From Milton to Modern Satanism: The History of the Devil and the Dynamics between Religion and Literature

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-124
Author(s):  
Bernd Schipper
Keyword(s):  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Religion And Literature ◽  
Positive Direction ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Literature And Religion ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Myth ◽  
The Temple ◽  
The Devil

AbstractThe article explores the dynamics between literature and religion with the examples of Lucifer and modern Satanism. With John Milton's poem Paradise Lost (1667), the originally Christian myth of Lucifer evolved in a positive direction. Having been adopted by so-called 'literary Satanism,' this character became the basis for a new non-Christian religion, the 'Temple of Set' (founded by Michael Aquino in 1975). The article also argues for a remodelling of the conception of the dynamics between religion and other systems of meaning in the 'European history of religion': not only do religious traditions affect the medium of literature; literature can also affect the religious tradition.

scholarly journals RELASI MITOS, DAN AGAMA SEBAGAI MEDIA PENINGKATAN EKONOMI PRODUKTIF DALAM TRADISI “TEBOKAN” DI DESA KALIPUTU KOTA KUDUS

INFERENSI ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 451
Author(s):  
Saifuddin Saifuddin
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Local Society ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Religious Behaviors ◽  
Clifford Geertz ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

“Tebokan” was the history of jenang production processes that was visualizedon cultural carnival. It was one of the place where the relationship of religious traditions and the myth of local society became a new spirit to increase the economy of the community. This research was based on interpretative perspective to religious behaviors such as done by Clifford Geertz. Therefore this research used qualitative method. This study found the cultural illustrations where the relationship of myth, religious tradition, and the social structure was able to activate spirit of productivity in the Kaliputu Society as a central of jenang Production in Kudus. Both of these systems of meaning were able to present three important spirits, those areinnovative, identity affirmation, and work ethic. 

scholarly journals What Comes to an End When a “Religion” Comes to an “End”? Reflections on a Historiographical Trope and Ancient Mediterranean History of Religion

Numen ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 204-229
Author(s):  
Jörg Rüpke
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Center Stage ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Mediterranean History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Different Dimensions

Abstract This article argues that the neglect of narratives about the end of religious traditions is due to a complex entanglement of our positions as historical narrators and specifics of the sources for histories of religions, that is of emic and academic narrators. Typically, academic histories are not only based on emic narratives, but also tend to accept their conceptual frameworks with regard to the unities of description. It will be shown that such an entanglement has consequences for the neglect of the end of religious practices or groups. Against this background an analytical grid for change and discontinuation of different dimensions of “religion” will be offered and exemplified in an analysis of the “end of Paganism” in the late ancient Roman Empire. The most problematic implications of such narratives, the article will argue, are assumptions about the coherence of the religious protagonists brought center-stage.

The Study of Yoruba Religious Tradition in Historical Perspective

Numen ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob K. Olupona
Keyword(s):  
Belief Systems ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conducting Research

AbstractThis essay presents an overview of past and recent scholarship in Yoruba religion. The earliest studies of Yoruba religious traditions were carried out by missionaries, travellers and explorers who were concerned with writing about the so called "pagan" practices and "animist" beliefs of the African peoples. In the first quarter of the 20th century professional ethnologists committed to documenting the Yoruba religion and culture were, among other things, concerned with theories about cosmology, belief-systems, and organizations of Orisà cults. Indigenous authors, especially the Reverend gentlemen of the Church Missionary Society, responded to these early works by proposing the Egyptian origin of Yoruba religion and by conducting research into Ifá divination system as a preparatio evangelica. The paper also examines the contributions of scholars in the arts and the social sciences to the interpretation and analysis of Yoruba religion, especially those areas neglected in previous scholarship. This essay further explores the study of Yoruba religion in the Americas, as a way of providing useful comparison with the Nigerian situation. It demonstrates the strong influence of Yoruba religion and culture on world religions among African diaspora. In the past ten years, significant works on the phenomenology and history of religions have been produced by indigenous scholars trained in philosophy and Religionswissenschaft in Europe and America and more recently in Nigeria. Lastly, the essay examines some neglected aspects of Yoruba religious studies and suggests that future research should focus on developing new theories and uncovering existing ones in indigenous Yoruba discourses.

Jason, Hypsipyle, and New Fire at Lemnos. A Study in Myth and Ritual

1970 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Burkert
Keyword(s):  
Religious Tradition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Basic Fact ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Classical Mythology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
The One ◽  
Theology And Philosophy

History of religion, in its beginnings, had to struggle to emancipate itself from classical mythology as well as from theology and philosophy; when ritual was finally found to be the basic fact in religious tradition, the result was a divorce between classicists, treating mythology as a literary device, on the one hand, and specialists in festivals and rituals and their obscure affiliations and origins on the other.

scholarly journals ESCAPING PURITY: LESSONS FOR CHILD AND YOUTH CARE FROM RELIGION

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Scott
Keyword(s):  
Youth Care ◽  
Change Processes ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Child And Youth Care ◽  
Michel Serres ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Current State ◽  
History Of

By taking up the suggestion of Michel Serres (1991) to use the history of religion to study change processes, this paper explores the development of the field of Child and Youth Care (CYC) and its current state of change. It draws on Karen Armstrong’s (2001) portrayal of the history and development of fundamentalism across religious traditions to serve as a mirror for this reflective exercise, calling on CYC to risk the complexity of a self-reflective critique in moving forward to the next stage of development professionally and academically.

A Common Tradition Underlying the Temptation Pericope of Matthew 4:1–11 and the Qumran Psalm Pesher (4QpPsa, 4Q171)

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-47
Author(s):  
David Katzin
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Temple ◽  
The Devil

Abstract This study posits that the Temptation pericope of Matt 4:1–11 and the Psalm Pesher (4QpPsa, 4Q171) are based on a common tradition. Underlying this tradition is a dual-tripartite construct of testing/temptation. This is based on the three Pentateuchal wilderness tests encountered by Israel which are identifiable through the root נ–ס–ה/“test:” keeping the law, false prophecy leading to idolatry, and testing God. Conflated, and individually correlated with this, are the three nets of Belial: “fornication,” “wealth,” and “profanation of the Temple,” respectively. Also going beyond the biblical narrative are the Devil acting in circumlocution for God, the venues, forms of testing, and lexicon used in corresponding testing sections of these two texts. Only through Psalm 37, together with its exegesis in 4Q171, is this shared tradition recognized. In conclusion, the provenance and diachronic history of this tradition, which resulted in differing understandings of it, is investigated.

Unforgetting Chaitanya

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Varuni Bhatia
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Sacred Spaces ◽  
Cultural Complex ◽  
Historical Figures ◽  
History Of

What role do premodern religious traditions play in the formation of modern secular identities? What relationship exists between regional devotional cultures, key bhakti figures, and anticolonial nationalism in South Asia? What are some of the multiple sites of forgetting and unforgetting that determine how we receive iconic historical figures in the present? Unforgetting Chaitanya addresses these questions by examining late nineteenth-century transformations of Vaishnavism in Bengal—a religious tradition emanating from the figure of Krishna Chaitanya (1486–1533), and articulated in this region through various bodily and artistic practices. Building upon the concept of viraha as longing for the absent one within the Vaishnava worldview, this book argues that educated and middle-class Hindu Bengalis, the bhadralok, (re)turned to Chaitanyite Vaishnavism as a unique expression of excavating their authentic selves. It argues that by searching for literary and historical pasts, discovering long lost sacred spaces, recovering manuscripts, and disciplining Vaishnava practices across sects and castes, the Bengali Hindu middle-class successfully forged a respectable, bhadralok Vaishnavism. The book engages with questions around memory and history, poetics and praxis, and sacred space and print culture in the making of modern Vaishnavism as a devotional and cultural complex, simultaneously. Thus, Unforgetting Chaitanya argues for the methodological relevance of relocating the study of Bengali or Gaudiya Vaishnavism within the historical, intellectual, and cultural context of colonial Bengal, where it assumed its modern form. In doing so, this interdisciplinary book contributes to the fields of both Religion and History of South Asia.

Autobiography, Biography, and Theological Questioning

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Barbour
Keyword(s):  
Nature Writing ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Normative Issues ◽  
Traditional Norms

Autobiography and biography (which together will be called “life writing”) raise theological questions in ways different from systematic or constructive theology. These forms of life writing tell a story that may or may not be correlated with traditional doctrines. They integrate the first order discourse of symbol and narrative with secondary hermeneutical reflections that interpret and analyze the meaning and truth of religious language. The probing and disturbing questioning in a profound autobiography such as Augustine’s contrasts with the assurances and settled answers expected of theology by religious institutions and communities. Particular religious questions shape specific genres of life writing such as Puritan discourses, nature writing, or African American autobiographies. The theology in autobiography may be either explicit or implicit and involves both questioning and affirmation, as may be seen in works as different as Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua and Edmund Gosse’s Father and Son. Conversion has been a central theme and shaping influence on Christian texts, even when authors challenge this focus and create alternative forms. A central theological question posed by autobiography concerns the authority of individual experience when it contrasts or conflicts with traditional norms asserted by orthodox believers and ecclesiastical hierarchy. In spiritual autobiographies by contemporary writers, we see serious attention given to communal norms for life stories and a search for a distinctive personal apprehension of what is sacred. Autobiographical writing has been stronger in the history of some religious traditions than in others. Yet in the modern world, almost every culture has produced life writing that questions or challenges established patterns of thought and practice. In contrast with autobiography, sacred biography has been an important part of every religious tradition, usually describing an exemplar to be revered and imitated. Its strong didactic interests often curb theological questioning of established norms. While modern scholarly biographies often mute theological questions, some writers raise normative issues and argue for why the subject’s life should be valued. As well as the theology explored within life writing, many works reveal a theology of life writing, that is, beliefs about how this kind of writing may bring the author or readers better understanding of God or deeper faith.

scholarly journals Southcottians and Shiloh: Genesis 49:10 and the Morphology of a Messianic Hope

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Downing
Keyword(s):  
Reading Strategies ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
The Self ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Alternative Identities ◽  
Over Time

AbstractThis article examines how a prophetic religious tradition can exploit the gaps of indeterminacy within a biblical text, in order to develop new readings in response to changing circumstances. Using Brennan Breed’s ideas about biblical texts as “objectiles,” which are prone to change throughout their life, this article traces the interpretation of Genesis 49:10 in the history of a modern prophetic movement. The article proceeds to examine how members of the so-called Southcottian visitation – a British prophetic movement started in the early nineteenth century by the self-proclaimed prophet Joanna Southcott – have used this text to shape their identity and beliefs. By examining how Southcottian prophets of different generations have handled this text – ranging from Southcott herself to a female-led organisation called the Panacea Society established in the early twentieth century – we can see how prophetic readers have used their authority to guide interpretation of the text, and have shaped how it ought to be read within their respective communities. The article shows how Southcottian readers generate a range of different readings of Genesis 49:10, exploring a series of alternative identities and genders for “Shiloh,” and developing new reading strategies for ascertaining the meaning of the term. The article concludes by reflecting on how the text is affected by the Southcottians’ treatment, and how prophetic readers can exert their authority to even change the text itself. Examining how such idiosyncratic readers receive – and change – biblical texts is an important area for investigation by reception-historians keen to understand what texts can do when handled by their diverse readers. Looking at the reception of biblical texts within heterodox religious traditions also raises methodological challenges: it underscores how readings within a religious tradition are processual, develop over time, and can be generated through private, archival correspondence as well as in published media.

scholarly journals Empty Selves and Multiple Belonging: Gadamer and Nāgārjuna on Religious Identity’s Hidden Plurality

Open Theology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Hustwit
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Second Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Per Se

AbstractThe reaction to multiple religious belonging has been fraught with anxiety in the monotheistic traditions. Nevertheless, increasing numbers of people report belonging to multiple religions. I propose that it is most useful to think of multiple religious belonging not so much as an expression of choice, but just the opposite. Multiple religious belonging is best explained as the ontological condition of two or more religious traditions constituting the self, so that the self’s possibilities are constrained by those religions. Furthermore, I argue that multiple religious belonging per se does not threaten traditional religious communities. Threats are by definition future possibilities, and ontologically speaking, we always already belong to multiple religions. We belong to multiple religions because every religious tradition is an amalgam of earlier distinct traditions. There is nothing new about multiple religious belonging. It is nearly unremarkable. Two philosophers in particular-one a twentieth-century German phenomenologist, the other a second-century Indian Buddhist-have given particularly careful examination of the phenomenon of belonging. Hans-Georg Gadamer’s concept of Wirkungsgeschichte [history of effects] and Nāgārjuna’s teaching of śūnyatā [emptiness] both imply that multiple religious belonging is the ontological condition of all human beings, and that producing any monolithic religious identity requires significant mental gymnastics.

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