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grief when confronted by concentration camps and nuclear weapons. Instead McCabe argues that the biblical view is that though we cannot now write a history of humankind we must live in the hope that in the end such a history can be written (112–13). However fragmented the human race may be, a people have been called into the world to sustain the hope for a common destiny (113).32 The Bible, at least after the first eleven chapters of Genesis, does not try to be a history of humankind, but rather tells the story of a people whose history is a sacrament of the history of
distinguish between the institution and its rituals. The former, in the rural north- west midlands in which McGahern grew up, was primarily concerned with control and power. But this did not take from the beauty of its sacraments that lifted people’s eyes from the avaricious earth and revealed the possibility of another, more wholesome, universe. In his essay ‘The Church and its Spire’, we read: I have nothing but gratitude for the spiritual remnants of that [Catholic] upbringing, the sense of our origins beyond the bounds of sense, an awareness of mystery and wonderment
interests or promote particular faith-based agendas, such actions are generally very much subordinate to their goal of preaching the gospel, celebrating the sacraments, encouraging prayer and spirituality, and generally caring for the ‘spiritual needs’ of their flock. From this perspective, the form of government is largely secondary so long as it does not impinge upon the ‘free exercise’ of religious belief and practice, though most Christian churches in the ‘West’ have come to recognise that democracy in some shape or form provides the best conditions for their survival
traditional Protestant hymns, Catholic schools concentrate on Irish historical commemorations and Catholic religious rituals, and teachers prepare Catholic children for the sacrament of First Communion and Confirmation. Lambkin found in the mid-1990s that children’s knowledge of the other communities’ religion is weak, and that many religious and historical myths fill in gaps of knowledge about the ‘other side’.27 In fact Lambkin found that schoolchildren thought that religion was very important and, unlike adults, believed that the conflict was caused by religion. As such
the Bible foretold “Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch her hands unto God”. 22 And lo and behold, in 1930, with the coronation of Haile Selassie, that prophecy appeared to have come true. Like millions of other black people, Garvey was ecstatic. Alongside Liberia, at that time, Ethiopia was the only African country ruled independently of European powers. Garvey believed the coronation of the emperor of Ethiopia to be a racial sacrament, heralding a new order with better prospects for black people worldwide. Selassie was not only highly
day of the first Parliament thereafter, or at the coronation, that he was a faithful Protestant – a measure designed to ensure that no Roman Catholic could come to the throne. The precise terminology of the oath was as follows: I doe solemnely and sincerely in the presence of God professe testifie and declare that I do believe that in the sacrament of the Lords Supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever; and that the invocation or
’ beliefs. As Brian Barry puts it: ‘If you believe that the sacraments have efficacy only if administered by a man, you can scarcely regard the sex of the person administering them as irrelevant.’7 For this reason, it might be thought that religious associations should be given some power to discriminate in employment in favour of those with what their members regard as the right qualities; and that, to this end, religious associations should be given some degree of exemption from general anti-discrimination laws as these apply to employment. The putative right to
group of Catholic parents in response to the refusal of the Catholic Church in 1973 to administer the sacrament of confirmation to their children because they were attending state-controlled schools, but it quickly became an interdenominational movement (see Bardon, 2009 ). 10 Peter Robinson, whose constituency Lagan College
strongly tied to the religious history of that country. Although few mainline Christian denominations openly endorse SSUs, the various denominations do define the purposes of marriage differently. Most Protestant denominations in Western Europe, for example, encourage their followers to participate in monogamous marriage, but unlike in the Catholic and Orthodox churches marriage is not a sacrament thought to be directly blessed by God. The Catholic Church also has strongly condemned homosexual behaviour and relationships, while a number of Protestant denominations
. ETA, 1952–1980 , Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1984; W. Douglass, Basque Politics: A Case Study in Ethnic Nationalism , Reno, University of Nevada Press, 1985; J. Sullivan, ETA and Basque Nationalism. The Fight for Euskadi, 1890–1986 , London, Routledge, 1988; J. Zulaika, Basque violence. Metaphor and Sacrament , Reno, University of Nevada Press, 1988; M. Heiberg, The Making of the Basque Nation , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989; P. Clark, Negotiating with ETA. Obstacles to Peace in the Basque Country, 1975–1988 , Reno, University of