Gods and demons, priests and scholars : critical explorations in the history of religions / Bruce Lincoln.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lincoln, Bruce, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religion--History--Study and teaching.

Religion.

Religion--History--Study and teaching--Methodology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (229 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations, tables

Place of Publication:

Chicago, [Illinois] ; London, [England] : The University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Bruce Lincoln is one of the most prominent advocates within religious studies for an uncompromisingly critical approach to the phenomenon of religion-historians of religions, he believes, should resist the preferred narratives and self-understanding of religions themselves, especially when their stories are endowed with sacred origins and authority. In Gods and Demons, Priests and Scholars, Lincoln assembles a collection of essays that both illustrates and reveals the benefits of his methodology, making a case for a critical religious studies that starts with skepticism but is neither cynical nor crude. The book begins with Lincoln's "Theses on Method" and ends with "The (Un)discipline of Religious Studies," in which he unsparingly considers the failings of uncritical and nonhistorical approaches to the study of religions. In between, Lincoln presents new examinations of problems in ancient religions and relates these cases to larger comparative themes. While bringing to light important features of the formation of pantheons and the constructions of demons, chaos, and the dead, Lincoln demonstrates that historians of religions should take religious things-inspired scriptures, sacred centers, salvific rites, communities graced by divine favor-as the theories of interested humans that shape perception, community, and experiences. As he shows, it is for their terrestrial influence, and not their sacred origins, that religious phenomena merit consideration by the historian. Tackling many questions central to religious study, Gods and Demons, Priests and Scholars will be a touchstone for the history of religions in the twenty-first century.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

1. Theses on Method

2. How to Read a Religious Text

3. Nature and Genesis of Pantheons

4. The Cosmo-logic of Persian Demonology

5. Anomaly, Science, and Religion

6. Between History and Myth

7. Poetic, Royal, and Female Discourse

8. Ancient and Post-Ancient Religions

9. Sanctified Violence

10. Religious and Other Conflicts in Twentieth-Century Guatemala

11. In Praise of the Chaotic

12. Theses on Comparison - with Cristiano Grottanelli

13. The (Un)discipline of Religious Studies

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780226035161

0226035166

OCLC:

1014439960