Download or read book Wrestling with Archons written by Jonathan Cahana-Blum and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book demonstrates that ancient Christian Gnosticism was an ancient form of cultural criticism in a mythological garb. It establishes that, much like modern forms of critical theory, ancient Gnosticism was set on deconstructing mainstream discourses and cultural premises. Strains of critical theory dealt with include the Frankfurt School, queer theory, and poststructural philosophy. The book documents how in both ancient Gnosticism and modern critical theories issues that used to serve as premises for discussion or as concepts relegated to the realms of the “natural” and the “given” in their respective historical contexts, are transformed into objects of contention. The main aim of this book is to salvage the historical category of Gnosticism from its present scholarly disavowal, if only because Gnosticism, when read as a cultural, and not only a religious phenomenon, presents us an ancient form of culture criticism which would be hard to parallel until (post) modernity. While Hans Jonas remarked many years ago that “something in Gnosticism knocks at the door of our Being and of our twentieth-century Being in particular,” by the 21st century global world this something has already entered and lives with us. We can thus still benefit from another perspective, even if it comes from Mediterranean people who lived almost 2,000 years ago.
Download or read book The y ology written by Max Yeshaye Brumberg-Kraus and published by punctum books. This book was released on 2023-05-30 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every body contains multitudes, but no body is immune to the ideology of oneness: one true self, one sexuality, one gender, one vision of the world, one true God. For many who identify (or who have been named by others) as transgender, queer, and nonbinary, the refusal to fit within the illusion of one set of sex and gender expectations has been met with violence and suppression. While the myth of oneness is a powerful story that shapes the contours of our societies and our selves, it is not the only myth. Performances, fictions, rituals, and theologies can transform current realities. The(y)ology: Mythopoetics for Queer/Trans Liberation is a manifesto for artists, teachers, theologians, clergy, and activists looking for ways to resist rigid paradigms of gender, sexuality, self, and the sacred. In these pages, we are called to tell new stories about who we are and how we relate to each other within our ecosystems. The myths discussed wrestle with and transform the complex mytho-histories that have birthed and, often, harmed us. No story comes from nothing, and, more radically, perhaps no story is fully irredeemable. In The(y)ology, feminist philosophies join with trans poetics, literary theory with liberation theologies, drag performance with kabbalah, ecologies with pornographies, and ancient theater with queer autobiographies. However ambitious its scope might be, The(y)ology is fundamentally about encouraging us all to think playfully and to play thoughtfully with the mythologies that define our lives. Max Yeshaye Brumberg-Kraus is a poet, playwright, drag artist, and independent scholar living in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They are the co-founder of the House of Larva Drag Co-operative, performing as drag ogress Çicada L'Amour, producing one acts, full-length shows, and cabarets since 2014. In and out of drag, Max has performed at the Guthrie Theatre, Pangea World Theatre, 20% Theatre, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, Rimon (The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council), the Rochester Arts Center, and have also directed a full length show (Circe: Twilight of a Goddess) with Siren Island in Point San Pablo, California. After majoring in classics and theatre at Beloit College, they received their MA in Theology and the Arts from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Max is former fellow and facilitator with Arts Religion Culture (ARC), and a member of the Green Sabbath Project. They are currently pursuing their MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College, with a focus on queerness and the medieval imagination.
Download or read book The Athenian Archons of the Third and Second Centuries Before Christ written by William Scott Ferguson and published by . This book was released on 1899 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Telling the Christian Story Differently written by Francis Watson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-06-25 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the 'counter-narratives' of the core Christian story, proposed by texts from Nag Hammadi and elsewhere. A noteworthy body of highly respected scholars examine material that is sometimes difficult and often overlooked, contributing to the ongoing effort to integrate Nag Hammadi and related literature into the mainstream of New Testament and early Christian studies. By retracing the major elements of the Christian story in sequence, they are able to discuss how and why each aspect was disputed on inner-Christian grounds, and to reflect on the different accounts of Christian identity underlying these disputes. Together the essays in this book address a central issue: towards the end of the second century, Irenaeus could claim that the overwhelming majority of Christians throughout the world were agreed on a version of the core Christian story which is still recognisable today. Yet, as Irenaeus concedes and as the Nag Hammadi texts have confirmed, there were many who wished to tell the core Christian story differently. Those who criticized and rejected the standard story did so not because they were adherents of another religion, 'Gnosticism', but because they were Christians who believed that the standard account was wrong at point after point. Ranging from the Gospels of Judas and Mary to Galatians and Ptolemy's Letter to Flora, this volume provides a fascinating analysis of how the Christian story as we know it today developed against counter-readings from other early Christian traditions.
Download or read book The Naassenes written by M. David Litwa and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-10-20 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers an accessible investigation of the Naassene discourse embedded in the anonymous Refutation of All Heresies (completed about 222 CE), in order to understand the theology and ritual life of the Naassene Christian movement in the late second and early third centuries CE. The work provides basic data on the date, genre, and provenance of the Naassene discourse as summarized by the author of the Refutation (or Refutator). It also offers an analysis of the Refutator’s sources and working methods, an analysis which allows for a full reconstruction of the original Naassene discourse. The book then turns to major aspects of Naassene Christianity: its intense engagement with Hellenic myth and “mysteries,” its biblical sources, its cosmopolitan hermeneutics, its snake symbology, as well as its distinctive approach to baptism, hymns, and celibacy. A concluding chapter outlines all we can securely reconstruct about the Naassene Christian movement in terms of its social identity and place in the larger field of early Christianity and ancient Mediterranean religions more broadly. The Naassenes: Exploring an Early Christian Identity is suitable for students, scholars, and general readers interested in Early Christianity, Gnostic and Nag Hammadi Studies, Classics, and Ancient Philosophy, as well as hermeneutical issues like allegory and intertextuality.
Download or read book The Evil Creator written by M. David Litwa and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book examines the origins of the evil creator idea chiefly in light of early Christian biblical interpretation. It is divided into two parts. In Part I, the focus is on Gnostic Christian interpretation. First, ancient Egyptian assimilation of the Jewish god to the evil deity Seth-Typhon is studied to understand its reapplication by alternative (Sethian, "Ophite" and "gnostic") Christians to the Judeo-catholic creator. Second, an alternative Christian reception of John 8:44 (understood to refer to the devil's father) is shown to implicate the Judeo-catholic creator in murdering Christ. Part II focuses on Marcionite Christian biblical interpretations. It begins with Marcionite interpretations of the creator's character in the Old Testament (chap 3), analyzes the reception of 2 Corinthians 4:4 (in which "the god of this world" blinds people, chap 4), examines Christ's so-called destruction of the Law (Eph 2:15) and the Lawgiver (chaps 5-6), and shows how Christ finally succumbs to the curse of the Law (Gal 3:13) inflicted by the creator (chap 7). A concluding chapter sums up the findings and shows how still today readers of the Bible conclude that the creator is evil"--
Download or read book Material Mystery written by Karmen MacKendrick and published by Fordham University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-17 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Material Mystery considers three apparently anthropocentric myths that are central to Abrahamic religions—those of the primal human, the incarnated and possibly divine redeemer, and the resurrected body. At first glance, these stories reinforce a human-centered theology and point to a very anthropomorphic God. Taking them seriously seems to ignore the material turn in the humanities entirely, with the same sort of willful ignorance that some of our politicians show in declaring that their myths count as facts, or that the point of the rest of the world is to further human consumption. But it is possible, Karmen MacKendrick shows, to read these figures through a particular tradition that emerges from the Hebrew Bible, the tradition of Wisdom as a creative force. Wisdom texts are common across the ancient Near East. As the idea of creative Wisdom develops from antiquity into the middle ages, it gathers philosophical influences from a range of philosophical traditions. This exuberantly promiscuous impurity—intellectual, artistic, and theological—generates new interpretive possibilities. In these interpretations, each human-like figure opens up onto the world's matter, as an interdependent part of it, and matter is thoroughly mixed with divinity. Such mythic readings complement our factual, scientific understanding of the material world, to engage wider kinds of knowing and affective attention—particularly Wisdom's combination of care and delight.
Download or read book Found Christianities written by M. David Litwa and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-02-24 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: M. David Litwa tells the stories of the early Christians whose religious identity was either challenged or outright denied. In the second century many different groups and sects claimed to be the only Orthodox or authentic version of Christianity, and Litwa shows how those groups and figures on the side of developing Christian Orthodoxy often dismissed other versions of Christianity by refusing to call them “Christian”. However, the writings and treatises against these groups contain fascinating hints of what they believed, and why they called themselves Christian. Litwa outlines these different groups and the controversies that surrounded them, presenting readers with an overview of the vast tapestry of beliefs that made up second century Christianity. By moving beyond notions of “gnostic”, “heretical” and “orthodox” Litwa allows these “lost Christianities” to speak for themselves. He also questions the notion of some Christian identities “surviving” or “perishing”, arguing that all second century "Catholic" groups look very different to any form of modern Roman Catholicism. Litwa shows that countless discourses, ideas, and practices are continually recycled and adapted throughout time in the building of Christian identities, and indeed that the influence of so-called “lost” Christianities can still be felt today.
Download or read book Early Christianity in Alexandria written by M. David Litwa and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-12-21 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexandria was the epicenter of Hellenic learning in the ancient Mediterranean world, yet little is known about how Christianity arrived and developed in the city during the late first and early second century CE. In this volume, M. David Litwa employs underused data from the Nag Hammadi codices and early Christian writings to open up new vistas on the creative theologians who invented Christianities in Alexandria prior to Origen and the catechetical school of the third century. With clarity and precision, he traces the surprising theological continuities that connect Philo and later figures, including Basilides, Carpocrates, Prodicus, and Julius Cassianus, among others. Litwa demonstrates how the earliest followers of Jesus navigated Jewish theology and tradition, while simultaneously rejecting many Jewish customs and identity markers before and after the Diaspora Revolt. His book shows how Christianity in Alexandria developed distinctive traits and seeded the world with ideas that still resonate today.
Download or read book Critique of Some Recent Subjunctive Theories written by Charles Edwin Bennett and published by . This book was released on 1898 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Athletes and Artists in the Roman Empire written by Bram Fauconnier and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-02-28 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive study of these unique and important associations in the cultural and social life of the Roman empire.
Download or read book Cornell Studies in Classical Philology written by and published by . This book was released on 1899 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Scar Night written by Alan Campbell and published by Spectra. This book was released on 2007-11-27 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suspended by chains over a seemingly bottomless abyss, the ancient city of Deepgate is home to a young angel, an assassin, and a psychotic murderer hungry for revenge—or redemption. But soon a shocking betrayal will unite all three in a desperate quest. . . . The last of his line, Dill is descended from legendary Battle-archons who once defended the city. Forbidden to fly and untrained even to wield the great sword inherited from his forebears, he has become a figurehead for a dying tradition. Now he lives a sheltered existence in one of Deepgate’s crumbling temple spires under the watchful eye of the Presbyter who rules the city. Spine assassin Rachel Hael has better things to do than oversee the Presbyter’s angel. Each dark moon she must fight for her life among the city chains, hunting an immortal predator with a taste for blood. But when a traitor brings enemies to Deepgate’s doorstep, Dill and Rachel are forced into an uneasy alliance with the city’s oldest and most dangerous foe. They must journey down into the uncharted chasm to save their sprawling metropolis—and themselves—from annihilation. Once they descend however, they learn that what lies below is far more sinister than what they’ve been taught to expect.
Download or read book Grecian Antiquities or an account of the public and private life of the Greeks To which is added a chronology of remarkable events in the Grecian history to the death of Alexander written by Rev. Thomas HARWOOD (F.S.A.) and published by . This book was released on 1801 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Archon Conspiracy written by Dave Hunt and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Michiganensian written by and published by . This book was released on 1919 with total page 874 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Grecian Antiquities written by Rev. Thomas Harwood and published by . This book was released on 1801 with total page 554 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
