Download or read book Secrecy and Concealment written by Hans Kippenberg and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume deals with secrecy and concealment in the history of mediterranean religions as pattern of social interaction. Secrecy is a powerful means in establishing identity and interaction as G. Simmel has demonstrated. Using his approach the scholars of this volume describe and explain the practical meaning of concealment in two different religious systems: in Egyptian and Greek polytheism and in Jewish, Christian, Gnostic and Shi'i monotheisms. This point of view reveals that all these religions shaped social norms concerning public and private aspects of the human self.