Religious Cults

ABSTR.~kCT. The problem of multiprogram scheduling on a single processor is studied from the viewpoint of the characteristics peculiar to the program functions that need guaranteed service. It is shown that an optimum fixed priority scheduler possesses an upper bound to processor utihzation which may be as low as 70 percent for large task sets. It is also shown that full processor utilization can be achieved by dynamically assigning priorities on the basis of their current deadhnes. A combination of these two scheduling techmques is also discussed.

This investigation as of 2020-03-23 is under the status of CONTINUING by mandate of the Ministry of Human Rights. As of 2020-03-24, the members of the GC2I (under the classification of POLITICAL CULT), have continued with their anti human actions against humanity. A victim by the name of Andy/Andrew on the YouTube platform has complained of being bullied by members of the GC2I which includes the suspects:

The study of the religions and cults of the Late Antiquity was based mostly by the Theological Schools on the characteristics of Gods, the theological teachings, the rituals or the ethnic tradition. Those elements werent always helpful in order to understand the development and the institution of the several religious traditions in the provinces and the social groups of the Roman Empire. We can find a lot of studies about the cult of Isis, Mithras, the Christianity and Judaism that are completely isolated by the social and religious context and as a result of this the researchers conclusions are generalities. Im going to present a different methodology for depicting the religious development of Roman Empire by categorizing the cults of this era according to a) the expansion of the religious community, b) the methods of promotion and establishment in several areas of the Roman Empire, and c) how a cult or a religious tradition is depended on a topos (religious place); especially, the topic/utopic depiction of the world (ecumene) can give us a lot of answers about the formation and mobility of these new cults. Those theoretical characteristics can help us form a new taxonomy for the cults of this particular era based not only on the factor of mobility but also on how people adapt and act after they have settled down on a new place.

Zusammenfassung: Über die `Träume und Visionen´ von Kultmitgliedern und die damit oft verbundenen Ängste der Angehörigen soll zu einem `Drei-Stufen-Modell´ geführt werden, das eine adäquate Vorgehensweise in der psychotherapeutischen Arbeit mit Kultmitgliedern bzw.-aussteigern aufzeigt.
Die unmittelbar mit einem Kultausstieg verbundenen Symptome - vergleichbar mit der Spitze eines Eisbergs - können im Wesentlichen innerhalb der Stufen I und II bearbeitet werden. Der größere und nicht-sichtbare Teil des Eisbergs befindet sich unter der Oberfläche und kann, erst nachdem Stufe I und II durchlaufen wurden, innerhalb der Stufe III bearbeitet werden. Die jahrelange Erprobung dieses Interventionsansatzes zeigt, dass erst dann, wenn alle diese drei Stufen - von oben nach unten - durchlaufen wurden, der Klient/die Klientin dazu befähigt werden konnte seine/ihre Kulterfahrung zu verstehen und zu verarbeiten, um schließlich zu einer selbst-akzeptierenden Grundhaltung zu gelangen.
Abstract: The `dreams´ and visions of cult members often cause anxiety and fear within their families. An adequate style of practice in psychotherapeutic work with ex-cult/cult members shall be represented by an `Three-Step-Model´. The symptoms which are immediately associated with leaving a cult - compared with the tip of an iceberg - can essentially be dealt with by using Steps I and II. The larger, invisible part of the iceberg which is situated under the surface can be dealt with within Step III, but only following the completion of Steps I and II. Years of testing this attempt in intervention has shown that only when these three steps have been completed, the client is potentially capable of understanding, overcoming and integrating his/her cult experience, in order to finally reach self-acceptance.

This article examines representations of Peoples Temple in popular culture through the lens of mimesis, understood as a process of repetition and re-creation of specific elements. This process produces what is understood as a “cult” in popular culture, which is divorced from the complex historical reality of Peoples Temple. Three symbolic strands combine to construct the concept of a “cult”: the power of a charismatic leader, isolation from outside influences, and consuming poison, or “drinking the Kool-Aid.” In popular culture, these symbols are used in order to apportion blame, to learn lessons, and to act as a warning. Peoples Temple was a collective trauma for American culture as well as an individual trauma for survivors. The process of mimesis, therefore, is a way of both memorializing and reinscribing this trauma on a cultural level. Examples from ethnographic research conducted in Sedona, Arizona, are used to illustrate how symbols of Jonestown generated by cultural mimesis continue to be invoked by participants in contemporary minority religions as a way to signal their concern about whether they belong to a cult.

«You must understand that peace is an internal matter. It has to be a self-discipline for an individual or for an entire civilization. It must come from within. If you set up an outside power to enforce peace, this outside power will grow stronger and stronger. It has no alternative. The inevitable outcome will be an explosion, cataclysmic and chaotic. That is the way of our universe. When you create paired opposites, one will overwhelm the other unless they are in delicate balance.
-- The writings of DIANA BULLONE» Frank Herbert «The Godmakers» 1972.

" «A religion requires numerous dichotomic relationships. It needs believers and unbelievers. It needs those who know the mysteries and those who only fear them. It needs the insider and the outsider. It needs both a god and a devil. It needs absolutes and relativity. It needs that which is formless (though in the process of forming) and that which is formed.
-- Religious Engineering, secret writings of Amel
Frank Herbert «The Godmakers» 1972

GODMAKING (ΘΕΟΠΟΙΪΑ – THEOPOIA) = the construction of a god. From scratch. The construction of a religion. The rules that should govern a religion. Its elements and characteristics. Those that make it attractive, successful, convenient, useful, necessary or even unacceptable.
RELIGIOUS ENGINEERING = The art and craft of engineering religions.

926 BC - Palestine

Solomon's state splits after his death. In the Northern Kingdom - of Israel - and in the Southern Kingdom - of Judah.
To the north the leader of the breakaway North has a problem. There is a usurper king, almost unknown to history, named Jeroboam I.
His problem is the way in which the Israeli-Jewish-religion was structured. It ruins his plans for independence from Jerusalem as it imposes regular trips for the faithful at the Temple of the Great King located there. But Jerusalem is not only temple. It is also the capital of the - hostile to him - Southern Kingdom. So if his people continue their religious duties as before, they will be regularly under "hostile" influence, propaganda, that might persuay them to reconsider their separatist ideas. So what could he do?
What he did was "dirty" but genius and most of all effective: He invented a new religion "suitable" for the needs of his power!

This little known story of the fabricated religion of Jeroboam the first, king of the secessionist Northern Kingdom of Israel has been recorded for centuries, evident but unrecognized, in the first book of the kings of Israel (1 KINGS or 3 KINGDOMS):
“26And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: 27If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.” 28Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!” 29And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. 30Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. 31He made shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi. 32Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. 33So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense.”
(1 KING 12:26-33 NKJV)
This brief description is the epitome of religious engineering, even if it comes from events that happened some 3000 years ago!
What did Jeroboam do? He created a religion from his mind ( “created from his heart,” according to the Septuagint.)

Through this simplistic and unrecognized narrative lies the great secret of many religions: They have been constructed.
There is also an even bigger secret: The construction of religions is governed by Principles, and Rules that can be explored, studied and applied in a way that the result is a successful religion!
Civil Engineers have the right knowledge for building, and apply it to build a house. This very similarity of the construction of a building with the construction of a religion led some to call the Art of the Construction of Religions, Religious Engineering!
It looks incredible. And yet, religions in general, seen from a distance, display repetitive "patterns". Common elements and general things that are repeated as "mechanical".
This is as you understand it is an ancient art. If the Principles of the construction of a religion have been known for 3000 years, as the story of Jeroboam shows us, it is not surprising that today these principles of "art" have the potential to evolve into something approaching Technology and science, that is, in Religious Engineering!

Racconti Saraceni di Sicilia  di Michelangelo Caldara. Presentazione, Stralci. Sinossi. Indice.
        La Sicilia delle radici meticce. Berberi, arabi, aleramici, normanni, greci, sicani. Humus, di ancestrali legami con la terra; con l’anima contadina. Il sangue smarrito.
    Cronaca speciale di persone comuni e frammenti particolari di eventi e personaggi della storia, inusualmente s’incontrano e si fondono in Racconti Saraceni di Sicilia. Brevi racconti. Sapori moderni e antichi.

"The purpose of this analysis is to provide an overview of the North Korean situation in order to design effective mission strategies among the North Korean people.  This analysis will provide a summary overview of the current North Korean culture, current missionary work, and possible strategies for the future.  Due to the intense suspicion of foreigners and extreme resistance to religious activity, missionaries will have to rely heavily on political, social, and humanitarian methods in order to evangelize the North Korean people" (taken from the introduction).

The conflict in families disputing child custody cases across international borders continues to grow worldwide resulting in an epidemic of parental abduction. Governments and international bodies continue to work toward creating effective solutions through cross border family mediation programs. Ensuring a voluntary process that does not culturally alienate or marginalize participants is a challenge that often creates ethical dilemmas that may go unnoticed, minimized or ignored. When an individual is marginalized or disenfranchised during any alternative dispute resolution process as a result of cultural dilemmas, inequitability is created. Cultural bias and ignorance limits or prevents creative exploration of problem solving strategies, forcing parties into predesigned agreements. In 2012, the Hague Bureau on Private International Law released the first publication on mediation standards and guide for cross border family mediation as an extension of international family law. Building on these efforts, this paper provides a look at how culture shapes identity and influences problem solving in a multicultural context through a review of the literature and actual case examples.

Until 1993 there were conducted first excavations in what promised to be the site of one of the most important buildings of Petra, the stunning capital of the Nabataean kingdom. Its construction, whose initiation century BC, several changes, reconstructions and landslides along its more than five hundred years of operation. But despite this still unknown for certain functions for which it was designed and that, regardless of the construction elements, materials have been located just still less inscriptions that shed some light on a mystery that will try here exhibit various theories that enable closer to resolution.

,,Selbstverwirklichung " ist keineswegs das vorherrschende Motiv von Menschen, die sich einer Sekte oder einem Kult anschließen - wohl aber die Suche nach einem verbindlichen Lebenssinn. Von der Persönlichkeit und der Lebensgeschichte hängt es ab, wer wann welchem Kult beitritt.

Are Scandinavian monarchs worshipped as state gods, as part of an inherited  mystery apotheosis cult? Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is the supreme authority of the state Church of Denmark (Den Danske Folkekirke.) Supreme authority means; she is the greatest,utmost in power, rule and dominion of the Imperial cult temples of Denmark. Could her Majesty the Queen be in-fact the implied divinity (deity/god) worshipped by the state cult religion, alongside the deceased and deified monarchs of old?
In ancient Scandinavia, reigning monarchs claimed divine lineage to the pagan gods Odin and Freyr. In Christianized Scandinavia this legitimation of the divine right of monarchs would be based on descent from saintly kings. In order to understand this mystery, we must turn to the bible and history, making a careful examination in order to determine which god (or gods) are truly being worshipped in Scandinavia, under the state religion.

In this paper, I attempt to show that there is a difference between an act of terrorism and a terrorist organization. Therefore each should be dealt with differently. I further argue that a terrorist organization is a cult or must change into a cult in order to survive. Therefore, to deal with terrorist organizations we must understand how to deal with cults. The most important action is to take cult members, including radicals and potential recruits of terrorist groups, out of isolation, psychological or physical, rather than push them even more into isolation from wider society.

►► APA citation: Nowakowski, P.T. (2021). Cracks in education: alternative schooling in cultic groups. Roczniki Kulturoznawcze, 12(2), 95-107. ◄► Zapis bibliograficzny: Nowakowski P.T., Cracks in education: alternative schooling in cultic groups, „Roczniki Kulturoznawcze” 2021, t. 12, nr 2, s. 95-107. ◄◄ The breakdown of cross-social values characteristic in a cult, expressed in limiting its members’ contacts with people from outside their own community, manifests itself in its critical attitude towards the common education system, and therefore in establishing its own schools, with a formula of education that is different from that found in traditional educational institutions. Some groups also use legal provisions enabling the implementation of home education, which allows them to protect children against the harmful, in their opinion, impact of the external environment. All this leads to a kind of gap in the cult’s relationship with the education system, causing it to lose both external and internal control mechanisms to limit potential abuse, making children from cultic milieu more vulnerable and defenseless than their peers growing up in a society equipped with the mentioned mechanisms, even if they are sometimes insufficiently implemented. Pupils taught in the mainstream school system maintain regular contact with their peers from different families and social groups. Similarly, teachers and other employees of the education system are embedded in different social contexts, which provides them with a perspective that lets them notice an occurring problem and offer help to the child.

Faut-il éliminer le mot << secte > ? L'utilisation du mot << secte >> par les sociologues des religions pose des problèmes sérieux, d'ordre déontologique et sociologique. Certe^s, Weber ou Troeltsch pouvaient parler iégitimem"ni d un type Secte et le distinguer d'un type Églse. Comme je I'ai monné ailleurs, I'histofue de I'utilisation du mot << secte > n'est pas sans dignité scientifique ou rypologiquer. Mais aujourd'hui iì faut se rendre à l'évidence: dans les échanges que nous avons avec la presse, la télévision et meme les Eglises, quand on nous demande si tel groupe est << une secte >, nul ne fait réfórence a Troeltsch. On veut.savoir de nous, d'une fagon claire et nette, si tel groupe est légitime, << vraiment > religieux, << bon >, ou s'il est < pieudò_reli_ gieux >, << destructeur >, en un mot < méchant,r. Dès que nous parlons de << secte >>, la question est tranchée. Et mémó si nous proposons des précisions, en citant par exemple les tlpologies de Troeltsch ou de Weber, le joumaliste a déjà cóssé de nóus éiouter.

Chapitre 8 de la thèse de doctorat de Bruno Restif, soutenue en décembre 2004 à l'Université Rennes 2 Haute-Bretagne sous la direction d'Alain Croix : La Paroisse, cadre d'application de la Réforme catholique en Haute-Bretagne (diocèses de Rennes, Dol et Saint-Malo). Histoire d'un processus de transformation religieuse et culturelle (XVIe et XVIIe siècles). Titre du chapitre 8 : Les dévotions : évolutions et permanences.

This paper reviews the evidence for Neolithic burial practices in SE Arabia, focusing in particular on sites in the Ja'alan region of eastern Oman. Attention is given to the nature of material buried with human remains, including jewellery and, most interestingly, the bones and shells of green turtles in the burials of Ra's al-Hamra 5 and 10. The paper concludes with a discussion of the possible evidence for "necrophobia" at the 5 th millennium BC Neolithic necropolis of Suwayh 1.

In zes hoofdstukken en twee aanhangsels bespreekt Jan N. Bremmer inwijding in antieke mysteriën. In het eerste hoofdstuk en appendix 1 worden de Eleusinische Mysteriën besproken. Eleusis was een plaats in Attica, gelegen op ongeveer twintig kilometer ten noordwesten van Athene en deel uitmakend van de Atheense staat. Mythische overleveringen vertellen van oorlogen tussen Athene en Eleusis, die werden gevoerd ten tijde van koning Erechtheus en Theseus. Het heiligdom van Eleusis is een van de zeer zeldzame gewijde plaatsen, waarvan men met vrij grote zekerheid mag aannemen dat er reeds in de Myceense tijd erediensten werden gehouden. Niets bewijst echter dat in de Myceense tijd soortgelijke erediensten werden gehouden als in de Archaïsche en Klassieke tijd. Uit de documentatie die wij bezitten, blijkt dat de erediensten in Eleusis deel uitmaakten van de Atheense feestkalender. De vieringen van deze feesten waren zowel gebaseerd op het feit dat Eleusis deel uitmaakte van de Atheense staat, als op het feit dat deze plaats zich wezenlijk van Athene onderscheidde. De mysteriecultus van de graangodin Demeter ging uit van de gedachte dat een gelukzalig voortbestaan na de dood mogelijk was, althans voor ingewijden. Verder geven zij aan dat deze mysteriën zich richtten rond de mythe van Perséphoné, de dochter van Demeter (voorheen Korè), die eenderde deel van het jaar bij Hades in de onderwereld moest verblijven en tweederde deel op aarde. Haar oprijzen uit de onderwereld symboliseerde het ontkiemen van de korenhalm uit de stervende graankorrel. De cultus mogelijk dateert mogelijk uit het 2e millennium v.Chr. Zo als eerder opgemerkt vonden deze Eleusinische Mysteriën plaats in de maand Boèdromion. Het grote feest vond plaats in de herfst en het kleine feest (de terugkeer) in de lente. In de maand Boèdromion werden door Atheense jongelingen bepaalde 'heilige voorwerpen' (hiera) van Eleusis naar Athene gebracht. Nadat allerlei rituele handelingen waren verricht, trok daarna een processie naar Eleusis en bracht de heilige voorwerpen weer terug. Naast het beeld van de processie komen daarbij nog elementen als het baden in zee, offers van gewijde varkens waarvan het bloed als reinigingsmiddel werd gebruikt, vasten, fakkeldansen, het zingen van liederen en een geheime feestviering in de tempel van Demeter. Het doel van de mysteriën bij de inwijding van de aspirant-mysten was om hen met gewijde woorden inzicht en begrip te geven in de geheimen van de natuur en in de samenstelling van de kosmos. Een dramatische handeling waarin een priesteres de verdwijnende Korè voorstelde, maakte deel uit van de inwijding. Er werden klaagliederen voor Demeter en Perséphoné gezongen, en er werden heilige voorwerpen aan de in te wijden persoon getoond. Het aantal deelnemers was naar schatting tienduizend. De kleine mysteriën waren een voorbereiding op de grote en duurden drie dagen. Zij werden gevierd in Agrae, een kleine voorstad van Athene. Een bad in de rivier de Hissos en een reiniging met water maakten er deel van uit. Er waren na voldoende onderwijs door de mystagoog (de bewaarder van de geheimen) drie graden van inwijding. De eerste was

In most people’s lives, what matter most are three Hs: health (of body and soul), honour and happiness. Destructive and terrorist cults are masters of deception, with their black-and-white worldview; they appear to be offering a simple, strict and easily understood definition of these three Hs to their followers. A cult’s definition of the three Hs will infiltrate deep into the mind and soul of its followers and stay deep in their unconscious, even years after they leave the cult. The promise of these 3Hs can be very attractive, especially to young people; and this ability to convince and deceive is the destructive cult’s main strength, and the one that should worry us most.

"While the term ʾĕlōhîm appears to be a general reference to beings from the spiritual world, it is unclear whether the biblical writer intended to communicate the concept of a ghost, a preternatural spirit, or a heretical belief in apotheosis when describing Samuel.  Despite some traditional Jewish interpretations, the context of the passage suggests only one entity being described with an honorific plural.  This gives credence to the notion that ʾĕlōhîm acts as a superlative to enhance the status of Samuel’s departed spirit.  However, it is difficult to ignore the cultural aspect of 1 Samuel 28:13, especially since it is the pagan necromancer who identifies Samuel as an ʾĕlōhîm.  Thus, it seems more likely that the woman represented traditional Canaanite beliefs that deified prominent men.  In 1 Samuel 28:13, the term ʾĕlōhîm should be translated “preternatural being” in order to communicate the sense of a human spirit that has transcended, but may not have surpassed, the corporeal world" (taken from the conclusion, p. 9).

This chapter presents ethnographic and social neuroscientific insights on the emerging subculture of juicing: an extreme eating practice grounded in food beliefs about purity and pollution enacted through a set of highly prescriptive rituals to ‘flush’ out undesirable substances and achieve ‘cleansing’. Drawing on our ethnographic evidence and recent work in cognitive anthropology, the philosophy of psychiatry, and social neuroscience, we argue that the positive results achieved by juicers are largely attributable to the prosocial rewards of constructing a juicer identity reinforced in ritual, and to implicit sociocognitive substrates of the placebo effects. The cult-like dimensions of juicing culture, in turn, presents us with a fascinating window for the study of emergent sociality and its physiological effects, and, by extension, for the theoretical and empirical study of embodiment in cultural epidemiology

There is a growing trend of abuse in churches by religious leaders known as "spiritual abuse." Those victims may mistrust the pastoral counselors or feel anxious when in their care. Therefore is important to have a pastoral theology in the place to correctly handle those traumatized victims.

Fanny Van Cleven, Jeroen Reyniers en Anton Ervynck (red.), Met maagdelijke blik. De reliekenschat van Herkenrode doorgelicht, Scientia Artis, 17, Brussel, 2019.

De reliekenschat van de cisterciënzerinnenabdij van
Herkenrode wordt sinds jaar en dag gelinkt aan de devotie
van de Heilige Ursula en de 11.000 maagden. Abt Willem Van
Rijckel, handelaar in relieken, bezorgde deze devotionele
objecten aan Elisabeth van Spalbeek en de cisterciënzerinnen
in de tweede helft van de 13de eeuw. Na opheffing van de
abdij door de Franse overheid, eind 18de eeuw, werden de
relieken overgebracht naar de kerk van de Heilige Maagd Maria
van Kermt. Sinds 1992 is de collectie eigendom van de Sint-
Quintinuskathedraal van Hasselt.
Het Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium (KIK)
voerde, met de financiële steun van de Vlaamse Overheid, in
2007-2008 een kunsthistorisch onderzoek uit naar de herkomst
van deze schat. Gelijkaardige collecties in binnen- en buitenland
werden door kunsthistorica Frieda Sorber bestudeerd. Dit
project werd bovendien gekoppeld aan wetenschappelijke
onderzoeken, zoals onder andere radiokoolstofdateringen en
analyses van organische en anorganische elementen. Zowel
de weefsels als de decoratieve elementen, waaronder metalen
kloskant en beschreven perkament, werden onderworpen aan
verschillende studies. In 2009-2010 zorgde het restauratieatelier
textiel van het KIK voor een afsluitende conservatiecampagne
van alle 114 reliekhouders.
De resultaten van dit historisch onderzoek en bijhorende
wetenschappelijke analyses worden in deze publicatie
uitvoerig toegelicht. Dit boek wordt aangevuld met een online
inventaris.

Le trésor de l’abbaye cistercienne de Herkenrode est depuis
toujours rattaché au culte de sainte Ursule et des 11 000 vierges.
L’abbé Willem Van Rijckel, marchand de reliques, fit don de ces
objets de dévotion à Elisabeth van Spalbeek et aux soeurs dans
la seconde moitié du xiiie siècle. Après la dissolution de l’abbaye
par les autorités françaises à la fin du xviiie siècle, les reliques
furent transférées à l’église Sainte-Vierge-Marie de Kermt.
Depuis 1992, la collection est la propriété de la cathédrale
Saint-Quentin de Hasselt.
L’Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique (IRPA) a mené une
étude d’histoire de l’art sur l’origine de ce trésor en 2007-
2008, grâce au soutien financier du gouvernement flamand.
L’historienne de l’art Frieda Sorber a étudié des collections
similaires en Belgique et à l’étranger. Des examens scientifiques
– datation radiocarbone et analyse des éléments organiques
et inorganiques – sont venus compléter ces informations : les
tissus et les éléments décoratifs, parmi lesquels les dentelles
de fils métalliques et les écritures sur parchemin, ont fait l’objet
de diverses études. Enfin, en 2009-2010, l’atelier des textiles de
l’IRPA a mené une campagne de conservation-restauration des
114 reliques.
Ce livre dévoile les résultats de ce minutieux parcours de
recherche. Un inventaire est accessible en ligne pour prolonger
votre lecture.

Not many books deserve the epithet fascinating, but this is one of them. Excluding the encyclopedic and reference works edited by J. Gordon Melton, Philip Jenkins's book may be the most comprehensive recent study of new religious movements in North America, and it brings an invaluable historical perspective to this topic. Religious innovation, far from being a novelty of the post-1960s era, appears here as an enduring feature of American religions. Mystics and Messiahs adds to Jenkins's impressive oeuvre, including books on the social construction of serial homicide, the symbolic politics of designer drugs, child pornography on the Internet, pedophilia among Catholic priests, moral panics related to child molestation, and right-wing political movements in America, not to mention a history of the United States and a history of Wales. Wicca. Jenkins interweaves his discussion of these groups with a treatment of "anticultism" in all its variants: anti-Catholicism, anti-Freemasonry, anti-Mormonism, opposition to Christian Science, the 1970s cult scare, the 1980s furor over Satanic ritual abuse, and cult deprogrammers. Baptists, Catholics, Evangelicals, Methodists, and Presbyterians often provide points of comparison, and Jenkins notes that many groups now regarded as mainstream were once decidedly marginal.

The archeological digs carried out in the Phoeni-cian-Punic sanctuary of La Algaida (Sanlucar de Barrameda) during the 70s and 80s decade of the last century have allowed the recovery of more than ten thousand votive offerings from many different natures, from local-produced ones to others coming from different points in the Mediterranean Sea. They span a wide chronological spectrum covering from 7th to 1st Centuries BC. Thanks to the analysis of these materials it has been possible to reconstruct religious aspects of great interest. Aspects such as the ritual practices that were held in this sacred space or the possibility to determine who were the deities that were worshiped there. The fishing tools coming from this archeological site are presented in this work for the first time and are presented first in a morpho-typolog-ical analysis of the materials, and secondly, in an evaluation of this kind of archeological material in sacred contexts, considering the different uses and functions that the fishing gears and skills could have had in the ancient places of worship. Palabras claves: Exvotos, artes de pesca, La Algaida, época fenicio-púnica.

The South Pacific Islands are an incredibly large portion of the world that could give modern scholars insight into the history of religion and missionization and it has not been explored enough. This particular study focuses on Vanuatu, a country in the South Pacific that consists of eighty-three islands. I will be focusing specifically on Pele Island which has a population of approximately one hundred and twenty people. While only a few hundred miles away lies Port Vila, a modernized part of the country which consists of constant imports and exports as well as modern technology and tourist attractions, the natives of Pele Island have a very strong attachment to their land and their environment and refuse to lose their heritage. On Pele, it is apparent that the missionaries failed to integrate the Ni-Vanuatu cultural understanding of religion and pushed Christianity as a completely new way of life ignoring their already established cultural customs. Ultimately, when the Christian missionaries left the islands they also left behind a clash of cultural morals and values among the local people. This study explores this more in depth and looks closely at how and why Christian religious influences have affected not only their individual family values but also the values they have as a collective community at large.

"Megaleh Temirin (Revealer of Secrets), ed. Jonatan Meir, Three volumes, Mosad Bialik, Jerusalem

Megaleh Temirin (Revealer of Secrets), first published in Vienna in 1819, is one of the sharpest and wittiest pieces of Jewish literature written in the first half of the nineteenth century, and is perhaps the most important piece of Hebrew prose composed before the stories of Mendele Mocher Seforim. A sly and complex story deriding Hasidism and Hasidim, it is told through the correspondence between the beadles of Hasidic courts and contemporary rabbis, and it presents a dark picture of  avaricious frauds and swindlers whose main concern was control over territory and the souls of believers, a goal achieved by beguiling the authorities and attacking all opponents. Perl lends his book a ‘Hasidic’ feel both in its physical design and in its language, presenting a Maskilic version of In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov that lays Hasidism bare so that no reader will ever be able to look at that, or any other Hasidic book, in the same way again. In addition to the book’s satiric sting, which would have been enough to bring its readers a dual pleasure, Perl’s hints at contemporary people and places, hidden within anagrams and numerological tricks. With the unraveling of these clues, which also include the use of actual Hasidic sources, the book is a valuable, contemporary view of historical reality. A meticulous reading of the book may therefore open a window on the hidden worlds of Hasidism and the Haskalah at the start of the nineteenth century.


The first volume (Imagined Hasidism) serves as an introduction to the complex satirical writings of Josef Perl of Tarnopol (1773-1839). At the center of the book stands an analysis of the satires, Megaleh Temirin (1819) and Bochen Tzadik (1838), including a systematic treatment of the ‘characters’ in the central works and a discussion of the dozens of manuscripts to be found in the Perl Archive in Jerusalem. Perl’s writings are analyzed here in the fuller context of Hebrew and Yiddish literature in general and Maskilic and Hasidic literature in particular, as well as other polemical writings and governmental records critical of Hasidism. The study thus presents a complex and nuanced picture of the relationship between literature and history, between the anti-Hasidic reports and the more complicated historical reality, and lays the groundwork for further research into the genre of nineteenth-century Maskilic satire.

The second and third volumes (Megaleh Temirin) present for the first time an annotated edition of Megaleh Temirin. It is based on the first edition and the scattered manuscripts and it includes a comparison to its Yiddish translation. The book is accompanied by appendices on its origins and contents, including fundamental treatments of several passages: an explication of the encoded names, the Hasidic sources used by the author, and the variants found in the manuscripts and in the only edition of the book in Yiddish.

The editor of the book, Professor Jonatan Meir, teaches in the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University. He has published several articles on the Haskalah of Eastern Europe, Hasidism, and a number of varied topics in twentieth-century Kabbalah.


Contents

Volume 1  - Critical Edition

Concerning this edition
Key personalities
Sefer Megale Temirin – Critical Edition


Volume 2 - Appendixes:
1. Glossary, Abbreviations, Acronyms
2. Explanation of the Speaking Names
3. Perl’s Hasidic Sources
4. Manuscripts of Sefer Megale Temirin
5. Yiddish Introduction to Sefer Megale Temirin
Bibliographic Abbreviations

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Reviews:
(1) Dan Meron, 2013, ‘Megaleh Temirin’, Kivunim Hadashim 29, 55 pages (Hebrew)
(2) David Assaf, 2014, ‘Hasidim will not Read it but Tear it’, Haaretz, Tarbut ve-Sifrut, p .6 (Hebrew) http://onegshabbat.blogspot.co.il/2014/04/blog-post_18.html
(3) Eliezer Brodt, 2014, 'New book Announcement- Megale Temirin', The Seforim Blog http://seforim.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/new-book-announcement-megale-temirin.html
(4) Matan Hermoni, 2014,  הסבתא המופקרת של הספרות העבריתHaaretz, Sfarim (Hebrew) http://www.haaretz.co.il/.premium-1.2382365
(5) Shinichi Yamamoto, 2015, 山本　伸一, "ヨナタン・メイール編著『想像のハシディズム』", ユダヤ・イスラエル研究　第28号  http://www.waseda.jp/assoc-jsjs/jistudies.html
(6) David Biale and David Assaf,, 2015, 'Revealer Revealed', Jewish Review of Books, pp. 17-21  http://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/1454/revealer-revealed/
(7) Hillel Halkin, 2015, "Sex, Magic, Bigotry, Corruption- and the First Hebrew Novel', Mosaic Magazine,  http://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/2015/05/sex-magic-bigotry-corruption-and-the-first-hebrew-novel/
(8) Tomer Persico, 2015, "Interview", Lula'at haEl Blog, http://tomerpersico.com/2015/08/10/meir_perl/

The Mesopotamian goddess known as Gula, appears to emerge and intertwine with earlier goddess figures Baba/Bawa and Bau - themselves protective, healing dog deities of Sumer and Akkad. Some scholars believe the name Bau/ Bawa/Baba to be onomatopoeic, mimicking the bowow of a dog bark. Baba and Bau probably echo an even more ancient reverence for dogs as creatures of healing and protection. A reverence cultivated by the close companionship, coevolution and cooperation between humans and canines since the Stone Age.