Digital Commons Network^™

A Bridge Between Earth & Sky: How The Natural World Shaped The Civilizations Of Ancient And Early-Modern Persia, Sophia Cabana

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This project seeks to investigate the ways in which nature shaped the culture of ancient Persia through technology, architecture, agriculture, and art. Furthermore, this project investigates how the symbols and mentalities of ancient Persia were carried forward into the early-modern period. Achaemenid Persia and Babylon are studied as societies which influenced one another and combined to create the foundation of Persian culture as it is currently understood, which then combined in later centuries with other Middle Eastern and Central Asian cultural movements to produce the Safavid and Mughal Empires. The Safavids and Mughals imitated and revived Persian culture in order …

What Was So Attractive In Artemis/Diana Worship, And What Was The Rationale For Christians Not To Follow Pagan Ideology?, Georg Filippou

Seminary Scholarship Symposium

The last few decades of archaeological research in Ephesus have revealed new insights into the context of Paul’s writings. In the past many commentators have assumed that the Artemis cult was sex-saturated at the time of Paul, and therefore interpreted the biblical texts from that perspective. However, more recent scholarship has suggested the opposite. Mystery religions elevated the status of women. In the creation narrative of Artemis, the woman was born first. In refraining from everything that is part of a marriage, women could reach salvation. It is therefore not surprising that Paul addressed issues connected to women (creation, marriage, …

Divining Gospel: Classifying Manuscripts Of John Used In Sortilege, Jeff Childers

Graduate School of Theology

The texts of Christian scripture find their way into a variety of ancient artifacts. The manuscript form has been the most widespread, yet manuscripts manifest distinct patterns of organization and structure according to their different purposes. Many include companion texts sharing the page with that of scripture—texts that gloss, provide commentary, give liturgical direction, or otherwise assist the reader in understanding or using scripture. In many instances, pages containing scripture have acquired additional texts over the years–e.g. marginal notes, corrections, claims of ownership, prayers, and fragments of other texts. One of the least well-studied phenomena is the sort of artifact …

Early Pyrrhonism As A Sect Of Buddhism? A Case Study In The Methodology Of Comparative Philosophy, Monte Ransome Johnson, Brett Shults

Comparative Philosophy

We offer a sceptical examination of a thesis recently advanced in a monograph published by Princeton University Press, entitled Greek Buddha: Pyrrho’s Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia. In this dense and probing work, Christopher I. Beckwith, a professor of Central Eurasian studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, argues that Pyrrho of Elis adopted a form of early Buddhism during his years in Bactria and Gandhāra, and that early Pyrrhonism must be understood as a sect of early Buddhism. In making his case Beckwith claims that virtually all scholars of Greek, Indian, and Chinese philosophy have been operating under flawed …

Tragedy And Theodicy: The Role Of The Sufferer From Job To Ahab, Nora Carroll

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The character of Job starts in literature, a trope and archetype of the suffering man who potentially gains wisdom through suffering. Job’s characterization informs a comparison to Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Shakespeare’s King Lear, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and finally Melville’s Moby-Dick. These versions of Job rally, fight, and rebel against a universe that was once loving and fair towards a more chaotic and nihilistic one. Job’s suffering is on the mark of all tragedy because he not only experiences a downfall, he gains wisdom through universalizing his torment. The Job trope not only stresses the role of suffering, it …

How To Attain Liberation From A False World? The Gnostic Myth Of Sophia In Dark City (1998), Fryderyk Kwiatkowski

Journal of Religion & Film

In the second half of the 20th century, a fascinating revival of ancient Gnostic ideas in American popular culture could be observed. One of the major streams through which Gnostic ideas are transmitted is Hollywood cinema. Many works that emerged at the end of 1990s can be viewed through the ideas of ancient Gnostic systems: The Truman Show (1998), The Thirteenth Floor (1999), The Others (2001), Vanilla Sky (2001) or The Matrix trilogy (1999-2003).

In this article, the author analyses Dark City (1998) and demonstrates that the story depicted in the film is heavily indebted to the Gnostic myth of …

The Tyranny Of Authority: Eternal Damnation In The Fragments Of Clement Of Alexandria?, Daniel J. Crosby

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

This short paper discusses a fragment that John Potter (1715) incorrectly assigned to a hypothetical work of Clement of Alexandria called "On the soul," and how his error came to be responsible for a sharp divide in scholarship with regard to Clement's beliefs about hell and punishment after death. I conclude by suggesting that this short case study also highlights the importance of maintaining an awareness of the ideas and decisions that underlie a critical edition of a text.

Manifestations Of God: Theophanies In The Hebrew Prophets And The Revelation Of John, Kyle Ronchetto

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

This paper looks at the way the book of Revelation describes the hierarchical relationship between God and Christ by recombining the imagery of God from the Hebrew bible. Christ seems at times to be equal to God himself, and at other times to be only an angel serving God. Following a textual analysis of theophanies and angelophanies from three of the Hebrew prophets which form the primary source material of Revelation – Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, I will explicate the theophanies, angelophanies, and christophanies in Revelation, showing how these purportedly contradictory images are reconcilable.

Pharaonic Occultism: The Relationship Of Esotericism And Egyptology, 1875–1930, Kevin Todd Mclaren

Master's Theses

The purpose of this work is to explore the interactions between occultism and scholarly Egyptology from 1875 to 1930. Within this timeframe, numerous esoteric groups formed that centered their ideologies on conceptions of ancient Egyptian knowledge. In order to legitimize their belief systems based on ancient Egyptian wisdom, esotericists attempted to become authoritative figures on Egypt. This process heavily impacted Western intellectualism not only because occult conceptions of Egypt became increasingly popular, but also because esotericists intruded into academia or attempted to overshadow it. In turn, esotericists and Egyptologists both utilized the influx of new information from Egyptological studies to …

Full Issue

Studia Antiqua

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Editor's Preface, Juan D. Pinto

Studia Antiqua

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Front Matter

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Editor's Preface, Juan D. Pinto

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Studia Antiqua

Studia Antiqua

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Full Issue, Studia Antiqua

Studia Antiqua

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Out Of The Dust: An Examination Of Necromancy As A Literary Construct In The Book Of Mormon, Amanda Colleen Brown

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

A Survey Of The "Son Of Man" From Daniel To Jesus, Part 1: A Reevaluation Of Daniel 7 And Its Subsequent Implications On The "Son Of Man" Debate, Haley Wilson

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Editor's Preface, Jasmin Gimenez

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Studia Antiqua

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, Studia Antiqua

Studia Antiqua

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Proskynesis In The Synoptics: A Textual Analysis Of Προσκυνέω And Jesus, Stuart Bevan

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Lexical Variation In The Understanding Of ברא: Homonymy Or Polysemy?, Juan D. Pinto

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

An Improbable Inn: Texts And Tradition Surrounding Luke 2:7, Andy Mickelson

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews, Stephen O. Smoot

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Editor's Preface, Jasmin Gimenez

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Studia Antiqua

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, Studia Antiqua

Studia Antiqua

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Cuneiform Objects At The Museum Of Peoples And Cultures, Bethany Jensen

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

The Sacrificed God And ManʼS Creation: Nonaggressive Violence In The Mesopotamian Atraḫasīs, Juan D. Pinto

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

OvidʼS Prequel To Euripidesʼ Medea 476: The Intertextual Tension Of Saving Jason, Chizm Payne

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.