Holy Tears

by Patton, Kimberley C.; Hawley, John Stratton

• ISBN13: 9780691114446
• ISBN10: 0691114447
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-07-05
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

What religion does not serve as a theater of tears?Holy Tearsaddresses this all but universal phenomenon with passion and precision, ranging from Mycenaean Greece up through the tragedy of 9/11. Sixteen authors, including many leading voices in the study of religion, offer essays on specific topics in religious weeping while also considering broader issues such as gender, memory, physiology, and spontaneity. A comprehensive, elegantly written introduction offers a key to these topics. Given the pervasiveness of its theme, it is remarkable that this book is the first of its kind--and it is long overdue. The essays ask such questions as: Is religious weeping primal or culturally constructed? Is it universal? Is it spontaneous? Does God ever cry? Is religious weeping altered by sexual or social roles? Is it, perhaps, at once scripted and spontaneous, private and communal? Is it, indeed, divine? The grief occasioned by 9/11 and violence in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and elsewhere offers a poignant context for this fascinating and richly detailed book.Holy Tearsconcludes with a compelling meditation on the theology of weeping that emerged from pastoral responses to 9/11, as described in the editors' interview with Reverend Betsee Parker, who became head chaplain for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City and leader of the multifaith chaplaincy team at Ground Zero. The contributors are Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Amy Bard, Herbert Basser, Santha Bhattacharji, William Chittick, Gary Ebersole, M. David Eckel, John Hawley, Gay Lynch, Jacob Oluacute;pqnagrave; (with Solaacute; Ajiacute;baacute;deacute;), Betsee Parker, Kimberley Patton, Nehemia Polen, Kay Read, and Kallistos Ware.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	xi
Introduction
KIMBERLEY CHRISTINE PATTON AND JOHN STRATTON HAWLEY	1	(24)
The Poetics and Politics of Ritualized Weeping in Early and Medieval Japan
GARY L. EBERSOLE	25	(27)
Productive Tears: Weeping Speech, Water, and the Underworld in Mexica Tradition
KAY ALMERE READ	52	(15)
"Why Do Your Eyes Not Run Like a River?" Ritual Tears in Ancient and Modern Greek Funerary Traditions
GAY ORD POLLOCK LYNCH	67	(16)
"Sealing the Book with Tears": Divine Weeping on Mount Nebo and in the Warsaw Ghetto
RABBI NEHEMIA POLEN	83	(11)
The Gopis Tears
JOHN STRATTON HAWLEY	94	(18)
Hsüan-tsang's Encounter with the Buddha: A Cloud of Philosophy in a Drop of Tears
MALCOLM DAVID ECKEL	112	(20)
Weeping in Classical Sufism
WILLIAM C. CHITTICK	132	(13)
"No Power of Speech Remains": Tears and Transformation in South Asian Majlis Poetry
AMY BARD	145	(20)
Ekun Iyàwó: Bridal Tears in Marriage Rites of Passage among the Òyó-Yorùbá of Nigeria
JACOB K. OLÚPÒNÀ WITH SOLÁ AJIBÁDÉ	165	(13)
A Love for All Seasons: Weeping in Jewish Sources
HERBERT W. BASSER	178	(23)
"Pray with Tears and Your Request Will Find a Hearing": On the Iconology of the Magdalene's Tears
DIANE APOSTOLOS-CAPPADONA	201	(28)
Tears and Screaming: Weeping in the Spirituality of Margery Kempe
SANTHA BHATTACHARJI	229	(13)
"An Obscure Matter": The Mystery of Tears in Orthodox Spirituality
BISHOP KALLISTOS WARE	242	(13)
"Howl, Weep and Moan, and Bring It Back to God": Holy Tears in Eastern Christianity
KIMBERLEY CHRISTINE PATTON	255	(19)
"Send Thou Me": God's Weeping and the Sanctification of Ground Zero
REVEREND BETSEE PARKER	274	(27)
Epilogue: Tikkun ha-olam	301	(2)
INDEX	303	(10)
CONTRIBUTORS	313