Lady E. S. Drower's Scholarly Correspondence


Book Description

An edition of the scholarly letters of the English Lady E. S. Drower, famous for her novels, travel accounts, and studies in the Middle East, especially on the Mandaeans. Drower (1879?1972) kept up a lively correspodence with scholars, and the letters here span the years 1938 to the mid?1960s.




Lady E. S. Drower's Scholarly Correspondence


Book Description

An edition of the scholarly letters of the English Lady E. S. Drower, famous for her novels, travel accounts, and studies in the Middle East, especially on the Mandaeans. Drower (1879‐1972) kept up a lively correspondence with scholars, and the letters here span the years 1938 to the mid 1960s. It presents a window on Near Eastern studies in the mid 20th century, from the viewpoint of an autodidact insisting on, and succeeding in, a place among the academics.. Correspondence with many famous scholars and intellectuals are included, such as Cyrus H. Gordon, Rudolf Macuch, Sidney H. Smith, Godfrey R. Driver, Samuel H. Hooke, and Franz Rosenthal. The letters focus on four of Lady Drower's main books: The Book of the Zodiac (1949), Water into Wine (1956), A Mandaic Dictionary (with Rudolf Macuch, 1963), and Drowers hoped for, crowning achievement: the presumably lost, large manuscript, Mass and Masiqta.




John the Baptist and the Last Gnostics


Book Description

Are there still Gnostics and can their roots be chased back to John the Baptist? Among the casualties of the western intervention in Iraq and the recent activities of ISIS are the Mandeans of Southern Iraq. These peace-loving people are now fleeing to the west . They are the last Gnostics, the only surviving remnant of the ancient sects who taught the direct knowledge of God, created their own gospels and myths and were persecuted as heretical by the church in the second and third centuries. The Mandeans place weekly river baptisms at the centre of their religious life and the primary exemplar of their religion is none other than John the Baptist. What is the real history of this mysterious and long lived sect? Can the Mandean peoples really be traced back to the first century? And who was John the Baptist? This book follows the history of the Mandeans from their present plight back through their earliest encounters with the West, their place in Islamic counties, their possible influence on the Templars, back to their origins as a first century baptismal sect connected to John the Baptist and beyond.




The Oxford Handbook of the Study of Religion


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of the Study of Religion provides a comprehensive overview of the academic study of religion. Written by an international team of leading scholars, its fifty-one chapters are divided thematically into seven sections. The first section addresses five major conceptual aspects of research on religion. Part two surveys eleven main frameworks of analysis, interpretation, and explanation of religion. Reflecting recent turns in the humanities and social sciences, part three considers eight forms of the expression of religion. Part four provides a discussion of the ways societies and religions, or religious organizations, are shaped by different forms of allocation of resources. Other chapters in this section consider law, the media, nature, medicine, politics, science, sports, and tourism. Part five reviews important developments, distinctions, and arguments for each of the selected topics. The study of religion addresses religion as a historical phenomenon and part six looks at seven historical processes. Religion is studied in various ways by many disciplines, and this Handbook shows that the study of religion is an academic discipline in its own right. The disciplinary profile of this volume is reflected in part seven, which considers the history of the discipline and its relevance. Each chapter in the Handbook references at least two different religions to provide fresh and innovative perspectives on key issues in the field. This authoritative collection will advance the state of the discipline and is an invaluable reference for students and scholars.




The Gnostic World


Book Description

The Gnostic World is an outstanding guide to Gnosticism, written by a distinguished international team of experts to explore Gnostic movements from the distant past until today. These themes are examined across sixty-seven chapters in a variety of contexts, from the ancient pre-Christian to the contemporary. The volume considers the intersection of Gnosticism with Jewish, Christian, Islamic and Indic practices and beliefs, and also with new religious movements, such as Theosophy, Scientology, Western Sufism, and the Nation of Islam. This comprehensive handbook will be an invaluable resource for religious studies students, scholars, and researchers of Gnostic doctrine and history.




Statehood in the Altaic World


Book Description

Altaic Studies deal with a group of languages (and respective cultures) that show obvious similarities: Turkic, Mongol and Manchu-Tungus. Whether they are really related or whether they just influenced each other remains a matter of scholarly discussion. The Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC) was established in 1957 as a working group to further research on this issue. Annual meetings have since been taking place in different countries, and the respective proceedings offer a wealth of information on the Altaic languages and cultures. The 2016 meeting took place at Ardahan, Turkey, a new and modern university close to the borders of Georgia and Armenia; it covered a wide range of subjects of which a peer-reviewed selection is published in the present volume. The papers deal with an Old Turkic inscription, the Bâbur-nâma (memoirs of Bâbur), Crimean history, Uighur calligraphy, the modern role of the Kazakh language, the ancestor cult in Turkic traditions, administrative and state concepts in the 18th century Chinese imperial pentaglot dictionary (which includes Turki), an appreciation of Denis Sinor (1916-2011), celebrated Altaist and for many years secretary general of the PIAC, the publishing projects of the outstanding Lamaist scholar and politician Lalitavajra (Rol-pa'i rdo-rje) and several poetic travelogues in Mongolia. The editors are members of the PIAC: Barbara Kellner-Heinkele is Prof. emer. of Turkic Studies (Free University of Berlin) and secretary general of the PIAC, Oliver Corff is an independent scholar of Chinese Studies, Hartmut Walravens is retired from his positions at the Berlin State Library and as Director of the worldwide ISBN system.




John of History, Baptist of Faith


Book Description

Studies of the historical Jesus typically reduce John the Baptist to a subordinate role in the story of Christian origins. This meticulous historical study focuses on John himself, revealing his extensive and enduring influence. In the popular imagination, John the Baptist plays the supporting role of Jesus’s unkempt forerunner. But meticulous historical study reveals his wide-reaching and enduring influence on the history of religion. The first study of its kind, John of History, Baptist of Faith sheds light on the historical John the Baptist and his world. James F. McGrath applies historical-critical methodology not only to the New Testament but also to the Mandaean Book of John, a holy text of the last extant gnostic sect. McGrath uses the teachings of John’s pupil, Jesus, as a window into his mentor’s beliefs. Along the way, he brings new clarity to questions of contention among scholars, such as John’s use of immersion as a substitute for temple sacrifice. Bold in its claims yet careful in its method, John of History, Baptist of Faith lends fresh insight into John, Jesus, and their world. McGrath’s pioneering monograph will challenge and intrigue students and scholars of the New Testament and Second Temple Judaism.




Women and museums 1850–1914


Book Description

This book recovers the significant contribution made by women to museums, not just in obvious roles such as workers, but also as donors, visitors, volunteers and patrons. It suggests that women persistently acted to domesticate the museum, by importing domestic objects and domestic regimes of value, as well as by making museums more welcoming to children, and even by stressing the importance of housekeeping at the museum. At the same time, women sought 'masculine' careers in science and curatorship, but found such aspirations hard to achieve; their contribution tended to be kept within clear, feminised areas. The book will be of interest to those working on gender, culture, or museums in the period. It sheds new light on women's material culture and material strategies, education and professional careers, and leisure practices. It will form an important historical context for those working in contemporary museum studies.




The Mandaeans


Book Description

The Mandaeans are a Gnostic sect that arose in the middle east around the same time as Christianity. What little study of the religion there has been has focused on the ancient Mandaeans and their relation to early Christianity. Buckley examines the lives and religion of contemporary Mandaeans, who live mainly in Iran and Iraq but also in New York and San Diego. She provides a comprehensive introduction to the religion and shows how its ancient texts inform the living religion, and vice versa.