tailieunhanh - Animals, Gods and Humans - Intro

AN IMAL S , G O D S AND H U M A N S Ingvild Sælid Gilhus explores the transition from traditional Greek and Roman religion to Christianity in the Roman Empire and the effect of this change on how animals were regarded, illustrating the main factors in the creation of a Christian conception of animals. | Animals Gods and Humans Changing attitudes to animals in Greek Roman and early Christian ideas Ingvîld Sælid Gilhus ANIMALS GODS AND HUMANS Ingvild S clid Gilhus explores the transition from traditional Greek and Roman religion to Christianity in the Roman Empire and the effect of this change on how animals were regarded illustrating the main factors in the creation of a Christian conception of animals. One of the underlying assumptions of the book is that changes in the way animal motifs are used and the way human animal relations are conceptualized serve as indicators of more general cultural shifts. Gilhus attests that in late antiquity animals were used as symbols in a general redefinition of cultural values and assumptions. A wide range of key texts are consulted ranging from philosophical treatises to novels and poems on metamorphoses from biographies of holy men such as Apollonius of Tyana and Antony the Christian desert ascetic to natural history from the New Testament via Gnostic texts to the Church fathers from pagan and Christian criticism of animal sacrifice to the acts of the martyrs. Both the pagan and the Christian conception of animals remained rich and multi-layered through the centuries and this book presents the dominant themes and developments in the conception of animals without losing that complexity. Ingvild Salid Gilhus is professor of the History of Religions at the University of Bergen. Her publications include Laughing Gods Weeping Virgins Routledge 1997