Chicago Theological Seminary

Henipaviruses such as Nipah (NiV) and Hendra (HeV) are zoonotic pathogens that cause severe and often fatal respiratory illness and encephalitis in both animals and humans. These viruses exhibit high transmissibility and pandemic potential, a situation made worse by the absence of appropriate pharmaceutical countermeasures. To address this deficit, we conducted a hit-to-lead optimization campaign based on hit 1 identified through high-throughput screening against recombinant Cedar virus (rCedV), a nonpathogenic surrogate for NiV and HeV. This effort yielded a focused library of analogs that were initially screened against rCedV, with promising candidates subsequently validated against authentic NiV and HeV. Among these, analog 46 demonstrated superior in vitro metabolic stability and pharmacokinetic properties relative to hit 1 and is now positioned for in vivo efficacy evaluation. Concurrently, the mechanism of action of these first-in-class furopyrimidine-based antiviral agents was probed through time-of-addition assays, escape mutation analysis, and preliminary in silico modeling.

Ebola and Marburg (EBOV and MARV) filoviral infections lead to fatal hemorrhagic fevers and have caused over 30 outbreaks in the last 50 years. Currently, there are no FDA-approved small molecule therapeutics for effectively treating filoviral diseases. To address this unmet medical need, we have conducted a systematic structural optimization of an early lead compound, N-(4-(4-methylpiperidin-1-yl)-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-4-(morpholinomethyl)benzamide (1), borne from our previously reported hit-to-lead effort. This secondary round of structure-activity relationship (SAR) involved the design and synthesis of several deconstructed and reconstructed analogs of compound 1, which were then tested against pseudotyped EBOV and MARV. The antiviral activities of the most promising leads were further validated in infectious assays. The optimized analogs exhibited desirable antiviral activity against different ebolaviruses and reduced off-target activity. Additionally, they also possessed druglike properties, that make them ideal candidates for in vivo efficacy studies as part of our ongoing drug discovery campaign against EBOV and MARV.

Saul M. Olyan, Animal Rights and the Hebrew Bible (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023), 156 pp., $83.00 (cloth), ISBN: 0197609385.

Conflict is normal in human relationship. Although religious difference can be a contributing factor, religious teachings also inspire building bridges and reaching toward reconciliation. This chapter explores the field of conflict transformation, the role of religion in conflict, and strategies to navigate these spaces. Focused on skill-building rather than program design and facilitation, it introduces intercultural intelligence, narrative mediation, interest-based bargaining, and non-violent communication. Effective leadership requires self-awareness about our instinctive responses to conflict, so the chapter also presents the Thomas-Kilmann paradigm to help readers explore their reactions.

Chapter 1 describes various responses to religious diversity and then introduces the emerging methods, goals, and tools for study in the field of Interreligious Studies. It also unpacks the framework for this volume: Mapping the Field (Part I), Meeting Spaces (Part II), Modes of Engagement (Part III).

Abstract The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth is the first monograph on the religious philosophy of Jacob Frank (1726–1791), who, in the wake of the false messiah Sabbetai Zevi, led the largest mass apostasy in Jewish history. Based on close readings of Frank’s late teachings, recorded in 1784 and 1790, The Heresy of Jacob Frank presents Frank as an original and prescient figure at the crossroads of tradition and modernity, reason and magic. Frank’s worldview combines an antinomian, skeptical rejection of religious law with a supernatural, Western Esotericist myth of immortal beings, magic, and worldly power. Frank’s goal was alchemical in nature, culminating in physical transformation, power, and immortality, and his messiah was a syncretic female figure known as the Maiden, whose characteristics draw on Kabbalah, magic, and the veneration of the Black Virgin of Częstochowa, where Frank was imprisoned for twelve years. Sexual ritual, apparently tightly limited and controlled by the sect, was not a libertine bacchanal but a transgressive enactment of the messianic reality, a corporealization of what would later become known as spirituality. While Frank was undoubtedly a manipulative, even abusive leader whose sect mostly disappeared from history, his ideology anticipated themes that would become predominant in the Haskalah, early Hasidism, and even contemporary “New Age” Judaism. And his unbelievable, winding journey from Sabbatean heretic to eighteenth-century charlatan- alchemist-spy is perhaps even more remarkable than the radical theology he preached.

Abstract: This article recasts comparative religions in light of queer sufi pedagogies and decolonial methods to consider the improvisatory nature of a black queer theology. By considering the resonances between the organic multi-religiosity of black queer sufi practices and what Laurel Schneider and Catherine Keller call polydoxy, this article ponders the resonances between multiple religions by decentring Christianity. Attention is given to how the alternate sensibilities and practices found in black queer sufi practices of thought ground decolonial strategies of delinking the production of knowledge from the assumed boundaries of Christian theology and secular philosophy. Instead, an embodied mode of thinking is offered as a way forward.

The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze how communities of faith can overcome key barriers and fulfill their responsibility to respond to the moral injury of military veterans and military families. Moral injury is a concept within the broader discourse concerning traumatic experiences and responses that pertains particularly to experiences that overwhelm a person’s internalized moral covenant within their social relational world. Communities of faith offer unique resources for many veterans and military families in the process of transitioning into civilian life. However, limited understanding of military experiences and culture and discomfort with moral anguish, including intense forms of guilt, shame, disgust, and contempt as well as traumatic experiences more broadly, too often diminish the efficacy of such ministries with veterans and military families.