Showing papers on "Idolatry published in 2000"

The Idolatrous Eye : Iconoclasm and Theater in Early-Modern England

Abstract: This study argues that the century after the Reformation saw a crisis in the way that Europeans expressed their religious experience. Focusing specifically on how this crisis affected the drama of England, O'Connell shows that Reformation culture was preoccupied with idolatry and that the theatre was frequently attacked as idolatrous. This anti-theatricalism notably targeted the traditional cycles of mystery plays-a type of vernacular, popular biblical theatre that from a modern perspective would seem ideally suited to advance the Reformation project. The Idolatrous Eye provides a wide perspective on iconoclasm in the sixteenth century, and in so doing, helps us to understand why this biblical theatre was found transgressive and what this meant for the secular theatre that followed.

Bound to sin : abuse, Holocaust and the Christian doctrine of sin

Abstract: Acknowledgments Part I Drawing into Conversation: 1 The loss of God: pragmatic atheism and the language of sin 2 Speaking morally? The case of original sin 3 Testing, testing: theology in concrete conversation Part II Concrete Pathologies: 4 Bound by silence: sexual abuse of children 5 What was the problem? 'The Final Solution' and the binding of reason Part III Testing the Inheritance: 6 Willing 7 Power and participation: feminist theologies of sin 8 Augustine's will 9 A question of standards: trinity, joy, worship and idolatry 10 Concrete idolatries Index of names Index of subjects

Idolatry and Representation: The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig Reconsidered

Abstract: Acknowledgments ix Introduction Reconsidering Rosenzweig and Modern Conceptions of Idolatry 3 PART I: ETHICS AND MONOTHEISM 15 One The Eradication of Alien Worship: Rosenzweig as Ethical Monotheist 17 Two Miracles and Martyrs, Ethics and Hermeneutics: Idolatry from Mendelssohn to Rosenzweig 32 Three The Philosophical Import of Carnal Israel: Hermeneutics and the Structure of Rosenzweig's The Star of Redemption 62 PART II: ART AND LANGUAGE 81 Four Risky Images: Rosenzweig's Aesthetic Theory and Jewish Uncanniness 83 Five The Problem of Translation: Risking the Present for the Sake of the Past 105 PART III: RELIGION AND POLITICS 143 Six Risking Religion: Christian Idolatry 145 Seven Risking Politics: Jewish Idolatry 169 Eight After Israel: Rosenzweig's Philosophy of Risk Reconsidered 188 Conclusion The Future of Monotheism 207 Notes 227 Index 273

Jewish law in gentile churches : Halakhah and the beginning of Christian public ethics

Abstract: Why did the Gentile church keep Old Testament commandments about sex and idolatry, but disregard many others, like those about food or ritual purity? If there were any binding norms, what made them so, and on what basis were they articulated?In this important study, Markus Bockmuehl approaches such questions by examining the halakhic (Jewish legal) rationale behind the ethics of Jesus, Paul and the early Christians. He offers fresh and often unexpected answers based on careful biblical and historical study. His arguments have far-reaching implications not only for the study of the New Testament, but more broadly for the relationship between Christianity and Judaism.

Ceremony and community from Herbert to Milton : literature, religion, and cultural conflict in seventeenth-century England

Abstract: Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Reading the conflicts: ceremony, ideology and the meaning of religion 3. George Herbert: devotion in The Temple and the art of contradiction 4. Robert Herrick: religious experience in the 'Temple' of Hesperides 5. Sir Thomas Browne: the promiscuous embrace of ritual order 6. John Milton: carnal idolatry and the reconfiguration of worship, part I, 1634-1660 7. John Milton: carnal idolatry and the reconfiguration of worship, part II, after the Restoration: the major poems Notes Index.

Spiritual Seeing: Picturing God's Invisibility in Medieval Art

Abstract: If we cannot see God with our own eyes, for what purpose do we picture God in art? During the Middle Ages, the Second Commandment's warning against idolatry was largely set aside as the power of images became boldly and visibly evident. By the twelfth century, one Byzantine authority could even offer his own revision of the Commandment: "Thou shalt paint the likeness of Christ Himself." How and when, Herbert L. Kessler asks, was the Jewish prohibition of images in worship converted into a Christian imperative to picture God's invisibility once God had taken human form in the body of Jesus Christ? In Spiritual Seeing, Kessler explores ways in which the medieval debate about the functions and limits of images influenced the production of sacred art. Offering a new interpretation of Christian images as mediators between the human and the sacred, Kessler considers how the creators of images in Byzantium and the Latin West were able to situate art at the boundary between the physical and the spiritual worlds. He examines the ways in which images acquired such legitimacy that sacred art became a privileged metaphor for divine revelation. Portraits of Christ, in particular, took on central importance. Throughout the book, Kessler also considers the lingering anxiety about the capacity of human sight to apprehend the divine in images. In so doing, he discloses the artful dodges devised to deal with the controversy of picturing God's invisibility in material form.

Penitential Prayer in Second Temple Judaism: The Development of a Religious Institution

Abstract: Penitential Prayer in Second Temple Judaism: The Development of a Religious Institution, by Rodney Alan Werline. SBLEJL 13. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998. Pp. xii + 238. $39.95. This study is a revision of the author's dissertation, written under the supervision of George W. E. Nickelsburg at the University of Iowa. Its objective is to offer a systematic analysis of the penitential prayers from the exile to the Second Temple period, thereby illuminating the emergence of penitential prayer as a religious institution. Two definitional matters guide the collection and assessment of the data: (1) "penitential prayers" are defined as direct addresses to God in which an individual or group confesses sin and prays for forgiveness (p. 2); (2) a "religious institution" is defined as an action that a religious community generally accepts, practices, and prescribes for its observers (p. 3). Chapter 1 treats the development of penitential prayer in the biblical literature from the exile to the Persian period. Werline works backward from the first examples of penitential prayer in Ezra 9 to the Dtn tradition, which he regards as foundational for its emergence. Of special importance are Deut 4 and 30, which provide the formulaic pattern of sin, punishment, repentance, and deliverance. Although Deuteronomy does not specify prayer as the key to repentance, Solomon's dedication of the temple as a place of penitential prayer (1 Kgs 8:22-61) moves the trajectory in this direction for the exilic community. Texts from Third Isaiah (59:1-20; 63:74:12) contribute to this trajectory by showing that confession of sin and penitential prayer emerge as "the program" (p. 45) for restoration in the early postexilic period. Penitential prayers in the late Persian period (Ezra 9, Neh 1:4-11; 9; 2 Chr 6; 7:13-15) continue this dependence on the Dtn traditions, even as they broaden the understanding of the sin that requires repentance (from the sin of idolatry in Deuteronomy to the sin of intermarriage in Ezra) and reinterpret the historical situation that sets the context for the prayer. Chapter 2 seeks to show how subsequent authors continued to embrace and modify Dtn penitential traditions to serve their own agendas. The prayer in Dan 9:3-19, though cast in Dtn language and ideology, is an apocalypse. It applies the author's wisdom viewpoint to a reinterpretation of Jer 29:10-14 that discloses the meaning of Israel's historical situation under Antiochus IV. In this context the summons to penitence is an invitation to ask God's forgivness for not following the author's teaching about the eschaton. The prayer in Bar 1:15-3:8 is part of a pseudepigraphic letter that joins penitential prayer to wisdom poem. The objective of the prayer is to call to repentance those who continue to oppose (even though successfully) the Seleucid policies. In Baruch's interpretation, as long as the Jews continue to rebel, they violate the tradition of prophetic instruction that cals for faithful submission to foreign rulers (cf. Jer 27:11-12). Both Dan 9 and Bar 1-3 show, among other things, the Second Temple prayers reinterpret the Dtn penitence traditions. Moreover, they advance the understanding that prayer and interpretation of authoritative texts have become the model for responding to changing historical fortunes with the piety and penitence that are requisite for a faithful covenantal relationship. Chapter 3 extends the discussion to texts from Jub. 1 and 23, the "Animal Apocalypse" (I En. 85-90), the "Apocalypse of Weeks" (1 En. 93:1-10; 91:11-17) and the Testament of Moses to show how several groups in the Second Temple period reapplied and reinterpreted Dtn traditions to legitimate their sectarian withdrawal from those who had failed to repent as they had done. Such texts suggest that the righteous are those who repent, confess their sins, and search the Scriptures, namely, the Law and the Prophets, in order to understand how to respond faithfully to their historical predicament. …

The Hidden and Triune God

Abstract: Luther rightly perceived that God is hidden in his presence. The challenge systematically is to integrate discourse about God’s hiddenness with a serious trinitarianism. The attempts by Gregory Palamas and Karl Barth to do just this are judged inadequate. A constructive proposal begins by recognizing that God's hiddenness is an impenetrability of his moral agency in his history with us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rather than a correlate of God's ontological uniqueness or our creaturely epistemic limitations. God's hiddenness must be thought of in terms of the sheer factuality of God the Father, which limits theodicy; the suffering of the Son, and thus the rejection of idolatry; and the freedom of the Spirit.

Milton and Religious Controversy: Satire and Polemic in Paradise Lost

Abstract: 1. Controversial merriment 2. Milton reads Spenser's May Eclogue 3. Satan and the demonic conclave 4. Milton's den of error 5. The paradise of fools 6. Laughter in heaven 7. Miltonic transubstantiation 8. Idolatry in Eden 9. Images of both churches Conclusion Appendix: Transcriptions from satirical broadsheets.

Victorian Masculinity and the Virgin Mary

Abstract: The Virgin Mary was one of the most controversial figures in Victorian England, a powerful presence who embodied what many Victorians considered to be the errors of the Roman Catholic Church.1 These included pagan idolatry, superstition and wilful ignorance of the Bible, all of which were summed up in a single word: Mariolatry.

Architecture and Idolatry in Paradise Lost

Abstract: It will come as no surprise thatJohn Milton's conception of architecture is fundamentally iconoclastic. The precise way in which iconoclasm affects the presentation of architecture in Paradise Lost, however, has never been thoroughly examined.' When Milton objects to architecture, it is not a quality inherent in buildings themselves he finds offensive, but rather their tendency to act as convenient loci to which idolatry, over time, will inevitably adhere. The most explicitly didactic evidence of this conviction occurs in book 11, in which Adam expresses his resolution to raise "grateful Altars" (line 323) in Paradise if he is permitted to remain. Michael does not chastise Adam's impulse to build, but instead explains that God is present everywhere, implying that Adam need not attach peculiar value to a specific place. Still, in a postlapsarian world, affections will accrue to mere objects, and an inordinately treasured thing or place will eventually provide a site for sin. For Milton, idolatry lurks in any artifact to which value can attach. Indeed, even the most piously conceived artifact has as its end endurance in order that it may exhibit or exhort piety. But this very endurance subjects the artifact to unpredictable circumstances, circumstances under which its intent may be forgotten, misconstrued, or employed for ends unimagined by the fabricator. We can see this effect in Milton's depiction of one of the holiest artifacts in his cosmos, Solomon's Temple, as described in an historical prolepsis embedded in the catalog of devils in book 1 of Paradise Lost. The narrative exposition in that instance will make the effect of time on architecture quite clear, and, once we have been taught the dynamics of idolatry in this isolated parable, we will be able better to appreciate the historical consequences of idolatry more generally. These consequences Milton effectively

A chosen people: election in the Pentateuch and in iPeter

Abstract: In the first Epistle of Peter, Gentile Christians are addressed as aliens and exiles (lPet.1.1) but also as 'a Chosen People, a Royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation, God's Own People' (lPet.2.9). The epithets are drawn from Is.43.20,21 and Ex.19.6 referring to Israel.0 In this thesis I have traced the roots of the exiles' new identity to Israel's position in the OT, called in the Exodus to find her identity as The Chosen People of JHWH. According to O.T. presentation, Israel agreed at Sinai to her designation as a kingdom of priests, a holy nation (Ex.19.6), titles underlining her separateness and responsibility as witnesses to God's glory. Dt. restates this covenant. Israel was to find her true life and joy in wholehearted love for JHWH through the keeping of His laws, worked out in the everyday, to the exclusion of all idolatry. Balaam's story recalls God's promise to Abraham in Gen. 12.3. Israel's identity as the blessed of JHWH remains intact. She cannot be cursed. Yet the holy image was blurred. At Qumran in a highly exclusive context the Community sought to reestablish the Sinai tradition of holiness, linked to an understanding of themselves as spiritual Temple with strict law-keeping as sacrifice. The way was thus prepared for Christ to be Himself Temple, sacrifice and atonement, opening the way for all believers - such as Peter's addressees - to know themselves as inheritors of the elect status of Israel. I argue that IPeter demonstrates to a marked degree the continuity of significant aspects of NT Christianity with the faith of Israel, in particular in its emphasis on the finding of identity in the context of exile and trial and in its call to holiness, both to be a means of showing forth God's glory.

European philosophical responses to non-European culture: China

Abstract: INTRODUCTION Most seventeenth-century European thinkers who showed a strong interest in non-European philosophy believed in the universal basis of knowledge. The truths that they discovered did not, in their view, end at the borders of Europe. Consequently, when these Europeans encountered other philosophies, they tried to understand the differences in terms of an absolute conception of truth and falsehood rather than regard these other philosophies as merely different or alternative paths to truth. The European discovery voyages that began in the fifteenth century gradually served as a medium for learning about other cultures, although it took some time for Europeans to learn about the higher forms of knowledge of these regions. This was particularly true with regard to their philosophies. The explorers themselves provided little of this knowledge. Rather, it was missionaries who provided most of it. Because of the religious zeal of the explorer-nations, such as Portugal and Spain, passage was regularly provided on their ships for Catholic missionaries of diverse European nationalities. These missionaries sought contact with peoples in Asia and the Americas and began to learn their languages and study their cultures. Clearly, these missionaries did not come to this task with detached, impartial attitudes. Even missionaries who admired China, such as the Spanish Dominican D. Navarrete, were too prone to see superstition and idolatry where it did not always exist. Nevertheless, some of these missionaries recognised the importance of learning about the philosophy and religion of these lands.

Tragedy in the courts of the lord : A socio-literary reading of the death of Nadab and Abihu

Abstract: Aaron should be seen as the tragic hero of the story in Leviticus 10. He is affected not merely by the death of his sons, but also by its shameful circumstances, and the disgrace is emphasized by Moses' conduct. He is caught in an unwinnable contest of honour with the deity; but ultimately he should be seen as being to blame for his own tragedy, owing to his countenance for idolatry among the people. The theme of the father being disgraced by his sons is very widespread in the narrative of the Hebrew Bible; its popularity in the socio-cultural milieu may be accounted for as a means of harmonizing conflicting feelings about powerful families.

Representation in religion : studies in honour of Moshe Barasch

Abstract: The role of representation in religion is complex. While often perceived as essential, it is also associated in many traditions with the liability of idolatry and provokes iconoclasm. The essays in this volume examine the nuances of representation in religion and the debate concerning its place across a variety of traditions from the three Abrahamic faiths, to those of antiquity and the East. This volume consists of presentations made at an international conference held in honor of Moshe Barasch, art historian and cultural critic, who has done much to elucidate the light which representation and religion shed on each other. It pays tribute to Barasch by expanding the base of understanding and insight he has erected. It should be of interest to students of religion and of art history.

The Golden Avant-Garde: Idolatry, Commercialism, and Art

Abstract: Since the eighteenth century, artists--especially so-called avant-garde artists--have played a conflicting role in society. Part of the reason for their complex position, argue Raphael Sassower and Louis Cicotello, is the survival of the culture of idolatry in the modern age. In the twentieth century, artists can criticize the worship of material things or they can produce the things themselves. They can paint the scenes of worship of the golden calf--as the German expressionist Emil Nolde did in "Dance Around the Golden Calf" (1910), in which garish exaggerations reflect a condemnation of materialistic culture--or they can be the ones fabricating the idol for a fee.Part radical critics, part celebrity servants of bourgeois tastes, avant-garde artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Rene Magritte, Andy Warhol, the Christos, and Keith Haring have captured the twentieth-century imagination and inspired the artistic community to reconsider its social, political, and cultural roles. Charting the uneasy middle ground occupied by these artists and their work, Sassower and Cicotello argue that their success has as much to do with their complicity with capitalist forces as it does with their defiance of them. Indeed, the major theme of The Golden Avant-Garde is the inability of any cultural subgroup to withstand the overwhelming power of capitalism, commercialism, and science and technology.While some artists are paid by governments and institutions to construct national and religious monuments that express and honor society's most valuable principles and goals, the same society has fabricated a romantic myth of artists as revolutionary heroes who defy the authorities and pay dearly for their passion and vision. The Golden Avant-Garde is a unique collaboration between a philosopher and an artist, who bring their different perspectives to bear on how the avant-garde navigates the cultural, financial, and technological challenges presented by this postmodern dilemma. Often, Sassower and Cicotello conclude, avant-garde artists have become adept at manipulating the same forces that they seek to exaggerate and articulate in their work.

Beyond ethical reflections : neo-liberalism, idolatry and Canadian catholic social teaching

Abstract: Neo-liberalism is ideologically rooted in nineteenth-century laissez-faire capitalism, a form of economics that asserts the free market, unencumbered by government restraint, is the only path to human social and economic fulfillment. Canadian Catholic social teaching has approached neo-liberalism through the door of social ethics. However, some liberation and critical theologians believe that neo-liberalism contains a covert religious dimension complete with an absolutist dogma, a spirituality, a value system, a soteriology and embedded "God-concepts." These theologians maintain that when considered theologically, neo-liberalism is consistent with Scripture's perspective on idolatry. The study suggests that the theological theme of idolatry provides significant insight into the religious dimension that sustains neo-liberalism as an oppressive system of domination and a structure of social sin. The study includes recommendations for incorporating the theme of idolatry into Canadian Catholic social teaching so that the struggle for economic justice is presented as an issue of Christian faith as well an issue for social ethics.

Arcavatara: Srivaisnava Image-Descent and Roman Catholic Eucharist

Abstract: PRECIS The doctrine of arcavatara (image-descent) within the Srivaisnava tradition presents difficulties for a Christian understanding of Hindu belief and practice. This essay provides an introduction to the history, ritual, and theology or arcavatara and suggests directions for a comparative approach to eucharist within Roman Catholic theology. It concludes that, while aspects of the Hindu conception resonate with a Catholic sacramental Imagination, fundamental differences preclude an easy comparison. The categories of transcendence, accessibility, relationship, and revelation gleaned from this Introduction offer points of entry for continued dialogue. For the Srivaisnava tradition of Hinduism, the God of heaven becomes present in the temple. Arcavatara, the descent (avatara) of the deity as an image (arca), emphasizes both the transcendence and the accessibility of God. Worship takes the shape of devotion to a physical object, an image that is believed to be divine. For Christianity, so shaped by prohibitions against idolatry, arcavatara presents one of the great difficulties in understanding Hindu belief and ritual practice. What can the Christian gain from this view? Answering this question begins with an introduction to arcavatara within its historical, ritual, and theological contexts. In gaining an appreciation of the Srivaisnava conception of image-descent, a Roman Catholic becomes aware of parallels not earlier noticed, differences that highlight the particular claims of Christianity, and the challenges this different view of divine presence offers to the Roman Catholic's own belief and religious practice. I. Early Development of Arcavatara The Srivaisnava tradition of South India emphasizes exclusive devotion to the Lord Visnu and his consort Sri. This tradition of Hinduism became organized as a distinct and defined religious group around the eleventh century under the influence of its most important teacher, Ramanuja (ca. 1017-1137 C.E.). Not merely a fringe movement, the Srivaisnava community follows most Hindu groups in viewing the Sanskrit Vedas, the epic Ramayana and Mahabharata, and the Puranas as sacred scripture. However, Srivaisanavas also accept as revealed the poems of the alvars, who were twelve Tamil mystics of the sixth through ninth centuries. The alvars, who were "immersed" or "deep" in the love of God, sang about God (Visnu) mainly in God's manifestation as an image. [1] Later "Teachers" (acaryas), of whom Ramanuja is recognized as the most important, [2] commented on these poems, developing a distinctive theological and cultic tradition. A simple view of the deity's local presence predates the elaborate poetry of the alvars. In the earliest sources, the so-called cankam literature, the deity was said to live "in the katampu tree," or Visnu was said to recline "on the serpent couch." [3] There was not yet an attempt to describe how the deity is present. The later Paripatal poetry showed a clear awareness that Visnu is transcendent and beyond space and time. However, the language of local presence remained simple. Visnu is the "owner" of the temple, "hold[s] on to it in affection," and remains "in close union." No elaborate ritual was described at this stage, nor is there any indication of a complex temple institution. The poetry of the alvars (Divya Prabandham, or "Sacred Collect") reveals a significant shift to the temple. The alvars sang of many Visnu temples, [5] which had become special loci of Visnu's presence. For the alvars, "Visnu is in the temple." [6] Their poems coincided with what is often considered the "Golden Age of Indian Art." [7] During this time there was a flowering of Hindu divine imagery and temples in which to house these images. The alvars expressed their deep love for Visnu through praise of and devotion to the image (arca) of Visnu locally present in the temple. While the alvars emphasized that the local god is the very same universal and transcendent Visnu, they did not elaborate on the theological relationship between the two. …

The Origins of the Worship of Christ

Abstract: the boundary of a huge cultural challenge. They were moving from the relatively mono-cultural wilderness life into the strange new culture of Canaan, with its technological achievement, its decadent but attractive religion, its pluralism and idolatry, its social and economic oppression. How, in relation to such powerful cultural challenge, would they fare? Would they preserve their love and loyalty to the one true living God and witness to his truth, integrity, justice and compassion, for the sake of the nations (cf. 4:5-8)? Would they remain committed to the uniqueness of Yahweh in the context of religious pluralism (cf. 4:32-40)? That was their mission. That mission remains for the people of God in every culture, including the late 20th century neo-paganism of the west. The relevance of Deuteronomy to the cross-cultural mission of the church is a theme you will not find in many commentaries. Until the next one!

3 Masculinity and

Abstract: included pagan idolatry, superstition and wilful ignorance of the Bible, all of which were summed up in a single word: Mariolatry. Such attacks on the Virgin Mary were an important feature of England’s long and sometimes violent history of anti-Roman Catholicism, which dates back to the Henrician Schism of the 1530s and 1540s. They were also an expression of some of the very real theological and liturgical differences between the Roman Catholic Church and the Reformation and post-Reformation Churches. While acknowledging the historical and religious roots of Marian controversies, this essay considers another – and given the simultaneous importance and instability of gender as a defining characteristic in Victorian England, possibly more pressing – reason why Mary inspired such outrage. This woman, whom Roman Catholics addressed as the ‘Queen of Heaven’, the ‘Queen of Mercy’, the ‘Most powerful Mediatrix’ and the ‘Dispensatrix of Divine Grace’, appeared to usurp the power of her son. Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford from 1845 to 1869, spoke for many Victorian Christians when he accused the Roman Catholic Church of promoting ‘a whole system which does place on the Mediator’s throne the Virgin mother instead of the incarnate Son’. 2 Wilberforce’s criticism exemplified the confluence between two of the major forces that shaped Victorian culture: Christianity and the ideology of separate spheres. This coincidence was obvious in the criticisms of the Virgin Mary’s position in the Roman Catholic Church that recurred throughout the nineteenth century. The vast majority of those who publicly detailed their protests against the Virgin Mary’s expanded