Download or read book The Cult of the Mother Goddess written by Edwin Oliver James and published by . This book was released on 1959 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Cult of the Mother goddess written by Edwin Oliver James and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In The cult of the mother-goddess, E.O. James brings together the evidence that is now available concerning the unique position occupied by the Goddess Cult in myth and ritual, especially in the Ancient Near East, India and the eastern Mediterranean, and has subjected it to critical examination. James first inquires into the antecedents of the Cult from its earliest manifestations in the sculptured female statuettes commonly called "Venuses," to its subsequent modes of expression in Neolithic and Bronze Age sites. The association of the unmarried Mother, personifying the divine principle of maternity, with a male partner in the guise of the Young God as her son or spouse, is next considered as the Cult developed in Mesopotamia and Egypt, in Syria and Anatolia, in Iran and India, and in Crete and the Aegean. Against this background is set the syncretistic figure of the Magna Mater in Phrygia and the Greco-Oriental world, together with her mysteries as a dominant feature in the Hellenistic Age and the Roman Empire. Finally, the interpretation of the Cult in Christendom is examined in its mystical and theological content in relation to the Church as the Mater Ecclesia and to the Theotokos as the Madonna. The importance of the Cult is becoming increasingly recognized not only by archaeologists, but also in a number of related disciplines; there can be no doubt that a theme of such permanent significance demands the serious and objective treatment it has received in this volume"--Dust jacket flaps.

Download or read book The Cult of the Mother goddess written by Edwin Oliver James and published by . This book was released on 1959 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Cult of the Goddess Pattini written by Gananath Obeyesekere and published by Motilal Banarsidass. This book was released on 1987-01-01 with total page 665 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pattini-goddess, virgin, wife and mother; folk deity of Sinhala Buddhists and Jains; and assimilated goddess of the Hindu pantheon-has been worshiped in Sri Lanks and South India for fifteen hundred years or more, as she still is today. This long-awaited book is the culmination of Gananath Obeyesekere's comprehensive study of the Pattini cult and its historical, sociological, and psychoanalytical role in the culture of South Asia. A well-known anthropologist and a native of Sri Lanka, Obeyesekere displays his impeccable scholarship and a stunning range of theoretical perspectives in this work, the most detailed analysis of a single religious complex in South Asian ethnography (and possibly in all of anthropology). Since 1955 Obeyesekere has observed and participated in modern performances of the rituals of worship, healing, and propitiation in the Pattini cult, particularly the postharvest ritual known as the gammaduva. He presents detailed texts of the gammaduva, placing them in their historical and mythic traditions. Using the texts, he formulates a cultural analysis of the Buddhist pantheon and a critique of empiricist notions of South Asian historiography. Obeyesekere shows that some seemingly historical figures of South India and Sri Lanka are mythic characters and that their historical significance can best be understood by an anthropological analysis of myth rather than through a reification of myth in history. The concurrent Hindu worship of Pattini with its myths and rituals is described in detail. Obeyesekere documents the Sanskritization of Pattini, the changing physical structures of the goddess's shrines from the 1930s to the present, the assumption by Brahman priests of ritual functions formerly carried out by folk priest, and the sociocultural causes of these changes. He traces, too, the origins and diffusion of the cult throughout its entire history, as well as its survival today. Of psychological interest is the problematic status of Pattini as virgin, wife, and mother and her relationship with her god-husband Palanga and his courtesan Madevi. Obeyesekere discusses the psychodynamics of this relationship in detail and explains its role in Hindu-Buddhist socialization and family structure. Further, he uses this analysis to account for local variations in the performance and structure of the ritual. The ritual of the killing and resurrection of Pattini's husband and her role as mater dolorosa will interest scholars of comparative religion.

Download or read book In Search of God the Mother written by Lynn E. Roller and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1999-07-13 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines one of the most intriguing figures in the religious life of the ancient Mediterranean world, the Phrygian Mother Goddess, known to the Greeks and Romans as Cybele or Magna Mater, the Great Mother. Her cult was particularly prominent in central Anatolia (modern Turkey), and spread from there through the Greek and Roman world. She was an enormously popular figure, attracting devotion from common people and potentates alike. This book is the first comprehensive assembly and discussion of the entire extant evidence concerning the worship of the Phrygian Mother Goddess, from her earliest appearance in the prehistoric record to the early centuries of the Roman Empire. Lynn E. Roller presents and analyzes literary, historiographic, and archaeological data with equal acuity and flair. While previous studies have tended to emphasize the more outrageous aspects of the Mother Goddess's cult, such as her orgiastic rituals and the eunuch priests who attended her, this book places a special focus on Cybele's position in Anatolia and the ways in which the identity of the goddess changed as her cult was transmitted to Greece and Rome. Roller gives a detailed account of the growth, spread, and evolution of her cult, her ceremonies, and her meaning for her adherents. This book will introduce students of Classical antiquity to many aspects of the Great Mother which have been previously unexamined, and will interest anyone who has ever been piqued by curiosity about the Mother Goddess of the ancient Western world.

Download or read book The Great Goddesses of Egypt written by Barbara S. Lesko and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book presents in depth histories of the cults of seven major goddesses and many excerpts from their literature--hymns, prayers, and magical spells as well as descriptions of ritual, temples and clergy.

Download or read book Lost Goddesses of Early Greece written by Charlene Spretnak and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For thousands of years before the classical myths were recorded by Hesiod and Homer, the Goddess was the focus of religion and culture. In Lost Goddesses of Early Greece, Charlene Spretnak recreates, the original, goddess-centered myths and illuminates the contemporary emergence of a spirituality based on our embeddedness in nature.

Download or read book The Secret Influence of the Moon written by Louis Proud and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Moon is not a cold, dead rock but a rich, fascinating world just as alive as Earth • Investigates the Moon as the home of an alien intelligence who controls humanity • Examines several of NASA’s Apollo missions and the findings they concealed • Reveals the many holes in the “Giant Impact” theory about the Moon’s origins and the evidence for a hollow, artificial Moon • Explores the deep influence of the Moon on the collective mind of humanity and occult teachings about the Moon from the Qabbalah, tarot, and other sources Despite being the most prominent celestial body after the Sun, the Moon has many qualities that science has yet to explain. Lunar rock samples reveal the Moon once had a magnetic field like the Earth, and seismic experiments by NASA suggest the Moon is at least partially hollow. For centuries people have observed lights, moving clouds and shadows, and even the disappearance of entire craters via telescope. Apollo astronauts repeatedly felt the presence of a “non-human intelligence” during their Moon visits, and many indigenous traditions speak of malevolent visitors from the Moon. A growing body of astrophysical and geological evidence shows the Moon is not an entirely natural world--that someone or something altered it long ago. Louis Proud explores the phases and movements of the Moon along with its ancient and mysterious features--its craters, maria, rilles, tunnels, and domes. He examines several of NASA’s Apollo missions, showing not that NASA faked the Moon expeditions but that they concealed what the astronauts found there. He explains the many holes in the commonly accepted “Giant Impact” theory of the Moon’s origins and reveals the evidence for a hollow, artificial Moon placed in orbit eons ago to observe Earth. Examining the deep influence of the Moon on the collective mind of humanity, Proud looks at what the Qabbalah, the tarot, and other occult traditions say about the Moon and interprets G. I. Gurdjieff’s teachings that “we are food for the Moon.” He investigates the Moon as a gateway to another realm, as the Purgatory of Christianity, and as the home of an alien intelligence who controls and exploits humanity. Examining the Moon from both scientific and esoteric perspectives, Proud shows the Moon is not a cold, dead rock but a rich, fascinating world just as alive as Earth.

Download or read book In Search of the Labyrinth written by Nicoletta Momigliano and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortlisted for the European Association of Archaeologies 2023 book prize In Search of the Labyrinth explores the enduring cultural legacy of Minoan Crete by offering an overview of Minoan archaeology and modern responses to it in literature, the visual and performing arts, and other cultural practices. The focus is on the twentieth century, and on responses that involve a clear engagement with the material culture of Minoan Crete, not just with mythological narratives in Classical sources, as illustrated by the works of novelists, poets, avant-garde artists, couturiers, musicians, philosophers, architects, film directors, and even psychoanalysts – from Sigmund Freud and Marcel Proust to D.H. Lawrence, Cecil Day-Lewis, Oswald Spengler, Nikos Kazantzakis, Robert Graves, André Gide, Mary Renault, Christa Wolf, Don DeLillo, Rhea Galanaki, Léon Bakst, Marc Chagall, Mariano Fortuny, Robert Wise, Martin Heidegger, Karl Lagerfeld, and Harrison Birtwistle, among many others. The volume also explores the fascination with things Minoan in antiquity and in the present millennium: from Minoan-inspired motifs decorating pottery of the Greek Early Iron Age, to uses of the Minoans in twenty-first-century music, poetry, fashion, and other media.

Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Christianity written by Erwin Fahlbusch and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 1999 with total page 924 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Encyclopedia of Christianity is the first of a five-volume English translation of the third revised edition of Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon. Its German articles have been tailored to suit an English readership, and articles of special interest to English readers have been added. The encyclopedia describes Christianity through its 2000-year history within a global context, taking into account other religions and philosophies. A special feature is the statistical information dispersed throughout the articles on the continents and over 170 countries. Social and cultural coverage is given to such issues as racism, genocide, and armaments, while historical content shows the development of biblical and apostolic traditions."--"Outstanding reference sources 2000", American Libraries, May 2000. Comp. by the Reference Sources Committee, RUSA, ALA.

Download or read book Imagining Mary written by Daniel Rancour-Laferriere and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-15 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagining Mary breaks new ground in the long tradition of Christian mariology. The book is an interdisciplinary investigation of some of the many Marys, East and West, from the New Testament Mary of Nazareth down to Our Lady of the Good Death in the twentieth century. In Imagining Mary, Professor Rancour-Laferriere examines the mother of God in her multireligious and pan-historical context. The book is a scholarly study, but it is written in a clear, straightforward style and will be comprehensible to an educated – and, above all, intellectually curious – general audience. It will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered, for example, about the flimsy scriptural basis of many beliefs about Mary; or the tendency of many mariologists to depict Mary as an incestuous "bride of Christ"; or the theological notion of Mary’s "loving consent" to her son’s crucifixion; or the idea that Mary was a "priest" officiating at the sacrifice of her son; or the unfortunate association of Mary with Christian anti-semitism; or the curious appeal of Mary to the terminally ill; and so on. Special attention is given to the psychology of representations of Mary, such as: the psychological basis for promoting Mary to the status of a "goddess"; the psychology of Mary’s compassion for her son at the foot of the cross; and the psychological conflict in Mary’s personal relationship with her son Jesus. These topics are admittedly diverse, but they all have long been on the minds of mariologists. The author takes a questioning approach to received wisdom about marian themes – including the assumption that one has to be a theist in order to understand the great appeal of Mary down the centuries. Indeed, Imagining Mary may be regarded as a first step in the direction of an atheist mariology.

Download or read book From Death to Life written by Randall D. Chesnutt and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 1995-05-01 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph, the first in English on any aspect of Joseph and Aseneth, examines Aseneth's conversion as narrated in this important but neglected apocryphal Jewish romance. An extensive history of research on Joseph and Aseneth and an analysis of key issues such as text, original language, character, provenance, date, and genre, precede and inform the study of conversion. The story of Aseneth's conversion has too often been understood on the basis of premature and superficial comparisons with other paradigms of conversion and initiation in the Hellenistic world. As a corrective, Chesnutt assigns priority to descriptive over comparative analysis. He draws comparisons and contrasts with other models of conversion and initiation only after he has carefully examined Aseneth's conversion in its own right within the literary context of Joseph and Aseneth and the social context which the document itself reflects. The attention not only to conversion but also to much broader social and religious dimensions of Judaism in antiquity makes this book important for specialists in Christian origins, Greco-Roman religions, women's studies, and patristics, as well as the history of Judaism>

Download or read book Rhetorical Interaction in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 written by Yeo and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-09-06 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rhetorical Interaction in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 is a formal analysis of Paul's rhetorical interaction with the Corinthians over the issues of participation in the cultic meal (1 Cor. 10:1-22) and the eating of idol food (1 Cor. 8:1-13, 10:23-11:1). The thesis is that Paul's theology and rhetoric are predicated on knowledge and love. Major portions of the book employ rhetorical, sociological, archaeological, and historical-critical approaches to examine the triangular interaction between Paul, the Corinthians, and the biblical texts, paying particular attention to the complex configuration of the Corinthian congregation, including the influence of proto-Gnosticism, as well as the ways Paul responded to the shifting situation and different issues. The two chapters on rhetorical-hermeneutical theory and criticism are especially creative as the author suggests a Chinese hermeneutic for cross-cultural dialogues, the issue of ancestor worship being a specific example.

Download or read book Aztec Goddesses and Christian Madonnas written by Joseph Kroger and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The face of the divine feminine can be found everywhere in Mexico. One of the most striking features of Mexican religious life is the prevalence of images of the Virgin Mother of God. This is partly because the divine feminine played such a prominent role in pre-Hispanic Mexican religion. Goddess images were central to the devotional life of the Aztecs, especially peasants and those living in villages outside the central city of Tenochtitlan (present day Mexico City). In these rural communities fertility and fecundity, more than war rituals and sacrificial tribute, were the main focus of cultic activity. Both Aztec goddesses and the Christian Madonnas who replaced them were associated, and sometimes identified, with nature and the environment: the earth, water, trees and other sources of creativity and vitality. This book uncovers the myths and images of 22 Aztec Goddesses and 28 Christian Madonnas of Mexico. Their rich and symbolic meaning is revealed by placing them in the context of the religious worldviews in which they appear and by situating them within the devotional life of the faithful for whom they function as powerful mediators of divine grace and terror.

Download or read book Studies in Saktism written by Kanhu Charan Mishra and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collection of papers presented at a National Seminar on Śāktism, organized by Institute of Orissan Culture on 28-29 March, 1992.

Download or read book Heroines in History written by Katie Pickles and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-07-21 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heroines in History: A Thousand Faces moves beyond stories of individual heroines, taking a thematic, synthesising and global in scope approach to challenge previous understandings of heroines in history. Responding to Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces, Katie Pickles explores the idea of a transcultural heroine archetype that recurs through time. Each chapter addresses an archetypal theme important for heroines in history. The volume offers a new consideration of the often-awkward position of women in history and embeds heroines in the context of their times, as well as interpreting and analysing how their stories are told, re-told and represented at different moments. To do so it recovers and compares some women now forgotten, along with well-known recent heroines and brings together a diversity of women from around the world. Pickles looks at the interplay of gender, race, heredity status, class and politics in different ways and chronicles the emergence of heroines as historical subjects valued for their substance and achievements, rather than as objects valued for their image and celebrity. In an accessible and original way, the book builds upon developments in women’s and gender history and is essential reading for anyone interested in this field.

Download or read book Cellini s Perseus and Medusa and the Loggia dei Lanzi written by Christine Corretti and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-05-19 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Benvenuto Cellini’s Perseus and Medusa, one of Renaissance Italy’s most complex sculptures, is the subject of this study, which proposes that the statue’s androgynous appearance is paradoxical. Symbolizing the male ruler overcoming a female adversary, the Perseus legitimizes patriarchal power; but the physical similarity between Cellini’s characters suggests the hero rose through female agency. Dr. Corretti argues that although not a surrogate for powerful Medici women, Cellini’s Medusa may have reminded viewers that Cosimo I de’ Medici’s power stemmed in part from maternal influence. Drawing upon a vast body of art and literature, Dr. Corretti concludes that Cellini and his contemporaries knew the Gorgon as a version of the Earth Mother, whose image is found in art for Medici women.