Secular Humanism

Civic identity in Renaissance Florence was based on a commonly held love and admiration for the city in which one lived. This love of one’s city was based on the fundamental values of civic culture and common identity. Nevertheless, civil rights were promised to no one, because they were acquired only by means of active participation in the activities of the state. The loss of membership to a civic community led to serious crises of personal identity. When the protagonist in Antonio Manetti’s redaction of "La novella del Grasso Legnaiuolo" neglects to show up to a dinner meeting of the group of artisans to which he belongs, he undergoes just such a violation of his civic identity. In focusing almost exclusively on the startling psychological depth of the novella, scholarship has neglected to pick up on the municipal undertones of the story, its thinly veiled simulated ritual of political exile and its meditation on civic identity. By historicizing our reading of Manetti’s version of the novella, this paper teases out some of the social issues that are present in the text and draws some conclusions as to how the culture of exile, which played such a prevalent role in the civic and artistic dynamics of the early-modern Northern Italian city-state, was potentially one of the destabilizing forces at work in the undoing of cities like Florence.

Ideologies and politics of humanism and secularism in Western Europe historically have a
tensioned relationship with religion as well as with feminism and the women's movement. In
this article, I aim to demonstrate the multiplicity and complexity of several recent secular
feminist responses to increasing religious diversity and the activism of Muslim women in the
context of Belgium – a society that is part of postcolonial Europe and is characterized by a
specific religious–secular landscape. I argue that the diverging ways in which secular feminists
approach Islam and the activism of Muslim women point at a controversy among white secular
feminists about religion – that is situated within and reconfiguring the local religious–secular
landscape through its (re)constructions of feminist secularities.

"
Throughout the nineteenth century, Maskilic journals increased their publication of anti-Hasidic satires. From the eighteen-sixties onward, this literature came primarily as a response to the revival in the publishing of Hasidic hagiography and to the spread of Hasidism into new territory. To this point, no complete review or even general survey has been performed on this extensive polemical literature, despite the fact that it has much to teach us about Hasidism and the Haskalah in those years. We are not speaking of an insignificant bibliographical lacuna, but of a disregard for an entire field of research which would shed light not only on a forgotten chapter of modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature but also on an important chapter in the relationships between Maskilim and Hasidim in that period and the genesis and development of the different streams of Hasidism. This Maskilic literature intended to do more than eradicate Hasidism; it aimed to strengthen the self-consciousness of the individual Maskilim who found themselves alone in Hasidic territory. Paradoxically, the literature documented the very movement it intended to eradicate from the world. The distorted reflection displayed in the anti-Hasidic literature does more than present a caricature of its subject -- it conceals hitherto unknown elements about the nature and development of the Hasidic movement. The present article deals with one such case, a satire on Bratslav Hasidism from 1863, which has at its core a Maskilic satirical text written by Yehiel Meller on pilgrimage to the grave of R. Nahman of Bratslav in Uman.





כתבי עת של משכילים לאורך המאה התשע עשרה הרבו לפרסם סאטירות בגנותה של החסידות. משנות הששים ואילך באה ספרות זו בעיקר כתגובה להתעוררות הדפסת ספרות השבחים החסידית ולהתפשטות החסידות במרחבים חדשים. לא קיימת עד עתה סקירה שלימה, ואף לא מיפוי כללי, של אותה ספרות פולמוסית ענפה, על אף שיש בה ללמד הרבה על דרכי החסידות וההשכלה באותן שנים.  לא מדובר רק בחסרון ביבליוגרפי שאין לו משמעות, אלא בהתעלמות משדה מחקר רב עניין שעשוי להאיר לא רק על פרק נשכח בספרות עברית ויידיש החדשה אלא גם על פרק חשוב ביחסים בין משכילים לחסידים באותה תקופה, ועל דרכי צמיחתם, פיצולם והתפתחותם של זרמים שונים בחסידות. הייתה זו ספרות שיותר מאשר נועדה לבער את החסידות נועדה לחזק את תודעתם העצמית של המשכילים הבודדים במרחבים החסידיים; ספרות שבאופן פרדוקסלי תיעדה תנועה אותה חפצו לבער מן העולם. הבבואה המעוותת בה התהדרה הסאטירה האנטי חסידית לא רק הציגה דימוי – אלא טומנת בחובה הצבעה על אלמנטים חדשים ועל התפתחויות בחסידות. במקרה אחד ממין זה הנוגע לחסידות ברסלב בשנות השישים של המאה התשע עשרה עוסק המאמר. שלפנינו - שעיקרו מהדורה של טקסט משכילי שכתב יחיאל מלר - בשנת 1863 - על העלייה לקבר ר' נחמן מברסלב באומן
"""

The University of Jaén, the Institute of Jaén Studies, and the Santa Capilla de San Andrés Foundation are organizing an international interdisciplinary conference in which various specialists will analyze, reflect upon, and debate a number of questions related to the context and reality in which the life and career of Gutierre González unfolded.  He was one of several Castilians based in Renaissance Rome at the papal curia, and founder of the Holy Chapel of Saint Andres (1515-2015), whose five- hundredth anniversary will be commemorated with this event.

An examination of the Eternal City and Spanish Rome, as well as the reality of Castile under Charles V, in which new ideals and proposals for ecclesiastical reform were circulated, is fundamental for understanding the circumstances in which Jaén’s clergy found itself.

In addition, a central aim of this conference will be to analyze the economic, artistic, and educational context, three key aspects for understanding the weight and influence of the institution established by Gutierre González.  These factors, without a doubt, have contributed to its endurance, and helped make it a point of reference for Renaissance art.

Finally, the circulation of ideas from the metropolis to the West Indies, as in the transmission of Gutierre González’s book Libro de doctrina christiana, will also be a point of interest, with the aim of uncovering one of the lesser-known aspects of this historical personage. 

The presentation of papers will complement the themes explored by the invited presenters. 

CALL FOR PAPERS

As a complement to the invited papers, the International Conference “Gutierre González and the Renaissance: Between Rome and the Spanish Monarchy” will accept the presentation of papers; as such, the pertinent call for papers is presented herein.

Each proposal should contain the following: Title, name of the author, home institution, email, phone number, an abstract of 300 words, and five keywords.  Proposals should be sent to congresogutierregonzalez2015@gmail.com, and will be accepted until August 31, 2014

The proposals will be subject to evaluation by the scientific committee, and acceptance will be confirmed via email by October 1, 2014.  The list of accepted proposals will also be published on the official webpages of the conference, http://congresogutierregonzalez2015.blogspot.it/  and http://www.facebook.com/congresogutierregonzalez2015

Presentations are welcome in Spanish, Italian, English, Portuguese, and French.

The complete text of the papers should be sent to congresogutierregonzalez2015@gmail.com by June 1, 2015.  The texts should follow the editorial norms that will be sent to authors by the conference organization.

Possible paper Themes:

Spain in Rome/Rome in Spain: immigration/emigration; Roman Spain; Italians in Spain; diplomatic relations; papal curia; networks: courts, families, and patronage; transmission and circulation of ideas; transmission and circulation of texts

Spain in the time of Charles V: groups of influence; minorities; social aspects; institutions

New Ideas: new spiritual currents; ecclesiastical reform projects; humanism and humanists; education of the clergy; diocesan clergy; press; censorship; education; social assistance

Economy: ecclesiastical economies; urban and rural patrimony; accounting

Art and artists: artistic relationships between Spain and Italy during the Renaissance; patronage; the art market between Spain and Italy

West Indies: transmission and circulation of ideas; evangelization; book market

Jaén in the Sixteenth Century: society; culture; Church; social assistance; religiosity; Holy Chapel of San Andrés

Dates of interest:

Deadline for paper proposals: August 31, 2014

Notice of Acceptance of Proposals: October 1, 2014

Deadline for Papers: June 1, 2015

Date of the conference: September, 9, 10 and 11, 2014

"

This paper examines transhuman technologies that seek to eradicate disability - primarily prostheses and implants. While most would agree that disability denies individuals the same quality of life as those deemed “abled,” this eradication ultimately relies upon secular humanist notions of the perfect human. Transhuman technologies hold obvious implications for the human body, however they also hold implications for what it means to be an acceptable body; ultimately these technologies aim to create the perfect human by eradicating the disabled Other. This paper uses these notions to question concepts of “hierarchies of life,” at which disabled individuals are most commonly moved towards the bottom, or at the very least considered nonhuman. This article seeks to provide alternative theory to the eradication of disability, which states that these individuals may not have the same mode of existence, but that their mode/s are just as valid as those lived by “abled” individuals through an examination of Braille

My essay called "Secular humanism, the human rights, religion" is a response to the special feature issue "Religion and Society" (Nya Argus nr 10-11/2013), which, I argue, is skewed. 'Society,' as part of the binary above, is absent, transforming the issue into a theistic pamphlet. The illusion of Finland as a theocracy is disturbing.