Religion and the Authority of the Past (RATIO: Institute for the Humanities) - Softcover

Tobin Anthony Siebers (editor)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0472082590 ISBN 13: 9780472082599

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 1993

Synopsis

Religion and the Authority of the Past looks at how the past has influenced religious authority, and demonstrates that authority has been, and continues to be, prevalent in all religions and cultures. This book shows, in a fascinating variety of ways, how religious doctrine, interpretation, behavior, and expression are affected by those in power. The contributors—distinguished scholars from the fields of history, religion, classics, art, and Asian studies—find authority not only in places where one might expect it—in Islamic doctrine, Hindu religious texts, and the dogma of the Roman Catholic church, for example—but also in unimagined and intriguing locations: in the first U.S. archaeological expedition to the ancient Near East; in representations of heroic action in the Homeric epics and early Chinese classics; in the transmission of religious stereotypes from the Old World to the New; in the poetry of Paul Celan and Dan Pagis; and in a sculptor's attempts to create art for houses of worship, where architects, bishops, priests, and the laity assert a variety of forms of religious authority of their own.

About this title

About the Author

Tobin Siebers is Professor of English, University of Michigan.

Wendy Doniger is Mircea Eliade Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0472082590
• ISBN 13: 9780472082599
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304