Religious Identity and the Invention of Tradition

Religious Identity and the Invention of Tradition
Author: A.W.J. Houtepen
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2021-11-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 900449443X

STAR - Studies in Theology and Religion, 3 This book contains the contributions to the first international conference organised by the Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion (NOSTER), held in the Netherlands in January 1999. The conference theme was inspired by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger’s influentual volume, The Invention of Tradition. Their work provided a starting point for discussing formations and changes of religious traditions on the one hand, and the interaction of religious identities and the transformation of traditions on the other. After an introductory section discussing Hobsbawm’s definitions and his theoretical framework, and offering several critical applications of his framework to Christian traditions, the main part of this volume consists of three thematic sections: the theme of the Exodus, the earliest traditions about the Lord’s supper, and the modern “myth of Fundamentalism”. This volume will be of interest to all those engaged in the study of religious traditions and identities, and the way in which these interact. From the Contents The Invention of Religious Traditions Counterfactuals and the Invention of Religious Traditions - Marcel Sarot The Creation of Tradition: Rereading and Reading beyond Hobsbawm - Paul Post Early Christianity between Divine Promise and Earthly Politics - Willemien Otten Challenging the Tradition of the Bodiless God: A Way to Inclusive Monotheism? - Kune E. Biezeveld Invention of Tradition? Trinity as Test - Herwi Rikhof Inventing and Re-inventing the Exodus The Exodus as Charter Myth - Karel van der Toorn Exodus: Liberation History against Charter Myth - Rainer Albertz The Development of the Exodus Tradition - John Collins History-oriented Foundation Myths in Israel and its Environment - Hans-Peter Müller The Exodus Motif in the Theologies of Liberation: Changes of Perspective - Georges De Schrijver Exodus in the African-American Experience - Theo Witvliet The Invention of the Eucharist and its Aftermath The Early History of the Lord’s Supper - Henk Jan de Jonge The Early History of the Lord’s Supper: Response to Henk Jan de Jonge - Dietrich-Alex Koch The Lord’s Supper and the Holy Communion in the Middle Ages: Sources, Significance, Remains and Confusion - Charles Caspers Meal and Sacrament: How Do We Encounter the Lord at the Table - Gerrit Immink Religious Fundamentalism: Facts and Fiction The Borderline between Muslim Fundamentalism and Muslim Modernism: An Indonesian Example - Herman Beck The Roaring Lion Strikes Again: Modernity vs. Dutch Orthodox Protestantism - Hijme Stoffels Fundamentalism: The Possibilities and Limitations of a Social-Psychological Approach - Jacques Janssen, Jan van der Lans and Mark Dechesne

The Invention of Tradition

The Invention of Tradition
Author: Eric Hobsbawm
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 1992-07-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521437738

This book explores examples of this process of invention and addresses the complex interaction of past and present in a fascinating study of ritual and symbolism.

The Invention of Sacred Tradition

The Invention of Sacred Tradition
Author: James R. Lewis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011-03-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780521175319

The dictionary definition of tradition refers to beliefs and practices that have been transmitted from generation to generation, however, 'tradition' can rest simply on the claim that certain cultural elements are rooted in the past. Claim and documented historical reality need not overlap. In the domain of religion, historically verifiable traditions coexist with recent innovations whose origins are spuriously projected back into time. This book examines the phenomenon of 'invented traditions' in religions ranging in time from Zoroastrianism to Scientology, and geographically from Tibet to North America and Europe. The various contributions, together with an introduction that surveys the field, use individual case studies to address questions such as the rationale for creating historical tradition for one's doctrines and rituals; the mechanisms by which hitherto unknown texts can enter an existing corpus; and issues of acceptance and scepticism in the reception of dubious texts.

God's Phallus

God's Phallus
Author: Howard Eilberg-Schwart
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 1995-12-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780807012253

God's Phallus explores the dilemmas created by the maleness of God for the men of ancient Judaism and for Jewish men today.

The Invention of God

The Invention of God
Author: Thomas Römer
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2015-12-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674504976

Who invented God? When, why, and where? Thomas Römer seeks to answer these questions about the deity of the great monotheisms—Yhwh, God, or Allah—by tracing Israelite beliefs and their context from the Bronze Age to the end of the Old Testament period in the third century BCE. That we can address such enigmatic questions at all may come as a surprise. But as Römer makes clear, a wealth of evidence allows us to piece together a reliable account of the origins and evolution of the god of Israel. Römer draws on a long tradition of historical, philological, and exegetical work and on recent discoveries in archaeology and epigraphy to locate the origins of Yhwh in the early Iron Age, when he emerged somewhere in Edom or in the northwest of the Arabian peninsula as a god of the wilderness and of storms and war. He became the sole god of Israel and Jerusalem in fits and starts as other gods, including the mother goddess Asherah, were gradually sidelined. But it was not until a major catastrophe—the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah—that Israelites came to worship Yhwh as the one god of all, creator of heaven and earth, who nevertheless proclaimed a special relationship with Judaism. A masterpiece of detective work and exposition by one of the world’s leading experts on the Hebrew Bible, The Invention of God casts a clear light on profoundly important questions that are too rarely asked, let alone answered.

The Oxford Handbook of the Study of Religion

The Oxford Handbook of the Study of Religion
Author: Michael Stausberg
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 881
Release: 2016-11-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0191045896

The Oxford Handbook of the Study of Religion provides a comprehensive overview of the academic study of religion. Written by an international team of leading scholars, its fifty-one chapters are divided thematically into seven sections. The first section addresses five major conceptual aspects of research on religion. Part two surveys eleven main frameworks of analysis, interpretation, and explanation of religion. Reflecting recent turns in the humanities and social sciences, part three considers eight forms of the expression of religion. Part four provides a discussion of the ways societies and religions, or religious organizations, are shaped by different forms of allocation of resources. Other chapters in this section consider law, the media, nature, medicine, politics, science, sports, and tourism. Part five reviews important developments, distinctions, and arguments for each of the selected topics. The study of religion addresses religion as a historical phenomenon and part six looks at seven historical processes. Religion is studied in various ways by many disciplines, and this Handbook shows that the study of religion is an academic discipline in its own right. The disciplinary profile of this volume is reflected in part seven, which considers the history of the discipline and its relevance. Each chapter in the Handbook references at least two different religions to provide fresh and innovative perspectives on key issues in the field. This authoritative collection will advance the state of the discipline and is an invaluable reference for students and scholars.

Legitimacy and the State in Twentieth-Century Africa

Legitimacy and the State in Twentieth-Century Africa
Author: Terence Ranger
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 291
Release: 1993-06-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1349123420

This book takes as its theme the ways in which governments legitimate their rule, both to themselves and to their subjects. Its introduction explores legitimacy and pre-colonial states, but the three sections of the book deal with colonial legitimacy, the question of legitimation in the transition from colonialism to majority rule, and the contemporary debate about accountability.

The Construction of Religious Boundaries

The Construction of Religious Boundaries
Author: Harjot Oberoi
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 516
Release: 1994-12-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0226615936

A study of the process by which a pluralistic religious world view is replaced by a monolithic one, this book questions basic assumptions about the efficacy of fundamentalist claims and the construction of all social and religious identities.

Religious Identity and the Problem of Historical Foundation

Religious Identity and the Problem of Historical Foundation
Author: Judith Frishman
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 599
Release: 2004-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9047412834

The essays collected in this book deal with the question how, throughout the history of Christianity, Christian communities have tried to construct their identity by anchoring their views in authoritative and normative sources. The main focus is upon the problem of historical foundation through textual traditions but other authoritative sources ( role of religious leaders; ritual traditions) are taken into consideration as well. The book takes as its point of departure the fact that with the rise of modernity the former dependence of western church and society on authoritative sources was called into question. Ever since, appeal to such sources is no longer self-evident; at times it is even regarded as problematic. Based on this radical change brought about by modernity, the book is divided in two main parts. The first part deals with the question how Christian churches and confessions ( Roman-Catholic and Protestant) confronted modernity and which role was played by authoritative sources in the tradition to the modern era. Special attention will be paid to the way in which Judaism reacted to many of the same impulses, both societal and religious ones. The second part deals with the premodern period, from early Christianity to the post-Reformation era, and focuses on the role authoritative traditions, textual or otherwise, have played in providing various Christian communities with a relative stable identity. The aim of the book is to elucidate processes resulting in the formation of authoritative traditions as well as the effects of these traditions on the identity of Christian and Jewish communities. In addition, the book attempts to clarify the various ways in which Christian and Jewish communities have reacted to the growing suspicion authoritative traditions aroused in the western world since the rise of modernity.

Historicizing "Tradition" in the Study of Religion

Historicizing
Author: Steven Engler
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2012-02-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110901404

This collection of essays analyzes ‛tradition’ as a category in the historical and comparative study of religion. The book questions the common assumption that tradition is simply the “passing down” or imitation of prior practices and discourses. It begins from the premise that many traditions are, at least in part, social fabrications, often deliberately serving particular ideological ends. Individual chapters examine a wide variety of historical periods and religions (Congolese, Buddhist, Christian, Confucian, Cree, Esoteric, Hawaiian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, New Religious Movement, and Shinto). Different sections of the book consider tradition's relation to three sets of issues: legitimation and authority; agency and identity; modernity and the West.