Practicing Gnosis

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Practicing Gnosis

April DeConick,Gregory Shaw,John D. Turner
Practicing Gnosis Book PDF

Author : April DeConick,Gregory Shaw,John D. Turner
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 581 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2013-08-22
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789004248526

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Practicing Gnosis by April DeConick,Gregory Shaw,John D. Turner Pdf

Ritual, magic, liturgy, and theurgy were central features of Gnosticism, and yet Gnostic practices remain understudied. This anthology is meant to fill in this gap and address more fully what the ancient Gnostics were doing. While previously we have studied the Gnostics as intellectuals in pursuit of metaphysical knowledge, the essays in this book attempt to understand the Gnostics as ecstatics striving after religious experience, as prophets seeking revelation, as mystics questing after the ultimate God, as healers attempting to care for the sick and diseased. These essays demonstrate that the Gnostics were not necessarily trendy intellectuals seeking epistomological certainities. They were after religious experiences that relied on practices. The book is organized comparatively in a history-of-religions approach with sections devoted to Initiatory, Recurrent, Therapeutic, Ecstatic, and Philosophic Practices. This book celebrates the brilliant career of Birger A. Pearson.

Theurgy: Theory and Practice

P. D. Newman
Theurgy Theory and Practice Book PDF

Author : P. D. Newman
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 172 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2023-12-05
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 9781644118375

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Theurgy: Theory and Practice by P. D. Newman Pdf

Connects the magical practice of theurgy to the time of Homer • Explores the many theurgic themes and events in the Odyssey and the Iliad • Analyzes the writings of Neoplatonists Porphyry and Proclus, showing how both describe the technical ritual praxis of theurgy in Homeric terms • Examines the methods of telestikē, a form of theurgic statue animation and technique to divinize the soul, and how theurgy is akin to shamanic soul flight First defined by the second century Chaldean Oracles, theurgy is an ancient magic practice whereby practitioners divinized the soul and achieved mystical union with a deity, the Demiurge, or the One. In this detailed study, P. D. Newman pushes the roots of theurgy all the way back before the time of Homer. He shows how the Chaldean Oracles were not only written in Homeric Greek but also in dactylic hexameter, the same meter as the epics of Homer. Linking the Greek shamanic practices of the late Archaic period with the theurgic rites of late antiquity, the author explains how both anabasis, soul ascent, and katabasis, soul descent, can be considered varieties of shamanic soul flight and how these practices existed in ancient Greek culture prior to the influx of shamanic influence from Thrace and the Hyperborean North. The author explores the many theurgic themes and symbolic events in the Odyssey and the Iliad, including the famous journey of Odysseus to Hades and the incident of the funeral pyre of Patroclus. He presents a close analysis of On the Cave of the Nymphs, Porphyry’s commentary on Homer’s Odyssey, as well as a detailed look at Proclus’s symbolic reading of Homer’s Iliad, showing how both of these Neoplatonists describe the philosophical theory and the technical ritual praxis of theurgy. Using the Chaldean Oracles as a case study, Newman examines in detail the methods of telestikē, a form of theurgic statue animation, linking this practice to ancient Egyptian and Greek traditions as well as theurgic techniques to divinize the soul. Revealing how the theurgic arts are far older than the second century, Newman’s study not only examines the philosophical theory of theurgy but also the actual ritual practices of the theurgists, as described in their own words.

The Gnostic New Age

April D. DeConick
The Gnostic New Age Book PDF

Author : April D. DeConick
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 515 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2016-09-27
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780231542043

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The Gnostic New Age by April D. DeConick Pdf

Gnosticism is a countercultural spirituality that forever changed the practice of Christianity. Before it emerged in the second century, passage to the afterlife required obedience to God and king. Gnosticism proposed that human beings were manifestations of the divine, unsettling the hierarchical foundations of the ancient world. Subversive and revolutionary, Gnostics taught that prayer and mediation could bring human beings into an ecstatic spiritual union with a transcendent deity. This mystical strain affected not just Christianity but many other religions, and it characterizes our understanding of the purpose and meaning of religion today. In The Gnostic New Age, April D. DeConick recovers this vibrant underground history to prove that Gnosticism was not suppressed or defeated by the Catholic Church long ago, nor was the movement a fabrication to justify the violent repression of alternative forms of Christianity. Gnosticism alleviated human suffering, soothing feelings of existential brokenness and alienation through the promise of renewal as God. DeConick begins in ancient Egypt and follows with the rise of Gnosticism in the Middle Ages, the advent of theosophy and other occult movements in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and contemporary New Age spiritual philosophies. As these theories find expression in science-fiction and fantasy films, DeConick sees evidence of Gnosticism's next incarnation. Her work emphasizes the universal, countercultural appeal of a movement that embodies much more than a simple challenge to religious authority.

Various Aspects of Worship in Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature

Géza G. Xeravits,József Zsengellér,Ibolya Balla
Various Aspects of Worship in Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Book PDF

Author : Géza G. Xeravits,József Zsengellér,Ibolya Balla
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 468 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2017-06-26
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9783110467406

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Various Aspects of Worship in Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature by Géza G. Xeravits,József Zsengellér,Ibolya Balla Pdf

The volume contains papers read at the International Conference of the ISDCL, held in Budapest in 2015. The contributors explore various aspects of worship as reflected in the literature of Judaism from the Second Temple period to Late Antiquity. The volume provides a fresh reading of various crucial issues especially within Old Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Rabbinic literature, Gnostic traditions, and the emerging synagogue. The papers analyse texts and artefacts that reveal how various groups of Judaism understood the concept of worship—a pre-eminent form of expressing religious identity and interpreting fundamental traditions.

The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy

Hugh B. Urban,Paul Christopher Johnson
The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy Book PDF

Author : Hugh B. Urban,Paul Christopher Johnson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 621 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2022-03-29
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781000556186

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The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy by Hugh B. Urban,Paul Christopher Johnson Pdf

Secrecy is a central and integral component of all religious traditions. Not limited simply to religious groups that engage in clandestine activities such as hidden rites of initiation or terrorism, secrecy is inherent in the very fabric of religion itself. Its importance has perhaps never been more acutely relevant than in our own historical moment. In the wake of 9/11 and other acts of religious violence, we see the rise of invasive national security states that target religious minorities and pose profound challenges to the ideals of privacy and religious freedom, accompanied by the resistance by many communities to such efforts. As such, questions of secrecy, privacy, surveillance, and security are among the most central and contested issues of twenty-first century religious life. The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy is the definitive reference source for the key topics, problems, and debates in this crucial field and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising twenty-nine chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into five parts: Configurations of Religious Secrecy: Conceptual and Comparative Frameworks Secrecy as Religious Practice Secrecy and the Politics of the Present Secrecy and Social Resistance Secrecy, Terrorism, and Surveillance. This cutting-edge volume discusses secrecy in relation to major categories of religious experience and individual religious practices while also examining the transformations of secrecy in the modern period, including the rise of fraternal orders, the ongoing wars on terror, the rise of far-right white supremacist groups, increasing concerns over religious freedom and privacy, the role of the internet in the spread and surveillance of such groups, and the resistance to surveillance by many indigenous and diasporic communities. The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, comparative religion, new religious movements, and religion and politics. It will be equally central to debates in the related disciplines of sociology, anthropology, political science, security studies and cultural studies.

The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual

Lewis Ayres,H. Clifton Ward
The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual Book PDF

Author : Lewis Ayres,H. Clifton Ward
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 342 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2020-05-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9783110608007

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The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual by Lewis Ayres,H. Clifton Ward Pdf

The study of the growth of early Christian intellectual life is of perennial interest to scholars. This volume advances discussion by exploring ways in which Christian writers in the second century did not so much draw on Hellenistic intellectual traditions and models, as they were inevitably embedded in those traditions. The volume contains papers from a seminar in Rome in 2016 that explored the nature and activity of the emergent Christian intellectual between the late first century and the early third century. The papers show that Hellenistic scholarly cultures were the milieu within which Christian modes of thinking developed. At the same time the essays show how Christian thinkers made use of the cultures of which they were part in distinctive ways, adapting existing traditions because of Christian beliefs and needs. The figures studied include Papias from the early part of the second-century, Tatian, Irenaeus, and Clement of Alexandria from the later second century. One paper on Eusebius of Caesarea explores the Christian adaptation of Hellenistic scholarly methods of commentary. Christian figures are studied in the light of debates within Classics and Jewish studies.

T&T Clark Handbook to Early Christian Meals in the Greco-Roman World

Soham Al-Suadi,Peter-Ben Smit
T T Clark Handbook to Early Christian Meals in the Greco Roman World Book PDF

Author : Soham Al-Suadi,Peter-Ben Smit
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2019-02-21
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780567669322

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T&T Clark Handbook to Early Christian Meals in the Greco-Roman World by Soham Al-Suadi,Peter-Ben Smit Pdf

This handbook situates early Christian meals in their broader context, with a focus on the core topics that aid understanding of Greco-Roman meal practice, and how this relates to Christian origins. In addition to looking at the broader Hellenistic context, the contributors explain the unique nature of Christian meals, and what they reveal about early Christian communities and the development of Christian identity. Beginning with Hellenistic documents and authors before moving on to the New Testament material itself, according to genre - Gospels, Acts, Letters, Apocalyptic Literature - the handbook culminates with a section on the wider resources that describe daily life in the period, such as medical documents and inscriptions. The literary, historical, theological and philosophical aspects of these resources are also considered, including such aspects as the role of gender during meals; issues of monotheism and polytheism that arise from the structure of the meal; how sacrifice is understood in different meal practices; power dynamics during the meal and issues of inclusion and exclusion at meals.

Early Christianity in Alexandria

M. David Litwa
Early Christianity in Alexandria Book PDF

Author : M. David Litwa
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2023-12-21
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781009449557

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Early Christianity in Alexandria by M. David Litwa Pdf

Utilizing the Nag Hammadi codices and early Christian writings, this book explores the earliest development of Christianity in Alexandria.

Desiring Divinity

M. David Litwa
Desiring Divinity Book PDF

Author : M. David Litwa
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2016-10-03
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780190467173

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Desiring Divinity by M. David Litwa Pdf

Perhaps no declaration incites more theological and moral outrage than a human's claim to be divine. Those who make this claim in ancient Jewish and Christian mythology are typically represented as the most hubristic and dangerous tyrants. Their horrible punishments are predictable and still serve as morality tales in religious communities today. But not all self-deifiers are saddled with pride and fated to fall. Some who claimed divinity stated a simple and direct truth. Though reviled on earth, misunderstood, and even killed, they received vindication and rose to the stars. This book tells the stories of six self-deifiers in their historical, social, and ideological contexts. In the history of interpretation, the initial three figures have been demonized as cosmic rebels: the first human Adam, Lucifer (later identified with Satan), and Yaldabaoth in gnostic mythology. By contrast, the final three have served as positive models for deification and divine favor: Jesus in the gospel of John, Simon of Samaria, and Allogenes in the Nag Hammadi library. In the end, the line separating demonization from deification is dangerously thin, drawn as it is by the unsteady hand of human valuation.

Tantric Buddhist Practice in India

Anthony Tribe
Tantric Buddhist Practice in India Book PDF

Author : Anthony Tribe
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 432 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2016-06-03
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781317230854

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Tantric Buddhist Practice in India by Anthony Tribe Pdf

Using a commentary on the influential text, the Mañjuśrī-nāmasaṃgīti, ‘The Chanting of the Names of Mañjuśrī’, this book deals with Buddhist tantric meditation practice and its doctrinal context in early-medieval India. The commentary was written by the 8th-9th century Indian tantric scholar Vilāsavajra, and the book contains a translation of the first five chapters. The translation is extensively annotated, and accompanied by introductions as well as a critical edition of the Sanskrit text based on eight Sanskrit manuscripts and two blockprint editions of the commentary’s Tibetan translation. The commentary interprets its root text within an elaborate framework of tantric visualisation and meditation that is based on an expanded form of the Buddhist Yoga Tantra mandala, the Vajradhātu-maṇḍala. At its heart is the figure of Mañjuśrī, no longer the familiar bodhisattva of wisdom, but now the embodiment of the awakened non-dual gnosis that underlies all Buddhas as well their activity in the cosmos. The book contributes to our understanding of the history of Indian tantric Buddhism in a period of significant change and innovation. With its extensively annotated translation and lengthy introductions the book is designed to appeal not only to professional scholars and research students but also to contemporary Buddhists.

T&T Clark Handbook of the Early Church

Ilaria L.E. Ramelli,J.A. McGuckin,Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski
T T Clark Handbook of the Early Church Book PDF

Author : Ilaria L.E. Ramelli,J.A. McGuckin,Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 744 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2021-12-16
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780567680402

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T&T Clark Handbook of the Early Church by Ilaria L.E. Ramelli,J.A. McGuckin,Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski Pdf

Exploring the key documents, authors and themes of Early Christian traditions, this volume traces the vital trajectories of emerging distinctive Christian identity in the Graeco-Roman world. Special attention is given to the coherent growth of Christian faith in connection with worship, alongside the crucial transformation of Christian life and doctrine under the Christian Emperors. As well as offering a chronological development of the Early Church, the book examines the interaction between Christian worship and faith. In addition, readers interested in systematic theology can refer to chapters on the roots of some significant theological notions in Christian Antiquity, also with reference to ancient philosophy. Issues addressed include: · Distinctiveness of the Christian identity during the first centuries · Diversity of communities and their theologies · Connection between faith and worship · Transition from the persecuted minority to triumphant Church with Creeds · History of early Christian thought and modern systematic theology

Plutarch’s Religious Landscapes

Anonim
Plutarch s Religious Landscapes Book PDF

Author : Anonim
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 408 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2020-11-23
Category : History
ISBN : 9789004443549

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Plutarch’s Religious Landscapes by Anonim Pdf

The polygraph from Chaeronea includes in Moralia and Lives a wide range of interesting views on religious and philosophical matters: philosophical theology, cult, ethics, politics, natural sciences, hermeneutics, atheism, and the afterlife. The essays included in Plutarch’s Religious Landscapes offer a glance into these views.

Tantra in Practice

David Gordon White
Tantra in Practice Book PDF

Author : David Gordon White
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 661 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2018-06-26
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780691190457

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Tantra in Practice by David Gordon White Pdf

As David White explains in the Introduction to Tantra in Practice, Tantra is an Asian body of beliefs and practices that seeks to channel the divine energy that grounds the universe, in creative and liberating ways. The subsequent chapters reflect the wide geographical and temporal scope of Tantra by examining thirty-six texts from China, India, Japan, Nepal, and Tibet, ranging from the seventh century to the present day, and representing the full range of Tantric experience--Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and even Islamic. Each text has been chosen and translated, often for the first time, by an international expert in the field who also provides detailed background material. Students of Asian religions and general readers alike will find the book rich and informative. The book includes plays, transcribed interviews, poetry, parodies, inscriptions, instructional texts, scriptures, philosophical conjectures, dreams, and astronomical speculations, each text illustrating one of the diverse traditions and practices of Tantra. Thus, the nineteenth-century Indian Buddhist Garland of Gems, a series of songs, warns against the illusion of appearance by referring to bees, yogurt, and the fire of Malaya Mountain; while fourteenth-century Chinese Buddhist manuscripts detail how to prosper through the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper by burning incense, making offerings to scriptures, and chanting incantations. In a transcribed conversation, a modern Hindu priest in Bengal candidly explains how he serves the black Goddess Kali and feeds temple skulls lentils, wine, or rice; a seventeenth-century Nepalese Hindu praise-poem hammered into the golden doors to the temple of the Goddess Taleju lists a king's faults and begs her forgiveness and grace. An introduction accompanies each text, identifying its period and genre, discussing the history and influence of the work, and identifying points of particular interest or difficulty. The first book to bring together texts from the entire range of Tantric phenomena, Tantra in Practice continues the Princeton Readings in Religions series. The breadth of work included, geographic areas spanned, and expert scholarship highlighting each piece serve to expand our understanding of what it means to practice Tantra.

The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology

Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum
The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology Book PDF

Author : Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 599 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2015-11-02
Category : History
ISBN : 9789004306219

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The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology by Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum Pdf

In her wide-ranging study The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology, Dorian Greenbaum explores the daimon and astrology’s connections to fate, mythology, philosophy; Greek, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Gnostic and Mithraic religion; the doctrine of lots and allotment; concepts of fortune, love and necessity.

A Companion to Religion in Late Antiquity

Josef Lössl,Nicholas J. Baker-Brian
A Companion to Religion in Late Antiquity Book PDF

Author : Josef Lössl,Nicholas J. Baker-Brian
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 711 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2018-05-22
Category : History
ISBN : 9781118968109

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A Companion to Religion in Late Antiquity by Josef Lössl,Nicholas J. Baker-Brian Pdf

A comprehensive review of the development, geographic spread, and cultural influence of religion in Late Antiquity A Companion to Religion in Late Antiquity offers an authoritative and comprehensive survey of religion in Late Antiquity. This historical era spanned from the second century to the eighth century of the Common Era. With contributions from leading scholars in the field, the Companion explores the evolution and development of religion and the role various religions played in the cultural, political, and social transformations of the late antique period. The authors examine the theories and methods used in the study of religion during this period, consider the most notable historical developments, and reveal how religions spread geographically. The authors also review the major religious traditions that emerged in Late Antiquity and include reflections on the interaction of these religions within their particular societies and cultures. This important Companion: Brings together in one volume the work of a notable team of international scholars Explores the principal geographical divisions of the late antique world Offers a deep examination of the predominant religions of Late Antiquity Examines established views in the scholarly assessment of the religions of Late Antiquity Includes information on the current trends in late-antique scholarship on religion Written for scholars and students of religion, A Companion to Religion in Late Antiquity offers a comprehensive survey of religion and the influence religion played in the culture, politics, and social change during the late antique period.