Redefining Christian Identity: Cultural Interaction in the Middle East Since the Rise of Islam (English and Italian Edition)

Van Ginkel, J.J. & H.L. Murre-Van Den Berg et al.

ISBN 10: 9042914181 / ISBN 13: 9789042914186

Published by Peeters Publishers, Leuven, Belgium, 2005

About this Item

Green cloth binding slightly rubbed at extremities; former owner's name stamped in black ink on front free endpaper. Dust jacket lightly rubbed at extremities; front panel lightly scratched/bumped, now protected in clear mylar cover; a nice, clean copy. ; Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta Series; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 420 pages.

Seller Inventory # 55336

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Redefining Christian Identity: Cultural Interaction in the Middle East Since the Rise of Islam (English and Italian Edition)
• Publisher: Peeters Publishers, Leuven, Belgium
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9042914181
• ISBN 13: 9789042914186
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good+
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good+

About this title

Synopsis

Cultural interaction in the Middle East since the Rise of Islam - such was the title of a combined research project of the Universities of Leiden and Groningen aimed at describing the various ways in which the Christian communities of the Middle East expressed their distinct cultural identity in Muslim societies. As part of the project the symposium "Redefining Christian Identity, Christian cultural strategies since the rise of Islam" took place at Groningen University on April 7-10, 1999. This book contains the proceedings of this conference. From the articles it becomes clear that a number of distinct "cultural strategies" can be identified, some of which were used very frequently, others only in certain groups or at particular periods of time. The three main strategies that are represented in the papers of this volume are: (i) reinterpretation of the pre-Islamic Christian heritage; (ii) inculturation of elements from the new Islamic context; (iii) isolation from the Islamic context. Viewed in time, it is clear that the reinterpretation of older Christian heritage was particularly important in the first two centuries after the rise of Islam, the seventh and eighth centuries, that inculturation was the dominant theme of the Abbasid period, in the ninth to twelfth centuries, whereas from the Mongol period onwards, from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries, isolation more and more often occurs, although inculturation of elements from the predominantly Muslim environment never came to a complete standstill.