Sanctity and Environment in Ethiopian Hagiography

Sanctity and Environment in Ethiopian Hagiography PDF Author: Abate Gobena
Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand
ISBN: 9188906221
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
The original forests of the central and northern highlands of Ethiopia are almost entirely confined to the "sacred groves" surrounding the churches and monasteries of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. In Ethiopian tradition sanctity starts from the Tabot on the altar of the church and extends to the outer periphery of the compound. Church forests serve as shade and shelter for the sacred, and are seen as integral parts of the churchyard. The Act of Gebre Menfes Qiddus (GGMQ) is an original Ethiopic hagiographic text. It depicts the life and struggle of the saint in the wilderness of forests and mountains. Hagiographic texts like GGMQ are in Ethiopia not mere historical records, but texts linked to the daily liturgical services that shape and mould the perceptions and actions of their readers and listeners. The aim of the thesis is to analyse how GGMQ presents the relation between the saint and the natural environment in order to see if there is a correlation with how the Ethiopian tradition has preserved the church forests and has considered these to be sacred spaces representing the wilderness. The aim is achieved through a close reading of the text and its intertexts using four selected themes as analytical instruments: ascetic estrangement, coexistence with non-human creation, identification with the angels and reconciliation of opposites. The analysis, and the fact that the GGMQ is one of the most venerated texts, read and heard with great liturgical solemnity, show that there are good reasons to believe that the constant reading of GGMQ has made and makes a significant impact upon the readers' views on the mutual co-habitation of human and non-human creation and the development of an awareness of the need to preserve the wilderness and non-human creation.

Sanctity and Environment in Ethiopian Hagiography

Sanctity and Environment in Ethiopian Hagiography PDF Author: Abate Gobena
Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand
ISBN: 9188906221
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
The original forests of the central and northern highlands of Ethiopia are almost entirely confined to the "sacred groves" surrounding the churches and monasteries of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. In Ethiopian tradition sanctity starts from the Tabot on the altar of the church and extends to the outer periphery of the compound. Church forests serve as shade and shelter for the sacred, and are seen as integral parts of the churchyard. The Act of Gebre Menfes Qiddus (GGMQ) is an original Ethiopic hagiographic text. It depicts the life and struggle of the saint in the wilderness of forests and mountains. Hagiographic texts like GGMQ are in Ethiopia not mere historical records, but texts linked to the daily liturgical services that shape and mould the perceptions and actions of their readers and listeners. The aim of the thesis is to analyse how GGMQ presents the relation between the saint and the natural environment in order to see if there is a correlation with how the Ethiopian tradition has preserved the church forests and has considered these to be sacred spaces representing the wilderness. The aim is achieved through a close reading of the text and its intertexts using four selected themes as analytical instruments: ascetic estrangement, coexistence with non-human creation, identification with the angels and reconciliation of opposites. The analysis, and the fact that the GGMQ is one of the most venerated texts, read and heard with great liturgical solemnity, show that there are good reasons to believe that the constant reading of GGMQ has made and makes a significant impact upon the readers' views on the mutual co-habitation of human and non-human creation and the development of an awareness of the need to preserve the wilderness and non-human creation.

Gardens in the Wasteland

Gardens in the Wasteland PDF Author: Björn Asserhed
Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand
ISBN: 9188906248
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
Gardens in the Wasteland is an ethnographic study of Christian formation within three Swedish church plants working against a backdrop of advanced secularisation. The thesis analyses the formative practices employed by these church plants with the intention of forming persons towards a lived Christian identity. Employing a situated learning theory framework, it traces the formative trajectories and negotiations that emerge from these shared practices, and also examines the articulations of callings and intentions within these church plants. The findings reveal that the establishment of a church plant of-ten stems from a sense of place-oriented calling that encompasses a vision of vibrant Christian life and community. These church plants cultivate formative practices -- aimed at certain teloi -- that guide individuals on their journeys towards a lived Christian identity. Through participation in these practices, individuals align themselves with the church plant's vision of Christian life. This identity formation process is not static but rather involves ongoing negotiations, both on a personal and community level, as individuals grapple with the meaning of Christian identity and faith amidst an increasingly secularised society.

Translating Faith

Translating Faith PDF Author: Samantha Kelly
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674294173
Category : Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
Samantha Kelly tells the story of Ethiopian Orthodox pilgrims in sixteenth-century Rome. The only African community in premodern Europe to leave extensive documentation in their own language, they negotiated religious pluralism amid rising Catholic conformity and collaborated with Latin Christians on scholarly projects of enduring interest.

Black Saints in Early Modern Global Catholicism

Black Saints in Early Modern Global Catholicism PDF Author: Erin Kathleen Rowe
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108421210
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
This is the untold story of how black saints - and the slaves who venerated them - transformed the early modern church. It speaks to race, the Atlantic slave trade, and global Christianity, and provides new ways of thinking about blackness, holiness, and cultural authority.

A Companion to Medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea

A Companion to Medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea PDF Author: Samantha Kelly
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004419582
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 606

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Book Description
"A Companion to Medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea introduces readers to current research on major topics in the history and cultures of the Ethiopian-Eritrean region from the seventh century to the mid-sixteenth, with insights into foundational late-antique developments where appropriate. Multiconfessional in scope, it includes in its purview both the Christian kingdom and the Islamic and local-religious societies that have attracted increasing attention in recent decades, tracing their internal features, interrelations, and imbrication in broader networks stretching from Egypt and Yemen to Europe and India. Utilizing diverse source types and methodologies, its fifteen essays offer an up-to-date overview of the subject for students and nonspecialists, and are rich in material for researchers. Contributors are Alessandro Bausi, Claire Bosc-Tiessé, Antonella Brita, Amélie Chekroun, Marie-Laure Derat, Deresse Ayenachew, François-Xavier Fauvelle, Emmanuel Fritsch, Alessandro Gori, Habtemichael Kidane, Margaux Herman, Bertrand Hirsch, Samantha Kelly, Gianfrancesco Lusini, Denis Nosnitsin, and Anaïs Wion"--

Church and State in Ethiopia: 1270 - 1527

Church and State in Ethiopia: 1270 - 1527 PDF Author: Taddesse Tamrat
Publisher: Tsehai Publishers
ISBN: 9781599070391
Category : Church and state
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
The book by Dr. Taddesse Tamrat is an important contribution. ... In fact, the author shows his full and precise knowledge of past literature on Ethiopia, and his critical analysis of historical events is well founded on the results of recent work; but also-and this is an important novelty-he had access to hagiographical and historical documents, kept in Ethiopian monasteries, which had not previously been known to scholars. ... - Professor Enrico Cerulli, in BSOAS, Vol. 37, 1972. Once in a long while, books are written that set the standard in their discipline. Taddesse Tamrat's Church and State has been just such a book, a classic in Ethiopian historiography, unsurpassed in its painstaking reconstruction of the medieval history of Ethiopia. Few historians have used the rich historical data of the gadl literature as exhaustively and as meticulously as Taddesse has done, teasing out crucial information as only an Ethiopian versed in church traditions could do. Equally significant for the value of the book has been the blending of these Ethiopian traditional sources with the rich contemporary Arabic sources and the commentaries and analyses of such authorities as Carlo Conti Rossini. In short, what Taddesse has done through this masterly reconstruction is to blaze the trail that other Ethiopian historians have followed, a process that culminated in the growth and ripening of professional Ethiopian historiography. - Professor Bahru Zewde is the author of A History of Modern Ethiopia Professor Taddesse Tamrat's magisterial historical work Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270-1527, documents the rise and expansion of a new dynasty in highland Christian Ethiopia and the simultaneous growth of Ethiopian monasticism as an intellectual and cultural force. Based upon a broad range of primary sources previously either unknown or not utilized, this book remains the essential text for the history of the highland Christian state of Ethiopia during the period of its development as the dominant state in the Horn of Africa. This seminal work established the historical foundation for subsequent studies in the history of highland Ethiopia, including specialized cultural and historical analyses of theology, music and religious art. - Professor Marilyn E. Heldman is the author of African Zion: The Sacred Art of Ethiopia

Religious Conversion in Africa

Religious Conversion in Africa PDF Author: Jason Bruner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783039430352
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 126

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Book Description
This collection brings together a diverse range of scholars, including historians of pre-colonial, colonial, and contemporary Africa, along with anthropologists, who develop fresh arguments and reassessments of religious, cultural, and social change pertaining to Africa. The result is a fascinating array of research that offers critical, creative, and constructive analyses of religious change on the African continent, from the medieval period to the present.

The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church

The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church PDF Author: YaʼItyop̣yā ʼortodoks tawāḥedo béta kerestiyān
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Christian saints
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description


Christian Mission

Christian Mission PDF Author: Dana L. Robert
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444358642
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
CHRISTIAN MISSION “Dana Robert distils a quarter of a century of her research into an erudite and accessible single-volume account of how Christianity became the largest religious tradition in the world. There is no better place for any reader to start becoming informed about this important subject.” David Hempton, Harvard University “Remarkable for the range and depth of the material Robert is able to pack into so short a book. Reliable and readable, it is especially valuable for its treatment of the relation between western and non-western missionary activity.” David A. Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley “Dana Robert’s richly textured book shows us that the history of Christian missions is far from being merely a European colonial story, and will be immensely valuable to students and general readers who are concerned to uncover the historical roots of Christianity’s current status as a truly global faith.” Brian Stanley, University of Edinburgh The Gospels record that Christ commanded his disciples to “go forth and teach all nations.” Thus began the history of Christian mission, a phenomenon which brought about massive shifts in the nature and practice of Christianity, and one that many say reflects the single most important movement of intercultural encounter over a sustained period of human history. To understand Christianity as a global movement, therefore, it is essential to study the role of mission – defined as the transmission of the Gospel across cultures. Erudite and enlightening, this brief book explores the 2,000 years of mission history, covering topics such as the meaning of the missionary through history, gender and missions, and missions in culture and politics. Given that in the twenty-first century, Christianity is now largely practiced outside the West, Christian Mission is an inspirational and invaluable resource to broaden our understanding of the nature of Christianity as a truly multi-cultural world religion.

Landscapes of Pilgrimage in Medieval Britain

Landscapes of Pilgrimage in Medieval Britain PDF Author: Martin Locker
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1784910775
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
This book seeks to address the journeying context of pilgrimage within the landscapes of Medieval Britain. Using four case studies, an interdisciplinary methodology developed by the author is applied to four different geographical and cultural areas of Britain to investigate the practicalities of travel along the Medieval road network.