scholarly journals The Canticle of the Creatures as Hypotext behind Dante’s Pater Noster

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-40
Author(s):  
Rodney Lokaj

The article analyses Dante’s explanatory paraphrase and exegesis of the Lord’s Prayer, which opens the eleventh canto (v. 1–24) of Purgatory. The author reminds us that the prayer is the only one fully recited in the entire Comedy and this devotional practice is in line with the Franciscan prescription to recite it in the sixth hour of the Divine Office when Christ died on the cross. The prayer is reported by the poet on the first terrace of Purgatory, where the proud and vainglorious must learn the virtue of humility, and therefore it symbolizes the perfect reciprocity between man and Godhead. Dante collates and amplifies the two complementary Latin versions of the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6: 9–13 and Luke 11: 2–4. The two synoptic texts are supplemented by the Gospel of John, from which Dante takes the concept of celestial bread (manna) – the flesh and the blood of Christ – which nourishes, liberates and sanctifies Christians. Apart from the Bible, Dante also draws upon the Augustinian and Tomistic traditions. However, the main hypotext behind the prayer, which is neither cited nor acknowledged in any explicit form in the Comedy, is the Franciscan Laudes creaturarum (“Canticle of the Creatures”), also known as the Canticle of the Brother Sun. Written in vernacular by St. Francis himself, who is also the author of the Expositio in Pater noster, the Canticle was still recited and sung together with the Lord’s Prayer in the Franciscan communities in Dante’s time. Moreover, following the parallel readings popular nowadays in Dante studies, the author argues that Purgatorio 11 may be elucidated in the context of Paradiso 11, which is the Franciscan canto par excellence, and taken together they both offset cantos 10, 11, 12 of Inferno, which are based on the sin of pride (superbia). The denunciation of pride in and around canto 11 of Inferno alludes to humility – the remedy of such pride in Purgatory 11, which in turn prepares the reader for the encounter with St. Francis – the paragon of humility – in Paradiso 11. The author concludes that the Dantean paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer is no less than an elaborate exegesis and homage to Christ and His teachings, something which is encompassed in a nutshell in the Sermon on the Mount.  

1991 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 99-111
Author(s):  
Gerhard Müller

According to Protestant understanding, veneration of Mary is only permissible when it is based on Scripture. When such scriptural proof is given, it should neither be used polemically against other churches nor be dismissed on account of unbiblical influences and pressures: the Bible is, and remains, the one foundation for all Evangelical Christians. In the New Testament, Mary is mentioned in particular in the birth stories of Jesus, recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Beyond this, she appears only incidentally in the accounts of Jesus’ ministry. Here a certain detachment from the activities of Jesus can be discerned. None the less, in the Gospel of John, Mary is seen as standing under the Cross. This, in turn, helps to explain how the veneration of Mary originally arose. At the same time, however, veneration of Mary remains a part of the veneration of Jesus, as die Lord of the Anointed God.


Author(s):  
Ildar Garipzanov

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-109
Author(s):  
Levente Balázs Martos

The concept of motivation is related to the encouraging effect on others on the one hand and the reasons for our own actions on the other. Motivation always reflects a specific set of values and tools, as well as behavior. In our short study, some of the fundamental values characteristic of the Bible will be presented, and then we observe the motivating presence of Jesus for his disciples in the narration of the fourth gospel, the Gospel of John.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Roy Martin Simanjuntak

The issue of Christology from time to time is one very interesting theological topics to be discussed, both in intellectual circles, even church leaders in communities grow together in a group of local churches. The spread understanding or information about Christology are numerous and easy to find, therefore believers should to select sources so as not to cause a false understanding that led to the loss of the substance of Christology. It’s inevitable that people who are in this modern era of greatly affect the issue and the development of Christology. This discussion includes the concept Christology from the Bible, and then outlines how where fathers or figures of Christian thinkers to formulate it in a Christian doctrine that Christians are ultimately used in the history of Christianity. Christology that comes from understanding the Bible is acceptable and justified by the believer. In particular, in the Gospel of John is very fullgar when talking about Christology, both His nature as well as the work of God and man and his mission for the salvation of mankind. Abstrak Persoalan Kristologi dari zaman ke zaman merupakan sala satu topik teologi yang sangat menarik untuk dibahas, baik di kalangan intelektual, pemimpin jemaat bahkan juga di komunitas-komunitas kelompok tumbuh bersama dalam sebuah gereja lokal. Pemahaman-pemahaman yang beredar atau informasi tentang Kristologi sangatlah banyak dan mudah untuk menemukannya, oleh karenanya orang percaya mestinya menyeleksi sumber tersebut sehingga tidak menimbulkan pemahaman yang keliru dan berujung pada hilangnya substansi Kristologi tersebut. Tidak bisa dipungkiri bahwa masyarakat yang berada dalam era modern ini sangat mempengaruhi isu dan perkembangan Kristologi. Pembahasan ini meliputi konsep Kristologi yang bersumber dari Alkitab, dan kemudian menguraikan bagaimana bapa-bapa gereja atau tokoh-tokoh pemikir Kristen merumuskannya dalam sebuah doktrin Kristen yang akhirnya dipakai orang Kristen dalam sepanjang sejarah kekristenan. Kristologi yang bersumber dari Alkitab merupakan pemahaman yang dapat diterima dan dibenarkan oleh orang percaya. Secara khusus Injil Yohanes sangat terbuka membahas tentang Kristologi, baik hakikatNya sebagai Allah dan manusia maupun karya dan misiNya untuk keselamatan umat manusia.


2010 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Antoni Salm

As the result of a biblical revival, the Polish text of the petition of the Lord’s Prayer in the Bible (Matt 6 : 13 and Luke 11 : 4) was changed from “Lead us not into temptation” to “Do not allow us to give into temptation”, which was also included in the Lectionary. This text is correct in respect to theology and language, and it is waiting for its place in the Eucharistic liturgy and daily prayer.


2013 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 330-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Bebbington

‘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.


Author(s):  
H.F. Stander

Recently, studies have illustrated that honour and shame were core values in the Mediterranean world in general and in the Bible too. These studies usually resort to classical sources to support the claims being made. Modern scholars, who take the historical-critical approach seriously, have come to realize the importance of reading the Bible according to its appropriate cultural context, which of necessity includes an appreciation of honour and shame as social core values. However, the article shows that patristic sources have been neglected by many scholars who study the social values of the ancient world. This article illustrates the importance of these values for patristic authors. John Chrysostom’s homilies on the Gospel of John are used as an example to prove how he employed values such as honour and shame as exegetical keys to unlock the meaning of John’s gospel.


2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-75
Author(s):  
Hans-Ulrich Weidemann

Abstract This article examines the way Cyril of Alexandria interprets the Passion narrative in his commentary on the Gospel of John. It argues that besides the doctrinal, christological focus of his exegesis Cyril is concerned with a second issue: the contested masculinity of Jesus and his followers during the events of the Passion. This concern becomes clear when Cyril designates the cross-bearing Jesus as “the type of manly courage” (typos andreías). Following a survey of the current historical masculinity studies, the article examines Cyril’s interpretation of such scenes of the Johannine Passion account where Jesus is depicted as being arrested, beaten and flogged, humiliated and finally crucified – i.e., depicted in a way that might seem to contradict antique ideals of manliness. It finally analyzes Cyril’s explanations as to various “unmanly” or “manly” traits of Jesus’ adversaries, especially of the Jews, and of his followers: Peter, his beloved disciple and his Mother.


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