American evangelical David Gushee arrives at similar conclusions by a different route. The essay encourages speculative realists to fold modesty into their political thinking for the sake of building coalitions with theists about matters of common concern.     

Le “serviteur” et “élu” d’Is 42,1 et ses disciples en Is 54,17ss

Abstract

En Is 41-48 le terme “serviteur” est appliqué à Israël selon le principe du transfert sur la descendance des Patriarches des titres davidiques du Ps 89 conformément à ce que propose le Ps 105. Les exilés effectuant un voyage semblable à celui d’Abraham sont appelés à jouer un rôle important dans la reconstruction. En Is 42,1 et 49-53 après de premières désillusions, le “serviteur” apparaît comme un individu qui doit servir de médiateur pour assurer le renouveau d’Israël en permettant particulièrement de lever les malédictions d’Is 6. En Is 54-66 le terme “serviteur” apparaît uniquement au pluriel, ces “serviteurs” se présentent comme les disciples du “serviteur.”     

W. W. deLacy's 1865 map of the territory of Montana

Abstract

The Topographical Survey of the Orange Free State, executed by the British War Office between 1905 and 1911, was not only one of the first but also one of the finest topographical surveys to be undertaken in British colonial Africa. The motivation for this undertaking stemmed from three sources: the personal interest of Sir David Gill (H.M. Astronomer at the Cape) in the measurement of the arc of the 30th meridian; Britain's imperialistic intervention in South Africa which resulted in the South African War (1899–1902) against the Boer Republics and which stressed the need for reliable military maps for warfare as well as for the general defence of the new colonies; and the need for accurate maps for purposes of colonial administration and land tenure. The survey took five and a half years to complete, and the 1: 125,000 series (G.S.G.S. 2230) that was compiled represented the only accurate maps of this part of the continent for almost seven decades.     

From “Holocaust” to “Rational Choice”: Generational Change in Political Science

Abstract

David Walsh has demonstrated a unique gift for reading modernity sympathetically, for discerning within it a certain luminosity, in fact a distinctly Christian luminosity, without losing sight of modernity's darkest possibilities. In the magisterial concluding volume of his trilogy, he seeks to elaborate a “coherence” of modernity that is revealed not in concepts but only “through existence itself.” Finally, though, Walsh's enthusiasm for a purely open and therefore purely formal understanding of practical existence, articulated through brilliant, original, and remarkably comprehensive readings of the greatest authors of the continental tradition, seems to me to draw him very far away indeed from actual moral and political practice, and thus from the reality of our human condition. A truer and more truly “performative” attention to “the nature of practice itself” would be less inclined to praise pure freedom or openness and more solicitous of the actual horizons of common worlds, including implicit metaphysical and hierarchical elements.     

Hebrews and phoenicians: An ancient historical image and its usage

The modern nation-state is the most common, and so far the most stable, vehicle for modern democracy. The case of Zionism offers a unique opportunity for inquiring into this connection since mainstream Zionism consciously founded its institutions on the premise that democracy and the national state are mutually dependent. Moreover, ever since the early days of Zionism, opposing plans to separate the two—a non-democratic national state and a non-national democratic state—have been, and still are, hotly debated. This article surveys the origins of these ideas and argues that, both politically and theoretically, neither the party of non-democratic nationalism nor the party of non-national democracy offers a viable or even coherent plan. It would seem that non-national democracy will subvert democracy as well as nationalism, and non-democratic nationalism will undermine the national as well as the democratic character of the state.     

Funeral at the edge of a cliff: Israel bids farewell to David Ben-Gurion

David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister, passed away on 1 December 1973, weeks after the Yom Kippur War. His funeral reflected his unique political and symbolic standing as the “father of the nation,” as well as his wish to express national pioneering values. Buried on the cliff overlooking Wadi Zin, near his kibbutz home in the Negev desert, Ben-Gurion “forced” the Israeli leadership to follow a ritualistic pilgrimage path leading from Jerusalem to Sde Boker, similar to the one he had advocated and attempted himself. The article discusses how this watershed historical event was conceived, planned and carried out.     

Building the nation of the future,one waiting room at a time: hospital murals in the making of modern Mexico

Abstract

Mid-twentieth century Mexican hospitals – the buildings themselves and their interior and exterior walls – became stages that depicted national hopes and aspirations. Hospitals and clinics became ideal spaces that married science and medicine with the state’s version of a triumphant social revolution. Visitors and patients to hospital waiting rooms, lobbies and auditoriums would see, indeed be surrounded by, depictions of the complicated hopes placed on science and medicine as interpreted by politicians, architects, and artists. Hospital walls became contested spaces where art depicted Mexico’s embrace of modern technology and medical practices while also showcasing, in vivid color, citizens challenging the government’s broken revolutionary promises, especially the right of all to health and social security.     

‘Oh You Pretty Thing!’: How David Bowie ‘Unlocked Everybody’s Inner Queen’ in spite of the music press

The 1967 Sexual Offence Act decriminalised homosexual acts between men allowing gay men to discuss their sexuality in public. Few prominent popular musicians came-out until 1972 when David Bowie claimed that he was bisexual in an interview with Melody Maker. Music papers and Bowie had substantial cultural power: Bowie was a rising star and music papers recruited journalists who discussed and perpetuated social change. The subsequent conversation, however, reinforced negative stereotypes in constructing the queer subject and tried to safeguard commercial concerns due to the assumption that the market for popular music avoided queer music. This undermined arguments that associate permissive legislation with a permissive media and society, but, to some, representation alone empowered people and destabilised preconceptions about queer identity.     

‘A Local Terrorist Made Good’: the Callaghan government and the Arab–Israeli peace process, 1977–79

The British government had played an important role during the 1950s and 1960s as a mediator in the Arab–Israeli conflict, most notably through the development of Project Alpha between 1954 and 1956, and through the negotiation of United Nations Security Council resolution 242 in 1967. Between 1977 and 1979, British Prime Minister James Callaghan played a supporting role to US President Jimmy Carter as he negotiated the Camp David Accords of 1978. Callaghan adopted a pro-Israeli stance, cultivating close relations with the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and defending Begin’s position over key issues, particularly his reluctance to remove settlements from the occupied territories. In this respect Callaghan’s government departed from established British policy, even abstaining over United Nations Security Council resolution 446 in March 1979 which condemned continuing Israeli settlement activity. This resulted in damage to Britain’s relations with moderate Arab states such as Egypt and Jordan.     

Measuring Religious Preferences in Nineteenth-Century Urban Areas

The author applies David Galenson's work on the life cycles of modern artists to the study of the paintings of old masters, from about the early fifteenth to the late seventeenth centuries. Both the potential use of technical examination of paintings and the role of drawings for preconceiving compositions are explored as means for interpreting artistic behavior among pre-modern artists. Using a study of illustrations in texts to establish a list of canonical painters and the relative dates in which they are believed to have contributed their most important paintings, the author then analyzes a series of old master painters' working methods, demonstrating how their creative behavior corresponds to what their respective life cycles would suggest. Thus, the study of artists' life cycles could anticipate the use of optical and other mechanical devices for the production of premodern paintings based on such studies.