Northrop Frye and C. G. Jung both attempted to summarize their respective life’s work in the form of a grand diagram. Remarkably, these two diagrams are virtually identical in both form and content, and they seem to have been formulated independently. Both diagrams take the dual form of an axis mundi with four segments and a circle with four quadrants, and both are defined using the Eastern concept of the mandala. The diagrams attempt to map the development of the Western psyche (Jung) and its expression in myth and literature (Frye) over some two thousand years of the common era. While the scope of these schemas offers a stunning panorama, at their heart are four religious symbols. Frye, following biblical symbolism, called them (1) the Mountain, (2) the Garden, (3) the Cave, and (4) the Furnace. Jung, following certain Gnostic sources, called them (1) Anthropos, (2) Shadow, (3) Paradise, and (4) Lapis. We will journey through this fourfold kaleidoscope and conclude with some reflections on the narrowing of horizons in the contemporary academy of religion. Our current methods, and the objects they reveal, have become largely restricted to only one quadrant in this grand schema: the fourth quadrant, which saw the rise of modern scientific thinking. By using a subordinate category (modern science) to try to understand a superordinate category (religion), it is not surprising that our discipline has lost its way.
{"title":"Northrop Frye, C. G. Jung, and the Grand Scheme of Things: Mapping the Psycho-Mythical Cosmos","authors":"G. McCullough","doi":"10.1086/723647","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/723647","url":null,"abstract":"Northrop Frye and C. G. Jung both attempted to summarize their respective life’s work in the form of a grand diagram. Remarkably, these two diagrams are virtually identical in both form and content, and they seem to have been formulated independently. Both diagrams take the dual form of an axis mundi with four segments and a circle with four quadrants, and both are defined using the Eastern concept of the mandala. The diagrams attempt to map the development of the Western psyche (Jung) and its expression in myth and literature (Frye) over some two thousand years of the common era. While the scope of these schemas offers a stunning panorama, at their heart are four religious symbols. Frye, following biblical symbolism, called them (1) the Mountain, (2) the Garden, (3) the Cave, and (4) the Furnace. Jung, following certain Gnostic sources, called them (1) Anthropos, (2) Shadow, (3) Paradise, and (4) Lapis. We will journey through this fourfold kaleidoscope and conclude with some reflections on the narrowing of horizons in the contemporary academy of religion. Our current methods, and the objects they reveal, have become largely restricted to only one quadrant in this grand schema: the fourth quadrant, which saw the rise of modern scientific thinking. By using a subordinate category (modern science) to try to understand a superordinate category (religion), it is not surprising that our discipline has lost its way.","PeriodicalId":45199,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION","volume":"103 1","pages":"145 - 186"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41739307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":":Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism","authors":"Max K. Strassfeld","doi":"10.1086/723749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/723749","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45199,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44296062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article I argue that Nietzsche understands history as physiological history and that he takes the history of the body that he advances to be a repudiation of Christianity. Nietzsche’s body is the body as a coalition of drives (Triebe); in Antichrist, Nietzsche records Paul’s attempt to write the body out of history. The death of God represents a dawning self-awareness on the part of the body, such that Christianity’s disembodied history becomes untenable, providing an opening for Nietzsche’s form of history to assert itself at Christianity’s expense. However, I challenge the degree to which Nietzsche’s own sense of history is actually anti-Christian. I do this by initiating a dialogue between Nietzsche’s history and that presented in Augustine’s City of God, asking whether The City of God really is guilty of the suppression of the body of which Nietzsche accuses Paul and, by extension, Christianity. Through this intertextual engagement, we see there is a stronger Christian vestige in Nietzsche’s historical outlook than he is willing to admit. For both Nietzsche and Augustine, the truly historical paradigm depends on a certain asceticism that is not only a prescriptive or ethical stance but a deep conviction about the way things are. If we understand Nietzsche on his own terms, he might even be said to have radicalized Augustine’s Christian asceticism in his engagement of the body and history, by making the suffering of the body eternal.
{"title":"Nietzsche’s Confrontation with Christianity via the Body and History","authors":"Matthew T Messerschmidt","doi":"10.1086/723756","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/723756","url":null,"abstract":"In this article I argue that Nietzsche understands history as physiological history and that he takes the history of the body that he advances to be a repudiation of Christianity. Nietzsche’s body is the body as a coalition of drives (Triebe); in Antichrist, Nietzsche records Paul’s attempt to write the body out of history. The death of God represents a dawning self-awareness on the part of the body, such that Christianity’s disembodied history becomes untenable, providing an opening for Nietzsche’s form of history to assert itself at Christianity’s expense. However, I challenge the degree to which Nietzsche’s own sense of history is actually anti-Christian. I do this by initiating a dialogue between Nietzsche’s history and that presented in Augustine’s City of God, asking whether The City of God really is guilty of the suppression of the body of which Nietzsche accuses Paul and, by extension, Christianity. Through this intertextual engagement, we see there is a stronger Christian vestige in Nietzsche’s historical outlook than he is willing to admit. For both Nietzsche and Augustine, the truly historical paradigm depends on a certain asceticism that is not only a prescriptive or ethical stance but a deep conviction about the way things are. If we understand Nietzsche on his own terms, he might even be said to have radicalized Augustine’s Christian asceticism in his engagement of the body and history, by making the suffering of the body eternal.","PeriodicalId":45199,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION","volume":"103 1","pages":"187 - 208"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46015054","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":":The Antichrist: A New Biography","authors":"Richard Raiswell","doi":"10.1086/723747","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/723747","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45199,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45578893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The book Bahir is a linchpin in the current historiography of Kabbalah, yet its origins are murky. The dominant theory, espoused by Gershom Scholem and his successors, treats the Bahir as a stratified work whose earliest elements originated in antiquity in the East. The book supposedly underwent a long, tortuous process of textual consolidation, during which its components came into contact with various esoteric circles, such as the German Pietists and “first kabbalists” of southern France. This account is to a large extent the foundation of an all-encompassing history of Kabbalah’s emergence, which has not gone unchallenged but still profoundly shapes scholarly discourse. This study thoroughly reassesses all of the evidence for this grand narrative, and concludes that it is a blend of biased interpretation and imaginative invention, which proceeds from a purist, dichotomizing approach to textual, philological, socio-intellectual, and conceptual history. Furthermore, the narrative’s conceptual constructs have constricted scholarly thinking about core kabbalistic ideas, the nature of theosophical kabbalists, and more. Therefore, despite the satisfyingly granular detail of this narrative, we remain very much in the dark about the true origins of the Bahir and, by extension, of early Kabbalah. In the epilogue, I suggest fully reinvestigating the Bahir’s textual tradition, especially in light of recent discoveries, and partly reviving forgotten but promising historical and philological avenues of inquiry in order to write a new history of the so-called first kabbalistic book.
{"title":"The Bahir and Its Historiography: A Reassessment","authors":"Avishai Bar-Asher","doi":"10.1086/723757","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/723757","url":null,"abstract":"The book Bahir is a linchpin in the current historiography of Kabbalah, yet its origins are murky. The dominant theory, espoused by Gershom Scholem and his successors, treats the Bahir as a stratified work whose earliest elements originated in antiquity in the East. The book supposedly underwent a long, tortuous process of textual consolidation, during which its components came into contact with various esoteric circles, such as the German Pietists and “first kabbalists” of southern France. This account is to a large extent the foundation of an all-encompassing history of Kabbalah’s emergence, which has not gone unchallenged but still profoundly shapes scholarly discourse. This study thoroughly reassesses all of the evidence for this grand narrative, and concludes that it is a blend of biased interpretation and imaginative invention, which proceeds from a purist, dichotomizing approach to textual, philological, socio-intellectual, and conceptual history. Furthermore, the narrative’s conceptual constructs have constricted scholarly thinking about core kabbalistic ideas, the nature of theosophical kabbalists, and more. Therefore, despite the satisfyingly granular detail of this narrative, we remain very much in the dark about the true origins of the Bahir and, by extension, of early Kabbalah. In the epilogue, I suggest fully reinvestigating the Bahir’s textual tradition, especially in light of recent discoveries, and partly reviving forgotten but promising historical and philological avenues of inquiry in order to write a new history of the so-called first kabbalistic book.","PeriodicalId":45199,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION","volume":"103 1","pages":"115 - 144"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47937556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":":The Crown and the Courts: Separation of Powers in the Early Jewish Imagination","authors":"Yonatan Y. Brafman","doi":"10.1086/723710","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/723710","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45199,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45369509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":":Mystifying Kabbalah: Academic Scholarship, National Theology, and New Age Spirituality","authors":"A. Mayse","doi":"10.1086/723748","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/723748","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45199,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43106761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":":Pan: The Great God’s Modern Return","authors":"R. Osborne","doi":"10.1086/723711","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/723711","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45199,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43380391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study argues for the cross-boundary role of the demoness Lilith in the writings of the medieval Jewish esotericists, known as the German Pietists. Lilith is one of many demonic forces who took on roles in both the celestial and terrestrial spheres. As demonstrated in central works such as The Book of the Divine Glory, mystical and magical speculations placed her in discussions on divine punishment, demonology, and complex questions regarding legal prescriptions. Her integration into the theosophical doctrine of the pietists is evidenced by the thorough amalgamation of various genres and topics where she is discussed. The hierarchic subservience of demons toward the angels and the Holy One is thus an important aspect of how such evil forces found their place within a cohesive system.
{"title":"Domesticated Lilith: The Integral Role of the Demonic Feminine in the Esoteric Writings of the German Pietists","authors":"A. Sierka","doi":"10.1086/723605","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/723605","url":null,"abstract":"This study argues for the cross-boundary role of the demoness Lilith in the writings of the medieval Jewish esotericists, known as the German Pietists. Lilith is one of many demonic forces who took on roles in both the celestial and terrestrial spheres. As demonstrated in central works such as The Book of the Divine Glory, mystical and magical speculations placed her in discussions on divine punishment, demonology, and complex questions regarding legal prescriptions. Her integration into the theosophical doctrine of the pietists is evidenced by the thorough amalgamation of various genres and topics where she is discussed. The hierarchic subservience of demons toward the angels and the Holy One is thus an important aspect of how such evil forces found their place within a cohesive system.","PeriodicalId":45199,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF RELIGION","volume":"103 1","pages":"209 - 227"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48844526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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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