title: Russian occupation of Kharkiv Oblast

text: The community of Velykyi Burluk was captured by Russian forces sometime in March 2022. The Russians began a military occupation, and later set up a military-civilian administration. On 8 April 2022, Russian forces routed an 13-mile long convoy of armored cars and trucks through Velikyi Burluk. On 11 July 2022, the Russian-appointed military-civilian administration leader, Yevgeny Yunakov, was assassinated in a car bombing.


title: Russian occupation of Kharkiv Oblast

text: Occupation representative Vitaly Ganchev stated the village was shelled on 9 September and advised citizens to evacuate.


title: Russian occupation of Kharkiv Oblast

text: The town of Balakliia was initially captured by pro-Russian forces on 3 March 2022 during the early stages of the Russian invasion.


title: Russian occupation of Kharkiv Oblast

text: On 6 September 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine conducted a large counteroffensive in the Balakliia direction, liberating nearby settlements and suburbs including Verbivka, Nova Husarivka, and Bayrak.


title: Russian occupation of Kharkiv Oblast

text: By 8 September 2022, Ukrainian forces fully recaptured the city. Video footage was later released of Ukrainian soldiers flying the Ukrainian flag atop the District Administration Building, with the Russian flag laid on the ground.


title: Russian occupation of Kharkiv Oblast

text: By the evening of 8 September, Ukrainian forces had penetrated over 50 km into formerly occupied territory and were already on the outskirts of the road and rail hub of Kupiansk, potentially severing Russian a supply and communications line south to Izium.


title: Russian occupation of Kharkiv Oblast

text: Following the end of the Russian occupation on September 10, multiple bodies were discovered in the town of , reportedly killed by Russian troops during the early days of the war.


title: Image of God

text: The image of God (; ) is a concept and theological doctrine in Christianity, as well as in Judaism. This concept is a foundational aspect of Christian and Jewish understandings of human nature. It stems from the primary text in Genesis 1:27, which reads: "So God created man in his "own" image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." The exact meaning of the phrase has been debated for millennia.


title: Image of God

text: Following Jewish tradition, scholars such as Saadia Gaon and Philo argued that being made in the image of God does not mean that God possesses human-like features, but rather the reverse: that the statement is figurative language for God bestowing special honor unto humankind, which he did not confer unto the rest of creation.


title: Image of God

text: The history of interpretation of the image of God has included three common lines of understanding. The Substantive view locates the image of God in shared characteristics between God and humanity such as rationality or morality. A Relational understanding argues that the image is found in human relationships with God and each other. A Functional view interprets the image of God as a role or function whereby humans act on God’s behalf and serve to represent God in the created order. These three views are not strictly competitive and can each offer insight into how humankind resembles God.


title: Image of God

text: The doctrine of the image of God provides important grounding for the development of human rights and the dignity of each human life regardless of class, race, gender, or disability. The doctrine is also related to conversations about the human body.


title: Image of God

text: The phrase "image of God" is found in three passages in the Hebrew Bible, all in the Book of Genesis 1–11:


title: Image of God

text: In the Apocrypha or Deuterocanon, there are three passages that explicitly use "image" terminology to describe humanity.


title: Image of God

text: The New Testament reflects on Christ as the image of God and humans both as images of God and Christ.


title: Image of God

text: Theologians have examined the difference between the concepts of the "image of God" and the "likeness of God" in human nature. Origen for instance viewed the image of God as something given at creation, while the likeness of God as something bestowed upon a person at a later time.


title: Image of God

text: While "image and likeness" is a Hebraism in which an idea is reinforced using two different words, a view arose that "image and likeness" were separate; the image was the human's natural resemblance to God, the power of reason and will, while the likeness was a —a divine gift added to basic human nature. This likeness consisted of the moral qualities of God, whereas the image involved the natural attributes of God. When Adam fell, he lost the likeness, but the image remained fully intact. Humanity as humanity was still complete, but the good and holy being was spoiled. The image of God and the likeness are similar, but at the same time they are different. The image is just that, mankind is made in the image of God, whereas the likeness is a spiritual attribute of the moral qualities of God.


title: Image of God

text: However, the medieval distinction between the "image" and "likeness" of God has largely been abandoned by modern interpreters. According to C. John Collins, "Since about the time of the Reformation, scholars have recognized that this [image/likeness distinction] does not suit the text itself. First, there is no "and" joining "in our image" with "after our likeness." Second, in Genesis 1:27 we find simply "in God's image"; and finally, in Genesis 5:1 God made man "in the likeness of God." The best explanation for these data is to say that "in the image" and "after the likeness" refer to the same thing, with each clarifying the other."


title: Image of God

text: The primary biblical texts do not convey any specific ways in which the image of God is recognized in humanity. They do not speak about rationality, morality, emotions, free will, language, or any other similar statements. The words "image" and "likeness" simply carry the basic meaning that humans are like God and represent God. "Such an explanation is unnecessary, not only because the terms had clear meanings, but also because no such list could do justice to the subject: the text only needs to affirm that man is like God, and the rest of Scripture fills in more details to explain this." The various ways in which this is explored are found below in the discussions about substantive, relational, and functional understandings of the image of God.


title: Image of God

text: Early Christians recognized that the image of God was corrupted by sin. The Genesis 9 text, however, confirms that the image of God is not destroyed by sin, for the image remains in humanity after the fall and flood. Without compromising a commitment to the dignity of humanity as made in the image of God, the biblical texts point to the idea that the image of God can be developed and matured.


title: Image of God

text: In Genesis 5, the image of God in humanity is correlated with the image of Adam in his son Seth. Commentators have reflected that the son better reflects the father as he matures and that while there may be physical comparisons there is also a resemblance in character traits. "The biblical text, by offering us this explanation, gives us the key that while we are all in the image of God, we likewise have the capacity to become more and more in the image of God; that is, we were created with the potential to mirror divine attributes." This lines up with several of the New Testament texts which refer to "being renewed in knowledge" and "being conformed to the image". The idea is that through spiritual growth and understanding one can mature spiritually and become more like God and represent him better to others.


title: Image of God

text: Humans differ from all other creatures because of the self-reflective, rational nature of human thought processes – their capacity for abstract, symbolic as well as concrete deliberation and decision-making. This capacity gives the human the possibility for self-actualization and participation in a sacred reality (cf. Acts 17:28). However, the creator granted the first true humans the free will necessary to reject a relationship with the creator that manifested itself in estrangement from God, as the narrative of the fall (Adam and Eve) exemplifies, thereby rejecting or repressing their spiritual and moral likeness to God. The ability and desire to love one's self and others, and therefore God, can become neglected and even opposed. The desire to repair the in one's life can be seen as a quest for wholeness, or one's "essential" self, as described and exemplified in Christ's life and teachings. According to Christian doctrine, Jesus acted to repair the relationship with the Creator and freely offers the resulting reconciliation as a gift.


title: Image of God

text: A uniquely Christian perspective on the image of God is that Jesus Christ is the fullest and most complete example of a human in God's image. Hebrews 1 refers to him as "the very image of his substance" and Colossians reveals Jesus as "the image of the invisible God". This is relevant to Christology which is beyond the scope of this article. Christians however would look to the teachings and example of Jesus to guide their spiritual maturity and conformity to the image of God.


title: Image of God

text: Scholars still debate the extent to which external cultures influenced the Old Testament writers and their ideas. Mesopotamian epics contain similar elements in their own stories, such as the resting of the deity after creation. Many Mesopotamian religions at the time contained anthropomorphic conceptions of their deities, and some scholars have seen this in Genesis's use of the word "image." John Walton notes, however "the practice of kings setting up images of themselves in places where they want to establish their authority. Other than that, it is only other gods who are made in the image of gods. Thus, their traditions speak of sons being in the image of their fathers19 but not of human beings created in the image of God.


title: Image of God

text: The Biblical texts sketch some moral implications of the image of God in humanity. The Genesis 9 passage links the image of God to the rationale for prohibiting and punishing murder. The James 3 passage also points out that the tongue which is made by God should not curse that which God has made in his image.


title: Image of God

text: To assert that humans are created in the image of God may mean to recognize some special qualities of human nature which allow God to be made manifest in humans. For humans to have a conscious recognition of having been made in the image of God may mean that they are aware of being that part of the creation through whom God's plans and purposes best can be expressed and actualized; humans, in this way, can interact creatively with the rest of creation. The moral implications of the doctrine of "Imago dei" are apparent in the fact that, if humans are to love God, then humans must love other humans whom God has created (cf. John 13:35), as each is an expression of God. The human likeness to God can also be understood by contrasting it with that which does not image God, i.e., beings who, as far as we know, are without this spiritual self-awareness and the capacity for spiritual / moral reflection and growth.


title: Image of God

text: In Christian theology there are three common ways of understanding the manner in which humans exist in "imago dei": Substantive, Relational and Functional.


title: Image of God

text: The substantive view locates the image of God within the psychological or spiritual makeup of the human being. This view holds that there are similarities between humanity and God, thus emphasizing characteristics that are of shared substance between both parties. Some proponents of the substantive view uphold that the rational soul mirrors the divine. According to this mirroring, humanity is shaped like the way in which a sculpture or painting is in the image of the artist doing the sculpting or painting. While the substantive view locates the image of God in a characteristic or capacity unique to humanity, such as reason or will, the image may also be found in humanity's capacity to have a relationship with the divine. Unlike the relational view, humanity's capacity to have a relationship with the divine still locates the image of God in a characteristic or capacity that is unique to humanity and not the relationship itself. The substantive view, however, need not focus on a single specific way in which humanity is like God. It can apply to every way in which humanity is like God, just as Seth could be like his father Adam in multiple ways What is important is that the substantive view sees the image of God as present in humanity whether or not an individual person acknowledges the reality of the image.


title: Image of God

text: The substantive view of the image of God has held particular historical precedence over the development of Christian Theology particularly among early Patristic Theologians (see Patristics), like Irenaeus and Augustine, and Medieval Theologians, like Aquinas. Irenaeus believes that the essential nature of humanity was not lost or corrupted by the fall, but the fulfillment of humanity's creation, namely freedom and life, was to be delayed until "the filling out the time of [Adam's] punishment." Humankind before the fall) was in the image of God through the ability to exercise free will and reason. And we were in the likeness of God through an original spiritual endowment.


title: Image of God

text: While Irenaeus represents an early assertion of the substantive view of the image of God, the specific understanding of the essence of the image of God is explained in great detail by Augustine, a fifth century theologian who describes a Trinitarian formula in the image of God. Augustine's Trinitarian structural definition of the image of God includes memory, intellect, and will. According to Augustine, "will […] unites those things which are held in the memory with those things which are thence impressed on the mind's eye in conception." The influence of Greco-Roman philosophy, particularly Neo-Platonic, is evident in Augustine's assertion that the human mind was the location of humanity, and thus the location of the image of God. Augustine believed that, since humanity reflects the nature of God, humanity must also reflect the Triune nature of God. Augustine's descriptions of memory, intellect, and will held a dominant theological foothold for a number of centuries in the development of Christian Theology.


title: Image of God

text: Medieval theologians also made a distinction between the image and likeness of God. The former referred to a natural, innate resemblance to God and the latter referred to the moral attributes (God's attributes) that were lost in the fall.


title: Image of God

text: Aquinas, a medieval theologian writing almost 700 years after Augustine, builds on the Trinitarian structure of Augustine but takes the Trinitarian image of God to a different end. Like Irenaeus and Augustine, Aquinas locates the image of God in humanity's intellectual nature or reason, but Aquinas believes that the image of God is in humanity in three ways. First, which all humanity possess, the image of God is present in humanity's capacity for understanding and loving God, second, which only those who are justified possess, the image is present when humanity actually knows and loves God imperfectly, and thirdly, which only the blessed possess, the image is present when humanity knows and loves God perfectly. Aquinas, unlike Augustine, sees the image of God as present in humanity, but it is only through humanity's response to the image of God that the image is fully present and realized in humanity. Medieval scholars suggested that the holiness (or "wholeness") of humankind was lost after the fall, although free will and reason remained. John Calvin and Martin Luther agreed that something of the "imago dei" was lost at the fall but that fragments of it remained in some form or another, as Luther's Large Catechism article 114 states, "Man lost the image of God when he fell into sin."


title: Image of God

text: The substantive view can also be seen in the jewish scholar Maimonides who argues that it is consciousness and the ability to speak which is the "image of God;" both faculties which differentiate mankind from animals, and allow man to grasp abstract concepts and ideas that are not merely instinctual.


title: Image of God

text: Furthermore, rabbinic Midrash focuses on the function of image of God in kingship language. While a monarch is cast in the image or likeness of God to differentiate him ontologically from other mortals, Torah's B'reishit portrays the image as democratic: every human is cast in God's image and likeness. This leveling effectively embraces the substantive view and likens humankind to the earthly presence of God. Yet this immanent presence enjoys the ambiguity of midrashim; it is never outrightly characterized as "Godlike," as in ontologically equivalent to God, or merely "Godly," as in striving towards ontological equivalency.


title: Image of God

text: The rabbinic substantive view does not operate out of the framework of original sin. In fact, the account of Adam and Eve disobeying God's mandate is neither expressly rendered as "sin" in B'reishit, nor anywhere else in Torah for that matter. It is instead likened to a "painful but necessary graduation from the innocence of childhood to the problem-laden world of living as morally responsible adults." That God fashions garments for Adam and Eve out of skins (Gen 3:21), is cited as proof of God's quickly fading anger. Midrashim, however, finds common ground with the Thomist view of humanity's response to the image of God in the stories of Cain and Abel filtered through the, "Book of Genealogies" (Gen 5:1-6:8). Insofar as the image and likeness of God is transmitted through the act of procreation, Cain and Abel provide examples of what constitutes adequate and inadequate response to the image, and how that image either becomes fully actualized or utterly forsaken. The murder of Cain is cast as preempting the perpetuation of the image through Abel's potential descendants. This idea may be likened to the Christian idea of "original sin" in that one's transgression is seen to have grave unintended, or unforeseen, repercussions. Midrashim interprets Gen 4:10 as Abel's blood crying out not only to God, but also "against" Cain, which lays the onus squarely on Adam's firstborn.


title: Image of God

text: The relational view argues that one must be in a relationship with God in order to possess the 'image' of God. Those who hold to the relational image agree that humankind possess the ability to reason as a substantive trait, but they argue that it is in a relationship with God that the true image is made evident. Later theologians like Karl Barth and Emil Brunner argue that it is our ability to establish and maintain complex and intricate relationships that make us like God. For example, in humans the created order of male and female is intended to culminate in spiritual as well as physical unions , reflecting the nature and image of God. Since other creatures do not form such explicitly referential spiritual relationships, these theologians see this ability as uniquely representing the "imago dei" in humans.


title: Image of God

text: For Severian of Gabala (AD 425) the Image of God does not refer to any human nature (corporeal and spiritual), but the relationship with God.


title: Image of God

text: "From this we learn that man is not the image of God because of his soul from him or because of his body from him. If that were the case, woman would be the image of God in exactly the same way as man, because she too has a soul and a body. What we are talking about here is not nature but a relationship. For just as God has nobody over him in all creation, so man has no one over him in the natural world. But a woman does she has man over her".


title: Image of God

text: In the Modern Era, the Image of God was often related to the concept of "freedom" or "free will" and also relationality. Emil Brunner, a twentieth century Swiss Reformed theologian, wrote that "the formal aspect of human nature, as beings 'made in the image of God", denotes being as Subject, or freedom; it is this which differentiates humanity from the lower creation." He also sees the relationship between God and humanity as a defining part of what it means to be made in God's image.


title: Image of God

text: Paul Ricoeur, a twentieth century French philosopher best known for combining phenomenological description with hermeneutics, argued that there is no defined meaning of the "imago dei", or at the very least the author of Genesis 1 "certainly did not master at once all its implicit wealth of meaning." He went on to say that "In the very essence of the individual, in terms of its quality as a subject; the image of God, we believe, is the very personal and solitary power to think and to choose; it is interiority." He eventually concluded that the Image of God is best summed up as free will.


title: Image of God

text: The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" states, " It is in Christ, "the image of the invisible God," that man has been created "in the image and likeness" of the Creator. Pope Benedict XVI wrote regarding "imago dei", "Its nature as an image has to do with the fact that it goes beyond itself and manifests .…the dynamic that sets the human being in motion towards the totally Other. Hence it means the capacity for relationship; it is the human capacity for God."


title: Image of God

text: The functional view interprets the image of God as a role in the created order, where humankind is a king or ruler over creation/the earth. This view, held by most modern Old Testament/Hebrew Bible scholars, developed with the rise of modern Biblical scholarship and is based on comparative Ancient Near Eastern studies. Archaeology discovered many texts where specific kings are exalted as "images" of their respective deities and rule based on divine mandate. There is some evidence that "imago dei" language appeared in many Mesopotamian and Near Eastern cultures where kings were often labeled as images of certain gods or deities and thus, retained certain abilities and responsibilities, such as leading certain cults. The functional approach states that Genesis 1 uses that common idea, but the role is broadened to all humanity who reflect the image through ruling the created order, specifically land and sea animals, according to the pattern of God who rules over the entire universe.


title: Image of God

text: Reformation theologians, like Martin Luther, focused their reflections on the dominant role mankind had over all creation in the Garden of Eden before the fall of man. The "imago dei", according to Luther, was the perfect existence of man and woman in


title: Image of God

text: dominion over all created things in perpetuity. Luther breaks with Augustine of Hippo's widely accepted understanding that the image of God in man is internal; it is displayed in the trinity of the memory, intellect and will.


title: Image of God

text: The twentieth and early twenty-first centuries saw the image of God being applied to various causes and ideas including ecology, disabilities, gender, and post/transhumanism. Often these were reactions against prevailing understandings of the "imago dei", or situations in which the Biblical text was being misused in the opinion of some. While some would argue this is appropriate, J. Richard Middleton argued for a reassessment of the Biblical sources to better understand the original meaning before taking it out of context and applying it. Instead of various extra-biblical interpretations, he pushed for a royal-functional understanding, in which "the imago Dei designates the royal office or calling of human beings as God's representatives or agents in the world."


title: Image of God

text: With the rise of contemporary ecological concerns the functional interpretation of the image of God has grown in popularity. Some modern theologians are arguing for proper religious care of the earth based on the functional interpretation of the image of god as caregiver over created order. Thus, exerting dominion over creation is an imperative for responsible ecological action.


title: Image of God

text: One of the critique of the functional interpretation of the "imago dei" is that some formulations might convey a negative message that it conveys about persons with disabilities. Within the functional view, it is often thought that disabilities which interfere with one's capacity to "rule," whether physical, intellectual, or psychological, are a distortion of the image of God. This formulation of the functional view isolates and excludes those with disabilities, and some theologians even use it to go so far as to state that animals more fully display the Image of God than people with profound disabilities. At the same time, however, the substantive view has been criticized for exactly this issue.


title: Image of God

text: Glen Stassen argues that both the concept and the term human rights originated more than a half-century before the Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke. "Imago dei" in reference to religious liberty of all persons was used by the free churches (Dissenters) at the time of the Puritan Revolution as an affirmation of the religious liberty of all persons. The concept was based not only on natural reason but also on the Christian struggle for liberty, justice, and peace for all. The background of this struggle lay in the time of the English Revolution. The king had been alienating many Christians by favoring some churches over others.


title: Image of God

text: According to the scholar of Puritan literature William Haller, "the task of turning the statement of the law of nature into ringing declaration of the rights of man fell to Richard Overton." Richard Overton was a founding member of the Leveller movement that first argued for human rights as belonging to all human persons. One of the themes that foreshadowed Richard Overton's reason for giving voice to human rights, especially the demand for separation of church and state, is implicitly connected to the concept of the image of God. This was expressed in the "Confession of Faith" (1612) by the Puritan group living in Amsterdam. "That as God created all men according to his image [...]. That the magistrate is not to force or compel men to this or that form of religion, or doctrine but to leave Christian religion free, to every man's conscience [...]."


title: Image of God

text: Reformed theologian Jürgen Moltmann proposed an ecumenical basis for a concept of human rights using "imago dei "for the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in 1970. Moltmann understands humans as in a process of restoration toward the original "imago Dei "given" "in creation. Human rights entail whatever humans need in order to best act as God's divine representatives in the world. All human beings are created in God's image, rather than only a ruler or a king. Any concept of human rights will therefore include: first, democratic relationships when humans rule others, cooperation and fellowship with other humans, cooperation with the environment, and the responsibility for future generations of humans created in God's image.


title: Image of God

text: Judaism holds the essential dignity of every human. One of the factors upon which this is based is an appeal to "imago dei":"the astonishing assertion that God created human beings in God's own 'image.'" This insight, according to Rabbi David Wolpe, is "Judaism's greatest gift to the world." In the Midrash Mekhilta D'Rabi Ishmael, the First of the Ten Commandments is held in parallel with the Sixth Commandment: "I am the LORD your God," and "Do not murder." Harming a human is likened to attacking God.


title: Image of God

text: Interpretation of the relationship between the "imago dei" and the physical body has undergone considerable change throughout the history of Jewish and Christian interpretation.


title: Image of God

text: Old Testament scholars acknowledge that the Hebrew word for "image" in Genesis 1 ("selem") often refers to an idol or physical image. While the physicality of the image may be of prime importance, because Ancient Israelites did not separate between the physical and spiritual within the person, it is appropriate to think of "selem" as originally incorporating both physical and spiritual components. Modern Christian commentators generally argue that the image of God is not related to physical appearance. John Walton writes "The Hebrew word selem (“image”) is a representative in physical form, not a representation of the physical appearance."


title: Image of God

text: The Apostle Paul at times displays both an appreciation for and a denial of the physical body as the image of God. An example of the importance of the physical body and the imago dei can be found in 2 Corinthians 4:4, in which Paul claims that Jesus Christ, in his entire being, is the image of God. Paul states that in proclaiming Jesus, the renewal of the image of God is experienced, not just eschatologically but also physically (cf. vv 10-12,16). In 2 Corinthians 4:10, Paul states that Christians are "always carrying the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies." However, in v. 16 he states that though the external body is "wasting away," the inner being is renewed each day. In sum, for Paul it seems that being restored in Christ and inheriting the Image of God leads to an actual corporeal change. As one changes internally, so too does one's body change. Thus, the change affected by Jesus envelopes one's entire being, including one's body.


title: Image of God

text: Many theologians from the patristic period to the present have relied heavily on an Aristotelian structure of the human as an inherently "rational animal," set apart from other beings. This view was combined with Pre-Socratic notions of the "divine spark" of reason. Reason was thought to be equated with immortality, and the body with mortality. J. R. Middleton contends that Christian theologians have historically relied more on extra-biblical philosophical and theological sources than the Genesis text itself. This led to an exclusion of the body and a more dualistic understanding of the image found in dominant Christian theology.


title: Image of God

text: 2 Enoch details how humans are made in God's image—namely, as representations of God's "own face." Although it can be argued the reference to God's "own face" is a metaphor for God's likeness, the passage carries the usage of "face" forward by emphasizing what is done to the physical human face is, in turn, done to the face of LORD—and, as is important for this writer, when one damages the face of another human being created in the very exact image of God's face, one damages God's face and will incur the expected consequences of such an offense.


title: Image of God

text: Irenaeus was unique for his time in that he places a great deal of emphasis on the physicality of the body and the image of God. In his "Against Heresies", he writes "For by the hands of the Father, that is by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not a part of man, was made in the likeness of God." For Irenaeus, our actual physical body is evident of the image of God. Further, because the Son is modeled after the Father, humans are likewise modeled after the Son and therefore bear a physical likeness to the Son. This implies that humans' likeness to God is revealed through embodied acts. Humans do not currently just exist in the pure image of God, because of the reality of sin. Irenaeus claims that one must "grow into" the likeness of God. This is done through knowingly and willingly acting through one's body. Because of sin, humans still require the Son's salvation, who is in the perfect image of God. Because we are physical beings, our understanding of the fullness of the image of God did not become realized until the Son took physical form. Further, it is through the Son's physicality that he is able to properly instruct us on how to live and grow into the full image of God. Jesus, in becoming physically human, dying a human death, and then physically resurrected, "recapitulated," or fully revealed, what it means to be in the Image of God and therefore bears the full restoration of our being in God's image. By so doing, Jesus becomes the new Adam and through the Holy Spirit restores the human race into its fullness.


title: Image of God

text: Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, a small population of theologians and church leaders have emphasized a need to return to early monastic spirituality. Thomas Merton, Parker Palmer, Henri Nouwen, and Barbara Brown Taylor, among others, draw from aspects of mystical theology, central to the Christian desert ascetics, in order to provide theological frameworks which positively view the physical body and the natural world. For early mystics, the "imago dei" included the physical body as well as the whole of creation. Upon seeing a void in the development of Western theology, modern writers have begun drawing upon works of third century monks the desert mothers and fathers, as well as various gnostic systems, providing a more comprehensive view of the body in early Christian thought and reasons why modern theology should account for them.


title: Image of God

text: Similarly, feminist thinkers have drawn attention to the alienation of the female experience in Christian thought. For two millennia, the female body has only been recognized as a means to separate women from men and to categorize the female body as inferior and the masculine as normative. In an attempt to eliminate such prejudice, feminist scholars have argued that the body is critical for self-understanding and relating to the world. Furthermore, bodily phenomena typically associated with sin and taboo (e.g. menstruation), have been redeemed as essential pieces of the female experience relatable to spirituality. Feminism attempts to make meaning out of the entire bodily experience of humanity, not just females, and to reconcile historical prejudices by relating to God through other frameworks.


title: Image of God

text: The understanding of "imago dei" has come under new scrutiny when held up against the movement of transhumanism which seeks to transform the human through technological means. Such transformation is achieved through pharmacological enhancement, genetic manipulation, nanotechnology, cybernetics, and computer simulation. Transhumanist thought is grounded in optimistic Enlightenment ideals which look forward to the Technological Singularity, a point at which humans engineer the next phase of human evolutionary development.


title: Image of God

text: Transhumanism's assertion that the human being exist within the evolutionary processes and that humans should use their technological capabilities to intentionally accelerate these processes is an affront to some conceptions of "imago dei" within Christian tradition. In response, these traditions have erected boundaries in order to establish the appropriate use of trashumanisic technologies using the distinction between therapeutic and enhancement technologies. Therapeutic uses of technology such as cochlear implants, prosthetic limbs, and psychotropic drugs have become commonly accepted in religious circles as means of addressing human frailty. Nevertheless, these acceptable technologies can also be used to elevate human ability. Further, they correct the human form according to a constructed sense of normalcy. Thus the distinction between therapy and enhancement is ultimately questionable when addressing ethical dilemmas.


title: Image of God

text: Human enhancement has come under heavy criticism from Christians; especially the Vatican which condemned enhancement as "radically immoral" stating that humans do not have full right over their biological form. Christians concerns of humans "playing God" are ultimately accusations of hubris, a criticism that pride leads to moral folly, and a theme which has been interpreted from the Genesis accounts of Adam and Eve and the Tower of Babel. In these stories, God was in no real danger of losing power; however, Patrick D. Hopkins has argued that, in light of technological advancement, the hubris critique is changing into a Promethean critique. According to Hopkins, "In Greek myth, when Prometheus stole fire, he actually stole something. He stole a power that previously only the gods had."


title: Image of God

text: Within progressive circles of Christian tradition transhumanism has not presented a threat but a positive challenge. Some theologians, such as Philip Hefner and Stephen Garner, have seen the transhumanist movement as a vehicle by which to re-imagine the "imago dei". Many of these theologians follow in the footsteps of Donna Haraway's "Cyborg Manifesto." The manifesto explores the hybridity of the human condition through the metaphor of the cyborg. While the biological flesh/machine cyborg of pop culture is not a literal reality, Haraway uses this fictional metaphor to highlight the way that "all people within a technological society are cyborgs."


title: Image of God

text: Building off of Haraway's thesis, Stephen Garner engages the apprehensive responses to the metaphor of the cyborg among popular culture. For Garner, these "narratives of apprehension" found in popular movies and television are produced by "conflicting ontologies of the person." The cyborg represents a crossing and blurring of boundaries that challenges preconceived notions of personal identity. Therefore, it is understandable that a person's first reaction to the image of a cyborg would be apprehension. For Garner, the wider scope of Haraway's "cultural cyborg" can be characterized by the term "hybridity." According to Elaine Graham, hybridity does not only problematize traditional conception of human as the image of God, but also makes terms like "natural" problematic. There is no longer a clear line between the old dualities of human/machine, human/environment, and technology/environment.


title: Image of God

text: Brenda Brasher thinks that this revelation of the hybridity of human nature present insurmountable problems for scriptural based theological metaphors bound in "pastoral and agrarian imagery." Garner, however sees a multitude of metaphors within Christian tradition and scripture that already speak to this reality. He says, that in the three major areas of hybridity in Christianity are eschatology, Christology, and theological anthropology. In eschatology Christians are called to be both in the world but not of the world. In Christology Jesus Christ is a cyborg with his divine/human natures. Finally, in theological anthropology the hybridity of human nature is seen in the concept of the imago of God itself. Humans are both formed "from the dust," and stamped with the divine image.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile is a 2006 American sex comedy film released by Universal Pictures. It is the second installment in the "American Pie Presents" film series, a spin-off of the "American Pie" franchise. John White stars as Erik Stifler, a high school senior given a hall pass from his girlfriend (Jessy Schram) who visits his cousin (Steve Talley) to run a mile naked. Christopher McDonald co-stars as Erik's father and Eugene Levy plays family friend Noah Levenstein. It was followed by "" (2007).


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: "The Naked Mile" was released direct-to-DVD internationally on December 12, 2006, and in the United States on December 19, 2006. The film was a financial success, generating US$27.46 million in United States sales.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: Erik Stifler, Steve and Matt Stifler's cousin, fails to live up to the family name as he is about to graduate from high school a virgin. As the film opens, Erik feigns an illness so that he can stay home and masturbate. His parents and grandmother unexpectedly walk in and are hit with Erik's semen, causing his grandmother to die of a heart attack.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: Erik's girlfriend of two years, Tracy, loves him but is not ready for sex. She suddenly decides she's now ready, inviting Erik to her house later to have sex for the first time. They are interrupted when her father comes downstairs for a nightcap. Before Tracy's father can catch him, a naked Erik flees from the dryer, in which he defecated while hiding there.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: Erik's friends Cooze and Ryan plan a road trip to visit Erik's cousin Dwight Stifler at the University of Michigan for an event known as the Naked Mile. Tracy sees this as an opportunity to give Erik a sex pass, hoping that he can quench his lustful desires.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: As soon as Erik and his friends arrive on campus, they witness a drinking contest where Dwight is crowned champion. Later, they lose a rough game of football against a bitter rival fraternity composed almost entirely of midgets. Later at a bar, Erik meets a college girl named Brandi who has a fetish for virgins, prompting Ryan and Cooze to make a bet regarding whether or not Erik will sleep with her.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: The following morning, Dwight gets attacked by the midget fraternity while walking down the street, landing him in the hospital. However, he manages to make it to the Naked Mile where he joins up with Erik, Ryan, and Cooze. At first they are reluctant to run, but when Brandi, Jill, and Alexis strip down stark naked, they are finally prompted to strip down as well. Finally as Erik and Brandi reach the finish line, they share a kiss which is caught on camera for a TV news report. Watching the report about the Naked Mile at home, Tracy is upset and feels guilty that she allowed Erik the pass. Her friends convince her to also lose her virginity before he gets back.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: Later that evening, Erik realizes that he loves Tracy, so confesses to Brandi that he cannot sleep with her, and rushes back to see his girlfriend. When he gets to her house, Tracy's dad says she is at a party. Erik rides her horse to the party, pounds on the closed bedroom door and proclaims his love for her. However, Tracy is not in the room because she had decided that she could not go through with her plans. They reconcile and have sex.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: When Erik returns to the Beta house to pick up his friends the next morning, each guy shares stories of his sexual experiences from the night before. The guys then ask him if he "sealed the deal" with Brandi that night, and when Erik tells them no, Ryan pays up on the bet to Cooze. Erik tells them about his adventure back home to make up with Tracy and finally lose his virginity. The guys are proud of him for officially living up to the Stifler family name, and the three friends go home.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: During the post-Naked Mile party, Dwight spots Vicky, the girlfriend of the leader of the midget fraternity, Rock. She heads up to Dwight's room to have sex. Later, as the film closes, Dwight sends a DVD to Rock that reads, "Payback's a bitch." It reveals Dwight and Vicky having sex to Rock's dismay.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: "The Naked Mile" of the title refers to a real event that was carried out annually by students of the University of Michigan that ran in earnest beginning in 1985 and ending in 2000 although smaller groups ran through 2004. The participants, mostly senior students, would run or bike a pre-designed course through campus while partially or entirely naked to celebrate the last day of class. The city began the "Naked Mile" crackdown in 2000 after the University began issuing threats to students who ran and arresting some for indecent exposure. Participation in the event was also affected as a result of it attracting amateur videographers who sold videos of the event online.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: Parts were filmed at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and at the St. George campus of the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario. The Naked Mile itself was filmed at Victoria College, a federated college within the University of Toronto. Other parts were filmed at Port Credit Secondary School in Mississauga, Ontario.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: The DVD was released on December 19, 2006 in the USA. In the opening weekend, 478,336 units were sold, generating revenue of $9,561,937. As of April 2010, over 3,000,000 have been sold translating to estimate amount of $30,000,000 in revenue. The Region 2 DVD was released in the UK on December 4, 2006 in PAL Widescreen and has been certified 15 by the BBFC with the following viewer guidance; Contains strong language, moderate sex and sex references. The movie was passed without any cuts.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: The Region 1 DVD was released December 19, 2006 in Fullscreen R-Rated, Fullscreen Unrated, and Widescreen Unrated versions. All feature Dolby Digital 5.1 audio in English, French, and Spanish. Extras include deleted and extended scenes, outtakes, and a full-length feature commentary featuring the director, writer and cast members. The unrated DVD also contains two bonus features.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: After the commercial success of the direct-to-DVD production "", Universal Studios Home Entertainment decided to produce another sequel to the "American Pie" film. "American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile" was released direct-to-video on December 19, 2006. The film was a financial success, generating US$27.41 million in DVD sales domestically.


title: American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 0% approval rating based on 5 reviews, and an average rating of 3.2/10. Tanner Stransky of "Entertainment Weekly" graded the film with a "C" and wrote "although predictable, the opening stays on par with Jason Biggs’ original jaw-dropper. The rest is pretty deadly." Film critic Christopher Null wrote "I never thought I'd believe that the characters in "American Pie" were rich and nuanced, but compared to the disjointed, half-written affair here, they may as well be from Shakespeare." "IGN"s Chris Carle gave the film 3/10, writing that it's "a smorgasbord of gross-out humor, shallow laughs and bigotry." Steve Weintraub of Collider wrote "there is something to be said about comedic timing and pacing to even the most basic form of cinematic genres, neither of which this [film] grasps at all." Common Sense Media's Heather Boerner gave the film 2/5, writing that it's "another raunchy race toward the first time." Writing in DVD Talk, Scott Weinberg criticised the acting, directing and screenplay, declaring that ""The Naked Mile" is one of the lamest, laziest and most shockingly amateurish comedies I've ever seen". Sloan Freer of "The Radio Times" gave the film 2/5, writing that "even fans of teen sex comedies will find the verbal gags repetitive, predictable and often plain unfunny, while the visual jokes are dragged out to tedious levels." DVD Verdict's Eric Profancik, in his positive review, found the film was "filled with a firm, rowdy, and lascivious wit that made you smirk with its aggressive antics", in particular praising the opening scene as "stunning". Peter Hammond of "Maxim" describes "The Naked Mile" as "hilarious, sexy fun... goes where no "American Pie" has gone before," writing that it "goes the extra mile for laughs and gets them".


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The Human Torch, also known as Jim Hammond (originally, Hamond), is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-artist Carl Burgos, he first appeared in "Marvel Comics" #1 (Oct. 1939), published by Marvel's predecessor, Timely Comics.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The "Human" Torch was actually an android created by scientist Phineas Horton. He possessed the ability to surround himself with fire and control flames. In his earliest appearances, he was portrayed as a science fiction monstrosity, but quickly became a hero and adopted a secret identity as a police officer for the New York City Police Department.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The Human Torch was one of Timely Comics' three signature characters, along with Captain America and Namor the Sub-Mariner. Like many superheroes, the Human Torch fell into obscurity by the 1950s. In 1961, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby repurposed his name and powers for a new character, Johnny Storm, a member of the Fantastic Four (who was actually a human mutate). Unlike Captain America and the Sub-Mariner, the original Human Torch has had only a small presence in the post-1950s Marvel comic books and is closely associated with the Golden Age.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: Following his debut in the hit "Marvel Comics" #1, the Human Torch proved popular enough that he soon became one of the first superheroes to headline a solo title. Through the 1940s, the Torch starred or was featured in "Marvel Mystery Comics" (the book's title beginning with issue #2), "The Human Torch" (premiering with issue #2, Fall 1940, having taken over the numbering of the defunct "Red Raven Comics"), and "Captain America Comics" #19, 21–67, 69, 76–77, as well as appearing in several issues of "All Select Comics", "All Winners Comics", and "Young Allies Comics".


title: Human Torch (android)

text: Seeing a natural "fire and water" theme, Timely was responsible for comic books' first major crossover, with a two-issue battle between the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner that spanned "Marvel Mystery Comics" #8–9—telling the same story from the two characters' different perspectives.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: "Marvel Mystery Comics" ended its run with #92 (June 1949), and "The Human Torch" with #35 (March 1949), as superheroes in general had faded in popularity. Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman—who by the early 1950s had transitioned the company to its next iteration, as Atlas Comics—attempted to revive superheroes with the anthology comic "Young Men" #24–28 (Dec. 1953 – June 1954), starring the Human Torch (art by Syd Shores and Dick Ayers, variously, with covers and initially some panels featuring the Torch redrawn by Burgos for style consistency), along with the Sub-Mariner and Captain America. The solo title "The Human Torch" returned for issues #36–38 (April–Aug. 1954) before again being canceled. The Torch also appeared in stories in the briefly revived "Captain America Comics" and "Sub-Mariner Comics", and in the anthology "Men's Adventures" #28 (July 1954).


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The original Human Torch debuted in present-day Marvel Comics continuity in "Fantastic Four Annual" #4 (Nov. 1966).


title: Human Torch (android)

text: Human Torch appeared as a regular character in the 2010–2013 "Secret Avengers" series, from issue #23 (April 2012) through its final issue #37 (March 2013).


title: Human Torch (android)

text: Starting in 2014, the Human Torch began appearing as a main character in the Marvel NOW! relaunch of "The Invaders".


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The Human Torch was a humanoid android created by Professor Phineas T. Horton in his lab in Brooklyn, New York for "scientific" purposes. At a press-conference unveiling, however, Horton's creation burst into flames when exposed to oxygen. The android showed human-like sentience, personality, and awareness, but the spectators feared that he posed a safety threat. Public outcry led to the Torch being sealed in concrete, though he escaped due to a crack that let oxygen seep in. The Torch then inadvertently caused parts of New York City to burn and, after dealing with a mobster who wanted to gain advantage of his abilities for fire insurance (and accidentally causing the mobster's death in an explosion), he eventually learned to control his flame, rebelled against his creator, and vowed to help humanity.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: He would join other heroes as war broke out in Europe, and later in the Pacific, to fight the Axis powers. In his solo title's debut issue, he acquired a young partner, Thomas "Toro" Raymond, the mutant son of two nuclear scientists whose exposure to radiation gave him the ability to control fire. The Human Torch also joined the New York City police force as part of his "human cover" under the name James "Jim" Hammond. He would later drop the human name and serve the police force outright as the Human Torch, fighting villains and his off-and-on foe, the Sub-Mariner.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: Both the Torch and the Sub-Mariner joined with Captain America and his partner Bucky as the core of the superhero team the Invaders, fighting Nazis during World War II (in retcon stories that premiered in 1970s comics). With the Invaders, he was soon brainwashed by the Red Skull and battled the Liberty Legion. He later gave a blood transfusion to Jacqueline Falsworth, giving her superhuman powers to become Spitfire.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The Torch, the Sub-Mariner, Captain America, and Bucky banded together with the Whizzer, and Miss America in post-war America in a subsequent super-team, the All-Winners Squad (the original Captain America and Bucky's membership were later retconned as having been the second Captain America and Bucky). In Marvel continuity, the Human Torch was responsible for the death of Adolf Hitler. When the Russians were invading Berlin, the Torch and Toro broke into Hitler's bunker just as he was about to commit suicide, to offer him the chance to surrender himself to the Americans, rather than the Russians. Hitler lunged for a red switch, presumed by the Torch to be a bomb. In return, the Human Torch blasted fire at Hitler, burning him alive.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: Sometime afterward, the Torch was placed in deactivation sleep in the Mojave Desert; an atomic bomb test awoke him. Learning that Toro had been captured by the Soviets and brainwashed, the Torch rescued his old partner and learned that the nuclear bomb's radiation had made his powers both much stronger and more unstable.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: In order to keep Toro a young boy, the writers retconned the character slightly, claiming the Torch met Toro after World War II rather than at the beginning. The revival lasted five issues. Later writers explained how fearing he would become a danger to those around him, the Torch flew back out into the desert and went nova, using up his energy reserve and effectively deactivating himself.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: In modern-day continuity, the supervillain the Mad Thinker reactivated the Torch to have him battle the Fantastic Four, deactivating him when the Torch refused to kill the heroes. A storyline in the "Avengers" that dealt with the secret background of its android member, the Vision revealed that the Torch's body had been found by a renegade robot named Ultron 5, and modified to become the Vision, his mind wiped of past memories and his powers altered with the coerced help of the Human Torch's original creator, Phineas Horton. The seed of this idea was planted by artist Neal Adams and worked out in detail in "The Avengers" #133–135 (May–June 1975) by writer Steve Englehart.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: A later story by Roy Thomas in "What If?" #4 (Aug. 1977), planted the suggestion that the Vision was actually made from a second android created by Horton, named Adam II. This freed up the Human Torch for a possible revival. This was followed up by John Byrne, who had the Scarlet Witch revive the Torch in "Avengers West Coast", seeking answers about her husband, the Vision, and to help Ann Raymond, wife of Tom "Toro" Raymond. In these stories, it was determined that the Vision had been made by Ultron out of the Torch's spare parts, which explained their physical similarities. The Torch served the Avengers for many issues before losing his powers to save the former superheroine Spitfire in the 1990s series "Namor". His powers gone, the Torch settled down with Ann Raymond.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: He became the Chief of Security for Oracle, Inc., and would appear later as the CEO of Oracle, Inc., a company run by Namor. There he ran the mercenary team Heroes for Hire, and his mysterious connection to the Vision was furthered when Ant-Man (Scott Lang) declared that his internal mechanisms were not merely similar, but "identical" to the Vision's, despite the profound differences in their appearance and powers. During the time-travel adventure "Avengers Forever", the Avengers subsequently discovered Immortus, the custodian of Limbo, had used a device called the Forever Crystal to diverge the Torch's personal timeline while keeping the two outcomes concurrent. According to this explanation, the Human Torch "is" the Vision, but also continues to exist as himself.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: When Oracle, Inc., was closed down and Heroes for Hire disbanded, Hammond was soon asked to head Citizen V's V-Battalion upon the retirement of Roger Aubrey, the Destroyer. While on leave from the V-Battalion as field leader of the New Invaders, he became attached to Tara, a female android based on him, whom he came to regard as a daughter of sorts. He also renewed acquaintances with Spitfire, to the dismay of her beau, Union Jack (Joey Chapman). Tara was revealed to have been created by the Red Skull; overrides on her developing personality allowed the Invaders' enemies, the Axis Mundi, to use her as a weapon against the team. As Tara heated toward overload to kill the Invaders, the Torch channeled her heat in order to prevent her meltdown. With his own systems then overloading, he flew high into the atmosphere, away from where he could cause harm, and detonated.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The Torch's remains were recovered by the United Nations and sequestered for research. They were subsequently stolen by professor Zhang Chin, who used the Torch's chemistry to create a virus weapon that caused infected persons to immolate. Captain America (Barnes) and the Sub-Mariner stopped the attack, and were able to pressure the U.S. Government into burying the Torch with full military honors.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The superhuman training camp created in the aftermath of the Civil War is named Camp Hammond, in the Torch's honor. A statue of Hammond on the grounds bears the inscription "JIM HAMMOND, THE FIRST OF THE MARVELS: He showed us that heroes can be made". When the camp was shut down by Norman Osborn, an angry mob tore down the statue.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The original Human Torch appears in the "Avengers/Invaders" maxi-series alongside his fellow Invaders when an incident takes them from the battlefields of World War II to the present Marvel Universe, where they encounter both the New Avengers and Mighty Avengers. During his time in the future, the Torch briefly attempts to 'lead' S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Life Model Decoys against the organization in the belief that they are sentient machines that have been enslaved by the agency, but it is revealed that he has been deceived by Ultron, who had infiltrated the Helicarrier.<ref name="Avengers/Invaders #1-12">"Avengers/Invaders" #1–12</ref>


title: Human Torch (android)

text: Some time after his destruction, the pieces of his body are gathered and reassembled in a secret UN lab, until stolen by a squad of mercenaries led by Batroc the Leaper, at the behest of the Chinese science-villain Professor Pandemic. As a young boy, the Professor was rescued from Japanese authorities by the Invaders, and was fascinated by the Torch. Now, he intends to use the technology to further his goals. Captain America (James Barnes), Black Widow, and the Sub-Mariner race to prevent this from happening. The Professor used the Torch's chemistry and cell structure to create an airborne virus that can spontaneously kill people. The Professor plans to use this virus to eradicate half of Earth's population. Luckily, Cap is able to stop this and made sure that Jim received a proper burial.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: At the beginning of Dark Reign, the recently resurrected Toro is captured by A.I.M. during an attempt to kill the Mad Thinker. Initial experimentation on Toro makes the Mad Thinker realize that he can reconstruct the Torch. A.I.M. steals the Torch's body from Arlington National Cemetery for experimentation.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: After the Mad Thinker and A.I.M. spent months experimenting on the Torch's corpse and on the captive Toro they are able to resurrect the Torch, but it seems all memories of his past have disappeared. The Mad Thinker gains complete control of the Torch using "Compound D", a synthetic molecule he adapted from the Torch's cells (HNCO), which he dubs "Horton cells". Meanwhile, Toro's powers begin to manifest themselves again and a startling discovery proves that Toro's mutation may have been created as a result of his mother working for Horton.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: Torch is now a weapon of mass destruction, and quickly reduces an entire town to debris, killing everyone and everything in sight after destroying several Estonian air force jets. An escape attempt by Toro damages the control mechanism and sets the Torch free. He immediately returns to the A.I.M. carrier and he begins murdering everyone in sight (again). The Mad Thinker reveals that he has managed to synthesize more of the Compound D which can interact with living organisms and control them. As he teleports to safety from the Torch killing spree the compound starts pouring into the ocean. It reaches an Atlantean settlement below, as it was being visited by Namor, and infects the population.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: As the Compound D infection spreads through New York, the Torch battles an infected Sub-Mariner and learns the nature of Compound D after Sub-Mariner attempts to infect him. Sub-Mariner is defeated and while Reed Richards can create an antidote, he cannot create enough of it fast enough. The Torch, Toro, and Johnny Storm team up and attack the Mad Thinker's base and the Thinker at first refuses to cooperate until the Torch threatens that he will scorch the Earth clean to defeat Compound D, starting with the Thinker. The Thinker realizes that the Torch is telling the truth as the Torch's emotions, memories, and humanity are still recovering from his recent demise and restoration and provides the antidote but warns them of it and teleports away. The antidote is released and all infected victims are cured but Reed Richards determines that the antidote breaks down all Horton cells, not just Compound D and that the Torch has only a few days before he is destroyed.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: Toro attempts to investigate his past to learn of his parents' association with Professor Horton and learns that some Horton cell prototypes were stolen long ago. The Torch is visited by the Golden Age Vision who advises him to seek out Toro and aid him while he still can. Their quest takes them across the world to where an underground society called "New Berlin" exists and the population is educated under the premise that the Axis powers won WW2; people who leave the underground city burst into flames and are incinerated. The leader of this colony lures the Mad Thinker to it and then holds him captive to coerce him to cooperate. It is revealed that all citizens of New Berlin are in fact androids created from the unstable prototype Horton cells and that the atmosphere of the colony is saturated with anti-combustion chemicals to keep the citizens intact, however this also prevents Toro and the Torch from using their powers and they are captured.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The Thinker helps stabilize the New Berlin leader's weapon, the android Inhuman Torch so that it can function without destroying itself due to the prototype Horton cells. However the Thinker also aids in freeing the Torch and Toro, and despite the Torch still dying from the Compound D antidote engages the Inhuman Torch in battle. The Inhuman Torch however can easily control, absorb, and manipulate all flame and siphons the flame from the Torch and Toro. However the Torch bids Toro farewell and reignites himself and engages the Inhuman Torch in a final fight. The Torch at first offers to aid the Inhuman Torch in learning about itself and humanity but it refuses and the Torch then channels his nova flame into the Inhuman Torch which overloads it and renders it a fused and inert statue, however a side effect of using his nova flame this time was that it deactivated the enzyme that breaks down Horton cells and thus the Torch's life is saved. They bid farewell to New Berlin and the Golden Age Vision takes them back to New York. The Thinker escapes and reveals that the leader of "New Berlin" is himself an android due to the actual founder of the city being unable to have children of his own. The leader of New Berlin didn't believe this until he left the city and exploded into flame and was incinerated.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The Torch is later offered membership in the Secret Avengers by Captain America after Hawkeye takes over as the team's leader. During his first mission with the group, the Secret Avengers travel to the Core, a subterranean city inhabited by an advanced race of robots called Descendants. The Torch finds that he is worshiped by the Descendants, who respectfully refer to him as "Grandfather". During an encounter with a cyborg resembling the original Miss America, the Torch learns that the city was created by a man known as the Father, who created the Descendants back in the 1940s as part of a failed attempt to replicate Professor Horton's work. The Torch is badly damaged during the Avengers' escape from the Core, and is placed in stasis until his body can be repaired.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: Black Ant later frees the Torch and teleports him back to the Core, where he is repaired by Father. There, the Torch sides with the Descendants, realizing that he never quite fit in with humans. He then leads an army of robots during a raid on New York City, with the goal of forcibly assimilating the human race through the use of nanotechnology. The Torch eventually realizes that he had been brainwashed, and destroys the Orb of Necromancy, the mystical artifact that granted life to the descendants. Although the human race is saved, the Descendants are all killed as a result. Distraught, the Torch quits the Avengers and flies off to parts unknown.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: A number of months after his resignation from the Avengers, Hammond is shown living in a small town called Blaketon, now working as a mechanic. He is forced to abandon his new life after being attacked by a squadron of Kree soldiers, resuming his identity as the Human Torch once again. After being saved by the intervention of Captain America and the Winter Soldier, the Torch joins the newly reformed Invaders.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: When the Fantastic Four are declared to be unfit guardians for the children of the Future Foundation, Hammond offers to take custody of the children to provide a guardian that the FF can trust who they know will do all that he can to reunite them with their parents, even threatening to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. if he is forced to make a choice between the agency and his promise to protect the children. During the final confrontation with the forces of Counter-Earth – unleashed by the mysterious Quiet Man as part of his plan against the FF – Sleepwalker revealed that Hammond had a soul despite his artificial origin.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: Earlier writers portrayed the Torch's body as anatomically identical to human, but made out of synthetic materials (such as ceramic bone). Correspondingly, the Torch was shown to have human needs and human weaknesses; he has been felled by drugs, poison gas, hypnotic and telepathic attacks in both Golden Age stories and the "Invaders" series from the 1970s. The Torch has a heart, lungs, circulatory and digestive systems, and has been shown sleeping, eating, and drinking on more than one occasion. Toro has humorously implied that the Torch has normal human excretory functions. This concept of a living, artificial human made of synthetic flesh and blood was unique in comics, as opposed to the much more common theme of a mechanical automaton that only externally resembles a human being.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: After the Mad Thinker's modification and reactivation of the Torch, writers began to portray him as clearly mechanical, containing circuits, relays, and motors, much like a traditional robot. This variable presentation of his anatomy remains an unresolved issue, whether an overlooked continuity error or explained within the fictional context of the stories. After his creation by Phineas Horton, many others have examined and experimented on the Torch's body, including the Mad Thinker, Zhang Chin, Henry Pym, and unspecified scientists working for the United Nations. It is unclear if any of these entities have made additions to the Torch's original body design that could explain the appearance of his mechanical components. "Captain America" #47 describes the Torch's anatomy as biologically based, moving the pendulum back in the other direction: the Torch's body has both DNA and a cellular structure, according to Zhang Chin. Other writers have continued to emphasize the Torch's mechanical aspects, both in terms of showing metallic body components and references to the Torch having 'programming' that can be altered.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The Mad Thinker has stated that the Torch's organs are composed of "Horton cells" – synthetic replicas of human cells using plastic and carbon polymers that duplicate the structures found in organic human cells. These cells can be grown in a culture, and are compatible with human and mutant physiology. Even in small clusters, they are capable of generating and storing a remarkable amount of power:


title: Human Torch (android)

text: Of particular note is the Torch's synthetic blood, which in addition to being a universal blood type has been shown to have remarkable restorative properties:


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The Human Torch is a synthetic being designed and constructed of artificial materials. He has the capacity for creative intelligence, unlimited self-motivated activity, and human-like emotions. The Torch has the ability to envelop his body in fiery plasma without harm to himself and to utilize this heat energy for various effects, including flight, formation of fiery shapes, energy releases in the form of heat blasts, "nova flame bursts" (highest intensity heat blasts, similar to the heat-pulse of a nuclear warhead), and concussive force blasts. The Torch has the ability to control ambient heat energy in his immediate environment, which allows him to control flames not of his own generation, makes him immune to the effects of external heat and to absorb heat from other sources. The Torch's flame can be extinguished by lack of oxygen, or by smothering materials such as water, sand, fire-fighting foam, or heat-resistant blankets unless his flame is at such intensity that it immediately vaporizes such materials on contact.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: While in flame form, the original Human Torch has engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Namor, the Sub-Mariner. He has also dug underground and through vessels like a human missile.


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The upper limit of his resistance has been undefined over the years, having once walked out stronger from a nuclear blast, and on another time considered destroyed by another nuclear blast, this last one happening in the last issue of "New Invaders".


title: Human Torch (android)

text: The Torch was a member of the NYPD in the 1940s, and has police academy training. He has received some training in unarmed combat by Captain America, and is an expert in the combat use of his superhuman powers. The Torch is also an accomplished street fighter.


title: Homeomorphism

text: In the mathematical field of topology, a homeomorphism, topological isomorphism, or bicontinuous function is a bijective and continuous function between topological spaces that has a continuous inverse function. Homeomorphisms are the isomorphisms in the category of topological spaces—that is, they are the mappings that preserve all the topological properties of a given space. Two spaces with a homeomorphism between them are called homeomorphic, and from a topological viewpoint they are the same. The word "homeomorphism" comes from the Greek words "ὅμοιος" ("homoios") = similar or same and "μορφή" ("morphē") = shape or form, introduced to mathematics by Henri Poincaré in 1895.


title: Homeomorphism

text: Very roughly speaking, a topological space is a geometric object, and the homeomorphism is a continuous stretching and bending of the object into a new shape. Thus, a square and a circle are homeomorphic to each other, but a sphere and a torus are not. However, this description can be misleading. Some continuous deformations are not homeomorphisms, such as the deformation of a line into a point. Some homeomorphisms are not continuous deformations, such as the homeomorphism between a trefoil knot and a circle.


title: Homeomorphism

text: An often-repeated mathematical joke is that topologists cannot tell the difference between a coffee cup and a donut, since a sufficiently pliable donut could be reshaped to the form of a coffee cup by creating a dimple and progressively enlarging it, while preserving the donut hole in the cup's handle.


title: Homeomorphism

text: A function formula_1 between two topological spaces is a homeomorphism if it has the following properties:


title: Homeomorphism

text: A homeomorphism is sometimes called a bicontinuous function. If such a function exists, formula_6 and formula_7 are homeomorphic. A self-homeomorphism is a homeomorphism from a topological space onto itself. "Being homeomorphic" is an equivalence relation on topological spaces. Its equivalence classes are called homeomorphism classes.


title: Homeomorphism

text: The third requirement, that formula_25 be continuous, is essential. Consider for instance the function formula_26 (the unit circle in formula_27) defined byformula_28. This function is bijective and continuous, but not a homeomorphism (formula_29 is compact but formula_30 is not). The function formula_25 is not continuous at the point formula_32, because although formula_25 maps formula_32 to formula_35, any neighbourhood of this point also includes points that the function maps close to formula_36 but the points it maps to numbers in between lie outside the neighbourhood.


title: Homeomorphism

text: Homeomorphisms are the isomorphisms in the category of topological spaces. As such, the composition of two homeomorphisms is again a homeomorphism, and the set of all self-homeomorphisms formula_37 forms a group, called the homeomorphism group of "X", often denoted formula_38. This group can be given a topology, such as the compact-open topology, which under certain assumptions makes it a topological group.


title: Homeomorphism

text: For some purposes, the homeomorphism group happens to be too big, but by means of the isotopy relation, one can reduce this group to the mapping class group.


title: Homeomorphism

text: Similarly, as usual in category theory, given two spaces that are homeomorphic, the space of homeomorphisms between them, formula_39 is a torsor for the homeomorphism groups formula_38 and formula_41, and, given a specific homeomorphism between formula_6 and formula_7, all three sets are identified.


title: Homeomorphism

text: The intuitive criterion of stretching, bending, cutting and gluing back together takes a certain amount of practice to apply correctly—it may not be obvious from the description above that deforming a line segment to a point is impermissible, for instance. It is thus important to realize that it is the formal definition given above that counts. In this case, for example, the line segment possesses infinitely many points, and therefore cannot be put into a bijection with a set containing only a finite number of points, including a single point.


title: Homeomorphism

text: This characterization of a homeomorphism often leads to a confusion with the concept of homotopy, which is actually "defined" as a continuous deformation, but from one "function" to another, rather than one space to another. In the case of a homeomorphism, envisioning a continuous deformation is a mental tool for keeping track of which points on space "X" correspond to which points on "Y"—one just follows them as "X" deforms. In the case of homotopy, the continuous deformation from one map to the other is of the essence, and it is also less restrictive, since none of the maps involved need to be one-to-one or onto. Homotopy does lead to a relation on spaces: homotopy equivalence.


title: Homeomorphism

text: There is a name for the kind of deformation involved in visualizing a homeomorphism. It is (except when cutting and regluing are required) an isotopy between the identity map on "X" and the homeomorphism from "X" to "Y".


title: Kalpana Kartik

text: Mona Singha (born 19 August 1931), also known by her stage name Kalpana Kartik, is a retired Hindi film actress. She starred in six films in the 1950s. She is the widow of the late Hindi film actor and film maker Dev Anand.


title: Kalpana Kartik

text: Mona Singha was a beauty queen while studying at St. Bede's College, Shimla. She was introduced to films by Chetan Anand of Navketan Films with the film "Baazi" in 1951. She co-starred with Dev Anand, whom she worked with in all her subsequent films. Her screen name – Kalpana Kartik – was given to her by Chetan Anand during this period.


title: Kalpana Kartik

text: Her other films were "Aandhiyan" (1952), "Humsafar" (1953), "Taxi Driver" (1954), "House No. 44" (1954) and "Nau Do Gyarah" (1957).


title: Kalpana Kartik

text: Mona Singha was born in a Punjabi Christian family in Lahore. Her father was a Tehsildar of Batala in Gurdaspur District and she was the youngest of five brothers and two sisters. After the partition, her family moved to Shimla.


title: Kalpana Kartik

text: She was a student of the St. Bede's College, Shimla. In her graduation year, she won the Ms. Shimla contest and was noticed by Chetan Anand, a film-maker from Bombay. He was there with his wife Uma Anand, whose mother is Mona's cousin. He convinced her family to allow her to join his fledgling film company, Navketan Films, as a leading lady. Thus, Mona Singha was re-christened Kalpana Kartik and she moved to Bombay (now known as Mumbai). Her first film "Baazi" was a huge success and went on to become a landmark in Indian cinema.


title: Kalpana Kartik

text: She then acted in "Taxi Driver", which was the 'coming of age' film of the Navketan banner. It was Navketan's first super-success and also the film on whose sets Dev Anand secretly married Kalpana Kartik during a lunch break. Kalpana's time in Navketan saw four different directors take reign - Guru Dutt, Chetan Anand, S. D. Burman and Vijay Anand. "Nau Do Gyarah" was her last film as actress.


title: Kalpana Kartik

text: Kalpana Kartik worked as an associate producer for "Tere Ghar Ke Samne" (1963), "Jewel Thief" (1967), "Prem Pujari" (1970), "Shareef Budmaash" (1973), "Heera Panna" (1973), and "Jaaneman" (1976). Dev Anand played the lead role in these movies.


title: Kalpana Kartik

text: In 1954, Mona and Dev Anand got married secretly while on a break during the shooting of "Taxi Driver". They became parents in 1956 when Suneil Anand was born. Suneil has also acted in films. They also have a daughter named Devina. After "Nau Do Gyarah", Kalpana quit films to become a home maker. She was born into a Christian Family and she still practices her faith. After her marriage, she chose to stay away from the limelight and has been away from the media since then.


title: B-roll

text: In film and television production, B-roll, B roll, B-reel or B reel is supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the main shot. The term "A-roll", referring to main footage, has fallen out of use.


title: B-roll

text: Films and videos may cut away from the main story to show related scenery or action. Establishing shots may be used to show the audience the context of the story. These secondary images are often presented without sound, or with very low level sound, as the sound from the primary footage is expected to continue while the other images are shown. The various shots presented without sound are called "B-roll".


title: B-roll

text: B-roll may be shot by smaller second unit crews, since there is no need for sound. In film, smaller MOS cameras, lacking sound circuitry, may be used for greater portability and ease of setup. In electronic news-gathering (ENG) and documentary film projects, B-roll footage is often shot after the main interview is shot, to provide supporting scenes for what was said by the interview subject. In a docudrama project, B-roll may refer to dramatic re-enactment scenes staged by the producer and performed by actors, to be used as cutaway shots.


title: B-roll

text: There are many different types of B-roll, including: insert shots, FX shots, establishing shots, stock footage, and pickup shots.


title: B-roll

text: The term "B-roll" originates from a particular solution to the problem of visible splices in the narrow film stock used in 16 mm film. 35 mm film was wide enough to hide splices, but 16 mm film revealed the splices as flaws in the picture. To avoid this problem, the intended shots were spliced to opaque black leader, with the black leader hiding the splice. Two sequences of shots were assembled, the odd-numbered shots on the A-roll, and the even-numbered shots on the B-roll, such that all of the shots on one roll were matched by black leader on the other roll, in a checkerboard pattern (an alternate name for the process was "checkerboard printing".) Unexposed 16 mm raw print stock was exposed twice, once to the A-roll, then it was exposed again to the B-roll.


title: B-roll

text: Until the mid-1970s, ENG teams shot both main A-roll and secondary B-roll footage on 16 mm film. Sound was integrated onto the film by way of a magnetic stripe at the edge of the film. The A-roll and B-roll scenes, shot at 24 frames per second, were converted to the television frame rate of 30 fps using a telecine system consisting of two film projectors, one showing the main A-roll footage and the other showing the B-roll. The sound from the A-roll footage was used, or sound from narration or voiceover, while MOS images from the B-roll were intercut as desired.


title: B-roll

text: In the 1980s, the term "B-roll" was adopted for linear video editing using at least two video tape machines. Traditionally, the tape decks in an edit suite were labeled by letter, with the 'A' deck being the one containing the main tape upon which the main action material was shot. The 'B' deck was used to run tapes that held additional footage such as establishing shots, cutaway shots, and any other supporting footage. The sound was usually taken from the A deck alone, so that the B deck provided video without sound. As linear editing systems were unable to dissolve between clips on the same tape, an edit decision list (EDL) was used to mark clips as "A-roll" and "B-roll" to indicate source machines.


title: Hundun

text: Hundun () is both a "legendary faceless being" in Chinese mythology and the "primordial and central chaos" in Chinese cosmogony, comparable with the world egg.


title: Hundun

text: "Hundun" was semantically extended from a mythic "primordial chaos; nebulous state of the universe before heaven and earth separated" to mean "unintelligible; chaotic; messy; mentally dense; innocent as a child".


title: Hundun

text: While "hùndùn" "primordial chaos" is usually written as in contemporary vernacular, it is also written as —as in the Daoist classic "Zhuangzi"—or —as in the "Zuozhuan". "Hùn" "chaos; muddled; confused" is written either "hùn" () or "hún" (). These two are interchangeable graphic variants read as "hún" ( ) and "hùn" "nebulous; stupid" ("hùndùn" ). "Dùn" ("dull; confused") is written as either "dùn" () or "dūn" ().


title: Hundun

text: Semantically, the term "hundun" is related to several expressions, hardly translatable in Western languages, that indicate the void or a barren and primal immensity – for instance, "hunlun" , "hundong" , "kongdong" , "menghong" , or "hongyuan" . It is also akin to the expression "something confused and yet complete" ("huncheng" ) found in the "Daode jing" 25, which denotes the state prior to the formation of the world where nothing is perceptible, but which nevertheless contains a cosmic seed. Similarly, the state of "hundun" is likened to an egg; in this usage, the term alludes to a complete world round and closed in itself, which is a receptacle like a cavern ("dong" ) or a gourd ("hu" or "hulu" ).


title: Hundun

text: Most Chinese characters are written using "radicals" or "semantic elements" and "phonetic elements". "Hùndùn" is written with the "water radical" or and phonetics of "kūn" and "tún" . "Hùndùn" "primordial chaos" is cognate with Wonton ("húntun", ) "wonton; dumpling soup" written with the "eat radical" . Note that the English loanword "wonton" is borrowed from the Cantonese pronunciation "wantan". Mair suggests a fundamental connection between "hundun" and "wonton": "The undifferentiated soup of primordial chaos. As it begins to differentiate, dumpling-blobs of matter coalesce. … With the evolution of human consciousness and reflectiveness, the soup was adopted as a suitable metaphor for chaos" . This last assertion appears unsupported however, since wonton soup is not attested in Chinese sources dating earlier than the Han dynasty , although the linguistic connection of the soup to the larger concept certainly appears real (; ; ).


title: Hundun

text: "Hundun" has a graphic variant "hunlun" (using "lún" see the "Liezi" below), which etymologically connects to the mountain name Kunlun (differentiated with the "mountain radical" ). says "Kunlun and "hundun" are the same closed center of the world."


title: Hundun

text: Ritually mumbling the sounds of "hun-tun" might, therefore, be said to have a kind on incantatory significance that both phonetically and morphologically invokes the mythological and ontological idea of the Tao as the "creatio continua" process of infinitely repeated moments of change and new creation.


title: Hundun

text: The "Shuowen Jiezi" does not enter "dun" (which apparently lacked a pre-Han Seal script). It defines "hun" as "fengliu" "abundantly flow", "hun" as the sound of "hunliu" "abundantly-flowing flow" or "seemingly impure", "dun" as "anger, rage; scolding" or "who", and "lun" as "ripples; eddies" or "sink into; disappear".


title: Hundun

text: English "chaos" is a better translation of "hundun" in the classical sense of "Chaos" or "Khaos" in Greek mythology meaning "gaping void; formless primordial space preceding creation of the universe" than in the common sense of "disorder; confusion". The latter meaning of "hundun" is synonymous with Chinese "luàn" (). Their linguistic compound "hùnluàn" ( lit. "chaos-chaos", meaning "chaos; disorder; confusion) exemplifies the "synonym compound" category in Chinese morphology.


title: Hundun

text: In the Chinese written record, "hundun" first appears in classics dating from the Warring States period. The following summary divides them into Confucianist, Daoist, and other categories, and presents them in roughly chronological order, with the caveat that many early textual dates are uncertain.


title: Hundun

text: "Hundun" only occurs in one Confucian classic, the "Zuo zhuan" commentary to the "Spring and Autumn Annals". Most early Confucianist ancient texts ("Lunyu", "Book of Documents", "I Ching", etc.) do not use "hun", with four exceptions. One, the "Mengzi", uses "hun" in its original meaning "sound of flowing water". Mencius explains why Confucius praised water, "There is a spring of water; how it gushes out!" . The other three use "hun" as what calls "a term of opprobrium and condemnation related to the suppression of the "barbarians" or the "legendary rebels"."


title: Hundun

text: The "Shijing" (237) mentions Hunyi "ancient Hunni tribe in Turan". When King Wen of Zhou opened up the roads, "The hordes of the Keun [sic] disappeared, Startled and panting". The "Chunqiu" mentions the Luhun tribe of the Rong people, "the Jung of Luh-hwăn" . The "Zuozhuan" commentary to the "Chunqiu" notes they were originally from western Gansu and forced into northern Henan.


title: Hundun

text: Another "Zuozhuan" context refers to Hundun as a worthless son of the Yellow Emperor, one of the mythical "Sixiong" "Four Fiends" banished by Shun.


title: Hundun

text: The other "fiends" are Qiongqi , Taowu , and Taotie . Legge notes this passage "is worthy of careful study in many respects."


title: Hundun

text: "Hundun" commonly occurs in classics of philosophical Taoism. The "Daodejing" does not mention "hundun" but uses both "hun" graphic variants. One section uses "hun" "bemuddle": "The sage is self-effacing in his dealings with all under heaven, and bemuddles his mind for the sake of all under heaven" . Three other sections use "hun" ():


title: Hundun

text: The "Zhuangzi" (ca. 3rd-2nd centuries BCE) has a famous parable involving emperors "Hundun" , "Shu" (), and "Hu" (). cites Marcel Granet on Shu and Hu synonymously meaning "suddenness; quickness" and "etymologically appear to be linked to the images of lightning and thunder, or analogously, flaming arrows." The "Heavenly Questions" chapter of the "Chu Ci" uses Shu and Hu as one name: "Where are the hornless dragons which carry bears on their backs for sport? Where is the great serpent with nine heads and where is the Shu-Hu?"


title: Hundun

text: The emperor of the South Sea was called Shu [Brief], the emperor of the North Sea was called Hu [Sudden], and the emperor of the central region was called Hun-tun [Chaos]. Shu and Hu from time to time came together for a meeting in the territory of Hun-tun, and Hun-tun treated them very generously. Shu and Hu discussed how they could repay his kindness. "All men," they said, "have seven openings so they can see, hear, eat, and breathe. But Hun-tun alone doesn't have any. Let's trying boring him some!" Every day they bored another hole, and on the seventh day Hun-tun died.


title: Hundun

text: Two other "Zhuangzi" contexts use "hundun". Chapter 11 has an allegory about Hong Meng "Big Concealment" or "Silly Goose", who "was amusing himself by slapping his thighs and hopping around like a sparrow", which interprets as shamanic dancing comparable with the "Shanhaijing" below. Hong Meng poetically reduplicates "hunhun-dundun" () in describing Daoist "mind-nourishment" meditation.


title: Hundun

text: "You have only to rest in inaction and things will transform themselves. Smash your form and body, spit out hearing and eyesight, forget you are a thing among other things, and you may join in great unity with the deep and boundless. Undo the mind, slough off spirit, be blank and soulless, and the ten thousand things one by one will return to the root – return to the root and not know why. Dark and undifferentiated chaos – to the end of life none will depart from it. But if you try to know it, you have already departed from it. Do not ask what its name is, do not try to observe its form. Things will live naturally and of themselves."


title: Hundun

text: Chapter 12 tells a story about the Confucian disciple Zigong becoming dumbfounded after meeting a Daoist sage. He reported back to Confucius, who denigrated "Hundun Shi zhi shu" "the arts of Mr. Chaos [Hundun]":


title: Hundun

text: "He is one of those bogus practitioners of the arts of Mr. Chaos. He knows the first thing but doesn't understand the second. He looks after what is on the inside but doesn't look after what is on the outside. A man of true brightness and purity who can enter into simplicity, who can return to the primitive through inaction, give body to his inborn nature, and embrace his spirit, and in this way wander through the everyday world – if you had met one like that, you would have had real cause for astonishment. As for the arts of Mr. Chaos, you and I need not bother to find out about them."


title: Hundun

text: Heaven and earth were perfectly joined ["tung-t'ung" ], all was chaotically unformed ["hun-tun wei p'u" ]; and things were complete ["ch'eng" ] yet not created. This is called [the time or condition] of the Great One. ["t'ai-i" ]. All came from this unity which gave to each thing its differences: the birds, fish, and beasts. This is called the lot [or division, "fen" ] of things.


title: Hundun

text: The world was a unity without division into classes nor separation into orders (lit: a disorganised mass): the unaffectedness and homeliness of the natural heart had not, as yet, been corrupted: the spirit of the age was a unity, and all creation was in great affluence. Hence, if a man with the knowledge of I [ A mythical person of great powers] appeared, the world had no use for him.


title: Hundun

text: The "Liezi" uses "hunlun" for "hundun", which is described as the confused state in which "qi" "pneuma; breath", "xing" "form; shape", and "zhi" "matter; substance" have begun to exist but are still merged as one.


title: Hundun

text: There was a Primal Simplicity, there was a Primal Commencement, there were Primal Beginnings, there was a Primal Material. The Primal Simplicity preceded the appearance of the breath. The Primal Beginnings were the breath beginning to assume shape. The Primal Material was the breath when it began to assume substance. Breath, shape and substance were complete, but things were not yet separated from each other; hence the name "Confusion." "Confusion" means the myriad things were confounded and not yet separated from each other.


title: Hundun

text: The "Shanhaijing" collection of early myths and legends uses "hundun" as an adjective to describe a "shen" "spirit; god" on Tian Shan "Heaven Mountain".


title: Hundun

text: There is a god here who looks like a yellow sack. He is scarlet like cinnabar fire. He has six feet and four wings. He is Muddle Thick. He has no face and no eyes. He knows how to sing and dance. He is in truth the great god Long River.


title: Hundun

text: In the above passage, 渾敦 is translated as "Muddle Thick", and the name of the god (Di-Jiang) is translated as "great god Long River". Toshihiko Izutsu (; cited in ) suggests that singing and dancing here and in "Zhuangzi" refers to shamanic trance-inducing ceremonies, "the monster is said to be a bird, which is most probably an indication that the shamanistic dancing here in question was some kind of feather dance in which the shaman was ritually ornamented with a feathered headdress."


title: Hundun

text: The "Shen yi jing" "Classic of Divine Wonders" records a later variation of Hundun mythology. It describes him as a divine dog who lived on Mt. Kunlun, the mythical mountain at the center of the world.


title: Hundun

text: It has eyes but can't see, walks without moving; and has two ears but can't hear. It has the knowledge of a man yet its belly is without the five internal organs and, although having a rectum, it doesn't evacuate food. It punches virtuous men and stays with the non-virtuous. It is called. Hun-tun.


title: Hundun

text: Quoting the Zuo zhuan, Hun-tun was Meng-shih's untalented son. He always gnaws his tail, going round and round. Everyone ridiculed him.


title: Hundun

text: A poem in the Tang dynasty collection Hanshan refers to the "Zhuangzi" myth and reminisces about "Hundun".


title: Hundun

text: Note the addition of two holes (anus and penis) to the original seven (eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth).


title: Hundun

text: "Hundun" myths have a complex history, with many variations on the "primordial chaos" theme and associations with other legends.


title: Hundun

text: The sociologist and historian Wolfram Eberhard analyzed the range of various "hundun" myths . He treated it as a World egg mythic "chain" from the southern Liao culture, which originated in the Sichuan and Hubei region.


title: Hundun

text: Norman J. Girardot, professor of Chinese religion at Lehigh University, has written articles and a definitive book on "hundun". He summarizes this mythology as follows.


title: Hundun

text: Interpretations of "Hundun" have expanded from "primordial chaos" into other realms. For instance, it is a keyword in "Neidan" "Chinese internal alchemy". explains that "Alchemists begin their work by "opening" or "boring" "hundun"; in other words, they begin from the Origin, infusing its transcendent element of precosmic light into the cosmos in order to reshape it."


title: Hundun

text: In the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings", the character Morris (vocal effects provided by Dee Bradley Baker) is a Hundun and acts as a companion of Trevor Slattery at the time when he was a jester for Wenwu.


title: Hundun

text: In the roguelike platform game "Spelunky 2", Hundun appears as a secret boss, taking the form of an egg with no facial features aside from one eye.


title: Hundun

text: In the hack and slash game series Warriors Orochi, Hundun appears as a boss in Warriors Orochi 3 and a playable character in Warriors Orochi 4. He has a anthropomorphic canine-like appearance with long white hair, four wings, and four arms each wielding a hatchet.


title: Hundun

text: In the "Iron Widow", Hunduns are giant alien robots made from spirit metal that constantly threaten the nation of Huaxia. At the novel's climax it is revealed the humans invaded their home world.