Religion and magic in western culture /
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In the history of Western culture, theology, and science, a strict dichotomy exists between religion and magic: religion as the intellectually and morally superior one - magic as the primitive, superstitious, demonic other. The present work aims to break with this tradition, and traces the origin of this dichotomy as well as its many purposes. Whose powers does it serve? Which interests and ideological stakes does it conceal? Moreover, the author proposes a new epistemological framework for the study of magisms as well as their "rehumanisation", and argues for a rehabilitation of their studies.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004317567 :
2214-3270 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Magic and ritual in the ancient world /
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This volume contains a series of provocative essays that explore expressions of magic and ritual power in the ancient world. The essays are authored by leading scholars in the fields of Egyptology, ancient Near Eastern studies, the Hebrew Bible, Judaica, classical Greek and Roman studies, early Christianity and patristics, and Coptic and Islamic Egypt. The strength of the present volume lies in the breadth of scholarly approaches represented. The book begins with several papyrological studies presenting important new texts in Greek and Coptic, continuing with essays focusing on taxonomy and definition. The concluding essays apply contemporary theories to analyses of specific test cases in a broad variety of ancient Mediterranean cultures.
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1 online resource (xvii, 468 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047400400 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Ancient magic and ritual power /
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This volume contains a series of provocative essays that explore expressions of magic and ritual power in the ancient world. The essays are authored by leading scholars in the fields of Egyptology, ancient Near Eastern studies, the Hebrew Bible, Judaica, classical Greek and Roman studies, early Christianity and patristics, and Coptology. Throughout the book the essays examine the terms employed in descriptions of ancient magic. From this examination comes a clarification of magic as a polemical term of exclusion but also an understanding of the classical Egyptian and early Greek conceptions of magic as a more neutral category of inclusion. This book should prove to be foundational for future scholarly studies of ancient magic and ritual power. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.
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1 online resource (vii, 476 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 8-10). :
9789004283817 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Magical practice in the Latin West : papers from the international conference held at the University of Zaragoza, 30 Sept.-1 Oct. 2005 /
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How different was the practice of magic in the Latin West from that of the eastern Mediterranean basin? Was it just derivative from Greek practice, or did it have its own originality? The recent discovery of important new curse-tablets in Mainz and in the Fountain of Anna Perenna at Rome has made the question newly topical. This volume contains the first commented editions in English of most of these new texts as well as major surveys of new prayers for justice. Other sections are devoted to the discourse of magic in the West, to the linguistics and aims of cursing, and to the major field of protective and eudaemonic magic up to and including the Visigothic slates and the Celtic loricae. The essays are by well-known scholars in the field as well as by established and younger Spanish scholars.
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1 online resource (xxvi, 676 pages, [28] pages of plates) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047441397 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Studies in the Syriac Magical Traditions /
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The study of the Syriac magical traditions has largely been marginalised within Syriac studies, with the earliest treatments displaying a disparaging attitude towards both the culture and its magical practices. Despite significant progress in more recent scholarship in respect of the culture, its magical practices and their associated literatures remain on the margins of the scholarly imagination. This volume aims to open a discussion on the history of the field, to evaluate how things have progressed, and to suggest a fruitful way forward. In doing so, this volume demonstrates the incredible riches contained within the Syriac magical traditions, and the necessity of their study.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004467200
9789004467194
Envisioning Magic, A Princeton Seminar and Symposium.
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This collection of twelve articles presents a selection of papers delivered in the course of a seminar 1994-95 and its concluding international symposium at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. The common theme is the interrelation between magic and religion, focussing particularly on the Mediterranean world in Antiquity - Egyptian, Graeco-Roman and Jewish beliefs and customs - but also treating the early modern period in Northern Europe (the Netherlands and Germany) as well as offering more general reflections on elements of magic in language and Jewish mysticism. The volume is characterized by an interdisciplinary approach and the use of varied methodologies, emphasizing the dynamic nature of the often contradictory forces shaping religious beliefs and practices, while dismissing the idea of a linear development from magic to religion or vice versa. The contributors are outstanding scholars in their fields: Ancient, Medieval and Modern History, Religious Studies, Jewish Studies, Classical Studies, Early Christianity, Islamic Studies, Anthropology, Egyptology and Comparative Literature. Without a doubt this re-evaluation of a fascinating age-old subject will stimulate scholarly discussion and appeal to educated non-specialist readers as well.
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1 online resource. :
9789004378971
Ägyptische Magie und ihre Umwelt /
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Dem antiken Verständnis nach war Magie weit mehr als nur ein Sammelsurium esoterischer Praktiken und Rituale, die vor allem zum eigenen Nutzen und zum Schaden anderer eingesetzt wurden. Vielmehr sind darunter alle religiösen Handlungen jenseits der institutionalisierten Kultausübung zu fassen. Dies zeigen auch die zwölf Aufsätze, die aus der im Frühjahr 2011 anlässlich der Rückkehr eines lange vermissten Heidelberger Zauberbüchleins organisierten Ausstellung 'Ägyptische Magie im Wandel der Zeiten' hervorgingen. Nunmehr um eine ausserägyptische Perspektive erweitert, reicht der zeitliche Rahmen der Beiträge in diesem Band von den Anfängen der Schriftlichkeit im Zweistromland und dem Alten Ägypten bis tief in das koptischsprachige Mittelalter hinein. Überblicksartikel vermitteln einen Eindruck von Magie in Mesopotamien und im Vorderen Orient sowie im spätzeitlichen Ägypten. Daneben stehen thematische Beiträge zu solchen Bereichen, in denen man sich bevorzugt magischer Mittel bediente, so beim Schutz der Grabstätte, bei der Abwehr von Schlangen und Skorpionen, im medizinischen Bereich und mit besonderer Energie bei der Verfolgung sexueller Ziele. Ägyptische und griechische Papyri, aber auch die gern mit Zeichnungen verbundenen koptischen Zaubertexte führen eine beunruhigende Vielfalt und Gestalt hilfreicher oder schädlicher Mächte vor Augen; magische Elemente im Neuen Testament kommen ebenso zur Sprache wie das breite Feld der Zahlensymbolik. Aus den hier erstmals systematisch zusammengestellten Magica der Heidelberger Papyrussammlung wird zugleich die grosse Rolle deutlich, die die Überlieferungslage für unsere Kenntnis all dessen spielt.
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379 pages : illustrations, facsimiles ; 25 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9783447103169
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) :
Continuity and innovation in the magical tradition
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This volume brings together thirteen studies by as many experts in the study of one or more ancient or medieval magical traditions, from ancient Mesopotamia and Pharaonic and Greco-Roman Egypt to the Greek world, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It lays special emphasis on the recurrence of similar phenomena in magical texts as far apart as the Akkadian cuneiform tablets and an Arabic manuscript bought in Egypt in the late-twentieth century. Such similarities demonstrate to what extent many different cultures share a "magical logic" which is strikingly identical, and in particular they show the recurrence of certain phenomena when magical practices are transmitted in written form and often preserve, adopt and adapt much older textual units.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004215269 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.