Law and the Ruining of the Land

Abstract

In his monograph God, Justice, and Society (Oxford University Press, 2011)response to his work uses examples from Deuteronomy, Jeremiah and other prophetic texts to explore the relationship between obedience to God’s law and the wellbeing of the natural world. It concludes that given the complexity and diversity of natural law within the Western philosophical tradition, it seems unwise to draw too direct a comparison with the biblical material, which reflects a very different world view. The close study of the texts suggests that, for the biblical authors, divine law was both commanded at Sinai and written into the fabric of the universe.     

Were the Miao Kings "Prophets of Renewal"? The Case of the 1795-1797 Hunan Miao Revolt

This essay considers the concept of "prophets of renewal" introduced by James Scott in The Art of Not Being Governed:An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (2009),as seen in the context of the 1795-97 Miao revolt along China's Hunan-Guizhou border.The appearance ofa "Miao King" and four "Wu kings" centering anti-Qing resistance in an intractable highland-utilizing native legends,spirit possession,investment of officials,and multi-ethnic recruitment-suggests a case of"Zomia" (the vast Southeast Asian Massif) prophets in action,as Scott himself suggests.Closer examination,however,reveals a more complex and uncertain picture,characterized by division between rival lords and an overall dearth of institutional,ideological,or cosmological elaboration,all further obscured by a paucity of historical sources.The Miao kings might be seen as prophets of renewal in a general sense,but the fit is inexact.There is still value,however,in considering Scott's model in the study of this event.It enables a sharper conceptualization of the agency of the Miao people,while offering a case for comparison with analogous instances of religiously-based native resistance on other Qing frontiers.     

“A Different Kind of Theo-Politics: Abraham Joshua Heschel,the Prophets and the Civil Rights Movement”

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the sharp differences in the understanding of the Hebrew prophets by theologians, Jewish and Protestant, in Germany and the United States, with a particular focus on their invocation of prophetic teachings in relation to social and political movements. The sharp denigrations of the prophets – described as ecstatics (Gunkel) or rural naifs (Troeltsch) rendered the prophets useless as figures of inspiration in Germany in relation to racism, colonialism, and WWI. By contrast, the prophets have played a crucial role in American civil thought, especially in the Civil Rights Movement. The distinctive and influential interpretation of prophetic consciousness developed by the German-American Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel is examined for its parallels with the prophetic theology of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the political ramifications of Heschel's link between prophetic revelation and political leadership.