This essay shows that physicians of early Āyurveda adopted a pragmatic approach to the challenges dharma imposed on them. While the concept and its importance is generally accepted in the medical compendia, various passages stress the fact that good health is an indispensable precondition to pursue dharma and other goals of life. In the interests…[Read more]

This paper surveys potential counterparts of the ancient Egyptian concept of mAat (maat) from other cultures and summarises such cross-cultural studies as have already been completed. Its scope ranges from antiquity to the present day and across Europe, Africa, the Near East, India, China, Australia and the Americas. Paradigms that appear to…[Read more]

article + 6 photographs from the Manuscriptistan Project

The present article challenges Walter C. Kaiser, Jr’s influential proposal for evangelical Old Testament missiology. Out of concern to avoid an understanding of “Israel as God’s favored or pet nation,” Kaiser argues that God’s promise to Abraham in Gen 12:3 is for the sake of all nations, and as such, “the first Great Commission mandate of…[Read more]

Sicily – and especially Syracuse – seems to have had an ongoing preoccupation with paired eyes as an apotropaic or magico-religious symbol. This brief paper explores some signature pieces and speculates that the excised eyes of Santa Lucia, patron saint of Syracuse, may be but a recent embodiment of a propensity that dates back to the Neolithic era.

Abstract: The causes of suffering are a central topic in Buddhism as well as in Ayurveda. The Pāli Canon and other early Buddhist texts like the Milindapañha mention eight specific causes resulting in disease or suffering at several places. In contrast, early Ayurveda, as presented in the Carakasaṃhitā, knows a threefold causal complex of dise…[Read more]

Sinabi ni Ramon Reyes: Kung ituturing nating relihiyon ang pangunahing dimensyon ng tao kung saan iniuugnay niya ang sagrado, sa “lampas,” sa nagbibigay ng batayan at pinakahuling kahulugan ng kanyang pang-araw-araw na pag-iral, kung gayon ang mga animistikong paniniwala at gawain ng ang mga unang Pilipino ay magiging kuwalipikado bilang…[Read more]

This paper focuses on two elements of the Passover Seder ritual and their connection to Piagetian education theory. After outlining Piaget’s theory of genetic epistemology and its implications for education theory, it focuses on Sigel’s distancing theory, which touts question asking as a tool for presenting information to students. This paper arg…[Read more]

According to the medical tradition, the temperament of bodies came from the balance of their primary qualities – hot, cold, dry, and moist. However, physicians associated additional sensory properties with temperament in the field of pharmacology. These sensations included taste, color, and odor, which allow an appraisal of the constitution and a…[Read more]

1963.11.22-12:30 * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

In comics: how ancient rabbis upend “traditional” ideas of reproduction, gender, and humanity. A blog post commissioned by UC Press Blog about the book When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species.

Link: htt…[Read more]

Review of “Shakespeare, Theology, and the Unstaged God” by Anthony D. Baker, “Great Stage of Fools: A Guide to Six Shakespeare Plays” by Peter J. Leithart, and “Shakeshafte & Other Plays” by Rowan Williams.

Review of “No Flesh Shall Glory: How the Bible Destroys the Foundations of Racism” by C. Herbert Oliver and “How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice” by Jemar Tisby.

Review essay of “Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents” by Rod Dreher and “Red Theology: On the Christian Communist Tradition” by Roland Boer.

Review essay of “Children of the Waters of Meribah: Black Liberation Theology, the Miriamic Tradition, and the Challenges of Twenty-First-Century Empire” by Allan Aubrey Boesak and “Evangelical Theologies of Liberation and Justice” edited by Mae Elsie Cannon and Andrea Smith.

Review essay of “Dare We Speak of Hope? Searching for a Language of Life in Faith and Politics” by Allan Aubrey Boesak, “Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology” by James K. A. Smith, and “Politics after Christendom: Political Theology in a Fractured World” by David VanDrunen.

Review essay of “Confessions” by Augustine, translated by Sarah Ruden and “On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts” by James K. A. Smith.

Review essay of “The World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology” by Lilian
Calles Barger and “Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody: The Making of a Black Theologian” by James H. Cone.