...with liberty and justice for all : toward tolerant public discourse

This paper will examine the titles of several conservative and progressive religions and political organizations to demonstrate how some rhetors are distorting the lexicon of civil religion to conflate sectarian beliefs with political ambitions. While there is nothing inherently sinister about promoting sectarian beliefs, intentionally failing to differentiate between religion and politics muddies the public discourse and can be a means to justify intolerance toward opposing viewpoints

Legalists, Visionaries, and New Names: Sectarianism and the Search for Apocalyptic Origins in Isaiah 56–66

This essay re-examines the difficult questions concerning the origins of apocalyptic literature and the rise of Jewish sectarianism. Since the publication of O. Plöger’s Theokratie und Eschatologie and P. Hanson’s The Dawn of Apocalyptic, the search for proto-apocalyptic origins in early post-exilic period sectarian conflict has generated a fair amount of debate. The most cogent and sustained response to Hanson’s and Plöger’s theories, S. Cook’s Prophecy & Apocalypticism (1995), attempted to purge the influence of “deprivation theory” from the field of biblical studies, and, more broadly, social anthropology. The present essay makes a fresh study of some central lines of thought in these works, especially as they relate to the issue of sectarianism and the social framework used for drawing exegetical conclusions. In particular, one prominent theory of the symbolic—in this case, textual—expression of sectarian groups, that of the anthropologist Mary Douglas, is applied to a series of enigmatic and highly debated texts in Trito-Isaiah in order to show the continued viability of the “sectarian” interpretation of these passages

How to Rewrite Torah: The Case for Proto-Sectarian Ideology in the Reworked Pentateuch (4QRP)

This study challenges the initial categorization of the Reworked Pentateuch (4Q364-4Q367) as another non-sectarian textual witness to the Torah. A close analysis of the manuscripts suggests that certain unaligned readings likely ret1ect some of the sectarian ideas of the community. Other variants evoke both content and ideology of the authoritative Rewritten Bible documents, the Temple Scroll and Jubilees. These characteristics imply that 4QRP contains deliberate reworking of biblical material that is in line with sectarian ideology, in contrast to a mere mechanical copying of the text. Though the scroll may not be strictly sectarian, at the very least, it is protosectarian in that 4QRP served as source material for the community\u27s ideology

Violent Urbanization and Homogenization of Space and Place

This paper aims at understanding the dynamics of sectarian violence in the city of Beirut, by looking at the early phase of violence in the Lebanese civil war (1975–90), and the process of dividing Beirut into various sectarian enclaves controlled by the warring militias. The paper aims to show the way in which political actors used sectarian violence as a mechanism of social, political, and territorial control. As a point of departure, the paper views the city not only as a backdrop for conflict and violence, but also as an actual target. The objectives of the paper are threefold. First, it shows how sectarian violence was not random but was, rather, a product of a lengthy process that involved calculation and some levels of planning. It includes defining one’s …/urbanization, cities, urban conflict, Lebanon

Criminalizing songs and symbols in Scottish football:how anti-sectarian legislation has created a new ‘sectarian’ divide in Scotland

Since the 1990s, the regulation of football fans has increasingly shifted from the policing of actions to the policing of words. With this in mind, this article looks at the impact of the anti-sectarian ‘industry’ in Scotland. In particular, it looks at the impact that legislation in Scotland, that criminalized football fans’ songs and chants, has had on Glasgow Celtic, and especially Glasgow Rangers, supporters. The article is based on participatory action research with football supporters in Glasgow who were opposing the Offensive Behaviour at Football Bill, in 2011. Through this work, two issues became necessary to address; firstly, the impact of the anti-sectarian ‘industry’ in Scotland, which has grown precisely at a time when sectarianism appears to be declining, and secondly, the emergence of a new tension, divide or form of intolerance, which is developing amongst fans (particularly Glasgow Rangers fans), that has been created by this anti-sectarian industry

The trouble with sectarianism

This chapter attempts to situate the moral panic around sectarianism in Scotland in wider relations of social power. Sectarianism valorizes symbolic distinction and separation as prohibitions against social and ideological promiscuity and contamination between established and outsider groups (Weber, 1946). Sectarianism in this sense has been eroded by widening circles of identification in Scotland. Sectarianism today takes the form of a civilising offensive mobilised by the legitimate sources of symbolic nomination to regulate and discipline outsiders defined by a chronic maladaptation to the civilising canopy of the national habitus in Scotland

Some remarks about sectarian movements in al-Andalus

pdfEstudio de las sectas islámicasen los primeros siglos de al-Andalu