Divine Salvation Research Articles

Smrt kao eshatološko-istorijski izazov

Since the eschatological-historical perspective of existence is the foundation of the existence of the Orthodox Church, death as a historical "phenomenon" certainly represents the greatest challenge to such a way of existence. Unpleasant associations and discomfort in our mental confrontation with death arise on the one hand from the fear of bodily pain that often accompanies the post-mortem states of a person. However, negative associations in relation to the notion of death most often have their origin in the ideological approach to death. Death, in this sense, is the last enemy that is identified with the terrible "reality" that somehow happens in space and time against the will of man. From a different perspective, we note that the mystagogical approach to death begins with the awareness of its association with man from the act of his creation, so that in divine mystagogy death becomes undoubtedly recognized first as a condition for the possibility of our repentance. Therefore, in the mysterial axiological dimension of life, death as a historical reality does not represent an ideological danger to existence, but a kind of path to the divine salvation of post-fallen man. The threat of death enables man to renew his life in a God-human manner according to eschatological-historical patterns by which man acts as an icon of God. To that extent, the way of researching our topic must be related to the Church as a liturgical-symbolic community on which the world rests, since it acts as the Body of Christ in which mortal man and creation with the help of divine actions are directed towards God as the Cause of immortality.

Abraham Bids Farewell to Hagar and Ishmael: Continuity and Variation of the Iconographic Type

In traditional Christian artistic visualization, the episode of Hagar and Ishmael in the desert has given rise to various iconographic types: “The feast for the weaning of Isaac and Sara’s protests,” “Abraham bids farewell to Hagar and Ishmael,” “Hagar and Ishmael in the desert” and “Divine salvation for Hagar and Ishmael”. This study looks into the continuity and variation over time of the second of these types: “Abraham bids farewell to Hagar and Ishmael,” the one most depicted out of this entire biblical topic or episode. Since the Byzantine Octateuch in the East (11th century.) and the Canterbury Hexateuch (ca. 1025–1049) in the West, this iconographic type has remained into the Late Modern period, with some variations over time. This study is exclusively iconographic or descriptive; it only verifies the codification of the type in order to set out an analytical basis prior to future hermeneutic or iconological studies.

Commemorative Fictions: Athens (480 B.C.E.), Jerusalem (168 B.C.E.), and Alexandria (38 C.E.)

This article examines the link between narratives transposing traumatic events into fictional story worlds and commemorative settings. The case-study of Athens serves to establish that wartime episodes could indeed be memorialized through fictional narratives and the reinterpretation of traditional myths, which were associated with such settings. Next, it is argued that alongside their recounting in texts referencing the events in a direct (mimetic) way, the inter-ethnic clashes in Alexandria (38 C.E.) and Antiochos IV's storming of Jerusalem (168 B.C.E.) spawned fictional narratives that reshaped the sources into stories of divine salvation in which massacres exist only as threats that are eventually averted, while the Judeans triumph over their enemies. As argued here, it is through this narrative transmogrification that the traumatic episodes were commemorated in festivals, which ostensibly celebrated victories. The texts discussed are Philo's In Flaccum, 3 Maccabees, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Masoretic Text Esther, and Judith, and as complements, the Acta Alexandrinorum and Chairemon's and Apion's Exodus Stories.

The Son of Man and His Mission to Save in Luke 19:10: An Interpretation

The expression ‘Son of Man’ is one of the most used titles by Jesus in the Gospels. Its meaning and Jesus’ intention for using the title to describe his mission in Luke 19:10 constitute the basis for this study. Using the Historical-Critical Method of studying ancient texts, this work explores instances in the Gospels where the term is used in relation to Jesus. It identifies a common pattern, attempts an explanation of the meaning of the term in relation to Jesus and uses that understanding to interpret the passage and give a concluding statement on the importance of the title in the light of Jesus’ mission to save. It concludes that the term ‘Son of Man’ in Luke 19:10 is used to denote Jesus as an eschatological agent who in human form achieves divine salvation through human suffering.Key Words: Luke, Messiah, Salvation, Son of Man, Tax Collectors

The politics of the coffee pot: Its changing role in history-making and the place of religion in the Sultanate of Oman

ABSTRACTCentered on the dalla, the Omani coffee pot, this paper considers how the social practices and knowledges induced by its material form and function organize different forms of perceptual skills. These skills habituate ways of seeing that become a means towards examining the shift from the religio–ethical relationships that defined the shari'a society of the last Ibadi Islamic Imamate that ruled the interior of the region (1913–1955) to those that define ‘heritage’ as part of Omani modern nation state building today. As a coffee server in the Imamate era, the dalla facilitated a history that was primarily moral in nature, oriented towards God and divine salvation. From 1970 onwards, as a visual symbol, it became an integral part of a national linear chronicle of progressive historicity. Through a shift in authoritative time, rationales of temporality, ethics and history were reconfigured, displacing an Imamate while establishing a modern-day Sultanate in its place.

Anders Runesson. Divine Wrath and Salvation in Matthew: The Narrative World of the First Gospel

No abstract is available.

Manifestations of Internal Affliction and a Quest for Divine Salvation in John Donne’s Devotions upon Emergent Occasions III

Manifestations of Internal Affliction and a Quest for Divine Salvation in John Donne’s Devotions upon Emergent Occasions III

Sight Unseen: Our Neoliberal Vision of Insecurity

Is security seen? Is security seen in images of peace and safety, or is it perceived in the troubled images of the horrors of violence and suffering? Vision has played a crucial role in shaping the modern Western preoccupation with, and prioritisation of security. Historically, security has been visually represented in a variety of ways, typically involving the depiction of its absence. In Medieval and Early Modern Europe especially, security and insecurity were presented as coterminous insofar as each represented separate conditions – their shared boundary envisioned in representations of the temporal threshold separating human mortality from divine salvation. This ocular demonstration of thresholds has been heightened by the ‘war on terror’ conducted by neo-liberal states since 2003. Neoliberalism operates as a discourse of constant global circulations (of money, goods and people) premised on a perpetual anticipation and pre-emption of insecurity. In the neoliberal scheme, security and insecurity are no longer coterminous, but mutually sustaining in perpetuity. In that sense, neoliberal security is ‘sight unseen’ - an uncanny presence that is not there. In the reiterated troubled images of horror amplified by the seemingly endless 'war on terror', neoliberal security operates as a terrifying visual reflex: we cannot see it but in new horrors.

O uso litúrgico de ditos proféticos

O artigo analisa a composição de Jeremias 30 e conclui que anúncios de juízo autênticos do profeta Jeremias foram usados na formação de textos litúrgicos para os cultos de lamentação exílicos e pós-exílicos. Nesse novo contexto e ambiente, os anúncios de juízo assumem a função de descrever a situação que afl ige o suplicante, à qual se responde com um oráculo de salvação. A autoridade adquirida pela palavra profética após a sua concretização é, assim, transferida ao anúncio de salvação e consolo transmitido no culto, sendo de grande importância na elaboração dos traumas do povo. Além de reforçar a credibilidade dos oráculos de salvação, as palavras proféticas mantinham viva a consciência de que a catástrofe não foi mero acaso, mas resultado de decisões humanas erradas e da manifestação da justiça de Deus. O Deus justo que permitiu o juízo contra Israel também irá, em virtude de sua justiça, socorrer os sofrentes que lhe trazem as súplicas no culto.

Salvation with a Smile: Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church, and American Christianity by Phillip Luke Sinitiere

Reviewed by: Salvation with a Smile: Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church, and American Christianity by Phillip Luke Sinitiere Charmayne E. Patterson Salvation with a Smile: Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church, and American Christianity. By Phillip Luke Sinitiere. (New York and London: New York University Press, 2015. Pp. xiv, 305. $35.00, ISBN 978-0-8147-2388-3.) Despite its cover illustration of the “smiling preacher,” Salvation with a Smile: Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church, and American Christianity endeavors [End Page 238] to be more than a biography or narrative of the church’s history. Instead, the book chronicles Lakewood Church’s growth from a small Texas congregation founded by John Osteen, to America’s largest megachurch pastored by his son Joel. As Phillip Luke Sinitiere asserts, “The story of Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church matters today because it is essential to understanding the history of contemporary American Christianity” (p. 9). The book attempts to situate Lakewood within the context of historical debates concerning neopentecostalism, nondenominationalism, and the Word of Faith movement. The text is a comprehensive account of how Lakewood came to be, using participant observation, interviews with current and former members (but no Lakewood leaders), and Lakewood’s own archival data including the transcripts of sermons by both father and son. Sinitiere offers a brief discussion of how religious and economic opportunities in 1950s Houston converged to create a city focused on “God and black gold” (p. 23). Originating in this “city of opportunity” and touting a theologically flexible orientation, Lakewood (then known as the “Oasis of Love”) obtained megachurch status by the late 1970s with a membership that exceeded 2,000 (p. 96). The cornerstone of John Osteen’s religious message was a belief in positive confession and divine healing, both of which gained popularity during the 1970s and 1980s and contributed to the church’s growth. Yet most of Lakewood’s success occurred after Joel Osteen’s installation as pastor following his father’s death in 1999. Sinitiere describes Joel’s ministry as being shaped by the pivotal influences of his father, evangelist Joyce Meyer, and motivational speaker John Maxwell. In the work’s most salient chapter Sinitiere argues that the key to Lakewood’s contemporary success is Joel Osteen’s skillful command of the media. Possessing “more extensive media production experience . . . than any other current televangelist,” Osteen has effectively packaged his message of betterment of mouth, mind, and body (Sinitiere asserts that Osteen embodies the physical component of the prosperity gospel through his own physical fitness, earning the dubious distinction as “America’s Fittest Pastor”) and harnessed the use of various forms of media and twenty-first century technology for its dissemination (p. 108). In so doing Osteen has arguably eclipsed the reach of both his televangelist predecessors such as Oral Roberts and Kenneth Copeland and contemporaries like Joyce Meyer and Creflo Dollar. Sinitiere posits that “Joel Osteen is not the totality of the church”; instead the church’s success can be attributed to its “charismatic core” of church leaders, who are primarily Osteen family members (p. 162). Sinitiere further attempts to explain the appeal of Lakewood beyond its senior pastor by highlighting the personal experiences of several members and how they identify Lakewood and its ministries as changing their lives for the better. Rather than addressing some of the most popular criticisms of the prosperity gospel, Sinitiere’s discussion of Osteen’s critics concerns the theological issues surrounding contemporary evangelism. The author highlights the allegations leveled by leaders of the New Calvinist movement that Osteen’s ministry and the prosperity gospel in general are theologically “thin,” and reject clear biblical understanding and rigorous theological analysis in favor of a [End Page 239] feel-good message that encourages adherents to live “your best life now” (the title of Osteen’s 2004 book) (p. 197). Instead of the traditional theological doctrine of divine salvation that confers heavenly reward, Osteen’s message, critics propone, promotes immediate self-salvation. Despite professing a personal ambivalence about Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church, Sinitiere’s treatment is primarily positive and almost borders on congenial. His criticisms of the church and its leadership are few. His assertion that “most people are not neutral when it comes...

The Silver Tassie by Sean O’Casey (review)

Reviewed by: The Silver Tassie by Sean O’Casey Robert Hubbard The Silver Tassie. By Sean O’Casey. Directed by Howard Davies. Royal National Theatre, Lyttelton Theatre, London. 21 May 2014. William Butler Yeats did have a point: on the page, the stark and impenetrable expressionism of act 2 of Sean O’Casey’s The Silver Tassie harshly contrasted with the customary word-drunk realism of the other three acts. Of course, Yeats’s 1928 decision to reject O’Casey’s fourth submission to the Abbey Theatre deeply damaged the previously fertile relationship between Ireland’s premiere theatre and one of her favorite sons. In the conventional wisdom of many critics and historians, the relatively scarce production history of The Silver Tassie has since vindicated Yeats’s theatrical instincts. Eighty-six years later, however, the Royal National Theatre contributed a counterpoint to the historical argument regarding the stage-worthiness of The Silver Tassie. If Howard Davies’ stunning production at the Lyttelton Theatre failed to completely prove a theatrical injustice, it at least succeeded as compelling theatre. His staging achieved this dramaturgical redemption by creatively fusing the internal rift between O’Casey’s realistic social drama with his expressionistic liturgy of act 2. While messy and still a little odd, the production soared. Act 1 began conventionally enough, resembling the poetic naturalism of O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars. A handful of colorful Dublin eccentrics wait in a dilapidated flat for most of the neighborhood men to return from a championship football game. The men finally arrive with the coveted victory cup (the Silver Tassie), led by their dynamic star, Harry Heegan, charismatically played by Ronan Raftery. They do not savor victory for long, however. A train soon departs to take the twenty conscripts to fight in the trenches of World War I. But before they board, the colorful group find time to debate the finer points of divine salvation, shrug off troubling examples of domestic abuse, sing melancholy ballads, and drink. Pure O’Casey. Convincing designs supported the realistic style of act 1. In a nod to the naturalist, the audience smelled, heard, and saw a small slab of blood-red beef sizzle and burn on a central stove. Vicki Mortimer’s scenery, faithfully illuminated by Neil Austin’s lighting, effectively captured the poverty of a tenement slum: the crumbling and water-stained walls vividly illustrated what happens to a low-rent flat in a city prone to rain. Supported by John Bright’s authentic costumes, everything appeared real and true in Dublin until . . . Act 2 exploded onto the scene, literally. A series of uncomfortably loud flash-bombs erupted so brightly that they lingered as blue spots in the audience’s vision. In full view, the environment impressively shifted from the Dublin flat into a shell-ripped urban jungle somewhere in war-ravaged Europe. The visual and auditory assault eventually ended to reveal a lone Irish soldier standing in the smoke and wreckage. With the ritual posture of a cantor in a cathedral, the soldier—identified in the program as the Croucher—chanted lyrically to the Lyttelton audience: “Can this exceeding great army become a valley of dry bones?” [End Page 122] Click for larger view View full resolution Judith Roddy (Susie Monican) and Ronan Raftery (Harry Heegan) in The Silver Tassie. (Photo: Catherine Ashmore.) Click for larger view View full resolution Ronan Raftery (Harry Heegan) and Josie Walker (Mrs. Heegan) in The Silver Tassie. (Photo: Catherine Ashmore.) [End Page 123] A procession of fellow soldiers eventually joined the Croucher in an antiphonal mass of ritualized anti-war rhetoric and stylized movement. While played by the same actors from the previous act, individual identities mostly slipped away into the machine-like collective of military service and suffering. Midway through the act actresses appeared in this masculine world, but also without clear identities. Davies’ staging brought the women in on stretchers as wounded soldiers, all visible skin of their writhing feminine forms wrapped in gauze; their alto and soprano voices added timbre to the ceremonial chanting. Over the course of act 2, a few characters from the previous act revealed themselves from within the...

Un muro, inusual imagen religiosa. El vocablo "bhitti" en Abhinavagupta

This paper discusses the meaning of an image rarely used within the religious and philosophical corpus of ancient India in order to describe the ultimate nature of God and the human being: a wall or canvas (Sanskrit, bhitti). The usage of such a peculiar image belongs to Abhinavagupta, the great exegete of the Tantric tradition who lived in Kashmir between the tenth and eleventh centuries A.D. After presenting some antecedents, the paper focuses on key passages taken fromAbhinavagupta’s work and shows how, far from being secondary, the image of a wall possesses a remarkable consistency and expressive power in accordance withAbhinavagupta’s doctrinal presuppositions, in particular his commitment to a dynamic and ultimately paradoxical view of the divine realm, the universe and salvation.

Sonia ou le sens retrouvé. Notes sur la rédemption et le salut dans Crime et châtiment.

This article proposes a new approach to the themes of redemption and salvation in Crime and punishment by analyzing the character of Sonia. We will notably highlight that the novel of Dostoievski is structured with a series of questions about good and earthly and divine salvation to which Sonia gives new perspectives and meanings. These are the following questions : To what extent should men be good? What are the conditions of salvation on earth? And, finally, is there a universal and divine salvation for all men, even the worst?

Attitudes to Gentiles in the Minor Prophets and in Corresponding Pesharim

Abstract This essay surveys the attitudes towards gentiles/foreign nations in constructions of the “other” in the Minor Prophets of the Hebrew Bible, and examines how the biblical trajectories are continued and reshaped in the corresponding pesharim from Qumran. The development of the biblical texts is examined from historical, literary, and theological perspectives. Thus, for example, the concrete historical encounter with Assyria shaped the original prophecies of the last three pre-exilic prophets (Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah), while later redactional layers transform these texts by incorporating the experience of the Babylonian conquest. Literarily and theologically, the initial texts focus upon individual judgement against a concrete people, and the divine salvation of Israel from this threat. In the Persian period, there is an initial expansion of the focus to universal judgment, highlighting the special status of Israel vis-à-vis other nations. This is followed by a narrowing of the group selected for salvation, so that only the righteous of Judah will survive the final judgment. In the pesharim, there is further narrowing of the discourse of alterity for internal identity formation, as the biblical prophecies against foreign enemies are applied to the group’s contemporary antagonists, including rival Jewish groups. Pesher Habakkuk closely follows the book of Habakkuk in depicting Gentiles as idolators, and in portraying foreign nations as both instruments and objects of divine retribution. The references to the Babylonians (termed “Chaldeans”) in Habakkuk are applied in the pesher to the “Kittim,” understood by modern scholars to stand for Rome. This view of Rome as a significant existential and eschatological enemy reflects a profound theological and psychological development in sectarian thought. Pesher Nahum interprets the prophecies against Gentiles in Nahum primarily as condemnation of Jewish enemies.

Human Agency and the Myth of Divine Salvation in Copley’s Watson and the Shark

Human Agency and the Myth of Divine Salvation in Copley’s <i>Watson and the Shark</i>

Quale «vanto»? Considerazioni a partire da Rm 2,17

This article intends to verify which boasting is meant by Paul in Rom 2:17-3:27. First of all, three prophetic texts (Mic 3:11; Isa 48:1-2; Jer 7:4.8-10) which are, as it seems, in the background of Rom 2:17-23 are studied. The certainty of divine salvation is condemned by the three prophets, because of the transgression of the Mosaic Law. Second, this form of hypocrisy between faith and praxis is at best illustrated in the Gospels and especially in Matt 23:23-28, Mark 7:8-13 and Luke 18:9. These NT texts help to enlighten Paul’s parody against the Jew in Romans and, above all, the boast condemned, that is an attitude of arrogance before God. Third, the comparison between 1 Cor 1:29 and Rom 3:20 (and related contexts) confirms this evaluation of the boast meant, so that 1 Cor 1:29 and Rom 3:20 seem to be “interchangeable”: to glory before God = to be justified (by the deeds of the Law) before God. In sum, the “self meritorious legalism” is not to be excluded, but it needs to be integrated into a larger “crater”as the so-called Torah-centric legalism.

Secular study and suffering: J.M. Coetzee's “The humanities in Africa”

Prominent literary philosophers as diverse as Martha Nussbaum, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak have envisioned a role for the humanities in fostering more ethical relationships on a global scale. Through a close reading of JM Coetzee's fifth “lesson” in Elizabeth Costello: eight lessons, this paper interrogates the limits of the humanities for promoting secular salvation. “Lesson five: the humanities in Africa”, I argue, troubles the distinction between secular teaching and religious faith as alternatives to living in a world imbued with suffering, by suggesting that neither the humanities nor religion materially offers an escape from suffering – that neither secular nor divine salvation exists beyond hope and faith. The lesson asks: do the humanities offer anything besides the promise of salvation to its students? If the secular salvation offered by the humanities fails to engage substantively with what one of Coetzee's characters calls “the reality of Africa”, despite calls for mutual understanding or an understanding of mutuality, how do we rethink the humanities? How do we imagine, and how might we re-imagine, the relationship between the humanities and quotidian suffering? Perhaps as obsessive, repetitive, imperfect performances, both the humanities and religion exist as rituals through which to live with others who are (also) suffering.

Implicit Puritanism in American moral cognition

Three studies provide evidence that the judgments and behaviors of contemporary Americans are implicitly influenced by traditional Puritan-Protestant values regarding work and sex. American participants were less likely to display traditional values regarding sexuality when implicitly primed to deliberate, as opposed to intuition and neutral primes. British participants made judgments reflecting comparatively liberal sexual values regardless of prime condition (Study 1). Implicitly priming words related to divine salvation led Americans, but not Canadians, to work harder on an assigned task (Study 2). Moreover, work and sex values appear linked in an overarching American ethos. Asian-Americans responded to an implicit work prime by rejecting revealing clothing and sexually charged dancing, but only when their American cultural identity was first made salient (Study 3). These effects were observed not only among devout American Protestants, but also non-Protestant and less religious Americans.

A Most Holy War: The Albigensian Crusade and the Battle for Christendom (review)

Reviewed by: A Most Holy War: The Albigensian Crusade and the Battle for Christendom Laurence W. Marvin A Most Holy War: The Albigensian Crusade and the Battle for Christendom. By Mark Gregory Pegg. (New York: Oxford University Press. 2008. Pp. xxx, 253. $25.00 ISBN 978-0-195-17131-0.) Mark Gregory Pegg's book arrives at an auspicious time. Its date of publication, 2008, marked the 800th year since the preaching of the Albigensian Crusade, and this work takes advantage of renewed interest among scholars and the general public. Oxford University Press has published this book to sell widely. Pegg tells his tale in vivid, colorful prose. A good stylist and possessing a clever, rapierlike sense of humor, Pegg makes his book fun to read despite its dire subject matter. Perhaps, however, in his quest for a good story to reach a large audience he goes overboard, when he calls the crusade "God's homicidal pleasure" (191). Simply put, Pegg has produced one of the most controversial treatments of the crusade in the last sixty years or more. One of those controversial arguments he has presented before, in an earlier book and several articles that question whether a Cathar church existed before 1209. He argues that modern scholars—the top names in the field, in fact—have followed a false parchment trail, portraying the Cathar heresy as a well-organized, international movement of long standing. He maintains that instead what might be construed as heresy in Languedoc (modern southern France) was localized and often not really heretical, but was certainly not some shadowy, organized conspiracy with ranks and doctrines that stayed just under the surface like a mushroom waiting for the right conditions to sprout. He may be right, since we know that people held wide varieties of belief during the Middle Ages. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries lacked mass communications, and travel was not particularly easy. Linguistic differences and localized cultures tended to work against international movements unless sponsored by an agency like the papacy. Another of his controversial positions is less tenable. In the preface and short conclusion Pegg suggests that the Albigensian Crusade brought genocide to the western world by "linking divine salvation to mass murder" (p. 188). Further, he says that "[a]nti-semitism (rather anti-Judaism) in the Middle Ages only occurred after the Albigensian Crusade" (p.190).Arguing that western genocide and antisemitism began in thirteenth-century Languedoc is bound to elicit strong opinions from most scholars. The massacres of the crusade were nasty, but as the first holocausts they have strong competition from the atrocities done to Jewish communities in Europe during the First Crusade, what crusaders did in Jerusalem in 1099 after assaulting the city, and what Richard the Lionheart did to his Muslim captives at Acre in 1192. Whether they or the mass killings of the Albigensian Crusade were genocides, whose intellectual descendants devised and carried out the Final Solution will be hard to prove. Pegg does a superb job on the background to the crusade, and his work shines after the crusade, too, both in terms of the sources he uses and how [End Page 801]he uses them. It is the middle part, the crusade itself, that occasionally lacks rigor. For example, he frequently presents troop numbers in battles and sieges as if he had a muster roll handy (they do not exist). Scholarly qualification and debate would undoubtedly interrupt the work's flow; yet his endnotes could have briefly explained how he arrived at his totals. This may seem like a niggling detail, but it is symptomatic of some of his description and analysis. Still, the book succeeds as a short, concise history of the crusade. The author's lively writing and scholarly bravery will engage scholars (as well as the general public) for years to come. Those who follow with their own accounts will have to address his ideas in some fashion whether or not they agree with his interpretation. Laurence W. Marvin Berry College Mount Berry, GA Copyright © 2009 The Catholic University of America Press

The Formation and Intention of the Haggai-Zechariah Corpus

Because of the similar dating system in the books of Haggai and Zechariah, since the end of the 19th century it has been proposed that these two books once formed an independent collection: the Haggai-Zechariah corpus. But neither the formation nor the intention of this corpus has been adequately explained. This article shows that only the book of Zechariah underwent redaction in the course of the composition of this “Book of the Two.” This position stands in contrast with the common assumption that both books underwent redaction in the process. Then the article shows that the Haggai-Zechariah corpus can be understood as a reaction to the decreasing hope for divine salvation in the fifth century. In the light of, and despite the negative experiences that characterize this period, the Haggai-Zechariah corpus adheres to the promises of the early pre-exilic prophecy. But in order to adhere to these promises, the conditions for their fulfillment had to be (re)defined.