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William Booth 1. The Salvation Army goes back to the former Methodist preacher William Booth (1829–1912). In view of the enormous misery—including moral misery—and great alienation from religion, of the inhabitants of the poor quarters of East London, Booth saw the need for a radical spiritual conversion. Economic and social circumstances were depressing, especially in districts of industrial concentration, and were characterized by great material poverty. Large areas of the population were plunge…

Exotism 1. The term ‘exoticism’ (from Gk., exotikós, ‘foreign-style’) denotes a certain manner of confrontation with foreign cultures. The latter are perceived as distant—whether temporally, spatially, or socially—and as different from one's own culture. This presumes, on the one hand, a division between one's own culture and the culture thought of as foreign. On the other hand, a foreign culture is necessarily perceived against the background of one's own. That perception is reflected in the conceptua…