Volume 11, Issue 1

This study applies and compares different metrics and statistical methods to Paul’s letters and a variety of roughly contemporary texts also written in Greek. The primary objective is to elucidate the distinctions between several notable metrics and statistical methods of comparison to discern the relative impact of their application on our understanding of Paul’s letters vis-à-vis our comparanda. The secondary objective is to compare the findings from different statistical metrics in order to assess their relative merits as statistical tools for literary analysis. Such analysis extends to determining the statistical significance of different methods’ relative findings and extracting meaningful insights about each metric and method. We aim to determine which metrics are most accurate and provide the most useful information in comparing Paul’s letters to other types of literature such as Greco-Roman philosophy, formal oratory, and so-called Jewish apocalyptic literature. Such findings are especially salient when comparing these quantitative methods to qualitative conclusions from the biblical commentary traditions of literary analysis and comparison.

Researchers in the field of New Testament and Religious Studies were engaged in using digital techniques from the origins of what is now known as the field of Digital Humanities (DH). Even so, New Testament researchers have not kept abreast of the tools and techniques coming out of DH research. In particular, the latest abilities of transformer-based deep neural networks (TB-DNNs) such as BERT have yet to be comprehensively applied for text classification purposes of New Testament texts. To remedy this lacuna, we offer an exploration of recent TB-DNN usage in DH for text classification to highlight its potential for NTS. On the way, we review some of the previous text classification work done in DH and NTS. Finally, we discuss some of the barriers to implementing TB-DNN models. It is hoped that this article will stimulate NTS researchers to consider TB-DNN models in their text classification work.

In this study, we combine the core competencies of a New Testament scholar and a mathematician to conduct a stylometric analysis of the Pauline and Pastoral Letters based on 18 epistolary modes of discourse, which we argue are at least as stylistically relevant as traditional features such as term frequencies. By focusing on features of this type, we apply discrete probability models – namely, the binomial, Poisson, and negative binomial distributions – to determine which ones are the best fit for each feature. With our approach, we have found a way to utilize Paul’s authentic letters as a standard of measurement by which the style(s) of the Pastorals can be compared, an essential first step to statistical inference that is generally lacking in Pauline stylometry. With few exceptions, we find that the Pastoral Letters do not contain stylistic differences with the authentic Paulines at a statistically significant level, a finding that disputes many previous studies (especially in the qualitative tradition) that assume stylistic difference, but which is in line with an emerging trend in computational analyses of the Pauline and Pastoral Letters.

This explorative study examines the applicability of Morality-as-Cooperation (MAC) theory to early Christian texts, using the Sermon on the Mount as a test case. MAC theory posits seven universal moral domains – family values, group loyalty, reciprocity, heroism, deference, fairness, and property rights – as evolutionary solutions to cooperative challenges. Five participants annotated 102 preselected Koine Greek text units from the Sermon using ATLAS.ti, classifying them according to MAC categories. The data were analyzed computationally. The results indicate that the moral domains proposed by MAC theory are widely represented in the Sermon, with reciprocity and deference emerging as the most prominent. However, substantial divergence among annotators’ interpretations suggests that the metaphorical and ambiguous nature of historical religious texts may contribute to interpretive variability. Addressing this issue will be essential before annotation-based methods can be reliably integrated with machine-learning models in broader studies of early Christian textual corpora.

This contribution explores the application of computationally assisted modelling to analyse angelology in the works of Augustine. We provide a concise outlining and discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of these models. By investigating terms denoting angels and their co-occurring terms within a semantic network, we demonstrate the analytical process. The study begins by introducing the field of computationally assisted text analysis, followed by an outline of our methodology. Subsequently, we analyse angelologic terms such as angelus, homo, and daemon across Augustine’s works using word-embedding techniques. We conclude that Augustine’s angelology has an anthropological focus on human beings obtaining aequalitas with angelic, rational beings.

This article introduces a new method for evaluating the sincerity of the testimony of miracles. While others have emphasized the relevance of the number of those claiming to be witnesses of a miracle, how long the witnesses maintain their testimony has not yet been adequately appreciated. Building on David Grime’s method for evaluating conspiracy theories, I develop a mathematical model that incorporates both how many witnesses and how long they maintain their testimony to evaluate the sincerity of their testimony. I then apply the model to two case studies: Hume’s hypothetical example of the death and recovery of the Queen of England, and the resurrection of Jesus. This analysis demonstrates that, contrary to Hume’s assertion, the many witnesses who maintained their testimony for many years provide compelling evidence of the sincerity of their testimony.

Our article serves as an introduction to the larger topic for this special issue of Open Theology titled “Reading Literature as Theology.” We make the case that scholarly efforts to understand the history of Islamic theology have been skewed towards the rationalist discipline of ‘ilm al-kalām , with insufficient attention to the modes of theological engagements found in fields like literature, where imagination as a hermeneutical tool plays a significant role. We consider some of the causes, both historical and epistemic, for such neglect. Building on the works of scholars of adab and of Islamic poetics and metaphysics, and constructively engaging with the works of Shahab Ahmed and Thomas Bauer, we explore the ways in which literature is fundamentally to be read as theology in Islam – how it has been deployed for the elaboration of theological discourses and how tensions between the prescriptive and the creative are in themselves productive, not prohibitive. The second part of the article offers close readings of al-Thaʿālibī and Ḥāfiẓ. These explorations into authors from the Arabic and Persian world of Islamic letters show us the ways in which a deep engagement with the “literary” can not only co-exist alongside but also facilitate the expression of theological concerns. Scholarship that has found these different modes to be in tension, if not direct opposition, is perhaps suffering from a reductive notion of the theological, ethical, and the pious. What is at stake in our research agenda is not just a better understanding of the literary production of the Islamic world, but a more profound understanding of how Islamic theology was understood, lived, and ultimately expressed in some of the most exquisite works of literature known to mankind.

This article explores ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Jāmī’s use of what I call “pictorial demonstration,” a method of solving philosophical problems by introducing pictorial rather than logical distinctions. It contrasts Jāmī’s integration of reason and imagination with the ratiocentrism of some medieval Islamic philosophers and modern analytic traditions, highlighting his use of the light analogy to solve some problems related to the Akbarian doctrine of waḥdat al-wujūd. By showing how Jāmī’s approach transcends the limits of rational argumentation, the article underscores the relevance of his thought to contemporary philosophical discussions on the interplay of reason, imagination, and the ineffable, offering insights into how premodern Islamic traditions can enrich modern philosophical discourse.

Regarded as one of the greatest poets of the Arabic language, and the greatest and most influential Arabic Sufi poet, ‘Umar ibn ‘Alī ibn al-Fāriḍ, set the standard for Arabic Sufi poetry after him. Known as the “Sultan of the Lovers” ( Sulṭān al-‘Āshiqīn ), ibn al-Fāriḍ’s works inspired numerous commentaries, especially amongst the school of Ibn al-ʿArabī, many of which are considered masterpieces of Islamic metaphysics. Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s poetry continues to be sung, taught, and commented upon down to the present day and is considered one of the greatest expositions of spiritual realization, Sufi metaphysics, and psychology. This article will consider the role of the figure of Layla in some of Ibn al-Fāriḍ’s poetry, exploring the relationship between the exquisite form of his poetic language and the meanings to which they allude in an attempt to understand an aspect of how the “licit magic” of his poetry works to express and inspire realization. That is, of all the various genres and modes of expression, why did so many Sufi figures find the genre of the romantic or even erotic Arabic ghazal, especially the exquisite verses of Ibn al-Fāriḍ, to be so felicitous for expressing the deepest truths they had realized?

This article explores the epistemology of Melayê Cizîrî, a sixteenth-century Kurdish mystic and poet, through an intertextual hermeneutic lens. Through his Amorous Lyric poetry, he raises pivotal questions: Why prefer intellectual deductions of God’s existence when the divine is palpably manifest in beauty, especially the human face? And once someone encounters the divine and is enraptured by its presence, how could any intellectual argument or doubt compete with the overwhelming reality of divine love? Drawing on his broader metaphysical convictions and narratives such as the iconoclastic Shaykh Ṣanʾān, Cizîrî contends that theophanies within the phenomenal realm are authentic and offer a higher form of knowledge and certainty. However, he warns that merely seeing God in the phenomenal is insufficient. The seeker must move beyond these manifestations toward a deeper union with the divine, where the ultimate realization is that the self dissolves into the divine “Thou.” The journey culminates in the recognition that the lover and the beloved are one, as they once been before creation.

The belief that religious guidance in the worldly life is mediated through a divinely guided, human leader is central to the theology of several Ṣūfī and Shī‘ī traditions in Islam. For Shī‘ī Muslims in particular, this guide is recognised as a legitimate leader, or Imām, and along with belief in nubuwwah (prophecy), the doctrine of imāmah (legitimate leadership) forms the foundations of their theology. For specific Shī‘ī groups, like the Ismā‘īlīs, the Imām in his divine authority is believed to know the inner, esoteric teachings of the message delivered by God through the Prophet Muḥammad. This article argues that Ismā‘īlī Shī‘ī Muslims from Sindh, Gujarat, and Punjab have reinforced their belief in the doctrines of nubuwwah and imāmah over several centuries through the preservation and transmission of a genre of vernacular oral poetry known as the ginān . The word ginān literally translates to “knowledge” and these lyrical knowledge poems were composed by a hereditary line of mystic teachers who taught through them the central theological ideas of Ismā‘īlī Shī‘a Islam. Exercises in exegesis and translation are undertaken to illustrate how these two central Islamic doctrines are exemplified in the ginān literature through the personalities of the Prophet Muḥammad and Imām ʿAlī. Readers are invited to consider the crucial role that the popular and oral-literary Satpanth tradition has played in the dissemination of Islamic theological ideas across the western regions of North India, and reflect on the possibility of including such Indic languages as Gujarati within the purview of “Islamic literature.”

Are all languages equal? Does the revelation of the Qur’an in Arabic elevate that language above all others? What is the goal of using language, and particularly of using it Islamically? The early twentieth-century Wolof-language poem The Wolofal Takhmīs takes on these questions in verse. In arguing that Wolof and Arabic are equally viable languages for Islamic poetry, the Senegalese Sufi poet Sëriñ Muusaa Ka intervenes into longstanding theological debates about the provenance and purpose of language. The primary goal of this article is to illuminate Ka’s theory of language through analysis and translation of Takhmīs . Ka implies that the root of all languages is the Ḥaqīqa Muḥammadiyya , the nonphysical reality of the Prophet Muḥammad, and thus he claims that all languages share an equal potential and an ultimate purpose: to regain the “fragrant secret” of their Muḥammadan essence. The Wolofal Takhmīs offers a universalist theory of language that avoids the pitfalls of provincialism and chauvinism. I consider the potential impact of this theory on both intra-Islamic theological debates about language and contemporary academic conversations about the viability of “universalism” after European colonialism.

In this article, I explore in a comparative key the theological aesthetics of the celebrated poets Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938) and Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941). For both figures, I argue, human artistry reflects as well as instantiates the primordial divine creativity. I begin by exploring the foundational metaphysics of Iqbal and Tagore, wherein the finite world stands as a shimmering sign of the inexhaustible infinite. Within this cosmic tapestry, the divine and the human are dynamically bound in a co-creative and loving relationality. In this spiralling structure of reciprocity, art, for both of our poets, enables us to see the divine light and hear the divine call anew, and thus situates us ever more firmly in the finite world – a world which is always, in the Iqbalian and Tagorean worldviews, brimming over with the infinite.

Spiritual, sometimes directly imbued and sometimes indirectly suggestive of religiosity, poetic genres are common in all corners of the Arab world. While authored religious poetry in Arabic is fairly well studied, oral, unauthored poetic traditions remain somewhat under-researched, although the latter represents an intriguingly complex microcosm infused with local systems of beliefs and traditions. In my study, I propose to examine one such tradition – from the region of the Jbala (northern Morocco). This tradition is generally regarded as consisting of three genres (ayta, ayyu, and ughniya). Textually, however, all three genres are very similar, and entire beyts freely migrate from one genre to another. Although Jebli poetry cannot be classified as religious, much of it is contextually linked to religious aspects of life of the Jbala people – most notably, pilgrimages to the tombs of local saints, as well as lifestyle shaped by Islamic faith. In addition, this tradition draws from the heritage of the famous sixteenth-century Moroccan Sufi Abderrahman el-Mejdoub. In this article, I will demonstrate how Jebli's poetic texts are built on Islamic cultural code and how the readability of this code depends on the religious identity of the audience. To do so, I suggest analyzing the available corpus of Jebli poetry.

Deleuze’s philosophy, celebrated for its affirmation of life, also offers a profound and nuanced exploration of death, challenging conventional understandings of individuality and existence. Through key concepts such as the “death drive,” the “virtual,” and “assemblage,” Deleuze frames death not as a terminus, but as an integral process within life itself. This article critically examines Deleuze’s conception of death in three main stages. First, I explore how Deleuze characterizes the ego as a metastable entity – inherently fragile and prone to disintegration. This implies that we are always already embedded in processes that draw us into larger becomings, dissolving fixed identities. Next, I differentiate this perspective from spiritual traditions that emphasize ego dissolution. I argue that Deleuze’s framework, while grounded in a secular, intellectual engagement with worldly involvement, offers insights that could enrich spiritual discourse. Finally, I also identify limitations in his approach. Deleuze’s intense focus on the creation of the new often overlooks what he terms the “first death,” which aligns with traditional conceptions of mortality as an absolute end. He appears to neglect the possibility of a final cessation of all processes, such as the heat death of the cosmos. After presenting the practical implications of these considerations for religious life, I conclude by addressing various points of contact between these reflections and other intellectual currents. While Deleuze’s philosophy may not serve as a definitive framework for understanding death, engaging with his ideas provides insightful and novel perspectives on existence. It encourages a reexamination of the boundaries between life and death from an immanent standpoint, enriching traditional perspectives.

The aim of this article is to present a new hermeneutic perspective on Parmenides’ theology, which, it is argued, will also have consequences for our understanding of his ontology. The following interrelated hypotheses are presented for consideration: first, that the anonymous goddess introduced by Parmenides in the proem of his poem is identical to the Phocaean poliadic goddess of Elea, Athena; second, that she is the personification of Parmenides’ tò eón .

This article examines Origen’s interactions with women, shedding light on his perspectives regarding their roles within society and religious communities, while simultaneously addressing the challenges of using ancient rhetorical narratives as reliable historical sources. In early Christian accounts, women often appear on the margins, their roles and identities manipulated to align with the theological or political agendas of authors like Eusebius. Occasionally, their marginalization may have rendered them less subject to distortion, offering historians a unique lens for evaluating some of these sources. Origen’s documented relationships with women reveal his notable openness to their participation in intellectual and spiritual matters. Women in his life – including patronesses, friends, students, and fellow Christians – played significant yet often overlooked roles that provide key insights into third-century Christian communities and Origen’s personal development. While this study highlights the need for further investigation into the roles of women in Origen’s life, it underscores their importance in understanding early Christianity’s theological and cultural dynamics.

While African Initiated Churches are increasingly recognized as actors of social development, little research has thus far elucidated their role regarding ecological sustainability. Responding to this gap, we explore African Initiated Churches’ views on ecological sustainability and their reaction to environmental destruction and climate change. We analyse to what extent environmental concerns are considered relevant, explore emerging environmental concepts and theologies, and highlight environmental actions taken. The analysis is based on a diverse set of qualitative and quantitative data focusing on leaders of African Initiated Churches from across Sub-Saharan Africa: interviews and focus groups, public lectures, and online survey data. The findings show an ecological turn in African Initiated Christianity. Unlike in mainline Christianity, where ecological engagement is often embedded in elaborated eco-theologies, African Initiated Churches’ engagement with ecological sustainability seems to be primarily driven by the increasing adverse effects of environmental degradation and climate change in their communities.

From a traditional theological perspective, the ontological randomness and apparent lack of purpose in the evolutionary process appear to conflict with God’s providence, sovereignty, and wisdom. Many physicists confirm that there are forms of ontological (metaphysical) randomness in the world that are intrinsic and real, and cannot be reduced to a mere lack of knowledge. We then examine the traditional notions of divine sovereignty and providence, proposing how an open theology perspective can reconcile ontological randomness with divine providence and wisdom.

This essay presents the results of a study on the admissibility of women to the diaconate in Holy Orders. Referring to the International Theological Commission’s (ITC) analysis of the status of the diaconate (2002), the author clarifies some questions at the heart of the debate on the matter as she offers support to her conclusion that there are no theological obstacles to ordaining women as deacons. Highlighting the coexistence of two types of ministries in the single Holy Orders – that of priests and bishops under the Petrine principle and that of deacons under the Marian principle – she argues that women’s ordination to the diaconate is in keeping with the unity of the sacrament of Holy Orders. Based on the ITC’s suggestion that the diaconal sacramental specificity lies in deacons’ status of auxiliary collaborators with apostolic successors, she also argues that woman, whose auxiliary quality is in line with Mary’s surrendering-listening posture, should be admitted to the diaconate so that the feminine signs of God’s image and likeness be as equally present in the clergy as the masculine so to establish an equal gender symmetry in the sacramental and organizational economy of the Catholic Church.

In this article, I analyze the biographical sources of two priests identified as homosexuals by the Polish Security Services. I examined the sexual agency and governmentality of the clergymen in relations with security officials, the Church people, and possible sexual partners together with the clergymen’s attitude to the moral teaching of the Church. Following Michel Foucault’s lectures, I show that the discourse about homosexuality, and eventual gay acts, seemed to be their Aufklärung (enlightenment) that brought out their agency. Consequently, one of the priests did not follow a Foucaldian call to become the liberator of others to think for themselves, whereas the second priest assumed such a role by suggestively encouraging believers to follow their spiritual struggles with God. My research demonstrates that sexual agency is subject to the negotiation of self-images with each other and external actors. In Communist Poland, the priests’ governmentality of self and others and their agency highlight the emotional dynamics of interactions with powerful institutions, i.e. the state and the institutional Church.