Recently in Religion Category
The treasured Codex Sinaiticus, dating from the latter half of the fourth century AD, containing much of the Greek New Testament and the Septuagint (Hebrew Scriptures in Greek) is now available online. Discovered at the Monastery of St. Catherine at Sinai in the nineteenth century by German theologian Konstantin von Tischendorf, this is one of three remaining, relatively intact, manuscripts from this period, the other two being the Codex Alexandrianus and Codex Vaticanus.
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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The following survey articles come from Blackwell Compass, which describes itself as "a suite of state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed survey articles across entire disciplines. Disciplines currently covered are Geography, History, Literature, Philosophy, and Religion." Good place to go to catch up on recent advances in the literature of a topic.
Women's Experiences of Hindu Traditions: A State of the Field Review
Static models of Hindu women as marginalized and muted subjects have in recent years been enlivened by a body of work that investigates the ways in which women both subtly and overtly resist, contest, and re-imagine these roles.
Psychological Similarities Between Men and Women Across Cultures
In this paper, I review a body of cross-cultural evidence showing that it is precisely in these Western countries that women and men differ the most in terms of personality, self-construal, values, or emotions. Much less-pronounced gender differences are observed, if at all, in Asian and African countries.
Contemporary British-Jewish Writing: From Apology to Attitude
This article surveys contemporary British-Jewish writing. It looks at a variety of texts to argue that British-Jewish writing is gaining a new visibility, momentum and confidence.
Teaching and Learning Guide for: Racial Residential Segregation in Urban America
We present an overview of research about racial residential segregation. The first part of the article reviews major debates and findings drawn primarily from the sociological literature. The second part of the article identifies new areas of research that in some cases cross into other disciplines such as geography and urban studies.
Personality in Non-Human Animals
The wave of new studies is shedding fresh light on traditional issues in personality research (How do early experiences affect adult personality?), raising novel questions (What are the evolutionary origins of personality traits?) and addressing practical problems (Which dogs are best suited to detecting explosives?).
Causal Theories of Mental Content
Causal theories of mental content (CTs) ground certain aspects of a concept's meaning in the causal relations a concept bears to what it represents.
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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Yesterday I heard that the Olympic "torch relay" that's so much in the news was initiated by the Nazis for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Here's a brief description from a private web site calling itself the Olympic Games Museum. Pretty disturbing, though perhaps not surprising, for the Olympic Committee and advertisers to follow on a tradition started by the Nazis. After all, it's all about propaganda.
Here are some books on the Nazi Olympics and some other books about the Olympics and politics. There's also a film in the list that looks good (click on the URL to go to the film record in the library's catalog).
Also look here: Beware of Greeks Bearing Placards.
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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Two philosophy professors at Stanford, Ken Taylor and John Perry, have been hosting a radio show on philosophy since 2004 called Philosophy Talk. They claim to "[question] everything...except your intelligence". They address traditional philosophical topics like truth, beauty, Hegel, and skepticism, as well as broader topics like dreaming, separation of powers, and war crimes. Their aim is to offer philosophy that the educated layperson can understand and enjoy.
The Philosophy Talk Web site includes a listing of the radio stations that air the program, links to previous shows that you can listen to online for free, as well as a blog and information on upcoming shows. To download the shows in MP3 format you've got to pay (no one ever said philosophy came cheap) however.
So give it a shot, philosophize!
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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ARTstor has made some nice, brief interdisciplinary guides available on its web site. ARTstor is a huge database of high resolution images of major art collections from around the world.
Here are some links to the PDF's of the guides:
Classical Studies // Middle Eastern Studies // Religious Studies // Women's Studies
Take a look to see how ARTstor can illuminate your research and scholarship!
American catholicism's science crisis and the Albertus Magnus Guild, 1953-1969
"During the middle decades of the twentieth century, American Catholic scientists experienced a sense of crisis owing to the paucity of scientific research performed either by individual Catholics or in Catholic institutions of higher learning."
Walking with Odysseus: The portico frame of the Odyssey Landscapes
"The painted portico thus puts the viewers in the proper frame of mind to appreciate the intellectual associations of the painting as they walk with Odysseus on a parallel journey of philosophical reflection."
Juno, Hercules, and the Muses at Rome (This study has to do with the divine patrons of music as a public activity at Rome)
"The Aedes Herculis Musarum (AHM), embodying musical harmony, was a symbolic focal point for political concordia at Rome. The treatment of its cult honorands in high poetry also embraces Juno Regina, whose contemporary temple was adjacent to the AHM."
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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History Compass Podcasts has an interesting interview with the Paul Turnbull, author of the survey article British Anatomists, Phrenologists, and the Construction of the Aboriginal Race, c.1790-1830. He discusses how Australian colonizers frequently sent severed heads and body parts of Aborigines killed back to Britain for study. The author began this study when he learned how vast the collection of Aboriginal body parts had been.
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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We just seven new online religion encyclopedias from the online platform Gale Virtual Reference Library, which has dozens of encyclopedias in many different categories. Below are links to the new encyclopedias.
Encyclopedia of Judaism
four volume encyclopedia from Brill Academic Publishers
Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an
multivolume from Brill Academic Publishers
Brill Dictionary of Religion
four volumes from Brill Academic Publishers
Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism
two volumes from Brill Academic Publishers
Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations
one volume from Cambridge University Press
Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America
three volumes from Indiana University Press
Illustrated Encyclopedia of Confucianism
two volumes from Rosen Publishing
The letter below was sent from TU President Hart last Friday. There will be a Town Hall Meeting entitled Confronting Anti-Semitism at Temple University on Thursday, 2/28, at 8 PM in SAC 223.
Here are a bunch of articles on anti-Semitism from Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Letter from President Ann Weaver Hart:
"I am very sad to be sending you this message. According to reports, early on the morning of Friday, Feb. 15, a non-Temple student was assaulted on North Broad St. on Temple University's Main Campus. The assault included anti-Semitic language and the student was seriously injured. The alleged assailants are all Temple students.
The case was investigated by Temple University Campus Safety Services and referred to the University Disciplinary Committee (UDC). The Temple students involved in the incident have been suspended, pending the outcome of a UDC hearing. Temple University police in collaboration with the Philadelphia Police Department are actively pursuing criminal charges through the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office. We are taking this situation very seriously and will be developing programs for students and the broader university community to address issues of tolerance and civility on our campuses.
Temple's core values are reflected in our Student Code of Conduct, which states that the University is “dedicated to promoting the physical and mental health and the safety and welfare of each member of the community," and to respecting the rights of others. Because we treasure the extraordinary diversity of our community of learning, we stand united against any action that threatens that community or the welfare of our students, employees or visitors.
Hate crimes will not be tolerated by Temple University. All manifestations of intolerance threaten the fabric of our institution and our society. Indeed, hatred violates the core values upon which this university was founded — values that are cherished by all of us in the extended Temple family.
Sincerely,
Ann Weaver Hart"
Americans Change Faiths at Rising Rate, Report Finds
An article from the NYT explains that "more than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion..." This is one finding from The US Religious Landscape Survey, published by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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Here are some recent survey articles from Blackwell Compass, which give broad overviews of current scholarship on topics of interest. Good place to start research or catch up after a time away. Blackwell Compass is composed of eight different individual Compass journals: History, Geography, Literature, Language and Linguisitics, Philosophy, Religion, Sociology, and Social and Personality Psychology.
Kabbalah: A Medieval Tradition and Its Modern Appeal
"Although scholarship on kabbalah has flourished in the twentieth century, kabbalah has become a variant of New-Age religions, accessible to all, regardless of ethnic identity or spiritual readiness."
Indian Buddhist Preachers Inside and Outside the Sutras
"This article explores a few portraits of preachers painted in the Buddhist sūtra corpus, and attempts to draw provisional conclusions regarding the impact of such portraits on Buddhist preachers’ own conceptions of doctrinal authority."
The Neglected Social Psychology of Institutional Racism
"These issues can be illuminated by critically reviewing how theories of institutional racism and institutionalized discrimination handle issues of social psychology. Issues of social psychology are often treated only minimally or implicitly, and often dismissively."
Understanding Contemporary Millenarian Violence
"...focusing on the key recurring characteristics and dynamics that have been highlighted by commentators as playing a significant role in both predisposing millenarian groups to volatility/violence..."
Views of Jihad Throughout History
"The essay traces the transformations in the meanings of jihad – and the related concepts of martyr and martyrdom – from the earliest period of Islam through the late medieval period and down to our present time."
How to Use Modern Critical Editions of Medieval Latin Texts
"To use these editions effectively, we must be aware of the theories, assumptions, and conventions that underlie them."
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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Temple's Faculty Herald, the publication of the Faculty Senate, recently had four editorials on the missed opportunity for an endowed chair in Islamic Studies at Temple University, offered by the International Institute for Islamic Thought. Links provided below.
From the President of TAUP (Arthur Hochner)
From the Editor (Lewis Gordon)
An Open Letter to President Hart (Gregory Urwin)
Holding on to Our Principles (Maurice Wright)
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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On February 4, 2008 Associate Professor of Religion Laura Levitt stopped by Paley Library to talk about her new book American Jewish Loss After the Holocaust, published by New York University Press. Below is a link to the MP3 file of the interview. Her book deals with the normal everyday losses that American Jews experience and tries to situate these in the larger context of American Jewish community life and the "grand narrative" of the Holocaust which tends to overshadow so much. During the course of American Jewish Loss After the Holocaust Levitt analyzes and meditates on selected poems, photographs, and films, as well as tells personal family stories. The interview gives a nice sense of Levitt's new work and her interests. It runs about twenty-one minutes. Have a listen.
Laura Levitt on American Jewish Loss After the Holocaust (MP3)(February 4, 2008)
Here are some recent survey articles from Blackwell Compass, which give broad overviews of current scholarship on topics of interest. Good place to start research or catch up after a time away. Blackwell Compass is composed of eight different individual Compass journals: History, Geography, Literature, Language and Linguisitics, Philosophy, Religion, Sociology, and Social and Personality Psychology.
The Case of the Etymologies in Plato's Cratylus
"The Cratylus contains Plato's most extensive study of the relation of language to reality and to the pursuit of wisdom."
Race, Colorblindness, and Continental Philosophy
"...I will argue that race has a social reality that makes the practice of colorblindness, at least for the time being, politically untenable, and it may remain suspect even as a long-term goal."
Major Topics of the Hadith
"Despite the significance of this literature, its contents remain largely inaccessible to non-Arabic readers, in part due to many Western scholars’ preoccupation with the question of its authenticity rather than the function of hadith in Islamic thought."
Russian and the Origins of Twentieth-century Antisemistism
"The role played by the Tsarist Empire – darkest, backward Russia – has frequently been overlooked or underplayed. Until the past decade or so, antisemitism in the dying days of Tsarism was often characterised as little different from its medieval predecessor."
Social Ethic of Religiously Unaffiliated Spirituality
"Claims that non-institutional, non-dogmatic forms of religiosity promote narcissism and social alienation are scattered throughout the social scientific literature."
Outlines of a Critical Sociology of Consumption: Beyond Moralism and Celebration
"The ‘new’ sociology of consumption that emerged in the 1980s acknowledged that consumption is a significant cultural and social practice and not just a mere signifier of the pathological elements of contemporary societies."
‘Have You Seen Any Good Films Lately?’ Geopolitics, International Relations and Film
"...thereafter, it considers the interrelationship between Hollywood, the Bush administration and the post-9/11 era in an attempt to better understand some of the contours of the military-industrial-media-entertainment complex.
Using Conversation Analysis in Feminist and Critical Research
"Conversation analysis – the study of talk-in-interaction – is proving a valuable tool for politically engaged inquiry and social critique."
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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Recent Temple PhD and now university press author Marie Dallam will speak at the Free Library on her book: Daddy Grace: A Celebrity Preacher and his House of Prayer on Tuesday, February 19 at 7:00 PM.
"Marie Dallam | Daddy Grace: A Celebrity Preacher and His House of Prayer (A)
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 7:00PM
Central Library
Cost: FREE
No tickets required. For Info: 215-567-4341.
Charles Manuel “Sweet Daddy” Grace founded the United House of Prayer for All People in 1919. This charismatic church has been regarded as one of the most extreme Pentecostal sects in the country, and—long after Grace’s death in 1960—continues to thrive with membership in the tens of thousands. Author Marie Dallam, a religion instructor at Temple University, offers both a religious history of the House of Prayer as an institution and an intellectual history of its colorful and enigmatic founder."
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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Just heard some very good things about the play Wittenberg at the Arden Theatre playing through March 16.
It features Dr. Faustus, Martin Luther, and Hamlet in October 1517, sort of a romp through the Protestant Reformation, evidently.
"Finally – a decent Protestant Reformation comedy! [David] Davalos' wordplay, plus his riffs on religion vs. philosophy, made me hanker for a script. The dialogue sometimes flies by, given director J. R. Sullivan's effective lickety-split pacing in several scenes, and it's obvious that Wittenberg would be as much fun to read as this production is to see." –Philadelphia Inquirer [Read review]
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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The Pre-Modern Studies Colloquium at Temple just released its new web site:
http://www.temple.edu/humanities/premodern/.
"We hope that this website can serve as a useful addition to the growing interest and resources in Premodern studies at Temple University. Like the appearance of the grail to the fellowship of King Arthur's Round Table (pictured to the left), a website can serve to instruct, guide, direct, and, most importantly, inspire, the study of premodernity from an interdisciplinary perspective."
Participating departments include Art History, Classics, Philosophy, and Religion. Check it out.
Also have a look at this, The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, included in Oxford Reference Online.
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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An interesting article in NYT Science on pre-Zeus worship site on Mount Lykaion in Greece:
An Altar Beyond Olympus for a Deity Predating Zeus.
Here's a book from the library's collection on pre-Hellenic Greek myths:
Lost goddesses of early Greece : a collection of pre-Hellenic myths / Charlene Spretnak.
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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You might find some of these recent literature reviews interesting. I get them through an RSS Feed. Let me know if you'd like me to help you set one up.
Reflections on the field: Primatology, popular science and the politics of personhood
Full Names: Rees, Amanda
SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE 37 (6): 881-907 DEC 2007
The gospel of science and American evangelism in late Ottoman Beirut
Elshakry, Marwa
PAST & PRESENT (196): 173-214 AUG 2007
Meta-scientific eliminativism: A reconsideration of Chomsky's review of Skinner's verbal behavior
Collins, John
BRITISH JOURNAL FOR THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 58 (4): 625-658 DEC 2007
Rock on art: petroglyph sites in the United Arab Emirates
Ziolkowski, Michele C.
ARABIAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND EPIGRAPHY 18 (2): 208-238 NOV 2007
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Subject Guides
Classics // Islamic Studies // Jewish Studies // Philosophy // Religion
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