Dreams, Visions, Imaginations

Jewish, Christian and Gnostic Views of the World to Come

Jens Schröter, Tobias Nicklas & Armand Puig i Tàrrech (Eds.), Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021

Description

The contributions in this volume are focused on the historical origins, religious provenance, and social function of ancient Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature, including so-called ‘Gnostic’ writings. Although it is disputed whether there was a genre of ‘apocalyptic literature,’ it is obvious that numerous texts from ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and other religious milieus share a specific view of history and the world to come. Many of these writings are presented in form of a heavenly (divine) revelation, mediated through an otherworldly figure (like an angel) to an elected human being who discloses this revelation to his recipients in written form. In different strands of early Judaism, ancient Christianity as well as in Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and Islam, apocalyptic writings played an important role from early on and were produced also in later centuries. One of the most characteristic features of these texts is their specific interpretation of history, based on the knowledge about the upper, divine realm and the world to come.

Against this background the volume deals with a wide range of apocalyptic texts from different periods and various religious backgrounds.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Front matter  p. i

Table of contents  p. v

Introduction  p. 1

Where Should We Look for the Roots of Jewish Apocalypticism?  p. 5
John J. Collins

Apocalyptic Literature and Experiences of Contact with the Other-World in Second Temple Judaism and Early  p. 27 Christianity
Luca Arcari

Time and History in Ancient Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic Writings  p. 53
Lorenzo DiTommaso

Apocalyptic Writings in Qumran and the Community’s Idea of History  p. 89
Jörg Frey

This Age and the Age to Come in 2 Baruch  p. 117
Matthias Henze

Jesus and Jewish Apocalyptic  p. 141
Armand Puig i Tàrrech

Time and History: The Use of the Past and the Present in the Book of Revelation  p. 187
Adela Yarbro Collins 

Dreams, Visions and the World-to-Come according to the Shepherd of Hermas  p. 215
Joseph Verheyden 

Ezra and his Visions: From Jewish Apocalypse to Medieval Tour of Hell  p. 235
Jens Schröter 

Views of the World to Come in the Jewish-Christian Sibylline Oracles  p. 261
Olivia Stewart Lester

Defying the Divine: Jannes and Jambres in Apocalyptic Perspective  p. 283
Marcos Aceituno Donoso

Between Jewish and Egyptian Thinking: The Apocalypse of Sophonias as a Bridge between Two Worlds?  p. 319
Michael Sommer

From the ‘Gnostic Dialogues’ to the ‘Apostolic Memoirs’: Literary and Historical Settings of the Nag Hammadi Apocalypses  p. 343
Dylan M. Burns

What is ‘Gnostic’ within Gnostic Apocalypses?  p. 385
Jean-Daniel Dubois

Being in corpore/carne and extra corpus: some interrelations within the Apocalypsis Pauli/Visio Pauli  p. 411
Thomas J. Kraus

From Historical Apocalypses to Apocalyptic History: Late Antique Historians and Apocalyptic Writings  p. 433
Tobias Nicklas

Qur’anic Eschatology in its Biblical and Late Ancient Matrix  p. 461
Stephen J. Shoemaker 

The Book of Revelation and Visual Culture  p. 487
Lourdes García Ureña 

List of Contributors  p. 505

Index of Ancient Sources  p. 507

Index of Modern Authors  p. 537

Index of Subjects  p. 545

Link

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110714746/html

Otherwise than binary

New feminist readings in ancient philosophy and culture

Jessica Elbert Decker, Danielle A. Layne & Monica Vilhauer (Eds.), New York: Sunny Press, 2022

Description

Examines traditional sites of binary thinking in ancient Greek texts and culture to demonstrate surprising ambiguity, especially with regard to sexual difference. Otherwise Than the Binary approaches canonical texts and concepts in Ancient Greek philosophy and culture that have traditionally been understood as examples of binary thinking, particularly concerning sexual difference. In contrast to such patriarchal logic, the essays within this volume explore how many of these seemingly strict binaries in ancient culture and thought were far more permeable and philosophically nuanced. Each contribution asks if there are ways of thinking of antiquity differently—namely, to examine canonical works through a lens that expounds and even celebrates philosophies of difference so as to discover instances where authors of antiquity valorize and uphold the necessity of what has been seen as feminine, foreign, and/or irrational. As contemporary thinkers turn toward new ways of reading antiquity, these selected studies will inspire other readings of ancient texts through new feminist methodologies and critical vantage points. When examining the philosophers and notable figures of antiquity alongside their overt patriarchal and masculinist agendas, readers are invited to rethink their current biases while also questioning how particular ideas and texts are received and read. « This volume rests on an innovative impulse to look anew at binaries in Greek thought. The essays take up a range of binaries that historiographies trace back to the Greeks, and it troubles these binaries, while also linking them to sex/gender binaries at the same time. For example, muthos/logos, stasis/change, same/different, male/female, mind/body, and so forth. And as the editors’ interest in the marginalized signals, the collection specifically examines these binaries with an eye toward their internal hierarchical relationships (e.g., mind is superior to body) and how these have shaped social ontology. While building on some of the feminist and deconstructive work on this issue, the collection moves considerably beyond that, taking up new texts, figures, and issues. The essays are engaging, intelligent, and certainly will further the productive engagement with these texts. » — Jill Gordon, Colby College.

Jessica Elbert Decker is Associate Professor at California State University San Marcos. Danielle A. Layne is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Gonzaga University. Monica Vilhauer is Founder of Curious Soul Philosophy.

(Text from the publisher)

Link

https://sunypress.edu/Books/O/Otherwise-Than-the-Binary

Montrer l’âme

Lecture du Phèdre de Platon

Anca Vasiliu, Paris, Sorbonne University Press, 2021

Description

À l’instar du Phèdre, cette étude se présente comme un livre ouvert. En scrutant les détails jusqu’à la fugacité même des impressions produites, en descendant en même temps au plus profond des eaux vives qui sont les sources de Platon, on s’approche autant que possible du cœur du Dialogue, tout en préservant son intimité secrète et en affrontant à nos risques la fascination qu’il exerce. Ce livre poursuit une idée mais se garde d’en faire la clef du Phèdre. Le Dialogue met en scène Socrate dans le rôle de ce qu’une âme singulière peut donner de mieux : se montrer à travers son discours en faisant corps commun avec lui pour prévenir l’égarement de l’animé et écarter le danger de l’oubli. Socrate montre ainsi le chemin par lequel le logos dont l’âme est pourvue conduit chaque vivant à reconnaître que le lieu dans lequel il se meut est divin, et que le vivant porte en lui la puissance entière de ce lieu unique avec lequel il s’identifie et dans lequel il vit en même temps. Platon appelle cette leçon une initiation à la philosophie. Pour nous, cette philosophie de la connaissance immanente à l’âme est la première des métaphysiques.

(Texte de la maison d’édition) 

Table de matières

Première partie
Logos, Kallos, Muthos : la triade des tropoi de l’âme

I. Philosophie à hauteur d’homme. Positions de la parole et du vivant
Comment parler, est-ce la question ?
Dire et montrer
Parlons donc de l’amour. Dire et contredire (le Banquet et le Phèdre, parallèles et divergences)
Le passage à l’acte et la question de la vérité

II. Parler du Beau pour montrer l’âme (du Phèdre de Platon à celui de Plotin)
Le Beau est-il le sujet de la discussion ?
L’âme du discours
Voir le Beau
Le pouvoir mortifère. Le Beau selon Plotin

III. Lieu sans récit. Socrate face au mythe d’Orithye (du Phèdre de Platon à celui de Proclus)
Régimes et caractéristiques de l’image scénique
Que signifie le refus d’interpréter un mythe ou des êtres fabuleux ?
L’âme et l’autoportrait de Socrate
L’interprétation du refus de Socrate par Proclus
Les enjeux de la position socratique à l’égard du mythe et de son usage proclien

Deuxième partie
L’ostension de l’âme. Prologue et Palinodie

IV. L’image de l’âme à la sortie de la Cité
Sortir pour parler
Schéma de la construction : scénographie et science du vivant
La présence, le manifesté et l’évident (intermezzo)

Préparation au visible : la mise en espace du langage et
l’usage du contraste
Étendue et spatialité de la pensée et du langage
Distinction, contraste, évidence
Retour sur le mythe comme pierre d’achoppement
De quoi la sortie de la Cité est-elle l’image ? Le naturel et le phénoménal

V. Au fil de l’eau et au gré des discours. Le Prologue et la Palinodie : stratégies du renversement
Archéologie, au fil de l’eau
Cadre et procédés
Ce qui se voit et ce qui se dit
La temporalité du récit
Tenir le cap, au gré des discours
Les arts du délire et de la démonstration
Le choix de la parole adéquate
Le lieu renversé
La réversibilité du même

VI. L’âme mouvement et le mouvement de l’animé.
Source et principe
Les trois expressions scéniques du mouvement

L’âme auto-motrice se meut-elle effectivement ou s’auto-révèle-t-elle par le mouvement de l’animé ?

Lieu et corps du mouvement
L’image de la dunamis

Conclusion
Ode et contre-ode ?
Quelques hypothèses en guise de réflexions finales
Initiation à la philosophie
L’âme, la pensée et le rôle de l’image

Bibliographie
Index des auteurs anciens, des personnages et des œuvres citées
Index des personnages mythologiques
Index des auteurs récents

Lien

https://sup.sorbonne-universite.fr/catalogue/philosophie-et-sciences-sociales/philosophies/montrer-lame

Revealing Women

Feminine Imagery in Gnostic Christian Texts

L. Cieroni, Turnhout : Brepols Publishers, 2021

Description

Revealing Women offers a detailed and textual oriented investigation of the roles and functions of female mythological characters in Gnostic Christian mythologies. Revealing Women offers a detailed and textually oriented investigation of the roles and functions of female characters in Gnostic Christian mythologies. It answers questions such as: to what end did Gnostic Christian theologians employ feminine imagery in their theology? What did they want to convey through it? This book shows that feminine imagery was a genuine concern for Gnostic theologians, and it enquires about how it was employed to describe the divine through a contextual reading of Gnostic Christian texts presenting Ophite, Sethian, Barbeloite and Valentinian mythologoumena and theologoumena. Overall, it argues that feminine imagery ought to be acknowledged as an important theological framework to investigate and contextualize Gnostic works by showing that these theologians used feminine imagery to exemplify those aspects of the Godhead which they considered paradoxical and, yet, essential. The claims made in the first chapters are later substantiated by an in-depth investigation of understudied Gnostic texts, such as the so-called Simonian Gnostic works, the Book of Baruch of the Gnostic teacher Justin and the Nag Hammadi treatise known as Exegesis of the Soul.

Dr Lavinia Cerioni completed her PhD at the University of Nottingham in 2018. Since then, she has worked as Adjunct Lecturer at the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome. In 2021, she has been awarded a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship at Aarhus University in Denmark. She has published several articles on gender in early Christianity, Gnosticism and Origen of Alexandria.

(Text from the publisher) 

Table of contents

Front matter (« Table of Contents », « Acknowledgements », « Abbreviations »)  p.1

Introduction  p. 15

I. Methodological problems in the study of gnosticism  p. 23

II. The soteriological feminine in Ophite, Sethian and Barbeloite texts  p. 45

III. The Valentinian feminine imagery  p. 99

IV. Gnostic case-studies: the feminine in other gnostic traditions  p. 149

Conclusion  p. 199

Back matter (« Bibliography », « Indices »)  p. 205

Link

http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503586687-1

Irénée entre Asie et Occident :

Actes de la journée du 30 juin 2014 à Lyon

A. Bastit (ed.), Turnhout : Brepolis, 2021
Description 
This volume brings together contributions concerning the figure of Irenaeus (ca 130-ca 200), a Christian author from Asia minor, Greek by language and culture, who spent the second part of his life “among the Celts”, “in the neighbouring regions of the Rhône”, to use his own words. It seems quite probable that Irenaeus’ route from East to West passed through Rome and that he stayed there for some time. Therefore the papers in this volume, by researchers of various origins, are grouped into three parts corresponding to these three geographical areas – Asia, Rome, Gaul – and their respective cultural contexts. Most of the papers adopt a general historical approach in exploring various dimensions of Irenaeus’ context: cultural and literary life in Asia, especially in Smyrna; multilingualism in the Roman Empire; the attraction of Rome for scholars, philosophers and rhetoricians of Greek origin; the expansion of Lyon in the second century and the flourishing of its economic and cultural life. Other contributions focus on the contemporary presence of various religious components, in particular on Jewish traditions and on the vicissitudes and organization of the first Christian communities, with attention to Gnostic groups. The papers are preceded by an original biographical account of Irenaeus, newly proposed on the basis of indications provided by his own work. Ce volume rassemble des contributions autour de la figure d’Irénée de Lyon (vers 130-vers 200), auteur chrétien originaire d’Asie mineure, de langue et de culture grecques, qui a passé la seconde partie de sa vie « chez le Celtes », « dans les régions voisines du Rhône », pour reprendre ses propres expressions. Il est probable que la route d’Irénée de l’Orient vers l’Occident se soit trouvée coupée par une étape à Rome ; c’est pourquoi les études de ce volume sont regroupées en trois parties correspondant à ces trois zones géographiques – l’Asie, Rome, la Gaule – et à leurs contextes culturels respectifs. La perspective principale de ces travaux, dus à des chercheurs de diverses origines, est celle d’une approche historique générale, abordant divers aspects : la vie culturelle et littéraire en Asie, en particulier en Smyrne ; le plurilinguisme dans l’empire romain ; l’attrait de Rome pour les savants, philosophes et rhéteurs d’origine grecque ; l’expansion de Lyon au IIe siècle et l’épanouissement de sa vie économique et culturelle. D’autres contributions s’intéressent à la présence contemporaine de diverses composantes religieuses, en particulier aux traditions juives ainsi qu’aux vicissitudes et à l’organisation des premières communautés chrétiennes, avec une place faite aux groupements gnostiques. Les études sont précédées par une proposition de biographie d’Irénée, réalisée à nouveaux frais sur la base d’indications fournies par son œuvre.
(Texte de la maison d’édition) 
Table de matières 
Présentation (Agnès Bastit)
Préambule
Irénée de Smyrne (vers 130-vers 200) (Agnès Bastit)
Smyrne et le contexte asiate
Smyrne à l’époque d’Irénée d’après le témoignage d’Aelius Aristide (Jean-Luc Vix)
Les sophistes à Smyrne (Ier-IIe siècles ap. J.-C.) (Anne-Marie Favreau-Linder)
Le nom d’Irénée, dans la province d’Asie et ailleurs (Michel Sève)
Autour de Polycarpe, Irénée et Pionios : les réseaux smyrniotes aux IIe-IIIe siècles (Marie-Françoise Baslez)
Quelques aperçus d’Irénée sur les traditions juives (Olivier Munnich)
Rome
Irenaeus at Rome: The Greek Context of Christian Intellectual Life in the Second Century (Jared Secord)
Un apocryphe iconographique : la tradition irénéenne du « Portrait du Christ fait par Pilate » (Contre les hérésies 1, 25) (Anne-Catherine Baudoin)
Pierre et Paul dans les traditions littéraires avant Irénée (Enrico Cattaneo S.J.)
Vienne-Lyon
Le multilinguisme dans l’Empire romain à l’époque d’Irénée de Lyon (Bruno Rochette)
Le Lyon d’Irénée (François Richard)
Il retroterra delle persecuzioni nell’opera di Ireneo e la testimonianza di Eusebio (Anna Carfora)
Épilogue. Vers la théologie
« La tradition de la vérité » (Adu. haer. III, 4, 1) (Ysabel de Andia)
Indices
Index des auteurs anciens
Index des personnages cités
Index des noms de lieux
Lien

The Routledge companion to ecstatic experience

in the ancient world 

Diana Stein, Sarah Kielt Costello & Karen Polinger Foster (eds.), Oxfordshire : Routledge, 2021

Description

For millennia, people have universally engaged in ecstatic experience as an essential element in ritual practice, spiritual belief and cultural identification. This volume offers the first systematic investigation of its myriad roles and manifestations in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. The twenty-nine contributors represent a broad range of scholarly disciplines, seeking answers to fundamental questions regarding the patterns and commonalities of this vital aspect of the past. How was the experience construed and by what means was it achieved? Who was involved? Where and when were its rites carried out? How was it reflected in pictorial arts and written records? What was its relation to other components of the sociocultural compact? In proposing responses, the authors draw upon a wealth of original research in many fields, generating new perspectives and thought-provoking, often surprising, conclusions. With their abundant cross-cultural and cross-temporal references, the chapters mutually enrich each other and collectively deepen our understanding of ecstatic phenomena thousands of years ago. Another noteworthy feature of the book is its illustrative content, including commissioned reconstructions of ecstatic scenarios and pairings of works of Bronze Age and modern psychedelic art. Scholars, students and other readers interested in antiquity, comparative religion and the social and cognitive sciences will find much to explore in the fascinating realm of ecstatic experience in the ancient world.

(Text from the publisher) 

Table of contents

List of figures
List of contributors
Preface, Jeffrey J. Kripal

Maps

Introduction, Diana L. Stein, Sarah Kielt Costello and Karen Polinger Foster

Part One: Setting the Stage
1. Contextualizing the Study of Ecstatic Experience in Ancient Old World Societies, Sarah Kielt Costello
2. Not Only Ecstasy: Pouring New Concepts into Old Vessels, Etzel Cardeña
3. From Shamans to Sorcerers: Empirical Models for Defining Ritual Practices and Ecstatic Experience in Ancient, Medieval and Modern Societies, Michael J. Winkelman

Part Two: Psychoactive Substances Past and Present
4. Psychoactive Plants in the Ancient World: Observations of an Ethnobotanist, Giorgio Samorini
5. Ecstasy Meets Paleoethnobotany: Botanical Stimulants in Ancient Inner Asia, Alison Betts
6. Caucasian Cocktails: The Early Use of Alcohol in ‘The Cradle of Wine,’ Stephen Batiuk
7. Mind-altering Plants in Babylonian Medical Sources, Barbara Böck
8. Plant-based Potions and Ecstatic States in Hittite Rituals, Rita Francia
9. Forbidden at Philae: Proscription of Aphrodisiac and Psychoactive Plants in Ptolemaic Egypt, Riccardo Andreozzi and Claudia Sarkady
10. The Ring-Kernos and Psychotropic Substances, David Ilan

Part Three: Ecstatic Experience and the Numinous
11. Beer, Beasts and Bodies: Shedding Boundaries in Bounded Spaces, Anne Porter
12. Lament, Spectacle and Emotion in a Ritual for Ishtar, Sam Mirelman
13. Writing for the Dead, Welcoming the Solar-Eye Goddess and Ecstatic Expression in Egyptian Religion, John Coleman Darnell
14. Altered States on Prepalatial Crete, Emily Miller Bonney
15. Bodies in Ecstasy: Shamanic Elements in Minoan Religion, Christine Morris and Alan Peatfield
16. The Mycenaeans and Ecstatic Ritual Experience, Susan Lupack
17. Emotional Arousal, Sensory Deprivation and ‘Miraculous Healing’ in the Cult of Asclepius, Olympia Panagiotidou
18. Ecstasy and Initiation in the Eleusinian Mysteries, Alice Clinch
19. Apolline and Dionysian Ecstasy at Delphi, Yulia Ustinova
20. Communing with the Spirits: Funeral Processions in Ancient Rome, Maik Patzelt

Part Four: Expressions of the Ecstatic Mind
21. Ecstatic Experience and Possession Disorders in Ancient Mesopotamia, Ulrike Steinert
22. Ghosts In and Outside the Machine: A Phenomenology of Intelligence, Psychic Possession and Prophetic Ecstasy in Ancient Mesopotamia, John Z. Wee
23. Ecstatic Speech in Ancient Mesopotamia, Benjamin R. Foster
24. Ecstatic Experience: The Proto-Theme of a Near Eastern Glyptic Language Family, Diana L. Stein
25. Understanding the Language of Trees: Ecstatic Experience and Interspecies Communication in Late Bronze Age Crete, Caroline J. Tully
26. Psychedelic Art and Ecstatic Visions in the Aegean, Karen Polinger Foster
27. Sight as Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient Mediterranean, Nassos Papalexandrou

Index

Link

https://routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Ecstatic-Experience-in-the-Ancient-World/Stein-Costello-Foster/p/book/9780367480325?fbclid=IwAR3LP-7WW-5vwfsMqoL2V3sXX2qct023giyP7p_HbAq7dotNiExUNT6eRVI

Contre Fauste le manichéen, livres XIII-XXI
Contra Faustum manichaeum, XIII-XXI

M. Dulaey (ed.), Turnhout, Brepolis, 2020

Description

Dans le volume 18/B de la Bibliothèque augustinienne, on pourra lire une traduction nouvelle des livres XIII-XXI du Contre Fauste le manichéen, qui est une des œuvres majeures d’Augustin. Elle intéresse non seulement les lecteurs de l’évêque d’Hippone, mais aussi les spécialistes du manichéisme, car de nombreux aspects de la doctrine manichéenne y sont évoqués, et Augustin reproduit intégralement un opuscule perdu de Fauste avant de le réfuter. Au fil de la discussion et de la polémique apparaissent de nombreux aspects de la théologie chrétienne et de l’exégèse de la Bible importants pour la connaissance du christianisme ancien. La traduction part du texte établi en 1891 par J. Zycha (CSEL 25/1), qui n’a toujours pas été remplacé, et a été révisé selon les normes de la collection. Les différents livres font l’objet d’une étude approfondie, dont les résultats sont exposés dans les multiples introductions, notes de bas de page et notes complémentaires en fin de volume. Elle est sans équivalent dans les collections étrangères, et elle est l’œuvre commune d’une équipe de chercheurs qui travaillent régulièrement ensemble : I. Bochet, J.-D. Dubois, M. Dulaey, A. Massie, P. Mattei, M.-Y. Perrin et G. Wurst. Le BA 18/B est le deuxième des trois volumes nécessaires pour couvrir l’imposant traité d’Augustin, qui nécessite, pour être vraiment compris des modernes, un solide appareil critique. Les Introductions générales ont été réparties dans les trois volumes.

(Texte de la maison d’édition) 

Table de matières 

Avant-Propos
Introduction

I. L’herméneutique biblique dans Le Contra Favstvm

1. L’herméneutique de l’Ancien Testament  (I. Bochet)
A. Le rejet radical de l’Ancien Testament par Fauste
1. Fondement : les raisons de son rejet radical
a. « Je n’y ai trouvé aucune prophétie sur le Christ »
b. L’incompatibilité de l’Ancien Testament avec le Nouveau
2. Les critiques de l’Ancien Testament par Fauste
a. Des préceptes honteux ou superflus
– Les préceptes cultuels
– Les préceptes relatifs aux mœurs
b. Un héritage méprisable
c. L’immoralité des récits de l’Ancien Testament
B. L’herméneutique augustinienne de l’Ancien Testament
1. Fondement : l’Ancien Testament est la prophétie du Nouveau
a. La valeur des prophéties de l’Ancien Testament
b. L’harmonie des deux Testaments
– L’Ancien Testament prophétie du Nouveau
– Le Nouveau Testament accomplissement de l’Ancien
2. Défense de l’Ancien Testament
a. Les préceptes de l’Ancien Testament
– Préceptes cultuels
– Préceptes relatifs aux mœurs
b. Les biens temporels promis dans l’Ancien Testament figurent les biens éternels qu’ils annoncent
c. Patriarches et prophètes : réalité historique et valeur figurative

2. L’herméneutique du Nouveau Testament  (I. Bochet)
A. L’herméneutique du Nouveau Testament selon Fauste
1. Autorités exégétiques
2. Principes herméneutiques
3. Enjeux doctrinaux
B. L’herméneutique augustinienne du Nouveau Testament
1. Autorités exégétiques
2. Principes herméneutiques
3. Enjeux doctrinaux
3. Excursus : Le texte du Nouveau Testament chez Fauste (G. Wurst)
4. Bibliographie

II La christologie dans le Contre Fauste

1. La christologie de Fauste de Milev (G. Wurst)
2. L’apport du Contra Faustum manichaeum à la christologie augustinienne (A. Massie)
A. La défense de l’incarnation
B. Le Christ annoncé dans les Écritures ; la filiation davidique
C. Le Christ Sauveur
1. Le Christ humble
2. Le Christ médecin et thaumaturge
3. Le Christ médiateur et prêtre ;  le Christ total et la vie de l’Église

CONTRE FAUSTE LE MANICHÉEN, LIVRES XIII-XXI
Livre XIII
Livre XIV
Livre XV
Livre XVI
Livre XVII
Livre XVIII
Livre XIX
Livre XX
Livre XXI

NOTES COMPLÉMENTAIRES
1. Les prophéties païennes sur le Christ (XIII, 2)
2. Outres neuves et vieilles outres (Mt 9, 16-17) (XV, 2)
3. Les tables de pierre, le décalogue et le psaltérion à dix cordes (XV, 4 ; 7)
4. L’amatorium canticum (XV, 5-6)
5. Cosmologie manichéenne : splenditenens et Atlas (XV, 5-6)
6. Les manichéens et la procréation (XV, 7)
7. Josué, successeur de Moïse et figure du Christ (XVI, 19-20)
8. Le sabot  fourchu, image de la foi juste (XVI, 30)
9. Le sabbat et le jour de Saturne (XVIII, 2)
10. Les noms des mois latins (XVIII, 5)
11. Les manichéens et les apocryphes (XIX, 3)
12. « La dialectique de la loi et de la grâce » (XIX, 7)
13. Les sacrements de l’Ancien Testament et ceux du Nouveau (XIX, 9-18)
14. L’origine du mal (XIX, 24 ; XXII, 22)
15. L’adoration du soleil et de la lune (XX, 1)
16. Hylè – Le principe du mal (XX, 3)
17. Le « Jésus passible » et l’eucharistie (XX, 2)
18. Le sacrifice véritable (XX, 18)
19. Commixtionis bonum. Le problème du texte latin (XXI, 3)

Index biblique
Index des auteurs anciens
Index des sources manichéennes

Lien

http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782851213006-1

Constructions of Gender in Late Antique

Manichaean Cosmological Narrative

Susanna Towers, Turnhout, Brepolis, 2019

Description

Manichaeism emerged from Sasanian Persia in the third century CE and flourished in Persia, the Roman Empire, Central Asia and beyond until succumbing to persecution from rival faiths in the eighth to ninth century. Its founder, Mani, claimed to be the final embodiment of a series of prophets sent over time to expound divine wisdom. This monograph explores the constructions of gender embedded in Mani’s colourful dualist cosmological narrative, in which a series of gendered divinities are in conflict with the demonic beings of the Kingdom of Darkness. The Jewish and Gnostic roots of Mani’s literary constructions of gender are examined in parallel with Sasanian societal expectations. Reconstructions of gender in subsequent Manichaean literature reflect the changing circumstances of the Manichaean community. As the first major study of gender in Manichaean literature, this monograph draws upon established approaches to the study of gender in late antique religious literature, to present a portrait of a historically maligned and persecuted religious community.

Susanna Towers studied Psychology and Philosophy at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford. She completed her M.A. and doctorate in Religious Studies at Cardiff University. She lives in Bath with her three children.

(Text from the publisher) 

Table of contents

Introduction This discusses the history of gender studies and its application to religious studies; a summary of previous literature relating to gender in Manichaeism; a brief life of Mani and its relation to his canon of texts. It outlines the contents of the following chapters.

The Manichaean Father exploration and identification of gendered attributes associated with masculinity with reference to Connell’s model of hegemonic masculinity. The Manichaean Father is considered as embodiment of desirable masculine traits and the appropriate exercise of masculine rulership and authority.

The Chief Archon This chapter examines the construction of gender implicit in the characterization of the chief archon. Mani’s writings characterize the chief archon in polar opposition to the Manichaean Father as exemplum of masculine rulership which embodies lust for power and territory. Mani characterizes the chief archon as a dangerous outsider who seeks to invade. This is expressed through the trope of the cannibal. The chief archon’s acts of cannibalism mark him as alien, uncivilized and savage.
Manichaean texts written after Mani’s death reflect the persecution of the Manichaean community. The characterization of the chief archon develops to reveal a tyrannous ruler who incites fear and terror in his own subjects.

The First Man This chapter considers the apparent paradox of the two competing constructions of masculinity evident in the characterization of the Manichaean First Man, who plays a central role in Manichaean cosmological drama. His characterization as both valiant warrior and suffering victim in defeat is explored in the context of the changing circumstances of the Manichaean community facing persecution. Parallel models of endurance as a worthy expression of masculinity in Jewish, Judaeo-Christian and early Christian literature are discussed.

The Mother of Life This chapter explores the gendered characterization of the Manichaean Mother of Life in Manichaean literature. As mother of the First Man, the Mother of Life embodies positive motherhood, demonstrating nurturing characteristics. Her role in the mythological drama is considered as an expression of the Jewish/Judaeo-Christian literary Wisdom figure (Sophia, Hokmah). The Mother of Life shares and extends imagery attached to Hokmah to encompass wisdom as a weapon.
The Mother of Life is also characterized as a model of feminine imprecation to masculine authority through the valorization of her prayer to the Manichaean Father on behalf of the beleaguered First Man. This is discussed in relation to the veneration of Hannah’s prayer (1 Sam.) in rabbinic literature.

The Manichaean Demoness Az and the yetzer hara This chapter explores parallels between the feminine-gendered demon Az and the evolving Jewish concept of the “evil inclination” (the yetzer hara) as expressions of the human propensity to sin.  As mother of Adam and Eve and mother of the demons, the maternal style of the demoness Az polarizes the motherhood of the Mother of Life.

The Maiden of Light This chapter explores the characterization of the Maiden of Light and her epithets of purity and wisdom in the context of the seductive display of her image to the archons in Manichaean mythology. This act is considered in the context of the model used by feminist biblical scholars of the male as owner of the gaze and the female as object of male gaze.  The chapter argues that the characterization of the Maiden of Light should be considered in relation to the biblical characterizations of Susanna, Judith and Esther. These reveal the female as both victim and manipulator of male gaze. These texts reveal that the seeking of male gaze is extolled in cases of communal threat when authorized by masculine authority. It is argued that the seductive display of the Maiden of Light allows doubt concerning the exploitation of females within the Manichaean community.

Conclusions The conclusion draws together the research findings of the previous chapters. Polarized positions within and across constructions of gender are considered.

Link

http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503586663-1

 

Plutarch’s Religious Landscapes

Rainer Hirsch-Luipold and Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta (eds.), Leyde : Brill, 2021

Description

A Platonist philosopher and priest of Apollo at Delphi, Plutarch (ca. 45-120 CE) covers in his vast oeuvre of miscellaneous writings and biographies of great men virtually every aspect of ancient religion, Greek, Roman, Jewish, Egyptian, Persian. This collection of essays takes the reader on a hike through Plutarch’s Religious Landscapes offering as a compass the philosopher’s considerations on issues of philosophical theology, cult, ethics, politics, natural sciences, hermeneutics, atheism, and life after death. Plutarch provides a unique vantage point to reconstruct and understand many of the interesting developments that were taking in the philosophical and religious world of the first centuries CE.

Table of contents

Introduction

Part 1 An Introductory Survey of Plutarch’s Religious Landscape

Chapter 1 Religions, Religion, and Theology in Plutarch

Part 2 Plutarch’s Theology, Notion of Religion, and Ethics

Chapter 2 Deaf to the Gods: Atheism in Plutarch’s De superstitione

Chapter 3 Plutarch on the Platonic Synthesis: A Synthesis

Chapter 4 Plutarch’s Monotheism and the God of Mathematics

Chapter 5 Plutarch’s Theonomous Ethics and Christianity: A Few Thoughts on a Much-Discussed Problem

Chapter 6 An End in Itself, or a Means to an End? The Role of Ethics in the Second Century: Plutarch’s Moralia and the Nag Hammadi Writings

Chapter 7 Reincarnation and Other Experiences of the Soul in Plutarch’s De facie: Two Case Studies

Chapter 8 The Conception of the Last Steps towards Salvation Revisited: The Telos of the Soul in Plutarch and Its Context

Chapter 9 Gods, Impiety and Pollution in the Life and Death of Phocion

Chapter 10 The Religiosity of (Greek and Roman) στρατηγοί

Chapter 11 La valeur de la tolma dans les Moralia de Plutarque

Part 3 Plutarch’s Testimony of Ancient Religion

Chapter 12 The Religious Landscape of Plutarch’s Quaestiones Graecae

Chapter 13 Human Sacrifices: Can They Be Justified?

Chapter 14 The Conception of the Goddess Hecate in Plutarch

Chapter 15 Plutarch and the Ambiguity of the God Dionysus

Chapter 16 Interpretations of Dionysus Ἰσοδαίτης in an Orphic Ritual (Plutarch, De E apud Delphos 389A)

Chapter 17 The Epiphany of Dionysus in Elis and the Miracle of the Wine (Plutarch, Quaestiones Graecae 299 B)

Chapter 18 Divination in Plutarch’s Life of Cicero

Part 4 Some Glimpses of the Reception of Plutarch’s Religion

Chapter 19 The Reception of Plutarch’s Universe

Chapter 20 Les daimons de Plutarque et leur réception dans la Renaissance française

New Ancient Philosophy Volumes from Turin

Music and Philosophy in the Roman Empire

Description and organization

Is music just matter of hearing and producing notes? And is it of interest just to musicians? By exploring different authors and philosophical trends of the Roman Empire, from Philo of Alexandria to Alexander of Aphrodisias, from the rebirth of Platonism with Plutarch to the last Neoplatonists, this book sheds light on different ways in which music and musical notions were made a crucial part of philosophical discourse. Far from being mere metaphors, notions such as harmony, concord and attunement became key philosophical tools in order to better grasp and conceptualise fundamental notions in philosophical debates from cosmology to ethics and from epistemology to theology. The volume is written by a distinguished international team of contributors.

All meetings will take place on Zoom. To register and participate, please send an e-mail to filosofia.antica.to@gmail.com. Recordings of all the events will be made available on our Facebook page and Youtube channel (Filosofia Antica a Torino)

Contact

F.M. Petrucci (Turin), F. Pelosi (Pisa) A. Piazzalunga (Turin-Genève), G. De Cesaris (KU Leuven)

With the collaboration of Cambridge University Press

filosofia.antica.to@gmail.com

(Text by the organizers)

Link

https://www.cfs.unipi.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Music-and-Philosophy-in-the-Roman-Empire.pdf