Identity and Ritual Healing in Roman and Late Antique Palestine / / Megan Nutzman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2023 English
• VerfasserIn: Nutzman, Megan,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Edinburgh Studies in Religion in Antiquity
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (272 p.) :; 11 B/W illustrations 7 B/W tables 11 black and white illustrations and 7 tables

Studies the people, places and objects credited with ritual cures and the elite rhetoric critical of these curesBrings together evidence for Jewish, Samaritan, Christian, Greek, and Roman healing ritualsExamines both literary and archaeological evidence for healing ritualsDeconstructs artificial boundary between magic" and "religion" with respect to healing ritualsConsiders ritual healing as a component of identity formation among Jews and Christians In the ancient Mediterranean world, individuals routinely looked for divine aid to cure physical afflictions. Contested Cures argues that the inevitability of sickness and injury made people willing to experiment with seemingly beneficial techniques, even if they originated in a foreign cultural or religious tradition. With circumstances of close cultural contacts, such as prevailed in Palestine, the setting was ripe for neighbouring Jews, Samaritans, Christians, Greeks and Romans to borrow rituals perceived to be efficacious and to alter them to fit their own religious framework. As a result, they employed related means of seeking miraculous cures. The similarities of these rituals, despite changes in the identity of the divine healers that they invoked, made them the subject of polemical discourse among elite authors trying to police collective borders. Contested Cures investigates the resulting intersection of ritual healing and communal identity.This innovative study synthesises evidence for the full range of healing rituals that were practised in the ancient Mediterranean world. Examining both literary and archaeological evidence, it considers ritual healing as a component of identity formation and deconstructs the artificial boundary between ‘magic’ and ‘religion’ in relation to ritual cures."

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Preface and Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction: Roman and Late Antique Palestine -- Part I Miraculous Objects -- Chapter 1 One God Who Conquers Evil: Gemstone and Jewelry Amulets -- Chapter 2 For I Am Yahweh Who Heals You: Lamellae and Amulets with Biblical Quotations -- Part II Miraculous Places -- Chapter 3 In This Holy Place: Hot Springs as Sites of Ritual Healing -- Chapter 4 In Which Many Miracles Are Worked: Ritual Continuity at Healing Sites -- Part III Miraculous People -- Chapter 5 In the Name of Jesus of Nazareth the Crucified: Ritual Practitioners Who Offered Cures -- Chapter 6 Working Such Wonders and Signs: Charismatic Wonderworkers Who Offered Cures -- Part IV Elite Rhetoric -- Chapter 7 It is Better to Die: Elite Rhetoric and Communal Identity -- Epilogue: It Is Better to Live -- Bibliography -- Index of Ancient Sources -- Subject Index