Leaving Home: Philo of Alexandria on the Exodus.

For Jewish-Hellenistic authors writing in Egypt, the Exodus story posed unique challenges. After all, to them Egypt was, as Philo of Alexandria states, their fatherland. How do these authors come to terms with the biblical story of liberation from Egyptian slavery and the longing for the promised land? In this chapter I am taking a close look at Philo’s detailed discussion of the Exodus and locate it within the larger context of Jewish-Hellenistic literature (Wisdom of Solomon, Ezekiel’s Exagoge). In Philo’s rewriting of the Exodus the destination of the journey is barely mentioned. Contrary to the biblical narrative, in the scene of the burning bush, as retold by Philo, God does not tell Moses where to go. Philo’s main concern is what happens in Egypt: both in biblical times and in his own days. The Exodus is nevertheless important to Philo: He reads the story allegorically as a journey from the land of the body to the realms of the mind. Such a symbolic reading permitted him to control the meaning of the Exodus and to stay, literally and figuratively, in Egypt.

The chemokines CCL11, CCL20, CCL21, and CCL24 are preferentially expressed in polarized human secondary lymphoid follicles

Chemokines regulate cellular trafficking to and from lymphoid follicles. Here, the distribution pattern of four CCL chemokines is defined by in situ hybridization in human lymphoid follicles from tonsils and lymph nodes (LNs) of newborns and adults. Cells expressing CCL11 (eotaxin) and CCL20 (Exodus) were preferentially located within follicles, while cells expressing CCL21 (secondary lymphoid-tissue chemokine) and CCL24 (eotaxin-2) mRNA were almost exclusively found in the perifollicular areas. Hence, the two CCR3-binding chemokines, CCL11 and CCL24, showed a mutually exclusive expression pattern in the intra- and extra-follicular areas, respectively. Chemokine gene expression paralleled follicular maturation: in tonsils, where approximately 80% of follicles are polarized, CCL11 and CCL20 mRNA-positive cells were detected more frequently than in lymph nodes from adults, where about half of follicles are non-polarized. No intrafollicular chemokine expression was detectable in the primary follicles from newborns. Extrafollicular cells expressing CCL21 and CCL24 were again more frequent in tonsils than in LNs from adults. The observed preferential presence of cells expressing CC chemokines in polarized human lymphoid follicles indicates that chemokines are not only instrumental in the induction of follicle formation, but may also be involved in their further differentiation.

The "Image" of the Pharaoh in Judahite and Israelite Society According to the Glyptic Evidence

Among the many thousand scarabs, scaraboids and other stamp-seal amulets unearthed in Iron Age contexts in Cis- and Transjordan, there are many such seals showing royal Egyptian imagery on their bases. Focusing mainly on Pharaonic motifs, the paper aims to catalogue the principal iconemes, to trace their development throughout the Iron Ages and to extrapolate their significance vis-à-vis the contemporary glyptic assemblages. As will be shown, the royal imagery of the Egyptian king underwent considerable changes during pre-monarchic and monarchic times in Israel/Judah. This allows – to some extent – deducing the perception of the ‘image’ of the Egyptian king in this part of the Southern Levant at the close of the second and during the first centuries of the first millennium BCE. While the local seal production not only vividly copied earlier and contemporary Egyptian prototypes, it also developed idiosyncratic ‘Pharaonic’ motifs that were produced for the local market. On the other hand, imported Egyptian glyptic goods – such as scarabs and other amulet types – reveal further facets of the consumer behavior. They, too, shed light upon the ideological and religious preferences of the local population and illuminate the development of the vernacular attitude towards the Pharaonic symbols of power – including their obvious political and sacred connotations.

Der Glaube versetzt Berge! Sozialpsychologische Effekter der Suche nach der Gerechtigkeit Gottes

Mit Kuno verbindet mich nicht allein das lnteresse an einer Theorie der Religion (Füssel, Huber, & Walpen, 1990). Mit dieser allerdings habe ich mich in den letztenJahren am intensivsten auseinandergesetzt. Daher erscheint es mir sinnvoll, zu dieser Thematik meinen Beitrag zu seiner Festschrift zu leisten. Kurzgefasst geht es darin um prosoziale Effekte religiôser Konstruktsysteme. Es lasst sich namlich zeigen, dass sie einen ideologischen Mechanismus zu neutralisieren vermôgen, wenn sie einen determinierenden Einfluss auf das Verhalten ausüben. Dabei spielt der Glaube, der nach einem allseits bekannten Diktum sogar Berge versetzen kann, eine entscheidende Rolle. Daher lese ich in dem Oberthema der Festschrift einen «Genitivus subjectivus». Es lautet dann: Suchet zuerst die Gerechtigkeit, die Gott realisiert bzw. realisieren wird. lch beginne mit der Darstellung einer sozialpsychologischen Theorie, die zu erklaren versucht, warum Menschen, die von einem ungerechten Ereignis getroffen werden, zu allem Überfluss auch noch die Schuld daran in die Schuhe geschoben bekommen. ln einem zweiten Schritt definiere ich, was ich unter religiôsen Konstruktsystemen verstehe und wie sie in sozialwissenschaftlichen Studien gemessen werden kônnen. Darauf aufbauend versuche ich zu prazisieren, wie religiôse Konstruktsysteme den Mechanismus der Schuldzuschreibung beeinflussen. Dazu greife ich aufDaten zurück, die ich 1999 in einer eigenen Untersuchung mit einer reprasentativen Stichprobe von Studierenden der Universitat Freiburg im Uechtland erhoben habe.

Sozialisation und Emanzipation in der Theologie und Seelsorge

Religion steht in der Spannung zwischen einerseits dem durch die Religionskritik Freuds genährten Vorwurf der Einengung und des Konservativismus und andrerseits der ihr ureigenen Erfahrung der Befreiung, die im Exodus-Erlebnis des Alten Testaments angelegt ist. Diese Ambivalenz von Religion macht sie zu einer steten Herausforderung und bedarf der fortwährenden Reflexion. Die Aufgabe von Seelsorge ist es, das befreiende und lebensfreundliche Potential von Religion hervorzuheben und zu stärken sowie Vertrauen ins eigene Geliebt- und Gewolltsein zu schaffen, denn dieses ist die Grundvoraussetzung aller möglichen Emanzipation.