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On Agamben, Donatism, Pelagianism, and the Missing Links (Reading Augustine)
by Peter Iver KaufmanPeter Iver Kaufman shows that, although Giorgio Agamben represents Augustine as an admired pioneer of an alternative form of life, he also considers Augustine an obstacle keeping readers from discovering their potential. Kaufman develops a compelling, radical alternative to progressive politics by continuing the line of thought he introduced in On Agamben, Arendt, Christianity, and the Dark Arts of Civilization. Kaufman starts with a comparison of Agamben and Augustine's projects, both of which challenge reigning concepts of citizenship. He argues that Agamben, troubled by Augustine's opposition to Donatists and Pelagians, failed to forge links between his own redefinitions of authenticity and “the coming community” and the bishop's understandings of grace, community, and compassion. On Agamben, Donatism, Pelagianism, and the Missing Links sheds new light on Augustine's “political theology,” introducing ways it can be used as a resource for alternative polities while supplementing Agamben's scholarship and scholarship on Agamben.
The Doctor's Mission (Mills And Boon Love Inspired Historical Ser.)
by Debbie KaufmanTo Save lives, she would risk her own.
Journey of Hope (Mills & Boon Love Inspired Historical): Claiming The Cowboy's Heart Lone Wolf's Lady The Wyoming Heir Journey Of Hope
by Debbie KaufmanMARRIAGE IS NOT HER MISSION
The Routledge Companion to Seventeenth Century Philosophy (Routledge Philosophy Companions)
by Dan KaufmanThe Routledge Companion to Seventeenth Century Philosophy is an outstanding survey of one of the most important eras in the history of Western philosophy - one which witnessed philosophical, scientific, religious and social change on a massive scale. A team of twenty international contributors provide students and scholars of philosophy and related disciplines with a detailed and accessible guide to seventeenth century philosophy. The Companion is divided into seven parts: Historical Context Metaphysics Epistemology Mind and Language Moral and Political Philosophy Natural Philosophy and the Material World Philosophical Theology. Major topics and themes are explored and discussed, including the scholastic context that shaped philosophy of the period, free will, skepticism, logic, mind-body problems, consciousness, arguments for the existence of God, and the problem of evil. As such The Routledge Companion to Seventeenth Century Philosophy is essential reading for all students of the period, both in philosophy and related disciplines such as literature, history, politics, and religious studies.
The Routledge Companion to Seventeenth Century Philosophy (Routledge Philosophy Companions)
by Dan KaufmanThe Routledge Companion to Seventeenth Century Philosophy is an outstanding survey of one of the most important eras in the history of Western philosophy - one which witnessed philosophical, scientific, religious and social change on a massive scale. A team of twenty international contributors provide students and scholars of philosophy and related disciplines with a detailed and accessible guide to seventeenth century philosophy. The Companion is divided into seven parts: Historical Context Metaphysics Epistemology Mind and Language Moral and Political Philosophy Natural Philosophy and the Material World Philosophical Theology. Major topics and themes are explored and discussed, including the scholastic context that shaped philosophy of the period, free will, skepticism, logic, mind-body problems, consciousness, arguments for the existence of God, and the problem of evil. As such The Routledge Companion to Seventeenth Century Philosophy is essential reading for all students of the period, both in philosophy and related disciplines such as literature, history, politics, and religious studies.
Jew Boy: A Memoir
by Alan KaufmanJew Boy is Alan Kaufman's riveting memoir of being raised by a Jewish mother who survived the Holocaust. This pioneering masterpiece, the very first memoir of its kind by a member of the Second Generation is Kaufman's coming-of-age account, by turns hilarious and terrifying, written with irreverent humor and poetic introspection. Throughout the course of his memoir, Kaufman touches on the pain, guilt, and confusion that shape the lives and characters of American-born children of Holocaust survivors. Kaufman struggles to comprehend what it means to be Jewish as he deals with the demons haunting his mother and attempts to escape his wretched home life by devoting himself to high school football. He eventually hitchhikes across the country, coming face-to-face with the phantoms he fled. Taking us from the streets of the Bronx to the highways of America, the kibbutzim and Israeli army to personal rebirth in San Francisco, and finally to a final reckoning in Germany, Jew Boy shines with the universal humanity of a brilliant writer embracing the gift of life. Kaufman's fierce passion will leave no reader untouched.
Hadassah: American Women Zionists and the Rebirth of Israel (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization)
by Mira Katzburg-YungmanNational Jewish Book Awards Finalist for the Barbara Dobkin Award for Women’s Studies, 2012.In February 1912 thirty-eight American Jewish women met at Temple Emanuel in New York and founded Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. This has become the largest Zionist organization in the Diaspora and the largest and most active Jewish women's organization ever. Its history is an inseparable part of the history of American Jewry and of the State of Israel, and the relationship between them. Hadassah is also part of the history of Jewish women in the United States and in the modern world more broadly. Its achievements are not only those of Zionism but, crucially, of women, and throughout this study Mira Katzburg-Yungman pays particular attention to the life stories of the individual women who played a role in them. Based on historical documentation collected in the United States and Israel and on broad research, the book covers many aspects of the history of Hadassah and analyses significant aspects of the fascinating story of the organization. A wide-ranging introductory section describes the contexts and challenges of Hadassah's history from its founding to the birth of the State of Israel. Subsequent sections explore in turn the organization's ideology and its activity on the American scene after Israeli statehood; its political and ideological role in the World Zionist Organization; and its involvement in the new State of Israel in the twin fields of activity: in medicine and health care and in its work with children and young people. The final part of the book deals with topics that enrich our understanding of Hadassah in additional dimensions, such as gender issues, comparisons of Hadassah with other Zionist organizations, and the importance of people of the Yishuv and later of Israelis in Hadassah's activities. The study concludes with an Epilogue that considers developments up to 2005, assessing whether the conclusions reached with regard to Hadassah as an organization remain valid. It considers developments within Hadassah in the 1980s and 1990s, years in which the organization was affected by the significant changes within the wider American Jewish community, specifically the enormous increase in intermarriage with non-Jews and the impact of the so-called 'second wave' of feminism. This extensive, diverse, and balanced study offers a picture of Hadassah in both arenas of its activity: in the land that is now the State of Israel, and in the United States. In doing so it makes a contribution not only to Zionist history but also to the history of American Jewish women and of Jewish women more widely.
Wrestling with God: Jewish Theological Responses during and after the Holocaust
by Steven T. Katz Shlomo Biderman Gershon GreenbergThis volume presents a wide-ranging selection of Jewish theological responses to the Holocaust. It will be the most complete anthology of its sort, bringing together for the first time: (1) a large sample of ultra-orthodox writings, translated from the Hebrew and Yiddish; (2) a substantial selection of essays by Israeli authors, also translated from the Hebrew; (3) a broad sampling of works written in English by American and European authors. These diverse selections represent virtually every significant theological position that has been articulated by a Jewish thinker in response to the Holocaust. Included are rarely studied responses that were written while the Holocaust was happening.
Mysticism and Sacred Scripture
by Steven T. KatzThis is the fourth volume in an influential series that presents a basic revaluation of the nature of mysticism. Each provides a collection of solicited papers by noted experts in the study of religion. This new volume will explore how the great mystics and mystical traditions use, interpret, and reconstruct the sacred scriptures of their traditions.
Wrestling with God: Jewish Theological Responses during and after the Holocaust
by Steven T. KatzThis volume presents a wide-ranging selection of Jewish theological responses to the Holocaust. It will be the most complete anthology of its sort, bringing together for the first time: (1) a large sample of ultra-orthodox writings, translated from the Hebrew and Yiddish; (2) a substantial selection of essays by Israeli authors, also translated from the Hebrew; (3) a broad sampling of works written in English by American and European authors. These diverse selections represent virtually every significant theological position that has been articulated by a Jewish thinker in response to the Holocaust. Included are rarely studied responses that were written while the Holocaust was happening.
Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Western Hunan during the Modern Era: The Dao among the Miao? (Academia Sinica on East Asia)
by Paul R. KatzThis book explores how beliefs and practices have shaped the interactions between different ethnic groups in Western Hunan, as well as considering how religious life has adapted to the challenges of modern Chinese history. Combining historical and ethnographic methodologies, chapters in this book are structured around changes that occurred during the interaction between Miao ritual traditions and religions such as Daoism, with particular focus on the commonalities and differences seen between Western Hunan and other areas of Southwest China. In addition, investigation is made into how gender and ethnicity have shaped such processes, and what these phenomena can teach about larger questions of modern Chinese history. As such, this study transcends existing scholarship on Western Hunan – which has stressed the impact of state policies and elite agendas – by focusing instead on the roles played by ritual specialists. Such findings call into question conventional wisdom about the ‘standardization’ of Chinese culture, as well as the integration of local society into the state by means of written texts. Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Western Hunan during the Modern Era will prove valuable to students and scholars of history, ethnography, anthropology, ethnic studies, and Asian studies more broadly.
Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Western Hunan during the Modern Era: The Dao among the Miao? (Academia Sinica on East Asia)
by Paul R. KatzThis book explores how beliefs and practices have shaped the interactions between different ethnic groups in Western Hunan, as well as considering how religious life has adapted to the challenges of modern Chinese history. Combining historical and ethnographic methodologies, chapters in this book are structured around changes that occurred during the interaction between Miao ritual traditions and religions such as Daoism, with particular focus on the commonalities and differences seen between Western Hunan and other areas of Southwest China. In addition, investigation is made into how gender and ethnicity have shaped such processes, and what these phenomena can teach about larger questions of modern Chinese history. As such, this study transcends existing scholarship on Western Hunan – which has stressed the impact of state policies and elite agendas – by focusing instead on the roles played by ritual specialists. Such findings call into question conventional wisdom about the ‘standardization’ of Chinese culture, as well as the integration of local society into the state by means of written texts. Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Western Hunan during the Modern Era will prove valuable to students and scholars of history, ethnography, anthropology, ethnic studies, and Asian studies more broadly.
Religion and the Formation of Taiwanese Identities
by P. Katz M. RubensteinThis volume centres on the creation of varied forms of individual and group identity in Taiwan, and the relationship between these forms of identity, both individual and collective, and patterns of Taiwanese religion, politics, and culture. The contributors explore the Taiwanese people's sense of who they are, attempting to discern how they identify themselves as individuals and as collectives and then try to determine the identity/roles individuals and groups construct for themselves. Ranging from the local essays to the national level and within the larger Chinese cultural/religious universe, these essays explore the complex nature of identity/role and the processes of identity formation which have shaped Taiwan's multileveled past and its many faceted present.
Indo-Judaic Studies in the Twenty-First Century: A View from the Margin
by N. Katz R. Chakravarti B. Sinha S. WeilThis collection analyzes the affinities and interactions between Indic and Judaic civilizations from ancient to contemporary times. The contributors propose a new, global understanding of commerce and culture, to reconfigure how we understand the way great cultures interact, and present a new constellation of diplomacy, literature, and geopolitics.
The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France
by Ethan B. KatzWinner of the J. Russell Major Prize, American Historical Association Winner of the David H. Pinkney Prize, Society for French Historical Studies Winner of the JDC–Herbert Katzki Award, National Jewish Book AwardsWinner of the American Library in Paris Book Award A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year Headlines from France suggest that Muslims have renewed an age-old struggle against Jews and that the two groups are once more inevitably at odds. But the past tells a different story. The Burdens of Brotherhood is a sweeping history of Jews and Muslims in France from World War I to the present. “Katz has uncovered fascinating stories of interactions between Muslims and Jews in France and French colonial North Africa over the past 100 years that defy our expectations…His insights are absolutely relevant for understanding such recent trends as rising anti-Semitism among French Muslims, rising Islamophobia among French Jews and, to a lesser degree, rising rates of aliyah from France.” —Lisa M. Leff, Haaretz “Katz has written a compelling, important, and timely history of Jewish/Muslim relations in France since 1914 that investigates the ways and venues in which Muslims and Jews interacted in metropolitan France…This insightful, well-researched, and elegantly written book is mandatory reading for scholars of the subject and for those approaching it for the first time.” —J. Haus, Choice
The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France
by Ethan B. KatzWinner of the J. Russell Major Prize, American Historical Association Winner of the David H. Pinkney Prize, Society for French Historical Studies Winner of the JDC–Herbert Katzki Award, National Jewish Book AwardsWinner of the American Library in Paris Book Award A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year Headlines from France suggest that Muslims have renewed an age-old struggle against Jews and that the two groups are once more inevitably at odds. But the past tells a different story. The Burdens of Brotherhood is a sweeping history of Jews and Muslims in France from World War I to the present. “Katz has uncovered fascinating stories of interactions between Muslims and Jews in France and French colonial North Africa over the past 100 years that defy our expectations…His insights are absolutely relevant for understanding such recent trends as rising anti-Semitism among French Muslims, rising Islamophobia among French Jews and, to a lesser degree, rising rates of aliyah from France.” —Lisa M. Leff, Haaretz “Katz has written a compelling, important, and timely history of Jewish/Muslim relations in France since 1914 that investigates the ways and venues in which Muslims and Jews interacted in metropolitan France…This insightful, well-researched, and elegantly written book is mandatory reading for scholars of the subject and for those approaching it for the first time.” —J. Haus, Choice
Looking for Strangers: The True Story of My Hidden Wartime Childhood
by Dori KatzDori Katz is a Jewish Holocaust survivor who thought that her lost memories of her childhood years in Belgium were irrecoverable. But after a chance viewing of a documentary about hidden children in German-occupied Belgium, she realized that she might, in fact, be able to unearth those years. Looking for Strangers is the deeply honest record of her attempt to do so, a detective story that unfolds through one of the most horrifying periods in history in an attempt to understand one’s place within it. In alternating chapters, Katz journeys into multiple pasts, setting details from her mother’s stories that have captivated her throughout her life alongside an account of her own return to Belgium forty years later—against her mother’s urgings—in search of greater clarity. She reconnects her sharp but fragmented memories: being sent by her mother in 1943, at the age of three, to live with a Catholic family under a Christian identity; then being given up, inexplicably, to an orphanage in the years immediately following the war. Only after that, amid postwar confusion, was she able to reconnect with her mother. Following this trail through Belgium to her past places of hiding, Katz eventually finds herself in San Francisco, speaking with a man who claimed to have known her father in Auschwitz—and thus known his end. Weighing many other stories from the people she meets along her way—all of whom seem to hold something back—she attempts to stitch thread after thread into a unified truth, to understand the countless motivations and circumstances that determined her remarkable life. A story at once about self-discovery, the transformation of memory, a fraught mother-daughter relationship, and the oppression of millions, Looking for Strangers is a book of both historical insight and imaginative grasp. It is a book in which the past, through its very mystery, becomes alive, immediate—of the most urgent importance.
Looking for Strangers: The True Story of My Hidden Wartime Childhood
by Dori KatzDori Katz is a Jewish Holocaust survivor who thought that her lost memories of her childhood years in Belgium were irrecoverable. But after a chance viewing of a documentary about hidden children in German-occupied Belgium, she realized that she might, in fact, be able to unearth those years. Looking for Strangers is the deeply honest record of her attempt to do so, a detective story that unfolds through one of the most horrifying periods in history in an attempt to understand one’s place within it. In alternating chapters, Katz journeys into multiple pasts, setting details from her mother’s stories that have captivated her throughout her life alongside an account of her own return to Belgium forty years later—against her mother’s urgings—in search of greater clarity. She reconnects her sharp but fragmented memories: being sent by her mother in 1943, at the age of three, to live with a Catholic family under a Christian identity; then being given up, inexplicably, to an orphanage in the years immediately following the war. Only after that, amid postwar confusion, was she able to reconnect with her mother. Following this trail through Belgium to her past places of hiding, Katz eventually finds herself in San Francisco, speaking with a man who claimed to have known her father in Auschwitz—and thus known his end. Weighing many other stories from the people she meets along her way—all of whom seem to hold something back—she attempts to stitch thread after thread into a unified truth, to understand the countless motivations and circumstances that determined her remarkable life. A story at once about self-discovery, the transformation of memory, a fraught mother-daughter relationship, and the oppression of millions, Looking for Strangers is a book of both historical insight and imaginative grasp. It is a book in which the past, through its very mystery, becomes alive, immediate—of the most urgent importance.
Looking for Strangers: The True Story of My Hidden Wartime Childhood
by Dori KatzDori Katz is a Jewish Holocaust survivor who thought that her lost memories of her childhood years in Belgium were irrecoverable. But after a chance viewing of a documentary about hidden children in German-occupied Belgium, she realized that she might, in fact, be able to unearth those years. Looking for Strangers is the deeply honest record of her attempt to do so, a detective story that unfolds through one of the most horrifying periods in history in an attempt to understand one’s place within it. In alternating chapters, Katz journeys into multiple pasts, setting details from her mother’s stories that have captivated her throughout her life alongside an account of her own return to Belgium forty years later—against her mother’s urgings—in search of greater clarity. She reconnects her sharp but fragmented memories: being sent by her mother in 1943, at the age of three, to live with a Catholic family under a Christian identity; then being given up, inexplicably, to an orphanage in the years immediately following the war. Only after that, amid postwar confusion, was she able to reconnect with her mother. Following this trail through Belgium to her past places of hiding, Katz eventually finds herself in San Francisco, speaking with a man who claimed to have known her father in Auschwitz—and thus known his end. Weighing many other stories from the people she meets along her way—all of whom seem to hold something back—she attempts to stitch thread after thread into a unified truth, to understand the countless motivations and circumstances that determined her remarkable life. A story at once about self-discovery, the transformation of memory, a fraught mother-daughter relationship, and the oppression of millions, Looking for Strangers is a book of both historical insight and imaginative grasp. It is a book in which the past, through its very mystery, becomes alive, immediate—of the most urgent importance.
Looking for Strangers: The True Story of My Hidden Wartime Childhood
by Dori KatzDori Katz is a Jewish Holocaust survivor who thought that her lost memories of her childhood years in Belgium were irrecoverable. But after a chance viewing of a documentary about hidden children in German-occupied Belgium, she realized that she might, in fact, be able to unearth those years. Looking for Strangers is the deeply honest record of her attempt to do so, a detective story that unfolds through one of the most horrifying periods in history in an attempt to understand one’s place within it. In alternating chapters, Katz journeys into multiple pasts, setting details from her mother’s stories that have captivated her throughout her life alongside an account of her own return to Belgium forty years later—against her mother’s urgings—in search of greater clarity. She reconnects her sharp but fragmented memories: being sent by her mother in 1943, at the age of three, to live with a Catholic family under a Christian identity; then being given up, inexplicably, to an orphanage in the years immediately following the war. Only after that, amid postwar confusion, was she able to reconnect with her mother. Following this trail through Belgium to her past places of hiding, Katz eventually finds herself in San Francisco, speaking with a man who claimed to have known her father in Auschwitz—and thus known his end. Weighing many other stories from the people she meets along her way—all of whom seem to hold something back—she attempts to stitch thread after thread into a unified truth, to understand the countless motivations and circumstances that determined her remarkable life. A story at once about self-discovery, the transformation of memory, a fraught mother-daughter relationship, and the oppression of millions, Looking for Strangers is a book of both historical insight and imaginative grasp. It is a book in which the past, through its very mystery, becomes alive, immediate—of the most urgent importance.
An Introduction to Modern Jewish Philosophy (Introductions To Religion Ser.)
by Claire Elise KatzHow Jewish is modern Jewish philosophy? The question at first appears nonsensical, until we consider that the chief issues with which Jewish philosophers have engaged, from the Enlightenment through to the late 20th century, are the standard preoccupations of general philosophical inquiry. Questions about God, reality, language, and knowledge - metaphysics and epistemology - have been of as much concern to Jewish thinkers as they have been to others. Moses Mendelssohn, for example, was a friend of Kant. Hermann Cohen's philosophy is often described as 'neo-Kantian.' Franz Rosenzweig wrote his dissertation on Hegel. And the thought of Emmanuel Levinas is indebted to Husserl. In this much-needed textbook, which surveys the most prominent thinkers of the last three centuries, Claire Katz situates modern Jewish philosophy in the wider cultural and intellectual context of its day, indicating how broader currents of British, French and German thought influenced its practitioners. But she also addresses the unique ways in which being Jewish coloured their output, suggesting that a keen sense of particularity enabled the Jewish philosophers to help define the whole modern era. Intended to be used as a core undergraduate text, the book will also appeal to anyone with an interest how some of the greatest minds of the age grappled with some of its most urgent and fascinating philosophical problems.
Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism
by Professor Sarit Kattan GribetzHow the rabbis of late antiquity used time to define the boundaries of Jewish identityThe rabbinic corpus begins with a question–“when?”—and is brimming with discussions about time and the relationship between people, God, and the hour. Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism explores the rhythms of time that animated the rabbinic world of late antiquity, revealing how rabbis conceptualized time as a way of constructing difference between themselves and imperial Rome, Jews and Christians, men and women, and human and divine.In each chapter, Sarit Kattan Gribetz explores a unique aspect of rabbinic discourse on time. She shows how the ancient rabbinic texts artfully subvert Roman imperialism by offering "rabbinic time" as an alternative to "Roman time." She examines rabbinic discourse about the Sabbath, demonstrating how the weekly day of rest marked "Jewish time" from "Christian time." Gribetz looks at gendered daily rituals, showing how rabbis created "men's time" and "women's time" by mandating certain rituals for men and others for women. She delves into rabbinic writings that reflect on how God spends time and how God's use of time relates to human beings, merging "divine time" with "human time." Finally, she traces the legacies of rabbinic constructions of time in the medieval and modern periods.Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism sheds new light on the central role that time played in the construction of Jewish identity, subjectivity, and theology during this transformative period in the history of Judaism.
Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism
by Professor Sarit Kattan GribetzHow the rabbis of late antiquity used time to define the boundaries of Jewish identityThe rabbinic corpus begins with a question–“when?”—and is brimming with discussions about time and the relationship between people, God, and the hour. Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism explores the rhythms of time that animated the rabbinic world of late antiquity, revealing how rabbis conceptualized time as a way of constructing difference between themselves and imperial Rome, Jews and Christians, men and women, and human and divine.In each chapter, Sarit Kattan Gribetz explores a unique aspect of rabbinic discourse on time. She shows how the ancient rabbinic texts artfully subvert Roman imperialism by offering "rabbinic time" as an alternative to "Roman time." She examines rabbinic discourse about the Sabbath, demonstrating how the weekly day of rest marked "Jewish time" from "Christian time." Gribetz looks at gendered daily rituals, showing how rabbis created "men's time" and "women's time" by mandating certain rituals for men and others for women. She delves into rabbinic writings that reflect on how God spends time and how God's use of time relates to human beings, merging "divine time" with "human time." Finally, she traces the legacies of rabbinic constructions of time in the medieval and modern periods.Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism sheds new light on the central role that time played in the construction of Jewish identity, subjectivity, and theology during this transformative period in the history of Judaism.
The Metaphysics of Light in the Hexaemeral Literature: From Philo of Alexandria to Gregory of Nyssa (Oxford Early Christian Studies)
by Isidoros C. KatsosThis volume critically re-evaluates the received interpretation of the nature of light in the ancient sources. Isidoros C. Katsos contests the prevalent view in the history of optics according to which pre-modernity theorized light as subordinate to sight ('oculocentrism') by examining in depth the contrary textual evidence found in early Christian texts. It shows that, from Philo of Alexandria and Origen to Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa, the Jewish-Christian commentary tradition on the hexaemeral literature (the biblical creation narrative) reflected deeply on the nature and physicality of light for the purposes of understanding the structure and purpose of material creation. Contemplation of nature allowed early Christian thinkers to conceptualize light as the explanatory principle of vision rather than subordinated to it. Contrary to the prevalent view, the hexaemeral literature necessitates a 'luminocentric' interpretation of the theory of light of Plato's Timaeus in its reception history in the context of late antique cosmology. Hexaemeral luminocentrism invites the reader of Scripture to grasp not only the sensible properties of light, but also their causal principle as the first manifestation of the divine Logos in creation. The hexaemeral metaphysics thus provides the missing ground of meaning of the early Christian language of light.
The Metaphysics of Light in the Hexaemeral Literature: From Philo of Alexandria to Gregory of Nyssa (Oxford Early Christian Studies)
by Isidoros C. KatsosThis volume critically re-evaluates the received interpretation of the nature of light in the ancient sources. Isidoros C. Katsos contests the prevalent view in the history of optics according to which pre-modernity theorized light as subordinate to sight ('oculocentrism') by examining in depth the contrary textual evidence found in early Christian texts. It shows that, from Philo of Alexandria and Origen to Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa, the Jewish-Christian commentary tradition on the hexaemeral literature (the biblical creation narrative) reflected deeply on the nature and physicality of light for the purposes of understanding the structure and purpose of material creation. Contemplation of nature allowed early Christian thinkers to conceptualize light as the explanatory principle of vision rather than subordinated to it. Contrary to the prevalent view, the hexaemeral literature necessitates a 'luminocentric' interpretation of the theory of light of Plato's Timaeus in its reception history in the context of late antique cosmology. Hexaemeral luminocentrism invites the reader of Scripture to grasp not only the sensible properties of light, but also their causal principle as the first manifestation of the divine Logos in creation. The hexaemeral metaphysics thus provides the missing ground of meaning of the early Christian language of light.