Christian Demonology and Popular Mythology

Christian Demonology and Popular Mythology
Author: Gábor Klaniczay
Publisher: Central European University Press
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2006-10-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 9637326766

This is the second volume of a series of three, containing seventeen essays of altogether forty-three articles based on the topics of the interdisciplinary conference held on "Demons, spirits, and witches" in Budapest. Recognized historians, ethnologists, folklorists coming from four continents present the latest research findings on the relationship, coexistence and conflicts of popular belief systems, Judeo-Christian mythology and demonology in medieval and modern Europe. After a first volume, published in 2005, on "Communicating with the Spirits", the studies in the present volume examine the manifold interchanges between learned and popular culture, and its repercussions on magical belief-system and the changing figure of the witch. Book jacket.

Witchcraft Mythologies and Persecutions

Witchcraft Mythologies and Persecutions
Author: G bor Klaniczay
Publisher: Central European University Press
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9789637326875

Scientific approach to esoteric and mystical themes.

Encyclopedia of Demons in World Religions and Cultures

Encyclopedia of Demons in World Religions and Cultures
Author: Theresa Bane
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0786488948

This exhaustive volume catalogs nearly three thousand demons in the mythologies and lore of virtually every ancient society and most religions. From Aamon, the demon of life and reproduction with the head of a serpent and the body of a wolf in Christian demonology, to Zu, the half-man, half-bird personification of the southern wind and thunder clouds in Sumero-Akkadian mythology, entries offer descriptions of each demon's origins, appearance and cultural significance. Also included are descriptions of the demonic and diabolical members making up the hierarchy of Hell and the numerous species of demons that, according to various folklores, mythologies, and religions, populate the earth and plague mankind. Very thoroughly indexed.

Witchcraft Mythologies and Persecutions

Witchcraft Mythologies and Persecutions
Author: Gábor Klaniczay
Publisher: Central European University Press
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2008-05-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 6155211507

This third, concluding volume of the series publishes 14 studies and the transcription of a round-table discussion on Carlo Ginzburg's Ecstasies. The themes of the previous two volumes, Communicating with the Spirits, and Christian Demonology and Popular Mythology, are further expanded here both as regards their interdisciplinary approach and the wide range of regional comparisons. While the emphasis of the second volume was on current popular belief and folklore as seen in the context of the historical sources on demonology, this volume approaches its subject from the point of view of historical anthropology. The greatest recent advances of witchcraft research occurred recently in two fields: (1) deciphering the variety of myths and the complexity of historical processes which lead to the formation of the witches' Sabbath, (2) the micro-historical analysis of the social, religious, legal and cultural milieu where witchcraft accusations and persecutions developed. These two themes are completed by some further insights into the folklore of the concerned regions which still carries the traces of the traumatic historical memories of witchcraft persecutions.

Communicating with the Spirits

Communicating with the Spirits
Author: Éva Pócs
Publisher: Central European University Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2005-06-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 6155053561

Focuses on the problem of communication with the other world: the phenomenon of spirit possession and its changing historical interpretations, the imaginary schemes elaborated for giving accounts of the journeys to the other world, for communicating with the dead, and finally the historical archetypes of this kind of religious manifestation—trance prophecy, divination, and shamanism.Recognized historians and ethnologists analyze the relationship, coexistence and conflicts of popular belief systems, Judeo-Christian mythology and demonology in medieval and modern Europe. The essays address links between rites and beliefs, folklore and literature; the legacy of various pre-Christian mythologies; the syncretic forms of ancient, medieval and modern belief- and rite-systems; "pure" examples from religious-ethnological research outside Europe to elucidate European problems.

In the Company of Demons

In the Company of Demons
Author: Armando Maggi
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2006-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 0226501302

In its interpretation of Latin and Greek culture, Christianity contends that Satan is behind all classical deities, demi-gods, and spiritual creatures, including the gods of the household, the lares and penates. But Armando Maggi, an expert in Renaissance demonology, argues throughout In the Company of Demons that the great thinkers of the Italian Renaissance had a more nuanced and perhaps less sinister interpretation of these creatures or spiritual bodies. Through close readings of Giovan Francesco Pico della Mirandola, Strozzi Cigogna, Pompeo della Barba, Ludovico Sinistrari, and others, Mag.

Fairies, Demons, and Nature Spirits

Fairies, Demons, and Nature Spirits
Author: Michael Ostling
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2017-11-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 113758520X

This book examines the fairies, demons, and nature spirits haunting the margins of Christendom from late-antique Egypt to early modern Scotland to contemporary Amazonia. Contributions from anthropologists, folklorists, historians and religionists explore Christian strategies of encompassment and marginalization, and the ‘small gods’ undisciplined tendency to evade such efforts at exorcism. Lurking in forest or fairy-mound, chuckling in dark corners of the home or of the demoniac’s body, the small gods both define and disturb the borders of a religion that is endlessly syncretistic and in endless, active denial of its own syncretism. The book will be of interest to students of folklore, indigenous Christianity, the history of science, and comparative religion.

Demons and the Making of the Monk

Demons and the Making of the Monk
Author: David BRAKKE
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2009-06-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0674028651

In this finely written study of demonology and Christian spirituality in fourth- and fifth-century Egypt, David Brakke examines how the conception of the monk as a holy and virtuous being was shaped by the combative encounter with demons. Drawing on biographies of exceptional monks, collections of monastic sayings and stories, letters from ascetic teachers to their disciples, sermons, and community rules, Brakke crafts a compelling picture of the embattled religious celibate.