Opening Remark: Against the Grain of Reductio ad Japonicum

Takada Yasunari

doi:10.1353/jjp.2014.0001

Capital Punishment: A Comment

Israel Law Review ◽

10.1017/s0021223700010566 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 25 (3-4) ◽

pp. 481-487

Author(s):

David Heyd

Keyword(s):

Capital Punishment ◽

Opening Remark ◽

The Subject

It seems that nothing new can be said about the issue of capital punishment. And of course even this apologetic proposition itself is hardly original as is attested by the opening remark of Justice Mosk's paper. Yet, this is not an uncommon plight for a commentator in a philosophical conference on capital punishment, and particularly so when his task is to join into a long, comprehensive, and sophisticated debate between two of the major contestants in this battle. Actually, I feel almost like a child invading the privacy of its parents engaged in one of their quarrels. I use this metaphor because, for me, the names Bedau and van den Haag connote the “pro” and “con” attitudes to capital punishment since my philosophical childhood. I still have my notes, taken twenty years ago while reading as a student the exciting exchange in Ethics between these two sharp, persistent, uncompromisingly critical philosophers. They have introduced me into the subject which has interested me since, without of course imagining at the time that I will ever have the chance to get personally involved in their debate.

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Paul's Abschiedsrede in the Acts of the Apostles

Harvard Theological Review ◽

10.1017/s0017816000017338 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 69 (1-2) ◽

pp. 9-30 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Thomas L. Budesheim

Keyword(s):

New Testament ◽

Acts Of The Apostles ◽

Source Criticism ◽

Opening Remark ◽

Introductory Essay ◽

Structural Identity

In the introductory essay to a collection of studies on Luke-Acts published in 1966, W. C. van Unnik says that the twovolume work has become “one of the great storm centers of New Testament scholarship.” Old questions are being raised afresh and old answers face fresh review. Among the old questions is that of the sources used by Luke in the writing of Acts. However, the only study of recent vintage referred to by van Unnik is that by Jacques Dupont, The Sources of the Acts (1964). There are no essays in the Keck-Martyn volume itself which deal specifically with the question. Without disputing the importance of other questions (text, style, and especially theology), the sparse attention given of late to source-criticism of the speeches of Acts is not entirely felicitous. One essay does treat the speeches (Eduard Schweizer, “Concerning the Speeches in Acts,” 208-16), but only those in the first seventeen chapters and only in terms of their structural identity. Schweizer's opening remark is interesting: “Ever since Martin Dibelius' essay about this subject, it has been more and more widely recognized that the speeches are basically compositions by the author of Acts who, to be sure, utilized different kinds of materials for particular passages” (208). The question of the sources of the speeches is a difficult one, and any suggested answers are, at best, tenuous. It is however the premise of this essay that further work in the area is warranted, possible, and of contributory value to the rest of Lucan scholarship, a conclusion drawn from an analysis of two of Paul's speeches in Acts: his address to the mob of Jerusalemites (22:1-21) and his Abschiedsrede or parting address to the Ephesian elders at Miletus (20:18-35).

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