Showing papers on "Revelation published in 1969"

Studies in religious philosophy and mysticism

Abstract: Introduction 1. The Delphic Maxim in Medieval Islam and Judaism 2. "The Ladder of Ascension" 3. Ibn Bajja on Man's Ultimate Felicity 4. Essence and Existence in Maimonides 5. A Note on the Rabbinic Doctrine of Creation 6. Saadya's Theory of Revelation: It's Origin and Background 7. Eleazar of Worms' Symbol of the Merkabah 8. The Motif of the "Shells" in Azriel of Gerona 9. Moses Narboni's "Epistle on Shi ur Qoma" 10. William Wollaston: English Deist and Rabbinic Scholar 11. Moses Mendelssohn on Leibniz and Spinoza 12. Franz Rosenzweig on History

The Gothic Cathedral as the Heavenly Jerusalem: Liturgical and Theological Sources

Abstract: The relationship of the Gothic Cathedral to the concept of the Church as the Heavenly Jerusalem has been of particular interest during the nearly two decades since Hans Sedlmayr, in his book on the development of the Gothic Cathedral,1 sought to make a close identification between the architecture and the theological understanding of the heavenly kingdom. More recently, Otto von Simson has stated: "We have been reminded that the Christian sanctuary is, liturgically and mystically, an image of the heavenly Jerusalem, the eschatological vision described by the Book of Revelation. The medieval dedication rite establishes this relationship in explicit terms and the twelfth and thirteenth centuries appear singularly preoccupied with this symbolic significance of sacred architecture."2 It is unfortunate that the liturgical and theological sources frequently referred to are rarely examined. It is the purpose of this article to look into these sources and their bearing upon the possible relationship of medieval architecture to theology. The theological concept of the heavenly Jerusalem is set forth in the New Testament Apocalypse, but the roots are found in the Old Testament prophets who dream of the renewal of the Davidic kingdom. Psalms and other poetic passages which referred originally to the earthly city of Jerusalem or Zion3 came to have an eschatological reference.4 Ezekiel's vision of the ideal temple is heavily dependent upon the temple of Solomon. The New Jerusalem of The Revelation is "new" with reference to the historic city with which the writer was so familiar. Within this tradition, the Gothic churchman could apply Biblical references to the reality of his own buildings; and this he seems to have done quite freely. The liturgical scholar, Edmond Martene, gives the texts of three consecration liturgies used during and after the tenth century;5 these provide a background for later liturgical development and for religious thought of the Gothic period. Ordo II,6 as given by Martene, provides the most comprehensive view of references to Jerusalem. As is characteristic of medieval consecration liturgies, this rite has near the beginning the liturgical use of Psalm 237 with its reference to the ancient Hebraic processions to the temple on Mount Zion: Tunc pontifex accendens ad ostium ecclesiae percutiens ter superliminare de cambuta sua aut baculo dicens: Tollite portas principes vestras et elevamini portae aeternales, et introibit rex gloriae. Respondeat ille minister infra stan : Quis est iste rex gloriae? [This interchange between the Bishop and the Deacon is made twice more; then follows] Et respondebunt omnes: Dominus virtutum ipse est rex gloria.8

Tradition and Commentary As Religious Categories in Judaism

Abstract: I In considering the problem of tradition, we must distinguish between two questions. The first is historical: How did a tradition endowed with religious dignity come to be formed? The other question is: How was this tradition understood once it had been accepted as a religious phenomenon? For the faithful promptly discard the historical question once they have accepted a tradition; this is the usual process in the establishment of religious systems. Yet for the historian the historical question remains fundamental: in order to understand the meaning of what the faithful simply accept, the historian is not bound to accept fictions that veil more than they reveal concerning the origins of the accepted faith. Thus, tradition as a special aspect of revelation is historically a product of the process that formed rabbinic Judaism between the 4th or 3rd pre-Christian centuries and the 2nd century of the Common Era. In all religions, the acceptance of a Divine revelation originally referred to the concrete communication of positive, substantive and expressible content. It never occurred to the bearers of such a revelation to question or to limit the specific quality and closely delineated content of the communication they had received. Where, as in Judaism, such revelation is set down in holy writings and is accepted in that form, it initially constitutes concrete communication, factual content, and nothing else. But in as much as such revelation, once set down in holy scriptures, takes on authoritative character, an essential change takes place. For one thing, new historical circumstances require that the communication, whose authoritativeness has been granted, be applied to ever changing conditions. Furthermore, the spontaneous force of human productivity seizes this communication and expands it beyond its original scope. "Tradition" thus comes into being. It embodies the realization of the effectiveness of the Word in every concrete state and relationship entered into by a society. At this point begins the process in which two questions gain importance: How can revelation be preserved as a concrete communication, i.e., how can it be passed on from generation to generation? (This is a virtually impossible undertaking by itself). And, with ever greater urgency: Can this revelation be applied at all, and if so, how? With this second question, spontaneity has burst into the nascent tradition. In the process of this renewed productivity, holy scriptures themselves are sometimes enlarged; new written communications take their place alongside the old ones. A sort of no-man's-land is created between the original revelation and the tradition. Precisely this happened in Judaism, for example, as the Torah, to which the quality of revelation was originally confined, was "expanded” to include other writings of the Biblical canon that had at first

Marriage and Divorce: A Problem in New Testament Interpretation

Abstract: The various sayings of Jesus about marriage are to be seen in the context of the primitive church's struggle to tradition God's revelation in Jesus in the tension between two understandings of revelation.

Exodus 14: The Mighty Acts of God: An Essay in Theological Criticism

Abstract: God is known by what He has done.' This sentence sums up one of the leading themes of biblical theology. The biblical writers (it is said) thought of revelation, not in terms of propositions or ideas, but as taking place through historical events in which God disclosed His nature and purpose. Moreover, these events were not the inner spiritual experiences of mystics, but public events involving the destinies of nations as well as individuals. The events had to be interpreted, of course, and the revelation was not complete without the interpretation; but the knowledge of God was always an inference from what had happened, never a matter of general or timeless concepts.

Celestial Entertainment in Eden: Book V of Paradise Lost

Abstract: ALTHOUGH the relationship between the Biblical figures Abraham and Adam underlies episodes in Books V, VIII, XI, and XII of Paradise Lost, only the significance of the parallels in the last two books has been explored fully. Barbara Kiefer Lewalski finds that the transition from vision to narration in Michael's presentation of history, coinciding with the story of Abraham, symbolizes Adam's initial revelation through faith of a covenantal relationship with God.' Stressing the similarities between Abraham's departure from Ur and Adam's from Eden, Mother Mary Christopher Pecheux believes that this association "enriches and universalizes Milton's theme, helps to emphasize the virtues of the Christian hero, and reinforces the paradox of the fortunate fall." 2 Moreover, the topic of Abraham's departure from his homeland affords Milton the opportunity of incorporating the epic-journey motif into his poem.3 The lack of any such extensive consideration of the AbrahamAdam parallel in Book VIII is understandable. Abraham's argument with God on behalf of the Sodomites is not the only possible source of Adam's dialogue with Him on the subject of a fit mate. John E. Parish cites three Biblical episodes in which Abraham and Moses plead with God to mollify His anger and spare His people and relates them to the dialogue between the Father and Son in Book III as well as to that between God and Adam in Book VIII.4 Since the telescoping of these three Biblical episodes

How are Revelation and Revolution Related

Abstract: “The general biblical background of promise and fulfillment provides the context for the relationship between revelation and revolution. Specifically, the categories of Exodus, Messianism, Incarnation, and Death/Resurrection are peculiar instances of this relationship. … To recognize revelation as decisively revolutionary in its thrust is to opt for the risk of commitment to radical change.”

An Investigation of “Revelation” in Contemporary Art

Abstract: intangible content of the work. This study 2 attempts to emphasize the importance of becoming sensitive to that certain force which soars above and beyond the form. This writer believes that this force is revelation and may be expressed in the artist's work as a part of a universe undergoing continual creation. II. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED Revelation. The act of revealing or disclosing to others (38:725). The dynamic force which is basic to all creative activity. Self-Revelation. The disclosure of an individual's unique insights, and vision, in his creative work. The reflection of one's inner self in an outward, visual manifestation. Revelation of God. God's disclosure or manifesta----------~ ~ tion of Himself or of His will to man, as through some act, oracular words, signs or laws (38:725); that which is revealed by God to man. This study accepts as a limitation the idea of "God" as professed generally in the Christian dogma; it strongly emphasizes the concept of continued revelation. God's revelation is not bound in a book, such as the Bible, but is a continuous occurrence in the lives of men. This writer believes that the Bible contains the revelation of God; however, he does not believe that revelation ceased when the scriptures were canonized. Form. The outward, physical appearance of an object. 3 In art this would involve the arrangement of the elements of line, color, texture, shape, and space. In religion this would involve the organizational structure, including the physical appearance as well as the liturgy. Content. The dynamic force underlying the form. The force which gives the form life. This writer considers "revelation" to be the basic power of content.

Ends and Means

Abstract: We have already seen why Edmund Gosse was right to see his Victorian father as the last of the seventeenth-century Puritans. When Edmund Gosse, as a young man, went alone to London for the first time his father badgered him with a constant flow of letters. But the anxiety that his father expressed in these letters was not about his moral behaviour — the vulnerability of an innocent youth exposed to the temptations of London — but about the intellectual part of his son’s faith. As Gosse put it: ‘these incessant exhortations dealt, not with conduct, but with faith’, In this, as in so many other ways, the Victorian millenarian captured the authentic spirit of seventeenth-century Protestantism. Means do not matter if the ends are right; we discover ends from Scripture, above all from the Book of Revelation.