bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Heroes
Authors: Porpora Douglas V.
Published: October 2003

Heroes are moral exemplars of the good who engage our moral passion. We seek to stand by and with our heroes because we form a personal identification with their moral cause. The empirical examination of this chapter indicates that with the loss of heroes and a heroic sensibility, there is a further desacralization of life, a disconnection from transcendental horizons.
The Human Vocation
Authors: Porpora Douglas V.
Published: October 2003

Argues that there is a human vocation, a human project to be pursued by humanity as a whole. Physical cosmology tells us that the universe has a history, a history that arguably seems to be a preparation for intelligent life. As we seem to have been expected by the universe, there must be something we are expected to do. If there is a collective purpose for humanity, it must involve a better world, the “reign of God” so to speak, the realization of utopia. We are each morally obliged to be part of this task.
The Genealogy of Violence
Authors: Bellinger Charles K.
Published: October 2003

In the twentieth century, many thinkers have put forward theories that purport to explain the motivations underlying the violent behavior of human beings. This book presents Kierkegaard's thought as offering a way of interpreting violent behavior that is superior to the alternatives. The basic elements of Kierkegaard's psychology are drawn out of his published and unpublished works, concentrating on The Concept of Anxiety, Works of Love, and The Sickness unto Death. Violence, most fundamentally, arises out of human resistance to the possibility of psychological change and growth into maturity. Violence toward others seeks to fend off that potential for otherness within oneself that is entailed by the incompleteness of creation. Kierkegaard's theory of violence is compared and contrasted with Rene Girard's theory, and both thinkers are brought into conversation with Karl Barth and Eric Voegelin. Anabaptism's approach to interpreting the history of Christian violence is taken into consideration. Hitler and Stalin, as key contemporary examples of demonic violence, are analyzed in connection with Kierkegaard's aesthetic and ethical spheres of existence. The book closes with reflections on the Christian doctrine of atonement in light of the preceding discussion of the roots of human evil.
Contemporary Perspectives on the Roots of Violence
Authors: Bellinger Charles K.
Published: October 2003

This chapter summarizes and offers critical responses to four psychological theories of violence. Alice Miller focuses on child abuse. Ervin Staub speaks of ”difficult life conditions” that lead to scapegoating. Carl Jung points to the projection of the ”shadow.” Ernest Becker argues that the mainspring of human behavior is fear of death. None of these theories are found to be fully convincing and satisfying.
Ego‐Protection in Kierkegaard
Authors: Bellinger Charles K.
Published: October 2003

Kierkegaard's psychological masterpiece, The Sickness unto Death, is summarized, focusing on his interpretation of despair and sin as not willing to become the mature self that one is called (by the Creator) to become. Friedrich Nietzsche is criticized as a proponent of despairing rebellion against the divine call. The psychological term ”ego‐protection” is one way of presenting Kierkegaard's understanding of the despair that leads ultimately to violence.
Kierkegaard and Girard
Authors: Bellinger Charles K.
Published: October 2003

Rene Girard's concept that human psychology begins with a sense of lack or personal deficiency is compared with Kierkegaard's notion of the incompleteness of the self. Mimetic desire, as it is described by Girard, is a phenomenon that Kierkegaard was keenly aware of. Both authors show that mimetic desire leads to a situation captured by the phrase ”the crowd is untruth.” Immature persons, in a state of spiritual cowardice, take offense at God and are scandalized by the possibility of self‐knowledge; they hide in the crowd. The synthesis of Kierkegaard and Girard produces a very powerful Christian interpretation of the psychology of violence.
Political Violence in the Twentieth Century
Authors: Bellinger Charles K.
Published: October 2003

Adolf Hitler and Naziism are interpreted as an extreme example of Kierkegaard's aesthetic sphere of existence. Stalin and Russian Communism are interpreted as an extreme example of Kierkegaard's ethical sphere of existence. The varying forms of psychopathology they manifest make clear the consequences of human rejection of the divine call to spiritual growth. Naziism and Stalinism can also be interpreted as political religions, in other words, as modern forms of idolatry.
Conclusion: The Healing of the Soul
Authors: Bellinger Charles K.
Published: October 2003

Four major theories of Atonement in the Christian tradition are summarized: the Orthodox ransom theory, Anselm's satisfaction theory, Calvin's penal substitution theory, and Abelard's subjective theory. Perspectives on Atonement found in Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Barth, Rene Girard, and Robert Jenson are also presented. It is argued that a medical metaphor (Christ as the Healer who submits to the violence of his patients) is more helpful than a legal metaphor. The incarnation is God the Father's action in sending the Son on a medical mission for the healing of humanity, and the crucifixion and resurrection complete the mission. We can always hope that human beings will use their freedom to accept divine healing rather than to reject it, thus growing toward a more peaceful future.
Surveying Mountain Landscapes
Authors: Heine Steven
Published: October 2003

This section contains koan cases that focus on the role of mountains and spirits encountered by Zen masters. It treats four topics, including the early Northern and Ox Head schools for which supernatural images are the most vivid; the Southern school, especially the role of Ta‐hsiung Peak, which was known for its hermits and hermitages; the mountains explored by Tung‐shan, one of the founders of the Ts’ao‐tung (J. Sōtō) school; and Mount Wu‐t’ai, a place for visionary experiences in northern China generally considered off‐limits to iconoclastic Zen practitioners.
Slavery in Early Christianity
Authors: Glancy Jennifer A.
Published: October 2003

This study focuses on the impact of the ubiquitous ancient institution on the emergence and early development of Christianity. Slaveholders as well as slaves were pivotal in early Christian circles. The centrality of slavery affects not only the reconstruction of the social histories of the emerging churches but also theological and ideological analyses of Christian rhetoric. Slaves were designated and treated as bodies. The bodies of slaves were the sexual property of their owners; the bodies of slaves were also vulnerable to regular abuse. Free persons were anxious to protect their bodies from the kinds of violations to which the bodies of slaves were regularly subjected. Christians who argued that true slavery was spiritual in nature often depended on somatic metaphors; in its reliance on metaphors of enslavement and liberation, Christian discourse encodes widespread cultural anxiety about preserving the integrity of the free body. In its generally uncritical acceptance of the institution of slavery, early Christianity transmits the ethical patterns of a slaveholder morality
Parabolic Bodies
Authors: Glancy Jennifer A.
Published: October 2003

Because so many of Jesus’ sayings, especially his parables, feature the figure of the slave, they create the impression that Jesus was as familiar with the everyday world of slaveholding and enslavement as with the worlds of farming and fishing. The parables represent slaves in managerial roles, as subject to corporal punishment and other kinds of physical abuse, and, on the basis of faithful or unfaithful service, as praiseworthy or blameworthy. Although parables in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew rely heavily on the figure of the slave, it is likely that that an emphasis on slavery featured in Jesus’ own discourse. The parables attributed to Jesus reinforce other evidence concerning the practice and ideology of slavery in the early Roman Empire.
Moral Bodies
Authors: Glancy Jennifer A.
Published: October 2003

Shaped by the slaveholding culture of the Roman Empire, early Christian ethics reflected the moral perspectives of ancient slaveholders, a slaveholder morality. The Christian body matured in a context in which the ubiquitous availability and vulnerabilities of slave bodies distorted the emotional and ethical development of freeborn persons. The household codes (haustafeln) of New Testament epistles (including Colossians, Ephesians, the Pastoral Epistles, and 1 Peter) and selected extracanonical sources provided a new and powerful ideological tool for slaveholders who sought to create compliant bodies. In a world in which slaves were designated and treated as bodies, perhaps it is not surprising that ascetic Christians came to discipline their bodies as slaves.
Precolonial India in Practice
Authors: Talbot Cynthia
Published: October 2003

The desire to have their charitable deeds documented in permanent form led thousands of Hindu temple donors in the Andhra Pradesh region of South India to get the details of their gifts inscribed on stone pillars, rock slabs, and temple walls. Using these records of what people actually did, Cynthia Talbot reconstructs the precolonial past as it existed in practice during the era when India's distinctive regional societies were taking shape. The medieval Andhra that emerges from the perspective of inscriptions is a vibrant and mobile world inhabited by a wide range of individuals including herders, merchants, and women, as well as landed peasants, kings, and Brahmans.

Precolonial India in Practice begins with an examination of the historical processes that prompted Andhra's long age of inscriptions (c.1000–1650), a time when the religious patronage of temples both reflected and stimulated an expanding agrarian economy and a growing regional culture. It moves on to an in‐depth analysis of the society, temples, and polity of the Kakatiya era (1175–1325) – a formative period in which the Telugu‐speaking region was politically unified by the upland warriors who continued to dominate its society for centuries. The enduring cultural significance of the Kakatiya period for later Telugu society is demonstrated in a final section dealing with historical memories of the Kakatiyas.

Talbot's interpretation of medieval Andhra as an era of dynamic change characterized by extensive social and physical mobility and a militaristic ethos offers a significant alternative to earlier depictions of the history and society of medieval India. In serving as a corrective to models of the Indian past derived only from Brahmanical literature, modern ethnography, and colonial observation, this case study of a neglected time period and region has important ramifications for our general understanding of precolonial India.
The Society of Kakatiya Andhra
Authors: Talbot Cynthia
Published: October 2003

Although the caste system is thought to have dominated the society of traditional India, people who commissioned inscriptions in Kakatiya Andhra (a.d.1175–1324 ) mentioned their clan or lineage affiliation far more often than their varna. Status titles based on occupation were widely used and could vary from generation to generation within a family, demonstrating that social identities were linked to individual achievement. There were many opportunities for both travel and social mobility due to the prevalence of military activity, long distance trade, and herding. Inscriptions cast further doubt on the alleged rigidity of traditional Indian society by revealing the presence of collectives of people brought together by ties other than kinship or locality and of many women who were wealthy enough to make temple donations.
The Kakatiya Political Network
Authors: Talbot Cynthia
Published: October 2003

The expansion of Kakatiya power from the core area of central Telangana throughout much of Andhra Pradesh is traced through the mapping of inscriptions acknowledging their overlordship. Analysis of Kakatiya political subordinates reveals an early preponderance of local chiefs and princes who were later superseded by a more humble class of warrior officers. The titles (biruda) and eulogies (prasasti) in Kakatiya‐ era inscriptions emphasize martial heroism and the bonds created through military service, thus challenging the notion that ritual sovereignty and royal patronage of religion were central to the constitution of medieval South Indian states. Instead, the Kakatiya state is conceptualized as a network of personal ties between multiple strata of warriors and the rulers, based primarily on joint military activity. Its dependence on political intermediaries and its dynamic, socially inclusive, and militaristic character refutes the model of a segmentary state advanced by Burton Stein.
Varieties of Virtue and Vice
Authors: Hurka Thomas
Published: October 2003

This chapter shows how the recursive account can illuminate a large number of particular virtues and vices, identifying both, what they have in common that makes them virtues or vices and what distinguishes them from each other. It identifies three main categories of vice, made such by three different elements of the recursive account, and three main categories of virtue. Among the particular vices discussed are malice, callousness, cynicism, selfishness, and cowardice; among the virtues are benevolence, compassion, courage, modesty, and self‐control.
How Great a Good Is Virtue?
Authors: Hurka Thomas
Published: October 2003

If virtue is an intrinsic good, how does its value compare with those of other goods such as pleasure, knowledge, and achievement? Whereas many philosophers hold that virtue is the greatest good, this chapter argues that virtue is a lesser good in the following sense: the value of an attitude to an object is always less than the value of that object, so, for example, the goodness of compassion for another's pain is always less than the evil of that pain. After presenting a series of arguments for this view, the chapter considers several objections to it, including one about sadistic pleasure, and then applies it to specific issues about moral self‐indulgence, private charity, and the theological problem of evil.
Extending the Account
Authors: Hurka Thomas
Published: October 2003

This chapter extends the recursive account by recognizing holistic virtues such as justice, which involve attitudes to holistic objects such as equal distributions or distributions in accordance with desert; agent‐relative virtues, such as loyalty and agent‐regret; and non‐consequentialist virtues, such as conscientiousness and other more specific deontological virtues.
What Did Jesus Mean?
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

This book explores the meaning of Jesus’ key sayings and parables from a radically new perspective – that of simple and universal human concepts, found in all languages. Building on modern biblical criticism in general and the vast literature on the Sermon on the Mount and the parables in particular, the author also brings to the task a close knowledge of recent developments in linguistics, anthropology, and cultural psychology. Her explanations of “what Jesus meant” build on her work as the author of many books on cultural diversity and the universals of language and thought.

Rejecting the fashionable view that it is impossible to know what Jesus meant, the book draws on modern linguistic semantics to show that the question both makes sense and can be plausibly answered. The picture of Jesus’ teaching which emerges from this book is traditional in some respects and radically new in others. The author's analysis brings into sharper focus the originality of Jesus’ ethical teaching, often obscured by superficial parallels drawn with other traditions.

The book analyzes the meaning of Jesus’ metaphors, hyperboles, and paradoxes against the background of the traditions of Jewish prophetic speech, and it shows the universal scope and relevance of Jesus’ teaching.

Jesus’ message is universal, but to understand it we need to understand Jesus’ Jewishness, and in particular, we need to understand that the New Testament world of discourse includes rhetorical conventions that are unfamiliar and even alien to the modern Western reader. This applies also to the prophetic Drohrede, which sometimes seems to announce God's final verdict but in fact expresses, to use the words of the Jewish scholar Pinchas Lapide, “a deep longing for the salvation and welfare of Israel” – Israel and the whole world.

This book argues that if Jesus’ teaching is to be intelligible to people of all nations, it needs to be seen both in its cultural context and in a universal perspective. It also shows that this can be facilitated through the use of universal human concepts. The use of these tools opens an entirely new perspective on the study of the Gospels, and especially on the meaning of Jesus’ sayings.
Other Key Sayings
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

Offers new interpretations of many of Jesus’ most memorable sayings, bringing into sharper focus their originality, often obscured in the literature by various superficial parallels. For example, drawing on Clement of Alexandria and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the chapter argues for the following interpretation of the saying “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing:” (1) Sometimes when a person is doing something good for other people this person thinks: “I am doing something good for other people”(2) It will not be good if you think like this when you are doing something good for other people.

By using simple and universal human concepts, the chapter establishes the originality of Jesus’ “Golden Rule,” often mistakenly presented as something recurring in many different religious traditions. It also offers new interpretations of key sayings like, for example, “Do not judge . . . ,” “Ask and it will be given to you,” and “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.”
The Lord's Prayer
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

As the linguist and renowned expert in the field of Bible translation, Eugene Nida has pointed out, “almost no lay person understands the meaning of the first petition in the Lord's prayer (Hallowed be thy name). In fact, there are good reasons to think that the Lord's Prayer as a whole is often incomprehensible to lay people – not only in societies distant, geographically and culturally, from European culture but also in the traditionally Christian West. This chapter shows how the meaning of the metaphors of “Father,” “kingdom” and “bread,” and of all the petitions can be explained in simple and universal human concepts, in a way which would make it comprehensible to children as well as adults, and to Papuans or Zulus as well as Europeans or Americans. Above all, it shows how the meaning of the Lord's Prayer can be transferred into languages that have no words, or concepts, like “forgive” and how it can be explained to people who may not value fathers, kingdoms, or bread. It also shows that once the notion of “God” has been explained in universal human concepts, the idea of “Kingdom of God” can be explained, in all languages, in terms of “living with God, with other people.”
The Unforgiving Servant
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

Chapter 11 is focused on the question of forgiveness – God's forgiveness and human forgiveness. It argues that according to the Gospels, God's forgiveness is limitless and that the human forgiveness must be limitless, too. It discusses Jesus’ narrative strategy of comparing God to characters who are morally mixed – like the king, who is initially generous but later cruel and heartless; and it draws on the writings of the seventh‐century scholar and mystic, St. Isaac of Niniveh, to interpret the symbolic character of biblical images, often misunderstood in the “scientific,” rationalist climate of Western thinking and Western interpretations of the Gospels.
The Laborers in the Vineyard
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

Discusses the meaning of the biblical concepts of “reward,” the traditional Christian concepts of “grace,” “judgment,” and “justice” and the modern Anglo concept of “fairness;” and the chapter proposes an interpretation of the parable that bypasses all those complex and culture‐specific concepts. The way of thinking that the parable discourages is portrayed (in part) as follows:

I have done many good things

because of this God will do many good things for me

some other people haven’t done many good things

because of this God will not do many good things for these people

The main positive message of the parable is represented (in part) as follows:

it will be good if you want God to do good things for all people

as you want God to do good things for you
The Servant's Reward
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

Argues that the parable of the Servant's Reward, which may seem harsh and may offend modern Western sensibilities, is corrective, rather than expository: the image of a master and his “unprofitable servants” complements that of a father and his beloved children. While highlighting the value of human effort in God's eyes, the parable warns against thinking that one can earn one's reward from God, that is, against a way of thinking that can be represented as follows:

I have done some good things

God has to do some good things for me because of this

Bypassing complex and culture‐specific concepts like “reward,” “merit,” “claim,” and “good works,” the chapter articulates the parable's message about God as follows:

God wants to do good things for me

not because I have done some good things

not because I can do some good things
The Great Feast
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

Ch. 14 reanalyzes the parable of the Great Feast in terms of God's desire for universal salvation:

God wants to do good things for all people

all people can live with God

God wants this

At the same time, following St. Gregory of Nyssa, modern philosophers like Nicolas Berdyaev, and theologians like Juergen Moltmann and Waclaw Hryniewicz, it argues against a literal interpretation of the image of exclusion and against the idea of an eternal “hell” based on that image.
The Last Judgment
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

This chapter argues that despite various subsequent alterations and expansions, the core of the parable of the Last Judgment does go back to Jesus himself. It stresses (with John Meier 1980) “the stunning universalism” of the story, and once again, it rejects the traditional interpretation of the words “Depart from me, you cursed” in terms of an everlasting “hell.” It highlights the profound transformation that eschatology has undergone in the last few decades, from prediction to warning and appeal. It discusses the symbolic language of both the Old and the New Testaments, drawing, again, on the writings of the seventh‐century mystic Isaac the Syrian, the Orthodox theologian Sergii Bulgakov, the Protestant theologian Juergen Moltmann and the Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar.
The Rich Man and Lazarus
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

The chapter argues for the authenticity of the first part of this parable. It shows that here, as elsewhere, the widely used term “reversal” is not sufficient for explaining the parable's meaning. It rejects the notion of “irreversible punishment” (a hell for some) as an insult to God and a misunderstanding of the nature of symbolic language; and it articulates, in simple and universal human concepts, the parable's message to the rich as well as that to the poor. Once again, it stresses the illocutionary purpose of the parable: not a prediction, but a warning and appeal.
The Rich Fool
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

This chapter argues that despite superficial parallels in secular wisdom like that expressed in Seneca's “Epistule Morales,” Jesus’ parable has a different and unique message. Roughly speaking, it focuses on the absence in the “rich fool's” considerations of any thoughts about God, judgment, and other people. The chapter argues that in the world of dwindling natural resources, and growing materialistic and consumerist attitudes, the parable's message – often dismissed as boring old‐fashioned wisdom – is in fact highly relevant. The language of universal human concepts helps to clarify the eschatological warning, the moral teaching, and the special relevance of the parable to our times.
The Doorkeeper
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

This chapter links the parable of the Doorkeeper and other “parables of vigilance” with the eighteenth‐century spiritual writer Jean Pierre De Caussade's “spirituality of the present moment.” It points out that the metaphor of the doorkeeper illuminates the idea of fulfilling God's appointed task (being a watchman, a doorkeeper) and the idea of urgency, and that it is aimed in particular at the following way of thinking:

If God wants me to do something I don’t have to do it now

I can do it at some other time (later)

This chapter argues that de Caussade's notion of “the sacrament of the present moment” illuminates the parable's message that God appears incognito in the duty or task of the present moment, and that watchfulness and readiness to recognize him, alert one to the opportunity to enter the Kingdom of God, by meeting God in the present moment.
The Talents
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

This chapter argues that the parable of the Talents is aimed at all people rather than at this or that particular group, as has often been argued in the literature. It points out that as in a number of other parables, Jesus uses the narrative strategy of comparing God to a morally dubious character – here, a harsh and merciless master – while at the same time conveying the message that God is merciful and can be trusted, and that people should use their God‐given gifts with courage and in freedom. The chapter discusses the impact of the metaphor of the talents on European civilization and links that metaphor with the Western emphasis on enterprise, initiative, individual freedom of action, and personal responsibility. Some of the key components of the parable's message are articulated as follows:

I know: I can do some good things

because God does good things for me

I know: God wants me to do these things

I want to do these things because of this
The Dishonest Steward
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

As this chapter shows, the parable of the Dishonest Steward is the prime example of Jesus’ narrative strategy of comparing God to morally unsavory characters and thus forcing the hearer to actively search for the hidden message of a parable. The story calls for a positive response to one's sense of failure, and it shows that in a personal crisis one can and should search for solutions and “never lose heart,” keeping one's trust in God. The chapter argues for the contemporary relevance of all these themes, despite various recent objections to the value of this parable for contemporary audiences.
The Unjust Judge and the Friend at Midnight
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

Chapter 22 is devoted to another pair of twin parables that convey the same message by means of two different stories. This message focuses on the need for people to trust that God can, wants to and will do good things for people – the need to pray continually and not to get discouraged – not to ever think things like “God doesn’t want to do good things for me” or “God will not do good things for me.” Like the two previous ones, this chapter, too, discusses Jesus’ narrative technique of comparing God to morally dubious characters, and it seeks to clarify Jesus’ teaching on prayer, trust, and dependence on God by means of simple and universal human concepts.
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

This chapter seeks to clarify the meaning of the parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector, by bypassing complex and problematic terms such as “justification,” “righteousness” or “humility” and by portraying the two ways of thinking contrasted by Jesus in simple and universal concepts. Thus, the Pharisee's attitude is portrayed (in part) as follows:

I am not like some other people

these other people are bad people

these other people do many bad things

I do not do bad things

I do many good things

The chapter discusses the recent literature on the parable and rejects various fanciful recent interpretations (like that offered by Funk 1996) in favor of the traditional interpretation, sharpened by the use of simple and universal human concepts. Like several other chapters, this one, too, appeals to the Bakhtinian notion of “heteroglossia” to clarify the sense of Jesus’ words that it was the tax collector, rather than Pharisee, who “went down to his house justified.”
An Overall Picture of Jesus' Teaching
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

This chapter emphasizes the originality of Jesus’ ethical teaching, obscured by the use of complex analytical terms (such as nonviolence, nonretaliation, compassion, kindness, tolerance, hypocrisy, anger, etc.) and brought to light by the use of more fine‐grained analytical tools such as GOOD and BAD KNOW, THINK, and WANT, and the other simple and universal human concepts. It shows that the apparent parallels in earlier religious lore – Jewish, Greco‐Roman, Hindu, Confucian, Buddhist, and so on – are often illusory and conceal profound conceptual differences. It argues that the vital matters of Christian‐Jewish dialogue are not well served by attempts to play down the distinctive features of Jesus’ teaching. It concurs with the fourth‐century Syrian biblical scholar, St. Efrem, who affirmed the “the smallest words of Christ contain immense treasures,” and it claims that the depth and originality of Jesus’ ethical teaching can be better revealed by means of simple and universal human concepts, than by the use of the technical language of traditional theology and exegesis.
Mathematics and Its Applications
Authors: Colyvan Mark
Published: October 2003

Indispensability arguments are introduced and their connection to scientific realism is discussed. The Quine–Putnam indispensability argument for mathematical realism is then outlined. In particular, the argument's dependence on the doctrines of naturalism and holism is established.
Maddy's Objections
Authors: Colyvan Mark
Published: October 2003

Penelope Maddy's objections to the indispensability argument are considered. In two of her objections – the objection from scientific fictions and the objection from the role of mathematics in scientific theories – it is argued that much of the force is derived from taking an implausible reading of naturalism. Moreover, this reading of naturalism is not endorsed by either Quine or Maddy. It is also argued that the third of Maddy's objections – the mathematical practice objection – turns on a misconception about Quinean holism.
Conclusion
Authors: Colyvan Mark
Published: October 2003

The varieties of mathematical realism that are consistent with the indispensability argument are outlined. It is shown that the argument is silent on many issues such as whether numbers are sets, and whether mathematical entities are causally inert or not. Paul Benacerraf's two objections to mathematical realism are also considered. Finally, the use of indispensability arguments outside the philosophy of mathematics is considered, and, in particular, an indispensability argument for modal realism is discussed.
The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture
Authors: Bryant Edwin
Published: October 2003

As a result of the discovery of similarities between Sanskrit and the classical languages of Europe, scholars hypothesized the existence of an early “proto-Indo-European” people who spoke the language from which the other Indo-European speakers evolved. The solution to this Indo-European homeland problem has been one of the most consuming intellectual projects of the last two centuries. At first it was assumed that India was the original home of all the Indo-Europeans. Soon, however, Western scholars were contending that the Vedic culture of ancient India must have been the by-product of an invasion or migration of “Indo-Aryans” from outside the subcontinent. Over the years, Indian scholars have raised many arguments against this European reconstruction of their nation’s history, yet Western scholars have generally been unaware or dismissive of these voices from India itself. Edwin Bryant offers a comprehensive examination of this ongoing debate, presenting all of the relevant philological, archaeological, linguistic, and historiographical data, and showing how they have been interpreted both to support the theory of Aryan migrations and to contest it. Bringing to the fore those hitherto marginalized voices that argue against the external origin of the Indo-Aryans, he shows how Indian scholars have questioned the very logic, assumptions, and methods upon which the theory is based and have used the same data to arrive at very different conclusions. By exposing the whole endeavor to criticism from scholars who do not share the same intellectual history as their European peers, Bryant’s work newly complicates the Indo-European homeland quest. At the same time it recognizes the extent to which both sides of the debate have been driven by political, racial, religious, and nationalistic agendas.
Introduction
Authors: Bryant Edwin
Published: October 2003

This introduction describes the book as primarily a historiographical study of how various Indian scholars, over the course of a century or more, have rejected this idea of an external origin of the Indo-Aryans by questioning much of the logic, assumptions, and methods upon which the theory is based. The aims of the book are discussed, with the primary aim identified as an excavation of marginalized points of view reacting against what is perceived as a flawed and biased historical construct. As a corollary of this aim, the book further complicates the Indo-European homeland quest by exposing the whole endeavor to a critique from scholars outside mainstream European academic circles who do not share the same intellectual history as their Western peers. A further aim of the book is to present a comprehensive exposition and analysis of views from within mainstream academic circles, addressing the issue of Indo-Aryan origins. The main part of the introduction gives an outline of the contents of each chapter and addresses various methodological issues.
Myths of Origin
Authors: Bryant Edwin
Published: October 2003

The Indigenous Aryan debate can only be understood in the context of the history of the greater Indo-European homeland quest in Europe. The purpose of this chapter is to outline the most prominent features of this history that are most directly connected with the problems of Indo-Aryan origins. Indigenous Aryanists are almost universally suspicious of the motives surrounding the manner in which evidence was interpreted and construed by British and European scholars in the colonial period. It is important to excavate clearly the various biases that influenced the epistemes of the time before attempting to consider the evidence itself, so this chapter addresses some of the more blatant ideological and religious attitudes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the West that co-opted Aryan discourse in some form or fashion. Since there have been a number of studies focused on the general history of Indo-European Studies, it focuses on the aspects of this history that are of particular relevance to the Indian side of the family.
Early Indian Responses
Authors: Bryant Edwin
Published: October 2003

As was the case in the West, there were all sorts of reactions to, and appropriations of, the discovery of a shared Aryan pedigree from the Indian subcontinent in popular, political, and religious discourse. The first section of this chapter briefly touches upon nineteenth- and early twentieth-century nationalistic co-options of the Aryan theory in terms of its applicability for Indian relations with the colonial power and for internal power dynamics among competing sets of interests among Indians themselves. A brief selection of these reactions as exemplified by Hindu nationalist responses is extracted to provide something of a parallel to the Aryan discourse in Europe during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The second section of the chapter describes the first stirrings of opposition to the theory itself, as inaugurated by prominent Hindu religious leaders.
Linguistic Paleontology
Authors: Bryant Edwin
Published: October 2003

An examination is made of various points of view on the location of the Indo-European homeland based on evidence from the method of linguistic paleontology. This is one of the most exploited disciplines used in the homeland quest, and one that is also fundamental in insisting that the Indo-Aryans had an origin external to the Indian subcontinent. Here, Indian scholars are found reconfiguring the same logic and method to arrive at very different conclusions from those of their Western counterparts. The two principal aspects of linguistic paleontology examined are terms for various Indo-European flora and fauna (including trees), and the term “ēkwos” for horse (along with references to the accompanying archaeological evidence). The chapter finishes by presenting criticisms of the linguistic palaeontology method.
The Indus Valley Civilization
Authors: Bryant Edwin
Published: October 2003

An examination is made of the relationship between the Indus Valley Civilization and Indo-Aryan origins, a topic that has received a tremendous amount of attention from Indian archaeologists and historians. The issue discussed is whether the Indo-Aryans preceded, succeeded, or co-existed with the inhabitants of the Indus Valley cities. The different sections of the chapter look at archaeological evidence on the religion of the Indus Valley, evidence on the decline of the river Sarasvatī (which is referred to many times in the Ŗgveda, the oldest of the Sanskrit Vedic texts), the absence of the horse from the Harappan record (although it played an important part in the Vedic-Aryan culture), evidence of the spoked-wheel chariot (which is fundamental to Aryan identification), the Indus script, and urbanization and the Ŗgveda.
The Date of the Veda
Authors: Bryant Edwin
Published: October 2003

The various attempts made to date Sanskrit texts (the Veda) are examined in the context that if the Ŗgveda (the earliest of the texts) is at least a millennium older than its commonly accepted date, then the possibility of Dravidian and/or Munda and/or unknown linguistic influences on Vedic Sanskrit being the result of the speakers of these languages intruding on an Indo-Aryan-speaking area after the other languages had already left, as opposed to vice versa, becomes a much more serious consideration. Moreover, the relationship between Vedic and Proto-Indo-European would need to be reconsidered, and any proposal associating the overland trajectory of the Indo-Aryans with the Andronovo culture, a southern Iranian route, or any Post-Harappan culture in the subcontinent, loses value. For these and other reasons, a much older date for the Veda is foundational to the Indigenous Aryanist position; if by contrast, the oldest strata of the Ŗgveda cannot be far removed from the conventionally accepted date of 1200 or 1500 B.C.E., then the Indigenous Aryanist case loses cogency. The chapter examines the dating of Proto-Indo-European first, before going on to look at the dating of the Veda itself, paying special attention to astronomy and its bearing on Vedic chronology. The author concludes that none of the evidence presented so far in the book convincingly settles the debate, and that the only evidence that could do this with any degree of certainty would be the decipherment of the script from the Indus Valley civilization.
“I Ame as Jephthah”
Authors: Breen Louise A.
Published: October 2003

Focuses on the military captain and religious dissenter John Underhill. It shows that Underhill, who played a major role in the Pequot War, associated himself with the antinomian party in the 1630s because it was consistent with the honor culture to which he aspired. After being forced out of Massachusetts, Underhill moved to New Netherland, where he first exercised a military role but then allied himself with figures in Massachusetts. These figures, despite the majority's desire to stay out of the Anglo‐Dutch war, wished to precipitate conflict between the English and Dutch colonies. Ultimately, Underhill, not unlike Henry Vane, came to conceive of himself as a transatlantic actor whose life's ambitions had been thwarted and destroyed by sanctimonious provincials who put their own well‐being above that of the Commonwealth.
Praying With the Enemy
Authors: Breen Louise A.
Published: October 2003

Explores how King Philip's War and debates over the halfway covenant contributed to the emergence of a racialized “tribalism” during the 1670s. This was a time when ordinary colonists manifested fear not only of enemy Indians but also of Christian Indian allies and military leaders. These leaders’ vested interest in frontier exchange was thought to have blinded them to the dangers of Indians, who only pretended to be Christian converts and allies. The chapter pays particular attention to the career of Daniel Gookin, who aided the efforts of the missionary, John Eliot. Additionally, Gookin's commitment to the integration of Indian peoples into colonial life was shaped by his family's experiences as colonizers of Ireland with ties to the family of Robert Boyle, president of the Company for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England.
Epilogue and Conclusion
Authors: Breen Louise A.
Published: October 2003

This chapter uses the witchcraft accusation against John Alden in 1692 as a focal point to show how suspicions against those associated with the frontier, imperial concerns, Indians, and religious heterodoxy coalesced in the last decade of the seventeenth century. Alden symbolized the vices thought to accompany religious heterodoxy, imperial control, and a biracial frontier. Not only had he befriended Anglicans and Quakers, but he had also betrayed his own son in an abortive captive exchange just weeks before being cried down as a witch and had been accused of miscegenation and trading arms to the colony's French and Indian enemies in King William's War. This same set of vices was attributed to the hated royal governor Edmund Andros, who was ejected from Massachusetts in the colony's version of the Glorious Revolution.
Consumerism
Authors: Stackhouse John G.
Published: October 2003

Consumerism is an outlook that frames everything in terms of consumption by the sovereign self. After having scrutinized basic convictions of consumerism, this chapter lists the effects of consumerism on the shape of religion in the private and public sphere. In the private sphere, religion becomes viewed as a consumer good; religions themselves become segmented into parts from which one may freely pick and choose according to one's needs, i.e., “Sheilaism.” Religion is selected or constructed by the self for the self, evident even in traditional Christian circles in the practice of “church‐shopping.” In the public sphere, consumerism reshapes religion such that any traits of religion contrary to the consumerist impulse are discarded. The chapter concludes, however, with the hopeful suggestion that because authentic Christianity is countercultural, it has the possibility of revitalizing modernity, rather than merely perpetuating it.
Other Modes of Apologetics
Authors: Stackhouse John G.
Published: October 2003

If direct or “front door” modes are ineffective for a particular audience, other alternatives beyond the confines of theological and philosophical discourse can be explored. The “side door” approaches discussed – drawing on historical examples as well as making contemporary applications – include architecture, literature, worldly knowledge and wisdom, power events, justice and charity, and Christian community.
Introduction
Authors: Givens Terryl L.
Published: October 2003

Scripture is a function of the ways in which texts become sacred through their employment or status in a religious community. To understand a scripture, one must understand the ways in which that work has exerted its authority over the lives of believers. The Book of Mormon has served in a variety of roles, for both detractors and believers, which have shifted over the years. Four principal roles have been: 1) sacred sign of the last days, and of Joseph Smith's divine calling; 2) a factual account of the pre‐Columbian peopling of the Western hemisphere by Israelite migrations around 600 bc; 3) the imaginative creation of a nineteenth‐century religion maker; and 4) a new American Bible. The unprecedented growth of this potentially new world religion is making an understanding of its core scripture increasingly imperative.
“A Marvelous Work and a Wonder”: The Book of Mormon as Sacred Sign
Authors: Givens Terryl L.
Published: October 2003

In the context of 19th‐century American millennialism, many early converts to Mormonism heralded the Book of Mormon as a sign of the end times. In an era of many prophets and visionaries, the Book of Mormon was offered as tangible proof that Joseph was an authentic prophet. Joseph Smith's emphatic literalism and appeal to physical and historical evidence made him both more threatening and more attractive than a Jacob Boehme or an Emanuel Swedenborg. The story of angels, seer stones, and gold plates, thus displaced a focus on the Book of Mormon's content, for both critics and believers.
“I, Nephi, Wrote This Record”: The Book of Mormon as Ancient History, Part 1—The Search for a Mesoamerican Troy
Authors: Givens Terryl L.
Published: October 2003

The Book of Mormon arrived on an American landscape where speculation about Native American origins was rife, and included theories of an Israelite connection. With the discovery of the Mayan ruins of Mesoamerica, Mormons labored to amass archeological support for the scripture's historical authenticity. Under the influence of B. H. Roberts, Mormons were alerted to serious inadequacies in the Mormon case. In spite of concerted archaeological efforts after World War II, defenders of the Book of Mormon found little useful evidence.
“I, Nephi, Wrote This Record”: The Book of Mormon as Ancient History, Part 2—The Search for a Rational Belief
Authors: Givens Terryl L.
Published: October 2003

Mormon Scholar Hugh Nibley ushered in a new era of Book of Mormon studies that emphasized congruencies between the record and the world of the Middle East. Focus shifted to textual, linguistic, and cultural evidences for its authenticity. John Sorenson argued for geography and anthropology‐based approaches. In escalating debates, topics of dispute would include biblical plagiarism, the Isaiah problem, population numbers, Book of Mormon language and names, and anachronisms. In spite of a growing and impressive body of Book of Mormon apologetics, evangelicals and scholars remain largely dismissive, though with significant exceptions.
Who Rides the Beast?
Authors: Duff Paul B.
Published: October 2003

Owing to its powerful anti‐Roman polemic, the book of Revelation was traditionally thought to have been written to encourage believers to stand fast in the face of the Roman persecution. Recent scholarship, however, has undermined the scenario of Roman persecution. This book examines the social situation that gave rise to the production of the book of Revelation. Duff suggests that the book did not arise from persecution or harassment but rather it was written in response to an internal crisis of leadership. The book's anti‐Roman polemic was intended to manufacture a crisis in the minds of its readers. The creation of this crisis – a technique observed in other charismatic groups – served the function of uniting the churches behind the author and against his prophetic rival. In addition, the book's polemic, although aimed directly at Rome, was, at the same time, focused indirectly at the author's rival “Jezebel” who, John argues, was in league with Rome.