Gods and Demons, Priests and Scholars

Lincoln, Bruce:
Gods and Demons, Priests and Scholars : Critical Explorations in the History of Religions / Bruce Lincoln. - Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2012. - ca. 320 S. : Ill.
ISBN 978-0-226-48186-9
US$ 90,00 (Hardbound)
ISBN 978-0-226-48187-6
US$ 27,50 (Paperback)
DDC: 200.71
-- Angekündigt für April 2012 --

Beschreibung
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. [Verlagsinformation]

Inhalt
List of Illustrations. ix
Preface. xi
1. Theses on Method. 1
2. How to Read a Religious Text. 5
3. Nature and Genesis of Pantheons. 17
4. The Cosmo-logic of Persian Demonology. 31
5. Anomaly, Science, and Religion. 43
6. Between History and Myth. 53
7. Poetic, Royal, and Female Discourse. 63
8. Ancient and Post-Ancient Religions. 73
9. Sanctified Violence. 83
10. Religious and Other Conflicts in Twentieth-Century Guatemala. 95
11. In Praise of the Chaotic. 109
12. Theses on Comparison, with Cristiano Grottanelli. 121
13. The (Un)discipline of Religious Studies. 131
Notes. 137
Bibliography. 199
Index. 219

Autor
BRUCE LINCOLN is the Caroline E. Haskell Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago, where he is an associate at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He is the author of eight books, including Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship, which received an award in 2000 from the American Academy of Religion for Excellence in the Study of Religion. Profile page.

Quellen: University of Chicago Press; Google Books; WorldCat; Library of Congress; Amazon