Paul Borgman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195331608
- eISBN:
- 9780199868001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331608.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
For Homer's audience, the resourceful Odysseus—“known before all men for the study of crafty designs”—is predictable, always the same, always on brilliant display. David, on the other hand, remains ...
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For Homer's audience, the resourceful Odysseus—“known before all men for the study of crafty designs”—is predictable, always the same, always on brilliant display. David, on the other hand, remains mysterious to the story's audience for great portions of the narrative, acting often in a surprising manner. The biblical writer develops character; the Homeric writer demonstrates character. The divine in each story play roles appropriate to each hero, while reflecting their authors' respective sense of character and moral universe. In fact, the relationship of hero to the divine has much to do with the diametrically opposed characterizations of David and Odysseus within their respective stories, and the gulf between implied moral universes. Because of the goddess Athene, Odysseus becomes more of what he has always been. Because of the biblical God, on the other hand, David changes, becoming known to others—and to himself—only as the story unfolds. David and Odysseus inhabit worlds that could not be more different. A brief exploration of notable cave scenes from their respective stories helps to shine a spotlight on the complexity of David, of his God, and of the relationship between the two.Less
For Homer's audience, the resourceful Odysseus—“known before all men for the study of crafty designs”—is predictable, always the same, always on brilliant display. David, on the other hand, remains mysterious to the story's audience for great portions of the narrative, acting often in a surprising manner. The biblical writer develops character; the Homeric writer demonstrates character. The divine in each story play roles appropriate to each hero, while reflecting their authors' respective sense of character and moral universe. In fact, the relationship of hero to the divine has much to do with the diametrically opposed characterizations of David and Odysseus within their respective stories, and the gulf between implied moral universes. Because of the goddess Athene, Odysseus becomes more of what he has always been. Because of the biblical God, on the other hand, David changes, becoming known to others—and to himself—only as the story unfolds. David and Odysseus inhabit worlds that could not be more different. A brief exploration of notable cave scenes from their respective stories helps to shine a spotlight on the complexity of David, of his God, and of the relationship between the two.
Martha K. Hugginsv, Mika Haritos-Fatouros, and Philip G. Zimbardo
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520234468
- eISBN:
- 9780520928916
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520234468.003.0012
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Latin American Cultural Anthropology
This chapter focuses on violence workers' retrospective social control moralities about their work. It explains that the moral universes of these workers were shaped during the military period by ...
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This chapter focuses on violence workers' retrospective social control moralities about their work. It explains that the moral universes of these workers were shaped during the military period by national security ideologies and then nurtured by occupational insularity and personal isolation. Thus, their moral universes have been restructured in the present to render atrocity justifications compatible with Brazil's postmilitary sociopolitical climate. The chapter identifies the strategies of violence workers for explaining and excusing atrocity. These include diffusing responsibility, blaming individuals, citing a just cause, and asserting that professionalism had correctly guided their and other's violence.Less
This chapter focuses on violence workers' retrospective social control moralities about their work. It explains that the moral universes of these workers were shaped during the military period by national security ideologies and then nurtured by occupational insularity and personal isolation. Thus, their moral universes have been restructured in the present to render atrocity justifications compatible with Brazil's postmilitary sociopolitical climate. The chapter identifies the strategies of violence workers for explaining and excusing atrocity. These include diffusing responsibility, blaming individuals, citing a just cause, and asserting that professionalism had correctly guided their and other's violence.
Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198819660
- eISBN:
- 9780191859984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198819660.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Social History
This chapter refutes present claims that epidemics in antiquity led to blame of the ‘other’. By assembling contemporary descriptions, explanations, and consequences of ancient epidemics, this chapter ...
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This chapter refutes present claims that epidemics in antiquity led to blame of the ‘other’. By assembling contemporary descriptions, explanations, and consequences of ancient epidemics, this chapter overturns a second commonplace about ancient epidemics: that contemporaries understood them within a moral universe, in which plagues arose from the evil deeds of individuals usually within the political sphere, such as betrayals, unjust wars, violations of peace, and breaches of justice, and as a consequence, the gods punished communities with epidemic disease. Such explanations, however, clustered in undatable, mythological time. Instead, classical authors explained the majority of epidemics solely by natural phenomenon—climate, famine, bad food and unaccustomed diets, vapours from unburied corpses, polluted rivers, etc. These explanations did not cast blame on anyone, including the enemies of the afflicted, who may have created the preconditions that brought about these plagues.Less
This chapter refutes present claims that epidemics in antiquity led to blame of the ‘other’. By assembling contemporary descriptions, explanations, and consequences of ancient epidemics, this chapter overturns a second commonplace about ancient epidemics: that contemporaries understood them within a moral universe, in which plagues arose from the evil deeds of individuals usually within the political sphere, such as betrayals, unjust wars, violations of peace, and breaches of justice, and as a consequence, the gods punished communities with epidemic disease. Such explanations, however, clustered in undatable, mythological time. Instead, classical authors explained the majority of epidemics solely by natural phenomenon—climate, famine, bad food and unaccustomed diets, vapours from unburied corpses, polluted rivers, etc. These explanations did not cast blame on anyone, including the enemies of the afflicted, who may have created the preconditions that brought about these plagues.
Bruce Ledewitz
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- November 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197563939
- eISBN:
- 9780197563960
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197563939.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
There has been a breakdown in American public life that no election can fix. Americans cannot even converse about politics. All the usual explanations for our condition have failed to make things ...
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There has been a breakdown in American public life that no election can fix. Americans cannot even converse about politics. All the usual explanations for our condition have failed to make things better. Bruce Ledewitz shows that America is living with the consequences of the Death of God, which Friedrich Nietzsche knew would be momentous and irreversible. God was this culture’s story of the meaning of our lives. Even atheists had substitutes for God, like inevitable progress. Now we have no story and do not even think about the nature of reality. That is why we are angry and despairing. America’s future requires that we begin a new story by each of us asking a question posed by theologian Bernard Lonergan: Is the universe on our side? When we commit to live honestly and fully by our answer to that question, even if our immediate answer is no, America will begin to heal. Beyond that, pondering the question of the universe will allow us to see that there is more to the universe than blind forces and dead matter. Guided by the naturalism of Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy, and the historical faith of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we can learn to trust that the universe bends toward justice and our welfare. That conclusion will complete our healing and restore faith in American public life. We can live without God, but not without thinking about holiness in the universe.Less
There has been a breakdown in American public life that no election can fix. Americans cannot even converse about politics. All the usual explanations for our condition have failed to make things better. Bruce Ledewitz shows that America is living with the consequences of the Death of God, which Friedrich Nietzsche knew would be momentous and irreversible. God was this culture’s story of the meaning of our lives. Even atheists had substitutes for God, like inevitable progress. Now we have no story and do not even think about the nature of reality. That is why we are angry and despairing. America’s future requires that we begin a new story by each of us asking a question posed by theologian Bernard Lonergan: Is the universe on our side? When we commit to live honestly and fully by our answer to that question, even if our immediate answer is no, America will begin to heal. Beyond that, pondering the question of the universe will allow us to see that there is more to the universe than blind forces and dead matter. Guided by the naturalism of Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy, and the historical faith of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we can learn to trust that the universe bends toward justice and our welfare. That conclusion will complete our healing and restore faith in American public life. We can live without God, but not without thinking about holiness in the universe.
Jill P. Koyama
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226451732
- eISBN:
- 9780226451756
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226451756.003.0001
- Subject:
- Education, Educational Policy and Politics
Implementing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) continues to be challenging at the district level because people do not automatically do what they are told. This chapter documents the appropriation of NCLB ...
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Implementing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) continues to be challenging at the district level because people do not automatically do what they are told. This chapter documents the appropriation of NCLB by tracing the linkages between the New York City school district, public schools across five boroughs, city government, and United Education. Integrating the federal and state actions with the more localized interactions, it traces “policy connections between different organizational and everyday worlds, even where actors in different sites do not know each other or share a moral universe.” The chapter provides an investigation into how NCLB creates circumstances that limit the range of possible reactions and outcomes to school failure—and also how NCLB enables the creative and practical management of problems constituted by the uncertainties of the policy. It challenges conventional educational ethnography and educational policy analysis in three important ways, firstly by reducing the gap between everyday actions and activities and government action. Secondly, the chapter concurrently regards the actions of disparate policy stakeholders, including supplemental educational services managers and politicians who foray temporarily into policy processes, and principals whose policy roles persist, often over years. Finally, it expands the field of study to transactional spaces that transcend physical locations.Less
Implementing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) continues to be challenging at the district level because people do not automatically do what they are told. This chapter documents the appropriation of NCLB by tracing the linkages between the New York City school district, public schools across five boroughs, city government, and United Education. Integrating the federal and state actions with the more localized interactions, it traces “policy connections between different organizational and everyday worlds, even where actors in different sites do not know each other or share a moral universe.” The chapter provides an investigation into how NCLB creates circumstances that limit the range of possible reactions and outcomes to school failure—and also how NCLB enables the creative and practical management of problems constituted by the uncertainties of the policy. It challenges conventional educational ethnography and educational policy analysis in three important ways, firstly by reducing the gap between everyday actions and activities and government action. Secondly, the chapter concurrently regards the actions of disparate policy stakeholders, including supplemental educational services managers and politicians who foray temporarily into policy processes, and principals whose policy roles persist, often over years. Finally, it expands the field of study to transactional spaces that transcend physical locations.