Publications

This paper proposes a methodological approach to analyzing the evolution of the stability of socioeconomic systems and to assessing the risk of their possible destabilization based on the use of mathematical modeling methods. In this paper, a basic model is presented allowing us to describe the joint dynamics of processes in the economic, organizational, and sociopsychological areas of society. The model shows at what parameters of the socioeconomic system its steady functioning is possible, and at which it is impossible. It is shown that the transition from its steady state to an unsteady one is not smooth but occurs as a leap. This methodology is applied to the analysis of stability and change in the Egyptian socioeconomic system after 2010.

Eastern Syriac mystical writers in describing the way of the solitude leading to the state of Union with God used different Syriac words meaning ‘face’(appē, quḇlā and parṣōpā).The usage of the idea of  ‘face’ in the mystical theology has been predefined by the medical and theological (trinitarian and especially Christological) usage. In theology face was an expression of the idea of person (qnōmā) and was used to denote God in relation to a Man. Syriac Gallenic medicine knew that the face was an external expression of the brain conveyed by nervous impulses. In the ascetical thought of the Eastern Syriac mystics face of the man expressed sorrow (contrition) or joy (sense of the Union) – main emotions of the ascetic. In the highest mystical sense the ‘Face’ as in theology is a metaphor for the Encounter with God. This is the last and the highest goal of the human. An ascetic is dealing with his physical face as with a part of the self, an object to transfigure or efface. The goal is to make of it a reflection of eternal light or joy, which accompanies the ascetic toward the last stage of the Union with God which is called ‘Seeing God’s Face’.

The" Library "of Patriarch Photius, Codex 52 contains evidence of the Acts of the Council of Side, which is used to be taken as one of the main elements of the "anti-messalian dossier" in the Byzantine Church tradition. Whether this Council took place in fact and in what form is not known. However, the available data suggest a great deal of confusion and possibly falsification of its entire story. The main characters (Lampetius, Sabba, Dadoes etc) from the Syriac side look like fictitious. From the comparison of the names with the Syriac documents (Philoxeni Ad Patricium) follows, that , the chief heretic – "Lampetius/ Malpatius"  is a fictitious figure. Behind him hides the Syrian Adelphius, a disciple of St. Julian Sabba. The history of "messalianism" in the light of a new perspective of the research on the Late Antique heresiology appears as a great misunderstanding, caused by the conflict of ascetic models. The Syriac model was based on the idea of apotage (disconnection from the world), which three hundred years later was fully adopted in the Greek asceticism. The dossier of the "messalian heresy" (connected with Ps.-Macarius writings) was further used against the new releigous movements of the Middle Ages (paulicianism, bogomilism). Historical inconsistencies in the middle-century anti-heretic literature ceased to confuse readers, because the whole history of "messianism" turned into a myth.

The present article deals with the literary image of a Gothic man who happened to  be in Edessa in the 5th century AD as a part of Roman auxiliary troops. He is reported to marry there a local girl under pretext of being a celibatarian. Having left Syria for Gothia, it turned out that he was married and had children. The Syrian wife became a slave and suffered a lot before returning miraculously back to Edessa. From the comparative study of the sources it becomes clear that the Gothic auxiliary troops were summoned to Edessa in connection with the advance of the Huns. Notwithstanding the common equation of Goths and Getae, the Gothic soldier in question was Germanic and not Getan (Dacian). The last question is the character of the marriage gift he presented for his temporary marriage.

This research examines the relationship of social capital with the acculturation attitudes and sociocultural adaptation of 122 migrants from Central Asian republics of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan) and 136 migrants from South Korea. The questionnaire included scales for assessing acculturation attitudes (integration, assimilation, and separation), individual social capital (bridging and bonding), and sociocultural adaptation. Using parallel mediation analysis, we found that acculturation attitudes for migrants from Central Asia are secondary to their social capital in relation to sociocultural adaptation. However, among migrants from South Korea, social capital is not linked to their acculturation attitudes, and in general, its role in sociocultural adaptation is lower as compared to the role of acculturation attitudes. As a whole, our research shows that although sociocultural adaptation for all ethnic groups is linked to acculturation attitudes and social capital, acculturation attitudes for certain ethnic groups can be dependent on social capital.

The current article investigates the relation between values and modernization applying some elements of the method proposed by Inglehart and Welzel (the authors of the Human Development Sequence Theory) to the data of Shalom Schwartz. The values survey by Schwartz specifies two main value axes, namely, conservation versus openness to change and self-transcendence versus self-enhancement. Our research has revealed that the correlation between these two value axes differs in its direction when estimated for “macro-Europe” (that includes Europe and former settlement colonies of North and South America and Oceania) and “Afroasia” (that includes Asia and Africa). In “macro-Europe,” we deal with a significant positive correlation between openness to change and self-transcendence, whereas in “Afroasia,” this correlation is strong, significant, and negative. We investigate the possible impact of modernization on this difference. To do this, we approximate modernization through such indicators as gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and the proportions of the labor force employed in various sectors of economy. We find that, in both megazones, modernization is accompanied by increasing openness to change values. As for the self-transcendence/self-enhancement axis, we propose two possible explanations of the different dynamics observed in Europe and in “the East” (Asia and North Africa), namely, (a) that Eastern and Western societies find themselves at different modernization stages and (b) that this difference is accounted for by different civilizational patterns. Further analysis suggests that the latter explanation might be more plausible.

One of the most comprehensive book on the art of spiritual self-nourishing, treatment and achieving enlightenment through sexual practices.  Chinese erotology is a unique system for achieving mystical insight, gaining transcendental experience, extending the life and even ascending to immortality. For unsophisticated people, erotology is just the art of pleasure and the ways of sexual practice, while for the initiated people it is the way to enlightenment and health promotion. The choice of a partner is equal to choosing ingredients for treatment and for the pill of immortality. This edition offers a reach presentation of the art of Chinese mystical erotology with translations of several classical texts on the art of "inner chamber"  with commentaries. 1 Erotic Wandering of the Spirit 2. The Way to Chinese Erotology 3. The body of pleasure and the body of enlightenment. 4. Popular "secret texts." 5. Enlightenment, longevity, and flesh. 6. Responding to Heavenly Coitus. 7. "Pliable and obedient.“ 8. From woman to androgynous. 9. The lonely immortal

The article is devoted to Japan's reaction to the "One belt, One Road" initiative put forward by China and also to the formation of a Japanese strategy towards the PRC in the new conditions. The concept of the Indo-Pacific region developed by Japan and the United States is analyzed. There are attempts to involve India in the creation of an anti-Chinese "Quartet" of States with the participation of the United States, Japan, Australia and India. Alternative economic programs of Japan, its struggle with China for influence in Southeast Asia, and Tokyo's attempts to prevent Chinese expansion in the South China sea are considered. Attention is drawn to the fact that Japanese society is growing in favor of establishing economic cooperation with Beijing in the countries of the region.

The article (being the 1st part of the cycle) is dedicated to the ascetic themes in Mār Aphrem the of Nisibis (St. Ephrem the Syrian) treated in different parts of his corpus. Asceticism is reflecxted in mār Aphrem under three main forms: city asceticism, wandering asceticism (xeniteia) and the sub-form of the latter, boskoi-asceticism. The wandering tradition got strog criticism in the Latin and Greek tradition as gyrovagi and ‘messalians’. In the Syriac tradition, the competition between wanderinf and coenobion lasted much longer. Aphrem’s mêmrā (metrical homily) On the hermits and solitaries belongs to the ascetical cycle and is interesting, first of all, by its description of the local forms of asceticism (īḥı̄ḏayūṯā) in Upper Mesopotamia and Syria. It describes the practices of desert hermitage and social self-isolation, which are associated with the initial stage of the ‘messalian’ movement which turns to be a form of the national Syrian asceticism. The translation of verses 1–100 of the memra accompanies the text.

The prose of the Japanese writer Shiga Naoya (1881–1972), the author of I-novel (shisho:setsu), is popular in Japan, but for the Western reader the value of his texts remains unclear. In order to solve this problem we suggest applying the methodology of the phenomenological school to analyzing the Shiga’s texts. The vast layer of the Japanese experience in studying the texts of Shiga, where the researchers unintentionally resorted to the methodology of the phenomenological school, leads to the thought of this. In particular, we consider it promising to apply this methodology to the analysis of the “rhythm” concept, which we suppose is the key concept to understanding Shiga’s texts. “Rhythm” as the main artistic principle of Shiga, apparently, means the maximum proximity of the rhythmic organization of the text to the physiological rhythm of the writer himself. The suitability of phenomenological criticism, in particular, of the Geneva school, to Shiga’s texts is explained by the following features: the critique of consciousness considers only phenomena revealed in the mind, which for literary studies means studying only the world of the work, its structures and meanings; lack of reference to the society surrounding the author, or any ideological premise; the study of the individual consciousness of the writer, his experimental series, the selection of repetitive motifs, images (“patterns”) of consciousness, unique to a particular author, the interpretation by E. Steiger of “rhythm” as one of such patterns. Following are some preliminary conclusions obtained in the analysis of Shiga’s works based on the above methodology. In Shiga’s prose, recurring motifs or “patterns” of consciousness are “mood” (kibun), as well as a pleasant or unpleasant feeling (yukai-fuyukai), since it is obvious that the actions of most of his characters are explained precisely by the factor of sensation and mood. Also, recurring motifs can be called “emptiness”, that is, the absence of one’s own inner world and “harmony”, that is, the correspondence of one’s own “rhythm” and “rhythm” of the surrounding nature. If the “rhythm” itself is also considered to be the “pattern” of Shiga’s consciousness, repeated from work to work, it becomes possible to explain why the beauty of Shiga’s texts is so dependent on the original language. In general, we believe that the application of the methodology of phenomenological critique of consciousness to the works of Shiga Naoya is a promising direction that requires further research.

Encyclopedic entry on bp. Rabbula of Edessa. Bibliography.

"Encyclopedic entry on SYriac Julian Romance

The treatise “Al-Kitab” authored by Sibawaih in the VIII c. is often referred to as the “Qur’an of Arabic Grammar”, and its cornerstone. One of the transmitters of “the Book”, the famous grammarian Al-Mubarrad (825 – 899 yr.) as quoted by A. M. Harun in the “Introduction” prepared for the print of the treatise, characterized this oldest of the works on Arabic grammar known to us as follows: “There has never been created in no science the book similar to “the Book” by Sibawaih; this is so because all the other books written in any sphere of science (for the purpose of clarification of their contents) need other books, while “the Book” by Sibawaih is an explicit study of its subject (“الكتاب”, 1988, Vol.1, p.5).

During the period of inception and the following maturity of the Arabic Linguistics Tradition (VIII-XV c.) the Treatise by Sibawaih played the role of the unique source of knowledge in all issues of Arabic Grammar and was the most discussed linguistic work with hundreds of commentaries dedicated to it.

It is no less important to the contemporary linguistics.

In 1881 “Al-Kitab” was first published by H. Derenburg with the introduction in French; since then all prints of the treatise (introduction into the scientific discourse new catalogues of “the Book” and commentaries) have been important occasions for the scientific community.

This paper discusses the latest Cairo print of “the Book” in 5 volumes (the third reprint), alighted in 1988, and supervised by the Egyptian philologist A. M. Harun. It looks into differences of this print compared to all previous: use of previously unknown manuscripts, furnishing the text with wide reference apparatus and detailed commentary, making the life of researchers easier.

This paper focuses on the characteristics of one of the key types of Taoist tradition – хian, which is usually inaccurately translated as “immortal”. Based on a number of texts of Taoist traditions Lingbao, Shanqing and Quanzhen, the paper shows that the acquisition of the state of xianhood is not connected with physical immortality, but based on the deep transformative and transpersonal experience. The practitioner goes through a series of transformative stages, each of which, depending on the particular school, includes a set of spiritual practices aimed at achieving absolute peace and self-deactualization. Such reincarnation is also accompanied by the acquisition of a bright “light”, getting a “shining spirit”, immersion into a “deep dream” that is associated with a strong insight experience. In some cases, it could be regarded as the self-rebirth in the true form (the state of the “true man”): passing through the stage of “dying of the previous body” and rebirth in the new one, as well as going to the “distant wanderings”, which typologically can be defined as a special type of rites of passage and passing through a system of consecrated rituals.