Man, Meaning, and Mystery : 100 Years of History of Religions in Norway. The Heritage of W. Brede Kristensen /
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At an international symposium in Norway, the 100 years' anniversary of the academic study of religion was celebrated. This volume contains the papers that were presented at this conference. A major part of the papers deals with the situation of this discipline around the turn of the last century, focussing especially on the work of the Dutch-Norwegian scholar W. Brede Kristensen (1867-1953) and on other founding fathers in the Scandinavian countries. Other contributors discuss methodological questions relating to the idea of a phenomenology of religion. Furthermore, an attempt is made to compare the study of religion at the end of the twentieth century with the situation a hundred years earlier, and to trace some of the lines of development. The book includes a bibliography of publications by W. Brede Kristensen.
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Consists chiefly of lectures given during an international symposium, held in Oslo Sept. 17-20, 1998. :
1 online resource. :
"William Brede Kristensen: a bibliography": pages [287]-294.
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047400264 :
0169-8834 ;
Self, Soul and Body in Religious Experience /
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The papers in this volume were delivered at the first international colloquium by the Jacob Taubes Minerva Center for Religious Anthropology at Bar Ilan University, held in February 1995. Concepts of Self, Soul and Body are so close to the physiological layers of life that we may imagine them to be biological as well; but in fact, they are social constructs, and a source of fundamental metaphors for the classification of experience. They thus help organize the world, at the same time as they express basic human identity. They vary from culture to culture and can productively be compared and contrasted from one setting to another. We intend these papers to be a test case of the benefit to be gained from attention to Religious Anthropology.
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Papers presented at the first international colloquium sponsored by the Jacob Taubes Minerva Center for Religious Anthropology at Bar Ilan University, held in Feb. 1995. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004379008 :
0169-8834 ;
The Orient in Spain : converted Muslims, the forged lead books of Granada, and the rise of orientalism /
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Taking as its main subject a series of notorious forgeries by Muslim converts in sixteenth-century Granada (including an apocryphal gospel in Arabic), this book studies the emotional, cultural and religious world view of the Morisco minority and the complexity of its identity, caught between the wish to respect Arabic cultural traditions, and the pressures of evangelization and efforts at integration into "Old Christian" society. Orientalist scholarship in Early Modern Spain, in which an interest in Oriental languages, mainly Arabic, was linked to important historiographical questions, such as the uses and value of Arabic sources and the problem of the integration of al-Andalus within a providentialist history of Spain, is also addressed. The authors consider these issues not only from a local point of view, but from a wider perspective, in an attempt to understand how these matters related to more general European intellectual and religious developments.
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Translation of: Un oriente español. Madrid : Marcial Pons Historia, 2010; corrected and expanded, with new research and a new bibliography. :
1 online resource (xi, 475 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004250291 :
0169-8834 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Religious education in pre-modern Europe /
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Although religious education is a much-debated topic in present-day History of Religions, its study focuses almost exclusively on contemporary phenomena. Furthermore, this field of study still lacks a comprehensive theoretical framework to structure research. The volume presented here explores religious education from a historical perspective, focusing on source material from pre-modern Europe. Scholars from the History of Religions, Theology, Classical Philology, Medieval Studies and Byzantine Studies contribute their expertise to analyse selected aspects of religious education in Antiquity, Byzantium and the Middle Ages, highlighting the diverse concepts of education, educational contents, actors, media, methods, ideals and intentions at play, and anchoring their case studies in the broader panorama of European history. Based on this material, the editors propose a systematic framework to map the research field.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource (254 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004232143 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Religion and retributive logic : essays in honour of professor Garry W. Trompf /
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Garry Winston Trompf (b.1940) in his outstanding academic career has inspired scholars in the fields of Stduies in Religion and the History of Ideals. In this volume his collegues and students critique and expand upon the world of this outstanding academic. The book is divided into four parts, Melanesia, Ancient World Studies, Philosophical and Methodological Considerations and Historiography. Authors address Trompf's research in works such as "The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought", "Early Christian Historiography" and themes of Melanesian religion that Trompf address in "Payback". No study in the religions of oceania or ideals of millenialism should ignore this critical assessment of Garry Trompf's work.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047441151 :
0169-8834 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Pure Land Buddhism in modern Japanese culture /
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Despite being one of the most influential forms of Japanese Buddhism, the Pure Land tradition, and notably its impact on the development of Japanese cultural history, has often been overlooked outside Japan. Taking into account recent scholarship on orientalism and occidentalism, this book, written from the perspective of the Study of Religions, provides an analysis of the impact that the Pure Land tradition, in particular Shin Buddhism, has exerted on mainstream forms of artistic expression (especially creative arts, literature and the tea ceremony) in modern and contemporary Japan.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [243]-258) and index. :
9789047443056 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Theorizing rituals /
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Volume two of Theorizing Rituals mainly consists of an annotated bibliography of more than 400 items covering those books, edited volumes and essays that are considered most relevant for the field of ritual theory. Instead of proposing yet another theory of ritual, the bibliography is a comprehensive monument documenting four decades of theorizing rituals.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047421825 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
South Asians in the Diaspora, Histories and Religious Traditions.
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This volume deals with a phenomenon of increasing global significance, the South Asian diaspora. In particular it deals with the role of religion. The diversity of religious life in South Asia is remarkable and much of this diversity is replicated in the diaspora communities around the world. The case studies in this book explore and analyse the social, religious and cultural reality of people in the diaspora belonging to Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism and originating from four of the South Asian nation states (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka). The book highlights the religious diversity that exists in the diaspora communities both across the traditions and within the particular religions.
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1 online resource. :
9789047401407
Religious dynamics under the impact of imperialism and colonialism : a sourcebook /
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This sourcebook offers rare insights into a formative period in the modern history of religions. Throughout the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, when commercial, political and cultural contacts intensified worldwide, politics and religions became ever more entangled. This volume offers a wide range of translated source texts from all over Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, thereby diminishing the difficulty of having to handle the plurality of involved languages and backgrounds. The ways in which the original authors, some prominent and others little known, thought about their own religion, its place in the world and its relation to other religions, allows for much needed insight into the shared and analogous challenges of an age dominated by imperialism and colonialism.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004329003 :
0169-8834 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Egypt - Temple of the Whole World, Studies in Honour of Jan Assmann.
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\'The intellectual heritage of Ancient Egypt\' - once wrote Jan Assmann - \'can hardly be said to have become part of our cultural memory. It is a subject of fascination, not of understanding.\' This fascination began when ancient Greek travellers started visiting Egypt, and continues unto this day, more often than not as a scholarly search for the oldest roots of our cultural memory. Jan Assmann's superb academic achievement undoubtedly represents the single most significant contribution to the modern understanding of Ancient Egypt, reaching far beyond the boundaries of Egyptology proper. The essays in this volume, all written by his friends and disciples, reflect the tremendous impact of his oeuvre on the scholarly world, encompassing not only Egyptological and related themes, but also central aspects of Judaeo-Christian identity such as monotheism and the historical events surrounding the recently discovered Diaspora temple of Yahu on the island of Elephantine.
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1 online resource. :
9789047402527
New Perspectives on Advaita Vedānta, Essays in Commemoration of Professor Richard De Smet, S.J..
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This volume is a collection of essays by leading scholars who treat various aspects of the Hindu thinker Śaṃkara (ca. 700 CE) and his system of Advaita Vedānta. Topics include the contemporary relevance of Śaṃkara for inter-religious dialogue and human rights as well as revised assessments of Śaṃkara's understanding of divine grace, the role of the gods, Buddhism, Śaṃkara's relation to later Advaita, and the unity of the Self. The introductory essay of this commemoration volume assesses the place and value of Richard De Smet's work in the context of twentieth century Śaṃkara scholarship. The contributors break new scholarly ground and offer fresh perspectives on Śaṃkara and Advaita Vedānta and help reassess traditional understandings of this great master of non-duality.
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1 online resource. :
9789004379114
Zoroastrian Rituals in Context.
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Rituals, it is agreed, play a prominent role in Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest continuous traditions of mankind. In this book, scholars from a broad range of disciplines make the first ever collective effort to address this issue. From a historical and geographical perspective, texts and contexts studied in these pages range from antiquity to modernity, all the way from Japan, China, India, Iran, Europe to California. The essays touch on questions of theory, ritual texts, change and performances, gender and professional religion (priesthood/lay-people). The rituals studied are placed in a broad scope of social and local settings ranging from the royal court to the needy, from the rural village to the urban metropolis, from the domestic to the public.
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1 online resource. :
9789047412502
The Myotei dialogues : a Japanese Christian critique of native traditions /
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The Myōtei Dialogues is the first complete English translation one of the most important works of early Japanese Christianity. Fukansai Habian's Myōtei mondō (1605) presents a sharp critique of the three main Japanese traditions, Buddhism, Shintō, and Confucianism, followed by an explanation of the main tenets of Christianity specifically aimed at a Japanese audience. Written by a convert, it is of importance not merely because it shows us how the Christian message was presented by a Japanese to other Japanese, but also for what it reveals about the state of the three native traditions at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004307292 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Sociology of religion in America : a history of a secular fascination with religion /
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Sociology of Religion in America tells the story of the controversies involved in the development of a scientific specialty that often makes news in America. The evidence it presents runs contrary to the many myths about the field. Sometimes viewed by scholars as a backwater, actual evidence from the 1890s to the 1980s shows that sociology of religion had a steady presence in sociology all along. Seen as a force alien to religion by some, it was actually in a mutually supportive relationship with religious organizations. Examining dissertations dating from 1895 to 1959 and scientific articles from the 1960s to the 1980s, Anthony J. Blasi discovers who the major sociologists of religion were and what they did. He traces the field's previously unknown tradition in community studies, the exigencies of the research institutes, and dramatic changes in the professional associations.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004271036 :
0169-8834 ;
Consecration rituals in South Asia /
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The essays in the volume Consecration Rituals in South Asia address the ritual procedures that accompany the installation of temple images in Shaiva, Vaishnava, Buddhist and Jain contexts, in various traditions and historical periods. Through the performance of complex rites designated with the term pranapratishtha (establishment of, or infusion with, life), man-made sculptures are ritually transformed into (receptacles of) deities. The collection is thematically and methodically broad, with a large number of detailed textual studies, but also with ethnographic contributions that discuss contemporary instances of consecration rituals. Among the overarching themes are issues related to historical continuity and change, as well as transformational moments in such rituals. Contributors are: Marie-Luce Barazer-Billoret, Marzenna Czerniak-Drożdżowicz, Ronald M. Davidson, Shingo Einoo, Marko Geslani, Dominic Goodall, Ellen Gough, István Keul, Elisabeth Raddock, S.A.S Sarma, Anna A. Ślączka, Annette Wilke.
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1 online resource (ix, 395 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004337183 :
0169-8834 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Theology and the First Theory of Sacrifice.
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Are social scientific theories and confessional theologies of sacrifice equally well suited as public discourse about religion? The French liberal Protestant theologians of the 5th Section of the École Pratique and the French doyen of sociology, Émile Durkheim and his two main followers, Henri Hubert and Marcel Mauss, engage in a struggle over the proper approach to sacrifice in the public university. The Durkheimians argued that theological language and assumptions were inappropriate for this purpose because of their confessional allegiances. Another approach to sacrifice, free of confessional entanglements, was required. This is what Hubert and Mauss sought to provide in the Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function.
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1 online resource. :
9789047402732
Epic Narratives in the Hoysaḷa Temples : The Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata and Bhāgavata Purāṇa in Haḷebīd, Belūr and Amṛtapura /
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This volume is a detailed exposition of the visual retellings from the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata and Bhāgavata Purāṇa on specific South Indian Hoysaḷa temples. The first part of the book deals with the Amṛteśvara temple, particularly its narrative panels depicting the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata and Bhāgavata Purāṇa. The text is a résumé of episodes paired with photographs which illustrate and review the visual retellings and explore Indian techniques of visual narrative. Corollary material from other Hoysaḷa temples with narrative reliefs, including new sites, is presented in the second part. There are very few published contextual studies of Indian narrative sculptures, and so the book is a contribution to the documentation of Indian medieval art, examining visual narratives within the context of the Hindu temple. The book is illustrated with 150 photographs.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [265]-271) and index. :
9789004378964 :
0169-8834 ;
Scripture and Knowledge, An Essay on Religious Epistemology.
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At the core of Scripture and Knowledge lies the problem of the nature of religious knowledge. The author argues that religion is a particular framework rather than a particular content or defined set of performances. He sees this framework as epistemological, that is, as one that furnishes believers with a conception of knowledge alternative to that of philosophical reasoning. The thesis on the epistemological nature of religion will be developed by the examination of the concept of scripture as a body of authoritative and even infallible texts. The concept of scripture is presented as one of the constitutive concepts of the epistemological framework of religion. The author argues that the various scriptures and their commentaries should be understood as the arena within which the epistemological process of religion takes place and the central epistemological means by which religious knowledge is made possible.
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1 online resource. :
9789004378919
The secular religion of Franklin Merrell-Wolff : an intellectual history of anti-intellectualism in modern America /
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In The Secular Religion of Franklin Merrell-Wolff: An Intellectual History of Anti-intellectualism in Modern America , Dave Vliegenthart offers an account of the life and teachings of the modern American mystic Franklin Merrell-Wolff (1887-1985), who combined secular and religious sources from eastern and western traditions in order to elaborate and legitimate his metaphysical claim to the realization of a transcendental reality beyond reason. Using Merrell-Wolff as a typical example of a modern western guru, Vliegenthart investigates the larger sociological and historical context of the ongoing grand narrative that asserts a widespread anti-intellectualism in modern American culture, exploring developments in religious, philosophical, and psychological discourses in North America from 1800 until the present.
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1 online resource (viii, 378 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004361256 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.