Axial Civilizations and World History (Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture)

"The overarching theme of the book is the historical meaning of the Axial Age, commonly defined as a period of several centuries around the middle of the last millennium BCE, and its cultural innovations. The civilizational patterns that grew out of this exceptionally creative phase are a particularly rewarding theme for comparative analysis." "The book contains essays on cultural transformations in Ancient Greece, Ancient Israel, Iran, India and China, as well as background developments in the core civilizations of the Ancient Near East. An introductory section deals with the history of the debate on the Axial Age, the theoretical questions that have emerged from it, and the present state of the discussion." "The book will be useful for comparative historians of cultures and religions, as well as for historical sociologists interested in the comparative analysis of civilizations. It should also help linking the fields of classical, biblical and Asian studies to broader interdisciplinary debates within the humanities sciences."--Jacket. CONTENTS 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 10 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 12 PART ONE: THEORETICAL APPROACHES 24 Introduction: History, Theory and Interpretation 26 The Axial Age and its Interpreters: Reopening a Debate 30 The Meaning of the Axial Age 62 Palomar’s Questions. The Axial Age Hypothesis, European Modernity and Historical Contingency 98 Between Tradition and Christianity: The Axial Age in the Perspective of Béla Hamvas 118 PART TWO: THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND ITS AXIAL PERIPHERIES 134 Introduction: Archaic Backgrounds and Axial Breakthroughs 136 Axial “Breakthroughs” and Semantic “Relocations” in Ancient Egypt and Israel 144 Mesopotamian Vistas on Axial Transformations 168 Zoroastrian Origins: Indian and Iranian Connections 194 Axial Transformations within Ancient Israelite Priesthood 212 The Jewish Historical Experience: Heterodox Tendencies and Political Dynamics in a De-territorialized Axial Civilization 236 Polis, “the Political”, and Political Thought: New Departures in Ancient Greece, c. 800-500 BCE 264 PART THREE: LATE ANTIQUITY AND BEYOND 296 Introduction: Late Antiquity as a Sequel and Counterpoint to the Axial Age 298 Cultural Memory in Early Christianity: Clement of Alexandria and the History of Religions 306 “The Religion of Light”: On Mani and Manichaeism 330 Arabia and The Heritage of the Axial Age 348 PART FOUR: INDIAN AND CHINESE PERSPECTIVES 370 Introduction: Extending the Axial Model to South and East Asia 372 Axial Grammar 380 Axialism and Empire 408 Rethinking the Axial Age—The Case of Chinese Culture 462 The Axial Millennium in China: A Brief Survey 480 The Ming-Qing Transition: Seventeenth-Century Crisis or Axial Breakthrough? 520 PART FIVE: CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS 540 Axial Civilizations and the Axial Age Reconsidered 542 List of contributors 576 INDEX 580 A 580 B 580 C 580 D 581 E 581 F 581 G 581 H 581 I 582 J 582 K 582 L 582 M 582 N 583 O 583 P 583 Q 583 R 583 S 584 T 584 U 584 V 584 W 584 Y 584 Z 584 General introduction / Johann P. Arnason, S.N. Eisenstadt and Bjorn Wittrock -- pt. 1. Theoretical approaches -- Introduction : history, theory and interpretation / Johann P. Arnason, S.N. Eisenstadt and Bjorn Wittrock -- The Axial Age and its interpreters : reopening a debate / Johann P. Arnason -- The meaning of the Axial Age / Bjorn Wittrock -- Palomar's questions : the Axial Age of hypothesis, European modernity and historical contingency / Peter Wagner -- Between tradition and Christianity : the Axial Age in the perspective of Bela Hamvas / Arpad Szakolczai -- pt. 2. The Ancient Near East and its axial peripheries -- Introduction : archaic backgrounds and axial breakthroughs / Johann P. Arnason, S.N. Eisenstadt and Bjorn Wittrock. Annotation A collection of essays by social theorists, historical sociologists and area specialists in classical, biblical and Asian studies. The contributions deal with cultural transformations in major civilizational centres during the "Axial Age", the middle centuries of the last millennium BCE, and their long-term consequences