Apocalypse of the alien god : Platonism and the exile of Sethian gnosticism / / Dylan M. Burns

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910464448503321
• Autore: Burns Dylan M
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : , : University of Pennsylvania Press, , 2014; ©2014
• ISBN: 0-8122-0922-2
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (342 p.)
• Collana: Divinations : Rereading Late Ancient Religion
• Disciplina: 299/.932
• Soggetti: Apocalyptic literature - History and criticism; Gnostic literature - History and criticism; Gnosticism; Neoplatonism; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. Culture Wars -- 2. Plotinus Against His Gnostic Friends -- 3. Other Ways of Writing -- 4. The Descent -- 5. The Ascent -- 6. The Crown -- 7. Between Judaism, Christianity, and Neoplatonism -- Appendix: Reading Porphyry on the Gnostic Heretics and Their Apocalypses -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Acknowledgments
• Sommario/riassunto: In the second century, Platonist and Judeo-Christian thought were sufficiently friendly that a Greek philosopher could declare, "What is Plato but Moses speaking Greek?" Four hundred years later, a Christian emperor had ended the public teaching of subversive Platonic thought. When and how did this philosophical rupture occur? Dylan M. Burns argues that the fundamental break occurred in Rome, ca. 263, in the circle of the great mystic Plotinus, author of the Enneads. Groups of controversial Christian metaphysicians called Gnostics ("knowers") frequented his seminars, disputed his views, and then disappeared from the history of philosophy—until the 1945 discovery, at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, of codices containing Gnostic literature, including versions of the books circulated by Plotinus's Christian opponents. ; Blending state-of-the-art Greek metaphysics and ecstatic Jewish mysticism, these texts describe techniques for entering celestial realms, participating in the angelic liturgy, confronting the transcendent God, and even becoming a divine being oneself. They also describe the revelation of an alien God to his elect, a race of "foreigners" under the protection of the patriarch Seth, whose interventions will ultimately culminate in the end of the world. Apocalypse of the Alien God proposes a radical interpretation of these long-lost apocalypses, placing them firmly in the context of Judeo-Christian authorship rather than ascribing them to a pagan offshoot of Gnosticism. According to Burns, this Sethian literature emerged along the fault lines between Judaism and Christianity, drew on traditions known to scholars from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Enochic texts, and ultimately catalyzed the rivalry of Platonism with Christianity. Plunging the reader into the culture wars and classrooms of the high Empire, Apocalypse of the Alien God offers the most concrete social and historical description available of any group of Gnostic Christians as it explores the intersections of ancient Judaism, Christianity, Hellenism, myth, and philosophy.

Genomics in Aquaculture to Better Understand Species Biology and Accelerate Genetic Progress

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910220056303321
• Autore: Ross Houston
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Frontiers Media SA, 2016
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (151 p.)
• Collana: Frontiers Research Topics
• Soggetti: Genetics (non-medical)
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Sommario/riassunto: From a global perspective aquaculture is an activity related to food production with large potential for growth. Considering a continuously growing population, the efficiency and sustainability of this activity will be crucial to meet the needs of protein for human consumption in the near future. However, for continuous enhancement of the culture of both fish and shellfish there are still challenges to overcome, mostly related to the biology of the cultured species and their interaction with (increasingly changing) environmental factors. Examples of these challenges include early sexual maturation, feed meal replacement, immune response to infectious diseases and parasites, and temperature and salinity tolerance. Moreover, it is estimated that less than 10% of the total aquaculture production in the world is based on populations genetically improved by means of artificial selection. Thus, there is considerable room for implementing breeding schemes aimed at improving productive traits having significant economic impact. By far the most economically relevant trait is growth rate, which can be efficiently improved by conventional genetic selection (i.e. based on breeding values of selection candidates). However, there are other important traits that cannot be measured directly on selection candidates, such as resistance against infectious and parasitic agents and carcass quality traits (e.g. fillet yield and meat color). However, these traits can be more efficiently improved using molecular tools to assist breeding programs by means of marker-assisted selection, using ; a few markers explaining a high proportion of the trait variation, or genomic selection, using thousands of markers to estimate genomic breeding values. The development and implementation of new technologies applied to molecular biology and genomics, such as next-generation sequencing methods and high-throughput genotyping platforms, are allowing the rapid increase of availability of genomic resources in aquaculture species. These resources will provide powerful tools to the research community and will aid in the determination of the genetic factors involved in several biological aspects of aquaculture species. In this regard, it is important to establish discussion in terms of which strategies will be more efficient to solve the primary challenges that are affecting aquaculture systems around the world. The main objective of this Research Topic is to provide a forum to communicate recent research and implementation strategies in the use of genomics in aquaculture species with emphasis on (1) a better understanding of fish and shellfish biological processes having considerable impact on aquaculture systems; and (2) the efficient incorporation of molecular information into breeding programs to accelerate genetic progress of economically relevant traits.