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20 pages, 306 KB

Open AccessArticle

Makhloket: Anti-Polemics

by Elad Lapidot

Religions 2025, 16(11), 1422; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16111422 - 7 Nov 2025

Viewed by 738

This article explores the concept of makhloket (dispute, disagreement) as a foundational principle of rabbinic discourse, contrasting it with Western philosophical and political notions of conflict. Beginning with Mishnah Avot 5:17, which distinguishes between disputes “for the sake of heaven” (exemplified by Hillel and Shammai) and those that are not (exemplified by Korah), the essay argues that makhloket is not simply about contesting authority but about constituting a mode of discourse. To situate this, the article engages Heraclitus’s fragment on polemos as the “father of all things,” and traces its divergent readings in Heidegger and Schmitt, who grounded politics in existential struggle. Drawing on Gregory Fried’s analysis, the essay shows how Heidegger oscillated between interpreting polemos as Kampf (struggle for domination) and Auseinandersetzung (productive confrontation), thereby staging a conflict about conflict itself. The rabbinic model of makhloket is then read as an alternative to these traditions: not a war of logoi for supremacy, nor a negation of conflict in the name of unity, but a discourse generated through disagreement. By juxtaposing Talmudic and philosophical notions of conflict, the essay argues that rabbinic makhloket constitutes a polemical poetics that endures by refusing closure, offering a distinct vision of reason, tradition, and political thought. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rabbinic Thought between Philosophy and Literature)

20 pages, 349 KB

Open AccessArticle

The First World War and Ford Madox Ford’s Short Stories, 1914–1920

by Andrew Frayn

Humanities 2024, 13(3), 86; https://doi.org/10.3390/h13030086 - 4 Jun 2024

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4646

Abstract

This article analyses together, for the first time, Ford Madox Ford’s short stories about the First World War. A surprisingly unfamiliar form for Ford, who valued allusion, subtlety, and omission as narrative devices, we see in these stories his first attempts to parse his experience of wartime and, subsequently, military service. It is also an aspect of Ford’s writing which has received little previous critical comment. The wartime and post-war short stories are approached chronologically: ‘The Scaremonger: A Tale of the War Times’ (1914), ‘Fun!—It’s Heaven’ (1915), ‘Pink Flannel’ (1919), ‘The Colonel’s Shoes’ (1920), ‘Enigma’ ([1920–1922] 1999), and ‘The Miracle’ (1928). The contemporary debates in which Ford intervened are highlighted by returning to their original periodical publications, and extensive reference to a range of his non-fictional periodical contributions establishes new connections among his wartime writing. Here I bring together for the first time these short stories, arguing that Ford’s refracting of the war through the lens of his impressionism is distinctive as an early response to war, trauma, and neurosis and is vital to the genesis of his later successes in prose, notably the Parade’s End novel tetralogy (1924–1928). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ford Madox Ford's War Writing)

14 pages, 302 KB

Open AccessArticle

Sage-King Naming Theory: A New Perspective on Understanding Xunzi’s Doctrine of the Rectification of Names

by Yingting Hao

Religions 2024, 15(2), 177; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15020177 - 31 Jan 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4580

Abstract

By focusing on Xunzi’s concept of the sage-king and the sage-king naming theory, a new interpretive perspective can be applied to Xunzi’s doctrine of the rectification of names. During the Warring States period, mainstream views among Confucian and Daoist scholars tended to interpret the sage-king as the bearer of Heaven or Dao. However, Xunzi follows the principle of the division between Heaven and humanity, asserting that the sage-king is entirely subordinate to the realm of humans, embodying the ideal order of Confucian community. In light of this concept of the sage-king, this paper aims to address two questions: first, where the legitimacy of the sage-king naming prerogative comes from, and second, how the sage-king, as the master-signifier, quilts all floating signifiers to ensure the publicity and normativity of names. Moral norms emerge from the sage-king’s projection of intentions and emotions onto external objects. Sage-king naming theory provides the prerequisite for the superassertibility of moral norms, limiting the potential arbitrariness and private interpretations of names and norms, which ensures the public and authoritative nature of the social discourse system, thereby endowing the sage-kings with legitimacy. As the quilting point and stopping point, the sage-king performs the totalization and prohibition by means of which the floating names and norms are fixed and become parts of the structured Confucian discourse of meaning. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ethical Concerns in Early Confucianism)

17 pages, 5352 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Edge of Heaven: Revelations 12:7-9 and the Fall of the Rebel Angels in Anglo-Norman Apocalypse Illustration

by Edina Eszenyi

Arts 2022, 11(2), 41; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts11020041 - 4 Mar 2022

Viewed by 9121

Abstract

The article examines the War in Heaven scene depicting the Fall of the Rebel Angels in the 1200s Anglo-Norman group of illustrated Apocalypse manuscripts, key in the development of Apocalypse illustration as far as quality, quantity, and art historical heritage are concerned. The iconography of the crucial War in Heaven scene shows a variety in the manuscript group; the compositions, divided into three well-defined groups at Satan’s pivotal moment of defeat, are depicted in three principal compositional types: one manuscript group focuses on the narrative of the battle, the second fuses the battle and its victorious result, and the third type focuses on the victory itself. The article establishes further subgroups on the basis of compositional similarities, and results occasionally strengthen or weaken existing theories about the traditional grouping of the manuscripts. The highlighted iconographical similarities provide new material for the reconsideration of the manuscripts’ artistic relations and dating. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A 10-Year Journey of Arts)

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18 pages, 339 KB

Open AccessArticle

Go and Sin No More: The Afterlife as Moral Teaching in Italian Catholic Educational Theatre

by Daniela Cavallaro

Religions 2019, 10(9), 517; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10090517 - 6 Sep 2019

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5474

Abstract

Catholic religious orders that have education as part of their mission have often used visions of the afterlife in theatre productions as vehicles to transmit a message of conversion, especially to those who, because of age or illiteracy, would not benefit as much from Scripture readings or complex sermons. In this article, I look at how such visions of the blessed and the damned, of heaven and hell, of angels and demons, were used in educational theatre in Italy by the Jesuits in the 16th century and the Salesian sisters in the 20th century. The historical background for the Jesuit and Salesian plays I analyze also reveals a propagandistic layer of meaning in their representation of the afterworld, as the Jesuits’ tragedies date to the years of the Counter-reformation, while the Salesian sisters’ plays belong to era of the cold war. Thus, the Jesuit and Salesian theatrical depictions of heaven and hell provide insight not only into the religious understanding of the eras, but also into the social and political concerns of the times in which they were composed, as well as the diverse educational messages transmitted to young men and young women. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and Theatrical Drama)

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