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The secret Sankara : on multivocality and truth in Sankara's teaching /
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Sankaracharya of the 8th century A.D is considered the greatest philosopher of India up to this day. his teaching of the one and only self has become the most prestigeous expression of the Hindu spirit. Sankara is the author of the Brahmasutrabhasya, the most important text of the school known as Advaita-Vedanta. Sankara teaches of the self by dialogues between a winning exponent and a losing opponent. Up to this day, Sankara's teaching has been invariably identified with the exponent's doctrines. In this book a distinction between the invisible authon and his alleged exponent is offered. Sankara the author is a new intellectual hero different from his exponent. Thus, due to the aforementioned distinction, a new philosophy and theory of freedom emerges, the teaching of Sankara, the author distinguished from his apparent exponent.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004216334 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Hidden Wisdom, Esoteric Traditions and the Roots of Christian Mysticism. Second, Revised and Enlarged paperback edition.
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This book investigates the problem of esoteric traditions in early Christianity, their origin and their transformation in Patristic hermeneutics, in the West as well as in the East. It argues that these traditions eventually formed the basis of nascent Christian mysticism in Late Antiquity. These esoteric traditions do not reflect the influence of Greek Mystery religions, as has often been claimed, but rather seem to stem from the Jewish background of Christianity. They were adopted by various Gnostic teachings, a fact which helps explaining their eventual disappearance from Patristic literature. The eleven chapters study each a different aspect of the problem, including the questions of Gnostic and Manichaean esotericism. This book will be of interest to all students of religious history in Late Antiquity. Revised and extended paperback edition. Originally published in 1996. Please click here for details.
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1 online resource. :
9789047404774
Esotericism in African American religious experience : "there is a mystery"... /
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In Esotericism in African American Religious Experience: "There is a Mystery" ... , Stephen C. Finley, Margarita Simon Guillory, and Hugh R. Page, Jr. assemble twenty groundbreaking essays that provide a rationale and parameters for Africana Esoteric Studies (AES): a new trans-disciplinary enterprise focused on the investigation of esoteric lore and practices in Africa and the African Diaspora. The goals of this new field - while akin to those of Religious Studies, Africana Studies, and Western Esoteric Studies - are focused on the impulses that give rise to Africana Esoteric Traditions (AETs) and the ways in which they can be understood as loci where issues such as race, ethnicity, and identity are engaged; and in which identity, embodiment, resistance, and meaning are negotiated.
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1 online resource (xxi, 406 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 361-387) and index. :
9789004283428 :
1871-1405 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Secrecy and Concealment : Studies in the History of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Religions /
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This volume deals with secrecy and concealment in the history of mediterranean religions as pattern of social interaction. Secrecy is a powerful means in establishing identity and interaction as G. Simmel has demonstrated. Using his approach the scholars of this volume describe and explain the practical meaning of concealment in two different religious systems: in Egyptian and Greek polytheism and in Jewish, Christian, Gnostic and Shi'i monotheisms. This point of view reveals that all these religions shaped social norms concerning public and private aspects of the human self.
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Proceedings of a meeting held June 1-4, 1993, at the Werner Reimers-Stiftung, Bad Homburg, Germany. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004378872 :
0169-8834 ;
Khunrath in Context : An Alchemist in the Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom /
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The German physician, alchemist, kabbalist, and theosopher Heinrich Khunrath (ca. 1560-1605) is one of the most remarkable figures in the intellectual history of the Renaissance. His work, combining text and images in a new way, is a fusion of the contemporary currents of thought in which alchemy went hand-in-hand with philosophy and Lutheran heterodox theology. As a follower of Paracelsus, Khunrath was in search of both the secrets of nature and and the knowledge of God -- the "theosophy". This See Less
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1 online resource (650 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004693937
Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion. Volume 16 (2025) : From Cases to Scandals: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church /
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The volume "From Cases to Scandals: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church" contributes to the sociology of religion by examining how individual cases of clerical sexual abuse escalate (or not) into scandals that challenge religious authority and reshape institutional life. It explores how the strategies of public mobilisation and media responses encourage collective reflection and action to ensure accountability and societal change. Through case studies from Argentina, Canada, Croatia, Czechia, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, and the U.S., this volume explores Church responses, believers' reactions, and the shifting dynamics of trust and legitimacy. It highlights how these developments affect religious affiliation, moral credibility, and the public role of the Church, offering new perspectives on the evolving relationship between religion, society, and scandal in contemporary contexts.
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1 online resource (319 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004746695
Key Concepts in the Study of Religions in Contact /
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There is no religion lest there are two religions. Therefore, it is only possible to examine the history of religions by taking the crucial situations of contact into account. Contact needs concepts. Not only scholars but also participants in situations of contact are forced to conceptualize themselves and the other. Taking its point of departure from the contact-based approach to the study of religion, the present volume examines and reassesses a selection of concepts and models (attraction, dynamics and stability, tradition, transcendence/immanence, senses, secret, space) used to come to terms with the phenomenon of contact as the dynamizing element of the history of religions.
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1 online resource (544 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004714908
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.
A Description of the Character, Manners and Customs of the People of India and of their Institutions, Religious and Civil /
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First published in 1879, A Description of the Character, Manners and Customs of the People of India and of their Institutions, Religious and Civil by the Abbé J.A. Dubois, and translated from French by Rev. G.U. Pope, is arranged into three parts, with each section devoted to various aspects and society of the Indian people who lived in south India of that time. The author, Abbé J.A. Dubois, who was a French missionary, states at the outset that his work is the result of a period of almost eighteen years when he lived amongst the Indian people just the way they did, adopting the indigenous forms of living and clothing - even their prejudices. Thus, he not only familiarized himself with their lifestyle, but also won their confidence which helped him in writing of this book. Thus, his study is based on first-hand experience. For convenience of the readers, the editor's footnotes that provide explanations as well as references and cross-references to Indian scriptures and other texts have contributed to the value of this work. Part I studies the caste system, with its divisions and subdivisions, its origins, and prayers, ceremonies, and beyond. Part II, devoted to Brahmins, examines in detail the four stages of life, the norms and practices that govern them, discussing defilements and remedies, rules governing Brahmin women, Hindu philosophers and many others. Part III focuses on religion and includes the Trimurti, festivals, animal worship, Jains, military system, etc.
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1 online resource (460 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004752559
Mystery and secrecy in the Nag Hammadi collection and other ancient literature : ideas and practices : studies for Einar Thomassen at sixty /
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Mystery and secrecy were central concepts in the ritual, rhetoric, and sociological stratification of antique Mediterranean religions. That the ultimate nature and workings of the divine were secret, and either could not or should not be revealed except as a mystery for the initiated, was widely accepted among Pagans, Jews, and then Christians, both Gnostic and otherwise. The similarities and differences in the language of mystery and secrecy across religious and cultural borders are thus crucial for understanding this important period of the history of religions. The present anthology aims to present and analyze a wide selection of sources elucidating this theme, reflecting the correspondingly wide scholarly interests of Professor Einar Thomassen in honor of his 60th birthday.
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1 online resource (xx, 540 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004215122 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Die Geheimnisse der oberen und der unteren Welt : Magie im Islam zwischen Glaube und Wissenschaft /
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Die Geheimnisse der oberen und der unteren Welt ( The Secrets of the Upper and the Lower World ) is a substantial new collection of essays on magic in Islamic cultural history. Both comprehensive and innovative in its approach, this book offers fresh insights into an important yet still understudied area of Islamic intellectual history. The seventeen chapters deal with key aspects of Islamic magic, including its historical developments, geographical variants, and modern-day practices. The general introduction identifies and problematizes numerous sub-topics and key practitioners/theoreticians in the Arabo-Islamic context. This, along with terminological and bibliographical appendices, makes the volume an unparalleled reference work for both specialists and a broader readership. Contributors: Ursula Bsees, Johann Christoph Bürgel, Susanne Enderwitz, Hans Daiber; Sebastian Günther, Mahmoud Haggag, Maher Jarrar, Anke Joisten-Pruschke, Fabian Käs, Ulrich Marzolph, Christian Mauder, Tobias Nünlist, Khanna Omarkhali, Eva Orthmann, Bernd-Christian Otto, Dorothee Pielow, Lutz Richter-Bernburg, Johanna Schott andamp; Johannes Thomann.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004387577
The Cultural Heritage of Psychiatry and Its Literary Transformations : Middle Ages to the Present /
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This volume investigates the role of English, British, Irish, American, Canadian and Nigerian anglophone literary conceptualizations of mental and social distress, its diagnosis and treatment as transformative parts of the cultural heritage of psychiatry. Demonstrating that the history of psychiatry is not a narrative of unbridled, unequivocal progress, the volume explores how literary texts negotiate and critique dominant and alternative forms and traditions of treatment and care, how they challenge the medicalization of non-normative thoughts and behaviour and how they bear witness to and fragmentarily retrieve and imagine suppressed voices, thereby producing counter-cultural memories.
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1 online resource (305 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004745247
How Heaven Works : The Collective Shamanic Journeys of Phạm Công Tắc and the Syncretic Afterworld of Caodaism /
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In 1948, Vietnam's great 20th Century mystic Phạm Công Tắc (1890-1959) began a series of sermons making Caodaism's claims to universal salvation the clearest. In only two decades, Caodaism had stamped its fast-growing presence on the nation. With potent creative and poetic skill Phạm Công Tắc invited his co-religionists to take a shamanic journey with him to examine the heavens and literally see how they would be saved. The 35 sermons translated here are provided with a commentary and extensive introduction by Hartney. How Heaven Works is a fascinating insight into the deep connection between shamanic atmosphere, literature, and Modern syncretic concepts of salvation. See Less
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1 online resource (385 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004697935
Apophasis and Envisioning the Invisible : Unveiling Veils of Infinity /
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In this monograph, two of the most complicated theoretical topics confronting the scholar of mysticism (apophasis and infinity) are tackled. Writing about apophasis presents a unique dilemma as the term itself connotes the inability of language to name the namelessness of ultimate reality. Yet, the apophatic is a gesture of speaking-not, which entails saying the unsayable, as opposed to not speaking, which is the reticence appropriate to silence. The exploration of infinity presents an equally daunting demand as the intellect embarking on this path is summoned to circumscribe the uncircumscribable. Just as communicating the incommunicable is an endless enterprise of speaking the unspeakable, so mapping infinity is an unremitting pursuit of delimiting the limitless. The two subjects thus intersect at the vanishing point where the human mind reaches its limit by confronting the limitlessness that can be described only as indescribable.
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1 online resource (661 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004744363
Shakespeare and religio mentis: A Study of Christian Hermetism in Four Plays /
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Have you ever wondered why Cordelia has to die? Or how Alonso talks and walks about the isle while his body lies 'full fathom five' on the sea floor? Ever wondered why the monument to Shakespeare in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon names three pagans: Nestor, Socrates, and Virgil - king, philosopher, and poet? Or why Shakespeare is on Olympus, home of the Greek gods? This interdisciplinary study, the first to interpret the plays of Shakespeare in the light of the esoteric religious doctrines of the Corpus Hermeticum, holds answers to these and other puzzling questions.
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This landmark interdisciplinary study shines the light of religious Hermetism on Love's Labour's Lost, King Lear, Othello and The Tempest and reveals the 'religion of the mind' found in the Corpus Hermeticum to be a source of Shakespeare's understanding of human psychology. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004520608
9789004516328
Shakespeare and religio mentis: A Study of Christian Hermetism in Four Plays /
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Have you ever wondered why Cordelia has to die? Or how Alonso talks and walks about the isle while his body lies 'full fathom five' on the sea floor? Ever wondered why the monument to Shakespeare in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon names three pagans: Nestor, Socrates, and Virgil - king, philosopher, and poet? Or why Shakespeare is on Olympus, home of the Greek gods? This interdisciplinary study, the first to interpret the plays of Shakespeare in the light of the esoteric religious doctrines of the Corpus Hermeticum, holds answers to these and other puzzling questions.
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This landmark interdisciplinary study shines the light of religious Hermetism on Love's Labour's Lost, King Lear, Othello and The Tempest and reveals the 'religion of the mind' found in the Corpus Hermeticum to be a source of Shakespeare's understanding of human psychology. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004520608
9789004516328
Fair play : diversity and conflicts in early Christianity : essays in honour of Heikki Räisänen /
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This collection of essays in honour of Heikki Räisänen, New Testament professor at the University of Helsinki, consists of 22 essays written by his colleagues and students on Jesus, the gospels, Paul, early Christianity, and biblical interpretation. Räisänen's own research has been characterized by methodological awareness combined with a keen interest in ethical issues. Both these aspects come to expression in his insistence on \'fair play\' as a correct scholarly attitude involving an honest dialogue, a real encounter, and a recognition of diverging opinions. In this spirit, most of the essays in this book lay emphasis on issues related to early Christian diversity and conflicts, and to their challenge in modern society. The book is useful for scholars, academic teachers and students interested in various aspects of the New Testament, early Christianity, and hermeneutics.
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1 online resource (xii, 592 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004268210 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Handbook of Scientology /
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The Handbook of Scientology brings together a collection of fresh studies of the most persistently controversial of all contemporary New Religions. In recent years, increasing scholarly attention has been directed at the Church of Scientology, resulting in a small tsunami of new scholarship. We have finally reached a point in time where a book on Scientology need not restrict itself to basics. Thus, for example, the historical chapters in the present volume are not really aimed at providing elementary facts on Scientology's background, but, rather, focus on understanding how the Church of Scientology developed over the years. In short, the Handbook of Scientology will provide a wealth of new information on a topic that one might otherwise have thought exhausted.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004330542 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.