This book traces the evolution of Orthodox Judaism's approach to its nonpracticing brethren, shedding new light on the emergence of Orthodoxy as a specific movement within modern Jewish society.
In the current age where democratic and egalitarian ideals have preeminence, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, among other hierarchically organized religious traditions, faces the challenging questions: “Why is hierarchy maintained as the model of organizing the church, and what are the theological justifications for its persistence?” These questions are especially significant for historically and contemporarily understanding how Orthodox Christians negotiate their spiritual ideals with the challenges of their social and ecclesiastical realities. To critically address these questions, this book offers four case studies of historically disparate Byzantine theologians from the sixth to the fourteenth-centuries—Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor, Niketas Stethatos, and Nicholas Cabasilas—who significantly reflect on the relationship between spiritual authority, power, and hierarchy in theoretical, liturgical, and practical contexts. Although Dionysius the Areopagite has been the subject of much scholarly interest in recent years, the applied theological legacy of his development of “hierarchy” in the Christian East has not before been explored. Relying on a common Dionysian heritage, these Byzantine authors are brought into a common dialogue to reveal a tradition of constructing authentic ecclesiastical hierarchy as foremost that which communicates divinity.
How the rabbis of the Talmud transformed Jewish law into a way of thinking and talking about everything Typically translated as "Jewish law," halakhah is not an easy match for what is usually thought of as law. This is because the rabbinic legal system has rarely wielded the political power to enforce its rules, nor has it ever been the law of any state. Even more idiosyncratically, the talmudic rabbis claim the study of halakhah is a holy endeavor that brings a person closer to God—a claim no country makes of its law. Chaim Saiman traces how generations of rabbis have used concepts forged in talmudic disputation to do the work that other societies assign not only to philosophy, political theory, theology, and ethics but also to art, drama, and literature. Guiding readers across two millennia of richly illuminating perspectives, this panoramic book shows how halakhah is not just "law" but an entire way of thinking, being, and knowing.
Today, when India is certainly once more emerging as one of the most important social experiments in the world, it is more than ever incumbent to explore and re-discover the underlying reasons and philosophy that marginalized the Indian consciousness in terms of caste, ethnicity, religion and the like. This book is intentionally taking a re-look at caste as ontology in a deeper level by taking recourse to the major mode of dehumanization that has been systematically happened in this country by upholding tradition as sacred and thus cannot be challenged. Unlike the European enlightenment which was powerful enough to overthrow a cognitive method that was centered on religious considerations, Indian cultural and civic movements could not depose doctrinal claims based on caste and caste identities. Therefore, the most significant question is: Can a new form of civic culture devoid of Varnashrama morals and their preceptors will be a possible reality in this tradition and culture? This is the most formidable, intellectual, cultural, political and social anxiety that post-independence India faces with regard to the humanization debates of Indian societies.
This book is a detailed account of how hierarchy has been maintained historically by the Nepali state, affirming the uniqueness of a caste-based social order by bringing outsiders, especially ethnic groups and religious minorities, into the caste fold. Focusing on the contemporary state of Dalits, the community that was and is put at the bottom of a very hierarchical social order in Nepal, the author argues that the traditional caste-based social order is still prevalent in the “new” Nepal even after the recent socio-political and constitutional changes. Illustrated by scientifically employed and interpreted data mainly in the three sectors of education, politics and employment, the book postulates that people who were and are born into the “high caste” still have more access to the resources and opportunities available in society in comparison with those born into the “lower” caste. It further argues that although reservation policies are in place to address social exclusion, these could not bring expected outcomes mainly due to the lack of engagement, if not ignorance, of both dominant groups and the community in the margin. The absence of clarity among political actors on the positive discrimination and affirmative actions has contributed to backtracking the recently created space in line with “inclusive Nepal”.
Permanent exclusion from school and institutional prejudice Creating change through critical bureaucracy Anna Carlile This book tells the story of permanent exclusion from school from within an urban children's services department. It focuses on two areas: what contributes to instances of permanent exclusion from school, and what the effects are of its existence as a disciplinary option. The book questions how and why local government officers make particular decisions about children and young people. Rather than focussing on what children and young people 'did' behaviourally to 'get excluded', the book adopts a Foucauldian analysis to concentrate on their place within a larger policy-community which includes professionals and policy makers. It adopts a critical-bureaucratic exercise in ‘studying up’ on powerful organisations: an informed approach to ameliorating social inequity. The findings described here suggest a broad, deep and opaque seam of institutional prejudice: permanent exclusion from school can be understood to be both caused by this and to intensify its effects. This has implications for the ‘voices’ of young people subject to or at risk of permanent exclusion from school, and the final chapter outlines a Foucauldian/Freirian ‘student voice’ project, offering ideas about how schools might tackle this.
This volume focuses on two questions: why do people from one social group oppress and discriminate against people from other groups? and why is this oppression so mind numbingly difficult to eliminate? The answers to these questions are framed using the conceptual framework of social dominance theory. Social dominance theory argues that the major forms of intergroup conflict, such as racism, classism and patriarchy, are all basically derived from the basic human predisposition to form and maintain hierarchical and group-based systems of social organization. In essence, social dominance theory presumes that, beneath major and sometimes profound difference between different human societies, there is also a basic grammar of social power shared by all societies in common. We use social dominance theory in an attempt to identify the elements of this grammar and to understand how these elements interact and reinforce each other to produce and maintain group-based social hierarchy.
Social Trinitarians have not been shy about positing community as the chief ontological category for Trinitarian discourse. As beneficial as this is, social Trinitarians have typically been less helpful in advocating the sort of human community for the Trinitarian analogy that most people would probably find desirable. To use the example of a marriage, one has often been forced to choose between a fully egalitarian view, where the spouses supposedly have no differences from each other, and a hierarchical view where a husband exercises a unilateral and oppressive power over his wife. This book advocates a third alternative for the sort of community present in the Trinity. Just as genuine teamwork is generally desirable in various human communities, the divine persons have a mutual hierarchy relationship with each other. Here each divine person has a unique hierarchy over the others, and yet each uses this hierarchy to serve the others in a dignified way. Recognizing this mutual hierarchy of the divine persons fosters a view of the Trinity that is maximally social, in keeping with the name “social Trinitarianism.” In proceeding thus, the book attempts to, in a unique way, show the harmony between systematic theology, exegesis, and practice.