scholarly journals Women, monotheism and the gender of God

2002 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Klopper

God is experienced in heightened awareness that can only be represented in images and symbols. According to the Old Testament there was one male God, Yahweh, imaged as a father, king, judge, shepherd and more. Since God-images are cultural creations related to the time and place in which they were conceived, the male character of God is a natural reflection of the patriarchal culture of the ancient Near East. Twenty-first century women have difficulty relating to the male God-image and patriarchal church language, both of which justify the subordinate position of women in church and society. Investigation into Old Testament religion reveals that the way Israelite women dealt with the single male God opens the way for contemporary women to do likewise and create images of God with which they can identify.

2013 ◽  
pp. 160-166
Author(s):  
Izabela Front

The present article seeks to analyze the way in which the blasphemous figure of God in Dolce agonia by Nancy Huston allows the author to describe the sacred element in human life, seen as deprived of transcendental character. This is possible thanks to the three aspects of the text dependent on the type of God’s figure, which are: the contrast between passages marked by the cynical God’s voice and passages focused on man’s life filled with suffering; the tone and the appropriation of time var-iations and, finally, the double character of God who, at the same time, is indifferent to man’s lot while touched by his capacity of love.


Author(s):  
Lee Martin McDonald

This chapter explores the origin and order of the Writings along with their emergence from the larger corpus of prophets included in the Hebrew Bible. It focuses also on the somewhat mixed reception of some of those texts in Judaism and early Christianity as well as the tripartite structure of the Hebrew Bible compared with the quadripartite structure of the Christian Old Testament, as well as the question of whether the latter was a Christian innovation or derived from an element of Judaism in the first century ce before Christians separated from Judaism. The recent questions about the significance of the order of the Christian Old Testament canon will also be examined below.


2013 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 329-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan O. Drinkwater

Roman elegy is well known for its reversal of traditional Roman gender roles: women are presented in positions of power, chiefly but not exclusively erotic, that bear little or no relation to women's lived experience in the first centuryb.c.e. Yet the way elegy presents the beloved in a position of power over her lover, as Sharon James has observed, ‘retains standard Roman social and power structures, thus suggesting an inescapable inequity even within a private love affair: rather than sharing goals and desires, lover and beloved are placed in a gendered opposition … Hence resistant reading by thedominais an anticipated and integral part of the genre’. James's remark is indeed correct for each of the instances in which thedomina, or female beloved, speaks directly. When she does so, as James also shows, she speaks at cross-purposes with her lover, following a script that is designed ‘to destabilize him’ in an attempt to keep his interest. Yet what has not been noticed is that when the beloved is instead male, the situation is quite different. Tibullus' Marathus in poem 1.8, our sole example of a male elegiac beloved-turned-speaker, is the exception that proves the fundamental rule of gender inequity. Marathus, that is, when given the opportunity to speak, does in fact share the aims of a male lover, albeit in pursuit of his ownpuella. When the gendered opposition so integral to elegy is erased, the beloved no longer protests against the strictures of the genre; when both are male, lover and beloved alike are entitled to speak as elegiac lovers.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146954052110396
Author(s):  
Kevin P. Bingham

This article begins with two central ideas – that feelings of rage appear to be on the increase in present modernity and that one of the main sources of rage is directly linked to consumer culture and the retail experience it fosters. Although retail trade allows twenty-first century individuals to spend their money on material goods and experiences which provide structure and a sense of meaning and belonging, what it also causes is ambivalence, insecurity and anxiety. These are formidable feelings that cause irritation, frustration and anger to gradually fester until it accumulates into something violent that distorts the way an individual thinks, acts and treats other people. With these points in mind, what this article provides is a thorough sociological interpretation of twenty-first century retail rage. Veering away from existing interpretations of rage by drawing on Herbert Marcuse’s analysis and image of a one-dimensional society, what this article explores is the idea that retail experiences turn people into individuals who are bound and controlled by a consumer duty. As I contend, based on my unique position as a researcher turned retail worker, it is this administered, one-dimensional kind of lifestyle that cultivates rage. To support my argument and understand more comprehensively how and why retail breeds frustration and anger, I use a selection of narrative episodes to unpack three key sources of consumer rage in the twenty-first century. These sources have been labelled instantaneity, performativity and unfulfillment.


Author(s):  
Benoît Vermander

This chapter maps the road traveled by the Jesuits from the time they chose Pedro Arrupe as their Twenty-Eighth Superior General in 1965 till the election of their confrere Jorge Maria Bergoglio (Pope Francis) in March 2013, followed by the one of Arturo Sosa as the Thirty-First Superior General of the order in October 2016. During that period, the Jesuits significantly shifted priorities, highlighting integration between faith and justice and a return to the sources of Ignatian spirituality. Today’s mission is presented as being one of reconciliation among peoples, among religions, and with the whole creation. Internal challenges include shrinking global membership (while Asia and Africa are growing numerically), formation model for younger members, collaboration with laity, and protection of minors. Jesuits need to further their internal reform process while helping the church and society at large creatively respond to pressing global challenges.


Author(s):  
D. G. Hart

Benjamin Franklin grew up in a devout Protestant family with limited prospects for wealth and fame. By hard work, limitless curiosity, native intelligence, and luck (what he called “providence”), Franklin became one of Philadelphia’s most prominent leaders, a world-recognized scientist, and the United States’ leading diplomat during the War for Independence. Along the way, Franklin embodied the Protestant ethics and cultural habits he learned and observed as a youth in Puritan Boston. This book follows Franklin’s remarkable career through the lens of the trends and innovations that the Protestant Reformation started (both directly and indirectly) almost two centuries earlier. The Philadelphian’s work as a printer, civic reformer, institution builder, scientist, inventor, writer, self-help dispenser, politician, and statesman was deeply rooted in the culture and outlook that Protestantism nurtured. Through the alternatives to medieval church and society, Protestants built societies and instilled habits of character and mind that allowed figures such as Franklin to build the life that he did. Through it all, Franklin could not assent to all of Protestantism’s doctrines or observe its worship. But for most of his life, he acknowledged his debt to his creator, reveled in the natural world guided by providence, and conducted himself in a way (imperfectly) to merit divine approval. This biography recognizes Franklin as a cultural or non-observant Protestant, someone who thought of himself as a Presbyterian, ordered his life as other Protestants did, sometimes went to worship services, read his Bible, and prayed, but could not go all the way and join a church.


Author(s):  
Brian Lehaney ◽  
Steve Clarke ◽  
Elayne Coakes ◽  
Gillian Jack

If you want quick-fix solutions, this book is not for you. If you want to “dare to know” how to look at an organisation differently, harness the power of its knowledge, and create innovative and effective systems, then please read on! Knowledge management has been one of the most hyped phrases over the first years of the twenty-first century, and it has been mooted as the way forward for organisations to be dynamic, flexible, competitive, and successful. Despite the hype, and despite some individual successes, western economies and organisations may not have been greatly affected by this ‘all singing, all dancing’ solution to organisations’ problems. Has the impact of knowledge management been less than expected? If so, why? In order to address these questions, there are a number of others that must also be considered, such as: What is knowledge management? Why did it arise in the first place? Can it be simplified or categorised? Is it a fad? Is it theoretical? Is it practical? Why should I care about it? What can it do for my organisation? Does it provide a quick and easy solution?


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