Patrik Hagman
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199593194
- eISBN:
- 9780191595677
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199593194.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The ascetic tracts of 7th century writer Isaac of Nineveh (Isaac the Syrian) provide a wealth of material to better understand early Christian asceticism. The study focuses on the role of the body in ...
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The ascetic tracts of 7th century writer Isaac of Nineveh (Isaac the Syrian) provide a wealth of material to better understand early Christian asceticism. The study focuses on the role of the body in various ascetic techniques, such as fasting, vigils and prayer, and on the way the ascetic relates to the society. For Isaac, the ascetic is to function as something like an icon, an image that showed the world the reality of God's Kingdom already in this life, by clearly indicating the difference between God's ways and men's. The study reviews the scholarly discussion on asceticism and early monasticism of the last three decades, and then proceeds to analyse the texts of Isaac to reveal an emphasis on asceticism as a practice that is at the same time performative, transformative and bodily. This contrasts with the long‐established conception of asceticism as based on a negative view of the body. Isaac displays a profound understanding of the way body and soul are related, demonstrating how the body can be used to transform the personality of the ascetic, and to communicate the change to the world, without the use of words. By giving a thorough overview of Isaac's ascetic thinking, the study brings Isaac's fresh perspective to bear on an important, yet often overlooked, aspect of the Christian tradition, showing that asceticism is and important ecclesiological theme and that a theology of asceticism should be a political theology.Less
The ascetic tracts of 7th century writer Isaac of Nineveh (Isaac the Syrian) provide a wealth of material to better understand early Christian asceticism. The study focuses on the role of the body in various ascetic techniques, such as fasting, vigils and prayer, and on the way the ascetic relates to the society. For Isaac, the ascetic is to function as something like an icon, an image that showed the world the reality of God's Kingdom already in this life, by clearly indicating the difference between God's ways and men's. The study reviews the scholarly discussion on asceticism and early monasticism of the last three decades, and then proceeds to analyse the texts of Isaac to reveal an emphasis on asceticism as a practice that is at the same time performative, transformative and bodily. This contrasts with the long‐established conception of asceticism as based on a negative view of the body. Isaac displays a profound understanding of the way body and soul are related, demonstrating how the body can be used to transform the personality of the ascetic, and to communicate the change to the world, without the use of words. By giving a thorough overview of Isaac's ascetic thinking, the study brings Isaac's fresh perspective to bear on an important, yet often overlooked, aspect of the Christian tradition, showing that asceticism is and important ecclesiological theme and that a theology of asceticism should be a political theology.
David M. Armstrong
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199590612
- eISBN:
- 9780191723391
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199590612.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Metaphysics/Epistemology
An account is given of the Forrest‐Armstrong theory of number (Peter Forrest). Natural numbers are argued to be relations holding between a certain property and a certain mereological whole (black ...
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An account is given of the Forrest‐Armstrong theory of number (Peter Forrest). Natural numbers are argued to be relations holding between a certain property and a certain mereological whole (black swan on the lake now, and the whole that these swans make). With the rational numbers and the real numbers the relation becomes one of proportion, they are the units that measure the proportion. It is pointed out, however, that this view is largely to be found in Isaac Newton, and is even anticipated in Aristotle. What it is for a mathematical entity such as a number to be ‘instantiated’ is considered.Less
An account is given of the Forrest‐Armstrong theory of number (Peter Forrest). Natural numbers are argued to be relations holding between a certain property and a certain mereological whole (black swan on the lake now, and the whole that these swans make). With the rational numbers and the real numbers the relation becomes one of proportion, they are the units that measure the proportion. It is pointed out, however, that this view is largely to be found in Isaac Newton, and is even anticipated in Aristotle. What it is for a mathematical entity such as a number to be ‘instantiated’ is considered.
Andrew Stewart Skinner
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198233343
- eISBN:
- 9780191678974
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198233343.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
Following the publication of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, it appears that Adam Smith gave greater emphasis to jurisprudence and economics at the expense of the ethical material. While the lectures ...
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Following the publication of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, it appears that Adam Smith gave greater emphasis to jurisprudence and economics at the expense of the ethical material. While the lectures on theology have not been discovered as yet, it is at least possible that Smith's position would have shown agreement with that of Isaac Newton. Smith made use of a number of Newtonian analogies whose implications are not inconsistent with the view of God as the Divine Architect or Great Superintendent of the Universe. He made wide use of mechanistic (and other) analogies, seeing in the universe a ‘great machine’ wherein we may observe ‘means adjusted with the nicest artifice to the ends which they are intended to produce’. The remaining parts of Smith's lectures — ethics, jurisprudence, and economics — were seen by him as the parts, separate but interconnected, of an even wider system of social science, a point that emerges clearly from the advertisement to the sixth edition of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, published in the year of Smith's death.Less
Following the publication of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, it appears that Adam Smith gave greater emphasis to jurisprudence and economics at the expense of the ethical material. While the lectures on theology have not been discovered as yet, it is at least possible that Smith's position would have shown agreement with that of Isaac Newton. Smith made use of a number of Newtonian analogies whose implications are not inconsistent with the view of God as the Divine Architect or Great Superintendent of the Universe. He made wide use of mechanistic (and other) analogies, seeing in the universe a ‘great machine’ wherein we may observe ‘means adjusted with the nicest artifice to the ends which they are intended to produce’. The remaining parts of Smith's lectures — ethics, jurisprudence, and economics — were seen by him as the parts, separate but interconnected, of an even wider system of social science, a point that emerges clearly from the advertisement to the sixth edition of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, published in the year of Smith's death.
P. J. Marshall (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263501
- eISBN:
- 9780191734212
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263501.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This book contains obituaries of eleven recently deceased Fellows of the British Academy: Isaiah Berlin, Christopher Hill, Rodney Hilton, Keith Hopkins, Peter Laslett, Geoffrey Marshall, John ...
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This book contains obituaries of eleven recently deceased Fellows of the British Academy: Isaiah Berlin, Christopher Hill, Rodney Hilton, Keith Hopkins, Peter Laslett, Geoffrey Marshall, John Roskell, Isaac Schapera, Ben Segal, John Cyril Smith, and Richard Wollheim.Less
This book contains obituaries of eleven recently deceased Fellows of the British Academy: Isaiah Berlin, Christopher Hill, Rodney Hilton, Keith Hopkins, Peter Laslett, Geoffrey Marshall, John Roskell, Isaac Schapera, Ben Segal, John Cyril Smith, and Richard Wollheim.
Nicholas Hardy and Dmitri Levitin (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197266601
- eISBN:
- 9780191896057
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266601.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This volume examines the relationship between the history of scholarship and the history of Christianity in the early modern period. Leading British, American and continental scholars explore the ...
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This volume examines the relationship between the history of scholarship and the history of Christianity in the early modern period. Leading British, American and continental scholars explore the ways in which erudition contributed to—or clashed with—the formation of confessional identities in the wake of the Reformation, at individual, institutional, national and international levels. Covering Catholics and Protestants in equal measure, the essays assess biblical criticism; the study of the church fathers; the ecclesiastical censorship of scholarly works; oriental studies and the engagement with Near Eastern languages, texts and communities; and the relationship between developments in scholarship and other domains, including practical piety, natural philosophy, and the universities and seminaries where most intellectual activity was still conducted. One of the volume’s main strengths is its chronological coverage. It begins with an unprecedentedly detailed and comprehensive review of the scholarly literature in this field and proceeds with case studies ranging from the early Reformation to the eighteenth century. The volume also features the publication of a remarkable new manuscript detailing Isaac Newton’s early theological studies in 1670s Cambridge. It will be of interest not only to early modern intellectual and religious historians, but also to those with broader interests in religious change, the reception of oriental and classical sources and traditions, the history of science, and in the sociology of knowledge.Less
This volume examines the relationship between the history of scholarship and the history of Christianity in the early modern period. Leading British, American and continental scholars explore the ways in which erudition contributed to—or clashed with—the formation of confessional identities in the wake of the Reformation, at individual, institutional, national and international levels. Covering Catholics and Protestants in equal measure, the essays assess biblical criticism; the study of the church fathers; the ecclesiastical censorship of scholarly works; oriental studies and the engagement with Near Eastern languages, texts and communities; and the relationship between developments in scholarship and other domains, including practical piety, natural philosophy, and the universities and seminaries where most intellectual activity was still conducted. One of the volume’s main strengths is its chronological coverage. It begins with an unprecedentedly detailed and comprehensive review of the scholarly literature in this field and proceeds with case studies ranging from the early Reformation to the eighteenth century. The volume also features the publication of a remarkable new manuscript detailing Isaac Newton’s early theological studies in 1670s Cambridge. It will be of interest not only to early modern intellectual and religious historians, but also to those with broader interests in religious change, the reception of oriental and classical sources and traditions, the history of science, and in the sociology of knowledge.
Michael Brydon
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199204816
- eISBN:
- 9780191709500
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199204816.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Richard Hooker has long been viewed as the first systematic defender of Anglicanism, as a via media between Roman Catholicism and Reformed Protestantism. In the last twenty years, this traditional ...
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Richard Hooker has long been viewed as the first systematic defender of Anglicanism, as a via media between Roman Catholicism and Reformed Protestantism. In the last twenty years, this traditional assumption has been increasingly challenged, and it has been argued that Hooker was a Reformed figure whose Anglican credentials are the invention of the Oxford Movement. Whilst the theological ambiguity of Hooker remains perplexing, this study makes clear that the 17th and not the 19th century was responsible for the creation of his reputation as a leading Anglican father. It is argued that Hooker’s position of authority was much disputed and only gradually fashioned, and that his variable significance was dependent on the interplay between the polemical and religious needs of those who used him, and the complexities and evasions of his own work. Hooker initially came to prominence due to a suspicion that he was insufficiently Reformed. This then encouraged Catholic polemicists to view him as being representative of the theological position of the English Church. Although there was a desire to retain him as a Reformed figure, he was eventually appropriated by the avant-garde churchmen who eventually triumphed at the Restoration and enthroned him as the epitome of the Anglican identity. Unsurprisingly, the unfolding of contemporary crises led to some reappraisal of his standing. Notably, the Glorious Revolution meant that Hooker’s previously marginalized belief in an original governmental compact came to the forefront, and he was increasingly recognized as a meaningful political writer. Whilst the boundaries of Hooker’s emblematic status continued to expand and contract, the developments of the 17th century ensured that his status as an important writer has remained constant ever since.Less
Richard Hooker has long been viewed as the first systematic defender of Anglicanism, as a via media between Roman Catholicism and Reformed Protestantism. In the last twenty years, this traditional assumption has been increasingly challenged, and it has been argued that Hooker was a Reformed figure whose Anglican credentials are the invention of the Oxford Movement. Whilst the theological ambiguity of Hooker remains perplexing, this study makes clear that the 17th and not the 19th century was responsible for the creation of his reputation as a leading Anglican father. It is argued that Hooker’s position of authority was much disputed and only gradually fashioned, and that his variable significance was dependent on the interplay between the polemical and religious needs of those who used him, and the complexities and evasions of his own work. Hooker initially came to prominence due to a suspicion that he was insufficiently Reformed. This then encouraged Catholic polemicists to view him as being representative of the theological position of the English Church. Although there was a desire to retain him as a Reformed figure, he was eventually appropriated by the avant-garde churchmen who eventually triumphed at the Restoration and enthroned him as the epitome of the Anglican identity. Unsurprisingly, the unfolding of contemporary crises led to some reappraisal of his standing. Notably, the Glorious Revolution meant that Hooker’s previously marginalized belief in an original governmental compact came to the forefront, and he was increasingly recognized as a meaningful political writer. Whilst the boundaries of Hooker’s emblematic status continued to expand and contract, the developments of the 17th century ensured that his status as an important writer has remained constant ever since.
Michael Brydon
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199204816
- eISBN:
- 9780191709500
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199204816.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
At the Restoration, the avant-garde interpretation of the Polity emerged triumphant. This was briefly challenged by an un-Anglican biography produced by John Gauden, until Isaac Walton produced a ...
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At the Restoration, the avant-garde interpretation of the Polity emerged triumphant. This was briefly challenged by an un-Anglican biography produced by John Gauden, until Isaac Walton produced a suitable corrective. Walton’s biography not only established the image of the peaceable faithful divine, but also discreetly marginalized Book VII, with its unacceptable belief that episcopacy only enjoyed divine approbation, and Book VIII’s belief in an original political compact.Less
At the Restoration, the avant-garde interpretation of the Polity emerged triumphant. This was briefly challenged by an un-Anglican biography produced by John Gauden, until Isaac Walton produced a suitable corrective. Walton’s biography not only established the image of the peaceable faithful divine, but also discreetly marginalized Book VII, with its unacceptable belief that episcopacy only enjoyed divine approbation, and Book VIII’s belief in an original political compact.
Caroline Johnson Hodge
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195182163
- eISBN:
- 9780199785612
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195182163.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter proposes a context for interpreting the phrase “in Christ” that would have resonated with Paul's audience: the ideology of patrilineal descent. The same logic which underlies the notion ...
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This chapter proposes a context for interpreting the phrase “in Christ” that would have resonated with Paul's audience: the ideology of patrilineal descent. The same logic which underlies the notion of “coming out of” (ek) your ancestors also shapes the concept of being “in” your ancestors. Indeed, these are two ways of expressing the same relationship: ancestors contain descendants. To understand how “in Christ” fits in with this descent logic, it is instructive to consider the other contexts in which Paul applies a similar concept of being “in” someone: the gentiles are blessed “in” Abraham (Gal 3:8), and true descendants of Abraham are said to be “in” Isaac (Rom 9:7). This chapter discusses a range of texts — Greek, Roman, and Jewish — that maintain similar notions about ancestors and descendants, and then focuses on the Septuagint (Paul's source for this “in” language) and Paul's letters to show how Paul turns this phrase into his own discourse of kinship for gentiles.Less
This chapter proposes a context for interpreting the phrase “in Christ” that would have resonated with Paul's audience: the ideology of patrilineal descent. The same logic which underlies the notion of “coming out of” (ek) your ancestors also shapes the concept of being “in” your ancestors. Indeed, these are two ways of expressing the same relationship: ancestors contain descendants. To understand how “in Christ” fits in with this descent logic, it is instructive to consider the other contexts in which Paul applies a similar concept of being “in” someone: the gentiles are blessed “in” Abraham (Gal 3:8), and true descendants of Abraham are said to be “in” Isaac (Rom 9:7). This chapter discusses a range of texts — Greek, Roman, and Jewish — that maintain similar notions about ancestors and descendants, and then focuses on the Septuagint (Paul's source for this “in” language) and Paul's letters to show how Paul turns this phrase into his own discourse of kinship for gentiles.
Stephen Gaukroger
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199296446
- eISBN:
- 9780191711985
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296446.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter deals with experimental philosophy, as represented in Gilbert on magnetism, Hobbes on the air pump, and Newton on the production of the spectrum. It is shown that experimental philosophy ...
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This chapter deals with experimental philosophy, as represented in Gilbert on magnetism, Hobbes on the air pump, and Newton on the production of the spectrum. It is shown that experimental philosophy differs from mechanism in quite radical ways. In particular, it has explanatory success but in apparently very localized domains, and it construes causation not in terms of underlying causes but in terms of causes acting at the same level. Its difference from mechanism is manifest in the contrast between Descartes' and Newton's accounts of the production of the spectrum: Descartes provides a fully geometrical account of the separation of coloured rays, but then shifts into a different register, a qualitative and speculative one in attempting to provide a micro-corpuscularian account of the physical basis of colour production; Newton manages to account for the spectrum without leaving the phenomenal geometricized level, eschewing any recourse to ‘underlying’ causes.Less
This chapter deals with experimental philosophy, as represented in Gilbert on magnetism, Hobbes on the air pump, and Newton on the production of the spectrum. It is shown that experimental philosophy differs from mechanism in quite radical ways. In particular, it has explanatory success but in apparently very localized domains, and it construes causation not in terms of underlying causes but in terms of causes acting at the same level. Its difference from mechanism is manifest in the contrast between Descartes' and Newton's accounts of the production of the spectrum: Descartes provides a fully geometrical account of the separation of coloured rays, but then shifts into a different register, a qualitative and speculative one in attempting to provide a micro-corpuscularian account of the physical basis of colour production; Newton manages to account for the spectrum without leaving the phenomenal geometricized level, eschewing any recourse to ‘underlying’ causes.
Stephen Gaukroger
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199296446
- eISBN:
- 9780191711985
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296446.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
From the early 17th century onwards, the dominant natural philosophy was mechanism: the view that all explanations must ultimately take the form of a reduction to a very economical range of features ...
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From the early 17th century onwards, the dominant natural philosophy was mechanism: the view that all explanations must ultimately take the form of a reduction to a very economical range of features at the micro-corpuscularian level, e.g., in the paradigm case, size, speed, and direction of motion. Gassendi and Beeckman offered very different routes to mechanism: Gassendi's was a legitimatory programme that focuses on matter theory, whereas Beeckman's approach comes directly out of mechanics, which it attempted to transform into natural philosophy by fleshing it out in micro-corpuscularian terms. The crucial stage in mechanism comes with the rise of concerted attempts to integrate mechanics and matter theory into a consistent whole, at the same time offering the mechanism so devised as a complete theory of the cosmos, and it is the approaches of Hobbes, whose closest affinities are with Gassendi, and Descartes, whose closest affinities are with Beeckman, that bring out most clearly what is at issue here.Less
From the early 17th century onwards, the dominant natural philosophy was mechanism: the view that all explanations must ultimately take the form of a reduction to a very economical range of features at the micro-corpuscularian level, e.g., in the paradigm case, size, speed, and direction of motion. Gassendi and Beeckman offered very different routes to mechanism: Gassendi's was a legitimatory programme that focuses on matter theory, whereas Beeckman's approach comes directly out of mechanics, which it attempted to transform into natural philosophy by fleshing it out in micro-corpuscularian terms. The crucial stage in mechanism comes with the rise of concerted attempts to integrate mechanics and matter theory into a consistent whole, at the same time offering the mechanism so devised as a complete theory of the cosmos, and it is the approaches of Hobbes, whose closest affinities are with Gassendi, and Descartes, whose closest affinities are with Beeckman, that bring out most clearly what is at issue here.
Yaacob Dweck
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691145082
- eISBN:
- 9781400840007
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691145082.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter reconstructs the competing efforts of a group of scholars in the early nineteenth century, including Isaac Reggio, Solomon Rosenthal, and Julius Fürst, to print the first edition of Ari ...
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This chapter reconstructs the competing efforts of a group of scholars in the early nineteenth century, including Isaac Reggio, Solomon Rosenthal, and Julius Fürst, to print the first edition of Ari Nohem. In the 1830s, Isaac Reggio and Solomon Rosenthal both prepared editions of Ari Nohem. Meanwhile, in an act of scholarly theft that infuriated them both, Julius Fürst printed Rosenthal's edition under his own name at Leipzig in 1840. Reggio, Rosenthal, and Fürst all looked to Modena and his criticism of Kabbalah as a model for their own opposition to the contemporary mystical revival in Hasidism. A decade and a half after Ari Nohem was first printed, however, kabbalists Elijah Benamozegh and Isaac Haver Wildmann subjected it to searing criticism; both tried to combat Modena's arguments against the antiquity of Kabbalah.Less
This chapter reconstructs the competing efforts of a group of scholars in the early nineteenth century, including Isaac Reggio, Solomon Rosenthal, and Julius Fürst, to print the first edition of Ari Nohem. In the 1830s, Isaac Reggio and Solomon Rosenthal both prepared editions of Ari Nohem. Meanwhile, in an act of scholarly theft that infuriated them both, Julius Fürst printed Rosenthal's edition under his own name at Leipzig in 1840. Reggio, Rosenthal, and Fürst all looked to Modena and his criticism of Kabbalah as a model for their own opposition to the contemporary mystical revival in Hasidism. A decade and a half after Ari Nohem was first printed, however, kabbalists Elijah Benamozegh and Isaac Haver Wildmann subjected it to searing criticism; both tried to combat Modena's arguments against the antiquity of Kabbalah.
Raymond P. Scheindlin
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195315424
- eISBN:
- 9780199872039
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195315424.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Nine poems describe Halevi’s ocean voyage and his mental state during its course. They display his ambivalence between missing his family and longing for his goal; his fear that the Holy Land will ...
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Nine poems describe Halevi’s ocean voyage and his mental state during its course. They display his ambivalence between missing his family and longing for his goal; his fear that the Holy Land will not be a sufficient compensation for his losses; and his resolve to put himself fully into God’s hands. Several poems describe storms at sea, the terror they instill, and the opportunity they afford to put one’s trust of God to the test. The final poem is a hymn of thanksgiving for a safe arrival, probably written not on conclusion of the voyage but in anticipation of its successful conclusion.Less
Nine poems describe Halevi’s ocean voyage and his mental state during its course. They display his ambivalence between missing his family and longing for his goal; his fear that the Holy Land will not be a sufficient compensation for his losses; and his resolve to put himself fully into God’s hands. Several poems describe storms at sea, the terror they instill, and the opportunity they afford to put one’s trust of God to the test. The final poem is a hymn of thanksgiving for a safe arrival, probably written not on conclusion of the voyage but in anticipation of its successful conclusion.
John Bishop
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199205547
- eISBN:
- 9780191709432
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199205547.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter deals with two versions of the objection that Jamesian fideism is too liberal. In response to the first — that it is arbitrary to permit supra-evidential yet reject irrational, ...
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This chapter deals with two versions of the objection that Jamesian fideism is too liberal. In response to the first — that it is arbitrary to permit supra-evidential yet reject irrational, counter-evidential, faith-ventures — it is argued that a defensible fideism must insist that faith-ventures be made with epistemic entitlement (i.e., through the right exercise of epistemic rationality). ‘Ethical suspension of the epistemic’, while not absolutely excluded, does not apply to religious faith-ventures. To meet the second objection — that fideism may endorse obviously morally objectionable faith-ventures — a further integrationist condition is added: both the content and the motivational character of a permissible faith-venture should cohere with correct morality. The chapter concludes by following Kierkegaard's example with a reflection on Abraham and Isaac, to illustrate how theistic faith-ventures should develop in tandem with evolving moral commitments.Less
This chapter deals with two versions of the objection that Jamesian fideism is too liberal. In response to the first — that it is arbitrary to permit supra-evidential yet reject irrational, counter-evidential, faith-ventures — it is argued that a defensible fideism must insist that faith-ventures be made with epistemic entitlement (i.e., through the right exercise of epistemic rationality). ‘Ethical suspension of the epistemic’, while not absolutely excluded, does not apply to religious faith-ventures. To meet the second objection — that fideism may endorse obviously morally objectionable faith-ventures — a further integrationist condition is added: both the content and the motivational character of a permissible faith-venture should cohere with correct morality. The chapter concludes by following Kierkegaard's example with a reflection on Abraham and Isaac, to illustrate how theistic faith-ventures should develop in tandem with evolving moral commitments.
Pinchas Giller
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195328806
- eISBN:
- 9780199870196
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195328806.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter introduces the spiritual progenitor of the Beit El School, Shalom Sharʾabi and presents the highlights of his picaresque career. Sharʾabi did not found Beit El, which predated his ...
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This chapter introduces the spiritual progenitor of the Beit El School, Shalom Sharʾabi and presents the highlights of his picaresque career. Sharʾabi did not found Beit El, which predated his arrival by some years, but he galvanized the school to the extent that its members considered his interpretation of Kabbalah to be the only acceptable one. This position was adopted more widely in the kabbalistic world and even beyond it, so that many prominent Talmudists of the 19th century also accepted Sharʾabi's hegemony. In the contemporary period, there has been an upsurge of interest in Beit El kabbalah and it is widely recognized as a dominant and authoritative school of Kabbalah.Less
This chapter introduces the spiritual progenitor of the Beit El School, Shalom Sharʾabi and presents the highlights of his picaresque career. Sharʾabi did not found Beit El, which predated his arrival by some years, but he galvanized the school to the extent that its members considered his interpretation of Kabbalah to be the only acceptable one. This position was adopted more widely in the kabbalistic world and even beyond it, so that many prominent Talmudists of the 19th century also accepted Sharʾabi's hegemony. In the contemporary period, there has been an upsurge of interest in Beit El kabbalah and it is widely recognized as a dominant and authoritative school of Kabbalah.
Raymond P. Scheindlin
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195315424
- eISBN:
- 9780199872039
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195315424.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Geniza letters and Halevi’s panegyric poems describe his arrival, together with Isaac Ibn Ezra and another companion, in Alexandria; his activities there; the many people who wanted to host him; and ...
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Geniza letters and Halevi’s panegyric poems describe his arrival, together with Isaac Ibn Ezra and another companion, in Alexandria; his activities there; the many people who wanted to host him; and his desire for ascetic solitude. Outstanding characters are Aaron ibn al-’Ammānī, a judge of the Jewish court, Halevi’s main Alexandrian host; and Ḥalfon Halevi, a businessman in Fustat/Cairo with whom Halevi had been in contact while still in al-Andalus. Samuel ben Ḥanania, the head of the Jewish community of the Fatimid Empire, invites Halevi to Cairo; Halevi’s formal epistle to him displays the royal deference accorded to Samuel’s rank. Geniza letters tell of Ḥalfon’s trip to Alexandria in late 1140 in order to bring Halevi home with him to Fustat.Less
Geniza letters and Halevi’s panegyric poems describe his arrival, together with Isaac Ibn Ezra and another companion, in Alexandria; his activities there; the many people who wanted to host him; and his desire for ascetic solitude. Outstanding characters are Aaron ibn al-’Ammānī, a judge of the Jewish court, Halevi’s main Alexandrian host; and Ḥalfon Halevi, a businessman in Fustat/Cairo with whom Halevi had been in contact while still in al-Andalus. Samuel ben Ḥanania, the head of the Jewish community of the Fatimid Empire, invites Halevi to Cairo; Halevi’s formal epistle to him displays the royal deference accorded to Samuel’s rank. Geniza letters tell of Ḥalfon’s trip to Alexandria in late 1140 in order to bring Halevi home with him to Fustat.
Yaacob Dweck
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691145082
- eISBN:
- 9781400840007
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691145082.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter uses Ari Nohem to document the transmission of Kabbalah from Safed to Venice and looks at Modena's indictment of this transfer of knowledge and practice. The three sections of the ...
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This chapter uses Ari Nohem to document the transmission of Kabbalah from Safed to Venice and looks at Modena's indictment of this transfer of knowledge and practice. The three sections of the chapter trace different components of Modena's response to Safed Kabbalah. The first part charts Modena's rejection of stories about the magical and theurgic powers of Isaac Luria and other kabbalists from Safed that circulated in Venice. The second section concentrates on Modena's attempt to dissociate Kabbalah from philosophy, a response to and rejection of the thought of Israel Saruq—one of the most important kabbalists to travel from Safed to Venice in the late sixteenth century. Finally, the third section traces Modena's response to Cordovero's Pardes Rimonim, a work that systematically examined a central doctrine of theosophical Kabbalah—the sefirot or the ten hypostases of the divine being.Less
This chapter uses Ari Nohem to document the transmission of Kabbalah from Safed to Venice and looks at Modena's indictment of this transfer of knowledge and practice. The three sections of the chapter trace different components of Modena's response to Safed Kabbalah. The first part charts Modena's rejection of stories about the magical and theurgic powers of Isaac Luria and other kabbalists from Safed that circulated in Venice. The second section concentrates on Modena's attempt to dissociate Kabbalah from philosophy, a response to and rejection of the thought of Israel Saruq—one of the most important kabbalists to travel from Safed to Venice in the late sixteenth century. Finally, the third section traces Modena's response to Cordovero's Pardes Rimonim, a work that systematically examined a central doctrine of theosophical Kabbalah—the sefirot or the ten hypostases of the divine being.
Michael Bergmann, Michael J. Murray, and Michael C. Rea (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199576739
- eISBN:
- 9780191595165
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199576739.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Numerous critics of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have argued that God, especially in the Hebrew Bible, is often portrayed as morally vicious. For example, historical narratives in these texts ...
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Numerous critics of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have argued that God, especially in the Hebrew Bible, is often portrayed as morally vicious. For example, historical narratives in these texts apparently describe God as ordering or commending genocide, slavery, and rape among other moral atrocities; and other texts seem to portray God as commending bigotry, misogyny, and homophobia. The main chapters in this interdisciplinary volume fall into four groups: (i) the first three press objections by philosophers to the moral character of God as it is represented in the Hebrew Bible; (ii) the next five offer responses by theistic philosophers to such objections; (iii) the next two after that present additional responses from the perspective of specialists in biblical studies; and (iv) the final chapter provides some general reflections on the conference at which these papers were initially presented. Also included in the volume are commentators' remarks on each chapter (except the last), along with replies by the original authors.Less
Numerous critics of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have argued that God, especially in the Hebrew Bible, is often portrayed as morally vicious. For example, historical narratives in these texts apparently describe God as ordering or commending genocide, slavery, and rape among other moral atrocities; and other texts seem to portray God as commending bigotry, misogyny, and homophobia. The main chapters in this interdisciplinary volume fall into four groups: (i) the first three press objections by philosophers to the moral character of God as it is represented in the Hebrew Bible; (ii) the next five offer responses by theistic philosophers to such objections; (iii) the next two after that present additional responses from the perspective of specialists in biblical studies; and (iv) the final chapter provides some general reflections on the conference at which these papers were initially presented. Also included in the volume are commentators' remarks on each chapter (except the last), along with replies by the original authors.
William Newman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691174877
- eISBN:
- 9780691185033
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174877.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
When Isaac Newton's alchemical papers surfaced at a Sotheby's auction in 1936, the quantity and seeming incoherence of the manuscripts were shocking. No longer the exemplar of Enlightenment ...
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When Isaac Newton's alchemical papers surfaced at a Sotheby's auction in 1936, the quantity and seeming incoherence of the manuscripts were shocking. No longer the exemplar of Enlightenment rationality, the legendary physicist suddenly became “the last of the magicians.” This book unlocks the secrets of Newton's alchemical quest, providing a radically new understanding of the uncommon genius who probed nature at its deepest levels in pursuit of empirical knowledge. The book blends in-depth analysis of newly available texts with laboratory replications of Newton's actual experiments in alchemy. It does not justify Newton's alchemical research as part of a religious search for God in the physical world, nor does it argue that Newton studied alchemy to learn about gravitational attraction. The book traces the evolution of Newton's alchemical ideas and practices over a span of more than three decades, showing how they proved fruitful in diverse scientific fields. A precise experimenter in the realm of “chymistry,” Newton put the riddles of alchemy to the test in his lab. He also used ideas drawn from the alchemical texts to great effect in his optical experimentation. In his hands, alchemy was a tool for attaining the material benefits associated with the philosopher's stone and an instrument for acquiring scientific knowledge of the most sophisticated kind. The book provides rare insights into a man who was neither Enlightenment rationalist nor irrational magus, but rather an alchemist who sought through experiment and empiricism to alter nature at its very heart.Less
When Isaac Newton's alchemical papers surfaced at a Sotheby's auction in 1936, the quantity and seeming incoherence of the manuscripts were shocking. No longer the exemplar of Enlightenment rationality, the legendary physicist suddenly became “the last of the magicians.” This book unlocks the secrets of Newton's alchemical quest, providing a radically new understanding of the uncommon genius who probed nature at its deepest levels in pursuit of empirical knowledge. The book blends in-depth analysis of newly available texts with laboratory replications of Newton's actual experiments in alchemy. It does not justify Newton's alchemical research as part of a religious search for God in the physical world, nor does it argue that Newton studied alchemy to learn about gravitational attraction. The book traces the evolution of Newton's alchemical ideas and practices over a span of more than three decades, showing how they proved fruitful in diverse scientific fields. A precise experimenter in the realm of “chymistry,” Newton put the riddles of alchemy to the test in his lab. He also used ideas drawn from the alchemical texts to great effect in his optical experimentation. In his hands, alchemy was a tool for attaining the material benefits associated with the philosopher's stone and an instrument for acquiring scientific knowledge of the most sophisticated kind. The book provides rare insights into a man who was neither Enlightenment rationalist nor irrational magus, but rather an alchemist who sought through experiment and empiricism to alter nature at its very heart.
Stephen A. Marini
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195173048
- eISBN:
- 9780199872091
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195173048.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter examines the ways in which early American hymns provided texts and discourse for American history by employing computer-assisted statistical analysis. Evangelical hymns formed as ...
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This chapter examines the ways in which early American hymns provided texts and discourse for American history by employing computer-assisted statistical analysis. Evangelical hymns formed as repertories and canons as they passed from English Protestant traditions to the social and sacred practices that accompanied the settlement of the United States from the late 18th through the 19th century, particularly at moments such as the Great Awakening. At the beginning of the 21st century, many hymns from historically evangelical practices have become the favorite hymns (e.g., those by Isaac Watt, and Charles and John Wesley) shared by Protestant denominations and beyond. The chapter compares the ways meaning in hymn texts affords meaning to American religious experience. Hymnody itself is presented comparatively, as texts (ritual song, sacred medium) and contexts (belief, spirituality) for the lives of evangelicals and the formation of their churches and denominations.Less
This chapter examines the ways in which early American hymns provided texts and discourse for American history by employing computer-assisted statistical analysis. Evangelical hymns formed as repertories and canons as they passed from English Protestant traditions to the social and sacred practices that accompanied the settlement of the United States from the late 18th through the 19th century, particularly at moments such as the Great Awakening. At the beginning of the 21st century, many hymns from historically evangelical practices have become the favorite hymns (e.g., those by Isaac Watt, and Charles and John Wesley) shared by Protestant denominations and beyond. The chapter compares the ways meaning in hymn texts affords meaning to American religious experience. Hymnody itself is presented comparatively, as texts (ritual song, sacred medium) and contexts (belief, spirituality) for the lives of evangelicals and the formation of their churches and denominations.
Yoel H. Kahn
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195373295
- eISBN:
- 9780199893294
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195373295.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Nineteenth-century American prayer book editors used the same strategies as their European counterparts. The various editions of Isaac Mayer Wise’s Minhag Amerika mixed and matched the historical ...
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Nineteenth-century American prayer book editors used the same strategies as their European counterparts. The various editions of Isaac Mayer Wise’s Minhag Amerika mixed and matched the historical blessings in different arrangements; the blessing “who did not make me a slave” was originally included and later dropped out. The best-known twentieth-century arrangement, phrasing all three blessings in positive language and praising the One “who made me in the Divine Image,” was first used in the Conservative movement prayer book edited by Morris Silverman in 1946. More recently, the movement towards, on the one hand, feminist liturgy and, on the other, religious neo-chauvinism, have led contemporary editors to renewed liturgical creativity and the recovery of previously censored versions.Less
Nineteenth-century American prayer book editors used the same strategies as their European counterparts. The various editions of Isaac Mayer Wise’s Minhag Amerika mixed and matched the historical blessings in different arrangements; the blessing “who did not make me a slave” was originally included and later dropped out. The best-known twentieth-century arrangement, phrasing all three blessings in positive language and praising the One “who made me in the Divine Image,” was first used in the Conservative movement prayer book edited by Morris Silverman in 1946. More recently, the movement towards, on the one hand, feminist liturgy and, on the other, religious neo-chauvinism, have led contemporary editors to renewed liturgical creativity and the recovery of previously censored versions.
