Search results for: DISPUTATIONES SCIENTIFICAE in All Content

„Pilate saith unto him: What is truth?” Emet and alētheia in Jewish and Greco-Roman tradition. Cultural-theological reading of J 8,31-32 and J 18,37-3

„Rzekł mu Piłat: Co to jest prawda?” ’Emet i alētheia w tradycji żydowskiej i grecko-rzymskiej. Kulturowo-teologiczne odczytanie J 8,31-32 i J 18,32

Author(s): Wojciech Gajewski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 7/2013

Keywords: Truth; Old Testament; Greek philosophy

During the interrogation of Jesus before the tribunal of Pilate a question is posed: “What is truth?” (Gospel of John). The author makes it a canvas of the article and on this basis in the first part he wants to present similarities and differences in perception of truth in Jewish and Greco-Roman tradition. He starts from the meaning of the Hebrew term ’emet and analyses its use in the Old Testamental environment as well as in the intertestamental period (Qumran, Philo of Alexandria). The term ’emet is much more capacious than its Polish equivalent and it means the truth as well as faithfulness, reliability, stability. In the OT writings it plays an important role in relation to God and His word as well as God’s deeds (eg. the Law, the Covenant), and together with the word hesed it constitutes a characteristic hendiadys. The Jews, how¬ever, knew also use of the term ’emet similar to the contemporary (compliance of a spoken judgment with reality; in this way it was used in everyday speech and the judiciary). In later texts it appears in the sense of knowledge hidden from the profanes, having its source in heaven and passed by messengers-an¬gels to sages and prophets. Those in turn were to instruct worthy people, who in this way are acquainted with God’s plans. In the Greek culture, at least from the times of Parmenides, the truth (alētheia) was identified with being. Some philosophers identified pre-being with Deity (Xenophanes) or the Rule/Rules of the world (archē/archai). This concept was professed, among others, by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, alt¬hough each one of them within specifically conceived metaphysics. The ob¬jective nature of truth was negated by sophists, followed by agnostics. In other philosophical schools alētheia was conceived in close relation to ethics. However, depending on the schools and even on the period of their devel¬opment, certain changes occurred, as in the case of intermediate and younger Academy (moderate skepticism and probabilism). In Rome, where the stoic mainstream and eclecticism (Cicero) dominated, awareness of the variety of definitions of truth led to the attitude of keeping distance to any certainties. Philosophising Romans, especially the skeptics and eclectics, referred to the principle of probability and common sense.

The Prospects of Religious Heterodoxy in the Sixteenth Century: An-dreas Dudith and Confessionalization

A vallásos különút lehetőségei a 16. században: Dudith András és a konfesszionalizáció

Author(s): Gábor Almási / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2008

Focusing on the correspondence with Theodore Beza, the paper analyzes the heterodox re-ligious ideas of the late sixteenth-century apostate bishop of Hungary, Andreas Dudith. Dudith’s plea for individual religious freedom and his growing skepticism were deeply rooted in his education, his Erasmian attitude and were also profoundly linked to his in-tertwining scientific and theological thinking. His case seems to confirm the assertion that late sixteenth-century ideas about religious tolerance were largely influenced by the growth of skeptical thinking. Nevertheless, Dudith’s skepticism continued to have strategic uses throughout his life. As a prestigious humanist, he could not afford being stigmatized as an Arian, and he also liked to be seen as an impartial judge who can easily overcome dogmatic squabbles. Furthermore, Dudith demanded more than the right of individual religious thinking: he apparently also wished to worship in an individual way. It was the strategy of radical skepticism and of refuting Nicodemism or any compromise in ecclesiastical ques-tions that enabled him to follow a personal path to salvation and refrain from joining any religious establishment. Yet his demand for individual religious thinking and practice was made from a privileged position and had an elitist coloring, typical of a Polish Reformation dominated by the noble estate.

L’IDÉAL CULTUREL DE BOÈCE ENTRE SAVOIR DES TEXTES ET TEXTES DU SAVOIR

L’IDÉAL CULTUREL DE BOÈCE ENTRE SAVOIR DES TEXTES ET TEXTES DU SAVOIR

Author(s): Alain Galonnier / Language(s): French / Issue: 11/2013

Le premier commentaire à l’Isagoge de Porphyre, réalisé à partir de la version de Marius Victorinus, semble avoir été pour Boèce l’occasion de faire converger deux analyses, mises au service d’un même idéalisme culturel, l’une propre à une certaine philologie, en un sens qu’il conviendra de définir, l’autre propre à la philosophie, dans son acception classique. Par bien des aspects, ce double cheminement nous paraît présenter des analogies avec ce que l’on observera à la Renaissance, lorsque les approches linguistiques et gnoséologiques se verront associées dans le déchiffrement de textes dont la teneur se révèle à même de susciter l’élévation et l’accomplissement de l’homme.

At a cultural borderline: emblems and antiquity as main elements of the 17th century hybrid poem „Sphinx Samosonica…”.

Na pograniczu kultur: emblematyka i antyk jako główne pierwiastki konstruujące hybrydyczne XVII-wieczne dzieło Sphinx Samosonica…

Author(s): Ewelina Drzewiecka / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 25/2012

In 1628, pupils and professors of Jesuits college in Rawa Mazowiecka presented to a bride and groom a poem called “Sphinx Samsonica…” - a unique book, full of allusions and references to the emblem of classical antiquity. The poem was created during the thriving baroque period which relished in abundance and variety. It was the perfect time to publish works which had bountiful contents which were as diverse and hybrid as “Sphinx Samsonica…”.The poem, in the fabric of which a few literary genres coexist, is a perfect example of an erudite Jesuit rhetoric full of parallels and with clear citations of many ancient writers. Thus showing that one of the main pillars of the poem is the theme of antiquity. The second pillar is its emblematic character as the multiple layers of this work are visible not only in the verbal area, but also in the pictorial. The emblems are one of the innovative tendencies of this work, tendencies which had just started to appear on the pages of printed panegyrics and which would become a part of panegyric literature in the 17th century. “Sphinx Samsonica…” is original in this area not only because of the presence of emblems in the poem, but also because of the “baroque”, ornamental construction of the work in which words and pictures are woven together in a unique way. Although Sphinx Samsonica… figured in many listings and was also mentioned in the bibliography of emblematic printouts written by Paulina Buchwald-Pelcowa, presenting basic information about this work, it has gone unnoticed for a long time. It is not mentioned in monographs devoted to modern epithalamiums, and it was marginally mentioned in monographs devoted to emblems. The dust of oblivion was finally wiped by Jadwiga Bednarska, who discovered the dormant potential of the pages of the Jesuits work in the first part of her book about Polish panegyric illustrations. In the second part, she considers the relationship of this work with Dutch emblems. Therefore, the work has been thoroughly researched from the point of view of the history of art. However, meticulous attention has not been lavished upon it, both from the philological point of view and also regarding the correlation between words and pictures. No research has been undertaken regarding its genre diversity and the work has been neither published, nor translated from Latin into Polish. However, the philological level is also important because it allows the research and discovery of what is hidden inside Latin comments and epigrams full of allusions to antiquity. This knowledge allows an explanation to the exact sense and meaning of the emblems, which very often are not clear and understandable at first sight. As a result, this article makes an attempt to enlighten the reader of the philological level of this work, and the foundation of the article is a presentation of the opulence of antique allusions which regularly appear in the whole text in a chosen fragment of “Sphinx Samsonica…” . Emphasis is

The dating of the Martyrium Polycarpi in the light of its dependence on Lucian of Samosata's De Morte Peregrini and Fugitivi

DATOWANIE MARTYRIUM POLYCARPI W ŚWIETLE ZALEŻNOŚCI OD DE MORTE PEREGRINI I FUGITIVI LUKIANA Z SAMOSTATY

Author(s): Jan M. Kozłowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: VII/2008

Keywords: datowanie; Mertyrium Polycarpi; De Morte Peregrini; Fugitivi;

Reviews

Szemle

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 3/2007

ROMSICS GERGELY Többszólamú magyar kisebbségtörténet Bárdi Nándor – Simon Attila (szerk.): Integrációs stratégiák a magyar kisebbségek történetében. Disputationes Samarienses 7. Somorja – Dunaszerdahely, Fórum Kisebbségkutató Intézet – Lilium Aurum Könyvkiadó, 2006. BOKOR ZSUZSA Identitáskurzusok Erdélyrõl Feischmidt Margit (szerk.): Erdély-(de)konstrukciók. Tabula Könyvek 7. Budapest–Pécs, Néprajzi Múzeum–PTE Kommunikációés Médiatudományi Tanszék, 2005 KAPITÁNY BALÁZS Erdélyi magyar népesség-elõreszámítás Csata István–Kiss Tamás: Népesedési perspektívák. Az erdélyi magyar népesség regionálisan tagolt elõreszámítása húsz és harminc éves idõtávra. Kolozsvár, Kriterion, 2007 LÁSZLÓ RÉKA Olaszország bevándorlás-politikája a 21. században Vincenzo Cesareo (ed.): The Eleventh Italian Report on Migrations 2005. Milano, Polimetrica, 2006.

The Impact of Doctrine on Interpretation of the Dualist Ritual of Baptism of the Holy Spirit in the Middle Ages

Wpływ doktryny na interpretację dualistycznego rytuału chrztu Duchem Świętym w średniowieczu

Author(s): Piotr Czarnecki / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 42/2009

Keywords: study of religions; history of religions; comparative study of religions; anthropology of religion; sociology of religion; psychology of religion; philosophy of religion; religious beliefs and behaviours; theories and methods of study of religions

The article addresses the controversial problem of the meaning of doctrine in interpreting the dualist sacrament of baptism of the Holy Spirit. Some researchers into Catharism downgrade the role of doctrinal differences in medieval dualism, believing that they were of secondary importance while all dualists agreed about a single, salvation-giving sacrament of baptism of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. In analyzing the doctrines of various schools of medieval dualism, the article demonstrates that the sacrament of baptism of the Holy Spirit, while identical in form, meant widely different things to radical dualists and for moderates, what with their profound differences in soteriology, Trinitarian theology, and eschatology. Such distinctions in meaning between radical and moderate dualism may supply a significant argument for the doctrinal change made by the Saint-Felix-De-Caraman Synod.

John Duns Scotus. Distinctio formalis

Джон Дънс Скот. Distinctio formalis

Author(s): Oleg Georgiev / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 10/2004

The Third Way of Dualism – the Religious Doctrine of the Italian Cathar Church in Concorezzo

Trzecia droga dualizmu – doktryna religijna włoskiego Kościoła katarskiego w Concorezzo

Author(s): Piotr Czarnecki / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 43/2011

Keywords: Italian Cathar Churches; religious doctrine; Italian Catharism; dualism

This article raises the issue of the religious doctrine which developed at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries in one of the Italian Cathar Churches in Concorezzo, near Milan. This original doctrinal conception, concerning the question of the origin of evil, constituted a combination of moderate with radical dualism; it assumed that, other than the good principle – of God the creator – there is also an evil principle – an eternal four-faced spirit which does not have the power to create and is therefore not a god. A radical dualism of two principles not previously encountered therefore results, which attempts to remain moderate by force through retaining the idea of one God. Although this doctrine has been known to scholars since the 1940s, nobody has previously conducted a careful analysis of it. This article therefore attempts to explain the origin of this conception in the light of the events of the early history of Italian Catharism, separating the inspirations of the former dualistic doctrines from the original input of the Italian perfecti, to understand the motives of its creation and also to establish its place among the forms of dualism which we know.

PHILOSPHY IN CURRICULA AND WORKS BY PROFESSORS OF VRHBOSNIAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGY

FILOZOFIJA U PROGRAMU STUDIJA I U DJELIMA PROFESORA VRHBOSANSKE KATOLIČKE TEOLOGIJE

Author(s): Marko Josipović / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 2/2008

Kad je prva generacija travničkih gimnazijalaca maturirala 1890. god., otpočela je 1. rujna iste godine s radom i današnja Vrhbosanska katolička teologija. Tada je otpočeo i sustavni studij filozofije na ovoj ustanovi, koji je zbog ratnih neprilika bio prekinut 1944. god., da bi tek u jesen 1969. god. bio nastavljen ponovnim otvaranjem Bogoslovije. Program studija kao i kvalitet priručnika koji su korišteni, pokazuju da studij filozofije na Vrhbosanskoj katoličkoj teologiji u razdoblju do 1944. god. nije zaostajao za ondašnjim studijem na drugim europskim učilištima sveučilišne razine. Isto vrijedi i za kasnije razdoblje kad je program studija prilagođen normama Drugoga vatikanskog koncila. I kvalificiranost profesora doprinijela je zavidnoj razini studija filozofije na Vrhbosanskoj katoličkoj teologiji. Jedan od profesora bio je od 1897. do 1900. god. i istaknuti i plodni neoskolastik na germanskom govornom području Max Limbourg (1841.-1920.), prethodno ugledni profesor u Innsbrucku. Od brojnih drugih profesora u razdoblju do 1944. god., uz predavanja, svojim pisanim djelima istakli su se Max Horrmann (1860.-1943.), koji je kršćanski nazor i nauk branio od raznih aktualnih pokreta i nazora, primjerice modernizma, te Ferdinand Schüth (1855.-1927.), koji se posvetio pitanju metafizike umjetnosti. U tom razdoblju svojim pisanim djelima najviše se istakao Franjo Šanc (1882.-1953.), koji je u Sarajevu istraživanjima Aristotelova hilemorfizma i teodicejskih pitanja izrastao u vrlo dubokog i plodnog metafizičara i koji je svojim ukupnim djelom znatno obogatio hrvatsku neoskolastičku filozofiju, iako je podrijetlom Slovenac.

The Preservation of the Whole and the Teleology of Nature in Late Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern Debates on the Void

The Preservation of the Whole and the Teleology of Nature in Late Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern Debates on the Void

Author(s): Silvia Manzo / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2013

Keywords: void and self-preservation of the whole; particular nature and universal nature; experiments on the void; late medieval natural philosophy; late scholasticism; Renaissance natural philosophy; early modern natural philosophy

This study shows that an important number of late medieval, Renaissance and early modern authors postulated the same teleological principle in order to argue both for and against the existence of the vacuum. That postulate, which I call the “principle of subordination,” holds that in order to preserve the good of nature, the particular and specific natures must be subordinated to the common and universal nature. In other words, in order to preserve nature as a whole, the individual tendencies of bodies must be subordinated to the general tendency of nature. Throughout the wide range of cases addressed in this study, a continuity is observed in the rationales underlying the discussions about the existence of the vacuum. All of them, tacitly or not, ascribed to nature the teleological principle of subordination, mostly by interpreting traditional experimental instances. Although this continuity is clearly recognizable, variations in nuances and details are also present, owing to the various contexts within which each response to the question of the existence of a vacuum emerged.

Chapter 7: Retrospect: History and Theory in Semiotics

Chapter 7: Retrospect: History and Theory in Semiotics

Author(s): John Deely / Language(s): English / Issue: 04-2/2005

The object or subject matter of semiotic inquiry is not just signs but the action of signs or semiosis. This action, we now see, occurs at a number of levels that can be distinguished or identified as specific spheres or zones of sign activity. Semiotics, therefore, contrasts with semiosis as knowledge contrasts with that which is known. Semiotics is knowledge about semiosis; it is the theoretical accounting for signs and what they do. This is actually an important distinction, because, if we are right in what we have said about the extent of semiosis, the history of semiosis and the history of the universe, at least insofar as the universe inclines toward a species of our linguistic type as part of itself, are the same thing. But the history of semiotics, by contrast, is quite another matter and, while complicated, is considerably more manageable. It will be the story of the attempts, more or less fitful, to take account of that which underlies semiosis and makes it possible, namely, the sign. What is a sign such that it makes possible semiosis?

Thomas Aquinas on the Transcendentals in De veritate, q. 1, a. 1

Toma Akvinski o transcendentalima u De veritate, q. 1, a. 1

Author(s): Predrag Milidrag / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 02/154/2019

Keywords: Thomas Aquinas; transcendentals; one; thing; being; true; good; other; metaphysics; scholastics;

The article analyses Aquinas’s derivation of the transcendental notions in the first article of the first question of The Disputed Questions on the Truth. After showing the way for adding to ens, there is a detailed analysis of the notions res, unum, aliquid, verum and bonum. The analysis of the notion of thing has shown the special position of ens as a transcendental, namely as a primary, “transcendentalizing” transcendental (Cornelio Fabro). In the context of verum and bonum, it is pointed to the difference between the true and the good as the transcendental notions and the true and the good in a cognitive and ethical sense. In the end, the three features of transcendentals in Aquinas concerning reality (they are convertible, identical and coextensive with ens) were singled out, as well as the three features concerning their meaning (they include the ens, they differ from ens and each other, and the order among them).

Protagoras of Abdera. Fragments and testimonia

Протагор из Абдер. Фрагменты и свидетельства

Author(s): Eugene Afonasin / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 1/2020

Keywords: sophistic; doxography; sources of ancient philosophy;

Protagoras of Abdera (c. 490–c. 420 BCE), a Greek philosopher, famous for his invention of sophistry as a profession. According to ancient testimonies he published some literary works, but nothing is preserved. The present publication contains a collection of scant doxographic evidence about Protagoras’ life and writings. The evidences are based on A. Lask and G. Most’ Early Greek Philosophy (2016).

Roman Colonists and Jewish Exiles in Old Livonia? Genealogical Fictions in the Historiography of the 17th Century

Alt-Livland zwischen römischen Kolonisten und jüdischen Exilanten. Genealogische Fiktionen in der Historiografie des 17. Jahrhunderts

Author(s): Stefan Donecker / Language(s): German / Issue: 2/2011

Keywords: Roman Colonists; Jewish Exiles; Old Livonia; Genealogical Fictions; Historiography of the 17th Century;

During the approximately 150 years between the mid-16th century and the early 18th century, Livonia, as the main battleground in the wars for supremacy in the Baltic area, gained the attention of the erudite elites of Europe. During these years, historiographers and ethnographers attempted to reconstruct Livonia’s earliest history and determine the origins of its indigenous inhabitants. According to the genealogical paradigm of the time, an inquiry into the ancestry of a given people allowed scholars to comprehend its national character and evaluate its virtues and flaws. Compared to other European genealogical traditions of the same period, the origines Livonorum have to be regarded as a very unusual case: In most instances, scholars constructed a genealogy for the dynasty, realm or city that they, themselves, belonged or felt allegiance to. In Livonia, however, genealogical inquiry was not a question of self-perception, as it was German and Swedish scholars who speculated on the origins of the Estonian and Latvian peasantry. The efforts to determine the origins of Livonia’s indigenous population resulted in a great variety of conflicting, and often confusing, hypotheses. All in all, roughly seventy tribes were nominated as possible ancestors, and the scholars involved failed to reach a consensus. One of the most popular theories claimed that Estonians and Latvians descended from exiled Roman noblemen who had established a colony on the Baltic Sea. Other scholars, however, preferred a Jewish origin and claimed that Estonians and Latvians descended from the legendary Lost Tribes of Israel, or from Jewish refugees who fled the destruction of Jerusalem. Both theories seem bizarre from a modern point of view – but according the genealogical methodology of the early modern period, they were absolutely legitimate and reasonable hypotheses. Furthermore, both the alleged Roman and the Jewish ancestry of the Livonian peasants could be instrumentalised in the sociopolitical debates of the 17th century: If Latvians and Estonians were derived from prestigious Roman noblemen, it would have been absolutely inappropriate to force them into humiliating serfdom. A Jewish origin, on the other hand, would have confirmed the strict social stratification of early modern Livonia, and according to the prevalent anti-Semitic stereotypes, the offspring of Jewish exiles could hardly claim better treatment. Formally, the origines Livonorum were an antiquarian debate dealing with the most distant past, but implicitly, the theories on Estonian and Latvian ancestors allowed early modern scholars to voice their opinion on contemporary issues.

Sapientia. Wisdom and Moral Philosophy according to Robert Holcot (d. 1349)

Sapientia. Sagesse et philosophie morale selon Robert Holcot († 1349)

Author(s): Pascale Farago-Bermon / Language(s): French / Issue: XXV/2019

Keywords: Robert Holcot; wisdom; first humanism; moral philosophy; John XXII; Marsile of Padua; beatific vision; Thomas Waleys; Thomas Aquinas; Lactantius; James of Vitry; Robert of Courson; Richard of Fourniva

This contribution examines the definitions of wisdom that appear in the first two lessons of Robert Holcot’s In Sapientiam. The Dominican master writes in his famous commentary that he does not retain the theological and peripatetic definitions of wisdom, but prefers the definition given by moral philosophers. Holcot’s notion of philosophia moralis is compared here with its occurrences in the divisions of philosophy and curricula of the first half of the thirteenth century. The interest in non-peripatetic ancient sources manifested by this “classicizing friar” (Beryl Smalley) seems to suggest his work was a continuation of that of his near medieval predecessors, at the very time of the first humanism.

Jan Kochanowski's dispute with ancient heritage for the suitability of human weeping. Prolegomen to the world-view crisis of the poet in the light of selected laments. Part I

Jana Kochanowskiego spór z antycznym dziedzictwem o stosowność człowieczego płaczu. Prolegomena do kryzysu światopoglądowego poety w świetle wybranych trenów. Część I

Author(s): Sebastian Derda / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2021

Keywords: The Laments; Jan Kochanowski; Cicero; stoicism; humanism; weeping; sufferance; death

Human is a place of a mysterious and complicated synthesis of matter and spirit, the result ofwhich is an ambivalent reality. It implies effects as varied and contradictory as joy and sorrow, pleasureand pain, life and death. Pain and death have always been a source of anxiety and a great unknown inthe face of which man has shown his helplessness. On the other hand, human has a reflective awarenessof his pain, which highlights the awareness of his own self. Suffering that affects the whole person isalso something very personal, which teaches us that we must live our uniqueness responsibly and that,in the depths of our being, everyone is alone with God. The human reaction to the experience of painand suffering is crying, which indicates reaching the limit of possible behavior.This is the experience of the Renaissance poet Jan Kochanowski, who, after the death of hisdaughter, devotes a series of nineteen songs to her, being a kind of diary of suffering. The Laments, asthey are discussed in the article, are at the same time a diary of the reflections and reevaluations born bythis suffering, and at the same time a comprehensive polemic with the basic assumptions of antiquity.The article deals with the issue of crying on three levels: crying over her daughter’s death, cryingfor herself, and crying over the principles of Kochanowski so far. These considerations were precededby a reflection on the world order violated by the unrelenting death of a child.

“Cimbri” et “Teutoni”

“Cimbri” et “Teutoni”

Author(s): Harald Bichlmeier,Václav Blažek / Language(s): English / Issue: 83/2020

Keywords: Germanic ethnonyms; discussion of existing etymologies; new etymological solutions; obscured compounds; semantic typology;

The well-known names Cimbri and Teutoni / Teutones are traditionally said to denominate two different Germanic tribes. Here a new idea is proposed, namely that they originally formed a syntagm consisting of both words, PGmc. *þeu̯đanōz kumƀrii̯ōn ‘chieftains of tribes’, which later got split up into two tribal names in ancient sources: Teutoni Cimbrique, or Τευτόνοι καὶ Κίμβροι. While PGmc. *kumƀr- must be reconstructed, there are different ways in which the name is rendered in the Latin and Greek sources, where we find a variation u/y – i in the root vowel. This may be due to the fact that there is a certain fluctuation between u and i in inherited words in Latin on the one hand and a fluctuation between all these vowels in loaned words and names in both languages. The original form of the name of the Cimbri, PGmc. *kumƀrii̯a, may continue an obscured compound of the roots PIE *gem- ‘press, squeeze, grab’ and *bher- ‘carry’. Pgmc. *þeu̯đanōz is the regular plural to *þeu̯đanaz ‘tribal chieftain’, later ‘king’. Its origin from PGmc. *þeu̯đō ‘tribe’ is generally accepted. Among various etymological attempts to analyze ‘West Indo-European’ *teu̯tā we prefer the idea of de Vries deriving the word from the Celto-Germanic isogloss to *teu̯to- ‘good, friendly’. The Hittite cognates imply the existence of the root *teu̯- ‘to be kind, friendly’.

If not Bogomilism than What? The Origins of Catharism in the Light of the Sources

If not Bogomilism than What? The Origins of Catharism in the Light of the Sources

Author(s): Piotr Czarnecki / Language(s): English / Issue: 11/2021

Keywords: Catharism; Bogomilism; Medieval dualism; Cathar doctrine; origins of Catharism

Since the end of the twentieth Century the traditional interpretation of Catharism, assuming it’s Eastern roots and dualist character is the object of a harsh criticism, formulated by the deconstructionist scholars. The moderated version of their new interpretation assumes that dualism didn’t play an important role in Catharism, and that the Cathar “dissidence” was not influenced by the Eastern dualist heresies (especially Bogomilism), but appeared independently in the West. According to the radical version Catharism didn’t exist at all and contemporary scholars should accept a new paradigm – Middle-Ages without Catharism.The aim of this article is to examine the source arguments, which stand behind both interpretations – on one side the arguments concerning the contacts of the Cahars with the Eastern dualists, with special attention paid to the time of their emergence and character of these relations, and on the other the arguments concerning Cathar dualist doctrines, which according to the deconstructionists were constructed arbitrarily by the Catholic polemists, basing on the ancient anti-heretical works, especially anti-Manichaean writings of St. Augustine. The article will try to find the answer to the question if the Cathar doctrines described in the Catholic sources are indeed so closely similar to the Manichaean teachings known from St. Augustine and at the same time so different from the Bogomil dualism. The analysis of the sources will show if the new interpretation is based on the arguments that are strong enough to overthrow the traditional one and if it the theory assuming lack of Bogomil influence can be considered as a serious alternative.

The Term ἀντίψυχος as an Expiatory Sacrifice of Martyrs in the Light of The Fourth Book of Maccabees and Other Ancient Extra-Biblical Literature

The Term ἀντίψυχος as an Expiatory Sacrifice of Martyrs in the Light of The Fourth Book of Maccabees and Other Ancient Extra-Biblical Literature

Author(s): Marcin Chrostowski / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2021

Keywords: The Fourth Book of Maccabees; 4 Macc; ἀντίψυχος; expiatory martyrdom; reparation; sacrifice; atonement

The Fourth Book of Maccabees (4 Macc) in the description of Eleazar's prayer, before he suffered a martyr’s death  (6:29) as well as the martyrdom of seven brothers and their mother who suffered for the nation (17:21), the term ἀντίψυχος  (which means “given in exchange for life”) is used twice. This adjective appears only twice in the Septuagint (LXX), to be precise, in 4 Macc The context of both passages suggests a broader meaning of the term, translated with reference to a sacrifice of life having a propitiatory, expiatory, vicarious and voluntary character, and even atonement for the sins of the Jewish people. In this article, the subject of expiatory martyrdom in 4 Macc will be taken in the context of the biblical, apocryphal and other ancient texts, with reference to the flow of ideas and terminology of Greco-Roman religion, poetry and philosophy. In addition, possible translations of the term ἀντίψυχος will be analyzed, included in the broader context of Greek and other terminologies, so as to show possible connections between the idea of ​​expiatory martyrdom and the ideas described in the New Testament.