Journal articles on the topic 'Christianity studies (including biblical studies and church history)'

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to survey the history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church with an emphasis on several features which are of significance for comparison to Syriac Orthodox Christianity. Although it focuses primarily on the period from 1270 during which 'Ethiopian' was a national rather than ethnic identity, it shares several themes with other papers in this volume. After considering the manner in which Christianity reached Ethiopia and in particular the central role played by the royal court in the acceptance and consolidation of the Church, attention is given to the claims of successive Ethiopian rulers and ethnic groups to be 'Israelites', that is, descendants of biblical figures most notably King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The paper next considers the manner in which monastic movements, which emerged in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, were associated with ethnically based resistance to the expansion of the Christian kingdom. Other themes include the development of a tradition of biblical interpretation and Christological controversies. The paper concludes with a discussion of ongoing research concerning the Ethiopian diaspora which has developed in the period since the Marxist revolution of 1974.

By almost any measure, the study of ancient Christian history is alive and well, even if one limits one's view to the North American scene. Over the last three decades the number of publications in the field, both books and articles, has grown considerably, fueling (among other things) the astonishing success of theJournal of Early Christian Studies, founded by the North American Patristic Society (NAPS) a decade'ago. Each year the program of the annual meeting of NAPS features more papers and attracts more participants (even though they must stay in less than ideal, even appropriately monastic, dormitory rooms). The number of papers on early Christian topics at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature (as well as the American Philological Association) is very impressive.

The letter of James reveals long embedded anti-Semitic elements at work in the articulation of the distinction between Judaism and Christianity. However, careful examination of the text and the history of the early synagogue and church challenges us to rethink how (and whether) Judaism and Christianity have parted ways. James’s use of biblical traditions is not simply an embrace of torah piety or “works righteousness,” but rather a careful juxtaposition of wisdom and prophetic traditions aimed to call the letter’s first readers, and us, to move toward the margins of our ecclesial, academic, and wider communities.

Abstract This article is an examination of John Wesley's relationship with the German Moravians in Georgia, which focuses on their respective conceptions of primitive Christianity. Wesley saw Georgia as a laboratory to implement his High Church Anglican/Nonjuror inspired vision of introducing the doctrine, discipline, and practice of the primitive church in the new colony. Wesley's determination to implement his views of primitive Christianity affected all of his relationships in Georgia including his interactions with the Moravians. A close investigation of Wesley's journals and diary along with the journals and letters of the leaders of the Moravians shows that discussion of the nature of the primitive church dominated their conversations. Wesley believed that primitive Christianity could be restored by renewing the precise doctrine, liturgy, discipline, and devotional practice of the primitive church, while the Moravians stressed the communal spirit of the primitive church as worthy of contemporary emulation. Although the Moravians claimed to maintain episcopal apostolic succession, they did not agree with Wesley that it was essential to an efficacious ministry. The leaders of the Moravians, while showing some sympathy with Wesley's High Church primitivism, retained their focus on the spirit and communal form of the early church. Therefore, relations between Wesley and the Moravians in Georgia were marked by mutual respect and tension due to their differing conceptions of primitive Christianity.

AbstractThis paper reflects on research which discovered a correspondence between the form of the biblical lament psalms and the early Australian Pentecostal (1908 – 1937) practice of prayer. It is argued that this has significant implications for Christians today in relation to the critique that the contemporary church has lost the practice of lament. Specifically four dimensions of lament-prayer were considered for contemporary Pentecostal Christianity, including (1) the lament dialogue, (2) the lament protest, (3) the margins of lament, and (4) the glossolalic lament. Overall, it is proposed that Pentecostal Christians are uniquely situated to forge a path in light of these results and re-incorporate laments into their worship and pastoral care practises.

AbstractChildlessness is an issue of deep religious concern in Africa. Men, women and couples with problems of sexuality and childlessness make use not only of the resources of traditional African religions but also of the many Pentecostal/charismatic churches and movements that have burgeoned throughout sub-Saharan Africa in the last three decades. Initially this was the domain of the older African independent churches, as far as the Christian response to childlessness is concerned; the new Pentecostals have taken on the challenge too. Based on the same biblical and traditional worldviews that events have causes, these churches have mounted ritual contexts that wrestle with the issues of sexuality and childlessness. In pursuing this salvific endeavor, however, the needs of those who may never have children seem to have been neglected by the churches considered here and represented by the Pure Fire Miracle Ministries, a Ghana/Nigeria charismatic church located in Ghana. is partial approach to 'healing' childlessness has led to one-sided interpretations of what it means to be fruitful and prosperous and deepened the troubles of the childless.

The Church of England, being the state church of an imperial nation of diverse peoples and creeds, had to contend with provocative controversies in the early twentieth century leading up to the First World War. Perhaps the greatest was secularization, which gained momenturn in the previous century.2 The last fifty years of the nineteenth century proved threatening for church leaders. Horace Mann's 1851 religious census in England and Wales, although controversial, insinuated church attendance was much lower in Great Britain than previously perceived. Causing more anxiety, the State Church consistently lost authority over many of its traditions, including administering burial grounds and the last rights ceremony.3 Additionally Ecclesiastical courts gave up authority to the civic courts of British society.

Outrageous women, outrageous god. Women in the first two generations of Christianity. By Ross Saunders. Pp. x+182. Alexandria, NSW: E. J. Dwyer, 1996. $10 (paper). 0 85574 278 XMontanism. Gender, authority and the new prophecy. By Christine Trevett. Pp. xiv+299. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. £37.50. 0 521 41182 3God's Englishwomen. Seventeenth-century radical sectarian writing and feminist criticism. By Hilary Hinds. Pp. vii+264. Manchester–New York: Manchester University Press, 1996. £35 (cloth), £14.99 (paper). 0 7190 4886 9; 0 7190 4887 7Women and religion in medieval and Renaissance Italy. Edited by Daniel Bornstein and Roberto Rusconi, translated by Margery J. Schneider. (Women in Culture and Society.) Pp. x+334 incl. 11 figs. Chicago–London: The University of Chicago Press, 1996. (first publ. as Mistiche e devote nell'Italia tardomedievale, Liguori Editore, 1992). £39.95 ($50) (cloth), £13.50 ($16.95) (paper). 0 226 06637 1; 0 226 06639 8The virgin and the bride. Idealized womanhood in late antiquity. By Kate Cooper. Pp. xii+180. Cambridge, Mass.–London: Harvard University Press, 1996. £24.95. 0 674 93949 2St Augustine on marriage and sexuality. Edited by Elizabeth A. Clark. (Selections from the Fathers of the Church, 1.) Pp. xi+112. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1996. £23.95 (cloth), £11.50 (paper). 0 8132 0866 1; 0 8132 0867 XGender, sex and subordination in England, 1500–1800. By Anthony Fletcher. Pp. xxii+442+40 plates. New Haven–London: Yale University Press, 1995. £25. 0 300 06531 0Empress and handmaid. On nature and gender in the cult of the Virgin Mary. By Sarah Jane Boss. Pp. x+253+9 plates. London–New York: Cassell, 2000. £45 (cloth), £19.99 (paper). 0 304 33926 1; 0 304 70781 3‘You have stept out of your place’. A history of women and religion in America. By Susan Hill Lindley. Pp. xi+500. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1996. $35. 0 664 22081 9The position of women within Christianity might well be described as paradoxical. The range of practices in the early Church with regard to women, leadership and ministry indicates that this was the case from the beginning, and the legacy of conflicting biblical texts about the role of women – Galatians. iii. 28 versus 1 Corinthians xi. 3 and Ephesians v. 22–3 for example – has, perhaps, made that paradoxical position inevitable ever since. It might be argued, then, that the history of Christianity illustrates the working out of that paradox, as women have sought to rediscover or remain true to what they have seen as a strand of radically egalitarian origins for Christianity which has been subsumed by the dominant patriarchal structure and ideology of the Church. The tension of this paradox has been played out when women have struggled to act upon that thread of egalitarianism and yet remain within Churches that have been (and, it could be argued, remain) ‘patriarchally’ structured.

When the Baltimore Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church issued a pastoral letter critical of St. Mary's College in 1811 it provided an opportunity for Louis DuBourg, the college's president, to respond with an apologetic defense of the college and of Catholicism more generally. In doing so he synthesized several strands of Catholic apologetics, including the via notarum, the utilitarianism that came to dominate French Catholic apologetics in the eighteenth century, the emphasis upon beauty and emotion that characterized Chateaubriand's Genuius of Christianity, and the earlier work of Bishop Bossuet critical of the doctrinal instability of protestantism. Aimed at a popular audience, DuBourg's apologetics created an identity for the American Catholic Church that emphasized its place within the largest part of worldwide Christianity, its role as educator of the best minds of Western civilization, and the beauty of its worship.

In a number of the author's scientific religious studies, A. Richinsky appears as a deep researcher of the history of Christianity and, in particular, of the history of Ukrainian Christianity. In controversy with his opponents, he attests to a thorough knowledge of the process of forming Christian dogmas of church canons, biblical texts, which he convincingly and skillfully operates as a professional exegete. At the same time, A. Richinsky appears to us as a tolerant, ecumenical personality, not inclined to religious confession, bias towards "non-believers", free from religious fanaticism and clerical extremism. If such a figure were today among our Ukrainian intelligentsia or, better yet, among the Orthodox hierarchy, the cause of unification of all Ukrainian Orthodox churches would inevitably have come to a standstill.

The decades between 1850 and 1930 saw traditional understandings of Christianity subjected to rigorous social, intellectual, and theological criticism across the transatlantic world. Unprecedented urban and industrial expansion drew attention to the shortcomings of established models of church organization while traditional Christian beliefs concerning human origins and the authority of Scripture were assailed by new approaches to science and biblical higher criticism. In contradistinction to lower or textual criticism, higher criticism dealt with the development of the biblical text in broad terms. According to James Strahan, professor of Hebrew at Magee College, Derry, from 1915 to 1926, textual criticism aimed “at ascertaining the genuine text and meaning of an author” while higher “or historical, criticism seeks to answer a series of questions affecting the composition, editing and collection of the Sacred Books.” During the nineteenth century, the controversy over the use of higher critical methods focused for the most part upon the Old Testament. In particular, critics dismissed the Mosaic authorship and unity of the Pentateuch, arguing that it was the compilation of a number of early documentary fragments brought together by priests after the Babylonian Exile in the sixth century B.C. This “documentary hypothesis” is most often associated with the German scholar, Julius Wellhausen. Indeed, higher criticism had been fostered in the extensive university system of the various German states, which encouraged original research and the emergence of a professional intellectual elite. It reflected the desire of liberal theologians to adapt the Christian faith to the needs and values of modern culture, particularly natural science and history.

The traditional narrative of religion and the gay rights movement in the post-1960s United States emphasizes conservative Christians and their opposition to gay rights. Few studies focus on the supportive role Christian leaders and churches played in advancing gay rights and nurturing a positive gay identity for homosexual Americans. Concentrating on the period from 1977 to 1993 and drawing largely from manuscript collections at the Minnesota Historical Society, including the Minnesota GLBT Movement papers of Leo Treadway, this study of Christianity and gay rights in the state of Minnesota demonstrates that while Christianity has often been an oppressive force on homosexuals and homosexuality, Christianity was also a liberalizing influence. Putting forth arguments derived from religious understandings, using biblical passages as “proof” texts, and showing a mutuality between the liberal theological tradition and the secular political position, the Christian community was integral to advancing gay rights and liberation in Minnesota by the early 1990s despite religious right resistance. These efforts revealed a Christianity driven to actualize the love of God here on earth and ensure human wholeness, freedom, and an authentic selfhood. Christian clergy, churches, and ordinary persons of faith thus undertook activity in three areas to ensure wholeness and freedom: political activity for civil protections; emotional, pastoral care for persons with AIDS; and as a source of self-affirmation and social comfort in the midst of an inhospitable society.

For over one hundred years the Fifohazana Revival has played a key role in the spread of Christianity in Madagascar. The Fifohazana is an indigenous Christian movement that seeks to serve Malagasy society through the preaching of the Gospel and a holistic ministry of healing in community. This article summarises the findings of a study that explored the role of women leaders as holistic healers in the Fifohazana revival movement and the Reformed Church (FJKM) in Madagascar. Based on interviews with four women ministering in the Fifohazana or the Reformed Church, including a rising leader in the revival movement, this study highlights the importance of women leaders as radical disciples and subversive apostles in the Fifohazana revival movement and in the Reformed Church. As such, these women have been instrumental in bringing renewal into the church through the work of the Holy Spirit in the holistic healing ministry of the Fifohazana.

Among many issues associated with religious negotiation and intercultural ministry and mission in the history of Christianity in China, the most important issue involves the Chinese rite of offering sacrifice to ancestors. This issue has been closely connected to the process of the Sinicisation of Christianity in all Pan-Chinese societies, including the Greater China and Chinese diasporic communities worldwide. This paper first reviews key historical elements of the Chinese Rites Controversy (1645–1941) on ‘Sacrificing to Ancestors’ ( jizu), and then considers some details of the ‘Three Rites’ of ‘Reverencing Ancestors’ ( jingzu) as a historical development within the Bread of Life Christian Church (BOLCC, Ling Liang Tang) in Taipei and the Bread of Life Global Apostolic Network (BGAN) of nearly 600 local churches on all continents as of 2020. Through this case study, the paper argues that the BOLCC, an independent Christian church established in 1942 and a contemporary Sinophone-based Christian movement, could expand quickly by applying its intercultural ‘Ling Liang Rule’ to continue the successful culture-accommodating ‘Matteo Ricci Rule’ among the Pan-Chinese (Chinese descendants in China and beyond) by providing an ‘in-between space’ negotiating for Christianity and Confucianism to satisfy their believers’ ‘hybrid identity’. Through the Christianised Reverencing Ancestors Rites to hybridise the Confucian Sacrificing to Ancestors Rites, Bread of Life Sinophone Christians in many places of the world can simultaneously affirm their cultural ‘hybrid identity’ as both Christian and Sinophone through core cultural interactions between Christianity and Confucianism in filial piety ( xiao).

In this study, I discuss the devotional lives of Finns who have joined the Orthodox Church of Finland as adults. The analysis is based on interviews conducted with 29 converts to Orthodoxy. My specific focus is the interplay of interiority and exteriority in my interlocutors’ religious practice. To conceptualise this dynamic, I turn to Adam Seligman’s theorisation of ritual and sincerity as two modes of organising social action. For Seligman, ritual action relies on the outer form, whereas sincere action prioritises the inner form – intention and mindset – instead. My interlocutors’ religious trajectories challenge the standard conceptualisation of the modern subject as someone who is primarily concerned for the truthful expression of their internal states and therefore rejects any external restrictions placed on their actions. After all, they had voluntarily transferred to a religious group that emphasises compliance with an outer form. My analysis demonstrates that while the interviewees understood sincerity as the driving force of religious practice, they valued Orthodox ritual as a resource. Moreover, their engagement in ritual action helped them come to terms with the ambiguities of their daily lives, including their conflicting obligations and wavering commitment, and to experience their lives as imbued with religion nonetheless.

AbstractThe relationship between the Bible and Christianity, including Christian theology, is traditionally strong and undisputed; however, in Christian theology in Africa, as elsewhere, the status of the biblical texts is contested. A brief consideration of the Bible as 'canon' leads to a broader discussion of how the Bible has to a certain extent become a 'problem' in African theology also, both because of theological claims made about its status, and - and in conjunction with - its perceived complicity in justifying human suffering and hardship. The legacy of the Bible as legitimating agent is dealt with from the vantage point of the history of interpretation; but the latter also provides for a 'rehumanising' of Scripture. In the end, this article is also an attempt to explain some of the different views of the Bible's status in Africa, and to address and mediate the resulting conflict by attending to proposals to view the biblical canon as 'historical prototype', foundational document' - as scripture. A number of important aspects regarding the continuing role of the Bible in African theologies in particular, conclude the essay.

Luther's student Johann Mathesius, longtime pastor in the Bohemian mining town of Joachimsthal, provides a lens for seeing early modern art and artists through Lutheran eyes, challenging modern interpretations of the dire consequences of the Reformation for the visual arts.1For Mathesius, pre-Reformation art provided not only evidence of old idolatry but also testimony to the preservation of Evangelical faith under the papacy. After the Reformation, Joachimsthal's Lutherans were active in commissioning new works of art to fill the first newly built Protestant church, including an altarpiece from Lucas Cranach's workshop. Mathesius's appreciation of this art includes not only its biblical and doctrinal content but also its aesthetic quality. In an extended sermon on the construction of the Tabernacle in Exodus 31, Mathesius draws on Luther's theology of the special inspiration of the “great men” of world history to develop a Lutheran theology of artistic inspiration, in which artists are endowed by the Holy Spirit with extraordinary skills and special creative gifts, intended to be used in service of the neighbor by adorning the divinely appointed estates of government, church, and household.

AbstractThis essay considers the growth of historiographical writing in fifteenth-century Iberia within the context of mass conversions of Jews to Christianity. It takes the writing of the convert Pablo de Santa María (ca. 1351-1435) as a test case for considering the emergence of historiographical writing directly informed by the events of 1391, in which many thousands of Jews were forcibly converted to Christianity. By reading Pablo’s poem Siete edades del mundo (Seven Ages of the World) in light of his biblical exegesis and anti-Jewish polemic, it is possible to show how issues relevant to Pablo’s conversion, including his exegetical polemic with Judaism, directly affect his historiographical writing and shape his use of standard tropes of fifteenth-century Castilian historiography. This suggests that, while there may be no uniquely “converso voice” in history writing, some fifteenth-century historiography is clearly informed by issues of particular relevance to conversos. At the same time, it implies that some fifteenth-century Christian historiography, like that of Sephardic Jews after the expulsion of 1492, grew from earlier historiographical and polemical traditions that transcend any single catalyzing event such as the trauma of 1391.

AbstractThe international growth of Pentecostalism has seen a rush of congregations in Africa, many of which have tapped into a range of both local and global trends ranging from neo-liberal capitalism to tele-evangelism to youth music. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this discussion focuses on the main Johannesburg congregation of a grouping of churches that have successfully engaged with aspects of socio-economic transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. Such engagement has involved conspicuous alignment with aspects of contemporary South African society, including an acceptance of broader policy projects of the nation state. I argue that the use of a variety of symbolic and thematic elements of a secular nature in the Sunday services of this church reminds and inspires congregants to consider wider social perspectives without challenging the sacred realm of faith.

Frants Peder William Buhl (1850-1932) is credited with introducingmodern critical exegesis in a Danish theological context. This article attempts to track Buhl’s theological concerns. Buhl saw his work as an academic theologian in close connection with the faith and life of the Christian church. In his earlier works he defends a conservative historical position, including a Mosaic origin for Deuteronomy. Later, he embraces basic insights promoted by Julius Wellhausen, and accepts Pentateuchal source criticism and a late date for the Priestly source as founded on valid historical arguments. Buhl retained an independent position with regard to Wellhausen, and remained a great admirer of the conservative scholar Frantz Delitzsch. As a biblical theologian, he worked out a perspective which assigns significant value to the biblical texts as witnesses to a divine revelation unfolding through the course of history, and maintained that historical research at a critical basis is essential to a proper theological understanding of the Old Testament scriptures.

During the late nineteenth century, James Walker Hood was bishop of the North Carolina Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and grand master of the North Carolina Grand Lodge of Prince Hall Masons. In his forty-four years as bishop, half of that time as senior bishop of the denomination, Reverend Hood was instrumental in planting and nurturing his denomination's churches throughout the Carolinas and Virginia. Founder of North Carolina's denominational newspaper and college, author of five books including two histories of the AMEZ Church, appointed assistant superintendent of public instruction and magistrate in his adopted state, Hood's career represented the broad mainstream of black denominational leaders who came to the South from the North during and after the Civil War. Concurrently, Grand Master Hood superintended the southern jurisdiction of the Prince Hall Masonic Grand Lodge of New York and acted as a moving force behind the creation of the region's black Masonic lodges—often founding these secret male societies in the same places as his fledgling churches. At his death in 1918, the Masonic Quarterly Review hailed Hood as “one of the strong pillars of our foundation.” If Bishop Hood's life was indeed, according to his recent biographer, “a prism through which to understand black denominational leadership in the South during the period 1860–1920,” then what does his leadership of both the Prince Hall Lodge and the AMEZ Church tell us about the nexus of fraternal lodges and African American Christianity at the turn of the twentieth century?

Estonia is one of the most extreme nations in the Western world regarding a modest belonging to the churches and scepticism towards religious institutions. This article presents a short overview of the history of Estonian academic landscapes from the point of view of biblical studies and the University of Tartu as the historical nodal point of all Estonian academic life. The paper sketches six polarities that characterise the work of biblical scholars in Estonia. The first polarity marks national versus international, since biblical scholars struggle with the needs of the narrow national academic sphere and the broad international scholarship. The second polarity is the tension between scientific and popular spheres, of which both are needed to have a sustainable national academic environment, but academic publications are rare. The third problem is the polarity between the historical-critical and the religious, generally designated as a conflict between conservatives and liberals in Estonia. Particularly in the Lutheran church, several theologians and pastors publicly distinguish between “church theology” and “university theology,” and the label of liberalism keeps sticking. The fourth polarity concerns religious versus anticlerical and non-institutional religion. Biblical scholars are confronted with a very ambivalent attitude towards churches, demanding flexibility to understand the exact auditory. The fifth polarity marks the academic study versus new spirituality interpretations: how to approach people speaking the jargon of new spirituality, who might be religiously illiterate, individualistic, and sceptical towards institutionalised churches. Open theological discussion versus political-nationalist ideology is the sixth polarity. After gaining independence and becoming free from communist ideology, the lifetime of one generation has not been enough to cope with all the changes in the world view to emerge a free, tolerant and cohesive society. The situation welcomed the import of fundamentalist Christianity, far-right politics and the phenomenon of cultural war.

AbstractThe homiletical commentary Leviticus Rabbah is proof of the interest that proselytism aroused among the Sages. Indeed, this Midrash includes several citations regarding converts to Judaism in general, as a collective with similar characteristics, as well as others about specific figures who became proselytes or at the least sympathisers. This paper analyses the texts relating to this matter in order to answer the following questions: what is the impression of proselytes as a well-known group that is transmitted by the Rabbis in a work dating back to fifth-century C.E. Palestine, taking into account that Christianity had already become the religion of the Empire? Were they accepted as a part of the true Israel? What type of individuals converted to Judaism according to the Sages? Were they notable figures or anonymous people? Were they biblical or contemporary characters? This study will contribute some answers in order to understand how the Rabbis tackled this phenomenon at a time when even specific decrees existed against this practice and when the Church was taking a decisive role against it.

In order to answer the question of the involvement of Harvard Theological Review in the publication of essays relating to the New Testament, I have gone through all the published indices that were issued by the journal. The first index was published in 1938 and covered the journal's first thirty years; thereafter indices were published at ten-year intervals. The figures to which I shall refer in this paper are not necessarily exact, but they offer a reasonably good indication of the commitment of Harvard Theological Review to the field of New Testament studies. I did not limit the following survey to essays that deal with the New Testament proper, narrowly defined. There are numerous articles that contribute to New Testament studies indirectly, as they deal with the literature of postexilic Israel, the so-called Old Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, or rabbinic Judaism. Other areas of scholarly endeavor relating to the New Testament and early Christianity are the history of ancient Christianity, New Testament apocrypha including the writings from Nag Hammadi, the Apostolic Fathers, early Christian apologists, and ancient church history in general. Finally, many of these essays, often written by New Testament scholars, deal with material from the Greco-Roman world.

AbstractThis paper examines the role of African Initiated Churches (AICs) in the lives of African migrant laborers in Israel. Its aim is to attain a deeper understanding of religion and church affiliation among African migrant laborers in Israel from the perspective of the Africans themselves. It traces the creation and development of the AICs in Israel, including the various services and activities that the churches provided for their members in the social, economic and political arenas. It argues that the African churches in Israel occupied a particularly large and central place in their members' lives compared to migrant churches in other western diasporas, taking on roles of other traditional social, economic, political and civil actors in Africa. The paper examines the AICs' multiple adaptations to unique conditions in Israel and to the needs of their membership. Though many of the patterns identified are similar to those found in other diaspora communities, certain features of Israel and its society, mainly those connected to the Jewish identity of the State of Israel and the limited civic horizon open to non-Jews, made for substantial differences. These features forced Africans to create their own Afro-Christian space to fulfill their needs and became the key anchors in the spiritual, emotional and practical lives of the African migrants in Israel. Finally this article argues that the churches became the main space for the production of a sense of belonging within the Israeli civic context, in spite of the fact that the migrants' religious identities and institutions were not used as vehicles for recognition or channels for gaining legitimacy in Israel's public sphere.

Abstract In the years leading up to Francis Xavier’s canonization, hagiographers emphasized the unprecedented nature of his mission to Asia by giving him various appellations that specifically identified the places where he had spread the Gospel during his ministry, such as “the first Apostle to Japan.” However, the 1623 canonization bull introduced new titles for Xavier, including the “Apostle of the Indies,” implying both East and West, as well as the “Apostle to the New People” and “the Apostle of All the Christian World.” This more universalizing view of Xavier would have a strong influence on the development of his iconography in the visual arts. This paper will examine one manifestation of this constructed image of Xavier as a global saint, focusing on early modern paintings, prints, and sculptures of Xavier preaching to representatives of the four continents. This analysis will address the question of whether these continental representatives could be considered allegories of the continents and if so, how they fit into the taxonomies and history of such images. I will also examine how these images shaped viewers’ understanding of Xavier as a universal saint working to unite the four continents of the world in Christianity and bring about the ultimate global triumph of the Catholic Church.

This contribution deals with the reception of John Calvin and his theology in a seventeenth-century Dutch manual of practical theology written by Simon Oomius, a representative of Dutch Reformed Pietism in the period of high Orthodoxy. From the manual, which presents an exhaustive study of the doctrines of Scripture and of God, it becomes clear that Oomius uses Calvin as an important and reliable reference in the areas of dogmatics, exegesis, church history, and spirituality. He takes over arguments from Calvin by paraphrasing him, by using the same examples, by appealing to the same names, by summarizing Calvin’s explanation of biblical texts with approval, or even by including literal citations from his commentaries, letters, and articles, as well as the Institutes. The selective use is almost always in the context of polemics, but carefully in line with Calvin’s own reasoning. This case study shows that Oomius’s portrait of Calvin is directly connected with the essence of his own theology. The reformer of Geneva is considered for the promotion of piety. In Oomius’s eyes, the publications of Calvin are as a whole practically-oriented, and his “Institutes of life” are a living example of a theologia practica.

Christopher of Mytilene, a secular poet of the early 11th century, had embarked on a difficult task when creating his dodecasyllabic Christian Calendar, that is two-verse storytelling about saints and, mainly, about the tortures they died of. He accomplished it more than successfully, besides in quite a vivid and spectacular way, by means of various poetic and rhetorical techniques. Food and medicine imagery was just a minute aspect of his mastery, yet a powerful one, acquiring not only artistic and rhetorical, but also mnemonic functions. the poet used such images – just as he used e.g. Biblical allusions – as a way to convey a variety of details in succinct messages; the information thus compressed is unfolded by means of associations in the mind of the perceiver. These associations are related not only to Christianity, but also to many other aspects of the Byzantine cultured life, including certain elements from Antiquity. I will try to reveal this mechanism and to show the attempts of the 14th-century South Slavonic translators to render it as well as their decisions in cases of realia unknown to their audience. For this purpose, I have selected certain Greek verse memories (as given in the editions of Eustratiadis and Cresci & Skomorochova Venturini) from the Verse Synaxarion for the summer half of the year together with their two South-Slavonic correspondences of the 14th century (according to the two respective early manuscripts of the Slavonic Verse Prolog), again only for the months from March to August.

In 1988 the Reformed Church in Bavaria commemorated the life and work of August Ebrard (1818–1888), the first Professor Ordinarius of Reformed Theology in the University of Erlangen. Ebrard is today almost completely forgotten; Karl Barth is reported to have opined that his theology was ‘deader than dead’. Yet he was a remarkable man, successively Professor in Erlangen, Konsistorialrat in Speyer, independent author and lecturer, finally minister of the French Reformed congregation in Erlangen (as his father had been long before). He contributed considerably to the maintenance and strengthening of the Reformed witness in Germany in the nineteenth century, took up the cudgels to defend the faith against D. F. Strauss on the one hand and Haeckel's Darwinism on the other, and published voluminous theological works, from biblical exegesis through church history to dogmatics, apologetics and practical theology, including liturgies, hymnology and sacramentalia. His interests were wider still; he was a kind of nineteenth century ‘renaissance man’, his studies extending inter alia to geology, mineralogy, musical theory and linguistics; learned, cultivated, busily writing up to the day of his death. Alongside his specifically theological works stand historical novels (written under the pen-name Gottfried Flammberg), poems, travel reports, an autobiography of Herculean proportions and such special gems as a System of Musical Acoustics and a Handbook of Middle Gaelic. Ground enough there alone for a Scot occupying Ebrard's chair a century after his death to look more closely at the man and his writings! Ebrard's papers are preserved in the Erlangen City Archives.

These three separate notes are united by the fact that the words considered originated from Russian seminarian slang and borrowed from Greek, with the first two words illustrating unobvious, punning Graecism. The rare verb vz"efantúlit' ‘to subject smb. to cruel punishment’ (and its derivatives vz"efantúlka, vz"efantúlivan'e) is related to the Biblical Semitism ἐφφαθά (Mark 7.34), which was read “by Erasmus spelling” (cf. Latin eppheta) and passed through a series of word-building transformations. The verb smorozit' ‘to say smth. stupid or inappropriate’ has additional arguments in favor of its origin from contamination of Greek μωρός and Russian морóз in a Russian seminarian or gymnasial environment. The author has also extensively traced the way this verb is defined in dictionaries and researched by other scholars. Finally, an essay on the word áksiós ‘church acclamation «He is worthy!»’ (from Greek ἄξιος) and its comic figurative pl. aksiósy ‘hair’ considers the whole history of the usage of these lexical units in all registers of the Russian language, including dialects.

It is well known that the ecumenical councils convening throughout the history of the Church — the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., the Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D., the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. and the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D.— were of great import. It is much less known, however, that centuries before the first Christian councils, a similar process was taking place in ancient India. At the Councils of Rajagrha in 486 B.C., Vaishali in 386 B.C., Pataliputra in 250 B.C., Sri Lanka in 29 B.C. and Kashmir in 72 A.D., Buddhist monks resolved to set forth dogmas, to put them in writing and to draw the line between orthodox and false doctrines. Generally speaking, the first councils, both in the West and in the East, were convened due to the need to preserve original doctrines. In addition, original teachings had to be canonised and systematised. Also, the process of including religious doctrines into imperial politics is characteristic of two royal personages, namely, the Indian king Aśoka and the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. Both were actively involved in the councils of their day and contributed decisively to the further development and consolidation of both Buddhism and Christianity respectively.

The Department of Religious Studies is formed on an autonomous basis in the structure of the Institute of Philosophy by the decision of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in June 1991 with the prospect of its transformation into an independent academic institution. The first director of the Department was Dr. Philos. Mr., O.S. Onischenko, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The Department includes departments of the philosophy of religion (headed by A. Kolodnyi, Ph.D.), sociology of religion (the head of the Philosophical Philosophy Department P.Kosuh), the history of religion in Ukraine (the head of the Philosophy Philosophy Yarotsky) During the first three years, departments conducted research on the following topics: "Methodological Principles and Categorical Apparatus of Religious Studies"; "Contemporary Religious Situation in Ukraine: State, Trends, Forecasts"; "History of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine". Since 1994, they have been working on problems: "The phenomenon of religion: nature, essence, functionality"; "Religious activity in the context of social processes in Ukraine"; "Features and milestones of the history of Ukrainian Christianity". At the time, the research group on the history of theological thought in Ukraine (headed by K.Filosov V.Klimov) studied the creative work of Metropolitan Petro Mohyla, a group on the study of neo-religions (head of the department - Philosophy L. L. Filippovich) - investigated new religious currents and cults of post-socialist Ukraine, and a group on the history of Protestantism (headed by F. Philosopher P. Kosuh, coordinator - Ph.D. S.Golovashchenko) conducted a large-scale study of archival sources on the history of the Gospel-Baptist movement in Ukraine. In 1995, the Department employed 30 scientific staff (including 5 doctors and 14 candidates of science).

Eastern and southwestern Macedonia, as well as southern Albania, became parts of Bulgaria in the first decade of the rule of Khan Boris. After his baptism (864/865) and the establishment of an archbishopric (870; 880), the renewal of the former Byzantine church organization on Bulgaria’s territory began. In the eastern parts, the process unfolded slowly because of the strength of the ruling ethnic Bulgarian class, which was pagan; in the western parts, however, the organization of church eparchies went more easily because the local, predominantly Slavic, population had accepted Christianity centuries earlier. This was exactly the reason why Boris-Mikhail sent the disciples of Cyril and Methodius, who had just arrived (885/886) and were well versed in holding religious services in the Slavonic language, to the remote southwest of the country to carry out the so-called “Slavonic Project.” These disciples (including Clement and his associates—Naum, Konstantin, and other unnamed companions) started training local people to serve as clergymen and formed a church structure in Kutmičevica in order to introduce religious services in the Slavonic language in those regions. When Kniaz Simeon came to power, he continued Boris’s “Slavonic Project,” which thus continued to be focused in the southwestern regions of Bulgaria. On being ordained the first Slavonic bishop, Clement organized his eparchy by ethnic (Slavonic) rather than territorial principles. It was Naum who continued his mission to educate people. Konstantin, for his part, was assigned bishop of Bregalnica when Bulgaria expanded close to Thessaloniki (904) in the early 10th century. Sources suggest that the fourth Slavonic bishop was Marko of Devol, one of Clement’s students, and therefore the question of the existence of a third Slavonic bishop has inevitably been raised. As of recently, scholars have been arguing that this third bishop is to be located in Pelagonija. The existence of these four Slavonic bishops and the location of the territories in which they served undoubtedly suggests that Boris’s “Slavonic Project” had chronological continuity and that it spread during Simeon’s rule to the neighboring Slavonic regions, along the Bregalnica and the surrounding area, and perhaps to Pelagonija as well. Their activities in the aforementioned regions continued at least until the middle of the 10th century.

В статье рассматриваются труды современного немецкого библеиста Эрхарда Блюма, посвящённые анализу истории и современного состояния документальной гипотезы происхождения Пятикнижия, которая до сих пор является доминирующей в современной западной библеистике. В начале статьи рассказана краткая история этой гипотезы, затем излагается её современное состояние, как его описывает Э. Блюм с выделением трёх основных направлений развития, и приводится его критическая оценка её проблем и перспектив. Далее рассматриваются рассуждения Блюма о проблемах лингвистической датировки библейского текста, очень важной для разных аспектов современной библеистики и в том числе документальной гипотезы. В качестве примера описывается лингвистический анализ отрывка Быт. 24 (о женитьбе Исаака), сделанная израильским библеистом А. Рофэ, и даётся его критический разбор. В конце статьи приводятся выводы автора о современной критической оценке документальной гипотезы на основе анализа трудов Э. Блюма. Автор считает, что история данной гипотезы и её современное состояние наглядно показывают её спорность и хаотичность выводов. Вместе с тем альтернативные (по отношению к традиционной церковной позиции) точки зрения на происхождение Пятикнижия не обязательно должны противоречить церковному вероучению и могут быть полезны для обнаружения и решения некоторых проблем библейского текста. В частности, может быть перспективной гипотеза Девятикнижия. Эрхарда Блюма можно назвать типичным представителем современной библейской критики, с одной стороны использующим документальную гипотезу для своих исследований, а с другой - способным её критически оценить. Ввиду того, что профессор Э. Блюм является ныне действующим исследователем, его научное творчество до сих пор, насколько известно автору, не было объектом научных исследований. Таким образом, данная статья может считаться первой в этой области, и автор вынужден был опираться только на труды самого немецкого библеиста. The article examines the works of the modern German biblical scholar Erhard Blum, devoted to the analysis of the history and contemporary state of the documentary hypothesis of the origin of the Pentateuch, which is still dominant in modern Western biblical studies. An introduction to the article contains a brief history of the documentary hypothesis. Further in the text, the contemporary state of the hypothesis is represented by the description of Blum, with three main directions of its development, which he distinguishes, and his critical assessment of its problems and prospects. The author considers Blum's reasoning about the problems of linguistic dating, which is important for various aspects of modern biblical studies, including the documentary hypothesis. As an example, the linguistic dating of Genesis 24 (the marriage of Isaac), made by the Israeli biblical scholar Alexander Rofe, is described, and its critical analysis is given. The author reasons about the modern critical assessment of the documentary hypothesis based on the analysis of Blum’s works, and applies his own interpretations. The author presumes that the history of the documentary hypothesis and its current state clearly demonstrates controversy. Meanwhile, opinions on the origin of the Pentateuch, alternative to the traditional church views, should not necessarily contradict the church doctrine and may be useful for identifying and solving some problems of the biblical text. Due to the fact that Blum is a contemporary biblical scholar, his person, as far as the author knows, has not been an object of academic research yet, and the present article can be considered the first in this area, and the author, therefore, is forced to rely solely on Blum’s works.

According to the American Medical Association, ‘Health care is a fundamental human good because it affects our opportunity to pursue life goals, reduces our pain and suffering, helps prevent premature loss of life, and provides information needed to plan for our lives.’ Christianity is the world’s largest religion and most widely diffused of all faiths stemming from the life teachings of Jesus Christ. Religion, medicine, and healthcare have always been intertwined from history. Dating back throughout the Middle Ages and up to the French Revolution, physicians were often clergy. The first hospital in the West was started by a religious organization and staffed by religious orders. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have concluded that, “Most studies have shown that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes, including greater longevity, coping skills, and health-related quality of life (even during terminal illness) and less anxiety, depression, and suicide. Several studies have shown that addressing the spiritual needs of the patient may enhance recovery from illness.” Jesus Christ in his teachings instructed his followers to heal the sick and since then the early church and Christians practiced practical charity that gave a basis to nursing homes and hospitals. Jews and Christians believed that human worth was predicated on the fact that each person was created in the image and likeness of God, which—for Christians—was directly stated in Matthew 25:40 “Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.” In recent times, when people are faced with many health issues that medical professionals do not seem to have an answer for, looking outside of the traditional health setting and up to a divine power for healing has been on the rise. A 2018 survey of American physicians and patients suggests that about 64% of physicians believe in the existence of God or a higher power, and more than 90% of patients claimed the same. Jesus in his teachings emphasized the need of treating every human with love, which is why Christian hospitals were established with the main aim of practicing the teachings of Jesus and alleviating suffering of the sick. It is also noted that there is an increase in modern western medicine with the importance of patient spirituality in treatment and healing which must be considered by healthcare professionals while providing care. As for physicians who are rooted in the Christian faith, they would provide care to their patients keeping in mind that they are made in the image of God. Since healing is an art which is personal and human, there is only a limited amount of human intervention which can contribute to its success. When modern medicine and Christian faith is intertwined in patient care, the provider and patient feel a sense of spiritual calmness that contribute to the total healing journey

AbstractThe cult of the Virgin Mary had a complicated history in Scotland during the sixteenth century, with historical, devotional and literary evidence indicating both widespread acceptance of the church's traditional practices and growing dissatisfaction with them, particularly in elite culture. Anti-Marian polemics entered Scottish Christianity through various sources, including the Lollards around Kyle, the prominent witness of Patrick Hamilton, the preaching of Thomas Guillaume and George Wishart, the theological climate at St Leonard's college in St Andrews, as well as a number of popular works.John Knox (1514–72) incorporated many of his contemporaries’ concerns in his own treatment of the question, being trained at St Andrews University and heavily influenced by Guillaume and Wishart. Knox considered the cult of Mary using the same tool that he used to analyse the cult of the saints in general, the mass, and liturgical ritual, contending that they could not be reconciled with his stringent doctrine of sola scriptura, in particular as read through the lens of Deuteronomy 12:32.Yet for all that Mary and her place in Christian life and devotion formed a major aspect of sixteenth-century Scottish religious praxis, Knox gave little attention to her, preferring to indicate her proper place in Christian theology by presenting a vision of Christianity which omitted her almost entirely. Knox does indirectly indicate what he considers to be the proper Christian attitude towards the Virgin, however, through his explication of sola scriptura and its implications for genuine religious practice as opposed to idolatry, and his understanding of 1 Timothy 2:5 and the unique mediation of Christ. Where Knox does directly address the Marian question, he expresses his rejection of her cult in far more restrained terms than readers of his polemics against the mass may expect; while he is firm and unequivocal in denying Mary's intercessory role and in uprooting Marian devotional practice, his rhetorical restraint points to the irreducible dignity of Mary in the scriptural texts.This article analyses the theology of Mary which Knox reveals in occasional comments scattered through his writings and attempts to place his ideas in their historical and theological context. By explicating the precise nature of Knox's objection to the cult of Mary, the article attempts to open the door for future Reformed–Catholic dialogue on the person of Mary and her place in the church of Christ.

AbstractWhat do Christians do when they read? How can Christian reading be understood anthropologically? Anthropologists of Christianity have offered many ethnographic descriptions of the interplay among people, words, and material objects across Christian groups, but descriptions of Christian reading have often posited an androgynous reader. In response to this we begin from the observation that while reading cannot be done without words, it also cannot be done without a body. We propose that an analytic approach of placing language and materiality (including bodies) together will help clarify that reading texts is an embodied practice, while not undermining the importance of working with words. We draw inspiration from the recent interest in bringing linguistic anthropology and materiality studies together into the same analytic frame of “language materiality.” We explore a language-materiality approach to reading by comparing how the biblical story of Mary and Martha was read by Protestant women in two historical situations: 1920s Norway and the 1950s United States. We argue that in these cases the readers’ gendered, raced, and classed bodies were central to the activity of reading texts, including their bodies’ material engagements with the world, such as carrying out women's work. We suggest that paying attention to embodied reading—that is, readers’ social entanglements with both language and materiality—yields a fuller analysis of what reading is in particular historical situations, and ultimately questions the notion of a singular Protestant semiotic ideology that works consistently toward purification.

AbstractThe catechetical compilation Kitab al-Idah ("The Book of the Elucudation") of the tenth-century Coptic bishop and theologian Sawirus ibn al-Muqaffa' is one of the most frequently copied theological texts of the Arabic-speaking Coptic Church. While its first eight chapters deal with the principal doctrines and practices of the faith, Chapter Nine-omitted from the most recent printed edition of the work-must be understood against the backdrop of the flourishing speculation about supernatural beings and the afterlife that has long characterised Egyptian religion, including Coptic Christianity. In this chapter Sawirus responds to a homily, attributed to Theophilus of Alexandria, on the Angel of Death: the reason for his being granted authority over humankind, and the day of his feast. With considerable passion, Sawirus refutes this homily with arguments drawn from common sense, science, scripture and theology; for him, the cult of the Angel of Death is nothing but a ruse of Satan. However, Sawirus does not simply dismiss Egyptian Christian concern about the realm of supernatural beings. Instead, he attempts to absorb this realm more completely into the world of the Bible by summarizing or redescribing the Bible's central story as that of Christ's deception of and victory over Satan and his demonic host. While this narrative is rooted in ancient soteriological tradition, Sawirus' rendering is fresh and entertaining. The popularity of the Kitab al-Idah suggests that many generations of Egyptian Christians found it not merely entertaining, but genuinely elucidating.

The article focuses on a literary monument presenting Christological debates of the 5th century and the circumstances of the Fourth Ecumenical Council (the Council of Chalcedon), its sources, and the history of dissemination in the Slavic manuscript tradition. It introduces a list of forty-two East Slavic manuscripts of the 15‒17th centuries, including The Word on the Council of Chalcedon, a work on the history of Christianity and its dogmas. In thirty-nine of the manuscript copies, the literary monument serves as an introduction to the Slavic translation of Pope Leo the Great’s Tome to Archbishop Flavian of Constantinople (451), confirmed by the Fourth Ecumenical Council as an essential document of dogma. Judging by the provenance of the manuscript sources, in the 15‒17th centuries The Word on the Council of Chalcedon, along with the translation of Pope Leo’s Tome, were widely read and copied in the monasteries and churches of Moscow, Volok Lamsky, Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky, and Novgorod Veliky, as well as those of northern Russia. As its first researcher, O. M. Bodianskii, showed in 1848, the Slavic translation of the pope’s Tome was made from Greek by the monk Feodosii (“Theodosius the Greek”) in the 12th century. However, the attribution of The Word on the Council of Chalcedon to the same translator remains to be proved. The present work shows that the anonymous compiler of The Word on the Council of Chalcedon was well aware of the church history of the 5th century, remembering many historical details he would most probably have come across in Greek rather than in translated Slavic sources. On the other hand, several historical mistakes made by the compiler suggest that he lacked the texts necessary to verify the facts and had to rely on his memory, which occasionally failed him. Nevertheless, despite occasional factual errors and a compilative narrative structure, The Word on the Council of Chalcedon is in some ways more informative than many Byzantine chronicles.

Introduction. The goal of the article is to investigate the nature and assess the results of statechurch relations in Tolyatti after the implementation of the Federal Law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations” of September 26, 1997. Materials and Methods. In order to implement the goal of the research, we used the materials of the municipal public institution “Tolyatti Archive” (orders and resolutions of the mayor of Tolyatti), data from periodicals, memoirs of contemporaries, materials of the current archive of the Samara diocesan administration closed to the public (reports of the ruling Bishop of the Samara diocese to the Moscow Patriarchate), materials from the author’s personal archive: reports of the assistant governors of Samara Oblast on religious issues reports of both secular and ecclesiastical officials on the religious situation in Samara Oblast and Tolyatti, other official and unofficial documents, many of which, due to their specificity, do not end up in Church or secular archives (correspondence between the heads of local religious organizations with Tolyatti Duma and City Hall officials; protocols of City Hall meetings on religious issues and the protocols of meetings in the religious organizations, which were conducted by the author). The research methodology includes the method of document analysis. Analysis. The construction of churches, the development of educational institutions, the opening of a monastery, guardianship and fraternities, and the publication of religious periodicals continued in 1997–2003. For Tolyatti’s clergy and believers, the preparation and celebration of the 2000th anniversary of the Nativity of Christ was an opportunity to express themselves in the media, increase the number of parishes and ask the authorities for assistance in solving various life issues including financial assistance. The Orthodox clergy also hoped to solve the problem of various religious organizations and sects functioning on the territory of Tolyatti, which they considered their canonical territory, with the help of the authorities. Results. With the celebration of the 2000th anniversary of Christianity, Orthodox religious organizations strengthened their position in society, established a dialogue with business and government, and gained advantages over other religious organizations in all matters. It was connected with both the allocation of land for temples and their subsequent financing.

Meir Hatina, associate professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies anddirector of the Levtzion Center for Islamic studies at the Hebrew Universityof Jerusalem, explores the evolving perceptions of martyrdom in modern timesand their relevance on past legacies in both Sunni and Shi‘i milieus. He alsomakes comparative references to Judaism, Christianity, and other non-Islamiccultures. The book is divided into eight chapters, an introduction, a conclusion,a bibliography, and an index.In the introduction the author discusses the manifestations of martyrdomthroughout history, its definitions, socio-political implications, and importancein various world religions. In order to present this concept’s historical evolutionand notions and how it is an effective tool for forming and reinforcinggroups, Hatina has framed his book in a series of well-arranged chapters.In the first chapter, “Defying the Oppressor: Martyrdom in Judaism andChristianity,” the author traces the historical and theological foundations ofthis phenomenon in both religions. He relates how traditional Jews were readyto sacrifice their life and viewed martyrdom as the highest degree of their lovefor God. However, he argues that with the advent of the Zionist movement,this readiness was replaced “by an activist approach to self-sacrifice for thenational revival.” Christians, on the other hand, considered martyrdom “thekey for salvation.” By quoting the remarks of Quintus Tertullian (d. c. 240),the father of Latin Christianity, namely, “your cruelty is our glory” and “theblood of the martyrs is the seed of the church” (p. 26), Hatina seeks to expressthe early Christians’ readiness to embrace their non-violent and defensivedeaths at the hands of the pagan Romans.In chapter 2, “Dying for God in Islam,” Hatina delineates the evidence ofmartyrdom in Islamic texts and its diverse interpretations by renowned scholars.He mentions the two types of death in this regard – death for the cause of Allahand self-inflicted suicide – and cites the relevant fatwas of both Sunni and Shi‘ischolars. Denouncing any sort of self-inflicted suicide, including murder withreference to shar‘ī texts, he nevertheless appreciates the soldiers’ wish for deathon the battlefield against their enemies. He presents martyrdom in Islamic legalthought as an exalted form of death and argues that theologians stressed that asoldier who desires such a death eventually finds a greater reward ...

The subject of this article is the music making during the Catholic Church feasts and its development since the Christianization of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until nowadays, with special emphasis on the music making tradition of the 20th–21st centuries. Following the spread of Christianity, the tradition of the religious feasts was quick to catch on, along with its peculiar Western European customs and culture of the musical styling. According to the historical sources, as early as in the end of the 14th century (that is, barely ten years after the official Christianization) the wind and percussion instruments were played in the Vilnius Cathedral. The academic wind and percussion instruments, having been since ancient times used in the army of various European countries, including the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, became adapted by the musical culture of the manors and dioceses, finding their use during pilgrimages, celebratory processions, services, etc. During the Renaissance and Baroque periods, an especially important social and cultural role was played by the Vilnius Academy, established by the Jesuits, at which also instruction in music was offered. The Jesuits organized particularly pompous processions of the Corpus Christi, which included theatrical performances, participation of numerous musicians and singers, firing guns, etc. According to the archived data, during the Baroque times the majority of the churches or the affiliated brethrens used to possess both the brass and the percussion instruments: usually – two or more trumpets, French horns, and kettledrums. These instruments were regarded necessary in order to celebrate the titular feasts of the parish in the appropriate way, that is, with musical accompaniment, or to travel likewise to the festivities held in the neighborhood. Thus the folk piety tradition of the brass bands got shaped, which, having already disappeared in other Lithuanian regions, continues to live on in Samogitia in the 20th–21st century. It is particularly important in relation to the rituals of visiting the Samogitian Calvary (Žemaičių Kalvarija) – a variety of the popular baroque European tradition of the Way of the Cross (Via Crucis), the first one of which in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was established in Samogitia. Quite likely, these Stations of the Cross since their very establishment used to be visited ceremoniously, including singing and the appropriate accompaniment by wind instruments and kettledrums. This tradition survived in spite of being prohibited both during the tsarist Russian oppression and during the Soviet atheism periods. During the Soviet occupation the musicians, although being harassed or even arrested, still used to go to play at the religious feasts, thus expressing not only their devotion, but also their protest against the regime of the religious oppression. After Lithuania regained its independence in the end of the 20th century, the new kind of worshipers who had been brought up unaware of the traditional Calvary Hymns singing started the new way of singing accompanied by kanklės (Lithuanian cithertype instrument) and guitars. Still, in spite of this wave of musical pluralism, the brass bands preserved their positions. Until the present day, worshipers visiting the Stations of the Cross at the Samogitian Calvary are accompanied by the musicians playing the brass instruments, who are traditionally rewarded with money. Depending on the particular worshipers’ needs, three kinds of functions performed by the musicians can be discerned: firstly, the group of 4 to 6 musicians may only play; secondly, 2 to 5 musicians lead the prayers both singing and playing; and thirdly (a medium variant), the group of 4 to 6 musicians both plays and sings. The analysis presented in the article allows maintaining that prior to becoming part of the wedding, christening and funeral rituals of the village people, brass instruments had already become an integral part of the musical expression of the exceptional solemnity of folk piety.

Introduction. Traditionally, several books of the OT are ascribed to King Solomon, but, according to Jewish tradition, he wrote only three biblical books, viz.: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs. According to early Christian, early Byzantine and medieval Armenian interpreters, this order of books in the Solomon trilogy is not accidental. Although in the Christian tradition, this order of books has been attested already from the first centuries, nevertheless, today there are discrepancies and not only about the order of the books in question. Each of these books brings forth a certain semantic and symbolic meaning. They are connected with each other, being, as they were, “steps of the stairs” on the way to knowledge, not to mention the fact that each of these books occupies its worthy place in the treasury of human thought. Methods and materials. These circumstances make the appeal to questions related to Solomon’s tripartite, which are worthy of research using a method of a comparative analysis of various sources. Such a conviction is supported by new data concerning the issues under discussion provided by Armenian sources. Among these testimonies аn important role will be assigned to the use of unpublished yet manuscripts on the topic. A special place is occupied by the codex, which contains an Armenian medieval isagogical collection of the late 12th – early 13th centuries. Analysis. It was compiled by the abbot of the Sanahin monastery Grigor, son of Abas, and is known under the provisional name Book of Causes. The full title of the book is attested only in one manuscript – the most important and earliest from all that have reached us, stored in the Mashtots’ Matenadaran under the number 1879. This medieval textbook includes isagogical questions or prolegomena (presented in Armenian manuscripts under different names, mainly “cause”, “beginning” – hence the Book of Causes) to the all canonical books of the Bible and to the so-called “subtle” writings. The “subtle writings” are certain works that include the writings of both “external” (in relation to Christianity) as well Christian (mainly – “church fathers”) authors. Being of a philosophical and religious character they serve sort of a connecting link, and not only between the OT and the NT. The “subtle writings” were irreplaceable when using philosophical ideas to prove or refute one or another dogmatic position or postulate. As far as can be judged today, this title of certain works has survived only in Armenian; there is no doubt, however, that it had its prototype, at least in the Greek tradition. From the above it follows that the Book of Causes is significant also by the fact that it contains mainly Armenian translations of the introductions to the Bible commentaries of the Church Fathers. Along with them, the Armenian original prolegomena to interpretations are presented here as well. In this manual, there are several prolegomena related to Solomon’s trilogy. Results. These chapters not only confirm the data of early Christian and early Byzantine authors, but also provide some interesting evidence that has not come down to us from other sources (as far as I know). I hope that suggested here analysis of Armenian sources, especially the testimonies from the unpublished isagogical textbook called the Book of Causes will contribute to the international knowledge concerning the discussed questions.

The Historical Society of Nestor the Chronicler was one of the organizations in the second half of 19th – the first half of 20th century which researched the culture of Ukraine. Members of the society published their studies in various periodicals. Beginning from the year 1888 their annual journal "Chteniya v Istoricheskom obshchestve Nestora Letopistsa" appeared regularly. The purpose of this article are to identify topics from the cultural history of the 10th -16th century which were of interest for the members of the society, as well as studies published by them on the journal pages. The other purpose is to systematize interpretations of problems of cultural history raised by the members, and to define the role which was given to the medieval culture in the development of this region by the above- mentioned researchers. It was found, as a result of the study, that beginning from the second half of the 19th century the scholars increasingly turned to the topics predeceasing the Cossack period for emphasising the cultural originality of lands of Southern Ruthenia (Rus'). Researchers turned to the study of monuments of literature to discover local traditions and possible foreign influences. The identified borrowings were often interpreted that they had reflected the existing diversity of the language and culture. Yet there were also some attempts to prove a close connection with the culture of Northern Ruthenia (so called: "Great Russian" culture) on the basis of the established facts. On occasion of the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Ruthenia the researcher intensified their studies on the history of religions. The most attention was paid to the adoption of the Eastern Christianity by Eastern Slavs and the development of Orthodoxy in the area they inhabited. However, researchers were also interested in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, Judaism, Protestantism and their influence on the culture of the region. The members of the society discovered and analysed landmarks from the Middle Ages and from the beginning of Early Modern times. Artworks from this period survived worst of all. The researchers studied sacral buildings, the interior decoration of temples, icons, as well as what were left from the secular architecture, including castles and fortifications. They also tried to identify distinctive elements of artistic development and possible foreign influences. In addition, cultural relations of Ruthenia with other countries were studied. The special attention was paid to the marriage unions, to the connection between economic and cultural interactions and to the religious factor of the relations between various states. The image of the culture of Middle Edges as an important period of Ukraine's cultural history was being created by publishing research results on the pages of the journal.

First a Man - then a Christian. Grundtvig and Missonary ActivityBy K.E. BuggeThe aim of this paper is to clarify Grundtvig’s ideas on missionary activity in the socalled »heathen parts«. The point of departure is taken in a brief presentation of the poem »Man first - and then a Christian« (1838), an often quoted text, whenever this theme is discussed. The most extensive among earlier studies on the subject is the book published by Georg Thaning: »The Grundtvigian Movement and the Mission among Heathen« (1922). The author provides valuable insights also into Grundtvig’s ideas, but has, of course, not been able to utilize more recent studies.On the background of the revival movement of the late 18th and early 19th century, The Danish Missionary Society was established in 1821. In the Lutheran churches such activity was generally deemed to be unnecessary. According to the Holy Scripture, so it was argued, the heathen already had a »natural« knowledge of God, and the word of God had been preached to the ends of the earth in the times of the Apostles. Nevertheless, it was considered a matter of course that a Christian sovereign had the duty to ensure that non-Christian citizens of his domain were offered the possibility of conversion to the one and true faith. In the double-monarchy Denmark-Norway such non-Christian populations were the Lapplanders of Northern Norway, the Inuits in Greenland, the black slaves in Danish West India and finally the native populations of the Danish colonies in West Africa and East India. Under the influence of Pietism missionary, activity was initiated by the Danish state in South India (1706), Northern Norway (1716), and Greenland (1721).In Grundtvig’s home the general attitude towards missionary work among the heathen seems to have reflected traditional Lutheranism. Nevertheless, one of Grundtvig’s elder brothers, Jacob Grundtvig, volunteered to become a missionary in Greenland.Due to incidental circumstances he was instead sent to the Danish colony in West Africa, where he died after less than one year of service. He was succeeded by his brother Niels Grundtvig, who likewise died within a year. During the period when Jacob Grundtvig prepared himself for the journey to Greenland, we can imagine that his family spent many an hour discussing his future conditions. It is probable that on these occasions his father consulted his copy of the the report on the Greenland mission published by Hans Egede in 1737. It is a fact that Grundtvig imbibed a deep admiration for Hans Egede early in his life. In his extensive poem »Roskilde Rhyme« (1812, published 1814), the theme of which is the history of Christianity in Denmark, Grundtvig inserted more than 70 lines on the Greenland mission. Egede’s achievements are here described in close connection with the missionary work of Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg in Tranquebar, South India, as integral parts of the same journey towards the celestial Jerusalem.In Grundtvig’s famous publication »The Church’s Retort« (1825) he describes the church as an historical fact from the days of the Apostles to our days. This historical church is at the same time a universal entity, carrying the potential of becoming the church of all humanity - if not before, then at the end of the world. A few years later, in a contribution to the periodical .Theological Monthly., he applies this historicaluniversal perspective on missionary acticity in earlier times and in the present. The main features of this stance may be summarized in the following points:1. Grundtvig rejects the Orthodox-Lutheran line of thought and underscores the Biblical view: That before the end of time the Gospel must be preached out into all comers of the world.2. Our Lutheran, Biblically founded faith must not lead to inactivity in this field.3. Correctly understood, missionary activity is a continuance of the acts of the Apostles.4. The Holy Spirit is the intrinsic dynamic power in the extension of the Christian faith.5. The practical procedure in this extension work must never be compulsion or stealth, but the preaching of the word and the free, uninhibited decision of the listeners.We find here a total reversion of the Orthodox-Lutheran way of rejection in principle, but acceptance in practice. Grundtvig accepts the principle: That missionary activity is a legitimate and necessary Christian undertaking. The same activity has, however, both historically and in our days, been marred by unacceptable practices, on which he reacts with forceful rejection. To this position Grundtvig adhered for the rest of his life.Already in 1826, Grundtvig withdrew from the controversy arising from the publication of his .Retort.. The public dispute was, however, continued with great energy by the gifted young academic, Jacob Christian Lindberg. During the 1830s a weekly paper, edited by Lindberg, .Nordisk Kirke-Tidende., i.e. Nordic Church Tidings, became Grundtvig’s main channel of communication with the public. All through the years of its publication (1833-41), this paper, of which Grundtvig was also an avid reader, brought numerous articles and reports on missionary activity. Among the reasons for this editorial practice we find some personal motives. Quite a few of Grundtvig’s and Lindberg’s friends were board members of the Danish Missionary Society. Furthermore, one of Lindberg’s former students, Christen Christensen Østergaard was appointed a missionary in Greenland.In the present paper the articles dealing with missionary activity are extensively reported and quoted as far as the years 1833-38 are concerned, and the effects on Grundtvig of this incessant .bombardment. of information on missionary activity are summarized. Generally speaking, it was gratifying for Grundtvig to witness ho w many of his ideas on missionary activity were reflected in these contributions. Furthermore, Lindberg’s regular reports on the progress of C.C. Østergaard in Greenland has continuously reminded Grundtvig of the admired Hans Egede.Among the immediate effects the genesis of the poem »First the man - then the Christian« must be mentioned. As already observed by Kaj Thaning, Grundtvig has read an article in the issue of Nordic Church Tidings, dated, January 8th, 1838, written by the Orthodox-Lutheran, German theologian Heinrich Møller on the relationship between human nature and true Christianity. Grundtvig has, it seems, written his poem in protest against Møller’s assertion: That true humanness is expressed in acceptance of man’s fundamental sinfulness. Against this negative position Grundtvig holds forth the positive Johannine formulations: To be »of the truth« and to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. Grundtvig has seen a connection between Møller’s negative view of human nature and a perverted missionary practice. In the third stanza of his poem Grundtvig therefore inserted some critical remarks, clearly inspired by his reading of Nordic Church Tidings.Other immediate effects are seen in the way in which, in his sermons from these years, Grundtvig meticulously elaborates on the Biblical argumentation in favour of missionary activity. In this context he combines passages form the Old and New Testament - often in an ingenious, original manner. Finally must be mentioned the way in which Grundtvig, in his hymn writing from the middle of the 1830s, more often than hitherto recognized, interposes stanzas dealing with the preaching of the Gospel to heathen populations.Turning from general observations and a study of immediate impact, the paper considers the effects, which become apparent in a longer perspective. In this respect Grundtvig’s interpretation of the seven churches mentioned in chapters 2-3 of the Book of Revelation is of crucial importance. According to Grundtvig, they symbolize seven stages in the historical development of Christianity, i.e. the churches of the Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, the English, the Germans and the »Nordic« people. The seventh and last church will reveal itself sometime in the future.This vision, which Grundtvig expounds for the first time in 1810, emerges in his writings from time to time all through his life. The most impressive literary monument describing the vision is his great poem, »The Pleiades of Christendom« from 1856-60.In 1845 he becomes convinced that the arrival of the sixth stage is revealed in the breakthrough of a new and vigourous hymn-singing in the church of Vartov. As late as the spring of 1863 Grundtvig voices a contented optimism in a church-historical lecture, where the Danish missions to Greenland and to Tranquebar in South India are characterized as .signs of life and good omens.. Grundtvig here refers back to his above-mentioned »Roskilde Rhyme« (1812, 1814), where he had offered a spiritual interpretation of the names of persons and localities involved in the process. He had then observed that the colony founded in Greenland by Hans Egede was called »Good Hope«, a highly symbolic name. And the church built by the missionaries in Tranquebar was called »Church of the New Jerusalem«, a name explicitly referring to the Book of Revelation, and thus welding together his great vision and his view on missionary activity. After Denmark’s humiliating defeat in the Danish-German war of 1864, the optimism faded away. Grundtvig seems to have concluded that the days of the sixth and .Nordic. church had come to an end, and the era of the seventh church was about to commence. In accordance with his poem on »The Pleiades« etc. he localizes this final church in India.In Grundtvig’s total view missionary activity was the dynamism that bound his vision together into an integrated process. Through the activity of »Denmark’s apostle«, Ansgar, another admired mis-sionary, the universal church had become a locally rooted reality. Through the missions of Hans Egede and Ziegenbalg the Gospel was carried out to the ends of the earth. The local Danish church thus contributed significantly to the proliferation of a universal church. In the development of this view, Grundtvig was inspired as well as provoked by his regular reading of Nordic Church Tidings in the 1830s.

The article analyzes the ethical and theological content of the apocryphal Syrian "autobiography" of St. Clement of Rome (Epytome), as well as its early Slavic translation (Life of St. Clement). The study uses historical-philosophical, patristic and philological methodology to outline the specific teachings, attributed to St. Clement by this Greek-speaking Syrian text from the pseudo-Clementine cycle. The methods of comparative textology and translation studies are used to analyze the features of the Slavic version of the work. The study revealed that, contrary to the ideas of the publisher of the Slavic version, P. Lavrov, the translation was undoubtedly made according to the archaic, pre-metaphrasic version of the work. Therefore, it can be dated to the ninth century and come from the school of Cyril and Methodius. The popularity of the monument among Slavic readers is partly explained by the archaic features of the original version of the work preserved in the translation, such as graphic imagery, expressive presentation, and numerous dialogues. Such a lively account facilitated the perception of the conceptually rich ethical content of the work. At the heart of both Greek and Slavic versions is the ethical category of philanthropy (φιλανθρωπία), which figures as a central Christian virtue. Much of the Epitome is devoted to a detailed explanation of this category and its distinction from other virtues. In the original, the ethics of philanthropy is opposed to the astrological ideology represented by Clement’s father Faust. Faust's views are based on the natural philosophical ideas of the early Greek Stoics. Apostle Peter, Clement's teacher, responds to his arguments from the standpoint of Judeo-Christian monotheism, referring to the biblical history of his people. Thus, Hellenism is confronted with biblical monotheism. So, Epitome appears a kind of argument in the controversy between Gentile Christians and Judeo-Christians (Ebionites), which has troubled the Syrian Church for centuries. However, in translation, this clash of worldviews remains obscured, as the translator does not seem to recognize either the terminology of Stoic natural philosophy, or astrological issues, or the debate between the traditions of Peter and Paul in Syria. Thus, all the Stoic terminology of Faust is reduced to a single concept of "being". Therefore, in the translated version, the controversy is not so much between Christianity and astrology, as between ethics and "ontology". Instead, the translator enriches the philosophical outline of the work with polysemic Slavic vocabulary, which sheds new light on the role of the bishop in Peter’s instructions to Clement. Comparison of the Greek and Slavic versions of the Epitome – an autobiography attributed to St. Clement – with his only authentic work, 1Corinthians, allowed to draw another unexpected conclusion. All these works are not only devoted to one main problem - the restoration of peace in the controversial Christian community, but also offer similar ways out of the crisis through brotherly love, solidarity and respect for the otherness of the fellow Christians. This may indicate either that the author of the Syrian apocrypha was inspired by the true Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, or that the image of St. Clement, that developed in the early tradition, dictated the message of the pseudo-epigraph quite powerfully. Due to this consonance, the apocryphal work of the Syrian Ebionites did to some extent acquaint Slavic readers with the ideas of Clement of Rome, whose only authentic work was almost unknown in the Middle Ages.

A Rooted Man and a Sacred PoetBy Viggo MortensenA Review of A.M. Allchin: N.F.S. Grundtvig. An Introduction to his Life and Work. With an afterword by Nicholas Lossky. 338 pp. Writings published by the Grundtvig Society, Århus University Press, 1997.Canon Arthur Macdonald Allchin’s services to Grundtvig research are wellknown to the readers of Grundtvig Studier, so I shall not attempt to enumerate them. But he has now presented us and the world with a brilliant synthesis of his studies of Grundtvig, a comprehensive, thorough and fundamental introduction to Grundtvig, designed for the English-speaking world. Fortunately, the rest of us are free to read as well.It has always been a topic of discussion in Denmark whether Grundtvig can be translated, whether he can be understood by anyone except Danes who have imbibed him with their mother’s milk, so to speak. Allchin is an eloquent proof that it can be done. Grundtvig can be translated and he can be made comprehensible to people who do not belong in Danish culture only, and Allchin spells out a recipe for how it can be done. What is required is for one to enter Grundtvig’s universe, but to enter it as who one is, rooted in one’s own tradition. That is what makes Allchin’s book so exciting and innovative - that he poses questions to Grundtvig’s familiar work from the vantage point of the tradition he comes from, thus opening it up in new and surprising ways.The terms of the headline, »a rooted man« and »a sacred poet« are used about Grundtvig in the book, but they may in many ways be said to describe Allchin, too. He, too, is rooted in a tradition, the Anglican tradition, but also to a large extent the tradition taken over from the Church Fathers as it lives on in the Orthodox Church. Calling him a sacred poet may be going too far.Allchin does not write poetry, but he translates Grundtvig’s prose and poetry empathetically, even poetically, and writes a beautiful and easily understood English.Allchin combines the empathy with the distance necessary to make a renewed and renewing reading so rewarding: »Necessarily things are seen in a different perspective when they are seen from further away. It may be useful for those whose acquaintance with Grundtvig is much closer, to catch a glimpse of his figure as seen from a greater distance« (p. 5). Indeed, it is not only useful, it is inspiring and capable of opening our eyes to new aspects of Grundtvig.The book falls into three main sections. In the first section an overview of Grundtvig’s life and work is given. It does not claim to be complete which is why Allchin only speaks about »Glimpses of a Life«, the main emphasis being on the decisive moments of Grundtvig’s journey to himself. In five chapters, Grundtvig’s way from birth to death is depicted. The five chapters cover: Childhood to Ordination 1783-1811; Conflict and Vision 1811-29; New Directions, Inner and Outer 1829-39; Unexpected Fulfilment 1839-58; and Last Impressions 1858-72. As it will have appeared, Allchin does not follow the traditional division, centred around the familiar years. On the contrary, he is critical of the attempts to focus everything on such »matchless discoveries«; rather than that he tends to emphasize the continuity in the person’s life as well as in his writings. Thus, about Thaning’s attempt to make 1832 the absolute pivotal year it is said: »to see this change as an about turn is mistaken« (p. 61).In the second main section of the book Allchin identifies five main themes in Grundtvig’s work: Discovering the Church; The Historic Ministry; Trinity in Unity; The Earth made in God’s Image; A simple, cheerful, active Life on Earth. It does not quite do Allchin justice to say that he deals with such subjects as the Church, the Office, the Holy Trinity, and Creation theology.His own subtitles, mentioned above, are much more adequate indications of the content of the section, since they suggest the slight but significant differences of meaning that Allchin masters, and which are immensely enlightening.It also becomes clear that it is Grundtvig as a theologian that is the centre of interest, though this does not mean that his work as educator of the people, politician, (history) scholar, and poet is neglected. It adds a wholeness to the presentation which I find valuable.The third and longest section of the book, The Celebration of Faith, gives a comprehensive introduction to Grundtvig’s understanding of Christianity, as it finds expression in his sermons and hymns. The intention here is to let Grundtvig speak for himself. This is achieved through translations of many of his hymns and long extracts from his sermons. Allchin says himself that if there is anything original about his book, it depends on the extensive use of the sermons to illustrate Grundtvig’s understanding of Christianity. After an introduction, Eternity in Time, the exposition is arranged in the pattern of the church year: Advent, Christmas, Annunciation, Easter and Whitsun.In the section about the Annunciation there is a detailed description of the role played by the Virgin Mary and women as a whole in Grundtvig’s understanding of Christianity. He finishes the section by quoting exhaustively from the Catholic theologian Charles Moeller and his views on the Virgin Mary, bearing the impress of the Second Vatican Council, and he concludes that in all probability Grundtvig would not have found it necessary to disagree with such a Reformist Catholic view. Finally there are two sections about The Sign of the Cross and The Ministry of Angels. The book ends with an epilogue, where Allchin sums up in 7 points what modem features he sees in Gmndtvig.Against the fragmented individualism of modem times, he sets Gmndtvig’s sense of cooperation and interdependence. In a world plagued with nationalism, Gmndtvig is seen as an example of one who takes national identity seriously without lapsing into national chauvinism. As one who values differences, Grundtvig appeals to a time that cherishes special traditions.Furthermore Gmndtvig is one of the very greatest ecumenical prophets of the 19th century. In conclusion Allchin translates »Alle mine Kilder« (All my springs shall be in you), »Øjne I var lykkelige« (Eyes you were blessed indeed) and »Lyksaligt det Folk, som har Øre for Klang« (How blest are that people who have an ear for the sound). Thus, in a sense, these hymns become the conclusion of the Gmndtvig introduction. The point has been reached when they can be sung with understanding.While reading Allchin’s book it has been my experience that it is from his interpretation of the best known passages and poems that I have learned most. The familiar stanzas which one has sung hundreds of times are those which one is quite suddenly able to see new aspects in. When, for example, Allchin interprets »Langt højere Bjerge« (Far Higher Mountains), involving Biblical notions of the year of jubilee, it became a new and enlightening experience for me. But the Biblical reference is characteristic. A Biblical theologian is at work here.Or when he interprets »Et jævnt og muntert virksomt Liv paa Jord« (A Simple Cheerful Active Life on Earth), bringing Holger Kjær’s memorial article for Ingeborg Appel into the interpretation. In less than no time we are told indirectly that the most precise understanding of what a simple, cheerful, active life on earth is is to be found in Benedict of Nursia’s monastic mle.That, says Allchin, leads us to the question »where we are to place the Gmndtvigian movement in the whole spectmm of Christian movements of revival which are characteristic of Protestantism« (p. 172). Then - in a comparison with revival movements of a Pietistic and Evangelical nature – Allchin proceeds to give a description of a Grundtvigianism which is culturally open, but nevertheless has close affinities with a medieval, classical, Western monastic tradition: a theocentric humanism. »It is one particular way of knitting together the clashing archetypes of male and female, human and divine, in a renunciation of evil and an embracing of all which is good and on the side of life, a way of making real in the frailties and imperfections of flesh and blood a deeply theocentric humanism« (p. 173).Now, there is a magnificent English sentence. And there are many of them. Occasionally some of the English translations make the reader prick up his ears, such as when Danish »gudelige forsamlinger« becomes »meetings of the godly«. I learnt a few new words, too (»niggardliness« and »esemplastic«) the meaning of which I had to look up; but that is only to be expected from a man of learning like Allchin. But otherwise the book is written in an easily understood and beautiful English. This is also true of the large number of translations, about which Allchin himself says that he has been »tantalised and at times tormented« by the problems connected with translating Grundtvig, particularly, of course, his poetry. Naturally Allchin is fully aware that translation always involves interpretation. When for example he translates Danish »forklaret« into »transfigured«, that choice pulls Grundtvig theologically in the direction that Allchin himself inclines towards. This gives the reader occasion to reflect. It is Allchin’s hope that his work on translating Grundtvig will be followed up by others. »To translate Grundtvig in any adequate way would be the work of not one person but of many, not of one effort but of many. I hope that this preliminary study may set in train a process of Grundtvig assimilation and affirmation« (p. 310)Besides being an introduction to Grundtvig, the book also becomes an introduction to past and contemporary Danish theology and culture. But contemporary Danish art, golden age painting etc. are also brought in and interpreted.As a matter of course, Allchin draws on the whole of the great Anglo-Saxon tradition: Blake, Constable, Eliot, etc., indeed, there are even quite frequent references to Allchin’s own Welsh tradition. In his use of previous secondary literature, Allchin is very generous, quoting it frequently, often concurring with it, and sometimes bringing in half forgotten contributions to the literature on Grundtvig, such as Edvard Lehmann’s book from 1929. However, he may also be quite sharp at times. Martin Marty, for example, must endure being told that he has not understood Grundtvig’s use of the term folkelig.Towards the end of the book, Allchin discusses the reductionist tactics of the Reformers. Anything that is not absolutely necessary can be done away with. Thus, what remains is Faith alone, Grace alone, Christ alone. The result was a radical Christ monism, which ended up with undermining everything that it had originally been the intention to defend. But, says Allchin, Grundtvig goes the opposite way. He does not question justification by faith alone, but he interprets it inclusively. The world in all its plenitude is created in order that joy may grow. There is an extravagance and an exuberance in the divine activity. In a theology that wants to take this seriously, themes like wonder, growth and joy must be crucial.Thus, connections are also established back to the great church tradition. It is well-known how Grundtvig received decisive inspiration from the Fathers of the Eastern Church. Allchin’s contribution is to show that it grows out of a need by Grundtvig himself, and he demonstrates how it manifests itself concretely in Grundtvig’s writings. »Perhaps he had a deep personal need to draw on the wisdom and insight of earlier ages, on the qualities which he finds in the sacred poetry of the Anglo-Saxons, in the liturgical hymns of the Byzantine Church, in the monastic theology of the early medieval West. He needs these resources for his own life, and he is able to transpose them into his world of the nineteenth century, which if it is no longer our world is yet a world in which we can still feel at home. He can be for us a vital link, a point of connection with these older worlds whose riches he had deciphered and transcribed with such love and labour« (p. 60).Thus the book gives us a discussion - more detailed than seen before – of Grundtvig’s relationship to the Apostolic Succession, the sacramental character of the Church and Ordination, and the phenomenon transfiguration which is expounded, partly by bringing in Jakob Knudsen. On the background of the often observed emphasis laid by Grundtvig on the descent into Hell and the transfiguration, his closeness to the orthodox form of Christianity is established. Though Grundtvig does not directly use the word »theosis« or deification, the heart of the matter is there, the matter that has been given emphasis first and foremost in the bilateral talks between the Finnish Lutheran Church and the Russian Orthodox Church. But Grundtvig’s contribution is also seen in the context of other contemporaries and reforming efforts, Khomiakov in Russia, Johann Adam Möhler in Germany, and Keble, Pusey and Newman in England. It is one of Allchin’s major regrets that it did not come to an understanding between the leaders of the Oxford Movement and Grundtvig. If an actual meeting and a fruitful dialogue had materialized, it might have exerted some influence also on the ecumenical situation of today.Allchin shows how the question of the unity of the Church and its universality as God’s Church on earth acquired extreme importance to Grundtvig. »The question of rediscovering Christian unity became a matter of life and death« (p. 108). It is clear that in Allchin’s opinion there has been too little attention on this aspect of Grundtvig. Among other things he attributes it to a tendency in the Danish Church to cut itself off from the rest of the Christian world, because it thinks of itself as so special. And this in a sense is the case, says Allchin. »Where else, at the end of the twentieth century, is there a Church which is willing that a large part of its administration should be carried on by a government department? Where else is there a state which is still willing to take so much responsibility for the administration of the Church’s life?« (p. 68). As will be seen: Allchin is a highly sympathetic, but far from uncritical observer of Danish affairs.When Allchin sees Grundtvig as an ecumenical theologian, it is because he keeps crossing borders between Protestantism and Catholicism, between eastern and western Christianity. His view of Christianity is thus »highly unitive« (p. 310). Grundtvig did pioneer work to break through the stagnation brought on by the church schisms of the Reformation. »If we can see his efforts in that way, then the unfinished business of 1843 might still give rise to fruitful consequences one hundred and fifty years later. That would be a matter of some significance for the growth of the Christian faith into the twentyfirst century, and not only in England and Denmark« (p. 126).In Nicholas Lossky’s Afterword it is likewise Grundtvig’s effort as a bridge builder between the different church groupings that is emphasized. Grundtvig’s theology is seen as a »truly patristic approach to the Christian mystery« (p. 316). Thus Grundtvig becomes a true all-church, universal, »catholic« theologian, for »Catholicity is by definition unity in diversity or diversity in unity« (p. 317).With views like those presented here, Allchin has not only introduced Grundtvig and seen him in relation to present-day issues, but has also fruitfully challenged a Danish Grundtvig tradition and Grundtvigianism. It would be a pity if no one were to take up that challenge.

Background. The modern system of national education, including music, is on the path of reorganization and reformation. Creating new educational models, it is useful to refer to the samples, time-tested, created by people whose names are permanently inscribed in the European cultural and historical fund. This confirms the life and work of Stepan Vasilyevich Smolensky (1848–1909) – teacher, medievalist, composer, regent, reformer of the music education system, public and cultural figure, ideologist of the New Direction of Orthodox Music of the late XIX – first half of the XX centuries. The formation of the ideology of the musician-teacher, the approval of his convictions became possible in many ways thanks to the support of two of his contemporaries, outstanding pedagogical figures – N. Ilminsky and S. Rachinsky. Objectives. The purpose of the article is to reveal the personal interaction of S. Smolensky with N. Ilminsky, S. Rachinsky, to appraise the contribution of the latter to the formation and development of his ideological positions, which determined the direction of further professional activity. Methods. The article uses the method of historicism, which allows us to consider the phenomena of artistic culture, enlightenment and education in the dynamics of their formation. Results. The formation of S. Smolensky took place in the Kazan period of life under the influence of Nikolai Ilminsky and Sergey Rachinsky. Nikolai Ivanovich Ilminsky (1822–1891) – orientologist, mission temissionary-teacher, biblical scholar, takes a special place in the biography of Stepan Vasilyevich Smolensky. The scientific works of N. Ilminsky cover a wide area of knowledge, like that: theology, linguistics, foreign translation, pedagogy and missionary work. His scientific studies, their practical implementation, which have not lost their relevance even nowadays, put Nikolai Ivanovich in a row of prominent figures of the Orthodox enlightenment of small peoples of the Volga region, Ural region and Siberia. The merits of N. Ilmisnky belongs to the founding of the first schools for small nations of the Volga region, as well as the teachers’ seminary in Kazan, where S. Smolensky was invited to the post of teacher of singing, history and geography. Church singing was considered in the missionary policy of the government as an important strategic element of introducing baptized aliens to orthodoxy. To this end, S. Smolensky was involved in a large-scale project of translating religious chants into the languages of the national small peoples of the Volga region, which determined the direction of his entire musical and singing work. Fully sharing the beliefs of N. Ilminsky, the young teacher focused on teaching church singing, in the moral and educational significance of which he infinitely believed. The lack of a methodical program for this discipline in public schools made S. Smolensky delve into this area of knowledge, as a result of which he developed the author’s system of teaching the named subject. In his pedagogical activity, S. Smolensky made extensive use of the methodological manuals created by him, which became an indispensable teaching material for future teachers. Here in Kazan, with the assistance of N. Ilminsky was opened a new page in the life of S. Smolensky, his deep immersion in the field of paleographic research. In Kazan, in the period of close cooperation with N. Ilminsky, typical features of S. Smolensky’s future activity were outlined, which received its brilliant application in the next Moscow period of life, during his leadership and reforming the Synodal School of Church Singing and Choir. S. Smolensky called his last teacher Sergei Alexandrovich Rachinsky (1833–1902) – professor and founder of the Department of Plant Physiology, Moscow University, a teacher, corresponding member of the Imperial St.-Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The acquaintance of S. Smolensky and S. Rachinsky occurred on the basis of the folk soil, based on Orthodox ideals. Foresight of judgment and deep knowledge of ancient church chants gave S. Rachinsky the right to take an active part in the scientific and educational activities of S. Smolensky. This confirms the extensive work carried out by S. Smolensky on the harmonization of the main Orthodox chants, undertaken at the insistence of his elder friend. The reforms carried out by S. Smolensky in Moscow and St.-Petersburg were fundamentally based on the education system of S. Rachinsky, aimed at developing the national element. Conclusions. A powerful monolith in the face of the polyglot and the manager N. Ilminsky, set off by the elegance of the artistic, but at the same time «meekly obstinate» nature of the educator-creator S. Rachinsky multiplied to the personality of Stepan Vasilyevich. In turn, the example of the life and work of S. Smolensky set a high tone and indicated a movement vector for many respectable professionals of musicians, teachers, choir masters, and scientists. Faith S. Smolensky, by lifeblood of the folk song and znamenny chant, inspired a wide range of composers, including P. Chesnokov, A. Kastalsky, S. Rachmaninov, A. Grechaninov, A. Nikolsky, N. Golovanov, K. Shvedov, Vik. Kalinnikov and others. Becoming one of the founders of medievalism in the area of church music, S. Smolensky outlined the main components of a scientific search in the history and theory of ortodox church singing, in the course of which A. Preobrazhensky, A. Nikolsky and others. A gifted teacher and organizer, S. Smolensky showed an example of the work of exemplary musical institutions whose school was attended by the greatest choirmaster of the last century: P. Chesnokov, N. Golovanov, N. Danilin, S. Zharov, A. Egorov and others. What has been said gives the right to assert that we can be fruitful in history, provided, like S. Smolensky, we will with intense effort learn from our forefathers, carefully looking at the value of their professional and life experience.

Et rids af Grundtvig-forskningen og dens stilling i efterkrigens Danmark. William Michelsen in memoriam [A sketch o f Grundtvig scholarship and its position in postwar Denmark. In memory of William Michelsen]By Kim Arne PedersenWith the death of William Michelsen a distinct era in the history of Gr scholarship reached its close, for he was the last surviving member of the small circle who (gathered in Bishop C. I. Scharling’s residence in Ribe for Gr’s birthday ) celebrated on the stroke of midnight the founding of The Grundtvig Society of 8th September 1947 [Grundtvig-Selskabet af 8. September 1947] which was to prove such an important initiative in Danish academic activity and in Danish culture more widely. In the forthcoming reinstatement of Gr in the mainstream of Danish scholarship and debate Michelsen was to maintain a long, unstinting and untiring involvement, both through his own scholarly output and through the encouragement, advice and criticism he offered to younger and rising scholars.Michelsen was markedly the product of his own background in a middleclass family linked over two generations with teaching, a liberal theological outlook and a quiet Christian piety in the home. Similarly, the motives and objectives of his involvement with Gr over his long working-life were distinctly responsive to the times through which he lived, and not least to the threats posed to democracy in the twentieth century by totalitarian regimes.Like others of his distinguished contemporaries, notably his lifelong friend Henning Høirup, he perceived Gr as »our contemporary« whose life-work remained of living relevance and should be accorded a functional place within the national cultural inheritance.Though not a theologian by formal education, Michelsen along with his generation came to be influenced by Karl Barth’s insistence that the revealed word of God must be the premise of any confession. This principle inspired his own studies of Gr’s thought-world, and particularly of Gr’s thesis of history, which in turn led him to see that religious idealism alone was not a sufficient response to the actualities of living in the present moment. Here he was also fairly clearly influenced by Hal Koch who, during the years of the German occupation of Denmark in the Second World War, was most instrumental in presenting Gr as his generation’s contemporary.With fellow-scholars such as Høirup and Regin Prenter, Michelsen found Gr’s authorship informed not only by Christianity’s radical profession of the forgiveness of sins but also, equally importantly, of a creation-theology which for them made it possible to harmonise the modem world’s scientific awareness with a belief that life and the universe were created by God. His contribution to the anthology Grundtvig og grundtvigianismen i nyt lys [Gr and grundtvigianism in a new light] (1983) is a key discussion of Gr’s conversion in 1810 and Gr’s relationship to Søren Kierkegaard. Various of Michelsen’s writings set forth Gr’s historical perspective as being based upon a mosaicchristian view, in a consciousness of Gr’s shift from faith to knowledge, from church to school around the critical year 1832. The view that he and Kai Thaning constitute opposite poles misrepresents the affinities and distinctions carefully drawn by Michelsen himself (‘Brev til en Grundtvigforsker’ [Letter to a Gr-scholar] in Dansk Udsyn 1964,443); nevertheless, his analysis of Gr’s universal-historical work formulates a significant challenge to Thaning’s reading of Gr and demonstrates the sense in which Gr was, as Michelsen later wrote in Grundtvig Studier 1983, ‘Sin samtids kritiker’ [Critic of his own times].After early work on H. C. Ørsted, Michelsen wrote his doctoral thesis, published as Tilblivelsen af Grundtvigs historiesyn [The formulation of Gr’s view of history] (Copenhagen, 1954). During this period (1941) he married Signe, niece of the Greenland explorer Knud Rasmussen who was herself an authority on Greenland and collaborated in translating Gr into the Greenlandic language. His doctoral thesis was based on an examination of the works Gr is known to have studied in his formative years (though he has been criticised for exaggerating the cohesion of the sources of influence upon Gr) out of which Gr shaped a view of history which was not a learned construct or theory but a conscious expression of the picture he formed for himself of existence.Michelsen depicts Gr as standing in opposition to the contemporary compromise between Christianity and romanticism, and as allowing the biblical perspective of history to model his own exposition of history.Characteristically, when his doctoral thesis was eventually overshadowed by the work of Sigurd Aa. Aames (1961) with its different approach, methodology and findings, Michelsen responded constructively (Grundtvig Studier 1962). Meanwhile he had been extending his own exploration of the way in which Gr’s Christian view of history developed after 1810, in Den sælsomme forvandling i N. F. S. Grundtvigs liv [The strange Metamorphosis inNFSG’slife] (1956). His two studies together raised issues-concerning for example Gr’s relationship to Lutheran tradition, his view of the divine image in man, and affinities between Gr and Kiekegaard’s existential standpoint - which ought to have generated a greater scholarly response than has been the case.Many of Michelsen’s articles in Grundtvig Studier remain indispensable items for students and researchers. He made a distinguished contribution to the great catalogue of the Grundtvig archives in the Royal Library, Copenhagen. Much work (in which his son Knud collaborated) on the transcription of unprinted Gr manuscripts and the identification of textual correlations illustrative of Gr’s philosophical thinking remains unpublished - though the big two-part introduction to Gr’s thought as reflected in his Danne-Virke (Grundtvig Studier 1985-86) to some extent compensates for this. Michelsen’s appointment (1968) to a lectureship in Aarhus University, in fulfilment of Professor Gustav Albeck’s desire to give Gr a central place in Danish studies, coincided with turbulent times which he did not find easy, but the fruits of his teaching are seen in the long series of fine articles by his pupils in Grundtvig Studies, of which he became an editor in 1969, scrupulously active to the last. In 1997 he was honoured by the Grundtvig-Selskab upon its Fiftieth Anniversary. He was an active participant in the newly-founded Grundtvig Academy in Vartov, in 2000.With William Michelsen’s death a notable Christian humanist and scholar has passed on. May his memory be held in honour.