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Pauli brytning med Israels förbund
No full textIn the Tanach and in early Judaism the Torah belongs together with the covenant. It is also regarded as the order of creation. Palestinian Jewish piety has been described as “covenantal nomism”. The law is not a means of getting into a right relationship to God. It is rather the means of staying within the covenant. The role of the Torah in Judaism is comparable to the place of apostolic paraenesis rather than that of Jesus Christ in early Christianity. Paul explicitly and consciously denied Jewish covenantal nomism. What he found wrong with Judaism was that “it is not Christianity”; the law “does not provide for God’s ultimate purpose, that of saving the entire world through faith in Christ”. Paul tries desperately to be loyal both to his sacred tradition and to his overwhelming new experience. But in fact the covenant of Israel is rejected, for even a Jew is expected to convert, to undergo a new initiation rite. Above all, even a Jew has to believe in Jesus as the Messiah in order to be saved. This presupposes that the old covenant with the possibility offered by it for repentance and atonement is insufficient. The break was a logical necessity as soon as the claim was first raised that faith in Jesus is the only way to salvation
King David of the sages
No full textThe article opens by discussing the different ways in which the ancient rabbis (in the Talmudic literature) described King David. It seems that they preferred to follow the image of David which emerges from the books of Psalms and Chronicles rather than his description in the books of Samuel. Various verses from Psalms served the rabbis for completing David’s biography (seeing this book as his own autobiography), describing him as godfearing, a very kind person, humble and pious, a prophet, a scholar of Torah, a philosopher and a poet. Even his greatest sin – regarding Bathsheba and Uriah the Hettite – was described in such a way that it justifies the famous statement: “Whoever says that David sinned is merely erring” (BT Shabbat 56a). Some sources, on the other hand, admitted his sin but attached to it a long period of suffering and repentance, diminishing by that its impact. This part of the article ends with a discussion of the main motives for this rabbinic treatment of David: their general tendency to purge the biblical protagonists of sin; David’s role as the founder of the Israeli kingship and various messianic hopes connected to his descendants. The possibility that “David” served sometimes as a code for the Patriarch in the Land of Israel (or, in Babylonia, the Exilarch) is also discussed as another explanation of David’s descriptions in rabbinic literature
Book Review:Animals in China - Law and Society
No full textThe book Animals in China - Law and Society, written by Professor Deborah Cao, was published in August 2015 by Palgrave Macmillan as part of its Animal Ethics Series. The book is composed of eight chapters, written in English. In addition to the comprehensive introduction of the traditional role of animals and their legal status under the Chinese philosophical discourses and ancient legal regimes, it covers all the key areas of controversial animal issues in China in recent years, including wildlife, companion animals, fur animals, lab animals and other working animals, and it is the first comprehensive research monograph on the subject.
The Swedish Administrative and Legislative Frame for Animal Welfare and Official Animal Welfare Control Impacted by Private Quality Systems
Get PDFThis article provides a comprehensive review of the Swedish administrative and legislative frame for animal welfare and official animal welfare control in primary production
Proximity: A Levinasian Approach to Justice for Animals
Get PDFThe increased use of terms associated with rights appears to have led, at the most, to only moderate changes with regard to the actual level of protection and the underlying ethical-legal status of animals. Whereas the rights discourse may have been a logical first step, there appears to be underlying issues that cannot be adequately addressed through this discourse
Creating wisdom cultures: Integral Coaching as applied foresight in leadership development
No full textSystemic or integral frameworks are needed not only in our projects of creating knowledge and understanding, but also in our attempts to change the world, to make better futures. Transcending the flatland of one-dimensional materiality is pivotal in business, politics and everyday life. Therefore it is understandable that Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory has inspired not only those who wish to cultivate understanding, but also those who have the agenda of creating better futures for human organizations, societies or workplaces. In this article we will first look at the contribution of the futurist Richard Slaughter, who has utilized Wilber’s insights on spirituality in his foresight concepts and practice. Secondly we will focus on leadership development, utilizing Slaughter’s notion of wisdom culture. Thirdly we will present Wilberian integral coaching as a tool for creating wisdom cultures in business. Finally we will discuss how spirituality and wisdom culture are founded on our ontological concepts of human development and reality.
Integral Perspective on Happiness
No full textA happiness science has emerged amidst, and spans, the social sciences. This research, despite the long philosophical tradition on happiness, is in its infancy and a robust theory of happiness is called for. I will review parts of the literature and some of the main happiness theories using Ken Wilber’s Integral approach. I will concentrate largely on Aristotle’s eudaimonia, as that has re-emerged into the centre of happiness discussions as a possible contender for the prevailing subjective happiness theories. The Integral approach seems to provide valuable insights into many happiness theories, juxtapose them in a comprehensible way, pinpoint deficiencies, and propose enhancements. Amongst other things, I will propose a new happiness theory combining John Kekes’ happiness theory with ecological ethics and I will conclude that enlightenment proves to be a good candidate for the ultimate good, or summum bonum, I will enlarge on Aristotle’s theory and propose that Wilber’s theory provides an ‘Integral road map towards eudaimonia enhanced – the enlightenment’. I will argue that eudaimonia and enlightenment, though superficially dissimilar, accord in surprising ways, to a great extent. I will discuss whether the discussion of happiness and morality is critically biased, and I will discuss the societal implications that Wilber’s conception of the human might have through its implications for happiness theories.
Systems thinking, spirituality and wisdom: perspectives on Ken Wilber
No full textThis is the editorial for the special issue 'Systems Thinking, Spirituality and Wisdom: Perspectives on Ken Wilber'
Integral gnosis and the material other
No full textIn this article, I look at Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory as mimesis. This invites me to look at Integral Theory in three ways. First, I look at Integral Theory as process of making materialistic alterity, thus maintaining and fortifying the spirituality of the self. Second, I look at it from the perspective of the dialectics of epistemologies of estrangement and intimacy, raising questions concerning the legitimacy of the juxtaposing interpretative and explanatory approaches to culture. Third, I look at it from a social perspective, as a powerful instance of modern mimesis that creates a typically modern history. I will show how Integral Theory is grounded in the modern intuition of agency being distinct from and superior to the outer material world. To the extent that cultural agency has to materialize in some form, so does Integral Theory. My aim is to recall the close relations of scientific discourse with spirituality, even with magic and even more importantly, I want to show how supposedly secular intuitions of identity and agency bear strong potential for spiritual and religious discourse.
Sankt Franciskus och kyskhetens ikonografi
Get PDFTitle: Saint Francis and the Iconography of ChastityDuring the second half of the 16th century, images of a naked Saint Francis of Assisi, lying on a bed of burning coal accompanied by a female prostitute, started to appear in Franciscan art – first in illustrated manuscripts and then in oil paintings and murals. The motif is known as La castitá essemplaria di san Francesco (St Francis’s Exemplary Chastity) or Le tentazioni di san Francesco (The Temptations of St Francis) and forms part of the new Franciscan iconography that developed as a result of the Catholic reformation (1545–1563). Many of the episodes illustrated by Giotto and the artists of the 14th and 15th centuries were replaced by others that focused on Francis’s poverty, humility and exemplary chastity. In this article, the iconography of St Francis’s Exemplary Chastity in Italian art is studied from its origin in late 16th-century engravings through its developments in oil painting and murals until the early 18th century. The origin of the story is found in I Fioretti di San Francesco (The Little Flowers of St Francis). The Saint is pictured as a potent and muscular Miles Christi offering an example of his spotlessly chaste character through resisting a young prostitute, but who also performs a miracle and saves her soul. This image, it is argued, reflects the position of the reformed Catholic Church, where the individual’s own responsibility for salvation was clearly emphasized