Axial Civilizations And World History (Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture)

CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
PART ONE: THEORETICAL APPROACHES
	Introduction: History, Theory and Interpretation
	The Axial Age and its Interpreters: Reopening a Debate
	The Meaning of the Axial Age
	Palomar’s Questions. The Axial Age Hypothesis, European Modernity and Historical Contingency
	Between Tradition and Christianity: The Axial Age in the Perspective of Béla Hamvas
PART TWO: THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND ITS AXIAL PERIPHERIES
	Introduction: Archaic Backgrounds and Axial Breakthroughs
	Axial “Breakthroughs” and Semantic “Relocations” in Ancient Egypt and Israel
	Mesopotamian Vistas on Axial Transformations
	Zoroastrian Origins: Indian and Iranian Connections
	Axial Transformations within Ancient Israelite Priesthood
	The Jewish Historical Experience: Heterodox Tendencies and Political Dynamics in a De-territorialized Axial Civilization
	Polis, “the Political”, and Political Thought: New Departures in Ancient Greece, c. 800-500 BCE
PART THREE: LATE ANTIQUITY AND BEYOND
	Introduction: Late Antiquity as a Sequel and Counterpoint to the Axial Age
	Cultural Memory in Early Christianity: Clement of Alexandria and the History of Religions
	“The Religion of Light”: On Mani and Manichaeism
	Arabia and The Heritage of the Axial Age
PART FOUR: INDIAN AND CHINESE PERSPECTIVES
	Introduction: Extending the Axial Model to South and East Asia
	Axial Grammar
	Axialism and Empire
	Rethinking the Axial Age—The Case of Chinese Culture
	The Axial Millennium in China: A Brief Survey
	The Ming-Qing Transition: Seventeenth-Century Crisis or Axial Breakthrough?
PART FIVE: CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS
	Axial Civilizations and the Axial Age Reconsidered
	List of contributors
INDEX
	A
	B
	C
	D
	E
	F
	G
	H
	I
	J
	K
	L
	M
	N
	O
	P
	Q
	R
	S
	T
	U
	V
	W
	Y
	Z