Download or read book Posthuman Transformation in Ancient Mediterranean Thought written by M. David Litwa and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-07 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is not just a desire but a profound human need for enhancement - the irrepressible yearning to become better than ourselves. Today, enhancement is often conceived of in terms of biotechnical intervention: genetic modification, prostheses, implants, drug therapy - even mind uploading. The theme of this book is an ancient form of enhancement: a physical upgrade that involves ethical practices of self-realization. It has been called 'angelification' - a transformation by which people become angels. The parallel process is 'daimonification', or becoming daimones. Ranging in time from Hesiod and Empedocles through Plato and Origen to Plotinus and Christian gnostics, this book explores not only how these two forms of posthuman transformation are related, but also how they connect and chasten modern visions of transhumanist enhancement which generally lack a robust account of moral improvement.
Download or read book Posthuman Transformation in Ancient Mediterranean Thought written by M. David Litwa and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-07 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient theories of posthuman transformation can shape, chasten, and reform modern (biotechnical) theories of posthuman enhancement.
Download or read book The Evil Creator written by M. David Litwa and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 211 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 interpretations. It is divided into two parts. In Part I, the focus is on the interpretations of Exodus and John. Firstly, ancient Egyptian assimilation of the Jewish god to the evil deity Seth-Typhon is studied to understand its reapplication by Phibionite and Sethian Christians to the Judeo-catholic creator. Secondly, the 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 Christian "Old Testament," analyzes 2 Corinthians 4:4 (in which "the god of this world" blinds people from Christ's glory), examines Christ's so-called destruction of the Law (Eph 2:15) and the Lawgiver, and shows how Christ finally succumbs to the "curse of the Law" inflicted by the creator (Gal 3:13). A concluding chapter shows how still today readers of the Christian Bible have concluded that the creator manifests an evil character.
Download or read book Humans Angels and Cyborgs Aboard Theseus Ship written by Mattia Geretto and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2024 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book addresses the most suggestive themes of transhumanism and critical posthumanism by placing them in dialogue with classic problems of metaphysics, and with some great thinkers of the past (Bruno, Spinoza, and above all Leibniz). The main purpose of this comparison is to invite transhumanists and critical posthumanists to consider a highly complex problematic tradition rooted in the history of philosophy. This study also makes use of examples drawn from the history of mythology, angelology, and mysticism. At the same time, the book promotes dialogue between scholars of classical metaphysics and philosophy of religion, and the potential metaphysical/spiritual theories developed independently by transhumanist and posthumanist thinkers within an anti-dualist and naturalistic philosophical framework. The goal is to ‘enhance'contemporary transhumanism and posthumanism by promoting the need to safeguard intelligence as a principle, without falling into the trap of a violent and egotistic metaphysics." --
Download or read book The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity written by Bruce W. Longenecker and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-08-24 with total page 864 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first three hundred years of the common era witnessed critical developments that would become foundational for Christianity itself, as well as for the societies and later history that emerged thereafter. The concept of 'ancient Christianity,' however, along with the content that the category represents, has raised much debate. This is, in part, because within this category lie multiple forms of devotion to Jesus Christ, multiple phenomena, and multiple permutations in the formative period of Christian history. Within those multiples lie numerous contests, as varieties of Christian identity laid claim to authority and authenticity in different ways. The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity addresses these contested areas with both nuance and clarity by reviewing, synthesizing, and critically engaging recent scholarly developments. The 27 thematic chapters, specially commissioned for this volume from an international team of scholars, also offer constructive ways forward for future research.
Download or read book Jesus and the Empire of God written by Margaret Froelich and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-21 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Margaret Froelich examines the Gospel of Mark using political and empire-critical methodologies, following postcolonial thinkers in perceiving a far more ambivalent message than previous pacifistic interpretations of the text. She argues that Mark does not represent an entirely new way of thinking about empire or cosmic structures, but rather exhibits concepts and structures with which the author and his audience are already familiar in order to promote the Kingdom of God as a better version of the encroaching Roman Empire. Froelich consequently understands Mark as a response to the physical, ideological, and cultural displacement of the first Roman/Judean War. By looking to Greek, Roman, and Jewish texts to determine how first-century authors thought of conquest and expansion, Froelich situates the Gospel directly in a historical and socio-political context, rather than treating that context as a mere backdrop; concluding that the Gospel portrays the Kingdom of God as a conquering empire with Jesus as its victorious general and client king.
Download or read book The Studia Philonica Annual XXXV 2023 written by David T. Runia and published by SBL Press. This book was released on 2023-11-17 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Studia Philonica Annual is a scholarly journal devoted to the study of Hellenistic Judaism, particularly the writings and thought of the Hellenistic-Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria (circa 15 BCE to circa 50 CE).
Download or read book Simon of Samaria and the Simonians written by M. David Litwa and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-03-07 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who were the Simonians? Beginning in the mid-second century CE, heresiologists depicted them as licentious followers of the first “gnostic,” a supposedly Samarian self-deifier called Simon, who was thought to practice “magic” and became known as the father of all heresies. Litwa examines the Simonians in their own literature and in the literature used to refute and describe them. He begins with Simonian primary sources, namely The Declaration of Great Power (embedded in the anonymous Refutation of All Heresies) and The Concept of Our Great Power (Nag Hammadi codex VI,4). Litwa argues that both are early second-century products of Simonian authors writing in Alexandria or Egypt. Litwa then moves on to examine the heresiological sources related to the Simonians (Justin, the book of Acts, Irenaeus, the author of the Refutation of All Heresies, Pseudo-Tertullian, Epiphanius, and Filaster). He shows how closely connected Justin's report is to the portrait of Simon in Acts, and offers an extensive exegesis and analysis of Simonian theology and practice based on the reports of Irenaeus and the Refutator. Finally, Litwa examines Simonianism in novelistic sources, namely the Acts of Peter and the Pseudo-Clementines. By the time these sources were written, Simon had become the father of all heresies. Accordingly, virtually any heresy could be attributed to Simon. As a result-despite their alluring portraits of Simon-these sources are mostly unusable for the historical study of the Simonian Christian movement. Litwa concludes with a historical profile of the Simonian movement in the second and third centuries. The book features appendices which contain Litwa's own translations of primary Simonian texts.
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 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utilizing the Nag Hammadi codices and early Christian writings, this book explores the earliest development of Christianity in Alexandria.
Download or read book The Tale of Lucius or The Ass Onos written by Joel C. Relihan and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 2023-03-01 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An anonymous Greek reworking (doubtfully attributed to Lucian) of the lost, anonymous Greek Metamorphoseis (falsely attributed to Lucius of Patras). An American translation by Joel C. Relihan (Professor of Classics, Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts), available as a free eBook from Hackett Publishing Company.
Download or read book The Studia Philonica Annual XXXIV 2022 written by David T. Runia and published by SBL Press. This book was released on 2022-12-15 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Studia Philonica Annual is a scholarly journal devoted to the study of Hellenistic Judaism, particularly the writings and thought of the Hellenistic-Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria (circa 15 BCE to circa 50 CE).
Download or read book Cities and Thrones and Powers written by Stephen R. L. Clark and published by Angelico Press. This book was released on 2022-06-29 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What would a "reappeared" Plotinus answer today if asked how we might build a divinely-ordered city? That is the question at the core of this unique book, and Stephen Clark takes us on a wide-ranging deep dive to uncover possible answers. To do so, he first gives an account of the Plotinian philosophy of mind and metaphysics, showing how Plotinus nicely balances the entanglement of soul-body composites (our immediate identities) with the workings of the World Soul and the eternal soul that animates "from within." Drawing on later Christian and Islamic interpretations of the Neoplatonic tradition, and parallel developments in Hindu thought, he then describes the various social forms that seem to be the inevitable context of our lives here and now. Furthermore, we discover that the form a Plotinian religion adopts depends on taking seriously the thought of reincarnating souls and wandering hermits, but now with the difference in our time that, although some sages may be content to consider themselves simple wanderers in a world without borders or settled communities, some will follow the same path as Buddhists, Epicureans, and Christians: forming communities of friends loyal to their founder and to the fellowship of the Sangha. We learn as well that in due course even those among the hermits who prefer to go, almost literally, "alone to the Alone" will become part of dispersed, unhierarchical communities. Finally, Clark offers cautious thoughts about our likely futures, dependent both on current technological advances and on the realistic suspicion (shared by our predecessors) that catastrophes and wholly unexpected turns are always to be expected.
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 Carpocrates Marcellina and Epiphanes written by M. David Litwa and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-06-24 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Carpocrates, Marcellina, and Epiphanes is the definitive study of the early Christian theologian Carpocrates, his son Epiphanes, and the leader of the Carpocratian movement in Rome, Marcellina. It contains the first full-length study of and commentary on the fragments of Epiphanes, the earliest reports on Carpocrates and Marcellina, as well as the Epistle to Theodore (containing the so-called Secret Gospel of Mark). Readers also encounter an up-to-date history of research on the Carpocratian movement, and three full profiles of all we can know from the earliest Carpocratian leaders. Written in an accessible style, but based on the most careful historical and linguistic research, this volume is a landmark, helping to redefine the field of early Christian history. Carpocrates, Marcellina, and Epiphanes is a welcome addition to the libraries of all students of early Christian theology, researchers investigating early Christian diversity, and scholars of Gnostic, Nag Hammadi and related materials.
Download or read book Samaritans Through the Ages written by József Zsengellér and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2024-08-05 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume contains the edited papers presented at the 10th international conference of the Société d’Études Samaritaines held in Budapest in 2022. It is dedicated to the famous Hungarian rabbi and scholar Samuel Kohn (1841–1920) whose relevance in Samaritan studies was commemorated by Abraham Tal. The articles discuss the most recent questions of Samaritan research in five different fields. Historical topics and Samaritan synagogue mosaics are investigated by Ingrid Hjelm, Innocent Himbaza and Reinhard Pummer. Greek inscriptions and Aramaic documents are studied by Magnar Kartveit, Andreas Lehnardt, and József Zsengellér. Arabic Torah interpretations, and historical documents are delt with by Jasper Bernhofer, Leonhard Becker and Daniel Boušek. Analyses of Samaritan Hebrew and Aramaic linguistic issues and of Samaritan translation techniques are presented by Moshe Florentin, Christian Stadel, Nehemia Gordon, David Hammidovič, Patrick Pouchelle and Phil Reid. Studies on Samaritan manuscript writings and collections are presented by Evelyn Burkhardt, Stefan Schorch, Mariia Boichun and Golda Akhiezer. Leading scholars and young new colleagues enrich the various fields of Samaritan studies with new findings, insights ad implications.
Download or read book Becoming Divine written by M. David Litwa and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2013-10-30 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Some have called it the essence of sin, others the depth of salvation. Regardless of one's evaluation of it, however, deification throughout Western history has been a part of human aspiration. From the ancient pharaohs to modern transhumanists, people have envisioned their own divinity. These visionaries include not only history's greatest megalomaniacs, but also mystics, sages, apostles, prophets, magicians, bishops, philosophers, atheists, and monks. Some aimed for independent deity, others realized their eternal union with God. Some anticipated godhood in heaven, others walked as gods on earth. Some accepted divinity by grace, others achieved it by their own will to power. There is no single form of deification (indeed, deification is as manifold as the human conception of God), but the many types are united by a set of interlocking themes: achieving immortality, wielding superhuman power, being filled with supernatural knowledge or love--and through these means transcending normal human (or at least ""earthly"") nature. "
Download or read book Cambridge Translations of Renaissance Philosophical Texts written by Jill Kraye and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997-08-28 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Renaissance, known primarily for the art and literature that it produced, was also a period in which philosophical thought flourished. This two-volume anthology contains 40 new translations of important works on moral and political philosophy written during the Renaissance and hitherto unavailable in English. The anthology is designed to be used in conjunction with The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, in which all of these texts are discussed. The works, originally written in Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, and Greek, cover such topics as: concepts of man, Aristotelian, Platonic, Stoic, and Epicurean ethics, scholastic political philosophy, theories of princely and republican government in Italy and northern European political thought. Each text is supplied with an introduction and a guide to further reading.
