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This essay explores humanist responses to the style and rhetoric of biblical prophecy, focusing on the perceived differences between Isaiah, whose style was generally praised as urbane and forceful, and the other prophets, whose styles were seen as simple and rustic by comparison. Scholars have recognized Isaiah's elevated place among the writing Hebrew prophets in the history of Christian theology, worship, and art, but they have not considered the stylistic and rhetorical dimensions of Isaian exceptionalism, nor have they considered its implications for Reformation era theology and sacred rhetoric. I argue that, for early modern Protestants and Catholics, Isaiah was a central figure in the process of defining and evaluating prophetic style, and in turn the style and rhetoric of the Bible generally, because of the exceptional quality of his style, which allowed them to defend the stylistic quality and power of biblical writing against its detractors (real and perceived) by appealing to Isaiah, whom they presented as more eloquent and powerful than classical rhetoricians like Demosthenes and Cicero. I also argue that, for early Protestants, Isaiah was not only a central but also a complicating figure in this process, because his exceptional style often led them into disagreements over the character and quality of biblical style generally, as well as the implications of biblical style for the study and application of rhetoric in preaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While prior research foregrounds the economic and political conditions that shape cultural globalization, we focus on the effects of culture. We argue that diffusion itself is a cultural practice, and that two types of cultural schemas – ways of conceptualizing national belonging, on the one hand, and geopolitical ideologies, on the other – shape the people, policies, and infrastructures actors deploy to insert their cultural products into the global art and literary worlds. Based on fieldwork in Argentina, South Korea, and Lebanon, we show how two forms of trans-border nationalism – those that incorporate the diaspora based on ethnic or ancestral similarity, and those that incorporate regional neighbors based on common civic norms – are mobilized to circulate art and literature internationally. Who participates in these diasporic and regional networks, however, depends on diffusers' ideological commitments. We identify two types of aspirational visions for a global (art) world order, which influence which people and institutions cultural makers and managers draw on to diffuse art and literature: a reformative vision, in which the core institutions in traditional centers of power maintain their centrality but become more inclusive of creators from historically underrepresented countries, and a transformative vision, in which the global art and literary world are restructured and power redistributed via new nodes and circuits that circumvent these traditional centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1797 and 1798, Germaine de Staël argued that France needed a reformation to end the Revolution, proposing the adoption Protestantism as a religion of state. This proposal has been explained away as an obvious and uninteresting consequence of her Calvinist upbringing. While obviously relevant, Staël’s religious background is not a sufficient explanation for a proposal that would have upended the constitutional principles of the Directorial republic as well as centuries of tradition in France. I argue instead that Staël’s proposal is better understood in framework of the Directory’s plans to breach the state’s neutrality in religious matters, established in the 1795 Constitution, in order to promote love of the republic via a new religion, theophilanthropy. Thus, Staël identified a political opportunity for constitutional change in matters of religion and sought to steer the course towards an existing religion that, as she argued, had all the benefits that the Directory saw in theophilanthropy, but none of the pitfalls, especially the theophilanthropists’ association with the Terror. This re-interpretation of Staël’s proposal, made in Circonstances actuelles, has implications for our broader understanding of this work, hailed as her ‘most substantial contribution to political and constitutional theory’, and the Thermidorian republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the publication of the Strasbourg Cantiones in 1539, a collection of Latin-texted sacred motets. The author, Daniel Trocmé-Latter, explores the historical and religious context of Strasbourg during the Protestant Reformation, highlighting the city's radical ecclesiastical changes and the role of music in public worship. Trocmé-Latter also examines the life and career of Peter Schöffer, the printer of the Cantiones, and speculates on the motivations behind the publication. The article concludes by praising Trocmé-Latter's comprehensive study and its contribution to the understanding of early motet anthologies. [Extracted from the article]

The objective of this article is to shed light on the history of the Reformation in 17th-century Geneva. The lens through which this study is conducted is that of religious publishing activity, which was significantly managed by the Company of Pastors and Professors. The role of the Company in religious publishing is inextricably linked to the unique status of the Church of Geneva within the broader context of the Reformation. The Company's institutional archives offer insight into the issues at stake in the printed book matters. This article focuses on the role of the Company in local censorship, which diminished over the period under study. The Company's censorship function enabled it to exert concrete influence on the global scale of Reformed publishing. This influence was the consequence of the Company's ecclesiastical and theological authority. This authority derived from the status of the Church of Geneva as the principal church and birthplace of the Reformation in the 16th century. An analysis of the metaphors signifying and symbolizing this role in the printed books themselves underlines the pre-eminence of the Church of Geneva in 17th-century Reformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1606 Henry Garnet, provincial of the English Jesuits and purported co-conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot against James I, was executed at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Following his death, accounts of miracles occurring at his execution began to spread throughout England, including an account of a relic bearing his miraculous image. While Catholic writers promoted these accounts as evidence of Garnet's innocence, Protestant contemporaries argued that Garnet was an illegitimate martyr and that his commemoration was evidence of Catholic support for regicide. This article demonstrates how London Protestant writers and publishers utilized anti-hagiographical arguments to intervene in attempts to promote Garnet's sainthood, counter claims about the veracity of his relic, and shape his legacy in the decades following his execution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution provides three church-historical glimpses into concepts and images that deal in different ways with the idea of the union of two parties and communicate it through media. The material under discussion is analysed from a gender perspective. Firstly, the Reformation period is discussed as a process of the valorisation of sexuality, the defence of priestly marriage by Philipp Melanchthon is examined, and attention is drawn to the so-called Oeconomialiteratur, which regulated the cohabitation of spouses. The article then turns to bridal mysticism in order to analyse the gender construction of Jesus and the male members of the Moravians on the basis of the "Kleines Brüdergesangbuch". It is emphasised that various options can be discussed, but that the concept of a leading masculinity of Jesus is the most appropriate for the description of the multiple masculinity constructions of the specific episode of the so-called "Sichtungszeit" of this community. In a last step, the reception of images and ideas about Katharina von Bora and Martin Luther since the Reformation period will be used to discuss how their marriage and matrimony became denominational identifiers—both for Protestantism and for Catholicism. For this, the double portrait of Katharina von Bora and Martin Luther by Cranach as well as a polemical pamphlet from the time of the Thirty Years' War and the invention of Katharina von Bora as a pastor's wife in the 19th century will be examined. By means of historical hermeneutics and a gender perspective, the article thus determines how media have both enabled the freedom to explore and establish new concepts and ideas as well as been used as a vehicle of regulation. In addition, the church-historical examples analysed also illustrate that wedding, marriage, and matrimony themselves became a medium to structure lives, to communicate religious and social issues, and to reject, construct, consolidate, and pass on denominational identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Communication, we comprehensively investigated substituent effects relevant to iterative reversible activation fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) single unit monomer insertion (SUMI) reactions. Through the use of the pyrazole carbodithiolate (PCDT) "Z-group" as the chain transfer component in RAFT SUMI, we show the importance of "Z-group" effects and its interplay with "R-group" (the carbon-centred radical precursor) effects. We also expanded the scope of RAFT SUMI to new monomer types and sequences thereof. As such, the C–S bond dissocation/reformation steps were found to be crucial factors in SUMI, and it was found that general substituent effects must be wholistically examined for every step of this reaction. This stands in contrast with conventional knowledge of RAFT polymerisation, where the main consideration is often centred around the propagation stage, i.e., the key C–C bond formation step. Indeed, contrary to SUMI, the latter characteristic was observed in the analogous alternating copolymerisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a book titled "Luther and Philosophies of the Reformation," which explores Martin Luther's role in the Reformation and his lasting impact on the world. The book features contributions from seven leading scholars with diverse perspectives on Luther and his legacy. The essays cover topics such as Luther's understanding of grace, his interpretation of Paul, Dante's critique of the church, Luther's views on the nature and authority of the church, and the Protestant legacy of radical agency. Overall, the book offers a constructive and interesting addition to Luther scholarship, although there are some editing issues. [Extracted from the article]

Following Ziya Gökalp and Ali Shariati's assertion that Protestantism arose due to the influence of Islam in Europe in the Middle Ages, this study discusses the different discourses elaborated by the Turkish and Iranian authors based on this idea. The controversies surrounding modernity, westernization, colonialism, and Islam were a constant in their writings, despite the different geographical and historical circumstances. This paper discusses the logic of Gökalp and Shariati's claim that Protestantism was Islamized Christianity. The aim is to provide a detailed perspective on how this claim illuminates their broader thinking about civilization, culture, and religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sixteenth century witnessed dramatic upheavals in Eastern and Western Europe in both the ecclesiastical and political domains. In the previous century, Constantinople had fallen to the Ottoman Turks, meaning that its Eastern Orthodox inhabitants were severed both politically and religiously from their Western Christian neighbors, who were ruled over by sovereigns that derived their spiritual authority from the Papacy. Meanwhile, the Reformation endangered the unity of the political and religious spheres of the Catholic West. As it soon became clear that the mainstream Reformers were neither united nor consistent in their ecclesiological views, one thing remained a constant: a recourse to the Fathers of the Church for the confirmation of Reformed tenets such as sola scriptura and sola fide. The use of Patristic proof texts played an important role in the attempt of the Lutherans to unite with the Orthodox, the former reading the writings of the Fathers in a very different way to the latter. This article analyzes why this attempt at union failed, with specific focus on the correspondence between the Tübingen theologians and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Jeremiah II Tranos, in their respective reading of the Augsburg Confession which represents the main Lutheran articles of faith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The founding of the fourteen monasteries that operated for varying lengths of time in Iceland are in most cases known, but their dissolution differs. It is, however, known that none of them were closed due to plagues, natural disasters, or economic crises but rather because of administrative reasons. Five of the monasteries perished within a few decades; however, most of them perished because of political disputes between secular and ecclesiastical powers in Iceland during the thirteenth century. On the other hand, nine of them became highly prosperous but were dissolved following the Lutheran Reformation in the mid-sixteenth century. The truth is that monasticism vanished in Iceland with the closure of the last one in 1551, and their previous occupation was thereby discontinued. Here, an attempt will be made to obtain an overview of their dissolution, but their growth and development were in all cases dependent on the country's authorities at any given time, ecclesiastical and royal. Still, the circumstances of their dissolutions varied nonetheless between monasteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the dissolution of the monasteries in 16th century Sweden. The approximately fifty monasteries and friar's convents that existed in Sweden in the early 16th century were all dissolved over a period of about eighty years. Decisive for this development were decisions during the Diet in Västerås 1527, which decreed that monasteries that depended on tax from their estates should be subordinated under a nobleman, and that the mendicant friars should not be allowed to travel outside their convents more than ten weeks each year. Whilst most of the monasteries inhabited by monks or brothers had been dissolved before the 1560s, four female houses were still in existence at this time. These remaining nunneries were supported financially by the state, possibly to safeguard the nuns' social welfare. However, the monastic institutions were to meet a short-lived revival through the reign of King Johan III (rule 1568–1592), who not only supported them economically but also renovated a few of them and allowed Catholic priests to encourage Catholicism in Vadstena Abbey. Through this process of re-catholicizing, any prospects of creating successful Evangelical communities in Sweden were lost. The last remaining nunnery, Vadstena Abbey, was a vibrant Catholic institution when it was forced to close in 1595. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dāsarapada-s are compositions of Haridāsa-s of Karnataka. The Haridāsa-s were mainly followers of Shri Madhwacharya, who considered themselves as servants of their Supreme Lord – Hari. They composed various compositions on subjects like devotion. Their teachings covered a wide spectrum of philosophy, religion, ritual, theology, social reformation, ethical conduct etc. The purpose of these songs was to teach the common man about devotion and philosophy. They are mainly composed in simple Kannada language and few in Sanskrit. Music was used as the medium to make these ideas reach people. These were set to music and people learnt it as songs. This paper attempts to study the adaptation of a Dāsarapada in Karnataka classical music and Sugama Saṅgīta version, and to examine the musical elements of the song in both these versions. This is a case study of the Dāsarapada “Nānēke baḍavanu, nānēke paradēśi”, which has two popular versions – the Karnataka classical music, sung by M. S. Subbulakshmi and Sugama Saṅgīta version, tuned by Mysore Anantaswamy and sung by Pushpa Jagadish which was released as part of MSIL geethegalu by Lahari Bhavageethegalu & Folk – T-Series. The scope of this paper is restricted to the study of the above-mentioned two versions and the other musical adaptations of this song are not considered for this study. Data for this study comprises of recordings of the two versions of this song. Analysis has been carried out based on the following parameters – structure, melodic features, rhythmic features, instruments, synchronization of music and meaning in Karnataka classical music and Sugama Saṅgīta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper concentrates on the philosophical discourses of four thinkers – Soren Kierkegaard, M. K. Gandhi, R. D. Ranade and B. R. Ambedkar on Ethics and Religion. Soren Kierkegaard, whose journey in philosophy made him pass through the aesthetic stage to ethical stage and ultimately religious stage landing in the realm of “faith”; where an individual arrives at without any rational commitment. M. K. Gandhi, whose journey in life encompassed politics, economics, and social realms where the underlying paradigm has always been religion. He did not consider ‘truth’ and therefore ‘morality’ as segregated from religion. R. D. Ranade, while mentioning the criteria of mystical experience, very empathetically mentions that a mystic (a saint) has the element of universality, is intellectual, emotional, has the intuitive experience of ‘spiritual realization’ and cannot be devoid of morality. B. R. Ambedkar, instead of accepting Christianity or Islam, consecrated into Buddhism; that befitted Indian contextual situation critiquing the popular Brahmanism, believed that religion must be in amalgamation and consonance with reason and scientific temperament. And this criterion was fulfilled by Buddhism (indeed with other criteria). His adopting Buddhism was more of a political movement rather than spiritual; therefore, his Buddhism in the transformed format, is called Neo-Buddhism. The research article concludes by comparing these masters’ views and ideologies in the context of ‘a possibility of ethical religion’ that has appealed my conscience.

Yielding of the particulate network in colloidal gels under applied deformation is accompanied by various microstructural changes, including rearrangement, bond rupture, anisotropy, and reformation of secondary structures. While much work has been done to understand the physical underpinnings of yielding in colloidal gels, its topological origins remain poorly understood. Here, employing a series of tools from network science, we characterize the bonds using their orientation and network centrality. We find that bonds with higher centralities in the network are ruptured the most at all applied deformation rates. This suggests that a network analysis of the particulate structure can be used to predict the failure points in colloidal gels a priori. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perfluorosulfonated anionic ionomers are known for their robust ion conductivity and chemical and mechanical stability. However, the structure and transport property degradation of perfluorinated cationic polymers (PfCPs) are not well understood. Herein, we propose an ion-exchange strategy to identify the structural degradation, ion transport mechanisms, and architectural reformation of PfCPs. Particularly, we demonstrate that the utility of a –SO2–N+ strategy employing the Menshutkin reaction cannot yield reliable PfCPs and anion-exchange membranes, but can yield an unreliable zwitterionic intermediate (cations–anions molar ratio is approximately 7.6%). Moreover, the degradation products were efficiently reformed as proton exchange membranes (PEMs), and the as-reformed PEMs achieved an ion-exchange capacity (IEC) value (0.89 mmol g−1), meanwhile retaining more than 94.7% of their initial capacity. Furthermore, the fuel cell assembled with reformed PEMs displayed a power density of 0.91 Wcm−2 at 2.32 A cm−2, which was 90.1% of that of the robust perfluorosulfonic acid PEMs. Our combined findings shed some fresh light on the state of understanding of the structure–property relationship in PfCPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the abolition in 1782 several works of art owned by the Clarisses were lost. Some of them were identified in recent years; I would like to write about an other one that was found in the cloister of the Order of the Sisters of Saint Elisabeth in Bratislava. It is fairly unique because of its theme: it commemorates the escaping of the Clarisses from Stephen Bocskai's attack on Graz and Vienna in 1605, also the taking over of the reformed and stricted Regula. It was painted together with another, recently hidden picture that has since been lost almost twenty years later in 1623, most likely in the Austrian capital, when Clarisses escaped secondly to Vienna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As head pastor in Wittenberg and professor at that university during the early Reformation, Johannes Bugenhagen (1485–1558) published works spanning a variety of genres. Of all Bugenhagen's writings, however, his most popular publication was a harmonization of the Gospel accounts of Christ's passion and resurrection. This project spanned Bugenhagen's career, starting in 1519 and continuing with revised published editions over the next thirty-five years. In all, over seventy editions of Bugenhagen's Gospel harmony were published in his lifetime and beyond, appearing in Latin, High German, Low German, Danish, Icelandic, and Polish. While some of the reasons why this significant text is not well known today are discussed here, this essay also describes many of the valuable historical and theological insights that Bugenhagen's harmonization contains as an influential work of the early Lutheran Reformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines religious syncretism in India's Northeast with reference to reformed Heraka. It is perceived, contact of different cultural practices enforces natives to reinterpret and redefined beliefs and practices in conformation to appropriated culture. Historically, birth of Heraka was rooted in resistance against the British occupation, Christian proselytisation and intrusion of other neighbouring communities. To retain indigenous religious practices, reformation took its turn with introduction of new set of rules. In the flow, Heraka appropriated temple, idol and pilgrimage culture into its fold, and scrutinised Christian proselytisation under its radar. In its essence, Heraka is the by-product of Paupai-tenase, Christianity and Hinduism. This paper assesses through constructivist paradigm on how Heraka is perceived to be or not to be of indigenous religion. It is argued that there is a dilution in claim reformed religion, though, has reformed old practices, but with amalgamation in the construction of syncretic religious identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The paper engages with the devastating consequences that the belated neoliberal reformation of the Greek welfare state – initiated after the 2009 economic crisis – had on income inequality and poverty. • It is argued that these reformations rely on the manner with which Greece has developed its relations within the global – mostly European – capitalist division of labor as a peripheral economy. Greece's economic affairs are approached as intimately conditioned by a multifaceted institutional structure of dependencies that outstrips its ability to exercise economic policy for its own interest. • Essentially built upon premises of a core-periphery dependency paradigm, the paper takes the view that since the onset of the 2008 global crisis, the EU anti-labor agenda is extended to country-members – such as Greece – which were long regarded as being poorly integrated or "lagged behind". The large-scale reformation of the Greek welfare state is exemplified and a novel interpretation of estimating the country's poverty level with attention paid to the ineffectiveness of the implemented reforms, is offered. • New estimation methods show the failure of neoliberal welfare policy in assisting even the most vulnerable members of the population, a process known as "targeting". This last part is further supported by genuine evidence drawn from several waves of microdata surveys (see Section 6) illustrating the uneven relation between Greece and the EU. • Three different measures of poverty and efficiency are presented based on original analyses of the official datasets, showing the extent of the overall income loss and the widening gap between Greece and the EU. The paper holds a critical view on EU austerity policies, with particular emphasis given to Greece. It is maintained that the main causes for the implementation of neoliberal reforms should be examined in the manner with which the Greek economy has developed in relation with the European capitalist division of labor as a peripheral economy. Greece is approached as intimately conditioned by a multifaceted institutional structure of dependencies that outstrips the country's ability to exercise economic policy for its own social interests. Essentially built upon the premises of a core-periphery dependency paradigm, the periodic post-war reconfigurations of the EU architectural design offered enough room to the formation of a stricter policy framework along these lines. By developing a set of differentiated indices on European poverty, the devastating consequences of the belated neoliberal reformation of the country's welfare state are highlighted. All calculations are based on microdata sets of EUSILC surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hungarian parliament ratified the Fundamental Law of Hungary on the 25th of April 2011, and adopted a new church policy the very same year: Act CCVI of 2011 on the right to freedom of conscience and religion and the legal status of churches, denominations and religious communities, also knowns as the Ecclesiastical Act, short: EHTV. The preamble of the Fundamental Law refers to the Christian traditions of Hungary and the role Christianity played in binding the nation together. The in-effect preamble of the EHTV declares the ideological neutrality of the state and establishes four different legal classifications and rules for religious communities. In 2018 (7th amendment), Article R) of the Fundamental Law was expanded by some paragraphs. The terms "Christianity" and "creation" (genesis) were newly introduced into the Fundamental Law only through the amendments. In my study I wish to talk in the context of historical lineage about the 7th and 9th amendments, and their relevancy to fundamental rights in the jurisprudential (legal theory and practice) context of a neutral or Christian state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Everyday identity change is common after conflict, as people attempt to move away from oppositional group relations and closed group boundaries. This article asks how it scales up and out to impact these group relations and boundaries, and what stops this? Theoretically, the article focusses on complex oppositional configurations of groupness, where relationality and feedback mechanisms (rather than more easily measured variables) are crucial to change and continuity, and in which moral authority is a key node of reproduction. It uses the normatively weighted concept of transformation to augment existing research on boundary and identity change, while elaborating it to recognise the role of everyday agency in furthering change and moral inertia in impeding it. Substantively, the article compares the processes of everyday transformation of groupness in three cases that are very similar in historical depth, social embeddedness, symbolic opposition and everyday change, but very different in time-scale and with contrasting outcomes: successful transformation of reformation religious groupness; partial transformation of national groupness; and failed transformation of complexly-configured ethnic groupness in Northern Ireland. This allows tracing of the patterns and mechanisms at work. To anticipate, the article argues that everyday identity change can erode the moral authority of groupness. Its impact is generational and dependent on institutional linkages. The article highlights the importance of moral mechanisms as drivers of and obstacles to change; and it suggests ways that the obstacles could be overcome by radical policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the transformation of religious pilgrimages into modern travel experiences. Topics include the historical end of England's pilgrimage era with Henry VIII's actions against St. Thomas à Becket, the decline of pilgrimage routes during the Protestant Reformation, and the contemporary resurgence of pilgrimages, often blending with secular adventure travel and wellness trends.

Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The history of the Reformation in the Upper Zemplin town of Stropkov has remained outsidetheinterest of history and church history. Nevertheless, Stropkov was Protestant for several decades. The establishment of the Reformation in the town was made possible by the lordship of Peter and Gábor Perényi in the second third of the 16th century. The existence of a Reformed parish is evidenced by three mentions from the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The Protestant period in the history of Stropkov ended with a change of landlords when János Pethő of Gerse became the owner of the entire estate. Baron István Pethő invited Franciscans from Poland to the town, who re-Catholicized Stropkov in a short time. The town, along with the estate, thus became the first re-Catholicized area in the Zemplin region and one of the first in the whole of Upper Hungary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally known that during the Reformation, there was no good relationship between the Protestant denominations, and rather discord and intolerance characterized the relationship between the Lutheran and Calvinist churches in particular. The same applied to the rejectionist and sometimes-persecutory attitude of the two leading Protestant doctrines towards radical tendencies. This was manifested on several levels and for different reasons. First and foremost, it was caused by theological differences, i.e. each Reformation doctrine was convinced of the sole truth of its own doctrine. These disagreements were manifested in the first joint Protestant synods and later in disputes between individual theologians, in polemical writings, but also in the denial of any unification of religions. Another important factor that influenced the bad relationship was, of course, the loss of believers. Especially the Evangelical Church, which had been established in the mid-16th century, feared that the later spreading Swiss Reformation doctrines would cause a loss of believers. However, there have been individual, local examples where different Protestant religions have been able to cooperate and ally with each other very well and profitably when mutual benefit or even existential motivation was at stake. The paper would like to outline some examples of this: the union between the Protestants and the Reformed in Zemplín County existing throughout six decades in the 17th century, the union between the Reformed Church and the Bohemian brethren concluded in 1647, and the union in the form of smooth coexistence between the Protestants and the Reformed in Košice in the first half of the 17th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1519, soil from the Campo Santo Teutonico next to St. Peter's in Rome — a burial place thought to contain earth from Jerusalem — was spread over the extramural cemetery in the Saxon town of Annaberg. This article asks how the reception of the soil from Rome was shaped by the local community and its landscape at a time of religious change. It demonstrates the potential for both positive and negative views on the part of Annaberg's citizens, arguing that these were informed not only by traditional religiosity and reform ideas, but also by the distinctive visual and material culture of a silver mining community. In this way, the article offers new perspectives on the transalpine connections of the Campo Santo Teutonico, the role of the substance of the landscape in creating and criticizing links with the Roman Church at the start of the Reformation, and the relationship between materialities of religion and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain applications are gradually receiving wide acceptance as a transformative technology that could potentially bring a reformation in the industry. Blockchain handles sensitive data through cryptography, consensus mechanism, transaction immutability, and peer‐to‐peer network to manage decentralized data features. In addition to ensuring operational efficiency, blockchain development is a complex and challenging process, which warrants further exploration. In an attempt to reduce the complexity of the development, various software methodologies have been introduced to support the development of blockchain applications systematically. It has been found that those methodologies introduced structured processes that are not suitable for software models. Moreover, all models are generic and do not take into blockchain concept as first‐class entities. Hence, there is a gap in extending and transforming the current blockchain modeling and practices when developing a blockchain application. This paper introduces a new insight and innovative methodology for blockchain‐based application development through extended agent‐oriented modeling (eAOM) to discover blockchain opportunities and contribute to the growth of the technology. With eAOM, the blockchain modeling processes start with requirement elicitation, computation independent modeling, early identification of blockchain use case, platform independent modeling, and platform specific model. A walkthrough example of a blockchain application, "win a fortune games" has showcased the feasibility of eAOM in modeling blockchain enabling application development in a systematic manner. A usability analysis is conducted among novice students to test the usability of eAOM versus original AOM in modeling blockchain application development. From the findings, 44% of the students managed to capture more than 80% of blockchain requirements through eAOM. On the other hand, 51% of the students scored between 20% and 60% of the blockchain requirement, and only 5% of the students failed to model blockchain requirements through eAOM. The results reveal the usage of the eAOM to model blockchain‐enabled application comprehensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on Yang Xuanzhi's account of the burned-down Luoyang city during the Northern Wei dynasty and contemporary archeological discoveries, this paper tries to decipher the pre-Luoyang memory and imperial identity of the Northern Wei royal family that are embedded in the urban planning of Luoyang city by understanding the reformation of Buddhist politico-religious policy through both a historical approach and literary analysis. Buddhism played a crucial role in the Northern Wei's campaign of establishing their rulership as a legitimate one from the Chinese perspective. Buddhist temples became structures where commoners interacted on a daily basis, and, in these interactions, the Xianbei rulers managed to bring multiple factors into balance: Northern Wei imperial and Chinese identities and the tension between preserving the ancestral memory and merging the Northern Wei regime into a Chinese political context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cahiers Elisabethains: A Biannual Journal of English Renaissance Studies is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article identifies a hitherto unnoticed reference to Saint Uncumber, a bearded woman martyr, in Ben Jonson's Epicene. Saint Uncumber was venerated and polemicised in England through to the seventeenth century, with her memory – and several images – persisting long after the Protestant Reformations. This article suggests that Jonson invokes Saint Uncumber as an archetype for the play's miraculous disruption of gender and frustrated marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study objective: To evaluate the efficacy and pregnancy outcomes of intrauterine balloon and intrauterine contraceptive devices in the prevention of adhesion reformation following hysteroscopic adhesiolysis in infertile women with moderate to severe intrauterine adhesion. Design: A prospective, randomized, controlled trial study. Setting: A tertiary university hospital. Patients: A total of 130 patients with moderate (American Fertility Society [AFS] score of 5–8) and severe (AFS score of 9–12) intrauterine adhesions were recruited. Interventions: 86 patients were evenly allocated to group treated with an IUD for 1 month and group treated with an IUD for 2 months. 44 patients were allocated to group treated with a Foley catheter balloon.(IUD: Yuangong IUD). Measurements and main results: The primary outcome measures were the AFS score, endometrial thickness, and pregnancy outcome. After hysteroscopy, the AFS score was significantly decreased(P<0.05), whereas endometrial thickness was significantly increased across the three groups(P<0.001). Notably, the decline in the AFS score in the balloon group was greater than that in the IUD-1-month group and IUD-2-month group(P<0.01), with no significant difference between the IUD groups(P = 0.298). Lastly, In addition, the extent of the increase in endometrial thickness(P = 0.502) and the pregnancy outcomes(P = 0.803) in the three groups were not significantly different. Conclusion: Inserting a balloon or placing an IUD for one or two months can effectively lower the risk of adhesion recurrence and restore the shape of the uterine cavity. While the therapeutic effect of the balloon was superior to that of the IUD, no significant differences were observed in the one-month and two-month IUD groups. Trial registration: This research was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (http://www.chictr.org.cn/enIndex.aspx); Clinical trial registry identification number: ChiCTR-IOR-17,011,943 (http://www.chictr.org.cn/showprojen.aspx?proj=17979). Date of trial registration: July 11, 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we successfully inhibited the preferential homodimerization and C−Si/Si−H bond cross‐exchange of benzosilacyclobutenes and monohydro‐silacyclobutanes and achieved the first highly selective C−Si/C−Si bond cross‐exchange reaction by deliberately tuning the Ni‐catalytic system, which constitutes a powerful and atom‐economical ring expansion method for preparing medium‐sized cyclic compounds bearing two silicon atoms at the ring junction, which are otherwise inaccessible. The DFT calculation explicitly elucidated the pivotal role of Si−H bond at silacyclobutanes and the high ring strain of two substrates in realizing the two C−Si bonds cleavage and reformation in the catalytic cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guy de Brès, reformer of the southern Low Countries, was tried and condemned for heresy in 1567. In prison he was interrogated by François Richardot, bishop of Arras. De Brès' notes and letters were published posthumously as Procedures tenues. As he had written Le baston de la foy chrestienne as a guide for the Reformed who had to defend their faith, now de Brès had to defend himself and use his knowledge of the Church Fathers. The critical edition of this work will show what material from Le baston returns and what knowledge he acquired that goes beyond his own anthology. We analyze his use of Scholastic authorities, of the first eucharistic controversy of Radbertus and Ratramus, and of a specific edition of the Opus imperfectum on the Gospel of Matthew, published in Antwerp and thus accessible to the itinerant preacher. De Brès had recourse to a range of treatises on the Lord's Supper, which were translated into French, from various reformers. He had also developed the skills to go beyond works of reference, study a contemporaneous edition of a Church Father, and make an informed decision of its value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On occasion of the celebrations for the fifth centenary of Guy de Brès' birth, as well as the publication of the first volume of the critical edition of his theological works, this article aims at analysing the epistle-like preface and Catalogue des Docteurs et Conciles included in de Brès' first theological/polemical treatise, entitled Le baston de la foy chrestienne (first published in 1555). The preface is placed within the context of anti-Anabaptist polemics and in continuity with previous Reformed efforts to convince civil authorities across Europe that the Reformed church did not harbour seditious troublemakers or detested heretics; the Catalogue of doctors and councils, alongside the preface, constitutes a summary of the apologetical and polemical reply Le baston expressed against a Roman Catholic work by Nicole Grenier entitled Le bouclier de la foy and directed against Reformed believers and their doctrine. While the patristic and canonical sources used by de Brès for the writing of Le baston remain to be fleshed out more precisely, the critical edition of Le baston will shed new light on this and other matters, representing a further step towards the understanding of the life and theology of a key protagonist of the European Reformation of the mid sixteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Juan Pérez de Pineda (ca. 1500–1567) was one of Spain's most prolific reformers, and yet theological analysis of his work often dismisses the originality of his corpus. This article returns to Pérez's two primary theological treatises to reconsider Pérez's relationship to Neoplatonism by examining Pérez's vision of mystical union in the context of consolation narratives. Pérez published his Brief Treatise of Doctrine and Consolatory Epistle from exile in Geneva, in the same year his colleagues were executed in the notorious autos-de-fe often credited with eradicating Protestantism from Spain. Taken together, these works reveal Pérez's ambivalence towards Neoplatonic imagery, adapting and rejecting language of ascent in his description of mystical union as a present reality, unimpeded by the flesh. Noting a curious absence of Neoplatonic strategies common across humanist, mystical, and Reformed traditions, Pérez's unique rejection of language of purification of the soul is poised to grant insight, with future study, into the intersections and transformations of Reformation theology in the Spanish milieux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modern edition of the Greek New Testament, the Nestle-Aland, prints Romans 5:1 as follows: Δικαιωθέντες οὖν ἐκ πίστεως εἰρήνην ἔχομεν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν διὰ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ("Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ"). The main verb is ἔχομεν ("we have [peace]"). However, is this the right verb form? The person who copied the text (from an earlier, now lost manuscript) in the two fourth-century manuscripts, Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, wrote the hortative subjunctive ἔχωμεν ("let us have"). A later, correcting, hand changed it to the indicative ἔχομεν ("we have")—present in the Nestle-Aland. The subjunctive introduces an element of uncertainty about whether Christians (already) enjoy peace with God. This question relates to the doctrine of justification—one of the most divisive topics of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. The indicative variant supports the Lutheran side, while the subjunctive conforms to the Catholic viewpoint. Instead of the exclusive choice of one variant or the other, this essay proposes that future editions of the Greek New Testament print a neologism that combines both variants into one, ἔχôμεν ("let us have" and "we have"). M. C. Escher's lithograph Drawing Hands is used to show that the correcting and the original hands (in Sinaiticus and Vaticanus) are on the same level (in a tangled hierarchy). Finally, J. Derrida's neologism "otobiography" is used to demonstrate that the omicron and the omega are interwoven in Rom. 5:1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In post-democratic development, decentralization is considered as a way to realize both economic and social equality. This is stated in the Indonesian constitution and is the aim of ongoing reforms. In line with the many post-reformation divisions of the new autonomous regions, it transpired that there were many problems regarding the strengthening of local centralization, which identified local regimes in these new autonomous regions. This study focuses on how the segregation that occurs within regional autonomy leads to an arena of power for the local regime in producing local power, and has even been made the symbol of families and groups. This symbol of power has regenerated from the beginnings of the post-reform period until the simultaneous regional elections in 2020. This research uses a case study approach to assess three new autonomous regions after the reformation: the Riau Islands, South Sumatra, and Banten. A comparison of the power arena model is conducted in each region, and these findings explain how the strengthening of the local regime is regenerated through various forms of power. This research is also able to reveal that regional expansion is a contestation arena for the perpetuation of local regimes in several regions in Indonesia, and to explain this phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1680 the controversy that followed two high-profile London sermons brought into the public arena bitter divisions among the clergy of the Church of England about the nature of their Church. Was the Church of England a society of Christians united by faith and governed as seemed appropriate to English conditions? Or was it one local part of a distinct and sacred institution, the mechanism of eternal salvation, established by Christ and organised and immutable according to his will? Those who held the second view (one of them was instantly characterised as 'the High-Church-Man') damned their opponents as Erastians, Hobbists and latitudinarians, and accused them of betraying the Church to the state and the nonconformists. Their insistence on the separate identity and authority of the Church led some of them into schism after the revolution of 1688–9, when the state brusquely asserted its power over the Church and removed and replaced several bishops. The controversy of the 1680s suggests that the Restoration Church was much less coherent and united than some influential accounts have suggested, and that divisions within it were not the product of the Glorious Revolution and the later growth of a 'High Church' party. There were already conflicting conceptions of what the Church of England actually was, and crucial differences over how souls could get to heaven. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Renaissance & Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme is the property of Iter Canada and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Renaissance & Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme is the property of Iter Canada and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The appropriate catalysts can accelerate the reaction rate and effectively boost the efficient conversion of various molecules, which is of great importance in the study of chemistry, chemical industry, energy, materials and environmental science. Therefore, efficient, environmentally friendly, and easy to operate synthesis methods have been used to prepare various types of catalysts. Although previous studies have reported the synthesis and characterization of the aforementioned catalysts, more still remain in trial and error methods, without in-depth consideration and improvement of traditional synthesis methods. Here, we comprehensively summarize and compare the preparation methods of the trial-and-error synthesis strategy, structure-activity relationships and density functional theory (DFT) guided catalysts rational design for nanomaterials and atomically dispersed catalysts. We also discuss in detail the utilization of the nanomaterials and single atom catalysts for converting small molecules (H2O, O2, CO2, N2, etc.) into value-added products driven by electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, and thermocatalysis. Finally, the challenges and outlooks of mass preparation and production of efficient and green catalysts through conventional trial and error synthesis and DFT theory are featured in accordance with its current development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]