In 1931 Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote his famous Remarks on Frazer’s “Golden Bough.". At that time, anthropology and philosophy were in close contact—continental thinkers drew heavily on anthropology’s theoretical terms, like mana, taboo, and potlatch, in order to help them explore the limits of human belief and imagination. Now the book receives its first translation by an anthropologist, …
In Signs of the Wali, Dr Tommy Christomy focuses on the one of the early founders of Islam on Java, Shakyh Abdul Muhyi, whose burial site at Pamijahan in Tasikmalaya is a place of contemporary ziarah. This study initially conceived of as a philological exploration of historical manuscripts has been transformed into a study of ‘living manuscripts’ – the contemporary narratives of the custo…
The Struggle of the Shi‘is in Indonesia is a pioneering work. It is the first comprehensive scholarly examination in English of the development of Shiism in Indonesia. It focuses primarily on the important period between 1979 and 2004 – a period of nearly a quarter of a century that saw the notable dissemination of Shi’i ideas and a considerable expansion of the number of Shi’i adherent…
The region of the Middle East has been called the cradle of mankind. This volume studies historical, cultural, religious, social and political legacies, which play a central role in obstructing intercultural dialogue in the Middle East. The region became home to numerous cultures, religions and ethnicities with long experience of living together in a multicultural environment and has an immense…
This book reveals exciting early Christian evidence that Mary was remembered as a powerful role model for women leaders—women apostles, baptizers, and presiders at the ritual meal. Early Christian art portrays Mary and other women clergy serving as deacon, presbyter/priest, and bishop. In addition, the two oldest surviving artifacts to depict people at an altar table inside a real church dep…
This Special Issue is both experimental and comparative. It appropriates diverse disciplinary idioms from the distinctive fields our authors inhabit to focus on the ever-recurrent theme of the individual and the study of religion. Here the familiar topics of "belief", "practice" and "identity" come into conversation with each other from scholars in anthropology, sociology, African-American hist…
Islam in the Post-Secular Society: Religion, Secularity and the Antagonism of Recalcitrant Faith critically examines the unique challenges facing Muslims in Europe and North America. From the philosophical perspective of the Frankfurt School’s critical theory, this book attempts not only to diagnose the current problems stemming from a marginalization of Islam in the secular West, but also to…
The Lived Ancient Religion project has radically changed perspectives on ancient religions and their supposedly personal or public character. This volume applies and further develops these methodological tools, new perspectives and new questions. The religious transformations of the Roman Imperial period appear in new light and more nuances by comparative confrontation and the integration of ma…
In Experiments in Empathy: Critical Reflections on Interreligious Education, the contributors provide a roadmap for practicing and developing innovative ways to teach religion that promotes interfaith understanding and cooperation. Readership: All interested in interreligious education, interfaith movement, comparative theologies, religious education, religion and politics will find Experiments…
The Kakawin Ramayana, arguably the oldest Old Javanese epic text in Indic metres (circa 9th century AD), holds a unique position in the literary heritage of Indonesia. The poem has retained a remarkable vitality through the centuries in the Archipelago, inspiring many forms of artistic expression not only in the domain of literature but also in the visual and performing arts, from the reliefs o…
This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the history and development of the Latin New Testament and a user’s guide to the resources available for research and further study. The first five chapters offer a new historical synthesis, bringing together evidence from Christian authors and biblical manuscripts from earliest times to the late Middle Ages. Each witness is considered in its…
Ecritures digitales aims to demonstrate how digital writing, as new technology, contributes to the emergence of a reconfigured relationship between the human body and the machines, and how this transition influences the Jewish-Christian textual corpus referred to as “the Scriptures”. Ecritures digitales souhaite démontrer de quelle manière l’écriture digitale, en tant que nouvelle tech…
Cirebon; Rituals; Islam; Muslims; Indonesia
The purpose and aim of this book is to develop an appropriate leadership model for missional churches. This implies a positioning of this book within the broader theology of mission and a consensus on the theology of the Missio Dei, originating at the 1952 conference of the International Missionary Council in Willingen, Germany. In this approach to the theology of mission, mission is understood…
Socrates, Or On Human Knowledge, published in Venice in 1651, is the only work written by a Jew that contains so far the promise of a genuinely sceptical investigation into the validity of human certainties. Simone Luzzatto masterly developed this book as a pièce of theatre where Socrates, as main actor, has the task to demonstrate the limits and weaknesses of the human capacity to acquire kno…
In Architecture and Asceticism Loosley Leeming explores the links between Syria and Georgia in late antiquity. The book takes an inter-disciplinary approach and examines the question from archaeological, art historical, historical, literary and theological viewpoints. Readership: This work is aimed at specialists in Oriental and Eastern Christianity, Late Antique material culture, Syrian (and S…
Did King Alfred the Great commission the Old English translation of Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, probably the masterpiece of medieval Anglo-Latin Literature, as part of his famous program of translation to educate the Anglo-Saxons? Was the Old English Historia, by any chance, a political and religious manifesto for the emerging ‘Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons’? Do we deal w…
This volume is the first systematic scholarly study that analyses the complex relationship between history and religion. It considers religious groups as both producers of historical narratives and topics of historiography. From different disciplinary perspectives, the authors explore how religions are historicised. In so doing, they address the biases and elisions of current analytical and des…
The Handbook of Leaving Religion introduces a neglected field of research with the aim to outline previous and contemporary research, and suggest how the topic of leaving religion should be studied in the future. Readership: All interested in conversion, deconversion and apostasy processes, and anyone concerned with methodological and theoretical questions related to leaving or changing religion.
"The authors of the present volume, Myth, Materiality, and Lived Religion, focus on the material dimension of Old Norse mythology and the role played by myths in everyday life. More broadly expressed, the collection looks at the social, ceremonial and material contexts of myths. This topic has been underexplored in previous research on Old Norse myths, despite its important theoretical implicat…