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Revelation
Selected AbstractsBLACK HOLES AND REVELATIONS: MICHEL HENRY AND JEAN-LUC MARION ON THE AESTHETICS OF THE INVISIBLEMODERN THEOLOGY, Issue 3 2009PETER JOSEPH FRITZ This essay examines how Michel Henry's and Jean-Luc Marion's continuation of phenomenology's turn to the invisible relates to painting, aesthetics, and theology. First, it discusses Henry and Marion's redefinition of phenomenality. Second, it explores Henry's "Kandinskian" description of abstract painting as expressing "Life." Third, it explicates Marion's "Rothkoian" rehabilitation of the idol and renewed zeal for the icon,both phenomena exemplify "givenness." Fourth, it unpacks my thesis: Henry's phenomenology, theologically applied, exercises an inadequate Kantian apophasis, characterized by a sublime sacrifice of the imagination; although Marion's work sometimes evidences a similar tendency, its prevailing momentum offers theology a fully catholic scope. [source] Listening to God: Using Meta,Terminology to Describe Revelation in a Comparative Theistic Context1DIALOG, Issue 2 2009A. J. Watson Abstract:, Starting from the assertion that comparative theology is inherently dialogical in nature, this paper examines the use of non-confessional meta-terminology and its application in interfaith dialogue. In so doing, it examines potential meta-terms for describing revelation as related in the Bhagavad-Gita, the Qur'an, and the Gospel of John, and concludes that non-confessional terms aid in the dismissal of normative viewpoints, leading to greater appreciation of commonality and meaning in the truth claims of other faiths and dialogue partners. [source] Preaching Christ Crucified: Luther and the Revelation of GodDIALOG, Issue 4 2004David C. Ratke Abstract:, The doctrine of revelation has to do with how we know God, but Luther warned against the human presumption that God can be known fully. God remains hidden and is revealed in Jesus and his death on the cross. The cross is at odds with all human notions of an omnipotent God. Preachers ought to be suspicious of human presumptions about God that inflate and puff up. The cross is the antidote for a theology and a preaching of glory as well as the criterion for theology and preaching that authentically proclaims God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. [source] Newton's treatise on Revelation: the use of a mathematical discourse*HISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 204 2006Raquel Delgado-Moreira This article focuses on the prophetic work of Newton and his peers, concentrating on a particular manuscript on Revelation for which Newton experimented with a ,mathematical' style. This text exemplifies two distinct levels in Newton's work: structure and epistemology. Since Newton thought that prophecy and mathematics required different kinds of proof, the possible similarities between the two disciplines are not to be found at the level of demonstration. In explaining Newton's use of a mathematical discourse, historians of Newton's writings must give consideration to non-epistemological issues, such as his potential audience and his rhetorical strategies.1 [source] Revelation, Scripture and Tradition: Some Comments on John Webster's Conception of ,Holy Scripture'INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 4 2004Gavin D'Costa I argue that finally Webster's arguments fall short of what he wants to preserve: that in holy scripture we are confronted by God's Word, interpreted through his Spirit. It falls short precisely because the authoritative role of tradition is underplayed. Internal to Webster's argument the conceptual priority of sanctification to inspiration is called into question. I approach this criticism of Webster from a close inspection of his treatment of the Roman Catholic position on the matter. [source] Telling the Truth, Naming the Power and Confessing our Faith in the Market: The Missiological Implications of the Accra ConfessionINTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF MISSION, Issue 386-387 2008Roderick R. Hewitt This article argues that the neoliberal economic order that undergirds the contemporary phase of globalization is, to a great extent, linked to the demise of Christendom in Western society and the emergence of a post-Christendom culture and this carries major missiological implications for the church. Fidelity to the Christian faith requires affirming God's sovereignty over all of God's creation and this necessitates resisting the deceptive economic idolatry that is at work in our world. The methodology of engagement involves taking sides on issues and choices that are unclear and complex. Using Caribbean hermeneutics in a re-reading of Rev. 17 and 18, I suggest that the Book of Revelation serves as a potent signpost to address the contemporary Babylonian system that is controlling the world economic order. The Accra Confession and the Agape Call to Love and Action do not leave room for the church's ministry and mission to be neutral. Although the forces of opposition are strong, I argue that the church that remains faithful in doing Christ's mission cannot be defeated. [source] Religion and the "Evil Empire",JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY, Issue 2 2008HILARY CAREY This paper provides an historiographical review of the rhetorical and historical sources for religious suspicion of empires and imperialism in the west. It begins with an analysis of Ronald Reagan's celebrated "evil empire" speech of March 1983, and traces its polemical roots to scriptural precedents, notably in the Book of Revelation, in which "empire" is equated with the unjust rule of Babylon. Some comparisons are made between the general use of religious ideologies to support imperial regimes in ancient and other, more modern, world empires including China and Islam. The final section considers the debate about the role of religion in supporting , or critiquing , modern, secularised empire states such as the second British Empire. The paper argues that it is not possible to understand the problematical relationship of religion and empire in modern societies without recognising the ongoing force of Christian polemic even when religious arguments have not specifically been invoked. [source] On the Revelation of Private Information in the U.S. Crop Insurance ProgramJOURNAL OF RISK AND INSURANCE, Issue 4 2007Alan Ker The crop insurance program is a prominent facet of U.S. farm policy. The participation of private insurance companies as intermediaries is justified on the basis of efficiency gains. These gains may arise from either decreased transaction costs through better established delivery channels and/or the revelation of private information. We find empirical evidence suggesting that private information is revealed by insurance companies via their reinsurance decisions. However, it is unlikely that such information will be incorporated into subsequent premium rates by the government. [source] Reading Symbols, and Writing words.NEW BLACKFRIARS, Issue 1019 2008A Model for Biblical Inspiration Abstract Biblical Inspiration has long been considered an important concept for Catholic theology, but the difficulties experienced in trying to give an adequate and convincing explanation of how divine and the human authors could collaborate in producing Biblical texts has discouraged many writers from pursuing the topic. Some have considered that the difficulties are so great that the task of exploring a theology of Inspiration is too great to make the effort worthwhile. This article, in attempting to sketch a model for Biblical Inspiration, begins by trying to identify exactly what is required for the theology of Inspiration, and then discarding what is not; it also sets out to distinguish clearly between Revelation and Inspiration, while recognising that the two are closely related, and using a model of symbolic mediation for Revelation. The article goes on to propose a model of Inspiration which satisfies not only the demands of contemporary Biblical scholarship and philosophical hermeneutics, but also the requirements of the doctrine of Inspiration as found in the Magisterial documents of the Catholic Church. [source] The Role of Information Revelation in Elimination Contests,THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 536 2009Jun Zhang In this article, we investigate how information revelation rules affect the existence and the efficiency of equilibria in two-round elimination contests. We establish that no symmetric separating equilibrium exists under the full revelation rule and find that the non-existence result is very robust. We then characterise a partially efficient separating equilibrium under the partial revelation rule when players' valuations are uniformly distributed. We finally investigate the no revelation rule and find that it is both most efficient and optimal in maximising the total efforts from the contestants. Within our framework, more information revelation leads to less efficient outcomes. [source] Revelation, Scripture and Church: Theological Hermaneutic Thought of James Barr, Paul Ricoeur and Hans Frei.THE HEYTHROP JOURNAL, Issue 1 2009By Richard R. Topping No abstract is available for this article. [source] Revelation: the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ (Blackwell Bible Commentaries).THE HEYTHROP JOURNAL, Issue 1 2007By Judith Kovacs, Christopher Rowland No abstract is available for this article. [source] Teaching & Learning Guide for: Victorian Life WritingLITERATURE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2007Valerie Sanders Author's Introduction The Victorian period was one of the great ages for life-writing. Though traditionally renowned for its monumental ,lives and letters', mainly of great men, this was also a time of self-conscious anxiety about the genre. Critics and practitioners alike were unsure who should be writing autobiography, and whether its inherent assertiveness ruled out all but public men as appropriate subjects. It was also a period of experimentation in the different genres of life-writing , whether autobiography, journals, letters, autobiographical novels, and narratives of lives combined with extracts from correspondence and diaries. Victorian life-writing therefore provides rich and complex insights into the relationship between narrative, identity, and the definition of the self. Recent advances in criticism have highlighted the more radical and non-canonical aspects of life-writing. Already a latecomer to the literary-critical tradition (life-writing was for a long time the ,poor relation' of critical theory), auto/biography stresses the hidden and silent as much as the mainstream and vocal. For that reason, study of Victorian life-writing appeals to those with an interest in gender issues, postcolonialism, ethnicity, working-class culture, the history of religion, and family and childhood studies , to name but a few of the fields with which the genre has a natural connection. Author Recommends A good place to start is the two canonical texts for Victorian life-writing: George P. Landow's edited collection, Approaches to Victorian Autobiography (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1979) and Avrom Fleishman's Figures of Autobiography: The Language of Self-Writing in Victorian and Modern England (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1983). These two re-ignited interest in Victorian life-writing and in effect opened the debate about extending the canon, though both focus on the firmly canonical Ruskin and Newman, among others. By contrast, David Amigoni's recently edited collection of essays, Life-Writing and Victorian Culture (Aldershot: Ashgate 2006) shows how far the canon has exploded and expanded: it begins with a useful overview of the relationship between lives, life-writing, and literary genres, while subsequent chapters by different authors focus on a particular individual or family and their cultural interaction with the tensions of life-writing. As this volume is fairly male-dominated, readers with an interest in women's life-writing might prefer to start with Linda Peterson's chapter, ,Women Writers and Self-Writing' in Women and Literature in Britain 1800,1900, ed. Joanne Shattock (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 209,230. This examines the shift from the eighteenth-century tradition of the chroniques scandaleuses to the professional artist's life, domestic memoir, and spiritual autobiography. Mary Jean Corbett's Representing Femininity: Middle-Class Subjectivity in Victorian and Edwardian Women's Autobiographies (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1992) begins with material on Wordsworth and Carlyle, but ,aims to contest the boundaries of genre, gender, and the autobiographical tradition by piecing together a partial history of middle-class women's subjectivities in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries' (3). Corbett is particularly interested in the life-writing of actresses and suffragettes as well as Martineau and Oliphant, the first two women autobiographers to be welcomed into the canon in the 1980s and 90s. Laura Marcus's Auto/biographical Discourses, Theory, Criticism, Practice (Manchester and New York, NY: Manchester University Press, 1994) revises and updates the theoretical approaches to the study of life-writing, stressing both the genre's hybrid qualities, and its inherent instability: in her view, it ,comes into being as a category to be questioned' (37). Another of her fruitful suggestions is that autobiography functions as a ,site of struggle' (9), an idea that can be applied to aesthetic or ideological issues. Her book is divided between specific textual examples (such as the debate about autobiography in Victorian periodicals), and an overview of developments in critical approaches to life-writing. Her second chapter includes material on Leslie Stephen, who is also the first subject of Trev Lynn Broughton's Men of Letters, Writing Lives: Masculinity and Literary Auto/biography in the Late Victorian Period (London: Routledge, 1999) , her other being Froude's controversial Life of Carlyle. With the advent of gender studies and masculinities, there is now a return to male forms of life-writing, of which Martin A. Danahay's A Community of One: Masculine Autobiography and Autonomy in Nineteenth-Century Britain (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993) is a good example. Danahay argues that nineteenth-century male autobiographers present themselves as ,autonomous individuals' free of the constraints of social and familial contexts, thus emphasizing the autonomy of the self at the expense of family and community. Online Materials My impression is that Victorian life-writing is currently better served by books than by online resources. There seem to be few general Web sites other than University module outlines and reading lists; for specific authors, on the other hand, there are too many to list here. So the only site I'd recommend is The Victorian Web: http://.victorianweb.org/genre/autobioov.html This Web site has a section called ,Autobiography Overview', which begins with an essay, ,Autobiography, Autobiographicality and Self-Representation', by George P. Landow. There are sections on other aspects of Victorian autobiography, including ,Childhood as a Personal Myth', autobiography in Dickens and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and a list of ,Suggested Readings'. Each section is quite short, but summarizes the core issues succinctly. Sample Syllabus This sample syllabus takes students through the landmarks of Victorian life-writing, and demonstrates the development of a counter-culture away from the mainstream ,classic male life' (if there ever was such a thing) , culminating in the paired diaries of Arthur Munby (civil servant) and Hannah Cullwick (servant). Numerous other examples could have been chosen, but for those new to the genre, this is a fairly classic syllabus. One week only could be spent on the ,classic male texts' if students are more interested in pursuing other areas. Opening Session Open debate about the definition of Victorian ,life-writing' and its many varieties; differences between autobiography, autobiographical fiction, diary, letters, biography, collective biography, and memoir; the class could discuss samples of selected types, such as David Copperfield, Father and Son, Ruskin's Praeterita, and Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë. Alternatively, why not just begin with Stave Two of Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843), in which the First Spirit takes Scrooge back through his childhood and youth? This is a pretty unique type of life-writing, with Scrooge ,laughing and crying' as his childhood and youth are revealed to him in a series of flashbacks (a Victorian version of ,This is Your Life?'). The dual emotions are important to note at this stage and will prompt subsequent discussions of sentimentality and writing for comic effect later in the course. Week 2 Critical landmarks: discussion of important stages in the evolution of critical approaches to life-writing, including classics such as Georges Gusdorf's ,Conditions and Limits of Autobiography', in Autobiography: Essays Theoretical and Critical, ed. James Olney (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980), 28,47; Philippe Lejeune's ,The Autobiographical Pact', in On Autobiography, ed. Paul John Eakin, trans. Katherine Leary (original essay 1973; Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), 3,30; and Paul De Man's ,Autobiography as De-Facement', Modern Language Notes 94 (1979): 919,30. This will provide a critical framework for the rest of the course. Weeks 3,4 Extracts from the ,male classics' of Victorian life-writing: J. S. Mill's Autobiography (1873), Ruskin's Praeterita (1885,89), and Newman's Apologia pro Vita Sua (1864). What do they think is important and what do they miss out? How open or otherwise are they about their family and personal lives? Are these essentially ,lives of the mind'? How self-aware are they of autobiographical structures? Are there already signs that the ,classic male life' is fissured and unconventional? An option here would be to spend the first week focusing on male childhoods, and the second on career trajectories. Perhaps use Martin Danahay's theory of the ,autonomous individual' (see above) to provide a critical framework here: how is the ,Other' (parents, Harriet Taylor) treated in these texts? Weeks 5,6 Victorian women's autobiography: Harriet Martineau's Autobiography (1877) and Margaret Oliphant's Autobiography (1899): in many ways these are completely unalike, Martineau's being ordered around the idea of steady mental growth and public recognition, while Oliphant's is deeply emotional and disordered. Can we therefore generalize about ,women's autobiography'? What impact did they have on Victorian theories of life-writing? Students might like to reconsider Jane Eyre as an ,autobiography' alongside these and compare scenes of outright rebellion. The way each text handles time and chronology is also fascinating: Martineau's arranged to highlight stages of philosophical development, while Oliphant's switches back and forth in a series of ,flashbacks' to her happier youth as her surviving two sons die ,in the text', interrupting her story. Week 7 Black women's autobiography: how does Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands (1857) differ from the Martineau and Oliphant autobiographies? What new issues and genre influences are introduced by a Caribbean/travelogue perspective? Another key text would be Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave-Girl (1861). How representative and how individual are these texts? Do these authors see themselves as representing their race as well as their class and sex? Week 8 Working-class autobiography: Possible texts here could be John Burnett's Useful Toil (Allen Lane, 1974, Penguin reprint); Carolyn Steedman's edition of John Pearman's The Radical Soldier's Tale (Routledge, 1988) and the mini oral biographies in Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor (1861,62) (e.g., the Water-Cress Seller). There is also a new Broadview edition of Factory Lives (2007) edited by James R. Simmons, with an introduction by Janice Carlisle. This contains four substantial autobiographical texts (three male, one female) from the mid-nineteenth century, with supportive materials. Samuel Bamford's Passages in the Life of a Radical (1839,42; 1844) and Early Days (1847,48) are further options. Students should also read Regenia Gagnier's Subjectivities: A History of Self-Representation in Britain 1832,1910 (Oxford University Press, 1991). Week 9 Biography: Victorian Scandal: focus on two scandals emerging from Victorian life-writing: Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) (the Branwell Brontë/Lady Scott adultery scandal), and Froude's allegations of impotence in his Life of Carlyle (1884). See Trev Broughton's ,Impotence, Biography, and the Froude-Carlyle Controversy: ,Revelations on Ticklish Topics', Journal of the History of Sexuality, 7.4 (Apr. 1997): 502,36 (in addition to her Men of Letters cited above). The biographies of the Benson family written about and by each other, especially E. F. Benson's Our Family Affairs 1867,1896 (London: Cassell, 1920) reveal the domestic unhappiness of the family of Gladstone's Archbishop of Canterbury, Edward White Benson, whose children and wife were all to some extent homosexual or lesbian. Another option would be Edmund Gosse's Father and Son (1907) in which the son's critical stance towards his father is uneasy and complex in its mixture of comedy, pity, shame, and resentment. Week 10 Diaries: Arthur Munby's and Hannah Cullwick's relationship (they were secretly married, but lived as master and servant) and diaries, Munby: Man of Two Worlds: The Life and Diaries of Arthur Munby, ed. Derek Hudson (John Murray, 1972), and The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick: Victorian Maidservant, ed. Liz Stanley (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1984): issues of gender and class identity; the idealization of the working woman; the two diaries compared. Half the class could read one diary and half the other and engage in a debate about the social and sexual fantasies adopted by each diarist. It would also be sensible to leave time for an overview debate about the key issues of Victorian life-writing which have emerged from this module, future directions for research, and current critical developments. Focus Questions 1To what extent does Victorian autobiography tell an individual success story? Discuss with reference to two or three contrasting examples. 2,All life writing is time writing' (Jens Brockmeier). Examine the way in which Victorian life-writers handle the interplay of narrative, memory, and time. 3To what extent do you agree with the view that Victorian life-writing was ,a form of communication that appeared intimate and confessional, but which was in fact distant and controlled' (Donna Loftus)? 4,Bamford was an autobiographer who did not write an autobiography' (Martin Hewitt). If autobiography is unshaped and uninterpreted, what alternative purposes does it have in narrating a life to the reader? 5,Victorian life-writing is essentially experimental, unstable, and unpredictable.' How helpful is this comment in helping you to understand the genre? [source] Listening to God: Using Meta,Terminology to Describe Revelation in a Comparative Theistic Context1DIALOG, Issue 2 2009A. J. Watson Abstract:, Starting from the assertion that comparative theology is inherently dialogical in nature, this paper examines the use of non-confessional meta-terminology and its application in interfaith dialogue. In so doing, it examines potential meta-terms for describing revelation as related in the Bhagavad-Gita, the Qur'an, and the Gospel of John, and concludes that non-confessional terms aid in the dismissal of normative viewpoints, leading to greater appreciation of commonality and meaning in the truth claims of other faiths and dialogue partners. [source] Speaking of God after the Death of GodDIALOG, Issue 3 2005By Daniel J. Peterson Abstract:, This article affirms the ability to talk about God in the twenty-first century 40 years after God died (according to Death-of-God theologians) in the 1960s. It does so by an appeal to the proper combination of mystery and revelation ideally expressed in the paradox that God reveals Godself as hidden. The language of God's revealed hiddenness comprises a "middle way" which avoids the extremes of theological hubris on the one hand and atheism or unbelief on the other, making it possible to speak today of God in a faithful yet humble manner. [source] Preaching Christ Crucified: Luther and the Revelation of GodDIALOG, Issue 4 2004David C. Ratke Abstract:, The doctrine of revelation has to do with how we know God, but Luther warned against the human presumption that God can be known fully. God remains hidden and is revealed in Jesus and his death on the cross. The cross is at odds with all human notions of an omnipotent God. Preachers ought to be suspicious of human presumptions about God that inflate and puff up. The cross is the antidote for a theology and a preaching of glory as well as the criterion for theology and preaching that authentically proclaims God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. [source] Multiple Referrals and Multidimensional Cheap TalkECONOMETRICA, Issue 4 2002Marco Battaglini In previous work on cheap talk, uncertainty has almost always been modeled using a single,dimensional state variable. In this paper we prove that the dimensionality of the uncertain variable has an important qualitative impact on results and yields interesting insights into the "mechanics" of information transmission. Contrary to the unidimensional case, if there is more than one sender, full revelation of information in all states of nature is generically possible, even when the conflict of interest is arbitrarily large. What really matters in transmission of information is the local behavior of senders' indifference curves at the ideal point of the receiver, not the proximity of players' ideal point. [source] The Last Will and Testament in Literature: Rupture, Rivalry, and Sometimes Rapprochement from Middlemarch to Lemony SnicketFAMILY PROCESS, Issue 4 2008ELIZABETH STONE Although the psychological literature on the last will and testament is sparse, authors of fiction and memoir have filled the gap, writing in rich detail about the impact of wills on families. Henry James, George Eliot, J. R. Ackerley, and others reveal that a will is not only a legal document but a microcosm of family life: a coded and nonnegotiable message from the will's writer to its intended readers, the heirs, delivered at a stressful time and driving home the truth that options for discussion between testator and heirs are now gone, all factors which may intensify the ambivalence of grief and stall its resolution. Among the problems the authors chronicle: reinvigorated sibling rivalries, vindictive testators, and the revelation of traumatic family secrets. Writers also demonstrate how contemporary social factors, such as divorce, second families, and geographic distance between family members, may complicate wills and ensuing family relations. Exemplary wills, or will-like documents, appear in fiction by Maria Katzenbach and Marilynne Robinson, allowing the living to make rapprochements with the dead, and pointing to testamentary strategies clinicians might develop to lead to a resolution of grief. The depth of these writers' accounts allows clinicians to imagine points at which they might productively intervene in matters pertaining to a will. RESUMEN Aunque la literatura psicológica sobre la última voluntad y el testamento es escasa, los autores de ficción y de memorias han llenado ese vación, escribiendo en rico detalle sobre el impacto de los testamentos en las familias. Henry James, George Eliot, J.R. Ackerley y otros, revelan que un testamento no es sólo un documento legal, sino un microcosmos de vida familiar: un mensaje codificado y no negociable de la voluntad de quien lo escribe a sus destinatarios, los herederos, enviado en un momento estresante y haciendo obvio el hecho de que las posibilidades de discutir entre el emisor y sus herederos ya no existen. Todos estos factores pueden aumentar la ambivalencia de la pena y demorar su resolución. Entre todos los problemas, los autores relatan: aumento de la rivalidad entre hermanos, testamentos vengativos, y la revelación de secretos de familia traumáticos. Los autores también demuestran cómo los factores sociales contemporáneos, como el divorcio, segundas familias y la distancia geográfica entre miembros de la familia, pueden complicar los testamentos y las relaciones familiares posteriores. Testamentos ejemplarizantes, o documentos con aspecto de testamento, aparecen en los trabajos de ficción de Maria Katzenbach y Marilynne Robinson, permitiendo a los vivos acercarse a los muertos, y señalando estrategias testamentarias que los profesionales de clínica pueden desarrollar con el fin de acabar con la pena. La profundidad de los relatos de estos autores permite a los profesionales de clínica imaginarse puntos en que pueden intervenir de una forma productiva en temas relacionados con testamentos. Palabras clave: última voluntad y testamento, muerte, secretos, Henry James, George Eliot, Marilynne Robinson, J.R. Ackerley, Dorothy Gallagher, Maria Katzenbach [source] Neither Religion nor Philosophy: The Language of Delicacy in Rilke's PoetryGERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 2 2010Antonella Castelvedere ABSTRACT This article examines the function of the language of delicacy and the use of the term ,leise' in Rainer Maria Rilke's,Das Stunden-Buch,and the,Duineser Elegien. In particular, I consider the relevance of delicacy to the reassessment of the violence that haunts the discourses of religion and philosophy through which the poet addresses the crisis of modernity in his poetry. Starting from the analysis of the ambiguous treatment of the abstract entities of God and the Angel, I contend that the attempt to reconcile the sensible with the concept inheres in Rilke's persistent preoccupation with ,Dasein' as ideal incorporation of death. I proceed to show that, conversely, the texts convey the complex experience of mortality as a precarious and sophisticated way of making sense at the limits of perception. I argue that an exploratory discursivity articulates the experiences of ,disbelieving' and ,unknowing' whose creative liminality is at variance with the rigidity of the central narratives of revelation and enlightenment advocated by the poet. I conclude by suggesting that a comprehensive reading of Rilke's poetry requires the recognition of the condition of ,delicate being' as a mode of resistance to the latent violence of Rilke's compelling conceptualisations. Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Funktion der Sprache der Zartheit und den Gebrauch des Wortes ,leise' in Rainer Maria Rilkes,Stunden-Buch,und den,Duineser Elegien. Insbesondere untersuche ich die Bedeutung der Zartheit für die Neueinschätzung der Gewaltanwendung, welche dem Diskurs der Religion und der Philosophie innewohnt, durch den der Dichter die Krise der Modernität in seiner Dichtung behandelt. Von der Analyse der vieldeutigen Behandlung der abstrakten Wesen des Gottes und des Engels ausgehend, argumentiere ich, dass der Versuch, das Fühlbare mit dem Begrifflichen zu versöhnen, Rilkes ständigem Interesse für ,Dasein' als idealer Einverleibung des Todes zugehört. Ich zeige weiter, dass die Texte andererseits bezeugen, wie die komplexe Erfahrung der Sterblichkeit dazu dient, an den Grenzen des Wahrnehmbaren auf prekäre und komplexe Weise Sinn zu stiften. Ich argumentiere, dass eine forschende Diskursivität die Erfahrungen des ,Unglaubens' und des ,Unwissens' artikuliert, deren schöpferische Liminalität sich im Gegensatz zu der vom Dichter befürworteten Starrheit der zentralen Begriffe der Offenbarung und der Aufklärung befindet. Zum Schluss schlage ich vor, dass eine inklusivere Auffassung von Rilkes Dichtung die Anerkennung des Zustandes des ,leisen Seins' erfordert, als Widerstand zur latenten Gewaltanwendung von Rilkes bezwingenden Begriffsbildungen. [source] The Nation as a Problem: Historians and the "National Question"HISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 3 2001Elías José Palti How is it that the nation became an object of scholarly research? As this article intends to show, not until what we call the "genealogical view" (which assumes the "natural" and "objective" character of the nation) eroded away could the nation be subjected to critical scrutiny by historians. The starting point and the premise for studies in the field was the revelation of the blind spot in the genealogical view, that is, the discovery of the "modern" and "constructed" character of nations. Historians' views would thus be intimately tied to the "antigenealogical" perspectives of them. However, this antigenealogical view would eventually reveal its own blind spots. This paper traces the different stages of reflection on the nation, and how the antigenealogical approach would finally be rendered problematic, exposing, in turn, its own internal fissures. [source] Concept, Image and Story in Systematic TheologyINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 1 2009PAUL S. FIDDES This article enquires about the place of ,aesthetic theology' within the conceptual enterprise of systematic theology. If narrative theology is to be of any help in answering the question, it will have to include an appeal to extra-biblical images and stories in its method, and will also need to relate metaphor to some kind of analogy and metaphysics (carefully defined). Working from a theological basis in doctrines of revelation and canon, poems and novels outside the Bible may thus be seen to contribute to systematic theology in at least three ways: in deciding between concepts, in enabling connections to be made between concepts, and in developing the Christian story for the present age. Finally, the concept of God as ,relational being' is explored as an example of aesthetic forms of theological discourse, connecting everyday religious speech to systematic theology with an ,analogy of relations'. [source] The Infinity of God in the Biblical Theology of Denys the AreopagiteINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 3 2008DENNIS HOU His writings are controversial and frequently misinterpreted because of an underestimation of his commitment to the Christian scriptures. Objections are treated, and are followed by some guidelines for reading Divine Names and a comparison of Denys with Colin Gunton on the relationship between revelation and salvation history. Denys's work is not mired with inconsistency, but is a genuinely biblical reflection on and of the multifaceted glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. [source] Calvin's View of Natural Knowledge of GodINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 3 2001Edward Adams For Calvin, the relation between God's revelation in the sensus divinitatis and God's revelation in his works is not reducible to the distinction between internal and external revelation. Adams' contextual interpretation of Calvin's treatment of the natural knowledge of God in the Institutes illumines some the subtle complexity of Calvin's argument , an argument which is informed both philosophically and biblically. Both Calvin's positive evaluation of natural revelation and his pessimistic stance vis-à-vis the ability of humanity to appropriate it emerge from Adams' analysis. [source] Theologizing the Human Jesus: An Ancient (and Modern) Approach to Christology ReassessedINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 2 2001Ivor Davidson Many contemporary Christologies, while paying lip-service to the primacy of the human Jesus, devote little attention to the theological status of his humanity. They may be deflected from this task by such factors as preference for experienced-based symbol; the fragmentation of biblical studies and dogmatics; the imperatives of contextual hermeneutics; and the preoccupation with methodology rather than substance. But the human Jesus is only theologically meaningful when viewed on a larger canvas than that of either idealist metaphysics or historical reconstruction. The classical doctrines of the anhypostasis and enhypostasis of Jesus' humanity offer a still useful way of highlighting the primacy of grace, and, contrary to common caricature, do not undermine the density of his human experience. Such an account needs to be supplemented, however, with a robust pneumatology in order to specify the relevance of the human Jesus for revelation, salvation, anthropology, ethics and eschatology. [source] Luther and Kierkegaard: Theologians of the CrossINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 1 2001Craig Hinkson The theologies of Kierkegaard and Luther begin with hiddenness as a necessary qualification of deity. Because God is transcendent and human reason is fallen, he cannot be directly known. To reveal himself, God must wrap himself in sensuous media that veil his deity while manifesting it. The indirect character of revelation implies a negative principle of cognition: God's nature is not recognizable in its transcendent glory, but rather in the lowliness and suffering of the cross. This epistemological principle yields virtually identical results for Kierkegaard and Luther alike, such that the term ,theologian of the cross' aptly describes each. [source] Eschatology After Nietzsche: Apollonian, Dionysian or Pauline?INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 1 2000Michael Horton Ancient and (post)modern versions of the Greek two-world metaphysics , in both its Platonic (Apollonian) and Hegelian (Dionysian) variations , are explored and contrasted with the Pauline two-age eschatology. This eschatology is shown to be further removed from and more subversive of the metaphysical and epistemological dualisms of modernity than is postmodernism. Reformed federal theology and its biblical theology movement provide a resource for the recovery of the christological and eschatological tension in Pauline theology, enabling Christian theology to reintegrate revelation within the history of redemption and to articulate an eschatology of the pilgrim community. [source] Panel on Salvation: the Catholic PerspectiveINTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF MISSION, Issue 382-383 2007Teresa Francesca Rossi In the reflection about salvation, mission and healing, the aspect of revelation has not been so much emphasized in the last years. However, it seems to me that revelation, rather than just eschatology, might be the key concept in understanding healing and reconciliation. The signs and wonders that confirm the preaching of the gospel of salvation are necessary in order to give the preacher and the faithful a shape, a frame to human knowledge of God and salvation, though in the "fleshy" knowledge of the human being. Without the shape or frame of a divine sign there can be neither prophecy nor preaching, because prophecy and preaching concern the Word of God. Signs and wonders confirm preaching but only by deepening a cognitive dimension. When we day, "God will heal you," we are announcing the good news of healing, while at the same time we are budding some new conditions to know God. We are at the heart of revelation. At the same time, when we deal with healing, we are not only dealing with the dimension of knowing God and operating signs and wonder, we are also dealing with a dimension of prophecy inasmuch as no prophecy is allowed unless there is a capability of speaking "in the name of", and "on behalf of", which implies a real, though imperfect, knowledge of God, such as we receive not only in revelation but also in signs and wonders. So, healing, this starting point, this unexplored way, this unprecedented path to the understanding of the economy of sulfation, continues revelation because it leads to new knowledge. Inasmuch ad heading does not belong to the economy of final salvation but to the economy of a "restored flesh", it is closer to revelation than to resurrection. It is the seal of redemption. [source] Mary Toft, Religion and National Memory in Eighteenth-Century EnglandJOURNAL FOR EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES, Issue 3 2009JANE SHAW Abstract In 1726 Mary Toft claimed that she had given birth to rabbits, an event that led to much medical examination and a good deal of satire but surprisingly little religious commentary, apart from William Whiston's interpretation that she was a portent of the apocalypse. And yet Toft was repeatedly remembered and re-invoked throughout the century , along with several other miraculous, supernatural or wondrous events , in relation to broader public discussions about the boundaries between the natural and supernatural, between reason and revelation, with the result that each new ,remembering' paradoxically reiterated that those boundaries could not be definitively settled. [source] The DEAD-box RNA helicase DDX1 interacts with RelA and enhances nuclear factor kappaB-mediated transcriptionJOURNAL OF CELLULAR BIOCHEMISTRY, Issue 2 2009Musarat Ishaq Abstract DEAD-box RNA helicases constitute the largest family of RNA helicases and are involved in many aspects of RNA metabolism. In this study, we identified RelA (p65), a subunit of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-,B), as a cellular co-factor of DEAD-box RNA helicase DDX1, through mammalian two hybrid system and co-immunoprecipitation assay. Additionally, confocal microscopy and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays confirmed this interaction. In NF-,B dependent reporter gene assay, DDX1 acted as a co-activator to enhance NF-,B-mediated transcription activation. The functional domains involved were mapped to the carboxy terminal transactivation domain of RelA and the amino terminal ATPase/helicase domain of DDX1. The DDX1 trans-dominant negative mutant lacking ATP-dependent RNA helicase activity lost it transcriptional inducer activity. Moreover, depletion of endogenous DDX1 by specific small interfering RNAs significantly reduced NF-,B-dependent transcription. Taken together, the results suggest that DDX1 may play an important role in NF-,B-mediated transactivation, and revelation of this regulatory pathway may help to explore the novel mechanisms for regulating NF-,B transcriptional activity. J. Cell. Biochem. 106: 296,305, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Attacking Poverty and the ,post-Washington consensus'JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2001Paul Mosley Has the increasingly pro-poor stance of the World Bank, as manifested in particular in its most recent World Development Report (WDR), caused it to abandon its traditionally free-market attitudes ? The answer is ,yes and no'. The pursuit of ,security' espoused by the WDR has forced the Bank to acknowledge widespread market failure in the provision of security, both social and financial; and this has caused the Bank to espouse some measures very inconsistent with the Washington consensus, such as international capital controls. On the other hand, the old agenda of rolling back the frontiers of the state remains, and is given a new twist in WDR 2000 by the revelation that the ,voices of the poor' are arrayed against bureaucratic abuses. Debate within the Bank has become much more open and transparent, and this has exposed long-persisting internal differences about what markets still need to be liberalized in what environments. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||