Mahishasur was the mythological hero of the Bahujan communities of India. According to D.D. Kaushambi, Mahishasur’s realm was Mahoba in Bundelkhand. In connection with the research for my book, I reached Mahoba on 2 October 2015. Mahishasur’s memories still survive in the folk traditions of Mahoba. He is known as Maikasur, Kaaras Dev, Gwal Bab…[Read more]

We wrote this report in December 2015. In this report, we have tried to bring out the ideology of the organisers of Mahishasur Day, and their strategy for cultural-social change.
When, on 25 October 2011, a handful of students of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University celebrated Mahishasur Martyrdom Day for the first time, no one could have i…[Read more]

दिल्ली के जवाहरलाल नेहरू विश्वविद्यालय में मुट्ठी भर अन्य पिछड़ा वर्ग और दलित छात्रों ने जब 25 अक्टूबर, 2011 को पहली बार ‘महिषासुर शहादत दिवस’ मनाया था, तब शायद किसी ने सोचा भी नहीं होगा कि यह दावनल की आग सिद्ध होगा। 2015 तक, महज चार सालों में ही इन आयोजनों ने न सिर्फ देशव्यापी सामाजिक आलोडऩ पैदा कर दिया था, बल्कि ये आदिवासियों, अन्य पिछडा वर्ग…[Read more]

दिल्ली के जवाहरलाल नेहरू विश्वविद्यालय में मुट्ठी भर अन्य पिछड़ा वर्ग और दलित छात्रों ने जब 25 अक्टूबर, 2011 को पहली बार ‘महिषासुर शहादत दिवस’ मनाया था, तब शायद किसी ने सोचा भी नहीं होगा कि यह दावनल की आग सिद्ध होगा। 2015 तक, महज चार सालों में ही इन आयोजनों ने न सिर्फ देशव्यापी सामाजिक आलोडऩ पैदा कर दिया था, बल्कि ये आदिवासियों, अन्य पिछडा वर्ग…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: ´El Gran Diseño´, libro de Stephen Hawking y Leonard Mlodinow (Bantam, 2010) se propone responder científicamente a algunas cuestiones que en tiempos pasados se explicaban mediante mitos de creación: por qué existe el universo, y por qué es como es. Nos centramos aquí en una de sus propuestas más controvertidas, la teoría d…[Read more]

This article reassesses the metaphors found in Isa 49.26a and 63.6 in their historical and socio-religious context of alcohol production. Using interdisciplinary approaches from archaeology and anthropology, traditional interpretations that have emphasised a context of alcohol consumption and drunkenness, rather than wine production, are…[Read more]

This essay examines the Book of Revelation in dialogue with the films of Christopher Nolan, with particular attention to the use of nonlinear narrative. The approach taken to Nolan’s work is that of auteur theory, a pattern theory which traces the distinctive technical and artistic voice of the director across a wide range of films (e.g. M…[Read more]

“The Bible” does not exist as material reality, and yet as a cultural icon “the Bible” animates institutions and enterprises devoted to it. This article assesses the short history of scholarship on one such institution, the controversial Museum of the Bible (MOTB) in Washington, D.C., in order to highlight and critique the fantasy of “the Bi…[Read more]

This paper responds to the question what is the origin and nature of apostolicity and how it is
demonstrated? The investigation examines the meaning of apostolicity found in the New
Testament, its significant transition through the post-apostolic period, and the consequence on
contemporary understanding. The dilemma of the first and second…[Read more]

The purpose of this essay is threefold. First we will attempt to define the problem of supersessionism (also known as ‘Replacement Theology’), both by responding to the calls of the Roman Catholic Church within Vatican II to change theologies of supersession, but likewise by addressing the current weaknesses in eschatological though within the Rom…[Read more]

Notes on the second half of Nicholas Ray’s ‘Tragedy and Otherness: Sophocles, Shakespeare, Psychoanalysis’—a reading of Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar ‘, with some interesting dimensions for the student of retroprospective action. The relationship to the Freudian project is rather indirect, but the chapter stands on its own strength as an o…[Read more]

Entry on Hekhalot literature

Handbook entry on Medieval Jewish Prophecy as a form of prognostication

The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem are an expatriate black American community who have since 1969 lived in Israel. They claim to be the authentic descendants of the biblical Israelites and live by Mosaic law. They constitute an important New Religious Movement with 3,000– 5,000 members in Israel and large satellite c…[Read more]

An entry for the Centre for the Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements’ (CenSAMM) Dictionary: https://www.cdamm.org/

This article will look at the ideology of veganism in the AHIJ. Since the early 1970s their diet has been a core part of their ideology and of their message to the world. Acknowledging that a black/Jewish meat-free diet is far from the exclusive property of the group, let alone a new development on their part, I will argue that it is an expression…[Read more]

An entry for the Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception on the topic of Name Theology, how this has evolved in different Abrahamic religions from the scriptural origins.

This essay is a précis (for which I take full responsibility) of Chapters One and Two of Leslie
Dewart’s seminal book consisting of Nine Chapters. The perspective he presented here, to my
mind, sets a fresh intellectual trajectory for philosophical contemplation. Written towards the
end of the 20th century the book is not an easy read, bu…[Read more]

Mauritian Muslims have undergone a long process of religious standardization and sectarian segmentation. How have sharp religious boundaries such as those that separate Muslims from Hindus and Christians, as well as those that divide Muslims internally along sectarian lines emerged in a creole society such as Mauritius? This article traces how…[Read more]

In this short book, only an introductory and partial discussion can be undertaken respecting the issues distinguish between religious (philosophical) and secular (political) cultural values from a phenomenological point of view. Further, the ideas I consider here are not original. By and large they derive from a new interpretation of human…[Read more]