Divine Consumption

Divine Consumption
Author: Stephen A. Dueppen
Publisher: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2022-12-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 195044631X

Kirikongo is an archaeological site composed of thirteen remarkably well-preserved discrete mounds occupied continually from the early first to the mid second millennium AD. It spans a dynamic era that saw the growth of large settlement communities and regional socio-political formations, development of economic specializations, intensification in interregional commercial networks, and the effects of the Black Death pandemic. The extraordinary preservation of architectural units, activity areas and industrial zones provides a unique opportunity to discern the cultural practices that created stratified mounds (tells) in this part of West Africa. Building from a new detailed zooarchaeological analysis and refinements in stratigraphic precision, this book argues that repeated ritual activity was a significant factor in the accumulation of stratified archaeological deposits. The book details consistencies in form and content of discrete loci containing animal bones, food remains, and broken and unbroken objects and suggests that these are the remnants of sequential ancestor shrines created when domestic spaces were converted to tombs or dedicated mortuary monuments were constructed. Continuities and transformations in ancestral rituals at Kirikongo inform on earlier West African ritual practices from the second millennium BC as well as political and social transformations at the site. More broadly, this case study provides new insights on anthropogenic mound (tell) formation processes, social zooarchaeology, material culture theory, historical ontology, and the analysis of ritual and religion in the archaeological record.

A Divine Cordial

A Divine Cordial
Author: Thomas Watson
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2015-12-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1618981080

'But we know that to] the ones loving God all things work together for good, to] those being called according to purpose'' - Romans 8:28 This delectable book is an exposition of that verse, not neglecting the last phrase (as so many are apt to do). This is no pop treatment to pat the back of all professing Christians. It is a serious consideration of all things that go into making everything work together for good. This starts with the attributes of God, His promises and mercies, the graces of the Spirit, the intercession of Christ, etc. A key to understanding why and how things work together for good to ''the ones loving God'' lies in recognizing that all things begin with God's eternal decrees. Literally everything that happens was first decreed. For it is written, ''in whom we also have been chosen to an inheritance, being predestinated according to the] purpose of the One] working all things according to the counsel of His own will.

Consuming Passions

Consuming Passions
Author: Merrall L. Price
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2004-08-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135886849

Cannibalism is the breaking of the ultimate taboo. Yet during the later Middle Ages and early years of the Renaissance, mythological, historical, and contemporary accounts of cannibalism became particularly popular. Consuming Passions synthesizes and analyses the most interesting of those late medieval and early modern responses to Eucharistic teaching and debate that manifest themselves in the trope of cannibalism. This trope appears in texts as various as visions of the underworld, accounts of sacramental miracles, sermons, legal proceedings, and popular geographies. This book foregrounds the vexed role of the body in both late medieval and early modern religiosity, and the ways in which the boundaries of the endangered body in these narratives also reflect the rigorously defended borders of the body politic.

Forming God

Forming God
Author: Anne K. Knafl
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2014-10-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1575068990

This volume examines divine anthropomorphism in the Hebrew Bible, a study characterized by disagreement and contradiction. Discussions of anthropomorphism in the Hebrew Bible are typically found in three areas of inquiry: ancient Israelite religion, as reflected by the compositions of the Pentateuch; comparisons with ancient Near Eastern religions; and comparison with ancient translation and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. Contradictory arguments exist, both within each area of study and between them, about the intent of biblical writers, with respect to a theology of anthropomorphism. In this work, Knafl asserts that biblical studies has reached this impasse, largely due to its approach to the study of the phenomenon. The prevailing method has been to study divine anthropomorphism within an assumed framework of polemic and by associating it with a theological system. By contrast, Knafl analyzes divine anthropomorphism as a literary-contextual phenomenon and seeks to build a typology, from which secondary arguments regarding theology or history of religion may be built. This typology will provide scholars of biblical studies, history of religion, and (systematic) theology with a means of evaluating divine anthropomorphisms and their relation to human-divine interactions, as a biblical phenomenon.

Cremation, Corpses and Cannibalism

Cremation, Corpses and Cannibalism
Author: Anders Kaliff
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2017-05-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1443891800

Death matters and the matters of death are initially, and to a large extent, the decaying flesh of the corpse. Cremation as a ritual practice is the fastest and most optimal way of dissolving the corpse’s flesh, either by annihilation or purification, or a combination. Still, cremation was not the final rite, and the archaeological record testifies that the dead represented a means to other ends – the flesh, and not the least the bones – have been incorporated in a wide range of other ritual contexts. While human sacrifices and cannibalism as ritual phenomena are much discussed in anthropology, archaeology has an advantage, since the actual bone material leaves traces of ritual practices that are unseen and unheard of in the contemporary world. As such, this book fleshes out a broader and more coherent understanding of prehistoric religions and funeral practices in Scandinavia by focusing on cremation, corpses and cannibalism.

God: An Anatomy

God: An Anatomy
Author: Francesca Stavrakopoulou
Publisher: Knopf
Total Pages: 608
Release: 2022-01-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0525520465

An astonishing and revelatory history that re-presents God as he was originally envisioned by ancient worshippers—with a distinctly male body, and with superhuman powers, earthly passions, and a penchant for the fantastic and monstrous. "[A] rollicking journey through every aspect of Yahweh’s body, from top to bottom (yes, that too) and from inside out ... Ms. Stavrakopoulou has almost too much fun.”—The Economist The scholarship of theology and religion teaches us that the God of the Bible was without a body, only revealing himself in the Old Testament in words mysteriously uttered through his prophets, and in the New Testament in the body of Christ. The portrayal of God as corporeal and masculine is seen as merely metaphorical, figurative, or poetic. But, in this revelatory study, Francesca Stavrakopoulou presents a vividly corporeal image of God: a human-shaped deity who walks and talks and weeps and laughs, who eats, sleeps, feels, and breathes, and who is undeniably male. Here is a portrait—arrived at through the author's close examination of and research into the Bible—of a god in ancient myths and rituals who was a product of a particular society, at a particular time, made in the image of the people who lived then, shaped by their own circumstances and experience of the world. From head to toe—and every part of the body in between—this is a god of stunning surprise and complexity, one we have never encountered before.

A Divine Cordial - Romans 8

A Divine Cordial - Romans 8
Author: Thomas Watson
Publisher: Sovereign Grace Publishers,
Total Pages: 110
Release: 2007
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1589603591

This delectable book (the original title was A Divine Cordial) is an exposition of that verse, not neglecting the last phrase (as so many are apt to do). This is no pop treatment to pat the back of all professing Christians. It is a serious consideration of all things that go into making everything work together for good. This starts with the attributes of God, His promises and mercies, the graces of the Spirit, the intercession of Christ, etc. A key to understanding why and how things work together for good to ''the ones loving God'' lies in recognizing that all things begin with God's eternal decrees. Literally everything that happens was first decreed. For it is written, ''in whom we also have been chosen to an inheritance, being predestinated according to [the] purpose of the [One] working all things according to the counsel of His own will.'' (Ephesians 1:11) Watson lays out the evils of affliction, temptation, desertion, and sin, and how and why God makes these things work out to the good of the saints. Watson also excels in fixing just what a loving God means, and what it means to love God. There are many highly instructive pages on the subject of Christian love for God and man. The Grand Reason All Things Work for Good: It is the near and dear interest that God has in His people. He has covenanted with His people, They shall be My people, and I will be their God'' (Jer. 32:38) This leads to a distinction about calling: (1) our condition before calling; (2) the means of our effectual calling; (3) the method God uses; (4) the properties of this calling; and, (5) the purpose intended by our effectual calling. He then finishes with a discussion of God's purposes. It behooves everyone professing to be a Christian to study the purposes of God. This book is a pure delight for any true lover of God! How many have studied this question, Why do all things work to good for us? Thomas Watson (1616-1688) was one of the more famous Puritan preachers, also a victim of the 1662 ejection of evangelical preachers from their pulpits. He authored a great many books, all of which are still revered, and many are classics still being printed.

THE FOOD OF GODS

THE FOOD OF GODS
Author: Jasmuheen
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2007-08-01
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 184799847X

The Food of Gods is Jasmuheen's 18th book on metaphysical matters and her third book in the Divine Nutrition series. It is not necessary to have read the previous books on this subject which cover her personal journey and the solution for world health and world hunger issues as "The Foods of Gods" takes the pranic nourishment discussion to another level and offers simple yet powerful tools to satiate all of our hungers. Jasmuheen writes: The most important difference with our focus with Divine Nutrition is that It has the ability to feed us on all levels and that we can still benefit from increasing Its flow through our bio-system even if we continue to choose to enjoy eating. Allowing this Divinely Nutritional stream to be increased in our system means that we can be fed emotionally, mentally and spiritually and as such the techniques and guidelines shared in this book, will benefit us all by freeing us from our current personal and global emotional, mental and spiritual states of anorexia.