Buch, Englisch, 430 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 617 g
Why We Would Be Better Off With Homer's Gods
Buch, Englisch, 430 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 617 g
Reihe: Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies
ISBN: 978-0-367-72992-9
Verlag: Routledge
Heath builds on recent work in biblical and classical studies to examine the contemporary value of mythical deities. Judeo-Christian theologians over the millennia have tried to explain away Yahweh’s Olympian nature while dismissing the Homeric deities for the same reason Greek philosophers abandoned them: they don’t live up to preconceptions of what a deity should be. In particular, the Homeric gods are disappointingly plural, anthropomorphic, and amoral (at best). But Heath argues that Homer’s polytheistic apparatus challenges us to live meaningfully without any help from the divine. In other words, to live well in Homer’s tragic world – an insight gleaned by Achilles, the hero of the Iliad – one must live as if there were no gods at all.
The Bible, Homer, and the Search for Meaning in Ancient Myths should change the conversation academics in classics, biblical studies, theology and philosophy have – especially between disciplines – about the gods of early Greek epic, while reframing on a more popular level the discussion of the role of ancient myth in shaping a thoughtful life.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
Preface; Acknowledgements; Chapter 1: Introduction; Part One Brothers (and Sisters) from a Different Mother; Section I Texts with a History; Chapter 2: Assembling Resemblances; Section II Yahweh and Other Olympians; Chapter 3: Homer’s Gods; Chapter 4: Biblical Polytheism I: Yahweh’s Divine Competition; Chapter 5: Biblical Polytheism II: Yahweh’s Little Helpers; Chapter 6: Biblical Anthropomorphism: Yahweh’s Da Man; Part Two Diverging Deities: Where Homer Got It Right; Section I Theological (Dis)Honesty; Chapter 7: Cleaning up Yahweh; Chapter 8: Homer’s Perfectly Fallible Gods; Section II Creating Meaning; Chapter 9: Homeric Creation; Chapter 10: The Failure of Genesis, the Genesis of Failure; Section III The Demands of Finitude; Chapter 11: Cheating Death, Squandering Life; Chapter 12: We All Have it Coming; Section IV Finding Justice; Chapter 13: Waiting for God. Oh. The Myth of Iliadic Justice; Chapter 14: Living Without the Gods: The Myth of Theistic Justice; Section V Heavenly Sex; Chapter 15: Divine Eros, Biblical Celibacy, and God’s Little Punching Bag; Chapter 16: Conclusion; Appendices; Appendix 1: Short summaries of the Iliad and Odyssey; Appendix 2: Who Are the Homeric Gods?; Appendix 3: Iliadic Justice: Making Sense of the Trojan War; Appendix 4: Divine Justice in the Odyssey?; Bibliography; Index