Charity and Giving in Monotheistic Religions

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Miriam Frenkel, Yaacov Lev
Walter de Gruyter, Aug 17, 2009 - Religion - 429 pages

This book deals with various manifestations of charity or giving in the contexts of the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim societies in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages. Monotheistic charity and giving display many common features. These underlying similarities reflect a commonly shared view about God and his relations to mankind and what humans owe to God and expect from him. Nevertheless, the fact that the emphasis is placed on similarities does not mean that the uniqueness of the concepts of charity and giving in the three monotheistic religions is denied. The contributors of the book deal with such heterogeneous topics like the language of social justice in early Christian homilies as well as charity and pious endowments in medieval Syria, Egypt and al-Andalus during the 11th-15th centuries. This wide range of approaches distinguish the book from other works on charity and giving in monotheistic religions.

 

Contents

Introduction
1
The Early Byzantine State and the Christian Ideal of Voluntary Poverty
15
Charitable Ministrations Diakoniai Monasticism and the Social Aesthetic of SixthCentury Byzantium
45
Charity and Piety as Episcopal and Imperial Virtues in Late Antiquity
75
Healing the world with righteousness ? The language of social justice in early Christian homilies
89
Almsgiving Donatio Pro Anima and Eucharistic Offering in the Early Middle Ages of Western Europe 4th9th century
111
Christian Pious Foundations as an Element of Continuity between Late Antiquity and Islam
125
Charity and Piety for the Transformation of the Cities
153
Forms and Functions of Charity in AlAndalus
203
Charitable Legacies in 15th Century Granada
217
Charity and Gift Giving in Medieval Islam
235
Charity and Repentance in Medieval Islamic Thought and Practice
265
Geniza Documents for the Comparative History of Poverty and Charity
283
Charity in Jewish Society of the Medieval Mediterranean World
343
Benefaction Nima Gratitude Shukr and the Politics of Giving and Receiving in Letters from the Cairo Geniza
365
A Geniza Letter
391

Piety and Charity in Late Medieval Egypt and Syria
175

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About the author (2009)

Miriam Frenkel, Hebrew University and The Ben Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East, Jerusalem, Israel; Yaacov Lev, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.

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