|
Showing 1 - 13 of
13 matches in All Departments
This book is an exploration of the ideals and values of the ascetic
and monastic life, as expressed through clothes. Clothes are often
seen as an extension of us as humans, a determinant of who we are
and how we experience and interact with the world. In this way,
they can play a significant role in the embodied and material
aspects of religious practice. The focus of this book is on
clothing and garments among ancient monastics and ascetics in
Egypt, but with a broader outlook to the general meaning and
function of clothes in religion. The garments of the Egyptian
ascetics and monastics are important because they belong to a
period of transition in the history of Christianity and very much
represent this way of living. This study combines a cognitive
perspective on clothes with an attempt to grasp the embodied
experiences of being clothed, as well as viewing clothes as
potential actors. Using sources such as travelogues, biographies,
letters, contracts, images, and garments from monastic burials, the
role of clothes is brought into conversation with material religion
more generally. This unique study builds links between ancient and
contemporary uses of religious clothing. It will, therefore, be of
interest to any scholar of religious studies, religious history,
religion in antiquity, and material religion.
This book is an exploration of the ideals and values of the ascetic
and monastic life, as expressed through clothes. Clothes are often
seen as an extension of us as humans, a determinant of who we are
and how we experience and interact with the world. In this way,
they can play a significant role in the embodied and material
aspects of religious practice. The focus of this book is on
clothing and garments among ancient monastics and ascetics in
Egypt, but with a broader outlook to the general meaning and
function of clothes in religion. The garments of the Egyptian
ascetics and monastics are important because they belong to a
period of transition in the history of Christianity and very much
represent this way of living. This study combines a cognitive
perspective on clothes with an attempt to grasp the embodied
experiences of being clothed, as well as viewing clothes as
potential actors. Using sources such as travelogues, biographies,
letters, contracts, images, and garments from monastic burials, the
role of clothes is brought into conversation with material religion
more generally. This unique study builds links between ancient and
contemporary uses of religious clothing. It will, therefore, be of
interest to any scholar of religious studies, religious history,
religion in antiquity, and material religion.
New Age and holistic beliefs and practices - sometimes called the
"new spirituality" - are widely distributed across modern global
society. The fluid and popular nature of new age makes these
movements a very challenging field to understand using traditional
models of religious analysis. Rather than treating new age as an
exotic specimen on the margins of 'proper' religion, "New Age
Spirituality" examines these movements as a form of everyday or
lived religion. The book brings together an international range of
scholars to explore the key issues: insight, healing, divination,
meditation, gnosis, extraordinary experiences, and interactions
with gods, spirits and superhuman powers. Combining discussion of
contemporary beliefs and practices with cutting-edge theoretical
analysis, the book repositions new age spirituality at the
forefront of the contemporary study of religion.
New Age and holistic beliefs and practices - sometimes called the
"new spirituality" - are widely distributed across modern global
society. The fluid and popular nature of new age makes these
movements a very challenging field to understand using traditional
models of religious analysis. Rather than treating new age as an
exotic specimen on the margins of 'proper' religion, "New Age
Spirituality" examines these movements as a form of everyday or
lived religion. The book brings together an international range of
scholars to explore the key issues: insight, healing, divination,
meditation, gnosis, extraordinary experiences, and interactions
with gods, spirits and superhuman powers. Combining discussion of
contemporary beliefs and practices with cutting-edge theoretical
analysis, the book repositions new age spirituality at the
forefront of the contemporary study of religion.
First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor &
Francis, an informa company.
Ingvild Saelid Gilhus explores the transition from traditional
Greek and Roman religion to Christianity in the Roman Empire and
the effect of this change on the concept of animals, illustrating
the main factors in the creation of a Christian conception of
animals. One of the underlying assumptions of the book is that
changes in the way animal motifs are used and the way human-animal
relations are conceptualized serve as indicators of more general
cultural shifts. Gilhus attests that in late antiquity, animals
were used as symbols in a general redefinition of cultural values
and assumptions.
A wide range of key texts are consulted and range from
philosophical treaties to novels and poems on metamorphoses; from
biographies of holy persons such as Apollonius of Tyana and Antony,
the Christian desert ascetic, to natural history; from the New
Testament via Gnostic texts to the church fathers; from pagan and
Christian criticism of animal sacrifice to the acts of the martyrs.
Both the pagan and the Christian conception of animals remained
rich and multilayered through the centuries and this book presents
the dominant themes and developments in the conception of animals
without losing that complexity.
Ingvild Saelid Gilhus explores the transition from traditional
Greek and Roman religion to Christianity in the Roman Empire and
the effect of this change on the concept of animals, illustrating
the main factors in the creation of a Christian conception of
animals. One of the underlying assumptions of the book is that
changes in the way animal motifs are used and the way human-animal
relations are conceptualized serve as indicators of more general
cultural shifts. Gilhus attests that in late antiquity, animals
were used as symbols in a general redefinition of cultural values
and assumptions.
A wide range of key texts are consulted and range from
philosophical treaties to novels and poems on metamorphoses; from
biographies of holy persons such as Apollonius of Tyana and Antony,
the Christian desert ascetic, to natural history; from the New
Testament via Gnostic texts to the church fathers; from pagan and
Christian criticism of animal sacrifice to the acts of the martyrs.
Both the pagan and the Christian conception of animals remained
rich and multilayered through the centuries and this book presents
the dominant themes and developments in the conception of animals
without losing that complexity.
This work analyses how laughter has been used as a symbol in myths,
rituals and festivals of Western religions, and has thus been
inscribed in religious discourse. The author argues that laughter
is a central human phenomenon. Humans use laughter as a means to
experience the world, categorize its forms and judge its values.
But, laughter also transcends language, and is frequently used as a
characteristic of the divine. The Mesopotamian Anu, the Israelite
Jahweh, the Greek Dionysos, the Gnostic Christ and the late modern
Jesus were all laughing gods. Through their laughter, gods prove
both their superiority and their proximity to humans. In this
study, Professor Gilhus examines the relationship between corporeal
human laughter and spiritual divine laughter from Classical
antiquity, to the Christian West and the modern era. The book
combines the study of the history of religion with
social-scientific approaches, to provide an exploration of a
universal human phenomenon, and its significance for the
development of religions.
This volume investigates "alternative" spiritualities that
increasingly cater for the mainstream within the secularized
society of Norway, making Norwegian-based research available to
international scholarship. It looks at New Age both in a restricted
(sensu stricto) and a wide sense (sensu lato), focusing mainly on
the period from the mid-1990s and onwards, with a particular
emphasis on developments after the turn of the century. Few, if
any, of the ideas and practices discussed in this book are
homegrown or uniquely Norwegian, but local soil and climate still
matters, as habitats for particular growths and developments.
Globalizing currents are here shaped and molded by local religious
history and contemporary religio-political systems, along with
random incidences, such as the setting up of an angel-business by
the princess Martha Louise. The position of Lutheran Protestantism
as "national religion" particularly impacts on the development and
perception of religious competitors.
This volume investigates "alternative" spiritualities that
increasingly cater for the mainstream within the secularized
society of Norway, making Norwegian-based research available to
international scholarship. It looks at New Age both in a restricted
(sensu stricto) and a wide sense (sensu lato), focusing mainly on
the period from the mid-1990s and onwards, with a particular
emphasis on developments after the turn of the century. Few, if
any, of the ideas and practices discussed in this book are
homegrown or uniquely Norwegian, but local soil and climate still
matters, as habitats for particular growths and developments.
Globalizing currents are here shaped and molded by local religious
history and contemporary religio-political systems, along with
random incidences, such as the setting up of an angel-business by
the princess Martha Louise. The position of Lutheran Protestantism
as "national religion" particularly impacts on the development and
perception of religious competitors.
This book takes an interdisciplinary approach in order to
understand angels, focusing on Africa and the cult and persona of
the Archangel Michael. Traditional methods in the study of religion
including philology, papyrology, art and iconography, anthropology,
history, and psychology are combined with methodologies deriving
from memory studies, graphic design, art education, and semiotics.
Chapters explore both historical and contemporary case studies from
Coptic Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, and South Africa, providing a
comparative perspective on the Archangel Michael, alongside 25
images. Innovative in both its methodologies and geographical
focus, this book is an important contribution to the study of
religion and art, Christianity in Africa, and Coptic studies.
This book takes an interdisciplinary approach in order to
understand angels, focusing on Africa and the cult and persona of
the Archangel Michael. Traditional methods in the study of religion
including philology, papyrology, art and iconography, anthropology,
history, and psychology are combined with methodologies deriving
from memory studies, graphic design, art education, and semiotics.
Chapters explore both historical and contemporary case studies from
Coptic Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, and South Africa, providing a
comparative perspective on the Archangel Michael, alongside 25
images. Innovative in both its methodologies and geographical
focus, this book is an important contribution to the study of
religion and art, Christianity in Africa, and Coptic studies.
"Enjoying religion" seems to be a contradiction because religion is
generally perceived as a serious or even suppressive phenomenon.
This volume is the first to study the increase of enjoying religion
systematically by presenting eleven new case studies, occurring on
four continents. The volume concludes that in our late modern
secular societies the enjoyment of religion or of its loose
elements is growing. In particular when scholars concentrate on
"lived religion" of ordinary people, the cheerful experiences
appear to prevail. Many people use pleasant (elements of) religion
to add meaning to their lives, to find spiritual fulfillment or a
way to salvation, and to experience belonging to a larger unity. At
the same time, diverse cultural dynamics of late modern society
such as popular culture, commercialization, re-enchantment, and
feminization influence this trend of enjoying religion. In spite of
secularization, playing with religion appears to be attractive.
|
|