Georgia

Georgia’s location at the crossroads of East and West determined the character of its culture, expressed in architecture and the visual arts, among other spheres. Along with centuries-old original and uninterrupted local traditions, Georgia maintained a close relationship with the surrounding world and cultural circles throughout the Middle Ages. Particularly significant were aspirations of closeness to Byzantium and an active involvement in the Christian Orthodox commonwealth, based on common interests and confessional unity. All this is evident in the architecture and various artistic expressions of medieval Georgia, which are marked by a combination of original forms inspired by the Byzantine themes and elements.

Traumatic Insight on Film Memory: Forced Assimilation in the Focus of Post-totalitarian Bulgarian Documentaries

Documentaries cover the subject of the extremely tragic processes of forced assimilation of Muslim population in Bulgaria in different ways. During the Communist regime, they feature the negative political visions. Social engineering in the totalitarian state aimed at confessional unity of the nation and this process was especially intense during the 1980s. Documentaries were a part of the government manipulative tools that targeted revival of the communist nationalism and an apprehensive play on the strings of patriotism. Cultural propaganda covered up repression, assaults, forced change of names, forced deportation, internment in prison camps, harassment of intellectuals from the Muslim community, and human rights violation. After 1989, Bulgarian filmmaking started interpreting this traumatic past in a different way, making a reassessment of history. Documentaries also took an active part in the debate on totalitarianism, using the screen to throw light on the political crimes. Beyond any dispute, one of the most painful subjects is the violence against Muslim communities that escalates to genocide. The subject of assimilation was more intensely covered during the 1990s and in the beginning of the Millennium. During the last decade, it gradually faded away and young authors today even neglect it. Although many good films have been made, we still get the feeling of insufficiency and understatement. The cinematic interpretations reactivate and question the traumatic memory, and further diagnose society. Quality documentary filmmaking always provides a multifaceted image of the past, preserves memories, and manages to aestheticize history in opposition to the trivial media images of the trauma. This paper analyses the genre and typological patterns specific for post-totalitarian Bulgarian documentaries. The focus of the study falls on leading authors, such as Maria Trayanova, Tatiana Vaksberg, Ivan Rossenov, Adela Peeva, Iglika Trifonova, Antony Donchev, Stanislava Kalcheva, Irina Nedeva and Andrey Getov, Dimitar Kotzev-Shosho. Two imagery trends are mainly identified: 1) documentary investigation with reconstruction of historical chronology and handling extremely valuable archives; 2) domination of the apprehensive portraiture genre, where personal records of events shape the picture of events in the past and track the consequences in the present. So far, Bulgarian film studies lack any full comparative study of the screen interpretation of assimilation processes before and after 1989.

The Three Forms of Unity

‘|The Three Forms of Unity’ refers to three documents that have served as doctrinal standards for the Dutch Reformed family of churches for 400 years: the Belgic Confession (1561), Heidelberg Catechism (1563), and Canons of Dort (1619). The Belgic Confession is a systematic summary of Reformed theology, composed by Guido de Brès in the southern part of the Low Countries to educate and comfort persecuted Protestants and defend them against Roman Catholic charges of heresy and sedition. The Heidelberg Catechism was commissioned by the ruler of the German Palatinate as a tool for teaching young people, a guide for doctrinal preaching, and a form of confessional unity among several Protestant factions in the territory. The Canons of Dort was a fivefold statement of doctrine adopted by a national synod in the Netherlands in response to the views of Arminius and his followers about how divine sovereignty relates to human responsibility in salvation.

Medievalism as an Instrument of Political Renewal in Nineteenth-Century Germany

The medieval period provided for nineteenth-century German-speaking lands the ostensible model to fulfil the general yearning for a unified Germany, namely as a country with a Kaiser (emperor) at its head. This striving took the better part of the nineteenth century and involved all levels of society and all types of activity. For much of the century, for example, the completion of Cologne cathedral was the most important symbol of the hoped-for national and confessional unity. In the end, however, it was the political/diplomatic manoeuvres of Bismarck that enabled Wilhelm I in 1871 to assume the title of ‘Kaiser des deutschen Reiches’. With that, Germany was, to be sure, unified in terms of language, but the high ideals of earlier in the century remained unfulfilled.

The Consequences of Liberty: Barton W. Stone's Democratized Rhetoric and Hermeneutics

The Cane Ridge Revival drew nearly twenty thousand participants, sparking the transformative Second Great Awakening. Barton Stone was the minister who organized and shared preaching responsibilities for the revival, and eventually, his disciples formed one of the largest American religious traditions, the Stone-Campbell Movement. In this paper, I examine portions of nine fictional dialogues published by Stone during the final year of his life, wherein he explicitly outlined the parameters of effective rhetoric or “useful preaching.” I argue that Stone developed a rhetorical theory that rebelled against authority by granting agency to the audience even in the processes of invention and interpretation, a theory that produced idiosyncratic theological convictions and a movement practically incapable of confessional unity.

Interethnic and interreligious unity among Crimea college students

The Crimea and Sevastopol are considered to be multinational regions, and within them – especially in the Crimea region – such an issue as interethnic and interreligious accord has been relevant at various points in history. With new subjects having joined the Russian Federation, this issue has not become any less relevant. On the contrary, due to new challenges of the modern world, such as extremism and terrorism, this issue has acquired new aspects. On the one hand, there exists the internal matter of the Crimean Tatars in the Crimea and Sevastopol, which needs to be examined within the context of starting an interethnic and inter-confessional dialog, while on the other hand the presence of external challenges prompts to consider developing interethnic and inter-confessional accord among the youth, primarily among college students, them being the most well-organized youth group. In light of this fact, the study conducted in 2017-2019 with financial support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research within the framework of research project number 17-06-00440/19 and titled “Interethnic and interreligious unity among Crimea and Sevastopol college students: monitoring and analyzing the development level” allows to determine mechanisms for achieving such unity. According to the authors of this work, interethnic unity includes ethnic attitudes, willingness to partake in interethnic contact, which, among other things, develops national and territorial identity. The value component was examined during the course of empirical analysis: traditional values are in fact present in students’ consciousness; professional growth and self-fulfillment were identified as being important, while values attributed to general religious and ethnic interests were deemed insignificant. Also observed were deviations in the process of identity development among young Ukrainians. Observed within this youth group was a low degree of satisfaction with social provisions, the importance of such values as freedom, independence and religious unity; they feel that they belong to their own Ukrainian culture, which differs from Russian culture; for the most part Ukrainians assume that the Russian government cannot effectively protect their sovereignty. The results of this study allowed for determining the structural elements of interethnic and inter-confessional unity within various ethnic youth groups, with regards to components of young people’s national, territorial and cultural identity. The process of developing interethnic and inter-confessional unity within various ethnic groups of Crimea’s youth should be based on principles of regional patriotism, on creating common cultural codes, developing a positive image of Russia, enhancing young people’s economic and social standing, creating opportunity for professional growth together with social lifts, consolidating young people based on generational interests aimed at self-expression and self-fulfillment.

Protestant Unity and Anti-Catholicism: The Irenicism and Philo-Semitism of John Dury in Context

This article examines the religious and political worldview of the Scottish minister John Dury during the English Revolution of the mid-seventeenth century. It argues that Dury's activities as an irenicist and philo-semite must be understood as interrelated aspects of an expansionist Protestant cause that included Britain, Ireland, continental Europe, and the Atlantic world. Dury sought to imitate and counter what he perceived to be the principal strengths of early modern Catholicism: confessional unity, imperial expansion, and the coordination of global missionary efforts. The 1640s and 1650s saw the scope of Dury's long-standing vision grow to encompass colonial expansion in Ireland and America, where English and continental Protestants might work together to fortify their position against Spain and its growing Catholic empire. Both Portuguese Jews and American Indians appear in this vision as victims of Spanish Catholicism in desperate need of Protestant help. This article thus offers new perspectives on several aspects of Dury's career, including his relationship with displaced Anglo-Irish Protestants in London, his proposal to establish a college for the study of Jewish learning and “Oriental” languages, his speculation regarding the Lost Tribes of Israel in America, and his cautious advocacy for the toleration of Jews in England.

Imperial diversity in the village: petitions for and against the division of Galicia in 1848

In Galicia in 1848, petitions as to whether the province should be divided in two with a Polish and a Ruthenian region moved thousands of people to action. Although the petitions were among the largest in the history of the Habsburg monarchy, the petition lists have never been researched in detail. Whereas the initiators of the petitionforthe partition were anxious to present a narrative of national and confessional unity for a “Ruthenian” Eastern Galicia suppressed by “Poles,” thecounter-petitionistsdisputed the very existence of a Ruthenian nationality and chose a narrative of peaceful, conflict-free living together. A close reading of the petition lists reveals both conflict and co-existence. The lists with a checkered contrast of Cyrillic, Latin, and Hebrew scripts bear witness to what was a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional society. More than that, these sources prove impressively that the three large religious and ethnic communities – Poles, Ruthenians, and Jews – were in continuous day-to-day contact with each other. While the history of emerging nationalism has so far been in the foreground in historiography of the revolutionary events in Galicia in 1848, the petitions' sources tell another story of everyday social interaction and of practices of socialambiguityin the Galician village and market communities.

Christian identity and church unity

After centuries of Christianity the theme of “Christian identity” is still relevant and even more diverse than ever before. In this article this theme is discussed from a Reformed perspective with the focus on a specific ecclesiological facet, that is, the viewpoint of church unity. Christian identity has to do with faith in Christ and a specific view of Scripture – a point of departure as manifested in confessional unity. In accordance with this viewpoint the issue of church unity cannot be discussed without taking into account one’s presuppositions as found in Scripture and the Reformed Confessions. In order to fulfil our calling as churches in obedience to the “last will” of our Lord (John 17), the Confessions should function as the living belief of the churches, and we should strive and pray untiringly for the unity of the church.

Preaching Calvinism in Lutheran Danzig: Jacob Fabritius On the Pastoral Office

Jacob Fabritius was the director of the Danzig academy for almost 50 years and therefore determined the confessional identity of Danzig's pastors, who were recruited chiefly from the Latin school over a long period of time. At the same time, Fabritius was a champion of Calvinism in the predominantly Lutheran city of Danzig. This paper analyses Fabritius's programmatic sermon, given on October 24, 1596, in which he developed his understanding of the office and importance of the pastor, urged confessional unity amid the diversity of non-Catholics, and placed the pastors between the commune and the magistrate as apostles sent by God. Analysis of this sermon provides new insights into the relation between clerical and secular authorities and calls attention to the various ways in which sermons can be interpreted. Attention to these ways of interpretation contributes to a wider understanding of the structures of early modern society.