Showing papers on "Vision published in 1973"

Radical visions and American dreams: Culture and social thought in the Depression years

Abstract: The Great Depression of the 1930s was more than an economic catastrophe to many American writers and artists. Attracted to Marxist ideals, they interpreted the crisis as a symptom of a deeper spiritual malaise that reflected the dehumanizing effects of capitalism, and they advocated more sweeping social changes than those enacted under the New Deal. In Radical Visions and American Dreams, Richard Pells discusses the work of Lewis Mumford, John Dewey, Reinhold Niebuhr, Edmund Wilson, and Orson Welles, among others. He analyzes developments in liberal reform, radical social criticism, literature, the theater, and mass culture, and especially the impact of Hollywood on depression-era America. By placing cultural developments against the background of the New Deal, the influence of the American Communist Party, and the coming of World War II, Pells explains how these artists and intellectuals wanted to transform American society, yet why they wound up defending the American Dream. A new preface enhances this classic work of American cultural history.

Religion In America: an historical account of the development of American religious life

Abstract: I. RELIGION IN A COLONIAL CONTEXT, 1492-1789. 1. Backgrounds and Beginnings. 2. The Colonial Encounter. 3. The Great Awakening. 4. The Birth of the Republic. II. THE NEW NATION, 1789-1865. 5. Religious Organizations in the Republic. 6. Thinking and Feeling in the Nineteenth Century. 7. The Flowering of Denominational Life. 8. Revelations and Visions of Religious Community. III. YEARS OF MIDPASSAGE, 1865-1918. 9. Race, Religion, and American Empire. 10. Jews, Catholics, Outliers and Other New Americans. 11. The New Intellectual Climate. 12. New Frontiers for the Churches. IV. MODERN AMERICA, 1918- . 13. The Shifting Religious Configuration. 14. Protestantism's Uneasy Journey to the Comfortable Fifties. 15. The Changing Roman Catholic Church. 16. Old and New Centers. Epilogue. Suggestions for Further Reading. Index.

The precincts of the prophet: a day with Johannes Galilee Shembe

Abstract: The study of African religious movements and independent churches comes eventually, in almost every case, to the problem of charismatic leadership: what is the gift of grace embodied in the founder and does it pass to his successors? The man who found these movements and the churches they become, or who continue to lead them, must possess in the nature of their work remarkable qualities of mind and spirit How else did they manage to impose themselves so successfully upon-and inspire-their fellows? In fact when we think of religious movements in Africa our minds are likely to run quickly to their respective founders and leaders: to Simon Kimbangu of the EJCSK, to Oshitelu of The Church of the Lord, to Charles Wovenu of the Apostles' Revelation Society, to Johanne Maranke of the Vapostori, to Alice Lenshina of the Lumpa, to Edward Lekganyane of Zion City Moria, to Isaiah Shembe of the Amanazaretha But our approach to the lives of the founding prophets is often curtailed by the mysterious circumstances of their confirmation They are likely to have had visions, been restored from the dead or otherwise raised to supernatural status from which it is difficult for them to descend for any purposes of inquiry If the enthusiasm or ecstasis they have experienced removes them from ordinary scrutiny on the one hand, on the other they may be removed to a purely spiritual status by their fellows in the process or on the pretext of the organization of their vision into an established cult

Dreams in an independent African church

Abstract: Dreams and visions have an important place in the life of many of the more colourful African churches of Zionist or Pentecostal type. This has often been noted (Sundkler, 1961; Pauw, 1960; Sangree, 1966; Welbourn, 1966; Peel, 1968) but has rarely received any detailed consideration. Any definitely sociological, rather than psychological, treatment of the topic is particularly rare. My object in this paper is therefore to attempt an explicitly sociological examination of the phenomenon in one particular church which I have studied. I shall consider the telling of dreams and the extent to which it is controlled and patterned by beliefs and expectations, i.e. dream-telling as an institution; and I shall go on to examine the part it plays in the life of the group and the ways in which it is further patterned by this.

Prophecy and Divination

Abstract: This chapter analyses the concept or concepts of false prophecy that prevailed in the Christian church of the first and second century A.D., and determines the place of the false prophet as described by Hermas within this framework. It distinguishes four types of false prophets: (a) itinerant false prophets; (b) apocalyptic false prophets; (c) pagan false prophets; and (d) false teachers. In the case of teaching prophets the doctrinal tests is indicated as soon as Christian doctrine has become sufficiently developed to serve as a criterion. When prophecy includes an element of prediction it may be judged on the basis of its outcome. According to Dibelius, the Didache proves clearly that the ministry of prophecy was in the process of losing respect in the churches. Peterson's analyses of the Visions of Hermas have shown convincingly to what extent they use concepts and pictures from Hellenistic divination.Keywords: Christian church; divination; Hermas; prophecy

The Book of Revelation: A Review Article on Some Recent Literature

Abstract: Recent years have seen an increasing interest in the study of the book of Revelation. There have been welcome reappraisals and new efforts toward getting at the real focus and meaning of the message of this important Bible book. To be sure, all that past scholarship has accomplished is not to be rejected; but it is gratifying to see the attempts now being made toward grasping the spiritual significance of a book which altogether too often in the past has either been neglected as insolubly enigmatic or been forced by expositors into somewhat preconceived molds.' The literary structure of Rev still needs much attention, a matter of prime importance which I have noted elsewhere, nientioning some recent endeavors along this line and also attempting an analysis of my own.2 In just the past few years several works dealing with Rev have appeared which deserve special attention for the kind of contributions they make or because of the sort of approaches they represent: Paul S. Minear, I Saw a New Earth: An Introduction to the Visions of the Apocalypse (Washington, D.C., 1968); Leon Morris, The Reve2ation of S t . Jshn: An Introduction and Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1969); and George Eldon Ladd; A Commentary on the Revelation of John (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1972). For the first of these I have already provided a brief critical review, and it is my hope to do likewise for the

Visions of extremity in modern literature

Abstract: In an earlier book Professor Krieger discussed the tragic vision as the confrontation with extremity-the writer's commitment to a master metaphor even as he acknowledges the incompleteness of that metaphor. The term "classic" is used here to indicate "the sense of restraint, of acceptance, of coming to terms with limitations self-imposed-as well as the awareness of the alternative one rejects in turning away from self-indulgence." The writer is thus viewed as one who accepts the common use of language while he endeavors to defy it through metaphor, one who accepts classically the common lot of man whereas his tragic impulse would lead him to reject it. Professor Krieger begins with the Renaissance lyric, which for him represents both the last moment of union and the first moment of collision between the classic and tragic visions in literature. He then moves through poems, novels, and a play, ranging in time from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, and delineates four kinds of retreat from extremity. In the works of Pope and Samuel Johnson he finds retreat through the worship of bloodless abstractions. The second form of retreat is the embrace of the natural human community, and the focus is on Wordsworth, George Eliot, Jane Austen, and Anthony Trollope. Through analyses of Sterne's Tristram Shandy, Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, and works by Swift, Professor Krieger demonstrates retreat through acceptance of the "human barnyard." The final form of retreat, through an alternative to sainthood, is shown in Faulkner's Light in August and T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral. In each case, Professor Krieger finds, by analyzing the pervading metaphor one is confronted with a counter-metaphor that mysteriously asserts itself: "The metaphors may have been unmetaphored, but they remain forms of imagination that constitute a reality, though it is now seen as imperfect. As such forms, the metaphors sustain us still. And that is perhaps the most classic notion of all."

A basis for linear algebra

Abstract: Based on an original study of 45 of America's most powerful black women leaders, this riveting book explores how these new power brokers are operating in the American mainstream. It is the story of their wants and desires, successes and failures, their agendas for social change, and their visions for a new style of leadership.