bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Agency of Images
Authors: Huntington Susan L.
Published: May 2022

This chapter explores the relationships between Buddhist devotees and figurative images, particularly regarding images of Shakyamuni, which Buddhists conceive as enlivened beings possessed with agency. Building on recent studies of miraculous images and consecration practices, this chapter describes some of the ways in which devotees venerate images, the agency attributed to images, and the methods by which images are invested with their powers. Finally, the history of image veneration and enlivenment is addressed; the author asks whether these practices can be considered core features of Buddhism from its earliest days, or if they were later additions to the spectrum of reverent activities.
Globalized Forms of Buddhist Practice
Authors: Prohl Inken
Published: May 2022

The observation that Buddhist semantics, aesthetics, and designs are an integral part of the articulation of promises of contentment, happiness, success, health, and luck, as well as personal advancement in the twenty-first century, raises several questions: Why are practices and narratives of Buddhism so popular when it comes to optimization and healing of the modern self? What are the reasons Buddhist signifiers are connected so closely to the practice of consumption? This chapter discusses the reciprocal interaction between Buddhist practice and the global modernity characterized by consumer capitalism, mediatization, and the pull of economics on social, cultural, political, and religious life. These interactions are illustrated using the examples of “prosperity Buddhism,” the transformation of practices of introversion—commonly called meditation—as well as the spread of Buddhist semantics, practices, and materialities in the field of marketing, branding, and consumption.
Texts and Rituals
Authors: Gummer Natalie
Published: May 2022

In important ways, texts that are designated buddhavacana, “buddha-speech,” are rituals: at once power substance, ritual manual, and the Buddha’s textual body/relic, their ritual enactment preserves his life essence and enables him to continue to speak and act in the world. These notions, rooted in the ritual cosmology of ancient South Asia, find expression in “biographies” that bear witness to the texts’ transformative powers, as well as a dizzying array of ritual and textual technologies that make the power of the Buddha’s speech-body present and accessible. Seen through the lens of the sutras, seemingly mundane or rote textual practices become potent ritual processes through which the Buddha’s verbal essence is progressively incorporated, reproduced, and disseminated. Sutras thus offer a powerful challenge to common contemporary assumptions both about the nature of language and about the kinds of practices deemed to be “ritual.”
Interactions with Built Environments
Authors: Amar Abhishek Singh
Published: May 2022

Bodhgaya, the site of the historical Buddha’s enlightenment, has been considered the paradigmatic center of the Buddhist world. It emerged as a pilgrimage site in the third century bce and grew into a sacred center that attracted pilgrims and visitors from diverse Buddhist communities. Besides the Mahābodhi temple, the site also has innumerable material-remains, including miniature stupas, images, inscriptions, and architectural pieces. This chapter studies examples of each of these remains to examine the built environment of Bodhgaya. In doing so, it investigates the historiography and methodology employed in the study of Bodhgaya and demonstrates how the built environment of Bodhgaya developed and grew at multiple moments as a result of interactions between the site, monastic communities, and lay practitioners.
Phenomenology and Habitus in Music Listening
Authors: McGuiness Andrew
Published: May 2022

In a context of endemic racism in the United States in the 1960s, the funk music of James Brown became a driving force of Black nationalist consciousness. While Brown’s lyrics and delivery were forthright and explicitly encouraged Black agency, contemporary accounts indicate that rhythm and the response of the body to James Brown’s funk were especially potent sources of positive subjectivity. The chapter examines Black authors’ accounts of the difficulty of developing a personal subjectivity in response to ontologies of the self given by endemic racism and internalized in the body. Since no given ontology is adequate, an awareness of the Self as unformed, an exploration of the transcendental field of the individual, is demanded. I argue that part of the capacity of James Brown’s funk to transform subjectivity flows from a musicological attribute (“counter-rhythm”) that prompts a specific mechanism (“perceptual revision”) identified in Husserl’s phenomenology, so bringing consciousness to unconscious elements of the body schema.
“Singing with the Heart”
Authors: Teixido Sandrine
Published: May 2022

This chapter examines the notion of “sincerity,” as well as the expressions “singing and speaking from the heart” as they are used by artists or cultural actors in the French context of world music where artists circulate between public institutions, communities, and music industries. The author confronts this notion with that of authenticity often used in the context of the diffusion of world music. The author moves away from an analysis in terms of instrumentalization of musical traditions by the music market to develop a more refined analysis of capitalism in terms of layers and an articulation between capitalist and pericapitalist zones. The chapter then explores the notions of disinterestedness and agape in economic anthropology and the possibility of rethinking a theory of action that accounts for a diversity of subjectivities and economic skills mobilized by musicians to resolve the difficulty of having to interact with different networks and different regimes of justifications.
Basic Needs and Sufficiency
Authors: Meyer Lukas H. , Pölzler Thomas
Published: May 2022

This chapter addresses a theory of intergenerational justice that is referred to as needs-based sufficientarianism. According to needs-based sufficientarianism, the present generation ought to enable future generations to meet their basic needs—for example, their needs for drinkable water, food, and healthcare. The authors’ aim is to explain and defend this theory in a programmatic way. First, they introduce what they regard as the most plausible variant of needs-based sufficientarianism. Then, they argue that this variant is superior to several alternative ways of thinking about intergenerational justice. In particular, they defend basic needs as the currency of intergenerational justice and sufficiency as its principle. Their arguments for these claims do not purport to be fully comprehensive nor fully conclusive. Yet, the authors hope that they suffice to show that needs-based sufficientarianism is a major contender, with significant pro tanto advantages over other views.
A Deontological Approach to Future Consequences
Authors: Gardner Molly
Published: May 2022

This chapter defends a deontological approach to both the non-identity problem and what is referred to as the “inconsequentiality problem.” Both problems arise in cases where, although the actions of presently living people appear to have harmful consequences for future people, it is difficult to explain why there are moral reasons against such actions. The deontological response to both problems appeals to a distinction between causal and non-causal consequences. By acknowledging the moral importance of such a distinction, deontologists can vindicate the judgment that, collectively and individually, present people have harm-based reasons against bringing about bad consequences for future people.
Moral Bioenhancement and Future Generations
Authors: Savulescu Julian , Bowman-Smart Hilary
Published: May 2022

Moral bioenhancement is a biological modification or intervention which makes moral behavior more likely. There are a number of ways this could potentially be achieved, including pharmaceuticals, non-invasive brain stimulation, or genetic engineering. Moral bioenhancement can be distinguished from other kinds of enhancement because it primarily benefits others, rather than just the individual who has been enhanced. With the challenges that will face future generations, such as climate change and the rise of artificial intelligence, it is even more important to address the possibilities of moral bioenhancement. In this chapter, the authors examine rationales for moral bioenhancement, the possibilities of these technologies, and some common critiques and concerns. The authors defend the view that moral bioenhancement may be a useful tool—one tool among many—to help future generations respond to these aforementioned challenges. The authors suggest that an application of the non-identity problem to genetic selection may help resolve some of the concerns surrounding moral bioenhancement.
The Bible in Orthodox Christianity
Authors: Pentiuc Eugen J.
Published: May 2022

This article synthesizes the salient themes of the current handbook. The four sections of the article deal with matters that have an important impact on Orthodox biblical hermeneutics. The first theme, the all-encompassing, life-like “Tradition” is treated in its relationship with Scripture, whose centrality within the former has always been celebrated. The second theme, biblical “text,” is described in its fluidity and pluriformity. The Orthodox church has never codified the Septuagint or any other textual witnesses as its authoritative text. The third theme, “canon,” underlines the open-endedness of the Orthodox biblical canon with its special section of anaginoskōmena “readable [books].” The fourth theme, “Orthodox hermeneutics,” deals with the ongoing process of recontextualization of Tradition by which Orthodox biblical scholars seek to strike a balance between Tradition, especially patristic exegesis, and modern biblical approaches.
Reception History
Authors: Mihoc Justin A.
Published: May 2022

The postmodern paradigm produced a plethora of new exegetical methods that stirred the interest of biblical scholars. One in particular has been favorably received by Orthodox scholarship in recent years, namely the so-called Wirkungsgeschichte or reception history. It represents a relatively fresh critical approach for studying the ways in which the canonical text has been read and the impact it had throughout history, across a multitude of cultures and literary or artistic media. Thus, reception theory bridges the diachronic and synchronic methodologies and offers a way in which the scholar can show the relevance of the different modes of impact and significance that the text has, as well as making the text actual and relevant for the contemporary world.
Tradition
Authors: Bunta Silviu N.
Published: May 2022

This chapter proposes that the crucial problem with Orthodox conceptualizations of “Scripture” and “Tradition” is the conceptual-dogmatist approach itself. In the wake of the neopatristic synthesis, when approaching such “doctrines” Orthodox scholarship has generally privileged concepts and definitions and has ignored the language and self-descriptions of the Scriptures themselves. This approach has generated hidden yet fundamental tensions between the Scriptures and Tradition which have kept a large part of the Scriptures (that is, the Old Testament) in subservience to Tradition, and Tradition has been defined in ways that associate it exclusively with the Church. This chapter proposes a reading of the Scriptures on their own terms. A close analysis of several scriptural texts suggests that Scriptures describe themselves as Tradition, and Tradition is nothing else but living a certain life.
Past and Current Trends in New Testament Textual Criticism
Authors: Crisp Simon
Published: May 2022

The Greek text of the New Testament has been extensively studied over a long period, from the church fathers to the great editions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with rich traditions of scholarship and a multitude of approaches. In more recent times, the increased availability of digital images of New Testament manuscripts and computer tools to analyze them has revolutionized the field and has also led to an ongoing project for a comprehensive critical edition using a powerful new methodology. A new understanding of the goal of New Testament textual criticism with an emphasis on the whole process of textual transmission, together with a renewed appreciation for the Byzantine text of the New Testament, resonate with traditional Orthodox respect for the text accepted by the Church.
The Special Status of the Anagignoskomena in Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy
Authors: Chirilă Ioan
Published: May 2022

This chapter offers a general perspective on how the Anagignoskomena has been received in the Eastern Orthodox space. These additions, which accompany the canonical books of the Septuagint, have been accepted by the Church and used especially for their formative dimension. Even if some of the Church Fathers included parts of this category on the lists of canonical books, they were not viewed as Holy Scriptures. This research describes how the countries with an Orthodox majority accepted the Anagignoskomena and defined the line of understanding regarding their status in the Scripture. The following environments have been mostly considered: the Slavic, the Greek, and the Romanian. Scholars have analyzed the main translations/editions of the Holy Scripture in the languages of the environments and have indicated the positions of current biblical scholars toward this category. The use of fragments from the Anagignoskomena in worship is a peculiarity of Eastern Orthodoxy.
The Place of the Hebrew Old Testament Text in the Eastern Church
Authors: Konstantinou Miltiadis
Published: May 2022

As is well known, the Eastern Church since its birth has used as Old Testament text basically that of the Septuagint (LXX). This fact however must not lead to the conclusion that she has accepted Septuagint as the sole authority for the text of the Orthodox Old Testament. The reasons that led the Church to the adoption of the Septuagint text were not theological but practical. Even the Jews used the Greek language in their worship until the tenth century. The key question in this case, then, is not whether the Church used the Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible in its Scripture interpretation, but how the Church incorporated the Synagogue Bible into its own Christian Bible. The Church during its first millennium, did not tie itself to a specific textual tradition of the Old Testament, nor did it ever reject the original Hebrew text. In the Orthodox Church the matter of Old Testament text was raised again, not as an internal problem, but as a reflection of the related discussions that were going on in the West. The views which were formulated in that period, even the synodical resolutions, were fueled by the confrontation of Catholicism with Protestantism. Therefore, to the extent that nothing today compels the Orthodox Church to favor a text of a particular form, there is a need for a completely new and sober handling of the problem with purely scientific criteria, but also with a sense of responsibility.
Theology, Philosophy, and Confessionalization
Authors: Despotis Athanasios
Published: May 2022

This chapter analyzes three representative stations in the history of Eastern Orthodox approaches to the Bible after the Fall of Constantinople up to the late seventeenth century. It focuses on reflections about the Bible and its hermeneutics that occur in Eastern Orthodox “confessions” or decrees of this era. It aims to reconstruct the theoretical principles and historical contexts lying behind these texts by considering both source material and secondary literature. The analysis proves that eastern theologians manage to form their Orthodox identity in interaction with western theological and philosophical traditions in the era of confessionalization. Eastern Orthodox theologians developed diverse profiles after the fall of Constantinople both by favoring the interpretation of the Greek fathers and considering developments in Western scholarship.
The Bible in Orthodox Christian–Jewish Dialogue
Authors: Azar Michael G.
Published: May 2022

Since their first official meeting in 1972, Orthodox Christians and Jews have regularly realized, often to the surprise of the dialogue participants themselves, a wealth of commonalities regarding Scripture and hermeneutics. Both traditions value the practicing community’s salient role in interpretation. Both, likewise, remain resistant to a stark division between Scripture and tradition, whether to disparage the latter or to extoll it as an additional vehicle of revelation. After surveying the history of these dialogues and major points of agreement, this chapter considers aspects of the Bible and its interpretation, so far lacking or underemphasized, that would serve future dialogues well, including the role of the Septuagint in both Orthodoxy and Judaism, the Hebraic nature of the New Testament, the impact of the Bible on later traditions (Wirkungsgeschichte), and a more careful consideration of the ways that traditional interpretations have negatively affected contemporary Orthodox Christian–Jewish relations in the Holy Land.
Biblical Interpretation in Ethiopian Patristic Literature
Authors: Alehegne Mersha
Published: May 2022

Ethiopia has its own methods of commentary that help to extol the truths and values of the Scriptures. It started by commenting Gǝʾǝz texts in Gǝʾǝz, the vernacular of the country until around the twelfth century. This system of commentary is called tǝrgwame. After Gǝʾǝz ceased to be the vernacular of the nation and replaced by Amharic, the church with the support of the palace established the Gǝʾǝz-Amharic commentary tradition called andǝmta. This chapter presents the history of these commentary traditions focusing on the beginning and development of both the tǝrgwame and andǝmta tradition. Then a concise discussion of the method of the state of the art commentary tradition, the andǝmta will be given. Finally, a summarizing presentation on the history of research on the tradition is delivered.
Biblical Exegesis in the Syriac Churches
Authors: Brock Sebastian P.
Published: May 2022

This chapter surveys the Syriac biblical texts available to Syriac authors and readers, drawing attention to certain basic assumptions. Then the exegetical approaches of each of three main literary genres, commentaries, homilies, and poetry and liturgy, are set out. In the section on liturgy and poetry, particular attention is paid to the following topics: Ephrem’s understanding of the role of symbols, certain titles of biblical origin given to Christ and to Mary, the prevalence of bridal imagery, the use of typology as a basis for the structure of liturgical services, the Psalter, and the Gospel Parables.
Bible and Archaeology
Authors: Roddy Nicolae
Published: May 2022

A review of more than a century of data reveals a dearth of Orthodox Christian involvement in the archaeology of the Holy Land compared per capita to their Catholic and Protestant counterparts. Bequeathing the question for why this may be so will be left to philosophers, theologians, and neuroscientists. This chapter provides a concise overview of the history and methods of so-called biblical archaeology, with special interest in Orthodox participation. This relative lack of participation should not be interpreted as disinterest on the part of Orthodox scholars, nor does it discount seventeen centuries of eastern Christian identification and maintenance of pilgrimage sites in Palestine, or Roman-period projects around the Mediterranean basin and Anatolia. The information is based on data gleaned from this (Orthodox) writer’s twenty years of active experience in archaeology in association with other professionals who excavate, publish reports, and share their discoveries at professional conferences throughout the world.
Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers
Authors: Torrance Alexis
Published: May 2022

This chapter opens by emphasizing that for the Orthodox, reading Scripture without the church fathers on at least some level would be unthinkable. The issue of looking at specific patristic exegesis of one or another text is distinguished from coming to terms with an overarching approach to the doctrine of Scripture as such in the church fathers. It is the latter that the chapter attempts to delineate, taking in turn the understanding of Origen (via the Cappadocian Philokalia), that of St. Maximus the Confessor, and that of St. Gregory Palamas. Each provides important and often unexpected insights that help shape a vision for reading Scripture that is centered on Christ, that insists on the import of the text for ethical or spiritual life, and that is attuned to the complexities and polyvalence of the text without losing sight of its crucial historical dimension.
Modern Orthodox Biblical Interpretation
Authors: Wallace James Buchanan
Published: May 2022

This chapter explores the reception of academic study of Scripture in the modern eastern Orthodox Church, focusing especially on the New Testament. After a historical overview of the reception of historical-critical interpretation, the chapter assesses several major attempts to formulate Orthodox hermeneutics in light of the neopatristic synthesis proposed by Florovsky, before turning to reactions against this trend. Critical study of Scripture, liberated from undue constraints of tradition, stands to make numerous contributions to Orthodox thought and practice, allowing us, for example, to hear the distinctive witness of each biblical text and combat anti-Semitism. Those interpreters who draw judiciously on Orthodox traditions in their biblical scholarship can contribute to academic interpretation by alerting readers to themes and/or perspectives that modern scholars often overlook. Orthodox biblical scholarship must remain a dialogue with scholars of various confessions and experts from related fields.
Pastoral Use of the Bible in the Orthodox Church
Authors: Pappas Harry
Published: May 2022

This chapter assesses how Orthodox pastors in the last half century use Scripture in their ministry, beginning with their own personal devotions and then extending outward. Particular attention is given not only to actual practice but also to suggestions for broader and deeper renewal that includes the significant growth of resources both Orthodox and ecumenical. Central to their work is the use of Scripture in a rich tradition of worship, with the key task of preaching. Further, this chapter demonstrates the use of Scripture for group study, teaching the Orthodox faith, spiritual direction, missionary activity, philanthropy, a diverse public witness that includes rapid adoption of social media, and finally ecumenical and interfaith cooperation.
From Suspicion to Appreciation
Authors: Olariu Daniel
Published: May 2022

The Septuagint translation of Daniel circulated in antiquity in two Greek versions, known as the Old Greek and Theodotion. Intriguingly, while the latter text displaced the former in its transmission history, the personality of Theodotion and the version associated with his name are shrouded in mystery. Furthermore, the ancient patristic sources perpetuate this mystery by both offering contradictory comments with regard to the provenance, time, and religious appurtenance of Theodotion and documenting a change of perception within the Christian church regarding his version, namely, from suspicion to a positive appreciation of its merits, leading to its acceptance. Consequently, the goal of this chapter is twofold: It discusses all patristic references that directly or indirectly refer to the person of Theodotion in the works of Irenaeus of Lyons, Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, Epiphanius of Salamis, and Jerome of Stridon; and it attempts to explain the change toward the positive reception of Theodotion’s version within the Christian church that ultimately led to the complete supplanting of the Old Greek of Daniel in the vast majority of the Septuagint manuscripts.
Orthodox Christianity, Patristic Exegesis, and Historical Criticism of the Bible
Authors: Fotopoulos John
Published: May 2022

The adoption of historical criticism by Orthodox Christian biblical scholars has been gradual and has not been without adversity. Rather, an emphasis on the use of patristic exegesis as normative for biblical interpretation has been stressed many times by the Orthodox Church and influential Orthodox theologians. Although the patristic exegesis of Scripture remains of vital importance in Orthodox Christianity, the use of historical criticism is a necessary and important tool in avoiding circular, repetitious, biblical interpretation that can lack creativity, insight, and relevance for contemporary Orthodox Christians.
The Use of the Bible in Byzantine Liturgical Texts and Services
Authors: Alexopoulos Stefanos
Published: May 2022

This chapter explores the relationship between the Bible and Liturgy in the Orthodox Church. It argues that the Bible occupies a place of paramount importance in Byzantine liturgy, and that the Bible is everywhere, permeating all aspects of the life of the church, especially its liturgical life. It demonstrates this by looking at how the Bible is presented and interpreted through the use the lectionary, the psalter, the liturgical year, liturgical prayers, the liturgical hermeneutic of Scripture, iconography, and the ritual place of the Gospel book. It concludes that at the heart of the Scriptures is the proclamation of salvation in Christ; at the heart of liturgy is the celebration of the salvation in Christ.
Bible, Theology, and Science
Authors: Wilkinson David A.
Published: May 2022

This chapter sets the future of the science and theology dialogue in the context of its history and the contemporary situation of the Covid 19 pandemic of 2020. Out of this global crisis, a number of themes in science and biblical theology have surfaced that resonate with other times in history and point the way forward for a fruitful engagement for scientists and theologians. These include how theology engages with science, the doctrine of creation and new creation, and the biblical understanding of the vocation of scientists.
How Orthodox Women Read and Teach the Bible
Authors: Purpura Ashley M.
Published: May 2022

Even though women are traditionally restricted from holding clerical offices most associated with preaching, many Orthodox women, much like laymen, read and teach the Bible in nonliturgical contexts, ranging from homes to universities. Based on Paul’s proscription that women ought not to speak in the assembly (1 Corinthians 14:34) and traditional androcentricism that marks much of Orthodoxy’s liturgical leadership, one might assume women have little authority to read and teach the Bible. Orthodox sacred texts, hymns, saints, and icons however, present women as authoritative readers, teachers, and interpreters of sacred scriptures. Although it remains to be seen how such a presentation might be in tension with the lived realities and liturgical opportunities for practicing Orthodox laywomen, or challenge broader assumptions about gender roles and religious participation overall, it does demonstrate that Orthodox tradition includes a celebration of women authoritatively teaching and giving voice to the Bible in the liturgical context.
Scriptural Interpretation in the Late Antique Coptic Tradition
Authors: Farag Mary K.
Published: May 2022

This chapter highlights key features of scriptural interpretation produced in Coptic during the period of late antiquity. What was worn on bodies, viewed on buildings, read in books, or heard in speeches almost always assumed the scriptures as a point of reference. Case studies capture both various uses of scripture in these contexts (a measure of the monastic life of servitude, revelatory of spiritual sights, and as the language of the spiritual realm) and methods of interpretation (producing derivative works and allegorical hermeneutics). One oft-used metaphor to describe the process of scriptural interpretation was that of weaving a textile garment. If there was any single purpose of reading, interpreting, and living by the measure of the scriptures, it was to receive the divine light that allows one to see and participate in the spiritual realm.
Syriac Versions of the Bible
Authors: Kiraz George A.
Published: May 2022

The Syriac tradition provides no less than six separate versions of the bible books between the second century and the seventh which are mostly well attested in manuscripts throughout late antiquity and even through the second millennium. While the Peshitta—which represents the official version of all the Syriac-using Churches up to the preset—is well known and is usually consulted by international Bible translation projects (such as the most recent NRSVue), the other versions are less known to the general reader. This chapter gives a general overview of these versions and their importance with references for further reading.
Toward an Orthodox Hermeneutic
Authors: Stylianopoulos Theodore G.
Published: May 2022

An Orthodox biblical hermeneutic is anchored on axiomatic hermeneutical premises implied and expressed by Jesus and the apostolic gospel: the revealed authority of Holy Scripture, the centrality of Christ in the story of salvation, and the role of Christ/gospel as the decisive criterion of interpretation. The organic continuity between the biblical and patristic heritage is demonstrated by the organic bond of the gospel and the rule of faith in their closely related hermeneutical functions. The Church fathers built on these foundations and developed a far more nuanced and conscious hermeneutic in terms of both specific premises and spiritual attributes (phronema or “mind” of the fathers), centered on the life of the Church. The major hermeneutical proposals of Georges Florovsky, John Romanides, John Breck, and Savas Agourides are critically assessed, showing a movement from the rejection of modern biblical studies to a full acceptance, though with theological and hermeneutical discomfort. The conclusion offers to clear the tension through an Orthodox hermeneutical paradigm featuring historical, theological, and transformational aspects and applicable to the interpretation of biblical and patristic texts in full conversation with contemporary studies.
Toward an Integrative Reading of the Bible
Authors: Moberly R. W. L.
Published: May 2022

This chapter explores the possibility of knowledge becoming wisdom in relation to an overall reading of the Bible. After an outline of characteristic historical-critical concerns, the question of a possible integrative reading of the Bible is considered in relation to fundamental questions about reading ancient documents as the Bible at all, rather than just as discrete documents that have been fortuitously preserved together. It is argued that the integrity of the Bible requires a canonical hermeneutics that, among other things, takes seriously the recontextualization of biblical texts into the literary-canonical context of Scripture and the need for a rule of faith to inform interpretive priorities and judgments. A brief consideration of differing ways of reading Genesis 1 offers a preliminary illustration of some of the larger hermeneutical issues.
B.E.S.T
Authors: Venard Olivier-Thomas
Published: May 2022

A survey of Marie-Joseph Lagrange’s pioneering life and œuvre, as the founder of the École biblique de Jérusalem, opens this chapter. It then presents the salient points of his legacy to modern biblical studies in a traditional Church: methodological—adaptation of the infamous “historical-critical method” by a free and faithful conscience, which led the École to launch groundbreaking fields such as Qumran studies; theological—determinations eventually encapsulated in Dei Verbum; and pastoral—a new standard for study bibles. The chapter discusses studying Scriptures in “postmodern” times and summarizes the main changes that happened since the mid-twentieth century prompted by new discoveries and the renewal of hermeneutics. Finally, it introduces today’s research project of the École, the Bible in Its Traditions, as one way to meet several challenges of biblical studies in the early twenty-first century.
Theology–Science Dialogue
Authors: Chatzinikolaou Nikolaos
Published: May 2022

This chapter describes the ethos and approach of the Orthodox Church on issues pertaining to the dialogue between theology and science. It presents the official statements of the Orthodox Church expressed in the Holy and Great Synod of Crete as well as the official position of the Russian Orthodox Church and of the Church of Greece. It focuses on the theological understanding of science by analyzing the inconceivability of the cosmos, nature’s hidden secrets, the mystery of man, and the “how” and “why” of human life and death. Moreover, it elaborates on the Orthodox theological approach according to which all questions on the seeming conflicts between science and theology become meaningless since modern science leads us straight to the truth of the apophatic Orthodox theology. Science elevates man to the higher step of knowledge, whereas theology takes man from this point and introduces him into the holy altar of divine revelation.
Who’s Afraid of the Old Testament?
Authors: Strawn Brent A.
Published: May 2022

This chapter considers “tough texts” in the Old Testament by first noting that problematic passages are found across the entirety of Christian Scripture, Old and New Testament alike. It goes on to offer some account of these biblical difficulties, focusing on the thorny problems posed by the conquest of Canaan narrative in Joshua and the so-called cursing psalms of the Psalter. Close inspection of these texts reveals them to be less straightforwardly problematic than frequently thought; in fact, these texts often emerge from difficult circumstances (“rough times”) and can offer helpful, even therapeutic approaches to similarly hard scenarios of more recent vintage.
Antiochene Theoria and the Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Authors: Nassif Bradley
Published: May 2022

This chapter applies theoria (“insight, illumination, deeper meaning”) to the theological interpretation of Scripture today based on its usage in the School of Antioch (fourth–fifth centuries). Antiochene theoria is the historical and theological lens through which Scripture has often been read and applied in Orthodoxy over the centuries. The term was used by the Antiochenes in several interpretive contexts such as prophecy, typology, figures of speech, preaching, and exegetical illumination. It is particularly relevant to contemporary biblical interpretation because it offers a balanced corrective to the extremes of allegorical excess and the spiritual barrenness in much of modern historical criticism. An Antiochene approach provides Orthodox interpreters with an overall orientation to Scripture which seeks to unite historical exegesis with the Church’s theology. Contemporary scholarship has had an incomplete understanding of how this hermeneutical principle operated in Antiochene exegesis. This chapter addresses those deficiencies though an analysis of select primary sources.
Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy
Authors: Roeber Anthony G.
Published: May 2022

Geographic distance, mutual misunderstandings of biblical and philosophical words, and political pressures contributed to separation of eastern from Oriental Orthodox Christians by the fifth century AD. Familiarity with biblical genres arose in liturgical use and commentary on the Hebrew Bible and Christian writings. Translations of both “Old” and “New” Testaments into Latin, Armenian, Coptic, or Ge’ez coexisted with influential Syriac gospel harmonies eventually overshadowed by the Greek Septuagint and New Testament. Rejecting those who had dismissed the importance of the Hebrew Bible, Christian communities arrived at a broad consensus on the canon of Christian scripture. That agreement had become more urgent with Islam’s claim for a single scripture in Arabic, the only universal and authoritative language. Eastern and Oriental Orthodox agreed that the Bible could be heard and read in any language, adequate for proclaiming the Christian gospel in right worship and teaching.
Liturgical Use and Biblical Canonicity
Authors: Vassiliadis Petros
Published: May 2022

Abstract. This chapter takes a critical approach from an ecclesial rather than confessional perspective of the text and the canon of the Bible in the Orthodox Church. In addition to the issue of the canon and the text of the Bible, its authority in the Church is also examined. Regarding the liturgical use of the Bible in the entire Orthodox tradition, the decline of the Antiochian tradition played a significant role. An examination of the overdose of eschatology in the liturgy is also critically examined, together with the prevailing “modern” understanding of the Bible as the neglect of the authentic eschatology. The chapter discusses a recent rediscovery of the importance of the Bible in Orthodox Liturgy as a result of a Liturgical Renewal, as well as of its prophetic character in the life of the Church. It offers a case study of the Church of Greece with a short history of its official and unofficial campaign for a biblical and liturgical renewal.
The Old Greek, Hebrew, and Other Text Witnesses in Eastern Orthodoxy
Authors: Mihăilă Alexandru
Published: May 2022

Starting from the textual diversity of the Bible in the early church, which proves that no Old Testament variant was canonized and that the Septuagint was used alongside the Hebrew text and Greek revisions dependent on the Hebrew text, this chapter analyzes the controversies over the textual witnesses of the Old Testament in the Eastern Orthodox churches. During the Middle Ages and the beginning of modernity, the Slavonic Bible was subject to more consistent Hebrew influences than the Greek Bible. Then the national Bibles of the Orthodox peoples provided the opportunity to again raise the question of the importance of the Hebrew text. While the Russians and Romanians succeeded in accepting the Hebrew text as a source for the Old Testament, the Greeks generally emphasized the intangibility of the Septuagint. Modern academic translations in the Orthodox world offered a more balanced view of the ancient textual witnesses.
Foreign Economic Policy
Authors: Lee Sohyun Zoe
Published: May 2022

Since 1987, South Korea’s foreign economic policies (FEPs) have undergone remarkable transformation with deregulation and liberalization trends. As a middle-power country that is highly susceptible to changes in its external trade relations, South Korea has also developed multi-layered economic ties. This chapter identifies FEP decision-making structures and examines the interactions between the dynamics of domestic and international economies in the context of South Korea. It demonstrates how the Korean institutions have evolved, since its democratization, to accommodate an increased level of influence by interest groups and the civil society. Nevertheless, traditional actors—including the government and, to a lesser degree, the Chaebols—continue to play pivotal roles in the contemporary FEP decision-making process. FEP goals and decision-making structures have been highly dependent on the government and are susceptible to changes in political leadership.
Evolving Relations with China
Authors: Kim Heung-Kyu
Published: May 2022

Korea was, and is, a neighbouring country of China, sharing a border 1,416 kilometres in length that today is between North Korea and China. Throughout historical experiences of military clashes with and threats from China, Koreans have sought to learn how to survive without being annexed by such a big neighbour, which has been the gravitational centre of Korean policy throughout most of the country’s history. Even today, the awareness of China’s existence shapes both Koreas’ strategic thinking, particularly in the current period of power transition. Indeed, the US–China strategic competition has brought tremendous challenges to South Korea during the post-Cold War era. South Korea’s foreign policy has sought not to fall into the trap resulting from the strategic game between the two powers. However, South Korea’s scope for autonomy has become narrower. Meanwhile, the hope of North Korean denuclearization that is part of the Sino–American game has almost disappeared. In this context, South Korea has sought to find a new space and thinking in its foreign policy beyond this strategic competition.
Traveling Between Natural and Human Sciences
Authors: González-García A. César
Published: May 2022

This chapter presents a professional voyage from pure astrophysical work to that of cultural astronomer. As a result, it is demonstrated how a number of mindsets and cognitive frames of the pure natural scientist had to be modified to formulate questions pertinent to the human sciences. Cultural astronomy attempts to comprehend the role of the sky in everyday life of the people. In other words, it is about the relationship between human societies and the sky under which they dwell. This field thus tries to understand how such societies produced, processed, and used their astronomical lore. Examined, relating to an astrophysicist, are which heavenly bodies such societies looked on. However, from the view of a cultural astronomer, understanding how such astronomical lore was generated in ancient or traditional societies is discussed. What was the value it had, what it was used for, how it related to other areas of social life, how it was transmitted, and what the social processes of production, transfer, and diffusion of such astronomical lore were. Explored are ways that such societies thought about the sky, how it was connected to the symbolic world and perhaps their rituals, and how that was reflected in their material culture. Particularly important for this is the research in archaeoastronomy, understood as the study of cultural astronomy from the remains of the built and designed environment.
The 1950s
Authors: Kukuj Ilja
Published: May 2022

The chapter examines the early unofficial Soviet art and literary groups of the 1950s and early 1960s. After the Stalinist terror, a period in which attempts at collective alternative art-making had been fatally dangerous, and straying from socialist realism had been the bailiwick of lone individuals, a search for collective identity and consolidation of kindred spirits began, primarily among young people. Two groups of poets—the Attic poets and the Philological School—coalesced at tertiary institutions in Moscow and Leningrad, respectively. The aesthetic and political nonconformism of their leaders, Leonid Chertkov and Mikhail Krasilnikov, would end in prison terms for both men. Two art groups, Alexander Arefiev’s Order of Mendicant Painters (aka the Arefiev Circle) and Eli Beliutin’s amateur studio in Moscow, show the different ways in which the official and unofficial cultures diverged and coexisted. The variety of aesthetics and modes of life-creation which emerged in these years established unofficial culture’s trajectories in the following decade, finally leading, in the 1970s, to the emergence of the underground as an independent cultural institution.
Brodsky and His Circles
Authors: Akhapkin Denis
Published: May 2022

The chapter considers the Leningrad period of the life of Joseph Brodsky (1940–1996), Russian-American poet and Nobel Prize laureate. Although well-known in the city’s poetic circles, he was never a member of any. Brodsky mastered his unique voice through real or imagined dialogue with great poets, such as Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva, Frost, and Auden, as well as discussions about poetry with friends. This chapter, covering the period of Brodsky’s work before his departure from the USSR, shows how a poet, who did not receive formal education except for basic schooling, became one of the leaders of Russian uncensored literature. He learned from conversations with Akhmatova and the circle of young poets around her (Bobyshev, Nayman, Rein), as well as independent study of the English language and the metaphysical and modernist poets who formed his “society of dead poets.” Thanks to his interest in English and American poetry and communication with underground poets—Chertkov, Krasovitsky, Uflyand, and others—he managed not to become an epigone of the Silver Age. Having come to the attention of the KGB early in connection with samizdat publications in Syntaxis magazine, Brodsky was monitored by the secret police throughout his life in the USSR. Although trial and exile brought worldwide fame, this did not help him become a literary figure in his homeland, and ultimately, he was forced to leave Leningrad and the USSR. It was his ability to create and maintain his own literary biography that helped him to become a globally recognized poet.
Governing Flood and Climate Risks in the Netherlands and
Hungary
Authors: Albright Elizabeth A.
Published: May 2022

As the world continues to experience an array of climate-driven disasters including floods, heat waves, and wildfires, how nations recover, rebuild, and build resilience to future extreme climatic events becomes even more critical for human lives and livelihoods. Within the European Union, extreme flood events are among the most damaging and costly climate-related disasters. As the global climate shifts due to greenhouse gas accumulation altering precipitation patterns, it remains unclear whether governance systems will be effective at managing climate-related disasters. In the European Union, both the Netherlands and Hungary have confronted and managed extreme flooding over centuries and will continue to face these potentially disastrous events. This cross-national comparison leverages differences in the governance of extreme flooding over centuries in these two nations to provide insights into drivers of and barriers to effective flood governance. The Netherlands, an original member of the European Union, has greater relative financial wealth and a recent history of more robust democratic practices compared to Hungary, a form Warsaw Pact nation that acceded to the European Union in 2004. Along with these differences, both nations face the challenge of integrating and implementing EU flood and climate-risk strategies and policies into their own governance systems. To help elucidate the drivers of and barriers to strengthening societal resilience to extreme climatic events, this chapter compares the extent of integration of flood governance across and within policy domains in each nation, as well as the role of civil society in flood and climate risk management.
Globalization of Environmental Justice
Authors: Kashwan Prakash
Published: May 2022

Histories of colonial expropriation and the nature of political and economic systems shape environmental justice struggles. However, inequality and capitalism are institutionalized very differently in different contexts and counties. This chapter advances scholarship on a comparative politics of environmental justice in diverse contexts. It draws on the tools and concepts from institutional analysis and comparative environmental politics to investigate the structuring effects of institutions while also accounting for the differences of political capabilities of main actors in society, market, and politics. The political economy of policies and institutions (PEPI) framework developed in this chapter facilitates a theoretically grounded investigation into how the key features social, economic, and political contexts, in conjunction with legal and institutional architectures, shape environmental justice advocacy, policies, programs, and outcomes. The PEPI framework makes visible the remarkably different trajectories of environmental justice movements and the political and policy interventions needed to realize the goals of environmental and climate justice in diverse contexts.