Self and Self-Transformation in the History of Religions.

SHULMAN, David and STROUMSA, Guy G. (editors).

ISBN 10: 0195148169 / ISBN 13: 9780195148169

Published by Oxford University Press,, NY:, 2002

About this Item

First paperback printing. Previous owner's name on half-title page, pencil underlining and marginalia throughout, thus only good in pictorial wraps.

Seller Inventory # 88299

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Self and Self-Transformation in the History of Religions.
• Publisher: Oxford University Press,, NY:
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195148169
• ISBN 13: 9780195148169
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Religion, Theology, and Mythology
  • Paperbacks II
  • History

About this title

Synopsis

This book brings together scholars of a variety of the world's major civilizations to focus on the universal theme of inner transformation. The idea of the "self" is a cultural formation like any other, and models and conceptions of the inner world of the person vary widely from one civilization to another. Nonetheless, all the world's great religions insist on the need to transform this inner world. Such transformations, often ritually enacted, reveal the primary intuitions, drives, and conflicts active within the culture. The individual essays study dramatic examples of these processes in a wide range of cultures, including China, India, Tibet, Greece and Rome, Late Antiquity, Islam, Judaism, and medieval and early-modern Christian Europe.

Synopsis

This title brings together scholars of a variety of the world's major civilizations to focus on the universal theme of inner transformation. The idea of the self is a cultural formation like any other, and models and conceptions of the inner world of the person vary widely from one civilization to another. Nonetheless, all the world's great religions insist on the need to transform this inner world, however it is understood, in highly expressive and specific ways. Such transformations, often ritually enacted, reveal the primary intutitions, drives, and conflicts active within culture. The individual essays - by scholars such as Wai-yee Li, Janet Gyatso, Wendy Doniger, Christiano Grottanelli, Charles Malamoud, Margalit Finkelberg, and Moshe Idel - study dramatic examples of these processes in a wide range of cultures, including China, India, Tibet, Greece and Rome, Late Antiquity, Islam, Judaism, and mediaeval and early-modern Christian Europe.