Scriptures, Sacred Traditions, and Strategies of Religious Subversion : Studies in Discourse with the Work of Guy G. Stroumsa

The articles in this volume discuss polemically charged re-evaluations of the religious traditions and scriptures of the Western world, employed throughout the centuries in various religious contexts. These studies consider new religious outlooks not as glosses on inherited traditions, but as acts of power exercised in the struggle for identity: contestation, appropriation, interpretation and polemics against the religious "other", involving, sometimes covertly, critiques of inherited tradition. The volume outlines a typology of the variety of attested strategies, highlighting cases of borderline extremes involving subversions of mainstream forms of belief as well as elucidating more moderate avenues of interaction. Most of the studies were presented at a 2016 conference in Jerusalem honouring Guy G. Stroumsa, a renowned scholar of early Christianity and Late Antiquity, recipient of many scholarly awards, including the Leopold Lucas Prize 2018. Die Beiträge dieses Bandes diskutieren polemisch aufgeladene Neubewertungen religiöser Traditionen und Schriften der westlichen Welt, die im Lauf der Jahrhunderte in verschiedenen religiösen Kontexten genutzt wurden. Sie ziehen neue religiöse Ansichten nicht als Verbesserung ererbter Traditionen in Betracht, sondern als Ausdruck von Macht, die beim Kampf um Identität verwendet wird: Anfechtung, Aneignung, Deutung und Polemik gegen die religiös »Anderen«, die, manchmal nur andeutungsweise, Kritik an ererbter Tradition üben. Dieser Band behandelt eine Typologie der Vielfalt bescheinigter Strategien und hebt dabei Fälle von grenzwertigen Gegensätzen, die den Umsturz von allgemeinen Glaubensformen beinhaltet, hervor, während er moderatere Interaktionswege erläutert. Die meisten Beiträge wurden bei einer Konferenz im Jahr 2016 in Jerusalem präsentiert, welche Guy G. Stroumsa ehrte, einen renommierten Wissenschaftler auf dem Gebiet des frühen Christentums und der Spätantike, der, neben zahlreichen anderen Auszeichnungen, mit dem Leopold Lucas-Preis 2018 geehrt wurde.InhaltsübersichtMoshe Blidstein/Serge Ruzer: Introduction Part I: Antiquity Nicole Belayche: Content and, or, Context? Subversive Writing in Greek and Roman Religions - Philippe Borgeaud: Mythe et écriture. Une approche grecque (platonicienne) - Hubert Cancik/Hildegard Cancik-Lindemaier: Phaedrus on Greek Myth, Roman Religion and the Origin of Slavish Language - John Scheid: Piété, contestation et livre dans la Rome républicaine. Les épisodes de 213, 186 et 181 av. J.-C. - Sharon Weisser: Do We Have to Study the Torah? Philo of Alexandria and the Proofs for the Existence of God Part II: Late Antiquity Moshe Blidstein: Anti-legal Exempla in Late Ancient Christian Exegesis - Gilles Dorival: Is Maryam, Sister of Aaron, the Same as Maryam, the Mother of Jesus? Quran 19:28 Revisited - Maren R. Niehoff: Colonizing and Decolonizing the Creation: A Dispute between Rabbi Hoshaya and Origen - Lorenzo Perrone: Origen Reading the Psalms: the Challenge of a Christian Interpretation - Michel Tardieu: Le conquérant et le macrobiote: un épisode de la philosophie barbare. Part III: Middle Ages Sergey Minov: The Exhortation of the Apostle Peter: A Syriac Pseudepigraphon and its Monastic Context - Mark Silk: On Tolerating Religious »Others« in the Twelfth Century - Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra: The Christian Scriptures and Toledot Yeshu - Yuri Stoyanov: Subverting Scripture by Parascriptural Works in Medieval Eastern and Western Christian Dualism Part IV: Modernity Giovanni Filoramo: The Power of the Spiritual Man: the Subversive Exegesis of the Historian in Gottfried Arnold's Ketzergeschichte - Aryeh Kofsky/Serge Ruzer: The Gospel according to Tolstoy: Between Nineteenth-Century Lives of Jesus, Tatian and Marcion - Zur Shalev: Apocalyptic Travelers: The Seventeenth-Century Search for the Seven Churches of Asia - Adam Silverstein: Did Haman Have a Brother? On a Deceptively Interesting Error in a Modern Persian Dictionary Guy Stroumsa: Epilogue: The Duty of Subversion Cover Titel Table of Contents Introduction Part I: Antiquity Nicole Belayche: Content and, or, Context? Subversive Writing in Greek and Roman Religions Philippe Borgeaud: Mythe et écriture. Une approche grecque (platonicienne) Hubert Cancik / Hildegard Cancik-Lindemaier: Phaedrus on Greek Myth, Roman Religion and the Origin of Slavish Language John Scheid: Piété, contestation et livre dans la Rome républicaine. Les épisodes de 213, 186 et 181 av. J.-C Sharon Weisser: Do We Have to Study the Torah? Philo of Alexandria and the Proofs for the Existence of God Part II: Late Antiquity Moshe Blidstein: Anti-legal Exempla in Late Ancient Christian Exegesis Gilles Dorival: Is Maryam, Sister of Aaron, the Same as Maryam, the Mother of Jesus? Quran 19:28 Revisited Maren R. Niehoff: Colonizing and Decolonizing the Creation. A Dispute between Rabbi Hoshaya and Origen Lorenzo Perrone: Origen Reading the Psalms: The Challenge of a Christian Interpretation Michel Tardieu: Le conquérant et le macrobiote: Un épisode de la philosophie barbare Part III: Middle Ages Sergey Minov: The Exhortation of the Apostle Peter: A Syriac Pseudepigraphon and its Monastic Context Mark Silk: On Tolerating Religious “Others” in the Twelfth Century Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra: The Christian Scriptures and Toledot Yeshu Yuri Stoyanov: Subverting Scripture by Parascriptural Works in Medieval Eastern and Western Christian Dualism Part IV: Modernity Giovanni Filoramo: The Power of the Spiritual Man: The Subversive Exegesis of the Historian in Gottfried Arnold’s Ketzergeschichte Aryeh Kofsky / Serge Ruzer: The Gospel according to Tolstoy: Between Nineteenth-Century Lives of Jesus, Tatian and Marcion Zur Shalev: Apocalyptic Travelers: The Seventeenth-Century Search for the Seven Churches of Asia Adam J. Silverstein: Did Haman Have a Brother? On a Deceptively Interesting Error in a Modern Persian Dictionary Guy G. Stroumsa: Epilogue: The Duty of Subversion List of Contributors