The Grammar of Messianism

Author(s):  
Matthew V. Novenson

In this concluding, synthetic chapter the findings of the previous chapters are brought together to illustrate a new, alternative research program for the study of ancient messiah texts. In a detailed comparison with the idiomatic use of the fasces (“bundles” of rods) in Roman imperial literature and art, it is proposed that the idiomatic use of “anointing” discourse among ancient Jews and Christians is a similarly influential and similarly parochial symbol of political authority. On this alternative account, the future of the study of messianism lies not in vain attempts to measure the vigor of the phenomenon, nor in pedantic quarrels over the definition of “messiah,” nor in lightly revised taxonomies of redeemer figures, but rather in fresh expeditions into the primary sources to trace the grammar of messianism.

Author(s):  
Christian Davenport ◽  
Erik Melander ◽  
Patrick M. Regan

This concluding chapter revisits the core argument of the book—that is, that a definition of peace is much broader than the mere absence of violence. It discusses the different approaches the three authors have taken to define peace and to develop reliable measures of peace that can extend beyond time and place. The chapter also considers the lessons about the field of peace research that the three authors learned while developing their individual concepts, which blended in the end to common views on the subject. Finally, the authors lay out a research program for what should be done in the future in this broad, interdisciplinary field. They do not attempt to push a particular program, but do identify how such new programs in the subject should be structured and framed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina B. Lonsdorf ◽  
Jan Richter

Abstract. As the criticism of the definition of the phenotype (i.e., clinical diagnosis) represents the major focus of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative, it is somewhat surprising that discussions have not yet focused more on specific conceptual and procedural considerations of the suggested RDoC constructs, sub-constructs, and associated paradigms. We argue that we need more precise thinking as well as a conceptual and methodological discussion of RDoC domains and constructs, their interrelationships as well as their experimental operationalization and nomenclature. The present work is intended to start such a debate using fear conditioning as an example. Thereby, we aim to provide thought-provoking impulses on the role of fear conditioning in the age of RDoC as well as conceptual and methodological considerations and suggestions to guide RDoC-based fear conditioning research in the future.


Author(s):  
Ataullah Bogdan Kopanski

Abstract There is no agreement among psychologists on sources and outcomes of the dreams in human brain during sleep. Secularist scholars of Freudian school of psychoanalysis claim that human dreams reflect their highly subconscious libido. Jungian school of kollective Unbewessustes   disputes such extreme sexualized opinions and highlights the fact that rather large “collective unconscious” than sexuality is shared by representatives of all human cultures. But even without advanced studies, we can risk to believe that our dreams often predict coming events. Artemidoros Daldianus from Ephesus, the second century CE Hellenistic author of Oneirokritikon believed that dreams are human mind’s mirrors of the future. His magnum opus on the art of interpretation of dreams was translated into Arabic by famous Nestorian ophthalmologist Hunayn ibn Ishaq (Iohannitus) of Bayt al-Hikmah during the reign of Abbasid caliphs Maymun and Mutawakkil. The Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) often interpreted his own and Sahabah’s dreams with perfect accuracy. In the Qur’an, especially in Surah 12: Yusuf, 36-37, 99-101, the dreams are vehicles of foretelling the future not only of individuals but also of whole nations and states. The paper is written from historical perspective of the Muslim interpretation of dreams which emphasizes the Islamic examination of human dreams in context of the primary sources to the ancient Greek oneiromancy, studied by the Muslim scholars in the early centuries of Islamic Civilization, and their contribution to development of modern oneirology. Keywords: Oneirology, Interpretation of Dreams, Artemidoros’ Oneirocritica, Islamic Ta‘bÊr. Abstrak Tidak ada sebarang persetujuan di kalangan ahli psikologi terhadap sumber dan hasil daripada mimpi di dalam otak manusia semasa tidur. Para sekular Sekolah Psikoanalisis Freud mendakwa bahawa mimpi manusia mencerminkan kesedaran libido. Sekolah Unbewessustes kollective Jungian pertikaikan pendapat seksual melampau tersebut dan menyerlahkan bahawa kebanyakkan kesedaran bukan daripada kesedaran libido dan didapati dalam semua budaya manusia. Tetapi walaupun tanpa kajian yang canggih, kita boleh mengambil risiko untuk mempercayai bahawa mimpi kita sering meramalkan peristiwa yang akan datang. Artemidoros Daldianus dari Efesus, pengarang Hellenistik Oneirokritikon abad kedua CE percaya bahawa mimpi mencerminkan masa depan manusia. Seni interpretasi mimpi beliau telah diterjemahkan ke dalam Bahasa Arab oleh pakar mata Nestorian terkenal Hunayn ibn Ishaq (Iohannitus) dari Bayt al-Hikmah pada zaman pemerintahan khalifah Abbasiyah Maymun dan Mutawakkil. Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.) sering mentafsirkan mimpi sendiri dan sahabat secara tepat. Dalam Al-Qur'an, terutamanya dalam Surah 12: Yusuf, 36-37, 99-101, mimpi adalah kenderaan untuk meramalkan masa depan bukan sahaja seorang individu tetapi keseluruhan negara dan negeri. Kajian ini ditulis dari perspektif sejarah interpretasi mimpi Islam yang menekankan pemeriksaan mimpi manusia dalam Islam dalam konteks sumber utama oneiromancy purba Yunani yang dikaji oleh para ulama Islam di abad-abad awal tamadun Islam, dan sumbangan mereka kepada pembangunan oneirologi moden. Kata Kunci: Oneirologi, Interpretasi mimpi, Oneirocritica Artemidoros, Ta‘bÊr Islam.


We have new answers to how the brain works and tools which can now monitor and manipulate brain function. Rapid advances in neuroscience raise critical questions with which society must grapple. What new balances must be struck between diagnosis and prediction, and invasive and noninvasive interventions? Are new criteria needed for the clinical definition of death in cases where individuals are eligible for organ donation? How will new mobile and wearable technologies affect the future of growing children and aging adults? To what extent is society responsible for protecting populations at risk from environmental neurotoxins? As data from emerging technologies converge and are made available on public databases, what frameworks and policies will maximize benefits while ensuring privacy of health information? And how can people and communities with different values and perspectives be maximally engaged in these important questions? Neuroethics: Anticipating the Future is written by scholars from diverse disciplines—neurology and neuroscience, ethics and law, public health, sociology, and philosophy. With its forward-looking insights and considerations for the future, the book examines the most pressing current ethical issues.


Author(s):  
Jason Scully

The first chapter demonstrates that even though Isaac quotes Evagrius throughout much of his writing, Isaac does not adopt Evagrius’s eschatological framework. In order to reach this conclusion, this chapter conducts a detailed comparison of two Syriac translations of the Gnostic Chapters, which is the Evagrian text that Isaac quotes most often. While the sixth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters includes a detailed eschatological consideration of the human soul in the future world, the fifth-century Syriac version is void of any distinctive eschatological framework. Since Isaac only used the fifth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters, he cannot have derived his eschatological framework from Evagrius. Rather, following Babai the Great, who established a framework for interpreting the fifth-century Syriac version of the Gnostic Chapters, Isaac interprets Evagrius’s Gnostic Chapters as a work describing the journey of asceticism.


2021 ◽  
pp. 053901842199956
Author(s):  
Gerard Delanty

This essay is a comment on the research program launched by Frank Adloff and Sighard Neckel. My comment is specifically focused on their research agenda as outlined in their trend-setting article, ‘Futures of sustainability as modernization, transformation, and control: A conceptual framework’. The comment is also addressed more generally to the research program of the Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies ‘Futures of Sustainability’. I raise three issues: the first relates to the very idea of the future; the second concerns the notion of social imaginaries and the third question is focused on the idea of social transformation.


1916 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold J. Laski

“Of political principles,” says a distinguished authority, “whether they be those of order or of freedom, we must seek in religious and quasi-theological writings for the highest and most notable expressions.” No one, in truth, will deny the accuracy of this claim for those ages before the Reformation transferred the centre of political authority from church to state. What is too rarely realised is the modernism of those writings in all save form. Just as the medieval state had to fight hard for relief from ecclesiastical trammels, so does its modern exclusiveness throw the burden of a kindred struggle upon its erstwhile rival. The church, intelligibly enough, is compelled to seek the protection of its liberties lest it become no more than the religious department of an otherwise secular society. The main problem, in fact, for the political theorist is still that which lies at the root of medieval conflict. What is the definition of sovereignty? Shall the nature and personality of those groups of which the state is so formidably one be regarded as in its gift to define? Can the state tolerate alongside itself churches which avow themselves societates perfectae, claiming exemption from its jurisdiction even when, as often enough, they traverse the field over which it ploughs? Is the state but one of many, or are those many but parts of itself, the one?


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 1787-1832 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Heymann ◽  
M. Reuter ◽  
M. Hilker ◽  
M. Buchwitz ◽  
O. Schneising ◽  
...  

Abstract. Consistent and accurate long-term data sets of global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) are required for carbon cycle and climate related research. However, global data sets based on satellite observations may suffer from inconsistencies originating from the use of products derived from different satellites as needed to cover a long enough time period. One reason for inconsistencies can be the use of different retrieval algorithms. We address this potential issue by applying the same algorithm, the Bremen Optimal Estimation DOAS (BESD) algorithm, to different satellite instruments, SCIAMACHY onboard ENVISAT (March 2002–April 2012) and TANSO-FTS onboard GOSAT (launched in January 2009), to retrieve XCO2, the column-averaged dry-air mole fraction of CO2. BESD has been initially developed for SCIAMACHY XCO2 retrievals. Here, we present the first detailed assessment of the new GOSAT BESD XCO2 product. GOSAT BESD XCO2 is a product generated and delivered to the MACC project for assimilation into ECMWF's Integrated Forecasting System (IFS). We describe the modifications of the BESD algorithm needed in order to retrieve XCO2 from GOSAT and present detailed comparisons with ground-based observations of XCO2 from the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). We discuss detailed comparison results between all three XCO2 data sets (SCIAMACHY, GOSAT and TCCON). The comparison results demonstrate the good consistency between the SCIAMACHY and the GOSAT XCO2. For example, we found a mean difference for daily averages of −0.60 ± 1.56 ppm (mean difference ± standard deviation) for GOSAT-SCIAMACHY (linear correlation coefficient r = 0.82), −0.34 ± 1.37 ppm (r = 0.86) for GOSAT-TCCON and 0.10 ± 1.79 ppm (r = 0.75) for SCIAMACHY-TCCON. The remaining differences between GOSAT and SCIAMACHY are likely due to non-perfect collocation (±2 h, 10° × 10° around TCCON sites), i.e., the observed air masses are not exactly identical, but likely also due to a still non-perfect BESD retrieval algorithm, which will be continuously improved in the future. Our overarching goal is to generate a satellite-derived XCO2 data set appropriate for climate and carbon cycle research covering the longest possible time period. We therefore also plan to extend the existing SCIAMACHY and GOSAT data set discussed here by using also data from other missions (e.g., OCO-2, GOSAT-2, CarbonSat) in the future.


2018 ◽  
Vol 615 ◽  
pp. A153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodolfo G. Cionco ◽  
Dmitry A. Pavlov

Aims. The barycentric dynamics of the Sun has increasingly been attracting the attention of researchers from several fields, due to the idea that interactions between the Sun’s orbital motion and solar internal functioning could be possible. Existing high-precision ephemerides that have been used for that purpose do not include the effects of trans-Neptunian bodies, which cause a significant offset in the definition of the solar system’s barycentre. In addition, the majority of the dynamical parameters of the solar barycentric orbit are not routinely calculated according to these ephemerides or are not publicly available. Methods. We developed a special version of the IAA RAS lunar–solar–planetary ephemerides, EPM2017H, to cover the whole Holocene and 1 kyr into the future. We studied the basic and derived (e.g., orbital torque) barycentric dynamical quantities of the Sun for that time span. A harmonic analysis (which involves an application of VSOP2013 and TOP2013 planetary theories) was performed on these parameters to obtain a physics-based interpretation of the main periodicities present in the solar barycentric movement. Results. We present a high-precision solar barycentric orbit and derived dynamical parameters (using the solar system’s invariable plane as the reference plane), widely accessible for the whole Holocene and 1 kyr in the future. Several particularities and barycentric phenomena are presented and explained on dynamical bases. A comparison with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory DE431 ephemeris, whose main differences arise from the modelling of trans-Neptunian bodies, shows significant discrepancies in several parameters (i.e., not only limited to angular elements) related to the solar barycentric dynamics. In addition, we identify the main periodicities of the Sun’s barycentric movement and the main giant planets perturbations related to them.


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