It is well known that the Jewish people, as God's chosen ones, are a nation that lives according to the "mitzvot (commandments)." The Torah, the first Jewish sacred text, was canonized around 440 BCE and has always been regarded as the source of all (Jewish) "mitzvot." However, these "mitzvot" are often brief, and how to live by them in daily life has always been a difficult problem. To solve this problem, exegesis was born, and it quickly became a tradition that guided Jews on how to live a "sanctified" life，or holly life. The Jewish exegetical tradition is the key for people to understand Jewish civilization and Jewish way of life. This paper will provide a brief and concise overview of the formation, content, methods, characteristics, and impact of the Jewish exegetical tradition, in order to arouse people's interest and attention.

In the paper “The Career of the Logos: A Brief Biography,” Daniel Williams delves into the “polysemic notion” of concepts such as speech, discourse, reason, and divine will, tracing their origins back to the term “Logos.” Interestingly, when this article was translated and published in Chinese in Journal for the Study of Christianity, it found its place under the section titled “Dao Wu Chang Ming道无常名” (The Dao Has No Fixed Name). It can be argued that the “polysemic notion” and “Dao Wu Chang Ming道无常名” have indeed become shared metaphors between the East and the West, inspiring an ongoing dialogue between the “Dao道” and the “Logos.” In his concluding remarks, Williams revisits the question: If the “Dao道” also encompasses notions of “natural law or nomos法则” and “principle理,” then can we consider the “Dao道” and the “Logos” to be similar? My proposed presentation is to join him to trace back the polysemic word Dao in Chinese and the encounter between Chinese intellectuals and Christian missionaries in the translation and interpretation of the related concepts like Logos, Verbum, Way and Word.

As globalization deepens and new technologies rapidly evolve, the world is experiencing unprecedented cultural exchanges, the dissemination of ideas, and the movement of people and goods. In this context, literature plays an increasingly prominent role as an important medium for recording, representing, mediating, and reshaping these dynamics. This forum, themed "Cosmopolitanism and Localism: Comparative Literature in Global Flows in the Digital Age," aims to explore how to understand and address the tensions between cosmopolitanism and localism in literature, particularly against the backdrop of accelerated global flows driven by new technologies.

We welcome discussions around the following possible topics:

1. How the development of digital technologies challenges the formation of comparative literature theories and methodologies;

2. The diverse representations of cosmopolitanism and localism in literary works within a globalized context;

3. How the digital economy reshapes contemporary literary genres and forms;

4. The role of digital platforms in transforming literary creation, dissemination, and reception, and how these changes impact the relationship between global and local cultural narratives;

5. How literary works navigate the tension between group identity and individual autonomy in a technology-driven globalized world.

Some scriptures are supposed to have a divine origin, for example the often conflicting Abrahamic religions, but with consequences for secular law and view of humanity. Others are texts on spirituality, ethics and social behavior written by sages and philosophers like the texts of Daoism, Buddhism, Shinto and Confucianism, and also with effects on local laws and anthropologies. Yet another group of religious and spiritual belief systems, for example across the African continent, are working through oral communication and entirely embedded in traditional social practices and norms. In today’s globalized social reality, a variety of such belief systems often share the same multicultural social space, where they blend or confront each other in conflict of mutual misunderstanding and enmity. To articulate this complex cultural reality, the various belief systems may reach a dead end, continuing to view the world from their own particular perspective. Here, the imaginative and creative language of literature opens a space for human understanding of the full complexity of the multicultural zones of conflict. Literature rarely focuses on the preaching of the scriptures themselves, but on how their norms and behavioral patterns guide human interaction, often focusing on limits of humanity, ethical issues like honor and shame, retaliation and reconciliation. My cases are two examples from different periods and cultures—the breakdown of the Medieval saga-world of Iceland with the arrival of Christianity, and the transition of post-Apartheid South Africa.