bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Divorce Reform Proposals, 1604–1850
Authors: Stone Lawrence
Published: October 2011

Between the Reformation in the 1530s and the Divorce Act of 1857, the laws governing separation and divorce were those which came unaltered from the Middle Ages. After 1604, it was similar to the Catholic position, tempered by some ambiguities in the wording of canons and acts of Parliament. It was the secularisation of control over matrimonial affairs, starting with Parliamentary control over the law of marriage in 1753, which opened the way to a liberalisation of English laws of divorce. After 1832, the principle of extending political privilege further down the social system to the ranks of the middling sort had been accepted. By the 1840s, sexual privilege was extended, including the power to divorce an adulterous wife. By the 1850, reform of the divorce law became part of the official agenda.
The Passage of the Divorce Reform Act, 1850–1857
Authors: Stone Lawrence
Published: October 2011

The first step forward towards reform was the setting up of the Royal Commission on Divorce in 1850, chaired by Lord Campbell. When Lord Chancellor Cranworth introduced the divorce bill into the House of Lords in 1854, he specifically rejected the idea of changing the law to allow the wife to be able to sue for divorce on the grounds of her husband's adultery. The government had four objectives. The first was purely administrative, to concentrate all matrimonial litigation in a new secular High Court in London. The other three were to make full divorce more accessible to the upper middle class; to make judicial separation more expensive; and to make judicial separation and divorce inaccessible to the lower middle class and the poor. This hypocrisy about talk of equality of access for all was exposed by many critics during the course of the debates.
The Scene is Set
Authors: Edwards Jill
Published: October 2011

On February 15, 1954 the US Northwestern Victory sailed into the ancient Spanish port of Cartegena. It carried the first consignment of United States aid to the Spain of General Francisco Franco, a man widely regarded in the Western democracies as the pariah of Europe for his leadership of the fascist-style government dominated by the Falange party, and for overt support of the Axis powers in World War II. The occasion demonstrated the depth of division between the United States and Britain, as well as the ultimate independence of United States foreign policy from that of its closest ally. Spain offers a unique area for examination of Anglo-United States relations, and of the domestic and external contexts which helped form them within a new world order increasingly divided between the internationalism embodied in the embryonic United Nations, and the unilateralism demonstrated by the emergent bipolarity of the United States and the Soviet Union.
Shades of the Gestapo
Authors: Edwards Jill
Published: October 2011

Francisco Franco's new programme of ‘evolution’ announced in the summer of 1945 had been developed through the previous months and covered constitutional, socio-economic, and external affairs. Opposition forces in Madrid who complained of Franco's cruelty rejected any notion of direct intervention other than restoration of the monarchy which was not considered viable by either Britain or the United States. Throughout 1945, domestic and international opinion was at the crest of its influence, playing a significant part in the United States' support for the United Nations, and in the place of Spain on the United Nations agenda. Over the next five years, the turnabout in American public opinion as a result of growing Cold War tensions contributed substantially to President Harry S. Truman's own near capitulation on Spanish policy in 1951. It was the evident contradictions in United States foreign policy as a whole, but exemplified by Truman's policy towards Spain, that would play a particularly important part in the sea change in Franco's favour.
The Cotton Lobby and the Spanish Loan
Authors: Edwards Jill
Published: October 2011

A key domestic issue in the United States in 1949 was the continuing post-war overproduction of commodities in a world of increased competition, especially American cotton. This problem focused Senate grievances on Spain as a potential market. In the months leading up to the United Nations vote in May 1949, Francisco Franco had had good reason to suppose that the vote would go his way. He had ample evidence from visiting Americans that big business in the States was more than ready to welcome Spain back into international trade and commerce. Unless Spain could earn dollars or be given a dollar loan, it would not be considered a viable trading partner as a result of its exclusion from the Marshall Plan. The cotton issue in its wider, symbolic sense therefore became a power struggle between president and Congress. This chapter also looks at the United States cotton industry and the Spanish textile industry, along with the appointment of Stanton Griffis as U.S. ambassador to Spain.
Conclusion
Authors: Edwards Jill
Published: October 2011

The particular circumstances of the Cold War that swiftly succeeded World War II highlighted the problem of an unpalatable regime in a country with a desirable attribute, in this case, Spain's geostrategic importance. Dean Acheson's assertion that in relation to foreign policy towards Spain, Britain had become the ‘tail of the kite’, was not entirely accurate. Britain held firm convictions on the matter which, backed by strong political feeling in France, Belgium, and Norway, were sufficient to prevent the inclusion of Spain in the Marshall Plan or NATO. Thus, the bilateral agreements between the United States and Spain were largely a reflection of the implacable opposition of those governments towards a regime aptly described by one Spaniard as ‘a country occupied by its own army’. Spain's role in Anglo-American relations in the post-war period illustrates the far wider problems which still lie behind United Nations efforts to deal with pariah regimes and which, more than fifty years on, neither the international community nor its leading powers have been able to resolve.
Public Action for Social Security: Foundations and Strategy
Authors: Drèze Jean , Sen Amartya
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses the nature of well being and deprivation, and tries to characterize the focus variables underlying the analysis of social security. It deals with the normative foundations of the problem and asks the question: what is the object of the exercise? The chapter examines whether the desired results can be achieved through normal economic and social processes without needing to devise systems of social security as such. It also discusses a central problem of protective social security, namely, the prevention of famines through public action. The chapter focuses its attention to the prevention of chronic deprivation and determines how promotional social-security programmes can combat regular and persistent hunger and hardship. It examines the nature of public action, and the role of the public in public action is analysed. The chapter also discusses the problem of integration of State activities with those of the public in general and of non-governmental institutions in particular.
Social Security in Developed Countries: Are There Lessons for Developing Countries?
Authors: Atkinson A. B. , Hills John
Published: October 2011

This chapter focuses on the measures that have emerged as components of the social-security systems of developed countries. It considers the lessons that developing countries may or may not be able to draw from the experience of developed countries in devising social-security systems, concentrating on case studies of policies aimed at the support of children. The chapter notes that this serves to illustrate a number of key issues. It focuses on the situation in developed countries and considers how far the methods and approaches adopted in the analysis of policy in those countries do indeed suggest wider lessons of relevance to developing countries.
A System of Social Science
Authors: Skinner Andrew Stewart
Published: October 2011

The second edition of this guide to Adam Smith's system of thought has been fully updated to reflect recent developments in Smith scholarship and the author's experience of teaching Smith to a student audience. The material from the first edition has been extensively rewritten, and four new chapters have been added, covering Smith's essays on the exercise of human understanding, and his relationship to Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, and Sir James Steuart. The book places Smith's system of social, and moral, science firmly within the context of contemporary British and Continental intellectual history, dealing in particular detail with the founders of the Scottish Enlightenment and with the French Physiocrats. The essays explore Smith's own reception among his peers and successors. The chapters in this volume have been developed from a lecture course on ‘The Age and Ideas of Adam Smith’, taught to senior undergraduate and graduate students in political economy.
Moral Philosophy and Civil Society: Ethics and Self-Love
Authors: Skinner Andrew Stewart
Published: October 2011

There is a certain elegance and ingenuity about the argument of The Theory of Moral Sentiments which is nowhere more obvious than in the way in which Adam Smith made allowances for certain features of the three main types of theory that he reviewed — that is, those that emphasized prudence, benevolence, and propriety. The same features are evident in the way in which he developed concepts, often found in Francis Hutcheson and David Hume, when addressing himself to the question concerning the manner in which moral judgements are formed. This chapter examines Smith's views on virtue, self-love, esteem, honour, approbation, reason, constraint, and sentiment.
The Role of the State
Authors: Skinner Andrew Stewart
Published: October 2011

Adam Smith's contribution to the field of political economy was designed to explain the working of a set of institutional arrangements that he regarded as the last of four stages of economic development, and to elucidate the ‘laws of motion’ that governed its operations. The laws of motion, once stated, were designed to show that the control of resources could be left to the market and to explain the source of their increase. This perspective led directly to the demand that the state ought not to interfere with the economy. The same sentiments appear in the Wealth of Nations, albeit expressed with even greater force. According to Lord Robbins, Smith bequeathed to his successors in the Classical School an opposition to conscious paternalism, a belief that ‘central authority was incompetent to decide on a proper distribution of resources’. This chapter also considers Smith's views on economic liberalism, constraints on the functions of the state, the organization of educational provision, justice, public works and public services, and policy reform.
Introduction
Authors: LUCAS J. R.
Published: October 2011

This introductory chapter briefly sets out the purpose of the book, which is to offer a single organizing idea which makes sense of a large range of moral, legal, and political discourse on responsibility. Specifically, it brings together the topics of atonement, free will, rationality, consequentialism, political accountability, and business ethics, and offers a unified view of them all. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Why Did You Do It?
Authors: LUCAS J. R.
Published: October 2011

This chapter brings out the point that responsibility is, as its etymology shows, concerned with having to answer a certain question, namely why one has acted as one did. The question can fail in a number of ways: because the wrong person is being asked, because what one did was not really an action, or because it was wrongly characterized.
Essential Properties
Authors: McCall Storrs
Published: October 2011

Of the three kinds of essential property those individuals may be thought to possess — essential physical characteristics, substance-type, and origin — it is the third, origin, that has been the most active subject of debate in recent years. As with many other philosophical debates over the last twenty-five years, the discussion of origins began with Kripke. Kripke asks, how could a person originating from a different sperm and egg from the one she actually came from, be that person? The implication is that she could not, and that it is consequently essential, for every person x, that x should originate from the very sperm and egg that x actually originates from.
Aesthetics: Hume, Kant, and Criticism
Authors: Mulhall Stephen
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines Cavell's work in the field of aesthetics, and in particular his essay ‘Aesthetic Problems of Modern Philosophy’. Cavell attempts to cast light upon the role of rationality in aesthetics by asking: Does the notorious lack of agreement over aesthetic judgements entail that such judgements lack rationality, or does it rather show the sort of rationality such judgements possess? He begins by summarizing Hume's conclusions about this issue, finding them lacking in credibility but also symptomatic of more contemporary misconceptions, by virtue of Hume's emphasis on agreement as the standard of taste. Cavell turns to Kant to explain his remarks, whose writings on aesthetics defend the specific assumption that judgements concerning the beautiful demand or impute or claim general validity (universal agreement), and that in making such judgements we go on claiming this agreement even when we know from experience that they will not receive it.
Criteria, Counting, and Recounting
Authors: Mulhall Stephen
Published: October 2011

In Chapter 4 the treatment of Cavell's scepticism about the external world separated from his treatment of other minds — a highly artificial strategy motivated by the desire to enhance the surveyability of this complex material. However, it is possible to track the development of Cavell's thought beyond The Claim of Reason without taking very seriously the degree to which he sees these two modes or aspects of scepticism as inextricably woven. This chapter isolates and examines Cavell's reasons for holding this view, and traces out some of the consequences flowing from it. In particular, it considers what would follow if we could legitimately transfer a version of the idea of emphatic projection into our understanding of external-world scepticism. For it is with this speculation that Cavell begins to draw his work in The Claim of Reason to a close.
Thoreau: Writing, Mourning, Neighbouring
Authors: Mulhall Stephen
Published: October 2011

Cavell's most recent and detailed treatment of the issue of how the individual understands her relationship with others appears in the form of his readings of the work of Thoreau and Emerson, and his understanding of this tradition of American Romanticism — a tradition he wishes to reclaim for and as a philosophy in America — makes its spiritual thrust immediately political in its consequences. This chapter focuses on Thoreau, whom Cavell sees as prophetically diagnosing a state of sceptical despair in his fellow Americans; he claims that the majority lead lives of quiet desperation, ones which mock their own potential and constitute a parody of the promise of renewal upon which their nation was founded.
Art and Morality (I)
Authors: Denham A. E.
Published: October 2011

Ethics and aesthetics may not be one, but the historical association of their ascendants, morality and art, is an intimate and long-standing one. Like most long associations, theirs has featured a certain ambivalence, and has been marked as much by episodes of hostility and misunderstanding as by mutual support. This chapter looks at one dimension of this relationship, namely, the way in which literary art influences moral experience, and thereby informs moral judgement. It argues that the so-called ‘ethical criticism’ of art need not be motivated by an a priori commitment to the ‘supremacy of moral values’; its validity and interest need not rest solely on an unquestioned subordination of the aesthetic to the ethical. Engagement with literary art can influence one's moral experience and thereby inform his/her moral judgements. This chapter also discusses the views of Leo Tolstoy and Plato regarding art and morality.
Aspects of Value
Authors: Denham A. E.
Published: October 2011

The analogy between experience of value and experience of secondary qualities raises as many questions as it answers. This chapter suggests that moral experience, like much perceptual experience, is ‘aspectual’; that is, it presents us with organised, complex wholes which can only with difficulty (if at all) be dissected into their component parts. It also explores whether there is any arena of perceptual experience that can sustain an analogy with moral experience, while yet respecting the judgement-dependence of moral concepts. Moral values themselves are quite unlike physical objects; after all, it was largely their remoteness from the objects of the physical sciences that motivated the analogy with secondary qualities in the first place. A very apt analogy is to be found in the perception of pictures. This chapter ends by considering three difficulties associated with the secondary-quality model: the non-sensory character of moral experience, the rational relations of moral properties to the natural ones on which they supervene, and the contestability of moral judgements.
Art and Morality (2)
Authors: Denham A. E.
Published: October 2011

It is now clear that works of literary art can inform moral judgements, contributing to their justifiability and their truth. This chapter suggests how certain features of metaphor can be extended to explain the positive epistemic value of fiction and its special contributions to the epistemic credentials of moral experience. Moral judgements are truth-apt, where ‘truth’ is construed in minimalist terms. Moral properties are a species of response-dependent ones (where a response-dependent property is just one satisfying a response-dependent concept). Unlike secondary qualities, however, they are not sensible simples and nor are they objects of any distinctive perceptual faculty. While the subjective imagination provides a degree of access to the phenomenological features of others' experience, it is not a necessary condition for the possession of concepts of experience and other ‘experience-dependent’ concepts.
What were the ἄναρμοι ὄγκοι?
Authors: Vallance J. T.
Published: October 2011

Asclepiades’ physiological theory has exercised the minds of scholars sporadically for seven hundred years. Ancient witnesses for him are agreed that he explained disease in terms of the interaction of theoretical and constantly moving elemental corpuscles in theoretical passages of the body. These corpuscles are termed differently while certain other diseases were not explained this way and they formed a different category of affections. This chapter begins with an examination of what these strange corpuscles might have been and the second part of the argument covers the role of the pores in Asclepiades’ system. This further adds up to the long and distinguished philosophical history of Greek corpuscular theories of matter, which certainly also involved a lot of conflict of ideas and beliefs.
The ὄγκοι in Action
Authors: Vallance J. T.
Published: October 2011

Asclepiades’ theory was quite spectacularly speculative. Health was nothing but the free, balanced movement of the fluids within the body, an ‘equilibrium of corpuscles and pores’, as Galen states. The ancient witnesses suggest that every detail of Asclepiades’ pathology could be subordinated to the principle that a disturbance of the movement of corpuscles causes some kind of dysnfuction. Caelius is by far the most copious source for the workings of Asclepiades’ pathology, that is why there is not much information available as Caelius sport a lively contempt for theory. Overall, all diseases, whether characterised by impaction or dissolution, could be explained ultimately in terms of the propensity of the αναρμοι ογκοι to shatter and then to reconstitute themselves in different sizes later on.
What are the Standards of Proof in Courts of Law?
Authors: Cohen L. Jonathan
Published: October 2011

This chapter describes the standard of proof in courts of law. There are two main standards for proof of fact in English and American courts. The plaintiff in a civil case must prove on the balance of probabilities, and the prosecutor in a criminal case must prove his conclusion at a level of probability that puts it beyond reasonable doubt. It also addresses the theories about judicial probability. Some philosophers have claimed that it does, some that if such a probability were measurable it would do so, and some that it is not even in principle a mathematical probability. The third of these views is the most defensible, but it has never been properly argued or substantiated hitherto.
The Logical Syntax of Inductive Support-gradings
Authors: Cohen L. Jonathan
Published: October 2011

According to Karl von Frisch's method of reasoning, the conjunction of two generalizations must have the same grade of support as has the less well supported of the two or as both have if they are equally well supported. Also, any substitution-instance of a generalization must have the same grade of support as the generalization, since it is equally resistant to falsification by manipulations of relevant variables. So substitution-instances conform to the same conjunction principle as generalizations. The assumption of evidential replicability is crucial here and bars Carnap's confirmation-measures, or any form of enumerative induction, from applying to experimental reasoning like von Frisch's. Once the correct negation principle for inductive support has been established, it becomes clear how the emergence of mutually contradictory support-assessments can function as a reductio ad absurdum argument for the revision of a list of relevant variables. A support-function for generalizations of a certain category applies not only to those propositions that are constructed out of the basic vocabulary of the category but also to those that have been constructed out of this category when it has been enriched by the addition of terms describing the variants of relevant variables.
The Grading of Inductive Probability
Authors: Cohen L. Jonathan
Published: October 2011

This chapter investigates the grading of inductive probability. It first evaluates the relation between inductive support and inductive probability. In the assessment of an inductive probability, favourable and unfavourable circumstances may be balanced off against one another. A tree-structure simile is available. Uncounteracted favourable evidence raises the inductive probability of a proposition, but uncounteracted unfavourable evidence reduces it to zero — which is not at all the same as making the proposition's negation certain. A statement of the inductive probability of S on R may be construed as grading the informativeness (what Keynes called the weight) of R in favour of S. If R states all the relevant evidence known and the inductive probability of S on R is high enough, it may be reasonable to believe that S is true, but one cannot detach here a monadic, unconditional grading for the inductive probability of S.
The Logical Syntax of Inductive Probability-gradings
Authors: Cohen L. Jonathan
Published: October 2011

This chapter elucidates the logical syntax of inductive probability-gradings. It first presents some logical similarities between inductive and mathematical probability. The inductive probability-gradings conform to quite different principles from those for mathematical probability in regard to contraposition; in regard to the relation between prior and posterior probabilities; in regard to a proposition's conjunction with other propositions; and in regard to its negation. In terms of inductive probability, it is possible to describe a generalized form of reductio ad absurdum argument. The logical structure of inductive probability cannot be mapped on to the calculus of mathematical probability. Indeed, because inductive support does not seem to be additive, inductive probabilities do not seem to be measurable — though they are rankable. Furthermore, the logical syntax of inductive probability may be deployed axiomatically within a modal logic that generalizes on Lewis' system S4.
Statistical Explanation
Authors: Cohen L. Jonathan
Published: October 2011

This chapter starts by presenting Hempel's account of statistical explanation. Hempel proposed to deal with the problem of epistemic ambiguity in statistical explanation by a requirement of maximal specificity in the reference-class. But, as Salmon has shown, the reference-class needs to be narrowed only in statistically relevant ways. Also, it needs to be homogeneous. In effect, both requirements seek to maximize inductive probability. So, successful statistical explanations do not need to invoke high statistical probabilities, but favourably relevant ones that have high inductive probability. Additionally, Salmon's arguments for saying that even favourable relevance is unnecessary rest on a failure to distinguish between explanations how a certain event was possible and explanations why it occurred. Finally, the mathematical probabilities involved in statistical explanation are not amenable to interpretation as relative frequencies, and must be given a propensity interpretation.
Extensionality and Meaning
Authors: Bealer George
Published: October 2011

This chapter shows that it is formally possible to define the underlying intensional abstraction operation in a first-order extensional language for the theory of properties, relations, and propositions (PRPs). This means that, if one wishes to, one may treat intensional sentences as mere syntactic transformations from fully extensional sentences. Doing this would enable one to conclude that intensionality in language is a mere surface phenomenon, that there is not really a bifurcation of logic into the extensional and the intensional, and that logic is at bottom extensional logic.
Qualities and Concepts
Authors: Bealer George
Published: October 2011

Predicates and open-sentences express properties and relations, and sentences express propositions. But which type of properties, relations, and propositions (PRPs) are these, which type of PRP is relevant to the theory of meaning? Do they conform to the first traditional conception or the second? Given Paul Grice's intentionalist analysis of meaning, it is easy to establish that the second traditional conception of PRPs is the one relevant to the theory of meaning, for it is this conception that is suited to intentional matters to begin with. But how, then, does the first traditional conception fit in? This chapter addresses this.
The Properties of Space
Authors: Hinckfuss Ian
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines many different properties of space. It specifically presents the electrical, optical, and electromagnetic properties of space; the kinematic and dynamic properties of space; the metrical, topological, and geometrical properties of space; and miscellaneous. The chapter then demonstrates the kind of difficulties to be met in attempting to reduce the statements in one of the senses previously explained to a statement that does not use the term ‘space’. The conductivity of space is also explained. A relationalist reduction of the statement that space has a permittivity of 8.55 × 10−12 farads per metre is developed, but it is shown that this reduction is unsatisfactory when paired with a similar reduction for the statement that space has a magnetic permeability of 4π × 10−7 henrys per metre. In addition, the chapter considers the speed of electromagnetic radiation in empty space.
Time, Space, and Space—Time
Authors: Hinckfuss Ian
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines the differences between space and time. Some seemingly obvious differences disappear on closer inspection. The chapter starts by outlining the similarities and dissimilarities between time and space. It then elaborates the measurement of time, and the frozen universe problem. A simple universe is described, whose history is said to be repeated at 15-unit intervals. The questions of temporal topology are presented. It has been shown how similar time is to space in many ways, to the point where many philosophical problems about time have their counterpart in problems about space.
‘To Teach Philosophy To Speak German’
Authors: Harris H. S.
Published: October 2011

The first section describes the polemic against mysticism and formalism. Rosenkranz presented a summary of Hegel's introductory lecture that he gave in Winter 1804/5. In this introduction, Hegel attacked several enemies at once: the mystical naturalism of Boehme, the scholastic Latinity of Kant, and most particularly, the ‘formalism’ of Schelling's philosophy of nature. The connecting thread of his polemic was his claim that the philosopher must concern himself with the conceptual interpretation of the ordinary natural language of everyday life, and that he should use the language which he clarifies. The second section describes Hegel's polemic against romanticism. This continuity between ordinary experience, or ordinary reflective thought, and the contradictory absolute experience and absolute reflection of the philosopher, puts Hegel on the side of the Enlighteners against the Romantic cult. The last section discusses the revolution in Hegel's logic.
The Philosophy of Spirit of 1805/6
Authors: Harris H. S.
Published: October 2011

The first section of this chapter describes the concept of spirit. The whole philosophy of spirit is logically just the final stage in the actualization of the concept of organism. However, the spirit is also a self-contained whole, and this perspective is ultimately more important than the comprehensive standpoint of ‘reality’. Thus, spirit is the reality of the cognitive aspect of total process; and cognition is the comprehending of the real in its universal significance. The second section discusses the concept of volition. The remaining sections examine legal status, the law, the constitution, social classes, the government, and the concept of the Absolute Spirit.
Where Meanings Were Made
Authors: Jardine Nicholas
Published: October 2011

This chapter presents several guidelines for historians out to describe and explain the production of meaning in the sciences. It considers two important implications of the question-based account. First, the account links historical interpretation with the explanation of novelty in the sciences. Secondly, the apprehension of past styles of inquiry involves many practices that are relevant to the historical understanding of past works of the sciences. The chapter discusses how the study of the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of questions in the sciences tackled in this book shows affinities with much recent social and cultural history of science. It concludes that the study of scenes of inquiry in the sciences should form the core of the history of sciences.
Events as Changes
Authors: Steward Helen
Published: October 2011

This chapter looks at the account of events offered by Lawrence Lombard in Events: A Metaphysical Study. Lombard thinks that events are changes, which is a view which fits well with the particularity constraint. It is therefore quite promising as a candidate for a view of events which might permit them to perform the sort of role which they ought to play in the philosophy of mind. It is also undeniable that it is a very natural view. But it is argued that, its appeal notwithstanding, it cannot be quite right. There seem to be events which cannot be fitted into Lombard's account; and reflection on these examples reveals that it is not change, but something else, which is really fundamental to the category.
States and the Type-Token Distinction
Authors: Steward Helen
Published: October 2011

This chapter attempts to explain how we come by the nouns and nominal phrases which suggest reference to states, before going on to argue that the idea that events and states are close relations in the same ontological family — an idea present either explicitly or implicitly in the writings of many philosophers — has been a huge and serious mistake. It suggests, in particular, that the concept of a token state has been widely misunderstood and that the sorts of stative nominals which are sometimes alleged to refer to these entities are usually best understood as nominalizations of whole sentences, and as expressions, therefore, which refer to facts rather than to particulars.
Minor Eastern Versions
Authors: METZGER BRUCE M.
Published: October 2011

This chapter describes the origins, varieties, early manuscripts, and textual affinities of the Arabic version of the New Testament. Arabia comprises the territory west of Mesopotamia, east and south of Syria and Palestine, extending to the isthmus of Suez. When and how and by whom the Gospel was brought to these diverse areas is not known. This chapter also considers other minor Eastern versions of the New Testament such as the Nubian, Persian, Sogdian, and Caucasian Albanian versions.
The Gothic Version
Authors: METZGER BRUCE M.
Published: October 2011

The Gothic version of the New Testament is the earliest surviving literary monument in a Teutonic language. This chapter discusses the introduction of Christianity among the Goths and the translation of the New Testament. It describes the characteristic of the Gothic version and lists all the extant manuscripts and fragments of the New Testament. It also examines the textual affinities of the Gothic version and the limitations of Gothic in representing Greek.
Introducing the Other New Testament Books
Authors: Reumann John
Published: October 2011

The New Testament writings apart from the four gospels and Paul's acknowledged letters—a dozen to sixteen books, depending how one counts, among the twenty-seven in the canon are often looked on as the ‘et cetera’ of Christian Scripture. The so-called ‘catholic epistles’, plus Hebrews, the single apocalyptic book in the New Testament, and the pastoral epistles, and finally the letters that are often denied by historical and literary criticism and theology to Paul himself have often been treated as orphans. There is an analogy between the New Testament writings and the threefold Old Testament canon of the law, the prophets, and the sacred writings. The gospels, like the Pentateuch, are foundational. The epistles of Paul are like the prophets in applying and advancing the significance of the great redeeming event, the exodus in the one case, Jesus Cross and resurrection in the other.
Two Blunt Apologists for Early Christianity: Jude and 2 Peter
Authors: Reumann John
Published: October 2011

The Second Epistle General of St. Peter, as a letter of three chapters has sometimes been known through claims to be by ‘the prince of the apostles’ and it refers to I Peter, and the little note said simply to be by Jude, and forms a sub-corpus within the catholic epistles and the New Testament canon. They have certain features in common. Each letter has been attributed to a prominent early Christian figure, one to the leader of the twelve apostles, Peter, the other to the ‘brother of James’ and on the tradition that this is James, a brother of the Lord. The two letters have been recognized over the centuries as sharing certain similarities of content. Of course, there are differences in the way the key words and phrases in these ‘parallels’ are used. There are verses unique to Jude, like the closing benediction.
Holy Scripture and Post-Biblical Exegeses
Authors: Lim Timothy H.
Published: October 2011

There are five sections and eleven chapters in this book. Part I discusses post-biblical exegeses, the relevance of the Qumran scrolls and the new perspectives of investigation that the evidence demands. Part II consists of two chapters that treat literalistic features of ancient exegesis. These chapters aim to show how issues raised in this book about the Qumran pesharim and Pauline letters address neglected aspects of ancient bible interpretation. Part III consists of three chapters on the exegetical techniques and hermeneutical principles of the pesharim. Part IV consists of three chapters on Paul’s use of the biblical quotations. Finally, Part V compares the hermeneutical principles together.
Features of Literalism
Authors: Lim Timothy H.
Published: October 2011

Features of literalism do appear even within a thorough reworking of the biblical texts. This chapter draws attention to some of these. There are three well-known features of the pesharim that show how the biblical text was important to the Qumran commentator: the verse-by-verse explication of the biblical text; the isolation and identification of key scriptural words; and the lexical play between the biblical quotation and exposition. Turning to the Pauline letters, the clearest appeal to the word rather than the sense of the biblical text is to be found in Galatians 3 and the arguments for the one seed.
Did the Pesherists alter their Biblical Quotations?
Authors: Lim Timothy H.
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses the putative Vorlage of the biblical quotations. The discussion questions the entire procedure by which previous scholarship frequently asserts that the Qumran commentators modified this or that word of holy scripture simply by comparing the pesherite lemmata to the Masorceic Text. Such a procedure is highly questionable. Even if, for argument’s sake, it is granted that the pesherite lemmata are proto-Masoretic Texts, the sheer number of different readings enumerated should at the very least give one pause to reflect as to what these supposedly unmodified readings were and how they were so.
Attitudes to Holy Scripture
Authors: Lim Timothy H.
Published: October 2011

The writings that together make up ‘holy scripture’ are sacred not because they have been formalized and fixed in stone, but because in them it is thought that the divine will of God can be found. One of the deductions to be drawn from these exegetical adaptations is that ancient interpreters felt the need for changes, because the literal sense of the words does not correspond to what they wish to say. Now the pesherists and Paul do not have to construe the words in this manner. Within their writings are displayed exegetical techniques that range from the literalistic to the figurative and allegorical. Obscure though the choice of exegetical techniques is, the hermeneutical centre of their scriptural interpretations no doubt lies in the revelation of God. Significant, too, for Paul’s hermeneutics is the centrality of the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Eschatology
Authors: Flegg Columba Graham
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines the eschatology of the Catholic Apostolic Church. It describes the church's Great Testimony, apostolic writings, and liturgical worship. It suggests that Catholic Apostolic eschatology presented a comprehensive and coherent prophetic view of the whole course of future events from the contemporary scene to the final presentation of the Kingdom by Christ to the Father. Though it may be considered a millenarian, it was also pre-millennialist and pre-tribulationist.
Early Thought
Authors: HARRISON CAROL
Published: October 2011

This chapter describes the early thoughts of Augustine. The first section examines the role of beauty in Augustine's conversion. Here, Augustine recounts the questions which he asked himself as a young teacher of rhetoric, at the age of 26 or 27, before writing his first work, a treatise on ‘the beautiful and the fitting’, De Pulchro et Apta. The second section describes the themes in his early works, such as the body and soul, and the role of the senses, liberal arts, poetry, and music. The third section charts the different approaches to Augustine's aesthetic thought, including the theories of Svoboda, OʼConnell, and the present approach to beauty as a revealed form. The last section describes the doctine of the Fall, and its pivotal place in Augustine's aesthetic.
The Old Stoics
Authors: SCOTT ALAN
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses the Stoic school, founded by Zeno in 301, which was succeeded in turn by Cleanthes and Chrysippus. The Stoics differed from Plato and Aristotle in denying that spiritual activity could account for the maintenance of the world. The two principles which are responsible for all things are causal and material, but even so, the causal principle acts corporeally, since whatever acts or is acted upon must be a body. Thus God is equated with corporeal substance, but this material was not passive like Peropatetic or neo-Platonic matter. Since the Stoic God was not located only in heaven but was immanent in the world, the stars were not supreme deities, and they play only a small role in the piety of some of the greatest Stoic philosophers, such as Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Yet, the Stoics are important since they also emphasize the religious importance of the heavens.
Philo
Authors: SCOTT ALAN
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses Philo of Alexandria. Many of the gaps in the understanding of the Hellenistic philosophical concept of the stars have been filled by him because of his strong interest in this problem, and because there is a large body of his writings that are still in existence. Moreover, Philo's interpretation of Judaism in new terms was a great achievement which stands as a landmark in the history of theology. Philo suggested that, though astral worship is not correct, it is better than the worship of images made by human minds, and is in fact part of the divine plan to move pagans towards true religion. Though he is unsure of the stars' precise ontological status, he believed that they are part of the created order and so on a footing with humans rather than with God.
The Finitude of the Past and the Existence of God
Authors: Craig William Lane
Published: October 2011

This chapter presents an essay which evaluates the history of the argument about the finitude of the past and the existence of God in Christian, Islamic, and Jewish thought. It argues in defense of this argument in light of contemporary developments in science and philosophy, and updates relevant aspects of observational and theoretical cosmology. This chapter also discusses Zeno's paradoxes, Immanuel Kant's first antimony concerning time, God's relationship to time, and the thermodynamic confirmation of the beginning of the universe.
A Defence of the Cosmological Argument for God's Non-existence
Authors: Smith Quentin
Published: October 2011

This chapter argues in defence of the cosmological argument about God's non-existence. It proposes a coherent and plausible Big Bang cosmology that is better justified and is capable of standing up to the challenge of the theistic interpretation. It explains that the objective of the argument is to further establish that Big Bang cosmology is actually inconsistent with theism, and argues that if Big Bang cosmology is true, then God does not exist.
‘What Place, then, for a Creator?’: Hawking on God and Creation
Authors: Craig William Lane
Published: October 2011

This chapter discusses the position or opinion of cosmologist Stephen Hawking on the existence of God. In a review of his recent book, A Brief History of Time, a critic suggested that in Hawking's system, there is no room for a Creator God and that God never existed. This chapter argues that while Hawking rejects the role of God as Creator of the universe, he appears to retain God's role as the Sufficient Reason for the existence of the universe.
Introduction: The Problem Stated
Authors: Weir David A.
Published: October 2011

One of the basic theological shifts during the 16th and 17th centuries was the manner in which Reformed Protestant theologians of northern Europe divided biblical time. Whereas John Calvin, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, spoke of an Old Covenant which extended from Christ to the Day of Judgement, the Westminster Confession of Faith, written eighty years later, spoke of a covenant of grace. There were basic differences between these two concepts, differences which affected the way Calvinists thought and acted. Thus far, no one has explored thoroughly the origins of the shift from the Old Covenant/New Covenant distinction to the covenant of works/covenant of grace distinction, and where the covenant of works or prelapsarian covenant idea had its origin. This book explores as thoroughly as possible the origin of and the reasons for this transformation in theological thinking, and shows some of the implications it would have for Protestant Reformed thought.
Conclusion
Authors: Weir David A.
Published: October 2011

The overwhelming predominance of the federal theology in Puritan thinking and Puritanism's emphasis on duty must have something to do with the ‘Puritan-Presbyterian character’, with its emphasis upon diligence, duty, and discipline. However, the seeds of the federal theology are not to be found in ethics or morals; it only affected these areas. Its origin and rise must be seen within the context of the flow of the history of Reformed theology in the 16th and 17th centuries. Two questions plagued the Reformed Churches of Europe and later of New England: the question of predestination and the question of the sacraments. It is out of the questions concerning predestination that the federal theology flowed, for one of the great themes of the 16th-century intellectual thought is that of theodicy.
The ʽAshāra and the Ṭariqa, in Public and Private
Authors: Johansen Julian
Published: October 2011

This chapter explores the contrast between the 'Ashīra as the publicly visible ‘face’ of the Order and the Ṭarīqa itself. This is to demonstrate the ways in which the Order is presented to the public, and to clarify the relationship between the initiatic and associational elements of its membership. The appeal of the Ṭarīqa is broadened, defined only as an Order of the Shādhilī way. This alteration of emphasis is taken a step further by the formation of the 'Ashīra Muṭammadiyya. By stressing the way of the Prophet over that of the Sūfī Sheikhs of subsequent generations, the organization's links of identity have been extended as far as human transmission allows. The conference for the implementation of Sharī'a and the local projects and social services are specifically discussed.
The Miracles of the Prophet
Authors: Johansen Julian
Published: October 2011

The Muslims' sense of closeness and devotion to the Prophet has inspired especially passionate feelings amongst those who discuss his acts and qualities. Having sought to establish the permissibility of miracles in theory, Sheikh Muṭammad goes on to consider objections of a more technical nature. In examining the controversial status of the Prophet, it has been seen that Sheikh Muṭammad is keen to reject any suggestions that the Prophet was just an ordinary man, and brings to bear the methods of Ḥadīth scholarship to authenticate the accounts of prophetic miracles and to substantiate his claims. It is suggested that he maintains a cautiously pragmatic approach to the presentation of controversial material.
Tense and Aspect in Texts
Authors: Goldfajn Tal
Published: October 2011

This chapter examines tense and the concept of aspect in texts in biblical Hebrew (BH) language. It analyses temporal expressions proposed by the Discourse Representation Theory and evaluates whether some of the basic tenets of this theory could be useful in the analysis of the BH text. This chapter also discusses the results of previous surveys on discourse-oriented accounts of the BH Verb.