Search

The whole Psalter could be seen as a second Torah, whose five books are witness to the making, dissolution and renewal of the covenant with David. This article looks at Book Four of that story (Psalms 90–106), where the figure of Moses and the traditions of the Exodus are prominent and create an alternative vision to the covenant with David which is under threat (Psalm 89). These seventeen psalms comprise four collections (90–92, 93–100, 101–103, 104–106). By focusing on later Jewish and Christian reception of each psalm, the article shows how Jewish tradition maintains the earlier emphases on Moses and pre-Davidic traditions, whilst Christian tradition interprets them after the time of David, through the person of Christ. However, the article demonstrates that each tradition also recognizes a universal theology throughout Book Four: God as refuge in 90–92, God's cosmic rule in 93–100, God's mercy in suffering in 101–103, and God as Creator and Redeemer in 104–106.

Les psaumes 90-92 font partie de la quatrieme section du Psautier, ou la figure de Moise a une place importante. L’article etudie l’histoire de la reception juive et chretienne des trois psaumes, tant dans les textes, commentaires ou poemes, que dans la liturgie, l’iconographie ou la musique. La figure du Dieu refuge et protecteur du mal traverse les Ps 90-91 dans les lectures juive et chretienne, alors que le Ps 92, lie a la liturgie du shabbat, est peu commente par la tradition chretienne. Au-dela de leur enracinement dans l’histoire biblique, ces psaumes, dans l’epaisseur de leur reception, entrainent leur lecteur dans une conversation multiculturelle.

This paper discusses biblical poetry in relation to the ancient Greek-Latin tradition of lyric poetry. Since the Greek word »lyric« and the Hebrew word »psalterion« each have musical connotations, there must be some connection between biblical psalmody and lyric poetry. Indeed, the liturgical superscriptions of many psalms and the numerous hints to musical instruments and singing within them suggest that many texts were originally used for accompaniment to music and so could be seen as ›lyric poetry‹ in the strictest sense. There are, of course, key differences between ancient and biblical lyric poetry. Hebrew poems are formally marked not so much by metre or rhyme as by more general conventions of sonority and word-play, perhaps to facilitate memorisation. Furthermore, Hebrew poetry is particularly recognizable by its balanced expression of thought, a ›parallelism‹ which includes repeated or contrasting ideas and figurative language. This feature is also evident in some Hebrew prose: this ›blurring of the boundaries‹ between prose and poetry is another feature which distinguishes biblical poetry from ancient Greek or Latin lyric poetry. One other distinctive feature of psalmody is that, although rooted in the liturgy of the first Temple (950–587 BCE), and developing in the liturgy of the second Temple period, it continued to thrive even after the fall of the Temple in 70 CE. The liturgical use of the psalms resulted in its continual prominence throughout Jewish and Christian history; and because the essence of Hebrew poetry is more dependent on sense than sound this has also enabled a rich tradition of translation. So Hebrew psalmody is ›re-invented‹ through the several Greek, Latin, and Aramaic versions, as well as through the many languages of the early modern period, right up to the contemporary vernacular. In this sense psalmody is unusual: unlike ancient classical poetry it provides an ongoing and living tradition for a community of faith.

Impairment on verbal fluency tasks has been one of the more consistently reported neuropsychological findings after cerebellar lesions, but it has not been uniformly observed and the possible underlying cognitive basis has not been investigated. We tested twenty-two patients with chronic, unilateral cerebellar lesions (12 Left, 10 Right) and thirty controls on phonemic and semantic fluency tasks. We measured total words produced, words produced in the initial 15 seconds, errors and strategy switches. In the phonemic fluency task, the right cerebellar lesion (RC) group produced significantly fewer words compared to the left cerebellar lesion (LC) group and healthy controls, particularly over the first 15 seconds of the task with no increase in errors and significantly fewer switches over the entire task. In the semantic fluency task there was only a modest decrease in total words in the RC group compared to controls. RC lesions impair fluency with many of the same performance characteristics as left prefrontal lesions. This supports the hypotheses of a prefrontal-lateral cerebellar system for modulation of attention/executive or strategy demanding tasks.

La première partie de l’article définit la réception de l’histoire et son rôle. J’explique son lien avec la critique historique et son intérêt pour l’histoire du texte et avec la critique littéraire et son intérêt pour l’attitude du lecteur face au texte. Puis je mets en lumière cinq types de réception de l’histoire – exégèse, ouvrages de piété, liturgie, traduction et représentation esthétique. En divisant l’histoire de la réception en six périodes, de la monarchie davidique à aujourd’hui, on dispose d’une manière de déterminer quand et pourquoi ces cinq types ont été utilisés dans les traditions juive et chrétienne. Dans la seconde partie, ce modèle est appliqué au Psaume 1, un psaume profondément personnel où s’affirme la confiance en Dieu seul. On peut voir, à travers des traductions, des interprétations, l’art et la musique, comment cette expression de la foi a été utilisée à tort, à la fois dans la tradition juive et dans la tradition chrétienne, de Qumran jusqu’à la Réforme, pour promouvoir la supériorité d’une foi sur l’autre. Mais deux lectures contemporaines du Psaume 1, juive et chrétienne, montrent comment une lecture plus irénique et réconciliatrice du psaume commence à prévaloir. Ainsi, l’histoire de la réception offre une perspective unique d’approche biblique, ce dont le Psaume 1 fournit un bel exemple. The first part of the paper explains what reception history is about and its role. I explain how it is related to ‘historical criticism’, with its interest in the history of the text, as well as to ‘literary criticism’, with its interest in the reader’s response to the text. I then highlight five types of reception history – exegesis, devotional works, liturgy, translation and aesthetic representation. I show how, by dividing reception history into six periods, from the Davidic monarchy up to the present day, we have a way of assessing when and why these five types were used, both in Jewish and Christian tradition. The second part of the paper applies this model to Psalm 1. I emphasise, firstly, that this is a deeply personal psalm which affirms trust in God alone. I then show how, through translations, exegesis, art and music, this expression of faith has been misused, in both Jewish and Christian reception history, from Qumran up to the Reformation, to promote the superiority of one faith over the other. I conclude with two contemporary Jewish and Christian readings of Psalm 1 in order to illustrate how a more irenic and conciliatory reading of this psalm is now beginning to prevail. My conclusion is that reception history can offer a unique perspective on the biblical texts, and that Psalm 1 is a good example of this.

This study examined the performance of 38 normal subjects and 43 patients with focal lesions of the frontal lobes on a simple go-nogo task where the probability of the nogo stimulus was either 75% or 25%. Patients with lesions to the superior medial parts of the frontal lobes, in particular to the left superior portion of Brodmann area 6 (which includes the supplementary motor areas and the premotor areas for the right hand) had an increased number of false alarms (incorrect responses to the nogo stimulus). These results indicate that area 6 is specifically involved in the inhibition of response. Patients with lesions to the right anterior cingulate (areas 24 and 32) were slower and more variable in their reaction time. These findings could be explained by an inability to sustain stimulus-response contingencies. Lesions to the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (Brodmann areas 44, 45, 47) also increased the variability of response, perhaps by disrupting monitoring performance.

The paper focuses on two individuals who have each made a seminal contribution to the debates between theology and the sciences in Oxford - Charles Darwin (in the mid�19th century), and Richard Dawkins (from the 1990s to the present day). It introduces Darwin by way of a more personal and visual view from Worcester College Chapel. The restoration of the chapel took place at about the same time as the debates between Huxley and Wilberforce in the Oxford University Museum over Charles Darwin�s On the Origin of the Species. The first part of the paper then traces these debates back: first to an earlier period of disputation represented by Galileo Galilei (c. 1564�1642), and then to a period of greater accommodation represented by Isaac Newton (1643�1727). Darwin represents a third, more controversial, stage. The paper then looks at a fourth period, from the mid�20th century onwards, which is marked by more eirenical attempts to demarcate science and theology by seeing the former again as asking the �how� questions and the latter, the �why� questions. It then focuses on a fifth, more disputatious stage, which was initiated by Richard Dawkins, professor in the Public Understanding of Science until 2008. Professor Dawkins challenges the idea that theology cannot be studied, because its focus is a non-existent object, �God�.The second part of the paper looks at various Oxford projects and Oxford theologians who have risen to this contemporary challenge. They include the work of the Ian Ramsey Centre; Justin Barret�s and John Trigg�s joint � 2 million project, supported by the John Templeton foundation, which examines scientific ideas about religion and the mind; Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford from 1987 to 2006, who has conducted a number of media interviews with Richard Dawkins; Keith Ward, who has written several books engaging not only with Dawkins but is also the Cambridge Professor of Mathematics, Stephen Hawking; and Alistair McGrath, who has a doctorate in both science and theology, and who has similarly written and entered into public debates challenging Dawkin�s ideas.The paper ends by referring to John Barton, Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford, who argues that provided that theology is a subject which is properly critical, open to alien truth and combines both intellectual and emotional modes of perception, it can set an example for almost any academic discipline, both in the humanities and the sciences. The conclusion is therefore that, far from theology having to become more like another science, the sciences might be challenged to become more like theology.

This paper has been the result of teaching and comparing two very different Old Testament texts, both of which are concerned with the relationship between God and the created order. One is Genesis 1, with its priestly concerns for harmony within the created order; the other is the book of Amos, where one encounters a profoundly pessimistic view of the coming disorder throughout the natural world. In making associations between these two texts, one cannot help but ask why the earlier reflections in Amos offer such aradical and developed understandingof God's relationship with creation — quite distinct from the view of God evidenced in the first chapter of Genesis.

This paper considers evidence provided by large neuropsychological group studies and meta-analyses of functional imaging experiments on the location in frontal cortex of the subprocesses involved in the carrying out of task-switching paradigms. The function of the individual subprocesses is also considered in the light of analyses of the performance of normal subjects.

This study examined the performance of 41 patients with focal prefrontal cortical lesions and 38 healthy controls on a task-switching procedure. Three different conditions were evaluated: single tasks without switches and two switching tasks with the currently relevant task signalled either 1500 ms (Long Cue) or 200 ms (Short Cue) before the stimulus. Patients with Superior Medial lesions showed both a general slowing of reaction time (RT) and a signifi cantly increased switch cost as measured by RT. No other prefrontal group showed this increased reaction time switch cost. Increased error rates in the switching conditions, on the other hand, were observed in patients with Inferior Medial lesions and, to a lesser extent, ones with Superior Medial lesions. Patients with left dorsolateral lesions (9/46v) showed slower learning of the task as indicated by a high error rate early on. Several different processes are involved in task-switching and these are selectively disrupted by lesions to specifi c areas of the frontal lobes.