Roman imperial iconography and the social construction of early Christian identity

Issue topic: Festschrift in honour of Erwin Buck

Christianity: A Cultural Perspective

Reviewed Book: Elwood, Robert S. Christianity: A Cultural Perspective. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1988. Prentice-Hall series in world religions; 7

From Jewish Prophet to Gentile God: The Origins and Development of New Testament Christology

Reviewed Book: Casey, Maurice. from Jewish Prophet to Gentile God: The Origins and Development of New Testament Christology. Cambridge: James Clarke; Louisville, Ky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991. Edward Cadbury lectures; 1985-1986

Unfolding and unzipping of single-stranded DNA by stretching

We present a theoretical study of single-stranded DNA under stretching. Within the proposed framework, the effects of basepairing on the mechanical response of the molecule can be studied in combination with an arbitrary underlying model of chain elasticity. In a generic case, we show that the stretching curve of ssDNA exhibits two distinct features: the second-order "unfolding" phase transition, and a sharp crossover, reminiscent of the first-order "unzipping" transition in dsDNA. We apply the theory to the particular cases of Worm-like Chain (WLC) and Freely-Joint Chain (FJC) models, and discuss the universal and model--dependent features of the mechanical response of ssDNA. In particular, we show that variation of the width of the unzipping crossover with interaction strength is very sensitive to the energetics of hairpin loops. This opens a new way of testing the elastic properties of ssDNA.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, substantially revised versio

Soja's Thirdspace, Foucault's Heterotopia and de Certeau's Practice: time-space and social geography in emergent Christianity

"This essay uses analytical tools developed by Edward Soja, Michel Foucault, and Michel de Certeau to investigate time-space configurations in the religious movements inaugurated by Jesus and promoted by Paul. The article begins with an account of the domination of time as a conceptual tool for analyzing both figures and their teachings to establish the context for an alternative space-time reading of the data represented in the New Testament and extra-canonical sources. Jesus' proclamation of the Kingdom of God is placed in the context of the monetization and hence disruption of traditional kinship and social structures. His parables, sayings, and the traditions associated with him represent thirdspace performances of his rural world. His proclamation of the Kingdom of God coheres with Foucault's notion of heterotopia in that it places listeners in places outside of place. His articulation of behaviours coincides with de Certeau's notion of tactics inserted with dominant social strategies. Through a reading of Paul's message against the backdrop of urban poverty Paul's motif of the church as body is seen as a thirdspace articulation of social groups, heterotopic place outside of place, and communal solidarity within the urban context of the Roman Empire." (author's abstract