The Crown of the Divine Child in the Meroitic Kingdom. A Typological Study

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-31
Author(s):  
Eric Spindler
Keyword(s):  
Divine Power ◽  
Divine Child

The crown of the divine child was one of the headdresses that transferred from Egypt to the Meroitic Kingdom. It was integrated in the Egyptian decoration program in the early Ptolemaic time. The first king of Meroe to use this crown in the decoration of the Lion Temple in Musawwarat es-Sufra was Arnekhamani (235-218 BCE). It also appeared later in the sanctuaries of his successors Arkamani II (218-200 BCE) and Adikhalamani (ca. 200-190 BCE) in Dakka and Debod. The Egyptians presented it as the headdress of child gods or the king. In the Kingdom of Meroe the crown was more like a tool to depict the fully legitimised king before he faced the main deity of the sanctuary. To show this the Meroitic artists changed its iconography in such a way that the primarily Egyptian focus on the aspects of youth and rebirth withdrew into the background so that the elements of cosmic, royal and divine legitimacy became the centre of attention. Even if the usage and parts of the iconography were different, the overall meaning remained the same. It was a headdress that combined all elements of the cosmos as well as of royal and divine power.

The Gospels as Imperialized Sites of Memory in Late Ancient Christianity

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 291-307
Author(s):  
Jason T. Larson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Divine Power ◽  
Cultural Objects ◽  
Invented Tradition ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Material Things ◽  
A Site ◽  
Ancient Christianity

This article considers the intersection of Christian and imperial memory in the physical Gospel book. Besides describing the function of gospel books in the post-Constantine Roman Empire, it examines the connection between the Roman construction and production of sites of memory that established Roman imperium in the Mediterranean and the development of the Christian Gospel codex as a site of memory within Christianity. It also explores the related issues of imperial and divine power as manifest through material things, the rhetoric of seeing and iconicity, and the invented tradition of Christian orthodoxy. The article shows that the Christian Gospels and Roman sites of memory, despite a vast difference in their intended functions and original uses, both established imperium. It maintains that the creation of the Gospels' imperial iconicity was not based on their function as texts of spiritual enlightenment in late ancient Christianity, but on the fact that the production of Gospels as material cultural objects depended on Roman cultural exemplars and ideological rhetoric.

The Contest on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:19–40) as a Reflection of a Religious-Cultural Threat

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-100
Author(s):  
Nadav Na’aman
Keyword(s):  
Persian Period ◽  
Absolute Power ◽  
Divine Power ◽  
Single Author ◽  
Cultural Threat ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Story Cycle ◽  
1 Kings

Abstract The article suggests that the story of the contest on Mount Carmel (1 Kgs 18:19–40) is a complete literary unit that was written by a single author in the early Persian period and inserted into the deuteronomistic story-cycle of Elijah. The story is entirely legendary and reflects the polemic of a devotee of YHWH against the contemporaneous spread of the Phoenician cult and culture. The attachment of the story to Mount Carmel may reflect the occasion of the establishment of a Tyrian/Sidonian temple on one of the mountain’s peaks, but this hypothesis cannot be verified. The story conveys a clear religious message of the absolute power of YHWH and the worthlessness of all other gods – in particular the Phoenician God Ba‘al – and of the fallacy of the belief in his divine power.

Monotheism in Isaiah

2020 ◽  
pp. 218-248
Author(s):  
Matthias Albani
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
The Other ◽  
Divine Power ◽  
Crisis Situation ◽  
Catalytic Function ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Future ◽  
The One ◽  
Religious Crisis

The monotheistic confession in Isa 40–48 is best understood against the historical context of Israel’s political and religious crisis situation in the final years of Neo-Babylonian rule. According to Deutero-Isaiah, Yhwh is unique and incomparable because he alone truly predicts the “future” (Isa 41:22–29)—currently the triumph of Cyrus—which will lead to Israel’s liberation from Babylonian captivity (Isa 45). This prediction is directed against the Babylonian deities’ claim to possess the power of destiny and the future, predominantly against Bel-Marduk, to whom both Nabonidus and his opponents appeal in their various political assertions regarding Cyrus. According to the Babylonian conviction, Bel-Marduk has the universal divine power, who, on the one hand, directs the course of the stars and thus determines the astral omens and, on the other hand, directs the course of history (cf. Cyrus Cylinder). As an antithesis, however, Deutero-Isaiah proclaims Yhwh as the sovereign divine creator and leader of the courses of the stars in heaven as well as the course of history on earth (Isa 45:12–13). Moreover, the conflict between Nabonidus and the Marduk priesthood over the question of the highest divine power (Sîn versus Marduk) may have had a kind of “catalytic” function in Deutero-Isaiah’s formulation of the monotheistic confession.

What is God's Power?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Renz
Keyword(s):  
Divine Attributes ◽  
Divine Power ◽  
The World

Theists claim that God can make a causal difference in the world. That is, theists believe that God is causally efficacious, has power. Discussion of divine power has centered on understanding better the metaphysics of creation and sustenance, special intervention, governance, and providing an account of omnipotence consistent with other divine attributes, such as omnibenevolence. But little discussion has centered on what, deep down ontologically, God’s power is. I show that a number of prominent accounts of power fail to model what divine power could be, and then develop an account based on teleological and primitivist accounts of power.

‘If I Could Just Touch the Hem of His Garment’

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-29
Author(s):  
Chris E.W. Green
Keyword(s):  
Divine Power ◽  
Means Of Grace ◽  
Spiritual Tradition

Abstract This article proposes an ontology and praxis of mediation for the sake of ecumenical dialog, showing that the Pentecostal theological and spiritual tradition does not necessarily deny mediation or challenge its goodness, even if it does decry clericalism and ‘ecclesio-monism’. Instead, Pentecostals hold to confidence in the freedom of God to work however and whenever is best for us, always so that ‘the means of grace’ prove to be more than mere instruments or channels of divine power.

scholarly journals The Dancing Picture - The Ritual Dance of Native Australians

1996 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 75-90
Author(s):  
Monica Engelhart
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
The Body ◽  
Visual Performance ◽  
Human Identity ◽  
Divine Power ◽  
Ritual Dance

What kind of message does -or did — the dance convey to the Native Australians? Several types of communication can be distinguished in ritual dance. There is the narrative aspect, i.e., the dramatization of a myth, or of certain social relations, there is an aspect of explanation, i.e., the visual performance of significant conditions, an expressive aspect of worship, and even an aspect of transmission, as when the body of the dancer is thought to mediate divine power to the audience. When a dancer is considered possessed, the boundaries between his human identity and the divine are wiped out. This last aspect leads us to the second item of interest regarding the ritual dance in Australia, an issue that has been discussed at length regarding masked dancers in other societies, i.e., the question of whether the dancer is identified with the being represented, or merely performs as an actor in a play. In this discussion, the very technique of dancing may have some explanatory faculty, at least as long as we are dealing with Native Australian ritual dance.

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