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This article offers an analysis of Isaiah 51.1–3, 4–6, 7–8. These units contain multiple similarities that emphasize the fundamental tension between the units, primarily regarding the nature of divine tidings and the identity of their beneficiaries. The first part of the article demonstrates the unique content and design of each unit through a literary analysis; however, since the reading process constantly reveals new content, the underlying tension is further intensified in the second part of the article, which leads to the conclusion that the units are deliberately ambiguous and multivalent. The multifaceted content facilitates an understanding of the units, and Deutero-Isaiah as a whole. The article demonstrates that the dynamic literary-rhetorical design and its interpretive consequences reflect the existence of various groups (which serve as the 'rhetorical situation' of these units), the prospective connections between these groups, and their potential for social, geographical, and ethnic mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban studies today is marked by many active debates. In an earlier paper, we addressed some of these debates by proposing a foundational concept of urbanisation and urban form as a way of identifying a common language for urban research. In the present paper we provide a brief recapitulation of that framework. We then use this preliminary material as background to a critique of three currently influential versions of urban analysis, namely, postcolonial urban theory, assemblage theoretic approaches and planetary urbanism. We evaluate each of these versions in turn and find them seriously wanting as statements about urban realities. We criticise (a) postcolonial urban theory for its particularism and its insistence on the provincialisation of knowledge, (b) assemblage theoretic approaches for their indeterminacy and eclecticism and (c) planetary urbanism for its radical devaluation of the forces of agglomeration and nodality in urban-economic geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author argues that a sacred ethos rather than a civil religion integrates global society. This poses problems for traditional religions since they consider this ethos too individualistic. Globalization stimulates the expression of specific cultures since universalism generates particularism. A typical problem for "multinational" religions, proclaiming their universalism, emerges: they are confronted with requests for acculturation by autochthone cultures. However, no religion escapes the dual demand for universalism and particularism in the global circumstance: they have to adapt their structure and culture. As far as functions are concerned, traditional religions still play an important role in giving expression to particular communities: they provide nations and regions with symbolic expression, and rituals for integration. However, their societal functions are undermined. The "world-affirming" New Religious Movements, to the contrary, seem better adapted to play a societal role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]