The Reception of the Maccabean Martyrs : Their Historiographical and Paradigmatic Functions in Antique and Late-antique Jewish and Christian Sources

The study attempts a reception-historical analysis of the Maccabean martyrs. The concept of reception has fundamentally to do with the re-use and interpretation of a text within new texts. In a religious tradition, certain elements become re-circulated and thus their reception may reflect the development of that particular tradition. The Maccabean martyrs first appear in 2 Maccabees. In my study, it is the Maccabean martyr figures who count as the received text; the focus is shifted from the interrelations between texts onto how the figures have been exploited in early Christian and Rabbinic sources. I have divided my sources into two categories and my analysis is in two parts. First, I analyze the reception of the Maccabean martyrs within Jewish and Christian historiographical sources, focusing on the role given to them in the depictions of the Maccabean Revolt (Chapter 3). I conclude that, within Jewish historiography, the martyrs are given roles, which vary between ultimate efficacy and marginal position with regard to making a historical difference. In Christian historiographical sources, the martyrs role grows in importance by time: however, it is not before a Christian cult of the Maccabean martyrs has been established, that the Christian historiographies consider them historically effective. After the first part, I move on to analyze the reception in sources, which make use of the Maccabean martyrs as paradigmatic figures (Chapter 4). I have suggested that the martyrs are paradigmatic in the context of martyrdom, persecution and destruction, on one hand, and in a homiletic context, inspiring religious celebration, on the other. I conclude that, as the figures are considered pre-Christian and biblical martyrs, they function well in terms of Christian martyrdom and have contributed to the development of its ideals. Furthermore, the presentation of the martyr figures in Rabbinic sources demonstrates how the notion of Jewish martyrdom arises from experiences of destruction and despair, not so much from heroic confession of faith in the face of persecution. Before the emergence of a Christian cult of the Maccabean martyrs, their identity is derived namely from their biblical position. Later on, in the homiletic context, their Jewish identity is debated and sometimes reconstructed as fundamentally Christian , despite of their Jewish origins. Similar debate about their identity is not found in the Rabbinic versions of their martyrdom and nothing there indicates a mutual debate between early Christians and Jews. A thematic comparison shows that the Rabbinic and Christian cases of reception are non-reliant on each other but also that they link to one another. Especially the scriptural connections, often made to the Maccabean mother, reveal the similarities. The results of the analyses confirm that the early history of Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism share, at least partly, the same religious environment and intertwining traditions, not only during the first century or two but until Late Antiquity and beyond. More likely, the reception of the Maccabean martyrs demonstrates that these religious traditions never ceased to influence one another.

A querela do declínio do simbólico: perspextivas e impasses do pensamento de Slavoj iek

Esse estudo tem por objetivo principal analisar as reflexões do filósofo e psicanalista teórico esloveno Slavoj iek acerca dos impactos subjetivos das transformações normativas ocorridas no Ocidente nos últimos cinqüenta anos. O problema do chamado declínio do Simbólico passou a ser amplamente discutido pela comunidade de psicanalistas lacanianos na qual se insere o filósofo a partir do final da década de 1990, o que constituiu uma inovação em um campo fortemente influenciado pela concepção estruturalista da subjetividade. Situando o autor como pioneiro na utilização de ferramentas conceituais lacanianas para a análise do social, o estudo divide-se em duas partes. Na primeira delas, exponho as bases teóricas do pensamento de iek, contextualizando o seu itinerário intelectual e político, e abordando as suas três linhas fundamentais de investigação: a filosofia política, a discussão sobre o ato ético e a ontologia do sujeito. Assim, o primeiro capítulo retraça o percurso que vai dos primeiros estudos sobre o funcionamento ideológico nos regimes totalitários à abordagem pop filosófica da ideologia na atualidade. Em seguida, apresento a sua redescrição da noção de comunismo à luz da tese dos novos antagonismos do capitalismo tardio. Por fim, trato da perspectiva universalista do filósofo a partir de sua leitura materialista do cristianismo, lançando mão sobretudo dos estudos de Alain Badiou sobre São Paulo. No segundo capítulo, delineamos as coordenadas centrais da concepção de sujeito em iek, cuja originalidade reside na articulação das formulações de Lacan e Hegel. As noções de grande Outro, objeto pequeno a, pulsão de morte e negatividade são tomadas como os pilares nos quais se assenta a descrição do sujeito iekiano. Na segunda parte do estudo, examinamos as teses de iek a respeito das relações entre subjetividade e cultura, com ênfase nos novos impasses que daí decorrem. As inibições que sucedem à injunção de gozar sem entraves, a melancolização do laço social, as metamorfoses da culpa, a vitimologia e a culpabilização do Outro são os tópicos centrais que sobressaem desse recorte. Nessa parte do trabalho, as reflexões de iek são cotejadas com as análises de autores de orientação lacaniana, considerados representativos desse tipo de discussão, como Jean-Pierre Lebrun, Charles Melman, Dany-Robert Dufour e Roland Chemama. Pretende-se com isso enriquecer a discussão, apontando as aproximações e distâncias que o pensamento de iek entretém com os referidos autores. O capítulo final do trabalho é consagrado ao exame crítico da démarche iekiana acerca do declínio do Simbólico. Dois tópicos de seu discurso são analisados, a saber: a) seu posicionamento ambivalente no que tange à crítica do catastrofismo; b) seu esforço de expurgar da noção de ato ético na qual ele quer encontrar saídas para os embaraços engendrados pelo dito declínio do Simbólico qualquer traço de pertencimento à tradição moral judaico-cristã, guardando dessa tradição apenas o exemplo do aspecto formal do ato. Para empreender tal exame, nos servimos, de um lado, do estudo crítico do sociólogo francês Alain Ehrenberg sobre a declinologia noção por ele cunhada para se referir ao conjunto de estudos que enfatizam o atual risco da dissolução dos laços sociais , e de outro lado, nos apoiamos na concepção de ética do filósofo neo-pragmatista Richard Rorty.

Approaching the Unapproached Light: Milton and the Romantic Visionary

Shears, J. (2006). Approaching the Unapproached Light: Milton and the Romantic Visionary. In G. Hopps and J. Stabler (Eds.), Romanticism and Religion from William Cowper to Wallace Stevens (pp.25-40). The Nineteenth Century Series. Aldershot: Ashgate. RAE2008

Christian missions and a new world culture

http://www.archive.org/details/christianmission027881mbp

Upon the earth; the mission of God and the missionary enterprise of the churches.

http://www.archive.org/details/upontheearththem013276mbp

Asian Christology and the Mahayana : a reprint of the century-old "Indian Church History", by Thomas Yeates ; and the further investigation of the religion of the Orient as influenced by the Apostle of the Hindus and Chinese

http://www.archive.org/details/asianchristology00gorduoft

A new world a new American foreign policy: the Carter administration, Nicaragua, and the legacy of the Vietnam War, 1977-1981

The impact of the Vietnam War conditioned the Carter administration’s response to the Nicaraguan revolution in ways that reduced US engagement with both sides of the conflict. It made the countries of Latin America counter the US approach and find their own solution to the crisis, and allowed Cuba to play a greater role in guiding the overthrow of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. This thesis re-evaluates Carter’s policy through the legacy of the Vietnam War, because US executive anxieties about military intervention, Congress’s increasing influence, and US public concerns about the nation’s global responsibilities, shaped the Carter approach to Nicaragua. Following a background chapter, the Carter administration’s policy towards Nicaragua is evaluated, before and after the fall of Somoza in July 1979. The extent of the Vietnam influence on US-Nicaraguan relations is developed by researching government documents on the formation of US policy, including material from the Jimmy Carter Library, the Library of Congress, the National Security Archive, the National Archives and Records Administration, and other government and media sources from the United Nations Archives, New York University, the New York Public Library, the Hoover Institution Archives, Tulane University and the Organization of American States. The thesis establishes that the Vietnam legacy played a key role in the Carter administration’s approach to Nicaragua. Before the overthrow of Somoza, the Carter administration limited their influence in Nicaragua because they felt there was no immediate threat from communism. The US feared that an active role in Nicaragua, without an established threat from Cuba or the Soviet Union, could jeopardise congressional support for other foreign policy goals deemed more important. The Carter administration, as a result, pursued a policy of non-intervention towards the Central American country. After the fall of Somoza, and the establishment of a new government with a left wing element represented by the Sandinistas, the Carter administration emphasised non-intervention in a military sense, but actively engaged with the new Nicaraguan leadership to contain the potential communist influence that could spread across Central America in the wake of the Nicaraguan revolution.

An Irish apostle: articulating and actualising apostolicity in the early Irish church

This thesis examines the earliest extant Latin Lives of Brigit and Patrick; Cogitosus’s Vita Brigidae and Muirchú’s Vita Patricii as evidence for a seventh-century debate on Irish apostolicity. While often dismissed as mere propaganda, this thesis shows they are highly sophisticated demonstrations of the continuing connection that Kildare and Armagh had to their patron saints and their authority. It examines the importance of this connection for concepts of ecclesiastical organisation, teaching authority and episcopal succession against the backdrop of the seventh-century Easter question in the Insular Church. This will show that apostolicity was considered to be intrinsically linked with orthodoxy and universality. A textual focus brings forth general patristic themes and ideas that Irish hagiographers evoked through specific words and phrases. The thesis contextualises hagiographical material using evidence from Hiberno-Latin and early Insular exegetical commentaries, referring to major patristic exegetes such as Origen, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory the Great as support. The introduction discusses the importance of apostolic ideology for the seventh-century Irish Church, and outlines a methodology for examining such abstract themes. The first chapter looks at how developments in apostolic ideology led to ideas of apostolic primacy seen in the Insular material. Chapters two, three, and four examine metaphors of food and feeding, the fountain and the stream, and the head and the body, as significant articulations of apostolicity. Chapter five examines how corporeal relics were understood as the visible proof of this continuity and preserved a saint’s authority for their episcopal heirs. Chapter six looks at how Muirchú engaged with Patrick’s connection to the universal Church and his self-professed lack of disciplina to reconcile his apostolicity with seventh-century norms. Chapter seven places the issues considered thus far in a thoroughly Insular context by examining how the earliest English sources present the Irish legacy in Northumbria after the synod of Whitby. Chapter eight looks at how the text of Patrick’s Confessio in the Book of Armagh relates to a wider seventh-century campaign by Armagh to rehabilitate Patrick’s apostolicity. The conclusion briefly summarizes the thesis, and suggests further avenues for researching this topic in the Insular material

The ‘Celtic’ dimension of pre-first World War religious discourse in Britain: Wellesley Tudor Pole and the Glastonbury phenomenon

This article will explore the contribution made to the construction of discourse around religion outside of mainstream Christianity, at the turn of the twentieth century in Britain, by a Celticist movement as represented by Wellesley Tudor Pole (d.1968) and his connection to the Glastonbury phenomenon. I will detail the interconnectedness of individuals and movements occupying this discursive space and their interest in efforts to verify the authenticity of an artefact which Tudor Pole claimed was once in the possession of Jesus. Engagement with Tudor Pole’s quest to prove the provenance of the artefact, and his contention that a pre-Christian culture had existed in Ireland which had extended itself to Glastonbury and Iona creating the foundation for an authentic Western mystical tradition, is presented as one facet of a broader, contemporary discourse on alternative ideas and philosophies. In conclusion, I will juxtapose Tudor Pole’s fascination with Celtic origins and the approach of leading figures in the ‘Celtic Revival’ in Ireland, suggesting intersections and alterity in the construction of their worldview. The paper forms part of a chapter in a thesis under-preparation which examines the construction of discourse on religion outside of mainstream Christianity at the turn of the twentieth century, and in particular the role played by visiting religious reformers from Asia. The aim is to recover the (mostly forgotten) history of these engagements.

Northern Ireland, America and the emerging church movement: Exploring the significance of Peter Rollins and the Ikon collective

The Emerging Church Movement (ECM) is a primarily Western religious phenomenon, identifiable by its critical ‘deconstruction’ of ‘modern’ religion. While most prominent in North America, especially the United States, some of the most significant contributors to the ECM ‘conversation’ have been the Belfast-based Ikon Collective and one of its founders, philosopher Peter Rollins. Their rootedness in the unique religious, political and social landscape of Northern Ireland in part explains their position on the ‘margins’ of the ECM, and provides many of the resources for their contributions. Ikon’s development of ‘transformance art’ and its ‘leaderless’ structure raise questions about the institutional viability of the wider ECM. Rollins’ ‘Pyrotheology’ project, grounded in his reading of post-modern philosophy, introduces more radical ideas to the ECM conversation. Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’ and ‘marginal’ location provides the ground from which Rollins and Ikon have been able to expose the boundaries of the ECM and raise questions about just how far the ECM may go in its efforts to transform Western Christianity.

The Soviet Union and the International Brigades, 1936-1939

The International Brigades are typically viewed as a fighting force whose impetus came from the Comintern, and thus from within the walls of the Kremlin. If the assumption is essentially correct, the broader relation between Stalin’s USSR and the IB has received little attention. This chapter constitutes an empirically-based study of the Soviet role not only in the formation of the IB, but of the Red Army’s collaboration with IB units, and Moscow’s role in the climax and denouement of the brigadistas’ Spanish experience. This study’s principal conclusion is twofold: First, that the creation and sustenance of the IB was part of Stalin’s goal of linking the Loyalist cause with that of the Soviet Union and international communism, a component of a larger geo-strategic gamble which sought to create united opposition to the fascist menace, one which might eventually bring Moscow and the West into a closer alliance. The second conclusion is that the IB, like the broader projection of Soviet power and influence into the Spanish theater, was an overly ambitious operational failure whose abortive retreat is indicative of the basic weakness of the Stalinist regime in the years prior to the Second World War.

The Deconstructed Church: Understanding Emerging Christianity

The Emerging Church Movement (ECM) is a reform movement within Western Christianity that reacts against its roots in conservative evangelicalism by “de-constructing” contemporary expressions of Christianity. Emerging Christians see themselves as overturning out-dated interpretations of the bible, transforming hierarchical religious institutions, and re-orientating Christianity to step outside the walls of church buildings toward working among and serving others in the “real world.”

Drawing on ethnographic observations from emerging congregations, pub churches, neo-monastic communities, conferences, online networks, in-depth interviews, and congregational surveys in the US, UK, and Ireland, this book provides a comprehensive social scientific analysis of the development and significance of the ECM. Emerging Christians are shaping a distinct religious orientation that encourages individualism, deep relationships with others, new ideas around the nature of truth, doubt, and God, and innovations in preaching, worship, Eucharist, and leadership.