91 Matching Annotations
  1. Feb 2024
    1. In Barcelona und 200 anderen katalanischen Städten wurde Anfang Februar der Wassernotstand ausgerufen. An der spanischen Mittelmeerküste, in Sizilien und Nordafrika herrscht starke Dürre. Südandalusien leidet set 2016 kontinuierlich unter Trockenheit. Der Kommentar im Guardian beschhäftigt sich vor diesem Hintergund mit dem Widerstand gegen Klima- und Wasserschutmaßnahmen, der populistisch angeheizt wird. Es sei noch nicht ausgemacht, dass auch in der Landwirtschaft das Verständnis für die Gründe der Krise wachse. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/15/spain-water-barcelona-farmers-tourism-catalonia-drought

      Karte des European Drought Observatory: https://edo.jrc.ec.europa.eu/edov2/php/index.php?id=1052

  2. Jan 2024
    1. Die nördlichen Wälder Kanadas wurden seit 1976 durch Holzfällen erheblich geschädigt, wie eine neue Studie über zwei Provinzen zeigt. Nicht nur ging der Waldbestand erheblich zurück, die übrig gebliebenen Gebiete sind durch Fragmentierung für den Klimaschutz weniger relevant als die ursprünglichen Wälder. Der Nachhaltigkeitsbegriff der kanadischen Regierung sei vor allem an den Bedürfnissen der Holzindustrie orientiert, stellt der Hauptautor der Studie fest. Experten bezeichnen die Ergebnisse der auch als methodisch wichtig angesehenen Studie als schockierend. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/world/canada/canada-boreal-forest-logging.html

      Studie: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/1/6

  3. Dec 2023
    1. Dichter und sehr gut dokumentierter Überblicksratikel über die Expansionspläne der Öl- und Gasindustrie. Aus unerschlossenen Feldern sollen 230 Milliarden Barrel Öläquivalent gefördert werden - im klaren Widerspruch zum Pariser Abkommen. Durch Ausbeutung neuer Lager werden bis 2025 voraussichtlich 70 Gt CO<sub>2</sub> und damit 17% des Budgets für das 1,5° Ziel ausgestoßen. Eingegangen wird auch auf den Ausstiegsplan des Tyndall Centre. https://taz.de/Run-auf-fossile-Brennstoffe/!5973686/

  4. Nov 2023
    1. The flat earth myth and the myth of a Catholic Church fighting against real knowledge gets taken up by another scientist. William Whewell. And this is, again, a very influential figure. This guy even invented the word scientist. And with his history of the inductive sciences, he actually has proof of Christian backwardness. He introduces two Christian authors, and they become a poster childs 00:08:04 for Christian bigotry. Really evil figures. Lactantius and Cosmas Indicopleustes.
      • for: etymology - scientist, William Whewell, myth - flat earth - William Whewel, myth - flat earth - Christian villains - Lactantius - Cosmas Indicopleustes
    1. Ausführliche Berichte thematisieren die großen Hindernisse, die in Frankreich für die just transition zu einem nachhaltigen Leben bestehen. Die Klimakrise wird in allen Schichten als Bedrohung wahrgenommen, aber in den ärmeren Gruppen sieht man viel weniger Handlungsmöglichkeiten. https://www.liberation.fr/idees-et-debats/fin-du-monde-ou-fin-de-mois-quels-sont-les-freins-a-la-conversion-ecologique-des-classes-populaires-20231118_72LRGBQFONDVFJJY26JU5X2JQY/

      Bericht des Wirtschafts-, Sozial- und Umweltrates: https://www.lecese.fr/sites/default/files/pdf/Avis/2023/2023_24_RAEF.pdf

      Bericht des Wirtschaftsinstituts für das Klima: https://www.i4ce.org/publication/transition-est-elle-accessible-a-tous-les-menages-climat/

  5. Oct 2023
  6. Sep 2023
      • for: Christian nationalism, Christian national, far right politics, Christian right, political extremism, MAGA fuel
      • comment
        • the extreme right, MAGA Republican party is fueled by a movement composed of threatened Christian nationalists entering politics to assert power.
        • The extremism in the far right politics is in direct proportion to the high degree to which they perceive threat
        • Religious faith can inspire extremely powerful emotional responses and devotion. When combined with politics this can lead to extreme events, such as the Jan. 6 insurrection.
        • The mobilization of Christian nationals into local school boards has turned education into a political battleground.
  7. Aug 2023
  8. Jul 2023
    1. histories of three attempts to generate a comprehensive lexicon of Latinity.

      https://www.history.msstate.edu/directory/cf1258

      Christian Flow has studied three attempts to create a comprehensive lexicon of Latinity.

      The TLL would be one, what did the other two look like? When were they?

  9. Jun 2023
    1. if you aren't in those spaces you're oblivious to just how powerful this is
      • Evangelical Christian media
        • has a very lot of vested interest in media
        • because evangelicals are all about spreading the message
        • and growing their population
    2. family CBN
      • family Christian Broadcast Network (CBN)
        • knew it was a fraud and was complicit in it to weaponize fear
    3. strange phenomenon after 9 11 and the years after 9 11 and 00:38:39 in the Evangelical subculture of these uh ex-muslim terrorists who are taking the Christian speaking circuit by storm
      • Within the Evangelical Christian community
        • there emerged evangelicals that deceived the masses by weaponizing fear
        • fraudulently represented themselves as ex-Muslim terrorists converted to Evangelical Christianity
      • Interview with:
        • Professor Kristin Kobes Du Mez
      • Author of book

        • Jesus and John Wayne
          • How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
      • Description

        • An insightful analysis of how
          • male evangelical Christians,
            • mostly based in the United States
          • played a major role in creating a caustic, hyper patriarchal interpretation of Christianity
            • whose major disruptive impact is in right wing politics adopting aggressive posture instead of a collaborative one
  10. May 2023
  11. Apr 2023
    1. Eine neue Studie zeigt, das plötzliche Dürren, sogenannte flash droughts, in den vergangenen 20 Jahren zugenommen haben. Damit erhöht sich nicht nur die Zahl der Dürren, sondern auch ihr Charakter. Vor allem in den Tropen verdunstet in kurzer Zeit sehr viel Wasser aus dem Boden. Die Studie ergibt auch, dass sich dieser Prozess selbst bei einer moderaten weiteren Erhitzung der Erde fortsetzen wird. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/climate/flash-drought-warming.html

  12. Mar 2023
    1. It is a law of nature that our thoughts and feelings are encouraged and strengthened as we give them utterance. While words express thoughts, it is also true that thoughts follow words. If we would give more expression to our faith, rejoice more in the blessings that we know we have,—the great mercy and love of God,—we should have more faith and greater joy. No tongue can express, no finite mind can conceive, the blessing that results from appreciating the goodness and love of God. Even on earth we may have joy as a wellspring, never failing, because fed by the streams that flow from the throne of God.
  13. Feb 2023
    1. Arbeiten mit Zettelkästen<br /> by Daniel Lüdecke

      at this time in 2013-08-29, Christian Tietze was hosting zettelkasten.de on his personal domain before it moved later that year to its ultimate site, thus the reason that the Twitter link here resolves to Christian's site https://christiantietze.de/ now.

      At the time, Daniel was obviously aware of both Christian and Manfred Kuehn's Taking Note blog.

      He was also aware of Kuehn's original translation of Luhmann's essay in it's original location at http://scriptogr.am/kuehnm/post/2012-12-22-111621 before it moved. (I remember spending ages puzzling out the original location via the Internet Archive).

  14. Jan 2023
    1. Understanding human perception by human-made illusions

      !- Title : Understanding human perception by human-made illusions !- Author : Claus-Christian Carbon !- year. : 2014

  15. Nov 2022
    1. Americans who believe not only in the spiritual heritage of our nation, but believe that we ought to use elections to help return our country to its Christian foundation."

      Note the word 'heritage' here rather than 'history.' In context, heritage is a dog whistle, alluding to a distorted account of our past that justifies white supremacy. It's an appeal to a return to that era when elite whites controlled American government and culture at all levels.

    2. Texas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress said over the weekend that Christian nationalists had a right to "impose their values" on everyone else.

      The claim and desire for power is Constantinian and conflicts with a Christocentric ecclesiology. It's based not on apostolic teachings about what it means to be the Church but on that invalid reading of Genesis 1:26-28 that undergirds Dominionism.

  16. Oct 2022
    1. The danger is in conflating our Christian identity and our national identity. We can be Christian, we can also be American. But to assume that being American means being Christian and that being Christian means holding to a narrow view of what it means to be American is limiting to all of the above.

      Being Christian means performing our commitment to follow Jesus along the Way of Love as our response to God's abundant grace. Being American means performing our commitment to a common life within our nation-state according to our founding and constitutional principles. To excel in our American identity, one need not be Christian. To excel in our Christian identity, one need not be American. Conflating these two identities causes us to miss the mark in performing both.

    2. To assume that one side works on behalf of God while the other works in rejection of Divine order is a perversion of the unity that could exist in, at least, recognizing shared spiritual ideals. That spiritual unity cannot exist when we suggest that true Christians either wear red hats and carry “Don’t Tread on Me” flags or do not.

      The Spirit unites us through our shared commitment to Jesus the Messiah as our Lord. When we see political opponents as our divinely sanctioned enemies due to their holding contrary views, we reject the divine word concerning our neighbor and thereby commit the sin of blasphemy.

    3. What is Christian Nationalism? “Christian nationalism identifies the nation with God's will and action in the world; conflates national and Christian identity; and identifies service of the nation with service of God,” writes Dr. David W. Scott, who is a Methodist historical researcher and the Director of Mission Theology at the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church. “Christian nationalism gives moral cover for actions, even unseemly ones, taken in pursuit of national or political goals.” Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne, takes the idea that Christian nationalism provides moral cover a step further, noting that Christian nationalism adheres to “the belief that America is God’s chosen nation and must be defended as such.” 

      Important to recognize that Christian nationalism is not, therefore, a form of Christianity though it's adherents may strive to be good Christians. It is about worldview, political identity, values, and consequent ethics - what behaviors and policies are American, who counts as an American, and who has the power to decide.

    1. Today, the people in politics who most often invoke the name of Jesus for their political causes tend to be the most merciless and judgmental, the most consumed by rage and fear and vengeance. They hate their enemies, and they seem to want to make more of them. They claim allegiance to the truth and yet they have embraced, even unwittingly, lies. They have inverted biblical ethics in the name of biblical ethics.
    2. Samuel Perry, a sociology professor at the University of Oklahoma, a scholar of Christian nationalism, and himself a person of the Christian faith
    1. image courtesy hawkexpress on flickr

      Interesting to see the first post on zettelkasten.de in 2013 has a photo of hawkexpress' Pile of Index Cards (PoIC) in it.

      This obviously means that Christian Tietze had at least a passing familiarity with that system, though it differed structurally from Luhmann's version of zettelkasten.

  17. Sep 2022
    1. Or, take the case of unemployment as described by sociologist C. WrightMills:When, in a city of 100,000, only one man is unemployed, that is his per-sonal trouble, and for its relief we properly look to the character of theman, his skills, and his immediate opportunities. But when in a nation of50 million employees, 15 million men are unemployed, that is an issue, and

      we may not hope to find its solution within the range of opportunities open to any one individual. The very structure of opportunities has collapsed. Both the correct statement of the problem and the range of possible solutions require us to consider the economic and political institutions of the society, and not merely the personal situation and character of a scatter of individuals.16

      1. C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination (New York: Oxford University Press, 1959), p. 9.

      I love this quote and it's interesting food for thought.

      Framing problems from the perspectives of a single individual versus a majority of people can be a powerful tool.

      The idea of the "welfare queen" was possibly too powerful because it singled out an imaginary individual rather than focusing on millions of people with a variety of backgrounds and diversity. Compare this with the fundraisers for impoverished children in Sally Stuther's Christian Children's Fund (aka ChildFund) which, while they show thousands of people in trouble, quite often focus on one individual child. This helps to personalize the plea and the charity actually assigned each donor a particular child they were helping out.

      How might this set up be used in reverse to change the perspective and opinions of those who think the "welfare queen" is a real thing instead of a problematic trope?

  18. Jul 2022
    1. ROMANS 13 The Most Disastrously Misinterpreted Scripturein the History of the Human Race

      Interesting read. I'm amazed I hadn't found it sooner considering how common this position is among archist Christians.

  19. May 2022
    1. One example of a siloed approach to critical infrastructure is the European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection’s framework and action plan, which focuses on reducing vulnerability to terror attacks but does not consider integrating climate or environmental dimensions.39       Instead of approaching critical infrastructure protection as another systems maintenance task, the hyper-response takes advantage of ecoinnovation.40 Distributed and localized energy, food, water, and manufacturing solutions mean that the capacity to disrupt the arterials that keep society functioning is reduced. As an example, many citizens and communities rely on one centralized water supply. If these citizens and communities had water tanks and smaller-scale local water supply, this means that if a terror group or other malevolent actor decided to contaminate major national water supplies—or if the hyperthreat itself damaged major central systems—far fewer people would be at risk, and the overall disruption would be less significant. This offers a “security from the ground up” approach, and it applies to other dimensions such as health, food, and energy security.

      The transition of energy and other critical provisioning systems requires inclusive debate so that a harmonized trajectory can be selected that mitigates against stranded assets. The risk of non-inclusive debate is the possibility of many fragmented approaches competing against each other and wasting precious time and resources. Furthermore, system maintenance of antiquated hyperthreat supporting systems as pointed out in Boulton's other research. System maintenance is a good explanatory concept that can help make sense of much of the incumbent financial, energy and government actors to preserve the hyperthreat out of survival motives.

      A template for a compass for guiding energy trajectories is provided in Van Zyl-Bulitta et al. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333254683_A_compass_to_guide_through_the_myriad_of_sustainable_energy_transition_options_across_the_global_North_South_divide which can also be a model for other provisioning systems.

  20. Dec 2021
    1. Seven Sleepers’ den

      It's an allusion to a Christian legend about seven Christian youths who hid in a cave in hopes of avoiding the persecution of Decius in AD 249 in Ephesus. Eventually, they were caught, tortured and were walled up alive in the cave they once hid. However, miraculously, they did not die, slept for 187 years and were awaken in AD 479, a new world where Christianity became the major religion.

      Same imagery with the poem of waking up in a new world.

      Source : https://catholicsaints.info/seven-sleepers-of-ephesus/

  21. Nov 2021
    1. I watched Christian from Zettelkasten.de taking notes from a book. He’s a professional note-taker, and it still took him two hours to take four notes in the first video - it does take forever to make good permanent notes.

      An example of someone taking notes in public to model the process. Also an example of the time it takes to make notes.

      Has Dan Allosso (@danallosso) done something along these lines as an example on his YouTube channel?

  22. Sep 2021
    1. wealthe

      Winthrop believed that the acquisition of wealth and profit was acceptable so long as it was done in the glory of God and for the common good. In other words, he justified the acquisition of wealth in a religious society that it was the duty of members in a society to band together to correct the inequality put forth by God. The act of charity was portrayed as a service to God. He also believed that excessive wealth lead people astray from God.

      Winthrop addressed wealth in "A Model of Christian Clarity" because he called for members of his community so they could establish successful colonies in the face of numerous hardships. This was because many were not willing to share their wealth with others or cooperate. He wanted to place the interests of the community over the interests of the individual.

      Citations: Wood, Dr. Andrew. “Summary of John Winthrop’s ‘Model of Christian Charity.’” San Jose State University COMM 149 Rhetoric and Public Life, www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/s149/149syllabus5summary.html. Accessed 8 Sept. 2021.

  23. Aug 2021
    1. Christian Tietze said... I'm interested in the Markdown source for http://scriptogr.am/kuehnm/post/2012-12-22-111621 -- I think there are some markup quirks in the HTML since part "III" doesn't even have its own line.Also, I'm writing and currently editing a long-ish article on creating a Zettelkasten. I'd like to know your opinion, really, but I don't think it'd be appropriate if I spammed your blog with comments. Your ConnectedText-based approach is somehow different to mine. Ultimately, I'd like to know more about your workflow and our differences.Please drop me a line if you want to help out a bit!christian.tietze@gmail.comYou'll find the article on my website at http://christiantietze.de in a few days. May 24, 2013 at 1:38 PM

      Somewhat fascinating to see Christian Tietze, the creator of zettelkasten.de, pop up in the comments of this blogpost from 2007-12-16, though it wasn't until almost six years later.

  24. Jul 2021
    1. Anne: And did your mom work too? Or just your dad?Ben: My mom, she worked quite a bit, but there was a period when my youngest sister was born, she ceased from working and she stayed home with her for a few years. And then once—I think my sister was about four years old—then she went back and started working again until we were doing good in the construction. When I jumped into the construction and started my own business, then my dad went to work for me. And when he went to work for me, then my mother didn't have to work any more. We were really doing pretty well, we did pretty well. Did a lot of construction projects all throughout the Midwest and eastern seaboard. Lot of government projects.Anne: Really?Ben: Yeah. A lot of low-income housing for the government.Anne: So, you moved around, it wasn't a local company that just stayed—Ben: I based my company in Indianapolis and the main reason that we ended up based in Indianapolis is that I had a project going on in Akron, Ohio, one in Indianapolis and then I had two coming up in the Kansas City—in both-- Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Kansas. And I knew it was going to be a lot of jumping around, and I figured well Indianapolis will be right in the center. So, I rented an apartment there for me and my wife and my son and my daughter; my son was a baby, but my daughter, she was like four years old, or three years old.Ben: And then right about after that, we bought a house. Well, no, my wife wanted to enroll my daughter in pre-K to get her going because her age. Her date of birth and the cut off with the school, they won't let her in for regular elementary school. So, she found this church and she told me, "There's this church that's got pre-K and we're going to get her started there.” And I go, "Well okay, go ahead.” So, we enrolled her there and we ended up getting involved with that church and we were the only Hispanics at the church at the time, whenever we did it. But they were good to us and they still attend there.Ben: That church, they started building one year on, every year they would add a year onto the school. And my daughter was one of the original students. So, she's one of the original students. The first original student to go all the way through the academy and graduate.Anne: What's it called?Ben: Cornerstone Baptist Academy in Indianapolis.Anne: That's great.Ben: Yeah.

      Time in the US, Family, Parents, Jobs, Children; Time in the US, Jobs/employment/work, Careers, Construction

  25. Feb 2021
    1. While Christian community has its wonderful side, there is also the difficult dark side. When people get to know each other really well and spend a lot of time together, lots of exposure happens. Lots of conflicts. Lots of misunderstandings. Lots of pain and hurt. The NT itself shows us the many problems that arise when Christians meet together closely and regularly outside of institutional structures. The letters written by Paul to churches are examples.
  26. Dec 2020
    1. Hardly had the Father ended Mass, and the Christians—who, according to their custom, had filled the Church after the rising of the [9] Sun—were still continuing their devotions there, when the cry arose, " To arms! and repel the enemy! "—who, having come unexpectedly, had made his approaches by night. Some hasten to the combat, others to flight: there is naught but alarm and terror everywhere. The Father, among the first to rush where he sees the danger greatest, encourages his people to a brave defense; and—as if he had seen Paradise open for the Christians, and Hell on the point of swallowing up all the Infidels—he speaks to them in a tone so [page 87] animated with the spirit which was possessing him, that, having made a breach in hearts which till then had been most rebellious, he gave them a Christian heart. The number of these proved to be so great that, unable to cope with it by baptizing them one after the other, he was constrained to dip his handkerchief in the water (which was all that necessity then offered him), in order to shed abroad as quickly as possible this grace on those poor Savages, who cried mercy to him,—using the manner of baptizing which is called " by aspersion."

      So...he dipped his handkerchief in water so that he could baptize people "quicker???"

  27. Nov 2020
    1. On the night before the assault on Seringapatam, he was absurdly angry with me, and with others, for treating the whole thing as a fable.

      At this point it is clear the cousin will acquire the Moonstone. If the curse is real, is the text punishing characters with an interest in pantheism?

  28. Sep 2020
    1. There, again, lay the illuminated manuscript on a table. Mr. Luker’s attention was absorbed, as Mr. Godfrey’s attention had been absorbed, by this beautiful work of Indian art. He too was aroused from his studies by a tawny naked arm round his throat, by a bandage over his eyes, and by a gag in his mouth.

      It's rewarding to see the Indians use the characters own Orientalism as a trap. Especially in the midst of what is possibly the most racist bit of narration yet. I wonder if Collins meant this as a sly critique of Orientalism, I also wonder if the frequent use of 'Christian' in place of kind, or decent (or good, etc.), wasn't so on the nose, as to be satirical. Especially, in a story, which by it's very nature, makes us curious to the true nature of its characters.

  29. Aug 2020
    1. house stood upon the edge of a hill

      This is evocative wording; a reference to "city on a hill"? A phrasing originally from Matthew 5:4.

      John Winthrop used this phrase to describe a new Puritan community on the American continent, and the phrase more recently has been used to refer to ideas of American exceptionalism.

      https://www.winthropsociety.com/doc_charity.php https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_upon_a_Hill

    2. Deut. 32.39. See now that I, even I am he, and there is no god with me, I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, neither is there any can deliver out of my hand.

      More translations: New International Version "See now that I myself am he! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.

      New Living Translation Look now; I myself am he! There is no other god but me! I am the one who kills and gives life; I am the one who wounds and heals; no one can be rescued from my powerful hand!

      English Standard Version “‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

      New American Standard Bible 'See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.

      King James Bible See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

      From https://biblehub.com/multi/deuteronomy/32-39.htm

  30. Jun 2020
  31. May 2020
    1. Overstimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette or CD whenever they drive. Keep their TVs, phones and computers going constantly in their home; and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ. Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards.
  32. Apr 2020
    1. 28 national flags have christian symbols. As you can see from the map above, most are concentrated in Europe and former European colonies in the Pacific (most of those being Union Jacks and/or Southern Crosses).
    2. It’s also interesting to note that Scandinavia, while sporting the more obvious Christian designs, has some of the most secular countries on earth.
  33. Mar 2020
  34. m.egwwritings.org m.egwwritings.org
    1. Each morning consecrate yourselves and your children to God for that day. Make no calculation for months or years; these are not yours. One brief day is given you. As if it were your last on earth, work during its hours for the Master. Lay all your plans before God, to be carried out or given up, as His providence shall indicate. Accept His plans instead of your own, even though their acceptance requires the abandonment of cherished projects. Thus the life will be molded more and more after the divine example; “and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
  35. Feb 2019
    1. Rhetorick."

      What's with all this either/or stuff? In Augustine's De Doctrina Christiana, he articulate three categories of style (subdued style, moderate style, and grand style), and argues that its the interplay of the three that make for the most effective preaching.

  36. Oct 2018
  37. allred720fa18.commons.gc.cuny.edu allred720fa18.commons.gc.cuny.edu
    1. Assured of the welfare of his spirit, its departure I could have borne like a man; but that honest eye, that honest hand–both of which had so often met mine–and that warm heart; all, all–like scraps to the dogs–to throw all to the sharks! It was then I vowed never to have for fellow-voyager a man I loved, unless, unbeknown to him, I had provided every requisite, in case of a fatality, for embalming his mortal part for interment on shore. Were your friend’s remains now on board this ship, Don Benito, not thus strangely would the mention of his name affect you

      Delano' does not only grieve the death of his brother, but also that his brother did not receive a proper Christian burial. Had his brother's body been preserved, this, theoretically, would have been possible, although quite belated. The secrecy and, to Western sensibilities, gruesome manner in which Aranda's remains were preserved by the Africans on board further exacerbates the suggestion that they are inhumane and amoral. See this article in Vol. 8 of Sharpe's London Magazine (1849) for perspectives on the burial practices of "barbarous nations" contemporary to the composition of Benito Cereno.

      Western embalming techniques were first developed in 16th century England for scientific purposes; at the time this story is set, embalming the dead was a more common practice.

      "The English physician William Harvey created the modern method of embalming in the 17th century. This method involves injecting chemicals into a dead body's arteries to keep the body from decaying. Up until the middle of the 18th century, embalming was used mostly in science and medicine. However, in the mid-18th century, the Scottish surgeon William Hunter used Harvey's methods to preserve bodies in morgues. His brother, John Hunter, was the first to advertise embalming to regular people who wanted to see their loved ones' bodies preserved after death." https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embalming#The_17th_and_18th_centuries

  38. May 2018
  39. Jan 2018
  40. Jun 2017
  41. May 2017
  42. Feb 2017
    1. Christianity, too, is dependent upon the truthful· ness of testimony about the life and teachings of Jesus. Whately, following Campbell, analyzes testimony in great detail, seeking criteria for its truthfulness and examinT ing the effects of different types of testimony on audiences.

      Newsweek Article: Playing Telephone with the Word of God

      I think this article nicely complicates the concept of "the truthfulness of testimony about the life and teachings of Jesus" in that it suggests that no *true" witness assertions about Jesus that could constitute a historical record actually exist: "No television preacher has ever read the Bible. Neither has any evangelical politician. Neither has the pope. Neither have I. And neither have you. At best, we’ve all read a bad translation—a translation of translations of translations of hand-copied copies of copies of copies of copies, and on and on, hundreds of times."

  43. Dec 2016
    1. In this regard, there is also a need today to include Islam in our understanding of the history of Western civilization. As Islam emerged in late antiquity on the edges of the Roman Empire on the Arabian Peninsula it became a unique expression of religious sentiment within an intercultural and interreligious context of Arab, Jewish, and Christian theological debate. Some rightwing populists today want to present Islam as a radical alterity that has nothing to do with Western civilization. From the perspective of Jewish and Christian religious history, however, Islam is better understood as a proximate-other. As historical-critical exegesis of the Quran and scientific historical research of the emergence of Islam have shown, the genesis of the religion was deeply related to Jewish and Christian traditions and the theological debates of late antiquity in the Arab contex

      Seems both to understate the role of Judaism and Christianity in the origins of Islam, and mix Judaism and Christianity together in their proximity to Islam. Those two histories do not overlap easily (nor are they only two histories!)

    2. The push for stronger cultural identities and political borders is inseparable from the general concern about Islam and immigration. Most of the new populists are promoting a one-sided criticism of Islam. This is connected to the public fears of terrorism, angst about Sharia, the status of women in Muslim communities, demographic tensions (aging European populations with lower birth rates and younger immigrant populations with higher birthrates), and issues surrounding the social integration of immigrants. In this context, talk about the Jewish and Christian heritage of the West has reemerged in secular Europe and in the United States as an alternative identity-forming heritage. This is the case even in a very secular place like former East Germany.

      The Jewish and Christian heritage is not really under discussion. Christian, sure, but many of the populist parties in the US and Europe are either explicitly or tacitly identifying with historically anti-Semitic ideologies. See the embrace of Trump by the KKK, American Nazi Party, "alt-right,"; the Austrian Freedom Party; the historical anti-Semitism of the French Popular Front.

  44. Sep 2016
  45. online.salempress.com.lacademy.idm.oclc.org online.salempress.com.lacademy.idm.oclc.org
    1. Most Salvadorans are Christian. About 57 percent of the population identifies with the Roman Catholic Church, and much of the remainder is Protestant.

      What are the other religions in El Salvador? And how do they celebrate there religion? Like what are there traditions?

  46. Nov 2015
    1. some areas might find it fairly easy to eat locally (in Washington State, for example, I’m less than fifty miles from industrial quantities of fresh produce, corn, wheat, beef, and milk), people in other parts of the country and the world would have to look farther afield

      Some areas can eat locally easily, but eating locally could hurt other communities.

  47. Aug 2015
    1. The First Book of Moses, Called Genesis

      This is the first chapter of Genesis from the King James version of the Bible. While I realize that this is clearly a religious text, I would like you to read it as an origin story. That is, think about it as it explains the creation of humanity.

      What is the relationship between humanity and nature? What structure do you think society will take based on this origin story? Who authorizes this text? Why? These are questions I want you to think about and seek the answers to while you do this reading

  48. Jul 2015
    1. We were never commissioned to demand that secular culture reflect biblical principles. We were commissioned to reflect biblical principles in the middle of secular culture, pointing to God’s redemptive story.