Sacred Marriages : : The Divine-Human Sexual Metaphor from Sumer to Early Christianity / / ed. by Risto Uro, Martti Nissinen.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn State University Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2014
• MitwirkendeR: Avagianou, Aphrodite A.,; Carr, David M.,; Collins, John J.,; Conway, Colleen M.,; Day, Peggy L.,; Lapinkivi, Pirjo,; Martin, Dale B.,; Merenlahti, Petri,; Nissinen, Martti,; Nyberg, Kristel,; Osiek, Carolyn,; Pongratz-Leisten, Beate,; Rikala, Mia,; Räisänen, Heikki,; Smith, Mark S.,; Syreeni, Kari,; Sælid Gilhus, Ingvild,; Teppo, Saana,; Uro, Risto,; Valantasis, Richard,; Zimmermann, Ruben,
• HerausgeberIn: Nissinen, Martti,; Uro, Risto,
• Place / Publishing House: University Park, PA : : Penn State University Press, , [2021]; ©2008
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (560 p.)

The title of this volume, Sacred Marriages, consciously plays with the traditional concept of sacred marriage, but the plural form, "sacred marriages," gives the reader an idea that something more is at stake here than a monomaniacal idea of manifestations deriving from a single prototype. Following the guidelines of one of the contributors, Ruben Zimmermann, the editors tentatively define "sacred marriage" as a "real or symbolic union of two complementary entities, imagined as gendered, in a religious context." "Sacred marriages" (plural), then, refers to various expressions of this kind of union in different cultures that seek to overcome, to cite Zimmermann again, "the great dualism of human and cosmic existence."The subtitle indicates that the contributors are primarily interested in different aspects of the divine-human sexual metaphor-that is, the imagining and reenactment of a gendered relationship between the human and divine worlds. This metaphor, which is essentially about relationship rather than sexual acts, can find textual, ritual, mythical, and social expressions in different times and places.Indeed, the sacred marriage ritual itself should be considered not a manifestation of the "sacralized power of sexuality experienced in sexual intercourse" but one way of objectifying the divine-human sexual metaphor.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- Sacred Marriages, or the Divine-Human Sexual Metaphor: Introducing the Project -- Chapter 1 The Sumerian Sacred Marriage and Its Aftermath in Later Sources -- Chapter 2 Sacred Marriage and the Transfer of Divine Knowledge: Alliances between the Gods and the King in Ancient Mesopotamia -- Chapter 3 Sacred Marriage and the Devotees of Istar -- Chapter 4 Sacred Marriage in the Ugaritic Texts? The Case of KTU/CAT 1.23 (Rituals and Myths of the Goodly Gods) -- Chapter 5 Sacred Marriage in the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt: Circumstantial Evidence for a Ritual Interpretation -- Chapter 6 Hieros Gamos in Ancient Greek Religion: The Human Aspect of a Sacralized Ritual -- Chapter 7 Song of Songs and Sacred Marriage -- Chapter 8 Yahweh's Broken Marriages as Metaphoric Vehicle in the Hebrew Bible Prophets -- Chapter 9 The Love Triangle of Lady Wisdom: Sacred Marriage in Jewish Wisdom Literature? -- Chapter 10 The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men -- Chapter 11 The Divine-Human Marriage Matrix and Constructions of Gender and "Bodies" in the Christian Bible -- Chapter 12 Sacred Prostitution in the Biblical World? -- Chapter 13 Begotten by the Holy Spirit -- Chapter 14 From the Bridegroom's Time to the Wedding of the Lamb: Nuptial Imagery in the Canonical Gospels and the Book of Revelation -- Chapter 15 The Bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33): A Problematic Wedding -- Chapter 16 Sex and the Single Savior -- Chapter 17 Divine Desires: Fantasy and Renunciation in the Narrative of Mark's Gospel -- Chapter 18 Asceticism as a Sacred Marriage: An Essay on Eastern and Western Theories -- Chapter 19 The Bridal Chamber and Other Mysteries: Ritual System and Ritual Transmission in the Valentinian Movement -- Chapter 20 Sacred Marriage and Spiritual Knowledge: Relations between Carnality and Salvation in the Apocryphon of John -- Indexes