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Not Good for Anyone: Death in the Thought of Augustine of Hippo

David Albert Jones

in Approaching the End: A Theological Exploration of Death and Dying

In De civitate Dei book XIII, Augustine argues that bodily death is always a bad thing in itself. Careful consideration of the story of the fall from Eden shows it to be the very opposite of the ... More

In De civitate Dei book XIII, Augustine argues that bodily death is always a bad thing in itself. Careful consideration of the story of the fall from Eden shows it to be the very opposite of the Platonic fall myth. The Eden story sees the union of body and soul as natural and the separation as a punishment. The Platonic fall sees the separation of the soul as natural and the union with the body as a punishment. Augustine's approach to death is thus in sharp contrast to that of Ambrose.Less

After the Fall

Robert C. Stalnaker

in Our Knowledge of the Internal World

With the help of the myth of the Garden of Eden and the fall from grace, this chapter sums up the general external perspective that the argument of the book is promoting. It is suggested that we can ... More

With the help of the myth of the Garden of Eden and the fall from grace, this chapter sums up the general external perspective that the argument of the book is promoting. It is suggested that we can reconcile a robust realism, and a conception of the world as it is in itself with a thoroughly contextualist and anti-foundationalist account of intentionality and knowledge.Less

 Zen Rites: The Eclipse of Buddha

Steven Heine

in Zen Skin, Zen Marrow: Will the Real Zen Buddhism Please Stand Up?

The next area of debate, nonduality versus mediation, examined in Chapter Three involves the function of rituals and other intermediating elements of practice, such as objects of worship, in what is ... More

The next area of debate, nonduality versus mediation, examined in Chapter Three involves the function of rituals and other intermediating elements of practice, such as objects of worship, in what is supposedly an iconoclastic tradition founded on direct, unmediated experience realized through meditation conducted in the Monks Hall of the seven‐hall monastery grounds. By looking at key examples of how prayer temples evolved in relation to monastic training centers, this chapter argues that the traditional view of Zen must acknowledge that the religion allows for a wide variety of compound layouts. Temples that put an emphasis on aesthetic contemplation for monks may incorporate rock gardens or teahouses, for example, while those emphasizing the pursuit of worldly benefits for lay followers generally have a prominent shrine dedicated to an indigenous or esoteric deity that has been assimilated as an avatar or bodhisattva.Less

WEEDS, GENE FLOW, AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Pamela C. Ronald and Raoul W. Adamchak

in Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food

This chapter offers a discussion of why many weeds spread invasively whereas most crops and native species do not. It also looks into pollen flow from genetically engineered crops.

The Ground of Being: The Drama of Dirt in Genesis 2:4b–3:24

William P. Brown

in The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder

The topic is the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:4b-3:24, the Yahwist account of creation. In contrast to the God of Genesis 1, the God of the Garden is a down-to-earth deity who improvises and sometimes ... More

The topic is the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:4b-3:24, the Yahwist account of creation. In contrast to the God of Genesis 1, the God of the Garden is a down-to-earth deity who improvises and sometimes fails in the act of creating. This “low” view of God is matched by humankind’s portrayal as a “groundling,” a product of God’s work with dirt, in contrast to the “image of God” portrayal in Genesis 1. Written in view of ancient Israel’s mixed experience with monarchy, the Garden narrative focuses on the human family and its rise to power. As such, it invites dialogue with the anthropological account of human evolution, the human tree of life. Both accounts affirm the common ground of biological life and the challenging transitions that have shaped humanity’s development and ascendancy in creation. Evolutionary science reinterprets the account of the “Fall” of humanity in powerfully ecological ways.Less

Spaces for Music in Sixteenth-Century Paduan Courts

GUIDO BELTRAMINI

in The Music Room in Early Modern France and Italy: Sound, Space and Object

This chapter is dedicated to a particular culture relating to the way one might ideally lead one's life in line with ancient practices and views. The trend in question, which developed in Padua in ... More

This chapter is dedicated to a particular culture relating to the way one might ideally lead one's life in line with ancient practices and views. The trend in question, which developed in Padua in the first half of the Cinquecento, was promoted by such humanists as Pietro Bembo, Alvise Cornaro and Marco Mantova Benavides. Exceptional connoisseurs of the mores and values of antiquity, these intellectuals personally supervised and directed the building of their homes. Following the model of Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, the complexes of these Paduan residences comprised dwelling areas, pavilions, large gardens and the installation of fountains, statues and rare plants. Inspired by literary sources, the ideal of recreating the ‘ancient’ way of life, in which music played a crucial role, was revived.Less

Duke Bluebeard's Castle: Toward Character Reversal: Reassignment of Pentatonic and Whole‐Tone Spheres

Elliott Antokoletz

in Musical Symbolism in the Operas of Debussy and Bartok

This chapter looks at Doors II (Armoury), III (Treasure Chamber), and IV (Garden) and develops Judith's “Fate” motif and the leitmotif of Stefi Geyer, including the transformation between Judith's ... More

This chapter looks at Doors II (Armoury), III (Treasure Chamber), and IV (Garden) and develops Judith's “Fate” motif and the leitmotif of Stefi Geyer, including the transformation between Judith's (Stefi's) motif of the seventh-chord and the chromatic motif of “Blood”. Descending third transpositions of variant seventh chords produce chromatic collisions as an implication of the “Blood” motif. Interaction of diatonic and whole-tone spheres produce dissonance and the move toward ultimate fate.Less

Augustine On Lust and the Will

Richard Sorabji

in Emotion and Peace of Mind: From Stoic Agitation to Christian Temptation

Augustine was attacked by Pelagians as still being a Manichaean who deplored marriage. In fact, Augustine now thought that in marriage — a bad thing, lust — was put to a good use, procreation, but he ... More

Augustine was attacked by Pelagians as still being a Manichaean who deplored marriage. In fact, Augustine now thought that in marriage — a bad thing, lust — was put to a good use, procreation, but he could not agree with Pelagians that in marriage lust was good in moderation. He chose a weak ground for calling lust a bad thing, namely that it was disobedient to will. He thought that in the Garden of Eden, either sex would have been possible without lust, or lust would have been obedient to will. The Pelagian, Bishop Julian of Eclanum, replied that the desire to eat or drink, salivation, digestion, and sleep are also not commanded by will, but like lust, have the consent of will, and sleep, like lust, impedes thought, yet Augustine does not deplore them. Elsewhere, Augustine worried whether lustful dreams were sinful, for the opposite reason that the will does consent.Less

Imperial botany and the early scientific breeders

Denis J. Murphy

in People, Plants and Genes: The Story of Crops and Humanity

The expansion of the British and Dutch mercantile empires from the 17th century was accompanied by a renewal of the old Babylonian concept of Imperial Botany, now made all the more effective by a new ... More

The expansion of the British and Dutch mercantile empires from the 17th century was accompanied by a renewal of the old Babylonian concept of Imperial Botany, now made all the more effective by a new marriage of private commerce with state power and scientific knowledge. By the 18th century, and largely thanks to agrarian entrepreneurs such as Townshend, Coke, and Tull, Britain was undergoing an agricultural revolution that would underpin the later industrial revolution and consequent population growth. Botany became all the rage in court circles across Europe, from Vienna to Madrid. Botanical gardens established throughout the Anglo-Dutch empires simultaneously served economic, scientific, and aesthetic purposes. Crops such as sugar, tea, coffee, and cocoa served both as stimuli for expansion and lucrative products for the maturing empires. Greater understanding of the mechanisms of plant reproduction enabled breeders to experiment with new hybrids and mutations in order to enhance crop variation.Less

The Cotswolds in Jerusalem: Restoration and Empire*

Simon Goldhill

in From Plunder to Preservation: Britain and the Heritage of Empire, c.1800–1940

This chapter investigates the city-planning of Jerusalem under the British Mandate in light of changes of thinking about the urban in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In particular, ... More

This chapter investigates the city-planning of Jerusalem under the British Mandate in light of changes of thinking about the urban in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In particular, it explores how Charles Ashbee, the first civic adviser, could enact his Garden City and Arts and Crafts principles, developed twenty-five years earlier, because of the specific conditions of imperial governance. The privileging of the medieval city, in contrast to the contemporary — a principle deeply indebted to artistic ideals of a previous generation — deeply influenced decisions of what to restore, destroy, or preserve. The chapter discusses how religion, empire, and urban planning interlock in a key site of cultural conflict.Less

The Changing Face of Agribusiness

Robert Wuthnow

in Remaking the Heartland: Middle America since the 1950s

This chapter examines the changing face of agribusiness in the Middle West. It explains how agribusiness transformed large sections of the Middle West during the last third of the twentieth century ... More

This chapter examines the changing face of agribusiness in the Middle West. It explains how agribusiness transformed large sections of the Middle West during the last third of the twentieth century and was reshaped as it became part of a global food production and marketing system. The transformation was particularly evident in the region's increasing emphasis on packaged-food production, ranging from frozen dinners for wholesale and retail markets to boxed beef and poultry for fast-food franchises. Commercial feedlots, animal-slaughtering facilities, and poultry-processing and meatpacking plants appeared with increasing frequency in southwest Kansas, western Oklahoma, central and eastern Nebraska, western Iowa, parts of Minnesota and South Dakota, and northwestern Arkansas. The chapter considers why small towns provided an attractive venue for large agriculture-related businesses in the Middle West. It looks at the case of Garden City, Kansas, to illustrate the long-term as well as recent developments in heartland agribusiness.Less

Feeding the Hungry: Gardening for God’s Children

Mallory McDuff

in Natural Saints: How People of Faith are Working to Save God's Earth

This chapter addresses the question of how people of faith have transformed the ministry of feeding by a focus on the environment. The stories in this chapter include two faith communities in ... More

This chapter addresses the question of how people of faith have transformed the ministry of feeding by a focus on the environment. The stories in this chapter include two faith communities in Wisconsin, the All People’s Church in inner city Milwaukee and a community of Catholic nuns at the SUNSEED Eco-Education Center in Mount Calvary. At the All People’s Church, the sanctuary becomes a free farmers’ market after church, with produce grown by youth in the church. The Catholic sisters at Mount Calvary teach earth spirituality, vermicomposting, and food preservation to people of faith. The lessons for other churches include the spiritual act of feeding, the importance of equal access to healthful food, the use of gardening to gain life skills, the centrality of food to relationships in faith, and the power of teaching about simple living through food.Less

Moral‐Aesthetic Judgments of Artifacts

Yuriko Saito

in Everyday Aesthetics

Our aesthetic judgments in everyday life are often intertwined with moral judgments, such as personal appearance, condition of one's possessions, and environmental eyesores. We also make ... More

Our aesthetic judgments in everyday life are often intertwined with moral judgments, such as personal appearance, condition of one's possessions, and environmental eyesores. We also make moral-aesthetic judgments on artifacts by considering how user-friendly artifacts and environments respond to the specific needs of the intended users with care, respect, and consideration through their sensuous surface and design features. Less obvious are the designed objects and environments that enrich the content of the users' experiences through sensitivity to their bodily engagement and the temporal dimension of the experience, typically embodied in green buildings, as well as gardens, the tea ceremony, food serving, and packaging in the Japanese tradition. These aesthetic manifestations of moral values indicate the significance of the aesthetic in everyday life in promoting a good life, and how sensitively and caringly designed environments and artifacts must be an essential ingredient of a good society.Less

Cultivating the Garden: Antoine Galland's Arabian Nights in the Traditions of English Literature

Robert L. Mack

in The Arabian Nights in Historical Context: Between East and West

Beginning with a brief recapitulation of the manner in which marathon readings of literary works in recent years have reflected both the popularity and the cultural status of various authors and ... More

Beginning with a brief recapitulation of the manner in which marathon readings of literary works in recent years have reflected both the popularity and the cultural status of various authors and their writings, the chapter moves on to examine the sustained popularity of the Arabian Nights in the traditions of European literature. More particularly, the language used within the assessments of two very different authors—from two very different periods (namely, Elliot Warburton and A.S. Byatt)—allows the opportunity more carefully to gauge the manner in which the Nights has presented both a challenge to and a resource for European authors. The Nights is at one and the same time a text the sheer overabundance and sensual excess of which demands that it be somehow pruned, contained, or restricted (lest its verdant growth overwhelm more native species of creative endeavor), whilst its rich narrative potential, on the other hand, seems persistently and insistently to demand further exploration and elaboration.Less