Sacred (Religion)

Lynch outlines a theoretical framework for understanding the sacred in late modern societies. He positions himself firmly in an intellectual tradition from Durkheim through Shils, Bellah and, particularly, cultural sociologist Jeffrey Alexander. The sacred here is not conceived of in an ontological sense, along the lines of thinkers such as Eliade and Otto. Rather, the emphasis is upon historical, social, and cultural contingency: 'The sacred is defined by what people collectively experience as absolute, non-contingent realities which present normative claims over the meanings and conduct of social life. Sacred forms are specific, historically-contingent instances of the sacred' (p29).

Public Lecture: 'Scary Monsters: The Hopeful Undecidability of David Bowie (1947-2016)' Keele University 15/3/17

The lecture will be about three things: Monsters, Hope and one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, David Bowie. Monsters, because the monster is the outsider template par excellence. Hope, because monsters are quintessentially hopeful. Bowie, because he is the monster writ large. Of all the figures within popular culture, few embody the monster quite like David Bowie.

The lecture will first set some parameters for thinking about monsters, for not all scary creatures are monsters. In doing so, the lecture will draw, in particular, on the work of Michel Foucault and George Canguilhem. Once the theoretical ground has been laid for an analytically precise understanding of the monster, the lecture will consider their intrinsic hopefulness, something which Foucault and Canguilhem neglect.

The lecture will then turn to counter-cultural icon, sublime anti-hero and provocateur, David Bowie, in order to think through some key categorical distinctions which the monster brings to crisis. In particular, and through Bowie, we will journey through the territory of sex, gender and sexuality; human/animal hybridity, and the sacred and profane.

So roll up for the mother of monsters. The lecture promises to be many things, and certainly theoretically rich and an audio-visual feast. What it will not be is dull. Turn and face the strange … ch-ch- changes …

Bu makalenin konusu, ziyaret fenomeni örneğinde kutsallaşma sürecidir. Odak soru, şöyle ifade edilebilir: "Ziyaret objeleri nasıl kutsallaşır?". Çalışma, ziyaret fenomeni örneğinde kutsallaşma sürecinin bir tipolojisini ortaya koymayı amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmanın ulaştığı sonuç ziyaret fenomeni için kutsallaşma sürecine tipolojik bir model önerisidir. Kutsal ve kutsallaşma ayrımından hareket edilmektedir. Ziyaret fenomeni örneğinde kutsallaşmanın tipolojisi somutlaşma, bağlanma, ritüel ve mit aşamalarından oluşmaktadır. Kutsallaşma süreciyle ilgili bu tipoloji, Hans Mol'un kimlik ve din konusundaki yaklaşımına dayanmaktadır. Çalışmanın teorik zemininde yazarın din olgusu için kavramsallaştırdığı "kimliğin kutsallaşması"ndaki dört aşamalı tasnif, ziyaret fenomenine uyarlanmıştır. İlk aşama somutlaşmada, bir fenomenle somutlaşan kutsal, görünür olmakta kutsalla irtibatlandırılmaktadır. İkinci aşama bağlanmada kutsallığı ispat niteliğinde kerametler ortaya çıkmakta, kutsallık atfedilen fenomen çevresinde kulaktan kulağa yayılan kerametler, toplumsal kabule yol açmaktadır. Kerametler ile kutsallık, toplumsal bir kabule dönüşmekte, kutsallaşmanın üçüncü aşamasında bu durumu ritüeller takip etmektedir. Kutsallaşma sürecinin son aşamasında ise, kutsallık atfedilen obje etrafında mitler oluşmaktadır. Bu tipolojide kutsalın uzaklaştırıcı özelliğinin bir yansıması olarak mitler, yasaklar olarak karşımıza çıkmakta ve bu yasaklar kutsalı koruma işlevi görmektedir. Kutsallaşma sürecinin ziyaret fenomeni örneğinde ele alındığı bu çalışmanın ilk bölümünde kutsal ve kutsallaşma kavramı ile kutsallaşmanın nasıl gerçekleştiği sorusuna cevap aranmış, ikinci bölümde ise kutsallaşma sürecinin dört aşamasının ziyaret fenomenine nasıl yansıdığı örneklenmeye çalışılmıştır.

Cats, like other living things, have always provided visual imagery and metaphors related to religious beliefs, as well as materiel for religious practices. Drawing principally from ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica but also Paleolithic Europe, the ancient Near East, and ancient China, this 4,500-word encyclopedia article explores the symbolism and use of large and small wild feline species, as well as domestic cats, in religious contexts. The primary focus is the use of the animals rather than images of them. A bibliography of 30 authored and edited works on the subject is included. (PDF is flyer for the encyclopedia.)

This book provides a comprehensive investigation of the political dimensions of civil religion in the United States. By employing an original social-psychological theory rooted in semiotics, it offers a qualitative and quantitative empirical examination of more than fifty years of political rhetoric. Further, it presents two in-depth case studies that examine how the cultural, totemic sign of ‘the Founding Fathers’ and the signs of America’s sacred texts (the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence) are used in attempts to link partisan policy positions with  notions that the country collectively holds sacred. The book’s overarching thesis is that America’ s civil religion serves as a discursive framework for the country’s politics of the sacred, mediating the
demands of particularistic interests and social solidarity through the interaction of social belief and institutional politics like elections and the Supreme Court. The book penetrates America’s unique political religiosity to reveal and unravel the intricate ways in which politics, political institutions, religion and culture intertwine in the United States.

La mia tesi, redatta per il conseguimento della laurea magistrale in Filosofia (Università degli Studi di Trieste, a.a. 2013-2014; docenti relatori: proff. F. Polidori - A. Magris) si propone come un'interpretazione del simbolismo rivoluzionario di uno strumento di morte, fondata sull'applicazione dell'antropologia del sacrificio e della storia della tortura al segno della croce.

Arguing against usage of the concept 'radicalisation' as a simplistic conveyor-belt towards violence I put forward a number of areas where factors can influence violent action. However, I stress that there is no simple causal process that can predict violence; that it is better to talk about religious violence in terms of defending sacred beliefs, in which case it is not so dissimilar to defences of the secular sacred; and that rather than turn to so-called radicalisation experts we should learn from academics from a broad variety of disciplines who all have something valuable to teach us in this area.

So-called New Atheists say that religion is an irrationally held proto-scientific cosmological hypothesis, a primitive theory, supplemented by an equally irrational moral code, that led to the worst evil in the history of the human kind, so that religion itself should be completely eradicated – rational arguments and scientific evidence being the apt instruments to this end. In The Meaning of Belief, Tim Crane rejects all these ideas from an atheist's point of view.

It can be argued that theology in the Caribbean has, until recently, been reticent in engaging cultural studies, and particularly in using African Caribbean religiocultural heritages and art-forms such as carnival, reggae, stickfigting, Obeah and Myal, as examples, as sites for theological reflection. Undergirding this reticence is a colonially inherited belief in a dichotomy between the sacred and the secular; between the church and culture; and consequently, between theology and the social sciences. This paper argues that
despite popular mis-conceptions, Junkanoo, a mainly Anglophone Caribbean street festival fundamental
to Bahamian identity, has always functioned as a new and liberative way of doing theology in that context.
Its complex relationship with the church deeply challenges concepts of sacredness, secularity, profanity,
and idolatry as they are lived out in contemporary Bahamian life. This insight is important not only for
theological research and discourse, but also for cultural studies and various forms of social research, since
accessing the dynamic truths of such African Caribbean religiocultural productions and experiences require
such an interdisciplinary approach.

“Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques” aims to create conversations on the impact of monstrosity and examples of the grotesque in discourse related to religion and the sacred. The tendency to populate religious landscapes with non-human entities, literally demonize opponents, perceive monsters as existing in far-reaching geographical borders (e.g., “the East” in Medieval Europe), and decorate sacred sites with grotesques is a trait shared throughout innumerable traditions. Recently the term "monster studies" was coined to cover the recent works dedicated to monsters by such authors as John Block Friedman, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, and Asa Mittman, who have helped to provide a framework for the study of such phenomena, not only in religious studies but also in literature, art history, and history. Through this framework, monsters and grotesques have been revealed as important markers of marginality, social boundaries, liminality, identity, cultural borders, and the “Other.”

Статья посвящена рассмотрению различных концептуализаций феномена вой-ны в творчестве французского философа Жоржа Батая в их связи с понятием сакрального. Выдвигается предположение, что этот мыслитель предложил та-кую постановку проблемы одним из первых и что она рождается на пересечении двух взаимосвязанных тезисов: об упадке сакрального в современном мире и о сущностном отличии Второй мировой войны от всех прежних, в результате чего становились возможны спекуляции на тему ее большей или меньшей «сакральности». Прослеживая эволюцию взглядов философа на сей счет с 30-х до 60-х гг., автор доказывает тезис о том, что на протяжении всего своего творче-ского пути он последовательно осуждал войну как вооруженный политический конфликт, противопоставляя ее религиозному восприятию жизни и свободно-му движению насилия в форме революции, трагедии или жертвоприношения и решительно отказывая ей в сакральном характере. Тем не менее, высказываясь против так называемой современной войны как прагматичной, механизированной, профанной и к тому же грозящей человечеству уничтожением, он противопоставляет ее двум другим — сакральным — типам войны: первый из них — «архаическая» война, сходная с жертвоприношением и преображающая человеческое существо в перспективе близости смерти; второй — «духовная брань», мистическая борьба субъекта против собственной субъектности, саму идею которой Батай почерпнул из средневековой католической мистики. Все эти различные концепции войны проистекают при этом из многообразия личного опыта самого философа.

Considerable scholarly discussion has been given to the idea that we are moving toward a state of “posthumanism.” This essay examines some possible implications of a posthuman existence, specifically as it relates to that most basic of human needs—sexuality. I explore the spiritual aspects of sexuality to see what is lost and what is gained in technologically mediated forms of sexuality. To that end, I consider the interplay between sexual behavior and our conceptions of the sacred, how technologies are changing our views of—and realities concerning—our bodies, and the potential for a sacred posthuman sexuality.

The Sacred and The Secular: Complementary and/or Conflictual, edited by John P. Hogan and Sayed Hassan Akhlaq, (Washington, DC: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2017) 793 pages, $17.50.
The issue of the relation of the sacred to the secular has become paramount in virtually every country in the world. From church-state relations in the US, with the debates around abortion and same-sex marriage, to the vitriolic discussions in France over the veil (hijab) – sacred-secular, faith-reason, transcendence-imminence -- impacts every aspect of personal, social, and political life. Indeed, the questions often asked are whether Huntington’s, Clash of Civilizations is today’s reality? Is clash and conflict inevitable?
This volume collects papers from scholars from all around the globe and digs into that question. Do the sacred and the secular necessarily end in conflict? Building on scholars such as Charles Taylor, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jurgen Habermaus, and John Rawls, as well as the world’s great religious traditions, the authors assembled here respond with a nuanced, but resounding, NO. A deeper read demands the possibility, indeed, necessity, of complementarity. It has become ever more urgent to discover the proper and complementary relation between the two so that both can be promoted through mutual collaboration. The deeper implications of the discussion can be perceived in many current global problems: cultural identity, multiculturalism, pluralism, nationalism, economic inequality, race, terrorism, migration, public education, and climate change.
The volume unfolds in seven sections: Foundations; Sacred and Secular; Complement or Conflict; Hermeneutics; African traditions; South Asian Traditions; Chinese Traditions; and Islamic Traditions. It is fascinating to observe how the various authors grapple with unfolding the relation of sacred/secular, faith/reason, church-mosque/state, transcendence/imminence.
The section on Islam illustrates this. These chapters deal with the thorny, usually misunderstood debate between the scholars and those, westerners refer to as “fundamentalists” or “radicals.” In the latter, there is no space left to reason, interpretation, or historical criticism. This ugly divide usually emerges in the hot-button issues like the treatment of women and religion-related terrorism. However, these oversimplifications betray the intellectual roots of Islamic tradition. Here the argument is advanced that there are common and multiple meanings of rationality in the Islamic primary sources and that doctrine, the Qur’an, and the Sunnah, open considerable space for the rational and the secular in Islamic teachings. Unknown to most in the West, the grappling within Islam goes on. Moreover, the grappling seems to be heating up in all traditions. We are all called to the discussion. Our globe needs it!

"The research brings out lineations for the social representations of the Cannabis plant developed by the Santo Daime religion. There were multiple methodological actions such as: Observant participation of 21 rites on 9 churches in the Southeast of Brazil; 8 semi-directed interviews with members with over 10 years of "uniforms" (participation); “Contents analysis” of 224 religious hymns, found using to the keyword "Santa Maria" and through members posts in social networks from 2004 to 2010 and 2014 to 2016. Of those, were observed the socio-cognitive processes of "anchoring" and objectification", by “Theory of social representations”, in the formation of sacralized social representatives for the Cannabis. By transferring the sacred values devoted to the Ayahuasca drink, to the new Cannabis object due to its interchangeable features as "entheogenous" of positive results to "physical health", "social relationship" and "spirituality feelings" in the context of representations of the “popular Catholicism” in “Amazonian healism”. That is, the plant popularly known as "marijuana" or "weed" establishes a path to “Devine’s” manifestation, in particular, the Catholic entity Saint Mary’s manifestation, from which it receives the same name and objectifies its features from the popular religious eclecticism. The Santa Maria plant thus, acts as loving and disciplining mother. Who intercessory for Christian salvation by offering her “graces” before requests for "forgiveness". Graces manifested by “cures” and through her "lights," cognized by insights, by "awakening to the spiritual life," and by the improvement of "mirages" or revealing visions. It also promotes the feelings of "love" and "joy" to devotees and their communities, by bringing "comfort" and "protection" against "sorrow, agony or pain." Its position of sacredness forced the development of liturgical practices, similar to those already established for the Ayahuasca. Therefore, Santa Maria presents stringent rituals and “disciplines" that allows the "Marian daimist" to delimit specific times and spaces for their "sacred studies" with the sacred plant. However, their representations of sacredness are obscured by conflicts with antagonistic representation to the same object by hegemonic groups, that happens through threats and actions of media depreciation, military and judiciary repression via "drug law" against its devotees, situation of interdiction of which intensifies its
intra-group conflicts, since part of the religion denies the occurrence of this "private revelation" that elevates "Mary-Jane", or "drug", to the composition that identifies their "Sacred Family". Identification which that also brings new configurations to the theology of the religion and also allows a bio-religious pantheon in its cosmology of the "Divine Beings of the Celestial Court". However, the Santo Daime religion has more than 40 years of cultural resistance and maintenance of the ritualistic practices developed for the "Santa Maria studies" by Cannabis. Positioning shots in defense of their sacred social representations have been observed concomitantly with the growth of anti-prohibitionist ideals, in particular, by the visibility of social and scientific movements in favor of the “legalization of Cannabis” throughout the world."

Esta tesis está dedicada al estudio de la relación entre Max Weber y Georges Bataille en algunos de sus conceptos centrales. La búsqueda apunta a iluminar un posible vínculo que no ha sido explorado, con el objetivo de elaborar conocimiento acerca de la relación entre ambos autores. Para ello, estudiaremos a un autor desde la perspectiva del otro, poniéndolos luego en conexión en la espera de que el terreno común que construyamos resulte fértil para nuestra comprensión de sus ideas.  La hipótesis central de este escrito es que el concepto de desencantamiento del mundo se encuentra relacionado con el universo conceptual de Georges Bataille, condensado en el concepto de lo sagrado. Dicha relación es de correspondencia, siendo Bataille un continuador de las reflexiones weberianas en torno a las consecuencias del avance de la racionalidad medios-fines en el espíritu de occidente.

    Como argumentaremos, es posible leer a los dos autores como críticos de la modernidad y la racionalización. Según sus perspectivas, este proceso rechaza toda regulación y conduce a la “petrificación” de las sociedades ante el avance continuo de la organización técnica. El desencantamiento, que interpretamos como la expulsión de lo sagrado de este mundo, es un proceso que comienza al interior de la religión y continúa a partir de la razón técnica del capitalismo, la que implica un abandono de cualquier valor que compita con el de la utilidad.

I explore the connection between healing power and spirituality by attending to what a Lakota holy man (wicasa wakan) says about this sacred (wakan) power. I suggest that the encounter with this healing power – whether by the vessel, the patient or by those who witness or hear of such events – anchors a universal grasp of what spirituality is, in two primary ways: (i) experientially, by most basically providing a wondrous restoration of hope that comes with spirit’s healing movement and action; and (ii) ethically, by providing sustained benefit only to those who, through respect for the sacred, balance ego within themselves. On the idea that an understanding of healing power takes us to the heart of spirituality in general, I build on this to explore here what it is about spirituality that makes life so much more “meaningful” for so many people, which I will substantiate through attention to the words and actions of a wicasa wakan.

Nas religiões Ocidentais o conceito de «vida após a morte» tem sido relacionado com ressurreição e moralidade, enquanto que nas religiões Orientais o mesmo conceito tem sido interligado com reencarnação e karma. Este artigo pretende ser uma contribuição para o estudo mais profundo deste tema da «vida após a morte», através da abordagem de algumas experiências da mecânica quântica e das ciências cognitivas que apoiam as teorias religiosas da reencarnação e ressurreição, conceitos tão importantes para a filosofia da ética.

This article examines the scholarly discourse on Anna Halprin’s rituals and her own use of the word ‘ritual’ in historical archives to define what determines a work as ritual. The hallmarks of ritual in both discourses include efficacious intention, audience-as-witness, transformation of space, and performers’ investment of deeper meaning in movement. In Halprin’s seminal Parades and Changes, her dancers operated in a liminal space – transitioning from what was previously acceptable to what would become acceptable for performance through embodied performativity of the nude subject. What the performance world accepted as dance changed drastically once Halprin recontextualized the nude body in performance. By its use of these hallmarks, it is clear that Parades and Changes illustrates Halprin’s early use of ritual, was transformational within theatrical contexts, and was a harbinger of the rituals to come in her later works.

In society the church played two roles: architecturally and spiritually. Architecturally the church was a symbolic landmark that reflected community values. They were often located at urban centers and they celebrated the unique identity and history of a place. Spiritually their form inspired an appreciation and reflection on human existence while their function served to quell people's existential anxieties on death, meaninglessness, and condemnation through ritual and moral acts. Due to a growing increase in religious unaffiliation, churches across the country have been forced to close their doors. The removal of the church from society has created an architectural and spiritual void. The solution is not to reinsert the rejected church back into its former role but to find a replacement that will empower citizens to define for themselves a common ethos that engages with the significance of the city and human life as a whole.

"Representations", N. 129, Winter 2015.

The essay analyzes the project of maintaining the body of V. I. Lenin in the Mausoleum in Moscow for the past ninety years, focusing on the unique biological science that developed around this project, and the unexpected political role this body has performed.

After conquering large swaths of Syria and Iraq, the IS undertook an aggressive sectarian campaign in which they not only enacted horrific violence against the Shia people, but also damaged or destroyed several key Shia mosques and shrines. Drawing on Social Movement Theory (SMT), this article analyzes the response by various Shia nonstate actors—militia leaders, religious clergymen, populist preachers, and seminal poets. It argues that they used the IS threat to Shia holy sites to develop and deploy a mobilization frame that has come to be referred to as the “shrine protection narrative.” The article also documents the manifold consequences of the shrine protection narrative: it underpinned a mass recruitment drive that saw tens of thousands enlist; it legitimized foreign Shia militias to enter the conflicts in both Syria and Iraq; it justified the formation of entirely new militias who declared the centrality of shrine protection to their mandate; and it mobilized them to enact political violence. In doing so, this article extends existing studies of SMT to demonstrate that “sacred spaces”—and particularly the need to protect religious sites from specific threats—can serve as a powerful mobilization frame towards political violence.

This book offers a fresh perspective on religious culture in the medieval Middle East. It investigates how Muslims thought about and practised at sacred spaces and in sacred times through two detailed case studies: the shrines in honour of the head of al-Husayn (the martyred grandson of the Prophet); and the (arguably) holy month of Rajab. It  explores the diverse expressions of the veneration of the shrine and the month, and the opposition to these cults, from the formative period of Islam until the late Mamluk period. The author pays particular attention to changing political and sectarian affiliations and to the development of new genres of religious literature, juxtaposing the sanctification of space and time in individual and communal Sunni, Ithnaʿashari and Ismaʿili piety.

Interpréter sa propre culture T raditionnellement, l'anthropologue occidental étudiait une société étrangère mais s'adressait à un public occidental. Depuis quelques décennies, l'histoire de l'anthropologie a connu un changement significatif, la venue d'anthropologues qui lisent et critiquent ce qui est, a été, sur leur « propre » société. Dans ses publications antérieures, Hassan Rachik proposait une critique compréhensive de la littérature anthropologique coloniale et postcoloniale sur le Maroc. Dans le présent livre, il revient sur son parcours, qui s'étale sur quatre décennies, pour examiner ce que devenir et être anthropologue chez soi veulent dire. Le débat quant à la position sociale de l'anthropologue ne porte plus seulement sur l'ailleurs (l'Occident), le lointain et le regard éloigné mais aussi sur l'ici, le proche, le familier et le regard complice. Se pose une nouvelle question dans l'histoire de l'anthropologie : comment un anthropologue chez soi interprète-t-il sa propre culture ? À travers une restitution réflexive et minutieuse de sa pratique de terrain, de ses conversions disciplinaire et théorique, Rachik vise un degré d'abstraction qui permet de comparer avec d'autres expériences et de répondre à des questions théoriques, ethnographiques, politiques et éthiques en rapport avec le devenir du métier d'anthropologue.

This M.A. dissertation (Cosmology, Myth & The Sacred, Canterbury Christ Church University, completed with Distinction, 2016) considers the human experience of the longing which comes from the soul, and its potency.
It finds that soul-longing has a unique function, entirely apart from everyday emotional longings for this or that. This function is to have experience of ourselves in relation to divine intelligence.
The dissertation takes three steps in its argument, as follows:

a) Soul-longing is an active impulse for known unity with divine intelligence and love.

b) When the soul longs in conscious choice to know, this deliberate impulse is met in return by that divine intelligence and love.

c) This meeting directly transforms the one who longs, by indelibly transcending previous knowing. The work is to continue in this knowing and not occlude it.

Therefore I conclude that soul-longing exists as an evolutionary force because it is transformative, by which I mean the virtue of transforming by transcending previous consciousness for good, whether individually or culturally. Asking what it means that mankind considers the cosmos, Joseph Milne clarifies the task of  philosophy: ‘Its task is to bring to light that which being shows out of itself, so that it may be recognized’ (2008, p.21) and I believe the same is true of the work of soul-longing.

The main themes of fire in the Bible can be united around the concept of the Fire of God. This is in the first place the fire of Judgement which burns out sin, but spares the righteous. Fire is naturally associated with the Divine because it causes a similar attitude: love mixed with fear. The image-paradigm of the Fire of God pervades the Christian tradition. It is associated in particular with liturgical fire. According to Dionisius Areopagite, fire is a visible image of ineffable Divine qualities. It is not only “God’s servant” but also the symbol of his eternal life and of the deification of man. The Fire of God is experienced by mystics as the “fire of love” which destroys the “otherness” of the soul and unites it with God. In the Byzantine iconography of the Theotokos of the Burning Bush, the Incarnation is presented as a fiery theophany where the Virgin receives the Fire of God within her human nature. The image of fire also has an important liturgical aspect: the Holy Communion in the Eastern Church is understood as partaking of the Fire of God.

This is a 5-page English summary of a full paper published in Russian. The full paper contains a complete table of Biblical references to fire (around 400)