bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Selling Vodka: Taverns and Tavernkeepers
Authors: Christian David
Published: October 2011

Of all those who profited from the sale of vodka, it was the tavernkeeper who stood first in line, for the tavern or drink shop was where the consumer's thirst for vodka encountered the retailer's thirst for cash. Before arriving at these institutions, vodka was merely a source of wealth; once it left them it was merely a source of gratification. Taverns held the keys to the vodka trade in Russia, opening a channel through which vast amounts of money were pumped upwards (socially speaking) and equally vast amounts of liquor were poured downward (also socially speaking). Many tavernkeepers rose through the ranks of the liquor trade until they became tax farmers, and found themselves on the fringes of high society. This chapter discusses the selling of vodka in Russian taverns during the 19th century, the number and types of liquor outlets, and tavernkeepers.
Taxing Vodka—The Government's Share
Authors: Christian David
Published: October 2011

Taxes, like commercial profits, are a form of revenue — a way in which wealth is transferred to social and political elites. The essential similarity of private and public revenues is particularly clear in transitional societies such as 19th-century Russia, where it was literally impossible to draw a clear distinction between taxes and profits. And tax farming provides the clearest possible illustration of the continuity between private and public revenues, for here governments exploited their monopoly position in the market as much as the merchants whose help they recruited. In this chapter, liquor taxes are treated simply as that portion of the revenues derived from the liquor trade which were enjoyed by the state. For the most part, the work of turning vodka into cash was undertaken by tavernkeepers and the tax farmers who employed them, while the chore of producing vodka was undertaken by gentry distillers. This chapter also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of tax farms.
The Action for Criminal Conversation
Authors: Stone Lawrence
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses the action for criminal conversation. Between 1600 and 1860, four distinct phases can be discerned in the public opinion over the way to treat adultery by a married woman. Before 1670, in elite circles, it was morally acceptable to avenge the insult by personal violence. In lower classes, threats of public litigation were used to blackmail the seducer into paying for compensation. The second phase began in about 1670, when the common law courts of the King's Bench and Common Pleas devised new action for criminal conversation and provided monetary damages for the loss of male honour incurred though the seduction of a wife. The third phase started around 1170, with changing motives behind criminal conversation actions and parliamentary divorces. The fourth phase, visible around 1800, took the form of multi-faceted reaction against the criminal conversation action.
Social Security in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Comparative Assessment
Authors: Mesa-Lago Carmelo
Published: October 2011

This chapter concentrates on formal social security and its associated issues in Latin America and the Caribbean, and does not deal with programmes included under the broader definition of social security, such as famine prevention, agrarian reform, education, and employment promotion. It explains that a major reason for this exclusion is that the ‘formal’ concept is typical of the LAC countries, most of which rank as middle-income economies according to the World Bank classification. The chapter notes that the majority of these countries are urban, its labour force is mostly salaried, and it is rich in natural resources. It specifies that the term ‘social security’ is used in this chapter in its ‘formal’ sense, which, following the traditional ILO (International Labour Organization) concept covers several programmes such as: social insurances (old-age, disability, and survivor pensions; non-occupational sickness and maternity care, and corresponding monetary benefits; occupational accident and disease care, and monetary benefits; unemployment compensation); national health systems; and provident funds.
Mercantilist Policy: The American Colonies
Authors: Skinner Andrew Stewart
Published: October 2011

Adam Smith's interest in the American question goes back to his time in Glasgow as student and professor. Smith could hardly help notice that Glasgow's emergence as a major commercial centre was the result of the city's geographical position. This relationship of geography to commercial activity provided a classic modern example of the historical progression that is so dominant a feature of his treatment of the origins of ‘present establishments’ in Europe as developed in book III of the Wealth of Nations. Smith's real purpose in the Wealth of Nations was to produce a searching critique of the mercantilist policy with regard to America's colonies. With this end in view, he offered an examination of the thinking behind the regulating acts of trade and navigation before proceeding to explain why current policy must change, offering a rational solution to the problems that were in due course bound to be exposed as well as to those that were unfolding as he sat in London. Smith's preferred solution was union and the creation in effect of an Atlantic Economic Community.
Punishment
Authors: LUCAS J. R.
Published: October 2011

This chapter develops a ‘vindicative’ theory of punishment, which construes it primarily as a message to the person being punished, but overheard also and importantly by others, to the effect that what he did was unacceptable. This view is at odds with most of the current orthodoxies; it attempts to accommodate them in the course of the argument.
The Direction and Flow of Time
Authors: McCall Storrs
Published: October 2011

The idea of time moving from past to future is not one generally shared by scientifically minded philosophers. For instance, in the Minkowski world there is no division into past, present, and future. Instead of finding the flow of time and its direction, modern science finds these qualities in the mind of the observer. Of those who have written on the direction and flow of time in recent year, the most thorough is Adolf Grunbaum. This chapter begins the discussion with temporal direction. It brings out many of the important philosophical issues surrounding this notion by examining a recent debate between Grunbaum and John Earman.
Individuals and Identity
Authors: McCall Storrs
Published: October 2011

The theory about possible worlds that seems to emerge most naturally from the branched model is identical neither with actualism nor with modal realism, though it has affinities with both. The branched model pictures the universe as one, but branched. Relative to the present, each branch may be regarded as a future possible world. There exist therefore, in the branched model, possible worlds, as the model realist claims, and these possible worlds are not abstract, but concrete.
Morality: Emotivism and Agreement
Authors: Mulhall Stephen
Published: October 2011

The central lineaments of Cavell's understanding of morality are laid out in the chapters that constitute part 3 of The Claim of Reason — chapters originally composed as part of his doctoral dissertation, and thus roughly contemporaneous with material collected in Must We Mean What We Say?. The guiding assumption is that rationality in moral debate may be a matter of agreement on patterns of support for conclusions rather than guaranteed agreement in conclusions, and he begins by suggesting that it is only the contrary assumption — predicated upon an excessive emphasis on logic and natural science as models of reasoning — which leads many philosophers to deny that moral argument can be seen as rational. In so doing, Cavell makes more explicit the point that those who identify the ability of logicians and scientists to reach agreement on conclusions as the criterion of the rationality of their practices may be completely misidentifying rather than completely describing our concept of rationality.
Postscript:Philosophy's Closet
Authors: Mulhall Stephen
Published: October 2011

This chapter looks back at the account of the trajectory of Cavell's philosophical project, and finds how much of that project has been left unexamined. It considers in detail the nature of Cavell's relation to feminism. These carry two implications: first, that Cavell, as a man, feels able to identify himself not only as capable of participating in feminism, but also a victim of the sufferings against which feminism sets itself; and second, that in the fight against these forms of oppression, he rejects the use of abstract generalizations in favour of a consideration of particular cases.
Metaphor and Moral Experience
Authors: Denham A. E.
Published: October 2011

This book examines the parallels between moral and metaphorical discourse, and the ways in which our engagement with literary art, and metaphorical discourse in particular, informs our moral beliefs. It suggests that there are three ways in which one's beliefs can be improved: if more of them are true, if more of them are warranted or justified, or if the warrant or justification for some of them is strengthened. So the book considers whether and how such improvements can be made to moral beliefs, and what role metaphor can play. It is an integral aim of the work to discern to what extent moral and metaphorical discourses deserve to be regarded as cognitive at all. This involves investigating to what extent such discourses are capable of truth or falsehood, warrant or justification, and how it is that we understand moral judgements and metaphorical expressions. This investigation is founded on an account of the nature of value and of our experience of value.
Metaphor and Judgements of Experience
Authors: Denham A. E.
Published: October 2011

Experience can be difficult to describe and hence requires the use of figurative devices such as metaphors and similes. This chapter argues that figurative language sometimes succeeds in representing aspects of experience which resist characterisation in literal terms. According to the Inexpressibility Thesis, the truth-conditions of some metaphors can not be represented by terms contained in the strictly literal lexicon (of a given language). By proposing a special category of phenomenological metaphors, this chapter offers an account of metaphor that both explains and supports the Inexpressibility Thesis. It also examines non-cognitivism and reductionism, metaphor and experience-dependent concepts, two models of similarity judgements, and phenomenological metaphors.
Chapter 3
Authors: Hallaq Wael B.
Published: October 2011

The third point asserted in this chapter has to do with the doctrine that no judgement may be known except by means of syllogism, whose form and content has been stipulated. This is seen to be a negative proposition that is not self-evident. At the same time, there has not been any evidence to say that this is indeed proven, and in fact the logicians themselves admitted that they have made claims that they have not proven and argued without the benefit of knowledge. Establishing this negative proposition with certitude is believed to be impossible according to their own principles. In this regard, there has also been a lot of rejections by many religious innovators, speculative theologians, and philosophers of the prophetic reports which the traditionists retain.
Chapter 4
Authors: Hallaq Wael B.
Published: October 2011

The point covered in this chapter is the fourth and the enigmatic one which has to do with the logicians' doctrine that syllogism or demonstration leads to the certain knowledge of judgements. The logicians' error concerning the first three points covered in the previous chapters is clear with the least of reflection. It was rather easy to prove and comprehend and the confusions were mostly caused by exaggerations and protracted discussions. For this fourth point, however, it is rather different since a syllogism formed of two premises resulting in a conclusion is in itself valid. The previous points mentioned in the earlier chapters are relatively easy as it was obvious that there was no way to establish with certainty such categorical denials.
Proper Names II: Answering Kripke
Authors: Bach Kent
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines Kripke's two main arguments against description theories: the modal argument and the argument from ignorance and error. It contends that even if they refute description theories generally, they are ineffective against nominal description theory (NDT). It answers Kripke's objection to NDT in particular, that it is viciously circular. To complete the defence of NDT, the chapter attempts to explain pragmatically what the so-called illusion of rigidity is.
Reference and Pronouns
Authors: Bach Kent
Published: October 2011

It may seem to be a semantic fact that descriptions and names are referring expressions, but their referring function can and should be explained in strictly pragmatic terms. In contrast, it is undeniable that the referring function of pronouns is inseparable from their semantics. They do not denote in the strict (context-independent) sense, of course, and sentences containing them do not have absolute truth conditions. Yet the fact that they are characteristically used to refer does seem to demand a semantic explanation. Indeed, it might even be suggested that even though the reference of a pronoun is fixed only relative to the context of utterance, still it is fixed semantically, hence that the meaning of a sentence containing a pronoun determines a truth condition relative to the context. One virtue of this suggestion is that it accounts for the fact that the meaning of a given pronoun remains constant even though it can be used literally to refer to various individuals. However, the suggestion also has a serious difficulty. This chapter argues that the speaker's intention always (except in the case of ‘I’) plays an essential role in determining reference and, further, that for semantic purposes this intention cannot count as an element of context. The referring function of indexicals is part and parcel of their semantics. The chapter explains in detail how pronouns and other indexicals can be distinguished semantically from one another in terms of their respective constraints on how they can be used literally to refer. Finally, it points out that they can be used to refer descriptively as well as objectually.
Singular Terms in Belief and in Fictional Contexts
Authors: Bach Kent
Published: October 2011

One of the themes of this book is that the notion of denotation is tangential to the semantics of singular terms. This thesis has been supported by defending Russell's theory of descriptions, by developing a version of the description theory of names, and by arguing that pronouns do not denote, not even relatively to contexts of utterance. This chapter suggests that occurrences of singular terms in belief (or other attitude) contexts do not pose the problems that arise for those views that rely on the notion of denotation. The account of the occurrence of singular terms in such contexts will be rather straightforward. That will not prevent it from being controversial, however, for the distinction between referentially transparent and opaque occurrences will be interpreted pragmatically. The theoretical benefit of drawing this distinction at the level of speaker intention rather than of sentence grammar is that, contrary to popular opinion, belief sentences are not systematically ambiguous. As for occurrences of singular terms in fictional contexts, in the final section a pragmatic account will be given of them as well.
Mind and Brain
Authors: Honderich Ted
Published: October 2011

This book considers the exact nature of the relation between mental and neural events, how both sorts of events come about, and their relation to actions. The answers that the book provides constitute a new determinist philosophy of mind.
Necessary Connections
Authors: Honderich Ted
Published: October 2011

It is often claimed that people take effects to be events that might not have occurred, given all things exactly as they were beforehand. Such claims about people's ordinary beliefs are commonly depended on in asserting free will, which is to say indeterminist accounts of decision and action. They have been given a confidence and liveliness through the influence of a common interpretation of quantum theory. Another more minor reason for attending to causation is that too dramatic conception of it, such as those which connect it with certain images or ideas of power, or fate or plan, or compulsion, or logical connection, distort, one's responses to determinism. Another larger reason for attending to causation, on the other hand, is that people do well to avoid the general conceptual uncertainty that must be part of an inquiry which leaves undefined any of its fundamental ideas which are open to definition.
The Causation of Actions
Authors: Honderich Ted
Published: October 2011

It is certain that people need a term for the wide category of items which includes not only standing up, winking, pulling the trigger, and the like, which are relatively simple, but also for those which are more complex like writing a letter, going abroad to avoid income tax, and the like. The more specific question here is: what do people take such intentional actions to be and what is their conception of these? These types of questions are obviously often disputed. A defensible account is essential to a fully articulated human determinism, which necessarily concerns actions. If the foundation of any human determinism is an account of the mind, no determinism could be complete without a consideration of actions.
The Problem for a Polycriterial Theory of Probability
Authors: Cohen L. Jonathan
Published: October 2011

This chapter describes the problem for a polycriterial theory of probability. Recent philosophical theories about probability have tended to be polycriterial rather than monocriterial. The identification of mathematical structure does not suffice to explain why such-and-such criteria are all criteria of probability. Nor can a family-resemblance theory explain this (or any other) conceptual unity. The chapter also discusses the mathematicist theory. A formal axiomatization of probability is in principle open to non-standard interpretations. It then evaluates family-resemblance theory. The family-resemblance account imposes an all-too-familiar kind of gloss on the data, but cannot be relied on to lead to anything new.
Probability as Gradation of Provability
Authors: Cohen L. Jonathan
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses the probability as gradation of provability. It is stated that probability is to be viewed as a generalization on the notion of provability. Proof-criteria that are general, necessary, and extensional generate probabilities that are appropriate to games of chance. Proof-criteria that are general, contingent, and extensional produce the probabilities that are appropriate to empirical statistics. In addition, proof-criteria that are general, contingent, and non-extensional generate probabilities that are appropriate to the measurement of causal propensities. Moreover, proof-criteria that are singular and necessary generate probabilities like those of Carnapian confirmation-theory, and proof-criteria that are singular and contingent generate probabilities appropriate to subjectivist, or personalist theory. Finally, probability-statements are evaluations of inferential soundness, and cannot be elucidated as acts of guarded assertion.
The Difficulty about Corroboration and Convergence
Authors: Cohen L. Jonathan
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines the difficulty about corroboration and convergence. It begins by addressing the common structure of testimonial corroboration and circumstantial convergence. The chapter also considers the traditional, Bernoullian analysis. The elucidation that has been most commonly proposed is at least as old as James Bernoulli's Ars Conjectandi. The chapter describes it in the admirably perspicuous form in which it was expounded by George Boole. In addition, the need to take prior probabilities into account is shown. Moreover, a demonstrably adequate analysis of corroboration and convergence in terms of mathematical probability is presented. It then reports the legal inadmissibility of positive prior probabilities. The method of contraposition is elaborated as well.
The Foundations of Inductive Logic
Authors: Cohen L. Jonathan
Published: October 2011

This chapter offers a description on the foundations of inductive logic. In order to provide a rational reconstruction for the concept of inductive probability, it is necessary first to provide one for the concept of inductive support. But a theory of inductive support should not aim to axiomatize its author's intuitions. Its primary data are the judgements of reputable scientists, not the intuitive deliverances of philosophers. Questions about the nature of inductive support are not easily answered. The issues are highly controversial and there is not even any general agreement about the premisses on which a resolution of the issues should be founded.
The Grading of Inductive Support
Authors: Cohen L. Jonathan
Published: October 2011

This chapter starts by exploring a justly famous paradigm of experimental reasoning about animals — Karl von Frisch's work on bees. An analysis of von Frisch's reasoning about bees' colour-discrimination illustrates that support builds up for a hypothesis when it fails to be falsified in more and more complexly structured tests — where complexity of structure depends on the number of relevant variables manipulated in the test. The results of any such test are essentially replicable, which has important consequences for detachment and the treatment of ‘anomalous’ test-results. The series of relevant variables for testing a generalization has to be defined in a way that will ensure that each variable is non-exhaustive, and independent of every other variable, and it is also necessary to ensure a suitable ordering for the series as a whole. There is also a certain tension between the ontological and epistemological points of view in the philosophy of inductive support. In addition, the subsumption of Mill's canons under the method of relevant variables is explained. It then addresses how the method of relevant variables applies to scientific theories. Furthermore, the chapter elaborates Whewell's consilience, and Lakatos' progressive problem-shift, as inductive criteria. Next, it presents the problem of anomalies.
Criteria of Merit for Explanations of Individual Events
Authors: Cohen L. Jonathan
Published: October 2011

This chapter explores the criteria of merit for explanations of individual events. It first introduces Hempel's theory of explanation for individual events. The covering laws for both proofs and explanations are reviewed. Apart from various forms of incompleteness that do not necessarily invalidate what Hempel calls deductive-nomological explanation, there is also a kind of insufficiency in the statement of explanatory conditions that according to Hempel renders an attempt at such explanation merely programmatic. But this is paradoxical and the paradox can be avoided by recognizing that the adequacy of the explanation varies with its inductive probability. In explaining individual events, it does not need to aim at maximum comprehensiveness in the covering laws invoked, as when uniformities are explained: rather, the more adequate the explanation, the more heavily qualified the covering law is likely to be.
Divine Commands and Deontic Logics
Authors: Quinn Philip L.
Published: October 2011

Deontic logics are formal systems that capture the logical principles which govern reasoning involving what ought to be. Sometimes, what ought to be is thought of, narrowly, as encompassing no more than the obligatory; other deontic logicians take what ought to be as covering whatever is ideal, good, or valuable. This chapter attempts to discover whether the fundamental conceptions of some of the more intriguing systems of deontic logic are compatible with a divine command conception of what ought to be. It argues that several of these systems of deontic logic can be provided with foundations in a divine conception of what ought to be.
Divine Justice and Divine Mercy
Authors: Quinn Philip L.
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses the doctrine about the nature of God that allows us to attribute to him some excellences of character which are, according to divine command theories, the analogues of moral virtues that we ought to possess. This chapter attempts to explain divine justice and divine mercy and to state precisely what God would be doing in exercising a divine forgiving disposition. This chapter concludes that there is a perfectly sensible interpretation which can be given to the theistic doctrine that God forgives our sins and that, for this reason, there is no conceptual difficulty involved in saying that God has a forgiving disposition or that he sometimes exercises the virtue of forgiveness, though such exercises are not morally required of him as they are required of us.
Mind
Authors: Bealer George
Published: October 2011

This chapter uses the theory of qualities and concepts to obtain solutions to some more problems in classical modern philosophy. Specifically, the theory is applied to problems of intentionality, mind, and consciousness — the very hallmarks of modern philosophy.
Conclusion
Authors: Hinckfuss Ian
Published: October 2011

This chapter argues that the relationalist programme can always be made to work, but in some cases only by the invention of a surrogate entity to bear the properties that, prior to the reduction, were alleged to be borne by space or time. This book has been concerned with four basic paradoxes regarding space and time. These four basic paradoxes are specifically presented. There is always a possible reduction of expressions involving ‘space’ and ‘time’. It is clear that because evidence is involved, and because ontological reductions are being offered, the issue is not simply verbal. But that does not mean that it is decidable by a few isolated experiments – whatever their results.
Hegel'S First Philosophy of Nature
Authors: Harris H. S.
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines Hegel's first philosophy of nature. The direct evidence about Hegel's philosophy of nature in 1801/2 is not quite so sparse and indirect as the evidence about his ‘logic and metaphysics’. The first section examines his concept of ‘true physics’. The dialectical concept of matter as ‘real gravity’, an identity which is a unity, of opposites, and ‘an infinitely opposed identity, a thoroughly relative identity’ is the main physical theme of the Dissertation. The second section explores the solar system in the Dissertation. The last section examines the concepts of mechanism, chemism, and organism.
Recessional Voluntary
Authors: Harris H. S.
Published: October 2011

Abstracts and keywords to be supplied
Original Meanings and Historical Interpretation
Authors: Jardine Nicholas
Published: October 2011

This chapter begins by reviewing the question-oriented account of historical understanding of explaining scenes of inquiry, local reality, and interpretation. It follows with an argument of an account that avoids the most blatant forms of hermeneutic circularity, unlike related question-oriented accounts. It then discusses the main topic, the relation between the explication of historical understanding and the craft of historical interpretation. In particular, it examines the validity of two additional criteria of adequacy of interpretation: faithfulness to authorial intention and imputation of consistency. It argues that the theoretical account pointed out in this chapter entails definite stances on these issues, and that these stances are in good accord with common sense and sound historical practice. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the prospects for extension of this account from the history of philosophy and the sciences to the history of writings in general.
The Ontology of Mind
Authors: Steward Helen
Published: October 2011

This book puts forward a radical critique of the foundations of contemporary philosophy of mind, arguing that it relies too heavily on insecure assumptions about the nature of some of the sorts of mental entities it postulates: the nature of events, processes, and states. The book offers an investigation of these three categories, clarifying the distinction between them, and argues specifically that the assumption that states can be treated as particular, event-like entities has been a huge and serious mistake. The book argues that the category of token state should be rejected, and develops an alternative way of understanding those varieties of causal explanation which have sometimes been thought to require an ontology of token states for their elucidation. The book contends that many current theories of mind are rendered unintelligible once it is seen how these explanations really work. A number of prominent features of contemporary philosophy of mind token identity theories, the functionalists conception of causal role, a common form of argument for eliminative materialism, and the structure of the debate about the efficacy of mental content are impugned by the book's arguments. The book concludes that the modern mind-body problem needs to be substantially rethought.
Events, Particularity, and Properties
Authors: Steward Helen
Published: October 2011

This chapter considers two theories of events which connect the category of event quite closely to the category of property by utilizing the notion of a property exemplification. Both Jaegwon Kim and Jonathan Bennett have defended views according to which events are exemplifications of properties; and though there are significant differences between the two accounts, both share the thought that events relate to properties not merely by having them, in the ordinary way in which anything which is characterizable in any manner at all can be said to have properties, but in a special way, whereby the event is deemed to be something whose identity is actually tied to some particular property (Kim) or to a collection of properties (Bennett). It is argued that views of this sort result in a conception of events on which they have really ceased to have any status as genuine particulars. Kim's events despite his frequent claim that they are particulars, are better classified as fact-like entities. And Bennett relies illicitly on a particularist conception of events in order to develop his anti-particularist theory of what they are, so that his view ultimately founders in incoherence.
The Network Model of Causation in Philosophy of Mind
Authors: Steward Helen
Published: October 2011

This chapter describes and attempts to undermine a model or picture of causation which is believed dominates contemporary philosophy of mind (as well as many accounts of the nature of causation in general) and shapes prevailing ideas about the form of some of its most important questions — the network model of causation. The network model informs much contemporary discussion of such matters as the status of folk psychology, the commitments of physicalism, and the efficacy of mental content. It is found lurking amongst the assumptions of philosophers whose positive theories have otherwise little in common; evidence of some commitment to it can be found in the writings of philosophers as diverse in their views on the nature of mind as Fodor and Stich, Davidson and Lewis. But the network model of causation is badly mistaken. It ignores the important differences: that between singular and sentential causal claims, for instance, and relatedly, the differences between particulars and facts, and between causing and causal relevance. It is argued that once these distinctions are properly appreciated, the network model of causation cannot any longer be sustained. But without its help, some of the problems dogging contemporary philosophy of mind cannot so much as be raised, at any rate in their present form.
Minor Western Versions
Authors: METZGER BRUCE M.
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses the introduction of Christianity into Britain and the translation of the New Testament there. The minor Western versions of the New Testament considered in this chapter are the Anglo-Saxon, certain Old High German, and the Old Saxon versions. The oldest extant New Testament material in Anglo Saxon is in the form of interlinear glosses to a Latin text, one of the most noteworthy is the famous Lindisfarne Gospels. This chapter also lists all the known Anglo-Saxon manuscripts of the Gospels. It also describes the characteristics and textual affinities of the Anglo-Saxon version of the New Testament.
Is There a Centre to the New Testament?
Authors: Reumann John
Published: October 2011

‘Jesus Christ’ provides a centre for the twenty-seven books and pamphlets that makes up the New Testament. Loyalty to the Jew, Jesus, whom God has made Lord, is the thread that cane be found running through each and every canonical book. There has been for years a swing back and forth in the study of the Bible between ‘unity’ and ‘variety’. Certain periods have responded more to the pluralism within ‘the Book’ and other eras have asserted its unity. This book stands by itself as a treatment of oneness, while being part of a series where some New Testament books are also treated elsewhere in the depth they deserve. There is another way in which this volume stands between two others in the same series, linking and drawing on both while possessing its own identity.
Jesus of Nazareth as Starting-Point
Authors: Reumann John
Published: October 2011

To choose a starting-point amid the pluralism of the New Testament canon is no easy task, whether the approach is ‘historical’ or ‘theological’ or both. In terms of the literary references, Jesus is the chief figure in or behind all New Testament writings, along with God. Jesus was the Lord presented in the gospels, from whom was derived what Paul and John said. But as the pendulum swung and critical scholars questioned how much, even in the synoptics, really was from Jesus, a position at the opposite pole emerged. The topic of Christology with regard to the historical Jesus hovers between the principle that ‘Jesus preached God and not himself’. To oversimplify some much-debated areas, it is suggested that Jesus, who lived a life of service to others and spoke as a prophet of God, did not himself use the title of ‘servant’ or welcome that of ‘messiah’.
The Johannine Line of Development: Revelation
Authors: Reumann John
Published: October 2011

The Revelation of Jesus Christ is an amalgam of visions, letters, and sequences of catastrophic judgements, which devastate the sinful world, particularly the oppressor ‘Babylon’; all interspersed with precious glimpses of hope, including a thousand-year reign by Christ and then the consummation in the new Jerusalem. Sounds and silence, vivid colours, exquisite song and fateful dirge, mysterious numbers, beast figures, mythic symbols, hints of persecution, gore, famine, death, and tangible details about the promised city of God combine to overwhelm the reader/hearer privileged to share this extravaganza for God's faithful. Not surprisingly, Revelation has had its ups and downs as Christian Scripture. It was clearly alluded to by 2nd-century writers. Furthermore, over the centuries, Revelation has often attracted those apocalyptically inclined and repelled others servant-saints. Having given the book a specific setting in history, critical study also helped demystify Revelation by identifying the genre that this puzzling book embodies.
Post-Qumran Perspectives on Exegesis
Authors: Lim Timothy H.
Published: October 2011

The scrolls found in the caves near the archaeological site of Khirbet Qumran have often been hailed as the greatest manuscript discovery in Palestine and Israel in the 20th century. The scrolls, when viewed within the context of the Qumran-Essene community, contribute substantially to Bible interpretation of the Second Temple period by portraying a group that searched the scriptures and by providing some of the results of this exegetical endeavour. Unlike the exegetical compositions, the biblical scrolls found at Qumran have not enjoyed the same recognition of relevance for Bible interpretation, even though they too should have fundamentally modified the manner in which exegesis is viewed. The reasons for this neglect are attributable in part to the indirect nature of the evidence and the division of the Qumran scrolls into the categories of ‘biblical’ and ‘non-biblical’.
Wording of the Biblical Text
Authors: Lim Timothy H.
Published: October 2011

Attention to the wording of the biblical text is a feature of ancient exegesis that does not admit facile summary. On one level, it is literalism and no more. However, stopping there would ignore the complexities with which the ancient exegete worked and the dynamics that underlie the tension between preservation and renewal of biblical tradition. The self-perception of the ancient exegetes and translators determines the role which they play in making the past relevant for the present. Tendency to literalism, whether in exegesis or translation, downplays the intrusive role of the ancient interpreter and discloses a high regard for the sanctity of the words of the biblical texts. The scribal practices too, especially in the phenomena of preparing, copying, and then correcting their texts, can similarly be characterized by the principles that underlie exegetical and translational activity.
Introduction
Authors: HARRISON CAROL
Published: October 2011

This chapter introduces the fall of man, using the metaphor from George Herbert's The Elixir of when one is looking into a mirror. Augustine makes this distinction: St Paul's looking into a mirror is an act of discernment, an attempt to make out the shapes and forms in the mirror and grasp what they signify. This looking through cloudiness and obscurity to make out shapes and forms is, for Augustine, a powerful metaphor of human life following the Fall. The vision of Divine Beauty, which man has lost, can also be grasped in the mirror of created reality, albeit obscured by a veil of temporality and corporeity. This is most especially the case with the revelation of divine beauty within that realm, which serves to reform deformed or ugly man by inspiring his faith, hope, and love, not simply to look at it, but in and through it.
Incarnation
Authors: HARRISON CAROL
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines the doctrine of incarnation, describing the crucified Christ, deformed in order to reform or make beautiful deformed or ugly man. It is Christ, in the union of his divinity and humanity, who defines and gives meaning to Augustine's ideas on beauty. His centrality cannot be overstated, nor can it be adequately expounded and illustrated. It stands at the hub of Augustine's thought and firmly holds together the diverse spokes of ideas leading off in different directions, forming them into a working and harmonious whole. By becoming man, Christ, who is divine truth, goodness, and beauty, enables man to perceive and to grasp these otherwise abstract ideas and principles, and leads him to their true centre and meaning in Himself, as God and as Trinity.
Conclusion
Authors: HARRISON CAROL
Published: October 2011

On the one hand, the alliance of beauty and matter can be seen in a negative way: matter is subject to the mind; beauty in matter can be taken as an ultimate in itself, and can cause man to sin. On the other hand, the fact that matter can incarnate and, so to speak, mediate ultimate beauty, makes their alliance a very positive thing. Both approaches are present in St Augustine's thought, and are held together in a somewhat paradoxical and problematic way. The first, negative approach to matter and beauty predominated in his early theory and is never totally lost in his later thought. The second, more positive approach, though present in the early works, becomes increasingly important as his theology, especially his theology of the Fall, develops. This work has focused on Augustine's theological analysis of the beautiful in the context of his exposition of Christian doctrine.
From the Pre-Socratics to Plato and His School
Authors: SCOTT ALAN
Published: October 2011

This chapter looks at the divinity of heavenly bodies from the pre-Socratics up to the time of Plato and his school. A formal cult of the stars was almost unknown in ancient Greece. Aristophanes, Plato, and Aristotle regarded their worship as either an archaic or foreign practice. The most powerful voice urging the Greeks to worship the stars in the 4th century was not that of popular religion but of a philosopher and astronomer. The author of the Epinomis was so skillful in attaching this treatise to Plato's Laws that he not only convinced many modern scholars that his work was genuine, but led others to consider the Epinomis as the nearest equivalent to a Platonic work, increasing the importance of the astral soul and astral religion in Hellenistic philosophy.
Aristotle
Authors: SCOTT ALAN
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines Aristotle's view of the nature and religious function of the stars. In the De Caelo, he believes that a series of concentric spheres are responsible for heavenly movement. Aristotle believed that each one was a body and referred to this substance as ‘the first body’, ‘the first element’, or ‘ether’. Another explanation that he offered was the theory of existence of a mover outside of the heavens. During the later era, Aristotle was an important source of the understanding of the astral soul, of ether, and of a religion of the cosmos. The discussion notes that it was the way in which he was misunderstood which caused his most important contribution to the way that the astral soul was discussed by the age of Philo and Origen.
Time and Infinity
Authors: Craig William Lane
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines recent criticism of two arguments for the beginning of the universe similar to the kalām cosmological argument. These arguments are about the impossibility of the existence of an actual infinite and the impossibility of the successive formation of an actual infinite. This chapter argues in defense in these arguments and concludes that both arguments have yet to be found unsound. It explains that both arguments do seem to furnish philosophical grounds for holding to the finitude of the past and the beginning of the universe.
A Criticism of A Posteriori and A Priori Arguments for a Cause of the Big Bang Singularity
Authors: Smith Quentin
Published: October 2011

This chapter argues against William Lane Craig's theory of causality and against a posteriori and a priori arguments for a cause of the Big Bang singularity. It highlights some prima facie problems with a posteriori arguments for a cause of the Big Bang singularity, a priori arguments for a cause of the Big Bang, and Kantian a priori arguments for a cause of the Big Bang. This chapter concludes that there is no reason to think that it is metaphysically impossible for the Big Bang singularity to occur uncaused.
The Origins of the Federal Theology in Sixteenth-Century Reformation Thought
Authors: Weir David A.
Published: October 2011

The development of the federal theology of the late 16th and early 17th centuries was a significant transformation in Reformed theological thinking. According to the federal theologians, all of human history could be described using the rubric of a series of covenants, or foedera, beginning with a ‘covenant of works’ in the perfection of Eden and concluding with the new covenant fulfilled by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The new covenant was in effect the conclusion of the ‘covenant of grace’, and it was this which united the Old and New Testaments into one continuous epic of God's grace and mercy. While John Calvin and many earlier Reformers discussed the importance of the postlapsarian covenant of grace, they never taught the federal theology with its key identifying feature of a prelapsarian covenant. This book traces the prelapsarian covenant idea in Reformed theology from its first use by Zacharias Ursinus in 1562 to its flowering in 1590. Besides its origins, the implications of the federal theology for Reformed thinking are made clear, and it is shown that the idea of covenant could have important implications for areas such as church and state, the sacraments, the Puritan doctrine of conversion, the Christian Sabbath, and the doctrine of justification and Christian ethics. The federal theology is of considerable historical importance in intellectual history and forms the framework for much of the Reformed theology in the English-speaking world for three centuries.
The Lexical and Biblical Evidence
Authors: Weir David A.
Published: October 2011

The original Old Testament word for covenant is berith. However, the primary import of the meaning of the word berith was lost as it was translated into various languages, particularly Greek and Latin. In the Septuagint berith was translated by the word diatheke. With the translation of the scriptures into Latin these two words had three possible Latin translation: foedus, pactum, and testamentum. This chapter explores the way the 16th-century student of the Bible perceived and understood these words. Research on the Reformation understanding of covenant has centred mainly upon tracts and treatises of various theologians. The chapter confines itself simply to the lexical evidence and biblical translations of the period. The first printed Hebrew lexicon was produced by Johannes Reuchlin, and the next lexicon of significance is one compiled by Alphonso Zamorensis.
Athanasius Transcendence and Transformation
Authors: LYMAN J. REBECCA
Published: October 2011

Athanasius' passionate defence of the incarnation of Christ appears to provide a purely religious cosmology. This ‘soteriological’ or ‘Christocentric’ emphasis is a commonplace in scholarly literature: the incarnate Christ was not the culmination of pedagogical cosmology or history, but rather the key to the salvation of all existence. Throughout his career of over four decades as bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius combined administrative, political, and theological skills to bring unity and to ensure Nicene orthodoxy in the Eastern church. Discussion on Athanasius as theologian is given as well. His reflections on anthropology show a similar mix of ascetic interests, polemical refutations, and soteriological issues. Examples that demonstrate one of the troublesome issues of his theology of incarnation are explained. Athanasius' compelling theological vision derived strength from a Christian transposition of contemporary trends to underline soteriology and cosmology, with Christ as the decisive pivot.
The ʽAshīra Muḥammadiyya and the Muḥammadiyya Shādhiliyya Order
Authors: Johansen Julian
Published: October 2011

To set this religious discourse against a background of contemporary religious practice in Egypt, one organization on which to focus the study has been chosen. The 'Ashīra Muṭammadiyya is a substantial group with its headquarters in Cairo and branches all over the country. It is also an informal grouping of non-initiates, who show their commitment to the organization by attending the Friday Prayer in one of its mosques, or by enjoying the twice-weekly open lecture and congregational invocation given at the main mosque in Qaytbay. Within the general, membership-by-attendance grouping is a core of initiates. These make up the membership of the Muṭammadiyya Shādhiliyya Sūfī Order. A short overview of the life of Sheikh Muṭammad is given. Topics covered include the formation of the ṭarīqa and the transfer of authority, Sheikh Maṭmud Abū 'Ilyān al-Shādhilī, Sheikh Ibrāhīm Ibn al-Khalīl al-shādhilī, the building of reputation, and fame and virtue.