Introduction

Author(s): Danuta Sosnowska / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The book contains reflections on the diversified religious experience expressed in the culture and literature of the Slavic region. We can say that Slavic religious experience is “messy”, but maybe it is better to say this is Slavic experience of modernity that is “messy”. Bearing in mind that ‘Slavic experience’ is only a metaphor – a mental shortcut – we should remember that it is torn between the specificity of the local context and the Western-centric unification. Reflection on specific features of local religious experiences and examining this phenomenon in the context of global processes enriches knowledge of modernity and its relation to secularization and desecularization. If modernity is defined broadly and universally, then studies on ‘small cultures’ can go beyond the traditional interpretative ‘pattern – copy’ or ‘center – periphery’ models.

The Postsecular Point of View

Author(s): Ewelina Drzewiecka / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The paper is a subjective overview of the international conference “The experience of faith in Slavic cultures and literatures in the context of post secular thought,” held in Warsaw on 16–17 October 2017; it aims to comment on the nature of the postsecular approach, as well as the problems and potential of research into religious experience in Slavic modernities.

Postsecularity: Theoretical Concept and Historical Experience

Author(s): Michał Warchala / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

My purpose in what follows is to use ‘postsecularity’ as a transhistorical concept that underpins a new reading of modern religious history. My understanding of postsecularity is inspired by Jürgen Habermas. The postsecular is thought based on the dialectical conjunction of a farewell to traditional religious orthodoxy and a plea for a heterodox revival of religious intuitions and symbols. My main contention would be that postsecularism thus understood is hardly a new phenomenon and that it is in fact a persistent undercurrent within Western modernity, bringing together such authors as William Blake, Franz Rosenzweig, and Max Weber.

The Experience of Faith in a Postsecular Context

Author(s): Stanisław Obirek / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The concept of religion and of the divine is very complex; in fact, it is a human construction which is closely related to culture and its development. This is particularly clear when we consider dynamic changes in religious institutions, the Catholic Church included. The same should be said about religious experience. The religious experience was defined by William James at the beginning of the twentieth century in his classic book, The varieties of religious experience. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Charles Taylor took up some of James’ ideas in his book Varieties of religion today. The religious context of time is present in both books, which were the outcome of the Gifford Lectures delivered at Edinburgh University. In traditional descriptions of religious phenomena, atheism and disbelief were usually not taken into account; however, the last two decades have brought a radical change. In this paper I will try to demonstrate that the postsecular context by the end of second decade of the twenty-first century gives us a new opportunity to define religious experience that allows us to overcome the traditional tension between religious and secular worldviews. I will even propose that it is possible to speak about a new paradigm in religious studies.

Religion Today: ‘Public Decline’ in an ‘Anthropological Refuge’?

Author(s): Nonka Bogomilova / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The paper examines diverse theoretical standpoints on issues related to the interpretation of contemporary religiosity. A distinction is made between, on the one hand, authors who acknowledge as indisputable the secular, non-religious nature of the contemporary times and, on the other hand, authors and ideas that consider the contemporary world as totally religious; between interpretations of the existential horizon of religion as providing a unique and irreplaceable transcendental meaning and support to the mortal individual, as opposed to those viewing religion as a transient cultural condition in the course of the maturing and autonomous self-assertion of the individual and society. These general theoretical and value-based interpretations, developed in particular by the philosophy and sociology of religion, are taken up here in order to understand the dynamic processes developing in the modern/postmodern religious situation, registered by sociological research and fieldwork or observed in various regional phenomena. The emptying of religion of its social ‘infrastructure’ role – the global framework of the social body – shifts the ‘point of application’ of religion from the social to the individual level, to human subjectivity. The methodological turn from the group and community to the individual is analyzed as both culturally justified and very limited. This investigation tries to clarify the issue: is ‘subjective’ religion an ‘anthropological residue’ doomed to depletion, or an essential element of ‘revived’ religion?

Metaphysical Yearning – A Czech Tradition

Author(s): Xavier Galmiche / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

This paper intends to give a wide panorama of alternative spirituality as a basic feature of modern Czech culture. Although the image of Czechia as the most dechristianized country in Europe is very popular, this must be considered a stereotype. Despite the fact that secularization of Czech society and culture has been a long-term process, the metaphysical thirst which could be manifested in the culture has not been eradicated. Instead, it has been redirected towards new forms of searching for transcendence. A fundamental episode of this reflection on religiosity took place in around 1900, when opportunities for spirituality beyond confession (any confession, not only the Catholic one) were considered and the role of Churches was questioned. It was also the time when original experiments were performed by artists in order to synthesize different spiritual ideas (e.g. František Bílek’s ‘mystical syncretism’). The author of this article argues that there is an ‘underground river’ of Catholicism in the relationship one can have with the sacred in everyday life. Analyzing different examples of literary works, he shows how Czech writers are rooted in spiritual tradition, even those who are not associated with this idea (e.g. Karel Čapek). Other examples of ‘classical’ Czech authors are also given in the text demonstrating how sensitive they were to spirituality and transcendence. Although such writers as Vítězslav Nezval reduced or marginalized spirituality, this tendency was balanced by artists who manifested their metaphysical needs (e.g. Vladimír Holan and his ‘metaphysical existentialism’). Different forms of spiritual experiences can be observed throughout the 20th century in Czech literature and they find echoes in the works of authors of the neo-avant-garde, for example in the post-baroque writing of Bohumil Hrabal.

“Priests in Prisons”: Religious Experience in Extreme Circumstances – The Theopoetics of Jan Zahradníček’s (1951–1960) Poems Written behind Bars

Author(s): Josef Vojvodík,Jan Wiendl / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

In April and July 1952 Brno and Prague were the scenes of show trials of alleged “agents in the service of the Vatican and the USA,” contrived by the Communist state security apparatus to dispose of opposition Catholic intellectuals and writers. The trials ended with one death penalty, one sentence of life imprisonment and long prison sentences of seven to twenty-five years. Those convicted included one of the most striking exponents of 1930s and 1940s modern Czech verse, Jan Zahradníček (1905–1960), who was jailed for thirteen years. In the extreme conditions of incarceration Zahradníček never stopped writing poetry, or rather reciting it to his fellow-inmates, who learned the poems by heart. On his release from prison under the general amnesty of May 1960 Zahradníček – in the five months of life left to him – reconstructed the poems. This essay focuses on the theopoetics of his prison poems which picked up on the main topic of his postwar poems (1946–1951): the crisis of man and the tragedy of a humanism without God. Zahradníček’s prison verse is typified by both its striking theopoetic dimension, arising out of the poet’s solidly Catholic faith and religious experience, and its anthropopoetic dimension: in other words, poetry being for man something fundamental, in certain circumstances vital to him and his survival, and affecting him in quite basic ways. It is a special form of freedom within one’s compressed self and a special form of intensified self-awareness. The poems of Zahradníček’s dark years behind bars are not only testament to religious experience in the extreme conditions of brutal totalitarian dictatorship, but also to the fact that under extreme conditions an aesthetic force becomes a force of aesthetic resistance, and to how this manifests itself.

Faith Beyond Doctrines – Faith in Dialogue: Reflection on the Philosophical Anthropology of Milan Machovec

Author(s): Paula Kiczek / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Czech philosopher and dissident Milan Machovec was an initiator of the so-called “Seminars of dialogue” that took place in the early 1960s at Charles University in Prague and were followed by analogical events abroad, mostly in German speaking circles. The meetings were originally meant as a platform for Marxist and Christian dialogue, although the religious and ideological limits were in fact by a long way overstepped. The meetings were attended by Egon Bondy, Milan Opočenský, Jan Sokol, Zdeněk Neubauer, Ladislav Hejdánek, and others. Machovec also established close relations with Erich Fromm and Ernst Bloch. When the process of democratization in Czechoslovakia was brutally stopped in 1968, this so-called ‘normalization’ affected also Milan Machovec. His political opinions and his philosophical point of view – not to mention his dissident activities that were so disturbing to the communist powers – resulted in him being expelled from the university in 1970. Nevertheless, he kept giving lectures in his private apartment and, with the help of the people gathered around him, he built close relations with the Czech Underground. Milan Machovec is an emblematic example of an individual who could be seen today as a promoter of postsecular approaches to all forms of religiosity, starting from those which revealed themselves as ‘political religion’. However, Christianity itself and its worship were also an object of Machovec’s skepticism. According to him, all forms of faith were ‘touched’ with ambiguity due to the disillusion with traditional confession, but also, as far as ‘political religion’ was concerned, religion was affected by distrust resulting from the experience of the totalitarian regime and the post-war crisis of values. Machovec’s way of thinking is far from systematic philosophy, it turns rather towards the Socratic practice of questioning persisting dogmas. His main concern was seeking forms of profound understanding of the spiritual needs of contemporary human beings. The aim of this brief article is to recall the significance of Machovec’s thought in the broad context of postsecularism, as well as to show that his intellectual heritage still remains current nowadays.

Aelian on Tortoise Sex and the Artifice of “Erotic Love Magic”

Author(s): Naomi Janowitz / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

For the Roman author Claudius Aelianus (Aelian, ca. 175–235 CE), intercourse is not a simple issue for animals. In his book On Animals, Aelian introduces the tortoise as follows: “Tortoises are the most lustful land animals but the males only, the females do not willingly mate.” Luckily, nature offers a solution to this dilemma. Male tortoises, Aelian states, use a plant to stimulate an appetite for sex in reluctant female tortoises. Christopher Faraone, in a sophisticated analysis of the anecdote, considers it evidence of “love magic.” He connects the anecdote with much earlier Greek rites via their standard classification in this category. Ancient Greek love magic includes agape-inducing formulas/rites used by men to turn women into passionate lovers and philia-inducing formulas/rites used by women to attract men. The category “love magic” is widely used to evaluate and classify rites, adopted recently by Radcliffe Edmonds. Evidence includes the use of lead tablets with cursing formula (fourth century B.C.E.), rites related to intercourse or sexuality found in the Greek papyri (first-fourth centuries C.E.), and numerous Greek and Roman literary anecdotes about goddesses or women who poison or attempt to poison men for marital or love interests.

The Dodekaoros, Magical Papyri, and Magical Gems

Author(s): Attilio Mastrocinque / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The Dodekaoros is an astrological system based on twelve symbolic animals, each one representing a form of the Sun when approaching a particular constellation and zodiacal sign. This system was used for horoscopes. Its origin has no certain chronology and is known from the late Hellenistic Age thanks to the Babylonian astrologist Teukros. Nevertheless, the system was probably older and seems to be rooted in the Egyptian speculations about the different forms of the Sun God. Its use in some magical papyri and gems is studied here by taking also new data into account. In particular, we will review the Papyri Graeca Magica (thereafter PGM) IV, 1644-1649, XXXVIII, 1-26, reporting the Dodekaoros with an orientation (with the cat in S-E), and III, 500-535, where καν[θάρου should be read and not καμ[μάρου. Two features will prove particularly useful in our research: the orientation of the system and the nocturnal part of the animal series. Several animal forms of the Dodekaoros also appear on magical gems, where they are placed in the cardinal points. In PGM II, 103-40 and on a magical gem, the Sun has 4 four forms in the different quarters of the sky and – this system can be understood only if we remember that these forms depend on the Dodekaoros and if we place one half the forms beneath the Earth, during the night; moreover, in PGM VIII, 6-11 four animals of the Dodekaoros are displaced into the four cardinal points. Some series of magical gems represent five animal forms of the Dodekaoros repeated thrice in order to depict the lower, the middle, and the upper parts of the world. These iconographies were aimed to represent the solar god in his variety of forms with his related influences over the world. This chapter will first study the meaning of the Dodekaoros, then its descriptions in magical papyri with or without orientation, and finally it will analyze several magical gems.

How to Deal With the Evil Daimones

Author(s): Tiana Blazevic / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

This chapter analyses the self-styling of Porphyry and Iamblichus as Priestly-Philosophers and divine theurgists who were competing against the ritualists of the so-called magical papyri. Using an anthropological perspective and a close reading of the relevant texts, this study establishes that knowledge of daimones was unequivocally tied up in the production and negotiation of power relations in late antiquity. This chapter will demonstrate the striking similarities between Neoplatonic daimonic theories and the magical papyri. This chapter is also the first serious attempt at looking at the practical aspects of late antique demonology in pagan writers.

Magic and Disbelief in Carolingian Lyon

Author(s): Michael D. Bailey / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The Middle Ages are often associated with credulity, especially toward magic, compared to modern Western society, which is often regarded as thoroughly disenchanted. Yet not all medieval people believed unhesitatingly in all magical practices. The early ninth-century Carolingian archbishop Agobard of Lyon described a remarkable system of weather-magic widely believed by people in his diocese of which he was completely skeptical. He justified his disbelief through references to biblical texts, but this study argues that his disbelief was grounded in his own encounters with and investigations of these magical practices, and focused only on certain elements within them.

The Merseburg Charms

Author(s): Martina Lamberti / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Among the texts of Old High German literature, two alliterative spells, the Merseburg charms, contained in a tenth-century liturgical manuscript, show some analogies with Christian prayers. This chapter focuses on the role of Christianity in the literary production of medieval Germany, with special regard to magic formulas. Attention is drawn on the manuscriptʼs paleography and contents, and it continues with the magic “genre” and the study of spells. Then, the Merseburg charms are analysed on the basis of content, structure, language, and parallels with other texts. The purpose of this study is to show the analogies between Christian prayers and heathen charms with regard to their allusions to the divine and the fulfillment of performative acts.

Hirsuta et cornuta cum lancea trisulcata

Author(s): Francesco Marzella / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

This paper investigates the perception of witchcraft and magic in three Latin literary sources that were written or circulated in twelfth century Britain. The study focuses on both historical and narrative aspects, stressing how the approach to witchcraft can be influenced by the different purposes of the texts. The analysis of the texts will prove how very often behind the images of women endowed with supernatural powers or learned in magical arts lies a warning against potentially dangerous cultural and religious ‘othernesses’.

Operari per fidem

Author(s): Noel Putnik / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

This essay examines Cornelius Agrippa’s understanding of magic and magical ritual, which was profoundly religious, albeit not in line with mainstream Christian theology. Through a textual analysis, I scrutinize the Neoplatonic roots of Agrippa’s theory of magic and suggest that he viewed a properly executed magical ritual as resulting in a state of rapture, or an altered state of consciousness. As part of the analysis, I explore tempting textual parallels between the suggested notion of magical rapture in Agrippa and similar concepts found in the New Testament, Plotinus, and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.

Reasoning with Witchcraft

Author(s): Melissa Pullara / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

In this chapter, I argue that the Weird Sisters in Macbeth influence him to pursue rational deliberation, a key facet of humanist moral philosophy, wherein people make decisions that serve an individual good rather than a universal morality. I conduct a literary analysis of the play to demonstrate how Shakespeare parallels the witches and Macbeth by highlighting their linguistic similarities and shared propensity for rhetorical, and by extension, psychological manipulation through rationalization. In so doing, Shakespeare reveals that the potential for the abuse of reason towards individual gain is an innate part of a flawed human nature which people, particularly those who make up larger religious and political institutions, seek to deny by displacing that internal threat onto external forces in an attempt to ignore their own moral fallibilities. I end the chapter with a brief look at Thomas Middleton’s The Witch and Ben Jonson’s Masque of Queens to demonstrate how other early modern English playwrights complicate the relationship between witch and human characters to demonstrate how closely related the two are.

Envisioning the Afterlife from the “Seaport of Friuli”

Author(s): Cora Presezzi / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Društvo i religija

Author(s): Dino Abazović / Language(s): Bosnian Publication Year: 0

Danas postoji značajan broj naučnih disciplina koje za svoj predmet imaju religiju, u svoj njenoj kompleksnosti, ili pak određene fenomene koji su određenoj vezi s religijom; tako se i unutar sociologije, naročito u relativno novije vrijeme, razvila posebna disciplina čiji predmet istraživanja obuhvaća religiju – sociologija religije.

Kurdish Youth and Religious Identity: Between Religious and National Tensions

Author(s): Ibrahim Sadiq / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

According to official figures published by the KRG Ministry of Planning, the percentage of individuals aged thirty and younger in the region constitutes two-thirds of the population. Half of the region's population is under the age of twenty, demonstrating the significant share of the population constituted by young people (KRG 2013). At this susceptible stage of life, youth seek “active engagement in processes of identity formation” (Ryan 2014, 447), and if their energies are not directed and invested in line with a national strategy, the potential repercussions could negatively affect their future and that of the region in general.

Termeni creştini de origine grecească

Author(s): Lucian Jitaru / Language(s): Romanian Publication Year: 0

L´auteur de cet article propose de présenter les termes religieux d´origine grecque les plus fréquents qui sont entrés dans la langue roumaine au cours des siècles dès les premiers contacts des Romains avec les Grecques jusqu´au XVIII-ème siècle quand la Moldavie était dirigée par les Grecques phanariotes. Le grecque comme une langue appartenant ȧ une civilisation de prestige (en philosophie, en littérature, en rhétorique) a eu une grand influence sur la langue roumaine grâce ȧ sa position géographique et aux contacts politiques économiques, culturelles et religieux.