Figuring religions : comparing ideas, images, and activities / edited by Shubha Pathak.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Pathak, Shubha, 1972-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religions.

Religion.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (316 p.)

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Figuring Religions offers new ways of comparing prominent features of the world's religions. Comparison has been at the heart of religious studies as a modern academic discipline, but comparison can be problematic. Scholars of religion have been faulted for ignoring or reinterpreting differences to create a universal paradigm. In reaction, many of today's scholars have placed chief emphasis on the differences between traditions. Seeking to reinvigorate comparison and avoid its excesses, contributors to this volume use theories of metaphor and metonymy from the fields of philosophy, linguistics, and anthropology to look at religious ideas, images, and activities. Traditions considered include Hinduism, ancient Greek religions, Judaism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Christianity, and Islam. By applying trope theories, contributors reveal elements of these religions in and across their cultural contexts.

Contents:

""Figuring Religions: Comparing Ideas, Images, and Activities""; ""Contents""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Foreword""; ""Introduction""; ""Part I: Figuring Religious Ideas""; ""Chapter 1: Marking Religion�s Boundaries: Constitutive Terms, Orienting Tropes, and Exegetical Fussiness""; ""Chapter 2: “Epic� as an Amnesiac Metaphor: Finding the Word to Compare Ancient Greek and Sanskrit Poems""; ""Chapter 3: Conceptions of the Self in the Zhuangzi: Conceptual Metaphor Analysis and Comparative Thought""

""Chapter 4: Theorizing Embodiment: Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the Comparative Study of Religion""""Part II: Figuring Religious Images""; ""Chapter 5: Bathed in Milk: Metaphors of Suckling and Spiritual Transmission in Thirteenth-Century Kabbalah""; ""Chapter 6: Metaphors and Images of Dress and Nakedness: Wrappings of Embodied Identity""; ""Part III: Figuring Religious Activities""; ""Chapter 7: Poetry, Ritual, and Associational Thought in Early India and Elsewhere""; ""Chapter 8: Spatial Metaphors and Women�s Religious Activities in Ancient Greece and China""

""Chapter 9: In Search of Equivalence: Conceiving Muslim-Hindu Encounter through Translation Theory""""Afterword""; ""Contributors""; ""Index""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438445397

1438445393

OCLC:

840569831