In Between
The Holy Beyond Modern Dichotomies
by Espen Dahl
Thanks to the recent return to religion, the holy has become a relevant issue in public debate, as is suggested by concepts such as re-sacralization and re-enchantment. Holy war and religiously motivated terrorist attacks, the fascination in popular culture for subjects such as the Holy Grail (as in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code), and new spiritual longings both within and outside institutional religion, all testify to the new religious climate. This situation calls for a reassessment of both classical and new theories about the holy. Espen Dahl offers a theoretical account of the holy. Central to its approach is the idea that the holy cannot be reduced to one stable essence, but is fundamentally composite and takes place in between. This means that the typical modern dichotomies between the holy and the profane, the pure and the impure, the pious and the violent, cannot be drawn as sharply as scholars once did. Instead, the manifestation of the holy takes place in the interstice between those spheres. Such a position is not strong; it attests to the weakness of the holy. Through a critical dialogue with the most influential recent contributions, various theories and responses to them are presented on the basis of the book’s overall perspective. Espen Dahl deals with various theoretical perspectives, corresponding to the numerous dimensions of the holy. Phenomenology plays the principal role, because it offers the best means to preserve the experiential dimensions which are essential to the holy. From this perspective, the book discusses theories from religious science, theology, philosophy, and psychology.
- By (author) Espen Dahl
Other Titles in this Series
Religion
Immediate Experience and the Mediacy of Research: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Objectives, Concepts and Methodology of Empirical Research in Religion
Volume 1
Governing Cemeteries
State Responses to the New Diversity in The Netherlands, Norway and France
Volume 30
The Spaces of Others – Heterotopic Spaces
Practicing and Theorizing Hospitality and Counter-Conduct beyond the Religion/Secular Border
Volume 21
Dance as Third Space
Interreligious, Intercultural, and Interdisciplinary Debates on Dance and Religion(s)
Volume 32
Der Fremde in der europaischen Karikatur
Eine religionswissenschaftliche Studie uber das Spannungsfeld zwischen Belustigung, Beleidigung und Kritik
Volume 11
Calling Bodies in Lived Space
Spatial Explorations on the Concept of Calling in a Public Urban Space
Volume 27
Alltag mit kunstlichen Wesen
Theologische Implikationen eines Lebens mit subjektsimulierenden Maschinen am Beispiel des Unterhaltungsroboters Aibo
Volume 3
Stuck in the Margins?
Young people and faith-based organisations in South African and Nordic localities
Volume 31
Deconversion
Qualitative and Quantitative Results from Cross-Cultural Research in Germany and the United States of America
Volume 5
Secular and Sacred
The Scandinavian Case of Religion in Human Rights, Law and Public Space
Volume 15
Transfiguring Transcendence in Harry Potter, His Dark Materials and Left Behind
Fantasy Rhetorics and Contemporary Visions of Religious Identity
Volume 13
The Kingdom of God and the Poor
The Bible Reading of the Economically Underprivileged Christians in Tanzania
Volume 36
Verortet: Kirche und Liturgie im Wandel
Eine empirisch-theologische Studie zur Liturgie als Formwandlerin der Kirche
Volume 29
Raum und Geist
Zur Erdung und Beheimatung der Religion - eine theologische Asthetik des Raumes
Volume 7
Redeeming the Sense of the Universal
Scandinavian Creation Theology on Politics and Ecology
Volume 39
Robinson Crusoe Tries Again
Missiology and European Constructions of 'Self' and 'Other' in a Global World 1789-2010
Volume 9
Lived Religion and Lived Development in Contemporary Society
Essays in Honour of Wilhelm Grab
Volume 38
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