Showing papers on "Idolatry published in 1992"

The Origenist Controversy: The Cultural Construction of an Early Christian Debate

Abstract: Around the turn of the 5th century AD, Christian theologians and churchmen contested each other's orthodoxy and good repute by hurling charges of "Origenism" at their opponents. Although orthodoxy was more narrowly defined by that era than during Origen's lifetime in the 3rd century, his speculative, Platonizing theology was not the only issue at stake in the Origenist controversy: "Origen" became a code word for nontheological complaints as well. Elizabeth Clark explores the theological and extratheological implications of the dispute, using social network analysis to explain the personal alliances and enmities of its participants, and suggesting how it prefigured modern concerns with the status of representation, the social construction of the body, and praxis vis-a-vis theory. Shaped by the Trinitarian and ascetic debates, and later to influence clashes between Augustine and the Pelagians, the Origenist controversy intersected with patristic campaigns against pagan "idolatry" and Manichean and astrological determinism. Discussing Evagrius Ponticus, Epiphanius, Theophilus, Jerome, Shenute and Rufinus in turn, Clark concludes by showing how Augustine's theory of original sin reconstructed the Origenist theory of the soul's pre-existence and "fall" into the body.

The English Bible and the seventeenth-century revolution

Abstract: INTRODUCTION: A Biblical Culture. THE REVOLUTIONARY BIBLE: Before 1640 Fast Sermons and Politics, 1640-1660 Metaphors and Programmes The Wilderness, the Garden and the Hedge Poverty, Usury and Debt Political Divisions and the Civil War Liberty and Libertinism The Bible and Radical Politics. INTERNATIONAL CATHOLICISM AND NATIONAL POLITICS: The Decalogue and Idolatry Chosen Nation, Chosen People Covenanted Peoples: Scotland and England God is Leaving England The Reign of the Saints Antichrist and his Armies "The Man of Blood". THE BIBLE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE: Some Biblical Influences Milton, Bunyan and Marvell. THE END OF THE REVOLUTIONARY BIBLE: The Bible and an Unequal Society The Bible Dethroned Unfinished Business. Appendices: God and Highwayman A Note on Liberation Theology.

Civil Idolatry: Desacralizing and Monarchy in Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton

Abstract: This work discusses important texts that scrutinize the cult of monarchy in light of the injunction against idolatry. When Milton deplored the civil kind of idolatry, he echoed a significant theme in earlier texts -- Erasmus's political writings, Spenser, and Shakespeare's political plays. Milton redefines conquest and fatherhood in response to contemporary monarchists' patriarchalism and conquest-theory.

Idolatry and Representation

Abstract: The prohibitions against idolatry are an attempt to dictate the ways in which God may be represented. It is forbidden not only to worship other gods such as Ba'al but also to represent God himself by means of a statue or picture. This aspect ofthe ban on idolatry raises many questions: What are the proper methods of representing God, and which methods are forbidden? Why are representations in pictures and statues forbidden, and why are linguistic representations permitted? What are representations of God by idols supposed to mean? Are they an attempt to represent him by means of something that resembles him, and thus forbidden because there is nothing that resembles God? Or can they be regarded as representations in which there is a special presence ofthe gods, thus narrowing the gap between the world and God to a greater degree than can be tolerated by the monotheistic religions? According to the view that distinguishes the ban on the worship of other gods from the making of images and likenesses of the God of Israel, the two consecutive verses in the Ten Commandments, "You shall have no other gods besides Me" and "You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image or any likeness" (Exodus 20:3-4), must be understood as two separate prohibitions. The second verse, in other words, must be understood as a second prohibition: it is forbidden to worship other gods, and in addition it is forbidden to make images and likenesses of God himself.1 Such an understanding ofthe prohibition seems explicitly called for in Deuteronomy: "Be most careful?since you saw no shape when the Lord your God spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire?not to act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness whatever: the form of a man or woman" (4:15-16). Since the Israelites did not see any image on Mount Sinai, they are forbidden to make images or pictures?a clear expression of the fear of the representation of God himself in images and pictures. In the same chapter in Deuteronomy, the revelation at Sinai is described as hearing the voice of God without seeing any shape: "You heard the sound of words but perceived no shape?nothing but a voice" (4:12). This emphasis, which is repeated several times in the chapter, is intended to eliminate the possibility that the very revelation that forbade the making of images and pictures would be conceived as a revelation in which a shape of God was seen, and so would be a cause of the making of images and pictures.2 But the chapter does not tell us why a linguistic description of God's hand is permitted while a drawing of his hand is forbidden. At first glance it would seem that gods can be represented by any one of three types of representation. There are similarity-based representations such as sculptures and pictures, m?tonymie representations such as the Ark of the Covenant and the cherubim, and conventional representations such as linguistic descriptions of a god. The different relations between the types of representation and the prohibitions on representations are the subject of this essay.

Iconoclasm, iconography and the altar in the English civil war

Abstract: On 16 January 1641 Anna Temple wrote from Broughton, Oxfordshire, to her daughter in Sussex: God is exceeding good to us every way, both body and souls, and hath done wonderful things among us already, and gives us hope of more, and that we shall see idolatry and superstition rooted out; and God’s ordinances set up in the purity and power of them. Altars begin to go down apace and rails in many places, and yours must follow if it be not down already. Let us labour to be thankful and continue our prayers, hold up our hands that Israel may prevail.

The psalms in hebrew medical amulets

Abstract: Because of the possibility of saving life, amulets with quotations from the Hebrew Bible were given recognition by the Jewish Sages, despite general scepticism and even hostility on their part. Special limitations and rules were formulated in Halakah, for official sanction of use of amulets. The saving of life is so precious in Jewish practice and approach, that all commandments are set aside if life has a chance of being saved. The only exceptions are profanation of the Name of the Lord, idolatry, bloodshed and breaking of intimate family sex laws. The Sabbath, Yom Kippur, Passover laws, kosher food, can be abrogated in these circumstances, and it is the doctor's word that is final and not that of the Rabbi. Further-

Jewish and Christian Concepts of Time and Modern Anti-Judaism: Ousting the God of Time

Abstract: One of the major factors which distinguish Judaism and Christianity from virtually all non-monotheistic religions is the concept of time. The Jews were alone among ancient peoples in worshipping the God of Time. In most ancient religions the pagan gods of space, embodied in sacred places and things, were worshipped. Nature was perceived pantheistically, as sacred, inhabited by spirits and devas. Gods of space were visualized in images: ‘Where there is no image, there is no god’, their worship necessarily involving idolatry. Generally anthropomorphic and often personifying man’s own instincts, such gods could inspire no clear moral code. Separation from them could be bridged only by physical means—by Dionysiac frenzy, by re-enactment of myths about them. Thus Cretans tore apart a living bull to re-enact Hera’s murder of Dionysos Zagreus; worshippers of Attis in Phrygia engaged in self-castration. Shamanisric trances, eating sacrifices, and temple prostitution were among other means of temporarily embodying the spatial gods.