Transformations of the Inner Self in Ancient Religions /
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This collection of papers from two workshops - held in Heidelberg, Germany, in July 1996 and Jerusalem, Israel, in October 1997 - is concerned with anthropological rather than theological aspects of the Near Eastern and Mediterranean religions, ranging from the 'primary' religions of the archaic period and their complex developments in Egypt and Mesopotamia to the 'soteriological' movements and 'secondary' religions that emerged in Late Antiquity. The first part of the book focuses on \'Confession and Conversion\', while the second part is devoted to the topic of \'Guilt, Sin and Rituals of Purification\'. The primary purpose of this volume is to convey a sense of the dynamics and dialectical relationships between the various Near Eastern and Mediterranean religions from the archaic period to Late Antiquity.
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Two contributions in German, one in French. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004379084 :
0169-8834 ;
Purity and the forming of religious traditions in the ancient Mediterranean world and ancient Judaism /
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Purity is a cultural construct that had a central role in the forming and the development of religious traditions in the ancient Mediterranean. This volume analyzes concepts, practices and images associated with purity in the main cultures of Antiquity, and discusses from a comparative perspective their parallel developments and transformations. The perspective adopted is both synchronic and diachronic; the comparative approach takes into account points of contact and mutual influences, but also includes major transcultural trends. A number of renowned specialists contribute a large variety of perspectives and approaches, combining archaeology, epigraphy and social history; in addition, particular attention is given to concepts of purity in ancient Israel and early Judaism as a 'test-case' of sorts. Through its extensive coverage, the volume contributes decisively to the present discussion about the forming of religious traditions in the ancient Mediterranean world.
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1 online resource (601 pages) : illustrations, mappages. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004232297 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The quest for a common humanity human dignity and otherness in the religious traditions of the Mediterranean /
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The worldview that all human beings belong to one big family has, in the history of religions, never been taken for granted. Moreover, human rights are a modern notion that should not be projected back onto the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. However, from the Hellenistic period onwards one encounters the idea of human duties towards not only parents, neighbours and fellow citizens but to all human beings. This volume explores the development of this idea from Antiquity to the present time focussing on the \'other\' as \'neighbour, enemy, and infidel\', on the interpretation of the Biblical story of Abraham´s sacrifice and on ancient and modern ethical and legal implications of the concept of human dignity.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004211124
Secrecy and Concealment : Studies in the History of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Religions /
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This volume deals with secrecy and concealment in the history of mediterranean religions as pattern of social interaction. Secrecy is a powerful means in establishing identity and interaction as G. Simmel has demonstrated. Using his approach the scholars of this volume describe and explain the practical meaning of concealment in two different religious systems: in Egyptian and Greek polytheism and in Jewish, Christian, Gnostic and Shi'i monotheisms. This point of view reveals that all these religions shaped social norms concerning public and private aspects of the human self.
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Proceedings of a meeting held June 1-4, 1993, at the Werner Reimers-Stiftung, Bad Homburg, Germany. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004378872 :
0169-8834 ;
The wandering throne of Solomon : objects and tales of kingship in the Medieval Mediterranean /
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In The Wandering Throne of Solomon: Objects and Tales of Kingship in the Medieval Mediterranean Allegra Iafrate analyzes the circulation of artifacts and literary traditions related to king Solomon, particularly among Christians, Jews and Muslims, from the 10th to the 13th century. The author shows how written sources and objects of striking visual impact interact and describes the efforts to match the literary echoes of past wonders with new mirabilia . Using the throne of Solomon as a case-study, she evokes a context where Jewish rabbis, Byzantine rulers, Muslim ambassadors, Christian sovereigns and bishops all seem to share a common imagery in art, technology and kingship.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004305267 :
2213-3399 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The wisdom of Thoth : magical texts in ancient Mediterranean civilisations /
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This volume represents a selection of contributions on Mediterranean themes from a wider international interdisciplinary conference on Magical Texts in Ancient Civilizations, organised by the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilizations at Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
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Conference proceedings. :
1 online resource : illustrations (black and white, and colour). :
Specialized. :
9781784912482 (PDF ebook) :
Maritime-related cults in the coastal cities of Philistia during the Roman period : legacy and change /
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This title questions the origins and the traditions of the cultic rites practised during Roman times along the southern shores of the Land of Israel. This area was known since biblical times as 'Peleshet' (Philistia), after the name of one of the Sea Peoples that had settled there at the beginning of the Iron Age. Philistia's important cities Jaffa, Ashkelon, Gaza and Rafiah were culturally and religiously integrated into the Graeco-Roman world. At the same time, each city developed its own original and unique group of myths and cults that had their roots in earlier periods. Their emergence and formation were influenced by environmental conditions as well as by ethno-social structures and political circumstances. Philistia's port cities served as crossroads for the routes connecting the main centres of culture and commerce in ancient times.
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Also issued in print: 2019. :
1 online resource (ii, 212 pages) : illustrations (black and white, and colour). :
Specialized. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9781789692570 (PDF ebook) :
Religion and social transformations in Cyprus : from the Cypriot basileis to the Hellenistic strategos /
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This monograph focuses on religion to explore how the socio-cultural infrastructure of Cyprus was affected by the transition from segmented administration by many Cypriot kings to the island-wide government by a foreign Ptolemaic correspondent. It approaches politico-religious ideological responses and structures of symbolism through the study of sacred landscapes, specific iconographic elements, and archaeological contexts and architecture, as well as through textual and epigraphic evidence. A fresh approach to the transition is put forward, connecting the island more emphatically with its longue durée. Moving beyond the field of Cypriot studies, this work also serves as a paradigm for the study of religion in relation to social power in other fields of classics and, in particular, for the enrolment of other areas of the Mediterranean into the political and cultural Hellenistic oikoumene.
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Title from PDF title page (viewed on Dec. 3, 2012). :
1 online resource (xxiii, 604 pages) : illustrations, mappages. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004233805 :
0169-8958 ; :
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.
Pilgrimage and Economy in the Ancient Mediterranean /
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In Pilgrimage and Economy in the Ancient Mediterranean , Anna Collar and Troels Myrup Kristensen bring together diverse scholarship to explore the socioeconomic dynamics of ancient Mediterranean pilgrimage from archaic Greece to Late Antiquity, the Greek mainland to Egypt and the Near East. This broad chronological and geographical canvas demonstrates how our modern concepts of religion and economy were entangled in the ancient world. By taking material culture as a starting point, the volume examines the ways that landscapes, architecture, and objects shaped the pilgrim's experiences, and the manifold ways in which economy, belief and ritual behaviour intertwined, specifically through the processes and practices that were part of ancient Mediterranean pilgrimage over the course of more than 1,500 years.
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1 online resource. :
9789004428690
9789004428683