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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Pre-Christian European & Mediterranean religions
By the author of Celtic Prayers from Iona In Celtic tradition, the
"Book of Creation" is where we "read" what the Creator has said to
us. J. Philip Newell here reflects on the seven days of creation in
Genesis, using them as a guide to the practice of Celtic
spirituality. Each day explores a different aspect of creation as a
manifestation of God, revealing divine presence at the heart of
everyday life. Newell begins by tracing the history of Celtic
spirituality and how it clashed with Rome, then he goes on to draw
from a rich and diverse selection of Celtic sources on creation:
Eriugena, Pelagius, the Carmina Gadelica, novelist George
MacDonald, poet Kenneth White, and Iona Community founder George
MacLeod. Newell also includes meditation exercises that may be used
by either individuals or groups. Newell is quickly becoming one of
today's most authoritative and inspirational voices on Celtic
spirituality. His book is perfect for prayer groups, seasonal
parish programs, small faith communities, religious communities,
spiritual seekers, anyone of Celtic heritage, and anyone interested
in creation spirituality.
The Peace of the Gods takes a new approach to the study of Roman
elites' religious practices and beliefs, using current theories in
psychology, sociology, and anthropology, as well as cultural and
literary studies. Craige Champion focuses on what the elites of the
Middle Republic (ca. 250-ca. 100 BCE) actually did in the religious
sphere, rather than what they merely said or wrote about it, in
order to provide a more nuanced and satisfying historical
reconstruction of what their religion may have meant to those who
commanded the Roman world and its imperial subjects. The book
examines the nature and structure of the major priesthoods in Rome
itself, Roman military commanders' religious behaviors in dangerous
field conditions, and the state religion's acceptance or rejection
of new cults and rituals in response to external events that
benefited or threatened the Republic. According to a once-dominant
but now-outmoded interpretation of Roman religion that goes back to
the ancient Greek historian Polybius, the elites didn't believe in
their gods but merely used religion to control the masses. Using
that interpretation as a counterfactual lens, Champion argues
instead that Roman elites sincerely tried to maintain Rome's good
fortune through a pax deorum or "peace of the gods." The result
offers rich new insights into the role of religion in elite Roman
life.
An unparalleled exploration of magic in the Greco-Roman world What
did magic mean to the people of ancient Greece and Rome? How did
Greeks and Romans not only imagine what magic could do, but also
use it to try to influence the world around them? In Drawing Down
the Moon, Radcliffe Edmonds, one of the foremost experts on magic,
religion, and the occult in the ancient world, provides the most
comprehensive account of the varieties of phenomena labeled as
magic in classical antiquity. Exploring why certain practices,
images, and ideas were labeled as "magic" and set apart from
"normal" kinds of practices, Edmonds gives insight into the
shifting ideas of religion and the divine in the ancient past and
later Western tradition. Using fresh approaches to the history of
religions and the social contexts in which magic was exercised,
Edmonds delves into the archaeological record and classical
literary traditions to examine images of witches, ghosts, and
demons as well as the fantastic powers of metamorphosis, erotic
attraction, and reversals of nature, such as the famous trick of
drawing down the moon. From prayer and divination to astrology and
alchemy, Edmonds journeys through all manner of ancient magical
rituals and paraphernalia-ancient tablets, spell books, bindings
and curses, love charms and healing potions, and amulets and
talismans. He considers the ways in which the Greco-Roman discourse
of magic was formed amid the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean,
including Egypt and the Near East. An investigation of the mystical
and marvelous, Drawing Down the Moon offers an unparalleled record
of the origins, nature, and functions of ancient magic.
What ancient polytheistic religions can teach us about building
inclusive and equitable futures At the heart of this book is a
simple comparison: monotheistic religions are exclusive, whereas
ancient polytheistic religions are inclusive. In this
thought-provoking book, Maurizio Bettini, one of today's foremost
classicists, uses the expansiveness of ancient polytheism to shine
a bright light on a darker corner of our modern times. It can be
easy to see ancient religions as inferior, less free, and remote
from shared visions of an inclusive world. But, as Bettini deftly
shows, many ancient practices tended to produce results aligned
with contemporary progressive values, like pluralism and diversity.
In Praise of Polytheism does not chastise the modern world or blame
monotheism for our woes but rather shows in clear, sharp prose how
much we can learn from ancient religions, underscoring the
limitations of how we view the world and ourselves today.
A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more
at www.luminosoa.org. During the height of Muslim power in Mughal
South Asia, Hindu and Muslim scholars worked collaboratively to
translate a large body of Hindu Sanskrit texts into the Persian
language. Translating Wisdom reconstructs the intellectual
processes and exchanges that underlay these translations. Using as
a case study the 1597 Persian rendition of the Yoga-Vasistha-an
influential Sanskrit philosophical tale whose popularity stretched
across the subcontinent-Shankar Nair illustrates how these early
modern Muslim and Hindu scholars drew upon their respective
religious, philosophical, and literary traditions to forge a common
vocabulary through which to understand one another. These scholars
thus achieved, Nair argues, a nuanced cultural exchange and
interreligious and cross-philosophical dialogue significant not
only to South Asia's past but also its present.
In the Greco-Roman catacombs of Alexandria, uniquely decorated
tombs from the time when religious boundaries blurred and
syncretistic beliefs flourished have long been known. But it was
only in 1993 that researchers discovered faint traces of paintings
on walls previously thought to be blank, or underneath other
painted scenes: the hidden scenes could be partly made out and
photographed using ultraviolet light. Then in 2012, new computer
technology was used to reveal the lost images and colors even more
clearly.Here the team present, examine, and interpret what they
found, teasing meaning and intent from the alternating scenes of
Greek and Egyptian mythology, as employed by the citizens of a
multicultural Alexandria at the beginning of the second century CE,
in pursuit of a happy afterlife.
Traditional and still prevalent accounts of late antique literature
draw a clear distinction between 'pagan' and 'Christian' forms of
poetry: whereas Christian poetry is taken seriously in terms its
contribution to culture and society at large, so-called pagan or
secular poetry is largely ignored, as though it has no meaningful
part to play within the late antique world. The Myth of Paganism
sets out to deconstruct this view of two contrasting poetic
traditions and proposes in its place a new integrated model for the
understanding of late antique poetry. As the book argues, the poet
of Christ and the poet of the Muses were drawn together into an
active, often provocative, dialogue about the relationship between
Christianity and the Classical tradition and, ultimately, about the
meaning of late antiquity itself. An analysis of the poetry of
Nonnus of Panopolis, author of both a 'pagan' epic about Dionysus
and a Christian translation of St John's Gospel, helps to
illustrate this complex dialectic between pagan and Christian
voices.
When a freshly-mummified body is discovered at the Brighton Museum of Natural History, Detective Francis Sullivan is at a loss to identify the desiccated woman. But as Egyptian burial jars of body parts with cryptic messages attached start appearing, he realises he has a serial killer on his hands.
Revenge, obsession and an ancient religion form a potent mix, unleashing a wave of terror throughout the city. Caught in a race against time while battling his own demons, Francis must fight to uncover the true identity of the Embalmer before it's too late...
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