Contemporary Views on Comparative Religion; Peter Antes, Armin W. Geertz, Mikael Rothstein, eds.

Edited by

Peter Antes [+–]

Leibniz University of Hannover

Peter Antes is Professor Emeritus of the Study of Religions at the Leibniz University of Hannover, Institut für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft, Germany.

Armin W. Geertz [+–]

Aarhus University

Armin W. Geertz is Professor in the History of Religions at the Department of Culture and Society, Section for the Study of Religion, and Chair of the Religion, Cognition and Culture Research Unit (RCC), Aarhus University, Denmark.

Mikael Rothstein [+–]

University of Southern Denmark

Mikael Rothstein is Associate Professor of Comparative Religion, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Odense and Visiting Professor at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania.

Comparative Religion is deeply rooted in historical-philological studies, but since the inception of the discipline in the late 19th century, a continual development has taken place. At this point, the discipline has moved into many different areas of the social, humanistic, psychological and biological sciences, and debates on theory and method are as intense as ever. As scholars of religion get a grip on some aspects of the phenomenon in question, new problems arise, and new challenges must be met. At the same time, however, the virtues of the past should not be forgotten, and a double orientation, back and forth, becomes necessary. Rather than pursuing a systematic discussion of how to go about such problems, this volume celebrates the diversity and multi-methodological approaches in comparative religion by including empirical, as well as theoretical, chapters. The authors, among whom are many of the world’s leading scholars, have been asked to contribute essays on the current status of comparative religion, and thanks to their efforts the reader is offered a pathway into a row of exciting, but quite diverse, examples of the discipline, from the well-known to the most recent academic frontiers.

Foreword

In Honour of Tim Jensen [+–] 1-3

Peter Antes,Armin W. Geertz,Mikael Rothstein FREE

Leibniz University of Hannover

Peter Antes is Professor Emeritus of the Study of Religions at the Leibniz University of Hannover, Institut für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft, Germany.

Aarhus University

University of Southern Denmark

Mikael Rothstein is Associate Professor of Comparative Religion, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Odense and Visiting Professor at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania.

Comparative Religion is deeply rooted in historical-philological studies, but since the inception of the discipline in the late 19th century, a continual development has taken place. At this point, the discipline has moved into many different areas of the social, humanistic, psychological and biological sciences, and debates on theory and method are as intense as ever. As scholars of religion get a grip on some aspects of the phenomenon in question, new problems arise, and new challenges must be met. At the same time, however, the virtues of the past should not be forgotten, and a double orientation, back and forth, becomes necessary. Rather than pursuing a systematic discussion of how to go about such problems, this volume celebrates the diversity and multi-methodological approaches in comparative religion by including empirical, as well as theoretical, chapters. The authors, among whom are many of the world’s leadings scholars, have been asked to contribute essays on the current status of comparative religion, and thanks to their efforts the reader is offered a pathway into a row of exciting, but quite diverse, examples of the discipline, from the well-known to the most recent academic frontiers.

The Comparative Study of Religion

1. The Magic and Drudgery in J.Z. Smith’s Theory of Comparison [+–] 7-16

Ivan Strenski £17.50

University of California Riverside (retired)

Author of 15 books and more than 100 academic articles on religion and political issues
like gift, sacrifice, freedom of religion/religious freedom, religious nationalism, French
Catholic integralism, post-revolutionary French Jewry, divine right of kings, Ivan Strenski
is Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California,
Riverside. His most recent books are Muslims, Islams, and Occidental Anxieties:
Conversations about Islamophobia (2022), a history of the study of religion from the
Renaissance to the present-day, Understanding Theories of Religion (2014) and Why Politics Can’t Be Freed from Religion: Radical Interrogations of Religion, Power and Politics (2009), Arabic translation (2016).

Jonathan Z. Smith has gained considerable notoriety for popularizing the phrase ‘in comparison a magic dwells.’ But, this assertion remains largely unanalyzed, despite it’s remarkable currency in discussions of comparison. I shall argue that Smith’s notion of comparison is largely undeveloped, leading to the corresponding undeveloped and unsophisticated conceptions of comparison in the study of religion.

2. Revisiting Comparative Religion in the Light of Contemporary Criticism [+–] 17-32

Morny Joy £17.50

University of Calgary

Morny Joy is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary.

This paper will take the measure of the current state of Comparative Religion and the way that it has responded to a number of criticisms over the past thirty years. First, I will explore the work of Jonathan Z. Smith and his charge of imaginative construction; second, I examine the work of postcolonial scholars and their evaluation complicity in the process of colonization. Finally I will survey current developments in Anthropology, and the criticisms made by Mallory Nye of the isolation of Comparative Religion from the developments in other disciplines. In the conclusion I will evaluate these criticisms and make certain recommendations.

3. Comparative and Historical Studies of Religions: The Return of Science [+–] 33-45

Luther H. Martin £17.50

University of Vermont

Luther H. Martin is Professor Emeritus of Religion, University of Vermont. He also has been a Distinguished International Fellow at the Institute of Cognition and Culture, Queen’s University Belfast, and a Visiting Professor at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. He is the author of Hellenistic Religions (1987) and of numerous articles in this field of his historical specialization. He has also published widely in the field of theory and method in the study of religion, especially, in the area of cognitive theory and historiographical method, and has coedited several volumes in this area, including Past Minds: Studies in Cognitive Historiography (2011). He is a founding member of the International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion and is co-editor of its Journal of the Cognitive Science of Religion.

Comparative and historical studies of religion have often been considered to be related but different pursuits. From a theoretical perspective, however, the two inquiries are similarly defined by a subject matter that is separated from the researcher by distance, the one by space, the other by time. Recent insights from the cognitive sciences suggest that these two modes of inquiry engage similar mental processes. As such, conventional methods developed by comparativists and by historians might prove to be mutually profitably even as both are assessed and/or corrected by the mental constraints on method being identified by cognitive scientists of religion.

4. The Historical and Comparative Study of Religions: A Rhetorical Approach [+–] 47-58

Jørgen Podemann Sørensen £17.50

University of Copenhagen

Jørgen Podemann Sørensen is Associate professor in history of religions,
University of Copenhagen, Department of Cross-cultural and Regional
Studies. Podemann-Sørensen was educated as a historian of religions
specialized in ancient Egyptian religion at the Universities of Aarhus
and Copenhagen (promoted 1979). His primary fields of interest are the
religions of Antiquity, especially ancient Egyptian religion and its contribution
to the Gnostic and Hermetic currents of Late Antiquity and the
comparative study of ritual. He has recently (2013) published a handbook
on ancient Egyptian religious literature (with sample translations)
and a book on the comparative study of ritual, both in Danish.

With a point of departure in the history of our discipline, notably Henri Hubert’s introduction to the French edition of the first major collective textbook in History of Religions, Chantepie de la Saussayes’ Lehrbuch, it is argued that the comparative study of religious expressions – texts, images and performances – should not be fettered in preconceived ideas of the social or psychological role of each type of expression. Not every doomsday prophet becomes a leader, and not every spell remedies anxiety. Religious expressions should be compared in order to establish types of rhetoric, while the study of their impact on society or the human mind should be pursued in individual historical studies.

5. Taking Comparativism Two Levels Further and One Step Backwards [+–] 59-71

Anders Klostergaard Petersen,Jesper Sørensen £17.50

University of Aarhus

Aarhus University

Time-honoured tradition within the study of religion has taken the comparative endeavour quite seriously, but it has grossly ignored, verging on neglect, to raise questions pertaining to the relationship between similarities in terms of content, function, and socio-cultural segmentation, and cultural evolution. This neglect has been detrimental to the discipline, since key questions located at the macro-level of analysis have not been posed. In this paper we espouse the view that our field cannot do without such questions if we really want to take the comparative endeavour seriously from a historical point of view. We advocate a type of study of religion that strives to pay heed to such questions, while simultaneously pursuing comparativism at the micro-level as well as at the typological level of analysis.

6. A Method Without Explanatory Theory: Ugo Bianchi’s Historical-Comparative Methodology after Thirty Years [+–] 73-86

Giulia Sfameni Gasparro £17.50

University of Messina

The fundamental aim of Ugo Bianchi’s scholarship was to reconcile in a single perspective the two main streams in the History of Religions. These, respectively, are idiographic research, attentive to details in their historical specificity; and the construction of a vast comparative framework aimed at showing analogies and differences between various phenomena and their formative and development processes, beyond interpretative formulas imposed ‘a-priori’. Faced with the positions of the Cognitive Science of Religion that instead consider it necessary to formulate general theories aimed at explaining ‘religion’, our aim is to assess the ongoing validity of this method for a correct analysis of the various phenomena that can be attributed to this multiform ‘category’.

7. Myth, Space, and the History of Religions: Reflections on the Comparative Study Of Ancient Wilderness Mythologies from Mesopotamia, the Hebrew Bible, and Early Christianity [+–] 87-99

Laura Feldt £17.50

University of Southern Denmark

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Laura Feldt is Associate Professor of the Study of Religions with the Department of History, University of Southern Denmark, head of the research programme ‘Authority, Materiality and Media’, and editor of Numen – International Review of the History of Religions with Gregory D. Alles. She is the author of The Fantastic in Religious Narrative from Exodus to Elisha (2012), editor of Wilderness in Mythology and Religion – Approaching Religious Spatialities, Cosmologies, and Ideas of Wild Nature (2012) and Reframing Authority – The Role of Media and Materiality (2018) with Christian Høgel. Her primary research areas are religion in ancient Mesopotamia, the Hebrew Bible, and ancient Christianity.

This essay discusses the role of comparison in the historical study of religions by means of three case studies of wilderness mythology from ancient religions – Mesopotamia, The Hebrew Bible, and early Christianity. Then, the concept of wilderness and a spatial-narrative theoretical strategy of analysis are presented, and it is argued that concept-based comparison is constitutive for the academic study of religions.

Conceptions of Religion and ‘The Religious’

8. History of Religions Without an Object?: Comparing Theoretical Objects in the History of Religions and in Anthropology [+–] 103-114

Jeppe Sinding Jensen £17.50

Aarhus University

Jeppe Sinding Jensen is Senior Lecturer emeritus in the Department of the Study of Religion and the Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Denmark. His most recent monograph is What Is Religion? (Routledge 2020).

Historians of religions work with (mostly) historical materials, primarily texts, and attempt to reconstruct the histories of religious traditions and their inter-relations with social and cultural formations. All with the purpose of understanding ideology and practice, but the question remains what the theoretical object really is and to what extent it is an object constructed by the community of scholars.

9. Towards a Secular Theory of Religious Experience [+–] 115-126

Olav Hammer £17.50

University of Southern Denmark

Olav Hammer is Professor of the Study of Religions at the University of Southern Denmark. His main areas of research are new religious movements and other non-traditional religious currents in the post-Enlightenment West. His most recent publication is Western Esotericism in Scandinavia (Brill, forthcoming in April 2016; edited with Henrik Bogdan).

The title of this chapter is calqued on that of a book that the recipient of the present Festschrift edited together with Mikael Rothstein (Jensen & Rothstein 2000). The aim of that book was to present views on religion that were freed from theological agendas, even in their most vestigial guises. Two common elements emerge from the contributors’ papers – over and above the negative self-definition as not pursuing a religious goal. First, the term ‘secular’ is to be taken as shorthand for employing the same naturalistic and critically informed kinds of theories and methods that are found in the natural sciences, the social sciences and humanities. Second, given that the prime agent in the world of religions is the human being, and not spirits, gods or ancestors, understanding human motivations is paramount to understanding religion. The present chapter constitutes a belated voice in the same chorus that collectively made itself heard in Jensen’s and Rothstein’s volume, and argues for similarly discarding any remaining vestiges of religious agendas when approaching that staple of our discipline: religious experience.

10. Conceptions of Religion in the Cognitive Science of Religion [+–] 127-139

Armin W. Geertz £17.50

Aarhus University

The cognitive science of religion has made an impact on the academic study of religion. Even though there has been a lot of criticism and resistance against this new approach, this is no different than what other new approaches have been subjected to in the history of our field. Constructive criticism, however, from practitioners as well as others, is very much needed if the CSR is to become a normal member of the discipline. In this article, I will examine how religion is conceived of in the CSR by one of its pioneers.

11. Phenomenology of Religion Revisited [+–] 141-152

Peter Antes £17.50

Leibniz University of Hannover

Peter Antes is Professor Emeritus of the Study of Religions at the Leibniz University of Hannover, Institut für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft, Germany.

The article refers to the different connotations of the term ‘Phenomenology of Religion’ in order to point out its self claim that deeply-felt religious experience is needed to do research work in the field. With reference to Friedrich Heiler’s book ‘Erscheinungsformen und Wesen der Religion’ (The Manifestation and Essence of Religion) the article argues that no religious experience is needed for such a kind of classification so that any scholar of religion – be s/he a believer or a non-believer – can do that kind of research and thus contribute to a revisited Phenomenology of Religion.

12. Fanfare for the Common e.g.: On the Strategic Use of the Mundane [+–] 153-164

Russell T. McCutcheon £17.50

University of Alabama

Russell T. McCutcheon is Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. His major publications include Manufacutring Religion (Oxford University Press, 1997), The Guide to the Study of Religion (Bloomsbury, 2000), Critics not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion (State University of New York Press, 2001) and The Discipline of Religion: Structure, Meaning, Rhetoric (Routledge, 2003).

Evidenced in the Danish cartoon controversy, the mundane signifies no less than does elite culture. Those critical of focusing on the so-called sacred as a zone of transcendent meaning can therefore gain much by explicating cultural processes at ordinary sites. This paper argues for the importance of mundane e.g.s, in both scholarship and teaching, as sites where one can contest the widespread theory of religion as something inexplicable.

13. Theories as Borders: Sites of Entry and Exit in Comparative Religion [+–] 165-178

Veikko Kalevi Anttonen £17.50

University of Turku (retired)

Considering the range of issues that might valorize contemporary views on comparative religion, I came to think that scholars’ positioning of themselves in reference to the category of religion and to its diverse conceptualizations might provide a good entry to reflect on the present state of affairs in the field at large. The academic study of religion is in a state of flux. On the one hand, the field has benefited from the new visibility of religion in the era of global economy and the re-emergence of religion as a social and political force. On the other hand, questions revolving around the discipline’s positioning in reference to theological scholarship and the natural sciences have surfaced and raised conversations over its identity and boundary issues. The discourse on religion takes on either positive or negative associations depending on the location of the observer who applies and cultivates the concept. Perceptions of religions are closely connected with the cultures, languages, and traditions within which they have become established, and in which they are transmitted in various forms from one generation to the next as part of the cultural heritage and birthright. Even though scholars from different academic backgrounds may come up with different criteria regarding what constitutes the territory of the study of religion, we necessarily perceive the disciplinary landscape and create conceptual borders from the vantage point that our identifications provide us.

Comparative Religion and the University

14. Claims for a Plurality of Knowledges in the Comparative Study of Religions [+–] 181-192

Donald Wiebe £17.50

University of Toronto

Donald Wiebe is Professor of Philosophy of Religion in Trinity College at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is the author of Religion and Truth: Towards and Alternative Paradigm for the Study of Religion (De Gruyter, 1981), The Irony of Theology and the Nature of Religious Thought (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1991), Beyond Legitimation: Essays on the Problem of Religious Knowledge (Palgrave Macmillan, 1994), The Politics of Religious Studies: The Continuing Conflict with Theology in the Academy (Palgrave Macmillan, 1999) and The Learned Practice of Religion in the Modern University (Bloomsbury, 2019).

My concern in this paper is with the suggestions that the study of religion in the modern research university context must be open to a ‘plurality of knowledges.’ Such ‘knowledges,’ I argue, are ‘alien’ to the academy and that the only legitimate knowledge concerning religions in that context is scientific knowledge of the kind sought by the natural and social sciences, namely, intersubjectively testable propositional knowledge (empirical and theoretical) about religious thought, practice, and behaviour.

15. Why the Concept of “World Religion” Has Survived in Japan: On the Japanese Reception of Max Weber’s Comparative Religion [+–] 193-205

Satoko Fujiwara
Executive Editor £17.50

University of Tokyo

Satoko Fujiwara is Professor of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Tokyo. She has been serving as Secretary General of the International Association for the History of Religions since 2020. Her main focus is on theories in the study of religion with latest publications on the global history of the discipline and the IAHR. She has also published articles on how religions have been described in public school education.

This chapter deals with a hitherto unnoticed fact that the concept of ‘world religion,’ which is outdated in many Western countries, is still popular in the Japanese academia and education field. Rather than simply arguing that Japanese scholars are ‘behind,’ I will attribute the fact to the academic/educational/social roles of comparative religion in Japan, which are different from those in Western countries, with a special focus upon Weberian legacies.

16. The Study and Making of Christian Religion in Danish Academic Theology [+–] 207-218

Jens-André P. Herbener £17.50

University of Southern Denmark

Jens-André P. Herbener is Assistant Professor of the History of Religions at University of Southern Denmark. Previously he has worked as a project manager and editor at the Department of Oriental and Judaica Collections, the Royal Library of Denmark. His research and teaching cover especially monotheism, ancient Israelite religion, Judaism, classical Hebrew and Bible translation. He has published extensively on Bible translation from a non-confessional perspective. His publications include for example “Ny bibeloversættelse på videnskabeligt grundlag: Introduktion” (ed., 2001) and “Bibeloversættelse mellem konfession og videnskab” (2004). Currently he is working on a two-volume monograph on monotheism

Throughout his career, Tim Jensen has called for a secular study of any type of religion within academia. However, with limited success. The present article gives a number of examples of (semi)religious approaches to, as well as religious purposes with, the study of Christianity within Danish university theology, which is responsible for 90 percent of the education of clergymen in the Danish National Church. Secondly, the article discusses and questions the legitimacy of these types of studies within a modern university. A fundamental question is: Is it possible to be a critical scholar and a defender of a religion at the same time?

17. O Felix Culpa! On Teaching Religion Around Theologians [+–] 219-221

Gustavo Benavides £17.50

Villanova University

On how to teach religion when confronted with theological challenges and interests

18. Religious Studies in Brazil: An Area (Still) under Construction [+–] 233-244

Silas Guerriero £17.50

PUC-SP Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Sao Paulo – Brazil

Studies of religion in Brazilian academia already have over a century, considering the pioneering contributions of Nina Rodrigues. However, the recognition of the science of religion as a singular area, with the object, method and specific theories is relatively recent and is now experiencing an important moment for its consolidation. This chapter seeks to understand the trajectory of the construction of our discipline, especially with regard to its fusions and confusions with theology and other humanities.

Comparative Religion, Education and Schooling

19. Normative Rationality and the Future Prospects of Religion Education: The Perspective of Scientific Realism [+–] 247-258

Matti Kamppinen £17.50

University of Turku

This chapter analyzes the conditions and future prospects of religion education in schools. I propose that religion education with confessional elements is questioned by the normative rationality in general, and by the normative rationality of science education in particular. Therefore the only viable future option for religion education is scientific realism, where religion is taught in the same way as history or biology.

20. “RS-Based RE”: Tim Jensen’s Straightforward Contribution to the Development of Didactics of the Academic Study of Religions [+–] 259-270

Wanda Alberts £17.50

Leibniz University Hannover

Wanda Alberts professor in the study of religions at Leibniz Universität Hannover and chair of the working group “Religion in Public Education” of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR).

On the debate on how to create and maintain a secular curriculum, and a secular practice when teaching religion

21. Tracing the “Non-Denominational”: Japan and the UK [+–] 271-282

Brian Bocking £17.50

University College Cork

Brian Bocking is Professor emeritus of the Study of Religions at University College Cork, Ireland and formerly Professor at SOAS, University of London. In recent years he has been researching the emergence of global Buddhism, collaborating with Alicia Turner (Toronto), Laurence Cox (Maynooth) and Yoshinaga Shin’ichi (Kyoto) on the study of two ‘forgotten’ Irish Buddhists; U Dhammaloka (?1856‒?1913) and Charles Pfoundes (1840‒1907).

This article explores some of the issues involved in the relations between ideas such as ‘state’, ‘religion’ ‘secular’ and ‘education’, using examples from Japan and the UK. The focus is on religion in state-provided education, since school education has remained the primary means by which modern citizens are socialised en masse. In Japan, from 1890 to 1945, the ultimate values taught in state schools were ‘Shinto’ in character but after 1945 all reference to religion in schools was abandoned, following the USA model. In the UK, Christianity was dominant throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and the Christian Bible was taught as history. Since the 1980’s, the Christian agenda in UK RE has largely given way to an ideal of benevolent religious multiculturalism. Yet in both Japan and the UK, ‘religious’ ideas taught in schools were always regarded by the state as ‘non-denominational’ (Jap: hishūkyō) – i.e. intentionally distinct from any actual religious sect or denomination. ‘School religion’ was in both countries a superordinate value-system, one of whose somewhat paradoxical effects was to secularise ‘real’ religious adherence, relegating it to the sphere of the individual or family. However, the rights, views and choices of individuals are increasingly the drivers of change in contemporary society. Does it matter that UK children now study multiple religions in school, while Japanese (or American) children study none?

22. Teaching the Secular Moral Code in French State Schools: The Debate Between Providing an Upbringing and Providing an Education From the French Revolution to Our Time [+–] 283-296

Valentine Zuber £17.50

Sorbonne

Since the French Revolution, every French government has wanted to structure a state system of school that instructs pupils and educates citizens. In this paper I discuss how the debate between providing an upbringing and providing an education still continues. The debate ranges from Republican catechism to education in civics, and from teaching a secular moral code to the secular teaching of a moral education

Religion, Society, State, Law and Rights

23. Privileging Communication: Evidentiary Admissible Statements and Comparison in the Study of Religion [+–] 299-310

Abrahim Khan £17.50

The idea of privileging communication is examined with reference to a test case before the Ontario Law Courts. The case raises the question about fake and genuine practice of religion, how the distinction is to be made at the intersect of religion and law, and what gets publicly disclosed in that context.

24. Whose Rights? The Danish Debate on Ritual Infant Male Circumcision as a Human Rights Issue [+–] 311-324

Mikael Aktor £17.50

University of Southern Denmark

Mikael Aktor is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Southern Denmark.

The debate over ritual infant male circumcision has increasingly been thematized as a Human Rights issue. But the claims on such rights seem highly conflicting. In particular, the rights of the child seems to conflict with the freedom of religion of parents, the rights of religious and ethnic minorities, and the rights of family and privacy. This disagreement is also present among scholars of religion. A reading of public statements by scholars of religion in the ongoing Danish (and Norwegian) debate reveals the lack of consensus of the study of religion when it comes to matters that are of great concern both for religious minorities and for individual citizens. This chapter examines the Law and Human Rights documents behind these conflicting claims and discusses the role of the scholar of religion in the debate.

25. Current Perspectives on the Notion of Toleration in the Roman World [+–] 325-336

María del Mar Marcos Sánchez £17.50

University of Cantabria

It is commonly assumed that the idea of toleration arose out of modern political philosophy in post-Reformation Europe. But the debate on religious diversity and religious liberty began much earlier, in Greco-Roman Antiquity. This has been a topic of much discussion in scholarship for the last decades with diverse interpretations. The aim of this paper is to revise critically traditional views and current perspectives on religious toleration in the Roman world, a relevant topic for the comparative study of religion.

26. Pluralism and Plurality in the Study of Religions [+–] 337-349

Christoph Bochinger £17.50

University of Bayreuth

’Religious Pluralism’ is a basic concept in the study of religions, but at the same time a challenge because of its normative connotations. The article traces the development of this concept, with special regard to its North-American and European implications. Drawing from recent empirical data, it suggests a clear-cut distinction between ‘welcome’ and ‘acceptance’ of religious plurality in modern societies.

27. Utopia and Heterotopia in Post-Apartheid South African Muslim Discourse [+–] 351-362

Abdulkader Tayob £17.50

University of Cape Town

In spite of constituting only 1.46% of the population, Muslim political views are diverse and reflect the diversity of trends in South Africa. Michel Foucault’s concepts of utopia and heterotopia are helpful in revealing this complex relationship between South Africa’s constitution and public expressions of Islam. They capture the complexity of Muslim experiences – sometimes reflecting the goals of the Constitution (utopia) but also inverting, subverting and often going beyond them (heterotopia). My article will closely examine some examples to illustrate the diversity and fragility of South Africa’s democracy.

Empirical Studies and Research Perspectives

28. What Is a “God” Actually?: Some Comparative Reflections [+–] 365-374

Einar Thomassen £17.50

University of Bergen

Though an essential feature of religions, the nature of ‘gods’ has not been a regular topic of systematic elaboration in comparative studies of religion. The contribution will address questions such as: what do ‘culturally postulated superhuman agents’ do when they are perceived as gods? (The answer will focus on agency, reception of worship and ontological status.) Do all such agents qualify as ‘gods’? Are monotheistic gods gods in the same way as polytheistic gods? Do all societies have gods?

29. What Became of Superhuman Beings?: Companions and Field Guides in the Study of Religion [+–] 375-387

Ingvild Sælid Gilhus £17.50

University of Bergen

GILHUS INGVILD SÆLID is Professor in the history of religions at the University of Bergen (1988-). Research interests: late antiquity and Gnosticism, new religious movements, and theories and methods in the history of religions. Vice Dean (1988) and Dean of the Faculty of
Arts, University of Bergen (1989-90) and member of the board of the
Norwegian Research Council for Social Sciences and Humanities
(1993-96). Member of the board of the University of Bergen (1999-),
Deputy Chairman of the board of the Norwegian Research Council
(2003-), Chairman of the board of Chr. Michelsen Institute.
Development Studies and Human Rights (2001-), member of the board
of the Bergen Festival (1999-) and member of the Executive Commitee
IAHR (1999-2004). Deputy General Secretary of the Executive
Committee IAHR (2005-2010). Member of the the Royal Norwegian
Society of Sciences and Letters in Trondheim and of the Norwegian
Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo.

The article takes its point of departure in a survey of encyclopedias, companions and field guides in the study of religion. While superhuman beings have pride of place in a main type of definitions of religions, they waver between a theological cum phenomenological and a cultural approach in the encyclopedia; are in the main absent or theologically described in leading companions and guides; are in focus in cognitive studies; and display great activity in works on specific religions. There is a certain ambiguity, bordering to schizophrenia, both between the genres and even within one single book when it comes to how superhuman beings are treated. The article argues that it is difficult to investigate and speak about religion without developing analytical and critical concepts referring to superhuman beings.

30. The Alimentary Construction of Social and Supernatural Identities: Religious Commensality Codes of the Penan with a Comparative Twist [+–] 389-400

Mikael Rothstein £17.50

University of Southern Denmark

Mikael Rothstein is Associate Professor of Comparative Religion, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Odense and Visiting Professor at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania.

What I propose in this brief discussion is an interpretation that identifies the act of sharing food and eating together among the Penan of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, not as a matter of simple physical survival or social association alone, but also as a significant ritualized context for the production and maintenance of supernatural beings. Apart from this approach, my subject matter will be discussed as a cultural feature formed during the evolution of our species. Recent explorations into human cognition and collective behaviour with particular regard to sharing, reveals that people, like other primates, have very good evolutionary reasons to share food, and that sharing itself is one of the constituents of human sociality. We share, not for altruistic reasons, but because it has proven the most effective way of survival during the long cause of human evolution. It is hypothezised, then, that this mechanism is reinforced whenever gods or spirits are implied in the process. In short, this article argues that the implicit presence of divinities in the Penans’ communal meals has, in the short run, stimulated life in a challenging rainforest environment, while in the long term helped our species evolve. The discussion will include comparative examples.

31. Salvific Space and Religious Pluralism: Did Hindu Pilgrimage Develop from the Vedic Tradition? [+–] 401-409

Knut A. Jacobsen £17.50

University of Bergen

Knut A. Jacobsen is Professor in the Study of Religions at the University of Bergen. His most recent publications include the Routledge Handbook of South Asian Religions (2021), Handbook of Hinduism in Europe (2020) and Yoga in Modern Hinduism (2018). He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the six-volumed Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism (Brill, 2009–2015).

Religious travel to sites thought to have salvific power has for many centuries been an important ritual in the Hindu traditions. In this paper I argue for a pluralistic approach for understanding the origin and development of Hindu salvific space. Researchers often analyze doctrines, texts and rituals of the Hindu traditions through postulated precursors found in Vedic texts, but this approach neglects the religious pluralism of early India.

32. Sounds Religious [+–] 411-423

Rosalind I.J. Hackett £17.50

University of Tennessee

Rosalind I.J. Hackett is Chancellor’s Professor Emerita, and Professor of Religious Studies Emerita at the University of Tennessee. She is also Extraordinary Professor, Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice, University of the Western Cape, South Africa. She publishes in the areas of indigenous religion, new religious movements, gender, art, human rights, and conflict in Africa. Recent (co-edited) books are New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa (2015) and The Anthropology of Global Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism (2015). She is Past President and Honorary Life Member of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR).

Over the relatively short life of the modern-day academic study of religions, scholars have posited a range of conceptual foci to gain analytical purchase on the phenomenon of religion. These include belief, myth, ritual, symbolism, practice, ethics, performance, experience, power, charisma, embodiment, materiality, and visuality. This contribution will discuss what difference it might make to the study of religion if ‘sound’ or ‘aurality’ featured more prominently on that list.

33. The Study of Religion in Russia: The Foundation of the Museum of the History of Religion [+–] 425-437

Marianna Shakhnovich £17.50

Saint-Petersburg State University

Gives an account of the history of the study of religion in Russia and the founding the museum dedicated to that history.

34. Beyond Comparative Religion: Theology of Religions and Ethical Mysticism [+–] 439-450

Jan Hjärpe £17.50

Lund University (Emeritus)

The contribution will analyze the theological-political ideas and endeavors of two personalities of influence, Nathan Söderblom and – especially – Louis Massignon, the effect of their respective engagements during the First world war, and their ‘ethical mysticism’, a term used to characterize also Dag Hammarskiöld. The contrast to this development beyond Comparative Religion is the contemporary more empirical-anthropological study of religion.

35. Raffaele Pettazzoni and Károly Marót: Companions-in-Arms in the Field of the History of Religions [+–] 451-465

Giovanni Casadio £17.50

University of Salerno

CASADIO GIOVANNI is Professor Ordinarius of History of
Religions at the University of Salerno. Past member of the executive
committee of the European Association for the Study of religions
(EASR) as Publications officer. Member of the editorial board of the
second edition of Eliade’s Encyclopedia of Religion. Member of the
advisory board of several international series and journals (including
Archaeus and Vergilius). 109 publications on ancient Mediterranean
religions and religious historiography. Books: Storia del culto di Dioniso
XIV in Argolide (1994), Vie gnostiche all’ immortalità (1997), Il vino dell’ anima (1999), Ugo Bianchi: Una vita per la storia delle religioni (ed. 2002).

Raffaele Pettazzoni (1883-1959) and Károly Marót (1885-1963) were born around the same period in two different countries with very strong contrasts in language but affinities in culture and similar historical trajectories. They had parallel academic and political careers. The Hungarian outlived his Italian and wrote a sympathetic obituary in his memory. Pettazzoni was a classicist in his formation but in a very short time he took his path to the science of universal religious history and became a generalist, the most prominent comparative historian of religions of his époque. Marót was a professor of classical philology primarily concerned with Greek mythologic themes, but shared with his colleague an interest in folklore and comparison. They met first in 1929 and maintained an epistolary correspondence until Pettazzoni’s death. It was thanks to their joint efforts that in 1957 the Hungarian group of historians of religions became affiliated with the IAHR. With regard to the role played by Marót in the field of the study of religion, it has to be recognized that he was a precursor of two approaches that were to become dominant in the developments of the discipline. In sum, if the Italian Pettazzoni was in his times the leading figure in the historical study of religion, the Hungarian Marót must be also considered a scientist of religion of remarkable vision and commitment, rooted in the past but with an eye turned to the future.

Appendix

Tim Jensen’s Bibliography [+–] 469-477

Peter Antes FREE

Leibniz University of Hannover

Peter Antes is Professor Emeritus of the Study of Religions at the Leibniz University of Hannover, Institut für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft, Germany.

Published work 1983–2015

End Matter

Index [+–] 479-483

Peter Antes FREE

Leibniz University of Hannover

Peter Antes is Professor Emeritus of the Study of Religions at the Leibniz University of Hannover, Institut für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft, Germany.

Comparative Religion is deeply rooted in historical-philological studies, but since the inception of the discipline in the late 19th century, a continual development has taken place. At this point, the discipline has moved into many different areas of the social, humanistic, psychological and biological sciences, and debates on theory and method are as intense as ever. As scholars of religion get a grip on some aspects of the phenomenon in question, new problems arise, and new challenges must be met. At the same time, however, the virtues of the past should not be forgotten, and a double orientation, back and forth, becomes necessary. Rather than pursuing a systematic discussion of how to go about such problems, this volume celebrates the diversity and multi-methodological approaches in comparative religion by including empirical, as well as theoretical, chapters. The authors, among whom are many of the world’s leadings scholars, have been asked to contribute essays on the current status of comparative religion, and thanks to their efforts the reader is offered a pathway into a row of exciting, but quite diverse, examples of the discipline, from the well-known to the most recent academic frontiers.

Reviews

…show[s] how the academic, non-confessional study of religion is fertilized by a profound scholarly diversity, and that this multiplicity of approaches should be seen as a virtue rather than a problem….the breadth of the material in the volume is truly noteworthy… .
Anthropology Review Database, May 8 2016

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Books and Journals in Humanities, Social Science and Performing Arts

Contemporary Views on Comparative Religion

In Celebration of Tim Jensen’s 65th Birthday

Peter Antes [+–]

Leibniz University of Hannover

Armin W. Geertz [+–]

Aarhus University

Mikael Rothstein [+–]

University of Southern Denmark

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