Studying Dream Interpretation from Early Christianity to the Rise of Islam

Early Christian and early Islamic texts on dreams and dream interpretation have come under increased scrutiny in recent decades. Dream literature from pagan and Jewish antiquity to the early medieval period demonstrates that dreams, especially prophetic dreams, were used to establish spiritual authority, enforce compliance, and justify violence in a religious context. The common cultural roots of Christianity and Islam emerge when we recognise the crucial role played by dreams and prophecy in the two traditions. The various methodologies used in recent scholarship on dreams and their interpretation are surveyed with a view to identifying those most relevant to the analysis of first‐millennium CE literary sources in Latin, Greek, Syriac, and Arabic. The key texts from the three major religious traditions in this period (Western Christian, Eastern Christian, and Islamic) are then analysed with a view to assessing whether early Christians and Muslims understood and taxonomised dreams differently. Literary genre and audience (lay, clerical, or monastic) are revealed as the key determinants of difference, rather than religious origins.     

Lincoln,Toby.Urbanizing China in War and Peace: The Case of Wuxi County

Located between Shanghai and Nanjing on the shores of Lake Tai,Wuxi lies in the heart of China's prosperous Jiangnan region.Traveling in the region today,it can be difficult to discern where the "city" ends and the "countryside" begins,since the entire region seems urbanized.     

近代早期英国海外贸易的兴起

近代早期英国海外贸易由弱到强不断得到发展。从最初伦敦与安特卫普之间的呢绒贸易,到17世纪中后期大西洋商业体系的初步形成,英国海外贸易经历了三个不同的历史阶段,并最终建立了殖民地贸易模式。这为英国实现海上强国的梦想,并成功地走向近代社会,意义重大,影响深远。     

评麦克尼尔的《西方的兴起》

一美国历史学家威廉·麦克尼尔 ① 所著《西方的兴起———人类共同体史》② 是一部在西方史学界影响巨大 ,并具有承先启后作用的“整体世界史”(ｗｏｒｌｄｈｉｓｔｏｒｙ)著作。可以称之为“世界史”的著作有数种。一是在统一的体例下 ,由多位专家合作编撰的国别史、地区史与断代史的多卷本总集 ,如《剑桥世界史》系列、苏联科学院主编的《世界通史》等。也有一些是简明概要的世界史读物或教科书。另一类则是由对世界整体历史有独到研究思考的学者 ,在对世界史各领域研究学术成果的基础上所撰写的体现了那个时代重要的思想、学派的世界历…     

Brashier,K.E.Public Memory in Early China

In his previous book, Ancestral Memory in Early China (2011), K.E.Brashier, a religious studies professor at Reed College, illuminated our understanding of early Chinese ancestral cults and established himself as an indisputable authority on the topic.To do so, he delineated how deceased ancestors were transformed into living memory in early China, covering roughly the early Zhou to the end of the Later Han dynasty.Brashier examined a wide variety of textual records relevant to rituals and customs surrounding ancestral worship and also analyzed their cognitive aspects.Adopting the performance theory framework, he showed the interactions between the living and the dead via the practice of rituals and the psychological manipulation of the ritual performers before and during ceremonies of ancestral sacrifice.This effort also advanced discussions of the concepts of afterworld and afterlife in early China.     

20世纪初近代科学的提倡与新历史考证学思潮的兴起

19世纪自然科学取得了巨大的成就,其科学观念深深地影响着20世纪的整个学术界。人学科受到自然科学成就的巨大鼓舞,纷纷向自然科学看齐,争先恐后地采用自然科学方法于人社会学科领域,于是便产生了社会科学。历史学从此作为社会科学的一个分支,