Search results for ""Author Janet E. Spittler""

Animals play prominent, often peculiar, roles in the highly entertaining five major apocryphal acts of the apostles, the Acts of Andrew, Acts of John, Acts of Peter, Acts of Paul and Acts of Thomas. Lions, bears, dogs, bedbugs, asses and even seals appear in these narratives - some friendly, some vicious, some with the capacity for human speech.Janet E. Spittler argues that these animal episodes have a greater, more complex significance than has previously been recognized, reading these texts within the broad context of Greco-Roman literature and presenting new interpretations of each animal-related episode. The natural characteristics of these animals - known to ancient authors and audiences through natural historical compendia, historiography and biography, current philosophical debates, fables, and novelistic literature - are intentionally and cleverly evoked by the authors of the apocryphal acts, often serving to underscore key themes of the works. Janet E. Spittler contends that the often very positive presentation of animals in these texts offers a counterbalance to the often negative depiction of animals in other early Christian literature, thus her book has broad implications for contemporary understandings of early Christian attitudes towards animals and the natural world.

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Reports of the miraculous abound in early Christian literature, in early Jewish texts and in the works of various Greco-Roman authors. In this collection of essays, largely the product of a symposium held at the University of Regensburg in June 2011, scholars specializing in a wide range of areas involving the ancient Mediterranean explore the representation of miracles in ancient literature. The central questions addressed include the following: How do ancient authors express their attitude toward the miracles they report? What value do they place in miraculous accounts? Which literary techniques do authors use to indicate whether or not they take a particular miraculous occurrence as true? How do they qualify, cast doubt on, or deny the validity of a report? Against this backdrop, a further question comes to the fore: What are the relationships between the multiple literary genres and religious contexts within which miraculous stories are told? These questions are raised and variously answered in essays treating the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, rabbinic sources, Christian apocrypha, martyrdom stories, and the works of Greek and Roman authors, including Galen and Lucian of Samosata. The contribution of this volume lies in the juxtaposition of various perspectives: Jewish, Christian and pagan authors are all brought into play; texts in which accounts of miracles are narrated are discussed alongside texts in which authors reflect on such accounts - either positively or negatively.

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What are the roles of doubt and scepticism in the religious landscape of the ancient Mediterranean? How is doubt expressed within a specific religious community, and what reactions does it provoke? How does "insider doubt" differ from the sceptical attitude of outsiders? Exploring these questions with respect to a wide range of religious contexts and topics (including early Christianity, Greco-Roman religions, Egyptian religions, astrology, and magic), the essays in this volume confirm the thesis that doubting one's own religious tradition is not simply a "Western" post-Enlightenment phenomenon. On the contrary, ancient religions offered opportunities and contexts wherein aspects of doubt are not just tolerated but accepted; moreover, doubt and scepticism concerning certain religious ideas or aspects of belief also motivated creative reinterpretation of those ideas.

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