The European image of God and man : a contribution to the debate on human rights /
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The present volumes unites papers which explore the European image of god and man as the unquestioned basis of the concept which determines what western society defines as human rights and puts it in an intercultural context by comparative essays on chinese, islamic and buddhist thinking. The volume covers issues which range from classical antiquity until contemporary philosophy and science.
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Proceedings of a conference held in July 2009 at the Accademia di studi italodeschi, Meran, Italy. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004193789 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Private associations and Jewish communities in the Hellenistic and Roman cities /
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In Private Associations and Jewish Communities in the Hellenistic and Roman Cities, Benedikt Eckhardt brings together a group of experts to investigate a problem of historical categorization. Traditionally, scholars have either presupposed that Jewish groups were "Greco-Roman Associations" like others or have treated them in isolation from other groups. Attempts to begin a cross-disciplinary dialogue about the presuppositions and ultimate aims of the respective approaches have shown that much preliminary work on categories is necessary. This book explores the methodological dividing lines, based on the common-sense assumption that different questions require different solutions. Re-introducing historical differentiation into a field that has been dominated by abstractions, it provides the debate with a new foundation. Case studies highlight the problems and advantages of different approaches.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004407602
Presbyterian reformers in Central Africa : a documentary account of the American Presbyterian Congo Mission and the human rights struggle in the Congo, 1890-1918 /
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This volume contains 123 documents which illustrate the early history of the American Presbyterian Congo Mission and its struggle for human rights in the Congo from 1890-1918. The documents, many of which have never previously been published, are crucial to a full understanding of both the work of the Presbyterian Mission and its impact on the social, political, and religious life of the Congo. The book is divided into four parts. Part One documents the founding and early history of the Presbyterian Mission from 1890 to 1898. Part Two documents the deterioration of social conditions in the Congo under King Leopold, and the reform campaigns initiated by the American Mission in Britain and the United States. Part Three consists of documents related to the 1909 libel trial of William M. Morrison and William H. Sheppard, the principal leaders of the American Mission. Part Four documents the Mission's reaction to continuing human rights abuses, particularly religious persecution, under Belgian rule to 1918. The documents are annotated and the volume contains an introduction and an index.
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Collection of documents translated from French. :
1 online resource (xxii, 580 pages, [15] pages of plates) : illustrations, map. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004318144 :
0924-9389 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Russian-Orthodox Tradition and Modernity /
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The book attempts to identify the uniqueness of the Russian-Orthodox religious tradition and to contrast it with two of the characteristics of modern Western society: its particular economic ethics and individualism. Max Weber and Louis Dumont provide the theoretical framework. The first part of the analysis is concerned with the economic ethics among Orthodox Russians, Old Believers and the adherents of various sects in the historical context of Russian society. The second part centres on the place and the kind of individualism in the Orthodox tradition since its beginnings in early monasticism and up to the twentieth century. The comparative perspective does not only shed new light on Russia but also on the development of Western individualism and on the Janus-like features of a traditional culture exposed to modernization.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [208]-218) and index. :
9789047402725 :
0169-8834 ;
The Authority of Law in the Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism, Tracing the Origins of Legal Obligation from Ezra to Qumran.
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In The Authority of Law in the Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism , Vroom identifies a development in the authority of written law that took place in early Judaism. Ever since Assyriologists began to recognize that the Mesopotamian law collections did not function as law codes do today-as a source of binding obligation-scholars have grappled with the question of when the Pentateuchal legal corpora came to be treated as legally binding. Vroom draws from legal theory to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the nature of legal authority, and develops a methodology for identifying instances in which legal texts were treated as binding law by ancient interpreters. This method is applied to a selection of legal-interpretive texts: Ezra-Nehemiah, Temple Scroll, the Qumran rule texts, and the Samaritan Pentateuch.
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1 online resource. :
9789004381643
Kingdom-minded people : Christian identity and the contributions of Chinese business Christians /
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During the early twentieth century in China, a number of key economic leaders converted to Christianity. Whilst strongly influenced by cultural heritage, powerful modernizing forces and tumultuous political changes, the new Christian identity inculcated by Protestant missionaries motivated these entrepreneurs to modify their business practices, improve their social environment and extend the influence of Christianity. Protestant and Catholic sojourners likewise made significant contributions into their adopted communities. With unprecedented economic growth in China today, a fascinating contemporary parallel can be seen, particularly through the influence of Pentecostal, charismatic and evangelical training. Previous research has explored the emergence of the urban Christian élite in modern China. However, this systematic study provides new understanding of how Christian identity motivates Chinese business Christians toward economic, social and religious contribution.
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1 online resource (xx, 286 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004222670 :
1876-2247 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jewish and Christian communal identities in the Roman world /
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Jews and Christians under the Roman Empire shared a unique sense of community. Set apart from their civic and cultic surroundings, both groups resisted complete assimilation into the dominant political and social structures. However, Jewish communities differed from their Christian counterparts in their overall patterns of response to the surrounding challenges. They exhibit diverse levels of integration into the civic fabric of the cities of the Empire and display contrary attitudes towards the creation of trans-local communal networks. The variety of local case studies examined in this volume offers an integrated image of the multiple factors, both internal and external, which determined the role of communal identity in creating a sense of belonging among Jews and Christians under Imperial constraints.
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"This volume presents revised versions of lectures given in October 2013 at a Jerusalem symposium on Jewish and Christian Communal Identities in Antiquity. The Hebrew University's Scholion Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities and Jewish Studies together with the editorial board of Brill's Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity series kindly co-sponsored the symposium in memory of our colleague Friedrich Avemarie."--Preface. :
1 online resource (xi, 286 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004321694 :
1871-6636 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Parrhesia : ancient and modern perspectives on freedom of speech /
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Freedom of speech is a fundamental right in many societies, yet also highly contested. As a right, it can only be appreciated if its historical development is taken into account. Parrhesia offers case studies in freedom of speech, its understanding and exercise throughout history. They enable researchers and policymakers alike to gain an awareness of the complexities, challenges and benefits of freedom of speech. The cases that have been selected are from the field of religion and theology, yet exemplary in character and able to shed light on freedom of speech in other parts of society. Contributors are: Leon van den Broeke, Jan Krans, Silvia Castelli, Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, Manfred Lang, Bastian Lemitz, Nils Neumann, Kyriakoula Papademetriou, Dirk Jan Schoon, and Peter-Ben Smit.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004376090 :
1566-208X ;
Religion in times of crisis /
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Religion is alive and well all over the world, especially in times of personal, political, and social crisis. Even in Europe, long regarded the most "secular" continent, religion has taken centre stage in how people respond to the crises associated with modernity, or how they interact with the nation-state. In this book, scholars working in and on Europe offer fresh perspectives on how religion provides answers to existential crisis, how crisis increases the salience of religious identities and cultural polarization, and how religion is contributing to changes in the modern world in Europe and beyond. Cases from Poland to Pakistan and from Ireland to Zimbabwe, among others, demonstrate the complexity and ambivalence of religion's role in the contemporary world.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource (pages) :
9789004277793 :
1061-5210 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Vatican and Mussolini's Italy /
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Lucia Ceci reconstructs the relationship between the Catholic Church and Fascism. New sources from the Vatican Archives throw fresh light on individual aspects of this complex relationship: the accession of Mussolini to power, the war in Ethiopia, the racial laws, the comparison between Pius XI and Pius XII. This book offers a comprehensive reconstruction of this encounter, explaining the criteria that led Catholics to support a dictatorial, warmongering and racist regime. In contrast to the traditional periodization, the history begins with the childhood of Mussolini in the final years of the nineteenth century, and ends with the sudden collapse of his puppet regime, in 1945. This means to some extent placing in a different light the exceptional nature of the ventennio. The Italian original L'interesse superiore, Il Vaticano e l'Italia di Mussolini has won the "Friuli Storia" Prize for Studies of Contemporary History.
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Translantion of: L'interesse superiore : il Vaticano e l'Italia di Mussolini. Roma : Laterza, 2013. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004328792 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Christians shaping identity from the Roman Empire to Byzantium : studies inspired by Pauline Allen /
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The essays collected in Christians Shaping Identity celebrate Pauline Allen's significant contribution to early Christian, late antique, and Byzantine studies, especially concerning bishops, heresy/orthodoxy and christology. Covering the period from earliest Christianity to middle Byzantium, the first eighteen essays explore the varied ways in which Christians constructed their own identity and that of the society around them. A final four essays explore the same theme within Roman Catholicism and oriental Christianity in the late 19th to 21st centuries, with particular attention to the subtle relationships between the shaping of the early Christian past and the moulding of Christian identity today. Among the many leading scholars represented are Averil Cameron and Elizabeth A. Clark.
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1 online resource (xv, 520 pages) :
"Publications by Pauline Allen"--Pages 13-21.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004301573 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Creation, covenant, and the beginnings of Judaism : reconceiving historical time in the Second Temple period /
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This study examines the relationship between time and history in Second Temple literature. Numerous sources from that period express a belief that Jewish history began with an act of covenant formation and proceeded in linear fashion until the exile, an unprecedented event which severed the present from the past. The authors of Ben Sira, Jubilees , the Animal Apocalypse , and 4 Ezra responded to this theological challenge by claiming instead that Jewish history began at creation. Between creation and redemption, history unfolds as a series of static, repeating patterns that simultaneously account for the disappointments of the Second Temple period and confirm the eternal nature of the covenant. As iterations of timeless, cyclical patterns, the difficult post-exilic present and the glorious redemption of the future emerge as familiar, unremarkable, and inevitable historical developments.
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1 online resource (xii, 216 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-208) and index. :
9789004281653 :
1384-2161 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Christianity and resistance in the 20th century : from Kaj Munk and Dietrich Bonhoeffer to Desmond Tutu /
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How is the Christian supposed to act when his or her government misbehaves? Should one suffer and obey the authority, or should one render resistance; and if so, should it be passive or active; and if active, should it be violent or not? This book will not provide the answer to this question, but it will describe and analyse important persons of the 20th century who were placed in a situation where they did not merely 'turn the other cheek', but felt that they had to resist a regime; a decision which had consequences for them all. Thus the book provides insight to a central and current question of Christian and indeed religious thinking.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047424574 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
History as a theological issue /
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These days no one believes in the redemptive essence of history (Lyotard). The individual of today lives without culture, history, social engagement and moral norms (Lasch). It is in this intellectual climate that History as a Theological Issue has been written. Nico Bakker analyses seminal conceptions of history from the past and from our day, and compares them with the newest notions of history in biblical and systematic theology. In so doing he engages in conversation with thinkers from Augustine to Popper, along with many others. His thinking is informed in particular by the work of Barth, Pannenberg, and the Dutch reformed theologians Miskotte and Breukelman. Of central significance is his ability to apply basic theological notions to culture. In this way he connects the present-day crisis of culture with the permanent alienation of church and Christianity from its own origins in the scriptures. Now that since the 1950s a new awareness structure is beginning to emerge (Gebser), the author considers that theology is in need of a radical rethink. History as a Theological Issue is written primarily for theologians, historians, biblical critics and philosophers of religion and is recommended reading for all who are seriously interested in the present-day crisis of culture and in the widespread alienation from the Bible, Church and Christianity.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-294) and indexes. :
9789004397354
The Pericope Adulterae, the Gospel of John, and the literacy of Jesus /
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Although consistently overlooked or dismissed, John 8.6, 8 in the Pericope Adulterae is the only place in canonical or non-canonical Jesus tradition that portrays Jesus as writing. After establishing that John 8.6, 8 is indeed a claim that Jesus could write, this book offers a new interpretation and transmission history of the Pericope Adulterae . Not only did the pericope's interpolator place the story in John's Gospel in order to highlight the claim that Jesus could write, but he did so at John 7.53-8.11 as a result of carefully reading the Johannine narrative. The final chapter of the book proposes a plausible socio-historical context for the insertion of the story.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [261]-290) and index. :
9789047440192 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Religion und arkane Hierarchie : der Orden der Gold- und Rosenkreuzer als geheime Kirche im 18. Jahrhundert /
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This volume examines the history of the 18th-Century secret order of the Golden Rosicrucians (Gold- und Rosenkreuzer), one of the most mysterious, exclusive and successful Masonic societies in the German speaking countries of that time. The order and its esoteric roots have so far never been examined on the basis of original documents. The formation and development, the hierarchical structure, leading figures such as princes and ministers, and the system of degrees and secret teachings are explored in-depth and interpreted applying recent and innovative concepts of the Study of Western Esotericism.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 338-356) and index. :
9789047419518 :
1871-1405 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Salvation for the righteous revealed : Jesus amid covenantal and messianic expectations in Second Temple Judaism /
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Why is there such an ethical emphasis in Jesus' gospel proclamation? This work finds the answer in Jesus meeting his audience within their own conceptual realms and then expanding those realms to point to the nature of his salvation. The bulk of this work investigates the soteriology of Second Temple Judaism, especially of the Qumran Scrolls. The apocalyptic lesson was the demand of a greater covenantal obedience, held in tension with God's grace, a demand met through sectarian revelation and involving a somewhat diverse messianism. Within these conceptions, Jesus affirms that salvation is indeed for the "righteous," but as defined through himself as the unique Messiah. This work is particularly useful regarding the Jesus-Paul debate, for it provides a diachronic solution grounded in the cultural-historical milieu of the times.
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1 online resource (xvii, 391 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 331-362) and indexes. :
9789004331129 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jewish love magic : from late antiquity to the Middle Ages /
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Jewish Love Magic: From Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages is the first monograph dedicated to the supernatural methods employed by Jews in order to generate love, grace or hate. Examining hundreds of manuscripts, often unpublished, Ortal-Paz Saar skillfully illuminates a major aspect of the Jewish magical tradition. The book explores rituals, spells and important motifs of Jewish love magic, repeatedly comparing them to the Graeco-Roman and Christian traditions. In addition to recipes and amulets in Hebrew, Aramaic and Judaeo-Arabic, primarily originating in the Cairo Genizah, also rabbinic sources and responsa are analysed, resulting in a comprehensive and fascinating picture.
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Based on the author's thesis (doctoral) -- Universiṭat Tel-Aviv, 2009. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004347892 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.