The Relational Dynamics of Enchantment and Sacralization
Changing the Terms of the Religion Versus Secularity Debate
edited by Peik Ingman, Tuija Hovi, Terhi Utriainen and Mans Broo
Paperback (Published)
(October 2016)
ISBN: 9781781794753
6.1 x 9.17 inches
Price: $29.95
In stock
Hardback (Published)
(October 2016)
ISBN: 9781781794746
6.1 x 9.17 inches
Price: $100.00
In stock
This volume revisits the concepts of enchantment and sacralization in light of perspectives which challenge the modern notion that man (alone) is the measure of all things. As Bruno Latour has argued, the battle against superstition entailed shifting power away from God/the gods to humans, thereby disqualifying the agency of all the other objects in the world. Might enchantment and sacralization be understood in other ways than through this battle between almighty gods and almighty humans? Might enchantment be understood to involve processes where power and control are not distributed so clearly and definitely? Like social constructionists, Latour emphasizes that things are constructed; yet, like many other new materialists, such as Jane Bennett, Manuel De Landa and Karen Barad, he emphasizes that this construction is not the result of projecting meaning onto a passive and meaningless world, but a matter of compositional achievements, whereby assemblages of actants co-compose each other and frame, enable and delimit one another’s agency. This move recognizes the active and entangled participation of players beyond the humans versus God(s) framework that informed the modernist project. Understanding enchantment and sacralisation as compositionally and relationally constructed does not mean the same as understanding them as constructed by humans alone. What it means is one of the main questions posed in this book. In other words, if enchantment and sacralization are not understood (solely) in terms of projecting anthropocentric meaning onto mute objects, what are some promising alternative approaches – old and new – and what are their implications for how we understand modernity and for method and theory in the study of religion?
Introduction: Towards More Symmetrical Compositions Peik Ingman, Terhi Utriainen, Tuija Hovi and Mans Broo PART I: Revisiting Enchantment and Animism Objects as Subjects: Agency and Performativity in Rituals Anne-Christine Hornborg, Lund University Enchantment, Matter, and the Unpredictability of Devotion Amy Whitehead, University of Wales and Oxford Brookes University Empowerment and the Articulation of Agency among Finnish Yoga Practitioners Mans Broo and Christiane Konigstedt, University of Munster Mastery and Modernity: Control Issues in the Disenchantment Tale Linda Annunen, Abo Akademi University, and Peik Ingman PART II: Political Concerns Recomposing Religion: Radical Agnosticism and Transformative Speech Michael Barnes Norton, University of Arkansas Re-enchanting Body and Religion in a Secular Society: Touch of an Angel Terhi Utriainen Marian Apparitions: The Construction of Authenticity and Governance of Sacralization in the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Portugal Nora Machado, Lisbon University Institute and University of Gothenburg Protection through the Invocation of Shared Thirds: Sacralization Without Iconoclasm Peik Ingman PART III: Academic Concerns Enchanted Sight/Site: An Esoteric Aesthetics of Image and Experience Jay Johnston, University of Sydney From Religion to Ordering Uncertainty: A Lesson from Dancers Milan Fujda, Masaryk University, Czech Republic Co-composing a Village History in the Archipelago of Southwestern Finland Jaana Kouri, University of Turku After Dis/enchantment: The Profanity of the Human Sciences Stuart McWilliams, Abo Akademi University Epilogue: When Things Talk Back Kocku von Stuckrad, University of Groningen
- Edited by Mans Broo
- Edited by Tuija Hovi
- Edited by Peik Ingman
- Edited by Terhi Utriainen
"If your academic interests include Bruno Latour, vernacular religion, materiality in religion, ritual, enchantment, or animism, then this book is a must-have for your collection. However, even if these topics fall outside of your normal research areas, I would recommend this book if for no other reason than to see some ways in which the field of religious studies is being reconfigured." --Darren Iammarino, San Diego Mesa College, Nova Religio vol. 21, no. 3 (2018) "Overall, this is an excellent book. It is not only approachable from several different fields, but leaves the reader with multiple perspectives from which to further investigate the enchantment of new materialism." --C.M. Howell, Reading Religion, August 7, 2018
—
Other Titles in this Series
Similar Books
‘For You I Study, For You I Work, For You I Live, For You I Am Ready To Even Give My Life’
Essays in Honour of Francis (Frank) J Moloney, SDB
A Late Antique Harrowing of Hell and Its Medieval Reception
Eusebius of Alexandria's Sermons 15 and 17 (CPG 5524; 5526) and their Latin Rewritings
Volume 99
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Fear, Fear of God, God-Fearers
Philological and Historical Perspectives on the World of Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Legal Visuality
Exegesis, Ambiguity, and Dissimulation of the Donation of Constantine in the Early Modern Period
Liturgia semper reformanda
Adaptations and accommodations in the liturgy in light of canon 838 of the Code of Canon Law
Pre-Christian Religions, Rituals, and Beliefs in Central and Northern Europe
Interdisciplinary Investigations
Volume 5
The Therapeutae as the Best Paradigm for the Contemplative Life
A Contextual Reading of Philo of Alexandria's De Vita Contemplativa
