LEADER 04661nam 2200805 450 001 9910807746303321 005 20210506203656.0 010 $a0-8122-9244-8 024 7 $a10.9783/9780812292442 035 $a(CKB)3710000000553662 035 $a(EBL)4321874 035 $a(SSID)ssj0001590100 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)16284696 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001590100 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)12891891 035 $a(PQKB)11424777 035 $a(OCoLC)933338185 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse52145 035 $a(DE-B1597)469618 035 $a(OCoLC)933443387 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780812292442 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL4321874 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr11149362 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL881181 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC4321874 035 $a(EXLCZ)993710000000553662 100 $a20160210h20162016 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurnnu---|u||u 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aSpiritual taxonomies and ritual authority $ePlatonists, priests, and gnostics in the third century C.E. /$fHeidi Marx-Wolf 210 1$aPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania :$cUniversity of Pennsylvania Press,$d2016. 210 4$dİ2016 215 $a1 online resource (211 p.) 225 0 $aDivinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 0 $a0-8122-4789-2 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tAbbreviations --$tIntroduction --$tChapter 1. How to Feed a Daemon: Third-Century Philosophers on Blood Sacrifice --$tChapter 2. Everything in Its Right Place: Spiritual Taxonomy in Third-Century Platonism --$tChapter 3. The Missing Link: Third-Century Platonists and ?Gnostics? on Daemons and Other Spirits --$tChapter 4. High Priests of the Highest God: Third-Century Platonists as Ritual Experts --$tConclusion --$tNotes --$tBibliography --$tIndex --$tAcknowledgments 330 $aThe people of the late ancient Mediterranean world thought about and encountered gods, angels, demons, heroes, and other spirits on a regular basis. These figures were diverse, ambiguous, and unclassified and were not ascribed any clear or stable moral valence. Whether or not they were helpful or harmful under specific circumstances determined if and what virtues were attributed to them. That all changed in the third century C.E., when a handful of Platonist philosophers?Plotinus, Origen, Porphyry, and Iamblichus?began to produce competing systematic discourses that ordered the realm of spirits in moral and ontological terms. In Spiritual Taxonomies and Ritual Authority, Heidi Marx-Wolf recounts how these Platonist philosophers organized the spirit world into hierarchies, or "spiritual taxonomies," positioning themselves as the high priests of the highest gods in the process. By establishing themselves as experts on sacred, ritual, and doctrinal matters, they were able to fortify their authority, prestige, and reputation. The Platonists were not alone in this enterprise, and it brought them into competition with rivals to their new authority: priests of traditional polytheistic religions and Gnostics. Members of these rival groups were also involved in identifying and ordering the realm of spirits and in providing the ritual means for dealing with that realm. Using her lens of spiritual taxonomy to look at these various groups in tandem, Marx-Wolf demonstrates that Platonist philosophers, Christian and non-Christian priests, and Gnostics were more interconnected socially, educationally, and intellectually than previously recognized. 410 0$aDivinations. 606 $aNeoplatonism$xHistory 606 $aGnosticism$xHistory 606 $aSpirits$xHistory of doctrines 606 $aDemonology$xHistory 606 $aAnimal sacrifice$xHistory 606 $aPhilosophy and religion$xHistory 606 $aSpiritual direction$xHistory 606 $aDivinations 610 $aReligion. 610 $aReligious Studies. 615 0$aNeoplatonism$xHistory. 615 0$aGnosticism$xHistory. 615 0$aSpirits$xHistory of doctrines. 615 0$aDemonology$xHistory. 615 0$aAnimal sacrifice$xHistory. 615 0$aPhilosophy and religion$xHistory. 615 0$aSpiritual direction$xHistory. 615 0$aDivinations. 676 $a186/.4 700 $aMarx-Wolf$b Heidi$01720948 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910807746303321 996 $aSpiritual taxonomies and ritual authority$94120049 997 $aUNINA