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Herald Malaysia
26-05-2025
- General
- Herald Malaysia
Becoming a ‘learning church' in dialogue with Asian realities
What theologians need to do is to recognize the Canaanite woman in their midst and to let her speak May 26, 2025 Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila sprinkles congregants with Holy Water after celebrating Mass in an urban poor community in the Philippine capital. (Photo: George Moya / UCAN files) By Ruben C. Mendoza People are comfortable listening to familiar stories that they immediately notice whenever there is a seeming deviation from what they are accustomed to. In those moments of dissonance, something seems to be off or worse, 'wrong.' In the task of doing theology, particularly in my Philippine context, there is a particular need to listen to 'unfamiliar, dissonant' sounds. The dominant voice of theology — emanating from the Western center — speaks of realities that are vastly different from those on the ground. While some concerns share resonances, other questions and issues are very much different, emanating from the peripheries. Theologizing from the center seems to be concerned with maintaining the status quo of doing things and not rocking the boat. People on the fringes have a different voice — perhaps not mellifluous in the way that theologians have been trained to problematize such issues — but guttural and instinctive, yearning to be given the chance to be heard. Theologians of Asia need to disabuse themselves of thinking about and responding to First World problems, be they social, pastoral, or theological. The starting points of doing theology in Asia are not the concerns of people in the center. However, this is not to say that those issues are not important or unrelated to local ones, but to genuinely privilege the local. In my context, many of those who live privileged lives ask, 'Where will we go for dinner? What clothes will I wear? What latest mobile phone will I buy? Which car will I use? What kind of business will I establish? Where in the US or Europe will I study?' All of those questions presuppose that there are options available to the one asking the question, choices which ordinary Filipinos do not have. In contrast to those First World concerns, the ordinary 'Filipino everyman' or 'Filipino everywoman,' Juan and Maria de la Cruz, would ask, 'How will I feed my family? Will I be able to buy the clothes I need? What time do I need to get up in the morning, take the public transportation system, and be on time for work? Will I be able to send my kids to school? Why can't the Church accept my being a homosexual? Why are women not treated equally in the Church? When can I be divorced from my abusive husband and receive support from the Church and society? What happens when I get sick? What will happen to my children? Is it really God's will that I am poor?' If the Church is to be truly the 'field hospital' that the late Pope Francis desired it to be, then it is to such people that theologians need to listen and learn from. Instead of doing theology deductively, the challenge for theologians is to do theology inductively. It is for those in the margins that one needs to make sense of the Christian faith. I know that it is so easy to be numb and desensitized to those questions, so perhaps a more provocative question to raise is how theologians internalize the Christian faith so that they are authentically humble and hearers of other people's realities rather than imposing on them what they think is best for the poor, forgotten flock? That is why it is even more important that one keeps one's ear to the ground, listening openly and intently to the 'cry of the poor, the cry of the earth,' smelling like the sheep, to again use a metaphor that the late Pope Francis used, attuned to their needs and sensibilities. This, I think, is at the heart of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences' insistence on the need to engage in dialogue with cultures, religious traditions, and the poor. For a longest time, in the Asian context (and I suppose everywhere else), the Church has acted as a teacher. The Asian bishops insightfully recognized the need to learn from the various ways of life of their peoples, the need to be enriched by the teachings and practices of Asian religious traditions, and the need to listen to the voices of those on the margins. More recently, the Asian bishops, in line with Laudato Si' , have recognized the need to dialogue with our common home, a move away from a highly anthropocentric and androcentric understanding of creation. Listening and learning from the other is at the heart of becoming a synodal church. The challenge now is for the Church to continue the process that was started by Pope Francis, especially the spiritual conversations that have been initiated in the local churches and continue to be conducted. I know that it is easier to inhabit an echo chamber of comfortable theologizing and batting around the same ideas that are within one's expertise, which can give one a false sense of security. The task then is to be aware of one's presuppositions and preconditioning and to let the Word of God that comes from the other — others — to challenge one and perhaps to convert one to greater fidelity to that Word. What theologians need to do is to recognize the Canaanite woman (see Mt 15, 21-28) in their midst, and to let her speak and challenge their assumptions about God, faith and the Church. They need to let the faith of outsiders — the Esaus (see Gen 25-28.32-33.35), Tamars (see Gen 38), Rahabs (see Josh 2), Naamans (see 1 Kgs 5,1-19) and Ruths (see Ruth 1-4) in one's life — disturb them of their complacency and actually learn from them. In this way, one's theology grows from the people and is reflective of God's voice through God's children and our common home. Perhaps they are the poor whose voices from the peripheries are disturbing a more authentic
The Onion
08-04-2025
- General
- The Onion
3-Year-Old Discovers 3,800-Year-Old Amulet While On Family Outing
A 3-year-old girl found a scarab-shaped Canaanite amulet dating back some 3,800 years while on a hike with family in Israel. What do you think? 'Oh, every parent thinks their kid's 3,800-year-old amulet is special.' Angela Vogel, Bank Picketer 'Good luck getting it out of her mouth.' Rudy Soucek, Chord Builder 'Yeah, but can she read? Didn't think so.' Joe Beaty, Kite Designer
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A 3-Year-Old Discovered an Amazing 3,800-Year-Old Amulet
A 3-year-old girl on a family walk picked up an interesting-looking pebble that turned out to be a 3,800-year-old amulet. The Canaanite scarab amulet, which dates to the Middle Bronze Age, was camouflaged among a the gravel on a path nearby an archaeology site in Israel. The find was reported and will now go on display in a special exhibition. Children are always picking stuff up off the ground—dirt, bugs, rocks, anything shiny. And usually, it's just junk. However, 3-year-old Ziv Nitzan made the discovery of her young life when, on a walk with her family, she picked up a small stone that wound up being a scarab amulet more than one thousand times her age. 'We were walking along the path, and then Ziv bent down and out of all the stones around her, she picked up this particular stone,' Omer Nitzan, Ziv's sister, said in a translated statement from the Israel Antiquities Authority. 'When she rubbed it and removed the sand from it, we saw something was different about it. I called my parents to come see the beautiful stone, and we realized we had discovered an archaeological find.' The family brought in the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Daphna Ben-Tor, an expert in ancient amulets and seals, analyzed the amulet before declaring it a 3,800-year-old Canaanite scarab from the Middle Bronze Age. 'Scarabs were used in this period as seals and as amulets,' Ben-Tor said, 'They were found in graves, in public buildings, and in private homes. Sometimes they bear symbols and messages that reflect religious beliefs or status.' Popular in ancient Egypt, amulets in the shape of a dung beetle often come with ornate designs. The dung beetle was revered in ancient Egypt, considered sacred and a symbol of new life. Nitzan found the scarab at the foot of Tel Azeka, an archaeological mound near Beit Shemesh. Previous excavations in the area have revealed an ever-shifting mix of cultures across the site's history, from a Judahite Kingdom that featured city walls and agricultural installations to the possible site of the Biblical battle between David and Goliath found in the book of First Samuel. Unlike the archaeologists that have dug up the site over the years, Ziv needed no formal training for her find. Omer said in a translated video statement that out of the 70,000 stones around Ziv, she picked up the one that was an amulet and 'saw that something was different about it.' 'We have been excavating here for almost 15 years,' Oded Lipschits, professor and director of the Tel Aviv University archeological dig at the site, said in a statement, 'and the excavation findings show that during the Middle Bronze and Late Bronze ages, here in Tel Azekah, thrived one of the most important cities in the Judean lowlands. The scarab found by Ziv joins a long list of Egyptian and Canaanite finds discovered here, which attest to the close ties and cultural influences between Canaan and Egypt during that period.' Lipschits said that the locally made artifact found by Ziv was inspired by Egyptian styles. Amichai Eliyahu, Israeli Minister of Heritage, said Ziv's find and the family's reporting of it deepens connections to ancient civilizations. 'Thanks to her, everyone will be able to see it and enjoy it,' he said. The scarab now joins additional artifacts from the era for a special public display at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in honor of Passover. Many of the items will be shown for the first time, including seals of pharaohs, Egyptian statues, ritual vessels, and now a scarab amulet discovered by an enthralled 3-year-old. You Might Also Like Can Apple Cider Vinegar Lead to Weight Loss? Bobbi Brown Shares Her Top Face-Transforming Makeup Tips for Women Over 50
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
What was the first alphabet in the world?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. With so many ancient texts around the world, you might wonder which alphabet was the first to be developed. In other words, what is the oldest confirmed alphabet in the world? Experts told Live Science it was probably the proto-Sinaitic script, which was invented about 4,000 years ago by Canaanite workers at an Egyptian turquoise mine in the Sinai region. The proto-Sinaitic script developed into the Phoenician alphabet, which, in turn, inspired the early Hebrew, Greek and Roman alphabets. However, a November 2024 discovery by researchers at Johns Hopkins University suggested that an alphabetic script was being used hundreds of years earlier, in what is now northern Syria. Their evidence is four clay cylinders, each about as long as a finger, from a Bronze Age tomb at Umm el-Marra, near Aleppo. Radiocarbon dating suggests symbols were inscribed on the cylinders in about 2400 B.C., about 500 years before the proto-Sinaitic script was developed. Related: How do we decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics and other ancient languages? But not everyone is convinced by the discovery, and maintain that proto-Sinaitic script is the oldest known alphabet, which is a specific kind of writing system. "I think [the Umm el-Marra inscriptions] clearly are some sort of writing system," Philippa Steele, a philologist at the University of Cambridge, told Live Science in an email. But "what is more difficult is being sure that it is related to the alphabetic system." Archaeologists think writing developed in several places in the ancient world independently of other writing systems. Egyptian hieroglyphs, for example, originated in about 3200 B.C., while Sumerian cuneiform seems to be from about the same time. Ancient Chinese writing developed early in the second millennium B.C., while the earliest known writing system in the Americas is the Olmec script, from about 600 B.C. But none of these early writing systems are classified as alphabets. Instead, they are either logographic writing systems — where each symbol represents a word or concept, such as "mountain" — or mixtures of logographies and syllabaries (where letters represent syllables) that added some characters to represent spoken sounds. The letters in alphabets, in contrast, represent distinct sounds, or "phonemes," that are used to make up the sounds of a spoken word, Steele said in an email. The proto-Sinaitic script seems to have been influenced by ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, but "the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet is clearly a very innovative creation," she wrote; the general principle of writing may have come from hieroglyphs, but the concept of an alphabet and the values of the letters themselves were new ideas. Steele is most interested in the Bronze Age scripts from Crete, other parts of Greece, and Cyprus — some of which have never been deciphered. "Cyprus kept its old Bronze Age system [of writing] for well over a thousand years, and used it for Greek," she said. "So while Greek was being written in the alphabet everywhere else … in Cyprus they had this really distinctive syllabic writing system that became a symbol of cultural identity." Silvia Ferrara, a philologist at the University of Bologna in Italy who is not involved in the Syria find, said in an email that her favorite ancient writing systems are those yet undeciphered, including the proto-Elamite script from what is now southwestern Iran, which may have influenced Mesopotamian cuneiform. The proto-Sinaitic script was widely thought to be the oldest alphabet, Steele said, but the new discovery at Umm el-Marra challenged this idea. Glenn Schwartz, an archaeologist at Johns Hopkins University who discovered the clay cylinders and presented his research at an archaeological conference in 2024, said in a statement that the artifacts were older than any known proto-Sinaitic inscriptions and were found in northern Syria. That suggests "the alphabet may have an entirely different origin story than we thought," he said. Ferrara said she is not surprised to find that alphabets were already in use 500 years earlier than thought, although the location of the discovery is a revelation. "It is surprising to find these in Syria, but ideas and concepts traveled much more than the archaeological evidence lets on," she told Live Science. RELATED MYSTERIES —Is Latin a dead language? —Why does the letter 'S' look like an 'F' in old manuscripts? —Why does the Rosetta Stone have 3 kinds of writing? And Steele cautioned that the Umm el-Marra cylinders contain too few signs to establish that they formed an alphabetic system. "I'd like more evidence before labeling the system as alphabetic, because we don't have enough evidence to analyze its structure," she said. While some of the signs in the Umm el-Marra inscriptions seemed to be parallels of some proto-Sinaitic signs, for others, "any relationship is less obvious," she said. "The main problem is that if you only have similarities in sign shape and no other way of assessing the system, then certainty is difficult to achieve," she said. "I would really like more contemporary finds to help us understand what kind of writing traditions these inscriptions belong to."
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Toddler Discovers 3,800-Year-Old Archaeological Relic
A three-year-old child in Israel made a remarkable archaeological discovery in the form of a 3,800-year-old relic. While out on a hike with her parents and two sisters at the archaeological site of Tel Azeka, Ziv Nitzan located a Canaanite amulet in the shape of a scarab while searching the ground for stones. 'We were walking along the path, and then Ziv bent down, and out of all the stones around her, she picked up this particular stone,' one of her sisters, Omer Nitzan, recalled in a statement released by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). 'When she rubbed it and removed the sand from it, we saw something was different about it. I called my parents to come see the beautiful stone, and we realized we had discovered an archaeological find! We immediately reported this to the Israel Antiquities Authority.' (via Ancient Origins). Scarabs, otherwise known as dung beetles, were revered as a symbol of renewal and regeneration in ancient Egypt. 'Scarabs were used in this period as seals and as amulets. They were found in graves, in public buildings, and in private homes. Sometimes they bear symbols and messages that reflect religious beliefs or status,' said researcher Daphna later determined that the artifact came from the Canaanites, a people who had longstanding economic and cultural associations with Egypt. Tel Azeka itself had immense historical and religious significance, featuring in the Bible as the location of the battle between David and Goliath. The latest discovery provides researchers with new information about the ancient land. 'The excavation findings show that during this period, Tel Azeka was one of the most important cities in the Judean Lowlands,' excavation director Oded Lipschits said. 'The scarab found by Ziv joins a long list of Egyptian and Canaanite finds discovered here, which attest to the close ties and cultural influences between Canaan and Egypt during that period.'Young Ziv's discovery can soon be seen by all at the IAA, located at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem. It will be displayed alongside other relics from ancient Egypt and Canaan. 'In our public tours, we will present impressive items for the first time, including seals of the pharaohs, Egyptian statues, ritual vessels, and evidence of the Egyptian cultural influence in the Land of Israel,' IAA Director Eli Escusido said.
