The locus of tragedy /
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Ask for the tragic and Europe will answer. Leaving behind the philosophers' enthusiasm of the nineteenth century, 'tragedy' and 'the tragic' now seem little more than vague containers. However, it appears that we still discover a tragic essence in our personal lives. Time and again tragedy is being registered, written down and staged. This book wants to open a contemporary philosophical perspective on the tragic. What is the locus of tragedy? Does it relate to metaphysics, the gods, destiny, and chance? Or is it a matter of ethics, of the Law and its transgression? Does man himself occupy the locus of tragedy, because of his unreasonable and boundless desires, as many philosophers have suggested? Is man today still able to account for his tragic condition? Or do we locate the tragic first and foremost in the esthetic imagination? Is not the theatrical genre of tragedy the locus authenticus of all things tragic? Is there more to the tragic than drama and play?
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789047443223 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Polemical encounters : esoteric discourse and its others /
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In its historical development from late antiquity to the present, western esotericism has repeatedly been the issue of polemical discourse. This volume engages the polemical structures that underlie both the identities within and the controversy about esoteric currents in European history. From Jewish and Christian kabbalah through heretical discourse and interconfessional polemics in early modernity to the legitimization of esoteric identity in modern culture, the 12 chapters, accompanied by an editors' introduction, provide a cornucopia of relevant cases that are interpreted in a framework of polemical discourse and 'Othering'. This volume sheds new light on the ultimately polemical structure of western esotericism and thus opens new vistas for further research into esoteric discourse.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047431510 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Zoroastrian myth of migration from Iran and settlement in the Indian diaspora : text, translation and analysis of the 16th century Qeṣṣe-ye Sanjān 'The story of Sanjan' /
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The Qesse-ye Sanjān is the sole surviving account of the emigration of Zoroastrians from Iran to India to form the Parsi ('Persian') community. Written in Persian couplets in India in 1599 by a Zoroastrian priest, it is a work many know of, but few have actually read, let alone studied in depth. This book provides a romanised transcription from the oldest manuscripts, an elegant metrical translation, detailed commentary and, most importantly, a radical new theory of how such a text should be "read", id est not as a historical chronical but as a charter of Zoroastrian identity, foundation myth and justification of the Parsi presence in India. The book fills a lacuna that has been acutely felt for a long time.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-242) and indexes. :
9789047430421 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The world's oldest literature : studies in Sumerian belles-lettres /
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Literature begins at Sumer, we may say. Given that this ancient crossroads of tin and copper produced not only bronze and the entire Bronze Age, but also by neccesity, the first system of record-keeping and the technique of writing. Scribal schools served to propogate the new technique and their curriculum grew to create, preserve and transmit all manner of creative poetry. In a lifetime of research, the author has studied multiple aspects of this most ancient literary oeuvre, including such questions as chronology and bilingualism, as well as contributing fundamental insights into specific genres such as proverbs, letter-prayers and lamentations. In addition, he has drawn conclusions for the comparative or contextual approach to biblical literature. His studies, widely scattered in diverse publications for nearly fifty years, are here assembled in convenient one-volume format, made more user-friendly by extensive cross-references and indices. \'Well-informed and sober, these essays offer rewarding reading for every area of biblical scholarship.\' A.R. Millard
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Collection of essays published elsewhere previously between 1962 and 2006. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047427278 :
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.
Women's agency and rituals in mixed and female Masonic orders /
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Women have been structurally part of the masonic enterprise from at least the middle of the 18th century. Yet, little is known about the ways in which they themselves obtained and exercised power to influence the systems they were involved in, in order to adapt them to be more appropriate to their needs. This volume intends to concentrate on two aspects: Women's agency (i.e. the power women gained and exercised in this context) and rituals (i.e. the role of men and women in changing and shaping the rituals women work with). These two aspects are closely related, since it requires some agency to realise changes in existing rituals.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047425861 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Law, custom, and statute in the Muslim world : studies in honor of Aharon Layish /
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This collective volume, in honor of Aharon Layish, deals with the main components in the laws of Islamic societies, past and present: sharīʿa , custom, and statute. Some chapters focus on one of these components, other discuss the interplay between two or even all three of them. The geographical coverage of the volume is wide, from the Balkans to Yemen, and from Iraq to the Maghrib. The chapters are based on a variety of sources: fiqh literature, fatwās , court decisions, judicial circulars, biographical dictionaries and chronics. The volume will be of special interest to historians, social scientists and lawyers working on Islamic and Israeli laws, and to those interested in gender studies, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Islamic cultures at large.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-246) and index. :
9789047411307 :
1384-1130 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Causing his name to live : studies in Egyptian epigraphy and history in memory of William J. Murnane /
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William J. Murnane (1945-2000) dedicated his life to the epigraphic recording and historical interpretation of the monuments of pharaonic Egypt. In tribute to his important contributions to Egyptology, a prominent group of his colleagues and students offer a range of new studies on Egyptian epigraphy and historiography. Amarna studies loom large in the volume as they did in Murnane's own work. Several chapters investigate the art, history and chronology of the reigns of Akhenaten and his immediate successors. Other contributions deal with historical issues, especially those connected with the epigraphic and archaeological aspects of the Theban temples of Karnak and Luxor. The book is richly illustrated with photographs and drawings.
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"Bibliography of William J. Murnane": pages [179]-182. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047429883 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Rethinking ghosts in world religions /
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The central theme of this volume is to re-examine the received concepts and images of ghosts in various religious cultures ranging from the Ancient Near East and Egypt to the Old Testament, the Classical Era, Early Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Early India, and Medieval China. As a religious phenomenon, the realm of ghosts has been less studied than the realm of the divine. Through a collaborative effort by scholars from different disciplines, this volume proposes a multi-cultural approach to construct a wider and complicated picture of the phenomenon of ghosts and spirits in human societies and to have a grasp of the various problems involved in understanding the phenomenon of ghost.
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Proceedings of a conference held in Dec. 2005. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [311]-335) and index. :
9789047424840 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.