Qur’anic Exempla and Late Antique Narratives

2020 ◽  
pp. 127-139
Author(s):  
Marianna Klar
Keyword(s):  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Contextual Framework ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Biblical Figures

The Qur’anic corpus is characterized by a pervasive technique of deploying narratives as exempla relevant to its own addressees. Minimal or more expanded references to biblical figures such as Noah and Moses are utilized in order to illustrate key exhortatory themes in a large number of suras, a feature that has struck readers of the Qur’an from ancient times to the present. Recent scholarship has replaced a search for straightforward parallels in narratives from the Judaeo-Christian tradition with a growing trend for a re-evaluation of the Qur’an’s contextual framework, and a rethinking of the references to other literatures and religious traditions included therein.

Placebo factors at healing sanctuaries in pagan and early Christian times

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-121
Author(s):  
Hedvig von Ehrenheim
Keyword(s):  
Placebo Effect ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Placebo Effects ◽  
Established Method ◽  
Religious Healing ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Ancient Times

Abstract The article analyses possible placebo effects that Late Antique religious healing might have had. It focuses on healings believed to have been sent in dreams to worshippers, both in pagan and Early Christian tradition. It also investigates how possible placebo effects might have served to propagate and spread the particular cults (be it the cult of Asklepios, or the Early Christian cults of martyrs). The paper seeks to integrate modern placebo research with the ancient accounts of healings, answering the following question: is it possible that the placebo effect (above all relief of pain) was activated in ancient times by the same factors as seen in experiments today (e. g. effect of the healer’s persona, ritualized behaviour, and above all belief in the cure)? The scope of the paper is at the end broadened to touch upon the question to what degree ancient religious healing offered a socially well-established method of handling illnesses psychologically and fill the need to act, even if a cure as such was not a probable result.

scholarly journals Getting off the Omnibus: Rejecting Free Will and Soul-Making Responses to the Problem of Evil

Open Theology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-42
Author(s):  
Brian C. Macallan
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
John Hick ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Greater Good ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Powerful Process

AbstractThe nature of suffering and the problem of evil have been perennial issues for many of the world’s religious traditions. Each in their own way has sought to address this problem, whether driven by the all too present reality of suffering or from philosophical and religious curiosities. The Christian tradition has offered numerous and diverse responses to the problem of evil. The free-will response to the problem of evil, with its roots in Augustine, has dominated the landscape in its attempt to justify evil and suffering as a result of the greater good of having free will. John Hick offers a ‘soul-making’ response to the problem of evil as an alternative to the free will response. Neither is effective in dealing with two key issues that underpin both responses – omnipotence and omniscience. In what follows I will contrast a process theological response to the problem of evil and suffering, and how it is better placed in dealing with both omnipotence and omniscience. By refashioning God as neither all-knowing nor all-powerful, process theodicy moves beyond the dead ends of both the free will and soul-making theodicy. Indeed, a process theodicy enables us to dismount the omnibus in search of a more holistic, and realistic, alternative to dealing with the problem of evil and suffering.

Hellenistic Empires

2021 ◽  
pp. 167-197
Author(s):  
Christelle Fischer-Bovet
Keyword(s):  
Persian Empire ◽  
Monetary Policies ◽  
Local Elites ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Recent Scholarship

The incessant rivalries between the Ptolemaic and the Seleucid empires, the two largest empires issued from Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian Empire, generated an expansion and a growing complexity of their administration. Moving beyond past colonial approaches, recent scholarship points to their sustainability, as they were among the longer lasting empires in the eastern Ancient Mediterranean. Their institutions proved resilient, internal decay and revolts leading at times to reconstruction under the same dynasty. The capacity of these empires for war-making and state-making are compared, as well as their military and economic goals, including their different monetary policies. These empires were able to penetrate many aspects of their multicultural societies through their integration of segments of the local elites into their state machinery, which was facilitated by the central ideological figure of their kings, who supported and infiltrated local religious traditions, though perhaps less in the Seleucid case.

euergetism

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjan Zuiderhoek
Keyword(s):  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Public Buildings ◽  
Civic Society ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
East And West

Euergetism is the modern scholarly term, derived from the ancient Greek euergetes (benefactor), to denote the phenomenon of elite gift-giving to cities (or to groups within them) in Greek and Roman societies. The term encompasses benefactions by Hellenistic kings and Roman emperors, but is mostly used to refer to the munificence of local civic elites. Recent scholarship stresses the transactional character of euergetism: benefactors donated or contributed to public buildings (including temples), festivals, and games, or they gave distributions of food or money or organized public banquets in exchange for publicly awarded honours: usually including an honorific inscription recording the benefaction and the accolades awarded to the donor in return, often accompanied by a statue of him or her. In Archaic and 5th-century bce Greece, cities mostly honoured foreign benefactors in this way, but from the 4th century bce onward, it became more and more normal for wealthy citizens to donate to their own city in exchange for public honours awarded by their fellow-citizens. Civic euergetism of this type became increasingly common in Greek cities during the Hellenistic period. Its greatest proliferation, however, was under Roman imperial rule during the 1st, 2nd and early 3rd centuries ce, when we have more inscriptions for benefactors in cities in both East and West than ever before. From the mid-3rd century ce onward, civic munificence starts to decline, though benefactions by the wealthy remain an aspect of late antique civic society.

Let Them Eat Fish: Food for the Poor in Early Rabbinic Judaism

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-270
Author(s):  
Gregg E. Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Fish Food ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Tiered System ◽  
Social Separation ◽  
Material Requirements

Abstract Recent scholarship has shown how investigations into food and poverty contribute to our understanding of late-antique Judaism and Christianity. These areas of inquiry overlap in the study of charity, as providing food was the preeminent way to support the poor. What foods and foodways do the earliest texts of rabbinic Judaism prescribe for the poor? This article examines Tannaitic discussions of the foods that should be given as charity, reading these texts within their literary and historical contexts. I find that they prescribe a two-tiered system whereby foods for the week aim to meet the poor’s biological needs, while those for the Sabbath fulfill religious requirements. These rabbinic instructions, however, also reinforce social separation and deepen the poor’s sense of exclusion. This article contributes to scholarship on poverty and charity in late antiquity, the use of food in the construction of rabbinic identity, and the tensions that arise from establishing material requirements for religious observances.

Nuancing Augustine's Hermeneutical Jew: Allegory and Actual Jews in the Bishop's Sermons

2005 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franklin Harkins
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
North African ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Daily Interactions ◽  
African Context ◽  
Allegorical Interpretation

AbstractBy investigating Augustine's preaching on the Jews, this paper seeks to nuance recent scholarship that maintains that the bishop's doctrine of the Jews took shape not in the context of his daily interactions with real Jews in Hippo Regius but rather against the backdrop of various aspects of his theology. A consideration of Augustine's homiletic corpus reveals a biblically-constructed and theologically-crafted "hermeneutical Jew." At the same time, however, Augustine the preacher also repeatedly refers to actual Jews in his late antique North African context. After reviewing the basic historical and historiographical evidence for Jews in ancient North Africa, it is here argued that it is precisely for actual Jews and their potential proselytes that Augustine spins the hermeneutically-crafted Jew (indeed, several of them) out of his allegorical interpretation of various biblical stories.

Extending the Canon: Some Implications of a Hindu Argument about Scripture

1992 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis X. Clooney
Keyword(s):  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Sacred Texts

Can the sacred texts of non-Christian religious traditions be revelatory for Christians in a fashion that is more than vague and merely theoretical? This question is central within the larger project of understanding the significance of the various world religions for Christians, and the effort to answer it must proceed according to three specific tasks.First, it is necessary to describe the ways in which the Christian tradition predisposes and constrains Christian believers on the issue of whether non-Christian texts can be revelatory words of God for non-Christians, for Christians, or for both. The formulation of this description requires reflection on the Christian tradition and its sources: Christian ideas of revelation, scripture, the Word of God, and possible words of God.

Forgiveness and mercy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrie G. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Social Dimension ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Core ◽  
Loss Of Self ◽  
The Social ◽  
Purity Of Heart ◽  
Everyday Reality ◽  
Considerable Discussion

Forgiveness and mercy are regarded as virtues in many moral and religious traditions, although different traditions will emphasize different aspects. The Christian tradition, for example, tends to emphasize purity of heart as the core of the virtue of forgiveness, whereas the Judaic tradition gives priority to the social dimension of reintegration into the covenanted community. Forgiveness involves the overcoming of anger and resentment, and mercy involves the withholding of harsh treatment that one has a right to inflict. Both allow for healing, but some critics would say that this healing may come at too high a price. Forgiveness, if carried to extremes, can lapse into servility, entailing a loss of self-respect. There are similar paradoxes associated with mercy, particularly in the context of punishment; too strong an emphasis on mercy can lead to a departure from justice. Clearly, though both forgiveness and mercy are obvious virtues, there are difficulties in putting them into practice in the complex situations that make up everyday reality. Recently there has been considerable discussion in philosophy and law of the role that apology might play in earning forgiveness or mercy.

Prelude

2018 ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
Raphael A. Cadenhead
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
The Church

In order to counter some of the anachronisms in recent scholarship on Gregory (as outlined in the introduction), the prelude attends to Gregory’s historical context by situating his thinking within the late antique milieu. It begins with an overview of the ecclesio-political context in the aftermath of Constantine’s conversion and considers how the incorporation of the church into imperial life may have inflected Gregory’s ascetic theory. The prelude also explores the burgeoning monastic movement in the late fourth century as well as the ascetical prestige of Gregory’s family.

Cognitive Metaphor Theory Integrated into Comparative Theology

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-183
Author(s):  
Yesudasan Remias
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Indian Culture ◽  
The West ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Cognitive Metaphor ◽  
Metaphor Theory

Abstract The emergence of the new comparative theology in the west has greatly benefitted from Indian Vedic texts and related ones. Despite their extensive use for western theological reflection, comparative theology, however, has not come to the limelight in India, since most of the western initiatives have been perceived to be camouflaged missionary efforts. This paper proposes the cognitive metaphor theory as a fitting supplement to comparative theology. I argue that combining both has much to offer to study, learn, and relate religions in the multi-religiously coexisting context of India. I explore its possibilities and challenges and address how new comparative theology stays distinct from its nineteenth-century efforts in terms of bridging religious traditions by learning from them. This paper draws much from my own experiences, insights, and studies as a native of Indian culture, brought up in Christian tradition. My studies and researches are focused on comparative theology developed through the lens of cognitive metaphor theory.

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