ISSN: 1522-5658
The Narcissistic Reader and the Parable of the Good Samaritan
Philippa Carter, McMaster University
[ Abstract ] [ Article ]
Student Loan Discharge: Arguments to Save Donations from the Closing Jaws of Creditors so They Find Their Way into the Open Arms of Charity
Anthony Manhart, University of Illinois College of Law
[ Abstract ] [ Article ]
Christ and the Heavy Metal Subculture: Applying Qualitative Analysis to the Contemporary Debate about H. Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture
Perry L. Glanzer, Baylor University
[ Abstract ] [ Article ]
Religious Studies, Faith, and the Presumption of Naturalism
Gregory W. Dawes, University of Otago, New Zealand
[ Abstract ] [ Article ]
The Prophet Jeremiah, Aung San Suu Kyi, and U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind: On Listening to Bono's Jeremiad
Michael J. Gilmour, Providence College, Canada
[ Abstract ] [ Article ]
The Divine Eye in Ancient Egypt and in the Midrashic Interpretation of Formative Judaism
Rivka B. Kern Ulmer, Bucknell University
[ Abstract ] [ Article ]
Is the Catholic Church Ready for Another Reformation?
Marianne Ferguson, State University College at Buffalo [ Essay ]
Theology, Athletics, and Job Hunting
Davor Peterlin, Zagreb, Croatia [ Essay ]
Outsourcing Jobs and the Catholic Framework for Economic Life
William Raynor, State University of New York at Delhi [ Essay ]
Religion in the American Public Square: An Islamic Perspective
Ismail Royer, Muslim American Society [ Essay ]
Advocating for the Devil: Hearing Al-Qaeda's Case Against the United States
James S. Spiegel, Taylor University [ Essay ]
Awareness, Appropriation, and Loathing in Histories of Comparative Religion: Review and Assessment
Eric Bain-Selbo, Lebanon Valley College [ Review ]
The Shadow of the Shoah: A Review Essay
K. Hannah Holtschneider, Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations, Cambridge, UK [ Review ]
L. Gregory Jones and Stephanie Paulsell (eds.). The Scope of Our Art, The Vocation of the Theological Teacher (LAURA WEBER)
Marcus Tanner. Ireland's Holy Wars: The Struggle for a Nation's Soul, 1500-2000 (KESTUTIS PAULAUSKAS)
Randolph Loney. A Dream of the Tattered Man: Stories from Georgia’s Death Row (JULIA FLEMING)
Julie Hanlon Rubio. A Christian Theology of Marriage and Family (THOMAS M. KELLY)
Gilbert Meilaender. Love Taking Shape, Sermons on the Christian Life (VERN CASWELL)
Don S. Browning. Marriage and Modernization: How Globalization Threatens Marriage and What to Do about It (GAIL RISCH)
Richard C. McCoy. Alterations of State: Sacred Kingship in the English Reformation (JENNIFER WALDRON)
The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most well known stories in the New Testament. The traditional interpretation of this passage found only in Luke (10:25-37), insists that it is an example story that encourages its readers to practice altruism and selfless service on behalf of others. This understanding of the passage prevails despite logical inconsistencies. While some commentators have suggested that the text is better understood as a metaphorical illustration of the Christian understanding of the human situation, their interpretive attempts have made few converts. A literary reading of the passage, focusing on the reader's reception of the text and invoking Kohut's self psychology, explains why the usual interpretation prevails. Kohut's theories concerning narcissism and selfobject needs show that the predominant interpretation of the parable as an example story constitutes a healthy resistance to anxiety about the threat of fragmentation that the metaphorical understanding of the text provokes.
This Article examines one of the intersections of federal law, specifically the Bankruptcy Code, and free expression of religion. After a brief overview of the relevant statutes and case law for tithing or donating debtors, this Article proposes two arguments that will be relevant when a person who tithes or donates faces the difficult situation of bankruptcy. The first is a statutory argument. Although a portion of the recent Religious Freedom Restoration Act has been struck as unconstitutional, the remaining portion of this statute, along with other relevant statutes, may allow an argument for discharge of student loans. The second argument is for this matter to be settled by the bankruptcy court. The debtor would argue for the bankruptcy court to use its sound discretion to allow the discharge. The article then resolves the arguments and suggests that change to the Bankruptcy Code may be necessary to provide consistency in this issue.
This essay argues that the debate about the usefulness of H. Richard Niebuhr's famous typology inChrist and Culturecould benefit from the application of sociological methods to the discussion. As an example, it analyzes the results from a qualitative study of a particular church and its interaction with the heavy metal subculture in light of Niebuhr's categories. It concludes that Niebuhr's categories are still descriptively helpful although some of the critiques proposed by George Marsden and John Howard Yoder must be taken into consideration.
In a recent defence of what he calls "study by religion," Robert Ensign suggests that alleged divine revelations represent public forms of knowledge, which should not be excluded from the academy. But at least according to two major Christian thinkers, namely Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin, revelation is received by an act of faith, which rests on evidence that is person-relative and therefore not open to public scrutiny. If religious studies is to remain a public discipline, whose arguments may be evaluated by believers and non-believers alike, it should maintain its defeasible but not yet defeated presumption of naturalism.
This paper studies the "eye" as a religious phenomenon from the multiple traditions of ancient Egypt compared with rabbinic Judaism in late antiquity using a semiotic approach based upon the theories of Umberto Eco. This method was chosen because the eye is a graphic as well as a linguistic sign which both express religious concepts. Generally, the eye represented an all-seeing and omnipresent divinity. In other words, the god was reduced to an eye, whereby the form of the symbol suggests a meaning to the viewer or religious practitioner. In this manner the eye represented the whole body of a deity in Egyptian and the power of a discerning God in rabbinic texts. By focusing upon the semantic aspect of the eye metaphor in both Egyptian and rabbinic texts two religious traditions of the visually perceivable are analyzed from a semiotic perspective.
