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Willis Salier investigates the use of the term semeia and the narratives this term refers to in the rhetorical strategy of John's Gospel. The three poles of author, text and reader are considered. The study is more literary and socio-historical in flavour and bypasses previous discussions regarding sources, which have tended to dominate research on the semeia in the Fourth Gospel.First, he investigates the resonances that the term might have with an audience in the late first century. This part of the investigation concludes that the term helps to build a bridge between the conceptual background of the Gospel and the broader cultural foreground of its audience. It is also suggested that the term both draws on, and contributes to the prominent trial motif in the Gospel itself.Second, the semeia narratives are investigated for their place in the rhetorical strategy of the Gospel. It is concluded that they point to the identity of Jesus as the divine Messiah of God, illustrate the life that his ministry brings, and provide a subtle critique of other 'would be' lifegivers in the surrounding cultural milieu.

The religious history of Palestine has not yet been studied as that of an ordinary, Roman province. Until now, scholars have mainly highlighted the two, monotheistic religions, Judaism and Christianism. If Palestinian uniqueness comes actually from them, pagan Palestine little differed from the rest of the Roman - especially eastern - world and was in fact a real religious mix due to its history in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Nicole Belayche examines the pagan part, quantitatively the majority, of the Palestinian population between 135 and the fourth century. As a consequence of the two revolts of 66-70 and 132-135, pagan peoples had been settled all over the territory and pagan cults - avodah zarah to speak as a Mishnah - spread with them. Data of various natures and religious origins allow one to reconstruct the ritual aspects of the pagan cults. The collection of gods is varied and their origins recall local history, Semitic but above all Graeco-Hellenistic and then Roman. They prove the adherence of the province to the main religious trends of the imperial, Graeco-eastern ensemble. The pagan religious life is studied for itself and in the relationship of the pagans to the Jewish population, since monotheistic and polytheistic communities did not live in closed worlds. The general plan of the book follows them city by city in order to respect the juridical status of the communities and their cultural personality. Second to fourth century Judaea-Palestine offers a good short cut to the religious procedures at work in the already Hellenized Roman provinces, perhaps the best one due to local history. The mechanics of cohabitation in the system of Graeco-Roman cultural representation functioned here as elsewhere because the monotheistic communities, Jewish then Christian, from the third century on, did not risk intermixing. As in the rest of the Empire, Constantine's reign was not an effective turning point and pagan cults still flourished until the end of the fourth century at least.

This third volume, which offers further insights into the most important source of late antique Judaism, the Talmud Yerushalmi, in relation to its cultural context, marks another step in a research project on the Talmud Yerushalmi initiated by the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Free University (Berlin) in 1994 and concluded by a conference held at Princeton University in November 2001. This volume focuses on a wide range of topics such as gender studies, aspects of everyday life, Roman festivals, magic etc., hereby reflecting on the methodological problems inherent in intercultural studies. Thus, this collection of articles could also serve as a model for similar enterprises in other studies of Judaism in various cultural contexts.From reviews of the previous volumes: "This collection reflects the state of contemporary scholarship and its struggle to understand and thoughtfully reconstruct Jewish culture in late antique Palestine. It belongs in all specialized Judaica libraries and in research libraries that collect deeply in classical civilization."Steven Fine in Religious Studies Review 3 (1999) vol. 25, p. 331f.

Das sozialphilosophische Hauptwerk von Karl Popper behandelt vor allem die Geschichte des Historizismus, das heißt, die Idee eines gesetzmäßigen historischen Ablaufs, bei Platon (Band I) sowie bei Hegel, Marx und deren Nachfolgern (Band II). Es enthält außerdem eine Vielzahl von Erörterungen über erkenntnistheoretische, philosophische, ethische und politische Fragen, die bis heute von brennender Aktualität sind. Daß dieses Buch seit 1945 in 23 Sprachen übersetzt wurde, macht deutlich, daß Poppers 'Kriegsbeitrag' weit mehr ist als eine originelle Auseinandersetzung mit den philosophischen Systemen von der Antike bis heute.Die Theorie der offenen Gesellschaft, also die ständige schrittweise Verbesserung von Institutionen in parlamentarisch-demokratischen Gesellschaften, ist in diesen beiden Bänden so gründlich entwickelt, daß alle an der Begründung und Weiterentwicklung von Zivilgesellschaften interessierten Personen sich mit ihr auseinandersetzen sollten.