Religion

Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice

Jennifer Wright Knust, Zsuzsanna Varhelyi (eds)

Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice reappraises the diverse religious texts and practices of the late Hellenistic and Roman periods, investigating the meanings and functions ... More

Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice reappraises the diverse religious texts and practices of the late Hellenistic and Roman periods, investigating the meanings and functions of sacrifice in the ancient world. Gathering together essays that address sacrificial acts, ancient theories of sacrifice, and literary as well as artistic depictions of sacrifice, the connections between Mediterranean religions are highlighted, as are the significant differences among them. The attempt to identify a single underlying significance of sacrifice, this collection demonstrates, is futile. It is simply not adequate to define sacrifice solely as a primal expression of violence, despite the frequent equation of sacrifice-religion and sacrifice-violence in many modern scholarly works, nor is it sufficient to suggest that all sacrifice can be explained by guilt, by the need to prepare and distribute animal flesh, or by the communal function of both the sacrificial ritual and the meal. Sacrifice may be invested with all of these meanings, or none of them: the killing of the animal, for example, may take place off stage and the practical, day-to-day routine of plant and animal offerings may have been invested with little meaning at all. Still, sacrificial acts, or discourses about these acts, did offer an important site of contestation for many ancient writers, even when the religions they were defending no longer participated in sacrifice. Negotiations over the meaning of sacrifice remained central to the competitive machinations of the literate elite, and their sophisticated theological arguments did not so much undermine sacrificial practice as continue to assume its essential validity. Less

Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption

Stephen J. Shoemaker

The ancient Dormition and Assumption traditions, a remarkably diverse collection of narratives recounting the end of the Virgin Mary's life, first emerge into historical view from an ... More

The ancient Dormition and Assumption traditions, a remarkably diverse collection of narratives recounting the end of the Virgin Mary's life, first emerge into historical view from an uncertain past during the fifth and sixth centuries. Initially appearing in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, these legends spread rapidly throughout the Christian world, resulting in over 60 different narratives from before the tenth century preserved in nine ancient languages. This study presents a detailed analysis of the earliest traditions of Mary's death, including the evidence of the earliest Marian liturgical traditions and related archaeological evidence as well as the numerous narrative sources. Most of the early narratives belong to one of several distinctive literary families, whose members bear evidence of close textual relations. Many previous scholars have attempted to arrange the different narrative types in a developmental typology, according to which the story of Mary's death was transformed to reflect various developments in early Christian Mariology. Nevertheless, evidence to support these theories is wanting, and the present state of our knowledge suggests that the narrative diversity of the early Dormition traditions arose from several independent ‘origins’ rather than through ordered evolution from a single original type. Likewise, scholars have often asserted a connection between the origin of the Dormition traditions and resistance to the council of Chalcedon, but the traditions themselves make this an extremely unlikely proposal. While most of the traditions cannot be dated much before the fifth century, a few of the narratives were almost certainly in composed by the third century, if not even earlier. These narratives in particular bear evidence of contact with gnostic Christianity. Several of the most important narratives are translated in appendices, most appearing in English for the first time. Less

Angels in Late Ancient Christianity

Ellen Muehlberger

Ellen Muehlberger explores the diverse and inventive ideas Christians held about angels in late antiquity, focusing especially on the fourth and fifth centuries. At that time, Christians were ... More

Ellen Muehlberger explores the diverse and inventive ideas Christians held about angels in late antiquity, focusing especially on the fourth and fifth centuries. At that time, Christians were experimenting with new modes of piety, adopting long-standing forms of public authority to Christian leadership and advancing novel ways of cultivating both body and mind to further the progress of individual Christians. She argues that in practicing these new modes of piety, Christians developed new ways of thinking about angels. The first half of the book is a detailed exploration of the two most popular discourses about angels that developed in late antiquity: in one, developed by Christians cultivating certain kinds of ascetic practices, angels were one type of being among many in a shifting universe, and their primary purpose was to guard and to guide Christians; in the other, voiced by urban Christian leaders contesting with one another, angels were morally stable characters described in the emerging canon of Scripture, available to enable readers to render Scripture coherent with emerging theological positions. In the second half, Muehlberger shows how these two discourses influenced wider Christian culture. In detailed studies of popular biographies written in late antiquity, of the community standards of emerging monastic communities, and of the training programs developed to prepare Christians to participate in ritual, new ideas about angels shaped and directed the formation of those institutions that we think of as defining late antiquity.Less

Anglican Evangelicals: Protestant Secessions from the Via Media, c. 1800-1850

Grayson Carter

This study examines, within a chronological framework, the major themes and personalities that influenced the outbreak of a number of Evangelical clerical and lay secessions from the ... More

This study examines, within a chronological framework, the major themes and personalities that influenced the outbreak of a number of Evangelical clerical and lay secessions from the Church of England and Ireland during the first half of the nineteenth century. Though the number of secessions was relatively small, between a hundred and two hundred of the ‘Gospel clergy’ abandoned the Church during this period, their influence was considerable, especially in highlighting in embarrassing fashion the tensions between the evangelical conversionist imperative and the principles of a national religious establishment. Moreover, through much of this period there remained, just beneath the surface, the potential threat of a large Evangelical disruption similar to that which occurred in Scotland in 1843. Consequently, these secessions provoked great consternation within the Church and within Evangelicalism itself, contributed to the outbreak of millennial speculation following the ‘constitutional revolution’ of 1828–32, led to the formation of several new denominations, and sparked off a major Church–State crisis over the legal right of a clergyman to secede and begin a new ministry within Protestant Dissent. Less

Anglicanism and the British Empire, c.1700-1850

Rowan Strong

This book demonstrates that British imperialism was integrally connected to British religion. Using published sources, the book identifies the construction, development, and ingredients ... More

This book demonstrates that British imperialism was integrally connected to British religion. Using published sources, the book identifies the construction, development, and ingredients of a public Anglican discourse of the British Empire between 1700 and c.1850. It argues that the Church of England exhibited an official and conscious Anglican concern for empire and for missions by the Church of England, from the foundation of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in 1701. Much of that earlier 18th century understanding went on to shape later Anglican Evangelical imperial attitudes in the Church Missionary Society founded in 1799. In this Anglican engagement with the British Empire, a public theological discourse of empire was formed and promulgated. This religious public discourse of empire was developed in an imperial partnership with the state. It was formulated in the Anglican engagement with the North American colonies in the 18th century; it underwent a revival of the church-state partnership in the period between 1790 and 1830, as witnessed in Bengal; and it was fundamentally transformed in a new paradigm of imperial engagement in the 1840s, which was implemented in the colonies of Australia and New Zealand. Both the old and the new imperial Anglican paradigms developed a religious and theological imperial discourse that constructed the identities for various colonized peoples and British colonists, as well as contributing to English-British identity between 1700 and 1850. It was a Christian lens that proved remarkably consistent and enduring for both the old and the new British Empires. Less

Animals and World Religions

Lisa Kemmerer

This book focuses on core religious teachings that explain how human beings ought to behave in relation to other animals, with the intent that this information be considered in light of ... More

This book focuses on core religious teachings that explain how human beings ought to behave in relation to other animals, with the intent that this information be considered in light of contemporary practices and consumer choices. The book explores sacred literature, the lives of religious exemplars, and core ethics to expose animal-friendly teachings in indigenous, Vedic, Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religious traditions. Each chapter explores specific topics, such as sacred nature, key philosophical concepts (such as oneness of being, universal peace, and the afterlife), core ethics (on subjects such as compassion, humility, and diet), rightful relations between human beings and animals (kinship), and the activist nature of religious commitment, introducing famous figures such as Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Tolstoy, as well as contemporary animal advocates from within each religious tradition. A thoughtful introduction and conclusion outline the parameters of the book, as well as the intent of the author, and provide focus for this landmark publication. Finally, the appendix explains industrial farming and fishing—including the environmental degradation associated with both—and explores terms such as ”free-range,” ”cruelty-free,” and ”organic.” Less

An Annotated Anthology of Hymns

Timothy Dudley-Smith

J.R. Watson (ed.)

This is an anthology of 250 hymns plus one, with a foreword by Timothy Dudley‐Smith, one of the greatest living hymn writers (the two hundred and fifty‐first hymn, which is a postscript ... More

This is an anthology of 250 hymns plus one, with a foreword by Timothy Dudley‐Smith, one of the greatest living hymn writers (the two hundred and fifty‐first hymn, which is a postscript to the anthology, is by him). It is intended in part as a sequel to the editor's The English Hymn (1997): some of the ideas in that book are here exemplified in hymns taken from the earliest Christian times to the present day. Each of the 250 hymns has a textual, critical, and historical annotation, indicating the circumstances of publication, the church history of the time, and the development of the text, and then drawing attention to special features of the work. The hymns are divided into sections, beginning with ‘Ancient and Medieval Hymns’ (in translation) and continuing through the centuries to the final section, ‘The Mid‐Twentieth Century, and the Hymn Explosion’. Some attention is also paid to the tunes to which each hymn has been set, and their composers, although the tunes are not printed. The foreword and the preface introduce the subject of hymns and hymn singing as a part of worship, and discuss hymns as sacred poetry. The conclusion of the introduction is that hymns are a valuable and underrated art form. The 250 hymns that follow attempt to demonstrate the truth of that argument. Less

Anselm

Sandra Visser, Thomas Williams

This book offers a brief introduction to the life and thought of Saint Anselm (c. 1033–1109). Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury for the last sixteen years of his life, is one of the ... More

This book offers a brief introduction to the life and thought of Saint Anselm (c. 1033–1109). Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury for the last sixteen years of his life, is one of the foremost philosopher-theologians of the Middle Ages. His keen and rigorous thinking earned him the title “The Father of Scholasticism”, and his influence is discernible in figures as various as Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, the voluntarists of the late-13th and 14th centuries, and the Protestant reformers. Part I of this book lays out the framework of Anselm's thought: his approach to what he calls “the reason of faith”, his account of thought and language, and his theory of truth. Part II focuses on Anselm's account of God and the divine attributes, and it shows how Anselm applies his theory of language and thought to develop a theological semantics that at once respects divine transcendence and allows for the possibility of divine rational knowledge. In Part III, the book turns from the heavenly to the animal. It elucidates Anselm's theory of modality and his understanding of free choice, an idea that was, for Anselm, embedded in his conception of justice. The book concludes with a discussion of Incarnation, Atonement, and original sin, as the chapters examine Anselm's argument that the death of a God-man is the only possible remedy for human injustice. Less

Anti-Arminians: The Anglican Reformed Tradition from Charles II to George I

Stephen Hampton

This book is a study of the Anglican Reformed tradition (often inaccurately described as Calvinist) after the Restoration and it sets out to revise our picture of the theological world ... More

This book is a study of the Anglican Reformed tradition (often inaccurately described as Calvinist) after the Restoration and it sets out to revise our picture of the theological world of the later Stuart period. Arguing that the importance of the Reformed theological tradition has frequently been underestimated, the study points to a network of conforming Reformed theologians which included many of the most prominent churchmen of the age. Focussing particularly on what these churchmen contributed in three hotly disputed areas of doctrine (justification, the Trinity and the divine attributes), the study argues that the most significant debates in speculative theology which erupted within the English Church after 1662 were the result of Anglican Reformed resistance to the growing influence of continental Arminianism. It demonstrates the strength and flexibility of the Reformed response to the developing Arminian school, and shows that the Reformed tradition remained a viable theological option for Anglicans well into the eighteenth century. The study therefore provides a significant bridge linking the Reformed writers of the Elizabethan and early Stuart period to the Reformed Evangelicals of the 18th Century. It also shows that, throughout its formative period, Anglicanism was not a monolithic tradition, but rather a contested ground between the competing claims of those adhering to the Church of England's Reformed doctrinal heritage and the insights of those who, to varying degrees, were prepared to explore new theological avenues. Less