religious studies

Religion

Divine Scapegoats

Philosophical Theology,
Volume Three
Robert Cummings Neville

Demonic Mimesis
in Early Jewish Mysticism
Andrei A. Orlov

The concluding volume in a trilogy

advancing a systematic philosophical
theology, this book presents
a plausible sacred worldview for
religious participation.

Explores the paradoxical

symmetry between the divine
and demonic in early Jewish
mystical texts.

Through the development of philosophical theology, Neville has

built a unique, multidisciplinary, comparative, nonconfessional
theological system, one that addresses concerns and provides
tools for scientific and humanistic scholars of religion,
postmodern thinkers, intellectuals from both secular and
religious backgrounds, and those interested in the global state
of religion today.
Robert Cummings Neville is Professor of Philosophy,
Religion, and Theology and Dean Emeritus of the School of
Theology at Boston University. He is the author of many books,
including Ultimates: Philosophical Theology,Volume One; Existence:
Philosophical Theology,Volume Two; and Religion in Late Modernity,
all published by SUNY Press.
February 416 pp
$100.00 hc 978-1-4384-5699-7
$200.00 hc set of all three volumes 978-1-4384-5711-6

Divine Scapegoats is a wideranging exploration of

the parallels between the
heavenly and the demonic
in early Jewish apocalyptical
accounts. In these materials, antagonists often mirror features
of angelic figures, and even those of the Deity himself, an
inverse correspondence that implies a belief that the demonic
realm is maintained by imitating divine reality. Andrei A. Orlov
examines the sacerdotal, messianic, and creational aspects of
this mimetic imagery, focusing primarily on two texts from
the Slavonic pseudepigrapha: 2 Enoch and the Apocalypse of
Abraham. These two works are part of a very special cluster of
Jewish apocalyptical texts that exhibit features not only of the
apocalyptic worldview but also of the symbolic universe of
early Jewish mysticism. The Yom Kippur ritual in the Apocalypse
of Abraham, the divine light and darkness of 2 Enoch, and the
similarity of mimetic motifs to later developments in the Zohar
are of particular importance in Orlovs consideration.
Andrei A. Orlov is Professor of Judaism and Christianity in
Antiquity at Marquette University. He is the author of several
books, including Dark Mirrors: Azazel and Satanael in Early Jewish
Demonology, also published by SUNY Press.
May 320 pp
$95.00 hc 978-1-4384-5583-9

www.sunypress.edu

Religion is the third and final

volume in Robert Cummings
Nevilles systematic development
of a new philosophical theology.
Unfolding through his earlier volumes, Ultimates and Existence,
and now in Religion, philosophical theology considers firstorder questions generally treated by religious traditions
through philosophical methods while reflecting Nevilles long
engagement with philosophy, theology, and Eastern and Western
religious traditions. In this capstone to the trilogy, Neville
provides a theory of religion and presents a sacred worldview
to guide religious participation. His philosophical theory of
value enlightens religions approaches to ethics, spirituality, and
religious institutional living and collaboration. With a detailed
examination of plausibility conditions for sacred worldviews,
the book concludes with an exploration of religionless religion
for which institutions of religion are of penultimate value.

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