Michael Sommer
Biographic Data
| ID | 3673812 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael Sommer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael |
| FAMILY NAME | Sommer |
| SIGNATURE | SOMMER M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Berkeley |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3026-7211 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 34 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 6 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2027 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Witwen, Recht und Gerechtigkeit
Seit dem ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert stellen Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler immer wieder die Frage nach Besitzverhältnissen von »christlichen« Witwen, ihrer sozialen Stellung in der römisch-hellenistischen Welt und ihrer Rolle in den frühchristlichen Gemeinden. Viele dieser Untersuchungen konzentrieren sich allerdings nur auf Quellenmaterial mit einer hohen Dichte an sozialgeschichtlich relevanten Informationen, wohingegen Quellen, die …
Zugänge zum Wunderbaren
Die Beiträger dieses Bandes untersuchen Wunderdiskurse im frühen Christentum und in ihrer gegenwärtigen theologischen Rezeption mit der zentralen These, dass Wunder weder als bloße Durchbrechungen von Naturgesetzen noch als marginale Erzählphänomene zu verstehen sind, sondern als komplexe Zeichenprozesse, die Wirklichkeit deuten und transformieren. Im Fokus stehen Texte vom ersten Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart, insbesondere neutestamentliche Schr…
Julia Hoffmann-Salz, Im Land der räuberischen Nomaden? Die Eigenherrschaften der Ituraier und Emesener zwischen Seleukiden und Römern. (Studien zur Alten Geschichte, Bd. 31.) Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & …
Article Julia Hoffmann-Salz, Im Land der räuberischen Nomaden? Die Eigenherrschaften der Ituraier und Emesener zwischen Seleukiden und Römern. (Studien zur Alten Geschichte, Bd. 31.) Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2022 was published on June 2, 2025 in the journal Historische Zeitschrift (volume 320, issue 3)
Eingegangene Bücher
Is the volatility of yields for major crops grown in Germany related to spatial diversification at county level
Recent evidence suggests a stabilizing effect of crop diversity on agricultural production. However, different methods are used for assessing these effects and there is little systematic quantitative evidence on diversification benefits. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between volatility of combined crop yields (denoted as standard deviation) and diversity (denoted as Shannon’s Evenness Index SEI) for standardized yield data …
Die Johannesapokalypse
Das letzte Buch der Bibel bleibt auch im 21. Jahrhundert eine Herausforderung. Nur wenn historische, theologische und rezeptionsgeschichtliche Blickwinkel berücksichtigt werden, kann es gelingen, den besonderen Stellenwert der Johannesoffenbarung innerhalb der Theologie, aber auch innerhalb der abendländischen Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte zu erschließen. So werden im ersten Teil dieses Bandes soziale, ökonomische und politische Entstehungshintergr…
Platter Humor oder doch der Weisheit letzter Schluss? – Lk 18 als jüdische und pagane „Doppelkodierung“
German abstract Aus dem direkten Vergleich der beiden möglichen Leseweisen lässt sich ein Fazit formulieren. Die Technik der „Doppelkodierung“ (R. Feldmeier) zeigt sich darin, dass Lk 18,1–8 eine Alltagsepisode mit einem Moment des spöttelnden, vielleicht sogar stumpfen Humors erzählt und dabei eine Semantik benutzt, die auch in den Schriften Israels beheimatet ist. Auch wenn die „jüdische“ Denkwelt der Weisheitsliteratur in Lk 18,1–8 auf den ers…
Marx's non-speciesist concept of labour
Human-animal scholars have repeatedly accused Marx of standing in the tradition of a Cartesian human-animal dualism. One central piece of evidence brought forward to substantiate the attack is Marx's concept of labour. The present article, however, argues that Marx's conceptualisation of labour is actually non-speciesist and recognises non-waged and other than human forms of labour as well without renouncing qualitative distinctions between them.…
Vae, puto deus fio. How to make a Bad Emperor
Freiheit und Intellekt
Freiheit und Intellekt
Tillage erosion as an important driver of in‐field biomass patterns in an intensively used hummocky landscape
Tillage erosion causes substantial soil redistribution that can exceed water erosion especially in hummocky landscapes under highly mechanized large field agriculture. Consequently, truncated soil profiles can be found on hill shoulders and top slopes, whereas colluvial material is accumulated at footslopes, in depressions, and along downslope field borders. We tested the hypothesis that soil erosion substantially affects in‐field patterns of the…
Raimund Schulz, Als Odysseus staunte. Die griechische Sicht des Fremden und das ethnographische Vergleichen von Homer bis Herodot. (Studien zur Alten Geschichte, Bd. 29.) Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Rupr…
Article Raimund Schulz, Als Odysseus staunte. Die griechische Sicht des Fremden und das ethnographische Vergleichen von Homer bis Herodot. (Studien zur Alten Geschichte, Bd. 29.) Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2020 was published on October 1, 2021 in the journal Historische Zeitschrift (volume 313, issue 2)
Ben N. Berressem, Die Repräsentation der Soldatenkaiser. Studien zur kaiserlichen Selbstdarstellung im 3. Jh. n. Chr. (Philippika. Altertumswissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, Bd. 122.) Wiesbaden, Harrass…
No perfect storm for crop yield failure in Germany
Large-scale crop yield failures are increasingly associated with food price spikes and food insecurity and are a large source of income risk for farmers. While the evidence linking extreme weather to yield failures is clear, consensus on the broader set of weather drivers and conditions responsible for recent yield failures is lacking. We investigate this for the case of four major crops in Germany over the past 20 years using a combination of ma…
Mosebilder
Mose - Offenbarungsmittler, Prophet, Anführer. Als Sprachrohr des Volkes und Mittlerfigur kommt ihm eine entscheidende Rolle innerhalb der Tora zu. Doch auch in der Literatur des Frühjudentums und des frühen Christentums ist er eine mehr als prominente Figur und wird selbst von paganen Autoren erwähnt. In der Tat hat die Figur des Mose eine breite Wirkungs- und Rezeptionsgeschichte erfahren, in der sie mit den unterschiedlichsten Vorstellungen ve…
Book of Seven Seals
Manuscript attestation, transmission, and discussions about value and orthodoxy of Revelation show that this text in the New Testament was treated as something peculiar. This collection of essays exemplifies this phenomenon from various perspectives.
Book of Seven Seals
The Book of Revelation is a peculiar text whose special status in early Christianity is manifested by its manuscript attestation, transmission, literary references and discussions among early Church writers. This special status forms the nucleus of these collected essays and is highlighted from various perspectives. Nowadays of course, the Apocalypse has become a treasure trove of famous motifs for artists, composers, poets and novelists. On the …
The Venice of the Sands
Ein Text aus Palästina? Gedanken zur einleitungswissenschaftlichen Verortung der Apokalypse des Abraham
Nearly all scholars focusing on the Apocalypse of Abraham agree that the text originated in Palestine. The reason for this is generally quite simple: on the one hand, the text refers directly to the destruction of the Second Temple, and on the other hand, its storyline has a very strong “Jewish” character. I question the plausibility of this argument. The literary treatment of Jerusalem, the use of Exodus motifs, as well as the role of the cult i…
Poetik und Intertextualität der Johannesapokalypse
Die Erforschung der Johannesapokalypse hat in den vergangenen Jahren einen Paradigmenwechsel erfahren: während der Text lange Zeit als das Werk eines oder mehrerer Autoren angesehen wurde, die des Griechischen kaum mächtig waren und sich weit von der ursprünglichen Botschaft Jesu entfernt hatten, und während angebliche Brüche in der Konzeption immer wieder zu gewagten literarkritischen Hypothesen führten, kristallisiert sich heute mehr und mehr h…
Der Tag der Plagen
Die Johannesoffenbarung ist ein Text, in dem sehr viele Erzählfäden der Schriften Israels zusammenlaufen. Johannes formte aus Anspielungen auf Israels Traditionen einen Text sui generis. Der Text, den er auf diese Weise geschaffen hat, ist darüber hinaus nichts Geringeres als ein literaturarchitektonisches Meisterwerk, das auf einem regelrechten Arsenal aus Stichwort- und Motivverknüpfungen aufbaut. Michael Sommer entschlüsselt in der vorliegende…
Oikoymenh
Globalisation and the Roman World
This book explores a new perspective for understanding the Roman world, using connectivity as a major point of departure. Globalisation is apparent in increased flows of objects, people and ideas and in the creation of translocal consciousness in everyday life. Based on these criteria, there is a case for globalisation in the ancient Roman world. Essential for anyone interested in Romanisation, this volume provides the first sustained critical ex…
Scipio Aemilianus, Polybius, and the Quest for Friendship in Second-Century Rome1
Polybius' account of his friendship with Scipio Aemilianus has generated fierce controversy concerning whether or not there was a 'Scipionic circle'. Instead of the extreme positions which have characterized either side of this debate, Scipio is better seen as the product of a milieu where investment in the cultural capital offered by Greek paideia was an important means for generating prestige, though his friendship with Polybius should be seen …
Networks of Commerce and Knowledge in the Iron Age
The hierarchic structure of a network is mirrored by the different numbers of connections that the various vertices have. Though Greeks and Phoenicians each conformed to their own model of expansion, it is impossible to draw a neat division between a 'Phoenician' and a 'Greek' network. The open network of the Early Iron Age turned into a full-fledged world-system, focused exclusively on Tyre. The remarkable persistence-or, more accurately, reviva…
Networks of Commerce and Knowledge in the Iron Age
Regarding the Phoenicians' expansion in the Iron Age, controversy continues over chronology, areas affected, scale of migration, organization of trade, modes of interaction between Phoenician traders/colonists and the respective indigenous populations and means of maintaining contact and of transmitting information between ‘colonial’ settlements and the mother cities in the Levant. Critical problems arise from the textual evidence from the Phoeni…
The World of E-Government
INTRODUCTION * The World of E-Government * GOVERNANCE BY E-GOVERNMENT * SINGAPORE * E-Government in Action: Singapore Case Study * CANADA * The Dual Challenge of Integration and Inclusion: Canada's Experience with Government Online * AMERICA * Creating a Blueprint for E-Government * THE EUROPEAN UNION * eGovernment: An EU Perspective * NEW ZEALAND * E-Government in New Zealand * GERMANY * BundOnline 2005--The E-Government Initiative of the German…
Marx's non-speciesist concept of labour
Human-animal scholars have repeatedly accused Marx of standing in the tradition of a Cartesian human-animal dualism. One central piece of evidence brought forward to substantiate the attack is Marx's concept of labour. The present article, however, argues that Marx's conceptualisation of labour is actually non-speciesist and recognises non-waged and other than human forms of labour as well without renouncing qualitative distinctions between them.…
American E-Government at the Crossroads
This article reports analyses, findings, conclusions and implications about the first U.S. survey of Web sites of 223 major American cities with populations of 100,000 or more. The national survey sought to provide one of the most comprehensive reviews of, and current and future implications regarding, Web site uses by major cities as well as optimal uses by features and user benefits. It made concrete suggestions for future uses of governmental …
Fernerkennung als Mittel zur Bereitstellung von Planungsgrundlagen in der Dritten Welt
No abstract available
Die Rechtsordnung im nachrevolutionären Nicaragua
Quo Vadis, E-Government
American E-Government at the Crossroads
This article reports analyses, findings, conclusions and implications about the first U.S. survey of Web sites of 223 major American cities with populations of 100,000 or more. The national survey sought to provide one of the most comprehensive reviews of, and current and future implications regarding, Web site uses by major cities as well as optimal uses by features and user benefits. It made concrete suggestions for future uses of governmental …
The World of E-Government
INTRODUCTION * The World of E-Government * GOVERNANCE BY E-GOVERNMENT * SINGAPORE * E-Government in Action: Singapore Case Study * CANADA * The Dual Challenge of Integration and Inclusion: Canada's Experience with Government Online * AMERICA * Creating a Blueprint for E-Government * THE EUROPEAN UNION * eGovernment: An EU Perspective * NEW ZEALAND * E-Government in New Zealand * GERMANY * BundOnline 2005--The E-Government Initiative of the German…
Notes on the California E-Politics Campaign Trail
Is the Campaign Web Site Really “Dead”
The Chinese in space
This commentary piece explores the several ramifications of China's October 2003 successful manned space mission, when the People's Republic of China became the third nation, following the lead of the USA and the Soviet Union, to independently launch a manned space mission. While the achievement resulted in prestige and justifiable pride in China, the potential ‘dual use’ of space for military purposes remains speculative, and is of concern to Wa…
Hatra
Krieg - Gesellschaft - Institutionen
Die Herausgeber haben Untersuchungen aus der Altorientalistik, der Ägyptologie, der Alten Geschichte und der alttestamentlichen Wissenschaft versammelt, um die wechselseitigen Wirkungen und Abhängigkeiten von kriegerischem Handeln, gesellschaftlichen Strukturen und Institutionen darzustellen. Die Autoren beschreiben verschiedene Kriegskulturen im Spannungsfeld zwischen strategischem Kalkül, affektgesteuertem Handeln und institutionellen Rahmenbed…
Networks of Commerce and Knowledge in the Iron Age
Regarding the Phoenicians' expansion in the Iron Age, controversy continues over chronology, areas affected, scale of migration, organization of trade, modes of interaction between Phoenician traders/colonists and the respective indigenous populations and means of maintaining contact and of transmitting information between ‘colonial’ settlements and the mother cities in the Levant. Critical problems arise from the textual evidence from the Phoeni…
Why we will miss Ye, Teddy
In this commentary, written by senior commentator and presidential advisor Michael Sommer, who served all three Kennedy brothers, the author argues that the dying Senator Ted Kennedy has always truly fought for all Americans, has opponents but no enemies, that the world knows it, and that his liberalism is “the best American political philosophy” that America has. The author maintains that the Senator “represents the best that is in Americans, wh…
Obama
Empire of glory
The 'principate', the system of government created by Augustus for imperial Rome, has puzzled ancient historians since the days of Theodor Mommsen. Mommsen, whose ancient history classes Max Weber attended, modelled the principate as a political system sui generis, which was, constitutionally, the continuation of the Roman Republic, but in which the ruler was, essentially, an illegitimate military dictator. Instead of applying the doctrines of cl…
Herodian
Herodian (Herodianos, ca. 175–250 CE ) is the author of a History of the Empire since the death of Marcus , in eight books, covering the period from 180 to 238
Scipio Aemilianus, Polybius, and the Quest for Friendship in Second-Century Rome1
Polybius' account of his friendship with Scipio Aemilianus has generated fierce controversy concerning whether or not there was a 'Scipionic circle'. Instead of the extreme positions which have characterized either side of this debate, Scipio is better seen as the product of a milieu where investment in the cultural capital offered by Greek paideia was an important means for generating prestige, though his friendship with Polybius should be seen …
Networks of Commerce and Knowledge in the Iron Age
The hierarchic structure of a network is mirrored by the different numbers of connections that the various vertices have. Though Greeks and Phoenicians each conformed to their own model of expansion, it is impossible to draw a neat division between a 'Phoenician' and a 'Greek' network. The open network of the Early Iron Age turned into a full-fledged world-system, focused exclusively on Tyre. The remarkable persistence-or, more accurately, reviva…
Oikoymenh
Globalisation and the Roman World
This book explores a new perspective for understanding the Roman world, using connectivity as a major point of departure. Globalisation is apparent in increased flows of objects, people and ideas and in the creation of translocal consciousness in everyday life. Based on these criteria, there is a case for globalisation in the ancient Roman world. Essential for anyone interested in Romanisation, this volume provides the first sustained critical ex…
Poetik und Intertextualität der Johannesapokalypse
Die Erforschung der Johannesapokalypse hat in den vergangenen Jahren einen Paradigmenwechsel erfahren: während der Text lange Zeit als das Werk eines oder mehrerer Autoren angesehen wurde, die des Griechischen kaum mächtig waren und sich weit von der ursprünglichen Botschaft Jesu entfernt hatten, und während angebliche Brüche in der Konzeption immer wieder zu gewagten literarkritischen Hypothesen führten, kristallisiert sich heute mehr und mehr h…
Der Tag der Plagen
Die Johannesoffenbarung ist ein Text, in dem sehr viele Erzählfäden der Schriften Israels zusammenlaufen. Johannes formte aus Anspielungen auf Israels Traditionen einen Text sui generis. Der Text, den er auf diese Weise geschaffen hat, ist darüber hinaus nichts Geringeres als ein literaturarchitektonisches Meisterwerk, das auf einem regelrechten Arsenal aus Stichwort- und Motivverknüpfungen aufbaut. Michael Sommer entschlüsselt in der vorliegende…
Book of Seven Seals
Manuscript attestation, transmission, and discussions about value and orthodoxy of Revelation show that this text in the New Testament was treated as something peculiar. This collection of essays exemplifies this phenomenon from various perspectives.
Book of Seven Seals
The Book of Revelation is a peculiar text whose special status in early Christianity is manifested by its manuscript attestation, transmission, literary references and discussions among early Church writers. This special status forms the nucleus of these collected essays and is highlighted from various perspectives. Nowadays of course, the Apocalypse has become a treasure trove of famous motifs for artists, composers, poets and novelists. On the …
The Venice of the Sands
Ein Text aus Palästina? Gedanken zur einleitungswissenschaftlichen Verortung der Apokalypse des Abraham
Nearly all scholars focusing on the Apocalypse of Abraham agree that the text originated in Palestine. The reason for this is generally quite simple: on the one hand, the text refers directly to the destruction of the Second Temple, and on the other hand, its storyline has a very strong “Jewish” character. I question the plausibility of this argument. The literary treatment of Jerusalem, the use of Exodus motifs, as well as the role of the cult i…
Philosophy (16 works) · Political science (15 works) · History (14 works) · Art (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (8 works) · New Testament (8 works) · Theology (8 works) · Ancient history (7 works)