Intellectual History Commons^™

Quantitative Literacy And The Humanities, Rachel Chrastil

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Apocalypse 2014: Post-Tridentine Catholic Exegesis Of Revelation. The Futurist Commentary Of Alphonsus Frey (1762), Ulrich Lehner

Ulrich L. Lehner

No abstract provided.

To The Jew First: A Socio-Historical And Biblical-Theological Analysis Of The Pauline Teaching Of `Election' In Light Of Second Temple Jewish Patterns Of Thought, Anthony Thornhill

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Paul's "doctrine" of election has remained a controversial and enigmatic topic for centuries. Few studies, however, have approached Paul's doctrine through the context of Second Temple Judaism. This study examines Paul's view of election through the lens of Second Temple Jewish texts written prior to 70 CE. In doing so, it is argued that the best framework through which to view Paul's discussion of election is through a primarily corporate model of election. While such a model is rooted in Judaism, Paul departs from his Jewish contemporaries in arguing that the locus of election is in God's Messiah, Jesus.

The Determination Of Man: Johann Joachim Spalding And The Protestant Enlightenment, Michael Printy

Michael Printy

This article uses Johan Joachim Spalding's Bestimmung des Menschen (1748) to explore the transformation of German Protestantism in the second half of the eighteenth century. The text was at once a philosophical and religious meditation about the senses, the spirit, the nature of creation, and the immortality of the soul. In unleashing a set of discussions about the purpose of "man" that went far beyond his apologetical and devotional intention, Spalding laid the groundwork for the culture of modern German Protestantism, and also introduced a rivalry between theology and philosophy that was one of its constitutive and abiding features.

To The Jew First: A Socio-Historical And Biblical-Theological Analysis Of The Pauline Teaching Of `Election' In Light Of Second Temple Jewish Patterns Of Thought, Anthony Thornhill

A. Chadwick Thornhill

Paul's "doctrine" of election has remained a controversial and enigmatic topic for centuries. Few studies, however, have approached Paul's doctrine through the context of Second Temple Judaism. This study examines Paul's view of election through the lens of Second Temple Jewish texts written prior to 70 CE. In doing so, it is argued that the best framework through which to view Paul's discussion of election is through a primarily corporate model of election. While such a model is rooted in Judaism, Paul departs from his Jewish contemporaries in arguing that the locus of election is in God's Messiah, Jesus.

Pure Land And The Social Order In Twelfth-Century China: An Investigation Of "Longshu’S Treatise On Pure Land", Trevor Davis

Student Work

A 2012-2013 William Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Trevor Davis (Saybrook College '13) for his essay submitted to the History Department, “Pure Land and the Social Order in Twelfth-Century China: An Investigation of Longshu’s Treatise on Pure Land.” (Valerie Hansen, Professor of History, advisor.)

Davis' essay makes a powerful argument about the Pure Land Buddhist Wang Rixiu's understanding of Southern Song (1127-1279) society. Although Pure Land Buddhism is often thought to be egalitarian - or at least to challenge traditional hierarchies - Trevor shows that for Wang Rixiu, an egalitarian Pure Land coexists …

Historiography As Devotion, Suzanne Abrams Rebillard

School of Information Studies - Post-doc and Student Scholarship

This article locates Gregory of Nazianzus's Poemata de seipso in the Classical historiographical tradition by comparing their historical meta-narrative to Herodotus' and Thucydides'. It then embarks on a case study of Poem 34, On Silence During Lent, closely analyzing the poem in light of recent narratological work on Herodotus' project. Like the Herodotean text, Gregory's piece reveals a variety of hermeneutical possibilities while simultaneously making the audience aware of the histor's compositional processes. The histor who emerges is a salvific and cosmological presence that focalizes the divine, thereby serving as an example of proper human/ divine relations. The poem would …

Awakening Between Science, Art & Ethics: Variations On Japanese Buddhist Modernism, 1890–1945, James Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

The half-century between the publication of the Imperial Rescript on Education (kyōiku chokugo 教育勅語, 1890) and the bombing of Pearl Harbor (1941) was one of tremendous institutional and intellectual tumult in the world of Japanese Buddhism. Buddhist sects and scholars were not immune to the changing political and cultural winds. While it is true that by the late 1930s, the majority of Buddhist leaders and institutions had capitulated to the status quo, preaching, in the words of Joseph Kitagawa “the virtues of peace, harmony, and loyalty to the throne,” the previous decades show anything but a continuous progression towards …

Awakening Between Science, Art & Ethics: Variations On Japanese Buddhist Modernism, 1890–1945, James Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

The half-century between the publication of the Imperial Rescript on Education (kyōiku chokugo 教育勅語, 1890) and the bombing of Pearl Harbor (1941) was one of tremendous institutional and intellectual tumult in the world of Japanese Buddhism. Buddhist sects and scholars were not immune to the changing political and cultural winds. While it is true that by the late 1930s, the majority of Buddhist leaders and institutions had capitulated to the status quo, preaching, in the words of Joseph Kitagawa “the virtues of peace, harmony, and loyalty to the throne,” the previous decades show anything but a continuous progression towards …

The Lotus Sutra, James Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

Reading, Writing, And Religion: Institutions And Human Capital Formation, Latika Chaudhary, Jared Rubin

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper, we empirically test the role that religious and political institutions play in the accumulation of human capital. Using a new data set on literacy in colonial India, we find that Muslim literacy is negatively correlated with the proportion of Muslims in the district, although we find no similar result for Hindu literacy. We employ a theoretical model which suggests that districts which experienced a more recent collapse of Muslim political authority had more powerful and better funded religious authorities, who established religious schools which were less effective at promoting literacy on the margin than state schools. We …

The People's Hour And The Social Gospel: George Howard Gibson's Gilded Age Search For An Organization Of The Kingdom Of God, Michelle D. Tiedje

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Previous studies of the Social Gospel movement have acknowledged the fact that Social Gospelers were involved in multiple social reform movements during the Gilded Age and into the Progressive Era. However, most of these studies have failed to explain how the reform experiences of the Social Gospelers contributed to the development of the Social Gospel. The Social Gospelers’ ideas regarding the need to transform society and their strategies for doing so were largely a result of their personal experiences as reformers and their collaboration with other reformers. The knowledge and insight gained from interaction with a variety of reform methods …

The Foundations And Early Development Of Mormon Mission Theory, David Golding

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This study seeks to answer a fundamental question facing missiologists and historians of Mormonism: given their sustained preoccupation with converting others to Mormonism and their thriving tradition of missionary work, how do Mormons conceive of their mission? By focusing on the theoretical frame in which Mormon missionaries imagined the non-Mormon world, prepared for missionary engagement, and derived their expectations for their mission work, this study aims to illuminate the development of Mormon missionary activities and explain the processes by which Mormons fashioned for themselves a missional character. Beginning with Joseph Smith and the emergence of his missional thought and ending …

The Hebrew Library Of A Renaissance Humanist: The Bibliography To Andreas Masius' Edition Of The Book Of Joshua (Antwerp: Christopher Plantin 1574), Theodor Dunkelgrün

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

Andreas Masius' 1574 polyglot edition of the book of Joshua with copious annotations and commentaries is a monument of Renaissance biblical scholarship. In an appendix - the text presented here - Masius recorded the Hebrew and Aramaic books he consulted in preparing his edition. In spite of the brevity of its descriptions, this bibliography has much to tell us about Christian readership of the Hebrew book in the 16th century. It reveals the depth, breadth, and sophistication of Masius' grasp of Jewish literature. It is a snapshot of his own library, but at the same time also a panorama of …

From Apologetics To Polemics: Isaac Orobio De Castro’S Defences Of Judaism And Their Use In The French Enlightenment, Adam Sutcliffe

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

This presentation explores the use by non-Jews in eighteenth-century France of controversialist works written primarily for manuscript circulation within the seventeenth-century Sephardic communities of the Netherlands. In response to sustained theological doubts regarding Judaism posed by Sephardim deeply conditioned by having lived as outward Catholics in the Iberian peninsula, several community leaders in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, such as the doctor and controversialist Isaac Orobio de Castro (c.1617-1687), authored trenchant attacks on Christian doctrine, in particular emphasizing the enduring validity of Jewish law and the superiority of Jewish biblical exegesis. French translations of some of these texts - which circulated in Paris …

Leon Modena's Ari Nohem Between Print And Manuscript, Yaacob Dweck

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

This presentation examines Leon Modena's critique of Kabbalah, a Hebrew treatise composed in Venice in 1639 entitled Ari Nohem (The Roaring Lion). One of the primary causes of Modena's critique was the printing of kabbalistic books such as the Zohar, Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut, and Sefer Yetzirah. In Modena's argument, the printing of kabbalistic books in the sixteenth century had disrupted prior patterns of the transmission of kabbalistic knowledge. In particular, Modena argues that kabbalistic books had begun to be read in new ways by new audiences. Using Modena's analysis as a point of departure this presentation will focus on two questions: …

Shlomo Lutzker's Introduction To Magid Devarav Le-Ya'akov, Moshe Rosman

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

ABSTRACT: This presentation analyzes Shlomo Lutzker's Introduction to Magid Devarav Le-Ya'akov as a key source of information on the process of formation and publication of early hasidic books and the activities of printers and aditors. It also bears on the questions of whether there existed "hasidic publishers" and how it might be possible to identify a "hasidic book".

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Shlomo Lutzker's Introduction to Magid Devarav Le-Ya'akov: Likutei Amarim (1781)

Technology, Preservation, And Freedom Of Expression: Isaac De Latters As Printer In Sixteenth-Century Italy, Bernard D. Cooperman

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The presentation discusses broader questions of the relationship between technology and freedom of expression in sixteenth-century Italy. It takes into account the Counter-Reformation context and its impact on Jewish printing and culture.

This presentation is for the following text(s):

• Responsa of Rabbenu Nissim of Gerona (1546)
• A ruling against rabbis who have sought to delay the printing of the Zohar (1558)
• The "imprimatur" by Isaac de Lattes (1558)

Emw 2009: Reading Across Cultures: The Jewish Book And Its Readers In The Early Modern Period, Emw 2009

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

The sixth Early Modern Workshop will focus on the topic of "Reading across Cultures: The Jewish Book and Its Readers in the Early Modern Period." The workshop was held at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University from Sunday, August 23, 2009 and to Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

The workshop opened a discussion of the culture of reading in Jewish society, as well as of the reading of Jewish books in Christian society, during a period of rapid cultural transformation. What was a "Jewish" book, one participant asked? What were the different or parallel developments within Jewish society, …

Diabolical Frivolity Of Neoliberal Fundamentalism, Sefik Tatlic

Sefik Tatlic

Today, we cannot talk just about plain control, but we must talk about the nature of the interaction of the one who is being controlled and the one who controls, an interaction where the one that is “controlled” is asking for more control over himself/herself while expecting to be compensated by a surplus of freedom to satisfy trivial needs and wishes. Such a liberty for the fulfillment of trivial needs is being declared as freedom. But this implies as well the freedom to choose not to be engaged in any kind of socially sensible or politically articulated struggle.

Enlightenment And The Creation Of German Catholicism, Michael Printy

Michael Printy

This book tells the story of how eighteenth-century German Catholics rethought the Church. Educated German Catholics envisioned a Church that would solidify the link between religion, civilization, and morality. The first account of the German Catholic Enlightenment, this book explores the ways in which eighteenth-century Germans reconceived the relationship between religion, society, and the state. Seeking a balance between Germany and Rome, Catholic reformers desired a national Church that would enjoy a large measure of autonomy but would still be in communion with the universal Church. In trying to reform the Church, educated Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire questioned …

Edwards On The Will: A Century Of American Theological Debate, Allen C. Guelzo

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Jonathan Edwards towered over his contemporaries--a man over six feet tall and a figure of theological stature--but the reasons for his power have been a matter of dispute. Edwards on the Will offers a persuasive explanation. In 1753, after seven years of personal trials, which included dismissal from his Northampton church, Edwards submitted a treatise, Freedom of the Will, to Boston publishers. Its impact on Puritan society was profound. He had refused to be trapped either by a new Arminian scheme that seemed to make God impotent or by a Hobbesian natural determinism that made morality an illusion. He …

On The Intellectual Sources Of Laïcité: Rousseau, Constant, And The Debates About A National Religion, Helena Rosenblatt

Publications and Research

That French Protestants gave strong support to laïcité is by now well established. In recent work, Patrick Cabanel has even made a compelling case for the Protestant sources of laïcité, placing particular emphasis on the Protestant entourage of Jules Ferry (1832-1893) and stressing the inspiration provided by the pro-Protestant intellectual, Edgar Quinet (1803-1875.)

This article suggests that we look even earlier in time for the intellectual sources of laïcité. Seminal ideas can be found in the writings of two liberal Protestants, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and Benjamin Constant (1767-1830.) Rousseau is usually counted among the opponents, and not the …

Die Scholastische Theologie Im Zeitalter Der Gnadenstreitigkeiten I: Neue Texte Von Diego Paez († 1582), Diego Del Mármol († 1664) Und Gregor Von Valencia († 1603), Ulrich Lehner

Ulrich L. Lehner

Die Gnadenstreitigkeiten des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts bilden die entscheidende geistesgeschichtliche Auseinandersetzung der frühen Neuzeit. Sie führen vor Augen, wie die katholische Theologie zum letzten Mal aus eigener rationaler Anstrengung heraus die christliche Welt zu polarisieren verstand, indem sie - gespalten in die Lager von Molinisten, Augustinisten und Thomisten - das Wirken der göttlichen Gnadenhilfe zu erklären versuchte. Die hier versammelten Editionen zweier bisher unbekannter Jesuitentheologen, Diego Paez und Diego Marmol, verfolgen den Gang der spanischen Jesuitentheologie im 17. Jahrhundert und bereichern dadurch auch die Geschichtsschreibung der neuzeitlichen Philosophie. Ein Dossier über Gregor von Valencia gibt weiteres Material an die …

Kants Vorsehungskonzept Auf Dem Hintergrund Der Deutschen Schulphilosophie Und - Theologie, Ulrich Lehner

Ulrich L. Lehner

Reviews: "Quiconque voudrait désormais étudier la compréhension moderne de l’histoire, du progrès et de la religion nuirait à la précision de son propos s’il s’exemptait de la lecture de Kants Vorsehungskonzept. On relèvera enfin à ce livre le trop rare mérite d’avoir concilié avec une grande compétence l’étude des approches à la fois philosophiques et théologiques." Charles Morerod O.P., bishop of Fribourg, in Nova et Vetera (French Edition), 4/2011.

"Lehner’s extensive research fills a gap in a unique way. He enriches the study of Kant’s philosophy in an as yet neglected field. His detailed research corrects many general judgements and …

Interview Of Geffrey Kelly, Ph.D., Std, Geffrey Kelly, Molly Murphy

All Oral Histories

Dr. Kelly is a retired professor who continues to teach part-time for the Religion Department. He received his Ph.D. and STD (Doctor of Sacred Theology) from Catholic University in Louvain, Belgium. While he has published on various topics, his research and publications focus on the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Two Liberals On Religion: Constant And Tocqueville Compared, Helena Rosenblatt

Publications and Research

As founding fathers of modern liberalism, Benjamin Constant and Alexis de Tocqueville shared a common sensibility as well as a number of key concerns. Of central importance to both men was the need to protect individual rights and freedoms against what they saw as an encroaching social power. Having learned the lessons of the French Revolution, they knew that power, whether concentrated in the hands of one man, or executed in the name of the "people", was a dangerous thing. Thus they worked throughout their lives to establish and defend a representative system with constitutional guarantees that would protect fundamental …

Nouvelles Perspectives Sur De La Religion: Benjamin Constant Et La Franc-Maçonnerie, Helena Rosenblatt

Publications and Research

Dès la fin du Directoire, pendant le Consulat, puis sous l'Empire, la maçonnerie française connait une période d'expansion. Les historiens s'accordent à dire qu'elle devient alors "le conservatoire des idées de 1789", "l'officine du libéralisme politique et social". Ainsi n'est-il pas surprenant de constater que plusieurs des amis, collègues et alliés de Constant sont franc-maçons.La franc-maçonnerie de 1789 est fortement anti-"ultra", ce qui explique pourquoi, dès 1820, des "ultras" s'adressent à la justice ou à la Chambre des Pairs pour obtenir l'interdiction de l'ordre. Cela étant, et vu que De la religion est un ouvrage anti-"ultra" écrit par un libéral …

Ms-005: The Papers Of Charles H. Huber, Class Of 1892, Christine M. Ameduri

All Finding Aids

Charles H. Huber was born June 7, 1871 in Nebraska City, NE, the son of Eli Huber (Class of 1855 and the first professor of English Bible at Gettysburg College), and Mary E. Deibert Huber. Upon graduating from Gettysburg College in 1892, Charles was hired as a tutor at Gettysburg Academy, appointed vice-principal in 1893 and headmaster in 1896. He earned his A.M. from Gettysburg College and Litt.D. from Gettysburg Theological Seminary both in 1895. After the Gettysburg Academy closed in 1935, he was appointed Director of Gettysburg College's Women's Division, and held that position until his retirement in 1941. …

"Through The Eye Of A Needle": The Role Of Pietistic And Mystical Thought Among The Anglican Elite In The Eighteenth Century Lowcountry South, Samuel C. Smith

Faculty Dissertations

This dissertation examines the transmission and eventual manifestation of Christian pietistic and mystical thought into the Colonial and Revolutionary lowcountry South. The facilitators of this transmission include the Continental Pietists, who were themselves heavily influenced by the mystics, and British Evangelicals such as John Wesley and George Whitefield, who, even in their public denials of mysticism, nevertheless demonstrated its strong influence in their ministries. Mystical and pietistic expressions impacted the religious, social, and political life of the lowcountry more than has been previously recognized. Evangelical Pietism's mid-eighteenth century infusion prompted some to correctly recognize its subjective (i.e. inwardly focused and …