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Potere del sacrificio
by Gabriel Agbo Ionica MonticelliPotere del Sacrificio di Gabriel Agbo I sacrifici sono potenti. Molto potente! L'uomo più ricco, l'uomo più forte, gli uomini e le donne più benedetti, il più saggio, il più grande re, i profeti più potenti erano tutti uomini e donne di sacrificio. I sacrifici sono potenti. Molto potente! L'uomo più ricco, l'uomo più forte, gli uomini e le donne più benedetti, il più saggio, il più grande re, i profeti più potenti erano tutti uomini e donne di sacrificio. Essi hanno dato tutto, hanno rischiato tutti per il loro popolo, per l'umanità e per Dio per raggiungere i loro obiettivi e le loro azioni che anche l'eternità sarà fiera. Vuoi conoscere i loro segreti? Buona. Se vuoi diventare grande, devi prima diventare uomo / donna di sacrificio. Tutte le cose sono possibili per coloro che possono pagare il prezzo. Troverete questi capitoli altamente rivelatori: Potere del Sacrificio, Sacrificio Voi Solo, Passerò attraverso l'Egitto, Pagherò Il Prezzo, Seguimi! Siamo venuti per Te, vi preserverò, Cuocere l'ultimo pasto, il potere salvare, la preghiera, la preghiera e il digiuno. Non abbiamo solo discusso i grandi sacrifici di grandi uomini e donne nella bibbia e come le loro azioni li hanno resi grandi, ma anche persone come Yonatan 'Yoni' Netanyahu di Israele; il giovane israeliano che ha guidato l'unità commando a salvare gli ostaggi ebrei che sono stati tenuti nell'aeroporto di Entebbe dopo che il loro aereo è stato dirottato e deviato in Uganda nel 1976. Abbiamo anche guardato alcuni dei nostri eroi militari, specialmente quelli delle operazioni speciali SEALs, Delta Force. Questi uomini danno il loro meglio; costantemente rischiano tutto, comprese le loro vite per difendere il loro popolo e l'umanità. Essi sacrificano la loro vita per proteggere gli altri. Gesù ha detto che il più grande sacrificio è per un uomo dare la sua vita per gli altri.
Potiphar's Wife: A Novel (The Egyptian Chronicles #1)
by Mesu AndrewsOne of the Bible&’s most notorious women longs for a love she cannot have in this captivating novel from the award-winning author of Isaiah&’s Legacy.&“Mesu Andrews yet again proves her mastery of weaving a rich and powerful biblical story!&”—Roseanna M. White, author of A Portrait of Loyalty Before she is Potiphar&’s wife, Zuleika is the daughter of a king and the wife of a prince. She rules the isle of Crete alongside her mother in the absence of their seafaring husbands. But when tragedy nearly destroys Crete, Zuleika must sacrifice her future to save the Minoan people she loves. Zuleika&’s father believes his robust trade with Egypt will ensure Pharaoh&’s obligation to marry his daughter, including a bride price hefty enough to save Crete. But Pharaoh refuses and gives her instead to Potiphar, the captain of his bodyguards: a crusty bachelor twice her age, who would rather have a new horse than a Minoan wife. Abandoned by her father, rejected by Pharaoh, and humiliated by Potiphar&’s indifference, Zuleika yearns for the homeland she adores. In the political hotbed of Egypt&’s foreign dynasty, her obsession to return to Crete spirals into deception. When she betrays Joseph—her Hebrew servant with the face and body of the gods—she discovers only one love is worth risking everything.
Potluck: Parables of Giving, Taking, and Belonging
by Kim ThomasIt all begins at the table. A long table dressed in an oversized tablecloth and covered with various pyrex dishes, fiesta bowls, covered casseroles, dutch ovens, and cake plates. The tradition is familiar, the recipes are old and new, the people are known and unknown. But by the end of the evening, everyone is full, all having given something, taken something, and found something. This compelling and transparent collection of meditations is based on the Potluck dinner heritage. Kim Thomas explores the beauty and diversity of food at the community table as a metaphor for the community of faith. The table offers a place of discovery and delivery, becoming and belonging. Potluck: Parables of Giving, Taking, and Belonging is an insightful assembly of thoughts, a narrative moving readers to find that they have a place at the table-a place to give, to take, and to belong.
Potters without a Wheel: Ethnography of the Mritshilpis in Kolkata
by Saswati BhattacharyaThis book is an ethnographic study of clay idol-makers of Kumartuli in Kolkata, India. Much of the visibility and identity of Kolkata’s creative culture has been dependent upon the clay artists of Kumartuli for the last 100 years or so. This book explores the nature of the carefully constructed identity of these idol-makers as mritshilpis , or clay artists, who, as opposed to ordinary potters, work with their hands instead of a wheel. It looks at how the mritshilpis consciously embrace and expand their market based on this variation and elevated status as artists instead of artisans and studies the embeddedness of this identity within the commodity markets. It also shows that commodity markets, in this case the market of clay idols, are an outcome of trends of urbanisation, popular demand, corporatisation and commodification of culture, all of which have shaped the contours of clay idol-making as not only an occupation but a brand identity. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews, the book highlights the larger structural relationship between urbanisation, indigenous occupational categories and identity politics. It will be indispensable to scholars and researchers of sociology, social anthropology, political studies, cultural history, urban economy, art history, urbanisation, cultural studies and urban sociology.
Pour Toujours et 365 JOURS: ...une année dans la vie d'un écrivain inspiré
by UlrikeCe livre est une compilation de mes pensées et de mes méditations quotidiennes. Ce sont mes expériences, prouvant encore et encore que la pensée est causale. Vous verrez les chapitres quotidiens sauter parfois d'un sujet à l'autre, mais c'est ainsi que mon esprit a assimilé de nouvelles idées et s'est penché sur de nouveaux concepts. Étant un lecteur avide, j'ai intégré mes résultats après avoir étudié les textes d'autres autorités métaphysiques, et cela reflète les conclusions auxquelles je suis parvenu et la croissance mentale que j'ai acquise. Des étudiants, des lecteurs et des étrangers ont contribué à faire de ce document un document vivant, grâce à leurs vécus. C'est une image vivante de ce qui nous arrive à tous dans cette phase de développement. Les personnages et leurs malheurs nécessitant une amélioration, les tests personnels et de nombreuses questions valables sont présentés de la manière la plus pratique possible. Je suis sûr que beaucoup d'entre vous peuvent se référer à plus d'un chapitre et voir le reflet de leur propre vie et de leurs expériences dans les histoires que j'ai partagées.
Poured Out: The Spirit of God Empowering the Mission of God
by Leonard AllenThe Holy Spirit Cannot Be Contained.After centuries of neglect, there is a renewed interest in the Holy Spirit. Many are beginning to realize that the Spirit is not a junior member of the Trinity, tame and shy. Poured Out explains why the church limited the Spirit for so long and how you can come to know the Spirit better and more fully. To become fruitful again—to move beyond apathy, defeat, and despair—you need to discover a deeper experience of life with God. A key in this recovery is the realization that the Spirit is God's primary missionary who can empower and guide you in God's work in today's world.
Pourquoi j'ai quitté la religion juive pour suivre Jésus
by Bernard LevineJ’ai la conviction que vous allez être choqués de savoir que, dans la plupart des maisons juives, vous ne trouverez pas une Bible. Vous diriez néanmoins ; ‘ n’est-ce pas bizarre ?! comment se fait-il qu’une nation connue sous le nom ‘les Gens du Livre’ ne possèdent, dans leurs maisons une Bible ?’ Ce qui est encore plus surprenant est que, même si vous pensez que les Juifs suivent et connaissent bien les Écritures, la vérité la plus choquante est que la plupart des livres de l’Ancien Testament sont un mystère pour les Juifs parce qu'ils ne connaissent pas les prophéties de Jésus, et n'en ont jamais vu, citées dans les livres tels que Ezéchiel, Isaïe, Daniel et Malachie. En outre, vous rendiez-vous compte que les Juifs ne savent pas ce qu'ils disent quand ils prient, car la plupart des Juifs ne peuvent pas comprendre l'hébreu? Alors maintenant, je suppose que vous devez vous demander comment les Juifs peuvent-ils se débarrasser de tous leurs péchés s'ils ne croient pas en Jésus-Christ? ... qu'est-ce que les juifs pensent être le moyen de se rendre au paradis? Vous serez choqués de savoir ce qui se passe dans le monde juif.
Poustinia: Christian Spirituality of the East for Western Man
by Catherine de Hueck DohertyFrom the book: In writing about the poustinia, she is not writing so much about a technique of prayer as of a journey into God, her own and, if we want, ours. It is a journey filled with marvels and even terrors to be sure, but a journey open to all who want to take it. "Poustinia" sounds exotic, remote, yet Catherine shows that it is simply that secret room the Lord has told us of, where the Father will reward us with himself, in secret, if we only go there in faith. She tells us something of the treasures we will find there in God's Word-defenselessness, poverty, liberation. She shares with us her own knowledge of what it means to fight for the world at the center of that darkness that threatens to overwhelm the earth. She teaches us about beautiful gifts -tears, tongues of love, and especially the Jesus Prayerthat God will give us to heal the world's sickness. She reminds us of the hardest saying of all, that to live with Christ in his kingdom we must become as poor as he is. She reminds us too that his Mother stands with us in this place of poverty and weakness, to console us and to strengthen us with her "yes." But most of all Catherine holds up to us a vision of "cosmic tenderness." In the desert God makes our hearts like the heart of his Son, gentle, lowly, compassionate. There we learn tenderness to all his creatures, to all our sisters and brothers, and, most important of all, to ourselves. It is when we know ourselves as the joy of God, images of the Lord Jesus, that our brothers and sisters become our joy. To my mind, this is the very core of Catherine's word to us.
Poustinia: Encountering God in Silence, Solitude, and Prayer
by Catherine DohertyCatherine Doherty, foundress of the Madonna House, a Catholic Apostolate, combines her Russian Orthodox upbringing with her Catholic faith to describe the concept of Poustinia, a dwelling place one goes to for spiritual contemplation and prayer
Pouvoir du Sacrifice
by Gabriel AgboLes sacrifices sont puissants. Très puissants! L’homme le plus riche, l'homme le plus fort, l'homme et la femme les plus bénis, le plus sage, les plus grands rois, les prophètes les plus puissants étaient tous des hommes et femmes de sacrifice. Ils ont tout donné, tout risqué pour leur peuple, l'humanité et Dieu afin d'atteindre leurs objectifs et réaliser des exploits dont même l'éternité serait fière. Voulez-vous connaître leurs secrets? Bien. Si vous voulez réussir, vous devez tout d'abord devenir un homme/femme de sacrifice. Tout est possible à ceux qui sont prêts à faire des sacrifices. Vous le verrez dans ces chapitres hautement révélateurs- Le pouvoir du sacrifice, Sacrifiez votre tout, Je passerai par l'Egypte, Je vais payer le prix, Suivez-moi! Nous sommes venus pour vous, Je vais vous préserver, Cuisinez ce dernier repas, Le pouvoir de sauver, Adoration, prière et jeûne. Nous n'avons pas seulement abordé les énormes sacrifices de grands hommes et femmes contenus dans la bible et la manière dont leurs actions les ont rendus grands, mais nous avons également parlé de personnes telles que Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu d'Israël; ce jeune israélien qui a conduit l'unité commando mise en place afin de sauver les otages juifs détenus à l'aéroport d'Entebbe après que leur avion a été pris en otage et détourné vers l'Ouganda en 1976. Nous nous sommes en outre focalisés sur nos héros militaires, tout particulièrement ceux des Opérations spéciales -telles que les SEAL, Delta Force. Ces hommes ont donné le meilleur; risquant tout à chaque fois y compris leurs vies afin de défendre leur peuple, l'humanité. Ils ont sacrifié leurs vies afin de protéger les autres. Jésus a dit que le plus grand sacrifice pour l'homme consiste à donner sa vie pour les autres. Nous leur rendons hommage! Ils nous enseignent ce que doit être le sacrifice. Jésus a dit quel sacrifice plus grand pourrait-il exister que le fait pour un homme de do
Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt (Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World #20)
by Mark R. CohenWhat was it like to be poor in the Middle Ages? In the past, the answer to this question came only from institutions and individuals who gave relief to the less fortunate. This book, by one of the top scholars in the field, is the first comprehensive book to study poverty in a premodern Jewish community--from the viewpoint of both the poor and those who provided for them. Mark Cohen mines the richest body of documents available on the matter: the papers of the Cairo Geniza. These documents, located in the Geniza, a hidden chamber for discarded papers situated in a medieval synagogue in Old Cairo, were preserved largely unharmed for more than nine centuries due to an ancient custom in Judaism that prohibited the destruction of pages of sacred writing. Based on these papers, the book provides abundant testimony about how one large and important medieval Jewish community dealt with the constant presence of poverty in its midst. Building on S. D. Goitein's Mediterranean Society and inspired also by research on poverty and charity in medieval and early modern Europe, it provides a clear window onto the daily lives of the poor. It also illuminates private charity, a subject that has long been elusive to the medieval historian. In addition, Cohen's work functions as a detailed case study of an important phenomenon in human history. Cohen concludes that the relatively narrow gap between the poor and rich, and the precariousness of wealth in general, combined to make charity "one of the major agglutinates of Jewish associational life" during the medieval period.
Poverty and Exclusion of Minorities in China and India
by A. S. Bhalla Dan LuoMuslim minorities in China and India form only a small fraction of their respective populations, yet as they principally live in troubled border states, they are of key strategic importance in the war on terror. In this global context, this book explores whether economics is more important than the suppression of rights in explaining social unrest.
Poverty and Exclusion of Minorities in China and India
by A. S. Bhalla Dan LuoMuslim minorities in China and India form only a small fraction of their respective populations, yet as they principally live in troubled border states, they are of key strategic importance in the war on terror. In this global context, this book explores whether economics is more important than the suppression of rights in explaining social unrest.
Poverty and the Quest for Life: Spiritual and Material Striving in Rural India
by Bhrigupati SinghThe Indian subdistrict of Shahabad, located in the dwindling forests of the southeastern tip of Rajasthan, is an area of extreme poverty. Beset by droughts and food shortages in recent years, it is the home of the Sahariyas, former bonded laborers, officially classified as Rajasthan’s only “primitive tribe.” From afar, we might consider this the bleakest of the bleak, but in Poverty and the Quest for Life, Bhrigupati Singh asks us to reconsider just what quality of life means. He shows how the Sahariyas conceive of aspiration, advancement, and vitality in both material and spiritual terms, and how such bridging can engender new possibilities of life. Singh organizes his study around two themes: power and ethics, through which he explores a complex terrain of material and spiritual forces. Authority remains contested, whether in divine or human forms; the state is both despised and desired; high and low castes negotiate new ways of living together, in conflict but also cooperation; new gods move across rival social groups; animals and plants leave their tracks on human subjectivity and religiosity; and the potential for vitality persists even as natural resources steadily disappear. Studying this milieu, Singh offers new ways of thinking beyond the religion-secularism and nature-culture dichotomies, juxtaposing questions about quality of life with political theologies of sovereignty, neighborliness, and ethics, in the process painting a rich portrait of perseverance and fragility in contemporary rural India.
Poverty and Wealth in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
by Nathan R. Kollar Muhammad ShafiqThis book gathers scholars from the three major monotheistic religions to discuss the issue of poverty and wealth from the varied perspectives of each tradition. It provides a cadre of values inherent to the sacred texts of Jews, Christians, and Muslims and illustrates how these values may be used to deal with current economic inequalities. Contributors use the methodologies of religious studies to provide descriptions and comparisons of perspectives from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on poverty and wealth. The book presents citations from the sacred texts of all three religions. The contributors discuss the interpretations of these texts and the necessary contexts, both past and present, for deciphering the stances found there. Poverty and Wealth in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam identifies and details a foundation of common values upon which individual and institutional decisions may be made.
Power and Care: Toward Balance for Our Common Future#Science, Society, and Spirituality (The\mit Press Ser.)
by Tania Singer Matthieu Ricard Kate KariusLeading thinkers from a range of disciplines discuss the compatibility of power and care, in conversation with the Dalai Lama.For more than thirty years, the Dalai Lama has been in dialogue with thinkers from a range of disciplines, helping to support pathways for knowledge to increase human wellbeing and compassion. These conversations, which began as private meetings, are now part of the Mind & Life Institute and Mind & Life Europe. This book documents a recent Mind & Life Institute dialogue with the Dalai Lama and others on two fundamental forces: power and care—power over and care for others in human societies.The notion of power is essentially neutral; power can be used to benefit others or to harm them, to build or to destroy. Care, on the other hand, is not a neutral force; it aims at increasing the wellbeing of others. Power and care are not incompatible: power, imbued with care, can achieve more than a powerless motivation to care; power, without the intention to benefit others, can be ruthless. The contributors—who include such celebrated figures as Frans B. M. de Waal, Olafur Eliasson, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, and Jody Williams—discuss topics including the interaction of power and care among our closest relatives, the chimpanzees; the effect of meditation and mental training practices on the brain; the role of religion in promoting peace and compassion; and the new field of Caring Economics.ContributorsPaul Collier, Brother Thierry-Marie Courau, Frans B. M. de Waal, Olafur Eliasson, Scilla Elworthy, Alexandra M. Freund, Tenzin Gyatso (His Holiness the Dalai Lama), Markus Heinrichs, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Frédéric Laloux, Alaa Murabit, Matthieu Ricard, Johan Rockström, Richard Schwartz, Tania Singer, Dennis J. Snower, Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp, Theo Sowa, Pauline Tangiora, Jody Williams
Power and Emotion in Ancient Judaism: Community and Identity in Formation
by Ari MermelsteinIn this book, Ari Mermelstein examines the mutually-reinforcing relationship between power and emotion in ancient Judaism. Ancient Jewish writers in both Palestine and the diaspora contended that Jewish identity entails not simply allegiance to God and performance of the commandments but also the acquisition of specific emotional norms. These rules regarding feeling were both shaped by and responses to networks of power - God, the foreign empire, and other groups of Jews - which threatened Jews' sense of agency. According to these writers, emotional communities that felt Jewish would succeed in neutralizing the power wielded over them by others and, depending on the circumstances, restore their power to acculturate, maintain their Jewish identity, and achieve redemption. An important contribution to the history of emotions, this book argues that power relations are the basis for historical changes in emotion discourse.
Power and Justice: Disputes Resolution in a North China Village (China Academic Library)
by Xudong ZhaoThis book discusses the relationship, interaction and conflict between everyday life and various institutions in a specific village in North China, with a focus on the formal and informal legal systems. It vividly describes the village’s “legal construction problems” as well as the customs and laws, and such it can be seen as a historical and innovative comment on China’s problems. The book is based on the author’s field investigations assessing vast amounts of material concerning local organizations, formal and informal authorities, economic exchange, religious rituals, as well as interviews with villagers and numerous court files. It presents an in-depth exploration of “pluralism of authority” in China’s rural society, and examines how various authorities were formed. It also summarizes how various local disputes are resolved and discusses the villagers’ understanding of the concept of “justice.” Lastly, it suggests ways in which national law and local customs could communicate and collaborate.
Power and Passion: Six Characters in Search of Resurrection
by Samuel WellsSamuel Wells vividly paints the stories surrounding Jesus’ cross and resurrection. We see the weakness of Pontius Pilate and Barabbas, and the compromised character of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. We discover the subtle power of Pilate’s wife. And in Peter and Mary Magdalene we find the true power of resurrection, bringing forgiveness and ending the stranglehold of death, thus transforming all human passion. Through close readings of the gospel texts, Wells demonstrates the significance of these characters for faith and life today. In this book, structured with one chapter for each week of Lent, Wells guides us from the deathly power that put Jesus on the cross to the new power brought by Jesus’ resurrection. The book offers opportunities at the end of each chapter for prayer and discussion. The Archbishop of Canterbury has selected Power and Passion as his Lent book for 2007.
Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History
by David BialeTo shed light on the tensions he observed between Jewish perceptions of power versus political realities which "are often the cause of misguided political decisions," like Israel's Lebanese War Biale analyzes Jewish history from the point of view of politics and power. The author of Gershom Scholem: Kabbalah and Counter-History here challenges the conventions of what he terms the Jewish "mythical past": the anachronistic interpretation that the Diaspora, which occurred between the fall of an independent Jewish commonwealth in A.D. 70 and the rebirth of the State of Israel in 1948, was politically impotent, and, conversely, that the First and Second Temple periods were eras of full Jewish national sovereignty.
Power and Progress: Joseph Ibn Kaspi and the Meaning of History
by Alexander GreenThe philosopher and biblical commentator Joseph Ibn Kaspi (1280–1345) was a provocative Jewish thinker of the medieval era whose works have generally been overlooked by modern scholars. Power and Progress by Alexander Green is the first book in English to focus on a central aspect of his work: Ibn Kaspi's philosophy of history. Green argues that Ibn Kaspi understood history as guided by two distinct but interdependent forces: power and progress, both of which he saw manifest in the biblical narrative. Ibn Kaspi discerned that the use of power to shape history is predominantly seen in the political competition between kingdoms. Yet he also believed that there is historical progress in the continuous development and dissemination of knowledge over time. This he derived from the biblical vision of the divine chariot and its varied descriptions across different biblical texts, each revealing more details of a complex, multifaceted picture. Although these two concepts of what drives history are separate, they are also reliant upon one another. National survival is dependent on the progress of knowledge of the order of nature, and the progress of knowledge is reliant on national success. In this way, Green reveals Ibn Kaspi to be more than a mere commentator on texts, but a highly innovative thinker whose insights into the subtleties of the Bible produced a view of history that is both groundbreaking and original.
Power and Purpose: Paul Ramsey and Contemporary Christian Political Theology
by Adam Edward HollowellNot long ago, Paul Ramsey (1913-1988) was a leading voice in North American Christian ethics. Today, however, his intellectual legacy is in question, and his work is largely ignored by current scholars in the field. Against the tide of that neglect, Adam Edward Hollowell argues in Power and Purpose that Ramsey's work can still yield considerable insight for contemporary Christian political theology.Hollowell shows the influences of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Barth on Ramsey's early work; discusses his conversations with political theologians of his generation, including Reinhold and Richard Niebuhr and Joseph Fletcher; considers his influence on the early virtue theory of Jean Porter and Oliver O'Donovan; and places Ramsey's work in conversation with more recent voices in Christian ethics, including John Bowlin, Jennifer Herdt, Charles Mathewes, Eric Gregory, and Daniel Bell. Hollowell thus forges new connections between Ramsey and contemporary debates in political theology on such issues as political authority, power, just war, and torture.Hollowell's Power and Purpose also revisits well-known aspects of Ramsey's work -- for example, his insistence on the political significance of God's covenant with creation -- and offers an original account of the role of judgment in his theology of repentance. The book dedicates considerable attention to Ramsey's description of practical reasoning and highlights his commitment to the virtues, especially prudence. This accessible introduction to Paul Ramsey will appeal to a wide swath of scholars and students in Christian ethics and political theology.
Power and Religion in Merovingian Gaul
by Yaniv FoxThis study is the first to attempt a thorough investigation of the activities of the Columbanian congregation, which played a significant role in the development of Western monasticism. This was a new form of rural monasticism, which suited the needs and aspirations of a Christian elite eager to express its power and prestige in religious terms. Contrary to earlier studies, which viewed Columbanus and his disciples primarily as religious innovators, this book focuses on the political, economic, and familial implications of monastic patronage and on the benefits elite patrons stood to reap. While founding families were in a privileged position to court royal favour, monastic patronage also exposed them to violent reprisals from competing factions. Columbanian monasteries were not serene havens of contemplation, but rather active foci of power and wealth, and quickly became integral elements of early medieval statecraft.
Power and Subversion in Byzantium: Papers from the 43rd Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Birmingham, March 2010 (Publications of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies #17)
by Dimiter Angelov Michael SaxbyThis volume addresses a theme of special significance for Byzantine studies. Byzantium has traditionally been deemed a civilisation which deferred to authority and set special store by orthodoxy, canon and proper order. Since 1982 when the distinguished Russian Byzantinist Alexander Kazhdan wrote that 'the history of Byzantine intellectual opposition has yet to be written', scholars have increasingly highlighted cases of subversion of 'correct practice' and 'correct belief' in Byzantium. This innovative scholarly effort has produced important results, although it has been hampered by the lack of dialogue across the disciplines of Byzantine studies. The 43rd Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies in 2010 drew together historians, art historians, and scholars of literature, religion and philosophy, who discussed shared and discipline-specific approaches to the theme of subversion. The present volume presents a selection of the papers delivered at the symposium enriched with specially commissioned contributions. Most papers deal with the period after the eleventh century, although early Byzantium is not ignored. Theoretical questions about the nature, articulation and limits of subversion are addressed within the frameworks of individual disciplines and in a larger context. The volume comes at a timely junction in the development of Byzantine studies, as interest in subversion and nonconformity in general has been rising steadily in the field.
The Power and the Glorification: Papal Pretensions and the Art of Propaganda in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
by Jan L. de JongFocusing on a turbulent time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, The Power and the Glorification considers how, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the papacy employed the visual arts to help reinforce Catholic power structures. All means of propaganda were deployed to counter the papacy’s eroding authority in the wake of the Great Schism of 1378 and in response to the upheaval surrounding the Protestant Reformation a century later. In the Vatican and elsewhere in Rome, extensive decorative cycles were commissioned to represent the strength of the church and historical justifications for its supreme authority. Replicating the contemporary viewer’s experience is central to De Jong’s approach, and he encourages readers to consider the works through fifteenth- and sixteenth-century eyes. De Jong argues that most visitors would only have had a limited knowledge of the historical events represented in these works, and they would likely have accepted (or been intended to accept) what they saw at face value. With that end in mind, the painters’ advisors did their best to “manipulate” the viewer accordingly, and De Jong discusses their strategies and methods.