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.
Performing Islam : gender and ritual in Iran /
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Performing Islam takes as its main focus the rich array of ceremonial activities that shape and inform the lives of circles of women in south Tehran. Based on anthropological fieldwork, the book describes and analyses rituals that mark religious anniversaries and life course events in Iran today. Arguing that the ritual performances are powerful forums where ideas develop, and where rules, symbols and discourses are contested, this book discusses the values and beliefs underpinning gender constructions in a rapidly changing and complex society. The ambiguous metaphorical language of the rituals is examined, revealing how gender ideologies are projected and renewed, but also challenged, destabilized and ridiculed. Thus the rituals provide possibilities for self-expression, innovation and incremental change. This study goes beyond questions of meaning and culture to interrogate the dynamics of gender performance as products of power and politics.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [261]-280) and indexes. :
9789047410546 :
1570-7628 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Between temple and tomb : the demotic ritual texts of Bodl. MS. Egypt. a. 3(P) /
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The ancient Egyptians believed that rites performed for Osiris, the god of the dead, played a critical role in maintaining Egypt?s well-being and prosperity. Not only did they ensure the renewed fertility of the country?s arable land, they also guaranteed the political and social cohesion of the Egyptian state. However, it was not only at the national level, but at the individual level as well, that the Egyptians deemed such rites to be beneficial. Ritual texts intended to restore Osiris to life, suitably adapted, could also be recited for deceased individuals. Thus they could benefit from them in the same way that Osiris did. In the Graeco-Roman Period, adapted ritual texts of this sort were employed alongside texts originally composed for use in the funerary cult of ordinary deceased people. A number of ritual texts which are first attested in the private sphere subsequently appear in the temple sphere as well. Some ritual texts appear to have moved back and forth from one sphere to another, which suggests that the boundaries between the Osirian temple cult and the private funerary cult may have been more fluid than we usually imagine.0The ritual texts edited in this volume offer an excellent opportunity to explore these and related issues. Most of them are known to have been employed both for the benefit of the god Osiris and for ordinary deceased people, in certain cases, during one and the same period of Egypt?s history. This is one of their most interesting and striking features. They stand at the interface between temple cult and cult of the dead and allow us to trace the transmission of beliefs and practices from one sphere to the other.
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205 pages, 14 pages of plates : illustrations (some color), facsimiles ; 31 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references (pages 165-172). :
9783447113311
3447113316 :
2190-3646 ;
Interreligious dialogue from religion to geopolitics /
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Interreligious Dialogue: From Religion to Geopolitics discusses how interreligious dialogue takes place within, and is influenced by, important sociological categories and theories, such as modernity, secularization, deprivatization, social movements, and pluralism. Starting from the study of interreligious coexistence, sacred spaces, and multi-religious rituals, the book explores the patterns of interreligious governance and politics and forms of interreligious social action in European, North American, and West and South Asian contexts. The contributors to this volume apply broader theories of organizational change and planning, communication, urban neighborhood and community studies, functionalist perspectives, and symbolic interactionism, thus presenting a wide range of possibilities for sociological engagement with studies on interreligious dialogue.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004401266 :
1877-5233 ;
Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis : Beyond Light and Darkness /
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Religion is never simply there . In Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis , Mattias Brand shows where and when ordinary individuals and families in Egypt practiced a Manichaean way of life. Rather than portraying this ancient religion as a well-structured, totalizing community, the fourth-century papyri sketch a dynamic image of lived religious practice, with all the contradictions, fuzzy boundaries, and limitations of everyday life. Following these microhistorical insights, this book demonstrates how family life, gift-giving, death rituals, communal gatherings, and book writing are connected to our larger academic debates about religious change in late antiquity.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004510296
9789004508224
Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis : Beyond Light and Darkness /
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Religion is never simply there . In Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis , Mattias Brand shows where and when ordinary individuals and families in Egypt practiced a Manichaean way of life. Rather than portraying this ancient religion as a well-structured, totalizing community, the fourth-century papyri sketch a dynamic image of lived religious practice, with all the contradictions, fuzzy boundaries, and limitations of everyday life. Following these microhistorical insights, this book demonstrates how family life, gift-giving, death rituals, communal gatherings, and book writing are connected to our larger academic debates about religious change in late antiquity.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004510296
9789004508224
The Levant, crossroads of late antiquity :history, religion and archaeology = Le Levant, carrefour de l'antiquite tardive : histoire, religion et archeologie /
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The Levant: Crossroads of Late Antiquity. History, Religion, and Archaeology / Le Levant: Carrefour de l'Antiquité tardive explores the monumental, religious, and social developments that took place in the Roman province of Syria during the Third through 6th centuries CE. Ellen Bradshaw Aitken and John M. Fossey bring together the work of twenty scholars of archaeology, art history, religious studies, and ancient history to examine this dynamic period of change in social, cultural, and religious life. Close attention to texts and material culture, including palaeo-Christian mosaics and churches, highlights the encounters of peoples and religions, as well as the rich exchange of ideas, practices, and traditions in the Levant. The essays bring fresh perspectives on "East" and "West" in antiquity and the diversity of ancient religious movements.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004258273 :
0926-4639 ;
Handbook of new religions and cultural production /
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The cultural products of new religions and spiritualities are frequently ignored or dismissed within academia, often stemming from a hesitation to acknowledge these movements as genuine. This volume explores the impact of new religions upon cultural production, exemplifying the theological and spiritual principles of particular movements and demonstrating their substantial impact on wider society. Contributions explore the realms of music, architecture, food, art, books, films, video games, and more. This scholarship will be of interest to those who wish to explore the gamut of modern religious expression, and those who wish to broaden their knowledge of the spiritual origins of human culture.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource (xxix, 789 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004226487 :
1874-6691 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Becoming a Muslim in Japan : The Journey of Faith and Identity /
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What draws someone to Islam in a country where few people even know a Muslim? In Becoming a Muslim in Japan , you meet 62 Japanese converts whose journeys defy common assumptions. Their stories are not about crisis, but curiosity. They speak of unexpected encounters, moments of reflection, or quiet admiration that gradually deepened into faith. Based on immersive fieldwork and interviews, this book shows how Islam is not adapted in isolation but interwoven with Japanese values. If you are interested in religion, identity, or cultural transformation, this book offers rare access to spiritual lives shaped across boundaries - personal, cultural, and national.
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1 online resource (210 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004754157
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.
Kaṭṭaikūttu : The Flexibility of a South Indian Theatre Tradition /
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This book gives an insight into Kaṭṭaikkūttu, a living Tamil theatre tradition. Taking the perspective of performers as a starting point, it analyses how this theatre tradition has been able to adjust itself to changing conditions and challenges because of its inherent flexibility. The phenomenon of flexibility pervades both the formation and internal arrangements of theatre companies and the actual performances themselves. The first part of the book focuses on Kaṭṭaikkūttu in its historical and social context. It traces the theatre's disengagement from its organic embedding in the social and ritual village organization and its transition towards a more autonomous and more professional regional theatre form during the last fifty to hundred years. This transformation was accompanied by processes of professionalization and commercialization, which had their impact on the practitioners and the performances. The second part of the book provides a detailed analysis of the working of oral Kaṭṭaikkūttu texts in performance. Through a flexible handling of the oral - verbal and musical - material within the boundaries of a relatively fixed framework underlying these texts, Kaṭṭaikkūttu performers try to fulfill to the best of their abilities the demands of sponsors, audiences and occasions.
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Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004644922