Oriental Religions Research Articles

Tension in Modernist Art and Lyric Poetry at the Beginning of the 20th Century in Estonian Culture: Ernst Enno and Others

The Young Estonia group (1905–1919) was at the centre of Estonian literature at the beginning of the 20th century, when Estonian poetry was both experimental and imitative. Gustav Suits was officially the creator of modern Estonian poetry. At the same time there were poets who wrote original poems that did not imitate previous work. Juhan Liiv was one of these, and Villem Grünthal Ridala and Ernst Enno continue in the same vein. Enno’s nature poetry is pantheistic and symbolic, emotional and sensitive to nature, at times suggesting transcendental cognition. He was interested in Oriental religion, which influenced his poetry to become less rational and more mystical. Ridala and Enno also used visual effects, and their texts have been set to music as well as becoming part of the visual arts in films and serials. The paper analyses the verbal texts of Enno and Ridala, and the interaction between visual and verbal texts.

The Sun and the Moon on the Plaques of Mithras

The representations of Mithras are the object of a true fascination by the historians and the researchers. The challenge is serious, since there are almost no documents on this religion, except indirect testimonies. However, it was more important than Christianity for 4 centuries. Its installation in Rome seems to be contemporary with Christianity and linked to the person of Flavius Josephus. Many academic theories have tried to make Mithraism an anti-Roman oriental religion, but this hypothesis seems paradoxical, since it was practised by the army of Rome and its high officials. Others see in the stars a universal religion with a cosmic salvation, a novelty for the time, but one wonders why it was elitist and masculine. Others see, in the Sun/Moon opposition, the challenge between the East and the West of the Empire, but does this opposition of two luminaries date from the century of Augustus? Finally, others have seen in the sacrifice of the bull a Stoic philosophy. But can a philosophy become a religion with Mysteries?

Ecology, Anti-Christianity, and the Far Right

Ecology, Anti-Christianity, and the Far Right

SAMUEL JOHNSON'S THOUGHTS ABOUT ISLAM

This review essay is about a late nineteenth-century book on Islam written by an American Orientalist Samuel Johnson (1822-1882). Johnson was a clergyman, a consecrated minister, a scholar of large attainments, an author, and by nature a poet. More especially, he was a student and interpreter of the Far Eastern religions. Whatever his work, he brought into it an open, cultivated, and philosophic mind. The most enduring monument to Johnson’s labour is his scholarly and philosophical study of the Oriental Religions: India (1872); China (1877); and Persia (1885). This study engaged him during his whole ministry and to the end of his life.

The Rise of Veterinary Ethics

Abstract Bernard Rollin taught the first class in veterinary ethics in modern veterinary history at Colorado State University in the late 1970’s as a result of his outrage at the behavior of a CSU surgeon who gave him only one option for his dog, when others were less invasive. The course, which became part of the veterinary curriculum at CSU, began with a history of the evolution of thought and attitudes toward animals from early Greek philosophy and Oriental religion, and followed it to modern times. He used the concept of telos, or nature of an animal, to develop his theory of why animals should be treated as moral objects with rights, and over the period of 40 years taught, wrote books and articles, lectured all over the world, and influenced legislation protecting animals.

Особенности организации и размещения игорных зон в различных странах мира

The features of the organization and spatial placement of gambling zones in various countries of the world are considered. It is noted that this process (prohibition, restriction or widespread permission) is primarily influenced by the cultural characteristics of the population, which translates into the attitude of the authorities and administration in certain states towards the gambling business. As a result of the study, it was revealed that the states on this issue are divided according to civilization. In countries where Islam is the dominant religion, gambling is, as a rule, prohibited (although betting on races and dog fights is allowed). In countries belonging to the orbit of the Anglo-Saxon world (the vast majority of countries in America, Africa, Europe, Australia and Oceania), gambling is allowed everywhere, with some restrictions. In the monarchies of the East, gambling is allowed for foreigners, but the local population is prohibited from playing. In Russia, non-Islamic Asia (Orthodoxy, world oriental religions), measures have been taken to restrict the gambling business - it is allowed only in specially designated areas - gambling zones. This suggests a conclusion about the need for a compromise between society, government bodies and business when organizing these zones in the Russian Federation. At the same, it is worth taking into account and adapting foreign experience to Russian conditions.

ĐẶC TRƯNG MĨ HỌC CỔ ĐẠI NHẬT BẢN NHÌN TỪ TƯ TƯỞNG MĨ HỌC CỔ ĐIỂN PHƯƠNG ĐÔNG

Japanese aesthetics was formed very early, and had absorbed classical Oriental thought with its own speciality. Since ancient times, aesthetic concepts had appeared and always played an important role in shaping the Japanese artists’ style of composition and Japanese cultural life, and particularly flourished in Heian period. These aesthetics norms had paved the way for the later development of a unique and rich Japanese aesthetic system. The paper aims to clarify the role of Oriental philosophy, religion and ideology, as well as the ingenious continuation of the Japanese in forming a unique aesthetics of the nation. Besides, the article analyzes the characteristics of beauty such as deficiencies and emotional suppression, intimacy and lofty, sacred and worldly, and fragile fate. Based on those analyses, the paper explains the relationships between Japanese aesthetics and other typical aesthetics such as China and India. The research results will be the theoretical basis contributing to deciphering the characteristics of Japanese culture viewing from a traditional perspective.

ORIENT В. А. МОЦАРТА: ВІД АЛЮЗІЇ ДО ЕТИКО- ЕСТЕТИЧНОЇ СТИЛЬОВОЇ МОДЕЛІ

Throughout the history of music, the dialogue of cultures in the West- East discourse has produced various Orientalism models. Introducing a fashion for oriental decorations in Europe, using new instruments, borrowing modes of musical expression, as well as alluding to signs and symbols of oriental religions and philosophies gave rise to reshaping European musical aesthetics as early as the 18th century. At that time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his work were undoubtedly pivotal for the art. One can retrospectively observe that Turkish Janissary musical traditions significantly freshened and enriched the composer's instrumental thinking. This can be seen most in the orchestration of Mozart's oriental operas – namely, his singspiels Zaide and The Abduction from the Seraglio. Being a synthetic genre by its nature, opera is primarily related to literary activity; therefore, its oriental colour and imagery need to be immersed in the philosophical world of oriental narratives and storylines that were very popular in baroque and classicism art. Moreover, on the example of The Magic Flute, Mozart's last opera, we can observe how the semiosis of Sufi texts explicitly present in this singspiel libretto gives the work new – Romantic – features. These new characteristics are not limited to the surface aesthetic level of decorations. As an opera reformer, Mozart reshapes the aesthetics of musical language, concurrently refining the ethical component of the genre. Thus, when analysing some instrumental, especially opera pieces by Mozart – namely, Zaide, The Abduction from the Seraglio and The Magic Flute singspiels, one can affirm that the synergy between all orientalism features in the composer’s works and established traditions of the European musical art resulted in the Viennese master creating a new ethical and aesthetic style model, which became seminal for the upcoming epochs.

Mental Health among Italian Nichiren Buddhists: Insights from a Cross-Sectional Exploratory Study

Religiosity/spirituality is generally considered as a powerful tool for adjusting and coping with stressors, attributing purposes and meanings (either existential/philosophical, cognitive, or behavioral ones) to daily situations and contexts. While studies generally investigate these effects in Judaism and Christianity believers, there is a dearth of data concerning oriental religions. We sampled from Italian Nichiren Buddhists, the most widespread branch of Buddhism in Italy (n = 391). Participants were Buddhists on average since 5 years and self-defined moderate practitioners. Adaptive strategies exhibited higher scores than maladaptive ones. Specifically, the adaptive strategy of active coping positively correlated with self-evaluated degree of being a practicing Buddhist, as well as positive reframing and religion, while maladaptive strategies such as use of substances, venting and behavioral disengagement correlated negatively. Only the subscale of religion correlated significantly and positively with the time from which the participant had become Buddhist, while the use of emotional support correlated negatively. Most participants had a predominantly internal locus of control. External locus of control negatively correlated with time the participant became Buddhist and the self-reported degree of being a practicing Buddhist, whereas internal locus positively correlated only with the latter variable. Furthermore, Buddhist participants exhibited a low psychopathological profile when compared with the normative scores.

PRESENCE AND RESIDENCE OF NEAR EASTERNERS IN CRETE DURING THE IRON AGE

Since Prehistory, human beings have migrated from one place to another in order to meet their needs. The Iron Age saw an increase of interactions in the Mediterranean Sea. Archaeological settlements of the island of Crete (Greece), such as Knossos, Eleutherna or the Idaean Cave, have provided Near Eastern material that suggests these contacts. The finds indicate the presence of Near Easterners in the island (figurines of Egyptian gods from Knossos show the transmission of oriental religion; North Syrian ivory furniture found at the Idaean Cave and oriental bronzes manufactured at Eleutherna imply a Near Easter craftsmen working there), but also their residence (attested by “cippi”, an oriental mortuary practice). Therefore, between the 9th and the 8th centuries BC, Crete saw some Near Eastern traders and metalworkers who arrived, settled, practised their craft and taught their techniques to local people in the island. This multi-cultural character of Crete shows an early phase of migratory movements where cultural practices are shared among different groups of people It is a phenomenon that implies processes of hybridisation, localisation and even globalisation, reminding us that cultures should never be considered in isolation.

Raga Rock: Popular Music and the Turn to the East in the 1960s

In this paper we analyse one particular interaction: the development of a self-consciously “Eastern”-sounding music within Western pop music. We understand this in the context of several “journeys to the East”: some virtual (the interest in oriental religions, the adoption of Eastern musical forms) and some real (the journeys taken to the East by some musicians and by thousands of young people). We will consider, first, the milieu within which these changes took place, and then analyse the methods, scale and motivations of those Western artists who took inspiration from Eastern, mainly Indian, music in the 1960s and 1970s to create what became known as “raga rock.” Our aim is to demonstrate that these developments added up to a “neo-orientalism”: resembling the older, imperial orientalism in its tendency to simplify and romanticize the East, but different from it in the passionate sincerity of its admiration for certain Eastern forms, which were taken to the point of challenging dominant cultural and even political norms within the West.

Cascade of Remainders

In a very late essay on remains, one might say a throw away essay, Derrida doggedly tracks the relation of a certain desire to remains, linking it to sacrificial economy and to a hierarchical ontological order. If our concern is a thinking of desire as it pertains to remains, why should we not turn first, or perhaps exclusively, to Derrida's monumental works on the subject of remains, specifically Glas and Cinders, jettisoning the little-known essay we have not yet named? Certainly Derrida has said much in these well-known works about desire and remains, consumption and excretion, fire and ashes. So, why devote all one's attention, as we will do in this paper, to what might be said to be a morsel of an essay, which has remained largely unread and hence falls outside of Derrida commentary? The essay in question is his 2002 ‘Remains – the Master, or the Supplement of Infinity’, a homage to Charles Malamoud, a French ethnologist and scholar of Indian and Oriental religions whose work, especially his 1989 Cooking the World, was influential on Derrida's thinking concerning the ‘rhetorics of cannibalism’ and ‘eating the other’ and featured prominently in his seminars from 1989–1991 on the aforementioned themes. In ‘Remains – the Master’, a dense and rich essay, Derrida analogically links two vastly different cultures – the Brahmanic of India and the Greco-European – in terms of a ‘law of remainders’, which for both traditions, he claims, is an organizing principle of humans, gods, and the whole of the world. In his essay Derrida returns to or, more accurately, remains with a thinking of ‘the French word “reste”, the remnants [restance] of “reste”’, which, as Derrida notes, is ‘difficult to translate in an exhaustive or transparent manner,’ that is, ‘without remainder’ (2002, 41). However, what this paper will follow is the circulation of remainders in the Vedic tradition, as analysed by Derrida and Malamoud. In doing so, we can begin to not only translate the notion of Malamoud's ‘cascade de restes’ from one culture, logic, and idiom to another but understand how for Derrida this ritual downpour of remainders not only institutes a hierarchy of remainders but also produces ipseity.

Edward King , Virtual Orientalism in Brazilian Culture (London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), pp. x + 214, £60.00, hb.

O Oriental Religions in Latin American Literature Ignacio Lo´pez-Calvo School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of California, Merced, Merced CA, USA Keywords Eastern religions; Latin American Literature; Buddhism; Shinto; Confucianism; Taoism; Hin- duism; Theosophy; Chinese religions; Oriental- ism; Vicente Fatone; Alejandro Korn; Pablo Neruda; Octavio Paz; Jorge Luis Borges; Julio Cortazar; Ce´sar Aira; Juan Jose´ Tablada; Augusto Higa; Enrique Go´mez Carrillo; Bernardo Carvalho; Severo Sarduy; Zoe´ Valde´s; Antonio Chuffat Latour. Regino Pedroso; Mayra Montero; Leonardo Padura Fuentes; Rube´n Dari´o; Leopoldo Lugones; Amado Nervo; Gabriela Mistral; Ricardo Rojas; Arturo Capdevila; Ricardo Guiraldes Part of the information included in this essay was taken from my books Dragons in the Land of the Condor: Writing Tusan in Peru (U of Arizona P, 2014); The Affinity of the Eye: Writing Nikkei in Peru (U of Arizona P, 2013); and Imaging the Chinese in Cuban Literature and Culture (UP of Florida, 2008). Definition Theosophy and eastern religions and creeds such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, Confucianism, and Taoism have influenced Latin American lit- erature since the Modernistas. Canonical authors such as Neruda, Borges, Cortazar, Paz, and Sarduy have addressed these eastern beliefs in different ways. While for the Modernista they were an escapist tool and Neruda openly rejects them, other authors such as Tablada and Paz resort to them to try to understand their own countries or to find the keys of eroticism (the case of Paz and Sarduy). In turn, for Borges, eastern religions are a metaphor for infinite time, fantasy, and utopia and for Sarduy a path to personal enlightenment. Introduction Given the wealth of authors and works, the topic of the presence of Eastern religions in Latin American literature would be more appropriate for a book than for a short essay. In any case, in the next pages I will summarize what has already been studied and will suggest the analysis of other Latin American works whose dialogue with east- ern religions has not been studied in so much depth yet indicating, whenever possible, the rea- sons for the authors’ attraction to or rejection of these creeds. # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 H. P. P. Gooren (ed.), Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_159-1

Li Deyu (787–850): Religion Und Politik in Der Tang-Zeit by Michael Höckelmann

Reviewed by: Li Deyu (787–850): Religion Und Politik in Der Tang-Zeit by Michael Höckelmann Tineke D'Haeseleer (bio) Michael Höckelmann. Li Deyu (787–850): Religion Und Politik in Der Tang-Zeit. Studies in Oriental Religions, vol. 70. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2016. 297 pp. Paperback €68.00, isbn 978-3-447-10503-3. Li Deyu was one of the most prominent public figures of ninth-century Tang China, but his literary output has been neglected for too long, argues Michael Höckelmann in this welcome new study of a key political figure of the Tang. But the overarching theme of the book, as the reader can glean from the title, is not Li's literary work per se, but how we can fruitfully explore it to deepen our understanding of religion in the Tang (618–907) and its relation to the political sphere. The author also sets himself the task of using those findings to break open the concept of religion itself, to create a broader, more inclusive definition which will allow in the future a more genuine comparative study of cultures through the field of religion. This large and complex issue is raised in the Introduction (chapter 1) and resumed in chapter 7 with an examination of connections between the terms "Religion, State and Orthodoxy." Together these two chapters bookend the philological heart of the study: thorough, full-length translations of prose texts from Li's oeuvre, presented side by side with the Chinese text, and organized thematically rather than chronologically. A "summary commentary" (Überblickskommentar,p. 23) accompanying each text guides the reader through the complex topics, while copious and detailed footnotes re-create for a modern reader as closely as possible the intertextual reading experience of Li Deyu's contemporaries. Together with its comprehensive treatment of the theoretical background, and the wide range of primary sources and recent scholarship used, this detailed approach to the texts places this book firmly in the tradition of German sinological scholarship. The "Religious Biography" in chapter 2 is a refreshing new approach to what otherwise threatens to become a nianpu-style enumeration of facts in an [End Page 260] introductory biography. Here Höckelmann provides the necessary background on Li Deyu's personal and official life to see if it is possible to differentiate between the public and private religious practices of a late Tang scholar-official, using only Li's prose works. The themes touched upon in this chapter also foreground the more detailed exploration in the subsequent chapters, for instance Li's strong stance against specialists in esoteric knowledge (fangshi) and licentious cults, the suppression of Buddhism in 845, and the issue of fate. Already at this early stage, the author deflates the expectations of those who hope to uncover with ease Li's views on religion using the writer's own prose oeuvre. With the exception of the two epitaphs for his wife and concubine, the other texts were all part of a specific genre with specific demands. They do not contain personal reflections on the nature of human relations with the extrahuman area (außermenschlichen Bereich), a key aspect of Höckelmann's working definition of religion (p. 223). Even the possibility that Li addresses the soul of the deceased directly in the epitaphs could then be interpreted as a perfunctory gesture demanded by the genre, although Höckelmann leaves open the possibility that here we can catch a glimpse of Li's inner life after all. The persecution of foreign faiths in 845 forms an important part of chapter 3, and the book in general. Li Deyu was, as chief minister of emperor Wuzong at the time of the persecution, closely involved with policy making, and through association Li has often been labeled as anti-Buddhist. Höckelmann treads carefully on this issue, attempts to separate popular perception of the event from what we can actually glean from the sources, and offers new insights by broadening the scope of enquiry. Buddhism was the most visible of the various foreign faiths targeted in the edict of 845, but by linking the persecution to the foreign policy and events of the time, Höckelmann shows that...

Race and Religious Transformations in Rome

Contemporaries of Franz Cumont (1868-1947) often applied racial theories to the supposed cultural, spiritual and political decadence of Rome, holding Oriental immigrants and their religions responsible. In his Oriental Religions (1906) Cumont explicitly rejected Houston Stewart Chamberlain and Otto Seeck, arguing instead for spiritual progress in Late Antiquity, under Oriental influence. Our analysis shows certain ambiguities and stereotypes in Cumont’s publications on the Orient. We also present unpublished archive material from the Academia Belgica in Rome, showing Cumont accepted, in the 1920s, racial theories (Tenney Frank). He now explained the religious transformations in Rome by a change in the population.

ГЛОБАЛЬНЫЕ СУДЬБЫ РЕЛИГИЙ: ИСТОРИЯ И СОВРЕМЕННОСТЬ

The paper presents an analytical review of the conference held in the All-Russian State Library for Foreign Literature in December 2015. The participants of the conference – Orientalists, specialists in religion studies, historians, philosophers, theologians – considered problems of coexistence between the Western and the Eastern civilization, religious dynamics of different regions, spiritual life of a modern man and his religious experience in current conditions of inter-religious conflicts aggravation, escalation of violence, and dangers of aggressive ideology forms. Of special interest were historical preconditions for the present-day global religious situation as well as changes in the very content of modern religious conceptions and practices. A particular subject of interest for the participants were also religious problems in present-day Russia and India. Today, the religious sphere as a whole has to experience the pressure of three conflicting tendencies: the pressure of contemporary socio-economic, technological and information imperatives; the counter-pressure of traditional local psychological and socio-cultural patterns; the immanent pressure of “big” religious traditions, with their specific and unavoidable theological and philosophical implications. This triple conflict is experienced presently by Oriental religions (Hinduism, Islam, etc.) as well as by Christianity. At the same time, this triple challenge seems to be a precondition for the world-wide development and expansion of Neo-Protestant beliefs and denominations. A thorough study of the world religions heritage, the experience of European values (humanism, rationalism) is intrinsically important for critical analysis of contemporary, often dramatic events in our world.

The Enlightenment of Zen Buddhism and the Hesychastic Vision of the Divine Light

My intention here is to present the religious phenomena of Zen and Hesychasm, analyzing similarities within the mechanism of prayer and movements within the respective faiths. There is a common way that the transcendent is exposed in Zen Buddhism and Hesychasm, but at the same time there is conflict between traditional Eastern Christian ideas on the communion with and the Western approaches to that are manifest in the Eastern and Western understanding of God. The divine in the Christian tradition and enlightenment in the Oriental religions are two different experiences. The common characteristics of the breathing exercises in Hesychasm and Zen make the study of these common religious phenomena interesting. Byzantine monks in the East were free persons and at the same time obedient to traditional authority. The bishops were elected from the monastic community. The Byzantine society respected monks who were completely devoted to and who engaged in unceasing prayer, fasting, and restraint. This unceasing prayer was very important for the monks, who adopted a variety of techniques and theories developed in relation to it. Traditionally, there are two schools of thought on the matter within Christianity: (1) The school of Evagrios of Pontos (Asia Minor), which is based on Platonism, with an epistemological approach to purify the mind and unite with the divine spirit; and (2) the school of Makarios, leading toward Neoplatonism, with an approach of purifying the heart. The monks of the fourteenth century leaned toward the Makarian school of thought. They emphasized that the human being is body, heart, and spirit that participate in the blessed vision of the uncreated and especially in prayer. In this way the whole human being is transformed and deified, a process known as theosis. The purpose of the monks in prayer is literally to attain communion with God. The is a universal symbol of and God's Reign, in contrast to darkness and its misery. The symbol of as was commonly used in Greek philosophy and religious tradition in the mystery religions (enlightenment: as vision of god or goddess); this was also true in Gnosticism, in the heretical sects of Judaism and Christianity. In the Christian creed Jesus Christ is the Son of God, viewed as Light of Light, and the entire Christian theology, ethics, and liturgies are imbued by this symbolism of light. It is true that some Eastern writers speak of in apophatic terms and symbolism. This is true only in a few neoplatonic theologians who speak of in an absolute apophatic way. For them, is beyond, as described in the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor, and others. However, according to the claim of the apophatic way, God is light more than darkness. Especially within the Christian life and theory, it is in the Uncreated light that the symbols of the are manifest in the created world. This is also evident from the Hebrew Bible. This transcendent is manifested in Jesus Christ, through his whole life and teaching, and especially in the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor and his Resurrection. In this light, all the faithful participants in their daily life will participate in the eschaton, in the End of Days. The hesychasts of the Holy Mountain make every effort to attain exactly this type of life. This type of theological language concerning and communion with always had a real and symbolic taste of the transcendent now, as well as the hope for a more complete taste and fulfillment of in the future. The hesychasts introduced an intensive realism and a time of completeness in relation with the divine and filled with God; this fulfillment was realized in their own practice of prayer and in their expectation that during prayer they participate in true uncreated and are therefore transfigured by the of the holy transfiguration. …

Remaking the Mosaic: Religious Leaders and Secular Borders in the Colonial Levant

The colonial view of Levantine society as a mosaic of religions established lasting precedents for communal self-governance and power sharing in modern states. Yet it ironically disguises the extent to which the region's religious geography was reimagined by colonial rule. Principles of religious freedom and minority rights combined with a perception of 'oriental religions' to create a unique and powerful place for religious leaders to govern. The borders that would define national societies in Palestine-Israel, Lebanon, and Syria also remade the boundaries by which the religious mosaic was structured. This article will highlight institutional change in the Maronite Christian and Sunni Muslim communities, showing how each reformulated its religious leadership in response to the creation and enforcement of Lebanon's borders with Palestine and Syria from 1920 to 1948. The 'traditional' religious leaderships of today are in no small part products of the same colonial 'lines in the sand' within which nations were formed.

Filozoficzno-religijne założenia i kulturotwórcze aspiracje historii religii Mircei Eliadego

This article is focused on philosophical and religious presuppositions of Mircea Eliade’s history of religion. There are three areas on which his concept of religion is based: interest in humanities, like history, sociology, psychology and phenomenology of religion, the influence of philosophies and personal religious beliefs. He proclaims integral discipline which links scientific methods such as empiricism, structuralism, functionalism, antireductionism, antievolutionism, but also stresses empathic understanding of experience of the sacred. With properly applied method, which he called total hermeneutic, scientist will be able to examine the universal structures of historically and geographically remote religions. But this vision takes for granted ahistorical religious structures. Eliade does not use the methods developed by history. In fact, ontology and anthropology, which he characterizes as archaic, presupposes the existence of cosmic religion as the purest form of religious belief. Thus Romanian philosopher interprets religious facts, according to subjective and dogmatically accepted claims. He links the ideas of Oriental religions (liberation from the time), ethnographic beliefs (cult of nature) and Christianity (the idea of God incarnate in Jesus Christ). Finally, Eliade’s purposes are more practical. He seeks to revitalize desacralized culture by the conception of cosmic Christianity, which is syncretic and cosmocentric doctrine.

Coming to Terms with the “Oriental Religions of the Roman Empire”

Coming to Terms with the “Oriental Religions of the Roman Empire”