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In act 3 of Ben Jonson's play Catiline, the rebels swear as a group on a raised 'silver eagle' in order to transform their attack on Rome into a sacred endeavor. The action, however, is not clearly represented in the classical sources as an oath. In this article, I will argue that Jonson changes a fairly minor detail in the record to a binding pledge in order to critique the civil, political, and spiritual strictures that are imbibed in the 1606 Oath of Allegiance. First, I will argue that the eagle is redolent of both the lectern in Protestant church architecture and the recurring metaphor of James as a protective eagle in his writing; such onstage iconography associates the Oath with Militant Protestantism and James's own semiotic currency of obedience. I will then suggest that the mounted eagle activates an onomastic play on the name of William Parker, Lord Monteagle, who famously betrayed his recusant kin to expose the Gunpowder Plot, at great benefit to himself. Lastly, I will posit that the heraldic associations of the eagle sigil link the Catilinarian bond to proparliamentarian figures such as Edward Coke and Robert Cotton, the latter a friend of Jonson., In the charged moment before the attack on Rome, Ben Jonson's protagonist Catiline produces a silver eagle for the conspirators to swear on. He describes it as a standard from [...]

[The author argues that Flannery O'Connor's fiction and critical prose are informed by a theological understanding of symbol, a narrative Christology from below, and a consciousness of her task as a religious writer of modernity. This places her work in mutually constructive conversation with the writing of postmodern Christology, represented, for instance, by Roger Haight's Jesus Symbol of God.], 'IF IT'S A SYMBOL, to hell with it.' (1) When Flannery O'Connor, American Catholic novelist of the Protestant South (1925-1963), (2) made this celebrated defense of the Eucharist, she voiced [...]

The important role of hope in the author's thinking is acknowledged. While natural theology is important in its proper place, Christian theology centers on the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Its discourse will need to avail itself of the power of symbol. Keywords: hope; natural theology; symbol.

This response offers considerable agreement with Anne Foerst's analysis in her essay 'Cog, a Humanoid Robot, and the Question of the Image of God' (Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 33 [March 1998]), yet endeavors to make her argument even more helpful. The response deals mainly with (1) the concept of symbol and the symbolic approach, (2) the symbolic description of a human being by artificial intelligence (Al) and by the theological symbol, 'image of God' (imago dei), and (3) the ensuing dialogue between scientists and theologians.

Contemporary critiques of classical theism open the way for a new understanding of the Trinity as the symbol of a relational God. The Trinity should be understood as based on salvational experience, an experience of divine mystery. The Trinity should not be interpreted literally, but should be approached as a metaphor or analogy. In addition, the Trinity should not be understood as establishing a hierarchy, with priority given to the Father, but instead as reflecting a mutual relationship of equals. According to this interpretation, the Trinity is a symbol for religious community.

Karl Barth's Biblical hermeneutics is easier to understand when examined within the framework of Stanley Fish's critical approach. Fish's idea is that the reader creates the text at the moment of reading and that the meaning is, in part, shaped by the interpretive community to which the reader belongs. Context, then, is central to the reading of Barth's hermeneutics. As for the determination of what is the correct interpretation, the answer lies in persuasion. In other words, those opposed to a particular reading must show a better one.

'Prepare to Meet God.' The stark, prophetic warning once glared out from thousands of roadside tree trunks in the twentieth-century South, just as it does from Charlie Curtis's arresting picture [...]

The article describes several important Celtic myths. Topics include the relationship between the animal world and the human principle, the war-like attributes of the masculine principle, the marriage of the masculine and the feminine, and the poetic treatment of Celtic myths by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats.

The article discusses the importance of finding symbolic meaning in daily life, including that part of life that deals with practical use of numbers. Topics include biblical use of numbers and the religious interpretations of a modern society obsessed with information and quantification.

The article discusses the universal meanings of such symbols as the cross and the tree. Traditions discussed include the Norse, Teutonic, Christian, Buddhist, and Avestan.

Feminists have criticized the Christian Holy Cross as a symbol because it legitimizes suffering and counsels endurance to those who are oppressed such as battered women. The Holy Cross may be better understood not as a symbol of suffering, but one of resurrection and resistance. As such, it helps those who suffer to understand that their suffering as part of a common experience shared by other humans and by God.