Oaths and Vows : Words as Genesis

Abstract

A phenomenology of oaths and vows across religious traditions. Exploring legal, liturgical, ritual and literary works from different eras, it provides a new understanding of the inherently creative force of oaths and vows. Viewing them as deeply generative, it further explores the tension between erotic desire and the taking of oaths in select works of Western and Eastern European literature from the 12th to the 19th centuries.