Thomas B Dozeman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195367331
- eISBN:
- 9780199867417
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367331.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This book is an initial response to the call of the World Council of Churches for renewed theological reflection on the biblical roots of ordination to strengthen the vocational identity of the ...
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This book is an initial response to the call of the World Council of Churches for renewed theological reflection on the biblical roots of ordination to strengthen the vocational identity of the ordained and to provide a framework for ecumenical dialogue. It is grounded in the assumption that the vocation of ordination requires an understanding of holiness and how it functions in human religious experience. The goal is to construct a biblical theology of ordination, embedded in broad reflection on the nature of holiness. The study of holiness and ministry interweaves three methodologies. First, the history of religions describes two theories of holiness in the study of religion — as a dynamic force and as a ritual resource — which play a central role in biblical literature and establish the paradigm of ordination to Word and Sacrament in Christian tradition. Second, the study of the Moses in the Pentateuch and the formation of the Mosaic office illustrate the ways in which the two views of holiness model ordination to the prophetic word and to the priestly ritual. And, third, canonical criticism provides the lens to explore the ongoing influence of the Mosaic office in the New Testament literature.Less
This book is an initial response to the call of the World Council of Churches for renewed theological reflection on the biblical roots of ordination to strengthen the vocational identity of the ordained and to provide a framework for ecumenical dialogue. It is grounded in the assumption that the vocation of ordination requires an understanding of holiness and how it functions in human religious experience. The goal is to construct a biblical theology of ordination, embedded in broad reflection on the nature of holiness. The study of holiness and ministry interweaves three methodologies. First, the history of religions describes two theories of holiness in the study of religion — as a dynamic force and as a ritual resource — which play a central role in biblical literature and establish the paradigm of ordination to Word and Sacrament in Christian tradition. Second, the study of the Moses in the Pentateuch and the formation of the Mosaic office illustrate the ways in which the two views of holiness model ordination to the prophetic word and to the priestly ritual. And, third, canonical criticism provides the lens to explore the ongoing influence of the Mosaic office in the New Testament literature.
Gordon Graham
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199265961
- eISBN:
- 9780191708756
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199265961.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This book takes as its starting point Max Weber's contention that contemporary Western culture is marked by a ‘disenchantment of the world’ — the loss of spiritual value in the wake of religion's ...
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This book takes as its starting point Max Weber's contention that contemporary Western culture is marked by a ‘disenchantment of the world’ — the loss of spiritual value in the wake of religion's decline and the triumph of the physical and biological sciences. Relating themes in Hegel, Nietzsche, Schleiermacher, Schopenhauer, and Gadamer to topics in contemporary philosophy of the arts, it explores the idea that Art, now freed from its previous service to religion, has the potential to re-enchant the world. The book develops an argument that draws on the strengths of both ‘analytical’ and ‘continental’ traditions of philosophical reflection. The opening chapter examines ways in which human lives can be made meaningful, and the second chapter critically assesses debates about secularization and secularism. Subsequent chapters are devoted to painting, literature, music, architecture, and festivals. The book concludes that only religion properly so called can ‘enchant the world’, and that modern art's ambition to do so fails.Less
This book takes as its starting point Max Weber's contention that contemporary Western culture is marked by a ‘disenchantment of the world’ — the loss of spiritual value in the wake of religion's decline and the triumph of the physical and biological sciences. Relating themes in Hegel, Nietzsche, Schleiermacher, Schopenhauer, and Gadamer to topics in contemporary philosophy of the arts, it explores the idea that Art, now freed from its previous service to religion, has the potential to re-enchant the world. The book develops an argument that draws on the strengths of both ‘analytical’ and ‘continental’ traditions of philosophical reflection. The opening chapter examines ways in which human lives can be made meaningful, and the second chapter critically assesses debates about secularization and secularism. Subsequent chapters are devoted to painting, literature, music, architecture, and festivals. The book concludes that only religion properly so called can ‘enchant the world’, and that modern art's ambition to do so fails.
Richard K. Fenn
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195143690
- eISBN:
- 9780199834174
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195143698.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Explores the possibilities for a secular society. Such a society is radically open to its environment, to a wide range of opportunities and dangers, and it is therefore agnostic about the boundaries ...
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Explores the possibilities for a secular society. Such a society is radically open to its environment, to a wide range of opportunities and dangers, and it is therefore agnostic about the boundaries between the possible and the impossible. Its own beliefs and ethics would also be open, evolutionary, procedural, and open to contestation and revision. There would be opportunities for individuals to give their own accounts of their personal experience without seeking recognition and legitimacy from institutionalized sources of authority. The individual's identity would be able to develop with being shaped by ritual or conformed to a society's pantheon of heroes. The present would be open to the past without being controlled or obligated to it, and the future would be an emergent aspect of the present rather than a reservoir of unfulfilled aspiration. Language would be subject to negotiation and contest, even regarding the meanings of sacred speech. The mysterious and the occult, along with other aspects of the sacred, would be subject to discourse rather than veneration. The political and cultural center would lose its monopoly on the sacred, and the periphery would become more assertive in defining is own forms of the sacred against those of the center. Religious institutions would become less successful in reducing the sacred to particular interpretations, times, and places.Less
Explores the possibilities for a secular society. Such a society is radically open to its environment, to a wide range of opportunities and dangers, and it is therefore agnostic about the boundaries between the possible and the impossible. Its own beliefs and ethics would also be open, evolutionary, procedural, and open to contestation and revision. There would be opportunities for individuals to give their own accounts of their personal experience without seeking recognition and legitimacy from institutionalized sources of authority. The individual's identity would be able to develop with being shaped by ritual or conformed to a society's pantheon of heroes. The present would be open to the past without being controlled or obligated to it, and the future would be an emergent aspect of the present rather than a reservoir of unfulfilled aspiration. Language would be subject to negotiation and contest, even regarding the meanings of sacred speech. The mysterious and the occult, along with other aspects of the sacred, would be subject to discourse rather than veneration. The political and cultural center would lose its monopoly on the sacred, and the periphery would become more assertive in defining is own forms of the sacred against those of the center. Religious institutions would become less successful in reducing the sacred to particular interpretations, times, and places.
Mark R. Wynn
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199560387
- eISBN:
- 9780191721175
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199560387.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This book considers some of the ways in which particular places can acquire special religious significance, as sites for prayer or other kinds of devotional activity, and how knowledge of place ...
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This book considers some of the ways in which particular places can acquire special religious significance, as sites for prayer or other kinds of devotional activity, and how knowledge of place provides a key to understanding the nature of religious knowledge. There are two main arguments in the book. The first proposes that there is a deep-seated analogy between knowledge of God and knowledge of place, and that knowledge of God consists partly in an integrative knowledge of the significance of particular places. This strand of the book contrasts with recent discussion in the epistemology of religion, which has tended to privilege, for instance, scientific or ordinary perceptual kinds of knowledge as analogous to religious knowledge. Taking knowledge of place as a route into the question of the nature of religious knowledge provides a way of foregrounding the practical and engaged character of religious knowledge, and its connection to our moral and aesthetic commitments. The second central strand of the book uses these findings to consider some of the ways in which particular places can acquire special religious significance. By contrast with approaches which postulate a sharp distinction between ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’ spaces, and by contrast with the idea that the differentiated religious significance of space reflects some merely psychological truth, the book proposes that the religious import of a place is a function of its microcosmic significance (its capacity to represent some larger truth about the condition of human beings), its ability to conserve historical meanings (where these meanings exercise an enduring ethical claim upon those who are present at the site at later times), and its facilitation of a kind of embodied reference to God (where a person's thought is anchored in God by virtue of what they do at the site).Less
This book considers some of the ways in which particular places can acquire special religious significance, as sites for prayer or other kinds of devotional activity, and how knowledge of place provides a key to understanding the nature of religious knowledge. There are two main arguments in the book. The first proposes that there is a deep-seated analogy between knowledge of God and knowledge of place, and that knowledge of God consists partly in an integrative knowledge of the significance of particular places. This strand of the book contrasts with recent discussion in the epistemology of religion, which has tended to privilege, for instance, scientific or ordinary perceptual kinds of knowledge as analogous to religious knowledge. Taking knowledge of place as a route into the question of the nature of religious knowledge provides a way of foregrounding the practical and engaged character of religious knowledge, and its connection to our moral and aesthetic commitments. The second central strand of the book uses these findings to consider some of the ways in which particular places can acquire special religious significance. By contrast with approaches which postulate a sharp distinction between ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’ spaces, and by contrast with the idea that the differentiated religious significance of space reflects some merely psychological truth, the book proposes that the religious import of a place is a function of its microcosmic significance (its capacity to represent some larger truth about the condition of human beings), its ability to conserve historical meanings (where these meanings exercise an enduring ethical claim upon those who are present at the site at later times), and its facilitation of a kind of embodied reference to God (where a person's thought is anchored in God by virtue of what they do at the site).
Lisa Kemmerer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199790678
- eISBN:
- 9780199919178
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199790678.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book focuses on core religious teachings that explain how human beings ought to behave in relation to other animals, with the intent that this information be considered in light of contemporary ...
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This book focuses on core religious teachings that explain how human beings ought to behave in relation to other animals, with the intent that this information be considered in light of contemporary practices and consumer choices. The book explores sacred literature, the lives of religious exemplars, and core ethics to expose animal-friendly teachings in indigenous, Vedic, Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religious traditions. Each chapter explores specific topics, such as sacred nature, key philosophical concepts (such as oneness of being, universal peace, and the afterlife), core ethics (on subjects such as compassion, humility, and diet), rightful relations between human beings and animals (kinship), and the activist nature of religious commitment, introducing famous figures such as Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Tolstoy, as well as contemporary animal advocates from within each religious tradition. A thoughtful introduction and conclusion outline the parameters of the book, as well as the intent of the author, and provide focus for this landmark publication. Finally, the appendix explains industrial farming and fishing—including the environmental degradation associated with both—and explores terms such as ”free-range,” ”cruelty-free,” and ”organic.”Less
This book focuses on core religious teachings that explain how human beings ought to behave in relation to other animals, with the intent that this information be considered in light of contemporary practices and consumer choices. The book explores sacred literature, the lives of religious exemplars, and core ethics to expose animal-friendly teachings in indigenous, Vedic, Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religious traditions. Each chapter explores specific topics, such as sacred nature, key philosophical concepts (such as oneness of being, universal peace, and the afterlife), core ethics (on subjects such as compassion, humility, and diet), rightful relations between human beings and animals (kinship), and the activist nature of religious commitment, introducing famous figures such as Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Tolstoy, as well as contemporary animal advocates from within each religious tradition. A thoughtful introduction and conclusion outline the parameters of the book, as well as the intent of the author, and provide focus for this landmark publication. Finally, the appendix explains industrial farming and fishing—including the environmental degradation associated with both—and explores terms such as ”free-range,” ”cruelty-free,” and ”organic.”
Paul J. Griffiths
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195125771
- eISBN:
- 9780199853335
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195125771.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
What social conditions and intellectual practices are necessary in order for religious cultures to flourish? This book finds the answer in “religious reading” — the kind of reading in which a ...
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What social conditions and intellectual practices are necessary in order for religious cultures to flourish? This book finds the answer in “religious reading” — the kind of reading in which a religious believer allows his mind to be furnished and his heart instructed by a sacred text, understood in the light of an authoritative tradition. It favorably contrasts the practices and pedagogies of traditional religious cultures with those of our own fragmented and secularized culture and insists that religious reading should be preserved.Less
What social conditions and intellectual practices are necessary in order for religious cultures to flourish? This book finds the answer in “religious reading” — the kind of reading in which a religious believer allows his mind to be furnished and his heart instructed by a sacred text, understood in the light of an authoritative tradition. It favorably contrasts the practices and pedagogies of traditional religious cultures with those of our own fragmented and secularized culture and insists that religious reading should be preserved.
June McDaniel
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195167900
- eISBN:
- 9780199849970
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167900.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This book provides an overview of Bengali goddess worship or Shakti. The book identifies three major forms of goddess worship, and examines each through its myths, folklore, songs, rituals, sacred ...
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This book provides an overview of Bengali goddess worship or Shakti. The book identifies three major forms of goddess worship, and examines each through its myths, folklore, songs, rituals, sacred texts, and practitioners. Drawing on years of fieldwork and extensive research, the book paints a portrait of this religious tradition.Less
This book provides an overview of Bengali goddess worship or Shakti. The book identifies three major forms of goddess worship, and examines each through its myths, folklore, songs, rituals, sacred texts, and practitioners. Drawing on years of fieldwork and extensive research, the book paints a portrait of this religious tradition.
Steven T. Katz (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195097030
- eISBN:
- 9780199848805
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195097030.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This is the fourth in an influential series of volumes on mysticism, presenting a basic revaluation of the nature of mysticism. Each book in the series presents a collection of chapters by experts in ...
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This is the fourth in an influential series of volumes on mysticism, presenting a basic revaluation of the nature of mysticism. Each book in the series presents a collection of chapters by experts in the study of religion. This volume explores how the great mystics and mystical traditions use, interpret, and reconstruct the sacred scriptures of their traditions.Less
This is the fourth in an influential series of volumes on mysticism, presenting a basic revaluation of the nature of mysticism. Each book in the series presents a collection of chapters by experts in the study of religion. This volume explores how the great mystics and mystical traditions use, interpret, and reconstruct the sacred scriptures of their traditions.
G. Ronald Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195306392
- eISBN:
- 9780199785025
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195306392.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
The story of the Grail, usually identified as some kind of mystical vessel, has gripped the imaginations of millions since it first appeared in several medieval romances. Of these, Wolfram von ...
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The story of the Grail, usually identified as some kind of mystical vessel, has gripped the imaginations of millions since it first appeared in several medieval romances. Of these, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Middle High German Parzival (c. 1210) is generally recognized as the most complex and beautiful. Strangely, in Parzival, the Grail is identified as a stone rather than a cup or dish. This oddity is usually seen as just another mystery, further evidence of the difficulty of discerning the true sources of the Grail legend. This book seeks to illuminate this mystery and to enable a far better appreciation of Wolfram's insight into the nature of the Grail and its relationship to the Crusades. The Grail, container of the sacred body and blood of Christ, Wolfram was saying, was where God said it would be: on the altar at the consecration of the Mass. Wolfram's “sacred stone” was none other than a consecrated altar, precious by virtue of the sacrament but also, this book argues, by virtue of the material from which it was made: a green gem, one of the precious stones associated with the rivers of Paradise. The book explores what it signifies for the Grail to be a translucent gemstone and an altar made portable only by a woman. Wolfram's stone is a sacramental reference to the stone the Crusaders fought to obtain — the Holy Sepulchre. Parzival, the book states, was intended as an argument against continued efforts by Latin Christians to recover the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem by force of arms. In Wolfram's story, warring Christian and Muslim brothers are brought together in peace by the power of Wolfram's Holy Grail.Less
The story of the Grail, usually identified as some kind of mystical vessel, has gripped the imaginations of millions since it first appeared in several medieval romances. Of these, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Middle High German Parzival (c. 1210) is generally recognized as the most complex and beautiful. Strangely, in Parzival, the Grail is identified as a stone rather than a cup or dish. This oddity is usually seen as just another mystery, further evidence of the difficulty of discerning the true sources of the Grail legend. This book seeks to illuminate this mystery and to enable a far better appreciation of Wolfram's insight into the nature of the Grail and its relationship to the Crusades. The Grail, container of the sacred body and blood of Christ, Wolfram was saying, was where God said it would be: on the altar at the consecration of the Mass. Wolfram's “sacred stone” was none other than a consecrated altar, precious by virtue of the sacrament but also, this book argues, by virtue of the material from which it was made: a green gem, one of the precious stones associated with the rivers of Paradise. The book explores what it signifies for the Grail to be a translucent gemstone and an altar made portable only by a woman. Wolfram's stone is a sacramental reference to the stone the Crusaders fought to obtain — the Holy Sepulchre. Parzival, the book states, was intended as an argument against continued efforts by Latin Christians to recover the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem by force of arms. In Wolfram's story, warring Christian and Muslim brothers are brought together in peace by the power of Wolfram's Holy Grail.
Timothy H. Lim
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198262060
- eISBN:
- 9780191682292
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198262060.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Early Christian Studies
What was the ancient exegetes’ attitude to the biblical texts? Did they consider them ‘sacred’ in the sense that the words were the inviolable utterances of God? Alternatively, did they when ...
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What was the ancient exegetes’ attitude to the biblical texts? Did they consider them ‘sacred’ in the sense that the words were the inviolable utterances of God? Alternatively, did they when necessary modify and adapt holy writ for their own purposes? This book examines the question of exegetical modifications from the post-Qumran perspective of textual pluriformity of literalism that runs through ancient exegeses and translations. The Qumran Commentators and Paul complemented their fulfilment-exegeses by paying close attention to the verbal formations of the biblical texts. The hermeneutical principles underlying their exegeses involved a multiplex of competing forces that at the same time sought to make scripture relevant while guarding it from changes. In so far as the label ‘post-biblical exegesis’ describes a clear separation between the written, authoritative texts and its interpretation, the distinction is overdrawn, for the ancients were not merely commentators, but also in some sense authors of the biblical texts.Less
What was the ancient exegetes’ attitude to the biblical texts? Did they consider them ‘sacred’ in the sense that the words were the inviolable utterances of God? Alternatively, did they when necessary modify and adapt holy writ for their own purposes? This book examines the question of exegetical modifications from the post-Qumran perspective of textual pluriformity of literalism that runs through ancient exegeses and translations. The Qumran Commentators and Paul complemented their fulfilment-exegeses by paying close attention to the verbal formations of the biblical texts. The hermeneutical principles underlying their exegeses involved a multiplex of competing forces that at the same time sought to make scripture relevant while guarding it from changes. In so far as the label ‘post-biblical exegesis’ describes a clear separation between the written, authoritative texts and its interpretation, the distinction is overdrawn, for the ancients were not merely commentators, but also in some sense authors of the biblical texts.
Sam D. Gill
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195115871
- eISBN:
- 9780199853427
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195115871.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This work takes a narrative technique (known as “storytracking”) practiced by Australian aboriginal people and applies it to the academic study of their culture. The book's purpose is to get as close ...
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This work takes a narrative technique (known as “storytracking”) practiced by Australian aboriginal people and applies it to the academic study of their culture. The book's purpose is to get as close as possible to the perceptions and beliefs of these indigenous people by stripping away the layers of European interpretation and construction. Techniques involve comparing the versions of aboriginal texts presented in academic reports with the text versions as they appear in each report's cited sources. Comparative studies reveal the various academic operations—translating, editing, conflating, interpreting—that serve to build a bridge connecting subject and scholarly report. The book begins by examining Mircea Eliade's influential analysis of an Australian myth, “Numbakulla and the Sacred Pole.” It goes back to the field notes of the anthropologists who originally collected the story and by following the trail of publications, revisions, and retellings of this tale, it is able to show that Eliade's version bears almost no relation to the original and that the interpretations Eliade built around it is thus entirely a European construct, motivated largely by preconceptions about the nature of religion.Less
This work takes a narrative technique (known as “storytracking”) practiced by Australian aboriginal people and applies it to the academic study of their culture. The book's purpose is to get as close as possible to the perceptions and beliefs of these indigenous people by stripping away the layers of European interpretation and construction. Techniques involve comparing the versions of aboriginal texts presented in academic reports with the text versions as they appear in each report's cited sources. Comparative studies reveal the various academic operations—translating, editing, conflating, interpreting—that serve to build a bridge connecting subject and scholarly report. The book begins by examining Mircea Eliade's influential analysis of an Australian myth, “Numbakulla and the Sacred Pole.” It goes back to the field notes of the anthropologists who originally collected the story and by following the trail of publications, revisions, and retellings of this tale, it is able to show that Eliade's version bears almost no relation to the original and that the interpretations Eliade built around it is thus entirely a European construct, motivated largely by preconceptions about the nature of religion.
Joanne Punzo Waghorne
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195156638
- eISBN:
- 9780199785292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156638.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Three general reconfigurations of sacred space — sometimes interlocking, sometimes in tension — emerge from the new style and sensibilities of contemporary global Hindu temples with implications for ...
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Three general reconfigurations of sacred space — sometimes interlocking, sometimes in tension — emerge from the new style and sensibilities of contemporary global Hindu temples with implications for the general history of religions. The first is the emergence of a new sense of the sacred sphere, of temple space within an urban environment dominated by the ownership of houses and not land or even natural phenomenon. Second, even the architecture of both space and the polity of new temples reflects democratic models of civic organizations, which leads to new space for lectures and education. Third, complex middle-class religious sensibilities emerge within the temples, which affect the style and polity of the temple and even the faces of the deities, often creating a new visual theology. How will these living sacred spaces of the temple matter for historians of religions? Will this kind of public, and in many ways empirical, sacrality once again challenge the field to reconsider material sacrality?Less
Three general reconfigurations of sacred space — sometimes interlocking, sometimes in tension — emerge from the new style and sensibilities of contemporary global Hindu temples with implications for the general history of religions. The first is the emergence of a new sense of the sacred sphere, of temple space within an urban environment dominated by the ownership of houses and not land or even natural phenomenon. Second, even the architecture of both space and the polity of new temples reflects democratic models of civic organizations, which leads to new space for lectures and education. Third, complex middle-class religious sensibilities emerge within the temples, which affect the style and polity of the temple and even the faces of the deities, often creating a new visual theology. How will these living sacred spaces of the temple matter for historians of religions? Will this kind of public, and in many ways empirical, sacrality once again challenge the field to reconsider material sacrality?
Steven Kepnes
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195313819
- eISBN:
- 9780199785650
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313819.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Jewish liturgy helps develop new forms of discourse and theology to respond to the two central events of the contemporary Jewish era: the Shoah and the establishment of the State of Israel. Peter ...
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Jewish liturgy helps develop new forms of discourse and theology to respond to the two central events of the contemporary Jewish era: the Shoah and the establishment of the State of Israel. Peter Ochs argues that modern philosophical logic is limited and must be augmented with a “logic of scripture.” This chapter argues for the power of the “logic of liturgy.” To address the Shoah, the chapter focuses on the liturgical theodicy of the Passover Seder and the synagogue sermon. The State of Israel revives issues of sacred space for Judaism. Part two of the chapter explores the notion of liturgical space as a response to idolatrous and messianic claims by some Zionists for the present State of Israel. Liturgy preserves the messianic character of Israel as a future and not a present reality.Less
Jewish liturgy helps develop new forms of discourse and theology to respond to the two central events of the contemporary Jewish era: the Shoah and the establishment of the State of Israel. Peter Ochs argues that modern philosophical logic is limited and must be augmented with a “logic of scripture.” This chapter argues for the power of the “logic of liturgy.” To address the Shoah, the chapter focuses on the liturgical theodicy of the Passover Seder and the synagogue sermon. The State of Israel revives issues of sacred space for Judaism. Part two of the chapter explores the notion of liturgical space as a response to idolatrous and messianic claims by some Zionists for the present State of Israel. Liturgy preserves the messianic character of Israel as a future and not a present reality.
Christopher M. Cullen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195149258
- eISBN:
- 9780199785131
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195149258.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Bonaventure frequently identifies theology with sacred scripture, using the term “scripture” as a synonym for theology to the extent that he refers to the whole of what God has revealed for the ...
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Bonaventure frequently identifies theology with sacred scripture, using the term “scripture” as a synonym for theology to the extent that he refers to the whole of what God has revealed for the salvation of the human race. The best place to begin to understand Bonaventure's view of sacred scripture is with the conviction that he held with other medieval believers, that God has written three books: one within, one without, and one for sinners to return home. In Bonaventure's eyes, scripture is not merely the literal meaning of the text. When he speaks of scripture, he means scripture as revealed in the fullness of its meanings, above all, in its allegorical interpretation.Less
Bonaventure frequently identifies theology with sacred scripture, using the term “scripture” as a synonym for theology to the extent that he refers to the whole of what God has revealed for the salvation of the human race. The best place to begin to understand Bonaventure's view of sacred scripture is with the conviction that he held with other medieval believers, that God has written three books: one within, one without, and one for sinners to return home. In Bonaventure's eyes, scripture is not merely the literal meaning of the text. When he speaks of scripture, he means scripture as revealed in the fullness of its meanings, above all, in its allegorical interpretation.
Richard Lyman Bushman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195369786
- eISBN:
- 9780199871292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369786.003.007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter proposes a simple fundamental in its account for Joseph Smith's religious appeal: he met a human need for the sacred. So, of course, do all religions, but Smith was different, the ...
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This chapter proposes a simple fundamental in its account for Joseph Smith's religious appeal: he met a human need for the sacred. So, of course, do all religions, but Smith was different, the chapter argues, in constructing the LDS faith around two potent loci: new sacred words and new sacred places. His additions to scripture blend audacity and self-effacing, summarily annihilating the principle of sola scriptura, even as the personality delivering its coup de grace for Mormons is subsumed in the voice of God. As for place, Smith literalized the concept of Zion and introduced into Christian worship the concept and physical reality of the temple. In the process, he became the first American religious figure to exploit the power of sacred space.Less
This chapter proposes a simple fundamental in its account for Joseph Smith's religious appeal: he met a human need for the sacred. So, of course, do all religions, but Smith was different, the chapter argues, in constructing the LDS faith around two potent loci: new sacred words and new sacred places. His additions to scripture blend audacity and self-effacing, summarily annihilating the principle of sola scriptura, even as the personality delivering its coup de grace for Mormons is subsumed in the voice of God. As for place, Smith literalized the concept of Zion and introduced into Christian worship the concept and physical reality of the temple. In the process, he became the first American religious figure to exploit the power of sacred space.
Terryl C. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195167115
- eISBN:
- 9780199785599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167115.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Mormons believe God was once a man, and humans may become gods (theosis). God is embodied, sexuality is divinized, and the mundane, the quotidian, the earthly, is made celestial. Sacred distance ...
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Mormons believe God was once a man, and humans may become gods (theosis). God is embodied, sexuality is divinized, and the mundane, the quotidian, the earthly, is made celestial. Sacred distance collapses, and all things are spiritual. The result is a tension bordering on blasphemy or heresy.Less
Mormons believe God was once a man, and humans may become gods (theosis). God is embodied, sexuality is divinized, and the mundane, the quotidian, the earthly, is made celestial. Sacred distance collapses, and all things are spiritual. The result is a tension bordering on blasphemy or heresy.
Antony Black
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199533206
- eISBN:
- 9780191714498
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199533206.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The ideology of sacred monarchy prevailed in all three cultures, absolutism in Byzantium and Islam. Monarchs had a duty to rule justly, which in Islam meant according to the Shari'a. European views ...
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The ideology of sacred monarchy prevailed in all three cultures, absolutism in Byzantium and Islam. Monarchs had a duty to rule justly, which in Islam meant according to the Shari'a. European views of justice derived partly from Roman law and Stoicism. In all three, justice included ruling according to the laws. Constitutionalism developed partly out of the separation of roles between rulers and clergy or 'ulama. The Sunni caliph and Byzantine emperor were, in theory, appointed by election. Both caliph and king were tied to their subjects by oath, but only in Europe were legal restraints made specific and formal. Islamic jurists preferred, on prudential grounds, non-resistance. In Europe, the king's power was balanced by parliaments claiming to represent the whole kingdom. There was no corporate representation in Byzantium or Islam. In Europe, city republics were ruled by elected officials.Less
The ideology of sacred monarchy prevailed in all three cultures, absolutism in Byzantium and Islam. Monarchs had a duty to rule justly, which in Islam meant according to the Shari'a. European views of justice derived partly from Roman law and Stoicism. In all three, justice included ruling according to the laws. Constitutionalism developed partly out of the separation of roles between rulers and clergy or 'ulama. The Sunni caliph and Byzantine emperor were, in theory, appointed by election. Both caliph and king were tied to their subjects by oath, but only in Europe were legal restraints made specific and formal. Islamic jurists preferred, on prudential grounds, non-resistance. In Europe, the king's power was balanced by parliaments claiming to represent the whole kingdom. There was no corporate representation in Byzantium or Islam. In Europe, city republics were ruled by elected officials.
Timothy Fitzgerald
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195300093
- eISBN:
- 9780199868636
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300093.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
This book analyzes the development of different meanings of the term “religion” in different contexts and in relation to other categories with shifting and unstable nuances such as the state, ...
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This book analyzes the development of different meanings of the term “religion” in different contexts and in relation to other categories with shifting and unstable nuances such as the state, politics, economics, and the secular. It traces a major transformation of the category as a function of Euro‐American colonialism and capitalism from its traditional meaning of Christian Truth to the modern generic and pluralized category of religions and world religions. For centuries the English word Religion meant Christian Truth, and it stood in opposition to superstition, paganism, and falsehood. As such Religion encompassed not only individual salvation but also, and of equal importance, what we today refer to as the secular, the state, politics, economics, law, and science. Until the second half of the seventeenth century there was no powerful discourse on the nonreligious. Indeed, terms such as politics and economics were newly coined in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the term secular had a profoundly different nuance, for example, referring to the priesthood. Furthermore, the discourse on Religion as Christian Truth in contrast to superstition and paganism overlapped significantly with discourses on “our” civility, as opposed to “their” barbarity, and thus functioned as an expression of the superiority of the Christian male elite. Current uncritical practices of historians, political scientists, anthropologists, and religionists in their projection of modern Anglophone categories such as “religion,” “politics,” and “economics” as though they are eternal features of all human experience and social organisation indirectly and usually unconsciously serve the interests of the modern state under the guise of secular objectivity.Less
This book analyzes the development of different meanings of the term “religion” in different contexts and in relation to other categories with shifting and unstable nuances such as the state, politics, economics, and the secular. It traces a major transformation of the category as a function of Euro‐American colonialism and capitalism from its traditional meaning of Christian Truth to the modern generic and pluralized category of religions and world religions. For centuries the English word Religion meant Christian Truth, and it stood in opposition to superstition, paganism, and falsehood. As such Religion encompassed not only individual salvation but also, and of equal importance, what we today refer to as the secular, the state, politics, economics, law, and science. Until the second half of the seventeenth century there was no powerful discourse on the nonreligious. Indeed, terms such as politics and economics were newly coined in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the term secular had a profoundly different nuance, for example, referring to the priesthood. Furthermore, the discourse on Religion as Christian Truth in contrast to superstition and paganism overlapped significantly with discourses on “our” civility, as opposed to “their” barbarity, and thus functioned as an expression of the superiority of the Christian male elite. Current uncritical practices of historians, political scientists, anthropologists, and religionists in their projection of modern Anglophone categories such as “religion,” “politics,” and “economics” as though they are eternal features of all human experience and social organisation indirectly and usually unconsciously serve the interests of the modern state under the guise of secular objectivity.
Zain Abdullah
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195314250
- eISBN:
- 9780199871797
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195314250.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
For more than twenty years, West African Muslims from the Muridiyya order, a Sufi brotherhood based in Senegal, have organized the annual Cheikh Amadou Bamba Day parade in New York City. It is a ...
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For more than twenty years, West African Muslims from the Muridiyya order, a Sufi brotherhood based in Senegal, have organized the annual Cheikh Amadou Bamba Day parade in New York City. It is a religious procession that allows them to redefine their African identities, cope with the stigma of Blackness, and counteract accusations of Islamic terrorism. But the march is not merely an event for members, because its banners often challenge common notions of Black history, and African American paraders follow a slightly different course. This chapter explores the way Murids, followers of Muridiyya, and other West African Muslims such as the Malinke and the Fulani create religious activities, networks, stores, and institutions that transform Harlem into a sacred city. It is a sacred space, however, that includes the long-standing Nation of Islam and other African American Muslim orientations.Less
For more than twenty years, West African Muslims from the Muridiyya order, a Sufi brotherhood based in Senegal, have organized the annual Cheikh Amadou Bamba Day parade in New York City. It is a religious procession that allows them to redefine their African identities, cope with the stigma of Blackness, and counteract accusations of Islamic terrorism. But the march is not merely an event for members, because its banners often challenge common notions of Black history, and African American paraders follow a slightly different course. This chapter explores the way Murids, followers of Muridiyya, and other West African Muslims such as the Malinke and the Fulani create religious activities, networks, stores, and institutions that transform Harlem into a sacred city. It is a sacred space, however, that includes the long-standing Nation of Islam and other African American Muslim orientations.
John Gatta
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195165050
- eISBN:
- 9780199835140
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195165055.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
During the colonial era, British settlers only gradually allowed North America’s actual physical environment to shape their idea of the New World they inhabited. Although New England Puritans were ...
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During the colonial era, British settlers only gradually allowed North America’s actual physical environment to shape their idea of the New World they inhabited. Although New England Puritans were generally fearful of unsettled land, they were also disposed to regard the wild continent as uncorrupted space—and even, on occasion, as a sacred site of regeneration by contrast with the rejected Catholic emphasis on locally consecrated church edifices. That distrust toward the American environment shown, for example, in writing by Governor William Bradford must be understood in its proper historical and religious context. Bradford’s Puritan theology thus proves to be no less ecologically benign than the neopagan, naturalistic religion that informs the writing of Thomas Morton, whose famous maypole at Ma-re Mount disturbed the peace of nearby Plymouth. By the third-generation era of Cotton Mather, Puritan New Englanders had become all the more willing to envision the continent itself as a sanctified geophysical place that could be compared through biblical typology with the land of Israel.Less
During the colonial era, British settlers only gradually allowed North America’s actual physical environment to shape their idea of the New World they inhabited. Although New England Puritans were generally fearful of unsettled land, they were also disposed to regard the wild continent as uncorrupted space—and even, on occasion, as a sacred site of regeneration by contrast with the rejected Catholic emphasis on locally consecrated church edifices. That distrust toward the American environment shown, for example, in writing by Governor William Bradford must be understood in its proper historical and religious context. Bradford’s Puritan theology thus proves to be no less ecologically benign than the neopagan, naturalistic religion that informs the writing of Thomas Morton, whose famous maypole at Ma-re Mount disturbed the peace of nearby Plymouth. By the third-generation era of Cotton Mather, Puritan New Englanders had become all the more willing to envision the continent itself as a sanctified geophysical place that could be compared through biblical typology with the land of Israel.
