High God Research Articles

The Myth of Cosmic Rebellion: A Study of Its Reflexes in Ugaritic and Biblical Literature

The volume examines reflexes of a West Semitic myth describing an attempted coup against the high god of the pantheon. Some scholars consider it to be the ancient precursor of the Satan myth found in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions.

Dissident perspectives on Zimbabwe's post-Independence war

A much neglected perspective on Zimbabwe's post-independence war is that held by its insurgents, the so-called dissidents. The experience of dissidents has been little explored, in part because of the difficulty of doing so until recently but also because scholars and journalists have analysed post-1980 violence primarily in terms of the political interests of either ZAPU or ZANU-PF, Zimbabwe's dominant nationalist parties, or the South African state. No account has sought to explore the motives, goals and organisation of the dissidents themselves; the how-and-whys of the turn to war have remained obscure. Though dissidents' views are often as partisan as those of their detractors, focusing on the perspectives of the dissidents allows a substantial reinterpretation of the war and its aftermath. From the dissidents' point of view, post-Unity politics is bitterly disappointing: they say Unity is meaningful only for the national leaders. Unity has not overcome the political tribalism of the 1980s nor has it brought an end to economic hardship. Though the dissidents' perspective on Zimbabwe's post-independence war is unique in many ways, the stress on the unresolved wrongs of the 1980s—continued developmental neglect, the lack of restitution or even recognition for losses and suffering, the failures to make peace with the High God of Njelele and the spirits—finds a much wider resonance within Matabeleland as a whole.

Denkbeelde oor God by Hosea

Conceptions of God in Hosea The book Hosea could be characterised as a polemic against particular traits of Israelite religion. According to the book’s message Yahweh was deeply involved in Israel's everyday existence. His involvement is presented in terms of three critically important aspects of His being as the only God: He is God of history, God of nature and He is the High God. The basic premise that Yahweh was the God of Israel’s past is common ground between Hosea and his contemporaries, but the prophet’s message is that Yahweh also governs the present and future. The Israelites are moreover accused that they depend on the ‘baalim’ for their natural and agricultural needs. Now Yahweh is proclaimed as the God in command of every aspect of nature and fertility. Although He is a High God, Yahweh is not remote, but close by. He does make a difference and He is very relevant to Israel’s everyday existence.

Production ofL-glutamate oxidase andin situ monitoring of oxygen uptake in solid state fermentation ofstreptomyces sp. Nl

Effects of water content and carbon and nitrogen sources on the production ofL-glutamate oxidase (GOD) by solid state fermentation (SSF) ofStreptomyces sp. N1 were investigated in a 250-mL shake flask. The results show that in the solid medium containing wheat bran 98% (w/w), KCl 0.2% (w/w), and MgCl2 0.2% (w/w), addition of 2.0-mL water per gram solid medium and 0.4% (w/w) (NH4)2SO4 was the best for GOD production. In this work, we also developed a simple technique forin situ measuring oxygen uptake rate (OUR) and carbon dioxide evolution rate (CER) in SSF in a shake flask based on the principle of Warburg manometer. The method was successfully applied to determine OUR and CER values in SSF ofStreptomyces sp. N1. The results indicate that the largest OUR value was detected about one or two days ahead of the highest GOD activity reached depending on the fermentation conditions, and the OUR may be used as anin situ indicator of GOD production in the SSF process.

The Birth of the Gods Revisited: A Partial Replication of Guy Swanson's (1960) Cross-Cultural Study of Religion

Guy Swanson's classic study The Birth of the Gods provides a general theory and set of hypotheses about the origins of religious beliefs that have found wide acceptance in the sociological and anthropological study of religion. Although these hypotheses seem both logical and persuasive, the cross-cultural methods Swanson used to evaluate them seem less compelling. This article examines Swanson's sample and methodology, and, through a replication employing a sample of 72 native North American societies, finds several significant problems in Swanson's work. However, the rep lication also demonstrates that, despite methodological problems, Swanson's hypothesis concerning beliefs in a high god are sup ported. The implications of this partial replication, both for our interpretation of Swanson's work and for our understanding of the origins of religious beliefs, are explored.

The Universality of Ancestor Worship

A professional malpractice of anthropologists to exaggerate exotic character of other (Bloch 1977:285) has been detrimental to study of cultural universals. This highly regrettable because universals not only exist but are important to any broad conception of task of anthropology (Brown 1991:5). Further, in anthropological study of indigenous religions, a focus on differences has caused an apparently universal aspect of religion to be overlooked: claim that ancestors influence living and/or are influenced by living. We argue here that such claims of communication between dead and their descendants are universal and may be key to understanding universality of belief. Claims of interaction with living have not been recognized as universal because anthropologists' stress on differences has caused them to be overly narrow in their definitions of both ancestor and Hence, they have tended to overlook fundamental similarities between religions that have worship and those that are said to lack it. This division theoretically significant because even when worship found in a majority of cultures used in a study (e.g., Swanson 1964), its nonuniversality requires it to be explained in terms of unique aspects of certain cultures (see Swanson 1964:97-108). If worship were recognized as a universal aspect of religion, its explanation would offer a deeper understanding of behavior. One reason for inability to recognize universality of worship that term often reserved for those societies where dead are explicitly called by a term that translated as ancestor, thus excluding societies whose practices concern ghosts, shades, souls, totemic plants and animals, or merely dead. For example, Lehmann and Myers (1993:284) state that [a] major problem with Spencer's argument [that worship was first religion] that many societies at hunting-and-gathering level do not practice worship. The Arunta of Australia, for example, worshiped their totemic plants and animals, but not their human ancestors. Distinguishing between ancestors and totemic plants and animals questionable since totems are clearly ancestral in that they identify a person with a line of ancestors (e.g., one's father, father's father, etc.). Indeed, Harris (1989:405) points out that Australian form of totemism is a form of diffuse worship . . . [because by] taking name of an animal such as kangaroo ... people express a communal obligation to founders of their kinship group. The role of ancestors also obscured in many descriptions of societies whose religions are based on more general, and hence, supposedly nonancestral, spirits or gods. An example of this hunters and gatherers living in Kalahari who are often referred to as !Kung. Although Lee (1984:103) does state that !Kung's religious universe inhabited by a high god, a lesser god, and a host of minor animal spirits, he also states that the main actors in [the !Kung's religious] world are //gangwasi, ghosts of recently deceased !Kung (Lee 1984:103). The failure to see connection between ancestors and spirits or gods often causes societies to be excluded from worship category. For example, Lehmann and Myers (1993:284) state that [w]hen living dead are forgotten in memory of their group and dropped from genealogy as a result of passing of time (four or five generations), they are believed to be transformed into nameless spirits, non-ancestors. . . . Similarly, Tonkinson (1978:52) claims that Mardu lack worship because they cannot remember names of specific distant ancestors, despite fact that their rituals focus on Ancestral Beings. …

The Size of Societies, Stratification, and Belief in High Gods Supportive of Human Morality

Two hypotheses about belief in high gods supportive of human morality were tested with data from the Ethnographic Atlas and the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. A significant positive relation between the size of societies and such a belief is demonstrated, and this relation appears to be independent of both regional differences and differences in stratification of the societies. On the other hand, stratification itself is also significantly related with the belief in high gods supportive of human morality, but this relation could not be shown to be independent of regional differences or differences in size.

The Cosmo-political Background of Heaven's Mandate

A preoccupation with cosmology and the correlation of celestial events with terrestrial activity dates back to the very beginnings of Chinese civilization. The existence of such a mindset is shown by archeo-logical discoveries from the Neolithic as well as the early Bronze Age. The belief in heaven-dwelling high gods like Shang Di and Tian also had antecedents in the pre-Shang period. In addition, analysis of scientifically verifiable accounts of planetary massings from the second millennium B.C. suggests that important cosmological and astrological notions took shape much earlier than previously thought. On the basis of this evidence it now appears likely that such conceptions are intimately connected both with influential later beliefs about a Mandate of Heaven, which asserted heavenly intervention as the cause of change in temporal governance, and with later Five Elements speculative schemes, which claimed to discern a preordained phenomenological pattern in the dynastic succession. The cosmicization of experience in the archaic period to which the evidence points and the vehement reassertion of Heaven's Mandate by the Zhou dynasty founders together confirm the epoch-making historical role of the Shang-Zhou transition in decisively reaffirming “patterning oneself in Heaven's image” (xiang tian象天) as the fundamental metaphor in Chinese political legitimation.

From Noble Death to Crucified Messiah

In his excellent study of crucifixion, Martin Hengel has documented the harsh reality of the penalty in antiquity and has shown that it was seldom portrayed in detail or in an idealized manner. These facts are important and should be kept constantly in mind. They make all the more pressing the question why a detailed narrative of Jesus' death was composed and lead us to look closely at the way the story is told. An ancient opponent of Christianity, Celsus, provides an interesting illustration of both the cultural situation and the literary question. On the one hand, he expressed the general view that crucifixion was the most ignominious and shameful type of death. On the other hand, he made charges that were based, not so much on the disgrace of death by crucifixion as such, but on the way the story is told, on the character of Jesus as revealed by the narrative. As is well known, in part of his work entitled On the True Doctrine, he employed the device of a fictitious Jewish interlocutor. Alluding to the scene in Gethsemane, this critic challenged the teaching that Jesus was a god or the son of the most high God because he hid and tried to escape when the Jews decided that he was worthy of death. Further, this so-called god was betrayed by his own disciples, a criticism that applies to several scenes of the passion narrative. Returning to the Gethsemane story, the interlocutor attacks the theory that Jesus foreknew and intended his sufferings on the basis of his portrayal as mourning and lamenting and praying that this cup might pass from him.

From Noble Death to Crucified Messiah

In his excellent study of crucifixion, Martin Hengel has documented the harsh reality of the penalty in antiquity and has shown that it was seldom portrayed in detail or in an idealized manner. These facts are important and should be kept constantly in mind. They make all the more pressing the question why a detailed narrative of Jesus' death was composed and lead us to look closely at the way the story is told. An ancient opponent of Christianity, Celsus, provides an interesting illustration of both the cultural situation and the literary question. On the one hand, he expressed the general view that crucifixion was the most ignominious and shameful type of death. On the other hand, he made charges that were based, not so much on the disgrace of death by crucifixion as such, but on the way the story is told, on the character of Jesus as revealed by the narrative. As is well known, in part of his work entitled On the True Doctrine, he employed the device of a fictitious Jewish interlocutor. Alluding to the scene in Gethsemane, this critic challenged the teaching that Jesus was a god or the son of the most high God because he hid and tried to escape when the Jews decided that he was worthy of death. Further, this so-called god was betrayed by his own disciples, a criticism that applies to several scenes of the passion narrative. Returning to the Gethsemane story, the interlocutor attacks the theory that Jesus foreknew and intended his sufferings on the basis of his portrayal as mourning and lamenting and praying that this cup might pass from him.

Three High Gods of Chu

L Tong, Zhu Rong, and X~Yinwere remote fonner ones, or ancestors (xian), of the state of Chu. In the bamboo divinatory texts from the Baoshan tomb number 2, dating to around 290 B.C., this triad of ancestral spirits was the object of sacrifice and prayer.l Their aid was sought panicularly in matters concerning physical well ..being. Lao Tong, &lOId Boy, and Zhu Rong, Invoking Melter, appear in the received textural tradition, but X..Yin has no obvious correlate, although presently X..Yin is generally understood to be Yu Xiong, one of many Chu progenitors mentioned in the Shiji.2 In this essay I will discuss the relationship of these three Chu ancestral spirits and the ambiguous identity ofX ..Yin.

Icônes et Iconoclasme en Afrique

On considère souvent l'Afrique comme le continent des icônes figuratives, des masques, de la sculpture, de la fonte du bronze et des « fétiches ». Dans les musées, les restes sanglants d'offrande montrent que ces objets avaient une fonction cultuelle et non pas seulement une valeur esthétique d'exposition. Les sculptures figuratives africaines sont présentes de façon dominante dans la plupart des collections d'art non européen et elles ont eu, au début de ce siècle, une grande influence sur les peintres européens eux-mêmes ; le cas bien connu du masque Fang acquis par Derain et admiré de Picasso est un exemple typique à cet égard.

Paul and Silas— 'Servants of the Most High God' (Acts 16.16-18)

Paul and Silas— 'Servants of the Most High God' (Acts 16.16-18)

Henry James and the Arts of "Translation"

Selected Papers on Henry James 127 ous, albeit generous and fascinating character" and suggests that she might have had a foreign lover and "an unedifying tragical rupture" before she met Aspern when he came to her father's studio for his portrait. About their relation he is unable to imagine much. There is "an impression" that Aspern "treated her badly" but the would-be historian defends his hero: "no man could have walked straighter in the given circumstances"—whatever these were. Such speculations cannot fiU the hoUow of the frame; we have only the frame, the story of "the lodger" (as Mr. Argento calls him) who could inhabit a Hitchcock film—a genüemanly Cary Grant who turns out to be a thief and almost-murderer. There wiU be moments when his image of himself as an aesthetic idealist seems as pretended as his conscious and feeble impersonation of a harmless eccentric bachelor. But he may deceive himself. As he schemes to get hold of the poet's letters, he is "writing" a story that differs not only from the one he seeks but from the one he imagines himself to have experienced. He is writing his own true story unawares, and his view of himself as an idealist who wants to serve the high gods wiU be subjected to increasing scepticism by the reader. Reading "The Aspern Papers" (which wiU not enable us to read the Aspern papers!), we detect in his story an irony he does not notice. Does he ever surrender his exculpatory self-characterization? I would argue that, having faüed to recover the story of the past, he also faüs to give coherence to his own peculiar adventure. There will be—to the end—moments when his self-justification stands firm though the quest has failed. What he does not know exactly is the nature of his failure. Gazing at Aspern's portrait he concludes, "When I look at it my chagrin at the loss of the letters becomes almost intolerable ." In editing his 1888 text for the New York Edition James altered this to strengthen its teUc thrust: "When I look at it I scarcely can bear my loss—I mean of the precious papers." He may have wanted to suggest that the lodger does arrive at self-knowledge and a larger sense of his loss, not merely for the manuscripts but for something Tina might have given him if he had loved her as Aspern had loved JuUana. The failure of the narrator is double, a failure to get the papers, but also a failure to recapture the Romantic past in the only way it might be recaptured—by reenactment. Tina Bordereau, were she loveable and he loving, might have enabled him to live again—and so know—the love of Aspern and JuUana. Martha Banta—Henry James and the Arts of "Translation" The demands of the arts of translation are severe, as anyone knows who tries to move between the exactions of one language and the peculiarities of another . How prose translators render "The Beast in the Jungle" into the niceties of German or overcome the obstacles set up by the bristlings of Japanese calligraphy , I cannot fathom. In this paper, however, I have only to deal with the particular questions raised by those translations to the movie screen that require us both to see and to listen to events that originally appeared in the silence of -black type on white page. I preface the following, obviously personal evaluations by stating my donn ées—those "givens" upon whose base I balance my remarks. One, as a long-time movie buff, I am no purist when it comes to the matter of putting literary classics onto the screen. I grew up in darkened movie houses at the time when screen 128 The Henry James Review tiües showed large bound volumes of David Copperfield or Treasure Island, their pages turned by unseen hands, that David O. Selznick and others lovingly adapted for the Saturday matinée crowd. AU I cared for then, as now, was that I be entertained. Little did I know, as that child in love with the visual images...

The Relationship of God Control and Internal Locus of Control to Intrinsic Religious Motivation, Coping and Purpose in Life

Prior studies examining the relationship among the variables of God control, personal control, religious involvement, and coping, have all used white samples. The purpose of the present study was to examine the validity of these relationships in a black Baptist sample (N = 98). Unlike most studies among white subjects, the measure of high God control correlated with high internal locus of control on Rotter's measure. Also, using stepwise regression analyses and removing the variance due to demographic and religious participation variables, internal locus of control but God control predicted measures of coping skills and purpose in life. Both locus of control and God control predicted intrinsic religious motivation. A common secular perspective on religion assumes that believing God is an active agent in one's life requires relinquishing a sense of personal or internal control. This perspective equates believing that God is active in the world with personal passivity and with a failure to address the problems of self and the world with sufficient seriousness. These charges of the destructive impact of believing in divine providence have also been directed at the religiousness of blacks. Frequently, religion has been accused of fostering passivity and acceptance of the status quo among blacks (Marx, 1967). Some psychologists (e.g., Lefcourt & Ladwig, 1965) have advanced the secular version of this theme by suggesting that a black person, through discrimination, has a low expectancy that he can control his own reinforcements (i.e., has learned an external locus of control) and therefore does not really put his shoulder to the wheel (Rose, 1956). Psychologists interested in the study of religion have approached this issue of belief in God, in personal control and successful coping in the world in three ways. First, some researchers have differentiated the external control end of Rotter's I-E scale into chance and powerful other people (Levenson, 1974) and into God control (Kopplin, 1976), and then have examined the interrelationship of these variables. Thus, the belief in God's

The God of the Patriarchs

We cannot write a rounded account of the history or of the religion of the patriarchs. We can only point to certain elements which the biblical texts preserve. When we remove the proper name, YHWH, and all characteristics of Yahwism, we are left with a personal God who is the God of the father of the clan (the extended family) and of the clan itself; he has no name; he is just El, God, the high God, the eternal one, the God of this father of this group, the God who appeared at this place. The father worships this God; he prays and presides at the worship; there is no mediator at the place of worship. This God preserves the group through a son, and guides the group “on the way”. It is a simple, uncomplicated religion where God comes directly to the person, and the person goes directly to God.

Do Women Have Higher Social Status in Hunting Societies without High Gods?

Do Women Have Higher Social Status in Hunting Societies without High Gods?

Do Women Have Higher Social Status in Hunting Societies Without High Gods?

Do Women Have Higher Social Status in Hunting Societies Without High Gods?

What Was That Sermon about? Predicting Memory for Religious Messages from Cognitive Psychology Theory

Drawing from cognitive psychology theory, it was predicted that memory for religious messages would increase as a function of several variables: verbal ability, interest in the message, religiosity, and the consistency of the message with the religious beliefs of the subject. Three hundred fiftythree college students listened to one of three religious messages structurally similar, but thematically different: High God Control-Low Personal Control, High God Control-High Personal Control, and Low God Control-High Personal Control. They then completed several memory measures and other scales. Only modest amounts of information were retained from the messages. The predictions of the study were generally confirmed for the messages more familiar and acceptable to the subjects. Subjects also distorted the content of the message to fit more closely with their religious beliefs. These results support the study of religious material from a cognitive psychology perspective.

California Indian Reactions to the Franciscans

The entrance of the Spanish into California and the founding of the Franciscan mission system has been described in many books both by those sympathetic apologists for the missions and the Spanish as bringing “civilization” to barbarous rude savages lacking any knowledge of God (Englehardt 1912, and others) and by those who disapproved of the mission system but approved of the Spanish conquest of California (Bancroft 1884, 1886, and others). The Indian cultures which were destroyed by the Spanish and later American settlers have also been described many times, first by those who unquestioningly accepted the Spanish view of these people as simply taking what nature produced. This viewpoint gives justification to the conquerors because “they could use the land better.” More recently a number of researchers have been reading the Spanish descriptions of what they actually saw and have ignored the Spanish assumptions, but read the descriptions of the environment with the ecological knowledge necessary to recognize the existence of a man-made environment, not a “natural” environment. They have discovered evidence of complex hierarchical stratified social Systems which were ignored because the Spanish assumed they were not present (Kehoe 1981, Shipek 1981a). Others interviewed surviving Indians and have explored areas of Indian knowledge never explored before simply because it was assumed that they had no such knowledge. For example, it has been discovered that all groups had the knowledge of and worshipped a high creator God whose name was so sacred that it must not be mentioned except in the proper sacred areas and during the sacred ceremonies dedicated to the Creator.