Experientia, Volume 1: Inquiry Into Religious Experience in Early Judaism and Christianity

by Frances Flannery, Colleen Shantz, Rodney a Werline

Overview

This collection investigates the phenomenon of religious experience in early Judaism and early Christianity. The essays consider such diverse phenomena as scribal inspiration, possession, illness, ascent, theurgy, and spiritual transformation wrought by reading, and recognize that the texts are reflective of the lived experiences of ancient religious peoples, which they understood to be encounters with the divine. Contributors use a variety of methodologies, including medical anthropology, neurobiology, and ritual and performance studies, to move the investigation beyond traditional historical and literary methodologies and conclusions to illuminate the importance of experience in constructions of ancient religion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589833685
Publisher:	Society of Biblical Literature
Publication date:	09/19/2008
Series:	Society of Biblical Literature Symposium
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.61(d)

About the Author

Frances Flannery is Associate Professor of Religion at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and the author of Dreamers, Scribes and Priests: Jewish Dreams in the Hellenistic and Roman Eras. Colleen Shantz is Assistant Professor of New Testament at St. Michael’s College in the Toronto School of Theology. She is the author of Paul in Ecstasy: The Neurobiology of the Apostle’s Life and Thought. Rodney A. Werline is Associate Professor and the Marie and Leman Barnhill Endowed Chair in Religious Studies at Barton College, Wilson, North Carolina, and author of Penitential Prayer in Second Temple Judaism: The Development of a Religious Institution and Pray Like This: Understanding Prayer in the Bible.

Table of Contents

The contributors are Celia Deutsch, Troels Engberg-Pedersen, Frances Flannery, Crispin Fletcher-Louis, Robin Griffith-Jones, Richard A. Horsley, John B. F. Miller, Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, Rollin A. Ramsaran, Nicolae Roddy, Alan F. Segal, Colleen Shantz, Steven M. Wasserstrom, and Rodney A. Werline.