Communication: On Being an Angel. Incarnation and Angelic Communication in Medieval Christian Theology: Modern Reflections,Starting with Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica

Communication involves incarnation in a twofold sense: it assumes a body, and it brings thoughts and values into being. The question of angelic communication, as a theoretical model for language and thought in medieval Christian theology, combines the two senses: for Thomas Aquinas, angels communicate among themselves without bodies, given that as immaterial beings they transmit their thoughts by will alone; but they need bodies in order to “appear” to humans and communicate with them. This indicates, if only by default, the place of incarnation in communication—for those of us who are not angels.     

Incarnation,Now: Five Brief Thoughts and a Non-Conclusive Ending

This article problematizes the renewed appeal of incarnation, a signifier that points to a vague desire in our present and perhaps, altogether, to an unclear future promise, rather than to the complex history of elaborate theological meanings with which the word had long been related. Incarnation is one among a number of concepts and topics that had become almost unspeakable since the eighteenth century—and that have recently returned to intellectual legitimacy. We propose to explain what could be the conditions of this rehabilitation.     

What Goes Down Must Come Up: Communication as Incarnation and Transcension

In this essay, I conceptualize incarnation from a communicative point of view by juxtaposing it with the concept of transcension. Subsequently, I reflect on the potential value of studying these concepts for communication research.     

In and Out of Movies: Incarnation and Personal Identity

Fiction, particularly movies, enjoys the license to abandon philosophical rigor and play free and loose with issues somewhat related to the traditional personal identity concerns of philosophers. Double-named characters appear frequently in movies raising issues of double-identity to deepen the intrigue of their narratives. This paper explores the 1947 American film noir Out of the Past, which depicts the double identity and subsequent incarnation/embodiment of its protagonist by his abandoned past as a private detective who has crossed his gangster employers. In addition, the essay reaches “outside” the film to discuss the use of incarnation in the application of such notions as star or role, by taking as an example, its star Robert Mitchum, which leads us to how forces largely independent of their wills, incarnate certain actors, setting them up outside their films for multiple identities.     

也论考试中国家意志的体现

对于考试中国家意志的体现问题,要具体问题具体分析。因为这一问题涉及作为政策杠杆的考试,作为一种社会规训制度的考试,不同管理体制与不同文化传统下的考试,具有不同目的功能的考试等。情境不同,则考试所涉及的国家意志体现问题就应另当别论。