Abstract
Der Aufsatz behandelt das Konzept der „Christentumswissenschaft“ (
Kirisutokyo gaku
) Tetsutarō Arigas, der der erste Dekan der Theologischen Fakultät an Doshisha Universität gewesen war und ...nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg auf den Lehrstuhl für Christentumswissenschaft an der Kyoto Universität berufen wurde. Ariga stammte aus einer „monotheistischen“ Familie mit einem muslimischen Vater und einer christlichen Mutter. Nachdem er an der Doshisha Universität graduierte, studierte er am Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. Es ist zu vermuten, dass Ariga aufgrund seiner liberalen demokratischen Gesinnung auf den Lehrstuhl an der Kyoto Universität berufen wurde. In der
Einleitung in die Christentumswissenschaft
unterschied Ariga zwischen der Christentumswissenschaft an der nationalen Universität und der Theologie an den privaten Universitäten. Ariga als Christentumswissenschaftler hat ohne die kirchlichen Autoritäten historisch-kritisch das Christentum erforscht, während er als Theologe sich mit pragmatischen Aufgaben, z. B. Ökumenismus, beschäftigt hat. Aus der Spannung zwischen der Christentumswissenschaft und der Theologie erzeugte er seine reichen wissenschaftlichen Leistungen.
The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque is a book of uncommon learning and profound insight. The clarity of understanding, conciseness of presentation, and lucid command of deeper ramifications are ...qualities that only years of intimacy with the material can yield. This is a book that few scholars could have produced. It is also acutely timely. Scholars and students, as well as interested general readers, will find this book fruitful, engaging, challenging, and rewarding.
The Saint in the Banyan Tree is a nuanced and historically persuasive exploration of Christianity's remarkable trajectory as a social and cultural force in southern India. Starting in the seventeenth ...century, when the religion was integrated into Tamil institutions of caste and popular religiosity, this study moves into the twentieth century, when Christianity became an unexpected source of radical transformation for the country's 'untouchables' (dalits). Mosse shows how caste was central to the way in which categories of 'religion' and 'culture' were formed and negotiated in missionary encounters, and how the social and semiotic possibilities of Christianity lead to a new politic of equal rights in South India. Skillfully combining archival research with anthropological fieldwork, this book examines the full cultural impact of Christianity on Indian religious, social and political life. Connecting historical ethnography to the preoccupations of priests and Jesuit social activists, Mosse throws new light on the contemporary nature of caste, conversion, religious synthesis, secularization, dalit politics, the inherent tensions of religious pluralism, and the struggle for recognition among subordinated people.
One route to understanding the nature of specifically religious violence is the study of past conflicts. Distinguished ancient historian Brent D. Shaw provides a new analysis of the intense sectarian ...battles between the Catholic and Donatist churches of North Africa in late antiquity, in which Augustine played a central role as Bishop of Hippo. The development and deployment of images of hatred, including that of the heretic, the pagan, and the Jew, and the modes by which these were most effectively employed, including the oral world of the sermon, were critical to promoting acts of violence. Shaw explores how the emerging ecclesiastical structures of the Christian church, on one side, and those of the Roman imperial state, on the other, interacted to repress or excite violent action. Finally, the meaning and construction of the acts themselves, including the Western idea of suicide, are shown to emerge from the conflict itself.
