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Studying Dream Interpretation from Early Christianity to the Rise of I slam
Author(s) -
Neil Bronwen
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of religious history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1467-9809
pISSN - 0022-4227
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9809.12262
Subject(s) - scrutiny , dream , interpretation (philosophy) , scholarship , context (archaeology) , history , literature , judaism , christianity , key (lock) , period (music) , religious studies , philosophy , art , aesthetics , law , archaeology , theology , political science , psychology , linguistics , neuroscience , biology , ecology
Early C hristian and early I slamic texts on dreams and dream interpretation have come under increased scrutiny in recent decades. Dream literature from pagan and Jewish antiquity to the early medieval period demonstrates that dreams, especially prophetic dreams, were used to establish spiritual authority, enforce compliance, and justify violence in a religious context. The common cultural roots of C hristianity and I slam emerge when we recognise the crucial role played by dreams and prophecy in the two traditions. The various methodologies used in recent scholarship on dreams and their interpretation are surveyed with a view to identifying those most relevant to the analysis of first‐millennium CE literary sources in L atin, G reek, S yriac, and A rabic. The key texts from the three major religious traditions in this period (Western C hristian, Eastern C hristian, and I slamic) are then analysed with a view to assessing whether early C hristians and M uslims understood and taxonomised dreams differently. Literary genre and audience (lay, clerical, or monastic) are revealed as the key determinants of difference, rather than religious origins.