‘Seeing You Have Not Withheld Your Son’: An Overlooked Motif in Genesis 22?

In Late Bronze Age diplomatic correspondence, vassals attempt to demonstrate their loyalty by declaring they would carry out any command of the king even if it is self-destructive. A critical aspect of these exchanges is that the seemingly harmful order was never meant to be fulfilled. The exaggerated offer to undergo needless suffering was sufficient proof that the subaltern was an arad kitti, or ‘faithful servant’. This rhetorical dynamic, wherein the ‘deferential gesture’ is enough to satisfy a seemingly overwrought demand, has relevance for evaluating components of the divine decree in Genesis 22, that Abraham deliver up his son ‘as a burnt offering’, his willingness to carry out its dictates, and the heavenly overlord’s ultimately setting aside its execution. The author suggests that the biblical episode was a symbolic ritual enacted between the deity and patriarch, whose intent was to exalt Abraham as the arad kitti, par excellence, and to demonstrate that God was the most trustworthy of suzerains.

Study on improvement of strength of Beam-column Joints at railway RC rigid-framed viaducts

<p>In Japan, in order to make the city centering around the station, we are developing the underpass of the station as a commercial facility. Therefore, a structure that enlarges the column span and reduces the cross-sectional height of the beam to widen the under-elevated space is desired. However, while the amount of reinforcing bars increases, the beam-column joints become smaller, so that the reinforcing bars are overcrowded in the beam column joints. In addition, since the fixing length of the reinforcing bars is insufficient, or the strength of the beam-column joint cannot be sufficiently secured, problems such as not having a sufficient proof stress on the joint portion which should originally be stronger than the beam and column member. In this report, we developed a fixing method of reinforcing bars of column beams which improves the proof strength of beam-column joint and also simple reinforcing bars even in the case of small beam-column joint, and applied to station construction work, we report on them.</p>

Fundamentalism and Skepticism

Fundamentalism was and still is a major threat to global peace and security. The modern world has shown itself to be vulnerable to this persistent threat. The emergence and growth of many fundamentalist cults in the last century, from fascism and communism to various types of religious fundamentalism, is sufficient proof of this point. This paper presents a philosophical investigation of fundamentalism and its specific relation to skepticism, and highlights the ineffectiveness of skeptical philosophies to prevent fundamentalism in human society. Finally, it identifies a theoretical problem in modern thought which is at least partly responsible for the practical vulnerability of the modern world to fundamentalism, and discusses the possibility and necessity of a solution to fix that problem.

“Weak Thought” in the Face of Religious Violence

Modern comprehension of religion and violence, particularly modern attitudes toward religious violence, is the main topic of this paper. Mainstream secularization theory states that religion triggers conflict, tension, oppression, violence, and even war. As a continuation of this theory, the “myth of religious violence” assumes that religion is intrinsically connected with terror. These two narratives provide no sufficient proof for their claim about the irrelevance of religion; nonetheless, these narratives are expressions of the human agent’s struggle in his/her search for meaning. Referring to Gianni Vattimo’s idea of weak thought (pensiero debole), this writing proposes a narrative that treats religious and spiritual dimensions of human identity as essential for human life, as a source of remarkable consolation and hope in enduring the terror of violence, and as an opening to the new transcendental dimension of the ultimate meaning of human life.

Is whole-brain functional connectivity a neuromarker of sustained attention? Comment on Rosenberg & al. (2016)

Identification of neuromarkers accurately predicting cognitive characteristics from a single, standardised MRI scan could be tremendously useful in basic psychology and clinical practise. In a recent article, Rosenberg et al. (Nat Neurosci, 19, 165-171, 2016) argue that whole-brain functional network strength is a broadly applicable neuromarker of sustained attention. They claim that this marker accurately predicts performance from task related as well as resting state activity. Here, we discuss the applicability and generalizability in the context of three methodological concerns: Simulations show that the statistical methods for the 1) initial validation analyses as well as 2) internal validation using leave-one-out cross validation, are biased towards significance; 3) simple and complex models are compared suboptimally. Overall, we find that the article of Rosenberg et al. provides sufficient proof that network strength is associated with attentional capacity that it is not possible to say to which extent, and for this reason we argue that it cannot be concluded that the network is a broadly applicable neuromarker.

Rape as a variant of fornication (Zinā) Inislamic Law: An Examination of the Early Legal Reports

The contemporary treatment of rape in the penal codes of Muslim nations has come under increasing scrutiny over the last two decades, as several high-profile cases have arisen in which women have claimed sexual assault but been unable to bring sufficient proof of non-consent. In some cases, claimants have subsequently been punished for fornication (zinā) because their accusations were seen as constituting confession to consensual illicit sex, while in other cases, a resulting pregnancy has been taken as evidence of the same. These cases have illustrated the particular problems that stem from defining rape as a coercive variant of fornication, or zinā.These cases have largely arisen in the context of national efforts to Islamize the legal code by bringing laws into line with perceived sharī'a guidelines. This slew of cases has prompted journalists, human rights groups and Muslim reformers to ask whether contemporary “Islamic” rape laws are really continuous with the classical Islamic juristic tradition, or whether they may in fact represent distortions of that tradition. A central point of debate has been over whether Islamic juristic discourse truly placed rape—that is, a man's unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman against her will—under the category of zinā, or not.

Rimska religija i kultovi u Epidauru

The Roman colony of Epidaurum (modern-day Cavtat) has been poorly excavated, which represents the main problem in a study of any aspect of Roman life in the area of present-day Dubrovnik. however, thanks to epigraphic holdings, material remains, certain traditions and other indicators, it is possible to say something about Roman religion and cults in Epidaurum in the period of Roman rule over the Croatian coastal region. So far, we have succeeded in identifying the following worshipped deities and cults: Jupiter, Minerva, Diana, Aesculapius, the imperial cult and Mithra. Jupiter, Diana and an unknown deity have been confirmed by an inscription, while the worship of Minerva has been confirmed only in private in the form of a bronze statue. The cult of Aesculapius is suggested by tradition and analogies with Narona, though three decorative pieces with his figure on them cannot be considered sufficient proof of public worship of the cult. The imperial cult has also been confirmed by two inscriptions, and also indirectly by the testimony of the Dolabela inscription. Mithra is the most well-known and confirmed deity in the Cavtat area. however, no inscriptions have been found bearing his name. As new archaeological excavations are still to follow, and the ones that have commenced have not been completed yet, the list of worshipped deities and cults in the area of Cavtat and its surroundings will certainly be longer, and our insights much better supported. There is a clear distribution of the abovementioned cults and deities in the wider area of the former colony of Epidaurum, which serves as a good indicator of the Romanisation of the Dubrovnik region.

Bronislava Nijinska and the Spirit of Modernism

No one should make judgments about ballets that no longer exist. Choreographer Bronislava Nijinska's surviving masterpieces offer sufficient proof of a a brilliant and varied imagination, inspired by her classical training; by the example of her brother, Vaslav Nijinsky; and by contemporary developments in the visual arts.