Jan N. Bremmer

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Jan Nicolaas Bremmer (born December 18, 1944 in Groningen ) is a Dutch ancient historian and religious scholar and professor emeritus for ancient history and religious studies at the University of Groningen .

Life

Bremmer comes from an old family of Reformed pastors and studied from 1962 Classical Philology and Hispanic Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and at the University of Bristol (1969–1970). After serving in the military intelligence service (1970–1972), he was an assistant in ancient history at the University of Utrecht from 1974 . In 1979 he received his doctorate with a dissertation on the early Greek conception of the soul ("The Early Greek Conception of the Soul") at the University of Amsterdam. Later he was appointed Associate Professor of Ancient History at the University of Utrecht. In 1990 he received the chair for religious studies at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen. There he was dean of the faculty from 1996 to 2005. He has now retired.

Bremmer was also a Fellow of the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington (1980–1981), a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2000), Canterbury Fellow of the University of Canterbury , Christchurch , New Zealand (2002), Inaugural Getty Villa Professor at Getty Research Institute , Los Angeles (2006–2007) and Visiting Leventis Professor at the School of History, Classics and Archeology at the University of Edinburgh (2009).

In 2006 he was appointed officer of the Orde van Oranje-Nassau by the Dutch Queen .

Research priorities

Bremmer works on Greek and Roman religion and mythology , magic in antiquity, the ideas of life after death , the apocryphal acts of the apostles , the cultural history of gesture and humor as well as modern secularization and the contemporary New Age . His extensive scientific oeuvre also includes numerous contributions to encyclopedias and reference works such as the New Pauly or the Oxford Classical Dictionary .

Fonts (selection)

Monographs

  • The Early Greek Conception of the Soul. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1983 (Dissertation Amsterdam 1979), ISBN 0-691-06528-4 , ub.rug.nl ( PDF ); Preview on Google Books.
  • with Nicholas Horsfall : Roman Myth and Mythography. (= Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies , Supplement 52). Institute of Classical Studies , University of London, London 1987.
  • with Jan den Boeft: Martelarten van de oude kerk. 1988.
  • Greek religion. (= Greece & Rome. New Surveys in the Classics , No. 24). Oxford University Press, Oxford 1994 ( preview on Google Books). - Translated into Dutch, German, Italian and Spanish.
    • German translation: Gods, myths and sanctuaries in ancient Greece. Authorized translation by Kai Brodersen . Knowledge Book Society, Darmstadt 1996; also: Ullstein, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-548-26537-5 .
  • The Rise and Fall of the Afterlife. The 1995 Read-Tuckwell Lectures at the University of Bristol. Routledge Chapman & Hall, London 2002, ISBN 0-415-14147-8 ( preview on Google Books).
  • Van zendelingen, zuilen en zapreligie. Tweehonderd jaar godsdienst in Nederland en het Apostolisch genootschap. Uitgeverij Eburon, Delft 2005, ISBN 90-5972-095-4 ("From missionaries, pillars and religion to zapping. Two hundred years of religion in the Netherlands and the Apostolic Society").
  • Greek Religion and Culture, the Bible, and the Ancient Near East (= Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture , Vol. 8). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2008, ISBN 978-90-04-16473-4 . Review by: Barry B. Powell, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 01/13/2009 ( online at brynmawr.edu).

Editorships

  • (Ed.): Interpretations of Greek mythology. Taylor & Francis, 1987, ISBN 0-7099-3270-7 ( full text ; preview on Google Books).
  • (Ed.): From Sappho to De Sade. Moments in the History of Sexuality. Routledge, London 1991, ISBN 0-415-06300-0 ( preview on Google Books).
  • (Ed., With Herman Roodenburg): A Cultural History of Gesture. From Antiquity to the Present Day. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1991.
  • (Ed.): Between Poverty and the Pyre: Moments in the History of Widowhood. 1995.
  • (Ed.): The Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla (= Studies on the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles , Vol. 2). Peeters Publishers, Leuven 1996, ISBN 90-390-0152-9 ( preview on Google Books.
  • (Ed., With Herman Roodenburg): A Cultural History of Humor. From Antiquity to the Present Day. Polity Press, London 1997, ISBN 0-7456-1880-4 .
    • German translation: Cultural history of humor from antiquity to today. Translated from English by Kai Brodersen . Primus, Darmstadt, also: Wiss. Book Society, Darmstadt 1999.
  • (Ed.): The Apocryphal Acts of Peter. Magic, Miracles and Gnosticism (= Studies on the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles , Vol. 3). Peeters Publishers, Leuven 1998, ISBN 90-429-0019-9 ( preview on Google Books.
  • (Ed.): The Apocryphal Acts of Andrew (= Studies on the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles , Vol. 5). Peeters Publishers, Leuven 2000, ISBN 90-429-0823-8 ( preview on Google Books.
  • (Ed.): The Apocryphal Acts of Thomas (= Studies on Early Christian Apocrypha , Vol. 6). Peeters Publishers, Leuven 2001, ISBN 90-429-1070-4 ( preview on Google Books.
  • (Ed., With Jan R. Veenstra): The Metamorphosis of Magic from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Period (= Groningen Studies in Cultural Change , Vol. 1). Peeters Publishers, Leuven 2002, ISBN 90-429-1227-8 ( preview on Google Books. Review: David Frankfurter, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2005-05-32 ( online ).
  • (Ed., With Wout J. van Bekkum, Arie L. Molendijk): Cultures of Conversion (= Studies in the History and Anthropology of Religion , Vol. 18). Peeters Publishers, Leuven 2006, ISBN 90-429-1753-9 ( preview on Google Books).
  • (Ed.): The Strange World of Human Sacrifice (= Groningen Studies in Cultural Change , Vol. 1). Peeters Publishers, Leuven 2007, ISBN 978-90-429-1843-6 , ( preview on Google Books.
  • (Ed., With Istvan Czachesz): The Visio Pauli and the Gnostic Apocalypse of Paul. Peeters Publishers, Leuven 2007, ISBN 978-90-429-1851-1 .
  • (Ed., With Andrew Erskine): The Gods of Ancient Greece. Identities and Transformations (= Edinburgh Leventis Studies , Vol. 5). Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2010, ISBN 978-0-7486-3798-0 .

Essays

  • Literacy and the Origins and Limitations of Greek Atheism. In: Studies in Honor of HLW Nelson. Utrecht 1982, pp. 43-55.
  • Scapegoat Rituals in Ancient Greece. In: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 87, 1983, pp. 299-320.
  • Greek Maenadism Reconsidered. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 55, 1984, pp. 267–286.
  • Dionysus Travesti. In: A. Moreau (ed.): L'Initiation 1. Montpellier 1992, pp. 189-198.
  • Three Roman Aetiological Myths. In: Fritz Graf (Ed.): Colloquium Rauricum , Vol. 3: Myth in a society without myths. The paradigm of Rome. Teubner, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1993, ISBN 3-519-07413-3 , pp. 158-174 ( preview on Google books).
  • Prophets, Seers, and Politics in Greece, Israel, and Early Modern Europe. In: Numen 40, 1993, pp. 150-183.
  • Myth as Propaganda: Athens and Sparta. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 117, 1997, pp. 9-17 ( digitized version at the University of Cologne (PDF; 65 kB)).
  • «Religion», «Ritual» and the Opposition «Sacred» vs. «Profane». In: Fritz Graf (ed.): Views of Greek rituals. Birthday symposium for Walter Burkert, Castelen near Basel, March 15-18, 1996. Teubner, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1998, ISBN 3-519-07433-8 , pp. 9–32 ( preview on Google Books).
  • The Birth of the Term 'Magic'. In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 126, 1999, pp. 1–12 ( digitized version at the University of Cologne (PDF; 94 kB)).
  • Odysseus versus the Cyclops. In: Synnøve des Bouvrie (ed.): Myth and Symbol I. Symbolic Phenomena in Ancient Greek Culture. Papers from the First International Symposium on Symbolism at the University of Tromsø, June 4-7, 1998 (= Papers from the Norwegian Institute at Athens , Vol. 5). Aström, Bergren 2002, ISBN 82-91626-21-9 . Review by: Barry B. Powell, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.01.16 ( online ).
  • Myth and Ritual in Ancient Greece: Observations on a Difficult Relationship. In: Raban von Haehling (ed.): Greek mythology and early Christianity. Knowledge Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-18528-5 , pp. 21-43.
  • Atheism in Antiquity. In: Michael Martin (Ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007 ( digitized version at the University Library of Groningen (PDF; 126 kB)).
  • Zeus' Own Country: Cult and Myth in the Pride of Halicarnassus. In: Ueli Dill , Christine Walde (Hrsg.): Ancient Myths: Media, Transformations and Constructions. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-020909-9 , pp. 292-312.

literature

  • Jitse Dijkstra, Yme Kuiper, Justin EA Kroesen (Eds.): Myths, Martyrs, and Modernity. Studies in the History of Religions in Honor of Jan N. Bremmer (= Studies in the History of Religions , Vol. 127). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2010, ISBN 90-04-18089-3 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bremmer, Jan N.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bremmer, Jan Nicolaas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch ancient historian and religious scholar
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Groningen