The Introduction sets the stage for the detailed intellectual history of salafism to follow by introducing key analytical concepts in political theology and Axial theory. It frames modern salafī theonomy within a general understanding of the developed Abrahamic traditions as a meeting-ground for two competing conceptions of transcendence. Both the ancient Israelite and Greek Axial revolutions are described as differing responses to the model of sacral kingship characteristic of the archaic states in the region: The former assigned true kingship to God alone, who then stands in competition with mundane sovereigns and demands exclusive allegiance to Himself, while the latter, in a process starting from the Late Bronze Age collapse, dissolved issues of sovereignty and power into ontological and metaphysical formulations. These originally distinct conceptions are analyzed through their contrasting tenets in five categories, the most important of which is the distinction between ‘monolatry,’ on the one hand – the restriction of worship to one God – and conceptual monotheism, on the other. This analysis provides the basis for the typological study of Taymiyyan theology undertaken in Chapter 1, and more generally for the treatment of monolatry and theonomy in the salafī tradition throughout the book.

In this chapter, I will use the Great Khan’s dreams of the white knight as the starting point to examine the problematic figurations of idolatry, fetishism, orality and whiteness within late medieval travel writing, especially Mandeville’s Travels and Marco Polo’s Le Devisement dou monde. Seemingly unrelated among themselves or to whiteness, these material and performative manifestations of faith nonetheless intersect in important ways in medieval perceptions and representations of the Tartars. The kind of cultural and textual ‘whitening’ of Genghis Khan’s dreams that Hetoum and the Mandeville-author engage in points to the power of artistic manipulations. Geoffrey of Vinsauf, in his Poetria nova, argues that art ‘plays about almost like a magician, and brings it about that the last becomes first … black white, and vile precious’. Jacqueline de Weever argues that such a belief in art’s capacity to transform black into white (nigra candida) is also a belief in the possibility of erasing alterity through whitening. Whitening, in its attempt to mask anxieties and assimilate differences, ignores the origin of alterity. The act of whitening, in fact, posits a new origin.

The mandate informs the mediators about key issues required to be able to design a peace accord with lasting qualities. This chapter discusses some of the procedural issues, such as the timing of ceasefires and questions of partial versus comprehensive agreements: Should all issues be negotiated or some left for future processes? A particular issue is the demand for territorial self-government or even complete independence. It seems that Nordic mediators have been influenced by previous experiences in this regard. Examples are given from the Oslo Process, Kosovo, Guatemala, Sudan, and Northern Ireland. The chapter addresses matters of power sharing and the importance Nordic mediators give to the role of women in negotiations and implementation. Human rights, justice, and security for the parties are discussed.

Finnish clearcutting is driven by a historically consolidated political economy that includes the large paper and pulp companies, energywood users, and state and regional forestry expert organizations. The Finnish case highlights how boreal forest clearcutting is a key issue that receives less global attention than tropical forest deforestation. Historically, clearcutting was a story of economic growth, framed as a national success story of boosting national welfare in the aftermath of the Second World War (WWII). This approach to forestry management was a top-down model, which severed the traditional relations Finns had to forests. Since WWII, clearcutting has become an institution that is supported and protected by both industry and the Finnish state. This reflects the persistent hegemonic situation, although the role and importance of the forest industry has declined in society and economy. Even though the forestry industry is losing ground, it is still important in the cultural mindset of several forestholders. This chapter explains the crucial role played by a hegemonic and dominant system, which includes corporations, key state actors, and many private forestholders.

There is a worry that central claims pertaining to the divinity and humanity of Christ form a logically inconsistent set. This chapter briefly surveys and critically examines some of the ways of addressing the worry of inconsistencies and advocates a minimalist approach to resolving the worry.

George Jackson inhabits a central position in the living archive of diasporic Black radical and global revolutionary intellectuals. This chapter examines how Jackson’s political thought emerged through his consistent self-identification as an ordinary Black person inhabiting the historical, structural antiblackness of the United States. Against the telos of many carceral/prison narratives, Jackson’s Soledad Brother reflects the developing thought of a Black liberationist, carceral insurrectionist, and diasporic revolutionary whose primary political and cultural work is not focused on achieving his personal freedom (i.e. release from prison) but rather on organizing and proliferating radical ruptures of an existing oppressive order – what Jackson famously identifies in Blood in My Eye as “perfect disorder.” To study Soledad Brother and Blood in My Eye is to meditate on the consistency and militant commitment with which Jackson exhibited characteristics that made him an influential educator, organizer, and political intellectual during and beyond his lifetime, especially among contemporaneous and subsequent generations of politically activated (Black) captives of the state.

This chapter examines French travel writing from the latter end of the Middle Ages with a special focus on understudied accounts. As we will see, this period sees travel conducted by French-speaking military officers, court figures, and spies deeply embroiled in the local, regional, and international politics stretching across Francophone Europe and gazing outward over the Near and Middle East. Thus, although entitled ‘France’, this chapter necessarily encompasses far more than that geographic territory. It follows a peripatetic clerkly class ferrying counsel and culture between various Francophone royal and ducal courts. These authors’ disparate geopolitical backgrounds are subsumed under their choice to write in French, and their attachments to home are problematized by their itinerant lives and cultural aspirations. Their multifaceted accounts, often vexed and internally inconsistent, reflect the rapidly changing world through which they travelled.

This chapter explores how metaphysical models, particularly the compositional and transformational approaches, can help elucidate the doctrine of the Incarnation. While these models face challenges, such as the Nestorian and Attributes Problems, various solutions have been proposed to address these issues and align the models with orthodox Christology. Ultimately, metaphysical models aim to provide coherence and plausibility to the mystery of the Incarnation, contributing to the ongoing work of analytic theology in understanding this central Christian doctrine.

The beginning of Italy’s contributions to late medieval travel literature was contemporary to a broader cultural awakening taking place throughout the peninsula that would initially peak between the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century. Thus, after having been absent for several centuries from the annals of pilgrimage literature, the first Italian pilgrimage book, the Florentine Dominican Ricoldo da Montecroce’s Liber Peregrinacionis or Itinerarium represented an original and innovative contribution to travel literature. Italian contributions during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries will continue to be distinctive and often of a broader European and/or world literary impact across multiple genres. These include Marco Polo’s Description of the World, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, Niccolò da Poggibonsi’s Libro d’Oltramare, contributions of Italian humanists such as Petrarch and Boccccio to travel literature, and the Italian literature of the discovery and exploration that culminated in the Venetian Giovanni Battista Ramusio’s Navigationi et viaggi.

Medieval Hungary lay on the cross-roads for medieval travellers, along one of the main communication routes of medieval Europe. Its position in the Carpathian basin determined many aspects of its connections with regions near and far. All travellers, diplomats, pilgrims, and armies who wanted to take the overland route from Western Europe to Byzantium or further, to the Holy Land, followed the valley of the Danube from Southern Germany through Austria, Hungary, and on to the southeast. Travel literature for Hungary should be appreciated as complex. Hungary was visited by foreigners coming from many different directions, Christians and non-Christians, monarchs, armies, and simple travellers. Pilgrims travelling to holy places, students studying in foreign universities, rulers on military campaigns or diplomatic missions, mercenaries fighting in various military conflicts, and prisoners of war, were among the many reasons for travel. are. Distinctive travel literature for medieval Hungary is only a small part of the textual sources relating to travellers who arrived in or departed from this country.