Academic literature on the topic 'Pious Obligation'

Abstract “EVERY SEAT IN God’s house was taken, the altar decorated magnificently, not only with flowers as is normal on Sunday, but also with sheaves of grain and various fruits that were placed on both sides of the altar. The singing of the choir surrounded the divine service while the parishioners appeared thankful and festive. It was the celebration of the rural folk, a celebration of the peasantry. For the country dweller it is obvious that during the harvest festival he should have a thankful heart and honor God upon whose blessings everything depends. The thoughts of this day scarcely require much effort from him to come to the surface: they are in his blood and they move his heart. For the true peasant, it is always a disgrace not to observe the harvest festival in church. This double belief, that God gave us the harvest and thus we must thank him, is for him somewhat natural.”This tribute, drawn from a Pomeranian church periodical to depict the “harvest festival” (Erntefest),the most important rite of the agricultural calendar, had two complementary purposes. First, it invoked the distinctiveness of rural life, the organic connection between rural dwellers and the land and the deity who blessed both with the harvest. At the same time, the article honored the pious peasant as the backbone of the German Volk.

Abstract Jews have long considered Lamentations to be a historical witness to the ancient destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. Salmon expands this interpretive framework into a spiritual practice of reflection [iʿtibār] on the biblical past in order to discover the reasons for the exile and the path to redemption. This chapter explores Salmon’s threefold historical discourse, from the historical-contextual (corroborating biblical accounts to produce a coherent timeline, examining economic and social factors) to the historical-theological (using historical evidence to prove the justice of God’s punishment), and culminating in his historical-hermeneutical practice of iʿtibār, the obligation of reflecting on the past as a source of pious guidance. The chapter argues that Salmon’s concept of iʿtibār constitutes a Karaite intervention in Jewish hermeneutics, ritual, and law. His concept of iʿtibār draws on Arabic historiography as well as Jewish historical experience.

In Analects 13:18 Confucius said that it is not upright for a son to give evidence against his father who stole a sheep. According to Confucius’ view, it is upright for a father and son to conceal each other’s misconduct. Similarly, in Plato’s dialogue Euthyphro Socrates seems to stress the son’s pious obligation to his father, when he regarded Euthyphro’s action of prosecuting his own father for homicide (‘dikē phonou’) on behalf of a laborer as crazy or strange. It seemed to Socrates that Euthyphro’s action violated the norms of filial piety, and he considered it inappropriate to prosecute a relative on behalf of an outsider. Like Confucius, Socrates seems to want the son, Euthyphro, to conceal the misconduct of his father’s committing murder. In this paper, however, despite the appearance of similarity in views, I want to focus on their differences. I assert that unlike Confucius, Socrates did not deny that justice (dikaiosynē) has an important meaning ahead of filial piety, if such a circumstance arises.

This epilogue reflects on the manifold ways that charitable institutions benefited from commerce—whether from their own commercial activities or those of their patrons. Church reformers criticized hospitals for accepting donati, who were permitted to receive room and board without taking vows. The reality, however, was that the donati at times brought in valuable resources that could be used to serve the poor and sick. In addition, the increased commercialization of late twelfth- and thirteenth-century society, particularly in a region like Champagne, may have contributed to the idea of a moral economy, including the obligation of charitable giving and service. The twelfth- and thirteenth-century social conditions that created a conducive environment for the flourishing of commerce were also advantageous for fostering charity and pious giving more generally. During a period of urban transformation, which created greater prosperity for some but also increasing poverty and insecurity for many others, the medieval hospital opened up new opportunities for social reciprocity and mutual assistance. For those with various kinds of needs, the hospital served as a source of physical, social, and material support in this earthly world, with all of its vagaries and vulnerabilities. In addition, though, the medieval hospital held out the promise of spiritual redemption in the world to come.

Abstract On New Year’s Eve,1930, in Rome, Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical denouncing birth control and abortion. A clear attack on the “new woman” and the “new” smaller family of the 1920s, Casti Connu.bii (On Christian Marriage) insisted on women’s subordinate position within the family and condemned non-procreative sex and the false freedom of female emancipation. The pope reminded states of their obligation to protect the weak and unborn, and specifically warned against the “pernicious practice” of eugenics.

This chapter outlines the structure and thesis of the book while introducing the concept of “ecopiety”―a shorthand term used in this text to refer to practices of environmental (or “green”) virtue. The chapter also introduces the reader to the book’s featured “sightings” of ecopiety, as observed mostly in and through NorthAmerican consumer marketing and mediated popular culture. This book argues that the fundamentally individualized, free-market, privatized, voluntary approaches currently marketed as adequate to addressing our monumental environmental challenges are not only wholly inadequate to the task but indeed can be counterproductive in the worst possible ways. Ecopiety, as marketed, is both too dourly restrictive in some ways and grossly facile in others. It simultaneously asks too little and too much, making pious actions taken on behalf of the environment grim, unappealing, onerous “duties or obligations,” on one hand, while on the other, it offers superficial, perfunctory modes of practice that are byandlarge insignificant in terms of scale and scope of impact. The author proposes alternatives for creative cultural paths into the future, as conjured by a variety of environmentally themed popular media works, practices, and narratives.