Author: Henry Suso File Type: pdf Written by Dominican preacher and mystic Bl. Henry Suso (c. 1300-1366), Horologium Sapientiae, or Wisdoms Watch upon the Hours, was one of the most successful religious writings of its time. Now it is offered to the English-speaking world in a new translation based on Pius Knzles critical Latin edition. Essentially a dialogue between the author and Divine Wisdom, the Watch tells of Susos service to and espousal of Wisdom, his most cruel bride, with a charm reminiscent of contemporary chivalric romance literature. The Watchs many readers doubtless esteemed it for its devotional fervor and for the solutions Suso offers to the problems inseparable from a sincere Christian life. He teaches that a devotion of sharing in the Saviors self-sacrifice is the path to spiritual perfection, as well as a consolation for the soul amid lifes cares. Based on his own shrewd observations on shunning sensory forms and earthly imaginings, Suso develops the essential elements of ascetic and mystical theology. He keenly observes and judiciously criticizes the abuses of his own times and the rise of secularism, hedonism, and materialism. He writes of his yearning for a way of life that was fast disappearing, for the piety and simplicity of the country folk he had known as a boy. For Suso, the Christocentric Boethius, the men and women of his youth were heirs of the Eternal Wisdom, founded on Christ and found in Christ, which was being lost and forgotten in the new urban cultures. The Watchs autobiographical content is especially interesting for those who follow the repercussions of the condemnation of Meister Eckhart, Susos revered teacher, in 1329. Eckhart had been condemned for heresy, and Suso uses allegory to show perceptive readers how he found a way to dissent from this judgment and yet remain the Holy Sees loyal and faithful servant. Throughout most of his life, Suso suffered the jealousy of his confreres and remained ever conscious of the dangers of uncritically applying Eckharts principles these troubles too are expressed allegorically here. ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR Edmund Colledge, O.S.A., was professor of vernacular literature at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies from 1969 until 1982, when he retired with the title of emeritus professor of the University of Toronto. He is co-author of The Chastising of Gods Children (1957) and A Book of Showings to the Anchoress Julian of Norwich (1978). **

Author: Elisha Russ-Fishbane File Type: pdf Judaism, Sufism, and the Pietists of Medieval Egypt addresses the extraordinary rise and inner life of the Egyptian pietist movement in the first half of the thirteenth century. The creative engagement with the dominant Islamic culture was always present, even when unspoken. Elisha Russ-Fishbane calls attention to the Sufi subtext of Jewish pietiem, while striving not to reduce its spiritual synthesis and religious renewal to a set of political calculations. Ultimately, no single term or concept can fully address the creative expression of pietism that so animated Jewish society and that left its mark in numerous manuscripts and fragments from medieval Egypt. Russ-Fishbane offers a nuanced examination of the pietist sources on their own terms, drawing as far as possible upon their own definitions and perceptions. Jewish society in thirteenth-century Egypt reflects the dynamic reexamination by a venerable community of its foundational texts and traditions, even of its very identity and institutions, viewed and reviewed in the full light of its Islamic environment. The historical legacy of this religious synthesis belongs at once to the realm of Jewish culture, in all its diversity and dynamism, as well as to the broader spiritual orbit of Islamicate civilization. **

Author: Ben Golder File Type: pdf This volume addresses the relationship between law and neoliberalism. Assembling work from established and emerging legal scholars, political theorists, philosophers, historians and sociologists from around the world, including the Americas, Australia, Europe and the United Kingdom, it addresses the conceptual, legal, and political relationships between liberal legality and neoliberal economics. More specifically, the book analyses the role that legality plays in the dominant economic force of our time offering both a legal corrective to scholarship in economics and political economy that has paid insufficient attention to legal ideas and, at the same time, a political economic corrective to legal scholarship which has only recently turned to theorizing neoliberalism. It will be of enormous interest to those working at the intersection of law and politics in our neoliberal age. **

Author: Alice Bach File Type: pdf The Blackwell Companion to the Bible and Culture provides readers with a concise, readable and scholarly introduction to twenty-first century approaches to the Bible. ullConsists of 30 articles written by distinguished specialists from around the world llDraws on interdisciplinary and international examples to explore how the Bible has impacted on all the major social contexts where it has been influential ancient, medieval and modern, world-wide llGives examples of how the Bible has influenced literature, art, music, history, religious studies, politics, ecology and sociology llEach article is accompanied by a comprehensive bibliography llOffers guidance on how to read the Bible and its many interpretations lulReviewPerusing this well-edited, fully indexed Companion is an exhilarating experience that is likely to lead readers to offer a sincere, if breathless, thanks to all involved in its creation. (Choice)An intriguing and highly engaging set of articles which demonstrate clearly how much of the worlds culture has been, and is, permeated with biblical imagery, ideas and influences. (Journal for the Study of the New Testament)This volume is a delight, full of interest and surprises. It contains a wealth of fine scholarship made readable and the book is highly recommended Immensely varied, accessible, and fascinating. (Journal of Contemporary Religion)A sweeping and magnanimous overview admirably achieves its goal with wit, aplomb, and a disciplinary breadth that is all too rare in biblical studies today A welcome addition to the growing corpus of literature on the important relationship(s) between the Bible and culture. (Review of Biblical Literature)A unique manual that demonstrates that biblical studies are no longer done exclusively in departments of theology. (International Review of Biblical Studies)ReviewConcentrating vast bodies of knowledge in richly and vividly informative articles, this volume is a major contribution to religion and culture studies. It includes the three religions that use the Bible Judaism, Islam, and Christianity on topics as varied as film, Australasia, postmodernism, and the body. All scholars and students of religion and culture can learn from both the content and the method of this highly readable book. Margaret R. Miles, The Graduate Theological UnionIt is clear that the Bible in Western culture is recognized not only as a source of revelation but as a generative force in the propulsion of culture. Professor Sawyer knows as much as anyone about Reader Response and the ways in which the Bible has been read over time misread or strongly read to impact and shape culture. In this volume he has gathered a first-rate group of scholarly interpreters who lead us into heretofore unexplored areas along the interface of culture and Bible. This book is a venturesome and welcome pioneer not only in new learnings, but also in new methods that will continue to evoke new interpretations. The volume signals a fresh direction in Scripture study. Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological SeminaryNowhere has the mutual interdependence between the Bible and culture been as thoroughly analyzed as in the thirty contributions to this Companion. The rich variety of contents and perspectives of these imaginatively selected, densely packed chapters is overwhelming. A truly interdisciplinary work created by a group of internationally known scholars, this collection shows how the various aesthetic, political and religious aspects of culture inform and are still informed by biblical texts. They reveal how much our cultural imagination and practices are imbued with biblical images, themes and residues, but also how much present ways of thinking have moved far away from the Bible. The contributors discuss rabbinic, patristic, medieval, modern and postmodern approaches to the Bible, its global appropriations as also its reception and usage in Judaism, Islam and in contemporary ecological debates. These challenging essays invite much reflection and debate, making this Companion attractive to a wide range of readers. Ursula King, University of Bristol and University of London