Divine Descent Research Articles

God as both Hierarchical and Egalitarian: A Kierkegaardian Proposal Based on Philosophical Fragments

After highlighting Søren Kierkegaard's emphasis on the absolute difference between God and humans, this article presents his explanation of why we can readily embrace our inferior position to God, which appeals to his understanding of love as involving the desire to be the guilty party. But this argument can be turned around to make a case that God would desire to be the guilty party in relation to us. This fits well with the story of God's love in Kierkegaard's pseudonymous writing Philosophical Fragments, in which divine incarnation is interpreted as God's descent in history to establish equality with humans. After arguing that such a kenotic Christology is not incompatible with the absolute God-human difference because it accentuates the fact that only God can cross the divide, the author points out its similarity with Marilyn Adams’ view that God became the curse in Jesus to cancel out the power of the curse of sin. He finishes by dealing with the worry that, despite divine descent, some humans may be unable to stand boldly confident before God because of their memory of what their sinfulness has caused. One way to alleviate this worry is to adopt the Irenaean affirmation of God's ultimate responsibility, and the author claims that this would complete Kierkegaard's Philosophical Fragments by adding an interpretation of the crucifixion in line with its story of divine descent.

Yuga-Avatāra Complex in the Mahābhārata and Harivaṃśa


 
 
 A recent publication (I by Simon Brodbeck, 2022) proposes to resolve a long-standing theological conundrum of Hindu mythology on the basis of a literary-holist or “synchronic” reading of the Sanskrit Mahābhārata, seeking thereby to displace earlier scholarship treating this theme. This review essay provides a thorough analysis of the arguments of Divine Descent and the closely linked matter of the two competing methodologies in the reading of the Sanskrit epics: the “synchronic” or holist approach championed by Brodbeck and the “analytic” approach, which views the Mahābhārata as a historically layered text. Ultimately, I argue here that the latter “analytic” solutions to the conundrum, which it was Brodbeck’s purpose to challenge, account for the matter far more persuasively. In particular, I make special reference to a 1960 study by Paul Hacker as a work of persisting value for understanding the historic development of the avatāra system over time .
 
 

Transcendental Happiness in the Thought of Ibn Sīnā and Ibn ‘Arabī

This article explores the concept of transcendental happiness in the philosophies of arguably the two most important figures in Islamic intellectual thought, Abū ‘Alī ibn Sīnā (d. 428/1037) and Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ‘Arabī (d. 638/1240). The most striking parallels between the philosophy of Ibn Sīnā and that of Ibn ‘Arabī is in their agreement on the Aristotelian principle of transcendental happiness as the comprehension of God, combined with their emanationist cosmologies. Based on Neoplatonist emanationism, especially as it is put forth by Plotinus, Ibn Sīnā and Ibn ‘Arabī argue that there is a necessary emanation from God that results in the existence of the universe. As corollaries of the divine emanative process, those endowed with rationality seek to return to the divine in a reciprocal upward motion that aims to ‘reverse’ the downward motion of the original divine descent. The impetus for the two-way process incorporating divine descent through emanation and the longing for ascent found in humans is love. Despite these points of confluence, there are others of divergence. Ibn ‘Arabī disagrees with his predecessor that transcendental happiness is found in absolute annihilation in the divine, while still maintaining that annihilation of the self is a necessary first step in the attainment of transcendental happiness. Transcendental happiness, argues Ibn ‘Arabī, is ultimately the realization of human potentiality to become a complete locus of divine manifestation. This is carried out through the body for Ibn ‘Arabī, whereas for Ibn Sīnā, transcendental happiness requires the divestment of materiality.

The Adaptation and Development of the Proclean Notion of Κατάβασις: From Proclus to Maximus the Confessor

This paper examines the impact of Proclus’ notion of divine descent, i.e., κατάβασις, on the formation of core theological doctrines in Pseudo-Dionysius and Maximus the Confessor. The notion of κατάβασις was originally employed by pagan Proclus to explain the downward providence of gods toward humans, emphasizing the dominant role of gods for human perfection. In his exegesis on Alcibiades I, Proclus identified Socrates as the incarnation of divine providence, a divinely inspired lover in charge of Alcibiades’ conversion to philosophical life. Pseudo-Dionysius adapted the Proclean notion of κατάβασις by supplementing it with the Christian notion of God’s ecstatic love, understood as God’s providential act toward His creation. In the Celestial Hierarchy and Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, Dionysius endeavored to reveal the reciprocal-ecstatic union between God and humans made possible by His ecstatic κατάβασις during the liturgy. Maximus adapted and further developed the Dionysian notion of κατάβασις. While stressing the crucial role of the κατάβασις for human salvation, he gave it a new meaning by synthesizing it in the context of his anthropology, which stressed the holistic transformation of the human body and soul as a result of the divine descent.

Performing the King Divine: The Early Modern Spanish Aulic Festival by Lucas A. Marchante Aragón

Reviewed by: Performing the King Divine: The Early Modern Spanish Aulic Festival by Lucas A. Marchante Aragón Alejandra B. Osorio Lucas A. Marchante Aragón. Performing the King Divine: The Early Modern Spanish Aulic Festival. EDITION REICHENBERGER, 2017. 300 PP. THE STUDY OF EARLY MODERN COURTLY CEREMONIES has experienced a significant surge in the last decade or so, revealing their centrality in the public and political cultures of Europe and its empires. These studies have, among other things, identified early modern courts as centers of great artistic production that enriched material and cultural life, while also enhancing the power of their monarchs or princes. Monarchs and nobles often commissioned artistic works from painters, architects, and musicians—as well as writers, historians, poets, and philosophers—for inclusion in courtly plays and ceremonies. As these events conveyed the patrons’ habits, tastes, and worldviews, they shaped early modern societies, delineating the hierarchies that ordered them and those of the more private sphere of the court. The production and staging of royal triumphal entries, masques, ludic games, and plays employed all the arts available to rulers to exercise their authority and instruct wider audiences on the workings of social and political power. In the specific case of court theater, new techniques combining music, dance, architecture, perspective scenery, and sophisticated stage machinery enhanced written texts, producing great works of “magical illusion at the service of the exaltation of the monarch” (6). Performing the King Divine examines these various techniques in Spanish court theater, not just as printed literature but also as dramatic texts that came to life through a “net of communicative strategies, verbal and otherwise, that formed part of the [overall] spectacle” (8). Moving chronologically, Marchante Aragón examines transformations in court theater from the late Middle Ages, during which it conveyed the king’s physical proximity to the divine, to the end of the seventeenth century, when it presented the Spanish Habsburg king Charles II as himself a divine being. In examining this process, the author draws from speech act theory the notion of the “performative utterance.” This approach informs the title of the book, Performing the King Divine; in other words, onstage performances of kingship produced monarchical divinity. [End Page 165] One characteristic of early modern court theater that made these transformations possible was the inclusion of the patron in the audience as part of the spectacle, dissolving the boundaries between the “real” and the “performed” worlds. Such blurring of boundaries conveyed to audiences the special link between the worldly and the divine, as found, for example, in the court dramas created at the turn of the sixteenth century by Juan del Encina and Gil Vicente. Such associations worked within a larger courtly ceremonial language derived both from political thought and from ritual performances aimed at legitimating kingly rule. Under the reign of Charles I (1516–56), as part of the claim to the imperial title that in 1519 made him Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Habsburg dynastic language came into use in Spanish court theater. According to Marchante Aragón, this language was founded on “fabulous genealogical arguments” (87–95) entrusting the Spanish Habsburg with the “providential mission of restoring the earthly Paradise represented with images of the classical Golden Age” (10). These genealogies connected the emperor with Jesus Christ via the Roman emperors, gods of antiquity, and priest-kings of the Old Testament the Habsburg claimed as their ancestors, ultimately transforming him into the ruler best positioned to bring back the Golden Age. Charles V’s divine descent and genealogical rights along with his inherited virtues were made explicit in plays by means of the use of mythological imagery. Habsburg genealogies and mythological imagery were imbued in larger fields of meaning. The salón de saraos, the theatrical space built circa 1605 in the royal palace in Valladolid, was designed in such a way that its decorative and architectural programs were essential components of the “performative text” (105). The building itself was part of a dynamic creation of meaning, as for Marchante Aragón, this space was intended “to create and fix the memory of a divinely ordained imperial dynasty by displaying a series of symbols in its architecture...

Circle Games from Pharr to Stahl

Circle Games from Pharr to Stahl Richard F. Thomas Unlike Tennyson—"I who loved thee since my day began"—I came to Virgil relatively late in life. I think we read bits of the Aeneid in school in New Zealand, but frankly don't remember having done so. For better or worse, I did not share the experience of countless U.S. schoolchildren, and generations of their teachers, who read selections from Aeneid 1–6 in the innovative school commentary of Clyde Pharr, first published in 1930, the preface stating that "the author is much pleased to offer this little volume in homage to the spirit of the bard of Mantua at a time when all the world is uniting to pay him tribute" (1998: xii).1 Pharr, a specialist in Roman law, wrote nothing on Virgil beyond a preface, which has been read and absorbed for the past eighty-five years by many schoolteachers of Virgil, and presumably passed on to their charges. This textbook was later used, and in some cases still is, in the teaching of the AP Latin syllabus ("Vergil" until 2012, "Vergil and Caesar" since the 2012–13 school year). Pharr's anachronistic introduction sees all through the eyes of Augustus, reflecting the Servian and Suetonian focus that seems to be the ultimate source (2): The poem was undertaken at the request of Augustus. . . . Vergil and Augustus were both interested in thus giving divine sanction and the [End Page 115] weight of hoary antiquity to the measures which Augustus had undertaken for establishing the empire. Thus Augustus appears as the restorer of the good old days and good old ways of the fathers. He is the promised ruler of divine descent who is to bring peace and a return of the Golden Age to the whole world. On Virgil himself the ancient Life of Vergil is even more to the fore in Pharr's opining (3): As a piece of literature, the Aeneid has both the strengths and weaknesses of its author and subject matter. Vergil was a weakling, usually in poor health, shy to the point of painfulness, a sentimental idealist, and little acquainted with the hard and practical ways of the stern old Roman world. He was never married and seems to have cared little or nothing for feminine society. His one great ideal of life can be summed up in the word pietās, devotion, loyalty, and he equips his hero (pius Aenēās) with a full and overflowing measure of this quality, which finds its best expression in an unquestioned obedience to the will of the gods and to their more or less contradictory commands no matter how much human suffering may be entailed nor how much apparent wrong may result. Fortunately I missed out on all of this in school, so remained something of a tabula rasa on what the Aeneid was "about." As an undergraduate in New Zealand I took a course with W. R. Barnes on the Georgics, mostly book 4, I think it was, probably. That poem has always for me been the perfect poem; likewise it is a poem that came in my mind to sit easily and well with Harvard School readings of the epic that followed. Both poems deal in shadows as much as in light, and both—like the Eclogues—focus on losers as much as on winners: it is Meliboeus, Moeris, Lycidas, Orpheus and Eurydice, Dido and Turnus who get much of the music and whose fates linger along with the victories and successes of Tityrus, Aristaeus, and Aeneas. Barnes also introduced me to Steele Commager's 1966 edition, Virgil: A Collection of Critical Essays, which contained the articles of Brooks, Clausen, and Parry, with other now-classic offerings such as Bernard Knox's "The Serpent and the Flame." It was one of the few books I brought with me to the U.S., though I seem to have lost it at some point. In graduate school at Michigan (1974-77) I read the Aeneid, or much of it, since it was on the reading list, and I did a Georgics seminar with D. O. Ross, Clausen's student at Harvard and...

Constitutional Mythologies and Entangled Cultures in the Tibeto-Mongolian Gesar Epic: The Motif of Gesar’s Celestial Descent

Abstract The Gesar/Geser epic cycle is a warrior epic known throughout the Tibetan and Mongolian-speaking regions of Asia and is still largely sustained through a shamanistically tinted oral tradition. This article focuses on the epic motif of the hero’s divine descent and constructs both a “constitutional mythology” for the epic based on this motif and a reconstruction of the probable archaic core of the epic motif. It also focuses in particular on the representations of the hero’s sky-god father. The variability in the representation of this figure reflects the cross-cutting religious influences on this Silk Road epic. These range from archaic “native” Inner Asian traditions concerning sky and mountain gods, to Buddhism (and its debt to Indian Vedic religion) and even Silk Road Manichaeism.

Göttersöhne: Lk 1.26–38 als Kontrasterzählung zu einem römischen Gründungsmythos

Roman identity and legitimisation of imperial rule were closely connected to the mythological motive of divine descent. In this context, the myth of Romulus with the encounter between the god Mars and the virgin Rhea Silvia developed its own significance that was available for broader circles within the population of the Roman Empire. It is against this background that Luke 1.26–38 may be read as an alternative foundation narrative that assimilates essential features of the Roman myth of origin in order to reinterpret it christologically.

Between Paradigm Shift Judaism and Neo-Hasidism

Between Paradigm Shift Judaism and Neo-Hasidism

Un dono inatteso. Memorie iraniche nei Magi cristianizzati

Iranian Magi are a constant presence in the imagination of the Christianized West. In the Gospel of Matthew (2, 1-12) an episode is introduced which will soon become one of the most celebrated motives in the art and literature of ancient, medieval and modern Christianity. This episode will come to the point of becoming, mainly in Rome, the central theme of the Epiphany, the manifestation of God in the Child Jesus. The expectation of a Saviour, of a restored Saośyant, is part of the royal ideology both Christian and Iranian, and finds its fulfillment in the symbolism of light. According to Philostratus the Parthian kings depicted their gods in sidereal appearance. That is because they had a heavenly and igneous origin themselves: Ammianus Marcellinus transcribes the epithet that designated the “King of Kings” Sāpuhr as offspring of a divine descent consubstantial with the stars and the two luminaries. A “Lord of the world” was expected in the whole ancient East and had become an object of veneration also in Rome in the form of a mysterious sidus Augustum . Tiridates, king of Armenia, went to Rome in 66 a. D. with a cortege of Magi to worship the mithrized emperor Nero. According to the models expressing sacred royalty king Mithridates Eupator was an incarnation of the god Mithra and like Mithra was born in a cave from a star fallen from the sky. These conceptions will be found in an important Christian text, the Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum , according to which the Persian Magi used to ascend every year the “Mount of Victories” waiting for a star which carried in itself the image of a child and which was to be the sign of the Great King’s birth.

Twin-born with greatness

This article examines the comparative configurations of diarchy by means of an extended analysis of the Spartan dual kingship in ancient Greece. Twinned and inseparable, both human and divine, the Spartan kings were themselves descended from celestial twins, hence it is argued that the Spartan diarchy is an empirical instantiation of the king’s two bodies—the dual kingship as an expression of sovereign twinship. The essay goes on to consider other royal twins of Greek mythology, one of whom was usually descended from a god, and argues that such myths of dynastic origin constitute a cosmology of sovereign right in which the Spartan myth of stranger-kings of divine descent was opposed to the Athenian ideology of autochthony.

Twin-born with greatness: the dual kingship of Sparta

This article examines the comparative configurations of diarchy by means of an extended analysis of the Spartan dual kingship in ancient Greece. Twinned and inseparable, both human and divine, the Spartan kings were themselves descended from celestial twins, hence it is argued that the Spartan diarchy is an empirical instantiation of the king’s two bodies—the dual kingship as an expression of sovereign twinship. The essay goes on to consider other royal twins of Greek mythology, one of whom was usually descended from a god, and argues that such myths of dynastic origin constitute a cosmology of sovereign right in which the Spartan myth of stranger-kings of divine descent was opposed to the Athenian ideology of autochthony.

Possessing Heaven in Our Head: A Reformed Reading of Incarnational Ascent in Kathryn Tanner

AbstractAs recent Reformed scholarship has turned its attention to the doctrine of creation, Kathryn Tanner can be engaged as an incisive and useful interlocutor. In her book Christ the Key, Tanner advances the notion of the double movement of divine descent and incarnate ascent, an idea which intersects with current Reformed deliberations on transcendence and the “chief end” of created humanity. Tanner’s re-articulation of the discussion of nature and grace, and divine agency within creation, offers a challenging and potentially constructive contribution to Reformed dogmatics.

God′s Body: Epistemic and Ritual Conceptions from Sanskrit Texts of Logic

Abstract Discussions on the nature of the relationship between a god, his body and his material representation are almost non-existent in the Hindu devotional perspective, where such concerns are superfluous. Hindu theological and ritual Sanskrit texts, on the other hand, applied procedures of reasoning with regard to that relationship. This rationalization however accommodated rather than conflicted with the devotional attitude. Their attempt to clarify their stand vis-à-vis god′s body and material image followed from ideological or technical requirements. This was done sometimes systematically, as in the Viśiṣṭādvaita school of philosophy where the ritual image is declared to be “a divine descent (of God) for the purpose of worship”; sometimes incidentally, as in ritual manuals, where the process of changing statues into divine bodies is described. But why should gods have a body at all? While some contend that they do not possess any body, others assert that they possess several at the same time, yet others infer the necessity of a body for God to create the universe, to reveal sacred texts, etc. These are some arguments and counter-arguments found in theological texts. The nature of the hierarchy between divine descents and images (which may or may not be considered as real bodies of gods) is another aspect of the discussion. Another question is the various ways in which ritual texts consider the relation between a god and his image. While immediacy characterizes the relation between the devotee and the image of god, the relation between ritual and image is far from being spontaneous. Rituals insure the presence of a god in an image through a technico-mystical process consisting of successive stages and involving patrons, astrologers, artists, priests and others. The final product, namely a concrete god-cum-image, is fit for devotion, but remains for ever fragile, dependent on the continuity of rites and on the material preservation of the image. Behind the ritual perspective also lies the notion that this process of creating a body for a god is in keeping with “natural” laws. Hindu ritual prescriptions are applicable only to the religious images which, though man-made, are considered as “natural”. Supra-natural divine images, known as “self-manifested” images, must be worshiped, but are beyond the range of these prescriptions.

Monumentale skibssætninger i Danmark og Skåne

Monumental Ship-Settings in Denmark and ScaniaThis paper, based on the author’s thesis, evolved from an attempt to determine the age, function, background and symbolism of seemingly grave-less monumental ship-settings – i.e. ship-settings with a length of at least 40 metres and constructed from large standing stones. The monumental ship-settings examined in this paper are (or were) located at Vejerslev, Jelling, Bække, Glavendrup, Lejre and Trygge­vælde in present-day Denmark and at Södra Ugglarp, Kåseberga, Torup, Färlöv and Ljungarum in present–day Scania (figs. 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 9).The archaeological evidence and scientific dates suggest that monumental ship-settings in Denmark were erected in the period leading up to the conversion to Christianity – approximately AD 900-970. The corresponding sites in Scania could very well be contemporary but some may be slightly older, and some may even date back to the Bronze Age. This uncertainty is due to the fact that the Scanian examples can only be dated typologically or by radiocarbon . Both methods are fairly inaccurate.Most of the smaller ship-settings contain graves, predominantly cremation graves, whereas the monumental ship-­settings often to not contain graves and gravegoods. Based on the lack of grave-­related finds in monumental ship-settings, this paper reaches the conclusion that it is not possible to demonstrate that monumental ship-settings served as monu­mental tombs. However, several of the monumental ship-settings have been disturbed in numerous ways and a number of them could theoretically have contained graves which are no longer detectable. It is also possible that the monuments may originally have contained graves, which were later destroyed or removed by the ­deceased’s Christian descendants in connection with a new Christian burial of the deceased. However it is emphasized that, on the basis of the archaeological evidence, it can not be concluded that monumental ship-settings are monumental graves. Their great dimensions and the siting of monumental ship-settings on high ground and near main transport routes, indicate that these monuments were intended to be seen and admired. At Jelling and Lejre, the locations of known royal and cultic centres coincide with monumental ship-settings (the archaeological and topographical ­observations made in this article are shown in figure 5). This situation, and the occasional direct connection with rune-stones mentioning kings, warriors and heathen priests, seems to link monumental ship-settings to an upper class or social elite who were probably also responsible for leading the cult. It is therefore con­cluded that monumental ship-settings were probably erected by an aristocracy or social elite. The monuments often contain postholes, fireplaces and burnt animal bones and it is suggested that they functioned as a cultic site associated with a pre-Christian Norse fertility cult.The seemingly grave-less monumental ship-settings have, on several occasions, been interpreted as cenotaphs – i.e. commemorative monuments constructed in remembrance of a deceased person but without a grave. As no definite graves have been found in monumental ship-settings (except from at Lejre) this theory is plaus­ible even though it seems a little too “­simple”. Commemorative rune-stones (fig. 3 and 8), associated with some of the Danish monumental ship-settings, can be seen as lending support to the cenotaph theory. It cannot therefore be entirely refuted and it seems probable that monumental ship-settings served, in part, as cenotaphs and commemorative monuments in remembrance of a master builder and his family.As these monuments were erected in the period leading up to southern Scandinavia becoming Christian, it is suggested that they should be understood as a means of securing and underlining a sense of heathen Norse identity at a time of political and religious change. It is stressed that the ship as a symbol can be perceived as the ship Skiðblaðnir and, accordingly, an ­attribute of the fertility god Freyr. The ship symbolism could very well be seen as a means of demonstrating opposition to the Christian cross and Christianity. Some of the monumental ship-settings include stones decorated with cup marks – allegedly Bronze Age holy symbols – and some are physically linked to Bronze Age barrows. This obvious reuse can be seen as an attempt to stress links with the past in a sort of heathen renaissance shortly before or during the process of conversion to Christianity.Finally it is suggested that the ship symbol, in the form of a monumental ship-­setting, could also have been used by a master builder as a means of claiming royal and divine descent and thus underlining his legitimacy as a ruler and leader of the cult – assuming that the ship symbol is interpreted as the mark of Freyr or Odin.Felix VestergaardHorsens Museum

SEEKING TO SEE HIM AT THE FESTIVAL OF PASCHA: GLORY-SOTERIOLOGY IN EARLY CHRISTIAN PASCHAL MATERIALS AND RABBINIC LITERATURE

Two of the oldest Christian Paschal homilies, one by Melito of Sardis and the other of unknown origin (preserved under the names of Hippolytus of Rome and John Chrysostom), testify to the expectation of the descent of the divine and salvific glory during the Paschal night. I would call the theological doctrine behind this liturgical practice glory-soteriology or kabod-soteriology. Rabbinic materials such as the targums Neofiti 1 and Pseudo-Jonathan attest to a similar expectation on the night of the festival of Pesach. The salvific power of this glory seems to constitute the first rationale for this expectation, and the Festival of Pascha the privileged time for the divine descent and manifestation. Since further investigation identifies similar elements in the writings of Philo of Alexandria, the present study proposes what might be called a «two-branched» theory: one might reasonably suppose that both the Christian and the Jewish-rabbinic expectations of the descent of the salvific glory of Pascha may constitute two different developments of a common matrix in the Second Temple festival of Passover. Major doctrinal and ritual shifts emerge in Christian worship where Jesus Christ took the place of Yahweh or of his Word.

The Androgynous and Bisexuality in Ancient Legal Codes

The name derives from his parentage: ‘Hermaphroditus’, son of Hermes and Aphrodite. His place of birth remains unknown, but we know where he spent his first years of life: the woods surrounding Mount Ida in Phrygia where he was brought up by the Nymphs. A normal life, like any other boy, until the age of fifteen when he decides to explore the world. He travels through Asia Minor until he reaches Caria, and the banks of a beautiful lake. A bold Nymph lives in the vicinity of the lake: Salmacis. As soon as she sees Hermaphroditus, now a handsome young man, she falls in love with him and tries various ways of seducing him - all in vain, as Hermaphroditus resists her advances. Salmacis is not discouraged. More and more determined to conquer the youth, she pretends to have given up all hope and waits for the right moment. The occasion presents itself when, naked, Hermaphroditus dives into the waters of the lake. Salmacis, who has been eagerly awaiting that moment, dives in after him and clasps him in an embrace from which he cannot free himself. An embrace of only a few seconds does not satisfy the desires of the lovestruck Nymph: she wants her body and her beloved's to become fused for the rest of eternity. She prays to the gods and the gods grant her request. Hermaphroditus and Salmacis are transformed forever into a new single being that is both male and female (the story can be found in Ovid, Metamorphosis, IV, 285).

Zu den Namen spätzeitlicher Usurpatoren, Fremdherrscher, Gegen- und Lokalkönige

Article Zu den Namen spätzeitlicher Usurpatoren, Fremdherrscher, Gegen- und Lokalkönige was published on January 1, 2002 in the journal Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde (volume 129, issue 1).

Leadership, professional heroism, and the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma: presidential speech at the 14th scientific assembly.

I feel privileged to have been selected as your President at this juncture—the much-touted “Y2K.” Of course, all of the hyperbole associated with the inception of a new millennium has subsided, and despite predictions, we have not escaped the reality of our current existence. We have had no cosmic convergence, and the laws of physics have not been altered in any discernible way. Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophie Naturalis Principia Mathematica, first published in 1687, still holds conceptual truth for us as we meet today in Florida. Unfortunately, the scientists and prophets of Newton’s era were regarded with skepticism. Galileo, a Newton predecessor, was prosecuted by the Church for his 1632 work, Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World. Thankfully, in our more enlightened times, our leaders are not subject to the same scrutiny. Today my task is to capture the elusive, intangible qualities of our organization that have contributed to its success. I propose that we have professional heroes among us today, and they have altered the culture of our organization in a positive manner. I want to identify some of those who have contributed to the success of our organization by their heroic service. Furthermore, I want to suggest how the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) may take advantage of existing opportunities for continued service to its youngest members in the future. To begin, though, I need to define the concepts of heroism, professionalism, and leadership. I am learning these various elements of leadership in an attempt to apply them to my own daily life. It has been a fascinating personal quest. Textbook definitions of “hero,” “leader,” and “profession” all suggest elements that are helpful in understanding the concept. The Oxford Encyclopedic English Dictionary suggests that a hero is “a person noted or admired for courage and outstanding achievements.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary describes hero as a “mythological or legendary figure endowed with great strength, courage, or ability, favored by the gods and often believed to be of divine or partly divine descent.” Roget’s International Thesaurus associates the word “leadership” with the following terms: prestige, esteem, repute, personality, charisma, magnetism, charm, and enchantment. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary describes a leader to be a person “who by force of example, talents, or qualities of leadership plays a directing role, wields commanding influence, or has a following in any sphere of activity or thought.” In defining the term “profession” the Oxford English Dictionary indicates that it is “the occupation which one professes to be skilled in and to follow . . . a vocation . . . being altruistic and value laden.” This dictionary further notes that a profession is “now usually applied to an occupation considered to be socially superior to a trade or handicraft, but formerly, and still in vulgar (or humorous) use, to Submitted for publication February 7, 2001. Accepted for publication February 13, 2001. Copyright © 2001 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc. From the Division of General Surgery, Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina. Presented at the 14th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, January 10–13, 2001, Tarpon Springs, Florida. Address for reprints: Paul R. G. Cunningham, MB, BS, FACS, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27834; email: pcunningham@pcmh.com. Paul R. G. Cunningham President, Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma The Journal of TRAUMA Injury, Infection, and Critical Care

From divine descent to administration; Sacred heirlooms and political change in highland Goa

From divine descent to administration; Sacred heirlooms and political change in highland Goa