“Supernatural Powers in Christian Muslim Warfare: Crusades and Beyond” Annals Islamologiques, 43 (2009, Oct 29, (original) (raw)
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Relics play a major role in the devotional practice of millions around the world, regardless of religion. This essay sought to convey an understanding of how relics were used within Christianity and Islam, not so much as to evaluate their uses, but to communicate the method and purpose of use, and the history which informs them. Initially, the essay established the scholarly definition and boundaries of relic study, establishing a groundwork from which to begin understanding relic uses. Then, the historical and contemporary use of relics in Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism were examined to provide an insight into the history of relics within Christianity and the attitudes surrounding them. This same approach was replicated for Islamic traditions, focusing on Sunnism, Shi’ism and Sufism. It was found that despite playing fundamentally different roles in each religion theologically, both religions demonstrated a striking similarity in how their respective traditions use and debate relics.
Warfare, Ritual, and Symbol in Biblical and Modern Contexts (edited volume)
Warfare, ritual, and Symbol in biblical and modern contexts is a collection of fifteen essays about rituals of war and their function. comparative and interdisciplinary approaches are applied to texts in the Hebrew bible, which are read in light of ancient near eastern literature, artifacts, and iconography and contemporary ritual and social theory. introductory and concluding essays evaluate each contribution, locate contributions in the history of scholarship, and propose promising directions for further research. a majority of the essays were presented in 2010-2012 sessions of the Sbl's Warfare in ancient israel Section"-Provided by publisher. iSbn 978-1-58983-958-8 (paper binding : alk. paper) -iSbn 978-1-58983-959-5 (electronic format) -iSbn 978-1-58983-960-1 (hardcover binding : alk. paper)
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This article examines a ḥadīth text that illustrates the complicated interactions between Christian and Islamic sacred spaces in the early period of Islamic rule in the Near East. In this narrative, the Prophet Muḥammad gives a group of Arabs instructions for how to convert a church into a mosque, telling them to use his ablution water for cleansing and repurposing the Christian space for Muslim worship. Contextualizing this narrative in terms of early Muslim-Christian relations, as well as late antique Christian religious texts and practices, my analysis compares this story with Christian traditions regarding the collection and usage of contact relics from holy persons and places. I argue that this story offers an example of early Islamic texts' engagement with, and adaptation of, Christian literary themes and ritual practices in order to validate early Islamic religious claims.
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For Us, but Not to Us: Essays on Creation, Covenant, and Context in Honor of John H. Walton, 2020
John Walton has been a pioneer in helping evangelicals understand the importance of the ancient Near Eastern context for Old Testament studies. Even though I never had the opportunity to take a class from him during my doctoral program at Wheaton College, his influence on me at that time was immense, both through his publications and through my work as his teacher’s assistant. I am personally grateful to him for the introduction to the world of ancient Near Eastern iconography I acquired when he assigned me to compile a picture index for the massive five volume Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. As I have remained in touch with him over the years I have benefited first-hand from his strong desire to help younger scholars flourish. In light of his interest in the ancient Near East and its role in helping us understand the Old Testament, I am honored to contribute this study of a common phenomenon in both the ancient Near East and the Old Testament: divine weapons. These weapons range from human weapons to weapons appropriate only for gods, such as lightning. However, their divine status did not mean that they had no impact on human life; as John Walton says, “Life was religion and religion could not be compartmentalized within life.” Since the king was appointed by the warrior god to lead the nation, a common symbol of kingship throughout the ancient Near East was the transfer of the divine weapon to the king for his use in battle. After briefly surveying this ancient Near Eastern evidence for the human use of divine weapons in battle, the paper will look at the Hebrew Bible’s depiction of YHWH’s divine weapons.
The Pre-Battle Processions of the First Crusade and the Creation of Militant Christiancommunitas
Material Religion, 2018
During the First Crusade warriors and retainers participated with clergy in a series of liturgically prescribed penitential processions to demonstrate worthiness to God and achieve military victory. This embodied participation in liturgical supplication, usually reserved for clergy, bound the crusaders together in a sacred community predicated on fighting God's war against God's enemies, who were, in this liturgical framework, defined as non-Christians. Further, participation in these rituals-routine in the West-necessarily took on new meaning when enacted in the Holy Land, thus endowing participation in the procession, and in the crusade, with greater devotional meaning. These ritualized processions thus materialized the ideological premises of crusade as a form of devotion melding penance and sacred violence.