Religion of the Gods
Title | Religion of the Gods PDF eBook |
Author | Kimberley Christine Patton |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | 512 |
Release | 2009-02-09 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 9780199723287 |
In many of the world's religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, a seemingly enigmatic and paradoxical image is found--that of the god who worships. Various interpretations of this seeming paradox have been advanced. Some suggest that it represents sacrifice to a higher deity. Proponents of anthropomorphic projection say that the gods are just "big people" and that images of human religious action are simply projected onto the deities. However, such explanations do not do justice to the complexity and diversity of this phenomenon. In Religion of the Gods, Kimberley C. Patton uses a comparative approach to take up anew a longstanding challenge in ancient Greek religious iconography: why are the Olympian gods depicted on classical pottery making libations? The sacrificing gods in ancient Greece are compared to gods who perform rituals in six other religious traditions: the Vedic gods, the heterodox god Zurvan of early Zoroastrianism, the Old Norse god Odin, the Christian God and Christ, the God of Judaism, and Islam's Allah. Patton examines the comparative evidence from a cultural and historical perspective, uncovering deep structural resonances while also revealing crucial differences. Instead of looking for invisible recipients or lost myths, Patton proposes the new category of "divine reflexivity." Divinely performed ritual is a self-reflexive, self-expressive action that signals the origin of ritual in the divine and not the human realm. Above all, divine ritual is generative, both instigating and inspiring human religious activity. The religion practiced by the gods is both like and unlike human religious action. Seen from within the religious tradition, gods are not "big people," but other than human. Human ritual is directed outward to a divine being, but the gods practice ritual on their own behalf. "Cultic time," the symbiotic performance of ritual both in heaven and on earth, collapses the distinction between cult and theology each time ritual is performed. Offering the first comprehensive study and a new theory of this fascinating phenomenon, Religion of the Gods is a significant contribution to the fields of classics and comparative religion. Patton shows that the god who performs religious action is not an anomaly, but holds a meaningful place in the category of ritual and points to a phenomenologically universal structure within religion itself.
Religion and the Gods
Title | Religion and the Gods PDF eBook |
Author | Robert Hull |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 32 |
Release | 2007-01-01 |
Genre | Juvenile Nonfiction |
ISBN | 9781597710602 |
Introduces the religion of ancient Greece, describing the role of the gods, how they were worshipped, and the daily lives and customs of priests and priestesses.
Religion without God
Title | Religion without God PDF eBook |
Author | Ronald Dworkin |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Total Pages | 192 |
Release | 2013-10-01 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0674728041 |
In his last book, Ronald Dworkin addresses timeless questions: What is religion and what is God's place in it? What are death and immortality? He joins a sense of cosmic mystery and beauty to the claim that value is objective, independent of mind, and immanent in the world. Belief in God is one manifestation of this view, but not the only one.
Big Gods
Title | Big Gods PDF eBook |
Author | Ara Norenzayan |
Publisher | Princeton University Press |
Total Pages | 264 |
Release | 2015-08-25 |
Genre | Psychology |
ISBN | 0691169748 |
Examines how the belief in gods has lead to cooperation and sometimes conflict between groups. The author also looks at how some cooperative societies have developed without belief in gods.
Religion of the Gods
Title | Religion of the Gods PDF eBook |
Author | Kimberley Christine Patton |
Publisher | Oxford University Press on Demand |
Total Pages | 513 |
Release | 2009 |
Genre | Art |
ISBN | 019509106X |
This text seeks to explain an enigmatic image common to many of the world religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, that of the God who worships. Drawing on an array of comparative evidence, Patton suggests a theory of 'divine reflexivity'.
Religion, Culture, and the Monstrous
Title | Religion, Culture, and the Monstrous PDF eBook |
Author | Joseph P. Laycock |
Publisher | Lexington Books |
Total Pages | 289 |
Release | 2021-02-15 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1793640254 |
Religion, Culture, and the Monstrous: Of Gods and Monsters explores the intersection of the emerging field of “monster theory” within religious studies. With case studies from ancient Mesopotamia to contemporary valleys of the Himalayas to ghost tours in Savannah, Georgia, the volume examines the variegated nature of the monstrous as well as the cultural functions of monsters in shaping how we see the world and ourselves. In this, the authors constructively assess the state of the two fields of monster theory and religious studies, and propose new directions in how these fields can inform each other. The case studies included illuminate the ways in which monsters reinforce the categories through which a given culture sees the world. At the same time, the volume points to how monsters appear to question, disrupt, or challenge those categories, creating an ‘unsettling’ or surplus of meaning.
Drawn to the Gods
Title | Drawn to the Gods PDF eBook |
Author | David Feltmate |
Publisher | NYU Press |
Total Pages | 295 |
Release | 2017-04-11 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1479822183 |
Sacred centers -- The difference race makes: Native American Religions, Hinduism, and Judaism -- American Christianity, part 1: backwards neighbors -- American Christianity, part 2: American Christianities as dangerous threats -- Stigma, stupidity, and exclusion: "cults" and Muslims -- List of episodes referenced