Russia's Islam: Discourse on Identity, Politics, and Security

Despite the long history of Muslims in Russia, most scholarly and political literatures on Russia’s Islam still narrowly interpret Muslim-Slavs relations in an ethnic-religious oppositional framework. In my work, I examine Russia’s discourse on Islam to argue that, in fact, the role of Islam in post-Soviet Russia is complex. Drawing from direct sources from academic, state, journalistic, and underground circles, often neglected by Western commentators, I identify ideational patterns in conceptualizations of Islam and reconstruct relational networks among authors. To explain complex intertextual relations within specific contexts, I utilize an analytically eclectic method that appropriately combines theories from different paradigms and/or disciplines. Thanks to my multi-dimensional approach, I show that, contrary to traditional views, Russia’s Muslims participate in processes of post-Soviet Russia’s identity formation. Starting from textual contents, avoiding pre-formed analytical frames, I argue that many Muslims in Russia perceive themselves as part of Russian civilization – even when they challenge the status-quo. Building on my initial findings, I state that a key element in Russia’s conceptualization of Islam is the definition, elaborated in the 1990s, of traditional Islam as part of Russian civilizational history, as opposed to extremist Islam as extraneous, hostile phenomenon. The differentiation creates an unprecedently safe, if confined, space for Islamic propositions, of which Muslims are taking advantage. Embedded in debates on Russian civilization, conceptualizations of Islam, then, influence Russia’s (geo)political self-perceptions and, consequently, its domestic and international policies. In particular, Russian so-far neglected Islamic doctrine supports views of Islamic terrorism as a political and not religious phenomenon. Hence, Russia interprets both terrorism and counterterrorism within its own historical tradition, causing its strategy to be at odds with Western views. Less apparently, these divergences affect Russian-U.S. broader relations. Finally, in revealing the civilizational value of Russia’s Islam, I expose intellectual relations among influential subjects who share the aim to devise a new civilizational model that should combine Slavic and non-Slavic, Orthodox and Islamic, Western, and Asian components. In this old Russian dilemma, the novelty is Muslims’ participation.

Gnosticism, Transformation, and the Role of the Feminine in the Gnostic Mass of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.)

The Gnostic Mass of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.) suggests a heterosexual gender binary in which the female Priestess seated on the altar as the sexual and fertile image of the divine feminine is directed by the male Priest’s activity, desire and speech. The apparent contradiction between the empowered individual and the polarized gender role was examined by comparing the ritual symbolism of the feminine with the interpretations of four Priestesses and three Priests (three pairs plus one). Findings suggest that the Priestess’ role in the Gnostic Mass is associated with channeling, receptivity, womb, cup, and fertility, while the Priest’s role is associated with enthusiasm, activity, phallus, lance, and virility. Despite this strong gender duality, the Priestesses asserted that their role was personally and spiritually empowering, and they maintained heterosexual and polarized gendered roles are necessary in a transformative ritual which ultimately reveals the godlike unified individual.

Desindustrialização no Brasil: teorias e evidências para o debate

This study aims to contribute with evidence to reinforce or not the thesis of a possible deindustrialization of the Brazilian economy, with emphasis on period after 1995. The debate began in the late 80s, however, recently the industry deceleration gained strength in discussions academic. Between the main theses in this debate is the new-development that believes in precocious deindustrialization caused primarily by overvaluation exchange rate. However, part of heterodoxy believes the industry downturn is more related to the rate of investment than the exchange rate. Nevertheless, according to the orthodox thesis the loss of competitiveness due to the high cost of production may have caused the de-industrialization in Brazil. On the other hand, part of Orthodoxy does not believe that the country is deindustrializing it, but is occurring convergence of Brazilian industry the world average. Thus, in an attempt to shed light on this debate, this study intends to identify the reasons for the deceleration of the Brazilian industry, emphasizing aspects underexplored in the literature and define whether or not the country suffers a process of deindustrialization. When analyzing various indicators, especially the quantum level we find strong indications that the deceleration of the Brazilian industry can be characterized as a deindustrialization, though still insufficient to qualify as precocious, given the loss of share in physical production in total output and the share of primary goods in the export basket

A PARTICIPATIO DE TOMÁS DE AQUINO NA PROPOSTA DOUTRINAL DO NOVO CATECISMO DA IGREJA CATÓLICA

A proposta do novo Catecismo da Igreja Católica é, do ponto de vista abstrato, transformadora e mesmo revolucionária, se pensarmos, por exemplo, na extraordinária importância que, pela primeira vez, se dá ao papel do fiel leigo, como membro pleno da Igreja, e à vida quotidiana, decorrentes de uma nova concepção do alcance do Batismo, cujas dimensões física e metafísica (natural e sobrenatural) impulsionam seus sujeitos a agir não mais como simples “membros de carteirinha”, mas como filhos de Deus efetivamente impregnados de divindade, o que é claramente perceptível sob a perspectiva do conceito de participação – a participatio – desenvolvido por Tomás de Aquino, que permeia todo o novo Catecismo da Igreja Católica em suas quatro grandes partes (a doutrina da fé #26 - #1065, a Liturgia #1066 - #1690, a Moral #1691 - #2557 e a vida de Oração #2558 - #2865), como é demonstrado neste trabalho, onde, 234 ocorrências de participação e suas correlatas (participar, participante etc.) foram registradas, das quais, 171 (73%) são no sentido mais profundo proposto por Tomás. No entanto, neste quarto de século, desde que foi promulgado o CIC, não se nota na pastoral e na educação católicas as correspondentes significativas mudanças que seria de esperar

The Didache and Traditioned Innovation: Shaping Christian Community in the First Century and the Twenty-First Century

Church leaders, both lay and clergy, shape Christian community. Among their central tasks are: building communal identity, nurturing Christian practices, and developing faithful structures. When it comes to understanding the approach of the earliest Christian communities to these tasks, the Didache might well be the most important text most twenty-first century church leaders have never read. The Didache innovated on tradition, shaping the second generation of Christians to meet the crises and challenges of a changing world.

Most likely composed in the second half of the first century, the Didache served as a training manual for gentile converts to Christianity, preparing them for life in Christian community. This brief document, roughly one third the length of Mark’s gospel, developed within early Jewish-Christian communities. It soon found wide usage throughout the Mediterranean region, and its influence endured throughout the patristic and into the medieval period.

The Didache outlines emerging Christian practices that were rooted in both Jewish tradition and early Jesus material, yet were reaching forward in innovative ways. The Didache adopts historical teachings and practices and then adapts them for an evolving context. In this respect, the writers of the Didache, as well as the community shaped by its message, exemplify the pattern of thinking described by Greg Jones as “traditioned innovation.”

The Didache invites reflection on the shape and content of Christian community and Christian leadership in the twenty-first century. As churches and church leaders engage a rapidly changing world, the Didache is an unlikely and yet important conversation partner from two millennia ago. A quick read through its pages – a task accomplished in less than half an hour – brings the reader face to face with a brand of Christianity both very familiar and strikingly dissimilar to modern Christianity. Such dissonance challenges current assumptions about the church and creates a space in which to re-imagine our situation in light of this ancient Christian tradition. The Didache provides a window through which we might re-examine current conceptualizations of Christian life, liturgy, and leadership.

This thesis begins with an exploration of the form and function of the Didache and an examination of a number of important background issues for the informed study of the Didache. The central chapters of this thesis exegete and explore select passages in each of the three primary sections of the Didache – the Two Ways (Didache 1-6), the liturgical section (Didache 7-10), and the church order (Didache 11-15). In each instance, the composers of the Didache reach back into a cherished and life-giving aspect of the community’s heritage and shape it anew into a fresh and faithful approach to living the Christian life in a drastically different context.

The thesis concludes with three suggestions of how the Didache may provide a resource for the way the Church in the present thinks about training disciples, shaping community, and developing leadership structures. These conversation starters offer beginning points for a richer, fuller discussion of traditioned innovation in our current church context. The Didache provides a source of wisdom from our spiritual forebears that modern Christian leaders would do well not to ignore. With a look through the first century window of the Didache, twenty-first century Christians can discover fresh insights for shaping Christian community in the present.

An archaeology of female monasticism in medieval Ireland

This thesis considers the archaeological evidence for female monasticism in medieval Ireland, with a particular emphasis on the later medieval period. Female monasticism has been considered from an archaeological perspective in several countries, most notably Britain, but has yet to be considered in any detail in Ireland. The study aims to bring together all the currently available evidence on female monasticism and consider it through an engendered archaeological approach. The data gathering for this research has been deliberately wide, and where gaps have been identified in the Irish evidence, comparative material from elsewhere has been considered. Nunneries should not be expected to conform to what has become the male monastic template of a claustrally-planned monastery. The research conducted shows a distinct and varied archaeology and architecture for medieval nunneries in Ireland which suggests that a claustral plan was not considered an essential part of a nunnery scheme. Nunneries provided an enclosed environment where women, for a variety of motives could become brides of Christ. Through the performance and celebration of the daily Divine Office, the Mass and seasonal liturgy, spaces used by the nunnery community were negotiated and transformed into a sacred Paradise on earth. However, rather than being isolated in the landscape nunneries in later medieval Ireland were located either within or close to walled towns, larger unenclosed settlements and settlement clusters and would have been well known throughout their hinterlands. This research concludes that nunneries were an intrinsic part of the medieval monastic landscape in Ireland and an essential component of patrons’ portfolios of patronage, at a particularly local level, and where they interacted closely with their local community.

Desarrollismo y el progreso en la Argentina : un aporte marxista

El desarrollismo como ideología política enervó buena parte de la trama latinoamericana de las décadas de 1950 y de 1960. Si bien muchas veces se la puede entender como la mera adaptación del keynesianismo y la economía del desarrollo a las condiciones regionales, sus fuentes ideológicas resultaron mucho más complejas. Su configuración híbrida contuvo una mezcla de nacionalismo, economía del desarrollo, junto con marxismo y positivismo. Entre los ideólogos del desarrollismo argentino, nos interesa estudiar el aporte de un intelectual de formación leninista ortodoxa, Juan José Real, cuya participación resultaría problemática en el contexto de la agudización de la llamada Guerra Fría. En una mirada que combinaba la idea de ley aplicada a la historia y la voluntad como herramienta de cambio, Real sostenía que la etapa histórica que vivía el país requería la formación de un frente político cuyo objetivo debería ser la profundización del desarrollo capitalista, con la colaboración del capital extranjero, como la etapa necesaria para completar la formación de una nación, bajo el liderazgo de una burguesía modernizante.

Desarrollismo y el progreso en la Argentina : un aporte marxista

El desarrollismo como ideología política enervó buena parte de la trama latinoamericana de las décadas de 1950 y de 1960. Si bien muchas veces se la puede entender como la mera adaptación del keynesianismo y la economía del desarrollo a las condiciones regionales, sus fuentes ideológicas resultaron mucho más complejas. Su configuración híbrida contuvo una mezcla de nacionalismo, economía del desarrollo, junto con marxismo y positivismo. Entre los ideólogos del desarrollismo argentino, nos interesa estudiar el aporte de un intelectual de formación leninista ortodoxa, Juan José Real, cuya participación resultaría problemática en el contexto de la agudización de la llamada Guerra Fría. En una mirada que combinaba la idea de ley aplicada a la historia y la voluntad como herramienta de cambio, Real sostenía que la etapa histórica que vivía el país requería la formación de un frente político cuyo objetivo debería ser la profundización del desarrollo capitalista, con la colaboración del capital extranjero, como la etapa necesaria para completar la formación de una nación, bajo el liderazgo de una burguesía modernizante.

Desarrollismo y el progreso en la Argentina : un aporte marxista

El desarrollismo como ideología política enervó buena parte de la trama latinoamericana de las décadas de 1950 y de 1960. Si bien muchas veces se la puede entender como la mera adaptación del keynesianismo y la economía del desarrollo a las condiciones regionales, sus fuentes ideológicas resultaron mucho más complejas. Su configuración híbrida contuvo una mezcla de nacionalismo, economía del desarrollo, junto con marxismo y positivismo. Entre los ideólogos del desarrollismo argentino, nos interesa estudiar el aporte de un intelectual de formación leninista ortodoxa, Juan José Real, cuya participación resultaría problemática en el contexto de la agudización de la llamada Guerra Fría. En una mirada que combinaba la idea de ley aplicada a la historia y la voluntad como herramienta de cambio, Real sostenía que la etapa histórica que vivía el país requería la formación de un frente político cuyo objetivo debería ser la profundización del desarrollo capitalista, con la colaboración del capital extranjero, como la etapa necesaria para completar la formación de una nación, bajo el liderazgo de una burguesía modernizante.

Metaphysics of love in the religious philosophy of Pável Florensky

This article focuses on the analysis of the concept of love in the religious philosophy of Pavel Florensky, who shares the ontological approach to the consideration of love with other representatives of Russian religious philosophy (N. berdyaev and S. bulgakov). We pay more careful attention to the understanding of love-άγαπαν by Florensky. We have drawn the conclusion that, in the philosophy of P. Florensky, Love, closely connected with truth and beauty, is considered an ontological basis existence of personality. We develop the ideas of Pavel Florensky, and accordingly assume that it is possible to synthesise love-agape and love-eros around the idea of sacrificial love. Agapelogical and erotical ‘bezels’ of one jewel of love is aspects of united love, which is given by God. this gift of God, the gift of united love, is kept by humans through prayer and deeds of love.

La música en el desarrollo de la espiritualidad y la religiosidad. Una aproximación al Cristianismo y al Budismo

La música puede afectar al individuo en todos sus niveles –físico, mental y espiritual–. El presente artículo se centra en el papel que ésta desempeña en el desarrollo de la vida espiritual y trascendental. Para ello, realizaremos un repaso histórico de su evolución estética y social, abordaremos dicho fenómeno a nivel fisiológico y presentaremos sus aplicaciones clínicas y sociales. Seguidamente y a modo de ejemplo de las concepciones de pensamiento occidental y oriental, trataremos la forma en que el cristianismo y el budismo conciben la música dentro de su doctrina. Finalizaremos con algunas reflexiones sobre el tema.

El dinero en la historia del pensamiento económico: la teoría monetaria postkeynesiana y su confrontación con la ortodoxia

Las disputas en torno a determinados aspectos del dinero, como su neutralidad y el carácter endógeno o exógeno de la oferta monetaria, han sido permanentes entre las distintas escuelas de pensamiento y autores, estando su origen, probablemente, en la época de desarrollo del pensamiento escolástico. En este artículo pretendemos, en primer lugar, realizar un recorrido cronológico e histórico sobre el tratamiento científico económico del dinero, para, en segundo lugar, poner sobre la mesa la macroeconomía ortodoxa a la que han dado lugar las interpretaciones al respecto, así como los enfoques alternativos frente a este pensamiento dominante. Finalmente, intentamos poner en valor los desarrollos monetarios post-keynesianos, integrados en lo que denominan “Economía Monetaria de Producción”, confrontándolos con la llamada Nueva Síntesis Neoclásica.

Rethinking Copyright: History, Theory, Language

This book provides the reader with a critical insight into the history and theory of copyright within contemporary legal and cultural discourse. It exposes as myth the orthodox history of the development of copyright law in eighteenth-century Britain and explores the way in which that myth became entrenched throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To this historical analysis are added two theoretical approaches to copyright not otherwise found in mainstream contemporary texts. Rethinking Copyright introduces the reader to copyright through the prism of the public domain before considering how best to locate copyright within the parameters of traditional property discourse. Underpinning these various historical and theoretical strands, the book explores the constitutive power of legal writing and the place of rhetoric in framing and determining contemporary copyright policy and discourse.

What is the Point of Copyright History?:Reflections on Copyright at Common law in 1774 by H. Tomás Gómez-Arostegui

Copyright history has long been a subject of intense and contested enquiry. Historical narratives about the early development of copyright were first prominently mobilised in eighteenth century British legal discourse, during the so-called Battle of the Booksellers between Scottish and London publishers. The two landmark copyright decisions of that time – Millar v. Taylor (1769) and Donaldson v. Becket (1774) – continue to provoke debate today. The orthodox reading of Millar and Donaldson presents copyright as a natural proprietary right at common law inherent in authors. Revisionist accounts dispute that traditional analysis. These conflicting perspectives have, once again, become the subject of critical scrutiny with the publication of Copyright at Common Law in 1774 by Prof Tomas Gomez-Arostegui in 2014, in the Connecticut Law Review ((2014) 47 Conn. L. Rev. 1) and as a CREATe Working Paper (No. 2014/16, 3 November 2014).

Taking Prof Gomez-Arostegui’s extraordinary work in this area as a point of departure, Dr Elena Cooper and Professor Ronan Deazley (then both academics at CREATe) organised an event, held at the University of Glasgow on 26th and 27th March 2015, to consider the interplay between copyright history and contemporary copyright policy. Is Donaldson still relevant, and, if so, why? What justificatory goals are served by historical investigation, and what might be learned from the history of the history of copyright? Does the study of copyright history still have any currency within an evidence-based policy context that is increasingly preoccupied with economic impact analysis?

This paper provides a lasting record of these discussions, including an editorial introduction, written comments by each of the panelists and Prof. Gomez-Arostegui and an edited transcript of the Symposium debate.