Pub Date : 2023-09-04DOI: 10.1163/15685276-20231705
Niklas Foxeus
The Buddhist nationalist movements that emerged during the political and economic liberalization of the second parliamentarian period (2011–2021) in Burma/Myanmar provide unique material for the study of monastic authority. The aim of this article is to examine two overlapping dynamics regarding how monastic authority is established and undermined. As for the first dynamic, the article examines three strategies in Buddhist nationalist sermons aiming to provide legitimacy for the nationalist monks. The second dynamic is a political outgroup criticism that became more common during the period in question. The article makes a distinction between generic monastic authority, which is the fundamental one, and nationalist monastic authority, as they are legitimized and established in different ways. Finally, the article argues that recognition of monastic authority by laypeople is based not merely on trust and respect but tends to be a more complex process.
{"title":"Monastic Authority and Legitimizing Religio-Political Activism: Buddhist Nationalist Monks in Myanmar","authors":"Niklas Foxeus","doi":"10.1163/15685276-20231705","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-20231705","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The Buddhist nationalist movements that emerged during the political and economic liberalization of the second parliamentarian period (2011–2021) in Burma/Myanmar provide unique material for the study of monastic authority. The aim of this article is to examine two overlapping dynamics regarding how monastic authority is established and undermined. As for the first dynamic, the article examines three strategies in Buddhist nationalist sermons aiming to provide legitimacy for the nationalist monks. The second dynamic is a political outgroup criticism that became more common during the period in question. The article makes a distinction between generic monastic authority, which is the fundamental one, and nationalist monastic authority, as they are legitimized and established in different ways. Finally, the article argues that recognition of monastic authority by laypeople is based not merely on trust and respect but tends to be a more complex process.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48028665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-04DOI: 10.1163/15685276-20231704
Tenno Teidearu
This article concentrates on crystal shops and shopping for crystals in Estonia. Consumption and commerce are inherent parts of New Spirituality. Crystals became the most salient commodities in esoteric shops during the 2010s, most of the shops having become “crystal shops” in Estonia. The aim of this article is to analyze the meaning-making potential of the materiality of crystals in shopping, and the material and sensuous aspects of crystal shops. From the perspective of material culture and consumption studies, this case study proposes that crystals are valuable in shopping primarily because of their materiality as a source of meaning and experience. In choosing crystals, people follow their material form and material qualities instead of a textual description of their supportive effects. Crystal shops are generally described as therapeutic places, however as an “experiencescape” they are strictly sensuous and material places.
{"title":"Crystal Shops and Shopping for Crystals in Estonia: Materiality and Experience as Sources of Value","authors":"Tenno Teidearu","doi":"10.1163/15685276-20231704","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-20231704","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article concentrates on crystal shops and shopping for crystals in Estonia. Consumption and commerce are inherent parts of New Spirituality. Crystals became the most salient commodities in esoteric shops during the 2010s, most of the shops having become “crystal shops” in Estonia. The aim of this article is to analyze the meaning-making potential of the materiality of crystals in shopping, and the material and sensuous aspects of crystal shops. From the perspective of material culture and consumption studies, this case study proposes that crystals are valuable in shopping primarily because of their materiality as a source of meaning and experience. In choosing crystals, people follow their material form and material qualities instead of a textual description of their supportive effects. Crystal shops are generally described as therapeutic places, however as an “experiencescape” they are strictly sensuous and material places.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44927436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-04DOI: 10.1163/15685276-20231707
Shana Zaia
Heterarchy theory is a valuable tool for analyzing complex and changing relationships between elements in a system. It has been employed in anthropology, archaeology, and recently in religious studies. Its utility has not yet been exploited for religions that are studied through textual evidence, such as Mesopotamian religions. As Mesopotamian religions were polytheistic and the texts represent multiple genres from a broad timeframe, relationships between system actors such as gods, temples, and cities defy static and lineal arrangements. Heterarchies are well suited for untangling these relationships, showing how they change depending on the measuring criteria. Using the case of the city of Assur, which housed many deities and was both the religious center and a political capital, heterarchy theory shows how the same elements – temples and cities – reveal different rankings that coexisted simultaneously. Heterarchies productively complicate our understanding of these religious relationships and expose the multimodality of each element in the system.
{"title":"Applying Heterarchy Theory to Ancient Mesopotamian Religions","authors":"Shana Zaia","doi":"10.1163/15685276-20231707","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-20231707","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Heterarchy theory is a valuable tool for analyzing complex and changing relationships between elements in a system. It has been employed in anthropology, archaeology, and recently in religious studies. Its utility has not yet been exploited for religions that are studied through textual evidence, such as Mesopotamian religions. As Mesopotamian religions were polytheistic and the texts represent multiple genres from a broad timeframe, relationships between system actors such as gods, temples, and cities defy static and lineal arrangements. Heterarchies are well suited for untangling these relationships, showing how they change depending on the measuring criteria. Using the case of the city of Assur, which housed many deities and was both the religious center and a political capital, heterarchy theory shows how the same elements – temples and cities – reveal different rankings that coexisted simultaneously. Heterarchies productively complicate our understanding of these religious relationships and expose the multimodality of each element in the system.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64410660","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-04DOI: 10.1163/15685276-20231709
Sarah Demmrich
{"title":"Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living, written by Dimitris Xygalatas","authors":"Sarah Demmrich","doi":"10.1163/15685276-20231709","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-20231709","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44532188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-04DOI: 10.1163/15685276-20231702
Sam Gill
The late Jonathan Z. Smith was a central influence in the development of a study of religion on a par with the social and even natural sciences. This article reexamines Smith’s legacy for the inspiration to build a proper academic study of religion. It looks to Smith’s common use of jokes and riddles, grounded in his early studies of Frazer’s The Golden Bough, in order to tease out not simply stylistic or methodological concerns, but fundamental philosophical shapings of religion theory. I develop a presentation of this position in what is termed an aesthetic of impossibles, the distinctively human capacity of considering things as equal or identical knowing full well that they are not and doing so without any necessity for reconciliation. This aesthetic is examined and illustrated in a consideration of Smith’s views of comparison and mapping. In an extended discussion, it is also considered in terms of human self-moving as the marker of vitality, established in both philosophy and biology.
已故的乔纳森·z·史密斯(Jonathan Z. Smith)对宗教研究的发展产生了核心影响，其影响力与社会科学甚至自然科学不相上下。本文重新审视了史密斯的遗产，以启发我们建立一个适当的宗教学术研究。它着眼于史密斯在早期对弗雷泽的《金枝》的研究中常用的笑话和谜语，不仅是为了梳理出风格或方法上的问题，而且是为了梳理出宗教理论的基本哲学形态。我用所谓的“不可能的美学”来阐述这一立场，这是人类特有的一种能力，即认为事物是平等或相同的，完全知道它们不是平等或相同的，而且这样做不需要任何和解。这种美学在考虑史密斯的比较和映射观点时得到了检验和说明。在进一步的讨论中，它也被认为是人类自我运动作为活力的标志，在哲学和生物学中都有确立。
{"title":"The Glory Jest and Riddle: Jonathan Z. Smith and an Aesthetic of Impossibles","authors":"Sam Gill","doi":"10.1163/15685276-20231702","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-20231702","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The late Jonathan Z. Smith was a central influence in the development of a study of religion on a par with the social and even natural sciences. This article reexamines Smith’s legacy for the inspiration to build a proper academic study of religion. It looks to Smith’s common use of jokes and riddles, grounded in his early studies of Frazer’s The Golden Bough, in order to tease out not simply stylistic or methodological concerns, but fundamental philosophical shapings of religion theory. I develop a presentation of this position in what is termed an aesthetic of impossibles, the distinctively human capacity of considering things as equal or identical knowing full well that they are not and doing so without any necessity for reconciliation. This aesthetic is examined and illustrated in a consideration of Smith’s views of comparison and mapping. In an extended discussion, it is also considered in terms of human self-moving as the marker of vitality, established in both philosophy and biology.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45714988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-04DOI: 10.1163/15685276-20231708
Christian H. Bull
{"title":"Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Antique Imagination, written by Jennifer Taylor Westerfeld","authors":"Christian H. Bull","doi":"10.1163/15685276-20231708","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-20231708","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47676091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-04DOI: 10.1163/15685276-20231703
Rafal K. Stepien
This article reveals, criticizes, and attempts to overcome the systemic divides between the ideals of an interdisciplinarily employed archive and the realities of a disciplinarily deployed academy. Following an initial section on “Parameters and Proposals” in which I frame the ambit and arguments to follow, in “Religious Studies as Nondiscipline” I argue against the view that religious studies constitutes a discrete discipline. In “Interdisciplinarity and Nondisciplines” I theorize interdisciplinarity and argue for a conceptual relationship between it and the study of religion. Subsequent sections on “Interdisciplinarity in the Practice” and “An Interdisciplinarity in Practice” relate the practical consequences of my account for university-based professional religious studies, and provide an exemplary case study of the alternative approach advanced. Finally, in “Archive and Academe” I draw on contemporary theorizations of the archive to propose the study of religion, as here conceived, to be preeminently located to enact long overdue structural change in academe.
{"title":"Interdisciplinarity in Nondisciplines: Archive and Academe in the Study of Religion","authors":"Rafal K. Stepien","doi":"10.1163/15685276-20231703","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-20231703","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article reveals, criticizes, and attempts to overcome the systemic divides between the ideals of an interdisciplinarily employed archive and the realities of a disciplinarily deployed academy. Following an initial section on “Parameters and Proposals” in which I frame the ambit and arguments to follow, in “Religious Studies as Nondiscipline” I argue against the view that religious studies constitutes a discrete discipline. In “Interdisciplinarity and Nondisciplines” I theorize interdisciplinarity and argue for a conceptual relationship between it and the study of religion. Subsequent sections on “Interdisciplinarity in the Practice” and “An Interdisciplinarity in Practice” relate the practical consequences of my account for university-based professional religious studies, and provide an exemplary case study of the alternative approach advanced. Finally, in “Archive and Academe” I draw on contemporary theorizations of the archive to propose the study of religion, as here conceived, to be preeminently located to enact long overdue structural change in academe.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47289215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-04DOI: 10.1163/15685276-20231706
Simo Muir, R. Illman, Riikka Tuori
This article explores how Jews in Finland relate to the musical traditions of their synagogues and the changes that have occurred in the customs over time and as the result of various cultural and spiritual influences. Based on ethnographic data, it focuses on rituals, liturgy, and music as contexts for negotiating relationships between the institution and the individual, memory practices, and contemporary innovation – being and doing Jewish, to use concepts from the vernacular religion framework. The article outlines the historical development of Minhag Finland, the vernacular liturgical customs. It concludes that the “turn to traditions” should be stated in the plural, as several Jewish customs, cultures, and context are engaged in the negotiations around liturgy. This is not just a way to freeze time and preserve the status quo. Instead, seeking for meaningful models in the past paves the way for change – especially when turning toward a broad range of traditions.
{"title":"Turn to Traditions – Calls for Change: Negotiations over Liturgy in the Synagogues of Finland","authors":"Simo Muir, R. Illman, Riikka Tuori","doi":"10.1163/15685276-20231706","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-20231706","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article explores how Jews in Finland relate to the musical traditions of their synagogues and the changes that have occurred in the customs over time and as the result of various cultural and spiritual influences. Based on ethnographic data, it focuses on rituals, liturgy, and music as contexts for negotiating relationships between the institution and the individual, memory practices, and contemporary innovation – being and doing Jewish, to use concepts from the vernacular religion framework. The article outlines the historical development of Minhag Finland, the vernacular liturgical customs. It concludes that the “turn to traditions” should be stated in the plural, as several Jewish customs, cultures, and context are engaged in the negotiations around liturgy. This is not just a way to freeze time and preserve the status quo. Instead, seeking for meaningful models in the past paves the way for change – especially when turning toward a broad range of traditions.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45354757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-04DOI: 10.1163/15685276-20231710
Christoph Auffarth
{"title":"Kritische Gesamtausgabe (KGA), written by Ernst Troeltsch","authors":"Christoph Auffarth","doi":"10.1163/15685276-20231710","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-20231710","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42455437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-29DOI: 10.34019/2236-6296.2023.v26.38746
Gustavo Claudiano Martins
O objetivo do artigo é demonstrar como a utilização de um conceito para compreensão de um evento histórico, nesse caso o zoroastrismo, pode muitas vezes deturpar tanto o conceito quanto a história e, para além disso, modificar a própria existência das sociedades analisadas a partir dessa noção. A partir de levantamento bibliográfico e análise hermenêutica, demonstrou-se que para entender a história social do zoroastrismo é preciso compreender a história social do termo "monoteísmo". Isso porque o uso da concepção de monoteísmo para entender o zoroastrismo provocou associações equivocadas entre o monoteísmo judaico — movimento do qual se depreende o próprio conceito — e o mazdaísmo.
{"title":"Zoroastrismo esculpido na fôrma monoteísta","authors":"Gustavo Claudiano Martins","doi":"10.34019/2236-6296.2023.v26.38746","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.34019/2236-6296.2023.v26.38746","url":null,"abstract":"O objetivo do artigo é demonstrar como a utilização de um conceito para compreensão de um evento histórico, nesse caso o zoroastrismo, pode muitas vezes deturpar tanto o conceito quanto a história e, para além disso, modificar a própria existência das sociedades analisadas a partir dessa noção. A partir de levantamento bibliográfico e análise hermenêutica, demonstrou-se que para entender a história social do zoroastrismo é preciso compreender a história social do termo \"monoteísmo\". Isso porque o uso da concepção de monoteísmo para entender o zoroastrismo provocou associações equivocadas entre o monoteísmo judaico — movimento do qual se depreende o próprio conceito — e o mazdaísmo.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47659650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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