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It is attested, historically, that in the first centuries of the Common Era, Enochian literature was widely used among Christians, mainly the book of I Enoch, but also, in a more discreet way, the writings of II Enoch and III Enoch (this the least exercised influence). The official position in Western Christianity, which decoded I Enoch's writing from the list of useful literature to Christian religiosity, was given at the Council of Laodicea (4th century) which stated that the only names of angels recognized as sacred would be that of Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, removing I Enoque (who quotes several names of angels) from the West Christian exegetical scenario for centuries. Among the Jews literature was quite influential until the end of the first century Council of Jamnia, which considered only as sacred writings for religion those produced on the borders of the Holy Land in the Hebrew language, marginalizing I Enoque originally written in Aramaic. However, the same did not happen in some regions of the East where Christianity continued to use the book of I Enoque. Starting from the prism that Islam is a monotheistic religion that in its birth exchanged intensely with Judeo-Christian literatures, the article points to a plausible influence of the book of I Enoque in the construction of the Islamic apocalyptic taking as comparative basis the book The Scale of Mohammed. The article is bibliographic in nature and is structured on the comparative method, aiming to present narratological confluences between the writings.

This essay explores the possibility of a narrative theology of culture by drawing on the trinitarian metaphysics of Robert W. Jenson. Postliberal or narrative theologies have often been said to hinder the intercultural translation of the gospel by promoting the cultural forms of Western Christianity as the ideal, but I argue here that Jenson’s theology (enlisting some distinctively postliberal themes) creates a critical distance between the church and Christian civilization, while also enabling the free creation and expression of diverse cultural expressions of the gospel. The first section of the paper is a critical project, using a trinitarian metaphysics to rule out any reduction of Christian culture to its Western expressions. Since the community of the Trinity is the one cultural form to which God’s people strive, and because the church’s full participation in this community is eschatological, Christian cultural expression cannot be reduced to one particular cultural form. This creates distance between the church and the world, preventing a strict identification of Christianity with Western culture. The second part of the paper then offers a constructive project, demonstrating how a trinitarian understanding of creaturely freedom enables the development of human culture. By grounding creation’s freedom in the freedom of the triune persons, a trinitarian metaphysics enables the free and loving development of creation in an infinite number of ways. In doing so, Jenson’s metaphysics does not compromise the diversity of human cultures, but instead allows human cultures to flourish in their endless variety.

Purpose: The advent and spread of Baptist Mission Christianity in Mbumland from 1927 constituted one of the major determinants of cultural transformation in the area. The process was catalysed by the multifaceted nature of the Baptist Mission’s approach at Proselytization – evangelism, education and health. As a consequence, knowledge of Baptist Mission activities in Mbumland and beyond was commonplace. Like most write-ups with ethnocentric slant, incipient literature on Christianity in Mbumland, emphasized the debilitating effects of the impinging culture on indigenous cultural life ways. Methodology: This article employs primary and authoritative secondary data to argue that the spread of the Baptist faith in Mbumland between 1927 and 2008 rather led to culture sharing as the contemporary practice of the faith exuded a blend of both cultures. Results: The study therefore demonstrates that while Mbumland was being Christianised, Christianity itself imbibed Wimbum values and adopted an indigenous complexion specially to suit the practical circumstances. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study positions itself within a peculiar academic niche which emphasizes that the advent of the Baptist Mission in Mbumland led to indigenous culture simultaneously affecting and being affected by Christian values. While extant works in this thematic specialisation have often either emphasized the effects of one of the variables on the other, the peculiarity of this work is its midway position which spotlights the sharing mechanisms wherein, indigenous culture affected and was being affected by Christian values since the advent of the Baptist Mission in Mbumland. Keywords: Indigenous Culture, Western Christianity, Wimbum, Baptist Mission, Syncretism

Translation of: Scheler, M. 1986. “Über östliches und westliches Christentum” [in German]. In Schriften zur Soziologie und Weltanschauungslehre, vol. 6 of Gesammelte Werke, ed. by M.S. Frings, 99–115. 15 vols. Bonn: Bouvier Verlag Herbert Grundmann.

Much of Western Christianity continues to follow late medieval translation practices in translating yahweh and kurios. Since then, mainstream usage of “Lord” has slumped and evolved, with the little remaining usage often carrying a distinctly sinister connotation. The deep attachment to “Lord” within Christianity constitutes a second problem: although it creates methodological inconsistency, its historical super-sanctified status is likely the reason the terminology seems so impervious to change. Septuagint data highlight a further problem for sustaining “the LORD/Lord,” since doing so creates a grammatical mismatch with kurios (with regard to the definite article). These three problems call for reassessment of the ongoing suitability of “Lord” in English Bible translation and for a more context-driven methodology. This is defined and applied in a range of New Testament contexts for the purposes of demonstrating feasibility (rather than finality).

The purpose of this study was to establish effects of Western Christianity and African Traditional Religion on moral and cultural development of the people of Trans Nzoia County. Morals and core values play a very important role in the upbringing of the youth in any given community in any given Geographical part on this planet. The study will be guided by the following objectives: Establish effects of Christianity on moral development, Determine effects of African Traditional Religion on moral development, Compare and contrast effects of moral development of Western Christianity and African Traditional Religion and to determine the role played by morals and core values in both Christianity and African Traditional Religion. Mixed Research method combined both qualitative and quantitative was employed in the study to unearth the hidden truth underlying in the study. The target population was 500 people which gave a sample size of 50Bishops and Pastors of 50 Churches. The researcher employed purposive and simple random sampling techniques. The researcher used two guiding theories in the study: the theory of Atonement on the Christian part and the theory of dual allegiance on the part of African Traditional Religion. Data was collected by use of Questionnaires and Interview schedules. The raw data was analyzed and descriptively availed for facilitation of research objectives and research questions. Computer program SPSS was employed to give the final accurate and precise results of Research findings. The findings indicate that the intrusion of foreign cultures in Trans Nzoia County has helped water down the quality of African morals on one part and the other part there is improvement on cultural and core values of the people of Trans Nzoia County. The conclusion on the same is that since communication and mobility has been so much developed in these resent times, it is easy for people from different parts of the world to meet and interact at any time at any given Geographical zone on the planet. The study recommends that the citizens of Trans Nzoia should be careful enough in considering the kind of morals to be applied in this county since the county is an Agricultural hub where people from different parts of the Earth converge either for commercial purposes or for learning Agri-business techniques.

In Central Europe, medieval rotundas are found in great numbers, with the subject strongly connected to the spread of Christianity amongst peoples living in the area. The aesthetics of pagan religions is still present, but they adapted to Christian functions. Thus, on the border of Eastern and Western Christianity, a new design was created.This study introduces the features of round churches in the former Kingdom of Hungary from the 10th to 14th century and places them in the context of the Central European rotundas.To examine the buildings, we considered aspects such as location, periods of construction, possible layout variations, functions and patron saints. The database we created regarding the rotundas in Central Europe was the foundation for the investigations. Using this analysis, the goal is to find underlying patterns, identify different groups of rotundas and provide an overview of the monuments, which could be used for further investigations in the topic.

Данная статья посвящена современным медитативным практикам, которые применяются западными христианами: как католиками, так и протестантами. Целью исследования является попытка определить, являются ли они нововведениями или это возврат к древней христианской практике. Выполненные в работе анализ различных практики их классификация демонстрируют их существенное разнообразие. Для понимания, являются ли они новыми или это возврат к древней традиции, используется сравнение с практикой Иисусовой молитвы. При ответе на данный вопрос помогает проведённая классификация, которая позволяет отнести каждый вид практик к определённому религиозному опыту. В конце определяются темы дальнейшего более глубокого исследования. This article is devoted to modern meditative practices used by Western Christians, both Catholics and Protestants. The purpose of the study is to try to determine if these practices are innovations or a return to ancient Christian traditions. Analysis and classification of various practices demonstrate their substantial diversity. To understand whether they are new or a return to an ancient tradition, a comparison with the practice of Jesus prayer is performed. To help answering this question, a classification was developed allowing to refer each type of practice to a specific religious experience. In the conclusion the author determines directions for further research.

For the first time in the Belarusian liturgical musicology analysis of the attitude of domestic composers to Christian sources: themes, images, style, church singing culture in general is carried out. It is proved that the interest of the Belarusian musicians of the period of state sovereignty focuses on two Christian denominations – the Western and Eastern European; that the compositions of composers in their essence are representatives of musical art, and not of liturgical singing practice, and also, that the basis of the composer’s work is the phenomenon of interpretation. Three types of composer interpretation of church tradition are distinguished: «leverage» (transposition, re-establishment), author’s transcription and conventionality. The main conclusion of the work: the spiritual stratum of the national musical culture of modern times, presented by composer creativity, is a peculiar aesthetic euphemism between Eastern and Western Christianity, which manifests itself in various aspects.

Актуальность темы исследования обоснована тем, что, феномен юродства является одним из самых неоднозначных явлений в православной религиозной традиции, который до сих пор вызывает множество вопросов. Например, почему же тип такого религиозного и общественного поведения всегда находил понимание и поддержку среди значительной части общества? Кроме того, действия юродивых не понятны не только простому человеку, но и православному, ведь такой подвиг для него может показаться очень специфичным и даже недосягаемым. Поэтому серьезный и комплексный анализ образа юродивого, его ключевых черт, поможет сформировать более полную картину исследуемого феномена. Цель работы – выявить важнейшие типологические черты юродства на примере московских блаженных. Объектом работы является непосредственно феномен юродства, его образ, изучаемый через исследование житий московских блаженных, преданий, повествующих о них, различных фольклорных историй, которые связаны с этим видом религиозности, а также через иностранные легенды и истории, имеющие корреляцию с феноменом русского юродства. Предмет исследования – совокупность поведенческих парадигм московских юродивых, взятых в религиозном, историческом, социальном и культурном контексте. Научная новизна исследования данной работы состоит в том, что в ней формулируются основные типологические черты юродивых, которые впоследствии могут стать инструментом для дальнейшего научного исследования в этой области, таким образом формируя комплексный анализ этого религиозного явления. В работе представлены сведения об источниках преданий о юродивых, которые имели непосредственное влияние на формирование образа блаженных. Именно на их основе и составлялась типология данного феномена. Практическая значимость включает в себя возможность разработки методических рекомендаций на основе данной типологии и дает возможность составить систему основных характеристик русского юродства, а также рассмотреть этот феномен как часть единого мирового явления «божественного безумца» и выделить его уникальные черты. Сформированное комплексное представление о проявлении этого вида религиозности и полученные сведения могут быть использованы для дальнейшего изучения этого явления в области религиоведения и истории Русской Православной Церкви. Территориальные рамки исследования определяются образами блаженных, которые жили на территории города Москвы. Однако, в силу множества корреляций и заимствований в этих источниках, в этой работе были исследованы и жития не московских святых, так как они непосредственно повлияли на создание образа московских юродивых. Во всех пунктах предложенной типологии есть свои исключения, но как видно одной из важнейших характеристик феномена юродства, которая отражена во всех основных его чертах – это его некая условная «бинарность» или «дуальность». Во многих известных религиях существовали похожие на русских юродивых подвижники. Они вели себя идентично, просто их идейная основа отличалась., From the time of the Apostle Paul, the opposition of worldly wisdom and divine Christian knowledge begins, and, according to the apostle, for non-Christians, Orthodox dogma is madness (1 Cor 1:18). Subsequently it was the holy fools who became the personification of «the madness for Christ's sake» Throughout the history of Russia the holy fools have been a part of the church world, but a part of the mysterious, mysterious. Foolishness, perhaps can be called the most extraordinary feat of Christian humility. Such folk religiosity has always aroused the interest of various researchers. The relevance of the research topic is justified by the fact that the phenomenon of foolishness is one of the most controversial phenomena in the Orthodox religious tradition, which still raises many questions. For example, why did the type of such religious and social behavior always find understanding and support among a significant part of society? In addition, the actions of holy fools are incomprehensible not only to ordinary people, but also to the Orthodox, because such a feat for him may seem very specific and even inaccessible. Therefore, a serious and comprehensive analysis of the image of the holy fool, its key features, will help form a more complete picture of the phenomenon under study. The purpose of the work is to identify the most important typological features of foolishness on the example of the Moscow blesseds. To do this, it is important to solve a number of problems that require careful consideration, namely: to study the phenomenon of foolishness itself, approaches to its understanding and comprehension, as well as briefly consider the history of foolishness in Russia; find in history similar examples of the same specific manifestation of religiosity; to collect material about the Moscow holy fools, to find parallels in them with other stories, to analyze the latter; on the basis of the materials studied, draw up the key features of the holy foolishness, describe the typology of the holy foolishness and explain the reasons for this systematization. The object of the work is the phenomenon of foolishness itself, its image, studied through the study of the lives of the Moscow blesseds, legends telling about them, various folklore stories that are associated with this type of religiosity, as well as through foreign legends and stories that have a correlation with the phenomenon of Russian foolishness. The subject of the study is a set of behavioral paradigms of Moscow holy fools, taken in a religious, historical, social and cultural context. The research materials are literary sources: lives, scientific articles, publications, encyclopedias, annals and electronic resources. Previous studies of the phenomenon of holy foolishness actually considered it only in the prism of the Orthodox tradition, however, later, most of the research of the Soviet period was focused on the historiography of holy fools and their criticism. The scientific novelty of the study of this work lies in the fact that it formulates the main typological features of the holy fools, which can subsequently become a tool for further scientific research in this area, thus forming a comprehensive analysis of this religious phenomenon. The scientific significance of the work determines its research value. The theoretical significance of the work is based on the development of a methodology for identifying the typological features of foolishness on the example of the Moscow blesseds. It can be confirmed by the following aspects. A study was made of the very phenomenon of foolishness, both from the side of the Orthodox tradition and from the side of sociology. In addition, other similar phenomena in other cultures and religions were studied in the theoretical part of the work, and such a comparison required a serious analysis of many studies. Also, the work presents various information about the sources of legends about the holy fools, which had a direct impact on the formation of the image of the blessed. They reflected various biographical information, legends about their miracles and deeds. It was on their basis that the typology of this phenomenon was compiled. The practical significance includes the possibility of developing methodological recommendations based on this typology and makes it possible to compile a system of the main characteristics of Russian foolishness, as well as consider this phenomenon as part of a single world phenomenon of the «divine madman»and highlight its unique features. The formed complex idea of the manifestation of this type of religiosity and the information obtained can be used for further study of this phenomenon in the field of religious studies and the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. Research methods of work are a set of methods or operations of practical and theoretical development of reality, namely descriptive, comparative, systemic. The chronological framework of the study is determined by those sources that reflect the typological features of holy fools. These are chronicles that can date back to the 16th century and modern studies of the 21st century, which contain information and analysis of ancient sources, various characteristics of the typological features of foolishness. The territorial framework of the study is determined by the images of the blessed who lived on the territory of the city of Moscow. However, due to the many correlations and borrowings in these sources, the lives of non-Moscow saints were also studied in this work, since they directly influenced the creation of the image of Moscow holy fools, on whose basis the typology proposed in the work was compiled. All points of the proposed typology have their exceptions, but as you can see, one of the most important characteristics of the phenomenon of foolishness, which is reflected in all its main features, is its kind of conditional «binarity» or «duality». In many well-known religions, there were ascetics similar to Russian holy fools. They behaved identically, just their ideological basis was different.

O presente artigo propõe-se a estabelecer um diálogo com o monaquismo beneditino, buscando situar a singularização monástica nos contextos contemporâneos, pelo viés dos estudos da subjetividade. Utilizando o método bibliográfico, partimos de uma retrospectiva histórica, localizando as origens do monaquismo cristão na figura dos “padres do deserto”, dos séculos III e IV da nossa Era. Detendo-nos em Bento de Núrsia e no documento que lhe é atribuído – Regra de São Bento – localizamos os monges beneditinos expandindo as fronteiras da cristandade ocidental ao longo do medievo, influenciando séculos do ocidente europeu. Nessa trajetória, observamos a importância das práticas contemplativas e da oração comunitária – a Liturgia das Horas – na caracterização de tal movimento, o qual, na contemporaneidade, mantém-se fiel às suas tradições culturais. Nesse sentido, buscamos refletir sobre a capacidade de resistência e de adaptação do monasticismo beneditino, diante das constantes transformações sociais e dos contextos capitalistas próprios da atualidade.

A counterpossible conditional, or counterpossible for short, is a conditional proposition whose antecedent is impossible. The filioque doctrine is a dogma of western Christian Trinitarian theology according to which the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The filioque doctrine was the principal theological reason for the Great Schism, the split between Eastern Orthodoxy and western Christianity, which continues today. In the paper, I review one of the earliest medieval defenses of the doctrine in Anselm of Canterbury, and I show that Anselm’s treatment of counterpossible conditionals concerning the procession of the spirit from the son in Trinitarian theology represent an early foray into default logic. Thus, the mutual estrangement of eastern and western positions on the matter may not lie fundamentally in a change in dogma, but rather in a change in logic.

The fulcrum of social justice is the respect of human dignity. Before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) saw the light of the day in 1948, the pre-colonial Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria have already defined what constitutes the foundation of peaceable society. They invested the norms of human dignity on the umunna solidarity. Umunna is the assemblage of brethren born within an androgynous linage. In this social arrangement, individuals are lost as persons without the community, hence their popular cliché, “umunna is power.” This social arrangement protects the individuals from being dehumanized. Here everyone who belongs to the umunna receives a uniform treatment, the king and the subjects alike. It is in this context that human rights and dignity become community property. However, this pristine social arrangement has been lost consequent upon the contact and interaction of Igbo people with Western Christianity. The overwhelming consequences have become individualism of persons resulting to the vitiation of human rights and dignity of persons. Thus after a critical considerations of the entire vista, this paper notices that Christianity, despite its long contact with the Igbo people, has not taken any deep root and as such may not be consulted in serious matters in Igbo life and existence. It, therefore, proffers African Christianity, among other traditional values of human dignity, the community living and social solidarity of umunna of the Igbo people as major ways that Christianity can become relevant in Africa and among Africans. African Christianity has to rise to the challenge of a high level of objectivity in the religion’s practice of its adherents.

This collected volume encourages us to view the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (henceforth GDL) as a borderland. Indeed, as a polity set at the crossroads between Eastern and Western Christianity, one wh...

Western Christianity had a long history of polemics against Islam. That included rejecting Muhammad’s idea of paradise as excessively «carnal». In the mid-15th century, three members of the Roman curia took differing approaches to the Otto-mans as Muslims. Pius II tried to persuade the sultan to give up Islam, offering him a «better» paradise. Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa sought evidence of the gospels in the Qur’an, but he rejected the Prophet’s «carnal» view of the afterlife. Cardinal Juan de Torquemada, a Dominican, offered a more thorough and negative view of Islam, denouncing carnality but also treating the Qur’anic description of paradise as impossi-ble, requiring an unending multiplication of locations in the afterlife for devout Muslims. Torquemada also offered a Thomistic view of the risen body as incapable not just of sexual pleasure but a free from worldly suffering.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, there was a growing concern within the Church of Sweden that the church was, to a too large extent, managed by the clergy alone. In an attempt to give the laity a more active and influential role in the Church of Sweden, the Brethren of the Church was established in 1918. Since it was only possible for men to become members, the organization simultaneously addressed a different issue: the view that women had become a much too salient group in church life. This process was described by the Brethren and similar groups as a “feminization” of the church, a phrasing which later came to be used by historians and theologians to explain changes in Western Christianity in the nineteenth century. In other words, the Brethren considered questions of gender vital to their endeavor to create a church in which the laity held a more prominent position. This article analyzes how the perceived feminization and its assumed connection to secularization caused enhanced attempts to uphold and strengthen gender differentiation in the Church of Sweden in the early twentieth century. By analyzing an all-male lay organization, the importance of homosociality in the construction of Christian masculinities will also be discussed.

Does Robert Schreiter's proposal for a new catholicity secure a decolonized theology of culture? This essay discusses salient elements of Schreiter's theological proposals and suggests that postcolonial theologies of culture avoid the twin pitfalls of identity politics and erasure in the Western academic study of theology by employing the methods of deconstruction. Identity claims, knowledge claims, and theological claims are to be persistently critiqued for their tendency towards totalization. Only such a practice of deconstruction aiding an active spirituality can secure a decolonized theology of culture.

Early modern English Bibles are among the most significant texts in western Christianity. They contained the translation of the Bible into English and its authorisation, they facilitated the Protestant Reformation, and their effects on English Christianity and culture are felt vividly to this day. A vital facet of these editions are paratexts: the titles, summaries, glosses, and other non-canonical additions appended to scripture to aid its organisation and interpretation. Though neglected by literary, historical, and theological scholarship, these paratexts comprised huge portions of early modern Bibles and acted as productive vehicles to disseminate politics and theologies. One such form of paratext are the casus summarii, the chapter summaries that precede many chapters in early modern Bibles. In these summaries, significant biblical events or controversial subjects were condensed, omitted, reframed, rephrased, or otherwise represented to suit the editor’s purposes. This article provides the first survey of the chapter summaries in early modern English Bibles, with a table detailing the extent to which they were copied between editions. The article focuses on the Matthew, Geneva, and KJV Bibles, with additional discussion of the Coverdale, Great, and Bishops’ Bibles. The article addresses notable aspects of this material, including practices of translation, representations of Sodom, the anglicisation of names, and the sexualisation of Eve. By explicating the origins and influences of these summaries, this article facilitates the understanding and study of paratexts and demonstrates their importance to scholarship of early modern Christianity.

Recognising the impact of religion on state action, this article identifies two variables that interact to affect the type and level of violence employed by Western states against Third World targe...

The murder of the German politician Walter Lübcke in 2019 by a far-right extremist with links to Neo-Nazi groups exposes the need to address European ethnonationalist extremism from a wider array of approaches, one of them, the religious one. European ethno-nationalists have found profitable the distortion of elements of Western Christianity and its use to reject individuals they consider undesirable, especially Muslims and non-European immigrants. By doing this, far-right extremists have managed to consolidate an ideological basis known as Christianism. This work examines the characteristics of the extremist ideology Christianism and its relation to white supremacism, as well as the historical bias of the Crusades they use and that is a central part of their ideology. This work analyses the manifesto written by white supremacist terrorist Brenton Tarrant with the aim to expose the relation between white supremacism and Christianism, as well as the influence on terrorist acts against non-Europeans in the West, and the main propositions of such extremist ideology. The conclusion proposes the need of better education in history and critical thinking skills in societies affected by white supremacism, as well as the participation of followers of traditional Christianity in counter extremism efforts

Starting from the assumption that education and scholarship are important venues for the transmission and preservation of culture, this article notes that non-Christian writings have had a significant and lasting impact throughout the history of learning in Western Christianity. It is then argued that eclecticism, the selective and critical usage of texts and ideas from various backgrounds, has been a deliberate practice in Christian history. As an expression of independent thinking, eclecticism allows the positive use of what a critical inquiry has shown to be “good” (1 Thess. 5:21) in nonChristian (and Christian) sources. When it succeeds in maintaining its critical independence and its commitment to truth, eclecticism does not produce what G.W.F. Hegel called “superficial aggregates”.

The history of Christianity, in general, and Western Christianity, in particular, is burdened with tensions surrounding the body in religious musicking. From the Patristic period through the Enlightenment and into its modern iterations, Christian traditions have grappled with the body in worship by regulating its expression or attempting to erase it from the liturgy. While certain aspects of this issue have been addressed by scholars, such examinations have not traced these questions past the “dividing lines” of Vatican II and the rise of contemporary worship phenomena which, in today's interconnected world, have broken down or resisted pre-established modes of negotiation, negation, and contestation of the body in Christian worship. An investigation of the body ethics of worshiping congregations must account for the ongoing convolutions and developments in the study of church music that acknowledge interdisciplinary perspectives. Located at the intersection of performances of music, ethics, and religion, this chapter will trace the mind/body gap in Christian thought and liturgical practices of religious musicking in order to examine how these “body ethics” surround and bind the worshiping body.

Like other religions, Christianity has its own tradition of meditation, the practice of contemplation, that has evolved over two millennia. This tradition has a core celebration and a core problem. The core celebration is that by grace we are all one in the ineffable mystery of God in Christ. The core problem is that we live most of our lives in ignorance of this. The practice of contemplation aims to heal this ignorance and the inner noise it generates by training the mind to abide in silence. The silent mind is a loving mind that sees through the illusion of separation from God. This chapter examines the teachings of five key authors or traditions from the fourth to fourteenth century so as to learn how to bring the mind home to itself, a self hidden in the mystery of God in Christ (Col 3:3).

The “Jacob’s ladder” episode from the book of Genesis inspired numerous symbolic interpretations in ancient Christianity. Most often we encounter moral symbolism, which basically proceeds in two directions. Following Tertullian, “descending angels” symbolize sinners, and “ascending” – righteous people. According to Augustine, “descending” mean those who take care of the needs of others, while “ascending” are those who direct their hearts to God. For Jerome, ascending and descending angels symbolize not so much people as the mercy of God who descends to the sinner, whereas for Ambrose and Zeno of Verona the ladder represents the Old and New Testament, and its rungs – the Christian virtues. An important literary motif in the story of the “Jacob’s ladder” is the stone under the Patriarch’s head, which in the Christian tradition assumes a Christological meaning.

Gone are the days when one could clearly define the contours of western Christianity. Such a description must necessarily account for the influences of African expressions of Christianity and African religiosity in general. From the role of religious leaders to the very expressions of Christian rituals in the western world, Africa continues to play a prominent role. This is particularly true for the North American continent where several hundreds of ordained ministers originally from the African continent are ministering. Since Africa is not a monolithic continent, a legitimate question arises: What do we mean by the adjective “African” in the contexts of speaking of both an African identity and African Christianity? This chapter offers a response to the question by first exploring the colonial consciousness of the word. It proceeds further to show innovative ways contemporary Africans reinterpret the word as a pathway for new imaginations of community and self—imaginations that are intentionally inclusive. Furthermore, this work sheds light on the successes and challenges facing African Christians as they navigate western socio-cultural identities both as diaspora African communities and as individuals, especially in the American context.

This chapter introduces the book’s discussion of esoteric transfers and constructions, looking at Judaism, Western Christianity (and sometimes post-Christian Western esotericism), and Islam. It discusses the history of the study of the relationship between esoteric and mystical currents in different religious traditions, and the current positions taken by diffusionists and deconstructionists. It considers what can be learned from the example of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, and argues that transfer and construction can usefully be understood as on a continuum. It explains the book’s focus on “Abrahamic” religions and the Mediterranean, and examines the possible meanings of two crucial terms, “esoteric” and “mystical.” It then reviews the contents and arguments of this book’s chapters and concludes that both diffusionists and deconstructionists are right, but that transfer and construction are not binary alternatives: rather, they are indeed points on a continuum.

This paper investigates the relationship between local religiosity and episodes of persecutions in a sample of over 2,100 European cities during 1100-1850. We introduce a novel proxy for measuring local religion: the cult of saints in early Western Christianity. Our findings show that cities with an established cult of a saint are associated with a 16 and 10 percentage points (pp) increase in the likelihood of witch trials and witch killings and an 11 pp increased likelihood of Jewish persecutions. However, cities with more progressive gender norms, measured by the presence of a female saint cult, are less likely to persecute witches compared to male-only saint cities. Our baseline relationship persists after controlling for a range of city-level economic, geographic and institutional characteristics and after accounting for other major confounders. We find two plausible mechanisms behind the saints-persecution relationship: (i) changes in norms induced by longer exposure to Christianity; and (ii) proximity of religious groups due to congruence of religious festivities.