TA 1/2016 (121. vuosikerta)

Sense and Sensibility: Virtuous Way of Life according to the Fourth Maccabees — This article examines the portrayal of Biblical figures in 4 Maccabees. The notion of ancient philosophy as a way of life and the use of exemplary figures for argumentative purposes are applied in order to better understand the author’s intentions and world view. Promoting a virtuous way of life, the writer introduces contemporary skills of life management into the lives of Biblical figures. Familiar stories are (re)identified as descriptions of situations in which their characters – as well as the implied audience – are challenged rationally and emotionally. The reasoning promoted and practiced in 4 Maccabees cannot be reduced to either Greek philosophy or Jewish law. Rather, the ‘true philosophy’ presented in the composition constitutes a lifestyle that aligns with both law and lived experience.

Knowledge, feeling or sense? The Semantics of the Knowledge of Sin and the Evolution of Written Finnish — In Finnish translations of the Bible from the 17th century to the 20th, the concept epignōsis hamartias in Romans 3:20 has been consistently rendered as synnin tunto, a genitive structure corresponding to the English knowledge of sin – the Finnish words being synti (‘sin’) and tunto (‘feeling’ or ‘sense’, also ‘conscience’). The primary meaning of the word tunto used to be ‘knowledge’ but has since migrated towards ‘feeling’ (in both the physical and emotional sense) or [sense of] ‘touch’. Because of this semantic shift, the concept has been rendered in a more modern idiom in the most recent translations into Finnish. This article explains how linguistic and non-linguistic factors, above all in contexts of religious use, have served to transform the original phrase synnin tunto into a specialised compound noun, synnintunto, in which the latter part is no longer understood to refer to ‘knowledge’ but to ‘feeling’ or ‘sense’ (i.e. ‘feeling of sin’ or ‘sense of sin’, hence ‘remorse’).

New Evangelization According to Popes Paul VI and John Paul II — This article deals with the concept of (new) evangelization in the thinking of Popes Paul VI and John Paul II. Both of them emphasised the necessity of evangelization. Since the Latin American Bishops’ Synod in Puebla in 1968, the concept of ‘new evangelization’ has been in use in the Roman Catholic Church. There are some variations in how to understand the concept, as it has points of contact with missio ad gentes and the Church’s pastoral work. Following John Paul II’s distinction, a common consensus seems to be that new evangelization is directed at those who have lost contact with the Church, while the target group of missio ad gentes consists of those who have never had contact with the Church and pastoral work is for those who still are within the sphere of the Church. The theological basis is Trinitarian, emphasising the role of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, linked with the Church.