Phenomenology of the Eucharist: A Reflection on Traditioning

<p>This thesis is an enquiry into how relationship differs from identity. It studies the senses of relationship and identity in the history of the Eucharist. The aim of the thesis is to describe how relationship and identity are expressed in the history of the Eucharist, and, by extension, in traditions generally. The thesis reflects on the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, historical celebrations of the Eucharist, Greek and Latin metaphysics, medieval mysticism and phenomenology. In Hebrew Scripture, a sense of infinite loveableness can be discerned in the expression "yahid". First century Christianity applied this particular sense of "yahid" to Jesus and this sense influenced the way the sacraments of initiation were celebrated. Accordingly, the Eucharist emerged through scripture and traditioning as a sign of infinite loveableness. The eucharistic expression of loveableness produces a sense of relationship which alters the Christian disciple's sense of identity. This alteration becomes actualised through expressions of hospitality and relational traditioning. Through reflecting on the dynamics of relationship and identity in the Eucharist a general phenomenology of tradition begins to emerge. This study was motivated by the author‘s belief that a relational theory of traditions and traditioning has not been written. By describing the relational significance of a traditional sign (the Eucharist), a contribution may have been made in two fields: the phenomenology of the Eucharist, and the phenomenology of tradition.</p>

Phenomenology of the Eucharist: A Reflection on Traditioning

<p>This thesis is an enquiry into how relationship differs from identity. It studies the senses of relationship and identity in the history of the Eucharist. The aim of the thesis is to describe how relationship and identity are expressed in the history of the Eucharist, and, by extension, in traditions generally. The thesis reflects on the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, historical celebrations of the Eucharist, Greek and Latin metaphysics, medieval mysticism and phenomenology. In Hebrew Scripture, a sense of infinite loveableness can be discerned in the expression "yahid". First century Christianity applied this particular sense of "yahid" to Jesus and this sense influenced the way the sacraments of initiation were celebrated. Accordingly, the Eucharist emerged through scripture and traditioning as a sign of infinite loveableness. The eucharistic expression of loveableness produces a sense of relationship which alters the Christian disciple's sense of identity. This alteration becomes actualised through expressions of hospitality and relational traditioning. Through reflecting on the dynamics of relationship and identity in the Eucharist a general phenomenology of tradition begins to emerge. This study was motivated by the author‘s belief that a relational theory of traditions and traditioning has not been written. By describing the relational significance of a traditional sign (the Eucharist), a contribution may have been made in two fields: the phenomenology of the Eucharist, and the phenomenology of tradition.</p>

“All the Precious Trees of the Earth”: Trees in Restoration Scripture

In Hebrew scripture and the New Testament, trees play a prominent role, most obviously in the first chapters of Genesis and the last chapter of Revelations. Trees also serve as messianic heralds, as life-giving resources, as aesthetic standards of beauty, as exemplars of strength and fame, and as markers and instruments of salvation. Like the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Mormon and other Latter-day Saint scriptures feature prominent references to forests, trees, branches, roots, and seeds. What is unique about the spiritual and cultural landscape invoked by Latter-day Saint scripture? More specifically, what is said about trees and their accoutrements in restoration scripture? While numerous studies have focused on the major thematic tree scenes in the Book of Mormon, the tree of life in the visions of Lehi and Nephi, Zenos’ allegory of the olive tree, and Alma’s discourse on the seed of faith and the tree of righteousness, this paper aims at a broader look at trees in Latter-day Saint scripture. Taking cues from Robert Pogue Harrison’s Forests: The Shadow of Civilization, this paper takes a wide-ranging look at how trees in restoration scripture can help us rhetorically address the ecological dilemmas of our time. When the Gods built us a home, they did so with trees, and when God called on Their people to build a house, God told them to “bring the box tree, and the fir tree, and the pine tree, together with all the precious trees of the earth” to build it (see Abraham 4:11–12 and D&C 124:26–27). Another revelation declares bluntly: “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees” (D&C 77:9). As eaters of sunshine and exhalers of oxygen, trees have much to teach us about how to live, and trees in restoration scripture specifically contribute to a broader vision of ecological living.

The Evils of Supersessionism

In The Anxiety of Influence, Harold Bloom writes that “strong poets make . . . [poetic] history by misreading one another, so as to clear imaginative space for themselves.” I apply Bloom’s literary theory, mutatis mutandis, to religious history and theology. Even the other monotheistic Abrahamic faiths—Christianity and Islam—resent their dependency on Hebrew Scripture and tradition and aim to make room for themselves by misreading the Jews and Judaism. Christians would define themselves by writing a “New Testament” that supplants the “Old,” even as Muslims would produce a “Final Testament” that supersedes all previous. Bloom describes “six revisionary ratios” by which strong poets would distinguish themselves from their predecessors. My task is to adapt these conventions and to demonstrate that they have more than aesthetic/literary import. Christian and Islamic ethics and theology, and even Nazism as a pagan counter, can plausibly be seen to suffer from the anxiety of influence and to seek to liberate themselves from their Jewish paternity by literal and figurative patricide.

Cultivating a Jewish Eco- Education Framework: The Toronto Heschel School’s Teaching and Learning Garden

Over the last century, global food systems have increasingly shifted towards a scientific, input-based industrial paradigm whose adverse ecological impacts are well documented. In response, global agricultural movements, such as the agroecology movement, have sought an integration of contemporary science and indigenous agricultural knowledges. Scholars in the field of Jewish ecology similarly propose that biblical Hebrew scripture may provide a framework for thinking about, and acting upon, issues of ecological sustainability in agriculture. In educational settings too, learning about ecology is increasingly approached in an intimate and tangible way in the form of school garden programs. In this work, we highlight the case of the Toronto Heschel School, a Canadian Jewish day school for children in which a Teaching and Learning Garden fosters student learning on ecology and their Jewish identity in tandem. Reporting the thematic results of qualitative interviews with two educators and five alumni from the Heschel School, this study highlights key similarities and differences between this school’s garden program and those taking place in secular school settings. Like secular school gardens, the Heschel program implements experiential, interdisciplinary learning activities within a scientific ecological knowledge (SEK) framework. That said, the Heschel program supplements and deepens these SEK activities with traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) rooted in Judaic traditional teachings. The resulting educational outcomes appear at once universally applicable while specifically relevant to the Jewish identities of learners.

White Devils, Satanic Jews: The Nation of Islam From Fard to Farrakhan

This article explores how the American white far right—including the Christian Front, Christian Mobilizers, and Gerald L. K. Smith—helped shape the Nation of Islam’s (NOI) antisemitism during the 1930s and 1940s. It also examines the strong influence of Harlem’s pro-Axis Black Fuehrers on the NOI during World War II. Nation of Islam and white far-right propaganda were remarkably similar. Both embraced the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, denied or minimized the Holocaust, and were virulently anti-Zionist. After elaborating on the context within which the Nation of Islam created its ideology, the article explores how the NOI, which originally identified whites, Christians and Jews as devils, adopted an almost singular emphasis on Jews as agents of Satan, the Star of David replacing the cross as the symbol of iniquity. Jews were not victims, but Blacks’ major victimizers; never slaves, but dominant enslavers; not progressives, but those who impeded Blacks’ advance. Instead of giving the world Hebrew Scripture, they converted it into the “Poison Book,” from the beginning crafting a “dirty religion,” which blessed the subjugation of black people, and denied God’s promise to the “Real Children of Israel.” These “imposter Jews” concealed that the Hebrew Bible was a prophecy about “the so-called Negroes of America”—the true “Chosen of God”—who would be in bondage for 400 years, strangers in a strange land.

Philo’s Influence on Understanding Divine Anthropomorphism

Divine anthropomorphisms are prevalent in the Old Testament. Authors of Old Testament works seemingly had no reservations with using human qualities to describe God. During the Second Temple period Greek philosophy began to influence the interpretation of texts that describe God using anthropomorphisms. This shift in understanding God is evidenced in translation tendencies in the Septuagint and in Philo’s reading of Hebrew Scripture. The elements of proto-Gnosticism found in Philo’s writings are at times closely related to his interpretation of anthropomorphism. Since Philo’s understanding of such figures of speech has been the historic majority view, it is important to evaluate his method of interpretation to determine whether this understanding of divine anthropomorphism is rooted in Scripture or his philosophical tradition.