- Rome was never the subject of the image of Daniel chapter, nor the b...ook of Daniel. Christianity is asked to correct that perception. There are three ways to refute that Daniel in anyway prophesied the Messianic event. Daniel accepted that similar circumstances would arise and all events lead from local to national to global. But Daniel never predicted the two horned beast of the Pharisees and Sadducees and the Messianic upheaval that resulted after years of suppression, taxing and slavery of the Jewish people. The post-Messianic event of Roman imperialism of AD 70 was not the subject of the later written synoptic books. Three points to remember: 1. Daniel 2's image illustrated the shattering of the Grecian Empire of Antiochus Epiphanes. The rock that shattered was Judas Maccabees and this second witness set up the everlasting kingdom, a point that western Christianity fails to accept. 2. The first witness was recorded in Daniel 7:3 covering three beasts of the Pre-exilic era - Saul (Lion), David (Bear) and Solomon (Leopard) - Solomon being the 666 symbol. The diverse beast was the combination of Israel's 10 tribes (10 horns) and the seven heads, the last seven kings of Judah, after Hezekiah and before Babylonian captivity. Hezekiah had restored the Temple (reflecting inner temple) and was called Counsellor, Wonderful and the book (writing) was open at that time. The book was not open again until the time of Daniel recording the second witness - victory over Grecian tyranny. Not then again until the time of Paul and John of Patmos. 3. Daniel 9:24-27 recorded a symbolic 70 weeks which according to the well accepted day-for-year principle is 490 years. The 490 years is broken into 483 years and a final 7 year symbol. The 483 years is again broken into a period of 49 years and 434 years. The end of 49 years is when Shishak from Egypt was conquered. The end of 434 years was upon the freeing from Babylonian captivity. 4. Daniel’s final image is of the final 7 year symbol - Dan. 12:12-13 - 2520 days (360 X 7) is made up of 2,300 days of plunder of the Grecian empire) - Dan. 8:14, 10 days of intense persecution and mourning - 1 Macc. 1:54-64, 210 days of burying the dead - reconstitution (Ezek. 39:12). To conclusively show that the book of Daniel was purely a Jewish concept of the Ancients the final symbol of Dan. 12:12-13 of 1335 days is composed of 5 days before the sacred year, 1260 days (180 X 7) half years (remember celestial = terrestrial in philosophy, sacred = civil, and all was to be in balance), Then over a 7 year period 30 days to Feast of Dedication + 40 days to Abomination of Desolation. 1335 days = (5 + 1,260 + 70). Forty equals the period each of us can be creative and 70 years our life span. See More
- Could you please share the Oxford Theology Society's latest podcast ...on the Trinity in the Early Church with Oxford's own Prof Edwards? Thanks! See More
- Upcoming conference at the McDonald Centre for Ethics, Theology, & P...ublic Life (Christ Church) on "Everyday Ethics: A Future for Moral Theology?" Featuring Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and top Christian Ethicists from Princeton, Yale, Duke, UVA, Oxford, Cambridge, Aberdeen, and other fine academic institutions. Reduced student rates still available! See More
- Alister McGrathPublic Figure
"In a paper published Wednesday in the Journal of Optics, Mr. O’Neill lays out a theory that Rembrandt set up flat and concave mirrors to project his subjects —... including himself — onto surfaces before painting or etching them."
"By tracing these projections, the 17th-century painter would have been able to achieve a higher degree of precision, Mr. O’Neill said. His research suggests that some of Rembrandt’s most prominent work may not have been done purely freehand, as many art historians believe...."
"Far from trying to undermine artists like Rembrandt, Mr. O’Neill said, he is interested in how the use of optics “makes us look at artists as scientists.” At the same time scientists had just started using lenses to look at things invisibly small through microscopes and at the stars through telescopes, artists were using lenses to study the world around them, he said."
Monkey archaeology: Ancient evidence of tool use found
BBC News online, 12/07/2016, Victoria Gill
Primate archaeology is a new and unusual-sounding field, but it has revealed ancient evidence of some clever and dextrous monkey culture. Researchers from Oxford University, working in Brazil, found ancient ‘nut-cracking tools’ – 700-year-old stone hammers that capuchin monkeys used to open cashew nuts. This is the earliest evidence yet of monkey tool use outside Africa. One of the Oxford team, primatologist Dr Lydia Luncz, said the find was a ‘window back into the past’.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/36767373
You still have 2 weeks to submit your paper or panel proposals for this year's conference!
We look forward to your submissions (due July 17th)!
The call for pa...pers and link to the submission portal are below.
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One of our rarest and most magnificent incunables is now online for all to view!
Pliny the Elder’s 'Natural History' was first translated into Italian in 1476, ...in a set of 1,025 copies. Ours is one of the rare few printed on parchment and was made especially for the edition’s financial underwriter, Filippo Strozzi, an influential banker in Florence.
It is truly a magnificent work. The type is adorned with exquisite historiated initials (fancy lettering) and decorated borders at the beginning of each book.
The whole work took four years to complete, but also had a political purpose. See our blog to find out why: http://bav.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ne…/introducing-the-douce-pliny
The Templeton World Charity Foundation is now accepting applications for new fellowships in 'The Power of Information.' Details here. Note short deadline: 28 August, 2016.
Did you know the Bodleian Library has the oldest extant bookcases in the world?
They were installed as Thomas Bodley restored the library in the last years of the sixteenth century. Readers have been sitting at them ever since...
On the blog today, we have a post asking 'why does orthodoxy matter?', exploring whether or not the efforts we make in the academy to give our statements orthod...ox articulation have any significance beyond themselves. Enjoy!
'I can't begin to say how wonderful it's been to be back in Oxford. I'll be heading back to America in August, but after four or so (more or less) continuous years across the pond, it's nice to have six weeks to putter around this wonderful town... With that said, there is an oddness, and an discomfort. Part of it is no doubt reverse culture-shock (a culture-shock which has been exacerbated by the news coming out of America these last few days), but there is still something else lying beneath.'
Excellent morning of discussions at the workshop "Early Modern Laws of a Nature: Secular and Divine", on the eucharistic, Descartes, his Arabic influences, natu...re's necessity and much more. We'll continue through the afternoon with more exciting presentations on Newton, occasionalism, and Kant.
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DATABASE TRIAL (until 31 July): Deutsch-jüdische Quellen aus Palästina / Israel Bibliographie und ausgewählte Originalwerke (1890–2000).
Feedback should be sent... to milena.zeidler@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
The database is a top resource for anyone studying German-Jewish literature, history and culture, but also for students of the history of Zionism and Israel. It includes 1,500 bibliographic entries, of which ca. 250 most important are linked to the original source in full text (ca. 25,000 pages). The collection represents the cultural and intellectual realm of the German speaking world in Israel/Palestine, and includes texts by Schalom Ben-Chorin, David Ben-Gurion, Chajim Nachman Bialik, Max Brod, Constantin Brunner, Sammy Gronemann, Theodor Herzl, Georg Landauer and Else Lasker-Schüler.
LINK:
http://oxford1-direct.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/V/TGJCA9QMSU…
First-rate philosophy of religion humour for the afternoon, courtesy of some enterprising postgraduates of the Oxford Faculty of Theology and Religion.
This week's new symposium is Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report by Saba Mahmood. Start here, with Michael Allan's introduction.
The Vice-Chancellor is holding an open Q&A session in light of the EU referendum result. This is taking place on Thursday 21 July, 2016 in the main lecture thea...tre of the Weston Library, 1pm – 2pm. Staff and students who are citizens of other EU countries may find this open forum especially helpful, but everyone is welcome to attend.
Any guidance arising from the discussion will be reflected in the updates currently being provided on the University homepage. The main University of Oxford website and social media channels also include a range of academic analysis from colleagues across the institution.
If you would like to attend this Q&A session, please register in advance at http://vice-chancellors-qa-session.eventbrite.com/ When registering you can choose to submit a question, but Louise Richardson will also be pleased to take questions at the event.
Abstracts are invited by the research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics on the study of Islamic Ethics and the Genome Question, for academic researchers in, among other fields, Islamic Studies and (Bio)Ethics. This will contribute towards a publication project in collaboration with Brill Publishing, and also includes possible participation in a research seminar in Doha, Qatar on 3-5 April 2017.
Deadline for submission of abstracts is 31st July 2016. Submissions can be written in English or Arabic.
For further details, see http://www.cilecenter.org/…/call-for-research-papers-islam…/ , and also the attached background paper
Continuing with our series introducing speakers at A Postsecular Age? New Narratives of Religion, Science and Society (Oxford 2016), here's a beautifully-writte...n, powerful essay by Prof. Ann Pellegrini of Performance Studies @ NYU published in the open-access journal Cultural Studies Review.
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Worldwide, both government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion decreased modestly from 2013 to 2014 despite a rise in religion-re...lated terrorism, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation’s latest annual study on global restrictions on religion
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So beautiful!
Requiem with a marginal dragonfly
book of hours, Bruges or Ghent 15th century (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, MS 287, fol. 161v)
Ethnicity/Race/Religion: Identities, Ideologies, and Intersections in Biblical Texts and Interpretation
9-11th August 2016, Centre for Biblical Studies, University of Exeter, UK
We are pleased to announce that the conference programme is now available to view at:
...http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/…/identitiesideologiesandin…/
It is set to be a varied and interesting programme covering Hebrew Bible, New Testament and biblical interpretation more broadly, including Bible in film. So, if these areas interest you, why not come and be part of the conversation?
Continuing our series introducing the speakers at our 2016 summer conference, here's Prof. Cassie Adcock of Washington University in St Louis, writing at The Im...manent Frame on how the category of the secular looks from the Indian context. (She also has an article in the newest issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, out this week.) We're looking forward to Prof. Adcock's talk at A Postsecular Age? New Narratives of Religion, Science and Society (Oxford 2016) next month!
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