Performance Criticism: An Emerging Methodology in Second Testament Studies-Part II

U 1. dijelu ovog članka nastojao sam opisati kritiku izvedbe kao discipline koja se pojavljuje u studijama Drugog zavjeta. Objasnio sam kako se mediteransko područje prvog stoljeća sastojalo većinom od usmenih kultura, da je pisanje služilo prvenstveno usmenosti, da su izvedbe bile u središtu prvih kršćanskih zajednica i da su spisi Drugog zavjeta u biti bili „ostaci“ usmenih izvedbi. Predložio sam skicu ključnih elemenata same izvedbe u nastojanju da se potaknemo na interpretiranje spisa Drugog zavjeta u okviru scenarija takvih izvedbi. Dio 2. se sastoji od dva dijela. U prvome želim istaknuti eklektičku narav kritike izvedbe i identifi cirati doprinose mnogih partnera u tom pothvatu. Ovi partneri uključuju tradicionalne metodologije, nedavne metodologije i nove pristupe biblijskim studijama u odnosu na zvedbe. U drugom dijelu izložit ću uvide i koristi koje dolaze iz mog osobnog iskustva izvođenja biblijskog materijala i uključivanje ovih iskustava u metode tumačenja koje obuhvaćaju kritiku izvedbe. Nadam se da kritika izvedbe neće predstavljati samo dodatnu alatku za istraživanje u tom polju, nego i da će paradigmatski pomak u mediju od pisanog na usmeni donijeti promjene u načinu na koji se discipline Drugog zavjeta općenito bave svojim predmetima.In Part 1 of this article, I sought to depict performance criticism as an emerging discipline in Second Testament studies. I explained how the fi rst-century Mediterranean area comprised predominantly oral cultures, that writing pri marily served orality, that performances were central to early Christian communities, and that the Second Testament writings were basically “remnants” of oral performances. I proposed an outline of the key features of the performance event in an eff ort to encourage us to interpret Second Testament writings in the context of such performance scenarios. Part 2 comprises two sections. In the fi rst section, I want to lay out the eclectic nature of performance criticism and identify the contributions of many potential partners in the enterprise. Th ese partners include traditional methodolo gies, recent methodologies, and new approaches to biblical studies related to performance. In the second section, I will lay out the insights and benefi ts that come from my personal experience of performing biblical materials and of incorporating these experiences into the methods of interpretation that comprise performance criticism. My hope is that performance criticism may not only add to the tools of research in the fi eld but also that the paradigmatic shift in medium from written to oral may bring changes in the way Second Testament disciplines in general pursue their subject matter

Performance Criticism: An Emerging Methodology in Second Testament Studies—Part I

Ovaj članak zastupa središnjost zbivanja u životu prve crkve, što je područje proučavanja koje je tradicionalno bilo zanemareno. S obzirom na neke trendove, predlaže da uspostavimo „Kritiku izvedbe“ kao posebnu disciplinu značenja i retorike spisa Drugog zavjeta i našu rekonstrukciju ranog kršćanstva. Pošto predstavlja sredstvo promjene, kritika izvedbe ima mogućnost da utječe na način kako općenito proučavamo Bibliju. Na kraju, ona može udahnuti novi život u doživljavanje Biblije u suvremenom svijetu. Prvi dio izlaže neke karakteristike usmenih kultura, mogućnost međusobnog utjecaja između pisanog i usmenog medija, i podrijetlo usmenog prijenosa u spisima Drugog zavjeta. Zatim nastojim identifi cirati različite karakteristike nekog izvedenog događaja – izvođača, slušateljstvo, materijalno okruženje, društvene okolnosti i tako dalje – kao osnovu za konstruiranje i analizu zbivanja kao mjesta tumačenja za spise Drugog zavjeta. U drugom dijelu pokazujem kako kritika izvedbe može crpiti iz resursa mnogih utvrđenih i nekih novih disciplina biblijske znanosti kao sredstva koja pridonose kritici izvedbe. Na kraju predlažem da kritika izvedbe angažira tumača na stvarno izvođenje teksta i izlažem potencijalne koristi za istraživanje od takvog izvođenja.Th is paper argues for the centrality of performance in the life of the early church, an area of study that has been traditionally neglected. In light of some emerging trends, it proposes that we establish “performance criticism” as a discrete discipline in New Testament studies to address this neglect. Performance criticism would inform in fresh ways our understanding of the meaning and rhetoric of the Second Testament writings and our reconstructions of early Christianity. Because it represents a medium change, performance criticism has the potential to impact the way we do biblical studies in general. Finally, performance could breathe new life into the experience of the Bible in the contemporary world. In Part 1, 1 lay out some features of oral cultures, the potential interplay between written and oral media, and the origins in orality of Second Testament writings. Th en, I seek to identify the various features of a performance event—performer, audience, material setting, social circumstances, and so on—as a basis to construct and analyze performance as the site of interpretation for Second Testament writings. In Part 2, I show how performance criticism could draw upon resources from many established and some new disciplines of biblical scholarship as contributors to performance criticism. Finally, I suggest that performance criticism might engage the interpreter in the actual performing of texts, and I lay out the potential research benefi ts of such an exercise

Maintaining Personal Resiliency: Lessons Learned from Evangelical Protestant Clergy

Despite the prominence of clergy in providing human services, and the work-related stressors they experience, clergy health and coping responses have rarely been the focus of psychological research. We report two studies. In the first, we evaluated responses of 398 senior pastors to three open-ended questions regarding personal coping, structural support for their work, and remediation efforts in times of distress. In the second study, Christian mental health professionals and Christian education professionals identified Protestant Christian clergy who exemplify emotional and spiritual health. Twenty-six participated in individual 30-minute interviews. Respondents emphasized the importance of being intentional in maintaining balance in life and developing healthy relationships. They also value a vital spiritual life, emphasizing both their sense of calling into ministry the importance of spiritual disciplines, and an ongoing awareness of God's grace. We suggest ways that Christian mental health professionals can support pastors in preventive and remedial roles. </jats:p

A Galaxy at z = 6.545 and Constraints on the Epoch of Reionization

We report the discovery of a Lyman-alpha-emitting galaxy at redshift z=6.545 serendipitously identified in the course of spectroscopic follow-up of hard X-ray sources on behalf of the Serendipitous Extragalactic X-Ray Source Identification (SEXSI) survey. The line flux of the galaxy, 2.1e-17 erg/cm2/s, is similar to line fluxes probed by narrow-band imaging surveys; the 5.2 square-arcminutes surveyed implies a surface density of z~6.5 Lyman-alpha emitters somewhat higher than that inferred from narrow-band surveys. This source marks the sixth Lyman-alpha-emitting galaxy identified at z~6.5, a redshift putatively beyond the epoch of reionization when the damping wings of the neutral hydrogen of the intergalactic medium is capable of severely attenuating Lyman-alpha emission. By comparing the Lyman-alpha emitter luminosity functions at z~5.7 and z~6.5, we infer that the intergalactic medium may remain largely reionized from the local universe out to z~6.5.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures; submitted to the Astrophysical Journa

Optical and Near Infrared Observations of the Afterglow of GRB 980329 from 15 Hours to 10 Days

We report I-band observations of the GRB 980329 field made on March 29 with the 1.34-m Tautenberg Schmidt telescope, R-, J- and K-band observations made on April 1 with the APO 3.5-m telescope, R- and I-band observations made on April 3 with the Mayall 4-m telescope at KPNO, and J- and K-band observations made between April 6 - 8 with the Keck-I 10-m telescope. We show that these and other reported measurements are consistent with a power-law fading of the optical/near infrared source that is coincident with the variable radio source VLA J0702+3850. This firmly establishes that this source is the afterglow of GRB 980329.Comment: Accepted to The Astrophysical Journal, 18 pages, LaTe

A comparison of particle mass spectrometers during the 1999 Atlanta Supersite Project

During the Atlanta Supersite Project, four particle mass spectrometers were operated together for the first time: NOAA's Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometer (PALMS), University of California at Riverside's Aerosol Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (ATOFMS), University of Delaware's Rapid Single-Particle Mass Spectrometer II (RSMS-II), and Aerodyne's Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS). Although these mass spectrometers are generally classified as similar instruments, they clearly have different characteristics due to their unique designs. One primary difference is related to the volatilization/ionization method: PALMS, ATOFMS, and RSMS-II utilize laser desorption/ionization, whereas particles in the AMS instrument are volatilized by impaction onto a heated surface with the resulting components ionized by electron impact. Thus mass spectral data from the AMS are representative of the ensemble of particles sampled, and those from the laser-based instruments are representative of individual particles. In addition, the AMS instrument cannot analyze refractory material such as soot, sodium chloride, and crustal elements, and some sulfate or water-rich particles may not always be analyzed with every laser-based instrument. A main difference among the laser-based mass spectrometers is that the RSMS-II instrument can obtain size-resolved single particle composition information for particles with aerodynamic diameters as small as 15 nm. The minimum sizes analyzed by ATOFMS and PALMS are 0.2 and about 0.35 μm, respectively, in aerodynamic diameter. Furthermore, PALMS, ATOFMS, and RSMS-II use different laser ionization conditions. Despite these differences the laser-based instruments found similar individual particle classifications, and their relative fractions among comparable sized particles from Atlanta were broadly consistent. Finally, the AMS measurements of the nitrate/sulfate mole ratio were highly correlated with composite measurements (r^2 = 0.93). In contrast, the PALMS nitrate/sulfate ion ratios were only moderately correlated (r^2 ∼ 0.7)

Glutamine metabolism stimulates intestinal cell MAPKs by a cAMP-inhibitable, RAF-independent mechanism

AbstractBackground & Aims: Infectious diarrhea caused by viruses plus enterotoxigenic bacteria is often more severe than diarrhea induced by either pathogen alone. We postulated that the increased cell adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) concentration observed during infection by enterotoxigenic organisms retards the intestinal repair process by blocking activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in proliferating intestinal cells. Methods: We evaluated the effects of glutamine on MAPK activity, thymidine incorporation, and cell number in glutamine-starved and -sufficient rat intestinal crypt cells (IEC-6). Results: In glutamine-starved cells, 10 mmol/L glutamine in the absence of serum stimulated [3H]thymidine incorporation 8-fold. This effect was inhibited by 60% with 8-(4-chlorophenylthio) (8-CPT)-cAMP (100 μmol/L) + isobutyl methylxanthine (100 μmol/L). In cells not starved of glutamine, glutamine stimulated thymidine incorporation by 3-fold, and 8-CPT-cAMP completely blocked the mitogenic effect. Inhibition of proliferation by cAMP persisted for at least 68 hours after cAMP removal. In vitro kinase assays showed that glutamine signaling requires an intact ERK (extracellular signal–related kinase) pathway in unstarved cells. In starved cells, at least one other pathway (JNK) was activated by glutamine, and the mitogenic inhibition by 8-CPT-cAMP was incomplete. Other intestinal fuels (glucose and acetate) were not mitogenic. Conclusions: Increased levels of intracellular cAMP inhibit ERKs but only partially reduce glutamine-stimulated proliferation in enterocytes adapted to low glutamine.GASTROENTEROLOGY 2000;118:90-10

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo

The Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 Early Release Science data: Panchromatic Faint Object Counts for 0.2-2 microns wavelength

We describe the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) Early Release Science (ERS) observations in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) South field. The new WFC3 ERS data provide calibrated, drizzled mosaics in the UV filters F225W, F275W, and F336W, as well as in the near-IR filters F098M (Ys), F125W (J), and F160W (H) with 1-2 HST orbits per filter. Together with the existing HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) GOODS-South mosaics in the BViz filters, these panchromatic 10-band ERS data cover 40-50 square arcmin at 0.2-1.7 {\mu}m in wavelength at 0.07-0.15" FWHM resolution and 0.090" Multidrizzled pixels to depths of AB\simeq 26.0-27.0 mag (5-{\sigma}) for point sources, and AB\simeq 25.5-26.5 mag for compact galaxies. In this paper, we describe: a) the scientific rationale, and the data taking plus reduction procedures of the panchromatic 10-band ERS mosaics; b) the procedure of generating object catalogs across the 10 different ERS filters, and the specific star-galaxy separation techniques used; and c) the reliability and completeness of the object catalogs from the WFC3 ERS mosaics. The excellent 0.07-0.15" FWHM resolution of HST/WFC3 and ACS makes star- galaxy separation straightforward over a factor of 10 in wavelength to AB\simeq 25-26 mag from the UV to the near-IR, respectively.Comment: 51 pages, 71 figures Accepted to ApJS 2011.01.2

Discovery of a Cosmological, Relativistic Outburst via its Rapidly Fading Optical Emission

We report the discovery by the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) of the transient source PTF11agg, which is distinguished by three primary characteristics: (1) bright (R_peak = 18.3 mag), rapidly fading (ΔR = 4 mag in Δt = 2 days) optical transient emission; (2) a faint (R = 26.2 ± 0.2 mag), blue (g' – R = 0.17 ± 0.29 mag) quiescent optical counterpart; and (3) an associated year-long, scintillating radio transient. We argue that these observed properties are inconsistent with any known class of Galactic transients (flare stars, X-ray binaries, dwarf novae), and instead suggest a cosmological origin. The detection of incoherent radio emission at such distances implies a large emitting region, from which we infer the presence of relativistic ejecta. The observed properties are all consistent with the population of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), marking the first time such an outburst has been discovered in the distant universe independent of a high-energy trigger. We searched for possible high-energy counterparts to PTF11agg, but found no evidence for associated prompt emission. We therefore consider three possible scenarios to account for a GRB-like afterglow without a high-energy counterpart: an "untriggered" GRB (lack of satellite coverage), an "orphan" afterglow (viewing-angle effects), and a "dirty fireball" (suppressed high-energy emission). The observed optical and radio light curves appear inconsistent with even the most basic predictions for off-axis afterglow models. The simplest explanation, then, is that PTF11agg is a normal, on-axis long-duration GRB for which the associated high-energy emission was simply missed. However, we have calculated the likelihood of such a serendipitous discovery by PTF and find that it is quite small (≈2.6%). While not definitive, we nonetheless speculate that PTF11agg may represent a new, more common (>4 times the on-axis GRB rate at 90% confidence) class of relativistic outbursts lacking associated high-energy emission. If so, such sources will be uncovered in large numbers by future wide-field optical and radio transient surveys