Divine GuidancePub Date : 2020-02-20DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0014
J. Jillions
{"title":"Neither Jew nor Greek","authors":"J. Jillions","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0014","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter shows how issues of decisions, divine guidance, discernment, and delusion are woven throughout 1 Corinthians. Paul’s community was shaped by Greco-Roman and Jewish views, but he presents a distinctive new way based on the Cross. As he himself told them, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). Identification with the crucified and risen Christ gave access to the Spirit and a life of communion with God in various ways: through the scriptures (reinterpreted in the light of Christ), the liturgical life of the community (especially baptism and the Lord’s Supper), tradition, preaching, apostles and community leaders, service, co-suffering, and, above all, love. But this does not eclipse individual divine communion, calling, and discernment. Nor does it exclude rational thought, which in Paul’s approach is equally illumined by divine guidance to integrate rational and mystical.","PeriodicalId":417972,"journal":{"name":"Divine Guidance","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125779261","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Divine GuidancePub Date : 2020-02-20DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0009
J. Jillions
{"title":"The Jewish Community","authors":"J. Jillions","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter introduces Jewish approaches to divine guidance. Corinth was a leading community of the Jewish diaspora and maintained close connections with Jews elsewhere, especially in Jerusalem and Rome. There was a variety of “Judaisms” in this period, but their common focus was on the written Torah and the oral tradition of interpretation. God’s guidance is therefore closely linked to the community’s understanding of how God speaks over time through the Hebrew Bible and the oral law. Most Jews did not see the scriptures as having a life independent of the community’s inspired guidance in the present. This allowed for a degree of fluidity and changing interpretation, as witnessed in the Greek Septuagint and the books of mixed canonical status that came to be known as the Apocrypha. Of these, Tobit, Judith, and Susanna give particular insight into Jewish understanding of divine guidance.","PeriodicalId":417972,"journal":{"name":"Divine Guidance","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121224373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Divine GuidancePub Date : 2020-02-20DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0002
J. Jillions
{"title":"Roman Corinth","authors":"J. Jillions","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter gives the historical background of Corinth, its destruction by Roman forces in 146 BCE, and its establishment as a model Roman colony in 44 BCE. When Paul was there in the mid-first century it was a bustling crossroads of commerce and ideas. Archeology shows that Corinthian culture was still feeling the effects of the Roman Revolution under Augustus, which brought a distinctly Roman emphasis to all aspects of religion and society. Augustus himself had been very conscious of divine signs surrounding his elevation and rule. This had a marked effect on attitudes toward divine guidance in public worship and in household piety. In settings both public and private close observance of the religious traditions of Rome (whether or not one believed in them) was viewed as essential to Roman unity and prosperity. This piety was self-consciously Roman, emphasizing simplicity, virtue, and service to the community and state.","PeriodicalId":417972,"journal":{"name":"Divine Guidance","volume":"218 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115490562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Divine GuidancePub Date : 2020-02-20DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0010
J. Jillions
{"title":"Philo","authors":"J. Jillions","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"Philo of Alexandria (c. 15 BCE–50 CE) was a contemporary of Paul and a leading representative of Hellenistic Judaism. Although there are continuing debates over how well he represents mainstream Jewish thought, he saw himself as faithful to the Torah and Jewish tradition. He regarded his faith, rooted in the revelation of the God of Israel, as all-encompassing and therefore capable of finding common ground with truth in Greek philosophy. Spiritual reinterpretation of Abraham, Moses, and other figures in the Hebrew Bible is fundamental to his approach, and he sees biblical study as inseparable from communion with God, who illumines the reader. He was especially impressed with the Theraputae, a quasi-monastic Egyptian Jewish community where such study was at the heart of life. Philo is also profoundly aware of God’s presence, providence, and guidance in human events of all kinds, not just in scripture.","PeriodicalId":417972,"journal":{"name":"Divine Guidance","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132038079","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Divine GuidancePub Date : 2020-01-24DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt1j5dfrf.22
J. Jillions
{"title":"Divine Guidance","authors":"J. Jillions","doi":"10.2307/j.ctt1j5dfrf.22","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1j5dfrf.22","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter compares and contrasts the approaches to divine guidance in the Greco-Roman, Jewish, and early Christian worlds of Paul’s Corinth and their relevance for the present. Their debates about healthy and unhealthy religious life and rational thought remain remarkably contemporary. The chapter considers modern religious experience, both positive and negative, including a seminal event in the life of Martin Luther King. The Religious Experience Research Centre, based at the University of Wales, has collected over 6,000 accounts. The Centre interviewed at length two Eastern Orthodox scholars (Kallistos Ware and Lev Gillet) for their views on discerning the value of such experiences. They are wary of delusion and independently conclude that claims to divine guidance ought to be evaluated by what results they produce. But they and others hope that rational and mystical experience can be held together for the full flourishing of human life.","PeriodicalId":417972,"journal":{"name":"Divine Guidance","volume":"65 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116607090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Divine GuidancePub Date : 2004-01-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0013
J. Jillions
{"title":"Rabbinic Sources","authors":"J. Jillions","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190055738.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"The first and second centuries CE saw the flowering of classical Jewish teaching as expounded by the great rabbinic sages and their precursors (Hillel, Shammai). They were closely associated with the Pharisees as upholders of Jewish tradition against compromises with Greco-Roman ways. This early teaching forms the basis of the Mishnah, the collection of the earliest rabbinic oral law at the core of the Talmud. A “heavenly voice” (the Bat Kol) and other forms of individual divine guidance are not excluded, but the major role is given to scripture, the elders responsible for discernment, and the evolving body of decisions responding to new questions and conditions, “for the Law is not in heaven.” The age of the prophets was over, but God ’s presence (the Shekinah) remained in the life of the community with its teachers.","PeriodicalId":417972,"journal":{"name":"Divine Guidance","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116595810","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}