Evangelicals, Islamists and the globalisation of apocalyptic discourse

After 9/11, it has become increasingly obvious that strongly held religious convictions about the end of the world cannot be dismissed as the predictable consequences of deprivation, as several generations of social scientists once claimed. Instead, it has become clear that these kinds of ideas, having a life of their own, may establish discourses which may have extraordinary capacity to cross nations, cultures and even religions, encouraging passive withdrawal from the political world as well as inspiring vicious and sometimes violent attempts at its subjugation, underwriting the ‘war on terror’ as well as inspiring some of those intent on the destruction of the United States. This article describes one of Ireland’s most successful intellectual exports – a very specific system of thinking about the end of the world known as ‘dispensational premillennialism.’ And the article will move from county Wicklow in the early nineteenth century, through the troubled decades of American modernity, to arrive, perhaps unexpectedly, in the company of the soldiers of radical jihad. The article will describe the globalisation of a discourse which was developed among the most privileged classes of early nineteenth-century Ireland to explain and justify their attempt to withdraw from the world, and which has more recently been used to explain and justify sometimes violent political interventions by both prominent Western politicians and some of the most marginalised and desperate inhabitants of our broken twenty-first century.

Dinámica del debate sobre el lobby israelí y su influencia en la toma de decisiones en política exterior estadounidense respecto de Israel. 2002-2012

El interés de este estado del arte es establecer la dinámica que ha tenido el debate en torno al lobby israelí y su influencia en las decisiones en política exterior. Ante esto lo que se pretende es determinar cual es la tendencia que se sigue y específicamente cual es el estado del debate hoy en día. Por esto se pretende probar que el lobby israelí como fuerza de influencia, no es la única que busca fijar políticas en los EEUU en materia de política exterior ya que existen otros grupos que así mismo le hacen contrapeso. Para esto se recurrirá a fuentes de diferente tipo, en donde se recolecten los principales exponentes sobre el tema y así analizarlos a mayor profundidad.

Kristen Sionism : Myt som religiöst och politiskt verktyg

In this essay I focus on Christian Zionism, its roots and growth, to judge wether or not it is possible to look at Christian Zionism as a modern form of myth. To do that I have used Bruce Lincoln's definition: ideology in narrative form. I also ask the question whether this kind of religious conviction can be labeled as an extreme or become a danger to society. The conclusion I reach is that Christian Zionism and its broader context, dispensationalism, very well fits the definitions of modern myth that Lincoln offers. There is certainly a hierarcic ideology within Christian Zionism, and its narrative/myth have been ”negotiated between narrators and audiences over time”. The essay also shows that there is a risk concerning this particular form of religious conviction, it could become an extreme. Especially so when this alternative form of viewing reality and the future, is represented not only among ordinary citizens in the US, but also within the US Government and among military leaders.

A concise statement of the principles of the only true church of Christ /

"A letter from James Whittaker": p. 16-23.

The dispensations in the history of the church and the interregnums /

Mode of access: Internet.

A crença no arrebatamento da Igreja: seus desenvolvimentos e transformações imagéticas.

A crença no arrebatamento da Igreja faz parte de um sistema escatológico fundamentalista que costuma ser chamado de dispensacionalismo pré-milenista. Seu surgimento se dá a partir do século XIX, pelo ensino de John Nelson Darby, um pregador evangélico britânico, fundador dos Irmãos de Plymouth. Seu ensino aguarda a vinda de Cristo em duas etapas: uma, em secreto para a Igreja, há de levá-la ao Céu e poupá-la dos sete anos de tribulação que se seguirão; e outra, num aparecimento glorioso, ao final dos sete anos há de instaurar o reino milenial sobre a terra. O ensino de Darby foi popularizado nas notas de rodapé da Bíblia de Referência Scofield, publicada em 1909 por Cyrus I. Scofield, e ainda hoje se configura na crença escatológica da maioria das igrejas evangélicas fundamentalistas, tanto nos EUA quanto no Brasil. Em 2002 foi produzido o filme: Deixados para Trás que retrata esta crença bem como sua atualização para épocas recentes. Contudo, um estudo mais aprofundado desta crença expõe seu caráter de construto doutrinário, em que textos bíblicos de perspectivas diferentes, do Antigo e do Novo Testamento, são unidos para formar um quadro escatológico em vias de se cumprir.(AU)