Pub Date : 2022-08-31DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341666
Art Leete, Piret Koosa
In this article we aim to explore how vernacular ideas about spiritual power, words, and silence shape perceptions of religion and witchcraft among the rural Komi people, whose predominant religion is Russian Orthodoxy. In this framework we investigate local ideas of witchcraft, belonging, and strangeness. During our joint ethnographic fieldwork trips to the Komi Republic, Russia, these notions were evoked repeatedly in discussions concerning the Evangelical Protestants who established their mission in a village historically associated with witches. This particular coincidence is reflected in discourses that brand the Evangelicals culturally alien, drawing on both traditional and contemporary categories of otherness. Our analysis shows that ideas about magical power and the usage of words constitute significant aspects of vernacular understanding of faith regardless of formal denominational belonging. We claim that religious practices are switched more spontaneously than feelings of spiritual power and traditionally accepted religious belonging among the rural Komi.
{"title":"Spiritual Power, Witchcraft and Protestants: Conflicting Approaches to Religious Belonging and Practice in the Komi Countryside","authors":"Art Leete, Piret Koosa","doi":"10.1163/15685276-12341666","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341666","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In this article we aim to explore how vernacular ideas about spiritual power, words, and silence shape perceptions of religion and witchcraft among the rural Komi people, whose predominant religion is Russian Orthodoxy. In this framework we investigate local ideas of witchcraft, belonging, and strangeness. During our joint ethnographic fieldwork trips to the Komi Republic, Russia, these notions were evoked repeatedly in discussions concerning the Evangelical Protestants who established their mission in a village historically associated with witches. This particular coincidence is reflected in discourses that brand the Evangelicals culturally alien, drawing on both traditional and contemporary categories of otherness. Our analysis shows that ideas about magical power and the usage of words constitute significant aspects of vernacular understanding of faith regardless of formal denominational belonging. We claim that religious practices are switched more spontaneously than feelings of spiritual power and traditionally accepted religious belonging among the rural Komi.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47152795","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 : 2022-08-31DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341668
Elena Mucciarelli
Building on the idea of “ritual quotation,” this article offers a new perspective on rituals enacted within contemporary theatrical performances in South India. Drawing from an existing corpus and reproduced in a different framework, the ritual tēvāram is embedded in a broad web of intertextual relationships comprised not only of items of repertoire and prescriptive manuals, but also of elements of ritual practices, shared beliefs, claims of social status, and ongoing negotiations between individual imagination and collective expectations. Usually a Nampūtiri domestic ritual, tēvāram is also carried out within Kūṭiyāṭṭam performances. Through a detailed analysis, I argue that the enactment of tēvāram on stage is not merely the stylized reproduction of a religious service, but it is rather an integral part of the narrative and aesthetic body of the theater practice. The performative and textual milieu of tēvāram creates scope for variations that modify both the plot and the tēvāram ritual itself. Kūṭiyāṭṭam-tēvāram thus becomes a transformative action and a tool of negotiation in the positioning of individuals within the social matrix.
{"title":"Tēvāram: Worshipping Gods on Stage","authors":"Elena Mucciarelli","doi":"10.1163/15685276-12341668","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341668","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Building on the idea of “ritual quotation,” this article offers a new perspective on rituals enacted within contemporary theatrical performances in South India. Drawing from an existing corpus and reproduced in a different framework, the ritual tēvāram is embedded in a broad web of intertextual relationships comprised not only of items of repertoire and prescriptive manuals, but also of elements of ritual practices, shared beliefs, claims of social status, and ongoing negotiations between individual imagination and collective expectations.\u0000 Usually a Nampūtiri domestic ritual, tēvāram is also carried out within Kūṭiyāṭṭam performances. Through a detailed analysis, I argue that the enactment of tēvāram on stage is not merely the stylized reproduction of a religious service, but it is rather an integral part of the narrative and aesthetic body of the theater practice. The performative and textual milieu of tēvāram creates scope for variations that modify both the plot and the tēvāram ritual itself. Kūṭiyāṭṭam-tēvāram thus becomes a transformative action and a tool of negotiation in the positioning of individuals within the social matrix.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43474919","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 : 2022-08-31DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341667
N. Reeh
The article firstly presents a modified version of a relational theoretical approach to the study of religions that can also be useful in the analysis of dynamic relations between religions and nonreligions. Nonreligious groups can be studied as relational collective groups that define themselves vis-à-vis other religious groups. Following this, the article suggests that scholars should take this relation between religions and nonreligions much further into consideration. Religious and nonreligious groups define themselves in a relation to what they perceive to be their most immediate competitors. Thus, the article posits that there is a social field of groups that relate and react to the other, and since we by convention know some of these groups as religions and nonreligions, we can study the set of interrelated groups as a social reality without the need of a definition. Instead of defining “religion” and “nonreligion,” the analysis can depart from the relation between the groups or the fact that both religions and nonreligions relate to and constitute themselves vis-à-vis other religions. In the last part, the article analyzes a piece of rare empirical evidence, namely, the founding event of a nonreligious group (i.e., the Danish Humanist Society). Here, the article shows how the Danish Humanist Society combined meaning and strategy in its relational struggle against its significant religious other, the Danish National Church.
{"title":"Dancing with Religion: Organized Atheism and Humanism in the Field of Religions in Denmark","authors":"N. Reeh","doi":"10.1163/15685276-12341667","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341667","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The article firstly presents a modified version of a relational theoretical approach to the study of religions that can also be useful in the analysis of dynamic relations between religions and nonreligions. Nonreligious groups can be studied as relational collective groups that define themselves vis-à-vis other religious groups. Following this, the article suggests that scholars should take this relation between religions and nonreligions much further into consideration. Religious and nonreligious groups define themselves in a relation to what they perceive to be their most immediate competitors. Thus, the article posits that there is a social field of groups that relate and react to the other, and since we by convention know some of these groups as religions and nonreligions, we can study the set of interrelated groups as a social reality without the need of a definition. Instead of defining “religion” and “nonreligion,” the analysis can depart from the relation between the groups or the fact that both religions and nonreligions relate to and constitute themselves vis-à-vis other religions. In the last part, the article analyzes a piece of rare empirical evidence, namely, the founding event of a nonreligious group (i.e., the Danish Humanist Society). Here, the article shows how the Danish Humanist Society combined meaning and strategy in its relational struggle against its significant religious other, the Danish National Church.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46277274","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 : 2022-08-31DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341670
Milos Hubina
The article reviews the most recent systematic effort to correct some of the widespread misconceptions about religion: Brad Stoddard and Craig Martin’s edited volume Stereotyping Religion: Critiquing Clichés (2017) and Tenzan Eaghll’s article “Religious Clichés” (2015). It argues that the joint goal becomes problematic due to some empirical and logical distortions, which mainly result from the emphasis on the relativist message offsetting the impartial assessment of facts and their implications. It argues for integrating the biological and cultural explanations of religion and offers some proposals toward identifying the contemporary clichés that impede progress in our understanding of the phenomenon.
{"title":"Moving Beyond Religious Clichés: A Review","authors":"Milos Hubina","doi":"10.1163/15685276-12341670","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341670","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The article reviews the most recent systematic effort to correct some of the widespread misconceptions about religion: Brad Stoddard and Craig Martin’s edited volume Stereotyping Religion: Critiquing Clichés (2017) and Tenzan Eaghll’s article “Religious Clichés” (2015). It argues that the joint goal becomes problematic due to some empirical and logical distortions, which mainly result from the emphasis on the relativist message offsetting the impartial assessment of facts and their implications. It argues for integrating the biological and cultural explanations of religion and offers some proposals toward identifying the contemporary clichés that impede progress in our understanding of the phenomenon.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46865155","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 : 2022-08-31DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341669
Håkan Rydving
{"title":"Obituary: Louise Bäckman (1926–2021)","authors":"Håkan Rydving","doi":"10.1163/15685276-12341669","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341669","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48231291","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 : 2022-07-09DOI: 10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.36628
José Lima Júnior
Também aplaudo a escolha do tema para este segundo Simpósio: Rubem Alves: Religião e Educação. Por certo religião e educação se distinguem e centralizam coisas, casos e causos na totalidade da cultura. Por elas, dentre outras formatações, a cultura se constitui com suas variantes às vezes óbvias, outras inusitadas. Isso sem contar ocorrências complementares ou irreconciliáveis. Em Rubem Alves2 houve uma primeira intersecção mais formal e decisiva desse binômio durante sua passagem (de 1953 a 1957) pelo Bacharelado em Teologia no Seminário Presbiteriano de Campinas – SPS. Tal lastro, de algum modo, direcionou todo seu legado (coerente e contrastante) como grande referência nas áreas da religião e da educação no país e no mundo.
{"title":"Ao mestre, com moldura","authors":"José Lima Júnior","doi":"10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.36628","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.36628","url":null,"abstract":"Também aplaudo a escolha do tema para este segundo Simpósio: Rubem Alves: Religião e Educação. Por certo religião e educação se distinguem e centralizam coisas, casos e causos na totalidade da cultura. Por elas, dentre outras formatações, a cultura se constitui com suas variantes às vezes óbvias, outras inusitadas. Isso sem contar ocorrências complementares ou irreconciliáveis. Em Rubem Alves2 houve uma primeira intersecção mais formal e decisiva desse binômio durante sua passagem (de 1953 a 1957) pelo Bacharelado em Teologia no Seminário Presbiteriano de Campinas – SPS. Tal lastro, de algum modo, direcionou todo seu legado (coerente e contrastante) como grande referência nas áreas da religião e da educação no país e no mundo.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43915421","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 : 2022-07-09DOI: 10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.36645
Arnaldo Huff
Esse texto trata sobre o lugar da música no pensamento de Rubem Alves e sobre o potencial humanizador da experiência estético-musical. A chave para lidar com essa questão é a ideia de beleza, desenvolvida pelo autor. Inicialmente trataremos da música como algo que interpela e demanda envolvimento e relação. Há, nesse sentido, um caráter de outridade e deslocamento na experiência musical. De tal experiência, desdobra-se, por fim, um processo pedagógico de humanização. Na religião e na música, na experiência religioso-musical, atua a força humanizadora da beleza.
{"title":"Religião, música e humanização em Rubem Alves","authors":"Arnaldo Huff","doi":"10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.36645","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.36645","url":null,"abstract":"Esse texto trata sobre o lugar da música no pensamento de Rubem Alves e sobre o potencial humanizador da experiência estético-musical. A chave para lidar com essa questão é a ideia de beleza, desenvolvida pelo autor. Inicialmente trataremos da música como algo que interpela e demanda envolvimento e relação. Há, nesse sentido, um caráter de outridade e deslocamento na experiência musical. De tal experiência, desdobra-se, por fim, um processo pedagógico de humanização. Na religião e na música, na experiência religioso-musical, atua a força humanizadora da beleza.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43516986","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 : 2022-07-02DOI: 10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.33265
Matheus Landau De Carvalho
O eremitismo é uma das manifestações de religiosidade individual mais singulares das maiores tradições religiosas do mundo. O objetivo deste artigo é lançar um olhar crítico de um ponto de vista moderno que identifique os aspectos religiosos e seculares nos usos que as Leis de Manu (Mānava-Dharmaśāstra) fazem do modus vivendi hindu do eremita da floresta (vānaprastha), como o descreve e qualifica segundo as funções de natureza secular que lhe atribui no âmbito do sistema varṇa-āśrama, de modo a enxergar nestes usos processos de plausibilidade racional segundo fins práticos inerentes à sociedade védica; assim como de explicações meta-racionais e religiosamente fundamentadas, com ações orientadas para fins transcendentais a partir da prescrição de injunções rituais e a busca por bens espirituais.
{"title":"eremitismo hindu da floresta (vānaprastha) nas Leis de Manu (Mānava-Dharmaśāstra)","authors":"Matheus Landau De Carvalho","doi":"10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.33265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.33265","url":null,"abstract":"O eremitismo é uma das manifestações de religiosidade individual mais singulares das maiores tradições religiosas do mundo. O objetivo deste artigo é lançar um olhar crítico de um ponto de vista moderno que identifique os aspectos religiosos e seculares nos usos que as Leis de Manu (Mānava-Dharmaśāstra) fazem do modus vivendi hindu do eremita da floresta (vānaprastha), como o descreve e qualifica segundo as funções de natureza secular que lhe atribui no âmbito do sistema varṇa-āśrama, de modo a enxergar nestes usos processos de plausibilidade racional segundo fins práticos inerentes à sociedade védica; assim como de explicações meta-racionais e religiosamente fundamentadas, com ações orientadas para fins transcendentais a partir da prescrição de injunções rituais e a busca por bens espirituais.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42932221","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 : 2022-07-01DOI: 10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.36633
A. Tostes
Corpo como espaço potência criativa e novos horizontes, corpo que sente o mundo, corpo que é mundo. Para Rubem Alves, o corpo é o ponto de partida de tudo, pois afinal, experimentamos o mundo e somos atravessados por ele através do corpo. Rubem sempre indagou: “Não é o corpo o centro absoluto de tudo, o sol em torno do qual gira o nosso mundo?” (ALVES, 1985, p. 32). A teóloga Ivone Gebara responde essa pergunta dizendo que o corpo é “o centro de todas as relações, corpo do qual partem todos os problemas e para o qual tendem a convergir todas as soluções” (GEBARA, 2016, p. 90).
{"title":"A poética do imaginar","authors":"A. Tostes","doi":"10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.36633","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.36633","url":null,"abstract":"Corpo como espaço potência criativa e novos horizontes, corpo que sente o mundo, corpo que é mundo. Para Rubem Alves, o corpo é o ponto de partida de tudo, pois afinal, experimentamos o mundo e somos atravessados por ele através do corpo. Rubem sempre indagou: “Não é o corpo o centro absoluto de tudo, o sol em torno do qual gira o nosso mundo?” (ALVES, 1985, p. 32). A teóloga Ivone Gebara responde essa pergunta dizendo que o corpo é “o centro de todas as relações, corpo do qual partem todos os problemas e para o qual tendem a convergir todas as soluções” (GEBARA, 2016, p. 90).","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48116323","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 : 2022-07-01DOI: 10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.33715
J. W. Hernández
O transumanismo caracteriza-se pela crença do autoaprimoramento da natureza humana por meio do progresso científico-tecnológico, que inauguraria uma nova fase na evolução humana. Tal discurso assemelha-se, em alguns aspectos, a de movimentos religiosos e expressa um desejo escatológico subjacente. Destarte, este estudo se propõe a refletir a dimensão escatológica presente na doutrina transumanista. Para alcançar este objetivo utilizou-se do método comparativo, tomando o texto de Paulo 1 Coríntios 15, 35-49 (que aborda a ressurreição dos mortos) como paradigma a fim de auxiliar na identificação dos elementos que comporiam o discurso escatológico transumanista. Estes elementos asseguram a afirmação de uma autentica escatologia transumanista, com um projeto de imortalidade para humanidade.
{"title":"Anseio escatológico do Transumanismo","authors":"J. W. Hernández","doi":"10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.33715","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.34019/2236-6296.2021.v24.33715","url":null,"abstract":"O transumanismo caracteriza-se pela crença do autoaprimoramento da natureza humana por meio do progresso científico-tecnológico, que inauguraria uma nova fase na evolução humana. Tal discurso assemelha-se, em alguns aspectos, a de movimentos religiosos e expressa um desejo escatológico subjacente. Destarte, este estudo se propõe a refletir a dimensão escatológica presente na doutrina transumanista. Para alcançar este objetivo utilizou-se do método comparativo, tomando o texto de Paulo 1 Coríntios 15, 35-49 (que aborda a ressurreição dos mortos) como paradigma a fim de auxiliar na identificação dos elementos que comporiam o discurso escatológico transumanista. Estes elementos asseguram a afirmação de uma autentica escatologia transumanista, com um projeto de imortalidade para humanidade.","PeriodicalId":45187,"journal":{"name":"NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43978091","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}