Religion in Roman Egypt

Religion in Roman Egypt PDF Author: David Frankfurter
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691214735
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
This exploration of cultural resilience examines the complex fate of classical Egyptian religion during the centuries from the period when Christianity first made its appearance in Egypt to when it became the region's dominant religion (roughly 100 to 600 C.E. Taking into account the full range of witnesses to continuing native piety--from papyri and saints' lives to archaeology and terracotta figurines--and drawing on anthropological studies of folk religion, David Frankfurter argues that the religion of Pharonic Egypt did not die out as early as has been supposed but was instead relegated from political centers to village and home, where it continued a vigorous existence for centuries. In analyzing the fate of the Egyptian oracle and of the priesthoods, the function of magical texts, and the dynamics of domestic cults, Frankfurter describes how an ancient culture maintained itself while also being transformed through influences such as Hellenism, Roman government, and Christian dominance. Recognizing the special characteristics of Egypt, which differentiated it from the other Mediterranean cultures that were undergoing simultaneous social and political changes, he departs from the traditional "decline of paganism/triumph of Christianity" model most often used to describe the Roman period. By revealing late Egyptian religion in its Egyptian historical context, he moves us away from scenarios of Christian triumph and shows us how long and how energetically pagan worship survived.

Religion in Roman Egypt

Religion in Roman Egypt PDF Author: David Frankfurter
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691214735
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 331

Get Book Here

Book Description
This exploration of cultural resilience examines the complex fate of classical Egyptian religion during the centuries from the period when Christianity first made its appearance in Egypt to when it became the region's dominant religion (roughly 100 to 600 C.E. Taking into account the full range of witnesses to continuing native piety--from papyri and saints' lives to archaeology and terracotta figurines--and drawing on anthropological studies of folk religion, David Frankfurter argues that the religion of Pharonic Egypt did not die out as early as has been supposed but was instead relegated from political centers to village and home, where it continued a vigorous existence for centuries. In analyzing the fate of the Egyptian oracle and of the priesthoods, the function of magical texts, and the dynamics of domestic cults, Frankfurter describes how an ancient culture maintained itself while also being transformed through influences such as Hellenism, Roman government, and Christian dominance. Recognizing the special characteristics of Egypt, which differentiated it from the other Mediterranean cultures that were undergoing simultaneous social and political changes, he departs from the traditional "decline of paganism/triumph of Christianity" model most often used to describe the Roman period. By revealing late Egyptian religion in its Egyptian historical context, he moves us away from scenarios of Christian triumph and shows us how long and how energetically pagan worship survived.

Religion in Roman Egypt

Religion in Roman Egypt PDF Author: David Frankfurter
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691070544
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
This exploration of cultural resilience examines the complex fate of classical Egyptian religion during the centuries from the period when Christianity first made its appearance in Egypt to when it became the region's dominant religion (roughly 100 to 600 C.E. Taking into account the full range of witnesses to continuing native piety--from papyri and saints' lives to archaeology and terracotta figurines--and drawing on anthropological studies of folk religion, David Frankfurter argues that the religion of Pharonic Egypt did not die out as early as has been supposed but was instead relegated from political centers to village and home, where it continued a vigorous existence for centuries. In analyzing the fate of the Egyptian oracle and of the priesthoods, the function of magical texts, and the dynamics of domestic cults, Frankfurter describes how an ancient culture maintained itself while also being transformed through influences such as Hellenism, Roman government, and Christian dominance. Recognizing the special characteristics of Egypt, which differentiated it from the other Mediterranean cultures that were undergoing simultaneous social and political changes, he departs from the traditional "decline of paganism/triumph of Christianity" model most often used to describe the Roman period. By revealing late Egyptian religion in its Egyptian historical context, he moves us away from scenarios of Christian triumph and shows us how long and how energetically pagan worship survived.

Religion in Roman Egypt

Religion in Roman Egypt PDF Author: David Frankfurter
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780691026855
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
This exploration of cultural resilience examines the complex fate of classical Egyptian religion during the centuries from the period when Christianity first made its appearance in Egypt to when it became the region's dominant religion (roughly 100 to 600 C.E. Taking into account the full range of witnesses to continuing native piety--from papyri and saints' lives to archaeology and terracotta figurines--and drawing on anthropological studies of folk religion, David Frankfurter argues that the religion of Pharonic Egypt did not die out as early as has been supposed but was instead relegated from political centers to village and home, where it continued a vigorous existence for centuries. In analyzing the fate of the Egyptian oracle and of the priesthoods, the function of magical texts, and the dynamics of domestic cults, Frankfurter describes how an ancient culture maintained itself while also being transformed through influences such as Hellenism, Roman government, and Christian dominance. Recognizing the special characteristics of Egypt, which differentiated it from the other Mediterranean cultures that were undergoing simultaneous social and political changes, he departs from the traditional "decline of paganism/triumph of Christianity" model most often used to describe the Roman period. By revealing late Egyptian religion in its Egyptian historical context, he moves us away from scenarios of Christian triumph and shows us how long and how energetically pagan worship survived.

Christianizing Egypt

Christianizing Egypt PDF Author: David Frankfurter
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691216789
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
How does a culture become Christian, especially one that is heir to such ancient traditions and spectacular monuments as Egypt? This book offers a new model for envisioning the process of Christianization by looking at the construction of Christianity in the various social and creative worlds active in Egyptian culture during late antiquity. As David Frankfurter shows, members of these different social and creative worlds came to create different forms of Christianity according to their specific interests, their traditional idioms, and their sense of what the religion could offer. Reintroducing the term “syncretism” for the inevitable and continuous process by which a religion is acculturated, the book addresses the various formations of Egyptian Christianity that developed in the domestic sphere, the worlds of holy men and saints’ shrines, the work of craftsmen and artisans, the culture of monastic scribes, and the reimagination of the landscape itself, through processions, architecture, and the potent remains of the past. Drawing on sermons and magical texts, saints’ lives and figurines, letters and amulets, and comparisons with Christianization elsewhere in the Roman empire and beyond, Christianizing Egypt reconceives religious change—from the “conversion” of hearts and minds to the selective incorporation and application of strategies for protection, authority, and efficacy, and for imagining the environment.

Later Roman Egypt: Society, Religion, Economy and Administration

Later Roman Egypt: Society, Religion, Economy and Administration PDF Author: Roger S. Bagnall
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040235778
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Egypt, with its ever-growing wealth of evidence from the papyri, has in recent decades been one of the liveliest areas of scholarship on the later Roman Empire. This volume collects two dozen articles on the social, economic, and administrative history of Egypt by Roger Bagnall, whose book 'Egypt in Late Antiquity' has helped to bring this region and this evidence into the mainstream of historical debate. In these studies some of the main themes of his work are visible, in particular attempts to explore the possibilities for quantifying not only questions like the burden of taxation or the distribution of land-ownership, but more tantalizing and controversial matters like the rate at which the population of Egypt was Christianized.

Gods and Men in Egypt

Gods and Men in Egypt PDF Author: Françoise Dunand
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801488535
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
In their wide-ranging interpretation of the religion of ancient Egypt, Françoise Dunand and Christiane Zivie-Coche explore how, over a period of roughly 3500 years, the Egyptians conceptualized their relations with the gods. Drawing on the insights of anthropology, the authors discuss such topics as the identities, images, and functions of the gods; rituals and liturgies; personal forms of piety expressing humanity's need to establish a direct relation with the divine; and the afterlife, a central feature of Egyptian religion. That religion, the authors assert, was characterized by the remarkable continuity of its ritual practices and the ideas of which they were an expression.Throughout, Dunand and Zivie-Coche take advantage of the most recent archaeological discoveries and scholarship. Gods and Men in Egypt is unique in its coverage of Egyptian religious expression in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Written with nonspecialist readers in mind, it is largely concerned with the continuation of Egypt's traditional religion in these periods, but it also includes fascinating accounts of Judaism in Egypt and the appearance and spread of Christianity there.

Roman Egypt

Roman Egypt PDF Author: Roger S. Bagnall
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108957129
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 756

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Book Description
Egypt played a crucial role in the Roman Empire for seven centuries. It was wealthy and occupied a strategic position between the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean worlds, while its uniquely fertile lands helped to feed the imperial capitals at Rome and then Constantinople. The cultural and religious landscape of Egypt today owes much to developments during the Roman period, including in particular the forms taken by Egyptian Christianity. Moreover, we have an abundance of sources for its history during this time, especially because of the recovery of vast numbers of written texts giving an almost uniquely detailed picture of its society, economy, government, and culture. This book, the work of six historians and archaeologists from Egypt, the US, and the UK, provides students and a general audience with a readable new history of the period and includes many illustrations of art, archaeological sites, and documents, and quotations from primary sources.

The Beautiful Burial in Roman Egypt

The Beautiful Burial in Roman Egypt PDF Author: Christina Riggs
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780191534874
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
This important new study looks at the intersection of Greek and Egyptian art forms in the funerary sphere of Roman Egypt. A discussion of artistic change, cultural identity, and religious belief foregrounds the detailed analysis of more than 150 objects and tombs, many of which are presented here for the first time. In addition to the information it provides about individual works of art, supported by catalogue entries, the study explores fundamental questions such as how artists combine the iconographies and representational forms of different visual traditions, and why two distinct visual traditions were employed in Roman Egypt.

The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt

The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt PDF Author: Christina Riggs
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199571457
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 814

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Book Description
This handbook, arranged in seven thematic sections, is unique in drawing together many different strands of research on Roman Egypt, in order to suggest both the state of knowledge in the field and the possibilities for collaborative, synthetic, and interpretive research.

The Egyptian Origin of Christianity

The Egyptian Origin of Christianity PDF Author: Lisa Ann Bargeman
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1553699092
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
A breakthrough book affecting the scientific, religious and literary communities, The Egyptian Origin of Christianity is a comprehensive look at the history of religion through the Literary Canon. As a culmination of years of research, this book fills the gaps between modern and ancient religious thought, providing us with the most valuable view of the Egyptian religion to date when compared with the The Bible and other classic literature. No other book has explored so well the origins of modern theology. This is done not only in terms of language, but also in terms of education, cosmology, physical symbolism and tradition. As the first book to, in a scientific sound way, challenge the ecumenical system, The Egyptian Origin of Christianity represents the fulfillment of strategy that calls for a comprehensive shift in the way religion is presently understood. For additional information, please go to http://ancientnile.co.uk/lb.html. "I must admit that your ideas are very interesting, more fascinating [than I had anticipated.] I have read it with great interest. You illustrate your ideas [with] the Egyptian texts. The Egyptian Origin of Christianity can fill 'the scientific hole' in this problem." Dr. Roman Szmurlo - PhD and Professor of Ancient Theology and Coptic Language at Warsaw University "Lisa Ann Bargeman's The Egyptian Origin Of Christianity offers an informative, iconoclastic analytical survey of those non-Biblical contributions to the concepts and ecumenical development of Christianity drawn from the Egyptian religious myths and rituals of antiquity. The juxtaposing of texts from the Bible and from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the comparison of similarities between the story of Osiris and the story of Jesus, the observations of cosmology, physical symbolism, and tradition, are all revealed in startling and unexpected ways that will give serious students of both Egyptian and Christian metaphysics a great deal of food for thought and reflection. Lisa Bargeman adheres to a very high standard of scholarship both in her presentation and in her interpretative commentary. The Egyptian Origin Of Christianity is a welcome and much appreciated contribution to Metaphysical Studies." Midwest Book Review's Small Press Bookwatch