Annali di Scienze Religiose

In Muslim apologetics, the approach towards the West is usually completely forged by ideology, apology and pure polemic. In fact the typical features of Muslim apologetic and polemic anti-Christian and anti-western literature have not changed in about ten centuries. For instance, some radical Muslim writers say that Christianity was Dīn wa Dawla back in Jesus’ time and that only later, because of the corruption of Christ’s message begun by St. Paul and then carried forward by the Church, a big gap between the Sacred and the secular worlds took place in western societies, followed by moral corruption and decay. The Church is also charged with interfering too deeply in the citizen’s everyday private life. On Second thoughts, in studying, criticizing, and looking down on Western society, Muslim studies criticize and look down on itself, its society and its own history. Even nowadays, polemic literature continues to regard Islam as the Umma which must fight western secularized society. This can be considered a Muslim Extra Ecclesia Nulla Salus, a symptom of self-referentiality (more pretended than real). There is no doubt that apologetics and polemic, together with hard political influences, are strong impediments in the way of dialogue.

Fortunately, the contemporary international situation redefines the idea of belonging to oneself and, consequently, some of the dominant ideologies which still interfere with dialogue. Particular and welcome examples exist, such as the Crown Prince of Jordan El-Hassan Bin Talal’s Christianity in the Arab World. New frontiers of Islamic-Christian dialogue are very close and we think it will be possible to avoid repeating the same mistakes we made in the past.

A knowledge of the dynamics proper to traditional Muslim culture and a study of how these have combined with modernity reveal highly interesting elements of a complementary nature. In particular, with respect to the supposedly irreconcilable dichotomy between tradition and renewal, evidence emerges demonstrating that tradition has not been without forms of adaptation to greatly varying contexts and evolutionary dynamics whilst the current fundamentalist vision does not at all appear to be genuinely linked to its original founding period — except mythically. Paradoxically, the fundamentalist vision depends precisely on those characteristics of modernity which it purports to combat and oppose.

The Italian Islamic community numbers three hundred million persons including those coming from Muslim countries, irregular immigrants and converts. After bringing details of the situation to light, the article examines the composition of the sphere of Muslim associations which represent, however, only a minority of Italian Muslims. Most, in fact, find themselves in mosques without feeling the need to be more widely represented or, due to logistical problems or by choice, they are not part of the realm of mosques and associations and do not feel they are represented by them. Thus, rather than being static or unmodifiable, the Italian Islamic community is involved in an extremely rapid process of transformation, as is the case in the rest of Europe. At the same time it is experiencing a substantial degree of integration (in school and work environments and associations), it is also the focus of a hostile perception bias conveyed, above all, by the media. Lastly, the essay furnishes some examples of instances where honour is accorded to the Islamic minority, a precondition for removing the poison from current debate and assuming a constructive, proactive attitude.

The dichotomy between Islam and modernity is a false dichotomy that Muslims have made into such profound reality that the clash between supporters of modernity and identity is at the core of modern Arab thought! Those who regard Islam as THE problem think in the same way as those who consider it to be THE solution. These reciprocal contrasts are the reasons why Muslims — whether they like it or not — refuse the modern model even though they are living it. In fact the ideas employed in modern and contemporary Arab thinking are mainly borrowed from European or Medieval Arab-Islamic thought. An Arab intellectual is prisoner of the so-called original model (the Golden Age) and this occurs with traditionalists and modernists alike. In the West, where it looks like Islam is a heavy presence stirring up fears that become, in the extreme, Islamophobia, intellectuals have studied the issue of this false dichotomy from a perspective that is no more accurate than that of Arab scholars. In fact, some of them research Islamic history in order to reach to the conclusion that Islam is the cause of Muslims’ backwardness and that Islam in Europe is the danger which threatens both our lifestyle and the whole of Western civilization. Modernity has an intrinsically consumerist nature, but if it is only consumerism (as many Muslims believe it to be), it can be constructed and given a religious appearance and a religious identity. In this way, the experience of modernity and its refusal coexist in harmony.

The amount of research concerning the Dead Sea scrolls and the archaeological site at Qumran has increased enormously over the last sixty years. Following decades in which De Vaux’s standard hypothesis appeared to find consensus among international scholars, new archaeological discoveries and more recent and accurate studies of the scrolls themselves make it necessary to reconsider this proposal. The connection between Khirbet Qumran and the scrolls, however, does not seem to have been seriously challenged. A priestly community, in contrast with the official priesthood of the Jerusalem Temple, lived at Qumran and probably composed part of the recovered scrolls.

Passio Maximae, Donatillae et Secundae is one of the most important examples of Donatist martyrologies. Rich in interpolations, it is the result of different redactional interventions — both Catholic and Donatist. In this passion one can observe the clash between distinct hagiographic workshops, each of which intended to claim the martyrs for its own side. The present contribution begins with a detailed analysis of all known sources for the Passio then moves on to a study of the narration with close attention paid to the redactional structure of the text. The article points out the development of the text through Donatist and Catholic interpolations, outlines a clear framework of the origin and evolution of the Passio, and offers new perspectives on several relevant items.

The study, which focuses on Ambrose’s Epistulae 57 and 62 (Zelzer) where a narrative paraphrase of two stories from Judges — the Levite and his concubine (Iud 19-21 in Epist. 57) and Sampson (Iud 13-16 in Epist. 62) — is developed, deals with the problem of narrating sacred history. On which idea did Ambrose ground and justify this particular kind of exposition of Scripture where you can find a narration of the content rather than the sequence of the words? To which literary genre and to which style did the bishop of Milan connect it?

In Ambrose’s opinion, this narration was really “historical”: he was influenced by the rhetorical teaching of his time with its intrinsic idea that historia as a type of narration, as distinct from fabula and argumentum, and historia as historiography, were the same thing. Accordingly, Ambrose narrates the content of Scripture in accordance with the criterion of likelihood essential to historia-narratio which requires and employs an epic-historical style rich in expressions from the Latin historiography. He relies on Josephus Flavius’s Antiquitates Iudaicae as a source and model for this historical narration. In Ambrose, this kind of narration aims at showing that sacred history is not only true but verisimilar as well, thus, making it easier to believe the words. The study suggests that this type of exposition of Scripture had a specific function in Ambrose’s catechesis to catechumens.

The nativity scene of the adoration type which took inspiration from the Revelationes of Bridget of Sweden is a relatively frequent motif in 15th century Czech panel painting and book illumination. This essay analyses some complicated instances of a second phase of the Vision of the Nativity (Rev. VII:21) in late medieval iconography in Central Europe. Bohemia, and especially Prague, was one of the first centres to receive the Revelationes. In Bohemia, the Vision of the Nativity was one of the best known texts of the entire body of the Revelationes and its visual representation required a breakdown of the defined time of the narrative into separate elements. Some representations refer to older literary and iconographic models on which Bridget’s narrative is built while incorporating other traditional motifs or newer locally conditioned ones. These motifs took on a new configuration in each new painting, yet the symbolic testimony of the picture — the message addressed to the spectator — was always the same: the position taken by Mary before the newborn Saviour is that which is also to be taken by believers confronted with the mystery of the Incarnation.

This article retraces the events surrounding Italian priests who went to work in factories — from the earliest episodes, characterized by a strong evangelical impulse, up to the acceptance of Marxism and a gradual consolidation of the movement, the extent of which often varied greatly from one region to another. An analysis of original documents — the acts of national conventions which were organized beginning in the sixties — show the intellectual effort made in an arduous attempt to reconcile Christianity and Marxism. The documents also reveal the climate of increasing isolation and ecclesiastical incomprehension of the choices made by blue collar priests which was marked by conflict and rifts. Sources and documentation demonstrate how work was a way for blue collar priests to free themselves from a condition of economic dependency on the Church and to play a role in human history. They placed themselves, through work, at the forefront of a new way of living the priesthood which they hoped would become established, even going so far as to theorize about the nature of the ultimate frontier of priesthood before a complete disappearance of the clergy who would gradually be replaced by laymen increasingly conscious of their Christian ethos. The wistfulness of the eighties, quite perceptible in the documents, would disprove this outlook and usher in an era of nostalgia.