Power in the Name A Comparative Analysis of Onomastic Invocations
Free Download Joseph L. Kimmel, "Power in the Name: A Comparative Analysis of Onomastic Invocations " English | ISBN: 3111360288 | 2025 | 235 pages | PDF | 6 MB How do divine names channel power? This project analyzes, first of all, the invocation of particular divine names (e.g., Jesus, Aphrodite) to access power for activities like healing, protecting, and harming. In so doing, it focuses on texts and artifacts (e.g., amulets) from ancient Mediterranean communities, including both early Christian documents and Greek magical papyri. Additionally, it compares these materials with empowered names from a very different context: 10th-century Tibet, where names were similarly invoked to access otherworldly power, based upon Indic understandings of language. In both contexts, therefore, a primary feature of this project is the analysis of religious experience mediated via invocation of particular names.