bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Edwards in the Context of International Revivals and Missions
Authors: Kling David W. 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Edwards’s international influence in revivals and missions is entirely dependent on the reception of his writings. In the context of the early stages of a transatlantic evangelical awakening, Edwards’s efforts to advance the gospel were both immediate and delayed: immediate insofar as his writings, particularly the Faithful Narrative, inspired Scottish Presbyterian and German and Dutch Pietist evangelical contemporaries to promote revival; delayed, insofar as his impact on foreign missions was not felt until the end of the eighteenth and well into the nineteenth century. Edwards’s most important contributions to international missions are derived from his conception of cosmic redemption (An Humble Attempt, A History of the Work of Redemption), his distinction between moral and natural ability (Freedom of the Will), and his presentation of an archetypical missionary model (Life of Brainerd).
Ontology
Authors: Wainwright William J. 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
The chapter argues that Jonathan Edwards’s concept of God was largely traditional and that arguments to the contrary which privilege his discussions of a so-called social Trinity are mistaken. It also takes issue with the currently popular view that Edwards was a panentheist. There is a clear sense in which God includes the world but—with one unique exception—the world does not include God. Just as the coming into being of Raphael’s Dresden Madonna is a literal part of his painting it, so God’s ‘acts’ of creation or emanation are properly regarded as parts of him, and what he does (that is, what he emanates) is literally part of that action. But what God creates or emanates is the history of redemption, and some parts of that history are more central or immediately salient than others. The material world, for example, is essentially nothing more than a platform on which the drama of redemption is enacted. The central or most immediately salient, on the other hand, are the lives of the saints, and it is only the latter whose lives can be said to include God. For because the saints necessarily include the Holy Spirit, they necessarily include God. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Edwards’s views on the ontological status of mathematical, logical, metaphysical, and morally necessary truths. The chapter argues that they are neither created by God nor exist independently of him but are instead aspects or expressions of his goodness.
The Natural Sciences and Philosophy of Nature
Authors: Zakai Avihu 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Jonathan Edwards’s philosophy of nature demands our attention precisely because he embraced some features of the new scientific modes of thought and reasoning which developed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, commonly called the ‘scientific revolution.’ Yet he rejected at the same time its mechanical, experimental philosophy, the predominant scientific doctrine of his time, according to which all natural phenomena can be explained and understood by the mere mechanics of matter and motion. When placed within the proper ideological, theological, and scientific context, Edwards’s writings on natural philosophy shed light not only on his specific reaction to contemporary scientific culture but also on the broader issue of the relationship between science and religion in the early modern period, thus constituting an important chapter in the history of ideas.
Universities, Futures, and Temporal Ambiguity
Authors: Facer Keri , Wei Ian P. 
Published: February 2021

AbstractThis chapter uncovers the multilayered history and development of the university as an institution of the future: from the stewardship of medieval college, to the principles of experimentation and discovery guiding the post-enlightenment university, to the traditions of critique and reflexivity in the contemporary lecture hall. The chapter explores the latent and historical strategies for stewarding, critiquing, and making the future that existed prior to the emergence of futures studies itself. It highlights the critical and politically laden relationship between university and society. It examines how the boundaries drawn between academy and society, and boundaries between different areas of expertise, are often associated specifically with different conceptions of the university’s relationship to ‘the future’. Facer and Wei conclude by raising thought-provoking questions about those who are included and excluded from such futures-making practices and by reflecting upon the ethical and social responsibilities of academics working within future-oriented disciplines in the university
Apocalyptic, World-Repair, Divination
Authors: Woodhead Linda 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
Eschewing the idea that futures-thinking is a new enterprise, this chapter scans the past to retrieve the most pervasive and perdurable ways of relating to the future. Three modes are recovered: apocalyptic, world-repair (or ‘originalism’), and divination (or ‘fortune-telling’). These are delineated with reference to their differing cosmological, ethical, and temporal horizons. The enterprise is needed because apocalyptic is well-known but misunderstood; divination is stigmatized; ‘world-repair’ is ignored as a valid mode of relating to the future—but all three remain influential below the surface. The chapter concludes by considering the continuing relevance—and dangers—of these pervasive modes in how we approach the future.
The Scarcity of Social Futures in the Digital Era
Authors: Appadurai Arjun 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This essay explores the paradox that collective, socially imagined visions of the future seem both abundant and scarce. Their abundance is based on the variety of images of possibility, hope, and the good life that emerge from the social and cultural diversity of our world. Yet, imagining the collective future is highly constrained by the limitations imposed by fear, censorship, and commercial and political propaganda. The chapter explores the conditions of possibility of this paradox. It argues that the scarcity of social futures in the digital era is a result of a process of Schumpeterian destruction, in which what is at stake is human creativity, curiosity, and the social relations of the non-virtual world.
Future and Prophecies in the World Vision of the Islamic State Organization
Authors: Adraoui Mohamed-Ali 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This chapter examines the Islamic State’s conceptualization of history and the future in relation this movement’s understanding of eschatology and the ‘End of Times’. Drawing on a veritable stream of jihadist literature, this chapter sheds light on the organization’s theorization of history, and the ways in which the Islamic State’s consistent jihadist millenarianism echoes an incessant dialectic between the past and the future to the detriment of a depreciated and sacrificed present. Adraoui demonstrates the way in which the Islamic State’s fundamentalist (mis-)interpretation of Islamic prophetic discourse merges terrestrial and celestial time, which is used to justify and exacerbate the use of extreme violence in pursuit of the organization’s aggressive political aims.
Discounting the Future
Authors: Doganova Liliana 
Published: February 2021

AbstractThis chapter analyses the political, environmental, and human implications of acts of discounting. Discounting is an economic instrument used by companies and policymakers to make the future commensurate with the present. This chapter argues that discounting is a political technology: it embeds debatable assumptions about value and the future, and it produces tangible effects in an expanding range of empirical domains. Drawing on examples from the history of discounting (capital budgeting, forest management, environmental regulation, and pharmaceutical research and development), the chapter discusses four of its political qualities. First, discounting equips collective decisions about the allocation of resources; second, it shapes the characteristics of future entities; third, it is an instrument for governing behaviour that guides decision-making in a myriad of places and instances; and fourth, it problematizes the very separation of the present and the future.
Beyond Computation
Authors: Williams R. John 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This chapter explores the institutional evolution of ‘scenario planning’ from the inception of the management technique in the mid-1960s. It examines the effect of scenario planning on changing visions of the future from a singular entity to a matrix of multiple possibilities. Emerging as a countermodel to the predictive power of the computer, scenario planning incorporated a number of new age and countercultural spiritualities that seemed to support the pluralized futurity it advocated. The chapter pays attention to the metaphysical assumptions of the technique, charting its origins in the RAND Corporation during the 1960s to its expansion into corporate management in Shell Oil during the 1970s and 1980s.
The Cybernetic Prediction
Authors: Rindzevičiūtė Eglė 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This chapter explores the often overlooked area of cybernetic prediction, a form of prediction conceptualized by the ‘father’ of cybernetics, the US mathematician Norbert Wiener, during the 1940s–1960s. Although critical interest in the cultural and political histories of cybernetics is growing, the notion of scientific prediction, which is central to cybernetic control, is insufficiently examined. This chapter argues that this form of prediction is not a mere technical cog in the epistemology of the future, but a complex concept. It demonstrates that Wiener’s epistemology of cybernetic prediction emphasizes the role of uncertainty and does not replace materiality with information. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the useful lessons offered by Wiener’s concept of cybernetic prediction for future-oriented practices within the broader fields of contemporary science, governance, and politics.
Making an Almanac
Authors: Benqué David 
Published: February 2021

AbstractThis chapter employs critical design practice to examine a specific form in the history of prediction—almanacs—and ultimately interrogates the nature of current forms of algorithmic prediction. The chapter revolves around the concept of monism—the idea that the same universal laws govern both natural and social worlds—and focuses on the role monism plays in predictions within almanac publications. It draws on empirical evidence from the Monistic Almanac—an ongoing practice-based research project which revisits the almanac as a site for experiments across the blurry boundary between data science and astrology—in order to conceptualize almanacs as precursors to the current regime of algorithmic prediction. The chapter experiments with computational astrologies and reflects upon the diagrammatic operations of data science. Benqué argues that divination opens up opportunities for critical design practice to question the authority of current notions of predictions.
Future by Design
Authors: Garsten Christina , Sörbom Adrienne 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This chapter critiques the anticipatory practices of contemporary organizations, such as think tanks and management consultancies, which offer methods and forecasts about possible and desirable futures. These organizations, the chapter argues, contribute to creating a sense of urgency with respect to the future, capitalizing on the perceived need among decision makers to grasp contemporary events, and provide tools and content by which the future can be designed. It argues that future forecast scenarios assist in the creation of a particular type of authority: one geared to the contemporary global situation and to an increasingly complex system of global governance. The chapter interrogates this particular type of authority to argue it is not singular and dominant, but instead comprises the varying interests of many different actors and is underscored by rational process, which offers the possibility of a wider shared understanding
Voices Prophesying Everything
Authors: Paskins Mat 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This chapter intervenes in critical debates about the recording and documenting of histories of the future by critiquing, and offering an alternative approach to, current practices. It argues that many histories of the future rely on an extremely selective range of empirical sources which secure particular versions of, and narratives about, the future. Instead, this chapter identifies and examines the multifarious form of the periodical as a vital source material for reconstructing the past. Juxtaposing numerous techniques of representing the future, the periodical enables different ways of imagining, predicting, and resisting possible futures to collide against and compete with each other in a variety of rapidly shifting contexts. Reading the diversity of modes for presenting futures in periodicals can help us to consider how different representations of the future, with a wide range of temporalities, are woven into one another within ordinary public discourse.
Ignorance is Bliss
Authors: Graf Rüdiger 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This chapter examines the challenges of writing contemporary history in light of our own ignorance of the future. Surveying a sample of recent German and English historiographical studies, it analyses how historians commonly deal with the unknown future, showing that they either define end points of their stories in the most recent past or extrapolate what they consider to be present trends into the future. While these histories of the present are mostly written under the assumption of a unified horizon of expectation and a linear conception of time, the chapter argues that they fail to do justice to the pluralization of the future that occurred over the course of the twentieth century and, above all, since the 1970s. The chapter defines and distinguishes four basic modes to generate the future—expectation, planning, risk, and conservation—and suggests that they are a source of methodological innovation for the practice of contemporary historiography.
Italian Futurism and the Explosive ‘Now’
Authors: Wittman Laura 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This chapter examines the development and changing artistic and socio-political implications of a particular temporal modality—‘the present as history’—within a variety of Futurist texts. It draws on the work of Frederic Jameson to argue that the Italian Futurists sought to radically disrupt a particular representation of the present in their calls to destroy the past and attempts to endow futurity with the urgency of fully embodied agency. Wittman argues that the Futurists reject a specific, historicist, bourgeois understanding of history and seek to inaugurate a new sense of time, an explosive ‘now’. Comparing early and later texts by Marinetti and other Futurists, and identifying their debts to anarchist thought, the chapter demonstrates that their strategy of breaking into the present can only counter totalitarian appropriations if it remains anchored in embodied practices.
Futures Honed
Authors: Adam Barbara 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This chapter comprises an interview between Barbara Adam and the editors, and is followed by Adam’s ‘Honing Futures’, which is presented in four short verses of distilled theory. In the interview Adam reflects on thirty-five years of futures-thinking rooted in her deeply original work on time and temporality, and her innovative response to qualitative and linear definitions of time within the social sciences. The interview continues with a discussion of the way Adam’s thinking on futures intersects in her work with ideas of ethics and collective responsibility politics and concludes with a brief rationale for writing theory in verse form. In ‘Honing Futures’, a piece of futures theory verse form, Adam charts the movements and moments in considerations of the Not Yet and futurity’s active creation: from pluralized imaginings of the future, to an increasingly tangible and narrower anticipated future, to future-making as designing and reality-creating performance. Collectively, the verses identify the varied complex interdependencies of time, space, and matter with the past and future in all iterations of honing and making futures.
Futures Studies
Authors: Gidley Jennifer M. 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This chapter examines and critiques the changing socio-political implications that accompany the shift from the concept of a singular future to the pluralization of futures. From the 1960s onwards, the emergence of multiple futures enabled larger sections of society to envision and create ‘alternative futures’ to the status quo. In this chapter Gidley brings to bear the democratizing effect of multiple possible futures upon the evolution of theory and practice across academic disciplines. In particular, she illuminates how the theory and practice of futures studies has paralleled developments in the evolution of science and the social sciences, to incorporate critical futures, cultural futures, participatory futures, and integral futures. She concludes with reflections about how the field of futures studies will continue to evolve so that it can diversely represent the future conceptualizations and actions of scholars, practitioners, and researchers globally.
Niebuhr’s Background: Family, Church, and Society
Authors: Gaston K. Healan 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This chapter explores the first four decades of Reinhold Niebuhr’s life, a period that offers many clues as to why his work has remained relevant up to the present day. Whereas many scholars tend to divide Niebuhr’s development into stages—a Social Gospel phase, a Marxist or Christian socialist phase, and a final period of liberal realism—this chapter identifies several lines of continuity from Niebuhr’s early life onwards that help to explain the distinctive contours and continued appeal of his best-known work, Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932). It focuses especially on three themes that carried through from the 1920s to the 1950s: the centrality of power and group conflict; the explanatory insufficiency of religious liberalism and the social sciences; and the capacity of religion to provide genuine knowledge about human nature.
Abraham Heschel
Authors: Heschel Susannah 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
The friendship between Abraham Joshua Heschel and Reinhold Niebuhr was both personal and intellectual. Neighbours on the Upper West Side of New York City, they walked together in Riverside park and shared personal concerns in private letters; Niebuhr asked Heschel to deliver the eulogy at his funeral. They were bound by shared religious sensibilities as well, including their love of the Hebrew Bible, the irony they saw in American history and in the writings of the Hebrew prophets, and in their commitment to social justice as a duty to God. Heschel arrived in the public sphere later, as a public intellectual with a prophetic voice, much as Niebuhr had been for many decades prior. Niebuhr’s affirmation of the affinities between his and Heschel’s theological scholarship pays tribute to an extraordinary friendship of Protestant and Jew.
Martin Luther King Jr
Authors: Paris Peter J. 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This chapter argues that Martin Luther King Jr was formed theologically and morally by his familial and ecclesiastical environments that were integrally connected. King’s life in that restrictive context readied him for his academic venture as a graduate student in the halls of Protestant theological liberalism at Crozer Theological Seminary and for four years as a PhD student at the Boston University School of Religion. Though King and Reinhold Niebuhr were a full generation apart in age, raised in radically different contexts, and never met in person, both would become world-renowned prophetic theological leaders. The progressive reputation of each made it inevitable that they would respect each other from a distance. King expressed gratitude for the insight he received from Niebuhr’s understanding of power relations and especially how those with power never voluntarily yield it except under pressure from a counteractive force. The chapter offers a reason for the primacy of the racial struggle for King and its tangential status for Niebuhr which may also account for Niebuhr’s more patient disposition towards social change as compared to King’s strong sense of urgency.
Ecclesiology
Authors: True David 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This essay argues that Reinhold Niebuhr had a rich and theologically informed ecclesiology. The argument begins by briefly considering criticisms of Niebuhr’s ecclesiology before turning to a close reading of his writings on the American church. These writings are practical in nature and brief, which perhaps explains why they have received relatively little attention. In them, it becomes clear that Niebuhr embraced several doctrines associated with the Reformation churches, including a high view of the sacraments and the persistence of sin. For Niebuhr, grace and sin are central to the church’s identity as a communion of grace. Grace, he claims, has profound implications for the church in the United States. In a culture that emphasises merit, grace should give the church a critical task. Niebuhr’s vision of the church, then, is a sect-church, at once sacramental and critical. The essay concludes by sketching how Niebuhr’s ecclesiology relates to and informs contemporary American churches.
The 1930s: Economic Crisis and the ‘End of an Era’
Authors: Sabella Jeremy 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
From the Great Depression to the launch of the Second World War, the 1930s spanned an extraordinarily tumultuous period in world history. Niebuhr’s work reflects the rapid and startling changes of the era. His major books of the decade—Moral Man and Immoral Society, Reflections on the End of an Era, An Interpretation of Christian Ethics, and Beyond Tragedy—contrast starkly in tone and method. Underlying these differences, however, is a set of realist sensibilities regarding human nature and social structures that became more developed and refined with each successive work. This chapter traces his journey from little-known seminary professor to one of the towering theological and ethical figures of the twentieth century as he navigated a period of profound economic crisis and dizzying political transformation.
Feminism
Authors: Hinson-Hasty Elizabeth 
Published: February 2021

Abstract
This chapter examines three feminist responses to Reinhold Niebuhr’s thought and contemporary Christian Realism—conflict, integration, and conversation. The chapter emphasizes the need for future conversation between feminists, realists, and ethicists across a wide variety of fields with people living in the most vulnerable and precarious economic circumstances in the US and around the world. More attention and exploration of Christian concepts of sin and redemption relevant within the contemporary context are worthy of attention. Fostering more intentional conversation across established disciplinary boundaries and with the world’s most vulnerable people will chart a new course in Christian ethics and nurture a more authentic American moral conscience in light of the greatest moral and theological problems of the twenty-first century.