Protestant Circles Research Articles

Redeeming a killer language: Protestant missionaries’ engagements with Bangala and Lingala in the Belgian Congo, 1900–1935

ABSTRACT Situated within the field of colonial and missionary linguistics, this paper discusses language-interventionist campaigns by Protestant missionaries working in the Belgian Congo, in particular their work on the languages Bangala and Lingala between 1900 and 1935. This time frame commences with a master plan to transform Bangala, by first “redeeming” it of its pidgin features, into “a killer language,” with the aim of supplanting all local languages utilized in Protestant missionary work. It closes with the establishment of a Lingala Committee, its attempts at creating a “Union Ngala,” and the first publication on Lingala by Baptist missionary Malcolm Guthrie in 1935, whose Lingala work would change the Protestants’ policy towards the language for good. The period between these two junctures was marked by resistance within Protestant circles against the master plan, attempts to counteract the resistance, and, above all, a wide range of debates and discussions, all manifesting notable language ideologies.

From Black Magician to Proto-Feminist: The Reception of Cornelius Agrippa's Oeuvre Through the Centuries

The Renaissance humanist Cornelius Agrippa von Netesheim (1486–1533) left a rich body of works in philosophy, theology, biblical exegesis and occultism. The disparity and internal contradictions of this opus, as well as the ambivalent position of Agrippa on the intellectual map of the epoch, caused the reception of his work to branch out in the most diverse directions. Contemporaries from clerical and Protestant circles branded him as a heretic, whereas humanists recognized his great erudition and devotion to faith. While he considered himself a reformer of Christianity, his followers regarded him as an authority in Neoplatonic, Hermetic, and Esoteric studies. On the basis of tendentious interpretations of his writings, as well as the entire tradition of apocryphal stories that developed around his personality, the church and folk tradition of the 16th and 17th centuries constructed a representation of Agrippa as a servant of the devil. Therefore, he served as a model for the character of Faust, first to Christopher Marlowe and later to Goethe. With the strong development of science and its foundations being linked with occult teachings, in the 18th and 19th centuries the image of Agrippa as a proto-scientist appeared, e.g. in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. However, for the positivist science of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Agrippa was, at best, a representative of a barren branch of Western philosophical thought, and at worst, a mere charlatan or mentally disturbed person. Such a perception prevailed until the mid-20th century, when scholars from Warburg Institute in London developed new interpretations of Renaissance humanism, including Agrippa's role in it. Today's science views Agrippa as a representative of the vital religious component of humanism and as a link between ancient, medieval and Renaissance currents of thought. At the same time, in certain segments of New Age, his writings acquire the status of the "bible" of the occultism, and Agrippa himself the status of a kind of New Age guru. Therefore, the literary legacy of Cornelius Agrippa is of significance for the history of ideas, reception studies, imagology, and anthropology of religion as an exceptionally rich case study, and in this paper, we aim to trace the intricate paths of his reception in different epochs and cultural contexts.

The Struggle for Equality and Religious Tolerance: Women's Presence and Leadership in Protestant Circles in Sixteenth-Century Spain

Abstract: In 1559 two Protestant communities were discovered in Spain. A striking number of women—ordinary citizens, noblewomen, nuns—lived in those communities. Several played preeminent roles as teachers, preceptors, and feminist leaders who fought to defend their religious freedom and rights. This article aims to remove their names from oblivion, to describe the decisive role they played in Protestant circles in sixteenth-century Spain, and to analyze their philosophical and theological thinking.

Christian Citizens in a Democratic State: Is a True Separation of Church and State Really Possible?

In many North American Protestant circles, especially those with Baptist or Free Church roots, the notion of the total separation of church and state is presented as the ideal to be attained in all church and state relations. We are told that the state should have no legislative power to ordain anything in relation to church doctrine or practice, and that the church should be entirely excluded from all political, secular, or state actions. In this paper, we are going to suggest that such an approach to church–state relations (even though some might think that it flows from or is necessary for democracy) is, in fact, impossible in a true democracy. We will first consider the nature of the church and the state, and present three principles that Maritain suggests are first principles in this debate. We will then look at the classical notion of the “Citizen”. We will conclude by arguing that based upon the nature of a citizen, of the church, and of the state, a strict separation of church and state is, in fact, impossible.

Concordism and the Importance of Hybrid Models

Concordism functioned as the consensus view in Protestant circles until the rise of Darwinism. Darwinism upended evangelical beliefs about the relationship between the Bible and science, and concordism began to fall out of favor. Subsequently, theologians began formulating statements which collated doctrines and definitions in attempts to delineate boundaries for orthodox belief. Yet while definitions and doctrines are necessary for belief, they are not sufficient for fruitful discussion and discovery of how the early chapters of Genesis could accurately depict the Earth’s early history. With this realization, scholars began developing “hybrid models” which proposed intertwined theological-scientific theories in hopes of explaining both the known scientific evidence as well as the import of Scripture. Thus, even as concordism was disdained by theologically liberal academics, hybrid models multiplied, responded to new evidence, and achieved varying levels of adoption. Analysis of older hybrid models (as well as the recent hybrid model proposed by William Lane Craig) results in insights applicable to models more broadly as well as concordism in particular.

Old Canaan in a New World: Native Americans and the Lost Tribes of Israel

Old Canaan in a New World: Native Americans and the Lost Tribes of Israel

“Every fox praises its own tail”. Jan Blahoslav (1523–1571) on Slavic dialects

Summary Jan Blahoslav (1523–1571) was one of the first – if not the first – to devote a separate chapter to the phenomenon of vernacular diatopic variation in his Czech grammar. His pioneering attempts at making sense of this issue have thus far remained understudied, especially outside of the Czech Republic. In this contribution, we open up this important text, largely written in Czech, to a wider audience by means of an annotated English translation. In addition, we frame his interest in dialectal variation in the intellectual trends of 16th-century language study, especially within the Protestant circles in which Blahoslav was active.

Reading by Pieces: Heliodorus, Sir Philip Sidney, and the Model of Romance

Abstract In The Model of Poesy, William Scott asserts that Sir Philip Sidney ‘did imitate’ Heliodorus’s Aethiopika in ‘the general gate of conveyance’ when he wrote The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia. Sidney’s engagement with Heliodorus’s fourth-century prose fiction has long been recognized, especially in relation to the revised and composite versions of the Arcadia that appeared in print during the 1590s. Nevertheless, the close relationship between Heliodorus and Sidney’s text has rarely been viewed in the broader context of the Aethiopika’s sixteenth-century reception and has never been taken seriously as an instance of literary imitation. This essay returns to Renaissance debates over the propriety of prose epic to explore the background to Sidney’s Defence of Poesy and Arcadia and examines neglected sources on the Aethiopika which shed new light on how Heliodorus was reconciled with existing systems of poetics. The discussion explores how Sidney’s education in European Protestant circles taught him to think about literary imitation in ways that made him especially receptive to other sixteenth-century approaches to the Aethiopika, and proposes that he saw imitatio and mimēsis as closely connected. In addition, it considers how Scott used Heliodorus’s text as a critical tool with which to read the Arcadia, and suggests that Martin Crusius may have exerted a subtle yet significant influence on the Model. Finally, in showing how the Arcadia adapts the narrative form of Heliodorus’s text, the essay assesses the intricacy of Sidney’s imitative technique.

Protestant Providentialism in the Commonwealth of the Nobles: A critical view on Sarmatism

This study is devoted to providentialism, an element characteristic of Sarmatism – a dominant ideology and culture in the early modern Commonwealth of the nobles. The attachment of special weight to providence’s care of the state and the nobility seems to have been characteristic also of Protestant circles in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century, and therefore the culture of the nobles’ Sarmatism should not be reduced to its late form, dominated as it was by Catholicism in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Echoes of Iconoclasm in the Modern Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth

On the wave of the so‑called II iconoclasm, which encompassed northern Europe, similar movements, or rather local iconoclastic actions, were revealed in the Polish Republic in the modern period (16th–18th century), wherever the voice of the dissenters was more intense, especially those representing more radical fractions of Protestant circles. Examples of iconoclastic acts from various regions of the former Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth resemble occurrences known from the period of Byzantine iconoclasm although these parallels are more clearly visible in the literary aspect, as the political‑religious freedom in the Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth allowed for the publication of even openly anti‑Catholic texts. Criticism of Polish Protestants towards Catholic religious practices was directed mainly against three manifestations of public religiosity, which they stigmatised in their polemics: Processions, the cult of selected Marian images, and the cult of relics and devotional practices related to the votive offerings. In this publication, certain problems are hinted at in relation to these manifestations of public devotion widespread in Res Publica Poloniae.

Five Centuries of Bible Translations into Kashubian

This paper discusses translations of biblical passages into Kashubian, which originated in the Lutheran circles between the 16th and the 19th centuries, followed by translations made in the Catholic circles in the 20th and the 21st centuries. The history of these translations has been divided into two periods: “old translations” and “contemporary translations.” The former comprise various bibli[1]cal texts preserved in manuscripts and printed monuments, which came into being between 1586 and the second half of the 19th century. The fundamental texts of this period include the works by Szymon Krofey (1586), Michał Pontanus (1643), and Perykopy smołdzińskie (1699–1701). The old translations were done from German in the Protestant circles in West Pomerania. In turn, the “contemporary trans[1]lations” of biblical texts into Kashubian embrace translations from the second half of the 20th century, which were produced in the Catholic environment of Gdańsk Pomerania: from Latin (Mk 4:3-20) by Alojzy Nagel (1973), from Latin (four Gospels) by Rev. Franciszek Grucza (1992), from Polish (the New Testament and the Psalms) by Eugeniusz Gołąbek (1993–2007) and my own translations from Hebrew and Greek (the Four Gospels, the Pentateuch, Ecclesiastes) prepared in 2001–2020.

From koine to standard: the early modern origin of a key linguistic term

Abstract In this paper, I explore the early history of the word standard as a linguistic term, arguing that it came to compete with the designation common language in the seventeenth century. The latter phrase was, in turn, formed by ideas on the Greek koine during the Renaissance and appears to have been the first widely used collocation referring to a standard language-like entity. In order to sketch this evolution, I first discuss premodern ideas on the koine. Then, I attempt to outline how the intuitive comparison of the koine with vernacular norms that were being increasingly regulated resulted in the development of the concept of common language, termed lingua communis in Latin (a calque of Greek hē koinḕ diálektos), in the sixteenth century. This phrase highlighted the communicative functionality of the vernaculars, which were being codified in grammars and dictionaries. Scholars contrasted these common languages with regional dialects, which had a limited reach in terms of communication. This distinction received a social and evaluative connotation during the seventeenth century, which created a need for terminological alternatives; an increasingly popular option competing with common language was standard, which was variously combined with language and tongue by English authors from about 1650 onwards, especially in Protestant circles, where the vernaculars tended to play a more prominent role than in Catholic areas. Of major importance for this evolution was the work and linguistic usage of the poet John Dryden (1631–1700). This essay uncovers the early history of standard as a key linguistic term, while also presenting a case study which shows the impact of the rediscovery of the Greek heritage on language studies in Western Europe, especially through the term common language.

Environmental protection as a global bioethical principle: Protestant faith tradition in conversation with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

The Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR) is an important, modern human rights instrument regulating global bioethical challenges. The Protestant faith tradition was excluded from any discourse regarding the UDBHR; consequently, the universality and credibility, especially in Protestant circles, have been questioned. For the Protestant faith tradition, the voice of the Bible is decisive. An ethical foundation for article 17 of the UDBHR (enviromental protection and health) is, therefore, important, as it can contribute to the internalisation of the principle. In the analysis of article 17, it has been shown that the international community is convinced that an irrefutable relationship exists between nature and the health of the human interconnectedness. A damaged creation harms the health of the human and, therefore, the protection of nature is an indisputable obligation. From a Protestant ethical perspective, this global principle could be associated with or founded on the themes of creation, sin, covenant, Christology and eschatology. Grounded in this preliminary evaluation, article 17 can be supported by the global Protestant community. A few facts from South Africa indicate the necessity of promoting the global bioethical principle in this country.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This study is an interdisciplinary analysis in the sense that it focuses on Theology and Human Rights Law within the context of Global Bioethics. It challenges the view that the Protestant perspective can be excluded in the discourse regarding the relation between environment and human health (article 17 of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO] Bioethics Declaration).

A two-tier protestant evaluative framework for cults applied to KwaSizabantu Mission

The vague use of the term ‘cult’ in popular media to describe religious groups has in the past unjustly exposed various committed Christian communities to libel and dehumanisation. However, celebrity-based cults masquerading as Christians are damaging the trust in Christ. The objective of this research study was to provide a viable two-tier Protestant evaluative framework (2TPEF) in order to identify cultic characteristics in a religious group. The proposed framework was applied to South Africa’s KwaSizabantu Mission as a case study. A theoretical framework was synthesised from a variety of sources. For the case study, information was collected from multiple sources, including interviews, documents, sermons, newsletters, observations and research reports. Applying the 2TPEF in the case study demonstrates how it operates as a workable tool. In this case, it explains why the KwaSizabantu Mission cannot be viewed as a cult. In addition, the 2TPEF may serve for comparative purposes or be used by religious groups themselves to demonstrate their position relative to Protestant Christianity.Contribution: This study not only focuses on Reformed Theology exclusively but provides insights in critically applying the 2TPEF within Protestant religious circles using a current case study within an African context.

Вплив європейського дипломатичного етикету на трансформацію церемоніалу та протоколу в Гетьманщині доби Івана Мазепи

Introduction. The article attempts to reveal the contribution of Hetman I. Mazepa, who is one of the first founders of the Ukrainian nation, which strengthened its importance in the international arena, to the study of the influence of European etiquette on the transformation of ceremonial and protocol in the Cossack environment of the first half of the eighteenth century. Attention is drawn to the historian’s understanding of the role of etiquette culture in the western Ukrainian lands of the late eighteenth – first half of the nineteenth centuries on the formation of Cossack Ukraine. Purpose. The aim of the article is to highlight the peculiarities of the influence of European etiquette on the transformation of ceremonial and protocol in the Cossack environment of the first half of the eighteenth century. during the formation of the Ukrainian nation. Results. The bearers and exponents of diplomatic relations and relevant traditions at this time was a Cossack officer – the closest secular and military environment of the hetman. It was then added to the special protocol statements that the guests were expected «with great joy». If in France and other European countries at the turn of the seventeenth – in the eighteenth century. The «great» ambassadors were accompanied to the reception hall by the princes of blood, the heirs to the thrones. In Ukraine in the second half of the seventeenth – in the eighteenth century. etiquette of secular methods and protocol was largely formed under the influence of, on the one hand, folk culture and Cossack customs, and on the other – constantly transformed under the influence of Eastern (Turkey and the Crimean Khanate, partly Russia) and Western diplomatic rituals (Italy and Vatican, Holland), Sweden, Poland). At that time, the Hetmanate periodically acted as a mediator in the negotiation processes between the above-mentioned states, because in one way or another it was in close relations with all of them. On the one hand, historical ties with the Muscovy, on the other – with the Crimea and Turkey (former Byzantine lands – the heart of Orthodoxy – the Greek faith), on the third – with Europe: the Polish-Lithuanian elite, the Polish-French-Italian establishment, Dutch, German, Swedish, Polish-Austrian, Hungarian and Czech nobility, some English subjects. All of Europe at this time, as a result of the unification of the capital of wealthy families through marriage law, was going through a period of assimilation, especially in Catholic and Protestant circles. Ukraine was divided politically and economically in half by the agreements between Muscovy and Poland of 1667 and 1678, but the processes of cultural consolidation of the population still continued. Conclusion. Therefore, the etiquette of secular events and receptions of the Cossack Ukraine of the second half of the seventeenth – first half of the eighteenth century largely formed under the influence, on the one hand, under the influence of folk culture and Cossack customs, and on the other – constantly transformed in view of Eastern (Turkey and the Crimean Khanate, partly Russia) and Western diplomatic rituals, traditions, protocol (Italy and the Vatican , Holland, Sweden, Poland).

Jak mówić o Bogu w postateistycznym świecie? Analiza myśli Dietricha Bonhoeffera i jej implikacji dla wiary katolickiej

Obecne czasy określić można jako erą postateistyczną, w której ludzie nie zadają już pytań o Boga. Po latach wojującego ateizmu nadszedł czas życia w świecie „tak jakby Boga nie było”. Doskonale zdawał sobie z tego sprawę protestancki pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, którego myśl jest dziś w środowiskach protestanckich niezwykle popularna. Przedstawił on tezę życia w świecie „etsi Deus non datetur” oraz wysunął postulat chrześcijaństwa bezreligijnego.Artykuł bada, czy koncepcje Bonhoeffera mogą być pomocne również dla teologów katolickich, czy mogą stać się inspiracją w refleksji nad tym, jak mówić o Bogu we współczesnym świecie. Przy próbie odpowiedzi na powyższe pytania pomocna jest analiza dzieł Bonhoeffera.Artykuł wykazuje, że myśl Bonhoeffera może stać się wskazówką dla mówienia o Bogu, gdyż przypomina ważne, często zapominane aspekty chrześcijaństwa. Może także być pomocna dla chrześcijan w podjęciu refleksji nad własną wiarą.

German Reformation and Czech Hymnbooks and Books of prayers and meditations

Summary The paper deals with the Bohemian Reformation literature. Culture of the Bohemian Reformation belongs to a little-known phenomenon in Czech historiography. Art and culture historians have focused mostly on the Hussite period and less on the 16th and 17th centuries. An important issue is the reception of German Lutheran religious educational literature in Protestant Circles of the Czech lands. The author focuses primarily on books in which the genre of mediation dominates, and explores the prompt Czech reaction to several German authors (Martin Moller, Johann Gerhard etc.) active between approximately 1580–1620 who found intensive response in the Bohemian Lands. The second important field is the Czech hymnography in the 17th–18th centuries. The author finds German inspiration for Czech hymnbooks. He deals with Luther’s songs in the hymnbook Cithara sanctorum by Jiří Třanovský and especially with late baroque Protestant exile hymnbooks influenced by the Pietistic Circle in Halle and Herrnhut (Harfa nová [‘A New Harp’] by Jan Liberda, Lipský kancionál [‘Hymnbook of Leipzig’] by Georg Sarganek). Owing to the German stimuli, the spectrum of genres, ideological processes and stylistic registers in Czech literature from the 16th to 18th centuries is comparatively rich and diversified.

Natural Law and Protestant Reform: Lessons from the Forgotten Reformer

Despite Protestants’ suspicion of natural law ethics in their recent history, there are signs that in some Protestant circles a re-awakening to the importance of natural law is occurring. This is as it should be, given the fact that the magisterial reformers of the 16th century all affirmed without equivocation the natural law. Foremost among these champions was the forgotten reformer, Phillip Melanchthon, whose remarkable output and influence during the 16th century were unparalleled and whose emphasis on natural law reasoning was notable.

The Problem of Acedia in Eastern Orthodox Morality

Eastern Orthodox accounts of acedia are often neglected in Catholic and Protestant circles, yet offer a range of insights for contemporary virtue ethics and moral psychology. Acedia is a complex concept with shades of apathy, hate, and desire that poses grave problems for the moral life and human wellbeing. This is because acedia disorders reasoning, desiring, willing, and acting, and causes various harms to relationships. Evagrius Ponticus and John Cassian discuss acedia in the context of a virtue ethic ordered to human flourishing that includes practices to combat vices and build character. The result is an Orthodox conception of virtue and moral psychology that rewards ecumenical attention.

Jakim językiem XVI-wieczni pisarze reformacyjni pisali o wychowaniu dzieci (Gliczner, Kwiatkowski, Lorichius)?

The article is devoted to stylistic properties of three pedagogical works that were published in Protestant circles in the 16th century Poland. The first one is the translation from Latin of the treatise written by German Protestant theologian Reinhard Lorichius titled Księgi o wychowaniu i o ćwiczeniu każdego przełożonego (1558), the second one is the Polish publication of Erazm Gliczner’s Książki o wychowaniu dzieci bardzo dobre, pożyteczne i potrzebne (1558) and the third one is the treatise written by the Italian humanist from the 14th and 15th century titled Książeczki rozkoszne a wielmi użyteczne o poćciwym wychowaniu […] dziatek (1564), translated by Marcin Kwiatkowski. The authors of the analysis recognised didacticism, vividness and erudition as the predominant stylistic features of discussed works. They proved that the 16th century books on upbringing of children had been addressed to readers of every denomination and lacked elements of religious polemics on the linguistic and stylistic level. The ideas of the Reformation can be connected mainly with popularization of the Bible, which was used as the source of exempla and sententiae in the works by Lorichius and Gliczner.