Platonic theories of prayer /
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Platonic Theories of Prayer is a collection of ten essays on the topic of prayer in the later Platonic tradition. The volume originates from a panel on the topic held at the 2013 ISNS meeting in Cardiff, but is supplemented by a number of invited papers. Together they offer a comprehensive view of the various roles and levels of prayer characteristic of this period. The concept of prayer is shown to include not just formal petitionary or encomiastic prayer, but also theurgical practices and various states of meditation and ecstasy practised by such major figures as Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, Damascius or Dionysius the Areopagite.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004309005 :
1871-188X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Philosophy and political power in antiquity /
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Philosophy and Political Power in Antiquity is a collection of essays examining ancient philosophers' reflections on the connection between political power and philosophy. The ancient Greeks both invented political philosophy and were the first to conceptualize the implicit tension between political activity and the contemplative life as found in ideal political institutions and under conditions of repressive rule. These essays examine discussions of these issues within a wide variety of the major schools of antiquity from both interpretive and analytical perspectives. While providing novel approaches to ancient philosophical texts, this volume attests to the importance of political reflection, deliberation, and resistance for ancient thought, and to the enduring strength and relevance of these reflections for contemporary debates within political philosophy.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource (183 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004324626 :
2211-2014 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Sacred thresholds : the door to the sanctuary in late antiquity /
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Sacred Thresholds. The Door to the Sanctuary in Late Antiquity offers a far-reaching account of boundaries within pagan and Christian sanctuaries: gateways in a precinct, outer doors of a temple or church, inner doors of a cella . The study of these liminal spaces within Late Antiquity - itself a key period of transition during the spread of Christianity, when cultural paradigms were redefined - demands an approach that is both interdisciplinary and diachronic. Emilie van Opstall brings together both upcoming and noted scholars of Greek and Latin literature and epigraphy, archaeology, art history, philosophy, and religion to discuss the experience of those who crossed from the worldly to the divine, both physically and symbolically. What did this passage from the profane to the sacred mean to them, on a sensory, emotive and intellectual level? Who was excluded, and who was admitted? The articles each offer a unique perspective on pagan and Christian sanctuary doors in the Late Antique Mediterranean.
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1 online resource. :
9789004369009 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The enigmatic reality of time : Aristotle, Plotinus, and today /
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The nature and existence of time is a fascinating and puzzling feature of human life and awareness. This book integrates interdisciplinary work and approaches from such fields as physics, psychology, biology, phenomenology, and technology studies with philosophical analyses and considerations to explain a number of facets of the perennnial question of time's nature and existence, both in contemporary and in its initial classical Greek context; and it then explores and explains two of the most influential investigations of time in classical Western thought: Aristotle's, as presented in his Physics , and the (neo)Platonist Plotinus' in his treatise On Time and Eternity . Original interpretative perspectives are argued in both cases, and special attention is paid to Plotinus as partly responding to and critiquing Aristotle's account.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [365]-371) and index. :
9789047443605 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Akrasia in Greek philosophy : from Socrates to Plotinus /
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Discussions on akrasia (lack of control, or weakness of will) in Greek philosophy have been particularily vivid and intense for the past two decades. Standard stories that presented Socrates as the philosopher who simply denied the phenomenon, and Plato and Aristotle as rehabilitating it straightforwardly against Socrates, have been challenged in many different ways. Building on those challenges, this collective provides new, and in some cases opposed ways of reading well-known as well as more neglected texts. Its 13 contributions, written by experts in the field, cover the whole history of Greek ethics, from Socrates to Plotinus, through Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics (Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Epictetus).
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [283]-290) and index. :
9789047420125 :
0079-1687 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The afterlife of the Platonic soul : reflections of Platonic psychology in the monotheistic religions /
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Plato's doctrine of the soul, its immaterial nature, its parts or faculties, and its fate after death (and before birth) came to have an enormous influence on the great religious traditions that sprang up in late antiquity, beginning with Judaism (in the person of Philo of Alexandria), and continuing with Christianity, from St. Paul on through the Alexandrian and Cappadocian Fathers to Byzantium, and finally with Islamic thinkers from Al-kindi on. This volume, while not aspiring to completeness, attempts to provide insights into how members of each of these traditions adapted Platonist doctrines to their own particular needs, with varying degrees of creativity.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047429678 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Time and eternity in Jewish mysticism : that which is before and that which is after /
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Time and eternity are concepts that have occupied an important place within Jewish mystical thought. This present volume gives pride of place to these concepts, and is one of the first works to bring together diverse voices on the subject. It offers a multivalent picture of the topic of time and eternity, not only by including contributions from an array of academics who are leaders in their fields, but by proposing six diverse approaches to time and eternity in Jewish mysticism: the theoretical approach to temporality, philosophical definitions, the idea of time and pre-existence, the idea of historical time, the idea of experiential time, and finally, the idea of eternity beyond time. This multivocal treatment of Jewish mysticism and time as based on variant academic approaches is novel, and it should lay the groundwork for further discussion and exploration.
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1 online resource (xi, 228 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004290310 :
1568-5004 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Lux in tenebris : the visual and the symbolic in western esotericism /
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Lux in Tenebris is a collection of eighteen original interdisciplinary essays that address aspects of the verbal and visual symbolism in the works of significant figures in the history of Western Esotericism, covering such themes as alchemy, magic, kabbalah, angels, occult philosophy, Platonism, Rosicrucianism, and Theosophy. Part I: Middle Ages andamp; Early Modernity ranges from Gikatilla, Ficino, Camillo, Agrippa, Weigel, Böhme, Yvon, and Swedenborg, to celestial divination in Russia. Part II: Modernity andamp; Postmodernity moves from occultist thinkers Schwaller de Lubicz and Evola to esotericism in literature, art, and cinema, in the works of Colquhoun, Degouve de Nuncques, Bruskin, Doitschinoff, and Pérez-Reverte, with an essay on esoteric theories of colour. Contributors are: Michael J.B. Allen, Susanna Åkerman, Lina Bolzoni, Aaron Cheak, Robert Collis, Francesca M. Crasta, Per Faxneld, Laura Follesa, Victoria Ferentinou, Joshua Gentzke, Joscelyn Godwin, Hans Thomas Hakl, Theodor Harmsen, Elke Morlok, Noel Putnik, Jonathan Schorsch, György Szönyi, Carsten Wilke, and Thomas Willard.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004334953 :
1871-1405 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Brill' s Companion to the Reception of Homer from the Hellenistic Age to Late Antiquity /
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Brill's Companion to the Reception of Homer from the Hellenistic Age to Late Antiquity presents a comprehensive account of the afterlife of the Homeric corpus. Twenty chapters written by a range of experts in the field show how Homeric poems were transmitted, disseminated, adopted, analysed, admired or even criticized across diverse intellectual environments, from the late 4th century BCE to the 5th century CE. The volume explores the impact of Homer on Hellenistic prose and poetry, the Second Sophistic, the Stoics, some Christian writers and the major Neoplatonists, showing how the Greek paideia continued to flourish in new contexts.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004472686
9789004243439
Practicing Gnosis : ritual, magic, theurgy, and liturgy in Nag Hammadi, Manichaean and other ancient literature : essays in honor of Birger A. Pearson /
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Ritual, magic, liturgy, and theurgy were central features of Gnosticism, and yet Gnostic practices remain understudied. This anthology is meant to fill in this gap and address more fully what the ancient Gnostics were doing. While previously we have studied the Gnostics as intellectuals in pursuit of metaphysical knowledge, the essays in this book attempt to understand the Gnostics as ecstatics striving after religious experience, as prophets seeking revelation, as mystics questing after the ultimate God, as healers attempting to care for the sick and diseased. These essays demonstrate that the Gnostics were not necessarily trendy intellectuals seeking epistomological certainities. They were after religious experiences that relied on practices. The book is organized comparatively in a history-of-religions approach with sections devoted to Initiatory, Recurrent, Therapeutic, Ecstatic, and Philosophic Practices. This book celebrates the brilliant career of Birger A. Pearson.
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1 online resource (ix, 571 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004248526 :
0929-2470 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
New Explorations in Plato's Theaetetus : Belief, Knowledge, Ontology, Reception /
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What is knowledge? This fundamental question is treated with unprecedented depth by Plato in his Theaetetus, where it opens the path to many puzzles and issues we are still coping with in our days: what is the nature of perception, belief, justification, truth? Which objects can be properly known? How are we to account for cognitive mistakes? How can the mind be "in touch" with the world? This book provides fresh, rigorous and original explorations of the main themes of the dialogue by well-established scholars who work on Plato and Platonism, especially on Plato's theory of knowledge.
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Through the explorations of excellent scholars, this book provides a new understanding of Plato's Theaetetus, an absolute masterpiece which contains fundamental insights - about the nature of human cognition, perception, rationality - which are still at the centre of the contemporary debate. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004516014
9789004516021
Proklos : Methode, Seelenlehre, Metaphysik : Akten der Konferenz in Jena AM 18.-20. September 2003 /
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This volume deals with the philosophy of Proclus, the most influential philosopher of the Neoplatonic school of Athens. Its 17 essays present the major themes of Proclus' work. The first part discusses the method of Proclus' philosophy, concentrating on his theory of language and his interpretation of Plato. The second part focusses on his theory of the soul, especially of the human soul and its various functions. The third part covers Proclus' metaphysics, his theory of ideas and his famous scheme of duration, procession and reversion. Thus, the volume contributes to the renewed interest in Neoplatonism. For the specialists, it contains some new insights into Proclus' thought. For the non-specialist, the volume can be used as introductory text to the main themes of Proclean philosophy.
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1 online resource (xi, 431 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 385-400) and indexes. :
9789047409397 :
0079-1687 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Mani in Dublin : selected papers from the Seventh International Conference of the International Association of Manichaean Studies in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, 8-12 Septem...
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In 2009 the Seventh International Conference of Manichaean Studies was held at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. The 22 selected papers of this volume offer a deep insight into the faith of Manichaean communities ranging from the very beginning of the Third century up to the last traces of worship today. Among others the authors deal with sources from Augustin, John the Grammarian, Ephrem the Syrian and further sources written in Coptic, Sogdian, Middle Persian, Parthian and Chinese. Several studies about Manichaean art and iconography offer a visual impression, which gives a new opportunity for understanding the religion of Light.
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Includes indexes. :
1 online resource (xviii, 459 pages) : illustrations (mostly color) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004289123 :
0929-2470 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Socrates and the socratic dialogue /
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Socrates and the Socratic Dialogue assembles the most complete range of studies on Socrates and the Socratic dialogue. It focuses on portrayals of Socrates, whether as historical figure or protagonist of 'Socratic dialogues', in extant and fragmentary texts from Classical Athens through Late Antiquity. Special attention is paid to the evolving power and texture of the Socratic icon as it adopted old and new uses in philosophy, biography, oratory, and literature. Chapters in this volume focus on Old Comedy, Sophistry, the first-generation Socratics including Plato and Xenophon, Aristotle and Aristoxenus, Epicurus and Stoicism, Cicero and Persius, Plutarch, Apuleius and Maximus, Diogenes Laertius, Libanius, Themistius, Julian, and Proclus.
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1 online resource (viii, 931 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004341227 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Fatimids : Select Papers on Their Governing Institutions, Social and Cultural Organization, Religious Appeal, and Rivalries /
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The chapters of this volume contain a series of detailed studies of various aspects of Fatimid rule in the regions of its Mediterranean and Near Eastern empire, 909 to 1171 AD, including separately the role of the imam-caliph, wazīr , chief qāḍī and dāʿī , and other political and public offices of this Shīʿī caliphate. Geographically it covers North Africa, Sicily, the Levant, Hijaz, Cairo and Egypt in the medieval period, with special attention to books, science and libraries, court society, festivals, intellectual traditions and Ismaili doctrines, its religious appeal, military, enemies and rivals, among them the Abbasids, Umayyads, and Ibadis.
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1 online resource (500 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004548626
Roads to paradise : eschatology and concepts of the hereafter in Islam /
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Roads to Paradise: Eschatology and Concepts of the Hereafter in Islam offers a multi-disciplinary study of Muslim thinking about paradise, death, apocalypse, and the hereafter. It focuses on eschatological concepts in the Quran and its exegesis, Sunni and Shi'i traditions, Islamic theology, philosophy, mysticism, and other scholarly disciplines reflecting Islamicate pluralism and cosmopolitanism. Gathering material from all parts of the Muslim world, ranging from Islamic Spain to Indonesia, and the entirety of Islamic history, this publication in two volumes also integrates research from comparative religion, art history, sociology, anthropology and literary studies. Unparalleled and unprecedented in its scope and comprehensiveness, Roads to Paradise promises to become the definitive reference work on Islamic eschatology for the years to come.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004333154 :
0929-2403 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Did God Care? : Providence, Dualism, and Will in Later Greek and Early Christian Philosophy /
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Is God involved? Why do bad things happen to good people? What is up to us? These questions were explored in Mediterranean antiquity with reference to 'providence' ( pronoia ). In Did God Care? Dylan Burns offers the first comprehensive survey of providence in ancient philosophy that brings together the most important Greek, Latin, Coptic, and Syriac sources, from Plato to Plotinus and the Gnostics. Burns demonstrates how the philosophical problems encompassed by providence transformed in the first centuries CE, yielding influential notions about divine care, evil, creation, omniscience, fate, and free will that remain with us today. These transformations were not independent developments of 'Pagan philosophy' and 'Christian theology,' but include fruits of mutually influential engagement between Hellenic and Christian philosophers.
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1 online resource. :
9789004432994
9789004432970
Reading Proclus and the Book of Causes, Volume 2 : Translations and Acculturations /
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Reading Proclus and the Book of Causes , published in three volumes, is a fresh, comprehensive understanding of the history of Neoplatonism from the 9th to the 16th century. The impact of the Elements of Theology and the Book of Causes is reconsidered on the basis of newly discovered manuscripts and evidences. This second volume revises widely accepted hypotheses about the reception of the Proclus' text in Byzantium and the Caucasus, and about the context that made possible the composition of the Book of Causes and its translations into Latin and Hebrew. The contributions offer a unique, comparative perspective on the various ways a pagan author was acculturated to the Abrahamic traditions.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004440685
9789004345119
Reading Proclus and the Book of Causes, Volume 3 : On Causes and the Noetic Triad /
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Reading Proclus and the Book of Causes , published in three volumes, is a fresh, comprehensive understanding of the history of Neoplatonism from the 9th to the 16th century. This third volume gathers contributions on key concepts of the Platonic tradition (Proclus, Plotinus, Porphyry or Sallustius) inherited and reinterpreted by Arabic (e.g. Avicenna, the Book of Causes), Byzantine (e.g. Maximus the Confessor, Ioane Petritsi) and Latin authors (e.g. Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Berthold of Moosburg, Marsilio Ficino etc.). Two major themes are presently studied: causality (in respect to the One, the henads, the self-constituted substances and the first being) and the noetic triad (being-life-intellect).
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004501331
9789004501324
Order from disorder : Proclus' doctrine of evil and its roots in ancient platonism /
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This study places the doctrine of evil of the Neoplatonist Proclus in its proper context, the exegetical tradition as it developed within the various schools of ancient Platonism, from Middle Platonism to early Neoplatonism. With regard to the evil of the body, there are chapters on the various interpretations of Plato's notion of a pre-cosmic disorderly motion as the source of corporeal evil and on the role of what Platonists referred to as an irrational Nature in the origin of that motion. As for evil of the soul, there are chapters dealing with the concept of an evil World Soul and with the view that the evil that is ascribed to the human soul is a form of psychological weakness.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-276) and index. :
9789047421122 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.