Search Results (37)

Processing ancient text images presents significant challenges due to severe visual degradation, missing glyph structures, and various types of noise caused by aging. These issues are particularly prominent in Chinese historical documents and stone inscriptions, where diverse writing styles, multi-angle capturing, uneven lighting, and low contrast further hinder the performance of traditional OCR techniques. In this paper, we propose a unified neural framework, UniText, for the detection, recognition, and glyph restoration of Chinese characters in images of historical documents and inscriptions. UniText operates at the character level and processes full-page inputs, making it robust to multi-scale, multi-oriented, and noise-corrupted text. The model adopts a multi-task architecture that integrates spatial localization, semantic recognition, and visual restoration through stroke-aware supervision and multi-scale feature aggregation. Experimental results on our curated dataset of ancient Chinese texts demonstrate that UniText achieves a competitive performance in detection and recognition while producing visually faithful restorations under challenging conditions. This work provides a technically scalable and generalizable framework for image-based document analysis, with potential applications in historical document processing, digital archiving, and broader tasks in text image understanding. Full article

This article offers a critical analysis of two ‘replicas’ of monuments destroyed by ISIL in 2015: the Institute for Digital Archaeology’s Arch of Palmyra (2016) and the lamassu from Nimrud, exhibited in the Rinascere dalle Distruzioni exhibition (2016). Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s formulation of hauntology and Umberto Eco’s theory of forgery, this study examines the ontological, ethical, and ideological stakes of digitally mediated replication. Rather than treating digital and physical ‘copies’ as straightforward reproductions of ancient ‘originals’, the essay reframes them as specters: material re-appearances haunted by loss, technological mediation, and political discourses. Through a close analysis of production methods, rhetorical framings, media coverage, and public reception, it argues that presenting such ‘replicas’ as faithful restorations or acts of cultural resurrection collapses a hauntological relationship into a false ontology. The article thus shows how, by concealing the intermediary, spectral role of digital modeling, such framings enable the symbolic use of these ‘replicas’ as instruments of Western technological triumphalism and digital colonialism. This research calls for a critical approach that recognizes the ontological peculiarities of such replicas, foregrounds their reliance on interpretive rather than purely mechanical processes, and acknowledges the ideological weight they carry. Full article

The concept of hope has varied in meaning from ancient Greece to the present day. Often understood as an expectation or an illusion, hope seems to greatly determine the way human beings live and think about their existence. It is precisely in this context that the questioning of the Christian faith and particularly eschatology arises. The aim of this article is to analyse the concept of Hope, distinguishing it from concepts such as expectations and hopes, and placing it in the sphere of Christian life and theology. In this context, realities such as immortality, eternity, and death will be explored in order to understand if there is room for a Hope that goes beyond empirical certainty or capricious and illusory desire. Full article

Can we think of the legendary Wandering Jew as a monster? The figure does not easily fit the common definition of a monster and yet, the Wandering Jew is extraordinary. In the medieval and early modern sources of the legend, the Wandering Jew, who once sinned against Christ and is therefore doomed to be an immortal eyewitness to the Passion, serves as a model for the faithful. In his 1796 gothic novel, The Monk, Matthew Lewis creates a new strand of the Wandering Jew tradition, a gothic Wandering Jew, a being transformed from wonder to horror through association with centuries of antisemitic accusations against Jews as agents of conspiracy, ritual murder, nefarious magic, and disease. This essay argues that a variation on the representation of the gothic Wandering Jew, which began with Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, further adapts the legend to make the Wanderer not a sign of redemption, but the monstrous cause of catastrophe not only for himself, but for those he encounters. This article, the first scholarly examination of John Blackburn’s 1972 Wandering Jew novel, Devil Daddy, situates it within the strand of the legend that represents the Wandering Jew as a monstrous source of destruction. Blackburn’s novel, written during a time of global concern over the development of biological weapons of mass destruction, portrays the Wandering Jew’s curse as a source of manmade global environmental catastrophe. In this way, the sin of the monstrous Wandering Jew becomes one not against Christ, but against humankind. Even as Devil Daddy explicitly references the horrors of the Holocaust, this representation of a monstrous Wandering Jew haunts the text, undermining its sympathetic representation of Jewish suffering. Full article

In recent years, religious activities have been employed to promote community industrial transformation and territorial revitalisation in fortified settlements along the southeast coast of China. This paper adopted a qualitative approach to study the community of Pujing, an ancient acropolis in Quanzhou, with the aim of analysing how community capital constructed through faith promotes community resilience. The findings of the study are as follows: (1) Pujing is a community system and organisation built upon religious beliefs; (2) the community utilises religious beliefs to construct a community network platform to promote community capital building and industrial transformation; and (3) religious activities are an integral part of daily life in the community, serving as a form of community capital. This paper argues that the Pujing community promotes community capital building by enhancing community cohesion and participation through religious activities. Ultimately, this fosters the ‘spiralling-up’ of community resilience. Full article

In his many homilies, Gregory of Nyssa contrasts Christian belief to earlier forms of belief that were still very present in the Roman empire during the fourth century, namely the classical polytheistic faith and Judaism, with the explicit intention of showing its superiority over them. Even though Gregory is clearly against any belief that is not Christian orthodoxy, he presents these other beliefs from two different perspectives: at times, he presents them as the enemies of Christianity, showing clearly how they seek to harm the true faith; at other times, he also seeks to show how, in a way, they are of benefit to Christianity because their very presence and the behaviour of their followers help to show how much the Christian way of life outshines any other. This discussion on other faiths in relation to Christian belief is present in many contexts; however, attacks on paganism are more evident in the sermons in honour of martyrs, while invectives addressed to Jews are present mainly in his sermons on biblical books. In this paper, an attempt will be made to present in detail what Gregory has to say about these other faiths and their relation to Christianity (desired and factual), concluding with how his attitude towards other faiths can be classified and described. Full article

Genesis 3:16b has traditionally been interpreted as proof of woman’s inferiority, her nefarious powers of seduction, and as a license for men to rule and master her. Such an interpretation seems to have a much greater affinity with the Hellenistic context from which it arose than with its immediate Hebraic and Ancient Near Eastern context. If we are to remain faithful to this context—where woman was held in high esteem—we need more than ever to approach Genesis 3:16b with a lens that does not do violence to the woman. This article seeks to offer a new exegetical lens on Genesis 3:16b, as a redemptive rather than a punitive moment. This will entail that the two key concepts “rule” (mashal) and “loving intention” (teshuqah) be re-interpreted, in the light of its Ancient Near Eastern context, as containing vestiges of the sacred marriage trope figuring in Sumerian cultic texts, notably the Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi. The parallels between our story and the Courtship will reveal some stunning parallels, enabling us to illuminate a radically new understanding of Genesis 3:16b as a sacred marriage scene, with the woman enabling the uplifting of man, inaugurating his reign as the king of the land, rather than finding herself dominated by him and a victim of his power over her. Full article

In the early Qing dynasty, the Jesuit missionary Louis de Poirot’s (He Qingtai 賀清泰, 1735–1814) Chinese rendition of the Bible, Guxin Shengjing (The Ancient and New Testament) (古新聖經), reshaped the figure of Abraham. Contrary to the depiction by Chinese Jews of the era, de Poirot portrayed Abraham as a sage, resonating with the traditional Chinese concept of the “five cardinal relationships” (rulers to subjects, fathers to sons, husbands to wives, among siblings, and between friends), and an exemplar of virtue and faith, devoid of human flaws. Key differences emerged in translating Abraham’s name, religious stature, and national identity, influenced by distinct belief systems, attitudes towards Confucian culture, and political dynamics. Analyzing these Catholic and Jewish perspectives on Abraham enhances our understanding of the Bible’s contextualization and informs contemporary religious localization. Full article

Krister Stendahl’s article, “The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West”, argues that Paul has a “robust conscience” both before and after his conversion. Martin Luther misinterprets this as a “plagued conscience” in accordance with his own religious experience, and this misinterpretation can be traced back even to Augustine. This paper examines the context for the ancient Greek and Hellenistic theory of conscience, in order to understand Augustine’s transformation of Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith and the consequent discovery of the concept of introspective conscience in Western intellectual history. This paper also clarifies aspects of Augustine’s “plagued conscience”, which it analyses across two stages: the first after the descent of grace but before the conversion of a believer, and the second after conversion. In the first stage, Augustine implies a continuous spiritual conflict between good will and evil will within the inner self; however, in the second stage, the inner self experiences a deeper spiritual struggle, owing to its certainty of God’s predestined plan alongside its uncertainty over personal salvation. The concept of introspective conscience has shaped the deep consciousness of sin for many Western Christians. This paper compares Pauline and Augustinian conscience with the same concept in the Confucian author Mencius. For Mencius, conscience is self-sufficient even in the earliest stages of its development and does not require the support of God’s grace or the power of Heaven. The constant expansion of Mencius’s operative conscience is sufficient for self-cultivation and the correction of the distorted world. Full article

Music is an essential part of human life, but it is also integral to the experience of faith. From its beginnings, music has been associated with religious expression and worship. One of the oldest Christian hymns is the hymn “Gloria in excelsis Deo”-“Glory to God in the highest”, which was originally a component of morning and evening prayer. Later, it became part of the Holy Mass and is still sung during the celebration of the Eucharist on Sundays and feast days. The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive view of this precious hymn in terms of its historical use. The study pays special attention to the sources of the text of this ancient hymn. A theological analysis of the text is also an indispensable prerequisite for a deeper understanding. Finally, the study offers up-to-date guidelines for the hymn’s use today. Full article

Religious tourism is a significant and growing field of tourism that overlaps with cultural tourism. It has the potential to improve the quality of life of those who live in places of faith or along routes of spiritual interest. Religious tourism involves a complex interplay of spiritual and economic motivations. Effective religious tourism management requires respect for spiritual values, partnerships, local engagement, and quality assessment. Devotional practices have evolved from medieval spiritual care to communal expressions and periodic rituals. This paper specifically analysed the characteristics of the Marian cult and pilgrimage flows to places of Marian faith. It examined their value potential from a religious and cultural perspective and their role as a particular attractor of experiential and quality tourism generated by the territorial context. The area of reference is the region of Puglia, which has often played the role of cultural bridge with the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean in the past. The second part of the paper focuses on the proposed itinerary along the Appian Way in its final route between Puglia and Basilicata. Marian shrines were sometimes the cause and sometimes the evidence of the cultural and economic poles that characterised the medieval and modern variants of this ancient road route. The study outlines a serial path that integrates the usual settlement or infrastructural levels of territorial knowledge with the Marian theme, which was analysed diachronically. An operational track in the contemporary territorial dimension emerged from the correlation of both the stratigraphic reading of the landscape and the interpretation of material and immaterial cultural heritage. This track aims to aggregate and promote the sustainable rediscovery of those places, which are largely cut off from the routes of mass tourism, in adherence to the most recent European and local cultural and landscape guidelines. Full article

All biblical scholars are committed to the interpretation of ancient written texts, but Biblical Performance Criticism (BPC) reminds interpreters that performance helps us better understand Scripture. A distinct difference between Narrative Criticism and Performance Criticism is the broader application of Performance Criticism to poetic and prose texts that are not grounded in narrative. The ambiguity of prose and poetry that does not readily identify speakers is open to a range of performative interpretations. Furthermore, audiences are necessary for performance and contribute to meaning-making. The embodied experience of performers and audience alike contribute to the interpretation of biblical texts. This article reflects on a performance of Ecclesiastes translated as a script of a television talk show, claiming that embodying and performing Scripture is itself a method for interpretation. Through the performance of Scripture, we are reminded that interpretation is shared and dynamic within the community of faith. Full article

Liturgical practice and its theological interpretation are not only very important to the Chinese inculturation of Catholicism in particular and Christianity in general but also of great significance in the establishment of an indigenized Christian faith and system of life. This paper will analyze the methodological approaches and historical inspirations for the inculturation of Christian liturgical theology through Giulio Aleni’s (1582–1649) Explication of the Mass (Misa Jiyi, 弥撒祭义), the first book to utilize Chinese cultural resources to systematically interpret the Mass (Eucharist). Continuing the general Jesuit accommodation initiated by Matteo Ricci, Aleni established an indigenized liturgical system of theology through intercultural learning, borrowing, and creative construction. Three of his contributions especially stand out. First, Aleni explained the significance of the Mass in terms of the Chinese philosophical–ethical concepts of “repaying the roots” (baoben, 报本) and “giving thanks” (gan’en, 感恩). Second, he elaborated on communion with the Trinitarian God in the Mass through Jesus Christ by drawing on the ancient Chinese teachings of repaying (chou, 酬), commemoration (shi, 示), and hope (wang, 望), which Aleni related to “giving thanks to the Father,” “commemorating Jesus,” and “invoking the Holy Spirit.” Finally, he provided a deep spiritual explanation of the Mass, using the traditional Confucian concepts of “self-restraint” (keji, 克己), “self-reflection” (fanji, 反己), and “spiritual meditation” (chouyi, 抽绎) to help believers understand the activities of repentance, commemoration, and prayer in the Mass. Overall, Aleni emphasized that the essence of the Mass was to achieve “communion with the heart of heavenly Lord” (xihe tianzhuzhixin, 翕合天主之心), which, as a pivot of faith, could be extended into daily life through its spiritual practice. Aleni, therefore, established a comprehensive system of “liturgy-spirituality-life” for Chinese Christians by indigenizing Christian liturgical theology through intercultural learning. His creative synthesis yielded a dynamic balance between Christian and Chinese traditions, absorbing Confucian resources to imaginatively enrich and expand the Christian tradition, while encouraging the creative transformation of the Christian tradition into the Chinese cultural community. Full article

Philosophies in the East and West have favored wisdom in their search for truths. The Chinese civilization has sought holistic wisdom in its long history of absorbing the Abrahamic faiths since the seventh century. This paper aims to investigate how the Abrahamic faiths have interacted with ancient Chinese culture. In particular, this paper will examine the earliest written records in Chinese of the Luminous Religion (or Jingjiao), the earliest Jews in Kaifeng, and the earliest Muslims in China. By analyzing their theology of creation with reference to the Holy Spirit and qi (wind/breath/pneuma), this paper attempts a constructive Chinese natural theology based on a sympathetic and critical assessment of Alister McGrath’s natural theology but makes up for his spirit deficit. This paper argues that the holistic wisdom achieved in the early integration process of the Abrahamic faiths with the Chinese culture is closely intertwined with the Spirit and qi, which provides a fruitful ground to construct a Chinese natural theology. The contribution of this paper lies in its original research into the earliest written records of the three Abrahamic faiths in China from the perspective of the doctrine of creation and its relationship with the Spirit and qi. Full article

This paper traces the complex relationship between classical literature and Christian doctrine in the first four centuries. In the earliest period of Christianity, we can identify two attitudes of Christians towards Greek literature: the hostile attitude shown by Tatian, Theophilus, and Tertullian, and the openness to Greek culture and philosophy demonstrated by Justin the Martyr, Athenagoras of Athens, and Minucius Felix. A notable change happened in the Alexandrian milieu when Clement of Alexandria and Origen started considering Greek classics the embodiment of an authentic Christian spirit. In keeping with Origen, Basil of Caesarea realized a good synthesis between Greek thought and Christian faith. Noting germs of divine revelation in ancient Greek thought, Christian authors took the tools of Greco-Roman criticism and ancient philosophy to develop their doctrine. Full article