Beware the Lamb: Staging Bach's Passions

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
BETTINA VARWIG

AbstractThis article considers the twentieth- and twenty-first-century practice of presenting Johann Sebastian Bach's Passion compositions on stage, in light of recent debates about performativity, presence and liveness. By tracing the history of such stagings from Ferruccio Busoni's plans in the 1920s to contemporary versions by Peter Sellars, Alain Platel, and others, I explore the increasing tendency to turn these canonical works into politically or aesthetically relevant events. Through a close reading of the critical reception of each production, I show how stagings have the capacity to challenge productively our easy familiarity with these pieces outside their initial liturgical setting. Unlike a standard concert presentation, staged performances tend to confront audiences more immediately with the violent imagery and spiritual demands of the Passions, thereby continually renewing the dialogue between Bach's works and later audiences. The article thus offers a contribution to an anthropological enquiry into the present-day cult of Bach and the particular forms of aesthetic pleasure that classical music affords its twenty-first-century devotees.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-52
Author(s):  
Eric Sorenson

It was a universal conviction among the leaders of the ancient church that vocational ministry is attended by certain spiritual hazards that threaten to undo the very soul of the minister. This notion is revived in William Paley’s 1795 sermon, “Dangers Incidental to the Clerical Character.” The pastoral ministry, he warns, is comprised of “dangers inherent to the very nature of our profession.” In this ordination sermon, Paley not only identifies certain spiritual hazards, but he traces their roots to the unique context and responsibilities of daily ministry. A close reading of Paley’s sermon highlights its clear relevance to ministers in the twenty-first century, who, like all ministers throughout the history of the church, are constantly exposed to the spiritual dangers lurking in ministry itself. Such a close reading also reveals practical means by which today’s minister can be constantly vigilant to overcome these dangers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-60
Author(s):  
Uwe Schütte

O tema deste artigo é um texto apócrifo de W. G. Sebald, o ensaio "Europäische Peripherien" [Periferias Europeias], baseado em uma palestra proferida em fevereiro de 1992, em Tübingen. Esse ensaio ocupa um lugar especial na obra de Sebald, pois nele o autor se expressa mais resolutamente do que em qualquer outra ocasião sobre questões políticas, no que diz respeito tanto ao processo de unificação europeia quanto aos problemas fundamentais das sociedades ocidentais na transição para o século XXI. A partir de uma leitura mais atenta, chego à conclusão de que esse ensaio, supostamente secundário, revela-se um importante pilar para reconstruir a interpretação profundamente melancólica que Sebald faz da história com base no conceito de uma “história natural da destruição”. Ao mesmo tempo, “Europäische Peripherien” permite reconhecer a importância de Mutation der Menschheit [Mutação da Humanidade], de Pierre Bertaux, como influência fundamental, até então não reconhecida, para o desenvolvimento da obra de Sebald.Palavras-chave: W.G. Sebald. Europa. “História natural da destruição”. Pierre Bertaux. AbstractThis article discusses the essay "Europäische Peripherien", a hitherto overlooked text by W.G. Sebald based on a lecture given in Tübingen in February 1992. The essay occupies a special position in Sebald's oeuvre, as the author positions himself more pronouncedly than anywhere else on political issues, both with regard to the process of European unification and to fundamental challenges of Western societies in the transition to the twenty-first century. In my close reading the supposedly insignificant essay proves to be an important text for a reconstruction of Sebald's deeply melancholic view of history as expressed in the concept of a "natural history of destruction". At the same time, "European Peripheries" allows us to acknowledge the importance of Pierre Bertaux’ Mutation der Menschheit as an undiscovered influence on the development of Sebald's oeuvre.Keywords: W.G. Sebald. Europa. “Natural history of destruction”. Pierre Bertaux. ORCIDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4825-1912


Author(s):  
Jan Moje

This chapter gives an overview of the history of recording and publishing epigraphic sources in Demotic language and script from the Late Period to Greco-Roman Egypt (seventh century bce to third century ce), for example, on stelae, offering tables, coffins, or votive gifts. The history of editing such texts and objects spans over two hundred years. Here, the important steps and pioneering publications on Demotic epigraphy are examined. They start from the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt found the Rosetta stone, until the twenty-first century.


1999 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 712
Author(s):  
Clark G. Reynolds ◽  
James L. George

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 187-207
Author(s):  
Peter Arnds

This article focuses on the concept of randomness as the absence of goal-oriented movement in literary walks. The literature of walking displays the happenstance of adventure as one of the great antidotes to our inane, highly technologized, digitalized twenty-first-century lifestyle. In the end, however, such randomness may reveal itself as not so random after all, as the purpose of the journey, its inherent telos, discloses itself while travelling or in hindsight. This article provides brief glimpses into the history of literary walks to examine this tension between apparent randomness and the non-random. By drawing on a range of cultural theories and theorizations of travel and especially of walking, I look at literary foot travel in the nineteenth century, the Romantics and American Transcendentalists, some great adventure hikes in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and the urban and rural flâneur. In doing so the article does not lose sight of the question of how we can instrumentalize the literature of walking for life during the current pandemic.


Globus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Mammadov ◽  
◽  
Zh. Mammadova ◽  

This article is devoted to the problems of mutual influence and interaction of international law and religion. In particular, it examines the development of international law and the sources of religion. In addition, which areas of international law are most developed under the influence of religious provisions. The history of international law knows various theories under which international law has improved. The article provides a detailed analysis of these theories and views, noting the institutions of international law that arose directly under the influence of religion. For example, it is noted that under the influence of Relia, the UN Charter codifies the basic principles of international law, etc. In addition, it shows the challenges of religion to international law and relations in the era of globalization in the twenty-first century, which led even to the undermining of modern international relations and traditional religious concepts caused by the " return of religion” in international relations; secondly, it presents and discusses the research path of religion and international relations. Finally, a brief analysis of the 2 impact of the global revival of religion and the ”return of religion" in international law and international relations has been carried out


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