Kairos

Among his various productive contributions, Alan Turing has imagined to turn the question “can machines think?” into what he called an Imitation game, with specific rules and play conditions. Reusing the notion of dynamic continuum from ludus to paidia, as introduced by Roger Caillois in his famous study Man, Play and Games, we claim, with most computer scientists, that the Turing Imitation game is strongly ludus-tagged, mostly because it is not attractive and playful enough to be spontaneously played: the contrast is strong, compared to some later paidia-tagged game involving computing machineries, like Interactive information and digital content browsing and retrieval. As far as designing our interactive Artificial Intelligence systems is concerned, why should we have to choose between ludus and paidia or to deny their eternal competition? On the contrary, this paper proposes to dare to establish that irreducible concurrency between ludus and paidia as the heart of our future systems, rediscovering the importance of the Greek notion of kairos.

Das Verständnis des Zerreißens und Spaltens als eines Ereignisses, das Leben, Liebe und Weisheit hervorbringt (wie beim Zerreißen des Vorhangs im Tempel), ist tief verwurzelt im visuellen und textuellen „Körper“ des antiken und christlichen Denkens. Der uranfängliche kosmogonische Riss ist immer plötzlich, scharf wie ein Messer, wie ein Blitz unvermittelt und allumfassend und wird mit dem gesamten körperlichen Wahrnehmungsapparat erfasst: Erzittern, Glücksgefühlen, Seufzen, Wind und Atem. Der Riss ist die Epiphanie des radikalen Wandels, die Revolution und die Transition ins Jenseitige. Dieses Mysterium wird verkörpert in einer griechischen Gottheit: Kairos.

Die Literaturgeschichte konnte zeigen, dass Kairos einen großen Einfluss auf die klassische Rhetorik hatte (Sophisten versus Aristoteles (385–322 vor Christus), auf die politische Philosophie der Humanisten, auf den post-modernen theologisch-philosophischen Diskurs in den Arbeiten von beispielsweise Paul Tillich (1886–1965),  Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)  und Evanghélos Moutsopoulos,  und nicht zuletzt auf das derzeitige Revival des Kairos als Modell einer neuen Form des Zeitmanagements im Berufs- und Privatleben.

In den letzten Jahren haben ikonographische Studien das Nachleben der griechischen Gottheiten in der byzantinischen und lateinischen Bildtradition untersucht, in der Kairos mit Fortuna und Occasio verbunden ist. Darüberhinaus erfuhr Kairos ein Revival in der humanistischen Ikonographie als ein Pendant zu Poenitentia (Reue).

Dieser Aufsatz stellt Kairos nicht nur in seiner literaturgeschichtlichen Bedeutung und seinem ikonographischen Nachleben dar, sondern auch das Konzept der Gelegenheit als ein Paradigma der Kunstgeschichte. Kairos bietet eine altenative Hermeneutik, in der das Bild als ein Chronotopos, als eine Epiphanie und Unterbrechung verstanden werden kann. Auf diese Weise trägt der vorliegende Aufsatz zur grundlegenden Erforschung von Zeit und ihrer Wahrnehmung in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit bei,  aber bietet auch Einsichten, wie Kairos als ein hermeneutischer Schlüssel funktioniert, when es darum geht, das Bild und seine Verbundenheit mit kulturellen Dynamiken zu verstehen.

This paper examines Obama’s "Eulogy for John Lewis,” identifying the importance
of the convergence of Lewis’ oeuvre, historical exigence, and kairos in
Obama using Lewis’ eulogy to engage in decidedly political messaging –
a rhetorical hybrid, or hybrid genre, that negotiated a eulogy with
a deliberative subform. Further, I argue that because of historical exigence
and Lewis’ oeuvre, there was a kairotic imperative for Obama to speak, during
which he redefines American historical time.

In the paper, the eschatological perspective of Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians is considered. As the problems are considered the following aspects: firstly, the question of the resurrection (4: 13-18), where the theological doctrine of Parousia and of the resurrection includes mainly a continuation of the Old Testament eschatological tradition, both in stylistic devices (4: 13-15) and in the knowledge of the resurrection. Second, stylistic analysis is carried out in the description of waiting of the second coming (5: 1-11), where as in the fourth chapter, it is not a story about the events of the future, but the admonition about present, about the spiritual readiness for the coming in any moment. We also consider the grammar and style of the various temporary forms of translation of eschatological ideas. The third aspect - the possible interpretation of the term “Kairos” (5: 1), how it differs from “Chronos”. Kairos - time is a question of the living experience of the experience of every Christian “here and now”, the essence of this experience. In particular, Paul Tillich, analyzing the idea of “Kairos” in Christianity, defined it as a special kind of Christian awareness and historicity in existence. The article also focuses on the phenomenological interpretation of the concept of Parousia in this Epistle, in particular, it is the opinion of Martin Heidegger, whose idea is:  Parousia is part of the Christian identity of the Christian as a person. The hypothesis of our analysis is that the doctrine of Parousia can be considered as an idea of special experience of the presence of God as the co-present, which does not contradict to the idea of waiting of his future coming event.
Статья посвящена эсхатологической проблематики Павла в Первом Послании к Фессалоникийцам.  В качестве задач рассмотрены следующие аспекты: во-первых, вопрос о воскресении (4:13-18), где богословское учение о парусии и воскресении включает в себя преимущественно продолжение ветхозаветной эсхатологической традиции, как в стилистических приемах (4:13–15), так и в знаниях о воскресении. Во-вторых, проводится стилистический анализ в описании ожидания второго пришествия (5:1-11), где как и в четвертой главе речь идет не о рассказе о событиях будущего, а о назиданиях в настоящем, о духовной готовности к пришествию в любой момент. Также рассматривается грамматика и стилистика различных временных форм в передаче эсхатологических идей.  Третий аспект – возможная интерпретация термина «кайрос» (5:1), его отличие от «хронос». Кайрологическое время – это вопрос о живом переживании опыта каждого христианина «здесь и сейчас», о сути это опыта. В частности, П. Тиллих, анализируя идею кайроса в христианстве, определял его как особый род христианской осознанности и историчности в существовании. Также в статье уделяется внимание феноменологической интерпретации понятия парусии в этом Послании, в частности, приводится мнение М. Хайдеггера, у которого представление о парусии – это часть христианской идентичности, христианина как личности. Гипотеза нашего рассмотрения заключается в том, что учение о парусии может рассматриваться как идея особого опыта со-присутствия Бога в настоящем, что не противоречит идеи ожидания события его будущего пришествия.

In this text we intend to analyze Bill Viola’s video installation Nantes Triptych (1992) as an example of the richness which lies in the liminal spaces between arts. We defend the thesis that the utilization of the traditional pictorial structure of the triptych in this particular work, along with the powerful audiovisual material, renders a kairological event available to the viewer. This temporal experience makes possible an existential experience when in front of this video installation. To discuss this assumption we will use classical art theory texts about the triptychs, as well as, among others, Deleuze’s texts about time image and the triptych structure, Agamben’s concept of kairos, the concept of kairological artwork coined by David Chan and the philosophy of temporality developed by Merleau-Ponty.

The Bible, which is indisputable regarded as the inspired word of God, is written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Man, as an earthen vessel, was used by the Holy Spirit to pen the revelation of God’s truth in Jesus Christ. The Holy Scriptures are “God breathed” words to the Church and are key in interpreting and fulfilling God’s telos for creation. This write-up wishes to emphasize and survey the critical role of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures. Due to the inspiring role of the Spirit, the word of God is not a dead letter, rather a life-giving word that spills new life into the believer and the Church. Precisely this connection of Spirit and letter marks the Holy Scripture as living and active and conveys the desired transformative dimension for the individual believer and the faith community.

The meaning of tearing and splitting as a life-, love- and wisdom-generating event (for example, the tearing
of the temple curtain) is profoundly rooted in the visual and literary ‘bodies’ of ancient and Christian thought. The primordial
cosmogonic split is always sudden, is always sharp (like a knife), appears as a flash (sudden and all encompassing)
and is experienced through the whole bodily sensorium (in shivering, bliss, sigh, wind, breath). The split is the
epiphany of radical change, revolution and the transition beyond. The Greek deity Kairos embodies this mystery. The
reach of Kairos can be detected in the theory of rhetoric (Sophists vs. Aristotle (385-322 BC)), in humanistic politics, in
postmodern theology and in contemporary time management. Iconographical studies have treated Kairos’s Nachleben in
Byzantine and Latin visual traditions where the god is conflated with Fortuna and Occasio. This essay addresses the impact
of Kairos and its iconographic Nachleben from a literary and historical perspective, and further considers Kairos as
a new art historical paradigm. Indeed, Kairos can offer us alternative hermeneutics to reconceive the image as chronotopos,
as epiphany and as intercession.

En esta comunicación me gustaría presentar cómo la investigaciónenauto-formaciónmellevóadesarrollar un método de investigación-acompañamiento que he llamado “taller de los kaïros de auto-formación” / “taller de kaïros” (Galvani, 2011, 2015). Luego de presentar una breve investigación sobre historias de vida, me gustaría asimismo retomar la pregunta sobre la relación que existe entre el tiempo y la auto- formación a través del método de historias de vida, y reflexionar si es posible abrir el diálogo entre la filosofía existencial y las enseñanzas Zen.

William Wilberforce entered the British anti-slavery scene in 1789 with a stirring speech in the House of Commons. Abraham Lincoln entered the American anti-slavery discussion in 1858 with a stirring nomination speech. Both Wilberforce and Lincoln were rhetorical geniuses whose words defined national movements and framed the slavery debate for years to come. Despite the extensive literature on Lincoln and the recent upswing of literature on Wilberforce, the rhetorical work of these two men on the issue of slavery has yet to be studied side-by-side. Issues become public, as Hauser argues, when people see the applicability of that issue in day-to-day life. Individuals need to feel “where the shoe pinches” in order for an issue to mature from private to public. Despite rhetorical prowess, both Lincoln and Wilberforce needed time and significant outside events to ultimately find success in their rhetorical endeavors. This paper uses a rhetorical lens to compare Wilberforce’s House of Commons speech and Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech. These two artifacts exhibit striking similarities in a number of areas: speakers (both leaders of the anti-slavery movement), relative lack of immediate success (Lincoln lost the election, Wilberforce’s bill didn’t pass for close to two decades), audience (body of government/body of voters), rhetorical goal (gradual abolition), and rhetorical strategies (to be covered in this presentation). The rhetorical similarities between Lincoln and Wilberforce are not coincidental. Both men were pushing for social change when it was not popular, and did so in a manner that Hauser would approve: both used rhetoric to show the public how the issue of slavery affected their daily lives. By analyzing the rhetoric of these two men, we can better understand what makes rhetoric “successful” and what differentiates an eloquent speaker and a master rhetor.

http://rmmla.wsu.edu/conferences/conf09Snowbird/getabstract1ec6.html?session_id=237&present_id=5341

https://revistas.upr.edu/images/dialogos/2018/n103/a1.pdf

Resumen La obra filosófica de Manfred Kerkhoff centra su atención en el estudio de la noción de kairós o tiempo oportuno. Los estudios kairológicos de Kerkhoff desembocan paulatinamente en una kairosofía, entendida como una sabiduría o práctica orientada al vivir, que toma en consideración las ocasiones favorables para todos aquellos aspectos que posibilitan el florecimiento de una vida humana. Esta sabiduría del kairós se abre a la consideración de lo accidental, incluso, de la existencia humana. Las líneas que siguen desean resaltar que si bien la kairosofía es una sabiduría trágica, que atiende a la vulnerabilidad humana, en particular su límite, es decir, su muerte, también es una sabiduría del agradecimiento. La ocasión de pensar la muerte en el período tardío de la reflexión de Kerkhoff se ve íntimamente entrelazada con la ocasión del nacer, trastocando todas sus nociones previas que parecerían cargadas de un discurso de la muerte, thanatológico.

Pengenalan wajah adalah teknologi komputer untuk menentukan lokasi wajah, ukuran wajah, deteksi fitur wajah dan pengabaian citra latar, selanjutnya dilakukan identifikasi citra wajah[1]. Mesin absensi kartu Amano GX500 banyak memiliki kekurangan. Seperti sistem penggajian perminggu yang harus dilakukan dengan menyalin jam-jam masuk dari kartu dan mengolahnya didalam microsoft excel hal ini tentu memakan waktu lama dan rawan human error. Berdasarkan masalah tersebut penulis melaksanakan penelitian yang bertujuan untuk merancang dan membuat sistem absensi berbasis pengenalan wajah menggunakan metode eigenface sebagai pengganti sistem absensi kartu.
Penelitian diawali dengan pengumpulan referensi yang berkaitan dengan sistem absensi pengenalan wajah, kemudian berdasarkan referensi tersebut dibuat aplikasi deteksi dan pengenalan wajah untuk menguji akurasi dari sistem. Setelah itu sistem absensi berbasis pengenalan wajah kemudian dibuat untuk diuji di CV. Karya Mitra Utama sebagai pengganti sistem absensi berbasis kartu. Hasil dari pengujian berupa Persentase nilai akurasi sistem adalah 97,22%. Dimana keluaran aplikasi berupa nilai gaji karyawan dalam format Hal ini menandakan bahwa aplikasi dapat digunakan sebagai aplikasi sistem absensi sekaligus dapat mempercepat proses pengolahan data absensi karyawan.

In 20th century Germany, theologian Paul Tillich witnessed the religious and political crises of his time, and he recognized the need for action at the appropriate time. Out of this rhetorical situation, he adopted the classical concept of kairos, which permeated his life and work. I argue that Tillich's notion of kairos presents three new dimensions: the existential, the demonic, and the extension of the present into the future. Although he believed that his work only spoke to the " kairos of his time, " Tillich continues to address us today, urging us to seize the kairos of our own time, and challenging rhetorical theorists to rethink the notion of kairos.

Les temps scientifiques, historiques, ethnologiques marquent l'homme. Le temps de Dieu est celui porté par un peuple vers le Jour du Seigneur, à la fois la venue du Christ déjà accomplie et la fin de notre temps à venir. Le kairos c'est le moment d'agir pour l'homme comme pour Dieu. La résurrection est l'espérance chrétienne.

In Ancient times and in the contemporary moment, kairos has operated as a keyword for theorizing rhetoric and its potential. Aligning ourselves with these endeavors we take stock of varying iterations of the kairotic not to artificially force a singular conception of the term, but to hold such resolutions at bay. We assess efforts to realign kairos with challenges to the ontological priority of rhetorical actors and trace recent theoretical articulations that further decenter human agency by relocating the kairotic in ecological/contextual forces. We assert the need to maintain invention and eventfulness as crucial elements of the kairotic so as to insist that rhetoric be understood as a practice that exceeds socio-anthropological “adaptation” to those conditions. Through a series of propositions we hold hope for an inventive and evental kairotic stance that likewise avoids naïve conceptions of sovereign subjectivity.

A experiência artística põe em jogo a saída do tempo cronológico, progressivo, causal, mas não para ficar fora do tempo. Pelo contrário, entra-se no tempo, experimenta-se um mergulho nos interstícios do tempo como eminência da exposição à alteração. Neste ensaio analisa-se a relação, engendrada no processo criativo, entre esta metamorfose do tempo e uma metamorfose do artista, através do pressentimento de um “outro” íntimo, que o eu do artista jamais poderá integrar ou absorver e que o abre a infinitas possibilidades. Assim, propõe-se que o gesto artístico consiste em atravessar o intervalo que emerge na intimidade do artista quando este deixa de coincidir completamente consigo mesmo. Para tal, articulam-se considerações sobre a noção de kairós, designadamente a pesquisa etimológica de R. B. Onians e o pensamento de Roland Barthes, introduzindo-se ainda os conceitos de desastre e de morte imemorial de Maurice Blanchot, assim como uma reflexão sobre duas obras de arte, Passage (Andy Goldsworthy, 2014-15) e Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog, 1982).

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The artistic experience sets in motion an escape from chronological, progressive, causal time, but not in order to be outside of time. On the contrary, one enters time, experiences a plunge in the interstices of time as eminence of exposure to alteration. In this essay I analyse the relation, engendered in the creative process, between this metamorphosis of time and a metamorphosis of the artist, through a presentiment of an intimate “other” that the artist’s self won’t ever be able to integrate nor absorb, and that opens him/her up to infinite possibilities. Consequently, I propose the artistic gesture consists of crossing the interval that emerges in the artist’s intimacy when he/she ceases to coincide with him/herself. Some considerations on the notion of kairós are articulated, namely R.B. Onians’ etymological research, the thought of Roland Barthes, and also Maurice Blanchot’s concepts of disaster and immemorial death, as well as a reflection on two artworks, Passage (Andy Goldsworthy, 2014-15) and Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog, 1982).

Public theology is a relatively new concept that has become quite noticeable worldwide in the last ten years. It is understood as a way of doing theology in a democratic society. In young democracies in particular, public theology seems to offer a relevant and constructive way of doing theology. In societies such as South Africa and Brazil, there remain critical economic and social issues that still need attention. In societies like these, we must find the balance between a prophetic and a constructive theology. This paper will use the South African Kairos Document
(1985) as the basis for a public theology which is critical and prophetic, and suggests a constructive agenda. Some concepts of  public theology will be considered and compared with the discussions of prophetic and  public theology found in the Kairos Document. In conclusion, some suggestions will be offered to further discussion around the definition and delimitation of a public theology in Brazil and South Africa.

This publication examines how archaeological objects concretise notions of time, giving them tangible form. The focus is on a particular statue, depicting the »opportune moment« or Kairos, created by the Greek sculptor Lysippos and dating from the era of Alexander the Great. It will be shown how this statue absorbed earlier notions of the opportune moment, combined them into a new form, and thus imbued this form with lasting potency. The statue was interpreted and re-interpreted in art and literature since Classical times, and, in changing from one medium to another, emphasis was put on new aspects. Because of this, the long-lost statue has made a potent and lasting impact on people’s notions of time.

Intertwining the etymological, philosophical and artistic-literary research in an interdisciplinary way, the essay questions the relationship between word, image and concept, within the Greek experience of time, working in particular on four words that marked, in their origin and in their translations / traditions, the history of time in philosophy. Intrecciando in maniera interdisciplinare la ricerca etimologica, filosofica e artistico-letteraria, il saggio si interroga sul rapporto tra parola, immagine e concetto, all'interno dell'esperienza che i Greci avevano del tempo, lavorando in particolare su quattro parole che hanno segnato, nella loro origine e nelle loro traduzioni/tradizioni, la storia del tempo nella filosofia. *** 0) Una premessa. La complessità dei volti del tempo greco L'obiettivo di queste pagine non è quello di fornire una 'nuova' idea del tempo greco né dal punto di vista della ricerca lessicale, né dal punto di vista filosofico o artistico. Il tentativo è quello di mettere in cortocircuito interdisciplinare quanto ci consegnano le (specifiche) ricerche filologiche, storico-letterarie, filosofiche e iconologiche: e provare a vedere cosa ne emerge 1. Se-nel difficile equilibrio di analisi e sintesi-verrà fuori qualcosa che possa dare da pensare, ne saremo contenti. La domanda di fondo resta: esiste un rapporto tra parola, immagine e concetto nell'esperienza che i Greci avevano del tempo? Ci muoviamo per grandi sintesi 2 , inevitabilmente parziali, in un intreccio di filologia, mitologia, concetto e iconologia. E la questione sembra dover rimanere per principio senza risposta. Scrive, infatti, Annapaola Zaccaria Ruggiu: non esiste un rapporto di stretta interdipendenza tra la formazione e l'elaborazione concettuale della nozione di tempo nella Grecia antica e la sua traduzione in rappresentazione visiva. La presenza nella 1 Il saggio, pur avendo una unità in se stesso, in qualche maniera si pone in continuità con quello presente in questo stesso numero di "Logoi" relativo alla 'visione' umanistica del tempo: L'iconologia di Padre tempo: storia di un errore. Petrarca, Ervin Panofsky e Simona Cohen. In continuità metodologica (ovvero in un tentativo di lavoro interdisciplinare tra concetto e immagine) e in continuità di ricerca. Lì ci siamo fermati mostrando, con Simona Cohen, quanto la visione umanistica del tempo fosse debitrice al mondo medievale, main qualche passaggio-avevamo già anticipato quanto fosse debitrice anche al mondo antico. In queste pagine, quindi, troviamo (anche) le premesse iconologiche di quanto sviluppato nel saggio sui Trionfi petrarcheschi. 2 Abbiamo, di volta in volta, fatto riferimento ai testi originali. Per la cornice di questa ricostruzione, invece, ci siamo avvalsi in particolare di: A. Zaccaria Ruggiu, Aion, Chronos Kairos. L'immagine del tempo nel mondo greco e romano, in Filosofia del tempo, a cura di L. Ruggiu, Mondadori, Milano, 1998, pp. 293-344; I. Ramelli, Tempo ed eternità in età antica e patristica, Cittadella ed., Padova, 2015; P. Taroni, Filosofie del tempo. Il concetto di tempo nella storia del pensiero occidentale, Mimesis, Milano, 2012; P. Philippson, Il concetto greco di tempo nelle parole aion, chronos, kairos, eniautos, in "Rivista di storia della filosofia", IV, 2, 1949, pp. 81-97; G. Giannantoni, Il concetto di tempo nel mondo antico fino a Platone, in AA. VV., a cura di G. Casertano, Il concetto di tempo, Loffredo, Napoli, 1997. Per la parte mitologica ci siamo avvalsi anche del prezioso sito: https://www.theoi.com/ Altri testi più specifici li segnaleremo di volta in volta.

The theoretical concept of irreversible time, its ephemerality and volatility, and the flight of the expedient or decisive moment, had crystallized in antiquity into the personified image of Kairos. Its message, however, was not evanescent and elusive, for it conveyed the idea that one could grasp the expedient moment and thus counteract the ruinous course of time. A decisive impetus in promoting the transition of Kairos from antiquity was the facility of adapting its allegorical imagery to Christian moralization and didactic iconography. By the early Renaissance humanists had resuscitated the literary sources that described and interpreted the classical image, and by the sixteenth century the personification of Kairos, restored in its authentic Greco-Roman form with accumulated moralistic appendages, was restructured into contemporary contexts with humanistic, political and moral implications.

In this paper, I will elaborate on Edward Said’s philological methodology for proposing a “living philology” of crisis as an attempt to recover the kairotic dimension of life from the constitutive precarity of modernity. In Frames of War, Judith Butler suggested that modern society imposed a tragic condition of “precarity” onto life: established by the biopolitical state of exception that has become the rule, precarity is the constitutive dimension of the life in crisis, from which there is no protection because one must appeal to the very state from which protection is required. In the augmented reality of modern liberal societies, cultural concepts like crisis attained an unsettling ‘operative force’ that profoundly affects both the material and the qualitative experience of life. In Greek, kairos indicated the due-time of the affective and experiential dimension of life, opposed to chronos, the passing time of biological and physical cycles. If crisis is, indeed, a biopolitical technique of management that invests the material precarity shared by all human individuals in their everyday lives, living philology is a “technique of trouble” that allows to recover the qualitative dimension of life from the crisis-driven cultural logic of financial liberalism. Thus, the kairotic dimension is essential because only from its perspective becomes possible to flesh out the affective entailments of a life perpetually in crisis, piercing with critical eye the experiential dimension where bio-power exerts its most persuasive and violent effects. More than a simple toolbox, living philology can be an intellectual commitment to recovering the qualitative value of life from the alienating biopolitical practices of today’s society, and to understanding the fundamental importance of the aesthetic experience for the sake of our present and future potentials for emancipation and enlightenment.

This study of Greek time before Aristotle’s philosophy starts with a commentary on his first text, the Protrepticus. We shall see two distinct forms of time emerge: one initiatory, circular and Platonic in inspiration, the other its diametrical opposite, advanced by Aristotle. We shall explore this dichotomy through a return to poetic conceptions. The Tragedians will give us an initial outline of the notion of time in the Greek world (Fate); we shall then turn to Homer in order to better grasp the complex relations between time and the religious sphere (the Hero); the work of the great theologian Hesiod will confirm this initiatory vision, later set out in remarkable fashion by Nietzsche (Myths); we shall then dive deep into Pythagoreanism to complete our account (Mysteries). Having understood this current of thought, powerfully influenced by the Iranian theogony, we shall be able to discern its clear differences from the so-called “Ionian” current, and thus to move away from Plato (Ideology). Lastly, we shall return to the early Ionian thinkers Thales and Anaximander to analyse whether this really was the vision of the world that Aristotle adopted in developing the first model of time (Science). In the second volume we shall see the return of the thought of the theologoi within the Aristotelian corpus itself, and will question our distinction between the being and existence of time.

Régis Laurent is a philosopher and member of the association Kairos Kai logos (Centre for the study of ancient philosophy). This book is the first part of his doctoral thesis in philosophy, undertaken under the aegis of three French universities (Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand and Rennes). In addition to his philosophical training, the author is also qualified to Masters level in linguistics and in general psychology, and studied theology at the Thomist University in Paris (ULSH) and at the CEJ of the EHESS.
Trad Trista SELOUS of the book of Régis LAURENT : METAPHYSIQUE DU TEMPS CHEZ ARISTOTE - I - Recherches historiques sur les conceptions mythologiques
et astronomiques précédant la philosophie aristotélicienne, villegagnons-plaisance, 2009/04/16, Paris, www.editions-villegagnons.com

The meaning of tearing and splitting as a life-, love- and wisdom-generating event (like the tearing of the Temple curtain) is profoundly rooted in the visual and literary ‘body’ of ancient and Christian thought. The primordial cosmogonic split is always sudden, sharp (like a knife), like a flash (at-once and all-over) and is lived through the whole bodily sensorium (shivering, bliss, sigh, wind, breath). The split is the epiphany of the radical change, the revolution and the transition beyond. There is a Greek deity who embodies this mystery: Kairos.

From a literary historical standpoint, it is known that Kairos had a great impact on classical rhetoric (Sophists versus Aristotle (385 BC – 322 BC)), on political humanist philosophy, on the post-modern theological-philosophical discourse about time and opportunity in the works of Paul Tillich (1886–1965),  Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)  and Evanghélos Moutsopoulos,  for example, and on the current revival of Kairos as a model for a new type of time management in both business and personal life. 

In recent years studies from an iconographic standpoint have examined the survival of the Greek deities in Byzantine and Latin pictorial traditions, where Kairos is connected to Fortuna and Occasio. Moreover, Kairos experienced a revival in humanist iconography as a pendant of Poenitentia (remorse).

This essay not only tests the literary-historical impact and iconographic Nachleben of Kairos, but also the concept of opportunity as a paradigm for art history. Kairos offers an alternative hermeneutic in which the image can be seen as chronotopos, epiphany and interruption. In this manner, this essay not only contributes to fundamental research relating to time and the perception of time in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period,  but also offers insights into how Kairos can function as a hermeneutic key when it comes to the image and its embedding in cultural historic dynamics.

È quasi tautologico, le allegorie del tempo hanno a che vedere con le modalità di percezione dello stesso. È intuibile, esse hanno a che fare con il soggetto o la soggettività che lo percepisce. Sta di fatto che le immagini archetipiche relative al tempo erano, per lo più, personificate e diversificate. Meno varie sono le figure moderne, a partire dalla prima modernità; quasi che alla percezione di un tempo diversificato sia subentrata quella di uno tendenzialmente unico, e anche, nonostante le apparenze, di un sé semplificato: sia esso individuale o collettivo, in particolare a esclusione di uno sfondo o sostrato naturale.

This article examines the temporality of interlinear translation through a case study of the rendering of Friedrich Hölderlin’s poetry into Persian. We argue that, in its adherence to the word order of the original, the interlinear crib prioritizes the temporality of the instant (kairos) over the temporality of the linear sequence (chronos). Kairos is made manifest in the literalist translations of Hölderlin by the modernist Iranian translator-poet Bijan Elahi (d. 2010). This inquiry advances our understanding of the role of syntax in constituting literary form and in shaping translation, and exposes the contingency of the translator’s decisions in every given literary juncture.

In this paper, we will explore liberation theology as defined by Gustavo Gutierrez, who is considered to be its founder. We will use it as an example to show how secular philosophy, and Marxism in particular, can influence Christianity and create new theological directions and movements. Also, we will see if there are some of its principles which we can freely accept as Christians, and which of them do we need to take with a grain of salt.

This essay seeks to answer the question posed by Deleuze & Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus, namely, what is it in each of us that renders us susceptible to fascism. I argue that a fundamental desire for a mode of temporal experience alien to that of chronology, of qualified time, namely, kairos, is this element, which has even greater potential for future revolutionary praxis.

This study seeks to probe Nico Koopman’s Christological approach through the lens of the theological framework spelled out in the Kairos Document (1985), and in particular its understandings of church theology and prophetic theology, critically re-appropriated in the current socioeconomic context of South Africa. Four essential aspects of Koopman’s Christological perspective are examined: (1) the Reformed view of the lordship of Christ as the basis for the public vocation of theology; (2) Trinitarian and Christological foundations of human dignity; (3) Jesus as the epitome of divine and human vulnerability, and (4) the organic connection between the threefold office of Christ and the public calling of the church. In conclusion, I argue that Koopman’s Christ, albeit displaying an African veneer, upon scrutiny, appears to be unfamiliar
with and unconcerned about the problems faced by most South Africans today, and thereby fails to constructively engage with African (especially black African) contexts of our day. Th is is due to four major factors, namely (a) Koopman’s choices regarding theological references; (b) his cursory and un-nuanced treatment of African theological notions; (c) his a-pathetic mode of theologising; and (d) his inability (or lack of willingness) to engage with structural (especially macro-economic) issues. I further suggest that my conclusions concerning Koopman’s “global Reformed Christ” may be (at least tentatively) extrapolated into a number of approaches developed by South African theologians under the umbrella of “public theology”. I also point to some promising (prophetically-loaded) insights coming from the chosen public theologians, including Koopman himself, as a way of illustrating the tension between civic spirit and public anger, inherent in this mode of theologising.

This is the first monograph dedicated entirely to Proclus’ theory of time, showing the roots of his obscure claim that time is a god and a cause in his reception of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and Plotinus. Proclus’ theory of time appears as a natural theology, a reasoned ascent to divine principles starting from natural phenomena (in particular, from natural cycles and their synchronization). This theological approach to time develops the pioneering psychological approach of Proclus’ predecessor Plotinus, anchoring time not in the world soul, but in the divine unchanging source of the world soul’s life.

This essay features a grisaille fresco depicting the Kairos/Occasio motif. A female figure with hair in front of her face and a bald crown moves with winged feet on top of a globe. Her clothing billows dynamically in the wind. She is a contrast to the woman with headgear, who has been placed on a rectangular pedestal and is keeping a young man from chasing the winged woman. He stretches out his arms to her in vain. The iconography of this grisaille crystallizes a longue durée of ‘the right moment’ or the fleeting opportunity. The grisaille illuminates a historical juncture in which the Fortuna/Occasio motif fascinated families of art patrons such as the Gonzagas, Sforzas and Estes. The grasping of the moment in the fresco also allows us to begin to grasp what ‘the unique opportunity’ meant for the people in the 15th century. Furthermore, the iconography of the grisaille has a key position in the transition from Middle Ages to Renaissance. This transition coincided with an iconographic conflation of Kairos and Occasio. The hybrid forms arose with the new, humanist understanding of human destiny. Likewise, the Mantuan grisaille embodies a modern depiction of the status of the humans in relation to the course of their life and their responsibilities to society. The fresco literally possesses the energy of a kairotic juncture, and enables a better understanding of 15th century humanism through the lens of what the virtue-mediated relationship between human being and fate makes possible.

Navigating through time, the contribution tries to understand its various meanings, from mythology and ancient names of the time until the connection among time of physics, lived-time and time " kairotico " in education, according to a humanistic-phenomenological perspective. The multiverse 'time' is related with the different ways of the soul and the concept of " appropriate time " is analyzed because it is crucial for the growth of the person. Finally, some forms of the time – know how to wait, how to assimilate, how to be able to pause, how to hope – are indicated as forms that in postmodernity people are unlearning and on which, instead, everybody should pay more attention to live more fully the different experiences of life.

Navigando attraverso il tempo, il contributo tenta di compren-dere meglio i suoi vari signifi cati, a partire dalla mitologia e dai nomi anti-chi del tempo fi no alla connessione tra tempo della fi sica, tempo vissuto e tempo kairotico in ambito educativo, secondo una prospettiva umanistico-fenomenologica. Viene messo in relazione il pluriverso 'tempo' con i diversi modi dell'anima e viene analizzato il concetto di " tempo opportuno " , così determinante per la crescita della persona. Si indicano, infi ne, alcune forme del tempo – saper attendere, saper assimilare, saper fare pausa, saper sperare – che nella postmodernità si stanno disimparando e sulle quali, invece, si dovrebbe porre più attenzione per vivere più pienamente le diverse espe-rienze della vita.