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Christ the Emperor: Christian Theology and the Roman Emperor in the Fourth Century AD (Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity)
by Nathan Israel SmolinPolitics and diplomacy have always been as much about the social and cultural contexts within which political actors operate as they are about the political structures themselves. This was also true of the Roman Empire of the fourth century AD, ruled by the Emperor Constantine the Great--a society marked by social, religious, and political transformation as the empire came under the influence of the Christian Church. Studies of this period often note the difficulty of understanding its politics due to a lack of sources that discuss questions central to political theory. This has led to deprecating views of the Late Empire as an age of unquestioning despotism, political decline, and social decay. Recent scholarship has correctly pushed back against this viewpoint, emphasizing the vibrancy of art, architecture, and social life during this period; however, relatively little attention has yet been given to the deeply consequential effects of Christian theology on the period's politics. Christ the Emperor argues that the alleged absence of explicit political theorizing in fourth century texts is the result of a migration of these discourses from the realm of "secular" politics to that of public Christian theology, where questions fundamental to political theory were analyzed and debated in more far-reaching ways than ever before. When fourth century bishops and Emperors wished to discuss the pressing questions of legitimacy, succession, hierarchy, equality, unity, diversity, and power, they did so largely in and through Christian theology. To understand how these political and social actors thought about and enacted political theory, Nathan Israel Smolin turns to theological sources. In doing so, he reveals this period as one of profound political, social, and religious ferment, in which ideas and structures fundamental to the history of the following millennia were developed and contested--ideas that continue to shape our world today.
Russia in the Pacific: The Quest for Great Power Recognition
by Charles E. ZieglerRussia in the Pacific approaches the puzzle of why Russia, with much of its huge territory straddling Asia, has not had more success in establishing a position as a great power in the Asia Pacific. Russian leaders from Nicholas II in the late nineteenth century to Vladimir Putin in the twenty-first have periodically advanced policies to gain territory or influence, secure buffer zones in the region, develop the sparsely populated Far East and protect it against foreign intervention, and integrate into the regional economy, but have met with only partial success. Structural factors constraining Russian regional aspirations include geographic challenges, demographic imbalances, and persistent low levels of economic development. Institutional factors--the hyper-centralized, secretive character of Russian foreign policy making, bureaucratic competition, and dominance of a single powerful executive-also have been critical in shaping Russian foreign policy toward the Pacific. The persistence of certain patterns in Russia's Asia policy suggest even the most powerful autocrat faces constraints. Starting with Russian imperial expansion in the late nineteenth century, Charles E. Ziegler considers the impact of the Russo-Japanese War on late tsarist Russian autocracy and assesses Soviet Asian initiatives under Stalin and his successors during the Cold War. He examines the diplomatic, economic and military dimensions of Vladimir Putin's pivot toward the Asia Pacific. His conceptual approach is analytically eclectic, combining realism's focus on military and economic dimensions of power with a constructivist attention to domestic politics, culture, and questions of national identity.
The Contest for Japan's Economic Future: Entrepreneurs vs Corporate Giants
by Richard KatzJust as a wave of entrepreneurship created Japan's postwar "economic miracle," so it will take a new generation of entrepreneurs to revive its stagnant economy. A complex distribution system dominated by the incumbents has made it hard for newcomers even to get their products on store shelves. Fortunately, major social changes are now opening new opportunities. Generational changes in attitudes about work and gender relations are leading more and more talented people to the new companies. This includes ambitious women who are regularly denied promotions at traditional companies. The rise of e-commerce is enabling tens of thousands of newcomers to bypass the traditional distribution system and sell their products to millions of customers. Three decades of low growth have convinced many within both the elites and the public of the need for change. Still, progress remains an uphill climb because of resistance by powerful forces. Bank financing remains quite difficult. For example, the system of "lifetime employment" has made it very hard to newcomers to recruit the staff they need. Banks, who are often in the same sprawling conglomerates as the corporate giants, are still loath to lend to new companies. While parts of the government try to promote more startups, other parts resist making the needed changes in regulations, taxes, and budgets. Japan's economic future will be determined by the contest detailed in this book.
The Global Community Yearbook of International Law and Jurisprudence 2017 (Global Community: Yearbook of International Law & Jurisprudence)
by Giuliana Ziccardi CapaldoThe Global Community Yearbook is a one-stop resource for all researchers studying international law generally or international tribunals specifically. The Yearbook has established itself as an authoritative source of reference on global legal issues and international jurisprudence. It includes analysis of the most significant global trends in a way that allows readers to monitor the development of the global legal order from several perspectives. The Global Community Yearbook publishes annually in a volume of carefully chosen primary source material and corresponding expert commentary. The general editor, Professor Giuliana Ziccardi Capaldo, employs her vast expertise in international law to select excerpts from important court opinions and to choose experts from around the world to contribute essay-guides, which illuminate those cases. Although the main focus is recent case law from the major international tribunals and regional courts, the first four parts of each year's edition features expert articles by renowned scholars who address broader themes in current and future developments in international law and global policy, themes that appear throughout the case law of the many courts covered by the series as a whole. The Global Community Yearbook has thus become not just an indispensable window to recent jurisprudence: the series now also serves to prepare researchers for the issues facing emerging global law. The 2017 edition of The Global Community Yearbook both updates readers on the important work of long-standing international tribunals and introduces readers to more novel topics in international law. The Yearbook has established itself as an authoritative resource for research and guidance on the jurisprudence of both UN-based tribunals and regional courts. The 2017 edition continues to provide expert coverage of the Court of Justice of the European Union and diverse tribunals from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to criminal tribunals such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, to economically based tribunals such as ICSID and the WTO Dispute Resolution panel. This edition contains original research articles on the development and analysis of the concept of global law and the views of the global law theorists. It also includes expert introductory essays by prominent scholars in the realm of international law, on topics as diverse and current as the erosion of the postwar liberal global order by national populism and the accompanying disorder in global politics, a bifurcated global nuclear order due to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty, and the expansion of the principle of no-impunity and its application to serious violations of social and economic rights. New to the 2017 edition, the author of the article in Recent Lines of International Thought will now talk about their own work as a Scholar/Judge. In addition, this edition memorializes the late M. Cherif Baasiouni. The Yearbook provides students, scholars, and practitioners alike a valuable combination of expert discussion and direct quotes from the court opinions to which that discussion relates, as well as an annual overview of the process of cross-fertilization between international courts and tribunals and a section focusing on the thought of leading international law scholars on the subject of the globalization. This publication can also be purchased on a standing order basis.
The Social Science of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Call to Action for Researchers
Although the world has experienced many epidemics, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is exactly that--novel. The impacts on society's way of life, education, family, and economy are drastic. As a result, people seek explanations that have answers rooted in social science. The Social Science of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Call to Action for Researchers draws on theories derived from the social sciences to address the multitude of questions raised by the pandemic and to inspire a future generation of researchers. This book focuses specifically on the social science of a pandemic. While medical, health, and other sciences are critical to understanding a pandemic, so, too, is understanding the role of society and person. Together, psychology and society shape every aspect of life, and the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception to this pattern. Parts of society--and science--will be forever affected. Edited by Monica K. Miller, The Social Science of the COVID-19 Pandemic is a collection of academic essays written by a group of international authors. The book begins by overviewing the timeline of the pandemic and how it affected life. It then discusses behaviors and experiences during the pandemic, followed by sections on outcomes after the pandemic and best practices for conducting future studies during or about the pandemic. This book is an expansive, go-to text designed to help promote recovery from the pandemic, to minimize the negative effects of similar events in the future, and to inform social science research going forward.
Wings of the Gods: Birds in the World's Religions
by Peter (Petra) Gardella Laurence KruteBirds have a larger place in religions than any other non-human animal, from their role as messenger between humans and gods among the ancient Mayans, to the Christian Holy Spirit taking flesh as a dove. More than symbols, birds gained divine status by guiding humans to water and food, replanting forests after ice ages and fires, and living with humans as they settled into farming and urban life. With the natural world facing multiple crises--climate change, epidemics of disease, pollution, famine--Peter (Petra) Gardella and Laurence Krute argue that humanity needs a new religion, a religion of nature in which birds and other animals are treated as equal inhabitants and citizens of Earth, to save the beauty and wonder that has inspired belief in God. Wings of the Gods surveys the many roles that birds have played in the development of religions, from legends, rituals, costumes, wars, and spiritual disciplines to the current ecological crisis. It also explores the relations between birds and humans from an evolutionary perspective, starting with the roles of birds in creating the human world. Gardella and Krute, both scholars and birdwatchers, transcend a narrow focus on humanity to instead explore the agency of birds in world history.
Repression in the Digital Age: Surveillance, Censorship, and the Dynamics of State Violence (Disruptive Technology and International Security)
by Anita R. GohdesGlobal adoption of the Internet has exploded, yet we are only beginning to understand the Internet's profound political consequences. Authoritarian states are digitally catching up with their democratic counterparts, and both are showing a growing interest in the use of cyber controls--online censorship and surveillance technologies--that allow governments to exercise control over the Internet. Under what conditions does a digitally connected society actually help states target their enemies? Why do repressive governments sometimes shut down the Internet when faced with uprisings? And how have cyber controls become a dependable tool in the weapons arsenal that states use in civil conflict? In Repression in the Digital Age, Anita R. Gohdes addresses these questions, and provides an original and in-depth look into the relationship between digital technologies and state violence. Drawing on large-scale analyses of fine-grained data on the Syrian conflict, qualitative case evidence from Iran, and the first global comparative analysis on Internet outages and state repression, Gohdes makes the case that digital infrastructure supports security forces in their use of violent state repression. More specifically, she argues that mass access to the Internet presents governments who fear for their political survival with a set of response options. When faced with a political threat, they can either temporarily restrict or block online public access or they can expand mass access to online information and monitor it to their own advantage. Surveillance allows security forces to target opponents of the state more selectively, while extreme forms of censorship or shutdowns of the Internet occur in conjunction with larger and more indiscriminate repression. As digital communication has become a bedrock of modern opposition and protest movements, Repression in the Digital Age breaks new ground in examining state repression in the information age.
Teaching to Live: Black Religion, Activist-Educators, and Radical Social Change
by Almeda M. WrightTeaching to Live: Black Religion, Activist-Educators, and Radical Social Change interrogates the stories of African American activist-educators whose faith convictions inspired them to educate in radical and transformative ways. Many of these educators are known only or primarily for their educational theory or activism, and their religious convictions have often been obscured or outright ignored. Almeda M. Wright seeks to rectify this omission, exploring the connections between religion, education, and struggles for freedom within twentieth-century African American communities by telling the stories of key African American teachers. Wright brings together the lives and work of three related subgroups of activist-educators: those who worked in public or secular education but were religiously inspired; radical scholars who transformed the ways that Black religion and Black religious life are studied and valued; and radical religious educators, or those educators who were involved more formally with the religious formation of Black people but who regarded this work of spiritual development as part of the struggle for freedom and liberation of all people. She begins with the reflections of Anna Julia Cooper, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, and Nannie Helen Burroughs, who attempted to transform American society by expanding the involvement of African Americans as contributors to all aspects of American life, especially the religious, intellectual, and cultural spheres. Wright also examines the activist-educators at the center of the mid-twentieth-century Civil Rights Movement, such as the religious and lay leaders Septima Clark and James Lawson, and the cadre of student leaders and teachers they trained. Finally, she investigates how the models of religious activist-educators Olivia Pearl Stokes and Albert Cleage emerged in the last quarter of the twentieth century at the same time that questions about the centrality of Black Christianity in the African American community and Black activism began to take shape. The rich and complex narratives of these educators show how religion, education, and radical social change can intersect. This book invites readers to continue exploring how these concepts will evolve for future generations of activist-educators.
Power, Image, and Memory: Historical Subjects in Art
by Peter J. HollidayThose who write history determine its narrative, whether through written text or through the visual language of art and public monuments. Power, Image, and Memory examines a wide variety of artistic traditions, showing how art commemorating historical events can shape collective memory, and with it, the identities of social groups and nations. From the Mesopotamians to the present day, leaders and societies have used art to frame and memorialize important events. This account establishes a dialogue among traditions in a series of case studies, ranging from the reliefs at Ramses' temple at Abu Simbel and the ancient Greek "Alexander Mosaic" to the Heian Period Japanese scroll of the Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace, the Benin Bronzes, Diego Vel?zquez's Surrender at Breda, and Picasso's Guernica. Weaving together meticulous historic detail, theory, and visual analysis, this volume offers a complex picture of the power of art and memory, as well as of the life of these monuments and messages over time, distanced from their original cultures and context. With insights relevant to contemporary debates reexamining historic monuments, Power, Image, and Memory sheds new light on the power of art to shape social memory and identity.
The Global Community Yearbook of International Law and Jurisprudence 2022 (Global Community: Yearbook of International Law and Jurisprudence)
by Giuliana Ziccardi CapaldoThe Global Community Yearbook of International Law and Jurisprudence is a one-stop resource for all researchers studying international law generally or international tribunals specifically. The Yearbook is based on a cutting-edge project, unique in the panorama of international law yearbooks. Its project moves from a global perspective rather than a sectoral perspective or a spatial, national, or regional one. Its scope is that of annually monitoring the changes of international law and the transition to a global community, exploring its law (global constitutional principles), governance, and justice through a meaningful global jurisprudence. The Yearbook has established itself as an authoritative source of reference on global legal issues and international jurisprudence. It includes analysis of the most significant global trends in a way that allows readers to monitor the development of the global legal order from several perspectives. The Yearbook publishes annually in a volume of carefully chosen primary source material and corresponding expert commentary. The general editor, Professor Emeritus Giuliana Ziccardi Capaldo, employs her vast expertise in international law to select excerpts from important court opinions and to choose experts from around the world to contribute essay-guides, which illuminate those cases. Although the main focus is recent case law from the major international tribunals and regional courts, the first four parts of each year's edition feature expert articles by renowned scholars who address broader themes in current and future developments in international law and global policy. The Global Community Yearbook has thus become not just an indispensable window to recent jurisprudence; the series also serves to prepare researchers for the issues facing emerging global law. The 2022 edition both updates readers on the important work of longstanding international tribunals and introduces readers to more novel topics in international law. The Yearbook continues to provide expert coverage of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) and diverse tribunals from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), to criminal tribunals such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT), to economically based tribunals such as ICSID and the WTO Dispute Resolution panel, to courts of human rights (ECtHR, IACtHR, ACtHPR). This edition also examines developments in the War in Ukraine and the consequences of the proliferation of disinformation, as well as international efforts to protect the cultural heritage of vulnerable populations. Scholars also explore the evidentiary value of reports drafted by NGOs and developments in reparations modalities, among other topics. The Yearbook provides students, scholars, and practitioners alike a valuable combination of expert discussion and direct quotes from the court opinions to which that discussion relates, as well as an annual overview of the process of cross-fertilization between international courts and tribunals.
Critical Care Emergencies (What Do I Do Now Emergency Medicine)
Written for residents and practicing community emergency physicians, this volume on critical care emergencies in the What Do I Do Now: Emergency Medicine series uses a case-based approach to cover both common and unique scenarios in critical care emergencies. Featuring chapters written by critical care and emergency medicine trained physicians, this volume provides a unique perspective on the ongoing management of critical illness with a focus on guideline-based protocol care based on national and local recommendations for common presentations such as pneumonia, acute myocardial infarction, or trauma. This volume reviews frequently-encountered diagnoses, procedures, clinical recommendations, and management problems. Brief summaries included at the end of each chapter supply the practicing clinician a quick point-of-care reference during a shift. Critical Care Emergencies is an engaging collection of thought-provoking cases which provides relevant reading for on-clinical shift trainees and for practicing EM physicians who need a refresher. The volume is also a self-assessment tool that tests the reader's ability to answer the question, "What do I do now?"
Christ the Emperor: Christian Theology and the Roman Emperor in the Fourth Century AD (Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity)
by Nathan Israel SmolinPolitics and diplomacy have always been as much about the social and cultural contexts within which political actors operate as they are about the political structures themselves. This was also true of the Roman Empire of the fourth century AD, ruled by the Emperor Constantine the Great--a society marked by social, religious, and political transformation as the empire came under the influence of the Christian Church. Studies of this period often note the difficulty of understanding its politics due to a lack of sources that discuss questions central to political theory. This has led to deprecating views of the Late Empire as an age of unquestioning despotism, political decline, and social decay. Recent scholarship has correctly pushed back against this viewpoint, emphasizing the vibrancy of art, architecture, and social life during this period; however, relatively little attention has yet been given to the deeply consequential effects of Christian theology on the period's politics. Christ the Emperor argues that the alleged absence of explicit political theorizing in fourth century texts is the result of a migration of these discourses from the realm of "secular" politics to that of public Christian theology, where questions fundamental to political theory were analyzed and debated in more far-reaching ways than ever before. When fourth century bishops and Emperors wished to discuss the pressing questions of legitimacy, succession, hierarchy, equality, unity, diversity, and power, they did so largely in and through Christian theology. To understand how these political and social actors thought about and enacted political theory, Nathan Israel Smolin turns to theological sources. In doing so, he reveals this period as one of profound political, social, and religious ferment, in which ideas and structures fundamental to the history of the following millennia were developed and contested--ideas that continue to shape our world today.
Repression in the Digital Age: Surveillance, Censorship, and the Dynamics of State Violence (Disruptive Technology and International Security)
by Anita R. GohdesGlobal adoption of the Internet has exploded, yet we are only beginning to understand the Internet's profound political consequences. Authoritarian states are digitally catching up with their democratic counterparts, and both are showing a growing interest in the use of cyber controls--online censorship and surveillance technologies--that allow governments to exercise control over the Internet. Under what conditions does a digitally connected society actually help states target their enemies? Why do repressive governments sometimes shut down the Internet when faced with uprisings? And how have cyber controls become a dependable tool in the weapons arsenal that states use in civil conflict? In Repression in the Digital Age, Anita R. Gohdes addresses these questions, and provides an original and in-depth look into the relationship between digital technologies and state violence. Drawing on large-scale analyses of fine-grained data on the Syrian conflict, qualitative case evidence from Iran, and the first global comparative analysis on Internet outages and state repression, Gohdes makes the case that digital infrastructure supports security forces in their use of violent state repression. More specifically, she argues that mass access to the Internet presents governments who fear for their political survival with a set of response options. When faced with a political threat, they can either temporarily restrict or block online public access or they can expand mass access to online information and monitor it to their own advantage. Surveillance allows security forces to target opponents of the state more selectively, while extreme forms of censorship or shutdowns of the Internet occur in conjunction with larger and more indiscriminate repression. As digital communication has become a bedrock of modern opposition and protest movements, Repression in the Digital Age breaks new ground in examining state repression in the information age.
Children of Coercive Control (Interpersonal Violence)
by Evan StarkChildren of Coercive Control extends Evan Stark's path-breaking analysis of interpersonal violence to children, showing that coercive control is the most important cause and context of child abuse and child homicide outside a war zone, as well as of the sexual abuse, denigration, exploitation, isolation and subordination of children. The book provides a working model of the coercive control of children and illustrates its dynamics and consequences with dramatic cases drawn from the headlines and Dr. Stark's forensic practice. The cases include those in which the coercive control of children runs in tandem with the coercive control of women, where children are "weaponized" in the coercive control of their mother and cases where abused mothers harm their children to survive or protect them from worse. By highlighting a criminal cause of child maltreatment and a plausible justice response, Evan Stark challenges the common assumptions that child abuse and neglect fall on a continuum of problems rooted in maternal deficits, immaturity, poverty, and environmental stressors as well as the combination of Child Welfare and Child Protection Services that currently provide the ameliorative response.
Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation
by R. Keith Sawyer Danah HenriksenExplaining Creativity is an accessible introduction to the latest scientific research on creativity. The book summarizes and integrates a broad range of research in psychology and related scientific fields. In the last 50 years, psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists have devoted increased attention to creativity; we now know more about creativity than at any point in history. Explaining Creativity examines research on thinking processes, personality, culture, mental health, groupwork, technology, self-beliefs, and more. It also reviews creativity across fields such as the arts, science, theater, music, and writing. This new edition maintains the broad and practical, yet still detailed approach of the previous editions, but it features updated coverage on the full landscape of creative cognition, creative practice, and social and cultural contexts for creativity. With three new chapters on Creativity and Technology, Creativity and Wellbeing, and Creativity and Self, this third edition provides a comprehensive understanding of creativity for anyone interested in the topic.
Awkwardness: A Theory
by Alexandra PlakiasAwkwardness offers an account of the psychology and philosophical significance of a ubiquitous social phenomenon. Our aversion to awkwardness mirrors our desire for inclusion. This explains its power to influence and silence us: as social creatures, we don't want to mark ourselves as outsiders. As a result, our fear of awkwardness inhibits critique and conversation, acting as an impediment to moral and social progress. Even the act of describing people as "awkward" exacerbates existing inequities, by consigning them to a social status that gives them less access to the social goods (knowledge, confidence, social esteem) needed to navigate potentially awkward situations. Awkwardness discusses how we ostracize and punish those who fail to fit into existing social categories; how we all depend on--and are limited by--social scripts and norms for guidance; and how these norms frequently let us down when we need them. But awkwardness has a positive side: it can highlight opportunities for moral and social improvement, by revealing areas where our social norms and scripts fail to meet our needs or have yet to catch up with changing social and moral realities. Awkwardness ultimately underscores the conflict between our moral motivations and our desire for social approval and conformity.
Dangerous Jokes: How Racism and Sexism Weaponize Humor
by Claire HoriskPeople often get away with belittling others if they frame their speech as jokes-speech that would be condemned if stated seriously. "It's just a joke," they say. But what is different or special about joking? And if jokes about lawyers and politicians are morally acceptable, then what is wrong with joking about race or gender? Furthermore, if we may joke about a politician's shirts, may we joke about his weight? People who are targeted by demeaning jokes feel their impact but may not be able to pinpoint where the harm lies. Dangerous Jokes develops a novel, well-researched, and compelling argument that lays bare the power of demeaning jokes in ordinary conversations. Claire Horisk draws on her expertise in philosophy of language and on evidence from sociology, law and cognitive science to explain how the element of humor-so often used as a defence-makes jokes more potent than regular speech in communicating prejudice and reinforcing social hierarchies. She addresses the morality of telling, being amused by, and laughing at, derogatory jokes, and she gives a new account of listening that addresses the morality of listening to demeaning speech. She leaves us with no illusions about whether "it's just a joke" is an excuse for demeaning humor.
Regret
by Paddy McQueenPhilosopher Paddy McQueen provides a detailed examination of the nature of regret and its role in decision-making. Contrary to influential philosophical accounts of regret, he argues that we should only regret choices we make that were not justified at the time, based on the information that was available to us. Consequently, he suggests that many of us should have fewer regrets than we do, and we should worry less than we do about whether we might come to regret a decision. In making this case, he engages with important areas of philosophical debate, such as reasons, time and justification, the temporal self, values and valuing, responsibility, the causal framing of events, and self-forgiveness. The result is a complex, novel account of when we should regret the things that we do. In addition, McQueen explores how experiences of regret are shaped by social discourses, especially those about gender and parenthood. He examines how regret has become politicized in debates about abortion and trans identities and reveals ways in which regret is used to regulate people's reproductive choices. Through this cultural politics of regret, he challenges assumptions about gender identities and the expectations of regret that are attached to certain people's decisions. In so doing, he shows how confronting these assumptions and expectations can help to promote people's autonomy and well-being. Weaving these threads together, McQueen highlights the personal and political significance of regret.
The Turning Point: Reflections on a Pandemic
by Sandro Galea Michael D. SteinIn the early years of COVID-19, Americans witnessed the intersection of a global pandemic, an economic collapse, and civil unrest that galvanized the country and the world and ushered in an era of unprecedented disruption. Three years later, we can begin to reflect on the experience of the pandemic and ask ourselves how the lessons of that experience can inform a healthier present and future. The Turning Point: Reflections on a Pandemic examines the first years of COVID-19 through the lens of population health, revealing a critical turning point in our engagement with key public health issues. Through a series of short, provocative essays, the authors leverage their experience as prominent public health leaders to untangle the social, economic, environmental, and political forces at work in our response to the pandemic. Combining cutting-edge data with philosophical insights, these bold and revelatory essays encourage us to broaden and sharpen our vision of health and renegotiate policies that can allow health to flourish in extraordinary-and ordinary-times.
Environmental Ethics and Medical Reproduction
by Cristina RichieCarbon emissions of global health care activities comprise 4-5% of total world emissions, placing the health care industry on par with the food sector. The United States health care industry in particular expends an estimated 479 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year -- nearly 8% of the country's total emissions. Health care impacts the environment through the use of resources needed to cure, treat, and prevent diseases; by extending lifespans; and by facilitating new births. In this book, Dr. Cristina Richie evaluates "medicalized reproduction" (MR) from an environmental perspective. From pre-conception gamete retrieval to in-vitro fertilization (IVF), to birthing suites, MR has an enormous carbon footprint. But, unlike other areas of high-carbon health care, such as organ transplantation or chemotherapy, medicalized reproduction does not treat, cure, or prevent disease. It is supported by an economized medical industry, and as such, is open for ethical scrutiny. Richie first situates MR within environmental ethics. Part I analyzes the numerous resources used for medical reproduction, emphasizing that MR is a voluntary lifestyle choice. Part II offers policy suggestions for sustainable MR, remaining sensitive to some individuals' desires to be parents coupled with the global push for medical and climate justice. The conclusion recognizes the obligation for environmental sustainability in all areas of life, including health care and family life.
The Turning Point: Reflections on a Pandemic
by Sandro Galea Michael D. SteinIn the early years of COVID-19, Americans witnessed the intersection of a global pandemic, an economic collapse, and civil unrest that galvanized the country and the world and ushered in an era of unprecedented disruption. Three years later, we can begin to reflect on the experience of the pandemic and ask ourselves how the lessons of that experience can inform a healthier present and future. The Turning Point: Reflections on a Pandemic examines the first years of COVID-19 through the lens of population health, revealing a critical turning point in our engagement with key public health issues. Through a series of short, provocative essays, the authors leverage their experience as prominent public health leaders to untangle the social, economic, environmental, and political forces at work in our response to the pandemic. Combining cutting-edge data with philosophical insights, these bold and revelatory essays encourage us to broaden and sharpen our vision of health and renegotiate policies that can allow health to flourish in extraordinary-and ordinary-times.
J.N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism
by Crawford GribbenJ.N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism describes the work of one of the most important and under-studied theologians in the history of Christianity. In the late 1820s, John Nelson Darby abandoned his career as a priest in the Church of Ireland to become one of the principal leaders of a small but rapidly growing religious movement that became known as the ?Plymouth Brethren.? Darby and other brethren modified the Calvinism that was common among their evangelical contemporaries, developing distinctive positions on key doctrines relating to salvation, the church, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the end times. After his death in 1882, Darby's successors revised and expanded his arguments, and Darby became known as the architect of the most influential system of end-times thinking among the world's half-a-billion evangelicals. This ?dispensational premillennialism? exercises extraordinary influence in religious communities, but also in popular culture and geopolitics. But claims that Darby created this theological system may need to be qualified -for all his innovation, this reputation might be undeserved. This book reconstructs Darby's theological development and argues that his innovations were more complex and extensive than their reduction into dispensationalism might suggest. In fact, Darby's thought might be closer to that of his Reformed critics than to that of modern exponents of dispensationalism.
Two Tales of the Death of God
by Stephen LeDrewIn the 19th century Friedrich Nietzsche infamously declared that "God is dead." It turns out he was on to something. Across the western world, churches are emptying out and closing their doors, and more and more people are rejecting organized religion. In the early 2000s a group of intellectuals who collectively came to be known as the "new atheists" capitalized on this fact, capturing the imagination of young skeptics and igniting a movement for secularism by arguing that religion is the source of most of our social ills. They believed that the decline of religious belief could be attributed to the rise of modern science. This was only the most recent incarnation of a story that has been told since the 18th century Enlightenment, which forged a myth of social progress and western cultural supremacy that has lent legitimacy to the projects of imperialism and global capitalism ever since. The social sciences have another story to tell. It is the story of secularization: a theory that grapples with the astonishing fact of Christianity's fall from its position at the center of western culture. In this version of the story, God was not killed by science, but by a complex set of social and economic changes that have produced greater overall well-being and equality, and by shifting moral values that lead people to view religious ethics as a relic of a bygone era. Stephen LeDrew argues that only the social sciences can explain religion's fall from grace--and the dangers of its resurgence. A coalition of far-right religious extremists is currently working to dismantle democracy in order to preserve white Christian privilege. The evidence from secularization shows that only by working to achieve greater security and equality for all can we halt a descent into an abyss of nihilistic greed and intolerance.
Listening to the Spirit: The Radical Social Gospel, Sacred Value, and Broad-based Community Organizing (AAR Academy Series)
by Aaron StaufferBroad-based community organizing (BBCO) is perhaps the most widely used form of political participation supported by American religious institutions today. As organizing groups become more religiously diverse, however, so do the conceptions of sacred value that ground organizing in the first place. In today's political climate what we hold most dear, those sacred values such as human life, a land, or a natural resource may seem to only further entrench us in our enclaves and threaten the solidarity of any constituency. This book tells a different story. People organize to protect and fight for what they hold most dear. Using auto-ethnography from over a decade of interfaith BBCO experiences, Listening to the Spirit makes a case for the political role of sacred values in BBCO, especially as they show up in two organizing practices: the ?listening campaign? and the ?relational meeting.? Aaron Stauffer argues that by centering sacred values in democratic politics, these organizing practices can be seen as religious practices, and that BBCO can build deeper solidarity through sacred values and relational power. Stauffer offers a social ethical, social practical account of religion and grounds democracy in our diverse religious values. Listening to the Spirit is a work of Christian social ethics in the tradition of the radical social gospel and draws on discussions of racial capitalism, radical democracy, feminist theory, and philosophical theology. By exploring the political role of sacred values in BBCO, the role of religion in organizing becomes clearer and a new political and ecclesiological terrain opens for Christians to understand these practices in ways Christians have traditionally understood through the Holy Spirit.
Education and Dialogue in Polarized Societies: Dialogic perspectives in times of change
by Ola Erstad James V. Wertsch Bente E. HagtvetA number of scholars within the social sciences and the humanities have elaborated on the cultural and psychological dimensions of living through social, economic and political crises. Still, developments during the last decade have created an awareness that something fundamental of the human condition is at stake, especially for the young generation growing up today, with a devastating environmental crisis, globalization, large scale migration, the impact of digitalization and so forth. The consequence has been increased polarization between nations, communities, and people, where the dialogue for human understanding seems to vanish. The basic rationale underlying this book is that education is a key social system where learning to take different perspectives, to stimulate dialogue and intersubjectivity are fundamental for social and cultural development. We bring together scholars from North-America and Europe, but with relevance on a global scale. The four sections in the book cover theoretical explorations referring to the power and generativity of the writings of the Norwegian scholar Ragnar Rommetveit (section 1), diverse chapters and examples on the societal conditions for dialogue and the role of education (section 2), empirical illustration on the role of digital technologies (section 3), and micro-analytical studies of learning dialogues at home, in kindergarten and school (section 4).