Heavenly realms and earthly realities in late antique religions / edited by Raʻanan S. Boustan, Annette Yoshiko Reed.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Boustan, Raʻanan S., 1971- editor.

Reed, Annette Yoshiko, 1973- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Heaven--Comparative studies.

Heaven.

Heaven--Christianity--History of doctrines--Early church, ca. 30-600.

Heaven--Judaism--History of doctrines.

Rome--Religion.

Rome.

Greece--Religion.

Greece.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 335 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Heavenly Realms & Earthly Realities in Late Antique Religions

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The idea of heaven held a special place in the late antique imagination, which was marked by a poignant sense of the relevance of otherworldly realities for earthly life. Such concerns can be found not only in Judaism and Christianity but also in the Greco-Roman religious, philosophical, scientific, and 'magical' traditions. Transcending social, regional and creedal boundaries, the preocupation with heaven in Late Antiquity serves as a focus for an interdisciplinary approach to understanding this formative era in Western culture and history. Drawing upon the expertise of scholars of Classics, Ancient History, Jewish Studies and Patristics, this volume explores the different functions of heavenly imagery in different texts and traditions in order to map the patterns of unity and diversity within the religious landscape of Late Antiquity.

Contents:

Introduction: 'In Heaven as it is on Earth' / Ra'anan S. Bouston, Annette Yoshiko Reed

The bridge and the ladder: narrow passages in late antique visions / Fritz Graf

'Heavenly Steps': Manilius 4.119-121 and its background / Katharina Volk

Heavenly ascent, angelic descent, and the transmission of knowledge in 1 Enoch 6-16 / Annette Yoshiko Reed

'Connecting Heaven and Earth': the function of the hymns in Revelation 4-5 / Gottfried Schimanowski

Working overtime in afterlife, or, no rest for the virtuous / Sarah Iles Johnson

Earthly sacrifice and heavenly incense: the law of the priesthood in Aramaic Levi and Jubilees / Martha Himmelfarb

Who's on the throne? Revelation in the long year / John W. Marshall

The earthly monastery and the transformation of the heavenly city in late antique Egypt / Kirsti B. Copeland

Contextualizing heaven in third-century North Africa / Jan N. Bremmer

Bringing the heavenly academy down to earth: approaches to the imagery of divine pedagogy in the East-Syrian tradition / Adam H. Becker

Angels in the architecture: temple art and the poetics of praise in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice / Ra'anan S. Bouston

The collapse of celestial and chthonic realms in a late antique 'Appollonian Invocation' (PGM I 262-347) / Christopher A. Faraone

In heaven as it is in hell: the cosmology of Seder Rabbah di-Bereshit / Peter Schäfer

The faces of the moon: cosmology, genesis and the Mithras Liturgy / Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

'O Paradoxical Fusion!': Gregory of Nazianzus on baptism and cosmology (Orations 38-40) / Susanna Elm.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 317-322) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-14837-5

1-280-54044-3

0-511-21533-9

0-511-21712-9

0-511-21175-9

0-511-31574-0

0-511-49788-1

0-511-21352-2

OCLC:

171139131