Biblical Symbols Research Articles

Language, History, and Text in Eliot's “Journey of the Magi”

Abstract“Journey of the Magi,” anticipating the Four Quartets, constitutes a vision of historical process and a metaphor of religious mystery more complex than in Eliot's earlier work. Experimenting with dramatic monologue, remembering Browning's interest in the Higher Criticism, Eliot juxtaposes oral recitation against recorded account to provide an analogy for the Incarnation. As elsewhere, Eliot finds symbol and writing suspect: the Magus, in ironic ignorance, uses literally a figurative language Christianity had not yet created, but he intuits the Word better than readers steeped in biblical symbolism. Simultaneously Eliot interfiliates the Magus' speech with Matthew's gospel, Andrewes' 1622 Nativity sermon, and his own “impossible” re-presentation of the original utterance: the resulting historical sequence, collapsed by anachronisms, makes the poem's structure emblematize the Logos. Through the ostensible “loss” of the scribe's transcription, Eliot implicitly questions biblical canonicity and the traditions of Christian interpretation. The poem approximates his religious position in 1927.

Life Beyond Death

“Elisabeth Kübler-Ross has lectured widely on research findings which, she says, confirm the reality of life after death … She has strongly endorsed Raymond Moody's Life After Life … John Hick's new book, Death and Eternal Life, is a rich, comprehensive, and highly original essay in what the author calls a ‘global theology’ of death and human density … Hick charges that Moltmann uses biblical symbols of the end … in a rhetorical and uncritical fashion … A recent essay by S. W. Sykes pushes the criticism of Moltmann still farther.”

The Interpretation of a Biblical Symbol

It is the purpose of this essay to contribute to a general discussion of hermeneutics by focusing attention upon the history of the interpretation of one particular biblical symbol, the symbol Reign or Kingdom of God. My hope is that by means of a discussion of the ways in which this symbol has been interpreted we may throw some light on the interpretation of other biblical symbols and perhaps also on the interpretation of symbols in general. One advantage of discussing the symbol Reign or Kingdom of God is that it has a history of something like three millennia of use and reuse, of interpretation and reinterpretation, in the Bible and in the literature of the Judaeo-Christian traditions. We have therefore a vast amount of data to choose from as we approach the subject, and I shall have to be highly selective in the periods, movements, and people I choose to discuss. I have tried to make the choice in terms of the con-

God's Throne and the Biblical Symbolism of the Qur'an

God's Throne and the Biblical Symbolism of the Qur'an

God's Throne and the Biblical Symbolism of the Qur'Ān

God's Throne and the Biblical Symbolism of the Qur'Ān

God's Throne and the Biblical Symbolism of the Qur'Ān

God's Throne and the Biblical Symbolism of the Qur'Ān

Studies in Biblical and Semitic Symbolism

Studies in Biblical and Semitic Symbolism

God's Holy People

“To be the people of God in biblical terms means to live with the symbols of Exodus, Promised Land, covenant, and salvation: to live by grace. The complexities, evils, and values of statehood are the facts of human existence, and every generation must struggle with their comprehension, amelioration, and transmission. To do so as God's people is to rejoice in the opportunity of defining and contributing to the well-being of all men. The duty of God's people does not differ from human duty, but grace should be a gift, known, accepted, and transmitted by any people chosen by God. Grace is defined for us by those biblical symbols which have survived national or social aspirations to indicate a context in which men can learn to love one another.”

Fredens gudinna

Summary In the state‐owned art collections, since long housed at Gripsholm Castle by the lake Malaren west of Stockholm, can be found an allegoric oil‐painting called “The Goddess of Peace”. The painting can undoubtedly count its origin to the 17th century, fig. 1. As a piece of art it might not belong among the foremost, but it is worth attention on other accounts. The female figure shows a flora of foliate plants, all with varied symbolic meaning. The goddess is shown in a pale bluish‐grey silk garment which is embroidered with symbols in a darker shade of the same colour. On the skirt wreaths of different leaves are to be seen. Between the wreaths are placed at regular intervals something that is very usual in Sweden, a doubble C, mostly used for the kings Charles XI and Charles XII but known also to been used for queen Christina, though once only, in a document dated 1650, fig. 3. The monogramme on the skirt is made of two thin palm‐branches. The wreaths are made of laurel (the antique symbol for “her...

Theology and the Transformation of Society

“At a time when neo-orthodox theology was dominant, [Reinhold] Niebuhr was able to use effectively, with far-reaching social consequences, the metaphysical-ontological categories of transcendence. Today it is important to recognize not only that these concepts have little meaning for another generation, but also that the biblical symbols point us in a different direction. The transcendent reality described in the biblical myths and images is not so much the God who stands above all human attainments, judging them and raising man to a higher order, but the God who goes ahead of us, opening the way for greater fulfillment on the road to the future. He is one whose actions in the totality of man's hisotyr lead to new events that open new possibilities. Thus the basic Christian symbols suggest that human life is free because it is lived, in history, in the context of ‘gracious’ sovereignty.”

Biblical symbols in American literature: A Utilitarian Design

Biblical symbols in American literature: A Utilitarian Design

Patristics and Old English Literature: Notes on Some Poems

N RECENT YEARS, because of various controversies about the interpretation of mediaeval literature, the term patristics has unfortunately come to be associated with only one aspect of Patristic activity-biblical exegesis. However, the rich theological and philosophical fare which the Fathers offer moderns comprises a great deal more than a method of hermeneutics with an accompanying biblical symbolism, however important. It is the purpose of this brief article to call attention to three passages in OE literature which can be illuminated by the writings of the Fathers whereby a sense of the meaning of the whole poems of which they are a part can be suggested if not completely attained. The interpretations here put forth will add to the steadily growing body of scholarship which is pointing to the connection between the ancient classical world, both Christian and pagan, and OE literature.

Biblical Adventures in an American Novel

Y study of biblical allusions, themes, and symbols in American novels has been a source of incredulity, amusement, consternation, and term papers among some of my students. When I suggest that Hemingway in his The Old Man and the Sea and the Gospel according to Mark are similar in their conceptions of victory through suffering, students cluck in derision, chuckle in amusement, or run to the library for a copy of the Old Man. Actually, however, some contemporary American novels lend themselves to an analysis of thematic materials which are similar

Biblical Symbolism and Man's Religious Quest

Previous articleNext article No AccessBiblical Symbolism and Man's Religious QuestGabriel VahanianGabriel Vahanian Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Religion Volume 38, Number 4Oct., 1958 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/485102 Views: 13Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1958 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Mike Grimshaw Gabriel Vahanian, (Oct 2018): 425–441.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96595-6_26Gabriel Vahanian Introduction Gabriel Vahanian: From the Death of God to Wording and Worlding, (Jan 2014): 1–24.https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137440631_1

The Mythos of Progress and Neo-Orthodoxy

INCE the end of the first World War, religionists of revitalized traditionalism, variously called neo-fundamentalism, neo-orthodoxy, neo-supernaturalism, neo-traditionalism, and crisis or dialectical theology,' have endeavored to adjust their religious conceptions to those modern scientific views which present serious encroachment upon the Protestant ecclesiastical position.2 Recognizing the increasing influence of scientific inquiry and the evolution of critical intelligent world, these reformists have hoped through erudite reconstructions to enhance their received mythological expressions so as to allure minds not so susceptible to less scientific and more naive fundamentalism. It must be observed, however, that this proposed adjustment is not in any way relinquishing of basic tenets of revealed theology in favor of rational, scientific determinations. Rather, it is more of an obscuring of the fundamental dichotomy between the two, slithering around the apparent contradictions by means of an intricately reconstructed biblical symbolism. This refurbishment, Hudson asserts,3 has made neo-orthodoxy a pleasant little Protestant Jesuit, appealing temporarily to those who want religion, but who have not the necessary logic or determination to analyze and to understand what this ecclesiastical position really entails. In short, it offers bit of intellectual jugglery designed to obscure the underlying contradictions and to convince the unsuspecting religious sophisticate. Those, however, who are not bound by emotional ties and convinced by learned persuasion see clearly that this religious resurgence is an elaborate modification of authoritarian supernaturalism which is inherently and diametrically opposed to scientific expression. It is the old confrontation of contradictory positions: revealed religion contra science, faith contra