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.     

The Scientific Trajectory of the French School of Proximity: Interaction- and Institution-based Approaches to Regional Innovation Systems

The multi-faceted concept of proximity is often used nowadays in many theoretical and empirical analyses. It mainly originates in some French regional scientists' attempt, in the early 1990s, to develop new conceptual and methodological avenues with a view to the study of the industrial and spatial dynamics. The wide diffusion of the resulting research findings is explained by the fact that these scholars realized early on that it was in their interest to collectively structure their works through the setting-up of a research group. The present paper sets out to outline the scientific and institutional trajectories of the French group “Proximity Dynamics”, while underlining the progressive broadening of its scientific and institutional dimensions, as well as the main theoretical research fields these trajectories have permitted to investigate.     

Book reviews

Dynamique de l'espace français et aménagement du territoire. (The Dynamics of French Space and Spatial Planning), Michel Rochefort. Paris: L'Harmattan, 1995, 138 pp, £15.00, ISBN 2 7384 3338 3

Urban Process and Power. Peter Ambrose. London and New York: Routledge, 1994, 245 pp, £12.00 pb, ISBN 1 415 00850 6; £40.00 hb, ISBN 0 415 00850 4

Transport Systems, Policy and Planning: a Geographical Approach. R. Tolley and B. Turton. Harlow: Longman, 1995, xviii + 401 pp, £20.99 pb, ISBN 0 582 00562 0

Transport Policy—Ways into Europe's Future (Strategies and Options for the Future of Europe: Basic Findings 8). K. Button, with contributions by W. Weidenfeld, G. Wolfgang Heinze, H. H. Kill, R. Münch, N. Walter, G. Topmann, H. Holzapfel and K. O. Schallaböck. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann Foundation Publishers, 1994, 227 pp, £9.00, ISBN 3 89204 065 6

The European Challenge: Geography and Development in the European Community. M. Blacksell and A. M. Williams (Eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 429 pp, 1994, £45.00 hb, ISBN 0 19 874176 6; £15.95 pb, ISBN 0 19 874177 4     

La critique de l'idolâtrie des jeux scéniques dans le de civitate dei. destinataires et enjeux

Contrairement à son aîné Tertullien, saint Augustin ne consacre pas de longs développements à démontrer l'origine religieuse des jeux antiques. De nombreux passages du De civitate Dei font cependant exception ; l'auteur tente ici d'en rendre compte. Saint Augustin y vise le paganisme que la chute de Rome et la venue en Afrique du cercle sénatorial de Volusien ont rendu plus vivace. L'évêque d'Hippone mêle dans ses attaques une érudition purement livresque et des souvenirs personnels, grâce auxquels il démontre, contre toute évidence, le caractère religieux des jeux offerts par les notables des cités africaines. Le débat n ‘est pourtant pas déjà anachronique car, pour n'être pas religieux, les jeux n'en sont pas moins liés au paganisme du patriotisme urbain qui constitue la véritable cible de saint Augustin. A la cité terrestre comme absolu, il oppose l'idée de la vie comme peregrinatio, sans attaches, en marche dans l'espoir de la cité céleste.