Christian Dimension Research Articles

Dimensions of Christianity and the Amplification of Ecumenism in Brazil

Christianity is the largest religion in the world and is clearly constituted in a very heterogeneous way through many doctrines and institutions. It is no different in Brazil. Without considering smaller groups, Kardecist Spiritism, which is the third largest religious branch (after Catholicism and Protestantism), is gradually being recognized as a part of Christianity due to the central worship of Jesus Christ—not as God, but as God’s assistant in the Earth’s creation and government—and to works of mercy, based on the principle of charity. Catholics, Protestants, and Spiritists have been—even though in a discreet and moderate way—carrying out activities over and above traditional ecumenism as part of interreligious dialogue. In some events dedicated to Bible studies as well as to the discussion of different themes, Spiritist speakers, Protestant pastors, and Catholic priests participate surmounting expressive doctrinarian differences in favor of a wider Christian identity. Based on field work as well as bibliographical research, this article focuses on these experiences of dialogue among the three different and larger branches of Brazilian Christianity.

Persecution and Social Resilience: The Case of the Ethiopian Pentecostals

Abstract Persecution has long constituted part of the spiritual repertoire of evangelical Christians in Ethiopia. Ever since its introduction by Western missionaries, the new Christian faith has provided an alternative model to the one that pre-existed it in the form of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (eoc). The new dimension of Christianity that is anchored in the doctrine of personal salvation and sanctification provided a somewhat different template of what it means to be a Christian by choice rather than belonging to a preset culture. This was antithetical to the conventional mode of culturally and historically situated Christianity, which strongly lays emphasis on adherence to certain prescribed rituals like fasting, the observances of saintly days, and devotions to saints. Its introduction by foreigners is often contrasted with an indigenous faith tradition which is considered to have a long history dating back to the apostolic times. The tendency of evangelical Christians to disassociate themselves from the local culture, as emblematic of holiness and separation from the world, viewed from the other optic, lent it the label mete, literally “imported” or “of foreign extraction”. The state support the established church had garnered for a long time, plus its massive influences, also accorded the eoc a privileged position to exercise a dominant role in the social, political, and cultural life of the country. This article explores the theme of persecution of Evangelical Christians in light of the above framework. It crucially examines the persecution of Pentecostals prior to the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974 and afterwards. Two reasons justify my choice. First, it lends the article a clear focus and secondly, Pentecostalism has been one of the potent vehicles for the expansion of evangelical Christianity in Ethiopia. I argue that the pre-revolutionary persecution stems from the fact that the Pentecostals presented some kind of spiritual shock waves to the familiar terrains of Christianity and that the main reason for their persecutions during the revolution was the fact that they countered hegemonic narratives that presented themselves in the form of Marxism, which became the doctrine of the state under the banner of “scientific socialism.”

Karl Marx and Karl Polanyi assumptions on Market economy

Polanyi has long been considered an heir to Marxist thought. Yet despite commonalities between the two, it appears that Polanyi includes in his theories a Christian dimension rejected by Marx and that thus creates points of divergence. In both Polanyi and Marx we find the same conception of as inclusive and dependent on the market. For Marx, is a hostile confrontation between the divergent economic interests of two groups: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in the capitalist system. Societal dynamics are centred on the exploitation of the dominated by the dominant. Polanyi is, of course, in accord with Marx's emphasis on these developments, but he questions the prominent position of the latter in his analysis of the social process. Thus, according to Polanyi, Marx does not take sufficient account of the great diversity of non-Western devices for material production, and their links with other important aspects of the social process. For Polanyi, society is a complex reality consisting of relatively autonomous sets of diverse institutional structures, which vary greatly in time and space.

Faith and Happiness in China: Roles of Religious Identity, Beliefs, and Practice

Using the 2007 Spiritual Life Study of Chinese Residents data, this article examines the association between religious faith and happiness in China. We treat religious faith as a multidimensional construct and explore the possible effects of religious identity, belief, and practice on happiness among Chinese citizens. We find that having a religious identity in general was not significantly associated with happiness, while religious belief and practice—in particular attending religious services—was negatively associated with happiness. Different denominations were found to have different associations with happiness. The most consistent and robust results show that Daoist beliefs or practices and all dimensions of Christianity were negatively associated with happiness. While having a Buddhist identity and high frequency of Buddhist practices were associated with increased happiness, Buddhist beliefs or practices were found to be unrelated to happiness. We offer the social contextual perspective and the religious oligopoly theory as possible explanations of these findings. As religion expands constantly to play a more important role in China and as the government strives to build a happier society, the findings from this study offer timely implications and help lead to more rigorous research on this understudied topic.

Kirke og menighed i Grundtvigs teologi og kirkepolitik 1806-61

Kirke og menighed i Grundtvigs teologi og kirkepolitik 1806-61

¿Un Cristianismo postreligional?

Parto de la hipótesis que el Cristianismo fundacional no es una religión sino un humanismo suprareligioso. Sustento esta afirmación al someter diferentes dimensiones del movimiento cristiano primitivo a une hermenéutica postreligional. Considero que lo que llamo la Cristiandad es una deriva religiosa institucional del Cristianismo, iniciada con el Edicto de Milán y preparado desde antes a partir de las Cartas Pastorales. En esta perspectiva, la crisis actual del sistema religioso de Cristiandad es una oportunidad para retornar a los orígenes de un Cristianismo supra e interreligioso. Finalmente propongo de considerar el Cristianismo contemporáneo, por ser intimamente ligado a la aventura cultural histórica del Occidente, como el movimiento espiritual mejor preparado para abordar el giro postreligional y para proponer a otras religiones, menos acostumbradas a la crítica y autocrítica occidental que el Cristianismo, una nueva ubicación de lo religioso en contexto de postmodernidad.

Marian Maciejewski a krytyka (także literacka)

The author characterizes Prof. M. Maciejewski's research attitude as one taken by a historian of literature and an academic teacher. Kerygmatic criticism is presented as a hermeneutic research attitude (and not as methodology), whose goal is to discover a Christian dimension of the studied work. The article proves that owing to an interpretation that will be maximally complete (in the aspect of historical poetics) and to an involved attitude of the reader of the work (in the aspect of axiology) the art reveals its personal, identical, original context.

Bajo el signo de Aljubarrota: la parábola emblemática y caballeresca de Juan I de Castilla (1379-1390)

This study examines emblems and orders of chivalry that emerged during the reign of Juan I of Castile (1379-1390) within the context of political events, royal ceremony and the symbolism of power developed by the new Trastamara dynasty. Following Enrique II’s chivalric program, his son fomented the Order of the Sash (Orden de la Banda) linking it to the Crown and adding to its emblems chimerical beasts (dragon, griffin, falcon) that projected prophetic and laudable messages of his power. The defeat of Aljubarrota (1385) was a turning point as new emblems were created such as that of the Holy Ghost and the Rose which emphasized the Christian dimension of his orders of chivalry in the framework of a military reform and religious renovation undertaken at the end of his reign.

The Radiance of Being: Dimensions of Cosmic Christianity by Stratford Caldecott, Angelico Press, Tacoma, 2013, pp. 304, £10.95, pbk

New BlackfriarsVolume 95, Issue 1059 p. 621-623 Reviews THE RADIANCE OF BEING: DIMENSIONS OF COSMIC CHRISTIANITY by Stratford Caldecott, Angelico Press, Tacoma, 2013, pp. 304, £10.95, pbk ROBERT VERRILL OP, ROBERT VERRILL OPSearch for more papers by this author ROBERT VERRILL OP, ROBERT VERRILL OPSearch for more papers by this author First published: 12 August 2014 https://doi.org/10.1111/nbfr.12088_5Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume95, Issue1059September 2014Pages 621-623 RelatedInformation

The Radiance of Being: Dimensions of Cosmic Christianity by Stratford Caldecott

The Radiance of Being: Dimensions of Cosmic Christianity by Stratford Caldecott

The Pain of Reformation: Spenser, Vulnerability, and the Ethics of Masculinity by Joseph Campana

Reviewed by: The Pain of Reformation: Spenser, Vulnerability, and the Ethics of Masculinity by Joseph Campana Chance Woods (bio) Joseph Campana . The Pain of Reformation: Spenser, Vulnerability, and the Ethics of Masculinity. New York: Fordham University Press, 2012. x + 286 pages. $55.00. In Joseph Campana's incisive study The Pain of Reformation, the Spenser of the 1590 Faerie Queene becomes a manifestly ethical poet. With admirable lucidity, Campana demonstrates, much as previous generations of scholarship have done for poets such as Virgil and Dante, that Spenser should not be read merely as an inveterate propagandist for the ideology of his time. While it is presently a scholarly commonplace to dismiss as naïve those readings that construe Virgil as a straightforward defender of the Roman imperium or Dante as an outright condoner of Christendom's infelicities, Spenser is still too often implicitly read as the Elizabethan mouthpiece of English Protestant nationalism. Such a facile assessment of The Faerie Queene (and more generally of Spenser himself) overlooks many dimensions of the narrative, including most importantly questions surrounding gender and the constraints of masculinity. Indeed, the nature of sexuality and the dynamics of gender construction within the poem are still vigorously contested areas of inquiry. Campana's impressive study, which "examines a triangulation of vulnerability, masculinity, and the ethics common to many literary writers grappling with that peculiar admixture of triumph and trauma in the wake of massive religious and political changes" (3), achieves a great deal in elucidating how Spenser registered the importance of vulnerability within his understanding of Christian virtue. The result is an impressively original intervention in Spenser studies that reveals some of the ramifications of the Protestant Reformation in English literature by charting how tropes of masculinity were aesthetically, not just culturally, refashioned. Campana suggests that the poem assumes a greater ethical urgency by foisting a decisive claim upon its readers: "[m]asculinity, or manliness, [End Page 166] must . . . be reformed to accommodate vulnerability and an openness to the pain of others" (4). Campana's close reading of The Faerie Queene is consistently informed by a sophisticated awareness of the poem's intertextual relationship with figures such as Virgil, Petrarch, Ariosto, and Tasso, but this functions more to illustrate Spenser's unique ethical vision than to establish his dependence on previous templates of poetic practice. What emerges in Campana's study as the most important notion for understanding Spenser's poetic endeavor is the prospect of vulnerability, which, in this reading, "provides a critical alternative to violence" (12). Whereas previous poetic analogues supplied ample imaginative resources for collapsing martial prowess and masculinity into a single conception, "Spenser recalibrates the age-old dynamic between love and war in heroic poetry, making vulnerability—an openness to sensation and affect that implies an ethical openness to others—the poem's governing ideal" (23). Here we witness an astute interpretation of Spenser that both gains solid traction on the poem while also protecting itself against the charge of anachronism (cf. 11-13). By taking careful strides in expounding his idiosyncratic heuristic of vulnerability, Campana shifts the focus away from polysemous terms such as "violence" and "embodiment" toward a more nuanced conception of mutual human orientation that significantly deepens our understanding of affect and subjection. After briefly positioning itself in relation to religious historiography in the introduction, Campana's argument unfolds in six chapters. Chapter 1, "Reading Bleeding Trees: The Poetics of Other People's Pain," addresses one of the affective dimensions of (Protestant) Christianity's central paradoxes: reverence for the archetypal figure of a suffering Christ coupled with a robust disdain, instilled through Christian worship practices, for compassion and pity. As a poet, Spenser writes against a religious cultural backdrop wherein a protracted emphasis on pain can initiate a dangerous awareness of bodily sensation that must, in turn, be controlled through devotional observance. An inordinate emphasis on matters of the flesh can evolve tempestuously into forms of idolatry, as the physical, embodied nature of suffering occludes more spiritual senses. The ideological dimensions of this dynamic can manifest diverse forms within cultural behavior, but Spenser signals them, according to Campana, through the Legend of Holiness. Una, the figurehead of Protestant veracity, sets...

Les motifs du chant populaire Le Dîner du prince dans la pièce de Ljubomir Simović La Bataille de Kosovo

After having evoked the importance of the battle of Kosovo, an historical event which became legendary and mythical thanks to Serbian medieval literature, epic folk songs, and oral tradition, the author analyses The Prince’s Dinner (the third of the Fragments of Various Songs of Kosovo) and its characters, the Christian dimension of the song and the thesis that it is representative of a battle between old and new faiths. Subsequently examined is the drama by Ljubomir Simović (particularly the prince’s dinner scene), written in 1988 for the 600th anniversary of the battle of Kosovo, and its second version published fourteen years later. For all its literary qualities, Simović’s The Battle of Kosovo failed to escape the influences of the time when it was created: Simović wrote a play corresponding to the horizon of the expectations of his readers, eager for a revitalization of the national mythology.

Surviving Christianity

In his essay ‘The Deconstruction of Christianity’, Jean-Luc Nancy identifies Christianity with the heart of the West, thus following René Girard's claim that Christianity is the religion that exposes the workings of scapegoating and mimetic violence that drive most religions and cultures. However, in On Touching, Derrida distances himself from Nancy's project, and I argue that this is precisely because he is aware that a straightforward embrace of the deconstruction of Christianity is a ruse, as it will end up in a Christian victory that ultimately overcomes deconstruction. The problem, however, is that a simple opposition to Christianity is also insufficient because it gets caught in a similar trap where Christianity ultimately wins (religion will always triumph, as Lacan says). The workings of this ‘trap’ will be explored through a reading of Derrida's essay ‘What is a Relevant Translation?’ and particularly his discussion of Shylock's situation in Merchant of Venice, where Derrida recognizes the ruse of Christianity in its ability to trump Shylock's literal translation of the law, but still he ‘insist[s] on the Christian dimension’. Why? To answer this question this paper turns to another: how do we survive Christianity?

The Ecological Challenge to Christianity

Most people who think seriously about the ecological crisis will agree that it presents the premier challenge for the coming millennium. Exploding human populations will put vast strains on resources. Global warming, deforestation, and other forms of pollution to air, land, and water will continue to expand as the ethos of technology takes over our world. In this evolving scenario of ecological degradation what is the role of religion in general and of Christianity in particular? Just as all religions were shaped in specific cultural climates all living religions have had to adapt their message and action to new crises in history. In his brilliant meditation on the poetics of matter-energy convertibility, David Toolan (1996:14) asks: “So now, what shall we make of nature?” In light of the new creation story, that of a multi-billion year development, and of the new physics in our time characterized by Einstein, Toolan seems to be asking our great world systems of spirituality to respond in depth to the ecological challenge. I would like to explore some avenues for approaching this challenge to religions in a more limited way by focusing on dimensions of Christianity that are summoned toward revisionary thinking in face of the growing threat to the planet. Those of us who work in the interfacing of religion and ecology are aware of significant thinkers who are addressing these issues; a growing list of such scholars includes Thomas Berry, Sallie McFague, Jay McDaniel, James Gustafson, Rosemary Ruether, and others. There are also Christian environmental organizations and programs attempting to raise consciousness within churches and seminaries. But on the whole, the ecological reconfiguration of Christian thought and practice is still in its infancy. Ecology has hardly penetrated the shell of modern Christianity. The impact of this spiritual reconfiguration has not been felt significantly in the concrete circumstances of Christian living; it is like a distant comet still far removed from where we live. The new challenge calls us far beyond recycling or a few prayers for the earth at Mass or turning the church garden into a bird sanctuary or talking occasionally about a stewardship ethic toward the planet. If we take the challenge seriously, it will cut to the roots of our religious consciousness and activity; it will ask about how Christianity can become a nature religion. I will consider aspects of this challenge in the areas of doctrine, liturgy, spirituality, and ethics.

The Rise and Fall of Turcophilism in Nineteenth-Century British Discourses: Visions of the Turk, ‘Young’ and ‘Old’

This article examines the evolving British perceptions of the Ottoman Empire from the onset of the Tanzimat to Abdülhamid II. The article aims to attest the emergence of a positive image of the ‘reforming Turk’ and the erosion of this positive assessment following the disillusionment with the achievements of Tanzimat. The article discusses the Christian dimensions of the positive and negative attitudes towards the Ottomans and ‘moral racism’ inherent in both the positive and negative assessments. The article ends with concluding that this reference framework from which the British discourses on the Ottomans derived had eclipsed with the demise of the British nineteenth-century political elite and culture in tandem with the waning of the Ottoman political culture and elite.

Tocqueville’s Aristocratic Christianity

Tocqueville, the educator, employs both Christianity and aristocracy to elevate or give soulful content to the democratic personal identity, and he even presents Christianity as a kind of combination of aristocracy and democracy. The aristocratic dimension of Christianity, he says, is America’s most precious inheritance. He also says that Jesus corrected the prejudice of even the best philosophers of Greece against the possible greatness of ordinary people. Tocqueville seems most attracted to a Catholicism purged of any connection with the prejudices of aristocratic injustice. That Catholicism wouldn’t be so different from the Puritanism he describes, transformed by a criticism based on both the purely Christian and aristocratic views of freedom. Tocqueville reminds us of St. Thomas Aquinas’ realistic corrections of the unjust and self-absorbed excesses of Aristotle’s magnanimous man, and he at least suggests to us the need for a kind of American Thomism.

Sacrifice, Transcendence and ‘Making Sacred’

Despisers of religion throughout the centuries have poured scorn upon the idea of sacrifice, which they have targeted as an index of the irrational and wicked in religious practice. Lucretius saw the sacrifice of Iphigenia as an instance of the evils perpetrated by religion. But even religious reformers like Xenophanes or Empedocles rail against ‘bloody sacrifice’. What kind of God can demand sacrifice? Yet the language of sacrifice persists in a secular world. Nor does its secularised form seem much more appealing. One need only think of the appalling and grotesque cult of sacrifice in numerous totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century. The perversion of the Jihad in radical Islam in contemporary Europe would provide another sombre instance. Throughout Europe in the last few years we have seen the revival of a classical Enlightenment atheism, a movement that, far removed from Nietzsche's pathos for the Death of God, pursues a vigorous and relentless policy of Écrasez l'infâme! Indeed, contemporary polemicists like Dawkins and Hitchens wish to emphasise precisely this dimension of Christianity: not just false but nasty! The modern cultured despisers of religion are the self confessed descendants of Hume and Voltaire. Religion is the product of the period of ignorance in the superstitious and terrified fearful infancy of humanity, and is the crude attempt to face the natural human longing for knowledge, consolation and emotional support. How can one strive to defend the concept of sacrifice against such cultured despisers? I think we need to start by reflecting upon why the slaughter of an animal, say, makes holy – sacra facere? The root meaning of ‘sacrifice’ has a basis in ritual practice, as its Latin etymology suggests. Though in common parlance it communicates a giving up or rejection, the word as we are going to understand it signifies thesubstitution, or more perhapssublimation, of an item or interest for a higher value or principle. St Augustine speaks of the outward symbol of the true sacrifice of spiritual offering that God requires in the altar of the heart – a sacrifice of humility and praise. The metaphor works because his audience was familiar with the literal sense of the term.

Vattimo and Theology by Thomas G. Guarino

BOOK REVIEWS 514 argument would have been strengthened from the inside out, however, and even kept from more than occasional dualistic miscues, if Nichols had shown greater awareness of the more integrated (postliberal) approaches to theology mentioned above. In short, in spite of Nichols’s rather traditional conclusions, he is still doing theology in a modern (i.e., Enlightenment) key. RODNEY HOWSARE DeSales University Center Valley, Pennsylvania Vattimo and Theology. By THOMAS G. GUARINO. London and New York: T & T Clark Press, 2009. Pp. 183. $ 29.95 (paper) ISBN: 978-0-567-03233-1. Gianni Vattimo is one ofthe leading proponents of contemporary postmodern philosophy. Heavily influenced by Nietzsche and Heidegger (and, to a lesser degree, Hans-Georg Gadamer), Vattimo has become famous for what he calls “weak thought,” that is, a decidedly antimetaphysical thought that does not oppose itself to Christianity but interprets itself as the fulfillment, or consummation, of the Christian understanding of reality. He argues,forexample, that we need to be more nihilistic in order to be more Christian. “Kenosis” and “caritas” have thus become key concepts of his radical hermeneutics. Postmodernism, he consequently maintains, makes it possible for Christianity (understood along the lines of his own interpretation of it) to play a new role. In the “age of interpretation” Christianity is, as he points out, no longer dependent on alien standards of rationality (nor excluded from any public or theoretical significance), but can rediscover its own (proper) claims. Thomas Guarino summarizes nicely Vattimo’s position vis-à-vis Christianity as follows: “To be a Christian, indeed, to be a religious person, is to recognize that all thinking is ‘weak,’ that all knowing is interpretative, that ‘metaphysics,’ with all its assertion of absolutes, must always be diluted into tolerant charity” (17). If postmodernism needs to be taken seriously (as the kind of challenge that it clearly is), it also needs to be taken seriously in the shape that it has found in Vattimo’s thought. Vattimo’s constant dialogue with the Christian theological and philosophical tradition explains, more specifically, why his philosophy deserves close attention and criticism both from a Christian philosophical and from a theological perspective. Vattimo and Theology provides such a criticism of Vattimo’s thought. It offers in its first two chapters a very accurate and accessible account of Vattimo’s thought and discusses key themes such as his understanding of modernity and its end, truth, Being, interpretation, history, and the kenotic dimension of Christianity. Anyone merely looking for a short, yet concise introduction to Vattimo’s thought will clearly benefit from reading BOOK REVIEWS 515 Guarino’s book. Guarino, however, does not limit himself to such an introduction. His interest is to host a critical dialogue between the Christian tradition and Vattimo (he considers himself “hardly an apologist for Vattimian thought” [3]). Before he goes on to examine Vattimo’s thought critically, however, he discusses from a historical (but also a systematic) point of view the question as to whether or not a Nietzschean can speak to Christian theology. The third chapter of his book shows—very convincingly—that thinkers such as Nietzsche and his followers may have something important to offer to Christian thought and that a Christian thinker must not be afraid to engage in a dialogue with Nietzschean thought. This may well be the case with Vattimo’s postmodernism, too. In the following two chapters, Guarino takes up the challenge of a theological dialogue with Vattimo. The first of these two critical chapters deals with postmodernity and theology; the second one with truth and interpretation. Both chapters provide a convincing critique of Vattimo’s thought that is interesting not only for theologians. Philosophers, too, will benefit from Guarino’s critical remarks about the Italian philosopher and value the balanced nature of his reading of Vattimo’s works. Guarino is without any doubt right in appreciating Vattimo’s desire for God and for Christ; he is also right in pointing out that there are many important parallels between Vattimo’s thought and the Christian tradition (particularly the mystical tradition) and that his emphasis upon practice needs to be taken very seriously. Guarino does not, however, overlook the limits of Vattimo’s hermeneutical nihilism...

The Tragic Hero of the Post - Classical Renaissance

Just as the drama of ancient Greece is dominated by the classical order, English drama spearheaded by William Shakespeare, is dominated by the Renaissance post-classical period. Pre-renaissance drama in England was based mostly on allegorical plays extolling Christian values. One of the morality plays that survived the period is Everyman. But the type stood its ground throughout the Elizabethan period. Theatre, which became public, was a tradition handed down from the classical Greek period. Therefore, it was the belief that when a prince fell, that fall was tantamount to the fall of Lucifer. The victim was forever doomed and excluded eternity. And that was the Christian concept of tragedy.Marlowe's emergence as a playwright with Dr. Faustus reinforced the notion that when a fall comes the way of a hero it is because of willful indulgence, lustful desires and incapacity to repent. Hubris, therefore proved to be the sin of Dr. Faustus. Thus, the hero obviously becomes responsible for own downfall. This is equally the fate of King Lear, Coriolanus, and Othello Shakespeare's tragic heroes. Apart from this received tradition coupled with the Christian dimension, the characterization of the English tragic hero was further influenced by Machiavelli through the publication of The Prince (1560). This influence accounts for the blossoming of Machiavellian figures such as Edmund in King Lear and Richard III.Seneca published own adaptations of Greek tragedies. In these adaptations, he explores themes like problems of political power and corruption; the loneliness of kingship and jealousy. These themes are embellished appearances, ghosts, as well as horrific and gory incidents which Seneca described in sublime language.Folktales, one of the received traditions, were effectively used. For example, King Lear, unlike King Oedipus, is conceived on the basis of the Christian notion of original sin. King Lear is therefore cast in the mould of the tragic hero with the tragic flaw inherent in character. His demand that three daughters prove their filial love and fidelity so they can earn their inheritance is naive. This shows gullibility as a parent because he is easily taken in by the false declarations of two elder daughters. As a result, King Lear disinherits Cordelia, the true daughter to the advantage of Reagan and Goneril. His conviction that duty must be rewarded and ingratitude should be punished coupled with inordinate desire to retire into a peaceful old age without the cares of the state is unconvincing. The falsity of Reagan and Goneril which the King realises later reveals injustice to Cordelia and foolishness in giving up kingdom to two false daughters who later maltreat him. In anger, the king rejects shelter and goes out wandering in the storm. His tragic physical suffering at the mercy of the elements and mental torture make his mind turns as he wonders at the cruelty of daughters. Thus, whereas in King Oedipus the concept of fate creates despair, in King Lear, there is hope and faith when at the end the forces of evil are completely defeated.

Nazareth in the War for Palestine: The Arab City that Survived the 1948 Nakba

Nazareth is the largest Palestinian Arab city inside Israel and one of the holiest Christian cities on earth. In the New Testament the town is described as the childhood home of Jesus and as such is a centre of Christian shrines and pilgrimage, with many shrines commemorating biblical events. Although according to the 1947 UN Partition plan the city was part of the Palestinian Arab state, it was conquered in 1948 by the Israeli army and annexed to the Israeli state. On 16 July, three days after the mass expulsion of the Palestinian cities of Lydda and Ramle by the Israeli army, Nazareth surrendered to Jewish forces and its inhabitants were allowed to remain in situ. In 1948 the Zionist attitude towards the Palestinian Christian communities in Galilee was generally less aggressive than the attitude towards the local Palestinian Muslims. This article addresses the question: how and why did Nazareth survive the 1948 Nakba and mass expulsion of Palestinians from the Galilee? While exploring this Christian dimension, the article focuses on the key roles played by the Muslim Mayor Yusuf al-Fahum, Israeli Prime Minister and Defence Minister Ben-Gurion and army commanders involved in deciding the fate of the city.