Fetishizing tradition : desire and reinvention in Buddhist and Christian narratives / Alan Cole.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cole, Alan, 1964- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Desire--Religious aspects--Buddhism.

Desire.

Desire--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Buddhism--Doctrines.

Buddhism.

Christian art and symbolism.

Fetishism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (300 p.)

Place of Publication:

Albany, New York : SUNY Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This innovative work documents the literary gesture that "fetishizes tradition," making long-standing religious traditions appear present and available through the reading experience. Taking as examples Paul's Letter to the Romans, the Gospel of Mark, the Sūtra on the Land of Bliss (Sukhāvatīvyūha), and the Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch (Liuzu tanjing), Alan Cole shows how these texts invite readers into the fantasy that they can leave behind tradition's established rites, rituals, sacrifices, institutions, and festivals in order to take up just the text and its narrative as the key to salvation. Ironically, then, one's salvation is determined by how one receives the (new) message of salvation. Crucial to making these more virtual forms of tradition appear plausible is the reconstruction of tradition's "truth-fathers"—God or the Buddha, as the case may be—so that they appear to endorse the legitimacy of these new ways of being traditional. Relying on a wide body of critical theory, this book presents an intriguing way to rethink key elements in Christian and Buddhist thought.

Contents:

Contents; Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction: Fetishes and the Spirit of Religious Studies; A Brief History of the Term Fetish; Fetishizing Tradition; 1. Methodology and a World of Commentary; Fetishizing Tradition as Art for the Masses; The Doubly Present Past; The Law of Desire and Truth-Fathers; Eyes Wide Open; Chapter and Verse; Pierre Bourdieu's Account of Religious Rhetoric; 2. Paul's Letters, or How God Became a Jewish Priest; Introduction; Situating a Critical Reading of Paul and the Gospel of Mark; Paul's Theory of Salvation: A Moveable Feast of Paternal Presence

How God Became a Jewish PriestHow Does He Do It? Paul's Six Techniques for Rewriting Tradition; Tradition on the Inside; Choosing One's Parents; A Death in the Family That Remakes the World; Fetishizing the World; Conclusions; Conclusions, Part II: An Outsider's Reflections on Recent Pauline Studies; 3. The Gospel of Mark, or Narrative as Floating Patriarchy; Introduction; Mark and the Cult of Narrative; A Flair for Drama; Two Principal Themes; An End Run; The First Theme: Establishing Jesus as the Son of God; The Public Nature of Personal Identity; Society at Large; Ask Anyone

Did You See What I Saw?Halfhearted Disciples; Innocence in Denial; Living outside the Law; A Motherless Child; Who Do They Say I Am?; The Transfiguration, or Tradition in Three Huts; A Clean Getaway; Legal Problems; The Parables: Do You Know What Am I Talking About?; The Guilt of (Old) Tradition; Where's the Love?; Conclusions: An Empty Double, or Religion as Narrative; 4. The Sutra on the Land of Bliss, or That Place between Tongues and Texts; Introduction: Buddhism, Off in the Distance; An Introduction to Literary Reinventions of the Buddhist Tradition

Part I: Faith and the Power of SubmissionBut Where Is Amitayus?; The Birds; The Winds; A Word about Names; Here, There, and the Enormous Tongues of Truth; Part II: The Textual Genesis of the Land of Bliss; City of Narrative, City of Love; Conclusions; 5. The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, or Paternal Truth for the Masses; Introduction; A Real Find; The Early Bodhidharma Lineages; The Earliest Account of Huineng; Overview of the Narrative; Setting the Scene; The Action; The Poetry Contest; Some Time Later; Sonship 2.0; Overwriting the Past; The Death and Rebirth of Sonship

Truth and ViolenceResetting the Diamond Sutra, or Refetishizing a Fetish; The Teachings; Learning to Say "No" in a Positive Way; Conclusions: Being There; Conclusions: The Limits of Fetishizing Tradition; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438457468

1438457464

OCLC:

921987669