Roman Religion Book Review

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Podcast: Scotus, History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

Scotus argues that morality is a matter of freely choosing to follow God’s freely issued commands.

Podcast: Catholic, Christian, Presence

Beginning with the Catholic doctrine of the literal, embodied presence of Christ, scholar of religion Robert Orsi imagines an alternative to the future of religion that early moderns proclaimed was inevitable. The gods really present, in the Catholic sense, were translated into metaphors and symptoms, and into functions of the social and political. Presence became evidence of superstition, of the infantile and irrational. History and Presence (Harvard University Press, 2016) confronts this intellectual heritage, proposing instead a model for the study of religion that begins with humans and gods present to each other in everyday life. These intersubjective encounters are always, Robert Orsi writes, an engagement with oneself and ones world in all modalities of being. Along the way, History and Presence examines Marian apparitions, the cult of the saints, relations with the dead, clerical sexual abuse, and a host of other events and encounters.

Robert Orsi holds the Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies at Northwestern University in Chicago.

October 14, 2016 at 3:15 PM
22.7 MB (Audio)

Flight Night Samoa

Samoa

Flight night is a local production of live interviews at the airport. There are two flights weekly to and from Honolulu and mainland. The airport is the place to hang out. It's where you see who's leaving island and who's returning from a trip.

Ian Hunter, Oldest Son, Steve, October 2016, Horses Mouth

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Ian Hunter, YUI Orta Interview with Scott Muni and Mick Ronson

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Islam Q & A

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Barbara Jordan on the Border

 

https://www.numbersusa.com/resource-article/barbara-jordans-vision-immigration-reform

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfuxXSxf5-4

Science, Technology, and Society

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/wiki/Science,_technology_and_society

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Ian Hunter - Baby's Got A Gun

 Scottish band (Babys got A Gun) supported David Bowie years ago (Tin Machine) and they had a song with some Mott the Hoople references in it.

https://youtu.be/ZWbhNct9a8o

History: Brother Francis

-Brother_Francis_October_2016

Introduction to the Ancient Greeks

BMCR 2016.10.02 on the BMCR blog Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2016.10.02 Edith Hall, Introducing the Ancient Greeks: From Bronze Age Seafarers to Navigators of the Western Mind.   New York; London:  W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.  Pp. xxviii, 305.  ISBN 9780393351163.  $16.95 (pb).    Reviewed by Christopher Gribbin, University of Melbourne (cgribbin@unimelb.edu.au) Preview Introducing the ancient Greeks undertakes the ambitious task of describing ancient Greek society in the 2,000 years between the Mycenaeans and the triumph of Christianity (roughly 1600 BC to AD 400). Although Hall does not state her purpose within the book, it is clearly intended for a popular rather than a specialised audience. A number of reviews in the general media indicate that she has successfully catered to that market and it is easy to see why. Hall’s writing style is clear and accessible. She adopts an almost conversational flow, with the discussion moving from one topic to another in a naturalistic, story-telling manner. She makes sense of the vast mass of people, places, events and social change within the 2,000-year ambit of the book by providing snapshots of 10 different points in time. For each period, she provides an overview of key developments and discusses a number of different events, people or texts. Hall makes regular use of primary sources, usually paraphrasing or quoting them in short bursts. She also makes reference to several objects which illuminate particular points, though unfortunately few of them are illustrated within the book. The book focuses on the nature of Greek society in each period rather than the details of history. Key historic events are noted, but usually at a high level (the Persian Wars, for example, are covered in six paragraphs split across three chapters —pp.117f., 133f., 159). Literature is the predominant focus in most chapters, with Hall providing a number of outlines of ancient texts. These outlines have been done very skilfully, with each outline providing a flavour of the text, while illustrating the period under discussion and enticing readers to go and discover the text for themselves. Hall’s approach makes for an interesting and engaging work which is readily accessible by someone with no background in the subject matter. She manages to convey a great deal of information in a gentle way. The division into ten periods communicates the key changes across the period and gives the reader enough insight into each period to make it tangible. The examples used to illustrate each period are apposite and demonstrate the breadth of Greek culture and what remains of it. Of course, there is much left unsaid. A project of this type is necessarily an act of construction almost as much as description—such a project requires decisions about which people and times to include as Greek and which parts of their culture to explore. Inevitably, there are things that are included which other people would leave out and things left out which others would include. Hall rarely gets into an explicit discussion of such matters. Similarly, she shies away from getting into the details of academic debate about issues. Sometimes she gently notes the existence of academic debate on a point, simply stating that we are not certain about a topic (without bogging the reader down in the details). At other times, she glosses over debated issues without comment and provides a best guess (see, for example, the discussion of hoplite warfare on pp.174-5, which makes no mention of debates about the othismos or casualty rates). Of course, the book is only intended to be an introduction. One can hardly expect a 275-page discussion of 2,000 years to be a comprehensive analysis of all aspects of Greek society and all the debates associated with them. Indeed, detailed methodological discussion or complex philological debates would get in the way of engaging the general reader. Endnotes might have been used to note some debates and point the interested reader in the direction of further reading. This appears to have been eschewed in favour of a large bibliography (pp.279-87), though the works included in the bibliography are quite varied in terms of accessibility—highly academic works sit next to more introductory works without any differentiation. This mixed nature may make it a bit unhelpful for laypeople wanting to start their exploration of Greek culture and I think that this is something of a missed opportunity. Hall starts the book by setting out what she sees as the essence of Greek culture. She identifies ten characteristics of the Greeks that she contends can be seen throughout the period covered by her book. In her view, the Greeks were seagoing; suspicious of authority; individualistic; inquiring; open to new ideas; witty; competitive; admired excellence in talented people; were wildly articulate; and were addicted to pleasure (p.1). As she points out in the preface (p. xv), none of these characteristics is unique to the Greeks, nor are they universally shared throughout all of the different Greek communities across the 2,000-year focus of the book. Nonetheless, Hall contends that, “most of the ancient Greeks, however scattered across time and space, shared most of these qualities most of the time” (p. xv). The list of characteristics and associated discussion are a real strength of the book. The characteristics provide an overall theme that runs through the whole book. They pop up regularly in the following chapters and act as a framework on which readers can build their understanding. Of course, the list is not exhaustive of all characteristics which one might attribute to the Greeks. There is certainly scope for debate about whether they are necessarily the ten most salient characteristics for understanding Greek society. I would, for example, have wanted to include “exploitative” in the list, given the dependence on slavery, unpaid female labour and the forcible acquisition of land and resources from non-Greeks, not to mention the Athenian Empire. Similarly, it is surprising to me that nothing about religiosity made the list, given its prevalence in so many aspects of Greek life (and its regular discussion in this book). The list may also suffer from a degree of Athenocentrism (though the book as a whole does not). The world of Classical Athens seems to have a privileged position, with Hall describing it as “perhaps” the only period and place to demonstrate “ample endowment with every one of the ten characteristics” (p.127). The Spartans, in contrast, are characterised by Hall as “very strange Greeks” who fail to embody several of the ten characteristics (p.178). These assessments may tell us more about the selection of characteristics than about the nature of Athenian or Spartan society. There is ample room for debate about the ten characteristics. But the characteristics that Hall has selected reflect the focus of her book and the aspects of Greek culture than she wants to share. For example, the fact that there is very limited discussion of the Greek economy may be one reason why “exploitative” did not make the list. It is a virtue of the book that, by including the list of characteristics up front, Hall explicitly identifies the sort of topics that she will focus on. The fact that the list is contestable highlights another great advantage of it—it can be used as a starting point for further discussion. I can certainly see the list being useful in that way as a teaching tool. Following this introduction to Greek culture as a whole, the remaining 10 chapters of the book discuss the development of Greek society over the period of focus. Chapter 1 (“Seafaring Mycenaeans”) seeks to understand Mycenaean culture. Hall starts with the world depicted by Homer, which she sees as representing the historic Mycenaean world, albeit “imaginatively re-created” by Greeks in the eighth century BC (pp.31-2). She then moves on to the evidence about the Mycenaeans from Linear B and archaeology. She concludes the chapter with the Dark Age, though mostly discusses those communities that were relatively thriving during that period, rather than focusing on decline. Chapter 2 (“The Creation of Greece”) explores the eighth century BC, primarily by looking at the poems of Homer and Hesiod. Hall provides an overview of the poems and explores how they not only reflect various aspects of life in the eighth century but also shape the identity of the Greeks going forward. Chapter 3 (“Frogs and Dolphins Round the Pond”) looks at the seventh and sixth centuries. The discussion includes colonisation, tyrants and the poets of the era, along with the symposium and the role of the dolphin in Greek society. Chapter 4 (“Inquiring Ionians”) looks at Greek philosophy, science and medicine. The chapter provides a brief overview of each of the major early thinkers, including the Hippocratics. Hall seeks to explain the Ionian intellectual revolution, with a particular interest in contacts with other cultures. She finishes with a discussion of Herodotus, focusing on the form of his work and its relation to earlier literature and thinkers, rather than the content. Chapter 5 (“The Open Society of Athens”) looks at Athens in fifth and fourth centuries BC, which Hall sees as Greek civilisation’s “apex of creativity” (p.127). The chapter focuses on Athenian democracy and the Peloponnesian War, while also touching on other aspects of Athenian society, including the figures of Socrates and Plato. In Chapter 6 (“Spartan Inscrutability”), Hall tries to reconstruct Spartan society. She looks not only at the military culture, but at other aspects of Spartan society, such as religion and the lives of women, helots and the perioikoi. She is very careful in this chapter to note the limitations of our sources. Chapter 7 (“The Rivalrous Macedonians”) looks at the Macedonians, primarily considering Alexander’s conquests and the Wars of the Successors. Hall discusses some of the ancient controversy about how Greek the Macedonians were, ultimately concluding that they were Greeks. The chapter is also an opportunity to look at Aristotle and make some points about Greek religion. Chapter 8 (“God-Kings and Libraries”) explores the Hellenistic kingdoms, with a particular focus on Ptolemaic Egypt. Hall sees this era as characterised by monarchs competing “for the status of rulers of the most impressive empire” (p.205) and she discusses examples of this, such as Ptolemaic spectacle, the Great Altar of Pergamon and the Library of Alexandria. Much of the chapter is taken up with a discussion of Hellenistic literature, especially poetry. Chapter 9 (“Greek Minds and Roman Power”) looks at the Greek-speaking intellectuals of the Roman Empire. For Hall, “Greek culture offered expressive ways to talk about the superpower that now ran the world” (p.250). A wide range of Greek authors and their works is considered, from Polybius to Galen to Epictetus. Hall also considers non-Greeks who wrote in Greek, such as Josephus and Lucian of Samosata. In each case, Hall provides an outline of the author’s work and consequently builds a picture of the great diversity of intellectual endeavour during the Roman period. Chapter 10 (“Pagan Greeks and Christians”) looks at the rise and dominance of Christianity in the Greek-speaking world. The focus is on the Greeks’ reactions to Christianity, from the first to fourth centuries AD. Neoplatonism is also featured along the way. For Hall, Christianity (and not Roman imperialism) “put an end to the ancient Greeks, with their caustic wit, sculpted gods, inquiring, independent minds, philosophy, and love of sensual pleasures” (p.253). On this basis, the book ends with the fourth century AD. Overall, this book sets out to be an introduction to the ancient Greeks and it achieves that aim admirably. There’s no paradigm-shifting new interpretation of Greek culture or history that will change academic perspectives. But the book presents an accessible, entertaining and thoughtful analysis of Greek society. It paints a lively picture of a culture and I would have no hesitation recommending it to somebody wanting an entry point to understanding ancient Greece.  Read comments on this review or add a comment on the BMCR blog Home Read Latest Archives BMCR Blog About BMCR Review for BMCR Commentaries Support BMCR

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5 Minutes: Tools and Tips for Leveraging Those Critical 300 Seconds!

—By Jim Smith, President and CEO of Jim Smith Jr. International

5 Minutes: Tools and Tips for Leveraging Those Critical 300 Seconds!

—By Jim Smith, President and CEO of Jim Smith Jr. International

1. Maintain or lift self-esteem.
2. Prepare audience for an informational and transformational session.
3. Create an empowering environment.





5-minutes:-tools-and-tips-for-leveraging-those-critical-300-seconds

Pearson International Education

For

Lemma General Education

Slide 1

What will I teach, and why is it interesting or relevant? How will people use what they learn?

Transcript

    Why are all students required to take courses in the humanities, history, philosophy, or religion?
    A college degree means something and it informs a potential employer that as an individual you have more to offer an organization.
    Holding a college degree is much more than just job training. You have a broad range of knowledge to draw from in order to make statements about areas outside your professional competence.
    Another reason is that studying fields outside of your professional competence enriches your personal life.
    Finally, the 21st century workplace is diverse and global. A person who is prepared for globalism is much more likely to be successful. 

Slide 2

Describe the concept taught.

Transcript

    Unfortunately, for most advanced K-12 students and lower-division undergraduates, the design of most courses do not match the user's experience. I propose the Lemma way.  

Slide 3

This is an example that the audience can relate to.

Transcript

    In a typical course the design of the class content will introduce the student to the Code of Hammurabi. For example, they might be asked why did humans adopt a written law code? Could there be any upside if the laws were harsh and sometimes unfair? 

Slide 4

Connect the example to the idea and explain how it applies.

Transcript

    A Lemma solution takes the standard Code of Hammurabi example but allows the student's experience to be paramount in a non-linear technology development. A technology tree permits options for a student to choose their own path to development. Technology trees are evolutionary tree diagrams that simulate the progress of technology in a Lemma course but in a less deterministic manner than traditional courses. 

Slide 5

Here is a scenario problem to let the audience apply what they have learned.

Transcript

    Let us say for example that a student thought building materials was a higher priority to develop as opposed to a law code that arose from writing, and before that a priesthood, which itself was preceded by myths. For this learner, mining led to bronze working, which led to iron working, and culminated in a compass.
   
Slide 6

Summary

Summarize the key questions as a takeaway to remember.

Transcript

    Which is the better technology tree to follow? Is starting from mining to result in a compass better than a myth which led to the Law Code of Hammurabi?    
    In any case, the student has options to decide from in order to more clearly understand the contingency of choice and technology development.
    Which would you choose? Which is better? The learner decides.

A learner should grasp both the contingency of choice and the complexity of civilizations.

Here are two options for a technology tree decision:


Option A


A student might think that building materials was a high priority for a civilization to develop.


Mining


Bronze working


Iron working


Compass


Option B


On the other hand, a learner might think that myths to explain the origins of a cultural practice or natural phenomenon is significant.


Myths


Priesthood


Writing


Code of Hammurabi


Option A
Prehistoric mining

Since the beginning of civilization, some people might have noticed the elements around them: stone, ceramics, and, later, metals found close to the Earth's surface. These elements were used to make early tools and weapons which appear crucial for any early civilization.


Do you think this is a priority and would you choose this path of development?

Good choice!

Consequence:

Bronze working

Mining allows your workers to increase the production of elements from the earth, chop forests to reach those elements, and encourages the construction of other improvements.

Mining leads to bronze working and the Bronze Age which is characterized by smelting copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing. According to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia (cuneiform) and Egypt (hieroglyphs) developed the earliest viable writing systems.

Consequence:

Iron Working

Your choice reveals the importance of iron and allows your workers to chop jungle, clearing the geography of your region so other improvements can be constructed. It also allows you to build the spearman which is a military unit strong against mounted enemies.


Since you chose bronze working this led to iron working. Ferrous metallurgy involves processes and alloys based on iron. It began far back in prehistory. The earliest surviving iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ores began, but by the end of the 2nd millennium BC iron was being produced from iron ores from China to Africa south of the Sahara. The use of wrought iron (worked iron) was known by the 1st millennium BC. Steel (with a carbon content between pig iron and wrought iron) was first produced in antiquity as an alloy. Its process of production, Wootz, was exported before the 4th century BC to ancient China, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Archaeological evidence of cast iron appears in 5th century BC China. Iron working allows you to build the swordsman which is an extremely powerful melee unit.

Consequence:

Compass

Your development of iron working led to the important discovery of the compass. A compass is an instrument used for navigation and orientation that shows direction relative to the geographic "cardinal directions", or "points". The magnetic compass was first invented as a device for divination as early as the Chinese Han Dynasty (since about 206 BC). The compass allows you to build the Galleass, the first ranged naval unit, though still dependent on a sail-oar combination and the Galleass can't enter deep ocean; however, it possesses an on-board projectile launcher, which allows it to attack with impunity from a distance, both in the sea and on land.

Option B
Myths

A myth is any traditional story consisting of events that are ostensibly historical, though often supernatural, explaining the origins of a cultural practice or natural phenomenon. A myth also can be a story to explain why something exists. Myths also contribute to and express a culture's systems of thought and values.

Do you think this is a priority and would you choose this path of development?

Good choice!

Consequence:

Priesthood

Myths led to a priesthood and in historical polytheism, a priest administers the sacrifice to a deity, often in highly elaborate ritual. In the Ancient Near East, the priesthood also acted on behalf of the deities in managing their property. In Ancient Greece, some priestesses such as Pythia, priestess at Delphi, acted as oracles. Your people are united by a common story and destiny. Rituals need to be remembered and passed on and you are in harmony with the gods and nature.

Consequence:

Writing

The priesthood led to the need to record and remember important information through writing. Writing is not a language but a form of technology that developed as tools developed with human society. The motivations for writing include publication, storytelling, correspondence, and diaries. Writing allows you to develop science and public knowledge in a library, helping your civilization research new technologies more quickly. Around the 4th millennium BCE, the complexity of trade and administration in Mesopotamia outgrew human memory, and writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting transactions in a permanent form. In both ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica writing may have evolved through calendrics and a political necessity for recording historical and environmental events. Writing has been instrumental in keeping history, maintaining culture, dissemination of knowledge through the media and the formation of legal systems.

Consequence:

Code of Hammurabi

Writing led to the declaration of a public and universal law code. The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian law code of ancient Mesopotamia, dating back to about 1754 BC. It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. The code consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" (lex talionis) as graded depending on social status, of slave versus free man. Nearly one-half of the code deals with matters of contract, establishing, for example, the wages to be paid to an ox driver or a surgeon. Other provisions set the terms of a transaction, establishing the liability of a builder for a house that collapses, for example, or property that is damaged while left in the care of another. A third of the code addresses issues concerning household and family relationships such as inheritance, divorce, paternity, and sexual behavior. Only one provision appears to impose obligations on an official; this provision establishes that a judge who reaches an incorrect decision is to be fined and removed from the bench permanently.

Summary


Which is the better technology tree to follow? Is starting from mining to result in a compass better than a myth which led to the Law Code of Hammurabi?

In any case, the student has options to decide from in order to more clearly understand the contingency of choice during technology development.

Which would you choose? Which is better? The learner decides.

SAMPLE TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART ONE THE ANCIENT WORLD AND THE CLASSICAL PAST PREHISTORY TO 200 CE

1 The Rise of Culture: From Forest to Farm

2 The Ancient Near East: Power and Social Order

3 The Stability of Ancient Egypt: Flood and Sun

4 The Aegean World and the Rise of Greece: Trade, War, and Victory

5 Golden Age Athens and the Hellenic World: The School of Hellas

6 Rome: Urban Life and Imperial Majesty

7 Emerging Empires in the East: Urban Life and Imperial Majesty in China and India

PART TWO THE MEDIEVAL WORLD AND THE SHAPING OF CULTURE 200 CE–1400

8 The Flowering of Christianity: Faith and the Power of Belief in the Early First Millennium

9 The Rise and Spread of Islam: A New Religion

10 Fiefdom and Monastery, Pilgrimage and Crusade: The Early Medieval World in Europe

11 Centers of Culture: Court and City in the Larger World

12 The Gothic Style: Faith and Knowledge in an Age of Inquiry

13 Siena and Florence in the Fourteenth Century: Toward a New Humanism

PART THREE THE RENAISSANCE AND THE AGE OF ENCOUNTER 1400–1600

14 Florence and the Early Renaissance: Humanism in Italy

15 The High Renaissance in Rome and Venice: Papal Patronage and Civic Pride

16 The Renaissance in the North: Between Wealth and Want

17 The Reformation: A New Church and the Arts

18 Encounter and Confrontation: The Impact of Increasing Global Interaction

19 England in the Tudor Age: “This Other Eden”

20 The Early Counter-Reformation and Mannerism: Restraint and Invention

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