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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian religions > Pre-Christian European & Mediterranean religions > General
Gathering together under a single cover material from a wide range
of African societies, this volume allows similarities and
differences to be easily perceived and suggests social correlates
of these in terms of age, sex, marital status, social grading and
wealth. It includes material on both traditional and modern cults.
Despite the attention that has already been paid to the theme of
creation in the book of Sirach, scholarship has yet to provide a
comprehensive analysis of Ben Sira's instruction regarding the
cosmic order and its role in the divine bestowal of wisdom upon
human beings. This book, which consists of two parts, fills a
lacuna in scholarship by offering such an analysis. The first part
of this study examines Ben Sira's three main treatments of the
created world, thus providing a comprehensive description and
synthesis of Ben Sira's doctrine concerning the created order of
the cosmos. The second part of this work analyzes the place of
human beings in general, and the Jewish people in particular,
within the cosmic order. This second part includes an analysis of
the role of the created order in Ben Sira's wisdom instruction in
1:1-10 and 24:1-34 as well as an elucidation of the way in which
his treatments of various kinds of people-civic leaders, wives,
doctors, manual laborers, scribes, and cultic personnel-are
integral to Ben Sira's doctrine of creation. This study
demonstrates that the created order is a fundamental category that
Ben Sira relies upon in articulating his instructions about wisdom
and wise behavior.
Valerius Maximus was an indefatigable collector of historical anecdotes illustrating vice and virtue. His Memorable Deeds and Sayings are unparalleled as a source for the opinions of Romans in the early empire on a vast range of subjects.
Mueller focuses on what Valerius can tell us about contemporary Roman attitudes to religion, attacking several orthodoxies along the way. He argues that Roman religion could be deeply emotional. That it was possible to believe passionately in the divinity of the emperor - even when, like Tiberius, he was still alive - and that Rome's gods and religious rituals had an important role in fostering conventional morality.
eBook available with sample pages: 0203463269
In Medicine in Ancient Assur Troels Pank Arboll offers a
microhistorical study of a single exorcist named Kis ir-Assur who
practiced medical and magical healing in the ancient city of Assur
(modern northern Iraq) in the 7th century BCE. The book provides
the first detailed analysis of a healer's education and practice in
ancient Mesopotamia based on at least 73 texts assigned to specific
stages of his career. By drawing on a microhistorical framework,
the study aims at significantly improving our understanding of the
functional aspects of texts in their specialist environment.
Furthermore, the work situates Kisir-Assur as one of the earliest
healers in world history for whom we have such details pertaining
to his career originating from his own time.
In the course of the last two decades, both the historical
reconstruction of the Iron I-Iron IIA period in Israel and Judah
and the literary-historical reconstruction of the Books of Samuel
have undergone major changes. With respect to the quest for the
"historical David", terms like "empire" or "Grossreich" have been
set aside in favor of designations like "mercenary" or "hapiru
leader", corresponding to the image of the son of Jesse presented
in I Sam. At the same time, the literary-historical classification
of these chapters has itself become a matter of considerable
discussion. As Leonhard Rost's theory of a source containing a
"History of David's Rise" continues to lose support, it becomes
necessary to pose the question once again: Are we dealing with a
once independent 'story of David' embracing both the HDR and the
"succession narrative" are there several independent versions of an
HDR to be detected, or do I Sam 16-II Sam 5* constitute a
redactional bridge between older traditions about Saul on the one
hand and David on the other? In either case, what parts of the
material in I Sam 16-II Sam 5 are based on ancient traditions, and
may therefore serve as a source for any tentative historical
reconstruction? The participants in the 2018 symposium at Jena
whose essays are collected in this volume engage these questions
from different redaction-critical and archaeological perspectives.
Together, they provide an overview of contemporary historical
research on the book of First Samuel.
The Naked Goddess can take on various forms: mistress of animals, seductress, fertility figure, even monster. Nudity, however, has a consistent message: power.
This book explores the power of naked females in the art of the Levant and Early Greece, tracing the path and transformation of these magical symbols from their place of origin to Crete and the mainland.
The Goddess and the Warrior presents a stimulating, provocative and lavishly illustrated analysis of the role of the naked goddess and the mistress of the animals within Greek religion.
eBook available with sample pages: 0203462858
A number of long-standing theories concerning the production of
Deuteronomy are currently being revisited. This volume takes a
fresh look at the theory that there was an independent legal
collection comprising chs 12-26 that subsequently was set within
one or two narrative frames to yield the book, with ongoing
redactional changes. Each contributor has been asked to focus on
how the "core" might have functioned as a stand-alone document or,
if exploring a theme or motif, to take note of commonalities and
differences within the "core" and "frames" that might shed light on
the theory under review. Some of the articles also revisit the
theory of a northern origin of the "core" of the book, while others
challenge de Wette's equation of Deuteronomy with the scroll found
during temple repairs under Josiah. With Deuteronomic studies in a
state of flux, this is a timely collection by a group of
international scholars who use a range of methods and who, in
varying degrees, work with or challenge older theories about the
book's origin and growth to approach the central focus from many
angles. Readers will find multivalent evidence they can reflect
over to decide where they stand on the issue of Deuteronomy as a
framed legal "core."
Over seventy-two years ago, beginning on the Vernal Equinox in
Glastonbury, Dion Fortune started receiving communications from the
Inner Planes concerning the creation of the universe, the evolution
of humanity, natural law, the evolution of consciousness, and the
nature of the mind. Her written record of this experience forms the
basis for The Cosmic Doctrine.
Fortune examines the limbo where Science and Magic interact,
where the cosmology of the "Big Bang" and chaos theory run parallel
to the evolutionary process. She also illustrates the true nature
of Good and Evil, which is generally viewed from an individual's
own highly subjective and very personal perspective, and provides
further insights into the interaction of the positive and negative
polarity within the universal scheme of things. A cryptic warning
accompanies these clearly outlined concepts: this book is designed
to train the mind rather than inform it. In other words, it is
intended to induce in the reader a particular attitude to both the
inner and outer world.
Unpublished until 1949, and then only in a privately printed
edition, Fortune and her followers considered the material too
dangerous for general release. This revised and definitive edition
includes original material left out of previous editions and
illuminating diagrams by one of Fortune's closest
collaborators.
Contents:
1. Introduction, Deities and their Worshippers, 2. The Gamos of Hera: Myth and Ritual, Isabelle Clark, 3. Domesticating Artemis, Susan Cole, Objects of Worship, 4. Marriage and the Maiden: Narratives on the Parthenon, Sue Blundell, 5. Born Old or Never Young? Femininity, Childhood and the Goddesses of Ancient Greece, Lesley Beaumont, 6. The Nature of Heroines, Emily Kearns, Ritual and Gender, 7. Death Becomes Her: Gender and Athenian Death Ritual, Karen Stears, 8. In the Mirror of Dionysus, Richard Seaford, Sources and Interpreters, 9. Thesmophoria and Haloa: Myth, Physics and Mysteries, Nick Lowe
This title explores the causes of evil in myth, encompassing themes
such as defilement, the figure of the trickster, evil people both
within and outside the society, and traumatic initiations. Evil, an
undeniable yet inexplicable force in human existence, is often
defined as that which ought not to be, yet is - so it must be
destroyed, or contained, or lived with. Myths of evil function to
universalize the human condition, to show the tension between the
ideal and the real, to reveal but not allegorize that condition,
and to go some way to assist humanity in understanding, combating
and coping with evil within its societies. "Tales of Darkness"
explores the causes of evil in myth, encompassing themes such as
defilement, the figure of the trickster, evil people both within
and outside the society, and traumatic initiations. Robert Ellwood
then looks at 'cures' for evil: laughter, sacrifice, the flood, the
hero's quest, initiation, the saviour, divine wisdom and the end of
days. This is a fascinating examination of how people have dealt
with evil, not philosophically but in terms of the myths, ancient
and modern, which present stories convergent with our own, from
creation myths to Star Wars.
Unfolds a realistic goddess theology based on meticulous
scholarship.
"Greek Sanctuaries: New Approaches" examines some of the major and
less well known Greek sanctuaries from a new light. The traditional
approach to Greek sanctuaries and especially temples has been
descriptive. Much emphasis is commonly placed on architectural
features but only rarely is there an attempt to look at the
totality of functions that a Greek sanctuary might encompass. This
collection of articles addresses the critical questions which
related to the diverse purposes of the sanctuaries: what was their
social function? Who were their clients? Regional links and
variations are stressed, while some sanctuaries are shown to have
had particular uses such as dining and initiation. Among the cults
discussed are the Eleusinian mysteries for which a new
reconstruction is proposed.
Joseph Campbell (1904-1988) was one of the most well-known and
popular scholars of myth and comparative religion of the twentieth
century. His work, however, has never fully received the same
amount of scholarly interest and critical reflection that some of
his contemporaries have received.
In this book, based on extensive research in the Joseph Campbell
Archive in Santa Barbara, Ritske Rensma shows that reflecting on
C.G. Jung's influence on Campbell greatly furthers our
understanding of these ideas, and that once this goal is achieved
it becomes obvious that Campbell was a scholar whose ideas are
still of significance today. Following Jung's lead, Campbell put
great emphasis on the innate structures of the mind, an approach
which pre-echoes the current 'evolutionary turn' in fields such as
cognitive theory, psychology, psychiatry and neurobiology.
This study will therefore not just be of interest to students and
scholars interested in psychological approaches to the study of
religion as well as Jung and Campbell, but also to those with an
interest in recent developments in the above-mentioned fields
In the first century of the Common Era, two new belief systems
entered long-established cultures with radically different outlooks
and values: missionaries started to spread the teachings of Jesus
of Nazareth in Rome and the Buddha in China. Rome and China were
not only ancient cultures, but also cultures whose elites felt no
need to receive the new beliefs. Yet a few centuries later the two
new faiths had become so well-established that their names were
virtually synonymous with the polities they had entered as
strangers. Although there have been numerous studies addressing
this phenomenon in each field, the difficulty of mastering the
languages and literature of these two great cultures has prevented
any sustained effort to compare the two influential religious
traditions at their initial period of development. This book brings
together specialists in the history and religion of Rome and China
with a twofold aim. First, it aims to show in some detail the
similarities and differences each religion encountered in the
process of merging into a new cultural environment. Second, by
juxtaposing the familiar with the foreign, it also aims to capture
aspects of this process that could otherwise be overlooked. This
approach is based on the general proposition that, when a new
religious belief begins to make contact with a society that has
already had long honored beliefs, certain areas of contention will
inevitably ensue and changes on both sides have to take place.
There will be a dynamic interchange between the old and the new,
not only on the narrowly defined level of "belief," but also on the
entire cultural body that nurtures these beliefs. Thus, this book
aims to reassess the nature of each of these religions, not as
unique cultural phenomena but as part of the whole cultural
dynamics of human societies.
This volume is written in the context of trauma hermeneutics of
ancient Jewish communities and their tenacity in the face of
adversity (i.e. as recorded in the MT, LXX, Pseudepigrapha, the
Deuterocanonical books and even Cognate literature. In this regard,
its thirteen chapters, are concerned with the most recent outputs
of trauma studies. They are written by a selection of leading
scholars, associated to some degree with the Hungaro-South African
Study Group. Here, trauma is employed as a useful hermeneutical
lens, not only for interpreting biblical texts and the contexts in
which they were originally produced and functioned but also for
providing a useful frame of reference. As a consequence, these
various research outputs, each in their own way, confirm that an
historical and theological appreciation of these early accounts and
interpretations of collective trauma and its implications,
(perceived or otherwise), is critical for understanding the
essential substance of Jewish cultural identity. As such, these
essays are ideal for scholars in the fields of Biblical
Studies-particularly those interested in the Pseudepigrapha, the
Deuterocanonical books and Cognate literature.
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