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The Shepherd of Hermas is one of the oldest and most well-attested
Christian works. Its popularity arguably exceeded that of the
canonical Gospels. Many early Christian thinkers regarded the
Shepherd as authoritative and cited it in their own writings, even
though its status as Scripture was controversial. The far-reaching
influence of the Shepherd during the first few centuries is
attested in part by the many languages in which it was copied:
Latin, Ethiopic, Coptic, Middle Persian, and Georgian. The early
dating and wide dissemination of the Shepherd of Hermas offers us
access to a period when canonical boundaries were elastic. This
volume treats religious experience in the Shepherd, a topic that
has received little scholarly attention. It complements a growing
body of literature that explores the text from social-historical
perspectives. Leading scholars approach it from a variety of
interdisciplinary perspectives, including critical literary theory,
anthropology, cognitive science, affect theory, gender studies,
intersectionality, and text reception. In doing so, they pose fresh
questions to one of the most widely read texts in the early church,
offering new insights to scholars and students alike.
This book examines the collection of prayers known as the Qumran
Hodayot (= Thanksgiving Hymns) in light of ancient visionary
traditions, new developments in neuropsychology, and
post-structuralist understandings of the embodied subject. The
thesis of this book is that the ritualized reading of reports
describing visionary experiences written in the first person "I"
had the potential to create within the ancient reader the
subjectivity of a visionary which can then predispose him to have a
religious experience. This study examines how references to the
body and the strategic arousal of emotions could have functioned
within a practice of performative reading to engender a religious
experience of ascent. In so doing, this book offers new
interdisciplinary insights into meditative ritual reading as a
religious practice for transformation in antiquity.
The Shepherd of Hermas (70-150 CE) is one of the oldest Christian
works from a major urban center. While the majority of manuscript
evidence of the Shepherd is concentrated in North Africa, the work
has long-standing association with the city of Rome. It consists of
three major sections: the Book of Visions, the Mandates, and the
Similitudes. The Shepherd was enormously popular during the early
centuries as a catechetical text used for moral formation. Its
manuscript evidence during the early centuries far exceeded that of
the Gospels. This book uses cognitive literary theory, specifically
the approach known as enactive reading, to investigate why a work
that was exceedingly popular among readers in antiquity has failed
to receive the same reception by modern scholars. The study focuses
on the first section of the Shepherd known as the Book of Visions,
which narrates Hermas's visionary experiences in first-person
voice. The book argues that enactive reading can help to generate
immersive experiences of Hermas's visions and explain the success
and appeal of the Book of Visions among ancient readers. Cognitive
approaches also highlight how modern scholars trained to read
apocalypses 'against the grain' to search for historical or
theological information fail to notice and appreciate the very
things that made apocalypses engaging and entertaining to a broad
range of ancient readers and hearers.
This book examines the collection of prayers known as the Qumran
Hodayot (= Thanksgiving Hymns) in light of ancient visionary
traditions, new developments in neuropsychology, and
post-structuralist understandings of the embodied subject. The
thesis of this book is that the ritualized reading of reports
describing visionary experiences written in the first person "I"
had the potential to create within the ancient reader the
subjectivity of a visionary which can then predispose him to have a
religious experience. This study examines how references to the
body and the strategic arousal of emotions could have functioned
within a practice of performative reading to engender a religious
experience of ascent. In so doing, this book offers new
interdisciplinary insights into meditative ritual reading as a
religious practice for transformation in antiquity.
The Shepherd of Hermas (70-150 CE) is one of the oldest Christian
works from a major urban center. While the majority of manuscript
evidence of the Shepherd is concentrated in North Africa, the work
has long-standing association with the city of Rome. It consists of
three major sections: the Book of Visions, the Mandates, and the
Similitudes. The Shepherd was enormously popular during the early
centuries as a catechetical text used for moral formation. Its
manuscript evidence during the early centuries far exceeded that of
the Gospels. This book uses cognitive literary theory, specifically
the approach known as enactive reading, to investigate why a work
that was exceedingly popular among readers in antiquity has failed
to receive the same reception by modern scholars. The study focuses
on the first section of the Shepherd known as the Book of Visions,
which narrates Hermas's visionary experiences in first-person
voice. The book argues that enactive reading can help to generate
immersive experiences of Hermas's visions and explain the success
and appeal of the Book of Visions among ancient readers. Cognitive
approaches also highlight how modern scholars trained to read
apocalypses 'against the grain' to search for historical or
theological information fail to notice and appreciate the very
things that made apocalypses engaging and entertaining to a broad
range of ancient readers and hearers.
At the origin of the Watchers tradition is the single enigmatic
reference in Genesis 6 to the "sons of God" who had intercourse
with human women, producing a race of giants upon the earth. That
verse sparked an explosion of cosmological and theological
speculation in early Judaism. Here leading scholars explore the
contours of the Watchers traditions through history, tracing their
development through the Enoch literature, Jubilees, and other early
Jewish and Christian writings. This volume provides a lucid survey
of current knowledge and interpretation of one of the most
intriguing theological motifs of the Second Temple period.
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