11,453 research outputs found
The sense of a beginning : Bakhtinian dialogic criticism on 'the gospel' in Mark.
Full text linkContemporary literary approaches have caused paradigm shifts in Biblical Studies in the last two decades as it appears in a great deal of Markan studies using narrative, reader-response, deconstructive, feminist, and new historicist approaches. However, literary studies on the Gospel of Mark have not taken into account theoretical questions underlying those approaches. As a result biblical critics are driven by new trends without ever having a chance to examine the critical baggage of the approaches. Consequently, there is a gap of communication between the old and the new one. Therefore this thesis is an attempt to meet the need of enhancing the quality of critical endeavour in biblical studies. In the light of most recent competing critical theories of literature, the first contribution of this thesis is the methodological finding that Bakhtinian dialogic criticism contains the most profound philosophical and practical foundations for solving some crucial theoretical problems in contemporary literary theories. It is a critique to a Saussurian linguistic system of language which becomes the very foundation of modern and postmodern literary criticism. Bakhtinian literary theory shifts the foundation of literary criticism on linguistic signs into the creative activity of the socio-cultural production of human communication. The shift into socio-cultural reality of language communication makes the notion of 'genre' very important to unlock the problem of text and context in literary studies. Since the Gospel of Mark has fascinated most literary critics in Biblical Studies, the problem of 'genre' of this gospel is chosen as the focus of this study. Secondly, as no agreement is reached as to what 'genre' the Gospel of Mark belongs, this thesis makes its contribution to the discussion by locating the problem of 'genre' of Mark in the context of genre theories and argues that the Bakhtinian suggestion to find genre in the socio-cultural sphere by analysing artistic intercourse between narrative agents in Mark has freed the competing analysis from the unresolved problem between the kerygmatic (content oriented) approach and the analogical (form oriented) approach. To achieve finding 'genre' in the socio-cultural sphere, this thesis focuses on Bakhtinian analysis of the process of artistic intercourse between narrative agents. The narrative communicative interrelationships between narrative agents is constructed in this thesis as a 'stereophonic' Bakhtinian model of dialogic communication. This model is an original contribution of this thesis for revising the traditional two dimensional model of narrative communication. Based on this dialogical model of communication, a special role is given to the Bakhtinian 'author-creator' in the realization process of genre through the interaction of polyphonic voices. Through the interaction of voices of the author-artist and the hero we are led to discover a relatively stable type of portraying and controlling reality in Mark, known as the genre of Roman 'satire'. The closest literary affinity is Satyrica by Petronius. This narrative strategy of 'satire' in Mark has its root in the prophetic discourse of the Old Testament which is saturating the speech of the narrator, John the Immerser, the centurion, the people, and even Jesus. Finally, the whole search for Markan 'genre' culminates in the analysis of the realization of genre through the analysis of Bakhtinian chronotope. The reality of the genre of Mark is its social reality that is in its role as dpxrj/ 'beginning'. As the Gospel of Mark proclaims itself as 'a beginning', it defines its claim of socio-cultural 'authority' in early Christianity. It is this 'sense of beginning' which enables the narrating and the narrated world of Mark to interact dialogically
The Gospel on the Margins: The Ideological Function of the Patristic Tradition on the Evangelist Mark
Full text linkIn spite of the virtually unanimous patristic opinion that the evangelist Mark was the interpreter of Peter, one of the most prestigious apostolic founding figures in Christian memory, the Gospel of Mark was mostly neglected in the patristic period. Not only is the text of Mark the least well represented of the canonical Gospels in terms of the number of patristic citations, commentaries and manuscripts, the explicit comments about the evangelist Mark reveal some ambivalence about its literary or theological value. In my survey of the reception of Mark from Papias of Hierapolis until Clement of Alexandria, I will argue that the reason why the patristic writers were hesitant to embrace the Gospel of Mark was that they perceived the text to be amenable to the Christological beliefs and social praxis of rival Christian factions. The patristic tradition about Mark may have little historical basis, but it had an important ideological function in appropriating the text in the name of an apostolic authority from the margins or periphery
DESpace: spatially variable gene detection via differential expression testing of spatial clusters
Full text linkMotivation: Spatially resolved transcriptomics (SRT) enables scientists to investigate spatial context of mRNA abundance, including identifying spatially variable genes (SVGs), i.e., genes whose expression varies across the tissue. Although several methods have been proposed for this task, native SVG tools cannot jointly model biological replicates, or identify the key areas of the tissue affected by spatial variability.
Results: Here, we introduce DESpace, a framework, based on an original application of existing methods, to discover SVGs. In particular, our approach inputs all types of SRT data, summarizes spatial information via spatial clusters, and identifies spatially variable genes by performing differential gene expression testing between clusters. Furthermore, our framework can identify (and test) the main cluster of the tissue affected by spatial variability; this allows scientists to investigate spatial expression changes in specific areas of interest. Additionally, DESpace enables joint modelling of multiple samples (i.e., biological replicates); compared to inference based on
individual samples, this approach increases statistical power, and targets SVGs with consistent spatial patterns across replicates. Overall, in our benchmarks, DESpace displays good true positive rates, controls for false positive and false discovery rates, and is computationally efficient.
Availability and implementation: DESpace is freely distributed as a Bioconductor R package
Well-known trade mark protection: confusion in EU and Japan
No full textIn this thesis concerning the protection of well-known trade marks against confusion in the European Community Trade Mark (CTM) and Japanese trademark systems, the author critically considers the difficulties in comprehensively defining ‘well-known trade mark’ in the relevant international trade mark instruments. After critical analysis of various definitions of both ‘trade mark’ and ‘well-known trade mark’, she undertakes a comparison of the definitions of the parallel concepts of ‘trade mark of repute’ and ‘syuchi-syohyo’, and also undertakes an assessment as to the extent to which these trade marks are protected against confusion and kondo in the CTM and Japanese systems, respectively. It is concluded that the protection of well- known trade marks against confusion in the CTM and Japan cannot be said to be completely clear, and the author identifies some areas for legal refor
Mark Hertsgaard on the world's love/hate relationship with America
No full textDirected by Mark Ganguzza ; executive producer, Felice Firestone ; a production of Public Affairs Television, Inc. ; a presentation of Thirteen/WNET New York. Host/interviewer, Bill Moyers ; guest, Mark Hertsgaard.Why has much of the world's regard for America diminished in the last few years? Journalist and author Mark Hertsgaard, who traveled the globe gauging foreigners' ambivalence towards the United States shares his findings, published in his new book, "The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World." Additionally, Hertsgaard comments on how America's role is changing in the wake of September 11th, and the key U.S. environmental and foreign policy decisions that have proven divisive of the international community, as well as a perceived lack of difference between globalization and Americanization
Reconsidering Arminius: Beyond the Reformed and Wesleyan Divide
Full text linkThe theology of Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius has been misinterpreted and caricatured in both Reformed and Wesleyan circles. By revisiting Arminius's theology, the book hopes to be a constructive voice in the discourse between so-called Calvinists and Arminians. Traditionally, Arminius has been treated as a divisive figure in evangelical theology. Indeed, one might be able to describe classic evangelical theology up into the twentieth century in relation to his work: one was either an Arminian and accepted his theology or one was a Calvinist and rejected his theology. Although various other movements within evangelicalism have provided additional contour to the movement (fundamentalism, Pentecostalism, etc.), the Calvinist-Arminian 'divide' remains a significant one. What this book seeks to correct is the misinterpretation of Arminius as one whose theology provides a stark contrast to the Reformed tradition as a whole. Indeed, this book will demonstrate instead that Arminius is far more in line with Reformed orthodoxy than popularly believed and show that what emerges as Arminianism in the theology of the Remonstrants and Wesleyan movements was in fact not the theology of Arminius but a development of and sometimes departure from it. This book also brings Arminius into conversation with modern theology. To this end, it includes essays on the relationship between Arminius's theology and open theism and Neo-Reformed theology. In this way, this book fulfills the promise of the title by showing ways in which Arminius's theology—once properly understood—can serve as a resource of evangelical Wesleyans and Calvinists doing theology together today. Abbreviations -- ix Introduction. Reconsidering Arminius: Recasting the Legacy / Mark H. Mann and Mark G. Bilby -- xi-xix Chapter 1. Consecrated through Suffering : the Office of Christ in the Theology of Jacob Arminius / Richard A. Muller -- 1-21 Chapter 2. Was Arminius an Unwitting Determinist? : Another Look at Arminius's Modal Logic / Thomas H. McCall -- 23-37 Chapter 3. Beyond Luther, beyond Calvin, beyond Arminius : the Pilgrims and the Remonstrants in Leiden, 1609-1620 / Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs -- 39-69 Chapter 4. The Loss of Arminius in Wesleyan-Arminian Theology / W. Stephen Gunter -- 71-90 Chapter 5. Jacob Arminius and Jonathan Edwards on the doctrine of creation / Oliver D. Crisp -- 91-112 Chapter 6. Convergence in the "Reformed" theologies of T.F. Torrance and Jacob Arminius / E. Jerome Van Kuiken -- 113-135 Chapter 7. Was Arminius an open theist? : meticulous providence in the theology of Jacob Arminius / John Mark Hicks -- 137-160 Conclusion. Arminius Reconsidered : Thoughts on Arminius and Contemporary Theological Discourse for the Church Today / Keith D. Stanglin -- 161-167 Contributors -- 169Published@book{stanglin2014reconsidering, title= {Reconsidering Arminius: Beyond the Reformed and Wesleyan Divide}, author= {Stanglin, Keith D and Bilby, Mark G and Mann, Mark H}, year= {2014}, publisher= {Kingswood Books}}978142679654
Appropriating Apocalyptic: Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutics and the Discourse of Mark 13
Full text linkMark 13 predicts that certain events will occur literally within the generation of Jesus' contemporaries, and today's reader recognizes that some of these events have not taken place. The reader therefore appropriates the text as a false configuration of the world because it describes the world differently from how it is. However, the hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur enables a reader to appropriate the text as a presentation of truth. His argument for textual autonomy supports the contention that a text's meaning is not limited to what the author intended and the original readers perceived. In new reading contexts, the meaning that comes from the text itself creates an evocative dialectic between the reader's lived world and the world description of the text. Although Mark 13 was originally understood literally, today's audience is able to read it as metaphor. Metaphor is not a rhetorically attractive literary trope; it is a transgression of language codes and categories. Through its association of previously unrelated concepts, metaphor creates new, multiple meanings and changes the linguistic structures within which it operates. Metaphor is able to present truth, not as a verifiable presentation of the world as it is perceived by the reader, but as a manifestation of the world in a new way. The reader recognizes this truth only as she is willing to engage with the text without imposing her preconceptions upon it. Mark 13, as it is read by today's reader, functions as metaphor because of the double dissonance first between the configured world of the text and the lived world of the reader and second between claim that Jesus is able to predict when the events will take place (v. 30) and the assertion that he is not able to do so (v. 32). One option for today's reader to appropriate the metaphor of Mark 13 as truth is a perception of the presence in the world of forces that challenge and subvert powers which appear to be dominant, and which deceive, destroy, and persecute
FIGURE 1. Pleurothallis mark-wilsonii J.S in Pleurothallis mark-wilsonii a new species from the subsection Acroniae series Amphigyae from the Western Andes of Colombia
No full textFIGURE 1. Pleurothallis mark-wilsonii J.S.Moreno, Gal-Tar & Sierra-Ariza. A. Habit. B. Flower. C. Dissected perianth. D. Column and lip, lateral view and longitudinal section of the column. E. front and side view of lip. F. Column, ventral and side view. Drawing by J.S. Moreno based on the holotype.Published as part of Moreno, Juan Sebastián, Sierra-Ariza, Mario Alexei, Hoyos, David & Galindo-Tarazona, Robinson, 2022, Pleurothallis mark-wilsonii a new species from the subsection Acroniae series Amphigyae from the Western Andes of Colombia, pp. 283-288 in Phytotaxa 568 (3) on page 284, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.568.3.5, http://zenodo.org/record/752984
Human neural networks with sparse TDP-43 pathology reveal toxic NPTX2 misregulation in ALS/FTLD (code)
No full textAim
Code repositories associated to `Human neural networks with sparse TDP-43 pathology reveal toxic NPTX2 misregulation in ALS/FTLD` by Magdalini Polymenidou's lab, University of Zurich.
Contents
- `katharina_hembach` (by Katharina Hembach)
- `neural_scRNAseq`. Contains the original scRNA-seq analysis (preprint v1). Also available at https://khembach.github.io/neural_scRNAseq/.
- `izaskun_mallona` (by Izaskun Mallona)
- `polymenidou_neural_culture`. Contains the updated scRNA-seq re-analysis and new analysis (manuscript revision).
- `polymenidou_bulk_tardbp_nptx2`. Contains the bulk RNA-seq analysis, and integration with public CLiP-seq, scRNA-seq and (other public) bulk RNA-seq analysis (see below).
- `polymenidou_rnaseq_liu_lee_2019`. Runs ARMOR on GSE126543.
- `polymenidou_clip_lagiertourenne_polymenidou_2012`. Runs nf-core/clipseq on GSE40653.
- `polymenidou_clip_tollervey`. Runs nf-core/clipseq on E-MTAB-530.
- `polymenidou_clip_fus_tdp43_mouse_rogelj_ule_2012`. Runs nf-core/clipseq on E-MTAB-1223.
Contact
Mark D. Robinson lab, University of Zuric
Incomprehension or resistance? : the Markan disciples and the narrative logic of Mark 4:1—8:30
No full textThe characterization of the Markan disciples has been and continues to be the object of much scholarly reflection and speculation. For many, the Markan author’s presentation of Jesus’ disciples holds a key, if not the key, to unlocking the purpose and function of the gospel as a whole. Commentators differ as to whether the Markan disciples ultimately serve a pedagogical or polemical function, yet they are generally agreed that the disciples in Mark come off rather badly, especially when compared to their literary counterparts in Matthew, Luke, and John.
This narrative-critical study considers the characterization of the Markan disciples within the Sea Crossing movement (Mark 4:1–8:30). While commentators have, on the whole, interpreted the disciples’ negative characterization in this movement in terms of lack of faith and/or incomprehension, neither of these, nor a combination of the two, fully accounts for the severity of language leveled against the disciples by the narrator (6:52) and Jesus (8:17–18). Taking as its starting point an argument by Jeffrey B. Gibson (1986) that the harshness of Jesus’ rebuke in Mark 8:14–21 is occasioned not by the disciples’ lack of faith or incomprehension but by their active resistance to his Gentile mission, this investigation uncovers additional examples of the disciples’ resistance to Gentile mission, offering a better account of their negative portrayal within the Sea Crossing movement and helping explain many of their other failures.
In short, this study argues that in Mark 4:1–8:26, the disciples are characterized as resistant to Jesus’ Gentile mission and to their participation in that mission, the chief consequence being that they are rendered incapable of recognizing Jesus’ vocational identity as Israel’s Messiah (Thesis A). This leads to a secondary thesis, namely, that in Mark 8:27–30, Peter’s recognition of Jesus’ messianic identity indicates that the disciples have finally come to accept Jesus’ Gentile mission and their participation in it (Thesis B).
“Chapter One: Introduction” offers a selective review of scholarly treatments of the Markan disciples, which shows that few scholars attribute resistance, let alone purposeful resistance, to the disciples.
“Chapter Two: The Rhetoric of Repetition” introduces the methodological tools, concepts, and perspectives employed in the study. It includes a section on narrative criticism, which focuses upon the story-as-discoursed and the implied author and reader, and a section on Construction Grammar, a branch of cognitive linguistics founded by Charles Fillmore and further developed by Paul Danove, which focuses upon semantic and narrative frames and case frame analysis.
“Chapter Three: The Sea Crossing Movement, Mark 4:1–8:30” addresses the question of Markan structure and argues that Mark 4:1–8:30 comprises a single, unified, narrative movement, whose action and plot is oriented to the Sea of Galilee and whose most distinctive feature is the network of sea crossings that transport Jesus and his disciples back and forth between Jewish and Gentile geopolitical spaces.
Following William Freedman, “Chapter Four: The Literary Motif” introduces two criteria (frequency and avoidability) for determining objectively what constitutes a literary motif and provides the methodological basis and starting point for the analyses performed in chapters five and six.
“Chapter Five: The Sea Crossing Motif” establishes and then carries out a lengthy narrative analysis of the Sea Crossing motif, which is oriented around Mark’s use of θάλασσα (thalassa) and πλοῖον (ploion), and “Chapter Six: The Loaves Motif” does the same for The Loaves motif, oriented around Mark’s use of ἄρτος (artos).
Finally, “Chapter Seven: The Narrative Logic of the Disciples (In)comprehension” draws together all narrative, linguistic, and exegetical insights of the previous chapters and offers a single coherent reading of the Sea Crossing movement that establishes Theses A and B.
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