Centaurs in Contexts: The Eastern Lintel of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Crusading Spirituality, Agency and Society in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem

Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-199
Author(s):  
Gil Fishhof

<?page nr="159"?>Abstract Taking the eastern lintel of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as its primary focus, the present study examines the way by which the image of the centaur functioned in a specific historical context – that of the Crusades – to help the Christians define the character of their enemy; and in so doing also define their own concepts of society and order.In addition, society in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was complex, presenting multilayered relations between the ruling Franks, the various indigenous Eastern Christian communities, and the Muslim population. Among the Latins themselves power structures were also multifaceted, balancing, to name just a few, between the King, the Patriarch, and the various Lords. As this paper would like to contend, the imagery of the eastern lintel was designed to manifest the different concerns of these groups and agents, enabling alternative readings by each of them according to their particular perspectives.

Africa ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 496-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monday B. Abasiattai

Opening ParagraphThe Oberi Okaime Christian Mission has for long attracted the attention of scholars because of the way it developed a special script and even a language of its own. As early as 1937 the International African Institute was encouraging study of it. Today there is again a revival of interest in both the script and the language, and specimens of both as used in 1986 are included below, so as to put them once again on record some fifty years after they were invented. But these are not the primary focus of this article, the purpose oi which is to outline a history of the church, and by doing so to call attention to the wider phenomenon of Christianity in the context of Ibibio culture. The way Ibibio so readily took up Christianity after about 1910 has yet to be understood in detail, while the Spirit Movement in the region needs to be differentiated from such superficially similar movements as the contemporary Aladura or the earlier Garrick Braide movements.


2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-309
Author(s):  
Gisella Cantino Wataghin

This paper considers the relationship between the development of monumental churches and the rise of Christian communities and episcopal power. Using a number of examples attested by archaeological and documentary evidence it examines how the increasing complexity of Christian architecture, decoration and liturgical arrangement reflects the growing power of the bishop and the developing hierarchical complexity of Christian communities. In conclusion it examines the changing role of Christian monumental architecture as a vehicle for articulating the changing power structures of the Church between the 4th and 6th c.


2020 ◽  
pp. 144-159
Author(s):  
Алексей Дмитриевич Макаров

Статья посвящена проблеме рецепции Первого собрания сочинений известного аскетического писателя Церкви Востока Исаака, епископа Ниневийского, христианами других конфессий. Исследование разделено на три части, первая из которых представляет собой критический обзор этой проблемы в научной литературе. Автор исследования ставит целью подробно проанализировать проблему рецепции Первого собрания св. Исаака за пределами Церкви Востока и выявить малоизученные аспекты той трансформации, в результате которой подвижник Церкви Востока стал одним из наиболее авторитетных святых для Сиро-Халкидонской и Сиро-Яковитской Церквей. На основании проведённого исследования автор делает вывод о том, что в своем историческом развитии исследование вопроса о конфессиональной принадлежности св. Исаака прошло несколько этапов. Первый характеризуется безусловным доверием к интерполированному яковитскому житию. Переход ко второму этапу произошёл после нахождения и публикации в 1892 г. «Книги целомудрия» Ишоʿднаха, епископа Басрского, и безоговорочном принятии аутентичности сообщаемых им сведений о св. Исааке. После этого события в науке утвердился консенсус о принадлежности св. Исаака к Церкви Востока, который нашёл дополнительное подтверждение в текстологическом и богословском анализе Первого собрания. Вслед за этим встал вопрос о том, кто стоит за созданием альтернативной редакции, в которой большая часть элементов, указывающих на несторианское происхождение автора, была нивелирована. П. Беджан и большинство исследователей вслед за ним считали, что за искажением стояли сиро-яковиты. Позиция же И. Осэрра, утверждавшего, что это могли сделать только мелькиты, оставалась без внимания вплоть до 2016 г., когда Г. М. Кессель, независимо от Осэрра, убедительно доказал истинность данного утверждения. После этого дискуссия по вопросу адаптации аскетических сочинений св. Исаака перешла на этап прояснения различных деталей трансформации первого собрания св. Исаака при пересечении конфессиональных границ. Isaac, bishop of Nineveh, belongs to the Church of the East’s most famous ascetic authors. This three-part study explores the way how the First Part of his writings was adopted in other Syriac Christian communities. The first part offers a review of the scholarship of the issue. Makarov offers a detailed study of how Isaac’s First Part reached beyond his own church community. He identifies the issues that need exploration before one attempts to found out how the famous Nestorian ascetic became so greatly admired by both Byzantine and Syriac Jacobite Orthodox Churches, to which he had never belonged. Makarov concludes that historically there have been several positions regarding Isaac of Nineveh’s actual church adherence. The first one was based on a totally uncritical approach to the interpolated Jacobite Life of Isaac. The second position was inaugurated after Bishop Ishoʿdnah of Basrah’s Book of Chastity had been discovered. The new source, which was also treated rather uncritically, initiated the widespread consensus that Isaac of Nineveh belonged to the Church of the East. That view received additional support from more recent studies of the First Part. As a consequence, a question arose who created the alternative redaction, in which any evidence for Isaac’s Nestorian connections was either erased or altered. According to Paul Bejan and other scholars who shared that view, it was the Jacobites who had altered the text. Irénée Hausherr’s claim that the altering could have been done only by the Melkites received little notice until 2016 when Grigory Kessel, independently from Hausherr, proved it true. That however did not put the debate over the alterations in Isaac’s ascetic writings to an end. The scholars still disagree on how exactly the First Part was changed as the texts crossed borders of different Christian communities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (s1) ◽  
pp. 267-294
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Welizarowicz

Abstract The article assesses the recent canonization of Junípero Serra, Spanish Franciscan missionary and founder of the California mission system. I begin by introducing the priest and outlining the genesis of his assignment. I then discuss the model of missions’ operation and problematize their results. The rise of Serra’s legend is situated within the historical context of California’s “fantasy heritage”. I later outline the chief arguments and metaphors mobilized by the Church in support of the new saint. In the central part of the essay, I address and critically examine the ramifications of a document Serra authored and which the Church took as the priest’s passport to sainthood. I argue that the document inaugurated the epistemic and social divides in California and, marking the Indian as homo sacer (Agamben), paved the way to the Indigenous genocide in the mission and American eras. Following this, I offer a semiological (after Barthes and Lakoff) interpretation of the canonization as a modern myth, argue that metaphors invoked in support of the priest inverted the historical role played by Serra and, finally, ponder the moral ramifications of this canonization.


Transilvania ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 50-56
Author(s):  
Jaco Beyers

Migration is viewed as a natural social phenomenon. Reasons for migration and responses to migration may vary. Much research in recent times has been done on migration. This contribution approaches migration from a theological perspective and tries to emphasize the way Christian communities should view the entry of migrants into a community. The way the church should respond to migrants entering a community is discussed by way of three possible perceptions of migrants, either perceived as a threat, an asset or an opportunity. Migration may result in the continuation or discontinuation of beliefs by the migrant. The discontinuation of religion may be expressed as syncretism or secularization. Christian communities ought not to perceive the presence of the migrant as an entity needing assistance or object of conversion. Christian communities should also see migration as an opportunity for indigenous Christian communities to reflect on their own identity and attitude towards expressing inclusivity.


2004 ◽  
pp. 114-128
Author(s):  
V. Nimushin

In the framework of broad philosophic and historical context the author conducts comparative analysis of the conditions for assimilating liberal values in leading countries of the modern world and in Russia. He defends the idea of inevitable forward movement of Russia on the way of rationalization and cultivation of all aspects of life, but, to his opinion, it will occur not so fast as the "first wave" reformers thought and in other ideological and sociocultural forms than in Europe and America. The author sees the main task of the reformist forces in Russia in consolidation of the society and inplementation of socially responsible economic policy.


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.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-105
Author(s):  
Jacek Wojda

Big activity passed Popes, with the least Francis Bergoglio, is a question about receptiontheir lives and action, especially in times of modern medium broadcasting. Sometimes presentedcontent could be treated as sensation, and their receptiveness deprived of profound historical andtheological meaning. This article depends of beginnings of the Church, when it started to organizeitself, with well known historically-theological arguments. Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ andgot special place among Apostles. His role matures in young Church community, which is escapingfrom Jewish religion.Peter tramps the way from Jerusalem thru Antioch to Rome, confirming his appointing to thefirst among Apostles and to being Rock in the Church. Nascent Rome Church keeps this specialPeter’s succession. Clement, bishop of Rome, shows his prerogatives as a successor of Peter. Later,bishop of Cartagena, Cyprian, confirms special role both Peter and each bishop of Rome amongother bishops. He also was finding appropriate role for each of them. Church institution, basedon Peter and Apostles persists and shows truth of the beginnings and faithfulness to them innowadays papacy.Methodological elements Presented in the introduction let for the lecture of Gospel and patristictexts without positivistic prejudices presented in old literature of the subject.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-111
Author(s):  
Alexandra Gueydan-Turek

This article explores the way in which masculinity and femininity are constructed in Algerian manga, an emerging, understudied sub-genre within the field of Algerian graphic art. Through the exploration of youth-oriented publications of shōjo and shōnen manga, I will demonstrate how these new local works offer a privileged form of expression for and platform to address disaffected Algerian youths. The primary focus of this investigation will be the differences (or lack thereof) between ideals of gender performances as expressed in Algerian manga and ideals of gender identity in society at large. This article will demonstrate that, while some differences manifest a desire for change on the part of both artists and readers, they certainly do not constitute radical revisions of the popular Algerian notions of masculinity and femininity. Ultimately, this study will demonstrate the limits of manga as an imported genre within an Arab-Islamic context, oscillating between the promulgation of alternative social ideals and the reinforcement of social norms.


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