Religious Studies

... 87 The Cyrus Edicts 111 The Hebrew Edict 114 The Aramaic Edict 129 The Policy of Cyrus 132 Between Cyrus and Darius ... Pardee and Stolper, but also with Lawrence E. Stager, Walter Farber, Robert Biggs, JA Brinkman, Martha Roth, Sam Wolfe, McGuire Gibson, Gene Gragg ...

Ezra-Nehemiah is widely recognized as stressing the separation of Judeans repatriated from Babylonian exile from those they found living in and around Judah at their return. A related theme has received little attention, namely, the on-going relationship between the repatriates and their parent community in the Babylonian-Elamite diaspora. The present article highlights features of this relationship, noting that as a colony of the Babylonian exiles, the community of repatriates remained dependent on the diaspora for leadership and for instruction in religious culture and practice. It is suggested that in tandem with the emphasis on separatism, this view of diaspora-homeland relations reflects a concern current in the mid- to late-fourth century Judah to articulate a Judean identity that reinforced the connection of the Babylonian diaspora to the homeland. In its view of diaspora-homeland relations, Ezra-Nehemiah displays certain features in common with other late-Persian and Helleni...

This paper identifies and analyzes the problem of historicism in Charles Taylor’s work overall, but with particular emphasis on A Secular Age.  I circumscribe the problem of historicism through reference to the 19th-century German philosophical tradition in which it developed, in particular in the thought of Wilhelm Dilthey.  I then trace the structural similarities between the theories of history to be found in the thought of Taylor and Dilthey and how these structural similarities raise worries associated with the problem of historicism. I argue that the structural aporia of historicism evident in Taylor’s work brings to light a live philosophical problem that is basic to theoretical debates in the study of religion.