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Ryszard Ryba is a Polish sculptor active in the second half of the 20th century. He was primarily a creator of sacred art, and his works can be found in the churches of the Podkarpacie and Lesser Poland regions (the present dioceses of Przemyśl, Rzeszów, Tarnów and Sandomierz). In addition to sculpting, he was involved in designing sacred interiors and elements of their decor (tabernacles, sedilia, pews, confessionals, etc.), participating in the development of principles for adapting church interiors to the conditions of the reformed liturgy after the Second Vatican Council. He is also the author of graphic and drawing series, which he created especially in the first twenty years of the 21st century. His sculptures, especially those from the beginning of his creative path, are characterised by great simplicity. Their impact is due to their powerful, synthetic form, acting as an expressive sign. With time, his great narrative talent became revealed more and more clearly, and the qualities that built the mood of unique softness and tenderness came to the fore. He was also increasingly willing to reach for topics related to family and everyday life. His artistic oeuvre, however, constitutes a coherent whole which is still intensely impressive.
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The path of enlightenment consists imitating of Jesus by practicing the virtues, especially the supernatural ones. The condition for this development of virtues is a some purity of heart. Man has to put his passions in order and fight with his major weaknesses. Then comes self-control, order in everyday life, deep conviction of the truths of faith, and more time to talk with the Lord during prayer. To achieve this state, a Christian must to pass a process of passive purification, which leads him into the mystical life. All imperfections must be removed. Therefore, God’s intervention is needed, which is expressed through special inspirations. Then the gifts of the Holy Spirit enable us to receive them. The Christian experiences passive purifications of senses and of spirit. This state can be compared to the purification of the senses. The purification of the soul is compared to the purification of gold in a crucible. In this state, prayer develops from meditation to emotional prayer. The Christian must therefore remove the obstacles in the development of prayer.
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Peru is a country with a predominantly religious population, with traditions and culture directly linked to religion, especially Catholicism, which is one of its fundamental elements that has a decisive influence on the formation of Peruvian society’s values and basic legal principles. In this context, Peru has created a system of relations with religious entities, established in the Constitution, which has been progressively developed through laws and regulations on religious freedom and case law; except for the agreement concluded with the Holy See, the State has not signed specific agreements with other religious entities, and it is not expected that such agreements will be concluded in the near future. The purpose of this article is to clarify the current system of relations between the state and religious associations in Peru, with particular reference to the issue of the legal personality of religious entities.
More...The Historical and Legal Background of the Traditions in Gen 21:22–24, 25–33 and Gen 26:26–31
The author of this paper seeks the original historical context as well as the oldest form, structure and concept of the biblical records of the covenants of Abraham and Isaac with the local ruler(s) as recorded in Gen 21:22–24, 25–33; 26:26–31. The patriarchs, who enjoy the status of foreign/sojourner/ resident in the land of the Philistine king, Abimelek, and their peaceful agreements are depicted in three biblical sources, which are very similar to each other in terms of structure and literary context. Those are compared with selected Hittite, Babylonian and Assyrian records of the royal covenants from the 2 millennium BC. The methodology adopted in the research allowed several important formal and substantive points of contact to be noted in the compared sources. Through this comparison, the paper confirms that Gen 21:22–24, 25 33; 26:26–31 reflects two ancient patterns of bilateral covenants between the monarch and an equal or subordinate social partner: royal grants and suzerain-vassal treaties. The paper also discusses the socio-cultural and legal spectrum of the Near Eastern royal procedures and how they were re-edited and adapted by the editors responsible for the current version of the biblical cycles about the patriarchs.
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Occasionally, the biblical term גר has been taken to refer to a “dependent worker” or “client” based on the thought that household membership can be gained through work provided to the household. Mention of household membership tests the identity of the sojourner in the ancient world as stranger or foreigner; a social category listed with widows and orphans—whose status is also defined by the household— as deserving of protection. Given its centrality as a basic social unit in the ancient Near East, we might expect that purchase in a household would grant a status that dissolves the social distance and attendant consequences (fragility of income, lack of patrimony, object of suspicion) thought to be borne by גרים. In what sense, then, is a “dependent worker” who secures membership in the household a גר ? This article reconsiders how distant a person must be from the society within which he resides to make him a ,גר shifting the semantic emphasis of this term away from origin and towards social integration.
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In the early Islamic world, various works were written on the issues on hadith methodology. Then, independent studies on the hadith methodology began to be compiled from the fourth century of the hijra, and many hadith methodologies were written in the following period. Before the writing of the independent studies on the hadith procedure, there were no separate hadith works, but there were copyrights in which the procedural subjects were handled. It should be noted that the introductory parts of the hadith books, in particular, are of great importance at this point. Because the authors sometimes include the issues of hadith methodology in the introductions in which they deal with the copyright purposes of their works and the methods they follow in the study, and they explain some hadith methodology concepts. The aforementioned prefaces and the issues covered in them provide important content about the hadith methodology. In addition to this, these texts also shed light on the procedural approaches of their authors. In addition, the concepts used in the period when the author lived, the meanings given to these concepts and the issues that came to the fore at that time are also revealed. In this article, the introduction to the book of Kitāb al-Mulakhkhas al-Muwatta' by Qābisī (d. 403/1012), one of the hadith scholars of Maghrib geography, is discussed. The author wrote this work in order to bring together the continual documents in the Ibn al-Qāsim narration of Mālik b. Anas' (d. 179/795) al-Muwatta. In the introduction, the author first stated the purpose of the writing of Kitāb al-Mulakhkhas al-Muwatta''s and the method followed in the work. Namely, he states that he compiled this work to respond to the demands of those who asked him to bring together the hadiths of Mālik b. Anas, whose chain is complete. In the compilation of the work, he was content with the only narration of Muwatta. He followed the method of collecting the musnad hadiths in this narration, the ones with clear continuous. However, he preferred not to include the narrations that were closed in his continuous in his work. After this information, the author has included some issues of hadith methodology in the introduction part. The main purpose of the study is to determine the concepts and subjects of the hadith methodology that he discussed in this section. In this context, firstly, information about Qābisī's life was given, and his education was mentioned. Then, some information about the features of the work in question is presented. Afterwards, the concepts of hadith methodology that he mentioned in the introduction of his work and his explanations on these issues were examined under separate headings. Although he is encouraged to narrate hadiths in this introduction, he provides information about the refraining of many hadith transmissions, the conditions of endurance of hadith, the words of the narration considered as 'muttasil and munqati', the narration with the meaning of the hadiths and the lahn in the hadith. When the approaches of Qābisī on these issues are examined, it is revealed that he tends towards the views of the Mālikī school, which he is a follower of and Imam Mālik. For this reason, the parts in which he adopted Mālik’s approaches and tended to explain the issues by referring to him are mentioned.
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Every science examines the personal accidents of the subject, which it determines as its subject, and the sciences differ from each other in this aspect. However, sciences offer the principles that they prove themselves through the use of other sciences. Sciences take and use the principles of other sciences that they will need, but they do not have to prove these principles in themselves. On the contrary, they entrust this proof to the sciences from which they took their principles. While examining the sources of fiqh and the method of making judgments from these sources, the method of fiqh uses the principles set forth in other sciences in the problems it encounters. One of the sciences in which the method of fiqh takes principles is kalām. Actually, the science of kalām provides principles to all other sciences with the conception of God and the world it reveals. One of these principles is the indeterminist understanding of the world, in other words, the theory of ʽādah (custom). The theory of custom, produced in the tradition of Ahl al-Sunnah Kalām, is a theory that cancels causality and makes all effects in the world peculiar to Allah. According to this theory, Allah operates the universe according to the laws of physics, which are named custom. However, this theory makes it possible for Allah, if He wills, to do extraordinary acts that are described as humanly extraordinary. Since the Fiqh and its Methodology, which is assisted by the science of kalām, is a science that is expected to judge according to the apparent, it seems to be contrary to his identity to make judgments by using the possibilities of the theory of custom. However, like the situation of a person who becomes a Muslim at the last moment of prayer, sometimes things get so tight that it becomes very difficult to judge according to outward appearance. Well, did the methodists look at the outward appearance and decide that this person is not responsible for the prayer of the aforementioned time, or did they come to a different conclusion by using the possibilities of the theory of custom
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Such questions that may it be essential, necessary, recommended, or free to believe in some matters will be addressed in the article. It is concluded that such an approach is possible for Māturīdis and Ash'arīs. In the study, it was thought that the following two problems should be solved first. The first problem is how can a definitive confirmation be made with speculative information (zannī). Second, if it is a contradiction that the ulema of the relevant school construct the subject of belief with an āḥād report (khabar) even though they explain the true report as mutawātir in the works of Kalām? In the article, three different solutions are proposed for the first problem, and the second problem is tried to be solved with the proposition that tawātur is compulsory for the universal or essential subjects of theology. Then, by giving two examples for each decree (hukm), it was tried to determine what this idea means in practice. It has been determined that the main controversial issues between the Ahl al-sunnah and the Mu'tazila arise in the category of wājib to be believed. It has been determined that the scholars of the aforementioned sects fall into dispute among themselves in matters presented as sunnah to be believed. As a result, in terms of the principles set forth by the Ahl al-Sunnah, it has been deemed possible to implement ʾafʿālu al-mukallafīn (deeds of those obligated) to theological issues. In our literature review, we did not come across a study solely focused on this subject before. In the introduction, information is given about the concepts of qatʿiyyatu al-thubūt – zanniyyatu althubūt (definitive-speculative confirmation), qatʿiyyatu al-dalālah- zanniyyatu al-dalālah (definitive-speculative implication), which are closely related to the subject. Then, theoretical information about the possibility of using such a classification in ʿaqīdah (Islamic creed) matters is presented. It can be mentioned that the concepts of faith and confirmation are important in this regard. It is expressed most of the Kalām scholars that belief is a confirmation without a doubt. In this context, the idea of forming a belief with speculative evidence emerges as a problem. In order to get out of the contradiction, three different explanations have been introduced. First, there is no obligatory relationship between confirmation and evidence. Therefore, a certain belief can be constructed with speculative information. Second, elements of belief based on speculative evidence are metaphorically called faith. In this context, only matters that are fard to be believed should be evaluated under the concept of faith in the real sense. Third, confirmation may contain hesitation. In this case, since the matters that are essential to believe are based on definite premises, a confirmation will undoubtedly be expected.
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With this study, it is aimed to clarify some ambiguities about the origin of the manuscripts that the edition of Kitāb al-Tahrīsh and Kitāb al-Maqālāt, which we published recently, rest on. Those editions which we expect to open new horizons in terms of the history of Islamic theology and hadith criticism, have reached today via Yemeni libraries, like other Muʿtazila cultural heritage items. Due to the political instability caused by the long-term civil wars in the country, a detailed inventory of private or official libraries in Yemen, which has rich collections of manuscripts on Islamic culture, has not been made until now. Although some of these manuscripts were collected in the Sanaa Library (Maktabat al-Awqāf), most of them are still preserved in mosques’ libraries or private collections under inappropriate conditions. Since there are no reliable records or indexes of these manuscripts, it is not possible to give reliable information about the origin of each item especially the status of those found in private collections or family libraries as called Buyūt alʿilm. Today, most of the Yemeni manuscripts found in the libraries of Europe, America and Islamic countries have been purchased by manuscript collectors, merchants, foreign researchers, or other illegal ways. The ones that have been published so far are either based on these manuscripts or similarly on copies from Yemen. This ambiguity about the origin of the manuscripts can sometimes lead to unjust accusations that target the editors of them, as if they used illegal copies on purpose. In this article, we tried to clarify the ambiguities and controversial points related to those manuscripts which our edition is based on by giving information about the obtaining manuscripts and edition processes
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Muhammed Iffet Sarkavi, in his work titled “Çağdaş Dinî Düşünce: Modern Dönem Tefsir Akımlarının Analitik İncelenmesi” seeks an answer to the question of “what can be the answers of religious thought in the face of contemporary problems?”. We can say that the main purpose of the work is to examine the philosophical, theological and legal efforts of all Muslims in general in order to find solutions to these problems and in particular, it is to reveal the position of muslim commentators in the face of the problems of the age. While doing this, the author acts on the assumption that there are very important common points between the ideas that the commentators put forward as a solution to political, economic and cultural crisis caused by the colonial activities that intensified in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the principles of thought in the early Islamic sources.
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2 Kings 5:1–27 describes the healing of a foreigner, Naaman the Syrian, a high officer of the King of Damascus, by Elisha, a prophet in Israel. Naaman the Syrian suffers from a kind of skin disease called “leprosy” in the Bible. He thinks that, being rich and powerful, he is in possession of the means to get healed. He has to change his mind and his behaviour, though. He is healed when he agrees to listen to an Israelian maidservant, a slave, to the prophet Elisha, and to his own servants. When he bathes in the Jordan, he symbolically enters the Promised Land because he is healed and, at the same time, he acknowledges that Yhwh is the only Lord of the universe.
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This article discusses the literary structure of the flood account (1 En. 89:1b–9) in the Animal Apocalypse (1 En. 85–90). Since the Qumran Aramaic text of the story (4Q206 frags. 8 I and 9) has preserved a shorter text than that found in the ancient Ethiopic version, the study of the literary additions found therein is also undertaken. Although the Aramaic text of the flood account is not free from some redactional elaborations of the literary structure of the story, the literary additions in the Ethiopic version expand the shorter structure, especially in the first part of the account (strophes 2–4). The insertion of new cosmic elements into the story (heavenly roof and earthly enclosure) creates a well-circumscribed space where the punishment of humanity, sons of the Watchers and animals by the waters of the flood takes place (strophe 4). Thus, the Ethiopic longer recension of the flood account is far more distant from the shorter text of 4Q206. The last part of this study takes a closer look at the literary context of the flood story that closes the first part of the Animal Apocalypse (1 En. 85:3b–89:9) and preannounces its second section (1 En. 89:10–90:19) marred by the shedding of blood and violence between the nations and Israel.
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The article deals with Jan Kochanowski’s Psałterz Dawidów [David’s Psalter], published in 1579. This paraphrase of the biblical Psalter, intensely lyrical in its spirit, was inspired by George Buchanan’s Latin poetic paraphrase of the Psalms, which is strongly Horatianising. Kochanowski’s work can be seen as a presentation of humanist piety. That is to say that the borders between secular and sacred spaces, or even between Judeo-Christian and Pagan traditions, may seem blurred. The Psalter is also interconfessional (or “doctrinally neutral”) and acts as a universal mirror reflecting the human mind. The author analyses three of Kochanowski’s Psalms to demonstrate the intellectual and emotional space of his Psalter and its polyphonic structure: 1 (Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio impiorum), 19 (Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei) and 91 (Qui habitat in adiutorio Altissimi), displaying some interplays of ideas and different approaches to paraphrasing applied by the poet.
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Albertus Bobovius/Ali Ufkî Bey was a typical go-between of his time, a learned translator and convert who benefited from his double religious sensitivity. As a consequence, he was able to create a transcultural translation of the Bible in the 17th century. This paper brings context to these aspects of his life. Ali Ufkî Bey created his works on religion during a time of intensive confessionalization, when Istanbul was a hub for many political interests with various religious and cultural options intersecting in the Ottoman capital. The project of translating the Bible to the national languages of Islam was carried out according to the vision of an alliance between Islam and reformed Christian groups, supporting the thesis of Calvino-Turkism, promoted by John Amos Comenius. As oriental scholars were lacking sufficient command of Turkish, they had to commission highly qualified go-betweens. There were two competing plans: Dutch Calvinist and Anglican. Bobovius was a part of the Dutch plan, along with Yahya Bin Ishak, a Jewish dragoman. The strategies of translation chosen by Bobovius were very modern according to the present knowledge of the art of translation, but in his era, there were difficulties in choosing the right language register and the right religious imagery to find proper equivalents. Underestimated by his contemporaries, Bobovius was rehabilitated by today’s linguists, and his “Turkish Bible” is still in use today. The text does not contest the religious identity of the author of this translation of the Bible but presents the hybridity of this figure against the background of the wider historical and confessional context of 17th-century Istanbul. It also provides examples of Bobovius’s translation choices and an initial interpretation of his methodology of timeless transcultural translation, from the perspective of contemporary translation theories. In the light of contemporary transcultural studies, present-day scholarship may treat Ali Ufkî as a transcultural agent and a gifted go-between.
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In the middle of the 20th century, in Caransebeş, the foundations of an ecclesiastical publication of a high academic standing were laid: “Altarul Banatului” [“The Shrine of Banat”] (later renamed, in Timişoara, “Mitropolia Banatului” [“The Metropolitan See of Banat”]). Due to its content, the elegance of its ideas as well as its high standards, it soon compelled recognition among Romanian cultural-theological publications. During about seven decades of quasi-continuous publication, more than 200 studies, articles, commentaries and translations from the field of Biblical Theology were published in the pages of this valuable Orthodox publication; half of them refer to the New Testament. They are all particularly important and therefore, contribute to the Romanian and universal Christian Theology and spirituality by completing and enriching them.
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