Author: Jan Assmann
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801437861
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296
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Book Description
First English-language edition, with revisions and additions by the author.This classic work by one of the world's most distinguished Egyptologists was first published in German in 1984. The Search for God in Ancient Egypt offers a distillation of Jan Assmann's views on ancient Egyptian religion, with special emphasis on theology and piety. Deeply rooted in the texts of ancient Egypt and thoroughly informed by comparative religion, theology, anthropology, and semiotic analysis, Assmann's interpretations reveal the complexity of Egyptian thought in a new way.Assmann takes special care to distinguish between the "implicit" theology of Egyptian polytheism and the "explicit" theology that is concerned with exploring the problem of the divine. His discussion of polytheism and mythology addresses aspects of ritual, the universe, and myth; his consideration of explicit theology deals with theodicy and the specifics of Amarna religion.
Author: Garth Fowden
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691024981
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274
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Book Description
Sage, scientist, and sorcerer, Hermes Trismegistus was the culture-hero of Hellenistic and Roman Egypt. A human (according to some) who had lived about the time of Moses, but now indisputably a god, he was credited with the authorship of numerous books on magic and the supernatural, alchemy, astrology, theology, and philosophy. Until the early seventeenth century, few doubted the attribution. Even when unmasked, Hermes remained a byword for the arcane. Historians of ancient philosophy have puzzled much over the origins of his mystical teachings; but this is the first investigation of the Hermetic milieu by a social historian. Starting from the complex fusions and tensions that molded Graeco-Egyptian culture, and in particular Hermetism, during the centuries after Alexander, Garth Fowden goes on to argue that the technical and philosophical Hermetica, apparently so different, might be seen as aspects of a single "way of Hermes." This assumption that philosophy and religion, even cult, bring one eventually to the same goal was typically late antique, and guaranteed the Hermetica a far-flung readership, even among Christians. The focus and conclusion of this study is an assault on the problem of the social milieu of Hermetism.
Author: Walter Stephens
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421446650
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 399
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Book Description
A sweeping history of how writing has preserved cultural practices, traditions, and knowledge throughout human history. In How Writing Made Us Human, 3000 BCE to Now, Walter Stephens condenses the massive history of the written word into an accessible, engaging narrative. The history of writing is not merely a record of technical innovations—from hieroglyphics to computers—but something far richer: a chronicle of emotional engagement with written culture whose long arc intimates why the humanities are crucial to society. For five millennia, myths and legends provided fascinating explanations for the origins and uses of writing. These stories overflowed with enthusiasm about fabled personalities (both human and divine) and their adventures with capturing speech and preserving memory. Stories recounted how and why an ancient Sumerian king, a contemporary of Gilgamesh, invented the cuneiform writing system—or alternatively, how the earliest Mesopotamians learned everything from a hybrid man-fish. For centuries, Jews and Christians debated whether Moses or God first wrote the Ten Commandments. Throughout history, some myths of writing were literary fictions. Plato's tale of Atlantis supposedly emerged from a vast Egyptian archive of world history. Dante's vision of God as one infinite book inspired Borges's fantasy of the cosmos as a limitless library, while the nineteenth century bequeathed Mary Shelley's apocalyptic tale of a world left with innumerable books but only one surviving reader. Stephens presents a comprehensive history of the written word and demonstrates how writing has preserved and shaped human life since the Bronze Age. These stories, their creators, and their preservation have inspired wonder and an endless appetite for historical revelation.
Author: Krzysztof Nawotka
Publisher: Barkhuis
ISBN: 9492444739
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 334
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Book Description
The Alexander Romance is a difficult text to define and to assess justly. From its earliest days it was an open text, which was adapted into a variety of cultures with meanings that themselves vary, and yet seem to carry a strong undercurrent of homogeneity: Alexander is the hero who cannot become a god, and who encapsulates the desires and strivings of the host cultures. The papers assembled in this volume, which were originally presented at a conference at the University of Wroc?aw, Poland, in October 2015, all face the challenge of defining the Alexander Romance. Some focus on quite specific topics while others address more overarching themes. They form a cohesive set of approaches to the delicate positioning of the text between history and literature. From its earliest elements in Hellenistic Egypt, to its latest reworkings in the Byzantine and Islamic Middle East, the Alexander Romance shows itself to be a work that steadily engages with such questions as kingship, the limits of human (and Greek) nature, and the purpose of history. The Romance began as a history, but only by becoming literature could it achieve such a deep penetration of east and west.
Author: Bhaktivejanyana Swami
Publisher: Author House
ISBN: 1477242732
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 747
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Book Description
Dr. Singh: [Science] says that the different species were not created simultaneously, but evolved gradually. ...I came across a statement in the Bhagavad-Gita to the effect that all 8,400,000 species of living entities are created simultaneously. Is that correct? Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Living beings move from one bodily form to another. The forms already exist. The living entity simply transfers himself just as a man transfers himself from one apartment to another. One apartment is first-class, another is second class, and another is third-class. Suppose a person comes from a lower class apartment to a first-class apartment, the person is the same, but now, according to his capacity for payment, or karma, he is able to occupy a higher-class apartment. Real evolution does not mean physical development, but the development of Consciousness. Do you follow? ...The apartment already exists, however it is not the lower-class apartment that becomes the higher class apartment. That is Darwins nonsensical theory. He would say that the apartment has become high-class. Modern scientists think that life has come from matter. They say that millions and millions of years ago there was simply matter, but no life. We do not accept that. Of the two energies - life and matter - life, or spirit is the original superior energy and matter is the resultant inferior energy. Spirit is independent and matter is dependent.... Dr. Singh: All that you have been saying completely contradicts Darwins theory of evolution. Srila Prabhupada: Darwin and his followers are rascals. If, originally, there were no higher species, why do they exist now? Also, why do the lower species still exist? For example, at the present moment, we see both the intellectual person and the foolish ass. Why do both these entities exist simultaneously? Why hasnt the ass form evolved upwards and disappeared? Why do we never see a monkey giving birth to a human? In Bhagavad-Gita ... the word yantra, or machine, means that in any species of life, we are traveling in bodies that are like machines provided by material nature.
Author: Brian P. Copenhaver
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521425438
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 410
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Book Description
The Hermetica are a body of theological-philosophical texts written in late antiquity, but long believed to be much older. Their supposed author, Hermes Trismegistus, was thought to be a contemporary of Moses, and the Hermetic philosophy was regarded as an ancient theology, parallel to the received wisdom of the Bible. This first English translation based on reliable texts, together with Brian P. Copenhaver's comprehensive introduction, provide an indispensable resource to scholars in ancient philosophy and religion, early Christianity, Renaissance literature, and history, the history of science, and the occultist tradition in which the Hermetica have become canonical texts.
Author: Marlene Seven Bremner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1644112892
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 561
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Book Description
• Examines the foundational texts and principles of Hermeticism and alchemy, showing how they offer a foundation for a psycho-spiritual creative practice • Takes the reader on a Hermetic journey through each of the seven traditional planets, offering meditative discourses that speak directly to the intuitive soul • Provides examples from traditional alchemical art and the author’s own intricate esoteric paintings Drawing on ancient Egyptian and Greek cosmogonies and essential Hermetic texts, such as the Corpus Hermeticum, the Emerald Tablet (Tabula Smaragdina), and the Nag Hammadi codices, Marlene Seven Bremner offers a detailed understanding of Hermetic philosophy and the art of alchemy as a foundation for a psycho-spiritual creative practice. Offering examples from traditional alchemical art and her own intricate esoteric paintings, Bremner examines the foundational principles of Hermeticism and alchemy and shows how these traditions are a direct means for accessing higher consciousness and true self-knowledge, or gnosis, as well as a way to extract the essence of one’s own creative gifts. The author takes the reader on a Hermetic journey through each of the seven traditional planets--Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon--exploring their mythological, philosophical, alchemical, Qabalistic, magical, astrological, and energetic natures and offering meditative discourses that reach past the rational mind to speak directly to the intuitive soul. She relates the seven planets to the esoteric anatomy of the human body, specifically the seven chakras, and shows how the planets can offer understanding and experience of archetypal energies and patterns in the body, in one’s life, and in the creative process. A profound synthesis of magical and occult teachings as well as an initiation into the alchemical opus, this book reveals how to integrate and apply Hermetic and alchemical principles to awaken inner knowing, liberate the imagination, and live a mystical, creative, and truly inspired life.
Author: Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Thomas Taylor
Publisher: Philaletheians UK
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 12
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Book Description
Author: Cornelius Cornelii a Lapide
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 430
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Book Description
Author: Josh Ellenbogen
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804760438
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 258
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Book Description
This interdisciplinary collection of essays on idolatry, including both historical and theoretical contributions, shows that the concept of idolatry is helpful for all who study the ways that people interact with and conceive of the things around them.
