Jennifer Erin Beste
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195311099
- eISBN:
- 9780199871117
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311099.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
How does severe interpersonal harm affect our freedom and the ways in which we relate to ourselves, others, and God? God and the Victim addresses the challenges that trauma and feminist theory pose ...
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How does severe interpersonal harm affect our freedom and the ways in which we relate to ourselves, others, and God? God and the Victim addresses the challenges that trauma and feminist theory pose to cherished theological convictions about human freedom and divine grace. Overall, the Christian tradition has held that a person's response to God's grace is not entirely vulnerable to earthly contingencies: interpersonal harm, however severe, cannot separate one from the grace of God and from the power to love others. Does this longstanding belief remain credible, however, in light of social scientific research on the insidious effects of interpersonal violence? Should we not consider more carefully the possibility that individuals can harm one another to such an extent that the other's capacity to respond to God's grace is severely diminished, if not altogether destroyed?Drawing on insights present in feminist and trauma theory, this book articulates a revised Rahnerian theology of freedom and grace responsive to trauma survivors in need of healing. Such a revised theology of freedom and grace is marked most distinctively by two claims: (1) human freedom to respond to God's grace can possibly be destroyed by severe interpersonal harm, and (2) divine grace is mediated at least in part through loving interpersonal relations. This book argues that survivors' experiences of both interpersonal harm and support offer crucial insights that shed light on God's grace and human freedom. Ultimately, such insights promise profound ethical implications, altering our perceptions of the obligations we have toward one another.Less
How does severe interpersonal harm affect our freedom and the ways in which we relate to ourselves, others, and God? God and the Victim addresses the challenges that trauma and feminist theory pose to cherished theological convictions about human freedom and divine grace. Overall, the Christian tradition has held that a person's response to God's grace is not entirely vulnerable to earthly contingencies: interpersonal harm, however severe, cannot separate one from the grace of God and from the power to love others. Does this longstanding belief remain credible, however, in light of social scientific research on the insidious effects of interpersonal violence? Should we not consider more carefully the possibility that individuals can harm one another to such an extent that the other's capacity to respond to God's grace is severely diminished, if not altogether destroyed?
Drawing on insights present in feminist and trauma theory, this book articulates a revised Rahnerian theology of freedom and grace responsive to trauma survivors in need of healing. Such a revised theology of freedom and grace is marked most distinctively by two claims: (1) human freedom to respond to God's grace can possibly be destroyed by severe interpersonal harm, and (2) divine grace is mediated at least in part through loving interpersonal relations. This book argues that survivors' experiences of both interpersonal harm and support offer crucial insights that shed light on God's grace and human freedom. Ultimately, such insights promise profound ethical implications, altering our perceptions of the obligations we have toward one another.
Lucian Turcescu
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- April 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195174250
- eISBN:
- 9780199835478
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195174259.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The concept of personhood is central to a wide range of contemporary issues, ranging from reproductive rights to the death penalty and euthanasia. We may think that the concept of person is a modern ...
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The concept of personhood is central to a wide range of contemporary issues, ranging from reproductive rights to the death penalty and euthanasia. We may think that the concept of person is a modern development. In fact, however, this idea does not originate with our discovery of human rights, consciousness, and individuality. This study shows that the fourth-century theologian Gregory of Nyssa developed a very sophisticated concept of the person in the context of his attempts to clarify the paradox of the Trinity—a single God comprising three distinct persons. The book offers the first in-depth analysis of Gregory’s writings about the divine persons. It shows that Gregory understood personhood as characterized by uniqueness, relationality, and freedom. He reasoned that the three persons of the Trinity have distinctive properties that make them individuals, that is, capable of being enumerated and circumscribed. But this idea of individuation, inherited from the neo-Platonists, falls short of expressing a clear notion of personal uniqueness. By itself it would suggest that a person is merely a collection of properties. Gregory’s great contribution was to perceive the importance of relationality to personhood. The three divine persons know and love each other, are in communion with each other, and freely act together in their common will. This understanding adds up to a concept of personal uniqueness much like our modern one. The book not only contributes to our knowledge of the history of Trinitarian theology but can be helpful to theologians who are dealing with issues in contemporary ethics.Less
The concept of personhood is central to a wide range of contemporary issues, ranging from reproductive rights to the death penalty and euthanasia. We may think that the concept of person is a modern development. In fact, however, this idea does not originate with our discovery of human rights, consciousness, and individuality. This study shows that the fourth-century theologian Gregory of Nyssa developed a very sophisticated concept of the person in the context of his attempts to clarify the paradox of the Trinity—a single God comprising three distinct persons. The book offers the first in-depth analysis of Gregory’s writings about the divine persons. It shows that Gregory understood personhood as characterized by uniqueness, relationality, and freedom. He reasoned that the three persons of the Trinity have distinctive properties that make them individuals, that is, capable of being enumerated and circumscribed. But this idea of individuation, inherited from the neo-Platonists, falls short of expressing a clear notion of personal uniqueness. By itself it would suggest that a person is merely a collection of properties. Gregory’s great contribution was to perceive the importance of relationality to personhood. The three divine persons know and love each other, are in communion with each other, and freely act together in their common will. This understanding adds up to a concept of personal uniqueness much like our modern one. The book not only contributes to our knowledge of the history of Trinitarian theology but can be helpful to theologians who are dealing with issues in contemporary ethics.
A. N. Williams
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199236367
- eISBN:
- 9780191728556
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236367.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This work proposes a new reading of Christian theology. Examining theological warrants, philosophical debates over the structures of arguments, and the role of beauty in intellectual structures, it ...
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This work proposes a new reading of Christian theology. Examining theological warrants, philosophical debates over the structures of arguments, and the role of beauty in intellectual structures, it suggests theology is inherently systematic, its systematicity reflecting its two subjects, ‘God and other things as they are related to God’ (Aquinas). The roles of the warrants (scripture, tradition, and reason) are re‐evaluated, showing their necessary interdependence. Debates in philosophical epistemology are also examined; these have conventionally contrasted foundationalism and coherentism. A contemporary consensus has emerged, however, of a chastened foundationalism or hybrid foundationalism‐coherentism, in light of which, arguments are understood both as reasoning from foundational propositions and as gaining plausibility from the coherence of claims. Theological arguments also exhibit a dual structure, with propositions underwritten by their dependence on both scripture and tradition and by their coherence in integrated webs, or systems. Theology is therefore shown to be systematic in its fundamental structure. The systematicity of theology is a function of its subject matter, ‘God and other things as they are related to God’. Both the two chief subjects of theology (God and humanity) and theology itself are characterized by rationality and relationality. Theology is therefore doubly mimetic, reflecting its subject matter in its structures of reasoning. The order and harmony of those structures however have an aesthetic appeal and potentially attract because of their beauty, rather than their truth. Theological aesthetics is surveyed, asking whether the beauty of systematic structures counts for or against their truth.Less
This work proposes a new reading of Christian theology. Examining theological warrants, philosophical debates over the structures of arguments, and the role of beauty in intellectual structures, it suggests theology is inherently systematic, its systematicity reflecting its two subjects, ‘God and other things as they are related to God’ (Aquinas). The roles of the warrants (scripture, tradition, and reason) are re‐evaluated, showing their necessary interdependence. Debates in philosophical epistemology are also examined; these have conventionally contrasted foundationalism and coherentism. A contemporary consensus has emerged, however, of a chastened foundationalism or hybrid foundationalism‐coherentism, in light of which, arguments are understood both as reasoning from foundational propositions and as gaining plausibility from the coherence of claims. Theological arguments also exhibit a dual structure, with propositions underwritten by their dependence on both scripture and tradition and by their coherence in integrated webs, or systems. Theology is therefore shown to be systematic in its fundamental structure. The systematicity of theology is a function of its subject matter, ‘God and other things as they are related to God’. Both the two chief subjects of theology (God and humanity) and theology itself are characterized by rationality and relationality. Theology is therefore doubly mimetic, reflecting its subject matter in its structures of reasoning. The order and harmony of those structures however have an aesthetic appeal and potentially attract because of their beauty, rather than their truth. Theological aesthetics is surveyed, asking whether the beauty of systematic structures counts for or against their truth.
Lotte Meinert
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197266830
- eISBN:
- 9780191938160
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266830.003.0014
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Based on fieldwork among the elderly in the Ik community in Northern Uganda, this chapter argues that the two apparently opposite concepts of vulnerability and human security are closely related in ...
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Based on fieldwork among the elderly in the Ik community in Northern Uganda, this chapter argues that the two apparently opposite concepts of vulnerability and human security are closely related in the sense that both phenomena fundamentally hinge on other people. Elderly Ik are often very vulnerable and dependent on family care. Cash transfers for elderly people are a mixed blessing in this overall fragile context of poverty and insecurity because the balance in intimate generational interdependence changes and this often creates friction in families. Following the cases of two elderly Ik who receive cash transfers, and the effect these have in their families, the chapter argues for relationality as a starting point for understanding vulnerability and human security.Less
Based on fieldwork among the elderly in the Ik community in Northern Uganda, this chapter argues that the two apparently opposite concepts of vulnerability and human security are closely related in the sense that both phenomena fundamentally hinge on other people. Elderly Ik are often very vulnerable and dependent on family care. Cash transfers for elderly people are a mixed blessing in this overall fragile context of poverty and insecurity because the balance in intimate generational interdependence changes and this often creates friction in families. Following the cases of two elderly Ik who receive cash transfers, and the effect these have in their families, the chapter argues for relationality as a starting point for understanding vulnerability and human security.
Jennifer Erin Beste
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195311099
- eISBN:
- 9780199871117
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311099.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter argues that the experiences of severely traumatized persons and the insights of feminist theory demonstrate Rahner's failure to acknowledge adequately the effects of relationality and ...
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This chapter argues that the experiences of severely traumatized persons and the insights of feminist theory demonstrate Rahner's failure to acknowledge adequately the effects of relationality and embodiment for one's capacity to realize sufficient freedom to effect a fundamental option. Rahner's general construal of the relation between God's grace and human freedom is also insufficient when attempting to make sense of the workings of God's grace in the lives of trauma survivors. However, by incorporating insights of feminists and trauma theory and drawing on other aspects of Rahner's theology, it is possible to construct a more adequate Rahnerian theology of freedom and grace. A revised account must (1) acknowledge to a greater degree the power of sin against one's neighbor to disable that neighbor's freedom to respond to God's grace, and (2) articulate how God's grace is mediated through loving, interpersonal relations.Less
This chapter argues that the experiences of severely traumatized persons and the insights of feminist theory demonstrate Rahner's failure to acknowledge adequately the effects of relationality and embodiment for one's capacity to realize sufficient freedom to effect a fundamental option. Rahner's general construal of the relation between God's grace and human freedom is also insufficient when attempting to make sense of the workings of God's grace in the lives of trauma survivors. However, by incorporating insights of feminists and trauma theory and drawing on other aspects of Rahner's theology, it is possible to construct a more adequate Rahnerian theology of freedom and grace. A revised account must (1) acknowledge to a greater degree the power of sin against one's neighbor to disable that neighbor's freedom to respond to God's grace, and (2) articulate how God's grace is mediated through loving, interpersonal relations.
Luigino Bruni and Pier Luigi Porta (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199286287
- eISBN:
- 9780191603006
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199286280.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
This is the first comprehensive book on the return of happiness in economics. It still sounds comparatively unusual to put happiness and economics together. At the same time, the association appears ...
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This is the first comprehensive book on the return of happiness in economics. It still sounds comparatively unusual to put happiness and economics together. At the same time, the association appears increasingly exciting and fruitful, and quite a number of studies have been produced following Richard Easterlin’s and Tibor Scitovsky’s pioneering works through the 1970s. The essays collected in this book provide an authoritative and comprehensive assessment - theoretical, applied, and partly experimental - of the entire field moving from the so-called paradoxes of happiness in economics. The book breaks new ground on the recent directions of research on happiness, well-being, interpersonal relations, and reciprocity. The meaning of happiness is thoroughly explored, and the tension between a hedonic-subjective idea of happiness and a eudaimonic-objective one is discussed.Less
This is the first comprehensive book on the return of happiness in economics. It still sounds comparatively unusual to put happiness and economics together. At the same time, the association appears increasingly exciting and fruitful, and quite a number of studies have been produced following Richard Easterlin’s and Tibor Scitovsky’s pioneering works through the 1970s. The essays collected in this book provide an authoritative and comprehensive assessment - theoretical, applied, and partly experimental - of the entire field moving from the so-called paradoxes of happiness in economics. The book breaks new ground on the recent directions of research on happiness, well-being, interpersonal relations, and reciprocity. The meaning of happiness is thoroughly explored, and the tension between a hedonic-subjective idea of happiness and a eudaimonic-objective one is discussed.
Charlotte D. Phelps
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199286287
- eISBN:
- 9780191603006
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199286280.003.0012
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
This chapter focuses on the contribution of interactions between economic change and psychological factors to changes in reports of overall happiness, especially in the U.S. Evidence emerges on an ...
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This chapter focuses on the contribution of interactions between economic change and psychological factors to changes in reports of overall happiness, especially in the U.S. Evidence emerges on an evolutionary explanation of the paradoxes of happiness in economics. This amounts to showing that co-operative attitudes, i.e. caring behaviour and love, have survived competition for scarce resources. Suggestions for social policy are discussed, especially from cases of work satisfaction and child caring.Less
This chapter focuses on the contribution of interactions between economic change and psychological factors to changes in reports of overall happiness, especially in the U.S. Evidence emerges on an evolutionary explanation of the paradoxes of happiness in economics. This amounts to showing that co-operative attitudes, i.e. caring behaviour and love, have survived competition for scarce resources. Suggestions for social policy are discussed, especially from cases of work satisfaction and child caring.
Stefano Zamagni
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199286287
- eISBN:
- 9780191603006
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199286280.003.0013
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
The basis of the reductionism affecting the economic discourse is not so much to be found in the assumption of self-interested behaviour. The real limit of economic thinking, especially today, lies ...
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The basis of the reductionism affecting the economic discourse is not so much to be found in the assumption of self-interested behaviour. The real limit of economic thinking, especially today, lies in the artificially restrictive image of human nature and human motivation that is implied in the individualistic anthropology underpinning the notion of homo oeconomicus. This chapter offers a plea for personalism and relationality, and presents a theory of reciprocity.Less
The basis of the reductionism affecting the economic discourse is not so much to be found in the assumption of self-interested behaviour. The real limit of economic thinking, especially today, lies in the artificially restrictive image of human nature and human motivation that is implied in the individualistic anthropology underpinning the notion of homo oeconomicus. This chapter offers a plea for personalism and relationality, and presents a theory of reciprocity.
Luigino Bruni and Pier Luigi Porta
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199286287
- eISBN:
- 9780191603006
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199286280.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
This chapter reviews happiness literature with some considerable attempts to trace its sources in retrospect. It contributes to the possible solutions to the paradoxes of happiness. Reciprocity and ...
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This chapter reviews happiness literature with some considerable attempts to trace its sources in retrospect. It contributes to the possible solutions to the paradoxes of happiness. Reciprocity and relationality are suggested as new directions of research.Less
This chapter reviews happiness literature with some considerable attempts to trace its sources in retrospect. It contributes to the possible solutions to the paradoxes of happiness. Reciprocity and relationality are suggested as new directions of research.
Robert Sugden
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199286287
- eISBN:
- 9780191603006
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199286280.003.0004
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
This chapter offers an understanding of why the ’right’ kinds of social interaction are an important source of human happiness, while the ’wrong’ kinds generate pain. The idea of correspondence of ...
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This chapter offers an understanding of why the ’right’ kinds of social interaction are an important source of human happiness, while the ’wrong’ kinds generate pain. The idea of correspondence of sentiments, on which the whole argument rests, is an entirely new mechanism designed after a reinterpretation of Adam Smith’s mutual sympathy. It provides the key to a stimulating theory on the pleasure of social interaction.Less
This chapter offers an understanding of why the ’right’ kinds of social interaction are an important source of human happiness, while the ’wrong’ kinds generate pain. The idea of correspondence of sentiments, on which the whole argument rests, is an entirely new mechanism designed after a reinterpretation of Adam Smith’s mutual sympathy. It provides the key to a stimulating theory on the pleasure of social interaction.
Martha C. Nussbaum
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199286287
- eISBN:
- 9780191603006
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199286280.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
Through a reading of J.S. Mill’s celebrated Autobiography, this chapter offers a challenging philosophical reflection on comparing (or contrasting) happiness and eudaimonia.
Through a reading of J.S. Mill’s celebrated Autobiography, this chapter offers a challenging philosophical reflection on comparing (or contrasting) happiness and eudaimonia.
James D. Proctor
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195175325
- eISBN:
- 9780199784707
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195175328.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This essay offers a novel take on science and religion by reconsidering both in light of the human experience — the unfolding of human life in its historical, political, geographical, psychological, ...
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This essay offers a novel take on science and religion by reconsidering both in light of the human experience — the unfolding of human life in its historical, political, geographical, psychological, and other contexts. Proctor rejects monism and dualism in typical accounts of the relationship between science and religion by bringing in human experience as a “third body,” an equal partner akin to Poincaré’s formulation of the three-body problem in celestial mechanics. He then summarizes each chapter in the volume, organized into four main sections of Theory, Cosmos, Life, and Mind. Proctor notes a recurrent thread in these essays — signaled by terms including relationality, complementarity, intersubjectivity, and ultimately experience — that emphasizes relations over things, and (similar to Whitehead’s critique of the bifurcation of nature) rejects a dualism between object and subject and related binaries (e.g., fact versus value, matter vs. spirit) as well as the desire for some monistic resolution. This new dynamic sense of science and religion is perhaps best approached with a tolerance for contradiction as expressed in the notion of paradox.Less
This essay offers a novel take on science and religion by reconsidering both in light of the human experience — the unfolding of human life in its historical, political, geographical, psychological, and other contexts. Proctor rejects monism and dualism in typical accounts of the relationship between science and religion by bringing in human experience as a “third body,” an equal partner akin to Poincaré’s formulation of the three-body problem in celestial mechanics. He then summarizes each chapter in the volume, organized into four main sections of Theory, Cosmos, Life, and Mind. Proctor notes a recurrent thread in these essays — signaled by terms including relationality, complementarity, intersubjectivity, and ultimately experience — that emphasizes relations over things, and (similar to Whitehead’s critique of the bifurcation of nature) rejects a dualism between object and subject and related binaries (e.g., fact versus value, matter vs. spirit) as well as the desire for some monistic resolution. This new dynamic sense of science and religion is perhaps best approached with a tolerance for contradiction as expressed in the notion of paradox.
Harold H. Oliver
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195175325
- eISBN:
- 9780199784707
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195175328.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This essay focuses on the notion of complementarity between science and religion. Oliver grounds complementarity in relativity theory and quantum theory. He appeals to metaphysics as the basis for ...
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This essay focuses on the notion of complementarity between science and religion. Oliver grounds complementarity in relativity theory and quantum theory. He appeals to metaphysics as the basis for his relational paradigm, reassessing its Aristotelian legacy, which assumed the subject/object structure of the Greek language and produced the substantialist thesis that reality ultimately consists of things, whereas relations between things are accidental. To Oliver, the cosmos is a grand unity of relations, with subject and object, mind and brain, and ultimately God and World, existing as derivatives from this fundamental relatedness. Oliver then proceeds to argue that religious language is not referential, but symbolic of relational reality. It is when this relational reality is reduced to its derivatives that religious language is changed from mythical to referential discourse. In the case of science, Oliver argues that science aims for the most economical way of speaking of the world, versus the rich metaphorical language of religion; ultimately, though, religion and science are about the same domain of human experience. Oliver then considers the question of science, religion, and truth, cautioning against saying that certain scientific theories may be “true,” and arguing instead that it is preferable to consider that well-established scientific theories add to our experience of reality. In the case of religion, Oliver cautions even more strongly against truth as referring to the independent existence of an object, religious “truth” being realization or experience of relational reality.Less
This essay focuses on the notion of complementarity between science and religion. Oliver grounds complementarity in relativity theory and quantum theory. He appeals to metaphysics as the basis for his relational paradigm, reassessing its Aristotelian legacy, which assumed the subject/object structure of the Greek language and produced the substantialist thesis that reality ultimately consists of things, whereas relations between things are accidental. To Oliver, the cosmos is a grand unity of relations, with subject and object, mind and brain, and ultimately God and World, existing as derivatives from this fundamental relatedness. Oliver then proceeds to argue that religious language is not referential, but symbolic of relational reality. It is when this relational reality is reduced to its derivatives that religious language is changed from mythical to referential discourse. In the case of science, Oliver argues that science aims for the most economical way of speaking of the world, versus the rich metaphorical language of religion; ultimately, though, religion and science are about the same domain of human experience. Oliver then considers the question of science, religion, and truth, cautioning against saying that certain scientific theories may be “true,” and arguing instead that it is preferable to consider that well-established scientific theories add to our experience of reality. In the case of religion, Oliver cautions even more strongly against truth as referring to the independent existence of an object, religious “truth” being realization or experience of relational reality.
Catarina Kinnvall, Kristen Renwick Monroe, and Sarah Scuzzarello
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195385557
- eISBN:
- 9780199864669
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385557.003.0014
- Subject:
- Psychology, Health Psychology
The final chapter interweaves the volume’s major themes and argues that the political psychology of real or perceived violence in a global world calls for new approaches for understanding the ...
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The final chapter interweaves the volume’s major themes and argues that the political psychology of real or perceived violence in a global world calls for new approaches for understanding the collective experience of diversity, violence, and ethics and the shaping of subjectivity. The chapter calls for the importance of adopting a relational understanding of the self whereby self and identity acquire meaning through constant interactions with others and contexts. It is also argued that globalization enables meetings with previously faraway others, which may lead to questioning one’s own convictions and conceptions of the self. The establishment of transformative dialogues between members of allegedly antagonistic groups, and particular attention to both the psychological underpinnings of closure and antagonistic relations and their structural causes can be conceived of as analytical tools to further our understanding of group closure and conflict. But they can also be important instruments if we are to seriously grasp the promotion of social courage, pro-social behavior, tolerance, care, and altruism.Less
The final chapter interweaves the volume’s major themes and argues that the political psychology of real or perceived violence in a global world calls for new approaches for understanding the collective experience of diversity, violence, and ethics and the shaping of subjectivity. The chapter calls for the importance of adopting a relational understanding of the self whereby self and identity acquire meaning through constant interactions with others and contexts. It is also argued that globalization enables meetings with previously faraway others, which may lead to questioning one’s own convictions and conceptions of the self. The establishment of transformative dialogues between members of allegedly antagonistic groups, and particular attention to both the psychological underpinnings of closure and antagonistic relations and their structural causes can be conceived of as analytical tools to further our understanding of group closure and conflict. But they can also be important instruments if we are to seriously grasp the promotion of social courage, pro-social behavior, tolerance, care, and altruism.
Suad Joseph
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195175349
- eISBN:
- 9780199835775
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195175344.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
Joseph focuses on the ways in which ideas about family and family idioms, relationships, and practices ground and intersect with formal governmental policies and practices in the Middle East. ...
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Joseph focuses on the ways in which ideas about family and family idioms, relationships, and practices ground and intersect with formal governmental policies and practices in the Middle East. Families and kinship are politically privileged in most Middle Eastern states and women and men are committed to their families in Lebanon in a manner that Joseph calls the “kin contract,” a commitment reinforced by a care/control paradigm in which familial care is often enmeshed with the control by a family system organized around aged and gendered hierarchy. In the Middle East in general, Joseph argues, the citizen-subject is embedded in kinship relationships rather than being an autonomous self. The gendered nature of the citizen-subject emerges thus from the implicit and legally encoded kin contract which reinscribes patriarchal kinship with the force of state and religious institutional and practical backing. Families are regulated in turn by state and religious institutions in Middle Eastern countries, a type of mutual support that further bolsters what she calls patriarchal connectivity—the privileging of the authority of males and elders in a system in which the boundaries of selves are often fluid and focused on relationality.Less
Joseph focuses on the ways in which ideas about family and family idioms, relationships, and practices ground and intersect with formal governmental policies and practices in the Middle East. Families and kinship are politically privileged in most Middle Eastern states and women and men are committed to their families in Lebanon in a manner that Joseph calls the “kin contract,” a commitment reinforced by a care/control paradigm in which familial care is often enmeshed with the control by a family system organized around aged and gendered hierarchy. In the Middle East in general, Joseph argues, the citizen-subject is embedded in kinship relationships rather than being an autonomous self. The gendered nature of the citizen-subject emerges thus from the implicit and legally encoded kin contract which reinscribes patriarchal kinship with the force of state and religious institutional and practical backing. Families are regulated in turn by state and religious institutions in Middle Eastern countries, a type of mutual support that further bolsters what she calls patriarchal connectivity—the privileging of the authority of males and elders in a system in which the boundaries of selves are often fluid and focused on relationality.
Constance M. Furey
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226434155
- eISBN:
- 9780226434292
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226434292.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
What is the relationship between our isolated and our social selves, between aloneness and interconnection? Poetic Relations probes this question through a suggestive literary tradition: early ...
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What is the relationship between our isolated and our social selves, between aloneness and interconnection? Poetic Relations probes this question through a suggestive literary tradition: early Protestant poems in which a single speaker describes a solitary search for God. Offering new readings of well-known poems from the English Reformation—including poems by John Donne, George Herbert, Anne Bradstreet, and others—the book reveals that sources seemingly concerned with solitary experiences of faith and doubt in fact provide sophisticated expressions of relational selfhood. To highlight the significance of devotional poetry's relational selfhood, the book compares it to modern theories of subjectivity and selfhood by Judith Butler and Hannah Arendt, in particular. Instead of being constituted by shared frailties (as Butler observes), or defined by individual narratives (as Arendt contends), these relational selves are poetic, which is to say they are defined less by a beginning and an end than by the process of framing fleeting moments, creating images, and inhabiting the multiplicity of metaphor. By means of an analysis equally attentive to theological ideas, social conventions, and poetic form, Poetic Relations reveals how poets who understand introspection as a relational act, and poetry itself as a form ideally suited to crafting a relational self, offer us new ways of thinking about selfhood today—and a resource for reimagining both secular and religious ways of being in the world.Less
What is the relationship between our isolated and our social selves, between aloneness and interconnection? Poetic Relations probes this question through a suggestive literary tradition: early Protestant poems in which a single speaker describes a solitary search for God. Offering new readings of well-known poems from the English Reformation—including poems by John Donne, George Herbert, Anne Bradstreet, and others—the book reveals that sources seemingly concerned with solitary experiences of faith and doubt in fact provide sophisticated expressions of relational selfhood. To highlight the significance of devotional poetry's relational selfhood, the book compares it to modern theories of subjectivity and selfhood by Judith Butler and Hannah Arendt, in particular. Instead of being constituted by shared frailties (as Butler observes), or defined by individual narratives (as Arendt contends), these relational selves are poetic, which is to say they are defined less by a beginning and an end than by the process of framing fleeting moments, creating images, and inhabiting the multiplicity of metaphor. By means of an analysis equally attentive to theological ideas, social conventions, and poetic form, Poetic Relations reveals how poets who understand introspection as a relational act, and poetry itself as a form ideally suited to crafting a relational self, offer us new ways of thinking about selfhood today—and a resource for reimagining both secular and religious ways of being in the world.
Rebecca Sanchez
- Published in print:
- 1979
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479828869
- eISBN:
- 9781479810628
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479828869.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter analyzes the tension between modernist ideas of impersonality and the growing fascination with the celebrity poet. At the same moment in which writers like T.S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein ...
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This chapter analyzes the tension between modernist ideas of impersonality and the growing fascination with the celebrity poet. At the same moment in which writers like T.S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein were exploring ideas of impersonality in their writing, the circulation of their bodies within society as celebrity writers in newspapers, journals, and at public lectures and readings was determining the ways their work was being read. In order to address the relationship of the authorial body and its personality or impersonality to her work, it turns to analysis of the ASL poetry of Debbie Rennie, Peter Cook and Kenny Lerner, work that by structural necessity is always negotiating that relationship. Drawing on these poetic texts in conversation with queer theory, the chapter argues that sign literature enacts a model of embodied impersonality—a self-shattering that nevertheless refuses the disavowal of the embodied subject. Such a model of social interaction through literature allows for new interpretations of Sherwood Anderson’s two volumes of critically ignored poetry: A New Testament and Mid-American Chants. Taken together, these poetic texts suggest a model of poetic ethics based on interpenetration that paradoxically foregrounds the embodied subject even as it challenges its boundaries.Less
This chapter analyzes the tension between modernist ideas of impersonality and the growing fascination with the celebrity poet. At the same moment in which writers like T.S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein were exploring ideas of impersonality in their writing, the circulation of their bodies within society as celebrity writers in newspapers, journals, and at public lectures and readings was determining the ways their work was being read. In order to address the relationship of the authorial body and its personality or impersonality to her work, it turns to analysis of the ASL poetry of Debbie Rennie, Peter Cook and Kenny Lerner, work that by structural necessity is always negotiating that relationship. Drawing on these poetic texts in conversation with queer theory, the chapter argues that sign literature enacts a model of embodied impersonality—a self-shattering that nevertheless refuses the disavowal of the embodied subject. Such a model of social interaction through literature allows for new interpretations of Sherwood Anderson’s two volumes of critically ignored poetry: A New Testament and Mid-American Chants. Taken together, these poetic texts suggest a model of poetic ethics based on interpenetration that paradoxically foregrounds the embodied subject even as it challenges its boundaries.
Michael Slote
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195391442
- eISBN:
- 9780199866250
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195391442.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter broadens the discussion to take in philosophical questions that are not strictly ethical. In recent years, there has been a great deal of talk — some of it rather vague or ill argued — ...
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This chapter broadens the discussion to take in philosophical questions that are not strictly ethical. In recent years, there has been a great deal of talk — some of it rather vague or ill argued — about the possibility of an inextricable link between reason and emotion, but we can make good sense of that idea if we focus on the role that empathy plays in our intellectual life (including science). This chapter argues that scientific and intellectual objectivity and rationality about any given subject or question require empathy with the points of view of those who disagree or might disagree with one. This leads to a relational conception of objectivity that sees feeling as (conceptually) essential to rational thought.Less
This chapter broadens the discussion to take in philosophical questions that are not strictly ethical. In recent years, there has been a great deal of talk — some of it rather vague or ill argued — about the possibility of an inextricable link between reason and emotion, but we can make good sense of that idea if we focus on the role that empathy plays in our intellectual life (including science). This chapter argues that scientific and intellectual objectivity and rationality about any given subject or question require empathy with the points of view of those who disagree or might disagree with one. This leads to a relational conception of objectivity that sees feeling as (conceptually) essential to rational thought.
James Meese
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262037440
- eISBN:
- 9780262344517
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262037440.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
How should we think about authorship, use and piracy in an era of media convergence? How does the growing focus on amateur creativity impact on existing legal and cultural understandings of around ...
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How should we think about authorship, use and piracy in an era of media convergence? How does the growing focus on amateur creativity impact on existing legal and cultural understandings of around creation? And why are the author, user and pirate so prominent in debates around copyright law? Authors, Users, Pirates: Copyright Law and Subjectivity presents a new way of thinking about these three central subjects of copyright. It outlines a relational approach to subjectivity, charting connections between the author, user and pirate through a series of historical and contemporary case studies, moving from early regulatory debates around radio spectrum and nineteenth century cases on book abridgments to the controversial reuse of Instagram photos and the emergence of multi-channel networks on YouTube. The book draws on legal scholarship, cultural theory and media studies research to provide a new way of thinking about subjectivity and copyright. It also offers insights into a range of critical issues that sit at the intersection of copyright law and digital media including online copyright infringement, amateur media production and the potential futures of creative industries.Less
How should we think about authorship, use and piracy in an era of media convergence? How does the growing focus on amateur creativity impact on existing legal and cultural understandings of around creation? And why are the author, user and pirate so prominent in debates around copyright law? Authors, Users, Pirates: Copyright Law and Subjectivity presents a new way of thinking about these three central subjects of copyright. It outlines a relational approach to subjectivity, charting connections between the author, user and pirate through a series of historical and contemporary case studies, moving from early regulatory debates around radio spectrum and nineteenth century cases on book abridgments to the controversial reuse of Instagram photos and the emergence of multi-channel networks on YouTube. The book draws on legal scholarship, cultural theory and media studies research to provide a new way of thinking about subjectivity and copyright. It also offers insights into a range of critical issues that sit at the intersection of copyright law and digital media including online copyright infringement, amateur media production and the potential futures of creative industries.
Margherita Pieraccini and Tonia Novitz
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781529201000
- eISBN:
- 9781529201048
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529201000.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law, Environmental and Energy Law
This preliminary chapter traces the development of the sustainability agenda at multiple decision-making scales, also incorporating recent and upcoming political changes. In doing so, it provides a ...
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This preliminary chapter traces the development of the sustainability agenda at multiple decision-making scales, also incorporating recent and upcoming political changes. In doing so, it provides a critical discussion of the historical, non-linear development of sustainability, showing the malleability of the concept, its ethical underpinning and the influence of the political realm in shaping the legal and policy articulations of sustainability. The analysis is informed by critical theory and environmental law theory. More specifically, rejecting the modernist dichotomy between the Eco and the Anthropos, we move beyond a pillar approach to sustainability and consider the scope for dissensus, a more relational analysis and a transition towards the pluriverse.Less
This preliminary chapter traces the development of the sustainability agenda at multiple decision-making scales, also incorporating recent and upcoming political changes. In doing so, it provides a critical discussion of the historical, non-linear development of sustainability, showing the malleability of the concept, its ethical underpinning and the influence of the political realm in shaping the legal and policy articulations of sustainability. The analysis is informed by critical theory and environmental law theory. More specifically, rejecting the modernist dichotomy between the Eco and the Anthropos, we move beyond a pillar approach to sustainability and consider the scope for dissensus, a more relational analysis and a transition towards the pluriverse.
