Christian Zionism is a political and religious phenomenon which has shaped the current Middle East to a very significant degree. Prompted by their religious beliefs, Christians played an important role in facilitating Jewish return to Zion, and in subsequent establishment, justification and defense of the State of Israel. Faith as motive behind Christian support of Israel became a more discussed topic during the recent years. That phenomenon was, however, usually superficially explored, particularly in Europe, where it was often perceived as a new and bizarre American excess, prompted by some other, non-religious and obscure interests. By inquiry in its history, this article demonstrates that such a view of Christian Zionism is largely incorrect. Christian Zionism can be traced all the way back to early 19th-century European and American Christian Evangelical movements. It grew out of a certain view of ecclesiology and literal interpretation of the Bible. The article suggests some explanations for reasons why it took so long for Christian Zionism to become recognized as a political and religious phenomenon, and argues that Christian Zionism by mid-20th century underwent a profound transformation. From an eschatological, proselytizing evangelistic movement it became more focused on ideology and geopolitical circumstances. The movement is still based on Christian religion, but support to the Jewish state is not focused on end-time prophecies any more. Among the main themes of the movement's current phase are recognition of Jewish and Christian common roots and civilizational proximity, fulfillment of Old Testament promises to Jews, resistance to global jihad, and Christian remorse for the horrors of the Holocaust. In conclusion, Christian Zionism is probably an unprecedented interfaith phenomenon, which is, in spite of being complex, multifaceted, and multilayered, genuinely and primarily religious. Adapted from the source document.
The term charisma was first used in theological writings. In the Old Testament literature, the term occurs only twice. However, in the New Testament it occurs seventeen times. It is used by St. Paul in the First Letter to the Corinthians, in the Letter to the Romans, in the Second Letter to the Corinthians. In the political context, the word charisma has been lavishly used in the analyses of national-socialist & Stalinist regimes. Charismatic legitimation is, primarily, a feature of various types of dictatorships & not of democratic, constitutional states. This is probably why charismatic aspects are so notorious in most contemporary social theory. 18 References. Adapted from the source document.
U svom djelu Zatvorena trgovačka država iz 1800. godine, njemački filozof Johann Gottlieb Fichte zagovara ekonomsku autarkiju kao radikalan oblik protekcionizma, dok 1840. njemačko-američki ekonomist Friedrich List izdaje »bibliju protekcionizma«, djelo Nacionalni sustav političke ekonomije u kojem se suprotstavlja učenju Adama Smitha o važnosti slobodne trgovine i međunarodne razmjene. Pitanje otvorene ili zatvorene privrede iznimno je aktualno s obzirom na to da su globalizacijski procesi rezultirali rastućim nejednakostima i drugim anomalijama te se, kao reakcija, ponovno javljaju, ako su ikad i nestale, snažne protekcionističke prakse. U radu će se pokušati odgovoriti na pitanje je li globalni kapitalizam nužno suprotstavljen ekonomskom nacionalizmu te koju poziciju u toj opreci danas zauzimaju lijeve i desne političke opcije. Naime, umjesto lijeva ili desna, sve češće može se čuti da je neka stranka sistemska ili prosvjedna, pri čemu se tzv. sistemskima predbacuje da žele zadržati status quo u provođenju neoliberalne agende, dok prosvjedne često klize u populizme i nacionalizme. ; Johann Gottlieb Fichte in his work The Closed Commercial State (1800) argued for economic autarky as the next reform of protectionism. German-American economist Friedrich List published The National System of Political Economy (1840) which is considered to be the "Bible of protectionism". List was the opponent of Adam Smith's theses on the importance of free trade and international market. The advocate in a shift from open to closed economy is actual in the globalized world, which is determined by growing inequality and other social and political anomalies. Protectionism is imposed as a possible response to the discontents of globalization. The paper attempts to answer if there is a link between global capitalism and economic nationalism, and how are left and right political parties related to that possible link. Recently, in the days of political dissatisfaction, the alternative between left and right positions is replaced by the opposition between system and anti-system or protest parties. While system parties are criticized for keeping a status quo of neoliberal agenda, protest parties slide into nationalism and populism.
U svibnju 1841. godine otvorena je pri Židovskoj općini u Zagrebu prva škola, Bildungsschule, i prvi učitelj bio je Karl Saphir. U Varaždinu je tada već postojala škola sa 65 učenika. Troškovi škole namirivali su se školarinom i dobrovoljnim prilozima, a siromašni đaci bili su oslobođeni plaćanja. U listopadu 1855, nakon kraće stanke, otvorena je u Židovskoj općini Trivialschule sa tri razreda. Podučavani su njemački jezik i hebrejski predmeti. Jezik u nastavi u školama Hrvatske bio je odraz političkih prilika. Dok se u pučkim školama dozvoljavao "zemaljski pučki jezik", u gimnazijama se učilo na stranim jezicima. Tako je 1848. u Hrvatskoj i Slavoniji nastavni jezik latinski s obveznim mađarskim. 1849/50 uveden je "ilirski jezik" s obveznim njemačkim. Poslije je njemački jezik proširen i na nastavu povijesti, prirodopisa, matematike i fizike. Ilirski jezik je službeni do 1854, a poslije se uvodi hrvatski, ali samo za učenje hrvatskog jezika i vjeronauka. U Rijeci je u školama neko vrijeme ilirski i talijanski jezik, a od 1854/55 njemački. ; The first Jewish schools in Croatia were founded in Varaždin and Zagreb, and later in Osijek. At first, they were under the control of the Catholic Church as were other Croatian schools. In 1851/52 there were four Jewish schools with 131 pupils and in 1853/54 the number of pupils amounted to 277. The first Jewish school was established in Zagreb in 1841 and in 1889 it was moved to a new Community building containing four classrooms. The first director was Rabbi Dr Hosea Jakobi. Besides the obligatory curriculum, pupils learnt the Bible, holiday customs and the Hebrew language. For pupils at other elementary schools in Zagreb religious education was conducted several times a week and secondary school pupils went to the Jewish community once a week to attend classes. Great attention was paid to the education of children and the young: support and scholarships were given; boarding schools, centres and canteens were founded. There were many youths and student's societies, for example, The Jewish Society for Supporting Poor Students, Judea, Esperanza (the Sephardim), Literary section and Credit cooperative "EZRA" and other organizations. In 1929/1920 the Jewish communities in Croatia numbered over 500 elementary pupils, over 1,000 secondary school pupils and more than 250 students at the University of Zagreb, mainly studying law and medicine (girls made up a quarter of this number). In the centres of Jewish communities secondary schools were attended by pupils from neighbouring villages and meals were organized for them (Tage esen) in Jewish families. Teachers from Jewish communities went to surrounding villages and organized religious education. Many libraries and cultural, music and other activities were organized for children and youth in the communities. ; Tekst je objavljen u knjizi "Židovi u Hrvatskoj - židovske zajednice", Zagreb, 2004, str. 141-145 (the text was published in the book "Jews in Croatia - Jewish Communities", Zagreb, 2004, pp. 141-145).
Autor pokazuje kako se stil Božidarevićeva slikarstva može analizirati kao reprezentativna građa za povijest dubrovačkog društva1500-tih godina, premda se Nikola ustezao od prodornijeg promatranja svog unutarnjeg svijeta i onog vanjskog koji ga je okruživao, dočim se moglo očekivati (obzirom na njegov temperament i budući da je radio po narudžbi kapetana i trgovaca globe-trottera) da mu slike budu proviđene s više detalja onodobne vidljive stvarnosti. ; He signed himself in brush strokes only twice as: Nicolaus Rhagusinus, Nicolo Raguseo- Nikola of Dubrovnik - once in a marble medallion under the arm of Gabriel in the middle of the Annunciation, which he painted in 1513 forthe Đorđić family, the second time at the foot of the Virgin's throne on the main altar retable in the Church of Our Lady of Dance, his last work (1517). This name, until the archival discovery of his Croatian family name, fired the imagination of those researching Dubrovnik Renaissance art and even became a kind of myth. To call himself Rhagusinus in the middle of Dubrovnik undoubtedly meant a self-confident declaration vis a vis his artistic contemporaries- especially Mihajlo Hamzić and Vicko, the son of Lovro Dobričević,and even perhaps in relation to his own father whose workshop he had just left. When we stand today in front of polyptychs of this kind (which, when preserved in full, amaze us by the perfect balance of their general composition) we rarely think that they were created as bricolage. Immediately after Nikola's return from Italy he, and his father Božidar Vlatković received several very large orders. In 1495 they were given a contract for the retable of the main altar of the Franciscan church in Cavtat. The church authorities required that the central composition and figures on the left side should be composed according to the pattern of a polyptych executed almost half a century earlier by Matko Junčić in the church of the Minorite Friars in Dubrovnik, while figures on the right side were to be done according to the pattern of another altar in the same church. The saints in the upper part of the polyptych, shown down to the waist, were to be done after Junčić also, and only the central Pieta according to an earlier painting by Božidarević. The same is true of their style. Experts have very easily "reduced" Božidarević's work into the style and themes found in the Crivelli brothers and Vittore Carpaccio. But Božidarević obviously also knew the fresco paintings of Perugino and Pinturichio in the Vatican palace (Appartamento Borgia)and elsewhere in Rome where his brush may, according to Vladimir Marković, have indeed been involved. The form of a polyptych (like the form of a sonnet) helps in the construction of a figural composition, in a rationally and symmetrically balanced composition. It equalizes lighting, concentrates sight and attention: even when its constructional elements are removed, which make the composition of a polyptych, it continues to make an invisible effect for a long time. By 1500 the form of the polyptych which the "Dubrovnik School of Painting" retained until the end had become a Procrustean bed. It did not allow figures to be shown in a natural context, to be enlivened by being shown with real appurtenances, nor for any relaxation of stiff postures, or any easier breathing. Thus in Božidarević's paintings the representation of real life and the movement of the real world is only found in miniatures, on the borders of polypthychs, in "footnotes" on individual articles or when we study details "microscopically". In fact it is drapery which is the most convincing and arresting and almost tactile element of Božidarević's painting. Just as we perceive the bustle of the harbour on the model of Dubrovnik held by St Blasius so too he was fully aware of the richness of the materials which were produced at this time in Dubrovnik. Cloth was as important as salt for the trade of Dubrovnik and was a very tangible asset in the consciousness of the city. It may be paradoxical but it is accurate to say that Božidarević did not paint portraits (using patterns of characters) but portrayed materials in which his saints were clothed. It is of significance in this context that the most outstanding assistant in his workshop for which in 1507 he rented a whole floor in one of the mansions on Placa, suitable because of its good light - was Marin Kriješić who is recorded in one of the archives as "pictor sive coltrarius", painter of pictures, curtains, covers and cloth. When we consider Božidarević's landscapes we also notice a paradox. The endless journeys of the Dubrovnikians, constantly involving the sea, did not give rise to the desire to extend the picture to include real landscape even in those ordered by ship's captains, merchants, or globe-trotters. But it would have been unrealistic to expect Nikola Božidarević to show the Annunciation in Kolendić's Lopud landscape. Instead he presents the stereotyped picture of the humanists' idea of Arcadia but omitting Bellini's ploughmen and donkeys. This is no bucolic Virgilian landscape as created in the circle surrounding Giorgione - no mundane Utopia in which we might like to live. Behind Gabriel the landscape is wild and rough, behind Our Lady it is cultivated, these are more symbolic, antithetical rather than any true mise-en scene. When we first come to Božidarević's paintings we may be surprised by the fact that in spite of the very real situation within which they developed, there is a lack of any penetrating observation of either inner or outer worlds. Where details appear they largely represent a sanctified aspect of reality: spiritualiasub metaphoris corporalium, as Thomas Aquinus would say. The political, diplomatic, commercial realism of the people of Dubrovnik was, surprisingly enough, very late reflected in an art which served symbolic ends. Considered from this angle the architectural presentation of the city has something in common with butterflies which have great black eyes on their wings in order to make an impression on their surroundings and themselves. Thus in Božidarević and his predecessors we shall find no dark allegory, as measured by today's art critics, but a clear and balanced representation of the Bible message. These polyptychs provide a view of many kinds of fear (of heaven, of the sea, of plague, of Turks of all kinds, of oneself), and also of much hope. The four paintings by Božidarević which have come down to us are typologically different. This only shows us how impoverished we are not to have his entire opus. All four of Božidarević' surviving paintings were private votive offerings. Their subject must therefore be read according to the wishes of the person who ordered them. It is often considered, taking into account their formal superioriy that the Sacra conversazione of the Đođic painting and the Annunciation done for Captain Marko Kolendić are the "measure" of Božidarević's painting. If the former is his first example of a particularly popular Renaissance composition in Croatian art history, the second is his first independent central altar painting. Private orders in Dubrovnik of the time continued to demand the traditional religious, especially votive themes. But in the wider sphere new, more secular, opportunities presented themselves. A study by Vladimir Marković shows this programme to have arisen out of a combination between political intentions and the moral principles of the patrician oligarchy which coincided and were identified with the Renaissance view of Christian and especially with the classical Roman exempla. Božidarević was the contemporary of poets Džore Držić and ŠiškoMenčetić, of Mavro Vetranović. Marin Držić, the most successful writer of Dubrovnik's "Golden Age" was born when Nikola was in prison for the ribald songs. But we cannot but feel that the painter's temper remains hidden behind the porcelain surface and perfect outer symmetry of his compositions. The Dubrovnik context did not provide opportunities for the expression of strong passions. The demands for caution and order were unremitting. There might be considerable personal pride but there must never be bragging. It was not a setting for great philosophy or poetry, nor for tragedy, but for the natural sciences, economics and- along with them- comedies. Unfortunately Dubrovnik painting was fated to disappear almost unnoticed, with no fanfares or real apogee, to be drowned in the import of baroque art from the other side of the Adriatic. When we talk about Dubrovnik, the Renaissance is our first association, but the Renaissance in Croatian painting never managed fully to develop. Indeed Gothic was never fully relinquished but, rather, gradually disintegrated. Its place was taken by the counter Reformation, together with a whole packet of ready-made solutions, before the Renaissance had managed to achieve full definition. We cannot experience Nikola's paintings as Renaissance building blocks cut out from the reality of their own day. We may rather consider them as tables bearing rich fabric. His saints, enveloped in brocade, standing before an azure sky, are sunk in timeless melancholy. They are depicted in an indeterminate context as they appeared to the eye of the painter - without any later addition of colour. They did not attain the position of an academic standard for the Dubrovnik painting of the period that followed. Božidarević went ad patraim paradisi the same time as Mihajlo Hamzić, son of the German immigrant Hans, a "bombardiere" from Cologne, and Vicko Lovrin, son of Dobričević. The sudden and complete change of generations coincided with a fundamental change in the taste of the rich commercial class when it began to turn to the artists of the Bellini and Titian circle. The colours of Božidarević's painting are the most harmonious chords of Dubrovnik's "Golden Age". Of the one hundred and fifty polyptychs registered at the time of Sormano's apostolic visitation in 1573 less than one tenth remain. The Dubrovnik archives record seventeen works by Božidarević but only four have come down to us. In old cities such as Dubrovnik - colour, like everything else except stone, is recessive. What we have today is an idealized impression of what was once reality.
