Christian Europe Research Articles

ClaireWeeda: Ethnicity in Medieval Europe, 950–1250: Medicine, Power and Religion. York: York Medieval Press, 2021; pp. 346.

ClaireWeeda: Ethnicity in Medieval Europe, 950–1250: Medicine, Power and Religion. York: York Medieval Press, 2021; pp. 346.

“Of Divels in Sarmatia Honored”

The persistence of Paganism in the Baltic region (especially Lithuania) long after its official conversion to Christianity in 1387–1413 was a matter of widespread concern in early modern Europe, including England, challenging the narrative of Christianity’s triumph in northern Europe. England had a long history of engagement in the Baltic, and early modern English authors displayed an interest in surviving Baltic Pagans, while English Jesuits labored in Lithuania to bring Pagans to Catholicism. This article examines the language used to portray Baltic Paganism by English authors and translators, arguing that Poland-Lithuania’s status as a European power meant Lithuanian Pagans received a somewhat more sympathetic treatment than other indigenous Pagans, such as the Sámi of Scandinavia and Native Americans. Early modern English responses to Lithuanian Paganism thus illuminate the complexity of European Christian attitudes to living Pagan religion in northern and eastern Europe.

Towards Developing African Christianity: An Overview on how the Christian Faith was Handed Down by Western Missionaries to Africans

The Christian faith continues to enter different cultures and finds its clothing in the new land it enters. This has resulted in what is known as Jewish Christianity, Greco-Roman Christianity, and European Christianity. It does so by re-interpreting and transforming the culture and traditions of the new environment in the light of the Christian faith towards a “home-grown” Christianity. However, it is observed that African Christianity is yet to critically engage with the culture and traditional values of the African environment in order to develop an indigenous African Christianity. This could be due to the fact that Christianity was introduced into Africa by Western missionaries, who perceived African religion and traditional practices as demonic. Consequently, Christianity in Africa presents Christ as a European rather than an African, thereby creating Christianity in Africa, instead of developing an African Christianity. Using historical studies approaches, the paper posits that Africans could develop an indigenous Africa Christianity when the gospel critically engages and transforms the traditional beliefs, myths, stories, idioms and cultural life of the African people.

Ecology, Anti-Christianity, and the Far Right

Ecology, Anti-Christianity, and the Far Right

From Here to Eternity: Christopher Dawson and Christian Europe

From Here to Eternity: Christopher Dawson and Christian Europe

THE PROBLEM OF LİFE AND THE MEANİNG OF LİFE İN WESTERN PHİLOSOPHY

In the article, we considered the issue of life and its meaning in the history of Western philosophy, i.e. within the framework of the philosophical teachings of the Antique period, European Christianity, the Renaissance, Modern times and beyond. Thoughts on life and its meaning vary with the times and paradigms of each era. In particular, given the individualistic nature of the Western mentality, these differences become more apparent. Despite some differences between these views, there is much in common that unites them. In the article, we tried to identify these differences and similarities through comparative analysis.

ОСМАНО-ПАПСЬКІ ВІДНОСИНИ ТА ЗАГАЛЬНОЄВРОПЕЙСЬКИЙ КОНТЕКСТ ЧЕРЕЗ ПРИЗМУ ЧИННИКА ПРИНЦА ДЖЕМА

The traditional view of historiography that the relations between the Ottoman Empire and the classical West were consistently hostile is partly justified, but still in a large part of aspects it does not correspond to reality. This can best be traced on the example of its relationship with the Holy See, which ideologically was its main opponent, as well as the center responsible for the organization of the crusade against the Ottomans and the organization of the entire anti-Ottoman struggle. Nevertheless, the Roman Popes did not hesitate to enter into political agreements with the Ottoman Sultan when the question arose of keeping his brother Jem in honorary captivity. Moreover, the Prince Jem factor caused an increase in internal contradictions within Christendom, leading to a direct confrontation between Pope Alexander VI Borgia and the French King Charles VIII, resulting in the Pope entering into a de facto alliance with Bayezid II. During these events, the Holy See lost a significant part of its authority among the states of Christian Europe, which, moreover, did not hesitate to protect their interests to its detriment, in particular, demanding Jem to bypass the Vatican in order to play their own political-diplomatic game with the Ottomans. These events show how deep intra-European contradictions were and how much they affected the general system of diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire. In addition to this, from now on the Ottoman Empire took its place in the pan-European system of international relations, ceasing to be the image of an all-encompassing enemy, and becoming a very real situational partner and an organic element of inter-European diplomacy, which was actively used for mutual blackmail and sometimes as an effective lever of a peculiar system of restraints and counterbalance within Christendom.

The Contribution of the Scholar and Biblical Commentator Abraham ibn Ezra in the Transfer of Advances in Mathematics from Islamic Spain to Christian Europe

The Contribution of the Scholar and Biblical Commentator Abraham ibn Ezra in the Transfer of Advances in Mathematics from Islamic Spain to Christian Europe

The Thirteenth-Century Animal Turn: Medieval and Twenty-First Century Perspectives Thinking about Animals in Thirteenth-Century Paris: Theologians on the Boundary between Humans and Animals

<i>The Thirteenth-Century Animal Turn: Medieval and Twenty-First Century Perspectives</i> <i>Thinking about Animals in Thirteenth-Century Paris: Theologians on the Boundary between Humans and Animals</i>

The Moor and the fair lady- An analysis of Othello, Shakespeare’s play through the lens of marginalisation

William Shakespeare’s play Othello features the life of Othello, a black Moor, a Muslim, who although is the most trusted man of the King of Venice, struggles to fit in with the prominent White, Christian medieval framework of Venice. He indirectly subscribes to the prevailing morality and thinks himself inferior to the rich, white European Christians. He tries to be like them, imbibing their values and their codes, but still struggles with his different color and has an inferiority complex. This ultimately leads to his downfall and it results in him killing his beloved wife, Desdemona and it ultimately led to his suicide.

Creating a “New World” in Tranquebar (Missionaries and “Malabarians”)

Since the beginning of the 18th century, Danish Royal Mission has been working on the Coromandel coast of Hindustan in the city of Tranquebar (Dansborg fortress in 250 km from Madras). This mission, created on the initiative of King Frederick IV (1699–1730), consisted mainly of Germans, graduates of the University of the Saxon city of Halle. The first head of the mission (in 1706–1719) was Bartolomäus Ziegenbalg (1682–1706). All the work was carried out under his leadership: Several schools were opened, Christian literature was translated into Portuguese and Tamil, a church was built, sermons were read, residents were baptized. Many materials survived from those years: Correspondence of those missionaries with their relatives, friends and colleagues, numerous reports, and diaries. These sources allow us not only to present the life and work of Lutheran priests in Southern India in detail, but also to understand the peculiarities of their worldview. Most of the missionaries who worked in Tranquebar, like their mentors at the University of Halle, were adherents of the teachings of pietism. The founder and main ideologist of this doctrine was Philip Jacob Spener (1635–1705). His main work “Pia desideria” (1675) put forward the idea of the need for a general renewal of the Church and personal piety. Spener’s doctrine became the ideological basis of all the work of Ziegenbalg and his colleagues in the Indian South. Their critical attitude towards European Christians determined the main goals of working with pagans. It was in the pagans that they saw the so-called “new Christians”, destined to form the «renewed Christian world».

Православный реализм в творчестве Ф. М. Достоевского

The article aims to define the artistic method of F.M. Dostoevsky in the light of new ideas about the ideological content and poetics of the writer’s works. As is known, Dostoevsky worked in the gen-re of realism, he called himself a realist, and it is easy to notice the features of social, psychological, philo-sophical, and even political realism in his writings. At the same time, there was always something else in them, something more significant and adding unique originality to the writer’s works. A number of modern researchers (I.B. Avanesyan, A.A.Alekseev, V.A.Voropaev, M.M.Dunaev, V.N.Zakharov, Yu.V.Le-bedev, A.M.Lyubomudrov, L.I.Saraskina, K.A.Stepanyan, A.N.Uzhankov, and others) consider this phenomenon to be grounded in the cultural European Christian tradition. The results of the study of Dostoev-sky’s works by means of historical-cultural and comparative-historical methods generally confirm this as-sumption, but it needs significant clarification. Using the comparative typological method, the author of the article explores various points of view on Dostoevsky’s poetics, systematizes the results obtained on the ba-sis of an original methodological approach, and comes to the conclusion that the most precise term convey-ing the features of the writer’s artistic method is ‘Orthodox realism’.It is known that Dostoevsky called his method ‘complete realism’, ‘realism in the highest sense’, ab-solutely rejecting the label of a writer-psychologist. This circumstance has repeatedly attracted the attention of researchers. While studying various concepts and analyzing Dostoevsky’s own views on the goals and objectives of artistic creativity, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that ‘realism in the highest sense’ is based on the principle of transforming the Orthodox view of the world into artistic imagery –‘Or-thodox realism’. It has been the main principle of Russian literature since its appearance, having countless embodiments in the works of Russian writers. Dostoevsky creatively rethought the experience of European and Russian Christian literature and raised the method of Orthodox realism to an unattainable height.

An Irradiation of Latin Grammarians, or The De radiis is not by al-Kindī

This article takes another look at the deeply problematic attribution to al-Kindī.of the well known philosophical text De radiis. Focusing on the use of grammatical terminology that occurs throughout the De radiis, the article demonstrates that the author of this text is drawing on (and thinking in terms of) common textbooks written by Latin grammarians. It is demonstrated that theonly person who could possibly have written the De radiis is an author steeped in Latin writings and schooled in Latin grammar, which means that the author could not have been anything other than a Christian European scholar, probably writing in the 1250s or 1260s, perhaps in England, in the academic milieu of Oxford.

Wokół dziennika podróży ekoteolożki Tatiany Goriczewej „Człowiek ustawicznie szuka szczęścia”

On “Man ceaselessly seeks happiness”, a travel diary of an eco-theologian Tatiana Goricheva The author faces the main task of a comprehensive – to its possible extent – overview of Man ceaselessly seeks happiness. He approaches the text from the perspective of its genre and the subject matter. By taking into consideration the main thought behind the title of the book, he examines what the search for happiness means to the writer. The notions of poetics intersect with remarks on the essay-like narration of the diary, in which the writer shares her thoughts on religions and cultures of the West, the East, South Asia, Russian migrants scattered around the world, the contemporary state of the Church and Christians in Europe and outside it, individual and collective ways of searching for God or human approach towards animals. The author reaches a conclusion that “Man ceaselessly seeks happiness” is not a traditional travel diary and Tatiana Goricheva’s musings present a deeply individual outlook on the notions of Christianity and faith.

Charles I of Spain and the Defense of Christianity in Europe: Scope and Perception in the 21st Century

By conquering the Iberian Peninsula in the 3rd century, the Romans enriched it with their economic policy and land management. Also, the contribution of religious culture was important because it left traces until today. They entered first with their religious beliefs which they progressively abandoned in favor of Christianity in 313. But, if the peninsulars accepted this religion, it was confronted respectively from the 5th and 8th centuries to the Visigoth and Arab invasions. These situations of invasions have stopped its expansion. In 1492, after the Reconquest of territories by the Catholic Monarchs, they restored and defended it. Charles I of Spain (1500-1558) in turn consolidated this religion and defended it at the universal level to establish its power. But he was confronted with nascent Protestantism and the Turks he had to eradicate so as not to harm Christianity. From a historical perspective, in this analysis, it will be a question of showing the impact of religion; how religion was yesterday an instrument of domination and can still be today.

The Invention of the Maghreb: Between Africa and the Middle East

The Invention of the Maghreb: Between Africa and the Middle East

Epistemic racism and sexism in public administration and theory’s unfinished business

In this essay, we argue that orthodox theory—mainstream knowledge deemed legitimate and universal—in fact originates from a very specific time and place, from a very specific type of individual. The archetypical orthodox theorist is a White, Western European Christian man from the Enlightenment period. Epistemic silencing universalizes his views as “modern thought” without considering the actual narrowness of its origins. We define and discuss epistemic racism and sexism and end with ideas about how scholars and practitioners can employ practices to dismantle knowledge hierarchies. We take as given the epistemic silencing that Candler, Azevedo, and Albernaz (2010) reveal in public administration research and argue that theory still has an important role to continue exposing epistemic silencing. This represents the ongoing and unfinished business of theory: To continue exploring insights from across the social sciences to inform and illuminate public administration’s path.

Alfred Hiatt (Ed.), Cartography between Christian Europe and the Arabic-Islamic World, 1100–1500. Divergent Traditions. (Maps, Spaces, Cultures, Vol. 3.) Leiden, Brill 2021

Article Alfred Hiatt (Ed.), Cartography between Christian Europe and the Arabic-Islamic World, 1100–1500. Divergent Traditions. (Maps, Spaces, Cultures, Vol. 3.) Leiden, Brill 2021 was published on December 1, 2022 in the journal Historische Zeitschrift (volume 315, issue 3).

Harrison, Timothy M. Coming To: Consciousness and Natality in Early Modern England

Harrison, Timothy M. <i>Coming To: Consciousness and Natality in Early Modern England</i>

Buying a God in Paris: Cultural Hybridity in the Thinking of Yuri Vella, Forest Nenets Intellectual

Abstract This paper analyses highly creative and hybrid practices which tie the Indigenous Siberian, European Christian and Soviet worlds in unexpected ways. Reflecting on the Forest Nenets reindeer herder, poet and intellectual Yuri Vella’s understanding of the religious, the authors discuss an episode of turning an icon-like painting of Madonna with Child into a Nenets ‘god’. This took place in Paris half a year before Yuri’s death. First, we present his short biography, emphasising the key moments that shaped his cosmological and religious sensibilities. Then we depict a ritual of ‘god-making’ by using the ethnographic technique of thick description and then comment on it from various angles and discuss what they reveal about Yuri’s understanding of personhood and agency, relations with deities and other humans. Finally, we explain how animist notions and Christian elements become entangled in his religious thinking.