London summit on Jewish refugees

Jewish groups from around the world are meeting in London to highlight the plight of Jews who left their homes in Arab nations after Israel was founded. The conference organisers, Justice for Jews, say they want to ensure the story of Jewish refugees is told, alongside that of Palestinians.

The American-based group says around 850,000 Jews lived in Arab nations before Israel was founded in 1948. It says most were forced to flee due to hostility when Israel was created.

Justice for Jews, which campaigns for compensation for Jewish refugees from the Middle East, says the international community has always focused on Palestinian refugees and never given due attention to Jewish refugees.

The BBC’s Arab affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi says the subject is highly controversial as the numbers of Jews who left, and the conditions under which they left, are disputed.

He says one undisputed fact is that Jews were part of Arab societies for centuries, where they were fully integrated in their societies, until Israel was established.

Some left because they were Zionists, others because of growing hostility towards them after the Arab-Israeli wars in 1948 and 1967, and there were also those who were encouraged to leave by the new Israeli state, our analyst adds.

He says not all of them went to Israel - many went to France and America, where some of them still feel very passionately about the Arab cultures they grew up in.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7469745.stm

Published: 2008/06/23

Jerusalem Patriarch Takes Office
Thanks Predecessor for More Than 20 Years of Service

http://www.zenit.org/article-22996?l=english


JERUSALEM, JUNE 23, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Archbishop Fouad Twal took his post as the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, joining with Benedict XVI in thanking his predecessor.During an enthronement Mass on Sunday, Archbishop Twal, 67, officially succeeded Archbishop Michel Sabbah, who stepped down after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.

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Harold B. Segel.

The Columbia Literary History of Eastern Europe Since 1945

New York, Columbia University Press, May, 2008, Cloth, 424 pages

ISBN: 978-0-231-13306-7
$75.00 / £44.00

Covering Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, East Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine, Harold B. Segel, a longtime scholar of Slavic literatures and of comparative literature, writes a clear, concise, and balanced history of Eastern European literature. Segel not only examines the literary response to the quasi-colonial oppression that stretched across Eastern Europe between 1945 and 1991 but also details the impact of the downfall of communism and the way in which the challenges of the postcommunist period are being met.

Segel’s history follows a unique chronological-topical approach that begins with the treatment of World War II in Eastern European fiction and follows with such topics as the postwar imposition of Soviet-style literary controls, primarily in the form of socialist realism; literary responses to the brutal campaign of collectivization after 1945; the impact of the death of Stalin and expectations of change; exile and creativity; strategies of literary evasion and subterfuge; writing born from the experience of prison and labor camps; and the rise of solidarity in Poland. He also handles varieties of postmodernism throughout the region; poetry by women and the continued struggle for freedom of expression; the resonance of the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s on imaginative literature; Eastern European writers and their relationship to America; and the major postcommunist trends of new urbanism, nostalgia, emigration, and minority concerns.

Related Subjects

• European and British Literature
• European History
• Reference

About the Author

Harold B. Segel is professor emeritus of Slavic literatures and of comparative literature at Columbia University. He is the author of fourteen books, including The Columbia Guide to the Literatures of Eastern Europe Since 1945; Body Ascendant: Modernism and the Physical Imperative; Pinocchio’s Progeny: Puppets, Marionettes, Robots, and Automatons in Modernist and Avant-Garde Drama; and Turn-of-the-Century Cabaret: Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Cracow, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Zurich.

Nurse writes book on near-death

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7463606.stm

An intensive care nurse from Swansea has published an academic book about near death experiences following 10 years of research.

Penny Sartori, who works at Singleton and Morriston Hospitals in Swansea, has 15 accounts, mainly from heart attack patients, of near-death experiences.

They include out-of-body occurrences, reports of a tunnel leading to a bright light and meeting dead loved ones.

The book, costing £85, is intended for academic study and college libraries.

Ms Sartori decided to launch her formal study in 1998 after working closely with critically-ill patients throughout the 1990s and discovering there was very little reference data available for nurses and other healthcare workers.

She spent five years compiling the study, three years writing it up and two years preparing it for publication. The book is called Near Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients, a Five Year Clinical Study.

She found that people who went through out-of-body experiences floated above themselves and were able to accurately recount what had happened in the room even though they were unconscious and their eyes were closed.

“People also reported travelling down a tunnel towards a bright light,” she said.

“Some reported meeting a figure who told them their time had not yet come, and others said they met dead relatives and communicated with them by telepathy.”

Some patients reported having their entire lives flash by them in an instant Penny Sartori

In another case a patient reported encountering a dead relative who gave a message to pass on to another member of the family who was still alive.

Ms Sartori said the information had stunned the receiver because it had been a secret and it was impossible the patient had prior knowledge of it.

Near-death experiences were typically often explained away as the effect of endorphins, abnormal blood gases or low oxygen levels, she said.

However, the study measured these and took them into account when researching the patients’ reports.

“All the current sceptical arguments against near-death experiences were not supported by the research,” she said.

In one case a critically-ill patient, who also had cerebral palsy, awoke from a near-death experience able to use his right arm normally, even though it had been bent and contracted since birth.

“It shouldn’t have been possible without an operation to release his tendons, but he could open his arm freely,” said Ms Sartori.

Some patients reported floating back into their bodies after nearly dying, and for others it was a sudden snap back.

“Some patients reported having their entire lives flash by them in an instant,” she said.

Private theory

While she found 15 patients reporting near-death experiences, Ms Sartori believes it could be more common but that some patients’ ability to recall the event fails shortly after they pass the critical episode and regain consciousness, like a dreamer forgets a dream.

She now intends to continue her research into the phenomenon and is developing a private theory, not included in her book, about what could be happening to these patients.

“I don’t think it’s quite as simple as life after death,” she said.

“It’s what consciousness is and how we define it. We are entering an exciting time researching consciousness.

“Current science says it is a by-product of the brain. But it may be that consciousness is around us and the brain might be a mediator, an antenna, instead of controlling consciousness.

“It is a fascinating subject and I’m looking forward to continuing my research,” she added.

Thomas Witulski

Die Johannesoffenbarung und Kaiser Hadrian

Studien zur Datierung der neutestamentlichen Apokalpyse

Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2007, 415 Seiten, gebunden
84,00 € [D]
ISBN 978-3-525-53085-6

Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments, Band 221

Kurzinformationen

Die Apokalypse des Johannes und kultisch-religiöse Kaiserverehrung.

Ausführliche Informationen

Thomas Witulski gelingt es, die These zu erhärten, dass die neutestamentliche Johannesapokalypse in die Zeit des Kaisers Hadrian zu datieren ist, genauer in die Zeit um 132 n.Chr. Sein »Anfangsverdacht« ergibt sich aus der Analyse der Entwicklung kultisch-religiöser Kaiserverehrung in der römischen Provinz Asia in der Zeit von Augustus bis Antoninus Pius. Der Abfassungszeitraum der Apk ist auf die Zeit zwischen 50/55 und 155/160 n.Chr. einzugrenzen. Die Exegese der für die Datierungsfrage wichtigen Texte Apk 2,12–17.18–27; 13; 17,9–14, 21,1–8 zeigt, dass sich die Annahme der Datierung mit den eigenen Aussagen der Apk nicht nur zwanglos in Einklang bringen lässt, sondern durch diese geradezu bestätigt wird.
Hinter den beiden in Apk 13 genannten Tieren verbergen sich der Kaiser Hadrian selbst, dessen kultisch-religiöse Verehrung über die seiner Vorgänger und unmittelbaren Nachfolger weit hinausreicht, und der Sophist Antonius Polemon, Reisebegleiter, politischer Ratgeber und Freund des Kaisers, der zudem öffentlich als dessen Propagandist in Erscheinung trat.
Die in Apk 21,1–8 sichtbar werdende eschatologische Konzeption zeigt alle Merkmale eines Gegenentwurfes zu der Propagierung des Kaisers als Retter und Schöpfer einer neuen Welt und einer neuen Weltordnung. Schließlich lässt sich der Apk 2,13, im Sendschreiben an die Gemeinde in Pergamon erwähnte »Thron des Satans« problemlos mit dem dortigen Traianstempel identifizieren, der 129 n.Chr. geweiht worden ist. Die sog. Königsliste Apk 17,10f lässt sich für die Datierungsfrage hingegen nicht auswerten; mit ihr soll vielmehr die Apk selbst fiktiv rückdatiert werden.

Summary

The analysis of Rev 2:12–17.18–27;13; 17:9–14 and 21:1–8 confirms the hypothesis that the New Testament Book of Revelation was written around 132 AD. The main arguments the following: The two beasts of Rev 13 can easily be identified with the emperor Hadrian and the sophist Antoninus Polemon, the “throne of satan” (Rev 2:13) with Traian’s temple in Pergamum.

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HEGEL AND THE HERMETIC TRADITION
Glenn Alexander Magee
Ithaca (NY), Cornell UP, 2008, 304 pages, $24.95, paper, 6 x 9, 10 halftones
ISBN: 978-0-8014-7450-7

Reviews | About the Author |

Glenn Alexander Magee’s pathbreaking book argues that Hegel was decisively influenced by the Hermetic tradition, a body of thought with roots in Greco-Roman Egypt. Magee traces the influence on Hegel of such Hermetic thinkers as Baader, Böhme, Bruno, and Paracelsus, and fascination with occult and paranormal phenomena. Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition covers Hegel’s philosophical corpus and shows that his engagement with Hermeticism lasted throughout his career and intensified during his final years in Berlin. Viewing Hegel as a Hermetic thinker has implications for a more complete understanding of the modern philosophical tradition, and German idealism in particular.

Reviews

“This is an excellent book. It performs a significant service by its uninhibited exposure of Hegel’s dark side.”—Michael Inwood, Trinity College, Oxford, International Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 3, September 2002

“[The] organization of the text is first class, the reading of Hegel’s texts sensitive and perspicacious, and the writing poised, even elegant. This would be a fine book for a scholar at any stage of his or her career. For a first book it is absolutely exceptional. . . . As a tracing of the influence of non-standard discourses on Hegel, and as a tracking of their effective presence in Hegel’s texts from all periods of Hegel’s literary production, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition is now the indispensable text.”—Cyril O’Regan, University of Notre Dame, Owl of Minerva, Vol. 34, No. 2, Spring/Summer 2003

“This first book-length study of Hegel and Hermeticism builds on both Continental and Anglo-American Hegal scholarship, contributes new perspectives on the gnostic and mystical aspects of Hegel’s thought, and is eminently readable! Left- and right-wing Hegelians and theologians may have to revise their estimation of Hegel, if Magee’s interpretation withstands critical scrutiny.”–Amos Yong, Bethel College. Religious Studies Review, Vol. 28, No. 4, October 2002

“Because Hegel claimed to have attained wisdom rather than to be seeking it, Magee cannot count him as a philosopher…He draws evidence from both his work and his life.”–Reference & Research Book News, November 2001

“Magee’s splendid book marshals all the available evidence for the Hermetic background and interests of Hegel. This is no small achievement. It involves mastering a side of intellectual history that is frequently referenced but rarely comprehended and an exhaustive account of its application to the formidable philosophical apparatus of Hegel. The result deserves to become the standard reference work for this dimension, not only of Hegel but also of the entire idealist context.”–Review of Metaphysics

“I hail this book as an important event in Hegelian studies, especially since it addresses issues that have been neglected or dealt with superficially. Now we have a cogent scholarly work that will serve as the point of reference for many years to come.” –Antoine Faivre, Directeur d’Etudes à l’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Sciences Religieuses, Sorbonne)

“Thankfully, there are still some writers today who remember that if one tries to discern what a long-dead author’s work means for us without first trying to take the author on his own terms, then one runs the risk of reading into the work the prejudices of the present. Glenn Alexander Magee has written a wonderful book; wonderful because it is the subtext for all the major Hegel literature since the 1930s.”–Tom Darby, Carleton University

“[Glenn Alexander] Magee has added a crucial dimension to our understanding of Hegel by showing in abundant detail the deep and life-long influences of hermeticism, alchemy, the Kabbala, and various forms of theosophy on Hegel’s metaphysics. . . . Magee gives us a Hegel that Hegel would have recognized on the spot, and we are much in his debt for his doing so.”—Robert S. Corrington, Drew University

About the Author

Glenn Alexander Magee is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the C. W. Post Campus of Long Island University.

Table of Contents (.pdf)

ABOUT THE BOOK

In this comparative analysis of the significance of keeping and revealing secrets in early Islamic culture, Ruqayya Yasmine Khan draws from a broad range of Arabo-Islamic texts to map interconnections between concepts of secrecy and identity. In early Islamic discourse, Khan maintains, individual identity is integrally linked to a psychology of secrecy and revelation—a connection of even greater importance than what is being concealed or displayed. Khan further maintains that secrecy and identity demarcate boundaries for interpersonal relations when governed by the cultural norms of discretion espoused in these texts.

As evidence for her study, Khan explores religious and literary representations of secrecy in classical texts as diverse as the Qur’an, the Book of Concealing the Secret and Holding the Tongue by al-Jahiz, and courtly love poems, including the story of Majnun and Layla. These works represent divergent approaches to spiritual, ethical, and romantic life in early Islam; yet Khan extrapolates from each a shared construction of secrecy and revelation.

In advancing our understanding of the dynamic tensions between secrecy and revelation as depicted in these early Arabo-Islamic discourses, Khan illustrates that the creation of individual identity and subjectivity was inherently tied to these same tensions. The resulting analysis opens new vistas for understanding the meanings of secrecy in Islamic studies, Qur’anic studies, Islamic philosophy and mysticism, Arabic literary studies as well as European intellectual history.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ruqayya Yasmine Khan is an associate professor of Islamic Studies at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Credited with predicting the flood and foretelling a second punishment but mentioned only briefly in the Hebrew Bible, Enoch is one of the most intriguing yet little-known characters of ancient Jewish and Christian literature. Genesis devotes just four verses to Enoch; yet this man became a central figure in many of the oldest surviving Jewish legends of apocalypse, the subject of a larger number of traditions during the intertestamental period, and a significant character in early Christian writing. In this examination of ancient references to Enoch and to Enochian themes, James C. VanderKam illumines the range of ancient testimonies to the man, his teachings, and his work.

As he introduces readers to the mostly extrabiblical traditions surrounding Enoch, VanderKam addresses the significant question of how the canon of the Hebrew Bible came to be decided. He also uses the Enochian literature as a point of departure for an analysis of the apocalyptic literary tradition and the historical connection between Jewish and Mesopotamian thought.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James C. VanderKam is the John A. O’Brien Professor of Hebrew Scriptures at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. His books include The Dead Sea Scrolls Today, An Introduction to Early Judaism, The Book of Jubilees, and The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

REVIEWS

“VanderKam, probably the leading authority on Enochic literature today, supplies a valuable survey of all the textual references within Jewish and Christian literature to Enoch and his career up to approximately 30 C.E. . . . Students of Enochic literature will find much here to stimulate their thinking.”—Religious Studies Review

В предишната неделя ние празнувахме рождения ден на Христовата Църква - Петдесетница, а днес ние честваме нейните две части, които образуват едно неразделно цяло. Днес земната Църква прославя небесната. Днес ние - обременени от грехове, но надяващи се на спасение – възпяваме „тия, за които светът не беше достоен.., които чрез вяра победиха царства, вършиха правда, получиха обещания, затулиха уста на лъвове, угасиха огнена сила, избягнаха острието на меча, от немощни станаха крепки, бидоха силни на война, обърнаха на бяг чужди пълчища…” (Евр. 11:38,33-34).

Почитането на светците отнема ли от величието на Бога, както някои напразно ни обвиняват? Съвсем не! Ние, православните, сме верни на учението и заповедите на Господ Иисус Христос и Неговите св. апостоли. Ние почитаме светците като верни приятели и раби на Бога, защото те представляват „храм Духа Светаго” (1 Кор. 6:19). Ние се прекланяме пред техните чутовни дела и подвизи, извършени от тях за Божията слава и с помощта на Божията благодат. Честта, която въздаваме на светците, всъщност се отнася към Бога. Затова църковното песнопение възкликва: „Дивен Бог во светих Своих!”

Христос потвърждава Мойсеевия закон: „Господу, Богу твоему, ще се поклониш и Нему единому ще служиш” (Мат. 4:10), като казва: „Вие сте Мои приятели, ако вършите всичко онова, що Ви Аз заповядвам” (Йоан 15:14). Спасителят засвидетелства пред тях: „Който приема вас, Мене приема, а който приема Мене, приема Тогова, Който Ме е пратил” (Мат. 10:40). С това Той показва, че честта, отдавана на Неговите верни раби, се отнася към Самия Него и към Бог Отец. Затова ние прославяме светците и ги призоваваме в молитва като спасени души, на които Христос е дал силата да ходатайстват за нас.

Още в Стария Завет срещаме молитва към на светците. Св. цар Давид призовава Бога с думите: „Господи, Боже на Авраама, Исаака и Израиля, нашите отци!” (1 Пар. 29:18). Христовият апостол св. Яков нарежда на вярващите да се молят един за друг и добавя: „Голяма сила има усърдната молитва на праведника” (5:16). Ап. Петър обещава на своите последователи да се грижи за тях и след смъртта (1 Петр. 1:15). В Апокалипсиса св. Йоан Богослов засвидетелства как светците на небето възнасят молитвите си пред Агнеца Божи, имайки попечение за своите духовни чеда от земната Църква (Откр. 5:8, 8:3-4). Като се позовава на Свещ. Писание и предание, Православната църква винаги е учила да се призовават светците с пълна увереност в тяхното ходатайство за нас пред Бога.

Светците са великите учители и духовните водачи на човечеството. Всеки, който обича книгата, знае как при съприкосновение със задълбочените мисли или вдъхновените стихове на класиците в нас се пораждат собствени светли мисли, чувства и желания. Затова ние трябва не само да поддържаме духовна връзка чрез молитва с гигантите от християнското минало, но и да се задълбочаваме в изучаването на техните жития и произведения. Вярващите родители следва редовно да  да се молят и да четат Библията и житията заедно с децата си, а не да ги оставят на влиянието на телевизията и улицата. По този начин прекрасните добродетели на светците ще бъдат леко усвоени като примери за подражание, които ще изградят от нашите деца истински християни и предани родолюбци.