Religion and Literature

This research paper aims to explore the theme of sexism, particularly within Flannery O'Connor's novel "Wise Blood". Historically, societies have upheld a patriarchal structure where men were considered the standard while women were viewed as exceptions. For instance, Aristotle famously asserted that women were inferior to men but superior to slaves, elevating men as the epitome of human perfection. Despite progress over time, deep-seated prejudices against women have persisted, manifesting in various forms such as sexual harassment and domestic violence. Consequently, sexism permeates multiple aspects of life, not confined to any single domain. In recent years, there has been a notable increase in women's educational attainment, with more females attending college and graduating with degrees in traditionally male-dominated fields like the sciences. However, despite these advancements, disparities persist, with fewer women pursuing careers in areas such as science and academia. Numerous factors contribute to perpetuating sexism, including societal expectations surrounding motherhood and family commitments, early socialization patterns that shape interactions between genders, institutional barriers within certain fields, and even conjectures rooted in biological differences. This paper endeavors to examine these multifaceted aspects of sexism in both literature and contemporary society.

Romanticism was particularly concerned to understand life and the vital powers involved, which govern mankind and culture. The Romantics sought to go beyond the understanding of inert nature into vital nature. This lead to a focus on medicine and also to a duality in the living power between a substantive and a generative power, the latter going beyond sexual reproduction to the creative imagination and evolution of mind and consciousness.

In the 1840s, Charleston, South Carolina became the unlikely birthplace of American Reform Judaism. When Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim rebuilt its synagogue after a fire, the congregation voted — by the razor-thin margin of 46 to 40 — to install a pipe organ. To many, the organ brought dignity and modern beauty to Jewish worship. To others, it was an outrage: the sound of the Christian church invading the synagogue. The dispute split Charleston’s Jewish community, led to the creation of a rival Orthodox congregation, and eventually landed in court.
The 1844–45 trial ended with a precedent-setting ruling: “the law knows no heresy.” From that point on, synagogue practice in America would be determined by majority vote, not rabbinic authority. What began as a quarrel over music reshaped Jewish life in America, giving birth to denominationalism — Reform, Orthodox, and later Conservative Judaism.

Аннотация. Цель данного исследования – выявление проблем становления феномена религиозного подвижничества в русской культуре. В статье рассмотрены этапы формирования феномена в историко-философском контексте. Научная новизна исследования в обращении к феноменологическому методу в сочетании с семиотическим. В исследовании выявлено пространство возможных смыслов в контексте традиции русской религиозной культуры, истории понятия религиозного подвига, его генезиса. Контекстуальная база исследования расширена за счет
обращения к идеям философии поступка, нравственного становления в рефлексии переживания.  Порождение в рефлексии феноменальных смыслов подвига есть результат опыта границы, предельного опыта. Значением подвига становятся с древнейших времен предельные практики «себя», выражающиеся в религиозной
культуре в идее охранения духа в умалении и борьбе со страстями, что является целью духовной работы по становлению личности. Рассматривая подвижничество в феноменологическом дискурсе, можно констатировать, что сущность человека в подвиге – это проявление специфических свойств души в совокупности интенций.
В подвижническом опыте осуществляется раскрытие и исполнение самой природы человека. Делается вывод о том, что в основе феномена религиозного подвижничества одна из форм религиозного опыта – опыт преодоления страстных состояний, позволяющий осмыслить духовные способности человека в христианской культурной парадигме. В современной культуре феномен религиозного подвижничества, соотносясь с культурно-ментальной матрицей и культурным кодом русской культуры, направлен на выявление аксиологического искажения в повсе
дневном поведении и бытовых практиках. Этот процесс находит свое выражение в социальном и языковом пространстве как религиозном, так и бытовом: в практиках, поведении, в тексте и образно-мотивной сфере.

Ans:-Aristotle is the first scientific literary criticism and this literary embodied in 'The poetics' which mush have been penned by him after he settled as teacher and inverting on Athens " The poetics" is an important landmark in the history of criticism .it is most significant thing for the study of literary that has come down to us from Greek divinization. First of all it represent the final judgment of the Greek upon epic poetry and tragic drama/ Aristotle has systemized and completed the word of his predecessor with great independence and judge. He wrote about four hundreds volumes (boot most of his important works are

Composizione tipografica e impaginazione Stem Mucchi editore (MO), stampa Modulgrafica (FC). 1 a edizione, pubblicata in Modena nel 2022. Citazioni, parodie, arte allusiva e allegoria nei romanzi medievali. Note sulla cultura ecclesiastica dei vulgares eloquentes (con una proposta per un locus deperditus: Flamenca, vv. 3711-3712) * Il romanzo di Flamenca non finisce di stupirmi. L'intelligenza e l'ironia di cui s'insaporano (il riferimento alla similitudine apistica del Paradiso dantesco non è casuale) gli 8000 e passa versi superstiti dell'Anonimo appaiono tanto più mirabili quanto più si confrontano con la sconfortante superficialità di tante interpretazioni moderne, fondate su categorie arbitrarie come l''amor cortese' o l'altrettanto inconsistente 'amore cavalleresco': tipiche idées reçues stancamente tràdite in una terre gaste dove di rado un'idea brillante floris e grana, per citare il noto tópos trobadorico. La perseveranza in queste fatue cicalate è quasi commovente, come l'impegno profuso da certi volenterosi catalogatori di 'emozioni' in pedisseque tassonomie che, ignorando distinzioni imprescindibili, anziché contribuire all'approfondimento ermeneutico fanno solo velo alla comprensione del testo. Ribadiamo qui (per i köhleriani residui e per gli irriducibili spregiatori dell'evidenza, ancora convinti che l'intento dell'Anonimo consista nel celebrare l'apoteosi e propugnare l'universale diffusione di una nebulosa ideologia della fin' amor) un dato che ormai dovrebbe essere acquisito: le grandi 'eccezioni narrative' occitane -Flamenca, appunto, e Jaufre -sono romans à clé ascrivibili alla stessa temperie storico-culturale, e s'illuminano a vicenda. Dalle diverse apparenze emerge nitidamente l'affinità, e direi quasi la gemellarità, delle due opere: così, se è subito chiaro che Jaufre non è un semplice trasferimento di temi arturiani in ambito occitano, che questo testo a prima vista tutto orientato al meraviglioso e alla féerie non nasce soltanto per delectare il lettore con i consueti racconti d'avventure, di mostri e di amori, ma è strettamente legato alla storia, o per meglio dire all'attualità, è altrettanto vero che un'attenta riflessione porta a conclusioni analoghe anche per Flamenca. Nel volume che raccoglie i saggi * La numerazione fa riferimento all'edizione critica a cura di R. Manetti, "Flamenca". Romanzo occitano del XIII secolo, Modena 2008, da cui (salvo indicazione contraria) sono tratte anche le citazioni. della compianta Charmaine Lee 1 si potranno agevolmente rintracciare gli argomenti che si oppongono alla proposta di datazione precoce del Jaufre e quelli che invece depongono a favore dell'identificazione del dedicatario con Giacomo I re d'Aragona, il mitico Conqueridor; che però è anche (e soprattutto) l'eroe-ombra celato sotto le sembianze del protagonista, Jaufre il liberatore, il difensore dei deboli, il valoroso cavaliere che sconfigge i malvagi e salva le loro vittime. Sappiamo bene quanto i romanzi arturiani in genere e il Jaufre in particolare debbano a Chrétien de Troyes. La rete dei riscontri è fitta e in gran parte già esplorata, ma vorremmo qui mettere in rilievo non tanto le singole reminiscenze (che, come osservava Giorgio Pasquali in un celebre saggio, «possono essere inconsapevoli; le imitazioni, il poeta può desiderare che sfuggano al pubblico; le allusioni non producono l'effetto voluto se non su un lettore che si ricordi chiaramente del testo cui si riferiscono», instaurando una complicità tra l'autore e almeno una parte del pubblico) 2 , quanto l'insieme degli elementi affini che configurano un sistema. L'indagine triangolare Chevalier de la charrette -Jaufre -Flamenca è essenziale ai fini dell'interpretazione: direi persino che l'analisi comparativa illumina, non meno dei due romanzi, lo stesso capolavoro di Chrétien, suggerendo indicazioni preziose sulla ricezione dell'opera da parte dei colti poeti posteriori. La progressiva emersione del significato -o meglio dei molteplici significati rintracciabili in questi testi che sempre più appaiono costruiti, con straordinario acume, seguendo il modello polisemico della Scrittura e dei suoi quattro sensi, pietra angolare dell'esegesi medievale 3 -chiarisce anche tecniche compositive e coordinate culturali: ottimo sussidio, questo, per ogni tentativo di restauro testuale in luoghi critici dati esplicitamente o tacitamente per deperditi, come si vedrà nel caso della crux di Flamenca che prenderemo in esame più avanti. Si tratti di citazioni scritturali che propongono ai bos entendors una duplice interpretazione del testo (mistico-simbolica da un lato, maliziosamente libertina dall'altro) oppure, come nel caso specifico che discuteremo,

The Wizard of Oz is possibly the best celebrated American children’s book written by Lyman Frank Baum. However, the book is not all fairy tales and little Munchkin Country bumpkin people; but the land of Oz is something of a monetary allegory, that focuses on the political and social aspects of the monetary debates during the William Jennings Bryan (1890s). Who was presented as “The Cowardly Lion” that he fell asleep in the poppy field; thus, symbolizing the end of American style populism standing up to the elite bankers of the East Coast and the West Coast (Rockoff, 1990). Therefore, use of ‘Bryan Dollars’ that was ‘struck off’ by the Comptroller of the Treasury, John Jay Knox, as this was passed by the Coinage Act of (1873). Additionally, the law of the land eliminated the standard silver dollar, which required gold to be deposited in exchange for silver subsidiary coins, as this then fashioned a gold standard monetary system that same year. While in the background the American financial structure began to decline as this was known as the Panic of (1873) (Heritage Editorial, 2018). This historical chain of unfortunate monetary events also activated a spiralling “international depression” that started from the financial system of America to that of the European banking peninsula, which started a two-decade economic “slump” known also known as the “Long Depression” thus creating an all-inclusive global recession. That lasted from (1873) to (1877) or (1879) mostly in the geographical region of “Continental France” and that of The United Kingdom amalgamated (Musson, 1959).

Context-aware is the ability of an application reacts to changes of the environment. Context-aware applications, like smart systems are rapidly developed recently.Unknowingly, context-aware applications are more common in one’s daily life.Traditional dry-erase whiteboard is an example of convention context-aware method in office environment to record staff activities. There are four (4) main problems of the usage of traditional whiteboard in displaying academic staffs’ status in the office: (1) Limited time to update the information. (2) Non-real time information. (3) Limited space to write. (4) No data storage. Therefore, a Context-aware Digital Whiteboard (CAW) is proposed to solve the problems of traditional dry-erase whiteboard in administrator office of Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences (FSKM). The proposed system embeds context-aware elements that able users to be more conscious of what activities currently are going on in the workplace. In summary, the whiteboard ...

B. Some disaster rallies the forces, who oppose the revolution C. Some short-term event sparks a conflict D. Government is too divided and weak to suppress the revolt III. THE MODERATE PHASE OF THE REVOLUTION A. The moderates come to control and initiate changes B. Electorate expanded, constitution liberalized, reforms initiated. IV. REACTION ARISES TO THE MODERATES A. Moderates stop reforms at some point having achieved what they sought B. Radicals feel the moderates are not moving far or fast enough C. Radicals mobilize their supporters V. THE RADICALS SEIZE CONTROL A. The radicals take control of the state and revolution B. The radicals initiate sweeping changes eliminating old institutions completely VI. RADICAL REIGN OF TERROR (THE REVOLUTION EATS ITS CHILDREN) A. Opposition both foreign and domestic arises to challenge the radical control B. The radicals remove their opposition through violent methods C. Radicals seek to institutionalize and spread their ideologies VII. THE MODERATE REACTION A. Moderates overthrow the radicals and reestablish a moderate regime B. Moderates repress the more radical elements C. Moderates abandon many of the more radical reforms of the revolution D. Moderates return some of the privileges and policies of the old regime E. Moderates lose touch with the majority of the population VIII. THE RISE OF A STRONG LEADER A. A leader, usually from the military arises and focuses opposition to moderates B. The leader seizes control of the government, often ruling through the army C. The leader blends better conservative, moderate, and radical policies D. The leader establishes new, effective, stable, and general popular institutions E. The revolution ends

This article aims to demonstrate that the phenomenon of revelation operates in Marion's phenomenology as the paradigmatic phenomenon that shows the secret of manifestation. It accounts for the essence of phenomenality insofar as all manifestation has at its core its givenness in excess. Thinking 'manifestation in terms of givenness' implies understanding it as a secret, inasmuch as the appearing of all phenomena involves a movement in which something shows itself in its hiding and hides itself in its showing.

1. Na pararele i powinowactwa między Gombrowiczem a Montaigne'em wskazywano już wielokrotnie; sam Gombrowicz zresztą chętnie powoływał: się na niego w Dziennikach. W tym kontekście jedną z kwestii wartych szczególnej uwagi wydaje się stosunek do własnego ciała, bardzo odmienny u obu pisarzy. O Michelu de Montaigne pisał Erich Auerbach w Mimesis, że: Opowiada wyczerpująco o swym ciele i oswej cielesnej istocie, ponieważ jest to ważna część jego samego; [...] co on im [systemom filozofiii moralnej, O. K.] zarzuca -abstrakcyjność metod przesłaniających życiową rzeczywistość, nadętą terminologię -w ostatecznym rachunku sprowadza się do tego, iż [...] rozdzielają one ducha, i ciało i nie dopuszczają do głosu tego ostatniego 1 . Tutaj tkwi jedna z podstawowych różnic między Gombrowiczem a jego wielkim wzorcem: Gombrowicz nie mówi wprost o swoim cielewyjąwszy dziennik prywatny, który posiada pani Rita Gombrowicza zwłaszcza Gombrowicz nie mówi otwarcie o jednej z najważniejszych sił, skojarzonej zwykle ze stroną cielesną człowieka -z pożądaniem erotycznym. l E. Auerbach Mimesis.

Most African writers have been brought up as Christians. But some of them publicly rebelled against Christianity by dropping their Christian names: Chinua Achebe (formerly Albert C. Achebe), Kofi Awoonor of Ghana (formerly George Awoonor-Williams), Ama Ata Aidoo of Ghana (formerly Christiana Aidoo), Ngugi Wa Thiong'o of Kenya (formerly James Ngugi), and Okogbule Wonodi of Nigeria (formerly Glory Wonodi). The dropping of Christian names does not mean that their literatures discredit Christianity in favour of African traditional religions. This paper shows that against all expectations, most African writers who read Western Christian-oriented literature (Okere, 2009, p. 303) during their education, especially Chinua Achebe with Things fall apart, Kenjo Jumbam with The white man of God and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with Purple hibiscus tried to coin their own styles, mixing orality and literacy when they started their literary career, presenting in this way inculturation as an innovation in literary style and a solution to religious conflict. This paper focuses on the three novels by the three African writers in a comparative approach around suggested aspects of inculturation and shows the evolution of inculturation of Christianity as a novelty throughout these literatures.

American and Israeli Jews have historically clashed over the contours of Jewish identity, and their experience of modern Jewish life has been radically different. As Philip Roth put it, they are the “heirs jointly of a drastically bifurcated legacy.” But what happens when the encounter between American and Israeli Jewishness takes place in literary form—when Jewish American novels make aliyah, or when Israeli novels are imported for consumption? Reading Israel, Reading America explores the politics of translation as it shapes the understandings and misunderstandings of Israeli literature in the United States and American Jewish literature in Israel. Engaging in close readings of translations of iconic novels by the likes of Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Amos Oz, A. B. Yehoshua, and Yoram Kaniuk—in particular, the ideologically motivated omissions and additions in the translations, and the works’ reception by reviewers and public intellectuals—the book decodes the literary encounter between Israeli and American Jews. These discrepancies demarcate an ongoing cultural dialogue around representations of violence, ethics, Zionism, diaspora, and the boundaries between Jews and non-Jews. Navigating the disputes between these “rival siblings” of the Jewish world, this work untangles the cultural relations between Israeli and American Jews.

etwccn the versions of "Cathedral" that Atlantic Monthly published in 1981 and that Knopf published in Cathedral in 1983 (the same version that appears in the Vintage 1984 release), Raymond Carver made more than two hundred revisions.' These amendments range from simple hyphenation -say from "social service department" (1981, 23) to "socialservice department" (1984, 210) -to entire new sentences and deletions of

This final section presents a literary excerpt and three personal reflections on the theme of Aboagora, as well as on the experience of taking part in Aboagora. It opens with a story written by Ruth Behar, dealing with her personal experience of mastering the English language. Professor Behar read this story as an artistic comment within a workshop entitled ‘Between Art and Research: Rethinking Professional Borderlands’, which dealt with the experiences of people who combine an academic professional career with artistic work. The story is followed by a personal reflection by Bishop Björn Vikström, presented within the context of a session dealing with objectivity and the problem of combining academic research with personal engagement and activism. Finally, two of the organisers of the Aboagora conference, Professor Hannu Salmi and Dr Ruth Illman, reflect on the outcome of the event, evaluating the new insights and perspectives it has facilitated, as well as looking to the future and...

From the first commentaries of Akhundzadeh to Jamalzadeh’s introduction to Yeki Bud YekiNabud, i.e., over a period of almost fifty years, we can see a collection of a few scattered commentaries on story and novel which are rarely noticed by researchers. These scattered commentaries can be regarded as the first literary manifests of story and novel. These critiques and commentaries include subject matters that can be regarded as commonalities of writers and critics of the contemporary era. Moralism, realism and usefulness of novels are three common features of such commentaries. Historical conditions and social developments in the constitutional era provided an atmosphere that only allowed committed literature to survive. The first novels as well as theories and critiques associated with them were written in such circumstances and purposefulness of stories and novels was inevitably prioritized. Thus, in the present study, attempts are made to investigate the theoretical foundations o...

This essay critically analyzes the theological concepts of theodicy and Deus absconditus as responses to the problem of evil. Theodicy, coined by Leibniz, attempts to vindicate God's justice and goodness amidst suffering, exploring frameworks like the Free Will, Soul-Making, and Augustinian theodicies, each facing critiques regarding their ability to justify various forms of evil or potential moral insensitivity. In contrast, Deus absconditus (hidden God) emphasizes God's essential unknowability and transcendence, as articulated by Martin Luther, suggesting that human understanding of the divine relies on faith rather than full comprehension. While distinct, these concepts present a tension: Deus absconditus can limit the scope of theodicy by positing an inscrutable divine plan, yet it can also offer a framework for understanding the persistence of evil. The essay concludes that a complete intellectual resolution to the problem of evil may be beyond human capacity, suggesting that wisdom lies in balancing the desire for understanding (theodicy) with the acceptance of divine mystery and hiddenness (Deus absconditus) in the face of suffering.

In this pdf is Geir Hasnes's lengthy critical letter concerning my essay "The Norwegian Chesterton: Sigrid Undset (1882-1949)" that appeared in Gilbert 28:3 (January/February 2025): 22-23. That article is available on my Academia page under "Articles." Hasnes's letter appeared in Gilbert 28:4 (March/April 2025): 4-6.  My response, in which I admit to some errors as well as defend my article in others, appears with other letters in Gilbert 28:5 (May/June 2025): 6-8.

The main topic of the article is the literary motif of animals and its role in selected works by Olga Tokarczuk (including “Tales of the Bizarre”, “Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead”, “E.E”, and “Day House, Night House”). The main objective of the article is to indicate the way in which Polish writer uses the animal motif to present various images of femininity, using the example of selected literary heroines. At the beginning, the animal motif is presented as one of the most universal literary motifs. The text also includes the most important functions of this motif in literature from ancient times to the present day. Particular attention is paid to its understanding in the context of femininity. Then Olga Tokarczuk is presented as one of the representatives of the Polish feminist literary movement. Then, using selected examples, it is presented how selected motifs of animals are introduced into Tokarczuk’s work and how they correlate with the features of the main characters, illustrating their character, reflecting their psychological state, and also showing the stage of life they are in, ranging from youth through adulthood to senility.

The Pardoner has long been known as one of the most marginal characters of the Canterbury Tales, an "abandoned wretch" and "the one lost soul among the Canterbury pilgrims," as George Lyman Kittridge has called him, the very last of the pilgrim portraits for a reason. We have considered, among other things, his immorality, his fundamental lack, his despair, and his queerness-all of which alienate him from the group of pilgrims. This essay will consider, instead, the Pardoner's contact with the group. Drawing from my work on a confessional subgenre called forms of confession, I reread The Pardoner's Prologue and suggest that he participates in what I call domestic confession: the non-sacramental occasion of reading confessional material (including forms of confession) aloud, in a family or household group. By implicitly acknowledging a group's interdependence, domestic confession both illustrates and even requires collective or porous subjectivity-the ways in which people touch, bump up against,

Theologians in Their Own Words is a volume of 23 autobiographical essays from many of the most important theologians and scholars of religion of recent decades.

Each contributor sets out to discuss the development of their central insights and convictions in light of their life stories.

Included in the renowned and diverse list of contributors:
Marilyn McCord Adams, Harvey Cox, Gerhard Forde, George Forell, Roger Haight, Philip Hefner, Robert Jenson, Ernst Ksemann, Martin Marty, Alister McGrath, Nancey Murphy, Wolfhart Pannenberg, Ted Peters, Clark Pinnock, John Polkinghorne, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Letty Russell, H. Paul Santmire, Hans Schwarz, Huston Smith, Paul Sponheim, Kathryn Tanner, and Ronald Thiemann.

Die beiden evangelischen Theologen Dieter Steinwede und Walter Neidhart gelten bereits 1981 als "die beiden besten und bekanntesten Erzähler biblischer Geschichten unserer Tage." 1 Ihren Überlegungen zufolge entwickelten sich zwei Erzählschulen. Der deutsche Religionspädagoge Dietrich Steinwede (geb. 1930) gilt als wichtigster Vertreter der texttreuen bzw. bibelnahen Nacherzählung. Der Schweizer Professor für Praktische Theologie Walter Neidhart (geb. 1917; gest. 2001) steht dagegen für eine subjektorientierte Erzählstrategie. Bei seinem biblischen Phantasieerzählen dient der biblische Text als Material. 2 Im Folgenden werden zunächst die beiden Erzählkonzeptionen und Erzählpositionen vorgestellt (2). Diese werden sodann systematisch in zwei Schritten miteinander verglichen, indem zunächst die Theoriekonzepte (3) und anschließend zwei entsprechende Erzähl bei spiele zu Mk 10,46-52 analysiert werden (4). Abschließend werden Beobachtungen zum Nacherzählen und Transformieren biblischer Geschichten angestellt und didaktische Impulse gegeben (5).

is a fraught endeavour. Their infamous boxing match in Paris in June, 1929, when Hemingway was reportedly bested by his kindred spirit and former colleague from the Toronto Star, can still affect interpretations of both writers and their work-interpretations that could emphasize the muscular masculinity of their personas to the detriment of other aspects. Much more fraught, however, is to follow John Metcalf's "Winner Take All" (1993), a scathing rebuttal to anyone who has ever suggested that Callaghan's reputation as a writer, more specifically a stylist, was or is unfairly obscured by Hemingway's. Metcalf thereby discourages comparisons of these writers even though they, together, can teach us something about the literature of their era. He furthermore does not consider figurative language as an aspect of style, which he limits (not necessarily wrongly) to literal diction, syntax, rhythm, repetition, and tone. He does interpret figurative language without identifying it as such, except as image or in other people's quotations (e.g., Callaghan's and David Lodge's). However, if style is a manner of expression, surely figurative language should be examined too. Rather than debate with Metcalf directly or re-tell tales of the boxing ring that others have already explained as well as need be, 1 I am writing this essay to use an opportune re-uniting of Callaghan and Hemingway in an anthology-Short Fiction and Critical Contexts (2010)-to explain their use of theatrical metaphors as "truth claims" acceptable to themselves as modern realists. They thought metaphor and symbol false and therefore detrimental to the trueness of their realism, but they found in theatrical metaphors a way to contribute to a historically echoing Theatrical and Self-Conscious Metaphor in Modern Realism: Ernest Hemingway an...

This study explores esoteric signs and symbols within Akan-Ewe sociocultural and spiritual traditions to uncover indigenous theological and Christological constructs for post-missionary Africa. Employing essential, functional, and ethnographic theories from the phenomenology of religion, the research discovers that Akan-Ewe spirituality contains profound constructs that provide frameworks for the existence of God, the nature of existence, the sanctity of life, and moral accountability that resonate with yet are distinctly different from Western missionary Christianity. In the search for frameworks that adequately and sufficiently fill the impasse created by the prejudices and polemics of Western (Missionary) Christianity against Africa's context on one side, and attempts by African Christianity to decipher alternatives that provide the right answers to the questions emerging from its Christianity, the study discovers that within Africa's socioculture and spirituality are embedded esoteric signs and symbols which possess frameworks that provide relevant contexts for Theology and Christology in no less rational ways than Western/European (missionary) contexts. By applying substantive, functional, and social-relational phenomenological approaches alongside qualitative methods, the research contributes to decolonising African Christianity, offering viable alternatives for theology and Christology that emerge from Africa's own intellectual and spiritual traditions. The findings hold significance for African Christianity and postcolonial theology, advocating for frameworks rooted in indigenous epistemologies rather than missionary paradigms.

As an inherently decentered and transnational mode of identity, culture and language, diaspora offers fertile grounds for the production of world literature. Yet diasporic literature diverges from national and regional models of world literature as well as related typologies of comparison due to particularities I collectively term “diasporic difference.” This essay elucidates diasporic difference in nineteenth-century Jewish-language translations of Robinson Crusoe made during the Haskalah, or global Jewish Enlightenment movement. After mapping the novel’s translation history in Hebrew and Jewish vernacular languages (Ladino, Judeo-Arabic and Yiddish), I show how the manifestations of Jewish diaspora play out at different levels, from the novel’s diasporic pathways of circulation to each individual edition’s linguistic and aesthetic attributes. Drawing upon this case study and prior scholarship, I argue that diaspora combines different scales of literary space and time, expanding world literature’s horizon of inquiry beyond a singular modern “world.” Further, diaspora may challenge distinctions between North-South and South-South models by absorbing both trajectories of circulation into a “minor” diasporic network of lateral exchange. Finally, given diaspora’s merging of a shared culture of origin with heterogeneous local influences, the translingual comparison of texts within a diasporic constellation resists classification as either intercultural or intracultural comparison. The multilingual Jewish translation history of Robinson Crusoe exemplifies the modulation of diverse cultures through the unifying force of diasporic connection and calls for an alternative approach to comparison.

During the winter of scarcity of 1794, Hannah More wrote "a few moral stories," drew up a plan for publication and distribution, and sent the package around to her evangelical and bluestocking friends. Their response was enthusiastic; even Horace Walpole abandoned his usual teasing to write back, "I will never more complain of your silence; for I am perfectly convinced that you have no idle, no unemployed moments. Your indefatigable benevolence is incessantly occupied in good works; and your head and your heart make the utmost use of the excellent qualities of both .... Thank you a thousand times for your most ingenious plan; may great success reward you!"2 Walpole then sent off copies of the plan to the duchess of Gloucester and other aristocratic friends. Following Wilberforce's example, such wealthy philanthropists subscribed over 1,000 pounds to support the project during its first year.3 Henry Thornton agreed to act as treasurer and Zachary Macaulay as agent, and the ball was rolling.4 In March 1795, the Cheap Repository of Moral and Religious Tracts issued its first publications. Prominent evangelicals and gentry SUSAN PEDERSEN is a graduate student in the history department at Harvard University. She wishes to thank Professor John Clive for his supervision of this research, Shelley Burtt for her detailed and critical comments on an earlier draft, and Anne Goldgar for permission to consult her paper "Cheap Repository Tracts and the Chapbook Tradition" (Harvard University, Department of History, 1982, typescript).

This study analyzes the methods through which Rupi Kaur writes and spreads poetry on Instagram by examining the impact digital media including Instagram has had on modern literary practice. Social media has influenced the development of Insta poetry into its hybrid format which unites brief texts with basic images for delivering interactive reader experiences. Kaur employs online platforms to reshape poetic expression through her poetry which deals with subjects such as love healing and feminism along with identity exploration. The Instagram visual format enables poets to develop designs and spacing arrangements that generate more impactful emotional responses. The analysis of Kaur's work pertains to digital humanities because this discipline focuses on understanding technological intersections between literature and art and humanistic knowledge. Social media enables her poetry to achieve worldwide distribution which increases both accessibility and literary inclusivity for all readers. Insta poetry allows users to engage right away with their interaction through various social functions that transform it into a dynamic literary encounter beyond traditional academic spheres. Digital poetry receives opposite reactions between those who view it as a democratic art form reaching diverse audiences and individuals who consider it cheapens the art while transforming it into a commercial product. Digital media has not replaced poetry but transformed it according to Kaur's success story which created new opportunities for poets to engage with their audience. The research demonstrates that technological advancements have turned poetry into a more vibrant form that both readers and viewers can experience easily along with its refined visual presentation. Kaur's Insta poetry creates a major transformation in contemporary literature which generates essential dialogues concerning the digital modifications of poetry.

Authors and revealers of holy scriptures represent themselves as subordinate to the divine and show themselves to be completely committed to it. They portray themselves as (authorized) witnesses and transmitters of events and messages. At the same time though, in their roles as creators of narrative they have control over their traditions, even if they are aware of their duties to maintain these traditions. Authors and revealers decide how to present each event and in which ways they retell it, in relation with their audiences. They portray their characters in the context of new narrated worlds and ascribe to them certain characteristics and attributes. This article shows how both sides of these roles are exemplified in two case studies on, first, the author of the Biblical Gospel of John at the end of the first century AD and, second, the twelfth-century Tibetan Buddhist named Nyangrel who revealed a biography of the Indian guru Padmasambhava.

Les comparto una lista de más de 50 personas que he leído, admiro, sigo en mi cátedra y comparto y recomiendo mínimo 3 libros de cada uno de ellos organizados por orden alfabético desde Alfonso López Quintás hasta Tihamer Toth, desde Ungría hasta México.

The subject of the article is the reception of ‘Life of Jesus’ by E. Renan in Russian culture of the Nineteenth century. The book, written by a French Orientalist and Philosopher, has occupied the minds not only of learned theologians, but also almost the entire Russian reading public since its publication in France in 1863. In Russia, it was printed for the first time in 1906, forty-three years after its publication books in France. Despite censorship bans, ‘Life of Jesus’ has become well known to Russian readers since 1863, and had a powerful influence on writers (F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, etc.), theologians, and produced a serious turn in Russian painting. The book attracted the attention of many educated people. In the most part of ego-documents (memoirs, diaries) of the second half of the nineteenth century there were references to ‘Life of Jesus’. Discussions about that work penetrated even into Russian fiction (for instance, A.S. Suvorin’s novel ‘At the End of the Century: Love’). In the nineteenth century, the book by Renan became something like ‘the fifth Gospel’; it had a huge influence on the rooting of the image of the ‘historical Christ’ in the contemporary culture. By shifting the emphasis to the human nature in Christ, Renan sought to prove that the image of Christ had a universal and timeless meaning, it personified the moral choice of a person waging an eternal struggle against evil. As well as in France, the attitude towards that work by E. Renan in Russia was ambiguous. The main complaints against the book were connected not only to the fact that the work was anti-clerical in its essence, but also that it was amateurish; critics stated that only the elegant style made the text so popular. But all the complaints about this work do not negate the main point: the book provoked powerful public interest to the topic of the ‘historical Christ’ in Russia, which went far beyond the boundaries of both theological and scholarly discourse.

This study analyzes the interplay between literature and painting in Miguel de Cervantes' Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, with a particular focus on Marian iconography and the cult of Auristela. Through the portrait of Auristela on the street Bancos in Rome, the article explores how the novel uses pictorial representation to question the relationship between image and text, as well as the role of religious iconography in shaping popular devotion in Counter-Reformation Spain. The proliferation of Auristela's portraits throughout the novel, evoking depictions of the Immaculate Conception, suggests a critical reflection on the power of images to generate spiritual realities and on the role of art in shaping collective memory and religious identity. The analysis demonstrates that Persiles y Sigismunda is not merely a Christian allegory, but a work that explores the possibilities and limits of artistic and literary representation in the Baroque context.

In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400), the arboreal is imbued with symbolic and allegorical meaning. Used by Chaucer as rhetorical devices, the trees in "The Merchant's Tale" symbolize fertility, while the tree in "The Pardoner's Tale" symbolizes death. In both tales, the arboreal functions allegorically, representing the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. By using nature in this manner, Chaucer creates ambiguity in his work, complicating the idea of knowledge in both tales.

Die Kultur der Weimarer Republik begeisterte sich in besonderem Maße für solche religiösen Ideen, von denen man sich Hilfe beim Umgang mit den allgegenwärtigen Krisenerfahrungen erhoffte. Auf diese Weise wanderten zahlreiche genuin katholische Überzeugungen und Positionen in den öffentlichen Diskurs ein und prägten gesellschaftliche Semantiken und Praktiken. Solche katholischen Diskurselemente, die außerhalb des gesellschaftlichen Teilsystems Religion, aus dem sie eigentlich stammen, und damit auch jenseits der katholischen Milieus wirksam und einflussreich waren, stehen im Fokus dieses interdisziplinär angelegten Bandes.

В статье рассматриваются литературные работы профессора древнеанглийского языка Дж.Р.Р. Толкина. Автор исследует образ гномов, в фокусе его внимания - анализ образа Дурина, первопредка рода Долгобородов. Автор предлагает посмотреть на Дурина, как на культурного героя, и даже как на мессию. Проводится сравнивнение с ветхозаветным Давидом.