Version Of Christianity Research Articles

The Agendas of the First New Christians in Israel and the Portuguese Empire (Sixteenth Century)

This paper aims to reveal and interpret the messianic messages arising from the Inquisition of Évora (Portugal) trials against a group of first generation converts following the general expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal in 1492 and 1496 respectively. These messages point to a memorialist construction on the phenomenon of the expulsions of Jews from France until they reached Portugal. Consequentially, both their new status as Christians and the context of the Portuguese imperialist expansion are considered essential predestined stages for the meeting of the Lost Tribes and the final redemption. These messages also reveal a 'contamination' of other records, such as the famous *Toledot Yeshu* or the Christian or Jewish versions of the Story of Barlaam and Josafat, and must be overlooked in the context of other known (more or less) contemporary texts of a teleological nature.

A Ballad and a Movie: Scandinavian TSB B21 and Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring

A Ballad and a Movie: Scandinavian TSB B21 and Ingmar Bergman's <i>The Virgin Spring</i>

The Virginia Colony, supercessionism, and the origins of whiteness

In 1609, the Virginia Company published a series of sermons to garner support for the struggling joint-stock company. This essay analyzes two of these, with special attention to the biblical exegesis used. The two preachers examined, Robert Gray and William Symonds, both employ a hermeneutic of supercessionism—the belief that God’s promises to Israel have been transferred to Christians—to interpret the Bible in ways favorable to the goals of the colonizing power. In particular, supercessionist readings of the call of Abraham and the conquest of the land of Israel depicted in Joshua provide these authors justification for the widespread disenfranchisement and displacement of indigenous peoples and even for outright genocide. While claiming to hold out hope for the conversion of indigenous peoples to the Christian faith, the sermons of the Virginia Company contribute to a version of Christianity of and for white people alone.

The Use and Reception of the Prophets in the New Testament

This article explores the use of the Prophets in the New Testament by looking at explicit quotations, clusters of allusions and narrative patterns. It shows that the NT authors applied the Prophets to a range of issues, such as God’s inclusion of the Gentiles, as well as key events in Jesus’ life. It also demonstrates that they generally used a Greek translation of the Prophets, though sometimes a revised or indeed Christian version of the text. Like the Jews of Alexandria, they believed that this was inspired by God, though that did not prevent them modifying the text to make the application seem more obvious to the readers.

How Global was Medieval Prussia? An Analysis of the Barlaam and Josaphat Manuscript of the Teutonic Knights at the Turn of the Fifteenth Century

AbstractThe history of the southern Baltic region (Prussia) from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries has only received increased attention from ‘Western’ scholars in the last three decades. It has remained peripheral within traditional ‘Western’ scholarship on the premodern world. As a result, we are still left with a wide variety of questions, especially concerning the place of this area in the broader medieval world. This article addresses two of these questions: to what extent did medieval contemporaries in Prussia know about their broader world, and the peoples within it? How were people from these regions, such as the Indian Subcontinent or Africa, depicted, understood and communicated? One answer lay in the literature produced by the knights in the Teutonic Order. In the context of the plethora of studies on race and globality in the premodern world, the Baltic region has of yet received minimal attention. However, an investigation into the rich sources available reveals the presence in the region of the story of Barlaam and Josaphat, a Christian version of the life of the Buddha and the first example of ‘global literature’ associated with the Middle Ages. By analysing the surviving examples in the region, this article will place the region of Prussia within the new concept of the Global Middle Ages and reveal the perception of the southern realms of the world in one of medieval Europe's furthest cultural outposts.

Narrative Strategies of Criminal Legitimacy

This article looks at how criminal agents aim to gain legitimacy within the context of the War on Drugs in Mexico. More precisely, it explores the narrative of legitimization presented in Me dicen “el más loco”, an autobiography of Nazario Moreno González, the leader of the criminal organization La Familia Michoacana. A cultural-studies approach is used to argue that the book combines a Christian version of the social-bandit myth with the narrative strategies of the picaresque novel to legitimize the activities of the group. This article aims to contribute to the larger debate on the powerful imaginary dimension of organized crime in Mexico.

Поиски «истинного христианства» в истории русской религиозной мысли

This article explores the meaning of the quest for true Christianity in Russian philosophy as well as their critique of the traditional church Christianity. Russian thinkers acknowledged traditional Christianity to be false mainly because of the introduction in it of Judaic elements which radically distorted the true teachings of Jesus Christ. These elements essentially were: the concept of an anthropomorphic God; the concept of Creation; and the concept of the Fall. Russian philosophers borrowed their critical attitude towards historical Christianity from the German philosophy of the early 19th century and primarily from Fichte’s late religious and philosophical teaching. The analysis of the Russian thinkers’ views allows us to assert that they considered as true Christianity the religious tradition that Church persecuted as a Gnostic heresy. In the Gnostic version of Christianity, God is understood as an apophatic Absolute, having no attributes; instead, God epitomizes the deep essence of man and manifests Himself in the earthly world in the form of human people. This article demonstrates that, in this case, the meaning of human life consists of the maximum complete realization of God through that life, and the meaning of the history of mankind lies in the construction of the kingdom of God on earth. In this regard, the philosophical ideas of Pyotr Chaadaev and Fyodor Dostoevsky are considered as the exact expression of this tradition of Gnostic Christianity. The analysis of their works, in fact, reveals that both thinkers criticized the religiosity of Church. Consequently, any debate on how close their views were to Catholicism or to Orthodoxy – and such debates certainly occupied a large place in contemporary literary research – is of very little importance for a real assessment of their views.

The Syriac Christianization of a Medical Greek Recipe: From Barbaros Hera to the “Apostles’ Ointment”

During the Late antiquity, several works by Galen (2nd–3th CE.) were translated into Syriac for the first time by Sergius of Rēšʽaynā (6th CE.), starting up the Hippocratic-Galenic medicine in Syriac Language. Based on these translations, there arouse novel versions of compound medicines in Syriac, such as the “Apostles’ Ointment” which is found in The Book of Medicines, possibly from Abassid period, edited and translated by E.A.W. Budge in 1913, which contains more ancient Syriac medical prescriptions. The textual pharmaceutical study regarding the therapeutic uses and qualitative composition of the ‘Apostles’ Ointment’, and its comparison with a kind of plaster (barbaros) which appears in various Late antiquity Greek recipes (Galen, Oribasius, Aetius of Amida, and Paul of Aegina), reveal the micro-transformations suffered to a new and final Syriac Christian version which we here introduce.

Inclusion in the Church: opportunities, benefits, challenges

In the article the author tries to reveal the phenomenon of inclusion. According to the author, socio-cultural inclusion will lead to the integration into the Church of persons who superficially accept Christian canons and are not practicing Christians. The author assumes, that in society will continue the light version of Christianity, will spread religious indifferentism. The author makes a historical digression, points out that religion played a decisive role in the life of society. The author places special emphasis on the civilizational archetypes of «victim» as well as on the archetype of «taboo». These archetypes were considered sacred and motivated by the fall of man. The author believes that at the present stage of civilization there is an ongoing leveling of sacred archetypes. The author quotes excerpts from the Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis (Bergoglio) «Evangeli Gaudium». The author concludes that with an inattentive approach, an inclusive approach in the Church can lead to the trivialization, and later even the profanation of all Christian canons. The author of the article talks about the benefits of inclusion in the medical, human rights and charitable dimensions, but in the socio-cultural dimension he points to conventions and reservations. Integration into the church life of people who adhere to non-traditional sexual orientation, LGBT communities requires a special approach and crystallization of a clear and understandable position of the Church. Otherwise, according to the author, there is a threat of further desecration of life.

The Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Diamper and the Machinations of Religious Colonization

The Synod of Diamper is, arguably, amongst the most significant milestones in the history of St. Thomas Christians in Kerala. This Synod was convened in the church at Udayamperoor, Kochi, Kerala, from June 20 to June 26, 1599. As is documented, it was Archbishop Alexis De Menezes of Goa who convoked this Synod. 200 decrees were passed during the nine sessions which were held during the Synod; these decrees, in toto, became a turning point in the history of Christianity in Kerala. Primarily, the Synod of Diamper was a religious/theological one. However, its subsequent decisive role in the history and culture of Kerala also gave the Synod a social face. A close scrutiny of the canonas [canon] reveals that these decrees were formulated with a consideration of only Christian practices that were prevalent and familiar in the West [Occident]. In a grimly ironic sense, the canonas overtly attempts a coax-hoax, whereby the Christians of Kerala would be coerced to follow the rules of the occidental version of Christianity; and this disciplining would be aided by various methods including expulsions from parish, ex-communication, etc. One big fallout of this scenario was that the Christians of Kerala, who till then had a variegated co- existence with different cultures, were forced to take up an exclusive and singular notion of Christian culture. Through these canonas, many of the existing socio- cultural customs of the Christians of Kerala were abolished; an attempt to sculpt the socio-cultural life of this native populace and bring it in accordance with the image of the Christian that the West upheld. This article aims to reveal the methodology through which the Institutionalized Western Theological-agencies, by means of constant surveillance and an enforced seclusion-exclusion axis, exerted power on regional and native Christian group.

Introduction to the Special Issue Catholicism and Gender in Modern Spain†

Introduction to the Special Issue <i>Catholicism and Gender in Modern Spain</i>^†

“This is the way I pray”: precatory language in the writings of Niccolò Machiavelli

ABSTRACT Machiavelli’s antipathy toward institutionalized Christianity has been very well documented, but less attention has been afforded to whether there might be some version of Christianity of which he would have approved. In the present paper, we investigate Machiavelli’s misgivings about Christianity by inquiring into the role that he assigned to prayer, through which Christian “ideology” was operationalized. To our knowledge, nowhere in the large body of Machiavelli literature has anyone investigated systematically one such device for transmitting doctrinal principles into everyday practices. We contend that Machiavelli’s formulation of prayer is consistently transactional and in line with pagan worship, especially as it was practised by Roman religion. We conclude that Machiavelli was not un-Christian, but that his formulation of prayer reveals one element of his criticism of the earthly church that he believed was complicit in twisting Christianity’s potential for promoting commitment to love of country and civic liberty.

Христианский мистический опыт в панораме трансформаций неклассических онтологий бытия-во-времени

Trajectories of intersection and divergence between philosophical and religiously mystical versions of the ontology of being-in-time are studied in the article. It is concluded that the soul is constituted in qualitatively different time than “I”. If the soul is the junction of times, then “I” lives in the place of time breaking. The exit from time to eternity is preceded by the transformation of temporality by the junction of time in the modus of the present. In mystical traditions, such a transformation can be carried out in opposite directions: both the expansion of the present and the compression of the moment. A paradoxical roll-call is stated between the experience of the present in Christian mysticism and the theme of the present in non-classical philosophy. They agree that “I” can stay in the modus of the present not with his own efforts, but only in co-existence – joint existence. In Christian experience, this is the co-existence of synergy with God. In modern post-philosophy, God is replaced by the figure of the Other. Implications of such a substitution are being investigated. The uniqueness of the Christian version of the relation between time and eternity is seen in the provision on the gradation of qualitatively different times: both “timeless time” and “creature eternity”.

Tocqueville, Democratic Poetry, and the Religion of Humanity

AbstractThe Religion of Humanity has typically been associated with Auguste Comte's positivism. Within liberal philosophical debate, John Stuart Mill's measured advocacy for it has received some attention, especially given his otherwise well-known emphasis on the tension between religion and liberty. Yet Alexis de Tocqueville's perceptive awareness of the Religion of Humanity as an evolving phenomenon, expressed through his discussion of democratic poetry, remained largely unnoticed. Of course, Tocqueville's essential religio-political task was to promote a modified version of Christianity and buttress the standing of religious morality as an outside barrier against human action motivated by democratic materialism, notwithstanding the secular doctrine of self-interest well understood. Indeed, despite the neutral tone of Tocqueville's discussion of democratic poetry, elsewhere his critique of democratic pantheism, writers and orators, theatre, and historians warned against excessive veneration of humanity, which amounted to a sublimation of the dogma of the sovereignty of the people.

Neither Philosophy nor Theology: The Origin in Heidegger’s Earliest Thought

Abstract “The Origin,” one of Martin Heidegger’s most important notions after 1934, is tightly related to being-historical thinking, and to the peculiar kind of divinity that being-historical thinking indicates. However, the notion of the Origin appears already in Heidegger’s early Freiburg lectures (given between 1919 and 1923), thus placing it among the fundamentals of his early thought. This article argues that Heidegger’s project of fundamental ontology emerges from that early notion of the Origin, preparing the way for its flourishing in his later thinking. Attending to Heidegger’s early notion of the Origin, I suggest, reveals a unique feature of Heidegger’s thinking; namely, an element of genuine religiosity ungraspable in terms of both philosophy and theology. Thus, rather than interpreting fundamental ontology as a transcendental project encompassing a de-theologized version of early Christianity, it should be taken as an attempt to think the truth of the Origin, thus preparing the way for the genuine religiosity of Heidegger’s later thought. In this light, a unique sense of divinity underlies Heidegger’s lectures between 1919 and 1925; a sense which can only be comprehended through Heidegger’s triple sense schema (enactment–relation–content).

Disease and the Christian Discourse of Jewish Death in "De Excidio Hierosolymitano" 5, 2

The late-fourth century work called On the Destruction of Jerusalem (De Excidio Hierosolymitano), or “Pseudo-Hegesippus”, records the history of the Roman-Jewish War (66-73 CE) and particularly the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. As a Christian version of this history based largely upon Flavius Josephus’ earlier Jewish War, De Excidio understands himself to be telling the story of the effective death of the Jews in history. One major aspect of this narrative, I argue, is a discourse of Jewish disease, wherein Ps-Hegesippus portrays the Jews as “sick” with the plague of civil insurrection and sedition. But this discourse goes much further as well, cutting to the very core of De Excidio’s narrative logic. Here I argue that this discourse of Jewish disease finds its most powerful expression in one particular chapter of the work, Book 5, Chapter 2. I show that De Excidio 5.2 epitomizes the work’s rhetoric of Jewish contagion, which can nevertheless be traced throughout the entirety of the work.

Kimpa Vita (Dona Beatriz) and “Afro-Catholicism”: reexamining controversies and unsolved problems

My paper concentrates on certain unsolved or controversial questions regarding the famous nganga marinda (person communicating with the spiritual world), prophetess and religious leader and rebel, Kimpa Vita (Dona Beatriz) (1684-1706), who - in a period of civil war - "supported" Pedro IV (Nusama a Mvemba) to conquer and maintain the throne of the Empire of Kongo (now part of Angola and the DRC) with Sao Salvador (now Mbanza Kongo) as capital, and then “betrayed” him. She has been compared to Jeanne d' Arc and black Christians have insisted that the Pope make her a saint. She believed that she was the incarnation of St. Anthony of Padua, and her followers have been called Antonines. She has also been labelled in a 2016-film "Mother of African Revolution", trying to free the slaves. The results of these political and religious actions, real or attributed to her, need re-examination and further investigation. In the same context, her Africanism, expressed in her use of traditions, the establishment of an African-Catholic indigenous version of Christianity, her symbolism and philosophy as well as references to another older prophetess, Appolonia (sic!) Mafuta, receive renewed attention. The question is asked whether and in how far her court case and execution as a heretic, resulting from interventions by the Church and the King, were related to the Inquisition. Today, it is recognized that Kimpa Vita has introduced a new theology, an African version of Catholic Christianity. Finally, a post-mortem considers her influence after her death.

PHILOSOPHY, SOPHISTICS AND DIALECTICS IN WESTERN AND CHINESE PHILOSOPHIC PARADIGMS

An analysis of what the concepts and practices of philosophy, dialectics, sophistics are in the context of Western and Chinese paradigms of philosophy, is suggested in the article. Western philosophic tradition is based on the so-called Antique paradigm that exceeds from the idea of attaining happiness and avoiding suffering before the face of alien threatening reality, then it passes through the so-called Abrahamic paradigm in its Christian version with its ideas of monotheism and creationism and achieves the modern scientific paradigm at last based on nature science. Dialectics appeared in the frame of the Antique paradigm; three levels may be pointed out in it: Socratic where dialectics is a method of reasoning or teaching by means of oral conversation, Platonic as an approach that considers opposites not as excluding but supplementing each other, Hegelian and later Marxist where dialectics becomes an approach based on the principle of development. They correspond approximately to the according paradigm transitions in the Occident philosophy. Traditional Chinese philosophic paradigm is organismic and its organismism is conditioned with clan structure of the traditional Chinese society where all relations between people are subdivided clearly into inner (inside of one’s clan) and outer (outside of it) ones. Traditional Chinese ethics blames anything that can break piece and harmony inside of their own group. Disputes can convince nobody, they can only affront and destroy agreement inside of the group. From here the aphoristic character of the traditional Chinese philosophy comes, that supposes using of separate aphorisms and stories in place of logical arguments and systematical expound. These aphorisms and stories fall down into one’s memory and make one to come to one’s own conclusions. If intellectual gap at transition from the Antique to the Medieval Abrahamic paradigm was connected with rereading and reinterpretation of the corresponding philosophic texts, then in China it represented only a finishing of the same, existing paradigm through its narrowing. They were different historical conditions and cultures which determined different algorithms of development but nevertheless demonstrate some conceptual parallels. Though in quite different contexts.

African Traditional Religion Encounters Christianity: The Resilience of a Demonized Religion

African Traditional Religion Encounters Christianity: The Resilience of a Demonized Religion

Designed to Save: Scenography and ideology in Hell House

Indebted to the American tradition of the Halloween haunted house, Hell House presents the Pentecostal Christian version of a horror narrative, depicting the terrors waiting in the afterlife for those who sin. Consisting of seven key scenes, which address homosexuality, drunk driving, abortion, teen suicide, the occult and representations of Hell and Heaven, Hell House uses its performance as an evangelical tool. The event draws on aspects of immersive and promenade theatre and thus intertwines scenography and ideology, where each aspect of design is geared towards a singular goal: saving its audience from eternal torment in Hell. This article will examine the importance of staging and set in Hell House performance, and their relationship to the aim of the event. Particular attention will be paid to what its dramaturgy is intended to do, as Hell Houses ultimately use a created environment to represent a spiritual reality, in which both Heaven and Hell should be considered very real. The article will use the Hell House Kit, a do-it-yourself manual created for staging the event, to examine the connection between ideology and design that underpins the Hell House event, and the tensions this creates for representations of truth and reality in performance.