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The Need for an Inclusive Approach Continues: The United States, the Founding Fathers, and the National Identity

Cheryl B. Anderson

in Ancient Laws and Contemporary Controversies: The Need for Inclusive Biblical Interpretation

Debates about “traditional” and “progressive” biblical interpretation have an analogy in those concerning Constitutional law. Like the Bible, the U. S. Constitution reflects its authors' exclusionary ... More

Debates about “traditional” and “progressive” biblical interpretation have an analogy in those concerning Constitutional law. Like the Bible, the U. S. Constitution reflects its authors' exclusionary intent: “We the People,” referring to white, propertied, males. The interpretive “originalist” protects the interests of that “mythical norm,” such that groups previously excluded remain excluded. Advocates of a “living” Constitution challenge those cherished texts and traditions in which they want to be included. Since literal emendation of the Bible is not possible, challenges to exclusive biblical texts and traditions must come in the form of re‐interpretation: a sense of evolving standards that reflect the needs of all members of the faith community. Such interpretation seeks strategic (world‐changing) and not only practical (coping) interests. The church's prophetic tradition is a promising resource toward the creation of “the beloved community,” which the church can become when it welcomes all who work toward redemption and reconciliation.Less

Prophetic-Liberative Practices and Oppression

Larry L. Rasmussen

in Earth-honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key

The heart of prophetic/liberative religious traditions is justice-centered faith. Its key is shared power. Both express a thirst for life. With justice for creation viewed as the center of religious ... More

The heart of prophetic/liberative religious traditions is justice-centered faith. Its key is shared power. Both express a thirst for life. With justice for creation viewed as the center of religious faith and its morality, this chapter focuses on shared power as the means to overcome the oppression that follows from race, class, gender, or cultural privilege. A restructured ethic of power that counters the structured oppression of nature, including its human communities, is offered. Three case studies, around three key figures, are used for this—Martin Luther King, Jr. in the U. S., Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Germany, and Mohandas Gandhi in India. The work of Jared Diamond in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed supplements these studies.Less

Identifying the Qualities of Prophetic Activism

Helene Slessarev-Jamir

in Prophetic Activism: Progressive Religious Justice Movements in Contemporary America

This chapter presents a broader explanation of what the prophetic traditions within both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament have to say about various justice issues. Since there is a ... More

This chapter presents a broader explanation of what the prophetic traditions within both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament have to say about various justice issues. Since there is a multiplicity of voices present in both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, quotes from both continue to be used to justify hegemony, militarism, racial, ethnic, and gender exclusion. For example, God's willingness to slaughter the Canaanites is still used to justify savagery and genocide against present-day so-called enemies. Prophetic texts have also been appropriated as tools for the maintenance of dominance. In addition to the widespread use of prophetic texts, religious justice activists consistently employ certain common methodologies in their work. These include the use of various popular education models to empower people with a critical consciousness, and the use of civil disobedience within tactical repertoires.Less

Islamic Historical Writing, Eighth through the Tenth Centuries

Chase F. Robinson

in The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 2: 400-1400

This chapter discusses how the remarkable achievement of Al Tabari — a young Arab scholar — says something about both his exceptional abilities and energies and the context in which he wrote. His ... More

This chapter discusses how the remarkable achievement of Al Tabari — a young Arab scholar — says something about both his exceptional abilities and energies and the context in which he wrote. His primary education took place against the backdrop of the so-called mihna, a period of over twenty years when a succession of caliphs attempted to impose a measure of theological uniformity through persuasion and coercion. Meanwhile, political and social turbulence at the centre of the polity resulted in the splintering off of provinces that had earlier paid regular tribute to the capitals in Syria and Iraq. What this means is that when Al Tabari was completing a draft of his history, he was surveying two interrelated processes. The first was the emergence of a Sunni scholarly elite that anchored its religious authority in its command of Prophetic Traditions, and second was the dissolution of an imperial order.Less

The Life After: From Internal Dissenter to Public Prophet

Hannah Gurman

in The Dissent Papers: The Voices of Diplomats in the Cold War and Beyond

This concluding chapter first claims the semblance between the prophetic tradition and the dissenting tradition of the U.S. diplomatic establishment. The power of the prophecy is at least partly ... More

This concluding chapter first claims the semblance between the prophetic tradition and the dissenting tradition of the U.S. diplomatic establishment. The power of the prophecy is at least partly embedded in the power of the word itself. Dissenting diplomats increasingly identified their message with the time-honored traditions that shaped the diplomatic establishment. However, upon the resignation of notable dissenters such as George Kennan, Jack Service, John Davies, and George Wildman Ball, the claim has been put to question. The chapter then considers a number of books, articles, and public appearances that show how their broader criticisms of the U.S. foreign policy set the current ideological and expansionist agenda against their own realist visions.Less

Peace, Porfirian-Style: East Meets West, and a People Contort the Past

in Rebellion Now and Forever: Mayas, Hispanics, and Caste War Violence in Yucatan, 1800-1880

This chapter examines how Yucatecans created their own version of what became porfirian society. It discusses the difficulties of recording and explaining the past and the emergence of another form ... More

This chapter examines how Yucatecans created their own version of what became porfirian society. It discusses the difficulties of recording and explaining the past and the emergence of another form of posterity: the latest installment of the Maya prophetic tradition. It argues that the Caste War dead became the legacies that rooted a people to their place. A nostalgia had begun to creep into public life and literature by the century's end and would flourish for the next fifty years.Less

Kullayappa and the Public Rituals of Muharram

Afsar Mohammad

in The Festival of Pīrs: Popular Islam and Shared Devotion in South India

This chapter argues that without understanding these everyday practices surrounding the pīr, our perceptions of pīr tradition and Muharram would remain incomplete, and that in fact the more festive ... More

This chapter argues that without understanding these everyday practices surrounding the pīr, our perceptions of pīr tradition and Muharram would remain incomplete, and that in fact the more festive occasion can arise only because of this ongoing local religious commitment. The chapter’s argument has three sections: (1) an account of the thirteen-day pubic rituals in Muharram; (2) a survey of some of the everyday practices related to those done at Muharram that are performed at various sacred spaces in Gugudu throughout the year; and (3) a discussion of the major themes in both every day and public ritual practices of the pīr tradition as related to Muharram.Less