Power in powerlessness : a study of Pentecostal life worlds in urban Chile /
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Exploring the ritual and everyday religious practices through which Pentecostal life worlds unfold this book breaks new ground in the study of Latin American and global Pentecostalism. In addition to asking the familiar question of why many lower class Latin Americans convert to Pentecostalism, the author asks another question, so far largely neglected in the scholarly literature: how, or through what processes, do people begin and continue to relate to themselves and the social world in a particular Pentecostal way? For members of the Evangelical Pentecostal Church in Valparaíso, Chile, life is pervaded by divine and satanic presence and intervention. Through its fine grained analysis of different ritual, discursive/narrative and reflective processes the book shows how church members integrate sacred others into their everyday lives - or how they learn to live, think and behave as Pentecostals.
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1 online resource (278 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004218949 :
1542-1279 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Hindu gods in West Africa : Ghanaian devotees of Shiva and Krishna.
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In Hindu Gods in West Africa , Wuaku offers an account of the histories, beliefs and practices of the Hindu Monastery of Africa and the Radha Govinda Temple, two Hindu Temples in Ghana. Using historical material and data from his field work in southern Ghana, Wuaku shows how these two Hindu Temples build their traditions on popular Ghanaian religious notions about the powerful magicality of India's Hindu gods. He explores how Ghanaian soldiers who served in the colonial armies in India, Sri Lanka, and Burma during World War II, Bollywood films, and local magicians, have contributed to the production and the spreading of these cultural ideas. He argues that while Ghanaian worshippers appropriated and deployed the alien Hindu religious world through their own cultural ideas,as they engage Hindu beliefs and rituals in negotiating challenges their own worldviews would change considerably.
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1 online resource (346 pages) :
9789004255715 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Khōjā of Tanzania : discontinuities of a postcolonial religious identity /
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The Khōjā of Tanzania, Discontinuities of a Postcolonial Religious Identity attempts to reconstruct the development of Khōjā religious identity from their arrival to the Swahili coast in the late 18th century until the turn of the 21st century. This multidisciplinary study incorporates Gujarati, Kacchī, Swahili, and Arabic sources to examine the formation of an Afro-Asian Islamic identity (jamatī) from their initial Indic caste identity (jñāti) towards an emergent Near Eastern imaged Islamic nation (ummatī) through four disciplinary approaches: historiography, politics, linguistics, and ethnology. Over the past two centuries, rapid transitions and discontinuities have produced the profound tensions which have resulted from the willful amnesia of their pre-Islamic Indic civilizational past for an ideological and politicized 'Islamic' present. This study aims to document, theorize, and engage this theological transformation of modern Khōjā religious identities as expressed through dimensions of power, language, space, and the body.
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1 online resource (xvii, 226 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004292888 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The healer-prophet in Afro-Christian churches /
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Apart from the mainline, Pentecostal, and Zionist churches, there are different types of African Independent/Indigenous Churches (AIC). The greater part of the more than four thousand denominations and eight million adherents came into the AIC during the past three decades, mainly from the traditional African religious background. The important role of the diviner in the traditional society has been replaced by the prophet in the AIC; the prophet understands the worldview of his/her people, especially the cultural diseases. In some churches the office of prophet cum diviner is represented by one person. The AIC movement is the most dynamic church movement in many parts of Africa, especially Southern Africa. The consistent growth of these churches can largely be accounted for by the healing procedures they use, which ar highlighted in this study. Dr. Oosthuizen approaches healing from various angles, as sickness is not only determined by physical and psychological factors, but also by disturbed human relationships and socio-political and economic tensions.
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1 online resource (xxvii, 200 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-197) and index. :
9789004319844 :
0924-9389 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Text, context, and performance : Gagauz folk religion in discourse and practice /
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Past scholarship on the Gagauz people has focused on their ethnic origins and the tension between their Christian faith and Turkish linguistic identity. This study, based on extensive fieldwork in the Republic of Moldova, approaches the problem of this central dichotomy in Gagauz identity through the lens of daily religious practices. This empirical approach reveals how scholarly discourses on 'folk religion' guide the local fieldworker's identification of what are 'folk' religious practices and thus actualises 'folk religion' in a given context.The book offers a fresh methodological perspective on 'folk religion' as discourse and object of study and is the first monograph in a Western European language on the religion, history and identity of this under-studied European people.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. :
9789004216341 :
0169-8834 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Old Colony Mennonites in Argentina and Bolivia : nation making, religious conflict and imagination of the future /
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This volume challenges received images of Old Colony Mennonites as 'living in the past' or perfect examples of community. Through the concept of the 'imagination of the future' this book presents an analysis of their historical transformations as the result of attempting to apply in practice their Christian ideals of building a community of believers in the world, while remaining separate from it. It argues that while they contributed to the territorialisation of the states that hosted them through their migrations from sixteenth-century Europe to late twentieth-century Latin America, they systematically rejected being incorporated into the nation through the building of a community of agricultural settlements that maintain ties across international borders. It explores how these imaginations are maintained and transformed through the analysis of schisms, conflict, and border management, together with a biographical approach to conversion narratives, and the religious experience.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [199]-209) and index. :
9789047430636 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
An ethnography of a Vodu shrine in southern Togo : of spirit, slave, and sea /
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In this book, Eric Montgomery and Christian Vannier provide an ethnographically informed text on the cultural meanings and practices surrounding the gods and metaphysics of Vodu, as they relate to daily life in an ethnic Ewe fishing community on the coast of southern Togo. The authors approach this spirit possession and medicinal order through "shrine ethnography," understanding shrines as parts of sacred landscapes that are ecological, economic, political, and social. Giving voice to practitioners and situating shrines and Vodu itself into the history and political economy of the region make this text pertinent to the social changes and global relevance of Millennial Africa.
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1 online resource (ix, 306 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004341258 :
0169-9814 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Participation and beliefs in popular religiosity : an empirical-theological exploration among Italian Catholics /
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Many academic disciplines have contributed to the study of popular religiosity, but the definition of this phenomenon and of its relation with official religion still remains a problematic topic. This book offers an empirical-theological investigation of popular religiosity by exploring among Italian Catholics the relation between popular religious participation (processions, pilgrimages, vows, et cetera) and religious beliefs. The investigated beliefs are beliefs about God, about human suffering in relation to God, about Jesus Christ, and about the church. The results indicate that popular religious participation influences some of these beliefs. This study contributes to an empirically based picture of a complementary relation between popular religiosity and official religion within the Catholic Church in Italy.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [297]-308). :
9789004193666 :
1389-1189 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Faith in African lived Christianity : bridging anthropological and theological perspectives /
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Faith in African Lived Christianity - Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives offers a comprehensive, empirically rich and interdisciplinary approach to the study of faith in African Christianity. The book brings together anthropology and theology in the study of how faith and religious experiences shape the understanding of social life in Africa. The volume is a collection of chapters by prominent Africanist theologians, anthropologists and social scientists, who take people's faith as their starting point and analyze it in a contextually sensitive way. It covers discussions of positionality in the study of African Christianity, interdisciplinary methods and approaches and a number of case studies on political, social and ecological aspects of African Christian spirituality.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004412255
The earliest history of the Christian gathering : origin, development and content of the Christian gathering in the first to third centuries /
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Recent research has made a strong case for the view that Early Christian communities, sociologically considered, functioned as voluntary religious associations. This is similar to the practice of many other cultic associations in the Greco-Roman world of the first century CE. Building upon this new approach, along with a critical interpretation of all available sources, this book discusses the social and religio-historical background of the weekly gatherings of Christians and presents a fresh reconstruction of how the weekly gathering originated and developed in both form and content. The topics studied here include the origins of the observance of Sunday as the weekly Christian feast-day, the shape and meaning of the weekly gatherings of the Christian communities, and the rise of customs such as preaching, praying, singing, and the reading of texts in these meetings.
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Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Leiden University, 2009. :
1 online resource (xvii, 342 pages) : illustrations, plans. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-321) and indexes. :
9789004190702 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Reading John in Ephesus /
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This study describes the embedding of the Gospel of John in the city life of Ephesus. It uses the epigraphical and historical materials of first-century Ephesus as the point of reference for a reading of John. The study is a specific demonstration of the linguistic supposition that the use of the same (combination of) words in different co-texts evokes semantic similarities and dissimilarities which influence the process of giving meaning to a text. Reading John against the background of Ephesus influences its impact. Five topics have been selected: the use of names; the use of the titles for the emperors and Artemis in relation to the titles used for Jesus; the social city life; the group formations; and the function of the high priests in relation to the imperial cult.
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1 online resource (vii, 232 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-230) and index. :
9789004267299 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Dilemmas of attachment : identity and belonging among Palestinian Christians /
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This book offers an ethnographic account of contemporary Christian Palestinian lives in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Through individual life stories, Bård Kårtveit shows how Christians in the District of Bethlehem strive to live meaningful lives. Lives which are shaped by Christian-Muslim relations within the national community, the impact of Israeli presence in the Palestinian Territories, migration and homeland-diaspora relationships, and which are heavily influenced by changes in their local community and traditional family structures. By situating these stories in the changing political contexts of Palestine, from late Ottoman to Israeli/Palestinian Authority rule, the author engages with these general processes of patriarchal resistance to social change; the role of minorities in nation-building processes; the impact of Western interventions in the region; the rise of political Islam; and the impact of emigration in the Arab World.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004276390 :
1385-3376 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Politics of worship in the contemporary Middle East : sainthood in fragile states /
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In Sainthood in Fragile States , a wide range of social scientists explore the contested role of sainthood in the contemporary Middle East. By expanding the notion of sainthood to cover both the religious and secular ways of dealing with extraordinary events, people and things, the volume offers new insights into the way sainthood is embedded in various levels of everyday life, as well as national and international politics. The case studies highlight how fragility as a central aspect of sainthood is a productive force that often consolidates tales of the extraordinary, and is also the source of contesting social identities. Contributors include: Andreas Bandak, Mikkel Bille, Jürgen Frembgen, Sune Haugbolle, Angie Heo, Daniella Kuzmanovic, Edith Szanto, and Pnina Werbner.
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1 online resource (215 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004249226 :
1385-3376 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Trophonios de Lébadée : cultes et mythes d'une cité béotienne au miroir de la mentalité antique /
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The oracle of Trophonios at Lebadeia (Boiotia), among the best documented in Greece, was active from the archaic period to the third century AD. At this oracle, divine revelation was given in the form of a 'visionary trance', experienced as a psychic journey or leap of the soul into the world of truth. From the beginning, the cult and legend of Trophonios (and of similar heroes) turned upon the boundary between 'the other world' and the here-and-now, and were intimately linked with psychagogy, divination (including iatromancy), and the mysteries. The analysis of each of the oracle's components in the light of ancient mentalities has broadened our understanding of both Trophonios and of Greek divination in general.
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1 online resource (xxx, 430 pages) : illustrations, map. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 369-374) and index. :
9789004295988 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The variety of local religious life in the Near East in the Hellenistic and Roman periods /
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A 'Near Eastern religion', along the lines of 'Greek religion' or 'Roman religion', is hard to distinguish for the Classical period, since the religious cultures of the many cities, villages and regions that constituted the Near East in the Hellenistic and Roman periods were, despite some obvious similarities, above all very different from each other. This collection of articles by scholars from different disciplines (Ancient History, Archaeology, Art-History, Epigraphy, Numismatics, Oriental Studies, Theology) contributes to our quest for understanding the polytheistic cults of the Near East as a whole by bringing out the variety between the different local and regional forms of worship in this part of the world.
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1 online resource (xx, 329 pages, [61] pages of plates) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-310) and indexes. :
9789047433538 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
La raison des signes : présages, rites, destin dans les sociétés de la méditerranée ancienne /
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Comment prévoir l'inconnu et contrôler l'inattendu ? Les Anciens ont tenté de répondre à ces questions en interprétant des signes dans lesquels il reconnaissaient des messages divins. Ce recueil permet de comparer la diversité de leurs questionnements dans les sociétés polythéistes ou monothéistes de la Méditerranée antique. Il interroge premièrement la construction rituelle des signes au sein des institutions divinatoires ; deuxièmement, des phénomènes naturels spontanés, qui, apparus hors de toute institution, ont néanmoins valeur de présages ou d'avertissements ; troisièmement, l'intentionnalité manifestée à travers l'intervention divine dans l'histoire des peuples ou les vies singulières ; quatrièmement, l'épistémologie des signes dans des élaborations philosophiques ou théologiques qui éclairent la tension entre données oraculaires et contrôle ritualisé des signes, entre données révélées et argumentations raisonnées visant à neutraliser les injonctions du destin. How to foresee the unknown and master the unexpected? Ancient people tried to answer those questions by interpreting signs considered as divine messages. In this volume, the writers compare and examine this manifold questioning in the polytheistic and monotheistic societies of the ancient Mediterranean Sea. In the first place, it is shown how signs were ritually constructed within instituted practice of divination ; second, how, although some spontaneous natural phenomena appeared out of any instituted context, may nevertheless constitute omens or monition ; third, how the gods' intervention may reveal a sort of intention in the course of national history or individual life ; finally, the essays study the epistemology of signs at work in some philosophical or theological elaborations, which may enlighten the tension between oracular evidence and ritual control of signs, and between revealed facts and reasoning arguments intending to neutralize the injunctions of the divine.
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Text in French; summaries in English. :
1 online resource (xviii, 626 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004210912 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Empire and religion : religious change in Greek cities under Roman rule /
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This volume explores the nature of religious change in the Greek-speaking cities of the Roman Empire. Emphasis is put on those developments that apparently were not the direct result of Roman actions: the intensification of idiosyncratically Greek features in the religious life of the cities (Heller, Muñiz, Camia); the active role of a new kind of Hellenism in the design of imperial religious policies (Gordillo, Galimberti, Rosillo-López); or the locally different responses to central religious initiatives, and the influence of those local responses in other imperial contexts (Cortés, Melfi, Lozano, Rizakis). All the chapters try to suggest that religion in the Greek cities of the empire was both conservative and innovative, and that the 'Roman factor' helps to explain this apparent paradox.
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1 online resource (xvii, 221 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004347113 :
1572-0500 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Athena Itonia : geography and meaning of an ancient Greek war goddess /
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With Athena Itonia: Geography and Meaning of an Ancient Greek War Goddess Gerald V. Lalonde offers the first comprehensive history of the martial cult of Athena Itonia, from its origins in Greek prehistory to its demise in the Roman imperial age. The Itonian goddess appears first among the Thessalians and eventually as the patron deity of their famed cavalry. Archaic poets attest to "Athena, warrior goddess" and her festival games at the Itoneion near Boiotian Koroneia. The cult also came south to Athens, probably with the mounted Thessalian allies of Peisistratos. Hellenistic decrees from Amorgos tell of elaborate festival sacrifices to Athena Itonia, likely supplications for protection of the islanders and their maritime trade when piracy plagued the Cyclades after collapse of the Greek naval forces that policed the Aegean Sea. This will be an indispensable volume for all interested in the social, political, and military uses of ancient Greek religious cult and the geography, chronology, and circumstances of its propagation among Greek poleis and federations.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004416390
Ritual dynamics and religious change in the Roman Empire : proceedings of the eighth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Heidelberg, July 5-7, 2007) /
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This volume presents the proceedings of the eighth workshop of the international network 'Impact of Empire', which concentrates on the history of the Roman Empire and brings together ancient historians, archaeologists, classicists and specialists in Roman law from some thirty European and North American universities. The eighth volume focuses on the impact of the Roman Empire on religious behaviour, with a special focus on the dynamics of ritual. The volume is divided into three sections: ritualising the empire, performing civic community in the empire and performing religion in the empire.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047428275 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.