Generosity

Synopsis: Chris Willard and Jim Sheppard's book 'Contagious Generosity: Creating a culture of giving in your church' has the potential of being very influential. It deals with important themes such as 'generosity as the new evangelism', 'cultivating a culture of contagious generosity', 'generosity as fundamental to spiritual formation', and 'embracing the ministry of asking' from within a local church context. However the focus of the book is so much on financial generosity that a broader perspective on generosity as lifestyle is not totally taken into account. In the end the question can be asked whether this book is still an expression of materialism in American church culture. Author bio-data: Dr Sas Conradie is the coordinator of the Global Generosity Network, a joint initiative of the Lausanne Movement and World Evangelical Alliance to encourage stewardship, generous living and giving amongst Christians. A South African by birth, Sas had been living in the UK for the past 13 years where he had been involved in various ministries including the Church Mission Society (CMS). He is an ordained minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa and serves as minister with mission calling of the Pretoria Oosterlig congregation. Sas holds a DD from the University of Pretoria and had been working in the University of South Africa's Faculty of Theology for a number of years before moving to Ukraine where he and his family served as missionaries.

A PAPER ON CHRISTIAN GENEROSITY:
PHILOSOPHY OF BIBLICAL STEWARDSHIP

Giving is a highly neglected topic that is rarely discussed in churches, seminaries, and other Christian institutions, and thus most people do not have correct perspective on the philosophy of giving, creating a need for more “…trained staff… within the area of biblical stewardship.” For most people, fundraising is incorrectly considered unpleasant and is thought of as something that is exercised in the event of poor planning or lack of trust in God’s providence. There are contextual differences in cultures, and one needs to understand those, while communicating the Biblical truths concerning giving to people; for “…in different cultures the use of communication techniques varies.” This does not call for change in culture, but the contextualization of biblical teachings to raise up global stewards. Generosity which is ἀγαθωσύνη in Greek, is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and according to Strong's Concordance, it is “…the goodness that comes from God.” This paper aims at formulating a philosophy of biblical stewardship grounded in biblical principles by walking through the biblical themes found in the OT, Gospels, and early church in the rest of the New Testament, and in church history. The paper shall proceed in the direction of how this philosophy of Biblical stewardship can be applied in personal and corporate ministry in church and social settings.

According to Cicero, an act of generosity involves bestowing a favor upon the recipient as a gift, so the failure to give does not wrong the potential recipient. He provides three criteria of considering giving an act of generosity, two of which concern limitations on the giver, and the other concerning the worthiness of the recipient. Then, he argues that most of our generous acts should be directed to those in the smallest circle of community – our families and close friends – because generous acts that are directed to them best satisfy the three criteria. The objection I will pose to his argument concerns the third criterion for generous acts: Cicero prioritizes the debts of gratitude owed over the needs of the potential recipient, leading to troubling conclusions.

The issues of generosity, funding, raising funds and managing funds in God’s mission are investigated. First of all, we conduct a literature survey of the themes of poverty, wealth, generosity, giving and stewardship. This provides theological and missiological perspectives that contribute to the development of the themes. Secondly, outcomes from a case study of five missiological consultations, facilitated by the Wycliffe Global Alliance on the topic of funding God’s mission, resulted in information that contributed to the topic. The common experiences that emerged from the consultations provided the foundation for the Wycliffe Global Alliance’s Principles for
Funding. These principles defined the groundwork for generosity such that the funding of God’s mission becomes a reality of the global church. Finally, the Principles for
Funding are compared with the Lausanne Standards, observations from the World Council of Churches’ Together Towards Life and material from the Edinburgh 2010
Conference.
Keywords: Principles for funding, generosity, poverty, wealth, sustainability, missiological reflection, donors, global church,

Situated near the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:19-24 provides a treatment of materialism that acts as a connecting point between Jesus’ teaching on piety in 6:1-18 and His teaching on priorities in 6:25-34.  Contrasting two treasures, two eyes, and two masters, Jesus speaks in familiar rabbinic idiom to unpack rich biblical concepts.  By contrasting treasure on earth with treasure in heaven Jesus calls His disciples to give generously to those in need, understanding that one’s affections will flow in the direction of one’s treasure.  By contrasting a healthy eye with an unhealthy eye He teaches that generosity will fill one’s life with light, while greed will have the opposite effect, filling the heart with darkness.  Lastly, by contrasting two masters Jesus teaches His followers that they must choose who to serve, as they cannot serve both God and Money.  These concepts are explored and developed by using both biblical and extra-biblical sources.

Este artículo tratará de analizar cómo los personajes del Cantar de Mio Cid muestran sus características psicológicas actuando de modo diferente al resto de personajes de acuerdo con su nivel de generosidad. Por otro lado, la existencia de personajes codiciosos implica la presencia de conflictos con los generosos, un choque que rompe el equilibrio entre las fuerzas buenas y maléficas que aparecen en el poema. El rey, que es la entidad más poderosa del Cantar, tiene la potestad de dar el mayor de los regalos –la Justicia–, y la entregará al Cid como recompensa tras todos sus esfuerzos.

Journées scientifiques sur “Manuscrits islamiques : matérialité, usages, traditions comparées Afrique-Moyen-Orient” https://bit.ly/3cLIT0C

Alexandrie (Egypte), 23-24/11/2021 : « Des papiers et des hommes : la codicologie sociale au prisme d’une bibliothèque du Fouta Djalon (Guinée), XVIIIe – XXIe siècle »

Le fonctionnement de la confédération théocratique du Fouta Djalon repose sur l’écrit. Ses manuscrits portent les traces d’auteurs, producteurs et usagers dont les écrit(ure)s, annotations, commentaires, colophons, encres, filigranes et couvertures sont les archives de leur temps. Le papier est vecteur de savoir, d’influence et marqueur social – et contribue de ce fait à une ingénierie sociale originale. #leydi diina, ndimaagu et ndimankaaku # terre de dévotion, de distinction et de dignité) # « économie internationale du savoir » # commerce des hommes, biens & idées # empreinte manuscrite et digitale # Fonds El Hadj Alpha Mamadou Diallo Lélouma.

Mise à jour de la présentation préparée pour les journées scientifiques - 2 décembre 2021

The article draws on the results of a survey conducted in schools from Bihor county in 2018-2019. The study analyses the answers of 4,261 8th grade pupils regarding generosity and its predictors. The actual research is an extension of our article from 2016 which analysed similar data collected in 2011. Our first results showed a significant correlation between generosity and socioeconomic background and between generosity and gender. Considering the results of our previous research, we conducted the present research using new data and adding new hypotheses such as the influence of religiosity. As expected, based on the literature, our new results indicate that religiosity explains generosity variation among 8th grade Romanian pupils from Bihor county. It seems that general trust, school results, living environment (rural vs. urban) have no influence, aspect which can be explained, at least partially, by the specificity of the Romanian culture. Religious girls with a better financial position are most generous. Our research also proves a similarity between the generosity level in schools. We consider that the results of our research can contribute significantly to a better understanding of generosity and its specificity in our country, and be exploited by further studies or programs run by non-profit organizations, fundraising campaigns.

Introduction
Evidence suggest that civic engagement is declining in Aotearoa New Zealand, especially among young New Zealanders (Catt, 2005; Vowles, 2004). Low levels of engagement have caught the attention of researchers, educators, and policy-makers as values and behaviours tend to solidify in adolescence – if a young person fails to vote when they first become eligible, they are less likely to vote in future elections. The International Civics and Citizenship Study reports that compared to other countries, New Zealand students “show relatively modest levels of engagement with social and political issues” (Bolstad, 2012, p. 33). This trend has implications for democracy as well as for young people’s capacity to address the “unprecedented challenges facing society” (Cogan & Derricott, 2000, p. 6; see also Wood, 2011).

Secularist interventions into Africa presuppose certain moral standards to be extant and their rationality to be convincing and superior. This essay finds the valuation of all people as fundamentally equal that is necessary for aid distribution that does not result in corruption, to be peculiarly Christian. Redistribution of wealth can be filling leaking buckets. There are many varieties of secularism. Because rationality is a product of Christian faith, evangelism and discipleship build sustainable development.

CONCLUSION

The morality that many Western secularists suppose to be ‘natural’ seems to arise from their Christian history. A close analysis of secularism reveals that as well as being diversely defined, it cannot be understood apart from religions that have been formative to it, hence it can never be truly secular. Western ‘secularism’ presupposes an ethic of equality that underlies global efforts at provision of aid and development. Because such an ethic is normally absent amongst many of the global poor themselves, who anyway understand the source of their prosperity as being from spiritual rather than material origins, efforts at re-balancing global inequalities by sharing resources from the West are compared to filling of a leaking bucket. Because people are never entirely ‘secular’, development intervention needs to be recognised for what it is; an innately ‘religious’ activity. This means, for Christians, that promoting development is inseparable from sharing the Gospel of Jesus. The latter should be done from a ‘holistic’ foundation that is not based on a sharp distinction between the material and the spiritual.

Harries, Jim, 2016, ‘Does Faith in Secularism Undermine Mission and Development in Africa?’ 100-110 in Evangelical Review of Theology, Apr 2016, Vol 40, No 2.

The author proposes a draft of a new theory of virtues in economy. It is a preliminary synthesis of some psychological, economic, sociological and philosophical research. He discusses dignity, diligence and generosity and related vices and pseudo-virtues in their institutional and systemic context.

The article talks about Peter Sloterdijk reading Nietzsche. It focuses on two concepts: cosmology and heteronarcizism. We can use a notion of cosmology, and our arkhé is the Sun. We can use the notion of hetero narcissism, and our attention it will be on resonance without auto-conservation. So, this article shows a Philosophy without Descartes ou Habermas, without a Philosophy of Subject or Philosophy of Inter-subjectivity. So, we have a Philosophy of Generosity and a thymotic culture.

In recent philosophical and socialscientific research
on issues of debt (Maurizio Lazzarato, David Graeber) there are references to Nietzsche’s philosophy of the creditor/debtor relationship from the II. Treatise of the Genealogy of Morals. Nietzsche’s philosophy of this relationship offers a philosophical anthropology of debt that is useful for an understanding of the contemporary crisis of the financial economy as a debt-economy. His idea of God as ultimate creditor is still useful to shed light on the debt-economy as a kind of secular religion. In this paper, I discuss how Nietzsche’s theory of the debtor-creditor relation can be interpreted as a descriptive and a normative model for understanding some of the non-sustainable aspects of the contemporary debt-economy. His model is superior to a contractarian model that offers the predominant regulative principle for debtor-creditor-relations. Nietzsche’s idea of the embodied and relational Subjekt is more realistic than the contractarian, i.e. onesidedly individualistic, disembodied and deterrialized Subjekt. His ethics of generosity as a model for a sustainable debt-economy is interpreted in light of Luce Irigaray’s advancing of Nietzsche’s notion of the embodied, terrialized and relational Subjekt. From this perspective Sloterdijk’s interpretation of a Nietzschean ethics of generosity is criticized.

Le titre même de ce volume, sous forme d’interrogation, est à comprendre comme un postulat. Il s’explique comme suit : il s’agit de s’interroger sur la pensée philosophique d’Élisabeth tout autant que sur celle de Descartes. La réflexion d’Élisabeth semble en effet posséder une dimension philosophique à deux titres au moins : d’abord parce que la princesse entretient un dialogue philosophique de haute tenue avec un autre philosophe, en déployant des arguments pertinents; ensuite parce qu’elle développe peut-être elle-même des thèses qui lui sont personnelles, qui seraient des thèses au sens fort et pleinement philosophique du terme, et dont l’étude pourrait être affinée par la prise en considération de ses très nombreux autres correspondants.
Reste un scrupule : celui de trahir le souhait même d’Élisabeth de cantonner ses échanges intellectuels au plan privé, en la propulsant en pleine lumière et en lui faisant endosser une posture philosophique qu’elle a soigneusement évitée de son vivant. Qu’on songe qu’elle voulait que cet échange soit codé! Mais comme le premier « traître » fut Descartes lui-même, transmettant les lettres d’Élisabeth à Christine de Suède, considérons-nous comme habilités, en bons cartésiens, à divulguer la pensée de la princesse palatine. C’est à ce prix en effet, que nous pourrons redéfinir le rôle de cette dernière dans le cartésianisme, déterminer s’il existe une pensée propre d’Élisabeth et enfin, si elle existe, savoir en quoi elle consiste.

LImbajul darului in opera lui P Bourdieu este legat de teoria capitalurilor si de faptul ca ele sunt interșanjabile. Ele se înscriu in conceptul de violență simbolică care este parte a hegemoniei culturale a lui Antonio Gramsci.  In acest fel, susține marxistul francez, nu există generozitate căci orice dai, nu dai pe gratis, ci primesti inapoi un alt fel de capital (economic, social, simbolic). Am negat că acest lucru se intamplă în toate situaîiile căci: 1-un dar poate fi inadecvat și in loc de amiciții creeaza inamiciții, 2- un dar poate pleca dintr-o arie culturală a darului și poate ajunge în alta în care semnificația darului respectiv este negativa si creează inamiciții 3- un dar poate răsplati un merit și astfel poate încheia o relație. 4-un dar poate dobândi un amic pentru un dăruitor dar poate în același timp sa-i creeze dușmani mai numeroși in urma efectuării lui. Etc. In consecința poți sa dăruiesti și să pierzi, nu să câstigi. Am atins și noțiunea de exterioritate a darului, însă, darul își extrage forța și din exterioritatea lui, deci este logic ca și slăbiciunea lui care provine din exterioritate să fie analizată. Work in progress.

Does interacting with social science data in early adulthood promote generosity? To investigate this question from a life course development perspective, two distinct samples were drawn for a survey with an embedded experimental design. The first sample is of emerging adult college students (n = 30, median age = 20 years). The second sample is of young adults who were selected to participate based on their prior participation in a nationally representative and longitudinal study (n = 170, median age = 31 years). Toward the end of the survey, participants were randomly selected into a website interaction with either: (a) data on charitable giving, (b) data on social inequality, or (c) data about weather (a control condition). The key outcome of interest is a behavioral measure of generosity: whether participants elected to keep their study incentive or donate their incentive to a charitable organization. The donation decision occurred after the randomly selected website interaction. Interacting with charitable giving data resulted in greater generosity than interacting with weather data, across both samples. Interacting with social inequality data had mixed results. Moreover, emerging adult college students gave at a considerably higher rate overall than the national sample of young adults, net of treatment type. Implications are discussed.

Why are there so many people who receive scholarship aid who do
not give back to the schools that gave it? Social exchange theories
grounded in the assumption of direct reciprocity have long been the
framework used within higher education to understand donative
behavior. As a result, conventional wisdom within higher education
holds that recipients of scholarship aid will later donate money to the
institution that provided it. However, the philanthropic data show
that most aid recipients do not, in fact, give back. This study probes
the underlying factors for this phenomenon by using the Listening
Guide, a voice-centered relational method of discovery, to analyze
and interpret interviews with 10 scholarship recipients. By providing
a more robust understanding of the experience of receiving, the
findings challenge some of the most basic psychological and sociological
assumptions about giving and generosity within higher
education.

This article discusses a Sufi Muslim community, the Layene, in Dakar, Senegal, and specific aspects of its historical and ethical foundations. The community is one of several Sufi Muslim orders in Senegal with a history of syncretism of Islamic and local customs and a messianic message of universal salvation. These particularities can be understood through scriptural and theological interpretations of the Wolof concept of terànga - individual's generous intentions, embodied in the giving and receiving of hospitality, gifts, and social interactions. Through an ethnographic look at sermons and songs and the performances of family ceremonies, this article examines the Layene community and its beliefs in relation to societal changes in Senegal and globally.

Analyses of material exchanges have concentrated on ceremonialized forms. Approaches to trade are poorly developed and are materialist and utilitarian. After presenting a distinction between prestations and trade based on actors' interpretations, this paper explores aspects of the sociable dimensions of Maring trade. While trade is indigenously defined as self-interested and pragmatic, it actually has the capacity to express and construct social relationships through the appearance of generosity in otherwise balanced transactions. [economic anthro- pology, exchange, trade, generosity, New Guinea, Maring