The An Encyclopedia surveys all aspects of the crusading movement from its origins in the 11th century to its decline in the 16th century. Unlike other works, which focus on the eastern Mediterranean region, this expansive four-volume encyclopedia also includes the struggle of Christendom against its enemies in Iberia, Eastern Europe, and the Baltic region, and also covers the military orders, …
Routledge is proud to announce the publication of a new major reference work from world-renowned scholar Hans J. Hillerbrand. The "Encyclopedia of Protestantism" is the definitive reference to the history and beliefs that continue to exert a profound influence on Western thought. Featuring entries written by an international team of specialists and scholars, the encyclopedia traces the course o…
Storytelling may be one of the most universal of human behaviors. Representing events in a series of episodes allows
storytellers and their audiences to explain a state of affairs, to trace the historical development of a people, to limn the portrait of a hero, or to account for the status of a ruler, city, or natural order. Storytelling ascribes causation to events, provides access to the pas…
To participate in a revision of Mircea Eliade’s Encyclopedia of Religion, first published in 1987, is an occasion of intense
humility, but also a grand opportunity. Though not without its critics, the first edition was suitably heralded as the standard reference work in the field, a truly landmark achievement. The work of revision has, at nearly every turn, amplified rather than diminished a…
ETERNITY is the condition or attribute of divine life by which it relates with equal immediacy and potency to all times. The notion emerges at the point of contact of three distinct religious concerns. The oldest of these is the question of the state of life after death, especially in light of the continuing presence of the dead among the living as acknowledged in the various forms of the cult …
Images and the visual practices that put them to work contribute significantly to the experience of those social and cultural groupings that structure human life. Clan, tribe, ancestors, congregation, family, ethnic group, race, and nation are only some of the many shared orders of social life. These forms of association configure the loyalties, obligations, and affiliations, as well as the ave…
Although certain definitions of religion would like to portray worship and the contemplative life as devoid of anything so profane or secular as commerce, in fact, work, trade, and religion are often inseparable, and can even be indistinguishable. And no religion is without fundamental economic aspects. If commerce is broadly understood as any system of exchange in which goods, services, or cap…
Whatever else they are, images are always deposits of previous forms of image-making, traces of visual thought inheritedfrom the past. This fact makes any given image a particular configuration of preservative or backward-looking impulses and present or even forward-looking ones. In the case of religious imagery, this means that images are something like cultural fossils that are especially use…
As odd or superstitious as it may appear to a scientific, secular view of nature, many religious images and objects are
capable of great efficacy and able to protect against evil or misfortune, promote prosperity, heal illness, prompt fecundity, communicate favorably with the dead, or secure divine blessing. In fact, it may even be that such purposes constitute the greatest occasion for images…
Portraits have the singular advantage of presenting to the votive eye the person whose personality, office, stature, or
authority shape a relationship that often goes to the heart of religious belief. Ancestors, teachers, saints, heroes, and deities are made available in their portraits for veneration and petition. The devotional relation that portraiture enables with these venerable figures i…
Sacred images engage viewers in acts of seeing that are themselves forms of religious experience. When human beings “see,” they do so by means of an extensive apparatus of vision that may be designated by the term gaze. The gaze is not simply an optical event, the physiological act of looking at something, but the constellation of numerous events and aspects of vision: the engagement of the…
Many religious traditions cherish images surrounded by narratives that tell of the image’s origins and its long history as an object of devotion in court and ecclesia. Often these images are acheiropoetic, that is, not made by human hands. Their origins are divine. Fashioned by angels or deities, these images descend from heaven and are found by the faithful. They are enshrined and typically …
One of the few generalizations about religion that may be safely declared is that the practice of belief is always, in one
way or another, a firmly embodied affair, transpiring in the medium of the human body. Even in the hands of the most zealously ascetic or scholastic adherents, religion’s deep register is the body that is denied, cloaked, disciplined,
or scorned. In less repressive rel…
In both oral and literate societies, the tendency to intermingle word and image is irresistible. Spoken words, whether song, chant, or prose, contain the life-force or spirit of the speaker and are commonly joined to images by incantation and by rituals designed to charge images with power. Written words are themselves signifiers that can be pictorialized in many different ways in order to com…
Outline: Daily political events and the steady inevitability of globalism require that informed students and citizens learn something about religious traditions foreign to their own. These handy guidebooks are essential resources for those who want clear and concise explanations of common terms and unfamiliar concepts of major world religions.
Overview: This book is a monumental reference work that addresses the broad interest in Christianity and religion around the world today. Comprehensive, up to date, reflecting the highest standards in scholarship yet intended for a wide range of readers, this book describes the Christian faith and community in their myriad forms today and throughout the 2,000 years of Christianity history. Th…
Overview: This book is a monumental reference work that addresses the broad interest in Christianity and religion around the world today. Comprehensive, up to date, reflecting the highest standards in scholarship yet intended for a wide range of readers, this book describes the Christian faith and community in their myriad forms today and throughout the 2,000 years of Christianity history. Th…
Overview: This book is a monumental reference work that addresses the broad interest in Christianity and religion around the world today. Comprehensive, up to date, reflecting the highest standards in scholarship yet intended for a wide range of readers, this book describes the Christian faith and community in their myriad forms today and throughout the 2,000 years of Christianity history. Th…
Overview: This book is a monumental reference work that addresses the broad interest in Christianity and religion around the world today. Comprehensive, up to date, reflecting the highest standards in scholarship yet intended for a wide range of readers, this book describes the Christian faith and community in their myriad forms today and throughout the 2,000 years of Christianity history. Th…
Overview: This book is a monumental reference work that addresses the broad interest in Christianity and religion around the world today. Comprehensive, up to date, reflecting the highest standards in scholarship yet intended for a wide range of readers, this book describes the Christian faith and community in their myriad forms today and throughout the 2,000 years of Christianity history. Th…