https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/35947 2026-04-04T19:13:48Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/36022 Title: Book reviews [Melita Theologica, 39(1)] Abstract: Carol L. MEYERS/Eric MEYERS, Haggai, Zechariah 1-8 (Anchor Bible 25 B; Doubleday, Garden City, New York 1987) XCV, 478 pp. -- Maurice EMINJAN S.J., Signs of the Times (Jesuit Publications: Mal- ta 1987) V + 106 pp. -- Umberto NE RI (ed.), Genesi (Biblia AT/I; Gribaudi, Turin 1986) XXIX, 660pp. 1988-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/35991 Title: Melita Theologica : volume 39 : issue 1 Editors: Abela, Anthony; Borg, Vincent; Eminyan, Maurice Abstract: Table of contents: 1/ LUPI, J. - The development of the rite of baptism -- 2/ SHIELDS, V. - Grief therapy and family systems -- 3/ AGIUS, E. - From individual to collective rights to the rights of mankind -- 4/ Book reviews. 1988-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/35988 Title: The development of the rite of baptism Abstract: The first account we have of a rite of Baptism is in the first Apology of Justin, written in A.D. 150: "As many as are persuaded and believe what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we ourselves were regenerated. For in the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit they then receive the washing with water ...... After we have thus washed who has been convinced and has given his assent, we bring him to those who are called brethren where they are assembled together, in order that we may offer prayer in common for ourselves and for the person who has received illumination and for all others in every place.... Having ended the prayers .... to the president is brought bread and a cup of water and wine ... . and he, taking them, gives praise and glory to the Father of all things ... . And when the president has celebrated the Eucharist. ... deacons give to each of those who are present a portion of the Eucharistic bread and wine and water. ... " 1988-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/35987 Title: From individual to collective rights, to the rights of mankind : the historical evolution of the subject of human rights Abstract: A glance at history shows that the progressive development of human rights has been considerably conditioned by the evolution of social relations, and the forms in which these relations were institutionalized. It was not in abstract that newly recognised human rights came to be defined, but in the context of the modern state and that of an industrial and technological civilization; in the context of the bitter experience of two World Wars and the social and political evolution after 1945. This evolution has been characterized by a process of decolonialisation, by a growing sense of solidarity among mankind, and by a widespread awareness of the delicate ecological balance of our one and only Earth which is limited in its natural resources. The remarkable thing about the evolution of human rights is that it appears to have followed in a given direction. In fact, we notice the widening of the concept of human rights which had originated in the eighteenth century. Throughout the whole development of human rights, a certain quality has come gradually in evidence, due to a progression in which continuity is much more marked than discontinuity. This can be seen in the conceptual evolution of the subject of human rights. In what follows, I intend to show that throughout the last two centuries, particularly since the beginning of this century, there has been a continuity in the progressive widening of the subject of human rights from the individual to a collectivity and now to mankind as a whole. As we shall see, this conceptual evolution has been the result of different historical currents during which the antecedent achievements in the field of human rights have been reinterpreted in the light of new ethical demands. 1988-01-01T00:00:00Z