Biblical perspectives : early use and interpretation of the Bible in light of the Dead Sea scrolls : proceedings of the First International Symposium of the Orion Center for the St...
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This volume explores the use and interpretation of the Bible in the Dead Sea Scrolls and associated apocryphal, early Christian and rabbinic literature. Interpretive interests, techniques and traditions are examined in many types of ancient works: rewritten bibles, pseudepigrapha, legal codes, prayers, sapiential texts, admonitions and historical treatises. The authors highlight the contribution of the new finds from the Judean Desert to such major issues as attitudes to the Bible and the Law in antiquity, continuity and innovation vis a vis the biblical world, common and unique dimensions of interpretation among different groups in the Second Temple and Rabbinic periods in particular, the Qumran sectarians and their opponents, New Testament authors and rabbinic Sages.
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1 online resource (viii, 291 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004350298 :
0169-9962 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
From Judaism to Christianity : tradition and transition : a festschrift for Thomas H. Tobin, S.J., on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday /
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As a far reaching tribute to the distinguished career of Thomas H. Tobin, S.J., a team of outstanding biblical scholars has joined to offer essays on the religious milieu of the ancient Mediterranean region. Challenged by Hellenistic and Greco-Roman cultural and political domination, the religious struggles of Jewish and, later, Christian communities sought to maintain tradition as well as mitigate transition. Jewish responses to a Hellenistic world are revealed anew in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the works of Artapanus and Philo. Also, Christian views on the transitory world of the early centuries of the Common Era are brought to light in the New Testament literature, apocryphal texts, and Patristic writings. Professors and students alike will benefit from the depth and breadth of this fresh scholarship.
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Includes a biographical note on Thomas H. Tobin and a bibliography of his works (p. [xvii]-xxxii). :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-311) and indexes. :
9789004214859 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
NVMEN, the academic study of religion, and the IAHR : past, present and prospects /
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Nvmen publishes papers representing the most recent scholarship in all areas of the history of religions ranging from antiquity to contemporary history. It covers a diversity of geographical regions and religions of the past as well as of the present. The approach of the journal to the study of religion is strictly non-confessional. While the emphasis lies on empirical, source-based research, typical contributions also address issues that have a wider historical or comparative significance for the advancement of the discipline. Numen also publishes papers that discuss important theoretical innovations in the study of religion and reflective studies on the history of the discipline. Brill is proud to present this special volume of articles compiled to celebrate the occasion of the 60th anniversary of NVMEN: International Review for the History of Religions in 2014. The articles in this volume have been selected under the auspices of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR), and reflect critically on the past, present, and future of NVMEN, the IAHR and the study of the History of Religions.
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1 online resource. :
9789004308466 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The nature of truth in "the gospel of truth" and in the writings of Justin Martyr : a study of the pattern of orthodoxy in the middle of the second Christian century /
: 1 online resource (xxiv, 247 pages) : Includes bibliographical references and indexes. : 9789004266025 : Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Jewish dialogue with Greece and Rome : studies in cultural and social interaction /
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Twenty-seven interdisciplinary essays on aspects of Judaism in the Greco-Roman world, exemplifying a wide range of techniques, by a well-known scholar. Three are previously unpublished, including a reappraisal of the Judaism and Hellenism debate and a study of the Sardis synagogue. The book's overall coherence derives from the author's long-standing interests in the analysis of texts as documents of cultural and religious interaction, and in how Jewish communities were woven into the social fabric of Greek cities in the Hellenistic and Roman East. The four sections are: Greeks and Jews, Josephus, The Jewish Diaspora and Epigraphy, and finally Beyond the Greeks and Romans, essays which extend into Christian literature and on to the nineteenth century reception of the Judaism/Hellenism dichotomy. Scholars and students from a wide variety of backgrounds will benefit. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.
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1 online resource (xix, 579 pages cm) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047400196 :
0169-734X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Exile and suffering : a selection of papers read at the 50th anniversary meeting of the Old Testament Society of South Africa OTWSA/OTSSA, Pretoria, August 2007 /
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At the fiftieth anniversary of the Old Testament Society of South Africa a conference was organized on the theme Exile and Suffering. This volume contains a selection of the papers presented. Focal questions are such themes as: What do we really know about the Exile? To what degree did suffering take place? How did the Ancient Israelites cope with the disaster? Where the ancinet traditions sufficient to deal with the Exile? Or did this period produce new forms of 'theology'? The significance of the Exile as a matrix for understanding suffering until this day is also dealt with.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047424352 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Ephraem der Syrer und Basilios der Grosse, Justinian und Edessa : Die Begegnung griechischer und syrischer Traditionsautorität in der Ephraemvita und der miaphysitisch-chalkedonisc...
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In Ephraem der Syrer und Basilios der Große, Justinian und Edessa untersucht Nestor Kavvadas die syrische Vita des Heiligen Ephraem, die in Edessa zum Höhepunkt des Konflikts zwischen der syrischen miaphysitischen Bewegung und der pro-chalkedonischen Kirchenpolitik Justinians komponiert wurde, und vergleicht sie mit einigen früheren griechisch-kappadokischen Hagiographien um Ephraem und Basilios von Caesarea, der in Ephraems Vita gleichsam als dessen Patron erscheint. Der Autor zeigt, dass während diese griechischen Hagiographien dazu bestimmt waren, Ephraem als Vater der chalkedonischen, byzantinischen orthodoxen Kirche zu reklamieren, die edessenische Ephraemvita Teil eines Versuchs der syrischen miaphysitischen Bewegung war, Exklusivrecht auf Ephraem sowie Basilios, und damit auf das Erbe der Kirchenväter, zu beanspruchen. Dann stellt der Autor heraus, wie die Ephraemvita, einmal "entschlüsselt", ihr historisches Umfeld in ein neues Licht stellen kann. In Ephrem der Syrer und Basilios der Große, Justinian und Edessa , Nestor Kavvadas examines the Syriac "Life" of Saint Ephrem, composed in Edessa at the time when the Syriac Miaphysite movement was opposing Justinian's pro-Chalcedonian politics, and compares it with several earlier Greek Cappadocian hagiographies about Ephrem and Basil of Caesarea, who is presented almost as Ephrem's patron in the latter's "Life". The author shows that while the Greek hagiographies were meant to (re)claim Ephrem as a Father of the (Chalcedonian) Byzantine Orthodox Church, Ephrem's Syriac "Life" was part of an attempt by the Syriac Miaphysite movement to claim exclusive rights on both Ephrem and Basil as representatives of the entire legacy of the Church Fathers. Then, the author points out how the "Life", once de-coded, can in turn shed light on its historical setting.
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1 online resource (208 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004362581 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Reclaiming the women of Britain's first mission to West Africa : three lives lost and found /
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Reclaiming the Women of Britain's First Mission to Africa is the compelling story of three long-forgotten women, two white and one black, who lived, worked and died on the Church Missionary Society's first overseas mission at the dawn of the nineteenth century. It was a time of momentous historical events: the birth of Britain's missionary movement, the creation of its first African colony as a home for freed slaves, and abolition of the slave trade. Casting its long shadow over much of the women's story was the protracted war with Napoleon. Taking as its starting point a cache of fifty letters from the three women, the book counters the prevailing narrative that early missionary endeavour was a uniquely European and male affair, and reveals the presence of a surprising number of women, among them several with very forceful personalities. Those who are interested in women's life history, black history, the history of the slave trade and British evangelism will find this book immensely enjoyable.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004387447 :
0169-9814 ;
Christian remnant-African folk church : Seventh-Day Adventism in Tanzania, 1903-1980 /
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The growth of Christianity in Africa during the twentieth century is one of the most fascinating shifts in the history of religions. This book presents a history of the Tanzanian Seventh-day Adventist Church, which is representative of this shift in many respects: slow beginnings, struggles over cultural issues, the emergence of a unique church life combining denominational heritage and African elements, frictions with governments, and the development of popular theology. Yet Tanzanian Adventism also exemplifies an important phenomenon which has been given little attention so far - the transformation of minority denominations to dominant religions. This study breaks new ground in analyzing how the Adventist "remnant" developed into an African "folk church" while attempting to remain true to its original ethos.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [559]-600) and index. :
9789047422686 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Public reading in early Christianity : lectors, manuscripts, and sound in the oral delivery of John 1-4 /
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In Public Reading in Early Christianity: Lectors, Manuscripts, and Sound in the Oral Delivery of John 1-4 Dan Nässelqvist investigates the oral delivery of New Testament writings in early Christian communities of the first two centuries C.E. He examines the role of lectors and public reading in the Greek and Roman world as well as in early Christianity. Nässelqvist introduces a method of sound analysis, which utilizes the correspondence between composition and delivery in ancient literary writings to retrieve information about oral delivery from the sound structures of the text being read aloud. Finally he applies the method of sound analysis to John 1-4 and presents the implications for our understanding of public reading and the Gospel of John.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004306639 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Satanism : a social history /
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A 17th-century French haberdasher invented the Black Mass. An 18th-century English Cabinet Minister administered the Eucharist to a baboon. High-ranking Catholic authorities in the 19th century believed that Satan appeared in Masonic lodges in the shape of a crocodile and played the piano there. A well-known scientist from the 20th century established a cult of the Antichrist and exploded in a laboratory experiment. Three Italian girls in 2000 sacrificed a nun to the Devil. A Black Metal band honored Satan in Krakow, Poland, in 2004 by exhibiting on stage 120 decapitated sheep heads. Some of these stories, as absurd as they might sound, were real. Others, which might appear to be equally well reported, are false. But even false stories have generated real societal reactions. For the first time, Massimo Introvigne proposes a general social history of Satanism and anti-Satanism, from the French Court of Louis XIV to the Satanic scares of the late 20th century, satanic themes in Black Metal music, the Church of Satan, and beyond.
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1 online resource (xi, 655 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004244962 :
1871-1405 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Martyriumsvorstellungen in Antike und Mittelalter : leben oder sterben für Gott? /
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Concepts of voluntary death and martyrdom versus the ideal of preserving human life are an essential component of the Ethics of the Abrahamite religions throughout their history. The studies collected in this volume focus on concepts of voluntary death and martyrdom in the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Period Judaism, Early Christianity and its pagan environment, Rabbinic Judaism as well as in Islam. The contributions of scholars of different background present a broad panorama of the varied perspectives of the Abrahamite religions on this phenomenon. The established concepts of martyrdom are challenged as too schematic. Betrachtungen über das Ideal eines freiwilligen Todes für den eigenen Glauben oder eines Martyriums, das in scharfem Gegensatz zum Gebot der Lebensbewahrung steht, ziehen sich durch die Geschichte der abrahamitischen Religionen. Der vorliegende interdisziplinäre Band versammelt Forschungen zu den Vorstellungen eines religiös begründeten freiwilligen Todes oder Martyriums in der Hebräischen Bibel, im Judentum des Zweiten Tempels, im Frühchristentum und seiner paganen Umwelt, im rabbinischen Judentum und im Islam. Die Beiträge verdeutlichen die unterschiedlichen Perspektiven der abrahamitischen Religionen auf dieses Phänomen. Es zeigt sich, dass die übergreifende, verallgemeinernde Charakterisierung jedes religiös bedingten freiwilligen Sterbens als 'Martyrium' der Komplexität des Phänomens nicht gerecht wird.
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Contributions from a conference held June 9-11, 2010, at the Westfäische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. :
1 online resource (vi, 324 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004234215 :
1871-6636 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Order and (dis)order in the first Christian century : a general survey of attitudes /
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Articulate first century Mediterranean society, Jewish and Christian included, expressly favoured harmonious order in society, in individuals, in communication, and in thought. Its common basis was the patriarchal family, the rule of law, rational self-control, and rational thought. Yet there was also resistance to oppressive and unjust order in all spheres; and while law could be held educative, yet there were substantial first century critiques of law, not just Paul's, and awareness that judicial procedures could be chaotic and biassed. Strands of such dissidence appear in Jesus and in Paul, with significant relevance for any understanding of the early Christian movement(s) and contemporary Judaism(s) in Graeco-Roman context, but also with important implications for any practical reflections and application.
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1 online resource (xiii, 395 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 319-353) and indexes. :
9789004255814 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The atheist bus campaign : global manifestations and responses /
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The international "Atheist Bus Campaign" generated news coverage and controversy, and this volume is the first to systematically and thoroughly explore and analyze each manifestation of that campaign. It includes a chapter for each of the countries which enacted - or attempted to enact - localized versions of the original United Kingdom campaign which ran the slogan, "There's Probably No God. Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life," prominently on public buses. Its novel focus, using a singular micro-level event as a prism for analysis, allows for cross-country comparison of legal and social reactions to each campaign, as well as an understanding of issues pertaining to the historical and contemporary status of religion and the regulation of nonreligion in various national settings.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004328532 :
1573-4293 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
No North Sea : the Anglo-German evangelical network in the middle of the nineteenth century /
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This volume deals with those Christians who helped construct an international and inter-denominational evangelical network in western Europe in the middle of the nineteenth century. The Evangelical Alliance (est. 1846) institutionalised this ecumenical impulse. The Berlin Conference (1857) was the high-point of cross-border cooperation in those decades. The réveil in France and Switzerland and the Erweckung in Germany laid the groundwork for the Alliance in Europe. England, the motherland of the evangelical revival, provided a resource centre for continental evangelicalism. The chapters on the various missionary endeavours at home and abroad draw attention to the outward-looking, charitable and evangelistic character of evangelicals. Students of evangelicalism, the missionary movement and the ecumenical movement will find the book to be of particular importance.
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1 online resource (xxii, 286 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-281) and index. :
9789004320048 :
0924-9389 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Spiritual mapping in the United States and Argentina, 1989-2005 : a geography of fear /
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Spiritual Mapping is a U.S. Evangelical and Neo-Pentecostal movement (1989-2005), which developed its own religious technique to wage a 'spiritual' war against unseen non-human beings. These 'spirits' were identified along the lines of geographical territories and put on a map, whence 'Spiritual Mapping' . Its intended function was to boost the numerical growth of Christianity. This book offers a comprehensive historical-descriptive approach of both the movement and the concept, with special attention for theological and anthropological concepts. Its historical roots, relation with Argentina, self-understanding and critics are being described. The reader is presented with a unique insight into Spiritual Mapping as an expression of Americanism, as well as the socio-political concept of Manifest Destiny and U.S. religious marketing.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 337- 361) and index. :
9789047443551 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Protestant Missions and Local Encounters in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Unto the Ends of the World.
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This book makes visible an important but largely neglected aspect of Christian missions: its transnational character. An interdisciplinary group of scholars present case-studies on missions and individual missionaries, unified by a common vision of expanding a Christian Empire "to the ends of the world". Examples range from Madagascar, South-Africa, Palestine, Turkey, Tibet, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada and Britain. Engaging in activities from education, health care and development aid to religion, ethnography and collection of material culture, Christian missionaries considered themselves as global actors working for the benefit of common humanity. Yet, the missionaries came from, and operated within a variety of nation-states. Thus this volume demonstrates how processes on a national level are closely linked to larger transnational processes.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004207691 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Judaism and Hellenism reconsidered /
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This book is a collection of 26 previously published articles, with a number of additions and corrections, and with a long new introduction on "The Influence of Hellenism on Jews in Palestine in the Hellenistic Period." The articles deal with such subjects as "Homer and the Near East," "The Septuagint," "Hatred and Attraction to the Jews in Classical Antiquity," "Conversion to Judaism in Classical Antiquity," "Philo, Pseudo-Philo, Josephus, and Theodotus on the Rape of Dinah," "The Influence of the Greek Tragedians on Josephus," "Josephus' Biblical Paraphrase as a Commentary on Contemporary Issues," "Parallel Lives of Two Lawgivers: Josephus' Moses and Plutarch's Lycurgus," "Rabbinic Insights on the Decline and Forthcoming Fall of the Roman Empire."
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [813]-843) and indexes. :
9789047408734 :
1384-2161 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Religion in the Making : The Emergence of the Sciences of Religion /
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This volume explores the ways in which religion became the object of scientific research in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most obvious is the development of an increasingly autonomous science of religion (with founding fathers like Max Müller and C.P. Tiele). However, within anthropology (Tylor, Frazer), sociology (Durkheim, Max Weber), and psychology (William James), religion also came to be seen as a separate entity to be studied comparatively. To capture this wide field this book focuses on the emergence of the discourse on religion in a broad academic context, among different disciplines. The emphasis is on general socio-historical developments, rather than on individual biographies. Part I deals with the institutionalization of science of religion in France, Britain, and the Netherlands. Part II focuses on boundary disputes between the emerging \'sciences of religion\'. Part III examines new conceptualizations of religion underlying the new endeavour (\'ritual\', \'magic\', \'survival\').
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Papers from a conference held May 22-24, 1997 at the University of Amsterdam. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004379039 :
0169-8834 ;