You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Dealing with the nexus of religion and power, this volume undermines the idea that the political relevance of religion is a thing of the past. Its essays treat power as a central aspect of religion on many levels, from that of macro-politics through the links between religion and nationhood to the level of personal empowerment.
The phenomenon of martyrdom is more than 2000 years old but, as contemporary events show, still very much alive. Martyrdom: Canonisation, Contestation and Afterlives examines the canonisation, contestation and afterlives of martyrdom and connects these with cross-cultural acts and practices of remembrance. Martyrdom appeals to the imagination of many because it is a highly ambiguous spectacle with thrilling deadly consequences. Imagination is thus a vital catalyst for martyrdom, for martyrs become martyrs only because others remember and honour them as such. This memorialisation occurs through rituals and documents that incorporate and re-interpret traditions deriving from canonical texts. T...
This volume deals with the presentation of the so-called Maccabean martyrs and the elder Razis in 2 and 4 Maccabees, discussing the religious, the political as well as the philosophical aspects of noble death in these writings. It argues that the theme of martyrdom is a very important part of the self-image of the Jews as presented by the authors of both works. Eleazar, the anonymous mother with her seven sons and Razis should, therefore, be considered heroes of the Jewish people. The first part of the book discusses the sources and the second part deals with the descriptions of noble death. This section of the book also offers extensive discussions of related non-Jewish traditions which highlight the political-patriotic dimension of noble death as described in 2 and 4 Maccabees.
This volume explores the fascinating phenomenon of noble death through pagan, Jewish and Christian sources. The cross-cultural approach of this study make it valuable for students and scholars.
STAR - Studies in Theology and Religion, 1 This collection of essays presented by senior international scholars and junior biblical scholars during a colloquium and two master classes of the Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion (NOSTER) discusses the processes by which biblical entities are appropriated, updated, rewritten, reinterpreted and transmitted in subsequent written sources. The contributions focus on textual figures as well as the recycling of concepts, entities, ideologies and theologies. The contributors include, among others, J. Barr, J.C. de Moor, H.A. McKay, P. Beentjes, R.S. Kraemer, and J. Tromp.
In this book, Judith Lieu explores the formation and shaping of early Christian identity within Judaism and within the wider Graeco-Roman world in the period before 200 C.E. Bringing to bear the latest analytical methods, she particularly examines the way that literary texts presented early Christianity. She combines this with interdisciplinary historical investigation and interaction with the most recent work on Judaism in late Antiquity and on the Graeco-Roman world. The result is a very significant contribution in four of the key questions in current New Testament scholarship: how did early Christian identity come to be formed; how should we best describe and understand the processes by w...
Early Christian Ethics in Interaction with Jewish and Greco-Roman Contexts focuses upon the nexus of early Christian Ethics and its contexts as a dynamic process. The ongoing interaction with Jewish, Greco-Roman or early Christian traditions as well as with the social-historical context at large continuously transformed early Christian ethics. The volume proposes a dynamic model for studying culture and its various expressions in a society composed of several ethnic and religious groups. The contributions focus on specific transformations of ethics in key documents of early Christianity, or take a more comparative perspective pointing to similar developments and overlaps as well as particularities within early Christian writings, Hellenistic-Jewish writings, Dead Sea Scrolls and Jewish inscriptions.
This collection of essays by leading experts in New Testament scholarship addresses core themes in the study of early Christianity. The topics addressed include text-critical issues relating to the New Testament, the historical situation in which the earliest Christian documents were composed, early Christian rituals, historical questions concerning Jesus and Paul, and the origin and development of important theological ideas in the early Church. This volume is dedicated to Henk Jan de Jonge (Emeritus Professor in the New Testament, Leiden University) in honour of his important contributions to the field of New Testament Studies.
Liberalism and Orthodoxy can only be succesfull as strategies for coping with change in society when they will be able to outline a recognisable and authentic framework for religiously informed pratcises and ethics.
This volume in honour of Jan N. Bremmer contains the contributions of numerous students, colleagues, and friends offered to him on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Throughout his career, Bremmer has distinguished himself as an internationally renowned scholar of religion both past and present, including first and foremost Greek and Roman religion, but also early Christianity and post-classical developments in religion and spirituality. In line with these three main areas of Bremmer’s research, the volume is divided into three parts, bringing together contributions from distinguished scholars in many fields. The result is a diverse book which provides a broad spectrum of original ideas and innovative approaches in the history of religions, thus reflecting the nature of the scholarship of Bremmer himself.