Christianity at the Crossroads: How the Second Century Shaped the Future of the Church. By Michael J.Kruger. Pp. xi, 256, London, SPCK, 2017, £19.99.

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 390-391
Author(s):  
Patrick Madigan
Keyword(s):  
2019 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 327-334
Author(s):  
Inga V. Zheltikova ◽  
Elena I. Khokhlova

The article considers the dependence of the images of future on the socio-cultural context of their formation. Comparison of the images of the future found in A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s works of various years reveals his generally pessimistic attitude to the future in the situation of social stability and moderate optimism in times of society destabilization. At the same time, the author's images of the future both in the seventies and the nineties of the last century demonstrate the mismatch of social expectations and reality that was generally typical for the images of the future. According to the authors of the present article, Solzhenitsyn’s ideas that the revival of spirituality could serve as the basis for the development of economy, that the influence of the Church on the process of socio-economic development would grow, and that the political situation strongly depends on the personal qualities of the leader, are unjustified. Nevertheless, such ideas are still present in many images of the future of Russia, including contemporary ones.


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.


Author(s):  
Michael Lapidge

The Roman Martyrs contains translations of forty Latin passiones of saints who were martyred in Rome or its near environs, during the period before the ‘peace of the Church’ (c. 312). Some of these Roman martyrs are universally known — SS. Agnes, Sebastian or Laurence, for example — but others are scarcely known outside the ecclesiastical landscape of Rome itself. Each of the translated passiones, which vary in length from a few paragraphs to over ninety, is accompanied by an individual introduction and commentary; the translations are preceded by an Introduction which describes the principal features of this little-known genre of Christian literature. The Roman passiones martyrum have never previously been collected together, and have never been translated into a modern language. They were mostly composed during the period 425 x 675, by anonymous authors who who were presumably clerics of the Roman churches or cemeteries which housed the martyrs’ remains. It is clear that they were composed in response to the huge explosion of pilgrim traffic to martyrial shrines from the late fourth century onwards, at a time when authentic records (protocols) of their trials and executions had long since vanished, and the authors of the passiones were obliged to imagine the circumstances in which martyrs were tried and executed. The passiones are works of pure fiction; and because they abound in ludicrous errors of chronology, they have been largely ignored by historians of the early Church. But although they cannot be used as evidence for the original martyrdoms, they nevertheless allow a fascinating glimpse of the concerns which animated Christians during the period in question: for example, the preservation of virginity, or the ever-present threat posed by pagan practices. And because certain aspects of Roman life will have changed little between (say) the second century and the fifth, the passiones throw valuable light on many aspects of Roman society, not least the nature of a trial before an urban prefect, and the horrendous tortures which were a central feature of such trials. Above all, perhaps, the passiones are an indispensable resource for understanding the topography of late antique Rome and its environs, since they characteristically contain detailed reference to the places where the martyrs were tried, executed, and buried. The book contains five Appendices containing translations of texts relevant to the study of Roman martyrs: the Depositio martyrum of A.D. 354 (Appendix I); the epigrammata of Pope Damasus d. 384) which pertain to Roman martyrs treated in the passiones (II); entries pertaining to Roman martyrs in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (III); entries in seventh-century pilgrim itineraries pertaining to shrines of Roman martyrs in suburban cemeteries (IV); and entries commemorating these martyrs in early Roman liturgical books (V).


2019 ◽  
pp. 130-151
Author(s):  
Александр Добросельский

Автор статьи ставит целью найти механизм суицида через анализ слова и понятия «уныние». В качестве методов используются этимологический анализ, анализ слова «уныние» на стыке богословия, психологии и лингвистики. Указанные методы позволяют понять, что «уныние» происходит от славянского слова «ныть (нытьё)», которое использовалось для описания неблагополучия телесного. С помощью приставки «у» было создано новое слово, имеющее тот же смысл неблагополучного состояния, но для духа человека, что подтверждается несколькими древними текстами. Общий для этих слов праиндоевропейский корень «nu» подразумевает бездеятельное, беспечное и бесперспективное предстояние перед исполненным нужды и мучений настоящим и отчаяние в будущем. Данный вывод весьма важен для изучения механизма суицидального поведения, дабы найти методы его разрушения, который могли бы взять на вооружение педагоги и психологи. Последнюю тему мы предложим читателю в следующей статье. In the act of suicide there is an enforcement mechanism that matures in low spirits and is triggered by despair. The key issue is finding a method to destroy such a mechanism in order to help educators and psychologists. This article is an attempt to find the framework of suicide through an analysis of the word and concept of «уныние». The etymological study of the word «уныние» shows that it has an artificial origin and occurs for any functions only in the Slavonic Church and languages it influenced on. The word «уныние» is used to name a sinful situation. The study of the word «уныние» is at the intersection of theology, psychology and linguistics and makes it possible to understand that the word «уныние» came into existent simultaneously with the Church Slavonic. There was a word «ныть (нытьё)» in the Slavic languages. It is used to describe physical ill-being. The new word was created by adding prefix «у» to describe spiritual ill-being. Some ancient texts corroborate it. Common for these words etymological proto-indo-european root «nu» fills the word «уныние» with the meaning of inactive, careless and hopeless status before the miserable and bitter, present and desolation in the future. This conclusion is highly significant to follow in the next article, studying the framework of suicidal behavior.


1997 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 475-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Logan

‘Civilization’ was a major keyword in the Italian Catholic discourse of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth. Indeed Catholic Christian civilization was seen as synonymous with true civilization itself insofar as the post-classical era was concerned. The concept of ‘Christian civilization’ was closely allied to that of cristianità, as distinct from cristianesimo (Christianity). The terms cristianità and chrétienté, like English ‘Christendom’, had originally had primarily geographical connotations, but in post-Revolutionary Catholic thought they acquired connotations of a Christian order of society under the leadership of the Church, the evils of the modern world being presented as consequences of its breakdown. The allied discourse on ‘Christian civilization’ itself in the Italian Catholic world, as in the French one, was in large measure reactionary in character, associated with Counter-Revolutionary ideology and with opposition to liberalism. It asserted that a return of society to the Church was a precondition of social order. Thus the myth of a lost universal order offered a paradigm for the future.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 321
Author(s):  
PI Van Niekerk

<strong>God and poverty in the Karoo – A reflection on a theology of transformation</strong> <br /> The Karoo is an outstretched arid area characterised by poverty and underdevelopment. This article focuses on the poverty of the Karoo people and the effect of their faith in God on social development and transformation. The future of the Karoo is vested in its people and religious communities. Previous research indicated that believers’ image of God had an effect on their attitude towards social development and transformation. A small sample of women in a Karoo town experienced God as loving, but not as a God that inspired people towards transformation. The test for the church lies in her social involvement in the world as its salvation is God’s concern. In Christian humanism the integrity of creation in a world filled with injustice and poverty is emphasised. Churches in the Karoo are encouraged to utilise a theology of transformation that is developmentally driven and inspired by a transforming image of God.


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