Torstein Theodor Tollefsen
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199605965
- eISBN:
- 9780191738227
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199605965.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies, Religion in the Ancient World
This book is an investigation into two basic concepts of ancient pagan and Christian thought, namely activity and participation. It shows how activity in Christian thought is connected with the topic ...
More
This book is an investigation into two basic concepts of ancient pagan and Christian thought, namely activity and participation. It shows how activity in Christian thought is connected with the topic of participation: for the lower levels of being to participate in the higher means to receive the divine activity into their own ontological constitution. It is mainly a discussion of some important Church Fathers. Against a background of Aristotelian and Neoplatonist philosophy, the book discusses Gregory of Nyssa, Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor, and culminates with a chapter on Gregory Palamas before some conclusions are drawn. The concern of the author is to highlight how the Christians think energeia (i.e. activity or energy) is manifested as divine activity in the eternal constitution of the Trinity, the creation of the cosmos, the Incarnation of Christ, and in salvation understood as deification. Terms such as essence and energy are associated with the theology and spirituality of the fourteenth-century Byzantine thinker Gregory Palamas. One purpose of this book is to show how Palamas’ theology is in accordance with Greek patristic thinking, with its background in a definite trend in ancient pagan philosophy.Less
This book is an investigation into two basic concepts of ancient pagan and Christian thought, namely activity and participation. It shows how activity in Christian thought is connected with the topic of participation: for the lower levels of being to participate in the higher means to receive the divine activity into their own ontological constitution. It is mainly a discussion of some important Church Fathers. Against a background of Aristotelian and Neoplatonist philosophy, the book discusses Gregory of Nyssa, Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor, and culminates with a chapter on Gregory Palamas before some conclusions are drawn. The concern of the author is to highlight how the Christians think energeia (i.e. activity or energy) is manifested as divine activity in the eternal constitution of the Trinity, the creation of the cosmos, the Incarnation of Christ, and in salvation understood as deification. Terms such as essence and energy are associated with the theology and spirituality of the fourteenth-century Byzantine thinker Gregory Palamas. One purpose of this book is to show how Palamas’ theology is in accordance with Greek patristic thinking, with its background in a definite trend in ancient pagan philosophy.
James K. Hoffmeier
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199792085
- eISBN:
- 9780190217693
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199792085.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World, World Religions
Akhenaten is one of the most intriguing rulers of ancient Egypt, and one of the most fascinating individuals from the ancient world. His odd appearance in representations that he commissioned and his ...
More
Akhenaten is one of the most intriguing rulers of ancient Egypt, and one of the most fascinating individuals from the ancient world. His odd appearance in representations that he commissioned and his preoccupation with worshiping the sun-disc, or Aten, have stimulated a vast amount of academic discussion and controversy for more than a century. The focus of this book is on Akhenaten’s religion and how it developed. Here, too, opinions vary. Was he a crazy fundamentalist, a zealous ideologue, a true believer, or did politics and power motivate his actions? The main questions addressed here include: How did Akhenaten’s religion develop? What prompted his program of persecution against Amun who had been the imperial god of Egypt in the centuries prior to Akhenaten’s? What was the significance of the temples built at Karnak Temple (the domain of Amun), and what role did they play? Why did the king abandon the imperial city of Thebes and build a new capital at Amarna? Was he a monotheist? If so, what if any influence did his religion have on the origin of Israel’s religion? These probing questions will be addressed by a careful reading of texts of Akhenaten and by examining his artistic representations.Less
Akhenaten is one of the most intriguing rulers of ancient Egypt, and one of the most fascinating individuals from the ancient world. His odd appearance in representations that he commissioned and his preoccupation with worshiping the sun-disc, or Aten, have stimulated a vast amount of academic discussion and controversy for more than a century. The focus of this book is on Akhenaten’s religion and how it developed. Here, too, opinions vary. Was he a crazy fundamentalist, a zealous ideologue, a true believer, or did politics and power motivate his actions? The main questions addressed here include: How did Akhenaten’s religion develop? What prompted his program of persecution against Amun who had been the imperial god of Egypt in the centuries prior to Akhenaten’s? What was the significance of the temples built at Karnak Temple (the domain of Amun), and what role did they play? Why did the king abandon the imperial city of Thebes and build a new capital at Amarna? Was he a monotheist? If so, what if any influence did his religion have on the origin of Israel’s religion? These probing questions will be addressed by a careful reading of texts of Akhenaten and by examining his artistic representations.
Jennifer Wright Knust and Zsuzsanna Varhelyi (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199738960
- eISBN:
- 9780199918676
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199738960.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice reappraises the diverse religious texts and practices of the late Hellenistic and Roman periods, investigating the meanings and functions of sacrifice in ...
More
Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice reappraises the diverse religious texts and practices of the late Hellenistic and Roman periods, investigating the meanings and functions of sacrifice in the ancient world. Gathering together essays that address sacrificial acts, ancient theories of sacrifice, and literary as well as artistic depictions of sacrifice, the connections between Mediterranean religions are highlighted, as are the significant differences among them. The attempt to identify a single underlying significance of sacrifice, this collection demonstrates, is futile. It is simply not adequate to define sacrifice solely as a primal expression of violence, despite the frequent equation of sacrifice-religion and sacrifice-violence in many modern scholarly works, nor is it sufficient to suggest that all sacrifice can be explained by guilt, by the need to prepare and distribute animal flesh, or by the communal function of both the sacrificial ritual and the meal. Sacrifice may be invested with all of these meanings, or none of them: the killing of the animal, for example, may take place off stage and the practical, day-to-day routine of plant and animal offerings may have been invested with little meaning at all. Still, sacrificial acts, or discourses about these acts, did offer an important site of contestation for many ancient writers, even when the religions they were defending no longer participated in sacrifice. Negotiations over the meaning of sacrifice remained central to the competitive machinations of the literate elite, and their sophisticated theological arguments did not so much undermine sacrificial practice as continue to assume its essential validity.Less
Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice reappraises the diverse religious texts and practices of the late Hellenistic and Roman periods, investigating the meanings and functions of sacrifice in the ancient world. Gathering together essays that address sacrificial acts, ancient theories of sacrifice, and literary as well as artistic depictions of sacrifice, the connections between Mediterranean religions are highlighted, as are the significant differences among them. The attempt to identify a single underlying significance of sacrifice, this collection demonstrates, is futile. It is simply not adequate to define sacrifice solely as a primal expression of violence, despite the frequent equation of sacrifice-religion and sacrifice-violence in many modern scholarly works, nor is it sufficient to suggest that all sacrifice can be explained by guilt, by the need to prepare and distribute animal flesh, or by the communal function of both the sacrificial ritual and the meal. Sacrifice may be invested with all of these meanings, or none of them: the killing of the animal, for example, may take place off stage and the practical, day-to-day routine of plant and animal offerings may have been invested with little meaning at all. Still, sacrificial acts, or discourses about these acts, did offer an important site of contestation for many ancient writers, even when the religions they were defending no longer participated in sacrifice. Negotiations over the meaning of sacrifice remained central to the competitive machinations of the literate elite, and their sophisticated theological arguments did not so much undermine sacrificial practice as continue to assume its essential validity.
Heidi Wendt
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190267148
- eISBN:
- 9780190267162
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190267148.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
This book examines evidence for varieties of self-authorized or “freelance” religious experts in the first two centuries of the Roman Empire. Whereas the figures in question tend to be studied ...
More
This book examines evidence for varieties of self-authorized or “freelance” religious experts in the first two centuries of the Roman Empire. Whereas the figures in question tend to be studied separately on the basis of selective characteristics of their practices, this book argues that all such experts, irrespective of differences in the content of their programs, participated in a highly competitive form of religious activity with common field dynamics. The first part of the book presents evidence for the expansion and diversification of this phenomenon in the early imperial period, with a particular focus on historical conditions that promoted these developments. It then explores dimensions of foreignness and intellectualism that were prominent in the activities of freelance experts, including those of some Judeans. The second part of the book situates Paul and, then, second-century Christian rivals within this context and redescribes their practices in terms that are consistent with those of specialists considered in the preceding chapters. The text argues that freelance experts contributed appreciably to broader religious transformations occurring in the early imperial period, a time when many new forms of religion are first attested. The approach outlined in the book cuts across such problematic scholarly categories as Judaism, Christianity, mystery cults, astrology, magic, and philosophy.Less
This book examines evidence for varieties of self-authorized or “freelance” religious experts in the first two centuries of the Roman Empire. Whereas the figures in question tend to be studied separately on the basis of selective characteristics of their practices, this book argues that all such experts, irrespective of differences in the content of their programs, participated in a highly competitive form of religious activity with common field dynamics. The first part of the book presents evidence for the expansion and diversification of this phenomenon in the early imperial period, with a particular focus on historical conditions that promoted these developments. It then explores dimensions of foreignness and intellectualism that were prominent in the activities of freelance experts, including those of some Judeans. The second part of the book situates Paul and, then, second-century Christian rivals within this context and redescribes their practices in terms that are consistent with those of specialists considered in the preceding chapters. The text argues that freelance experts contributed appreciably to broader religious transformations occurring in the early imperial period, a time when many new forms of religion are first attested. The approach outlined in the book cuts across such problematic scholarly categories as Judaism, Christianity, mystery cults, astrology, magic, and philosophy.
Philip F. Esler
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198767169
- eISBN:
- 9780191821349
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198767169.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World, Biblical Studies
In 1961 archaeologists discovered a family archive of legal papyri in a cave near the Dead Sea where their owner, the Jewish woman Babatha, had hidden them in 135 CE at the end of the Bar Kokhba ...
More
In 1961 archaeologists discovered a family archive of legal papyri in a cave near the Dead Sea where their owner, the Jewish woman Babatha, had hidden them in 135 CE at the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt. This book analyses the oldest four of these papyri to argue that underlying them is a hitherto undetected and surprising train of events concerning how Babatha’s father, Shim‘on, purchased a date-palm orchard in Maoza on the southern shore of the Dead Sea in 99 CE that he later gave to Babatha. The central features of the story, untold for two millennia, relate to how a high Nabatean official had purchased the orchard only a month before, but suddenly rescinded the purchase, and how Shim‘on then acquired it, in enlarged form, from the vendor. Teasing out the details involves deploying the new methodology of archival ethnography, combined with a fresh scrutiny of the papyri (written in Nabatean Aramaic), to investigate the Nabatean and Jewish individuals mentioned and their relationships within the social, ethnic, economic, and political realities of Nabatea at that time. Aspects of this context which are thrown into sharp relief by this book include: the prominence of wealthy Nabatean women and their husbands’ financial reliance on them; the high returns and steep losses possible in date cultivation; the sophistication of Nabatean law and lawyers; the lingering effect of the Nabateans’ nomadic past in lessening the social distance between elite and non-elite; and the good ethnic relations between Nabateans and Jews.Less
In 1961 archaeologists discovered a family archive of legal papyri in a cave near the Dead Sea where their owner, the Jewish woman Babatha, had hidden them in 135 CE at the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt. This book analyses the oldest four of these papyri to argue that underlying them is a hitherto undetected and surprising train of events concerning how Babatha’s father, Shim‘on, purchased a date-palm orchard in Maoza on the southern shore of the Dead Sea in 99 CE that he later gave to Babatha. The central features of the story, untold for two millennia, relate to how a high Nabatean official had purchased the orchard only a month before, but suddenly rescinded the purchase, and how Shim‘on then acquired it, in enlarged form, from the vendor. Teasing out the details involves deploying the new methodology of archival ethnography, combined with a fresh scrutiny of the papyri (written in Nabatean Aramaic), to investigate the Nabatean and Jewish individuals mentioned and their relationships within the social, ethnic, economic, and political realities of Nabatea at that time. Aspects of this context which are thrown into sharp relief by this book include: the prominence of wealthy Nabatean women and their husbands’ financial reliance on them; the high returns and steep losses possible in date cultivation; the sophistication of Nabatean law and lawyers; the lingering effect of the Nabateans’ nomadic past in lessening the social distance between elite and non-elite; and the good ethnic relations between Nabateans and Jews.
Carol Harrison, Caroline Humfress, and Isabella Sandwell (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199656035
- eISBN:
- 9780191767821
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199656035.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World, Early Christian Studies
What do we mean when we talk about ‘being Christian’ in Late Antiquity? This volume brings together 16 world-leading scholars of ancient Judaism, Christianity, and Greco-Roman culture and society to ...
More
What do we mean when we talk about ‘being Christian’ in Late Antiquity? This volume brings together 16 world-leading scholars of ancient Judaism, Christianity, and Greco-Roman culture and society to explore this question, in honour of the groundbreaking scholarship of Gillian Clark. After an introduction to the volume’s dedicatee and themes by Averil Cameron, Section I, ‘Being Christian through Reading, Writing, and Hearing’, analyses the roles that literary genre, writing, reading, hearing, and the literature of the past played in the formation of what it meant to be Christian. Section II moves on to analyse how late antique Christians sought to create, maintain, and represent Christian communities: communities that were both ‘textually created’ and ‘enacted in living realities’. Finally Section III, ‘The Particularities of Being Christian’, approaches what it was to be Christian from a number of different modes of representation, each of which raises questions about certain kinds of ‘particularities’, for example, gender, location, education, and culture. Bringing together primary source material from the early Imperial period up to the seventh century AD and covering both the Eastern and Western Empires, the volume collectively explores how individuals and Christian communities sought to relate themselves to existing traditions, social structures, and identities, at the same time as questioning and critiquing the past(s) in their present.Less
What do we mean when we talk about ‘being Christian’ in Late Antiquity? This volume brings together 16 world-leading scholars of ancient Judaism, Christianity, and Greco-Roman culture and society to explore this question, in honour of the groundbreaking scholarship of Gillian Clark. After an introduction to the volume’s dedicatee and themes by Averil Cameron, Section I, ‘Being Christian through Reading, Writing, and Hearing’, analyses the roles that literary genre, writing, reading, hearing, and the literature of the past played in the formation of what it meant to be Christian. Section II moves on to analyse how late antique Christians sought to create, maintain, and represent Christian communities: communities that were both ‘textually created’ and ‘enacted in living realities’. Finally Section III, ‘The Particularities of Being Christian’, approaches what it was to be Christian from a number of different modes of representation, each of which raises questions about certain kinds of ‘particularities’, for example, gender, location, education, and culture. Bringing together primary source material from the early Imperial period up to the seventh century AD and covering both the Eastern and Western Empires, the volume collectively explores how individuals and Christian communities sought to relate themselves to existing traditions, social structures, and identities, at the same time as questioning and critiquing the past(s) in their present.
Adiel Schremer
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195383775
- eISBN:
- 9780199777280
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195383775.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
This book seeks to reconstruct the earliest rabbinic discourse of minut (frequently understood as the Hebrew equivalent of the Christian term “heresy”), and to reassess the place that early ...
More
This book seeks to reconstruct the earliest rabbinic discourse of minut (frequently understood as the Hebrew equivalent of the Christian term “heresy”), and to reassess the place that early Christianity occupied in that discourse. It suggests that the emergence of the rabbinic discourse of religious identity was a response to an identity crisis of a post-traumatic society, shattered by the powerful Roman empire. In order to re-affirm its values and distinct Jewish identity Palestinian rabbinic society developed a discourse of “heresy,” in which its religious boundaries were re-established by the labeling of some Jews as minim, and their placement beyond the pale. That discourse emphasized notions of social and communal solidarity and belonging, much more than a strictly defined concept of “correct belief,” and minim, accordingly, were Jews who's fault was seen in their separation from the rest of the Jewish community. The place that Christianity occupied in that discourse was relatively small, and the early Christians, who only gradually were introduced into the category of minim and became to be considered as such, were not its main target. Throughout Late Antiquity, the “significant other” for Palestinian Rabbis remained the Roman Empire, and the religious challenge with which they were mostly occupied was the Empire's power and the challenge it posed to the belief in God's power and His divinity.Less
This book seeks to reconstruct the earliest rabbinic discourse of minut (frequently understood as the Hebrew equivalent of the Christian term “heresy”), and to reassess the place that early Christianity occupied in that discourse. It suggests that the emergence of the rabbinic discourse of religious identity was a response to an identity crisis of a post-traumatic society, shattered by the powerful Roman empire. In order to re-affirm its values and distinct Jewish identity Palestinian rabbinic society developed a discourse of “heresy,” in which its religious boundaries were re-established by the labeling of some Jews as minim, and their placement beyond the pale. That discourse emphasized notions of social and communal solidarity and belonging, much more than a strictly defined concept of “correct belief,” and minim, accordingly, were Jews who's fault was seen in their separation from the rest of the Jewish community. The place that Christianity occupied in that discourse was relatively small, and the early Christians, who only gradually were introduced into the category of minim and became to be considered as such, were not its main target. Throughout Late Antiquity, the “significant other” for Palestinian Rabbis remained the Roman Empire, and the religious challenge with which they were mostly occupied was the Empire's power and the challenge it posed to the belief in God's power and His divinity.
Daniel C. Ullucci
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199791705
- eISBN:
- 9780199932436
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199791705.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
Animal sacrifice is one of the most pervasive ritual actions in human history. In the ancient Mediterranean world, animal sacrifice was one of the most culturally significant religious rituals, ...
More
Animal sacrifice is one of the most pervasive ritual actions in human history. In the ancient Mediterranean world, animal sacrifice was one of the most culturally significant religious rituals, indexing group membership and status at all levels of society. Sacrifice dominated the ritual landscape of ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish religion for millennia, but this situation changed drastically in fourth and fifth centuries, corresponding to the rise of Christianity. The Christian Rejection of Animal Sacrifice attempts to shed new light on this remarkable historical turn. The book is a redescription of Christian and non-Christian responses to the practice of sacrifice. The predominant scholarly model posits a connection between so-called critiques of sacrifice in non-Christian Greek, Latin, and Hebrew texts and the Christian rejection of animal sacrifice. It argues that pre-Christian authors attacked animal sacrifice and that Christianity took these critiques to their logical conclusion by replacing animal sacrifice with a pure, “spiritual” worship. This work argues that these ancient texts must be seen as part of an ongoing competition between elite cultural producers to define the meaning and purpose of sacrifice. Christian cultural producers entered into this pre-existing debate and participated according to the established rules and norms of that competition. Once the categories of critique and spiritualization are rectified, Christian authors are revealed for who they were—not purveyors of pure spiritual religion, but cultural elite vying for legitimacy and influence in an arena of competition that long predated them.Less
Animal sacrifice is one of the most pervasive ritual actions in human history. In the ancient Mediterranean world, animal sacrifice was one of the most culturally significant religious rituals, indexing group membership and status at all levels of society. Sacrifice dominated the ritual landscape of ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish religion for millennia, but this situation changed drastically in fourth and fifth centuries, corresponding to the rise of Christianity. The Christian Rejection of Animal Sacrifice attempts to shed new light on this remarkable historical turn. The book is a redescription of Christian and non-Christian responses to the practice of sacrifice. The predominant scholarly model posits a connection between so-called critiques of sacrifice in non-Christian Greek, Latin, and Hebrew texts and the Christian rejection of animal sacrifice. It argues that pre-Christian authors attacked animal sacrifice and that Christianity took these critiques to their logical conclusion by replacing animal sacrifice with a pure, “spiritual” worship. This work argues that these ancient texts must be seen as part of an ongoing competition between elite cultural producers to define the meaning and purpose of sacrifice. Christian cultural producers entered into this pre-existing debate and participated according to the established rules and norms of that competition. Once the categories of critique and spiritualization are rectified, Christian authors are revealed for who they were—not purveyors of pure spiritual religion, but cultural elite vying for legitimacy and influence in an arena of competition that long predated them.
Philip Wood
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199670673
- eISBN:
- 9780191760709
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199670673.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World, Church History
This book is a study of the cultural and political history of Christian Iraq, the Church of the East, the so–called ‘Nestorians’. This history is seen through the Chronicle of Seert, a medieval ...
More
This book is a study of the cultural and political history of Christian Iraq, the Church of the East, the so–called ‘Nestorians’. This history is seen through the Chronicle of Seert, a medieval Arabic Chronicle that reuses sources written several centuries earlier. This monograph aims to isolate different layers of composition and looks for trends in the choice of material and the agenda of their historians. Each layer of the text provides insight into the social construction of ‘orthodox belief’ in Iraq and the church as an institution. A central narrative is the growing power of the bishops (catholicoi) of the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon, their apostolic heritage, and their alliance with the Persian shahs. The monograph also considers the relationship of the catholicoi with monastic and scholarly centres and with Christian communities of the West. In each of these cases, the material that the Chronicle includes shows us how independent historical traditions were annexed by a narrative focused on Ctesiphon and its bishops. The monograph begins in the fifth century, when a series of abortive alliances between church and shah generated small-scale persecutions. It continues this story into the sixth and early seventh, when the church witnessed considerable growth in numbers and prestige. At each stage, we can see Christians rewriting the past to accommodate a new political and social situation, turning a murky past into a glorious golden age. The book concludes with a final chapter on the church under Muslim rule, when the Chronicle was compiled.Less
This book is a study of the cultural and political history of Christian Iraq, the Church of the East, the so–called ‘Nestorians’. This history is seen through the Chronicle of Seert, a medieval Arabic Chronicle that reuses sources written several centuries earlier. This monograph aims to isolate different layers of composition and looks for trends in the choice of material and the agenda of their historians. Each layer of the text provides insight into the social construction of ‘orthodox belief’ in Iraq and the church as an institution. A central narrative is the growing power of the bishops (catholicoi) of the Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon, their apostolic heritage, and their alliance with the Persian shahs. The monograph also considers the relationship of the catholicoi with monastic and scholarly centres and with Christian communities of the West. In each of these cases, the material that the Chronicle includes shows us how independent historical traditions were annexed by a narrative focused on Ctesiphon and its bishops. The monograph begins in the fifth century, when a series of abortive alliances between church and shah generated small-scale persecutions. It continues this story into the sixth and early seventh, when the church witnessed considerable growth in numbers and prestige. At each stage, we can see Christians rewriting the past to accommodate a new political and social situation, turning a murky past into a glorious golden age. The book concludes with a final chapter on the church under Muslim rule, when the Chronicle was compiled.
Debra Scoggins Ballentine
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- June 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199370252
- eISBN:
- 9780190226824
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199370252.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Religion in the Ancient World
The divine warrior defeats the sea-god or sea-dragon to secure his throne. For over two thousand years, authors adapted this theme of divine combat in order to validate their preferred ideologies and ...
More
The divine warrior defeats the sea-god or sea-dragon to secure his throne. For over two thousand years, authors adapted this theme of divine combat in order to validate their preferred ideologies and socio-political arrangements, and to delegitimize others. The conflict topos was adapted within literature from Mesopotamia, ancient Syria, and Judah; in the first- and early second-century CE Judean milieu, including traditions focused on Jesus/Christos; and in select rabbinic texts. A king, such as the biblical king David or Assyrian king Sennacherib, dynasty, group, or institution identified with the victorious deity is legitimated through such association, while those aligned with the defeated sea or dragons are delegitimized and appear destined for defeat. This book situates study of the conflict topos within contemporary theorization of myth by Bruce Lincoln, Russell McCutcheon, and Jonathan Z. Smith, who emphasize the political functions of myth. Narratives of divine combat and instances of the conflict motif naturalize socially and politically contingent phenomena, such as the institutions of kingship and temple, specific divine hierarchies, and the authority of particular individuals, by linking them to narrative events that purport to be universal and foundational.Less
The divine warrior defeats the sea-god or sea-dragon to secure his throne. For over two thousand years, authors adapted this theme of divine combat in order to validate their preferred ideologies and socio-political arrangements, and to delegitimize others. The conflict topos was adapted within literature from Mesopotamia, ancient Syria, and Judah; in the first- and early second-century CE Judean milieu, including traditions focused on Jesus/Christos; and in select rabbinic texts. A king, such as the biblical king David or Assyrian king Sennacherib, dynasty, group, or institution identified with the victorious deity is legitimated through such association, while those aligned with the defeated sea or dragons are delegitimized and appear destined for defeat. This book situates study of the conflict topos within contemporary theorization of myth by Bruce Lincoln, Russell McCutcheon, and Jonathan Z. Smith, who emphasize the political functions of myth. Narratives of divine combat and instances of the conflict motif naturalize socially and politically contingent phenomena, such as the institutions of kingship and temple, specific divine hierarchies, and the authority of particular individuals, by linking them to narrative events that purport to be universal and foundational.
