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BestsellerE-book
Author Rotman, Youval, author.

Title Insanity and sanctity in Byzantium : the ambiguity of religious experience / Youval Rotman.

Publication Info. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2016.

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (256 pages)
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
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.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Psychology and religion -- Byzantine Empire.
Psychology and religion.
Byzantine Empire.
Mental illness -- Religious aspects -- Byzantine Empire.
Mental illness -- Religious aspects.
Mental illness -- Social aspects -- Byzantine Empire.
Mental illness -- Social aspects.
Religion and sociology -- Byzantine Empire.
Religion and sociology.
Christian saints -- Byzantine Empire.
Christian saints.
Holy fools -- Byzantine Empire.
Holy fools.
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Other Form: Print version: Rotman, Youval. Insanity and sanctity in Byzantium. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2016 9780674057616 (DLC) 2015051254 (OCoLC)936548736
ISBN 9780674974432 (electronic book)
0674974433 (electronic book)
9780674057616
0674057619
Report No. JSTOR purchased