bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Buddhism Religious and Secular
Authors: Bruce Steve
Published: October 2017

Census data show that Buddhism has attracted far more western converts than other non-Christian religions—a consequence of it apparently lacking many of the features of religion that westerners now find offputting—but, as it has been adopted, it has been transformed. A variety of Buddhist movements in Britain are described, their popularity is assessed, and the point is made that the most popular tend to be the least orthodox. Even the Samye Ling Buddhist monastery in Dumfriesshire, established by Tibetan exiles to preserve their religious and cultural heritage, has contributed to this secularization by leading the way in promoting ‘mindfulness’ as a secular psychotherapy.
The role of the brain
Authors: Guillery Ray
Published: October 2017

This chapter introduces two interpretations of how we know about the world. One, the standard, sensory-to-motor view, is that physical actions for sounds, lights, tastes, smells, and so on act on our sense organs to produce messages that are sent through the nervous system to the cerebral cortex, where the relevant structures of the world can be recognized and appropriate motor actions can be initiated. The other is an interactive sensorimotor view where the nervous system records our interactions with the world, abstracting our knowledge about the world from these interactions. These two opposing views have rarely been considered in terms of specific neural pathways or the messages that they carry; that is the plan for this book. Each view leads to different sets of interpretations of experiments and to different sets of research proposals. The final part of the chapter explores a well-studied and widely taught clinical condition that illustrates the confusions that can arise when the dual meaning of the driver messages to the thalamus is not recognized.
Defining the functional components of the thalamic gate
Authors: Guillery Ray
Published: October 2017

This chapter starts by summarizing the electron microscopic appearance of the retinogeniculate axons and their immediate environment. These form the functional components of the visual input to the thalamic gate. I then look at evidence that all major thalamic relay nuclei have a shared structure produced by a shared developmental and evolutionary origin. Each nucleus receives a small proportion of its synaptic inputs (<10%) for relay to the cortex; these are the drivers. Drivers are topographically organized with the topography representing body parts, sensory space, or parts of the brain. Some drivers come from sensory pathways or from subcortical regions of the brain, and these innervate first-order thalamic relays; another, major part of the thalamus receives its drivers from the cerebral cortex itself, and these form the higher-order relays to the cortex. These higher-order corticothalamic inputs are crucial for understanding cortical processing. A large proportion of synaptic inputs (>90%) are not relayed to the cortex and are classifiable as modulators. They contribute to controlling the gate. Some modulators match the topography of the drivers, thus relating to the parts of the body and the world; others do not show this specificity and have more global actions.
Thalamic higher-order driver inputs as sensorimotor links
Authors: Guillery Ray
Published: October 2017

This chapter provides a closer look at the branching patterns of driver inputs to higher-order thalamic nuclei, and introduces their functional significance for discussion in later chapters. Their thalamic branches bring information for relay to higher cortical levels, including a copy of the information carried in the motor branches about anticipated cortical contributions to the control of actions and consequent changes in perceptions. In this way, the cortex can add to the control of an action when there is a mismatch between action and perception. Most of these branched axons that have so far been described come from early sensory areas and only a few from other, higher areas have been studied. These branching inputs are a part of the hierarchy of cortical areas that provide an opportunity for higher areas to monitor lower areas and, when needed, contribute to the motor control of the phylogenetically older brainstem and spinal centres. A far more extensive review of the branched thalamic driver inputs and their contributions to the control of actions than we have at present will be crucial for understanding the full complexity of the thalamic relay.
The hierarchy of cortical monitors
Authors: Guillery Ray
Published: October 2017

This chapter explores the significance of the dual meaning of the driver inputs to the thalamus in more detail. What happens to these messages when they reach the cortical hierarchies? Currently we know little about how the cortex reacts to the two meanings of the incoming messages. The efference copies that reach the cortex may act both in the control of movements, as do efference copies in other parts of the brain, and may also act to generate a conscious anticipation of an action and its sensory consequences. Or it may do both, depending on the circumstances. Where the thalamic relay fails for any reason while the motor branch remains functional, actions may be assigned, as in schizophrenic patients, to external agents. For any one cortical area, we need to understand not only the messages it receives from the thalamus but also the motor instructions it sends out and how it fits into the cortical hierarchy.
Relating the neural connections to actions and perceptions
Authors: Guillery Ray
Published: October 2017

So far, I have stressed the neural basis of the interactive view. In this chapter I discuss issues raised by Adrian. To what extent can we read the neural facts in terms of their implications for our conscious experiences? Neural events in the cerebral cortex lead to conscious events, including (but not limited to) perceptions of sensory events as well as perceptions of our own upcoming actions. The neural strength of a conscious event varies, increasing up the cortical hierarchy. Whereas the standard view may seem natural in terms of our own cognitive and behavioural experiences, and there are classical pathways to support the standard view, there are, in addition to the neural reasons considered in previous chapters, many non-neural reasons for questioning this view and taking an interactive view. I summarize these reasons briefly and then look at some of the many novel questions that are raised about the nervous system by the interactive view.
Interacting with the world
Authors: Guillery Ray
Published: October 2017

In this chapter, the extent to which actions and perceptions depend on each other is explored particularly for the visual system. Viewing the world through a mirror or a lens that displaces or inverts images provides examples of our ability to learn new sensorimotor consistencies. The use of sensory prostheses that replace one sensory modality with another, for example, visual by tactile stimuli or vestibular by tactile stimuli, provides examples of the capacity of our brains to learn about new sensorimotor relationships, often with surprising rapidity, even in an adult.
The role of the thalamocortical hierarchy
Authors: Guillery Ray
Published: October 2017

This chapter presents evidence that at each level of the thalamocortical hierarchy the strength of our conscious perceptions increases. Conscious processes are not all-or-none effects, they are graded. Four factors may be particularly relevant for understanding the neural production of conscious experiences: (1) the actions of the thalamic gate; (2) the neural activity that anticipates an organism’s actions; (3) the activity of the hierarchy of cortical monitors; and particularly (4) the motor actions produced by the outputs of the cortical monitors and acting on the phylogenetically old parts of the brain: these serve to keep actions in accord with anticipations.
Norms in Translations
Authors: Berger Tobias
Published: October 2017

This chapter develops a novel theoretical account of norm translation that is located in-between theories of norm diffusion and norm localization. Translations do not follow linear trajectories from ‘the global’ to ‘the local’. Instead, they unfold in a recursive back and forth movement between different actors located in different contexts. As norms are translated, two interrelated changes occur. Firstly, the meaning of norms changes in ways that make sense to people inhabiting a specific context. Secondly, the social and political dynamics of this context change as well. Both changes depend on the ardent work of translators who, as Walter Benjamin has argued, cannot simply transfer meaning but must recreate it anew. Norm translations therefore need to be investigated through analytical frameworks that capture this creativity and do not simply reduce translations to pathological deviations from seemingly uncontestable originals. This chapter develops such a framework for ‘the rule of law’.
The Village Courts in Bangladesh
Authors: Berger Tobias
Published: October 2017

This chapter embeds contemporary translations of ‘the rule of law’ in their historical trajectory. It reveals how the introduction of village courts by the colonial administration at the dawn of the twentieth century and current efforts by international donor agencies to activate these village courts follow strikingly similar logics. The village courts are therefore neither an exclusively global imposition nor an ostensibly local institution; instead, they have emerged in complex processes of translation in which the global and the local have become inseparably intertwined. Having reconstructed this historical trajectory, the chapter also provides a brief overview of Bangladesh’s recent political history and maps the country’s contemporary legal landscape.
The Emergence of India’s Patronage-Based Party System
Authors: Kenny Paul D.
Published: October 2017

This chapter deals with the origins of India’s contemporary political institutions. The crisis conditions of the 1970s and the turn to populism had their roots in the late colonial period but these conditions remained latent until the mid-1960s. This chapter shows how India’s infamous patronage-based “Congress system” was first established and how political organization along horizontal socioeconomic lines was choked off in the process. It shows how the party system was brought under centralized control in the early 1950s and how this in turn brought a measure of political stability. India’s hybrid federal structure meant that state brokers had significant potential autonomy from the center; this autonomy remained latent as long as Nehru controlled both the party organization of the Congress and the fiscal powers of the central government. Case studies of a number of states support the analysis.
Broker Autonomy and the End of Indian National Congress Party Dominance
Authors: Kenny Paul D.
Published: October 2017

This chapter examines how India’s patronage-based system became unstable, connecting the increase in broker autonomy that followed Nehru’s death in 1964 to a shift in partisan control away from the Congress at the subnational level. The increase in broker autonomy following Nehru’s death was subtle but highly significant. With the separation of the dual government and party authority that had allowed Nehru to arbitrate between competing factions at the state level, Congress factions could compete more openly and prosper as distinct parties, resulting in the fragmentation of the patronage network between center and periphery. This left the Congress party in control at the center but in opposition in several of India’s most populous states. The chapter argues that the crisis of the Congress system was driven by the de facto removal of central control over the subnational units of the party that followed Nehru’s death rather than economic decline.
Regionalism and the Rise of the Populist Far Right in India
Authors: Kenny Paul D.
Published: October 2017

This chapter addresses India’s more recent experience of populism at the national level. While India has avoided a return to authoritarianism since the Emergency, populism has been a recurrent feature of Indian politics. The persistence of divided party rule between the national and subnational levels has meant an uneasy tension between two different modes of political mobilization for national office. National–subnational coalitions based on the distribution of pork have undergirded several Congress party governments. However, such coalitions remain inherently unstable given the autonomy of India’s subnational unit, and they are vulnerable to outflanking by populist appeals over the heads of state governments. The electoral success of the BJP under Modi in 2014 illustrates the appeal of populist mobilization in a vertically fragmented patronage-based system.
Testing the Causal Mechanisms in Additional Cases
Authors: Kenny Paul D.
Published: October 2017

Case studies of Indonesia and Japan illustrate that party-system stability in patronage democracies is deeply affected by the relative autonomy of political brokers. Over the course of a decade, a series of decentralizing reforms in Indonesia weakened patronage-based parties hold on power, with the 2014 election ultimately being a contest between two rival populists: Joko Widodo and Subianto Prabowo. Although Japan was a patronage democracy throughout the twentieth century, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) remained robust to outsider appeals even in the context of economic and corruption crises. However, reforms in the 1990s weakened the hold of central factional leaders over individual members of the LDP and their patronage machines. This was instrumental to populist Junichiro Koizumi’s winning of the presidency of the LDP and ultimately the prime ministership of Japan. This chapter also reexamines canonical cases of populism in Latin America.
Populism and Patronage
Authors: Kenny Paul D.
Published: October 2017

This chapter tests the theory through a quantitative analysis of populist electoral success. It conducts a statistical analysis of the performance of populist candidates in all democracies across Asia, Europe, the, and Australasia. This analysis shows that as subnational units gain autonomy, the electoral performance of populist politicians is enhanced in patronage democracies but not in non-patronage democracies. This finding suggests that there exists a pathway to populist success that is distinctive to patronage democracies. To deal with the high number of cases in which populists receive no votes, the main analysis is a “double-hurdle” model. To control for the endogeneity of these decentralizing processes to party-system stability, the chapter employs an instrumental variables (IV) estimation strategy, in which autonomy is instrumented for by a number of structural features of a polity (area, population, and territorial contiguity). The model also holds up to this IV estimation.
Hugh of St Victor and the Prophetic Contemplation of History
Authors: FitzGerald Brian
Published: October 2017

This chapter focuses on the influential twelfth-century theologian Hugh of St Victor, a canon regular bridging the monastic and scholastic worlds in Paris. The chapter argues that Hugh broadened and naturalized the prophetic model, closely linking prophecy with both general historical consciousness and contemplative experience. In his commentary on Ecclesiastes and the treatise called De vanitate mundi, Hugh’s meditations on sacred history reveal his optimism about the possibilities of discerning the sacred in contemporary events, not just in Scripture. Hugh makes these meditations on sacred history the basis for contemplative prayer, effectively promoting the cultivation of contemporary prophetic vision and thereby widening potential access to the traditionally elite prophetic calling.
The Mendicant Conflict over Prophecy: Thomas Aquinas and Peter John Olivi
Authors: FitzGerald Brian
Published: October 2017

This chapter shows how unauthorized claims of inspiration began to take more serious form, a development which gave greater urgency to theoretical reflections about prophecy. The chapter begins with a treatment of the thought of Thomas Aquinas, who consolidated the Dominican position in opposition to the challenge of apocalyptic or eschatological prophecy found in Joachim of Fiore’s writings. Aquinas attempted to define the limits of supernatural inspiration without excluding the Holy Spirit from the contemporary Church. He emphasized that the best form of prophecy was not prediction but ‘intellectual’ prophecy, or theological understanding. The chapter then contrasts Aquinas’s work with that of the Franciscan Peter John Olivi, who drew on Joachim’s teachings, as well as Hugh of St Victor’s, to promote visionaries with special insights into history. This contrast reveals how Aquinas makes prophecy appear more ordinary than Olivi’s, while also making it more difficult to discern who is inspired.
Nicholas Trevet and the Consolation of Prophecy
Authors: FitzGerald Brian
Published: October 2017

This chapter examines the writings of Nicholas Trevet, the English Dominican whose work was influential at the beginning of the fourteenth century both at the new centre of power in papal Avignon and in early Italian humanist circles during the height of turmoil over radical Franciscans and Joachimism. Trevet was suspicious of predictive claims, and he combined this suspicion with an attentiveness to prophetic language and philosophical discernment of the workings of time and providence. Developed especially in his commentaries on Boethius and on Seneca’s tragedies, Trevet’s model of prophecy had affinities with literary talent and intellectual ability and was indicative of trends within both the Dominican Order and the Avignon papal court.
Albertino Mussato and Humanist Prophecy
Authors: FitzGerald Brian
Published: October 2017

The work of the Paduan humanist Albertino Mussato is the focus of this chapter. Mussato shared many of Nicholas Trevet’s views on the nature and purview of prophetic inspiration: he turned away from a predictive, apocalyptic understanding of prophecy and saw the workings of the Spirit in philosophical poetry, which combined harmonious expression with ethical import. Yet unlike Trevet, Mussato was a layman, and he staked his claim to prophetic status as a poet in opposition to much of scholastic and clerical tradition. Mussato thus became involved in a polemical exchange with a local Dominican more concerned with articulating limits than with furthering the implications of work such as Trevet’s. By insisting that the prophetic office could not be restricted to the professional theologian, Mussato encapsulated the complicated manner in which multiple strands of the medieval prophetic tradition intertwined.
Conclusion
Authors: FitzGerald Brian
Published: October 2017

The Conclusion traces the burgeoning humanist movement’s indebtedness to the conception of poetic theology articulated by Albertino Mussato. The chapter then places this aspect of humanism within the context of larger fourteenth-century developments in religious culture. Italian humanists such as Petrarch and Boccaccio positioned themselves as new prophetic authorities—successors to scholastic theologians—based on their intellectual abilities. At the same, there was a reaction among many clerics and lay people who resisted the connection of prophecy to learning and intellect, whether in humanist or scholastic hands. Mystics and visionaries, especially lay women, claimed the direct, unmediated inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Prophecy in its various manifestations thus continued to fuel debates about Christian life and thought.
Britannia's Auxiliaries
Authors: Conway Stephen
Published: October 2017

This book provides the first wide-ranging attempt to consider the continental European contribution to the eighteenth-century British Empire. The British benefited from many different European inputs—financial, material, and, perhaps most importantly, human. Continental Europeans appeared in different British imperial sites as soldiers, settlers, scientists, sailors, clergymen, merchants, and technical experts. They also sustained the empire from without—through their financial investments, their consumption of British imperial goods, their supply of European products, and by aiding British imperial communication. Continental Europeans even provided Britons with social support from their own imperial bases. Britannia’s Auxiliaries explores the means by which continental Europeans came to play a part in British imperial activity, at a time when, at least in theory, overseas empires were meant to be exclusionary structures, intended to serve national purposes. It looks at the ambitions of the continental Europeans themselves, and at the encouragement given to their participation both by private interests in the British Empire and by the British state. Despite the extensive involvement of continental Europeans, the empire remained essentially British. Indeed, the empire seems to have changed the Europeans who entered it more than they changed the empire. This study, then, qualifies recent scholarly emphasis on the transnational forces that undermined the efforts of imperial authorities to maintain control of their empires. In the British case, the state seems, for the most part, to have managed the process of continental involvement in ways that furthered British interests.
Introduction
Authors: Conway Stephen
Published: October 2017

The introduction sets out the aims and the argument of the study. The book’s purpose is to survey the different forms of European involvement in and with the British Empire and, where possible, to assess their significance. It also considers the consequences of foreign participation for the character of the empire. The argument is that continental European involvement was in some areas important; that it helped the British to defend, consolidate, and expand their empire; that it was facilitated by a combination of transnational non-governmental networks and state action; that it usually served British ends; and that it was largely directed and willed by Britons at home or in imperial sites.
Ambitions and Opportunities
Authors: Conway Stephen
Published: October 2017

This chapter tries to explain why continental Europeans wanted to take up the opportunities that the British Empire presented. Two main motives operated. The first was religion; the second the desire for personal and familial advancement. Successive sections of the chapter consider these two spurs to foreign involvement, with some attention being given to a third, more difficult to assess—sexual opportunity. The final part seeks to account for the particular lure of the mid- to late-eighteenth-century British Empire. It was not the only option, either for the British and Irish, or other Europeans. So why did so many continental Europeans gravitate towards the British Empire? While its growing strength excited some hostile reactions from continental commentators, who thought that the British were becoming too powerful and needed to be brought down a peg or two, to others the expansion of British territories and influence merely made the attraction greater.
Networks
Authors: Conway Stephen
Published: October 2017

This chapter turns to the role of private actors in facilitating the various forms of European engagement with the British Empire. Long-distance and transnational networks undoubtedly played a key role, sometimes underpinning types of continental European involvement of which ministers and officials in London, and state servants in imperial sites, disapproved, and wished to discourage or even stop. But private actors did not always work to undermine the efforts of British governments to preserve an exclusionary empire. Their independent activities could dovetail neatly with official policy. Landowners and employers in the colonies wanted to promote settlement to secure more tenants and more labour. British governments wanted to see the North American colonies settled so that their economic potential could be realized and their security improved. On some occasions, private actors even worked directly with state officials to facilitate foreign participation in the empire through contractual arrangements to secure settlers or soldiers.
Conclusions
Authors: Conway Stephen
Published: October 2017

In the concluding chapter, the argument of the book is summarized and some reflections are offered on what might have distinguished British imperial experience from that of the other European imperial powers. The study has shown that despite fierce competition with other Europeans for the spoils of the wider world, this competition existed alongside their involvement in Britain’s empire and that life in the British Empire changed those Europeans who entered it more than they changed the British Empire. Perhaps the book’s most important contribution is to show that, in the British case at least, transnational means could be used for imperial purposes without compromising national control.
Introduction
Authors: Cefalu Paul
Published: October 2017

The introductory chapter argues that, during the early modern period in England, the Fourth Gospel and First Epistle of Saint John the Evangelist were as influential as Pauline theology and, in many respects, more influential than the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The chapter outlines several features of a distinctive, post-Reformed, English Johannine devotionalism: a high Christology that emphasizes the divine rather than human nature of Christ; the belief that salvation is achieved more through revelation than objective atonement and expiatory sin; a realized eschatology according to which eternal life has been achieved and the end-time has already partially arrived; a robust doctrine of assurance and comfort, usually tied to Johannine eschatology and pneumatology; and a stylistic and rhetorical approach to representing these theological features that often emulates John’s mode of discipleship misunderstanding and irony not found to a comparable degree in the Synoptic writings.
The Flesh Profiteth Nothing
Authors: Cefalu Paul
Published: October 2017

The first chapter reviews the early modern interpretive fortunes of the most influential Johannine passages from the patristic through the early modern period: the bread of life discourses from John 6:26–59. Jesus’ designation of himself as the “bread of life” and “living bread” and his remarks on eating his flesh exert a profound influence on conceptions of the Eucharist from Augustine onward, prompting not only Ulrich Zwingli but also Thomas Cranmer and several English theologians to equate “eating” with believing. The burden of this chapter is to reconstruct the neglected influence of the bread of life discourse in the sacramental poems of George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Richard Crashaw, and Edward Taylor.
Noli Me Tangere and the Reception of Mary Magdalene in Early Modern England
Authors: Cefalu Paul
Published: October 2017

The second chapter assesses the early modern reception of the noli me tangere and hortulanus sequences of John 20. Early modern writers such as Robert Southwell, Gervase Markham, Thomas Walkington, and Nicholas Breton all reconstruct the pedagogical lessons vouchsafed to Mary throughout John 20. Mary is petitioned to recall to herself the words of Christ that she has already heard and to await patiently her post-resurrection reconciliation with Christ as Word of God. Several of these sixteenth- and seventeenth-century accounts of Mary at the tomb show a keen appreciation of the method of discipleship misunderstanding used by John, even emulating that rhetorical approach in their treatments of Magdalene’s misplaced grief. Final sections of the chapter discuss the glorification of Mary in Hans Holbein’s Noli Me Tangere painting as well as in the poetry and prose of Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan, and Anna Trapnel.
Spiritual Comfort and Assurance
Authors: Cefalu Paul
Published: October 2017

The third chapter focuses on the Johannine Spirit-Paraclete of the Fourth Gospel and First Epistle. In the Johannine confessions, unlike in the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus promises the arrival of the Paraclete who will provide not simply testimony and advocacy of Jesus’ ministry once he has departed but also spiritual comfort and assurance to the brethren. As the agent of spiritual comfort, the Paraclete serves during the post-Reformed period in England to offset the fear and trembling often associated with experimental Puritanism. After a discussion of the ways in which the Johannine conception of the Spirit departs from the Synoptic presentation of the Spirit, the chapter looks closely at the reception of the Spirit-Paraclete in the sermons and Holy Sonnets of John Donne as well as in John Milton’s Paradise Lost.
God is Love
Authors: Cefalu Paul
Published: October 2017

The fourth chapter describes the extent to which Augustine as well as a broad group of early modern homilists and poets were influenced by the ontological conception of love described in John’s First Epistle: “God is love, and hee that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4: 16). For John, responsive love expressed toward God is achieved fundamentally through an embrace of Christ’s Word, particularly because God’s love for Christ is expressed eternally for the Son prior to the Incarnation. This chapter addresses the unique ways in which three early modern English poets—George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, and Thomas Traherne—appropriate the Johannine understanding of agape and an ontological conception of God’s love.
Johannine Dualism, Antinomianism, and Early Modern English Radical Dissent
Authors: Cefalu Paul
Published: October 2017

Johannine theology exerts a wide influence on a broad group of antinomian writers and mid-seventeenth-century English separatists, including the Familists, Diggers, Quakers, and a range of English mystics and spiritual enthusiasts. This chapter looks closely at the embrace of the most dualistic and eschatological passages of the Fourth Gospel and First Epistle by the English radical tradition. After an outline of the distinctive qualities of this Johannine political theology, the chapter turns to the antinomian influence on two radically different English poets, Richard Crashaw and Henry Vaughan. If Crashaw shows antinomian leanings despite his embrace of Laudian fundamentals, Vaughan emerges as something of an anti-enthusiast in his more politically topical poems of Silex Scintillans.
Discipleship Misunderstanding and Johannine Irony in the Poetry of George Herbert and Henry Vaughan
Authors: Cefalu Paul
Published: October 2017

The sixth chapter takes a closer look at the influence of Johannine discipleship misunderstanding (particularly the Johannine rhetoric of dramatic irony) on the poetry of George Herbert and Henry Vaughan. Through close readings of Herbert’s “The Bag,” “The Bunch of Grapes,” and “Love unknown,” as well as Vaughan’s “The Night,” the chapter argues that both poets rely on Johannine-inspired dramatic irony in order to express some of the key features of Johannine devotion, especially a high Christology that glorifies rather than abases Jesus. In most cases, especially in Herbert’s poetry, dramatic irony leads not to instability or paradox but to a clarification and heightened understanding of some of the deepest mysteries of Johannine Christology.
Afterword
Authors: Cefalu Paul
Published: October 2017

The Afterword reviews the ways in which the features of Johannine devotion described throughout the book help to legitimate the revisionist argument that Reformed theology did not contribute to a decline in sacramental metaphysics or the disenchantment of the world. The chapter underscores the ways in which Johannine theology paradoxically testifies to divine presence through the Incarnation, despite the fact that Johannine theology does not uphold the materiality of the Eucharist and comparable rites. In addition, the chapter emphasizes the importance of acknowledging the mediated or qualified mysticism of the Johannine writings as against an ecstatic vision-mysticism. Because John’s high Christology assumes that only the Son can capably witness the beatific vision, earthbound penitents dwell in God only through the route of Christ.
Mega-Regional Trade Agreements
Authors: Griller Stefan , Obwexer Walter , Vranes Erich
Published: October 2017

This chapter examines the extent to which mega-regional agreements constitute new orientations for EU external relations. It focuses on CETA, TTIP, and TiSA, which are the most important instruments in the context of mega-regional initiatives from the viewpoint of the EU, placing them, however, in the broader context of other mega-regional initiatives such as TPP and the RCEP. This chapter explains the main motivations underlying the worldwide move to regional agreements in the course of the last ten to fifteen years and expounds the main functions of mega-regional agreements. Furthermore, it sketches out the principal (geo-)political implications of today’s prime mega-regional projects. Finally, this introductory chapter argues that the reorientation attempted with these initiatives calls for a re-evaluation in view of the problematic experiences made during the negotiations on CETA and TTIP, in particular.
On the Expected Economic Effects of Trade Liberalization and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
Authors: Moser Christoph
Published: October 2017

The economic contribution of this chapter is to explain the main theoretical channels through which trade liberalization leads to welfare gains and to highlight important differences between multilateral trade and bilateral or regional trade liberalization. The dominate mode of trade liberalization over the last two decades has been regional trade agreements (RTAs). After a general discussion on the main economic effects of RTAs, the chapter takes a closer look at the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Even though the likelihood of a successful completion of this trade pact is slim in the short-run, it is worth assessing the expected economic effects of TTIP, in particular on the EU. The chapter ends with a word of caution on how we should think about any labor market effects associated with such a trade agreement.
The Struggle for and against Globalization
Authors: Riekmann Sonja Puntscher
Published: October 2017

With the exception of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, never before have international trade agreements encountered such fierce opposition as ACTA, CETA, TTIP, and TPP. Public protest has become vociferous on both sides of the Atlantic, while political parties of various colour, parliaments, and even some governments follow suit. Growing numbers of citizens feel uneasy about their capacity to democratically voice their opinion, claim their rights, and advocate their interests in a world increasingly framed by international trade agreements stealthily negotiated among anonymous bureaucracies. Given that trade agreements no longer just lower or abolish tariff barriers, but regulate a number of policy fields, citizens suspect important shifts of power, and they are asking who represents whom in pertinent negotiations and to whose advantage. This chapter concludes by advocating the strengthening of representative democracy and greater responsiveness of elected officials as a possible solution.
A New Generation of Trade Agreements
Authors: Madner Verena
Published: October 2017

This short contribution addresses the controversy over CETA, TTIP, and TiSA against the backdrop of the EU’s new trade strategy ‘Trade for All’. It takes a general look at how the controversy over the comprehensive EU trade agreements is staged and briefly examines three sites of contestation (economic benefits, the provision of public services, and commitments with regard to sustainable development). It argues that negotiators and proponents of the comprehensive trade agenda failed to present the full picture with regard to the impact of the new generation of agreements. Furthermore, it is argued that the current framing of the debate over EU trade policy disregards the inherent political dimension of the issues at stake and misses the opportunity to facilitate a dispute over the values and visions to be reflected in trade policy.
French Sins, I
Authors: Kirkpatrick Kate
Published: October 2017

Chapter 2 demonstrates that theology played a significant part in Sartre’s formation as a phenomenologist. It considers the ‘philosophical’ and ‘theological’ sources Sartre encountered, beginning with Augustine’s ontology of sin’s origins and effects, and then turning to the seventeenth-century French revival of Augustinianism in the works of Bérulle, Descartes, Jansen, Pascal, and Fénelon. These thinkers’ ontological conceptions of sin as le néant informed their accounts of the human person and the nature of freedom. This chapter demonstrates that Sartre was exposed to these Augustinianisms, laying groundwork for the claims to follow: that for Sartre, as for the theologians described here, the human exists in a tensive state between being and nothingness.
Problems of Nothingness
Authors: Kirkpatrick Kate
Published: October 2017

Part III (Chapters 4 to 7) is dedicated to a part-by-part examination of Being and Nothingness. Sartre, like Schleiermacher, would object to any claim to understand the whole of a work on the basis of considering a single part. The reader is asked to bear in mind, therefore, that individual chapters of this part cannot be separated from the whole. Chapter 4 (on Being and Nothingness Part I) introduces Sartrean consciousness as ‘the being by which nothingness comes into the world’, bringing Sartre’s account of human freedom into dialogue with the theorists of nothingness and negation introduced in Chapters 2 and 3. It argues that Sartre’s néant in Being and Nothingness, like that of many of his Augustinian predecessors—is intimately connected with problems of epistemology—especially, self-knowledge.
Lonely Togetherness
Authors: Kirkpatrick Kate
Published: October 2017

Chapter 6 (on Being and Nothingness Part III) follows Sartre in turning from the isolated consciousness to being-with-others. In particular, this chapter focuses on the revealing power of shame; the objectifying gaze of the other; and the ambiguity of embodiment, to argue that the problem of my being in relation to the other is that I am not the only being ‘through whom nothingness comes into the world’. In theological idiom, I am subject not only to my own fallenness but the fallenness of others: the consequences of nothingness are ethical. Sartre’s account of being-with-others as conflict can therefore be read not merely as affirming the Hegelian master–slave dialectic, but as affirming the Jansenist view of man under concupiscence: subject to the libido dominandi.
Sin is Dead, Long Live Sin!
Authors: Kirkpatrick Kate
Published: October 2017

Chapter 9 offers two concluding ‘provocations’: one on wretchedness without God, the other on wretchedness with God. The first brings Sartre into dialogue with Marilyn McCord Adams’s work ‘God because of Evil’, arguing that Sartre’s account lends credence to her view that optimism is not warranted if one takes a robust realist approach to evil. Read as a phenomenologist of fallenness, Sartre may serve the apologetic purpose of making options ‘live’, in William James’s language; or, to use the phrase of Stephen Mulhall, to ‘hold open the possibility of taking religious points of view seriously’. The second provocation—on the question of wretchedness with God—suggests that Sartre can be read ‘for edification’ to help us see our failures in love. The book concludes that reading Sartre in this light can help redress ‘damaging cultural amnesia’ about religious commitment, offering an account of sin that cultivates humility, love, and mercy.
Introduction
Authors: Saussy Haun
Published: October 2017

We commonly understand by “translation” the creation, in one language, of an expression that will be the equivalent of a pre-existing expression in another language. But much happens in actual translating, especially literary translation, that is not covered by that definition. For example, calques and transliterations import expressions from one language to another; and translators often allude to elements of the cultural background of the target language, thus artificially creating a context for the translated text. The intent of this book is to scrutinize such aspects of translation and to consider them as normal and central to the translating process, not exceptional or marginal. Indeed, they are a mark of the creativity of translators. These features also remind us of the internal diversity of languages, which are always in contact and always in a process of change.
Decision as Institution
Authors: Brunsson Nils
Published: October 2017

This chapter first sets out the book's main argument that it is more fruitful to treat decision as an institution — as a well-known pattern of action with a ready-made account and with rules that are taken for granted. It then discusses the connections between the institution of decision, where the rules of rationality are important, and the individual. The remainder of the chapter deals with theories of decision and the consequences of decision, followed by an overview of the subsequent chapters. In sum, the arguments in this book give a more complex picture of decision-making than most traditional decision theories do. Politicians, managers, and other organizational leaders play important roles as decision-makers, but their roles are much more complex than implied by the notion of decisions as mere choices.
Deciding for Responsibility and Legitimation: Alternative Interpretations of Organizational Decision‐Making
Authors: Brunsson Nils
Published: October 2017

Recent studies have questioned the empirical validity of the equating of decision and choice and pointed at another role that organizational decisions sometimes play — the role of mobilizing organizational action, a role that requires less rationality than choice. But choice and mobilization are not the only roles of decision-making and decisions in organizations. This chapter argues that two additional roles exist — decisions may allocate responsibility and legitimacy to decision-makers and organizations. The chapter also considers how the different roles can explain the design of decision processes, the use of information and the number of decisions in organizations. The discussion is based on empirical studies of decision processes in such organizations: in local governments, national governments, and company boards. The eight decision processes studied concern city budgets, investments and disinvestments, and governmental programmes.
Responsibility as an Impediment to Influence—The Case of Budgeting
Authors: Brunsson Nils
Published: October 2017

This chapter demonstrates that decision-makers may be more interested in the responsibility effects of their decisions than in the decision content, one reason being that there may be a connection between responsibility and influence: the assumption of responsibility can mean a loss of influence. An organizational management can increase its influence by avoiding decisions and the responsibility that goes with them. The chapter exemplifies this relationship by discussing a common type of decision process, namely budgeting. Budgeting is a common form of decision process in organizations. The budget is a decision on a grand scale: on one single occasion the organizational leadership makes decisions about virtually all operations over a future period, generally the coming year. The link between decisions and operations consists of money. However, the coupling between budget decisions and action is a very loose one.
Organized Hypocrisy
Authors: Brunsson Nils
Published: October 2017

This chapter deals with the theme of hypocrisy — the inverted relationship between decision and action. Hypocrisy is a response to a world in which values, ideas, or people are in conflict — a way in which individuals and organizations handle such conflicts. It is a way of trying to satisfy some demands by talk or decisions and others by action. Situations of conflicting demands often make it easier to act in one direction if the decision indicates the opposite: the more clear is the decision that is made about an action, the lower the likelihood that that action will actually be taken. The probability of an action increases if what is decided is in opposition to it. Decisions in one direction compensate for actions in the opposite direction and vice versa. In order to choose or mobilize actions, decisions must be made before actions. In order to establish responsibility and create legitimacy, however, this is not always necessary; instead it is often wise to make decisions after the actions — when there is no uncertainty about which action has been taken.
The Marine Environment
Authors: Holliday N. Penny , Henson Stephanie
Published: October 2017

The growth, distribution, and variability of phytoplankton populations in the North Atlantic are primarily controlled by the physical environment. This chapter provides an overview of the regional circulation of the North Atlantic, and an introduction to the key physical features and processes that affect ecosystems, and especially plankton, via the availability of light and nutrients. There is a natural seasonal cycle in primary production driven by physical processes that determine the light and nutrient levels, but the pattern has strong regional variations. The variations are determined by persistent features on the basin scale (e.g. the main currents and mixed layer regimes of the subtropical and subpolar gyres), as well as transient mesoscale features such as eddies and meanders of fronts.
Zooplankton Biogeochemical Cycles
Authors: Steinberg Deborah
Published: October 2017

The structure of planktonic communities profoundly affects particle export and sequestration of organic material (the biological pump) and the chemical cycling of nutrients. This chapter describes the integral and multifaceted role zooplankton (both protozoan and metazoan) play in the export and cycling of elements in the ocean, with an emphasis on the North Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas. Zooplankton consume a significant proportion of primary production across the world's oceans, and their metabolism plays a key role in recycling carbon, nitrogen, and other elements. The chapter also addresses how human or climate-influenced changes in North Atlantic zooplankton populations may in turn drive changes in zooplankton-mediated biogeochemical cycling.
Plankton and Global Change
Authors: Edwards Martin
Published: October 2017

Global change caused by human activities has had large consequences for the Earth's biosphere through such effects as climate warming, pollution, loss of biodiversity, unsustainable exploitation of resources, loss of habitats, and alterations to nutrient cycles. These changes have accelerated over the last 50 years as human populations have sharply grown, coupled with unsustainable economic practices. The marine pelagic realm, the habitat for planktonic organisms, is the largest ecological habitat on the planet, occupying 71% of the planetary surface. This chapter focuses on the effects of global changes caused by human activities on marine plankton. It introduces some key concepts of plankton ecology such as the ecological niche concept, plankton succession, and the use of planktonic indicators to monitor these changes.