Religion Science And Magic In Concert And In Conflict

Author : Jacob Neusner Professor of Religion University of South Florida,Ernest S. Frerichs Director Brown University Program in Judaic Studies,Paul Virgil McCracken Flesher Assistant Professor of the History and Literature of Religion Northwestern University
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 310 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 1989-06-01
Category : Christianity
ISBN : 9780199729333

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Religion, Science, and Magic : In Concert and in Conflict by Jacob Neusner Professor of Religion University of South Florida,Ernest S. Frerichs Director Brown University Program in Judaic Studies,Paul Virgil McCracken Flesher Assistant Professor of the History and Literature of Religion Northwestern University Pdf

Every culture makes the distinction between "true religion" and magic, regarding one action and its result as "miraculous," while rejecting another as the work of the devil. Surveying such topics as Babylonian witchcraft, Jesus the magician, magic in Hasidism and Kabbalah, and magic in Anglo-Saxon England, these ten essays provide a rigrous examination of the history of this distinction in Christianity and Judaism. Written by such distinguished scholars as Jacob Neusner, Hans Penner, Howard Kee, Tzvi Abusch, Susan R. Garrett, and Moshe Idel, the essays explore a broad range of topics, including how certain social groups sort out approved practices and beliefs from those that are disapproved--providing fresh insight into how groups define themselves; "magic" as an insider's term for the outsider's religion; and the tendency of religious traditions to exclude the magical. In addition the collection provides illuminating social, cultural, and anthropological explanations for the prominence of the magical in certain periods and literature.

Author : Jacob Neusner,Ernest S. Frerichs,Paul V. Flesher
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:472848620

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Religion Science and Magic by Jacob Neusner,Ernest S. Frerichs,Paul V. Flesher Pdf

Author : Jacob Neusner,Ernest S. Frerichs,Paul Virgil McCracken Flesher
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 307 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : Christianity
ISBN : 9780195079111

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Religion, Science, and Magic by Jacob Neusner,Ernest S. Frerichs,Paul Virgil McCracken Flesher Pdf

Every culture makes the distinction between "true religion" and magic, regarding one action and its result as "miraculous," while rejecting another as the work of the devil. Surveying such topics as Babylonian witchcraft, Jesus the magician, magic in Hasidism and Kabbalah, and magic in Anglo-Saxon England, these ten essays provide a rigorous examination of the history of this distinction in Christianity and Judaism. Written by such distinguished scholars as Jacob Neusner, Hans Penner, Howard Kee, Tzvi Abusch, Susan R. Garrett, and Moshe Idel, the essays explore a broad range of topics, including how certain social groups sort out approved practices and beliefs from those that are disapproved--providing fresh insight into how groups define themselves; "magic" as an insider's term for the outsider's religion; and the tendency of religious traditions to exclude the magical. In addition the collection provides illuminating social, cultural, and anthropological explanations for the prominence of the magical in certain periods and literatures.

Author : Paulos Gregorios
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2002-01-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0791452735

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Neoplatonism and Indian Philosophy by Paulos Gregorios Pdf

Explores connections between Neoplatonism and Indian philosophy.

Author : Randall Styers
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2004-01-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780190287924

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Making Magic by Randall Styers Pdf

Since the emergence of religious studies and the social sciences as academic disciplines, the concept of "magic" has played a major role in defining religion and in mediating the relation of religion to science. Across these disciplines, magic has regularly been configured as a definitively non-modern phenomenon, juxtaposed to distinctly modern models of religion and science. Yet this notion of magic has remained stubbornly amorphous. In Making Magic, Randall Styers seeks to account for the extraordinary vitality of scholarly discourse purporting to define and explain magic despite its failure to do just that. He argues that this persistence can best be explained in light of the Western drive to establish and secure distinctive norms for modern identity, norms based on narrow forms of instrumental rationality, industrious labor, rigidly defined sexual roles, and the containment of wayward forms of desire. Magic has served to designate a form of alterity or deviance against which dominant Western notions of appropriate religious piety, legitimate scientific rationality, and orderly social relations are brought into relief. Scholars have found magic an invaluable tool in their efforts to define the appropriate boundaries of religion and science. On a broader level, says Styers, magical thinking has served as an important foil for modernity itself. Debates over the nature of magic have offered a particularly rich site at which scholars have worked to define and to contest the nature of modernity and norms for life in the modern world.

Author : Allison P. Coudert
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 422 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2011-10-17
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9798216138112

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Religion, Magic, and Science in Early Modern Europe and America by Allison P. Coudert Pdf

This fascinating study looks at how the seemingly incompatible forces of science, magic, and religion came together in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries to form the foundations of modern culture. As Religion, Magic, and Science in Early Modern Europe and America makes clear, the early modern period was one of stark contrasts: witch burnings and the brilliant mathematical physics of Isaac Newton; John Locke's plea for tolerance and the palpable lack of it; the richness of intellectual and artistic life, and the poverty of material existence for all but a tiny percentage of the population. Yet, for all the poverty, insecurity, and superstition, the period produced a stunning galaxy of writers, artists, philosophers, and scientists. This book looks at the conditions that fomented the emergence of such outstanding talent, innovation, and invention in the period 1450 to 1800. It examines the interaction between religion, magic, and science during that time, the impossibility of clearly differentiating between the three, and the impact of these forces on the geniuses who laid the foundation for modern science and culture.

Author : David Gay,Stephen R. Reimer
Publisher : University of Alberta
Page : 225 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2010-07-30
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780888644992

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Locating the Past / Discovering the Present by David Gay,Stephen R. Reimer Pdf

Comparative, interdisciplinary examination of the production of religious ideas and images over time and place.

Author : Randall Styers
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2004-01-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0198037899

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Making Magic by Randall Styers Pdf

Since the emergence of religious studies and the social sciences as academic disciplines, the concept of "magic" has played a major role in defining religion and in mediating the relation of religion to science. Across these disciplines, magic has regularly been configured as a definitively non-modern phenomenon, juxtaposed to distinctly modern models of religion and science. Yet this notion of magic has remained stubbornly amorphous. In Making Magic, Randall Styers seeks to account for the extraordinary vitality of scholarly discourse purporting to define and explain magic despite its failure to do just that. He argues that this persistence can best be explained in light of the Western drive to establish and secure distinctive norms for modern identity, norms based on narrow forms of instrumental rationality, industrious labor, rigidly defined sexual roles, and the containment of wayward forms of desire. Magic has served to designate a form of alterity or deviance against which dominant Western notions of appropriate religious piety, legitimate scientific rationality, and orderly social relations are brought into relief. Scholars have found magic an invaluable tool in their efforts to define the appropriate boundaries of religion and science. On a broader level, says Styers, magical thinking has served as an important foil for modernity itself. Debates over the nature of magic have offered a particularly rich site at which scholars have worked to define and to contest the nature of modernity and norms for life in the modern world.

Author : Nicholas Russell
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 349 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780521113830

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Communicating Science by Nicholas Russell Pdf

Ideal for students and practitioners in science, engineering and medicine, this book gives an insight into science's place in society.

Author : Naomi Janowitz
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 161 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2002-09-11
Category : History
ISBN : 9781134633685

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Magic in the Roman World by Naomi Janowitz Pdf

A lively volume exploring the use and abuse of the word 'magic' in late antique texts.

Author : Helen L. Parish
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 409 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2014-11-20
Category : History
ISBN : 9781441100320

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Superstition and Magic in Early Modern Europe: A Reader by Helen L. Parish Pdf

Superstition and Magic in Early Modern Europe brings together a rich selection of essays which represent the most important historical research on religion, magic and superstition in early modern Europe. Each essay makes a significant contribution to the history of magic and religion in its own right, while together they demonstrate how debates over the topic have evolved over time, providing invaluable intellectual, historical, and socio-political context for readers approaching the subject for the first time. The essays are organised around five key themes and areas of controversy. Part One tackles superstition; Part Two, the tension between miracles and magic; Part Three, ghosts and apparitions; Part Four, witchcraft and witch trials; and Part Five, the gradual disintegration of the 'magical universe' in the face of scientific, religious and practical opposition. Each part is prefaced by an introduction that provides an outline of the historiography and engages with recent scholarship and debate, setting the context for the essays that follow and providing a foundation for further study. This collection is an invaluable toolkit for students of early modern Europe, providing both a focused overview and a springboard for broader thinking about the underlying continuities and discontinuities that make the study of magic and superstition a perennially fascinating topic.

Author : Michael Labahn,Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 226 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2007-02-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780567629555

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A Kind of Magic by Michael Labahn,Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte Pdf

This collection of articles by distinguished scholars and experts in their particular fields of research is introduced by a chapter dealing with general matters of the current hermeneutics of magic: what is the nature of magic and what is the understanding of magic in the Western world-view and what - for instance - in the African world? Centered around studies on Jesus and magic the second part contains studies on the use of the term "magic" in the New Testament and especially in Acts. The third section broadens the understanding of magic through selected case studies in different approaches to magic in the environment and background of the New Testament (Old Testament, Qumran, Apuleius, Women as Magicians). Early Christianity subsequent to the New Testament develops its own view of magic, criticizing pagan magic but not being uninfluenced by magic or magic-like practices. This development is part of the fourth and last chapter of the collection along with two different papers on the possible use of Jewish and Christian themes in later magical texts. The collection explores the importance of magic within Early Christianity, an issue shared with its Old Testament and Jewish roots and with its ancient background, implying reluctance and critique. Both magical traits and the critique of non-Christian magic have an impact on later scripture and still exert influence now on modern theoretical discussion and popular ideas.

Author : Frederick W. Schmidt
Publisher : Church Publishing, Inc.
Page : 147 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2001-11
Category : Family & Relationships
ISBN : 9780819218292

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When Suffering Persists by Frederick W. Schmidt Pdf

In "When Suffering Persists", the author offers an accessible and pastoral exploration of theological understandings of suffering that ministers to both mind and spirit. He re-examines the generic comfort offered by many answers and the social and theological explanations that people offer one another, and provides a theology that takes seriously the devastating character of suffering.

Author : Todd Klutz
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 278 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2004-03-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780567318015

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Magic in the Biblical World by Todd Klutz Pdf

The category 'magic' , long used to signify an allegedly substantive type of activity distinguishable from 'religion', has nearly been dismantled by recent historical and social-scientific approaches to religious studies. While recognising and at times reinforcing this stance, the essays in this collection show that there is still much to be learned about the cultural context of early Judaism and Christianity by analysing ancient texts which either use 'magic' as a category for purposes of deviance labelling or promote behaviour of a broadly magico-religious variety. Through sustained engagement with texts ranging from Exod. 7-9 and Acts 8 to the Testament of Solomon and the Late Antique alchemical treatise known as the Cyranides, this volume focuses chiefly on materials that challenge the familiar boundaries between miracle and magic and medicine; yet it also heightens awareness of the way unsuspecting use of a sick sign (e.g. 'magic') can impede critical understanding of texts and their respective contexts of production and reception. Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series, Volume 245.

Author : Scott Shauf
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
Page : 389 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2012-02-13
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9783110906202

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Theology as History, History as Theology by Scott Shauf Pdf

This monograph explores the theology of the Acts of the Apostles while taking seriously the status of the writing as ancient historiography: What does it mean to speak of theology in a historiographical work? How can this theology be apprehended? What does this theology have to do with the overall character of the writing and with how the writing functioned for its original audience? Acts 19 is both, case study and source to generate the answers.