Past Imperfect (Journal)
Not a member yet
269 research outputs found
Sort by
Book Forum on Kerry Abel, Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History. Second Edition. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen\u27s Press, 2005.
No full textGender Transgression as Heresy: The Trial of Joan of Arc
No full textJoan of Arc has exercised a hold on the imagination, both medieval and modern, far exceeding her limited military achievements. It is perhaps for this reason that the trial of Joan on charges of heresy, culminating in her conviction and execution, is typically interpreted in a cynical light. The primary theme of the literature is that the she was brought to trial and convicted for challenging the institutionalized power of state and church. The issue of gender transgression, which is repeated throughout the transcripts of Joan’s trial, is either ignored or dismissed as irrelevant. It is typical of the medieval narrative that belief systems no longer accepted today are not taken seriously, and this is done through reducing them to familiar categories.
This paper aims to take the trial of Joan of Arc seriously by arguing that Joan really was a heretic because she was different from orthodox Christians in that she transgressed traditional gender roles. This issue played a major role in Joan’s trial and one can scarcely read two paragraphs of the record without issues of gender transgression being raised and denounced. Furthermore, gender transgression was explicitly identified as amounting to heresy, and theological arguments were given by learned experts to justify this connection. This is not to deny that Joan was a heretic on other grounds; her obstinate refusal to submit herself to the Church militant and insistence on her ability to interpret her own revelations are crucial issues. Likewise, we do not intend to deny the political aspect of her trial, but rather to argue that the defense and reinforcement of traditional authority structures cannot be demarcated from the issue of heresy and gender transgression
Targeted Representation? An Analysis of the Appointment of Liberal Candidates in the 1993 and 1997 Federal Elections
No full textThis paper analyzes the appointment of candidates made by the leader of the Liberal Party prior to the 1993 and 1997 federal elections. It argues that the appointments made by the leader were only in part a response to the expectations that political parties should become more descriptively representative of the Canadian population. Further, the paper raises a number of concerns regarding the use of the leader\u27s appointment power in order to ensure a more descriptively representative party and legislature. It is argued that while other potential reforms were ignored, a rather minimalist and centralizing strategy was utilized. Expectations regarding descriptive representation and conventions concerning candidate selection in Canadian political parties are briefly considered in order to place the 1993 and 1997 nominations in contex
A Conceptual History of Civil Society: From Greek Beginnings to the End of Marx
No full textThe idea of civil society has undergone a renaissance in recent years, but missing from this literature is an explanation for its historical transformation in meaning. Originally civil society was synonymous with political society, but the common modem meaning emphasizes autonomy from the state. This paper traces this historical transformation within the context of the history of ideas, and suggests that the critical event was an eighteenth-century reaction against the rationalistic universalism associated with the French Enlightenment. The continued significance of the question of universalism is suggested by the fact that universalistic Marxist Leninist theories provided the ideological underpinnings for the destruction of civil society in Eastern European nations. The paper concludes that three elements are essential to the modern understanding of civil society: its autonomy from the state, its interdependence with the state, and the pluralism of values, ideals and ways of life embodied in its institutions
The Sleeping Habits of Matter and Spirit: Samuel Clarke and Anthony Collins on the Immortality of the Soul
No full textIn 1706, Samuel Clarke, Newtonian and theologian, engaged in a debate with Anthony Collins, deist and country gentleman, over the nature of the soul and matter. Both men were responding to the work of Henry Dodwell, who earlier that year suggested that the soul was a substance naturally mortal, which was given immortality by God alone. While historians have long noted this debate, the underlying assumptions and intellectual debts of both Clarke and Collins have not been fully explored. Clarke\u27s arguments clearly revealed his Newtonianism and, what is more, it is now evident that he shared Newton\u27s conception of the soul. Collins followed a deist interpretation of both the soul and matter, a view first proposed by the deist John Toland. This article brings these assumptions to light and in so doing, demonstrates that Clarke was even more Newtonian than was previously thought and that deists shared more of a worldview than the denial of revelation