Of Sceptres and Censors: Biblical Interpretation and Censorship in Seventeenth-Century France

In 1676 Pierre-Daniel Huet, scholar and tutor to the Dauphin,encountered difficulties with state censorship. Bishop Bossuetwas blocking the publication of his Demonstratio evangelica,a recasting of an ancient Christian apologetic. The Sorbonnetheologian and censor, Edme Pirot, was caught in the middle.An analysis of the interaction between these three men revealsAncien Régime censorship as a series of negotiationsshaped by the different stakes, personalities, ambitions andstatus of the participants. Huet and Bossuet’s quarrelalso echoed the confessional debates of the sixteenth centuryand reflected disagreements within the Catholic Church thereafter.It raised such important questions as whether the Bible shouldbe subjected to the same types of analysis as secular textsand anticipated concerns about the relationship between biblicalcriticism and the rise of irreligion. Throughout, Bossuet skilfullymanipulated the mechanisms of state censorship to defend hisvision of Church Tradition by delaying the publication of Huet’sDemonstratio and suppressing Richard Simon’s L’histoirecritique du Vieux Testament.     

Themes and Variations: Taking Stock of the Advocacy Coalition Framework

A policy process framework that has been developed to simplify the complexity of public policy is the advocacy coalition framework (ACF). This essay reports on an analysis of 80 applications of the ACF spanning nearly 20 years. The review shows that the ACF is applicable to various substantive topics, across various geographical areas, and with other policy process theories and frameworks, including the stages heuristic. The most commonly tested hypotheses involve policy change, learning, and coalition stability. Although the hypotheses tend to be confirmed, questions remain about the membership, stability, and defection of coalition members; about the causal mechanisms linking external events and policy change; and about the conditions that facilitate cross-coalition learning. Emerging areas of research include policy subsystem interdependencies and coordination within, and between, coalitions.     

阐释与启示:海外关于中国民族主义问题的研究

民族主义问题备受学界关注。20世纪上半叶的中国民族主义演绎曾被概括为"步步高涨的50年"。以欧美学者为主,他们不仅致力于民族主义理论的基础研究,以解释、辨析、厘定相关概念,从政治学、社会学、人类学、文化学、经济学等角度考察民族主义的发生发展,而且关注具体语境下民族主义作为一种意识形态的政治性运作、社会思潮和社会政治运动,既从西方历史背景论述有关结论,又对中国等发展中国家的民族主义进行论析。既有研究虽对民族共同体的建构、民族意识的觉醒和民族观念的确立、民族主义思想的形成有详细论述,但从思想史上关照民族主义,真正在民族主义发生、发展和演进的语境中解读近代中国民族主义与政治、经济、文化和社会的内在关联,尚有很大研究空间。     

Note Concerning the Problem of Samson the Nazirite in the Biblical Studies

Apparently, some biblical scholars prefer to consider Samson only as a biblical character, rather than as a mythical hero too, and they think falsely that his title of Nazir has its explanation in the law text of Numbers.     

Prognosis and Postgnosis in Biblical Prophecy

The Prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible are more than documents containing pronouncements from the prophets after whom the texts are named. They include not only prophecies, but also interpretations of these prophecies’ historical consequences, a quality that makes the Bible’s prophetic literature stand out from its ancient Near Eastern counterparts. This interpretive dynamic is indispensable for understanding the reception of these prophecies in the texts from Qumran and in the New Testament.     

"以玉帛为草土"解

杨明照先生《抱朴子外篇校笺·嘉遯》:"草土,鄙夷之辞。""‘粪土’与此文之‘草土’,字虽有异,含义固不殊也。"庞月光先生《抱朴子外篇全译·嘉遯》注释:"草土,犹言粪土,鄙夷轻贱之辞也。"译文:"将宝玉绫罗视如粪土。"按,两位先生所言,皆与"玉帛""草土"内涵无涉。"玉帛"乃朝廷礼聘之物,"草土"乃居亲丧所用之物。"草土"指居父母大丧时,寝苫枕块,哀亲在草在土。句谓:把朝廷用"玉帛"礼聘自己为高官这种喜庆事视为居父母大丧时寝苫枕块哀亲在草在土的悲伤事。     

“整理国故运动”兴盛原因探究

20世纪20～30年代,“整理国故运动”曾经在民国学术界风行一时。究其原因,一方面是缘于新史料的不断发现和新方法的逐步运用;另一方面,当时学者们普遍抱有的“与外人争胜”的心态,也在很大程度上促成了“整理国故运动”的长期兴盛。     

Determination of the noun in Biblical Hebrew

The two comprehensive reference grammars for Biblical Hebrew, Gesenius/Kautzsch and Joüon/Muraoka, in addition to the more or less generally accepted categories of use of the definite article, make use of a category which they describe as not having to do with definiteness in the sense that we know it. In this category they group the instances of use of the article that do not seem to fit into the generally accepted categories, instances where the Hebrew definite article, in German and English respectively, is said to be expressed by an indefinite article. In the present article, I analyse the 67 examples given to substantiate the existence of the proposed category. I argue that this category probably does not exist and I contend that most of the examples, when carefully analysed, are examples of regular article usage. When the nouns in question are perceived as nondetermined and translated as such, it is because we are not sufficiently familiar with ancient Hebrew language and culture and hence do not possess the contextual information the articles refer to.     

Taking Stock of Foodplants Growing in the Cradle of Humankind Fossil Hominin Site,South Africa

African Archaeological Review - Despite a century’s work in the UNESCO Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa, there has been no systematic consideration of the area’s...