| Author |
Rotman, Youval, author.
|
| Title |
Insanity and sanctity in Byzantium : the ambiguity of religious experience / Youval Rotman. |
| OCLC |
ocn959979120 |
| ISBN |
9780674974432 (electronic bk.) |
|
0674974433 (electronic bk.) |
|
9780674057616 |
|
0674057619 |
| Publisher |
Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2016. |
| Description |
1 online resource (256 pages) |
| LC Subject heading/s |
Psychology and religion -- Byzantine Empire.
|
|
Mental illness -- Religious aspects -- Byzantine Empire.
|
|
Mental illness -- Social aspects -- Byzantine Empire.
|
|
Religion and sociology -- Byzantine Empire.
|
|
Christian saints -- Byzantine Empire.
|
|
Holy fools -- Byzantine Empire.
|
Other
Genre heading/s |
Electronic books
|
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-250) and index. |
| Contents |
Prologue. Insanity and religion -- Part I. Sanctified insanity: between history and psychology -- The paradox that inhabits ambiguity -- Meanings of insanity -- Part II. Abnormality and social change: early Christianity vs. rabbinic Judaism -- Abnormality and social change: insanity and martyrdom -- Socializing nature: the ascetic totem -- Epilogue. Psychology, religion, and social change. |
| Summary |
"Insanity and Sanctity in Byzantium aims to understand how the use of psychological abnormality functions in deep societal transformations, producing a major shift in the religious, cultural, mental, and social aspects. The book examines a particular set of religious phenomena, in a broadly defined period and area - the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East between the birth of Christianity and that of Islam - and seeks to reach conclusions on the nature and function of abnormal behavior sanctified by society. Taking as a starting point a particular type of saint of Orthodox Christianity, the holy fool, the person who feigns madness, and investigating other types of saints who portray abnormal behavior, such as the martyr and the ascetic, the book reveals the ambiguous character of the boundary between sanity and insanity. It explains the significance of this ambiguity to the religious experience as a motor of social movement, and sets it at the core of the socio-religious transformation that changed the Antique civilization into a world of medieval societies."-- Provided by publisher. |
| Source of Description |
Description based on print version record. |
| NOTE |
eBooks on EBSCOhost All EBSCO eBooks. |
| Restrictions |
Single user license access. |
|
