Ancient religions and Mythologies Books

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisUncover the elusive spark that permeates all things, awaken your psychic senses, and tap into your creativity with the help of nature, magic, and the spirit world. Using philosophy, science, and experiential learning, Wonderment encourages you to embark on a journey of profound spiritual change. Author and travel journalist Amber C. Snider uses her personal journey as a framework to explore the link between esoteric concepts and spiritual experiences. Demonstrated through stories from New York City, Ireland, Hawaii, and other exciting locations, Amber helps you unlock your divine potential with tools like shadow work, smoke cleansing, color magic, and past-life regression hypnosis. This book?s insights on spellwork, chakras, Goddess worship, and other practices will rekindle your curiosity and inspire a deeply fulfilling life.

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Book SynopsisWe use the word Celtic' fast and loose it evokes something mythical and romantic about our past but what exactly does it mean? Furthermore, why do people believe that there were Celts in Britain and what relationship do they have to the ancient Celts? This fascinating book focuses particularly on how the Celts were re-invented in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and how the legacy of mistaken interpretations still affects the way we understand the ancient sources and archaeological evidence.Table of ContentsJohn Collis is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield, and is the leading British authority on the European Iron Age.

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Book Synopsis 20 notecards packaged in a magnetic-closure box, featuring the stunning illustrated plates from the 75th Anniversary edition of Mythology by Edith Hamilton.   Send written tales of love and adventure--or maybe just a short note--with this epic collection of 20 notecards illustrated with portraits and scenes of the gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines of Greek, Roman, and Norse Mythology. MYTHOLOGY NOTECARDS features 5 full-color illustrations specially commissioned and drawn for the 75th anniversary edition of the bestselling classic Mythology by Edith Hamilton, which has sold millions of copies throughout the world.   This set includes: 20 full-color matte-finish notecards (4 each of 5 designs). 20 full-color envelopes, printed on wood-free paper. Magnetic-closure box

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Book SynopsisA retelling of the stories of classical mythology by folklorist and historian, Helene Adeline Guerber.

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Book SynopsisHarness the power of lunar magic with 13 essential practices for the modern witch?one for each New Moon of the yearFresh, fierce, and unapologetically feminist, thisis both guidebook and rallying cry: an intersectional and inclusive magical praxis that resists, disrupts, and opens the door to nourishment, abundance, and transformation?for readers of Psychic Witch and The Spell Book for New WitchesIn New Moon Magic, Missing Witches authors Risa Dickens and Amy Torok offer Witchy practices to change your life and reshape the world, without falling prey to the commercialization that belies the true heart?and power?of magic.Witchcraft is praxis: how we do what we believe, and how we make those beliefs manifest. New Moon Magic is an offering to all witches, honoring the Craft?s roots in centuries of empowerment, survival, and resistance?despite capitalism?s attempts to co-opt and dilute its practice.Here, Dickens and Torok reclaim tools of witchcraft as the ways and means of enchantment, imbued with magic that resists commodification and capitalism. The authors introduce 13 New Moon practices, each paired with a Witch who embodies the Craft:Potions with Cerridwen andSt. Hildegard von BingenDivination with Lozen and Harriet TubmanThe Garden with Mayumi OdaRitual & Ceremony with GenesisP-OrridgeThe Circle with Audre LordeThrough historical research, interviews, and the authors? own raw personal stories, New Moon Magic offers wisdom and guidance from real Witches past and present. It shows you how to take up tools and practices, discover (or rediscover) your own magic, and nurture a Witchcraft that creates instead of consumes.

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Book SynopsisThis book describes and analyses the writings and records compiled by the notable linguist, T.G.H. Strehlow (1908-1978), on Australian Aboriginal religions, particularly as practised by the Arrernte of the central desert region. During numerous research trips between 1932 and 1966, the local Indigenous Arrernte Elders entrusted him with sacred objects, allowed him to film their secret rituals and record their songs, partly because he was regarded as one of them, an `insider’, who they believed would help preserve their ancient traditions in the face of threats posed by outside forces. Strehlow characterised Arrernte society as `personal monototemism in a polytotemic community’. This concept provides an important insight into understanding how Arrernte society was traditionally organised and how the societal structure was re-enforced by carefully organised rituals. Strehlow’s research into this complex societal system is here examined both in terms of its meaning and current application and with reference to how the societal structure traditionally was interwoven into religious understandings of the world. It exemplifies precisely how the `insider-outsider’ problem is embodied in one individual: he was accepted by the Arrernte people as an insider who used this knowledge to interpret Arrernte culture for non-Indigenous audiences (outsiders). The volume documents how Strehlow’s works are contributing to the current repatriation by Australian Aboriginal leaders of rituals, ancient songs, meanings associated with sacred objects and genealogies, much of which by the 1950s had been lost through the processes of colonisation, missionary influences and Australian governmental interference in the lives of Indigenous societies.Table of ContentsPreface Chapter One: The Context: Central Australia, T.G.H. Strehlow and His Detractors Chapter Two: Restoring the Chain of Memory: A Theory of Religion and Indigenous Religions Chapter Three: Eternity: Arrernte Myths of Creation Chapter Four: Personal Monototemism in a Polytotemic Community Chapter Five: Songs of Central Australia Chapter Six: `One Hour Before Sunset’: The Loss of Indigenous Religious Knowledge Chapter Seven: Strehlow the `Insider’ as a Phenomenologist of Religion Chapter Eight: T.G.H. Strehlow and the Repatriation of Knowledge in Central Australia Chapter Nine: Knowledge, Tradition and Authority

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Book SynopsisToday, conversion is a contested religious, political, and personal phenomenon, and that was also the case in the ancient world. Using several primary sources (Jewish and Christian) and case studies, this volume discusses what this change could have meant for various individuals or groups of people in the ancient world and argues that conversion can best be understood through an intersectional perspective, an approach that includes gender, class, ethnicity, and age, as well as political and economic elements in its analysis of conversion. The volume also acknowledges that a discussion of conversion benefits from taking into account conversion's history of reception. Case studies from the reception history as well as contemporary examples of contested conversions (for example, from Christianity to Islam or vice versa) are also brought to the table. In sum, the book addresses the complexity of conversion, using a range of cases, texts and theories, and initiates a dialogue between ancient sources and present concepts or practices. Close readings of ancient texts play a central role in the project. Yet, the book also considers how sacred texts and their receptions have influenced the way we generally think about conversation as religious change.Table of Contents1. What Is So Complex About Conversion? Marianne Bjelland Kartzow and Valérie Nicolet 2. Shedding Religious Skin: An Intersectional Analysis of the Claim that Male Circumcision Limits Religious Freedom Karin B. Neutel, University of Oslo 3. Complex Interactions: Conversion and Interreligious Dialogue in the Norwegian Context Anne Hege Grung, University of Oslo 4. Conversion in Mystery Religions? Theory Meets Mysteries and Conversion Gerhard van den Heever, University of South Africa 5. “Leap, Ye, Lame for Joy”: The Dynamics of Disability in Conversion Anna Rebecca Solevåg, VID Specialized University, Stavanger, Norway 6. Reading a Complex Identity in Conversion: Interpretations of the Ethiopian Eunuch Minna Heimola, Independent Scholar 7. Creating a New Sex: Women Bodies in Conversion Valérie Nicolet 8. Conversion in/to the Wilderness: The Case of the Egyptian Slave Girl Hagar in Early Christian and Jewish Texts Marianne Bjelland Kartzow 9. The Complexity of Aseneth’s Transformation Kirsten Marie Hartvigsen, University of Oslo 10. Leaving the Traditions of the Fathers: Perspectives on Conversion from a Christianity That Did Not Survive Kristine Toft Rosland, University of South-Eastern Norway / University of Oslo 11. Spatial Conversion and Christian Identity in Late Antiquity Anna Lampadaridi, Institut Protestant de Théologie (Paris) 12. Concluding Remarks Valérie Nicolet

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Book SynopsisSince the mid-twentieth century, religious movements identifying themselves as Paganism, shamanism, native faiths and others have experimented with two forms of indigeneity. One arises from claims to be reviving or re-presenting previously hidden religious practices from ancestral or pre-Christian times. The other form of indigeneity is found in lessons learnt (directly or indirectly) from Indigenous peoples (especially Native Americans and/or Siberians). In the last decade in particular these two trends have sometimes fused in what we call "indigenizing movements". This book tests the interpretive and methodological value of this. "Indigenizing" was coined by Paul C. Johnson in a discussion of lowland South American and Caribbean religious traditions as the opposite end of a continuum from "universalizing". The continuum recognises tendencies to emphasise resonance with and relevance to local and ancestral traditions (indigenizing) and tendencies to stress universality or global engagement. These need not be dualistically opposed and are most likely to be matters of stress. Those who conceive of themselves and their cultures as maintaining and enhancing discrete ethnic, cultural or religious communities may represent one trajectory. Others not only assert that they have something to say to the rest of the world but may also seek to revise "local ancestral" traditions in the light of more global traditions. We might recognise a tension here between "Indigenous" and "World" religions but the contributors to this volume contest the value of that categorisation of what are, in reality, more dynamic and fluid realities. The chapters test a differently conceived tension: that between indigenizing and universalizing. This experimentation is propelled by examining European originated movements in which engagements with Indigenous animistic, shamanistic or "nature venerating" traditions are employed in self-conceptions and in the discourses of identity formation, maintenance and dissemination. Seven main chapters test aspects of our key theme by focusing on specific movements or phenomena. These are followed by a responsive afterword considering the effects of applying a notion coined for the critical examination of Indigenous South American and Caribbean religions to the different context of European movements. The book aims to enhance understanding and enrich debate not only about evolving European movements but also about the concept and practice of Indigeneity, indigenizing and of scholarly practices in relation to such phenomena.

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Book SynopsisHumans throughout history have sought ways of understanding their place within the world. Religion, science and myth have been at the forefront of this quest for meaning. A Chaos of Delight examines how various cultures – from the early Sumerians, Egyptians and Greeks to contemporary Western society – have looked at the same phenomena and devised totally different world views. The rise of modern science is examined, alongside questions of evolution and the origins of life. This comprehensive volume is an essential read for students and scholars interested in the history of ideas and the role of religion, science and myth in the development of Western thought.Trade Review"A remarkable panorama of the human understanding of the natural and metaphysical world from the first civilizations to the present day." John Baines, University of Oxford, UK"Breathtaking in its daring, the book explores the two ways which humanity has used to seek meaning and make sense of the world, namely religion and science. The result is a highly erudite summary of belief systems from early Sumerian to the monotheistic religions; and an eminently accessible history of science, particularly of the last 500 years." Sir Gustav Nossal, University of Sydney, Australia"It is definitely useful for teachers and students wanting to make a quick introductory acquaintance with decisive developments in modern science and a brief overview of mythopoetic and religious systems of thought in the West." Studies in Religion/Sciences ReligieusesTable of ContentsPreface 1. Science, Religion and Myth: Making Sense of the World 2. The Sumerians: Life among the Gods 3. Ancient Egyptians: Optimism and Opportunity 4. The Presocratics: From Myth to Reason 5. Classical Greece: Different Roads to Truth 6. Early Christianity: The Historical Road to One God 7. Medieval Christendom: Faith and Reason 8. Triumphant Rise of Western Science 9. The Big Bang: Starlight to Superstrings 10. Origins of Life: Molecules to Machines 11. Humankind's Evolutionary Origins and Emergence of Mind 12. Tradition at the Crossroads: Seeking Harmony in Diversity

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Book SynopsisConjures the consciousness of Mexico, evoking the dreams that made and unmade an ancient culture. This book takes readers into the dream that was the religion of the Aztecs, a religion whose own apocalyptic visions anticipated the coming of the Spanish conquerors.Trade Review"We are lucky to have in Le Clezio a writer of great quality who brings his particular sensibility and talent here to remind us of the very nature of the rituals and myths of the civilizations of ancient Mexico; he provides us with descriptions as precise as they are mysterious." - Le Figaro "Le Clezio is an author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization." - from the Nobel Prize citation "A compelling overview of Amerindian cosmology and religion.... Le Clezio prospects the long textual tradition, ranging from the early soldier-chronicler, Bernal Diaz, to his fellow Frenchman, Antonin Artaud, in order to chart the rich territories of 'Mesoamerican classicism.'" - New York Times Book Review"Table of ContentsTranslator's Note1. The Dream of the Conquerors2. The Dream of Origins3. Mexican Myths4. Nezahualcoyotl, or the Festival of Words5. The Barbarian Dream6. Antonin Artaud, or the Mexican Dream7. The Interrupted Thought of Amerindian CivilizationsNotesMap of region

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Book SynopsisNine short essays exploring the K'iche' Maya story of creation, the Popol Vuh. Written during the lockdown in Chicago in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, these essays consider the Popol Vuh as a work that was also written during a time of feverish social, political, and epidemiological crisis as Spanish missionaries and colonial military deepened their conquest of indigenous peoples and cultures in Mesoamerica. What separates the Popol Vuh from many other creation texts is the disposition of the gods engaged in creation. Whereas the book of Genesis is declarative in telling the story of the world's creation, the Popol Vuh is interrogative and analytical: the gods, for example, question whether people actually need to be created, given the many perfect animals they have already placed on earth. Emergency uses the historical emergency of the Popol Vuh to frame the ongoing emergencies of colonialism that have surfaced all too clearly in the global health crisis of COVID-19. In Trade Review"A work concerned with multiplicity. . . . Garcia’s Emergency is a reorientation, a shift in perspective, while recognizing there is no such thing as a return to originality nor to a specific origin point. What if origin is a weaving, a constant wearing of stories and timetables, perpetual changes and cyclical advantages?" * Cleveland Review of Books *“Garcia contributes a penetrating and eloquent exposition of a unique document of the indigenous Americas. He shows how the Popol Vuh extends our understanding of oppression and ecological ruin in our time.” -- Alphonso Lingis, author of Irrevocable: A Philosophy of Mortality“In this brilliant exegesis, Garcia reveals the Popol Vuh as a living document, a dialogical story of creation crafted in conditions of colonial emergency, which still bears urgent relevance today. Consisting of a series of short and lyrical essays on a wide range of topics, Emergency is a thought-provoking commentary essential for anyone who engages with this foundational text.” -- Claudia Brittenham, author of The Murals of Cacaxtla: The Power of Painting in Ancient Central Mexico“I would like to believe that the exquisite tapestry of this book, which weaves together history, myth, philosophical reflection, and literary criticism, heralds a new era of poetic scholarship in the humanities (‘poetic’ in Vico’s sense). We are in need of this kind of imaginative reanimation of our academic vocation.” -- Robert Pogue Harrison, author of Juvenescence: A Cultural History of Our AgeTable of ContentsBirds Wealth Caves Television Demons Migrations Love The Sun Mormons Afterword References Index

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Book SynopsisTranslation of: Les Grecs ont-ils cru aa leurs mythes?

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewNot only the best study of the philosophy of the Mozi, but one of the best studies of any classical Chinese philosopher. -- Franklin Perkins, author of Heaven and Earth Are Not Humane: The Problem of Evil in Classical Chinese Philosophy Fraser is at his best and his most original in arguing for an interpretation of Mohist ethical theory as an early consequentialism that builds upon his own careful and persuasive explication of a Mohist philosophy of mind and action-a sui generis social psychology that has contemporary force in challenging the persistent subjective, individualist, and representational assumptions of our old common-sense psychology. -- Roger T. Ames, author of Dao De Jing: A Philosophical Translation Fraser's book is charitable-persuasively rebutting many standard criticisms of the Mohists-and yet critically engaged with the details of the Mohists' provocative positions. The philosophical study of the Mozicomes of age in this outstanding book. -- Stephen C. Angle, author of Sagehood: The Contemporary Significance of Neo-Confucian Philosophy Fraser is a gifted writer and expositor. Mo Di was not only the first consequentialist but also the first just war theorist, the first critic of extravagant ritual, the first critic of family-first ethics, and the first philosopher to offer what analytic philosophers would count as rigorous arguments. A must read for analytic philosophers who work in ethics and political philosophy. -- Owen Flanagan, author of The Geography of Morals: Varieties of Moral PossibilityTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Order, Objectivity, and Efficacy 2. Epistemology and Logic: Drawing Distinctions 3. Political Theory: Order Through Shared Norms 4. Heaven: The Highest Ethical Model 5. Ethics: The Benefit of All 6. Inclusive Care: For Others as for Oneself 7. Motivation: Changing People in a Generation 8. War and Economics Epilogue Glossary Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisYegor Grebnev examines crucial noncanonical texts preserved in the Yi Zhou shu (Neglected Zhou Scriptures) and the Grand Duke traditions. He develops an innovative framework for the study and interpretation of these texts, focusing on their role in the mediation of royal legitimacy and their formative impact on early Daoism.Trade ReviewGrebnev’s masterful study begins with a formalistic analysis of Yi Zhou shu and ends with a new history of religious Daoism and a new model for thinking about early Chinese philosophy. The very definition of groundbreaking, it is certain to reverberate in the work of early China scholars for decades. -- Stephen Durrant, professor emeritus, University of OregonHidden in plain sight in the Yi Zhou shu, Yegor Grebnev has discovered the missing link between “religious” and “philosophical” Taoism. His elegant and philologically rigorous demonstration that the two are fundamentally of one piece will necessitate the rewriting of current textbook accounts of Chinese intellectual history. -- Lothar von Falkenhausen, author of Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000-250 BC): The Archaeological EvidenceMediation of Legitimacy in Early China brings together two too-often overlooked sources to make fresh observations concerning the structure of early Chinese texts and what this structure shows about the process of their composition. It has far-reaching implications for understanding all aspects of the early Chinese literary tradition. -- Edward L. Shaughnessy, author of Unearthing the Changes: Recently Discovered Manuscripts of the Yi Jing (I Ching) and Related Texts[This book] will provide to the field of early China studies a reliable and thoughtful introduction to the many historical and textual difficulties of an undeservedly underread text for many years to come....Grebnev’s book is written on a deep foundation of rigorous and thoughtful research ... While offering honest and refreshing appraisals of some of the text-historical issues posed by the work ... he also provides groundbreaking insights into the ways that the Yi Zhoushu seems to have been integral to major political, religious, and intellectual developments in early and medieval China. * Journal of Asian Studies *This volume is highly recommended to scholars of ancient Chinese texts, political authority, and the origin of Daoism. * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsList of TablesAcknowledgmentsChronologyIntroduction1. The Structure of the Yi Zhou shu and Its Formation History2. Understanding Early Chinese Scriptures3. Appropriated and Created Scriptures4. Royal Colloquies as the Main Text Type in the Yi Zhou shu5. Daoist Scriptures of the Grand Duke6. Heirloom Treasures, Scriptures, and LegitimacyConclusionAppendix 1. Scenic, Formalistic, and Alarming Contextual SettingsAppendix 2. Summary of the Zhou shu in the Shi lüeAppendix 3. “Sequential Outline of the Zhou Scriptures”Appendix 4. Permutations of the Chapter(s) “Shifa” (Order of Posthumous Names)NotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisWater and the Word focuses on a genre of literature written for the education of the Carolingian clergy: Carolingian baptismal instructions. This literature has never been brought together and studied collectively in the context of the books in which it circulated. As a corpus, read in comparison to one another, the baptismal tracts tell how baptism was celebrated and interpreted across Carolingian Europe. At the same time, in their manuscript context, they are an important new source of information regarding the nature and the success of the Carolingian Reform to educate the clergy.This comprehensive study has three major objectives. One is to describe the codices in which the baptismal instructions are found, in order to show what other kinds of material the baptismal tracts were associated with and to show where, how, and by whom these codices were intended to be used. Another is to bring together the baptismal texts and study them systematically. Finally, a thirdTrade Review"Most Carolingian texts, so we are taught, are in print, if sometimes in inadequate editions. The proper task of the Carolingian historian is the study of elites and cultural identity, as defined by written culture. Just as the columns of the Acta Sanctorum remind us of texts Carolingian historians take pride in ignoring, so Susan Keefe's two impressive volumes serve as a reminder that there are plenty of texts still to be edited and understood. By investigating Carolingian interpretations of how people were made Christians she may be contributing more to our understanding of their cultural identity than her contemporaries, but she is far too modest to say so. . . . Outstanding in this study is Susan Keefe's recognition that our best clues to the function of these texts in the Carolingian empire are found via an examination of the manuscript context in which her texts circulate. So there are detailed descriptions of all of fifty-nine Carolingian manuscripts . . . together with a full listing of all the later manuscript witnesses which she has found for these texts. They were texts that every priest was required to know, so that the manuscripts are essential guides to clerical culture and the range of instructional texts through which the Carolingian reforms were realised. . . . Water and the Word will still be an essential tool an hundred years hence." —Journal of Ecclesiastical History

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Book SynopsisThis study focuses on a genre of literature written for the education of the Carolingian clergy: Carolingian baptismal instructions. This volume contains the Latin text of 66 manuscipts, as well as descriptions, introductions and a topical survey of the contents of these manuscripts.Trade Review"By investigating Carolingian interpretations of how people were made Christians she may be contributing more to our understanding of their cultural identity than her contemporaries, but she is far too modest to say so." —Journal of Ecclesiastical History

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Book SynopsisThe Trail of Martyrdom examines the stages by which religious dissidents were persecuted by Tudor monarchs across the sixteenth century, and the means by which these dissidents counteracted authorities. While Henry VIII, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth differed in religious orientation, their desire to enforce a uniformity of belief compelled them, in various degrees, to seek out and expunge heterodoxy or perceived treason in their midst. Individuals of contrary belief were targeted, apprehended, imprisoned, interrogated, and sometimes executed. During each stage of persecution, many dissidents were able to elude capture, counter-interrogate their inquisitors, use time in prison to write letters and prepare for death, and exploit their own executions to forge a final drama of suffering and redemption before a large, public audience. Enforcement was always dependent upon cooperation from the public and local officials, which made successful persecution uncertain at best.STrade Review“This deeply researched, carefully crafted book offers a sensitive analysis of the nature and limits of state-sponsored persecution in Tudor England.” —Religious Studies Review“This is an A-to-Z encyclopedia for historians of persecution and martyrdom.” —Sixteenth Century Journal"Sarah Covington tells in vivid detail the story of recusancy and persecution in sixteenth-century England in The Trail of Martyrdom. She searches the minds of the persecutors and the persecuted. She examines the interrogations and recantations or punishments and the effect of executions not only on the condemned but also on the public that witnessed these gruesome rites, in fact all aspects of the subject, and she writes with grace and sensitivity and force." —Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance"Covington writes with confidence and clarity…. [S]he has produced an assured and cogent interpretation of a dense and complex subject. Complemented by a useful bibliography, this is a work that will prove helpful to scholars as well as appealing to a more general readership." —Recusant History“[Covington] is a gifted stylist, and The Trail of Martyrdom is interesting and accessible to specialist and nonspecialist alike.” —Renaissance Quarterly"...this is an accomplished, nuanced and elegantly written monograph that illuminates aspects of Tudor persecution which have been relatively,... neglected by previous historians. This is a sensitively researched and gracefully constructed book that will be accessible to many levels of reader." —History"This is a book filled with interesting and acute observation, for Covington has a good eye for the telling detail." —Journal of Early Modern History“The Trail of Martyrdom: Persecution And Resistance In Sixteenth-Century England, provides Professor Covington’s readers with a thorough and scholarly examination of all aspects of persecution, imprisonment, rebellion, dissent, and execution in sixteenth-century England. A work of meticulous scholarship, and presented with a passion for accuracy and logical interpretation, The Trail of Martyrdom is fascinating and informative scrutiny of a dark side of human behavior and royal politics under Henry VIII, Edward, mary, and Elizabeth.” —Midwest Book Review"Covington ... has considered the experience of martyrdom as a whole in a way that will enable readers to consider the entire process." —Choice

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Book SynopsisThis book aims to give students an introduction to the religious and social world of ancient Israel. It consists of two parts. The first explores the major religious offices mentioned in the Old Testament. In the second part the focus is on the religious beliefs and practices of the common people.Trade ReviewChalmers has provided students with a solid first step for navigating the complexities of the religion of ancient Israel. His sensitive distinctions between state religion (involving the experts) and family religion (as practiced by the common people) evidence his awareness of the current conversations and will be particularly helpful for those desiring to read the Old Testament in more informed ways. -- John Walton, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Wheaton CollegeChalmers accomplishes his goal to provide an accessible introductory text to the religion of ancient Israel for the beginning student or non-specialist. Exploring the Religion of Ancient Israel is well balanced and researched. Chalmers navigates well between various extremes and. . .effectively brings out the nitty-gritty of 'real life' in ancient Israel. -- Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old TestamentWhat did people such as priests and prophets do in Israel? How were they chosen and trained? How did ordinary people's relationship with God work out? This volume is a fine user-friendly guide to what we can learn about such questions from the Bible, from archaeology and from current scholarly theory. -- John Goldingay, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary

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Book SynopsisFor more than a thousand years, Greeks in all walks of life consulted oracles for guidance received directly from the gods. This title encompasses the history of Greek oracles and focuses on philosophical, psychological, and anthropological aspects of oracular consultation.Trade Review"Students of ancient Greek religion will welcome this journeyman's comprehensive survey of Greek oracular mechanics complemented by discussions of the ancients' theorizing of prophecy and the various problems those theories challenged."—J.C. Hanges, Choice -- J.C. Hanges * Choice *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“This is an important book which will have a lasting influence on Mesoamerican scholarship and serve as a model for generations to come. It is a compelling study that will open up new areas for investigation of Maya art and new methods for research.”—Claudia Brittenham, University of Chicago “Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos has crafted a provocative book that addresses key aspects of Maya mythology, its narratives, variations, and relationships to other mythic traditions across Mesoamerica. It is an important book, both for its content and its methodological approach, which is novel and timely.”—Julia Guernsey, University of Texas at Austin

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Book SynopsisExamines how the cult of Mother of the Gods came from Phrygia and Lydia, where she was the mother of tyrants, to Athens, where she protected the laws of the Athenian democracy. This work describes how Kybebe, the Lydian goddess, assumed a different aspect to the Greeks when Lydia became part of the Persian empire.Trade Review"This book is a remarkable achievement: fascinating, stimulating, in many ways brilliant and revolutionary because it forces us at every turn and on almost every page to reassess traditional views, familiar explanations, and a worldview we took for granted." - Kurt Raaflaub, co-author of The Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece "Munn has a superb gift for association, interconnecting facts into completely unexpected new vistas." - Henrik Versnel, author of Triumphus: An Inquiry into the Origin, Development and Meaning of the Roman Triumph"Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Abbreviations Introduction 1. Sovereignty and Divinity in Classical Greek Thought The Study of Religion in Greek History Sovereignty and Tyranny Sovereignty and Greek Religion Theogony; or, The Conditions of Sovereignty Humanity and Divine Sovereignty The Passing of an Age of Innocence The Quest for Transcendent Divinity 2. The Mother of the Gods and the Sovereignty of Midas The Mother of the Gods and "the Phrygian Man" at Athens The Land of Midas The Home of Kybele, the Mother of the Gods The Mother of Midas Sovereignty and the Gods of Phrygia The Legacy of Midas 3. The Mother of the Gods and the Ideals of Lydian Tyranny The Lover of Gordius Sovereigns and Their Concubines Aphrodite and Lydian Tyranny Aphrodite, Kybebe, and Kubaba Kubaba, Kybebe, and Kybele Mistress of Lions and the Consort of the King The Ideals of Lydian Tyranny: A Summary So Far 4. The Mother of the Gods and the Practices of Lydian Tyranny Tyranny and Fertility The Grief of the Goddess Grieving for Atys The Tribute of Tyranny Deifying the Mother of Kingship Eunuchs, Tyranny, and the Mother of the Gods Artemis and the Mother The Legacy of Lydia 5. Asia, the Oikoumen9, and the Map of the World The Idea of Asia Anaximander's Map Kingship and the Oikoumen9 The Itinerary of the Oikoumen9 The Balance of Justice in the World The Landscape of Creation at Sardis The Purification of Delos The Rulership of the Sea Hecataeus' Map 6. The Mother of the Gods and Persian Sovereignty Earth and Water The Persians and the Gods of Lydia Scythia and the Oikoumen9 Athens, Tyranny, and Persia The Ionian Revolt The Heralds of Darius The M9tragyrt9s at Athens The Legacy of the M9tragyrt9s: The Argument So Far 7. Persian Sovereignty and the Gods of the Athenians The Mother of the Gods Rejected Placating Artemis and Honoring Demeter Miltiades, Themistocles, and the Mother of the Gods Founding the League at Delos The Peace of Callias Honoring Athena on the Acropolis 8. Herodotus and the Gods Religion in Greek Historical Thought Herodotus and the Unnamed Divinity Religion and Universal History Herodotus' Way of Knowing the Past The Knowledge Herodotus Shared with His Audience Herodotus, the Gods, and History 9. The Mother of the Gods at Athens Alcibiades' Tyrannical Ambitions The Symbiotic Sovereignty of Greeks and Persians The Mother of the Gods Accepted The Mother of the Gods and the Sovereignty of the Laws The Names of the Mother The Mother of the Gods in Greek Historiography The Mother of the Gods, Spartan Hegemony, and War The Mother of the Gods, Athenian Hegemony, and Peace Conclusions Bibliography General Index Index of Select Greek Terms Index Locorum

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Book SynopsisA free open access ebook is upon publication. Learn more atwww.luminosoa.org. Flight during times of persecution has a long and fraught history in early Christianity. In the third century, bishops who fled were considered cowards or, worse yet, heretics. On the face, flight meant denial of Christ and thus betrayal of faith and community. But by the fourth century, the terms of persecution changed as Christianity became the favored cult of the Roman Empire. Prominent Christians who fled and survived became founders and influencers of Christianity over time. Bishops in Flightexamines the various ways these episcopal leaders both appealed to and altered the discourse of Christian flight to defend their status as purveyors of Christian truth, even when their exiles appeared to condemn them. Their stories illuminate how profoundly Christian authors deployed theological discourse and the rhetoric of heresy to respond to the phenomenal political instability of the fourth and fifth centuries.Trade Review"An excellent contribution to our understanding of a period rife with theologico-political competition that resulted in numerous, complex situations of episcopal displacement." * Reading Religion *"This slim, elegant volume constitutes a noteworthy and welcome contribution to our understanding of exilic discourse and the construction of the figure of the bishop in the fourth and fifth centuries. A stimulating read." * Plekos *"Barry is an excellent guide on how to read late antique polemic texts.…this enjoyable book fully achieves its objective of showing why ‘Tertullian's critique…was eventually replaced by Athanasius' promotion of the bishop in flight’. It was through telling the right exile stories, at the right place, at the right time." * Early Medieval Europe *Table of ContentsPrologue Abbreviations Introduction The Discourse of Flight Explorations of Exile Episcopal Exile Models of Exile Heresiology and Exile Episcopal Exile and Displacement Outline of Book 1. Athanasius of Alexandria in Flight How to Construct a Model City: Alexandria If These Walls Could Talk: Defense Before Constantius A Wall-Less Desert: Defense of His Flight A Model City without Walls: Life of Antony Conclusion Contents 2. How to Return from Flight How to Rehabilitate a Failed Bishop: Gregory of Nazianzus How to Construct a Model City: Constantinople A Model Exile: In Praise of Basil the Great A Model Return: In Praise of Athanasius Conclusion 3. John Chrysostom in Flight A Man in Flight: John Chrysostom How to Construct a Model City: Antioch Bishops Who Die in Flight: Meletius of Antioch How Not to Flee: Theophilus of Alexandria Bishops Who Do Not Return Conclusion 4. To Rehabilitate and Return a Bishop in Flight How to Diagnose Exile: Ps.-Martyrius’s Funerary Speech How to Interpret Exile: Palladius of Helenopolis’s Dialogue on the Life of John Chrysostom How to Return from Exile: Athanasius and John Chrysostom Conclusion 5. To Condemn a Bishop in Flight How to Condemn a Model City: Nicomedia An Unorthodox Return from Flight: Eusebius of Nicomedia How to Rehabilitate a Bishop: Philostorgius of Cappadocia’sEcclesiastical History How to Condemn a Model Exile: Socrates of Constantinople’sEcclesiastical History How to Rehabilitate a Condemned City: Theodoret of Cyrrhus’sEcclesiastical History Conclusion Contents 6. Remembering Exile Remembering a Not-So-Model City: Antioch Martyrs and Bishops in Flight How to Remember Orthodox Flight: Sozomen of Constantinople’sEcclesiastical History Competing Memories: Socrates and Sozomen ConclusionEpilogue Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisChristian Reading shifts the assumption that study of the Bible must be about the content of the Bible or aimed at confessional projects of religious instruction. Blossom Stefaniw focuses on the lesson transcripts from the Tura papyri, which reveal verbatim oral classroom discourse, to show how biblical texts were used as an exhibition space for the traditional canon of general knowledge about the world. Stefaniw demonstrates that the work of Didymus the Blind in the lessons reflected in the Tura papyri was similar to that of other grammarians in late antiquity: articulating the students' place in time, their position in the world, and their connection to their heritage. But whereas other grammarians used revered texts like Homer and Menander, Didymus curated the cultural patrimony using biblical texts: namely, the Psalms and Ecclesiastes. By examining this routine epistemological and pedagogical work carried out through the Bible, Christian Reading generates a new model of the relationship of Christian scholarship to the pagan past.Trade Review"Stefaniw deserves credit for drawing attention back to the classroom setting of these texts, because they are precious evidence of how one real classroom worked in antiquity. . . . Stefaniw’s vivid and lively study returns attention to the teaching of a learned Alexandrian whose texts remain understudied." * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *"In sum, an orienting narrative, original translations of understudies texts, and thoughtful engagement with theory make this book required reading for anyone interested in ancient Christian reading practices. Its prose will make that requirement a joy." * Church History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Prologue 1. A Narrative History of the Tura Papyri 2. Reading with a Grammarian 3. The Textual Patrimony: Knowledge, Language, and Reading 4. The Intellectual Patrimony: Ethics, Logic, and the Order of Things 5. Christian Reading: Chronography, Cartography, and Genealogy EpilogueBibliography Index

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