The covenant in Judaism and Paul : a study of ritual boundaries as identity markers /
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The Covenant in Judaism and Paul deals with biblical and intertestamental uses of covenant and related rituals, challenging the view that baptism replaces circumcision, since baptism is entry into the new covenant, and showing that ritual boundaries are replaced or redefined since identity has changed. The investigation uses social categories, "identity" as a term that offers an explanation for a group's selfunderstanding and "boundary" as a term for entry rite of affirmation marker. Part A looks at the Old Testament background to aspects of the covenant. Part B examines covenant identity and rituals in Palestinian Judaism as featured in Jubilees, the Temple Scroll, the Damascus Document, and the Community Rule. It includes a brief analysis of the baptism administered by John the Baptist. Part C analyses Paul's views on covenant, circumcision, and baptism against this background.
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1 online resource (x, 396 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 329-360) and. index. :
9789004332805 :
0169-734X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Brill's companion to insurgency and terrorism in the ancient Mediterranean /
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In Brill's Companion to Insurgency and Terrorism in the Ancient Mediterranean , Tim Howe and Lee Brice challenge the view that these forms of conflict are specifically modern phenomena by offering an historical perspective that exposes readers to the ways insurgency movements and terror tactics were common elements of conflict in antiquity. Assembling original research on insurgency and terrorism in various regions including, the Ancient Near East, Greece, Central Asia, Persia, Egypt, Judea, and the Roman Empire, they provide a deep historical context for understanding these terms, demonstrate the usefulness of insurgency and terrorism as concepts for analysing ancient Mediterranean behavior, and point the way toward future research.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004284739 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Roots and routes : identity construction and the Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue /
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Dialogue participants demonstrate strong motivations for contributing to interreligious dialogue, based on a firm belief that encountering the other generates understanding - the contact thesis. Interreligious dialogue meets with both suspicion and cynicism: the former because it may result in loss of identity, and the latter because important issues may be ignored. The hitherto unanswered question is how Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue affects the identities of its participants. In this study Rachel Reedijk analyses identity construction in an interreligious context against the backdrop of the dominant either/or discourse regarding religious diversity - and, for that matter, multiculturalism - in Western society. The conceptual framework of this study is constituted by the debate on essentialism and constructivism in the social sciences. She argues that, under the right circumstances, interreligious dialogue can move beyond polemics and apologetics and prepare the ground for understanding in the dual sense of prejudice reduction and interreligious hermeneutics.
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1 online resource (xv, 358) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references ([325]-344) and indexes. :
9789042028401 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Social World of the Babylonian Priest /
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In The Social World of the Babylonian Priest , Bastian Still presents a comprehensive study of the priestly community of Borsippa during the Neo-Babylonian and early Persian Empires (ca. 620-484 BCE). By examining patterns of marriage, landholding, moneylending, and friendship, he provides an intimate account of the daily life of the Babylonian priesthood beyond the temple walls and develops a more sophisticated understanding of the organisation of ancient Babylonian society as a whole. Combining the use of social network analysis, anthropological studies, and sociological concepts concerned with kinship, tie strength, social boundaries, and identity formation, Bastian Still's interdisciplinary approach transcends the traditional boundary of cuneiform studies and enables the field of Assyriology to contribute to a more general socio-historical discourse.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004399969
Ancient Judaism in its Hellenistic Context /
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This volume explores the ways in which Jews lived within the Hellenistic and Greco-Roman contexts, how they negotiated their religious and social boundaries in their own distinctive manner. Scholars demonstrate how the Jewish encounter with Hellenism led not to a conscious struggle with alien forces but rather in many instances to an active re-tailoring and re-shaping of tradition in light of their material, ideological and philosophical surroundings. That is to say, the Jews, a minority people, maintained their identity by adapting the trappings, to varying degrees, of their milieu. These essays also reflect many issues that emerge when we study the development of several aspects of Jewish Civilization through the ages in light of broad socio-political, cultural and philosophical contexts.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047414537
9789004138711
Nirguna Bhakti in Eastern India : Ideology, Identity and Resistance /
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Like in other parts of India, the Bhakti movement also spread into the eastern regions in the early sixteenth century, and had brought a large section of the people under its banner stretching from Koch Behar in the west in North Bengal to the foothills of Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern frontier. The present work is a comprehensive, but a critical history of the growth and development of the mystical movement in this part of India from the early sixteenth to seventeenth century with special reference to the Māyāmarā sect, which claims to be nirguna in its essence, teachings, social ideology, and political influence. While doing this, the book has re-examined the theory that bhakti movement ultimately failed to usher in a democratic outlook and egalitarian aspects as it had originally proposed, and that it had ultimately submitted to the strong and dominant conservative forces. With a detailed and sceptical examination of the ideological and philosophical aspects of Sankaradeva, the founder of Bhakti movement in the eastern part of India, the work proceeds on to examine the historical situation behind the emergence of the radical branch of the movement, and its social and political implications. It shows how within every conservative structure, there remains a radical force which always carries on the forces of reform, resistance, and protest against the dominant ideology, if necessary even by adoption of militant methods. The emergence of the Māyāmarā sect from within the bhakti ideology, its role in the making of the society, and a militant resistant movement against the dominant class form the crux of the present work. While doing this, it has questioned many of the existing ideas and concepts about the movement, particularly, in this part of India.
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1 online resource (580 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753396