Contenu du sommaire : Comptes rendus

‪It was a tradition in ancient times to keep the skins of sacrificial animals, which were supposed to contain a portion of divine virtue. Such remains were used for purification ceremonies (I), for divination (II) or for a worshiper's ritual identification with his god (III). The procedures involved in foretelling the future, in connection with incubation rituals, are recalled and analyzed, along with their variations according to different contexts.‪

‪In late Antiquity, the divine name of Hermes‪‪ Trismegistos‪‪ circulates in various languages and different enunciative contexts. It is generally quoted with respect to the history of Hermeticism as a way of postulating continuity between the diverse instances of this god. This article aims at analyzing these occurrences of the divine name in light of their various enunciative contexts. It provides insight into the social dynamics that are at play in its utterance, for its use does not always imply the same social phenomena. This analysis will thus shed light both on its ritualistic use, when it invokes a local divinity, as well as its identity use, when it serves to empower new religious and scientific identities.‪

‪In the context of the debates opposing the Greeks and the Latins on the‪‪ Filioque,‪‪ the question of the procession of the Spirit, or the movement by which it emanates at once from the Father and the Son, was posited in the Latin West. The realm of possible answers for such questions was delimited by a series of condemnations. The term “spriration” finally appeared in Scholastic writings in the late 12‪‪th‪‪ C, designating the unknowable nature of the procession that is specific to the Spirit. It was not used dogmatically until the Second Council of Lyon (1274). This century-long delay was rife with theological debates, concerning, for example, the possibility of unity between procession and mission, until Thomas Aquinas affirmed the distinction between‪‪ ad intra‪‪ and‪‪ ad extra‪‪ procession.‪

‪The Protestant Isaac de La Peyrère was arrested in Brussels in 1656 for his‪‪ Praedamitae‪‪ (1655), which hold the heresy that human beings existed before Adam. He was freed under the condition that he would go to Rome and convert there, which was done in 1657. This article studies the arrest, the conversion and the book that followed, using Roman documents recently signaled (Archives of the Vatican, Sant'Uffizio and Propaganda fide) or ignored (Vatican Library). It reveals numerous actors in these events, often unknown, such as the Chifflet brothers, the secretary Nypho, the internuncio De Vecchi in Brussels, the nuncio Caraffa in Venice, the prefect of the Vatican Library, Holstenius (also a convert), the Jesuits Bergier, Schega, Duneau, Fabri, cardinals Barberini and Albizzi, and Pope Alexander VII himself.‪

This contribution is a critical review of Janina Maria Hiebel's‪ ‪ Ezekiel's Vision Accounts as Interrelated Narratives : A Redaction-Critical and Theological Study‪ ‪, that studies the continued vision in the book of Ezekiel (1:1‪ ‪‑‪ ‪3:15 ; 3:22‪ ‪‑‪ ‪27 ; 8:1‪ ‪‑‪ ‪11:25 ; 37:1‪ ‪‑‪ ‪14 ; 40:1‪ ‪‑‪ ‪43:12 ; 44:1‪ ‪‑‪ ‪2.4‪ ‪‑‪ ‪6 ; 47:1‪ ‪‑‪ ‪12) according to a redactional and theological approach and concludes that it is the fruit of successive rewritings. While there is no doubt that the vision, like the book itself, is not the work of a single scribe, one may however question the systematic subdivisions of the text in light of its coherence. This note seeks to pursue a methodological debate concerning the legitimacy of a practice that is called historical even though it separates texts and contexts.‪