Origen’s surprising presence within David F. Strauss’s genealogy of the critical examination of the life of Jesus ought to stir contemporary readers from slipping into their own forms of presumption regarding when, exactly, reading of the Gospels first became critical or what the term “critical” even means. Strauss’s presentation also underscores the difficulty of fashioning a portrait adequate to such a unique figure and introduces the need to retrieve Origen’s own first principles of Gospel reading. Here, I lay the requisite groundwork for addressing Part I’s overarching question (“What is a Gospel?”) by showing that, for Origen, the term “Gospel,” strictly speaking, does not designate just any discourse bearing the early Christian proclamation, but rather one that does so under the form of narratives of the life of Jesus. The stage is thus set for the more pivotal – and tortuous – question: What kind of narratives are they?

This chapter explores the sacral aspects of Achaemenid Persian kingship. It attempts to precisely illuminate the ruler’s relationship with the divine and to demonstrate that the assumption of priestly prerogatives was an important aspect of his office. To better appreciate the political function of religion, this study provides cultural and historical contexts for the royal appropriation of sacral attributes. It further contributes to the recent field of study regarding a possible soteriological dimension to Achaemenid ideology by assessing and synthesising new and previously cited evidence for the existence of such an element, as well as its possible applications.

We show that the category of comonoids, defined with respect to the composition product in the category of polynomial functors, is equivalent to a category of small categories as objects but with an interesting type of morphism called retrofunctors. Unlike traditional functors, retrofunctors operate in a forward-backward manner, offering a different kind of relationship between categories. We introduce this concept of retrofunctors, provide examples to illustrate their behavior, and explain their role in modeling state systems.

This chapter explains why inframarginal analysis should be used to evaluate whether to enforce consumer boilerplate provisions, and then applies this approach to show that the use of pro-consumer boilerplate terms should be mandatory. Inframarginal analysis looks at how the law can allocate inframarginal resources in ways that are fairer and more efficient than unregulated outcomes. Two policy considerations are paramount when carrying out this analysis: 1) devising ways to distribute resources equitably, and 2) minimizing wasteful competition. The impact of consumer boilerplate is largely inframarginal, so inframarginal analysis is the correct way to evaluate whether to enforce these provisions. In carrying out this analysis, a graph-based approach is helpful in showing why equitable considerations point toward preferring pro-consumer terms over pro-seller terms and why wasteful competition considerations point toward making the use of these pro-consumer terms mandatory. The usefulness of this analysis is further demonstrated by applying the findings here to the more specific question of whether to enforce choice-of-forum provisions in consumer contracts.

The communities of the western Niger Delta, in the midst of economic turmoil, confronted the British colonial government’s effort to integrate them into the wider colonial economy with a boycott on palm oil exports in 1927. Taxation was the primary instrument of incorporation for the British government, and Niger Delta community’s primary form of leverage against taxation was a systemic boycott. Beyond taxation, these communities resented the imposition of warrant chiefs, who were tasked with enforcing taxation and carrying out local administration of the courts (another vital source of income for the colonial government). The 1927 boycott succeeded in slowing down the palm oil trade. It was also part of a broader pattern of resistance in the palm-producing region across southern Nigeria. This widespread resistance indicated the lack of knowledge and control the colonial state had regarding these communities, and the need to impose stronger mechanisms of contol, through the warrant chiefs, increased surveilance and policing, and by exploiting ethnic differences.

This chapter places the Dead Sea Scrolls into dialogue with social-scientific scholarship on violence in New Religious Movements. It introduces the sociological model of a multipart process of escalating tension (latent tension, nascent conflict, intensified conflict) based on a complex set of internal and external factors that potentially ends in what he refers to as violent dramatic denouements. Chapter 2 focuses on the first stage of the process, which provides a framework in which to situate the nonviolent origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls Sectarians and explains how a movement born in social tension develops into a movement steeped in violence. This chapter argues that Miqṣat Ma‘ase HaTorah is reflective of a protest movement in its earlier stages.

Brief remarks suggest different reading strategies to different readers, both specialist and nonspecialist. Those less familiar with modern Iranian history and politics are invited to begin with Chapter 1, the “Introduction.” More knowledgeable readers may prefer to skim over parts of Chapter 1 in order to begin with Chapter 2, “Tied Up in Tehran.” Thanks to the community of support who have contributed to this project.

This chapter provides general concluding thoughts on the book and insights into larger contributions to the scholarly fields in which it interacts.

The construction sector holds great economic importance worldwide. It is recognized as the ‘biggest non-agricultural industry in the capitalist world’ (Srivastava and Sutradhar, 2016: 2). It stands as the foremost consumer of raw materials globally, and it was forecast to achieve growth of 4.2 per cent annually from 2018 to 2023 in terms of market value (Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition and International Finance Corporation, 2018). Furthermore, its interdependence with various sub-sectors – such as cement, iron, steel, and brick production, and service sectors such as education, finance, or health – makes it an important part of numerous global value chains (GVCs). Indeed, major construction companies often serve as lead firms in both product value chains and human supply chains (Gordon, 2017; Crane et al., 2019; Barkay et al., 2024).

This interdependence between the construction sector and numerous sub-sectors involves both vertical and horizontal intersections within diverse value chains. The scale of the processes, phases, and stakeholders involved in the construction process within these diverse value chains – such as design, production, conversion of raw materials into manufactured products, and on-site construction – highlights the sector's economic significance (Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition and International Finance Corporation, 2018: 2). Nevertheless, the sheer number of processes, combined with ‘the fixed-term, project-based nature of relationships along the supply chain’ contributes to a highly fragmented and multi-tiered structure in the sector (Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition and International Finance Corporation, 2018: 2). Construction projects are not only characterized by significant variability in type and scale, ranging from buildings to major civil engineering projects and large-scale infrastructures, but are also at the mercy of ‘local conditions, purpose, regulations, codes, and resources that evolve with time’ (Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition and International Finance Corporation, 2018: 6). Therefore, to understand the complexities of labour exploitation within construction projects, a highly nuanced analysis of GVCs is required.