Afterlife

Current events in science imply that a new scientific revolution in physics is unfolding. This new revolution will be as much about mind and consciousness as it is about matter and physics. It will bring a new theory of physical reality that includes the consciousness that senses, interprets and interacts with physical reality. The new theory of consciousness will lead to explanatory models of the paranormal as well as explain how consciousness survives death. This prediction is not an optimistic 'pipe dream', but our present and future. A theory of this type has already been developed. It is based on a five-dimensional Einstein-Kaluza model of the space-time continuum. ‘Single field theory' or SOFT can easily account for paranormal phenomena and the survival of consciousness. Whatever theory finally succeeds in bridging the gap between mind and matter, indications are that it will have many of the characteristics of SOFT if it is not SOFT. Whatever the case may be, a valid theory that combines physical reality and consciousness is truly a theory to die for!

Summary: What metaphors about life, death and afterlife is found in hymns often sung in
funerals? In order to get an historical perspective on this issue I analyse and compare the
metaphors in two hymns, one popular hymn from the Middle Ages, translated from German
to Norwegian, and one popular hymn from the 1980’s, written by a Norwegian priest and
pop artist. Both hymns portray life as a journey for a poor wanderer and his companion. The
companion in the oldest hymn is with no doubt Christ, whereas the companion in the modern
hymn can be Christ or another human being, depending on the context. Death is personified
as a violent person in the oldest hymn and as something you have to taste in the modern hymn.
The hymn from the Middle Ages portray life after death as living with Christ in a castle of gold
in eternal joy in heaven, whereas the modern hymn does not mention heaven at all. The main
metaphor in the oldest hymns is the castle of gold, maybe as a result of the fact that Germans in
the Middle Ages all had a castle in the mountains before their eyes. The main metaphor in the
modern hymn is Understanding is Seeing, as the life companion cannot do anything but see
the wanderer’s trouble and share it with him. This is compared to how modern Scandinavian
priests in hospices talk to dying patients: they cannot talk about heaven directly in their own
words, but they can follow the patients’ thoughts about heaven. In this way the modern hymn
is a symptom of a typical secularized society.
Keywords: afterlife, death, funerals, hymns, metaphors

This is a Portuguese translation of "The Afterlife is where We Come from: The Culture of Infancy in West Africa."  This edition was translated by Mara Sobreira and published by the University of São Paulo Press (Editora Unifesp/Editora da Universidade Federal de São Paulo) in Brazil in 2013.

In der Mitte des 12. Jahrhunderts entsteht mit der Visio Tnugdali ein Text, der zum mittelalterlichen „Bestseller“ avancieren sollte. Doch ist es nicht allein die schiere Anzahl der Handschriften (mehr als 150 Manuskripte, zahlreiche volkssprachliche Übersetzungen), die eine Beschäftigung mit dieser Jenseitsreise lohnenswert macht. Die Reise des irischen Ritters Tnugdal durch die Jenseitsräume, die der Bruder (frater) Marcus, der wahrscheinlich aus Regensburg stammt und über den sonst nur sehr wenig bekannt ist, erzählt, ist ein eindrucksvolles Zeugnis kollektiver Vorstellungen über die letzten Dinge, die jeden Menschen im Jenseits erwarten. Der Weg durch Feuer und Schwefel hin zu den himmlischen Orten ist dabei Ausdruck der menschlichen Neugier, das Arkane selbst zu erhellen und zeigt in der theologischen Fundierung des Textes gleichwohl, wie eine solch gewagte Wissensvermittlung – da sie sich letztlich an den Grenzen der Häresie bewegt – gelingen kann. Mit der vorliegenden Ausgabe liegt dieser intensive Ausdruck mittelalterlicher Glaubensvorstellungen erstmals in einer vollständigen, ausführlich kommentierten deutschen Übersetzung vor, die auf einer Neuedition des lateinischen Textes beruht.

This paper compares modern Advaita (nonduality) Vedānta and Roman Catholic afterlife beliefs, with special attention to the dialogue of Swami Vivekananda, formal Roman Catholic teachings, and the thought of Edith Stein. It draws also on other commentators and includes some brief reference to other forms of Vedānta. It analyzes significant congruences, parallels, differences, and critical issues. The paper begins with a focus on essential similarities

Explores the possibility of a naturalist afterlife via mind-uploading and simulationism. Argues that the main problem is that we don't understand if and how selfhood is connected to the computational processes of the brain.

Now published in: Gäb, Sebastian; Harion, Dominic; Welsen, Peter (Hgg.): Person und Identität. Regensburg: S. Roderer, 2018, 45-63.

This drafts gives an overview over major steps in the shift of use of society-building pagan concepts as displayed in Insular Celtic literature to their oppressive abuse by Norman-Christian conquerors. The re-interpretation of pagan  concepts as expressed in literary motifs formed part of the ideological discourse to ensure the establishment of a much more hierarchical feudal society..

Genelde berzah hayatı özelde ise kabir azabı meselesi, İslam’ın ilk devirlerinden bu yana tartışma konusu olmuştur. Bu tartışmalı mevzu, akaid kitaplarında kendisine yer bulmasına rağmen itirazlar da eksik olmamıştır.  Tartışmanın temel nedeni, kabir azabı ile ilgili Kuran’da delaleti açık bir ayetin yokluğudur. Bu sebeple ‘kabir azabı vardır’ diyenler, daha çok hadisleri referans almaktadır. Konuyla ilgili hadislerin âhâd haber kategorisinde değerlendirilmesi ise tartışmayı biraz daha köreltmekte ve içinden çıkılmaz hale getirmektedir. Bugün İslam’ın ahiret takdiminde kabir azabına dair anlatı ve tasvirlerin, Kuran’da varlığı açıkça belirtilen ve insanların kendisiyle uyarıldığı cehennem azabından daha fazla yer teşkil eder hale gelmesi konunun önemini artırmaktadır. Makalenin amacı, ‘kabir azabı vardır’ ya da ‘yoktur’ şeklinde bir hüküm vermekten ziyade tartışmaya sadece usul açısından bir katkı sunmaktır.
Anahtar Kavramlar: Ruh, Berzah, Münker-Nekir, Kabir, Azap.

Abstract
As a Controversial Faith Problem Grave Torment
From the early days of Islam until now, ‘Grave life’ which is also known as ‘Grave torment’ has been a controversial subject. Although this controversial subject is included in the books of Akaid, there have been always objections to it. The root cause for these objections was there is nothing explaining ‘Grave torment’ in the Quran. That's why the ones who claims ‘existence of Grave torment' bases their claim more on Hadiths. All the Hadiths about this subject are categorized as Hadiths reported by one person only. This situation makes the subject more controversial. However, today if we check the resources that we have ‘Grave torment’ occupies more space than the existence of Hell torment which explicitly explained in Quran. This article is not prepared to discuss the existence or absence of Grave Torment. Our goal only to represent by method.

An ancient Sumerian proverb may be read as “good fortune [is embedded in] organisation and wisdom.” The present centennial survey is solely about organizing the last one hundred years of scholarship for a Sumerian afterlife myth named “Inanna’s Descent to the Netherworld.” The initial discovery of artifacts with snippets of the myth can be dated to as early as 1889. English translations of the myth emerged around 1920 and were followed by numerous archaeological expeditions and subsequent translation efforts. Such efforts, by many scholars and institutions, resulted in an authoritative 2001 version of the myth published by the University of Oxford via the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL). The 2001 version, titled “Inana’s descent to the nether world” is 412 lines long and utilizes over fifty cuneiform artifacts (sources). The impact of this work has been mainstream and interdisciplinary interest in Inanna, the myth, and her role in antiquity. However, the technical nature of studying ancient Sumer may alienate a broader audience. The survey contained herein attempts to organize and explain the key people, concepts, events, and institutions involved with the discovery of “Inanna’s Descent.” Non-technical readers can expect to learn how and why we arrived at the likely complete translation we have today. Light background information and a chronology of scholarly work are followed by a brief discussion on promising areas of further research. The appendix contains a comprehensive catalog of referenced artifact data.

For Huey

CONTENTS

Figures
Tables
Introduction
Background
Scholarship Chronology
    Discovery and Initial Publication (1889-1919)
    More Artifacts and Assignments (1920-1934)
    Kramer’s First Wave (1935-1951)
    New Artifacts and Commentary (1952-1973)
    The First Semi-Complete Translation (1974-1996)
    The Digital Age (1997-2006)
    Current Scholarship (2007-2019)
The Future of ID (2020 and Beyond)
Conclusion
Appendix A: Artifacts Table and Visualizations
Appendix B: All Artifact Data
Appendix C: Translations of “Inanna’s Descent”
Bibliography

FIGURES

Figure 1.1. Sumer in Mesopotamia
Figure 1.2. Cylinder Seal VA 243
Figure 1.3. Mask of Warka
Figure 1.4. Warka Vase
Figure 1.5. Inanna’s Family Tree
Figure 1.6. Table illustrating the simplification of cuneiform signs
Figure 1.7. Artifact terminology table
Figure 1.8. Three of the ‘big five’ scholars of ID
Figure 2.1. Artifact CBS 9800
Figure 2.2. Artifact YPM BC 018686 (formerly YBC 4621)
Figure 2.3. Artifact UET VI 9 (6/1 9)
Figure 2.4. Sladek’s published artifacts

TABLES

Table 1.1. Artifact waterfall view of cuneiform sources for “Inanna’s Descent” (abridged)
Table 2.1. Detail artifact table for “Inanna’s Descent”
Table 2.2. Artifact waterfall view of cuneiform sources for “Inanna’s Descent” (full)
Table 3.1. Top translation publications of “Inanna’s Descent” (1900-2019)

This is a draft of my dissertation, defended on August 17, 2016 at The Catholic University of America, School of Philosophy in Washington, DC.
A hard copy can be ordered through Pro Quest.
The published version can be seen here: http://www.etdadmin.com/cgi-bin/student/etd?submissionId=462696;siteId=213

This research aimed to explore and describe the concepts of afterlife and the realm of dead in Hebrew
Bible and related concepts in Modern Judaism that how modern Jewish thought is different from ancient Biblical Jewish thought about afterlife, resurrection, immortality and final judgement. And why Modern Jews are focusing on making present life better. For this purpose, the qualitative research method is used and data is gathered from books, articles, journals and student papers through which examined that Hebrew Bible depicted death and afterlife negatively and Modern Jews fear death they want to be immortal and focusing more on present life not talking much about afterlife. Key words: Death, Afterlife, Immortality, Final judgement, Reward and Punishment.

Christopher Buck, “Sapiential Theosis: A New Reading of Ephrem the Syrian’s Hymns on Paradise.” Journal of the Assyrian Academic Society 9.2 (1995): 80–125. 

ABSTRACT

A fresh reading of the Hymns on Paradise (HdP) discloses how Ephrem the Syrian reworked soteriological presuppositions and thought-forms current in fourth-century Syria to effect a transformation of the doctrine of theōsis (deification), freeing it from its substantive categories, to lay emphasis on divinization at the sapiential level. See, for instance, HdP XII.15, where Ephrem states that “the human person can become / the likeness of God, / endowed with immortal life [i.e. theōsis] / and wisdom [i.e. sapience] that does not err” (HdP XII.15, HyP 166). While the form of the doctrine with its anthropological considerations was kept intact, the manner of Ephrem’s affirmation of theōsis was tantamount to its sophistication, in what amounted to a reformulation of the doctrine itself. In Ephrem’s eschatological scheme—which exalts form over substance—body, soul and spirit are rarefied beyond physicality, while corporeality is maintained. Even the argument for the body’s afterlife existence—the instrumentality of the senses being required for the soul’s ability to perceive—is effectively undermined by the obviation or precluding of the senses in the soul’s immediate cognition of the delights of Paradise. This innovation lent Ephrem’s doctrine of theōsis a greater potential for realization, in which eschatological Paradise came to enjoy a more edifying immediacy among the faithful.

The Resurrection, therefore, in Ephrem’s conception of it, is not simply an “arising” in the sense of revivification. It is an “arising” in the sense of a spiritual ascent, in which the whole tripartite being of man is “raised” to new life and to new heights. In what manner may we conceive of this? In this present life, in what really amounts to a realized eschatology for Ephrem, “the mind ... is spiritual” and it is the mind in mystic transport, and, at the eschaton, something like the mind into which the resurrection body is transformed, that can attain the environs of Paradise and, by the blessing of its Creator, enter into its Garden. There is in fact the suggestion that the metaphors Ephrem employs for his portrayal of Paradise may be decoded. From HdP VI.6 and elsewhere, we may thus infer: Symbols of Paradise (Symbol = Referent): Bud = Heart; Produce = Rational Speech; Fruit = Words (Deeds, VI.11); Plants = Truth; Sweet Scents = Love; Blossoms = Chastity (VI.12); Beauty = Mind (VI.13); Flowers = Virtuous Life (VI.13); Garden = Free Will (VI.13); Earth = Human Thought (VI.13); Trees = “Victors” (VI.14); Treasure Store = Hidden Mysteries (VI.25).

Paradise and paradigm:

Images and ideas are the twin hemispheres of the religious mind. The bicameral interaction of the imaginal and the abstract focus the believer on the archetypes of belief. To give a more complete description of any religious worldview, concepts should be complemented by conceits. In Ephrem, the Church is imagistically conceived of as Paradise. Since it is an extended metaphor, its imagery is extensible. Individually and collectively, paradise imagery can represent different facets of church life and experience. The phrase from the Lord’s Prayer—“on earth, as it is in Heaven”—perfectly expresses both imagistically and ideologically the Ephrem’s artifice at work in the HdP.

Ephrem’s Paradise is at once ecclesiastical and eschatological. Its imagery expresses a paradigm of purity. This is a purity that “cures.” It cleanses the soul of the “disease” of mortality. It restores primordial immortality. Life in Paradise, in both worlds, is for the pure. The pure in heart are Christians who are sexually pure and morally stainless. On this point, perhaps Ephrem and Bardaiṣan might agree. In a quote from Theodore bar Koni, Bardaiṣan, in one of his lost songs, taught: “And lo, the natures, all of them—with created things they hastened, to purify themselves and remove what was mingled with the nature of evil” (Segal 1970, 38). Although Ephrem rejects Bardaiṣan’s creation myth, the pursuit of ethical purity in both systems is, in nonascetic terms, comparable. In fine, Syriac Christianity’s response to Late Antiquity is the quest for purity, in which chrism, baptism, and the Eucharist become the ointment, fountain, and elixir of immortality, while the imagery of Paradise ennobles the sanctified soul.

Taking the medieval period as the highpoint of hell, this talks explores where this idea came from, including Greece and Rome, the mystery religions, Gnosticism, the Bible and the Christian Creeds. It explores ideas from Christian scholastics and theologians, and particularly from medieval literature. It looks at what was going on simultaneously in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Finally it discussed what happened to ideas about hell with the dissolution of the monasteries, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment.

The present paper seeks to address and examine Edward FitzGerald’s globally-known poem afterlife, The Rubáiyát. Translation can serve as a force for literary renewal and innovation. For many years translation was regarded as a marginal area within comparative studies, now it is acknowledged that translation has played a vital role in literary history and great periods of literary innovation tend to be preceded by periods of intense translation activity. The significance of FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát lies in how the poem was read when it appeared and in the precise historical moment when it was published. The impact of FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát was such that on the one hand it served as a model for a new generation of poets struggling to make the skepticism and pessimism a proper subject for poetry, while on the other hand it established a benchmark for future translators because it set the parameters in the minds of English-language readers of what Persian poetry could do. The present chapter tries to show that FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát had a role in forming pre-modern English poetry, notably Housman’s poetry, in terms of form and content. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad and FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát have undeniable similarities.

On the eve of a global pandemic, Kathleen Gough, a theatre professor, becomes immersed in the lives of five artist-mystics, each of whom is a pioneer in her field: Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), the first known musical composer; Eleanora Duse (1858-1924), the first modern actor in the Western world; Simone Weil (1909-1943), philosopher, activist, and mystic, whom Albert Camus called “the only great spirit of our time”; Marina Abramovic (b. 1946), “the grandmother of performance art”; and Hilma af Klint (1862-1944), the first known (and belatedly acknowledged) abstract painter. Each time Gough crosses a threshold into their world, she is compelled to attend courses, seminars and workshops that are simultaneously about dying and healing.

Curious to learn more about the relationships between art practice, dying, and healing, Gough imagines the five artists as wisdom teachers in a mystery school. In a series of eight lectures, she turns to performance theory to provide a framework for engaging with the unknown world. In Theatre and the Threshold of Death, Gough makes a persuasive argument for the world-making power of relational thinking in our increasingly polarized age.

The afterlife is one of the most prominent themes in the central text of the Islamic religion, the Quran. The Quranic focus on the afterlife is manifested through verses which pertain to (i) the character of the present life; (ii) accountability and final judgment; (iii) a desirable afterlife; and (iv) an undesirable afterlife. This chapter will draw together references made to the afterlife throughout the Quran. The aim will be to give an indication of the extent to which the Quran focusses on the afterlife and to allow the Quran to speak for itself with regard to its teaching. Special attention will be paid to the arguments employed by the Quran in order to convince its readership of its teaching.

This paper offers five reflections on the question of life as it is posed in the intersection between Percy Bysshe Shelley’s ‘The Triumph of Life’ and Jacques Derrida’s reading of it in ‘Living On/Border Lines’, which in its turn draws on Walter Benjamin’s speculations on translation in ‘The Task of the Translator’. The paper explores (1) how Shelley’s death lives on in the reception of his last work; (2) the afterlife of literary texts as theorised by Derrida and Walter Benjamin; (3) the relation between historical fact and figuration in critical writing; (4) the differences between survival and immortality, and, (5) the possibility that it is living on that destroys life.

The writings brought together in this work were created between 2013 and 2017.  The first three have been published (Wipf & Stock – Eugene, Oregon) - the most recent has not.

Bringing  them together into a new and coherent work has been difficult - both conceptually and technically.  The technical difficulties can be appreciated by anyone (such as I) who was born before the culture of computers. The conceptual difficulties are more serious, in that they are enlargements of the unruliness of the contents within each writing.  In the face of such unruliness, some changes were made in the earlier versions.

In each of these writings, my aim was to weaken the separations between subjects: I now call them “Novellas” because of their ambition at cohesion within insisted-upon  difference.  My hope is to move (convincingly if not effortlessly) across such subjects as:  Philosophy and its antinomies, cosmology and our wonderments, myth and sublimity, poetry of my doing, memories that survive partial recall, fantasies that exhibit both  otherness and its limits.                                                                                                                                         

I do not want to write a center which stipulates ite own exclusions -  I prefer porous and indeterminate borders.  But neither do I want extensions that do not recognize the perils of their thirst for mere novelty.  After-all, we do have the richest – and most terrible - of histories, and our self-identities (and ambitions) should, in some way, be informed by the particulars of that past.

But the past is ripe for picking – although it, like the cosmos, is too vast for the taking.  Yet, the natute of its knowable inhabitants changes with time (our time) as does the measure of its vastness.

Some say a philosopher cannot be a poet – that these are antithetical.  I say a saint can be a scoundrel – and be good at both. 

“Times they are a’changin”  sings the Laureate. 

A standard account of literature is that it occurs between writer and reader.  I think there is more to it:  The author and the writer are not the same – they occur in different worlds.  On the other side of the equation, we also have a dual pairing – between reader and critic.  The worlds so inhabited can be parsed this way:  Writer and reader inhabit the “actual world” – the world of clocks and empirica.  Alternatively, author and critic inhabit the “real world” – the world of memory and imagination.  “Actuality” encompasses life.  “Reality” extends life into death and history.  In reference to an ongoing controversy, one could say (per example) that the brain is in the actual world , and that the mind is in the real world.

The boundary between these worlds is porous and often frightening – one never knows when one oversteps. Art is (should-be) an agent of porosity between worlds.

Zusammenfassung: Dieser Beitrag soll aufzeigen, dass eine chthonische und eschatologische Dimension der dionysischen Göttlichkeit in verschiedenen Riten und Kulten des Gottes nachgewiesen werden kann und dabei keinesfalls mysterienexklusiv ist. Dazu soll der archäologische Befund, der Dionysos mit dem Jenseits und eschatologischen Hoffnungen in Verbindung bringt, vorgestellt und untersucht werden. Darauf aufbauend soll belegt werden, dass diese jenseitige Dimension sich sowohl in Riten mit privatem Kern, hier am Beispiel der Oreibasia, als auch in Kultfeiern des öffentlichen Festkanons, wie den Anthesterien, zeigt. Abschließend soll dann Dionysos' Funktion in den eleusinischen Mysterien untersucht werden.

Abstract: This paper aims to show that a chthonic and eschatological dimension of dionysiac divinity can be found in various rites and cults of the god and that this is not exclusive for the mysteries. Recent archaeological evidence connecting Dionysos with the afterlife and eschatological expectations will be introduced and analyzed. This dimension manifests itself in rites with a private intent (e.g. the Oreibasia) as well as public celebrations of the festival calendar (e.g. the Anthesteria). An analysis of Dionysos' function in the eleusinian mysteries concludes the overview.

While the psychical sciences and parapsychology have languished over the decades and failed to produce a viable theoretical basis for their observations, great strides have been made in the neurosciences especially in the areas of neurophysiology and neurophysics. The object of these researches goes beyond just discovering how the brain functions, but to actually discover the neural correlates of mind and consciousness. Understanding how brain and consciousness relate to one another has opened a new door to understanding psi and how consciousness survives death. The new physical model of consciousness presented below goes a long way toward explaining the paradoxical nature of mind and consciousness that psi and survival present.

Inhalt:. Einführung: Eine kurze Geschichte des Jenseits; (I) Antike: Vom innerweltlichen zum außerweltlichen Jenseits; (II) Antikes Judentum und frühen Christentum: Himmel, Hölle und Gericht, (III) Islam: Der eine Gott und die vielen Himmel; (IV) Dsas Christentum und die Revolutionen des Weltbilds; (V) Abschied vom Jenseits?

The first and most important problem with developing a theoretical model of consciousness is defining consciousness, but everyone mistakenly tries to define consciousness with respect to the individual, or 'self', when in fact consciousness can only be defined within the context of our whole physical reality relative to a person's visions of 'self'. Some thinkers and scholars even try to dismiss the physical nature of consciousness, but consciousness can only and must be physical, at some level, because it clearly interacts with the physical world through mind, brain and living material beings. Since consciousness cannot, by its very nature, be material, that leaves only the possibility that consciousness must and can only be a field effect such as an extremely complex multi-leveled field structure. This leaves only two possibilities: The electromagnetic and the gravito-gravnetic fields. Gravity is too weak so it can be eliminated, which leaves only electromagnetism. Now, of the two parts of this stronger field, magnetism rules over and can direct the flow of electricity, which dominates the body and brain, and magnetism can build extremely complex multi-leveled field domain structures. So consciousness must be magnetic in nature, with the normal scalar magnetic B-field domain structure equating to our lower level mundane consciousness and the corresponding magnetic vector potential A-field representing our higher consciousness that connects us to (is continuous with) the wholeness and oneness of the universe at the quantum level of our reality. This physical model of consciousness is fully and comprehensively compatible with a completely unified single field theory that unifies all of classical physics (Newtonian theory, Maxwellian electromagnetism, evolution theory and thermodynamics), the various popular models of the quantum theory and all of relativity theory. We can now consider consciousness to be wholly and completely explained, at least within the context of our present knowledge of physical reality and the universe, within a physical unification theory that is both falsifiable and yields specific predictions, some of which have already been confirmed.

The Good Place is, obviously, about moral philosophy. But one reason everyone hates moral philosophers (especially other philosophers) is that they think everything is about ethics. It's not. And the same is true for The Good Place. Indeed, it raises two very interesting non-moral questions: (1) Could you ever actually know you were in The Good Place? And (2) would you even want to be? As we'll see, the answer to these questions are "no" and "hell no," respectively.

In ancient cultures, death was one of the most important practices of daily life. Although it is interesting to visualize and bring the phenomenon of death out of its scientific shell and into contemporary museology, it is a problematic and sensitive topic. In this paper, the concept of death and after life is not only introduced in the discipline of Archaeology but also ancient history and social anthropology based approaches are used as well. The subject matter is discussed with a human centric point of view. As a summary, the aim of this paper is to introduce  the concept of afterlife, which is as old as humanity, with the hope of enabling the visualization of the basic ancient theoretical modelings and practices. 
Keywords: Death, Immortality, Afterlife, Ancient History, Museology.
*

Caliber, Calibre, Calibur : the diameter of a round or cylindrical body
      (especially : the internal diameter of a hollow cylinder)
Ex : Middle English , borrowed ''from'' Middle French; from Latin ex “out of, from”
Ex-Calibur : From outside the circular body
ARTH-UR : EARTH-OLD King of the Circular (Round) Body (Table; Disc)

This article offers an extensive study of the idea of an animal afterlife in seventeenth-century England. While some have argued that the idea of an animal afterlife became prevalent at the time due to increased awareness of animals’ mental abilities, others have suggested it was due to greater sensitivity to animal suffering and the perceived need to square this suffering with divine justice. I show that both views are incorrect, and that seventeenth-century thinking about an animal afterlife was first and foremost grounded in, and shaped by, speculations about end times and the restored creation based on a literal reading of a key passage in Paul’s letter to the Romans (8:19–22), which thus served as the sedes doctrinae throughout the seventeenth century. Lastly, I show that those who entertained a future life for beasts also supposed that animals would have a functional role therein, considering animals as being present in the restored creation to serve some spiritual end rather than as being true beneficiaries in their own right.

The article discusses different scientific perceptions of the early Greek afterlife. Jan N. Bremmer identifies changes of attitude towards death already within the Homeric epics and links them with a development Philippe Ariès claimed to have proven for the period of the Middle Ages to the Modern times. Ian Morris on the other hand emphasises the continuity of the Greek concepts of afterlife in the Archaic period. The article demonstrates that no developmental change in beliefs relating to the afterlife took place between the composition of the Iliad and that of the Odyssey. Still, contrary to Ian Morris, further Archaic literary and epigraphic sources prove that the imagination of the Realm of the dead did change though not in a linear way. Furthermore certain parts of the Homeric concepts continued to exist.

התקציר העברי מופיע בהמשך. R. Moshe Zacuto’s Tofteh Aruch was written with two levels of meaning. On the unambiguous, explicit level is the ultimate fate of the “Everyman” as to the depths of Hell with descriptions of different chambers and specific forms of punishment. On an indirect implicit level, however, Zacuto hints at a number of polemics current in the Jewish world of his time (the 17th century).  One concerned the Sabbatean controversy – was it true faith or idolatry? Another focused on the status of the conversos – to what degree can they be given exemptions in fulfilling commandments when they return to the practice of Judaism?  Both levels of meaning connect around the question of the soul’s fate after death.
This article also explores the question of the time of Zacuto’s writing of Tofteh Aruch. Based on his biography, and If Tofteh Aruch contains a polemic against Sabbateanism, one may assume that it was authored between 1668 and 1673.
"תפתה ערוך" לר' משה זכות פונה אל קוראיו ברבדים שונים של משמעות.  הרובד הגלוי עוסק בגורלו של "כל אדם", ובמסגרתו מתאר זכות את כל מדורי הגיהינום ומרחיב ומספר מי הם היורדים לכל מדור ומהו עונשם.  ברבדים נסתרים של יצירתו מרמז הרמ"ז לפולמוסים שניסרו בחללו של העולם היהודי:  האחד הוא בעניינה של השבתאות – אם אמונת אמת היא או עבודה זרה; והשני הוא בעניין מעמדם של האנוסים – עד כמה אפשר להקל בעול המצוות הנדרשות מהם עם חזרתם ליהדות. שאלת גורלה של הנפש לאחר המוות קושרת בין כל הרבדים הללו. המאמר מוסיף גם דיון בשאלה זמנה של היצירה, והמסקנה היא שאם אמנם קיים בה פולמוס עם השבתאות הרי שעל רקע הביוגרפיה של רמ"ז יש לקבוע את זמן חיבורה בין השנה 1668 לשנת 1673.

The article considers the unhomeliness of blackness by interrogating aspects of the controversial 2019 Dallas Country District Court case in which Judge Tammy Kemp ruled the jury to consider the state's " castle doctrine" and "mistake of fact" in the trial of Dallas police officer, Amber Guyger, who claimed to shoot Botham Jean, an unarmed black man in his own apartment, by mistake. In doing so, the article places together the notion of afterlife as conceptualized separately by Walter Benjamin and Saidiya Hartman to raise the role of testimony as a fundamentally anti-black structural dilemma rooted beyond legal theory and notions of evidence.

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