Idea Of Resurrection Research Articles

Jeffrey Pulse. Figuring Resurrection: Joseph as a Death and Resurrection Figure in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism

Jeffrey Pulse. <i>Figuring Resurrection: Joseph as a Death and Resurrection Figure in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism</i>

La pila bautismal de la catedral de León

The renaissancist bautismal pile of the Cathedral of Leon is decorated with various reliefs that forro an iconographical program based on ideas conected to the sacrament of the Baptism. Thus, the four scenes represent the different types of Baptism. A multiple martyrdom (probably of St. Marcelo and his sons) symbolizes the baptism by blood; the Baptism of Christ alludes to the baptism by water, and the last scene probably simbolizes the baptism by fire. Parallelly, four sculptures representing Moses, St. John the Baptist, and posibly the prophet Isaiah and one Evangelist, have been represented as biblic personages closely related to the idea of baptism. Equally, some formal aspects, like four winged heads or the scalework texture of the pile (probably simbolizing the whale of Jonah and the idea of resurrection) have the same intention. Finally, the presence of the nobiliary shield of the patron of the fond wants to significate the personal glory, fame and honour of the bishop, humanistic values joined to the personal defense of the Sacrament and its theological and liturgical importante.

Death by Stoning in the Hebrew Bible and in Post-Biblical Traditions

ABSTRACT Different modes of death appear in the Hebrew Bible, among which we find stoning as a form of execution. Since the person is dead, why does the Bible go to such lengths to describe this manner of death? In order to proffer an answer, we shall examine the cases which describe death by stoning. The intention behind stoning seems to have been to remove the criminal from the camp and the city. This was not merely a physical removal; it also bore significance for the dead man's spirit. The punishment of stoning prevented the burial of the corpse. Non-burial was worse than death because the spirit of the dead would not find rest and would therefore never reach the underworld. In a later period, the procedure for stoning was modified. Forms of judicial execution mentioned in the Bible, compared with those in the Talmud, indicate the latter made an effort to preserve the body of an executed man. This difference stems from the fact that in the Talmudic period the idea of resurrection was well developed. Keywords: Stoning, Idolatry, Blaspheme, Divination, Adultery, Defiant Son, Adulterous Woman, Betrothed Virgin, Non-burial.

Angelic humans, glorious flesh: Jerome’s reception of Origen’s teachings on the resurrection body

Abstract One of the most important theological questions in the first Origenist controversy was that of the resurrection of the dead. Jerome accused both Origen and contemporary “Origenists” of speaking only of the resurrection of the body, and not of the flesh, and he claimed that an idea of resurrection without the flesh could not guarantee the identity between the body living on earth and the resurrected body. I argue that although Jerome attempted to maximize the difference between himself and Origen by speaking of flesh instead of body, and by emphasizing the sameness of the body, it is clear that he, too, thought that the resurrection would imply a profound change. At closer scrutiny, Jerome’s way of understanding this change, namely as the nature remaining the same while the glory increases, shows striking similarities to Origen’s explanation of change. I argue that Jerome was dependent on Origen’s ideas about the resurrection, even in his polemics against him. Jerome’s heresiological strategies, I argue, have had consequences for modern historical reconstructions of his eschatological thought, which is often presented in opposition to Origen’s more spiritual understanding. Awareness of the rhetorical strategies used by Jerome in the context of controversy is crucial, I claim, in assessing a continuing reception of Origen in his theology.

Resurrection and God’s Kingship in Tobit 13

Tob 13:2 is found in the context of the hymn of praise of Tobit in Tobit 13. The chapter contains a Zion Song in 13:9-18 addressed to Jerusalem, similar to those found especially in Ap Zion (11QPsa XXII 1-15]) and Bar 4:30-5:9. The latter two do not have the idea of resurrection that appears in Tob 13:2, which in its immediate context (v. 1-8) is closely connected with 13:9-18. The paper aims at providing an overview of Tobit 13 in the context of the book and in relation to Ap Zion (11QPsa XXII 1-15) and Bar 4:30–5:9, while summing up the most important differences of the three Zion songs and attempting to explain the presence of the idea of resurrection in Tobit 13. The main arguments are as follows: the appearance of the concept of resurrection in relation to that of God’s kingship in proximity to a Zion song has to do – among others – with the characteristic content of Tobit’s and his family’s storyline in Tobit 1–12 and with the concern to combine notions of national and personal fate. The study refers to some of the scriptural influences on Tobit 13 and their significance, and treats the questions of the author’s view on God’s kingship, authority and on retribution at a national and individual level.

Józefa Mackiewicza idea restytucji Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego w kontekście geostrategii państw Europy Wschodniej w dobie dwudziestolecia międzywojennego

The paper is an attempt at summarising Józef Mackiewicz’s views concerning the idea of resurrection of the statehood of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the interwar period. Its objective is to present the cultural and political foundations for the project in question that were present in deliberations of the so-called ‘Vilnius natives’ but also sources that are basically absent in the domestic thought in the form of a geopolitical profit and loss account that Mackiewicz brings to the fore. The paper also discusses the reasons (the ‘carnival of nationalisms’) due to which the accomplishment of Mackiewicz’s vision, as well as of similar projects implying enhanced integration and cooperation between the states of Eastern Europe, was impossible in the existing political conditions.

Postmodernity and Education. Death of Man and Death of Pedagogy

After the hope for resurrection of the Judeo-Christian tradition, Pedagogy paved the way to moral improvement according to the winds of the Enlightenment. Hence it went from a metaphysical and transcendental formative ideal to a human ideal linked to the idea of education. However, with the advent of post-modernity, a new horizon has emerged that has led to the death of Pedagogy. On the one hand, the metaphysical crisis – which involves the death of man as a creature of God – has resulted in the death of Pedagogy, which has lost its teleological and eschatological significance. On the other hand, structuralism heralded the death of the modern subject, which has likewise has led to the death of man, who had trusted in the Enlightenment dreams of education. Today, therefore, in the post-modern world, Pedagogy has been reduced to a residual discipline in which the body – in a post-organic context – is detached from the idea of resurrection, being instead configured as an element of insurrection. While Christian pedagogy sought perfection and modern pedagogy moral improvement, the goal in the post-modern era is performance.

The fall of Edward II: Failures in kingship and masculinity, the letter of Manuel Fieschi and the cult of resurrected celebrities

Edward II is a monarch whose name is almost synonymous with scandal and failure, and the infamous tale of his murder by red-hot poker at Berkeley Castle is one that looms over the bloody history of English royalty. The theories and historiography surrounding his political errors, his sexuality, the nature of his death and even the date of his death have changed continually since the end of his reign in 1327, both to further changing political agendas and to explore new historical narratives. In this paper, medieval gender norms and concepts of masculinity are used to scrutinise the failure of Edward’s reign, and highlight their role in its doom. In the late 19th century, a letter penned by Italian cleric Manuel Fieschi and addressed to Edward III further complicated Edward II’s history. Fieschi claimed that the deposed king escaped his doom in 1327 and went on to tour Europe on a pilgrimage to famous shrines and holy places. This letter is analysed and its likelihood of truth assessed through relevant historiography by multiple historical experts on the topic. This analysis establishes that this adventurous tale of Edward’s escape is almost certainly untrue. However, the narrative does present us with an interesting example of a trope found throughout history of notable people, widely accepted as deceased, secretly living out their lives away from the public eye. The conspiratorial-style narrative of monarchs and famous people living on in secret has its repetitive nature demonstrated through a number of varied examples, both monastic and within popular culture. This narrative is a common theme in the folklore of many cultures and the idea of resurrection is deeply rooted in religious ideologies. In this paper, this theme is explored through comparative research and analysis of individual cases. It is demonstrated that individuals are more or less likely to accept these deviated narratives depending on their general acceptance of conspiratorial ideas and establishment cover-ups. However, this trope is also examined in a different way, one of hopeful belief in a better outcome for those in the public eye.

Literature and the Encounter with God in Post-Reformation England by Michael Martin (review)

Reviewed by: Literature and the Encounter with God in Post-Reformation England by Michael Martin Rajiv Thind Martin, Michael, Literature and the Encounter with God in Post-Reformation England, Farnham, Ashgate, 2014; hardback; pp. 230; 4 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. £60.00; ISBN 9781472432667. Michael Martin’s compelling study gives us phenomenological profiles of selected individuals who made attempts to ‘reach’ and encounter God in post-Reformation England. The book’s five chapters discuss the religious lives and writings of John Dee, John Donne, Sir Kenelm Digby, Henry and Thomas Vaughan, and Jane Lead, who all subscribed to fluid religiosities that defied distinct labels. In the post-Reformation seventeenth century, independent religious quests gave rise to new religious groups such as Ranters, Fifth Monarchists, Philadelphians, and many other antinomian groups. Such groups were not particularly concerned with understanding God through traditional theological studies, but rather with knowing God through personal and intuitive explorations. The first chapter introduces us to the religious life of John Dee (1527–1609). Dee had a serious interest in medieval mysticism, but he stayed away from the doctrinal and theological debates of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Dee’s theology ‘attained a surprising mutability between Protestant and Catholic, orthodox and heterodox modes of religious inquiry’, yet it would be misleading to compare it to the newly conceived Anglican via media (p. 27). In Chapter 2, on John Donne (1572–1631), Martin argues that Donne’s ‘religious aesthetic is grounded in humility’ (p. 48). Donne also stressed the communal aspect of religion and the significance of the Established Church. Yet his writings on religious ecstasies drew heavily on Catholic mysticism and vocabulary. Sir Kenelm Digby (1603–65) is the subject of Chapter 3. Martin describes his religious methodology as ‘the technological and the Catholic’ (p. 87). Digby was profoundly affected by his wife’s death and devoted his life [End Page 391] to the science of palingenesis, which was always intermixed with the idea of resurrection. The fourth chapter covers the Rosicrucian mysticism of Henry and Thomas Vaughan. Such mysticism proposed ‘that God can be discerned in nature’ via scientific study of the natural world ‘informed by scripture’ (p. 109). The last chapter focuses on Jane Lead (1624–1704) who led the evangelical Philadelphian Society. Lead’s writings were focused intensely on the Bible, especially ‘the Book of Revelation’s eschatological intensity’ (p. 155). Again, like the other figures studied in this book, Lead’s religious beliefs exhibit cross-confessional syncretism as evident by her support for the heretical (for Protestants) idea of Purgatory. The heterogeneous religiosities of these subjects owe much to their individual characteristics and lives, but, as Martin concludes, they were also ‘informed by their cultural and historical moments’ (p. 185). Rajiv Thind The University of Queensland Copyright © 2015 Rajiv Thind

Resurrection as Insurrection: Potential Space and the Subversion of Political Totalities

In this article, I depict the shared belief in resurrection as subversive vis-a-vis political totalities. More particularly, I argue that the idea of resurrection as insurrection emerges against the background of the political realities of the Roman Empire and its diverse tools for controlling people through public spectacles of terror that heighten fear, helplessness, and indifference, thwarting motivations for resistance and insurrection. From this context, resurrection reveals a present-future possibility of an embodied care, hope, and freedom in spite of and not subject to principalities that aim to subjugate bodies and minds. Given this idea of resurrection, I use an emended version of Winnicott’s (1953, 1967, 1971) concept of potential space and Arendt’s (1958) space of appearances to portray the interpersonal and psychosocial dynamics that make it possible for people to retain care, hope, and freedom in resisting and subverting the political totalities that undermine each.

Naked or Clothed? Eschatology and the Doctrine of Creation

A Paper on life after death in the early church should probably begin with the underworld: Sheol in the Hebrew Bible, Hades, in Greek mythology, with parallels in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Persia. It should reflect on the universally connected theme of judgment and its importance for theodicy, and address the wide variety of beliefs discernible in the New Testament and its background, especially in the apocalyptic literature. It should consider the so-called intermediate state, and the supposed distinction between the Greek concept of the immortality of the soul and the Hebrew idea of resurrection: which takes us full circle, since the latter notion assumes the picture of shades in the underworld brought back to full-bodied living – as indeed the traditional Anastasis icon of the Eastern Orthodox tradition makes dramatically clear, Christ springing up from the grave and hauling Adam up with one hand and, often though not invariably, Eve with the other.

Immortal Bodies, before Christ: Bodily Continuity in Ancient Greece and 1 Corinthians

The disbelief demonstrated in 1 Corinthians towards the idea of the resurrection of the body is really not about the resurrection of Christ, but only about the general resurrection of the dead. This dilemma cannot be explained by referring either to Platonic beliefs, where all forms of bodily resurrection were considered equally absurd, or to Jewish tradition, which did not know of any resurrection and subsequent immortalization of a single individual before the end of the world. Turning, however, to more traditional Greek material, one finds that the idea of bodily resurrection was not at all unknown. But there was always a question of absolute bodily continuity. No body or body part that had been annihilated could be recreated. As such, this may explain why Paul's opponents in 1 Corinthians did not consider the resurrection of Christ controversial, but did reject the idea of a general resurrection of the dead.

Flower symbolism and the cult of relics in medieval Serbia

Flower symbolism and the cult of relics in medieval Serbia

Perspectives on Gustav Mahler (review)

Reviewed by: Perspectives on Gustav Mahler Brien Weiner Perspectives on Gustav Mahler. Edited by Jeremy Barham. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005. [xxx, 595 p. ISBN 0-754-60709-7. $134.95.] Bibliographical references, index. The essays collected in Perspectives on Gustav Mahler represent the broad spectrum of current Mahler scholarship, and they contain something for everyone with an interest in Mahler: scholars and students of music and interdisciplinary fields, performers and their audiences, and the general public. Although some essays are works-in-progress, the collection as a whole fills gaps and dispels myths. If there is a theme to the collection, it is that of reconciling contradictions and controversies in Mahler's reception history and proving that Mahler defies labels. Perspectives on Gustav Mahler is organized into five sections: "Nature, Culture, Aesthetic," "Reception: The Jewish and Eastern European Questions," "Analytic Approaches," "Mahler in Performance," and "Sketches, Editions and 'Performing Versions.' " The first section provides background for recurring issues. In the opening [End Page 608] essay, "Vocal Music in the Symphonic Context," Zoltan Roman shows how the duality of Mahler as innovator and synthesizer has given him his unique place in music history. Roman illustrates how Mahler's First Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde mark the endpoints of a continuous development central to his oeuvre and characterized by an innovative expansion of "vocal music" (both with and without words) in the symphonic context, through which he synthesized symphonic trends at the end of the nineteenth century. Julian Johnson's essay "Mahler and the Idea of Nature" delves beyond duality in Mahler's treatment of nature in his music, which offers a discourse on rather than a representation of nature. Just as Mahler distances his music from conventional representations of nature, so too the idea of nature is distanced from the earthly and associated with the heavenly, but as a vision rather than a reality, and one that is not always idyllic and comforting. In "Mahler the Thinker: The Books of the Alma Mahler-Werfel Collection," Jeremy Barham provides a "systematic examination of the contents of the collection, and includes a concordance lining these contents with pertinent references in the Mahler literature" (p. 38). Barham highlights important annotations and inscriptions as well as problems of provenance and ownership. Nevertheless, without more evidence, it is questionable whether the presence of certain books in Mahler's library indicates their influence on Mahler. "Mahler's Untimely Modernism" by Morten Solvik returns to the theme of Mahler's dualities, specifically, his innovations as a composer and conductor as opposed to his cultural conservatism "in the philosophical traditions he embraced, the artistic works he admired and the intellectual ground he defended" (p. 153). It is interesting to note, however, that Solvik's essay is consistent with Barham's description of the contents of Mahler's library in acknowledging that Mahler was well-read and familiar with the latest currents of thought. Part 2 focuses on Mahler's "Jewishness" in both the abstract and the concrete. In "Jewish Identity and Anti-Semitic Critique in the Austro-German Reception of Mahler, 1900–1945," Karen Painter traces the attempts of music critics to establish an inherently Jewish character in Mahler's music, either for anti-Semitic purposes or matters of Jewish pride. But such writers encountered a problematic duality in the "Germanic" symphonic character of Mahler's music. Painter maintains that Mahler was the most important composer in the Austro-German anti-Semitic literature, and the anti-Semitism he faced from musicians and critics had a continuous presence in his life, arguably influencing his creative work and assimilist goals. Although Painter notes the lack of any overt engagement with Jewish culture in Mahler's work, Vladimír Karbusick´y, in "Mahler's Musical Jewishness," documents Mahler's familiarity with Jewish music and musicians, and the influence of the Old Testament and incorporation of Hasidic-Yiddish motives in his symphonies, such as in the ideas of resurrection and lamentation. Here, as elsewhere in the essay collection, the reader will perceive dualities not only in Mahler but also in Mahler scholarship. Part 3, "Analytic Approaches," demonstrates that Mahler not only defies labels but also...

Skin and Bone, Spirit and Self: Interpreting Ezekiel's Vision

Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of the dry bones contains what may well be the most powerful and memorable images of a book overflowing with powerful and memorable imagery. Readers, Jews and Christians alike, have traditionally found in this vision an extraordinary sign of hope concentrated in the idea of resurrection; even the dead can live. For me, however, it signifies something very different, though equally extraordinary: the depth of God’s desire that people should empathise with Him, and the extent of His willingness to help them reach that goal.

Some Ideas of Resurrection in the New Testament Period

By J. W. Drane. While many strands of contemporary belief are gathered together in the resurrection faith of the New Testament, they are without exception transformed into something quite different and, ultimately, unique.