Hananel Shapira untersucht eine Reihe anomaler Rituale innerhalb der Priesterschrift des Pentateuch, die ausserhalb des heiligen Bereichs der Stiftshuette stattfinden. Waehrend die alttestamentliche Forschung den priesterlichen Textkorpus haeufig als ein monolithisches System charakterisiert, das der kultischen Zentralisierung und der absoluten Autoritaet des aaronidischen Priestertums verpflichtet ist, argumentiert der Autor, dass die Grundschicht des Textes eine subversive Gegenstroemung enthaelt. Diese ?antipriesterliche" Stroemung manifestiert sich in Ritualen wie der Reinigung des genesenen Aussaetzigen im Levitikusbuch, der Verbrennung der roten Kuh im Numeribuch und der Entsendung des Suendenbocks in die Wueste.
Der Autor verbindet synchrone mit diachroner Analyse, um unterschiedliche Textschichten zu identifizieren, und legt offen, wie diese ausserheiligtuemlichen Rituale urspruenglich das professionelle Priestertum marginalisierten. In der fruehesten Schicht werden die Rituale von Laien bzw. gewoehnlichen Gemeindegliedern vollzogen und eroeffnen damit ein Mass an individueller Handlungsmacht und persoenlicher Ausdrucksform, die das regulaere, auf das Heiligtum zentrierte System in der Regel unterdrueckt. Der theoretische Bezugsrahmen dieser Analyse zieht eine Analogie zwischen dem standardisierten priesterlichen System und dem auf universale, systematisierende Ordnung zielenden Projekt der Aufklaerung, waehrend die ausserheiligtuemlichen Rituale einen Geist widerspiegeln, der der Gegenaufklaerung mit ihrer Betonung des Partikularen und Ungebaendigten verwandt ist. Der Autor vertritt die These, dass das Standardsystem als eine universale Sprache des Rituals fungiert, wohingegen die externen Riten die gebrochene Partikularitaet menschlicher Erfahrung in den Blick nehmen, insbesondere angesichts der Realitaet von Tod und leiblicher Unreinheit.
Die zentralen Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die aktive Rolle des Priesters in diesen ausserheiligtuemlichen Ritualen weitgehend das Produkt spaeterer redaktioneller Eingriffe ist. Diese restaurativen Versuche, unkonventionelle Praktiken zu zaehmen und mit dem regulaeren Opfersystem in Einklang zu bringen, loesten unbeabsichtigt weitreichende Transformationen innerhalb des Ritualsystems selbst aus. Durch die Analyse des Zusammenspiels von Rechtssatzungen und ihren narrativen Kontexten weist der Autor nach, dass rituelle Innovation haeufig aus inneren, pragmatischen Kraeften und restaurativen Impulsen hervorgeht und nicht ausschliesslich aus externen kulturellen Verschiebungen oder grundlegenden historischen Ereignissen.

This volume is the outcome of a symposium on wisdom in the New Testament. It aims to deepen research on the topic in light of current developments in the field.
The first section, Perspectives from Ancient Wisdom Literature, offers complementary readings of ancient wisdom motifs in the New Testament, each showing how those motifs shaped early Christian thought. Dafni traces the trajectory of a succinct gnomic saying through Amenemope and Theognis, the Masoretic and Septuagint versions of Proverbs 27:1, and its echoes in the New Testament. Docherty shows that wisdom literature substantially shaped early Christian eschatological and ethical imagination.
The second section, Perspectives on Wisdom in the Synoptic Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, illuminates how ancient wisdom traditions shape the Gospel portrayals of Jesus and early Christian identity. Viljoen traces wisdom motifs from Second Temple literature in Matthew's portrait of Jesus. Wagner examines the Two Ways teaching in Matthew as a persistent wisdom motif that originates in Old Testament wisdom literature and resurfaces in Matthew 7:13-14 and the Didache. Neumann reads the saying about the lamp of the body in the light of ancient theories of vision and shows how Matthew and Luke adapt the motif for different rhetorical purposes. Davis offers a synchronic reading of σοφ?α in Luke's Gospel and argues that wisdom functions less as discrete propositional knowledge than as a social marker distinguishing insiders from outsiders. Stenschke traces the role of wisdom in questions of leadership, conflict, and identity in Acts.
In the third section, Perspectives on Wisdom in the Johannine Literature, Anderson argues that John's revelatory portrait of Jesus does not derive from Gnostic sources, while Claussen contends that reading John's water imagery alongside the wisdom traditions clarifies the Gospel's Christology.
The fourth section, Perspectives on Wisdom in the Pauline Literature, probes how wisdom motifs shape Paul's teaching. Schluep reads 1 Corinthians 1-4 as a focused reflection on the word of the cross and God's wisdom in contrast to the wisdom of the world. Potgieter argues that Paul takes up and critically reworks expressions of a carpe diem ethos to show how such attitudes blur the boundary between wisdom and folly. White assesses the claim that Paul's designation of Christ as the "image of God" alludes to Wisdom 7:26; Kok shows how Jesus is presented as a prototype, drawing on Jewish wisdom motifs.
The fifth section, Perspectives on Wisdom in the Epistle of James and the "Letter" to the Hebrews, explores how wisdom language and motifs function within these books, with contributions from Bertolet on James 3:13-18, Coetsee on ε?λ?βεια/ε?λαβ?ομαι in Hebrews, Nagel on the language of knowing the Lord, and Steyn on the παιδε?α motif.
Together, these essays offer a multifaceted account of how wisdom traditions shape New Testament theology, ethics, and communal identity. By situating the texts within their Jewish and Hellenistic contexts, the contributions invite continued scholarly reflection on the formative role of wisdom across early Christian writings.

Offers a new theory of repair as refiguration through Shia Ismaili Muslim life in North America

Wars and forced migration disrupt people's sense of continuity in time and place, leaving them out of sync with dominant histories and imagined futures. Thinking Past Crisis examines how Shia Ismaili Muslims in North America have navigated such dislocations across the decades following migrations from East Africa, Central and South Asia, and other sites of Ismaili memory.

Rather than treating repair as return or restoration, Shenila Khoja-Moolji draws on Ismaili cultural and community-making practices from 1970 to 2025 to conceptualize repair as refiguration: a spiritual and cultural praxis through which communities reorganize memory, time, and place so that life remains possible amid rupture. Through the work of itinerant preachers, singer-songwriters, educators, novelists, and archivists, Ismailis create new ways of remembering the past and imagining the future. They multiply historical timelines, pluralize religious aesthetics, build solidarity with other minoritized communities, retell the past to confront trauma, and sustain connections across transnational circuits.

At the center of these practices are Ismaili understandings of the nur (light) of Imamat, a source of continuity amid upheaval, along with an ethic of tawhid (oneness), justice, and one jamat (community). By tracing these practices, Thinking Past Crisis reframes repair as a form of ethical obligation, communal care, and place-based responsibility.

Centering a minority Muslim community often left at the margins of scholarship on Islam, the book reorients debates on crisis, migration, memory, and repair in Islamic studies, migration studies, and American religious history.

Muslims face barriers in labour markets across Western democracies, but how severe are these penalties and do they vary by national or local context?

Comparing the latest census data across Muslim communities, majority populations and other religious minorities from the UK, Australia and Canada, Barriers of Belief reveals the stark patterns of inequality in hiring, unemployment, earnings and overqualification associated with Muslim identity. It exposes how inequality is compounded by race and gender, creating distinct disadvantages, particularly for Muslim women.

This book is essential, timely reading for policy makers, researchers and practitioners committed to understanding and dismantling labour market discrimination in diverse societies.

This volume provides a comprehensive exploration of the history and practices of native Buddhist movements in contemporary Korea. It begins with the historical emergence of Korean Buddhism, followed by the colonial transmission of Japanese Buddhism in East Asia.

The study critically analyses the development of five distinct Buddhist sects and two alternative movements from the 1960s to the 2020s. Each group is explored through key categories: origins and founders, beliefs, sacred scriptures, myths, symbols, and treasures, socio-political impact, and internal conflicts or scandals. Focusing on ethnographic and cultural perspectives, the volume examines how these groups?emerging during Korea’s post-war purification movement?define themselves: the Bomun Order, the Jingak Order, the Cheontae Order, the Taego Order, the Jogye Order, the International Moral Association (IMA), and Deasoon Jinrihoe. Despite Korea’s turbulent journey through dictatorship, industrialisation, and democratisation, these new religious movements have demonstrated remarkable social resilience and engagement.

This work will be an essential resource for scholars and students of Buddhist Studies, Korean Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Religious Studies, and Political Science. It will also appeal to policymakers, religious practitioners, and general readers interested in Asian spirituality, cultural identity, and the interplay between tradition and modernity. By focusing on understudied contemporary sectarian movements, it addresses a significant gap in English-language scholarship and provides a framework for understanding how religious innovation operates within, and contributes to, the civic and political life of democratic Korea.