bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Formation of Monotheistic Theologies in Biblical Literature
Authors: Smith Mark S.
Published: October 2003

An examination is made of the monotheistic theologies in the priestly work of Genesis 1, the wisdom of Proverbs 1–9, and the apocalyptic of Daniel 7. These are three monotheistic adaptations to the older model of the Israelite national god: respectively, a priestly model, the form of the figure of wisdom personified in female terms, and apocalyptic imagery, with its clear reminiscences of old monarchic theology. All three models involve old mythic material that spoke powerfully and was reused in new and varying circumstances. Mythic narratives and imagery were the chosen forms not only of educated classes such as the monarchy or priesthood; rather, these groups likely drew upon these materials precisely because they were well known among the educated and uneducated, rich and poor. After the treatment of these monotheistic presentations of the Israelite national deity, the author addresses the so-called demise of myth in Israel. Like the preceding chapters, this survey uses the Ugaritic mythological texts as a primary source.
Callings, Journeys, and Quests
Authors: Porpora Douglas V.
Published: October 2003

Investigates how frequently people apply to their lives the traditional metaphors of calling or vocation, journey, and quest. To what do people feel called? Where are they going on life's journey? For what are they questing? The conclusion of this chapter is that in the fading use of these metaphors, what is fading as well is moral idealism and the sense that our undertakings have any larger significance.
Resources of the Self
Authors: Porpora Douglas V.
Published: October 2003

Explores the ways in which religious experience and other kinds of peak experience lend a narrative coherence to the whole of life and thus become resources for self‐making. Included among the experiences investigated are an Eastern experience of cosmic consciousness and a Christian fundamentalist experience of salvation.
Communities of Discourse
Authors: Porpora Douglas V.
Published: October 2003

Examines how our sense of reality, in general, and religious reality, in particular, are established within community. Certain religious experiences, it is argued, are possible only within certain communally established frames of reality. Relativism and skepticism about ultimate truth are nonetheless to be resisted. Following the philosophical perspective of critical realism, it is argued that objective truth can be ascertained – if always provisionally – through the process of argument that is itself a community or intercommunity endeavor.
Creation and Angst in Kierkegaard
Authors: Bellinger Charles K.
Published: October 2003

The Christian idea that creation is an ongoing event is found at the heart of Kierkegaard's thought. The incompleteness of creation lies behind the uniquely human emotion: angst (which arises out of the nondetermined nature of human psychology). The fall into sin occurs when humans seek to manage their angst by removing themselves from the process of creation. Kierkegaard's concept of angst is contrasted with the concept of fear in David Hume and Ernest Becker.
The Kierkegaardian Understanding of Violence
Authors: Bellinger Charles K.
Published: October 2003

Kierkegaard emphasizes that God is love; God desires the maximum of human flourishing. Therefore, if human beings perceive God as a threat to their immature egos, they are mistaken at the core of their being. Human rejection of the divine call is seen most dramatically in the crucifixion of Christ. The root of ill will toward others is ill will toward the self that one is in the process of becoming.
Are Secular Perspectives on Violence Sufficient?
Authors: Bellinger Charles K.
Published: October 2003

Standard social science is required to conform to the dictates of methodological atheism. Rene Girard's thought is ambiguous with regard to the question of whether his theory of violence meets this requirement. James Gilligan and Fred Alford are two authors who write out of a similar ambiguity, though they tend to come down more on the secular side. Eric Voegelin's thought provides a critique of the limitations of secular social science and points toward the possibility of an explicitly theological social science, which Girard has been moving toward in his later writings.
The Problem of Christian Violence
Authors: Bellinger Charles K.
Published: October 2003

If it is the case that the best approach to understanding violence arises out of the Bible, as Kierkegaard and Girard demonstrate, why is it that Christians have been so violent during their history? This chapter offers a brief summary of violent events in the history of Christianity, such as the Crusades and the Inquisition. The ways in which Kierkegaard and Girard enable us to understand these events is outlined. It is argued that both authors are in tune with the Anabaptist approach to interpreting the history of Christianity and ”reintroducing Christianity into Christendom.”
Opening a Mountain
Authors: Heine Steven
Published: October 2003

Opening a Mountain is a translation with a commentary of 60 koan cases that feature an important supernatural or ritual element selected from a variety of the major and minor Zen Buddhist koan collections compiled in Sung China and Kamakura Japan. The koan is a brief, enigmatic anecdote or dialog between two contesting parties that defines the heart. The book demonstrates that the main theme underlying much of the koan literature deals with how Zen masters opened or transformed mountains. The transforming of spiritual forces that had been closing off the mountains into manifestations of sacred space in Zen was referred to as kuai‐shan in Chinese (or kaizan in Japanese). The mountains harbored spirits, demons, and bodhisattvas, as well as hermits, recluses, ascetics, and other irregular practitioners, and were opened using the symbols and rituals of spiritual purification. In contrast with conventional interpretations that view koans as psychological exercises with a purely iconoclastic intention, the approach here highlights the rich component of mythological and marvelous elements that pervade this genre of literature in a way that complements, rather than contradicts, the demythological or iconoclastic perspective. This approach to interpreting Zen literature is distinctive and innovative in several respects. Opening a Mountain includes the selection of koan cases emphasizing supernatural symbols, such as mountains, animals, and other natural imagery, based on a scholarly standard of translation and citation of source materials. The main topics include “Surveying Mountain Landscapes,” “Contesting with Irregular Rivals,” “Encountering Supernatural Forces,” “Wielding Symbols of Authority,” and “Giving Life and Controlling Death as Confessional Experiences.”
Contesting With Irregular Rivals
Authors: Heine Steven
Published: October 2003

These koan cases include encounters with rivals within the Zen lineage as well as practitioners outside the monastic order, such as hermits, shamans, wizards, mind readers, and miracle workers, and dangerous women including nuns and Zen grannies. Zen masters test their skills to show that they are more proficient than the irregular practitioners, who often gain a reputation for spiritual prowess.
Encountering Supernatural Forces
Authors: Heine Steven
Published: October 2003

This section concerns the experiences of the supranormal realm of dreams, visions, and apparitions, in addition to meetings with spirits, gods, demons, and bodhisattvas. It also treats strange, anomalous, or magical entities like the snake and fox, which have the power to shift shape into human form in order to deceive or to bless. Zen masters apply some form of purification to transform the energy of the shape‐shifting spirits.
Confessional Experiences
Authors: Heine Steven
Published: October 2003

This section includes cases that depict a spiritual transformation through the experiences of confession or repentance, including the extreme example of self‐mutilation, as well as the realm beyond death populated by ghosts and relics. Encountering and overcoming the painfulness of death and dying is a central way of demonstrating the advanced spiritual training of Zen masters.
Body Work
Authors: Glancy Jennifer A.
Published: October 2003

In the urban settings of Paul's ministry, slaves he encountered were likely to be engaged in a variety of occupations, from production of commodities to bookkeeping to domestic service. Because slaves were sexual property, a slaveholder had the right to force a slave into prostitution, and indeed, most prostitutes were slaves. In 1 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians, Paul decries porneia, or sexual immorality, but he does not define porneia. Slaves were not in a position to protect the sexual boundaries of their bodies, a limitation that requires us either to reconsider the receptivity of the Christian body to slaves or to reformulate our understanding of expectations for sexual purity among the membership of Pauline churches.
Body Language
Authors: Glancy Jennifer A.
Published: October 2003

Most slaves in the Roman Empire were probably houseborn, i.e., the offspring of slave mothers. Other sources of slaves included exposure of children, war, kidnapping, and – to a very limited extent – self‐sale. Documentary evidence is especially likely to illuminate the slave system at moments of transition in the life of a slave: in documents related to the transfer of ownership (through the slave trade or through testamentary legacies), in fugitive slave notices, and in declarations of manumission. Early Christian rhetoric repeatedly evoked liminal moments of slavery through, for example, the metaphor of enslavement and the metaphor of being freed.
Temples and Temple Patronage in Kakatiya Andhra
Authors: Talbot Cynthia
Published: October 2003

Stone inscriptions document religious gifts made to Hindu temples by a wide range of donors who sought not only religious benefit but also social prestige and political advancement. Temple patronage was a major stimulus to economic growth since it led to the extension of agriculture and the creation of irrigation facilities. The older temples of coastal Andhra such as Draksharama and Srisailam received the most endowments, mainly in the form of livestock, whereas the newer temples of the interior were generally given land. The patrons of these two types of temples also differed in occupational background, demonstrating that the communities constituted by temple worship varied considerably. The standard model of the Hindu temple institution as a harmonious force for social integration and economic redistribution thus needs to be modified in recognition of the competitive character of temple patronage.
Moral Reality
Authors: Bloomfield Paul
Published: October 2003

The book is a work in metaethics, constituting a defense of moral realism. The book begins with what I call a “modest transcendental argument” for the existence of the property of moral goodness based on an acknowledgment of the possibility that personal moral failing may go forever undetected; as such this is an argument from error. The property of physical health, understood in terms of proper function, is used as a model for moral goodness. This anchors the moral ontology on foundations as solid as those found in the physical sciences. A moral epistemology is developed in which we may learn about goodness much in the way doctors and scientists may learn about healthiness. The semantics that emerges from this picture is multifaceted and nuanced enough to preserve complicated common sense semantic intuitions about how the word “good” is used in moral contexts. The position also implies a defense of an externalist theory about the relationship between the recognition of a moral consideration and motivation. The book closes with an appendix in which the reduction of thermodynamics to statistical mechanics is questioned, and a nonreducible ontology for entropy is considered as an ontological model for both physical health and moral goodness.
Introduction
Authors: Bloomfield Paul
Published: October 2003

An extended transcendental argument for moral realism is given cast in terms of an “argument from error”. This is distinguished from an argument from moral phenomenology because the errors under consideration are those that go undetected despite our confidence of their existence. First person error is focused upon in particular as is the human condition in general. The argument establishes a presumption in favor of moral realism, not a conclusive proof. A theory of moral goodness is needed, and a sketch of the ontological, epistemological, semantic, and psychological questions any such theory must answer is given.
Moral Metaphysics
Authors: Bloomfield Paul
Published: October 2003

The property of physical health is presented as a model for moral goodness, and a primer on being healthy follows. Healthiness is understood in terms of proper biological function. Conventionalism and relativism, two bugbears of moral realism, are discussed in relation to healthiness and found not to arouse suspicion about the reality of physical health. By analogy, these can be accommodated by moral realism. A discussion of the supervenience and reduction of goodness and health follows, and the chapter ends with a discussion of S. Blackburn's challenge to moral realism based on supervenience.
Moral Language
Authors: Bloomfield Paul
Published: October 2003

The semantics of “health” are discussed by way of Aquinas’ theory of analogical predication: “health” and “good” have the tripartite semantic structure in terms of a base use, causes, and signs. This tripartite structure is mapped back onto the discussion of virtue theory, deontology, and consequentialism. T. Horgan and M.Timmon's Moral Twin Earth problem for moral realism is discussed and found not to apply to the present theory. The syntax of biological function statements is explicated and found to have the same underlying structure as prescriptions. A sketch of a theory of the normativity is proffered.
Virtue, Vice, and Value
Authors: Hurka Thomas
Published: October 2003

What are virtue and vice, and how do they relate to other moral properties such as goodness and rightness? This book defends a perfectionist account of virtue and vice that gives distinctive answers to these questions. The account treats the virtues as higher‐level intrinsic goods, ones that involve morally appropriate attitudes to other, independent goods and evils. Virtue by itself makes a person's life better, but in a way that depends on the goodness of other things. This account was accepted by many early twentieth‐ century consequentialists, including Franz Brentano, G. E. Moore, Hastings Rashdall, and W. D. Ross. The book elaborates it further than has been done before, describing its mathematical structure, connecting it to individual virtues and vices, and applying it to specific issues such as the morality of fantasy and the proper roles of private charity and the welfare state. While doing so, it argues for the account's superiority over rival views of virtue, including those defended under the heading of “virtue ethics.”
The Recursive Account
Authors: Hurka Thomas
Published: October 2003

This chapter introduces the book's basic account of virtue and vice. This account combines two elements: (1) a recursive characterization of goodness and evil, which makes morally appropriate attitudes to other goods and evils intrinsically good and morally inappropriate attitudes evil, and (2) a definition of virtue and vice that equates them with these good and evil attitudes. The chapter discusses how this recursive account allows consequentialist moral views to treat virtue as an intrinsic good; it also traces the account's history of philosophers such as Aristotle, Sidgwick, Brentano, Rashdall, Moore, Ross, Chisholm, and Nozick.
Merits and Implications
Authors: Hurka Thomas
Published: October 2003

This chapter defends the recursive account by identifying in turn, attractive features of its two main elements: the recursive characterization of good and evil and the associated definition of virtue and vice. The chapter also discusses the value of personal relationships, whether virtue is found primarily in occurrent attitudes or in dispositions (the latter a view of Aristotle's), whether virtue must be voluntary, and how virtue relates to right action.
Degrees of Virtue and Vice
Authors: Hurka Thomas
Published: October 2003

Discusses degrees of virtue and vice, or what determines how virtuous or vicious a given attitude is; it treats this as an issue of measurement. The chapter discusses both atomistic principles, which assign degrees of value to individual attitudes considered on their own, and holistic principles, which value certain combinations of attitudes as combinations, using Moore's principle of organic unities. Both types of principle favor proportionality, or dividing one's concern among objects in proportion to their degrees of value; the chapter represents both visually, using graphs.
Attitudes, Beliefs, and Love as a Condition of Value
Authors: Hurka Thomas
Published: October 2003

This chapter considers some further issues about the recursive account: how the value of an attitude is affected by the presence of a belief in its object's existence, the morality of fantasy, the relative values of attitudes that do and do not involve beliefs about their objects’ value (these are called intellectualized vs. simply emotional attitudes), and the challenge of a rival view suggested by Mill, Frankena, and Parfit that makes love of an object a condition of that object's having value.
Against Virtue Ethics
Authors: Hurka Thomas
Published: October 2003

Having spent its bulk elaborating its own account of virtue, the book closes by arguing for this account's superiority over those defended under the heading of “virtue ethics.” It critically assesses the virtue‐ethical views of Anscombe, Slote, Hursthouse, and others, considering their claims about the relation between virtue and right action, the nature of virtue, especially as related to flourishing or an aretaic concept of admirability, and the antitheoretical approach to ethics. One of the chapter's claims is that, despite virtue‐ethicists’ repeated denials, their view is objectionably egoistic or self‐centered.
Introduction
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

The Introduction argues that, despite the current fashions in scholarly circles, it is possible to unambiguously determine what Jesus meant in his parables and our sayings, and to explain it in a way that is both simple and clear. The key to such an explanation lies in the use of 60 or so simple and universal human concepts, which have been identified through empirical cross‐linguistic investigations, as a shared core of all languages. These concepts include GOOD and BAD, SOMEONE and SOMETHING, KNOW, THINK, WANT, FEEL IF and BECAUSE, and 50 or so others. The chapter emphasizes the importance of Jesus’ Jewish context for the understanding of his teaching and it shows how the use of universal human concepts allows us to separate the universal content of Jesus’ teaching from its historical and cultural embedding. While the author identifies herself as a Roman Catholic, the perspective on the Gospels adopted in this chapter (and in the book as a whole) is broadly ecumenical, including Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Christian tradition, as well as the writings of Jewish scholars.
The Beatitudes
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

This chapter focuses on those Beatitudes widely regarded as “authentic,” that is, as representing Jesus’ “ipsissima verba,” and stresses their importance as the heart of Jesus’ preaching. It discusses the meaning of the Greek expressions underlying the English “poor (in spirit),” “the hungry,” “those who mourn (weep),” and “the meek,” and explains the sense of the relevant Beatitudes in simple and universal human concepts. For example, the sense of the beatitude of “the weeping (mourning)” is represented (partially) as follows: “sometimes very bad things happen to people; because these things happen, these people feel something very bad; God knows about this; God will do good things for these people because of this; these people will feel something very good because of this”
The Sower
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

The parable of the Sower is widely regarded as “the great watershed of all Jesus’ parables” (Capon 1985), but its meaning has been disputed, and the parable has even been used (by Crossan 1978) as a prime example of the indeterminacy (or “hermeneutical polyvalence”) of Jesus’ parables. This chapter strongly opposes such claims and it argues that Jesus intended to convey through this parable a clear and unambiguous message that he wanted to be heard (“He who has ears to hear, let him hear”). This message, illuminated by Mark's own interpretation, is explicated in the chapter, in simple and universal human concepts. The chapter emphasizes the irony of the fact that of all Jesus’ parables, it is the Sower that should have been chosen as a “metaparable to deconstruct all parables,” and to attack the very idea of a message intended to be heard and understood.
The Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

Chapter 7 is devoted to two twin parables and argues that they convey the same message by means of two distinct images. The use of universal human concepts allows us to identify this message and to articulate it as follows:

there is one thing that is good for all people

a person can live with God

if a person lives with God this is always good for this person

nothing else is like this

many people don’t know this

The chapter discusses the metaphors of “hiddenness,” “smallness,” “treasure,” “price,” “cost,” and “profit” and clarifies their meaning in the concepts of the two parables.
The Leaven and the Mustard Seed
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

Explicates the message of another pair of parables, focusing in particular on the word holon, “all,” in the parable of the Leaven (“till it was all leavened”). The chapter argues that the parable conveys, in a somewhat veiled form, a hope, if not a promise, of universal salvation, and thus is not compatible with an idea of an everlasting objective “hell.” It is argued that part of the intended message can be formulated, in universal concepts, as follows:

God wants all people to live with God

many people think: this cannot happen

I say: it can happen, God wants it to happen

The chapter discusses the meaning of the images of hiddenness, transformation, smallness, and the promise of the final “victory of God.”
The Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

This chapter, too, is devoted to two twin parables with an identical message, and it argues that the image of a God, searching tirelessly for every lost “sheep” or “coin” (that is, every individual, every lost human being), suggests a hope of universal salvation and is incompatible with the traditional notion of an eternal “hell.” The explication of the two parables’ message includes components like the following ones:

God wants to do good things for all people

God wants all people to live with God

when a person doesn’t want to live with God

God feels something bad because of this

God does many things because of this

if afterwards this person wants to live with God

God feels something very good because of this
The Prodigal Son
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

The message of the parable of the Prodigal Son, which has been called “a gospel in miniature,” is related to that of the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin, but it places a greater emphasis on the possibilities open to all sinners: all people can ‘live with God,” if only they want to. The parable illustrates the freedom of God's children, who are not forced to “live with God” if they don’t want to, and God's infinite patience and desire for every individual to want to live with him. In universal human concepts:

God doesn’t want a person to think: “I have to live with God”

God wants a person to think: “I want to live with God”

The chapter discuss the issues of self‐judgment, repentance, self‐righteousness, and God's infinite forgiveness.
The Good Samaritan
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

This chapter supports, in essence, the traditional interpretation of the parable, while at the same time expressing its message in a new, simple and universal language. It rejects fanciful recent interpretations such as that proposed by the French research group Entrevernes (1978), Robert Funk (1982) or James Breech (1983). Drawing on Simone Weil's commentary on the parable, it traces throughout the Gospels Jesus’ emphasis on compassion and absolute inclusiveness, and it explicates the way of thinking encouraged by Jesus as follows:

this person is someone like me

something bad happened to this person

this person feels something bad because of this

I want to do something good for this person because of this
Implications for Theology; Christianity in a Nutshell
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

This chapter argues that theology needs a new language. It adduces quotes from various recent publications that show that after two millennia the meaning of Jesus’ words has become for many people in the West increasingly difficult to grasp, and it concurs with Raymond Brown's (1975) words referring not only to the Scriptures but also to the dogmas of the Church that since “God's revelation has been phrased by men” it requires constant rethinking. This rethinking must take into account the historical situation, the culture, the language, and the theological and philosophical limitations of those who wrote and those who interpreted the Bible. The chapter discusses the cultural underpinnings of the Nicene Creed, and offers an attempt at rethinking this Creed and restating it in a narrative form, in simple words available in all languages of the world. It argues that Christian faith must be expressible in all languages, including those that do not have the traditional Christian vocabulary and it formulates “Christian faith in a nutshell” in a radically new form, on the basis of empirical universals of language.
Language: A Key Issue in Understanding Jesus and Christianity
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2003

This chapter argues that in the past, the understanding of Jesus’ parables and other sayings, in particular, the eschatological ones, has suffered from a lack of cross‐cultural awareness. Readers who were unfamiliar with the cultural, literary, and linguistic traditions, which underlay Jesus’ speech, were disturbed by the contradictions between his images – e.g., those of a loving father and a merciless judge. Jesus’ hyperboles and symbolic images, belonging to the traditions of the Jewish prophetic “Drohrede” (the language of threats meant as warnings and appeal), were taken literally, e.g., his references to “the furnace of fire” or to the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” were interpreted as factual predictions of an everlasting “hell.” Drawing on historians like Jean Delumeau (1989), the chapter argues that the misinterpretation of the apocalyptic images of the Gospels (going back to St. Augustine) and the lack of attention to the Jewish cultural traditions, which had nourished Jesus’ ways of speaking, has contributed to the de‐Christianization of the West and must be overcome in the third millennium.
The Indispensability of Mathematics
Authors: Colyvan Mark
Published: October 2003

Looks at the Quine–Putnam indispensability argument in the philosophy of mathematics. This argument urges us to place mathematical entities on the same ontological footing as other theoretical entities indispensable to our best scientific theories. The indispensability argument has come under serious scrutiny in recent times, with many influential philosophers unconvinced of its cogency. This book outlines the indispensability argument in considerable detail, before defending it against various challenges.

Although the focus is squarely on the indispensability argument, in order to appreciate the argument's full force, it is necessary to consider many other interesting and related topics. These include questions about ontological commitments and the applications of mathematics to physical theories. Of particular interest here is the Quinean backdrop from which the indispensability argument emerges. This backdrop consists of the doctrines of holism and naturalism. The latter is crucial to the whole indispensability debate, so a considerable portion of this work is spent discussing naturalism.
The Quinean Backdrop
Authors: Colyvan Mark
Published: October 2003

The thesis that philosophy is continuous with science is defended and distinguished from another influential version of naturalism. Holism is then discussed with particular emphasis on the kind of holism the indispensability argument requires – namely, confirmational holism. It is then revealed how Quinean naturalism and confirmational holism combine to yield the crucial premise of the Quine–Putnam indispensability argument.
Field's Fictionalism
Authors: Colyvan Mark
Published: October 2003

Hartry Field has attacked the indispensability argument by arguing that mathematics is in fact dispensable to science. He does this by showing a way to dispense with quantification over mathematical entities in Newtonian gravitation theory. He, thus, advances a kind of fictionalism about mathematics. In this chapter, Field's program is outlined and the prospects for its success are evaluated. An important part of the task of assessing what is required of Field's program involves understanding how we should read the crucial term “indispensable” in Quine's argument.
The Empirical Nature of Mathematical Knowledge
Authors: Colyvan Mark
Published: October 2003

Any version of mathematical realism motivated by Quinean indispensability arguments must yield a mathematics that is a posteriori and fallible. Such a consequence is considered unacceptable by many – mathematical realists and antirealists alike. For example, Musgrave and Sober find that such a conclusion sits rather uneasily with scientific practice, while Hale and Wright take issue with any account of mathematics that yields the contingent existence of mathematical objects. In this chapter, these and other related objections are addressed.
Vedic Philology
Authors: Bryant Edwin
Published: October 2003

This chapter starts the analysis of the actual data concerning Indo-Aryan origins. By the mid-nineteenth century, one of the few things regarding the homeland that Western Indo-European scholars did agree on was that it could not have been India; wherever the original homeland might have been the Indo-Aryans at least must have come to the subcontinent from outside. While not the slightest bit concerned with the homeland obsession of European scholars in general, Indigenous Aryanists soon reacted to the corollary of the problem when it impinged on the origins of their own culture; it seemed unacceptable to consider that such an enormously speculative and seemingly inconclusive European undertaking should be entitled to make authoritative pronouncements on the early history of the Indian subcontinent. The first voices of opposition that attempted to utilize critical scholarship to counter the claim that the forefathers of the Vedic Indians hailed from outside the subcontinent are introduced. The initial objections concerned the philological evidence that had been brought forward as decisive by Western philologists. Since philology was a discipline that resonated with their own traditional Śruti epistemologies, and since it focused on texts in their own ancient language, Vedic Sanskrit, the philological evidence was the most easily accessible to Indigenous Aryan scrutiny; moreover, these texts that were suddenly of such interest to Western scholars happened to be their sacred ones and this fueled their concern.
Linguistic Substrata in Sanskrit Texts
Authors: Bryant Edwin
Published: October 2003

An analysis is made of the evidence for a non-Indo-Aryan linguistic substratum in Sanskrit texts, which has remained perhaps the principal and (in the author’s view) the most persuasive reason brought forward in support of the Aryan invasions and migrations. The issue here is: Do the Vedic texts preserve linguistic evidence of languages preceding the Indo-Aryan presence on the Indian subcontinent? This is an essential aspect of the debate, but one that has been mostly ignored by Indigenous Aryanists. The different sections of the chapter look at linguistic (syntactical) innovations in Sanskrit, the existence of “loanwords” ascribed to either Dravidian, Munda, and/or unknown origins, terms for flora in Indic languages, and place names and river names. Finally the possibility (first raised by Bloch) is explored that it was Dravidian that intruded into an Indo-Aryan speaking area and not vice versa.
Linguistic Evidence from Outside of India
Authors: Bryant Edwin
Published: October 2003

This chapter deals with the linguistic evidence from outside of India, particularly loanwords from the Finno-Ugric languages (which have been identified either as Indo-Iranian, Iranian, or Indo-Aryan) as well as the Mitanni and Avestan evidence, all of which have a direct bearing on the problem. Here, too, Indigenists have their own way of accounting for the evidence. The first section of the chapter looks at Semitic loans in Indo-European (Nichol’s model), Finno-Ugric, and other traces of Indo-Aryan (in the Caucasian and Ketic languages, on the borders of China and Korea, in the Kuban region north of the Black Sea, around the Caspian Sea, in Europe, in Afghanistan, and the Middle East). It then examines whether the Avesta (the body of texts preserving the ancient canon of the Iranian Zarathustran tradition) and the Mitanni (a kingdom in north Mesopotamia in the fourteenth century B.C.E.) treaties can throw any light on the Indo-Iranian homeland.
The Viability of a South Asian Homeland
Authors: Bryant Edwin
Published: October 2003

This chapter addresses other linguistic issues often utilized in the Indo-European homeland quest and in examining Indo-Aryan origins. It looks at the center of origin method (the arguments of Robert Latham, Lachhmi Dhar, and others), dialectical subgroupings of the various cognate languages and their implications (Gamkrelidze and Ivanov’s model and Koenraad Elst’s co-option of this), and Johanna Nichol’s Bactria-Sogdiana (east of the Caspian Sea) model. The basic thrust of this chapter and the previous two has been to demonstrate some of the problems that have arisen in an attempt to pinpoint the origins of the Indo-Europeans and their offshoot Indo-Aryans through linguistic methods. The next three chapters look at the archaeological evidence.
Aryans in the Archaeological Record
Authors: Bryant Edwin
Published: October 2003

An outline is given of some of the archaeological evidence that has received attention in attempting to trace the trans-Asiatic exodus of the Indo-Aryans on their proposed route to India, across central Asia. The first section of the chapter discusses what we are looking for in the archaeological record that might correspond to the speakers of an Indo-European language. The next sections look at this issue from the perspective of the two assumed overland routes of the Indo-Aryans--the northern route and the southern route. The last section discusses the two-wave (or multiple-wave) theory of incursion into India.
Aryans in the Archaeological Record
Authors: Bryant Edwin
Published: October 2003

An examination is made of the problems associated with identifying the Indo-Aryans in the archaeological record within the subcontinent of India. This is done through a consideration of the regional cultures that have been typically connected with intruding Indo-Aryan elements-- the Gandhara Grave culture, the Jhukar cultures, the Cemetery H culture, and the Painted Gray Ware culture. The ways in which these cultures have been related to the Indo-Aryans are discussed and interpretative options outlined. The last two sections of the chapter look at the lack of evidence of Aryans in the skeletal record and at the aspects of continuity and innovation in the archaeological record. The opinion of the majority of professional archaeologists interviewed in India (and also working outside South Asia) seems to be that there is no archaeological evidence to support external Indo-Aryan origins.
Aryan Origins and Modern Nationalist Discourse
Authors: Bryant Edwin
Published: October 2003

This final chapter discusses some of the more modern ideological underpinnings of the Indo-Aryan origin debate in India as different forces compete over the construction of national identity. Other concerns motivating some of the participants on both sides of the Indigenous Aryan debate are also considered, showing how the same theme of Aryan origins has been used to support a variety of agendas on the Indian subcontinent. It is suggested that although the promotion of Indigenous Aryanism is undoubtedly extremely important to notions of identity and to the politics of legitimacy among certain Hindu nationalists, such concerns are not representative of all the scholars who have supported this point of view. Unfortunately, however, the whole Indigenous Aryan position is often simplistically stereotyped and conveniently demonized, both in India and in the West, as a discourse exclusively determined by such agendas. This bypasses other concerns also motivating such reconsideration of history: the desire of many Indian scholars to reclaim control over the reconstruction of the religious and cultural history of their country from the legacy of imperial and colonial scholarship. The manifold concerns that the author perceives as motivating Indigenous Aryanists to undertake a reconsideration of this issue are discussed, and it is argued that although there are doubtlessly nationalistic and, in some quarters, communal agendas lurking behind some of this scholarship, a principal feature is anticolonial/imperial.
Transgressing the Bounds
Authors: Breen Louise A.
Published: October 2003

This book examines the divisions in Massachusetts over the colony's social and religious boundaries and its relationship to the transatlantic world in the period 1638–92. Central actors are leading men who congregated in the Artillery Company of Massachusetts, an organization that attracted a heterogeneous yet prominent membership – a membership whose diversity and cosmopolitanism contrasted with the social and religious ideals of the cultural majority. Focusing on elite men – not marginalized outsiders – who endeavored to stretch the intellectual and social bounds of orthodoxy, the book demonstrates that the dangers posed by the outside world and various sorts of “others” were perceived in very similar terms over the course of the seventeenth century. The tendency to form opposing factions, insisting both on isolation from that world and involvement in its growing diversity, also remained relatively constant, from the antinomian controversy of the 1630s through the witchcraft epidemic of 1692. The old declension model suggested that Massachusetts fell away from its original purity as alien outside forces impinged ever more heavily on its residents. This study argues rather that dueling versions of the good life, which pitted localism against cosmopolitanism and homogeneity against heterogeneity, competed with one another persistently throughout the century and beyond.
Pluralism
Authors: Stackhouse John G.
Published: October 2003

Crucial to the apologist's task is an awareness of the pluralism that marks North American culture. Three different types of pluralism may helpfully be distinguished: pluralism as mere plurality; pluralism as preference; and pluralism as relativism, which may take the various forms of naïve relativism, pseudorelativism, skepticism, or nihilism. Especially relevant to apologetical conversation is an awareness of the plurality of ideologies and cognitive styles that characterizes the intellectual landscape, since this is the domain in which religious decisions are made. A more detailed exploration of three cognitive styles prevalent in the modern mindset follows, namely, Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Process. This chapter notes that while these may be traced consecutively through an intellectual history of the modern West, they do not supplant one another but rather accumulate.
Defining Conversion
Authors: Stackhouse John G.
Published: October 2003

Because apologetics is located within the larger context of Christian mission and conversion, a proper understanding of the nature of conversion is the first crucial step toward defining apologetics. Contrary to the prevalent model of conversion among evangelicals that concentrates on determining whether a person is a Christian or not and then to evangelize him or her accordingly, a new model of Christian mission and conversion is commended in which the goal is the much more comprehensive one of bringing shalom to the whole world. Thus, the mission to individuals is to help him or her become fully converted into all that God wants him or her to be. Conversion therefore is defined as, first, having the binary aspect of being saved or not saved, while acknowledging that only God knows finally who is in which category; and second, conversion involves the whole person and is a life‐long process of discipleship. Given the prevalent power of sin and the radical nature of conversion, the Holy Spirit alone has the power to convert a human being. Thus, the apologist can only bear witness and offer all he or she can to serve his or her neighbor in love, thus transcending the limitations of the stereotypical evangelical mission to get people saved or the liberal mission to do them good.
Deciding About Religion
Authors: Stackhouse John G.
Published: October 2003

Investigates principles of epistemology that guide all decision making and, more specifically, religious decisions. Epistemological principles discussed include hypothetical thinking (human thoughts are provisional guesses); graduated assent (we ought to proportion our assent to the apparent grounds and importance of what is to be believed); truth as understood in terms of coherence, correspondence, and pragmatic value; and of faith as an act of commitment anchored in, yet going beyond, what we think we know. The chapter goes on to offer both substantive and functional definitions of religion and recommends a method of deciding among religious options. Having come to the best conclusion possible, one must take a step of trust and commitment: an act of faith. Beneath and within all this human effort is the reality that because religious decision is not just intellectual but an act of the will, the Holy Spirit must turn a person away from sin to love God.
Defining, Directing, and Defending Apologetics
Authors: Stackhouse John G.
Published: October 2003

Apologetics is defined as dealing not only with the question of the truthfulness of Christianity but also with its virtues of beauty and goodness, thus extending the realm of apologetics to include anything that makes Christianity more plausible. This chapter distinguishes between two modes of apologetics, namely, defensive apologetics (responding to challenges) and offensive apologetics (provoking interest). Two objectives of apologetics are clarified: the internal goal, to strengthen and mature Christian faith; and the external goal, to remove obstacles, clarify issues, and offer winsome inducements to those who do not identify themselves as Christians. Finally, Stackhouse defines apologetics as a necessary and worthy engagement in spite of reasons for resistance both from within and without Christian circles.
Principles of Christian Communication
Authors: Stackhouse John G.
Published: October 2003

As a form of Christian discourse, apologetical conversation ought to follow principles of communication patterned after the ministry of Jesus Christ. First, the apologist has to offer both verbal proclamation (message) and living testimony (life) to his or her neighbor. Second, communication must always be full of both grace and truth, rather than emphasizing one at the expense of the other. Third, apologetics should be undertaken as an act of love both to God and to one's neighbor; all other purposes, whether to win the argument, try out new success tactics, and so on, must never compromise the love to God and neighbor as one's foremost concern. Fourth, keeping love to God and neighbor central means the apologist will always take an audience seriously on its own terms and seek out common ground between herself and her audience – which requires a cultivation of the art of listening.
Audience‐Specific Apologetics
Authors: Stackhouse John G.
Published: October 2003

One's apologetic approach ought to be matched appropriately to the audience one is addressing – the sort of audience it is, and particularly its openness to the Christian message. While recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, the apologist may appeal to subjective experiences, to evidences and reasons, or to the Christian worldview as a whole. All that the apologist can do is hope to present a clear‐enough picture of the Christian religion that the Holy Spirit may find it useful in his dialog with our neighbor's heart.
Guidelines for Apologetic Conversation
Authors: Stackhouse John G.
Published: October 2003

Outlines a number of practical applications of the concern to be audience specific in one's apologetical conversation. The apologist ought to express both sympathy and modesty by listening to and understanding one's neighbor and only then offering the gospel as a gift, without demanding a particular response. The apologist also ought to treat the subject matter with the seriousness appropriate to it as well as undertake the difficult work of teaching the subject matter rather than just preaching it. The apologist will utilize both a minimalist approach (focusing on the main issues rather than getting lost among secondary particulars) and the maximalist approach (offering all she can that will interest her audience). Other important principles discussed are clarifying the most important questions; focusing on Jesus; reading the Bible; praying without ceasing; remembering process as well as crisis; worshiping God; and, finally, trying the side door – as chapter eleven illustrates.
By the Hand of Mormon
Authors: Givens Terryl L.
Published: October 2003

This book assesses the tempestuous impact and reception history of the Book of Mormon, produced by Joseph Smith in 1830, and the primary scripture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐day Saints. Givens describes the book's role as a divine testament of the Last Days and as a sacred sign of Joseph Smith's status as a modern‐day prophet. He reviews its claims to be a history of the pre‐Columbian peopling of the Western Hemisphere, first by a small Old World group in the era of Babel, and later by Israelites from Jerusalem in the age of Jeremiah. Givens explores how the Book of Mormon has been defined as a cultural product of early nineteenth‐century America, and also investigates its status as a new American Bible or Fifth Gospel, displacing, supporting, or—in some views—perverting the canonical Word of God. Givens also probes the Book's shifting relationship to Mormon doctrine and its changing reputation among theologians and scholars. Finally, in exploring the Book of Mormon's “revelatory appeal,” Givens finds the key to the Book's role as the engine behind what may become the next world religion. The Book of Mormon describes and enacts a model of revelation that Givens calls “dialogic.” Ultimately, Givens argues, the Book of Mormon has exerted its influence primarily by virtue of what it points to, represents, and claims to be, rather than by virtue of any particular content.