Anthropology in the Age of Technology : The Philosophical Contribution of Günther Anders /
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This book is the first to discuss, for an English-speaking audience, the ideas of the German-Jewish man of letters, thinker, and activist Günther Anders. Anders is one of few philosophers to deal intensely with the moral consequences of Auschwitz and Hiroshima. He can rightly be called the philosopher of the atomic age, and his thinking a philosophy of modern technology. In biting manifestoes, sharp aphorisms, and penetrating essays, in stirring diary notes and political fables, Anders strikes out the age in which we live. As a twentieth-century visionary, he exposes the absence of the moral and social imaginations that is necessary to prevent our history from ending in a total catastrophe. In the gap between our technical creations and our utter inability to imagine their destructive potential lies the basis for the unstoppable activity of this practical philosopher. From every possible angle, he attempts to comprehend this modern schizophrenia in its roots and consequences. Anders is one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. He tried to describe and analyze the variety of manifestations of the "self-destructive progress of our technical civilization," which makes humanity into an "anti-quated" sort. He diagnosed countless important problems, ranging from the world of media to the dictates of the world of machinery, and he investigated their social, political, and philosophical meaning. To read his writings is more than becoming acquainted with a rich and colorful philosopher. It is more than an encounter with a moving and passionate individual. It is ultimately a confrontation with oneself, with our own guilt and responsibility, with our personal hopes and fears, with our lack of imagination and with our need to recover it.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004495708
9789042014022
Calvinism and the making of the European mind /
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Calvinism must be assigned a significant place among the forces that have shaped modern European culture. Even now, despite its history of religious fragmentation and secularization, Europe continues to bear the marks of a pervasive Calvinist ethos. The character of that ethos is, however, difficult to pin down. In this volume, many of the traditional scholarly conundrums about the relationship between Calvinism and the cultural history of Europe are revisited and re-investigated, to see what new light can be shed on them. For example, how has the ethos of Calvinism, or more broadly the Reformed tradition, affected economic thinking and practice, the development of the sciences, views on religious toleration, or the constitution of European polities? In general, what kind of transformations did Calvinism's distinct spirituality bring about? Such questions demand painstaking and detailed scholarly work, a fine sample of which is published in this volume.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004280052 :
1571-4799 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Conversion to Islam in the Balkans : Kisve Bahası Petitions and Ottoman Social Life, 1670-1730 /
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This volume offers a new approach to the subject of conversion to Islam in the Balkans. It reconstructs the stages of the Islamization process from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries and examines the factors and stimuli behind it. The practice of accepting Islam in the front of the sultan, characteristic of the last period of Islamization, and granting to new Muslims an amount of money known as kisve bahası , is shown in the context of Ottoman social development. An innovative structural analysis of the petitions requesting kisve bahası leads to examining the origins of the practice and constructing a collective portrait of the new Muslims who submitted them. Facsimiles and translations of the most interesting petitions are appended.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047402770
9789004135765
Jewish Cult and Hellenistic Culture : Essays on the Jewish Encounter with Hellenism and Roman Rule /
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This is a collection of 12 essays, written since 1997, on themes related to Hellenistic (Greek-speaking) Judaism. They include a review essay on recent scholarship on Hellenistic Judaism, a discussion of the question of anti-Semitism in antiquity, a study of the Hellenistic reform in Jerusalem, several studies of individual texts and an essay on the circumstances that led to the first Jewish revolt against Rome.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047407720
9789004144385
Shoshannat Yaakov : Jewish and Iranian studies in honor of Yaakov Elman /
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Shoshannat Yaakov honors Yaakov Elman, Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University, and celebrates Elman's contributions to a broad range of disciplines within Jewish and Iranian studies. The fruits of Elman's seminal project of bringing together of scholars of Iranian studies and Talmud in ways that have transformed both disciplines, are well represented in this volume, together with scholarship that ranges from Second Temple Judaism to Late Antique Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Samaritanism and Christianity.
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1 online resource (xxv, 485, 54 pages) : portrait, illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004235458 :
1571-5000 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Moses und der Mytho s die Auseinandersetzung mit der griechischen Mythologie bei jüdisch-hellenistischen Autoren /
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In the Hellenistic period Jews regularly encountered Greek mythology in one form or another: in literature, in art, or through language. This book is the first comprehensive study of the different strategies pursued by Jewish-Hellenistic authors as they engaged with Greek myth. The principal focus of this study is on the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, but a large range of other authors from the Third century BCE to the 1st century CE are also discussed. Far from limiting themselves to outright rejection, these authors often show a striking familiarity with Greek myth, which they sometimes even incorporated into Jewish myth. Ancient Jewish discourse on Greek myth was not primarily driven by apologetics, but constituted an important aspect of Jewish Hellenism. Juden trafen in der hellenistischen Zeit regelmässig auf griechische Mythen: in der Literatur, in der Kunst oder im allgemeinen Sprachgebrauch. Dieses Buch ist die erste weitgespannte Untersuchung der unterschiedlichen Strategien, die jüdisch-hellenistische Autoren in ihrem Umgang mit griechischen Mythen anwandten. Das Hauptgewicht der Untersuchung liegt auf dem jüdischen Historiker Flavius Josephus, aber eine grosse Zahl weiterer Autoren vom 3. Jh. volumeChr. bis zum 1. Jh. n.Chr. wird auch einbezogen. Diese Autoren haben griechische Mythen nicht einfach nur verworfen. Häufig zeigen sie eine bemerkenswerte Vertrautheit mit ihnen und gelegentlich gar die Bereitschaft, sie mit jüdischen Mythen zu verbinden. Der antike jüdische Diskurs über die griechischen Mythen war nicht in erster Linie von Apologetik bestimmt, sondern bildete einen wichtigen Aspekt des jüdischen Hellenismus.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004191136 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Greek religion and culture, the Bible, and the ancient Near East /
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In the last decades there has been an increasing interest in the relationship between Greek religion andamp; culture and the Ancient Near East. This challenging book contributes greatly to this interest by studying the Near Eastern background of important Greek myths, such as those of the creation of the world and the first woman, the Flood, the Golden Fleece, the Titans and travelling seers, but also of the births of Attis and Asclepius as well as the origins of the terms 'paradise' and 'magic'. It also shows that, in turn, Greek literature influenced Jewish stories of divine epiphanies and that the Greek scapegoat myths and rituals contributed to the central Christian notion of atonement.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [357]-400) and index. :
9789047432715 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jacob of Edessa and the Syriac culture of his day /
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Jacob of Edessa (c.640-708) is considered the most learned Christian of the early days of Islam. In all fifteen contributions to this volume, written by prominent specialists, the interaction between Christianity, Judaism, and the new religion is an important issue. The articles discuss Jacob's biography as well as his position in early Islamic Edessa, and give a full picture of the various aspects of Jacob of Edessa's life and work as a scholar and clergyman. Attention is paid to his efforts in the fields of historiography, correspondence, canon law, text and interpretation of the Bible, language and translation, theology, philosophy, and science. The book, which marks the 1300th anniversary of Jacob's death, also contains a bibliographical clavis.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [265]-293) and indexes. :
9789047426936 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The development of Christology during the first hundred years, and other essays on early Christian Christolog y
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Entering the debate about the development of Christology among Jesus' earliest followers, this volume critiques both the traditional evolutionary view that posited an elementary early Jewish Christology that developed in complexity as it was increasingly Hellenized and the more recent attempt to see a full-orbed Christology both as early and as Jewish, not Hellenistic, in its categories. It contends that during the first 100 years Jesus' followers employed four models from their milieu, Jewish and Greco-Roman, both to understand and to communicate their Christologies. These models were appropriated because they were appropriate vehicles for expressing the impact of Jesus on them, past, present, and future.
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Part One comprises previously unpublished material; Part Two is a collection of previously published essays. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004203501 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Homeland and exile : biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies in honour of Bustenay Oded /
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This volume is a scholarly tribute to Bustenay Oded's distinguished career from some of the many contemporaries, colleagues, and former students who not only admire, and keep being inspired by his achievements, but who also count him as a friend. The title points to the remarkable span of Bustenay Oded 's research and research interests. Accordingly, the Festschrift's thirty original contributions deal with a wide range of topics, focusing on the Assyrian Empire, as well as on the Hebrew Bible and other cultural contents.
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1 online resource. :
"Works by Professor Bustenay Oded": pages [xi]-xvi.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047441243 :
0083-5889 ; :
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.
Early Mesopotamian divination literature : its organizational framework and generative and paradigmatic characteristics /
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In Early Mesopotamian Divination Literature: Its Organizational Framework and Generative and Paradigmatic Characteristics , Abraham Winitzer provides a detailed study of the Akkadian Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1600 BC) omen collections stemming from extispicy, the most significant Mesopotamian divination technique for most of that civilization's history. Paying close attention to these texts' organizational structure, Winitzer details the mechanics responsible for their origins and development, and highlights key characteristics of a conceptual framework that helped reconfigure Mesopotamian divination into a literature in line with significant, new forms of literary expression from the same time. This literature, Winitzer concludes, represents an early form of scientific reasoning that began to appreciate the centrality of texts and textual interpretation in this civilization's production, organization, and conception of knowledge.
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1 online resource (xxi, 489 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 460-477) and index. :
9789004347007 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
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.
Philo of Alexandria : a thinker in the Jewish diaspora /
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Philo (20BCE?-45CE?) is the most illustrious son of Alexandrian Jewry and the first major scholar to combine a deep Jewish learning with Greek philosophy. His unique allegorical exegesis of the Greek Bible was to have a profound influence on the early fathers of the Church. Philo was, above all, a philosopher, but he was also intensely practical in his defence of the Jewish faith and law in general, and that of Alexandria's embattled Jewish community in particular. A famous example was his leadership of a perilous mission to plead the community's cause to Emperor Caligula. This monograph provides a guide to Philo's life, his thought and his action, as well as his continuing influence on theological and philosophical thought.
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1 online resource (xvi, 241 pages) : maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [225]-230) and indexes. :
9789004232372 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
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.
Decayed gods : origin and development of Georges Dumézil's "idéologie tripartie" /
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In 1930 Dumézil wrote an article in which he defended the Indo-European character of the Indian varnas . In 1986 he was completing his final 25 Esquisses , research proposals the aim of which was to allow his model of the 'idéologie tripartie' of Indo-European traditions to be applied to his 'disciples'. According to this model Indo-European traditions were typified by a threefold division into functions of society, the world of the gods, and the heroic traditions. These were the functions of sovereignty, power and 'fertility'. This theoretical model was elaborated by Dumézil in a large number of books and articles. Between 1930 and 1986 he broadened enormously the amount of data on which his model was based. To do so he had regularly to adapt and reformulate his model. This was not without consequences for the material which he had interpreted earlier on. In this study a detailed description is given of this process of reformulation and reinterpretation and the conclusion is that the totality of the various models does not, despite its aesthetic attraction, satisfy the criteria which should be set for scientific models.
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Translation of: Feiten, fouten en fabels, Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Leiden. :
1 online resource (xv, 254 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-245) and index. :
9789004301511 :
0169-9512 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The birth of indology as an Islamic science : Al-Biruni's treatise on yoga psychology /
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In The Birth of Indology as an Islamic Science Mario Kozah closely examines the pioneering contribution by Bīrūnī (d. circa 1048) to the study of comparative religion in his major work on India. Kozah concludes that a process of Islamisation is employed through a meticulous systematization of Hindu beliefs into one "Indian religion", preceding by almost a millennium the earliest definitions of Hinduism by nineteenth-century European Orientalists. This formulation of Hinduism draws on Bīrūnī's interpretation of Yoga psychology articulated in the Kitāb Bātanjal , his Arabic translation of the Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali. Bīrūnī's Islamic reading of Hinduism relies on certain common denominators that he identifies as being of fundamental importance. In the case of Hinduism he identifies metempsychosis as its unifying banner.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004305540 :
0169-8729 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The despoliation of Egypt in pre-rabbinic, rabbinic and patristic traditions /
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This work examines the role played by the biblical motif of the despoliation of Egypt in the understanding Gentiles had of Jews, and how Jews defended themselves, their heroes and their God in the face of anti-Jewish slander. It also examines the manner in which Christians learned from their rabbinic counterparts how to defend Moses and his God against the gnostic challenge. Beginning with Philo and based on haggadic additions, the embarrassment of the episode was 'healed' through allegory and became a critically important biblical justification for the Christian appropriation of the 'Egyptian treasures' of their Greco-Roman cultural heritage. This work describes how Christians borrowed exegetical traditions from rabbis not only to defend their sacred texts against gnostic attacks but to justify their interest in and appropriation of non-Christian philosophy in their theological understandings.
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1 online resource (viii, 305 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-298) and indexes. :
9789047433569 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
History and traditions of early Israel : studies presented to Eduard Nielsen, May 8th 1993 /
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This book is published as a Festschrift on the occasion of the 70th birthday of professor Eduard Nielsen (Copenhagen). In accordance with the main themes of Eduard Nielsen's scholarly works the articles concentrate on the history of early Israel, id est Israel before the classical prophets in the 8th century B.C., and on literary traditions referring to this phase of Israelite history. The articles are concerned with topics in the Books of the Pentateuch, with the epoch of King David, as well as with archaeology, Canaanite traditions et cetera Eduard Nielsen's bibliography is included at the end of the book.
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1 online resource. :
"Eduard Nielsen-biblioography": pages [161]-165. :
9789004275744 :
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.