St Symeon the New Theologian (969-1022): Byzantine spiritual renewal in search of a precedent

1997 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 75-90
Author(s):  
John Anthony McGuckin

St Symeon the New Theologian is, without question, one of the most original and intriguing writers of medieval Byzantium. Indeed, although still largely unknown in the West, he is surely one of the greatest of all Christian mystical writers; not only for the remarkable autobiographical accounts he gives of several visions of the divine light, but also for the passionate quality of his exquisite Hymns of Divine Love, the remarkable intensity of his pneumatological doctrine, and the corresponding fire he brings to his preaching of reform in the internal and external life of the Church. He was a highly controversial figure in his own day. His disciples venerated him as a saint who had returned to the roots of the Christian tradition and personified its repristinization. His opponents, who secured his deposition and exile, regarded him as a dangerously unbalanced incompetent who, by overstressing the value of personal religious fervour, had endangered the stability of that tradition. The Vita which we possess was composed in 1054, in an attempt to rehabilitate Symeon’s memory and prepare for the return of his relics to the capital from which he had been expelled when alive. This paper will investigate how he himself understood and appropriated aspects of the earlier tradition (particularly monastic spirituality), hoping to elucidate why he felt himself inspired to reformist zeal, and why many of his contemporaries (not simply his ‘worldly opponents’ as his hagiographer would have us believe) regarded him as unbalanced. It will end by attempting some reflection on what the controversy reveals on the larger front about how the Church ‘selectively looks back on itself, so to paraphrase our president’s description of the conference theme, and whether the model of tradition and its reception exemplified in this Byzantine writer can offer anything to the dialogue between history and theology which the doctrine of Tradition (Paradosis) inevitably initiates.

1982 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 99-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Mason

Dangers to the cohesion of the Anglo-Norman regnum correlate to a marked extent with the fluctuating patronage extended by the Anglo-Norman kings towards Westminster Abbey, and other religious houses, in their search for one which would symbolize and enhance the stability of their dynasty.Westminster itself had royal connections from the outset. The original church of St Peter, on Thorney Island in the Thames, to the west of London, was founded by Saebert, king of the East Saxons, and his wife Ethelgoda.’ The couple were allegedly buried there early in the seventh century, but it was some four hundred and fifty years before further royal burials took place in St Peter’s The church was restored by Offa of Essex in the early years of the eighth century, and c959 king Edgar sold it to Dunstan, who founded a monastery on the site. Edgar gave several manors to this abbey, and Aethelred II gave or confirmed others. Less exalted donors followed suit, and the house was already fairly prosperous when Harold I Harefoot was buried there in 1040. His successor and half-brother Harthacnut, is said to have had his body thrown out.


2003 ◽  
Vol 29 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 269-299
Author(s):  
Janna C. Merrick

Main Street in Sarasota, Florida. A high-tech medical arts building rises from the east end, the county's historic three-story courthouse is two blocks to the west and sandwiched in between is the First Church of Christ, Scientist. A verse inscribed on the wall behind the pulpit of the church reads: “Divine Love Always Has Met and Always Will Meet Every Human Need.” This is the church where William and Christine Hermanson worshipped. It is just a few steps away from the courthouse where they were convicted of child abuse and third-degree murder for failing to provide conventional medical care for their seven-year-old daughter.This Article is about the intersection of “divine love” and “the best interests of the child.” It is about a pluralistic society where the dominant culture reveres medical science, but where a religious minority shuns and perhaps fears that same medical science. It is also about the struggle among different religious interests to define the legal rights of the citizenry.


2019 ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
N.Yu. Bobrovskaya ◽  
M.F. Danilov

The criteria of the coordinate measurements quality at pilot-experimental production based on contemporary methods of quality management system and traditional methods of the measurements quality in Metrology are considered. As an additional criterion for quality of measurements, their duration is proposed. Analyzing the problem of assessing the quality of measurements, the authors pay particular attention to the role of technological heredity in the analysis of the sources of uncertainty of coordinate measurements, including not only the process of manufacturing the part, but all stages of the development of design and technological documentation. Along with such criteria as the degree of confidence in the results of measurements; the accuracy, convergence, reproducibility and speed of the results must take into account the correctness of technical specification, and such characteristics of the shape of the geometric elements to be controlled, such as flatness, roundness, cylindrical. It is noted that one of the main methods to reduce the uncertainty of coordinate measurements is to reduce the uncertainty in the initial data and measurement conditions, as well as to increase the stability of the tasks due to the reasonable choice of the basic geometric elements (measuring bases) of the part. A prerequisite for obtaining reliable quality indicators is a quantitative assessment of the conditions and organization of the measurement process. To plan and normalize the time of measurements, the authors propose to use analytical formulas, on the basis of which it is possible to perform quantitative analysis and optimization of quality indicators, including the speed of measurements.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Jessica Avenido ◽  
◽  
Sandy Valmores ◽  
Roberto Cabardo ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

2003 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-46
Author(s):  
A. D. M. Barrell

Author(s):  
Олег Викторович (Oleg V.) Кириченко (Kirichenko)

Статья посвящена малоизученному явлению – церковному инакомыслию, которое было порождено влиянием «советской духовности» не только на общество, но и на Церковь. Автор ставит проблему инакомыслия и диссидентства как явлений, выросших в недрах высшей советской номенклатуры и потом уже распространившихся на низшие слои, затронувшие и церковную среду. Апелляция к Западу, как к третейскому судье, была закономерным явлением советской действительности, что требует научной проработки и объяснения. The article is devoted to a little-studied phenomenon – church dissent, which was generated by the influence of "Soviet spirituality" not only on society, but also on the Church. The author poses the problem of dissent and dissidentism as phenomena that grew up in the the higher Soviet nomenclature and then spread to the lower layers, affecting the church environment. An appeal to the West as an arbitrator was a natural phenomenon of Soviet reality, which requires scientific study and explanation.


Author(s):  
N.A. Jurk ◽  

The article presents scientific research in the field of statistical controllability of the food production process using the example of bakery products for a certain time interval using statistical methods of quality management. During quality control of finished products, defects in bakery products were identified, while the initial data were recorded in the developed form of a checklist for registering defects. It has been established that the most common defect is packaging leakage. For the subsequent statistical assessment of the stability of the production process and further analysis of the causes of the identified defect, a Shewhart control chart (p-card by an alternative feature) was used, which allows you to control the quality of manufactured products by the number of defects detected. Analyzing the control chart, it was concluded that studied process is conditionally stable, and the emerging defects are random. At the last stage of the research, the Ishikawa causal diagram was used, developed using the 6M mnemonic technique, in order to identify the most significant causes that affect the occurrence of the considered defect in bakery products. A more detailed study will allow the enterprise to produce food products that meet the established requirements.


Author(s):  
Peter Linehan

This book springs from its author’s continuing interest in the history of Spain and Portugal—on this occasion in the first half of the fourteenth century between the recovery of each kingdom from widespread anarchy and civil war and the onset of the Black Death. Focussing on ecclesiastical aspects of the period in that region (Galicia in particular) and secular attitudes to the privatization of the Church, it raises inter alios the question why developments there did not lead to a permanent sundering of the relationship with Rome (or Avignon) two centuries ahead of that outcome elsewhere in the West. In addressing such issues, as well as of neglected material in Spanish and Portuguese archives, use is made of the also unpublished so-called ‘secret’ registers of the popes of the period. The issues it raises concern not only Spanish and Portuguese society in general but also the developing relationship further afield of the components of the eternal quadrilateral (pope, king, episcopate, and secular nobility) in late medieval Europe, as well as of the activity in that period of those caterpillars of the commonwealth, the secular-minded sapientes. In this context, attention is given to the hitherto neglected attempt of Afonso IV of Portugal to appropriate the privileges of the primatial church of his kingdom and to advance the glorification of his Castilian son-in-law, Alfonso XI, as God’s vicegerent in his.


2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-417
Author(s):  
Laurence Terrier Aliferis

Abstract The ruined Cistercian church of Vaucelles is known only by a few preserved fragments and a plan of the choir reproduced by Villard of Honnecourt. Historical sources provide three key dates: 1190 (start of construction), 1215 (entry into the new church), 1235 (date of the dedication). From the nineteenth century until now, it was considered that the foundations were laid in 1190 and that the construction started on the west side of the church. In 1216, the nave would have been completed, and the choir would have been built between 1216 and 1235. Consultation of the historical sources and examination of the historiographic record changes this established chronology of the site. In fact, the construction proceeded from east to west. The choir reproduced in 1216 or shortly before by Villard de Honnecourt presents the building as it then appeared, with the eastern part of the building totally completed.


Author(s):  
Johannes Klement

AbstractTo which extent do happiness correlates contribute to the stability of life satisfaction? Which method is appropriate to provide a conclusive answer to this question? Based on life satisfaction data of the German SOEP, we show that by Negative Binomial quasi-maximum likelihood estimation statements can be made as to how far correlates of happiness contribute to the stabilisation of life satisfaction. The results show that happiness correlates which are generally associated with a positive change in life satisfaction, also stabilise life satisfaction and destabilise dissatisfaction with life. In such as they lower the probability of leaving positive states of life satisfaction and increase the probability of leaving dissatisfied states. This in particular applies to regular exercise, volunteering and living in a marriage. We further conclude that both patterns in response behaviour and the quality of the measurement instrument, the life satisfaction scale, have a significant effect on the variation and stability of reported life satisfaction.


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