Clothes and Monasticism in Ancient Christian Egypt

2021-03-09
 |  Religion
Clothes and Monasticism in Ancient Christian Egypt

Author: Ingvild Sælid Gilhus

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781000359374

Category: Religion

Page: 204

View: 253

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This book is an exploration of the ideals and values of the ascetic and monastic life, as expressed through clothes. Clothes are often seen as an extension of us as humans, a determinant of who we are and how we experience and interact with the world. In this way, they can play a significant role in the embodied and material aspects of religious practice. The focus of this book is on clothing and garments among ancient monastics and ascetics in Egypt, but with a broader outlook to the general meaning and function of clothes in religion. The garments of the Egyptian ascetics and monastics are important because they belong to a period of transition in the history of Christianity and very much represent this way of living. This study combines a cognitive perspective on clothes with an attempt to grasp the embodied experiences of being clothed, as well as viewing clothes as potential actors. Using sources such as travelogues, biographies, letters, contracts, images, and garments from monastic burials, the role of clothes is brought into conversation with material religion more generally. This unique study builds links between ancient and contemporary uses of religious clothing. It will, therefore, be of interest to any scholar of religious studies, religious history, religion in antiquity, and material religion.

Clothes and Monasticism in Ancient Christian Egypt

2021-03
 | 
Clothes and Monasticism in Ancient Christian Egypt

Author: Ingvild Slid Gilhus

Publisher:

ISBN: 0367505479

Category:

Page:

View: 635

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"This book is an exploration of the ideals and values of the ascetic and monastic life, as expressed through clothes. Clothes are often seen as an extended part of humans that determines who we are and how we experience and interact with the world. In this way, they can play a significant role in the embodied and material aspects of religious practice. The focus of this book is on clothing and garments among ancient monastics and ascetics in Egypt, but with a broader outlook to the general meaning and function of clothes in religion. The garments of the Egyptian ascetics and monastics are important because they belong to a period of transition in the history of Christianity and very much represent this way of living. This study combines a cognitive perspective on clothes with an attempt to grasp the embodied experiences of being clothed, as well as viewing clothes as potential actors. Using sources such as travelogues, biographies, letters, contracts, images and garments from monastic burials, the role of clothes is brought into conversation with material religion more generally. This unique study builds links between ancient and contemporary uses of religious clothing. It will, therefore, be of interest to any scholar of Religious Studies, Religious History, Religion in Antiquity and Material Religion"--

Religion, Christian Faith, and Secular World

2021-01-25
 | 
Religion, Christian Faith, and Secular World

Author: Hans Bringeland

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

ISBN: 9783643911391

Category:

Page: 262

View: 552

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What has been the role and understanding of religion in the last hundred years, and what can be the meaning of religion today? There is a well-known ongoing process of secularization in the Western world. Is there also a return of religion? And what does the fate of religion mean for an understanding of the Christian faith? These are topics of this book. The articles originate from the actual fields of research of an interdisciplinary group of scholars, who took part in a symposium held in Bergen Nov. 2019. The contributions relate to specific contexts in the modern history of religion from the perspective of religious studies, theology, philosophy and sociology.

Contemporary Christian-Muslim Dialogue

2021-03-01
 |  Religion
Contemporary Christian-Muslim Dialogue

Author: Douglas Pratt

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781317160892

Category: Religion

Page: 232

View: 408

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This book introduces and examines the work of two significant 21st century Christian – Muslim dialogue initiatives – "Building Bridges" and the "Christian–Muslim Theological Forum" – and gives close attention to five theological themes that have been addressed in common by them. An overview and analysis, including inception, development, outputs and significance, together with discussion of the select themes – community, scripture, prophecy, prayer and ethics – allows for an in-depth examination of significant contemporary Muslim and Christian scholarship on issues important to both faith communities. The result is a challenging encounter to, arguably, a widespread default presumption of irredeemable mutual hostility and inevitable mutual rejection with instances of violent extremism as a consequence. Demonstrating the reality that deep interreligious engagement is possible between the two faiths today, this book should appeal to a wide readership, including upper undergraduate and graduate teaching as well as professionals and practitioners in the field of Christian-Muslim relations.

Cosmologies of Pure Realms and the Rhetoric of Pollution

2021-05-31
 |  Religion
Cosmologies of Pure Realms and the Rhetoric of Pollution

Author: Yohan Yoo

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781000392838

Category: Religion

Page: 178

View: 560

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This collaboration between two scholars from different fields of religious studies draws on three comparative data sets to develop a new theory of purity and pollution in religion, arguing that a culture’s beliefs about cosmological realms shapes its pollution ideas and its purification practices. The authors of this study refine Mary Douglas’ foundational theory of pollution as "matter out of place," using a comparative approach to make the case that a culture’s cosmology designates which materials in which places constitute pollution. By bringing together a historical comparison of Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean religions, an ethnographic study of indigenous shamanism on Jeju Island, Korea, and the reception history of biblical rhetoric about pollution in Jewish and Christian cultures, the authors show that a cosmological account of purity works effectively across multiple disparate religious and cultural contexts. They conclude that cosmologies reinforce fears of pollution, and also that embodied experiences of purification help generate cosmological ideas. Providing an innovative insight into a key topic of ritual studies, this book will be of vital interest to scholars and graduate students in religion, biblical studies, and anthropology.

Egypt and Empire

2022-04-19
 |  History
Egypt and Empire

Author: ER O'Connell

Publisher: ISD LLC

ISBN: 9789042940321

Category: History

Page: 381

View: 466

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Across Eurasia and North Africa in the First Millennium AD, empires rose and fell, each adopting a universalizing faith which distinguished it broadly from its neighbours. In Egypt, our sources are particularly rich, owing to the land's arid climate and the unparalleled survival not only of stone, ceramic and metalwork, but also of organic material such as textiles, wood and manuscripts found on papyrus, parchment and paper. This volume brings together over a dozen of the world's leading specialists to explore the dialectical interplay between empire and religious identity through a series of case studies from Egypt. Evidence from Egypt suggests that it was precisely in the context of empire that 'religious identity' emerged as a distinctive marker. Using the unrivalled abundance and variety of surviving material culture, this volume explores the formation, renegotiation and reconstitution of religious identities from the Roman period forward. Whereas Egypt's 'pharaonic' millennia (c. 3000-30 BC) have been studied as a coherent whole, later eras are often studied as fragments. Egypt and Empire offers a different approach by covering together periods that are usually treated separately in different academic disciplines.

Religion and Violence in Western Traditions

2021-09-16
 |  Religion
Religion and Violence in Western Traditions

Author: André Gagné

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781000409062

Category: Religion

Page: 186

View: 741

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This book examines the connection between religion and violence in the Western traditions of the three Abrahamic faiths, from ancient to modern times. It addresses a gap in the scholarly debate on the nature of religious violence by bringing scholars that specialize in pre-modern religions and scriptural traditions into the same sphere of discussion as those specializing in contemporary manifestations of religious violence. Moving beyond the question of the “authenticity” of religious violence, this book brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines. Contributors explore the central role that religious texts have played in encouraging, as well as confronting, violence. The interdisciplinary conversation that takes place challenges assumptions that religious violence is a modern problem that can be fully understood without reference to religious scriptures, beliefs, or history. Each chapter focuses its analysis on a particular case study from a distinct historical period. Taken as a whole, these chapters attest to the persistent relationship between religion and violence that links the ancient and contemporary worlds. This is a dynamic collection of explorations into how religion and violence intersect. As such, it will be a key resource for any scholar of Religious Studies, Theology and Religion and Violence, as well as Christian, Jewish, and Islamic Studies.

Former Muslims in Europe

2021-07-22
 |  Religion
Former Muslims in Europe

Author: Maria Vliek

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781000409130

Category: Religion

Page: 218

View: 850

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Within contemporary Western European academic, media, and socio-political spheres, Muslims are predominantly seen through the lens of increased religiosity. This religiosity is often seen as problematic, especially in the context of securitised discourses of Islamist terrorism. Yet, there are clear indications that a growing number of people who grew up in Muslim families no longer subscribe to Islam or call themselves religious at all. Drawing on fieldwork in the UK and the Netherlands, this study examines the experiences of people moving out of Islam. It rigorously questions the antagonistic nature of the debate between ‘the religious’ and ‘the secular’, or who is in and who is out, and argues for recognition of the ambiguity that most of us live in. Revealing many complex forms of moving out, this study adds much-needed nuance to understandings of secularity and Muslim identities in Europe.

Jewish Approaches to Hinduism

2021-09-16
 |  Religion
Jewish Approaches to Hinduism

Author: Richard G. Marks

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781000436662

Category: Religion

Page: 248

View: 647

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This book explores past expressions of the Jewish interest in Hinduism in order to learn what Hinduism has meant to Jews living mainly in the 12th through the 19th centuries. India and Hinduism, though never at the center of Jewish thought, claim a place in its history, in the picture Jews held of the wider world, of other religions and other human beings. Each chapter focuses on a specific author or text and examines the literary context as well as the cultural context, within and outside Jewish society, that provided images and ideas about India and its religions. Overall the volume constructs a history of ideas that changed over time with different writers in different settings. It will be especially relevant to scholars interested in Jewish thought, comparative religion, interreligious dialogue, and intellectual history.

Early Christian Monastic Literature and the Babylonian Talmud

2013-12-23
 |  Religion
Early Christian Monastic Literature and the Babylonian Talmud

Author: Michal Bar-Asher Siegal

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 9781107470415

Category: Religion

Page: 242

View: 985

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This book examines literary analogies in Christian and Jewish sources, culminating in an in-depth analysis of striking parallels and connections between Christian monastic texts (the Apophthegmata Patrum or 'The Sayings of the Desert Fathers') and Babylonian Talmudic traditions. The importance of the monastic movement in the Persian Empire, during the time of the composition and redaction of the Babylonian Talmud, fostered a literary connection between the two religious populations. The shared literary elements in the literatures of these two elite religious communities sheds new light on the surprisingly inclusive nature of the Talmudic corpora and on the non-polemical nature of elite Jewish-Christian literary relations in late antique Persia.

Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antique Christianity

2017-09-07
 |  History
Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antique Christianity

Author: Paul Dilley

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 9781107184015

Category: History

Page: 363

View: 671

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This book explores the personal practices and group rituals for monitoring and training the thoughts of ancient Christian monks. It focuses on the earliest sources for communal monasticism, many translated into English for the first time, while drawing on cognitive studies to understand key disciplines like prayer and collective repentance.