On Pagans, Jews, and Christians

On Pagans, Jews, and Christians
Author: Arnaldo Momigliano
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 362
Release: 1987-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780819562180

An analysis of the relationships between pagan Greece, imperial Rome, Judaism, and Christianity.

Magic in the Roman World

Magic in the Roman World
Author: Naomi Janowitz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2002-09-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 113463367X

Using in-depth examples of 'magical' practice such as exorcisms, love rites, alchemy and the transformation of humans into divine beings, this lively volume demonstrates that the word 'magic' was used widely in late antique texts as part of polemics against enemies and sometimes merely as a term for other people's rituals. Naomi Janowitz shows that 'magical' activities were integral to late antique religious practice, and that they must be understood from the perspective of those who employed them.

Edge of Empires

Edge of Empires
Author: Jennifer Chi
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Dura-Europos (Extinct city)
ISBN: 9780691154688

Published by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University on the occasion of the exhibition Edge of Empires, Sept. 23, 2011-Jan. 8, 2012.

Jews, Pagans, and Christians in the Galilee

Jews, Pagans, and Christians in the Galilee
Author: Mordechai Aviam
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781580461719

This volume holds 21 chapters arranged in chronological order from the Hellenistic to the Byzantine periods, each of them based on the results of archaeological excavations or field surveys conducted by the author during the past 25 years. It is a summary of field work as well as summaries of studies carried out in Galilee during the last 100 years. Further, it is a study of the Galileans and their material culture during the 1000 years between the third century BCE and the seventh century CE, a long period of time in which the foundation for both the Jesus movement and Mishnaic Judaism were built. This book gives scholars of religion, history, and archaeology much new and concentrated information, much of which has never been previously published.Mordechai Aviam was for 11 years the District Archaeologist of the Western Galilee for the Israel Antiquities Authority. He is an adjunct professor in residence at the Center for Judaic Studies in the University of Rochester.

The Jews Among Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire

The Jews Among Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire
Author: Judith Lieu
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2013-04-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135081883

In the period of Roman domination there were communities of Jews, some still in Palestine, some dispersed in and around the Roman Empire; they had to face at first the world-wide power of the pagan Romans and later on the emergence of Christianity as an Empire-wide religion. How they coped with these dramatic changes and how they influenced the new forms of religious life that emerged in this period provide the main themes of The Jews Among Pagans and Christians. Essays by the leading scholars in the field together with the introduction by the editors, offer new approaches to understanding the role of Judaism and the pattern of religious interaction characteristic of the period.

Apologetics in the Roman Empire

Apologetics in the Roman Empire
Author: Mark J. Edwards
Publisher: Clarendon Press
Total Pages: 330
Release: 1999-06-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 019154437X

This book is the first to tackle the origins and purpose of literary religious apologetic in the first centuries of the Christian era by discussing, on their own terms, texts composed by pagan and Jewish authors as well as Christians. Previous studies of apologetic have focused primarily on the Christian apologists of the second century. These, and other Christian authors, are represented also in this volume but, in addition, experts in the religious history of the pagan world, in Judaism, and in late antique philosophy examine very different literary traditions to see to what extent techniques and motifs were shared across the religious divide. Each contributor has investigated the probable audience, the literary milieu, and the specific social, political, and cultural circumstances which elicited each apologetic text. In many cases these questions lead on to the further issue of the relation between the readers addressed by the author and the actual readers, and the extent to which a defined literary genre of apologetic developed. These studies, ranging in time from the New Testament to the early fourth century, and including novel contributions by specialists in ancient history, Jewish history, ancient philosophy, the New Testament, and patristics, will put the study of ancient religious apologetic on to a new footing.

Mosaics of Faith

Mosaics of Faith
Author: Rina Talgam
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Total Pages: 608
Release: 2014
Genre: Art
ISBN:

An analytical history of the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, and Early Abbasidmosaics in the Holy Land from the second century B.C.E to eighth century C.E.

Pagans & Christians

Pagans & Christians
Author: Gus DiZerega
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2001
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9781567182286

Although Christianity is still a major religious force, there are growing numbers of people in other faiths, including the various Pagan traditions. Some Christians have responded to this trend with fear and derision, while some Pagans have reacted to that fear with anger and mistrust. Much of the problem is due to misunderstandings and lack of communication. This can change with Gus diZerega's Pagans & Christians. Here you will find a penetrating and illuminating comparison, showing that neither path has the single correct approach to the Divine. Rather, either or both can be authentic and legitimate expressions of the appreciation of the Ultimate Source of All. Pagans & Christians is an ideal way to help bridge what at time seems a wide chasm between Christian and Pagan beliefs. By sharing core ideas of both paths, this book provides a way to give deeper mutual understanding and unity among the religions of the world. Although Pagans & Christians accepts both paths as valid, the book provides a more in-depth explanation of Paganism ó the minority religion because in some ways, Paganism demands a greater defense and explanation of its beliefs and ideas to dispel misunderstandings. The author is a Third Degree Gardenerian Elder and in Pagans & Christians has presented nothing less than a brilliant defense of Paganism, clearly showing how it should stand beside all of the major religions of the world as an equal. As part of this defense, diZerega gives a listing of biblical contradictions and Christian philosophical difficulties which can help any Pagan responding to a negative attack, and will help any Christian to view his or her religion as a way, not the way. Winner of the 2001 Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR) Award for Best Non-fiction Book

Pagans and Christians in the City

Pagans and Christians in the City
Author: Steven D. Smith
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2018-11-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467451487

Traditionalist Christians who oppose same-sex marriage and other cultural developments in the United States wonder why they are being forced to bracket their beliefs in order to participate in public life. This situation is not new, says Steven D. Smith: Christians two thousand years ago faced very similar challenges. Picking up poet T. S. Eliot’s World War II–era thesis that the future of the West would be determined by a contest between Christianity and “modern paganism,” Smith argues in this book that today’s culture wars can be seen as a reprise of the basic antagonism that pitted pagans against Christians in the Roman Empire. Smith’s Pagans and Christians in the City looks at that historical conflict and explores how the same competing ideas continue to clash today. All of us, Smith shows, have much to learn by observing how patterns from ancient history are reemerging in today’s most controversial issues.

Her Share of the Blessings

Her Share of the Blessings
Author: Ross Shepard Kraemer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 268
Release: 1994-01-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0199879788

In this pathbreaking volume, Ross Shepard Kraemer provides the first comprehensive look at women's religions in Greco-Roman antiquity. She vividly recreates the religious lives of early Christian, Jewish, and pagan women, with many fascinating examples: Greek women's devotion to goddesses, rites of Roman matrons, Jewish women in rabbinic and diaspora communities, Christian women's struggles to exercise authority and autonomy, and women's roles as leaders in the full spectrum of Greco-Roman religions. In every case, Kraemer reveals the connections between the social constraints under which women lived, and their religious beliefs and practices. The relationship among female autonomy, sexuality, and religion emerges as a persistent theme. Analyzing the monastic Jewish Therapeutae and various Christian communities, Kraemer demonstrates the paradoxical liberation which women achieved by rejection of sexuality, the body, and the female. In the epilogue, Kraemer pursues the disturbing implications such findings have for contemporary women. Based on an astonishing variety of primary sources, Her Share of the Blessings is an insightful work that goes beyond the limitations of previous scholarship to provide a more accurate portrait of women in the Greco-Roman world.