Personal Resurrection Research Articles

Aztec and Maya Apocalypses: Old World Tales of Doom in a New World Setting by Mark Z. Christensen

Reviewed by: Aztec and Maya Apocalypses: Old World Tales of Doom in a New World Setting by Mark Z. Christensen Amara Solari Aztec and Maya Apocalypses: Old World Tales of Doom in a New World Setting. By Mark Z. Christensen (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. 2022. Pp. xii, 252. $55.00. ISBN: 978-0-806-19035-8.) Writing amid our current apocalypse, the global COVID-19 pandemic, historian Mark Z. Christensen has offered a complete reimagining of the fundamental role the idea of “Doomsday” played in the Christianization of the Indigenous populations [End Page 223] of the American continents in the early modern period. The author—an ethnohistorian who is renowned for his translation abilities in both colonial Nahuatl (the Aztec language) and Yucatec Mayan (the Mayan dialect spoken in most of the Yucatan Peninsula)—clearly outlines in his Introduction three goals for his tome. His overarching goal is to translate and analyze relatively obscure eschatological texts, composed in these two Indigenous languages, to convey their creative adaptation to serve the idiosyncratic spiritual needs of the evangelical endeavors in New Spain. Secondly, Christensen strives to complicate the historiographical tendency to approach native responses to Christianity in one of two modes: to assume the wholesale adoption of the European religion, or on the more extreme end of this continuum, envision that all Indigenous interpretations of Christianity were inherently subversive. Christensen’s approach is much more nuanced than either of these, as he stresses the importance of a scholarly appreciation of both contributing religious traditions, an academic method that ultimately allows for Indigenous Christianity to be the result of active and ongoing negotiations between Indigenous neophytes and their resident friars. The importance of Christensen’s approach cannot be overstated as it serves to reinscribe agency onto native communities of New Spain. His final articulated goal is to offer his readers English translations of his textual source base. After providing an overview of Spanish and Mesoamerican worldviews of the early modern period, Christensen spends his first body chapter succinctly synthesizing contemporaneous eschatology, explaining how and why millenarianism was a pragmatic worldview for the Spaniards responsible for New World conquests of both territory and of souls. Thereafter, Christensen craftily organizes the remaining chapters along an eschatological chronology. Chapter 2 turns to the topics of the first judgement, limbo, and purgatory, using Juan Bautista Viseo’s Confesario (1599), Ignacio de Paredes’s Promptuario (1759), Juan Coronel’s Discursos (1620), and the anonymous Sermones en lengua Maya (18th century) to analyze how these moments of “personal apocalypses” were conveyed to Nahuatl and Mayan-speaking audiences. Chapter 3 moves on to the Apocalypse proper, providing translations of such important texts as the “Fifteen Signs” from an anonymous Maya sermons copybook (which can be partially correlated with texts and images from the 15th-century German book, Der Antichrist und die fünfzehn Zeichen) and Bautista’s Nahuatl Sermonario (1606). Personal resurrection following the Final Judgement is the topic of the next Chapter, which analyzes the Seven Articles in the Dominican Martín de León’s Camino de cielo (1611) and in Coronel’s Discursos predicables. Chapter 5 finishes the body chapters, focused on four texts (Fabián de Aquino’s 16th-century copybook, Coronel’s Discursos and Discursos predicables, and the “Teabo Manuscript”), which describe heaven and hell. This book is a welcome and overdue addition to the academic subfields of Latin American religious studies and ethnohistory; Christensen’s analytically rich translations of Nahuatl and Mayan documents are a true gift. It also bears noting that beyond the relatively small circle of Mesoamerican ethnohistorians, this book speaks to the larger field of Catholic studies, evidencing, as it does, one of the most [End Page 224] creative examples of religious localization and native negotiation in global history. Moreover, this text could be easily incorporated into an undergraduate or graduate syllabus as Christensen’s conversational writing style makes for a very enjoyable read, despite his apocalyptic subject matter. [End Page 225] Amara Solari The Pennsylvania State University Copyright © 2023 The Catholic University of America Press ...

Tarot Cards and Thomas Eliot in the «Journey» Poem by Alexander Mironov

Probably the most “obscure” poet of Samizdat, Alexander Mironov, in his poem «Journey» created a cultural model that includes the spaces of Dante and Rimbaud, Tarot cards reading and epics about Sadko. The hermeneutical analysis and the search for the subtexts (e.g. allusions to Khodasevich and to Nabokov) allow to reconstruct the hidden plot of the poem: the dispute with Thomas Eliot and his poem “The Waste Land” about personal resurrection in culture. Using the same images of various religious and philosophical systems, Mironov, in contrast to Eliot, who proclaimed the main character’s «death from water» along with inability of culture to embody the idea of Christian resurrection, made his hero a wanderer and witness to the resurrection. Moreover, repeating the same scene of Tarot cards reading, Mironov clarified the puzzling scenario of fortune-telling in Eliot’s work.

Faith and Evolution: A Grace Filled Naturalism

Faith and Evolution: A Grace Filled Naturalism

Ratzinger’s Reflections on the Staurological Foundation of the Resurrection

Jesus’ Cross, death, and Resurrection are events from His life that paved the way for man’s salvation. The Son of God’s passion and death on the Cross led to the Resurrection. Because of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection, every person who remains in union with him can count on experiencing his own personal resurrection. Christ took up the Cross out of love for man and, in so doing, paved the way to eternal life. The prospect of eternal life was made possible for man through Jesus’ redemption, which He achieved on the cross and brought to completion in the Resurrection. Because of this greatest of mysteries, man’s union with God does not cease when he dies, but rather continues within God’s eternal life. This article considers Ratzinger’s theology that presents the staurological basis of the mystery of the Resurrection and is organized into three categories: the Cross, death, and the Resurrection. When man lives with Christ, he enters into a relationship of love that leads to the cross, which transforms time and is a precursor to eternity.

Personal resurrection: female childhood sexual abuse survivors' experience of the Wellness-Program.

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivors deal with complex mental, physical and relationship problems in adulthood which negatively affects their well-being and health. The aim of the present paper was to present a description of the Wellness-Program for female CSA survivors, the participating women's evaluation of the different therapies in the program as well as a qualitative study on their experience of the program's effects on their life, health and well-being. The Wellness-Program lasted for 10 weeks with organised schedule 20 hours per week. A team of health professionals used a holistic approach and provided traditional and complementary individual and group therapy focusing on both mind and body. In-depth phenomenological interviews with ten women, 22-53 years old, were conducted 1 week before and 1 week after the program as well as 15 months later. Data collection and data analysis were guided by the Vancouver School of doing phenomenology. Prior to participating in the program, the women were unable to work or attend school, were on disability allowance, were socially isolated and had complex health problems. After the Wellness-Program, all the women, except one, were back to work, school or in further rehabilitation. Furthermore, the in-depth interviews showed that their health and well-being, personal life and relationship with partners, family and friends improved. They felt empowered, more in control and had developed increased trust towards others. Six themes were constructed from the in-depth interviews. They were: feeling totally lost, releasing experiences, developing trusting relationships, gaining control, experiencing positive changes in physical and mental health and, finally, feeling of empowerment. The overriding theme of the study was personal resurrection. The Wellness-Program contributed considerably to improved health and well-being of the women. However, further assessment of the program is recommended before making it available within the healthcare system.

Resurrection-Faith and the ‘Historical’ Jesus

It is clear that a remarkable Jesus-devotion, in which Jesus was accorded unprecedented kinds of reverence, was central in early Christian faith from its earliest extant expressions, and represents a significant escalation from the kinds of reverence that followers expressed during Jesus’ earthly ministry. This devotion seems to have been prompted by the conviction that God had raised Jesus from death and given him heavenly glory. The impact of Jesus’ own activities was certainly a factor, but experiences of the risen Jesus were crucial in generating this belief. Moreover, Jesus’ resurrection meant a resounding vindication of the earthly Jesus. Belief in Jesus’ personal resurrection, thus, contributed strongly to interest in Jesus’ own activities and teaching, the formation and circulation of Jesus-tradition, and the composition of narrative accounts of his career. In short, the earliest ‘quest for the historical Jesus’ was prompted by the conviction that he had been resurrected.

Cosmological Christology: Arthur Peacocke, John Polkinghorne and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in Dialogue

AbstractArthur Peacocke, a biochemist turned theologian, accepted Christ's personal resurrection but not his bodily resurrection from the grave. He argued from Paul's silence about the discovery of the empty tomb, from Christ's sharing fully in our human condition, and from the irreversible processes of nature. John Polkinghorne, a physicist turned theologian, has maintained that Paul's view of resurrection implies an empty tomb, that Christ's resurrection from the grave has revealed the transformed destiny of matter, and that, for good reasons, God can suspend and change the laws of nature. In Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's vision of an evolving world, Christ's resurrection from the grave released a new force of love and revealed the spiritual destiny of matter. With Polkinghorne he shared a hope for the transformation of the universe, a process initiated by the glorious raising of Jesus’ crucified body.

Seeking Truth and Bearing Witness: The Noli Me Tangere and Incredulity of Thomas on Tino di Camaino’s Petroni Tomb (1313–1317)

This article examines Tino di Camaino’s monument for Cardinal Riccardo Petroni, focusing on the narrative cycle of relief panels on the tomb casket. The reliefs are shown to function in a complex and reiterative manner, speaking to the hope for personal resurrection and reunion with God at the end of time, as well as to the salvific potential of a well-lived, well-balanced life of devotion and professional achievement. It is proposed that this relatively uncelebrated monument mediates between what Panosfky described as “prospective” early Christian and medieval tomb sculpture and the more “retrospective” Renaissance tombs. This article also explores the meaning of the pendant panels of the Noli Me Tangere and Incredulity of Thomas and proposes new theories about sources of inspiration for the artist, the possible interests of the deceased in the question of bodily Resurrection, and his devotion to Saint Mary Magdalene.

Christology: a biblical, historical, and systematic study of Jesus Christ

Recent years have seen the publication of various sensationalist books on Jesus that are supported neither by the New Testament witness nor by mainline Christian beliefs. This book critically examines the best biblical and historical scholarship before tackling head on some of the key questions of systematic christology: does orthodox faith present Jesus the man as deficient and depersonalized? Is his sinlessness compatible with the exercise of a free human will? Does up-to-date exegesis challenge his virginal conception and personal resurrection? Can one reconcile Jesus' role as universal Saviour with the truth and values to be found in other religions? What should the feminist movement highlight in presenting Jesus? This integral christology is built around the reurrection of the crucified Jesus, highlights love as the key to redemption, and proposes a synthesis of the divine presence through Jesus. Clear, balanced, and accessible, this book should by valued by any student reading systematic theology, anyone training for the ministry in all denominations, as well as interested general readers.

A New Resurrection

ABSTRACT A different Easter story can be proclaimed and heard within the context of worship in the rehabilitation hospital. Life is different for those persons who have experienced the trauma of a spinal cord injury. Rehabilitation can be understood as a personal resurrection. Hope, faith and inner strength are vital coping and adjusting resources for persons of all faiths.