Devotion and Artifice: Themes of Suspension in the History of Religions

Peter Jackson Rova

Published by De Gruyter 2023

Devotion and Artifice

Themes of Suspension in the History of Religions

Peter Jackson Rova

Volume 57 in the series Religion and Reason

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110460605

Overview
Contents

About this book

How have humans sought to prevent viable assumptions about themselves and their world from being in force, how does this propensity manifest itself, and in what terms has it been theorized and criticized throughout the ages?

Through a diversity of discrete case-studies spanning a vast time-scale (including topics such as paleolithic personal ornaments, pre-ancient ritual economy, ancient philosophy, and modern artful science), this study explores the means by which humans voluntarily suspend habitual patterns of judgement and disbelief in order to perceive the world differently. In recognizing how such modes of suspension can be variously traced back to religious comportments and institutions, a new sense of religious participation is identified beyond the credulous subjunction to artifice and its critical dismissal.

The relevant outcome of this long-term comparative approach is that sincere devotion to a (practical or theoretical, scientific or spiritual) cause and the temporary affirmation of artifice are not mutually exclusive comportments, but rather genealogically akin to the discretely sacred (alchemical, ataraxic, epistemological, spectacular, thaumaturgic, etc.) concerns of a pre-modern world.

Author / Editor information

Peter Jackson Rova, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
A Note on Transliteration and Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
1 Theoretical Preliminaries Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
I Pre-Ancient Themes (Reservoir)
2 Hyperboles of Identity and Difference Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
3 Fame and Social Eating Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
4 Itinerancy and Afterlife Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
II Ancient Themes (Confluence)
Resumé and Preamble Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
5 The Stargazer’s Sacrifice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
6 Apparitions and Apparatuses Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
7 Antinomies of the Cross Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
III Nascent Modernity (Reflux)
Preamble Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
8 The Return of the Pagans Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
9 Postscript: Survivals of Religion in the Western Imaginary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	166
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	184
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars of prehistoric archaeology, comparative philology, history of religions, ancient philosophy, history of science
Pages
- Front matter: 11
- Main content: 205
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 4
- Coloured Illustrations: 2
Keywords: Suspension of disbelief; suspension of judgment; history of religion; science-religion divide

eBook

Published: July 24, 2023
ISBN: 9783110460605

Hardcover

Published: July 24, 2023
ISBN: 9783110458749