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The article presents a case study that reflects ways in which aspects of social life in Angola and Portugal, including religious practices and language, were influenced by the interactions that took place between individuals from the countries participating in the slave trade during the mid-18th century. It focuses on the Inquisition trials that took place against the Portuguese captain João Pereira da Cunha to provide evidence that Angolan religious traditions such as idolization were being adopted by Portuguese citizens.

The article presents information on the use of icons in Orthodox Christianity and the importance icons in a community of the church. Icons are said to be important since they represent a person or an event that the faithful can relate to, talk to and convey their meanings in life. According to theologians as conveyed in the Seventh Ecumenical Council held in Nicaea in 787, an icon is a means of grace and gives strength, holiness, and healing.

The article discusses the form of idolatry which the author believes does not involve worship, but the perception that the world is filled with spiritual intelligences. The author suggests that people associates idolatry with nature and then embraces them both. He proposes that trusting and relying on sources of existence is not an idolatry to be embraced.

This article discusses three aspects of the history of astrology in seventeenth-century Peru that are of larger interest for the history of science in Latin America: Creole concerns about indigenous idolatry, the impact of the Inquisition on natural philosophy, and communication between scholars within the Spanish colonies and the transatlantic world. Drawing mainly on the scholars Antonio de la Calancha, Juan de Figueroa, and Ruiz de Lozano, along with several Jesuits, the article analyzes how natural and medical astrology took shape in Peru and how they fostered astronomical investigations of the southern skies. While natural and medical astrology, showing New and Old World influences, oscillated between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, and between scholasticism and new science, judicial astrology remained undeveloped. Toward the end of the seventeenth century the discourse about astrology took an unexpected turn, reflecting a newly invigorated moral and Christian reading of the heavens that was in part a response to a deep-rooted dissatisfaction with the failure of the extirpation of idolatry campaigns. Inscribing divine and cardinal virtues, the Virgin Mary, Christian saints, and Greco-Roman allegories into the heavens was considered a way to finally solve the problem of idolatry and to convey Creole greatness. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the concept of idolatry and the spiritual materialism and tangible sacrality of Paganism. It relates that the corporeal spirituality that distinguishes Paganism from the approaches of other religions supports both idolatry and a love of nature as well as efforts towards ecological restoration as a sacred mandate. It notes that the use of graven images for communicating with the divine has been a seminal factor in the anti-Pagan practice of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

An essay is presented on the article "Idolatry, Ecology, and the Sacred as Tangible," by Michael York. The author emphasizes the concept of idolatry as one of the most problematic terms in contemporary Western discourses. Moreover, she agrees on the viability of the freedom of material expression and sensual engagement in Paganism as one of the ways in which it is set apart from other religions.

The article looks at the worship of formless icons which are dependent on materiality and location rather than figural representations of deities in the Asian tradition. It notes that in India, deities are not depicted by elaborate works of art and images found on library books and pictures of a Hindu god could serve as an excellent icon for worship. It examines the relationship between divinity and materiality in line with the worship of the empty sanctum of the statue of goddess Amba Mata which was stolen in the village of Jagat in India. It also looks at the theoretical models of the worship of irrelevant icons in replacement of figural representations based on Georges Battaile's idea of base materialism which is devoid of ontological ideals and figural forms.

This article raises the question of what in the context of its practice in the United States lends the central symbol of the Christian faith for use by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. This essay explores the ways that Black theology has exposed these "conditions of use," and been a ground for the reconstruction of the faith in the face of this demonic idolatry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on sanctity and its association with places and objects. It highlights several essays that discuss issues in relation to sanctity including the history of Christian holiness, the equivalence of sanctity and renunciation, and the association of sanctity with French philosophy and literature. It illustrates that taking the risk of passage from sacred to secular is the key to worship, and that life is a potential object of hagiologic and hagiographic devotion.

The article examines views on art held by the Moriscos on the eve of their expulsion from Spain, based on historical records of the Spanish Inquisition. In particular, it studies how the Moriscos understood the worship of images, how they responded to the strictures of the Catholic Church, and how they attempted to preserve their identity through iconoclasm.

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Copyright of Revista Espanola de Antropologia Americana is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid 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.)

Starting from the Bible's Second Commandment that prohibits making and venerating graven images, this article explores the relationship between concrete idol and symbolic icon. A condensed history is given of the Christian conflict between idolatry and iconoclasm, and fundamentalism is contrasted with the psychology of symbolism. Parallels are drawn between idol/icon and Campbell's denotation versus connotation, Edinger's concretistic misunderstanding of a symbol, and Jung's sign and symbol. It is suggested that the symbolic attitude is the core of analytical psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In 1 Cor 10.14-22 Paul warns his readers to refrain from idolatry. In order to convince his readers he calls attention to the unity and solidarity which exist between worshippers of the same religion. In this context he uses the terms κOωνωνíα and κOωνωνóς (vv. 16, 18, and 20). In v. 17 Paul tells his readers that at their joint meals they are 'partners', this time expressed by the term μϵωἑχ ϵιν. In the light of ancient parallels, it is concluded that the references to κOωνωνíα in v. 16 (cf. vv. 18 and 20) should be understood ecclesiologically, denoting 'partnership' rather than 'participation'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secularists tend not to destroy religious icons, but to displace them. This, too, is a form of iconoclasm. By excluding certain symbols from public places, they treat them as idols—threats to the freedom of rational, rights-bearing citizens and thus to the sacred spaces of the democratic nation-state. In so doing, they inscribe these supposedly neutral spaces with specific cultural and religious norms. Yet contrary to increasingly popular arguments on both the right and left, these norms vary greatly from place to place, audience to audience, actor to actor. This variety makes it difficult if not impossible to speak of a coherent secular spatiality, let alone a coherent secular subject. In the USA, iconoclastic performances produce secular places in great variety, some hostile to religion, others to religious nationalism, and others to the state. Focusing on legal conflicts over state-sponsored religious speech, this article aims to problematize the notion of 'secular normativity' by analyzing some of this geographical diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on an essay on David Hartman's philosophy of Jewish education written by Ari Ackerman and offers additional insights to clarify and evaluate the position of Hartman on the philosophy of Jewish education. It discusses Hartman's treatment of the issue of idolatry on his educational article "The Halakhah As Grounds for Creating a Shared Spiritual Language." It explains the failure of Hartman to explore the aspects of the Jewish tradition that could excite and motivate secular Jews.

Copyright of Chôra: Revue d'Études Anciennes et Médiévales is the property of Polirom Publishing House 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.)

Jean-Luc Marion's God Without Being has attracted more and more attention in Western philosophical and theological circles. Most of the responses to Marion's work, however, focus more on the topic of "God without Being" than on his proposal of a "Eucharist Hermeneutic." Through investigation of the core concepts of Marion's God Without Being, for example, idol, icon, and distance, this paper attempts to show that "Eucharist hermeneutic" is an indispensable component of the strategy of "God without Being" and a possible solution to the problem of overcoming onto-theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Dinbilimleri Journal is the property of Dinbilimleri Journal 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 explores the sacredness of dates in an Omani town. It examines how dates are neither incarnations of the divine like fetishes nor representations of the divine like idols. Rather, dates are considered gifts of God that embody and index a quality of God (his generosity) and are central to everyday life. As such, the mundane - through the appreciation of this gift in sociability and care for date palms - is suffused with appropriate piety, rather than being a distinct realm in which the sacred rarely enters. This position of dates, however, is precarious as daily life changes and notions of religiosity are shifting. Dates no longer carry the weight of sacredness they once did. Focusing on an object on the margins of what is considered 'religious,' this article thus highlights not only the precariousness of the relationship between materiality and representation, but also of notions of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do young adults have "a Catholic imagination?" Is there an identifiable "sacramental imagination" among them? What are the surveys and polls telling us? In this article Ryan uncovers the data and suggests important ways for the church to respond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article Anthony J. Godzieba explores various ways the Catholic imagination enables us to hear what the sacraments have to say directly to us. In order to recognize what they are saying, we must be like artists, attuned to realities beyond the surface of our experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Faculty of Letters / Edebiyat Fakultesi Dergisi is the property of Hacettepe University Faculty of Letters 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 project is, in part, motivated by my contention that one cannot adequately answer the question regarding the proper justification for human rights until one has answered the metaphysical question regarding the fundamental nature of human rights and the ontological question regarding the proper status of human rights. I offer a sustained analysis of metaphysical, ontological, and justificatory questions regarding human rights with the purpose of illustrating the point that theories that fail to engage in such analyses are inadequate. In particular, this essay argues that Michael Ignatieff's theory of human rights, as articulated in Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry, is philosophically inadequate because it fails to connect his justificatory arguments for human rights with metaphysical and ontological conceptions of and arguments for human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attack on images in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth century was not random destruction. Particular parts of the body, namely, the head and the hands, were the focus of attack. These were the same foci against which capital and the severest forms of corporal punishment were aimed. Distinct from the theological reasons for iconoclasm, these persistent foci and forms of attack reveal something about attitudes to the body in this period and the privileging of the head and hands in a number of social and cultural discourses. Iconoclasm both informs and was informed by an understanding of bodies as they were constructed in the later medieval and early modern periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies assessed the relationship between celebrity worship and (i) addiction (n=1359) and (ii) criminality (n=2158). Overall Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS) scores correlated positively with Eysenck Personality Questionnaire - Revised (EPQ-R) Addiction and Criminality sub-scale scores. In further support of the absorption-addiction model of celebrity worship (McCutcheon, Lange, & Houran, 2002, Conceptualization and measurement of celebrity worship. British Journal of Psychology, 93, 67-87.), addiction correlated positively with one component of celebrity worship, and criminality correlated positively with all four components produced by the current work. Different types of celebrity worship were associated with preferences for celebrities from particular domains. For instance, those scoring highly on the "Deleterious Imitation" component favoured music celebrities, as opposed to political figures. It was concluded that pathological celebrity worshippers are seeking a personal identity and are drawn to particular celebrities. Imitating these celebrities can have negative consequences for the worshipper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines Éric Jourdan's novel "Le Songe D'Alcibiade. The book was written in 1956 ,when Jourdan was 16 years-old, and then banned for nearly 30 years. In the novel, the sexual iconoclasm has paradoxically given the then prevalence of the practice to negotiate with a different set of socio-cultural and religious constraints.

The article discusses the historical and philosophical construction of idolatry. The Israelite practices have been discussed through different theories such as the biblical command against images and the Greco-Roman context of iconoclastic claims. The question on the possible abstract definition of idolatry from the different beliefs such as Christian, Hinduism and Buddhism have been an example to demonstrate the possible use of statues relative to history. Moreover, the viewpoint regarding the use of images in worshipping is always expressed in relationship to a very specific historical setting.

Abstract Although Adorno and Levinas share many arguments, I attempt to sharpen and evaluate their disagreements. Both held extreme and seemingly opposite views of art, with Adorno arguing that art presents modernity’s highest order of truth and Levinas denouncing it as shameful idolatry. Considering this striking difference brings to light fundamental substantive and methodological incompatibilities between them. Levinas’ assertion of the transcendence of the face should be understood as the most telling point of departure between his and Adorno’s critiques of instrumental reason. I attempt to explain why Levinas believed this move was justifiable and how Adorno would understand Levinas’ notion of illeity as a cultural byproduct and a form of dogmatism. Adorno’s historical and sociological account of the disenchantment of the world and the destruction of aura within a culture fully administered by scientific rationality and economic reductionism sharply contrasts to Levinas’ transcendental phenomenology, and I argue that Adorno’s thoroughgoing refusal to constrain dialectical reflection is ultimately more compelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyses the use of idolatry in representations of desire in six Renaissance sonnet sequences (Petrarch, Sidney, Spenser, Drayton, Daniel and Shakespeare). Seeking to offer a fresh perspective on the relationship between idolatry, gender dynamics and auto-poetics, the article reviews the changes in the use of idolatrous imagery to argue that they indicate changes in the authorial priorities relating to representations of desire and the writing self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies were carried out to investigate the relationship between attributional style (Study 1), self-esteem (Study 2), and different forms of celebrity worship. Entertainment social celebrity worship (the most normal form considered) was unrelated to attributional style or self-esteem; intense personal celebrity worship was related positively to self-esteem but also to a propensity toward stable and global attributions; and borderline pathological celebrity worship (the most negative form considered) was related to external, stable, and global attributions. These results were independent of whether participants were located in Europe or North America, and are discussed in terms of whether celebrity worship should be regarded as positive or negative and as a unitary concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of the cultural accommodation of Christianity to Korean culture is a much discussed question. The Theory of Emplantation suggests that in the earliest phase of contact by a missionary religion with an indigenous culture, there must be a resolution of conflicts of core values between the missionary religion and the indigenous culture if the missionary religion is to develop within its new cultural setting. The ritual called ch'udo yebae, beginning in the late nineteenth century, became a successful Protestant substitute for the performance of Confucian ancestral rites, thus avoiding a conflict between Confucian morality and Christian concerns over idolatry. Not all attempts at creating Christian rites to substitute for Confucian rituals were successful. This article explores the creation and ultimate failure of a Christian substitute for the Confucian coming-of-age ceremony, and attempts to explain why this attempt was not successful and ch'udo yebae was. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are several ways whereby medieval theories of vision may have contributed to the rise of practices some saw as idolatrous. A feature of much medieval art is the rise of naturalistic representation. This process was facilitated by the use of linear perspective, based ultimately on Euclid's visual cone. We are told its application led viewers to confuse a representation with its object. The theory of extramission influenced medieval piety profoundly. First, by suggesting that the eye emits a ray and 'touches' its object, it led worshippers to believe that seeing the Eucharistic host had a salvific effect. This may have led them to think that seeing images of saints or God hod a similar effect. Second, by implying that the subject was active in the process of seeing, it underpinned Augustine's theory of vision, whereby one trained the eye to access the invisible through the visible. However, as he was aware, the untrained eye could linger on physical objects and want to possess them. Finally, there was much debate about how visual information was mediated. Some argued that it was transmitted by intermediate bodies. The parallels between their language and that used by iconophobes to describe the images they rejected are striking and merit Further investigation. Others argued that the viewer had direct access to the object. This understanding, when combined with the idea that seeing equates to knowing, may have led worshippers to believe that seeing an image of God meant they might in some sense know him. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the nature of metaphors in relation to iconoclasm. It establishes connections between the two mediums, with icons being the visual image of God and metaphors being the images in words. Both mediums are used in worship, yet many worshipers don't understand how metaphors work nor the real meaning of icons. The article discusses the theology of icons from the writings of John of Damascus and Theodore the Studite as well as theological metaphors being the product of incarnation and imagination.

The author reflects the message on forests, labour and idols in the book of Isaiah 44. He finds confusion in the description of physical activities and their purpose. He believes that smiths and carpenters gave rise to the condemnation of the book against the separation of their specific activities from other activities by which human life is sustained. He notes that the book condemns the use of cedar, cypress, oak and pine in the manufacturing of sacred objects.

This article proposes that Ezra Pound's "The Pisan Cantos," grew out of the key statements made through the Italian Fascist cultural propaganda during World War II and developed a theory of cultural memory that considered Italy to have had visual sophistication and that the Allied powers can be compared to bursts of iconoclasm. In harmony with the extreme components of Italian Fasciscm, Pound demonstrated anti-Semitism and argued that the origins of Allied iconoclasm can be traced to the prohibitions against graven images in the Old Testament.

The Bible ridicules idolaters for bowing down to sticks and stones. Since idolaters worship what the sticks and stones stand for, not the sticks and stones themselves, isn't the biblical position confused? At the basis of the Bible's consistent refusal to observe the preceding distinction are found the conceptual underpinnings of its critique of idolatry. Men and women alone among creatures are inspired with God's breath. Men and women alone among creatures, that is, are like God. They alone among creatures are persons. Since mere pieces of nature cannot understand prayers, entreaties, etc., and hence cannot respond in the personal way, idolatrous practices are incoherent. But while it is true that (sub-person) elements of nature cannot enter into inter-personal relations, idolatry has a sequel: the scientific interrogation of nature, an interrogation which has been magnificently effective in eliciting responses. Elijah's dramatic confrontation with the Baalites is a stylized version of the clash between the biblical view of men and women as in an irreducible respect non-natural, and the naturalizing scientific view. On the Carmel, the prophets of the Baal are soundly defeated. Must those who inherit from them lose too? That is a live question. Read closely, the story of Elijah implies that those behind the Bible would defend the view of human distinctiveness against the renascent idolatry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the rhetorical uses of the concept of idolatry that are relevant to early-modern religions in Europe. These uses took place on the basis of theological, ethnographic and historiographic discourses. The first is about defining idolatry and its supernatural causes. The second focuses on perceiving and describing idolatry as actual practice. And the last is about explaining the emergence and transformation of idolatry within a narrative of origins and religious change.

This article presents an essay which explores the problems of idolatry and sacrifice for the early modern period and for the constitution of religious and political community as discussed in Thomas Tenison's "Of Idolatry." The two problems that are apparent in Tenison's tale are: the problem of communion and specifically the Protestant ability to communicate with God; and the problem of distinction. The separation of theology from the human sciences is also described.

This essay explores the shifting valuations of idolatry in cultural descriptions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries based on historian Peter Martyr's book "De orbe novo." In the book, Martyr explains the religious practices and cultural descriptions of Yucatan peoples. It focuses on religious practices as signs of civilization. Martyr's writings are compared with the works of Latin Christian authors.

The article discusses the practice of popular Islam in Chinese central Asia and its compatibility with puritan Islam. Islam was consolidated in the region by the Karakanids and made the official religion by the Mongols. When the region was annexed by the Chinese empire, Muslims were allowed to continue practicing Islam. While native Muslims adhered to most tenets and traditions of Islam, they retained practices such as idol and ancestral worship that violated Islamic doctrine. Villagers prayed at shrines for imams and saints and would prostrate themselves before the descendants of saints. The author speculates these practices were imported from neighboring countries such as China or adapted from Buddhist rituals.

The uniformity of Cistercian claustral ranges allows for a level of analysis beyond the functional attribution of different spaces. Even in the absence of sculptural iconographic schemes, it is possible to detect meaning in surviving remains. In this paper, the entrances from the east cloister alley into the various rooms of the east range are shown to be carefully nuanced and to display a range of meanings. While the importance of the chapter-house is stressed by the architectural enrichment of its façade, the relative status of the book room and the parlour appears to have changed over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article connects the poem "Beowulf" to "The Book of Wisdom," as the latter work was used widely in teaching Christianity and was referenced many times by Bede. The author compares Grendel as a monster sent to frighten the Danes from their (non-Christian) idol worship to the monsters sent to teach the idol worshipping and lapsing Hebrews. Grendel is also a descendant of Cain, whose crime is pinpointed as the origin of idolatry.

This article takes a semiotic approach to Leviticus 20, focusing on vv. 9-16. It argues that Leviticus 20 expands on narrative typifications of idolatry, honouring parents and adultery found in the Ten Commandments. The result is an elaborate reworking of literary themes from the Decalogue. The offences listed in vv. 10-16 are a more detailed elaboration of what it means to dishonour parents. Adultery (v. 10) is presented as the narrative typification of sexual wrongdoing, and the offences in vv. I 1-16 are presented as further negations of a normal sexual relationship. These 'forms of adultery' are developed through an extended series of binary oppositions. There is also a set of binary oppositions regarding the legal effects of these cases. These binary oppositional structures appear to serve a number of functions in Leviticus 20, including: educating in wisdom, resolving ambiguity, identifying special cases and constructing identity. These findings are consistent with literary presentation and sense construction elsewhere in biblical law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the account of human acts, the nature of evil and structure of sinful love by Saint Augustine in his "Confessions" to determine whether pride or idolatry is the primal sin. Paradox of pride and self-love according to Augustinian tradition; Sin of idolatry according to the Ten Commandments; Information on Augustine's phenomenology of sin grounded in self-love.

Explores the attitudes toward idolatry of the Bible's New Testament. Influence of the Old Testament and early Judaism on the New Testament's attitude toward idolatry; Conflict between revulsion against idolatry and the need to survive in an idolatrous world; Impact of pagan religion on the attitude toward idolatry in the pluralistic society.

Copyright of Revue des Sciences Sociales is the property of Universite des Sciences Humaines 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 Revue des Sciences Sociales is the property of Universite des Sciences Humaines 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.)

Discusses how forgotten aspects of ancient theological debates on words and images must inform immediate pedagogical conversations about children's picture books. Use of images by the early Church as an aid to worship due to the illiteracy of the medieval congregations; Justification of the use of images by Pope Gregory the Great.