Maintaining the absent other: the re-use of religious heritage sites in conflicts

This article explores the relationships between heritage and conflict by focusing on the re-use of religious architectural heritage in conflicts that resulted in the displacement of communities. Such re-uses place the autonomy of buildings in the absence of their original users under question. The study focuses on three churches in the northern part of Cyprus, which had new functions assigned by the actual community after the displacement of the original users. The article argues that when heritage is conserved by the mandate of the community, it reveals attempts to maintain the ‘absent other’ reflected by the way churches are adapted with minor alterations. Accordingly, it aims to contribute to theories that question how architecture can maintain its autonomy following conflicts and seeks to offer a new perspective on the debate regarding heritage-conflict relations by interpreting heritage as a sign of peace rather than conflict.     

The Cortland Conference on Political History

Abstract. The 1851 Census of Religious Worship contains an excess of "round" numbers reported for congregation sizes, which indicates that estimates (as opposed to exact head counts) were often returned. The authors estimate the proportion of rounded estimates returned by the Church of England and the dissenting denominations. They develop a structural equation model to estimate for the mean degree of inflation (i. e., overstimation) that resulted from rounding. Anglican figures were most likely inflated by approximately 11 percent, whereas the corresponding figure for dissent was approximately 5.5 percent. The authors examine what sort of counting behavior could have led to such margins of inflation, and why denominational differences exist.     

A CAPTIVE'S STORY: PURITANS,PIRATES, AND THE DRAMA OF RECONCILIATION

Abstract

This essay examines the use of Hebrew sources in debates on church and state in civil war England. It fits within a developing historiography that seeks to uncover the deeper texture of early modern political discourse, and also poses questions about the prevalence of statist and secular understandings of public power in the context of the English civil war. Its specific focus is on debates on church government in the 1640s, studies of the Hebrew commonwealth in the 1650s, and the use of Hebraism by Hobbes and Harrington as an antidote to clericalism.     

英国民族国家形成的政治动因——中世纪权力要素剖析

英国民族国家的形成是多种因素互动的结果。从权力政治学的角度考察英国民族国家形成的政治动因,可以发现,中世纪王权在权力政治发展中的演变历程正是英国民族国家形成的积累过程。英国民族国家形成的政治动因主要来自两个方面的作用:一是国家原则对封建原则的消解;二是以王权为代表的世俗权力与教会权力的冲突与斗争。在这两方面作用的互动过程中,王权在国家原则的制约下巩固与发展起来,为英国民族国家的形成创造了决定性的历史条件。     

Santa Maria di Collemaggio Church (L’Aquila,Italy): Historical Reconstruction by Non-Destructive Testing Techniques

The main goal of this work was the non-destructive testing (NDT) of an ancient fresco (15th century) preserved in the Santa Maria di Collemaggio Church (L’Aquila, Italy) and damaged after the 2009 earthquake. Active infrared thermography (IRT), near-infrared (NIR) reflectography and ultraviolet imaging (UV) were used. In addition, the state of the fresco prior to the earthquake was analyzed by electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI), digital speckle correlation (DSC), raking light, tap, and chemical NDT techniques. The use of these techniques was important for the monitoring of new damages and for a comparison between the results over the years. Square heating thermography (SHT) data were processed using principal component thermography (PCT) and pulsed phase thermography (PPT) algorithms, in order to improve the defects’ signature and to reduce the impact of non-uniform heating and emissivity variations due to the painting’s pigments. A multi-analysis approach, segmentation operators and a specific data correlation method emphasize the overall study of the fresco. Furthermore, the facade and the high altar area were inspected by passive thermography and ground-penetrating radar (GPR), respectively. In the present case, the combined use of NDT techniques was useful to fill in the gaps in the construction history of the building.     

The Limits of Mastery: Slaveholders,Slaves, and Baptist Church Discipline

Existing scholarship describes early southern evangelical churches as racially radical institutions that, as the eighteenth century surrendered to the nineteenth, capitulated to slavery, implementing accommodations intended to make them more attractive to respectable, slaveholding churchgoers. This essay argues that that transition was never as complete as suggested. Based on a set of 65 Baptist church minutes from congregations located in 4 different southern states, it shows how evangelical churches continued to exercise a degree of authority over slave-owning members and their treatment of bondpeople from the late eighteenth century through the end of slavery itself.     

Regulating Church Property in Late Imperial China

In recent years,religion in China has attracted increased attention,both domestically and internationally.A core aspect of this attention has been the role of church real estate,a contemporary issue with historical origins.After the Second Opium War,France—the self-proclaimed protector of Catholicism—took on the cause of obtaining additional rights and freedoms for Western missionaries in China,albeit with only mixed results.Constant disagreements between China's central and local governments made it difficult to implement nation-wide regulations.     

Exploring the post-release experience of former Irish Industrial School “inmates”

This article provides an insight into the life course of 25 men and women who were incarcerated in Industrial Schools in Ireland during the twentieth century. Twenty-five semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with former Industrial School “inmates” and they covered questions about their life during and after their incarceration in order to understand the impact that the Industrial School had on their lives. The article describes the regimented, abusive and degrading regime they were forced to live in while incarcerated in the Industrial School followed by the difficulties they faced after their release. A theme that was significant throughout the interviews, was empowerment, and this article looks at how the 25 men and women interviewed empowered themselves in the outside world, while being faced with difficulties in learning how to survive in a world that was new to them, whilst facing marginalisation in Irish social life.     

美国华人教会的社会功能初探

近年来,美国华人基督教教会组织发展迅速,其在帮助华人新移民群体,整合华人社会资源等方面的作用已经超越了传统华人社团。本文依据实地考察并结合文献研究,探索美国华人教会组织的多方面社会功能。作者认为,华人教会在华人社会中的作用及其影响值得关注。     

晚清直隶教案诱因分析--以1860年11月～1898年10月为中心

关于教案的发源,目前学术界大致有四种观点：1．侵略说;2．中西化冲突说;3．三重危机说;4．多种因素说。①笔以为,笼统地将晚清近两千起②教案发生的原因归结为列强侵略或两种异质化之间的冲突等都未免失之简单,应作具体分析。在晚清直隶,引发教案的原因是多方面的,主要有：由传教士查还旧址、租买房产以及民教互争公产地亩引发的地产之争;摊派各种庙会和修庙钱引发纷争;细故口角争殴;教堂或传教士、教民遭劫窃引发;反教谣言、揭贴引发;民教双方由相互猜疑进而捏情上控引发教案等。