Topic Review
New Christian
New Christian (Spanish: cristiano nuevo; Portuguese: cristão-novo; Catalan: cristià nou) was a law-effective and social category developed from the 15th century onwards, and used in what is today Spain and Portugal as well as their New World colonies, to refer to Sephardi Jews and Muslims ("Moors") who had converted to the Catholic Church, often by force or coercion. It was developed and employed after the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula by the Catholic Monarchs. By law, the category of New Christian included not only recent converts, but also all their known baptized descendants with any fraction or quantum of New Christian blood up to the fourth generation, and then in Phillip II's reign it included any person with any fraction of New Christian blood "from time immemorial". In Portugal, it was only in 1772 that Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquess of Pombal, finally decreed an end to the legal distinction between New Christians and Old Christians.
  • 634
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
The Esoteric Character of the Gospels
"The Esoteric Character of the Gospels" is an article published in three parts: in November-December 1887, and in February 1888, in the theosophical magazine Lucifer; it was written by Helena Blavatsky. It was included in the 8th volume of the author's Collected Writings. In 1888, for this work, the author was awarded Subba Row medal.
  • 635
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Roman Houses of Armea (Allariz, Ourense)
Francisco Conde-Valvís’s so-called “stone treasure” is a set of unique carved stone pieces, such as bases, column shafts, a mortar, and decorated fragments (trisqueles and rosettes), found during the 2018 excavation campaign in the Cibdá de Armea (Allariz, Ourense). They had been piled up and re-buried—no records existed as to where—at the western end of the Finca de A Atalaia, which was excavated in the 1950s under the direction of Conde-Valvís and began to be excavated again in 2011.
  • 631
  • 14 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Zuytdorp
The VOC Zuytdorp also Zuiddorp (meaning "South Village", after Zuiddorpe, a still existing village in the South of Zeeland, near the Belgian border) was an 18th-century trading ship of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, commonly abbreviated VOC). On 1 August 1711 it was dispatched from the Netherlands to the trading port of Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia) bearing a load of freshly minted silver coins. Many trading ships of the time travelled a "fast route" using the strong Roaring Forties winds to carry them across the Indian Ocean to within sight of the west coast of Australia, (then called New Holland) whence they would make a turn north towards Batavia. The Zuytdorp never arrived at its destination. No search was undertaken, presumably because the VOC had no idea whether and where the ship had been wrecked or taken by pirates and possibly due to prior expensive but fruitless attempts to search for other missing ships, even when an approximate wreck location was known. As a result Zuytdorp and its entire complement were never heard from again. Their fate was unknown until the mid-20th century when the wreck site was identified on a remote part of the Western Australian coast between Kalbarri and Shark Bay, approximately 40 km north of the Murchison River. This rugged section of coastline was subsequently named the Zuytdorp Cliffs, was the preserve of the Indigenous inhabitants and one of the last great wildernesses until the advent of the sheep stations established there in the late 19th century. Something, perhaps a violent storm, occurred and the Zuytdorp was wrecked on a desolate section of the West Australian coast. Survivors scrambled ashore and camped near the wreck site. With no European settlements anywhere on the coast they built bonfires from the wreckage to signal fellow trading ships that would pass within sight of the coast. But fires seen in the vicinity tended to be dismissed as "native fires" as appears to have happened in the case of Vergulde Draeck in 1656. It has been speculated that survivors may have traded with or may have intermarried with the local Aboriginal communities between present-day Kalbarri and Shark Bay. It is also possible that intermarriage occurred in the case of a predecessor to the Zuytdorp, the infamous VOC Batavia, wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos islands offshore. After a mutiny, atrocities, massacres and trials, two of the mutineers were marooned on the Australian mainland, near the Murchison River (for details about these two mutineers see castaway). News of an unidentified shipwreck on the shore surfaced in 1834 when Aborigines told a farmer near the recently colonised Perth about a wreck the colonists presumed it was a recent wreck and sent rescue parties who failed to find the wreck or any survivors. The details provided (90 days walk, and coins on the beach), tend to point to the Zuytdorp; however. In 1927, wreckage was seen by an Indigenous-European family group (comprising Ada and Ernest Drage, Tom and Lurleen Pepper and the women's father Charlie Mallard) on a clifftop near the border of Murchison house and Tamala Stations where they all worked. Tamala Station head stockman, Tom Pepper later reported the find to the authorities, their first expedition to the site occurring in 1941. In 1954 Pepper gave Phillip Playford directions and it was he who subsequently identified the relics as from Zuytdorp.
  • 627
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Trends in Recent English-Language Literature (2015–2021)
Several recurring themes and discourses emerge within this literature, including identity/identity-politics, indigenous spiritualities and religion, and intercultural syncretisms (especially in the context of Euro–American Christianity). Many of these and other discourses intersect with notions of cultural purity and the overarching institution of Western colonialism, which significantly impacted indigenous peoples (and music) throughout the world, particularly over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Ingalls et al. propose “musical localization” as an alternative to other syncretic discourses—namely, indigenization, contextualization, and inculturation—to better address “the complex ways music-making becomes locally useful”.
  • 625
  • 15 Oct 2021
Topic Review
The New Urban Profession: Entering Age of Uncertainty
The context of urbanism is changing rapidly. The context for working in the field of urban design and planning is influenced by the pace of change; uncertainty; and massive transitions. The urban professional, however, is still used to planning for small changes and repeating traditional approaches. 
  • 623
  • 11 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Circum-Saharan Prehistory through the Lens of mtDNA Diversity
African history has been significantly influenced by the Sahara, which has represented a barrier for migrations of all living beings, including humans. Major exceptions were the gene flow events that took place between North African and sub-Saharan populations during the so-called African Humid Periods, especially in the Early Holocene (11.5 to 5.5 thousand years ago), and more recently in connection with trans-Saharan commercial routes. The research indicates that maternal gene flow must have been important in this circum-Saharan space, not only within North Africa and the Sahel/Savannah belt but also between these two regions.
  • 622
  • 25 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Mūlamadhyamakakārikā
The Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Sanskrit: मूलमध्यमककारिका, Root Verses on the Middle Way), abbreviated as MMK, is the foundational text of the Madhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy. It was composed by the Indian philosopher Nāgārjuna (approximately around 150 CE). The MMK makes use of reductio arguments to show how all phenomena (dharmas) are empty of svabhava (which has been variously translated as essence, own-being, or inherent existence). The MMK is widely regarded as one of the most influential and widely studied texts in the history of Buddhist philosophy. The MMK had a major impact on the subsequent development of Buddhist thought, especially in Tibetan Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism.
  • 622
  • 28 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Karl Barth on Creation-care
At the height of the current pandemic, this article seeks to explore the identity of the Creator God in Karl Barth’s doctrine of creation. Attention is given to his understanding of the eternal covenant God has made with humanity and how we are cared for within a covenantal fellowship. The study also concerns itself with how Barth’s distaste for the notion of analogia entis is somewhat unsustained in his treatment of creation. I argue that, to some extent, the analogy of being vis-à-vis the cosmos is complementarily employed with analogia fides in Barth’s articulation of creation care. This is the case as he reconfigures the talk on creation rigidly in and through Jesus Christ as Creator and creature.
  • 619
  • 30 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Co-Redemptrix
Co-Redemptrix is a title used by some Roman Catholics for the Blessed Virgin Mary, as well as a Catholic theological concept referring to Mary's role in the redemption of all peoples. It has always been controversial and has never formed part of the dogma of the Church. According to those who use the term, Co-Redemptrix refers to a subordinate but essential participation by the Blessed Virgin Mary in redemption, notably that she gave free consent to give life to the Redeemer, which meant sharing his life, suffering, and death, which were redemptive for the world. Related to this belief is the concept of Mary as Mediatrix, which is a separate concept but regularly included by Catholics who use the title Co-Redemptrix.
  • 619
  • 22 Nov 2022
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