Insights from Cognitive and Ritual Studies

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-28
Author(s):  
Risto Uro
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Ritual Studies ◽  
Nag Hammadi ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Cognitive Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Research Questions

Since the 1990s, scholarly debates and discussions in Gnostic or Nag Hammadi studies have largely revolved around the issues of whether the category of “Gnosticism” is helpful or detrimental in the analysis of ancient texts and how to classify the texts that were traditionally labeled “gnostic” as well as the groups that produced them. The debate about the category of “Gnosticism” in particular has brought up important issues concerning the ideological commitments of the scholars working on the Nag Hammadi texts and helped to analyze the identity formation process that shaped the history of the variety of early Christian groups during the first three centuries, but the debate has also somewhat exhausted itself. There is certainly room for new approaches and research questions. The panel on religious experience organized by the SBL Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism section and the two papers by Michael Kaler and Philip Tite presented in the panel and published in BSOR can be seen as welcome moves towards something new. Both papers share an interest in what might be called religious experience studies and therefore engage themselves in cross-disciplinary theoretical reflection and cross-fertilization between recent trends in religious studies and gnostic studies. This paper provides a critical response to these two papers with a particular emphasis on ritual and cognitive studies.

scholarly journals جهود إسماعيل الفاروقي في علم تاريخ الأديان

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (74) ◽  
pp. 116-91
Author(s):  
محمد خليفة حسن
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
International Level ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The West ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of

يعرض البحث جهود إسماعيل الفاروقي في مجال تاريخ الأديان؛ وإسهامه في التأسيس المنهجي لهذا العلم على المستوى الدولي وعلى مستوى المنهج والمضمون. درس الفاروقي طبيعة التجربة الدينية في الإسلام، وعلاقتها بالتجارب الأخرى. وانخرط في الدرس الديني الحديث في الغرب، ومناهج فهم الدين ودراسته. وأبرز البحث دور الفاروقي في تطوير نظام من المبادئ الماوراء دينية؛ والمصدر الإلهي للأديان والحاجة إلى الدراسة النقدية للتراث الديني، أملاً في تعاون البشر في إقامة دين الفطرة، الذي يُوحِّد كل الأديان. This paper presents the efforts of Ismail al-Faruqi in the field of history of religions and his contributions in the methodological establishment of this field on the international level, particularly in the areas of methodology and content. Al-Faruqi studied the nature of the religious experience in Islam, and its relationship with other experiences.  He engaged in the modern religious studies in the West, and the methods of understanding and studying religion. The paper highlights Al-Faruqi's role in developing a system of Meta-Religious principles, the divine source of religions, and the need for critical assessment of religious heritage, in the hope that human beings would cooperate to establish the religion of Fitra (natural disposition), which unites all religions.

Sermons as Practical and Linguistic Performances: Insights from Theory and History

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-144
Author(s):  
Abdulkader Tayob
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Ritual Studies ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Historical View ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Marking Time

Abstract Sermons lend themselves to ambiguous identification in the study of religions. On the one hand, they are easily recognisable practices, delivered on particular days of the week, or when special occasions or needs arise. They are usually given in clearly defined places at clearly defined times. They are given by designated or recognized individuals that vary according to the respective religious traditions. On the other hand, sermons are speech performances that may and often do vary from one occasion to the next. While prone to a certain formalism, sermon speech acts are open to variation from time to time, and from preacher to preacher. To extend the possibilities offered by sermons for reflection and analysis, I explore some of the theoretical insights suggested for sermons in ritual studies and from the history of sermons within religious traditions. There is no consensus within ritual studies, but there are some useful ideas and suggestions that cover and extend the practices and speech acts that constitute sermons. More significantly, I found the longue durée of the sermon in the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to be more resourceful. The historical view of the sermon in comparable religious traditions brings forth enduring elements such as reading texts, employing rhetoric, producing effects (including affect), signifying and challenging authority, and marking time and space. More than the theoretical models for rituals from anthropology and religious studies, this historical perspective brings out the value of the practices and speech elements that constitute sermons.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 2-17
Author(s):  
Risto Uro
Keyword(s):  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Ritual Studies ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Ritual Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Pluralistic Approach ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter offers a guide to the reader for understanding the nature of ritual studies as an emerging interdisciplinary field, with particular emphasis on its relevance to the study of the history of early Christianity. Three characteristics are singled out. Ritual studies is distinguished by: (1) a pluralistic approach to the definition of ‘ritual’; (2) an increased interest in theory; and (3) the application of interdisciplinary perspectives on ritual. The chapter also responds to the criticism that has been raised against using the concept of ritual and ritual theory in the study of past rituals and argues that ritual theory enriches historical and textual analysis of early Christian materials in a number of ways. Ritual theory contributes to drawing a more complete picture of early Christian history and offers a corrective to a biased understanding of early Christianity as a system of beliefs and practices. Finally, examples from the present Handbook are taken to demonstrate how the ritual perspective creates a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration and integrative approaches which both stimulate new questions and enrich old ones.

scholarly journals Religious Development: C. P. Tiele's Paradigm of Science of Religion

Numen ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arie Molendijk
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
German Idealism ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Developmental History ◽  
Religious Development ◽  
Fundamental Notion ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Science Of Religion

AbstractThis essay explores C. P. Tiele's fundamental notion of religious development and, in a certain respect, it complements my earlier paper on his concept of religion, which he ultimately locates "in the innermost depths of our souls" (Numen 46 [1999]). The present article argues that the mere possibility of an interrelated, comparative study of religions (in the plural) is founded on the idea of a developmental history of religion (in the singular). To Tiele, this history testifies to the fact that the changing and transient forms of religion are ultimately inadequate expressions of the infinite in us. Thus, his "science" ties in perfectly with his liberal Protestantism. I start with some remarks on the use of the concept of religious development in the nineteenth century, then I outline Tiele's basic assumptions (with special reference to his 1874 article on the laws of development), and, finally, I scrutinize the first series of the Gifford Lectures (1896–1898), which epitomize his later views on religious development. It is shown that developmental thinking in early Dutch science of religion did not originate primarily in Darwinian thought but in German idealism. Moreover, one has to keep in mind that Tiele's developmental views met severe criticism among his successors. For instance, Gerardus van der Leeuw rejected the whole idea of religious progress because it did not comply with the unique and absolute character of religious experience. Thus, contrary to Eric Sharpe's suggestion, evolutionism was not dominant in Dutch religious studies throughout the period between the wars.

Theoretical Challenges in Studying Religious Experience in Gnosticism

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Tite
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Discourse Function ◽  
Nag Hammadi ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Constructivist Approaches

Several theoretical impediments face the ancient historian who wishes to embark on the study of religious experience within ancient cultures. While many of these difficulties face other religious studies scholars, the historical quality compounds these challenges. This paper explores several of these theoretical difficulties with a specific focus on the Valentinian, Sethian, and other so-called “Gnostic” groups in late antiquity. Specifically, the study of religious experience tends to give privileged interpretative position to insiders (evoking the etic/emic problem) and psychological analyses due to the “personal” or “individual” quality of such experiences (typified by perennialist approaches) (Otto, Wach, Eliade, Smart), or, following James and Jung, focus on the initial charismatic moment’s effect upon subsequent social structures. In contrast to such tendencies I suggest, by building on Fitzgerald’s lead in the Guide to the Study of Religion and largely agreeing with constructivist approaches, that we re-direct our focus toward the external social forces at play that discursively facilitate, shape, and direct experiential moments within the confines of social identity construction. This article builds on attachment theory from social psychology. Such analysis will allow us to better appreciate the experiential aspects of “Gnosticism” while appreciating the individual, communal, and (most importantly) discursive quality of the intersection of the individual and communal. Specific examples of such social facilitation will be briefly explored from Nag Hammadi, where ritual, narrative, and mythological discourse function to enable, and thereby define, religious experience.

Paul, the Praetorium and the Saints from Caesar’s Household: Philippians Revisited in Light of Migration Theory

2021 ◽  
pp. 0142064X2199061
Author(s):  
Heike Omerzu
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Traditional View ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Social Actor ◽  
Migration Studies ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Social ◽  
Migration Theory ◽  
Recent Trends

This article premises that Paul wrote the letter to the Philippians while he was detained in Ephesus, not Rome as has been the traditional view, and that the πραιτώριον mentioned in Phil. 1.13 is a topographical reference – that is, a reference to a Roman administrative building, not the Imperial Guard in Rome. This πραιτώριον is likely also the place where Paul met the members of ‘Caesar’s household’ mentioned in Phil. 4.22. Engaging with Michael Flexsenhar III’s recent study Christians in Caesar’s Household (2019a), I explore the social profile of this group of imperial slaves as well as Paul’s place as a social actor in the Eastern Mediterranean in light of recent trends in Migration Studies. Both Paul himself and also the members of the familia Caesaris to whom he refers embody typical features of migration such as interconnectedness, multiple belongings and super-diversity; these are shown to be important prerequisites for Paul’s conception of early Christian identity formation.

The Origins of the Christmas Date: Some Recent Trends in Historical Research

2012 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 903-911 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. P. E. Nothaft
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Religious Influence ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Recent Trends

The article reviews recent and current developments in research on the origins of Christmas, which has traditionally crystallized around two competing approaches, known as the "History of Religions Theory" and the "Calculation Theory." This essay shall look at the history of these approaches and discuss their rationale and limitations, before turning to the challenges that have been brought against them by the recent work of Steven Hijmans and Hans Förster. It will be argued that their studies reveal the need for a more nuanced approach to the history of Christmas, which retains the aspect of inter-religious influence, but also pays some overdue attention to the importance of chronological thought in early Christian scholarship.

ΓΝΩΜΑΙ ΔΙΑΦΟΡΟΙ.: The Origin and Nature of Diversification in the History of Early Christianity

1965 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helmut Koester
Keyword(s):  
Early Christianity ◽  
Upper Egypt ◽  
Nag Hammadi ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian History

I. The Crisis of the Historical and Theological Criteria.Already Walter Bauer, well known as a lexicographer, but unfortunately little known as a historian of the Ancient Church, in his ingenious monograph Rechtgläubigkeit und Ketzerei im ältesten Christentum (1934), had demonstrated convincingly that such Christian groups which were later labelled “heretical,” actually dominated in the first two or three centuries, both geographically and theologically. Recent discoveries, especially those of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, have made it definitely clear that Walter Bauer was essentially right and that a thorough and extensive re-evaluation of early Christian history is called for.

scholarly journals The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Ritual

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Belief Systems ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Ritual Studies ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
Cultural World

Scholars of religion have long assumed that ritual and belief constitute the fundamental building blocks of religious traditions and that these two components of religion are interrelated and interdependent in significant ways. Generations of New Testament and early Christian scholars have produced detailed analyses of the belief systems of nascent Christian communities, including their ideological and political dimensions, but have by and large ignored ritual as an important element of early Christian religion and as a factor contributing to the rise and the organization of the movement. In recent years, however, scholars of early Christianity have begun to use ritual as an analytical tool for describing and explaining Christian origins and the early history of the movement. Such a development has created a momentum towards producing a more comprehensive volume on the ritual world of early Christianity employing advances made in the field of Ritual Studies. The Handbook will give a manifold account of the ritual world of early Christianity from the beginning of the movement up to the fifth century. The volume introduces relevant theories and approaches (Part I), central topics of ritual life in the cultural world of early Christianity (Part II), and the most important Christian ritual themes and practices in emerging Christian groups and factions (Parts III and IV).

Materials for the history of the gospel-Baptist movement in Ukraine

1996 ◽  
pp. 4-15
Author(s):  
S. Golovaschenko ◽  
Petro Kosuha
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Theological Seminary ◽  
National Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Evangelical Christians ◽  
Evangelical Christian ◽  
First Results ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fruitful Cooperation ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

The report is based on the first results of the study "The History of the Evangelical Christians-Baptists in Ukraine", carried out in 1994-1996 by the joint efforts of the Department of Religious Studies at the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Odessa Theological Seminary of Evangelical Christian Baptists. A large-scale description and research of archival sources on the history of evangelical movements in our country gave the first experience of fruitful cooperation between secular and church researchers.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document