Jeremiah and Prophetic Authority

The book of Jeremiah provides a fitting opportunity for dealing with the issue of prophetic authority. While many scholars are inclined to focus on the ways in which the book of Jeremiah construes prophetic authority, to lay bare the patterns that turn Jeremiah into the authoritative mouthpiece of YHWH, in stark opposition of those who speak falsehood, the author’s query in this chapter is different. The author’s key interest is in prophetic authority as a sociohistorical phenomenon. What did the interaction of prophets and their public look like in late monarchic Judah? And how was authority bestowed on a prophet?

“Godsplaining”: Toward a Theory of Religious Capital in Political Rhetoric

This paper is an effort at theorizing the neologism godsplaining. The term interrogates the attempt by religious clerics to earn cultural capital by explaining God’s actions and preferences. The paper does so by deconstructing the political rhetoric of two popular Ghanaian prophets, following the outcome of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections. Using deconstruction as an analytical tool, the study analyses a 2-hour interview the clerics granted an Accra-based local radio station on its morning show. The analysis showed that the religious leaders engaged in “godsplaining” by employing five basic rhetorical strategies— appeal to prophetic authority, kategoria versus apologia, erotema, biblical allusion, and anecdote in order to defend why their perceived political party either won or lost the 2020 general elections. The analysis revealed that the deliberative rhetoric of the prophets suggested a biased hermeneutic of God’s will in favor of their preferred political affinity. The study has implications for further research in media studies, religious communication, and the question of divinity in partisan politics.

Ecothriller heroics: Affect and spectatorship in fictions of climate change

This article examines the representation of climate change and heroic agency in recent European and North American ecothrillers. Through the use of four literary case studies, it shows how heroic figurations support an idea of climate change as a distinct disastrous event. Moreover, the heroic is shown to bring out images of a threatening other, usually in the shape of a distinct villain, who gives shape to forms of diffuse, indirect agencies as they are associated with anthropogenic climate change. In addition, the ideal positions of hero and perpetrator are articulated to larger normative and ideological frameworks, which the heroic figuration frames as irreconcilable. In this regard, markedly similar structures can be observed in novels that seek to present climate change as a genuine threat, such as L. A. Larkin’s Thirst and texts that follow a climate-sceptic agenda, such as Michael Crichton’s State of Fear. However, this article also shows how the hero’s position towards the sublime, as well as audio-visual tropes of destruction, can entail a tentative reformulation of the recipient, as in Bernard Besson’s The Greenland Breach. Finally, this article turns to Liz Jensen’s The Rapture, which is shown to follow a plot-driven, suspenseful thriller structure but withdraws heroic or prophetic authority over the disaster it represents and, in doing so, brings out the epistemological and ethical instability of the spectator’s position.

مقام ِ رسالت کا حقیقی تصوراور ڈینیئل براؤ ن کی فکر:ایک تجزیاتی مطالعہ

This article addresses the questions about the nature of Prophetic authority, raised by contemporary orient list Daniel W. Brown in his book 'Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'. In the fourth chapter, he tries to prove that the nature of Prophetic authority is controversial among the modern Muslim scholars namely the supporters of hadith, deniers of hadith and those who adopted a middle way. He argues that the theory of infallibility (isma) of the Prophet (SAW) entered into classical sunni doctrine around ninth Century AD. Most of the Muslim scholars are of the view that the Prophet (SAW) is infallible inasmuch as the revelation is concerned, but they differed in matters falling outside the sphere of revelation. In this way the personality of the Messenger of Allah was divided into two spheres, human and Prophetic. The question as to where to drop a line between the two caused great discussions among the Muslim scholars. Brown states that, during 19th and 20th centuries, these debates led the Muslim scholars of India and Egypt to heated discussions about the authority of the Prophet (SAW) and his Sunnah. He, then, discusses at length the views of different scholars and comes up with results of his own liking. This study tries to clarify ambiguities created by Daniel Brown during the course of discussion and indicates the real status of the Prophetic authority among the Muslims ofall ages.

Calculating Salvation

This chapter examines Smith’s creation of the Mormon law (D&C 20 and 42) and formation of a hierarchical priesthood structure to govern the kingdom of God, which he based on a charismatic reception of the law through revelation, a restoration of his church through angelic visits and theophany, and his expectation that church members have their own revelations and see God for themselves (D&C 88:1). The chapter examines the emergence of several new rituals in the Kirtland period before turning attention to Smith’s 1836 priesthood restoration narrative about Elijah, the Old Testament prophet, who reportedly visited Smith on April 3, 1836. The idea of Elijah returning to usher in the Second Coming was commonly preached by antebellum Protestants who accentuated the millennialism in the fourth chapter of Malachi. The chapter traces Smith’s interest in the Old Testament, which led to his study of Hebrew and his discovery of the Passover tradition of leaving a cup of wine for Elijah in anticipation of his return. The chapter views Elijah’s restoration of priesthood as the pinnacle of the development of the Mormon priesthood that would endow the Mormons with power from on high. The chapter traces Smith’s attempts to reconcile the tension between following the law (even his own revelatory commandments), empowering a hierarchy of priests, and being assured salvation through physical rites. It charts the beginning of new Mormon ritual efforts to recreate its members as prophets/prophetesses, priests/priestesses, and kings/queens, all while maintaining Smith’s central role. The rituals endowed the Mormon membership with authority and connected them to the ancient order of Melchizedek and prepared for Christ’s Second Coming. Participation in solemn assemblies, anointings, and the School of the Prophets assured Mormons of their salvation and role in the kingdom within a hierarchical ecclesiology that upheld Smith’s authority. His new liturgies, particularly those featured in the new “House of the Lord” (later termed “temple”) in Kirtland, offered members kingly and prophetic authority without threatening the hierarchical structure of the priesthood.