Funeral “Shpruchs” in the Tradition of Russian Germans

2021 ◽  
pp. 153-162
Author(s):  
Дмитрий Игоревич Вайман
Keyword(s):  
Special Design ◽  
The Urals ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
Ethical Norms ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Russian Germans

В статье на основе полевых материалов рассматриваются особенности траурных шпрухов российских немцев. Основными источниками исследования стали материалы, собранные в немецких поселениях Урала и Сибири. Изучению траурных шпрухов предшествует исторический экскурс, раскрывающий некоторые особенности традиции шпрухов - цитат из религиозных текстов, пословиц и назиданий - в культуре российских немцев. Траурные цитаты рассматриваются как часть широкой традиции шпрухов, как культурное явление российских немцев. Траурные шпрухи представлены текстами в письмах, уведомляющих о смерти человека и предстоящих похоронах, текстами на крышке гроба и венках. Для траурных цитат была характерна своя стилистика оформления. Изначально тексты были выполнены на немецком языке готическим шрифтом. В локальных сюжетах тексты сопровождаются изображениями креста, ангелов. В некотором смысле и сам текст можно считать своеобразной формой украшения. К середине второй половины XX в. происходит постепенный отход от традиционной графики и переход в цитировании на русский язык. Большая часть шпрухов связана с религиозной тематикой. Прежде всего, это выдержки или прямые цитаты из Библии, кроме того, пословицы и иные высказывания. Траурные цитаты ориентируются на христианское понимание жизни и смерти. В текстах находят отражение представления, связанные с устоявшимися общественными, этическими нормами. This article examines the funeral “shpruchs” (Ger. Sprüche, Rus. shprukhi) of the Russian Germans based on field materials collected in the German settlements in the Urals and Siberia. Shpruchs - short quotations from religious texts, proverbs and edificatory material - used in mourning are part of a long tradition among Russian Germans. They appear in letters announcing a person’s death and upcoming funeral and in texts on the coffin lid and wreaths. Funeral shpruchs have their own special design. In some contexts, the texts are accompanied by images of the cross and angels. In a sense, shpruchs themselves can be considered a form of decoration. Initially shpruchs were written in German in Gothic script; by the last quarter of the 20 th century, there was a gradual departure from traditional graphics and a transition to citation in Russian. Most funerary shpruchs are on religious themes. Predominantly, they are excerpts or direct quotations from the Bible, often proverbs. Mourning shpruchs focus on the Christian understanding of life and death and reflect well-established social and ethical norms.

The Quranic Jesus: Prophet and Scapegoat

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-220
Author(s):  
John Ranieri
Keyword(s):  
Major Theme ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
The Way

A major theme in René Girard’s work involves the role of the Bible in exposing the scapegoating practices at the basis of culture. The God of the Bible is understood to be a God who takes the side of victims. The God of the Qur’an is also a defender of victims, an idea that recurs throughout the text in the stories of messengers and prophets. In a number of ways, Jesus is unique among the prophets mentioned in the Qur’an. It is argued here that while the Quranic Jesus is distinctly Islamic, and not a Christian derivative, he functions in the Qur’an in a way analogous to the role Jesus plays in the gospels. In its depiction of Jesus, the Qur’an is acutely aware of mimetic rivalry, scapegoating, and the God who comes to the aid of the persecuted. Despite the significant differences between the Christian understanding of Jesus as savior and the way he is understood in the Qur’an, a Girardian interpretation of the Qur’anic Jesus will suggest ways in which Jesus can be a bridge rather than an obstacle in Christian/Muslim dialogue.

The Power of the Cross and Cruciform Devices in the Carolingian World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildar Garipzanov
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Manuscript Culture ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Early Byzantine

This chapter shows the unquestionable role of the sign of the cross as the primary sign of divine authority in Carolingian material and manuscript culture, a role partly achieved at the expense of the diminishing symbolic importance of the late antique christograms. It also analyses the appearance of new cruciform devices in the ninth century as well as the adaptation of the early Byzantine tradition of cruciform invocational monograms in Carolingian manuscript culture, as exemplified in the Bible of San Paolo fuori le mura and several other religious manuscripts. The final section examines some Carolingian carmina figurata and, most importantly, Hrabanus Maurus’ In honorem sanctae crucis, as a window into Carolingian graphicacy and the paramount importance of the sign of the cross as its ultimate organizing principle.

Le prologue du livre de Ben Sirach le Sage et la traduction des écrits sacrés

Babel ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-149
Author(s):  
Bruno Rochette
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Modern Theory ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Religious Writings ◽  
Corpus Hermeticum

Abstract Examining the prologue to the Greek Ben Sirach, this article tries to describe how the Greek translators of religious texts perceive the difficulties and the limits of their task. Conscious of the changes resulting from the passage of one language to another, they conceive their work as inspired by God. Therefore the work translated does not appear as a simple translation mechanically done, but as a new text reflecting the conception of the inspired translator whose faith is the warrant for the quality and accuracy of the translation. Two other comments on translation are taken into account : Corpus Hermeticum XVI and the Letter of Pseudo-Aristeas on the translation of the Septuagint. The examination of these texts leads to the conclusion that ancient translators of religious writings strove to show the vision of truth as they saw it in the original text to the new audience using another language. This conception of translating will be followed by Latin translators adopting, like Hieronymus, the principle of literality for the translation of the Bible, since in the Holy Scripture even the word order is mystery, as the Father says. A comparison with the modern theory and practice of translation of religious texts is also instructive for the modern translator. It can incite him to be careful of the likelihood of changing the sense of the original he is translating. Résumé En examinant le prologue de la version grecque du livre de Ben Sirach le Sage, cet article décrit comment les traducteurs grecs de textes religieux perçoivent les difficultés et les limites de leur tâche. Conscients des changements consécutifs au passage d'une langue à l'autre, ils conçoivent leur travail comme inspiré par Dieu. Par conséquent, l'oeuvre traduite n'apparaît pas comme une simple traduction, réalisée mécaniquement, mais comme un nouveau texte reflétant la conception du traducteur inspiré. Sa foi est le garant de la qualité et de l'exactitude de la traduction. Deux autres commentaires sur la traduction sont pris en compte : Corpus Hermeticum XVI et la Lettre du Pseudo-Aristée sur la Septante. L'examen de ces textes conduit à la conclusion que les traducteurs anciencs de textes religieux se sont efforcés de montrer à un public nouveau parlant une autre langue la vision de la vérité telle qu'ils la perçoivent dans le texte original. Cette manière de concevoir la traduction sera suivie par les traducteurs latins qui adoptent, comme Jérôme, le principe de littéralité pour la traduction de la Bible, car, dans l'Écriture Sainte, meme l'ordre des mots est mystère, comme le dit le Père. Une comparaison avec la théorie et la pratique moderne de la traduction de textes sacrés peut aussi etre instructive pour le traducteur d'aujourd'hui. Elle devrait l'inciter à etre attentif à la probabilité de changer le sens de l'original qu'il traduit.

The Evangelical Discovery of History

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 330-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Bebbington
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Churches Of Christ ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Evangelical Protestantism ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Cross ◽  
The Church

‘From some modern perspectives’, wrote James Belich, a leading historian of New Zealand, in 1996, ‘the evangelicals are hard to like. They dressed like crows; seemed joyless, humourless and sometimes hypocritical; [and] they embalmed the evidence poor historians need to read in tedious preaching’. Similar views have often been expressed in the historiography of Evangelical Protestantism, the subject of this essay. It will cover such disapproving appraisals of the Evangelical past, but because a high proportion of the writing about the movement was by insiders it will have more to say about studies by Evangelicals of their own history. Evangelicals are taken to be those who have placed particular stress on the value of the Bible, the doctrine of the cross, an experience of conversion and a responsibility for activism. They were to be found in the Church of England and its sister provinces of the Anglican communion, forming an Evangelical party that rivalled the high church and broad church tendencies, and also in the denominations that stemmed from Nonconformity in England and Wales, as well as in the Protestant churches of Scotland. Evangelicals were strong, often overwhelmingly so, within Methodism and Congregationalism and among the Baptists and the Presbyterians. Some bodies that arose later on, including the (so-called Plymouth) Brethren, the Churches of Christ and the Pentecostals (the last two primarily American in origin), joined the Evangelical coalition.

The Vanishing Absolute and the Deconsecrated God: A Theological Reflection on Revelation, Law, and Human Dignity

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Beattie
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Homo Sacer ◽  
Divine Justice ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Cross

Drawing on Giorgio Agamben’s idea of homo sacer and on the Catholic natural law tradition, Beattie explores the paradoxes and tensions inherent in the Christian understanding of divine justice and human laws. While natural law resists the pessimism of some Protestant theologies and their secularized postmodern derivatives, the doctrine of original sin means that all human laws are flawed in their quest to maintain justice through the imposition of order. Beattie argues that Christ is homo sacer in whom God is profaned, the human is made sacred, and the crucified body of the dehumanized other on the cross becomes the bearer of an absolute dignity outside the law.

History of Religion as Critique of Religion?

2021 ◽  
pp. 10-30
Author(s):  
Hans Joas
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
David Hume ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Universal History ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Literary Character ◽  
History Of

The Scottish eighteenth-century philosopher and historian David Hume can be considered a pioneer of the “natural history of religion” in the sense of a universal history of religion that is not based on theological presuppositions. This chapter offers a characterization of his methodological achievements and a reevaluation of his empirical claims concerning monotheism, polytheism, religion and tolerance. It also interprets the German reception of Hume in Herder and other eighteenth-century thinkers as a serious critical continuation that is free from Hume’s anti-Christian motives. This continuation opens the perspective of a serious study of the literary character of religious texts, in this case of the Bible. All simple contrasts between Enlightenment and religion are overcome as soon as we take this interaction of thinkers into account.

scholarly journals Voorzienigheid en verantwoordelijkheid

2001 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Van de Beek
Keyword(s):  
Human Beings ◽  
The Real ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Genesis 22 ◽  
Existential Problem ◽  
Theological Concept

Providence and responsibility Providence is usually regarded as a theological concept that sets human hearts at rest. God rules our lives, and in particular those of Christians. Modern people often have problems with this idea. How can a good God rule a world with diseases and disasters? And can we actually imagine such an all-controlling power? Nevertheless, these are not the real issues concerning the concept of providence. The existential problem is that providence in the Bible has to do with responsibility: God takes responsibility for his world. This responsibility is total; it even implies responsibility and punishment for sin. Thus providence and atonement are not two separated fields of theology, but coincide. The chapter in the Bible to which the concept is originally related makes this plain: Genesis 22, and verse 8 in particular, states, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son”. (The Vulgate reads: “the victim for the holocaust”.) In Genesis 16-22 the word “to provide”, literally “to see” (r’h), turns out to be a key concept. Who sees? The Lord sees, Abraham sees and Hagar sees – and it is always in a situation of life and death in which they are called to responsibility to save lives. But actually these are lives that have already been sacrificed. Thus providence demands the ultimate from human beings, as it asks the ultimate from their God. Noordmans highlights this in a meditation on Matthew 6:34: “Jesus does not say this in order to lay worries to rest but in order to raise worries”. If you search for the kingship of God, all things that are needed will be given to you – such as feet to walk the second mile.

scholarly journals Life and Death of Selfish Genes: Comparative Genomics Reveals the Dynamic Evolution of Cytoplasmic Incompatibility

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Martinez ◽  
Lisa Klasson ◽  
John J Welch ◽  
Francis M Jiggins
Keyword(s):  
Cytoplasmic Incompatibility ◽  
Gene Gain ◽  
Evolutionary Models ◽  
Loss Of Function ◽  
Genome Sequences ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Selfish Genes ◽  
Wolbachia Genome ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Gain Loss

Abstract Cytoplasmic incompatibility is a selfish reproductive manipulation induced by the endosymbiont Wolbachia in arthropods. In males Wolbachia modifies sperm, leading to embryonic mortality in crosses with Wolbachia-free females. In females, Wolbachia rescues the cross and allows development to proceed normally. This provides a reproductive advantage to infected females, allowing the maternally transmitted symbiont to spread rapidly through host populations. We identified homologs of the genes underlying this phenotype, cifA and cifB, in 52 of 71 new and published Wolbachia genome sequences. They are strongly associated with cytoplasmic incompatibility. There are up to seven copies of the genes in each genome, and phylogenetic analysis shows that Wolbachia frequently acquires new copies due to pervasive horizontal transfer between strains. In many cases, the genes have subsequently acquired loss-of-function mutations to become pseudogenes. As predicted by theory, this tends to occur first in cifB, whose sole function is to modify sperm, and then in cifA, which is required to rescue the cross in females. Although cif genes recombine, recombination is largely restricted to closely related homologs. This is predicted under a model of coevolution between sperm modification and embryonic rescue, where recombination between distantly related pairs of genes would create a self-incompatible strain. Together, these patterns of gene gain, loss, and recombination support evolutionary models of cytoplasmic incompatibility.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document