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Soul and Body Diseases, Remedies and Healing in Middle Eastern Religious Cultures and Traditions
Series: - Studies on the Children of Abraham, Volume: 10
Volume Editor:
Aiming to develop a less studied literary genre, this book provides a well-rounded picture of spiritual and physical diseases and their remedies as they were ingrained in the imagination and practices of Middle Eastern Abrahamic cultures, with a special emphasis of Christian communities (Greeks/Byzantines, Syrians, Armenians, Georgians, Ethiopians). The volume traces traditions dealing with the onset of a disease in the body and soul, the search for remedy, the maintenance of healing, and the engagement of these processes with faith—either through their affirmation in the public sphere or remaining within the personal framework, as in monastic traditions. A recurring presence in religious literature and the history of the intellectual world, the confrontation between disease and healing may well still be current for our modern understanding of the paths to seeking and maintaining the health of one’s body and soul, without excluding the factor of faith as a core principle.
Catalin-Stefan Popa, Ph.D. (2016) Georg August University of Göttingen, Habilitation (2021), Karl Franzens University of Graz, is Research Professor at the Romanian Academy. He has published monographs, edited volumes and articles, including
The Making of Syriac Jerusalem: Representations of the Holy City in Syriac Literature of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Routledge, 2023). He is editor-in-chief and founder of
The Syriac Annals of Romanian Academy (SARA).
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Catalin-Stefan Popa
1 The Contemplative as Spiritual Physician: Medical Theory and Terminology in the Writings of Evagrius Ponticus
Luke Dysinger
2 Illness, Sainthood, and Spiritual Healing in Early Antique Monasticism
Daniel Lemeni
3 Illness of Body and Soul in Greek-Speaking Church Fathers
Martin Meiser
4 Survivals of Phoenician and Aramaic Pharmacobotany during Late Antiquity
Daniel Asade
5 Zoroastrian Medical Rhetoric in Late Antique Iran
Mahnaz Moazami
6 Physician, Spiritual Healer, or Medicine Man? Medical Science according to Bar Bahlūl
Stefanie Rudolf
7 Spiritual Therapy of the Heart: Syriac Fathers on a Pure Heart and How to Keep It Free of Disease
Catalin-Stefan Popa
8 Disease and Healing according to the Armenian Christian Tradition
Jesse Siragan Arlen
9 Soul and Body: Diseases, Remedies and Healing in Georgian Hagiography
Gaga Shurgaia
10 Haunted Bodies: Health, Illness and Inner Life in Byzantium
Raffaele Guerra
11 Non-Codex Gəʿəz Manuscripts as Forms of Healing
Hagos Abrha Abay
12 A Sixteenth Century Hebrew Account of the Epidemic in Naples
Nadia Zeldes
13 Medical and Pharmacological Remedies with Qurʾanic Verses in Nineteenth-Century Manuscripts from Timbuktu
Ali Diakite and Paul Naylor
14 ‘Let Us Bear Illness with Dignity and Righteousness’
Physical and Spiritual Affliction in the Understanding of the Elders of Optina
Eugene Lyutko, Gleb Zapalsky and Vyacheslav Yachmenik
Index of Subjects
Index of Names
Index of Places
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Catalin-Stefan Popa
1 The Contemplative as Spiritual Physician: Medical Theory and Terminology in the Writings of Evagrius Ponticus
Luke Dysinger
2 Illness, Sainthood, and Spiritual Healing in Early Antique Monasticism
Daniel Lemeni
3 Illness of Body and Soul in Greek-Speaking Church Fathers
Martin Meiser
4 Survivals of Phoenician and Aramaic Pharmacobotany during Late Antiquity
Daniel Asade
5 Zoroastrian Medical Rhetoric in Late Antique Iran
Mahnaz Moazami
6 Physician, Spiritual Healer, or Medicine Man? Medical Science according to Bar Bahlūl
Stefanie Rudolf
7 Spiritual Therapy of the Heart: Syriac Fathers on a Pure Heart and How to Keep It Free of Disease
Catalin-Stefan Popa
8 Disease and Healing according to the Armenian Christian Tradition
Jesse Siragan Arlen
9 Soul and Body: Diseases, Remedies and Healing in Georgian Hagiography
Gaga Shurgaia
10 Haunted Bodies: Health, Illness and Inner Life in Byzantium
Raffaele Guerra
11 Non-Codex Gəʿəz Manuscripts as Forms of Healing
Hagos Abrha Abay
12 A Sixteenth Century Hebrew Account of the Epidemic in Naples
Nadia Zeldes
13 Medical and Pharmacological Remedies with Qurʾanic Verses in Nineteenth-Century Manuscripts from Timbuktu
Ali Diakite and Paul Naylor
14 ‘Let Us Bear Illness with Dignity and Righteousness’
Physical and Spiritual Affliction in the Understanding of the Elders of Optina
Eugene Lyutko, Gleb Zapalsky and Vyacheslav Yachmenik
Index of Subjects
Index of Names
Index of Places
The book appeals to specialists, as well as academics and students (postgraduate and undergraduate), and libraries interested in the history of the intellectual world and anthropology of religions.