Theurgy in Late Antiquity

The Invention of a Ritual Tradition
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-3-525-54020-6
Verlag: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Buch, Englisch, Band Band 001, 325 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 237 mm, Gewicht: 678 g

Reihe: Beiträge zur Europäischen Religionsgeschichte (BERG)

Theurgy is commonly taken to denote a complex of rites which are based on the so-called Chaldean Oracles, a collection of oracles in hexameters, which were probably composed during the late 2nd century AD. These rituals are mostly known through Neoplatonic sources, who engage in a passionate debate about their relevance to the salvation of the soul and thus to the philosopher’s ultimate goal. Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler examines the development of the discourse on theurgy, attempting to reconstruct what was understood as theurgic ritual in the late antique sources. Withstanding the temptation to impose a unity on the disparate sources which span several centuries, she thus goes beyond the picture of a coherent, extra-philosophical tradition drawn by the Neoplatonists to sketch the variations in the rituals subsumed under ‘theurgy’ and their function, and shows how every author constructs his own ‘theurgy’. This perspective leads to consider theurgy as an example of an ‘artificial’ ritual tradition, composed from already existing elements to create something claimed as sui generis. Theurgy offers the great opportunity to look at such a tradition from its beginning up to its end and to analyse the mechanisms of inventing and reinventing such a ritual tradition in process.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Tanaseanu-Döbler, Ilinca

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte Religionen der Antike
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Antike Philosophie

Über Autor(innen)

Tanaseanu-Döbler, Ilinca
Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler leitet das Institut für Religionswissenschaft an der Philosophischen Fakultät der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Ihr Arbeitsschwerpunkt ist die Europäische Religionsgeschichte.

Professor Dr. Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler isti Juniorprofessor am Courant Forschungszentrum EDRIS und Leiterin der Forschungsgruppe "Religion and Education in Late Antiquity" an der Universität Göttingen.