Explaining Christian origins and early Judaism : contributions from cognitive and social science /
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Cognitive science of religion is a radically new paradigm in the study of religion. Apart from psychology and anthropology of religion, also historians of religion have shown increasing interest in this approach. This volume is groundbreaking in combining cognitive analysis with historical and social-scientific approaches to biblical materials, Christian origins, and early Judaism. The book is in four parts: an introduction to cognitive and social-scientific approaches, applications of cognitive science, applications of conceptual blending theory, and applications of socio-cognitive analyses. The book will be of interest for historians of religion, biblical scholars, and those working in the cognitive science of religion.
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Proceedings of a symposium held Aug.-Sept. 2005 at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047431961 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
New perspectives on pragmatism and analytic philosophy /
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The strong influence of pragmatism in the early 20th-century international debate, its subsequent and apparently inexorable decline, and its recent revival are intertwined with the fate of other currents of thought that have marked the development of contemporary philosophy. This volume clarifies the most recent events of this development focusing on key theoretical issues common both to American classic philosophical tradition and analytical thought. Many essays in this volume belong to what we can call "new" pragmatism, namely a pragmatist perspective that is different from the postmodernist "neo" pragmatism à la Rorty. The volume shows that both pragmatists and analytic thinkers stress the importance of logic and scientific method in order to deal with philosophical problems and seek for a clarification of the relation between our ethical values and our understanding of natural facts. Moreover, the anti-skeptic attitude that characterizes pragmatism as well as most part of analytic philosophy, and their common attention to the problems of language and communication are emphasized. The more sophisticated tools for addressing both theoretical and methodological problems developed by analytic philosophy are pointed out, and the essays show the possible integration of these two forms of speculation that, for too a long time, mutually disregarded one another.
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"The essays in this volume are largely based on the papers presented at the international conference "Pragmatismo e filosofia analitica. Differenze e interazioni", held in Rome in March 2005"--Introduction. :
1 online resource (xx, 152 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789042033221 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The prestige of the pagan prophet Balaam in Judaism, early Christianity and Islam /
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This volume deals with the pagan prophet Balaam who figures in the book of Numbers. By the very nature of his stature as a non-Israelite, pagan prophet, the figure of Balaam raises important questions with regard to the nature of prophecy and the relation between the Israelite God and the pagan nations. The conflicting stories and potent oracles of Balaam in Numbers 22-24 and other parts of the Jewish Scriptures prompted extensive reflection on this ambiguous figure. Thus the leading perspective developed in this volume is the often simultaneous praise and criticism of Balaam as a prestigious pagan prophet throughout ancient Judaism, early Christianity and the early Koranic commentaries. The papers are clustered in four sections which deal with (1) Balaam in the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East, and comparable figures in Ancient Greece; (2) Balaam in Ancient Judaism; (3) Balaam in the New Testament andamp; Early Christianity; and (4) Balaam in the Koran and early Koranic commentaries. The reception of this enigmatic figure can be characterized as the simultaneous praise and criticism of a pagan prophet. The book is particularly useful as it also contains Émile Puech's newly reconstructed text, translation and commentary of the first combination of the Deir 'Alla inscriptions which contain an excerpt of the book of the historical Balaam. Combined with the other papers, the volume pictures a fascinating continuum between paganism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
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"Volume contains the reworked papers of the 2005 Themes in Biblical Narrative Conference which took place at the University of Groningen on 17-18 June 2005"--P. [xi]. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047433132 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Embodied aesthetics : proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Aesthetics and the Embodied Mind, 26th-28th August 2013 /
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This volume discusses the role of embodiment in the reevaluation of aesthetics as a process of bodily mediated meaning-making. It focuses on the bodily basis of aesthetic appreciation from an evolutionary point of view, on the bodily physical structures such as the brain involved in perception, on aesthetic experience and appreciation, on the role of physiological responses in experiencing the objects of the environment aesthetically, on the role of one's own body in motion in the engagement with the environment, on somatic responses and the experience of meaning, on the pre-reflective experience of the body, on the role of the interplay of different types of physical and sensory activities in the process of education to art appreciation.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource (vii, 150 pages) : illustrations (some color) :
9789004281516 :
0922-6001 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The figure of Solomon in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition : king, sage, and architect /
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Solomon is one of the more complex and fascinating characters in the history of Israel. As a king he is second only to David. As the king who gave Israel its temple he is unsurpassed. As the prototype of the sage his name lives on in numerous biblical and non-biblical writings. As the magician of later tradition he has established himself as a model for many other aspirants in this field. This volume contains the proceedings of an international conference on Solomon that was held at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Leuven, September 30 - October 2, 2009 and discussed various aspects of this multifaced character as he appears in Jewish, early Christian, and Islamic tradition.
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Proceedings of a conference held Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2009 at the University of Leuven. :
1 online resource (vi, 274 pages) : illustrations (some color) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004242913 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The New Testament interpreted : essays in honour of Bernard C. Lategan /
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This volume contains a collection of essays in honour of Bernard C. Lategan, a renowned specialist on the modern reception of the New Testament. Besides offering anayses of Lategan's own contribution to New Testament scholarship, the essays present and discuss interpretations of the New Testament from antiquity through contemporary critical scholarship. Topics covered include hermeneutical issues of historical Jesus research, intertextuality in antiquity, the interpretation of the New Testament in Africa, and the New Testament as literature. The collection thus provides a representative perspective on the diversity of New Testament scholarship in South Africa and elsewhere.
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1 online resource (x, 404 pages) : portrait. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047410591 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Tensions within and between religions and human rights /
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This volume contains theoretical and empirical articles on tensions within and between religion and human rights. There are conflicts in the past histories of Christianity and Islam in regard to human rights, but also in contemporary history. There are also tensions in the sphere of human rights, like the relation between natural law and human rights, morality and law, liberty and equality, civil rights and socio-economic rights, and more specific ones, like the rights of humans and citizens, religious freedom and the separation of church and state, religious freedom and freedom of speech, and the state and religion on social welfare provisions. The volume aims at theoretical clarification and empirical exploration on data from 14 countries. Contributors include: Jean-Pierre Wils, Piet Hein van Kempen, Mathias Rohe, Johannes (Hans) van der Ven, Anders Sjöborg, Raymond J. Webb, Jack Curran, Marion Reindl, Leo W.J.M. van der Tuin, Clement D. Fumbo, and Hans-Georg Ziebertz.
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Proceedings of the 1st and 2nd conferences of the Empirical Research Program Religion and Human Rights, held in 2008 and 2010 at the Radboud University Nijmegen. :
1 online resource (255 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004218697 :
1877-881X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Dead Sea scrolls : texts and context /
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This volume presents the proceedings of an international conference of the same title held at the University of Birmingham in 2007. The contributors are drawn from the ranks of leading international specialists in the field writing alongside promising younger scholars. The volume includes studies on the contribution of the Scrolls to Second Temple Jewish history, the archaeological context, the role of the temple and its priesthood, as well as treatments on selected texts and issues. These proceedings offer a timely and up to date assessment of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the material remains unearthed at Qumran in their wider context and not infrequently challenge prevailing lines of interpretation. Helen Jacobus has won the Sean Dever Memorial Prize with her contribution to this volume. Commenting on the Dever prize, Professor Carol Meyers of Duke University, North Carolina, said: "The judges thought highly of Helen's meticulous scholarship and careful presentation of the data in her discussion of the zodiac and its role in Jewish calendars."
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"This volume presents the proceedings of an international conference of the same title held at the University of Birmingham in 2007. The contributors are drawn from the ranks of leading international specialists in the field writing alongside promising younger scholars. The volume includes studies on the contribution of the Scrolls to Second Temple Jewish history, the archaeological context, the role of the Temple and its priesthood, as well as treatments on selected texts and issues. These proceedings offer a timely and up to date assessment of the Dead Sea scrolls and the material remains unearthed at Qumran in their wider context and not infrequently challenge prevailing lines of interpretation"--Jacket. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [487]-526) and index. :
9789004190764 :
0169-9962 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Demons and the Devil in ancient and medieval Christianity /
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This collection of essays approaches the role of demons and the devil in ancient and medieval Christianity from a variety of scholarly perspectives: historical, philosophical, and theological as well as philological, liturgical, and theoretical. In the opening article Gerd Theissen presents a wide-ranging overview of the role of the devil, spanning the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and patristic literature. The contributions that follow address texts on the devil, demons, and evil, and are drawn from ancient philosophy, the New Testament, early Christian apologetics, hagiography, and history. Covering primarily the patristic period, the volume also contains articles on medieval sources. The introduction discusses the different angles of approach found in the articles in an effort to shed fresh light on this familiar but also uniquely troubling theme.
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Based on a conference held Oct. 6-7, 2006 in Heeze, Netherlands. :
1 online resource (xii, 257 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004208056 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Dynamics in the history of religions between Asia and Europe : encounters, notions, and comparative perspectives /
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This first volume of the series "Dynamics in the History of Religions" reviews the opening conference of the \'Käte Hamburger Kolleg" at the Ruhr-University Bochum. The first section concentrates on the formation of what later come to be termed \'world religions\' through inter-religious contact, the second part focuses on the significance of interreligious contacts also during their expansive phase. Methodological problems of multi-perspective research and especially the lack of a general religious terminology are discussed in the third chapter, while the final papers outline various aspects of secularization and (re-)sacralisation in the age of globalisation as an effect of multicultural contacts in a world wide web of religious interferences.
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1 online resource (viii, 534 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004225350 :
1878-8106 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Congress volume Munich 2013 /
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This volume presents the main lectures of the 21st Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT) held in Munich, Germany, in August 2013. Seventeen internationally distinguished scholars present their current research on the Hebrew Bible, including the literary history of the Hebrew text, its Greek translation and history of interpretation. Some focus on archeological sources and the reconstruction of ancient Israelite religion while others discuss the formation of the biblical text and its impact for cultural memory. The volume gives readers a representative view of the most recent developments in the study of the Old Testament. Contributors are: Olivier Artus, Ehud Ben Zvi, Beate Ego, Irmtraud Fischer, Christian Frevel, Shimon Gesundheit, Timothy P. Harrison, Louis C. Jonker, James L. Kugel, Christoph Levin, Amihai Mazar, Steven L. McKenzie, Konrad Schmid, Yvonne Sherwood, Zipora Talshir, Akio Tsukimoto, and Jacques Vermeylen.
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Papers presented at the 21st Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament held in Munich, Germany, August 4 to 9, 2013. :
1 online resource (xii, 463 pages) : illustrations, portraits. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004281226 :
0083-5889 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Gregory of Nyssa, Homilies on the Beatitudes : an English version with commentary and supporting studies : proceedings of the Eighth International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa, P...
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These proceedings present the first English translation of Gregory's Homilies on the Beatitudes by Stuart Hall, accompanied by a thorough commentary by Anthony Meredith, Andreas Spira, Françoise Vinel, Lucas Mateo-Seco, Thomas Böhm, Karl-Heinz Uthemann, Claudio Moreschini, and Robert Wilken. Eight more contributions by Monique Alexandre, Peter Bruns, Judith Kovacs, Salvatore Lilla, Friedhelm Mann, Alden Mosshammer, Elias Moutsoulas, and Lucian Turcescu focus on further general and particular topics of the homilies as their eschatology, the meaning of the word makarios in all of Gregory's works, the notion of justice, and Gregory's Theology of Adoption, as well as their relationship to Syriac theology, Clement of Alexandria, Neoplatonism, and Gregory's Homilies on the Song of Songs . The third and fourth part add ten studies reflecting the present overall state of Gregorian research.
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1 online resource (xxviii, 680 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004313187 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Aramaica Qumranica : proceedings of the conference on the Aramaic texts from Qumran at Aix-en-Provence (June 30-July 2, 2008) /
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The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls represent roughly 13% of the Qumran library and correspond to a wide range of genres and topics. This book consists of the proceedings of a conference on the Aramaic scrolls from Qumran which took place in Aix-en-Provence in 2008. It includes both the papers themselves and a transcription of the discussions. The 22 papers tackle linguistic, exegetical and historical questions, focusing in particular on: the relation of the Aramaic texts to what we know as the Hebrew Bible; their literary genres; the question of their sectarian or non-sectarian provenance; the character of the corpus, and specifically its relevance to the development of apocalypticism and messianism in the Jewish tradition.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004194328 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Public significance of religion
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This book reflects on the idea that religion represents a force in the public realms of society. The empirical evidence reveals a regained relevance for and commitment to religion re-emerging in secularized countries, but also that it does so in a new form: unexpected, foreign, and maybe even dangerous. If religion regains public significance in social debates, what are its characteristics in terms of topics and interests, actors and parties? How is this experienced and evaluated by different groups in society? What are the motives of religious groups and churches to re-enter the public domain and are they effective? What is the importance of religious groups claiming participation (consulting, steering, and dominating) in public debates? How do different religious and nonreligious groups evaluate the impact of religion on the public environment, and under which conditions can it be regarded to be functional or dysfunctional? Scholars who address these questions do so from a theological or a religious studies' perspective. They reflect on the phrase 'public significance' of a religion in its political, cultural, and typical religious dimension. The book points out what tendencies can be observed when different religions profile themselves competitively in public debate, and to what extent ethnic and national identities intervene in this interreligious interaction.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004207646 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Gospels in first-century Judaea : proceedings of the Inaugural Conference of Nyack College's Graduate Program in Ancient Judaism and Christian Origins, August 29th, 2013 /
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In The Gospels in First Century Judaea experts of Greco-Roman Judaism employ their expertise to offer fresh and innovative interpretations of gospel texts. Each study examines closely a passage from one of the four canonical gospels in order to shed light on it from various pertinent subject areas (e.g., linguistics, archaeology, fine art). The studies presented in this volume follow on the heels of more than forty years of research into the Jewish backgrounds of the New Testament, with one innovative development, namely, reading and interpreting the gospels as accounts that originate in the first century Judaea and play a more integral role in the body of ancient Jewish literature.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004305434 :
1388-2074 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Future of the Study of Religion, Proceedings of Congress 2000.
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This volume brings together diverse voices from various fields within religious and theological studies for a conversation about the proper objects, goals, and methods for the study of religion in the twenty-first century. It approaches these questions by way of the most recent contemporary challenges, debates, and developments in the field, and provides a forum in which contending perspectives are tested and contested by their proponents and opponents. Contributors address topics such as: the connection between the 'normative' and the 'scientific' approaches to the study of religion, the meaning of religion in a context of globalization, the relation between religious studies and religious traditions, the viability of comparative and cultural studies of religious phenomena, and the future of gender studies in religion.
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1 online resource. :
9789047404125
Religio-philosophical discourses in the Mediterranean world : from Plato, through Jesus, to late antiquity /
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This first volume of the new Brill series "Ancient Philosophy andamp; Religion" is a collection of articles by scholars of Classics, Ancient Philosophy, and Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity. The articles are based on papers presented at two colloquia on the interface between Ancient Philosophy and Religion at the universities of Aarhus and Cambridge. They focus extensively on Platonic philosophy and piety and sketch an emerging religio-philosophical discourse in ancient Judaism (both in the Sibylline Oracles and 4 Maccabees). Furthermore, this volume studies Seneca's religio-philosophical understanding of 'consolation', compares early depictions of Jesus with those of ancient philosophers, and, finally, reconsiders responses of pagan philosophers to Christianity from the second century to Late Antiquity.
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1 online resource (viii, 420 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004323131 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Authoritative scriptures in ancient Judaism /
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Many scholars of the Second Temple period have replaced the concept of canonization by that of canonical process. Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been crucial for this new direction. Based on this new evidence taxonomic terms like biblical, nonbiblical or parabiblical seem anachronistic for the period before 70 C.E. The notion of authoritative Scriptures plays an important part in the new paradigm of canonical process, but it has not yet been sufficiently reflected upon and is in need of clarification. Why were some texts more authoritative than others? For whom and in what contexts were texts authoritative? And what are our criteria to determine to what extent a text was authoritative? In short, what do we mean by "authoritative"? This volume focuses on specific texts or corpora of texts, and approaches the notion of authoritative Scriptures from sociological, cultural and literary perspectives.
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"This volume is a collection of contributions that reflect on the issue of the authoritativeness of Scriptures in Second Temple period Judaism. They result from a conference that the Qumran Institute organized on 28-29 April 2008"--Preface. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004190740 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Rewritten Bible after fifty years : texts, terms, or techniques? : a last dialogue with Geza Vermes /
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Rewritten Bible After Fifty Years presents the papers of a conference on the meanings and usages of the term Rewritten Bible introduced by Geza Vermes in 1961. Leading scholars of the topic discuss their new insights and ideas comparing with Vermes' initiative, whose participation on this conference was unfortunately the last chance for a life dialogue with him on this topic. Apart from the terminological discussions and comparisions several case studies widen the scope of the notion of Rewritten Bible/Scripture and rewriting as a genre and technique.
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Includes indexes.
This conference was organized in the native country of the Etzesgeber (the man of the idea) in Budapest on 10-13 July 2011". :
1 online resource (pages) :
9789004271180 :
1384-2161 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Iconoclasm and iconoclash : struggle for religious identity /
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This book focuses on iconoclastic controversies and, in particular, their impact on the creation of religious identities. In the history of Jewish, Christian and Muslim culture, religious identity was not only formed through historical claims, but also through the use of certain images: 'images of God', 'images of the others', and 'images of the self.' Moreover, in the struggle for religious identity these 'images' were time and again employed for the purpose of establishing distinct groups, both ortho- dox and deviant. At the same time, they supplied weapons in the theological debate and found explicit expression in certain rituals or liturgical traditions. These conference proceedings include a discussion of the role of images in society, politics, theology and liturgy, in particular addressing the 'iconoclash' of physical, mental and verbal images on the construction of religious identity.
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"Second conference of church historians Utrecht; University of Tilburg, faculty of Catholic Theology, Theology Department of Utrecht University." :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047422495 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.