Posthumous Punishment Research Articles

Old English poem «Judith» as a reflection of Anglo-Saxon early medieval mentality

The article analyzes the reflection of the Western European early medieval mentality in the Оld English poem «Judith». The following research methods were used: clustering (formation of a cluster of verbal reflections of mental attitudes) and historical-semantic analysis of objects included in the cluster. Poem «Judith» information, connected with the mentality, concerns two lines: the motivation to participate in the battle, and the posthumous punishment of the main antagonist of Holofernes. The analysis allowed the author to draw the following conclusions. Firstly, the poem «Judith» is not a direct poetic paraphrase of the eponymous book of the Оld Testament. The text contains a number of additions that carry completely new information, revealing in particular problems associated with the mentality (Judith speech, the posthumous fate of Holofernes). Secondly, the poem «Judith» allows us to distinguish two levels in the mentality of Anglo-Saxon society – basic one and emerging. The first of them is represented by the concept of «glory» (wuldor and tir). The use of the word wuldor indicates a significant stability of structures associated with the foundations of the mentality of society. For Anglo-Saxon society such a basis was war and glory. The glory had been denoted by the word, rooted in the days of the Old German community (linked to the Gothic language), and unknown to the Vikings. The same stability shows respect for the leader of the enemy troops. The second level is represented by the image of «snake hall» (wyrm-sele), which was formed during the wars with the Vikings in the 10th century for the liberation of the occupied territories. Thirdly, the presence of two levels in the mentality allows author to consider the period of its formation as open. Thus the innovation, arised under Scandinavian influence, was not entrenched in mentality.

Pośmiertna kara w ujęciu Czwartej Księgi Machabejskiej

Jedną z kwestii teologicznych Czwartej Księgi Machabejskiej jest kara pośmiertna, której istotę autor tego dzieła ukazał w odniesieniu do Antiocha IV Epifanesa. Celem artykułu jest wykazanie, że autor Czwartej Księgi Machabejskiej miał na uwadze wieczny wymiar tej kary. Podjęte zamierzenie zostanie realizowane na podstawie analizy terminów (przymiotniki: ἀκαταλύτος, αἰώνιος; rzeczownik αἰών) oraz form czasownikowych (zob. 4 Mch 18,5; 18,22), które opisują pośmiertną karę Antiocha IV. Przeprowadzone analizy pozwolą uchwycić zarówno wymiar, jak i charakter pośmiertnej retrybucji w ujęciu Czwartej Księgi Machabejskiej.

Remembering and Disremembering the Dead: Posthumous Punishment, Harm and Redemption over Time

This book is a multidisciplinary work that investigates the notion of posthumous harm over time. The question what is and when is death, affects how we understand the possibility of posthumous harm and redemption. Whilst it is impossible to hurt the dead, it is possible to harm the wishes, beliefs and memories of persons that once lived. In this way, this book highlights the vulnerability of the dead, and makes connections to a historical oeuvre, to add critical value to similar concepts in history that are overlooked by most philosophers. There is a long historical view of case studies that illustrate the conceptual character of posthumous punishment; that is, dissection and gibbetting of the criminal corpse after the Murder Act (1752), and those shot at dawn during the First World War. A long historical view is also taken of posthumous harm; that is, body-snatching in the late Georgian period, and organ-snatching at Alder Hey in the 1990s.

Les Vaudois et l'au-delà au XlVème siècle en Europe centre-orientale

Recent scholarship, particularly the fundamental source editions of A. Patschovsky and D. Kurze make apparent the dynamic development of Waldensian community in XIV th century Bohemia, Silesia, Pomerania and Brandenburg. The believers were recruited mainly from the immigrants of German origin. The records of inquisitorial interrogations permit to recreate a set of beliefs and eschatological images of the local Waldensian communities. Not a few Waldensians participated in the Catholic cult and the Catholic popular devotions. It did not remain without influence on their views of the Other World. Despite being deeply rooted in Waldensian beliefs, a dual view of the Other World yielded to a pressure exerted by the Catholic idea of purgatory. Among the followers of heterodoxy there appeared, against their own doctrine, timid hopes for the existence of a place, where a posthumous punishment might be passed. These attitudes were kept alive by the concern expressed for the fates of the souls of relatives and friends. The Waldensian structure of the Other World showed affiliation between particular abodes of human souls. The Paradise was also connected with Earth through the voyages of priest missionaries returning periodically for God's gifts and graces / the renewal of charisma / . It was wide open for the followers of a choser community, but also accessible for the good and the just who belonged to the "aliens" / Catholics /. The images of everlasting punishment refered to the condemned Catholic clergy and all other persecutors of Waldensians. However, among the dwellers of Waldensian hell, one can also find the stereotypes of the damned, known from the didactic teachings of the Church. The dominating motif of Waldensian beliefs - the immediate determination of soul's fate after death - succumbed to the images invoking supplementary eschatological spaces, functioning as "quasi-refrigerium". Possibly, a "fair meadow" present in the images of Silesian Waldensians filled such a part. Mid-European Waldensian movement was becoming a syncretic belief, crumbling under the impact of both the Catholic catechetical instruction and the "popular Christianity".