scholarly journals The Demystification of Magic in the Tafsīr al-Manār: An Analysis of the Exegetical and Homiletic Devices Used in the Discussion ‘Mabḥath al-siḥr wa-Hārūt wa-Mārūt’

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 734
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Burge
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Variant Reading

The two angels Hārūt and Mārūt are mentioned together with the prophet Solomon in the ‘magic pericope’ of Sūrat al-Baqara (Q. 2:101–103). Rashīd Riḍā and his mentor Muḥammad ῾Abduh rejected the folkloric, mythical legends that surrounded the two angels Hārūt and Mārūt and the image of Solomon as a magus-like figure, seeing it as a threat to the rational interpretation of the Qur’ān. In his exegesis, Tafsīr al-Manār, Riḍā includes a relatively substantial tract denouncing magic and its use, entitled Mabḥath al-siḥr wa-Hārūt wa-Mārūt. This article will provide an analysis of exegetical and homiletic features used in this section, focusing on four areas: (i) elements of homiletic antisemitism; (ii) the invocation of personal experience; (iii) the use of lexicology to demystify Qur’ānic references to magic; and (iv) the use of a variant reading to demythologize the story. The aim of this article is to explore the ways in which the rejection of magic is articulated and which homiletic and exegetic tools Riḍā uses to support his position. A final section will explore the modernist movement’s relationship with biblical studies and the influence that it may have had on the interpretation of myth in the Tafsīr al-Manār.

Space-form and the acousmatic image

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Smalley
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Space Form ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
Spectral Space ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Spatial Concepts ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Acousmatic Music ◽  
Basic Ideas

AbstractThe analytical discussion of acousmatic music can benefit from being based on spatial concepts, and this article aims to provide a framework for investigation. A personal experience of soundscape listening is the starting point, and uncovers basic ideas relating to the disposition and behaviour of sounding content, and listening strategy. This enables the opening out of the discussion to include source-bonded sounds in general, giving particular consideration to how experience of sense modes other than the aural are implicated in our understanding of space, and in acousmatic listening. Attention then shifts to a source-bonded spatial model based on the production of space by the gestural activity of music performance, prior to focusing in more detail on acousmatic music, initially by delving into spectral space, where ideas about gravitation and diagonal forces are germane. This leads to concepts central to the structuring of perspectival space in relation to the vantage point of the listener. The final section considers a methodology for space-form investigation.

scholarly journals Establishing Land Relationships Through the Saskatoon Berry

Intonations ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 47-60
Author(s):  
Kufre Usanga
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives

This paper interrogates human relationships with the natural environment using the saskatoon berry as a “habitat guide,” a concept borrowed from the Indigenous perspectives of the Blackfoot, Papachase Cree and the Métis. As a settler on Treaty Six and Métis territory no. 4 – the traditional lands of various Indigenous Peoples including the Papaschase Cree, Blackfoot, Nakota Sioux, Ojibwe, Métis and others – my research engages with personal experience and specific Indigenous knowledge systems and worldview(s). This paper is divided into three sections: the first examines engagement with the natural environment and makes a case for stewardship and kinship as eco-conscious ethics. The second section, based on an oral interview with Papaschase Cree educator and scholar Dwayne Donald, builds on traditional ecological knowledge to provoke thoughts on multispecies relationality. In the final section, I offer a close reading of poems by two Métis poets to emphasize kinship and ethical relationality through the saskatoon berry.

Recent Contributions to the Study of the Reception of the Bible and Their Implications for Biblical Studies in Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 329-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Stenschke
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Introductory Section ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Detailed Presentation

This article surveys a number of recent studies on the reception of biblical material in the Bible itself or in later works and periods. It endeavours to present studies that are representative of the nature and extent of the shift in the past two decades from the Bible itself to its rich reception history. An introductory section describes how recent developments in hermeneutics have shown to what extent hermeneutics is a historical discipline. After a detailed presentation and assessment, a final section draws some conclusion for the tasks ahead for biblical studies and related disciplines in Africa.

Queer Theory

2019 ◽  
pp. 93-116
Author(s):  
Stephen D. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Testament Studies ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Sex And Sexuality

Since the 1990s, queer theory has been immensely influential in the humanities, and, to a lesser extent, in the social sciences, seeping into discipline after discipline, even disciplines as well insulated as biblical studies. Queer theory is most commonly understood to be the poststructuralist analysis of sex and sexuality, heterosexuality as well as homosexuality. But as queer theory developed, it frequently decoupled from sex and sexuality, its expanded object of analysis becoming normality as such, in its manifold manifestations. This essay begins with a detailed account of the origins of queer theory: its “precursors,” its “exemplars,” and its relations to queer activism. The essay then charts the queer turn in biblical studies, especially New Testament studies, which also began in the 1990s, and traces such work down to the present, commenting both appreciatively and critically on the various paths it has taken. The final section of the essay brings the tale of extrabiblical queer theory fully up to date and reflects on the largely untapped potential for biblical studies of its more recent developments.

Becoming a commercial semiotician

Semiotica ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (213) ◽  
pp. 345-363
Author(s):  
Chris Arning
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Personal Values ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractIn this paper, the author sets out a brief account of how you become a semiotician, breaking it down in terms of motivations and competences. This is a paper written from the personal experience of the author. It is not meant to be prescriptive or to offer any sort of orthodoxy. The catalyst for the paper was frustration with the dearth of writing on this topic. The paper argues that the process of becoming is not just about acquiring knowledge or cognitive ability but also involves personal values and self-identity. It also seeks to dethrone the place of theory as predominant, arguing that interpretive practice relies as much upon a repertoire of aptitudes and techniques of reading and other soft skills. Theory acquisition in itself is simply not enough. In terms of its structure, the paper starts with a definition of what commercial semiotics is, continues with a section defining its scope, validity, and applications. The meat of the paper is devoted to laying out the different aptitudes and techniques mentioned above. The final section discusses the semiotic enterprise as a quest for knowledge and argues that there is no single trajectory in becoming a commercial semiotics practitioner. The paper argues that it is an odyssey of constant learning. It includes some comments on the institutionalization of the field. The hope is that this paper will give insight to interested parties into the craft of commercial semiotics.

Biblical Narrative Analysis from the New Criticism to the New Narratology

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen D. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Narrative Criticism ◽  
New Criticism ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Classical Narratology ◽  
The One

This chapter chronicles the emergence and consolidation of biblical narrative criticism in the 1970s and 1980s and traces its development down to the present. It details the debts of narrative criticism to Anglo-American New Criticism, on the one hand (a debt exemplified by the work of Robert Alter), and to French structural narratology, on the other hand (a debt exemplified by the work of Adele Berlin, Alan Culpepper, and others). It also describes early alternatives (exemplified by the work of Mieke Bal) to the formalist model of biblical narrative criticism. It then recounts the movement in secular narrative theory from “classical” narratology to “postclassical” narratologies that began in the late 1980s, structural narratology gradually being transformed by such discourses as poststructuralism, feminism, postcolonial studies, cultural studies, and cognitive psychology. The final section ponders the possible contours of a postclassical narrative criticism in biblical studies.

scholarly journals Reflections

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-61
Author(s):  
Ruth Behar ◽  
Björn Vikström ◽  
Hannu Salmi ◽  
Ruth Illman
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
English Language ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Personal Reflection ◽  
Professional Career ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Ruth Behar ◽  
Personal Reflections

This final section presents a literary excerpt and three personal reflections on the theme of Aboagora, as well as on the experience of taking part in Aboagora. It opens with a story written by Ruth Behar, dealing with her personal experience of mastering the English language. Professor Behar read this story as an artistic comment within a workshop entitled ‘Between Art and Research: Rethinking Professional Borderlands’, which dealt with the experiences of people who combine an academic professional career with artistic work. The story is followed by a personal reflection by Bishop Björn Vikström, presented within the context of a session dealing with objectivity and the problem of combining academic research with personal engagement and activism. Finally, two of the organisers of the Aboagora conference, Professor Hannu Salmi and Dr Ruth Illman, reflect on the outcome of the event, evaluating the new insights and perspectives it has facilitated, as well as looking to the future and the potential of Aboagora to develop into a permanent forum for encounters between the arts and sciences.

Value Oriented Science for A Sustainable Society

Human Affairs ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikuláš Huba
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Final Section ◽  
National Level ◽  
Scientific Production ◽  
Sustainable Society ◽  
Science In Society ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Is Value

Value Oriented Science for A Sustainable SocietyThe essay deals with the relationship between ethics, science and the character of society associated with challenges such as: What is the contemporary role of science in society and how does it fulfil it? Is value oriented "engaged" science possible? What does the responsibility of science mean? What is the reason for and the state of integrative, interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and/or post-disciplinary approaches in the science? What is the role and meaning of evaluation in scientific production and/or its usefulness? What is the value, cost and effectiveness of science? Is scientometrics an adequate answer? What is the role of ethics and science in the context of sustainable development/living/society? In the final section of the essay several examples drawing on the international as well as the national level are introduced. The ambition of the author, a professional environmental geographer, is not to submit an extensive excursion into most fashionable aspects of the topic within the global philosophical context. The author describes his own personal experience and position and tries to discover what the emerging challenges and threats in this field may be, first of all in the current Slovak context.

scholarly journals ‘Living God, renew and transform us’ – 26th General Council of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, in Leipzig, Germany, 29 June to 07 July 2017

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Moltmann
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Final Section ◽  
General Council ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The World ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
New Religion

This article aims at exploring the theme ‘Living God, renew and transform us’ under the following headings: the living God and the gods of death, the desolation of atheism and the sun of righteousness, just law and the fullness of life. The author relates the ‘God of Life’ to a ‘theology embracing life’. He links the ‘gods of death’ to racism, capitalism and terrorism in which we ‘encounter a new religion of death’. He points out that Christianity is a religion of joy in God and sets out to illustrate this with selected biblical texts. In the section ‘The desolation of atheism’, the author argues that modern atheism offers a ‘reduced life’. To make his point, he refers to his own personal experience and the theological ‘protest atheism’ which arose in the 19th century. The author concludes by stating that atheism offers nothing positive. In the final section, ‘The sun of righteousness, just law and the fullness of life’, the author addresses issues of justice. In referring to the Reformation doctrine on justification, the author states that the justification of victims requires confessio oris, rising up from humiliation and forgiveness.

Biblical Theology: Bridge Over Many Waters

2005 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Helmer
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Structural Parameter ◽  
The Future ◽  
Historical Trajectory ◽  
Bridge Building

Biblical theology’s bridge-building capacities are studied in this paper by mapping out a historical trajectory of the discipline, and by addressing the possible novel directions the field might take in the future. An epistemological parameter and a structural parameter were set by Gabler that continue to inform the contemporary discussion. In order to open up the discussion to hermeneutical, philosophical and systematic theological questions, the paper offers a proposal for a text theory, and addresses its implications for some concrete questions posed recently in biblical theology. A final section sketches various currents in biblical studies and theology that are having an impact on the field.

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