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  • 1
    Article
    Article
    Foregrounding African ontology / epistemology : a reading of Deuteronomy 23:3 and Ruth 4:18–22 considering the nature of God. (2024)
    In:  Religions 15,1 (2024) 1-13
    Details
    ISSN: 2077-1444
    Language: English
    Year of publication: 2024
    Titel der Quelle: Religions
    Angaben zur Quelle: 15,1 (2024) 1-13
    Keywords: Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc. ; Bible Criticism, interpretation, etc. ; Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc. ; God Biblical teaching ; Ontology Judaism ; Discrimination Religious aspects ; Judaism
    Abstract: Deuteronomy 23:3, says: “No … Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord”. This verse is motivated by a discriminatory tendency embedded in the ontology of the Deuteronomist. Interestingly, Deuteronomy 23:3 was used by Ezra-Nehemiah to discriminate against the “Moabites” during the Second Temple. Such ontology is countered by the author of Ruth in the narrative of Ruth during the Second Temple. This demonstrates an ontological “war” within the Bible itself. The primary contestation lies in whether God is exclusive or inclusive. This development necessitates a hermeneutics of suspicion. In the course of history, the “theology” of Deuteronomy has been used to grossly violate the human dignity of many God-fearing African people and many other people of the South for colonial purposes. To exacerbate the situation, there were persistent attempts from some quarters to universalise such a discriminatory biblical perspective. This would feed into the centre–periphery arrangement, with the centre feeding the periphery with such hermeneutics. For this reason, African scholars are implored to be very vigilant against ardent pressures put on the biblical texts by ontological, epistemological, and contextual biases of interpretations. Accordingly, Andrew Mbuvi identifies African Biblical Hermeneutics perfectly when he says it seeks to undo “the very construct of the ‘centre-periphery’ binary by allowing the possibility of multiple centres”). Kenneth Ngwa, thus, rightly asserts that African Biblical Hermeneutics considers African epistemologies and conditions “to be invaluable and legitimate contexts and resources in biblical interpretation”), drinking from our own wells). In consequence, this paper intends to set a dialogue between Deuteronomy 23:3 and Ruth 4:18–22. This paper aims to examine the understanding of God behind these verses. This paper will then compare the two theologies with the African philosophical concept of God. Harnessing the African concept of Ubuntu, this paper will de-ideologise the two texts and thus will provide a recommendation concerning the two texts.
    DOI: 10.3390/rel15010125
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  • 2
    Article
    Article
    Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust. (2018)
    In:  Religions 9,1 (2018) pp 15
    Details
    ISSN: 2077-1444
    Language: English
    Year of publication: 2018
    Titel der Quelle: Religions
    Angaben zur Quelle: 9,1 (2018) pp 15
    Keywords: Christianity and antisemitism History 20th century ; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Causes ; Christianity and other religions Judaism 20th century ; History
    Abstract: There is, in principle, a fundamental difference between Nazi racial antisemitism and the traditional anti-Judaism of Christianity. The church’s official view has been that conversion transforms a Jew into a Christian, whereas the Nazi view was that a Jewish convert to Christianity remained a Jew. Nevertheless, the distinction between racial and religious antisemitism has often been less clear-cut than is often claimed by those who claim that Christian churches bear no responsibility for the Holocaust. That is not to say that it is illusory, just that it has often been less clear-cut than is often claimed. During the Holocaust and the decades that preceded it, Christian clergy often stressed the same themes as the Nazis, notably with respect to the Jews being “parasitic” capitalists exploiting Christians, as well as communists seeking to overthrow the governments and traditional Christian values of Europe (Passelecq and Suchecky 1997, pp. 123–36). We shall see that these clerics often also spoke of Jews in racial, as well as religious terms. Conversely, the Nazis often exploited traditional Christian themes, such as the diabolical nature of the Jew, the image of the Jew as “Christ-killer,” and the contrast between “carnal” (materialistic) Judaism and spiritual Christianity. In other words, the Nazis effectively exploited two millennia of Christian demonization of the Jew. Most scholars who have studied the role of the Christian churches during the Holocaust are well aware of most of these facts (Barnett 1992; Bergen 1996; Ericksen and Heschel 1999a; Kertzer 2001). Yet many comparative studies of religion and violence ignore the role played by Christian churches during the Holocaust—apparently on the assumption that the most horrific mass murder in human history was a purely secular phenomenon. In fact, some prominent scholars, including the best-selling authors Karen Armstrong and—incredibly—Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, go so far as to attribute the Shoah to the demise of religious values in Europe (Armstrong 2014; Sacks 2015)! This article is an attempt to correct these mistaken assumptions. View Full-Text
    DOI: 10.3390/rel9010026
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  • 3
    Article
    Article
    "For the Salvation of This Girl’s Soul" : nuns as converters of Jews in early modern Italy. (2017)
    In:  Religions 8,11 (2017) pp 12
    Details
    ISSN: 2077-1444
    Language: English
    Year of publication: 2017
    Titel der Quelle: Religions
    Angaben zur Quelle: 8,11 (2017) pp 12
    Keywords: Christian converts from Judaism ; Jewish women Social conditions ; Nuns Conduct of life 16th century ; History
    Abstract: This article argues that converting Jewish girls and women constituted an important expression of Italian nuns’ religiosity throughout the age of Catholic Reform. Unlike their male counterparts, however, converting nuns rarely left behind accounts of their conversionary efforts. Moreover, since these endeavors were directed exclusively at female Jews they are often obscured in the historical record and in modern historiography. The article tackles the difficulties of recovering the voices of converting nuns and presents examples that suggest how they could be circumvented. Exploring the potential of drawing on previously understudied texts, such as nuns’ supplications, the article calls for the integration of this specific manifestation of female devotion into the scholarship and teaching on women’s religious life in the early modern era.
    DOI: 10.3390/rel8110252
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  • 4
    Article
    Article
    What are the “long nostrils” of YHWH?. (2017)
    In:  Religions 8,9 (2017) pp 15
    Details
    ISSN: 2077-1444
    Language: English
    Year of publication: 2017
    Titel der Quelle: Religions
    Angaben zur Quelle: 8,9 (2017) pp 15
    Keywords: Bible Criticism, interpretation, etc. ; God Wrath ; Biblical teaching ; Hebrew language, Biblical Terms and phrases ; Anthropomorphism in the Bible
    Abstract: The mention of YHWH’s “nostrils” (ʾapayīm) in the Bible is classically interpreted as a metonymy of the face and/or a metaphor for anger. The reference to their length and even to their elongation, however, rules out any entirely satisfying explanation in this semantic context. If this term is construed as a tuyère, as is identified in Dan 10:20, the use of ʾapayīm in Ex 15:8 becomes clear. This interpretation also explains the denotation of patience and loving-kindness as ʾerek ʾapayīm (the so-called “long nostrils” of YHWH) because the air pressure generated by a blast from a tuyère (=its power) decreases proportionally to its length. Accordingly, the liturgical formulae that includes this expression (Ex 34:6; Num 14:18; Joel 2:13; Jon 4:2; Pss 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Neh 9:17) praise YHWH for the forbearance of voluntarily restraining the power of his reaction to annoying events on earth. This interpretation also clarifies the use of ʾap/ʾapayīm in Isa 48:9; Jer 15:15, and Nah 1:3. Furthermore, these last-mentioned instances reveal that beyond their metaphoric meaning, the divine ʾapayīm evoke an essential attribute of YHWH. The significance of these findings is discussed in view of the duality of anthropomorphic and aniconic representations of YHWH in ancient Israel.
    DOI: 10.3390/rel8090190
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  • 5
    Article
    Article
    The ontology, arrangement, and appearance of paradise in Castilian Kabbalah in light of contemporary Islamic traditions from al-Andalus. (2020)
    In:  Religions 11,3 (2020) 12 pp.
    Details
    ISSN: 2077-1444
    Language: English
    Year of publication: 2020
    Titel der Quelle: Religions
    Angaben zur Quelle: 11,3 (2020) 12 pp.
    Keywords: Ibn al-Arabi, Criticism and interpretation ; Mysticism Islam ; History ; Cabala ; Judaism Relations To 1500 ; Islam ; Paradise Comparative studies ; Mysticism Comparative studies ; Mysticism Judaism To 1500 ; History
    Abstract: This study is a comparative analysis of the appearances of the lower and upper Paradise, their divisions, and the journeys to and within them, which appear in mystical Jewish and Islamic sources in medieval Iberia. Ibn al-‘Arabī’s vast output on the Gardens of divine reward and their divisions generated a number of instructive comparisons to the eschatological and theosophical writing about the same subject in early Spanish Kabbalah. Although there is no direct historical evidence that kabbalists knew of such Arabic works from the region Catalonia or Andalusia, there are commonalities in fundamental imagery and in ontological and exegetical assumptions that resulted from an internalization of similar patterns of thought. It is quite reasonable to assume that these literary corpora, both products of the thirteenth century, were shaped by common sources from earlier visionary literature. The prevalence of translations of religious writing about ascents on high, produced in Castile in the later thirteenth century, can help explain the sudden appearance of visionary literature on Paradise and its divisions in the writings of Jewish esotericists of the same region. These findings therefore enrich our knowledge of the literary, intellectual, and creative background against which these kabbalists were working when they chose to depict Paradise in the way that they did, at the time that they did.
    DOI: 10.3390/rel11110553
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  • 6
    Article
    Article
    From dialogue to revelation : alterity and the concept of fraternity (fraternité) in Léon Askenazi’s biblical hermeneutics. (2022)
    In:  Religions 13,5 (2022) pp. 12
    Details
    ISSN: 2077-1444
    Language: English
    Year of publication: 2022
    Titel der Quelle: Religions
    Angaben zur Quelle: 13,5 (2022) pp. 12
    Keywords: Askénazi, Léon, Criticism and interpretation ; Bible Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish 20th century ; History ; Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish ; Brotherliness Biblical teaching ; Love Religious aspects ; Judaism ; Jewish philosophy 20th century
    Abstract: In Love: Accusative and Dative, Paul Mendes-Flohr explores ancient and modern Jewish engagements with the commandment to love the Re’a (neighbor) in Leviticus 19:18. Drawing on Rosenzweig’s phenomenology of divine–human love, Mendes-Flohr seeks to delineate the possibility of a humanist ethics of compassion that is not dependent, as in Rosenzweig, on hearing the divine voice. Taking Mendes-Flohr as point of departure, this paper explores the concept of fraternity (fraternité) as it figures in the thought of Yehuda Léon Askenazi (1922–1996), a North African kabbalist thinker and an important spiritual leader of Francophone Jewry in the twentieth century. Looking at two interrelated moments in Askenazi’s long career as a biblical exegete, I quarry Askenazi’s notion of fraternity for an account of alterity. Based on his discussions of the Cain and Abel story, as well as other biblical episodes, I argue that, for Askenazi, the challenge of fraternity, as figuring repeatedly in the Genesis narrative, is the preferred model to think of second-person relationships. Furthermore, I suggest, in contrast to Rosenzweig’s top-down account of revelation and human love, Askenazi’s approach represents a bottom-up model of love of one’s neighbor, which, when achieved, brings about divine revelation. View Full-Text
    DOI: 10.3390/rel13050381
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  • 7
    Article
    Article
    Ezekiel, Daniel, and Christian diet culture. (2022)
    In:  Religions 13,2 (2022) pp. 9
    Details
    ISSN: 2077-1444
    Language: English
    Year of publication: 2022
    Titel der Quelle: Religions
    Angaben zur Quelle: 13,2 (2022) pp. 9
    Keywords: Bible Use 21st century ; History ; Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc. ; Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc., Christian ; Diet
    Abstract: The books of Ezekiel and Daniel, specifically Ezek 4.9 and Daniel 1, 3, and 6, are now being used to market healthy eating and diet plans to Christians, especially evangelical Christians, in ways that are the opposite of how the texts appear in their historical and literary contexts. Such usage is a potentially problematic example of prophetic reception history and its contemporary significance because the language in these plans is the same language found in secular diet plans with biblical prooftexts added to them. The addition may actually make the plans even more problematic by linking weight and fitness to religion and spirituality. View Full-Text
    DOI: 10.3390/rel13020182
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  • 8
    Article
    Article
    "Not as the Gentiles" : sexual issues at the interface between Judaism and Its Greco-Roman world. (2018)
    In:  Religions 9,9 (2018) pp 22
    Details
    ISSN: 2077-1444
    Language: English
    Year of publication: 2018
    Titel der Quelle: Religions
    Angaben zur Quelle: 9,9 (2018) pp 22
    Keywords: Civilization, Greco-Roman ; Judaism Relations ; Christianity ; Jewish ethics ; Sexual ethics History To 1500 ; Jews Sexual behavior To 1500 ; History
    Abstract: Sexual issues played a significant role in Judaism’s engagement with its Greco-Roman world. This paper will examine that engagement from the Hellenistic Greco-Roman era to the end of the first century CE. In part, sexual issues were a key element of the demarcation between Jews and the wider community, alongside such matters as circumcision, food laws, the sabbath keeping, and idolatry. Jewish writers, such as Philo of Alexandria, made much of the alleged sexual profligacy of their Gentile contemporaries, not least in association with wild drunken parties, same-sex relations, and pederasty. Jews, including the emerging Christian movement, claimed the moral high ground. In part, however, matters of sexuality were also areas where intercultural influence was evident, such as in the shift in the Jewish tradition from polygyny to monogyny, but also in the way Jewish and Christian writers adapted the suspicion, and sometimes rejection, of the passions that were characteristic of some of the popular philosophies of their day, seeing each other as allies in their moral crusade. View Full-Text
    DOI: 10.3390/rel9090258
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  • 9
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    Article
    The future of post-Shoah christology : three challenges and three hopes. (2021)
    In:  Religions 12,6 (2021) pp 13
    Details
    ISSN: 2077-1444
    Language: English
    Year of publication: 2021
    Titel der Quelle: Religions
    Angaben zur Quelle: 12,6 (2021) pp 13
    Keywords: Holocaust (Christian theology) ; Christianity and other religions Judaism 1945- ; History
    Abstract: Post-Shoah Christology is embedded in the unique relationship of Jews and Christians, especially Jesus’ Jewishness and the Jewish roots of Christianity, as well as Christian moral failures towards Jews before and during the Shoah. Essential for contemporary Christianity, a vibrant post-Shoah Christology confronts three main challenges, each demanding a different response. The first challenge is the reality that soon there will be no more first-generation witnesses to the Final Solution. Such is an inevitable challenge that has to be faced and prepared for. Religious pluralism is the second challenge, and includes a number of related threads, yet should ultimately be embraced. The third challenge is the (inevitable?) loss of memory, passion, and urgency, a willful forgetfulness by Christians towards the importance of the Jewish–Christian relationship, and especially, Christian failure in the Shoah. This challenge demands robust refutation and ongoing struggle. Before addressing these challenges, I will first further define and highlight the need for a post-Shoah Christology and will conclude this article with three general and three concrete hopes for a viable post-Shoah Christology.
    DOI: 10.3390/rel12060407
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  • 10
    Article
    Article
    Israel and Zionism in the eyes of Palestinian Christian theologians. (2019)
    In:  Religions 10,8 (2019) pp 17
    Details
    ISSN: 2077-1444
    Language: English
    Year of publication: 2019
    Titel der Quelle: Religions
    Angaben zur Quelle: 10,8 (2019) pp 17
    Keywords: Arab-Israeli conflict Religious aspects ; Christianity ; Christianity and politics ; Christianity and other religions Judaism 21st century ; History ; Anti-Zionism History 21st century
    Abstract: Christian activism in the Arab–Israeli conflict and theological reflections on the Middle East have evolved around Palestinian liberation theology as a theological–political doctrine that scrutinizes Zionism, the existence of Israel and its policies, developing a biblical hermeneutics that reverses the biblical narrative, in order to portray Israel as a wicked regime that operates in the name of a fallacious primitive god and that uses false interpretations of the scriptures. This article analyzes the theological political–theological views applied to the Arab–Israeli conflict developed by Geries Khoury, Naim Ateek, and Mitri Raheb—three influential authors and activists in different Christians denominations. Besides opposing Zionism and providing arguments for the boycott of Israel, such conceptualizations go far beyond the conflict, providing theological grounds for the denial of Jewish statehood echoing old anti-Jewish accusations.
    Note: Appeared also in "The Return of Religious Antisemitism?" (2021) 43-59.
    DOI: 10.3390/rel10080487
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