Ulster,God's People,and the Interplay between Old Testament and Calvinistic Conceptions of Covenant

This article addresses the theological realities behind the relationship between the Reverend Ian Paisley and the Ulster Protestant people. In his capacity as both moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Paisley has been vocal in his defence of the Protestant constitution. He has also opposed any development which he believed amounted to a Protestant state softening its attitude towards Roman Catholicism. His behaviour in these areas can be understood in terms of an Old Testament-type covenantal understanding of a community's relationship with God. However, as a Calvinist, Paisley firmly adheres to the idea of ‘the elect’ who consist of those individuals whom God has chosen to be saved. This spiritual covenant between God and those predestined to receive salvation is not the preserve of any particular ethnic community and as such does not lend itself to the idea that Ulster Protestants have a special relationship with God, irrespective of Paisley's rhetoric.     

The Minority-Majority Conundrum in Northern Ireland: An Orange Order Perspective

Researchers have argued that, depending on the framing of the Northern Ireland conflict, each group could either be a minority or a majority relative to the other. This complicates macrosocial explanations of the conflict which make specific predictions on the basis of minority or majority positions. The present paper argues that this conundrum may have arisen from the inherent variability in microidentity processes that do not fit easily with macroexplanations. In this paper the rhetoric of relative group position is analysed in political speeches delivered by leading members of an influential Protestant institution in Northern Ireland. It is apparent that minority and majority claims are not fixed but are flexibly used to achieve local rhetorical goals. Furthermore, the speeches differ before and after the Good Friday Agreement, with a reactionary "hegemonic" Unionist position giving way to a "majority-rights power sharing" argument and a "pseudo-minority" status giving way to a "disempowered minority" argument. These results suggest a view of the Northern Ireland conflict as a struggle for "symbolic power," i.e., the ability to flexibly define the intergroup situation to the ingroup's advantage.     

Physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia: German Protestantism, conscience, and the limits of purely ethical reflection.

In this essay I shall describe and analyse the current debate on physician assisted suicide in contemporary German Protestant church and theology. It will be shown that the Protestant (mainly Lutheran) Church in Germany together with her Roman Catholic sister church has a specific and influential position in the public discussion: The two churches counting the majority of the population in Germany among their members tend to "organize" a social and political consensus on end-of-life questions. This cooperation is until now very successful: Speaking with one voice on end-of-life questions, the two churches function as the guardians of a moral consensus which is appreciated even by many non-believers. Behind this joint service to society the lines of the theological debate have to be ree-discovered. First it will be argued that a Protestant reading of the joint memoranda has to be based on the concept of individual conscience. The crucial questions are then: Whose conscience has the authority to decide? and: Can the physician assisted suicide be desired faithfully? Prominent in the current debate are Ulrich Eibach as a strict defender of the sanctity of life, and on the other side Walter Jens and Hans Kung, who argue for a right to physician assisted suicide under extreme conditions. I shall argue that it will be necessary to go beyond this actual controversy to the works of Gerhard Ebeling and Karl Barth for a clear and instructive account of conscience and a theological analysis of the concepts of life and suicide. On the basis of their considerations, a conscience-related approach to physician assisted suicide is developed.     

Militant protestantism: An analysis of the theology of political resistance and its impact on Northern Ireland

Ian Paisley is a controversial figure in the politics of Northern Ireland. Throughout the Troubles, and even before, he has led protests in opposition to religious and political developments in the province. He has also been associated with organisations that claimed to be ready to defend Ulster if the British Government's security policy collapsed. These organisations were prepared to use force if necessary. Paisley has been very vocal in his criticism of the British Government as well as other bodies of State. But Paisley claims to be a fundamentalist Christian and considers his comments and actions to be in conformity with his religious convictions. This article explores the theological and historical foundations of Paisley's thinking and endeavours to account for the political theology of Protestant fundamentalists like Paisley.     

The church,the monastery and the politician: Perils of entrepreneurial leadership in post-1970s Thailand

In recent decades, Thailand has seen the development of new styles of social and political organisation whose effects can be seen across religious and confessional lines. Among them are charismatically led large-scale organisations emulating the style of large-scale businesses. The article ‘triangulates’ this style via brief case studies of the Thai Rak Thai Party (now the Phuea Thai Party), the Wat Phra Dhammakaya Buddhist meditation movement and the Church of the Divine Call (pseudonym), who share some underlying similarities despite their overt differences. The similarities among the groups flow in part from trends associated with economic development and globalisation. Yet, at the same time these groups – and the ways in which they inspired such fervent opposition – express some enduring features of Thai cultural and social organisation.     

Militant protestantism: An analysis of the theology of political resistance and its impact on Northern Ireland

Ian Paisley is a controversial figure in the politics of Northern Ireland. Throughout the Troubles, and even before, he has led protests in opposition to religious and political developments in the province. He has also been associated with organisations that claimed to be ready to defend Ulster if the British Government's security policy collapsed. These organisations were prepared to use force if necessary. Paisley has been very vocal in his criticism of the British Government as well as other bodies of State. But Paisley claims to be a fundamentalist Christian and considers his comments and actions to be in conformity with his religious convictions. This article explores the theological and historical foundations of Paisley's thinking and endeavours to account for the political theology of Protestant fundamentalists like Paisley.     

Thick or Thin?

If liberal Protestantism begins with suspicion of tradition, is “thick” liberal Protestant theology possible or must liberal Protestant theology always be “thin”? This review essay examines several recent contributions to “thick” theology that make use of, and speak to, social and political engagement. The books under review describe and reflect on the varied forms of Christian political activism and organizing that have emerged in recent years around issues of immigration, fair wages, and global justice. I argue that a distinction between Christian activism and Christian organizing must be made, where the former denotes advocacy on behalf of a community and the latter means standing together with a community, bringing out the capacities of community members, and allowing oneself to be transformed in the process. Further, I reflect on whether liberal Christian theology necessarily results in liberal politics.     

What Kind of Reformation?: The 500th Anniversary of the Reformation and Today

While Luther did not intend to start a Reformation with his 95 Theses, the increasingly sharp conflict with the ecclesiastical authorities led to a separation between Luther and his followers and the Catholic Church of the time. Nevertheless, while the focal point for the 500th anniversary commemorations is Germany, even in the 16th century the Reformation had more centres than Wittenberg, such as Zürich, where Zwingli was active, and particularly Geneva. From here the impulse of Calvin's Reformation together with Free Church traditions prepared the way for the development of the culture of modernity in its various social and political manifestations. In view of the contemporary cultural conflicts in the globalized world, the churches of historic Protestantism should use the anniversary celebrations as an occasion to reappropriate the Protestant principle as a dynamic force, to search for a transformed embodiment of grace in the contemporary situation of cultural conflict, and to contribute to the shaping of a new culture of life.     

Fundamentalism and Political Violence: The Case of Paisley and Ulster Evangelicals

One of the dangers of using the term ‘fundamentalism’ for a wide variety of religiously inspired political movements is that it disguises vital differences. This article examines in great detail the involvement of the evangelical Protestant religious and political leader Reverend Ian Paisley in the political violence of Northern Ireland. It concludes that, despite the context apparently encouraging a Protestant jihad, or holy war, Ulster evangelicals are peaceful and law-abiding. Parallels with American fundamentalism are used to raise the question of contrasts to Islamic fundamentalism. It is argued that fundamentalisms differ in their attitudes towards political violence and that the differences are unlikely to be just a matter of circumstance.     

Fundamentalism and Political Violence: The Case of Paisley and Ulster Evangelicals

One of the dangers of using the term ‘fundamentalism’ for a wide variety of religiously inspired political movements is that it disguises vital differences. This article examines in great detail the involvement of the evangelical Protestant religious and political leader Reverend Ian Paisley in the political violence of Northern Ireland. It concludes that, despite the context apparently encouraging a Protestant jihad, or holy war, Ulster evangelicals are peaceful and law-abiding. Parallels with American fundamentalism are used to raise the question of contrasts to Islamic fundamentalism. It is argued that fundamentalisms differ in their attitudes towards political violence and that the differences are unlikely to be just a matter of circumstance.     

Religious Engagement,Civic Skills,and Political Participation in Latin America

To what extent has the growth of Evangelicalism in Latin America contributed to political participation across the region? A number of scholars of religion and politics in the United States have suggested that Evangelicalism promotes the development of civic skills necessary for political engagement, while the Catholic Church, due to its hierarchical structure, provides fewer opportunities for skill acquisition. In this paper, we apply this debate to Latin America to test whether civic skills developed in Catholic and Protestant church activities lead to differential participation rates in 18 countries. We utilize the 2014 Pew Religion in Latin America survey to test these effects, and find that Protestant churches do indeed promote skill-developing activities at higher rates, but that Catholics, when involved, are more likely to translate this religious participation into political action. We conclude that political scientists must better understand the organizational role of religion in promoting political engagement worldwide.     

Cultural Threat and Anti‐immigrant Prejudice: The Case of Protestants in Northern Ireland

Cultural threat has emerged as a consistent predictor of anti‐immigrant and anti‐minority attitudes across many different national contexts. We examine this issue in the context of Northern Ireland using representative survey data, suggesting that Protestant and unionist communities experience a higher level of cultural threat than Catholic and nationalist communities on account of the ‘parity of esteem’ principle that has informed changes in the province since the Belfast Agreement of 1998. Our analyses confirm that, although there is evidence for some level of anti‐immigrant sentiment across all groups, Protestants and unionists do indeed report relatively more negative attitudes towards a range of immigrant and ethnic target groups compared with Catholics, nationalists or respondents who do not identify with any political category. The analyses further suggest that their higher level of perceived cultural threat partially accounts for this difference. We argue that cultural threat can be interpreted as a response to changes in Northern Ireland that have challenged the dominant status enjoyed by Protestants and unionists in the past. More generally, we argue that a politicised characterisation of cultural threat needs to be elaborated through future work. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The protestant eruption into modern Brazilian politics

Brazil's fast‐growing Protestantism has contributed to a resacralisation of national politics in recent years. This is largely due to the politics practised by some of the large Pentecostal churches since 1986, using their corporate political power to strengthen internal leaderships and structure Brazil's huge popular Protestant field, as well as to gain resources for religious expansion and dispute space in civil religion. Corporate Protestant politics have been marked by corruption scandals and by politically motivated attempts to create representative organs capable of mediating the increasingly important relationship with the state. One new Pentecostal group (the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God) has established one of the largest media empires in the country and, in the 1994 elections, considerably augmented its political power and polarised the Protestant community with respect to its project of hegemony in the religious field. Thus, while Protestant politics can be considered generally positive for Brazilian democracy, the rise of such a politically powerful hegemonic force within the Protestant field gives a more sinister character to the ever‐present corporatist and triumphalist ambitions.     

K. H. TING'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE CONTEXTUALIZATION OF CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA

The spirituality and theology of Chinese Protestant believers and pastors is rooted in the profoundly conservative Evangelical‐revivalist and Pietistic missionary background of the Chinese church. Bishop K. H. Ting (b. 1915), the most prominent church leader and theologian of the Protestant church of China during the last decades, intends to broaden the narrow theological scope of the Chinese Christians. He emphasizes Trinitarian theology, natural theology, the theology of creation, and ethical principles common to all human beings. On the basis of these concepts, Ting attempts to find points of contact between the Christian faith, on the one hand, and traditional Chinese culture and modern secular Chinese society, on the other. Some critics of K. H. Ting claim that he is trying to introduce into Chinese Christianity liberal theological views which would eventually destroy some of the main pillars of the Evangelical faith. The present essay argues that this, in fact, is not the case; rather, K. H. Ting speaks for theological perspectives which belong to the theological mainstream, the ecumenical heritage of classical theology commonly accepted by a large number of both Protestant and Catholic theologians. Moreover, the essay points out that the contextualization of Christianity in China has been successful in adapting the Christian faith and life to the social, historical, and political context where the Chinese Christians live today. But the cultural aspect of contextualization, or inculturation, is just in the beginning. Younger Chinese theologians have a great challenge in facing the question: How to relate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to five thousand years of Chinese cultural experience, and how to connect this with various global cultural, economic, and other influences which so deeply affect the life of all people on this planet?     

Psychocultural Interpretations and Dramas: Identity Dynamics in Ethnic Conflict

Ethnic identity connects individuals through perceived common past experiences and expectations of shared future ones. Identity is concerned with group judgments and judgments about groups and their motives. This article explores identity through the case of Loyal Order Protestant parades in Northern Ireland and the concepts of psychocultural interpretations (shared, deeply held worldviews found in group narratives) and psychocultural dramas (conflicts over competing, and apparently irresolvable, claims that engage the central elements of a group's historical experience). Psychocultural dramas are polarizing events whose manifest content involves non-negotiable cultural claims, threats, and/or rights that become important because of their connections to core metaphors and group narratives that embody a group's identity. In ethnic conflicts, psychocultural dramas arise over competing claims that evoke deeply rooted dimensions of the conflict which cannot be settled by reference to more general rules or higher authority. Psychocultural dramas are tools of analysis for understanding the centrality of cultural identity and ritual in ethnic conflict and for the redefinition of such conflicts in ways that increase the chances for managing them constructively. Examining the psychocultural dramas surrounding parades disputes in Northern Ireland suggests why and how some conflicts are more amenable to constructive outcomes than others.     

The Political Attitudes and Activities of Mainline Protestant Clergy in the Election of 2000: A Study of Six Denominations

This study examines clergy across six mainline Protestant denominations in terms of their social characteristics, their theological positions, and their political attitudes and behavior. The analysis is based on data collected through random surveys of clergy in each denomination conducted in 2001 using the same instrument. The predominant focus of the article is on the nature and level of political activities exhibited by mainline Protestant clergy in the election year of 2000. The analysis revealed that mainline Protestant clergy are indeed relatively active politically, but that, despite their commonality of belonging to the same broad religious tradition, the nature and level of such political activities varies across the six denominations. Variation in the level of political activity is related to a number of different variables. And, while multivariate analysis reduces the number of significant factors that account for such differences, the remaining significant factors are associated with each of the major theoretical approaches that have been advanced to account for differences in participation levels.     

Intergroup contact,friendship quality and political attitudes in integrated and segregated schools in Northern Ireland

Background This study examines the effects of integrated and segregated schooling on Northern Irish children's self‐reported contact and friendship with members of the other denominational group in school and community settings. Aim To assess the effects of cross group friendships and cross group contacts in school and outside school on children's political attitudes. Sample A cross‐sectional design was employed with 1732 children being assessed at three age levels 11,12 & 14 years in eight‐matched integrated, maintained (Catholic) and controlled (Protestant) schools. Method Lisrel modelling was used to investigate the interrelationships among cross group friendship quality, cross group contacts in school and outside school and children's political attitudes. Results Intergroup contact within and outside school was reported frequently in integrated schools but only occasionally in segregated schools. Modelling revealed that cross group contacts in school and outside school were both associated with less extreme political attitudes. Friendship quality with cross group members had no significant effects on political attitudes. Conclusions The results provide support for educating Protestants and Catholics together as a means of moderating attitudes and creating cross‐community friendships in a divided society.     

The Political Mobilization of America's Congregations

We use data from the National Congregations Study (NCS), including data from the fourth wave, to describe congregations’ political activity in 2018–2019, and to examine change in that activity since 1998. Congregations have become more politically mobilized since 1998, with the majority of congregations (56 percent) engaged in at least one of the political activities asked about in 2018–2019. Black Protestant congregations in particular experienced a surge in political activity since 2012, and congregations with politically liberal convictions or in traditions with more immigrant members have substantially increased their advocacy on behalf of immigrants in recent years. Overall, since 2012 and possibly since 1998, the political mobilization of congregations on the left has increased more than political mobilization of congregations on the right. We also find that 4 percent of (overwhelmingly Catholic) congregations have declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants, and a surprisingly large minority (17 percent) of congregations would publicly endorse or oppose political candidates if doing so would not put their tax status at risk. Ironically, in light of the support for this tax law change among conservative leaders, African American and politically liberal congregations are by far most likely to publicly endorse a candidate if they could.