Aesthetics of Religion: A Connective Concept

This volume is the first English language presentation of the innovative approaches developed in the aesthetics of religion. The chapters present diverse material and detailed analysis on descriptive, methodological and theoretical concepts that together explore the potential of an aesthetic approach for investigating religion as a sensory and mediated practice. In dialogue with, yet different from, other major movements in the field (material culture, anthropology of the senses, for instance), it is the specific intent of this approach to create a framework for understanding the interplay between sensory, cognitive and socio-cultural aspects of world-construction. The volume demonstrates that aesthetics, as a theory of sensory knowledge, offers an elaborate repertoire of concepts that can help to understand religious traditions. These approaches take into account contemporary developments in scientific theories of perception, neuro-aesthetics and cultural studies, highlighting the socio-cultural and political context informing how humans perceive themselves and the world around them. Developing since the 1990s, the aesthetic approach has responded to debates in the study of religion, in particular striving to overcome biased categories that confined religion either to texts and abstract beliefs, or to an indisputable sui generis mode of experience. This volume documents what has been achieved to date, its significance for the study of religion and for interdisciplinary scholarship.

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Aesthetics of Religion: A Connective Concept

This volume is the first English language presentation of the innovative approaches developed in the aesthetics of religion. The chapters present diverse material and detailed analysis on descriptive, methodological and theoretical concepts that together explore the potential of an aesthetic approach for investigating religion as a sensory and mediated practice. In dialogue with, yet different from, other major movements in the field (material culture, anthropology of the senses, for instance), it is the specific intent of this approach to create a framework for understanding the interplay between sensory, cognitive and socio-cultural aspects of world-construction. The volume demonstrates that aesthetics, as a theory of sensory knowledge, offers an elaborate repertoire of concepts that can help to understand religious traditions. These approaches take into account contemporary developments in scientific theories of perception, neuro-aesthetics and cultural studies, highlighting the socio-cultural and political context informing how humans perceive themselves and the world around them. Developing since the 1990s, the aesthetic approach has responded to debates in the study of religion, in particular striving to overcome biased categories that confined religion either to texts and abstract beliefs, or to an indisputable sui generis mode of experience. This volume documents what has been achieved to date, its significance for the study of religion and for interdisciplinary scholarship.

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Aesthetics of Religion: A Connective Concept

Aesthetics of Religion: A Connective Concept

Aesthetics of Religion: A Connective Concept

Aesthetics of Religion: A Connective Concept

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Overview

This volume is the first English language presentation of the innovative approaches developed in the aesthetics of religion. The chapters present diverse material and detailed analysis on descriptive, methodological and theoretical concepts that together explore the potential of an aesthetic approach for investigating religion as a sensory and mediated practice. In dialogue with, yet different from, other major movements in the field (material culture, anthropology of the senses, for instance), it is the specific intent of this approach to create a framework for understanding the interplay between sensory, cognitive and socio-cultural aspects of world-construction. The volume demonstrates that aesthetics, as a theory of sensory knowledge, offers an elaborate repertoire of concepts that can help to understand religious traditions. These approaches take into account contemporary developments in scientific theories of perception, neuro-aesthetics and cultural studies, highlighting the socio-cultural and political context informing how humans perceive themselves and the world around them. Developing since the 1990s, the aesthetic approach has responded to debates in the study of religion, in particular striving to overcome biased categories that confined religion either to texts and abstract beliefs, or to an indisputable sui generis mode of experience. This volume documents what has been achieved to date, its significance for the study of religion and for interdisciplinary scholarship.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9783110460452
Publisher: De Gruyter
Publication date: 12/18/2017
Series: Religion and Reason , #58
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 506
File size: 67 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Jay Johnston, Universität Sydney, Australien und Alexandra Grieser, Trinity College Dublin, Irland.

Jay Johnston, University of Sydney, Australia and Alexandra Grieser, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

Table of Contents

What is an Aesthetics of Religion? From the Senses to Meaning-and Back Again Alexandra Grieser Jay Johnston 1

List of Figures 51

Part I Fields and Topics

Grasping the Formless in Stones: The Petromorphic Gods of the Hindu Pancayatanapuja Mikael Aktor 59

Religion, Literature, and the Aesthetics of Expressionism John T. Hamilton Almut-Barbara Renger 75

Screening the Father of Lights: Documentary Film and the Aesthetics of the Nonfictional in Contemporary Religion Adrian Hermann 103

The Literary Aesthetics of Religious Narratives: Probing Literary-Aesthetic Form, Emotion, and Sensory Effects in Exodus 7-11 Laura Feldt 121

Part II History and Politics

Below the Horizon of Meaning: Figuration, Disfiguration, Transfiguration Niklaus Largier 147

The Performative Knowledge of Ecstasy: Jane E. Harrison's (1850-1928) Early Contestations of the Textual Paradigm in Religious Studies Ulrike Brunotte 161

What Does a Reformed City Look Like? - Changes in Visible Religion During the Reformation in Bremen Christoph Auffarth 189

Standing, Not Walking - The Hieratic as a Key Term of an Anthropologically Based Aesthetics of Religion Hubert Mohr 211

Part III Comparison and Transfer

Blue Brains: Aesthetic Ideologies and the Formation of Knowledge Between Religion and Science Alexandra Grieser 237

Aesthetic Dimensions and Transformative Dynamics of Mimetic Acts: The Veneration of Habib-i Neccar Among Muslims and Christians in Antakya, Turkey Jens Kreinath 271

Aestheticisation and the Production of (Religious) Space in Chennai Maruška Svašek 301

Moving Religion by Sound: On the Effectiveness of the Nada-Brahman an India and Modern Europe Annette Wilke 323

Part IV Concepts and Theories

Esoteric Aesthetics: The Spiritual Matter of Intersubjective Encounter Jay Johnston 349

Aesthetics of immersion: Collective Effervescence, Bodily Synchronisation and the Sensory Navigation of the Sacred Sebastian Schüler 367

The Governance of Aesthetic Subjects Through Body Knowledge and Affect Economies. A Cognitive-Aesthetic Approach Anne Koch 389

Religion in the Flesh: Non-Reductive Materialism and the Ecological Aesthetics of Religion Manuel A. Vásquez 413

Part V In Conversation: Essays About the Connectivity of an Aesthetics of Religion

Subjects and Sense-Making Fred Cummins 437

Consumer Culture and the Sensory Remodelling of Religion François Gauthier 447

Social Aesthetics, Atmosphere and Proprioception Frank Heidemann 457

Semiotics and Aesthetics: Historical and Structural Connections Robert Yelle 465

The Artificiality of Aesthetics: Making Connections on the Erie Canal S. Brent Plate 473

Authors Biographies 483

Index 491

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