La péricope de Luc, intitulée dans certaines Bibles La femme qui était une pécheresse, a donné lieu à de nombreuses études de critique littéraire. L'A. a essayé d'expliquer les contradictions du texte en assignant un rôle différent aux sources distinctes. La présente analyse entend montrer que les tensions et les accentuations distinctes trouvent dans le texte seul leur raison intrinsèque. Elles focalisent l'attention sur la figure principale du récit, qui n'est pas la femme pécheresse mais Simon, et en dernière analyse, (...) le lecteur en tant qu'il s'identifie au pharisien. (shrink)

A close analysis of the composition of both versions of the Decalogue in Ex 20 and Dt 5 shows the central place of the two positive commandments: the consecration of the sabbath and the honour due to father and mother. The literary and semantic relation between these two commandments provides the key for understanding the entire text: addressing man, the first text as father and the other as son, they define him as subject of a freedom received from another and (...) recognised in the other. Freedom is also offered to the reader in so far as two texts are given to him, which are similar and different: Presence is revealed in the space left open between them. (shrink)

L'analyse rhétorique est souvent présentée comme une nouvelle méthode exégétique, parmi d'autres. Il serait sans doute plus juste de dire qu'elle est une nouvelle façon de mener l'une des multiples opérations nécessaires à l'étude des textes. Son premier fruit - son objet en réalité - est de fournir les instruments indispensables pour délimiter de manière raisonnée les unités littéraires, aux niveaux successifs de leur organisation : depuis celui du segment, bimembre ou trimembre , jusqu'à celui de l'ensemble du livre ; (...) il s'ensuit qu'elle fournit des critères véritablement scientifiques pour définir la notion de contexte que l'exégèse a toujours utilisée, mais de manière trop empirique. Son second fruit - qui est en réalité sa fin - est de frayer la voie à l'interprétation, dans la mesure où elle détermine quelles sont les unités qui doivent être lues ensemble parce qu'elles ont été ainsi composées par l'auteur. L'analyse rhétorique a aussi des retombées non négligeables pour d'autres opérations exégétiques : pour la traduction et même pour la critique textuelle. (shrink)

La parabole du vieux et du neuf selon Luc est pratiquement toujours considérée comme faisant partie de la controverse sur le jeûne ; ce qui limite fort son interprétation. En réalité c'estune péricope à part entière et son contexte est formé par l'ensemble des controverses avec les pharisiens : à propos du paralysé pardonné et guéri, puis chez Lévi à propos de la conduite de Jésus envers les pécheurs et le jeûne; puis, après la parabole, à propos des épis froissés, (...) puis de la guérison de l'homme à la main paralysée, toutes deux le sabbat. Centrale, la parabole est la clé de lecture de toute la séquence: la nouveauté est celle de la «nouvelle alliance» annoncée en particulier par Jérémie. Celle-ci repose sur le pardon des péchés, mis en acte dès le début. Sa figure est celle des épousailles; or Jésus se présente comme l'Époux. Ce qui est en question n'est autre que la Loi, représentée dès le début par ses Docteurs, cristallisée en finale dans le sabbat. (shrink)

O presente trabalho objetiva uma exegese da perícope de 2Pd 3,14-16, pertencente a uma das cartas católicas e deuterocanônicas do Novo Testamento. Para tal, utilizaremos as regras de Análise Retórica Bíblica Semítica, propostas pelo estudioso francês Roland Meynet, e, mediante esse método, podemos verificar a centralidade das Escrituras paulinas e do problema acerca de sua correta interpretação. Longe de supervalorizar esses escritos, o hagiógrafo reclama que não somente esses são distorcidos, mas igualmente também as outras Escrituras. Esta centralidade (...) coloca Paulo como exemplo a ser seguido pelos fiéis, os quais são opostos verazmente aos “falsos mestres”, que, desqualificando as Escrituras, colocam-se diametralmente opostos igualmente ao “amado Paulo”. (shrink)

The experimental philosophy movement advocates the use of empirical methods in philosophy. The methods most often discussed and in fact employed in experimental philosophy are appropriated from the experimental paradigm in psychology. But there is a variety of other (at least partly) empirical methods from various disciplines that are and others that could be used in philosophy. The paper explores the application of corpus analysis to philosophical issues. Although the method is well established in linguistics, there are only a few (...) tentative attempts of philosophers to utilise it. Examples are introduced and the merit of corpus analysis is compared to that of using general internet search engines and questionnaires for similar purposes. (shrink)

This article undertakes a dual task. The first is to argue that the various positions of major Marxist thinkers on revolution may be gathered under the common framework of kairós, understood as a resolutely temporal term relating to the critical time, the opportune moment that appears unexpectedly and must be seized. The second task is to question the nature of kairós in terms of its biblical, class and economic residues. An investigation of the use of the term in classical Greece (...) reveals that it refers to both time and place, designating primarily what is in the right time and correct place. Given the class identifications of the Greek writers who deal with kairós and their subtle defences of their propertied, ruling class status, the term becomes problematic in light of these associations that trail behind it. In response, I seek to develop the political implications of the true opposite of kairós, namely ákairos, what is ill-timed and in the wrong place. (shrink)

The book follows on the heels of the acclaimed Criticism of Heaven, being the second volume of a five volume series called Criticism of Heaven and Earth.

This article develops a criticism of Alain Badiou’s assertion that “mathematics is ontology.” I argue that despite appearances to the contrary, Badiou’s case for bringing set theory and ontology together is problematic. To arrive at this judgment, I explore how a case for the identification of mathematics and ontology could work. In short, ontology would have to be characterised to make it evident that set theory can contribute to it fundamentally. This is indeed how Badiou proceeds in Being and Event. (...) I review his descriptions of the ontological problematic at some length here, only to argue that set theory is a poor fit. Although philosophers working on questions of being were certainly occupied with matters of oneness and the part-whole relationship, I argue that Badiou’s discussion of philosophical sources points towards a mereological treatment, not a set-theoretic one. Finally, I suggest that Badiou’s philosophical interpretations of key set-theoretic results are better understood as some sort of analogising between mathematics, ontology, and philosophical anthropology. (shrink)

This study offers a specific interpretation of the Taiping Revolution in China in the mid-nineteenth century. It was not only the largest revolutionary movement in the world at the time, but also one that was inspired by Christianity. Indeed, it marks the moment when the revolutionary religious tradition arrived in China. My account of the revolution stresses the role of the Bible, its radical reinterpretation by the Taiping revolutionaries, and the role it played in their revolutionary acts and reconstruction of (...) economic and social relations. After providing this account, I raise a number of implications for Marxist approaches to religion. These involve the revolutionary religious tradition, first identified by Engels and established by Karl Kautsky, the question of political ambivalence of a religion like Christianity, and the distinction between ontological and temporal transcendence. (shrink)

This article reassesses a rarely noted aspect of the Russian Revolution: the long interaction between Lenin and Anatoly Lunacharsky, the ‘God‐builder’. It traces the way Lunacharsky first outlined the God‐building position in his Religion and Socialism (1908, 1911), a text virtually lost to scholarship and interpretations of the Russian revolution. It explores Lenin's initial condemnation, for political but above all theoretical reasons, only to find him reassessing his whole argument six years later in light of his re‐engagement with Hegel in (...) 1914. Seeing that his earlier condemnation no longer held, Lenin's response to Lunacharsky's God‐building undergoes a noticeable shift. He now realizes that marginal forms of interaction with religion may sit well with, if not lead to, communism. An examination of Lunacharsky's own perseverance with God‐building after he was appointed Commissar for Enlightenment in the new Soviet state, and of Lenin's awareness and tacit allowance for such expressions, indicate a more complex and ambivalent approach to religion on Lenin's part. (shrink)

This article examines the public significance of emotions, most specifically their role in constituting identity and community in the wake of political violence and trauma. It offers a conceptual engagement with processes of healing and reconciliation, showing that emotions are central to how societies experience and work through the legacy of catastrophe. In many instances, political actors deal with the legacy of trauma in restorative ways, by re-imposing the order that has been violated. Emotions can in this way be directed (...) by elites who are concerned with reinstating political stability and social control. Healing often becomes more about retribution and revenge, rather than a long-term project begetting peace, collaboration and emotional catharsis. The emotions triggered by trauma thus tend to perpetuate existing antagonisms, further entrenching the disingenuous perceptions of identity that may have created violence in the first place. Surveying this process, this article suggests that scholars of politics and reconciliation need to be more attentive to the role emotion plays in shaping particular forms of community. Doing so requires a systematic understanding not only of the feelings associated with first-hand experiences of trauma, but also of the manner in which these affective reactions can spread and generate collective emotions, thus producing new forms of antagonism. Addressing this challenge, the authors explore how a more conscious and active appreciation of the whole spectrum of emotions — not only anger and fear, for instance, but also empathy, compassion and wonder — may facilitate more lasting and ingenuous forms of social healing and reconciliation. (shrink)

"Das Ozeanium und die Vision NEMO sind zwei entgegengesetzte Vorschläge, wie sich das Meer und die Meerestiere in einem Zoo präsentieren lassen. Das Ozeanium arbeitet mit konventionellen Großaquarien, in denen echte Fische schwimmen, die Vision NEMO mit neuesten Übertragungs- und Projektionstechniken, die bewegte Fischbilder zeigen. Medien spielen in beiden Projekten eine wichtige, zunächst sehr unterschiedliche Rolle. Eines aber haben beide Projekte gemeinsam: sie gehen davon aus, dass die Medien eine exklusiv menschliche Angelegenheit sind. Mediale Prozesse im Meerestierreich kommen so nicht (...) in den Blick. The Ozeanium and the Vision NEMO are two opposing proposals on how to present the sea and the marine life in a zoo. The Ozeanium is working with conventional large aquariums, in which real fish are swimming, while the Vision NEMO employs the latest transmission and projection techniques to show animated images of fishes. In both projects, media play an important, but also very different role. There is, however, one thing that both projects have in common: They assume that media are an exclusively human affair. Thus, medial processes in the marine animal kingdom don’t come into view. ". (shrink)

Das Ozeanium und die Vision NEMO sind zwei entgegengesetzte Vorschläge, wie sich das Meer und die Meerestiere in einem Zoo präsentieren lassen. Das Ozeanium arbeitet mit konventionellen Großaquarien, in denen echte Fische schwimmen, die Vision NEMO mit neuesten Übertragungs- und Projektionstechniken, die bewegte Fischbilder zeigen. Medien spielen in beiden Projekten eine wichtige, zunächst sehr unterschiedliche Rolle. Eines aber haben beide Projekte gemeinsam: sie gehen davon aus, dass die Medien eine exklusiv menschliche Angelegenheit sind. Mediale Prozesse im Meerestierreich kommen so nicht (...) in den Blick. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungTiere erlauben einen ertragreichen Zugriff auf Büchners literarisches Werk. Exemplarisch zeigt sich dies an der »Hühnerlaus« aus dem Woyzeck. Ein Animal Reading dieses Tieres entfaltet zunächst vor dem wissensgeschichtlichen Hintergrund der Parasitenforschung die Rätselhaftigkeit von Büchners literarischer Hühnerlaus und schlägt dann vier mögliche Perspektiven vor, wie diese Rätselhaftigkeit für eine Interpretation fruchtbar gemacht werden kann: einen editionsphilologischen Lesartenstreit, die Debatten um den Wissenshorizont des Autors und seiner Figuren, eine Verortung in der Geschichte der Biotheorie sowie die Frage nach einer Tier-Ästhetik (...) der Groteske.Animals provide a fruitful approach to Büchner’s literary work. This can be demonstrated with regard to the »Hühnerlaus« in Woyzeck. An Animal Reading of the »Hühnerlaus« starts by showing how enigmatic this literary animal seems, when compared with the history of parasitology. Four perspectives, leading to four interpretations of this enigma, are proposed: 1) a discussion in edition philology whether Büchner actually wrote »Hühnerlaus« or not, 2) a look at the knowledge of the author and his figures, 3) some considerations on the history of biological theory, and 4) the question of animal aesthetics, especially of the grotesque. (shrink)

Die Frühschriften Nietzsches bilden eine deutlich abgrenzbare Abteilung des Gesamtwerks. Den Bruch im Fortgang zu den aphoristischen Hauptwerken (Menschliches, Allzumenschliches usf.) zu erklären beansprucht die vorliegende Arbeit. Mit Hilfe von Methoden der Analytischen Philosophie rekonstruiert sie ein utopisches Argument, dessen notwendiges Scheitern sie als erklärende Hypothese entwickelt und propagiert.

A tension runs through the lucidly militant work of Alain Badiou. It takes various shapes, such as the tension between the rigorous ontology of mathematics and the structures of narrative, or between fiction and argument, image and formula, poem and matheme, or Anglo-American analytic rationalism and continental lyricism. However, the shape of that tension that interests me most is between the triumphant banishing of theology via mathematics and its perpetual recurrence in his thought. For all Badiou’s efforts to dismiss theology (...) as the philosophy of the ‘One’, for all his efforts to read Pascal, Kierkegaard or Paul as exemplars of the ‘event’ without buying into the belief system they purvey, for all his dismissals of the pious myth or fabulous core of Christianity, it seems as though he cannot avoid theology. The question then is whether this philosopher who is ‘rarely suspected of harbouring Christian zeal’ may actually provide an insight or two into theology. The texts on which I base my reading are Being an Event, the short book on Paul, Logiques des Mondes, especially the section on Kierkegaard, and parts of the disparate collection, Theoretical Writings. A rather formidable collection, to say the least. In what follows I begin by considering the absolute blockage of theology in Badiou’s philosophy, specifically through his banishment of the One. And yet, despite his best efforts to seal his system against theology, it has an uncanny knack of returning. I am particularly interested in the way theology has a ghostly presence in what appears for all the world like a fifth ‘procedure of truth’ (alongside the four pillars of art, science, politics and love), in his enthusiastic affirmations of Pascal and Kierkegaard, and the play between fable and truth in his engagement with the apostle Paul. (shrink)

The conceptualization of human agency is one of the oldest and most debated challenges in political theory. This essay defends the continuous relevance of this endeavour against a proliferating theoretical pessimism. Instead of engaging the much rehearsed structure-agency debate, the author conceptualizes agency in relation to discourses. However, such an approach inevitably elicits suspicion. Is discourse not merely a faddish term, destined to wax and wane with fleeting intellectual trends of the postmodern and poststructural kind? Does the concept of discourse, (...) as many fear, suck us into a nihilistic vortex and deprive us of the stable foundations that are necessary to ground our thoughts and actions? Not so, argues this essay, and defends an anti-essentialist stance as the most viable chance for retaining an adequate understanding of how people situate themselves as agents and influence their socio-political environment. The ensuing analysis, which focuses on everyday forms of resistance, demonstrates how the very acceptance of ambiguity, often misrepresented as relativism, is a crucial precondition not only for the conceptualization of human agency, but also for its actual application in practice. (shrink)

This article reassesses a rarely noted aspect of the Russian Revolution: the long interaction between Lenin and Anatoly Lunacharsky, the ‘God-builder’. It traces the way Lunacharsky first outlined the God-building position in his Religion and Socialism, a text virtually lost to scholarship and interpretations of the Russian revolution. It explores Lenin's initial condemnation, for political but above all theoretical reasons, only to find him reassessing his whole argument six years later in light of his re-engagement with Hegel in 1914. Seeing (...) that his earlier condemnation no longer held, Lenin's response to Lunacharsky's God-building undergoes a noticeable shift. He now realizes that marginal forms of interaction with religion may sit well with, if not lead to, communism. An examination of Lunacharsky's own perseverance with God-building after he was appointed Commissar for Enlightenment in the new Soviet state, and of Lenin's awareness and tacit allowance for such expressions, indicate a more complex and ambivalent approach to religion on Lenin's part. (shrink)

This article reassesses a rarely noted aspect of the Russian Revolution: the long interaction between Lenin and Anatoly Lunacharsky, the ‘God-builder’. It traces the way Lunacharsky first outlined the God-building position in his Religion and Socialism, a text virtually lost to scholarship and interpretations of the Russian revolution. It explores Lenin's initial condemnation, for political but above all theoretical reasons, only to find him reassessing his whole argument six years later in light of his re-engagement with Hegel in 1914. Seeing (...) that his earlier condemnation no longer held, Lenin's response to Lunacharsky's God-building undergoes a noticeable shift. He now realizes that marginal forms of interaction with religion may sit well with, if not lead to, communism. An examination of Lunacharsky's own perseverance with God-building after he was appointed Commissar for Enlightenment in the new Soviet state, and of Lenin's awareness and tacit allowance for such expressions, indicate a more complex and ambivalent approach to religion on Lenin's part. (shrink)

The complex intersections between socialism and capitalism in China have vexed more than one interpreter. For some, socialism in China since Mao has simply become an empty veneer over rampant and unbridled capitalism.1 For others, the capitalism in China is of such a different variety that it is hardly capitalism at all.2 And for others, “socialism with Chinese characteristics” is a prolonged experiment in the New Economic Program, first attempted in the USSR of the 1920s to rebuild a shattered economy.3 (...) We would like to take a different approach, deploying the dialectic of utopia and dystopia as our interpretive frame. This requires an outline of how such a dialectic works, with references to the proposals of.. (shrink)

Report on the workshop "Empirical Methods of Linguistics in Philosophy", which took place at TU Dortmund University, Germany, on March 13–14, 2014.

What a sublime and, at the same time, sordid vocation this theological discipline has. My major concern is an unfamiliar Antonio Negri, one who engages in some biblical criticism in his recently translated The Labor of Job (2009), a detailed philosophical exegesis of the “marvelous” biblical book of Job.1 Two features of Negri’s analysis stand out: the oppositions of kairós and ákairos, and measure and immeasure. However, before I explore those oppositions in some detail, two preliminary comments are needed. At (...) the heart of the book is what I would like to call a radical homiletics. A discipline much neglected these days, homiletics is really the art of connecting a text like the Bible with the realities .. (shrink)

Wir haben die Covid-19 Pandemie nicht nur als eine medizinische Krise erlebt, sondern auch als eine Krise der Freiheit. Die Maßnahmen zur Eindämmung des Corona-Virus waren Ergebnisse politischer Abwägungen, in denen auch Grundfreiheiten zur Disposition standen. Die Pandemie und die auf sie reagierenden politischen Strategien der Gegenwehr haben auf eine ungewohnte Weise in unser Erleben von Räumen individueller und interpersonaler Freiheit eingewirkt. Der Beitrag geht der Frage nach, wie die Strategien zur Bewältigung der Pandemie politisch vermittelt wurden, welche Wahrnehmungen sie (...) hervorriefen und was sich an ihnen über die globale Krise des Liberalismus und ein global sich wandelndes Verständnis von Governance ablesen lässt. (shrink)

Byzantium and Modernism -- The Slash (/) as Method -- CODA.

Canʹt touch this -- How sight is not touch -- The medium of sight -- The problem of tactility -- The commonalities of the senses -- Photios and the unfolding of perception -- Has the mind seen?: the language of effluxes -- Has it grasped?: apprehending the object -- Has it visualized?, I: the grasp of the imagination -- Has it visualized?, II: the problem of fantasy -- Then it has effortlessly...: judgment and assent -- Mediation, veneration, remediation -- Medium (...) and mediation -- Tactility and veneration -- Synaesthesia and remediation -- Tempted to touch. (shrink)

The legal regime of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is differentiated in two ways. While the rules on economic union apply with few exceptions to all member states, most Treaty provisions on monetary union are applicable only to those member states that have introduced the common currency. The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) establishes a system of overlapping competences consisting primarily of measures adopted by the member states. During the initial phase of the European Economic (...) Community (EEC), exchange‐rate fluctuations or flexible exchange rates obstructed the development of a workable capital market. The Treaty of Lisbon provides that the European Union is to establish a monetary union whose currency is the euro. The TFEU provides for institutional and procedural mechanisms aimed at protecting the stability of the common currency. The euro has become a stable and internationally recognized currency. (shrink)