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Fernán González de Eslava's fifth Coloquio espiritual y sacramental is a Christian allegorical drama from New Spain of the 1570s. It concerns Spanish attempts to 'pacify' the Gran Chichimeca, a contested desert frontier to the north of the Valley of Mexico. The antagonist of this play is a Chichimeca warrior, who challenges military and missionary attempts to conquer and convert. González de Eslava's allegory vilifies this nomadic native warrior, casting him as the very figure of sin. This piece portrays a fierce Indigenous alterity in order to justify Spanish incursions into native lands and promote a Christianizing agenda. Remarkably, the playwright portrays Chichimeca territory with reference to a major foundational narrative of central Mexican peoples. He invokes the storied trajectory of ancestral migrants who departed from legendary sites of origin in the north, and journeyed southward into the Mexican Basin, where they settled. However, the allegorical drama reconfigures this southward path, and in the place of a central Mexican foundational narrative, González de Eslava asserts a Christian narrative and symbolic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a case study of the manuscripts of the Diamond Sūtra completed by an old man who lived in Dunhuang during the early tenth century. It investigates the textual and physical aspects of these manuscripts and reconstructs their production and use in an attempt to offer additional information on local religious life and the reproduction and transmission of the Diamond Sūtra during the medieval period. The first section focuses on a special version of the Diamond Sūtra which survives in the old man's manuscripts and examines its textual and paratextual characteristics. This version, originating in Xichuan, provides valuable clues regarding the function and use of the Diamond Sūtra during the medieval period. The second section, based on the examination of paleographic and codicological features of the manuscripts, delineates the religious practices and motivations involved in their production and sheds light on medieval Buddhist manuscript culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article focuses on a reevaluation of the relationship between Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt and the Zwickau prophets, challenging previous historical narratives that exaggerated the prophets' impact and their connection to Karlstadt. It discusses the myth surrounding these prophets, aiming to dispel misconceptions and highlight the catalyst role they played in revealing theological differences between Karlstadt and Luther, specifically regarding prophetic authority.

This scholarly article examines the depiction of the Holy Chalice within a significant category of Christian reliquaries, with a specific focus on examples from Syria. The research delves into the analysis of numerous sarcophagi reliquaries distinguished by their utilization of the libation system and explores the various artistic representations of the Chalice within this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work of writing the biographies of the narrators who transmitted the Sharia to us is a Sunnah followed in our Islamic history and caring for the narrators who served the Prophet's Sunnah is one of the greatest practices of later gratitude to the predecessors in our Islamic nation. Whoever does not thank people does not thank Allah, and among the scholars of this nation who died and left behind books rich in knowledge in the service of the Sunnah, which were accepted by the scientific institutions in the Islamic world. It was a rich method for the students of this honourable scholar, Mahmoud Al-Tahhan, who was distinguished by his extensive experience in authoring, categorizing, and defending the Sunnah. This study aims to shed light on his unique efforts in caring for the Sunnah of the Prophet in learning, teaching, writing, and communication, and showing his services over the course of eighty years, which he lived as a learner, tolerant, and a performing teacher and to examine the criticisms directed at his efforts, their impact on them, and their value in the scale of hadith criticism. In this research, the inductive, critical and analytical approach was followed to determine the aspects of the subject and to indicate the impact that Al-Tahhan drew on the historical era in which he lived. And show the value of feedback on his efforts, to reach at the end the most important results that characterized his efforts, which is the profound intellectual impact in the field of education and writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tiempos Modernos is the property of Tiempos Modernos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We are continuing our series of studies regarding the maps of Roman Dacia1 with this short note regarding the representation of Dacia on a map published by Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli in his book Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus, observationibus geographicis, astronomicis, hydrographicis, historicis, physicis perlustratus et in sex tomos digestus, I-II, Hagae-Amstelodami, 1726. The military engineer born in Bologna in 1658 elaborated a map in his book, at the beginning of the second volume, entitled Theatrum antiqvitatum romanarum in Hungaria: sive mappa geographica regionum Danubio circumjacentium, Pannoniarum, Daciarum, Mysiar: etc. in qvibus antiqvitates romanae Svis singulae figuris in hoc tomo descriptae reperiuntur. Our study examines the main features illustrated in Marsigli's map, including some Roman roads and forts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) was not an uncritical supporter of papal authority. This essay recounts a nuanced understanding of his development by looking at a number of treatises and sermons focused on the reform of the pope as person and therefore of the reform of the papacy as institution. Cusanus believed the pope's authority was grounded in the faith and office of Peter and not personally in Peter's successor, who could therefore fairly be corrected. The successor to Peter was no more the rock than Peter as a human being had been. Consequently, Cusanus' recommendations for papal reform began with the personal reform of the pope as a faithful Christian first and not as a prelate. His critiques did not thereby threaten the papacy as an institution but, in fact, were intended to improve the man holding the see of Peter and in so doing to reform the office and its exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archivo Ibero-Americano is the property of Editorial Cisneros and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article investigates Modi's rise to power as strongman leader of the world's largest secular democracy. Deploying 'bhakti' or devotion as an analytical category, it brings an unusual perspective to contemporary Indian politics that looks at it from outside the electoral practices and institutions of the nation-state. Fundamental to understanding Modi's political authority is Swaminarayan Sanstha, a powerful Hindu ascetic order tracing its origins tonineteenth century Gujarat. Following its nearly two century long transnational trajectory through the diasporic and religious networks of the Gujaratis, I illustrate how the Swaminarayans emerged as a social platform for Modi's political aspirations and mobiled the Hindu diaspora in a host of capacities to serve as his informal diplomat corps. By transferring their networks and assets to Modi's political project, the Swaminarayans, I argue, are reconfiguring the Indian state and its constitutional vision for society into a sacral Hindu state for a 'bhakt nation' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to broaden the discussion on the concept of positioning in Religious Education and to draw attention to its interactional, processual dimension as a promising research perspective. Although it refers to results of prior empirical research on positioning processes in an autobiographical perspective, the methodological focus is on hermeneutics: Under what conditions is it legitimate to transfer these results to the field of didactics? What gain in knowledge could result from this? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the prophetic literature, vision descriptions (which are not to be equated with 'vision reports') have certain temporal and deictic orientations. Temporally, they are either past, as the vision itself is presented as past from the speech time, or present, meaning that it is described as if were occurring before the prophet's eyes at the speech time. The spatial orientation of the text is also affected in vision descriptions as the location is in the world of the vision. Identifying a text as a vision description offers a much more coherent and meaningful interpretation of the text and fosters a deeper understanding of the text's significance in its literary context. To that end, this study identifies two linguistic expressions that function as vision signals, that is, they indicate that the text is describing a vision. This study fills gaps in the commentary literature on the relevant texts and the literature on prophetic visions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rabbi Dr Israel Porush (1907-91) was Australia's leading rabbi in the middle of the twentieth century. This article sets out his intellectual and religious biography, examines his theological positions on key questions: God and Jewish law, secular education, relations with Reform Judaism, Zionism, interfaith work and finally looks at his feelings of pessimism about the Jewish scene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While historians have explored the deployment of medical expertise in studies of the supernatural for some time, the medical report on supernatural phenomena thus far has evaded similar scholarly attention. This chapter puts the expert report centre stage and focuses on the religious context of 'hysteria' diagnoses. Through an analysis of two controversial mystics who were examined and diagnosed with corporeal symptoms of the 'sacred disease' even though their cultural contexts differ substantially, we argue that a historicised reading of the report that integrates the circumstances of its production as well as its circulation, reiterations, and legacies allows for an examination of the genre's role as source for wider (counter) expertise and authority in evaluations of the supernatural. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Études Françaises is the property of Presses de l'Universite de Montreal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

By the time Joseph Morgan died (ca. 1750), he had lived longer in, and written more about, North Africa than any other Briton. This paper examines his first published work after his return to England ca. 1720: a translation of the life of the Prophet Muḥammad which appeared in London in 1723 and 1725. While there had been previous biographies of the Prophet in English, Morgan's was the first that was completely based on an account by a Muslim Andalusian author, Mohamed Rabadan, who had written it in the first decade of the seventeenth century. It was partly based on the work of the thirteenth-century muḥaddith, Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad al-Bakrī and infused with Sufi imagery. This biography presented a highly positive view of the Prophet, the like of which had not existed before in any European language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, four spiritual biographers wrote the "life" of the recently deceased lay dévote Madeleine de Lamoignon (1609-87). These authors sought to compose spiritual biographies--accounts of Madeleine's devotional life--all penned with the distant prospect of beatification or canonization in mind. This article analyzes these four retellings of Madeleine's life to excavate the process of writing vitae and situates this process within the broader context of lay spiritual biography in early modern France. A comparative exploration of Lamoignon's "lives" reveals different, and sometimes competing, conceptions of lay female sanctity in the Counter-Reformation era. By attending to neglected biographies of early modern laywomen, scholars might better understand how a life outside the cloister could be reconciled with saintliness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on an old, unadorned manuscript that was offered for sale on the French website "Les Enluminures," which contained a hitherto unknown life of Francis (Vita) and other medieval texts. French historian and essayist Jacques Dalarun immediately became interested in it, gathered more researchers around him and made the discovery known worldwide, initially in January 2015 at the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris, France.

The article reports on the final reality test for a specific thesis on the historiography of Italian friar Saint Francis of Assisi. The thesis was first presented in the 2010 edition of this journal. There the author expressed the impression that the Franciscan hagiography had started differently than previously assumed, and he based himself on a comparison of the following three early biographies.

An important personality of the Swedish cultural space and of the world diplomatic space, Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961), left to posterity, besides his literary works, his economic and diplomatic contributions, the most important spiritual autobiography from the Swedish protestant space of the 20th century. Discovered shortly after his death and published by his disciples in 1963 in an English version in London (at Faber and Faber Publishing House), Markings presents the struggle of the author with himself, illustrated in a great diversity of styles, from haiku poems to short meditations, pastels (lyrics or prose), biblical exegeses and so on. Apart from the description of his spiritual life, his relationship with God, or his conception of spiritual issues, the work also contains some interesting references to aspects of political theology. These aspects represent the subject of our research. After a short presentation of his life and activity and of the influence of his family on his education, we will try to present the way in which aspects of political theology are emphasised in the aforementioned work and which are some important elements of the author's conception of this subject. In this respect, we will resort not only to his spiritual autobiography, but also to the most important writings about him, published by specialists in diplomacy, literature and politics. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find theologians who wrote about his spiritual autobiography (except some who talk about him in theological dictionaries). Therefore, one of the main strengths of this research will be the fact that it presents a theological approach to Dag Hammarskjöld. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Kripshe treats `god’ as an empty natural kind term such as `unicorn’. She applies Saul Kripke's fresh views about empty natural kinds to `god’. Metaphysically, says Kripshe, there are no possible worlds in which there are gods. Gods could not have existed, given that they do not actually exist and never did. Epistemologically, godlessness is an a posteriori discovery. Kripshe dismisses the gods in the same breath that she dismisses mermaids. Semantically, the perspective Kripshe finds most perspicacious, no counterfactual situation is properly describable as one in which there are gods. Perhaps it is not quite a necessary truth that there are no gods. According to Saul Kripke, failed natural kind terms are ill‐defined. Incorporating ill‐defined terms into declarative sentences yields only mock propositions. Just as the meteorologist has no professional interest in mock thunder, the logician has no professional interest in mock propositions. Kripshe disagrees with agnostics who assign a low probability to `There is at least one god’. The bearers of probabilities must be propositions. Despite this deference to science, Kripshe agrees with the a priori atheist that, necessarily, no future experience could constitute an encounter with a god. Divine revelation is impossible. Kripshe's a posteriori necessary atheism compares favorably to familiar forms of atheism and to non‐cognitivists. It reveals interesting challenges to a coherent formulation of atheism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]