Reading the Way to the Netherworld

Reading the Way to the Netherworld
Author: Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Total Pages: 551
Release: 2016-12-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3647540307

The volume focuses on the various representations of the Beyond in later Antiquity, a period of intense interaction and competition between various religious traditions and ideals of education. The concepts and images clustering around the Beyond form a crucial focal point for understanding the dynamics of religion and education in later Antiquity. Although Christianity gradually supersedes the pagan traditions, the literary representations of the Beyond derived from classical literature and transmitted through the texts read at school show a remarkable persistence: they influence Christian late antique writers and are still alive in medieval literature of the East and West. A specifically Christian Beyond develops only gradually, and coexists subsequently with pagan ideas, which in turn vary according to the respective literary and philosophical contexts. Thus, the various conceptualisations of the great existential unknown, serves here as a point of reference for mirroring the changes and continuities in Imperial and Late Antique religion, education, and culture, and opening up further perspectives into the Medieval world.

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer
Author: Jonathan L. Howard
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2009-07-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0385530439

The page-turning first novel in the charmingly gothic, fiendishly funny Faustian series about a brilliant scientist who makes a deal with the Devil, twice. • "The spot-on work of a talented writer." —The Denver Post Johannes Cabal sold his soul years ago in order to learn the laws of necromancy. Now he wants it back. Amused and slightly bored, Satan proposes a little wager: Johannes has to persuade one hundred people to sign over their souls or he will be damned forever. This time for real. Accepting the bargain, Jonathan is given one calendar year and a traveling carnival to complete his task. With little time to waste, Johannes raises a motley crew from the dead and enlists his brother, Horst, a charismatic vampire to help him run his nefarious road show, resulting in mayhem at every turn.

Nether After

Nether After
Author: Jodi Cox
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2017-03-04
Genre:
ISBN: 1365784908

Between life and death lies the eternal twilight of the Nether After. A realm ruled by an aristocracy of necromancers who collect the souls of the dead and use the last moments of human life to fuel their magic spells. Fifteen-year-old Faust Thaed is only a necromancer in training, but he bears the burden of harvesting ghosts for his family. When his mother is mysteriously declared insane and is abducted by the secret police, Faust sets out on a dangerous mission to find her in the unforgiving netherworld. World War Six is about to break loose between the ruling families, and there are rumors of necromancers performing hideous experiments on the dead they're sworn to protect. His loyalties and powers are about to be tested, and if he's not careful about who he trusts, Faust may find himself sealed in the Asylum of the Damned for all eternity. A Dark Fantasy Steampunk story written by Jodi L. Cox.

Travels in the Netherworld

Travels in the Netherworld
Author: Bryan J. Cuevas
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2008-04-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190450894

In Travels in the Netherworld, Bryan J. Cuevas examines a fascinating but little-known genre of Tibetan narrative literature about the délok, ordinary men and women who claim to have died, traveled through hell, and then returned from the afterlife. These narratives enjoy audiences ranging from the most sophisticated monastic scholars to pious townsfolk, villagers, and nomads. Their accounts emphasize the universal Buddhist principles of impermanence and worldly suffering, the fluctuations of karma, and the feasibility of obtaining a favorable rebirth through virtue and merit. Providing a clear, detailed analysis of four vivid return-from-death tales, including the stories of a Tibetan housewife, a lama, a young noble woman, and a Buddhist monk, Cuevas argues that these narratives express ideas about death and the afterlife that held wide currency among all classes of faithful Buddhists in Tibet. Relying on a diversity of traditional Tibetan sources, Buddhist canonical scriptures, scholastic textbooks, ritual and meditation manuals, and medical treatises, in addition to the délok works themselves, Cuevas surveys a broad range of popular Tibetan Buddhist ideas about death and dying. He explores beliefs about the vulnerability of the soul and its journey beyond death, karmic retribution and the terrors of hell, the nature of demons and demonic possession, ghosts, and reanimated corpses. Cuevas argues that these extraordinary accounts exhibit flexibility between social and religious categories that are conventionally polarized and concludes that, contrary to the accepted wisdom, such rigid divisions as elite and folk, monastic and lay religion are not sufficiently representative of traditional Tibetan Buddhism on the ground. This study offers innovative perspectives on popular religion in Tibet and fills a gap in an important field of Tibetan literature.

Instructions for the Netherworld

Instructions for the Netherworld
Author: Alberto Bernabé Pajares
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2008
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004163719

Orphic gold tables are key documents for the knowledge of rites and beliefs of Orphics, an atypical group that configured a highly original creed and that influenced powerfully over other Greek writers and thinkers. The recent discovery of some tablets has forced a noteworthy modification of some points of view and a review ofthe different hypothesis proposed about them. The book presents a complete edition of the texts, their translation and some fundamental keys for their interpretation, in an attempt at updating our current knowledge on Orphic ideas about the soul and the Afterlife stated in those texts. The work is improved with an appendix of iconographic annotations in which some plastic representations in drawings are reproduced related to the universe of tablets, selected and commented on by Ricardo Olmos.

Caring for the Dead in Ancient Israel

Caring for the Dead in Ancient Israel
Author: Kerry M. Sonia
Publisher: SBL Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2020-11-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0884144623

A new reconstruction of cultic practices surrounding death in ancient Israel In Caring for the Dead in Ancient Israel, Kerry M. Sonia examines the commemoration and care for the dead in ancient Israel against the broader cultural backdrop of West Asia. This cult of dead kin, often referred to as ancestor cult, comprised a range of ritual practices in which the living provided food and drink offerings, constructed commemorative monuments, invoked the names of the dead, and protected their remains. This ritual care negotiated the ongoing relationships between the living and the dead and, in so doing, helped construct social, political, and religious landscapes in relationship to the past. Sonia explores the nature of this cult of dead kin in ancient Israel, focusing on its role within the family and household as well as its relationship to Israel’s national deity and the Jerusalem temple. Features: A reevaluation of whether burial and necromantic rituals were part of the cult of dead kin A portrait of the various roles Israelite women played in the cult of dead kin A reassessment of biblical writers’ attitudes toward the cult of dead kin

Necromancer 2012

Necromancer 2012
Author: Robert Harris Blum
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2013-05-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1611606071

Plunged unwittingly into the events predicted by the ancient Mayan civilization, the thirteenth and final cycle in the aging of the Earth, preceded by great cataclysmic changes, David must solve the riddle of mankind's demise before the sands of time run out on December 21, 2012. He is incredulous in learning that it was pre-ordained thousands of years ago, that he match wits against his ancestor's enemies, the son of Og, the nephalim, wizards and witches. Aristopos, the ancient necromancer, is rivaled only by his arch enemy The Wizard of Irem, whose task it is to prevent the sealing of the netherworld.

Another World: Romantic Devil King

Another World: Romantic Devil King
Author: Xin SuiMengHan
Publisher: Funstory
Total Pages: 612
Release: 2020-05-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1649353928

The main character of the Martial Arts Family, who had been passed down through the world of swords and magic, was now in a completely different world! Since he was already here, he might as well take things as they were! A game in another world! Our goal: to travel to another world! Take down the iron bucket and fill up the whole harem!

What Happens After Life?

What Happens After Life?
Author: Matthew O'Neil
Publisher: Ockham Publishing Group
Total Pages: 641
Release: 2022-06-29
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1910780138

What happens to us when we die? It's a question that has been debated for centuries, moulded through time to fit our ever changing views. Many religions teach that how we act in our life will determine where we will end up after life. If you follow religious teachings and adhere to their ethical standards, you will be rewarded and spend an eternity in heaven. If not, you will be punished and forced to spend forever in hell. Modern science, however, will tell you a completely different story: fanciful, hopeful tales of an afterlife are both rationally explainable and lacking in evidence. Theologian Matthew O'Neil demonstrates that the contemporary religious view of the afterlife is far from what our ancestors envisioned. Subjecting both original Scripture and contemporary faith to the rigours of modern science and rational philosophy, he seeks to answer one of humanities most famous puzzles: what happens After Life?