Stephens The Dreams and Visions of Aelius Aristides

A Case-Study in the History of Religions
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4632-3562-8
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Wasserzeichen (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 168 Seiten

Reihe: Perspectives on Philosophy and Religious Thought

An analysis of the religious experiences of the Greco-Roman sophist, Aelius Aristides. As a member of the cult of Asclepius, Aristides recorded his nocturnal dreams, waking visions and spiritual healings in a diary entitled the Sacred Tales. A study of this diary sheds light on the spiritual environment of the Roman world in the first and second century CE.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stephens, John

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christentum/Christliche Theologie Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Copyright Page (page 4)
- Table of Contents (page 5)
- Acknowledgments (page 7)
- Part One: Religio-Historical Considerations (page 9)
- Chapter 1: Aristides and His Book of Dreams (page 11)
- Introduction (page 11)
- The Nature of Religious Experience (page 14)
- Reasons for the Study of Individual Religious Experience (page 15)
- Aristides' Dream-Diary: The Sacred Tales (page 17)
- Aristides' Ancient Biographers (page 20)
- Aristides' Modern Biographers (page 22)
- Methodological Questions (page 32)
- Chapter 2: The Literary Dimension of the Text (page 35)
- Aristides: An Example of Homo Religious (page 35)
- The Sacred Tales and Ancient Autobiography (page 37)
- Ancient Visionary Literature (page 43)
- Chapter 3: The Problem of Individuality in the Sacred Tales: Comparing the Sacred Tales with Other Selected Ancient Christian and Pagan Autobiographical Doocuments (page 49)
- Aristides, the Healthy-Minded Versus St. Augustine, the Sick Soul (page 49)
- Pagan and Christian Sick Souls: Marcus Aurelius and St. Paul (page 57)
- The Sacred Tales in Comparison to the Metamorphoses (page 61)
- Chapter 4: Dreams and Miracles in the Sacred Tales (page 69)
- The Sacred Tales and Religious Aretalogy (page 69)
- The Sacred Tales and Early Christian Miracle Stories (page 79)
- Chapter 5: Aristides and the Religious Climate of Late Antiquity (page 89)
- True Believers in the Greco-Roman World (page 89)
- Skeptics and Doubters in Ancient Times (page 93)
- Systems of Dream Interpretation in the Sacred Tales and Elsewhere (page 95)
- Part Two: Psychological Considerations (page 101)
- Chapter 6: Analysis of the Manifest Contents of Aristides' Dreams (page 103)
- The Manifest Contents of Aristides' Dreams (page 103)
- Anthropological Approaches to the Dream (page 104)
- Applying a Quantitative Approach to the Dreams of Aristides (page 106)
- Frequency of Dream Images in the Sacred Tales (page 110)
- Ancient Greek Dream Literature and the Sacred Tales (page 112)
- Chapter 7: A Functional Analysis of the Personal Religion of Aelius Aristides (page 117)
- A Psycho-social Perspective (page 117)
- The Psychological Value of Aristides' Adhesion to the Cult of Asclepius (page 125)
- The Paradoxical Divine Prescriptions (page 127)
- Reductionist Studies of the Past (page 128)
- Taking the Relativist Approach (page 131)
- Chapter 8: An Analysis of the Laten Contents of Aristides' Dreams (page 137)
- The Cross-cultural Application of Psychoanalysis (page 137)
- The Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Aristides' Religiosity and Dreams (page 140)
- Chapter 9: Concluding Remarks (page 155)
- Bibliography (page 159)
- Index (page 161)