Veröffentlicht von De Gruyter

Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

Herausgegeben von: John R. Levison

ISSN: 1865-8792

Übersicht
Bände

In dieser Reihe werden Monographien und gesammelte Essays veröffentlicht, die sich mit dem Themenfeld der religiösen Erfahrung in der Antike befassen. Die Bände der Reihe werden verschiedene Bereiche religiöser Erfahrung und Strömungen ansprechen und besonders Ausdrucksformen religiösen Erlebens wie exstatischer Trance, Magie, Heilung, Weissagung, Prophezeiung, Träume und weitere Phänomene, die zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung religiöser Erfahrung beitragen. Dazu dient ein weites Spektrum von Methoden, das zeitgenössische soziologische, anthropologische, psychologische Herangehensweisen ebenso umfasst wie historische Analyse von textlichen, archäologischen und künstlerischen Quellen über religiöse Erfahrung.

Information zu Autoren / Herausgebern

John R. Levison, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA.

Editorial Board

David Aune, Notre Dame University, IN, USA; Jan Bremmer, University of Groningen, The Netherlands; John Collins, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT, USA; Dyan Elliott, Northwestern University, Evanston/Chicago, IL, USA; Amy Hollywood, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, USA; Sarah Iles Johnston, Ohio State University, IL, USA; Gabor Klaniczay, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, and Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary; Paulo Nogueira, Universidade Metodista de São Paulo, Brazil; Christopher Rowland, Oxford University, UK; Elliot Wolfson , New York University, NY, USA.

Fachgebiete

Buch Noch nicht erschienen 2024

Joseph and Aseneth After Antiquity

A Study in Manuscript Transmission

Jonathon Stuart Wright

Band 12 in dieser Reihe

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Joseph and Aseneth expands a few verses from the book of Genesis into a novella-length work. It is increasingly used as a source for Judaism and Christianity at the turn of the Common Era. Scholarly attention has largely focused the work’s provenance, the priority of a longer or shorter text version, and the implications for interpretation. But few have engaged with the work’s manuscript witness and transmission.

This study returns to the sources. It considers how the redaction and translation of Joseph and Aseneth affected its interpretation, and looks at the interests of the redactors and copyists. Its findings warn against placing too much weight on details that lack such an importance in the manuscript tradition.

Important contributions made in this monograph include: a detailed study of the two earliest versions, the Syriac and Armenian translations; focus on the Greek manuscripts of the three longest families (f, Mc, a); analysis of four abridged versions (family d, E, Latin 1 and so-called "early modern Greek"); the first available synoptic edition of the Greek versions of the story, including the first edition of manuscript E.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.0000/9783111234151
ISBN:: 9783111234151
ISBN:: 9783111233857
ISBN:: 9783111228372
Fachgebiet:: Jüdische Studien
Fachgebiet:: Judaistik
Fachgebiet:: Hellenistisch-römische Zeit
Fachgebiet:: Jüdische Literatur
Fachgebiet:: Frühe jüdische Literatur
Fachgebiet:: Theologie und Religion
Fachgebiet:: Altes Testament / Altorientalistik
Fachgebiet:: Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen
Fachgebiet:: Patristik
Fachgebiet:: Einführungen und Gesamtdarstellungen
Verlag:: De Gruyter

Buch 2023

Divine Mysteries in the Enochic Tradition

Andrei A. Orlov

Band 11 in dieser Reihe

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The book represents an in-depth investigation of acquisition, cultivation, and transmission of divine mysteries in Jewish apocalyptic and mystical accounts by focusing on the developments found in early Enochic writings. These accounts deal both with revelations unveiled by God and angels to the patriarch Enoch and with illicit transmission of divine knowledge by the rogue group of the fallen angels, known as the Watchers.

Orlov argues that the map of otherworldly knowledge revealed to Enoch inversely mirrors the map of illicit revelations given by the fallen Watchers to humankind. The study suggests that one of the possible objectives for the parallelism is that, by revealing to Enoch the same divine mysteries that were earlier transmitted by the Watchers, God attempts to mitigate the corruption caused by the fallen angels’ illicit instructions.

This book will be of interest not only for scholars specializing in historical and religious areas, but also for experts in the fields of anthropology, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and gender theory; it discusses several aspects of early and late Jewish religious epistemologies that elucidate the ideological context for the construction and affirmation of social roles and identities in various Jewish milieus.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111201924
ISBN:: 9783111201924
ISBN:: 9783111202969
ISBN:: 9783111195537
Fachgebiet:: Jüdische Studien
Fachgebiet:: Jüdische Literatur
Fachgebiet:: Frühe jüdische Literatur
Fachgebiet:: Theologie und Religion
Fachgebiet:: Altes Testament / Altorientalistik
Fachgebiet:: Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen
Verlag:: De Gruyter

Buch 2022

Experiencing the Shepherd of Hermas

Angela Kim Harkins, Harry O. Maier

Band 10 in dieser Reihe

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The Shepherd of Hermas is one of the oldest and most well-attested Christian works. Its popularity arguably exceeded that of the canonical Gospels. Many early Christian thinkers regarded the Shepherd as authoritative and cited it in their own writings, even though its status as Scripture was controversial. The far-reaching influence of the Shepherd during the first few centuries is attested in part by the many languages in which it was copied: Latin, Ethiopic, Coptic, Middle Persian, and Georgian. The early dating and wide dissemination of the Shepherd of Hermas offers us access to a period when canonical boundaries were elastic. This volume treats religious experience in the Shepherd, a topic that has received little scholarly attention. It complements a growing body of literature that explores the text from social-historical perspectives. Leading scholars approach it from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, including critical literary theory, anthropology, cognitive science, affect theory, gender studies, intersectionality, and text reception. In doing so, they pose fresh questions to one of the most widely read texts in the early church, offering new insights to scholars and students alike.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110780741
ISBN:: 9783110780741
ISBN:: 9783110779547
ISBN:: 9783110780758
Fachgebiet:: Theologie und Religion
Fachgebiet:: Allgemeines und Rezeptionsgeschichte der Bibel
Fachgebiet:: Neues Testament
Fachgebiet:: Zeitgeschichte und Umwelt
Fachgebiet:: Patristik
Fachgebiet:: Altkirchliche Autoren
Verlag:: De Gruyter

Buch 2022

Unfamiliar Selves in the Hebrew Bible

Possession and Other Spirit Phenomena

Reed Carlson

Band 9 in dieser Reihe

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Spirit possession is more commonly associated with late Second Temple Jewish literature and the New Testament than it is with the Hebrew Bible. In Unfamiliar Selves in the Hebrew Bible, however, Reed Carlson argues that possession is also depicted in this earlier literature, though rarely according to the typical western paradigm. This new approach utilizes theoretical models developed by cultural anthropologists and ethnographers of contemporary possession-practicing communities in the global south and its diasporas. Carlson demonstrates how possession in the Bible is a corporate and cultivated practice that can function as social commentary and as a means to model the moral self.
The author treats a variety of spirit phenomena in the Hebrew Bible, including spirit language in the Psalms and Job, spirit empowerment in Judges and Samuel, and communal possession in the prophets. Carlson also surveys apotropaic texts and spirit myths in early Jewish literature—including the Dead Sea Scrolls. In this volume, two recent scholarly trends in biblical studies converge: investigations into notions of evil and of the self. The result is a synthesizing project, useful to biblical scholars and those of early Judaism and Christianity alike.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110670035
ISBN:: 9783110670035
ISBN:: 9783110670066
ISBN:: 9783110669343
Fachgebiet:: Jüdische Studien
Fachgebiet:: Jüdische Literatur
Fachgebiet:: Frühe jüdische Literatur
Fachgebiet:: Theologie und Religion
Fachgebiet:: Altes Testament / Altorientalistik
Fachgebiet:: Exegetische Untersuchungen, allgemein
Fachgebiet:: Judaistik
Fachgebiet:: Hellenistisch-römische Zeit
Verlag:: De Gruyter

Buch 2021

The Spirit Says

Inspiration and Interpretation in Israelite, Jewish, and Early Christian Texts

Ronald Herms, John R. Levison, Archie T. Wright

Band 8 in dieser Reihe

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The Spirit Says offers a stunning collection of articles by an influential assemblage of scholars, all of whom lend considerable insight to the relationship between inspiration and interpretation. They address this otherwise intractable question with deft and occasionally daring readings of a variety of texts from the ancient world, including—but not limited to—the scriptures of early Judaism and Christianity.

The thrust of this book can be summed up not so much in one question as in four:

o What is the role of revelation in the interpretation of Scripture?

o What might it look like for an author to be inspired?

o What motivates a claim to the inspired interpretation of Scripture?

o Who is inspired to interpret Scripture?

More often than not, these questions are submerged in this volume under the tame rubrics of exegesis and hermeneutics, but they rise in swells and surges too to the surface, not just occasionally but often. Combining an assortment of prominent voices, this book does not merely offer signposts along the way. It charts a pioneering path toward a model of interpretation that is at once intellectually robust and unmistakably inspired.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110689297
ISBN:: 9783110689297
ISBN:: 9783110689310
ISBN:: 9783110688214
Fachgebiet:: Jüdische Studien
Fachgebiet:: Jüdische Literatur
Fachgebiet:: Frühe jüdische Literatur
Fachgebiet:: Theologie und Religion
Fachgebiet:: Altes Testament / Altorientalistik
Fachgebiet:: Forschungsgeschichte, Methodik und Bibliographien
Fachgebiet:: Neues Testament
Fachgebiet:: Forschungsgeschichte, Methodik und Bibliographien
Verlag:: De Gruyter

Buch 2018

Apocalypticism and Mysticism in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity

John J. Collins, Pieter G. R. de Villiers, Adela Yarbro Collins

Band 7 in dieser Reihe

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The nature and origin of Jewish mysticism is a controversial subject.
This volume explores the subject by examining both the Hebrew and Aramaic tradition (Dead Sea Scrolls, 1 Enoch) and the Greek philosophical tradition (Philo) and also examines the Christian transformation of Jewish mysticism in Paul and Revelation. It provides for a nuanced treatment that differentiates different strands of thought that may be considered mystical. The Hebrew tradition is mythical in nature and concerned with various ways of being in the presence of God. The Greek tradition allows for a greater degree of unification and participation in the divine. The New Testament texts are generally closer to the Greek tradition, although Greek philosophy would have a huge effect on later Christian mysticism.
The book is intended for scholars and advanced students of ancient Judaism and early Christianity.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110597264
ISBN:: 9783110597264
ISBN:: 9783110591835
ISBN:: 9783110596922
Fachgebiet:: Jüdische Studien
Fachgebiet:: Jüdische Literatur
Fachgebiet:: Rezeption jüdischer Texte
Fachgebiet:: Theologie und Religion
Fachgebiet:: Altes Testament / Altorientalistik
Fachgebiet:: Rezeptions- und Wirkungsgeschichte
Fachgebiet:: Judaistik
Fachgebiet:: Hellenistisch-römische Zeit
Verlag:: De Gruyter

Buch 2016

Manipulating Theophany

Light and Ritual in North Adriatic Architecture (ca. 400–ca. 800)

Vladimir Ivanovici

Band 6 in dieser Reihe

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Using light as fil rouge reuniting theology and ritual with the architecture, decoration, and iconography of cultic spaces, the present study argues that the mise-en-scène of fifth-century baptism and sixth-century episcopal liturgy was meant to reproduce the luminous atmosphere of heaven. Analysing the material culture of the two sacraments against common ritual expectations and Christian theology, we evince the manner
in which the luminous effect was reached through a combination of constructive techniques and perceptual manipulation. One nocturnal and one diurnal, the two ceremonials represented different scenarios, testifying to the capacity of church builders and willingness of Late Antique bishops to stage the ritual experience in order to offer God to the senses.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110418088
ISBN:: 9783110418088
ISBN:: 9783110418187
ISBN:: 9783110376326
Fachgebiet:: Theologie und Religion
Fachgebiet:: Allgemeines und Rezeptionsgeschichte der Bibel
Fachgebiet:: Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters
Fachgebiet:: Religionswissenschaften
Fachgebiet:: Christentum
Verlag:: De Gruyter

Buch 2014

The Holy Spirit, Inspiration, and the Cultures of Antiquity

Multidisciplinary Perspectives

Jörg Frey, John Levison, Andrew Bowden

Band 5 in dieser Reihe

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Early Christian claims to the Holy Spirit arose in a vibrant cultural matrix that included Stoicism, Jewish mysticism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Greco-Roman medicine, and the perspectives of Plutarch. In a range of articles, this multidisciplinary volume discovers in these texts rich cultural connections related to inspiration and the Holy Spirit. Essential reading for scholars of Judaism and the New Testament, as well as classicists and theologians.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110310252
ISBN:: 978-3-11-031017-7
ISBN:: 978-3-11-031025-2
ISBN:: 9783110388305
ISBN:: 9783110552300
Fachgebiet:: Theologie und Religion
Fachgebiet:: Neues Testament
Fachgebiet:: Zeitgeschichte und Umwelt
Fachgebiet:: Exegetische Untersuchungen, allgemein
Verlag:: De Gruyter

Buch 2013

Second Temple Pseudepigraphy

A Cross-cultural Comparison of Apocalyptic Texts and Related Jewish Literature

Vicente Dobroruka

Band 4 in dieser Reihe

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At this point of the scholarly debate on the nature of Second Temple pseudepigraphy, one may ask why another look at the problem is needed. This book is not the definitive answer to that problem but it proposes different paths - or better still, a two-fold path: on one hand to understand Second Temple pseudepigraphy as a mystical experience and on the other, for lack of a suitable ancient example, to compare it to modern-day automatic writing.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110333787
ISBN:: 978-3-11-033354-1
ISBN:: 978-3-11-033378-7
Fachgebiet:: Theologie und Religion
Fachgebiet:: Altes Testament / Altorientalistik
Fachgebiet:: Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen
Verlag:: De Gruyter

Buch 2012

Reading with an "I" to the Heavens

Looking at the Qumran Hodayot through the Lens of Visionary Traditions

Angela Kim Harkins

Band 3 in dieser Reihe

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This book examines the collection of prayers known as the Qumran Hodayot (= Thanksgiving Hymns) in light of ancient visionary traditions, new developments in neuropsychology, and post-structuralist understandings of the embodied subject. The thesis of this book is that the ritualized reading of reports describing visionary experiences written in the first person "I" had the potential to create within the ancient reader the subjectivity of a visionary which can then predispose him to have a religious experience. This study examines how references to the body and the strategic arousal of emotions could have functioned within a practice of performative reading to engender a religious experience of ascent. In so doing, this book offers new interdisciplinary insights into meditative ritual reading as a religious practice for transformation in antiquity.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110251814
ISBN:: 978-3-11-025180-7
ISBN:: 978-3-11-025181-4
ISBN:: 9783110610857
Fachgebiet:: Philosophie
Fachgebiet:: Philosophische Anthropologie
Fachgebiet:: Theologie und Religion
Fachgebiet:: Altes Testament / Altorientalistik
Fachgebiet:: Rezeptions- und Wirkungsgeschichte
Fachgebiet:: Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen
Fachgebiet:: Judaistik
Fachgebiet:: Hellenistisch-römische Zeit
Verlag:: De Gruyter

Buch 2010

With Letters of Light

Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Early Jewish Apocalypticism, Magic, and Mysticism in Honor of Rachel Elior

Daphna V. Arbel, Andrei A. Orlov

Band 2 in dieser Reihe

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This collection of essays is a tribute to Rachel Elior’s decades of teaching, scholarship and mentoring. If a Festschrift reflects the individuality of the honoree, then this volume offers insights into the scope of Rachel Elior’s interests and scholarly achievements in the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish apocalypticism, magic, and mysticism from the Second Temple period to the later rabbinic and Hekhalot developments. The majority of articles included in the volume deal with Jewish and Christian apocalyptic and mystical texts constituting the core of experiential dimension of these religious traditions.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110222029
ISBN:: 978-3-11-022201-2
ISBN:: 978-3-11-022202-9
Fachgebiet:: Theologie und Religion
Fachgebiet:: Altes Testament / Altorientalistik
Fachgebiet:: Rezeptions- und Wirkungsgeschichte
Fachgebiet:: Neues Testament
Fachgebiet:: Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des NT
Fachgebiet:: Religionswissenschaften
Fachgebiet:: Antike Religionsgeschichte
Verlag:: De Gruyter

Buch 2009

Metamorphoses

Resurrection, Body and Transformative Practices in Early Christianity

Turid Karlsen Seim, Jorunn Økland

Band 1 in dieser Reihe

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How were ideas and experiences of transformation expressed in early Christianity and early Judaism? This volume explores the social and philosophical frameworks within which transformative ideas such as resurrection and practices of becoming “a new being” were shaped. It also explores the analogies and parameters by which transformation was being observed, noted and asserted. The focus on transformation helps to connect topics that tend to be studied separately, such as cosmology, resurrection, aging, gender, and conversion. The textual material is wide-ranging and there are new readings of core passages.

Ideas and experiences of transformations in early Christianity and early Judaism
Connects topics that tend to be studied seperately (cosmology, resurrection, aging, gender, conversion)
With wide-ranging textual material

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110202991
ISBN:: 978-3-11-020298-4
ISBN:: 978-3-11-020299-1
Fachgebiet:: Theologie und Religion
Fachgebiet:: Patristik
Fachgebiet:: Einführungen und Gesamtdarstellungen
Fachgebiet:: Judaistik
Fachgebiet:: Hellenistisch-römische Zeit
Fachgebiet:: Rabbinisches Judentum
Verlag:: De Gruyter