scholarly journals The Impossible Spaces: A Commentary on Gen. 2:8–15

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 656
Author(s):  
Santiago García-Jalón
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Text ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Narrative Device ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Structural Differences

A close analysis of the text of Gen. 2:8–15, pertaining to the Garden of Eden, shows the structural differences between said text and others from ancient mythologies that mention or describe a paradise. Likewise, that analysis suggests that the data provided by the Bible to locate paradise are merely a narrative device meant to dissipate all doubts as to the existence of a garden where God put human beings. Similar to other spaces that appear in the Bible, the Garden of Eden is, in fact, an impossible place. Throughout the centuries, however, recurring proposals have been made to locate paradise. As time went by, those proposals were progressively modified by the intellectual ideas dominant in any given era, thus leading the representations of the location of Paradise to be further and further away from the information provided by the biblical text.

scholarly journals The Impossible Spaces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago García-Jalón
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Text ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Narrative Device ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Structural Differences

A close analysis of the text of Gen. 2:8-15, pertaining to the garden of Eden, shows the structural differences between said text and others from ancient mythologies that mention or describe a paradise. Likewise, that analysis suggests that the data provided by the Bible to locate paradise is merely a narrative device meant to dissipate all doubts as to the existence of the garden where God put human beings. Similarly to other spaces that appear in the Bible, the garden of Eden is but an impossible place. Throughout the centuries, however, recurring proposals have been made that aim to find paradise. As time went by, those proposals were progressively modified by the intellectual ideas dominant at any given era, thus leading the representations of the location of Paradise further and further away from the information provided by the biblical text.

Free Speech: Scripture in the Context of Divine Simplicity and Divine Freedom

2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-207
Author(s):  
Steven J. Duby
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Divine Simplicity ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Divine Freedom

In his Church Dogmatics, Karl Barth cautions against straightforwardly identifying Scripture as a constant locus of divine revelation, lest we presume that readers of Scripture can possess or domesticate God’s self-disclosing activity. Though agreeing that we need to maintain God’s sovereign initiative in his revelation, this essay will characterize the Bible as ongoing divine speech within the context of a doctrine of God’s simplicity and freedom that will enable us to construe the canon of Scripture as written revelation without implying that human beings gain control of God’s revelatory work. A recovery of divine simplicity helps in understanding both the ontological and the epistemological dimensions of biblical revelation. First, in his simplicity, God always acts in the fullness of his being and by his indivisible, infinite essence, which means that in his communicative operation in Scripture God (or God’s action) invariably exceeds the text itself. Second, in his simplicity, God is truly but never fully revealed to finite creatures who are unable to comprehend God’s singular plenitude. These considerations will signal that God can and does continually speak in the biblical text without foregoing the transcendence of his self-revelation.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk van Miert
Keyword(s):  
Natural Science ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
The Bible ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
History Of

In the conclusion, the intrinsic deconstructive power of philology is contrasted with external pressures moving philology in different political and religious directions. The positions of the main protagonists differed widely, but they show that the less they were institutionalized, the more freedom they had to present unorthodox theories. As in the case of natural science, biblical philology was a handmaiden of theology, but it could also be used against certain theologies. In the end, the accumulation of evidence regarding the history of the Bible and the transmission of its texts, could not fail to impinge on the authority of Scripture. The problems in the transmission of the biblical text were widely discussed in the decade leading up to the publication of the Theological-political Treatise. Readers of Spinoza were already familiar with the type of reasoning which Spinoza employed in the central chapters of his notorious work.

Reading from Worlds under the Text: Oceanic Women in the missio Dei

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-51
Author(s):  
Rosemary Dewerse ◽  
Cathy Hine
Keyword(s):  
Global South ◽  
Missio Dei ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Women

Abstract Missional hermeneutics is a relatively recent development in the field of biblical hermeneutics, emerging from several decades of scholarly engagement with the concept and frame of missio Dei. In a key recent publication in the field, Reading the Bible Missionally, edited by Michael Goheen, the voices of the Global South and of women – and certainly of women from Oceania – do not feature. In this article the authors, both Oceanic women, interrupt the discourse to read biblical text from their twice-under perspective. The Beatitudes provide the frame and the lens for a spiralling discussion of the missio Dei as, to borrow from Letty M. Russell, “calculated inefficiency.” Stories of faithful Oceanic women interweave with those of God and of biblical women, offering their complexities to challenge assumptions and simplicities.

The Binding of Isaac in J.R.R. Tolkien and Stephen King

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-174
Author(s):  
Sebastian Selvén
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Text ◽  
Stephen King ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Genesis 22 ◽  
Intertextual Dialogue

Abstract This article investigates biblical reception in the works of two popular modern fantasy authors. It stages an intertextual dialogue between Genesis 22:1-19, “the binding of Isaac”, and two episodes, in Stephen King’s The Gunslinger and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Return of the King. After presenting the dynamics of what happens to the biblical text in these two authors and the perspectives that come out, a hermeneutical reversal is then suggested, in which the modern stories are used to probe the biblical text. One can return to the Bible with questions culled from its later reception, in this case King and Tolkien. This article argues that the themes touched upon by the two authors are important and hermeneutically relevant ones, sometimes novel and sometimes contributions to exegetical debates that have been going on for centuries.

Heraclitus’ Political Thought

Apeiron ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Maximilian Robitzsch
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Traditional View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Difficult Question ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Political Realm

Abstract This paper deals with Heraclitus’ political thought. First, in discussing the conception of cosmic justice, it argues that it is a mistake to separate Heraclitus’ political thought from his cosmological thought. Second, the paper works out two basic principles of Heraclitean political thinking by offering a close analysis of fragment B 114 as well as related texts. According to Heraclitus, (1) there is a standard common and relevant to all human beings in the political realm, namely, the logos, and (2) ruling well is a matter of grasping the logos and using it as a guide in all things political. Finally, the paper tackles the notoriously difficult question of whether there are certain forms of political order towards which Heraclitean thought is more or less inclined. According to what may be called the traditional view, Heraclitus is seen as a supporter of an aristocratic political order, while according to what may be called the revisionist view, Heraclitus is classified as a supporter of a democratic political order. The paper concludes that while Heraclitean philosophy is compatible with a plethora of different forms of political order, including democratic ones, the two basic principles of Heraclitean politics that were distinguished above are more conducive to aristocratic forms of political order.

Reformation: a Two-edged Sword in the Cause of the Ministry of Women

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-33
Author(s):  
Fleur Houston
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Logical Consequence ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Women's Ministry ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Social Challenge ◽  
Normative Expectations ◽  
God's Grace

When Martin Luther mounted an attack on the industry of Indulgences, he affirmed key Reformation principles: human beings are saved by God’s grace alone and the priesthood of all the baptised gives all followers of Christ equal status. This was in conformity with an earlier generation of reformers who saw the Bible as ultimate authority and witnessed to biblical truth against corruption. The logical consequence of this should have been the enabling of women who were so disposed to exercise a theological vocation. In practice, the resulting rupture in religious and social life often affected women for the worse. Educational formation and leadership opportunities were restricted by the closure of convents. While the trade guilds, with their tightly regulated social systems, did not allow scope for women who transgressed normative expectations, their suppression was not necessarily liberating for women. The new social model of the home replaced that of convent and guild and marriage was exalted in place of celibacy. Changes in devotional practice involved loss and gain. Women who did not conform to the domestic norm were treated at best with misogyny and female prophets of the radical Reformation paid for their convictions with their lives. In education, leadership, piety and radical social challenge, women’s options were restricted. However, the key Reformation principles ultimately enabled the development of women’s ministry which was marked by the ordination of Constance Todd 400 years later.

scholarly journals The “sanctity” of marriage – an archaeology of a socio-religious construct: Mythological origins, forms and models

2008 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yolanda Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Difference ◽  
Human Sexuality ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Social Constructs ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biological Reality ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

The aim of the article is to argue that the sexual difference between female and male should be regarded as soteriologically indifferent. Though a biological reality of being human, sexuality is profoundly influenced by social constructs and the institution of marriage itself is a social construct. In this article the biological and social aspects are taken into account in a theological approach which on the one hand is interested in the relationship between God and human beings, and on the other in the way in which the Bible elucidates sexuality and marriage. The article indicates that the idea of sexual intercourse between a man and a woman as being equal to Godgiven “holy matrimony” has mythological origins. It focuses on these origins and on the multifarious forms of marital arrangements and models.

scholarly journals Autonomia świata a podmiotowość człowieka w ekoteologii

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-131
Author(s):  
Jarosław Horowski
Keyword(s):  
Modern World ◽  
Ecological Problem ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Inherent Value ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Teleological Argument ◽  
Christian Worldview ◽  
The World ◽  
Human World

One of the most difficult problems, which is to be solved by contemporary culture, is the ecological problem. It concerns the culture because the hedonistic and consumerist mentality of man plays an important part in it. Biocentrism states that the ecological problem results from traditional Western attitudes to the non-human world based on the belief that humans are the central and most significant entities in the universe. Biocentrism puts forward a teleological argument for the protection of the environment. It indicates that non-human species have inherent value as well and each organism has a purpose and a reason for being, which should be respected. Biocentrism states that the anthropocentric attitude to the non-human world results from the Christian worldview based on the Bible where it is written that God gives man dominion over all creatures. The author analyses the main issues of the Catholic concept of the relationship between human beings and other creatures. He indicates that ecotheology respects the inherent value of non-human creatures because, as the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the modern world Gaudium et spes says: “all things are endowed with their own stability, truth, goodness, proper laws and order”, but maintains that the purpose of the world is connected with its relationship to God. The author considers also what is the human subjectivity in behaving towards the environment and what is the dependence between the autonomy of the world and the subjectivity of man in ecotheology. In the end, the author comes to the conclusion that according to ecotheology the ecological problem results from the broken relationship between the human and God and in consequence it the broken relationship between the world and God.

scholarly journals The Texts of St. Jerome, Sedulius Scottus and Beda Venerable in Plock and Mosan Biblical Manuscripts of the twelfth century. An attempt at comparison

1970 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 53-72
Author(s):  
Leszae Misiarczyk
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Synoptic Gospels ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Strong Argument ◽  
The Bible ◽  
River Region ◽  
Meuse River

This paper concerns the comparison of three twelfth-century biblical manuscripts from Plock, namely the so-called The Bible of Plock and The Evangeliary of Princess Anastasia with two Mosan biblical manuscripts: The Evangeliary of Averbode and the Biblia Universa transcribed in the same period. The first three texts: Beatissimo Papae Damaso (Novum opus), Prologus quatuor evangeliorum (Plures fuisse) and Iheronimus Damaso Pape (Sciendum etiam) – the last one is not included in the Bible of Plock - and Evangeliary of Princess Anastasia are of St. Jerome. In contrast, the introductions to the Synoptic Gospels: Argumentum secundum Matheum, Prologus in Marco and Prologus sancti Evangelii secundum Lucam are not the texts of St. Jerome, as is sometimes mistakenly repeated by different scholars, but were written by Sedulius Scottus, an Irish monk and a poet who lived and worked in a school in Leodium in the ninth century, whereas the introduction to the Gospel according to St. John: Prephatio in Evangelium secundum Iohannem was written by Bede the Venerable. While the texts of Jerome were quite commonly used in medieval biblical manuscripts, the fact that the introductions to the Synoptic Gospels are written by Sedulius Scottus and are present in both The Bible of Plock as well as partially in The Evangeliary of Princess Anastasia is a very strong argument for the Mosan origin of the twelfth century biblical manuscripts of Płock. The comparative analysis of the texts themselves clearly leads to several important conclusions. First, the Bible of Plock and Evangeliary of Princess Anastasia are closer to the version of the text preserved in the Biblia Universa, a codex written in the monastery of Sancti Trudonis, than to the Evangeliary of Averbode. It follows that the sources for the biblical manuscripts of Plock from the twelfth century should be searched at Mosan Benedictine monasteries, perhaps in the very monastery Sancti Trudonis near Liège. Second, the Gospel according to St. Mark generally follows the version of the text preserved in the Biblia Universa and the Bible of Plock but not all the time. It should therefore be hoped that the further comparative studies, especially of the version of the biblical text, will confirm this relationship and will help to determine whether the codex was written in the Meuse River region or is it a copy of the Bible of Plock made on the spot. Thirdly, and this is an extremely interesting proposal, the Evangeliary of Princess Anastasia, not counting minor changes made by a copyist like converting - tium to - cium, is very much dependent on the Bible of Plock. If, as it is confirmed by records of the miracles, the Bible was already in Plock in 1148 or before that date, it is very likely that the Evangeliary of Princess Anastasia, would be a copy of the text made on the spot in a local Plock scriptorium as a foundation of Boleslaw Kedzierzawy and a votive offering for the salvation of his deceased wife Anastasia. The codex would therefore arise after her death, dating back to the year 1158 in Plock in the time of Bishop Werner and would not have been brought by him following his trip to Aachen. These conclusions, for obvious reasons, are only preliminary, as comparison of the texts is not fully detailed and more comprehensive conclusions will be presented only after benchmarking a version of the biblical text of the four Gospels.  

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