John Scheid
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199572069
- eISBN:
- 9780191738739
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572069.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
A graffito discovered in the temple of Hercules Curinus at Sulmo allows us to explore the ritual logic of the Roman vow, undoubtedly one of the most characteristic rites in Roman religion, with its ...
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A graffito discovered in the temple of Hercules Curinus at Sulmo allows us to explore the ritual logic of the Roman vow, undoubtedly one of the most characteristic rites in Roman religion, with its specific vocabulary and timing, unlike, for example, the Christian vow. In most cases, vows — whether they are modest such as the one from the temple at Sulmo, or grand such as those we find on offerings in metal or marble — recall one aspect or phase of the rite. The text from Sulmo is one of the rare votive texts that gives us the two principal phases of the vow, announcement and fulfilment.Less
A graffito discovered in the temple of Hercules Curinus at Sulmo allows us to explore the ritual logic of the Roman vow, undoubtedly one of the most characteristic rites in Roman religion, with its specific vocabulary and timing, unlike, for example, the Christian vow. In most cases, vows — whether they are modest such as the one from the temple at Sulmo, or grand such as those we find on offerings in metal or marble — recall one aspect or phase of the rite. The text from Sulmo is one of the rare votive texts that gives us the two principal phases of the vow, announcement and fulfilment.
Leslie C. Orr
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195177060
- eISBN:
- 9780199785438
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177060.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter explores whether a domestic religious orientation, engaged with the personal and the particular, can be observed in the context of precolonial South India. It focuses on the period ...
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This chapter explores whether a domestic religious orientation, engaged with the personal and the particular, can be observed in the context of precolonial South India. It focuses on the period between the 9th to 13th centuries in the part of India known today as Tamilnadu. The chapter draws on the resources provided by the thousands of inscriptions written in the Tamil language and engraved in stone on the walls of Hindu and Jain temples during this period. These inscriptions record actions, particularly the making of gifts to temples by a wide variety of people. It is argued that although men's and women's activities recorded on temple walls had distinctive colorings, the contexts, roles, and motives for these actions were overlapping and often congruent.Less
This chapter explores whether a domestic religious orientation, engaged with the personal and the particular, can be observed in the context of precolonial South India. It focuses on the period between the 9th to 13th centuries in the part of India known today as Tamilnadu. The chapter draws on the resources provided by the thousands of inscriptions written in the Tamil language and engraved in stone on the walls of Hindu and Jain temples during this period. These inscriptions record actions, particularly the making of gifts to temples by a wide variety of people. It is argued that although men's and women's activities recorded on temple walls had distinctive colorings, the contexts, roles, and motives for these actions were overlapping and often congruent.
Susan Niditch
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195181142
- eISBN:
- 9780199869671
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195181142.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
The focus of this chapter is Numbers 6, a ritual text that describes a vow undertaken by an individual to become a Nazirite for a specified period of time. A close reading, with help from ...
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The focus of this chapter is Numbers 6, a ritual text that describes a vow undertaken by an individual to become a Nazirite for a specified period of time. A close reading, with help from methodological perspectives introduced earlier, reveals a different version of Nazirism than that described for Samson. The vow in Numbers 6 has been shaped by a particular priestly worldview that is highly concerned with issues of purity even while democratizing holy status, evidencing the worldview of postexilic priestly writers of the Persian period. A man or a woman may take the vow voluntarily. This form of Nazirism allows women of means an opportunity for some kind of sacred status, but it is temporary and no threat to the male Levitical priesthood. An interesting thread in this chapter concerns economic status and the Nazirite vow.Less
The focus of this chapter is Numbers 6, a ritual text that describes a vow undertaken by an individual to become a Nazirite for a specified period of time. A close reading, with help from methodological perspectives introduced earlier, reveals a different version of Nazirism than that described for Samson. The vow in Numbers 6 has been shaped by a particular priestly worldview that is highly concerned with issues of purity even while democratizing holy status, evidencing the worldview of postexilic priestly writers of the Persian period. A man or a woman may take the vow voluntarily. This form of Nazirism allows women of means an opportunity for some kind of sacred status, but it is temporary and no threat to the male Levitical priesthood. An interesting thread in this chapter concerns economic status and the Nazirite vow.
Raymond P. Scheindlin
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195315424
- eISBN:
- 9780199872039
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195315424.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
The chapter studies four poems in which Halevi, still in al-Andalus, describes his longing for and vision of the Land of Israel. Among these poems is Halevi’s most famous poem, the Ode to Jerusalem. ...
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The chapter studies four poems in which Halevi, still in al-Andalus, describes his longing for and vision of the Land of Israel. Among these poems is Halevi’s most famous poem, the Ode to Jerusalem. It is interpreted as speaking not, as usually understood, on behalf of the people as a whole, but as the voice of an individual who, toward the end, becomes the spokesman of a small, elite group of Zion’s true devotees.Less
The chapter studies four poems in which Halevi, still in al-Andalus, describes his longing for and vision of the Land of Israel. Among these poems is Halevi’s most famous poem, the Ode to Jerusalem. It is interpreted as speaking not, as usually understood, on behalf of the people as a whole, but as the voice of an individual who, toward the end, becomes the spokesman of a small, elite group of Zion’s true devotees.
Kenneth Baxter Wolf
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199732586
- eISBN:
- 9780199894895
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199732586.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter treats that part of the testimony that pertains to the miracles associated with Elizabeth’s shrine in Marburg. It uses data contained within the 130 depositions to recreate the workings ...
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This chapter treats that part of the testimony that pertains to the miracles associated with Elizabeth’s shrine in Marburg. It uses data contained within the 130 depositions to recreate the workings of an early thirteenth-century saint cult. Specifically it considers the kind of people who sought Elizabeth’s aid and the maladies from which they suffered, the various forms of the vows that they took and the offerings they made to her, the ways in which they tried to maximize their chances of securing her intercession, and how they interpreted the final results of their efforts. In particular it highlights the surprisingly mechanical expectations that the petitioners had of Elizabeth as an intercessor and the indirect power that they, as her clients, exercised over her.Less
This chapter treats that part of the testimony that pertains to the miracles associated with Elizabeth’s shrine in Marburg. It uses data contained within the 130 depositions to recreate the workings of an early thirteenth-century saint cult. Specifically it considers the kind of people who sought Elizabeth’s aid and the maladies from which they suffered, the various forms of the vows that they took and the offerings they made to her, the ways in which they tried to maximize their chances of securing her intercession, and how they interpreted the final results of their efforts. In particular it highlights the surprisingly mechanical expectations that the petitioners had of Elizabeth as an intercessor and the indirect power that they, as her clients, exercised over her.
John L. Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195137361
- eISBN:
- 9780199834730
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195137361.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Feminist readers have seen Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter not only as her unlawful abuse at a father's hands, but also as the nexus of other injustices and indignities, including that Jephthah ...
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Feminist readers have seen Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter not only as her unlawful abuse at a father's hands, but also as the nexus of other injustices and indignities, including that Jephthah blames his daughter, that the father is commemorated in Hebrews 11 while the daughter remains nameless, and that the daughter dies while in two similar instances – Isaac in Genesis 22 and Jonathan in 1 Samuel 14 – sons are allowed to live. Early Jewish and Christian commentary, however, commonly condemned Jephthah for his vow while honoring the daughter, often seeing her as a martyr. Beginning with Augustine, many saw in Jephthah and/or his daughter, a type of the sacrifice of Jesus, and the reality of her suffering was sometimes the subject of significant imaginative probing or affective identification. Rabbi David Kimhi's argument for the daughter's survival disseminated slowly in the later Middle Ages but precipitated ethical and casuistic analysis, and late medieval and Reformation interpreters generally defended the daughter against the father's actions. Some used Isaac and Jonathan as precedents for her autonomy that ought to have been followed, and at least one insinuated the daughter into the honor roll in Hebrews 11.Less
Feminist readers have seen Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter not only as her unlawful abuse at a father's hands, but also as the nexus of other injustices and indignities, including that Jephthah blames his daughter, that the father is commemorated in Hebrews 11 while the daughter remains nameless, and that the daughter dies while in two similar instances – Isaac in Genesis 22 and Jonathan in 1 Samuel 14 – sons are allowed to live. Early Jewish and Christian commentary, however, commonly condemned Jephthah for his vow while honoring the daughter, often seeing her as a martyr. Beginning with Augustine, many saw in Jephthah and/or his daughter, a type of the sacrifice of Jesus, and the reality of her suffering was sometimes the subject of significant imaginative probing or affective identification. Rabbi David Kimhi's argument for the daughter's survival disseminated slowly in the later Middle Ages but precipitated ethical and casuistic analysis, and late medieval and Reformation interpreters generally defended the daughter against the father's actions. Some used Isaac and Jonathan as precedents for her autonomy that ought to have been followed, and at least one insinuated the daughter into the honor roll in Hebrews 11.
Paul Rorem
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195384369
- eISBN:
- 9780199869886
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195384369.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter introduces and summarizes book 2 of De sacramentis. It covers Incarnation, Christ, church, orders, garments, baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, minor sacraments, simony, marriage, ...
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This chapter introduces and summarizes book 2 of De sacramentis. It covers Incarnation, Christ, church, orders, garments, baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, minor sacraments, simony, marriage, monastic vows, vices and virtues, confession, anointing of the sick, the dying, and the afterlife.Less
This chapter introduces and summarizes book 2 of De sacramentis. It covers Incarnation, Christ, church, orders, garments, baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, minor sacraments, simony, marriage, monastic vows, vices and virtues, confession, anointing of the sick, the dying, and the afterlife.
John E. Cort
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195132342
- eISBN:
- 9780199834112
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195132343.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
A key aspect of Jain religious practice involves a wide range of activities falling under the rubric of asceticism (tapas). The model ascetic in the Jain tradition is the 24th and final Jina of this ...
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A key aspect of Jain religious practice involves a wide range of activities falling under the rubric of asceticism (tapas). The model ascetic in the Jain tradition is the 24th and final Jina of this time period, Mahavira. Mendicants engage in asceticism that is shaped by their vows (mahavrata) and the obligatory ritual actions (avasyaka). For the laity, asceticism is more a matter of food and diet, in particular, the continual effort to restrict the amount of harm done to living beings in the preparation and consumption of food, emphasizing the cardinal Jain ethical principle of ahimsa (nonharm). Asceticism both advances the Jain person toward the ideological goal of liberation and improves his or her worldly well‐being.Less
A key aspect of Jain religious practice involves a wide range of activities falling under the rubric of asceticism (tapas). The model ascetic in the Jain tradition is the 24th and final Jina of this time period, Mahavira. Mendicants engage in asceticism that is shaped by their vows (mahavrata) and the obligatory ritual actions (avasyaka). For the laity, asceticism is more a matter of food and diet, in particular, the continual effort to restrict the amount of harm done to living beings in the preparation and consumption of food, emphasizing the cardinal Jain ethical principle of ahimsa (nonharm). Asceticism both advances the Jain person toward the ideological goal of liberation and improves his or her worldly well‐being.
Elizabeth Brake
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199774142
- eISBN:
- 9780199933228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199774142.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
This chapter examines the marriage promise. What do spouses promise, and under what conditions might they be excused from this promise? The answers to these questions have implications for the ...
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This chapter examines the marriage promise. What do spouses promise, and under what conditions might they be excused from this promise? The answers to these questions have implications for the morality of divorce, as well as sexual exclusivity and other marital obligations. Here I emphasize the diversity of marriages, arguing that the promise made in marriage depends on spouses’ intentions – but not all intentions are promises. A vow sometimes taken as central to marriage – to love, honor, and cherish – is not a possible subject of promise at all. Likewise, promises to take on spousal roles presuppose a robust and shared understanding of the moral content of that role – something many modern spouses may lack. Many wedding vows are thus not promises but failed attempts at promising. This casts doubt upon the idea that the distinctive moral significance of marriage is promissory.Less
This chapter examines the marriage promise. What do spouses promise, and under what conditions might they be excused from this promise? The answers to these questions have implications for the morality of divorce, as well as sexual exclusivity and other marital obligations. Here I emphasize the diversity of marriages, arguing that the promise made in marriage depends on spouses’ intentions – but not all intentions are promises. A vow sometimes taken as central to marriage – to love, honor, and cherish – is not a possible subject of promise at all. Likewise, promises to take on spousal roles presuppose a robust and shared understanding of the moral content of that role – something many modern spouses may lack. Many wedding vows are thus not promises but failed attempts at promising. This casts doubt upon the idea that the distinctive moral significance of marriage is promissory.
Jörg Rüpke
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501704703
- eISBN:
- 9781501706264
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501704703.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
Was religious practice in ancient Rome cultic and hostile to individual expression? Or was there, rather, considerable latitude for individual initiative and creativity? This book demonstrates that ...
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Was religious practice in ancient Rome cultic and hostile to individual expression? Or was there, rather, considerable latitude for individual initiative and creativity? This book demonstrates that it was a lived religion with individual appropriations evident at the heart of such rituals as praying, dedicating, making vows, and reading. The book dismantles previous approaches that depicted religious practice as uniform and static. Juxtaposing very different, strategic, and even subversive forms of individuality with traditions, their normative claims, and their institutional protections, this text highlights the dynamic character of Rome's religious institutions and traditions. In the view expressed in this book, lived ancient religion is as much about variations or even outright deviance as it is about attempts and failures to establish or change rules and roles and to communicate them via priesthoods, practices related to images or classified as magic, and literary practices. The text analyzes observations of religious experience by contemporary authors including Propertius, Ovid, and the author of the “Shepherd of Hermas.” These authors, in very different ways, reflect on individual appropriation of religion among their contemporaries, and they offer these reflections to their readership or audiences. The book also concentrates on the ways in which literary texts and inscriptions informed the practice of rituals.Less
Was religious practice in ancient Rome cultic and hostile to individual expression? Or was there, rather, considerable latitude for individual initiative and creativity? This book demonstrates that it was a lived religion with individual appropriations evident at the heart of such rituals as praying, dedicating, making vows, and reading. The book dismantles previous approaches that depicted religious practice as uniform and static. Juxtaposing very different, strategic, and even subversive forms of individuality with traditions, their normative claims, and their institutional protections, this text highlights the dynamic character of Rome's religious institutions and traditions. In the view expressed in this book, lived ancient religion is as much about variations or even outright deviance as it is about attempts and failures to establish or change rules and roles and to communicate them via priesthoods, practices related to images or classified as magic, and literary practices. The text analyzes observations of religious experience by contemporary authors including Propertius, Ovid, and the author of the “Shepherd of Hermas.” These authors, in very different ways, reflect on individual appropriation of religion among their contemporaries, and they offer these reflections to their readership or audiences. The book also concentrates on the ways in which literary texts and inscriptions informed the practice of rituals.
Anne Jacobson Schutte
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449772
- eISBN:
- 9780801463174
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449772.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
An unwilling, desperate nun trapped in the cloister, unable to gain release: such is the image that endures today of monastic life in early modern Europe. This book demonstrates that this and other ...
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An unwilling, desperate nun trapped in the cloister, unable to gain release: such is the image that endures today of monastic life in early modern Europe. This book demonstrates that this and other common stereotypes of involuntary consignment to religious houses—shaped by literary sources such as Manzoni’s The Betrothed—are badly off the mark. Drawing on records of the Congregation of the Council, held in the Vatican, the book examines nearly one thousand petitions for annulment of monastic vows submitted to the Pope and adjudicated by the Council during a 125-year period, from 1668 to 1793. It considers petitions from Roman Catholic regions across Europe and a few from Latin America and finds that, in about half these cases, the congregation reached a decision. Many women and a smaller proportion of men got what they asked for: decrees nullifying their monastic profession and releasing them from religious houses. It also reaches important conclusions about relations between elders and offspring in early modern families. Contrary to the picture historians have painted of increasingly less patriarchal and more egalitarian families, the book finds numerous instances of fathers, mothers, and other relatives (including older siblings) employing physical violence and psychological pressure to compel adolescents into “entering religion.” Dramatic tales from the archives show that many victims of such violence remained so intimidated that they dared not petition the pope until the agents of force and fear had died, by which time they themselves were middle-aged.Less
An unwilling, desperate nun trapped in the cloister, unable to gain release: such is the image that endures today of monastic life in early modern Europe. This book demonstrates that this and other common stereotypes of involuntary consignment to religious houses—shaped by literary sources such as Manzoni’s The Betrothed—are badly off the mark. Drawing on records of the Congregation of the Council, held in the Vatican, the book examines nearly one thousand petitions for annulment of monastic vows submitted to the Pope and adjudicated by the Council during a 125-year period, from 1668 to 1793. It considers petitions from Roman Catholic regions across Europe and a few from Latin America and finds that, in about half these cases, the congregation reached a decision. Many women and a smaller proportion of men got what they asked for: decrees nullifying their monastic profession and releasing them from religious houses. It also reaches important conclusions about relations between elders and offspring in early modern families. Contrary to the picture historians have painted of increasingly less patriarchal and more egalitarian families, the book finds numerous instances of fathers, mothers, and other relatives (including older siblings) employing physical violence and psychological pressure to compel adolescents into “entering religion.” Dramatic tales from the archives show that many victims of such violence remained so intimidated that they dared not petition the pope until the agents of force and fear had died, by which time they themselves were middle-aged.
David Cressy
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198201687
- eISBN:
- 9780191674983
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198201687.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Social History
This chapter examines the order for nuptial vows or the solemnization of matrimony in Elizabethan and early Stuart England. Most early modern weddings followed the set form of service laid out in the ...
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This chapter examines the order for nuptial vows or the solemnization of matrimony in Elizabethan and early Stuart England. Most early modern weddings followed the set form of service laid out in the Book of Common Prayer. During these periods, wedding customarily began at the church porch. This entry was followed the the priest's recitation of the banns, the ritual giving of the bride by her father or an adult male friend, and the exchange of ‘I do's’ and the wedding rings. The wedding ring was customarily placed on the fourth finger of the bride's left hand.Less
This chapter examines the order for nuptial vows or the solemnization of matrimony in Elizabethan and early Stuart England. Most early modern weddings followed the set form of service laid out in the Book of Common Prayer. During these periods, wedding customarily began at the church porch. This entry was followed the the priest's recitation of the banns, the ritual giving of the bride by her father or an adult male friend, and the exchange of ‘I do's’ and the wedding rings. The wedding ring was customarily placed on the fourth finger of the bride's left hand.
John Kerrigan
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264775
- eISBN:
- 9780191734984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264775.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter presents the text of a lecture on oaths and vows in the works William Shakespeare given at the British Academy's 2009 Shakespeare Lecture. This text aims to rectify scholarly neglect of ...
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This chapter presents the text of a lecture on oaths and vows in the works William Shakespeare given at the British Academy's 2009 Shakespeare Lecture. This text aims to rectify scholarly neglect of the Shakespeare's excessive use of oaths and vows in his plays. Using philosophical and stage-related arguments, it highlights Shakespeare's awareness of the paradoxes of oath-taking and vowing and their potency in performance.Less
This chapter presents the text of a lecture on oaths and vows in the works William Shakespeare given at the British Academy's 2009 Shakespeare Lecture. This text aims to rectify scholarly neglect of the Shakespeare's excessive use of oaths and vows in his plays. Using philosophical and stage-related arguments, it highlights Shakespeare's awareness of the paradoxes of oath-taking and vowing and their potency in performance.
Karen M. Dunak
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814737811
- eISBN:
- 9780814764763
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814737811.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
When Kate Middleton married Prince William in 2011, watched by hundreds of millions of viewers, the wedding followed a familiar formula: ritual, vows, reception, and a white gown for the bride. ...
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When Kate Middleton married Prince William in 2011, watched by hundreds of millions of viewers, the wedding followed a familiar formula: ritual, vows, reception, and a white gown for the bride. Commonly known as a white wedding, the formula is firmly ensconced in popular culture, with movies like Father of the Bride or Bride Wars, shows like Say Yes to the Dress and Bridezillas, and live broadcast royal or reality-TV weddings garnering millions of viewers each year. Despite being condemned by some critics as “cookie-cutter” or conformist, the wedding has in fact progressively allowed for social, cultural, and political challenges to understandings of sex, gender, marriage, and citizenship, thereby providing an ideal site for historical inquiry. This book establishes that the evolution of the American white wedding emerges from our nation's proclivity towards privacy and the individual, as well as the increasingly egalitarian relationships between men and women in the decades following World War II. Blending cultural analysis of film, fiction, advertising, and prescriptive literature with personal views expressed in letters, diaries, essays, and oral histories, the book engages ways in which the modern wedding emblemizes a diverse and consumerist culture and aims to reveal an ongoing debate about the power of peer culture, media, and the marketplace in America. Rather than celebrating wedding traditions as they “used to be” and critiquing contemporary celebrations for their lavish leanings, the book provides a history of the American wedding and its celebrants.Less
When Kate Middleton married Prince William in 2011, watched by hundreds of millions of viewers, the wedding followed a familiar formula: ritual, vows, reception, and a white gown for the bride. Commonly known as a white wedding, the formula is firmly ensconced in popular culture, with movies like Father of the Bride or Bride Wars, shows like Say Yes to the Dress and Bridezillas, and live broadcast royal or reality-TV weddings garnering millions of viewers each year. Despite being condemned by some critics as “cookie-cutter” or conformist, the wedding has in fact progressively allowed for social, cultural, and political challenges to understandings of sex, gender, marriage, and citizenship, thereby providing an ideal site for historical inquiry. This book establishes that the evolution of the American white wedding emerges from our nation's proclivity towards privacy and the individual, as well as the increasingly egalitarian relationships between men and women in the decades following World War II. Blending cultural analysis of film, fiction, advertising, and prescriptive literature with personal views expressed in letters, diaries, essays, and oral histories, the book engages ways in which the modern wedding emblemizes a diverse and consumerist culture and aims to reveal an ongoing debate about the power of peer culture, media, and the marketplace in America. Rather than celebrating wedding traditions as they “used to be” and critiquing contemporary celebrations for their lavish leanings, the book provides a history of the American wedding and its celebrants.
Reuven Firestone
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199860302
- eISBN:
- 9780199950621
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199860302.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
The rabbis developed two rabbinic instruments designed to prevent the instigation of holy war after the destruction of the Temple. One was to categorize all biblical wars into categories and then ...
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The rabbis developed two rabbinic instruments designed to prevent the instigation of holy war after the destruction of the Temple. One was to categorize all biblical wars into categories and then limit the possibility of extended discussion about them. The other was the discovery that God had charged certain behaviours to both Jews and Gentiles that enacted a kind of balance between them. Exegetes understood a repeated motif in the Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) to refer to three vows imposed by God on Jews and the world. Jews were commanded through their two vows not to rebel against Gentile hegemony nor engage in mass movements to settle the Land of Israel until God wished, meaning that Jews would not initiate such activities of their own accord. Gentiles, for their part were required to vow that they would not treat the Jews living among them too harshly.Less
The rabbis developed two rabbinic instruments designed to prevent the instigation of holy war after the destruction of the Temple. One was to categorize all biblical wars into categories and then limit the possibility of extended discussion about them. The other was the discovery that God had charged certain behaviours to both Jews and Gentiles that enacted a kind of balance between them. Exegetes understood a repeated motif in the Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) to refer to three vows imposed by God on Jews and the world. Jews were commanded through their two vows not to rebel against Gentile hegemony nor engage in mass movements to settle the Land of Israel until God wished, meaning that Jews would not initiate such activities of their own accord. Gentiles, for their part were required to vow that they would not treat the Jews living among them too harshly.
Toni Bowers
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199592135
- eISBN:
- 9780191725340
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199592135.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This chapter further examines Manley's seduction fiction as partisan and ideological satire that works to consolidate new‐tory sensibility at a time of political change, in the context of Queen ...
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This chapter further examines Manley's seduction fiction as partisan and ideological satire that works to consolidate new‐tory sensibility at a time of political change, in the context of Queen Anne's death and George I's accession. The Adventures of Rivella (1714) personifies tory sensibility in its protagonist, whose story makes clear the paradoxes and necessities of compromised virtue. Manley's indebtedness to Behn (both in her articulation of tory sensibility and in her use of seduction fiction paradigms) is clearly delineated in an extended comparison of Behn's The Nun, Or The Perjur'd Beauty (1697) and Manley's The Perjur'd Beauty (1720). Behn proposes a heterodox connection between virtue and vow‐breaking in her tale of a sexually fallen nun whose compromises are embedded in a society saturated by practices of seduction and collusion. Manley considers related themes, revised for a later historical moment, in her tale of a heroine who can virtuously break her vows because she was compelled to make them initially.Less
This chapter further examines Manley's seduction fiction as partisan and ideological satire that works to consolidate new‐tory sensibility at a time of political change, in the context of Queen Anne's death and George I's accession. The Adventures of Rivella (1714) personifies tory sensibility in its protagonist, whose story makes clear the paradoxes and necessities of compromised virtue. Manley's indebtedness to Behn (both in her articulation of tory sensibility and in her use of seduction fiction paradigms) is clearly delineated in an extended comparison of Behn's The Nun, Or The Perjur'd Beauty (1697) and Manley's The Perjur'd Beauty (1720). Behn proposes a heterodox connection between virtue and vow‐breaking in her tale of a sexually fallen nun whose compromises are embedded in a society saturated by practices of seduction and collusion. Manley considers related themes, revised for a later historical moment, in her tale of a heroine who can virtuously break her vows because she was compelled to make them initially.
Aakash Singh Rathore and Ajay Verma
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198068679
- eISBN:
- 9780199081233
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198068679.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Indian Politics
This chapter discusses the followers of Buddha who are generally divided into two classes: the Bhikkhus and the Upasakas or lay followers. The Bhikkhus are organized into Sangh while the Upasakas are ...
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This chapter discusses the followers of Buddha who are generally divided into two classes: the Bhikkhus and the Upasakas or lay followers. The Bhikkhus are organized into Sangh while the Upasakas are not. Bhikkhus are primarily Parivrajakas or wanderers who abandoned their family to ascertain the truth but were later on organized into Sangh and were given rules of discipline. Sangh is open to all and not constrained by caste, status or gender. Members of the Sangh are required to take the vow of poverty wherein they live on alms. Although Buddhism does not enforce the vow of obedience, it is expected that Bhikkhus strictly observe rules of conduct where departure from these rule means punishment or banishment. The chapter also discusses the Buddha's conception of the Bhikkhus, the duties of the Bhikkhus, the relationship of the Bhikkhus to the laity, and the Vinaya.Less
This chapter discusses the followers of Buddha who are generally divided into two classes: the Bhikkhus and the Upasakas or lay followers. The Bhikkhus are organized into Sangh while the Upasakas are not. Bhikkhus are primarily Parivrajakas or wanderers who abandoned their family to ascertain the truth but were later on organized into Sangh and were given rules of discipline. Sangh is open to all and not constrained by caste, status or gender. Members of the Sangh are required to take the vow of poverty wherein they live on alms. Although Buddhism does not enforce the vow of obedience, it is expected that Bhikkhus strictly observe rules of conduct where departure from these rule means punishment or banishment. The chapter also discusses the Buddha's conception of the Bhikkhus, the duties of the Bhikkhus, the relationship of the Bhikkhus to the laity, and the Vinaya.
Schaeffer Kurtis R.
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195152999
- eISBN:
- 9780199849932
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195152999.003.0016
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter relates how Orgyan Chokyi upheld her religious commitment through the body, speech, and mind. Coming once again to her rocky cave, Chokyi had only pure thoughts. The causes of being born ...
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This chapter relates how Orgyan Chokyi upheld her religious commitment through the body, speech, and mind. Coming once again to her rocky cave, Chokyi had only pure thoughts. The causes of being born in hell are not tending to the profound (teaching of) cause and effect and, in particular, breaking one's religious commitment and vows. In all of the sayings of the victorious Buddha there are discussions of the commitments and vows. Chokyi thought that if she preserved her vow and commitment day and night she would not have to repent when death came. Chokyi had great faith in being able to maintaining the vow through purification. She had great faith in this teaching, which aimed to preserve good conduct in body, speech, and mind. On the eighth day, the fourteenth, the fifteenth, the thirtieth, the Gutor purification day as well as other holidays, Orgyan Chokyi took a vow of purification.Less
This chapter relates how Orgyan Chokyi upheld her religious commitment through the body, speech, and mind. Coming once again to her rocky cave, Chokyi had only pure thoughts. The causes of being born in hell are not tending to the profound (teaching of) cause and effect and, in particular, breaking one's religious commitment and vows. In all of the sayings of the victorious Buddha there are discussions of the commitments and vows. Chokyi thought that if she preserved her vow and commitment day and night she would not have to repent when death came. Chokyi had great faith in being able to maintaining the vow through purification. She had great faith in this teaching, which aimed to preserve good conduct in body, speech, and mind. On the eighth day, the fourteenth, the fifteenth, the thirtieth, the Gutor purification day as well as other holidays, Orgyan Chokyi took a vow of purification.
Cele C. Otnes
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520236615
- eISBN:
- 9780520937505
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520236615.003.0009
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter considers the kinds of couples who decide to forgo the lavish wedding, which includes couples who have family conflict, gay and lesbian partners, and even long-married husbands and wives ...
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This chapter considers the kinds of couples who decide to forgo the lavish wedding, which includes couples who have family conflict, gay and lesbian partners, and even long-married husbands and wives who want to renew their vows. It takes a look at some of the “alternative” weddings, most of which have some elements of a lavish wedding.Less
This chapter considers the kinds of couples who decide to forgo the lavish wedding, which includes couples who have family conflict, gay and lesbian partners, and even long-married husbands and wives who want to renew their vows. It takes a look at some of the “alternative” weddings, most of which have some elements of a lavish wedding.
Peter Childs
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748620432
- eISBN:
- 9780748671700
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748620432.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Thatcher saw herself as far more than a political leader, believing in a set of spiritual values, culled from her reading of the Old Testament, that amounted to a vision of Britain as a chosen land. ...
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Thatcher saw herself as far more than a political leader, believing in a set of spiritual values, culled from her reading of the Old Testament, that amounted to a vision of Britain as a chosen land. Her view of the Church within this was that it should support the state and promote law and order along with the need for personal morality and self-reliance. Consequently, when the Anglican Church refused to celebrate the war at the time of the Falklands Memorial Service in 1982, Thatcher set out on a course of evangelical Methodist instruction in which she would repeatedly tell the Church its function and assert her own interpretation of the Bible, while dismissing as ‘Marxist rubbish’ the Church of England’s views on a range of subjects from nuclear disarmament to Britain’s inner cities. Consequently, the 1988 speech under consideration here, though delivered to the Church of Scotland, was, according to Henry Clark, ‘Thatcher’s interpretation of Christianity as an earnest cultivation of the bourgeois virtues’, and its ‘real target was the bishops of the Church of England’.Less
Thatcher saw herself as far more than a political leader, believing in a set of spiritual values, culled from her reading of the Old Testament, that amounted to a vision of Britain as a chosen land. Her view of the Church within this was that it should support the state and promote law and order along with the need for personal morality and self-reliance. Consequently, when the Anglican Church refused to celebrate the war at the time of the Falklands Memorial Service in 1982, Thatcher set out on a course of evangelical Methodist instruction in which she would repeatedly tell the Church its function and assert her own interpretation of the Bible, while dismissing as ‘Marxist rubbish’ the Church of England’s views on a range of subjects from nuclear disarmament to Britain’s inner cities. Consequently, the 1988 speech under consideration here, though delivered to the Church of Scotland, was, according to Henry Clark, ‘Thatcher’s interpretation of Christianity as an earnest cultivation of the bourgeois virtues’, and its ‘real target was the bishops of the Church of England’.
