Kevin Madigan
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195322743
- eISBN:
- 9780199785407
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195322743.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Theologians have always struggled to understand how humanity and divinity coexisted in the person of Christ. Proponents of the Arian heresy, which held that Jesus could not have been fully divine, ...
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Theologians have always struggled to understand how humanity and divinity coexisted in the person of Christ. Proponents of the Arian heresy, which held that Jesus could not have been fully divine, found significant scriptural evidence of their position. The defenders of orthodoxy, such as Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose of Milan, Jerome, and Augustine, believed that these biblical passages could be reconciled with Christ's divinity. Medieval theologians such as Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventure, also grappled with these texts when confronting the rising threat of Arian heresy. They too faced the need to preserve Jesus' authentic humanity and to describe a mode of experiencing the passions that cast no doubt upon the perfect divinity of the Incarnate Word. However, they also confronted an additional obstacle. The medieval theologians had inherited from the Greek and Latin fathers a body of opinion on the passages in question, which by this time had achieved normative cultural status in the Christian tradition. However, the Greek and Latin fathers wrote in a polemical situation, responding to the threat to orthodoxy posed by the Arians. As a consequence, they sometimes found themselves driven to extreme and sometimes contradictory statements. These statements seemed to their medieval successors either to compromise the true divinity of Christ, his true humanity, or the possibility that the divine and human were in communication with or metaphysically linked to one another. As a result, medieval theologians also needed to demonstrate how two equally authoritative but apparently contradictory statements could be reconciled. This book examines the arguments that resulted from these dual pressures and finds that, under the guise of unchanging assimilation and transmission of a unanimous tradition, there were in fact many fissures and discontinuities between the two bodies of thought, ancient and medieval. Rather than organic change or development, the book finds radical change, trial, novelty, and even heterodoxy.Less
Theologians have always struggled to understand how humanity and divinity coexisted in the person of Christ. Proponents of the Arian heresy, which held that Jesus could not have been fully divine, found significant scriptural evidence of their position. The defenders of orthodoxy, such as Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose of Milan, Jerome, and Augustine, believed that these biblical passages could be reconciled with Christ's divinity. Medieval theologians such as Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventure, also grappled with these texts when confronting the rising threat of Arian heresy. They too faced the need to preserve Jesus' authentic humanity and to describe a mode of experiencing the passions that cast no doubt upon the perfect divinity of the Incarnate Word. However, they also confronted an additional obstacle. The medieval theologians had inherited from the Greek and Latin fathers a body of opinion on the passages in question, which by this time had achieved normative cultural status in the Christian tradition. However, the Greek and Latin fathers wrote in a polemical situation, responding to the threat to orthodoxy posed by the Arians. As a consequence, they sometimes found themselves driven to extreme and sometimes contradictory statements. These statements seemed to their medieval successors either to compromise the true divinity of Christ, his true humanity, or the possibility that the divine and human were in communication with or metaphysically linked to one another. As a result, medieval theologians also needed to demonstrate how two equally authoritative but apparently contradictory statements could be reconciled. This book examines the arguments that resulted from these dual pressures and finds that, under the guise of unchanging assimilation and transmission of a unanimous tradition, there were in fact many fissures and discontinuities between the two bodies of thought, ancient and medieval. Rather than organic change or development, the book finds radical change, trial, novelty, and even heterodoxy.
Peter Widdicombe
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199242481
- eISBN:
- 9780191697111
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199242481.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The fatherhood of God has a central, if increasingly controversial, place in Christian thinking about God. Yet although Christians have referred to God as Father from the earliest days of the faith, ...
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The fatherhood of God has a central, if increasingly controversial, place in Christian thinking about God. Yet although Christians have referred to God as Father from the earliest days of the faith, it was not until Athanasius in the 4th century that the idea of God as Father became a topic of sustained analysis. Looking at the genesis of Athanasius' understanding of divine fatherhood against the background of the Alexandrian tradition, the author of this book demonstrates how the concept came to occupy such a prominent place in Christian theology. He argues that there is a continuity in the Alexandrian tradition that runs from Origen to Athanasius, and shows how in the detail of their language and in the structure of their arguments, the 3rd and 4th century Alexandrians drew on Origen's portrayal of God as Father. For Origen, the fatherhood of God lay at the heart of the Christian faith: to know God fully and thus to be saved is to know God as Father. For Athanasius, the fatherhood of God was integral to the defence of the divinity of the Son against the Arian challenge: Fatherhood identified God as the loving and fruitful source of all things and as the one who has sought to meet us in his Son Jesus Christ. Arius, however, was an important exception, and for him it was logically possible to refer to God without calling him Father.Less
The fatherhood of God has a central, if increasingly controversial, place in Christian thinking about God. Yet although Christians have referred to God as Father from the earliest days of the faith, it was not until Athanasius in the 4th century that the idea of God as Father became a topic of sustained analysis. Looking at the genesis of Athanasius' understanding of divine fatherhood against the background of the Alexandrian tradition, the author of this book demonstrates how the concept came to occupy such a prominent place in Christian theology. He argues that there is a continuity in the Alexandrian tradition that runs from Origen to Athanasius, and shows how in the detail of their language and in the structure of their arguments, the 3rd and 4th century Alexandrians drew on Origen's portrayal of God as Father. For Origen, the fatherhood of God lay at the heart of the Christian faith: to know God fully and thus to be saved is to know God as Father. For Athanasius, the fatherhood of God was integral to the defence of the divinity of the Son against the Arian challenge: Fatherhood identified God as the loving and fruitful source of all things and as the one who has sought to meet us in his Son Jesus Christ. Arius, however, was an important exception, and for him it was logically possible to refer to God without calling him Father.
Anne Marie Oliver and Paul F. Steinberg
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195305593
- eISBN:
- 9780199850815
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305593.003.0034
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
In 1993, the authors moved from Jerusalem to Cambridge, Massachusetts. On a visit to the Harvard Divinity School, while inquiring about possible research options, they pulled out one of their ...
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In 1993, the authors moved from Jerusalem to Cambridge, Massachusetts. On a visit to the Harvard Divinity School, while inquiring about possible research options, they pulled out one of their portfolios to share with the acting dean of one of the school's centers. However, he was aghast with one of the pictures and no position was offered. When they returned to Gaza, they got in touch with Ra'id. They went across the Green Line to their usual meeting place behind a gas station .Less
In 1993, the authors moved from Jerusalem to Cambridge, Massachusetts. On a visit to the Harvard Divinity School, while inquiring about possible research options, they pulled out one of their portfolios to share with the acting dean of one of the school's centers. However, he was aghast with one of the pictures and no position was offered. When they returned to Gaza, they got in touch with Ra'id. They went across the Green Line to their usual meeting place behind a gas station .
Henny Fiskå Hägg
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199288083
- eISBN:
- 9780191604164
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199288089.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Clement’s Logos-theology concerns the function, status, and role of the Son in relation to the Father. On the one hand, it emphasizes the Son’s peculiar or paradoxical position as being distinct from ...
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Clement’s Logos-theology concerns the function, status, and role of the Son in relation to the Father. On the one hand, it emphasizes the Son’s peculiar or paradoxical position as being distinct from the One as the knowable One-Many; and united with the One, on the other. Questions related to his pre-existence, generation, and divinity are also discussed.Less
Clement’s Logos-theology concerns the function, status, and role of the Son in relation to the Father. On the one hand, it emphasizes the Son’s peculiar or paradoxical position as being distinct from the One as the knowable One-Many; and united with the One, on the other. Questions related to his pre-existence, generation, and divinity are also discussed.
Christian Wedemeyer and Wendy Doniger (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195394337
- eISBN:
- 9780199777358
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394337.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This book brings together an international group of leading scholars of religion to reflect in concert on the lives, works, and legacies of two of the twentieth century’s most influential historians ...
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This book brings together an international group of leading scholars of religion to reflect in concert on the lives, works, and legacies of two of the twentieth century’s most influential historians of religions: Joachim Wach and Mircea Eliade. Both men taught at the University of Chicago Divinity School, and the “Chicago School” they are thought to have forged has had enormous impact on the way religion has been studied and written about ever since. While the extent of their influence is beyond question, the scholarly world has been deeply divided not only about the value of their work but also about its proper interpretation. In particular, scholars have been at odds over whether or to what extent the circumstances of their lives bear a significant relationship to their intellectual output. As this volume make clear, their perspectives on religion and their ways of articulating their understanding cannot be properly understood without reference to the circumstances of their lives, the political and cultural movements that dominated their early years in Germany and Romania, and their own idiosyncratic scholarly and personal agendas. The chapters in this volume—the proceedings of a 2006 conference marking the fiftieth anniversary of Wach’s death (2005) and the hundredth anniversary of Eliade’s birth (2007)—shed new light on a growing body of work on these two figures, the controversies they have generated, and their legacies in the scholarly study of religion.Less
This book brings together an international group of leading scholars of religion to reflect in concert on the lives, works, and legacies of two of the twentieth century’s most influential historians of religions: Joachim Wach and Mircea Eliade. Both men taught at the University of Chicago Divinity School, and the “Chicago School” they are thought to have forged has had enormous impact on the way religion has been studied and written about ever since. While the extent of their influence is beyond question, the scholarly world has been deeply divided not only about the value of their work but also about its proper interpretation. In particular, scholars have been at odds over whether or to what extent the circumstances of their lives bear a significant relationship to their intellectual output. As this volume make clear, their perspectives on religion and their ways of articulating their understanding cannot be properly understood without reference to the circumstances of their lives, the political and cultural movements that dominated their early years in Germany and Romania, and their own idiosyncratic scholarly and personal agendas. The chapters in this volume—the proceedings of a 2006 conference marking the fiftieth anniversary of Wach’s death (2005) and the hundredth anniversary of Eliade’s birth (2007)—shed new light on a growing body of work on these two figures, the controversies they have generated, and their legacies in the scholarly study of religion.
Solomon Schimmel
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195188264
- eISBN:
- 9780199870509
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195188264.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter examines the Islamic belief that the Koran (Qur'an) was authored by Allah and revealed to Muhammad via the angel Gabriel, and dissects the alleged ‘proofs’ for Koranic divinity. The ...
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This chapter examines the Islamic belief that the Koran (Qur'an) was authored by Allah and revealed to Muhammad via the angel Gabriel, and dissects the alleged ‘proofs’ for Koranic divinity. The chapter presents nine arguments against this belief, among which are the Koran's internal contradictions, obvious dependence on Judaism, and Jewish and Christian traditions, factual errors, superstitious beliefs, and inclusion of unethical and immoral teachings. The chapter discusses the danger posed to democratic societies and values by fundamentalist Muslims who seek to impose Qur'anic and Sharia law and values on non‐Muslim societies, while noting that some Muslims advocate democracy and religious freedom. The chapter discusses the absurd claim of some Muslims that the Koran contains scientific knowledge that was not discovered in the West until recently, and the belief in Koranic inimitability (Ijaz al Koran), and analyzes the psychology of Muslims who make irrational claims and profess irrational beliefs.Less
This chapter examines the Islamic belief that the Koran (Qur'an) was authored by Allah and revealed to Muhammad via the angel Gabriel, and dissects the alleged ‘proofs’ for Koranic divinity. The chapter presents nine arguments against this belief, among which are the Koran's internal contradictions, obvious dependence on Judaism, and Jewish and Christian traditions, factual errors, superstitious beliefs, and inclusion of unethical and immoral teachings. The chapter discusses the danger posed to democratic societies and values by fundamentalist Muslims who seek to impose Qur'anic and Sharia law and values on non‐Muslim societies, while noting that some Muslims advocate democracy and religious freedom. The chapter discusses the absurd claim of some Muslims that the Koran contains scientific knowledge that was not discovered in the West until recently, and the belief in Koranic inimitability (Ijaz al Koran), and analyzes the psychology of Muslims who make irrational claims and profess irrational beliefs.
Gregory A. Beeley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195313970
- eISBN:
- 9780199871827
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313970.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter gives a new, comprehensive interpretation of Gregory's Christology, focusing on his account of creation, the fall, and final redemption; his seminal doctrine of divinization (theosis); ...
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This chapter gives a new, comprehensive interpretation of Gregory's Christology, focusing on his account of creation, the fall, and final redemption; his seminal doctrine of divinization (theosis); the relationship between soteriology and Christology; the singular identity of Christ as “one and the same” God and Son; the unity of Christ, against longstanding dualistic interpretations of Gregory's Christology; the principles of Christological exegesis; Gregory's vivid sense of the divine suffering in Christ and the centrality of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection; the predominance and unifying effect of Christ's divinity on his humanity; and Gregory's Christological spirituality, whereby the doctrine of Christ is itself the means of the Christian's ascent to God. Attention is also given to Gregory's opposition to the Antiochene Christology of Diodore, in addition to as that of Eunomius and Apollinarius.Less
This chapter gives a new, comprehensive interpretation of Gregory's Christology, focusing on his account of creation, the fall, and final redemption; his seminal doctrine of divinization (theosis); the relationship between soteriology and Christology; the singular identity of Christ as “one and the same” God and Son; the unity of Christ, against longstanding dualistic interpretations of Gregory's Christology; the principles of Christological exegesis; Gregory's vivid sense of the divine suffering in Christ and the centrality of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection; the predominance and unifying effect of Christ's divinity on his humanity; and Gregory's Christological spirituality, whereby the doctrine of Christ is itself the means of the Christian's ascent to God. Attention is also given to Gregory's opposition to the Antiochene Christology of Diodore, in addition to as that of Eunomius and Apollinarius.
Gregory A. Beeley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195313970
- eISBN:
- 9780199871827
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313970.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
The central chapter of the book evaluates Gregory's distinctive doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit's role in the work of Christian theology, focusing on the soteriological character of ...
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The central chapter of the book evaluates Gregory's distinctive doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit's role in the work of Christian theology, focusing on the soteriological character of Gregory's Pneumatology in distinction from that of his Christology. It traces the development of Gregory's doctrine of the Spirit from his early episcopal sermons to the climax of his work in Constantinople and provides a new reading of the structure and argumentation of his monumental Oration 31 On the Holy Spirit, which is aimed at both the Eunomians and Pneumatomachians. At the heart of the matter is Gregory's account of the full divinity of the Spirit in light of the Bible's silence at the literal level—an argument that involves tracing the sequence of Trinitarian revelation through the covenants and the age of the Church, the direct proof of the Spirit's divinity from baptismal divinization, and Gregory's subsequent exegesis of the Spirit “according to the Spirit.” In conclusion, the chapter identifies the Spirit's central epistemic function for all theology and Gregory's literary rhetoric of piety, which frames and unifies the Theological Orations as a series.Less
The central chapter of the book evaluates Gregory's distinctive doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit's role in the work of Christian theology, focusing on the soteriological character of Gregory's Pneumatology in distinction from that of his Christology. It traces the development of Gregory's doctrine of the Spirit from his early episcopal sermons to the climax of his work in Constantinople and provides a new reading of the structure and argumentation of his monumental Oration 31 On the Holy Spirit, which is aimed at both the Eunomians and Pneumatomachians. At the heart of the matter is Gregory's account of the full divinity of the Spirit in light of the Bible's silence at the literal level—an argument that involves tracing the sequence of Trinitarian revelation through the covenants and the age of the Church, the direct proof of the Spirit's divinity from baptismal divinization, and Gregory's subsequent exegesis of the Spirit “according to the Spirit.” In conclusion, the chapter identifies the Spirit's central epistemic function for all theology and Gregory's literary rhetoric of piety, which frames and unifies the Theological Orations as a series.
Christine Hayes
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691165196
- eISBN:
- 9781400866410
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691165196.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to explore the concept of divine law. More precisely, it labors to make sense of the explosive confrontation of radically diverse ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to explore the concept of divine law. More precisely, it labors to make sense of the explosive confrontation of radically diverse conceptions of divine law in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world in the thousand-year period prior to the rise of Islam. Divine law can be minimally defined as the idea that the norms that guide human actions are somehow rooted in the divine realm—a concept common to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. A robust notion of divine law—in which divinity applies in some manner to the law itself—first appears in ancient Greece and in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament). The Greek and the biblical conceptions of the divine are radically different. To the extent that the two cultures conceived of the divine in radically different ways, their notions of divine law would also diverge dramatically, a fact with serious consequences for those who feel compelled to negotiate the claims of both traditions. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to explore the concept of divine law. More precisely, it labors to make sense of the explosive confrontation of radically diverse conceptions of divine law in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world in the thousand-year period prior to the rise of Islam. Divine law can be minimally defined as the idea that the norms that guide human actions are somehow rooted in the divine realm—a concept common to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. A robust notion of divine law—in which divinity applies in some manner to the law itself—first appears in ancient Greece and in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament). The Greek and the biblical conceptions of the divine are radically different. To the extent that the two cultures conceived of the divine in radically different ways, their notions of divine law would also diverge dramatically, a fact with serious consequences for those who feel compelled to negotiate the claims of both traditions. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Kathleen Riley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199534487
- eISBN:
- 9780191715945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199534487.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines the philosophical appropriation of Euripides' Herakles by the Modernist writers George Cabot Lodge, W. B. Yeats, and Frank Wedekind. It shows how dramatic interest in the tragic ...
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This chapter examines the philosophical appropriation of Euripides' Herakles by the Modernist writers George Cabot Lodge, W. B. Yeats, and Frank Wedekind. It shows how dramatic interest in the tragic Herakles shifted from his latent psychosis to his latent divinity, his uniquely ambivalent status as theios aner. As a consequence, the madness and filicide gathered significance not as manifestations of the Heraklean psychology, but because they anticipated and affirmed a superhuman destiny. Lodge, Yeats and Wedekindconceived of Herakles as the archetypal Nietzschean Superman, reasoning the madness and murders as an inescapable precondition of self-divinity.Less
This chapter examines the philosophical appropriation of Euripides' Herakles by the Modernist writers George Cabot Lodge, W. B. Yeats, and Frank Wedekind. It shows how dramatic interest in the tragic Herakles shifted from his latent psychosis to his latent divinity, his uniquely ambivalent status as theios aner. As a consequence, the madness and filicide gathered significance not as manifestations of the Heraklean psychology, but because they anticipated and affirmed a superhuman destiny. Lodge, Yeats and Wedekindconceived of Herakles as the archetypal Nietzschean Superman, reasoning the madness and murders as an inescapable precondition of self-divinity.
Mark S. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195134803
- eISBN:
- 9780199834655
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019513480X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
As the Bible tells us, ancient Israel's neighbors worshipped a wide variety of Gods. It is now widely accepted that the Israelites’ God, Yahweh, must have originated as among these many, before ...
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As the Bible tells us, ancient Israel's neighbors worshipped a wide variety of Gods. It is now widely accepted that the Israelites’ God, Yahweh, must have originated as among these many, before assuming the role of the one true God of monotheism. Mark Smith seeks in this book to discover more precisely what was meant by “divinity” in the ancient Near East and how these concepts apply to Yahweh. Part I, The Structures of Divinity, offers a detailed examination of the deities of ancient Ugarit (Middle East), known to us from the large surviving group of relevant extra-biblical texts. In Part II, Characteristics of Divinity, Smith looks closely at four classic problems associated with four Ugaritic deities and considers how they affect our understanding of Yahweh. Part III, The Origins of Monotheism in the Bible, returns to the question of Israelite monotheism, seeking to discover what religious issues it addressed and why it made sense at the time of its emergence. Smith argues that within the Bible, monotheism is not a separate “stage” of religion but rather represents a kind of rhetoric reinforcing Israel’s exclusive relation with its deity. Throughout the work, the Ugaritic material is emphasized.Less
As the Bible tells us, ancient Israel's neighbors worshipped a wide variety of Gods. It is now widely accepted that the Israelites’ God, Yahweh, must have originated as among these many, before assuming the role of the one true God of monotheism. Mark Smith seeks in this book to discover more precisely what was meant by “divinity” in the ancient Near East and how these concepts apply to Yahweh. Part I, The Structures of Divinity, offers a detailed examination of the deities of ancient Ugarit (Middle East), known to us from the large surviving group of relevant extra-biblical texts. In Part II, Characteristics of Divinity, Smith looks closely at four classic problems associated with four Ugaritic deities and considers how they affect our understanding of Yahweh. Part III, The Origins of Monotheism in the Bible, returns to the question of Israelite monotheism, seeking to discover what religious issues it addressed and why it made sense at the time of its emergence. Smith argues that within the Bible, monotheism is not a separate “stage” of religion but rather represents a kind of rhetoric reinforcing Israel’s exclusive relation with its deity. Throughout the work, the Ugaritic material is emphasized.
M. L. West
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199280759
- eISBN:
- 9780191712913
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280759.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter discusses gods and goddesses in Indo-European poetry. The Indo-Europeans spoke both about ‘the gods’ collectively and about gods as individuals. They perhaps had their different words ...
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This chapter discusses gods and goddesses in Indo-European poetry. The Indo-Europeans spoke both about ‘the gods’ collectively and about gods as individuals. They perhaps had their different words for different categories of supernatural being. But the most important term, one that has left representatives in nearly all branches of the Indo-European family, was based on the root *diw/dyu, which denoted the bright sky or the light of day. Upper and lower gods, characteristics of divinity, relations with mankind, gods' names, female deities, and mythical themes are discussed.Less
This chapter discusses gods and goddesses in Indo-European poetry. The Indo-Europeans spoke both about ‘the gods’ collectively and about gods as individuals. They perhaps had their different words for different categories of supernatural being. But the most important term, one that has left representatives in nearly all branches of the Indo-European family, was based on the root *diw/dyu, which denoted the bright sky or the light of day. Upper and lower gods, characteristics of divinity, relations with mankind, gods' names, female deities, and mythical themes are discussed.
Jerome Murphy‐O'Connor
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199564156
- eISBN:
- 9780191721281
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199564156.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
The original article argued that 1 Cor 8: 6 originated as a liturgical acclamation, which acknowledged all the soteriological blessings received in baptism. The unity of the motion from the first ...
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The original article argued that 1 Cor 8: 6 originated as a liturgical acclamation, which acknowledged all the soteriological blessings received in baptism. The unity of the motion from the first cause through the instrumental cause to the final cause demanded an ‘either‐or’ approach. Thus a ‘both‐and’ approach which recognized a cosmological reference to the first creation was refused. The Postscript acknowledges that this was a mistake, but insists that what is said of God cannot be separated from what is said of Christ. The acclamation in fact takes up the intimate association between creation and redemption found in Deutero‐Isaiah. The finality of creation is redemption. Nothing is said about the pre‐existence or divinity of Christ.Less
The original article argued that 1 Cor 8: 6 originated as a liturgical acclamation, which acknowledged all the soteriological blessings received in baptism. The unity of the motion from the first cause through the instrumental cause to the final cause demanded an ‘either‐or’ approach. Thus a ‘both‐and’ approach which recognized a cosmological reference to the first creation was refused. The Postscript acknowledges that this was a mistake, but insists that what is said of God cannot be separated from what is said of Christ. The acclamation in fact takes up the intimate association between creation and redemption found in Deutero‐Isaiah. The finality of creation is redemption. Nothing is said about the pre‐existence or divinity of Christ.
Karen C. Lang
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195151138
- eISBN:
- 9780199870448
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195151135.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
The Mahābharata and the Rāmāyaṇa, as well as Indian legal and political treatises, support belief in the king's divinity. Buddhists regard kingship not as divinely inspired, but as an elective ...
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The Mahābharata and the Rāmāyaṇa, as well as Indian legal and political treatises, support belief in the king's divinity. Buddhists regard kingship not as divinely inspired, but as an elective process. Legitimate moral authority and the right to govern belong only to righteous kings, who govern with generosity and compassion. Unrighteous kings, ruling in the age of discord (kali yuga), allow passion to dominate their behavior. They devastate the world through their exercise of war. Candrakiriti rejects both divine origins of kings and the notion that heaven is the reward for a royal warrior who dies in battle.Less
The Mahābharata and the Rāmāyaṇa, as well as Indian legal and political treatises, support belief in the king's divinity. Buddhists regard kingship not as divinely inspired, but as an elective process. Legitimate moral authority and the right to govern belong only to righteous kings, who govern with generosity and compassion. Unrighteous kings, ruling in the age of discord (kali yuga), allow passion to dominate their behavior. They devastate the world through their exercise of war. Candrakiriti rejects both divine origins of kings and the notion that heaven is the reward for a royal warrior who dies in battle.
Mark S. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195134803
- eISBN:
- 9780199834655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019513480X.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
The first part of this introduction discusses the scope of the study presented in the book, starting by examining the different approaches to divinity that may be taken--regarding it as distinct from ...
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The first part of this introduction discusses the scope of the study presented in the book, starting by examining the different approaches to divinity that may be taken--regarding it as distinct from human, looking at it etymologically, listing and studying individual deities, and taking a large-scale comparative approach that ventures a typology. The book attempts to combine all four of these approaches in examining the major indigenous conceptual structures that ancient Ugaritic and Israelite societies used to construct their religious reality. An outline is given of the contents of the ten chapters before going on to address various issues in discussing monotheism and polytheism, problems with the use of the term “Canaanite” (which is used widely in scholarly studies but largely avoided in this book as it is thought to be misleading), and the cautions that are needed when considering highly specific historical statements concerning what deities were and did and what ancient peoples believed and acted upon.Less
The first part of this introduction discusses the scope of the study presented in the book, starting by examining the different approaches to divinity that may be taken--regarding it as distinct from human, looking at it etymologically, listing and studying individual deities, and taking a large-scale comparative approach that ventures a typology. The book attempts to combine all four of these approaches in examining the major indigenous conceptual structures that ancient Ugaritic and Israelite societies used to construct their religious reality. An outline is given of the contents of the ten chapters before going on to address various issues in discussing monotheism and polytheism, problems with the use of the term “Canaanite” (which is used widely in scholarly studies but largely avoided in this book as it is thought to be misleading), and the cautions that are needed when considering highly specific historical statements concerning what deities were and did and what ancient peoples believed and acted upon.
Mark S. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195134803
- eISBN:
- 9780199834655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019513480X.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter asks what characteristics deities generally share, or, put differently, what terms do the texts use to express what deities are? It collects and analyzes labels and statements about ...
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This chapter asks what characteristics deities generally share, or, put differently, what terms do the texts use to express what deities are? It collects and analyzes labels and statements about deities to answer the fundamental question of what a deity was considered to be. Ancient Middle Eastern literatures generalize about the characteristics and actions of deities abstracted from religious tradition and experience (“second-order discourse”), and chapter 3 has already shown how the Ugaritic texts stress the idea of the deities as a divine royal family bound by social hierarchy and family ties. This chapter examines four other common features of deities: strength and size, body and gender, holiness, and immorality. Each of these traits is addressed in turn, first in Ugaritic literature and then in Israelite texts.Less
This chapter asks what characteristics deities generally share, or, put differently, what terms do the texts use to express what deities are? It collects and analyzes labels and statements about deities to answer the fundamental question of what a deity was considered to be. Ancient Middle Eastern literatures generalize about the characteristics and actions of deities abstracted from religious tradition and experience (“second-order discourse”), and chapter 3 has already shown how the Ugaritic texts stress the idea of the deities as a divine royal family bound by social hierarchy and family ties. This chapter examines four other common features of deities: strength and size, body and gender, holiness, and immorality. Each of these traits is addressed in turn, first in Ugaritic literature and then in Israelite texts.
Mark S. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195134803
- eISBN:
- 9780199834655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019513480X.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
A particularly unusual case of divine death is examined in this chapter; this exception is the god Baal, who is considered to be a classic example of Sir James George Frazer’s category of “dying and ...
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A particularly unusual case of divine death is examined in this chapter; this exception is the god Baal, who is considered to be a classic example of Sir James George Frazer’s category of “dying and rising gods.” The methodology and viability of Frazer’s claim is addressed as it has been applied to Baal of Ugarit. Here the author has been influenced by Jonathan Z. Smith’s massive critique of Frazer's category of dying and rising gods, as well as by recent studies on ritual and myth. The chapter also ventures a constructive step in the interpretation of Baal’s death: if Baal is not to be regarded as a dying and rising god, what is the significance of his death and return to life? Finally, it looks briefly at the mythology of death and the god of Israel.Less
A particularly unusual case of divine death is examined in this chapter; this exception is the god Baal, who is considered to be a classic example of Sir James George Frazer’s category of “dying and rising gods.” The methodology and viability of Frazer’s claim is addressed as it has been applied to Baal of Ugarit. Here the author has been influenced by Jonathan Z. Smith’s massive critique of Frazer's category of dying and rising gods, as well as by recent studies on ritual and myth. The chapter also ventures a constructive step in the interpretation of Baal’s death: if Baal is not to be regarded as a dying and rising god, what is the significance of his death and return to life? Finally, it looks briefly at the mythology of death and the god of Israel.
Mark A. Noll
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195151114
- eISBN:
- 9780199834532
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195151119.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The historic Calvinist churches that still enjoyed significant leadership in American public life thoroughly incorporated common sense and republican emphases into their theology. In general, these ...
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The historic Calvinist churches that still enjoyed significant leadership in American public life thoroughly incorporated common sense and republican emphases into their theology. In general, these theologians condemned the revolutions in France and were suspicious of the “infidel” Thomas Jefferson and his friend James Madison. American Calvinists were, however, not unified; their disputes grew from the different approaches they took to the problems of religious organization and national civilization posed by the new American nation.Less
The historic Calvinist churches that still enjoyed significant leadership in American public life thoroughly incorporated common sense and republican emphases into their theology. In general, these theologians condemned the revolutions in France and were suspicious of the “infidel” Thomas Jefferson and his friend James Madison. American Calvinists were, however, not unified; their disputes grew from the different approaches they took to the problems of religious organization and national civilization posed by the new American nation.
Mark A. Noll
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195151114
- eISBN:
- 9780199834532
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195151119.003.0014
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Between 1790 and 1840, Reformed theology reached the summit of its broad influence in American culture. With New England's Congregationalists in the lead, and then joined by mid‐state and southern ...
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Between 1790 and 1840, Reformed theology reached the summit of its broad influence in American culture. With New England's Congregationalists in the lead, and then joined by mid‐state and southern Presbyterians, the Reformed theologians engaged in the most serious religious and public debates of the years. These debates led to the production of a great surge of theological literature, most of which was significantly influenced by the new conditions of American public life. The rise of Unitarianism during this period presented a special challenge to more traditional Calvinist theologians.Less
Between 1790 and 1840, Reformed theology reached the summit of its broad influence in American culture. With New England's Congregationalists in the lead, and then joined by mid‐state and southern Presbyterians, the Reformed theologians engaged in the most serious religious and public debates of the years. These debates led to the production of a great surge of theological literature, most of which was significantly influenced by the new conditions of American public life. The rise of Unitarianism during this period presented a special challenge to more traditional Calvinist theologians.
Douglas A. Sweeney
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195154283
- eISBN:
- 9780199834709
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195154282.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter briefly outlines the Taylor family history, including Nathaniel William Taylor's puritan roots in New England. Although Nathaniel William Taylor's grandfather and family patriarch, ...
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This chapter briefly outlines the Taylor family history, including Nathaniel William Taylor's puritan roots in New England. Although Nathaniel William Taylor's grandfather and family patriarch, Nathanael Taylor, was a prominent Old Calvinist, Nathaniel William Taylor's religious horizons were expanded under the tutelage of Azel Backus, the prominent New Divinity preacher and successor to Joseph Bellamy's pulpit in Bethlehem, Connecticut. Backus molded the young Taylor's mind – as well as his piety and his preaching style – after the Edwardsians.Less
This chapter briefly outlines the Taylor family history, including Nathaniel William Taylor's puritan roots in New England. Although Nathaniel William Taylor's grandfather and family patriarch, Nathanael Taylor, was a prominent Old Calvinist, Nathaniel William Taylor's religious horizons were expanded under the tutelage of Azel Backus, the prominent New Divinity preacher and successor to Joseph Bellamy's pulpit in Bethlehem, Connecticut. Backus molded the young Taylor's mind – as well as his piety and his preaching style – after the Edwardsians.
