Laughing Gods, Weeping Virgins analyses how laughter has been used as a symbol in myths, rituals and festivals of Western religions, and has thus been inscribed in religious discourse. The Mesopotamian Anu, the Israelite Jahweh, the Greek Dionysos, the Gnostic Christ and the late modern Jesus were all laughing gods. Through their laughter, gods prove both their superiority and their proximity to humans.
In this comprehensive study, Professor Gilhus examines the relationship between corporeal human laughter and spiritual divine laughter from cussical antiquity, to the Christian...

Consulting a wide range of key texts and source material, Animals, Gods and Humans covers 800 years and provides a detailed analysis of early Christian attitudes to, and the position of, animals in Greek and Roman life and thought.

Both the pagan and Christian conceptions of animals are rich and multilayered, and Ingvild Saelid Gilhus expertly examines the dominant themes and developments in the conception of animals.

Including study of: biographies of figures such as Apollonus of Tyana; natural history; the New Testament via Gnostic texts; the church...

New Age and holistic beliefs and practices - sometimes called the new spirituality - are widely distributed across modern global society. New Age Spirituality examines these movements as a form of everyday or lived religion and repositions new age spirituality at the forefront of the contemporary study of religion.

This volume investigates "alternative" spiritualities that increasingly cater for the mainstream within the secularized society of Norway, making Norwegian-based research available to international scholarship. It looks at New Age both in a restricted (sensu stricto) and a wide sense (sensu lato), focusing mainly on the period from the mid-1990s and onwards, with a particular emphasis on developments after the turn of the century. Few, if any, of the ideas and practices discussed in this book are homegrown or uniquely Norwegian, but local soil and climate still matters, as habitats for...

This volume investigates "alternative" spiritualities that increasingly cater for the mainstream within the secularized society of Norway, making Norwegian-based research available to international scholarship. It looks at New Age both in a restricted (sensu stricto) and a wide sense (sensu lato), focusing mainly on the period from the mid-1990s and onwards, with a particular emphasis on developments after the turn of the century. Few, if any, of the ideas and practices discussed in this book are homegrown or uniquely Norwegian, but local soil and climate still matters, as habitats for...