Natural theology and ancient theology in the Jesuit China mission

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the proselytical use of ancient theology that developed in the environment of the Jesuit China Mission in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. This period is roughly coeval with the European diffusion of deistic doctrines based on a secularized interpretation of natural theology. I argue that the threat posed by the spread of such doctrines produced a significant effect on the philosophy that Jesuits developed in order to relate to Confucianism. In particular, in the late seventeenth century, Jesuits belonging to the China Mission gradually abandoned Matteo Ricci’s natural theology and espoused an approach grounded in ancient theology. The situation changed, however, after the turn of the eighteenth century. Deism continued to spread, and even ancient theology came to be perceived as dangerously close the libertinism. The increasing suspicion towards ancient theology was reflected, in the China Mission, by the reception of the doctrines advanced by the so-called “Figurists”, a group of French Jesuits who proposed an interpretation of certain characters of the Chinese Five Classics as figurae of the Bible.     

Nikos Gatsos' Amorgos,topography and the poetics of modernism

Abstract

Nikos Gatsos' Amorgos is approached here as a polyphonic poem that synthesizes elements of the Greek literary tradition into an intertextual palimpsest of fragments, in the vein of the modernist 'long poem'. The surrealist poet maintains a fine balance between tradition and radical innovation, shaping Amorgos as a place where poetry is created as an interaction of opposing tendencies. The topical character of the poem is underscored by its title: the sea-and-land imagery evokes the island as a literary topos of seclusion and self-sufficiency that lends its characteristics to the composition itself: a 'compendium' of poetic writing and avant-garde aesthetics.     

Locke and the Elements of Natural Philosophy: Some Problems of Attribution

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that John Locke’s interactions with the Quakers and his reflections on their doctrines and behaviour provide the salient background for understanding the content and polemical orientation of the chapter on enthusiasm in An Essay concerning Human Understanding. The terms of reference and key features of the vocabulary of the chapter “Of Enthusiasm” that Locke added to the fourth edition of the Essay derive from the Quakers and from Locke’s critical reflections on their doctrine of immediate inspiration. While Locke acknowledged that the phenomenon was to be found among other religious groups, it was the Quakers whom Locke had in mind when he formulated his philosophical critique of enthusiasm.     

Nietzsche's Political Critique of Modern Science

Abstract

Contrary to the claims that The Brothers Karamazov is a polyphonic novel, in which the author's own views are irrelevant to its interpretation, and that Dostoevsky himself was unable to furnish an adequate defense of Christianity after Book V, the author shows how Zossima's doctrines of active love and responsibility for all are the interpretive keys to the novel. This so-called “unity in diversity” in Bakhtin's literary criticism thereby provide a compelling alternative vision of community from the Grand Inquisitor's.     

Sword,Priest and Conversion: On Religion and Apostasy in South Slav Literature in the Period of National Revival

Abstract

This article examines the works of four writers of Croatian, Slovene, Serbian and Bosniak literature in the period of National Revival, in their literary, historical and discursive contexts: Pre?ern’s Krst pri Savici, Ma?urani?’s Smrt Smail-age ?engi?a, Njego?’s Gorski vijenac and Ba?agi?’s Abdullah Pa?a. Three of the four authors were also statesmen, and all four are considered canonical national writers. There is a striking similarity between their otherwise different works, resulting from speeches by priests who either demand and justify conversion, or vehemently oppose it and call for vengeance. In all four works, the enemy is not a foreign conqueror, but an apostate who sides with the conqueror by accepting his faith. Although in all four works the values of the epic and heroic world are pronounced dead, epic action — a ’sword’ — is still very much alive. Though the central act of conversion is accompanied by religious symbolism which gives rise to the impression of a clash of religions, in all four works conversion does not have a religious meaning, it is purely political.     

Skeletal biology in the twentieth century: From Piltdown to the present

Spencer, Frank. The Piltdown Papers 1908–1955. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. xii + 282 pp. including references and name and subject indices. $65.00 cloth

Spencer, Frank. Piltdown: A Scientific Forgery. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. xxvi + 272 pp. including references and name and subject indices. $24.95 cloth

I?can, Mehmet ?a?ar, and Kenneth A.R. Kennedy, eds. Reconstruction of Life from the Skeleton. New York: Alan R. Liss, 1989. xv + 315 pp. including chapter references and index. $49.50 cloth.     

Maps in Italian atlases of the sixteenth century,being a comparative list of the Italian maps issued by Lafreri,Forlani, Duchetti,Bertelli and others,found in atlases

ABSTRACT

In 1771, Daniel Paterson entered into a publishing agreement with the bookseller Thomas Carnan to print and publish a travel itinerary known as Paterson’s Roads. This book was to become the most enduringly popular practical road book of the period. However, Paterson and Carnan were soon embroiled in litigation. This article examines the legal cases that arose when the geographical information contained in Paterson’s Roads was re-used, and improved upon, in a subsequent publication. It explores the background to the cases, focusing on what they reveal about the inner workings of the book and map trade of the period, as well as considering some of the broader historical ramifications. The article also demonstrates that these cases are of ongoing legal significance because they played an important role in developing some of the doctrines and principles of copyright law that continue to be controversial today.     

Muslim Theologies of Solidarity and Disavowal and the Challenge of Religious Pluralism

ABSTRACT

Rawls' conception of political liberalism does not reckon exclusivist salvation religions to be, for that reason alone, unreasonable. He posits, however, that exclusivist doctrines of salvation are likely to become more generous in their views of the religious other with the experience of toleration. While the religious welcome toleration by the majority, relaxation of doctrines of salvation dilutes the urgency of religious truth, and so reduces a religion's ability to justify its existence. Paradoxically, political toleration creates a countervailing demand within a religious community to articulate more precisely what is intolerable in the religious other. This paper explores the dialectic between toleration and nontoleration in the history of Muslim sects and suggests that this history offers lessons on the kinds of strategies that can be successful in promoting religious tolerance in a Muslim society, as well as the limits that might reasonably be expected in those societies.     

On Sappho 1: vv. 7–15 and Rigveda 1.118; an Emendation in v. 18

The literary image in Sappho 1.7–15 of a goddess ascending on and travelling by a chariot which is yoked to birds occurs also of the Daughter of the Sun in hymn 1.118 of the Rigveda. Apart from the image as such, the shared context of prayer in the two poems and certain features common to the identities of both goddesses suggest that the images share a common ancestor in Indo-European religious discourse.

In Sappho 1.18, the emendation πε?θην, together with the understanding of the major ms. tradition in v. 19 as a crasis κ?c?γην?相似文献   

Traditional oral theatre meets popular middle-class melodrama: the Greek shadow-theatre puppeteer Vasilaros

Abstract

Vasilaros (1899–1979), a moderately educated Greek shadow-theatre puppeteer, adapted popular melodramas and novels with strong bourgeois morality, such as Οι δ?ο λοχ?αι in 1931, Η ?γνωστο? in 1937, Αι δ?ο ορφανα? in 1944, and Οι ?θλιοι in 1955. The adaptations indicate that by the mid-1930s, the borderline between the traditional oral art of shadow theatre and mainstream culture had become considerably blurred. This article explores the convergence of these two cultures in terms of dramatic structure and ideology.     

The doubling of the self in the private diaries of Ion Dragoumis,George Seferis and George Theotokas

Abstract

The 'doubling of the self' is a phenomenon that appears in entries of private diaries and consists in the division of the diarist's self into two: the self that acts and the self that observes and writes. This phenomenon can be found in Dragoumis' ?υλλα ημ?ρολογιου, Seferis' M?ρ?ζ and Theotokas' T?τραδια ημ?ρολογιου. There are entries where the doubling of the self occurs in practice and entries where it is described, discussed or analysed. All these reveal the three Greek diarists' contradictory feelings about the doubling of the self, but also the latter's significance for the private diary.     

Reindeer antlers and what they can tell us about the reindeer population

The form and size of reindeer antlers are due to the animals’ age, genetic constitution, and nutritional condition.

The antlers are shed once a year at different seasons depending on the animals’ age, sex, and, for females, whether they are pregnant or not.

Finds of subfossil antler‐fragments from Heisantj?nn and Sumtangen on Hardangervidda show that the hunting has taken place early in the autumn and that is has been selective for the males.

This article is based on studies of the reindeer, Rangifier tarandus L. on Hardangervidda today, and on a subfossil bone material.     

Public policy and anthropology

Michael V. Angrosino, ed. Do Applied Anthropologists Apply Anthropology? Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1976. 136 pp. $4.50 paper.

John H. Bodley. Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems. Menlo Park, California: Cummings Publishing Company, 1976. 246 pp. Bibliography and index. $4.50 paper.

Peggy Reeves Sanday, ed. Anthropology and the Public Interest: Field‐work and Theory. New York: Academic Press, 1976. xxviii + 363 pp. Figures, tables, and index. $19.50.     

Cropsey on Plato and the Unity of Philosophy

Abstract

Cropsey's book, Plato's World, contains his longest and most sustained reflections on a set of Platonic dialogues, but it is not the first work he published on Plato or the last he intended to write. His last collection of essays, On Humanity's Intensive Introspection, shows that in his writings on Plato Cropsey was attempting to answer a broader question: What is philosophy?     

Do ‘in vitro children’ exist? The ‘ontological choreography’ between public debates and private experiences in Poland

ABSTRACT

Children who were born used IVF in Poland are subject of vivid discussion nowadays. In this article, we probe the ontology of the in vitro child: do in vitro children exist? If so, how and where? We analyse how an ‘IVF child’ is constructed through public discourses and private narratives. We explore media publications, as well as doctors’ and parents’ narratives concerning IVF children. A very strong voice in the debate has Catholic Church, which opposes medically assisted reproduction. Our main interest in this text are the answers of children and adults born using in vitro. Even young children recognize some focal points from the debate over assisted reproduction and refer to them. Their narratives show that they feel interpellated into existence by various discourses. In this manner, we argue, being an ‘in vitro child’ in Poland is a political status, not a biological one.     

Don Isaac Abravanel and Leonardo Bruni: A Literary and Philosophical Confrontation

Abstract

Don Isaac Abravanel (1437–1508) was one of the first Jewish thinkers to express republican positions, yet very little is known about his knowledge of humanistic republican conceptions. Had he read Leonardo Bruni’s republican writings? Had he even heard of them? In this essay I attempt to address this philological gap by comparing Abravanel’s republican commentary on 1 Samuel 8 with Bruni’s Laudatio florentinae Urbis, especially the motif of the plea to God to authorize a political regime. This comparison is particularly useful for illuminating their respective positions on republicanism, their shared interests and conceptions, as well as their divergent attitudes to their own political and historical environment. This divergence, I argue, sheds light on the early modern Christian and Jewish receptions of ancient republicanism.     

REVIEW

Arne Skj?lsvold: Slettab? i Ogna. Forel?pig orientering om en boplass med bosetning fra yngre steinalder og bronsealdet. (Slettab? in Ogna. Preliminary publication of a settlement from Late Stone Age and Bronze Age). Viking XXXVI 1972. 74 pp. 30 Figs. English summary     

Ruins about Merj Hîn in Subalpine Lebanon

Abstract

An attentive examination of the impressive finds of the mausoleum uncovered in 2007 in Herodium has demonstrated that these are not in accord with the characteristics of Herodian architecture as postulated by the late Prof. Ehud Netzer. The following four arguments show that this monument, which was indeed built by Herod, did not serve as his eternal resting place: ? Its moderate dimensions.

? The absence of an appropriate gateway to the burial ground, and an adequate assembly space around the tomb.

? A stratigraphic argument: The stairway leading up to the palace-fortress on the hilltop leaves the mausoleum ‘in its shade’, being also overlaid on top of the single irrigation pool that served the small garden that had surrounded the tomb.

? The absence of any correspondence between the axis of symmetry of the mausoleum, and that of Greater Herodium, indicating that these two were entirely different building projects.

Two alternative proposals are presented for the possible locations of the tomb, which might have disappeared.     

Muslims in Britain and France

Andrew, D., Mists of Regret: Culture and Sensibility in Classic French Film (Princeton Paperbacks, 1995), xv + 409pp., £19.95, ISBN 0 691 00883 3

Barou, J., and Prado, P., Les Anglais dans nos campagnes (L'Harmattan, 1995), 238pp., 140F., ISBN 2 7384 3352 9

Blanchot, M., The Writing of the Disaster, trans. Ann Smock, new edn. (University of Nebraska Press, [1986] 1995), 153pp., £11.00, ISBN 0 8032 6120 9

Brami, J., Cottentenet‐Hage, M., and Verdaguer, P., eds., Regards sur la France des armies 1980 ‐ Le Roman (Anma Libri, 1994), 260pp., ISBN 0 915838 96 6

Brewer, M.M., Claude Simon: Narrativities Without Narrative (University of Nebraska Press, 1995), 183pp., $38.50, ISBN 0 8032 1261 5

Carroll, D., French Literary Fascism: Nationalism, Anti‐Semitism and the Ideology of Culture (Princeton University Press, 1995), 300pp., £24.95, ISBN 0 691 03723 X

Charle, C., A Social History of France in the Nineteenth Century trans. Mirian Kochan, (Berg, 1994), x + 314pp., hbk, ISBN 0 85496 906 2, pbk, ISBN 0 85496 913 6

Cordelier, S., Poisson, E. et al., L'État de la France 1995–96 (La Découverte, 1995), 635pp., 159F., ISBN 2 7071 2447 8

Crisp, C., The Classic French Cinema 1930–1960 (Indiana University Press, 1994), 485pp., £50.00, ISBN 0 2533 1550 6

Crozier, M., La Crise de l'Intelligence (Interéditions, 1995), 200pp., 110F., ISBN 2 7296 0567 3

Debré, M., Combattre Toujours: Mémoires, 1969–1993 (Albin Michel, 1994), 333pp., 150F., ISBN 2 226 07536 4

Dieudonné, P., ed., Villes reconstruites du dessin au iestin (L'Harmattan, 1994), vol. 1, 382pp., 190F., ISBN 2 7384 2605 0, vol. 2, 384pp., 190F., ISBN 2 7384 2606 9

Domenach, N., and Szarfan, M., De si bons amis (Plon, 1994), 454pp., 110F., ISBN 2 259 18018 3

Duchene, F.L., Jean Monnet: the First Statesman of Interdependence (W. W. Norton, 1994), 410pp., £22.00, ISBN 0 393 03497 6

Dutton, D., ed., Statecraft and Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century (Liverpool University Press, 1995), 180pp., £15.05, ISBN 0 85323 379 9

Eck, J.‐F., La France dans la nouvelle economic mondiale (PUF, 1994), 312pp., 150F., ISBN 2 13 046092 5

Forest, P., Histoire de Tel Quel, 1960–82 (Seuil, 1995), 655pp., 180F., ISBN 2 02 017346 8

Gardies, A., L'Espace au cinéma (Meridiens Klincksieck, 1993)

Gregg, J., Maurice Blanchot and the Literature of Transgression (Princeton University Press, 1994), 241pp., £25.00, ISBN 0 691 03329 3

Habert, P., Perrineau, P., and Ysmal, C., eds., Le Vote Sanction: Les élections législatives des 21 et 28 mars 1993 (Départment des études politiques du Figaro et Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 1993), 347pp., 150F., ISBN 2 7246 0634 5

Kessler, M.‐C., Les Grands corps de l'état (Presses Universitaires de France, 1994), 128pp., 36F., ISBN 2 13 046502 1

Kramer, S.P., Does France Still Count? The French Role in the New Europe (Praeger, 1994), 113pp., £11.95, ‘Washington Papers’ series ISBN 0 275 95061 1.

Lallement, M., ed., Travail et emploi: le temps de métamorphoses (L'Harmattan, 1995), 283pp., 150F., ISBN 2 7384 2559 3

Le Crom, J.‐P., Syndicate nous voilal Vichy et le corporatisme (Les Editions Ouvrières, 1995), 410pp., 190F., ISBN 2 7082 3123 5

Lefait, P., Quatre Ministres etpuis s'en vont (Editions de l'Atelier, 1995), 310pp., 120F., ISBN 2 7082 3105 7

Lepetit, B. et al., Atlas de la Révolution française, vol. 8, Population (Editions EHESS, 1995), 92pp., 120F., ISBN 2 7132 1189 1

Manent, P., An Intellectual History of Liberalism, trans. Rebecca Balinski (Princeton University Press, 1994), pp. 128, £16.95, ISBN 0 691 03437 0

Martelli, R., Le rouge et le bleu. Essai sur le communisme français (Editions de l'Atelier, 1995), 286pp., 120F., ISBN 2 7082 3119 7

Mélenchon, J.‐L., Rocard, le rendezvous manqué (Ramsay, 1994), 237pp., 110F..ISBN2 84114 053 9

Minc, A., La France ie l'an 2000 (Odile Jacob/Documentation Française), 321pp., 60F., ISBN 2 7381 0281 6

Osen, J., Royalist Political Thought during the French Revolution (Greenwood Press, 1995), 154pp., £49.50, ISBN 0 313 29441 0

Outram, D., The Enlightenment (Cambridge University Press, 1995), 141pp., £27.95 hbk, ISBN 0 521 41522 5, £9.96 pbk, ISBN 0 521 42534

Phillips, P., Republican France: Divided Loyalties (Greenwood, 1993), xxiii + 168pp., $49.95, ISBN 0 313 27503 3

Platten, D., Djian: 37° 2 le matin (University of Glasgow French &; German Publications, 1995), 92pp., £3.95, ISBN 085261 368 7

Proudhon, P.‐J., What is Property? (CUP, 1994), 227pp., £55 hbk, £12.95 pbk.

Roberts, M., Civilization Without Sexes: Reconstructing Gender in Postwar France 1917–1927 (University of Chicago Press, 1994), 337pp., £15.25, ISBN 0 226 72122 1

Rosanvallon, P., La nouvelle question sociale (Seuil, 1995), 223pp., 95F., ISBN 2 02 022030

Royal, S., Pays, paysans, pay sages. La reconciliation est‐elle possible? (Laffont, 1993), 228pp., 89F., ISBN 2 221 07046 1

Suleiman, E., Les Ressorts cachés de la réussite française (Seuil, 1995), 377pp., 130F., ISBN 2 02 021841 0

Tindall, G., Célestine. Voices from a French Village (Sinclair‐Stevenson, 1995), ix + 286pp., £17.99, ISBN 1 85619 534 1

Tricot, B., Mémoires (Quai Voltaire, 1994), 503pp., 148F., ISBN 2 87653 209 3

Veillon, D., Vivre et Survivre en France 1939–1947 (Editions Payot, 1995), 371pp., 145F., ISBN 2 228 88875 3

Vigato, J.‐C., L‘Architecture Régionalize. France 1890–1950 (Norma, 1994), 392pp., 160F., ISBN 2 9092832 11 9

Wagstaff, P., ed., Regionalism in Europe (Intellect, 1994), 120pp., £14.95, ISBN 1 871516 84 6

Walker, D.H., Outrage and Insight: Modern French Writers and the ’Fait Divers’ (Berg, 1995), 281pp., £39.95, ISBN 0 85946 780 X

Wilson, H.S., African Decolonisation (Edward Arnold, 1994), 222pp., £12.99, ISBN 0 340 55929 2     

The fall of Zion and the revelation of the law

Abstract

Did the Egyptians Die in a Storm? F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman have argued that Exodus 15,1–19 presents a version of the crossing of the Reed Sea in which the Israelites are pursued by the Egyptians across a storm‐tossed sea in boats, instead of across the dry seabed with the waters in walls on either side. The central argument hinges on the meaning of qp’ and nd (v 8) in the light of comparative philology; however, careful application of comparative philology does not support their thesis.