Religious Persecution

Pour un cinquième de l’Église mondiale, le leadership s’exerce dans un contexte de persécution. Si la persécution et le leadership suscitent l’un et l’autre un intérêt croissant tant parmi les érudits que chez un public plus profane, il a été jusqu’ici mené peu de recherches au carrefour de ces deux domaines d’études, qui portent sur l’expérience du leadership face à la persécution. Cet article en appelle à une étude consciente et approfondie du leadership chrétien dans ce dernier contexte, qui prenne en compte les défis du témoignage à Jésus-Christ en pareilles circonstances, des perspectives bibliques, de la pertinence des théories du leadership et des profits à en retirer pour l’Église mondiale, notamment pour les communautés persécutées, pour les missionnaires et pour ceux jouissant d’un degré plus important de liberté religieuse. La théorie du leadership de Robert E. Quinn est un exemple de modèle de recherche prometteur, testé dans le cadre de l’étude du leadership de l’église Meserete Kristos, en Éthiopie, entre 1974 et 1991.

GRAHAM GREENE’S CATHOLICISM: FIRST, AN INTELLECTUAL BELIEF IN GOD
THE POWER AND THE GLORY II

In this second bulletin, I outline the first two of three forms of Greene’s religion: 1) the Erastian public school Anglicanism undergirding state morality in which Greene was raised, 2) the intellectual Catholicism he adopted on the basis of argument. In the third bulletin, I shall deal with 3) in distinction from that, “conversion.”.
The Power and the Glory explains Greene’s conversion to the Catholicism he saw in Mexican peasants and described in The Lawless Roads (1939), the travelogue which gave the background, places, and many of the characters and situations for The Power and the Glory (1940). In Mexico he lived briefly, but determinatively, with a religion which embraces pain and martyrdom as ways into God, and intuits the indestructibility both of  the human need for the priestly sacrifice, and God’s provision for it. So The Power and the Glory concludes: “‘My name is Father –’ But the boy had already swung the door open and put his lips to the hand before the other could give himself a name.” 
In contrast, after descriptions of the ugliness and violence of Mexico suggesting that he is putting what he found there behind him, The Lawless Roads describes Mass back in Chelsea (London):

Mass in Chelsea seemed curiously fictitious: no peon knelt with his arms out in the attitude of the cross, no woman dragged herself up the aisle on her knees. It would have seemed shocking, like the Agony itself. We do not mortify ourselves. Perhaps we need violence. 

Greene then lists the institutionalized and unnoticed violence of daily life at the time in London, from the ugliness to the airplanes and motor vehicles. When seeing this ordinary violence in our way of life, Greene anticipated our recent change of consciousness. What we now recognize as world destructive violence, we previously took as the benign advances of rationality.
This kind of reversal of our normal evaluations is typical of Greene. So for example, The Ministry of Fear (1943) centers on the deep evil of pity “Pity is the worst passion of all.”  Just so The Quiet American exposed the murderous destructiveness of innocence. Greene’s transvaluation of values is of Nietzschean dimensions. His novels are a substitute for the metaphysical theology the English mostly lack (Charles Williams, a poetic theologian, is an exception) and his metaphysics, the novels, and his mind operate by the union of extremes. The coincidence of opposites is fundamental to Hellenic and Catholic theology. Thus,  in The Power and the Glory, and many other works (e.g. , The Quiet American,  The Comedians, The Human Factor, The Honorary Consul, Getting to Know the General, Monsignor Quixote), there is an equal concern with Marxist Communism and Catholicism. Like Williams, he regarded dogmatic Catholicism and Communism as the two defining contemporary phenomena.

OPEN LETTER TO PM MODI
SIR, YOU RESPECT DIVERSITY BUT RSS MOURNS IT, WHOM DO WE BELIEVE?
My Dear Prime Minister Modi ji,
Namaskar.
It is heartening to note that you as PM of our democratic-secular state have underlined the great diversities in the Indian nation which needed to be celebrated. While addressing a conference on 'Islamic Heritage: Promoting Understanding and Moderation' in the presence of the King of Jordan, Abdullah II in Delhi on March 1, 2018 you were kind enough to declare that India's democracy was "a celebration of our age-old plurality" recalling that "religions and beliefs from all over the world" flourished in the country. It was great to hear you to commit that "We Indians are proud of our diversity." While specially addressing the Muslim youth of India you were kind enough to advise them to hold Quran in one hand and computer in the other for an all-inclusive progress and welfare. However, I would beg to say that this call for Quran or any other scripture in one hand is a risky proposition. The US taught Afghan youth Quran in one hand and AK47 in other hand and what price Afghan Muslims paid for it is well known.
Read the whole letter....

""An unexpected gem. An innovative book which explores the everyday lived reality of Muslim minorities in Hong Kong. The contemporary focus is framed by a fascinating history of South Asian Muslims which reaches back into the early 19th century. This beautifully wrought study sheds a great deal of light on a range of issues impacting Muslim minorities: from the extent of hybridity—adapting basketball spaces to cricket—to the challenge of eating halal in a culinary culture where pork is ubiquitous! Young Muslims in Hong Kong face racism and their inability to access Chinese language schools has huge implications for employment and social mobility. However, Islam is respected and they are not seen through a security lens. In all, a hopeful study." —Philip Lewis, author of Islamic Britain and Young British and Muslim

"There has long been a need for a book-length account of Muslims in Hong Kong; this readable and informative book admirably fills this void. Anyone interested in how Muslims make their lives and practice their faith in the Chinese city of Hong Kong should definitely read it." —Gordon Mathews, author of Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong

"In this insightful and fascinating book, O'Connor walks us through the bustling streets of Hong Kong where space, civility, hope and freedom are created every day by the territory's diverse Muslims. It provides a rare glimpse into an imperfect, but perhaps 'good enough' cosmopolitanism, lived in the schools, homes, shops and lives of ordinary people. Amidst the worry and panic about young Muslims in diaspora as either problems or victims, this is a refreshing and much-needed account of the valuable ways a global city deals with difference. An essential text for scholars and students of youth, diversity and contemporary multiculturalism." —Anita Harris, author of Young People and Everyday Multiculturalism

More than a quarter of a million Muslims live and work in Hong Kong. Among them are descendants of families who have been in the city for generations, recent immigrants from around the world, and growing numbers of migrant workers. Islam in Hong Kong explores the lives of Muslims as ethnic and religious minorities in this unique postcolonial Chinese city. Drawing on interviews with Muslims of different origins, O’Connor builds a detailed picture of daily life through topical chapters on language, space, religious education, daily prayers, maintaining a halal diet in a Chinese environment, racism, and other subjects. Although the picture that emerges is complex and ambiguous, one striking conclusion is that Muslims in Hong Kong generally find acceptance as a community and do not consider themselves to be victimised because of their religion."

Terrorist groups such as ISIS, Boko Haram, Al-Shaabab, and Hamas have drawn the world's attention. While these groups have targeted many, Christians have been among those who have lost their lives. We know that Christian history contains a number of martyrs. Does their history and testimony have anything to share with us today? Were these Christian martyrs fanatics, or were they responding to similar threats?

This presentation looks at a few ancient Christian martyrs and compares their testimonies with some contemporary ones. This presentation was given for Forum of Christian Leaders 28 February 2018 and can be viewed at: http://foclonline.org/webinar-recording/what-do-martyrs-mean-us-today

La littérature hagiographique d’époque tardo-antique et byzantine conserve le souvenir, historique ou légendaire, de nombreux martyrs, en particulier en Asie Mineure où fut déclenchée la dernière persécution générale des chrétiens par l’empereur Dioclétien. Il faut remarquer que les femmes sont beaucoup plus nombreuses dans les Passions que dans les Vies de saintes qui se placent après cette persécution. Quand elles ne sont pas des figures inconsistantes, les femmes martyres, réelles ou fictives, appartiennent en priorité aux catégories supérieures de la société romaine. Pourtant, sans distinction d’origine et de fortune, elles transmettent toutes un message uniformisé qui exalte les vertus chrétiennes de chasteté et d’obéissance systématisées par le monachisme.

The hagiographical literature of late Antiquity and Byzantium preserves the historical or legendary memory of many martyrs, particularly in Asia Minor where Emperor Diocletian launched the last general persecution of Christians. It should be noted that there are many more women in Passions than in the Lives of female saints written after this persecution. When they are not insubstantial characters, real or fictitious female martyrs mostly belong to the upper classes of Roman society. However, irrespective of origin or fortune, all of them deliver a standardized message which extols the Christian virtues of chastity and obedience that monachism had made systematic.

"The purpose of this analysis is to provide an overview of the North Korean situation in order to design effective mission strategies among the North Korean people.  This analysis will provide a summary overview of the current North Korean culture, current missionary work, and possible strategies for the future.  Due to the intense suspicion of foreigners and extreme resistance to religious activity, missionaries will have to rely heavily on political, social, and humanitarian methods in order to evangelize the North Korean people" (taken from the introduction).

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) is one of the most repressive dictatorships in the world, which does not provide its citizens with even minimal level of freedom of religion. The system is harder against Christians than to other religions, and the country is usually international rankings on the extent of the persecution of Christians. Although the freedom of religion is enshrined in the country’s constitution, it is not respected in practice. At the same time, Christianity is affected by the anti-religious communist traditions of the North Korean regime. According to the nationalist state ideology, Christians are a foreign element in the country, and the religious cult of the Kim family, which leaves no room for other beliefs. When young Kim Jong-un (1984-) came to power and the country’s diplomatic activity intensified in 2018, many hoped that the situation of the North Korean population would improve, the country’s isolation from the world would ease, which would be beneficial for Christians. So far we have not seen any positive change and there is no indication that repression will ease in the future.

Denkfreiheit : libertas philosophandi in der deutschen Aufklärung / Kay Zenker. -Hamburg : Meiner, 2012. -605 S. ; 24 cm. -(Studien zum achtzehnten Jahrhundert ; 33). -Zugl.: Münster, Univ., Diss., 2010 u.d.T.: Zenker, Kay: Libertas philosophandi. -ISBN 978-3-7873-2281-7 : EUR 98.00, EUR 74.00 (für Mitgl. der DGJE) [#2977] Die ausgesprochen voluminöse Dissertation von Kay Zenker behandelt in umfassender Weise ein zentrales Thema, ohne dessen Kenntnis ein genaueres Verständnis das Denken der Neuzeit und die Aufklärung überhaupt nicht möglich ist. 1 Dabei ist es keineswegs so, daß die libertas philosophandi immer in vollständigem Gegensatz zur Zensur stand, wie man zu glauben geneigt ist. Im Gegenteil konnte Zensur auch von aufgeklärten Menschen aus verschiedenen Gründen für sinnvoll erachtet werden. 2 Nicht zuletzt das Beispiel Rousseau zeigt zur Genüge, daß Argumente für und gegen Zensur bei ein und demselben Denker gefunden werden können. Zenker geht nun in seiner sehr sorgfältig recherchierten Arbeit, 3 die man künftig als Standardwerk zum Thema konsultieren wird, so vor, daß er die verschiedenen Bedeutungskomponenten der libertas philosophandi entfal-1 Eine kleine Skizze einiger relevanter Aspekte habe ich in folgendem Aufsatz darzustellen versucht: Between "libertas philosophandi" and "conservatio tranquillitatis" : political theology, hermeneutics, and Bible criticism in early modern cultures of the enlightenment / Till Kinzel. // In: The problem of political theology / ed. by Paweł Armada, Arkadiusz Górnisiewicz and Krzysztof C. Matuszek. -Kraków : Akademia Ignatianum Wydawnictwo WAM, 2012, S. 111 -130. 2 Vgl. etwa The use of censorship in the Enlightenment / ed. by Mogens Laerke. -Leiden [u.a.] : Brill, 2009. -X, 203 S. ; 25 cm. -(Brill's studies in intellectual history ; 175). -ISBN 978-90-04-17558-7 : EUR 99.00 [#0581]. -Rez.: IFB 09-1/2

CONTENTS

October 17th, 2011 [pages 6-15]
I
Persecution and the Art of Writing or Towards a Hermeneutics of Suspicion
from interpretation of the meaning between lines to explanation of the transcendental effect of forms

1. ‘PERSECUTION’: from the threat of philosophical truth to the subversion of the verisimilitude of fiction

2. ‘THE ART OF WRITING’: protection for the author and selective communication with accomplices

i. The protective output: the censor’s impasse and authority outwitted

ii. The communicational output: separation of readerships and selective training in the subversive knowledge

3. The ‘ART OF READING’: from interpretation of the implicit message to explanation of the transcendental revolution in forms

i. The ‘interpretation’ stage: moving from the explicit sense to the implicit intended meaning—criteria for recognizing and reconstructing the concealed message.
  * First stage: criteria for recognizing anomalies that give grounds to suspect second intentions
  * Second stage: reconstruction criteria allowing the implicit meaning to be established

ii. The stage of ‘explanation’: from the sociology of knowledge to transcendental stylistics

October 18th, 2011 [pages 16-31]
II
The Latin Erotic Elegy and the Case of Propertius
from subversion of the Augustan imperial ethos to the metaphysics of dissimulatio

1. Introduction. From the elegiac paradox (irrepressible passion-love in an interruptive texture) to an art of writing between the lines

2. A historico-literary context of substitution: the Roman erotic elegy between poetic dissimulatio and Augustan auctoritas

i. Literary elements that contribute to ‘recognition’ of the elegiac art of writing: from literature as imitatio to irony as dissimulatio

ii. Political elements that contribute to the ‘reconstruction’ of the implied message: elegiac values versus the values of Augustan auctoritas—Propertius’ authorial situation vis-à-vis the vates, Horace and Virgil.

3. Interpretation: an amatory façade for the subversion of imperial values—progressive dissimulatio in Propertius’ writing

i. Propertius’ independence in the Monobiblos: from amatory etiology to the sphragis of political resistance

ii. Propertius’ precautions in Maecenas’ circle, or the art of writing in Books 2 and 3: from the amatory mask to the mask of literary rivalry
  * The love mask: frontal subversion of Augustan moral reforms and marriage laws sheltered in the imperative of ‘irregular elegiac passion’
  * The mask of literary rivalry in the programmatic elegies: from urban recusatio, the refusal to write epic on national themes, to subversion of the Augustan ideals expressed in the official poetry of Horace and Virgil.
  -Subversion of the imperial ideals in Virgil’s poetry: mocking the claims of the Aeneid. Propertius 2.34.
  -Subversion of Horace’s public stances in the Odes. Propertius 3.1-2.
  * The final mask: the use of hyperbole, bad taste and mythological harmonics to subvert the political values and legitimated triumphs of the imperial authority

iii. Propertius under Augustus’ eye: the final dissimulatio in Book 4—subversion by deliberate bad taste and allusion by mythological harmonics.

4. Explanation: from the counterworld of the elegiac fiction to the metaphysics of dissimulatio

i. The sociology of discourse: the counterworld of the elegiac fiction, or the Dionysiac inversion of Apollonian values

ii. Transcendental poetics: the metaphysics of dissimulatio


October 19th, 2011 [pages 32-56]
III
The Love Poetry of the Provençal Troubadours
from the sensualism of the gai saber to the synthesis of sound against the totalitarianism of vision

1. Introduction. A paradoxical contrast – the monotony of the motives of idealized love versus the originality of the couplings of rhyme – as promotion of the queen in a game of warfare

2. A historico-literary context of substitution. Troubadour joi: from the gai saber of Occitan dispersion to the linguistic joculum of the couplings of rhyme

i. The philosophico-discursive side: the naturalistic sensualism of the gai saber vs. Christian orthodox ontotheology

ii. The poetico-literary aspect: the promotion of musical joculum in the couplings of rhyme

3. Interpretation. The naturalistic sensualism of the gai saber: a provocative defense of ‘sensory passion’ in a ‘world governed by chance’

i. The trobar prim (naturau e cortes) of William of Aquitaine (1071-1126): from the paradox of a ‘double-faced poet’ to the game of con in a world of chance
  * The contradictions of a ‘double-faced poet.’ A reading in context
  * The natural register in the companion songs: a pornographic imaginary behind the explicit defense of natural passion.
  * The invention of the ‘courtly love’ register: a confession of unsatisfied desire and submission to the domna as a parody of the new ideals of monastic asceticism.
  * The pseudo-metaphysical register in Farai un vers de dreit nien: an ‘Enigma about Nothingness’ as a parody of the Hyperessence, or immanent naturalism against negative theology.

* Conclusion regarding the interwoven registers at the origin of the trobar: the promotion of passion-love in the immanence of the world behind the defensive façade of courtly love.

ii. Marcabrú’s trobar brau: the paradox of a moralizing but obscene condemnation of love as a parody of preachers that awakens desire.

iii. The courtly trobar or the classic canso in anamorphosis: from confession of a belligerent confrontation over sensory passion to staging of the experience of joi

iv. Arnaut Daniel’s trobar clus: concealment and final communication of the gai saber in the arts of the miglior fabbro del parlar materno
  * The trobar leu and the arrival of the trobar clus: the case of Arnaut Daniel’s trobar ric.
  * The concealment of meanings in the trobar clus.
  * Lexicon and images: the dir strano e bello or the subversion of the metaphorical order
  * Linguistic Marranism and barbarolexia: the Provençal parody of official Latin
  * Impossible images and dream allegories: subversion of the metaphorical order.
  * Verbal music: from the sensory materialization of the joi of the world to the experience of pleasure in the arts of delay
  * Daniel’s characteristic consonance: the song of nature as an invitation to joi
  * The cobla ‘dissoluta’: the arts of amatory delay, intensification of desire by deferred satisfaction, in the sensory field of rhyme. (Sim fos amors de joi donar tan larga).
  * The last stage of the trobar (Lo ferm voler qu’el cor m’intra): linguistic, sexual and metaphysical dissemination in the ‘sestina.’
-The involution of the sestina as the final stage of experimentation in the arts of delay of the trobar (mot refranh, rims estrams, permutations).
-The linguistic dissemination of the words in the poem: from the banal motifs of courtly love to the martial imagery and sensory experience of the pleasures of delay
-The sexual dissemination of images: the pornographic double meaning behind the mask of courtly love
-Metaphysical dissemination in the formal device: the imperative of a ‘game of chance’

4. Explanation. From the foundation of the space of modern lyrical fiction to the synthesis of sound against the totalitarianism of vision

i. Sociology of discourse: the forms of meaning of the trobar as the foundation for the sphere of modern lyrical fiction – from concealment of enjoyment in form to promotion of independent enjoyment of form

ii. Emancipation of the synthesis of hearing versus the totalitarianism of vision and the diurnal image
  * The oral forms of meaning of the Romance tongues versus the written Latinitas
  * From reversal of the hierarchy between material sound and spiritual light to the synthesis of listening vs. the epistemology of vision
  * The significant detail of the ‘alba’: explicit defense of natural passion in the context of a musical and nocturnal perception that turns away from the diurnal vision of the opponents of joi

* Coda. A detective’s art of reading of selective application

Yezidi communities throughout the world are struggling with their collective identity; each at a varying and somewhat differing stage of self-discovery. While the present paper does seek to elaborate upon this journey for the Yezidis in Transcaucasia, Germany, Can-ada, and the USA, its main focus remains the analysis of the political developments in the Yezidi heartland of Northern Iraq. This is so that the reader may have a fuller picture of the catalysts spurring this Yezidi reimagining. On the one hand, you have the traditional Ye-zidi leadership caught within a complex series of client-patron relationships with Kurdish leaders: ethnic identification is leveraged for promises of influence and power. While, on the other hand, newly minted Yezidi military commanders, as well as grassroot figures and Yezidi NGOs, are trying to establish themselves as heads of a Yezidi community that is undeniably distinct from their Kurdish neighbours. This paper will further show that the withdrawal of the Kurdish Peshmerga in the face of the ISIS attack in 2014, the half-hearted responses of the regional Kurdish and Federal Iraqi governments, all coupled with the stalled return of Yezidi refugees contributed to a growing Yezidi movement to cement their identity, as well as satiate a growing urgency to define themselves as a distinct ethno-religious entity.

Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the Middle Ages were divided in many ways. But one thing they shared in common was the fear that God was offended by wrong belief. Medieval Heresies: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam is the first comparative survey of heresy and its response throughout the medieval world. Spanning England to Persia, it examines heresy, error, and religious dissent - and efforts to end them through correction, persuasion, or punishment - among Latin Christians, Greek Christians, Jews, and Muslims. With a lively narrative that begins in the late fourth century and ends in the early sixteenth century, Medieval Heresies is an unprecedented history of how the three great monotheistic religions of the Middle Ages resembled, differed from, and even interrelated with each other in defining heresy and orthodoxy.

«La tolleranza non ha mai provocato guerre civili, mentre l'intolleranza ha coperto la Terra di stragi».
A Tolosa il 10 marzo 1762 il commerciante ugonotto
Jean Calas viene giustiziato con l’accusa di aver ucciso
il figlio per impedirgli di convertirsi al cattolicesimo.
Nonostante la mancanza di prove e un processo arbitrario,
Jean Calas, che anche sotto tortura si professa
innocente, è giudicato colpevole. Non da Voltaire, che
con la sua penna tagliente scaglia parole feroci contro
le storture del fanatismo religioso, mostrando come
il dogmatismo e la superstizione inquinino la convivenza
pacifica e corrompano la facoltà di giudizio.
Dando avvio a una battaglia di civiltà, il Trattato sulla
tolleranza è un vero e proprio «manifesto» per la libertà
di pensiero e il rispetto di ogni diversità. Un’opera
sempre attuale capace di riportarci alle radici stesse
della modernità.
Con un saggio di Italo Mereu.

Attempts for Political Rehabilitation
in the Reformed Church in Hungary before 1956

On the 20th of October 1956, the General Convent, then the highest
executive body of the Reformed Church in Hungary, issued a Rehabilitation Edict. The Edict’s attachment sorted the pastors who were sidelined in the early 1950s supposedly for political reasons.
It is to be noted that the Edict was issued three days before the ’56
Hungarian Revolution started and the pre-Bereczky church government led by László Ravasz was reinstalled. It becomes apparent that the low-church reform movement (later known as the Reformed Renewal Movement), Bishop Bereczky’s belated High-Church reform steps – like Dean Sándor Fekete’s exclusion from power and László Papp’s appointment to deputy bishop of the Danubian Church District – moreover the positive precedent of the rehabilitation of the Lutheran Bishop Ordass all resulted in the start of the church rehabilitations before the ’56 Revolution turned the tables, reinstalling the pre-Bereczky church government. Because of this aspect, László Papp’s role in the starting of the rehabilitations and the inner-upper renewal attempt
of the church must be made clear.

We are, and have been, part of a multicultural society with all its pros and cons. How do we find our own identity amongst so many different views? How do we deal with those different views as soon as we have found a view that suits us? Do we still tolerate 'the others' and accept that their views might be just as correct as ours? These questions are not only pressing in our time, but were also present in the early centuries after Christ, when many different schools of thought and religions existed alongside of Christianity. In this paper I will focus on a man who has struggled to find his own identity in a multicultural society and has encountered the questions I just raised. In his Confessions Augustine wrote about the spiritual journey towards finding his own identity and his encounters with other schools of thought. In order to research how Augustine responded to the different views around him I am going to have a closer look at his Confessions and other important works that he wrote after his conversion. The first chapter will contain a short description of Augustine before his conversion. The second chapter will focus on Augustine after his conversion and his attitude towards other religious groups. It will become clear that Augustine's intolerance towards other religious groups is more nuanced than is often thought about monotheistic religions. It will also become evident that Augustine's intolerance is the result of polytheistic influences instead of solely the view that Christianity is the only true religion to which everyone should convert.

A collection of fifty essays on Descartes and his influence in the seventeenth century. The first section is devoted to various aspects of Descartes’s philosophy (biography, epistemology, metaphysics, natural philosophy (science), mathematics, philosophical theology, etc.). The second section is devoted to Descartes’s influence, especially Cartesians and the Cartesian movement, in France, the Netherlands, Italy, England and elsewhere. The third section is devoted to the critics and opponents of Descartes and Cartesianism.

This collection of essays, edited by Graeme Murdock, Penny Roberts, and Andrew Spicer, developed from a one-day conference—‘Religion and Violence in Early Modern France: The Work of Natalie Zemon Davis’—which was held in June 2008 at the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon. Five of the papers published here were initially delivered on that occasion, but the conference also sought to learn from the differing perspectives of violence outside sixteenth-century France. This concern is also reflected in this collection, which seeks to offer new insights and approaches to the relationship and significance of religion and violence as well as paying tribute to the immense contribution made in this field by the writings of Natalie Zemon Davis.

The XVI book of the Theodosian Code contains a title, the seventh, which collects 7 laws on the topic of apostasy, emanated from Theodosius I (CTH 16, 7, 1, year 381) and up to 426 (CTH 16, 7, 7 ), behind the publication of the Codex. The essay shall consider and analyze in detail these seven constitutions, highlighting the progressive tightening of sanctions against apostates, to the overall definition of a specific crimen, according to the legal formula of finding the nomen apostatarum. The purpose of this set of laws is to clarify the legal position and social circumstances of a religious crime, unthinkable until a few decades ago. The definition of a nomen translates into permanent condemnation, who proceeds from the past, it remains steady and reliable in the present, is designed by the legislator to let it be perpetual in the future.

Il XVI libro del Codice Teodosiano contiene un titolo, il settimo, che raccoglie 7 costituzioni sul tema dell’apostasia, emanate a partire da Teodosio I (CTh 16, 7, 1 del 381) e fino al 426 (CTh 16, 7, 7), a ridosso della pubblicazione del Codex. Il saggio prende in considerazione e analizza nel dettaglio queste sette costituzioni, mettendo in evidenza il progressivo inasprimento delle sanzioni nei confronti degli apostati, fino alla definizione complessiva di un crimen specifico, secondo la formula giuridica della individuazione del nomen apostatarum. Lo scopo di questo insieme di leggi consiste nel chiarire la posizione giuridica e sociale di una fattispecie religiosa fino a pochi decenni prima impensabile, che diviene ora anche fattispecie criminosa. L’apposizione di un nomen si traduce in condanna permanente, che procede dal passato, resta costante e certa nel presente, è concepita dal legislatore perchè si perpetui nel futuro.

tifiers' for their suffering and true worship, on account of which they can expect comfort and ultimately reward. The 'slanderers'/ 'blasphemers'/ 'cursers' he condemns for their idolatry and claims they make against God, for which they will receive punishment and annihilation. John uses this binary to create contrasting speech acts and assigns each to a different spacetime configuration. This essay will explore these spatiotemporalities and their rhetorical function with the help of critical spatial study.³ By placing different kinds of speech in differing times and spaces John wants to ask his audience what kind of speakers they want to be and what spacetime configuration they wish to inhabit. John desires mar- With respect to apocalyptic and spatiality study, much attention has been given to Hebrew Bible and Intertestamental literature, for an overview of which see Kelley Coblentz Bautch, "Spatiality and Apocalyptic Literature," Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 3 (2016): 273-288. Spatial study of Revelation has traditionally charted its cosmic space and its relation to the apocalypse genre: for example,

"... Njeriu, që meritonte çdo falenderim dhe mirënjohje për kontributin e tij në shpëtimin e thesarit kulturor, vlera e të cilit tejkalon kufijtë e një vendi dhe klasifikohet në tërësinë e vlerave botërore, u gjend në bankën e të akuzuarve përpara “gjykatës popullore” si të ishte keqbërës. Në dosjen e tij i ishin ngarkuar shumë akuza të pabazuara, ... Më 1980 iu konfiskuan dorëshkrimet dhe iu ndalua çdo lloj hulumtimi dhe veprimtari kërkimore
për monumentet...."

“Theofan Popa duhet të vlerësohet si protagonisti i padukshëm i shpëtimit të shumë monumenteve kulturore në Shqipëri, por edhe si një studiues nismëtar i artit të krishterë në vend, me një vepër voluminoze, të cilën studiuesit e mëvonshëm e kanë të pamundur ta anashkalojnë”.

محققان و عموم به هر دو موضوع جفا و رهبری، گفتگوهای اندکی بین این دو حیطه یا تحقیق روی تجربۀ
رهبران جفادیده صورت گرفته است. هدف این مقاله این است که لزوم مطالعۀ هدفمند و پایدار رهبری
مسیحی تحت جفا را نشان داده و چالشهایی که شاهدان امین عیسی مسیح تحت این شرایط تجربه میکند،
دیدگاههای کتابمقدسی، ربط داشتن نظریۀ رهبری، و مزایای آن برای کلیسای جهانی را در نظر گیرد- از
جمله جوامع جفادیده، و میسیونرها و آنانی که از آزادی مذهبی چشمگیری برخوردارند. نظریۀ رهبری رابرت رهبری برای یکپنجم کلیسای جهانی در بافتها و محیطهای جفا صورت میگیرد. با وجود توجه
ای. کوین یک نمونه از مدلهای تحقیق نویدبخشی است که در رابطه با مورد رهبری کلیسای
در اتیوپی )از ۱۹۷۴ تا ۱۹۹۱ ( آزمایش شده است. Meserete Kristos روزافزون

Tesis de Doctorado / PhD Thesis.
Since J. Parkes invented it in 1934, the expression “Parting of the Ways” has deeply rooted in the scholarship to study the distance between Jews and Christians during Antiquity. Indeed, issued from the same common background, which was the Second Temple Judaism, Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism became two opposing orthodoxies which excluded each other and, largely, based their own identity in opposition to the other one, in a process started by the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in the year 70. This doctoral thesis analyses how this parting of the ways happened throughout the first three centuries of the Common Era in the different regional realities of the Roman Empire, taking as a main source the literature of the Church Fathers, though also other ones, as the rabbinic literature, the so-called “cycle of the Talmud”. So, despite their rivalries, Judaism and Christianity form a large spectrum where, in an extreme, we find the Rabbinic Judaism, for which Jesus represents nothing, and, in the other, different forms of Gnostic Christianity, which fully denied the identification between the Jewish Jahveh and the God Father preached by Jesus Christ and, because of that, refused all the Jewish heritage of Christianity. Between both extremes became established the self-proclaimed Orthodox Christianity, over the basis of the anti-legalistic thought of the Apostle Paul. This form of Christianity also felt obliged to harmonize Hebrew Scriptures as a part of the history of salvation with the idea that the Mosaic Law had been abrogated with the coming of the Messiah. This proto-Orthodox Christianity found in the method of allegory applied to the interpretation of the Old Testament the legitimation of its doctrine and its universalistic and uniformist wishes. On the other hand, the rabbis, with the Patriarch as their leader, got the decisive support of the Roman authorities in their purpose to proclaim themselves as the leaders of Judaism, which was decapitated after the disappearance of the Temple. This Judaism found its way of expression in the so-called Talmudic literature, where the Rabbis systematized an orthodoxy that excluded from the people of Israel all those who did not share their doctrines, as we can see, for example, in the Birkat ha minim, imprecation which, included in the liturgy of the synagogue worship, was pronounced against the Followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

Histoire@Politique, Politique, culture, société (Revue scientifique du Centre d’histoire de Sciences Po), « Comptes rendus – ouvrages »,
http://www.histoire-politique.fr/index.php?numero=31&rub=comptes-rendus&item=627
Mis en ligne le 23 mai 2017

RSS: MARKETING FASCISM AS HINDU NATIONALISM

Price: 250 INR
ISBN: 9789387298156

Indian democratic-secular polity is passing through the most critical phase since its birth on August 15, 1947. Our constitutional polity has been taken over by RSS/BJP leaders committed to Hindutva politics which was neither part of modern India's its anti-colonial heritage nor have been faithful to the principles enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution of India. The Hindutva politics  decried and continues to decry democracy, secularism, egalitarianism and an all-inclusive India.

This book provides an insight into the philosophical moorings of the followers of Hindutva and their action plans to convert India into a theocratic Hindu State. This insight is based solely on the internal documents of RSS/BJP and other fraternal Hindutva organizations.

It is hoped that this Reader on RSS book will help researchers and common readers in getting acquainted with an ideology and its perpetrators who present the most lethal challenge to democratic-secular India.
CONTENTS
Preface ............................................................................. 11
INTRODUCTION ............................................................ 13

Chapter 1
Surreptitious change of course: Converting democratic-secular polity into Hindu state....... 17
PM Modi’s favourite minister declares war on Indian Constitution ..................................................................... 23

Chapter 2
Manufacturing holiness of cow: A weapon of cleansing of Muslims and Dalits....................27

Chapter 3
Hitler and Mussolini as Gurus ................................... 35
Love for dictators and Neo-Nazis ............................................. 42
RSS building a deadly alliance against Muslims and Christians in India’s neighbourhood ...............................44
Neo-Nazi mass murderer of Norway Breivik’s linkages with Hindu nationalists......................................... 47
Genocide of Rohingyas in Myanmar: The Hindutva imprints ........................................................ 49

Chapter 4
Cleansing of Minorities as Priority ........................... 51
RSS facilitating the job of anti-national forces ....................... 55
Cleansing of minorities: Golwalkar’s direct involvement ...... 59
Everyday a trial by fire (agnipriksha) of madrasaas to prove patriotism.........................................................62
Madrasaas played great heroic role in India’s freedom struggle.................................................................... 64
Will Taj Mahal meet the fate of the mosque at Ayodhya? .... 66
Som’s hilarious sense of ‘History’ ............................................. 67
Three ways Taj Mahal can be harmed  ...................................... 70
Inflaming hatred against Muslims for votes ............................ 71
A Hindu girl forced to commit suicide for writing ‘she liked Muslims’................................................................ 73
1984 Sikh massacre: RSS/BJP rulers continue the façade of searching for perpetrators ................................. 74
Two kinds of justice .................................................................... 74
History of the farcical justice in the 1984 massacre case ...... 76
RSS ideologue Nana Deshmukh justified the massacre of Sikhs in 1984.............................................................. 78
RSS against former PM Manmohan Singh’s apology for 1984 massacre ............................................................. 83
‘Moments of Soul Searching’ ..................................................... 84

Chapter 5
Indian freedom struggle and RSS: A story of betrayal................................................................91
RSS denigrated tradition of the martyrdom............................. 95
Syama Prasad Mookerji: Hindutva icon who allied with the Muslim League and the British rulers................. 97
Backstabbing Netaji Subhash Chander Bose.......................... 101
Eternal belief in the Two-Nation Theory .............................. 102

Chapter 6
Denigrating Dalits and Women ............................... 105
History of continuous delay in presenting reports of National Commission for SC/ST................................ 107
Laws of Manu concerning Sudras/Dalits............................... 115
Laws of Manu concerning women.......................................... 117
RSS book shops market anti-women literature which propagates Sati and wife-beating ................... 120
Modi: Manual scavenging by Sudras is their “experience in spirituality”................................................. 121
Return of Untouchability: Courtesy RSS/BJP....................... 123
Last Words of Dalit Martyr Rohith Vemula........................... 127
Anti-Sudra Guru Dronacharya honoured on Dr. Ambedkar’s birthday.................................................... 130
Golwalkar on Crossbreeding in Kerala: Denigrating Kerala Hindus specially Women .......................... 132
RSS Rolls out Racist Project of Producing ‘Aryan’ Babies in India...................................................................... 134

Chapter 7
Hatred for democratic-secular-federal India .......... 141
Denigration of the Tricolour: the National Flag................... 141
When Indian Nation celebrated adoption of the Constitution RSS mourned it............................................. 144
Love For dictatorship................................................................. 146
Against Federalism ..................................................................... 147
Against secular India ................................................................. 148
RSS Oath: .................................................................................... 149
RSS Prayer: .................................................................................. 150

Chapter 8
RSS and conspiracies: Made for each other ........... 151
Murder of MK Gandhi and Hindutva organizations............ 154
The military connection............................................................. 156

Chapter 9
Celebrating ‘vadh’ (killing) of opponents is embedded in the Hindutva politics.................... 161

Chapter 10
Resurrecting Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya: A staunch believer in Hindutva, Hindu rashtra and Casteism who died a mysterious death................................................ 165
Hindutva, Hindu nationalism and Hindu State ascore beliefs............................................................................ 167
Militarist ambitions of the Hindu nation to rule over the world...................................................................... 172
Finding fault with the composite nationalism and freedom struggle.................................................................. 174
Staunch defender of Casteism.................................................. 176
Inimical attitude towards minorities......................................... 178
Upadhyaya as a perennial Muslim basher................................ 179
For unitary form of government............................................. 182
Linkages with CIA...................................................................... 182
Mysterious death of Upadhyaya .............................................. 184

Chapter 11
The Operation Take-Over Supreme Court............. 187
Full text of the letter to the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra by top Supreme Court Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph............................................................... 191
Conclusion.......................................................................... 197

ANNEXURE
What is RSS? By Madhu Limaye ............................................. 199
INDEX......................................................................................... 213

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Shamsul Islam taught political science at the University of Delhi (1973-2013). As an author, columnist and dramatist he has been writing against religious bigotry, dehumanization, totalitarianism, persecution of minorities, Dalits and women. He is known for his work on the rise of nationalism, specially religion-based nationalism and its development in India and the world. He writes in English, Hindi and Urdu.


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This article examines the significance of mediation in the public programming and activism of The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), an organization that offers international aid and advocacy to Christians identified as victims of persecution. Focusing on VOM's efforts to rally Westerners, especially evangelical Protestants, I argue that the antipersecution movement urges supporters to share the mantle of martyrdom by engaging in purposeful acts of religious mediation, including the consumption and circulation of martyrological media. I explore a related tendency among evangelicals to valorize non-Western Christians in precarious circumstances as exemplars of self-sacrificing piety, whose suffering represents and inspires conditions of sanctification. Drawing on media analysis and fieldwork, I explore how practices of mediation, as forms of " witness, " invite evangelicals to embody otherwise elusive virtues and modes of agency associated with Christian martyrs, while reflecting ambiguous modern conceptions of the nature of embodied suffering and the relationship between vulnerability and power.

"""From the back-cover:
This book will prove quite useful in the present times when the RSS is showing up its colours, more and more starkly, in a number of areas. The communal carnage in Gujarat has exposed the diabolical plans of RSS. The Babri mosque demolition and riots across the country; the attempts at Brahmanisation of education and communalization of the civil services were some other instances which unmasked RSS and other affiliates of the Sangh Gang. The author traces the plans, policies and propositions of the RSS to their origins, in the words/publications of the RSS itself, so that there is no room for alleging misrepresentation.
The shameful role of the RSS in the struggle for the independence of India, its close affinity with the Fascist concepts of Hitler and Mussolini, its resulting priorities of anti-minoritiism and redressal of historical wrongs, its seeking to adopt any means to achieve political power—all these are described in detail in the book.
The author has taken pains to conclusively prove that the RSS policies will inevitably lead to the denigration of the Dalits and the marginalization of women with excerpts from the ‘Manusmriti’ which is dear to the RSS establishment. The book concludes that the RSS is out to subvert the basic democratic-secular characteristics of our Constitution.
The author is known for his frank writings about the subversive games which communal forces play in the Indian sub-continent. This book will prove to be a handbook for knowing RSS.   
" Note: The material of this book is for the personal benefit of all  researchers and those who are concerned about Casteism, denigration of women and theocratic politics in India. In no case commercial use is permitted."

GUT-WRENCHING FACTUAL REPORT ON THE ANTI-MUSLIM VIOLENCE [FEBRUARY-MARCH 2020] IN DELHI BY DELHI MINORITY COMMISSION, A STATUTORY BODY SHOWS HOW INDIAN STATE HAS COMPLETELY DISCARDED DEMOCRACY-SECULARISM WHILE DEALING WITH THE ANTI-MUSLIM VIOLENCE. SAME WAS THE CASE IN 1984 WHEN SIKHS WERE THE VICTIMS.
https://archive.org/details/DMC-delhi-riots-fact-finding-2020

Автор на основании новых архивных материалов описывает реакцию на так называемый «крестовый поход молитв» 1930 г. со стороны советского руководства, православных иерархов и рядовых православных верующих. Прежде всего исследователь обратил внимание на то обстоятельство, что советские лидеры рассматривали призыв папы объединиться в молитвах о гонимых верующих в СССР в контексте аналогической кампании в Англии, которая началась еще в декабре 1929 г. Эта кампания имела политический подтекст: консерваторы пытались использовать ее против лейбористов, которые находились у власти в этот момент и пытались наладить отношения с СССР. В этой ситуации советское руководство приняло решение организовать мощную контр-пропагандистскую кампанию, причем лучшим ответом на выступление папы и других религиозных лидеров были признаны «опровержения» со стороны самих российских верующих. Так родилась идея инспирировать «интервью» представителей различных религиозных общин СССР с «опровержениями» заявлений папы. Самым известным таким «интервью» стал текст, опубликованный от имени заместителя патриаршего местоблюстителя митрополита Сергия (Страгородского), а на деле сфабрикованный непосредственно высшим советским руководством. Опубликованные «интервью» поставили духовенство и верующих в сложную ситуацию, из которой они попытались выйти, передав заграницу по разным каналам информацию о действительном положении дел в отношении религии и верующих в СССР и дезавуировав впечатление, которое могло сложиться на Западе после публикации «опровержений». Однако в подавляющем большинстве случаев попытки передать заграницу информацию о преследованиях заканчивались трагически.

The Author describes the reaction to the so-called “prayers crusade” of 1930 by the Soviet leadership, Orthodox hierarchs and ordinary Orthodox believers on the basis of new archival materials. First of all, the researcher drew attention to the fact that Soviet leaders considered the Pope’s call to unite in prayers for persecuted believers in the USSR in the context of an analogous campaign in England, which began in December 1929. This campaign had a political subtext: conservatives tried to use it against labour, who were in power at that moment and tried to establish relations
with the USSR. In this situation, the Soviet leadership decided to organize a
powerful counter-propaganda campaign, with the best response to the speech of the Pope and other religious leaders were recognized as “refutation” by the Russian believers themselves. Thus, the idea was born to incite “interviews” of representatives of various religious communities of the USSR with “denials” of the Pope's statements. The most famous among these “interview” was the text published on behalf of the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), which was in fact fabricated directly by the highest Soviet leadership. The published “interviews” put clergy and faithful in a difficult situation, from which they tried to get out, passing abroad through different channels information about the actual state of affairs with regard to religion and believers in the USSR in order to disavow the impression that could have developed
in the West after the publication of “denials”. However, in the vast majority of cases attempts to transmit information about the persecution abroad ended tragically.

The traditional interpretation of Constantine’s dealings with Donatists considers that the emperor persecuted them between 317 and 321. This view rests upon the Passio Donati (BHL 2303b), which depicts soldiers violently seizing a basilica from Donatists and even causing the death of Donatus. The latter text, the only one attesting this putative persecution, was in fact written later to commemorate the martyr’s anniversary, and describes mainly the resistance of Donatists against state intervention. The article argues that this view sits uneasily with what we otherwise know of Constantine’s religious policy of tolerance, starting with the so-called Edict of Milan. Rather, Constantine’s aim was to restore control of ecclesiastical properties confiscated during the persecution of Diocletian to the “Catholic” faith, which Donatists challenged. Once the councils of Rome and Arles, and an audience with the emperor in person, validated the claims of the Caecilianist faction to represent the Catholic faith in Africa, Constantine imposed the transfer of properties by ordering his men to seize the basilica, exiling Donatists who resisted. But this does not justify the view that Constantine persecuted Donatists.

"Megaleh Temirin (Revealer of Secrets), ed. Jonatan Meir, Three volumes, Mosad Bialik, Jerusalem

Megaleh Temirin (Revealer of Secrets), first published in Vienna in 1819, is one of the sharpest and wittiest pieces of Jewish literature written in the first half of the nineteenth century, and is perhaps the most important piece of Hebrew prose composed before the stories of Mendele Mocher Seforim. A sly and complex story deriding Hasidism and Hasidim, it is told through the correspondence between the beadles of Hasidic courts and contemporary rabbis, and it presents a dark picture of  avaricious frauds and swindlers whose main concern was control over territory and the souls of believers, a goal achieved by beguiling the authorities and attacking all opponents. Perl lends his book a ‘Hasidic’ feel both in its physical design and in its language, presenting a Maskilic version of In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov that lays Hasidism bare so that no reader will ever be able to look at that, or any other Hasidic book, in the same way again. In addition to the book’s satiric sting, which would have been enough to bring its readers a dual pleasure, Perl’s hints at contemporary people and places, hidden within anagrams and numerological tricks. With the unraveling of these clues, which also include the use of actual Hasidic sources, the book is a valuable, contemporary view of historical reality. A meticulous reading of the book may therefore open a window on the hidden worlds of Hasidism and the Haskalah at the start of the nineteenth century.


The first volume (Imagined Hasidism) serves as an introduction to the complex satirical writings of Josef Perl of Tarnopol (1773-1839). At the center of the book stands an analysis of the satires, Megaleh Temirin (1819) and Bochen Tzadik (1838), including a systematic treatment of the ‘characters’ in the central works and a discussion of the dozens of manuscripts to be found in the Perl Archive in Jerusalem. Perl’s writings are analyzed here in the fuller context of Hebrew and Yiddish literature in general and Maskilic and Hasidic literature in particular, as well as other polemical writings and governmental records critical of Hasidism. The study thus presents a complex and nuanced picture of the relationship between literature and history, between the anti-Hasidic reports and the more complicated historical reality, and lays the groundwork for further research into the genre of nineteenth-century Maskilic satire.

The second and third volumes (Megaleh Temirin) present for the first time an annotated edition of Megaleh Temirin. It is based on the first edition and the scattered manuscripts and it includes a comparison to its Yiddish translation. The book is accompanied by appendices on its origins and contents, including fundamental treatments of several passages: an explication of the encoded names, the Hasidic sources used by the author, and the variants found in the manuscripts and in the only edition of the book in Yiddish.

The editor of the book, Professor Jonatan Meir, teaches in the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University. He has published several articles on the Haskalah of Eastern Europe, Hasidism, and a number of varied topics in twentieth-century Kabbalah.


Contents

Volume 1  - Critical Edition

Concerning this edition
Key personalities
Sefer Megale Temirin – Critical Edition


Volume 2 - Appendixes:
1. Glossary, Abbreviations, Acronyms
2. Explanation of the Speaking Names
3. Perl’s Hasidic Sources
4. Manuscripts of Sefer Megale Temirin
5. Yiddish Introduction to Sefer Megale Temirin
Bibliographic Abbreviations

-------------------------------
Reviews:
(1) Dan Meron, 2013, ‘Megaleh Temirin’, Kivunim Hadashim 29, 55 pages (Hebrew)
(2) David Assaf, 2014, ‘Hasidim will not Read it but Tear it’, Haaretz, Tarbut ve-Sifrut, p .6 (Hebrew) http://onegshabbat.blogspot.co.il/2014/04/blog-post_18.html
(3) Eliezer Brodt, 2014, 'New book Announcement- Megale Temirin', The Seforim Blog http://seforim.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/new-book-announcement-megale-temirin.html
(4) Matan Hermoni, 2014,  הסבתא המופקרת של הספרות העבריתHaaretz, Sfarim (Hebrew) http://www.haaretz.co.il/.premium-1.2382365
(5) Shinichi Yamamoto, 2015, 山本　伸一, "ヨナタン・メイール編著『想像のハシディズム』", ユダヤ・イスラエル研究　第28号  http://www.waseda.jp/assoc-jsjs/jistudies.html
(6) David Biale and David Assaf,, 2015, 'Revealer Revealed', Jewish Review of Books, pp. 17-21  http://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/1454/revealer-revealed/
(7) Hillel Halkin, 2015, "Sex, Magic, Bigotry, Corruption- and the First Hebrew Novel', Mosaic Magazine,  http://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/2015/05/sex-magic-bigotry-corruption-and-the-first-hebrew-novel/
(8) Tomer Persico, 2015, "Interview", Lula'at haEl Blog, http://tomerpersico.com/2015/08/10/meir_perl/