Intolerance, Polemics, and Debate in Antiquity

Politico-Cultural, Philosophical, and Religious Forms of Critical Conversation
Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-41067-1
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 25, 604 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 1111 g

Reihe: Themes in Biblical Narrative

In Intolerance, Polemics, and Debate in Antiquity scholars reflect on politico-cultural, philosophical, and religious forms of critical conversation in the ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, Graeco-Roman, and early-Islamic world. They enquire into the boundaries between debate, polemics, and intolerance, and address their manifestations in both philosophy and religion. This cross-cultural and inclusive approach shows that debate and polemics are not so different as often assumed, since polemics may also indicate that ultimate values are at stake. Polemics can also have a positive effect, stimulating further cultural development. Intolerance is more straightforwardly negative. Religious intolerance is often a justification for politics, but also elite rationalism can become totalitarian. The volume also highlights the importance of the fluency of minorities in the dominant discourses and of their ability to develop contrapuntal lines of thought within a common cultural discourse.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kooten, George H van

Ruiten, Jacques van

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Bibelwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Spätantike
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religiöser Fundamentalismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religion & Politik, Religionsfreiheit

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations

List of Contributors

Intolerance, Polemics, and Debate in Antiquity: Politico-Cultural, Philosophical, and Religious Forms of Critical Conversation in the Ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, Graeco-Roman, and Early Islamic Worlds

part 1: Discourses within the Ancient Near East and Early Judaism

1 Religious Intolerance in the Ancient Near East

Marjo C. A. Korpel

2 Polemics against Child Sacrifice in Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomistic History

Dominik Markl

3 Jubilees 11–12 against the Background of the Polemics against Idols in the Hebrew Bible and Early Jewish Literature

Jacques van Ruiten

4 Intolerance in Early Judaism: Emic and Etic Descriptions of Jewish Religions in the Second Temple Period

Stefan Beyerle

part 2: Discourses with Greek and Roman Powers

5 Intolerance and Freedom of Thought in Classical Athens: the Trial of Socrates

Paulin Ismard

6 Antiochus IV Epiphanes’s Policy towards the Jews

Peter Franz Mittag

7 Contesting Oikoumene: Resistance and Locality in Philo’s Legatio ad Gaium

Pieter B. Hartog

8 Stranger Danger! Amixia among Judaeans and Others

Steve Mason

part 3: Discourses between Greeks, Christians, and Jews

9 Difference, Opposition, and the Roots of Intolerance in Ancient Philosophical Polemic

George Boys-Stones

10 John’s Counter-Symposium: “The Continuation of Dialogue” in Christianity—A Contrapuntal Reading of John’s Gospel and Plato’s Symposium

George van Kooten

11 Valentinian Protology and the Philosophical Debate regarding the First Principles

Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta

12 Celsus’s Jew and Jewish Anti-Christian Counter-Narrative: Evidence of an Important Form of Polemic in Jewish-Christian Disputation

James Carleton Paget

13 The Emperor Julian, Against the Cynic Heraclius (Oration 7): A Polemic about Myths

Robbert M. van den Berg

part 4: Discourses between Muslims, Jews, Christians and Greeks

14 Qur'anic Anti-Jewish Polemics

Reuven Firestone

15 Christian-Muslim (In)tolerance? Islam and Muslims according to Early Christian Arabic Texts

Clare Wilde

16 The Intolerance of Rationalism: the Case of al-Jahiz in Ninth-Century Baghdad

Paul L. Heck

17 The Law of Justice (šari'at al-'adl) and the Law of Grace (šari'at al-fadl) in Medieval Muslim-Christian Polemics

Diego R. Sarrió Cucarella

part 5: Modern Cinematic Reflection

18 Writing History with Lightning: D. W. Griffith’s Intolerance and the Imagined Past

James C. Oleson

Index

Über Autor(innen)

George van Kooten, Ph.D. (2001), Leiden University, is the Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. His interests and expertise concern the contextualization of the New Testament writings in their Graeco-Roman context.

Jacques van Ruiten, Ph.D. (1990), Catholic University Amsterdam, is Professor of the Reception History of the Bible at the University of Groningen. He has published extensively on the reception history of biblical texts, especially in early Judaism. Recently, he was visiting fellow at the Pontificio Instituto Biblico, Rome (2016-17).

Contributors are: Robbert van den Berg, Stefan Beyerle, George Boys-Stones, Reuven Firestone, Pieter B. Hartog, Paul Heck, Paulin Ismard, George van Kooten, Marjo C. Korpel, Dominik Markl, Steve Mason, Peter Franz Mittag, James C. Oleson, James Carleton Paget, Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta, Jacques van Ruiten, Diego R. Sarrió Cucarella, Clare Wilde.