Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond

Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond
Title Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond PDF eBook
Author Dr Neil McLynn
Publisher Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Pages 441
Release 2015-09-28
Genre History
ISBN 1409457389

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The papers in this volume investigate the two important movements of conversion that frame late antiquity: Christianity and Islam. Despite their historical significance, those two movements of conversion have never been systematically compared to each other, and this volume attempts to do this by studying the various issues at stake in conversion for both religions. Some perspectives from the rise of Buddhism in East Asia at roughly the same period have been included so as to avoid remaining within purely Mediterranean and monotheistic models.

Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond

Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond
Title Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond PDF eBook
Author Arietta Papaconstantinou
Publisher Routledge
Pages 437
Release 2016-03-03
Genre History
ISBN 131715973X

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The papers in this volume were presented at a Mellon-Sawyer Seminar held at the University of Oxford in 2009-2010, which sought to investigate side by side the two important movements of conversion that frame late antiquity: to Christianity at its start, and to Islam at the other end. Challenging the opposition between the two stereotypes of Islamic conversion as an intrinsically violent process, and Christian conversion as a fundamentally spiritual one, the papers seek to isolate the behaviours and circumstances that made conversion both such a common and such a contested phenomenon. The spread of Buddhism in Asia in broadly the same period serves as an external comparator that was not caught in the net of the Abrahamic religions. The volume is organised around several themes, reflecting the concerns of the initial project with the articulation between norm and practice, the role of authorities and institutions, and the social and individual fluidity on the ground. Debates, discussions, and the expression of norms and principles about conversion conversion are not rare in societies experiencing religious change, and the first section of the book examines some of the main issues brought up by surviving sources. This is followed by three sections examining different aspects of how those principles were - or were not - put into practice: how conversion was handled by the state, how it was continuously redefined by individual ambivalence and cultural fluidity, and how it was enshrined through different forms of institutionalization. Finally, a topographical coda examines the effects of religious change on the iconic holy city of Jerusalem.

Conversion in Late Antiquity

Conversion in Late Antiquity
Title Conversion in Late Antiquity PDF eBook
Author Arietta Papaconstantinou
Publisher
Pages 398
Release 2015
Genre Church history
ISBN 9781315574202

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Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity

Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity
Title Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity PDF eBook
Author Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui
Publisher Walter de Gruyter
Pages 457
Release 2010-03-26
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 3110216604

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Many recent discoveries have confirmed the importance of Orphism for ancient Greek religion, philosophy and literature. Its nature and role are still, however, among the most debated problems of Classical scholarship. A cornerstone of the question is its relationship to Christianity, which modern authors have too often discussed from apologetic perspectives or projections of the Christian model into its supposed precedent. Besides, modern approaches are strongly based on ancient ones, since Orpheus and the poems and mysteries attributed to him were fundamental in the religious controversies of Late Antiquity. Both Pagan and Christian authors often present Orphism as a precedent, alternative or imitation of Chistianity. This free and thorough study of the ancient sources sheds light on these controversial questions. The presence of the Orphic tradition in Imperial Age, documented by literary and epigraphical evidence, is confronted with the informations transmitted by Christian apologists on Orphic poems and cults. The manifold Christian treatments of Pagan sources, and their particular value to understand Greek religion, are illuminated by this specific case, which exemplifies the complex encounter between Classical culture and Jewish-Christian tradition.

Conversion to Christianity

Conversion to Christianity
Title Conversion to Christianity PDF eBook
Author Calvin B. Kendall
Publisher Cemh Publications, University of Minnesota Press
Pages 470
Release 2009
Genre Religion
ISBN

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Conversion to Islam in the Premodern Age

Conversion to Islam in the Premodern Age
Title Conversion to Islam in the Premodern Age PDF eBook
Author Nimrod Hurvitz
Publisher University of California Press
Pages 381
Release 2020-12-15
Genre Religion
ISBN 0520296729

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Conversion to Islam is a phenomenon of immense significance in human history. At the outset of Islamic rule in the seventh century, Muslims constituted a tiny minority in most areas under their control. But by the beginning of the modern period, they formed the majority in most territories from North Africa to Southeast Asia. Across such diverse lands, peoples, and time periods, conversion was a complex, varied phenomenon. Converts lived in a world of overlapping and competing religious, cultural, social, and familial affiliations, and the effects of turning to Islam played out in every aspect of life. Conversion therefore provides a critical lens for world history, magnifying the constantly evolving array of beliefs, practices, and outlooks that constitute Islam around the globe. This groundbreaking collection of texts, translated from sources in a dozen languages from the seventh to the eighteenth centuries, presents the historical process of conversion to Islam in all its variety and unruly detail, through the eyes of both Muslim and non-Muslim observers.

Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity

Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity
Title Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity PDF eBook
Author Polymnia Athanassiadi
Publisher OUP Oxford
Pages 221
Release 1999-07-08
Genre Religion
ISBN 0191541451

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In this book distinguished experts from a range of disciplines (Orientalists, philologists, philosophers, theologians and historians) address a central problem which lies at the heart of the religious and philosophical debate of late antiquity. Paganism was not a unified tradition and consequently the papers cover a wide social and intellectual spectrum. Particular emphasis is given to several aspects of the topic: first, monotheistic belief in late antique philosophical ideals and its roots in classical antiquity and the Near East; second, monistic Gnosticism; third, the revelatory tradition as expressed in oracular literature; and finally, the monotheistic trend in popular religion.