GENERAL CATALOGUE 2015

Transcription

1 POLIFEMO POLIFEMO XXI SECOLO POLIFEMO S RECENT STUDIES GENERAL CATALOGUE 2015 RELIGIOUS HISTORICAL OBSERVATORY SINTESI E RICERCHE STORICO-RELIGIOSE USI DELLA BIBBIA ICONOGRAPHY OF PRINTED BIBLES

2 NEW BOOKS OR REPRINTS (JULY-DECEMBER 2015) F. Mora, Religious historical observatory 2014, Charleston 2015, pp. 206, ISBN F. Mora, Dei feste sacerdoti: breve introduzione alle religioni greca romana egizia, Messina 2005 / Charleston 2015, pp. 188, ISBN F. Mora, Storia e simulazione, Messina 2009 / Charleston 2015, pp. 204, ISBN F. Mora (a cura di), Ricerche sulle religioni antiche , Charleston 2015, pp. 214, ISBN F. Mora (a cura di), Ricerche sul politeismo, Charleston 2015, pp. 242, ISBN (a multi-language essay collection) F. Mora, Ricerche di storia e storiografia, Charleston 2015, pp. 184, ISBN

3 F. MORA (A CURA DI), RICERCHE SUL POLITEISMO, CHARLESTON 2015, PP. 214, ISBN Fabio Mora, Intraducibilità dei politeismi 1 Fabio Mora, Ricerche sul politeismo romano. L evoluzione del pantheon e del sistema festivo 16 Fabio Mora, I linguaggi politeistici 60 Dominique Briquel, Remarques sur le polytheisme etrusque 92 René Lebrun, Panthéons locaux et panthéon d état dans l Anatolie hittite 119 Pietro U. Dini, Elementi di mitologia baltica 130 Fabio Mora, Il pantheon egizio 138 Emanuele M. Ciampini, Osservazioni sul politeismo egiziano 177 Joannis Mylonopoulos, Poseidon und Neptunus. Zwei Götter zwei polytheistische Systeme 207 Daniele F. Maras, Divinità etrusche e iconografia greca la connotazione sessuale delle divinità solari ed astrali 222

4 P A OLIFEMO XXI SECOLO JOURNAL FOR HISTORY OF RELIGIONS IN THE XXI CENTURY Fondata da / fondée par / founded by Direttore / Directeur / Chief Editor Fabio Mora II

5 For every kind of information see or write to Rivista Polifemo XXI secolo c/o Fabio Mora, Facoltà di Lettere, Polo didattico dell Annunziata, Messina Advisory board Dominique Briquel (Paris Sorbonne) chairman Mauro Gabriele Perani (Bologna) Fabio Mora (Messina) Daniele Menozzi (Scuola Normale di Pisa) Saverio Sani (Pisa) Gualtiero De Santi (Urbino) Pietro Gibellini (Venezia) Rainer Oßwald (Bayreuth) ISSN Statistics 2015 Structured / invited / not invited papers 6/3/0 Accepted / accepted after revision / rejected 9/0/2 Structured papers belong to a long term project aiming to a systematic description of contemporary religious history. Fabio Mora, 2015

6 SUMMARIES Fabio Mora, Biblical icons in the XXI century II Other German editions, 1-78 This paper completes our analysis of German illustrated editions of the Bible in XXI century. Keywords: Bible Iconography XXI century Fabio Mora, New Catholic saints III, In this recurring series are introduced, with a brief, objective, complete information, saints canonized by the Catholic church in the preceding year: in 2014 they were Amato Ronconi, José de Anchieta, Mary of the Incarnation, François de Montmorency Laval, Nicola da Longobardi, Kuriakose Elias Chavara, Ludovico da Casoria, Giovanni Antonio Farina, Euphrasia Eluvanthingal. Keywords: Catholic saints Canonization Amato Ronconi José de Anchieta Mary of the Incarnation François de Montmorency Laval Nicola da Longobardi Kuriakose Elias Chavara Ludovico da Casoria Giovanni Antonio Farina Euphrasia Eluvanthingal Enrico Morini, Nuovi santi ortodossi III Santi di obbedienza né constantinopolitana né moscovita, (New orthodox saints III: neither in Constantinopolitane nor in Moscovite obedience, ) In this recurring series are introduced, with a brief, objective, complete information, saints canonized by the Orthodox church, in this case by churches independent both from Constantinople and Moscow: between 2010 and 2014 they were Irodion of Lainici, Simion Ştefan, Andrei Saguna, Anton II Bagration, Urgebadze Gabriel. Keywords: Orthodox saints Canonization Irodion of Lainici Simion Ştefan Andrei Saguna Anton II Bagration Urgebadze Gabriel. Fabio Mora Mahdis of the last century, In this paper are introduced, next to some dubious cases, all the mahdis proclaimed in the last 100 years. Keywords: mahdis last century Moussa Aminou Wallace D. Fard Muhammad Jumat Imam Muḥammad ibn Abdullah al-qahtani Riaz Aḥmed Gohar Shahi Dia Abdul Zahra Kadim Ariffin Moḥamed Adnan Otkar. Fabio Mora Tommaso Caliò, Nuovi beati cattolici dell ultimo secolo, (New Catholic blessed of the last century, ) In this paper are selectively introduced some new Catholic blessed died less than 100 years ago and beatified between 2010 and 2012: Giuseppe Toniolo, Hildegard Burjan, Enrichetta Alfieri, Elena Aiello, Jerzy Popiełuzko, Clemente Vismara, Chiara Badano. Keywords: Catholic blessed Canonization Giuseppe Toniolo Hildegard Burjan Enrichetta Alfieri Elena Aiello Jerzy Popiełuzko Clemente Vismara Chiara Badano.

7 300 POLIFEMO Giuseppe Langella, Tendenze religiose nella letteratura italiana più recente IV. Il meraviglioso cristiano, (Religious trends in the latest Italian literature IV. The Christian wonderful, ) In this recurring series are introduced Italian works of religious interest written after 2000 or by living authors, grouped around specific religious themes, in this case the Christian wonderful, as exemplified by Raffaele Crovi, Alessandro Forte, Pino Farinotti, Ferruccio Parazzoli, Pasquale Maffeo, Alessandro Zaccuri, Mario Luzi, Massimo Cacciapuoti. Keywords: Religious tendencies Italian literature XXI century Raffaele Crovi Alessandro Forte Pino Farinotti Ferruccio Parazzoli Pasquale Maffeo Alessandro Zaccuri Mario Luzi Massimo Cacciapuoti. We need Charlie Religious satire and humour 2014, A statement on Charlie s murder and the right to satire and freedom of and from religion is followed by a first instalment of a yearly anthology of religious satire. Keywords: Charlie freedom of and from religion satire religious satire Fabio Mora, Islamic violence 2014, In this recurring series is yearly documented lethal violence perpetrated on religious grounds by Islamic groups both intrareligious violence (against other Muslims) and interreligious violence (eventually specifically targeted against Christians or Jews). Keywords: Islamic violence lethal violence 2014 Al-Shahab Islamic State Taliban Boko Aram Al-Nusra Al-Qaeda Lone wolves Fabio Mora, Images of 2014, A yearly collection of religiously relevant images of the year: Hinduism Buddhism Jihad s recruitment FEMEN Women of the wall Kate Kelly Catholic priestesses Anglican bishopess Weddings Ashura Purim Pilgrimage to Holy Land Canonizations of two popes Defrocked and retiring pedophile clergy Keywords: iconographic documentation Hindu festivals Buddhist festivals Jihad FEMEN Women of the wall Kate Kelly Catholic priestesses Libby Lane Weddings Ashura Purim Francis I John Paul II John XXIII Catholic pedophilia

8 Polifemo XXI secolo is a journal in history of religions specifically dedicated to the study of contemporary religions, with a main emphasis on the XXI century and a secondary one on the last century, understood as the last one hundred years before our writing. It pays special attention to structured series of articles developing a systematic knowledge of contemporary religious facts, consciously constructing the object of their study - and more specifically to the annual or periodic chronicles relating to their événementiels or repetitive aspects, in a logic similar to Religious historical observatory (former Osservatorio storico-religioso), that although an independent publication continues to belong to the same scientific project. All contributions are examined in a anonym form, that does not allow to identify their author (double blind). Spontaneous contributions (also in response to a call for papers or to a social call) must be sent to the journal with the procedure advertised on the site, that allows to verify the identity of the authors only after the approval of their contribution; the invited papers, the identity of the author is of course known to the director, must comply with all requests in the invitation. After the preliminary review by the editor, contributions are evaluated by the relevant scientific subcommittee, who decides, also on the basis of external expertise, their approval (unconditional or conditioned to certain revisions), their referral for a well defined revision or their final rejection. The opinions, which aim to verify originality of results, strength of documentation and / or bibliography and methodological rigor of exposure, are collected in parallel by individual members of the subcommittee teaching the same subject, by the leader of each subcommittee and by the chairman of the advisory board, who decides in all controversial cases. When, even with editorial corrections, all conditions imposed for publication are satisfied, the author is officially informed of paper s acceptance; publication usually takes place within 24 months. Contributions for publication are submitted as Word files complying with the journal s ars citandi and using only Unicode characters; submission implies acceptance of the journal s rules and specifically: the submitted texts must be unpublished, may not have been or be in the next 12 months submitted for publication in other journals or collections of essays; author s name must not appear, self-citations should not be recognizable; the article is published free of charge, copyright on text and images is transferred to the journal s owner upon paper s acceptance; after paper s publication, the author may reprint it in a volume of his, quoting original publication in this journal, but not publish it in internet or in any electronic form; any paper not accepted within 12 months is automatically rejected; failure to comply with these rules and especially any double submission causes automatic rejection of any subsequent text submitted for publication. Text must be readable with mere knowledge of the Latin alphabet - expressions in different alphabets should therefore follow their translation or transliteration into Latin characters or be quoted in the footnotes; not European alphabets will usually be transliterated. Images must be sent in a gray-scale digital format at a good resolution.

9 Polifemo XXI secolo accepts contributions written in a vehicular language amply accepted in the relevant scientific community. According to its detailed linguistic policy, mainly based on detailed statistics in Eutifrone Annual bibliography for history of religions are accepted a) contributions in English in any religious or profane area; b) contributions in French, Italian, German, Spanish with large (about 25%) English shorter version on religious aspects of modern authors of the same language; c) contributions in French, Italian, German, Spanish with large (about 25%) English shorter version for studies on Christianity; d) contributions with large (about 25%) English shorter version in German on Judaism, in French or German on Oriental religions. Contributions sub c or d should not constitute more than 20% of total pagination of each volume. Ars citandi Follow these examples (and rules listed in Polifemo 8, 2008, ) using journal abbreviations listed in Eutifrone or Année Philologique; distinguish between first quotation F. Mora, Prosopografia Isiaca. I. Corpus Prosopographicum Religionis Isiacae (EPRO 113), Leiden F. Braudel, Civiltà e imperi del mediterraneo nell età di Filippo II, Paris 1949/1982 Ital. trans. Torino 1953/1986. F. Mora, Religioni fondate, Archaeus 7, 2003, esp. 39. F. Mora, Nomi teofori e politeismo greco: prospettive di ricerca in G. Sfameni Gasparro (ed.), Agathé Elpis. Studi storico-religiosi in onore di U. Bianchi, Roma 1994, and successive quotations Mora, Prosopografia Isiaca, I 157; Braudel, Civiltà, I Mora Archaeus 2003, 47 Mora in Sfameni Gasparro, Agathé Elpis, 179

10 OLIFEMO XXI SECOLO PA JOURNAL FOR HISTORY OF RELIGIONS IN THE XXI CENTURY Fondata da / fondée par / founded by Direttore / Directeur / Chief Editor Fabio Mora I

11 SUMMARIES Fabio Mora, Biblical icons in the XXI century I Multiple iconographic programs, 1-49 This paper analyses two German editions (one Catholic, the other Lutheran) who include in the same physically identical print of the text different iconographic supplements in colour to try to understand what is the standard iconography of the Bible in XXI century. A second paper will deal with other German illustrated editions of the Bible in XXI century. Keywords: Bible Iconography XXI century Fabio Mora, Chagall s Biblical illustrations, This paper studies the different collections of Chagall s Biblical illustrations in coherent works, pointing to acute interreligious misunderstandings in the deformation of an important Jewish illustration of Jewish Bible into a failed Jewish illustration of Christian Bible. Author s and collector s choices are systematically confronted, so that their opposition spontaneously emerges. Keywords: Bible Iconography XXI century Chagall Fabio Mora, New Catholic saints II, In this recurring series are introduced, with a brief, objective, complete information, saints canonized by the Catholic church in the preceding year: in 2013 they were Antonio Primaldo and companions, Laura Montoya Upegui, Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala, Angela of Foligno, Peter Faber. Keywords: Catholic saints Canonization Antonio Primaldo Laura Montoya Upegui Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala Angela of Foligno Peter Faber. Fabio Mora, New Anglican saints II American episcopalians, In this recurring series are introduced, with a brief, objective, complete information, saints canonized by the Anglican church, in this case the Episcopal church in the USA at its 2012 general convention: they were James Solomon Russell, Emily Cooper, Pauli Murray, Junia and Andronicus, Thecla, together with two commemorations (First female ordination in the Episcopal church, Baptism of Mateo and Virginia Dare). Keywords: Anglican saints Episcopal church (USA) Canonization James Solomon Russell Emily Cooper Pauli Murra Junia and Andronicus Thecla First female ordination in the Episcopal church Baptism of Mateo and Virginia Dare.

12 272 POLIFEMO Enrico Morini, Anticonformismo, profezia e maternità spirituale in due recenti canonizzazioni ortodosse: Matrona di Mosca e Sofia di Kleisoura, (Non-conformism, prophecy and spiritual motherhood in two recent Orthodox canonizations: Matrona of Moscow and Sophia of Kleisoura) Two different instances of female sanctity in the Orthodox church (resp. Greek and Russian) are here studied, also with the aim to draw some comparison between different forms of nonconformist behaviour of holy women. Keywords: Female saints Orthodox church Matrona of Moscow Sophia of Kleisoura Étienne Fouilloux, Paul Couturier s spiritual ecumenism, This paper studies the ecumenical activity of a Catholic pioneer in this field, who became an Anglican saint without ever being on the Catholic sainthood track, although his main legacy, spiritual ecumenism, was quoted by Council Vatican II. Keywords: ecumenism Catholic priests Anglican saints Paul Couturier Eloisa Stuparich, Hindu saints of the last century, This paper studies, after a general introduction to the theme, three examples of recent Hindu saints: saints of the last century, according to the definition of last century in this journal, as the last 100 years before publication, and using saints as a generic expression for persons honoured in their own religious tradition with special, more than human honours within their life or after their death. Keywords: Hinduism saints last century Sai Baba Ramana Maharshi Anandamayi Ma Theo Hobson, Rowan Williams at Canterbury, This paper studies in all his aspects the activity of Rowan Williams as (justly retired) archbishop of Canterbury. Keywords: Anglican church archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams Francesc Torralba, A community called to go out of itself. Introduction to the ecclesiological thought of Francis I, This paper is a detailed introduction to Francis I ecclesiology mainly based on his speeches in studies in all his aspects the activity of Rowan Williams as (justly retired) archbishop of Canterbury. Keywords: Catholic church Francis I ecclesiology Fabio Mora, Images of 2013, A yearly collection of religiously relevant images of the year. Keywords: iconographic documentation

13 P REVIEW OLIFEMO FOR HISTORY OF RELIGIONS Fondata da / fondée par / founded by / fundada por / gegründet von Direttore / Directeur / Chief Editor / Director / Direktor Fabio Mora XV

14 For every kind of information see or write to Assistant editors Adolfo J. Dominguez - Daniele Castrizio polifemo@mac.com Rivista Polifemo c/o Fabio Mora, Facoltà di Lettere, Polo didattico dell Annunziata, Messina Advisory board Dominique Briquel (Paris Sorbonne) president Mauro Gabriele Perani (Bologna) Rossella Pera (Genova) Fabio Mora (Messina) Roberto Radice (Cattolica di Milano) Daniele Menozzi (Scuola Normale di Pisa) Saverio Sani (Pisa) Gualtiero De Santi (Urbino) Claudia Antonetti Pietro Gibellini (Venezia) Dean Béchard Jean Louis Ska (Pontificio Istituto Biblico) Gerard Capdeville (Paris Sorbonne) Charles Guittard (Paris X Nanterre) René Lebrun (Catholique de Louvain - Institut catholique de Paris) Adolfo J. Dominguez (Autonoma de Madrid) Jan Bremmer (Groningen) Gocha Tsetskhladze (Melbourne) Rainer Oßwald (Bayreuth) Christoph Dohmen (Regensburg) Bernhard Maier (Tübingen) Statistics 2015 Structured / invited / not invited papers 2/1/0 Accepted / accepted after revision / rejected 3/0/5 Structured papers belong to a long term project. Fabio Mora, 2015

15 SUMMARIES Fabio Mora, Biblical icons II. Merian and others, This paper analyses in much detail Merian s Biblical iconography comparing it with other authors of the same century. Keywords: Bible Iconography XVII century Merian Visscher Weigel Jollain Küsel Fabio Mora Christian Herrmann, A modern hexapla: Matthew 5-7 in German translations, This paper introduces a project aiming to document real translating variants of chosen New Testament texts in most relevant Bible translations of each European language, by analysing German translations, up to 1900, of Matthew s Sermon on the mount. XX and XXI century translations will be dealt separately. Authors interested to take part to the project with analogous papers for other languages are very welcomed and invited to contact the journal s editor. Keywords: Bible Bible German translations Matthew Sermon on the mount Fabio Mora, I dottori della chiesa nella tradizione cristiana, (The doctors of the Church in the Christian tradition, ) This paper analyses the historical evolution of Catholic doctors of the Church and their possible Orthodox, Coptic, Protestant equivalents. Keywords: Doctors of the church Christianity

16 Polifemo is a journal in history of religions with a secondary emphasis on general and comparative history. All contributions are examined in an anonym form, not allowing to identify their author (double blind). Spontaneous contributions (also in response to a call for papers or to a social call) must be sent to the journal with the procedure advertised on the site, allowing to verify the identity of the authors only after approval of their contribution; invited papers, whose author s identity is of course known to the editor, must comply with all requests in the invitation. After preliminary review by the editor, contributions are evaluated by relevant scientific subcommittee, who decides, also on the basis of external expertise, their approval (unconditional or conditioned to certain revisions), their referral for a well defined revision or their final rejection. The opinions, which aim to verify originality of results, strength of documentation and / or bibliography and methodological rigor of exposure, are collected in parallel by individual members of the subcommittee teaching the same subject, by the leader of each subcommittee and by the chairman of the advisory board, who decides in all controversial cases. When, even with editorial corrections, all conditions imposed for publication are satisfied, the author is officially informed of paper s acceptance; publication usually takes place within 24 months. Contributions for publication are submitted as Word files complying with the journal s ars citandi and using only Unicode characters; submission implies acceptance of the journal s rules and specifically: the submitted texts must be unpublished, may not have been or be in the next 12 months submitted for publication in other journals or collections of essays; author s name must not appear, self-citations should not be recognizable; the article is published free of charge, copyright on text and images is transferred to the journal s owner upon paper s acceptance; after paper s publication, the author may reprint it in a volume of his, quoting original publication in this journal, but not publish it in internet or in any electronic form; any paper not accepted within 12 months is automatically rejected; failure to comply with these rules and especially any double submission causes automatic rejection of any subsequent text submitted for publication. Text must be readable with mere knowledge of the Latin alphabet - expressions in different alphabets should therefore follow their translation or transliteration into Latin characters or be quoted in footnotes; not European alphabets will usually be transliterated. Images must be sent in a gray-scale digital format at a good resolution.

17 Polifemo accepts contributions written in a vehicular language amply accepted in the relevant scientific community. According to its detailed linguistic policy, mainly based on detailed statistics in Eutifrone Annual bibliography for history of religions are accepted a) contributions in English in any religious or profane area; b) contributions in French, Italian, German, Spanish with large (about 25%) English shorter version on religious aspects of modern authors of the same language; c) contributions in French, Italian, German, Spanish with large (about 25%) English shorter version for studies on Christianity, Classical religions, Ancient antiquity; d) contributions with large (about 25%) English shorter version in German on Judaism, in French or German on Oriental religions. Contributions sub c or d should not constitute more than 20% of total pagination of each volume. Ars citandi Follow these examples (and rules listed in Polifemo 8, 2008, ) using journal abbreviations listed in Eutifrone or Année Philologique; distinguish between first quotation F. Mora, Prosopografia Isiaca. I. Corpus Prosopographicum Religionis Isiacae (EPRO 113), Leiden F. Braudel, Civiltà e imperi del mediterraneo nell età di Filippo II, Paris 1949/1982 Ital. trans. Torino 1953/1986. F. Mora, Religioni fondate, Archaeus 7, 2003, esp. 39. F. Mora, Nomi teofori e politeismo greco: prospettive di ricerca in G. Sfameni Gasparro (ed.), Agathé Elpis. Studi storico-religiosi in onore di U. Bianchi, Roma 1994, and successive quotations Mora, Prosopografia Isiaca, I 157; Braudel, Civiltà, I Mora Archaeus 2003, 47 Mora in Sfameni Gasparro, Agathé Elpis, 179

18 P OLIFEMO REVIEW FOR HISTORY OF RELIGIONS Fondata da / fondée par / founded by / fundada por / gegründet von Direttore / Directeur / Chief Editor / Director / Direktor Fabio Mora XIV

19 SUMMARIES Fabio Mora, Icone bibliche I. Carolsfeld vs. Doré, (Biblical icons I. Carolsfeld vs. Doré) This paper analyses in much detail the Biblical iconography of Carolsfeld and Doré, comparing the two authors, who were for about a century (II half XIX century I half XX century) the unchallenged paradigm for Biblical iconography. Keywords: Bible Iconography XIX century XX century Fabio Mora, Biblical citations I Anglican authors, This paper performs a quantitative analysis of Biblical quotations from specific books in Anglican authors ( ) to detect both general Anglican and individual tendencies in selective Bible reading. Keywords: Bible Bible quotations Anglican church Fabio Mora, Usi della Bibbia VII L Antico Testamento nel lezionario copto, (Uses of the Bible VII Old Testament in Coptic lectionary) This paper analyses in much detail the selection of readings from Old Testament in the Coptic church, whose lectionary is very differently organised from Occidental or Byzantine ones. Keywords: Bible Uses of the Bible Lectionary Old Testament Coptic church Fabio Mora, Usi della Bibbia VIII Il Nuovo Testamento nel lezionario copto, (Uses of the Bible VIII New Testament in Coptic lectionary) This paper analyses in much detail the selection of readings from New Testament in the Coptic church, whose lectionary is very differently organised from Occidental or Byzantine ones. Keywords: Bible Uses of the Bible Lectionary New Testament Coptic church Adolfo Dominguez, Filipo II, Alejandro III de Macedonia y Alejandro I el Moloso. La unidad de acción de sus políticas expansionistas, (Philip II, Alexander III of Macedonia and Alexander I Molossus. Unity of action of their expansionist policies) This paper detects a common tendence in Macedonian panhellenic politics, usually analyzed only in their specific regional context, that anticipates Alexander the Great s miracolous expansion. Keywords: Philip II Alexander III Alexander I Molossus Macedonia Panhellenism Alexander the Great

20 256 POLIFEMO Daniele Castrizio, Elmi e copricapo degli eroi omerici, (Helmets and headgear of the Homeric heroes) This paper analyses the helmets as signs of command in numismatic representations of Homeric heroes. Keywords: helmets Homeric heroes Numismatics Iconography

21 P fondée OLIFEMO S RECENT STUDIES par / founded by / fundada por Directeur / Chief Editor / Director Fabio Mora IΙ

22 SUMMARY Editor s choice. Forty book in history of religions from Eutifrone Editor s choice. The six best and six worst books from Eutifrone Editor s choice. Best 1% papers in history of religions from Eutifrone Out of competition 47 José Antonio Dabdab Trabulsi, Études récentes sur la Grèce classique V 53 Kostas Vlassopoulos, Recent studies on ancient slavery 83

23 P fondée OLIFEMO S RECENT STUDIES par / founded by / fundada por Directeur / Chief Editor / Director Fabio Mora I

24 SUMMARY Editor s choice. Forty book in history of religions from Eutifrone Editor s choice. Best 1% papers in history of religions from Eutifrone Out of competition 46 José Antonio Dabdab Trabulsi, Études récentes sur la Grèce classique IV 49 Adolfo J. Domínguez, Estudios recientes sobre la colonización griega VI 79

25 RELIGIOUS HISTORICAL OBSERVATORY In the Religious historical observatory Fabio Mora, one of the best specialists in contemporary religions, presents every year the most important religious-historical events of the previous year. The series started in Italian with the title Osservatorio storico-religioso, covering the years 2008 to 2012, and switched to English and his new title for events in 2013 and later years. All volumes have now been reprinted in the Sintesi e ricerche storico-religiose, but the Religious historical observatory is now an autonomous series of book. F. Mora, Religious historical observatory 2014, Charleston 2015, pp. 198, ISBN F. Mora, Religious historical observatory 2013, Charleston 2014, pp. 206, ISBN (Sintesi e ricerche storico-religiose 7). F. Mora, Osservatorio-storico religioso 2012, Charleston 2013, pp. 206, ISBN (Sintesi e ricerche storico-religiose 1). F. Mora, Osservatorio-storico religioso 2011, Charleston 2013, pp. 184, ISBN (Sintesi e ricerche storico-religiose 17). F. Mora, Osservatorio-storico religioso 2010, Charleston 2013, pp. 102, ISBN (Sintesi e ricerche storico-religiose 16). F. Mora, Osservatori-storico religiosi 2008 e 2009, Charleston 2013, pp. 188, ISBN (Sintesi e ricerche storico-religiose 2).

26 FABIO MORA RELIGIOUS HISTORICAL OBSERVATORY 2013 (SINTESI E RICERCHE STORICO-RELIGIOSE 7) CHARLESTON 2014, PP. 200 ISBN The Observatory 2013 reports: for Judaism on the first three female Orthodox clergy and Orthodox documents, new conservative standards, life of American Reform Judaism with its once in a life mixing of Hannukah and Thanksgiving, but also its decisive role in solving the crisis of the Women of the wall (who may now pray with male ritual garments at the Wall in Jerusalem), on the election of two new chief rabbis of Israel, on increasing problems with haredi in Israel, where they are no more represented in government and targeted by a new secular force, on worldwide anti-semitism; for non Chalcedonian Christianity on two Coptic canonizations, on life of the Coptic church and the many attacks it endures, on tensions in the Armenian church; for Orthodox churches on the activity of the Ecumenical Patriarch and of the Patriarch of Moscow, on the new Bulgarian Patriarch, the process leading to a American Orthodox church and the kidnapping of two Antiochean bishops; for Catholicism on Benedict s resignation, the conclave electing his successor, a short characterization of Francis I with a more detailed analysis of his Evangelii gaudium, with a new clear opposition to some Western values as the social enemy, on new saints and blessed, on various activity of the Roman curia and appointments in the local churches, on ordination of women and child sex abuses; for Protestantism on various activity of German Lutherans, on decisions made by the American Lutherans and their choice of their first female presiding bishop, on the unification of French Protestantism, on an Anglican document on sionism, on the merging of three English dioceses into a larger one, on a Mennonite/Amish pilgrimage to Israel to apologize for their insensitiveness to Holocaust, on scandals in the Anabaptist family, on Baptist resolutions, on Baptist and Methodist different attitude to gay scouts, on Methodists questioning online communion, on Adventists debating ordination of women, on Unitarian-Universalists penchant for polyamory; for Mormons mainly on the failed attempt to ordain women and the internet campaign claiming it; for Islam mainly on women s condition, sexual ethics, Islam in the West; for Hinduism and Sikhism on a various chronicle of the year, with some attention to Hindu hate speech; for Buddhism on Tibetan Buddhism, with a greater wave of self-immolations, much activity of Dalai and Karmapa Lama, on Zen Buddhism, with a sex-scandal in America, that might rather depend from American misunderstanding of Buddhist ethics, on the death of the Thailand Theravada patriarch, on further steps toward a new Buddhist body, on tensions between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar; for interfaith relations on a lot of interreligious (mainly Islamic) violence and much intrareligious, almost only Islamic violence, and much religious discrimination; for ecumenism on some interdenominational dialogue of the Catholic church, but mainly on the assembly of World Council of Churches.

27 FABIO MORA OSSERVATORIO-STORICO RELIGIOSO 2012 (SINTESI E RICERCHE STORICO-RELIGIOSE 1) CHARLESTON 2013, PP. 206 ISBN In Osservatorio storico-religioso every year are presented the most important religious-historical events of the previous year. Osservatorio 2012 focuses in particular: for Judaism on new responsa of the conservative movement, on international controversy about circumcision and the ongoing conflict in Israel between ultra- Orthodox Haredi and secular members of society; for non-chalcedonian Christianity on the problems of the Copts, targeted by Islamist violence, on Patriarch Shenouda III's death and the new Ethiopian Patriarch; for Orthodoxy on the appointment of new patriarchs, the activity of the Russian Holy Synod, the first steps of a new Orthodox church in North America, but also on the controversy over the excessive hardness of the repression (also ecclesiastical) of the Pussy riot's protest; for Catholicism on the consistories in which Benedict XVI has prepared his resignation, on new saints and blessed canonized in 2012, on the alleged Vatileaks scandal (actually a hype); for Protestantism on the activities of the German Lutheran church, with particular attention to their revision of the lectionary, on the decisions made by the North American Presbyterians, on substitution of the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury after the failure of his worldwide Anglican new covenant, on the motions approved in their conventions by Methodists and Baptists, on new initiatives of the Seventhday Adventists; for Mormons on the image campaign I am Mormon, and the relationship between Mormons and biblical scriptures in a devotional piece that provides a daily spiritual reading; for Islam on the situation after the Arab Spring and the status of women in relation to many issues (the protest by Saudi women banned from driving cars, new cases of honor killings, the issue of the veil and the very diverse image of Islamic female athletes at the Olympics); for Hinduism on different issues related to temples, pilgrimage, caste discrimination and significant events of 2012; for Tibetan Buddhism on deepening of political confrontation with the Chinese government in a particularly intense wave of self-immolations (almost three times those experienced in previous years) and on the Dalai Lama s and the Karmapa Lama s activities, for other forms of Buddhism especially on the death of Bangladesh's most famous monk, considered an arahant, destined to no more reincarnate. It follows an evaluation of heavy inter-religious and intra-religious violence as well as of inter-religious censorship and other attacks on religious freedom; the point on inter-religious, and more specifically ecumenical, dialogue concludes the volume.

28 FABIO MORA OSSERVATORIO-STORICO RELIGIOSO 2011 CHARLESTON 2013, PP. 184 ISBN The most significant religious events of 2011 are presented. For Judaism are analyzed: some important Orthodox decisions (on the determination of death, against homosexual marriage, defending circumcision from various attacks) and some efforts by liberal Orthodox to find not rabbinical, yet relevant roles for women in Judaism; several conflicts between Haredi and secular society in Israel, and among them a new case at Beit Shemesh, where a young girl terrified by Haredis became an international icon; several new standards and interpretations by the conservatives, on kashrut problems, on procedures to ascertain a doubtful Jewish identity, on deaf and dumbs; some problems in Israel and among them the polemics on quality of conversions. For Christianity are analyzed: the attacks on the Coptic church, that continued even after the international shock of the New Year Alexandria bombing; the internal activity of the Russian Orthodox church and Bartholomew I of Constantinople s ecumenical activity, along with some usual frictions between Moscow and Constantinople; two motu proprio by Benedict XVI (opening the year of faith, instituting a new Rota office for dissolving not consumed marriages and dealing with invalid ordinations among them ordinations of women) the creation of two Catholic ordinariati ( bishoprics ) for Anglicans accepted in the Catholic church at the special conditions issued by Anglicanorum coetibus, and namely one for England and Wales, the other for the United States; a new document by the Congregation for the doctrine of faith on guidelines against sexual, pedophile abuses in the church, to which a large excursus is devoted; an instruction of Ecclesia Dei on the use of Latin liturgy granted by Summorum Pontificum, which authorizes its use also in the Holy Week without solving the problem of which prayer pro Judaeis must be used, every divergence (even Benedict XVI s 2008 compromise formula) from the last vernacular form (1983) being very problematic for Jewish-Catholic relationships; some information on new saints and blessed, canonized in 2011, on other activities of the Roman curia, of the religious orders and the local churches; much information on the activities of Protestant churches: German Lutherans, American Lutherans, American Presbyterians, World communion of Reformed churches, Methodists, Baptists, Adventists, Mennonites and Amish, on the evolution of Anglican schism in North America and of the Anglican covenant;

29 some information on ecumenical activities and bilateral theological dialogue. For Mormons are examined their internal manuals of the main church (Utah), now normally published after many polemics on their secret status and some statistics data on their activity alongside with a new divine revelation to the leader of the Community of Christ, a small church (1-2% of all Mormons) for more a century tied to the prophet s family, now trying to revert back into Christian mainstream. The Arab spring dominates the pages devoted to Islam which are however complemented by an appendix analyzing in small detail a year of fatawa by a deobandi imam operating in South Africa. Buddhism is always dominated by the Tibetan question, the activity of the Dalai Lama and his support for his heir apparent, the Karmapa Lama, who struggled with serious problems in India but the foundation of a new international Buddhist umbrella organization was decided in August in New Delhi. The section on interreligious dialogue is dominated by the new interreligious encounter of prayer at Assisi an excursus, amply quoting original texts, rectifies the historically true spirit of Assisi 1986 against his arbitrary redefinition by Benedict XVI, who as card. Ratzinger had boycotted the epochal event and for its 25th anniversary had tried to falsify its real nature.

30 FABIO MORA OSSERVATORIO-STORICO RELIGIOSO 2010 CHARLESTON 2013, PP. 102 ISBN The most significant religious events of 2010 are presented. For Judaism are analysed: several important Orthodox decisions (categorical rejection of the female rabbinate, adherence to a broader concept of kashrut food, verifying also ethical forms of food production); the controversy sparked by the Haredi refusal to integrate into the Israeli school system and national production; several authentic interpretations issued by conservative: on the use of the kippah required to non-jews in the synagogue, on the authorization to bury non-jewish relatives in a separate section of their cemeteries, on organ donation, but above all on reducing onomastic otherness of converts, especially in the case of children of a Jewish father and a not-jewish mother or of adopted children; a conservative document on contraception, interesting because of its very different logic, often antithetical both to Catholic and secular morality: it allows to care only of the efficiency of contraception after having fulfilled the moral obligation to procreate (with a recommendation to bring the minimum from two to three children, to counter the demographic weakness of Judaism), though still considering condoms as the less acceptable form of contraception because of their direct condemnation by the biblical and Talmudic precept, favouring hormonal contraception (pill), allowing the emergency contraception (morning after pill, taking effect before planting of the seed), but excluding from contraception abortifacient products, such as the famous pill RU-486. For Israel, were examined the controversy ignited by too easy or difficult conversions, and the related issue of civil or inter-religious marriage, yet impossible in Israel. The Christian section begins with the relatively minor activity of the Orthodox Churches. The Catholic section begins with the Benedict XVI and firstly his pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland, requiring a reflection on the Irish scandal in the broader context of the belated repression of paedophile clergy; of some importance is also his post-synodal exhortation Verbum domini. It follows an analysis of the substitution mechanisms in the consistory of 2010 of new cardinals replacing those too old to vote, mechanisms involving a subtle and articulated hierarchy of sees (elettorali, where a cardinal no longer elector is immediately replaced with a new cardinal elector; solo cardinalizie, whose presence in the constituency is reduced by the longevity and seniority at the appointment of the one cardinal, regularly assigned, but not always replaced at the earliest opportunity, occasionali, with a cardinal ad personam, allowing to temporarily involve many minor episcopal conferences). It is stressed a fact often forgotten by Vatican experts, the aging of the college of Cardinals due to the increasing age of the cardinals at their appointment, what could lead either to a parallel shortening of the experience of any cardinal-elector and an increasing age of the popes at their appointment (with a greater number of popes who will mainly reign after the eightieth birthday) or to a selection as papabili of the few younger cardinals, who might offer a long pontificate. Then are examined the new regulations, promulgated by

31 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, of the most serious crimes, whose list was expanded to include both pedophile clergy and attempted ordination of a woman (thwarted by automatic excommunication latae sententiae of all participants). After the section dedicated to new canonizations and beatifications, another scandal dominates the section dedicated to the religious, that one that led to the extraordinary visitation of the Legionaries of Christ, who finally disavowed immorality and abuse of power of their idolized founder, Maciel Degollado, but leaves some doubt on previous tolerance of the order s deviations and its failed dissolution. The Catholic section concludes with an analysis of the Synod of Bishops on the Middle East, the most important appointments (archbishops) and the creation of new dioceses. In the next section devoted to Protestantism outstand the eleventh meeting of the World Lutheran Federation, but also resignations, at the first hint of scandal, of two women bishop of the German Lutheran church, and a difficult compromise in the Lutheran law on priests, which basically allows to tolerate their homosexual unions - the issue is very controversial in America, where a policy of weak opposition to homosexuality in the clergy is causing haemorrhage (approx. 4%) to the fourth subject Lutheran, the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (that do not call into discussions ordinations of women, rejected by the conservative Lutheran synod of Missouri). In the Calvinist and reformed world outstands the merger of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches with Reformed Ecumenical Council, forming a new World Communion of Reformed Churches which brings together all the churches of the urban or Calvinist reform (except for some very small but stubborn splinter groups) into an ecclesial subject demographically slightly higher than the Anglican and Lutheran (80 million vs. 75 and 70). Significant, however, is also the constitutional revision undergone by American Presbyterians. In the Anglican world continues the divarication of the three main currents (English, African and American Episcopal), polarized around the evaluation of homosexuality, but also the Catholic erosion of the English Anglican clergy, favoured by Anglicanorum Coetibus, and by progresses in the introduction of a female episcopate. The chronicle continues by reporting more limited, but no less important decisions, taken from different branches of radical reform and non-conformism (Mennonites, Baptists) and the Seventh-day Adventist, and later on of ecumenical relations, and in particular the incorporation of Danish Lutherans into the Porvoo intercommunion, between Anglicans and Nordic-Baltic Lutherans. Outside the Christian galaxy there are several themes of great interest in 2010 for the Mormons. In the absence of significant Islamic pronouncement, interesting are some opinion polls confirming the existence of an Islamic perspective antithetical to the Western one on many important points, such as polygamy, stoning adulterers, death penalty for apostates and assessment of terrorism. It follows a broader discourse on Buddhism, from which, partly with solid conviction, partly as a contingent and cunning reaction to the international economic crisis, the West has just copied the statistical study of Gross National Happiness, controversially introduced in the 70s in Bhutan as an alternative to gross national product, but also consistently applied, in terms unthinkable in the West, as a binding criterion of any legislation. So it was avoided the typical evolution of every decolonized country, a growth of the gross national product at the expense of the well-being subjectively perceived by the population. The last section, on interreligious relations, must record a significant increase in negative behaviours, both violence and serious discrimination.

32 FABIO MORA OSSERVATORI STORICO RELIGIOSI 2008 E 2009 (SINTESI E RICERCHE STORICO-RELIGIOSE 2) CHARLESTON 2013, PP. 188 ISBN In Osservatorio storico-religioso every year are presented the most important religious-historical events of the previous year. Here are reprinted the first two installments, that were first published as papers in Polifemo. Osservatorio 2008 presents a chronicle of religious events in For Hebraism the new, stricter religious politics of Israel s chief rabbi is analysed, which makes problems even to American Orthodox Jewry. Its alignment on John Paul II s ethical intransigency is still working in a common plea of Rabbinical Council (Orthodox Jewry) and American Catholic bishops for a heterosexual definition of marriage. Then it is briefly reported on recent positions of the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative Judaism) and some responsa from the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards : among them one on prenatal screening and another on the moral obligations of any Jewish employer. For the Central Conference of American Rabbis (Reform Judaism) it is reported its adhesion to Hekhsher Tzedek, a program promoted (after a great scandal) by the Conservatives to assure a correct treatment of animals by firms producing kosher food. It is further reported on religious tensions in Israel on several items: admissions of women to rabbinate, secularism and Haredi modesty police the greatest event was however the fiasco of the parliamentary marathon to make a new, stricter law to prohibit any commerce of leavened products in Easter times after a liberal interpretation of the former law. In the Christian section it is reported on nominations in the Orthodoxy (new Patriarch of Russia, new archbishops of Athens and Serbia) and on a summit of Orthodox patriarchs. The Catholic section begins with Pope Benedict s activity: travels to United States, Australia and France, catechesis on Paul and the fiasco of the speech he could not hold on academical year s inauguration of Rome s University. It follows an analysis of Vatican activity and namely two new texts (Biblical Pontifical Commission, Bible and Moral; Theological commission, The Search for Universal Ethics), the new blessed of 2008, other Vatican documents and the main event, the bishops Synod. In the Protestant section it is reported on the yearly meeting of EKD (German Lutherans) and its document on climate change and on some Denkschriften and Texte of EKD on various themes; on preparations for the merger of the two main international organizations of Reformed Churches in a new World Communion of Reformed Churches, a document of the Swiss Reformed Church on a Swiss referendum against minarets, preparations of a constitution for the Hungarian Reformed Church, in Hungary and abroad, on the theological activity of the Church of Scotland and of the Presbyterian Church in the USA; on the Pananglican conference of Lambeth and on the African schism, which opposes the liberal evolution of American Episcopals (with four dioceses in the USA adhering to a new conservative Anglican communion); on American Baptists and Methodists and American theological/political issues on marriage and homosexuality. In the ecumenical section it is reported on the Catholic-Orthodox document of Ravenna. It is also reported on the choice of the new president of Mormons, the short political experience of their candidate for USA presidency and a new scandal of polygamist Mormon fundamentalists. In the Islamic section is mainly offered a wide analysis of the document A

33 common word between us and you and Christian reactions to it, in the broader context of the Amman process, fatawa production and opposition between Universal and Islamic declarations of human rights. In the Buddhist section it is reported on Dalai Lama s ban on Dorje Shugden and its followers, on the Chinese political ban on not recognized lamas, that could enhance chances of an interim of Kampala Lama during the education of the next Dalai Lama, who will probably be searched in the exile. In the interreligious section the main theme is the controversial film Fitna, which caused a crisis not smaller than the Danish cartoons one, but it is also reported on polemics on The Berlin Declaration of the uniqueness of Christ and Jewish Evangelism today. Osservatorio 2009 presents a chronicle of religious events in For Hebraism are analysed the very different documents through which orthodox and conservatives react to the deep Hebraic involvement in the world financial crisis; conflicts in Hebraism and especially in Israel about the quality of conversions, struggles on the election of Jerusalem s chief rabbis, Israeli discussions on Shabbat and divorce, but also on prohibition of leavened products during the Easter period; the religious redefinition of Hebrew schools imposed by Britain s Supreme Court. In the Christian section it is reported on nominations in the Orthodoxy (new Patriarchs of Russia and Serbia) and on an antiecumenical Orthodox document. The Catholic section begins with Pope Benedict s apostolic travels, especially into the Holy Land, his motu proprio Omnium in mentem. It is further analysed Vatican activity and namely motu proprio Ecclesiae unitatem (which strictly subordinates the commission Ecclesia Dei to the Congregation for the doctrine of the faith); with refer on the new blesseds of 2009, on the dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental-Orthodox ones, on religious orders, on the bishops Synod on Africa (October 2009) and on preparations for the Synod on Middle-East. In the Protestant section it is reported on the 11th synod of EKD (German Lutherans) and on some of its documents; on Reformed celebrations of the 5th Centenary of Calvin s birth and on some documents of the Swiss church; on the complex realignment in the Anglican church, with the begin of a schism in the Episcopal church, the Catholic interference of Anglicanorum coetibus (which for the moment made it possible to intercept groups which had arisen in previous schisms) and new conflicts for the new election of an homosexual bishop in the Episcopal church. On the Mennonite conference, on Amish and Hutterites, on the annual conference of Southern Baptists, on the quadrennial conference of Methodists (which has confirmed moral standards against homosexuality) and the failure of a deep constitutional reform which would have deprived the American congregations of their centrality in the Methodist Church; on the yearly London meeting of Quakers, who has fully accepted homosexuality. In the ecumenical section it is reported on a Protestant polemic against the Orthodox Church on the human rights. It is also reported on the return of polemics on polygamy amongst fundamentalist Mormons, while they are very engaged on the defence of the heterosexual, monogamist family. In the Islamic section is mainly offered a concrete analysis of the increasing adoption of sharia. In the Buddhist section follows an analysis of preparatives for Dalai Lama s succession, which will involve a critical period for Tibetan Buddhism. In the interreligious section it is reported on the increasing Islamic intolerance, on polemics on Islamic veil and its prohibition, on an interesting analysis of interreligious attitudes of Israeli Hebrews; we end commenting a document of Orthodox Hebrews, which is deeply critic of another document of USA Catholic bishops, and observing how Benedict s church is losing a credit acquired among Jews by John Paul II.