This volume is part of a series of English translations of the Syriac Peshitta along with the Syriac text carried out by an international team of scholars. Forness has translated the text, while Kiraz has prepared the Syriac text in the west Syriac script, fully vocalized and pointed. The translation and the Syriac text are presented on facing pages so that both can be studied together. All readers are catered for: those wanting to read the text in English, those wanting to improve their grasp of Syriac by reading the original language along with a translation, and those wanting to focus on a fully vocalized Syriac text.

This study addresses two underdeveloped areas in Old Testament scholarship: the use of Judges in Psalms and the use of rhetorical criticism in the analysis of inner-biblical allusion.

The book offers a comprehensive anthropological study of lived Christianity in Jerusalem’s Old City, with a special focus on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or the Church of the Anastasis. Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork, the study explores the experiences of the Rum Orthodox community, examining their internal dynamics and relationships with other Christian groups. Within the Church of the Anastasis, complex interplays emerge, as fragile legal agreements intermingle with ethnic and theological considerations, resulting in a complex reality of shared spaces and coexistence. A materialist lens is employed to study these dynamics, suggesting that the material aspects of religious practices play a crucial role in shaping borders and influencing perceptions of similarities and differences across them. Outside the Church's confines, in the Old City of Jerusalem, lay Christians, especially the local Palestinian Orthodox, engage in 'border-crossing practices', which often deviate from the Orthodox Church's approved practice. These practices reflect the flexible strategies local Christians adopt in their everyday lives in Israel, challenging established norms and boundaries. By capturing these dynamics, the book provides valuable insights into shared sacred spaces and offers a significant contribution to debates in the anthropology of Christianity and its material culture.

The Passover Haggadah, the quintessential Jewish book, began taking shape in the period of the Mishnah and the Talmud (ca. 100-600 CE). Even by 600, it did not look like it does today. Major portions were wanting, e.g., the story of eminent sages at a seder in Bene Beraq; the typology of the four sons; the midrashic expansion of the story of the exodus; the song Dayyenu. Those compositions (mostly) or borrowings were incorporated into the Haggadah between ca. 600-900 (the Geonic period). Such selections completed the Haggadah, producing the book used at Passover Seders to the present day. This study shows how the section of the Passover Haggdah known as maggid (“recounting”) achieved its comprehensive structure and contents between ca. 600 and 900 CE (the geonic period).

Over the past half century, China has accomplished a great deal in the study of Islam, and established a certain academic system for its study. This book offers a history of contemporary Islamic research in China, analyzing the interdisciplinary research emerging from this system, from its background to the people involved, mechanisms, and their publications, scientific conferences, reference works and historical materials, and the branches of research: history, religion, philosophy, politics, and culture.

A Festschrift for Rifaat Ebied celebrating a lifetime of work in the field of Semitic Studies, in particular Syriac, Christian Arabic, and Mandaic.

A biography of Abū al-Faḍl al-ʿAbbās, the half brother, diplomat, and negotiator of al-Ḥusayn. The author was named Distinguished Scholar of Shia Studies in the Islamic Republic of Iran's 28th World Book Awards in 2020. He is at present a resident faculty member of PISAI, lecturing in Shīʿī Islamic studies, Qurʾān and Islamic Ethics, and a visiting lecturer at the Pontifical Beda College in Rome.

This pocket-size hieratikon contains all the texts necessary for a deacon or priest in serving the daily hours of the Orthodox Church - Vespers, Compline, Midnight Office, Matins and the hours. Church Slavonic and English texts are provided in parallel, on facing pages. Also included are instructions and additional prayers for the All-Night Vigil and the services of Great Lent, the festal and Sunday prokeimena, and festal megolynaria. The cloth binding is sewn for durability and supplemented with a marking ribbon.Please click here to download the Menologion and Daily Dismissal sections of the service book.

Before the advent of radio, conceptions of the relationship between science and religion circulated through periodicals, journals, and books, influencing the worldviews of intellectuals and a wider public. In this volume, historians of science and religion examine that relationship through diverse mediums, geographic contexts, and religious traditions. Spanning within and beyond Europe and North America, chapters emphasize underexamined regions—New Zealand, Australia, India, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Egypt, and the Ottoman Empire—and major religions of the world, including Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Islam; interactions between those traditions; as well as atheism, monism, and agnosticism. As they focus on evolution and human origins, contributors draw attention to European scientists other than Darwin who played a significant role in the dissemination of evolutionary ideas; for some, those ideas provided the key to understanding every aspect of human culture, including religion. They also highlight central figures in national contexts, many of whom were not scientists, who appropriated scientific theories for their own purposes. Taking a local, national, transnational, and global approach to the study of science and religion, this volume begins to capture the complexity of cultural engagement with evolution and religion in the long nineteenth century.

Orthodox theology is intimately linked to spiritual experience:it has a very different meaning to the present usage of this word coming from academia. The scientific methods developed in the West since the seventeenth century can of of benefit in many regards, but without strong roots in the Orthodox tradition theology risks being "eaten up" by the human sciences.These roots are in the mystical tradition of the Church as passed down from the the beginning and expressed in the lives of saints, iconography etc. Thus this work has both a theoretical and a practical scope, of relevance to all Christians.

Death is a great sacrament. It is the birth of a person from this earthly, temporary life, into eternity.In this third volume of St Ignatius’s collected works, published here in English for the first time, the saint examines the mystical boundaries that govern the life of a Christian: the one, between life and death; and the other, between the visible, physical realm and the invisible to most, but no less real, spiritual realm. Included in this volume is St Ignatius’s “Homily on Death,” one of his most popular works in his native Russia and often published separately. The reader will also encounter St Ignatius’s teachings on the nature of the soul and the essence of the incorporeal beings, the latter theologoumena being a point of contention between the author and his contemporary, St Theophan the Recluse. The text is complemented by a comprehensive scripture index and a short biography of the author.

Religious heritage has long been within the scope of academia, but very little research has been conducted on the heritagization of Catholic monasteries. This is remarkable considering the longstanding historical presence and social impact of these institutes that, in recent times, have also become well-visited spiritual centers and much-cherished heritage objects. This book addresses this lacuna. It does so through examining the heritagization process of De Heilige Driehoek (The Holy Triangle), a religious site comprised of three living monasteries in the south of the Netherlands. Ever since the turn of the millennium, the monastic communities living there have increasingly experienced the involvement of heritage groups. In this dynamic, the distinctive religious tradition of the monastics has led to a distinctive heritage perception of the area; one in which the spiritual and historical values of this tradition are recognized. However, as these values are translated into a secular heritage discourse, the question arises how this translation relates to the self-understanding and needs of the monastics. The aim of this book is to conceptualize through a historical lens the evolving and differing ways in which the different parties involved envision the meaning, potential, and nature of the monasteries. This study shows the struggle of heritage groups with creating a compelling narrative for their intended audiences and the often problematic impact this has on religious communities. In doing so, it offers a new perspective on the complicated relationship between religion and heritage

A study of how the Sedrō of Entrance has been practiced in earlier periods and architectural contexts and to investigate what role the entrance rite may have had in constructing the sanctuary as sacred space and the worshipping community as church.

Identity has become a central theme in a globalised world, both in politics and in the humanities, and the Syrian churches cannot escape it either. Christianity also exists as an identity that can in some ways compete with or even contradict theological understandings as a witness. But how should religious leaders deal with the fact that their churches are as much faith communities as identity markers? This volume does not offer the all-encompassing answer to this central question, but it provides keys for reflection and discussion beyond the circle of clergy and theologians, showing why the Syriac tradition matters for global Christianity.

This comprehensive work represents a complete but accessible survey of everything related to the Orthodox Church's divine services and is helpfully illustrated throughout. The author begins with a discussion of the nature and origin of Divine worship. He describes the church building, the clergy who perform divine services and their vestments, and the cycles of public worship. The services of Great Vespers, Matins, and the Divine Liturgy are reviewed in detail, as are festal services, and different services of need: Baptism and Chrismation, Confession, Ordination, Matrimony, Unction, Prayer Services, Monastic Tonsure and Burial, and the Consecration of a Church. The reader will also find a rare discussion of the rite of the Coronation and Anointing of the Tsar.This manual was originally translated and printed before the Russian Revolution. It is suitable both as an introduction to Orthodox worship for the inquirer and as a convenient handbook for those already familiar with the intricacies of Orthodox services.

The essays collected in Watering the Garden are intended to honor Deirdre Dempsey, a distinguished biblical educator, translator, and scholar. The contributions to this Festschrift mirror Dempsey’s own scholarly interests, including biblical studies, with particular attention to the Old Testament and intertestamental literature, the theology of visual arts, the history of spiritual traditions, and modern theology. The content of the Festschrift closely follows Dempsey's own spiritual and scholarly journey and reflects the breadth and scope of her influence on the academy.