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Meanings of Antiquity : Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan /
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Meanings of Antiquity is the first dedicated study of how the oldest Japanese myths, recorded in the eighth-century texts Kojiki and Nihon shoki , changed in meaning and significance between 800 and 1800 CE. Generations of Japanese scholars and students have turned to these two texts and their creation myths to understand what it means to be Japanese and where Japan fits into the world order. As the shape and scale of the world explained by these myths changed, these myths evolved in turn. Over the course of the millennium covered in this study, Japan transforms from the center of a proud empire to a millet seed at the edge of the Buddhist world, from the last vestige of China's glorious Zhou Dynasty to an archipelago on a spherical globe. Analyzing historical records, poetry, fiction, religious writings, military epics, political treatises, and textual commentary, Matthieu Felt identifies the geographical, cosmological, epistemological, and semiotic changes that led to new adaptations of Japanese myths. Felt demonstrates that the meanings of Japanese antiquity and of Japan's most ancient texts were-and are-a work in progress, a collective effort of writers and thinkers over the past 1,300 years. See Less
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Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9780674293786
9781684176854
Pathways for Theology in Peacebuilding : Ecumenical Approaches to Just Peace /
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The ambivalent role of religions in contemporary conflicts has generated an increasing call for faith-based peacebuilding endeavours. In Pathways for Theology in Peacebuilding: Ecumenical Approaches to Just Peace, Sara Gehlin discusses the ways theology can provide essential resources for such peacebuilding pursuits. The pathways for theology in peacebuilding are investigated with regard to a recent faith-based peace endeavour, namely the creation of an international ecumenical declaration on just peace. In the book, Gehlin explores the meaning of a just peace from the perspectives of theological ethics, biblical interpretation, spirituality, and ecumenical vision. On the basis of this exploration, the book maps out theological resources for peace in our time.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004426993
9789004425354
The love of neighbour in ancient Judaism : the reception of Leviticus 19:18 in the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Book of Jubilees, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the New Testament /
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In The Love of Neighbour in Ancient Judaism , Kengo Akiyama traces the development of the mainstay of early Jewish and Christian ethics: \'Love your neighbour.\' Akiyama examines several Second Temple Jewish texts in great detail and demonstrates a diverse range of uses and applications that opposes a simplistic and evolutionary trajectory often associated with the development of the \'greatest commandment\' tradition. The monograph presents surprisingly complex interpretative developments in Second Temple Judaism uncovering just how early interpreters grappled with the questions of what it means to love and who should be considered as their neighbour.
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1 online resource (xii, 252 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004366886 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
An Introduction to Islamic Finance /
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Although the principles of Shari'ah require banks and financial institutions to be structured on an interest-free basis, this does not mean that such institutions are charitable concerns. As long as a person advancing money expects to share in the profits earned (or losses incurred) by the other party, a stipulated proportion of profit is legitimate. The philosophy is enshrined in the traditional Islamic concepts of musharakah and mudarabah, along with their specialized modern variants murabahah, ijarah, salam, and istisna'. This invaluable guide to Islamic finance clearly delineates the all-important distinctions between Islamic practices and conventional procedures based on interest. Justice Usmani of Pakistan, who chairs several Shari'ah supervisory boards for Islamic banks, clearly explains the various modes of financing used by Islamic banks and non-banking financial institutions, emphasizing the necessary requirements for their acceptability from the Shari'ah standpoint and the correct method for their application. He deals masterfully with practical problems as they arise in the course of his presentation, and offers possible solutions in each instance.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004479913
9789041116192
Studies in Jewish and Christian history /
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Elias J. Bickerman, who passed away a quarter of a century ago, was one of the twentieth century's great historians of the ancient world. His innovative genius and breathtaking erudition are evident in his writings, many of which are now considered classics. Bickerman's contributions to the history of ancient Judaism and early Christianity remain particularly significant but his three volume collection, Studies in Jewish and Christian History , has been out of print for some time. Thus, the publication of this new edition of Studies, now entirely in English, along with Bickerman's most famous book, The God of the Maccabees , is designed to bring Bickerman's central studies on ancient Judaism and early Christianity to a new generation of students and scholars.
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English, French, and German. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047420729 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The value of the particular : lessons from Judaism and the modern Jewish experience : festschrift for Steven T. Katz on the occasion of his seventieth birthday /
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In this tribute to Steven T. Katz on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, Michael Zank and Ingrid Anderson present sixteen original essays written by senior and junior scholars in comparative religion, philosophy of religion, modern Judaism, and theology after the Holocaust, fields of inquiry where Steven Katz made major contributions over the course of his distinguished scholarly career. The authors of this volume, specialists in Jewish history, especially the modern experience, and Jewish thought from the Bible to Buber, offer theoretical and practical observations on the value of the particular. Contributions range from Tim Knepper's reevaluation of the ineffability discourse to the particulars of the Settlement Cookbook, examined by Nora Rubel as an American classic.
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1 online resource (xii, 379 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004292697 :
1873-9008 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Annual review of the sociology of religion.
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Prayer is a phenomenon which seems to be characteristic not only of participants in every religion, but also men and women who do not identify with traditional religions. It can be practised even by those who do not believe either in a God or transcendent force. In this sense, therefore, we may assert that the prayer is a typically human activity that has accompanied the development of different civilizations over the course of the centuries. Both the material issues of concrete daily life as well as more symbolic elements expressed through words, gestures, body positions, and community celebration are brought together in the act of praying.
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1 online resource (307 pages) :
9789004260498 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Looking beyond? : shifting views of transcendence in philosophy, theology, art, and politics /
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Religion is undergoing a transformation in current Western society. In addition to organized religions, there is a notable movement towards spirituality that is not associated with any institutions but in which experiences and notions of transcendence are still important. Transcendence can be described as God, the absolute, Mystery, the Other, the other as alterity, depending on one's worldview. In this book, these shifts in the views of transcendence in various areas of culture such as philosophy, theology, art, and politics are explored on the basis of a fourfold heuristic model (proposed by Wessel Stoker). In conversation with this model, various authors, established scholars in their fields, explain the meaning and role, or the critique, of transcendence in the thought of contemporary thinkers, fields of discourse, or cultural domains. Looking Beyond? will stimulate further research on the theme of transcendence in contemporary culture, but can also serve as a textbook for courses in various disciplines, ranging from philosophy to theology, cultural studies, literature, art, and politics.
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1 online resource (527 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789401207522 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Congress of Carlowitz (1698/99) : Supra-cultural Diplomatic Norms and Practices of Peacemaking at the End of the Seventeenth Century /
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This book delivers the first comprehensive analysis of the Peace Congress of Carlowitz (1698/99), challenging traditional Eurocentric views on early modern diplomacy. It demonstrates that peacemaking norms and practices were largely 'supra-cultural'-transcending cultural and religious divides across Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Carlowitz emerges as a significant multi-religious congress that introduced pioneering practices, particularly in ceremonial regulations. By confronting cultural essentialism, provincialising the Westphalian congress-model paradigm, and demythologising Carlowitz as a decisive political turning point-notably marking the adoption of a Western European-style diplomacy by cultural 'outliers' such as the Ottoman Empire and Muscovy-this study offers fresh insights into the complexity and polycentric nature of early modern multilateral diplomacy.
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1 online resource (508 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004458499
Jesuit Rhetoric across Space and Time : Local and Global Perspectives /
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A product of Renaissance educational thought, Jesuit rhetoric has trained generations of churchmen and lay citizens right up to the present day. This book aims to show the wealth of current international research on Jesuit rhetoric, in its pedagogical dimension (from sixteenth-century manuals to today's university writing courses), its practical implementation (in speeches, music or theology). These dialogues span both religious contexts-engagements with Protestants, Jews, Orthodox Christians, and Dominicans-and geographical ones, including encounters between Europe and regions such as Sri Lanka, China, and Japan.
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1 online resource (534 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004744516
Pentecostal churches in transition : analysing the developing ecclesiology of the Assemblies of God in Australia /
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The global growth of Pentecostal movements during the course of the twentieth century has been widely documented although, to date, there has been little written on their developing ecclesiology. After making the case for a concrete rather than idealised approach to ecclesiology, this book describes and analyses the transitions that have framed the ways in which Australian Pentecostals have understood church life and mission. From a loosely knit faith missions movement, to congregational free church structures, to the so-called apostolic models of mega-churches, Australian pentecostalism stands as a microcosmos of ecclesial developments that have occurred throughout the world. This book, therefore, provides a means of reflecting upon what has been gained and lost in the process of ecclesiological change.
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Based on the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Australian Catholic University, 2005. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-242) and index. :
9789047428701 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Tradition vs. traditionalism : contemporary perspectives in Jewish thought.
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This book is a first attempt to examine the thought of key contemporary Jewish thinkers on the meaning of tradition in the context of two models. The classic model assumes that tradition reflects lack of dynamism and reflectiveness, and the present's unqualified submission to the past. This view, however, is an image that the modernist ethos has ascribed to the tradition so as to remove it from modern existence. In the alternative model, a living tradition emerges as open and dynamic, developing through an ongoing dialogue between present and past. The Jewish philosophers discussed in this work-Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, David Hartman, and Eliezer Goldman-ascribe compelling canonic status to the tradition, and the analysis of their thought discloses the tension between these two models. The book carefully traces the course they have plotted along the various interpretations of tradition through their approach to Scripture and to Halakhah.
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1 online resource (235 pages) :
9789401206426 :
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.
Staying Roman : conquest and identity in Africa and the Mediterranean, 439-700 /
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"In 416, when preaching a sermon on the psalms in late Roman Carthage, Augustine was able to ask his audience, 'Who now knows which nations in the Roman empire were what, when all have become Romans, and all are called Romans?'1 Yet already by the time Augustine addressed his Carthaginian audience the continued unity of the Roman Mediterranean was being called into question. The defeat and death of the Roman emperor Valens at Adrianople in 378 had set the stage for a new phase of conflict between the empire and its non-Roman neighbours ; and over the course of the fifth century Roman power collapsed in the West, where it was succeeded by a number of sub-Roman kingdoms. Questions that had seemed trivial to Augustine were suddenly and painfully alive : what did it mean to be 'Roman' in the changed circumstances of the fifth and later centuries? And (from a twenty-first-century perspective) what became of the idea of Romanness in the West once Roman power collapsed?"--
"What did it mean to be Roman once the Roman Empire had collapsed in the West? Staying Roman examines Roman identities in the region of modern Tunisia and Algeria between the fifth-century Vandal conquest and the seventh-century Islamic invasions. Using historical, archaeological and epigraphic evidence, this study argues that the fracturing of the empire's political unity also led to a fracturing of Roman identity along political, cultural and religious lines, as individuals who continued to feel 'Roman' but who were no longer living under imperial rule sought to redefine what it was that connected them to their fellow Romans elsewhere. The resulting definitions of Romanness could overlap, but were not always mutually reinforcing. Significantly, in late antiquity Romanness had a practical value, and could be used in remarkably flexible ways to foster a sense of similarity or difference over space, time and ethnicity, in a wide variety of circumstances"--
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Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 2004, entitled: Staying Roman : Vandals, Moors, and Byzantines in late antique North Africa, 400-700. :
xviii, 438 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references (pages 379-419) and index. :
9780521196970
Sacred Landscapes in Asia : Shared Traditions, Multiple Histories /
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Throughout history the peoples of Asia have been known for their mobility and interactions. The notion of territorially defined nations is historically recent. There was a continuing dialogue between Asian cultures which functioned at both the spatial and the temporal level, propelled by the movement of the great religions of Asia across continents via trading communities, clergies, Buddhist and Sufi scholars and communities of artisans. The present volume explores the aesthetic theories underlying many genres of the Asian arts. These characterize the dialogue between and amongst different Asian regions. The same Asian notions of space and time are manifested in architectural form as also in a wide variety of visual arts. The contributors in this volume identify the multi-layered discourse comprising the nature of monuments, as also the movement of motifs and symbols through sculptured and picturised representation. Some essays focus on fundamental notions such as Śūnyata as common to the Indian, Korean and other Asian countries. Also, the papers bear testimony to the phenomena of dialogue and distinctiveness, continuity and change. This is evident in architectural structures, sculptural forms, particularly in iconography, and of course in the performing arts. The IIC-Asia Project in its second phase has, with purpose, traced the trajectory of transmission systems in Asian civilization in different domains and at different levels, be it the vertical transmission from generation to generation in education, or the artistic transmission and diffusion through the arts. It is hoped that this volume will add to the meager literature that exists on the subject and will stimulate further research and study.
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1 online resource (408 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753228