The Concept of “Miracle in a Fiery Furnace” in Byzantium and Its Later Reminiscences

Introduction. The article discusses the motive of a “miracle in a fiery furnace”, based on the story of the Three Holy Children in the Book of Daniel. Methods. The study provides a comparative analysis of the Biblical topos about the trial by fire in Byzantine, Western European and Eastern sources. A semiotic approach of textual study is used. Analysis. In Byzantine hagiography and hymnography, the plot of the “Three Holy Children” was interpreted as a prototype of the Incarnation, so, the sacred situation was reproduced in new historical conditions. In the Lives of Bishops of Cherson, the plot about miracle in the furnace is used for construction the local sacred history. Similar motives are found in the narratives about the baptism of Rus, such as Vita Basilii (the fifth book of Theophanes Continuatus), Vita beati Romualdi by Petrus Damiani, Historia de predicatione episcopi Brunonis. In narrative about conversion of Özbeg Khan to Islam, literary plot was connected with shamanistic representations about the holy fire. Results. The Biblical topos of the “fiery furnace” underwent a semantic transformation within the framework of various discourses. It was used in Byzantine texts for constructing the Christian Identity, while was enhanced by Turkic mythology in Muslim tradition.

EXEMPLARY PENGEMBANGAN PENDIDIKAN IMAN BAGI ANAK DALAM KELUARGA DAN PEMBELAJARAN AGAMA DI SEKOLAH

Education The faith of children in the family is of very high quality, starting with religion begins to appear in human life. Faith education for children in the family stem from the fellowship of God’s people in the Bible, especially in the old Testament. So basically it is already contained in ancient sacred history. Let children be taught, starting from the formation of the child’s mindset, because children are an important group in the Christian church.

The Death of Mani in Retrospect

The execution of the prophet Mani (c. 216 – 273) by the Sasanian king Bahram I (r. 271 – 274) received sharply different treatments in the historiography of three of the confessional groups of the Sasanian empire. Variously a persecuted prophet, a blasphemous lunatic or a sinister heresiarch the representations of this moment sought to establish its meaning in the context of communal narratives predicated on the claims of sacred history. Despite this, it is notable that Manichean, Christian and Perso-Arabic accounts clearly share features. This indicates not only that Mani’s death became a site of competition between the constituent groups of the Sasanian empire, but that the internal historiographies of these groups were in some sense entwined, or at least sensitive to the historical claims made by their opponents. This is particularly relevant in the case of the Perso-Arabic narrative. This version, which almost certainly descends from a priestly Zoroastrian source, presents a picture of a confident priesthood stiffening the spine of a wavering king. It is contended that the source of this story was composed as a counterstrike in a historical debate in which Christian and Manichean authors had successfully propagated an image of Bahram’s court as religiously tepid and his priests as slanderers or non-entities. That such an intervention was required signals a disjuncture between early and late forms of Sasanian ideology. Moreover, it presents more evidence in support of theories of a late and deliberate construction of Zoroastrian “orthodoxy”.

“Crusaders” and the Islamic State Apocalypse

Islamic State propaganda manipulated and combined a culturally embedded sense of Islamic history with a heady, potent mixture of classical and radical apocalyptic, and real and supposed Islamic authority, both sacred and profane. Tapping into a widespread belief in the approach of the Last Hour, the group attempted to change an established “crusader master narrative” by giving “crusaders” and their “crusade” integral roles in Islamic sacred history and an impending Islamic State apocalypse.

The Verbal-Visual Architecture and Symbols of Sacred History in Russian Émigré Newspapers of Bulgaria

In this article, the author tests a novel analytical approach, confining himself to the necessary historical contextualisation of this approach and its objects. By applying it to the celebratory aesthetic activity of a non-clerical community in late modernity, it is possible to discern a sincere and sophisticated commitment to the sacred and a cultivation of mysticism that vivifies deeply traditional forms of the sacred. Referring to Hans Belting’s theory of cult image, Dimitŭr Georgiev’s methods of analysis of the “architecture of the newspaper”, Otto Demus’ theory of Byzantine mosaic decoration, and the theories of festivity of Roger Caillois, Mirchea Eliade, and Joseph Pieper, the author defines his core object as celebratory visual-verbal newspaper compositions and his approach as an architectural literary analysis of newspapers. In effect, a newspaper issue is viewed as a typographic projection of a festive chronotope and a potential visualverbal religious ensemble on the verge between a cult image and a work of art. The expressive forms within a newspaper, including literary works, are understood against the framework of such distinctions as those between appeal/expression and representation, aniconism and iconism, and tautegory and allegory. Referring to these distinctions and an analysis of the 1925 Easter composition in Rus’, the author introduces the concept of “grades/levels/degrees of illustrativity”, or “degree of mediation of the presence of the sacred”. The concept and its workability are exemplified by analysing elements of Easter compositions from 1924–1925 (Rus’ edited by Kallinikov), 1933–1935 (Golos Truda), and (again) 1934 (Rus’ edited by Butov): these examples were chosen after an examination of a wider range of sources from the period between 1922 and 1936. The author demonstrates that current historical events were perceived through a specific mental prism so that they were integrated into Christian sacred history. Visual and verbal elements of newspaper design were combined and artistic and non-artistic texts were concatenated in ways actively reminiscent of the liturgical function of the word and its connection to the architectural-liturgical ensemble, varying from a loose and conditional attachment to actual embeddedness. This article presents poetological preliminaries (while the author views the sociological approach as equally desirable) to an investigation of newspaper as the Gesamtkunstwerk form within the interwar Russian émigré community of Bulgaria.

Treaty Stories: Reclaiming the Unbroken History of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Sovereignty

Ojibwe leaders negotiated treaties with the United States amid nineteenth-century encroachments on their territory. These treaties, which were more than tools of dispossession, enfolded and extended aadizookanag (sacred stories) in agreements that embodied Ojibwe relationships with land, language, sacred history, ceremony, and kin. Federal and state policy makers, fueled by the desire for Indian land and resources, attempted to unravel these relationships in the decades that followed. By continuing to live out through labor and stories their relationships with the woods, waters, and manoomin (wild rice) beds of Anishinaabewaki, the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibweg kept their treaties and their sovereignty alive.

The Society of Astrologers (c.1647–1684): sermons, feasts and the resuscitation of astrology in seventeenth-century London

Before the Royal Society there was the Society of Astrologers (c.1647–1684), a group of around forty practitioners who met in London to enjoy lavish feasts, listen to sermons and exchange instruments and manuscripts. This article, drawing on untapped archival material, offers the first full account of this overlooked group. Convinced that astrology had been misunderstood by the professors who refused to teach it and the preachers who railed against it, the Society of Astrologers sought to democratize and legitimize their art. In contrast to the received view of seventeenth-century London astrologers, which emphasizes their bitter interrelationships, this article draws attention instead to their endeavours to mount a united front in defence of astrology. The article locates the society's attempts to promote astrological literacy within broader contemporary programmes to encourage mathematical education. Unlike other mathematical arts, however, astrology's religious credibility was an area of serious concern. The society therefore commissioned the delivery and publication of apologetic sermons that justified astrology on the basis of its sacred history. In this context, the legitimacy of astrology was more a religious than a scientific question. The society's public relations campaign ultimately failed, however, and its members disbanded in the mid-1680s. Not only were they mounting a rearguard action, but also they built their campaign on out-of-date historical arguments.