Download or read book Strategies of Medieval Communal Identity written by Wout Jac. van Bekkum and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The leading theme of this collection of essays and studies is the diversity of aspects of medieval communal identity. While the authors were selected for the very diversity of their interests, their final papers do tend to cohere around some recurrent themes. All of the studies in this volume touch upon one or more of the complex issues that lie at the heart of religious identity in the Middle Ages. They do so through concrete study of the very real practices by which medieval Jews, Christians and Muslims could police the perimeters of their spiritual communities. The authors were especially urged to note instances where religious identity was shaped without reference to dogmas, creeds, or sacred law. In no case are any of these papers satisfied with normative, legal definitions of Jew, Christian, or Muslim in medieval times. Sometimes small and subtle, sometimes explicit, dire, and violent, the techniques that emerge from these studies testify to the diversity of strategies of medieval communal identity over space and their changes over time.

Download or read book Christian Identity amid Islam in Medieval Spain written by Charles L. Tieszen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-05-30 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Christian Identity amid Islam in Medieval Spain Charles L. Tieszen explores a small corpus of texts from medieval Spain in an effort to deduce how their authors defined their religious identity in light of Islam, and in turn, how they hoped their readers would distinguish themselves from the Muslims in their midst. It is argued that the use of reflected self-image as a tool for interpreting Christian anti-Muslim polemic allows such texts to be read for the self-image of their authors instead of the image of just those they attacked. As such, polemic becomes a set of borders authors offered to their communities, helping them to successfully navigate inter-religious living.

Download or read book Cross Veneration in the Medieval Islamic World written by Charles Tieszen and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-28 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most common religious practices among medieval Eastern Christian communities was their devotion to venerating crosses and crucifixes. Yet many of these communities existed in predominantly Islamic contexts, where the practice was subject to much criticism and often resulted in accusations of idolatry. How did Christians respond to these allegations? Why did they advocate the preservation of a practice that was often met with confusion or even contempt? To shed light onto these questions, Charles Tieszen looks at every known apologetic or polemical text written between the eighth and fourteenth centuries to include a relevant discussion. With sources taken from across the Mediterranean basin, Egypt, Syria and Palestine, the result is the first in-depth look at a key theological debate which lay at the heart of these communities' religious identities. By considering the perspectives of both Muslim and Christian authors, Cross Veneration in the Medieval Islamic World also raises important questions concerning cross-cultural debate and exchange, and the development of Christianity and Islam in the medieval period. This is an important book that will shine much needed light onto Christian-Muslim relations, the nature of inter-faith debates and the wider issues facing the communities living across the Middle East during the medieval period.

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Francis of Assisi written by Michael J. P. Robson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looks at the life of Francis of Assisi and explores how his heritage influenced the apostolic activities of his followers.

Download or read book A Companion to Observant Reform in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond written by James Mixson and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-06-02 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Observant Movement was a widespread effort to reform religious life across Europe. It took root around 1400, and for a century and more thereafter it inspired or shaped much that became central to European religion and culture. The Observants produced many of the leading religious figures of the later Middle Ages—Catherine of Siena, Bernardino of Siena and Savonarola in Italy, Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros in Spain, and in Germany Martin Luther himself. This volume provides scholars with a current, synthetic introduction to the Observant Movement. Its essays also seek collectively to expand the horizons of our study of Observant reform, and to open new avenues for future scholarship. Contributors are Michael D. Bailey, Pietro Delcorno, Tamar Herzig, Anne Huijbers, James D. Mixson, Alison More, Carolyn Muessig, Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Bert Roest, Timothy Schmitz, and Gabriella Zarri.

Download or read book The Conversos and Moriscos in Late Medieval Spain and Beyond written by Kevin Ingram and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-01-18 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Converso and Morisco are the terms applied to those Jews and Muslims who converted to Christianity (mostly under duress) in late Medieval Spain. Converso and Moriscos Studies examines the manifold cultural implications of these mass convertions.

Download or read book The Poet and the World written by Joachim Yeshaya and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-07-08 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of seventeen essays on pre-modern Hebrew poetry in honor of Wout van Bekkum. The articles in this volume all seek to examine how the religious, cultural, and social context in which the poet functioned impacted on and is visible, either explicitly or more elliptically, in their poetical oeuvre. For this purposes a broad understanding of "world" has been accepted, including both the natural world and the constructed one (society, culture, language) as well as the spiritual and emotional world. History, a pillar of the man-made constructed world, has been used to determine the boundaries: from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, and—in instances where the topic connects to older traditions—to Early Modern Judaism, i.e. pre-modern Hebrew (and Aramaic) poetry. The articles in this volume, in the breadth of their temporal and spatial range and their multiplicity of approaches and methodologies, highlight the richness of contemporary scholarship on Hebrew poetry. The volume invites the reader to engage with this astonishing body of poetry, while providing a glimpse into the world of the payṭanim, and the cultures and societies from which they drew their ininspiration and to which they made such important contributions.

Download or read book Marginal Voices written by Amy I. Aronson-Friedman and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-02-03 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays reveals the diversity of the impact on late medieval and Golden Age Spanish literature of the socio-religious dichotomy that came to exist between conversos (New Christians), who were perceived as inferior because of their Jewish descent, and Old Christians, who asserted the superiority of their pure Christian lineage.

Download or read book Strategies of Identity Construction written by Stefan J. Schustereder and published by V&R Unipress. This book was released on 2015-09-16 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on an analysis of a variety of early medieval writings from Britain, including De Excidio et Conquestu Brittaniae by the Briton Gildas, the early Welsh collection of stanzas commonly referred to as Y Gododdin, and the Venerable Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, his Historia Abbatum and Chronica Maior, Strategies of Identity Construction provides evidence of an active and productive medieval discourse of ethnic and political identity construction in Britain. The book demonstrates that different gentes, even competing peoples, use the same strategies to construct and communicate their identities. This phenomenon is not only visible when comparing the different writings which were subject to analysis in this research, but can also be seen when analyzing changes the writings underwent during the transmission processes of their manuscripts throughout the Middle Ages. Elements of a discourse of identity construction here not only appear to be productive, but can also be seen in close connection with historical, political and social developments at the same time, rendering the study of the discourse of identity construction an important tool for providing a modern understanding of medieval politics and societies in periods of change and transition.

Download or read book 2004 written by Sara Grosvald and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2012-02-14 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work includes international secondary literature on anti-Semitism published throughout the world, from the earliest times to the present. It lists books, dissertations, and articles from periodicals and collections from a diverse range of disciplines. Written accounts are included among the recorded titles, as are manifestations of anti-Semitism in the visual arts (e.g. painting, caricatures or film), action taken against Jews and Judaism by discriminating judiciaries, pogroms, massacres and the systematic extermination during the Nazi period. The bibliography also covers works dealing with philo-Semitism or Jewish reactions to anti-Semitism and Jewish self-hate. An informative abstract in English is provided for each entry, and Hebrew titles are provided with English translations.

Download or read book Imagined Communities Constructing Collective Identities in Medieval Europe written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagined Communities: Constructing Collective Identities in Medieval Europe offers a series of studies focusing on the problems of conceptualisation of social group identities, including national, royal, aristocratic, regional, urban, religious, and gendered communities. The geographical focus of the case studies presented in this volume range from Wales and Scotland, to Hungary and Ruthenia, while both narrative and other types of evidence, such as legal texts, are drawn upon. What emerges is how the characteristics and aspirations of communities are exemplified and legitimised through the presentation of the past and an imagined picture of present. By means of its multiple perspectives, this volume offers significant insight into the medieval dynamics of collective mentality and group consciousness. Contributors are Dániel Bagi, Mariusz Bartnicki, Zbigniew Dalewski, Georg Jostkleigrewe, Bartosz Klusek, Paweł Kras, Wojciech Michalski, Martin Nodl, Andrzej Pleszczyński, Euryn Rhys Roberts, Stanisław Rosik, Joanna Sobiesiak, Karol Szejgiec, Michał Tomaszek, Tomasz Tarczyński, Przemysław Tyszka, Tatiana Vilkul, and Przemysław Wiszewski.

Download or read book From Mass Conversion to Expulsion written by Nadia Zeldes and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-04-23 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the events that marked the last decades of Jewish presence in the kingdom of Naples from 1492 to 1541. It employs a comparative approach in the examination of the mass conversion of the Jews in the Kingdom of Naples in 1495, the failed attempt to establish a Spanish‐style inquisition, and the expulsions of 1510 and 1541. By relying on a variety of sources, including Hebrew literary works and rabbinic Responsa, this study sheds new light on the reception of the refugees of 1492, the evolvement of the political and military crisis of 1495, the attacks on the Jewish communities, and Jewish reaction, all aspects that have never before been subject to systematic analysis. The Spanish victory of 1503 and the transformation of southern Italy into a Spanish‐ruled dominion bring this discussion closer to the Iberian model of mass conversions and expulsions. The unprecedented expulsion of the New Christians along with the Jews offers a unique opportunity for drawing a parallel with the much later expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain. By highlighting these aspects, this book offers insights for understanding the larger issues of the integration of refugees and rejection of minority groups, questions that are as relevant to present concerns and politics as they were on the eve of the modern era.

Download or read book Righteous Persecution written by Christine Caldwell Ames and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-05-22 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Righteous Persecution examines the long-controversial involvement of the Order of Preachers, or Dominicans, with inquisitions into heresy in medieval Europe. From their origin in the thirteenth century, the Dominicans were devoted to a ministry of preaching, teaching, and pastoral care, to "save souls" particularly tempted by the Christian heresies popular in western Europe. Many persons then, and scholars in our own time, have asked how members of a pastoral order modeled on Christ and the apostles could engage themselves so enthusiastically in the repressive persecution that constituted heresy inquisitions: the arrest, interrogation, torture, punishment, and sometimes execution of those who deviated in belief from Roman Christianity. Drawing on an extraordinarily wide base of ecclesiastical documents, Christine Caldwell Ames recounts how Dominican inquisitors and their supporters crafted and promoted explicitly Christian meanings for their inquisitorial persecution. Inquisitors' conviction that the sin of heresy constituted the graver danger to the Christian soul and to the church at large led to the belief that bringing the individual to repentance—even through the harshest means—was indeed a pious way to carry out their pastoral task. However, the resistance and criticism that inquisition generated in medieval communities also prompted Dominicans to consider further how this new marriage of persecution and holiness was compatible with authoritative Christian texts, exemplars, and traditions. Dominican inquisitors persecuted not despite their faith but rather because of it, as they formed a medieval Christianity that permitted—or demanded—persecution. Righteous Persecution deviates from recent scholarship that has deemphasized religious belief as a motive for inquisition and illuminates a powerful instance of the way Christianity was itself vulnerable in a context of persecution, violence, and intolerance.

Download or read book Towards Women s Strategies in the 1990s written by Geertje Lycklama A. Nijeholt and published by Springer. This book was released on 1991-06-18 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a collection of essays which each examine a different sociological aspect of women and the environment in which they live. The essays include an examination of gender roles in China and the Women's Movement and the state in Brazil.

Download or read book The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Christian Martyrdom written by Paul Middleton and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-01-27 with total page 627 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique, wide-ranging volume exploring the historical, religious, cultural, political, and social aspects of Christian martyrdom Although a well-studied and researched topic in early Christianity, martyrdom had become a relatively neglected subject of scholarship by the latter half of the 20th century. However, in the years following the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, the study of martyrdom has experienced a remarkable resurgence. Heightened cultural, religious, and political debates about Islamic martyrdom have, in a large part, prompted increased interest in the role of martyrdom in the Christian tradition. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Christian Martyrdom is a comprehensive examination of the phenomenon from its beginnings to its role in the present day. This timely volume presents essays written by 30 prominent scholars that explore the fundamental concepts, key questions, and contemporary debates surrounding martyrdom in Christianity. Broad in scope, this volume explores topics ranging from the origins, influences, and theology of martyrdom in the early church, with particular emphasis placed on the Martyr Acts, to contemporary issues of gender, identity construction, and the place of martyrdom in the modern church. Essays address the role of martyrdom after the establishment of Christendom, especially its crucial contribution during and after the Reformation period in the development of Christian and European national-building, as well as its role in forming Christian identities in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. This important contribution to Christian scholarship: Offers the first comprehensive reference work to examine the topic of martyrdom throughout Christian history Includes an exploration of martyrdom and its links to traditions in Judaism and Islam Covers extensive geographical zones, time periods, and perspectives Provides topical commentary on Islamic martyrdom and its parallels to the Christian church Discusses hotly debated topics such as the extent of the Roman persecution of early Christians The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Christian Martyrdom is an invaluable resource for scholars and students of religious studies, theology, and Christian history, as well as readers with interest in the topic of Christian martyrdom.

Download or read book The Alchemy of Conquest written by Ralph Bauer and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Age of the Discovery of the Americas was concurrent with the Age of Discovery in science. In The Alchemy of Conquest, Ralph Bauer explores the historical relationship between the two, focusing on the connections between religion and science in the Spanish, English, and French literatures about the Americas during the early modern period. As sailors, conquerors, travelers, and missionaries were exploring "new worlds," and claiming ownership of them, early modern men of science redefined what it means to "discover" something. Bauer explores the role that the verbal, conceptual, and visual language of alchemy played in the literature of the discovery of the Americas and in the rise of an early modern paradigm of discovery in both science and international law. The book traces the intellectual and spiritual legacies of late medieval alchemists such as Roger Bacon, Arnald of Villanova, and Ramon Llull in the early modern literature of the conquest of America in texts written by authors such as Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, José de Acosta, Nicolás Monardes, Walter Raleigh, Thomas Harriot, Francis Bacon, and Alexander von Humboldt.

Download or read book Shaping a Qur anic Worldview written by Vanessa De Gifis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-04-16 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the subjectivity of the Qurʾān’s meaning in the world, this book analyses Qurʾānic referencing in Muslim political rhetoric. Informed by classical Arabic-Islamic rhetorical theory, the author examines Arabic documents attributed to the ʿAbbāsid Caliph al-Maʾmūn (r. 813-833), whose rule coincided with the maturation of classical Islamic political thought and literary culture. She demonstrates how Qurʾānic referencing functions as tropological exegesis, whereby verses in the Qurʾān are reinterpreted through the lens of subjective experience. At the same time socio-historical experiences are understood in terms of the Qurʾān’s moral typology, which consists of interrelated polarities that define good and bad moral characters in mutual orientation. Through strategic deployment of scriptural references within the logical scheme of rhetorical argument, the Caliph constructs moral analogies between paradigmatic characters in the Qurʾān and people in his social milieu, and situates himself as moral reformer and guide, in order to persuade his audiences of the necessity of the Caliphate and the religio-moral imperative of obedience to his authority. The Maʾmūnid case study is indicative of the nature and function of Qurʾānic referencing across historical periods, and thus contributes to broader conversations about the impact of the Qurʾān on the shaping of Islamic civilization. This book is an invaluable resource for those with an interest in Early Islamic History, Islam and the rhetoric of contemporary Middle East regional and global Islamic politics.