Interpretation, Comparison, and the History of Religions

2021 ◽  
pp. 45-70
Author(s):  
Richard B. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Loss Of Life ◽  
Ascetic Ideal ◽  
Peter Strawson ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of

This chapter critically examines the work of Jonathan Z. Smith and the Interpretive-Comparative Method for studying religion. It unpacks Smith’s ideas about theory and method and shows how they instantiate the guild’s ascetic ideal in the study of religion. It describes three signature ideas in his approach, noting in particular Smith’s silence about matters of purpose when theorizing about method. It then describes how he mobilizes his ideas in his treatment of the mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana with the aim of overcoming incomprehension surrounding that event by invoking a method of interpretive and comparative reasoning. Drawing on the ideas of Peter Strawson, the chapter shows what a critical humanistic assessment of Jonestown would look like in contrast to Smith’s reading of them, focusing on the experience of indignation at injustice and the tragic loss of life at Jonestown.

Reconfiguring Nationalism: The Roll Call of the Fallen Soldiers (1800–2001)

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 16-43
Author(s):  
Valerio S. Severino
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
National Context ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Political Religion ◽  
European Experience ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
First Time

Devastating tragedies, such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks or the massacre during the Polish protests of 1970, are still commemorated with a roll call of the victims’ names, which is publicly pronounced. As a matter of civil or political religion, this ritual is studied by political scientists and sociologists and restricted to a specific national context. For the first time, a comparative method of history of religions is applied in order to retrace the transnational diffusion of this nationalist ritual from the Napoleonic era, passing through the fascist European experience, to the present day. The changing of the aesthetic forms in which the ritual took and takes shape, by producing images of the community gathered, outlines an aesthetic realization of ‘imagined communities.’ This outline will be examined with reference to Benedict Anderson’s theory on the origin and spread of nationalism.

A Comparative Method for Sixteenth-Century Polemicists: Cults, Devotions, and the Formation of Early Modern Religious Identities

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 385-407
Author(s):  
Marco Cavarzere
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Comparative History ◽  
Religious Identities ◽  
Las Casas ◽  
Bartolome De Las Casas ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Religious Polemics

This article retraces the roots of the modern comparative history of religions to the sixteenth-century controversy between Catholics and Protestants. By looking at one case study, that of a treatise on cults and devotions by Heinrich Bullinger, one of the most important Swiss Reformers of the early Reformation, it will show how the confrontational method of comparison inherent in the Christian tradition of religious polemics became a flexible means of creating and defending different religious identities. This change allowed both the reinforcement of confessional boundaries between Catholics and Protestants, and, unintentionally, made it possible to place the Christian idea of truth in context. By broadening the perspective to another religious history of the period, the Apologética historia sumaria by Bartolomé de las Casas, the article will identify a common line of thought in sixteenth-century comparative history of religions, which paved the way for the reconsideration of religious phenomena through a careful readaptation of patristic and classical thought.

Interfaith relations in the context of freedom of religion

1996 ◽  
pp. 41-45
Author(s):  
Mykhailo Babiy
Keyword(s):  
Religious Life ◽  
Round Table ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Scientific Conference ◽  
Interfaith Relations ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
International Round ◽  
International Round Table

This is extremely relevant and very important both in theoretical and practical dimensions, the problem was at the center of the discussions of the international scientific conference, which took place on May 6-7, 1996 in Lviv. The mentioned conference was one of the main events within the framework of the VI International Round Table "History of Religions in Ukraine", at its meetings 3-6, as well as on issues of outstanding dates in the history of the development of religious life in Ukraine on the 8th of May: "400 "the anniversary of the Brest Union", and "400th anniversary of the birth of Peter Mohyla"

‘... Call the Mute Artifacts to Speech’: New Essays on the History of Archeology

2018 ◽  
pp. 1274-1279
Author(s):  
Elena V. Olimpieva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Historical Experience ◽  
Historical Material ◽  
Manuscript Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Publication Practices ◽  
Controversial Nature

The article reviews O. A. Shashkova’s ‘... Call the Mute Artifacts to Speech.’ Essays on the History of Archaeography of the 15th - Early 20th Century. Wide array of sources and broad geographical frameworks allow Shashkova to present emergence and development of Russian and European archaeography from the 15th to early 20th century intelligibly enough for educational purposes. A whole chapter is devoted to the manuscript tradition and publishing of sources before Gutenberg. When considering the formation of archaeographical tradition, the author uses comparative method. O. A. Shashkova offers a historical overview and analyzes theoretical and practical issues of archaeography. The reviewer notes the significance of the chosen topic due to a need to reconsider the development of publishing in light of modern views on archaeography and to make it accessible to students and non-professionals. She notes traditional academic approach of O. A. Shashkova to presentation of the development publication practices. The review considers the possibility of using the ‘Essays...’ in studying the history of archaeography and offers possible directions for a broader consideration of historical experience, in particular, of Novikov’s publication projects. The review notes the controversial nature of the author’s approach to systematization of her large historical material in order to consider issues concerning the study of archaeographical practices. It stresses that coverage of issues of development of methods of preparation of publications separately from its historical and practical aspects hinders successful mastering of the material by an untrained reader. It concludes that the publication has high practical value for specialists in archaeography and students.

Perfection Makes Practice

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 98-100
Author(s):  
Muhamad Ali
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Psychological Dimension ◽  
South Sulawesi ◽  
Complex Dimensions ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of

Studies of Islam in Southeast Asia have sought to better understand its multifacetedand complex dimensions, although one may make a generalizedcategorization of Muslim beliefs and practices based on a fundamental differencein ideologies and strategies, such as cultural and political Islam.Anna M. Gade’s Perfection Makes Practice stresses the cultural aspect ofIndonesian Muslim practices by analyzing the practices of reciting andmemorizing the Qur’an, as well as the annual competition.Muslim engagement with the Qur’an has tended to emphasize the cognitiveover the psychological dimension. Perfection Makes Practice analyzesthe role of emotion in these undertakings through a combination ofapproaches, particularly the history of religions, ethnography, psychology,and anthropology. By investigating Qur’anic practitioners in Makassar,South Sulawesi, during the 1990s, Gade argues that the perfection of theQur’an as a perceived, learned, and performed text has made and remade thepractitioners, as well as other members of the Muslim community, to renewor increase their engagement with the holy text. In this process, she suggests,moods and motivation are crucial to preserving the recited Qur’an and revitalizingthe Muslim community.In chapter 1, Gade begins with a theoretical consideration for her casestudy. Drawing from concepts that emphasize the importance of feeling andemotion in ritual and religious experience, she develops a conceptualizationof this engagement. In chapter 2, Gade explains memorization within thecontext of the self and social relations. She argues that Qur’anic memorizershave a special relationship with its style and structure, as well as with thesocial milieu. Although Qur’anic memorization is a normal practice for mostMuslims, its practitioners have learned how to memorize and recite beautifullysome or all of the Qur’an’s verses, a process that requires emotion ...

Muslim Contributions to the History of Religions

1991 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-421
Author(s):  
Ghulam-Haider Aasi
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Comparative History ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Muslim Spain ◽  
Muslim Scholars ◽  
The Middle Ages

History of Religions in the WestA universal, comparative history of the study of religions is still far frombeing written. Indeed, such a history is even hr from being conceived, becauseits components among the legacies of non-Western scholars have hardly beendiscovered. One such component, perhaps the most significant one, is thecontributions made by Muslim scholars during the Middle Ages to thisdiscipline. What is generally known and what has been documented in thisfield consists entirely of the contribution of Westdm scholars of religion.Even these Western scholars belong to the post-Enlightenment era of Wsternhistory.There is little work dealing with the history of religions which does notclaim the middle of the nineteenth century CE as the beginning of thisdiscipline. This may not be due only to the zeitgeist of the modem Wstthat entails aversion, downgrading, and undermining of everything stemmingfrom the Middie Ages; its justification may also be found in the intellectualpoverty of the Christian West (Muslim Spain excluded) that spans that historicalperiod.Although most works dealing with this field include some incidentalreferences, paragraphs, pages, or short chapters on the contribution of thepast, according to each author’s estimation, all of these studies are categorizedunder one of the two approaches to religion: philosophical or cubic. All ofthe reflective, speculative, philosophical, psychological, historical, andethnological theories of the Greeks about the nature of the gods and goddessesand their origins, about the nature of humanity’s religion, its mison dsttre,and its function in society are described as philosophical quests for truth.It is maintained that the Greeks’ contribution to the study of religion showedtheir openness of mind and their curiosity about other religions and cultures ...

Writing and Ritual in Deuteronomy 28

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Quick
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Important Means ◽  
Written Word ◽  
Ritual Process ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Ritual Context

This chapter argue that ritual behaviours might be just as good a source as literary texts for the diffusion of traditional cursing and treaty material across different cultures in the ancient Near East. In particular, the role of ad hoc oral Targum in the ritual process could have been an important means by which traditions were shared between different language communities. Recognition of the ritual context of this material also provides insights for the comparative method, the dating and authorship of Deuteronomy 28, and the subversive impetus thought to have stood behind its composition. Ultimately, the function of the written word in a largely oral world is shown to be fundamental to understanding the composition, function and the early history of the curses in the book of Deuteronomy.

The Bible in the German Empire

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joerg Rieger
Keyword(s):  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Friedrich Schleiermacher ◽  
German Empire ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Cultural Climate ◽  
Colonial Empire ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Intellectual Production

Even though Germany’s colonial empire lasted merely three decades, from 1884 to 1915, German colonial fantasies shaped intellectual production from the late eighteenth century onward. This cultural climate shapes a great variety of engagements with the Bible, from the beginnings of liberal theology with Friedrich Schleiermacher to missionary efforts and the rather abstract academic productions of biblical scholarship in the late nineteenth century, including the prominent history of religions school. At the same time, there are also efforts to resist colonial tendencies, sometimes in the work of the same authors who otherwise perpetuate the colonial spirit.

scholarly journals When research met policy: a history of innovation and a complicated relationship in three Swedish development projects in mathematics education, 1960–2018

ZDM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Prytz
Keyword(s):  
Mathematics Education ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
School Governance ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Major Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Contemporary Development

AbstractThis paper concerns the relationship between research and governance policy in three Swedish major development projects in mathematics education: the New Math project (1960–1975), the PUMP project (1970–1980), and the Boost for Mathematics project in (2012–2016). All three projects were driven or financed by the Swedish central school authorities. Using a historical comparative method, this study deepens the understanding of how research co-exists with governance policy when preparing innovations in mathematics education. The main historical sources are official reports and governmental decisions concerning the three projects. The analysis is focused on the nature of the innovations of each project and the role of researchers in the process of creating the innovations. The analysis highlights the theories and the methods involved in those processes. The three projects are also positioned in a context of school governance policy. In Sweden, the prevailing school governing policy changed from a highly centralised governance in the 1960s to a highly decentralised governance in the 2010s. The paper concludes by discussing to what degree the researchers adhered to principles of research or school governance; in particular, the Boost for Mathematics project is considered in this regard. The relevance of the paper in relation to the emerging field of implementation research in mathematics education concerns how historical studies can give new insights about contemporary development projects in mathematics education.

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