Over the past two decades the scholarly conversation has shifted from the practically consensus view that John has little to offer in terms of ethical content to a more robust understanding of how Johannine literature engages ethical questions. This process recently reached a milestone with the publication of two seminal tomes on Johannine ethics by Jan van der Watt. Based on the Radboud Prestige Lectures he delivered on this topic, the present volume evaluates van der Watt’s approach by submitting it to critical evaluation by leading specialists in the field, and explores future prospects for the study of Johannine ethics.
Over the past two decades the scholarly conversation has shifted from the practically consensus view that John has little to offer in terms of ethical content to a more robust understanding of how Johannine literature engages ethical questions. This process recently reached a milestone with the publication of two seminal tomes on Johannine ethics by Jan van der Watt. Based on the Radboud Prestige Lectures he delivered on this topic, the present volume evaluates van der Watt’s approach by submitting it to critical evaluation by leading specialists in the field, and explores future prospects for the study of Johannine ethics.
This sourcebook serves both as an introduction and a wide-ranging reference work for human attitudes to nonhuman animals in Latin Europe during the Middle Ages. Under twelve headings, it includes numerous translated passages from Latin and vernacular texts that reflect human conceptions and uses of other animals during the period 300-1520. Theologians, philosophers, encyclopaedists, bestiarists, hagiographers, chroniclers, huntsmen and writers of agricultural manuals, cookbooks and plague treatises all had something to say about the place of nonhuman animals in their world and their interaction with humans, or simply recorded what they did incidentally in their writings. All are represented here.
This sourcebook serves both as an introduction and a wide-ranging reference work for human attitudes to nonhuman animals in Latin Europe during the Middle Ages. Under twelve headings, it includes numerous translated passages from Latin and vernacular texts that reflect human conceptions and uses of other animals during the period 300-1520. Theologians, philosophers, encyclopaedists, bestiarists, hagiographers, chroniclers, huntsmen and writers of agricultural manuals, cookbooks and plague treatises all had something to say about the place of nonhuman animals in their world and their interaction with humans, or simply recorded what they did incidentally in their writings. All are represented here.
In the treatise On the Change of Names (part of his magnum opus, the Allegorical Commentary), Philo of Alexandria brings his figurative exegesis of the Abraham cycle to its fruition. Taking a cue from Platonist interpreters of Homer’s Odyssey, Philo reads Moses’s story of Abraham as an account of the soul’s progress and perfection. Responding to contemporary critics, who mocked Genesis 17 as uninspired, Philo finds instead a hidden philosophical reflection on the ineffability of the transcendent God, the transformation of souls which recognize their mortal nothingness, the possibility of human faith enabled by peerless faithfulness of God, and the fruit of moral perfection: joy divine, prefigured in the birth of Isaac.
In the treatise On the Change of Names (part of his magnum opus, the Allegorical Commentary), Philo of Alexandria brings his figurative exegesis of the Abraham cycle to its fruition. Taking a cue from Platonist interpreters of Homer’s Odyssey, Philo reads Moses’s story of Abraham as an account of the soul’s progress and perfection. Responding to contemporary critics, who mocked Genesis 17 as uninspired, Philo finds instead a hidden philosophical reflection on the ineffability of the transcendent God, the transformation of souls which recognize their mortal nothingness, the possibility of human faith enabled by peerless faithfulness of God, and the fruit of moral perfection: joy divine, prefigured in the birth of Isaac.
What does it mean when Christians confess that Jesus was ‘born of the Virgin Mary’? This volume of essays, written by an international group of scholars, approaches this question from various perspectives. From examining the Old Testament backgrounds to exploring the Virgin Birth in various traditions and cultures, each chapter offers fresh perspectives. The contributors explore topics ranging from the Pre-Nicene tradition to modern cinematic interpretations, and from the perspectives of renowned theologians to interfaith dialogue with Islam and Hinduism. Engaging and thought-provoking, this volume promises to illuminate the significance of the Virgin Birth across diverse religious and cultural contexts.
What does it mean when Christians confess that Jesus was ‘born of the Virgin Mary’? This volume of essays, written by an international group of scholars, approaches this question from various perspectives. From examining the Old Testament backgrounds to exploring the Virgin Birth in various traditions and cultures, each chapter offers fresh perspectives. The contributors explore topics ranging from the Pre-Nicene tradition to modern cinematic interpretations, and from the perspectives of renowned theologians to interfaith dialogue with Islam and Hinduism. Engaging and thought-provoking, this volume promises to illuminate the significance of the Virgin Birth across diverse religious and cultural contexts.