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Living Waters - Scandinavian Oriental Studies. In Honour of Frede Løkkegaard
A new critical look at Mani's life to establish a proper historical foundation for the study of this fascinating thinker.
As allegiance to Jesus Christ spread across the Roman Empire in the second century, writings, practices, and ideas erupted in a creative maelstrom. Many of the patterns of practice and belief that later become normative emerged, in the midst of debate and argument with neighbours who shared or who rejected that allegiance. Authoritative texts, principles of argument, attitudes to received authority, the demands of allegiance in the face of opposition, identifying who belonged and who did not, all demanded attention. These essays explore those divergent voices, and the no-less diverse and lively debates they have inspired in recent scholarship.
This book presents new interpretations of essential and well-known passages from Augustine's Confessions. In ten chapters, Augustinian specialist Johannes van Oort analyzes and explains many essential passages in the work from the background of Augustine's thorough knowledge of Manichaeism. This 'Gnostic' variant of Christianity exerted a great influence on the North African Augustine, as evidenced in his most famous and (arguably) most influential work. In a new light appear such figures as Monnica, Ponticianus, Lady Continence, the rather obscure African bishop who speaks of Augustine as "a son of such tears"; events such as the 'illustrious' pear theft, the coming of "a glorious young man" to dreaming Monnica, Augustine's dramatic conversion; basic features such as his concept of 'God', deep sense of (sexual) sin, highly influential reflections on memory, fundamental view of Christ as God's Right Hand and, perhaps most importantly, his mystical spirituality.
Taking as their common subject the key early Christian anti-Manichaean work, the Acts of Archelaus (Acta Archelai), the contributors to this volume offer a systematic exploration of what the text has to tell us about inter-religious contact, conflict, and comprehension at a crucial moment in religious history: the encounter between Christianity and Manichaeism along the political and cultural frontier zone of West Asia in the early fourth century CE. The contributions examine the text's structure, apologetic and polemical strategies, and possible sources, and through these analyses challenge received notions of ‘orthodoxy’ and ‘heresy’ in the mutual construction of identity that took place between these two claimants to the Christian heritage.
The volumes of Religion and Normativity presents the latest research in three central fields. Volume I discusses the construction of normative texts in early Christianity and Judaism, including canon formation, the question of authoritative interpretation of canon, and the re-writing of normative texts in new situations. Among other things, the authors employ literary theories and memory construction.
In all religions, in the medieval West as in the East, ideas about the past, the present and the future were shaped by expectations related to the End. The volumes Cultures of Eschatology explore the many ways apocalyptic thought and visions of the end intersected with the development of pre-modern religio-political communities, with social changes and with the emergence of new intellectual and literary traditions. The two volumes present a wide variety of case studies from the early Christian communities of Antiquity, through the times of the Islamic invasion and the Crusades and up to modern receptions, from the Latin West to the Byzantine Empire, from South Yemen to the Hidden Lands of Ti...
This volume in honour of Prof. Dr. Johannes van Oort offers a rich variety of in-depth studies on Augustine, Manichaeism, and other Gnostic currents, thus reflecting the rich variety of the honorand’s research interests.
Beginning with the emergence of a Danish kingdom during the Viking Age, this book provides an introduction to the history of Denmark as a political entity, from the eighth century to the present day. It shows how what we know as ‘Denmark’ has evolved – from Cnut the Great’s North Sea empire in the eleventh century, through disintegration and civil war in the Middle Ages, the Kalmar Union of 1397–1523 and the establishment of the absolutist state and its overseas colonies in the seventeenth century, to the emergence of the modern nation state during the nineteenth century. The book also deals with significant developments in the economic, social and cultural history of Denmark, and sheds light on complex problems such as the country’s relationship with its Nordic neighbours, the origins of the current border with Germany and the historical development of the Danish welfare state.
Mystery and secrecy were central concepts in the ritual, rhetoric, and sociological stratification of antique Mediterranean religions. That the ultimate nature and workings of the divine were secret, and either could not or should not be revealed except as a mystery for the initiated, was widely accepted among Pagans, Jews, and then Christians, both Gnostic and otherwise. The similarities and differences in the language of mystery and secrecy across religious and cultural borders are thus crucial for understanding this important period of the history of religions. The present anthology aims to present and analyze a wide selection of sources elucidating this theme, reflecting the correspondingly wide scholarly interests of Professor Einar Thomassen in honor of his 60th birthday.