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E-book The Manichaean Church at Kellis : Social Networks and Religious Identity in Late Antique Egypt

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Penilaian

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These lines constitute the beginning and end of a letter, written on papyrus in a dialect of the Coptic Egyptian language and dating to the middle of the fourth century CE.2 The letter would not have been known today had it not been discovered by excavators at Ismant el-Kharab, now a sand-covered ruin in an oasis west in Egypt, once a prosperous village named Kellis. The two men, Horion and Horos, were until recently unknown individuals. The rest of the letter content is not particularly striking at a first glance, but concerns a purchase of wheat and oil. Yet these greetings make us pause. What does the author, Horion, mean by phrases such as ‘limb of the Light Mind’ and ‘child of righteousness’? What does the division between elect and catechumen entail? How did he come to employ such terms?These seemingly innocent questions are the subject of the present book. They go to the heart of our understanding of a now lost religion known as ‘Manichaeism’. Horion’s letter was found alongside literature belonging to this movement and echoes some of its vocabulary, and so it would seem that we could answer our questions simply by saying that Horion and Horos were adherents of this religion: that is, they were ‘Manichaeans’. Yet such an answer does not close the issue – quite the contrary. What it meant to be a ‘Manichaean’, in terms of everyday practice, is a issue and has become the sub-ject of some debate. Scholarly opinion differs as to how organised adherents were, what beliefs they held, what rituals they performed, and how or indeed whether those whom we today label ‘Manichaean’ actually had a distinct identity as such in the Roman era. Our initial questions therefore have to be framed as part of a larger question: what was ‘Manichaeism’ to Horion, Horos, and other ‘children of righteousness’?The current study approaches this issue through the lens of the papyri from Kellis. It does so in two steps: by exploring the social networks in which Horos and Horion were embedded, drawing on network theory, and by ana-lysing the evidence for religious practice within the network, drawing on con-cepts from the field of symbolic interactionism. In turn, this approach builds on to two key assumptions. First, that we should not see the religious activity of the people of Kellis in isolation from other social activities.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

299 FIA t

Penerbit

London : BRILL., 2021

Deskripsi Fisik

366 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9789004459779

Klasifikasi

299

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Other Religion

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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