The Commerce of the Sacred
Mediation of the Divine Among Jews in the Greco-Roman World. By Jack N. Lightstone
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8206798 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alan J Avery-Peck, Alan J Avery‐peck (0000-0001-8882-5776, College of the Holy Cross, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 75 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 421-423 |
| Publication date | 2007-06-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7189 • E-ISSN: 1477-4585 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jaarel/lfm008 |
| OpenAlex | W1537130961 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
Lightstone's study, first published in 1984, is reprinted here with a new forward (by Willi Braun) and an updated bibliography (by Herbert Basser). It deserves renewed attention because, as Basser's bibliography shows, Lightstone's rethinking of the character and focus of late antique diaspora Judaism has had insufficient impact on how scholars continue today to think about this Judaism, its practices, its worldview, and, especially, its relationship to Hellenistic paganism and nascent Christianity, on the one hand, and Rabbinism, on the other. Lightstone argues that because scholars' perceptions of Judaism are shaped by the pervasive success of Rabbinic Judaism, they tend rather systematically to misread the character and concerns of late antique Judaism, in particular diaspora Judaism, in the period prior to the emergence of Rabbinism and during the first centuries CE, when Rabbinism was still in formation. Rabbinic Judaism came to define the practices and theology of Judaism from the sixth century and until our own day. The problem is that, in light of this success, scholars imagine all Judaisms in all periods and all places to closely mirror the Rabbinic model. As a result, without regard to the evidence for the real interests and concerns of Greco-Roman and Hellenistic diaspora Judaism of the Second Temple period through the first centuries CE, this Judaism is interpreted rather consistently as focused on study (that is, Talmudism) and as centered on an intricately detailed system of rituals and required behaviors (that is, halakhah).
Aesthetics · Ancient history · Antique · Art · Character (mathematics) · Christianity · Diaspora · Judaism · Literature · Paganism · Period (music) · Theology · Classics · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy · Religious studies
| Citations per year | 0.14 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2019 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |