Description: Further DetailsTitle: Spiritual Taxonomies and Ritual AuthorityCondition: NewSubtitle: Platonists, Priests, and Gnostics in the Third Century C.E.ISBN-10: 0812247892EAN: 9780812247893ISBN: 9780812247893Publisher: University of Pennsylvania PressFormat: HardbackRelease Date: 02/02/2016Description: The people of the late ancient Mediterranean world thought about and encountered gods, angels, demons, heroes, and other spirits on a regular basis. These figures were diverse, ambiguous, and unclassified and were not ascribed any clear or stable moral valence. Whether or not they were helpful or harmful under specific circumstances determined if and what virtues were attributed to them. That all changed in the third century C.E., when a handful of Platonist philosophers—Plotinus, Origen, Porphyry, and Iamblichus—began to produce competing systematic discourses that ordered the realm of spirits in moral and ontological terms.In Spiritual Taxonomies and Ritual Authority, Heidi Marx-Wolf recounts how these Platonist philosophers organized the spirit world into hierarchies, or "spiritual taxonomies," positioning themselves as the high priests of the highest gods in the process. By establishing themselves as experts on sacred, ritual, and doctrinal matters, they were able to fortify their authority, prestige, and reputation. The Platonists were not alone in this enterprise, and it brought them into competition with rivals to their new authority: priests of traditional polytheistic religions and gnostics. Members of these rival groups were also involved in identifying and ordering the realm of spirits and in providing the ritual means for dealing with that realm. Using her lens of spiritual taxonomy to look at these various groups in tandem, Marx-Wolf demonstrates that Platonist philosophers, Christian and non-Christian priests, and gnostics were more interconnected socially, educationally, and intellectually than previously recognized.Language: EnglishCountry/Region of Manufacture: USItem Height: 229mmItem Length: 152mmAuthor: Heidi Marx-WolfGenre: Philosophy & SpiritualityBook Series: Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient ReligionTopic: History, Ancient HistoryRelease Year: 2016 Missing Information?Please contact us if any details are missing and where possible we will add the information to our listing.
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Book Title: Spiritual Taxonomies and Ritual Authority
Title: Spiritual Taxonomies and Ritual Authority
Subtitle: Platonists, Priests, and Gnostics in the Third Century C.E.
ISBN-10: 0812247892
EAN: 9780812247893
ISBN: 9780812247893
Release Date: 02/02/2016
Release Year: 2016
Country/Region of Manufacture: US
Genre: Philosophy & Spirituality
Topic: Ancient History
Number of Pages: 216 Pages
Language: English
Publication Name: Spiritual Taxonomies and Ritual Authority : Platonists, Priests, and Gnostics in the Third Century C. E.
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Subject: Demonology & Satanism, Ancient / General, Christianity / History, Religious, Supernatural, Gnosticism
Publication Year: 2016
Item Height: 0.8 in
Item Weight: 15.7 Oz
Type: Textbook
Author: Heidi Marx-Wolf
Item Length: 9.1 in
Subject Area: Religion, Body, Mind & Spirit, Philosophy, History
Series: Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion Ser.
Item Width: 7.1 in
Format: Hardcover
