Unfriendly and polemical elements in Augustine’s correspondence with other clerics

Author(s):  
Stanisław Adamiak

Abstract: Nearly half of the letters written by Augustine were directed to other clerics. The paper analyses how polemical intentions could be hidden behind friendly formulas. Particular consideration is given to the correspondence between Augustine and Donatist clerics, whom he treated as his peers and brothers.<fnote> The research was funded by the Polish National Science Centre grants: “The Presbyters in the Late Antique West” (2013/10/E/HS3/00202) and “The History of the Donatist Schism” (2015/19/D/HS3/00626).</fnote>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margot Patry ◽  
Iwona Klonowska ◽  
Karolina Kośmińska ◽  
Jarosław Majka

&lt;p&gt;The Isbj&amp;#248;rnhamna Group, which crops out in the south-west of Svalbard in the High Arctic, is crucial for understanding Svalbard&amp;#8217;s regional geology. It can be traced in southern Wedel Jarlsberg Land and S&amp;#248;rkapp Land, and it consists of a Barrovian-type series of metapelites that were metamorphosed during the Torellian (c. 640Ma; Majka et al. 2008) and overprinted during the Caledonian orogenesis (Majka &amp; Ko&amp;#347;mi&amp;#324;ska, 2017). Although relatively recent petrological study exists, there are certain gaps in it. In order to fill these gaps, we decided to re-investigate these rocks using the most up-to-date petrochronological approach. Hence, we aim to determine the metamorphic history of these rocks in detail, test the hypothesis if there are indeed several orogenic events registered by these rocks and what was a possible exhumation mechanism responsible for uplift of this sequence.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The studied garnet-bearing mica schists preserve four different parageneses, ranging from chloritoid to kyanite metamorphic zones. Here we report on the samples containing chlorite and chloritoid, kyanite, staurolite and both staurolite and kyanite. The studied samples are the same exact rocks that have been previously studied by Majka et al. (2008, 2010) using both geothermobarometry and petrogenetic grids in the KFMASH system. According to those authors the estimated pressure-temperature conditions (P-T) were c. 655&amp;#176;C at 11kbar for the kyanite-bearing shist, c. 624&amp;#176;C at 6.6 to 8.7kbar for the staurolite + kyanite pelite and c. 580&amp;#176;C at 8-9kbar for the staurolite-bearing rock. The chloritoid schist has not been studied previously.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our preliminary phase equilibrium modelling in the MnNCKFMASHTO system using the Theriak-Domino software indicates P-T conditions of c. 660&amp;#176;C at 7 kbar for the kyanite-schist and c. 575&amp;#176;C at 8 to 9.5kbar for the staurolite-schist, respectively. The chloritoid schist yielded conditions of c. 560&amp;#176;C at 7.5kbar. Further P-T modelling coupled with in-situ Ar-Ar and U-Pb geochronology should allow for much better understanding of the complex geological history of these rocks as well as potential flaws in the previous studies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Research funded by National Science Centre (Poland) project no. 2019/33/B/ST10/01728.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Majka &amp; Ko&amp;#347;mi&amp;#324;ska (2017): Arktos, 3:5, 1.17.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Majka et al. (2008): Geological Magazine, 145, 822-830.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Majka et al. (2010): Polar Research, 29, 250-264. &amp;#160; &amp;#160; &amp;#160; &amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 284-308
Author(s):  
James A. Francis

The Defense of Holy Images by John of Damascus stands as the archetypal exposition of the Christian theology of images. Written at the outbreak of the Iconoclastic Controversy, it has been mostly valued for its theological content and given scholarly short shrift as a narrowly focused polemic. The work is more than that. It presents a complex and profound explication of the nature of images and the phenomenon of representation, and is an important part of the “history of looking”in western culture. A long chain of visual conceptions connects classical Greek and Roman writers, such as Homer and Quintilian, to John: the living image, the interrelation of word and image, and image and memory, themes elaborated particularly in the Second Sophistic period of the early Common Era. For John to deploy this heritage so skillfully to the thorny problem of the place of images in Christianity, at the outbreak of a violent conflict that lasted a further 100 years after his writing, manifests an intellect and creativity that has not been sufficiently appreciated. The Defense of Holy Images, understood in this context, is another innovative synthesis of Christianity and classical culture produced by late antique Christian writers.


Author(s):  
Jack Tannous

In the second half of the first millennium CE, the Christian Middle East fractured irreparably into competing churches and Arabs conquered the region, setting in motion a process that would lead to its eventual conversion to Islam. This book argues that key to understanding these dramatic religious transformations are ordinary religious believers, often called “the simple” in late antique and medieval sources. Largely agrarian and illiterate, these Christians outnumbered Muslims well into the era of the Crusades, and yet they have typically been invisible in our understanding of the Middle East's history. What did it mean for Christian communities to break apart over theological disagreements that most people could not understand? How does our view of the rise of Islam change if we take seriously the fact that Muslims remained a demographic minority for much of the Middle Ages? In addressing these and other questions, the book provides a sweeping reinterpretation of the religious history of the medieval Middle East. The book draws on a wealth of Greek, Syriac, and Arabic sources to recast these conquered lands as largely Christian ones whose growing Muslim populations are properly understood as converting away from and in competition with the non-Muslim communities around them.


Author(s):  
S. V. Ushakov

Hundreds of scientific works are devoted to the study of the Tauric Chersonesus, but the problem of chronology and periodization of its ancient history is not sufficiently developed in historiography. Analysis of scientific literature and a number of sources concerning this subject allows to define the chronological framework and to reveal 10 stages of the history of ancient Chersonesos (as a preliminary definition). The early stage, the Foundation and formation of the Polis, is defined from the middle/last third of the VI century (or the first half of the V century BC) to the end of the V century BC. The end of the late-Antique − early-Byzantine (transitional) time in Chersonesos can be attributed to the second half of the VI – first third of the VII centuries ad).


Author(s):  
Carlos Machado

This book analyses the physical, social, and cultural history of Rome in late antiquity. Between AD 270 and 535, the former capital of the Roman empire experienced a series of dramatic transformations in its size, appearance, political standing, and identity, as emperors moved to other cities and the Christian church slowly became its dominating institution. Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome provides a new picture of these developments, focusing on the extraordinary role played by members of the traditional elite, the senatorial aristocracy, in the redefinition of the city, its institutions, and spaces. During this period, Roman senators and their families became increasingly involved in the management of the city and its population, in building works, and in the performance of secular and religious ceremonies and rituals. As this study shows, for approximately three hundred years the houses of the Roman elite competed with imperial palaces and churches in shaping the political map and the social life of the city. Making use of modern theories of urban space, the book considers a vast array of archaeological, literary, and epigraphic documents to show how the former centre of the Mediterranean world was progressively redefined and controlled by its own elite.


2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 350-375
Author(s):  
Jovan Koledin ◽  
Urszula Bugaj ◽  
Paweł Jarosz ◽  
Mario Novak ◽  
Marcin M. Przybyła ◽  
...  

AbstractIn various prehistoric periods, the territory of Vojvodina became the target of the migration of steppe communities with eastern origins. The oldest of these movements are dated to the late Eneolithic and the beginning of the Early Bronze Age. There are at least two stages among them: I – dated to the end of the fourth millennium BC / beginning of the third millennium BC and II – dated from 3000 to 2600 BC and combined with the communities of the classical phase of the Yamnaya culture. The data documenting these processes have been relatively poor so far – in comparison with the neighboring regions of Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. A big drawback was the small number of systematically excavated mounds, providing comprehensive data on the funeral ritual of steppe communities. This poor database has been slightly enriched as a result of the design of the National Science Centre (Cracow, Poland) entitled “Danubian route of the Yamnaya culture”. Its effect was to examine the first two barrows located on the territory of Bačka – the western region of Vojvodina. Currently, these burial mounds are the westernmost points on the map of the cemeteries of the Yamnaya culture complex. Radiocarbon dates obtained for new finds, as well as for archival materials, allow specifying two stages of use of cemeteries of Yamnaya culture: I – around 3000–2900 BC and II – around 2800–2600 BC. Among the finds from Banat, there were also few materials coming probably from the older period, corresponding to the classical phase of Baden – Coţofeni I–II. The enigmatic nature of these discoveries, however, does not allow to specify their dating as well as cultural dependencies.


Author(s):  
Amirul Syafiq Sadun ◽  
Jamaludin Jalani ◽  
Suziana Ahmad ◽  
Amiera Saryati Sadun ◽  
Sumaiya Mashori

Recently, combat robot competition has become one of the most famous engineering competitions among schools and universities. The robots are usually built with a destructive weapon, which can immobilize or disable opponent’s robot and win the match. Despite the variety of robot design and concept, the trend has shown that most of the local contestant tend to design a horizontal axis weapon type. In this project, a wireless vertical axis bar spinner combat robot is designed and developed for the 3rd Malaysia Combat Robot Competition which was held at National Science Centre (PSN) in 2017. The robot is controlled using radio control (RC) and powered by a highly discharge 22.2V Lithium Polymer (LiPo) chemical battery. Furthermore, related analysis has been conducted to meet the design and performance requirement of the competition. With the DC brush motor and thick metal bar rotating in vertical axis, the robot has proven to produce high power, torque and speed during the competition.


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