Teaching Digital Editions of the Bible and Ancient Sources. A Reflection

This pedagogical article presents an example of how one can teach novice students to build and to work with their own digital editions of ancient sources. It discusses modern approaches to digital editions and promotes teaching SQL databases in ancient studies programs. It provides a detailed guide on how one can structure a student database that will be beneficial to students of all levels and disciplines.

PERISTIWA MAKAN DALAM KULTUR MASA KINI DAN EKARISTI

Peristiwa makan adalah moment berharga bagi manusia. Makan bukan hanya peristiwa memasukkan makanan ke dalam mulut namun lebih dari itu peristiwa makan memiliki makna yang mendalam antara lain sebagai interaksi sosial dan identitas kultural. Makan adalah kegiatan sehari-hari yang selalu dilakukan manusia. Untuk bertahan hidup manusia harus makan. Seiring berjalannya waktu peristiwa makan bukan sekadar untuk mengenyangkan perut tapi juga suatu simbol untuk merayakan peristiwa penting. Bahkan dalam Kitab Suci banyak peristiwa iman yang ditandai dengan peristiwa makan. Peristiwa makan ini dimaknai sebagai moment perjumpaan kehidupan. Dalam tradisi Kristiani kita juga menemukan tradisi perjamuan ilahi yakni Ekaristi. Inti dari perayaan Ekaristi adalah ‘makan’ Tubuh dan Darah Kristus yakni yang disebut dengan Hosti dan Anggur. Segala bentuk aktivitas makan dalam kehidupan manusia dapat berdaya guna dan dapat membantu manusia memakani hidupnya dengan lebih mendalam. Untuk itu buah pemikiran dari teologi makan sangat dibutuhkan agar proses pencarian makna terdalam dari peristiwa makan pada kultur masa kini dan Ekaristi dapat ditemukan. The occasion of eating is considered a precious moment for all people. Eating is not just a regime of putting food into the mouth, but rather than that, it is of deeper significance. Eating has means of social interaction and also of cultural identity. It is a day to day regular everyone committed to. In order to survive, humans are obliged to eat. As history went by, eating is not just an act of satiating the gut, but also marking significant events. In the Bible, numerous events of faith are celebrated through eating. To eat is to attend a life encounter. In Christian traditions, we understand that the Eucharist is a divine form of eating. The core of the Eucharist is to 'eat' the Corpus and Blood of Christ which is present in the Host and Wine. Any kinds of eating there is, shall give empowerment to help humans understand their lives more deeply. Thus, the fruit of the idea of the theology of eating is required to seek deepest eloquence from the occasion of eating in present culture and the Eucharist, shall be found.

“Back to Sender”: Re-Visiting the Belief in Witchcraft in Post-Colonial Zimbabwean Pentecostalism

This paper is a critical analysis of the witchcraft beliefs in Pentecostalism in post-colonial Zimbabwe. While Pentecostals claim “a complete break from the past”, there have emerged new dimensions that show that the belief in witches and witchcraft is deeply entrenched among Pentecostals. It also brings to the fore the underlying aspects of the creativity and innovation that are informed by African spiritual or metaphysical realities. Research since 1980 (when Zimbabwe got her independence from the British) indeed confirmed the existence of witchcraft beliefs and practices, although it was heavily suppressed in the churches. This paper re-visits the belief in witchcraft activities in Pentecostalism through examining new avenues of expression in both older and newer Pentecostal churches. The newer Pentecostal churches, in particular, those founded after 2010, have demonstrated unique innovation in theology. Thus, the belief in witchcraft and witches warrants a fresh examination in light of these new developments. We, therefore argue that the emergence of diverse newer Pentecostal churches in the midst of strong older Pentecostal churches has opened new ways of negotiating the Bible and Shona culture.

COVID-19 in the International Year of Plant Health

<p>Pests, in their broad sense, have played an important part in the history of humankind. We could say that humans, crops and pests have walked together through life. Codices, glyphs, paintings and countless ancient documents, including the Bible and the Koran, bear witness to this. Humanity has been attacked by its own diseases, but also by those that limit them from obtaining food and deteriorate the environment. COVID-19, which is now troubling us and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March of 2020, became a part of the list of experiences we have suffered in the past, with pests or epidemics that caused millions of deaths by diseases or famines. It is paradoxical that this health contingency occurs when the United Nations General Assembly, on December 20th, 2018, in its resolution A/RES/73/252 decides to declare 2020 the International Year of Plant Health in order to “highlight the importance of plant health to improve food security, protect the environment and biodiversity and boost economic development” according to the pronouncement by the FAO. For the first time, in an era with great technological and scientific breakthroughs, humanity was aware of its vulnerability against the inevitable evolution of life forms in the face of dilemmas global impact caused by human beings. Thus, the pest or parasite makes its own declaration of existential preeminence through SARS-CoV-2 to remind us that the health of humans or plants is the essence of life and its continuity. But perhaps absolute health is not enough. It is necessary to find a balance in a world overwhelmed by giving so much in return for almost nothing to everyone living on it. If the sensor of our anthropocentric intervention of the world is climate change, then biological chaos is a masterpiece. The reemergence of pests and diseases considered eradicated, or those of zoonotic origin that had never accompanied our existence is a surreal dystopia that we will never be able to deny again.</p>

Poverty as the impact of the COVID-19

This is an ethnography study which aimed to find out the real condition of poverty in Indonesia. Preliminary study showed that there are massive social impacts in the new normal due to COVID-19. There are three kinds of poverty that can be seen in real terms namely extreme poverty, absolute poverty, and relative poverty. Moreover, when viewed from the biblical approach, there are two words used that helped us in our research on poverty, namely "race” = “poor people" and "dal” which is more translated as “weaker” than “poor”. The Bible does not state a single view on poverty but mentioned some Bible passages. The first is idleness poverty. This poverty is caused by laziness or negligence over personal responsibility to look for means to meet needs. The Bible uses ants as an opposite example of laziness in the book of Proverbs 6:6. The second is theodise poverty. This poverty is illustrated by Job who was stripped off of his riches, yet he was able to accept and embrace whatever the Lord gave to him.

Everyday Aesthetics and the Practice of Historical Reenactment

Throughout his career, Stanley Cavell’s subject has been the ordinary: what Ralph Waldo Emerson would call ‘the near, the low, the common’. Cavell provides compelling insights into Emerson’s efforts to locate philosophy within the flow of everyday life. He examines how Emerson renews common thinking, citations, and fragments from the works of others by means of his ‘aversive thinking’: his technique of turning writing back upon itself. While taking Cavell’s Emerson readings as its point of departure, this essay switches Cavell’s philosophical angle for a philological one. I suggest that Emerson’s engagement with contemporary debates concerning the historical reading of sacred and secular literature (the Bible, Homer, Shakespeare) formed his own practice of reworking literatures of various origins and recasting aesthetics in major ways.