Writing the word of God : calligraphy and the Qur'an /
: Published to coincide with the exhibitions Traces of the Calligrapher: Islamic Calligraphy in Practice, c. 1600-1900 and Writing the Word of God: Calligraphy and the Qurʼan, organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Harvard University Art Museums and presented at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 27, 2007-February 2, 2008, and at the Asia Society, October 6, 2008-February 1, 2009. : vii, 55 pages : color illustrations ; 28 cm. : Includes bibliographical references. : 9780300142006
Walking on the pages of the Word of God : self, land, and text among Evangelical volunteers in Jerusalem /
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In Walking on the Pages of the Word of God Aron Engberg explores the religious language and identities of evangelical volunteer workers in contemporary Jerusalem. The volunteers are connected to Christian organizations which consider their work a natural consequence of the biblical promises to Israel and their responsibility to "bless the Jewish people". Relying on ethnographic data of the discursive practices of the volunteers, the book explores a central puzzle of Zionist Christianity: the narrative production of Israel's religious significance and its relationship to broader Christian language traditions. By focusing on the volunteers' stories about themselves, the land and the Bible, Aron Engberg offers a convincing account about how the State of Israel is finding its way into evangelical identities.
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Originally published: Lund : Lund University, 2016. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004411890
God's Word, Spoken or Otherwise : Sayyid Ahmad Khan's (1817-1898) Muslim Exegesis of the Bible /
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Set in British India soon after the Uprising of 1857, God's Word, Spoken and Otherwise explores the controversial and ingenious ideas of one of South Asia's most influential public thinkers, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898). Bringing to light previously unpublished material from his exegetical commentaries on the Bible and Qur'an, this study explores the interplay of natural and prophetic revelation from an intertextual perspective. The book provides fresh insight into Sir Sayyid's life and work, and underscores both the originality of his ideas, and also their continuity within a dynamic Muslim intellectual tradition.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004472402
9789004467293
Coping with Evil in Religion and Culture : Case Studies /
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The various Christian, Muslim, traditional (African), and secular (Western) ways of imagining and coping with evil collected in this volume have several things in common. The most crucial perhaps and certainly the most striking aspect is the problem of defining the nature or characteristics of evil as such. Some argue that evil has an essence that remains constant, whereas others say its interpretation depends on time and place. However much religious and secular interpretations of evil may have changed, the human search for sense and meaning never ends. Questions of whom to blame and whom to address-God, the devil, fate, bad luck, or humans-remain at the center of our explanations and our strategies to comprehend, define, counter, or process the evil we do and the evil done to us by people, God, nature, or accident. Using approaches from cultural anthropology, religious studies, theology, philosophy, psychology, and history, the contributors to this volume analyze how several religious and secular traditions imagine and cope with evil.
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"This volume is part of the project on The problem of evil in religious traditions: origins, forms and coping, organized in cooperation with the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Royal Tropical Institute at Amsterdam on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the Vrije Universiteit and the exhibition "Religion & evil" in the Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam Museum of Tropical Ethnology)"--Title page verso. :
1 online resource (266 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401205375 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Beyond Schools: Muḥammad born Ibrāhīm al-Wazīrʼs (d. 840/1436) Epistemology of Ambiguity.
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In Beyond Schools: Muḥammad born Ibrāhīm al-Wazīrʼs (d. 840/1436) Epistemology of Ambiguity , Damaris Wilmers provides the first extensive analysis of Ibn al-Wazīrʼs thought and its role in the "Sunnisation of the Zaydiyya", emphasizing its significance for conflicts between schools of thought and law beyond the Yemeni context. Contrasting Ibn al-Wazīrʼs works with those of his Zaydi contemporary Aḥmad born Yaḥyā born al-Murtaḍā, Damaris Wilmers offers a study of a number of heretofore unedited texts from 9th/15th century Yemen when Zaydi identity was challenged by an increasing theological and legal diversity. She shows how Ibn al-Wazīr, who has been classed with different schools, actually de-emphasized school affiliation and developed an integrative approach based on a unique theory of knowledge.
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1 online resource. :
9789004381117
Sacred words orality, literacy, and religion /
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A prevalent view in the current scholarship on ancient religions holds that state religion was primarily performed and transmitted in oral forms, whereas writing came to be associated with secret, private and marginal cults, especially in the Greek world. In Roman times, religions would have become more and more bookish, starting with the Sibylline books and the Annales Maximi of the Roman priests and culminating in the canonical gospels of the Christians. It is the aim of this volume to modify this view or, at least, to challenge it. Surveying the variety of ways in which different types of texts and oral discourse were involved in ancient Greek and Roman religions, the contributions to this volume show that oral and written forms were in use for both Greek and Roman state and private religions.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004214217 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
God's kingdom and God's son : the background in Mark's christology from concepts of kingship in the Psalms /
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How is the kingdom of God related to Messianic kingship (or divine sonship)? Starting from what he terms a 'two-tier' kingship in the Psalms, Robert Rowe explores the linkage of these terms in Mark's gospel. The linked concepts - God's kingship and Davidic (Messianic) kingship - are traced from the Psalms and Isaiah 40-66, through the Dead Sea Scrolls and other inter-testamental documents, into Mark's gospel. Mark's characterization of Jesus as Messiah is shown to centre around four royal Psalms (2; 22; 110; 118). Contributing to the continuing study of the Old Testament in the New, Rowe argues that the concepts of God's kingdom and the Messiah are inherently closely related. This has importance both for the study of the historical Jesus, and for Mark's presentation of God and Jesus in his gospel.
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1 online resource (xvii, 435 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 315-367) and indexes. :
9789004331136 :
0169-734X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Pure gold from the words of Sayyidī ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz al-Dabbāgh =al-Dhabab al-Ibrīz min kalām Sayyidī ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz al-Dabbāgh /
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Around 1720 in Fez Aḥmad born al-Mubārak al-Lamaṭī, a religious scholar, wrote down the words and teachings of the Sufi master ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Dabbāgh. Al-Dabbāgh shunned religious studies but, having reached illumination and met with the Prophet Muḥammad, he was able to explain any obscurities in the Qurʾān, ḥadīth s and sayings of earlier Sufis. The resulting book, known as the Ibrīz , describes how al-Dabbāgh attained illumination and access to the Prophet, as well as his teachings about the Council of the godly that regulates the world, relations between master and disciple, the darkness in men's bodies, Adam's creation, Barzakh, Paradise and Hell, and much more besides. This 'encyclopaedia' of Sufism with its many teaching stories and illustrations provides a window onto social life and religious ideas in Fez a generation or so before powerful outside forces began to play a role in the radical transformation of Morocco.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [933]-944) and indexes. :
9789047432487 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Common words in Muslim-Christian dialogue : a study of texts from the common word dialogue process /
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In Common Words in Muslim-Christian Dialogue Vebjørn L. Horsfjord offers an analysis of texts from an international dialogue process between Christian and Muslim leaders. Through detailed engagement with the Muslim dialogue letter A Common Word between Us and You (2007) and a large number of Christian responses to it, the study analyses the dialogue process in the wake of the Muslim initiative and shows how the various texts gain meaning through their interaction. The author uses tools from critical discourse analysis and speech act analysis and claims that the Islamic dialogue initiative became more important as an invitation to Muslim-Christian dialogue than as theological reflection. He shows how Christian leaders systematically chose to steer the dialogue process towards practical questions about peaceful coexistence and away from theological issues.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004358232 :
0923-6201 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Coping with the gods : wayward readings in Greek theology /
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Inspired by a critical reconsideration of current monolithic approaches to the study of Greek religion, this book argues that ancient Greeks displayed a disquieting capacity to validate two (or more) dissonant, if not contradictory, representations of the divine world in a complementary rather than mutually exclusive manner. From this perspective the six chapters explore problems inherent in: order vs. variety/chaos in polytheism, arbitrariness vs. justice in theodicy, the peaceful co-existence of mono- and polytheistic theologies, human traits in divine imagery, divine omnipotence vs. limitation of power, and ruler cult. Based on an intimate knowledge of ancient realia and literary testimonia the book stands out for its extensive application of relevant perceptions drawn from cultural anthropology, theology, cognitive science, psychology, and linguistics.
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1 online resource (xiii, 593 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 561-576) and indexes. :
9789004210905 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Word-Prosodic Systems of Japonic Languages /
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How diverse can a single language family's prosody be? Word-Prosodic Systems of Japonic Languages answers this by offering the first-ever comparative overview in English of the highly diverse word-prosodic systems of the Japonic languages. Through accessible descriptions couched in a unified framework, this volume dismantles long-standing barriers in a field whose publications are almost exclusively in Japanese and whose descriptive tradition is shaped by idiosyncratic terminology and theory. Covering nine Japanese and eight Ryukyuan varieties, and featuring the definitive typological introduction to Japonic prosody, the book reveals surprising typological facts-such as systems that require positing novel prosodic units. It is essential reading for linguists interested in prosody, typology, and the often-overlooked diversity of East Asian languages.
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1 online resource (450 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004755789