Nvmen Vol 47

REVIEWFOR THE
INTIERNATIONAL
HISTORYOF RELIGIONS
EDITEDON BEHALFOF THE
ASSOCIATIONFOR THE
IN'TEKNATIONAL
HISTORYOF RELIGIONS
E.T.LAWSON,
by H.G.KIPPENBERG,
andM. DESPLAND
E. THOMASSEN
VOLUME XLVII
BRILL
LEIDEN BOSTON- KOLN
2000
CONTENTS
Articles
Kocku VON STUCKRAD, Jewish and Christian Astrology in Late
................................
Antiquity- A New Approach .
Thomas A. TWEED,John WesleySlept Here: American Shrines and
AmericanMethodists ........................................
JoannaTOKARSKA-BAKIR,
Naive Sensualism,Docta Ignorantia.Tibetan LiberationThroughthe Senses ............................
JonathanDAVID,The Exclusionof Womenin the MithraicMysteries:
Ancientor Moder? .........................................
Nathan KATZ,The Identityof a Mystic: The Case of Sa'id Sarmad,
A Jewish-Yogi-SufiCourtierof the Mughals ..
..................
JeffreyL. RICHEY,Ascetics and Aesthetics in the Analects .........
RobertA. YELLE,The Rebirthof Myth?:Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrenceand its RomanticAntecedents ...........................
Hans G. KIPPENBERG,
ReligiousHistory,Displaced by Modernity .
VolkhardKRECH,From Historicism to Functionalism: The Rise of
ScientificApproaches to Religions around 1900 and their SocioCulturalContext ............................................
MartinRIESEBRODT,
Fundamentalismand the Resurgence of Reli........................................................
gion
WouterJ. HANEGRAAFF,
New Age Religion and Secularization ....
MartinBAUMANN,Diaspora: Genealogies of Semantics and Transcultural Comparison
....
....
.................................
E. ThomasLAWSON,Towardsa CognitiveScience of Religion .....
Dag 0istein ENDSJ0, To Lock up Eleusis: A Question of Liminal
Space ......................................................
Mark W. MACWILLIAMS,
The Holy Man's Hut as a Symbol of
in
Buddhist
Stability Japanese
Pilgrimage .....................
Ina WUNN,Beginningof Religion ...............................
1
41
69
121
142
161
175
221
244
266
288
313
338
351
387
417
Book reviews
GerrieTer Haar,Halfway to Paradise:African Christians in Europe
(JanG. PLATVOET)........................................
113
Mario Vitalone (Ed.), The Persian Revdyat "Ithoter".Zoroastrian

115
Rituals in the EighteenthCentury(ManfredHUTTER)...........
Donald D. Leslie, Jews and Judaismin TraditionalChina:A Compre117
...............
hensive Bibliography(R.J. Zwi WERBLOWSKY)
David R. Jordan,Hugo MontgomeryandEinarThomassen(Eds.), The
203
Worldof Ancient Magic (Kocku VONSTUCKRAD)..............
Michael Stausberg,FaszinationZarathushtra.Zoroasterund die EuropdischeReligionsgeschichteder FriihenNeuzeit(ChristophAUF205
.... .................................
FARTH)..............
VolkhardKrech, Georg SimmelsReligionstheorie(AstridREUTER). 207
Helen Hardacre,Marketingthe Menacing Fetus in Japan (R.J. Zwi
209
...........................................
WERBLOWSKY)
James L. Cox, RationalAncestors: ScientificRationalityand African
211
IndigenousReligions (Afe ADOGAME)........................
Antoon Geels, Subud and the Javanese Mystical Tradition(Edwin
453
.. ............................................
WIERINGA) ..
Peter Schalk and Michael Stausberg (Eds.), "Being Religious and
Living through the Eyes." Studies in Religious Iconographyand
Iconology.A CelebratoryPublication in Honour of Professor Jan
454
Bergman(Ulrich BERNER)...................................
John F.A. Sawyer, Sacred Languages and Sacred Texts(Louis PAIN456
CHAUD)....................................................
Publicationsreceived ...........................................
119
213
458
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47
2000
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JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN ASTROLOGY IN LATE ANTIQUITY

- A NEW APPROACH1
KOCKU VON STUCKRAD
There is no Jewish archisynagogus,no Samaritan,no Christianpresbyter
who is not an astrologer,a soothsayer,or an anointer.2
Summaryand Introduction
In late antiquityastrologyheld a key position among the acceptedand well-reputed
sciences. As ars mathematicaclosely connected with astronomy,it made its way into
the highest political and philosophicalorders of the Roman Empireand became the
standardmodel of interpretingpast,present,and futureevents. Althoughthis is widely
acknowledged by modem historians, most scholars assume that the application of
astrological theories is limited to the 'pagan mind,' whereas Jewish and Christian
theology is characterizedby a harshrefutationof astrology'simplications.
As can easily be shown, this assumptionis not the result of careful examination
of the documentaryevidence but of a preconceivedand misleadingopinion aboutthe
basic ideas of astrology,which led to an astonishingdisregardof Jewish and Christian
evidence for astrological concerns. This evidence has been either played down if not neglected entirely- or labeled 'heretic,' thus prolongingthe polemics of the
'churchfathers'right into modernity.
After having reviewed the biases of previous researchinto monotheisticastrology
and its crucial methodologicalproblems,I shall propose a differentapproach.Astrology has to be seen as a certainway of interpretingreality.In this regardit is the very
backboneof esoteric tradition.I shall sketch the differentdiscoursesreflectedin some
late antiquity'sJewish and Christiandocuments. It will be shown that the astrological worldview of planetaryand zodiacal correspondenceswas common to most of the
sources. Examples will be presentedfor illustratingdifferent adoptions of this attitude, namely the discourse of cult theology, the magical and mystical applicationof
1The
following is a summaryof my Ph.D. thesis' results (1999). Each line of

argumentspresented here is discussed in that study in great detail, so that I shall
give special referencesto it only occasionally.Special thanksgo to BarbaraThdriault,
Erfurt,who improvedmy English.
2 A saying of Hadrian, reported in Hist. Aug. Firmus 8.3; cf. also Apuleius,
Apol. 90 and Lucian,Alex. 32.13.
? KoninklijkeBrill NV, Leiden (2000)
NUMEN, Vol. 47
Kockuvon Stuckrad
volitionanddeterminism,
and,finally,
astrological
knowledge,thedebatesconcerning
theuse of astrologyforpoliticalandreligiouslegitimization.
1. Researchinto MonotheisticAstrology:a Critique
Ancientastrologyhas been studiedby a lot of famousscholars

over the last century.3In the courseof time Babylonianand Greek
astrologyhas been describedin detail,whereasJewishandChristian
contributions
to andadoptionsof thatscience- if recognizedat all
- havebeen playeddown.One gainsthe impressionthatJewsand
Christianssimplydid not take notice of whatwas going on around
them.DavidFlusserput this commonnotiondirectly:"TheJewish
peoplein Palestineand elsewherehad becomecompletelyimmune
to the attractionsof the paganismagainstwhich the prophets[had
AndGundelresumesregarding
theChristians:
spoken]."4
"Rightfrom
the beginningChristianityrefutedastrology'saxioms and radically
foughtagainstthem."5Consideringthe huge amountof Jewishand
Christianastrologoumena
datingfromlate antiquitythesestatements
are,atleast,questionable.
Amongthebiasesof theologiansandthoseof historiansof religion
thefollowingthreeareprevailing:
(1) Belief in astrologyleadsnecessarilyto polytheismbecausethe
formsof a deity.At timespeopleeven
planetsarein a waymaterialized
consideredstarsandgodsbeingidentical.
(2) Astrologyimplies a tendencyto worshipastralentitiesand
thus usuallyestablishesa star cult. This is obviouslyincompatible
with monotheistictheology.As everyoneknows, the Babylonians
worshippedtheir astraldeities with sacrifices.This behaviorwas
3 Still
is Bouchd-Leclercq's
unsurpassed
opusof 1899. Of specialvaluearethe
studiesof Cramer(1954), Gundel(1966), van der Waerden(1968), andmore
recently- Barton(1994 & 1995).A summaryof ancientastrology'sdevelopment
is givenin vonStuckrad1996:17-85.
4
1987:945 no.65.
QuotedfromCharlesworth
5 Gundel1966:332. If notnotedotherwise,all
aretranslated
by
foreignquotations
theauthor.
Jewish and ChristianAstrologyin Late Antiquity
consequentlyandradicallyrefutedby the biblicalprophets,so thatlater

compromiseswere made impossible.
(3) Astrology is strongly connected with fatalism and deterministic worldviews. Given thatpious and rightfulbehavioris dependenton
free will and that prayerseems worthless in a deterministicuniverse,
astrologymust be consideredinconsistentwith Judaismand Christianity. Ergo:if astrologycomes into play, there will be no room for Jewish or Christianbeliefs. This notion seems exaggerated,but is continuously proposed, even by leading scholars. Talking for many others,
M.P.Nilsson, a greatscholarof ancientreligions, may be quotedhere:
"Thecausal linkage excludes every arbitrarysupernaturalintervention
into world's history, so that astrology consequently had to establish
atheism;it did so, as is told aboutthe emperorTiberius,himself a convinced adherentof astrology."6
These usually undoubtedtheological axioms have importantimplications. First of all, documentsnot fitting into the narrowperspective
of moder scholarshiphave simply been ignored.The fact that it took
35 years from the preliminarypublicationof the Qumranhoroscope
4Q186 by J.T. Milik in 1957 and its new presentationto a wider public by R. Eisenman and M. Wise in 1992 - still lacking any scholarly responsibility- is a telling example. The Greek magical papyri
are anotherone. But in some cases the astrologicalconnotationswere
too strongto be ignoredentirely,e.g. the pavementsof the Palestinian
synagogues with their zodiacal depiction or - on the Christianside
- the elaboratedastrologicalingredientswithin Gnostic writings. In
these cases scholars tend to claim that those developmentswere only
able to emerge outside 'orthodox'or 'normative'Judaismand Christianity.With regardto astrologythe same process of centralizationhas
taken place, as in the case of Christianmythmaking,profoundlyanalyzed by Burton L. Mack. 7 JonathanZ. Smith laid furtheremphasis
on the methodologicaldifficultiesstill determinablewithin theological
historiography:
6 Nilsson 1974: 278.
7 Mack 1995, see
especially pp. 7-11.
Kocku von Stuckrad

As in thearchaiclocativeideology,the centrehasbeenprotected,theperiphery
and relativedifferenceperceivedas absolute'other.'The
seen as threatening,
orsomeotherconstruction
Pauline
seizurebythe 'Christ-event'
the
fabled
centre,
of an originarymoment,has been declared,a priori, to be unique,to be
The periphery,whether
sui generis,and hence,by definition,incomparable.
understood
temporallyto precedeor followthe Paulinemoment,or, in spatial
of therapeutic
it, is to be subjectedto procedures
terms,to surround
comparison.
notscholarship.8
Thisis exorcismorpurgation,
The modulations of this criticism have been intensively discussed in

the humanities during the last two decades,9 but its implications have
only rarely been put into practice. In other words: although that criticism is widely accepted theoretically, a lot of scholars shrink from the
consequences that lead to a new position regarding the possibility of
telling a monolinear history. But one has to take them seriously. General definitions of 'Judaism,' 'Christianity,' or 'astrology' have to be
avoided from the outset. They are the result of a theological project of
legitimization carried out in ancient and early modem times. In contrast to this intention, it cannot be the goal of an academic examination to find out the position of ancient Jews and Christians towards
astrology. Acknowledging the perspectives' plurality and their contingent backgrounds, my analysis focuses on the social and religious discourses. Single positions have to be examined for their own sake and,
simultaneously, embedded in the discussions of the time.
Thus, the following questions are to be answered: which discourses
characterize the background of the sources under examination? Which
social, political, and religious contexts have to be taken into consideration? What were the means to gain consensus about the debates of the
8 Smith1990:143.
9
contributions
to this debateareBerger& LuckAmongthe most illuminating
mann1966;White1973& 1978;Koselleck1995;Miiller& Riisen1997.Thepresent
the phiauthor'smethodologyis deeplyinfluencedby thosescholars.Furthermore,
losophyof RichardRortywas of highrelevancefor me in establishinga pragmatic
in
assumptions
Religionswissenschaft,cf. Rorty1979& 1989andmy methodological
vonStuckrad1999,ch. II.
Jewish and ChristianAstrologyin LateAntiquity
time within Jewish and Christianmonotheism?What differences are

determinable,and how are they to be explained?
2. Astrologyand the Esoteric Doctrine of Correspondences
In the following I shall approachastrologyfrom a differentpoint of
departure.Leaving the apologetic theological projectionsbehind I do
not consider astrology to be a superstitionor apostasy.Furthermore,
it is not a priori connected with determinismor star cult, thoughboth
phenomenaare partof antiquity'sdebates.To begin with, astrologyis
an integralcomponentof ancientcultureand had an importantimpact
on WesternGeistesgeschichte.This holds notably true for the history
of esotericism. Emerging from an hermetic discourse astrology can
be regardedas esoteric thinking'scentral discipline. It stands in the
centerof alchemy and magic andexerteda stronginfluenceon Western
culturesince Renaissancetimes.10
In a numberof articlesandbooks AntoineFaivrearguedthatesotericism is not a secretreligionbut a specific worldview.As is well known,
he distinguishessix characteristic'forms of thought,'the firstfour being consideredas intrinsicto the definitionof esotericism,the last two
as relativeor non-intrinsic.1 As far as astrologyis concerned,the first
characteristic- the doctrineof correspondencesis of crucial importance.It is the very backbone of astrologicalthinking and can be
called vertical.12Insteadof assuming a causal and mechanisticinfluence of the stars astrologerstry to establish analogies and symmetric
correspondencesbetween the planetaryzone and the earth- hermeticism's famous 'as above, so below.' Hence, a denotationof astrology
10The influenceof Jewish
specialistson the historyof alchemywas recentlyspelled
out by Patai 1994. Alchemy is a similarcase to astrology,andPataibreaksnew ground
for futurescholarship.
11The intrinsiccharacteristicsare:Correspondences,living nature,imaginationand
mediations, experience of transmutation.The relative characteristicsare: The praxis
of concordanceand transmission.Cf. Faivre 1994: 10-15; Hanegraaff1995: 11If and
1996: 396-401.
12Cf. von Stuckrad1999a. As an influentialcontributionto the contemporary(at
least the popular)esoteric self descriptioncf. Dethlefsen 1979, esp. ch. I.
Kockuvon Stuckrad
describwouldreadas follows:Astrologyis a conceptof interpretation

and
ing the qualityof a giventime,i.e. the essenceof simultaneously
to
inherent
are
connected
events
which
symoccurring
synchronically
for this purposearethe
bols andmeaning.Themeasuringinstrument
zodiacandthe stars'movements.
Thecrucialpointis thatastrologyis a disciplinereckoningwiththe
readthe 'signsof
meaningof celestialinstances.It strivesto accurately
the time.'Thediscussionsaboutthis accuracyareof highimportance
for ancientpeople- includingJews and Christians.Indeed,people
in the astrologicaldiscourses
of the monotheisticcreedparticipated
to an astonishingdegree.Astrologicalsemantics,as I call them,playa
theologies,ranging
significantrolewithinmostof JewishandChristian
froma simpleastralsymbolism- thatis notto be calledastrological
- to highlyelaboratedsystemswhichshowa distinctivetheological
hand.
3. DiversifiedSources and MethodologicalImplications
Fromancienttimes therehas survivedan abundanceof astroloThe sources,stemming

goumenaof JewishandChristianprovenance.
fromthesecondcenturyBCEto theeighthcenturyCE,showa variety
of attemptsto cope withastrology'schallenges.Beforeanalyzingthe
JewsandChristiansmadeto the debatesof the
differentcontributions
time,I shallgivea shortoverviewof thedocumentsunderexamination.
This is importantbecauseI do not restrictmy analysisto the (later)
Z. Smithcalls
canonizedsourceswhicharetheresultof whatJonathan
Forme, everysourceshowinga Jewishor Christianprovepurgation.
documentswere
nanceis of equalrelevance.Indeed,thenon-canonical
muchmorereadin thosedays.Whatis at stakehereis not the questionof whowasrightaboutastrologyor who 'won'the 'battleagainst
buthowpeoplereactedto thecommonly
theastrologers'superstition,'
or
whether
ars
transformation,
by adaptation,
accepted mathematica,
refutation.
Beginning with the Jewish documents of the so-called intertestamental time13 the Qumran scriptures prove to be of extraordinary
value. They depict the priestly discourses of the Second Temple period and show a considerableinterest in astrological semantics, even
in horoscopic divination.Of the same period are the difficultEnochic
literature,the Book of Jubilees, and the vast testamentaldocuments,
among which the Testamentof Solomon is of special interest. Some
minortexts, usually neglected, are also worth mentioning,such as the
Treatiseof Shem or the OraculaSibyllina'sJewish insertions.Another
genre is markedby the philosophicalreflectionsof the historians,Artapanos,Aristobulos,and, of course, Philo of AlexandriaandJosephus
Flavius. Later,the differentrabbinicaldocumentscome into play and
show a vivid discussion about astrologicalimplications.Furthermore,
from the thirdto eighth centuries,the Hekhalotliteratureand the magical bowls fromMesopotamia,with theirastrologicalconnotations,are
to be considered.
On the Christianside I includeboth the canonicalandnon-canonical
sources. The former contributeda great deal to the myth of Christian innocence in astrologicalmatters,whereasthe latter- especially
the huge amountof Gnostic documents- renderthe impressionthat
a deep Christiancontact existed with the star science. This can easily be shown with regardto the Nag Hammadi texts and the teachings of Marcos, Theodotus,and Bardaisan.Those documentscontrast
with the refutationsof centrist Christianity'smost famous apologetics, Tertullian,Origen,Augustine,and all the othersplagiarizingthem.
Of crucial importance,then, is the significant Manichaeancontribution to monotheisticastrologicaldiscourses. Evolving from a JudaeoChristianapocalypticism centered around the prophet Elchasai and
similarBaptist groups,Mani establisheda full blown astrologicalsystem of his own.
In view of these sources' strong diversity a methodological problem arises. As mentionedabove, it cannot be the goal of an academic
13The role of
astrology within the biblical context falls beyond the scope of this
article.For thatcf. von Stuckrad1996: 87-105.
Kockuvon Stuckrad
to 'findout' the generalor evenconsensualmonotheistic

examination
positiontowardsastrology.Nor is it my intentionto 'detect'a linear
to enlightto adoption,fromsuperstition
fromrefutation
development
enment,or vice versa.Those 'developments'are mereinventionsof
scholarlyemplotment.14Ontheotherhand,theancientauthorsdidnot
write'in emptyspace.'Theywereinvolvedin a twofolddiscoursefirstly,in theirreligion'stradition,and, secondly,in theircontemporarysocial,political,scientific,andreligiousnegotiations.Hence,the
of differentdisanalysishasto keepin mindthepossibleoverlapping
boundaries.
courses,regardlessof religions'
has a systematic,abIn orderto do so, the followingpresentation
of singlecasestudies
theperspective
stractarrangement.
Transgressing
reactedto astrologicaldiscusI shallfocuson howJewsandChristians
the BabylonianandGreekastrological
sionsof the time.Fortunately,
skillshavebeenintensivelystudied,so thatwe canrecurto the (popular)vulgataas well as the academicbranchesof the ars mathematica
In the secondcenturyCE Ptolemy
as kindof tertiumcomparationis.
asforelaborated
collectedtheancienttraditionandset a newstandard
of time'squality
Thisstandardinterpretation
trologicalknowledge.15
less eduwhereas
JewsandChristians
was adoptedby well-educated
contentions.
catedpeopleclungto traditional
My systematicapproachattemptsto give a typology of ancient
of
discourses.To put it on otherwords,I describea meta-structure
Thosemacroperspectives.
astrologicalsemanticswithinmonotheistic
14
Hayden White introducedthis expression and distinguished it from argument
and ideological implication.All three are usual means to give an academic treatisea
pretenceof explanation,cf. White 1973.
15The canonical status of the Tetrabibloshas remainedunbrokenuntil our days.
But one should not forget the highly developed astrology of Manilius (lst century
CE), Vettius Valens (2nd century CE), and Firmicus Matemus (4th century CE);
cf. von Stuckrad1996: 79-85 and the literaturementionedabove (n. 3). In addition,
the common astrological debates can be reconstructedthrough the huge collection
entitled Catalogus codicum astrologorumgraecorum (12 vols.), ed. by F. Cumont&
F.J.Boll, Brussels 1898-1953 (CCAG).
structuresmirrorthe essence of quite differentdocumentsand have to

be adjustedwhen appliedto certaincases or micro-structures.
4. AstrologicalSemanticsin MonotheisticPerspectives
As has been arguedabove, the doctrine of correspondenceslies at
the bottom of any astrologicalargumentation.In late antiquityit was
neverdisputedthatthe heavenlyrealmsmirror- in a secretor obvious
way - mundaneevents. This notion was so common thatit is difficult
to find a documentwhich does not make use of it. It is visible in the
stoic concept of sympathyand heimarmeneas well as in the platonists'
descriptionof the world as a living creaturewith every partconnected
to one anotheror to its transcendentidea. In Roman Egypt Platonism
was moldedwith olderpriestlytraditionsandbroughtforththe esoteric
doctrines of the Corpus Hermeticum.16
Thus,the disputesdid not touch upon the notion of correspondences

but raised the question of how those correspondenceswere to be
explained.Are the heavenly signs simply accompanyingthe mundane
events -
the stars as semeia -
or are they responsible for them -
the stars as poietikoi? And if there is a sympatheticcorrespondence

between celestial sphere and earth, does this necessarily imply a
deterministic or fatalistic influence? I shall return to these central
questionslater.At this point, I only call to mind the position of Origen
(c. 185-255 CE), as everyoneknows one of astrology'sharshestcritics.
In his almost canonical commentaryon Gen. 1:14 he explains that
the movements of the stars are to be regardedas a kind of writing
by God's hand in the sky. It reveals the divine mysteries to the
heavenly powers. Some people may gain (at least inaccurate)insight
16I am aware of the fact that the hermetic treatises show a strong Christian
influence, and possibly are the result of a neo-platonist splitting into philosophers
(Plotin) and Christians(Nag Hammadi)during the second or third century CE. But
in my opinion the Egyptian matrix of hermeticism originating in Ptolemaic times
cannotbe doubted.On this point I agreewith Cumont 1937 andLindsay 1971. Cf. also
Fowden 1986.
10
Kockuvon Stuckrad
into thosesecrets.17Thus,evenanti-astrological
argumentsmakeuse
This
is
not
due
to
a
naive
semantics.18
of astrological
misunderstanding
of astrology'simplications,as some scholarsargue,butto an attempt
to establisha monotheistically
acceptableastrology.19
In the following pages it will be shown that this strugglefor
featureof JewishandChrismonotheisticastrologyis a characteristic
as well
tiandiscussions.To be sure,the doctrineof correspondences,
does not necessarilyleadto astrology,
as the conceptof heimarmene,
it is insteadastrology'sconditiosine quanon.I shallnow turnto the
of thisbasicnotion.
concretemodulations
4.1. TheDiscourseof CultTheology
In SecondTempletimes cult theologymarkedthe most relevant
featureof Jewishthinking.This is not only truefor priestlygroups
but -
throughthe accuratelaws of temple duties -
for each group
The culticorderwas considereda binding

relatingto the sanctuary.20
revelationmirroringthe cosmic orderestablishedby God. This fact
cannotbe overestimated
whenone analyzesthe historyof post-exilic
fortheharsh
Judaism.Itis theculticthinkingthatservesasbackground
conflictsbetweenJewishgroupsaboutcalendars,calculations,and
of God'srevealedorder
liturgicalquestions.The rightinterpretation
becamethekeytopicfor SecondTemplediscourses.
Thanksto the discoveryof the DeadSea scrolls,we arenow able
to gain insightinto the peculiar,yet highlyinteresting,implications
17Eusebius Praeparatio Evangelica 6.11; Philocalia 23.1-21; cf. also CCAG
9.2, 112, lff. The enormous influence of Origen's commentary is described by
Riedinger 1956: 177-182. Cf. also Amand 1945: 307-318.
18Tamsyn Barton correctly says that "Origen thus concedes a good deal to
astrology.He says that the starsoffer informationabouta fixed futurefrom beginning
to end, and that in some cases they are part of the medium by which fate is played
out" (1995: 75). It is exactly the doctrineof correspondenceswhich goes undisputed
in Origen'sargument.
19In the words of John North:"Origen[.. ] trieddesperatelyto purgeastrologyof
fatalism"(1994: 123).
20 Cf. Levine 1974; Haran 1978;
Milgrom 1983.
11
of cultic thinking within the Zadokite perspective of the Qumran

priests. The Qumrancollection of biblical texts reveal a significant
interestin chronographicor cultic materialrelevantto priestly matters
and theological historiography.21Special emphasis was laid on the
connection between the priestly cult on earth- taking place in the
ideal Jerusalem- and the heavenly cult, performedby the different
classes of angels. In a series of texts the isomorphic resemblance
reacheda degree that makes it difficult to distinguishbetween priests
and angels, or, generally speaking,the levels of holiness. Because the
presentarticle solely deals with astrological matters,I restrictmyself
to the famousSongs of the SabbathSacrifice(Shire 'Olatha-Shabbat).
After having shown the doctrineof correspondences'cultic relevance,
I shall arguethatthe specific astrologoumenafound at Qumranare not
a kind of foreignbody in the yachad but a consequentresultof priestly
discourses.
The Songs of the SabbathSacrifice are a liturgical descriptionof
the 13 Sabbathsincluded in one quarterof a year.22The holy angelic
classes perform therein the heavenly cult, "because He esta]blished
them to be His hol[iest servants in the Ho]ly of Holies" (4Q400
frg. 1 col. I, 10). In fragment2 it is recalled how the angels praise
the might of His kingdom "accordingto their knowledge"and recite
the mysterious psalms. They praise the glorious design of God's
cosmos, togetherwith the firmament,the girdersand walls of His holy
construction(4Q403 frg. 1 col. I, 42-44 [=4QShirShabbd]).The angels
settling in the "firmamentof purity"representGod's own perfection.
Thus, the planetary angels are depicted in a very positive manner.23
Likewise, on the twelfth Sabbath, "the cherubim praise from above
the firmamentthe buildingof the Merkabahthrone,and they cheer the
majesty of light's firmamentfrom underneaththe seat of His glory"
(4Q405 col. XX, 8-9). In line 12 of this fragmentthe angels' "turning
of theirpaths"are mentioned,"whenthey rise, they rise in a wonderful
21 Cf. Maier 1995, vol. 3:13.
22 Edition CarolNewsom
(1985). Cf. also Maier 1990.
by
23 Cf. Mach 1992: 173-184.
Kockuvon Stuckrad
12
way."This probablyrefersto the planets'turningpointsthatwereof

calculations.
forBabylonianastronomical
importance
prominent
The priestsof the templein Jerusalem- or their opponentsat
- did exactlywhatthe angelsprefigured
in the firmament
Qumran24
betweenheavenandearthwas
theresemblance
of glory.Furthermore,
of the temple.The curtainveilingthe
appliedto the very appearance
of the
decoratedwith "appearances
it
is
was
of
said,
Holy Holies,
living God,"with "figuresof the divineangels,"and so on (4Q405
col. XVI frg. 14 and15 col. I). Priestlyliturgywas carefulto describe
the holy ornamentsin moredetailbutit can be assumedthat,at this
point,we come acrossthe sametraditionas in Josephus'andPhilo's
canbe readas
of theJerusalem
temple.Philoof Alexandria
description
the latterinto
a directfollowerof the Qumranicdiscoursetranslating
a philosophicalspeech.Whatis more,the Songsfromthe DeadSea
resembleplatonicvisionsto an astonishingdegreeso thatit was easy
themintoanothercontext.
to transform
Philo explicitly made use of the priestly cultic tradition.In
Spec.Leg. 1.66ffandMos. 2.67ff he explainsthe curtainin frontof
theHolyof Holiesandthehighpriest's
garmentin a 'vertical'manner.
with
Thepriest'sbreastplate(logeionorperistetion)was ornamented
twelvepreciousstones.It was "shapedafterthe originalof thezodiac
thatconsistsof twelvepicturesandrepresentsthe turningof the four
seasons"(Spec.Leg. 1.87). Thus,the cosmicharmonyrangthrough
the templeand"joinedthe greatcosmicworshipwhereinall creation
In Mos. 2.133-135this is
manifestedandworshippedthe Creator."25
putexplicitly:
Symbols of the zodiac are the twelve stones upon his chest arrangedin four rows
of three stones in each row, while the breastplate(logeion) as a whole represents
24 There are
strong reasons to assume that the Songs are not a peculiarQumranic

invention but form part of a much older priestly ligurgy stemming from post-exilic
times.
25
Goodenough 1953-68, vol. 8: 209f. Goodenough'sopus is an importantcontribution to the scholarly research, although his notion of Philo being the leader of a
mystical Jewish group is far from reasonable;cf. von Stuckrad1996: 179-187.
13
that Principle [i.e., from the context, the logos] which holds together and rules
all things. For it was necessarythat he who was consecratedto the Fatherof the
world should havethatFather'sSon who is perfectin virtueto plead his cause that
his sins might be rememberedno more and good gifts be showeredin abundance.
Yet perhapsit is also to teach in advanceone who would worship God thateven
though he may be unable to make himself worthy of the Creatorof the cosmos,
he yet ought to try increasinglyto be worthy of the cosmos. As he puts on his
imitation (symbol) he ought straightwayto become one who bears in his mind
the original pattern,so that he is in a sense transformedfrom being a man into
the natureof the cosmos, and becomes, if one may say so (and indeed one must
say nothing false aboutthe truth),himself a little cosmos.26
The temple's cosmic symbolism was also known to JosephusFlavius. It was introducedby the historianin a numberof versions. The
cultic symbolism could easily be turnedinto an astrologicalone: "The
seven lamps that were branchedoff the menorahindicatedthe planets
and the breadslying on the table indicatedthe zodiac and the year."27
(BJ 5.217-218). Hence, Smelik is absolutely right when he observes
that "[t]he representationof the luminariesby the menorahlamps, in
the wake of Zechariah'sfifthvision andMesopotamianastronomy,was
currentin the days of Philo and Josephus."28
The verticalconnectionbetween heaven and earth,angelic cult, and
temple liturgy,ubiquitousin late Second Templetimes, is in itself not
identical with astrologicaldoctrines. But, as has been argued above,
it opens the door to them. From cultic theology it is but one step
into astrologicalsemantics.This step can easily be tracedin the Dead
Sea Scrolls where the pious Jews from Qumrandid not shrink from
astrologicaldivination.They not only tried to find out the disposition
of new membersby means of horoscopic analysis, but also used the
common technique of brontologia, i.e. omens of thunder,connected
26 TranslationGoodenough1953-68, vol. 8: 210f.
27 BJ 5.217-218. Cf. also BJ 5.211-214 and AJ 3.145 and 179ff. For a similar
interpretationof the menorah see also Philo Mos. 2.105; Quaest. in Ex. 2.73-79;
Rer.Div. Her. 216-229.
28 Smelik 1995: 138.
14
Kockuvon Stuckrad
with the moon's way through the zodiac, to forecast the future.29
Philo, for his part, talked at some length about the planets as semeia
of future events (Opif. mundi 58f) and of the planetaryinfluences on
agricultureandhumanfertilityor sexuality (Opif mundi101.113.117).
In his tractatede congressu eruditionis gratia (?50) he even calls the
astronomia,the "science of astronomersand Chaldaeans,"basilis ton
epistemon- queen of the disciplines.
Monotheistic cult theology has a crucial implication:it is highly
sensitive with regardto purity and cultic correctness.This leads to a
harsh refutationof any polytheistic notion that was often misunderstood in scholarlyanalysis as being a fight against astrologyitself. To
be sure, pious Jews -
at least the priestly oriented ones -
carefully
avoidedthe worshipof astraldeities. The biblical prophetshad fought

againstthis branchof astrology,thus prefiguringthe patternof laterargumentation.But how come thatpriestlyJews at Qumranor elsewhere
had obviously no problemin applying astrologicaltechniquesin their
daily religious life and even in the interpretationof politics and history? The only answer is that they were able to distinguishastrology
from astrolatry,the interpretationof timefrom the worship of astral
entities. Although this seems highly reasonable,most scholars- due
to their preconceived attitude- are not able to follow that distinction. They usually declare the Qumranpriests, as well as the Enoch
astronomers,Philo of Alexandria,and JosephusFlavius to be radical
enemies of astrology.The opposite is the case - all these Jews fought
to purgeastrologyfrom cultic impurityand, as I shall show later,from
fatalism.
A furtherfield of cult theology's special interestis connected with
the calendar. First, it is importantto celebrate the religious festivals
at the right moment, i.e. in isomorphic correspondenceto the cosmic
divine rhythms.The clash of differentcalendars,only understandable
29 For the
horoscopes 4Q186 and 4Q534 cf. von Stuckrad 1996: 118-128 (literature);the brontologion4Q318 is a much discussed topic, see Charlesworth1987: 939;
Albani 1993 & 1994: 83-87; Maier 1995, vol. 2: 275-277; von Stuckrad1996:128-131
and the respectivechaptersin von Stuckrad1999.
15
with regard to its cultic implications, was a driving factor for the
QumranZadokites to breakwith the Jerusalempriests.30Calculating
a calendar, therefore, is a highly religious act and it is correct to
emphasize that priestly astronomyalways and inevitably takes into
considerationthe meaningof time. Recent studies have shown thatthe
Enochic calendar,visible in Qumranand the Enochic writings such
as lEn, 2En, or the Book of Jubilees, mirrorsa perfect harmonyof
severalholy rhythms,especially the priestlyimportantnumberssix and
seven.31
Secondly, priestly astronomyopens the door to a thoroughexplorationof the presenttime's quality.The calendaris a revealedpatternof
holy historyandthe astronomicaldataled those who were able to 'read
the signs' to a deep understandingof Jewish Heilsgeschichte. This is
the bridgefrom priestlydiscoursesto apocalypticspeculationsvividly
discussed among Enochic astronomersand other groups of Second
Temple Judaism, later carriedon by Christianinterpretersof time.32
What is at stake here is the eruditeknowledge of the exact point on
the time-axis. Of course, that erudition was a matter of dispute and
much of the ancient conflicts was centered aroundthat question. But
one thing was never challenged- the importanceof celestial events,
such as the rhythmsof sun and moon, their eclipses, planetaryintervals, conjunctions,or comets, for a 'vertical' understandingof time's
quality.
4.2. Magical and Mystical Application
The secrets of divine astronomywere revealed to a few religious
specialists who made their way into the heavens or received their
knowledge by God's own intervention:Enoch, Moses, Solomon, or
30Talmon 1986; Chyutin 1993.
31 The
Qumranscripturesreveala complicatedbut perfectsystem thatlatercalculations were never again able to generate.Cf. Glessmer 1991; Albani 1994; Maier 1995,
vol. 3: 52-160; Glessmer 1996; Beckwith 1996.
32For the latter see the calendars of the so-called Quartadecimanersand the
discussion about the returnof Christ,as described in Strobel 1977. Cf. also the 5th
excursusin von Stuckrad1999.
16
Kockuvon Stuckrad
other heroes of Jewish traditionguaranteedthe revelationarystatusof

astrologicalinformation.But secret knowledge was not only attributed
to those extraordinarypersons. A lot of people in late antiquitywere
engagedin heavenlyjourneysin orderto gain insight into the mysteries
of God's cosmic order.Connected with that mystical orientationwas
an applicationof astrologicalskills in a way one would call magical. I
may turnto this topic now.
DuringGreco-Romantimes magic was a common religious activity.
Recent studies into ancient magic revealed the fact that this kind
of 'ritual power' flourished among Jews and Christians as well.33
Just as in case of astrology,there is no reason to sever magic from
pious Jewish or Christianfaith, as theological historiographyused to
do. Nor is it appropriateto consider magic as being the religion for
daily life purposes or poorly educated people. The complex rituals
performed in the so-called Mithras liturgy, the Sefer ha-razfm, or
some Gnostic documents demanded a high standardof education,34
not to mentionthe philosophicalskills of an Apuleius. The differences
between sophisticatedmagical theory and practice, on the one hand,
and the more pragmaticapplicationfor medical and daily life reasons,
on the other,still await scholarlyresearch.35
From the beginning astrological semantics formed an integralpart
of magical work. In order to illuminate this I shall describe three
examples in more details. The first document to be mentionedis the
importantMakroform(in the Schiiferiansense) thatwas shapedaround
33 The literatureis abundant.The change of paradigmconcerningourunderstanding
of magic can best be studiedin Naveh & Shaked 1987; Gager 1992; Meyer & Mirecki
1995; Graf 1996; Schifer & Kippenberg1997.
34 E.g. one may considerthe fact thatin Sefer ha-razim1: 94-96 the authorsuggests
to consult an hieraticpapyrusto predictthe futureand to write the message down in
hieraticscript.
35 It seems that the former is
representedby theurgic groups, philosophers, and
others,the latterby the authorsof PGM, magic bowls, and similardocuments.But this
distinctionis farfrom being accurate.Forthe theurgicgroupscf. S.I. Johnston:"Rising
to the Occasion: Theurgic Ascent in Its CulturalMilieu," in: Schafer & Kippenberg
1997: 165-194.
Jewish and Christian Astrology in Late Antiquity
17
the figure of Solomon. The Testament of Solomon is its most important

representative. The text's title makes sufficiently clear what the reader
can expect:
Testamentof Solomon, son of David, who reigned in Jerusalem,and subdued
all the spirits of the air, of the earth, and under the earth; through (them) he
also accomplishedall the magnificentworks of the Temple;(this tells) what their
authoritiesare againstmen, and by what angels these demons are thwarted.36
To unfold his magical power, Solomon, after having prayed to God,

receives his famous seal ring from the archangel Michael. With the
help of his magic ring Solomon is able to find out the names of the
demonic powers and, subsequently, to thwart them.37 Of astrological
interest is the fact that Solomon forces the entities to tell him the
zodiacal place they inhabit. For example:
(2:1) When I heardthese things, I, Solomon, got up from my throneand saw the
demon shudderingand tremblingwith fear.I said to him, "Whoare you? Whatis
your name?"The demonreplied,"Iam called Orias." (2) I said to him, '"Tellme,
in which sign of the zodiac do you reside?"The demon replied, "In Aquarius;I
stranglethose who reside in Aquariusbecause of theirpassion for women whose
zodiacal sign is Virgo [... ]."
The zodiacal astrology, combined here with demonological perspectives, is further attested by the seven constellations that appear through
the power of Solomon's evocation:
(8:1) There came seven spirits bound up together hand and foot, fair of form
and graceful.When I, Solomon, saw them, I was amazedand asked them, "Who
are you?" (2) They replied, "We are heavenly bodies [esmen stoicheia], rulers
of this world of darkness [kosmokratorestou skotous]."(3) The first said, "I
am Deception." The second said, "I am Strife." The third said, "I am Fate."
The fourth said, "I am Distress."The fifth said, "I am Error."The sixth said,
"I am Power."(4) The seventh said, "I am The Worst.Our stars in heaven look
small, but we are named like gods. We change our position togetherand we live
together, sometimes in Lydia, sometimes in Olympus, sometimes on the great
mountain."
361 follow D.C. Duling's translationin Charlesworth1983-85, vol. 2: 935-987, who
in most cases relies on McCowns's translationof 1922.
37 Every magical act rests on the knowledge of the 'secret names.'
Kockuvon Stuckrad
18
The seven stoicheia - heavenly bodies, planets,orjust evil entities

belong to the most prominent actors of Jewish and Christian
theology in late antiquity.They were known to Paul who remindedhis
audiencethat "we have not to fight againsthumansof flesh and blood
but against the rulers and powers, the sovereigns of this dark world
(pros tous kosmokratorestou skotous toutou), against the evil beings
of the heavenly realm."38At this point, Paul adopts the same attitude
as his Gnostic colleagues at Nag Hammadi:
Then since Death was androgynous,he mixed with his natureand begot seven
androgynoussons. These are the names of the males: Jealousy,Wrath,Weeping,
Sighing, Mourning,Lamenting,Tearful Groaning.And these are the names of
the females: Wrath,Grief, Lust, Sighing, Cursing,Bitterness,Quarrelsomeness.
They had intercoursewith one another,and each one begot seven so that they
total fortynine androgynousdemons. Their names and theirfunctions you will
find in "theBook of Solomon."39
Whether this passage refers to our Testament of Solomon, the

Epistle to Rehobeam,40or some other text, is of minor relevance,
since the stoicheia topic is widespread in ancient theology. And,
equally acknowledgedwas the depotencationof the celestial powers,
forced underSolomon's will who himself receivedhis powerfrom the
almightyGod. The intentionis clear:the starsare underGod's control
and man is capableof invokingthem in orderto do some kind of pious
work. Each adept,knowing the demons' secret names and performing
Solomon's instructions,can accurately take part in the power - he
himself becomes Solomon.
If one examines the lines of correspondences fashioned in the
TestSol, one notices no determinablecommon traditions, e.g., the
connection between Aquariusand Virgo (2:2, see above) - standing
in the minorquincunxaspect- is not attestedin the vulgata.Manilius
talks of Sagittariuswho "is in love with Virgo only" and Ptolemy
38
Eph. 6:12; cf. also Col. 2:4.20; Gal. 4:3.9.

39 On the Origin of the World(NHC 1.5 and XIII.2), tr. Bethge & Wintermute,
in: Robinson 1988: 167.
40 Ed. by J. Heeg in CCAG8.2 (1911): 139-165.
Jewishand ChristianAstrology in LateAntiquity
19
assures the reader that a quincunx is irrelevantfor interpretation.41

However, this is not due to the author's missing acquaintancewith
astrological tradition but to the simple fact that, up to Ptolemy's
outstanding work, there was no such common tradition available.
But all of them were united in the 'vertical attitude' that stands in
the background.This 'hermetic' perspective found its way into the
Testamentof Solomon as well:
(20:14) I asked him, "Tellme, then, how you, being demons, are able to ascend
into heaven."(15) He replied,"Whateverthings are accomplishedin heaven (are
accomplished)in the same way also on earth;for the principalitiesand authorities
and powers above fly aroundand are consideredworthyof enteringheaven."
It is importantto note that the astrological techniquesare not blamed

in the text. Instead,the document'scontributionto ancient discourses
is the following: the doctrineof correspondencesis not to be disputed.
Knowledge of those correspondences -
astrology -
leads to a deep
understandingof futureevents (cf. TestSol. 2:3; 20:12). To obtainthat

knowledge one has to control the demonic powers which inhabit the
zodiacal sphere. Astrology, therefore, is a holy gift, handed over by
God himself, and is embracedthankfullyby man.
My second example belongs to the same matrix of discourse. In
the 'Book of Mysteries,' the sefer ha-raztm, originatingin the first
centuries CE but compiled later, it is explained how "to master the
investigationof the strataof the heavens, to go about in all that is in
their seven abodes, to observe all the astrological signs, to examine
the course of the sun, to explain the observationsof the moon," and
similaractivities.42Repeatedly,the adept is requestedto pour libation
or sacrifice incense, or even animals, to the celestial bodies, thus
41 ManiliusAstron.2:
504-506; Ptolemy Tetrabib.1:17.

42Preface to SHR: 5-10 (Morgan 1983: 17f). Morgan refers to Margalioth's
unsufficientedition (1966). SHR still is a scholarlydesideratum,cf. Gruenwald1980:
226. An importantfirst collection of the many astrologicalconnotations within the
PGM was given by H.G. Gundel 1968: 3-17 (Sun), 17-25 (decanes), 25-41 (Moon),
41-52 (planets).Gundelcorrectlystresses the significantdoctrineof correspondences
(cf. p. 39). The resultscan be transferredto SHR withoutdifficulties.
20
Kockuvon Stuckrad
revealinga totallydifferentattitudetowardsculticpuritythanthatwe
hadcome acrossin priestlytheology.The offeringsareperformedin
This
order"tospeakwiththemoonorwiththestarsaboutanymatter."
"I
the
of
N
haspracticalconsequences: adjureyou to bring planet
and
his starnearto the starandplanetof N, so his lovewill be tiedwiththe
heartof N sonof N" (SHR1:161-167[Morgan1983:36f]).Here,SHR
sharesthe same languageas the rabbisused to depictthe planetary
influences- one's staror mazzal (see below).
The followingpassageis very interestingbecauseit indicatesthe

of differentdiscourses.To meetHelios/TheSun at night
overlapping
the adeptis urgedto celebratepurgation,keep diets, and utterthe
namesof the sunandhis accompanying
angels.Andthen:
[...] In the name of the Holy King who walks upon the wings of the wind,43
by the letters of the complete name that was revealedto Adam in the Gardenof
Eden, (by) the Ruler of the planets, and the sun, and the moon, who bow down
before Him as slaves before their masters, by the name of the wondrous God,
I adjureyou, that you will make known to me this great miracle that I desire,
and that I may see the sun in his power in the (celestial) circle (traversedby) his
chariot, and let no hidden thing be too difficult for me (SHR 4:51-57 [Morgan
1983: 70f]).
The defeatof the planetsandtheirsubsequentinstrumentalization

is
thevisionary's
Furthermore,
fullyin linewithJewishargumentation.44
searchfor a heavenlyjourney call similartexts of the Hekhalot
traditionto mind,evenrabbinicalparallelsmaybe mentioned.45
Thus,
Gruenwaldcorrectlyemphasizesthat"theseheavenlyascentsof the
soul becamealmosta culturalfashionin manyreligioussystemsin
the firstcenturiesof the ChristianEra,the spiritualclimateof which
43 Cf. Ps 104:3.
44 In the
paragraphfollowing the cited passage the 'traditional'scope is widened,
though. Helios - the Sun God - is furnished with epitheta usually reserved for
JHWH: 'Trustworthyleader of the sun's rays, reliable (witness), who of old didst
establish the mighty wheel (of the heavens), holy orderer,ruler of the axis (of the
heaven), Lord,BrilliantLeader,King, Soldier"(Morgan 1983: 71).
45 Hekhalotliterature:HekhalotZutarti??335-374. 407-411.420.422f. The rabbinic
traditionis focused on R. Aqiba, cf. tChag2:3; jChag 77b; bChag 14b.
21
was full of a constant exchange of religious ideas and practices.

In this respect there was no substantialdifference between religion,
philosophyand science."46
To furtherilluminatethe natureof this discourse and its capability
to transgressreligious boundaries,I use a Christiansource as my third
example.Heavenlyjourneysare a key motif within Gnostic theologies,
but - contrastingthe Hekhalot mysticism where the mystic serves
as a mediator between God and Israel - now the intentions are
individual ones. The Gnostic searches for redemption either in the
world to come or during her or his lifetime. Pursuingthis goal, it is
of crucial importance'to know one's enemies,' i.e. to understandthe
heavenlyopponentswho try to block the mystic's way into the realms
of light. This platonicnotion is found in a varietyof texts. In the First
Apocalypseof Jamesfrom Nag Hammadiit is Jesus himself who gave
instructions:he admonisheshis disciples to be confidentialsince, after
his grievousway throughdeath,he will returnand "appearfor a reproof
to the archons.And I shall reveal to them that he cannot be seized. If
they seize him, then he will overpowereach of them."47
The recipient of the holy revelationis rescued from the powers of
heimarmeneand can departfrom this darkworld heading throughthe
planetaryspherestowardsthe pleroma.In orderto fulfill this desire it
seemed appropriateto examine thoroughlythe planetarylaws. Thus,
the fight against the stoicheia led the Gnostic to another reaction
than Paul who, subsequently,refuted astrology. What at first glance
seems inconsistent becomes the Gnostics' primary motivation for
studyingastrology.Just because Gnostic theology strivesto overcome
the demonic planetarychains it made extensive use of astrological
tradition.
The Gnostic interestin astrology resulted in an extraordinarydiscourse of its own. Special treatiseshave come down to us elaborated
46 Gruenwald1988: 202 with no. 30. Cf. on this
topic Dean-Otting1984.
47 NHC 5.3:30, 2-6 (Robinson 1988: 264). Cf. also the 2nd Book ofJeu ch. 52; the
LeftGinza3:56; NHC 7.127:20f. Those documentswitness the correctnessof Origen's
bold remarksin c. Cels. 7.40 and 6.30f.
22
Kockuvon Stuckrad
by Markosand Theodotus,both Valentinians,by Bardaisan of Edessa

and - last not least - by Mani. The details cannot be spelled out
is my primaryconcern.48
here, since the discourse'smeta-structure
But to summarizethe featureof Gnosticastrologyone comes to the
conclusionthat,besidesthe topic of heavenlyjourneysandmagical
thatis
it is the hermeticdoctrineof correspondences
empowerment,
This doctrinewas appliedto differof overwhelmingimportance.49
ent areassuch as the 12 apostles,to zodiacalgeography,or zodiacal
medicine(whichis calledmelothesia).In mostcases the doctrinesof
theastrologicaltraditionwerewell-known,at timesevento a verysophisticateddegree.Of furtherinterestis the fact thatthe influenceof
the decanesystemswiththeirimpleEgyptiandoctrines,particularly
of thenumbers36 and72, hadanimportant
mentation
impactonGnostic astrology'sproceedings.
4.3. Fate,Volition,Piety
I now enterone of the most difficultdiscoursesof late antiquity.
The philosophicalcontroversyaboutfate and volitionmadeuse of
the conceptsof heimarmeneand tyche, applyingthem eitherin a
deterministic sense -
mainly among stoic philosophers -
or in
an anti-fatalisticmanner.The latter'sargumentative
paradigmwas
afterhim,
scholars
elaboratedby Carneadesand adoptedby many
includingCicero,Philoof Alexandria,or Origen.50If theseconcepts
are contrastedwith Jewishor Christiandoctrines,severalintriguing
questionsarise:given the dominanceof fate how can we still speak
of correctbehaviorfrom an ethicalpoint of view? Whatis sin if
48 For detailedanalyses see von Stuckrad1999.
49 See esp. the doctrines of Markos as described in IrenaeusAdv. haer. 1.14,3-6;
EpiphaniusPanarion 34.5. Theodotuswas the firstto explore the correspondencesbetween zodiacal signs and apostles, see Excerpta ex Theodoto 25.2. Bardaisan"has
to be called the first significant astrologer within the wider perspective of Christianity"(Gundel 1966: 326); that was witnessed by Eusebius Praep. evang. 6.9,32.
Mani's considerablecontributionto monotheistic astrology is minutely examined in
von Stuckrad1999, ch. X.
50 This was impressivelyshown by Amand 1945.
23
everythingis controlledby the heavenlybodies?Does prayerand piety

make any sense in a deterministicconcept? What about redemption?
Questions like these mark the center of monotheistic controversies
about fatalistic doctrines. However, the answers were much more
complicated than most scholars assume since the ancient writers
were enthusiasticallytrying to cope with the challenges through an
integrationof different philosophies ratherthan simply denying the
validityof heimarmeneconcepts. Thus, the modem notion thatJewish
and Christianreligions areper se excludingevery fatalisticcomponent
does not meet the standardof ancientdiscourses.51
In this respect it is to be rememberedthat volition "is an artificial
concept.We have to studycertainspecialisttheoriesin orderto find out
how it is to be manipulated."52
Turningto ancient discoursesthe possibility has to be acknowledgedthatpeople were talkingaboutvolition
and fate in a way that did not mirrormodem concepts of determinism and clock-workdoctrinesof Newtonianprovenance.The complex
ambiguitiesof monotheisticinterestin fatalistic argumentationcan be
shown in a variety of documents. In the following, I restrict myself
to JosephusFlavius and the highly influentialdiscussion of the talmudic rabbisin bShab 156ab.It will be shown that astrologicaldoctrines
were easily adoptedas soon as free will was secured,thus establishing
a uniqueJewish astrology.
JosephusFlavius makes extensive use of the common concepts of
free will, determinism,and providence.Forexample,in his description
of the Second Temple's destructionhe chooses the following words:
althoughone has to mournfor the loss of such a building "one gains
affluentconsolation in the notion that man's works and cities are as
dependent on fate as living creatures.However, one has to wonder
aboutthe accuracyregardingthe turningof the times this fate exhibits
51 The
simple and highly theoretical dichotomy of determinism/astrologyand

monotheistic religions - leading to the dichotomy of force and prayer - is still
widely accepted,cf. especially Wachter1969.
52Ryle 1970: 61. The whole ch. 3 of Ryle's book is fruitful for the present
discussion.
24
Kockuvon Stuckrad
because it correlates, as I have already mentioned, exactly to the

month and even the same day the temple was first ignited by the
Babylonians (BJ 6.267-270)." Josephus insists on the fact that the
Temple's destructionwas determinedby God from the outset, "and
in the turningof the times the day scheduled by fate had now arrived
(paren de he heimarmenechrononperiodois [BJ 6.249-250])." The
periods of time structurepolitical and religious history, thus making
future developmentsdeterminable.This, however, is only half of the
truthbecause Josephus emphasizes the Jewish responsibility for the
success of God's plans:"Tobe sure,"he says, "thistime the burningof
the Templewas the fault and guilt of the Jews themselves (BJ 6.250)."
What seems, at firstglance, to be an inconsistencyilluminatesthe very
struggle Josephus fought to integratethe perspective of his Roman
readers -
which was his own, too -
into the Heilsgeschichte of the
Jewish people. Josephus argues that heimarmeneis to be regardedas

the hand of Providencewhich is God's own work. Thus, heimarmene
helps to make manifest the primordialplan. At the same time there
exists a kind of meta-lawthatconnects the unfoldingof Jewish history
with ethical notions known from deuteronomistic theology. Israel,
throughrighteousor sinful behavior,is itself responsible for her fate.
Consequently,God's will is insolubly molded by heimarmene.53
Given the primordialblueprintof history and the responsibilityof
the Jewish people to make the plan come true, it is of crucial importance to understandGod's hidden message. A specialist is needed to
interpretthe heavenly signs and figureout the presentpoint on the historical line. Here the astrologicalinterpretationcomes into play. Josephus tells us that before the Temple's destructionGod had given unmistakablesigns that were ignored by the people (BJ 6.288-291). A
comet was visible for one year indicating not the Jewish victory but
the triumphof Vespasian:"Butpeople are not able to escape theirfate,
even if they foresee it. The Jews interpretedsome of the omens according to their wishes, ignored others light-minded,until the fall of their
capitol and theirown ruinconvincedthem of theirstupidity(BJ 6.31453 Cf. also BJ 6.99-110 andAJ 16.394-399.
25
315)."54There can be no doubt that Josephus (in his own perception)

belonged to those who were able to read the heavenly signs correctly.
His opposition was not directedagainst the validity of astrologicalinterpretationbut against those charlatanswho - by means of selfish
and foolish interpretations- led Israel astray.
An interestingparallelto Josephus'accountis found in the ambiguous position towards astrology adopted by the Sibylline Oracles of
Jewish origin. On the one hand, a resolute refutationof cultic transgression such as divination,sorcery, and astrolatryis proposed,5 on
the otherhand, the oracles make use of genuine astrologicalspeech in
describingthe "clearsigns" indicatingthe "endof all things on earth,"
namely "when swords appearon the starrysky at night in the evening
and also against dawn."56The allusion to comet theories is apparent.
Furthermore,the oracles employ the same matrixof fate and volition
so prominentin Josephus.Historyis depicted as the resultof foresight
(pronoia)and fate (tyche) thatmingles with cultic obedience or transgression by the Jewish people. About the politics of Nero the Sibyl
finds the following words: "For murder and terrorsare in store for
all men because of the great city and because of the righteouspeople
which is preservedthroughouteverything, which Providenceheld in
specialplace."Furthermore,"Arrogance,unstableone of evil counsels,
surroundedby evil fates, the beginning and great end of toil for men
when creationis spoiled and saved again by the fates (5:225-230)."
The peculiarcombinationof Jewish piety and astrologicaldeterminationwas not limited to hellenized Jews such as Josephus.Indeed, it
is also found in the Christianclaim thatthe starof Bethlehemsignaled
the Messiah's birth.But even more interestingis the special emphasis
54The comet and other omens were usually interpretedsimilarly to Josephus'
account.Cf. EusebiusHist. Eccl. 3.8,2; HegesippusHist. Eccl. 5.44; TacitusHist. 5.13
and Suetonius Vespasian4.
55 Oracula
Sibyllina 3:218-233.
56 Oracula Sibyllina 3:796-800. "Fiery swords" are also mentionedin 3:672-679;
cf. OraculaSibyllina 5:155-161 and 5:206-213. Book 5 has also an explicit messianic
interpretationof Num. 24:17: "Fromthe vaultsof heavencame a blessed man carrying
the scepterin his hands,which had been commissioned to him by God (5:414)."
26
Kockuvon Stuckrad
rabbinicaldiscourselaidon the hiddennexusbetweenfateandpiety.

Whereasthe Mishna'saccounton astrologywas mainlyconcerned
with culticimplications,midrashicandtalmudicliteraturedisplaysa
deep-goinginterestin all aspectsof heavenlyprediction.The highest
standardof argumentwas achievedin the BabylonianTalmudwhich
is to be regardedas a coherent,partlypseudepigraphic
piece of literature,createdby an independentgroupof Jewishscholarswho used
it.57Hence,the sugyabShab
traditionratherthansimplyinterpreting
156ab,as locus classicususuallypulledup whenthe rabbis'attitude
towardsastrologyis at stake,assemblesdiversifiedlines of argument
to namesnever
names.Theattribution
attributed
to differentrabbinical
of rabbinicalpositionsas
give accessto a chronologicaldevelopment
has beenassumedby manyscholars.Instead,this sugyahas to be inof laterdiscoursethatmerely
as a constructed
argumentation
terpreted
Thisdoesnotmean,of course,thatthe
reflectspreviousdevelopments.
Bavliis a-historicalorignorantwithregardto Jewishtradition.It simply implies thatbShab 156ab- as well as all other sugyot - mustbe
studiedon its ownmeritsbeforewe canaskforanytextualorhistorical

connectionwithothersources.
The passageunderconsideration
consistsof threeparts.First,the
textrefersto RabbiJehoshuabenLevi'snotebookandits description
of howpeople'sfatewill be like if theyarebornon Monday,Tuesday
etc. The secondpartis introduced
by RabbiChaninasaying,"Goand
tell thesonof Levi:It is notthemazzalof thedaybutthemazzalof the
of
hourthatdetermines(people'sfate)."Inthefollowing,therulership
the planetsis connectedwiththe birth'shour,thusleadingto a more
In the third
individualinterpretation
of the zodiacalcorrespondence.
part,theconceptof mazzalis explainedin moredetail,focusingon the
questionwhetherIsraelhasa mazzalof herown.Threesmallhaggadic
57 As can
easily be recognized, in this assumptionI follow the 'House of Neusner.'

Cf. among many other publications Neusner 1992-93; Jacobs 1991: 17. Neusner's
stress on the discourse analyses comes very close to my methodologicalassumptions;
cf. Neusner 1997.
27
episodes are told in orderto reveal the mysteriousconnectionbetween

Israel'spiety and determinationof fate.
In short, the rabbis display a considerableinsight into astrological
tradition.Most of the attributionsof days of the week and planets to
certaincharacteristicsare in harmonywith the vulgata, though a typical Jewish perspectivehad sometimes its impact on the interpretation,
e.g., the correspondence between Wednesday -
Mercury -
and in-
tellectualor rationalcompetenceor the gatheringof informationis the

result of common astrologicaldiscourse, but the secondary explanation of this correspondenceis rabbinical:The Hebrewword Corstands
either for good memory or the heavenly lights. The same is true for
Thursdaycorresponding,as usual, with Jupiterand his jovial and generous nature.Either 'Jupiter'or 'generosity' is depicted with the Hebrew term tsedeq/tsedaqah. This is also maybe an explanationfor the
ascriptionof fish and birds - both are symbols for multiplicity and
superabundance(cf. Gen. 1:20-22) and do not fall underthe halakhot
on meat, thus signifying the generousfreedomfrom religious laws.
A similar eclectic use of the astrological tradition is prevailing
almosteverywherewithin the talmudicperspective.Since the relation
between (planetary) fate and monotheistic volition is my present
concern, I shortly turn to the concluding part of the sugya. The
threeepisodes illuminatingthe rabbis'controversyaboutthe influence
of the mazzal all follow the same pattern:astrological prediction is
contrasted with the factual results in such a way that the general
'energetic' interpretationremains true, although the 'levels' of the
correspondingfacts are altered due to Jewish piety.58The astrologer
Ablat got it right when he prophesizedthat a snake will bite the man
he was watching with Shmuel, but due to a good deed the (Jewish)
man altered the manifestationand the snake was found in his bag
cut in two pieces. Thus, this little story gives no evidence for Israel
58"Astrology was the 'hook' on which an extremely importanttheological confrontationtook place; the confrontationbetween paganfatalism and Jewish insistence
on Divine Election, Divine Salvation,and Free Will; both throughworks (R. Samuel
and R. Akiba) and throughfaith (R. Nachman)(Dobin 1983: 197)."
28
Kockuvon Stuckrad
being completelyindependentof astrologicalnotions.That"thereis

no mazzal for Israel"(ain mazzal le-jisrael) means that Israel -
and
thus
determination,
only Israel- is freedfrom a simple-structured
fatalistic
without
to
an
astrology
implications.Through
giving way
a piouslife, accordingto torah,Jewsare able to move freelyacross
the 'correspondence
spectrum,'whereasthe accuracyof astrological
predictionis neverchallenged.59
4.4. TheImperialUtilizationof Astrology
roleforthelegislation
Heavenlysignsalwaysplayeda considerable
of power.DuringimperialRomantimes,when astrologyshapedthe
of heavenly
very centerof publicdiscourse,the instrumentalization
The
a
of
senses.
in
culminated
variety
emperor'shoroscope
signs
was publiclymadeknownin orderto emphasizethathis claim for
In the
powercorrespondswithdivineelectionandpredetermination.
a
of
fostered
solarization
the
cult
courseof time imperial
religionwith
the emperor'sdivinization,on the one hand,andthe extendeduse of
astrologicalsemanticson theother.
Sucha politicalthinkingwasnotlimitedto theRomansovereigns.It
was adoptedby the Hasmonaeans,
Herod,andthe Christianemperors
wasbroughtup,thuscomalike.ButnowtheJewishreligioustradition
forwardto a changeof
that
looked
discourses
the
bining contemporary
timesa
timewithone'sownreligiousidentity.Duringintertestamental
- the superiorlot of documentsraisedyet anotherpointof argument
ity of the Jewishreligionoverpaganclaims.Thosetextstryto proof
thatscientific,ethical,and politicalknowledgehad been elaborated
andguardedby the Israelitessince earlytimes,whereaslaterdevelAgainstthis
opmentswereonly possibledue to Jewishtransmission.
areto be understood
thenumerouslegendsaboutAbraham
background
The
or
to
'Chaldeans'
Egyptians. herocan also be
teachingastrology
59Neusner (1965-70, vol. 5: 192) correctly observes: 'The rabbis generally accepted the accuracyof astrologicalpredictionsfor Israelas a whole and for individual
Jews." Far two simple is Urbach's comment: "Astrologynot only contradictedthe
freedom of human choice, but also impaired the concept of Providence,that is, the
doctrineof the free will and unrestrictedpower of God (1975: 277)."
29
Moses or Enoch - in every case the intentionis to give evidence to

Jewish superiorityin religious matters.60
With regardto Jewish and Christiandiscourses there emerged an
own patternof argument,clustering aroundthe famous prophecy of
Bileam in Num. 24:17: "A star will go out of Jacob, a scepter will
rise from Israel."The messianic connotationof this paganprophecy61
capturedthe imaginationof many Jews and Christians,especially of
those striving for political power. A short summary may illustrate
this:62
The Hasmonaeankings made extensive use of astrological symbolism usually dragging on Bileam's prophecy.During the reign of
AlexanderJannaja variety of coins were minted all bearing a star as
prominentsymbol. The Hasmonaeanstar can be depicted with eight
rays or six points, with or without a circle, what Meshorercalls "perhaps the most common Jewish coin."63To understandthe astrological
doctrine standing behind Alexander's coins one has to take into account that his year of birth, 126 BCE, was markedby an important
heavenlyevent, namelythe so-called 'greatconjunction'of Jupiterand
Saturnin Pisces, i.e. a tripleconjunctionmade possible by the planets'
retrogrademovements.64In ancient cosmological thinking the cycles
60 This claim is very old. It can be tracedto Artapanos(2nd centuryBCE) and his
Jewish history (peri loudaion) which is fragmentarilytransmittedthroughEusebius
Praep. Ev. 9.8; 23; 27.
61 There can be no doubt aboutthe messianic impact, since the targumimtranslate
"King of Jacob" and "Messiah of Israel" (TargumOnkelos and Targum PseudoJonathan),and the Codex Neofiti (FrgmT)has "Oncea King will rise from the House
of Jacob, and a redeemerand emperorfrom the House of Israel."Cf. also the LXX
rendering"A starwill emerge from Jacob, a man (antropos)will rise from Israel."
62 Von Stuckrad 1999, ch. III, gives a detailed analysis of the topic. Cf. also the
bibliographypresentedthere.Laato 1997 has shown thatthe messianicconcept visible
in Jewish and Christiandiscoursehas its roots in Near Easternroyal ideology.
63 Meshorer 1967: 119. Cf. also Kanael 1963 and Meshorer1982.
64 Actually, 126 BCE the greatconjunctionwas not completed,since the retrograde
phase of Jupiterended with an orbis of 1?05' to Saturn.The next exact greatconjunction happenedin 7 BCE (see below). The conjunctionwas calculatedbeforehandby
Babylonianastrologers,cf. Kugler 1907-1935, vol. 2: 498f.
30
Kockuvon Stuckrad
of Jupiterand Saturn were of extraordinaryimportanceand the rare

triple conjunctionsalways raised considerablespeculations.65Jupiter
was usually connected with kingship and royalty,whereas Saturn,being the seventh star and thus heraldingthe Sabbath,was attributedto
the Jewishpeople. When Alexander- and his family - mintedcoins
bearingthe Hasmonaeanstarhe laid claim on his sovereignty'sdivine
election made visible by the great conjunction.His reign was the fulfillmentof Bileam's prophecy.
Herod the Great, for his part, read the heavenly signs differently.
Yet, he appliedthe same patternof arguments.Being deeply engaged
in the skilled astrologicaldiscourse, Herod saw himself as the Jewish
Messiah who is to establisha divine reign for his people.66He was the
new star rising from Israel. Given the astrological orientationof his
politics Herod was extremely sensitive when it came to extraordinary
heavenly spectacles. Takenthis into accountit is no longer surprising
to find the king aggressively reacting to the challenge of his power
during the years 7 and 6 BCE. What at first glance seems to be an
outburstof persecutionmania- the slaughteringof his wife, his sons,
and a whole bunch of enemies67- turns out to be a 'reasonable'
answer to the planetary threat. A great conjunction of Jupiter and
Saturntook place in the last decade of Pisces, i.e. exactly on the vernal
equinox of the time. Since the discovery of Hipparchus(2nd century
BCE) the precession of the equinoxes was well-known and skilled
people were aware of the extraordinaryzodiacal place the planets
gatheredat in those years.68
65 A very good survey is given by Strobel 1987.
66Cf. the impressive biography of Schalit 1969 (for Herod's messianism see
p. 476). In a speech Herod says, according to Josephus: "I think, throughthe will
of god I helped the Jewish people to gain a level of wealth that was never known
before (AJ 15.383) [... ] But now, through God's will, I am the emperor,and there
will be a long period of piece and superfluouswealth and income (AJ 15.387)."
67Josephusreportsthe events extensively inAJ 16.73-76.328-334.361-394. Cf. also
Schalit 1967: 620-628.
68 Cf. Strobel 1987: 1051.
31
The interpretationwas now apparent:the last importantconjunction

of Jupiterand Saturnin 126 BCE broughtfortha Jewish kingdomthat
was to last for 27 years and was extended enormously in area and
influence; what more could be expected when it comes to a genuine
greatconjunctionon the vernalequinox, stressedfurtherby the planet
Mars. No doubt, the events called for decided and resolute action
and so Herod went for it. Furthermore,the king was driven by an
enigmatic prophecy, once uttered by a Pharisee, that Herod was to
lose his power "by God's decree" (AJ 17.43f). Again, politics were
deeply impregnatedwith astrological notions and Josephus himself
raises the question whetherthese events are not to be regardedas the
influenceof necessity (anankg)or heavenly fate (heimarmene).69This
interpretationleads us rightinto the centerof ancientdiscourses.
The Christian version of the triple conjunction's 'true meaning'
was near at hand. From this perspective, the birth of the Messiah
was accompaniedby a heavenly sign and the great conjunctionwas
molded into the 'Starof Bethlehem,'thus ensuringthe belief in Jesus'
divine origin. Generally,the stars as signs is a common motif within
eithercanonical or non-canonicalwritings and the starof the Messiah
intrigued the early Christians.From the second century on patristic
literaturediscussedits theologicalimplications.It is interestingto note
that Origen's reading of the planetarymovements as the writing of
God's own hand (see above) was also appliedto the birthof Jesus.
If it is right to say that the great conjunctionsof Jupiterand Saturn had an astonishingimpact on politics and self-definitionone can
assume that the next triple contact of the two would raise old questions anew. This was the case in the year 134 CE, during the BarKokhba revolt, and it can be shown that astrological interpretation
sheds light on the difficultpsychological and historicalcircumstances
of the Jewishrebellion.Forthis purpose,it is noteworthyto addressthe
fact that Hadrian,who besieged Jerusalemand changed its name into
Aelia Capitolina -
a sanctuary for Jupiter, -
was an astrologer him-
69AJ 16.397. Cf. Schalit 1969: 627 and Strobel 1987: 1073.
32
Kockuvon Stuckrad
self.70He wasby all meansa skilledexpertandtherecanbe no doubt

thathe arrangedhis politicsin accordancewith astrologicalcalculation.71Turningto theJewishrebelsone findsa similarembeddedness.
BarKoseba,
First,the verynameof the leader- BarKokhba/aram.
i.e. 'son of the star'- revealsnot only a messianicexpectationbut
Thisnotionwas obviouslycommon,
also its astrologicalconnotation.
"The
evenwithinChristian
circles,forEusebiusof Caesaraea
pretends:
Jews'leaderwas [a man]namedBarKokhba[Barchtchebas]which
andrapaciousmanhe was,
meansstar.Althoughhe wasa bloodthirsty
dueto his name,honoredin a slavishmanneras lantern[phoster]that
hadcome downfromheavento help the oppressedandilluminating
them (Hist. Eccl. 4.6,2)."
Second,duringtherevolta numberof coinsweremintedwitha star

as symbolabovethe templefront.In somecases the motifresembles
a rosetteor a smallwave,so thatno finaldecisionis possibleaboutits
ButthefactthatJewsfashionedtheirmostvaluablecoins,
meaning.72
on a markedpositioncalls
witha star-rosette
the silvertetradrachms,
for explanation.The temple - and even more the new temple - was
Its interpretation
not meredecorationbutprogramandpropaganda.73
as a starfits verywell intothe discoursesof the day thatwereshared
of
is the factthatthe conjunction
by pagansandJews.Of importance
JupiterandSaturnwasobservableall thetime,thusenablingtheJews
calculusto makeup theirown minds
not familiarwith astronomical
abouttime'squality.
70 The
renamingof the city can either be a thankfulact to Jupiterafter the victory

over the Jews/Saturnor a preparingact before the siege. Thus, this interpretationdoes
not solve the much-discusseddifficultiesof the terminationof Hadrian'sdecision.
71 Cf. Cramer1954: 162ff.
72 Cf. Meshorer 1967 & 1982.
Enthusiasticallypositive about the star is Strobel
1987: 1106; critical is Mildenberg 1984: 45. Sure about the star, but not about its
messianicconnotation,is Schafer 1981: 65.
73 ContraMildenberg1984: 45.
33
5. Results
Astrology is the key discipline for interpretingtime. Based on the
doctrine of correspondencesit developed different branches where
people sought to gain insight into the meaning of past, present, and
futureevents. I describedthose branchesin termsof variousdiscourses
thatwere much moreintricatethanmodem scholarship,with its limited
andpreconceivedperspective,usually acknowledges.As the dominant
tool for analyzing time's quality,astrology was embracedand applied
by Jews and Christiansalike. Monotheism'scriticismfocused eitheron
deterministicworldviews,not compatiblewith ethical propositions,or
on the adorationof astraldeities which is not in agreementwith Jewish
or Christiancult tradition.But to call this astrology means to neglect
the refined standardof ancient discourses about the relation between
both zodiac, stars,and earthas well as volition, fate, and ethics.
What is to be recognized in the Jewish and Christiandocuments,
instead,is a serious attemptto blend astrologicaltraditionswith their
own religious identities.In the course of this process astrologicaldoctrines often had to undergo a transformation,sometimes necessitating a thorough-goingmodification.This can best be studiedwithin the
Manichaeancontext where the standard- and highly symbolic
numberof seven 'planets' had to be modulatedinto a pentadic system due to Mani's preferencefor the numberfive.74Anotherexample
was the rabbinicaldiscoursewhere the primacy of religious coherence
over astrological consistency is also a key feature.Thus, the ancient
monotheisticdiscourses were not ignited by questions of justification
or refutationof astrology as such, but clustered aroundthe right interpretationof heavenly signs. Each partyclaimed to have the correct
knowledge of the 'message of God's hand' according to Jewish and
ChristianHeilsgeschichte.Each partymade use of astrologyas a helpful means for legitimizingtheirown religious position.
74 Sun and moon were highly honoredby Manichaeantheology, so that they had to
be removedfrom the 'seven archons'known from Gnostic contexts. For Manichaean
astrology,up to now only merely examined,cf. von Stuckrad1999: ch. X.
Kockuvon Stuckrad
34
Futurescholarshipshould not dismiss astrology's central statusfor

Jewish and Christianthinkingin late antiquity- and beyond.
KOCKUVON STUCKRAD
University of Erfurt
Departmentof Religious Studies

ComparativeReligion
P.O. Box 307
D-99006 Erfurt,Germany
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JOHNWESLEY SLEPTHERE:
AMERICANSHRINESAND AMERICANMETHODISTS
THOMASA. TWEED
Summary
Historiansof religion have devoted little attentionto shrines in the United States,
and the limited scholarshipthat is available has overlooked Protestants.Protestants,
most interpretershave assumed, do not have shrines or make pilgrimages. In this
essay I define and classify shrines, surveying a wide range of sacred sites in the
United States. Then I challenge the assumptions about Protestantsand pilgrimage.
Focusing on the United Methodists, I argue that while the spiritualdescendants of
John Wesley do not consecrate all types of sacred sites or endorse all pilgrimage
practices, commemorativeshrines play a role in American Methodist piety. If I am
right, Protestants,and AmericanMethodists in particular,are less anomalous in the
historyof religion thanmost scholarshave assumed.
On a winter morning in 1736 Methodism's founder John Wesley

first stepped on American soil. He landed on uninhabitedCockspur
Island,just off the Savannahcoast, and thereon a small hill the British
religious leader fell to his knees to give thanks for a safe journey.
TodayMethodist pilgrims makejourneys of their own to that spot
to recall Wesley's landingandreturnto Methodistorigins.To officially
recognize the site's sacrality,in 1976 the United Methodist Church
named John Wesley's American Parish, which includes Cockspur
Islandand six otherSavannahsites, the nineteenth"nationalMethodist
shrine."
The denomination'suse of the termshrine to markthis sacredplace
might seem odd. Methodists, after all, don't have shrines - or at
least most scholars of religion have presupposedthat. Catholics have
shrines, the standardview goes, and so do Buddhists, Jains, Hindus,
NUMEN, Vol. 47
ThomasA. Tweed
42
andMuslims.ButmostProtestants
seemto eschewround-trip
journeys
to sacredsites.1
Thereis some truthin this view, andProtestantsuspicionsabout
shrinesand pilgrimagehave roots that extend to the Reformation,
whenreformersandtheirfollowerschallengedthe allegedabusesof
RomanCatholicpractice.In thisProtestant
view, establishingshrines
and promotingpilgrimagerisks endorsingthe Catholicsacramental
worldviewwithits mistaken,evenmorallydangerous,collapseof the
distinctionbetweenthe sacredandthe secular.To designatea site as
sacred,and veneratepersonsor objectsthere,muddlesProtestants'
of God's relationto the world. It distractsfromthe
understanding
authenticsourcesof religiousauthority
andpower:sacredscripture
and
As
saints
and
venerate
celebrate
miracles
shrines
religiousexperience.
In short,theyriskidolatry.
theyopenthedoorto papistsuperstition.
In thisessayI beginby definingandclassifyingshrines,surveying
a widerangeof sacredsitesin the UnitedStates.ThenI challengethe
aboutProtestants
andpilgrimage.Focusingon theUnited
assumptions
I
that
while
the spiritualdescendantsof Johnand
Methodists, argue
CharlesWesleydo notconsecratealltypesof sacredsitesorendorseall
shrinesplaya rolein American
pilgrimagepractices,commemorative
andAmericanMethodists
Methodistpiety.If I am right,Protestants,
in particular,
are less anomalousin the historyof religionthanmost
scholarshaveassumed.
1 The
only scholarly volume dedicatedexclusively to U.S. shrinesand pilgrimage

is G. RinschedeandS.M. Bhardwaj,eds., Pilgrimage in the UnitedStates, Geographia
Religionum,vol. 5 (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1990). It includes threechapters
on Catholic shrines, two on quasi-religious sites, and one each on Sikh, Mormon,
and Hindu shrines. None of the chapters focuses on Protestant sacred sites. The
same patternholds in guidebooks that claim comprehensiveness:Colin Wilson, The
Atlas of Holy Places and Sacred Sites (New York:D.K. Publishers, 1996); and Paul
LambourneHiggins, Pilgrimages USA:A Guide to Holy Places of the UnitedStates
for Today'sTraveler(EnglewoodCliffs, N.J.: PrenticeHall, 1985).
AmericanShrinesand AmericanMethodists
43
Shrinesand Pilgrims
The original meaning of shrine in Old English (scrin) and Latin
(scrinium)suggests that it is a box or repository.In this original and
more limited usage, shrinesare repositoriesfor a reveredbody or veneratedrelic, and devotees often have commemoratedholy persons by
constructingshrines over tombs or placing remains in them. In its
broadermeaning, however, shrine refers to a sacred site that houses
holy artifacts,promotes ritual practice, and attractsreligious travelers, who often mark the time and extend the space of the journey by
returninghome with mementos. These sacred sites function as mediating spaces or transitionalzones by allowing a vertical movement
towardthe sacred, elevating devotees and bringing low the transcendent, as pilgrims petition and thank the gods and saints. Shrines also
allow horizontal movement outwardinto the social terrainand built
environment.In this sense, they culturallysituatedevotees by creating
interpersonalbonds, negotiatingsocial status,and constructingcollective identity.Shrines differ from otherplaces of worship such as local
churches,mosques, temples,or synagogues, which attractvisitors on a
more regularbasis and from a narrowergeographicalrange.2
In other words, shrines usually attractpilgrims, religiously-motivated travelerswho undertakeinfrequentround-tripjourneys to sites
they consider sacred.At theirdestination,and along the way, pilgrims
engage in religious practices that might include ritualized speech,
dress, and gesture. Pilgrimage sites sometimes stand far from the
follower's home, and sometimes the length and arduousnessof the
journeyis itself spirituallysignificant.Whetheror not the destinationis
distantand thejourneydifficult,most pilgrims,who are temporarilyor
permanentlychanged by the experience, carry something home with
them. For contemporarypilgrims that can mean a range of artifacts
2 For an overview of shrines see Paul B. Courtright,"Shrines,"in Mircea Eliade,
ed., Encyclopediaof Religion (New York:Macmillan, 1987); s.v. "shrine"in Jonathan
Z. Smith, ed., The HarperCollinsDictionary of Religion (San Francisco:HarperSanFrancisco,1995); and ThomasA. Tweed, "Shrine,"in WadeClarkRoof, ed., ContemporaryAmericanReligion (New York:Macmillan,forthcoming).
ThomasA. Tweed
44
- from holy cards and T-shirtsto postcards and photographs.Upon

their return,devotees recall and extend the sacredjourney by wearing
(or carrying)mementos,giving them to loved ones, or placing them in
the home, thereby sacralizingdomestic space and linking it with the
pilgrimagesite.3
3 There have been five main
approachesto the study of pilgrimage. First, highlighting change over time, the historicalapproachhas emphasizedthe distinctiveness
of each pilgrimageand its embedednessin the culturalcontext and the sponsoringreligion. Second, a sociological view, inspiredby the writingsof Emile Durkheim,presupposes that pilgrimages reflect broadersocial processes: for example, they bolster
social statusandconstructcollective identity.Guidedby the writingsof MirceaEliade
and other religion scholars,a phenomenologicalapproachhas identifiedpilgrimage's
common features by theorizing across religions and cultures. Claiming to be more
sympatheticto the participants'interpretations,these scholars have seen pilgrimage
as an encounterwith the sacred. In opposition to functionalistsociological theories,
they also havehighlightedreligion'ssui generis character,criticizingthose who reduce
the phenomenonto social, cultural,or economic impulses. A fourthapproach,anthropological, has had the most scholarly influence, and Victor Turnerand Edith Turner
have producedthe most influentialanthropologicaltheory.For them, pilgrimageis a
rite of passage: the pilgrim begins in the social structure,departs from it duringthe
ritual,and then returns(transformed)to society. Duringthe pilgrimage,the Turnersargue, devotees standin a liminalstate, where the usual social hierarchiesaresuspended
and an egalitarianspirit of "communitas"temporarilyholds. In the 1991 book Contesting the Sacred, its editors,John Eade and Michael J. Sallnow, directlychallenged
the reigning Tumerianmodel. Eade and Sallnow saw contestationwhere the Turners
found consensus. Pilgrimages,in this revisionist anthropologicalview, do not have a
fixed meaning or produce a sharedfeeling of commonality.Rather,pilgrimagesites
are social arenaswhere devoteesnegotiatemeaning andpower.A fifth approachto the
study of pilgrimagecomes fromculturalgeographers,who have drawnon the theories
by Eliade, Turner,and (more recently)Eade and Sallnow. S.M. Bhardwaj,C. Prorok,
G. Rinschede,andothergeographers,have producedtexturedstudies of contemporary
pilgrimagesites, yet they have not offered a fully developedtheory of religioustravel.
However,a greatersensitivityto the significance of space and place distinguishesthe
work of geographers,who have chartedthe flow of pilgrimsand mappedthe landscape
of pilgrimage.Among the most importantbooks on pilgrimage,many of which I mentioned above, see Victor Turnerand Edith TurnerImage and Pilgrimage in Christian
Culture:AnthropologicalPerspectives(New York:ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1978);
Simon andJohnElsner,Pilgrimage:Past and Present in WorldReligions (Cambridge:
American Shrines and American Methodists
45
Most religious traditions have pilgrimage sites, but the meanings

and functions of those shrines vary widely. We can classify the variety
of shrines in several ways.
Shrines can be classified, first, by religious tradition. So using this
apparently straightforward scheme, we could note that El Santuario de
Chimay6 in New Mexico, currently one of the most frequently visited
Catholic pilgrimage sites in the United States, is a Christian shrine.
However, sometimes classifying shrines by religious affiliation can be
more difficult. Some sites inscribe multiple religious influences, and
self-consciously ecumenical sacred spaces claim to venerate multiple
traditions, as with the 1986 Light of Truth Universal Shrine at Satchidananda Ashram in Virginia. And classifying shrines by religious affiliation is problematic because that method overlooks quasi-religious
sites. Some places that claim secular status nonetheless share some of
the standard features of shrines, for example, nationalistic spaces like
the Washington Monument and tourist destinations like Cooperstown's
Baseball Hall of Fame.4
Shrines also can be classified geographically since they vary in
placement and scope. Although there are very few of these in the
United States, some shrines, such as Lourdes in France and Muhammed's tomb in Saudi Arabia, become international sites, drawing
HarvardUniversityPress, 1995); John Eade and Michael J. Sallnow,eds., Contesting
the Sacred: TheAnthropologyof ChristianPilgrimage (LondonandNew York:Routledge, 1991); Alan Morinis, ed., Sacred Journeys: The Anthropologyof Pilgrimage
(Westport,Conn.: GreenwoodPress, 1992); and Mary Lee Nolan and Sidney Nolan,
ChristianPilgrimage in Modern WesternEurope (Chapel Hill: University of North
CarolinaPress, 1989).
4 On Chimay6, see Ram6n A. Gutidrrez,"El Santuariode Chimay6:A Syncretic
Shrine in New Mexico," in Ram6n A. Gutidrrezand Genevieve Fabre, Feasts and
Celebrations in North American Ethnic Communities(Albuquerque:University of
New Mexico Press, 1995), 71-86. On the Light of TruthUniversalShrine,see Thomas
A. Tweed and Stephen Prothero,eds., Asian Religions in America: A Documentary
History (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 253-57. On quasireligious sites in the United States and elsewhere, see Ian Reader and Tony Walter,
eds., Pilgrimage in Popular Culture(London:Macmillan, 1993).
ThomasA. Tweed
46
pilgrims from many nations. Others are national as saints - for

example, St. James in Spain and Our Lady of Guadalupein Mexico
- become entwined with the nation's history and identity. Regional
shrines attract devotees from a few counties or states, while local
shrines draw visitors from a single town or city. Narrowingthe scope
still more, some shrines decorate pathways or mark the boundary
between domestic and civic space, as with Afro-Cubanyard shrines
in Miami. Homes become sacred, too, as devotees place images and
artifactsassociatedwith holy personson bedroomwalls or living room
altars. And recent technological innovations, especially the internet,
have made some shrines even less spatially fixed: web pages allow
cyberpilgrims to email prayers, check schedules, and take virtual
tours.5
Finally, shrines also can be classified by their origin and function,
even if most sites share features of several types. Commemorative
shrines recall the site of key historical or mythological events (e.g.,
a founder's vision or the world's creation), and pilgrims recount
historicalnarrativesor sacredmyths aboutthe deeds done thereas they
performrituals that memorialize holy persons or transportfollowers
to religiously significant times or places. Some American Indian
sacred sites, for example, are commemorative: several mountains
in New Mexico and Arizona mark places where the Pueblo, Hopi,
and Navajo peoples first were told to settle or first established their
spiritualrelationshipswith bear, deer, and eagle. Miraculous shrines,
a second type, mark the site of miraculous interventionsor sacred
encounters, such as apparitionsand healings. Many shrines acquire
a reputationfor their healing powers. The holy dirt at El Santuario
de Chimay6, for example, draws Latino pilgrims who believe it has
the power to heal body and soul, and those who are transformed
5 On Cuban
yard shrinesin Miami, see James R. Curtis,"Miami'sLittle Havana:

Yard Shrines, Cult Religion, and Landscape,"Journal of Cultural Geography 1
(Fall/Winter1980): 1-15. For an example of a webpage thatpromises cyberpilgrimsa
"virtualtour"see www.nationalshrine.com.,the site sponsoredby the NationalShrine
of the ImmaculateConceptionin Washington,D.C.
47
leave notes or crutchesto signal their thanks. Sometimes shrines also

originatebecause followers find or acquire relics, objects considered
sacredbecause of their association with holy persons (built or foundobject shrines), or because devotees want to give thanks that an
individual or group was saved from some crisis or catastrophe(ex
voto shrines). Other shrines are self-consciously constructedon sites
that do not recall historical events, mark miraculous interventions,
house ancientrelics, or thanka deity. Some of these, imitativeshrines,
replicateimages and architecturefrom older sites elsewhere, as with
the many American Catholic sites whose design mirrorsEuropean
pilgrim centers like Lourdes and as with American Hindu centers
like Pittsburgh'sSri VenkateswaraTemple, which recalls one of the
most sacred sites in South India, the hilltop shrine of Tirupati.Other
self-consciously created pilgrimage sites, identity shrines, celebrate
saints or deities thatmarkethnic, religious, or nationalidentity.These
shrineshave been especially importantto first and second generation
immigrants,as they make sense of themselves in the new American
culturalcontext.6
Shrinesand Pilgrims in the U.S.
Americanshavejourneyedto all these types of shrines,both in the
United States and abroad.Some Americanpilgrims- those with sufficient time and money - have traveledabroadto sites they considered sacred. A very small proportionof these journeys led to quasireligious sites, those with civil religious importancesuch as American
6 On Sri Venkatesvara
Temple, see Fred W. Clothey, Rhythmand Intent: Ritual
Studies from South India (Madras: Blackie and Son, 1983), 164-200. Examples
of identity shrines include Marian centers for Polish Catholics in Doylestown,
Pennsylvania, and for Cuban Catholics in Miami. See Gabriel Lorenc, American
Czestochowa (Doylestown, Penn.: National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa,
1989); and Thomas A. Tweed, Our Lady of the Exile: Diasporic Religion at a
Cuban Catholic Shrine in Miami (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1997). Among the recentbooks on the quasi-religiousdimensions of fan devotion at
Elvis Presley's formerhome see Erika Doss, Elvis Culture:Fans, Faith, and Image
(Lawrence:UniversityPress of Kansas, 1999).
48
ThomasA. Tweed
war memorials in Europe or other foreign sites with historical connections. For example, Alfred T. Story's 1908 guidebook American
Shrines in England introducedAmerican travelers to civil religious
sites such as George Washington'sand BenjaminFranklin'sancestral
homes. Much more commonly,Americantravelershave visited the traditional pilgrimage sites in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Fast
and inexpensive air travel, allows thousandsof contemporaryAmerican Catholics annually to take guided tours of the great pilgrimage
centers in Europe, Lourdesand Fatima, as well as newer apparitional
sites such as Medjugorjeand Mount Melleray. And each year many
Christians -
Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, and Catholic -
travel to
the Holy Land.Some U.S. Jews imagine a tripto Israel, and the sacred
sites there, as decisive for identity, even as a rite of passage to Jewish adulthood.During the turbulentlate-nineteenthcenturyand again
during and after the restless 1960s, small numbersof elite American
Buddhistand Hindu convertshomaged sacredsites in Indiaand Japan,
while Asian American followers who enteredthe United States after
the new immigrationact of 1965 also have returnedto holy places in
their homeland. Pilgrimage to Mecca is a duty for all able Muslims,
and approximatelyfive thousandAmericanfollowers fulfill thatobligation each year.7
If some American pilgrims have crossed national borders, others
have traveledto destinationsin the United States. Some of those destinations,like battlefieldsand monuments,are quasi-religious,sharing
some of the features of traditionalpilgrimage sites. Journeysto the
StonewallJacksonShrinein Virginiaor to the Lincoln Memorialin the
capital can blur the lines between tourismand pilgrimage since those
sites have meaning for the celebrationof America's civil religion, the
religious or quasi-religioussymbols and practicesassociatedwith the
political sphere.Visitorsto some civil religious sites, like the Vietnam
7 Alfred T. Story, American Shrines in England (London: Methuen, 1908). The
source for my estimate of the numberof annualAmericanMuslim pilgrimsto Mecca
is the Saudi Arabianembassy:Telephoneinterview,23 October 1998, TarikAllagany,
informationsupervisor,Saudi ArabianInformationOffice, Washington,D.C.
49
Veteran's Memorial in Washington, D.C., closely simulate ritual practice at traditionally religious shrines. By the end of the 1990s, millions
of visitors had left tens of thousands of artifacts and letters at that civic
monument, just as Catholic pilgrims leave notes or crutches at healing
shrines. As several scholars have noted, similar practices emerge at
other U.S. tourist sites that claim secular status, including Graceland,
Elvis Presley's Memphis home, where fans from across the country
leave messages, flowers, and gifts during candle light vigils.8
But pilgrimage in the United States usually has been explicitly associated with religious traditions. American Indian peoples have long
venerated certain natural and historical sites and returned regularly to
8 On
quasi-religious sites such as battlefields and tourist spots, see Edward

TaborLinenthal,Sacred Ground:Americansand TheirBattlefields,2nd ed. (Urbana:
Universityof Illinois Press, 1993); and John Sears, Sacred Places: American Tourist
Attractions in the Nineteenth Century (New York and Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1989). The multiple types of shrines appear throughoutthe world, but some
patternsemerge as we consider what has been most distinctive about U.S. shrines.
First, with the exception of some American Indian shrines, U.S. pilgrimage sites
are relatively recent when compared with those from Europe, the Middle East, or
Asia. Second, perhapsbecause of its vigorous civil religion and its relativeeconomic
privilege, which allows its citizens to construct and visit more sites, the nation
seems to have a greaternumber of quasi-religious nationalistic and tourist places.
Third, shrines have been more central in some religious traditions (for example,
Roman Catholicism and Hinduism) than others and, with some exceptions, those
long-standing patterns have held in America. So Catholics, with as many as 360
religious sites, have built the most shrines on American soil. American Buddhists
and Muslims, who have constructedshrines in Asia and the Middle East, have not
yet transplantedthat traditionbecause their numbers increased substantially only
after the 1965 revision of U.S. immigrationlaws and these religious communities
traditionallyhave constructedshrines on the tombs of holy persons or at the sites
of historical events. That also explains a fourth patternin the United States. Only
religious movements that originatedon the continent, like the LatterDay Saints or
Mormons, can claim the American landscape as the site of their founding, so there
are fewer commemorative,miraculous,and found-objectshrinesin the United States.
In turn,Americans have built more imitative and identity shrines, which bridge for
immigrants the homeland and the United States, a nation originally formed and
continuallytransformedby migration.
50
ThomasA. Tweed
performprescribedrituals.So do manyRomanCatholics,who establishedtheirfirstpilgrimagesite on landsthatwouldbecomethe

UnitedStatesin 1620, when Spanishmissionariesdedicateda small
chapelto OurLadyof La Lecheat St. Augustine,Florida.Andby the
1990s,Catholicpilgrimsvisitedthatsite andmorethan360 othersacredplacesacrossthenation,includingpilgrimagecentersthatdevelop
aroundreportsof miraclesor apparitions.
Somenew religiousmovementsalsohaveconsecratedsitesas holy.ChristianScientistsvisitthe
residencesof founderMaryBakerEddyandthe monumental
Mother
Churchin Boston,whileLatter-daySaintsmakejourneysto regional
Mormontemplesas well as key sitesof historicalsignificancein MissouriandUtah.Forexample,TempleSquarein SaltLakeCityattracts
nearlyfivemillionannualvisitors.9
Althoughthey claim many fewer traditionalsacredsites in the
UnitedStatesthanin theirhomeland,thepost-1965immigrants,
who
havetransplanted
a varietyof faiths,haveconstructed(orrenovated)
thousandsof placesof worship.SomelargerHindutemples,Sikhgurdwaras,andMuslimmosqueshave functionedas local, regional,or
nationalpilgrimagesites for Asian and MiddleEasternimmigrants
andtheirrelatives.SomeAmericanBuddhisttemplesdrawpilgrims,
9 Vine Deloria God is Red, 2nd ed. (Golden, Colorado: North American Press,
1992), 267-82. As Deloria notes, the state's power sometimes constrains Indian
peoples' ability to practice their faith because many have been displaced from
their traditional homelands or forbidden access to holy places on federal lands.
Nonetheless, Indian peoples still make round-tripreligious journeys. On American
Indian sacred sites see Keith H. Basso, WisdomSits in Places: Landscape and
Language among the WesternApache (Albuquerque:University of New Mexico
Press, 1996); and Klara Bonsack Kelley and HarrisFrancis, Navajo Sacred Places
(Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress, 1994). For a list and descriptionof American
Catholic sites, see J. Anthony Moran, Pilgrims' Guide to America: U.S. Catholic
Shrines and Centers of Devotion (Huntington,Indiana:Our Sunday Visitor, 1992).
For brief but helpful overviews of LDS sites see Lloyd E. Hudman,"HistoricSites
and Tourism,"in S. Kent Brown, Donald Q. Cannon,and RichardH. Jackson,eds.,
Historical Atlas of Mormonism(New York:Simon and Schuster, 1994), 138-39; and
RichardH. Jackson, "HistoricalSites," in Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of
Mormonism,vol. 2 (New York:Macmillan, 1992), 592-95.
51
often from a single ethnic group and Buddhist sect. For example,
in 1996 more than 110,000 devotees, many of them Chinese immigrants,took the guided tour at SouthernCalifornia'sHsi Lai Temple,
the largestBuddhisttemple in the westernhemisphere.The Jain Society of MetropolitanChicago,which was the largestJaincenterin North
America when it opened in 1993, attractsboth local Asian Indianimmigrants,anddevotees who travelgreaterdistances.Hinduimmigrants
from India, and elsewhere, firstdedicatedtwo majortemples (in Pittsburghand Flushing) duringthe summerof 1977, and Hindu devotees
have been especially successful in transplantingthe ancientand vigorous Indianpilgrimagetraditionsince then. The first two temples, and
the dozens consecratedsince the 1970s, have attractedAmericanpilgrims; and, as at many other religious and quasi-religioussites, new
pilgrimageroutes are constantlyemergingin the United States.10
ProtestantPilgrims and Shrines: TheAmericanMethodistCase
One religious traditionis noticeably absent from this brief survey:
Protestants.There has been little researchon shrines and pilgrimage
in the United States, and of the few studies that have appearednone
explicitly and systematicallyconsiders Protestantpilgrimagepractice.
The presumption,as I indicatedat the start,is that Protestantsdo not
have shrines or make pilgrimages. And it is true that few American
Protestantdenominationshave used the terms shrine and pilgrimage
to describe their reveredplaces or their religious practice, and many
Protestantshave felt uneasy aboutthe Catholicpreoccupationwith pilgrimage centers. For some Protestants,talk about shrines or pilgrimage signals that the speakerhas been seduced by dangerouslysensual
Catholic culture. However, while round-tripreligious journeys have
been less centralfor Protestantpiety thanfor Catholicdevotion,Amer10On the pilgrimagesites of the post-1965 Asian immigrants(Jains,Hindus, Sikhs,
and Buddhists) see Tweed and Prothero,ed., Asian Religions in America, 289-314,
315-34. For a guide to North American Hindu shrines and pilgrimage, see Marella
L. Hanumadass,ed., A Pilgrimageto Hindu Templesin NorthAmerica(Flushing:The
Council of HinduTemplesof NorthAmerica, 1994).
52
ThomasA. Tweed
ica's childrenof the Reformationare less anomalousin this regardthan

many have assumed. Focusing on white U.S. Methodistsin the twentieth century,I suggest that these mainline Protestantshave sacralized
sites and made religiousjourneys.
In most ways, they have done so despite their Methodist heritage,
not because of it. The denomination'sfounder, John Wesley, sometimes offered qualifiedadmirationfor Catholic persons and practices.
For instance, he praised Thomas a Kempis's Imitation of Christ in
his journals and letters. And sometimes, as in his more eirenical
1749 Letter to a Roman Catholic, Wesley restrainedhis criticism of
Catholics.More typically,as in Popery CalmlyConsideredandA Caution against Bigotry, he let loose a flurry of condemnations.Consider the lattersermon,deliveredin 1750, where he describedthe Roman Catholic Church as "in many respects anti-scripturaland antiChristian:a Churchwhich we believe to be utterlyfalse and erroneous
in her doctrines,as well as dangerouslywrong in her practice,guilty
of gross superstitionas well as idolatry..." Wesley found idolatryin
manythingsCatholic- includingthe office of the papacyandthe doctrineof transubstantiation.
Yet, as one Methodisthistorianhas argued,
the foundersaw idolatry"especially in the cult of images, in what he
perceivedto be the worship of the Virgin Mary,and in the offering of
prayersto the saints."And, of course, these idolatrousparaliturgical
practicesflourishedat Catholic shrines.For Wesley and other leading
Methodists,then, Catholicpilgrimageculture- with its enshriningof
images and petitioningof intercessors- was misguided.1'
11On Wesley's attitudes toward Catholicism, see David Butler, Methodists and
Papists: John Wesleyand the Catholic Church in the Eighteenth Century(London:
Darton, Longman, and Todd, 1995). The passage from Wesley's sermon A Caution
against Bigotryis quotedin thatwork (xiii). The historianquotedon the cult of images
is also Butler:Methodistsand Papists, 158. It is interestingto note that some of John
Wesley's early critics condemned his views by comparing them with those of the
Roman Catholic Church.In this view, both Methodists and Catholics were guilty of
"enthusiasm."For example, see [George Lavington], The Enthusiasmof Methodists
and Papists Compar'd (London:J. and P. Knapton, 1749). Wesley, annoyed by the
53
Homaging theirheritage,and especially the longstandingsuspicion

of Catholic sacramentalism,Methodists have distanced themselves
from some -
although not all -
shrines and pilgrimage. Yet to under-
standMethodistpracticeit is importantto be precise about the nature

and classificationof shrines.To use my labels, then, U.S. Methodists
usually have not establishedmiraculousshrines,found-objectshrines,
or ex voto shrines,and they have consecratedimitativeshrinesonly in
the loosest sense of the term. Methodistsfail to found these types of
shrines,in part,because they continue to affirmthe Wesleyancritique
of Catholic images and saints, but the Reformationdoctrine of a limited age of miracles also has shapedtheirpractice.As one historianof
Christianityhas noted, the Reformersheld that "miracleswere essential for both the revelationof the Bible and the establishmentof the
Christianchurch,but afterthe completionof the scripturethey ceased
to occur."Applying this principle (which held among most Englishspeaking Protestantsuntil 1930 and continued to have influence after that), if there are no more miracles, there can be no more miracle
shrinesestablishedat the site of sacredhealings and supernaturalinterventions.In turn,therecan be no ex voto shrinesbuilt to expressthanks
for those interventions.Further,because Methodistswanted to distinguish themselves from the Catholicpracticeof enshriningsaints, they
did not develop a strong traditionof relic preservationor veneration.
One Methodistdivinity school exhibitsJohnWesley's deathmask; anotherpreservesGeorge Whitfield'sthumband displays pieces of Wesley's coat. Yet with the possible exception of the World Methodist
Building at Lake Junaluska,North Carolina, which one prominent
Methodist historianplayfully called "the Methodist Disneyland,"the
United Methodist Churchhas not encouragedpopular reverence for
those items or established a pilgrimagecenter to house them. In this
comparison,responded.See John Telford,ed., John Wesley'sLetters,vol. 3 (London:
EpworthPress, 1931), 258ff.
54
ThomasA. Tweed
sense, the presuppositionsaboutMethodists,and otherProtestants,are

correct:they have rejectedmost kinds of shrines.12
American Methodists, however, have not eschewed all types of
shrines:they have identifiedand visited commemorativeshrines,sites
that recall key historical events and transportpilgrims to religiously
significanttimes. And these functionas identityshrinessince, for many
Methodists,collective identity emerges from historicalconsciousness.
As historianRussell Richey has arguedpersuasively,"Methodistshave
consistentlyturnedto history when called upon to say who they were,
to state purposes, to define themselves."This appeal to history first
emergedfrom the practiceof sharingconversionnarratives,andit took
root in the teaching and example of Methodism'sfounder,JohnWesley, and its most influential American leader, Francis Asbury. Wesley advised his preachersto keep a journal, and he followed his own
advice by preservinga personal record for over sixty years. Asbury
had a similarhistoricalimpulse: as early as 1780 Asbury wrote in his
Journal that he had been "collecting all the minutes of our Conferences in America to assist me in a brief history of the Methodists."
And since 1787, The Book of Discipline, the regularlyupdatedsummaryof Methodistdoctrineand practice,has opened with an historical
preface. In that central text and in other contexts, when Methodists
have been asked to explain who they are, they often have told stories
abouttheirdenomination'spast. For this reason,it is not surprisingthat
12Robert Bruce Mullin, Miracles and the Modem
Religious Imagination (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 1. The exhibit that includes one of four
copies of Wesley's death mask is "John Wesley: Death and Remembrance,17911991," Duke Divinity School Library,Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
On Wesley's coat and Whitfield's thumb, see Colleen McDannell's analysis of
Drew University's Methodist Archives in Material Christianity(New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1995), 42-45. The reference to "MethodistDisneyland"surfaced
in a telephone interview with K. R., a prominentand informed Methodist historian,
4 November 1998. Official Methodist documents even have used the term relic to
describe the artifactshoused at Lake Junaluska.For example, The Book of Discipline
of the UnitedMethodistChurch:1968 (Nashville: The Methodist PublishingHouse,
1968), 445.
55
U.S. Methodists would consecrate commemorative shrines. That practice is an extension of their longstanding inclination toward historical
self-consciousness. And their commemorative shrines, like the Book of
Discipline's historical prefaces, construct collective identity by linking
adherents with a sacred heritage.13
Methodists at European and British Shrines
British and American Methodists have found their heritage preserved at Continental and British sites that function as commemorative shrines. For example, John Rhodes's Methodist Tourists on the
Continent narrates a journey the author took with a group of British
Methodists, who left London on 13 September 1875. They traveled
to Catholic and Protestant sites in Paris, Basil, Zurich, Milan, Venice,
Bologna, Florence, Rome, and Naples. At Catholic sites, Rhodes reported ambivalent responses. At times, he and his fellow Methodists
found themselves moved by the beauty of paintings and cathedrals;
more often they were repelled by Catholic excess and reminded of
Catholic superstitions. Sometimes Rhodes strained to avoid praising
things Catholic, as when he recounted his ambivalent reaction to the
Vatican. On the one hand, Rhodes acknowledged that it is "so splen13Russell E.
Richey, "History as Bearer of Denominational Identity,"in Russell E. Richey, Kenneth E. Rowe, and Jean Miller Schmidt, eds., Perspectives on
AmericanMethodism:InterpretiveEssays (Nashville: KingswoodBooks, 1993), 496.
Asbury'sjournal was quoted in Edwin Schell, History of NortheasternJurisdictional
Historical Concerns (n. p: NortheasternJurisdictionalCommission on Archives and
History,United MethodistChurch,1976), 1. On the historicalprefacesin TheBook of
Disciplines, and their role in creatingdenominationalidentity,see Russell E. Richey,
"Historyin the Discipline,"in ThomasA. Langford,ed., Doctrine and Theologyin the
UnitedMethodistChurch(Nashville: Kingswood, 1991), 190-202. In the latteressay,
Richey shows Methodists'distinctivehistoricalfocus by a comparisonwith two sister
denominations,EpiscopaliansandPresbyterians.Neitherintroducesitself historically;
neitherthe Episcopal nor Presbyterianconstitutions,initially or in lateryears, appeal
to history.Neither introducespolity with narrative(193). For the historicalprefaces in
the Books of Discipline consult any edition. For an interestingearly example see The
Doctrines and Discipline of the MethodistEpiscopal Church(New York:T. Mason
and G. Lane, 1836), 7-8.
56
ThomasA. Tweed
didly furnishedthat the Vaticanmay be justly described as the most

imposing palace in the world."On the otherhand,Michelangelo'sfrescoes in the Sistine Chapelfailed to move him. Speakingof the famous
Last Judgment,Rhodes reportedthat "for my own part I was greatly
disappointedwith this picture.I could see nothing either in its design
or execution thathad a pleasing effect."14
Rhodes's party also journeyed to sites on the Continentthat commemorateimportantpeople and events in the history of the Reformation and early Protestantism.At these sites, Rhodes was less ambivalent. As with other pilgrims traveling to the birthplaceof their religious tradition,Rhodes expressed only awe and appreciationat these
Protestanthistorical sites. Sometimes this Methodist pilgrim simultaneously managed to celebrate Protestantismand condemn Catholicism, as when he recounteda visit to the cathedralin Zurichwhere the
Swiss ReformerUlrich Zwingli in 1518 had "denouncedthe superstitions which then reigned supreme in the Papal Church,and declared
that the true and only source of salvation was to be found in Christ."
In this passage and many others the travel narrativereveals that, for
Rhodes and his fellow Methodists, the journey had religious significance. It was, in importantways, a pilgrimage.15
Some Methodistshave been even more straightforwardin acknowledging thattravelcan be pilgrimage.Considerone guidebookthatwent
through three editions between 1951 and 1976: Frank Baker's The
MethodistPilgrim in England.Baker,a BritishMethodist,did not offer
a travelaccountlike Rhodes's nineteenth-centurynarrative.Rather,as
Baker relates in the introduction,the volume arose from a suggestion
"thatour overseas visitors would appreciatesome informationabout
the historic shrines of British Methodism."Baker knew overseas visitors would appreciateinformationabout British shrines because he
met and guided those visitors himself. As Baker recalls in the preface
to the third edition, which was published in the United States, many
14John Rhodes, MethodistTouristson the Continent
(Bolton, England:Tillotson,
1876), 60.
15Rhodes, MethodistTourists,9.
57
of the travelerswho inspired Baker's labors, and followed him from

one sacredsite to another,were Americans.For example, in 1970, 195
Methodistsjourneyedto theirtradition'sBritishbirthplaceon the BaltimoreHistoricalSociety's UnitedMethodistHeritageTour.And, as one
of those BaltimoreMethodistsreportedseveralyears later,"becauseof
the success of the venture... similarpilgrimageshave since been made
by thousandsof AmericanMethodists."The geographically-arranged
book that resulted from the tourists' promptingoffers detailed information about landmarksin England:among them Oxford, where the
Wesleys "were educated and made their first tentative experiments
as Methodists";London, "where their hearts were warmed and the
Methodist societies came into being"; Bristol, "the strategic centre
for the spread of Methodism across the Atlantic";and the Wesley's
birthplacein Epworth,which Baker describes as "the Mecca of the
Methodistpilgrim."16
Note thathere (as throughoutthe book) Bakerself-consciously used
shrine and pilgrim, despite some Methodists' inherited discomfort
with these terms because of their Catholic associations. Baker, and
some other Methodists, wanted to reclaim the religious terms, however,since they conveyedimportantmeanings.Forhistorically-minded
Methodists,like Baker and the Americans he introducedto England,
shrineevokes a sense of sacralityin ways thatsecularalternatives,like
touristsite, do not. These Methodists,then, tradedon the term's more
traditionalreligious associations while simultaneouslydistinguishing
theirpracticefrom Catholicsuperstition.And Methodistscouldjustify
the use of the word shrine because it referredonly to commemorative sites. Standingvigil at John Wesley's ancestralhome or the place
of his conversionis legitimatefor the spiritualdescendantsof Luther,
Wesley,and Asbury.After all, Methodistpilgrimsdo not petitionJohn
Wesley to intercedefor them; nor do they venerateimages of Francis
16FrankBaker, The MethodistPilgrim in England, 3rd ed. (1951; Rutland,Vermont:Academy Books, 1976), vii, viii, 11. The quotationfrom the traveler,and other
informationon that 1970 pilgrimage,is in Schell, NortheasternJurisdictionalHistorical Concerns,26.
58
ThomasA. Tweed
Asbury.They do not reportapparitionsor seek healings. Methodists

do not crawl up shrine steps on their hands and knees or leave wax
limbs andwooden crutchesby the saint'saltar,as Catholicpilgrimsdo.
Methodistswho use shrine to describe significantsites find comfortin
theirbelief thatthereis no Catholicsuperstitionat BritishMethodism's
commemorativesites - only shareddenominationalmemory.
MethodistShrines in the U.S.
Methodistsalso have designatedcommemorativesites in the United
States, and they have used the same language - appealing to terms
like shrine andpilgrimage. By 1952, nationalMethodistorganizations
had made "a plea for recognitionand supportof shrines."By 1964, the
Association of MethodistHistoricalSocieties (AMHS), a federationof
the Jurisdictional,AnnualConference,and otherhistoricalsocieties of
the MethodistChurch,had recommendedthatthe GeneralConference
designate twelve structuresand sites as "Methodistshrines."These
were, as the Book of Discipline for 1964 indicated, a building or site
"linked with significant events and outstandingpersonalities in the
origin and developmentof AmericanMethodismas to have distinctive
historicalinterestand value for the denominationas a whole..."17
Two years later George H. Jones drew on that initial list, and information about other historically importantsites, to produce The
Methodist Tourist Guidebook.That volume, preparedfor the observance of the bicentennialof AmericanMethodism,fulfilled the bicentennial committee's charge - "to provide informationon Methodist
sites and shrines across the United States."It described many "landmarks" all across the country, and the twelve "national Methodist
shrines."Those includedEpworthChapelon St. Simons Island,Georgia, where the Wesleys established a congregationduring their difficult Americanjourney of the 1730s; and RehobothChurchin Union,
17Schell, Northeastern Jurisdictional Historical Concerns, 11. Doctrines and
Discipline of the Methodist Church:1964 (Nashville: Methodist PublishingHouse,
1964), 492. On thatpage of the 1964 volume the list of the twelve original"Methodist
shrines"also appears.
59
WestVirginia,where FrancisAsburyconductedthreeconferencesand
presidedat the firstordinationeast of the Alleghenies. The 1966 guidebook distinguishedthese twelve places by indicatingin capital letters
in the text "NATIONALMETHODISTSHRINE."Both the font and
the word signaled to potentialtravelersthat these sites held a special
place in the heartsof AmericanMethodists.Therepilgrims steppedon
holy ground.18
The ground was holy not because miraculoushealings or apparitions sanctified it, but because the site bridged the denominational
past. In 1968, when the MethodistChurchand the EvangelicalUnited
BrethrenChurchmerged to form the United Methodist Church, the
new denominationestablishedthe Commission on Archives and History.This body, the successor of the AMHS and the HistoricalSociety
of the Evangelical United BrethrenChurch,continued efforts to preserve denominationalhistory. That meant identifying three types of
places: "landmarks,""sites,"and "historicalshrines."The Committee
reservedthe last termfor locales with the greatesthistoricalimportance
and nationalsignificance.And at the time of the union, thatmeant the
twelve sites previously identified by the Methodists Church and the
two recognizedby the EvangelicalUnited BrethrenChurch.19
As the years passed, the Commission recommendedthat the General Conference designate other historical shrines. For example, the
1970 Special Session of the GeneralConferenceaccepted the recommendationof the Commission on Archives and History and named
Whitaker'sChapelin ruralNorth Carolinathe fifteenth"NationalHis18George H. Jones, The Methodist Tourist Guidebook (Nashville: published in
cooperationwith The Association of MethodistHistoricalSocieties by Tidings, 1966),
3. For anotherdenominationalstatementon "shrines,"see Albea Godbold, "Shrines,
Landmarks,and Sites of the United MethodistChurch,U.S.A.," in Nolan B. Harmon,
ed., The Encyclopediaof WorldMethodism,vol. 2 (Nashville: The United Methodist
PublishingHouse, 1974), 2150. For an accessible overview of American Methodist
historysee JamesE. Kirby,Russell E. Richey, and KennethE. Rowe, TheMethodists,
Denominationsin America,Number8 (Westport,Conn.: GreenwoodPress, 1996).
19The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church: 1968 (Nashville:
MethodistPublishingHouse, 1968), 445-51.
60
ThomasA. Tweed
toric United MethodistShrine."The Commission'sofficial recommendationis illuminating:

Because the North CarolinaConferenceof the MethodistProtestantChurchwas
organized in Whitaker'sChapel, because it was the first Methodist Protestant
conference of any kind, even antedating the organization of the Methodist
Protestant General Conference, because the present building has pilgrimage
appeal, and because Whitaker'sChapelwas long regardedas the main historical
shrine of one of the branchesof AmericanMethodism which united in 1939 to
form the Methodist Church,it is recommendedfor designation as the fifteenth
HistoricalShrine of the United MethodistChurch.20
Several phrases and principles are noteworthyhere. Notice again the

explicit use of phrases such as "pilgrimage appeal" and "historical
shrine." Note also the appeal to the criteria, which are spelled out
in The Book of Discipline, for the designation of national shrines:
they must be buildings, locations, or structuresthat are specifically
related to significant events, developments, or personalities in the
overall history of The United Methodist Church or its antecedents.
It is not enough to claim, for example, that Francis Asbury preached
there- and he did preachat Whitaker'sChapel three times. Asbury,
the tireless itinerant, preached almost everywhere. More than that
is needed for the Commission to grant shrine status. The site, like
Whitaker'sChapel, must returnpilgrims to sacred time, to an event
thatplantedor cultivatedthe seeds of AmericanMethodism.21
These commemorativeAmericanshrines,whose numberhad swelled to thirty-eight when the 1996 Book of Discipline appeared(see
Appendix A), constructMethodist identity. The Commission's most
recent shrine guidebook, the successor to Jones's Methodist Tourist
Guidebook,opens by inviting readersto "look to the rock from which
you were hewn..." It then introduces some of the holiest sites of
AmericanMethodismin Georgia.The Commissionquotes the famous
20"Historic Locations Recently Recognized,"Methodist History (October 1970),
36. See also William K. Quick, "Sunday'sCeremonyto MarkWhitaker'sChapel as
Shrine,"North Carolina ChristianAdvocate 115, 8 October 1970, 8-9.
21 TheBook
of Discipline of the UnitedMethodistChurch:1996 (Nashville: United
MethodistPublishingHouse, 1996), 582-83.
61
passage fromJohnWesley'sjournalfor 6 February1736: "Abouteight

in the morning we first set foot on American ground. It was a small,
uninhabitedisland,over againstTybee.Mr Oglethorpeled us to a rising
ground,wherewe all kneeledto give thanks."Withthis passageWesley
records his arrival on American soil, the tourbook reminds pious
Methodists,and "today a markeron CockspurIsland commemorates
that event."As I noted at the start of this essay, that markeris part
of one of the most importantcommemorativeshrines, John Wesley's
AmericanParish,in SavannahGeorgia, which also includes the sites
of Wesley's first service, his first parsonage, and the Town Hall,
where he held regular services. Wesley had left England because
GeneralJamesOglethorpe,who foundedSavannah,had invitedhim to
serve as Georgia'schaplain,and the British Methodist stayed twentyone months. An unsuccessful missionary to the local Indians and
an unsuccessful suitor to a local woman, Wesley left disappointed.
Yet, as the tourbookremindspilgrims, "his American sojournwas an
importantpart of his spiritualand intellectual development."And it
was an importantepisode in the history of American Methodism, as
the historical markers,published pamphlets, and guided tours at the
Savannahsites help Methodistsrecall.22
John Wesley's American Parish, and the thirty-sevenother commemorative shrines, attract contemporary Methodist pilgrims, althoughit is impossibleto know exactly how many since the denomination does not keep suchrecords.But my researchindicatesthatmost locales annuallyattractat least severalthousandpilgrims,much less than
most U.S. Catholic shrines but more than most scholars might have
guessed. The administratorat Philadelphia'sSt. George's Church,the
oldest Methodisthouse of worshipin continualuse in Americaandthe
site of Asbury's first Americansermon, reportsthat the churchdraws
22A Traveler'sGuide to the
Heritage Landmarksof the United Methodist Church
(Madison,New Jersey:GeneralCommission on Archives and History, 1997), 1. The
pamphletdistributedat the site: "JohnWesley's American Parish, Savannah, 17361737,"folded color brochure,no date, the SavannahDistrict United MethodistOffice
andTrinityUnited MethodistChurch,Savannah,Georgia.
62
ThomasA. Tweed
3,000 to 4,000 pilgrimseach year.Recordsof Trinity

approximately
UnitedMethodistChurch,one of the sevensitesconnectedwithJohn
Wesley'sAmericanParishin Savannah,suggestthatlocaledrewmore
in 1997.Tourregthan5,000 visitorsbetweenJanuaryandSeptember
istrationsshowthatthoseMethodistpilgrimscamefromthirty-seven
statesand fourteenforeigncountries.Othersites reportsimilarfigures.LovelyLaneMuseumin Baltimoreis nearthesite whereLovely
LaneChapelstood.Therein 1784thechapelhostedthefamousChristthe MethodistEpiscomasConferencewherethe new denomination,
pal Church,wasborn,andwhereJohnWesley'semissaryconsecrated
of theMethodistsin AmerFrancisAsburyas "generalsuperintendent"
ica. The Baltimoremuseumreports4,000 annualvisitors,andmore
House.23
taketheself-guidedtourof thenearbyRobertStrawbridge
Shrineor Landmark?Methodism'sDual Impulses
Mentionof the LovelyLaneMuseumandthe RobertStrawbridge

Houseraisesvividly an issue thatAmericanMethodistshave faced
in recent decades:Since the most widely known and religiously
resonanttermsfor spiritual
journeysandsacredplacescarryunwanted
anddescribe
Catholicassociations,howshouldMethodistsunderstand
theirown inclinationto identifyand visit holy sites?For morethan
23 invited site administratorsto estimate annual visitors and searched available
printed records. This method is flawed, of course, but it yielded the best figures
available. The estimate from St. George's Church came from Brian McCloskey,
churchadministrator,telephoneinterview,3 November 1998. The estimatefor Trinity
United Methodist Church, a part of John Wesley's American Parish, came from
the Reverend Ralph Bailey, "Composite Report of 1997 Activities,"Trinity United
MethodistChurch,Savannah.Georgia,page 6. The figuresfor Lovely Lane Museum
and the RobertStrawbridgeHouse are from:telephoneinterview,the ReverendEdwin
Schell, 3 November 1998. These estimatesof visitors suggest both thatMethodistsdo
value pilgrimage,but they also confirmpresuppositionsthat Catholicscherishit even
more. As one culturalgeographerhas calculated,many Catholicshrinesin the United
Statesdrawhundredsof thousandsof annualvisitors.On feast days or holy days, some
Catholic sites attractmore pilgrims in a single day than some Methodist locales draw
in a year. See Gisbert Rinschede, "CatholicPilgrimage Places in the United States,"
in Rinschedeand Bhardwaj,eds., Pilgrimage in the UnitedStates, 63-136.
63
four decades American Methodistsofficially designated hundredsof

pilgrimagecenters, and regularlyused the word shrine to describe the
most venerated sites. However, while reaffirmingtheir commitment
to identifying and visiting historically significantplaces, in 1993 the
Shrines and LandmarksCommittee began to consider a change in
the terms they used. The Minutes for the 17 September meeting
indicate that the membersconsidered"Lasley's memorandum."After
attending an earlier meeting where members had expressed worries
about the "confusions"introducedby the term shrine, the Reverend
Joseph W. Lasley wrote a letter to the committee's chair. "I got to
thinking that we could call them 'heritage landmarks,'and I was
surprisedto find that my letter was distributedto others there, and it
was approvedat the next meeting."Thatmemorandumdid not include
any specific mention of the Catholic issue, but he and several other
members present "voiced concerns" about that. Lasley wanted the
change in terminology,he laterreported,"becausethe shrines we had
were not the same as those in the Roman Catholic tradition.There are
no bones or saints at our shrines..." Othersagreed. In 1995, at a full
session of the Commission,the change was proposed.It won approval,
and next year the advance edition of the Daily ChristianAdvocate,
which appeared before the 1996 General Conference, printed the
Commission on Archives and History's proposal to replace "historic
shrines"with "heritagelandmarks."That petition was approved,and
the terminologicalchanges now appearin the denomination'sBook of
Discipline.24
24
Daily Christian Advocate, Advance Edition I, The United Methodist Church

GeneralConference 1996, vol. 1 (Nashville: The General Conference of the United
MethodistChurch, 1996), 907. Book of Discipline: 1996, 582-83. According to General Commission on Archivesand Historyrecordsavailableto the public, the issue of
the name change for historic shrinesfirst arose 17 September 1993, duringa plenary
session of the committee in chargeof Shrinesand Landmarks.The following year, at
the annualmeeting, the Shrinesand LandmarksCommitteereportedthat they would
be ready to present a change to The Book of Discipline at the next general meeting. In 1995, at a full session of the Commission, the disciplinarychange was suggested. Minutes, Shrines and LandmarksCommittee, 17 September1993, Methodist
64
ThomasA. Tweed
The shift in language has alteredlittle, either among the Commission members or Methodist pilgrims. The Commission continues to
consider proposals from local sites that want special recognition, and
some Methodist laypeople continue to make round-tripjourneys to
places that capturedenominationalmemory and createsharedidentity.
And they continue to take home mementos, as pilgrims always have
done: from postcardsand pamphlets to Francis Asbury coffee mugs
and JohnWesley porcelainbusts.
Nonetheless, most changes in language encode desires and convey meanings, and this one reveals the complexity of Methodist attitudes about sacred places. Consider, for example, the response to
this change among caretakersof Baltimore's Lovely Lane Museum
and RobertStrawbridgeHouse. The Commission's 1998 list of American Methodism'sthirty-eightmost veneratedplaces describesthe residence of Strawbridge,one of America's pioneer Methodist preachers, as "theRobertStrawbridgeLog House."However,challengingthe
authorityof the Commission on Archives and History, and the mandates of the 1996 Book of Discipline, local Methodist caretakersof
Strawbridge'sBaltimoreresidence continue to call it a shrine. One of
those caretakersis the ReverendEdwin Schell, executive secretaryof
the regional Methodist historical society and former member of the
Commission on Archives and History,who debatedthe name change
at the 1995 meeting. Schell recalled that "one of the brothersargued
thatthe word shrine made people think of Catholicshrines,and so we
should change the term."Schell dissented. For Schell, the change of
languagewas very unfortunate.He prefersshrine andrejectslandmark
because "the new language makes it a more seculardesignation."The
Methodistministerwants to signal that the site is holy. Undeterredby
Archives,Drew University,Madison, New Jersey.Minutes, PlenarySession, General
Commission on Archives and History, 25 August 1995, Methodist Archives, Drew
University,Madison, New Jersey.Because the records do not describe the origin of
the name change or preservethe ensuing debate, I turnedto oral history.I quote here
from an interview:Telephoneinterview,the ReverendJoseph W. Lasley, 10 November 1998.
65
the prescriptions of the national organi7ation, then, Schell and others

at the Lovely Lane Museum resist the change: "We still call the Robert
Strawbridge Shrine by that name."25
25 The General Commission on Archives and
History, 'The Heritage Landmarks

of United Methodism, 1997-2000,"typescript,MethodistArchives, Drew University,
Madison, New Jersey.The minutes available to researchersdo not suggest any clear
reasonfor the change in terminology.There are only two hints in the survivingwritten
record.Minutesof the ShrinesandLandmarksCommitteesuggest thatthe initial 1993
discussion relatedto a memo from one of the Committee'smembers:"referencewas
The minutesfrom the plenarysession of the
madeto [Joseph]Lasley's memorandum."
GeneralCommission on Archives and History for 25 August 1995, when the change
was debated and approved,suggest that the change "was developed by the Shrines
and LandmarksCommitteein response to confusion about the meaning of the terms
'historicshrine' and 'historiclandmark.'" Minutes, Shrinesand LandmarksCommittee, General Commission on Archives and History, 17 September 1993, Methodist
Archives, Drew University,Madison,New Jersey.Minutes, PlenarySession, General
Commission on Archives and History, 25 August 1995, Methodist Archives, Drew
University, Madison, New Jersey. Several members present at the plenary session
confirmedthatthe ReverendEdwin Schell dissented:NatashaWhitton,administrative
assistant,GeneralCommissionon ArchivesandHistory,letterto the author,4 November 1998; Telephone interview,the ReverendJoseph W. Lasley, 10 November 1998.
To complete the record, I also interviewed Schell on the cause of the terminological change, and his reactions to it: Telephoneinterview,the ReverendEdwin Schell,
3 November 1998. By the late 1997, the United MethodistChurch'sCommission on
Archives and History had listed 357 places in its registerof historic sites. Continuing
a practicefrom the 1950s but alteringthe terminology,the Commissiondistinguishes
between historic sites and heritage landmarks.The latter, which the denomination
used to call "historicshrines,"retain the same sense of distinctiveness,even sacrality. The Commission's 1997 Traveler'sGuide, the descendantof the earlierpamphlets
on "nationalshrines,"lists thirty-eightheritage landmarks,which constitutes 10 percent of the recognizedhistoricsites. And the guidelines the Commissiondistributesto
churchesandgroupsapplyingfor landmarkstatusmentionthreeprimarystandardsfor
inclusion: 1) "A place's significanceto the history of the United MethodistChurchor
its antecedentsis of utmostimportance;"2) "HeritageLandmarksare often associated
with specificpersons importantto the history of the United MethodistChurchand its
predecessors;"3) "ManyHeritageLandmarksnote a first.""Guidelines:Applying for
HeritageLandmarkStatus,"two-page typescript,June 1996, GeneralCommission on
Archives and History,Madison,New Jersey.
66
ThomasA. Tweed
The 1996 GeneralConferencedid not see passionateor extended

debateabout how to describevalued historicalsites, and Lovely
Lane'sresistancehashadlittlenationalimpact.Still,it illuminestwo,
sometimescontradictory,
U.S.
impulsesthatsurvivein contemporary
a desireto sanctifyhistoricalsitesbecauseof theirimporMethodism:
tancefordenominational
identityanda concernto avoidendorsingthe
excessesof Catholicparaliturgical
devotions.Schell,andsome other
AmericanMethodists,are less troubledthanLasleyby the Catholic
associationsandmoreconcernedto highlightsites'sacrality.Nonetheless, as the GeneralConference's1996 decisionindicates,the Wescontinues.
leyansuspicionof Catholicdevotionalism
Becauseof thatenduringsuspicion,UnitedMethodistsconsecrate
sites, historicallocales that help Methodists
only commemorative
explainthemselvesto themselves.AndsinceProtestant
identityalways
has involved protesting -
defining self in opposition to the other,
namelyRomanCatholicism- Methodistsacredsitesandpilgrimage
practicescontinueto avoidanyexplicitassociationwiththe"idolatry"
that Wesley condemned.Thereis no evidencethat any Methodist
pilgrimto JohnWesley'sAmericanParishhas prayedto Wesleyfor
a miraculouscure and then left crutchesby the altarto signalher
intercession.In the Reverend
gratitudefor the founder'ssupernatural
Lasleywords,"thereareno bonesor saintsat ourshrines."
However,thatdoes not meanthatMethodists,or all otherProtestants,are as spirituallydistinctiveas believersimagineor scholars
presuppose.WhetherJohnWesley'sAmericanParish,St. George's
or
Church,andLovelyLaneMuseumarecalled"heritagelandmarks"
"historicshrines,"for a smallbutsignificantproportion
of Methodists
they functionlike traditionalpilgrimagecenters,and spirituallymotivatedround-triptravelremainsa notablefeatureof contemporary
Methodistpiety.In this sense, UnitedMethodistssharemuchmore
withotherpeopleof faiththanTheBookof Discipline'srecentlysecularizedlanguageindicates.Theyhavesomethingin commonwithother
Americanpilgrims- evenwhite-cladU.S. Muslimscircumambulating the Ka'abain MeccaandLatinoCatholicsfingeringholy dirtat
El Santuariode Chimay6.Howeverthe GeneralConferenceelectsto
67
describe the sites or the journeys, American Methodists continue to

make pilgrimages and consecrate shrines - even if they also continue
to mark the boundaries between their faith and others.
THOMASA. TWEED
Department of Religious Studies
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
CB# 3225, 101 Saunders Hall
Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599-3225, USA
APPENDIX A
The Thirty-Eight Historic Shrines or Heritage Landmarks of the
United Methodist Church (1996)*
Note: # indicates the original twelve sites designated as "historic
shrines" before the 1968 merger that formed the United Methodist
Church. These were the twelve listed in Doctrines and Discipline of the
Methodist Church, 1964 and George H. Jones's 1966 The Methodist
Tourist Guidebook.
SacredSite
Location
Designated
#Acuff's Chapel
AlbrightMemorialChapel
AsburyManualLaborSchool
#Baratt'sChapel
Bethune-CookmanCollege
Bishop John Seybert
and Flat Rock Cluster
Boehm's Chapel
Kingsport,TN
Kleinfeltersville,PA
Ft. Mitchell, AL
Frederica,DE
DaytonaBeach, FL
Flat Rock and
Bellevue, OH
Willow Street,PA
Abingdon,MD
Hallowell, ME
Deadwood, SD
Bluff City, TN
New Berlin, PA
Johnstown,PA
Louisburg,NC
1968
1968
1984
1968
1984
1992
CokesburyCollege
Cox U M Church
Deadwood Cluster
#EdwardCox House
FirstEvangelicalAssoc.
FirstU M Church
#GreenHill House
1984
1984
1992
1984
1968
1988
1996
1968
68
ThomasA. Tweed
(Continued)
SacredSite
Location
Designated
HanbyHouse
#John StreetChurch
J. W.'sAmericanParish
Keywood Marker
Lovely Lane Chapel
McMahan'sChapel
MethodistHospital
#Old McKendreeChapel
Old OtterbeinChurch
#Old Stone Church
Organizationof Methodist
EpiscopalChurch,South
PeterCartwrightU M Church
#RehobethChurch
#RobertStrawbridge's
Log House
RustervilleCluster
#St. George's Church
#St. Simon's Island
Wesley Foundation
Townof Oxford
WesleyanCollege Cluster
Whitaker'sChapel
WillametteMission
#WyandotIndianMission
ZoarU M Church
Westerville,OH
New YorkCity
Savannah,GA
Glade Spring,VA
Baltimore,MD
Bronson,TX
Brooklyn,NY
Jackson,MO
Baltimore,MD
Leesburg,VA
Louisville, KY
1988
1968
1976
1988
1972
1972
1972
1968
1968
1968
1984
PleasantPlains, IL
Union, WV
New Windsor,MD
1976
1968
1968
Rusterville,TX
Philadelphia,PA
Brunswick,GA
Champaign,IL
Oxford,GA
Macon, GA
Enfield,NC
Salem, OR
1988
1968
1968
1996
1972
1992
1972
1992
1968
1984
UpperSandusky,OH
Philadelphia,PA
*Sources: Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Church(Nashville: Methodist

PublishingHouse, 1964), 492; TheBook of Discipline of the UnitedMethodistChurch
(Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 1996), 583-84; and A Traveler's
Guide to the Heritage Landmarksof the United Methodist Church (Madison, New
Jersey:GeneralCommission on Archives and History, 1997).
NAIVE SENSUALISM, DOCTA IGNORANTIA.

TIBETAN LIBERATION THROUGH THE SENSES
JOANNA TOKARSKA-BAKIR
Summary
Liberations through the senses are the soteriological practices of the Tibetan
Buddhists, a counterpartto and an elaboration on what in Europe is occasionally
described, somewhat contemptuously,as "rattlingoff one's prayers".Linked with
folk beliefs and rituals and labelled "naive sensualism" in Europeanethnographic
terminology,Tibetan "liberationthrough senses" are all those religious behaviours
(as well as related sacred objects) - such as listening to and repeating mantras,
circumambulationof stapas, looking at sacred images, tasting relics, smelling and
touchingsacredsubstances- which are accompaniedby a belief thatsensual contact
with a sacred object (sculpted figure, painting, mandala, stipa, holy man, tree,
mount, book, substance, etc.) can give one hope and even certainty of achieving
liberation.This study argues againstethnological conclusion, classifying such a kind
of behaviour as a typical example of non-reflective folk-religiousness. The text is
concerned with an in-depth interpretationof "liberationsthrough the senses." The
soteriological idea of endless repetition, associated with the process of destroying
the discursiveconsciousness, is projectedon the backgroundof comparativereligion.
Subsequently,the full soteriological cycle, beginning with rattling off prayers and
ending with "a borderlineexperience,"is traced in the Tibetan and other religious
materials.
One of the aims of this text on the little known Tibetan religious
practices, termed as "liberation through the senses" boils down to
the sentence by the Polish writer, Czeslaw Milosz: "It doesn't matter
whether he knows what he serves:/ Who serves best doesn't always
understand".1
"Liberation through the senses" comprises all these religious practises - and the sacred things they are related to - hearing, sight, taste,
1 C. Milosz, Love, from:Rescue (1945), transl.by C. Milosz, in: Collected Poems
1931-1987, Penguin 1988, p. 50.
NUMEN, Vol. 47
70
J. Tokarska-Bakir
smell and touch, coupled with the belief thatcoming into contactwith
a sacred thing (a monument,a painting, a mandala, a stapa, a holy
man, a tree, a mountain,a book, etc.) inspires hope or even guarantees liberation.In Europeanethnographicterminology,these practises
are attributedto popularreligiosity and labeled as "naivesensualism."
Bhutan'snationalpalladium-thangka,a big paintingon cloth partially
embroidedin silk and representingthe Indianyogin Padmasambhava,
called in Tibet Gu ru Rin po che, 'The Precious Teacher', who introduced Buddhism to Tibet in the 8th century,is called "liberation
throughseeing".The imprintsof his feet, handsandback left in the Himalayangrottoes in which he meditatedalso carriedthis name. Coming into contact with ancient so-called treasure-texts(Tib. gTer ma),
books hidden, accordingto tradition,by Padmasambhavaand his disciples, endows liberationthroughseeing, touchingor hearing.Sources
emphasizeit is enough "just"to see these holy relics in orderto achieve
liberation.
No "inner senses" are involved. Gu ru Rin po che's blessing
can become effective only throughman's simple exoteric sight and
also throughhearing, taste, touch and memory.Pilgrim's guidebooks
emphasize the soteriological power of simple sensory contact: "Pray
here, for these represent the liberation of sentient beings through
the power of sight, hearing, memory and touch."2What Europeans
grumbleaboutor do in secret,Tibetansdo not hesitate to get involved
in openly, saying that the activities we laugh at, such as prayer
pattering,stapa circumambulation,speed mantra chanting, drinking,
eating sacredfood and touchingsacredobjects, guaranteeliberation.
Western readers came across the term "liberations through the
senses" in 1927 when W.Y.Evans-Wentz3published the first English
translation of the text known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead,
2 E. Berbaum,
Wayto Shambhala,New York 1989, p. 278, n. 21; 172.
3 W.Y. Evans-Wentz,The TibetanBook The
of
After-Death Experiences on the
Bardo Plane, according to Lama Kazi Dawa Samdup'sEnglish Rendering,Oxford
1968 [1927].
Naive Sensualism
71
later referredto as TBD.4 The text, whose original title is the Bar
do thos grol chen mo or The Great Liberation Through Hearing
in the Bardo [the state between death and rebirth], is the classic
example of liberation through the senses. This specific aspect of
Tibetansoteriology has never been dealt with in a systematic way by
any of the numerousworks on the TBD (published for over seventy
years). The hermeticcharacterof the teachingsin the Tibetandoctrine
of eschatology,the unparalleledcomplexityof symbolics andits exotic
character,have successfully diverted research from what is hidden
in the obvious title. Meanwhile, the soteriological path indicated by
liberationthroughthe senses appearsto be of fundamentalsignificance
for the Tibetan religiosity of ordinarypeople possesing an unusual
spiritualimagination.
To Europeans, the very term "liberationthrough the senses" is
odd, let alone the idea of using the senses in soteriological research.
Classical antiquityinculcated in Europeansthe belief that "touching
is shameful"(Aristotle), thus assuring them of an insoluble conflict
between the body and the soul. To some extent, this conflict grew
strongerwith the advent of Christiantimes, in defiance of the dogma
of incarnationand the concept of resurrection."Forif someone wants
to become a meditator,who takes a spiritualpoint of view and looks
into his innerself but is surehe shouldhear,see, taste, smell and touch
(...), then he is entirely wrong and acts contraryto naturalorder."5
This view, voiced in the 14th-centuryanonymouswriting, The Cloud
of Unknowing,can be regardedas representativeof Europeansensus
communis.Europeansmay toleratethe idea of resortingto the aid of
the senses in a bid for salvationonly when they give it the metaphorical
sense of opening the "inner senses" Christian mystics used to tell
4 English translationof TBD always after Chogyam Trungpaand F. Fremantle,
The TibetanBook of the Dead. The Great LiberationThroughHearing in the Bardo,
by Guru Rinpoche According to Karma Lingpa [Bar do thos grol], Boulder 1975,
p. XI.
5
[Anonymus]Oblokniewiedzy['The Cloud of Unknowing'],transl.by W. Ungolt,
Poznani1986, p. 31.
72
J. Tokarska-Bakir
about:"Whenyou disappearin yourselffor the will and senses of

yourown 'self', theneternalhearing,sightandspeechwill openfor
you, and you will see and hearGod throughyourself' (J. Bohme).
DoesTibetan"liberation
throughthesenses"referto thesamemystical
sensorium?
I will seekto answerthequestionin thispaper.
Writingaboutdifferentpathsleadingto the sacred,MirceaEliade
opposes easier ones, such as "mantra, prayers and pilgrimage" to
more difficultones, such as "gnosis, asceticismand yoga."6His

view reflectsa classic division(in ethnologyandreligioussciences)
into little andgreat,low andhigh, popularandelite traditions.This
is repeatedlyrecalled
frequentlycriticizedhistoricaldifferentiation
whenone thinksof liberationthroughthe senses.Its secretcriterion
is the role playedby variousformsof self-consciousness
in a given
and
the
attached
to
the
religiouspractice
importance
independence
of cogito in Europeanphilosophicaltradition.Writingis often but
between
groundlesslyindicatedas the key criterionin differentiating
low andhighculture,7littleandgreat,directandindirecttraditions
and
even"cognitivestyles"(JackGoody).
6 M. Eliade, Joga. Niesmiertelnosci wolnosc ['Yoga. Immortalityand Freedom',
transl.by B. Baranowski],Warszawa1984, p. 212.
7
Compare,e. g. Wilhelm Halbfass'scritiqueof E. Geller's article "HighandLow
Culturein Europeand Elsewhere,"[in: Europa i co z tego wynika.Rozmowyw Castel
Gandolfo1985, vol. 2, Warszawa1990, p. 328] in which Geller differentiatesbetween
high and low culture, strictly on the basis of literacy factor.Halbfass claims this is a
total misunderstanding,at least in reference to Indian tradition:"Fromthe point of
view of Brahministorthodoxy,any writtentraditionwill, in some way, belong to low
culturebecause what was subjectto the strictestcodificationhad for hundredsof years
been reservedfor oral tradition.The most sacred and intensely normativetexts were
oral;you could apply to them all thatyou ascribeto writtentexts. (...) Techniquesfar
surpassingall that could be possible in reference to manuscripts,have been used to
ensuregenuine oral tradition.Climate and other factorscontributedto the destruction
of manuscripts;the most ancient texts, namely Vedas, were preservedmore carefully
thanall that was expressed in writing.The Hindus became familiarwith writingearly
and even though they had known how to write for a long time, writing was not put
into use for hundredsof years. Even in late Hinduism,original texts were preserved
by word of mouth.This practice,underIslam, led to some misunderstandingsbetween
Naive Sensualism
73
We will see that liberationthroughthe senses refers to an entirely

different"level of intellect",to its "faculty"other than the one whose
synonyms are consciousness and writing. Obviously, this faculty is
not reason as ratio but surely mind/intellect8or somethingwhich one
can experience, although the natureof this cognition is not reduced
to consciously controlled cognition. Liberationthroughthe senses is
It is
the example of cognition-not-through-discursive-consciousness.
strikingto see how we object to this term and even more to the term
"cognitionthroughunconsciousness."We might be touchingupon one
of the majorEuropeanprejudicesthat associates cognition exclusively
with consciousness while equating unconsciousness with ignorance.
Tibetans' religious practice,especially liberationthroughthe senses,
points to a differentapproachto the issue.
This is clearly seen in the example of "the ways letters are used."
In liberationthroughthe senses, letters do not function, accordingto
Theuth,as "a specific for the memory and for the wit" (Plato's Phaedrus, 274C ff.) or as an instrumentof preservingthe discursivecontent,
but ratheras a magical medium,sacramentale.Writingexists only as
a rheme9in liberationthroughsight, touch or taste;man who achieves
Muslims and the adherentsof Hinduism because the former did not want to give
of the Book?."
Hinduismthe statusof a <<religion
8 Tibetanterminologyfor the "mind/intellect/consciousness"is a complicatedone.
'Mind' may be called bLa, Yid,Sems, rNam par shes pa etc. See: Gyatso Kelsang,
Clear Light of Bliss. Mahamudrain VajraydnaBuddhism,transl. by Tenzin Norbu,
Boulder 1982, p. 135; D.L. Snellgrove, The Nine Waysof Bon. Excerptsfrom "gZibrjid", Boulder 1980, p. 259, n. 36; A. Bharati,The TantricTradition,London 1975,
p. 44-49 etc.
91 use the linguistic terminologythat has been considerablyrevised and adjusted
to the requirementsof this work. In my terminology,a rheme is what is being told
and a theme what it is talked about. The perception of the materialityof the text,
its materialform (the cult of the Book as a holy thing) will be rhematicbehaviour,
concentrationon its content will be thematic behavior, while form is semantically
transparentto readers.Rhematicpractises are properto writing cultures with a high
ratioof oral tradition,thatis, in which traditionis chiefly preservedby word of mouth
althoughthe statusof writingis higher.See W. Ong, OralnoSdi pismiennoSd['Orality
and Literacy'],Lublin 1990, and also the opinion by Wilhelm Halbfass in footnote 7.
J. Tokarska-Bakir
74
liberationfocuses only on the form and matterof an inscriptionwhile

a reflective examinationof the content (theme) is left to "higherauthorities."He is sometimes formally dissuaded from focusing on this
content.10Some spiritualauthorities,e.g., Vasubandhu,claim that"the
real sense of mantrasconsists of an absence of meaning and that by
meditatingon absentmeaningyou come to understandthe ontological
unrealityof the universe."1l
The form of the text -
its visual and audio materiality -
is
infinitelyduplicated.It flutterson prayerstreamersor rotatesin prayer

wheels in Tibetanstreamsand is inscribedon mani stones or carefully
copied on the wood-blocksof the canon of writingsand amulets,etc.12
An inscriptionis looked at, touchedand may even be eaten,butis never
treated,at least insofar as liberationthroughthe senses is concerned,
as a "specific for the memory and the wit." The understandingof the
text is left to the "heavenly reader."Does that mean Tibetans, who
place trust in liberationthroughthe senses, fall victim to that which,
in the Europeantraditionof disputeson the Eucharist,was condemned
as "magicalsacramentalism?"Can the person who fails to understand
thatwhich liberatesbe liberated?
Endless mantra,or prayerchanting,or the searchfor carnalcontact
with things which liberate- the tasting of substanceswhich liberate,
doing circumambulationsof stupas whose sight liberates, and even
drinkingthe water used to wash the monument- all these practices
are enigmaticforms of religiosity.The issue would be clearerhad this
religiosity boiled down to the practises of people who were outside
the stream of an orthodox religion. Yet, neither simple Tibetanfolk
are so simple as to remain outside the religion nor the educated
10This concerns at least text reading from the category of liberation through
hearing, e.g., TBD and specific hagiographies,the so-called rNamthar (literally'utter
liberation'), compare, e.g., the obscene hagiography of the famous Tibetan yogin
'Brugspa kun legs' pa, the readingof which "liberatesthroughhearing".
11Bodhisattvabhimi,[in:] Eliade,
Joga, p. 230.
12Por. N.
Douglas, Tibetan TantricCharms and Amulets. 230 Examples Reproducedfrom Original Woodblock,New Yorkn.d.
Naive Sensualism
75
Tibetan classes so elite as to be unaware of liberation through the

senses. Cognition-not-through-consciousnessand seeking liberation
throughthe senses, in the narrowmeaning of the propername and the
broad sense of the term, are essential soteriological paths of Tibetan
Buddhism that unite "simple"people, evangelical nepioi13,and "the
poor in spirit"regardlessof origin or social status.
Classificationsand Descriptionsof LiberationThroughthe Senses
Liberationthroughthe senses is found in differentclassificationsin
Tibetansources. Be ru mkhyenbrtse offers a fourpartcategory:
"Thereare several aspects of a Buddha'svirtuousconduct, known
as liberations through seeing, through hearing, recalling and being
touched.Thus by merely seeing a Buddha,hearinghis words,recalling
them or being touched by his hand, you can become liberatedfrom
suffering. (...) All such things happen, however, with no conscious
efforts on the part of the Buddha. (...)
The classic example for how liberationthroughseeing and hearing

operates are in terms of the god Indra. Indra sits in his heavenly
palace andwithoutdoing anythinghis appearanceis reflectedon all the
facets of its walls. People on earthsee this beautifulreflectionand are
inspiredto work to achieve this state. Likewise, Indrahas a heavenly
drum,the sound of which is so moving that people develop profound
insights from merely hearingit.
Just as the sun and moon have no intentions to benefit people,
a Buddha fulfils the aims of others effortlessly through his virtuous
conductand withoutany thought."14
This four-partclassification of liberation is corroboratedby the
hagiographyof Nam mkha' 'jigs med (1591-1650). It mentions the
13Greek substantive
vrrtogS, 'infant,child', when used as the antithesisof aoogs,
has a meaning of 'simpleton',cf. Matt. 11, 25; Luc. 10, 21.
14
Wang-ch'ug dorje [dBang phyug rdo je], A Guide to Kagyu Mahamudraand
Guru-yoga:TheMahdmudraEliminatingthe Darknessof Ignorance [Phyag chen ma
rig mun sel and Bla ma Inga bcu pa, with oral commentaryBeru Mkhyen brtse Rin
po che, transl.by AlexanderBerzin], Dharamsala1978, p. 147-148.
76
J. Tokarska-Bakir
treasure-text(Tib. gTer ma) he discovered; this text "is conducive

to deliveranceby merely seeing, hearing, rememberingand touching
it."15A slightly modified four-fold category of liberation is offered
by Lauf.16He speaks of "fourblessings of the sacred locality" (Tib.
Grol ba bzhi Idan)throughseeing (mThonggrol), hearing(Thosgrol),
wearing (bTagsgrol) and tasting (Myanggrol).
TulkuThondupclassifies liberationthroughthe senses accordingto
the criterionsimilarto that of six mental powers,17with the exception
of smell.18They are termed"the five swiftly liberating,skillful means
of tantra":1) mandala [Skr.],"the diagramwhich liberatesby seeing.
In the case of Termas [Tib. gTer ma] - the symbolic writing";
2) mantra[Skr.]"thesyllables which liberateby hearing";3) ambrosia,
"substanceswhich liberateby tasting";4) mudra[Skr.],"a consort,the
source of wisdom of united bliss and emptiness, which liberatesby
touching";5) the so-called consciousness transference(Tib. 'Pho ba),
"whichliberatesby thinking".
The most complete is the six-part classification of liberationproposed by Fremantleand Trungpa.19It includes seeing, hearing,wearing, tasting,touchingand remembering(thinking).
1) liberation through remembering,thinking- This term is used
to define an "ordinary"mental reference to the Enlightened One,
Buddhas, Bodhisattvas(especially Tara, or Avalokitegvara)and also
consciousness transference.20
15E.
Dargyay,The Rise of Esoteric Buddhismin Tibet,New York 1978, p. 168.
16D.I. Lauf, TibetanSacredArt: The
Heritage of Tantra,Berkeley 1976, p. 205.
17Tib.
dBang po drug: seeing (Mig gi dbang po), hearing (rNa ba'i dbang po),
smell (sNa'i dbang po), taste (ICe'i dbang po), touch (Lus sku'i dbang po), and also
"mentalpower"or "comprehension"(Yidkyi dbangpo). See: Tsepak Rigzin, TibetanBuddhistDictionaryof BuddhistTerminology,Dharamsala1986, p. 289.
18Thondup Tulku, Hidden Teachings of Tibet. An Explanation of the Terma
Traditionof NyingmaSchool of Buddhism,London 1986, p. 242, n. 152.
19TBD, p. XI.
20 H.G. Mullin, Death and
Dying, The TibetanTradition,Boston 1986, p. 176 etc;
Dargyay,TheRise of Esoteric Buddhism..., p. 214, n. 58; Le livre tibetaindes morts
bardo thodol, Paris 1980 [1977], p. 50-52 etc.
Naive Sensualism
77
2) liberationthroughtouch- Its source is the body of the Enlightened One, termedas nirmanakaya.The group nirmanakiayaautomatically comprises not only humanbeings but also animals, e.g., birds
or monkeys, consideredto be Buddhasin animalforms. VarioussPrul
skus, the people who incarnatethemselves consciously - monks, yogins, teachers, doctors, musicians and painters21- are among the
people those endow liberationthroughtouch. Hidden sPrul skus, like
"hiddenzaddiks"of Hasidism,and people from differentwalks of life,
includingcobblers,potters,fishermen,watercarriersand even courtesans (comparethe hagiographiesof eighty-fourmahasiddhasand The
Originof Tara Tantra22)can also give blessings throughtouch. In their
absence, this liberationcan be obtainedfrom their representatives,in
the literal (TibetansKutshab) and metaphoricalmeaningsof the word,
and otherssuch as "theartificialbodies of emanations"of special qualities. These are miraculousmonumentsand paintingsas well as traces
of the worldly existence of the Enlightened,e.g., the walls of the grottoes in which they meditated,the imprintsof theirfeet and hands (TibetanPhyag rjes, Zhab rjes), theirrelics, etc. gTermas, the holy books
of TibetanBuddhism,also liberatethroughbeing touched.
3) liberationthroughwearing (TibetanbTagsgrol) is not included
in any categoryand may be regardedas the sub-categoryof liberation
throughtouch or interpretedas veiled liberationthroughsmell. "Wearing" relates to "a brief text comprising mostly mantras, fastened to
the body of the dead as an amulet."23Dargyay also mentions a circular diagramplaced on the back, throat,head and heart of the dead.24
In the hagiographyof Gu ru Chos dbang, the patron of Ma ni pas,
we find a passage about a yogin who killed two animals (a hare and
a whistler) with a mantra, and later used bTagsgrol to transferthem
21
Wang-ch'ugdorje,A Guide to KagyuMahamudrdand Guru-yoga,p. 146.

22 In: Taranatha,The Origin of the Tard Tantra[sGrolma'i rgyudkyi byung khung
gsal bar byedpa'i lo rgyusgser gyi phren ba zhes bya ba, transl.by D. Templeman],
Dharamsala1981.
23 TBD, 59,
p.
pictureon pp. 32, IX.
24
Dargyay,TheRise of Esoteric..., p. 114, n. 117.
78
J. Tokarska-Bakir
throughthe bardo.25The text Bar do thos grol reads:"Readthis 'Liberation' [throughhearing]and 'Liberationthroughwearing', because
togetherthey are like a golden mandala decoratedwith turquoisesand
gems."26The examplesof drawingscan be found in the TibetanTantric
Charmsand Amulets.27
That smell can be an agent of liberationthroughwearingis corroboratedby the fact that liberationthroughwearing (the only one of the
group) seems to be almost exclusively meant for the dead, who have
the statusof Dri za, the smell-eaters,the beings feeding on smells when
in an intermediatestatebetween life and next incarnation.
Liberationthroughwearingslightly resembles the practiseof clothing in Names, known in Jewish and gnostic magic.28
4) liberationthroughtaste - Its source is Dam rdzas, "a substance
which is noble andwondrousin its origin."29Si tu Rin po che identifies
them as various pills and pellets preparedby saints from herbs and
special ingredients and given away after having been blessed. The
hagiographyof Ma gcig labs gron (1055-1249)30mentions numerous
five-coloringbSrel left behind when the corpse of a holy woman has
been cremated(sKugdung). Allione explains the meaning of the term
in the following way: "Ring bsrel are small spherical relics, usually
white, though sometimes manifestingthe five colours, which emerge
from the ashes of greatteachersaftertheirdeathor from sacredplaces
such as Buddha statues or stupas.It is said they are broughtforth by
the devotion of disciples, and even when a very advancedpractitioner
dies, if there are no devoted disciples, there will be no ring bsrel.
25 Ibidem,
p. 114, 217, n. 116 and 121.

26TBD, p. 79.
27 N.
Douglas, Tibetan TantricCharms and Amulets. 230 Examples Reproduced
from Original Woodblock,New Yorkn.d., printno. 227, 232.
28 G.
Quispel, Gnoza ['Gnosis', transl.by B. Kita],Warszawa1988, p. 65; G. Scholem, Kabbalah,New York 1978 [1960], p. 135-136.
29Situpa the XIIth Khentin, Tilopa (Some Glimpses of His Life) [transl. by
K. Holmes], 1988, p. 58.
30 T. Allione, Womenof Wisdom[6 rNam thars, transl.from the Tibetan],London
1984, p. 185. Transcriptionof the original.
Naive Sensualism
79
There are also cases of ring bsrel appearingafter the ashes or bits of
bone have been collected andkept for some time. Someone might have
some remnantsthey keep very devotedly,and when they look at them
after some time, they may have turned into ring bsrel. One of them
gets bigger and then the bumps become small rings bsrel. In 1970,
the stupa of Swayambhuin Kathmanduproduced ring bsrel on the
easternside of the stupa.Therewere thousandsall over the groundand
all the monastery,including the highest lama, who almost never left
his room, were outside picking them up."31Noteworthyin the above
descriptionis a special statusof ring bsrel. Like many othercauses of
liberationthroughthe senses, they straddlethe line between animate
and inanimateworlds.
The hagiographyof Milarepa(Tib.:Mi la ras pa) describesa search
for Ring bsrel in the ashes left afterthe cremationceremonyof a saint.
A knife, a sugarloaf, a cloth and a note were found there: "When
cut with this knife, the cloth and sugar will never be exhausted. Cut
as many strips from the cloth and as many bits from the sugar as
you can, and distributethem among the people. Everyone who tastes
the sugar and touches the cloth will gain liberation from the lower
realms, because these things, being the food and clothes of Milarepa
throughouthis meditative awakening, were blessed by the Buddhas
who appeared in the past. Any sentient being who has heard the
name of Milarepa even once and in whom it produced veneration
will not go throughthe cycle of rebirthin the lower realms for seven
lifetimes."32
Waddellalso writesthataftercremation,the body of the Buddhadid
not turn into ashes but into pellets resembling sago seeds.33Waddell
divides them into 'Phel gdung which, he claims, come from a burnt
31 Ibidem,
p. 203, n. 140.
32 Lobsang Lhalungpa,The Life of Milarepa. A New Translationfrom the Tibetan
[Gtsansmyonheruka],Boulder 1982, 195; also p. 220, n. 25.
33 L.A. Waddel,TibetanBuddhismWithIts Mystic Cults,Symbolismand Mythology
andIts Relationto IndianBuddhism,New York 1972 [1895], p. 317, n. 4 (transcription
of the original):"Onthe cremationof the body of a Buddhait is believed thatno more
ash results, on the contrary,the body swells up and resolves into a mass of sago-
80
J. Tokarska-Bakir
body andRing bsrel which come from the bones of a saint. The former
are kept in the most sacred stupa in Sikkim, called mThongba rang
grol, 'liberating spontaneouslyjust throughbeing looked at'. Apart
from the relics of SakyamuniBuddha,the ashes of the formerKasyapa
Buddhaare also said to be there.
The following is a description of liberation through taste in the
hagiographyof Orgyan Lingpa. Reportedly,his body "should have
turnedinto precious relics which would set free a person who tasted
them within the next seven lives (sKye bdun myang grol). (...) [One
of the descendantsof the deceased] asked for a small piece of flesh
from a corpse. After he had tasted it, his religious zeal blazed up and
he rose in the air one khru[Tib.Khru= 15 inches] above the ground.
He traveledto various countriesthroughthe air. On this account the
corpse was highly esteemed."34
According to Lhalungpa, the production of liberating tablets is
rooted in the alchemic traditionof eighty-four mahasiddhas35:'The
origin of these pills were the enlightened masters of ancient India
and Tibet who had the personal power of esoteric alchemy so that
they were able to transformfive kinds of flesh and five liquids into
ambrosia for the benefit of the initiated."36This "ancient alchemy"
is referredto by Taranathain his Origin of the Tara Tantra.In the
like granules of two kinds, (a) Phe-dun, from the flesh as small white granules,and
(b) ring-srel, yellowish largernodules from the bones. It is the former sort which are
believed to be preservedat the holiest Caitya of Sikkim, namely T'on-wa rai grol, or
<<Saviour
by mere sight>. It owes its special sanctityto its reputedlycontainingsome
of the funeral granules of the mythical Buddha antecedentto Sikya Muni, namely
Od-srui, or Kagyapa,the reclics having been deposited there by Jik-mi Pawo, the
incarnationand succesor of St. Lha-tsiin."
34 Dargyay,TheRise..., p. 126.
35 BuddhaLions. The Lives of the Eighty-FourSiddhas[Caturasiti-siddhd-pravrtti;
Grubthob brgya cu rtsa bzhi'i lo rgyus,transl.by J.B. Robinson], Berkeley 1979.
36 Lobsang Lhalungpa,The Life of Milarepa, p. 215, n. 17; see also: SkyDancer,
The SecretLife and Songs of the Lady YesheTsogyel [transl.by K. Dowman],London
n.d, p. 201, n. 20; Dargyay, The Rise.... p. 137, 221, n. 209; S. Beyer, The Cult of
Tara. Magic and Ritual in Tibet,Berkeley 1978, p. 283-284, 252-253.
Naive Sensualism
81
book, King Haribhadraperfectedhis magical power of manufacturing

Ril bu. Accordingto the footnote,Ril bu are "thesacramentthatshould
be eaten duringcrises, when life forces are impaired,in danger,after
certaindreams,etc."37
Liberationthrough taste is especially useful in the present dark
era of Kali-yuga, the 19th-centuryTibetan text WondrousOcean38
claims. The source of liberationthroughtaste is definedby the general
termof nectar(Tib.:bDud rtsi): "The nectarsthat were discoveredas
termas have been prepared by (...) Padmasambhava (...). Therefore,
if one takes the nectar by itself the channels (rTsa), essence or

semen (Khams),energy [or air] (rLung)and mind (Sems) will receive
blessings spontaneously and the excellent accomplishment will be
achieved, like being intoxicated by alcohol, being made by aconite
(Bong nga) and being deluded with visions by daturaor thor apple
(Thangkhrom,dhattura)since the nectarhas the extraordinarypower
of not dependingon inner (mental) power, owing to the greatnessof
the skillful means of mantra(...)"39
5) liberationthroughhearing (Tib.:Thos grol). The book known in
the West as the ibetan Book of the Dead or Bar do thos grol chen
mo, is the most famous example of this liberation.Trungpawrites: "it
is one of a series of instructionson six types of liberation:liberation
throughhearing,liberationthroughwearing,liberationthroughseeing,
liberationthroughremembering,liberationthroughtasting, and liberation throughtouching.They were composed by Padmasambhavaand
writtendown by his wife, Yeshe Tsogyal [Ye she mTso rgyal], along
with the sadhana of the two mand.alasof forty-twopeaceful and fiftyeight wrathfuldeities."40The text of the TBD is whisperedinto the ear
of a dying or dead person(Tib.:'chi bo'i ma khungdu brjodpa).
"Thisteaching does not need any practice,it is a profoundinstruction which liberatesjust by being seen and heard and read. This pro37 Taranatha,The Originof the Tara Tantra,p. 53, n. 64.
38
Thondup,Hidden Teachingsof Tibet,p. 95, 152-153.
39 Ibidem,p. 152-153.
40 TBD, p. XI.
82
J. Tokarska-Bakir
found instructionleads greatsinnerson the secretpath.If one does not

forget its words and termseven when being chased by seven dogs, the
instructionliberatesin the bardo of the moment before death. Even if
the Buddhasof the past, presentand futurewere to search,they would
not finda betterteachingthanthis."41"Thereforeit is extremelyimportantto trainthe mind thoroughlyin this 'LiberationthroughHearingin
the Bardo', especially duringone's life. It shouldbe grasped,it should
be perfected, it should be read aloud, it should be memorised properly, it should be practisedthree times a day withoutfail, the meaning
of its words should be made completely clear in the mind, its words
andmeaningshould not be forgotteneven if a hundredmurdererswere
to appear and chase one. Since this is called 'The Great Liberation
through Hearing', even people who have committed the five deadly
sins will certainlybe liberatedif they only hear it; thereforeit should
be readaloud among greatcrowds and spreadafar.
Even if it has been heard like this only once and the meaning has
not been understood,in the bardo state the mind becomes nine times
more clear, so then it will be rememberedwith not even a single word
forgotten.Thereforeit should be told to all duringtheir life, it should
be readat the bedside of all the sick, it shouldbe readbeside the bodies
of the dead, it should be spreadfar and wide. To meet with it is great
good fortune."42
Otherforms of liberationthroughhearingincludeall kinds of sacred
language, mantraand dharani.Their function at the moment of death
(they occur in some versionsof the text of the TBD) is termedby Lauf
as communicationthrougha dead person with bardodeities. If a dead
person is able to know their names and recognize them as visions or
projectionsof his mind, he will no longer fear them.43
6) liberation throughseeing (Tib.: mThonggro) All the sources
discussed in the case of liberation through touch endow liberation
41 TBD, 94.
p.
42 TBD, 71.
p.
43 D.I. Lauf, SecretDoctrinesof the TibetanBook of the Dead [transl.by G. Parkes],
Boulder 1977, p. 197.
Naive Sensualism
83
throughbeing seen: a view of the "natural"and "artificial"bodies of

emanation(Tib.:sPrul sku),thatis, both people - especially new-born
tulkus - and their "representatives"(Tib.: sKu tshab), monuments,
paintings, the objects consecratedby their presence, gTer mas, etc.
Let me give a couple of examples. The Guide to the Holy Places
of Central Tibet4 mentions, first of all, stipas in the category of
liberationthroughseeing. They are, i.a., mThonggrol chen mo ('the
greatliberationthroughseeing') in Jo nang,45in Byams pa glin,46sKu
'bummthonggrol chenmo or a big stipa of a thousandBuddhasin sKu
'bum.47In Bras spung,thereis Byamspa mthonggrol, a monumentof
Maitreya,the Buddha of future, that "liberatespeople just by being
looked at."48A golden stapa, called mThongba don Idan ('the view
thatgives the blessing of virtueandreligion')49with the relics of Tsong
kha pa, is kept at a monasteryin dGa' ldan. I have alreadymentioned
mThongba rang grol in Sikkim where there are relics of dakyamuni
andof the formerBuddhaKasyapa.50All monumentsandpicturesthat
have come into being spontaneously(Tib.:Rang 'byung),all gTermas
and their so-called symbolic writing liberate: "All the Termascripts
are blessed by Guru Rinpoche himself and possess the greatness of
grantingliberationby seeing."51The sentencefrom the TibetanBookof
the Dead "theGreatLiberationthroughHearinginstructionsaboutthe
Bar do, that liberatethroughbeing heard and seen" refers to both the
very materialcharacterof the book, which ranks among the category
of gTermas,and to the images the text evokes.
44 Mk'yen brtse's Guide to the Holy Places of Central Tibet [transl.by A. Ferrari,
L. Petech, H. Richardson],Roma 1958.
45 Ibidem, p. 67, 156.
46 Ibidem,p. 45, 133.

47 Ibidem, p. 66-67 etc; also: G. Tucci, TibetanPainted Scrolls, vol. I, Roma 1949,
p. 191-196; J.N. Roerich,Izbrannyjetrudy[BlueAnnals,BiographyofDharmasvamin
etc], Moskwa 1967, p. 776 etc.
48 Mk'yenbrtse's Guide..., p. 97-98, n. 76.
49Ibidem, p. 108, n. 108.
50 Waddel,TibetanBuddhism...,
p. 314, n. 112.
51 Thondup,Hidden Teachingsof Tibet,p. 112.
84
J. Tokarska-Bakir
The so-called black crown of Karmapas (Tib.: Zhva nag), the

authoritiesof the bKa' rgyud pa line, is also an interestingexample
of liberation through seeing. Due to the colour of the crown, the
line is sometimes called 'black hats' in the West. The history of
the crown could be the subject of a separate study. Let us quote
Gega Lama, a very competent author in Tibetan iconography: "It
is the crown signifying spiritual power. It is worn by Karmapas,
foretold in Samadhirajasutraand Latikdvatarasatra.In the past a
crownwoven from the hairof 100,000 dakiniswas placed by Buddhas
and Bodhisattvason the head of sage dKon pa skyes. As all he ever
did was for the benefit of all sentientbeings, he was masterof activity
(Phrin las pa or Ka rma pa) of the Victorious Ones. Although the
crown was on the heads of all successive incarnationsin the Karmapa
line as the manifestationof their inner awareness[awakening],it was
not visible to everyone, but only to exceptionally spirituallysensitive
people. De bzhin gshegs pa, the fifth incarnation,was born in 1928 of
the Buddhistera [1384]. At the age of 24, he went to China and met
with emperorYung lo. The emperorwas able to see the black crown
and asked for permission to make its materialreplica, based on his
vision. Having obtained consent, he orderedto make the other black
crown(Zhvanag), a duplicateof the original,also termedas the crown
of 100,000 .dakinis(mKha' 'gro 'bumzhva). It was woven in the year
1951 of the Buddhistera [1402]."52
Chams(Tib.:'Cham)or mysterydance dramas,53held on important
religious holidays at Tibetan monasteries,can be another source of
liberationthroughseeing. Thang stong rgyal po, called sometimesthe
TibetanLeonardoda Vinci (W. Kahlen), was the authorof one of the
52 Gega Lama,Principles of TibetanArt:Illustrationsand Explanationsof Buddhist
Iconography and IconometryAccording to Karma Gadri School, Darjeeling 1983,
vol. 2, p. 124. See also: S.L. Huntington,J.C. Huntington,Leavesfromthe Bodhi Tree.
The Art of Pala India (8th-12th Centuries)and Its InternationalLegacy [Exhibition
at The Dayton Art Institute], Seattle-London 1990, p. 336, 356; Thondup,Hidden
Teachings..., p. 42, 75; Lauf, Secret Doctrines of the Tibetan Book of the Dead,
p. 225.
53 Dargyay,TheRise.... p. 222, n. 211.
Naive Sensualism
85
most popular shows. "His charismaticactivity had already become

effective by merely watching[the play]."54
Ma ni pas - TheAdvocatesof LiberationThroughthe Senses
Ma ni pas, or wanderingbeggars,are the most ferventadvocatesof
liberationthroughthe senses. They carryportablechapels (Tib.:bKra
shis sgo mang) to illustratetheirdevout stories. In the stronglyhierarchical Tibetansociety from the times precedingthe Chinese invasion,
Ma ni pas were at the next-to-the-lastlevel of the social ladder,just
ahead of beggars.55Manipas preach sermons to country folk (rGyal
khamspa); they tell stories about the descent of dynasties and families (rGyal rabs), thatusually begin with the myth of the "creationof
the world", histories of the origin of Tibetan clans, mythical stories
of Padmasambhava,Gesar,the Tibetannationalhero, and saints (their
hagiographiesare called rNamthar, 'complete liberation').Ma ni pas
protect oral literaturealthough the compositions they recite are also
often preservedin writing.Their oral traditionaims, on the one hand,
at disseminatingbasic Buddhist ideas in a popularform and, on the
other,preservingthe folk heritage, including myths about the beginning of the world andits differentraces, thatpraisethe divine origin of
certainfamilies, etc.56
Many records of the clash between indirect57and direct thoughtin
Tibetanculture are preserved,with the former valuing symbols and
and favoringMa ni pas, and the
cognition-not-through-consciousness
latterclaiming they are only superstitiousloafers. Epstein58writes of
the contemptwith which 'Phagspa bla ma of the Sa skya school spoke
54 Ibidem,p. 154.
55 R.A. Stein, Recherchessur
l'epopee et la bardeau Tibet,Paris 1959, p. 324, 330;

G. Tucci, The Religions of Tibet[transl.by G. Samuel], Berkeley 1988 [1970], p. 207.
56 Ibidem, p. 207.
57G. Durand, Wyobrazniasymboliczna ['Imagination symbolique'], transl. by
C. Rowiniski,Warszawa1986.
58L. Epstein,Biographyof KarmaBakshi:TranslationandAnnotation[transl.from
the Tibetan,dissertationat Universityof Washington],Washington1968, p. 3-4.
J. Tokarska-Bakir
86
of KarmaPakshi (Karmapa
II), his rivalat the courtof Kublaikhan.
ForPakpaLama,KarmaPakshiwas "merelya Ma nipa".
Ma ni pas -
their name derives from mani, the term of the
mantraof Avalokitesvara-arethe mostferventadvocatesof sensual

liberation,especiallyconnectedwith the cult of their patron,the
Bodhisattvaof compassion.The phenomenonof Ma ni pas dates
monkGu ru Chosdbang(1212-1273),who
backto the 13th-century
shouldbe heard
that the mantraof Avalokitesvara59
recommended
at "marketplaces."60We learn from the monk'shagiographythat
his discipleBha ro gtsug 'dzin attainedenlightenment
just through
the work
bka'
In
Mani
voice."61
to
Chos
'bum,
dbang's
"listening
attributedto the king Srong btsan sgam po, we find enthusiastic
apologeticsof liberationthroughthe senses.62
Similarlyendlessbenefitsflow fromthe explanationof the sense
of manito otherbeings.Youcan countthe grainsof sand,the textin
questionassures,dropsin theocean,seedsgrowingon fourcontinents.
Youcan also weigh MountMerubut you cannotcountthe benefits
flowingfrom a single repetitionof this mantra."Therefore,spread
the teaching of mani in the ten directions of samsdra!"63-
the text
concludes.
LiberationThroughTheSenses: An Attemptto Interpret
the Soteriological Concept
At firstsightthe Tibetanconceptof liberationthroughthe senses

as a typicalexampleof non-reflective
popular
requiresno explanation
cultural
and
when
in
broader
philosophicalconput
religiosity.Only
59 O
MANI PADMEHUM.
60 D.L. Snellgrove, H. Richardson, Tybet, zarys historii kultury ['Tibet. History

of Culture', transl. by S. Godziniski],Warszawa 1968, chapt. 3; Mani bka' 'bum,
versionA, p. 224 etc.
61
Dargyay,TheRise, p. 112.
62 L.
Epstein,"Onthe Historyand Psychology of the 'Da-logs,"The TibetJournal,
vol. 7: 1982, No 4, p. 26ff.
63 Ibidem.
Naive Sensualism
87
text of comparativereligious sciences, a profoundidea will come into

view in this non-reflectiveness.It is best reflectedin the words of OskarMilosz: "[T]owait for faithin orderto prayis to put the cartbefore
the horse. Ourpathleads from the physical to the spiritual."64
With all its specific character,the Tibetan idea of carnal enstasy
(Greek: enstasis) is not so strange to Europeans;it is, however, the
cause of frequentmisunderstandings.For reasons of clarity an outline
of the soteriological concept of liberationthroughthe senses, based
on a phenomenological analysis of the comparative material, will
be proposed in this study. I have selected this material according
to the criterionof theme or content,65therefore,this selection goes
beyondthe so-called greatdivision into high and low, elite andpopular
culture.66
In this work Tibetans' claim thatjust "hearing,seeing, tasting and

touchingliberates"will be takenseriously.The following issue arises:
How, in the philosophicalsense of the question,can we understandthe
concept of liberationthroughthe senses? The idea to analyze religious
texts as if they were philosophical is not new (see the work of Lev
Shestov, who successfully compared Hegel to Job and Abraham to
Kant). The question about senses will now be directed toward the
traditionEuropeansfind unintelligible although,as we will see, they
are quite familiarwith.67
64 OskarMilosz, in: C. Milosz, Nieobjgtaziemia, Wroclaw 1996, p. 74.
651 used sourcesfrom high and low culture,thatdocumentthe same type or style of
religiosity. For criteriaof generic vs. genetic differentiationin selecting the sources,
J. Tokarska-Bakir,"Etnologia","Etnografia",the entries
see: A. Kutrzeba-Pojnarowa,
in the GreatEncyclopaediaof the Polish Science PublishersPWN (in print).
66 G. Lenclud, "Ethnologieet histoire,hier et aujourd'hui,en France,"in: Ethnologies en mirroir.La France et les pays allemandes, Colloque Ethnologiefrancaise,
MitteleuropdischeVolkskunde,Bad Homburg, ed. I. Chiva, U. Jeggle, Paris 1987,
p. 35-65.
67 See: H.W. Haussing, Historia kultury bizantyjskiej,['History of Byzantium',
transl. by T. Zabludowski,Warszawa1969, p. 223]. R. Gansiniec, "Eucharystiaw
wierzeniach i praktykachludu" ['Eucharist in folk-beliefs', "Lud" 1957, vol. 50,
88
J. Tokarska-Bakir
The ideaof liberationthroughthe sensesshouldbe liberatedfrom

(magic,the popularsegment
interpretations
hackneyedethnographic
of religion,the echo of mysticpracticesdistortedby the simpletons,
etc.). The truthis that hope for liberationthroughsimple sensual
contactemerges,first of all, in popularreligiosity.How can you
it withoutsimplifying,ignoringit, being condescending
comprehend
or withoutliftingits claimupto thetruth?
This is by no meansan easy task.To highcultureandits trueoffspring,namely,Europeanethnology,all popularreligiosityhasalways
who
Thestrangerwasassignedaninterpreter
beena classic"stranger".
not only interpreted
but, firstof all and in good faith,justifiedand
correctedthe barbarian,
puttinga braveface any time the "stranger"
seemedto starttalkingnonsense.Thestrangerwas notlistenedto.
PuttingTibetansaside, let's thinkof the way we wouldreactto
the sightof Lourdespilgrimswho, one afteranother,touchthe rock,
polishedby thousandsof hands,where the VirginMary appeared.
Whatdo we thinkof pilgrimswho drawwaterfrom a holy spring,
touchthe garmentof the dormantVirginMaryduringherfuneralin
KalwariaPaclawska(Poland)or addashesfromprocessionflowersto
theirfood?"TheMiddleAges"- we pronouncebutat thesametime
of famouspeople,takepartin auctionsof
rushto get the autographs
kiss the photosof idols andlovedones, andwhen
theirmemorabilia,
do
not
bed-ridden,
spurnwaterfromLourdes,evenif it is pouredfrom
bottlewith a twist-offcap. A member
a cheapVirginMary-shaped
of the intelligentsia,who is a practisingbeliever,is readyto observe
some traditionalritualsbut doesn't treatthem seriously.Research
into contemporary
religiosityof the middleclass indicatesprofound
skepticismtowarddogmas,whichby no meansexcludesparareligious
practicesaddressedto thecurrentmassculturesaints.
CzestawMiloszpondersthe phenomenonof popularreligiosityin
the essay A MetaphysicalPause.Milosz, one of few contemporary
thinkerswhocan appreciate
its resources,describesa massin a Swiss
p. 81, n. 11]. M. Buber,Opowie'ci chasyd6w ['Tales of Hasidim', transl.by P. Hertz],
Poznani1989, p. 19-20.
Naive Sensualism
89
countryside church: 'Those people from Brunnen (...), he says, are

innocent. They are accused of possessing tardy imagination, of calfish
contemplation of man, a tree, a house which simply exist to them.
Period. That is why they can pray. Faith requires a minimum guarantee
that the word <to be>>has some meaning. (...) There is sacrality
stronger than all our rebellions, the sacrality of a loaf of bread on
the table, a rough tree trunk in which there is the depth of being
we intuitively scent."68 These are not theological dogmas but just the
popular images of the cosmos that keep religions alive, says Milosz.
Milosz, however, is wrong to say later that a crisis in conceptions
about the cosmos, undermining faith in the realism of symbols and in
the simple "sensuality of deity", began only in the times of Copernicus.
So is J.P. Uberoi69, who shifted the date of this disaster to the Reformation. Neither the formlessness of space that gradually lost its order nor
"the ultimate separation of word and sign" in European imagination
gave rise to the process of destruction of the religious universe, which
manifested itself in the separation of thought and being, man and the
world, art and religion. The world of archaic ontology70 was doomed
68 C. Milosz,
Metafizycznapauza ['A MetaphysicalPause'], Krak6w 1995, p. 21,

70.
69 J.p.Uberoi, Science and Culture,Delhi 1978, p. 25 ff.
70This Eliadean term is used in a specific context given by Wiestaw Juszczak
(Fragmenty.Szkice z teorii i filozofii sztuki) ['Fragments.Essays from the Theory
and Philosophy of Art'] Warszawa 1995), see especially Tresc rzeczy pierwszych
['Contentof FirstThings'] and Wystepnyornament['The Illicit Ornament'].Speaking
of archaicontology, Eliade (M. Eliade, Traktato historii religii ['Traitdde l'histoire
des religions'] Warszawa1995) means not only a "worldview"but simply "the way
the worldis" in archaicculturesin which religion is an omnipresentelementregulating
all spheresof life. Each natural,social, and artisticphenomenonis a manifestationof
the sacred. "Frommost elementaryhierophanies,e.g., a manifestationof the sacred
in any object, stone, a tree - to the supreme one, the incarnationof the sacred in
Jesus Christnever ceases to last. On a structuralplane, we face the same secret act:
the manifestationof something<entirelydifferent>- the realitythat does not belong
to our world - in objects that form an integralpart of this natural,secular world."
(M. Eliade, Death, Afterlifeand Eschatology.A ThematicSourcebookof the History
of Religion, New York,London 1974, p. 160).
90
J. Tokarska-Bakir
to corruptionfrom the very beginning. Alluding to a famous Heideggerian term one can say: time has always been "vain"or corrupted.
Not only in Europe but also in Tibet, and not only today under Chinese occupationbut once under the gSkyamuniBuddha.The decline
of archaicontology is connectedwith man'sradicalfinitenessandwith
what Heideggercalled "thetemporalityof being,"and not with precise
historical time or a definite geographic location. Though its intensity
varies, this is a permanentprocess and it takes place in its individual
abodes, be they the whole cultureor a single humanbeing.
The impact of archaic ontology on Tibetan culture is obviously
stronger than on contemporaryEuropean culture, but the ontology
can be neitherincluded nor entirely excluded from Europeanculture.
Cultureslose and regainthem; none of them own it. You can identify
its islands, the status of which resembles the magical time-spaceof a
fable or the one in which the action of AndreiTarkovski'sStalkertook
place. They exist today butmay disappearwithout a tracetomorrow.
Archaic Ontologyis Always an sich; It is not Awareof Itself
The most important thing is the kind of knowledge and selfknowledge this ontology is shaping.The basic featureof the world of
archaicontology is its unconsciousness,or its non-reflection.Archaic
ontology is not aware of itself. It only exists in the state an sich, like
Saint Augustine's "sense of time", "knowledgeof God" in Thomas a
Kempis or "good"in Simone Weil, lost when being awareof it.71
Here we have Weil, the intellectual and ascetic, who unexpectedly
lends her support to the idea of the religiosity of liberationthrough
the senses. This passage from her writings naturallysingles out the
problems we must touch upon in order to trace the soteriological
meaningof these sourcesof liberation.She writes, "it is necessarythat
part of the soul existing in time, the discursive part, which cares for
the measures,shouldbe destroyed.The methodof Zen Buddhistkoans
71 S. Weil, Pisma wybrane ['Selected Writings', transl. by C. Milosz], Krak6w
1991, p. 123.
Naive Sensualism
91
helps to destroy it."72Weil writes that at times when her headaches,

torturingher since adolescence, grew worse, she endlessly repeateda
verse of one of the 18th-centurymetaphysicalpoets. "I believed that
I was only reciting a beautiful poem, but, contraryto my will, this
recitationpossessed the power of a prayer.Just when I was recitingit,
it happenedthat (...) Christhimself descended and conqueredme for
himself."73
This admission will lead us into unknownterritory.Weil says that,
firstly,a mystical experience,in the strictestsense of the word, is accessible afterpart(the "discursivepart")of the soul is destroyed.Secondly, she suggests that repetition,or recitation,happensto be a "vehicle" or an "instrument"in the process of destroyingdiscursiveness.
Thirdly,she makes it clear thatthe beneficial effect of this occurrence
is not determinedby what is being repeated.Let us analyze the three
motives thatmarkthe phenomenologicalform of the idea of liberation
throughthe senses.
"TheDestructionof the Discursive Part of the Soul"
ThomasMertonwas also sure it is necessary to destroythe discursive part of the soul and the "trivialego, this whim of imagination."
Assessing the contemporaryEuropeanconsciousness, Mertonstressed
the huge impact the Cartesianidea cogito had on it. He wrote thatthe
more contemporaryman was able to develop his consciousness as a
subject against objects, and the more he comprehendedthe relation
between these objects and himself, the more effectively he was able
to manipulatethese objects and protect himself in the bubble of his
subjectivity.This shelter graduallyturns into a prison, and the sense
of isolation and the role of an observer,not a participant,cause that
otherselves cease to be treatedby him as persons.Mertonclaimedthat
this objectifyinghad contributedto the contemporary"deathof God."
Cartesianthought, he writes,began with an attemptto reach God as
72 Ibidem,
p. 81.
73 Ibidem,p. 35.
92
J. Tokarska-Bakir
thoughhe hadbeenanobject."WhenGodbecomesan object,sooner

or later,he diesbecauseGodcannotbe thoughtof as anobject."74
Nolens volens,Mertonsays so almostrepeatingafterHeidegger:
"Abeingis a beingnotbecausemanis lookingat it. It is rathermanat
whomthebeingis looking."75
Themomentmanis readyto believethat
him
occur
to
and
becauseof himheraldsthebeginningof
hierophanies
time"(Heidegger),the actualdecay of archaicontology.
"corrupted
Thismistakeis costly:It apparently
elevatesmanto greathonorsbut,
as a matterof fact,in realitycastshim into falsehoodthatmakesthe
discoveryandcreationof realties withtheworldimpossible.
The diagnosesof Weil and Mertonare astonishinglyunanimous.
The trivial"self' shouldbe destroyedin ourselvesbeforereligionis
reallyborninsideof us. The discursivepartof the soul,the abodeof
of theworld,mustbe annihilated.
prideanda falsecomprehension
Repetitionas an ExistentialCategory
Howis the discursivetrivial"self' destroyed?Weilarguesthatit is

"Discursiveintelligenceis destroyed
destroyedthroughconsumption.
of clearandinevitablecontradictions.
A koan.
by the contemplation
Secrets.The will is destroyedthroughperformingimpossibletasks.
venturesin fables."76
Superhuman
One of the well-triedmethodsof destroyingdiscursiveness
is repetition.It is not the questionof a narrative
functionof repetitionin a
or
a
function.
At
stake
is
story trance-creating
repetitionas theexistentialcategoryS0renKierkegaard
hasin mindwhenspeakingof "theobscuremetaphysicsof repetitions,"77
or RyszardPrzybylskiwho says:
"torepeatmeansto disclosethe seventhveil of consciousness."78
"An
74T. Merton, Zen i ptaki iqdzy ['Zen and Birds of the Appetite', transl. by
A. Szostkiewicz], Warszawa1989, p. 29.
75 M. Heidegger,"Die Zeit des Weltbildes,"in: Holzwege, Frankfurtam Main 1950.
76 Weil, Pisma wybrane,p. 154.
77S. Kierkegaard,Powtdrzenie ['Repetition'], in: J. Sadzik, [Introductionto:]
Ksifga Hioba ('Book of Job', transl.by C. Milosz] Paris 1980, p. 15.
78 R. Przybylski, Stowo i milczenie bohatera Polak6w, ['Wordand Silence of the
Polish Hero'], Warszawa1993, p. 56.
Naive Sensualism
93
entrancedBushmanor an Eskimo staringat a fire, gouging out a circle

on a flat rocky surface,attainsthe same extinction of the ego (and the
same power) as dervishesor Pueblo Indianholy dancers."79
The EasternChristian'sso-called Christ'sprayeris a typical example of automaticrepetitionleadingto the destructionof discursiveness:
"Deprivethe reasonof any discursivethought(...) and replaceit with
Son of God, have mercy on me!> and try to prayinside
the call <<Jesus,
yourself, instead of having any thought,"the 12th-centurytreatiseby
Nicephorusrecommends.80This prayeris also discussed in Pilgrim's
Stories:"to show man'sdependenceon God's will in a clearerway and
to immersehim in humbleness,God left the decision on the numberof
prayersin the hands of man, instructinghim to keep on prayingat all
times and in all places. This paves the way for a secret way of attainsays
"Sayingprayersmeans avertingany thought,"82
ing realprayer."81
Ponticus
(345-399).
Evagrius
It is not difficult to understandthe charges higher cultures bring
against the innocent who patterprayers.83They are expressed in the
old oppositiondevotiostulta and devotio sacra, based on the contempt
for the unintelligible.The former"unreasonabledevotion"was to characterize illiterati et idiotae while the latterwas to describethose who
could read and were ready to say Roman Catholic prayersonly after
they had graspedtheirmeaning.Automaticprayerpatteringposes the
threatof committinga mortalsin. There are plenty of warningsagainst
committingsimilarunintentionaloffences in medieval and devotional
literature.This rationaliststreamof religiosity, mindfulof "properde79 P. Mathiesen,Snieznapantera ['The Snow Leopard',transl.by B. Kluczborska],
Warszawa,1988, p. 90.
80 In: Mnich Kosciola
Wschodniego, Modlitwa Jezusowa ['Jesus Prayer', transl.
K. G6rski], Krak6w1993, p. 36.
81 Szczere
opowiesci pielgrzyma,przedstawionejego ojcu duchowemu,['Pilgrim's
Stories', transl.by A. Wojnowski],Poznafi 1988, p. 154.
82 In: K.
Armstrong,Historia Boga. 4000 lat dziejow Boga wjudaizmie, chrzescijanstwie i islamie ['A History of God. The 4000 YearQuest of Judaism,Christianity
and Islam', transl.by B. Cendrowska],Warszawa1996, p. 238.
83 Szczere
opowiekcipielgrzyma,p. 153.
94
J. Tokarska-Bakir
votion,"culminatedin the times of the ProtestantReformationpropagating the idea of renderingthe text of the Bible in vernaculartranslations. From this time on, the understandingof God, or the "rationalization of the Revelation",became the basic form of worship paid to
God.
There was, however, a different tendency all the time, and it was
not limited to low culture.It stressed non-reasonand non-knowledge
in soteriology,distrustedintellect and was ratherready to trustsenses.
This sensualisttendency,typical of oral culturesin general, manifests
itself in the specific use of sacred things or texts, and shows interest
not so much in their theme (what a text is about or what an image
represents),butin theirrheme84(the materialityof a text, the substance
of an image, what the text or the image is). The prophet Ezekiel's
eating of a Torahscroll (Isa. 3.3), or the swallowing of a gTer ma by
18th-centuryTibetanyogin 'Jigs med gling pa,85are the archetypesof
rhematicreligiosity. Some forms of cult are usually characterizedby
a "rhematicapproach."In religious practices the stress is put on the
activityitself (kneeling, walking on the knees, bowing, holy mountain
circumambulation,prayerpattering,prayingwith beads, etc.) and not
on the contentor intentionof prayersrecommendedby a breviary.
This rhematicapproachis expressed in the following instructions
on how to deal with a text: "You needn't understand,it is enough to
or "Giveup understandingin this work."87"Youmay
readdiligently,"86
listen and listen but you will not understand.You may look and look
againbut you will never know,"Isaiah says (Isa. 6.9),88and his words
are repeatedby Jesus Christin the Gospel accordingto Saint Matthew
(Matt.13.14-15). An old mantold a young hermitto say Christ'sprayer
84 See n. 9.
85
ThondupTulku,Hidden Teachingsof Tibet..., p. 89.
86 Szczere
opowiesci pielgrzyma,p. 40.
87 Oblok
niewiedzy,p. 69.
88 See also: idea that the more the
Holy Names are incomprehensible,the higheris
the rankof prayer,in: G. Scholem, Mistycyzmiydowskiijego gldwne kierunki['Major
Trendsin JewishMysticism', transl.by I. Kania],Warszawa1997 [1941], p. 194-201.
Naive Sensualism
95
as a remedy for overcomingdesires he was overpoweredwith; it was

supposedto work regardlessof whetherits words were understoodby
the man who utteredit: "Justsay these words, and God will help you,"
the old man advised the young hermit."AbbaPimen and other fathers
said that a snake charmerdid not know the power of his words, but
when a snake heardthem, it got calm and yielded to their power. We
do not know the power of the words we utter,but demons get scared
and flee when they hearthe words we say."89
Following the example of Dionysius the Areopagite, who recommendedknowingGod "throughnon-reason,"the advocatesof arational
religiositymade a sharpdistinctionbetweenheartandreason,rejecting
the rationalunderstandingof God for the benefit of clinging,90staying
with God. The latterconcept, known as devekutand drawnfrom Kabbalah and Hasidism, shouldbe of special interestin the philosophical
context of liberationthroughthe senses. According to devekut,the ultimate aim of man's life is to attain unity and intimacy with God.91
Man's actions may not only bring him closer to or fartherfrom God
but may also have an influenceon God himself and accelerateor delay
the coming of the Messiah. We read about it in the text attributedto
Ba'al Shem Tov, the founderof Hasidism:"Everyonemay contribute
to completenessand unity on high, thatis in God, by performingeven
the most physical activities,such as eating, drinking,having sexual intercourse,developing trade and socializing. (...) <Get to know God
in all your ways>>."
In anothercase, Ba'al Shem Tov comments on a
verse from the Book of Job in the following way. "'And I shall discern
my witness standingat my side' (Job 19.26): By attainingthe greatest sensualpleasure,namely,the pleasureof sexual orgasm,man gives
pleasureto God himself. This pleasurecomes from the union of man
89R. Przybylski, Pustelnicy i demony ['Hermits and Demons'], Krak6w 1994,
p. 122.
90 AbrahamAbulafia,in: G. Scholem, Kabbalah,New York 1978, p. 53ff.
91 B.L. Sherwin, DuchowedziedzictwoZyd6wpolskich ['SpiritualHeritageof The
Polish Jews', transl.by W. Chrostowski],Warszawa1995, p. 158ff.
96
J. Tokarska-Bakir
andwoman,whichcontributes
to unityon high."92
Theversefromthe
Book of Job was of specialimportanceto medievalCabbalists,who
recommended
as the way to knowGod.Thisgoal
this contemplation
is achievedby avodahba-gaszmiut,
the divineservicethroughmatethe
of
Hasidic
riality,
practice adoringGod throughcarnality:eating,
sexualintercourses
anddefecation.
TheHasidicideaof materiality
as a laddertowardstheinvisible,like
anyrhematicreligiosityin general,is rootedin therealisticassessment
of a disproportion
betweenhumanwishes and possibilities.For "to
waitfor faithin orderto prayis to putthe cartbeforethe horse.Our
pathleadsfromwhatis physicalto whatis spiritual."93
LiberationThroughPrayer Pattering
Thelastfragmentof Weil'sstatement,
whichanticipates
theissueof
liberationthroughthe senses,concernsthe postulatenot to thematize
textsor actionsthathelpdestroydiscursiveconsciousness.In thecase
of Weil,a poemby the 18th-century
poethelpeddestroyit. In Christ's
it
was
a
in
Middle
and FarEasternprayers,both
prayer,
pious call;
in Muslimrecitationdhikrand in mantrachantingby Hindusand
in the processof
Buddhists,a holy nameor soundwas instrumental
In all these cases, it is hard
destroyingdiscursiveconsciousness.94
to speakof followingthe contentof prayersbecauseof the pace of
narration
andthe sole concentration
on soundandrhythm.
Thereis a Christian
folkstoryaboutthreehermitslivingon anisland
lost in thesea.95Thethreeholy menprayedwithwordsyou couldnot
findin anybreviary:"Threeof You,threeof us, havemercyon us."A
bishopwho happenedto visit the islandon his sea voyagedecidedto
teachthemthe realOurFatherprayer.Havingtaughtthem,he sailed
92 Ibidem,p. 161-162.
93 OskarMilosz, in: C. Milosz, Nieobjeta ziemia, Wroclaw 1996, p. 74.
94 J.Y. Leloup, Hezychazm.Zapomnianatradycjamodlitewna,['Escrit sur l'hesychasm. Une traditioncontemplativeoubliee', transl.by H. Sobieraj],Krak6w1996.
95 L. Tolstoj, Trzej starcy ["The Three Old Men"], in: R. Luzny, Opowiec niewidzialnymmiescie Kitieiu ['Story of the Unseen City Kitiez', transl. by R. Luzny],
Warszawa1988, p. 346-352.
Naive Sensualism
97
away. At dawn, light was seen on the island. The three men were
runningon the water, as though they were on a dry surface, trying
to ask the bishop about the prayer and a word they had forgotten.
There are many similar stories in Asian folklore, e.g. the Tibetan
story of a plowman who attainedenlightenmentafter he had walked
behind a yak-pulled plow and chanted the mispronouncedmantra of
Avalokitesvarawhile working.Koreansknow the story about Sok Du,
the monasterycook, who replacedkoan "theBuddhais mind"by "the
Buddhais a shoe of grass,"which, however,did not preventhim from
attainingenlightenment.96
The meaningof these events becomes clear in view of the statement
by the Buddhistphilosopher,Vasubandhu,who claimed the truemeaning of mantrasactuallyconsistedin no meaningat all.97The threestories sharea commonidea: althoughthey aredrawnfromthe traditionof
iconophiles(Buddhists,CatholicsandOrthodoxChurchbelievers),under the form of iconoclastic metaphorsthey show relativeinessentiality - Buddhists would rather say "insubstantiality", "emptiness" -
of
the things believed to be holy: prayers,mantras,koans, or relics used

as a vehicle towardsliberation/salvation.They warnof the darkside of
opus operatum.It does not mean the substanceof a holy thing is entirely and always meaningless.The point is that in the absence of man
who would be able to genuinely embody the meaning even the most
sacredsubstancewill remainan inertparticleof the matter.It is importantto touch a sacredthing with "faithand confidence"no matterwhat
it is made of. "He touched the head, eyes, ears, and mouth of an icon
with faith and confidence and immediately became healed."98 "(...)
he who ever makes a pilgrimageto this place and touches with faith a
reliquarycontainingholy remainsis endowedwith the grace of healing
his body and soul."99"Nectarsin liquid, powderof pill forms are pre96
Seung Sahn, Strzepujgcpopid6 na Budde. Nauki Mistrza Zenu Seung Sahna

['Ashes on Buddha', trans.unknown],n.p. 1990, p. 61-2.
97 In: M. Eliade, Yoga:Immortalityand Freedom,New York 1958, p. 216.
98 Luzny, OpowieS o niewiedzialnymmieicie..., p. 121.
99 Ibidem,p. 134.
98
J. Tokarska-Bakir
pared with esoteric rituals.It is believed that special attainmentscan

come just by tasting them with faith."1'lA believer's attitude,or just
an absurdprayermalapropism,may sacralize even a dog's tooth.101
On the otherhand, the absence of faith paralyzesthatwhich is sacred.
Thereis no possibility to degradeit, only to overshadowit. Neitherthe
power of substance nor a human wish for a miracle is the source of
sacredness.Sacrednessitself is its own source.102
This fear of substantializingthe sacred, leading straight to the
wilderness of idolatry,can be recognized in many unintelligiblepractises of great spiritualmasters. Peter Metthiesen writes that "in Zen,
even a recitationof Buddha'sgolden words may be an obstacle in attaining enlightenment.Hence, you say (...) <<Killthe Buddha!?The
holy book of Zen is nothing else but the universe itself."103This lesson can be deduced from the behaviorof crazy Tibetanyogins (Tib.:
dPa'bo, Zhig po, bLa ma smyon pa), Russianjurodiwyje, Byzantine
saloi and Muslim santons. Their behavior happens to radicallychallenge customs andreligion;they ostentatiouslydestroyholy books and
monumentsand reject commonly accepted norms of co-existence. To
celebrateenlightenment,one of them throwsa rosaryinto a latrine,104
the otherburs all sutras,105and another,afterthe night spent in a redlight district, throws away a Zen master's garmentand runs into the
streetdancingbarefootand in rags.06
Another meaningful story, warning against idolatry, is told by
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki. This story is about Tanka, who was put up
in the capitalon a piercinglycold day. He took down one of the statues
100
Thondup,Hidden Tradition..., p. 100.
101M. M. Rhie, R. Thurman,Wisdomand Compassion.The SacredArt of Tibet,San
Francisco 1991, p. 38.
102See the Heideggerianconcept of artin Der Ursprungdes Kunstwerkes.
103p. Mathiesen,
Snieina pantera ['The Snowleopard',transl.by B. Kluczborska],
Warszawa1988, p. 39
104NamkhaiNorbu,
Dzogchen. The Self-perfectedState [transl.from the Tibetanby
J. Shane], London-Melbournen.d., p. 64-65.
105Helmut Hoffman(et
al.), Tibet.A Handbook,Bloomington (no date), passim.
106
Seung Sahn, Strzepujgcpopiot na Buddg,p. 49-50.
Naive Sensualism
99
of Buddhakept at the temple andused it to light a fire to keep warmby.

Rakingin the ashes, he explainedto the enragedtemple caretakerthat
he was just takingout sacredsariras(Sanskritsarira, roundcrystalline
stones,white or greenishin color, left behindwhen the corpseof a saint
has been cremated).The keeper asked whetherit was possible to find
sariras in the wooden Buddha.Unruffledby the question,Tankaasked
for anothertwo more statuesof Buddhato keep the fire burning.107
A Ban On Objectifyinga Sacred Thing- The Foundationof Archaic
Ontology
The religiosity of a holy simpleton, one of the nepioi Weil spoke
about,108of stupid Johnnyfrom Europeanfables about three brothers
(theirTibetancounterpartis the story about Ben from Kongpo),is the
archetypeof real devotion that successfully escapes the extremity of
cynicism and idolatry.The following is an oral version of this history
told by Chos kyi nyi ma Rin po che bla ma: "When[Ben] arrivedat the
Jowo temple, there was no one else around,but in front of the statue
itself, he saw differentkinds of food for that nice lama. Ben was not a
very brightfellow and so he thought,<Thismust be food for that nice
lama.>The statuehad a smiling countenanceand Ben said: <Youmust
be a very good lama. You sit there so nice and quiet. You must be a
really nice person and you have such a nice meal here to eat and butter
lampsto keep warmby. Youcan dip the cakes andbreadinto the butter
lamps and eat it.> But the statue didn't answer and it made no move
if you are not going to eat it, I will.>>
to eat. So Ben thought:<<Okay,
The statue,of course, didn't protest,so Ben said: <Gee, you really are
a good lama. I'm getting your dinner and you're not getting angry at
me. But now I want to do a circumambulation09and one has to do it
without shoes on so would you mind keeping an eye on my shoes??
The statue replied: <<Allright.>>
He put his shoes up on the altar and
107D.T. Suzuki, Wprowadzeniedo buddyzmu zen ['Introduction to the Zenbuddhism',transl.by M. Grabowskiand A. Grabowska],Warszawa1979, p. 164.
108Weil, Pisma wybrane, 109.
p.
109Skr.parikramaorprdaksina.
100
J. Tokarska-Bakir
startedto walk around.When he reachedthe backside of the altar,the

caretakercame in and saw the shoes on the altar.He thought:<What
kind of disgustingmaniacwould put his filthy old shoes on the shrine?
This is terrible!>He took them andwas aboutto toss them out the door
when the statue said, <Hey, don't throwthose out. I am keeping them
for the devoted Ben from Kongpo>>."ll
A monument or a painting which comes to life in the face of
real devotion is one of the most distinct metaphors of overcoming
distance between the subject and the object in religious experience.
This devotion, rooted in religion's oldest internal harmony,restores
order to the world. We identify all the features of archaic ontology
in the attitude of a holy simpleton, a being that is realized only an
sich, that is, when it is not aware of itself as a being.11 The features
include non-reflectiveness,an absence of consciousness of "self', a
blessed state of calmed discursiveness. A simpleton can be a guide
in the process of restoringa propermeasure to things. It is better to
call him a "doorkeeper"only because he must not be substantialized,
or we will run the risk of falling into "Rousseaudeviation,"creating
myths about "naturalman," untouched by civilization. In order to
avoid this danger let me quote Merton, who wrote that even an
intellectualcan be simple because "only a fool does not find the grace
of real simplicity."Adiscursivedevotionthatrestoresdisruptedarchaic
ontology, and religiosity that itself becomes a hierophany,does not
entirely belong to simple or wild men living "someday, somewhere
where men have never been." They happen to share it, but it is not
given to them. Intellectuals also happen to experience this grace of
devotion although they are in the minority. One has to be a man
of remarkableintelligence to find an opening where others see only
110Chos kyi nyi ma Rin po che, The Union of Mahmnudraand Mahasandhi,
Kathmandu1985, vol. I, p. 47-48.
111See: G. Scholem about "the hidden saints"
(nistar) in every generation of
Israel, saints hidden also before themselves, in: G. Scholem Zur Kabbalah und
ihrer Symbolik, Frankfurtam Main 1960, p. 7 (lost in the English translationby
R. Manheim, On Kabbalahand its Symbolism,New York 1965, p. 6-7).
Naive Sensualism
101
circles>>."112
"a silly mummeryof unmeaningjargon and <<magic
Only
to
great intellect dares to question its own attitudesand accepts yield
to arationaldiscipline.
Besides sophisticatedintelligencethatresolves to go beyondits own
territory,this type of devotion requiresthe way to reach it. All of the
above tools used to destroydiscursivenessand to reduce and eradicate
the trivial "self' become very helpful on this path. The "obscure
mysticism of repetitions"is nothing more than a translationof the
qualitativecategoryof liberationthroughthe senses into the language
of quantity,a bewilderingand endless multiplicationthat becomes a
goal in itself. Both defy common sense and mock its claims and both
also aspireto truthotherthanthe truthwhich is mistakenfor certitude.
Let us come back to the descriptionof a "godly simpleton".Nonreflectiveness, "blissful ignorance", absence of "self' - all these
terms are not yet accurate enough. A simpleton is the realization
of the most fundamental- and as a result, almost impossible to
express - prohibitionon which the structureof archaic ontology is
based: a prohibition against objectifying or thematizingthe sacred,
includingsacralitypersonifiedby the simpleton.This is an explanation
of the principleI have expressedbefore: to be a being that is realized
only an sich. "Do not let your left hand know what your right hand
is doing" (Matt. 6.2.), the Gospel reads, and this is one of these
commandsof genuine devotion,that appearto be really universal.
Zen masters,zaddiksof Hasidismor Tibetanlamas never(or almost
never) tell stories in the first person. They hardlyhappen to boast of
mystical experiences, miracles or achievementsin cultivatingvirtues.
112L.A. Waddell, TibetanBuddhismWithIts
Mystic Cults, Symbolismand Mythology and Its Relation to Indian Buddhism,New York 1972, p. 15. See also Waddel's
similar statements on yoga (p. 12: "this Yoga parasite, containing within itself the
germs of Tantricism,seized strong hold of its host and soon developed its monster
outgrowths,which crushedand crankedmost of the little life of purelyBuddhiststock
yet left in the Mahayana")and lamas (p. 573: "So it will be a happy day, indeed, for
Tibet when its sturdyovercredulouspeople are freed from the intolerabletyrannyof
the Lamas,and deliveredfrom the devils whose ferocity andexacting whorshipweight
like a nightmareupon them";transcriptionof the original).
102
J. Tokarska-Bakir
It should be stressed that a psychological pseudo-explanationof this

prohibitionis not sought here. False epistemology,because it is based
on subiectum(e.g., the consciousness of oneself as a benefactor,see
the quoted example by Simone Weil), obviously ruins axiology, as it
questionsall good done and, moreover,poses a threatto ontology, the
real way things exist. "Enlightenmentwhich has been expressed is no
enlightenment,"a Zen text paradoxicallyputs it. "If someone says <I
he is wrong."113"If someone wanted
have attainedenlightenment,>>
to school oneself in humbleness (...), he would never achieve real
humbleness,"Magid of Zlocz6w claims.114Let us recall in this context
the questionmany Christiansare hauntedby: "As God, couldn't Jesus
know who he really was?"115This doubt,caused by the fact thatJesus
repeatedlyevaded declaringhis identity (cf. "Andyou, he asked, who
do you say I am?", Mark 8.29) can be clarified anew in light of the
commandto not objectify the sacred.Jesus is not alone to abideby the
command. One could find similar features in the behaviourof some
otherspiritualpersonages,like the ProphetMuhammad,cf. his unclear
declaration"My religion is differentfrom yours,"attributedto him by
the tradition,etc.
Let me exemplify this prohibitionin a comical way. Duwyd, the
hero of the PeriwinkleWreathby StanislawVincenz, tells how he unlearntto thematizethe sacred:"[T]herein Kossovo, they immediately
sent me to a tough Hebrew school. They teach their own tough way;
they startwith the Bible right away. In the beginning the Bible reads:
buruElojhim es ha-szumaimwejs hu-erec>>
[HebrewBereszit
<<Brejsz
bara Elohimet haszammaimwe et ha arec, 'In the beginning God createdheavenandearth',Genesis 1.1]. And whatis my stupidheadgoing
to do? Insteadof graspingit, I ask the teacher:<Andwhat does 'Brejsz
burn'mean?>He punchesme in the face, gives me anotherblow with a
thickbook on my head andkicks in the behind:<That'swhatit means.?
113
Seung Sahn,Strzepuj{cpopi6t na Budde, p. 97.
114M. Buber,
Opowiesci chasyd6w,p. 120.
115F. Dreyfus, CzyJezus wiedziatie jest Bogiem, ['Did Jesus Know He Was God?',
transl.by R. Rubinkiewicz],Poznani1995.
Naive Sensualism
103
I see stars.I am alreadyin heaven. (...) I runto my daddyto complain.

I cry andtell abouteverything,and he says calmly, <He did not hit you.
He instructedyou that you mustn'task about sacredthings. You must
understandat once>>."116
TheMetaphorsof Liberation
We have so faremphasised"senses"in liberationthroughthe senses.
The time has come to ask about "liberation".What does liberation
throughthe senses imply?
Tibetan soteriology leads to the "state beyond suffering" called
nirvana. Liberation,or enlightenment,is the moment when this goal
is attained.Practicallyspeaking, it is when this state is identified in
oneself, in one's eternal naturewhich, Buddhists claim, is freedom,
the way good exists.
An outline of eschatology is included in the foundationsof Buddhism,knownas the "fournoble truths":All existence is suffering;the
cause of sufferingis the illusion of "self"; freedom from sufferingis
nirvana,the statebeyond suffering;the fourthone shows the means of
attainingnirvana. As the illusion of "self' is said to be the cause of
suffering,no wonder the metaphorsof liberationshow various forms
of the emptinessof "self', its eradicationand ultimateextinction.
Merton writes that as soon as man goes beyond the "self', he
attains or rather"becomes enrapturedby the wisdom" that annuls a
division into the subject and the object.117The moment this division
is overcomeis expressedin a specific style heraldingthe proximityof
the soteriological aim. There are only few and "indirect"records of
this experience.They are allusions ratherthan testimonies and can be
found in the style and climate of cultures,in people's behavior,and in
the visual and linguistic imaginationratherthan in the direct records
116S. Vincenz, Prawda starowieku['The Truthof The Old Time'], Warszawa1981,
p. 396. See also ban on questions in Kabbalah-learning,G. Scholem, On Kabbalah
and its Symbolism,p. 87.
117T. Merton, Zapiski wsp6twinnegowidza ['Conjecturesof a Guilty Bystander',
transl.by Z. Lawrynowicz,M. Maciolek], Poznani1994, p. 409.
104
J. Tokarska-Bakir
of religiousexperiences.All sources,in one way or anotherreferring

to this"statebeyondwords",stressa reversalof cognitiveorder,a shift
of
of emphasisfrom"self' to "no-self".Let'sdiscussthesemetaphors
liberationincludedin:
theextinctionof "self', its
a) universalreligiousstylisticsemphasizing
kenosis,destruction,
b) the ontologyof Tibetanpaintingand writing,which reducesthe
presenceof a painteror an author,
c) a few accountsof the terminalexperienceitself in which"self' is
ultimatelydestroyed.
a) Stylisticsof the Extinctionof "Self"
Let me startwithexamplesEuropeansarefamiliarwith."Willthe
with the handthat
pot contendwith the potter,or the earthenware
shapesit? Willtheclay askthepotterwhathe is making?"(Isa.45.9).
Mystictexts alwaysstressthe onticadvantageof sacrednessoverits
adorer.In CherubinischerWandersmann,Angelus Silesius termshim-
the spiritis playing."Thesamefigureis foundin

self "theinstrument
Rumiorin thePlatonianconceptof
Jalaluddin
Clementof Alexandria,
divineinspiration(Greekmania)descendinguponpoetswho become
"Hewhopraysardentlyinsidehimin admiration."
"God'sinterpreters
self, in his throatGod himselfuttersan innerwordthatmatters.An
outerwordis only attire,"zaddikNahmanof Bratslavsays.118"I did
not ascend(...) intoheavenanddid not see all God'sworksandcreations,butheavenitselfopenedinsideof me, andI knewGod'sworks
andcreationsin spirit,"writesJakobBohmein Aurora.
Stigmatization,the markingof the body with woundscorresponding
to those left on Christ'sbody, is a typical example of how emphasisis
shifted from "self" to "no-self'. Other examples include the mystic
experience of MargaretMary Alacoque (1647-1690) whose mortal
heartwas takenby Christ,"placed(...) inside of his own andinflamed,
118M. Buber,Opowiefci rabinaNachmana['Die Erzihlungendes RabbiNachman',
transl.E. Zwolski], Paris 1983, p. 18.
Naive Sensualism
105
There are similaraccounts120

and then replaced(...) in her breast."119
by Dorota of M4towy (1347-1394; her biographer writes: "Christ
took her heart and gave a new one"), Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
and VeronicaGuliani (1660-1727: "He who wants to belong to God
must first die for himself," and "I really live only when I die for
myself'). Equally spectacular cases of stigmatizations of Catholic
saints include St. Francisof Assisi and Catherineof Siena,'21as well
as Father Pio, and Marthe Robin. Stigmatizationis a clear symbol
of abandoning"self' and belonging to what goes beyond self. The
occurrenceof this phenomenonis not limited to sensualist European
religiosity,especially distinctin the post-Trentperiod. In Japan,there
are representationsof Zen patriarchswho partlappets on theirbreasts
where the smiling face of Buddha is seen. Similar iconographic
motives I have seen in Bumthang,Bhutan.
Exceptionally beautiful descriptions and accounts of the shift of
"self' into "no-self', "epistemologicalreduction"and "the epoche of
personality"are found in the traditionof painters, calligraphersand
writersof haiku.It was said that the Chinese painterJo-ku had forgotten abouthis body andturnedinto bamboo122while paintingbamboos.
Similar legends are preservedof haiku masterswho were seen under
the form of cranes, hummingcanes or a blossoming plum tree when
writing poems. What finds expression in these stories is not just an
empty conventionor literaryornament.These metaphorsanticipatea
precise spiritualpractice, conditionedby "the abandonmentof one's
self and transferenceinto the object looked at, because only then can
"Look at things from their point of view
we grasp its <suchness>."123
and you will see their real nature,"an 1lth-century Chinese philosopher said. "Lookat things from your point of view and you will only
119W. James, Varietiesof Religious Experience,New York 1958, p. 268.
120
Stygmatycy['Stigmatizations',transl.unknown],n.p. 1994, p. 46, 65, 82.
121G.
Herling-Grudziniski,Dziennik pisany nocg ['A Diary Written by Night'],
Warszawa1993, p. 32.
122F.S.C.
Northrop,TheMeetingof the East and West,New York 1959, p. 340.
123C. Milosz, Haiku ['Haiku'], Warszawa1992.
106
J. Tokarska-Bakir
experienceyour own feelings because natureis neutraland clear while

The KoreanZen masterSoen Sa's
feelings are biased and obscure."124
statementis similar:"If you think intellect straysfrom this action, the
course of your paintingor writing will be blocked. (...) If you do not
think,you andyour actionare one. Youare the tea you are drinking,the
paintbrushyou are paintingwith."125A paintingaction, based on "noself' and deprivedof discursiveduality,takesplace in the abodeof "archaic ontology",stems from this ontology, and invigoratesit. It is hard
to label it art(havingin its namethe allusionto whatis "artificial"),it is
rathercreation,and its results may be regardedas acheiropoietoi,pictures not made by humanhand. Such images "areGod-sent","come
into life spontaneously"or by coincidence. They can be created by
wind, rain, fire, or animalsthat are unawareof anything.126
b) "No-Self" in the Art and Traditionof Holy Books
The whole Tibetan art and writing tradition has the flavor of
liberation from the illusion of "self'. This tradition begins where
Europeanart ends, that is, at the confines of a being, at the treshold
of the cognizable. Tucci writes that Tibetan iconometry has nothing
in common with the canons of classical antiquityand it is not used
to reproduce a certain ideal of beauty. He adds that man is not
reckonedwith at all in this utterlymagical andtranscendentalpainting.
"Iconometryhas liturgicalvalue. It is like the map of a holy zone in
which a priesthas a ritualto perform."127
In the Tibetanworld, man is not, contraryto what we were accustomed to believe in the post-RenaissanceEurope,"the measureof all
things."All things, includingman but only one out of many,are equal
in the eyes of the ontologicalabsolute.In the worldof archaicontology,
124Shao
Jung, in: J. Needham, Wielkiemiareczkowanie.Nauka i spoleczenstwow
i
na
Chinach
Zachodzie ['GreatTitration.Science and Civilization in China', transl.
I.
by Katuzynska],Warszawa1984, p. 55.
125
Seung Sahn, Strzepujqcpopi6t na Buddf, p. 84.
126Karma
Thinley, The History of the Sixteen Karmapasof Tibet, Boulder 1980,
p. 66-67.
127G. Tucci, TibetanPaintedScrolls, Roma 1949, vol. I, 291.
p.
Naive Sensualism
107
this is a holy thing, the sign of the absolute (a painting, a monument

or a text), that has power over whom it opens itself to. "No-self' is
superiorto "self'. Buddhistpaintings and texts work as if they were
living beings. They select theirreadersand adorers,recognize and reject those actuatedby questionablemotives, and everybodyis allowed
into the understandingof only what he or she will be capable of comprehending.The being of a book or a painting always dominates the
being of a spectatoror a reader.
Tibet is rich in stories of the so-called gTer mas, the treasuretexts,
buriedby great spiritualmasters128so that fragmentsof the tradition
could be preservedin hiding till safer times. These carefully sealed
books wait to be discovered. There are plenty of lists of these texts
as well as propheciesaboutthe circumstancesof their discovery.The
finders of these texts are called gTer stons. A secret bond between
each of them and the text allows them to understandits meaning in an
originaland uniqueway.gTerstons are sometimenamedafterthe gTer
If we were to inquireaboutthe meaningof this
mas they discovered.129
could
see
in it the trace of the attitudereligious people
tradition,you
should develop in themselves in relation to a sacred object. Readers
and even authorsbelong to the sacred texts which resonate inside of
them. Although writtenby a human being, this book is eternal. It is
substance-essencein relation to which man is but an affliction, the
scribe of archetype.
The motive of the sealing of an esoteric text appearsin stories about
holy books. Only the chosen ones will readit. "Johnthe Apostle is the
only one who is allowed to read the heavenlybook [The Revelationof
The motive of TheBook of Seth appearsin the apocryphal
St John]."130
128All
gTerstons seem to belong to rNying ma pa school but I have once heardthe
XIVth Dalaj Lama talkingaboutsome other schools'gTermas.
129A similarcustom is known in the traditionof Medieval Kabbalists
(e.g. C. Vital)
or Polish Hasids.J.J.SingerwritesaboutRabbithe Sage of Przemysl,called the "Roar
of a Bear",because of the book he publishedunderthis title, or about a Lublinrabbi,
called "SeductiveBaruch".J.J. Singer,Josie Katb,Krak6w 1992, p. 192.
130
Luiny, Opowiesdo niewidzialnymmiefcie, p. 61, n. 10.
108
J. Tokarska-Bakir
Georgian Gospel; only the person who wrote and sealed it can look
into it. Herod will fail in his efforts to open it.131In Vincenz, we find
a very odd tale about the secret book Ba'al Shem Tov obtainedfrom
God. "TheDove Book of the World"is not defenseless againstlaymen.
No one will touch it "becausehis handwill stop and wither.He will be
saturatedwith only its smell. And light will emergefrom it, like froma
cloud, [the light of] the universalletters! One word can be takenfrom
the Dove Book by one who is authorizedto read it. And each of those
who areauthorisedcan take a differentword.Two hermitswill not read
the same word. The whole life of a hermitwill only be enough to read
a single page of the Dove Book."132
The belief into "the sealing of the book" may be attributedto the
naivet6of oral culturethattreatsthe book rhematicallyand claims that
from the perspectiveof an illiterateman its authoris its only reader.
One can understandthis motive as the book's self-defense against
being objectified.This may happen when it falls prey to all who can
read.
This is also the case with a sacred painting. It comes to life only
in the presence of genuine faith. Its existence predominatesover the
subjectivity of a painter or a spectator.Canon is the source of the
painter'sform while a meditativevision, a dreamor an illumination133
are the sources of canon. The artist'scaprice, aesthetic idea or license
is never such a source. Painting means producing and not creating.
The act of creation cannot be rooted in such a wayward instance as
the ego. This respectfor the artist'stheurgicpowerutterlyexcludes the
idea of "production"in the same sense as is understoodin Europe.A
painteris not a creatorbut a reproducerof divine reality.He does not
want to say "somethingnew"with his artbut rathersomethingold. To
representthe sacred well, he should be, as Vincenz says, "transparent
131M.
Starowieyski,ApokryfyNowego Testamentu['The New TestamentApocryphs'], Lublin 1988, vol. I, p. 158.
132S. Vincenz,
Barwinkowywianek ['PeriwinkleWreath'], Warszawa1983, p. 330.
133D.P. Jackson,J.A. Jackson, Tibetan
ThangkaPainting: Methods and Materials,
Boulder 1984, p. 12.
Naive Sensualism
109
for creation","poor","withoutmemory","illiterate".The painter,like

the zaddikassumingthe name of his most importantbook, is to belong
to the representedthing. He is to be a docile instrument,the scribe
of archetype.Instead of referringto metaphorsof the insignificance
of the subject, a myth sometimes stresses its divinity. Then you can
speak of the supernaturalorigin of sacralrelics, paintings,monuments
and books.134At stake is still the same "no-self",the reductionof the
role of humansas theirauthors.Their"divinity"does not matter.What
mattersis thatthey are "nothuman","not-made-by-human-hand".
c) TheDestructionof "Self" in the TerminalExperience
There are few "autobiographical"accounts of enlightenment in
Buddhism. They are eliminated from the traditionby a prohibition
against thematizing the sacred, including one's own religious experiences. These accounts of liberation,writtendown by disciples, emphasize the same motive we come across in Buddhist art, that is, the
extinction of "self". The following is an account of how the Korean
Zen master Soen Sa attainedenlightenment."The hundredthday [of
solitary sutra meditationand recitation]came at last. As usual, Soen
Sa chanted and tapped on moktak[the wooden instrumentused as a
drumto set the rhythmfor Buddhistchanting].Suddenly,his body vanished, and he found himself in infinite space (...). When he returned
to a bodily state, he came to understand.The rocks and rivers, and all

he could see and hear were his true 'self'. All things were exactly the
way they were."135
This is the account of the terminalexperienceof the ordinaryman
Heishiro,who did not meditatelonger thanthreedays. "He kept sitting
all night and when he heard birds sing at dawn, he could not find
his body. He felt as if his eyes had droppedto earth. (...) When he
suddenly saw a panoramicsight of the coast, he fully understoodthat
all creatures,leaves of grass, trees and birds were a Buddha from the
134W. Juszczak,
Fragmenty,p. 129.
135
Thondup,Hidden Teachingsof Tibet..., p. 252, n. 211.
110
J. Tokarska-Bakir
"Atthis moment- this is still the accountof Ko Bong's

beginning."136
enlightenment- I felt as if the universehad fallen to pieces, and the
earth was flat. There was no 'self' and no world. As if two mirrors
reflectedeach other.I assigned myself a few koans, and answerswere
through-outclear."137
Reports of great masters' enlightenmentexpress the terminalexperience in the most radical language. The subject simply vanishes
and only the hierophanicuniverseis left. In the story about Ko Bong,
both the subject and the object were removedbut only to offer us the
favouritemetaphorof FarEasterniconoclasts, as the double emptiness
of mirrorsset againsteach other.
Disappearance is the most distinct metaphorof no "self' and the
simplest sign of full liberation.I stress: at stake is a metaphorand a
sign, not the evaluation of facts. The manifestationof the so-called
"rainbowbody" (Tibetan 'Ja lus ) is a metaphoricalsign of the end
of "self'. Accordingto Tibetantradition,Ja lus is demonstratedat the
deathof rDzogs chen masters,who practisethe so-called rainbowbody
meditation.This is an accountof the deathof one of the masters:"During the weekend,Nyagla PadmaDydyl told everybodythatthe time of
his deathwas drawingnear (...) all his disciples went with him to the
mountainand he erected a small tent. He told them to sew up and seal
the tent, and he wanted to be left alone for seven days. The disciples
went down andwaitedfor seven days in a campat the foot of the mountain.At thattime it startedto rainheavily andmanyrainbowsappeared.
The disciples returnedto the mountain and opened the tent the way
they had left it, but all they found were the master's clothes, his hair
and his nails. His clothes were at the place where he had sat and were
still fastenedwith a belt. He left them like a snake shed its skin."138
136
Seung Sahn,Strzepujc, p. 150.
137Kurz zen. Mala antologia japontska ['Dust of Zen', ed. by M. FostowiczZahorski],Wroclaw 1992, p. 98.
138 mierd i umieranie. Wybdrtekstdw z tradycji buddyzmutybetaniskiego,bon i
therawadyna temat smierci i procesu umierania ['Death and Dying', transl.and ed.
by J. Sieradzan],Katowice 1994, p. 263-274.
Naive Sensualism
Ill
Another account concerns the signs of ultimateliberation,demonstratedby the man never suspectedof spiritualachievements.It is told
by his son, the monk: "Aftera few days, on the evening of the seventh
day of the fourthmonth of the Water-DragonYear (1952), my father
died at the age of 79. A lamatold my brotherthatrelativesshouldcare
for the body in a special way, but nobody understoodwhat he meant.
Shortly after his death, they began to care for the body as if it had
belonged to an ordinaryman. Soon they noticed the rainbowlight and
coloringof the tents surroundingthe place wherethe body restedwhile
the body began to shrink.(...) After a few days, his whole mortalbody
dissolved. I swiftly finished my solitary retreatand came back home.
At thattime, the process of dissolutioncame to an end, andonly twenty
nails and hair were left at the place where his body had been kept."139
The death of Tibetanyogin Togden Orgyen Tenzin (?ldan O rgyan
bsTan'dzin?)was the most remarkabledisappearance.He died afterhe
hadbeen imprisonedby the Chinesein 1984. This is whatNorbuLama
says: "Oneof the officials supervisingTogdenOrgyenTenzinsaid that
when he had come to the yogin's room, he saw his body sitting in
meditation,but it shrankto the size of a child. The official panicked
because he had no idea how to explain this fact to his superiors.He
was afraidthat nobody would believe the story, and that he would be
accused of complicity in the escape. He immediatelywent to submita
reporton the whole case to the superiors.When he and high-ranking
officers returnedto Togden's house a few days later, Togden's body
had entirelydisappeared.Only hair and nails were left."140
Perhaps this is the way the road indicated by liberation through
the senses comes to an end. It concludes with a radicaldisappearance
of the subject, which is the most remarkablemetaphorof Buddhist
liberation.The roadwe took to tracethe mysticalexperienceof Simone
Weil had begun with the decision to kill the "self', the discursive
partof the soul. Repetitionwas a weapon to destroy it. We saw how
139Ibidem, 269.
p.
140NamkhaiNorbu,The
Crystaland The Wayof Light.Sutra,Tantraand Dzogchen,

New York-London1986, p. 126-128.
112
J. Tokarska-Bakir
repetition, strictly observing the prohibitionagainst thematizationof

the sacred (asking about the sense of a text, ritual, or a painting),
successfully destroyed discursiveness. This ban concerned both the
content of a prayer, mantra and dharani, and the analysis of the
matterof an image, or a relic or the ascertainmentof its own religious
experiences. Rhematic religiosity, focused exclusively on the matter
(rheme) of sacred things, is realized in the logic of this prohibition.
Discursiveness, fed for some time by the pure form and the matter
of rhematicreligiosity, rapidlyexhausts itself and gives up. Only then
does real sacrednesscomes into view throughthe filterof the perfectly
purifiedself that has undergonekenotic (Greekkenosis - 'emptying,
shedding') transformation.This is no longer the sacredness of the
righteous in a spoiled world but, after all the traces of subjectiveobjective distance are gone, the sacrednessof the world that has been
saved. It seems that this is the sense of disappearanceWeil longed
for and, perhaps,the ultimate sense of liberationthroughthe senses.
Only afterthe "self" has disappearedwill the creatorand the creation,
regardlessof their name, be able to "exchangetheir secrets".141"Let
me disappear,"Weil prayed, "so that the things I can see become
perfectly beautiful as they will no longer be the things seen by me."
In Christianity,this vision of the saved world is called apokatastasis
panton. In Buddhism, wholly oriented to the other side of existence,
nobody even makes an attemptto name it.
03-710 Warsaw
Okrzei34/25, Poland
141Weil, Pisma wybrane,p. 115.
JOANNATOKARSKA-BAKIR
BOOK REVIEWS
GERRIE TER HAAR, Halfway to Paradise: African Christians in Europe -
Cardiff:CardiffAcademicPress 1998 (vi + 220 p.) ISBN 1-899025-03-0,

? 16,95.
In the early 1980s, young Ghanaians began to travel to Europe and
Northern America in numbers, following a well established tradition of
migration for the purpose of seeking employment and economic success
elsewhere (4, 73-76, 87, 132-133, 135ff.). Germany and The Nethelands
proved main destinations. The Netherlands now has slightly over 15,000
Ghanaians with permits and several thousands more without documents
(126). Their presence is generally not a conspicuous one (126-127). One
traithas, however,become noticeable:the great numberof 'AfricanInitiated
Churches' (AICs), that have sprungup among them. Some forty existed in
Amsterdam alone in 1997. These churches are the main subject of study
of Ter Haar'sbook, and more in particular'The True Teachings of Christ's
Temple' church in 'the Bijlmer' (SE Amsterdam),the oldest and largest of
these congregationswith some 600 regularmembers.
Ter Haar's book has ten chapters. Chapter 1 is a methodological introductionin which she critically discusses the subtle mechanismsof exclusion
operatingin e.g. an emphasison the 'Africanness'of these churches.Against
symbolist anthropologists,she insists that their theologies need also be studied for properlyunderstandingthe importantsocial functions they have for
their members (6-7, 10-12). In chapters2, she looks at 'the Bijlmer' - the
multi-ethnicpartof Amsterdamto which many Ghanaianshave flocked -,
its religious communitiesand their social functions. She contends that "religious faith can also constitutea successful social strategy"(45), for it creates
a sense of belonging, and a place to be at home, for many migrants. How
precisely theirbible-centredapproachcreatesa supportive,inclusive community is analysed in chapter3, in which Ter Haar also examines their notions
of 'spirit', 'power' and 'prosperity',and the role of ritualin obtainingone's
share in them in the diasporawhich is a situationof liminality.In chapter4,
she surveysthe history,past andpresent,of the 'dispersal'of Africansoutside
Africa and criticises the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion inherentin
the uses of the concept of 'diaspora'.They serve to exclude when its threekey
BrillNV,Leiden(2000)
? Koninklijke
NUMEN, Vol. 47
114
Book reviews
notions of dispersal(forced or voluntary),cultivationof an 'African'identity,

and the wish to return'home' (80) areattributedto the migrants,but not cultivatedby the migrantsthemselves, as is the case with manymigrantsin Europe
(82-88, 159-167). The history and presentdistributionof the AICs in Europe
is examined in chapter5. Chapter6 discusses the attemptsof 'fortressEurope' to stem the 'flood' of immigrants,particularlythe so called 'economic
refugees' withoutpermits,often smuggled in by humantrafficking.The 'exodus' from Africa to Europeis discussed in greaterdetail in chapter7 with an
emphasis on the migrantsfrom Ghanaand their culturalorganisationsin the
Netherlands.The reactions of the mainline churchesin the Netherlandsand
in Ghanato this phenomenonare studiedin chapter8, as is that of a Ghanaian pentecostalchurch,the ResurrectionPower and Living Bread Ministries,
which establisheda branchin Amsterdamand is now one of the largerAICs
there. The Dutch mainline churcheshave emphasisedthe Africanness of the
AICs. By 'othering'them they practisea moder mode of racism (161-167).
In chapter9, Ter Haar surveys the history of Christianityin Ghana, including its bewildering variety of AICs, which constitutethe major influence in
the religious developmentsamong Ghanaiansin Europe. She points out that
'fundamentalism'is anotherof the severaldubiouscategories and labels that
have bedevilled the study of AICs (185-188). In chapter 10, she concludes
the book by showing from the example of the Bijlmer that AICs do have an
importantsocial function for migrantsfrom Africa in the modem cities of
Europe.
This is a well-written and excellently documentedbook with a sure grasp
of both long range historical developmentsand the baffling complexities of
the presentday situation,religious andpolitical. I have two reservations.One
is that the 'reverse mission' (1-3) seems, so far, to be for internal use only.
It seems to serve as one of several optional means of identity construction
by which a 'communityof elect' may separateitself ideologically from 'immoral' Westernsociety into which it fervently wishes to integrateeconomically. The other reservation respects Ter Haar's somewhat indiscriminate
polemics againstthe social-scientificstudiesof AICs in Africa and Europeby
'secular'anthropologistswho "considerreligious belief andreligious practice
as mere representationsof the secular"(5, 6; also 7, 9, 10, 164). I feel more at
ease with her admissionthat "thestudy of religiousphenomenain Africa [as]
a branchof scientific inquiry [...] has been revolutionisedby the insights of
anthropology"(8).
Book reviews
115
All in all, however, this is a well-written book on an importantdevelopmentin the historyof both Africanand Europeanreligiosity.It lays baresome
of the well-hidden mechanismsof identity constructionas a means for survival as well as for imposing an identity upon others in order to separate,
exclude and expulse them. It is importantfor the academic study of religions
both for its substanceand the methodology it advocates.
Departmentof the Science of Religions
Leiden University,PO Box 9515,
2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
JANG. PLATVOET
MARIOVITALONE,The Persian Revdyat "Ithoter". Zoroastrian Rituals

in the Eighteenth Century - Napoli: Istituto Universitario Orientale
(Dipartimentodi Studi Asiatici. Series Minor.XLIX) 1996 (301 p.).
The Parsi communities of India had held good relations with the Iranian
Zoroastriansduringthe 15th to 18th centuriesas shown by a relatively large
numberof letters sent from India to Iranasking for advice mainly in matters
concerningrituals.One of these letters, called revayat,has been studied and
edited by M. Vitalone in the present book originating from his doctorate
dissertationin IranianStudies at the University of Naples (Italy). The main
partsof the book are an introduction,edition of the Persiantext with a critical
apparatusrelatingto differencesbetween the only two survivingmanuscripts
(one from the year 1797, the other one togetherwith a translationof the text
in Gujaratilanguagewith no precise date), translationof the Persiantext with
commentaryand a glossary of selected terms.
"Ithoter"("seventyeight" in Gujarati)is the name of this revayatbecause
it contains seventy eight questionsput by the Qadimi communityfrom Surat
to the dasturan of Yazd and Kerman in Iran. During the 17th century it
became known that there existed differences concerningthe cultic calenders
in Iran and India which did not pose any problems until 1722 when lay
people in Suratfor the firsttime arguedfor the Iraniancalender as the "old"
(qadimi) and hence the correct one and thereforestartedusing it. A split of
the communities did not happen until 1745 and in order to get a definite
answer regardingthe calender, Mulla Kaus Jalal was sent to Iran in 1768
to settle this question carrying with him 78 questions elaborated by the
dasturan of Broach and Surat. The questions and their respective answers
NUMEN, Vol. 47
116
Book reviews
were brought back to India only 12 years later when Jalal returned.It is
interestingto note that the Iraniandasturan did not give any answer to the
main purpose of Jalal's visit to Iran regardingthe calendar because they
had already given their opinion on previous occasions. Thus this question
remained unsolved - until today one of the main controversies among
Parsi communities are the different calenders: the qadimi, the shahanshahi
and in addition since the early 20th century the fasli. - For the history
of Zoroastrianismit is worthy to mention that these questions concerning
the "right"and "wrong"calenders brought an end to three hundredyears
of regular contacts between the Parsi and Irani communities. The revayat
"Ithoter"is the last letter from India and the last answer from Iran. Only
one century later contacts between Parsis and Iranis had been renewed
again.
The centraltopics of the 78 questions are purity,funeralpractices,women
and their menses, sexuality and pollution, sacred fires, priesthoodand conversion. As Zoroastrianismhas often been understoodas a religion deeply
connected with ritualism it is necessary to put our attentionto this revayat
which shows - comparableto other ones - that there has always been a
plurality of ritualism among Indian Parsis and IranianZoroastrians(which
holds true till present times), but also among local communities. It is also
interesting to observe that topics very much discussed among contemporary communities have already been discussed two hundredyears earlier,
e.g. the question of apointmentto priesthoodor the question of conversion
to the Zoroastrianreligion. The 7th and 39th question of the revayat focus on the hereditarypriesthood and problems resulting from this, mainly
the poor knowledge of those sons of priests who are initiated to priesthood although they are not inclined to it. The answer by the Iranians
that a priest's son before being initiated to priesthood must know at least
the whole Yasna and the Visprat is an attempt to make the situation better. The often limited knowledge of priests concerning their religion has
posed problems to the authorityof priests within their community until the
20th century. - An importantquestion has been raised by the Qadimis
of Surat regarding conversion of Indian slaves which has been prohibited
by the Parsi priests; in their answer the Iranianmowbeds favor such conversions as has also been the case in earlier revayats. Until recent years
this different stance concerning conversion has been upheld as the Iranian
Zoroastrians(and Iranianmowbeds in countries of the recent western di-
Book reviews
117
aspora) who - seldom - accept non-Zoroastriansto join their religion

while Parsi priests think this being impossible. - We thus can observe that
not only present questions have their age-long tradition,but that revayats
also can maybe help to answer such questions. Therefore the edition of
the revayat "Ithoter"by M. Vitalone is not only an important contribution to our knowledge of Zoroastrianthought and ritual during the second
half of the 18th century but also may have its bearing for contemporary
Zoroastrianism.
Institutfur Religionswissenschaft
Universitit Graz,Attemsgasse 8
A-8010 Graz,Austria
MANFREDHUTTER
DONALDD. LESLIE,Jews and Judaismin TraditionalChina:A Comprehensive Bibliography(MonumentaSericaMonograph,XLV)- St. Augustin

1999 (291 p.) ISBN 3-8050-0418-4, DM 65.00.
The history of the Jews in China (thereclearly was some Jewish presence
alreadyunderthe T'ang), includingthatof the betterknown Kaifeng community (ca. 12th-19thcent.), hardlyfiguresamong the majorthemes in religious
studies. Nevertheless the Kaifeng Jews found their way even into NUMEN
(see vol. XLII, 1995, p. 118 ff.). The subjectis, perhaps,more sociological in
nature:a Jewish communitythatdisappearedas a result not of expulsion, exterminationor suppressionbut (unlike the Chinese Muslims who succeeded
in creating a kind of spiritualghetto) of total and successful assimilation.
Theirexistence came to the notice of the westernworld in the 17thcent. only,
thanksto Matteo Ricci and his successors. Ignorantof the Kaifeng community's medieval origins (via the Silk Road from Persia), the Jesuits believed
them to have come duringthe Second Templeperiod and thereforeto possess
the originalversion of the HebrewBible, as yet unfalsifiedby the rabbiswho
expungedall explicit referencesto Jesus Christ.It is curiousthatthe Jesuitsof
all people should have deviatedfrom the mainline tradition(St. Jerome!)that
the hebraicaveritas was the authenticOld Testamentandratherembracedthe
very marginalview, first attestedby JustinMartyrand repeatedas late as the
end of the 16thcent. by the Facultyof Theology of Mainz which advised the
Emperorto bur not only the Talmudbut also all HebrewBibles.
The undisputedexpert on Chinese Jewry is Prof. Donald D. Leslie, and
his long awaited (and completely up-to-date)"comprehensivebibliography"
? Koninklijke
NUMEN, Vol. 47
118
Book reviews
hasat lastseenthe lightof day.Nobodydealingwiththe Kaifeng(andother

Chinese)Jewscanhenceforthdo withoutthisvolumeon his shelf.
TheHebrewUniversityof Jerusalem
Religion
Dept.of Comparative
GivatRam
Jerusalem
91904,Israel
R.J. ZWI WERBLOWSKY
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED
Periodicals
MonumentaNipponica,54 (1999), 2.
Teoria.Rivista di filosofia direttada VittorioSainati, 19 (1999), 1.
Books
(Listing in this section does not precludesubsequentreviewing)
Buck, Christopher,Paradiseand Paradigm.Key Symbols in Persian Christianityand the Baha'i Faith- Albany,NY, State Universityof New York
Press, 1999, 402 p., US$ 27.95, ISBN 0-7914-4062-1 (pbk.).
Chow, Kai-wing, On-cho Ng and John B. Henderson (Eds.), Imagining
Boundaries. Changing Confucian Doctrines, Texts, and Hermeneutics.
SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture- Albany, NY, State
University of New YorkPress, 1999, 269 p., US$ 24.95, ISBN 0-79144198-9 (pbk.).
Lawrence,David Peter, RediscoveringGod with TranscendentalArgument.
A ContemporaryInterpretationof Monistic KashmiriSaiva Philosophy.
SUNY Series:Towarda ComparativePhilosophyof Religions - Albany,
NY, State Universityof New YorkPress, 1999,306 p., US$ 21.95, ISBN
0-7914-4058-3 (pbk.).
Kovel, Joel, Historyand Spirit.An Inquiryinto the Philosophy of Liberation
- Warner,NH, A Glad Day Book, Essential Book Publishers, 1999,
303 p., US$ 21.95, ISBN 0-9658903-3-3 (pbk.).
Sawyer,John F.A., Sacred Languagesand Sacred Texts. Series: Religion in
the First ChristianCenturies- London and New York,Routledge, 1999,
190 p., ? 16.99, ISBN 0-415-12547-2 (pbk.).
Meij, Dick van der (Ed.), Indiaand Beyond. Aspects of Literature,Meaning,
Ritual and Thought. Essays in Honour of Frits Staal - London and
New York,KeganPaulInternationalLtd in Association with International
? Koninklijke
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Publications received
Institutefor Asian Studies,Leiden and Amsterdam,1997, 696 p., ? 65.00,

ISBN 0-7103-0602-4 (cloth).
Rinehart, Robin, One Lifetime, Many Lives. The Experience of Modem
Hindu Hagiography.Series: AAR The Religions, 6 - Atlanta,Georgia,
ScholarsPress, 1999, 222 p., US$ 29.95, ISBN 0-7885-0555-6 (pbk.).
Houtman,Gustaaf,MentalCulturein Burmese Crisis Politics. Aung San Suu
Kyi and the National League for Democracy.Series: Study of Languages
and Culturesof Asia and Africa MonographSeries, 33 - Tokyo, Tokyo
University of Foreign Studies, Institutefor the Study of Languagesand
Culturesof Asia and Africa, 1999,400 p., ISBN 4-87297-748-3 (pbk.).
Milivojevic, Dragan, Leo Tolstoy and the Oriental Religious Heritage
East EuropeanMonographs,Boulder,distributedby ColumbiaUniversity
Press, New York, 1998, 182 p., US$ 32.00, ISBN 0-88033-416-9 (cloth).
Gillman, Ian and Hans-JoachimKlimkeit, Christiansin Asia before 1500Richmond, Surrey,Curzon Press, 1999, 391 p., ? 50.00, ISBN 0-70071022-1 (cloth).
La fabrication de l'humain dans les cultures et en anthropologie.Collectif, publi6 sous la direction de Claude Calame et Mondher Kilani
Lausanne,Editions Payot, 1999, 352 p., FS 30.00, ISBN 2-601-032499 (pbk.).
Blhzquez, Jos6 Maria, Mitos, dioses, h6roes en el Mediterr,neo antiguoMadrid,Real Academia de la Historia, 1999, 382 p., ISBN 84-89512-337 (pbk.).
Waldmann, Helmut, Petrus und die Kirche. Petri Versuchung (Mat 16:
"Weiche von mir, Satan!... Was niitzt es dem Menschen...) und der
Kampf der Kirche mit dem Kaisertumum die Weltherrschaft.Tiibinger
Gesellschaft, Wissenschaftliche Reihe, vol. 7 - Tiibingen, Verlag der
TiubingerGesellschaft, 1999, XXVI + 249 p., ISBN 3-928096-09-5
(paper).
THE EXCLUSION OF WOMEN IN THE MITHRAIC

MYSTERIES: ANCIENT OR MODERN?
JONATHAN DAVID
Summary
The following paper deals with the scholarly supposition that females were
excluded from the ancient mystery cult of Mithraism. This notion has been part
of scholarly dialogue about the religion since Franz Cumont, the father of modem
Mithraic studies, introducedit in the late nineteenth century. Though many of his
conclusions about Mithraism have been challenged or refuted in the past thirty
years, the particularidea that the cult excluded women has persisted, and actually
has become taken for grantedby most scholars. Thanks to the publicationof much
importantarchaeological and epigraphical evidence during the past fifty years, a
reexaminationof this notion is now possible. By surveyinga few examplesof Mithraic
inscriptionsand iconographyin light of heretoforediscountedtextualclues from such
ancientauthorsas Porphyry,Jerome,and Tertullian,it will be arguedthatthe theoryof
universalfemale exclusion from Mithraismis untenable.In orderto demonstratethis,
it will be necessary to challenge and scrutinizethe work of the only moder scholar
to explore gender within ancient Mithraism, Richard Gordon. Instead of starting
from a preconceivednotion of exclusion and attemptingto explain away the various
exceptionsto this rule, this articlewill tally these "exceptions"to conclude simply that
women were involved with Mithraicgroups in at least some locations of the empire.
Some possible implicationsof this conclusion then will be suggested.
"Small autonomous groups of initiates, exclusively male, met for

fellowship and worship in chambers of modest size and distinctive
design which they called 'caves'..."' With this statement in the
Oxford Classical Dictionary, Roger Beck echoes the conventional
characteristics of the Mithraic mysteries as they have been repeated
since at least the nineteenth century. Regardless of what else of
1
Roger Beck, s. v. "Mithras,"in S. Horblower and A. Spawforth,eds., Oxford

Classical Dictionary, 3rd edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), my
emphasis.
NUMEN, Vol. 47
122
JonathanDavid
has erodedunderthe tempestsof

Cumont'scomprehensive
treatment
recentscholarship,2
thesesimple,stockattributes
remainreassuringly
stableamidstthe chaosof competingastrologicaltheoriesconcerning
origins and cosmogonies.But preciselywhy have these particular
aspectsnot evolved,mutated,or passedaway?The 'caves'notionhas
alwaysbeen well supportedby the abundanceof cave-likemithraea
andthe fact thatthis was a
discoveredanddescribedby archaeology,
cultwithinitiates,worship,andfellowshipis quiteobvious.Thispaper
idea thatwomenwere
will focus on andchallengethe long-standing
from
the
Hellenistic
cult
excluded
actively
mystery of Mithras.
Despitetheevidenceto be reviewedin thefollowingpages,several
of themostrecentpopularbookson ancientmysterycultscharacterize
Mithraismas exclusivelymale.Indeed,this exclusionseems to have
becomea featurecommonlyassignedto the religion,distinguishing
it
fromotherHellenisticcults.Therefore,it mayproveusefulto cover
a few of thesebriefly.In his 1987 monographon mysteryreligions,
WalterBurkertacceptsthe idea in a passingmentionand even goes
so far as to assertthatMithras"stoodfor men'sclubs in opposition
to familylife."3RobertTurcan,in the newesteditionof his textbook
on Romancults,explicitlystatesthatwomenwereexcludedfromthe
ritesof Mithras,and,due to theview's statusas opiniocommunis,he
2 Franz Cumont, Textes et monumentsfigures relatifs aux mysteres de Mithra,
2 vols. (Brussels: H. Lamertin, 1896, 1899). See also Franz Cumont (translatedby
T. McCormack),The Mysteries of Mithra(London:Kegan Paul, 1903); Roger Beck,
"Mithraismsince FranzCumont"ANRWII 17.4 (1984), 2002-2115.
3 WalterBurkert,Ancient
Mystery Cults (Cambridge:HarvardUniversity Press,
1987), 43; (quotation)52. KurtLatte,in his fundamentalreferenceworkRomischeReligionsgeschichte(Miinchen:Beck, 1960), states simply that "es war eine mtnnliche
Religion." The notion seems to have gained ground and relevance in the past few
decades. For example, LutherMartinoutlines a Mithrascult "to which only males
were admitted":Hellenistic Religions: An Introduction(Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1987), 114. See my discussion below, especially Richard Gordon, "Reality,
evocation and boundaryin the Mysteries of Mithras,"Journal of Mithraic Studies 3
(1980), 42-63; W. Liebeschuetz,"The expansion of Mithraismamong religious cults
of the second century,"in J.R. Hinnells, ed., Studies in Mithraism(Rome: "L'Erma"
di Bretschneider,1994), 202.
The Exclusionof Womenin the MithraicMysteries
123
omits to rehearsethe relevantevidence.4 Most recently,Mary Beard,

John North, and Simon Price have wholeheartedlyaccepted the view
of previous scholarsconcerningthis issue in their useful textbook on
Roman religion.5Three other studies specifically concerningwomen
in Graeco-Romanreligions have echoed the presumedexclusivity of
Mithraism,and furthermore,this notion has even filtered down into
more generaltextbooks.6
The exclusion of women from the Mithraicmysteries has come to
be acceptedas one of the fundamentalfacts aboutthe cult, but on what
ancient evidence is this notion founded? The most frequently cited
textualevidence comes fromthe thirdcenturyNeo-PlatonistPorphyry,
in his workDe abstinentia(4.16):
trv yap Kcotv6TTla'lJlv xqv
{i&ag rLTvieIv Eld0aolv'
posg ta
pOaaivltTTo6evol 6buLxTv 6(ov
(bg tOi)S LEv

iVETeovTag
TOV axiWv 6pyiov
[tuorag
6E 'rnlpeTo0vtcag K6paKag.7
Xeativa, TOVgS
XAovtagwcaXtv,TSgb6 yuvaIKcag
For, explaining in riddles our commonality with animals, they are accustomed
to reveal us according to [names of] animals; so that they call those initiates
participatingin the same rites lions, and the women lionesses, and the attendants
ravens.
Porphyrythus gives a brief description of the names by which presumably Mithraic initiates or participants(peTexovmegtuJotaL)and
and
underlingattendants(iXrlpETOovTEg)were called: lions (XEovTeg)
4 RobertTurcan(translatedby A. Nevill), The Cultsof the RomanEmpire(Oxford:
Blackwell, 1996), 240.
5
Mary Beard, John North and Simon Price, Religions of Rome, VolumeI: A
History (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1998), 298.
6 Women: A. Staples, From Good Goddess to vestal Virgins:sex and category
in Romanreligion (London:Routledge, 1998); D.F. Sawyer, Womenand Religion in
the First Christian Centuries (London: Routledge, 1996); R.S. Kraemer,Her Share
of the Blessings: Women'sReligions among Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the
Greco-RomanWorld(Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress, 1992); textbooks:see Jackson
J. Spielvogel, WesternCivilization, VolumeA, Second Edition (Minneapolis: West
PublishingCompany,1994), 189.
7 See
Augustus Nauck, Porphyrii Philosophi Platonici Opuscula Selecta
(Hildesheim:Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung,1963), 254.
124
JonathanDavid
ravens(K6paCKeg),
Buttheoverallreadingof thispassage
respectively.
a
traditions:
Porpresents problem,dueto a disputein the manuscript
phyry also states that women were called either hyenas (valval) or
lionesses (XaLVaL)v.8
Complicatingthe issue is the fact that the text is
obviouslycorrupt,actuallymissinga significantportionof the very

next line.9The theoryof a femaleMithraicgradeof Lionesseshas
beensuggested,butneverfullypursued.'0RichardGordonhastreated
the passageat length,concludingthatit shouldread"hyenas,"and
8 Ibid. I.B. Felicianus
(c. 1547) prints Xealvag, perhaps an emendation. Nauck
follows Felicianus, while the mss. traditiongives baivacg.
9 Nauck
correctlyprovides ellipses in the next sentence, for, as Rudolph Hercher
(Paris, 1858) first noticed, the y&/pin sixth position seems to indicate that the end
of the sentence has been lost. David Engel (personal conversation)has suggested
the possibility of the yap being spurious, with its omission renderingthe sentence
intelligible.
10See JohnFerguson,"MoreAboutMithras,"HibbertJournal53 (1955), 319-326.
For a response to the notion, see J.M.C. Toynbee, "Still More About Mithras,"Hibbert Journal 54 (1956), 107-114. For the evidence cited in these suggestions, see
J.M. Reynolds and J.B. WardPerkins,TheInscriptionsof RomanTripolitania(1952),
no. 239; M.J.Vermaseren,CorpusInscriptionumet Monumentorum
Religionis Mithriacae, vols. 1 and 2 (The Hague:MartinusNijhoff, 1956, 1960), nos. 113-115 [henceforth CIMRM1 or CIMRM2]. The names of the seven gradesof Mithraismhave generally been taken from Jerome,Epist. 107.2 (ad Laetam): "... nonne specu Mithrae
et omniaportentuosasimulacra, quibuscorax, nymphus,miles, leo, Perses, heliodromus, pater initiantur... " It should be noted that "nymphus"is a modem emendation
on the basis of CIL6, nos. 751-53 (annotatededition in H. Dessau, InscriptionesLatinae Selectae [Dublin:apudWeidmannos,1974], 4267a-e), which presumablyrecord
some mid-fourthcenturyMithraicinitiationsat Rome. The mss. of Jeromehave "gryphus," which I. Hilberg, Sancti Evsebii HieronymiEpistvlae (Vindobonae:F. Tempsky, 1910-1918), and J. Labourt,Lettres/Texteitabli et traduitpar Jerome (Paris:Les
Belles Lettres, 1949-1963), emend to "cryphius"in theircriticaleditions. See also the
mithraeumof Felicissimus at Ostia, in CIMRM1, no. 299; or M.J. Vermaseren(translated by T. and V. Megaw), Mithras, the Secret God (London: Chatto and Windus,
1963), 138-153, which visually illustratesthese grades and theirrelatediconography.
For helpful descriptionsand illustrationsof this importantmosaic, see CarloPavolini,
Guide archaeologiche Laterza#8: Ostia (Rome & Bari: Laterza, 1983), 218-219; or
Beard,North, and Price (VolumeII), 305-306.
TheExclusionof Womenin the MithraicMysteries
125
that women were indeed excluded from the mysteries, even actively
despised by the cult.11Despite Gordon's argument,the possibility of
women participatingin the mysteriesremainsquite substantial,as the
following evidence will show. As for the lioness/hyena question, let
it suffice to point out that the plentiful iconographicevidence from
variousmithraeaacross the empire depicts not one hyena. Lionesses,
however,are presentin a numberof Mithraiccontexts, for example at
Angleurin Gaul and at Scarabantiain Pannonia.12
Some of the most suggestiveevidence along these lines comes from
Oea (Tripoli)in northernAfrica. The site is not a mithraeum,but a
set of two sepulchresdating to approximatelythe late third century
CE. This paintedtomb of a wealthy couple is covered with Mithraic
iconography,bearing similaritieswith Mithraic sites elsewhere, and
also depictinga lioness. But most strikingare the paintedtexts on the
tops of the two sarcophagi.The man's clearlyreads"quileo iacet" and
the woman's, "quae lea iacet."13This, combined with the additional
iconography(see below) all aroundthe tomb, seems to suggest that
not only was the man a Mithraic initiate of the grade leo, but also
that his wife was a participantas well, initiated into a grade lea,
lending additionalsupportto one of the two readings of Porphyry's
passage. M.J. Vermaseren,in his popularbook on Mithras,has given
this evidence the fairest treatment,suggesting that the tomb indeed
holds the remains of an initiate of the grade Lioness.14He goes on
to conclude, however,thatthis was a marginalsect, that the "Mithraic
communityof Oea would be the only one in the West where women
were admittedin the variousgrades;all our other sources speak only
of men, and where a woman'sname is mentionedin an inscriptionshe
1 Gordon,42-63. See my discussion below.
12 CIMRM1, no. 962; CIMRM2, no. 1640. See below.
13 CIMRM1, nos. 113-115. See also CIMRM 2, nos. 113-115;
Reynolds and
as
no.
239.
these
were
Perkins,
Originally
epitaphs
published inscriptionson the tops
of funerary urns. For the later correction, see J.M. Reynolds, "IRT:Supplement,"
PBSR 23 (1955), 124 ff.
14Vermaseren
(1963), 162-165.
126
JonathanDavid
never bears a title."15Consideringonly the materialreadily available

forty years ago, this analysis would be quite sound,but we shall see as
the evidence accruesthat this sepulchreis much more than simply the
exception thatproves the rule.
This tomb at Oea, as mentionedabove, sharesiconographicalsimilarities with various other Mithraic sites. Most notably, next to the
burialniche on the left sidewall, thereis depicteda stridingpersonin a
long garmentwith a raised candlestickin his righthand.16"Thissame
figure,"as Vermaserenputs it, appearsin a depiction of a procession
with lions in the Santa Priscamithraeumat Rome.17The iconography
of the two sites is quite similar,in general,18suggesting a possible link
between the couple of Oea and the roughly contemporarymithraeum
in Rome. Most striking,however,is the discovery of a marblebust of
a woman in the Santa Prisca mithraeum,just behind the door. What
was the purpose of this small (16 cm) statue? Could it have been a
sympatheticvotive offering, given by an initiate?Could the bust actually depict an initiate, or a benefactorof the sanctuary?This Roman
Mithraicgroup,even though its sanctuarycontainsa representationof
a woman, cannot be interpretedas a marginalsect as well. A similar
problemis posed by the carvedgroup of motherand child discovered
in the mithraeumat Dieburg in Roman Germany,19and the crude female statuettefrom inside the mithraeumat Carrawburgh
on Hadrian's
Wall.20
15Ibid., 163.
6 CIMRM , no. 113.
17M.J. Vermaserenand C.C. Van Essen, The Excavations in the Mithraeum
of
the Churchof Santa Prisca in Rome (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1965), 150; pl. LV.Quote:
Vermaseren(1962), 163.
18Cf. Vermaserenand Van Essen, 148-150 ff., with Reynolds and Perkins,no. 239.
See also CIMRM1, no. 113.
19F. Behn, Das Mithrasheiligtumzu Dieburg (Berlin:W. de Gruyter& Co., 1928),
35, no. 14 (fig. 39). See also Toynbee, 109.
20 I.A. Richmondand J.P. Gillam, The Templeof Mithrasat Carrawburgh(Newcastle upon Tyne:Society of Antiquaries,1951), 30 (pl. 10A).
127
The lea inscriptionfrom Oea, combined with the iconographical

representationsof both lionesses and women, raises the question of
whether there exist other textual references to women in relation to
Mithraism,beyond Porphyry'spossible mention of a Lioness gradeof
initiation (which, regardlessof the reading, clearly implies women's
association with the cult). There do indeed. Tertullian,in De praescriptione haereticorum(40), mentions "virgines"and "continentes"
as devotedto Mithras,indicatinghis awarenessnot only that some initiates habituallyabstainedfrom sex in honor of the god, but also that
both males and females were involved in this, virgines et continentes.
While Tertullianis generally believed to be somewhat inaccuratein
his treatmentof the Mithraicrites,21we must, in light of our other
evidence, grantsome credenceto the implicationthatwomen were involved with the cult, regardlessof whether some of them abstained
from the sexual act or not.22The strongestexamples reviewed so far,
namely Tertullianand the Oea tomb, may point towarda specifically
North African variantof Mithraismin which women were involved,
as Tertullian'sexemplaare generallyAfrican.Thereare, however,supplementaryhints from elsewherein the empire.
Perhapsthe most suggestive additionalevidence comes from an inscriptionby a slave woman in Rome named Cascelia Elegans. This
clearly legible prayerwas inscribedon a small altar (20 cm) and addressed to a male deity simply invoked as "Domineaeterne."23Thus
the provenanceof this thirdcenturyCE inscriptionbecomes extremely
important,for it was found nearthe main altarof a mithraeumwithin
the CastraPeregrina,on the site of the present-dayS. StefanoRotondo
in Rome.24GerardMussies has producedthe most extensive analysis
of the first several lines of the prayer,and his conclusions concerning
21 For
example, see Burkert,99. For generalacceptanceof Tertullian'sdescriptions

on the basis of his fatherbeing a Mithraicinitiate, see Turcan(1996), 234.
22 Cf. Vermaseren
(1962), 164. Again, see Turcan(1996), 231-235; 244.
23 GerardMussies, "Cascelia's
Prayer,"in U. Bianchi and M.J. Vermaseren,eds, La
soteriologia dei culti orientali nell' ImperoRomano(Leiden:E.J. Brill, 1982), 156.
24 Ibid.
128
JonathanDavid
the authorship,
nature,andpurposeof the inscriptionremainunchalHe
lenged.25 arguesthatthe inscribedaltarwas addressedto the syncretisticSol-Mithras-Aion
by a "simpleslavewoman,"andhe further
at thesanctionof her
suggeststhatthis actmayhavebeenundertaken
in
the
cult.26
a
who
was
perhaps highfunctionary
patron,
to explore
Mussiesdoes not take this opportunity
Unfortunately,
in the cult,butratherechoesthe
the possibilityof femaleparticipants
traditional
view:
Women, however, were not admitted to the mysteries of the Persian god. But
this fact alone should not lead us to the conclusion that the god whom Cascelia
invokes can thereforenot be Mithras,for it is thinkablethat althoughthey were
not admitted,they were yet allowed to have inscriptionsor sculpturesplaced in
the sanctuary,or could makedonationsto the communityof which theirhusbands
or sons were members.27
Mussiescites no evidencefor his initialstatement,however,he does

go on to cite threeotherMithraicinscriptionsnamingwomenas the
at Ostia,
sponsors.The firstis froma secondcenturyCE mithraeum
the
a
to
the
"mater"
Junia
Zosime
made
that
gift
stating
Dendrophori
on
a similarly
is
inscribed
The
from
Mediolanum,
second,
college.28
dedicatedaltar,andwhileits divineaddresseehasbeendisputed,it was
Thethirdis a stonededicationto
madeby a woman.29
unquestionably
25 Ibid., 156-167. The
complete text, with photographsand discussion, has been

published by Silvio Panciera, "II materiale epigrafico dallo scavo di S. Stefano
Rotondo,"in U. Bianchi, ed., MysteriaMithrae(Leiden:E.J. Brill, 1979), 97-112.
26 Ibid., 158; 163. Mussies deduces this from the phrase "prodominomeo Primo,"
which would appearto make reference to her owner, Primus, for whose benefit (in
additionto her children'sand her own) she prays.
27 Ibid., 157-158.
28 CIMRMI, no. 284. The term mater here could refer to a
grade parallelto the
knownpater grade,the highest and most importantwithin the cult. See below.
29 CIMRM1, no. 705. For the dispute, see CIMRM2, no. 705. Vermaserenreads
the dedication, "D(eo) [i(nvicto)] M(ithrae) / Varia / Q(uinti) f(ilia) / Severa /
v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito)" which could also be read "D(is) M(anibus)...,"
for which there are literally thousandsof examples, or perhaps"D(is) M(agnis)..."
for which therearea few occurances,thoughthe contextof this particulardedicationis
The Exclusion of Women in the Mithraic Mysteries
129
Mithras from a woman named Blastia, found in Pannonia at Emona.30

Mussies uses all of these in support of his hypothesis that women were
allowed to make dedications to the cult, perhaps through their male
relatives, and thus Cascelia's inscription could indeed be addressed
to Mithras (or some syncretistic version thereof). This particular
line of argument is necessary only because Mussies begins with the
assumption that women were not admitted.
Even though the vast majority of evidence involves, depicts, or
was created by men, why assume that women were not allowed to
participate in the mysteries? There is no ancient text which states that
women were excluded from the mysteries of Mithras. In fact, several
sources seem to suggest that some women had significant dealings with
the cult, and perhaps were even initiated into the rites.
The first major proponent of the notion of women's exclusion was
Franz Cumont himself, who through his vast erudition created a picture
of Hellenistic Mithraism which persisted for over seventy years.31
In his 1902 monograph on the mysteries, Cumont seems to possess
evidence concerning women which we later scholars do not:
... Mithraforbadetheirparticipationin his mysteriesand so deprivedhimself of
the incalculableassistanceof the propagandists.The rude discipline of the order
did not permitthem to take the degrees in the sacredcohorts, and, as among the
Mazdeansof the Orient,they occupied only a secondaryplace in the society of
the faithful. Among the hundredsof inscriptionsthat have come down to us, not
one mentions either a priestess,a woman initiate,or even a donatress.32
Yet we possess evidence which Cumont did not, for above I have reviewed instances of at least one possible female initiate and a number
of "donatresses." Moreover, one could argue for the possible existence
probablyMithraic.See Mussies, 164, note 12. Regardless,this example of Mussies's
is questionableevidence for our purposes.
30 CIMRM2, no. 1463
(Mussies's note 12 mistakenlyreads CIMRMII, no. 1462,
but the inscriptionto which he refersis actuallyno. 1463).
31 See Beck
(1984), 2002-2115.
32 Cumont
(1903), 173. Here Cumontwas probablyrespondingto F. Lajard,who
had previouslyassumedthe opposite view. See below, note 64.
130
JonathanDavid
of a priestess-likegradeof materwithinthe cult, an initiatorylevel parallel to the well-attestedpater grade.In a Cologne mithraeum,a mater
is mentionedin the same inscriptionas a pater, which Vermasereninterpretsas "certainlythe father of a Mithras community which had
relationswith a cult for women with a mater,"for althoughit was discoveredinside a mithraeum,the inscriptionis addressedto a goddess.33
Even more intriguingis the aforementionedinscriptionon a column
from the Ostiamithraeumwhich reads,"Virtutem
/dendrop(horis)/ex
mater
/
II
Zosime
/Iunia
d(onum)d(edit)."34While
ar(genti)p(ondo)
these two hints of a mater initiationgrade are far from conclusive evidence, they certainly suggest the possibility of a name for females
within the pater grade.
The next advocate for the notion of women's exclusion was
J.M.C.Toynbee,in a 1956 articlesomewhatcompromisedby an inclination towardChristianapologetic. In this response to some unorthodox suggestionsby G.F.Brandonand J. Ferguson,Toynbeepoints out
the questionablenatureof Porphyry'sand Tertullian'spassages, notes
the masculinenames of the seven Mithraicgrades,and claims thereis
an "absenceof any traceof women in Mithraicdedications."35In the
same year,Vermaserenpublishedthe firstvolume of his compilationof
Mithraicevidence, with the excavationreportsfrom Santa Prisca following threeyears later,and volume two of the compilationin 1960.36
But even with the most importantevidence now available, scholars
continueto upholdCumont'sview. L.A. Campbell,in his 1968 synthesis of the evidence, readsPorphyry'sDe abstinentialine as "lionesses,"
33CIMRM2, no. 1027.
34CIMRM1, no. 284.
35 Toynbee, 108-109, respondingto two previous articles which had made passing
reference to the possibility of a female grade of lioness. Supra note 10. Also,
G.F. Brandon, "Mithraismand its Challenge to Christianity,"Hibbert Journal 53
(1955), 107-114. The names of the seven grades of initiation are given by Jerome,
Epist. 107.2 (ad Laetam).
36 Supranotes 10 and 17.
131
In
yet he still assumes the "exclusionof women from membership."37
1975, R. Turcansurveyed much of the textual evidence concerning
Mithras,concluding that the participationof women in the mysteries
is not directlyconfirmedby any ancientdocument.38Again, however,
the exclusion of women is not confirmedeither.
Most of the recentscholars'assumptionsalong these lines, Mussies'
included,seem to rest on the workof RichardGordon.In a 1980 article
for the Journalof MithraicStudies,laterre-publishedin a collection of
Gordon'sworkin 1996, he arguesextensivelythatwomen providedthe
centraljustificationfor the Mithraicinitiates' extremeseparationfrom
the everyday world.39In order to do this, Gordon refers to what he
calls the "Graeco-Romanencyclopaedia,"all the miscellaneous folk
knowledge which he garnersfrom such authorsas Pliny and Aelian,
elaboratingwhat he sees as the popular,psychological associations
with the entities for which the firstfour initiationgradeswere named.
This somewhatarbitraryand indiscriminatesource-usemay be called
into question, as it builds one object of free association upon another
and provides no standardof judgement, aside from the idea that all
of the Classical world from Hesiod to Aelian conceptualizednature,
gender,and symbolismin the same manner.The whole methodis thus
based upon a few disputableassumptionswhich call into questionany
conclusions Gordonmight drawfrom the enterprise.
He begins by noting that the names of Jerome's seven Mithraic
initiatorygrades inherentlyexclude females, much as Toynbee stated
37 Leroy A. Campbell, Mithraic Iconography and Ideology (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1968), 18; 316.
38 Robert Turcan, Mithras Platonicus: Recherches sur l'Hell6nisation
philosophique de Mithra (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975), 36. Though later, in his
textbook on Roman cults, he fully echoes Cumont's view on women in the cult, as
mentionedabove. Supranote 4.
39RichardGordon,"Reality,evocationand boundaryin the Mysteriesof Mithras,"
Journal of Mithraic Studies 3 (1980), 19-99; reprint in Richard Gordon, Image
and Value in the Graeco-Roman World:Studies in Mithraism and Religious Art
(Aldershot:VARIORUM,1996), no. V. See especially pp. 42-64.
132
JonathanDavid
in 1956.40 Pater, he says, is obviously masculine. He explains the

exclusively male natureof heliodromusby the fact that all runnersin
the Classicalworld were men, despite such mythologicalexceptionsas
Atalanta.Similarly,Perses is a man's name.As for leo, Gordonargues
that the ancientsbelieved lions to be opposed to having (or unable to
have) intercourse,41despite the fact that Aristotle, Pliny, and Aelian,
all refer to lion offspring and/or mating.42He then mis-quotes Pliny
(Naturalishistoria 8.42), saying that Romans saw lionesses as lusting
excessively after other species, when Pliny actually wrote such about
male lions.43Combiningthese with a few otherobscurereferences,he
reasons that in the Classical conception, lions were "so hot" as to be
impotent.Further,he connects this with the supposedMithraicconcept
of "heat"being necessary for the release of souls (apogenesis) from
genesis.44It remainsunclearwhetherthis metaphysicalabstractionhas
more to do with Mithraismor with certainof his Neo-Platonicsources.
Gordon gives the grade miles only brief treatment,because "the
military life so obviously excluded the female in the Graeco-Roman
world."45The name was doubly symbolic for the purposesof the cult,
he says, because soldiers in the Roman Empire could not have full
civil marriages.But if one accepts that female exclusion and marital
denial were the implied meanings of the name, was the same also true
with the contemporarynotion of the militia Christi?Female members
of the Christiancult(s) were certainlyincluded within this term, even
though they could not be soldiers in the Roman army.46Religious
40 Ibid., 43-44.
Supranote 10. Jerome,Epist. 107.2 (ad Laetam).
41 Gordon,46
(also see his note 60).
42 Aristotle, Historia animalium6.31;
Pliny, Naturalis historia 8.19; 8.45; Aelian,
Natura animalium4.34.
43 Pliny, Naturalis historia 8.42: "Africahaec maximespectat inopia aquarumad
paucos amnes congregantibusse feris. Ideo multiformesibi anamaliumpartus varie
feminis cuiusquegeneris maresaut vi aut voluptatemiscente."
44
Gordon,47. See also Aelian, Natura animalium4.34.
45 Ibid.
46 See Romans 14:10; 2 Timothy2:1-13; Tertullian,De Corona Militis 15.3-4;
De praescriptione haereticorum20; Origen, In ludic. hon. 9; Contra Celsum 8.73;
133
groups,even ancientones, with militaristicor agonisticrhetoricdo not

necessarilyexclude women, nor are they coincidentally"hostileto the
female principle."
Gordon next examines the grade nymphus,a name which he sees
as a Latin combination of the Greek words vv[t)ioS and v6lxUr,,
forminga sort of "maritalandrogyny,"not only untranslatablebut also
inconceivableoutside the world of the mysteries.47In demonstrating
the associationof this grade with Venus, Gordonnotes that the planet
was known as the "bringerof light" and associated with both the
evening and morning stars, an ambiguity (darkand light) reflected in
the fact that the goddess herself was seen as embodying both male
and female principles.48Gordon understandsthis as being hostile to
women, so that "the female is not an independentprinciple,it is part
of the male,"49ratherthaninterpretingthe idea as genderambiguityor
bisexuality,a title thatcould conceivablyinclude males and females at
once.
The lowest grade, corax, he singles out as particularlyinteresting
because thereis no separatefeminine declension of the noun in either
Greekor Latin,as, he says, Varroexplicitly puzzledover in antiquity.50
In actuality,Varropointsout a greatnumberof animalnameswhich denote both gendersof the species in orderto illustratethe irregularities
Cyprian, Ep. 76.6; et al. See especially Adolf von Harnack,Militia Christi: Die
christlicheReligion und der Soldatenstandin den ersten drei Jahrhunderten(Darmstadt:WissenschaftlicheBuchgesellschaft, 1963 [reprint]),for a compilationof such
references.
47 Gordon,48-49. He providesno indicationof the problemswith this gradename
in Jerome'smss. See my discussion in note 10 above.
48 Ibid., 51-53.
49 Ibid., 53.
50 Gordoncites Varro,De lingua Latina 5.14; 8.7; 8.46-47; 9.36-41, all of which
either have nothing to do with gender or speak of it only generally with various
examples. Varroonly mentions corax at 9.55, in a laundrylist of animal examples.
At no point does he specifically puzzle over the raven or the fact that these words
include both genders in one or the other.He is merely systematicallyexplaining one
of the ways in which Latinbehaves unusually.Cf. Gordon,44; 83, n. 54.
134
JonathanDavid
of Latin.Thus corax, while a divergencefrom strictlanguage rules, is

neitherexceptionalnor extraordinarilyinteresting.Pliny, Gordoncontinues, wrote that commonersbelieved ravensto have intercourseand
to give birth throughtheir beaks, citing Jean-PierreVerant's analyses of Hesiod as evidence that people in the Classical world believed
the humanmouth to be the opposite of the vagina.51Thus utilizing the
antithesisof a humanfemale's organ,Gordonreasons,the ravenis not
only a completelymale animal,butalso hostile to women. He next uses
Aelian to show thatpeople in the Classical worldbelieved the ravento
become drierand weakerin late summer,and then he employs Marcel
Detienne's analysis of the AthenianAdonis cult to illustratethe supposed ancient notion that human males are drier and weaker during
the same period.52Further,Gordonstates thatin the Classical conception, ravens were associated with boundariesand also crossed them,
and he posits that this included genderboundariesand (symbolically)
humansex-distinctions.He provides,however,no tangible connection
to Mithraism.The haphazardand dubious nature of this source-use
aside, Gordon only demonstratesthe questionablenotion of this animal's sexual ambiguityin the minds of certainancients. If in fact the
raven were a sexually ambiguous symbol, its possible iconographic
51 Ibid., 44-45. Gordon
couples this with the supposed notion that the presenceof
a raven complicates human birthing. Here he cites Pliny, Naturalis historia 10.32,
which contains no reference to mouths, vaginas, or birthing, but rather has to do
with migratingswans! He also utilizes Aelian, Natura animalium 3.43, which only
relates that elderly ravens feed themselves to their young, and again has nothing to
do with birthingor the vagina. For an example of this modem structuralistapproach
of which Gordonseems to make use, see Jean-PierreVemant,"Le mythe promdthden
chez Hesiode,"in Mythe et societe en Grace ancienne (Paris, 1974), 157-175.
52 Gordon,45. Cf. Hesiod, Worksand Days 414-419; 582-588; 704-705. See Marcel
Detienne, Les jardins d'Adonis: la mythologiedes aromatesen Grece (Paris, 1972),
especially 222-225; Gordon asserts all this despite the fact that Detienne's book
was not well-received by other Classicists. For a skeptical treatmentof the English
translation,see G.S. Kirk'sreview in the TimesLiterarySupplement(18 August 1977),
922-923.
135
use in Mithraismmight just well support the idea that women were
involved.
Thus, according to Gordon's analysis, all the grades consciously
excludeor suppressthe feminine.53Granted,all the gradenames listed
by Jerome are masculine in form, but by no means does it follow
that women were excluded from the cursus, or that there were no
correspondingtitles for females within it, such as lea or mater.
Regardless, Gordon proceeds to consult the "encyclopaedia"for
ancientperceptionsof hyenas, determiningthatthe hyena is an animal
which repeatedly changes its sex, and demonstratingthis animal's
connection with the concept of reversal of norms.54 Yet even if one
grantsthe hyenasreadingof Porphyry,an animalwhich changesits sex
wouldseem a likely candidatefor symbolizingwomen participantsin a
primarilymasculinecult. Even if women were symbolized as hyenas,
animals which never occur in Mithraic iconography (as opposed to
all the other animals mentioned in Porphyry's passage, including
lionesses, which do), does this necessarily mean that the women were
excludedfromparticipation?The evidence seems to suggest otherwise,
especially given the possible referencesto participantsdubbedlea and
mater,which parallelthe gradesleo andpater, the two most important
and most frequentlydocumentedgradesof initiation.55
53 Ibid.,44.
54Gordon, 58-61. Perhaps due to the fact that the issue has been treated by
others,Gordondoes not providehis reasoningfor dismissing the lionesses readingof
Porphyry'stext. On the widespreadClassical conception of the hyena and its change
of sex, see Aristotle, Historia animalium 6.32; Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.408-410;
Pliny,Naturalishistoria 8.44; Tertullian,De pallio 3; Aelian, Naturaanimalium1.25.
Gordonalso cites Pliny,Naturalishistoria 8.105, butthereis no 8.105 in thatparticular
work.
55 See my discusssion of the Oea epitaphsand the JuniaZosime inscriptionabove.
In view of these, and the lioness iconographyin various Mithraiccontexts (and lack
thereof for hyenas), the text of Porphyrywas likely corruptedat some point so that
an hyena intruded(AEAI- = TAI-). On the likelihood of such corruptionof poorly
written/poorly read texts (Latin in this case), see Louis Havet, Manuel de critique
verbale(Paris:LibrarieHachette,1911), 434 ff. See also my translationof the passage
in questionat the beginningof this article.
JonathanDavid
136
Gordondoesfinallycometo thenotoriousPorphyry
passage,quoted
and
as
his theory:
as
sees
which
he
reads
above,
confirming
"hyenas"
Nowhere does Pallas [Porphyry'ssource] say that women were initiates into the
Mysteries: indeed, he explicitly states that they were not, by opposing his first
categorytotS [ttv LrteXovrag... ix6oraS('the initiateswho are full members')
from his second ra;g6b yvvalKag, and from his third, TOVi 68 VrntpeTovvTag
('the underlings').If he had wantedto talk aboutwhat we might want him to talk
about.... he would have put his point differently.56
Gordon'sargumenthereis thatPorphyry(or,rather,Pallas)is interestedin the Mithraists'use of animaltermsfor humanbeings,not in

theidentityor genderof thepersonsinvolvedin themysteries,so that
the orderof his termsdoes not matter.The threegroups,namelythe
areclearlydistinguished
fullmembers,thewomen,andtheunderlings,
fromone another.57
Gordonis quiteconvincingandprobablycorrectconcerningtheimWhat
portanceof contextandthe fact thatthe orderis insignificant.
is significant,though,is thatall of the animalsPorphyryidentifiesin
arethenamesandsymbolsof varihis wholedigressionon Mithraism
aresubservient
ous gradesforinitiatesin therites.The xnrlpetxoivxg
participants.Based on the names of the Mithraicgradesgleaned
from other sources (most notably Jerome's letter),58the ic6paiceS
('trjpeoT vTesg)represent the lowest grade of initiation, while the
X.ovTeg (!?TexXove;g)are the fourth grade. The masculine participle
(andeventhenounituoraL)couldconceivablyincludethe
,j?TexoVmeS
yuvavisS,indicatingthatthe initiatesreceivedifferentnamesaccordmost
mentionsotherparticipants,
ingto gender.Porphyry
subsequently
the
the
thus
adding highestgrade
symbols,
notablyproviding natTpeg
fromone another,
of initiationto thelist.Thegroupsaredistinguished
within
the
context
of
the
but
all
they belong
mysteries.If women
yes,
list forms
areinterpreted
as somehowincludedin therites,Porphyry's
a cohesivewhole. If they are interpreted
as excluded,they stickout
56 Gordon,57-58.
57 Ibid., 58.
58
Supranote 10.
The Exclusion of Women in the Mithraic Mysteries
137
like a sore thumb: Porphyry does not even mention any other type of
non-participants, much less indicate their animal symbols.59
Gordon next treats the myth that Mithras was "born from a rock,"
concluding that since Mithras thus had no mother, but only a sexless
petra genetrix, this myth (whatever it was, for we have no literary accounts, only iconography) further perpetuated the "systematic denial
of the female."60 In the iconography, Mithras emerges or springs from
the egg-like rock fully grown, often carrying implements, and sometimes clad.61 Eggs pictured by themselves do not deny the existence of
hens, and the Mithras scene is quite different from Athena's birth or
Dionysus' gestation. Moreover, the depictions may not represent the
deity's birth at all, but somehow his power over the cosmos.62 Gordon
closes this section of his article by concluding that the cult of Mithras
was "an extreme attempt to found the age-old dream of patriarchal
societies, to do away with women and leave the world pure and unsullied."63This is an unreasonable view, constructed via tenuous methods,
and it seems to be refuted by the evidence.
59 See Porphyry,De abstinentia4.16. Suprapp. 3-4, notes 7-10, especially regarding the lioness iconographyand lack thereoffor hyenas.
60 Gordon, 54-57. He bases much of his
analysis here on the spurious myth of a
local hero of Armenia,Diorphos, for which he cites (p. 55 and note 89) the pseudoPlutarch,De fluviis 23.4 (Karl Miiller,ed., Geographi Graeci Minores, vol. II, 663),
as his only authority.This brief passage states that Diorphos was generatedfrom a
rock onto which Mithrashad ejaculated,and thatthis son of Mithraslaterdueled with
Ares and subsequentlywas transformedinto a mountain.The earliest mention that
Mithrashimself was "bornfrom a rock,"however vague, comes from JustinMartyr,
Dial. 70. The actual myth behind the numerousrepresentationsof the fully-grown
Mithrasemergingfrom an egg-like rock is not known.
61 CIMRM1, nos. 390, 590, 650, 860, 985; CIMRM2, nos. 1088, 1240, 1283,
1292, 1301, 1593, 1727, 2334, etc. See Alan Schofield, "TheSearchfor Iconographic
Variationin RomanMithraism,"Religion 25 (1995), 51-66.
62 Schofield, 51-66. See also Roger Beck, Planetary Gods and Planetary Ordersin
the Mysteries of Mithras (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1988), 35; Howard M. Jackson, "The
Meaning and Function of the Leontocephaline in Roman Mithraism,"Numen 32
(1985), 17-45.
63 Gordon,63.
138
JonathanDavid
Perhaps we should look to other scholars for clues of women's

relationshipto the Mithraicmysteries.F. Lajard,Cumont'spredecessor
and rival in Mithraicstudies, explicitly assumedthe notion of women
participants,and Cumont reacted strongly against this.64 In 1955,
J. Ferguson suggested the possibility of a Lioness grade, to which
As mentionedabove,
Toynbeepromptlyrespondedwith a reprimand.65
Turcanwrote that nothing is proven by the ancient authors,but later
recanted and echoed the more traditionalview.66 Also Vermaseren
(who may be considered Cumont's successor as the leading Mithraic
scholar), in his popularaccount, concluded that women were present
in a certain sect, but that this group was not really importantor
necessarilyindicativeof Mithraismas a whole.67
On the basis of the evidence reviewedabove, a conclusion similarto
that of Vermaserenseems most plausible, but it must be takenfurther.
Women were able to be involved in Mithraismas it was practicedin
at least some portion of the empire; they were not, as far as we can
tell, actively or explicitly excluded from the Mithraic mysteries on
any theological or ideological basis. We have candid textual support
for female involvement (whether as true initiates or as marginal
participantsis unclear)from both Porphyryand Tertullian.Thereexist
Mithraic inscriptions possibly naming female grades of mater and
lea from Oea, Cologne, and Ostia, and iconographicalrepresentations
of both women and lionesses from Rome, Oea, Angleur, Dieburg,
Scarabantia,and Carrawburgh.What is more, dedications bearing
female-authoredinscriptionshave been found at Rome, Ostia, Milan,
and Emona. Finally, no ancient sources state that women were not
allowed into the cult of Mithras.ThereforeMithraic scholars cannot
state with any certainty that the cult was exclusively male. Indeed,
64 Cumont (1903), 173. For example, see Lajard,Introductiona I'etude du culte
public des mysteresde Mithraen Orientet en Occident(Paris, 1847); Recherchessur
le culte public et les mysteresde Mithraen Orientet en Occident(Paris, 1867).
65
Supranote 10.
66 Turcan(1975), 36; Turcan(1996), 240.
67 Supranote 15.
139
women seem likely to have been involved in at least some instances,

in at least some locations of the empire.It was possible for women to
participatein the cult of Mithras,even if this did not occur with any
frequency.68
Still, proponentsof the receivedview might object, as the representationsof women in Mithraismconstituteonly a very small proportion
of the total corpus of evidence. Even if this is only an argumentfrom
silence, in this case the silence certainlyneeds to be given due consideration,for it follows that women were not involved with Mithraism
on any large scale. I argue that women were not excluded from the
rites explicitly, but ratherdid not often have occasion to engage in
them. As has been demonstratedby a numberof scholars,the Mithraic
mysteriesseem to have appealedto certaintypes of individualswithin
the Romanworld,namely soldiersandbureaucraticslaves.69Seeing as
women usually did not belong to these groups,it is not surprisingthat
women in generaldid not choose (or were not chosen) to join the cult,
but ratherpreferredor had greateropportunityto join other popular
mystery religions, such as those of Isis or Cybele.70Perhapsa more
importantfactor may have been that since the Mithraiccult was com68 As for the initiation
grade titles, those for which there are natural female
such
in
as
leo andpater, have been documented.Those for which
Latin,
equivalents
there are no female equivalents,such as miles, nymphus,and corax, have been shown
to be either inclusive to females or sexually ambiguous.
69 For example, see Michael P. Speidel, Mithras-Orion:Greek Hero and Roman
ArmyGod (Leiden:E.J. Brill, 1980), 38-45; Burkert,42-43.
70 See SharonKelly Heyob, The Cult of Isis Among Womenin the Graeco-Roman
World (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975), 81-110; Panayotis Pachis, "The cult of Mithras
in Thessalonica,"in J.R. Hinnells, ed., Studies in Mithraism (Rome: "L'Erma"di
Bretschneider,1994), 237 f.; Burkert,37-53; 105. While I agree thatthese othercults
facilitated participationof women more readily than Mithraism,by no means were
they primarilyfeminine or female-orientedcults, as Heyob and others may imply.
Indeed,many of these types of Hellenisticmysteryreligions in the Romanworld were
certainly not organized or systematizedaccording to gender, but perhaps had more
to do with class boundaries.For example, see A. Degrassi, ed., InscriptionesLatinae
Liberae Rei Publicae (Firenze:La Nuova Italia Editrice, 1963), no. 159 (= CIL 12,
no. 1263).
140
JonathanDavid
womenwere
"brotherhoods,"
posedof supposedlysecret,autonomous
not oftenaskedby the male-oriented
membersto join the groups.By
nomeansdoesthisrequirethattheywereuniversally
excludedon some
specialideologicalbasis,at leastnot one differingfromthe common
opinionsof thetime.
It seems then,thatwe shouldrethinkthis idee refu that"women
werenotadmittedtothemysteriesof thePersiangod,"71
thatthe"small
autonomousgroupsof initiates"were"exclusivelymale."72
Foreven
thoughthe vast majorityof evidenceconcernsmen, the conclusion
does not followthatwomenwerenot allowed.Of course,to assume
thatall Mithraicgroupsacrosstheempireheldthe sameviewswould
be grosslyinaccurate.
Somesectswereno doubtmoreinclinedto have
womeninvolved,perhapsin those areaswithoutalternativemystery
cultgroups.Somecells mayindeedhaveexcludedwomen,anddoubtless manymorewere,by intentionor not, exclusivelymale.Yetthe
combinedtestimonyof theOeaepitaphandiconography,
thePorphyry
referenceto lionesses,andTertullian's
virginespassagestronglysugat
least
a
northern
instance
African
of femaleswithinMithraic
gest
cult activity.PerhapsMithraismdevelopedinto differentbranches,
with differentpracticesovertime, so thatpossiblyadditionalgrades
were added.The evidencemay indicateat least two or morestrains
of Mithraism,a notionwhichmighthelp to explainthe presenceof
so manyseparatemithraeain locationssuch as Ostia,wherefewer
shouldhavesufficed.Likemanymysterycultsof theperiod,thefunctionalstructure
of thecultgroupsprobablybecameincreasinglycomplex in organization,73
perhapsleadingto theadditionor exclusionof
womenat certainpoints.A usefulcomparison
mightbe the mysteries
71 Mussies, 157.
72 Beck, s. v. "Mithras"(OCD, 1996).
73 As John North has demonstratedwith relation to the Roman Bacchus cult.
See his "Religious toleration in RepublicanRome," Proceedings of the Cambridge
Philological Society 25 (1979), 85-103.
141
of Dionysus/Bacchus,which seem to have initially excludedmales (as

per Euripides'sBacchae) but laterincludedboth genders.74
The evidence reviewed above is not conclusive, and the status of
women within the mysteries of Mithras,like so many aspects of this
enigmatic religion, is perhapsindeterminable.Women were involved
with the cult in some areas, but whether they were actually initiated
is uncertain.Regardless,to state that women were excluded from the
rites is to dismiss a substantialamount of evidence, and to repeat a
time-honoredscholarlymisinterpretation.
PennsylvaniaStateUniversity
108 WeaverBuilding
UniversityPark,PA 16802, USA
JONATHANDAVID
74Livy (39.13.8-9) lists among the innovative reforms of the priestess Paculla
Annia the inclusion of males in the heretoforeall-female rites. While this attribution
to Pacullais certainlylegendary,it illustratesthat males were includedby at least 186
BCE, whetheror not this had been occurringbefore Paculla's time. See E.S. Gruen,
"The BacchanalianAffair,"in Studies in Greek Cultureand Roman Policy (Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1990), 34-78, especially 52 ff.
THE IDENTITY OF A MYSTIC: THE CASE OF SA'ID SARMAD,

A JEWISH-YOGI-SUFI COURTIER OF THE MUGHALS
NATHAN KATZ
Summary
Sa'id Sarmad'sdargah (saint'stomb) dominatesthe entrywayto Delhi's imposing
Jama Masjid. But Sarmad was a Jew, both by birth and affirmation.He was also,
accordingto his Rubaiyat,"a follower of the Furqan(i.e., a Sufi), a (Catholic)priest,
a (Buddhist)monk, a Jewish rabbi, an infidel, and a Muslim." Indeed, it is hard to
imagine a mystic with a more complex confessional identity.
This paperexplores both Sarmad'sapparentlycontradictoryreligious self-identification and the complex religious context which Sarmadfound in seventeenth-century
North India. It will trace Sarmad'sspiritualpath as it meanderedbetween Judaism,
Islam and Hinduism, as recordedin his poetry and in the hagiographical(taskira)
traditionswhich surroundhim, andwill contributeto the discussion of the relationship
between the mystic and his or her religion of birthor adoption.
Said to be the second largest mosque in the world, Delhi's Jama

Masjid is the bastion of Islam in North India. There prayers are
offered, fatwas issued, pilgrimages made, vows fulfilled and mystics
venerated. Between 1638 and 1650, Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan built
both the masjid and his royal complex, known today as the Red Fort,
separated by a mile-long, broad avenue which was the Empire's prime
marketplace.
As one enters the masjid through the shahi darwaza (royal entrance), at the honored right portal is a dargah, a Muslim saint's tomb,
dedicated to Sa'id Sarmad (1590?-1660?), one of the mystical luminaries of the Mughal Court. All of the appurtenances associated with
a Muslim saint's cult are to be found there - pilgrimage manuals,
taskaras or hagiographies, collections of his mystical quatrains, as well
as a festival (urs) held annually on his death anniversary (the 18th day
of Rabi).
NUMEN,Vol.47
The Identity of a Mystic: The Case of Sa'id Sarmad
143
Sarmad as Muslim, Jew, Atheist and Mystic

Possession may be nine-tenths of the law, but Sarmad's religious
identity is not quite so easily established. According to his first
biography, written by the Iranian Tahir Nasrabadi sometime between
1672 and 1678, Sarmad was "a Jew who later converted to Islam."1
According to Mu'bid Shah's (or Mohsan Fani's) Dabistan-i-Mazahib,2
Sarmad "... was originally from a family of learned Yahuds [Jews],
of a class they call Rabbanian...; after an investigation into the faith
of the Rabbins and the perusal of the Mosaic books, he became a
Muselman."3 Shah was Sarmad's friend in Hyderabad. Sarmad and
Abhai Chand were his informants about Judaism in his excursus into
comparative religions, the Dabistan. The chapter on "The Yahuds"
contains Sarmad's eccentric presentation of Judaic beliefs and Abhai
Chand's Persian translation of Gen. 1-6:8, bearing the title, "The Book
of Adam." Most scholars, such as B.A. Hashimi,4 unquestioningly cite
this verse as evidence of Sarmad's Muslim identity. Lakhpat Raj goes
further to assert that "It is obvious that his conversion to Islam was out
1 Taskara-i-Tahir
Nasrabadi,a text discussed
by Maulavi 'Abdu'lWali, "A Sketch

of the Life of Sarmad,"Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 20 (1924), p. 121,
n. 3. Nasrabadi'swork is the basis for the taskaras which are sold for a few rupees at
Sarmad'sdargah (see the Urdu taskara, p. 18). The contemporarytaskarapublished
by Pir Syed MuhammadSarmadi is available in Urdu (Hazrat Samnad Shaheed,
no date) and Hindi (HazratSarmadShaheedRooh,
Delhi, Kutub-Khanna-e-Sarmadi,
translatedinto Hindi by Ahmed Jalees, Delhi, Kutub-Khanna-e-Sarmadi,
no date).
The quote in the text is from page 17 of the Hindi taskara.
2 Firstpublishedin 1660, the Dabistan was translatedby David Shea and Anthony
Troyer,The Dabistan or School of Manners,3 vols., Paris,OrientalTranslationFund,
1843.
3 David Shea andAnthonyTroyer,TheDabistan, or School of Manners,Washington, M. WalterDunne Publisher,1901, p. 299.
4 B.A. Hashimi, "Sarmad,His Life and
Quatrains,"Islamic Culture(1933): 663666.
672, p.
144
NathanKatz
of earnestconvictions... ,"but offers no evidence for his knowledgeof

Sarmad'smotives.5
But is that only one version of the religious identity of Sarmad,the
"official"version of the saint'scult?
Accordingto Maulvani'Abdu'lWali,WalterJ. Fischel, and others,6
Sarmadremaineda Jew despite his spiritualperegrinationsaroundIndia. Wali reconstructsSarmad'sbeliefs as contained in the Judaism
chaptersof the Dabistan. His beliefs include a rejectionof the messiahship of Jesus, a Kabbalistictheology based on emanationsof light,
the transmigrationof souls and a complex theoryof divinerewardsand
punishments,andconcludesthat"Hehadneitherany faithin Christianity or in Islam. Once a Jew he remainedever a Jew."7
Fischel, a pioneering scholar of Jews in Asia, approvinglycites
Wali's conclusion, explaining: "A merchant by profession and, it
seems, a very prosperousone, his search for knowledge and wisdom
brought him into contact with the leading Mohammedan scholars
of his time, under whose guidance he studied Islamic philosophy,
metaphysicsand science, andunderwhose influencehe was apparently
induced to become a Muslim. His conversion was probably only
nominal and superficial,since he himself later warned the Jews not
to convertthemselves to Mohammed'sreligion."8
Others, including some of Sarmad'scontemporaries,insisted that
he was neitherMuslim nor Jew, but a conniving atheist, much as they
alleged abouthis student,the Mughalcrown prince Dara Shikoh.One
such skeptic was Dr. Niccolo Manucci of Venice, court physician to
Dara's rival, Aurangzeb.Manucci wrote that "Darahad no religion.
When with Mohamedanshe praisedthe tenets of Muhammad;when
5
Poddar
LakhpatRai, Sarmad,His Life and Rubais, Gorakhpur,Hanumanprasad
SmarakSamita, 1978, p. 20.
6 For
example, M.J. Seth, Armeniansin India, Calcutta, Sri Ganga Press, 1937,
who
held thatSarmadwas an ArmenianJew whose family hadsettledin Persia.
p. 171,
7 Wali, "A Sketch of the Life of Sarmad,"pp. 120-121.
8 WalterJ. Fischel, "Jews and Judaismat the Court of the Moghul Emperorsin
Medieval India,"Islamic Culture25 (1951), p. 120.
TheIdentityof a Mystic: The Case of Sa'id Sarmad
145
with Jews, the Jewishreligion;in the same way, when with Hindus,he
praisedHinduism.This is why Aurangzebstyled him Kafir [infidel].
At the same time, he had great delight in talking to the Jesuit fathers
on religion, and making them dispute with his learnedMohamedans,
or with a Hebrew called Cermad [Sarmad],an atheist much like the
prince."9
Two recent Indian books about Sarmadoffer a fourth possibility,
that he was a Mystic or Sufi and that Mystics and Sufis are often
misunderstoodas belonging to one or anotherreligion, or as an atheist.
One contemporaryauthorwho holds this view is Isaac A. Ezekiel, an
Indian Jew and a RadhasoamiSatsangi (a satsangi is a member of
the RadhaSoami Satsang).In his forewordto Ezekiel's book, fellow
SatsangiJoseph Leeming comments:"Sarmadwas a unique member
of the spiritualgalaxy composedof the scores of greatsaintsof Indiaof
the past and of the presentday. This is because he was born of Jewish
parents and was brought up as an adherentof the Jewish religion.
During his visits to India, however, he found that a greater spiritual
truthwas known to the illumined souls of that country,and from one
or more of them he discoveredand absorbedthe real and basic truths
of the purposeof humanlife, of genuine spirituality,and of the Pathto
God-realization."l?If Sarmadwas no Jew, accordingto Leeming, he
was no Muslim either."Sarmadis known to most present-dayIndians
as a Muslim Saint, or Master of the highest order.This seems to be
partlydue to the fact thatin giving out his spiritualteachingshe quoted
9 Niccolo Manucci, Storia Do Mogor, trans. by William Irvine (1907, p. 223),
quoted by Wali, "A Sketch of the Life of Sarmad,"p. 120. According to Sheikh
MohamedIkram,many Europeans,especially Jesuits, were partisantowardthe strict
Sunni rulers in India, and had little patience with the more tolerantSufis or Shi'as.
'The Jesuits were critical of this [i.e., Akbar's] policy of tolerance, declaring the
destructionof Hindu temples by Muslims 'a praiseworthyaction,' but noting their
'carelessness' in allowing public performance of Hindu sacrifices and religious
practices."Sheikh Mohamed Ikram, Muslim Civilization in India, ed. Ainslie T.
Embree,New York,ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1964, p. 235.
10Joseph Leeming, "Foreword"to I.A. Ezekiel, Sarmad (Jewish Saint of India),
Beas, Punjab,RadhaSoami Satsang, 1966, p. vii.
146
NathanKatz
the sayings of many Muslim Saints. It is possible that he nominally

accepted Islam; but he did not teach its orthodoxbeliefs. Instead, he
taught the practice given out by all Perfect Masters, of listening to
the Divine Melody of the Wordand Power of God, the Holy Spirit."'l
Ezekiel succinctly made the same point: "In mysticism, the religious
affiliationsof saints are of no importance... "12
While our Satsangi writers seem to want to make all mystics their
own, M.G. Gupta is content to declare Sarmada Mystic or Sufi and
leave it at that. When he does so he employs the term "Sufi" in
much the way thatcontemporarywesternSufis do, as utterlyseparable
from Islam in particularand from religion in general. Gupta wrote,
"Sarmadwas a mystic saint of the highest order and had rejected
the traditionalfaiths - Judaism, Islam, Christianity,Hinduism and
Buddhism and had no use for idol-worship, rituals, canonical laws,
scriptures,mosques and temples."13
Such diverse attributionsof faith- Muslim, Jewish, Atheist, Mystical - reflect more thanjealous claims upon the mystic. An understandingof Sarmad'slife (as found in his Muslim hagiographyand in
his poems) and of the religious environmentof his day - both the fecund bhakti-crucibleof medievalNorthIndiaandthe religious policies
of Mughal emperors- shed light on the thornyquestion of the relation of the mystic to a religious tradition,and in a largersense on the
relationshipbetween mysticism and religion, or between the esoteric
and the exoteric.
The Problemof a Mystic'sIdentity
Just who a mystic is depends on what one understandsmysticism
to be. Thus, the complex issues surroundingSarmad'sreligious identity rest upon a prior understandingof mysticism itself. The essential
question is whether there is one mysticism or many, whetherthere is
11Leeming, "Foreword"to Ezekiel, Sarmad(Jewish Saint of India), p. vii.
12Ezekiel, Sarmad
(JewishSaint of India), p. v.
13M.G.
Gupta, Sarmad the Saint (Life and Works),Agra, M.G. Publishers, 1991,
p. v.
The Identityof a Mystic: The Case of Sa'id Sarmad
147
one mysticalexperiencewhich is subsequentlyinterpretedthroughthe

categoriesof thoughtand language of specific religious traditions,or
whetherthese caregoriespreceed and thereforecondition all experience, mystical and otherwise.
During an earlier period in the history of Religionswissenschaft,
these positionswere cogently articulatedby Aldous Huxley'4 andR.C.
Zaehner.15Huxley held thatthatthereis one metaphysical/experiential
essence which is subsequentlyinterpretedaccording to the doctrines
of the world's various religions. His point was put most forcefully
by AgehanandaBharati, who wrote that all religions are reducable
to a "numericaloneness" and that while the nondualist strands of
Hinduismbest reflectthis metaphysicalfact, it is nonethelessthe basis
for all mysticism,monistic,theistic,or otherwise.16Zaehnercontended
against Huxley's perennial philosophy, holding mysticism to be of
at least two types: the higher theism and the lower monism. More
recently,this debate was reenactedin the academic reparteebetween
Steven T. Katz'7 and Huston Smith.'8 Katz argues that there are as
manymysticisms as thereare religious traditions(or perhapshe would
hold there are as many mysticisms as there are mystics) because
each traditionconditions the experiences of its adherents.Since there
is no unmediated experience, he argues, there could be no one,
extra-linguistic("ineffable")experience which becomes intelligible
subsequentlythrough the language of the mystic's tradition. Smith
14Aldous
Huxley, The PerennialPhilosophy, Cleveland and New York,Meridian
Books/ WorldPublishingCo., 1968 [1944].
15R.C. Zaehner, Hindu and Muslim
Mysticism, London, University of London/
AthlonePress, 1960.
16AgehanandaBharati,The Light at the Center: Context and Pretext of Modem
Mysticism,SantaBarbara,CA, Ross-Erikson,1972.
17Steven T. Katz, "Language,Epistemology and Mysticism,"pp. 22-74 in Katz,
ed., Mysticismand PhilosophicalAnalysis, New York,OxfordUniversityPress, 1978;
andhis rejoinderto HustonSmith'scritique,"OnMysticism,"Journalof theAmerican
Academyof Religion 56, no. 4 (1988): 751-757.
18Huston Smith, "Is There a Perennial Philosophy?" Journal of the American
Academyof Religion 55, no. 3 (1987): 553-566.
148
Nathan Katz
countersthat the mystics of all traditions,at least the "introspective"

sort of mystics, concuraboutthe ineffable core of theirexperience,an
agreementwhich he takes at face value as evidence for an ineffable
realityunderlyingsuch experiences.
And somewherein the midst of this debate we encounterSarmad,
who wanderedfrom synagogue to masjid to ashram,claimed by each
groupas one of theirown, and claimed by modem followers of certain
mystical traditionsto have transcendedall such categorization.
His Life
Sarmadis best knownin Indiafor going aboutnakedandbecausehe
was beheadedby Aurangzeb.Of course, thereis much more to his life
thanthis, and one may simply recapitulatethe highlightsof his taskara
to begin to appreciatehis many accomplishments.
(1) Sarmad was born in Armenia around 1590. A Jew, he read
both the Taurat(Torah)and the Injil (Gospel) before studying Islam,
to which he converted. He was an outstandingPersian poet and a
successful merchant.19
(2) In 1031 A.H. he arrived at Thatta (near modem Karachi),
an importantport during Mughal times. He was so impressed with
religious discussions in Indiathat he decided to stay.20
(3) At a poetry conference, he heard a young Hindu boy, Abhai
Chand, reciting ghazals. Sarmad immediately fell in love with the
youth. The two began cohabiting,but Abhai Chand'sfamily objected
and separatedthe lovers. Sarmadbecame despondentand eventually
was reunitedwith Abhai Chand, with the boy's family's blessings.21
19Urdutaskara,p. 20.
20 Urdutaskara, 21.
p.
21
Virtuallyevery biographerhas insisted that the love between Sarmadand Abhai
Chand was "pure."The earliest written account of their relationshipis found in the
1660 work, the Dabistan: "Whenhe arrivedat the town of Tatta,he fell in love with a
Hinduboy, called Abhi Chand,and abandoningall otherthings, like a Sanyasi [Hindu
renunciate],naked as he came from his mother,he sat down before the door of his
beloved. The fatherof the object of his love, after having found by investigationthe
purityof the attachmentmanifestedfor his son, admittedSarmadinto his house, and
149
Abhai Chandbecame Sarmad'sstudent,studying Jewish religion and

the HebrewandPersianlanguageswell enough to translatesections of
the HebrewBible into Persian,which were included in Mu'bid Shah's
Dabistan.22
(4) At some point and for reasons not entirely clear, Sarmad
renouncedall clothing.23He let his hair and nails grow, accordingto
a descriptionby Mu'tamadKhan:"I found him naked, covered with
thick crispedhairall over the body and long nails on his fingers."24
(5) Sarmad and Abhai Chand moved to Lahore, where they remaineduntil 1044 A.H., when they moved to Hyderabad.In the Deccan, Sarmadflourished.He attractedmany followers in high positions,
he and Abhai Chandcollaboratedwith Mu'bid Shah on the Dabistan,
and Sarmad'sfame as a poet and a mystic grew.25
(6) He then moved from Hyderabadto Delhi, stopping briefly at
Agra. His fame precededhim, and in proximity of the Mughal court,
Sarmadwas befriendedby Sufi shaikh Khwaja Syed Abdul Qasim
Shabzwari.
(7) MughalcrownprinceDaraShikoh,long interestedin mysticism,
askedhis father,EmperorShahJehan,to investigateSarmad'sspiritual
eminence. The Emperorappointed qazi Inayat Ullah Khan to lead
the inquiry,but Sarmadsomehow was inaccessible to the judge, and
accosted the Emperorat his court. The Emperor praised Sarmad's
sanctity,but questionedhim about his nudity. Sarmadis said to have
repliedwith a quatrain:"Whydo you object to my nudity at the same
time as you acknowledgemy miracles?The truthis not whatis visible,
but the truthis whatis concealedin my heart,and thatis love."Sarmad
the young man too met him with an equal affection..." (Shea and Troyer,trans., The
Dabistan, 1901, p. 299.) However,nowherein Sarmad'spoetryis thereany indication
thathis love for Abhai Chandwas otherthancarnal.
22 Urdutaskara,
pp. 21-23.
23 Urdutaskara, 23.
p.
24 Introductionto
Rubaiyat-i-Sarmad,Lahore, MarghoobAgency, 1920, pp. iv-v,
quotedby Rai, Sarmad,His Life and Rubais, p. 25.
25 Urdutaskara,
pp. 23-25.
150
Nathan Katz
remainednakedand so impressedthe crownprincethathe became his

disciple.26
(8) With the encouragement of his guru, Dara transformedthe

Mughalcourtinto an arenafor interreligiousdebate,much as had done
his grandfather,EmperorAkbar(1542-1605).27The taskaradescribes
the unlikelyscene: "Thereused to be Muslimscholarsas well as Hindu
yogis presentin his [Dara's]court and he used to rankthem all alike.
In fact, he adoptedreligious practicesthat were a mixtureof Muslim
and Hindu beliefs... These practices were such that Aurangzeb, a
staunchMuslim, hated him. As Aurangzebwas against Dara Shikoh,
automaticallyHazratSarmadcame undersuspicion."28
(9) As ShahJehanbecameinfirm,his empirebecame dividedamong
his four sons: Shujaand MuradBaksh ruledin Bengal, Aurangzebthe
Deccan, while Dararemainedin Delhi with his ailing father,preparing
to occupy the Peacock Throne. As battles raged, Dara and his allies,
in alliances forged by Sarmad with the Shivaliks in Maharashtra,29
the Sikhs in Punjab and an arrayof Shi'a and Sufi Muslims, waged
war against Aurangzeb and his Sunni allies. Aurangzeb prevailed,
imprisonedand finally executedhis elder brotherin 1659.30
(10) Dara'sdefeat led to a purgeof his supporters,and Aurangzeb's
chief justice, Mullah Abdul Qazi was appointed to investigate Sar26 Urdutaskara,
pp. 25-27.
27 See "Akbarthe Great,"
EncyclopediaJudaica, Jerusalem,Koren, 1971, s.v.
28 Urdu taskara, 27. It is
p.
importantto note that the taskara opposed Aurangzeb
to his brotherDara, and not to Sarmad.It is one of the ideological underpinningsof
the taskarathatboth Aurangzeband Sarmadwere "right,"as expressedin the Preface
(pp. 7-8): "HazratSarmadwas a victim of injustice,but on the otherhandAurangzeb
was not a culprit... Aurangzebwas not an enemy of HazratSarmad,but as Emperor
he had a moralobligation to defend the religion, Islam."
29 Very recent excavations in Thane, near Mumbai,have unearthedan old Jewish
cemetery,some of the gravesareof Jews (Bene Israel)who held high ranksin Shivaji's
army.See Pinhas David Bhalkar'sreportin Kol India (June 1998): 25.
30 Urdutaskara,pp. 29-34.
151
mad.31Chargesagainst Sarmadwere filed, althoughit is not clearjust

what the chargeswere and for which ones he was convicted.
Some of the charges had to do with morality.His nakedness was
a scandal of sorts. He was said to use bhang (marijuana),which had
been outlawedby Aurangzebjust afterhis coronation,32and Sarmad's
homosexualaffairwith AbhaiChandalso botheredsome33- although
these three behaviorswould have been unexceptionalat the time. He
was even accusedof drinkingDr. Manucci'swine.34
Two of the charges in particularhad to do with religious heresy.
He is said to have denied the ascension of the Prophet (al-Miraj).
And there is the famous incident when he was called into court by
Mullah Abdul Qazi who demandedthat he demonstratehis Muslim
bona fides by reciting the Kalima, the Muslim affirmationof faith:
"Thereis no God but God."Sarmadis said to have recited "Thereis
no God" and then fell silent. In response to the qazi's demandthat he
complete the credo'srecitation,Sarmadreportedlysaid thathe was still
immersedin the negativeandhad yet to achieve the positive, reflecting
the Sufi teachingoffana and baaqa, the annihilationof the individual
and subsistencein the Eternal.35Then again, therewas the heresy that
Sarmadproclaimedfaith in Hindu gods (see his quatrain320 below),
andas LakhpatRai reasoned,"Aurangzeb,a religiousbigot, could have
tolerateda naked Jew or even a naked Muslim who was supposed to
be acting in contraventionof Islamic law, but he could never tolerate
a Muslim having faith in a HinduGod."36 For one or anotherof these
heresies, Sarmadmay have been sentencedto death.
Otherchargeswere purelypolitical. One, of course, was his chamHe
pioning the cause of the defeatedDara againsthis usurper-brother.
mullahs
Mullah
Abdul
was not popularamongthe
of the day,with
Qazi
31 Urdu taskara,
pp. 33-36.
32 Ikram,MuslimCivilizationin India, p. 189.
33 Gupta,Sarmadthe Saint (Life and Works),p. 45.
35 Urdu taskara,p. 42.
36 Rai, Sarmad,His
Life and Rubais,p. 53.
152
Nathan Katz
in particular.Rai argues that it was the mullahs, not Aurangzeb,who

were Sarmad'santagonists.Jealousof his popularity,they connivedto
turnAurangzebagainstSarmad.37
Sarmad also had failed to pay proper respects to Aurangzeb on
severaloccasions.38Thereis the famousencounterbetween Aurangzeb
and Sarmadon the roadwaybetween the palace and the JamaMasjid.
Aurangzebreportedlyasked the seated Sarmadto cover himself with
a blanket,and Sarmadtold the Emperorthathe should put the blanket
over his lap. As Aurangzeblifted the blanket,he saw "freshlychopped
heads, including the heads of his three innocent nephews and their
companions."Terrifiedby this vision, Aurangzebdroppedthe blanket,
and Sarmadasked, 'Tell me, shall I hide your crimes or my body?"39
The incidentis the subjectof one of Sarmad'squatrains:
He who gave thee an earthlythrone,
Gave povertyto me;
The costume covers ugliness;
The faultless are grantedthe gift of nakedness.40
(11) Sarmadwas beheaded for blasphemy in 1070 A.H. Legends

recount how his head rolled from the palace to the masjid, reciting
mystical quatrainsall the route.His populartaskaraappendsa legend
which aims to affirm Sarmad's saintliness while at the same time
exoneratingAurangzeb:"Whenhis head was chopped, he became so
angry that he jumped, picked up his head and climbed the stairs of
the masjid. Suddenly the loud voice of his shaikh, Syed Hare Bhare
Shah, was heard. 'Sarmad,where are you going?' 'I am taking my
case to the court of the ProphetMuhammad,'he replied. The voice
again spoke: 'Calm down. You have reachedyour destination.For the
whole of your life, you never complained.Why this anger now? This
was your fate; otherwise, Aurangzebwas fully aware of your power
37 Rai, Sarmad,His Life and Rubais,pp. 49-50.
39 Urdutaskara,pp. 39-40.
40 Rubiy'at 105, in Ezekiel, Sarmad(JewishSaint of India), p. 321.
153
and greatness.'After that Sarmadbecame silent and collapsed."41The

taskaraconcludes:"Itwas the decision of God to raise Sarmad'sstatus.
It was decided to crown him with the jewel of martyrdom,and he
proved deserving at every step. As a matterof fact, he knew about
his fate from the very beginning."42
His MysticalPoetry
We find intimations about Sarmad's confessional identity in his
mysticalpoetry,many conflicting. Sarmad'schief work, the Rubaiyati-Sarmad,contains between 320 (accordingto Ezekiel) and 340 (according to Gupta) quatrains,at least twenty of which illustrate Sarmad's relationship to religions - Islam mostly, but also Judaism,
Christianity,Hinduismand Atheism. We also have one quatraincomposed by Abhai Chand,includedin the Dabistan, which is pertinentto
our question.
In his Rubaiyat,we hear a humorous,antinomianvoice, one which
abjuresreligions for the sake of God. Surveying his 320 quatrains
(to follow Ezekiel's text and numbering),we discover the following
motifs:
(1) Fourquatrainsexpress disdainfor organizedreligion in general;
(2) Eight quatrainsconvey contemptfor Islam in general and even
Sufism in particular.Another five praise wine-drinking, which of
course is proscribed in Islam but which is a central metaphor for
mystical ecstasy in Sufi literature.He also commits two Islamic blasphemies: in three quatrainshe proclaims himself an idol-worshipper,
and in one equateshimself with the ProphetMuhammad;
(3) Seven quatrainspoke fun at Hinduism,especially the sadhus,althoughin one he proclaimshimself a devotee of Ramaand Lakshman,
andas mentioned,in threehe proclaimshimself an idolater,which may
be an affirmationof a Hinduidentity;
(4) In one quatrainhe expresses disdainfor Judaism.
41 Urdutaskara, 44.
p.
42 Urdutaskara, 47.
p.
Nathan Katz
154
Of the first type of quatrain, those which express disdain for religion
in general, number 5 (in Ezekiel's numbering) is typical:
All searchfor happinessin worldly wealth or in temples, mosques and churches.
0 my Lord, save me from these, I pray these most earnestly.43
And in quatrain 313, we read his enigmatic words:

O Sarmad!Thou hast workedhavoc in attackingorganized
religion. Thou has sacrificed
Thy religion for a Man whose eyes are red with intoxication.
All thy wealth hast thou thrownat the feet of the Master,
who is an idol-worshipper.44
Islam, however, is his favorite target for derision. He lampoons

the Sufi's woolen cloak (Suf), the Ka'aba, and piety in general. For
example, quatrain 17 reads:
I care not for the rosaryor the sacredthread.
Am I pious? I care not.
Nor do I wear the long woolen robe, it is so heavy.
My concernis with my Friend(Master)alone.
What do I care for the world's opinion.45
In quatrain 54, both the Ka'aba and the temple are objects of scorn:
The Lover and the Loved, the idol and the idol-worshipper,
Who is the cheat among them?
Darknessprevailsin the Ka'abaand the temple.
Come into the HappyValley of Oneness,
Whereonly one color prevails.
Thinkdeeply. Who is the Lover and the Beloved, the flower and the thorn?46
And in quatrain 238:

Repeatnot stories aboutthe Ka'abaand the temples, O Sarmad,
For they are not the Way.47
43 Ezekiel, Sarmad(JewishSaint of India), p. 295.
44 Ezekiel, Sarmad (JewishSaint of India), p. 378.
45 Ezekiel, Sarmad(JewishSaint
of India), p. 298.
The Identity of a Mystic: The Case of Sa'id Sarmad
155
In quatrain 218 Sarmad affirms Islamic practice but denies Muslim

identity:
True,I am an idol-worshipper;
I am not of the faithful flock.
I go to the mosque,
But I am not a Muslim.48
Muslim piety and learning, as well as the emblematic cloak of the

Sufi, are objects of scorn in quatrain 275:
0 men of piety! What sweet deliciousness
Hast thou tasted in this hypocrisy?It is so insipid.
Thou hast many flowing woolen mantlesto show off thy piety,
But don't forget that from the threadof thy rosary,
Thou hast made a strongrope with which to bind thyself.
As for myself, O Master,I can only pray for thy protection.49
Islam, of course, prohibits the consumption of wine (which is

required in both Judaism and Christianity), and a number of Sufis
have elevated drunkenness into a metaphor for mystical union. In
accord with this antinomian trend, Sarmad wrote at least five quatrains
which not only praise wine but demean prohibitions against wine, as
quatrain 197:
0 men of piety, thou sayeth that wine is forbiddenby religion;
I tell thee that it is most sacred,and not unlawful.50
And quatrain 124:

Who cannot tell the differencebetween true piety and hypocrisy?
Not by hypocrisy,teachingand deceit is God realized.
You (religious men) say, "Don'tdrinkwine, but become pious like me."
"Goand tell this to those who don't know you," I reply.51

49 Ezekiel, Sarmad (Jewish Saint of India), p. 367.

51 Ezekiel, Sarmad(JewishSaint of India), pp. 325-326.
156
NathanKatz
In quatrain46, Sarmadcommits the blasphemyof comparinghimself to the Prophet. This blasphemy was one of the charges brought
againsthim.
Sarmadhas attainedLove Eternal;and selflessness from the wine,
Even the executioner'ssword cannot make him sober.
He hathattainedthe statusof Muhammadand remaineththere.52
Sarmad was nearly as critical of Hinduism as he was of Islam,

and the sadhus fared no better in his eyes than the Sufis. In several
quatrains, he dismisses "Ka'aba and temple," and in others it is
"the rosary and the sacred thread,"meaning in both cases Islam
and Hinduism. His criticisms are launched against both exoteric and
esoteric varietiesof Islam and Hinduism.For example, it is the sacred
threadof the brahmin,albeit covered by the robe of the sadhu,which
is Sarmad'sobject of scornin quatrain26:
O sadhu,this robe of thine covers the sacredthread;
'Tis a deception involvingstruggleunending.
Carrynot this burdenof shamefulnesson thy shoulders,
Then wilt thou avoid a thousandsufferings.53
It is the sadhuwho is deridedin quatrain217:

O mendicantwith patchedand raggedmantle,
Why preachto me so much?
Thou knowest nothingof real Love.
My mind is engaged in more importantwork thanlearningpiety;
My heartis torn to pieces by Love of the Beloved.
What does it care for the covering of a patchedmantle?54
So far as shedding light on Sarmad's religious identity, one of

the most puzzling quatrainsis number320. In it, Sarmadapparently
declares his abandonmentof Judaismand Islam, and a conversionto
Hinduism.Despite this quatrain,however,of all the options available
52 Ezekiel, Sarad (JewishSaint of India), p. 306.
53 Ezekiel, Sarmad (JewishSaint of India), p. 301.
54 Ezekiel, Sarmad(JewishSaint of India), pp. 350-351.
157
no scholarnor traditionalbiographerhas ascribeda Hindu identityto

him. The quatrainreads:
O Sarmad!Thou hast earnedmuch worldly renown,
Come to Islam and got away from Judaism.
What shortcomingdidst thou find in the Prophetand in God,
Thatthou turnedaway from God and the Prophet
And become a disciple of Ram and Lakshman.55
Another wrinkle in this tapestryof confessional identificationand

non-identificationis found in the only extant quatrainby Sarmad's
lover and disciple, Abhai Chand,found in the Dabistan:
I submitto Moses' law; I am of thy religion, and a guardianof thy way;
I am a Rabbiof the Yahuds,a Kafir,a Muselman.56
If we are to take all of Sarmad'squatrainsat face value, and if we

are to assume that Abhai Chandspeaks for him, then we are left with
a set of paradoxicalassertions:
(1) that he simultaneously was a rabbi and that he abandoned
Judaism;
(2) thathe was not a Muslim and thathe was;
(3) thathe was an idol-worshipperand a devotee of Hindugods but
opposedboth the brahminsand the sadhus;and
(4) that he opposed Mullah and Sufi alike, but that he frequented
mosques and wrote mystical poetry which was very much in the Sufi
tradition.
To try and make sense of these contradictoryassertions, we must
view them against the backgroundof the popular religious life of
medieval North India and the religious life and policies of the Court
of the Mughals.
55 Ezekiel, Sarmad
(JewishSaintof India), pp. 379-380.
56 Shea and
Troyer,trans.,TheDabistan, 1901, p. 299.
158
Nathan Katz
Religious Life during the MughalEra

Religious life in North India during the medieval period (roughly
1000-1756) was dominatedby cycles of conflict and accommodation
between Islam and Hinduism.
Even before the arrivalof the Mughals, on the popular level this
greatculturalaccommodationexpresseditself in a varietyof syncretistic movements: Sufism; Ramananda's(ca. 1400 - ca. 1470) noncaste-based devotion to Rama as supreme god; monotheistic,bhaktioriented Vaisnavamovements such as Vallabhacarya's(1479-?); the
KabirPanthfoundedby BenarsiMuslim weaver and poet-saintKabir
(1398? 1440?-1518); and Sikhism founded by Guru Nanak (14691538).57As the period has been summarized,"Widespreadreligious
movements, having... their roots partly in the vivifying contacts of
Hinduismwith Islam, had produceda religious enthusiasmamong the
masses that was transformingthe older Brahmanicalreligion."58Indeed, in the religious crucible that was medieval North India, caste
lines were often blatantlydisregardedand confessionalbarriershardly
existed. In such an eclectic religious environment,Sarmad'sspiritual
peregrinationsare not so remarkableas they might have been during
otherhistoricalperiods.
On the level of courtly culture and the government'spolicies towardsreligious pluralism,therewere oscillationsfrom emperorto emperor.Akbar'scourt highlightedinterreligiousdiscussions and mystical conclaves, traditionsechoed by DaraShikoh.In his capitalat Fatehpur Sikri, nearAgra, Akbarbuilt himself a throneon a platformin the
middle of a pool of water;the four walkways to the thronewould be
occupied by Sunni, Shi'a, Jesuit, Hindu, Zoroastrian,or Jaina sages
who would debate issues and doctrines. This resulted in a policy he
called suhl-i-kulh,or equal respecttowardall religions, a policy simultaneouslypraisedby minorityreligiousleadersandscornedas a heresy
57 F.E. Keay, Kabir and His Followers, Delhi, Sri SatguruPublications,Sri Garib
Das OrientalSeries No. 171, 1996 [1931], pp. 27-28.
58 Ikram,MuslimCivilizationin
India, p. 232.
159
by Sunnileaders.59Akbar'sopennessto otherreligions led to his being

claimedto have been a Christian,a Jain, and a Parsee (Zoroastrian),as
well as a Sufi60- much like Sarmad.
Mughalpolity rangedfrom official hostility towardsHinduism(and
Sufismand Shi'a Islam)to tolerancefor religious diversityreminiscent
of the third century BCE Buddhist emperor, Ashoka Maurya, and
backto ster repression,Hindutemple-razingand inequitabletaxation,
policies which were latermodifiedyet again.
Even before the demise of the Delhi Sultanatein the fourteenthcentury, the social fact of religious syncretism was reflected in governmentpolicies which allowedHindusto governthemselvesaccordingto
Hindulaw, so long as they paid theirjizya (non-believer'stax) to Muslim rulers. This tolerationwas anathemato the ster-minded Babur
(1483-1530), the founderof the Mughal dynasty whose policy was to
suppressHinduismby destroyingHindu temples, often constructinga
masjidon the site. Withinfifty years, his grandsonAkbar(1556-1605)
reversedthejizya in 1565. Akbar'ssuhl-i-kuhlpolicy was to be in force
until Aurangzebseized power and reinstatedthe hatedjizya in 1679.
Perhapsto Aurangzeb'smind, the flamboyantsyncretismof Sarmad
was too much to bear. Perhapshe was motivatedby the need to increase the government'srevenues.61WhetherAurangzeb'sunpopular
policies led to the downfall of the Mughal Empireis debatable,62but
what is clear is thatthe remarkablecourtly cultureof amicabledebate
59 Akbar'sliberal religious policies were "resentedas being in substancean attack
on the Muhammadanreligion," according to Vincent A. Smith, Akbar, the Great
Mogul, New Delhi, S. Chand& Co., 1966, p. 132.
60 Smith,Akbar,the Great
Mogul, pp. 115-119.
61 Ikram,Muslim Civilization in India, p. 198. Under tremendouspopular pressure, the jizya was revoked by Aurangzeb's successor in 1720. S.M. Edwards and
H.L.O. Garrett,MughalRule in India, Delhi, S. Chand., 1930, p. 216.
62 kram, Muslim Civilization in India, p. 199. As Edwards and Garrettwrote,
"... Aurangzebreimposedthe jizya... and followed a policy of destroying as many
Hindutemples as possible... goods belonging to Hindumerchantswere subjectedto a
custom'sduty twice as heavy as thatdemandedfrom Muhammadantraders."Mughal
Rule in India, Delhi, pp. 153-154.
160
Nathan Katz
among religions and an imperial policy of tolerancetowardreligious

minorities, institutedby Akbar and recalled by Dara Shikoh, ended
with Aurangzeb'sreign, and with them the possibility of a Sarmadin
the MughalCourt.
Conclusions
Of course, we cannot know what Sarmad himself felt about his
religious identity, whether in his own mind he remained a Jew, or
became something else, whether Sufi and/orMuslim, Hindu, Atheist
or "Idolater."
But we can view him against the culturalbackgroundin India, his
adoptedhome. And this places him in a most remarkablemilieu. On
one hand, on the popularlevel, there was the interreligious,mystical
crucible of Kabir, Ramanandaand Nanak, influential figures with
religiousidentitiesnearlyas complex as Sarmad's.On the public level,
we can view the oscillations of Mughal policy about religions, from
the triumphialismof Babur,to the sycretistic, mystical din-i-illahi of
Akbar,to the combativesteress of Aurangzeb.While his passion and
poetry speak for themselves, Sarmadis less singularor idiosyncratic
when viewed in the context of the cultureof Kabirand Akbar.
We may also observe the processes by which his religious identity
was commandeeredex postfacto by the official Islam of Delhi's Jama
Masjid, and how it was imposed upon by a modem Hindu sect, the
Radha Soami Satsang, and by scholars such as Fischel, Wali, and
Gupta.
Florida International University
Departmentof Religious Studies

Miami, FL 33199, USA
NATHANKATZ
ASCETICS AND AESTHETICS IN THE ANALECTS

JEFFREYL. RICHEY
Summary
The ancient ConfucianAnalects (Lunyu) often has been interpretedas nothing
more than the "pure"ethical teachings of a humanistic Chinese sage, "Confucius"
(Kongzior Kong Qiu). A carefuland historically-sensitiveinterpretationof the Lunyu
revealsthatthe text is capableof resistingthis reading,providingclues to an altogether
differentConfucius- not the storiedpedantwho dispensescommon-sensewisdom to
office-seekingdisciples, buta spiritualteacherwho guides his pupils towardsagehood
througha combinationof ascetic and aesthetic disciplines. Key referencesin the text
to materialprivation,music and dance, and the exemplary disciple Yan Hui reveal
how one fifth-centuryBCE Confucian (Ru) sect sought to preserve and constructa
memory of the "historicalConfucius" as a Master who instructedhis disciples in
ascetic disciplines, linking them to aesthetic techniques of ecstasy, and celebrated
one disciple in particular,Yan Hui, as the living embodiment of his esoteric Way.
Instead of proposing either a traditional,harmonizinghermeneuticof the text, or a
demythologizationwhich might reveal the "real"or "historical"Confucius and his
followers, this essay arguesfor the tolerationof multiple,even mutually-contradicting
voices in this classic of ancientChinese spirituality.A primarygoal for futureresearch
on the text should be the examination of conflicts of interpretationamong early
Confuciansects competingto safeguardthe Master'slegacy.
Introduction: readings and resistances

In the study of early Chinese thought and practice, to remark on the
prosaic and pragmatic character of the Lunyu, or Confucian Analects,
is commonplace. Herbert Fingarette introduces his groundbreaking
study of the text with the confession: "When I began to read Confucius, I found him to be a prosaic and parochial moralizer; his collected sayings, the Analects, seemed to me an archaic irrelevance."1
Perhaps it is due to this perceived blandness of the text that Western
1
Confucius- TheSecular as Sacred (New York:HarperTorchbooks,1972), vii.
NUMEN, Vol. 47
162
JeffreyL. Richey
commentatorssince PierreBayle (1646-1706) and GottfriedWilhelm

von Leibniz (1646-1716) have identifiedit as a repositoryof pureethical teaching,wholly free of religious sensibilities or motivationsor at
the very most, a landmarkin the literatureof "naturaltheology."2In
this century,Chinese and otherEast Asian exegetes of the text have often followed suit, leadingto the widespreaddismissal of the possibility
thatthe Lunyumight, in some way, function as a religious text.
Yet a careful and historically-sensitiveinterpretationof the Lunyu
revealsthatthe text is capableof resistingthis reading,providingclues
to an altogether different Confucius - not the storied pedant who
dispenses common-sensewisdom to careeristdisciples, but a spiritual
teacherwho guides his pupils towardsagehood througha combination
of ascetic and aesthetic disciplines. Moreover, the Confucius who
emerges from the sort of readingproposedhere is not the magisterial
"perfectlyholy teacherof antiquity,MasterKong" (zhi sheng xianshi
Kongzi)memorializedin Confuciantemples from the medievalperiod
onward,butan unapotheosizedMasterwhose rememberedwordspoint
not only to his failure to win government office, but also to his
failure to equal the spiritualachievementof one of his own students.3
To incarnatesuch a reading, so vastly different from most previous
interpretationsof the text and its "hero,"one must turn to three key
sets of referencesin the text: allusions to materialprivation,to music
and dance, and to the disciple YanHui.
Asceticismand privation
Allusions to materialprivationin the Lunyuare mostly concentrated
in what is now chapter7 of the receivedtext, or ZhangHou Lun (Marquis ZhangAnalects, collated by the WesternHan compilerZhangYu
from several differentregional sources, sometime before his deathin
2 See J.J. Clarke, Oriental Enlightenment:The Encounter Between Asian and
WesternThought(London:Routledge, 1997), pp. 44-48.
3 See JohnK. Shryock, TheOriginand Developmentof the State Cultof Confucius
(New York:ParagonBook ReprintCorporation,1966), p. 237 andpassim.
Ascetics and Aestheticsin the Analects
163
5 BCE).4Althoughan earlierversion of the text - discoveredin what

is known as Tomb 40 at the Dingxian (or Dingzhou) archaeological
site, not far from Beijing, in 1973, and dated to sometime before the
tomb'sinitial sealing in 55 BCE- is now available,it seems to be both
too fragmentaryand too similarto the received text to upset previous
interpretationsof the Lunyu'stextualhistory.
Chapter7 mentionsmaterialprivationin a stringof nearly-sequential
passages, beginningwith 7.13, which describesthe Master's"caution"
(shen) regardingfasting, warfare,and illness (qi zhan bing). E. Bruce
Brooks and A. Taeko Brooks see these three items as intrinsicallyrelated to state cult activities, but given the prominenceof fasting and
otherforms of materialprivationin the passages which follow (which
do not reference state cult in any way), their view hardly seems conclusive.5 Subsequentreferencesto abstinencefrom, or indifferenceto,
food and/ordrink, are as follows: after hearing a performance.of the
Shao court music, the Master"didn'tknow the taste of meat"(bu zhi
rou wei) (7.14); the Masteris quotedas saying thatthereis "pleasure"
(or perhaps"music"- le/yue)6in subsistingon a diet of coarse food
and plain water(7.16); and the Masteris said to have included"forgetting to eat" (wang shi) in his self-description(7.19). What can this series of referencesto materialprivationtell us aboutthe practicestaught
4 For a discussion of the textual
history and variantsof the Lunyu(including the
newly-discoveredvariantmentionedbelow), see RogerT. Ames andHenryRosemont,
Jr., The Analects of Confucius:A Philosophical Translation(New York:Ballantine
Books, 1998), pp. 7-9 and 274-275. Also helpful is Anne Cheng, "Lun-yii"in Michael
Loewe, ed., Early Chinese Texts(Berkeley: Instituteof East Asian Studies, 1993),
pp. 313-323.
5 The
Original Analects: Sayings of Confucius and His Successors (New York:
ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1998), p. 124. The Brookses also insist thatthis passage is
an interpolationwhich does not properlybelong with the othersin this semi-sequence,
but as with many of their argumentsalong these lines, they do not martialconvincing
supportin theirfavor.
6 The difficultyof translatingthese homographiccharacterswill be remarkedupon
in the section on music and dance in the text below.
164
JeffreyL. Richey
by the Master- or, at least, about teachingsreconstructedin the collective memoryof his students?
It is, of course, possible to interpretthese passages in tandemwith
others (4.9, 9.27, 10.7, 15.32) which seem to denote little more than
high-minded tolerance of poverty in the pursuit of learning and/or
moral excellence. Additionally,there are other passages - such as
15.31, in which the Masterappearsto denigratefasting as a contemplativetechnique- which deplorefood avoidancefor the sake of contemplation(bu shi... yi si) and oppose it to learning (bu ru xue ye).
However,it is certainlytruethatthe noble enduranceof privationmay
coincide with the deliberateavoidance of, or studied indifferenceto,
food and othermaterialnecessities. EarlyRu ("Confucians")may have
practicedboth. Moreover,when consideringthe mutualinterpretiverelationshipbetween passages in the Lunyu,it is importantto problematize the notion of the text as a coherentwhole. Even the most conservative of moder commentatorsdo not deny that the text assumedits
presentshape only over a period of time, while more radicalopinions
suggest that the text requiredover two hundredyears of accretionbefore takingthe formknowntoday.7Finally,JohnMakehamhas pointed
out thatpre-Qin(c. 221 BCE) thinkersunderstoodthe termRu to be a
heterogeneousconcept denotingmany differenttraditions,all of which
regardedthemselvesas heirs to the "historicalConfucius,"andeach of
which may have contributedto the formationof various layers of the
receivedLunyutext.8
Thus, at least one stratumof the Lunyuas we now have it devotes
significant attention (nearly ten percent of its entire content) to the
theme of food avoidanceor indifferenceto materialsustenance.If it is
true thata particularcommunityof Ru interpretersare responsiblefor
thatportionof the text, we mustask the crucialhistoricaland sociolog7 See D. C. Lau;Confucius- TheAnalects (Hong Kong:Chinese UniversityPress,
1992), pp. 263-275, and also Brooks,pp. 201-248.
8 "Between Chen and Cai:
Zhuangzi and the Analects,"in Roger T. Ames, ed.,
at
Ease
in
the
Wandering
Zhuangzi (Albany: State University of New York Press,
92-94.
1998), pp.
165
ical questionwhich any studyof earlyChinesethoughtandpracticedemands: what is the characterof the community of practitionersto
which this text belongs?9Argumentsfor the historicallocationof chapter 7 in the overall compositionalsequence are either vague or unpersuasive; the best that we can say, it seems, is that this chapter may
be related to chapter8, at least in part, and that it may belong to an
earlierratherthan a later stratumof the Lunyuas a whole.10Building
on the premise that this chapterwas producedby a group of disciples
still within living memory of the historical Master (c. 400s BCE), it
can be assumed that this disciple group found particularvalue in the
sayings of the Masterwhich pertainedto ascetic practicesundertaken
in pursuitof the Ru path. Even though later sayings (such as 15.31)
exist which seem to counter this ascetic tendency in chapter7, this
may mean only that a different(and almost certainlylater,historically
speaking)disciple groupdisagreedwith the remembered/reconstructed
teaching recordedby the chapter7 group, and found it expedient to
voice its disapprovalthroughthe mouth of "Confucius,"as did many
WarringStates (c. 403-221 BCE) authors.The argumentadvancedthus
far here is only that one (perhapsmarginal)sect of fifth-centuryBCE
Ru acted to preservea memory of the historicalConfucius as a Master who instructedhis disciples in ascetic techniques."lThis presentation of chapter7 is quite consistent with other passages in the chap9 On the importanceof this question in the interrogationof early Chinese texts,
see Nathan Sivin, "On the Word 'Taoist' as a Source of Perplexity,"History of Religions 17/3-4 (February-May1978): 303-330, and Russell Kirkland,"The Historical
Contoursof Taoism in China,"Journal of Chinese Religions 25 (Fall 1997): 57-82,
especially pp. 64-65.
10Lau advances no distinct argumentfor the dating of chapter7, asserting only
that it - like the other chaptersof the received text - was edited by disciples who
survivedthe historicalConfucius;see Lau, ibid. As for the Brookses, they admit that
"thereare no directindications"of the chapter'sdate, relying insteadon conjectureto
producetheir date of 450 BCE; see Brooks, p. 124.
11
Although the argumentis made for the existence of an early sect of "ascetic
Confucians,"one cannot make the claim that this body of practicesrepresentssome
sort of "pure"or "core"Ru tradition.Indeed, given the highly heterogeneousnature
166
JeffreyL. Richey
ter, which make referencesto other,possibly allied techniquesof selfcultivation:contactwith spiritualauthoritiessuch as the Duke of Zhou
(Zhou Gong) throughdreams,or oneiric communion(7.5); a sequence
of prescribedpracticewhich progressesfrom fixing one's thoughtson
the Way (zhi yu Dao) to the culminatingpoint of "losing oneself in the
arts"(yuyu 'yi) (7.6); and the curiouscombinationof aestheticrapture
which leads to ascetic practicecited in 7.14.
Losing and completingoneself throughmusic/dance
The possibility of links between ascetic and aesthetic practices in
this particulartraditionof early Ruism, however, prompts attention
to other passages in the text in which the perplexingcharactersle or
yue appear.Several translatorshave commentedupon the difficultyof
renderingthis graphwith certaintyinto Westernlanguages.12During
the early Zhou (c. 1050-770 BCE), this characterhad at least three
distinct pronunciationsand semantic sets: yue ("music"),le ("joy/to
enjoy"), and liao ("to cure").13According to A.C. Graham, this
early phonetic differentiationmasks a common fund of meaning, in
which the concept of "music" (which includes what we now call
"dance") is conflated with the concept of "joy," and possibly the
notion of curative or beneficent efficacy, as well.14 Thus, although
the character'sparticularmeaning certainly shifts between textual
contexts, it conveys a generalsense of aestheticardorand satisfaction.
EdwardL. Shaughnessyhas discussed how the genre of early Zhou
courtsong changedfrom communalliturgicalhymn to singularartistic
performanceas players and audiencesbecame more and more distant
from the original historical context of collective ancestral cult. Just
of the text as we have it now, it seems impossible to articulateany such claim for any
discrete strandof the Lunyu.
12See D.C. Lau, Mencius, VolumeI
(Hong Kong:Chinese UniversityPress, 1984),
p. 27, n. 1, and A.C. Graham,Disputers of the Tao (La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1989),
pp. 259-260.
13See Axel Schuessler,A Dictionaryof Early Zhou Chinese (Honolulu:University
of Hawai'i Press, 1987), pp. 798, 365-366, 382.
14 See Graham,ibid
Ascetics and Aesthetics in the Analects
167
as ritual became the purview of individual specialists (of whom the

historicalConfuciusmay have been one) by the end of the early Zhou,
music/dancegraduallybecame a spectator,ratherthan a participatory,
activity.15The early Ru who helped to form the text of chapter7 as
we now know it may have been among those who took on the esoteric
responsibility of performing -
and evaluating -
music/dance.
A greatmanypassagesin the Lunyuseem to supportthis hypothesis.

At various points (doubtless correspondingto various Ru sects, or
variousgenerationsof the same sect), the text makes pronouncements
on the importanceof performingthe correctmusic/dance(9.15, 13.3,
15.11, 17.16), the inseparabilityof music/danceand virtueslike ren =
("cohumanity")(3.3), a circularmodel for musical/danceperformance
which moves from chaos to orderand back to chaos again,"in orderto
complete"(yi cheng) (3.23), the "completing"functionof music/dance
(cheng yu yue) (8.8), and the general raptureinspired by virtuoso
musical/danceperformance(8.15). The most strikinginstance of the
priority assigned to the aesthetic faculty within human beings may
be 2.4, in which the Master's moral ontology nears its apex when
"at sixty [years of age] the ears then become attuned"(liu shi er er
shun).16This achievementis the last crucial step to be taken before,
at seventy years of age, one can "follow the desire of one's heart-andmind without transgressingthe correct pattern"(cong xin suo yu bu
yuju). Like many other"craft"metaphorsin the Lunyu,the use of the
graphju ("carpenter'ssquare,patterningdevice") suggests that selfcultivationis concernedwith attuningoneself to a preordainedpattern
of being and perception- in this case, not only in orderto actualize
Ru perfection,but also to make a place for oneself as a ritualspecialist.
15"From
Liturgy to Literature:The Ritual Context of the Earliest Poems in the
Book of Poetry,"in Before Confucius:Studies in the Creationof the Chinese Classics
(Albany:State Universityof New YorkPress), pp. 165-195.
16Until the discovery of the Dingzhou Lunyu, many commentatorsfelt that the
characterer ("ear")in this passage must have been a textual corruption,but the
characterappearsclearly in the Dingzhou text. See Ames and Rosemont, p. 232, n.
24.
JeffreyL. Richey
168
Certainly,this correspondsto the portraitof the early Ru presentedby

RobertEno, who arguesthat
Ruism was not primarilya political movement,but was firstand foremostgroups
of men meeting to practiceand discuss ritualceremoniesand music, immediately
motivated by the ideal expectation of attaining transcendentwisdom and the
practicalexpectationof employmentas a ritualMaster.17
The testimony of art historians and archaeologists adds force to

this suggestion. In a discussion of the fabulous set of musical bells
discovered in the tomb of MarquisYi of Zeng (d. 433 BCE) at Sui
Xian in 1978, RobertW. Bagley has suggested that the extraordinary
precision of the bells' design - all the more extraordinaryfor the
apparentabsence of complex mathematicalmodels in early China
prompts the speculation that "bell masters"transmittedtheir highly
refinedartvery carefullyto disciples.18BenjaminI. Schwartzhas also
speculatedthat the paireddisciplines of poetry (shi) and music/dance
yue) in earlyChinarepresentedformsof contemplativepractice,which
requiredcarefulinstruction,practice,performance,and appreciation.19
Finally, in his own study of MarquisYi's magnificentbell orchestra,
Lotharvon Falkenhausenputs forth the idea that, as the sense of the
extraordinaryimportance of ritual music and dance inherited from
the early Zhou met with the increasing political irrelevanceof court
aestheticsandmusicaltechnologiesduringthe WarringStates, Chinese
thinkersdeveloped discursive spaces for the theoreticaldiscussion of
music/danceand its correlativeconnectionswith the greatercosmos.20
17The
Confucian Creation of Heaven: Philosophy and the Defense of Ritual

Mastery(Albany:State Universityof New YorkPress, 1990), p. 14.
18"Bells, Scales, and Pitch Standards:The
Archaeology of Music in Ancient
China" (lecture, University of California at Berkeley, 23 April 1998). Excellent
photographicimages of the Yi tomb bells, along with a brief archaeologicalessay by
Feng Guangsheng,can be found in ZenghouyimuWenwuyishu(Hubei:Hubei Meishu
Chubanshe,1996), plates 1-57 (pp. 8-34) and pp. 158-162.
19The Worldof Thought in Ancient China (Cambridge:Belknap Press, 1985),
pp. 86-87.
20 SuspendedMusic: Chime-Bells in the Cultureof BronzeAge China (Berkeley:
Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1993), pp. 3-4 and 310-324.
Ascetics and Aesthetics in the Analects
169
By the third century BCE, disenfranchisedRu aestheticians were

writingabouthow "all musical tones are born in the hearts-and-minds
of humanbeings" (fan yin zhi qi you ren xin sheng ye), even though
thereis little evidence of the sort of large-scalepolitical investmentin
music/dancethatmadebell orchestraslike MarquisYi's possible some
two hundredyears earlier.21
Although we can surmisethat there was a group of early Ru who
made it their business to master song and ceremonial even as they
used ascetic practices to further their self-cultivation, thus far this
generalspeculationhas only been supportedby nonspecificstatements,
many pseudepigraphicallyinserted into the mouth of the historical
Confucius.Thereis, however,an individuallife, narratedin the Lunyu
acrossits manylayersof historyand authorship,in which this dialectic
of asceticism and aestheticism takes on flesh as well as spirit: the
biographicalstatementsaboutthe disciple, YanHui.
The embodimentof the early Ru ideal
Biographical -
not to mention hagiographical -
fragments about
Yan Hui are scatteredacross the text, but by far the largestconcentration of Yan Hui materialis in what is now chapter 11. The Brookses
suggest that Yan Hui may have been a near relation of the Master;
based on this possible kinshiptie, they explain the lavish treatmentof
YanHui in chapter11 as the work of a Kong family memberwho was
interestedin upholdingthe standardof kinship-baseddiscipleship (as
opposed to those disciples who were from outside of the family, such
as Zilu).22If this is so, then a careful reading of chapter 11 goes far
in helping us to understandthe values upheld by at least one group of
Kong family Ru in the centuryor so afterthe deathof the Master.
Chapter11 establishesYanHui as an adeptin threeprincipalarenas
of Ru practice:he is among those whose de (magical-moralpower23)
21
Liji, "Yueji"(Shanghai:Guji Chubanshe,1987), p. 204.
22 See Brooks, 222, 292.
p.
23 On the translationof de as
"magical-moralpower,"see Vassili Kryukov,"Symbols of Power and Communicationin Pre-ConfucianChina (On the Anthropologyof
170
JeffreyL. Richey
is xing (put into practice) (11.3); he is unparalleledin his ability to

endureprivation(11.19); and he is said by the Masterto have been the
only disciple ever to have truly hao xue ("loved study,"understanding
"study"as a termfor mentalself-cultivation24)(11.7, itself a repetition
of the earlier6.3). Of him, the Mastersays that "thereis nothingI say
that he doesn't like" (yu wu yan wu suo bu yue) (11.4). This layer of
the text also describes,in moving detail, the deep and abidingaffection
between Yan Hui and the Master:Yan Hui tells the Masterthat"while
you live, how dare I die?" (zi zai hui he gan si) (11.23), while the
Master'soutpouringof grief at YanHui's early deathis unprecedented
(11.7, 11.9, 11.10, 11.11). Nearly twentypercentof the overallsayings
in chapter11 are devoted to narratingsome detail relatedto the death
of YanHui, althoughthe Brookses doubtthatthis biographicalfeature
consists of much more than pious legend.25Whetheror not Yan Hui
actually predeceasedor survived the historicalConfucius, clearly the
Ru who assembledthe text which became chapter11 found it valuable
to celebratehim as a kind of Ru saint, martyredby fate at a young age.
What can this tell us aboutthe communityof practiceassociatedwith
the text?
Yan Hui emerges from the hagiographicaltreatmentof chapter 11
as an exemplarskilled in the applicationof his de, ascetic endurance
of privation,and mental self-cultivation(which may, or may not, have
involved meditationtechniquesfor fourth-centuryRu). Whatthe communityof practicecelebratesin its texts, it seeks to actualizein its own
collective disciplines and aspirations.Thus, we can surmise that the
fourth-centuryRu who produced this concentratedYan Hui hagiography were devoted to the application of de, asceticism related to
De): PreliminaryAssumptions,"Bulletin of the School of Orientaland AfricanStudies
LVIII/2(1995):314-333,andPhilipJ. Ivanhoe,"TheConceptof De ('Virtue')in the

andPhilipJ. Ivanhoe,eds., ReligiousandPhiloLaozi"in MarkCsikszentmihalyi
the
Laozi(Albany:StateUniversityof New YorkPress,1999),
sophicalAspectsof
239-258.
pp.
24On the meaningof xue as "mentalself-cultivation"
duringthe earlyperiodsof
theRumovement,see Brooks,p. 292.
25See Brooks, 293.
p.
171
food and poverty, and mental self-cultivation.The question is then:

what were the ways in which these Ru sought to actualizetheirideals,
embodiedin the figureof YanHui? An examinationof hagiographical
Yan Hui passages found outside of chapter 11 can help to establish
links between the earlyRu practicesof asceticism and devotionto music/dance outlinedabove.
Apart from chapter 11, the next largest concentrationsof hagiographicalpassages devotedto YanHui are found in chapters6 and 9. It
is not only in chapter11 thatwe encounterYanHui as the adeptwhose
practiceunites ascetic and aestheticdisciplines and impulses, but also
in these (probablyearlier)chapters.6.3 originatesthe saying aboutYan
Hui's exemplaryhao xue ("love of mental self-cultivation")and prematuredeath,while 6.7 celebratesthe staminaof YanHui'sxin ("heartand-mind"),which could "go for threemonthswithoutdepartingfrom
co-humanity"(qi xin san yue wei ren). 6.11 describes Yan Hui as a
xian ("worthy,exemplar")on whose yue/le ("music/dance"or "joy")
privationhas no diminishingeffect (bu gai qi yue/le), presumablydue
to his formidablepowersof mentalconcentration.While chapter6 celebratesYanHui, the adeptamong adepts,chapter9 offers a portraitof
the star student,still very much the learnerfrom Confucius:9.11 narrates a long testimonialby Yan Hui regardingthe Master'spedagogy,
balanced by the Master'sown comments on his student'sabilities in
9.20-9.21. Thus, while it is probablethattwo differentcommunitiesof
Ru practice(eithertwo separatecommunitieswhich coincided historically, or the same community in earlier and later incarnations)produced what are now chapters6 and 9, it is evidentthatthese communities shareda common desire to preserveor inventthe memory of Yan
Hui as a superlativespiritualathlete,cut down in his prime.
This representationof Yan Hui as the ascetic/aestheticRu practitionerpar excellenceis roundedout by the remainingreferencesto him
in the Lunyu,in which he is variously depicted as seemingly (but not
actually) stupidand thus quite inferiorto the Master(2.9, 12.1), every
bit as talentedand accomplishedas the Master(7.11), and very much
the superiorof the Master (5.9). It is notable that the figure of Yan
Hui is wholly absentfrom chapters16-20 - those sections of the text
172
JeffreyL. Richey
which are widely acknowledgedto be its latest strata.If it is true that

the traditionof Yan Hui's kinship to the Master(whetherimaginedor
remembered)was key to his beatificationby earlyRu within the Kong
lineage, then perhapsYan Hui's disappearanceduringthe final stages
of the Lunyu'saccretionaldevelopmentcan be explained as the waning of Kongfamily influenceover the developingRu sects. Meanwhile,
YanHui makesa suddenappearancein Zhuangzi6.7 (c. 320 BCE) as a
meditationaladeptwho - very much in the spiritof Lunyu2.9 and5.9
- startlesthe Masterinto reversingtheir student-teacherrelationship
with a display of his contemplativeprowess.26If the "Daoist"appropriationof Yan Hui as one of their own seems bizarreor improbable,
one should keep in mind that no less orthodoxa Confucianthan Han
Yu (762-828) believed that MasterZhuang himself was a follower of
Confucius.27
Conclusion:communitiesand conflictsof practice
We have seen how various layers of the Lunyuand other texts
distinguishedfrom one anotherboth by historicalorigins and sectarian authorship- stochastically(that is, randomlyyet in an overlapping fashion) representcertainearly Ru ideals of the fusion of ascetic
and aestheticpracticesin the service of self-cultivation.The marriage
of apophaticasceticism and aesthetic rapture,conveyed to the initiated througha kind of Ru gnosis (possibly throughKong kinshipnetworks of mastersand disciples), is incarnatedin the literatureby the
hagiographicalfigure of Yan Hui, and contextualizedhistoricallyby
the phenomenalsophisticationand esoteric transmissionof late Zhou
and WarringStates musical technologies and the increasing theoreti26 See Burton Watson, trans., The
Complete Worksof Chuang Tzu (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1968), pp. 90-91. For the dating of Zhuangzi 6.7, see
Graham,p. 172-173.
27 See Makeham, p. 75. Graham also envisions the author of Zhuangzi 6.7 as
somethingof a maverickRu;see his Chuang-tzu:TheInnerChapters(London:Unwin
Paperbacks,1986), pp. 18, 117.
173
cal and mystagogical attentionpaid to music throughoutthe Warring

Statesand into the early Han.
Yet it is clear that the community (-ies) of Ru practice which
venerated Yan Hui and sought to emulate his example did not, in
the end, win out. The final layers of the Lunyu - approximately
twenty-five percent of the total cumulative text as it existed by the
first century BCE - pay no attention whatsoever to Yan Hui or
the "Confucius"who honors him as the Master's master student.
Instead, these later layers - and others in between the Yan Hui
hagiographicalaccounts in the earlier strataof the text - obey the
impulses of the communitiesof Ru practicewhich createdor collated
them, concentratingon the corruptinginfluence of wealth and profitseeking, the decline in the socio-political order, and the teaching of
other disciples within the early Ru sects, who probablyrepresentthe
leadershiptraditionswithin the variousRu sects responsiblefor these
texts. The final result is a great mish-mash of competing, though
sometimes complementary,traditions,each of which claims to be the
authoritativerecord of the Master's original teaching. In this sense,
readingthe Lunyuis less like having an argumentwith a single author
andmorelike observinga cacophonyof argumentsbetween a plurality
of authors.
In this light, it is unconvincingto read the Lunyuwith a harmonizing hermeneutic,which would smooth out the many conflicts between
the communitiesof Ru practicewhich broughtthe variouslayers of the
text into being. Nor is it persuasiveto read the text as a collection of
disparatetraditionsaboutthe historicalConfucius,some of which represent the "real"Master's authenticteaching and others of which are
mere apocrypha,to be discardedby the enlightenedreader.The former
approachhas characterizedmuchof the commentary,both Chineseand
Western,on the text in this century;the latterapproachis embodiedby
the Brookses' radicalcriticismof the text, which resemblesnothing so
muchas Rudolf Bultmann'sfamous "demythologization"of New Tes-
174
JeffreyL. Richey
tamenttexts, begun duringthe 1930s and continuedtoday by members

of the "JesusSeminar."28
Instead, what is called for by the evident plurality of traditions
embedded and advocated within the text is a hermeneutic which
can tolerate, even affirm,multiple voices for "the" early Confucian
tradition.If the work of Xunzi (c. 200s BCE) is an attemptto address
the conflicts of interpretationamong various Ru sects, then we must
seek for the roots of this fracturewithin the earliestRu texts yet known
to us - beginningwith the Lunyu.29
Cultural& HistoricalStudy of Religions
The GraduateTheological Union
2451 Ridge Road
Berkeley,CA 94709, USA
JEFFREY L. RICHEY
28 See Rudolf Bultmann, "The Primitive Christian

Kerygma and the Historical
Jesus," in Carl A. Braaten and Roy A. Harrisville, eds., The Historical Jesus and
the KerygmaticChrist (New Yorkand Nashville: AbingdonPress, 1964), andMarcus
Borg, Jesus: A New Vision(San Francisco:Harperand Row, 1987), interalia.
29 On the pluralisticcontextof theXunzi,see Graham,Disputersof the Tao,pp. 235238.
THE REBIRTH OF MYTH?: NIETZSCHE'S EI'ERNAL

RECURRENCE AND ITS ROMANTIC ANTECEDENTS1
ROBERT A. YELLE
Summary
Thereis increasingevidence of the influenceof variousRomanticthinkerson Nietzsche's early philosophy,especially on The Birth of Tragedy,with its announcement
or prediction of a rebirth of myth. The prophetic Thus Spoke Zarathustra,which
Nietzsche introducedwith the words "tragedybegins,"expresses his laterphilosophy,
particularlyhis central doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence, in symbols, parables,
and riddles, suggesting an attemptat mythopoeia. However, the critical, ironic, and
parodyingelements in Nietzsche's later philosophy have led to its characterization
as "antimyth."This essay demonstratesthat Nietzsche's idea and symbolism of the
Eternal Recurrenceas a temporal cycle of opposites representedby various forms
of the circle, especially the ouroborusor serpent biting its own tail, and associated
with Zoroaster,Heraclitus,and Dionysus, was influencedby the traditionof Romantic
mythology. Before the publicationof The Birth of Tragedy,Nietzsche encountered
the writings of Johann Jakob Bachofen and FriedrichCreuzer,where the cycle of
opposites is identified as a specifically mythic idea, which developed later into a
philosophy,as metonymicallyrepresentedin the relationshipbetween the myth-maker
Zoroaster and the philosopher Heraclitus. In The Birth of Tragedy, the cycle of
oppositesbecame for Nietzsche a symbol of the unity of myth andphilosophy,andthe
rebirthof the former from the self-overcoming of the latter.This symbol continued
to serve Nietzsche throughouthis career as a model for his own development as
a philosopher. The Eternal Recurrence appears to have been his own attempt to
unite myth and philosophy, through the transformationof an originally Romantic
mythologicalidea into its opposite,and the adoptionof a symbolic and "mythic"style
of expression.
1 This paper was originallywrittenfor the 1996 BrauerSeminarat the University
of Chicago Divinity School. I would like to thank the members of the seminar,and
particularlyits faculty, Wendy Doniger,CristianoGrottanelli,and Bruce Lincoln, for
their helpful comments. FrankReynolds patiently read several drafts;Robert Holub
readan earlierversion of partof this paper;and Michael Bathgate,HeatherHindman,
ChrisLehrich,and Jeff and MahuaLong performeda critical interventionto help me
isolate the thesis. I am gratefulto them all for their valuablesuggestions.
NUMEN, Vol. 47
176
RobertA. Yelle
In his earliestpublishedwork, TheBirthof Tragedy("GT"2)(1872),

Friedrich Nietzsche announces or predicts a rebirth of tragedy and
myth in a manner that recalls FriedrichSchlegel's hope for a "new
mythology."Apartfrom Nietzsche's own later confession of the "Romantic" nature of GT3, an increasing amount of scholarship has
demonstratedhis appropriationand developmentin that work of both
mythologicaltheoriesand specific symbols foundin Romanticthinkers
includingSchlegel, FriedrichCreuzer,FriedrichSchelling, and Johann
2 The
following system of abbreviationsis used to referto Nietzsche's works:

Ecce Homo; trans. Walter Kaufmannin Basic Writingsof Nietzsche (New
York:Moder Library,1968)
FW: Die frohliche Wissenschaft;trans.WalterKaufmann,The Gay Science (New
York:Vintage, 1974)
GM: Zur Genealogie der Moral; trans.On the Genealogy of Morals in Kaufmann,
Basic Writings
GT: Die Geburt der Tragodie;trans. The Birth of Tragedyin Kaufmann,Basic
EH:
Writings
JGB: Jenseits von Gut und Bose; trans.Beyond Good and Evil in Kaufmann,Basic
Writings
KGB: Friedrich Nietzsche, Briefwechsel: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, ed. Giorgio
Colli and Mazzino Montinari(Berlin:Walterde Gruyter,1975ff.)
KGW: FriedrichNietzsche, Werke:KritischeGesamtausgabe,ed. Giorgio Colli and
Mazzino Montinari(Berlin:Walterde Gruyter,1967ff.)
KSA: FriedrichNietzsche, SamtlicheWerke:KritischeStudienausgabe,ed. Giorgio
Colli and Mazzino Montinari,2d. ed. (Berlin:Walterde Gruyter,1988)
MA: Menschliches,Allzumenschliches;trans. Marion Faber,Human, All Too Human (Lincoln:Universityof NebraskaPress, 1984)
PHG: Die Philosophie im tragischenZeitalterder Griechen;trans.MarianneCowan,
Philosophy in the TragicAge of the Greeks(Chicago:HenryRegnery, 1962)
Za:
Also sprach Zarathustra;trans. Walter Kaufmann, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
(New York:Penguin, 1966)
Unless otherwise indicated, references are to section rather than page numbers,
translationsfrom Nietzsche's writingsare from the editions given above, and all other
translationsare my own.
3 This self-characterizationappearsin Nietzsche's "Attemptat a Self-Criticism,"
addedas a preface to the 1886 edition of GT (KSA 1, p. 21-22).
TheRebirthof Myth?:Nietzsche'sEternalRecurrence
177
JakobBachofen.4As is well known, GT explicitly depicts anotherRomantic, Nietzsche's then-friendRichardWagner,as the agent of the
rebirthof myth.
Nietzsche later repudiatedWagnerand divided his work into three
periods: an early period lasting until 1876, in which he remained
under the influence of Wagner and Schopenhauer;a middle period
(1876-1882) of independenceand experimentation;and a final, late
period (1882-1889) in which he articulatedhis positive philosophy.5
Such a division might indicate that Nietzsche simply abandonedhis
early Romanticism.However, the book inauguratinghis late period,
Thus Spoke Zarathustra("Za"), is a prophetic text that expresses
his maturephilosophy,particularlyhis centraldoctrineof the Eternal
Recurrence,in symbols, parables,andriddles.The style of Nietzsche's
exposition in Za has raised the question of whetherhe was engaged
in mythopoeia.ErnstBehler's statement,"I wantedto show a parallel
between the myth-creationof Zarathustra- if one may call it that4 See, e.g., Barbaravon Reibnitz, Ein Kommentarzu FriedrichNietzsche, "Die
Geburtder Tragodieaus dem Geiste der Musik" (Kap. 1-12) (Stuttgart:J.B. Metzler, 1992);Max Baumer,"Das modernePhinomen des Dionysischenund seine 'Entdeckung'durchNietzsche, "Nietzsche-Studien6 (1977): 123-53; ErnstBehler, "Nietzsche und die FriihromantischeSchule," Nietzsche-Studien7 (1978): 59-87; idem,
"Die Auffassung des Dionysischen durch die Briider Schlegel und FriedrichNietzsche" Nietzsche-Studien12 (1983): 335-54; David Thatcher,"Eagle and Serpentin
Nietzsche-Studien6 (1977): 240-60.
Zarathustra,"
5 This standarddivision was accepted by CristianoGrottanelliin his recent and
balancedtreatmentof the question, "Nietzsche and Myth,"History of Religions 37
(1997): 3-20. For anotherarticulationof the division, see Eric Voegelin, "Nietzsche
and Pascal," Nietzsche-Studien25 (1996): 128-71 at 128. This division follows
Nietzsche's note from 1884 entitled "The Way to Wisdom," which describes the
three periods without, however,identifying them with any specific chronology (KSA
11, 26[47]). Additional supportfor such a periodizationis found on the back of the
originaledition of FW, which announcesitself as the conclusion of a series beginning
with MA,the goal of which series is "toerect a new image and ideal of thefree spirit."
This page is not included in KGW;for a translation,see Kaufmann,Basic Writings
30.
178
RobertA. Yelle
and the Romanticsearchfor a new mythology,"provokedthis strident

response from WalterKaufmann:
If one takes the term "myth"in a strong sense, then in Zarathustrait is certainly
not a question of myth. In Zarathustrathe critical, negative, and in additionthe
caricaturingand the parodyingstandvery stronglyin the foreground.If one says
that one finds the mythical in Zarathustra,then one could say just as well and
more truly: the entire fourth part of Zarathustrais an antimyth, in which the
myth itself, as far as it deals with one, is made laughable.6
The idea that Nietzsche's use of irony and parody are incompatible with (true)myth has led other scholarsto suggest similardescriptions of his laterphilosophy,including"quasi-myth"(Quasi-Mythos),7
"counter-myth"(Gegen-Mythos),8and, with specific referenceto the
EternalRecurrence,"akind of antimythicmyth, a parodyof the hopes
thatNietzsche's [Romantic]predecessorsentertained."9
Complicatingthis debateover Nietzsche's relationto his Romantic
predecessors are the philosopher's affirmationsof the close relation
between Za and the earlier,Romantic GT. During his discussion of
GT in Ecce Homo ("EH"),Nietzsche called himself the "firsttragic
philosopher,"then tracedhis lineage to Heraclitus:"Thedoctrineof the
'eternalrecurrence,'thatis, of the unconditionaland infinitelyrepeated
circularcourse of things - this doctrineof Zarathustramight in the
end have been taught already by Heraclitus"(KSA 6, p. 312-13). It
is tempting to read this as an anachronism,a mere speaking out of
turn. Surely the EternalRecurrencedoes not appearbefore aphorism
341 of The Gay Science ("FW")(1882), long after GT? Yet Nietzsche
gave the title "Incipittragoedia" ("tragedybegins") to the very next
aphorismof FW, which introducesZarathustrafor the first time (KSA
3, p. 571). This aphorismconcludes the originaledition of FW, and is
6 Discussion following Behler, "Nietzscheund die FriihromantischeSchule"91.
71d.
8
Eugen Biser, "Nietzsche als Mythenzersttrerund Mythenschtpfer,"NietzscheStudien 14 (1985): 96-109 at 105.
9 Allan
Megill, Prophets of Extremity:Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida
(Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1985), 19.
TheRebirthof Myth?:Nietzsche's EternalRecurrence
179
followed immediatelyin the chronologicalorderof Nietzsche's works

by Za, the preface of which repeats the aphorism'scontents. These
indicationspose once again, and more forcefully, the question raised
alreadyby Nietzsche's style of exposition in Za: whether that work,
and particularlythe doctrineof the EternalRecurrence,might not be
an attemptto fulfill the promiseof a rebirthof myth made in GT.
As I will demonstrate,there is precedentfor the symbolism of the
Eternal Recurrencein GT and in the writings of certain Romantic
mythologists, including Bachofen and Creuzer,who influencedNietzsche during his preparationof that work. In these sources as in Za,
time or natureis conceived as a cyclical process unitingopposites, and
symbolized by variousforms of the circle. These symbols are identified with Zarathustra(in Greek, "Zoroaster"),Heraclitus,and Dionysus, prefiguringNietzsche's later citationof these figuresas precedent
for his doctrineof the EternalRecurrence.Identifiedas a mythological
doctrine by his Romantic predecessors, the cycle of opposites, particularly in the form of the ouroborusor serpent biting its own tail,
became for Nietzsche a symbol of the unity of myth and philosophy
and of the rebirthof the formerout of the latter.This suggests that Za
and the EternalRecurrencerepresenteda "rebirthof myth"in at least
two related senses: as the resurfacingof certainRomanticmythological ideas in Nietzsche's maturephilosophy, and as his own attempt
at mythopoeia,distinguishedby a style of exposition he regardedas
appropriateto myth.
TheEternalRecurrenceand the Ouroborusin Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Nietzsche, as we have seen, minimally described his central doctrine, the full formula for which is "the Eternal Recurrenceof the
des Gleichen), as "the unconSame" (ewige Wiederkunft/Wiederkehr
ditional and infinitely repeatedcircularcourse of things."The circle
is inseparablefrom the Eternal Recurrence:Zarathustrais both "the
teacherof the eternalrecurrence"(KSA4, p. 275) and the "advocate
180
RobertA. Yelle
of the circle" (p. 271).10Nietzsche's employmentof the circle turning

back on itself as the primarysymbol of the Eternal Recurrenceimplies not static repetition,but a dynamiccycle uniting opposites, as is
explicit in this famous passage from Za:
Upward- defying the spiritthatdrewit downwardtowardthe abyss, the spiritof
gravity,my devil and archenemy.Upward- althoughhe sat on me, half dwarf,
half mole, lame, making lame, drippinglead into my ear, leaden thoughts into
my brain.
he whisperedmockingly,syllable by syllable; "you philoso"O Zarathustra,"
der
Weisheit]!You threwyourselfup high, butevery stone that
pher'sstone [Stein
is thrownup must fall... You threwyourselfup so high... Sentencedto yourself
and to your own stoning - O Zarathustra,farindeed have you thrownthe stone,
but it will fall back on yourself."
Then the dwarf fell silent...
"Beholdthis gateway,dwarf!"I continued."Ithas two faces. Two pathsmeet
here; no one has yet followed either to its end. This long lane stretchesback for
an eternity.And the long lane out there, thatis anothereternity.They contradict
each other,these paths;they offend each other face to face; and it is here at this
gateway that they come together.The name of the gateway is inscribed above:
'Moment.'But whoever would follow one of them, on and on, fartherand farther
-do you believe, dwarf,thatthese pathscontradicteach othereternally?"
"All that is straightlies," the dwarf murmuredcontemptuously."All truthis
crooked;time itself is a circle."(p. 198-200)
In this passage, the circle unites the two opposed paths of past
and present.This temporalunion of opposites is complementedby a
moreenigmaticunion, thatbetween the Spiritof GravityandZarathustra. The formerpulls downward,while the latter moves upward.The
former is "lead"(cf. p. 146), the beginning of the alchemical work,
while the latter is the "philosopher'sstone," the completion of that
work.1 Zarathustrais strangelyintimatewith his supposedadversary.
10In the interest of
conserving space, the numerousreferences to Za in PartOne
will henceforthgive only the page numberin KSA4.
11As some authors have previously recognized, Nietzsche employed alchemical
symbols to depicthis EternalRecurrence.Thatcher249; RichardPerkins,"Analogistic
in David Goicoechea, ed., The Great Yearof Zarathustra
Strategiesin Zarathustra,"
(1881-1981) (Lanham,MD: UniversityPress of America, 1983), 316-338; and idem,
The Rebirth of Myth?: Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence
181
The action with which Zarathustra is simultaneously threatened and

accused - crushing with the downward plunge of the stone - mirrors the leaden behavior of the dwarf on his back. The explanation is
that Zarathustra and his adversary are, in some sense, identical. The
philosopher's stone united the opposites, including both the beginning and the end of the alchemical work. Zarathustra and his adversary/double together form the circle of the Eternal Recurrence.
The Eternal Recurrence is also depicted as the ouroborus, or serpent
biting its own tail. Richard Perkins has identified an unmistakable
"Nietzsche's opus alchymicum,"Seminar 23 (1987): 216-26. Perkins points out
("Nietzsche's opus alchymicum"216) that "Beginningin 1882, Nietzsche frequently
and fairly insistently poses as an inner alchemist, privately in euphoric notebook
entries,confidentiallyin franticlettersto FranzOverbeck,and publicly in Also sprach
Zarathustra,a franklychrysopoeticwork culminatingin a golden naturewon through
and argues("AnalogisticStrategies"327) thatthe alchemicalprocess,
transmutation;"
symbolizedby the ouroborus,or serpentbiting its tail, is "thebasic conceptionof Also
sprach Zarathustra,the meaningmoving within all the images, symbols, figures, and
metaphorsconstitutingthe analogisticdemonstration."While this is something of an
overstatement,alchemy was certainlyone of the sources for Nietzsche's symbolism
of the Eternal Recurrence. Apart from the passages pointed out by Perkins and
the "philosopher'sstone" and "lead" of the passage discussed here, some other
unmistakablereferencesto alchemy occur in Za: "Outof your poisons, you brewed
your balsam [Balsam]"(p. 43). The "balsam"or "balsamof life" (balsamumvitae)
was anothername for the alchemicalagent as panacea.Cf. p. 289: "If ever I drankfull
draftsfromthatfoaming spice- andblend-mugin which all things are well-blended;if
my handever pouredthe farthestto the nearest,and fire to spirit,andjoy to pain, and
the most wicked to the most gracious;if I myself am a grain of that redeeming salt
which makes all things blend well in the blend-mug- for there is a salt that unites
good with evil; and even the greatest evil is worthy of being used as spice for the
last foaming over: Oh, how should I not lust after eternity and after the nuptialring
of rings, the ring of recurrence?"The "salt"referredto can only be the alchemical
salt, anothercommon name for the agent which effected the coniunctio. The topic of
Nietzsche's use of alchemical symbolism will not be treatedhere, with the exception
of his use of the ouroborus,a symbol which is not confined to alchemy and which
appearsdirectlyin Nietzsche's earlierworks and also, as shown below, in some of his
Romanticpredecessors.
182
RobertA. Yelle
reference to the ouroborusas the Eternal Recurrencein Nietzsche's

notes from the time of Za:
Do not be afraidof the streamof things: this streamturnsback on itself: it runs
away from itself not only twice. Every "it was" becomes again an "it is." The
past bites everythingfuturein the tail. (November 1882-February1883, KSA 10,
4[85])12
At least two other notes refer to a circular serpent named "eternity."13In Za, the references to the ouroborusare less explicit: "Surroundedby the flame of jealousy, one will in the end, like the scorpion, turn one's poisonous sting against oneself' (p. 43). Zarathustra
carries a caduceus, "a staff with a golden handle on which a serpent
coiled aroundthe sun" (p. 97). The shepherdwith a black serpentin
his throat,whom Zarathustraobserves shortlyafterhis encounterwith
his adversary,forms a "dual"or "compound"ouroborus.Zarathustra's
commandto the shepherd,"'Bite! Bite its head off! Bite!' ... all thatis
good and wicked in me cried out of me with a single cry" (p. 201-02),
completesthe image of the ouroborus,which unitesthe opposites.The
serpentrecalls the "black"Spirit of Gravity (p. 49); and Zarathustra
later reveals that he himself was the shepherd:"thatmonstercrawled
down my throatand suffocatedme. But I bit off its head and spewedit
out"(p. 273). The image of Zarathustrawith his adversaryon his back
is thus assimilatedto the ouroborus,as is the image of Zarathustra's
two animals: "Andbehold! An eagle soared throughthe sky in wide
circles, and on him therehung a serpent,not like prey but like a friend:
for she keptherself wound aroundhis neck"(p. 27). The serpentclings
to the eagle, its traditionaladversary,just as the Spiritof Gravityclings
to Zarathustra.
12
"AnalogisticStrategies"327.
13"Does the
serpentcalled eternitycircle itself [sich ringeln] already?"(SommerHerbst 1882, KSA 10, 2[9]); and "The sun of recognitionstands once again at noon:
and coiled [geringelt] lies the serpentof eternity in its light - it is your time, you
brothersof afternoon!"(Friihjahr-Herbst1881, KSA 9, 11[196]). Cited in Perkins,
"AnalogisticStrategies"336 n. 35, and Thatcher255.
183
Also suggestive are variousphrasesthat define "ouroboric"behavior: "Spiritis the life that itself cuts into life" (p. 134). The Spirit of
Gravityaccuses Zarathustraof such behavior,of being the stone that
falls on himself. Zarathustraasserts:"Ieven strangledthe stranglerthat
is called 'sin' " (p. 278). His ouroboricbehavioris what distinguishes
Zarathustra,the Overman(Ubermensch),from his opposite:"Alas,the
time of the most despicableman is coming, he thatis no longer able to
despise himself. Behold, I show you the last man"(p. 19).
Such verbal formulas depict, throughthe repetitionof a key term,
the repetitiveand reflexive behaviorof the ouroborusor circle. Nietzsche also employed numerousphrases, such as "going under"(untergehen) and "Overman"(Ubermensch),which allude to the shape
and movement of the circle. His famous concept of Selbstiiberwindung (p. 146) is usually translated"self-overcoming."However, the
Germanverb windenis cognate with English "to wind" (e.g. a clock);
a synonymfor windenis schlangeln,from Schlange, "serpent."Selbstiiberwindung("self-overwinding")is thereforea precise descriptionof
the behaviorof the ouroboros.
RomanticPrecursorsof the EternalRecurrence
Nietzsche's conception of the Eternal Recurrence as the cycle
of time or nature uniting the opposites and representedby various
forms of the circle, including the ouroborus,has precedentin certain
Romanticmythologistswho influencedNietzsche by the time of GT.
Creuzer
Friedrich Creuzer, the founder of "so-called 'Romantic Mythology,' "14 published in 1810-12 the four volumes of his most important work, Symbolikund Mythologieder alten Vilker, besonders der
Griechen("SymbolismandMythologyof Ancient Peoples, Especially
the Greeks").The book, a compendiumof mythologicalideas fromdifferentcultures and times, was extremelyinfluentialand went through
severaleditions.Nietzsche borrowedthe thirdvolume fromthe Univer14Von Reibnitz 62.
184
RobertA. Yelle
sity of Basel libraryonce on June 18, 1871, while still workingon GT,
and again on August 9, 1872.15Records of his personallibraryshow
that at some later point he acquiredthe third edition of the Symbolik.16Creuzerhas been identifiedas one of Nietzsche's sources for the
categories "Apollinianand Dionysian" and other symbols.17Despite
his interestin Creuzer,Nietzsche appearsto have mentionedhim only
once in writing, duringhis early Basel lectures (1870-71).18A perusal
of Creuzer'swork, however,suggests that his influence on Nietzsche
was more than superficial.
The Symbolikincludes numerousdepictions of natureor time as a
cycle. Chronos or FatherTime, "the god who is withdrawn[zuriickgezogen] into himself,"19is representedby, among other symbols,
the serpent in the form of a circle.20In a myth of Zeus, "the life of
naturedevelops itself in the three seasons cyclically returning[cyk15Martin
Vogel, Appolinisch und Dionysisch (Regensburg:Gustav Bosse, 1966),
97 confirms the first date. Charles Andler, Nietzsche: Sa Vie et Sa Pensee (Paris:
Gallimard,1958), 1: 404 n. 3 has June 8, 1871 and August 9, 1872. However, this
is a misprint:Baumer 142 cites anotheredition of Andler which has June 18, 1871
for the first date. M. Oehler, "Nietzsches Bibliothek,"Jahresgabe der Gesellschaft
der Freundedes Nietzsche-Archivs14 (Weimar:1942), gives the months but not the
days for these loans; it also lists much of the contents of Nietzsche's personallibrary.
None of these sources indicates which edition Nietzsche borrowed.Prof. Dr. Martin
Steinmannof the Universityof Basel Libraryhas graciously informedme thatit was
the second edition, 1819-23. Citations to the Symbolikhere are instead to the third
edition, which is the one Nietzsche laterpossessed in his library.
16Andler 1: 404 n. 3; Oehler 10.
17Baumer 139; Behler, "Nietzscheund die FriihromantischeSchule,"73; Karlfried
Griinder,Discussion following Peter Heller, "Nietzsches Kampf mit dem romantischen Pessimismus,"Nietzsche-Studien7 (1978): 51; Thatcher,passim. See Creuzer
4: 116ff.
18
Vorlesungen1870-71, KGW11.3,p. 410.
19Friedrich Creuzer,
Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Volker,besonders der
Griechen, 3. Verbesserte Ausgabe, 4 Bd. (Leipzig und Darmstadt,Carl Wilhelm
Leske, 1837-42), 3: 58. All referencesare to this edition.
20 Id. 3: 59; cf. 4: 79.
185
lisch wiederkehrenden]."21 There are numerous references to the cycle of reincarnation or metempsychosis of the Pythagoreans and Orphics (Kreislauf/Riickkehr der Seele),22 and to the analogous Indian
doctrine,23 which Creuzer occasionally confuses with the Greek. The
phoenix is "the bird of the great year or the rebirth of the new time
in determinate cycles."24 The cycle of time is connected with Heracles25 and other gods, but especially with Dionysus26 and Dionysus
Zagreus.27 One passage in particular resembles the Eternal Recurrence,
especially in its depictions as a compound ouroborus:
Cicero mentioned a Bacchus... who killed Nysa. Nysa... is the reversal [Umschwung]at the end of time. Thereforethis Dionysus is the sun, which swallows
[verschlingt],takes in, disposes of [abthut]the circle of time in itself, as Saturn
devours [verzehrt]his own children;and the same is also the Libyan Dionysus,
who kills the Kampe(the cycle of time)... 28 (emphasisoriginal)
In a footnote to this passage, Creuzer connects this "revolution of

times and things [Umkreis der Zeiten und Dinge]", and especially
the aforementioned Kampe as the "point of return [Umkehr] on the
course of the sun," with the movement of the chariots around the
Roman circus, in which the turning-points were marked by two pillars
(Umlenkungssdule).29
Apart from these precedents for the symbolism of the Eternal
Recurrence, Creuzer's description of Magianism closely resembles
Nietzsche's:
211d. 1:25.
22Id. 1: 138, 3: 777.
23Id. 1: 434-36, 445.
24 Id. 2: 165; cf. 163ff. Nietzsche
employed the symbol of the phoenix in Za I, "On

the Way of the Creator"(KSA4, p. 82).
25Id 2: 657ff.; 630-31.
26 Id. 2: 658; 4: 125, 131, 134ff.
27 Id. 4: 96ff.
28 Id. 4: 23.
291d.4:24 n. 1.
186
Robert A. Yelle
[T]he Magians conceived the problemof the world... throughthe opposition of
light and darkness,of good and evil... Hence the fundamentalteaching of the
Magians: All things subsist in the mixture of opposites... In these theories of
Magianismwe truly have a source of the famous doctrinesof Heraclitus... and
of the system of Empedocles... 30
According to [higher Magianism], enmity is the foundationof finite things...
Without the intention of the creator, the antithesis follows the thesis, that is,
the darknessfollows the light, like the shadow the person. Heraclitusmade the
same thing the main thesis of his system... And furthermore,he understoodthe
opposites precisely so, as for example rising, falling, day, night... He proceeded,
like the Persians,fromcontradictionas the foundationof things. The unity itself,
called world, subsists through differentiation... In this turning [Kehre] of the
contraries,balanced through unity, the insight steps forward,that death itself
must exist, as Heraclitusshows from many sides.31
Several of the features of Creuzer's Magianism foreshadow the Eternal Recurrence, especially the symbol of the shadow, which resembles
the dark dwarf on Zarathustra's back, and the use of spatial metaphors
to describe the opposites. More significant is Creuzer's association
of Magianism with the idea of a cycle uniting opposites,32 and with
Heraclitus.33 The first association, which enables the second, is actually an inversion of the rigid ethical dualism of Zoroastrianism, in
which, unlike in Heraclitus, there was no positive valorization of contradiction. As Giinter Wohlfart noted, Creuzer's association of Heraclitus with Zoroaster sparked vigorous debate.34 Wohlfart concluded
that Nietzsche, knowing the Pre-Socratic's teaching to be in fact opposed to Magian dualism, sided against Creuzer: "Nietzsche's Heraclitus is an Anti-Zoroaster."35 However, as Wohlfart acknowledged,
Nietzsche's Zarathustra is also an "Anti-Zoroaster." Nietzsche chose
30Id. 1: 199.
31 Id. 2: 595-96.
32 Creuzeralso associatedthe
Magiangod ZeruaneAkherenewith Chronosand the
or
of
a
eternal
idea
"greatyear"
cycle of time. Id. 1: 195; 3: 169ff.
33 Cf. Id. 1: 293; 2: 595-96.
34Gunter Wohlfart, "Also sprach Herakleitos: Heraklits Fragment B 52 und
Nietzsches Heraklit-Rezeption(Freiburg:KarlAlber, 1991), 314-16.
35 Id. 316.
187
Zarathustra as the exponent of the Eternal Recurrence precisely because of the historical figure's doctrine that good and evil are eternally
separate: "Zarathustra was the first to consider the fight of good and
evil the very wheel in the machinery of things... Zarathustra created
this calamitous error, morality; consequently, he must also be the first
to recognize it" (EH, "Why I Am a Destiny," KSA 6, p. 367).36 By contrast, Nietzsche's reformed Zarathustrateaches the Eternal Recurrence
as the union of opposites: "In every word he contradicts, this most Yessaying of all spirits; in him all opposites are blended into a new unity"
(EH, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," KSA 6, p. 343). This association of
Zarathustraboth with a positive valorization of contradiction and with
Heraclitus closely resembles Creuzer's account of Magianism, which
it seems Nietzsche may have appropriated and modified, if not actually
accepted.37
36 Zarathustra's
past sins identify him once again with his nemesis, the Spirit of
Gravity,who is elsewhereheld responsiblefor creatinggood and evil (Za III, "OnOld
andNew Tablets,"KSA4, p. 248).
37 Furthermore,in the early Philosophy in the TragicAge of the Greeks,Nietzsche
did not reject the possible connectionof Zoroasterand Heraclitus:
"It has been pointed out assiduously,to be sure, how much the Greeks were able to
find and learn abroadin the Orient,and it is doubtless true that they picked up much
there. It is a strange spectacle, however, to see the alleged teachersfrom the Orient
and theirGreek disciples exhibitedside by side: Zoroasternext to Heraclitus, Hindus
next to Eleatics... As to the generalidea, we should not mind it, if only its exponents
did not burdenus with their conclusion that philosophy was thus merely imported
into Greece ratherthanhaving grown and developed therein a soil naturaland native
to it... Nothing would be sillier thanto claim an autochthonousdevelopmentfor the
Greeks.On the contrary,they invariablyabsorbedotherliving cultures... [W]hatthey
inventedwas the archetypesof philosophic thought."(PHG 1, KSA 1, p. 806-07) (first
emphasismine)
Thus, Nietzsche accepted that the Greek philosophers may have appropriatedand
developed Oriental ideas; and, by implication, that Heraclitusmay have borrowed
somethingfrom Zoroaster.As von Reibnitz notes (97, esp. n. 27), Nietzsche in GT
also acceptedthe thesis, advancedby Creuzeramong others,of an Orientalorigin for
the Dionysus cult.
188
RobertA. Yelle
Bachofen
JohannJakobBachofen,thelawyer-cum-mythologist
andauthorof
a groundbreaking
treatiseonprimitivematriarchy,
wasa Baselresident
and older colleagueand friendof Nietzsche.38In his first yearsat
Basel,Nietzschewas frequentlya guestat the Bachofenresidence.39
Nietzsche borrowed Bachofen's Versuchiiber die Grdbersymbolik
derAlten(1859) ("Investigation
into the MortuarySymbolismof the
Ancients")fromthe Universityof Basellibraryon June18, 1871(the
verydayhe borrowedCreuzer'sSymbolik),at the timeof composing
GT.40Bachofenis saidto haveapprovedof GTin turn.41
In his Grdbersymbolik,
Bachofenarguedthatthemortuary
symbolism of the ancientGreeksandRomansexpressedthe ideathatnature
consistsof a continualstruggleof two antagonistic
principles(identifiedas goodandevil, dayandnight,life anddeath,etc.),whichconstitutetwo opposedpolesunitedby a cyclicalprocess:
On monumentsof indubitablemeaningthe circle appearsas a sign of apotheosis.
It derives this symbolic use from the peculiarityof the circularline, which, like
all the life of telluriancreation,returns[zurickkehrt]ever again on itself and in
the progressionfrom the startingpoint. It thus encloses, like the egg, both poles,
between which creationeternally moves to and fro, and which, like white and
black, merge into one another... In this manner,ball, disc, and circle obtain a
definite association with the physical bearersof nature'spower... All of these
associationsof the circle and its differentrepresentationshave concurrentlytruth
andjustification.The originalassociation,however,to which the remainingones
and, finally,the meaningof the mysteriesconnect, is none otherthanthateternal
return[ewige Zuruckkehren]
of creationto itself thatcomes to view in the circular
38 See
GeorgeBoas' prefaceto RalphManheim,trans.,Myth,Religion, and Mother

Selected
Right:
Writingsof J.J. Bachofen, Bollingen Series 84 (Princeton:Princeton
UniversityPress, 1967), xxff.
39 Andler 1: 419.
40Id. 419 n. 2.
41 Biumer 153.
189
line, thatrepose of end and beginningin each other... In this manner,the circle
becomes an expressionof fate or of the highest law of nature,ruling all life.42
Like Creuzer before him, Bachofen associated this cycle of opposites with the course of the chariots at the Roman circus:
In the departureof movement the team returnsever again to its startingpoint,
like the circularline, of which the completion loses itself in the beginning. One
of the powers drives straightahead, while the other turnsroundand leads back
again. The completion of each existence is a return[Rickkehr]to its beginning,
and in each distancing from the startingpoint there lies at the same time a reapproaching[Wiederannaherung]to the same. Two directions are in just such
an unexplainableway joined to each other, like the two powers themselves, for
they correspond.The result of their combined power is the cycle, in which all
tellurianlife eternally moves. The image of this cycle is the revolutionsof the
chariots,which fly aroundthe metae with the highest speed, in order to return
[zuriickkehren]to the startingpoint and then to traversethe same space again
anew.43
Bachofen's idea of an eternal return (ewige Zuriickkehr) to the same

point through the cycle of opposites closely resembles the Eternal
Recurrence (ewige Wiederkunft/Wiederkehr).Bachofen associated his
eternal return with a number of symbols later associated with the
Eternal Recurrence, including the caduceus,44 the phoenix,45 and the
serpent, which "has a long life, turns back [zuriickkehrt] from an
old one into a youth and gains new and greater powers, until she is
resolved [aufgelost] into herself again after the completion of a set
span... [S]he is immortal and turns back on herself."46 Several of
Bachofen's depictions of the two opposed powers closely prefigure
the image of Zarathustra with the dark dwarf weighing on his back:
42 JohannJakobBachofen, Johann Jakob
Bachofens GesammelteWerke,ed. Karl

Meuli, vol. 4, Versuchiiber die Gribersymbolikder Alten (Basel: Benno Schwabe &
Co., 1954), 151-53.
43 Id. 270.
44Id. 168.
45 The phoenix is connectedwith "the idea of a great cosmic year and of time ever
returning[zurickkehrend]in fixed periods to self-rejuvenation."Id. 134.
46Id. 175 n. 3
(quotingPhilo); cf. 175ff.
RobertA. Yelle
190
the two powerspullingin oppositedirectionsat the chariotrace;the

dioscuri,mythicaltwinsof darkandlight;47
DionysusMelanaigis,who
wearsa blackgoatskinandappearsbehindhis victim;48and Ocnus,
thepenitentin Hadeswho weavesa ropethatis continuallydevoured
by an ass.49These symbolsareprecedentfor the atypicalcompound
formof the ouroborusfoundin Za.ForBachofenas for Nietzsche,all
of these symbolsare encompassedwithinandexpressedby the one
mastersymbolof thecircle.
Bachofenidentifiedhis eternalreturnas "thefoundationof all ancientreligion,"50
and,especially,Dionyincludingthatof Heraclitus51
sus:"Thiseternalreturn[steteRiickkehr]
of the sunderedpotenciesto
the originalunity,as it was in the egg, formsthe innermostcontent
of theDionysianreligionandits mysteries."52
TheDionysianreligion
contained,in purerform,theessenceof all otherreligions.53
Bachofen,
therefore,appearsto be a likely sourcefor someof the specificsymas
bols,terminology,andconceptsof Nietzsche'sEternalRecurrence,
well as for theassociationof thesewithDionysus.
Schelling
FriedrichSchelling'sWeltalter54("Agesof theWorld"),anotherimportantworkof Romanticmythology,containsthefollowingpassage:
[P]rimalnatureis a life eternallyrevolvingin itself, a kind of circle... Of course
the distinctionbetween lower andhigheris continuallyannulledin this continual
circular movement; there is neither a truly higher nor a truly lower, because
alternatelythe one is higherand the otherlower;thereis only an incessantwheel,
47 Id. 14ff., 23ff., 269.
48 Id. 59 (citing Creuzer,Symbolik,3. Ausgabe,4: 152), 355, 435.
49 Id. 352-485.
50 Id. 27, 30.
51 Id. 28, 269,
431,437, 463.
52 Id. 39.
53 Id. 56.
54 This work was
begun in 1811, but publishedonly afterSchelling's deathin 1854.
See Frederickde Wolfe Bolman,Jr.,trans.,FriedrichSchelling, TheAges of the World,
reprinted. (New York:AMS Press, 1967), 5.
191
a never resting, rotating movement in which there is no distinction. Even the

concept of beginning and end is again annulled in this rotation... These are
the powers of that inner life incessantly giving birth to and consuming itself
again, which man not without fear divines as what is hidden in everything,
althoughit is now covered up and has outwardlyassumed stable properties.By
that continualreturnto the beginning and the eternalrecommencing [das ewige
Wiederbeginnen],that life makes itself substance in the real sense of the word
(id quod substat),into the always abiding;it is the constantinnermainspringand
clockwork, it is time which is eternally beginning, eternally becoming, always
devouringitself and always giving birth to itself again. The antithesis eternally
begets itself in order to be consumed again and again by the unity, and the
antithesis is eternallyconsumedby the unity in order to revive itself ever anew.
This is the center, the hearthof the life which is continually perishing in its
own flames and rejuvenatingitself from the ash. This is the undying fire, by
the smotheringof which, as Heraclitusasserted, the universe was created, and
which was shown to one of the prophetsin a vision, as somethingreturningupon
itself, ever repeatingitself by retrogressionand again going forward.This is the
object of the ancientMagianwisdom, and of thatfire doctrinein accordancewith
which the Jewish lawgiveralso left his people this saying: "TheLord,your God,
is a consumingfire"... 55 (emphasismine)
Although there is no direct evidence that Nietzsche read Weltalter, he did refer to Schelling in connection with Creuzer once during his Basel lectures.56 Schelling's circle of "eternal recommencing" (ewiges Wiederbeginnen) strikingly parallels the Eternal Recurrence (ewige Wiederkunft/Wiederkehr). His symbolism of the cycle
of "time... always devouring itself and always giving birth to itself
again... continually perishing in its own flames and rejuvenating itself
from the ash" evokes the ouroborus and phoenix57 that symbolize the
Eternal Recurrence. Perhaps most significant is Schelling's association
of the eternal cycle of opposites with both Heraclitus and the "ancient
Magian wisdom" (i.e. Zoroaster), an association we encountered also
in Bachofen and especially Creuzer.
55 Id. 116-17. I have supplied the German from Schellings Werke,ed. Manfred
Schr6ter,series I, vol. 4 (Miinchen:C.H. Beck, 1958), 606.
56
Vorlesungen1870-71, KGW11.3,p. 410.
57 KSA4, p. 82.
192
Robert A. Yelle
TheRebirthof Myth?
Forseveralof Nietzsche'sRomanticpredecessors,
theeternalcycle
of oppositeswas a specificallymythicidea, the distilledwisdomof
ancientpeoples.Theyplacedthehighestvaluenotonlyon thecontent
of thismythicdoctrine,butalsoon thesymbolicformof itsexpression,
as Bachofenexplains:
The alternationof light and dark color expresses the continuous passage from
darknessto light, from deathto life. It shows us telluriancreationas the resultof
eternalbecoming andeternalpassing away, as a never-endingmovementbetween
two opposite poles. This idea deserves our fullest attentionbecause of its inner
truth,but we must also admirethe simple expression of the symbol. The mere
opposition of light and dark color concretizes a profound thought which the
greatestof ancient philosophersseemed unable to express fully in words... The
sublime dignity and richness of the symbol reside precisely in the fact thatit not
only allows of but even encouragesdifferentlevels of interpretation,andleads us
from the truthsof physical life to those of a higher spiritualorder.58
Creuzerconcurred
in theconvictionthatmythwasa formof thought
to
superior philosophy:"Whatthenis moreimpressivethantheimage
[Bild]?Thetruthof a wholesometeaching,whichwouldbe lost on the
widepathof the concept,meetsits goal immediatelyin theimage."59
Or, "[W]hatwe call symbolic [Bildliches]... [is] nothing other than
the stampof our thought,a necessity,from which even the most

abstractandprosaic[niichtemste]
spiritcannotextractitself... "60
58Bachofen 18ff. (trans. Mannheim); cf. Bachofen 61-63 (trans. Mannheim):
"Myth is the exegesis of the symbol. It unfolds in a series of outwardlyconnected
actions what the symbol embodies in a unity. It resembles a discursivephilosophical
treatisein so far as it splits the idea into a numberof connectedimages andthen leaves
it to the readerto draw the ultimateinference... To expound the mystery doctrinein
words would be a sacrilege against the supreme law; it can only be representedin
termsof myth... Humanlanguageis too feeble to convey all the thoughtsarousedby
the alternationof life and deathandthe sublime hopes of the initiate.Only the symbol
and the relatedmyth can meet this higher need."
59 Creuzer4: 483. Here he also cited Pausanias'observationthat the wisest Greeks
spoke in riddles.
60 Id. 4: 527.
193
At the same time, as this last statement of Creuzer's suggests,

philosophy appropriated the originally mythic idea of the cycle of
opposites61, and even continued, in increasingly abstract form, the
symbolic manner of its expression. This development was represented
metonymically in the relationship of Zoroaster the myth-maker with
Heraclitus the philosopher:
Heraclitusthe Ephesian,in orderto representthe principalof his philosophy,the
dogma of oppositionas the foundationof all things, of cosmic harmonythrough
dissonance, of light and darkness,death and life... chose precisely the bow and
lyre for his chiaroscuropictures[helldunkeleBilder]. He had takenthe contentof
his teachings from the light-theoriesof the Orient;from therehe took his images
as well... These propositionsof ancient Magian teaching... these symbols of
the ancient light- and fire-templesof the Near East, these myths and festival
hymns ... the profoundphilosopherfromEphesusimpressedwith his sharp,deep
spirit, and expandedthem into a system of philosophemes [Philosophemen]:not
dialectical - this was reservedfor Plato later- but ratherpriestly, suggestive,
and in the characterof the Delphic king who, as Heraclitushimself said, "says
nothing, hides nothing, but hints instead."Whether this Heraclitus wrote one
[of the books attributedto] Zoroaster,as later testimony would have it, or not,
remains quite indifferent.It is enough that he philosophizedZoroastrically,that
he taughtlike the ancientgreatteacherof light Zerethoschtro,the Starof Gold.62
While claiming that philosophy developed out of myth, Creuzer

at times, in keeping with his valuation of myth, characterized this
development as a decline brought about in part through the agency
of philosophy, which contributed to the distinction of myth as "false"
speech.63 There was subsequently in the Alexandrian period a return
of myth:
The return[Riickkehr]and reestablishmentof [both] mysticism and symbolism
in mythology, and the total and permanentpredominanceof both... The thou61 "Platoand the Platonists,for
example, expressedthe activity of the spirit and its
relation to itself throughthe circularmovement, comparedthe spirit to a circle, and
sensuality to a straightline, spoke of a revolving [Umlauf] of the spirit, said that the
spiritmoves in a circle... " Id. 1: 43, n. 1. On Plato's use of othermyths, see 4: 563-64.
62 Id. 2: 599-601.
63 Id. 4: 520ff., 663.
RobertA. Yelle
194
sandfold stimulated,enriched,and strivinghumanspiritis pointed back on itself

[aufsich selbst hingewiesen],and observationreturns[kehrtzurick] within.64
Several strandsof this Romantic view of mythology seem to have

been taken up by Nietzsche in GT, in which the eternal cycle of opposites appearsas the mythicaldoctrinepar excellence and, moreparticularly,a symbol of the unity of the opposites myth and philosophy,
and of the rebirthof the formerout of the latter.Nietzsche in thatwork
placed the highest possible valuation on myth65,which he identified
with music, poetry, and tragedy,among other things. Myth took the
form of symbol, image, and metaphor:66thus "the capacity of music
to give birthto myth... and particularlythe tragic myth... which expresses Dionysian knowledge in symbols [or "metaphors:"Gleichnissen]" (GT 16, KSA 1, p. 107). Such illusion-creatingforms of expression were superiorto the "truths"or "concepts"of the philosopheror
scientist. Only one year later,in the essay "OnTruthand Lying in an
Extra-MoralSense,"he argued:
What is truth?A mobile army of metaphors,metonyms, anthropomorphisms,
in short, a sum of human relations which were poetically and rhetorically
heightened, transferred,and adorned,and after long use seem solid, canonical,
and binding to a nation. Truthsare illusions about which it has been forgotten
that they are illusions, worn-out metaphorswithout sensory impact... (KSA 1,
p. 880-8167).
64Id. 4: 666.
65 See GT 23, KSA1,
p. 145: "[W]ithoutmyth every cultureloses the naturalhealthy

power of its creativity:only a horizondefinedby myths completes and unifiesa whole
culturalmovement... Even the stateknows no more powerfulunwrittenlaws thanthe
mythical foundationthat guaranteesits connection with religion and its growthfrom
mythicalnotions."
66 In GT, Nietzsche employs all of these terms (Symbol,Bild, Metapher)without
any clear distinctionin meaning. While a detailed study of Nietzsche's use of these
terms, and any distinctions in meaning among them, would be necessary for a full
understandingof Nietzsche's Sprachlehre,for our purposeswe may take all of these
terms as roughlyequivalent.
67 Translatedin Sander Gilman, Carole Blair, and David Parent, eds, Friedrich
Nietzsche on Rhetoric and Language (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989),
246-57 at 250.
195
GT is an explicit riposte to Plato's distinctionbetween philosophy

and poetry (or myth), and devaluationof the latter.Nietzsche simultaneously abolished and invertedPlato's hierarchy:even philosophyis a
form of myth, albeit a debasedform. Nietzsche's valuationof myth is
thus encompassedwithin a radicalmonism in which "it is only as an
aestheticphenomenonthatexistence and the world are eternallyjustified" (GT 5, KSA 1, p. 47). This idea, which is rightfully regardedas
one of Nietzsche's most radicaldoctrines, echoes some of Creuzer's
contentions concerning the superiorityand inevitability of the image
(Bild) as a basis for thought.
For Nietzsche, this unity of myth and philosophy was not static,
but dynamic and cyclical. The death of myth could be tracedback to
Socrates and Euripides;the rebirthof myth would occur throughthe
agency of Wagner,and would represent,at the same time, the selfovercomingof philosophy.This rebirthis symbolized by the circle in
severalpassages,68most notablyin Section 15, the originalend of the
book:
[S]cience, spurredby its powerful illusion, speeds irresistiblytowardits limits
where its optimism,concealed in the essence of logic, suffers shipwreck.For the
peripheryof the circle of science has an infinitenumberof points;andwhile there
is no telling how this circle could ever be surveyedcompletely, noble and gifted
men neverthelessreach, e'er half their time and inevitably,such boundarypoints
on the peripheryfrom which one gazes into what defies illumination.When they
see to theirhorrorhowlogiccoilsupat theseboundaries

andfinallybitesits own
tail -
suddenly the new form of insight breaks through, tragic insight which,
to
merely be endured,needs artas a protectionand remedy...
Here we knock, deeply moved, at the gates of present and future: will
this "turning"["Umschlagen"]lead to ever-new configurationsof genius and
68 ... the
profoundpoet wants to tell us: though every law, every naturalorder,
even the moralworld may perishthroughhis actions, his actions also producea higher
magical circle of effects which found a new world on the ruins of the old one thathas
been overthrown"(GT 9, KSA 1, p. 65); "... amid all our culture [Germanmusic] is
really the only genuine, pure, and purifyingfire-spiritfrom which and towardwhich,
as in the teachingof the greatHeraclitusof Ephesus,all things move in a double orbit"
(GT 19, KSA 1, p. 128).
RobertA. Yelle
196
especially of the Socrates who practices music? (GT 15, KSA 1, p. 101-02) (first
emphasismine)
The rebirthof tragedythroughthe self-overcomingof philosophyis

depictedas the ouroborus,a symbol also hintedin the phrase"theedge
of wisdom turnsagainstthe wise" (GT 9, KSA1, p. 67), andprefigured
in a note from late 1870: 'The highest sign of the will: the belief
in illusion and theoreticalpessimism bites itself in the tail" (KSA 7,
5[68]). Nietzsche's depictionof the self-overcomingof philosophyas a
" 'turning'['Kehre']... at the gates of presentandfuture"foreshadows
the famous encounterof Zarathustrawith the Spirit of Gravity,when
the pathsof past and futuremeet at a gatewayinscribed"Moment."
The rebirth of tragedy is associated with both Heraclitus69and
Dionysus, especially the myth of Dionysus Zagreus' dismemberment
and laterreunificationand rebirth,which Nietzsche calls the "mystery
doctrineof tragedy"(GT 10, KSA 1, p. 73). In Za, he alludes to this
myth in connection with the EternalRecurrence:"Whatreturns,what
finally comes home to me, is my own self and what of myself has long
been in strangelands and scatteredamong all things and accidents"
(KSA4, p. 193); and:
Verily,my friends,I walk amongmen as among the fragmentsand limbs of men.
This is what is terriblefor my eyes, that I find man in ruins and scatteredas over
a battlefieldor a butcher-field... And this is all my creating and striving, that
I create and carry together into One what is fragmentand riddle and dreadful
accident.(p. 178-79; cf. p. 248)
These associationslend substanceto Nietzsche's later affirmations

of the close relationbetween GT and Za, tragedyand the EternalRecurrence.Do we then conclude that Nietzsche developed the doctrine
of the EternalRecurrencelong before its explicit arrivalin FW 341?
This characterizationwould be as unjustifiedas the opposite conclusion now appears:thatthereis no precedentfor the EternalRecurrence
in Nietzsche's earlierworks, that it sprang,Athena-like,fully-formed
from his brainin an instant,withoutrelationto existing currentsin his
69 See
precedingnote.
197
thought.If Nietzsche's rootsin Romanticismextendeddeeperthanhad

previouslybeen observed,it is also the case thatthose roots nourished
the furthestleaves and branchesof his philosophy.
What are we to make of such a resurfacing of Romantic ideas
in Nietzsche's mature philosophy, in his most importantbook Za
and central doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence?It is tempting to
conclude that the Eternal Recurrence, which Nietzsche introduced
with the words "tragedy begins," represented the rebirth of myth
predictedin GT.However,such a simplisticconclusion is complicated
and, potentially, contradictedby the critical, ironic, and parodying
elements in his maturephilosophy,which some have thereforelabeled
"antimythic."CristianoGrottanellihas framedthe problemwell:
The paradoxicalqualityof Nietzsche's use of mythicalnamesand images during
his third period lies in the fact that the German philosopherused such names
and symbols to indicate his stance that denied the possibility of reaching a
philosophical or religious truth, attacked and reversed accepted values, and
affirmedLife, the Will to Power, and the EternalReturnas guidelines implying
the refusal of all ethical, religious, and philosophical categories. This is the
opposite of the Romanticidea of a profoundreligious truthembodied in nature,
intuitedby the Volkand expressedin symbol and myth.70
Grottanelliwisely suggests that we avoid the extremes of suggesting thatNietzsche's maturephilosophyrepresentedeithera straightforwardreturnto myth,or a completerejectionof myth.He relies on Nietzsche's division of his own philosophy into three periods (described
above), in which the early Romanticperiod is separatedfrom the matureperiodby a middle periodin which the philosopherexpressedhis
greatestscientism and skepticism.Such a division precludesa simple
continuityof Nietzsche's Romanticism.
While endorsingthis interpretationin broadoutline,I would hasten
to point out that Nietzsche employed the eternal cycle of opposites,
which was for him originallya mythic idea, as a symbol for the philosophicalprojectof his skepticalmiddle periodinauguratedby Human,
All TooHuman ("MA").In the preface to the 1886 edition, Nietzsche
70Grottanelli 18.
198
RobertA. Yelle
describedthatbook as a "greatseparation,"in which he turnedon his

earlier thought:"He tears apartwhat attractshim" (Er zerreisst, was
ihn reizt)(MAVorrede3, KSA2, p. 17). This ouroboricbehavioris further specified:"Lonelinesssurrounds[umringt]him, curls round[umringelt] him, ever more threatening,strangling,heart-constricting,that
fearful goddess and mater saeva cupidinum."Throughthe repetition
of homonyms and an allusion to the ouroborus,Nietzsche placed MA
within the cycle of opposites. This suggests that, if Nietzsche in MA
separatedhimself from and destroyedhis earlier attachmentto myth,
he was to rejoin and recreatemyth later,in Za.
Such an interpretationmay, of course, be dismissed as mere hindsight. However,Nietzsche's division of his philosophy into three periods is also hindsight. And there are indications that Nietzsche may
have had a "returnto myth"in mind, a sort of hidden agenda, at the
time of writing MA. In the very first aphorism of that work, he rejected the absolute distinctionbetween opposites, arguedthatwe need
a "chemistryof moral, religious, aesthetic ideas and feelings," and
asked:"Whatif this chemistrymightend with the conclusionthat,even
here, the most glorious colors are extractedfrom base, even despised
[verachteten]substances?"(MA 1, KSA 2, p. 23-24). Although Nietzsche appearsto take a scientific turnby termingthe new art "chemistry,"his descriptionsounds much closer to the alchemical work, in
which opposites are reconciled, and lead (or other base substances)
turnedinto gleaming gold. This is confirmedby several passages in
his notes and letters, which reveal his concept of alchemy as the art
of producinggold out of precisely the most "despised"(verachteten)
substances,even out of excrement.71
Also in Part One of MA, Nietzsche argued that it is necessary
to move beyond a merely negative assessment of metaphysics and
71 Letter to
Georg Brandes, May 23, 1888, KGB III.5, p. 318-19; letter to Franz
Overbeck,December25, 1882, KGBIII.1, p. 312 ("IfI don't discover the alchemist's
art, to make gold even out of this - dung, then I am lost."); KGW VII.1, 7[155],
p. 301; and KGWVII.3, 16[43], p. 297; all cited in Perkins,"AnalogisticStrategies",
p. 325-26; and "Nietzsche'sopus alchymicum",p. 218-19.
TheRebirthof Myth?:Nietzsche's EternalRecurrence
199
religion to a positive appreciationof their value. He described this

as a "retrogrademovement"[riickldufigeBewegung] (MA 20, KSA2,
p. 41):
He must recognize how mankind'sgreatestadvancementcame from [metaphysical ideas] andhow, if one did not take this retrogradestep, one would rob himself
of mankind'sfinest accomplishmentsto date... Those who are most enlightened
can go only as far as to free themselves of metaphysicsand look back on it with
superiority,while here, as in the hippodrome,it is necessaryto take a turnat the
end of the track.(MA20, KSA2, p. 41-42)
The movement reintegratingwhat is positive in metaphysics and

religion, after first completely rejecting them, follows the patternof
the EternalRecurrence.Nietzsche may have takenthe specific symbol
of the retrogrademovementof the chariotfrom Creuzeror especially
Bachofen, for whom, as we have seen, it certainly representedthe
union of opposites. Nietzsche thus employed the cycle of opposites to
symbolize not merely the content of his philosophy,but also the form
of his own developmentas a philosopher.
Moreover,it is essential to keep in mind that, in many passages
in which Nietzsche appearsto attack myth, including the one from
MAjust quoted,he is actually attackingthe "faithin opposite values"
(JGB 2, KSA5, p. 16) which he associated variouslywith philosophy,
metaphysics,and religion, especially Christianity,as well as, in some
cases, with myth. Nietzsche's usage of the term "myth" does not
remain consistent. What does remain consistent, from GT onward
throughouthis career,is his rejectionof the idea thattherecould be any
absoluteopposites,andhis use of the circle to symbolize this rejection.
These features, even when separatedfrom the category of "myth,"
continue to mark Nietzsche's philosophy as originatingin Romantic
ideas of myth.
Nietzsche's mature philosophy certainly contains critical, ironic,
andparodyingelementsthatmightjustly be describedas "antimythic."
However,these elements harmonizewith, ratherthan contradict,the
idea of the cycle of opposites. A brief analysis shows that the most
nihilistic idea of the late period, the "Revaluationof All Values"
(Umwertungaller Werte), constitutes a form of this cycle. As we
RobertA. Yelle
200
have seen, Nietzsche employed verbal formulas which depict the

EternalRecurrencethroughthe repetitionof a key term. In the same
way, the formula "Revaluationof All Values," through a play on
the word "value" (Wert),encodes the repetition and reflexivity that
are identifying markersof the circle. The phrase carries even richer
nuances in the Germanbecause of the prefix "um-",which signifies
"around,""about,"or, more generally,"inversion."
If the content of Nietzsche's philosophyremainedremarkablyconsistent, it may be suggested that the more distinctive feature of his
maturephilosophy is that,whereasin GT he had only predictedthe rebirthof myth, and looked to Wagnerfor the fulfillmentof this prediction, in Za, where "tragedybegins,"Nietzsche called on his own poetic
agency in an attemptto createa new myth.72He later criticizedGT on
precisely these grounds:"It should have sung, this 'new soul' - and
not spoken!What I had to say then - too bad that I did not daresay it
as a poet: perhapsI had the ability"(GT,"Attemptat a Self-Criticism,"
KSA 1, p. 15). For the "genuinepoet" describedin GT, "metaphoris
not a rhetoricalfigurebut a vicariousimage thathe actuallybeholds in
place of a concept" (GT 8, KSA 1, p. 60). The consequence of Nietzsche's argumentthat"thetragic myth... expressesDionysianknowledge in symbols"(GT 16, KSA 1, p. 107) is thatNietzsche himself, the
prophetof Dionysus, must employ symbols to express the tragic idea
par excellence, the EternalRecurrence.In this way, he triedto accomplish in his own laterworkthe reconciliationof poetryandphilosophy,
and to become himself the "Socrateswho practices music" (GT 15,
KSA 1, p. 101-02; cf. GT 17, KSA 1, p. 111).
In the essay on GT in EH, Nietzsche refers to his early Wagnerin
Bayreuth(1876):
[I]n all psychologically decisive places... one need not hesitate to put down
my name or the word "Zarathustra"where the text has the word "Wagner."
The entire picture of the dithyrambicartistis a picture of the pre-existentpoet
72 Cf.
Megill 81: "The motif of a 'returnto myth'... persists, with NietzscheZarathustraplaying the remythifying role that in the early writings is played by
Wagner."
201
of Zarathustra,sketched with abysmal profundity and without touching even

for a moment the Wagnerianreality... At the beginning of section 9 the style
of Zarathustrais described with incisive certainty and anticipated... (KSA 6,
p. 314)
The section in question claims that Wagner "thinks in visible and

sensible processes [Vorgdngen], not in concepts, which is to say, that
he thinks mythically, as the people [Volk] have always thought. At
the foundation of myth lies, not a thought, as the children of an
unaesthetic [verkinstelten] culture suppose, but rather [myth] itself is
a thinking [Denken]..." (KSA I, p. 485)73 Substituting "Zarathustra"
for "Wagner,"we learn that the style of Zarathustra is none other than
the mythic.
Both the content and the form of expression of Nietzsche's Eternal
Recurrence borrowed from the Romantic mythological idea of the cycle of opposites. Although Nietzsche explicitly rejected his Romantic
roots, this does not seem to have kept him from developing this idea
into the central doctrine of his mature philosophy. The transmutation
of a Romantic mythological doctrine, almost in spite of itself, suits the
onward progression of the cycle of opposites. It matters little whether
we label the Eternal Recurrence "myth" or "antimyth." A more fitting description of Nietzsche's project than either of these terms is
Creuzer's notion of a Heraclitus who "philosophizes Zoroastrically,"
using symbols of the contraries.74 Without concluding that the Eternal
Recurrence represented a simple rebirth of myth, we can now recognize how and why Nietzsche claimed that, with this, "tragedy begins:"
it is a symbol for his mature philosophy as the apotheosis of his earlier,
Romantic self.
73 Cf. Nietzsche's latercommentson the style of Zarathustrain EH, KSA6, p. 340,
344.
74 When Nietzsche came across the (false) etymology of Zarathustraas "Starof
Gold,"which appearsin the same passage from Creuzeras the phrasejust given, but
also in othersources, he claimed to discover in it "theentire conceptionof his work."
Thatcher248 n. 28.
202
The Divinity School
The Universityof Chicago
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
RobertA. Yelle
ROBERTA. YELLE
BOOK REVIEWS
DAVIDR. JORDAN,HUGOMONTGOMERY
and EINARTHOMASSEN
(Eds),
The Worldof Ancient Magic. Papersfrom the first InternationalSamson
Eitrem Seminar at the Norwegian Institute at Athens, 4-8 May 1997
(Papers from the Norwegian Institute at Athens, 4) - Bergen: Paul
Astr6msForlag (distributor)1999 (335 p.) ISBN 82-91626-15-4 (pbk.).
Samson Eitrem was one of the leading experts of ancient magic and
divination in the 20th century.To mark his 125th birthday,scholars from
differentdisciplines gatheredat the NorwegianInstituteat Athens "toprovide
a forum for a wide range of contemporaryapproachesto the study of magic
in the ancient world"(editors' foreword).Magic has become a critical term
for religious studies lately and, simultaneously,a booming topic of academic
interest,resulting in a corocopia of publicationsthat are sometimes hardto
follow and appreciate.It is even more difficult to tell new perspectivesfrom
mere rearrangementsof already known documents or propositions. In this
volume the readerwill find both.
The 17 essays cover differentfields of interest,rangingfrom methodological problems to detailed case studies and philological questions, from the
early Greek period to medieval Viking religion. Although it may reflect a
multi-focussedperspective,the editors' decision not to divide the contentinto
differentpartsand even to omit an introductionthat tries to contextualizethe
volume's individual contributionsmakes it difficult for the reader to grasp
what really is at stake in contemporaryscholarship.In general, the contributions focus on the malign aspect of magic, marginalizingits beneficent use.
Therefore,the propositionthat 'magic' in ancient discourse is a category of
social andreligiousmisbehaviorgoes unchallenged.But this exactly is partof
the problem,as can be studiedwith the volume's more theoreticalessays: In
his contribution"Is magic a subclass to ritual?"(55-67), E. Thomassenproposes that "afterdeconstructionhas had its say, some work of reconstruction
may now be called for" (55f.). Discussing traditionaltheories of ritual and
performancehe shows his discomfortwith the result that "thereseems to be
no difference in principle"between a religious and a magical ritual. Therefore, he sticks to the definitionthat "[t]he rituals which we intuitivelylabel
? Koninklijke
NUMEN,Vol.47
204
Book reviews
magical are characterizedby their quality of being unofficial and private,"

furtherdistinguishingmagical rituals from other 'private'forms of devotion
"whichwe normallydo not want to classify as magic, such as prayer,or mystical exercises" (62, italics mine). Consequently,Thomassendescribesmagic
as "not only [... ] unsocial, but even anti-social"(62). That this conception
owes a lot to Christiantheology becomes even clearerwhen the "ego-centric
concentrationof power in the magician"and his "imperativecommandsexpressed in acts" come into play. This is not a reconstructionof a workingconcept of magic but the repetitionof old apologetic dichotomies.A similar
criticism must be raised against J. Braarvig'sessay "Magic:Reconsidering
the grand dichotomy" (21-54). After having reviewed the decline of theologically connotateddichotomies he simply - and highly tautologically!
establishes them anew: Religion is submissive, magic coercive; religion has
soteriological and collective aims, magic personal ones; religion is morally
accepted, magic is immoral, subversive and destructive;science is open for
"truth"(and compatible with religion), magic means persuasion,deceit and
fraud (see pp. 52f.). Reading these contributions,one wonders whether 'deconstruction'has ever takenplace.
Fortunately,various scholars represented in the volume move beyond
those categories, thus breaking new ground for future studies. Taking into
accountthe complexity of antiquity'sdiscoursesabout 'magic' they introduce
importantdifferentiations:S.I. Johnston ("Songs for the ghosts: Magical
solutions to deadly problems",83-102) argues that "the figure of the goes
[... ] was the precise term for a professional communicatorwith the dead"
(92) and emerged from an Orphic background.As such, he "was anything
but an outcast, feared and detested by the average Greek of the classical
period" (95). F. Graf ("Magic and divination", 283-298) sheds new light
on the difficult relationship between the magoi, Divination, and Orphism
(which he also links to goeteia). H.S. Versnel, in his essay on "curse texts
and Schadenfreude(125-162)" proposes to subdividethe genre of defixiones.
Withregardto their socio-religious functionhe correctlylabels some of them
'prayerfor justice' or 'judicial/vindictiveprayer' (127) and contextualizes
them in the ancient cultureof shame and honor. M.W. Dickie describes the
educationof the "learnedmagician"and the transmissionof his magical lore,
thus underliningthe thesis recently put forward that much of the ancient
magical documents were written and used by members of the upper social
and religious layers. R. Gordon, likewise, addresses "the difference in the
Book reviews
205
practitioners'education and social location" (248). Two contributionsJ.B. Curbera'sand D. Bain's - furtherremind us that the impact of Egypt
on magical, alchemical - and it may be added:esoteric - semantics is far
more relevantthan hithertoacknowledged.
All those approachesmake sufficiently clear what is needed in further
research:Detailed scrutinizationof the variousdiscourses,theirrhetoric,their
social contexts, and their Tragergruppen.This may also lead to a heuristic
typology of the magical specialist,includingher or his role in ancientsociety
and religion.
UniversitatErfurt
VergleichendeReligionswissenschaft
KulturgeschichteeuropaischerPolytheismen
P.O.Box 307
D-99006 Erfurt
KOCKUVONSTUCKRAD
MICHAELSTAUSBERG,
Faszination Zarathushtra.Zoroaster und die EuropdischeReligionsgeschichteder FriihenNeuzeit (Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten,42) - Berlin, New York: Mouton de
Gruyter1998, 2 vols. (1084 p.) ISBN 3-11-014959-1 (cloth) DM 470.00.
In recent years, GermanReligionswissenschafthas tried to open the door
to a new orientation,although the restrictionsthat were imposed on it in
the process of its institutionalizationas part of university departmentsof
theology are still alive and well. History of Religion stands for the history
of religions outside Europe; within Europe, religion is dealt with under
the heading of ChurchHistory,though obviously, religion in Europe is not
restricted to Christianity.But since the seminal lecture held by Burkhard
Gladigowin 1995, threemonographson the historyof Europeanreligion have
been publishedwith differentapproaches:Ulrike Schlott, Vorchristlicheund
christliche Beziehungenbei Kelten, Germanenund Slawen, Hamburg1997,
restrictsher topic to non-Christian'religions in Europe',envisagingthatthey
are to be studied mostly in their interactionwith Christiani7ation.A great
deal of her effort was invested in developing new terms for conceptualizing
this interaction.In 1996, the author of this review published a Groningen
dissertation on Mittelalterliche Eschatologie, in which it is argued that
religion as an integral part of an histoire totale must be studied in its full
? Koninklijke
NUMEN,Vol.47
206
Book reviews
social, local, and historical context and that one must look at the ways in
which it achievedacceptance,because the object of Religionswissenschaftis
the reception,not the conception,of religion. The thirdmonographis the one
underreview.
The two monumentalvolumes that make up the doctoralthesis writtenat
the universityof Bonn (with H.J. Klimkeit) are a programfor as well as the
realizationof a history of Europeanreligion. It is, as Stausbergpoints out in
his introduction(p. 1-34), not a history of religions in Europe (nor of European religion), but of the discourse on religion, debatedin the early modem
European'network'of intellectuals,beginningin the Renaissancethroughthe
end of the Enlightenment.Thus, the process of 'classical' eruditionemerges.
Discourse on religion frees itself of the fetters of scholasticism and biblical
exegesis. The even more ancient revelationof (first Hermes, then) Zoroaster
providesa fixed point from which one can observe religion from the outside;
the discussion is less restrainedby confessional polemics than the discourse
on Christianreligion.The 'Zoroaster'-discourseallows criticismand countercriticismof Christianreligion, both as historicalcriticism,e.g., the placement
of Zoroasterin sacredhistorycomparedwith Moses, Noah, or the like, andas
criticism of systematic/dogmaticterms, e.g., the Trinity.The Protestantconceptionof Catholicismas 'magical' is historicizedor even seen as the polluted
source of a subterraneanriver carryingthe better,esoteric religion. Inserted
into this history of Europeandiscourse on religion are 30 'discourses' opening new perspectiveson such issues as magic, astrology,alchemy,editionsof
'the text' of Zarathushtra,early stages of the scholarly discipline of Iranian
studies, and on individualscholars.
By restrictinghis scope to traditionsreaching as far back as the original
Christiansources,the authordoes not include the discussion between ancient
'pagan' thinkers.On this question,Jan Bremmerhas offered new insights in
which Christiancontinuity is embedded ("The birth of the term 'Magic',"
in: Zeitschriftfir Papyrologieund Epigraphik126 (1999), 1-12).
Two qualifyingremarks:This massive work covers a period of more than
300 years, from Gemistos Plethon to Voltaire,and uncovers many unknown
figures,or men known by name only. On the otherhand,the rest of the story,
i.e. the very differentstory of Nietzsche's Zarathustra,has yet to be written
in der Modeme I,"in: Mitteilungenfiir
(see Michael Stausberg:"Zarathushtra
und
Anthropologie Religionsgeschichte12, 1997 [1999], 313-324). Nevertheless, in the post-Enlightenmentperiodreligion is discussed in a very different
Book reviews
207
manner:Revelationis opposed to the eternallaws of nature,laws opposed to

life, etc.
The work underreview, Zoroasterin Europe,is only partof a greaterendeavour;the otherpart,a historyof Zarathushtrain Iran,is nearlycompleted.
Stausbergis not only an excellent scholarof early moder Europeanphilosophy, but even more so of Iranianreligion.
In sum, I would like to express first of all my admirationfor the erudition
of a very young scholar. Secondly, this opus magnum is a comprehensive
thesaurusof the debate on religion in early moder Europe, which has the
name Zoroasteras its startingpoint, a very fruitful, many-sided discussion
that nevertheless gets at the heart of the topic. The thesaurus contains
everythingaboutZoroaster,more than any readercould digest. However,per
aspera ad Zoroastria,a star is born: 'Zoroaster',i.e. the history of 'religion'
in early moder Europe,is a fundamentalwork, twin towers thatwill serve as
a landmarkfor futurestudies.
Abt. Religionswissenschaft
UniversitatTiibingen
Corrensstr.12
D-72076 Tiibingen
CHRISTOPH
AUFFARTH
VOLKHARD
KRECH,Georg Simmels Religionstheorie (Religion und Aufklarung, 4) - Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck 1998 (306 p.) ISBN 3-16147031-1 (pbk.).
Georg SimmelsReligionstheorie,the revised version of VolkhardKrech's
Ph.D. thesis at Bielefeld University, aims to reveal Simmel's status as a
sociological classic in the field of the studyof religion alongside Max Weber,
imile Durkheimand ErnstTroeltsch.
The book's first and main part is dedicated to a profound analysis of
Simmel's theory of religion the way it appears within the whole setting
of his writings. The difficulty to gain access to the way Simmel conceives
religious phenomenais, as Krech points out, at least partly due to the fact
that Simmel did not develop an exclusive approachto them, but deals with
religion from a variety of perspectives. In fact, Krech distinguishes four
layers in the Simmelian work: psychology, sociology, cultural studies and
philosophy of life. At each of them, religion is being dealt with. Thus,
individual religiousness as a psychological category which belongs to the
) Koninklijke
NUMEN, Vol. 47
208
Book reviews
inner, the "subjective culture" can be opposed, with Simmel, to socially

institutionalised religion belonging to the "objective culture". From the
perspectiveof culturalstudies Simmel focuses on the role that religion might
play in the process of the constitutionof personalidentitywhich is constantly
threatenedby the challenges of the modem world. In his philosophy of
life, eventually, the previous perspectives are being integrated within a
comprehensiveview of religiousness as a mode of life by which the dynamic
process of mutualinterchangebetween "subjective"and "objectiveculture"
proceeds.
The second partaims to reconstructthe impact that contemporarydebates
on religion exerted both on the genesis and the conception of Simmel's
theory.To reveal the "tacitknowledge" (Polanyi) Simmel's conceptions are
based on, and in orderto restorehis "ideallibrary",Krechsketches the main
concernsof the interdisciplinarydebateson religion at the turnof the century.
Thus, one rediscovers, among others, some of the main representativesof
protestanttheology - like Friedrich Schleiermacher,Adolf von Harnack
and Albrecht Ritschl - as important sources Simmel made use of. To
find even Meister Eckhart among the authors he drew large inspiration
from is not that surprising,if one takes into account that mysticism, the
search for authenticreligious experience was at the core of the attentionof
contemporaryintellectuals.
Once he has analysed the genesis of Simmel's theory of religion and put
it back into its original context, Krech, in the third part of his book, tries
to reconcile the heterogeneous approachesto religious phenomena that, in
his book's first part, he had distinguished in Simmel's writings. Though
stressingtheirfundamentalcoherenceand complementarity,Krechrepresents
the sociological approachas the nucleus of Simmel's concern with religion
and illuminates vice versa the significance that Simmel's theory of religion
has for his sociological theory as a whole. Finally, the reader's attentionis
turnedto the systematic relevancethat Simmel's approachto religion might
have to currentdebates within the field of religious studies, namely those
concernedwith the individualisationof religious life in moder society. Krech
shows how Simmel, considering religiousness as a part of the "subjective
culture",opens up a way how individualscan maintaintheir identity in face
of the moder process of increasingsocial and culturaldifferentiation.
Georg SimmelsReligionstheorieis a remarkableworkby an authorwhose
intimate acquaintance with Simmel's writings has already found its ex-
Book reviews
209
pression both in the Bielefeld edition of Simmel's complete works and in

the history of the sociology of religion around 1900 (cf. Georg SimmelGesamtausgabe,vol. 8 and 10, as well as the collected essays Religionssoziologie um 1900, all threeco-editedby Krech).Based on extensive bibliographical investigation,Krech'sbook will contributedecisively not only to deepen
the knowledge aboutcertainaspects of Simmel's work,but also to encourage
furtherresearchin the historiographyof religious studies.
Linprunstr.56
D-80335 Miinchen
ASTRIDREUTER
HELENHARDACRE,
Marketingthe Menacing Fetus in Japan - Berkeley,
Los Angeles, London:Universityof CaliforniaPress 1997 (310 p.) ISBN
0-520-20553-7 (cloth) $35.00.
Japaneseculture kept and keeps fascinating Japanese and non-Japanese
alike for any numberof reasons.One of them, germaneto the presentreview,
is that in a world obsessed with fear of overpopulationJapan is (or was)
worriedby a shrinkingbirth rate. As the "pill"was de facto prohibited(for
reasons that are better not mentionedhere), and abortionde facto legal, the
latter (ratherthan contraception)was the most widely practiced method of
birth-controland family-planning,especially as traditionalinfanticide has
been outlawed since Meiji. In some countriesabortionclinics and their staff
operate under threat, often religiously inspired, to their safety and lives.
In Japan they can openly advertise, and temples that were on the brink
of financial collapse some decades ago are now flourishing thanks to the
"abortedembryoboom"andto the myriadsof unbornsouls needing "requiem
masses", the latter openly propagatedby a priesthood which evidently did
not createthe demandout of nothingbut very actively exemplifiedthe law of
demandand supply,cateringto the needs of tens (or hundreds)of thousands
of women. But whence and why the demand and the need? What in this
ritualpracticeis a continuationof older beliefs and cults (the need to pacify
otherwisedangerouselyvengeful spirits?Buddhistmercy? Genuineparental
love tinged by bad conscience and wishing to bring salvationto the unhappy
errantsouls?), and what are responses and adaptationsto modem situations?
The Japanesenoun that originally signified mainly infant death, miscarriage
? Koninklijke
NUMEN,Vol.47
210
Book reviews
and stillbornbabies now acquiredthe almost specific sense of deliberate,socalled "artificial",abortion.

The phenomenonhas obviously generatedan immense literatureto which
Prof. Hardacre'sthoroughand very sophisticated,though not always satisfying and convincing, study is the most recent contribution.The documentation
is rich and contains much materialand draws on many sources untappedby
others,but yet somehow inadequate.The authorunfortunatelyseems to overestimate the value of certain publicationsand "research",and on the other
hand ignores, or refers very misleadinglyto, publicationsthat have traversed
the same groundno less thoroughlythough less brilliantly.More interviews
with women, bringing out the wide spectrumof attitudes,would have been
desirable, and the handwritteninscriptions by parents, especially mothers,
on the tens of thousands of ema (a kind of votive tablet, mainly appealing to Kannon or Jizo) in temple-groundswould merit systematic analysis.
The detailed account of mizukokuyo in four "locales"is thoroughand illuminatingbut surely insufficient.A chronological survey (by locale and sect
affiliation)of the adoption of the cult by temples would have made the account more valuable. A fascinatingchaptercould have been devoted to the
motivation (and success) of the priest(s) who initiated the cult and to his
consultations with the Buddhist sculptor who finally hit on the now ubiquitous standardtype of Jizo representation,unknownin traditionaliconography. The media obviously cashed in on this "spectacular"phenomenon,but
theirresponsibilityor co-responsibilityfor it, as suggestedby Prof. Hardacre,
(as distinct from indirect contribution)is surely an exaggeration,to put it
mildly.
Criticismnotwithstanding,this study is a valuable additionto our knowledge of modernJapanand the persistancein it of more ancient folk-beliefs,
and one hopes that it will be the last major contributionto the study of
mizukokuyo as a contemporaryphenomenon.In male dominatedJapanthe
anti-impotencepill Viagrawas immediatelypermittedand became a nationwide "bestseller".Perhaps also the ban on the contraception-pill,in force
for decades, will be lifted some time and contraceptionmay take the place
of abortion.Mizukokuyo will undoubtedlycontinue to exist, but in a minor
key.
Book reviews
The HebrewUniversityof Jerusalem
Dept. of ComparativeReligion
GivatRam
Jerusalem91904, Israel
211
R.J. ZwI WERBLOWSKY
JAMESL. Cox, Rational Ancestors: Scientific Rationality and African Indigenous Religions - Cardiff:Cardiff Academic Press 1998 (265 p.)
ISBN 1-899025-08-1 (pbk.)? 16.95.
The book is divided into three complementaryparts:theory and method,
the mythologumena,and rituals.The authordemonstratesa central concern
for methodology in pursuitof 'hermeneutical'understandingof the specific
religious context of Zimbabwe. He highlights the enigma of terminology
which has blurredthe understandingof indigenousAfricanreligions. Rejecting 'primalreligion' as a non-empirical,christiantheological construct,he
uses 'the religions of indigenouspeoples' as a more scientific descriptionof
religious phenomena,and adding 'geographical,ethnic and linguistic qualifiers where appropriate'.Specific problemsrelatingto theories, definitionof
myths and ritualsin Africa are discussed. The authorarguesthatcosmogonic
myths are rare in most parts of Africa, thus renderinginapplicablethe classical theories which define myths as primarilycosmogonic. While this may
be largely true of Zimbabweanmyths, it may not be a sufficient basis for
generalizingon the complexity of African myths. Using case studies based
largelyon data obtainedby his students(phenomenologyof religion students
in the University of Zimbabwe),he debunksthe myth-ritualhypothesis and
demonstrates,theoreticallyand practically,that ritualsare not re-enactments
of myths. He opines that mythologumenaand rituals provide the primary
wellspringfor envisioningreligious essence. His revised theory of myth and
ritual delineates a methodology for understandingby engaging in "diatopical hermeneutics"(Panikkar)or "a methodological conversion" (Krieger).
The authorelucidates a new horizon of understandingthroughthe systematic process of engaging his own "faithin the autonomyof reason"with the
faith of the indigenous Zimbabwean.Ostensibly not unawareof the limitations of this method, he suggests its applicationin otherreligious milieux in
order to attain a scientific understanding.An inherentnovelty in this book
lies in the documentation(partstwo and three) of his students' description
of Zimbabweanmyths and rituals.On the whole, the book demonstratesthe
? Koninklijke
NUMEN,Vol.47
212
Book reviews
vital link between theoryandpraxis.Devoid of wide generalizationsor classificationsbased largely on superficialcriteria,the study is a vital contribution
to knowledge, and forms a basis for comparativestudies of African religions
and cultures.New vistas are thus opened to historiansof religion, also comparativists,for methodologicallyreflectedresearchon Africanreligions.
Dept. of Religions
Lagos State University
P.M.B. 1087
Apapa.Lagos, Nigeria
AFE ADOGAME
Periodicals
Acta Comparanda,10 (1999).
HISTORYOF RELIGIONS,39 (1999),
David Carrasco, Uttered from the Heart: Guilty Rhetoric among the
Aztecs
JorunnJ. Buckley,Glimpsesof a Life: YahiaBihram,MandaeanPriest
RuqayyaYasmineKhan, Substitutionand Sacrificein the Classical Love
Story of Al-MuraqqishAl-Akbar
Don Handelman,The Playful Seductions of Neo-Shamanic Ritual (Review Article)
Book reviews.
Books
(Listingin this section does not precludesubsequentreviewing)
"Being Religious and Living throughthe Eyes." Studies in Religious Iconographyand Iconology. A CelebratoryPublicationin Honourof Professor
Jan Bergman. Faculty of Theology, Uppsala University. Published on
the Occasion of his 65th Birthday,June 2, 1998, ed. by Peter Schalk,
Editor-in-Chief,and Michael Stausberg, Co-Editor. Acta Universitatis
Upsaliensis, HistoriaReligionum, 14 - Uppsala 1998,423 p., ISBN 91554-4199-8 (paper).
MetzlerLexikon Religion. Gegenwart- Alltag - Medien. Herausgegeben
von ChristophAuffarth,JuttaBernard,HubertMohr,unterMitarbeitvon
Agnes Imhof und Silvia Kurre. Band 2: Haar - Osho-Bewegung Stuttgartand Weimar,Verlag J.B. Metzler, 1999, 632 p., DM 168.00,
ISBN 3-476-01552-1 (cloth).
Queen,ChristopherS. (Ed.), EngagedBuddhismin the West- Boston, Wisdom Publications,2000, 544 p., $ 24.95, ISBN 0-86171-159-9 (paper).
NUMEN,Vol.47
214
Marcaurelle,Roger, FreedomthroughInnerRenunciation:gankara'sPhilosophy in a New Light. McGill Studies in the History of Religions - Albany, NY, State Universityof New YorkPress, 1999, 269 p., US$ 19.95,
ISBN 0-7914-4362-0 (pbk.).
Versluis,Arthur,Wisdom's Children.A ChristianEsotericTradition.SUNY
Series in WesternEsotericTraditions- Albany,NY, State Universityof
New YorkPress, 1999, 370 p., US$ 25.95, ISBN 0-7914-4330-2 (pbk.).
The AnnualReview of Womenin WorldReligions, VolumeV, ed. by Arvind
Sharmaand KatherineK. Young- Albany,NY, StateUniversityof New
YorkPress, 1999,229 p., US$ 12.95, ISBN 0-7914-4346-9 (pbk.).
Burton, David F., Emptiness Appraised. A Critical Study of Nagarjuna's
Philosophy - Richmond, Surrey,Curzon Press, 1999, 233 p., ? 40.00,
ISBN 0-7007-1066-3 (cloth).
Anderson, Carol S., Pain and its Ending. The Four Noble Truths in the
TheravadaBuddhist Canon - Richmond, Surrey,Curzon Press, 1999,
255 p., ? 40.00, ISBN 0-7007-1065-5 (cloth).
Westerlund,David and IngvarSvanberg(Ed.), Islam Outsidethe ArabWorld
- Richmond,Surrey,CurzonPress, 1999,476 p., ? 45.00, ISBN 0-70071124-4 (cloth).
Kamm, Antony, The Israelites. An Introduction- London and New York,
Routledge, 1999, 242 p., ? 11.99, ISBN 0-415-18096-1 (pbk.).
Davies, Jon, Death, Burial and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity London and New York, Routledge, 1999, 246 p., ? 16.99, ISBN 0-41512991-5 (pbk.).
Dowden, Ken, EuropeanPaganism.The Realities of Cult from Antiquityto
the Middle Ages - London and New York, Routledge, 1999, 366 p.,
? 11.99, ISBN 0-415-12034-9 (cloth).
Raposa,Michael L., Boredomand the Religious Imagination.Series: Studies
in Religion and Culture- Charlottesvilleand London,UniversityPress
of Virginia, 1999, 199 p., $ 40.00, ISBN 0-8139-1898-7 (cloth); $ 13.95,
ISBN 0-8139-1925-8 (pbk.).
Segal, Robert, Theorizing about Myth - Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999, 184 p., ? 15.00, ISBN 0-1-55849-191-0 (pbk.).
215
Fowden, Elizabeth Key, The BarbarianPlain. Saint Sergius between Rome

and Iran. Series: The Transformationof the Classical Heritage, 28 Berkeley,CA, The Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1999, 227 p., $ 55.00,
ISBN 0-520-21685-7 (cloth).
Foltz, RichardC., Religions of the Silk Road. OverlandTradeand Cultural
Exchange from Antiquityto the Fifteenth Century- Houndmills,Basingstoke, Macmillan,1999, 186 p., ? 17.50, ISBN 0-333-77527-9 (cloth).
Binde, Per, Bodies of Matter.Notions of Life Force and Transcendencein
TraditionalSouthernItaly. GothenburgStudies in Social Anthropology,
14 - Goteborg,Acta UniversitatisGothoburgensis,1999, 300 p., SEK
190.00, ISBN 91-7346-351-5 (pbk.).
Sand, Erik Reenberg and J0rgen Podemann S0rensen (Eds.), Comparative
Studies in History of Religions. Their Aim, Scope, and Validity Copenhagen, Museum TusculanumPress, University of Copenhagen,
1999, 155 p., US$ 31.00, ISBN 87-7289-533-0 (pbk.).
Clack, Brian R., An Introductionto Wittgenstein'sPhilosophy of Religion
- Edinburgh,EdinburghUniversityPress, 1999, 137 p., ? 14.95, ISBN
0-7486-0939-3 (pbk.).
Lehtonen,Tommi,Punishment,Atonementand Merit in Moder Philosophy
of Religion - Helsinki, Luther-Agricola-Society1999, 292 p., ISBN
951-9047-50-6 (pbk.).
Flood, Gavin, Beyond Phenomenology.Rethinkingthe Study of Religion London and New York,Cassell, 1999, 303 p., US$ 75.00, ISBN 0-30470131-9 (hb.);US$ 28.95 ISBN 0-304-70570-5 (pbk.).
McDermott,Joseph P. (Ed.), State and CourtRitual in China. University of
CambridgeOrientalPublications,54 - Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press, 1999,446 p., ? 50.00, ISBN 0-521-62157-7 (cloth).
Lipner, Julius J., BrahmabandhabUpadhyay. The Life and Thought of a
Revolutionary- Delhi, Calcutta,Chennai,Mumbai,Oxford University
Press, 1999,409 p., ? 11.99, ISBN 019-564264-3 (cloth).
Hopkins, Keith, A World full of Gods. Pagans, Jews and Christians in
the Roman Empire - London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999, 402 p.,
? 25.00, ISBN 0-297-81982-8 (cloth).
216
Stone, Jacqueline I., Original Enlightenment and the Transformationof

Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Series: KurodaInstitute Studies in East
Asian Buddhism, 12 - Honolulu, University of Hawai'i Press, 1999,
544 p.,US$ 55.00, ISBN 0-8248-2026-6 (hc.).
O'Connell, Joseph T. (Ed.), Organizationaland Institutional Aspects of
Indian Religious Movements - Shimla, Indian Institute of Advanced
Study, 1999, 292 p., Rps. 500, ISBN 81-85952-62-0 (hc.).
DuBois, Thomas A., Nordic Religions in the Viking Age - Philadelphia,
PA, University of PennsylvaniaPress, 1999, 271 p., US$ 19.95, ISBN
0-8122-1714-4 (pbk.).
Gilli, Gian Antonio, Arti del corpo. Sei casi di stilitismo giore, Gribaudo,1999, 127 p., L 12.000 (pbk.).
Cavallermag-
Jenkins, Timothy, Religion in English Everyday Life. An Ethnographic

Approach.Series: Methodology and History in Anthropology,5 - New
York, Oxford, BerghahnBooks, 1999, 256 p., ? 14.50, ISBN 1-57181769-7 (pbk.).
Pettersson, Gerd, Finn and the Fian. Reflections of Ancient Celtic Myth
and Institutionsin Early and Medieval Ireland,Series: Skrifterutgivna
vid Institutionen for religionsvetenskap Goteborgs universitet, 21 Goteborg, Department of Religious Studies, University of G6teborg,
1999, 170 p., ISBN 91-88348-20-2 (pbk.).
Waardenburg,
Jacques,Classical Approachesto the Study of Religion. Aims,
Methods and Theories of Research. Introductionand Anthology. Series:
Religion and Reason, 3 - New York, Berlin, Walterde Gruyter,1999,
742 p., DM 48.00 ISBN 3-11-016328-4 (pbk.).
Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Handworterbuchfir Theologie und
Religionswissenschaft. Vierte, v6llig neu bearbeitete Auflage, herausgegeben von Hans Dieter Betz, Don S. Browning,BerndJanowski,EberhardJungel, Band 2: C-E - Tibingen, Mohr Siebeck, 1999, 1850 Sp.,
DM 398.00 (subscriptionprice), ISBN 3-16-146902-X (cloth).
Tatelman,Joel, The GloriousDeeds of Pimra:A Translationand Studyof the
Purnavadana- Richmond,Surrey,CurzonPress, 2000, 228 p., ? 40.00,
ISBN 0-7007-1082-5 (cloth).
217
Jackson, Roger and John Makransky(Eds.), Buddhist Theology. Critical

Reflections by ContemporaryBuddhist Scholars - Richmond, Surrey,
CurzonPress, 2000, 410 p., ? 14.99, ISBN 0-7007-1203-8 (pbk.).
Witchcraftand Magic in Europe.Volume 2: Ancient Greece and Rome, by
Valerie Flint, RichardGordon, Georg Luck, Daniel Ogden - London,
The Athlone Press, 1999, 395 p., ISBN 0-485-89102-6 (pbk.).
Witchcraftand Magic in Europe.Volume 5: The Eighteenthand Nineteenth
Centuries,by MarijkeGijswijt-Hofstra,Brian P. Levack, Roy PorterLondon,The Athlone Press, 1999, 340 p., ISBN 0-485-89105-0 (pbk.).
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. Volume 6: The Twentieth Century, by
Willem de Blecourt, Ronald Hutton,Jean La Fontaine- London, The
Athlone Press, 1999, 244 p., ISBN 0-485-89106-9 (pbk.).
Mode, Markus(Ed.), Zwischen Nil und Hindukusch.Archaologieim Orient.
Hallesche Beitrage zur Orientwissenschaft,28 - Halle, Martin-LutherUniversitat, Institut fur Orientalische Archaologie und Kunst, 1999,
211 p. (pbk.).
RELIGIONS IN THE DISENCHANTED WORLD

This special issue of NUMEN looks back at a centuryof religious studies.
The very title of the journal - founded in the middle of that century
testifies to a powerful academic position at that time. It borroweda notion
coined by Rudolf Ottothatconceivedreligion as an experienceof an irrational
power,expressedby the Latintermnuminosum.Fifty yearsearlierthe century
had started with a tremendousacademic and public concern for religious
history. An unsurpassed variety of approaches analyzed a host of new
religious data. The historizationof human institutions,of family, law, state
and society was extendedto include religions. That this occurredin a period
of rapidsocial and culturalchange was no coincidence.The studyof religious
history was expected to shed light on the condition of human life not yet
subjectedto the power of rationality.Doubts regardingthe belief in progress
determined the attitude of historians of religions towards the past. They
turneddistant sources into world views of their own time, making sense of
history,natureand identity.Weberintroducedthe notion of a disenchantment
of the world to indicate the new place of past religions in the moder
world: not residing in the external cosmos, but in the domain of subjective
meanings. For that reason Weber expected apocalyptic sects and esoteric
cults to be particularlypopular in the moder age (Hans G. Kippenberg).
It is exceedingly valuable to take a closer look at the institutionalizationof
religious studies as an academic enterprise(VolkhardKrech). By choosing
an approachthat analyzed religious traditionsas a basic element of moder
culture that did not vanish with the decline of churches, the protagonists
of religious studies disclosed religious dimensions even of crucial moder
institutions(as economy, individualism,humanrights,art).
The rich and bold beginning of religious studies soon was followed
by a narrowingof its focus. Religions were conceived as a more or less
privatematternot affected by the frighteningsocial and political turmoil of
the 20th century. When in the seventies apocalyptic views of history and
esoteric conceptions of nature reemerged in public and became popular,
the press and the media could not rely on scholarly notions that would
have grasped these phenomenaadequately.A new type of religious studies
arose facing that challenge. MartinRiesebrodtdestroyedthe prejudice,that
fundamentalismalways was a backwardmovement carried by uneducated
? Koninklijke
NUMEN, Vol. 47
220
Religions in the disenchantedworld
people. He introducedthe term as a scholarlyconceptthat indicateda

reactionof a traditional
socialmilieuto modernity
relyingonthelongstanding
traditionof apocalypticism.The case of "New Age" was similar.What
appearedto the mediaas a brandnew kind of religion,was disclosedby
WouterHanegraaffas an offshootof an old philosophyof nature.In the
presentissue both authorsaddressnew issues in the line of theirearlier
research.Theircontributions
showthatNUMENshiftedits
groundbreaking
focus.
A completenewsubject,stillunknowna centuryago,hasenteredreligious
studies:labormigration.A new kind of mobilityof religionsis taking
place:neithermissionnordiffusionof ideasor practices.MartinBaumann
addressingthat issue in a comprehensivestudy,took up the established
categoryof 'diaspora'.He forgedit into an instrumentthat shows how
externalconditionsaffecttraditional
religions,whenreligiouscommunities
areestablishedin foreigncountries.The finalcontribution
by TomLawson
presentsa theoryof religionsthatclaimsto replaceprevioussociologicaland
hermeneutical
approachesby a new explanatoryone. Justlike Linguistics
conceivesof languageas the capacityof talking,he approaches
religionas a
cognitiveresource.
HANS G. KIPPENBERG
RELIGIOUSHISTORY,DISPLACEDBY MODERNITY
HANS G. KIPPENBERG
The vanishingof 'history'from religious studies

Religious studies are flourishingagain. Fifty years ago most scholars were convinced that religions definitely belonged to the past and
were of interest only to a tiny group of specialists. Today religious
studies are pursuedby a host of people in a range of departments.Because of the relevance of culturalissues to the contemporaryworld,
religions have moved from the peripheryto the very center of public and academic concern.Their startlingresurgencehas given rise to
a growing numberof studies that explore this phenomenonin fresh,
new ways. Among the many publicationsthat have appearedrecently,
I would like to draw attentionto a volume edited by MarkC. Taylor,
which appearedin 1998. Entitled Critical Termsfor Religious Studies,1 it describes the field in terms of 22 notions - some of them old
acquaintances,others newcomers- from 'belief' to 'writing'. Each
article analyses the theoreticalvalue of one of these notions, examining it "in a particularreligious tradition."2Another volume, which
appearedrecentlyand which is entitledGuideto the Studyof Religion3
likewise explores such notions as 'classification', 'comparison',and
'gender' - 31 notions in all. Examiningthe concepts in the two volumes, I was struckby the absenceof both 'history'and 'tradition'from
each; ironically,only 'modernity'has survived.As it happens,though,
the essay on 'modernity'by GustavoBenavidesin CriticalTermsis not
a bad substitutefor the two 'missing' essays.4 Benavides conceives of
1Mark C. Taylor (ed.), Critical Termsfor Religious Studies. Chicago/London
1998.
2 Critical Terms 18.
p.
3Willi Braun/Russell T. McCutcheon (eds.), Guide to the Study of Religion.
London/NewYork2000.
4 "Modernity,"in Taylor,CriticalTermspp. 186-204.
NUMEN, Vol. 47
222
Hans G. Kippenberg
modernityas a self-consciousdistancingfromthepast- a breakdifferentin the domainof knowledgethanin the domainof moralityor

theseparation
of
aesthetics.Sincemoder reflexivityis self-referential,
has
the
of
thesedomains notled to disappearance religionsaltogether,
butto their"reflexiveorderingandreordering"
(G.Benavides).5(This,
foran essayon the
sadly,wouldhavebeena perfectpointof departure
of religions!)
'history'or 'traditions'
In his prefaceto CriticalTerms,Taylorarguesfor a positionthat
makesthe lacunaplausible:'religion'is not a universalphenomenon,
but ratherthe productof a complexWesternhistory.He refersto
JonathanZ. Smith'sessay 'Religion',which also appearsin this
volume.Theessayis particularly
valuable,sinceJ.Z.Smithelaborates
in it on his provocativesentence:"thereis no data for religion.
Smith'sessay
Religionis solely the creationof the scholar'sstudy."6
in CriticalTermstraces,stepby step,how the use andunderstanding
of the Westernterm'religion'hasbeenexpandingsincethe sixteenth
century,andalso howit becamea categoryimposedfromthe outside
on nativecultures,and claimedas somethinguniversaland natural
to everybody.7This observationof Smith'sand Taylor'sis in line
with a majorissue in historicalstudiestoday:the breakbetween
facts and wordsand betweenthe past and the present.A dilemma
andhistorianshauntsstudentsof religions
hauntinganthropologists8
too: namely,that evidencecannotbe clearlybe distinguishedfrom
Taylorconceivesof the issue in termsof 'invention':
representation.
"Farfromexistingpriorto andindependentof any inquiry,the very
phenomenonof religionis constitutedby local discursivepractices.
The investigatorscreate- sometimesunknowingly- the objects and

p.
6 JonathanZ. Smith,
ImaginingReligion. From Babylon to Jonestown. Chicago/
London 1982, p. XI.
7 Critical Termsp. 269.
8 Clifford Geertz, Worksand Lives. The
Anthropologistas Author. Cambridge
1988; James Clifford, The Predicamentof Culture.Twentieth-Century
Ethnography,
Literature,and Art. Cambridge(Mass.)/London 1988, cf. in particular"On ethnographicauthority"pp. 21-54.
Religious History,Displaced by Modernity
223
truthsthey profess to discover.Some critics claim that appearancesto

the contrarywithstanding,religion is a modem Westerninvention."9
Imaginingreligious history
But is this a reasonableconclusion? I think that there is a flaw
in the argument.Taylorconfuses the issue of historical imagination
with that of fiction. If one ignores that distinction, there is no need
anymore for notions like 'history' or 'tradition', indicating a past
effecting the present.If the referentis not only representedbut even
replaced by historiography,historians are presenting fictions in the
guise of facts. As a consequence'history'and 'tradition'do not belong
to the basic critical terms in religious studies. The question is: What
are we loosing and what are we gaining by doing so? In answering
it I first would like to explain why the distinction is basic to any
theoryof history.It is obviousfor everybodyreadingor writinghistory
that the representationof past data cannot be easily distinguished
from imagination or fiction. Where exactly runs the line between
them? That dilemma has fuelled reflections on historiographysince
the 19thcentury.The complex and rich debatequickly has turnedinto
the fundamentalissue of the validity of any historical knowledge in
comparisonparticularlywith naturalsciences. Instead of going into
all the details I restrict myself to short comments on the issues of
the evidence and of imagination,backed by two recent authors.The
first point concerns the status of historical sources. There is a wide
9 Critical Termsp. 7. Taylor'sposition seems to me confusing as regardsthe status
of theory: either theories of the scholars refer to the same data (and compete in
explainingthem) or they constitutedifferentdata (and describe them from different
angles). These two possibilities clearly need to be distinguished. In the first case,
theories are competing explanationsof the same data, while in the second they are
complementaryperspectiveson the same data. The difference is nicely explained in
a sharpletter by Robert A. Segal to the editor of Method and Theory in the Study
of Religion 11 (1999) pp. 75-76. That the pluralityof definitions,currentin religious
studies, should be regardedas case of pragmatics,is the common denominatorin Jan
G. Platvoet/ArieL. Molendijk(eds.), The Pragmatics of Defining Religion. Contexts,
Conceptsand Contests.Leiden 1999.
224
Hans G. Kippenberg
agreement,thatevidenceis not natural.Whena historianrefersto a

'fact',he or she does not referto somethingnaturalor evenevident.
The 'fact'too hasto be conceived.Thathappensalongdifferentlines,
as a recentdebatehasdemonstrated
again.HaydenWhiteconceivedof
'events'into
a 'fact'as theoutcomeof a processturningunstructured
a narration.
The narrativegenrefunctionslike a protocolprocessing
data.Itsrhetoricalmeansmetapher,metonymy,synekdocheandirony
areestablishingthese 'facts'.Evidenceis not natural,butconstituted
accordingto elementarynarrativeforms. The imaginationof the
of evidencebelongtogether.10
historianandthestructure
PaulRicoeur
of
this
because
its
of
facts,
rejected concept
privilegingthe narrative
form.Accordingto himthehistorianbreakswiththelevelof narration.
Thehistoricaloperationconsistsof threeinterrelated
butindependent
and
documents
as
witnesses
of pastevents,
steps:selecting
studying
explainingactionsgeneratingthese events,conceivingof a text.The
fundamental
differencecomparedwithHaydenWhitearethe notions
of actionandof time.11Thisdebateis onlyoneamongothers.Whether
one follows White or Ricoeuror somebodyelse: The need for an
explicationof whatis meantby 'fact'is inevitable,sinceit is partand
No scholarof religionscanor should
parcelof thehistoricaloperation.
avoidit.
A secondassumptionhas to do withthe subjectiveconcernof the
historianthatinformshis choice of documents,his constructionof
facts andhis text. This activityis a kindof transcendental
category
in historiography
that cannotbe removed.Since facts exist only
due to the meaningsattributedto them,historicalinterpretation
is
connected
with
them.
we
are
What
need
methods
a
critical
for
firmly
10
Hayden White, "Figuringthe Nature of the Times Deceased: LiteraryTheory
and HistoricalWriting,"in: Ralph Cohen (ed.), The Future of LiteraryHistory. New
York/London1989. Germantranslation:"Literaturtheorie
und Geschichtsschreibung,"
in: Herta Nagl-Docekal (ed.), Der Sinn des Historischen. Geschichtsphilosophische
Debatten.Frankfurt1996, pp. 67-106.
11Paul Ricoeur, "Histoireet
rhdtorique,"in: Diogene 168 (1994), pp. 1-18. German translation"Geschichte und Rhetorik,"in: Herta Nagl-Docekal Der Sinn des
Historischenpp. 107-125.
225
evaluationof them. Among them comparisonin particularis yielding.

A comparisonof the texts of historiansreveals that their perceptions
of the past depend on their attitudes to the present. Historians in
describing past facts do more than chronicle them: they turn these
facts into something worth remembering, attribute significance to
them.12Notions like 'nation', 'class' and 'religion' likewise transform
historical data into concepts relevant to the contemporaryworld of
the scholars. In my book Die Entdeckungder Religionsgeschichte.
Religionswissenschaftund Modeme13I have used this point of view
in order to demonstratethat the study of past religions by 'classical'
scholars of religions has been informed by their experience of the
rise of the moder world. Imaginingpast religions is not necessarily
arbitrary.To the contrary:it can be an importantsource revealinghow
scholars and their audiencereacted to the passing away of traditions
and to the challenges of modernity.Brute facts about the past are
readas containingexperiences,relevantto presentexpectations.14The
meaning historiansattributeto them is open to an examinationof the
evidence. Thereis no otherway to distinguishimaginationfrom fiction
except in terms of their differentepistemological status in the face of
historicalevidence.
Behind the issue looms a larger one: that the expectation of a
vanishingof religions from the moder world has failed. The idea of
12Jm
Riisen, Historische Vernunft.Grundzugeeiner Historik I: Die Grundlagen
der Geschichtswissenschaft.Gottingen1983 chapter2: "Pragmatik- Die lebenspraktische Konstitutiondes historischenDenkens";cf. Klaus E. Muller/JornRiisen (ed.),
Historische Sinnbildung.Problemstellungen,Zeitkonzepte,Wahrehmungshorizonte,
Darstellungsstrategien.Reinbek 1997.
13Miinchen 1997. An English translationwill appearwith PrincetonUniversityin
2001.
14The issue has been clearly detailed by ReinhardKoselleck, "'Erfahrungsraum'
und 'Erwartungshorizont'- zwei historische Kategorien." Idem, Vergangene
Zukunft.Zur SemantikgeschichtlicherZeiten. Frankfurt/M.1979, pp. 349-375. Cf.
Keith Jenkins, Re-ThinkingHistory. London/New York 1991 pp. 27-57, and Chris
Lorenz, Konstruktionder Vergangenheit.Eine Einfiihrungin die Geschichtstheorie.
Koln/Weimar/Wien1997, pp. 177-187.
226
Hans G. Kippenberg
progressthatsupportedthatexpectationgavewayto an epistemology
of history.TheGermansociologistGeorgSimmelexplainedthiswell
in a book aboutthe philosophyof history.Referringto Kant,he
pointedout that accordingto Kantnatureis a pervasivepowerfor
mankind.Kant'scriticalepistemologyturnedthatinconceivable
power
into categoriesof the humanmind;Simmelwantedto do the same
withhistory.15
We deservea criticalreflectionon history,in orderto
turnthe tacitpowerof historyinto conceptsof the humanmind.I
thinkthatSimmel'sideahelpsto clarifythe issue.Simmelandothers
assumedreligionas a lastingpower in the moder world.Isn't it
naiveto thinkof religionsas deservingour recognitionbecauseof
theirwonderfulexpressionof culturaldifferenceandpersonalidentity?
Thereis sufficientreasonto believe thatpeople can be trappedin
religioustraditions
just as theyaretrappedin naturallaws,unableto
from
either.
It appearsthat 'history'and 'tradition'are most
escape
crucialandrelevanttermsin religiousstudiestoday.Withoutthemwe
neverwillbe ableto conceiveof modernityas "areflexiveorderingand
of religions",to quoteBenavides.Thoughreferringto the
reordering
revivalof 'religioustradition',MarkTaylorexcludedeven 'tradition'
fromhis 'criticalterms'.But if modernityinvolvesa continuation
of
the past as well as a breakwith it, as the rise of the notionitself
we need to knowthe past in orderto knowthe present.
indicates,16
In thewordsof Dilthey:"Whatmanis, onlyhistorytells him."
A debate in 1910 among social scientists about the lasting power of
religions
Is the presentscholarlygenerationreallythe firstthatsensesthe

MarkTaylorappearsto thinkso,judging
powerof religioustraditions?
fromthesewords:"A centurythatbeganwith modernismsweeping
15Georg Simmel, Die Probleme der Geschichtsphilosophie(1907), ed. by Guy
Oakes/KurtRottgers. Georg Simmel, Gesamtausgabe.Vol. 9, Frankfurt/M.1997,
pp. 229-230.
16Hans RobertJauss,
"Antiqui/moderi (Querelledes Anciens et Modernes)."In:
Historisches Worterbuchder Philosophie. Bd. . Darmstadt1971, pp. 410-414.
227
across Europe is ending with a remarkableresurgence of religious

beliefs and practicesthroughoutthe world."17However,we only have
to returnto the first meeting of German sociologists in Frankfurtin
1910 to see the situationthenas very differentfrom the one thatTaylor
suggests. On 21 October 1910, the church historian Ernst Troeltsch
gave a paper on "Stoic-ChristianNatural Law and Modem Secular
NaturalLaw."18It elicited such an intense debate - in which Max
Weber,Georg Simmel, FerdinandTonnies, EberhardGothein, Martin
Buber, and Ernst Kantorowiczparticipated- that the minutes of the
meeting were publishedas well.19
Some of the scholars attendingwere convinced that moder phenomena such as 'capitalism'and 'individualism'could not be understood in terms of theirmoder functionalone. The ethos of hardwork
or the notion of humanrights, necessary for the functioningof modern institutions, had their roots in a particularWestern culturalhistory, to which Judaism,Hellenism, Roman culture, and Christianity
had madefundamentalcontributions.It was this convictionthatheightened scholarly interest even in highly specialized areas of religious
history.Max Weberappearsto be alludingto that conviction when he
writes at the end of his famous essay "The ProtestantEthic and the
'Spirit'of Capitalism"(1904-5): "Themoder man is in general,even
with the best will, unableto give religious ideas a significancefor culture and nationalcharacterwhich they deserve."20The social scientist
knew better:despite the modernityof economic or legal institutions,
the mentalityinformingthem was somethingdifferententirely.
p.
18Erst Troeltsch, "Das stoisch-christlicheNaturrechtund das modere
profane
Naturrecht,"in: Verhandlungendes Ersten Deutschen Soziologentages vom 19.-22.
Oktober1910 in Frankfurta. M. Tiibingen1911 pp. 166-192. The paperwas published
separatelyin: HistorischeZeitschrift106 (1911) pp. 237-267.
19The minutes are publishedin Verhandlungendes ErstenDeutschenSoziologentages pp. 192-214.
20Max Weber, The ProtestantEthic and the Spirit of Capitalism Translatedby
TalcottParsons(1930). London/NewYork 1997, p. 183.
228
Hans G. Kippenberg
Troeltschhad devotedmanyyearsto this issue in his research.In

a well-knownarticleon 'The Significanceof Protestantism
for the
he arguedthatthe modemworldwas
Rise of the ModemWorld,"21
a continuation
of the pre-modemone particularly
withrespectto individualism- which,farfrombeingthe outcomeof an emancipation
fromtradition,had religiousroots.Ideascan remainpowerful,even
if contestedseriously.22
Thepaperthathe gavein 1910addressedthe
fact
that
hadbeeninstitutionalised
Christianity
by threedispuzzling
tinctsocialforms:the 'church'thatadministered
the sacraments,
the
'sect'as a communityof trueandseriousbelievers,andfinally'mysticism' as a radicalformof individualism.
Eachof these socialforms
establisheda distinctguidingprinciplefor dealingwith the natural
laws of the world.The 'church'regardedthese naturallaws as necessarilydifferentfromtheperfectlaw of Christ,anddidnotexpectthe
laityto actaccordingthelatterlaw.The 'sect',in contrast,recognised
one law only,thatof unconditional
andcreateda funbrotherliness,
damentaltensionbetweenthe perfectbelieverandthe naturalworld.
Andfinally,'mysticism',whichtook the divinelightto be insidethe
of anycommunity
believer,establishedan individualism
independent
andjustifiedanindifference
to theexternalworld,religiousinstitutions
included.Accordingto Troeltsch,then,thesethreesocialformsrepresentedthreedifferentconceptsof a Christianattitudeto theworldand
its laws,all threeformsbeinggenuinelyChristian.
Troeltsch'spaperthoughhighly specialisedhit a crucialpoint,
as the debateshows.The minutes(which,as I alreadynoted,were
publishedtogetherwiththelecture)giveuniqueaccessto theconcerns
of manyof the period'smajorintellectualfigures,searchingfor the
rootsof the mentalconditionsoperativein the moder world.Georg
21"Die
Bedeutung des Protestantismusftir die Entstehung der moderen Welt."

Historische Zeitschrift 97 (1906) pp. 1-66. Later published separately in revised
form as Die Bedeutungdes Protestantismusfir die Entstehungder modemen Welt.
Miinchen/Berlin1911.
22"Die heutige Welt lebt so wenig wie irgendeine andere von der Konsequenz;
geistige Machte konnen herrschen, auch wenn man sie bestreitet"(Bedeutungdes
Protestantismus1911, p. 22).
229
Simmel,who had publisheda book on religionin 1906,23raised

had any social significanceat all, giventhat
doubtsthatChristianity
it recognisedone problemonly: the soul and its relationto god.24
Demandingbrotherlylove, it transposedthis demandfrom the real
worldto the domainof the soul and its god alone. The attitudeto
the worldwas accordinglyone of indifference.25
MartinBuber,too,
in
out
debate
that
was
not
a social category
the
pointed
mysticism
at all, but only a psychologicalone, which deniedthe value of any
A yearearlier,Buberhad,withEugenDiederichs,edited
community.
a collectionof confessionsof mystics.In
EkstatischeKonfessionen,
his prefaceto thisvolume,he hadinterpreted
the experiencesthatlay
behindthesedocumentsas thoseof witnessingsomethingessentialin
humanlife, whichtranscended
man,on
rationality.26
Contemporary
of life,is misrepresented
thisunderstanding
and
by modeminstitutions
cut off fromrealisingthe potentialof his own self. In contemplating
historicaldocuments,he is able,at least,to recognisethisgap.27
Max Weberalso took the floor.Five yearsearlier,he had traced
theriseof capitalismto PuritanProtestantism.
A marketeconomyrean
ethos
different
from
that
quired
requiredby a traditional
economy.
Puritansects hadplayeda role in bringingaboutthe necessarytransformation:
theyhadinstructedtheirmembersto seek salvationnotby
butby workinghardandabstainingfromplearelyingon sacraments,
sures.Peoplewho transformed
thatattitudeinto practicecontributed
or not)to the rise of a marketeconomy.But theirsuc(inadvertently
23
Georg Simmel, Die Religion. Frankfurt/M.,1906.
24
Verhandlungenp. 204.
25
Verhandlungenp. 205. Accordingfo VolkhardKrechSimmel has been stimulated
the
vitalist discussion on mysticism. Georg Simmels Religionstheorie.Tiibingen
by
1998, p. 210.
26M. Buber (ed.) EkstatischeKonfessionen(1909) Minchen, 2. ed. 1994 by Peter
Sloterdijk."Zuerstscheintder Menschmit dem NamenGottesvorehmlich das erklart
zu haben, was er an der Welt nicht verstand,dann aber immer ofter das, was der
Mensch an sich nicht verstand.So wurde die Ekstase- das, was der Mensch an sich
am wenigsten verstehenkonnte- zu Gottes hochsterGabe"(p. 55).
27
Verhandlungenpp. 206-7.
230
Hans G. Kippenberg
cess had a high price: it turnedpersonal conviction into an iron law.

"ThePuritanswantedto work towarda calling; we are forced to do so.
For when asceticism was carriedout of monastic cells into everyday
life, and began to dominateworldly morality,it did its partin building
the tremendouscosmos of the modern economic order."The Puritan
ethos became an "ironcage".28His own researchled Weberto reject
Troeltsch'sthesis that only the church,and not the sects, could establish Christianityas a truly popularreligion.29The case of the United
States, Weberargued,leads to the opposite conclusion:exclusivity did
not preventsects from becoming popular.The United States were (and
are) "the most religious country",in terms not only of quantityof adherents,but also of devoutness.But there "Christianityhad (and has)
for the most part adoptedthe form of sects:" "It is precisely because
religion has, in fact, taken the form of the sect that religion has become so popular."30
Weberalso addressedthe issue of mysticism, and
defended against Buber's critique the claim of Troeltsch that mysticism is a genuine social form of Christianity.This has been shown,for
example, in the impact that the Orthodoxchurchhas had on Russian
philosophy and literature,and in the fact that even the rise of Russian
agrariancommunismcan be tracedto the Orthodoxchurch.Religious
history explains the mindbehind modernpractices.
That Mark Taylor is not familiar with these debates is perhaps
not his own fault, and has a great deal to do with the history of
our discipline. After the First World War, anti-historicismspreadin
religious studies, severing for decades the link between the study of
religions and that of moderninstitutions.To see this intellectualshift,
28Max Weber,The ProtestantEthic and the
Spiritof Capitalismp. 181.
29"Das stoisch-christlicheNaturrechtund das modere
profaneNaturrecht"p. 175.
30"Gerade, weil der religi6se Typus dort faktisch der Sektentypus ist, ist die
Religion dort Volkssache, und weil dieser Sektentypus nicht universal, sondem
exklusiv ist, und weil exklusiv, seinen Anhanger innerlich und aulBerlichganz
bestimmteVorziigebietet, darumist dort die Stattedes Universalismusder effektiven
Zugehorigkeitzu religiosen Gemeinschaften"(Verhandlungenp. 201; reprintedin
M. Weber, GesammelteAufsitze zur Soziologie und Sozialpolitik. Tiibingen 1924,
pp. 468469).
231
one need only compare articles in consecutive editions of Religion

in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG). Take, for example, the entry
'sects'. In the first (and in the second edition too) of RGG, we find
the authorKohlerpointingto the statisticalincreasein the importance
of sects and explainingit as an inevitablereactionto the institutionof
the churchand its accommodationto the world.31 Here, we can still
recognise -
though in a watered-down form -
the issue raised by
Ernst Troeltsch:differencesbetween types of Christiancommunities

representdifferentattitudesto the world. In the thirdedition of RGG,
the focus of the entry has been narrowedstill further.Now Christian
sects are presented as marginal and as disturbing the unity of the
church. No word about the sect being a social form of its own with
a different but genuine attitude to the word, equal to the church.
By the time that this kind of Christiansocial form became popular
again, in the 1970s and 1980s, the establishednotion of sect could no
longer be used to representthis phenomenon.This led the media to
introducethe term 'fundamentalism'- which conveyed the message
that fundamentalistswere backwardand uneducatedpeople, not part
of the moder world or genuine Christianityeither.
Sects and their returnasfundamentalisms,challenging the belief in
progress
The astonishingcareerof 'fundamentalism'has triggereda wave of
scholarlystudies,which peakedin the years 1989-90. When historians
of religion undertookmore detailed researchinto 'fundamentalisms',
they alreadyknew thatthe notion was misleading.Thoughthe practice
of defininggenuine Christianityin termsof fundamentaldoctrineswas
importantto these groups,32the notion coveredneitherthe entirerange
of theirconcernsnoreven the most importantone. Moreover,it mistak31Kohler,"Sekten:I.
Dogmengeschichtlich."RGG 5. Bd. Tiibingen 1913, pp. 569575.

32In 1910 the General
Assembly of the Presbyteriansadopteda five point declaration, containingthe following essential doctrines:"theinerrancyof Scripture,the virgin birthof Christ,the atonementof Christ,the resurrectionof Christand the miracleworkingpower of Christ"(ErnestR. Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism.British
232
Hans G. Kippenberg
of millenarian
enlyemphasiseddoctrineandneglectedtheimportance
In other
expectationwhen,in fact,the latterwas the moreimportant.
as E.R.Sandeenobserves,"whichgave
words,it was millenarianism,
life andshapeto theFundamentalist
movement."33
Thefundamentalist
view of history,then,was partof a surprisingrenewalof millenarianism in the nineteenthand twentiethcentury.34 This is surprisingbe-
causemillenarianism
hadlostits reputation
amongeducatedpeopleafterthedevastating
civil warsof the seventeenthcentury.However,the
failureof the FrenchRevolution,togetherwith a loss of faithin reato flourishagain;andduringthe first
son,hadallowedmillenarianism
in Germanyas well as in England,millenarperiodof industrialisation
ianProtestant
sectsgrewlikewildfire.35
AmericanProtestants
adopted
the doctrinesof JohnNelsonDarby(1800-1892),who taughtthatthe
millenniumwouldbeginsuddenlywith the raptureof truebelievers.
thegreattribulation
wouldcome,togetherwiththeascenAfterwards,
of
the
Antichrist.
as this scenariois called,
Premillennialism,
dancy
enjoyeda popularityin the twentiethcenturythatwas not confinedto
fundamentalist
sects. One sourceof evidencefor this is Hal Lindsey
andC.C. Carlson'sTheLatePlanetEarth(1970),36whichtakesthe
threatof a nuclearwarandthe restoration
of Israelas fulfillmentsof
biblicalprophecies.The apocalypticclock is tickingagain,the final
battleat Armageddon
in Palestineis at hand.
and AmericanMillenarianism1800-1930. Chicago 1970, pp. 250-251). There were
otherdeclarationswith more than five points.
33 ErnestR. Sandeen, TheRoots of Fundamentalismp. XV.
34We owe a history of the ideas of messianic revolutionin the West during the
entire second millenniumto David S. Katz/RichardH. Popkin,Messianic Revolution.
Radical Religious Politics to the End of the Second Millennium.New York 1999.
35Eric J. Hobsbawm,PrimitiveRebels. Studies in Archaic Forms Social Moveof
mentsin the 19th and 20th Centuries.New York 1959, chapterVIII;Lucian Holscher,
Weltgerichtoder Revolution.Protestantischeund sozialistischeZukunftsvorstellungen
im deutschenKaiserreich.Stuttgart1989, pp. 74-134.
36This book has had a tremendousimpact on spreadingthe conception, that a
terrifyingdisaster is at hand, preceding final redemption.Until 1990 no less than 28
million copies have been sold.
Religious History, Displaced by Modernity
233
Let us now take a closer look at some of the research that has addressed the phenomenon of fundamentalism. Martin E. Marty's 1988
article "The Study of Protestant Fundamentalism as a Social Phenomenon",37 can be seen to have inaugurated this research on a large scale.
Marty conceived of the typical fundamentalist as someone who does
belong to the modem world, but who fights back against it. Moreover, fundamentalism was not, according to Marty, confined to uneducated people.38 An international research project, now complete,
which Marty led together with R. Scott Appleby,39 scrutinised fundamentalist movements in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism in
an attempt to address such questions - in particular, the question of
fundamentalists to the modem world. A crucial distinction between
'modernity' and 'modernism' was introduced into the study of fundamentalism in a detailed examination of the subject by Bruce Lawrence.
"Modernity," according to Lawrence, "is the emergence of a new index of human life shaped, above all, by increasing bureaucratization
and rationalization as well as technical capacities and global exchange
unthinkable in the premodern era. Modernism," on the other hand, "is
the search for individual autonomy driven by a set of socially encoded
37Martin E. Marty, "Fundamentalismas a Social Phenomenon."Bulletin of the
AmericanAcademyof Arts and Sciences 42 (1988) pp. 15-29.
38
Marty characterizedfundamentalistsas people perceiving the threats of the
modem world, that engage in retrievingcertainfundamentals,select them according
to their scandalouscharacter,form an exclusive movement, supporta dualistic world
view, regardrelativismand pluralismas their enemies, reject the idea of progressand
belief in an imminentend of history.
39The project has resulted in five impressive volumes, published with Chicago
University Press. They contain a huge amount of informationabout religions in the
modem world. MartinE. Marty/R.Scott Appleby (ed.), FundamentalismsObserved
Vol. 1, 1991; Fundamentalismsand Society. Vol. 2, 1993; Fundamentalismsand the
State, Vol. 3, 1993;Accountingfor Fundamentalisms.Vol. 4, 1994; Fundamentalisms
Comprehended.Vol. 5, 1995. The editorshave also publishedsome of the results in a
small paperbackentitled The Glory and the Power. The FundamentalistChallenge to
the Modem World.Boston 1992. Germantranslation:HerausforderungFundamentalismus.Radikale Christen,Moslems und Juden im Kampfgegen die Modeme. Frankfurt 1996.
234
Hans G. Kippenberg
valuesemphasizing
changeovercontinuity;
quantityoverquality;efficientproduction,
values
power,andprofitoversympathyfortraditional
or vocations,in boththe publicandprivatespheres."40
Fundamentalin modernitybutresistpayingtributeto
ists, on this view,participate
thespiritof modernism.
Thefundamentalist
movementhas also receiveda sociologicalexin
Martin
Riesebrodt's
planation,
studyPiousPassion.41In theUnited
States,Riesebrodtpointedout, fundamentalists
belongmainlyto the
white ProtestantAnglo-Saxonmiddleclass, whichwas once proud
of its particular
ethos.Forthis group,hardwork,diligence,modesty,
chastity,andfrugalitywerethewill of God.Butwithindustrialisation,
and science,all of these virtueslost
bureaucratisation,
urbanisation,
theirhighstatus.Withthisloss, theProtestant
into
groupdisintegrated
each
with
different
visions
of
the
future
liberal
Protestants
factions,
fromthepresentworldto thekingdom
believingin a gradualtransition
of Godthroughimprovingsocialconditions,fundamentalists
rejecting
of
the
future.
the
On
latter
the rise
view,
any optimisticconception
of moder societywas necessarilyaccompanied
by an apostasyfrom
Christian
ethicsandwouldinevitablyendin disaster.Fundamentalists
thusofferedtheirpremillenarian
scenarioas a challengeto theliberal
beliefin progressandin established
communities
of genuinebelievers.
Withtheriseof fundamentalism
andtheconsequentdesireof scholars
of religionto understand
it better,the studyof sects whichrejected
the worldyet still remainedimmenselypopularreturnedto religious
studies.
The reappraisal
of apocalypticism
duringthe twentiethcenturyaffectedevenphilosophers,
as demonstrated
by a famousdebatebetween
KarlLowithand Hans Blumenberg.In his stimulatingMeaningin
40Bruce B. Lawrence,Defenders of God. The FundamentalistRevolt against the
Modem Age. San Francisco 1989 p. 27.
41 Martin Riesebrodt: Fundamentalismusals
patriarchalische Protestbewegung.
AmerikanischeProtestanten (1910-28) und Iranische Schiiten (1961-1979) im Vergleich. Tiibingen 1990. Engl. Translation:Pious Passion. The Emergenceof Modern
Fundamentalismin the United States and Iran. Berkeley 1993.
ReligiousHistory,Displaced by Modernity
235
History, Karl L6with traced the belief in progress to biblical eschatology.42Lowith's evidence that such a secularizationtook place was
compelling.But did this form of secularizationentail a complete secularizationof biblicalbelief? Hans BlumenbergrejectedLowith's claim
and initiated a debate on this issue, which is still going on today.43
According to Blumenberg,apocalypticismand the belief in progress
have differentroots. The formerwas a specific response to the rise of
science and technology thatbegan in the eighteenthcentury,and presented an image of the futureas an open space to be graduallyfilled
in by predictabledevelopments.Apparently,however,religious expectations of a millenniumdid not vanish with this belief, but coexisted
with a secular idea of progress. There is no real contradictionhere,
since such expectationspoint to an existentialproblem,to the question
of the meaning of life. As such, neither understandingof history can
replace the other. Although Blumenbergmight have underestimated
the interrelationbetween the two kinds of expectations,44he explained
ratherconvincingly why people living in a scientific-industrialworld
have reasons to hold fast to an apocalypticscenario.The traditionhas
a distinct place in the modem world. Scholars of religions likewise
have grasped, that the meaning of past religious traditionscannot be
determinedwithouttheirpresentresonance.
Mysticismand its returnas esotericism,challengingthe belief in a
rationalmasteringof nature
A case similar to 'Fundamentalism'is 'New Age'. Let us return
once more to the RGG,this time to examine the entryfor 'mysticism'.
In the first edition of RGG, published in 1910, a special subsection
42Karl L6with,
Meaning in History. Chicago 1949. German version: Weltund
Heilsgeschehen.Die theologischen Voraussetzungender Geschichtsgeschichte
5.ed.
philosophie
Stuttgart1967, pp. 11-12.
43Hans Blumenberg, Die Legitimitat der Neuzeit. Frankfurt 1966, pp. 25-42.
Malcolm Bull deals with that debate in his introductionto Apocalypse Theory and
the Ends of the World.Oxford 1995, pp. 1-17.
44The point of M. Bull o.c.
236
Hans G. Kippenberg
entitled'New Mysticism'45describedcontemporary
attemptsto reassessmysticism.The authorof the entryemphasizedthatthe movementwasa newone, inspiredby FriedrichSchleiermacher,
by thenaturalphilosophyof G.T.Fechner,andby Buddhism.Adherentsof this
formof mysticismmadeuse of the mysticaltextspublishedby Eugen Diederichs,whichborewitnessto an ancientreligioustradition,
andwhichspoketo themof an innerexperiencethatrevealedthe humanself's divineessence,higherthanany authority.
The movement
to
the
individual
to
resist
and
hoped empower
rationality materialism
a religioustradition.46
This 'NewMysticism'subenby reconfirming
in
the
second
edition
of
RGG,
tryreappeared
publishedin 1930,where
the authornow celebratedRainerMariaRilke'sStundenbuch
(1906)
as the perfectionof a new mysticism,47
reference
avoided
to
yet
any
the culturalandpoliticalsignificancethatmysticismhadin Germany
at the end of 1920s.The 'New Mysticism'subentryis still presentin
the thirdeditionof RGG,publishedin 1960,butnowrefersto therevivalof mysticismabout1900!Apparently
thetwoWorldWarsandthe
dominanceof politicalconcernshavemadethistypeof religiona privatematterwithoutpublicclaims;no allusionis madeto mysticismas
a socialformof Christianity,
witha longhistoryandgreatpublicresonance.No attemptwas madeat imagininga pastChristianpracticeas
relevantto thepresentworld.
In the 1960s,however,the assessmentof the mysticaltraditionbeganto changeagain.Peoplein the Westbegantappingheterodoxand
to achievea newkindof religiosity:one thatinvolved
pagantraditions
goddessworship,magic,witchcraft,astrology,andprophecy.Themedia thatspreadtheseideaswerebookstores,therapies,seminars,and
45W. Hoffmann, "Mystik":III. "Neue Mystik." RGG Vol. 4. Tubingen 1913,
pp. 608-612.
46Gangolf Hiibinger, "Kulturkritikund Kulturpolitik des Eugen-DiederichsVerlagsim Wilhelminismus.Auswege aus der Krise der Modeme?"In: H. Renz/F.W.
Graf (eds.), UmstritteneModeme. Troeltsch-Studien4. Giltersloh 1987 pp. 92-114;
idem (ed.), Versammlungsort
modernerGeister.Der Eugen Diederichs Verlag-Aufbruch ins Jahrhundertder Extreme.Munich 1996.
47 RGG2,Vol. 4, Tiibingen 1930, p. 358.
237
music.Sincethegroupsconcerneddidnothavepriorties to a church,
sociologistsof religionreferredto themas 'cults'to distinguishthem
from 'sects'.48The notionof 'cult' had a cleargenealogy,its roots
lying in a kindof 'culturaltranslation'of Troeltsch'sthirdcategory
in the group consisting of 'church', 'sect', and 'mysticism'.49While
Troeltschconceivedof 'mysticism'as an expressionof genuineindividuality,whichrejectedbothcommunityandthe cultureof rationalism, Americanscholarsseveredthe connectionbetweenthe rejection

sincetheformercould
of a dominantcultureandgenuineindividuality,
be anactivityof anentiregroup.As a consequence,Troeltsch'snotion
into personalmysticalreligions,on the
of 'mysticism'disintegrated:
one hand,anddeviantreligiouscommunities,on the other.This discreateda new problem:how to describethe guidingidea
integration
of 'cults'?The EnglishscholarColinCampbellpresenteda solution:
"Giventhatculticgroupshavea tendencyto be ephemeralandhighly
unstable,it is a fact thatnew ones arebeingbornjust as fast as the
old ones die. Thereis a continualprocessof cult formationandcolat the individlapsewhichparallelsthehighturnoverof membership
uallevel. Clearly,therefore,cultsmustexist withina milieuwhich,if
notconduciveto themaintenance
of individualcults,is clearlyhighly
to
of
conducive the spawning cultsin general."50
Thereligiousmilieu
of cultmembersis thusaccordedgreaterimportancethanthe guiding
ideasof thevariouscults.
48"When a sect breaks
away from a church, it takes with it the label 'religion'.
But cults are not born with the religious label attached:"Rodney Stark/WilliamSims
Bainbridge, The Future of Religion. Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation.
Berkeley 1985, p. 34.
49Colin Campbell, "The Cult, the Cultic Milieu and Secularization".Sociological Yearbookof Religion in Britain 5 (1972) pp. 119-136; cf. Hubert Knoblauch,
"Das unsichtbareZeitalter.'New Age', privatisierteReligion und kultisches Milieu."
KZSS41 (1989) pp. 504-525 on pp. 511-513; HubertKnoblauch,Die Weltder Wiinschelrutengiingerund Pendler.Erkundungeneiner verborgenenWirklichkeit.Frankfurt/NewYork 1991, pp. 29-30.
50C. Campbell,"TheCult, the Cultic Milieu and Secularization"pp. 121-122.
238
Hans G. Kippenberg
One significantelementof this phenomenon- 'New Age' - began
to receiveseriousscholarlyattention,
forwhichtheyears1994-96were
decisive.These yearssaw the appearanceof threemonographsthat
whichresembled'fundamentalism'
analysedthiselusivephenomenon,
insofaras 'NewAge', too,wasa fashionablelabelspreadby themedia
andpublishers.The GermanscholarChristophBochingertracedthe
rise of this popularlabel, showinghow it subsumedmanydistinct
treatment
phenomena.For this reason,his book is a comprehensive
of the entirerangeof 'New Age' themes.51PaulHelaas,in his New
Age Movement,soughtto reducethe varietyof beliefs andpractices
that 'New Age' represented
by claimingthe existenceof a kind of
guidingideabehindthesebeliefsandpractices:a conceptof thehuman
self transcending
thepowerof tradition.52
'Detraditionalization'
is the
key notionin his approach.It also becamethe titleof a collectionof
essaysthathe editedby well-knownscholarsof religiousandsocial
Thebeliefsandpracticesof New Age servein an attemptto
studies.53
the
liberate self fromthepowerof a traditionthathas separatedmind
andmatter,subjectandobject,individualand nature.'New Age' is
a distinctlymodemphenomenon,acceleratingthe fall of traditional
man.ThoughHelaaspresentsa strongthesis, one elementremains
the power
mysterious:wheredoes the notionof a self transcending
of the traditionalworldcome from?Helaasappearsto haveignored
the studies,whosenumbersandargumentsare substantial,
thathave
tracedthemodemconceptof the self to religioussources.54
51
Christoph Bochinger, 'New Age' und modeme Religion. ReligionswissenschaftlicheAnalysen. Giitersloh,2. ed. 1995.
52Paul Helaas, The New
Age Movement. The Celebration of the Self and the
Oxford
1996.
Sacralizationof Modernity.
53Paul Helaas/ScottLash/PaulMorris
(eds.), Detraditionalization.CriticalReflections on Authorityand Identity.Oxford 1996.
54I restrict myself to some titles only: Richard A. Shweder/RobertA. LeVine
(eds.), CultureTheory.Essays on Mind, Self, and Emotion. Cambridge1984 (in the
traditionof George HerbertMead); Michael Carrither/StevenCollins/StevenLukes,
The Category of the Person. Anthropology,Philosophy, History. Cambridge 1985
(containing in translationthe seminal article by Marcel Mauss "A Category of the
Religious History, Displaced by Modernity
239
Doubts about the interpretation of 'New Age' as detraditionalization were lent additional credence when 'New Age' was linked to esotericism. Antoine Faivre presented 'esotericism' as an old philosophy
of nature, having a long tradition, which originated in ancient culture,
particularly in Alexandrian Hermetism and was handed down through
Western culture to our own. Faivre conceived of it as a particular 'form
of thought'55 that sees correspondences between all of the parts of the
universe. As Faivre writes: "It is the imagination that allows the use of
these intermediaries, symbols and images to develop a gnosis, to penetrate the hieroglyphs of Nature, to put the theory of correspondences
into active practice and to uncover, to see, and to know the mediating
entities between Nature and the divine world."56 The Dutch scholar
Wouter Hanegraaff took the logical next step of identifying 'New Age'
as an offshoot of that tradition.57 What at first sight appeared to be a
label subsuming rather diverse elements now displayed much more coherence: 'holism' was the guiding principle. This interpretation readily explained why 'New Age' had benefited from moder theoretical
physics and biology in its conception of life and the cosmos as a system
that, like a bicycle rider, has to keep restoring its balance. The principle of 'New Age' is this one: spirit is the dynamic of a system keeping
itself alive, and matter and spirit cannot be separated.58 Hanegraaff's
Human Mind: The Notion of Person, the Notion of Self* (pp. 1-25); Hans G.
Kippenberg/YmeB. Kuiper/AndyF. Sanders (eds.), Concepts of Person in Religion
and Thought.Berlin/NewYork1990;Louis Dumont,Essais sur l'Individualisme.Une
perspectiveanthropologiquesur l'iddologie modere. Paris 1983; AlbertBaumgarten
(with Jan Assmann and Guy G. Stroumsa)(ed.), Self, Soul and Body in Religious
Experience.Leiden 1998.
55Antoine Faivre,Access to WesternEsotericism.New York 1994, pp. 10-15.
56Antoine Faivre,Access to WesternEsotericism 12.
p.
57WouterJ. Hanegraaff,New Age Religion and WesternCulture.Esotericismin the
Mirrorof Secular Thought.Leiden 1996. "Theterm 'New Age Science' is actually a
misnomer:its real domain is not naturalscience, butphilosophy of nature"(p. 64).
58Hubert Knoblauch, "'New
Paradigm' oder 'Neues Zeitalter'? Fritjof Capras
moralisches Unterehmen und die 'New-Age-Bewegung'," in: J. Bergmann/
A. Hahn/Th.Luckmann(eds.), Religion und Kultur.Opladen 1993, pp. 249-270.
240
Hans G. Kippenberg
approachallowedthe variouspracticesassociatedwith 'New Age' to

be seen as havingunity.Take,for example,the distinctionbetween
diseaseandillnessandbetweencuringandhealing."Diseasesarebioareconcernedwithcurphysicalconditions,andmedicalpractitioners
in
these
conditions.
has
to
do withthe 'complex
Illness,
contrast,
ing
social,psychological,andspiritualconditionof the sick person',and
constitutesthe properdomainof healing."59
Illnessis no longerattributedto mainlyorganicfailure,whichrequiresmedicaltreatment.
It
is resultof a mistakenunderstanding
of one'sownlife. 'Difficulttimes'
deservea reflection,whichrelatesthe personandhis or herbodyto
cosmiclife andrhythmagain.Whenillness,divorceorunemployment
aredealtwithproperly,
theycanbe turnedintostagesof an 'authentic'
life. 'Esotericism'in this sense has becomepartof the biographyof
peopletoday.60
Inquiryinto moder 'cults'confirmsthe conclusionwe drawfrom
'fundamentalism'.
Sincethe thirdandfourthdecadeof the twentieth
the
century, perceptionthatreligionscontinuedto holdpowerin moderntimeshaddisappeared.
If we replace'fundamentalism'
by Weber's
'sect',or 'NewAge' by Buber's'mysticism',we suddenlyrediscover
a theoryassuminga significanceof certainreligioustraditionsfor inhabitantsof themoder world.
Disenchantmentas a challenge to imagination
It is worthmentioningthatWeberdevelopeda modelto explainthe

new careerof religionsin the moder age. It was partof a discovery
thathe madein 1911.At thattime, accordingto his wife Marianne,
Weberbegana fresh,intensestudyof worldreligions.He discovered
notonlythatthemoder economicethoshadhadits originin religious
belief, but thatreligiousrationalismhad permeatedthe entirefabric
of Westernculture.Weber'skey termwas 'disenchantment',
which
indicatedthe long historicalprocessof rationalization
thatpreceded
59WouterJ.
Hanegraaff,New Age Religion and WesternCulturepp. 42-43.
60Cf. Horst Stenger,Die soziale KonstruktionokkulterWirklichkeit.Eine Soziologie des "NewAge". Opladen 1993, pp. 139-245.
241
the modem age and had its origins in ancient religious belief. This
developmentwas fuelled by the problem of theodicee, which served
to explain,justify, and even codify a permanentincongruencebetween
fate and merit, and between fact and meaning.61As a consequence,
the world was devalued- a preconditionfor a rationalattitudeto a
worldgovernedby its own laws and devoid of any inherentmeaning.62
Weber'sdiscovery implied a reassessmentof mysticism - a marginal
phenomenonin his study of the Protestantethos of capitalismwhich
now assumedgreatimportance.In describingher husband'sdiscovery,
MarianneWeber speaks of two trends fundamentalto the history of
mankind:"Onthe one hand,a rationalcontrolof the world and on the
other hand, the mystical experience."63In Weber's own words (from
his introductionto the "Economic Ethic of the World Religions"):
"The unity of the primitiveimage of the world, in which everything
was concrete magic, has tended to split into rational cognition and
masteryof nature,on the one hand, and into 'mystic' experiences on
the other. The inexpressiblecontents of such experiences remain the
only possible 'beyond', added to the mechanism of a world robbed
of Gods."64In 1913, Weberdeveloped a systematic reconstructionof
these trends, that was published posthumously by MarianneWeber
as the chapter "Sociology of Religion" in Economy and Society.
In this work, Weber sketched a universal historical drama leading
to different principles for leading one's life. The process of the
61These theodicees differed in their
explanations. Weber regardedonly three of
them as rationally sufficient: the Indian doctrine of the transmigrationof the soul,
the Zoroastriandualism, and the Protestantdoctrine of predestinationby a deus
der Weltreligionen.Konfuzianismus
absconditus.Cf. Max Weber,Die Wirtschaftsethik
und Taoismus(1915-1920), ed. by H. Schmidt-Glintzer.MWG I/19. Tiibingen 1989
pp. 246, 520-22; Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion. Translatedby Ephraim
Fischoff. Boston 1991, pp. 138-150.
62M. Weber,Die Wirtschaftsethik
der Weltreligionen.Konfuzianismusund Taoismus p. 515.
63MarianneWeber,Max Weber.Ein Lebensbild.Tubingen 1926 pp. 348-349.
64Hans H. Gerth/C.WrightMills, From Max Weber:Essays in Sociology. Oxford
1946 p. 282.
242
Hans G. Kippenberg
world's'disenchantment'
was acceleratedby prophets,by particular
socialclassesandhistoricalconditions,andby intellectuals.Weber's
oftenunderstood
as a universalcategory
conceptof 'disenchantment',
of historicalevolution,embedsan often overlookedtheoryof how
religionsare transformedin the modem world. This theoryis as
follows:"Asintellectualism
suppressesbelief in magic,the world's
lose theirmagicalsignificance,and
become
disenchanted,
processes
henceforthsimply'are'and 'happen'butno longersignifyanything.
As a consequence,thereis a growingdemandthat the world and
the totalpatternof life be subjectto an orderthatis significantand
meaningful."65
Weareback,then,wherewe started:withtheissueof imagination.

Weberrecognisedthe necessityto identifyspecificcategoriesdeterminingmodemreceptionsof religioustraditions.The significanceof
pastreligionshasbeendeeplyaffectedby theprocessof 'disenchantment'.Religioushistoryhas becomea majorsourceof meaningin
a worldincreasinglyregardedas devoidof it. Weberreturnedto the
link betweenthe world's'disenchantment'
andreligiosity'snew rise
in a still fascinatingpubliclecture,"Scienceas Profession",delivered
in 1917in Munich.In thislecture,Weberarguedthateven scienceis
the productof religioushistory:it dependson a belief "thatprincipallythereareno mysteriousincalculableforcesthatcomeintoplay,
butratherthatone can,in principle,masterall thingsby calculation.
Thismeansthatthe worldis disenchanted.
One need no longerhave
recourseto magicalmeansin orderto masteror implorethe spirits,as
Weber
did the savage,for whomsuchmysteriouspowersexisted."66
of
pointedout thatbecause the dominanceof a calculatingattitudeto
the world,religionshaddefinitely"retreated
frompubliclife: either
into the transcendental
realmof mysticlife or into the brotherliness
of directandpersonalhumanrelations."67
YetWeber'sownwordsbeIndeed,the beliefin
traysomedoubtaboutthe successof rationality.
65Max
Weber,The Sociology of Religion p. 125.
66Hans H. Gerth/C.
WrightMills, FromMax Weberp. 139.
67Hans H. Gerth/C.
WrightMills, FromMax Weberp. 155.
243
controllingthe worldneverentirelydominatedscholarlyor public discourse nor did it remainunchallenged.On the contrary,the careersof
sects and of mysticism, of fundamentalismand New Age, of apocalyptic views of history and of esoteric conceptions of man and nature:
all of these have relied on scientific and public discourse, rejecting
too bold claims. Doubts are the threadthat winds throughthe stories
of fundamentalismand esotericism,and those of sects and mysticism.
The experienceof disenchantmenthas displacedreligious history.We
needrevisedconceptsof 'history'and 'tradition'in orderto understand
the religious historyof the past century.
Stg. Religionswissenschaft
UniversitUtBremen,FB 9
Postfach330 440
D-28334 Bremen,Germany
HANS G. KIPPENBERG
FROMHISTORICISMTO FUNCTIONALISM:THE RISE OF

SCIENTIFICAPPROACHESTO RELIGIONSAROUND 1900
AND THEIRSOCIO-CULTURAL
CONTEXT1
VOLKHARD KRECH
Religion continuesto be a subjectof reflectionwithin all advancedcivilizationsandespeciallyin modemsociety.Froma scientific-historical

point of view, however,those discussionshave to be
distinguishedfrom regularacademicdiscourse.The science of religion arosewithinthe formationof the modemscientificcanonin the
secondhalfof the 19thcentury.Scientificreligiousresearchhadbeen
institutionalized
andinstitutes.
by differentdisciplines,professorships,
It formedits own theoriesandschoolsandbeganto organizeits discoursesby specialcongressesas well as by its own publications.In
this sensethe historyof the scienceof religionhas alreadybeensubtherise
ject to severalexaminations.2
Attemptsthoughto reconstruct
of scientificapproachesto religionswithregardto socialandcultural
aremorerecent.3Whatwerethereasonsfortheincreased
development
interestin scientificreligiousresearch?And,whatwas its culturalrelevance?In the following,I will give a briefoutlineof somerelations
betweenthe rise of scientificapproaches
to religionsandtheirsocioculturalcontextby meansof selectedparadigms.
1I
express my thanksto Sabine Shariffor her assistancein the translationand the

editing of this text.
2 See, on behalf of
others, E.J. Sharpe,ComparativeReligion. A History, 2nd ed.
La Salle 1986.
3 See H.G.
Kippenberg,Die Entdeckungder Religionsgeschichte.Religionswissenschaftund Modeme, Munich 1997, espec. 259ff.
NUMEN, Vol. 47
FromHistoricismto Functionalism
245
1. TheExperienceof Developmentand Change
There have certainlybeen social and culturalshifts duringall

timesandwithinall levelsof civilization.The 19thcentury,however,
of intensified
representsan age of rapidchangeand simultaneously
reflectionto an extentthathadbeen unknownso far.The reasonfor
thisis to befoundin thetechnical-industrial
progressandtheenormous
andchangeledto the
expansionof knowledge.Increasing
development
discernment
thatcultureis contingentandthereforecauseda needfor
re-orientation.
Thedynamicprogressionof socialdevelopmenthadconsequences
on the modeof scienceas well as on its subjects.On the one hand,
scienceturnedto empiricismandbeganto reflecton its own tempoOntheotherhand,the
ralitywiththetransitionintothe 19thcentury.4
scientificsubjectsthemselvesbeganto be examinedfroma historical
History,
pointof view.Thisinterestin historyresultedin historicism.5
however,hadnotonlybeenrelevantas a merereservoirof facts.Peoof theirown situaple wonderedaboutthe historicaldeterminedness
tion.Thatis whyhistoryhadto be ableto explainthedevelopment
as
well as theoriginsof contemporary
and
culture.
These
circumsociety
stancesrepresentthebasisforvariousevolutionary
theoriesto emerge.
determined
of
culture
in generalandthe
the
Theypersistently
history
beginningof scientificreligiousresearchin particular.
Thus,the 19thcenturyis not only markedby historythathas been
rediscoveredand newly acquiredafterthe Age of Enlightenment.
It
also representsthe centuryof theoriesof origination.Scholarsof
variousprovenancestrovefor the knowledgeof the historicalgenesis
Withintheculturalandsocialresearch
of differentculturalphenomena.
themostfavoredsubjectsto thiskindof perspectivewere:language(s),
religion(s),the family,and, the legal and economicalinstitutions.
But that was not yet sufficient!Historyof cultureshould lead to
4 Cf. W. Lepenies, Das Ende der Naturgeschichte.WandelkulturellerSelbstverstandlichkeitenin den Wissenschaftendes 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts,Frankfurta.M.
1978, 16ff.
5 See F.
Jaegerand J. Riisen, Geschichtedes Historismus,Miinchen 1992.
246
VolkhardKrech
the reconstruction
of a successionof those institutions.The highest
concernwasto answerthequestion:"Whatandwhereis theone origin
of culture?"
The attemptto 'discover'the one historicaloriginof cultureinevitablyhadto fail takingthe linguisticfindingsof JohannGottfried
von Herder,JohannGeorgHamann,Wilhelmvon Humboldt,Jacob
GrimmandTazarGeigerintoaccount.6Theabsolutebeginningof culturecouldnotbe reconstructed.
manyscholDespitethis discernment
arsnevertheless
triedto get as close as possibleto theoriginof culture.
In thiscontextthefollowingscholarsandtreatiseswithintheresearch
on the historicaloriginof social institutionshave to be mentioned:
HenryMainewithAncientLaw(1861),JohannJakobBachofenwith
Das Mutterrecht(1861), and Lewis Henry Morganwith Ancient So-
ciety(1877).Approacheswithinthe scopeof economicalhistoricism
were - to a certainextent- also based on evolution-boundlevel the-
KurtBreysig,GeorgvonBeories,e.g., theworksof KarlLamprecht,

theories
low,KarlBiicher,andEduardMeyer.However,evolutionary
of originationwereespeciallyappliedwithinresearchon religions.7
the originof culThegenealogicalmethodthattriedto reconstruct
turehad variousscientific-historical
roots,althoughDarwin'stheory
of evolutionprobablyhadthe highestimpacton its boom.Onlya few
of OntheOriginof Species8JohnF.McLenyearsafterthepublication
evolutionism:"Inthe
nandevelopedhis conceptof culture-historical
sciencesof law and society,old meansnot old in chronology,butin
thatis the mostarchaicwhichlies nearestto the beginning
structure:
andthatwhichis most
of humanprogressconsideredas a development,
6 Cf., e.g., H. Steinthal,Der Ursprungder Sprache im Zusammenhangemit den
letztenFragendes Wissens,4th rev. ed. Berlin 1888, 359 et passim.
7 In regard to the religious-historicalevolutionism within the context of different paradigmsin the science of religions about 1900, cf. H.G. Kippenberg,"Rivalry
among Scholars of Religions. The Crisis of Historicism and the Formationof Paradigms in the History of Religions,"in: Historical Reflections/RelexionsHistoriques,
Vol. 20, 1994, No. 3, 377-402.
8 Ch. Darwin, On the
Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the
Preservationof FavouredRaces in the Strugglefor Life, London 1859.
247
modem which is farthestremovedfrom thatbeginning."9EdwardBurnett Tylorthen was the firstto take an evolutionaryconcept as a basis
for the historyof religions.10Althoughtakingnote of Darwin'stheory
of evolution, he did not directly refer to it. Within his two volumes
of PrimitiveCulturefrom 1871 Tylorunfoldedthe theory of animism.
Withthis concept he claimed to have discoveredthe properclue to the
genesis of religion.
As far as methodologyis concerned,the variousempiricaldata had
to be classified and put into a coherent sequence. Tylor applied both
these methods to the history of culture. His approachthereforeis an
example of giving up spatiallyconceived classification systems in favor of temporalizationof the complex data.1l He repeatedlydraws a
comparisonwith methodsof the naturalsciences, e.g., botany and zoology. He also reflectson the heuristicstatusof the theoryof evolution.
Tyloridentifies an open question within the naturalsciences, namely
"whethera theoryof developmentfrom species to species is a recordof
transitionswhich actuallytook place, or a mere ideal scheme serviceable in the classificationof species whose origin was really independent."12This uncertainty,however,would not be valid for the subject
of ethnology,as "fordevelopmentin cultureis recognizedby our most
familiar knowledge."13Industrialprogress, for instance, would give
grantingexamples for an evident history of evolution.14In this context Tylor specifies a class of facts that he calls "survivals."Survivals
are those phenomena"which have been carriedon by force of habit
into a new state of society differentfrom that in which they had their
9 J.F. McLennan,Primitive
Marriage. An Inquiryinto the Origin of the Form of
Capturein Marriage Ceremonies,Chicago 1970 (orig. 1865), 6.
10Cf. Edward B. Tylor, Primitive Culture. Researches into the Development of
Mythology,Philosophy,Religion, Language,Art, and Custom,2 Vol., London 1871;
in the following I will use the 4th edition dating from 1903.
1 See for the
historyof science in generalLepenies, op. cit., 18f.
2 Tylor,op. cit., 14.
3 Ibid., 15.
4 "Such
examples of progressionare known to us as direct history"(ibid., 15).
248
VolkhardKrech
Theycouldbe acceptedas a proofandexamplesof

originalhome."15
anolderconditionof culturefromwhicha newonehasdeveloped.At
thesametimeevolutioncouldnotalwaysbe consideredas anabsolute
andunilinearprogress."Progress,
survival,revival,modidegradation,
binds
of
connexion
that
are
all
modes
the
fication,
togetherthecomplex
networkof civilisation."16
Accordingto Tylor,onlyfromanideational
of
of
view
the
point
process civilizationleadsto a higherorganization
of the individualand the society.Justat the end of this processthe
culturalidealsof humanityareputintoeffect.17Withinrealitycultural
Evolutionism
evolutioncoversprogressionas well as degeneration.18
thereforehasto be confinedto thepossibilityof deducinganadvanced
culturalconditionfromanearlierone. Onlycausative-genetic
concluof a causa finalis is not partof
sions arepermitted.Thepresumption
to
theevolutionary
bound
concept
empiricalknowledge.
As far as originanddevelopmentof religionareconcerned,Tylor
does not considerit to be impossiblethat theremighthave been a
culturalconditionwithoutany religionat all. This state,however,to thepresumption
of a culturewithoutlanguage- could
comparable
notbe inferredfromempiricaldata.Definingreligionas the beliefin
SpiritualBeings,Tylordeniesthatthereareanyprimitivecivilizations
He callsthiselementary
modeof religion
withoutreligionatpresent.19
It wouldnot necessarilyhave to includethe belief in a
"animism".
to idols,or thepracticeof certainrites.
supremegodhead,worshipping
Rather,it wouldrepresentthe basis for the developmentof further
religiousstages.
UnlikeTylor,HerbertSpencerappliedDarwin'stheoryof evolution
explicitlyto the social sphere.He therebypromotedits propagation
on other human,cultural,and social scientific
and popularization
5 Ibid., 16.
6 Cf. op. cit., 17.
7 f. op. cit., 27.
18Also
Kippenbergrefers to this fact, cf. "Rivalryamong Scholars of Religions,"
379f.
19Cf. Tylor,op. cit., 424.
249
discourses.Spencer firstcites ethnological proofs of the opinion "that

civilized men have no innatetendencyto formreligious ideas."20From
the ethnologicaldatahe drawsthe conclusion "thatthey have a natural
origin."21Differing from Tylor, he determinesthat ancestor worship
is "theorigin of all religions"22
(respectivelythe "ghost-propitiation")
- as alreadystatedwithin the firstpartof his Sociology. This practice
would have developed to become "fetishism"(respectivelytotemism)
in the course of the history of religions.23During this process, all of
the gods would have originatedin apotheosis: "Originally,the god is
the superiorliving man whose power is conceived as superhuman."24
Conclusively, Spencer states that "ComparativeSociology discloses
a common origin for each leading element of religious belief. The
conception of the ghost, along with the multiplyingand complicating
ideas arisingfrom it, we findeverywhere[...]. Thus, we have abundant
proofs of the naturalgenesis of religions."25In addition, the "ghosttheory"would be able to explain "thegenesis of the priestly function,
and the original union of it with the governingfunction,"26 as well as
the formationof ecclesiasticalinstitutionson the whole.27
Furthermore,thereare otherconcepts to be mentionedthatare also
based on premises derivedfrom the theory of evolution. RobertRanulph Marett,a scholar of TIlor, for instance, consideredthe imagination of a general animation,or pregnancywith the power of natural
objects and persons to be the original religious stage. This level that
he called pre-animismprecededthe period of animism.28Marettfelt
compelled to this conclusion by the reportsof voyagers and mission20H.
Spencer, ThePrinciples of Sociology, Vol. III, London et al. 1897, 4.
21 Ibid., 5.
22Ibid., 7.
23Cf. op. cit., 14ff.
24Ibid., 19.
25Ibid., 21.
26Ibid., 60.
27Cf. op. cit., 61ff.
28 See R.R. Marett, "Pre-animistic
Religion (1900)," in: id., The Threshold of
Religion, New York 1909, 1-28.
250
VolkhardKrech
ariesto theSouthSeaabouttheideaof manaandtaboosin Polynesian

societies.Thegreatworkof JamesGeorgeFrazerwas also influenced
His conceptfollowedtheideasof McLennan.
Frazer
by evolutionism.
firstpublishedThe GoldenBough. A Studyin ComparativeReligion in
twovolumes(1890),thenin threevolumes(1900)andfinallyin twelve

volumes(1911-1915)withthethirdedition.
theoriesof thiskindhavebeenmodifiedby laterscholEvolutionary
arsof thescienceof religion,butnottotallyrejected.Theiremergence
may be explainedby the experiencethatsocial and culturalinstitutionschangerapidly.However,thisdoesnot answerthe questionwhy
religionis of such prominencewithinthose theories.This fact may
be explainedagainstthebackground
of reflectionson "theproblemof
socialorder."
2.
TheProblemof Social Order
The experienceof the FrenchRevolutionand succeedingpolitical

of the socialprocessesof differupheavalsas well as thediscernment
entiationraisedthe questionof social coherence.The searchfor societalforcesof integration
emphasizedreligionin bothits moraland
socialsignificance.
2.1. TheConservative
Reactionto RevolutionandRevolt
The ancientsocietalorderhadfrequentlybeen subjectto criticism
withinthe 18thcentury,thoughcriticismhadnevercausedanypublic
A conservative
reactiononly hadbeenformed
counterargumentation.
at the timeof politicalupheavalsin Europefrom 1789 onwards.The
consequencesof theFrenchRevolutionled to the questionof the "social order"("l'ordresocial"),andthattopicpointedtowardsreligion.
EdwardBurkewas one of the firstto referto the significanceof a religious basis of society in his Reflectionson the Revolutionin France
from 1790. His argumentation

then was followedup by bothof the
Frenchcounter-revolutionaries
Josephde MaistreandLouis Gabriel
Ambroisede Bonald.Theywere concernedaboutre-establishing
the
of
and
of
"throne
and
altar."
was
conunity politics religion,
Religion
sideredto be the 'socialbond'thathas a governinganda domesticat-
251
ing function.29In his work Du Pape from 1819 de Maistreconceived

the papal infallibilityanalogouslyto secular-monarchicalsovereignty.
The religious functionof societal orderand integrationwas even more
emphasizedby de Bonald.30The initial source of his social and religious philosophyis the maxim: "Everythingthat is useful to maintain
the society is necessary; everything that is necessary is a truth [...]."31
In orderto be able to live within a free and reasonablesociety people

would need a "commonreference"which is representedin God. Thus,
the existence of God is a requirementfor society. Religion is the societal conditionas such. Simultaneouslysociety is the conditionof God's
presence.32This "functional"definitionof religion does not mean that
society invents the existence of God. The idea of God ratherproves
its evidence by means of its impact on society. The presence of God
is necessary for the maintenanceof human society. At the same time
God's presencecannotbe realizedby itself, but requiressociety. It has
to be understoodas a continuousprocess in which society constitutes
itself.33
Development was a central issue within the works of all three
philosophersof the counter-revolution.However,they did not refer to
it in the sense of progress, as it was understoodduring the Age of
Enlightenment.For them, developmentwas conceived out of considerationfor traditionsand customs.
2.2. Consequenceson ConceptualizingReligion
2.2.1. Religion and Morality
One of the most essential impacts of religion, as outlined above,
was the close relationshipbetween religion and morality.Moralityand
29Cf. H. Tyrell, "Vonder
'Soziologie statt Religion' zur Religionssoziologie,"in:

V. Krechand H. Tyrell (Hg.), Religionssoziologie um 1900, Wiirzburg1995, 79-127,
84.
30 See for the following: R. Spaemann,Der Ursprungder Soziologie aus dem Geist
der Restauration.Studieniiber L.G.A.de Bonald, Munich 1959, 115-125.
31
Quoted afterSpaemann,op. cit., 115.
32Cf.
Spaemann,op. cit., 117.
33Cf. op. cit., 118.
252
VolkhardKrech
ethicsweretakenas publictopicswithinEuropeas well as in theUSA

duringthe 19th century.Againstthe backgroundof growingsocial
tensions, social problemsquickly resultedin intensifiedscientific
reflectionsonmoralandethicalissues.Therewasanincreasinginterest
in moralityas an empiricalsubjectin the naturalscienceswhichis
in Germany.34
Moralitywas also examinedin a
especiallyremarkable
Within
as fromtheendof
Neo-Kantianism,
philosophical
perspective.
the 1870ies,problemsof the practicalphilosophywere increasingly
dealt with.35The discourseaboutmorality,however,corresponded
withreligiousaspects,too.
In continuitywiththe philosophyof Kant,the Neo-Kantianism
of
betweenreligion
Marburg's
provenance
postulateda close correlation
andmorality.Philosophers
of theMarburg
School,namelyPaulNatorp
andHermannCohen,enforcedthisconnection.Accordingto Natorp's
opinionthemoralsphereis thecoreof religion.Religionis directlyderivedfromthecoreof the moralconsciousness.It keepsits coherence
at everystagewithoutbecomingidenticalwith it.36Natorpdevelops
this argumentin a social-educational
context.Heremoralityandreliare
considered
to
be
of
a
direct
social nature.This argumentis
gion
closely linkedto AugusteComte's"religionof humanity"andsomehow anticipatesEmileDurkheim'sconceptof the similaritybetween
God and society.Natorpcontinuesto expressthe view thatreligion
"becomesanaffairof the communityto suchanextentthatthenotion
of God almostis only the expressionof the higheststage of human
consciousness.But at this stagethe unityof mankindis connectedto
the ideational notion of man."37The early HermannCohen even goes
34See H. Treiber, "Zur Genealogie einer 'Science Positive De La Morale En
Allemagne': Die Geburtder 'r(e)ealistischenMoralwissenschaft'aus der Idee einer
monistischenNaturkonzeption,"in: Nietzsche-Studien22, 1993, 165-221.
35 See K. Ch. Kohnke,
EntstehungundAufstiegdes Neukantianismus.Die deutsche
Universitatsphilosophiezwischen Idealismus und Positivismus,Frankfurta.M. 1986,
404ff.
36Cf. P. Natorp,Religion innerhalbder Grenzen der Humanitdt.Ein Kapitel zur
Grundlegungder Sozialpddagogik,Freiburgi.Br. 1894, 15.
37Ibid.
253
a step further:Religious doctrines inevitably would lead to the particularismof religions. In order to realize the intended universalism,
religion has to comprehenditself as being totally identicalwith ethics.
In his treatiseEthikdes reinen Willensfrom 1904, Cohen argues that
"religioncould merely have allness of mankindfor its veritableaim,
only if it gives up all of its otherproblemsandmattersof faith,i.e., if it
takes solely moralityas its truesubject.Thus, religion is not interested
in the so-called faith any more, and thereforeit is to be wrappedup in
ethics."38
2.2.2. Religion as an Affair of the Community

The close correlationbetween religion and morality not least had
consequences on the ethnologically and sociologically oriented science of religion. Ethnology and ethnographicsociology investigated
the function of religion for the community or society especially by
meansof religiousrituals.Withinthis context sacrificialpracticeswere
one of the most discussed topics around 1900. William Robertson
Smith statedthatritualswere of priorityin regardto myths. His argument had a high impacton contemporarytheoriesof sacrifice.Smith's
theory serves as an excellent example of the moral notion of religion
as a societal function.For him, religion is "theaffairof the community
ratherthan of the individual."39In ancient times, religious practices
"didnot exist for the saving of souls but for the preservationand welfare of society."40Religion "is not an arbitraryrelationof the individual man to a supernaturalpower,it is a relationof all the membersof a
communityto a power thathas the god of the communityat heart,and
protectsits law and moralorder."41In this perspectivethe close correlationbetweenreligion andethics is a naturalconsequence:"Inancient
society... the religious ideal expressedin the act of social worshipand
38H. Cohen,
System der Philosophie. 2nd part:Ethik des reinen Willens,3rd ed.
Berlin 1921, 61f.
39W. RobertsonSmith, Lectureson the Religion of the Semites, First Series: The
FundamentalInstitutions,new ed. London 1894, 253f.; see also 258, 263 et pass.
40Ibid., 29.
41Ibid., 55.
254
VolkhardKrech
theethicalidealwhichgovernedtheconductof dailylife werewholly

at one, and all moralityas morality was then understood- was
consecratedand enforcedby religious motives and sanctions."42
Religionandmoralityalso werecloselyrelatedwithinthethinking
of Emile Durkheim.He developedhis theoryof religionagainsta
Kantianbackground,as did the Neo-Kantians.Durkheimreferred
to RobertsonSmith's43understanding
of religionas a fundamental
The close correlationbetween
symbolicalexpressionof morality.44
and
led
to
the
religion morality
equationof Godandsociety.According
to Durkheim
theGodheadis nothingelsebutthesymbolicalexpression
of collectivity,"lasocietdtransfigur6e
et penseesymboliquement."45
In
his mainworkon religionDurkheimputsit likethis:"Religionceases
to be an inexplicablehallucination
andtakesa footholdin reality.In
fact,we can say thatthe believeris not deceivedwhenhe believesin
theexistenceof a moralpoweruponwhichhe dependsandfromwhich
he receivesall thebestin himself:thispowerexists,it is society."46
ThoughDurkheimcontinuedthetheoryof totemismin his ElementaryFormsof the Religious Life, he was less interestedin evolutionism
andthe historyof religions.He was moreconcernedwith socialanEssentiallyhis leadinginterest

thropologyas a functionalapproach.47
was a contemporary
one. He drewanalogiesbetweenthe elementary
formsof religionandsecularmoralityin orderto replacereligionwith
42 Ibid., 267.
43 Cf. St. Lukes, Emile Durkheim.His Life and Work:A Historical and Critical
Study,London 1973, 237ff. and 450f.
44 See H.
Firsching, Moral und Gesellschaft. Zur Soziologisierung des ethischen
Diskurses in der Modeme, Frankfurta.M. and New York 1994, 48-55. In regardto
the influence of Robertson Smith on Durkheim cf. R.A. Jones, "Durkheim,Frazer,
and Smith:The Role of Analogies and Exemplarsin the Development of Durkheim's
Sociology of Religion,"in: AmericanJournalof Sociology 92, 1986, 596-627.
45E. Durkheim,"Ddterminationdu fait moral,"in: id., Sociologie et philosophie,
4th ed. Vend6me 1974, 51-83, cit.: 71.
46E. Durkheim,The ElementaryFormsof the Religious Life. Translatedfrom the
Frenchby J. WardSwain, New York 1965 (frenchorig. 1912), 257.
47 Cf. Lukes, op. cit., 456f.
255
'laic morality'.For Durkheim,laic moralityserves as an equivalentof

religion, because it consists of collective ideals that have always been
of sacralnature.Here the idea of humanity,or the "cultof the individual" may be mentioned.48Laic moralitytakes the place of traditional
religions with their particulardogmas. The religion of humanity"is a
religion of which man is, at the same time, both believer and god."49It
secures the obligatorymoralityof society and thus guaranteesmaintenance of the social order.50
3.
TheProblemof Personality
3.1. Kulturpessimismus,
Cultureof Personality,and Individual
Religiosity
In severaldiscoursesaround1900 the societal public discussed the
religious situationand the future of religion. The backgroundof this
discussion is representedby the Christianpopularchurches' decrease
of societal and culturalinfluence on the one hand. On the other, and
especially within the German context, the discourse was influenced
by the criticismof the 'soulless process of modernization'and by the
demandfor a 'cultureof personality'.
Although a decrease of significanceof the ChristianChurchesand
an intellectualfarewell to the Christiandoctrinescan be statedaround
1900, religion had not totally vanished from the societal sphere. On
the contrary,a large, mostly newly emerging variety of religious
forms is to be noted within Westernindustrializedsocieties.51Extraecclesiastical -
secular, transformed or new -
manifestations of
48Cf. E. Durkheim, "Individualismand the Intellectuals,"in: W.S.F.

Pickering,
Durkheim on Religion. A Selection of Readings with Bibliographies, London and
Boston 1975, 59-73.
49 Ibid., 62.
50That is why RobertN. Bellah calls Durkheim"the high priest and theologian of
the civil religion of the Third Republic"("Introduction,"in: R.N. Bellah, ed., Emile
Durkheimon Morality and Society. Selected Writings,Chicago and London 1973,
IX-LV,cit.: X).
51See Th.
Nipperdey,Deutsche Geschichte 1866-1918, Vol. I, Munich 1990, 428530.
256
VolkhardKrech
religionwereincreasing.Theseformsof religiontranscended
profane
and art. They
spheres,such as work, family,politics, education,52
could reachup to a diffuse-religiousor spiritualmood withinthe
thatThomasNipperdeydenotesas "vagierende
bourgeoisenvironment
Religiositait"
(fuzzy religiosity).53Nipperdeyconsidersthese forms
of religionas an "answerto the mood of crisis at those times, to
the loss of reliabilitythroughmodernization,
to the doubtsof the
establishedcertainty,to theendangering
of personalityandtheculture
of autonomyby meansof the 'ironcages' of modemcivilization."54
The evidenceof extra-ecclesiastical
religiousphenomenalead to the
conclusion that "the decay of the commitment to the church [...]
has not yet takenawaythe powerof the religiousshapingof life."55

is characterized
Especiallythe intellectualbourgeoisenvironment
by
this ambivalentattitudetowardsreligion."Despiteof theirrelative
distanceto the churchthe Bildungsbiirgertum
duringthe 19thcentury
saw
itself being religious"56- a fact that is only to be
mainly
understood
on thebasisof thedistinctionbetween'objectivereligion'
and 'subjectivereligiosity'.57Contentsandinstitutionsof traditional
religion became more and more obsolete. At the same time the
bourgeoisieremainedreligious,for it alwayscriticizedreligiononly
in aspectsof certaindoctrinesand dogmaticsystems,but neverthe
religiousconvictionas such.58
52 See W. Ernst,"ZumProblemder moderen
Bildungsreligion,"in: Religion und

Geisteskultur8, 1914, 20-31.
53Cf.
Nipperdey,op. cit., 521.
54Ibid., 527.
55Ibid., 528.
56Cf. L. Holscher, "Die Religion des Burgers. Biirgerliche Frommigkeit und
in: HistorischeZeitschrift250, 1990, 595protestantischeKircheim 19. Jahrhundert,"
627, 615.
57Ibid., 617.
58Cf. op. cit., 623.
257
Beyond its institutionalizedforms religion was considered to be

of "a great societal power."59According to Max Maurenbrecher,for
example, thereis no doubtthatthe searchand the need for religion has
grownstrongeraround1900.60Therewould be a desire for an idea that
is worth-whileoffering sacrificesfor and sufferingdeprivations.Even
those people thatcould not hold on to the traditionalreligion any more,
people thatwould be saturatedwith Darwinismand evolutionismin all
fields, i.e., those that Maurenbrecherrefers to as intellectuals, would
cry for sentiments of future, for hope, yearning, and faith.61Georg
Simmel's examinationof the religious situationaround1900 resultsin
the diagnosis thatreligious need has survivedits fulfillment.62Beyond
the institutionalized objective religion he identifies the subjective
religiosity as being a functionof life itself.63
The futureof religion was discussed - among other trendsand at
least in the Germanpublic - within the context of the ex post facto
"Theenthusiasmand the self-glorification
called Kulturpessimismus.64
that we have experiencedin regardto the enormous scientific-technical, mechanical,and industrialdevelopmentuntil recently,now startto
considerablyfade away.Now andthenthey are even transformedinto a
gloomy pessimism. [...] The discomfortof technical attainmentsthat
had been admireduntil recently,spreadover wide sections of society,
and most moder sensing spirits now tend to radically deny their
59Cf. W. Beyschlag, "Die Religion und die modeme Gesellschaft,"in: Deutsche
Revueiiberdas gesamtenationaleLebender GegenwartXI, 1886,75-83, 173-183,

cit.: 75.
60Cf. M. Maurenbrecher,"Das religi6se Problemder Gegenwart,"in: Preufiische
Jahrbiicher115, 1904, 250-275, 250.
61Cf.
op. cit., 251.
62Cf. G. Simmel,
Philosophie des Geldes (GesamtausgabeVol. 6), Frankfurta.M.
1989 (orig. 1900), 491.
63Cf. G. Simmel, "Das Problemder
religi6sen Lage" (1911), in: Gesamtausgabe,
Vol. 14, Frankfurta.M. 1996, 367-384.
64 See S. Kalberg,"The Origin and Expansion of Kulturpessimismus:The Relationsship between public and privateSpheres in early TwentiethCenturyGermany,"
in:SociologicalTheory5, 1987,150-165.
258
VolkhardKrech
culturalvalue."65As a reactiontowardsa technology that has become
an end in itself "a promisingreligious-moral

processof revivalof
manhimself'wouldemerge.66
Sucha culturalrevival,however,could
not be initiatedexternally.It wouldratherhaveto be initiatedby the
religiousneedto conceiveexistenceas a unity.Cultureforthepurpose
in its persistence,
of "self-presentation
of thesoul"wouldbe threatened
if splitin specialsubcultures
becomingan endin themselves.In order
to have an effect againstthis development,"faithin man andin his
inwardsanctity"shouldbe mobilized."Inthisregard,religionhas to
be consideredas life out of the basic sourceof all existence,as the
andthe sourceof culture."67
unitaryreasonof ourpersonality,
These quotationsgive an exampleof the attitudetowardsculture
thatno longeracceptsanyrelevanceof objectivereligionfortheentire
society.Sincetheunityof societyandthefaithin progresshadbecome
obsoletewithinreflectionson modernity,68
religiongainedbroadsignificanceattheindividuallevel.Personality,
butnotsocietyas a whole,
nowservedas a pointof referenceto numerousreligiousconcepts.This
view was followedup, for instance,by the worksof ErnstTroeltsch,
GeorgSimmel,andRudolphEucken.Thesescholarsconsideredreligion to be a functionthatis constitutiveof personality.Althoughthe
individualwouldbe a prerequisite
for society,it couldnotbe sociologically defined.GeorgSimmelstatesthatthe notionof the individual
is probablyindissoluble.Thus,it could not be subjectto cognition,
butonly to experience.69
to sucha conceptof individCorresponding
65K.
Konig, "Das Kulturproblemund die Religion,"in: Die GrenzbotenII, 1910,

151-162, 152. In this context the author quotes WernerSombartas a "most unsuspected witness"of such attitude(cf. p. 153).
66Cf. op. cit., 155.
67Ibid., 162.
68Cf. O. Rammstedt,"Zweifel am Fortschrittund Hoffen aufs Individuum.Zur
Konstitutionder modemen Soziologie im ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert"in: Soziale
Welt36, 1985, 483-502.
69Cf. G. Simmel, Grundfragender Soziologie (Individuumund Gesellschaft),4th
ed. Berlin 1984, (Original 1917), 8f.
259
uality,religion primarilywas placed within the psychic sphere.70Accordingto HermannSiebeck the subjectof philosophyof religion consists in provingthat the origin and legitimacy of the religious problem
primarilydescends from the historicaldevelopmentof a specific consciousness. The natureand significance of this consciousness would
then have to be described:on the one hand, with regardto its relation
to the natureand value of personality;on the other hand, with regard
to its relationto culture.71This kind of conceptualizingreligion correspondedto the arisingpsychology of religion.
3.2. Religion as an Affairof the Psyche
Friedrich Schleiermacherwas the most important precursor of
psychology of religion. Therefore, the forum for its discourse was
within the field of philosophy and theology. At first it startedto be
establishedas an empiricalscience withinthe USA aboutthe end of the
19thcentury.The works of Edwin Diller Starbuck,72William James73
and JamesHenryLeuba74have specificallyto be mentioned.Starbuck
workedwith the assistanceof a questionnaire-methodin orderto attain
'religiousfacts'. James evaluatedself-testimoniesof 'religious genius
people'. Leuba referredto results of questionnairesand interviews as
well as to ethnological literature.In 1904 Stanley Hall began to edit
the American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education (since
1911:Journalof Religious Psychology).
70Cf. W.
Dilthey, "Das Problemder Religion" (1911), in: GesammelteSchriften,
Vol. 6, Leipzig and Berlin 1924, 288-305, 304.
71Cf. H. Siebeck, Lehrbuchder Religionsphilosophie,Freiburgi.Br. and Leipzig
1893, 12.
72E.D. Starbuck,ThePsychologyof Religion:An EmpiricalStudyof the Growthof
Religious Consciousness,with a prefaceby W. James, London 1899.
73W. James, The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, New
Yorkand London 1897; id., The Varietiesof Religious Experience.A Studyin Human
Nature,New Yorkand London 1902.
74J.H. Leuba, The Psychological Origin and the Natureof Religion, London 1909;
id., A Psychological Study of Religion, its Origin, Function, and Future, New York
1912.
260
VolkhardKrech
Also in Germanyseveralscholarsplaced the psychologicalapproachwithinthe field of religiousresearchbeforethe turnof the

workssoonwere
TheAnglo-Saxonreligious-psychological
century.75
of James'religious-psycholoadopted.6In 1899a Germantranslation
gical essays with an explanationwrittenby FriedrichPaulsenwas
published. In 1907 the Varietiesof Religious Experiencefollowed in
Germanlanguage,translatedby GeorgWobbermin,and Starbuck's

Psychologyof Religionwas renderedinto Germanin 1909. Though
psychologyof religionfirststartedwithexaminingpathologicalpheit soonplayedan important
nomena,77
partwithintheologicaldiscussions.78However,it also spreadfar beyondthe boundariesof theology. Psychologyof religionwas establishedas a disciplinein its own
right.It was concernedwith religiousphenomenain generalfroma
psychologicalpointof view, andit reacheda considerableacademic
response.Psychologyof religionwasconfinedto anempiricalscience,
dependingon thescholar'spointof view.ErnstTroeltsch,forinstance,
sees specifictasksforthepsychologyof religionwithinthe scienceof
characteristic
religion.Thesetasksincludeexaminingthe "particular
or "thephenomenonin its actufeatures"of religiousphenomena,79
75See O. Ziemssen, Die Religion im Lichteder Psychologie, Gotha 1880; E. Koch,
Die Psychologie in der Religionswissenschaft,Leipzig 1896.
76Cf. K. Bornhausen,"Amerikanische
Religionspsychologie in Deutschland,"in:
Die Christliche Welt. Evangelisches Gemeindeblattfur Gebildete aller Stdnde 23,
No. 42, 1909, 992-995; G. Wobbermin,"Zur religionspsychologischenArbeit des
Auslands,"in: Religion und Geisteskultur4, 1910, 233-247.
77Cf., e.g., H. Werner,Der religiose Wahnsinn,Stuttgart1890; Th. Braun,Die Religiose Wahnbildung,Tiibingen 1906; J. Bresler, Religionshygiene,Halle a.S. 1907;
Th. Achelis, "Anomaliender religi6sen Entwicklung,"in: Zeitschriftfir Sozialwissenschaft VI, 1903, 491-514.
78On the theological receptionof the psychology of religion, cf. despite numerous
others: Georg Wobbermin,Systematische Theologie nach religionspsychologischer
Methode,3 Vol., Leipzig 1913-1925.
79Cf. E. Troeltsch,Zur religiosen Lage, Religionsphilosophieund Ethik.(Gesammelte SchriftenII) 2. Aufl. Tubingen 1922, 489.
261
Psychology of religion, however, was

ality and factual peculiarity."80
sometimesused in orderto recognize the "essence of religion"beyond
its empiricalvariety.81The questionof truth,however,was usually excluded from researchin orderto restrictthe researchto the empirical
level.82
4. Paradigmsof Religious Researcharound1900
4.1. Religious Researchas History of Religious Evolution
The common horizon of the different approachesto religious research consisted of the task of examining the dynamics of social and
culturaldevelopment.This horizon of problemsstrengthenedthe consciousness of the historicalcontingencyof the presentsituation.Therefore, science of religion startedout as historyof religion.The historical
orientationwas due to the realizationthat societal institutions,thus religion, too, could only be conceived in their historical contexts. The
underlyinginterest beyond that historical research,however, was the
attemptto understandone's own societal and culturalsituationin its
genesis.
It was not sufficient only to arrangehistorical facts as such, as
the present had to be contextualized with regard to the past. The
evolutionism put forwarda paradigmthat permittedsetting up laws
of development.Thus, it was possible to relate older "stages"within
the history of religions and culture to advancedlevels of civilization
and finally to contemporarysociety. Scholars of evolutionism were
especially able to put differentstages in a sequence.
80Ibid., 492. In orderto locate the
psychology of religion within the discipline of
cf.
his
treatise
Psychologie undErkenntnistheoriein der Religionsreligiousresearch,
Eine
wissenschaft.
Untersuchungiiberdie Bedeutungder KantischenReligionslehre
die
heutige Religionswissenschaft,Tiibingen 1905.
fir
81See, e.g., E.W. Mayer,Das psychologische Wesender Religion und die Religionen, StraBburg1906.
82Cf., e.g., W. Stihlin and K. Koffka, "ZurEinfiihrung,"in: Archivfiir Religionspsychologie 1, 1914, 7, and G. Wunderle,"Aufgabenund Methoden der moderen
Religionspsychologie,"in: PhilosophischesJahrbuch27, 1914, 29-154.
262
VolkhardKrech
4.2. FromEvolutionismto Functionalism

At the same time the interest in elaborating elementary forms
of religions arose. This interest was a result of the 'problem of
social order' and thus combined the evolutionaryhistory of religion
with ethnology and sociology of religion. The evolutionismtherefore
representsthe bond that unified historicalapproacheswith functional
ones within the science of religion. This connection finally led to the
Durkheimiansociology of religion.
Ethnologicaland sociological functionalismstatedthatreligions refer to the unity of communitiesor societies, respectively.The contemporaryindividualneed for religion in the form of bourgeoisreligiosity,
however,hamperedthe (sole) understandingof religion as a common
affair,andpsychology of religion was formed againstthis background.
The psychological approachsomehow served as an equivalentsubstitute for the ethnologicaland sociological functionalism,because it also
was interestedin elaboratinginvariantstructuresbased on the empirical data- thus primarilynot in regardto the social order,but to the
individualpsyche and the constitutionof personality.
4.3.
History,Sociology, and Psychology
Froma scientific-historicalpoint of view these threeparadigmsoutlined above, can be placed into a kind of sequential relation. However, they were not necessarily incompatible,but could also be combined with each other. One of the main conditions for a connection
existed in the differentiationbetween objectivereligion and subjective
religiosity.83Rudolph Schultze, for instance, draws a distinctionbetween religion as an "objectiverelation,"as a "historicalsubject"besides other institutionssuch as the state, society, science, technology,
and art on the one hand, and piety respectively religiosity as a "subjective behavior,"a psychological phenomenonon the other hand.84
83On the concise differentiation,cf.
Siebeck, op. cit., 264.
84Cf. R. Schultze, "Die Religion. Ein (sic!) philosophische Skizze," in: Zeitschrift
fur MissionskundeundReligionswissenschaftXVI, 1901, 257-261, 289-305, 335-338,
358-365, cit.: 257.
263
Within the works of other authorsthe distinctionis based on the duality of individualand community.Whereasreligion of the individual
could be denotedas subjectivereligion, the religion of the community
would representthe objective form.85Besides the explicit differentiation of both notions of religion the distinctionwas implicitlycarriedon
while asking for the origin or the genesis of religion, respectively.This
question was often consideredto be part of determiningthe religious
essence.86Around 1900 it permanentlywas differentiatedbetween the
objectiveoriginof religion, either the historical,or the transcendentalmetaphysicalone, and the psychological source.87Whereas the psychological approachpresumedthe notion of subjectivereligiosity, the
historical and the metaphysicalinvestigation into the origin of religion was based on the notion of objective religion. According to the
religious-historicalmethod,religion was consideredto be "anempirically given object."The historicalapproachwould examinethe various
religions, comparedthem with regardto its similarityand dissimilarity and thus tried to emerge a common notion that desires to denote
the essence of religion.88Correspondinglythe essence of religion was
determinedby "thesum of those characteristicsthatthe historicalreligions have in common."89In the opinion of severalauthorsthe historical methodwould have to be completed by otherapproachesin order
to be able to determinethe essence of religion entirely.In relation to
this argumentthe differencebetween objectiveand subjectivereligion
85Cf.,
e.g., M. Christlieb,"Individualismusund Religion," in: Wartburgstimmen.
Halbmonatsschriftfir das religiose, kunstlerische und philosophische Leben des
deutschen Volkstumsund die staatspidagogische Kulturder germanischenVolkerII,
1904, Vol. 1, No. 9, 562-569, 565.
86Cf. M. Schulze, "Ursprungund Wesen der Religion,"in: Deutsch-evangelische
Blatter.Zeitschriftfiir den gesamten Bereich des deutschen ProtestantismusXXXI,
1906, 145-157.
87Cf., e.g., Schultze, op. cit., 258ff. and 289.
88Cf. A. Dorner, "Uber das Wesen der
Religion," in: Theologische Studien und
Kritiken56, 1883, 217-277, 271f.
89J. Kaftan,Das Wesender christlichen
Religion, Basel 1881, 5.
264
VolkhardKrech
then was discussed. August Dorer, for instance, defines that "even if
one only proceededfromthe given fact andthen triedto understandthe
essence of religion by comparisonof the empiricallygiven religions, it
would, however,be completely one-sided to end with the historicalreligion having become objectiveand to approveonly objective religion
and religious community.Here, one aspect is missing that is essential to all religions, namely thatreligion does not only develop within
community,but within individuals,too."90To complete the historical
method the authorsuggests the psychological approach,since it follows up the course of the religious process within the individuals.91
Whereasreligion in its historicalperspectiveappearsas "objectivereligion," as externalrevelationand religious community,92it is, within
a psychological perspective,understoodas "subjectivereligion,"as a
"receptivebehaviorthatis basedeverywhereon the relationof totaldependency."93Emil W. Mayer considers the same differentiationto be
a peculiaritythat is characteristicfor the methodology of the present.
For him, it is not only the historicalobjectivereligion thatis examined.
At the same time it would be the individualreligiosity thatis anxiously
investigatedalso, in orderto comprehendthe essence of religion. The
historicalprocedureshould always be completedby the psychological
method,and vice versa.94
I want to conclude that the historizationand empirizationwithin
scientific religious researchwas influencedby the question of one's
own present. These circumstancesparadoxicallyled to the need to
90Domer,
op. cit., 218.
91Cf.
op. cit., 218. Both methods would have to be completed by the speculativegenetic method, since neither the psychological, nor the historical perspectivecould
be able to conceive the concrete and variouselements of the single religions.
92Cf. ibid., 276.
93Ibid., 275. Here the influence of Schleiermacher'snotion of religion is very
significant.
94Cf. E.W. Mayer, "Zum Stand der Frage nach dem Wesen der Religion," in:
Theologische Rundschau 13, 1910, 1-15, 45-63, espec.: 5f. See also H. Maier,
Psychologie des emotionalenDenkens,Tiibingen 1908. Maier speeks of a "religioushistoricallyorientatedwork of the psychologist"(p. 507).
265
look for invariantand elementaryregularities.Thus, the researchbased

on historical facts altered to functional approachesthat set up laws
of origin and structure.According to the specific paradigmgeneral
laws and invariantstructuresof religion were relatedeither to society,
to the individual, or to the balance between both. Hereby priority
was either given to society while placing the individual behind, or
the individual experience was considered to be the initial source of
religion. Accordingly,religion was either conceived as action, or as
experience.In any case, however,science of religion was partof those
reflectionson modernizationthat picked out the relationbetween the
individualand society as a centraltheme.
Historyof science may sharpenthe sensitivity towardstransformation processes as they can be describedduringthe transitionfrom history of religion to functionalism.However,they cannot be avoided as
the humanimpulse of orientationand structuringthat also shapes science is too strong.95In addition, it should not be neglected that theory formationin general and the history of religion in particularcome
withinthe purviewof aestheticcriteria.96As every theorizingis dependent on its contemporarycontext most of the old theories of religion
today have become obsolete. But the leading questions, such as: "In
which kind of relationare religion and modernityto each other?"and:
"Whatis the contributionof religion to balance the possibly opposed
requirementsof the individualand society?",remainrelevantuntil today.
der Evangelischen
ForschungsstAtte
StudiengemeinschaftInstitutfur interdisziplinareForschung
Schmeilweg 5
D-69118 Heidelberg
95Cf.
VOKHARDKRECH
contemporaryexamples within the science of religion that are either subject

to fashion,as the concept of civil religion, or the researchon esoteric forms of religion.
96Cf. A. Michaels,
"Einleitung,"in: id., Klassiker der Religionswissenschaft,
Munich 1997, 7-16, 15, and Kippenberg,Die Entdeckungder Religionsgeschichte,
op. cit., 262.
FUNDAMENTALISM AND THE RESURGENCE OF RELIGION

MARTIN RIESEBRODT
The dramaticglobal resurgenceof religious movements since the

1970s has caughtmost scholarsof religion by surprise.For most of us,
such revitalizationof religion was not considered possible since the
fate of religion in the modem world was to be one of an irreversible
trendtowardsecularizationand privatization.According to our Western myth of modernization,the future of religion offered several options, but neitherits resurgenceas a political force and markerof social identity,nor its ability to shapehumanbeings accordingto its own
ethos, were among them.1
For intellectualstrainedin Westernacademiait was particularlydisturbingthat these resurgentreligious movements were not culturally
or politically "progressive,"like the Latin Americanliberationtheology with its fusion of Marxismand Christianity.To the contrary,most
of these religious movementswere either aggressivelynationalisticor
"fundamentalist"with a strong emphasis on patriarchalauthorityand
moralityor both.2Equally irritatingwas the fact that by joining these
1 For a
survey of different positions on secularizationsee MartinRiesebrodtand

Mary Ellen Konieczny: "Sociology of Religion," in John Hinnells (ed.), Penguin
Companionto the Study of Religion. Forthcoming.For the ongoing debate see The
SecularizationDebate, ed. by William H. Swatos, Jr. (Special Issue of Sociology of
Religion) Vol. 60, no. 3, Fall 1999.
2 Not all ethno-nationalisticmovements are fundamentalistand vice versa, but
they can merge under certain circumstances. See for example From Nationalism
to RevolutionaryIslam, edited by Said Amir Arjomand.Albany: State University
of New York Press 1984; Mark Juergensmeyer,The New Cold War? Religious
Nationalism Confrontsthe Secular State. Berkeley: University of California Press
1993; Ian Lustick, For the Land and the Lord. Jewish Fundamentalismin Israel.
New York:Council on Foreign Relations 1988; Stanley Tambiah,Leveling Crowds:
EthnonationalistConflictsand CollectiveViolencein SouthAsia. Berkeley:University
NUMEN, Vol. 47
Fundamentalismand the Resurgenceof Religion
267
movements,the lower classes did not become revolutionarybut pious,

and women did not fight againstpatriarchalismbut submittedto it or
even embracedit.
Faced with these events, social scientistshad to cope with theircognitive dissonance and did so in interestingways. Some authorshave
simply insisted that their expectations of modernizationand secularization are basically sound. Focusing on the resurgenceof religion in
"developingcountries"allowed them to pretendthat these revivals of
religion are still partof an ongoing process of modernization.And, not
surprisingly,many have taken pains to detect a "Puritanspirit"or an
"inner-worldlyasceticism"in such movements.Althoughthis observation is not necessarilyfalse it narrowsour understandingof such movements to those aspects which best fit our expectationswhile omitting
those which do not.3 Moreover,such a perspectiveignores the resurgence of religion as public force in the West.4
Otherauthorshave chosen the opposite route of instantconversion
by denying the existence of any general trend towards secularization
in the West and elsewhere. In particular,rationalchoice theoristsand
their mostly functionalistallies (what StephenWarer has labeled the
"new paradigm"5)have a rathernarrowunderstandingand simplistic
explanation of secularization.Max Weber has once suggested that
secularizationis the result of the emergence of relativelyautonomous
of California Press 1996; Peter van der Veer, Religious Nationalism: Hindus and
Muslimsin India. Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress 1994.
3 See Ernest Gellner, Muslim Society. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press
1981; Jacques Waardenburg,"The PuritanPatternin Islamic Revival Movements."
In Schweizerische Zeitschriftfiir Soziologie 3 (1983):687-702. A historically rich
analysis of the Protestantizationof Buddhismin the context of colonialism is offered
in RichardGombrichand GananathObeyesekere,BuddhismTransformed.Princeton:
PrincetonUniversityPress 1988.
4 For an excellent discussionof the "deprivatization"
of religion see Jose Casanova,
Public Religions in the Modern World.Chicago:Universityof Chicago Press 1994.
5 See R.
Stephen Warner,"Workin Progress Toward a New Paradigm for the
Sociological Study of Religion in the United States."AmericanJournal of Sociology
1993, vol. 98(5):1044-93.
268
MartinRiesebrodt
economic, political, and legal institutions in the West which have

made it impossible for social actors to fully participatein the "world"
withoutgiving up a consistentlife conductbased on a religious ethic.6
Ignoringthese culturaland ethical dimensions,the authorsof the "new
paradigm"do not recognize a trend towards secularizationinherent
in institutionaland ethical differentiation,but explain it simply as an
effect of religious monopolies peculiarto Europeanhistory.7
A thirdanswerto the challenge of religious resurgencecomes from
Samuel Huntingtonwho has radicalizedan approachonce formulated
by Talcott Parsons. According to this view, societies have not become secularizedbut have become permeatedby religious values. Although religious forms may have disappeared,religious moralityhas
fundamentallyshaped societies. For someone like Parsons therefore,
the modem United States representsthe most Christiancountryever.8
Huntington,generalizing this view, goes as far as to claim that the
newly emerging world orderwill be based on civilizations which are
mainly expressionsof ultimatevalues generatedby time-honoredreligious traditions.9Takingthe rhetoricof fundamentalistsat face value
Huntingtonreifies andessentializes culturesand civilizationon the basis of religion.
All these responses to the global resurgenceof fundamentalistreligion, from denial via conversionto essentialization,do not seem to ad6 Cf.
among other texts his "Religious Rejections of the World and their Directions" and his "Science as a Vocation,"both in FromMax Weber,ed. by Hans Gerth
and C.W. Mills. New York:Free Press.
7 Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge,A Theoryof Religion. New York:
P. Lang 1979; LawrenceA. Younged., Rational Choice Theoryand Religion,London:
Routledge 1997; Rodney Stark,"Secularization,R.I.P."In Sociology of Religion, fn.
1. For a critiquesee Steve Bruce, Choice and Religion. New York:OxfordUniversity
Press 1999.
8 Talcott Parsons,
"Christianityand Modem IndustrialSociety." In Sociological
Theory,Values,and Sociocultural Change, ed. by E. Tiryakian,New York:The Free
Press 1963, pp. 13-70.
9Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World
Order.New York:Simon and Schuster 1996.
269
equately answer the questionof why these movementshave emerged,

why at this point in history,and what theirfuturesignificancemay be.
In orderto come to grips with the religious resurgencein general and
its fundamentalistinstantiationsin particular,two tasks are at hand.
First of all, we should revise our understandingof religion and formulate a theory of religion which explains the simultaneityand interdependenceof processes of secularizationand religious resurgence,a
task I have attemptedelsewhere.10Second, we need to turnto a more
detailedconceptualizationand comparativeanalysis of religious revitalizationin generaland of fundamentalistmovementsin particularin
orderto betterunderstandthe challenge they pose for our understanding of the role of religion in the modem world. Accordingly,I will not
describe specific fundamentalistmovementsin this essay, but will attempt to characterizesome basic features of such movements across
religious traditionsfrom a sociological perspective.1
Fundamentalismas a Concept
The very concept of fundamentalismhas been criticized from various perspectivesand it is indeed a legitimate question to ask to what,
exactly,this conceptrefers.As is widely known the termfundamentalism emergedin earlytwentiethcenturyAmericanProtestantismto designatea religious movementwhich, amongotherthings, opposedbiblical criticism,the teachingof evolutionism,and the philosophyof Nietzsche while advocatingbiblical literalism,strict patriarchalmoralism
101 have briefly outlined such an approachin "Religion in Global Perspective."
In Global Religions: A Handbook,ed. by Mark Juergensmeyer,New York:Oxford
UniversityPress forthcoming,and am working on a book on the topic.
11Naturally, such an attemptis limited, preliminary,and insufficient for a more
complex understandingof any concretemovement.However,it may generatesome interestingquestions for comparativeresearch.Forempiricalstudiesof differentaspects
of fundamentalistmovements see the five volumes of the "FundamentalismProject"
all edited by Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby: FundamentalismsObserved;
Fundamentalismsand Society; Fundamentalismsand the State; Accountingfor Fundamentalisms;andFundamentalismsComprehended(Chicago:Universityof Chicago
Press 1991-1995) and the bibliographiesincludedin these volumes.
270
MartinRiesebrodt
and authority,prohibition,control of social vices and self-control.12

However, "fundamentalism"has become a term which nowadays is
also used to refer to religious revival movements outside the Protestanttradition,in Islam andJudaism,in Buddhism,Hinduism,Sikhism,
andeven Confucianism.13Fundamentalismhas also become a political
catchwordused to label and delegitimize religious groups and movements.14
This empirical widening and political instrumentalizationof the
concept poses many questions and concerns. In response, there are
those who want to limit the term "fundamentalism"to Protestantism
or at least to Christianity,arguingthat it is an inherentlyProtestantor
Christianconcept which should not be applied outside of these traditions. Othersarewilling to use it for movementswithin the Abrahamic
traditionsof Judaism,Christianity,and Islam but not beyond.15I, on
the other hand, have suggested to transformit into a sociological category with potentiallyuniversalapplicability.'6 All these views reflect
differentattitudestowardscomparisons,generalizations,and theorizing as well as differentunderstandingsof what is importantaboutsuch
movements.
All fundamentalistmovements, of course, express features which
are particularto the religious traditionfrom which they have emerged.
But, from a sociological perspective, the fact that they also share so
many featuresin common is perhapsmore relevant,because it points
towardsthe possibility that such movementsemerge underthe impact
of rathersimilar processes of social transformation.Thus, I am not
12
GeorgeMarsden,Fundamentalismand AmericanCulture:the Shapingof Twentieth CenturyEvangelicalism, 1870-1925. New York:Oxford UniversityPress 1980;
MartinRiesebrodt,Pious Passion. The Emergenceof Fundamentalismin the United
States and Iran. Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress 1993.
13See Martyand Appleby (eds.), fn. 11.
14MarkJuergensmeyer,"Antifundamentalism,"
in Martyand Appleby (eds.), FundamentalismsComprehended,pp. 353-366.
15Bruce B. Lawrence,Defenders of God: The FundamentalistRevolt Against the
Modem Age. San Francisco:Harper& Row 1989.
16See
my Pious Passion, pp. 10-20.
271
convincedby the argumentsthat advocatelimiting the concept of fundamentalismto Protestantismor Christianityor the Abrahamictraditions. Since all concepts originatein a particularistichistorical setting
and language from which they are abstracted,the concept of "fundamentalism"is not necessarily "tainted"or impregnatedby its Protestantorigin, althoughwe do have to take pains to consciously eliminate
Christianparticularitiesin orderto transformit into a universallyapplicable sociological concept.
Thereis also a pragmaticreasonto stick to "fundamentalism."
Since
it has become partof our everydaylanguage,it seems to me preferable
to take on this usage and try to give it more precision than to avoid it
and invent an idiosyncraticscholarly concept to which no one pays
attention. I propose to conceptualize fundamentalismas a specific
type of religious revival movement which reacts to social changes
perceived as a dramaticcrisis. In such movements people attemptto
restructuretheir life-worlds cognitively, emotionally, and practically,
reinventtheir social identities, and regain a sense of dignity, honor,
and respect. But, such goals are achieved in fundamentalismin ways
which are differentfrom othertypes of religious revivalmovements.
Typologyof Religious Revivalism
The everyday understandingassociates fundamentalismwith religious orthodoxy,often literalism,and a rigidmoralism,especially with
regardto sexual morals and gender relations, as well as intolerance,
anti-pluralism,and anti-modernism.This is a useful startingpoint for
a scientific definitionbecause these characterizationsimply three essentialpoints: First,fundamentalism,even if it has secularrelatives,is
primarilya religious phenomenon.It is not just fascism, populism, or
any other type of social movementin a religious garb.Religion plays
an essential partin it by shapingits leadership,ideology, ethos, goals,
and relationshipto other social groups. Second, fundamentalismas a
"rejectionof the world" is a reaction to social and cultural changes
which are experiencedas a dramaticcrisis. This featuredistinguishes
it from traditionalism.Fundamentalismrepresentsa mobilized, radicalized traditionalism.And third,fundamentalismis a defensive reac-
272
MartinRiesebrodt
tion which attemptsto preserve or restore an idealized or imagined

formersocial orderwhich is characterizedby a strictpatriarchalorder
and moralism. These features separatefundamentalismfrom radical
reformistor social-revolutionaryreactionsto social change.
Religious reformersas well as fundamentalistsnonetheless share
some features. Both are mobilized by the experience of deep social
crisis. Both attemptto overcome this crisis by falling back upon an
ideal order of the past, usually that of the founder of the religion.
However,this pursuitof authenticitytakesdifferentroutesin these two
types of movements.Reformersclaim to transformsocial institutions
in orderto realize the spiritof the ancientcommunity.Their approach
is utopian,innovative,future-oriented;theirethic is primarilyan ethic
of conviction.The fundamentalists,on the otherhand, claim to restore
social institutionsaccording to the letter and the law of the ancient
community. With regard to the past, their approach can be called
"mythical,"referringto a timeless, unchangeable,fixed eternaltruth.
With regard to the present and (near) future, their view is often
eschatological and chiliastic. Their ethic is primarilyan ethic of law
which tends to be ratherrigid because of the concreteness of legal
regulations.
On the basis of this definitionof fundamentalisma furtherdistinction should be made between "legalistic-literalist"and "charismatic"
fundamentalism."Legalistic-literalist"fundamentalismis centeredon
the regulationof everyday-lifeby religious-ethicalprinciplesor ritual
obligations.It is representedby the religious scholar and the moralistic preacher.To this, "charismatic"fundamentalismadditionallyemphasizes the extraordinaryexperience of divine gifts and miracles.It
representsa more emotional and enthusiasticreligiosity embodiedby
the living saint and miracleworker.
"Legalistic-literalist"and "charismatic"fundamentalismare sometimes integratedinto one movement, sometimes they are separated.
"Legalistic-literalist"fundamentalismis connected usually with the
ideal way of life of urbanmiddle-classes,and"charismatic"fundamentalism with the ecstatic and magical needs of urbanlower classes and
ruralpopulation.Of course, not all religious-charismaticmovements
273
TABLE 1
Typesof Religious RevivalMovements
V
rapidsocial change
consciousness of crisis
reinterpretationof the past as searchfor the overcomingof the crisis;
search for "authentic"principlesof social orderin a "goldenage"
V
utopianunderstandingof the past
mythical understandingof the past
"authenticity"of the "spirit"
"authenticity"of the "letter"

V
+ "gifts of grace"
v
"legalistic-literalist"
fundamentalism
"charismatic"
fundamentalism
historical-evolutionistthinking
social progress
eschatologicalthinking
social decline
social reform/revolution
ethic of conviction
"return"to tradition
ethic of law
are fundamentalist.Only as long as charismaticpracticesare primarily an additionalattemptto prove their chosenness within the limits
of a strict ethic of law and an ethically rationalizedway of life, they
belong to fundamentalismproper.But wheneverthe charismaticexperience becomes an independentgoal in itself or whenever their chosenness leads to the claim of being above the ethic of law and above
ritualobligations, then these charismaticsbelong to a differentcamp
which is closer to the ideal type of mysticism as formulatedby Ernst
Troeltsch.'7
17Ernst Troeltsch, The Social Teachingsof the Christian Churches.2 vols, New
York:Macmillan 1931.
274
MartinRiesebrodt
Typologyof Fundamentalism
So far the characterizationof fundamentalismhas been based on a
specific reaction to a dramaticallyperceived crisis which reinterprets
the religious traditionand changes the view of and attitudetowards
history. This has allowed us to distinguish between fundamentalism
and utopianrevival movements.But our definitionof fundamentalism
remains nonetheless so general that many different organizational
forms which claim to revive the "authenticorder"are included.Using
this definitionalone we could still be comparingpacifistswith militants
and large scale organizationswith small communities. For this basic
distinctionto make sociological sense we need in additiona typology
of fundamentalismbased on differentattitudestowardssociety and on
differentforms of social organization.
HereWeber'stypology of religious attitudestowardthe worldmight
be helpful which differentiatesbetween approvaland rejectionon the
one hand, and between control, adaptation,and withdrawalon the
other.Fundamentalistsclearlyrejectthe world since theirmobilization
is caused by the experienceof deep crisis. However,this rejectionmay
lead eitherto an attitudeof world-controlor to one of withdrawalfrom
the world. Both types can be realized in a variety of organizational
forms.
Withdrawalmay take the form of symbolic segregation as a subculture or of spatial separationas a commune. Control may be organized as a religious movement,a social or protest-movement,a secretsociety, or a politicalparty.One musthoweverkeep in mindthatfundamentalistgroups change their attitudesand organizationalforms over
time. Nevertheless,at a given point in time, this typological differentiation allows us to isolate those phenomenawhich many of us areprobably most interestedin: the politically active fundamentalistmovements
that seek power not only within religious institutions,but more importantly,in the public sphere.
The definition and typology of fundamentalismwhich I have proposed so far implies no historicallimitation.Consequently,the question remainsas to whetherfundamentalismis a modem phenomenon
275
TABLE 2
Typesof "legalistic-literalist"Fundamentalism
V
Escape from the "world"
Controlof the "world"
symbolic separation spatialsegregation religious social/protest secret political

movement movement society party
(subculture)
(commune)
or one which can also be found in premoder epochs. Bruce Lawrence

has arguedthatfundamentalismis a productof modernity,dialectically
intertwinedwith modernism.Therefore,according to Lawrence,fundamentalism,while it has antecedentsin earlierepochs, has no precursors.'8 AlthoughI would insist that fundamentalismis not necessarily
an exclusively moder phenomenon,I would agree with Lawrencethat
in orderto understandthe specificity of contemporarymovementsone
has to interpretand explain them in the context of Westernmodernity.
Since all comparisonsoscillate between total generalityand total particularism,the levels of analysis and conceptualizationdepend on the
questionone wants to answerwhich should be informedby criteriaof
historicalsignificance,theoreticalconsistency,and empiricalvalidity.
Froma sociological pointof view it is an interestingobservationthat
fundamentalistmovementsof the 19th and 20th centuryhave emerged
in response to similar processes of modernizationand globalization
as well as in opposition to a variety of modernist ideologies and
ways of life. Since these processes have shaped similar generations
of fundamentalistsin different societies and cultures, they offer a
frame of reference which allows for theoretically significant and
culturallyrich generalizing as well as particularizingcomparisons.I
will only attempthere to define some of these common characteristics
of fundamentalistmovements leaving the analysis of the obvious
historicalandculturaldifferencesandparticularitiesto others.Without
claiming any completeness I identify four such basic features of
fundamentalism:a radical traditionalism,a radicalpatriarchalism,its
organizationas a culturalmilieu, and its mobilizationof lay people.
18Lawrence,
Defendersof God.
276
MartinRiesebrodt
Fundamentalismas Radical Traditionalism

Fundamentalismis not identical with traditionalismbut represents
a historical process of innovation. Fundamentalismarises from the
tensions between traditionand modernity,and it incorporatesaspects
of both. The innovation is twofold: ideological and social. There is
a reshaping and reinterpretationof tradition.Fundamentalismis not
traditionalismbut rathera traditionalismthat has become reflexive.19
It is a radicalized,sometimes even revolutionary,traditionalismwhich
incorporatesselective aspects of modernity and fuses them with an
idealized or even imagined past social order.20Therefore, it is not
an anti-modernistreturn to the Middle Ages, but rather a selective
rejectionof liberalismand socialism.
Fundamentalismis not an arbitraryideological position, but its
ideology is shaped by a dynamic process of group formationwhich
arises in the context of social restructuringunder the impact of
industrialization,urbanization,bureaucratization,professionalization,
and secularization.These processes do not allow traditionaliststo take
traditionfor granted,but challenge them to defend it. By defending
it they have to reflect upon it and they will selectively emphasize
aspects which they feel are particularlyimportantbut in danger.Since
it has become an object of ratiocinationand contestation, tradition
is transformedinto an ideology in the sense of a comprehensive
system of explanation and of agitation. In this process traditionis
expanded into a relatively systematic and consistent social critique
and theory of history, society, and salvation. Often there is a radical
shift in historical views and sensibilities when rather dormantand
defused eschatological and chiliastic teachings become dramatized
19Cf. Karl Mannheim, Conservatism:a Contributionto the
Sociology of KnowlDavid
and
London
Translated
Kettler
Volker
&
New
York:Routledge
edge.
by
Meja.
& KeganPaul 1986.
20 Said A. Arjomand,"Traditionalismin Twentieth-centuryIran,"in S.A. Arjomand
(ed.), From Nationalism to RevolutionaryIslam, Albany: SUNY 1984, pp. 195-232;
MartinRiesebrodt,Pious Passion, pp. 176 ff.
277
in the process of fundamentalistmobilization.21But fundamentalist

ideologies also go beyond traditionby adopting and incorporating
elements of modernitywhich have never been part of tradition.For
example,fundamentalismappropriatesthe technicaland technological
side of modernity by making creative use of mass media and also
responds to competing ideologies, like nationalism, liberalism, or
Marxism.
Fundamentalismas CulturalMilieu
The innovative aspects of fundamentalismgo beyond its radical
of the religious tradition.Also as a social phenomenon
reinterpretation
fundamentalismis innovativein that it integratespeople from diverse
social backgrounds and from different class segments into novel
kinds of associations and movements based on cultural ideals and
practices.Althoughfundamentalistleadersalso articulatepolitical and
economic ideals and programs,these tend to be much less important
and centralthan the social moral and sexual moral ones. In their selfunderstandingfundamentalistmovementsare not class movementsbut
culturalmovements, or, as I have termed it elsewhere, they do not
representclass culturesbut culturalmilieus.22
I speak of culturalmilieus when groupidentity and perceptionof a
common fate are primarilydefinedby sharedideals of sociomoralorder and other non-economiccriteria.Fundamentalistmovementsrepresentsuch culturalmilieus. This does not imply thatthese movements
cannotbe socially relativelyhomogeneous; some of them are, others
arenot. But even the socially homogeneousfundamentalistmovements
do not perceive themselves in terms of class interests or a common
economic fate. Howeversocially, most fundamentalistmovementsac21See MartinRiesebrodt,"Zur
Politisierungvon Religion.Uberlegungenam
In OttoKallscheuer(ed.),Das Europa
fundamentalistischer
Bewegungen."
Beispiel
FischerVerlag1996,pp.247-275.
derReligionen.Frankfurt:
22See my "Kulturmilieus
und Klassenkulturen.
Uberlegungenzur KonzeptuaIn HansKippenberg
andBrigitteLuchesi(eds.),
lisierungreligioserBewegungen."
LokaleReligionsgeschichte.
Marburg:
diagonalVerlag,pp.43-58.
278
MartinRiesebrodt
tually are ratherheterogeneouslycomposed. Althoughthe traditionalist middle class may be the organizationalbackboneof some of those
movements,the actualmembershipis usually quite diversealso in their
economic interests.But fundamentalists'lack of class-consciousnessis
not just an effect of social heterogeneity,it is rathera programmatic,
conscious rejectionof the "unbrotherly"utilitarianand materialistorientationof modem marketsocieties. Fundamentalistsattemptto overcome class conflicts and propose a countermodelof social harmony
based on sharedreligious and social moralideals expressedin a pious
life conduct.
The fundamentalistlife conduct is often characterizedby a certain
asceticism, rejecting modem consumerismand emphasizingmodesty
and sobriety. Leisure time is spent in the family or in the religious
community.In addition,strictadherenceto religious ritualsand observances furtherrestricts social intercoursewith other people. All this
sets fundamentalistsapartfrom the rest of society andreinforcesa particularisticidentitywhich is often symbolizedin special clothingstyles
or hairstyles.In manycases fundamentalismcreatesits own culturalinfrastructure,like kindergartens,schools, institutionsof mutualhelp, or
stores.This makes it independentfrom wider society andincreasesthe
chances that it will successfully pass its way of life and world view on
to the next generation.
The history of fundamentalismin the twentieth century,however,
shows a major shift in the social composition of such movements.23
The firstgenerationof fundamentalistsmainly emergedfrom the traditionalistmilieu and was widely centeredaroundthe traditionalistmiddle classes in conjunctionwith some elements of the new middle class
which still had strongties to the traditionalistmilieu.24However,in the
23See
my "Fundamentalismus,S'ikularisierungund die Risiken der Modere." In

HeinerBielefeldt et al. (eds.), PolitisierteReligion. Frankfurt:Suhrkamp1998, pp. 6790; and with respect to Islamic movements my "IslamischerFundamentalismusaus
soziologischer Sicht."In Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte,B33/93, pp. 11-16.
24 See RichardP. Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers.London: Oxford
UniversityPress 1969; or my Pious Passion, pp. 184-90.
Fundamentalism and the Resurgence of Religion
279
course of time new generations of fundamentalists have emerged many

of which have not grown up in traditionalist milieus but rather are new
converts for whom the significance of fundamentalism is quite different from former generations. Their basis is less the old middle-class
milieu but modem universities. Often consisting of the daughters and
sons of secularist parents, this new generation has adopted fundamentalism as an oppositional ideology against the failures of the secular
state.25 For this new generation fundamentalism represents an alternative to socialist or secular nationalist movements as an ideology of
protest and a vision of a just and harmonious society. However, what
the different generations of fundamentalism share in common in contrast to other ideologies and movements is their radical patriarchalism.
Fundamentalism as Radical Patriarchalism
Although the ways of life and ideologies of different fundamentalist
groups can vary considerably, they all tend to idealize patriarchal
structures of authority and morality.26 They all seem to share an
advocacy of a god-given or "natural"gender dualism. Men and women
are created different, because they were created for each other. The
family is a sacred institution which expresses this purpose of creation.
The god-given or "natural"task of women is the bearing and raising
of children, her natural sphere is the domestic one. The god-given
or "natural" task of men is to father children, to protect the family
25For the Islamic context see for
example Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremismin
the
and
Pharaoh.
Transl.
Egypt:
Prophet
by J. Rothschild. Berkeley: University of
CaliforniaPress 1985; and Saad EddinIbrahim,Egypt, Islam and Democracy. Cairo:
The AmericanUniversityin CairoPress 1996. For AmericanProtestantismsee James
D. Hunter,Evangelicalism.The ComingGeneration.Chicago:Universityof Chicago
Press 1987. See also MarkJuergensmeyer,TheNew Cold War?ReligiousNationalism
Confrontsthe Secular State. Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress 1993.
26See my Pious Passion as well as Helen Hardacre,"The New Religions, Family,
and Society in Japan,"in Marty and Appleby (eds.), Fundamentalismsand Society,
pp. 294-310. See also MartinRiesebrodtand Kelly Chong, "Fundamentalismsand
PatriarchalGenderPolitics."In Journal of Women'sHistory, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Winter
1999): 55-77.
280
MartinRiesebrodt
and provide the resources necessary. His naturalsphere is the extradomestic one.27The female body has to be decently covered so that
it does not arouse the male passions. In an Islamic context this may
include veiling while in a Protestantcontext it may refer to the length
of the skirt. But whatever its cultural forms, the patriarchalfamily,
patriarchalauthority,and genderdualism are centralto fundamentalist
identity.And fundamentalistssharethe belief thatonly a returnto such
principlescan overcome the presentcrisis.
Although fundamentalismexposes a ratherstrict patriarchalideology and advocates the submission of women to patriarchalauthority,
it also has activatedwomen to rethinkthe religious traditionon their
own and come up with a redefinitionof their social roles. In conjunction with higherlevels of educationand inclusioninto the labormarket,
this has led to a renegotiationof genderrelationswithin fundamentalist
milieus.28In some instances it has not only led to less rigid practical
arrangementsof patriarchalrelationsbut even to the (unintended)developmentof an indigenous religious feminism.29
The basic patriarchalprinciples apply also to the economic and
political sphere. The economic ideals of the first generation consist
basically in a traditionalist,personalistictype of capitalismbased on
the family model which is much more comfortable with local and
regional economic relations than with national,internationalor even
global ones. Althoughfundamentalistsoften are religious nationalists,
they want to limit economic and political interference of the state
in local and regional affairs, tending to emphasize the role of the
27 See Niliifer Gole, The ForbiddenModem: Civilizationand
Veiling.Ann Arbor:
of
L.
Fundamentalism
and
Press
1996; Margaret Bendroth,
University Michigan
1875
the
Haven
&
Yale
Press
to
Present. New
London:
Gender,
1993;
University
MartinRiesebrodt,"Fundamentalismand the Political Mobilization of Women."In
Said Arjomand(ed.), The Political Dimensions of Religion. Albany: SUNY Press
1993.
28See Riesebrodtand
Chong, fn. 26.
29Gole, ForbiddenModem; Judith
Stacey, Brave New Families. New York:Basic
Books 1991; Fatima Merissi, The Veil and the Male Elite, transl. by Mary Jo
Lakeland,Reading:Addison-WesleyPub. Co.1991.
281
state as guardianof the social moral order and as a protectoragainst

competition and organized labor. Within the second generation of
fundamentalistssome share these ideals, others advocate a more
comprehensiveinvolvementof a theocraticstate into social life.
Fundamentalismas Lay Mobilization
As radicaltraditionalistsfundamentalistsrevise religious practices
and restructurereligious authority.Although preachers and clergy
seem to dominate fundamentalistmovements as spokespersonsand
organizers,fundamentalismis actually based on an astounding mobilizationof the laity andunderminestraditionalreligious authority.In
most cases fundamentalismrepresentsan immense expansionof what
Max Weberhas called "religiouslay rationalism."30
This lay mobilization mightbe the most interestingaspectof fundamentalistmovements
which also might have the longest lasting social effects.
In the political mobilization of fundamentalistmovements, social
groups which were widely excluded from political participationhave
been entering the political process often in interrelationwith a new
kind of leadership which articulates their specific grievances and
demands.31Included in this political mobilization are often women
despite the ideology thatthey do not belong to the public sphere.32
But fundamentalismis not exclusively or even predominantlyabout
political mobilization and influence. It is often much more centrally
about the reshaping of the self through a pious life conduct and
the development and cultivation of a specifically religious ethos.
In other words, fundamentalistreligiosity does not necessarily or
primarilyserve non-religiousends of economic bettermentor political
30Weber,
Sociology of Religion. Boston: Beacon Press 1963.
31See Said
Arjomand,The Turbanfor the Crown. New York:Oxford University
Press 1988; R. Scott Appleby, Spokesmenfor the Despised. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press 1997.
32See
my "Fundamentalismand the Political Mobilizationof Women",fn. 27.
282
MartinRiesebrodt
empowerment,but often defines ends which are pursued because of

theirbelieved inherentvalue, like being good, pious, or virtuous.33
As such, these movementsdramaticallycontributeto the spreading
of religious literacy and a new religious ethos, often including categories of people into such practices who were traditionallyexcluded
or more prone towards"folk religion."Most importantagain is the inclusion of women.34This new religious ethos will have a majorimpact
not only on the presentgeneration.Since it profoundlyinfluencespractices of socialization,its actualculturaland social significancewill become more visible in the next generation.Because of such unintended
consequences, the fundamentalistmobilization and activation of lay
people may turnout to have representeda culturalrevolutionof great
importance.
Explainingthe FundamentalistResurgenceof Religion
Giventhese featuresof fundamentalism,what, then, are some of the
reasons of the fundamentalistresurgenceof religion?Why are people
attractedto join fundamentalistreligious communities, and who are
they?Whatis the significanceof the emphasis on issues of genderand
sexuality in fundamentalistideologies? And what is the relationship
between the emergence of fundamentalistmovements and the global
order?
It seems safe to say that the overwhelming majority of carriers
of fundamentalistmovements representthose who have experienced
Western "modernization,"e.g. bureaucratization,expansion of the
marketeconomy,and secularization,as threat,disappointment,or even
catastrophe.This seems true in differentrespects for both generations
of fundamentalists:the traditionalmiddle and workingclasses as well
as the upwardlymobile, secularly educated children from traditional
householdsand the new converts.
33Foranexcellentstudyof suchpiouspracticessee SabaMahmoud,
Women's
Piety
and EmbodiedDiscipline:The IslamicResurgencein Contemporary
Egypt.Diss.
Stanford1998.
34See Gole, ForbiddenModem.
283
The first generationof fundamentalistsfeels threatenedand alienated by their increasing marginalizationand disenfranchisement.The
centralizationand secularizationof the state removed them from political decision processes, interferedwith their local autonomy and
bureaucratized(or even secularized) the educational and legal institutions.Modem political partieswere often not able to integratemajor
elements of the traditionalistclasses and to addresstheir specific economic and statusinterests.
Moreover,these economic, political, and social transformationsare
not just abstract processes, but are representedand symbolized by
the emergence of a new modem middle-class and a working class
whose attitudes, ethos, life-style, and morality are quite contraryto
those of the traditionalistclasses. They, who formerlyrepresentedthe
embodiment of a moral way of life, are now defined as backward.
Losing their culturaldominance and their chances to pass their way
of life on to the next generation,these traditionalistsfeel displaced,
disrespected,and threatenedby moraldecay.
The second generation of fundamentalistsrepresentsa somewhat
differentcase. Often they are border-crossersbetween traditionalism
and modernism. Many come from traditionalistfamilies, but have
received a moder secular education and are upwardly mobile in
their orientation. Others are new converts who have grown up in
secularhouseholds. However,when theirexpectationsof job security,
economic prosperity,social ascend, and prestige are not fulfilled in
reality,these groups easily project their aspirationsinto an imagined
just social order of a distant past and turn against the state. For all
those who have suffered from these dramatic social changes, who
have eitherexperienceda loss in social status,whose hopes have been
disappointed,who have problemscoping with the changing structures
of social relations and the normativeorder,or who believe that they
have paid too high a price for their newly acquiredstatus, a rejection
of the presentand those who are believed to be responsiblefor it is a
very plausiblereaction.
The question now arises why these groups do not organize on
the basis of class interests but instead in terms of shared sociomoral
284
MartinRiesebrodt
ideals. I would suggest that such transitionalsituations of dramatic

social change in the form of upward, downward, horizontal, and
demographicmobility render a definition not only of one's identity
andbelonging,but also of one's economic interestsextremelydifficult.
How are one's interests defined and whom does one owe solidarity?
Is it determined by the past, the present, or the imagined future?
The seemingly simple definition of material interests depends on
one's embeddednessin social relations. If I do not know who I am
and to whom I belong, an articulationof material interests seems
more problematicthanone would otherwise assume. When old bonds
and identities are no longer strong enough and new ones have not
yet sufficiently developed, a world view like the fundamentalistone
overcomes all these contradictionsand doubts. It offers a holistic and
culturallyorientedvision, a social critique,ideals of a just social order,
and a view of historywhich reflectsquite appropriatelythe diffuse and
confusing experiencesof its diversefollowers.
Moreover, the social composition and identity of class heterogeneous milieus render an articulationof common material interests
other than in the abstractcategoryof "justice"nearly impossible. Additionally, for social classes which have not perceived themselves in
terms of class interestsbut ratherin terms of a status honor, like the
traditionalistmiddle class, an articulationof protest in terms of simple material interests is highly unlikely. For them, a whole way of
life is at stake. These kinds of factors make the message of a return
to a moral order of justice, piety, patriarchalauthority,and modesty
attractiveto first as well as second generation fundamentalists.The
modernistutopianismof history as a never ending process of social
perfection and individualopportunityis counteredwith a dramatized
scenario of salvationhistory where society is in decay and the cleavages are not between classes, or between those who make it and those
who don't, but between good and evil, forces of God and forces of
Satan.
What is the significance of the strong emphasis on patriarchal
authorityandmorality,why areissues of genderand sexual moralityso
importantin fundamentalistideology,rhetoric,andpractice?In part,an
285
answerhas been suggested already.Since fundamentalismrepresents

a culturalmilieu, issues of social-moralorder predominate.But why
is it patriarchalauthorityand sexual moralityinstead of a concern for
the poor or for "god's creation"?The problem is multilayered.Most
important,the family and gender relations are areas where dramatic
social changes are experienced most directly and dramatically.If
partnerrelationsdeteriorate,childrenno longer acceptthe authorityof
theirparents,and new rules of conduct may not be availableor yet be
acceptable,a classic Durkheimiancrisis of anomiehas occurred.Such
a crisis may be more severely felt thanany economic hardshipbecause
it underminesthe trustin the most basic, personal,and sensitive social
relationships.
Why don't people simply adaptto new ways of life and social relations? Many do. But, fundamentalistsare as seriously committed to
patriarchalfamily values and morality as modernists are to human
rights and gender equality. Certainvalues are not negotiable. Moreover, issues of gender relations and sexual morality have attained a
central symbolic significance in the conflict between modernistsand
fundamentalists.Since all symptomsof decay are ultimatelyexplained
by the fundamentalistideology in terms of an abandonmentof faith
measuredby adherenceto patriarchalsocial morality,even political or
economic conflicts may be perceivedand acted out in termsof a "Kulturkampf'between the secularistsand their state on the one hand and
the pious and theirgod on the other.
Why are these people turning to religious instead of secular ideologies? What does religion offer that secular ideologies do not? Of
course, in some societies many have turned to secular or pseudoreligious ideologies, like fascism or populism, especially when religious institutionsareclosely connectedwith the modernizingstate and
when the definitionof legitimatereligion is tightly controlled.In some
cases, political repressionhas made it easier for people to organizein
religious associations. But, generally speaking, the attractionof religion can have many sources.
Of course, for those who are attached to a religious tradition,its
practices,beliefs, and values, a religious articulationof protestis most
286
MartinRiesebrodt
obvious and plausible.However,as we have seen already,some of the

attractivenessof religion has to do with group dynamics. There are
many second generationfundamentalistswho have grown up in rather
moderatelyreligious or even secularhouseholds for whom the turnto
religion is new. When militantsecularismis associated with the modernist milieu, the opposition against it will likely turn to religion for
its articulationof protest.Religion offers the strongestcounterposition
vis-a-vis the modernistmilieu and its secular way of life. It also provides the actors with a high degree of legitimacy by uniting them into
a community of the just, a party of god, which transcendsclass interests and boundaries.Religion ennobles the struggle against a common enemy and framesfundamentalistsas soldiers sharinga fate in an
apocalypticbattle.
But fundamentalismis not simply a critique of others or a convenient language,it also offers a strongposition of its own which is institutionalizedin religious associationsandtheirpractices.Fundamentalist milieus are often quite successful in restructuringthe life-worldsof
theirfollowers cognitively,emotionally,andeven practically,reinventing their social identities and helping them regain a sense of dignity,
honor,and respect. Moreover,religions alreadyhave the infrastructure
of daily,weekly, monthly,andyearlyroutineswhich secularideologies
have a hardtime inventing.
Finally,what is the relationshipbetweenfundamentalistmovements
and the emerging global order?Huntingtonhas arguedthat the world
will be shaped by conflicts between civilizations based on ultimate
religious values. Based on my analysis of fundamentalism,I would
like to suggest a differentscenario. Although religious traditionscan
be the basis of social identity and solidarity, all traditions in the
contemporaryworld tend to be fragmentedinto a variety of cultural
milieus which expose different attitudes towards major features of
moder life. There exist comparable cultural milieus in different
religioustraditionswhichmight shareas much in common as opposing
milieus within the same tradition. Therefore a realistic scenario of
possible relations of solidarity and conflict has to be much more
complex and mobile than the one suggested by Huntington.Since
287
secularism and fundamentalismconstitute each other socially and

ideologically, fundamentalismis neither the final realization of the
religious core of any "civilization,"nor is it a momentaryaberration
from a predestined path to secularism, but it is and will remain a
recurringhistoricalphenomenonwithin the modem world.
The Universityof Chicago
Swift Hall
1025 East 58th Street
CHICAGO,IL 60637
USA
MARTIN RIESEBRODT
NEW AGE RELIGIONAND SECULARIZATION1

WOUTERJ. HANEGRAAFF
Some years ago a considerablestir was caused in the Dutch popular

media by a novel which had climbed the bestseller lists with almost
unprecedentedspeed and then stubbornlyrefused to vanish from the
number one position. The book was written by an American,James
Redfield, and had a catchy title: The Celestine Prophecy. Following
its phenomenalsuccess, an accompanyingCelestineWorkbookquickly
appeared;and by the time everybodyknew thatthe CelestineProphecy
was about the revelation of "nine spiritual insights," the time was
deemed ripe for a follow-up entitled The TenthInsight, quickly followed by its own workbook. The end is not yet in sight: at the time
of writing those who thirst for more may profit from yet a thirdvolume in the series, The Celestine Vision,again with its own workbook.
Even thoughthese latervolumes have not attainedthe same sales as the
first,they must still be consideredhighly successful books, as attested
by their prolonged presence on the Dutch bestseller lists. The "celestine phenomenon"is an internationalone - on the WorldWide Web
the nine insights are the subject of enthusiasticdiscussion, Redfield's
books have spawned a whole range of secondaryproducts(books of
aphorisms,videotapes, and so on), and the lessons of the workbooks
1This is a revised
English translationof a text that has been publishedin Dutch,
as ChristelijkeSpiritualiteiten New Age: Over de rol van "CelestijnseBeloftes" in
een seculiere samenleving (Utrechtse Theologische Reeks 36), Utrecht 1997. The
researchwas supportedby the Foundationfor Researchin the Field of Philosophyand
Theology in the Netherlands,which is subsidizedby the NetherlandsOrganizationfor
the Advancementof Research(NWO).
NUMEN, Vol. 47
New age religionand secularization
289
are now being put into practicein the context of numerouscourses for
spiritualdevelopment.2
Let me begin this articlewith two statements.Firstly,The Celestine
Prophecy is an extremely significant book which should be on the
readinglist of anybody who wishes to understandwhat is happening
to religion in contemporarywestern societies. Secondly, this does not
detractfrom the fact that The Celestine Prophecy is an appallingly
shallow piece of writing, produced by an author without an ounce
of literary talent and whose "insights"evince a remarkablelack of
profundityor originality.I cannot recall ever having encountereda
book of worse quality during more than five years of studying New
Age literature.3
It will be obvious, therefore,that if I consider The Celestine Prophecy such an importantbook it is not because of its qualitativemerits
but in spite of their absence. Bestsellers of this kind are significant
becausethey functionas a sortof thermometerfor whatis happeningto
religionin our society.As such, TheCelestineProphecyhas succeeded
in bringingmany observersto an unexpected,even revelatory,insight
(but one which will not be found among the nine discussed in the
book): "New Age spirituality"is no longer a phenomenonlimited to
a comparativelymarginalsubculture,but has developed into a type
of broad folk religion which appeals to many people at all levels of
society. To many observersthis has come as an unpleasantsurprise.
Literarycritics and journalists were mystified and shocked by the
suggestion that precisely this kind of Trivialliteraturencapsulates
the sentimentsof the spirituallyinterestedpopulace. But while such
reactions are understandableenough, there is no reason to infer that
everybodywho has experiencedthe CelestineProphecyas an inspiring
2 The threemain titles are:JamesRedfield,The CelestineProphecy:An Adventure,
London 1995; id., The TenthInsight: Holding the Vision.FurtherAdventuresof the
CelestineProphecy,Toronto1996; id., The Celestine Vision:Living the New Spiritual
Awareness,New York, 1997.
3 For the results of my analysis of popular New Age literature,see Wouter J.
Hanegraaff,New Age Religion and WesternCulture:Esotericism in the Mirror of
Secular Thought,Leiden/New York/Koln1996 [U.S. edition: Albany 1998].
290
WouterJ. Hanegraaff
book is thereforedevoidof any criticaljudgment.Manyreadersappear

to realize very well that the book is not exactly an impressivefeat of
literaryskill, but this simply does not seem to be a matterof concern
to them. They are not looking for an exciting story or for literary
subtlety.From talks with enthusiasticreaders,I have concluded that
what seems to impress them is a feeling of recognition, of being
understood.Redfield writes things which seem to resonatewith their
own experience,and his book providesthem with a welcome occasion
and a point of reference for talking about it. As I will argue, this
experienceis essentially one of dissatisfactionwith certainaspects of
contemporarycultureand society.
In my opinion, the success of The CelestineProphecydemonstrates
thatNew Age thinkinghas takenroot in contemporarywesternsociety
to a much greater extent than most observers would like to believe.
Thatprecisely this book has attainedsuch phenomenalpopularitymay
be explainedby its very simplicity. Its commercial surplusvalue lies
in the fact that it can reachnot only the bettereducated,but also those
who rarelyever read books and for whom most of the standardNew
Age literaturealready tends to be quite difficult. Apparently- and
contraryto what has sometimes been suggested- thereappearsto be
a marketfor New Age among this less educatedsectorof the populace
as well: it merely needs to be approachedon its own intellectuallevel
in orderto be mobilized.4
Why is it that New Age spiritualityhas such a broad appeal in
contemporarywestern society? Let me first give a very brief sketch
of what I mean by "New Age".5
4 Sociological researchsuggests that New Age thinking appeals mainly to representatives of the better-educatedmiddle classes. As far as I know, the question of
whetherthis is because the less-educated are less interestedin New Age spirituality,
or because a latent interestis not being capitalizedupon, has seldom been posed. The
success of The Celestine Prophecy points towards the latter explanation.For those
whose literaturedoes not go beyond the level of populardoctor novels, most of the
standardliteraturein New Age bookshops will not have much appeal.
5 For an extensive discussion I refer to
my New Age Religion. A somewhatmore
complete summaryversion thanprovided here may be found in my article 'The New
291
1. New Age
New Age thinkingin generalis characterizedby a pervasivepattern
of implicit or explicit culture criticism. Within a New Age context
one may encountera very wide variety of ideas and convictions, but
underneaththere is a general dissatisfaction with certain aspects of
western thought such as one may encounterin contemporaryculture.
Those who are attractedby New Age thinking do not necessarily
have very explicit ideas about the coming of a "new era," but they
all agree that our society could and should be different.I suggest that
it is this (often latent and half-conscious)experienceof dissatisfaction
with existing daily realities,a feeling thatmainstreamcultureleaves no
room for certainimportantdimensionsof personalhumanexperience,
which is activatedand "givena voice" by a book such as The Celestine
Prophecy. An analysis of representativeNew Age sources makes it
possible to formulate this New Age culture criticism in technical
terms. Firstly, all New Agers object to dualism in its various forms:
therapeutic(i.e., assuminga sharpseparationbetween body and spirit,
as well as between healing and spiritualdevelopment),religious (i.e.,
opposing God as Creator against created beings), ecological (i.e.,
opposing man against nature), and so on. Such various forms of
dualismshouldbe replacedby "holistic"alternatives:God and man are
one in their deepest essence, therapiesmust treat "the whole person"
and the healing process is a process of spiritualdevelopment at one
and the same time, humanitymust rediscoverits lost connection with
nature,and so on. In addition,New Age thinkingis generally opposed
to reductionismin its variousforms: the universedoes not resemble a
dead mechanismbut a living organismpermeatedby a spiritualforce,
Age Movement and the Esoteric Tradition,"in: Roelof van den Broek and WouterJ.
Hanegraaff(eds.), Gnosis and Hermeticismfrom Antiquityto Modern Times,Albany
1998, 359-382; I go beyond the discussions in my book in my articles "New Age
Spiritualitiesas Secular Religion: A Historian'sPerspective,"Social Compass 46: 2
(1999) and "'The New Age Movement,"in: Linda Woodhead(ed.), Religion in the
Moder World:Traditionsand Transformations,London 2000.
292
WouterJ. Hanegraaff
and the dimension of the spiritualitself cannot be reduced to purely

materialprocesses.
A very similarpatternof culturecriticism may also be encountered
elsewhere, for example in certain environmentaland feminist movements. What sets New Age apart is that its primary sources of inspirationfor formulatingholistic alternativesare derivedfrom certain
so-called "westernesoteric"traditionswhich have long existed in our
culturebuthave seldom been dominant.New Agers usually ascribedualist andreductionisttendenciesin westerncultureto the influenceof a
dogmatic,institutionalizedChristianityon the one hand, and an overrationalistscience on the other.But apartfrom these two, they assume
the existence of a third current,which has usually been marginalized
andsuppressedby the othertwo. This thirdcurrentis referredto by various terms, such as "esotericism"or "gnosis".In the formerinstance,
the idea is that an inner core of true spiritualitylies hidden behindthe
outer surface of all religious traditions,and that the knowledge of it
has been kept alive by secret traditionsthroughoutthe ages.6 In the
latter instance, New Agers do not primarilymean the largely dualist
metaphysicalsystems knows as gnosticism, but a supposedlyuniversal
spiritualitybased upon the primacyof personalinner experience.7
6 This combines two common
meaningsof western esotericism, as distinctfrom a

thirdone used as a technical termin academicdiscussion. See Antoine Faivre,"Questions of TerminologyProperto the Study of Esoteric Currentsin Moder and ContemporaryEurope,"in: Antoine Faivreand WouterJ. Hanegraaff(eds.), WesternEsotericismand the Science of Religion: Selected Papers Presentedat the 17th Congress
of the InternationalAssociationfor the History of Religions, Mexico City 1995 (Gnostica: Texts & Interpretations2), Louvain 1998; and cf. WouterJ. Hanegraaff,"Some
Remarkson the Study of WesternEsotericism,"TheosophicalHistory (1998) March
1999, 223-232 [tevens:Esoterica 1:1 <www.esoteric.msu.edu>].
7 Cf. Wouter J.
Hanegraaff,"On the Constructionof 'Esoteric Traditions',"in:
Faivreand Hanegraaff,WesternEsotericismand the Science of Religion.
New age religion and secularization
293
New Agers themselves tend to presenta highly biased and factually

misleading picture of these traditions8but from a historical point of
view it is true that the New Age movementhas indeed emerged from
what may be referred to as "esoteric"currents in western culture.
While New Agers tend to be especially fascinated by the gnostic
currents in early Christianity,the historical roots of the New Age
movement actually have a more recent origin. As I have argued
at length elsewhere, the New Age movement can be regardedas a
contemporarymanifestation and transformationof western esoteric
currents and traditions which originated in the early Renaissance.9
It is therefore important to emphasize that when I use the term
"esotericism"in the rest of this article, I am never using it in the
popularsense of the word (whereit tends to be used as a nearsynonym
of "New Age") but, rather,in the technical academic sense, referring
to a cluster of specific historical traditions which become clearly
perceptiblein connection with the revival of hermeticismin the late
15th century.10
According to this usage, the term "westernesotericism"covers a
complicatedmixtureof currentswhich in theiroriginalform are an integralpartof the historyof Christianity,and which flourishedbetween
the late 15th and the end of the 18th centuries.Like the more dominant currentsof Christianity,western esoteric currentshave taken on
radically new forms under the impact of processes of secularization
since the period of the Enlightenment,and this is an importantpoint
to emphasize. One frequentlyencountersthe assumptionthat modem
manifestationsof westernesotericismcannotbe so very differentfrom
their predecessorsin earliercenturies.According to critical outsiders,
8 Here I foreshadowthe
chapteron emic and etic esoteric historiographiesin the

Olav
Hammer,ClaimingKnowledge,forthcomingin Brill's
importantmonographby
series "Studiesin the History of Religions" (Numen Book Series).
9 For an overview of western esoteric traditions,see Antoine Faivre, Access to
WesternEsotericism,Albany 1994.
10For a technical definitionof westernesotericism, see Faivre,Access, 10-15; and
for a criticism, see Hanegraaff,New Age Religion, 396-403.
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WouterJ. Hanegraaff
this is because irrationalismand "magical"or "occult"superstitionare

universalhuman temptationspresent in all periods and cultures.According to modem esotericists,it is because the esoteric is a universal
spiritualpresence, the essential reality of which remains unaffected
by culturalcontingencies. Against these assumptionsof universality,
I believe it to be undeniablethat the 19th centuryproducedradically
innovativemixturesof traditionalesoteric and modem rationalistand
scientific ideas. The result was a new phenomenon,which is best referredto as "occultism".Occultismmay thereforebe defined as secularized esotericism.It is this 19th-centuryphenomenon,and not some
supposed universal gnosis, which forms the historical foundationof
New Age.
The above will suffice as a summary of what I mean by "New
Age". It is importantto bear in mind that I will not use the terms
western esotericism and occultism in the popularsense, with all their
vague and emotional connotationsbut, rather,as technical terms for
specific historical currentsand phenomena.Westernesotericism is a
well-defined complex of traditionswithin the context of Christianity
(although with parallels in Judaism and Islam).1l The secularization
of western esotericism produceda new phenomenon,referredto here
as occultism. This is not to deny that (strange though it may sound
to some readers)there is such a thing as Christianoccultism, which
attemptsto preservethe essence of the religious context from which it
has emerged.12In the majorityof cases, however,the secularizationof
westernesotericismresultedin a post-Christianoccultism.
2. Religion, religions, and spiritualities
I suggested above that The Celestine Prophecy should be on the
readinglist of anybodywho wishes to understandwhat is happeningto
religion in contemporarywestern societies. In orderto expandon this
11Cf. Wouter J.
Hanegraaff, "EmpiricalMethod in the Study of Esotericism,"
Method & Theoryin the Studyof Religion 7: 2 (1995), 121-124.
12 See Jean-Pierre
Laurant,L'esoterismechretienen France au XIXesiecle (Politica
Hermetica),Lausanne1992.
295
statement,I will have to explain how I understandthe term "religion".

I proposethe following definition:
Religion = any symbolic system which influences human action by providing
possibilities for ritually maintainingcontact between the everyday world and a
more general meta-empiricalframeworkof meaning.13
Let me break up this definitioninto its componentparts. By referring to religion as a symbolic system, I mean that it is a system of
"carriersof meaning"in the broadestsense of the word.For example,a
Christianwho attendschurchon Sundaysentersa domainwhich is full
of objects, words, images, sounds, actions, etc., all of which together
form a whole which is meaningful to him. The traditionin which he
has been broughtup enables him to interpretthis ensemble as well as
its variouscomponents,and to understandtheir meaning. In his daily
life during the rest of the week, symbols of religion may also be encounteredto variousextents,for example in certainbooks or papershe
may read, images he may have on his walls, a political partyfor which
he votes, a club or society in which he participates,and so on. And
outside the privatesphere, as well, he may encountersymbols which
he immediatelyrecognizes as "his own" (as well as those of "others,"
which he may or may not immediatelyrecognize as religious). Even
if the role of religious symbols in his life remainslargely confined to
Sundays,they have an indisputableinfluence on his patternof action.
They make it possible for him to remain in contact - in church or
elsewhere- with a frameworkof meaningwhich goes beyond the evidence of his sensory experience.And how is this contact maintained?
13This is a critical reformulationof the famous definition
proposed by Clifford
Geertzin 1966 ("Religionas a CulturalSystem,"in M. Banton (ed.), Anthropological
Approachesto the Studyof Religion (ASA Monographs3), repr.London 1985). For a
detaileddiscussion see WouterJ. Hanegraaff,"DefiningReligion in Spite of History,"
in: JanG. Platvoet andArie L. Molendijk(eds.), ThePragmaticsofDefining Religion:
Contexts,Concepts and Contests, Leiden/Boston/Koln:Royal E.J. Brill 1999, 337378.
296
WouterJ. Hanegraaff
Primarilyby doing certainthings with at least a minimumof consistency,14and refrainingfrom doing others.
New Age, then, is a form of religion as well. It is anothersymbolic
system, in termsof which anotherensemble of objects, words,images,
sounds, actions, etc., carry anothercomplex of meanings. But it still
fulfills the same function - it influences the actions of New Agers
because it enables them, in the things they do and the things they
refrainfrom doing, to maintaincontact between their everydaylives
and a larger,more generalframeworkof meaning.
While the above is a definition of religion, it is not a definition
of a religion. I speak of a religion whenever the symbolic system in
question takes the form of a social institution.Accordingly,the Dutch
Reformed Churchis religion as well as a religion. The same cannot
be said about the New Age movement- we may speak of New Age
religion, but not of New Age as a religion. Evidently this is not to
deny that a group of New Agers may decide to come togetherin some
kind of institutionalform, eitherof a rudimentaryor a more developed
kind. The resultis then "aNew Age religion"(althoughperhapsa very
small one): the equivalentof what is often referredto as a New Age
"cult".
"Religion,"therefore,may take the form of "a religion,"but need
not do so. Alternatively,religionmay take anotherform as well, which
I proposeto refer to as "a spirituality":
A spirituality = any human practice which maintains contact between the
everyday world and a more general meta-empiricalframeworkof meaning by
way of the individualmanipulationof symbolic systems.15
14Note that
my use of the term "ritual"refers to "ritualaction" in a general sense
ratherthanimplying a definitionof "ritual".It is possible to imagine a religious ritual
which is enacted only once. Ritual action, however, whether in religious or nonreligious contexts, is characterizedby at least a minimalelement of repetition.
15
My use of the term "manipulation".might create misunderstanding.I do not
intend to make a statement about the extent to which individuals are capable of
dissociating or distancingthemselves from the varioussymbolic systems presentin a
given culturaland social context.I defendneitheran extremeview of the "autonomous
subject" which is supposedly at full liberty to make choices among the various
297
This is again a variation on my definition of "religion," but it is

evidently very different from a religion. In order to explain my concept
of "a spirituality,"I would like to discuss two cases. The first one is an
example of "a Christian spirituality," the second is an example of "a
New Age spirituality".
During the first half of the 17th century, in the small town of
Gorlitz (now on the German-Polish border) lived a cobbler named
Jacob Boehme.16 Having been tormented for years by questions about
the origin of evil and suffering in the world, he finally experienced
an interior illumination which changed his life. He describes how
God permitted him a momentary glance into the innermost "center of
nature," thus enabling him to perceive all earthly things in the light of
the divine mystery: the mystery of Good and Evil, Light and Darkness,
divine Love and divine Wrath, and the reconciliation of these opposites
by Christ. Boehme would devote the rest of his life to a continuing
attempt to explain his interior experience in human language, and
develop the implications of his vision. His writings are the work of a
visionary genius and were to become the foundation of a rich spiritual
tradition.17
symbolic systems which are availablein the "religioussupermarket"of contemporary
westernsociety, nor a (no less extreme)view accordingto which this so-called subject
is merely a passive exponentof supra-personal"collective forces". Symbolic systems
are products of human beings who are in turn products of symbolic systems. The
power of existing social structuresis no less crucial than the capacity of individuals
to make individual choices. In this context, the term "manipulation"merely means
the empirical fact that people come up with personal and creative interpretationsof
existing symbolic systems. The questionof where precisely the limits of theirfreedom
of interpretationlie can be disregardedhere.
16On Boehme, see Alexandre Koyre, La philosophie de Jacob Boehme, Paris
1971; PierreDeghaye, La naissance de Dieu, ou la doctrine de Jacob Boehme, Paris
1985; AndrewWeeks,Boehme:An IntellectualBiographyof the Seventeenth-Century
Philosopherand Mystic, Albany 1991.
17See for example PierreDeghaye, "JacobBoehme and his Followers,"in Antoine
Faivre and Jacob Needleman (eds.), Modem Esoteric Spirituality,New York 1992,
210-247; Antoine Faivre,"Le courantth6osophique(fin XVIe-XXe siecle): Essai de
periodisation,"in: Faivre, Acces de l'esoterisme occidental II, Paris 1996, 45-167;
298
WouterJ. Hanegraaff
Boehmian theosophy is a characteristicmanifestationof the complex of traditionsreferredto under the general label of "westernesotericism" (supra). It is evident that this perspective belongs to the
domain of "religion"as I define it. Moreover (in spite of his problems with a local minister who consideredhim a heretic), Boehme's
esoteric teachings are undoubtedlyrooted in a religion: Christianity
as such, and the Lutheranismof his time in particular.But in addition to this, we are evidently also dealing here with "a spirituality".
Boehme's work is the productof an "individualmanipulation"of the
various symbolic systems he had at his disposal:Christiansymbolism
in general,the more recent symbolism of Lutheranismin particular,as
well as mystical traditionsconnected with the writings of Eckhartand
Tauler,the nature-philosophicaland esoteric symbolism of alchemy,
and the teachingsof Paracelsus.Using elements of these varioussymbolic systems, he createda new synthesis- a new way of understanding his native Christianfaith. It is not necessaryhere to enter into the
historicalbackgroundsof the traditionsjust mentioned;what concerns
me here is JacobBoehme's work as an exampleof a spiritualityrooted
in the symbolicsystem of a religion.
Let me now compare this first case of a spiritualitywith a second,
characteristicof New Age religion. I have intentionally chosen an
example which displays certain similaritieswith Boehme, in orderto
make the differences stand out all the more clearly. On 9 September
1963, the New Yorkscience fiction writerJane Robertswas suddenly
and unexpectedly "hit"by a powerful psychic experience. She was
quietly sitting at the table when, as she describes, '[b]etween one
normal minute and the next, a fantastic avalanche of radical new
ideas burst into my head with tremendousforce, as if my skull were
some sort of receiving station, turned up to unbearablevolume'.18
ArthurVersluis, "ChristianTheosophic Literatureof the 17th and 18th Centuries,"
in Van den Broek and Hanegraaff,Gnosis and Hermeticism;B.J. Gibbons, Gender
in Mystical and Occult Thought: Behmenism and its Development in England,
Cambridge1996.
18JaneRoberts,The Seth Material,Toronto1970, 11-12. Cf. my discussionsin New
Age Religion, 28-29, 37 andpassim. For furtherbackgroundinformationon Roberts,
299
The experienceinvolved not only ideas, but was also accompaniedby

extreme and unusualphysical sensationsand by a sort of psychedelic
experienceof travellingthroughmanydimensions.When she regained
her composure,she found herself furiouslyscribblingdown the words
and ideas that had flashed throughher head. In an attemptto find out
what had happenedto her, she and her husbandstartedexperimenting
with spiritistic techniques. Some time later they contacted a spirit,
who eventuallybegan to communicatedirectlythroughJane Roberts'
body. In this way, she developed into a so-called trance medium
or "channel"for a "higher entity,"who referredto himself as Seth.
Seth's messages were published and have exerted an enormous (and
still underestimated)influence on the development of the New Age
movement. The core of his teaching is that we all "create our own
reality,"in a process of spiritualevolutionthroughcountless existences
on this planet as well as in an infinity of other dimensions. Few New
Agers realize how many of the beliefs which they take for grantedin
theirdaily lives have theirhistoricalorigin in Seth's messages.
The intriguingphenomenonof channelingis not my subjecthere.19
I would merely like to emphasize how strongly Seth's messages appearto fit withinJaneRoberts'personalframeof reference.As may be
checked by a comparisonwith the books she publishedunderher own
name,20this frame of referenceconsisted of a highly eclectic combinationof religious and non-religioussymbolic systems. They included
the Romanticcosmology and evolutionismof the AmericanTranscendentalists,the "positivethinking"of the New Thoughtmovementand
related traditionsusually referredto as the American "Metaphysical
Movements,"spiritualismand parapsychologyin the wake of magnetism and American mesmerism,but also science fiction literature,
see ArthurHastings, Withthe Tonguesof Men and Angels: A Study of Channeling,
FortWorth1991.
19For an excellent recent
study, see Michael F. Brown, The Channeling Zone:
AmericanSpiritualityin an AnxiousAge, Cambridge,Mass. and London 1997.
20See, for
example, Jane Roberts, The God of Jane: A Psychic Manifesto, New
York 1981.
300
WouterJ. Hanegraaff
popular science, and popular psychology. From the elements of all

these symbolic systems, Jane Roberts -
or Seth -
created a new,
originalsynthesis.
The Seth teachings evidently qualify as "religion"in terms of my
definition.But they evidently do not constitutea religion, nor are they
rooted in a religion as was the case with Boehme. They are clearly an
example of a spirituality,however:they are the productof individual
manipulationof existing symbolic systems (religious as well as nonreligious). This spiritualityfulfilled the function which it still fulfills
in the context of the New Age movement today: it influences human
action by providing the possibility for maintainingcontact between
the everyday world and a more general "meta-empirical"framework
of meaning.It is thereforeundoubtedlyreligion.
I should add one importantnote. In both the examples just given,
we are dealing with the spectacularproductsof unquestionablygifted
individuals, whose published writings made such an impression on
readersthattheir spirituality(or elements of it) was adoptedby others
and took on a life of its own. But when talking of "spiritualities"we
should definitelynot thinkmerely or even mainly of the comparatively
rare phenomenonof "religious virtuosi".In principle we are dealing
with a common everyday phenomenon:every person who gives an
individualtwist to existing religious symbols (be it only in a minimal
sense) is already engaged in the practice of creating his or her own
spirituality.In this sense, each existing religion generates multiple
spiritualitiesas a matterof course, and it is only the more spectacular
cases which sometimesbecome the basis for a new spiritualtradition.
"Spiritualities"and "religions"might be roughly characterizedas
the individual and institutionalpoles within the general domain of
"religion".A religion without spiritualitiesis impossible to imagine.
But, as will be seen, the reverse - a spiritualitywithout a religion
- is quite possible in principle.Spiritualitiescan emerge on the basis
of an existing religion, but they can very well do without. New Age
is the example par excellence of this latter possibility: a complex of
spiritualitieswhich emerges on the foundationof a pluralisticsecular
society.
301
3. Secularization
Above, I have repeatedlyused termssuch as "secular"and "secularization,"and it is importantto define precisely what I mean and do not
meanby them.Not very long ago, it was widely assumedthatreligion's
days were numbered.As science andrationalitytook the place of faith,
religion would become obsolete; it would largely or completely die
out, or at the very least lose its social significance. While such ideas
may still be encounteredfrom time to time, it has become increasingly
clear that they are the productof wishful thinkingon the partof convinced secularists.The weight of evidence demonstratesquite clearly
that, regardlessof how one defines "religion,"it remains fully alive
and shows no signs of vanishing.If "secularization"is taken to mean
the decline and disappearanceof religion, it is clearly a myth. The
secularizationthesis may be reformulated,however, in a way which
is perfectly in accord with the facts: under the impact of a series of
pervasivehistorical and social processes since the 18th century,religion is in the process of changing its face in a quite radical fashion.
It is not vanishing, but is being transformedunderthe impact of new
circumstances.
It might be arguedthatthis is hardlyanythingnew. No religion has
ever been static. There has always been change and transformation,
andsecularizationmight thereforebe regardedas merelyanotherstage
in the history of religion in western societies. However,I will suggest
that the transformationof religion underthe impact of secularization
is more than that. I believe it to be a historicallyunique and unprecedented process, representinga more profoundhistorial caesura than
any other transformationknown to us from history.I will not discuss
here the highly complex combinationof causes of this phenomenon,
which has been underwaymost clearly since the 18th century;there is
an abundanthistoricaland sociologial literatureon the subject.For my
presentpurpose,it suffices to define the process of secularizationas
the whole of historicaldevelopments
in westernsociety,as a resultof which
the Christianreligionhas lost its centralpositionas the foundational
collective
symbolismof westernculture,andhasbeenreducedto merelyoneamongseveral
WouterJ. Hanegraaff
302
religious institutionswithin a culturewhich is no longer groundedin a religious

system of symbols.
In passing, I note that this process has obviously affected nonwestern societies as well; but the complications of that process may
be disregardedhere. What I am concerned with is defining as clearly
as possible in which respectscontemporarywesternsociety is different
from all other societies priorto the Enlightenment.It seems to me that
the answeris clear:as faras we know,therehas neverbeen a humansociety whose general and collectively sharedculturewas not religious.
In other words, there has neverbefore been a society whose collective
symbolism was not of such a kind as to providepossibilities for people
to maintaincontact with a larger,more general meta-empiricalframework of meaning.Precisely such a non-religiouscomplex of symbolic
systems, however,is characteristicof contemporarysociety.21
What does this mean in the context of my distinction between
religions and spiritualities?Secularizationdoes not mean thatreligion
is vanishing or that religions are dying out; but it does mean that
religion as such is radically changing its face. The essence of this
process, I suggest, lies in the fact that religion is becoming less
and less the domain of religions, and more and more the domain of
spiritualities.
Obviously, to state that religion is increasingly individualizedis
nothingnew. Severaldecadesago, PeterBergerexplainedhow religion
in contemporarywestern society has become a matterof a conscious
choice insteadof being a naturaldimensionof daily experience.22This
is the case even in a country such as the United States of America,
whose inhabitants (other than those of the Netherlands) claim in
21Cf. WouterJ.
Hanegraaff,"Lafin de l'dsoterisme?Le mouvementdu Nouvel Age

et la question du symbolisme religieux,""La fin de l'Fsoterisme?Le mouvementdu
nouvel age et la question du symbolisme religieux,"in: Symboles et mythesdans les
mouvementsinitiatiqueset esoteriques(17eme-20eme siecle), Paris:Arche Edidit/La
Tabled'Emeraude1999, 128-147.
22Peter Berger,The HereticalImperative:ContemporaryPossibilities of Religious
Affirmation,London 1980.
303
overwhelmingmajorityto believe in God. This "choosingfor religion"

may take variousforms. One may choose to participatein an existing
religionor, if one has been broughtup in one, to continueparticipating.
The religion in question may be a Christianchurch,but it might also
be one of the numerous"newreligious movements"or cults which are
active in contemporarysociety. And, of course, any existing religion
may spawn new spiritualitiesin turn, i.e. whenever individualsmake
new and creative use of existing symbolic systems. Essentially, this
is how all religion (and not just New Age religion) functions in a
pluralisticand secularsociety.
Nevertheless, in the context of the process of secularizationthe
nature of New Age religion is a special and radical one. Before
attemptingto explain in what sense this is so, I will first summarize
my argumentup to this point. Before the period of the Enlightenment,
rather than Christianitybeing a religion within the more general
context of westernculture,that cultureas a whole was religious. This
is why the "Christianspirituality"of an esotericist such as Jacob
Boehme is naturallyrooted in his religion. He gave his own, personal
twist to a system of symbols for which he had never been forced to
make a conscious choice, but which, from the outset, provided the
context of his very thoughtsand experiences. As a result of complex
secularizationprocesses, westernsociety is now no longer based upon
a religious system of symbols but on a non-religious one (or, rather,
several of them). Within that context, all religion - whether as
"religions"or as "spiritualities"- has become a matterof individual
choice. Likewise, Christianityis no longer what it was during most
of its history.From providing a general context within which it was
possible for people to make individual creative choices, Christianity
has itself become merely one possible option among many.
The crucial characteristicof New Age religion, I suggest, is that it
consists of a complex of spiritualitieswhich are no longer embedded
in any religion - as was the case with all spiritualitiesfrom the past
- but directly in secular culture itself. All manifestationsof New
Age religion, without exception, are based upon what I have called
an "individualmanipulationof existing symbolic systems". In this
304
WouterJ. Hanegraaff
way, new syntheses are continuallybeing created,providingthe very

thing which religion has always provided:the possibility for ritually
maintainingcontactwith a more generalmeta-empiricalframeworkof
meaning, in terms of which people give sense to their experiences in
daily life.
Spiritualitiesin a traditionalreligious context did not need to start
from scratch. The religion in which they were embedded already
served to provide meaning. The primaryfunction of new spiritualities
was to clarify and flesh out existing religious symbolism, so as to
"fine tune" it to the specific needs of the person in question. Hence,
Jacob Boehme certainly did not develop his esoteric system because
he doubted that Christ had saved humanityfrom sin - he did it in
orderto betterunderstandwhat that meant.
New Age spiritualities,in contrast, are not rooted in any existing
religion. They are based upon the individualmanipulationof religious
as well as non-religious symbolic systems, and this manipulationis
undertakenin orderto fill these symbols with new religious meaning.
As far as existing religious symbolic systems are concerned,New Age
spiritualitiesgenerally concentrateon whateveris not associated too
closely with the traditionalchurchesand theirtheologies. Hence their
preferencefor alternativetraditions,from gnosticism and westernesotericism in their own cultureto variousreligious traditionsfrom other
cultures.As far as their use of non-religioussymbolic systems is concerned,by far the most importantarea is thatof popular"mythologies
of science".23In countless ways, New Agers give a spiritualtwist to the
symbolism of quantummechanics and the theory of relativity,24various psychological schools,25 sociological theories,26and so on. The
common basis of New Age religion is, therefore,no longer the symbolic system of an existing religion but a large number of symbolic
systems of variousprovenance,bits and pieces of which are constantly
23Cf.
Hanegraaff,"La fin de Fl'soterisme".
24
Hanegraaff,New Age Religion, chs. 3 & 6 (esp. 128-151).
25
Hanegraaff,New Age Religion, chs. 2, 8 & 15 (esp. 482-513).
26
Hanegraaff,New Age Religion, ch. 5.
305
being recycled by the popularmedia. Since there is no longer a commonly shared source of authoritywhich indicates how all this informationfits togetherwithin a religious framework,everybodyis left to
his or her own devices for figuring out the religious implications of
availablesymbolic systems. At most, they may find assistance in the
productsof a continuousstreamof popularliteraturewhich, however,
does not follow one clear directioneither.
As such, New Age is the manifestationpar excellence of the secularizationof religion: religion becomes solely a matterof individual
choice and detachesitself from religious institutions,that is, from exclusive commitmentto specific "religions".In addition,whatis considered to be real religion accordingto a New Age perspectiveis hardly
compatible(if at all) with religious institutions.Here, as in many other
things, New Age religion reveals itself as a typical productof the Enlightenmenttradition.A consistentrefrainin New Age sources is that
man has finally managedto free himself from the tyrannyof religious
power structures;"religions"are perceived as being based upon blind
acceptance of dogmas, which have long preventedthe faithful from
discoveringthe divinitythatresides within themselves.
In this context, one is reminded of a passage written by Emile
Durkheimearly in the presentcentury.Durkheimdefined religion as
a social institution;in otherwords,he made no distinctionbetween religion and religions. He believed thatin this way he could accomodate
all the existing forms of religion, but he also realized that new forms
of religion were in the process of emergingwhich were no longer embodied in social institutionsand for which, therefore,his own theory
of religion would no longer be sufficient.27His words sound like a
veritable prophecy of the New Age movement. Durkheimspeaks of
"individualreligions that the individualinstitutesfor himself and celebratesfor himself alone,"and he foresees a time when "theonly cult
will be the one thateach personfreely practicesin his innermostself'.
Such a new form of religion, he predicts, "would consist entirely of
27 tmile
Durkheim, Les formes 6elmentaires de la vie religieuse: Le systeme

totemiqueen Australie(1912), repr.Paris 1960, 63-65.
306
WouterJ. Hanegraaff
interiorand subjective states and be freely construedby each one of

us".28
4. New Age: Secular Religion

This new form of religion has indeed arrived.Durkheim foresaw
it already at the beginning of the 20th century,and it is time for the
historicaland social significanceof the phenomenonto be recognized
morewidely. In academiccircles and elsewhere,one may still perceive
a tendency to dismiss New Age religion as a mere temporaryfashion
which will no doubtvanish of its own accord.It becomes increasingly
difficultto maintainsuch an attitudewhen the "fashion"shows no signs
of disappearing.But more importantly,it betrays a certain blindness
to what is happeningstructurallyto religion in contemporarysociety.
If New Age is a passing fad, then where are New Agers expected to
turn once the fashion is over? Will they, at long last, embrace the
consistentlynon-religiousworldview(with or withouta "God-is-dead"
theology) which intellectuals have been predictingfor so long? This
expectationmerely reflects yet anothersupersededideology of secular
progress:to the best of my knowledge, nothing indicates (or has ever
indicated) that normal, ordinarypeople are particularlyeager for a
worldviewwhich will preventthem from perceivinga deepermeaning
in their everyday lives. Or will New Agers returnto the fold of the
traditionalchurchesand a communalfaith? This would requirea true
deus ex machina,since existing social realitiesandthe internallogic of
developmentboth point towardsan individualisticturningaway from
traditionalreligious institutionsagainstthe backgroundof a continuing
demandfor religious meaning.Whatis more, such turningaway is not
necessarily inconsistentwith continuedchurchparticipation;as I will
argue, it may also take the form of an innere Emigrationwithin the
churchesthemselves.
Certainly,many observers(the present authornot excluded) would
have preferreda consistently secular type of religion to have turned
28Translation
accordingto E. Durkheim,The ElementaryFormsof Religious Life,
KarenE. Fields, transl.,New York 1995.
307
out to be a bit more profound than The Celestine Prophecy or the

spiritualityof ShirleyMacLaine.But given the course of developments
since the period of the Enlightenment,precisely this type of pop
religion is what could have been expected all along. Combining
my argumentso far with the analysis of New Age ideas which I
have providedelsewhere (and only summarizedhere), I come to the
following conclusion.
New Age is, first of all, a clear and consistent manifestationof
secular religion. It provides the possibility for people to construe a
spiritualityaccordingto their own individualpreferences,within the
contextof a culturallypluralisticsociety. I have arguedthatwe are not
dealing merely with a generalemphasis on individualization,but with
a unique and unprecedentedphenomenon:for the very first time in
history, spiritualitiesare detaching themselves entirely from specific
existing religions and are startingto lead their own lives within the
contextof a non-religioussociety.
Secondly,it is only to be expected thatsuch a type of individualized
religion should place the emphasison personalinnerexperience.It is,
therefore,not just by chance that New Age takes its inspirationfrom
westernesoteric traditionswith theiremphasison gnosis, especially in
theirmodem occultist form. On the one hand, we may observe a turning away from everythingassociated with traditionaldogmatic theology and church institutions.This tendency is undeniablenot only in
view of the decline in church attendance,but may also (and perhaps
even more clearly) be observed among those who neverthelesswish
to remainpartof a church.On the other hand, the searchfor meaning
baseduponintuition,transcendingthe senses andthe rationalmind,reflects an equally strongpatternof criticism with respect to everything
associatedwith a purelyrationalistscientific worldview (includingan
over-rationalisttheology). Since both the dominantpillars of western
culture- for the sake of brevity,let me refer to them as "reason"and
"faith"- are thereforebeing rejected, it is naturalfor New Agers
to search for alternativesin a "universalgnosis," believed to have
308
WouterJ. Hanegraaff
been marginalizedby the culturallydominant institutions.29Western

esoteric traditionsdo indeed tend to emphasize personalexperienceas
the foundationof truereligion. If these esoteric traditionsareperceived
through an "occultist"mirror (i.e. reflecting the characteristic19thcentury idea of gnosis as a higher synthesis of religion and science)
they may suddenly seem tailor-madefor the needs of contemporary
people.
5. A case study: "Nieuwetijdsdenken"and New Age
My last formulationcontains an intentionaledge of reservation.As
noted above, popularNew Age perceptionsof western esoteric traditions are usually farremovedfrom what these traditionsrepresentedin
historicalreality.Let us take a look at one specific example.
In recent years, an interesting current has developed within the
Dutch mainstreamchurches,consisting of people who feel connected
to the Christiantraditionbut who emphasize the need for a dialogue
with New Age. Representativesrefer to their perspective as nieuwe
tijdsdenken(i.e., the literal Dutch translationof "new age thinking,"
as opposed to the English term which is standardlyused as an Anglicism in the Dutch language), and usually claim that this is something
very differentfrom New Age. However,I see little reason for viewing
nieuwe tijdsdenkenas other thana convenienttermfor indicatinghow
New Age thinkingmanifestsitself in the specific context of the Christian churches.Given this context, nieuwe tijdsdenkersplace an understandableemphasis on recoveringforgotten "spiritualalternatives"in
the history of Christianity.The successful Dutch authorJacob Slavenburg,for example, writes book afterbook devotedto the battle against
gnosticism in the early centuries,the suppressionof the Catharsin the
Middle Ages, and about some later esoteric currentsin the historyof
29For a theoreticaldiscussion of the
problematics of this three-parttypology, cf.
WouterJ. Hanegraaff,"A Dynamic Typological Approachto the Problem of 'PostGnostic' Gnosticism,"ARIES 16 (1992), 5-43.
309
The pervasivethemeof suchliteratureis the implacaChristianity.30

Christians"
ble oppositionbetweenthepeacefulfaithof true"spiritual
and
on the onehand,andtheviolentintoleranceof churchinstitutions
must
dogmatictheologianson theother.Themessageis thatChristians
findtheirway backto the essenceof the Christianmessage,whichis
anddogmaticbeliefsbutin the
to be foundnotin religiousinstitutions
intuitive"knowledge
of theheart".
does containa kernel
Thepicturepresentedby nieuwetijdsdenkers
of truth.It is well-knownthatgnostics,mysticsandesotericistshave
of socially
oftenfoundthemselvesin conflictwiththerepresentatives
dominantformsof Christianity,
andhaveusuallybeenthelosingparty
in these confrontations.
Since the historyof these internalChristian
conflictsis nota prettyone,it is quitenaturaltobe sympathetic
towards
the victims of religiousintolerance.In addition,there is certainly
reasonto takea moreseriouslookat theirviewsthanhasbeendonein
thepast.Butthatbeingsaid,we cannotbutobservethatthedefenders
of nieuwetijdsdenken
evincethesametypeof dualisticthinkingwhich
they criticizein their opponents.Traditionaltheologicalnarratives
describethehistoryof Christianity
as practicallysynonymouswiththe
historyof the churches;the historyof heresiestendsto be presented
in dualistfashionas a battleof lightagainstdarkness,the truegospel
againstthe errorof gnosis.The narrator's
partyis idealizedand its
tend
in
to
be
a
halo
of sanctity,whereasthe
representatives
presented
losing partyis demonizedandhardlygets a chanceto makeits own
voice heard.As an alternativeto such one-sidednarratives,
nieuwe
now presentan equallydualisticone: the true"spiritual
tijdsdenkers
Christians"
areconsistentlyidealizedin theirheroicresistanceagainst
the errorof religiouspower structures,rigid dogmas and ruthless
theologians.
is less a goal in
Of course,historiography
for nieuwetijdsdenkers
itselfthana meansto anend.Theunderlyingmotivationis to stimulate
a broadchangeof mentalitywithinthe churchesunderthe banner
30See for example J. Slavenburg,De verloren erfenis, Utrecht 1993; and cf. my
critical review "Slavenburgdoet historischewaarheidgeweld aan,"Trouw21.6.1993.
310
WouterJ. Hanegraaff
of a newly-discovered "gnosis". Given these priorities, it is hardly

surprising that representativesare not terribly interested in precise
analyses in which the relationshipbetween the Christianreligion and
Christianspiritualitiesis described with all the nuances requiredby
such complex subjectmatter.
Nevertheless, it is precisely this relationshipwhich needs to be explored. I suggest that in currentdiscussions aboutnieuwe tijdsdenken
(and, I suspect, in similar discussions taking place in other European
countriesthan the Netherlands),all the partiesinvolved overlook the
fundamentaldifferencebetween "spiritualities"which function within
a traditionalreligious context on the one hand, and those which function within a secular context on the other.It seems to me to be of the
utmost importanceto recognize that a seemingly unproblematicterm
such as "Christianspirituality"(which is frequentlyinvoked in these
discussions) may mean two very differentthings which should not be
confused: it may mean a spiritualityrooted in the symbolic system of
Christianity,but it may also mean a spiritualitywhich makes use of
Christianterminologyto give shape to a form of secularreligion. Precisely this is the gap between (to stick to my examples) the "Christian
spirituality"of Jacob Boehme and the one defendedby New Age admirers. This gap can emphaticallynot be bridged merely by stating
thatboth attachsuch greatimportanceto personalreligious experience
as a path to spiritualinsight. Such a statementmerely formulatesthe
greatestcommon dividerbut does not say anythingspecific aboutthe
perspectivesof either Christianspiritualityor contemporaryforms of
ChristianNew Age spirituality.As soon as we take a closer look at the
latter,the differencesturnout to be at least as importantas the similarities.
I am thereforequite sceptical about the ease with which nieuwe tijdsdenkersexpect their perspectiveto be sufficientto lay the foundations of a revitalizationof Christianspirituality.But neitheram I very
happy with the attitudeof disinterestthat seems to be typical of most
academictheologians.The lattertend to persistin looking at New Age
as a marginalphenomenonwhich may convenientlybe ignoredsince it
has no connection with "real"theology or "real"Christianity.I do not
311
intendto deny the kernel of truthin this; as an empiricalhistorianof

religionsI cannotand do not (nor do I have any wish to) claim to know
how to distinguish"true"from "false"theology or Christianity,but it
is certainly true that there are profoundand far-reachingdifferences
between what each party understandsby true and false Christianity.
Psychologically (and politically) it may be understandablethat academic theologians prefer to concentrateon what they regardas true
Christianityand true theology; but if they choose to do so, they will
eventuallyhave to face up to the consequences. These consequences
consist of an increasingalienationfrom what an importantand growing section of ordinarybelievers understandsby "Christianity".The
frequentoutcome of such alienation is a sort of innere Emigration,
which may easily be underestimatedpreciselybecause of its individual
emphasisand inner-directedness.The academictheologian who visits
a Sundaychurchservice may be reassuredby the impressionthat not
too many things seem to have changed;but this impressionis deceptive. If he could read the minds of the churchgoers,he would find that
many of them are playing, althoughto variousextents, with ideas for
which his professionaltraininghas never preparedhim: beliefs about
reincarnationand karma,angels as spiritualmessengers and helpers,
paranormalassistance from the divine world, new channeled revelations such as those of the apostle Paul directedto the Dutch churches,
newly-discoveredgnostic gospels, Celestine prophecies,and a whole
complex of ideas and assumptionsintimatelyconnectedwith them.
I will repeat my main thesis once again. It may be tempting to
dismiss this type of religion as a mere fashion which will pass away
of its own accord, or to ignore it because we cannot and do not want
to take it seriously. But, in reality, what we are dealing with is the
way in which secular religion manifests itself in the context of the
Christianchurches.This is a phenomenontoo importantto be passed
over lightly.
6.
Conclusion
The so-called "challenge of secularization"has long been taken

seriously by academics concernedwith religion in the moder world,
312
WouterJ. Hanegraaff
but many of them still tend to understandit primarilyas concerning

the opposition between Christianityand a non-religious view of life.
This is an outdatedperceptionof the problem.The emergenceof New
Age religion shows how secularizationitself generatesan entirelynew
type of religion, which may superficiallyresemble older traditionsbut
is actually based upon brandnewfoundations.This makes New Age
religion into a crucial phenomenon,which studentsof contemporary
religion will ignore at theirperil.
Chair "History of Hermetic Philosophy
and RelatedCurrents"
Universityof Amsterdam,
Faculty of Humanities
Oude Turfmarkt147
NL-1012 GC Amsterdam
WOUTERJ. HANEGRAAFF
DIASPORA:GENEALOGIESOF SEMANTICSAND
TRANSCULTURALCOMPARISON
MARTIN BAUMANN
Undeniably,the ancientnotion"diaspora"has become a fashionable

term. Once exclusively used in a context-boundway, that of Jewish
historyand the plight of Jewishpeople being dispersed'amongthe nations', in late 20th centurythe folk termbecame generalizedon a grand
scale. Since the 1970s, "diaspora"was increasinglyused to denote almost every people living far awayfrom theirancestralor formerhomeland.For example,in his seminalarticleon "MobilizedandProletarian
Diasporas",JohnArmstrongappliedthe termstraightforwardly,"to
any
ethnic collectivity which lacks a territorialbase within a given polity"
(1976: 393). For Armstrong,a geographicor culturalpoint of identificationalreference,placed outside the given polity, forms no characterizing featureof "diaspora".Armstrong'sequationof "diaspora"with a
migrantgroup comprising"a relatively small minoritythroughoutall
portionsof the polity" (1976: 393), paved the way, at least within the
political sciences, to spreadthe termrapidly.
Certainly,however,the popularity,even currentcelebrity of the diasporanotion does not rely on one article only. As shall be sketched
out below, the term was alreadyadoptedin African Studies since the
mid-1960s. More importantlyfor the term's academic take-overand
increasing use had been previous changes in the political and legal
sphere in various industrializednation states. The coming-into-effect
of new immigrationlaws or labour recruitmentschemes during the
1960s were followed by at times massive influxes of migrantsfrom
Asia and elsewhere to North America, Europeand Australia.In addition, migrationto formercolonial power states and flightof millions of
refugees furtherenhancedthe ethnic and religious diversity of Western nation states. In contrastto widespreadassumptionsof a rapidas? KoninklijkeBrill NV, Leiden (2000)
NUMEN, Vol. 47
314
MartinBaumann
similation or expected remigration,many, often most migrantsopted

to stay for long. They began to build their own social, economic and
religious institutionsin their adoptedcountry of residence. Some migrantgroups achieved an "institutionalcompleteness"' fairly quickly
and efficiently,reconstructingknown customs and bonds in their new
environment.
In orderto conceptuallymap and categorizethese both new andpersistent national,culturalor religious groupsof people andtheirinstitutions, researchersprogressivelyemployed the old idea of "diaspora".
For scholars in variousdisciplines of the humanitiesthe term seemed
perfect to sociologically capturethe group-relatedinstitutionalisation
and the evolving multiculturalsociety. In addition,the term'semotionladen connotationsof uprootedness,precariousnessand homesickness
providedexplanationsfor the group'senduringand nostalgicloyalty to
the culturaland religious traditionsof the countryof origin. The term
"diaspora",once freed fromits restrictionto Jewishhistoryand experience, came more and more into use to referto any processes of dispersion and to relate to countless so-called dislocated, de-territorialized
communities.2
Obviously,migrationof ethnic, nationalor religious groupsof people to new territoriesis not restrictedto modem or post modem times.
As an obiquitiousphenomenon,travel,re-settlementandbecoming establishedin culturallyforeign lands is a well known fact and phenomenon in the history of religions and peoples. In contrastto earlierperiods, rapidlyimprovedmodes of conveyanceand communicationhave
enabled a much easier exchange of commodities,ideas and people. In
the thus denoted "GlobalPeriod of world history"(Smart1987: 291),
the maintenanceof close links with the countryand kinsmen of emigrationis no longer restrictedto scarce contacts. Rather,transnational
1
Quote Breton 1964: 200. Interestingly,Bretondoes not use the diasporaterm.
2 See
Tololyan 1996: 3. Tololyan provides a comprehensivelist of twelve reasons
for what he calls the "proliferationand valorizationof diasporas"(1996: 19), see 2028.
Diaspora
315
and transcontinentalcommunicationis possible in a historically unprecedentedintensity,scope and speed.3

Based on this reconstruction,"diaspora"seems to be the right
notion at the right time. However, the abundantuse went hand in
handwith the term's semanticdissolution. In view of this, part 1 shall
recall 'basics of disapora'to shed light on the once existent meaning.
Such a reconsiderationseems even morejustified as new etymological
derivationsof "diaspora"have been suggested. Part 2 shall follow
up the ensuing semantic changes, both of the term's adoption by
early Christianityand of its take-off within the humanitiessince the
1960s. Based on this, part 3 opts to conceptualize "diaspora"as an
analyticalcategory, thus enabling the term to both qualify situations
and constellationsand serve as a basis for transcultural,comparative
work.
Genealogies of semantics:origin and coinage of the term "diaspora"
The historyof the semanticsof "diaspora"points to severalchanges
of the term's meaning.As is fairly well known, "diaspora"is a Greek
term. The noun &taonopa is a derivationfrom the Greek composite
verb"dia-"and"speirein"(&6aneipeLv, infinitive),adoptingmeanings
of "to scatter","to spread"or "to disperse".Based on this etymology,
sociologist Robin Cohen suggested that "the expression was used to
describethe colonizationof Asia Minor and the Mediterraneanin the
Archaicperiod (800-600 BC)."4During the Archaic period, colonies
(Greekapoikia) were purposefullyset up by city states (metrdpolis),
faithfully transferringadministrativeand religious institutions and
patternsto non-Greekregions (amongst many, Buckley 1996). Such
a derivationwould enable scholars to attributea non-Jewish origin
3 Features of past and present transnationalexchange have been discussed by
Rudolphand Piscatori 1997 and Foner 1997; see also the theme issue of Ethnic and
Racial Studies,Vol. 22 (2) 1999.
4Cohen 1997: 2. Cohen repeats this attributionseveral times in his otherwise
praiseworthyGlobal Diasporas, see 1997: ix, 24, 25, 83, 177. Cohen's suggestion
is alreadytaken up by otherauthors,see McKeown 1999: 308. Aaron Segal seems to
have been the firstto suggest this derivationof the diasporaterm (1993: 82).
316
MartinBaumann
to the earliest applicationof the term and thus abandon"the strong

entailment of Jewish history on the language of diaspora"(Clifford
1994: 306). The suggestion,however,appearsat best fanciful.It cannot
be maintainedin the contextof historicaland semanticfacts. The verb,
which became more widely used in the fifth centuryBCE (not earlier)
amongst classical philosophersand Hellenist writers, had a negative
connotation.It implied processes of dispersionand decomposition, a
dissolutioninto variousparts(e.g., atoms) withoutany furtherrelation
to each other (as used by Epicurus, reported by Plutarch). On the
whole, "diaspora"had an "unfavourable,disastrousmeaning"and was
in no way used to imply a geographic place or sociological group,
as Willem C. van Unnik underscores (1993: 86-87). The term was
definitely not used by any classical author to refer to the Archaic
colonisation process. In fact, the verb expressed the exact opposite
of the close relation, characteristicallylasting for centuries, between
a Greekcolony and its mothercity.
The AlexandrianJewish-Greektranslatorsof the Hebrewscriptures
adoptedprecisely the disastrousconnotationsof currentphilosophical
discourse. However, in the evolved Septuagint,8LaoJopd (diaspord)
and 6laoaneipelv (diaspeirein) were coined as termini technici to
interpretJewish existence far from the "PromisedLand"in light of an

encompassingsoteriologicalpattern.5As a matterof fact, surprisingly,
the Hebrew words for "exile", "banishment,"and "deportation",gola
and galut, were not rendered into Greek by "diaspora".Gola and
galut were understoodas "special biblical terms for the Babylonian
captivity", as Aiyenakun Arowele specifies (1977: 46). They were
thus translatedin the Septuagint by Greek words denoting "exile",
"captivity","deportation".Arowele stresses that "Hellenistic Jews
avoided making an equivalencebetween Gola and 'diaspora"'(1977:
47), thus purposefullydifferentiatingbetween these terms, as Davies
5 In the Septuagint, the noun b6aoJopa is used twelve times and the verb
8LaotUipelv more than forty times. These are translatedfrom various Hebrewnouns
respectivelytwelve differentHebrewverbs. On the specific locationsand theircontext
see in detail Arowele 1977: 29-45, van Unnik 1993: 92-105, Tromp 1998: 15-22.
Diaspora
317
(1982: 116) and van Unnik (1993: 81-84) likewise emphasize. Why
did Jewish-Greektranslatorsof the third and second century BCE
intentionallydistinguishbetween galut and diaspora, adoptinga new
word to neologically express their situationof living outside Palestine
or EretzIsrael?
In retrospect,post-BabylonianJews theologically interpretedthe
Babylonian captivity as God's punishmentfor their disobedience to
the commandsof the Torah.Withthe returnto Palestineand Jerusalem
in the late sixth century BCE, this punishmenthad come to an end.
Living outside the "HolyLand"subsequently- thatis, from the fifth
centuryBCE on - was understooddifferently.It was not an imposed
punishmentfor breakingthe laws of God. It involved no "deportation"
as denoted by the Hebrew terms g6la and galUt. These terms were
translatedin the Septuagintby aiXttakwooia(aichmalosia,captivityby
(metoikesta,moving underforce), andotherterms.Irt
war),[iETOLKeoia
post-Babyloniancenturies,Jews left the Palestineregion for economic
reasons, to serve as soldiers in Egypt or as tradersand businessmen
throughoutthe EasternMediterraneancoast. Also, only a minority of
the Judeanupperclasses exiled to Babylon had returnedto Palestine.
The majority had become well integrated into Babylonian society,
while still maintainingtheir Jewish observance. During the fifth to
first century BCE, numerous Jews fled from Palestine, mainly to
escape war, socio-political insecurity,and repression.Although many
Jews were quite successful and voluntary economic migrants, they
interpretedresiding outside Palestine as a transitory,miserable, and
unfavourablestay.It was understoodas a preparation,an intermediate
situationuntil the final divine gatheringin Jerusalem.Fundamentally,
the term took on spiritual and soteriological meanings, pointing to
the "gatheringof the scattered"by God's grace at the end of time.
"Diaspora"turns out to be an integral part of a pattern constituted
by the fourfold course of sin or disobedience, scatteringand exile as
punishment,repentance,and finally returnand gathering.6
6 See van Unnik 1993: 113-119, 134; likewise Davies 1982: 116-121 and Tromp
1998: 18-19.
318
MartinBaumann
In Hellenistic times, Jews were able to travel to Palestine and

Jerusalem.The large numberof pilgrims gives ample evidence of this
fact. They could have returnedand settled in Palestine. Most stayed,
however, in the diaspora. Why? Theologically, it was held that the
gatheringin the "Holy Land"was not to be broughtaboutby men, but
by God alone. As Davies clarifies:"If the returnwere an act of divine
intervention,it could not be engineered or forced by political or any
otherhumanmeans:to do so would be impious"(1982: 120). The only
activitymen and women were able to undertakein the diasporawas to
live wholeheartedlyin accordancewith the commandsof the Torah,in
orderto possibly bring about the final gatheringa little earlier.In this
way, apartfrom the indissoluble soteriological meaning and context,
i.e. the interpretationof history with respect to God's saving grace,
the properterm also takes on meaningsof admonitionand a reminder
to obey the Torah. Socio-culturally,it appears that quite a number
of Jews (certainly not all) fared ratherwell in cultural centers; the
Jews of Alexandriaor Sardis maintainedreligious and administrative
structuresof their own, acquiringan 'institutionalcompleteness' with
synagogues,gymnasia,baths,cemeteriesand societies.Manypreferred
to stay in the diaspora,ratherthan returningto more or less regularly
war-tornPalestine.7
Ensuingchanges of diaspora semantics:co-optationand
popularization
Since the neologism by Jewish translators,the diasporaterm was
used by Jews and Judaicscholars alike to refer to Jews who lived outside the "PromisedLand".Its usage encompassedthe geographic,sociological, and soteriological semanticsas summarizedby van Unnik:
7 Studieson EarlyJudaismand HellenistJews amountto legion; see, amongstvery
many, Delling 1987, Cohen and Frerichs 1993, Barclay 1996, Gafni 1997. A 'must'
on the diasporaterm's origin and coinage is the examinationby the late Dutch Old
TestamentscholarWillem Corelis van Unnikon the self-understandingof the Jewish
Diasporain Hellenistic RomanTimes (1993). The painstakinganalysis dates back to
1966-67 and was posthumouslyedited and publishedby Peter W. van der Horst.The
thoroughdiscussion is written- unfortunatefor many - in German.
Diaspora
319
"6tanopa interpretsnot only the land, acrosswhich one is dispersed,

but also the activity of dispersionas well as the people, who are dispersed."8This semantic particularitybecame the established version
for the two millennia to follow, althougha furthermeaning came to
the fore as Christianitydeveloped its boundariesand identificational
focus.
In the first century CE, Christiansadopted the term, but altered
its soteriological meaning according to Christian eschatology. The
New Testamentuses the noun diaspordand the verb diaspeireinthree
times each. Withoutgoing into detail on the complicated usages, the
individualwritersof the differentBiblical storiesandlettersinterpreted
the earlyChurch"asa pilgrim,sojourninganddispersedcommunity,in
the understandingthatit is the eschatologicalpeople of God"(Arowele
1977: 476). On earth, Christiansliving in dispersion would function
as the "seed" to disseminate the message of Jesus. The Christians'
real home, however, was the "heavenlycity Jerusalem",the goal of
Christianpilgrimage.9
In the same vein, patristicwritersco-optedfor the diasporanotion as
a polemicaldevice in theirattacksagainstJudaismin the firstcenturies
CE: in the Christianview, the dispersionof Jews after the destruction
of the Second Temple was a punishmentexercised by the Christian
God for the Jews' adopted 'non-pure' way of life and their nonrecognitionof Jesus as Messiah. On purpose,the Jewish soteriological
conceptwas shornof its aspects of redemptionand returnby Christian
polemics. The fourfoldscheme remainedleft with its aspects of sin and
dispersiononly, emphasizingthe connotationof divinejudgement.
8
Quote van Unnik 1993: 149, translatedby this author.As for the use of "diaspora"in secular Greek language,primarilyrestrictedto philosophical discourse (e.g.
by Plutarch)as outlined before, see van Unnik 1993: 74-76 and Modrzejewski 1993:
66-67.
9 The three locations
using the noun are James 1,1; 1 Petr 1,1, and John 7,35; the
verbis used in the Acta Apostolorum8,1; 8,4 and 8,11; for the controverselydiscussed
New Testamentpassages see, among many, Arowele 1977: part 2, Schnackenburg
1971 and Kriiger 1994.
320
MartinBaumann
The notionof a sojourningpeople of God quickly vanishedin Christian reasoningand treatises,as the one-time minorityreligion changed
to become the established church in the late fourth century.The eschatologicalmeaningsbecame forgotten.A millenniumlater,the term
came into use again, primarilyemployed as a geographic-sociological
signifier.In the course of the Reformationand Counter-Reformation,
"diaspora"denoted Protestantminorities having emerged in Roman
Catholic environments,and Roman Catholic minorities being faced
with living in Protestantdominatedcountries. In the early 19th century, in the wake of the Napoleonic wars, this coinage of a certain
confessional churchresidingin a confessionally differentenvironment
became the more widely used and standardunderstandingof diaspora
in Christianterms.10
Despite the religious differencesbetweenJewish andChristiandiaspora semantics,geographicand sociological connotationsare basic to
both usages. Surveyingin a theoreticallyinterestedperspective,Judaic
studies and the Christiantheologies, almost all studies of Jewish and
Christiandispersionand diaspora(confessional) communitieshave remainedand still remainhistoricallydescriptive,often supplementedby
some theological and pastoralinterpretations.The studies do not aim
to undertakeanalytical, comparative,or theoreticalresearch.Indeed,
most scholarsin JudaicandChristiantheological studieshave not even
noticed the presentpopularityand wide usage of the termoutsidetheir
disciplines.
Looking back, until the 1960s, the diaspora term was distinctly
confined to the histories of Jewish and Christiantraditionsand their
diasporacommunities.11The dislogding and semantic broadeningof
10With regardto the post-Reformationreuse of the term, see the detailedstudy by
Rohrig 1991 andthe overview by Schellenberg1995. Altermattprovidesan instructive
historical case study of the developments and changes of a confessional diaspora
minority,thatof Catholics in ProtestantZurich(Switzerland)in 1850-1950.
11An
exception to this rule is Dubnow's excellent entry on "diaspora"in the
1931 edition of the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Certainly a literature
archaeologywould bring to the fore a numberof early non-Jewishand non-Christian
relatedemploymentsof the term, although primarilyof accidentaluse. For example,
Diaspora
321
the thus specifically employed notion has been undertakenfirstwithin

AfricanStudies. In a now classic paper,George Sheppersonsuggested
the concept of the "Africandiaspora"(1966). Analogous to the expulsion of Jews in early times, the dispersion of sub-SaharanAfricans
throughthe colonial slave trade was described as an enforced expatriation,accompaniedby a longing to returnto the homeland. Shepperson'smetaphoricalusage bundledup into one comprehensivestatement the at that time currentinterest among English and American
writers,artistsand scholars studyingthe exiled black peoples' experience as an aspect of Africanhistory.The taking up of the Jewish folk
termin English-speakingcircles coincided with African states achieving political independence and African thinkersand writers, both in
Africa and abroad, raising their voices and making accusations of
racism and discrimination.Although the emergence of interest in an
Africandiasporaconceptcan be locatedin the late 1950s to mid-1960s,
it took a decade, until a proliferationof related publications gained
momentum.Since the mid-1970s, African historiansand writers deliberately employ "diaspora"as a concept and topic, thus creating a
sub-domainwithin the broaderareaof Africanstudies.12
Differently,neverthelessin additionto the above mentionedreasons
for the adoptionof the diasporaterm(legal changes;influx of migrants
etc.), in the case of Africanstudies,processes of decolonizationand of
political emancipation,both by nationsin Africa andby black peoples
Shepperson (1993: 48) points to the stipulation of a "Scottish diaspora" in the
posthumously published accounts of Sir Reginald Coupland, Welsh and Scottish
Nationalism,London 1954.
12For an overview of the term's emergence and usage within the field, see
Shepperson1993 and Drake 1993; the pioneeringrole of Black or African Studies in
decontextualisingand generalizingthe diasporatermis highlightedalso in Akenson's
well-based account, see Akenson 1997: 11. A wide range of monographs with
"African diaspora"or "Black diaspora"in its title have emerged since the mid1970s. The on-line bibliography"Diasporasand TransnationalCommunities",edited
by Robin Cohen in collaborationwith the Economic and Social Research Council
(ESRC) Oxford, lists some 200 entries within the category "Africans (including
Blacks)", see http://www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk/wwwroot/bibliogr.htm.
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MartinBaumann
in the once 'New World', gave raise to the term's prominence.Long

established'Black communities'outside the Africancontinentbecame
renamed as diasporas.A unity of those once enslaved thus was and
is constructed;a mythical relation of all overseas 'Blacks' with an
idealized 'Africa' arose; and politically, former and present power
relationswere pointedout and questioned.In a quantitativeanalysisof
the use of "diaspora"in book titles, Phil Cohen found that "Blackand
Jewish historyor cultureare overwhelminglydominantas the point of
referencefor diasporastudies"(1998: 3). As such, "theJewish diaspora
has in the last twenty years become effectively Africanised"(1998: 7).
The diasporaterm'svirtualtake-off within African Studies was followed by a boostedusage of "diaspora"in variousdisciplinesof the humanities. Within the political sciences, Armstrong'safore-mentioned
1976 seminal article providedthe definitorialbasis for various ensuing studies, including Gabriel Sheffer's by now classic work, Modem Diasporas in InternationalPolitics (1986). In a similar way since
the 1980s, scholarsin disciplines such as anthropology,linguistics, or
history and regional-thematicfields such as Armenian studies, Irish
studies or recentTibetanstudies (Korom 1997) to an expandingextent
employ the diasporaterm to relate to expatriatenational, cultural,or
religious groups and communities.The generalized and broad usage
of "diaspora"became, so to speak,institutionalizedwith the launching
of the high qualityjournalDiaspora in 1991. EditorKhachigTololyan
declared:"We use 'diaspora'provisionallyto indicate our belief that
the term that once described Jewish, Greek, and Armenian dispersion now sharesmeaningswith a largersemanticdomainthatincludes
words like immigrant,expatriate,refugee, guestworker,exile community, overseas community,ethnic community."13
13
Quote Tololyan 1991: 4. This provisional,ratherloose definition was markedly
substantializedin T6161yan'sbrilliant article "RethinkingDiaspora(s)" (1996). For
studies on those related exile, overseas or diaspora Armenian, Greek, Irish, Kurd,
Palestinian,Chinese,Tamil,Indianandmanymore nationally,culturallyor religiously
constitued communities, see the synoptical presentationsby Safran 1991, Chaliand
Diaspora
323
Parallel to the growing usage and esteem of "diaspora"in the

academia,intellectuals,representatives,spokesmenand spokeswomen
of the thus renamed diaspora people and communities started to
adopt the notion as a self-description. The term gained a currency
among the urban, well-educated elite, which itself often formed an
aspiringpart of universitylife. The diasporaterm earned acceptance
and circulation,be it to constructa unity of an actually heterogenous
groupof people; be it to emphasizeone's claim for representation;be it
to call for a retighteningof bonds with one's formerhome cultureand
country;or be it to serve as an indictmentof power relations,past and
presentbeing the cause for a group'sprecarious,socially marginalized
situation.14
Finally, the adoption of the diaspora term within the history of

religions should not go unmentioned.Comparedto its neighbouring
disciplines, the history of religions was a real latecomer in making
use of the diasporaterm. The first to point to the "The Importanceof
Diasporas"had been Ninian Smartin 1987, unfortunatelypresentedin
a somewhat hidden contribution.It took until the mid-1990s for the
term to be applied with more rigor and from a theoreticalperspective
(Hinnells 1994, Baumann 1995). Historiansof religions, quite aware
of earlier experiences of ambiguity in transferringculturally and
religiously bound terms, shied away from applyingthe notion to nonJewishtraditionsand peoples. Also, theircautionwas (andis) in many
cases based on the knowledge of the term's origin and soteriological
coinage, stirringup various theoreticalproblems for a cross-cultural,
generalizedapplication.Despite this difficulty,on an empiricalbasis
andon ideas proposedby Kim Knott (1991), Hinnells systematizesten
and Rageau 1991, Segal 1993: 82-106, Cohen 1997 and the above mentionedon-line
bibliography(Cohen n.d.).
14A
paradigmaticexample of the latter use can be found in the article by the
GuadeloupeseHindu and intellectualLotus Vingadassamy-Engel(1992). The author
states: "I choose the word 'diaspora'for the transplantationof my communityfrom
India to the French West Indies [...] because it carriespsychological connotationsof
deep sorrowand suffering, inconsolable mourningalong with the everlastingfeeling
of being torn inside" (1992: 6).
324
Martin Baumann
factors in a diasporareligion's change and continuity,differentiating

seven areasof research.15
Whereas in the history of religions and more vigorously in its
neighbouring disciplines "diaspora"was primarily employed as a
geographic-sociologicalcategoryto denotedispersedgroupsandtransnationalrelationships,since the 1990s a further,differentapproachhas
steppedforth. Post-modernistand culturecritical authorssuch as Stuart Hall, Homi Bhabha, Paul Gilroy and James Clifford adopted the
diasporaterm to denote a specific type of experienceand thinking,i.e.
thatof "diasporaconsciousness".Aspiringto move beyondessentialising notions such as 'ethnicity'and 'race', in oftenjargonladen papers,
the idea of "diaspora"has been celebratedas expressing notions of
hybridity,heterogeneity,identity fragmentationand (re)construction,
double consciousness, fracturesof memory, ambivalence,roots and
routes, discrepantcosmopolitanism,multi-locationalityand so forth.
This "diasporaconsciousness" is conceived as a specific awareness, supposedly a characteristicof people living 'here' and relating
to a 'there': "Diasporaconsciousness is entirely a productof cultures
and histories in collision and dialogue. [...] Diasporic subjects are,
thus, distinct versions of modem, transnational,interculturalexperience" (Clifford 1994: 319). Similarly, Stuart Hall holds: "Diaspora
identities are those which are constantly producing and reproducing
themselves anew, throughtransformationand difference"(1990: 235).
Importantly,diasporaconsciousness is held to carrya creative power
and ability, questioningboth "configurationsof power" (Brah 1996:
183) and the hegemonyof the all-pervasive,normativenation-state.In15See Hinnells 1997a and 1997b.Hinnell's
expressionof "diasporareligion"in the
singularappearssomewhatstrange,for it purportsan underlyingunity and sameness
of the actually most varied religious traditionsin diasporic settings. Interestingly,
Knott did not use the diaspora term in her 1991 contribution.Indicative for the
discipline's non-recognitionof the discourse on "diaspora"until the mid-1990s is the
missing of a related entry in the established Encyclopedia of Religion (1987) or the
Handw6rterbuchreligionswissenschaftlicherGrundbegriffe(1988 ff.). In contrast,the
1999 MetzlerLexikonReligion providesentrieson "diaspora"and "migration"(vol. 1
and 2, Stuttgart:Metzler).
Diaspora
325
deed, "diaspora"and its attributedawarenessis praisedas an alternate

consciousness, endeavouringto move beyond normativehistory and
politics and enabling access to "recoveringnon-Western,or not-onlyWestern,models for cosmopolitianlife, nonalignedtransnationalities
strugglingwithin and against nation-states,global technologies, and
markets- resourcesfor a fraughtcoexistence."16
Althoughgrowingin number,this famed type of consciousness primarilyrelates to the still few intellectuals and writershaving stepped
forth from the diasporic communities. We ratherdoubt whether the
diasporic 'ordinary' men and women think in such categories and
subtleties. Nevertheless, the attributedpotentiality of diaspora consciousness bespeaksa hope, expectation,and longing which curiously
reminds of early semantic fillings of religious hope and ingathering.
"Diaspora"as an analytical category
The semanticbroadeningof "diaspora",both in terms of relatingit
to any dispersedgroup of people and to conceptualizea certain type
of consciousness, have made "diaspora"one of the most fashionable
termsin academicdiscourseof late 20th century.Authorsand writers
use the once restrictednotion in an arbitrary,unspecified, fairly free
way. Apparently,an often plainly metaphoricalapplicationof "diaspora"is prevalent,encompassingunderthe very term a wide range of
phenomenaconsideredappropriate.The term'spopularityhas resulted
in a dissolution of semantics, "decomposing"into exactly the early
Greekphilosophicalmeaningthe notion's ability to encompasscertain
situationsand relations.
In this respect, Tololyan warns that the term "is in danger of
becominga promiscuouslycapaciouscategory"(1996: 8). And, as Phil
Cohen entertaininglyremarked:"Diasporais one of the buzz words of
the post modernage; it has the virtue of soundingexotic while rolling
sibilantly off the English tongue; it whispers the promise of hidden
16
Quote Clifford 1994: 328. For a portraitand discussion of these understandings
of "diaspora",see Cohen 1997: 127-153 and Anthias 1998.
326
MartinBaumann
depthsof meaningyet assimilatesthemto the shapeof a wave breaking

gently on native shores. [...] it offers a desirablefeminine ending, and
much versatility"(1998: 3).
Obviously, the boundaries of "diaspora"have become ever more
blurredand confused in its popularization.Certainlythere is no lack
of ambitious projects to define the term and thus to tighten the semantic boundaries,as carried out by Safran (1991), Hettlage (1991),
and Cohen (1997), to name the more systematicandencompassingapproaches.It is for the analyticalheuristicsand capacities that a definitorial specification appears worthwhile, despite the term's overuse.
In contrast to proposed definitorialexercises, our approachopts for
paying less attention to the noun "diaspora"and to focusing more
on the adjective "diasporic".Just as some historiansof religions, instead of fruitlessly strivingto offer the 348th (or so) definitionof "religion", ratherchoose to elaboratewhat qualifies a situation,activity,
text as "religious"(Seiwert 1981, Gladigow 1988). In this way, we
aim to establishthe adjectivalform "diasporic"as a categorizingqualification. Employing the adjective "diasporic"should qualify certain
groups of people, social situations, and transnationalor multi-local
constellationsto encompass specific relationsand identificationalreferences. We might ask in the negative in orderto gain a betterunderstanding of the specificy: What should be missing in order that certain social forms and constellations are less identified or not identified as diasporic?In this respect, sociologist Saint-Blancatstraightforwardly suggests: "Quandil y a ruptureavec l'origine ou assimilation aux contextes d'installation, on ne peut plus parler de diaspora."17
Ratherthanprovidinga list of definingcharacteristicsand enumerating typologies, our approachemphasizes one specific relation with
few components only. This minimal constellationwhich keeps aloof
from extensive ramifications,serves as the workingbasis from which
17
Quote Saint-Blancat 1995: 10. Furthermore,both Clifford (1994: 307-310, on
diaspora's borders) and Tololyan (1996: 16-19, on ethnic versus diasporic) have
offered insightful suggestions for such an approach.
Diaspora
327
furtherrelations follow up and aroundwhich prototypicalcharacteristics can be grouped. We comply with Brian Smith who holds that
"to define is not to finish, but to start.To define is not to confine, but
to create something to refine - and eventually redefine. To define,
finally, is not to destroy but to constructfor the purposeof useful reflection" (1987: 33). Taken as a thus understoodworking definition,
the religious implicationsof "diaspora"are bracketedand emphasisis
placed on its geographic-sociologicalaspects. As such, the relational
facts of a perpetual recollecting identificationwith a fictitious or far
away existentgeographicterritoryand its cultural-religioustraditions
are taken as diasporaconstitutive.If this identificationalrecollection
or rebinding,expressedin symbolic or materialways, is missing, a situation and social form shall not be called "diasporic".Importantly,a
diasporic"colouring"or dimensionis not a quality per se, but a nominalistic assignmentattributedby the scholaror the memberof the diasporacommunity.
The definition places emphasis on the enduring, often glorifying
identificationof a group of people with a cultural-religiouspoint of
referenceoutsidethe currentcountryof living. It is this identificational
focus which in biblical terms 'gathersthe dispersed'(Jer32,37-38) and
forms their specific collective identity.Prototypically,that is in most,
but not all cases, this situation came about by a migrationprocess.
More often than not it involves an identificationaldifference of the
diasporagroup in contrastwith the society's dominant cultural and
religious norms and orientations.This difference, a cultural-religious
identificationboundto a regionand cultureoutside the currentcountry
of residence,constitutesan importantaspect of the fundamentaltripolar interrelatednessof diasporagroup, country of origin and country
of residence.Finally,in contrastto most definitions,the approachunderscoresthe significanceof religion in diasporicconstellations.This
emphasisis meantto (re)directattentionandawarenessto the prototypical role of religiousidentityin situationsof settlementaftermigration;
of the perpetuationof a specific identificationaldifference;or, amongst
328
MartinBaumann
other things, of the demarcationand strengtheningof collective identity in a culturallyforeign environment.18

The thereby sketched definition of "diasporic"aims to provide an
empirically applicable approach,conceived in an analytical perspective. Adam McKeown justly notes: "When used in a more adjectival sense, the idea of diaspora can move away from identifying a
bounded group, and instead focus on geographic dispersed connections, institutions,and discourses that cannotbe readily accountedfor
from purely local or nationalframeworks"(1999: 311). Furthermore,
it is not only the global and transnationallinkages which are of interest. Rather,the discriminatoryvalue of the diasporaterm as an analytical category,applicablefor transculturalresearchand comparison,
has to become apparent.As an analytical category,the term is conceived as to constitutea complex whole with porous or fuzzy boundaries. For a better understandingof the complexity of the "whole",
the analysis "intellectuallydecompos[es] it into the elements and relations that might be said to constitute it" (Saler 1993: 257). The
heuristic value of the analysis is its intellectual organisationof the
posited constituencies and relations by subsumingthem under a category label. As Avtar Brah holds, the diasporaterm's "purchaseas a
theoreticalconstructrests largely on its analyticalreach; its explanatory power in dealing with the specific problematicsassociated with
transnationalmovements of people, capital, commodities and cultural
iconographies"(1996: 196).
"Diaspora"and transculturalcomparison
Conceiving "diaspora"as an unbounded,analytical category,both
singling out and encompassinga certainsemanticfield, is meantto enable and facilitate transculturalresearch,comparisonand understand18The definitorialapproachhas been worked out in detail in Baumann 2000. It
primarilyfocuses on "diaspora"as a social form, leaving aside, for the time being,
"diaspora"as a type of consciousness. As for the tripolaror triadicinterrelatednessof
a diasporic situation,see the instructivestudies by Sheffer 1986, Hettlage 1991 and
Safran 1991. For prototypetheory,see the outline by Saler 1993: 197-226.
Diaspora
329
ing. Undeniably,modem and post-modem adoption of the diaspora

term has extended, althoughnot refinedthe term's semantics.Implicitly "diaspora"has been used for analytical work and transcultural
comparisonabundantlyalready,albeit mainly in an untheorizedway.
Some few authors,such as scholarsin Africanstudies, explicitely have
made use of the transcultural,comparativecapacity of the diaspora
term. Certainly,interests in drawing specific comparisons have had
their sharetoo.
Conceptualizedas an analytical category, a multitude of research
fields opens up. Transculturalcomparisonof the complex areasof 'dynamics of religion' or religious change, migratedcultures and transplanted religions, or, persistence with change of individual and collective religious identity come to mind. Knott (1991) and Hinnells
(1997b) systematizedseven relatedareasfor researchalong the issues
of the place of language, transmissionof religious knowledge, individual identity,groupidentity,leadership,universalizationand the impact of Westernreligious ideas. Such fields include forms of religious
change which broadlycan be groupedas traditionalisation,adaptation
and innovation.
Along with GaryBouma (1996) we might add sociological aspects
such as processes of religiousinstitutionalisationand buildingof community. These typical efforts of the diaspora group strive to create
a comforting and invigoratinghome away from home. Bouma's socalled "theory of religious settlement"(1996: 7) importantlydraws
attentionto the ways a transplantedreligious traditionfinds a place
withinthe society and amongstthe spectrumof existentreligions. How
does the 'new', diasporic religion become a part of this society and
its general culture?And, based on these processes, when in the long
run will the religion and its adherentshave become established and
socio-culturallyacceptedto such an extent that is might be odd to still
speak of a diasporicexistence? Diachronicresearchon thus assigned
diasporacommunitiesof one or two hundredyears existence have sug-
330
MartinBaumann
gested developmentalphase models which bearfruitfulpointsof crossculturalcomparisonand insights.19

Therefore, in this way, the trans- or cross-culturalstudy of diasporic situationsenables investigationfrom a similarangle and interrogating approach,differenthistoricand socio-politically contextualized
settings, be it Greek settlers in the Archaic Period, Jewish merchants
andcitizens in Hellenistic andlatertimes, or SouthAsian migrantsand
citizens in NorthAmerica and Britain.Insightsgained and structuring
patternsrecognized in one specific case might heuristicallybe transferredto a differentdiasporiccase, thus intellectuallyinvestigatingand
re-arrangingthe dataafresh.
Furthermore,transculturalcomparisonimportantlyapplies to delineating the triangularrelationshipof diasporagroup,(former)ancestral
homelandand countryof presentresidence. This might apply to investigatingfactors and shifts of influencebetween the relationalpoles, or
to changing identificationalfoci of the diasporagroup, to name two
areas only. Significantlyfor currentmulticulturalpolitical discourses,
examples can be stated in which a diasporagroup's retentionof religious difference does not impede its socio-ecomomic integrationand
nationalidentification.Touchingsuch areas, Saint-Blancat(1995) on
comparingJewish diasporahistories and currentMuslim presence in
Europe, has sketched a heuristicallyvaluable fourfold model of a diasporagroup'srelationalattitudeto its (former)countryof origin and
to its actual countryof residence. A basic factoris the analysis of the
group'sfavouringof distanceon the one handor proximityon the other
hand towardsthe otherrelationalpoles within the triangulardiasporic
web. Furtheron differentiatingthis approach,the model was applied
to the case studyof HinduIndiansin Trinidad,observing,amongother
things, paradigmaticchanges in the distanceversusproximityattitudes
19See, for
example,Waldmann(1982) on Germansettlersin Chile from 1850 to the
1970s; and Baumann(2000) on indenturedIndian workersin Trinidadfrom 1845 to
the late 1990s. In this way, Altermatt'sstudy (1986) on Catholicsin ProtestantZurich
1850-1950 might profitablybe restructuredalong such a developmentalscheme, the
same applies to furtherlongitudinalstudies of relevantgroupsand constellations.
Diaspora
331
due to the grantingof rights and socio-economic participationin the

countryof residence (Baumann2000).
In view of late 20th century technological achievements such as
telecommunicationand the internet, the master narrativeof a diaspora'striangularrelationshiphas become blurredand multiplied,however.Increasingly,relationsof a diasporagroupare not aligned with its
countryof actual residence and its (former)ancestralhomelandonly.
More and more diasporagroups of the same national,culturalor religious bondage in other overseas sites take influence on the form and
processes of a specific diasporagroup. Ratherthan thinkingof a relational triangle,many globally distributeddiasporassuch as the present
Indian,Chinese, Irish, Tamil,Sikh, or Hindu diasporaconstitutea diasporicnetworkor web with joint-venturepoints and various gravitational centres.Dynamics of post-moder deterritorialization,
its global
culturaland economic flow, thus demand an on-going refinementof
concepts and relationallocatingof "diaspora."20
Last butnot least, transculturalcomparisonin an analyticalperspective leads to differentiatingdiasporic dimensions and proposing typologies of variedranges.This applies to the economic, socio-cultural,
religious, and political spheres.Following Armstrong'searly typology
of 'mobilized' and 'proletariandiasporas'(1976), useful dimensional
systematisationsand typologicalclassificationshave been proposedby
Ikonomu(1991), using Europe'sGreekdiasporaas an exemplarycase,
Robin Cohen (1997), illustrating 'victim', 'trade', 'labour' and further diasporasby a wide range of examples, and McKeown (1999),
analysingin a structuredway the moder Chinese diaspora.A few typologies with regardto the religious dimension in diasporic context
have been suggestedby Baumannearlieron, accompainedby methodological proposals regardingdiachronicaland synchronicalcomparisons (1995: 28-29). In all of these and afore-mentionedcases, dias20
ArjunAppaduraiinstructivelypoints to the changes broughtabout for diasporic

"neighborhoods"in light of new forms of electronic mediation,see Appadurai1996:
195-199. Certainly,in this respectissues andconcepts of transnationalismare of prime
importance,see footnote 3.
Martin Baumann
332
poric settings of different times and contexts have been systematized

and analysed to enhance an understanding of the complex relations involved. As in the early days of the discipline of the history of religions,
comparison, although this time much more reflexively controlled, is
taken as a means and method to arrange and classify the wide range of
data and to strive for theoretical conclusions and insights.
Seminar fUr Religionswissenschaft
Universitat Hannover
Im Moore 21
D-30167 Hannover
MARTIN BAUMANN
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Zeit. posthumed. Pieter Willem van der Horst, Leiden:Brill.
Vingadassamy-Engel,Lotus
1992 "The Hindu Diaspora in the French West-Indies."India International
CentreQuarterly19 (3): 6-20.
Diaspora
337
Waldmann,Peter
1982 "Kulturkonfliktund Anpassungszwang.Ausgangslage und Entwicklung
der deutschen Einwandererkolonienin Siidchile." In Aspekte der Kultursoziologie, ed. JustinStagl, 239-251. Berlin:Reimer.
TOWARDS A COGNITIVE SCIENCE OF RELIGION

E. THOMASLAWSON
It is difficult to miss the fact that the last fifty years has given
birth to a revolution in the sciences. This revolution has not only
transformedthe way scientists theorizeabout the humanmind but the
meansthey have devised to test theirtheories.Cognitivescience, which
has emergedin the context of this revolution,has coordinated,distilled
and extended the particularexplanatorytheories of human cognition
providedby cognitive psychology, cognitive anthropology,linguistics,
artificial intelligence (AI), philosophy, neuroscience and computer
science. It has even begun to operatewithin the context of comparative
religion. The purpose of this contributionis to discuss the relevance
of cognitive science for the study of the religious ideas and practices
of humankindby pursuingthreequestions: 1) Is a cognitive science of
religion possible? 2) Is a cognitive science of religion necessary?3) Is
a cognitive science of religion emerging?
Is A CognitiveScience of Religion Possible?
Theorizing about religion as a cultural system is standardfare in
the social sciences and has also had a great impact on studies in the
humanities.Theorizing about religion as a set of culturalphenomena
from a cognitive perspective is a more recent development. In fact,
in many respects a cognitive approachto culturalphenomenasuch as
religion is quite novel, and because of such novelty, capable of arousing intense suspicion and even antagonism.One of the main reasons
for such a response to this new science has been the inevitable suspicion aroused whenever scholarsmake appeals to psychological explanationsof socio-culturalphenomena.The standardassumptionin
the social sciences and the humanitieshas been that only social and
culturalmethods can explain social and culturalfacts. Of course the
possibility of a cognitive science of religion depends upon showing
NUMEN,Vol.47
Towardsa CognitiveScience of Religion
339
thatcognitiveexplanations
factsnotonlyarepossible
of socio-cultural
buthavealreadyhappened.If cognitivesciencehas alreadybeensuccessfulin developinginteresting,powerfuland empiricallytractable
theoriesof one culturalformthenthatsuccesscertainlywouldhave
relevancefor a scienceof otherculturalphenomenasuchas religion.
And it is no longermuchof a secretthata cognitivescienceof language,an eminentlyculturalphenomenon,is in full bloom and has
beensincethefifthdecadeof thetwentiethcentury.Eversincethepublication of Noam Chomsky'sSyntacticStructures(1957) the cognitive
theories
studyof languagehasmadeastonishing
progress.Explanatory
aboundat thephonological,syntacticandsemanticlevelsof analysis.
(Fora recentpopularaccountof the cognitiverevolutionin the study
of languagesee StevenPinker'sTheLanguageInstinct[1994].)
In earliertheorizingabouthumanlanguagesone featureof languageswhichhadseemedto poseproblemsforcross-cultural
generalizationshadbeentheirseeminglyendlessvariability.
Suchvariability
seemedanobstacleto systematicstudywhetheronefocusseduponthe
differencesin sounds,thedifferencesin wordorder,or thedifferences
in meaning.Thevarietyof languagesandlanguageformsin theworld
is immensenoteventakinglocaldialectsintoconsideration.
It would
seemthatno one scholarcouldeverhopeto developa significantcommandof all of these languages.So how couldone producea theory
unlessone hadcommandof all of the facts?Scholarsof religionwho
are equallycognizantof the greatvarietyof religionsandreligious
formscouldtakecomfortin the massivenessof religiousvarietyand
settleforsomethingless or somethingotherthangeneralizations
about
So if, despitesuchvariation,a cognitivescience
religiousphenomena.
of languagehas in fact emergedthis gives scholarsof religionhope
thata similarcognitivescienceof religioncouldbe developed.
Anotherfeatureof languageworthyof noteto scholarsof religion
is that,suchdiversitynotwithstanding,
thecognitivestudyof language
has led to the development
of theoriesaboutthe underlyingstructure
of language.Suchstudyhasrevealedthatdeepdownlanguagesarenot
thatdifferentfromeachother.Infactnotonlyhavecognitivescientists
developedpowerfulcompetencetheoriesof thephonology,syntaxand
340
E. ThomasLawson
semanticsof humanlanguagesbut they also have been successful

in the disciplineof pragmatics(see SperberandWilson,Relevance,
takeprecedenceovertheoriesof
1986)wheremattersof performance
we
linguisticcompetence.As theresultof suchstudiesin pragmatics
nowknowmuchmoreaboutthe structureof communication
thanwe
didbefore.
Whatthe cognitivescienceof languagehas shownis thatbeneath
the variabilityof languagethereis a commonality,or to be more
precise,a set of principleswhichaccountsfor the complexcharacter
of linguisticphenomena.It is not variableall the way down. In
fact on the syntacticlevel of analysislinguistshave been able to
demonstratethat there are certainuniversalconstraints(knownas
on theformationof particular
UniversalGrammar)
Beneath
grammars.
the surfacecomplexityof humanlanguageslies a set of principles
which organizethe sequencesof wordsthat makeup sentencesin
of interesting
quitespecificways.Theresulthasbeenthedevelopment
theoriesaboutthetrajectory
fromsoundto meaning.
Thefactof thesuccessof linguistics,therefore,
is anexistenceproof
of the possibilityof a scienceof at leastone formof culture,namely
language.A cognitivescienceof religionwouldbe possibleif it could
be shownthatdespitetheobviousvariability
of religionacrosscultures
a
andthroughout
there
similar
In
history
lay
specifiablecommonality.
the thirdsectionof this paperwe shalladdressthe evidencefor such
in theemergingcognitivescienceof religion.
commonalities
Is a CognitiveScience of Religion Necessary?
Let us concedefor the momentthata cognitivescienceof religion

is possible.Sucha concessiondoes not, however,makeit necessary
for scholarsof religionto actualizethe possibilityof a cognitivescience of religion.Not everyroadthatbeckonsneedbe trod.In a world
of manyoptionsperhapsthereare betterjourneysto take.Why not,
of reliinstead,continueto do whathistoriansand anthropologists
gion have done so well? Ourshelvesare filled with carefulhistorical studiesof the developmentof particular
religioustraditions,fine
studiesof varioussocieties,sophisticated
grainedethnographic
philo-
341
anddenotations
logicalstudiesessentialforgraspingthe connotations
of esoterictexts,powerfulcontextualstudiesof particular
featuresof
retrenchant
studies
of
the
between
traditions,
religious
relationships
and
even
ligioussystemsandpoliticalor economicsystems.
postmodernistcritiquesof the verypossibilityof objectivescholarshipof any
kindin the humansciences.All theseendeavorshavecontributed
to
a greateror lesserdegreeto ourunderstanding
of religiousideas,the
the
institutions
practicestheyinform,
theyengenderandthecontroversies theygenerate.So why not staythe courseandignorethe revolution?
line of scientificinquiryis ever necessary.
Actually,no particular
to
in
Refusing engage anykindof inquiryis alwaysan option.And
evenscienceitself,as a highlyspecializedenterprisedoes not require
ourcommitment.
Althoughhumanbeingsare giftedwith inquisitive
mindsit is quitepossibleto keepsuchinquisitiveness
atbayandwithin
bounds.Manyindividualsandgroupsof peoplehavebeen andcontinueto be quitesuccessfulat restraining
theirinquisitiveness.
Andat
timesinhumanhistoryinquiryintothenatureof thephysicalworldhas
been suppressed.At differenttimesandplacesvarioussocialinstitutionshavedemonstrated
atleastanambivalent
attitudetowardscience,
andon occasion,an activehostilitytowardsit. Furthermore
it is only
whensuchinquisitiveness
is institutionalized
andits development
enwithadequateresourcesthatthe sciencesbecouragedandsupported
to
bloom.
Societies
with
sciencehaveexisted
gin
only a rudimentary
in thepastandcouldexistagain.Thereareno guarantees(see Robert
N. McCauley,"Comparing
theCognitiveFoundations
of Religionand
Science,"1998)thatsciencewill remainas a viableway of acquiring
knowledgeaboutourselvesandthe worldwe occupy.Humanbeings
arequitecapableof settlingforrumor,gossip,innuendo,unsubstantiatedreports,andpropaganda.
Suchpredilections
mightevenconferan
evolutionary
advantage!
Butas partof theacademyandwishingto see thedisciplineto which
we havecommittedourlives makeourknowledgeof the worldgrow,
thereare good reasonsfor us to follow new pathsof inquirywhen
they showpromiseof fulfillingourobjectives.A sense of adventure
342
E. ThomasLawson
might lead us into trouble,but sometimes the troubleis worthit if new

discoveries beckon. So despite such cautionarystatementsI wish to
claim that a cognitive science of religion is necessary (in the sense
of worthy of being done) because it will help lead us into deeper
insights aboutsymbolic-culturalsystems such as religion. A cognitive
science of religion certainly shows every promise of deepening our
understandingof the cognitive constraintson culturalform.Those who
are dedicatedto culturalrelativismand its cousin culturaldeterminism
often give the impressionthatthere are no limits eitheron the contents
of our minds or the culturalproductsthat issue forth from them. We
have come to see throughthe insights of cognitive science that this
is not the case. There are limits to cultural(and, a fortiori, religious)
variability.
Of particularimportanceto the discipline of the historyof religions
at this time is the developmentof explanatorytheories of religion by
scholars who are not only tuned to the sciences but also have a deep
knowledge of religious traditions.In our study of these religious traditions our discipline has typically been long on interpretationand
short on explanation.In other words we have been focussed more on
problemsof meaning and significance than problemsof structureand
cause. Makingexplanatoryissues more centralto our discipline (without denyingthe values of interpretation)promisesto redressthe imbalance between interpretiveand explanatoryconcerns by deepeningour
understandingof the structure,acquisition,transmissionand communicationof religious ideas and the practicesthey inform.So a cognitive
science of religion is necessary if we wish our knowledge of the systematicityof culturalforms to grow and especially if we desire more
penetratingexplanationsof the structureand causes of religious ideas
and practices.
Is a CognitiveScience of Religion Emerging?
As I have alreadyargued,the best way to deal with the questionof
whethersomethingis possible is to show thatit has alreadybeen done.
(In fact, the internationaljournalTrendsin CognitiveSciences recently
publishedan articleby JustinBarrett"Exploringthe NaturalFounda-
343
tions of Religion"on the new cognitivescienceof religion[2000]).

Somescholarswho wereinterestedin culturalphenomenasuchas religionandwho hadbeenpayingclose attentionto thebirthof the new
scienceof the minddecidedthatit was worthemployingthe strategies of the cognitivesciencesto religiousmaterials.Theydecidedto
rethinkreligionswissenschaft
by suggestingcognitiveexplanationsof
phenomenathathadlargelyresidedwithintheprovinceof hermeneutics.So, forexample,DanSperberreexamined
issuesconcerningsymbolism and meaning in RethinkingSymbolism(1975). In that by now
classicworkSperbernot only showedthe weaknessof semioticapproachesto the studyof culturalforms,buthe also showedthatspecific culturalactivitiessuchas the widespreaduse of symbolismare
evidenceof specificmentalabilitieseach of which need to be distinguishedfromeach otherandeach of whichhave a causalrole in
culturalproductions.
In thatbookhe was ableto at leasthighlightthe
differencesbetweendictionary,
encyclopedicandsymbolicknowledge
andto demonstrate
importantpropertiesof the latter.Sperberturned
ourattentionto the varietyof cognitivemechanismswe needto identify anddescribeif we areto haveany hope of developingnew and
interestingtheoriesabouttheculturallife of humanbeings.
One of the most interestingthingsaboutany scientifictheoryis
thatyou neverknowwhetherwhatyou aredescribingis going to be
relevantto anythingor not. A case in pointare the manyalternative
have constructedover the centuries
geometriesthatmathematicians
which seemed to have no relevanceto the world as we know it.
And then in the twentiethcenturyit became apparentthat such
geometrieswere veryusefulindeedto moder physics.By adopting
a cognitiveperspectiveDan Sperberwas able to make us rethink
not only symbolismbut the mind that producesit. (See Lawson
"ReligiousIdeasandPractices,"1999.)Rethinkingsymbolismled to
the challengeto rethinkreligion,andmorespecificallyto rethinkhow
we go aboutstudyingreligionfroma cognitivescientificperspective.
Suddenlya science that seemed only of marginalsignificanceto
culturalphenomenawas seen to be capableof playinga majorrole
in explainingreligion.
344
E. ThomasLawson
Cognitivescience is the studyof the set of processesby means

of whichhumanbeingscome to know the world(Lawson,"Cognition", Guide to the Study of Religion, 2000). To the extent that reli-
gious knowledgecountsas knowledge(andwhy shouldit not?)then

whateverwe havediscoveredaboutsuchprocessescertainlyshouldbe
relevantto ourstudyof religion.No one candenythatthe contentsof
humanmindsareinfluencedby culturalprocesses.Theissue is to describeandexplainwhatis goingon whenourmindsin theirinteraction
withculturalphenomenacreate,employandtransmitconceptsof any
kindincludingreligiousones.
The emergingcognitivescienceof religionhas focussedon three
problems:1) Howdo humanmindsrepresentreligiousideas?2) How
do humanmindsacquirereligiousideas?3) Whatformsof actiondo
suchideasprecipitate?
ReligiousRepresentations
Philosophersof religion,theologians,historiansof religionsand
evenanthropologists
of religionhavesometimesarguedthatreligious
conceptsare sufficientlydifferentnot only fromeach otherbut also
fromall otherideas to justify specialanalyses.Some such analyses
havebeen conceivedof in suchradicaltermsthatthey haveinsisted
thatspecialexperiences,specialcommitments,specialmethodsand
even specialmentalspaces are requiredin orderfor religionto be
understood.An alternativeapproachwouldbe to show thatour ordinary, natural cognitive resources are sufficientto account for religious ideas. In RethinkingReligion: Connecting Cognition and Cul-
ture(1990)LawsonandMcCauleywereableto showthatsuchis the

aboutreligiousritual
case for at leastthosereligiousrepresentations
action.Thatworkarguedthatour cognitiveresourcesfor the repreof
sentationof actionweresufficientto accountfor therepresentation
religiousritualaction.
in the cogSincethatworka greatmanyfurtheraccomplishments
nitivestudyof religionhaveappeared.Forexample,BarrettandKeil
thatwhenpeopleengagedin theolog(1996) showedexperimentally
ical reflection(no matterwhichsocietytheylived in) they tendedto
345
produce"theologicallycorrect"formulationsof the propertiesof their

deities. However, when presentedwith stories of the gods and when
being called upon to rememberwhat they had been presented with,
people tended to systematicallymis-rememberthese propertiesof the
gods. So, for example,while theirtheologicalthoughtsof the gods representedthem as being everywhere,neverthelesstheirrecallof items in
the story showed that they representedthe gods as being in a specific
location at a specific time. Evidently, human beings have deep intuitions about what agents are like. Agents are spatiallyand temporally
bound. Even though peoples' theological reflectionssuggested rather
unusual propertiesof a special class of agents, superhumanagents,
neverthelesstheirordinaryintuitionsoverrodethe contentsof such abstract, "off-line"reflections. One should not be surprised,therefore,
that the gods are so frequentlyrepresentedin anthropomorphicways
in religious narratives.
Pascal Boyer (1994) has furtherdeveloped this notion of the use
of our ordinarycognitive resources for religious representationsby
his groundbreakingwork on intuitive ontologies. To have an intuitive
ontology is simply to possess a set of expectations of what the
world is like. In the terms of our intuitive ontologies the world is
a place where solid objects do not pass through each other, where
living things requirefood to survive and grow, where animate things
have goals, where agents have thoughts, and where artificial things
do not come naturally- they have to be made. What Boyer has
shown is that in orderto have religious representationsthese ordinary
expectations about what the world is like only have to be violated
in minimal ways, for example either by violating only one of the
assumptionsof the ontological category involved or by transferring
one of these assumptions from one category to another. Take, for
example,the ontologicalcategory"person".Ourordinaryexpectations
about persons are that they are intentional, biological and physical
agents. Violating only the physical assumptionsabout agents delivers
the concept of a superhumanagent conceived of as intentional,and
living being but withouta body.
346
E. ThomasLawson
Acquisitionand Transmission
It is one thing to develop theories of how religious ideas are
represented.It is anotherthing to account for how they are acquired.
On the face of it it would appear that, in the competition for ideas
that make a difference to our understandingof the world, ideas about
superhumanagents withoutbodies would hardlymake the grade.Why
have such preposterous(or, more gently, "counter-intuitive')ideas not
been eliminated a long time ago? Here, actually, is an area in which
the cognitive science of religion has already made a contributionto
cognitive science in general.What Boyer and othershave been able to
show is that in the processes of culturaltransmissioncounter-intuitive
ideas have a mnemonic advantage. In simple terms, ideas in which
certain properties of our intuitive ontologies are violated are more
memorablethan ideas which contain no such violations. What Boyer
has shown via the notion of a cognitive optimumis that in orderfor a
religious idea to survive it requirestwo things. An idea needs to have
the propertiesthat any idea has, and it also needs somethingto make it
standout from competingideas.
Now what we have learnedfrom cognitive science is thatthe human
mind acquiresconcepts in surprisinglycomplex ways. Developmental
psychologists,for example,have shownthatchildrenactivelyconstruct
theirtheoriesof what the worldis like fromthe momentof birth.Rather
than being blank slates which have information scribbled on them
by the invisible hand of culture, children's minds show evidence of
evolutionarydesign by theircomplex functionalorganization.Human
minds have many competencies equippedto handle many domainsof
information.While, strictly speaking, there is no particularor special
domain of religious information,human minds are so designed that
they are responsive to certainkinds of informationthatcapturehuman
attentionbecause of theirmemorability.
Religious RitualAction
Lawson and McCauley (1990) have shown that the representation
of religious ritualaction dependsupon quite ordinaryaction representations.The main thing that distinguishesreligious ritualaction repre-
347
sentationsfrom ordinaryaction representationsis the assumptionthat

the agents involved in the action possess special qualities. So the basic action structureof a religious ritualis "someonedoes somethingto
someone or somethingwith a particularconsequence and by means of
a particularinstrument."In orderfor such an ordinaryaction description to count as a ritual action descriptionis to show that the agency
involved possesses special qualities. Boyer's work about the minimal
violations of intuitive ontological categories provides the means for
explicating what makes such agents capable of being conceived of a
superhumanagents.The special qualitiesof the agents presupposedin
religious ritualaction are thatthey violate some of the assumptionsordinarily associated with ordinaryagent. But equally important,most
of the propertiesof such agents, and the inferences that can be drawn
from them are the propertiesand inferences that we would normally
associate with any agent.
What we should also not miss aboutreligious ritualrepresentations
is that they make it possible for certainthings to get done that would
not otherwise get done! The issues are not just ontological but also
causal. Religious representationsmake it possible for people to devise
special ways of bringing about new ways of associating with each
otherin social ways, hence the widespreadpracticeof rites of passage.
The big story is that cognitive scientists are beginning to unravelthe
mysteriesinvolved in the cognitive processes which make such causal
representationspossible.
A cognitive science of religion is obviously still in the process of
development. It has demonstratedits ability to encourage interdisciplinary work, for example, among anthropologists,psychologists,
philosophers, computer scientists and historians of religion. A new
generationof scholars working in different disciplinarycontexts are
transgressingthe boundariesof these disciplines and communicating
with each otheracross those boundaries.Conferencesinvolving cognition, cultureandreligion arebeginningto occur quiteregularlyandthe
proceedingsof such conferencesare rapdilymoving towardspublication (see, J. Andresen,Religion in Mind, [in press]) and a new journal,
The Journal of Cognitionand Culture(publishedby Brill Academic
348
E. Thomas Lawson
Publishers) will begin publication in 2001. The cognitive science of

religion that is emerging promises to disclose aspects of human religions that, so far, have escaped explanation. Such explanations should
find a warm welcome in the next generation of scholars of religion.
Department of Comparative Religion
Western Michigan University
Kalamazo, MI 49008, USA
E. THOMAS LAWSON
REFERENCES
Andresen,J.
(in press) Religion in Mind, Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.
Barrett,J.
2000 "Exploring the natural foundations of religion", Trends in Congnitiv
Sciences, Vol. 4, 1, 29-34.
Barrett,J. and F. Keil
1996 "Anthropomorphismand God Concepts: Conceptualizinga Non-Natural
Entity,"CognitivePsychology, 3, 219-247.
Boyer, P.
1994 The Naturalness of Religious Ideas, Berkeley: University of California
Press
Chomsky,N.
1957 SyntacticStructures,The Hague:Mouton.
Lawson, E. and R. McCauley
1990 RethinkingReligion: ConnectingCognitionand Culture,Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.
Lawson, E.
2000 "Cognition,"in Guide to the Study of Religion, ed. by Braun, W. and
R. McCutcheon,London:Cassell.
1999 "ReligiousIdeas and Practices,"MIT Encyclopediafor CognitiveScience,
Cambridge:MIT Press.
McCauley,R.
1998 "Comparingthe Cognitive Foundationsof Religion and Science,"Report#
37, Departmentof Psychology, Emory University,Atlanta,Georgia,30322.
Meltzoff, A., Gopnik,A. and Kuhl, P.
1999 The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How ChildrenLearn, New
York:William Morrowand Company.
Towards a Cognitive Science of Religion
349
Pinker,S.
1994 The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language, New York:
William Morrow.
D.
Sperber,
1975 RethinkingSymbolism, Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.
Sperber,D. and Wilson, D.
1986 Relevance: Communicationand Cognition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard
UniversityPress.
P.
Thagard,
1996 Mind:An Introductionto CognitiveScience, Cambridge,MA: MIT Press.
TO LOCK UP ELEUSIS: A QUESTION OF LIMINAL SPACE1

DAG 0ISTEIN ENDSJ0
Summary
In this article, I argue that the geographicalperiphery,the eschatia, represented
an area within the ancient Greek worldview that reflected a territorialparallel to
the intermediatestate of the Greek rites of passage. There were also a number of
mythological ties between the eschatia and this ritualmid state, the most basic aspect
of both of them consistingof a simultaneousbeing and non-beingthatentaileda sense
of profoundconfusion of all propercategories. Placed not only betwixt and between
the land of the dead andpolis as the land of the living, but also between an Olympian
and a chthonic divine sphere,the uncultivatedgeographicalperipheryrepresentedan
ambiguousand primordiallandscape,where men had still not been distinguishedfrom
the realm of the gods, the animals,and the dead. As the geographicalperipherythus
was consideredto reflect a primordialquality,the intermediatephase of variousrites
of passage was seen as the ritualimitationof this area. Havingjourneyed to the ends
of the earthand the land of the dead, Heracles could thereforesuggest closing down
the Eleusian mysteries. Operatingwith a theoreticalconcept of liminal space, I will
in this way try to show how the idea of ritual liminality, as initiated by Arnold van
Gennep and VictorTurner,may be transferredto a spatialcontext.
1 am
especially indebted to RichardD. Hecht at the Departmentof Religious
Studies at the University of Californiaat Santa Barbara.I would also like to thank
Ingvild SaelidGilhus and Einar Thomassen at the Departmentof Religious Studies
at the University of Bergen, Jan Bremmer at the Religious Studies Departmentat
Universityof Groningen,Synn0ve des Bouvrie at The NorwegianInstitutein Athens,
Hans G. Kippenbergat the Religious Studies Departmentat University of Bremen,
Nanno Marinatosat the College Year in Athens, Hugo Montgomery at the Classics
Departmentat the University of Oslo, Halvor Moxnes at the Faculty of Theology
at the University of Oslo and Jesper Svenbro at the Centre Louis Gernet in Paris
for their assistance and kind suggestions. Equally invaluable to me have been the
inspirationof Deena Deutsch andthe overall help and supportfrom Knut Olav Amas.
An early version of this paperwas presentedat the Myth and Symbol symposium at
the Universityof Troms0,June4, 1998.
KoninklijkeBrill NV, Leiden (2000)
NUMEN, Vol. 47
352
Dag 0istein Endsj0
Having travelled to the land of the dead, Heracles, the archetypal

hero, makes a novel suggestion: "Lock up Eleusis and the sacred fire,"
he says.2 Thus he proposes to put an end to what Cicero called the best
of all "excellent and indeed divine institutions that Athens has brought
forth and contributed to human life."3 It is not, however, that Heracles
does not acknowledge the intrinsic value of the mysteries, but through
his ultimate experience it seems that the hero has found the very pattern
upon which the Eleusian mysteries are based: "I have experienced far
truer mysteries [...] I have seen Kore."4
That death is a central element in Heracles's ultimate experience is
obvious. Just as important, however, is how the hero reaches this point
geographically. Heracles's story is not one of dying and subsequent
resurrection; it is one of going to Hades while still alive. As this
journey to the land of the dead would entail extensive travelling
through vast and - from a Greek point of view - uncivilised
landscapes, I wish to argue that it is not only the contemplating of Kore
that reflects the experience of the Eleusian mysteries. The encounter
with the queen of Hades represents only the climax of the long ordeal
of this ultimate, spatial passage.5 Also the Argonauts prepared for
2Vogliano 1937, 176-77: X6yol 'Hp]aicX'ovugiAl coe'[vov TEX]eIoOaL ta
tb sup [TO
'EEvoivLa. [x6.aL [L]eL(<v>6l>aL.a&iC61EL[oovtiTV'E].voeiva KaiL
ca' 06[ve[ vuWK]xO
g Opaig' uvoU pLa [xoX.Xo a]xqOe'oTepa
po6v,]66a,o6XE, Ki
REilntaL (...) [...] tilV K6pqlvei6ov. "Heraclessaid: To go throughthatof Eleusis
do not satiateme. I have [already]been initiated.Lock up Eleusis and the sacred[fire],
torch-bearer(an officer at the Eleusinianmysteries),envy the sacrednight. I havebeen
intitiatedinto [far] truermysteries [...] I have seen Kore."I owe it to WalterBurkert
for being awareof this text.
3 Cicero De
Legibus2.36.
4 Vogliano 1937, 177.
5 Indeed, most versions will recounthow Heracles descended into Hades
through
some crevice in the earth's surface usually in Greece proper.When Odysseus met
Heracles at the borderof Hades, the implication is neverthelessthat Heracles,when
alive, had travelledthe same route as Odysseus, that is, sailing across Oceanusto the
uttermostend of the world and there entering Hades (Odyssey 11.620-26; cf. ibid.
10.508-12). Also the late fifth centuryB.C. tragedianEuripideswrites of Heracles's
sailing to Hades ([...] ITOYxovu6dicKpvov7tXevo' dS "AL&av[...], Hercules Furens
ToLock up Eleusis: A Questionof LiminalSpace
353
their perilousjourney to the ends of the earththroughbeing initiated.

Going throughthe mysteriesof the Cabeirion the islandof Samothrace
ensuredthatthe heroes with "greatersafety could sail over the chilling
sea."6
The novel suggestion of Heracles as recordedon a second century

A.D. papyrusfound in EgyptianTebtunis,7is also reflectedin Euripides's fifth centuryB.C. tragedyHeracles. Here, too, the hero succeeds
in his journey to the land of the dead; now, however,only because he
has previouslygone throughthe rites of Eleusis.8Thus, also Euripides
indicatesthat there was a close relationbetween the experienceof the
mysteriesand thatof travellingin the uncivilisedlandscapes.
In this way a certainculturalpatternis indicated,a patternso central
and enduring within the ancient Greek world view that it could be
reflected in the classical plays of Euripidesjust as much as in late
Hellenistic papyri. Going throughthe mysteries would in some way
preparethe traveller for the extreme journey not only to the land
of the dead, but also to the uncultivatedlandscapes of the periphery
in general. It seems that what we are presented with is a landscape
somehow linked with the Greek rites of passage, a certaingeography
of initiation. It is at least obvious that the more distant areas of the
Greek worldview played a very distinct part in this ritual universe.
426-27), though he also at the same time operateswith the more traditionaldescent.
A passage by the first or second century A.D. mythographerPseudo-Apollodorus
seems to reflect the story of Heraclesin the Odyssey,recountinghow the hero crossed
Oceanus and then encountered the cattle of Hades and their herdsman Menoetes
(Pseudo-ApollodorusBibliotheca 2.5.10). Even though this story actually refers to
Heracles's getting the herd of the giant Geryon,Hades's cattle and the herdsmanare
the same as what the ultimatehero meets when he is about to enter the dank abode
to fetch Cerberus(Pseudo-ApollodorusBibliotheca 2.5.12). This suggests again that
crossingthe Oceanusto the literalend of the worldcould havebeen Heracles'soriginal
way of reachingHades.
6
Eschylusaccordingto Atheneus 428f; cf. also Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 1.915-18, and Bremmer1998, 99-100.
7 Cf. Vogliano 1937, 175-76.
8
EuripidesHercules Furens 610-13.
354
Dag 0istein Endsj0
The mainquestionthusbecomeshow andto whatdegreethe Greek

of spacemaybe understoodas beinganalogousto the
understanding
momentsof time in the ritesof passage.
highlyrituallymanipulated
Is theresucha thingas an ancientGreekspaceof passage?Canone
operatewitha notionof liminalspacewithintheoldGreekworldview?
The ritesof passageas firstdefinedby Arnoldvan Gennepin his
influentialbook of the samename(vanGennep[1909]),includethe
sequenceof threephases:firstthe subjecthas to go througha riteof
segregationfromhis or her previousrole in society.Thenhe or she
goes throughan intermediate
phase,beforefinallybeingreaggregated
intohis orhernewrole.
VictorTurneris thescholarwho withthegreatestsuccesshaselaboratedvan Gennep'stheories,most importantly
by coiningthe term
liminality.This termreferredto vanGennep's"liminalstate"or "interstructural
situation"thatTurnerfoundtypicalfor thatintermediate
andaggregation
fromandto proper
phasebetweentheritualseparation
social roles: this is "a realm [...] betwixtand between [...] any type
of stableor recurrent
conditionthatis culturallyrecognised"(Turner
1967, 93; 94). Havingto be borderedby one oppositeat eitherside
betweenwhichit mayrepresenta stateof transition,
theinterstructural
or liminalstateis consequently
definedby whatit is not.
Turneralso pointedto a generalsenseof confusionandambiguity
thathe foundtypicalof this initiatorymid state.Normallyincompatible elementsof the conditions,in betweenwhichthe interstructural
stateis found,will be paradoxically
juxtaposedand recombined.It
as
asser"mayperhapsbe regarded the Nay to all positivestructural
tions,butas in somesensethe sourceof themall, and,morethanthat,
as a realmof purepossibilitywhencenovel configurations
of ideas
and relationsmay arise"(Turner1967, 97). Everyelementof existencemaybe foundseveredfromits usualcontext,juxtaposedby its
usuallymutuallyexclusiveopposite,andassembledinto new,totally
nonsensicalcombinations.
Thus,all the usualsocialstatesof gender,
age, hierarchy,as well as even morebasic oppositessuch as human
versusdivine,humanversusanimal,and dead versusalive, may be
negatedandrevertedin the liminalstate.Regardlessof whetherone
ToLockup Eleusis: A Questionof LiminalSpace
355
considers van Gennep's rites of passage a universalphenomenonor

not, his liminal state, as has been emphasised in a large number of
studies, offers a patternthat fits well with the structureof the various
ancientGreekmysteriesand othertransitionalrites leading the subject
from one culturallyrecognisedstate to another.9Van Gennephimself,
in fact, based his theoriesto a large degree on the structuresof the ancient mysteriesand other Greektransitionalrites.10Examples such as
the reversalof genderroles, outrightcross-dressing,dressingup as animals, the symbolical interminglingwith gods, apparentsacrilege and
even pseudo-cannibalismall fit within this ambiguouspattern.
I am, however,using the termliminalitywith caution.This is partly
because the term so successfully has acquiredsomethinglike a status
of a universalphenomenonseemingly independentfrom the various
culturalcontexts. Moreover,there is an increasingtendency,initiated
by the late Turnerhimself, of applying the term to the most various
phenomena,apparentlyoften quiteunrelatedto actualtransitionalrites.
In my use of the term liminality I will thereforeask the readerto be
aware that I always keep to its initial meaning, as an analytical tool
intimatelyconnected to the intermediatephase of the ritualtransition.
It is consequently also importantto keep in mind that liminality, of
course, was not a termused by the ancientGreeks.
Even though the theories of van Gennep and Turnerhave proven
helpful for the understandingof ancient transitionalrituals, they can
only bringus partof the way towardsa theoryof how the Greekcould
operatewith such an intimateconnectionbetween theirrites of passage
and the geographicalperiphery.When developinghis definitionof the
temporalphases of the rites of passage, Arnold van Gennep saw the
territorialborderzones between the more clearly defined areas as not
only structurallyidentical with the intermediateperiod of transitional
rituals,but consideredthe physical passage as the very origin of the
rites of spiritualpassage (van Gennep [1909], 22). If we look to the
9 See
e.g. Burkert[1987], Marinatos1995, Nelis 1991, Redfield 1990, Scully 1990,
Versnel 1990, and Vidal-Naquet[1981].
10Cf. van
Gennep [1909], 18; 37; 89-91.
356
Dag 0istein Endsj0
structuralimplicationfrom this idea of a transitionalarea, we realise

thatthis is an areathatis definedby what it is not. It is somethinglike
a spatial remain,a non-structuralisedborderareathat appearsonly as
other,culturallyrecognisedareasare defined away from it.
In this way, van Gennep opened for the idea that there are certain
borderareasthatrepresenta mentaland social transitionfor the person
who traverses them. Just as the theoretical notion of initiatory or
liminal timewas createdthroughdifferentrites of passage, it may seem
thatvan Gennep'stheoriesalso include a notion of liminal space. Was,
however, van Gennep right in thinking that space, just as well as the
manipulatedtime of the rites of passage, could be the medium for the
interstructuralstate of liminality?And if he was correct, how is the
term liminal space able to help us understandthe intimate relation
between the geographicalperipheryand the Greekinitiatoryrites?As
van Genneprefrainedfrom any furthertheoreticalelaborationof these
spatialtheories,he does not provideus with any moremeans for seeing
how the ancientGreeksconstructedtheirworldin such a way thatthere
existed an interrelationbetween the intermediatestate of their rites of
passage and the most distantpartsof theirworld.
Victor Turnerwas in no way unawareof that space could represent
an importantpart within a given culturalcontext. His understanding
of the possible connectionbetween space and liminalitywas, however,
in no way straightforward.In his studies on pilgrimage he could use
a spatial understandingof van Gennep's thresholdanalogy, referring
to how a "pilgrimagecenter, from the standpoint of the believing
actor, also representsa threshold, a place and moment 'in and out
of time"' (Turner1974, 197). For Turner,certain places, like Rome
and Mecca, remain "fundamentallyliminal to the entire world of
political organization"(Turner& Turner1978, 168). This patternof
single places of liminality may be summed in how he considered a
"spatiallocation of liminality"as an area "clearly set apart"(Turner
& Turner1978, 4). This understandingof spatial liminality,however,
is contradictorynot only to van Gennep's idea of liminal space as
representing an essentially unstructuredarea, but also to Turner's
own notion of liminality generally being "a realm [...] betwixt and
357
between[...] any type of stableor recurrentconditionthatis culturally

recognised"(Turner1967, 93; 94). By describingit as an area"clearly
set apart,"Turnermade his understandingof spatial liminality into
an example of a "stable or recurrent condition that is culturally
recognised"- a notion in absolute contradictionto his own idea of
ritualliminality.
While van Gennep saw the undefined,transitionalareas as loaded
with meaning projected onto it by the culture that contemplatedit,
Turnerconsideredthe culturallyundefinedspace as a neutralground
that could only acquire a quality of liminality throughsome liminal
ritualtakingplace there.This notion that space only acquiresmeaning
throughritualperformance,is evident both in his analyses of Ndembu
ritualand in his study of differentpilgrimages.Writingon pilgrimage
and initiation,he summedup: 'The formerliminalizes time; the latter,
space"(Turner1992, 39).
As culturally recognised places are carved out of an originally
undefined territory,huge areas will also remain outside of these
culturallyrecognised frames.Turner,however,did not recognise how
these spatial "remains"also representculturalconstructions.He thus
failed to appreciatehow spatial entities were perceived to possess an
autonomousliminal statuswithin a given worldview.
This autonomyof the geographical,liminal space is the notion that
must be considered to lie behind Heracles's claim that he no longer
had any need for the Eleusian mysteries after his extensive travelling
in the distantgeography.In this case, the peripheryseems to possess
somethingof the same phenomenologicalessence as the liminal phase
of the transitionalrites, a certainliminal essence thatbelongs to these
landscapes,quite independentof transitionalrites.
In spite of his own not very helpful geographical elaborations,
Turner'soriginaldefinitionof liminality does neverthelessnot have to
be restrictedto temporalcategories. His understandingof liminality
as "a realm [...] betwixt and between [...] any type of stable or
recurrentconditionthatis culturallyrecognised,"may easily be applied
to aspects of space, in accordancewith van Gennep'soriginalinsight.
358
Dag 0istein Endsj0
LiminalSpace as the Geographyof Life and Death

Parallel to how the uttermostperipherywas considered ratherlike
a spatial image of the rites of passage, the uncultivatedareas right
outside of the city walls were used as the venue for a number of
Greek initiatory rites where young boys would attain maturityand
the right to citizenship. The Athenian ephebes, for example, would
be sent out to the wild mountainsidesand therehave their civic status
foreveraltered,while Cretanyouths at the brinkof manhoodwould be
abductedinto the wildernessby older lovers.1l Bringing somebody to
these areasright outside the polis implied thathe or she was removed
from civil society in more ways than just spatially. The myths of
many of the great heroes reflecta similarmechanism.While Achilles,
Acteon, Aristeus, Asclepius, Jason, and lateralso his son, Medus, all
reached their manhoodin the wild landscapesof the centaurChiron,
the adolescentOdysseus was sent to the mountainslopes of Parnassus
where he experiencedan initiatoryordeal throughthe instructionsof
his maternalgrandfather,Autolycus.12
As indicatedby these variousexamples of apparentlyliminal incidents, the most distantgeographyandthe wastelandjust outside of the
cultivatedareasdid not representregions thatwere essentially different
fromeach other.In the BacchleEuripidesclearlydemonstratedthatthis
was the case, as he had the mountainsidesjust outside of Thebes filled
with nativewomen celebratingthe mythicalprototypeof the Dionysian
mysteries togetherwith the god himself and his entourageof foreign
women. All the areasnot underthe cultivationof the Greekpolis may,
in fact, be summed up by the term ta eschatia, the furthestpart.This
Strabo 10.4.21.
2 Achilles in Iliad 11.831-32; Actaeonin
Pseudo-ApollodorusBibliotheca 3.4.4;
Aristeus in Apollonius of RhodesArgonautica2.509-10; Asclepius in Iliad 4.218-19
and in PindarPyth. 3.5-7; Jason in PindarPyth. 4.102; Jason's son Medus in Hesiod
Theogonia1001-2; and Odysseusin Odyssey19.392-96. Withoutlooking at the spatial
context, Jan N. Bremmerconcludes that the ancient hero traditions"designatetheir
protagonistsas young men in the transitionfrom boyhood to adulthood"(Bremmer
1977, 35).
359
termnot only appliedto the most distantperiphery,but was also generally used for the uncultivatedareas borderingimmediately on the
civilised geography(Hartog[1980], 13). Thus, if we shall operatewith
a notionof liminalspace withinthe Greekworldview,the eschatia covers the whole of the area. The only traitcommon to all of these areas
was thatthey all lay outside of the Greekcity walls, which were symbolically representingthe limits of civilised society. The eschatia, the
landscapesthatthe ancientGreeksrepeatedlyrelatedto the experience
of the rites of passage, stretchedaccordinglyfrom the hinterlandjust
outsidethe polis to the uttermostperipheryat the end of the world.
Havingproposedthe hypothesisthatthe Greekeschatia represented
a liminal space by pointing to a numberof examples where this area
apparentlyreflectedthe intermediatestateof variousGreekritesof passage, our next task will be to see how the ancient Greeks constructed
their worldview in such a way that they logically could perceive this
interrelation.As VictorTurneremphasised,it is the placementbetwixt
and between two culturallyrecognised stable conditions that creates
the intermediatestate of the rites of passage. If the eschatia was a geographical areathat was situatedbetween differentsets of stable culturallyrecognised geographical conditions, we shall thereforehave a
structuralparallelto the mid phase of the ancient Greek rites of passage.
Looking for stablegeographicalconditions,we will, of course, find
the Greek polis as a natural point of departure.Through its mere
presence, the polis not only defined the eschatia as its geographical
periphery,but was also the areathatrepresentedthe only place of true
humanity.Withoutpolis, manwas "eithera beast or a god,"as Aristotle
pointed out.13The city defined a space that in itself was humanising.
The space of the polis constituteda stable and culturallyrecognised
geographical condition representing a certain cultural pattern that
pertainedto all aspectsof the properhumanexistence.
It is important,however, also to include the cultivated land, the
chora, within the notion of the human polis. With the exception of
13AristotlePolitica 1253a.
360
Dag 0istein Endsjo
Sparta,14there was no city state, as far as I know, whose chora in any

way representedan entity radicallydifferentfrom the more urbanised
space of the polis: the city area and the cultivated land together
constitutedthe land of humancivilisation.
The polis was neverthelessnot an eternalentity. For its continued
existence, the city depended upon its denizens living according to
a number of cultural rules that defined them as humans. A serious
negligence or reversal of any of these crucial practices would be
tantamountto dehumanising the space of the polis. Among these
essential activities were the practice of sacrifice and agriculture,the
eating of bread,15the necessity of working for survival, and, most
importantly,a numberof clear lines set up for keeping death on the
outside. Defining the space of humanlife, the polis would not tolerate
deathin its midst and demandedthatritualprecautionsshouldbe made
to keep the city safe frompollutioncausedby any occurrenceof death.
Within a prescribedtime, anyone who died within the parametersof
the city walls was literallycarriedout of the space of the polis through
the ritualof the ekphora.16
The fact thatpolis representedthe only space where properhuman
life might be fulfilled, suggests that the polis may be considered to
reflect a perceived space of life. The great precautionsfor keeping
deathoutsidethe city walls furtherindicatethatthe realmdiametrically
opposite to the existence of polis was that of humandeath. However,
if the definitionof the polis as the space of life may appearsomewhat
original,the quest for a space of death will not lead us into uncharted
14The Spartankrypteiai,young men in their transitionalperiod, would roam their
own countrysideas well as the eschatia, harassingandeven killing unfortunateHelots,
public slaves not belonging to the city space proper(cf. Osborne 1987, 150). It is
because the very existence of these Spartancitizens-to-bein all mannerswas removed
from the agriculturalsphere of their society, that the cultivated land, the chora, for
the Spartansalso could representan area of transitionalong with the uncultivated
mountainsidesand other wastelands.
15FritzGraf,for example, emphasiseshow certainvictuals indicatea distancefrom
the normalsituation.Cf. Graf 1980, 209-21.
16Solon
accordingto Demosthenes43.62, Plato Leges 960a, Antiphon6.34.
361
territories:Hades, or the land of the dead, was a well known entity

within the Greekworldview.
Mirroringhow polis representeda territorywhere everything reflected the notions of human life, Hades representeda space where
everythingwas death.The most importantaspect of Hades in this context, however, will be its location. Just as death was man's ultimate
temporallimit, the space in which humansmight venturewas also ultimately boundedby death.Therewas subsequently(as indicatedat the
startof this article)an explicit notion that deathcould be reachedgeographically.Odysseus'sjourneyto the land of the dead was definitelya
geographicaladventure,as the hero went by the riverOceanus,beyond
the island of Circe at the end of the world, to the bordersof the land
of the dead.17Accordingly,the peoples of the absolute geographical
periphery,such as Homer'sCimmerians,were said to live closer to the
dead.18
The utmostboundariesof the world representeda spatialreflection

of how man ceased to exist beyond his own human limits. The term
used was to peras or to peirar - that is an end, limit, boundaryregardlesswhether the matterin question was that of the end of the
world, the temporalbordersof the human life,19 or even the limit of
man's physical performance.As man's limitationsthus were reflected
in both a temporal,a physical, as well as in a geographicalmanner,
common to all three dimensions was that there was a limit of human
potentialbeyond which one touched upon the realm where man was
not.20These borderswere equal to the Homeric and Hesiodic peirata
17
Odyssey 10.508-12.
8 Ibid. 11.12-15.
19As in
Sophocles (EdipusTyrannus1530.
20
Building on this understandingof these as relatedphenomena,the fifth century
B.C. poet Pindar used the Pillars of Heracles as a metaphor to hail the highest
achievementsof the athletes in the Panhellenicgames (Nem. 3.20-23; cf. Isth. 4.1112). "Pindarmeasuresthe prowess of his athlete-patronsin geographicterms, seeing
theirvictoriesas journeys into distantspace"(Romm 1992, 18). One could only reach
as far as the Pillars, "furtheris impassable(&aPaxog)
for both wise and unwise" (01.
362
Dag 0istein Endsj0
gaies21- the very end of the worldbeyond which the worldno longer
existed.
The different spaces of the eschatia, the polis, and Hades all
representeddifferent patterns that made certain ways of existence
eitherpossible or impossible. In the way it was culturallyconstructed,
space seems in this way to have representeda ratheruncompromising
factor within the worldview of ancient Greece.22A certain spatial
entity would embrace all aspects of the reality it was considered
to reflect. Thus, there would always appear an intimate connection
between any given areaand thatwhich belonged within it.
When the existential dichotomy of human life and death in this
way was transferredonto the externalisedreality of space, we find
thatthis dualitywas expandedinto the morecomprehensivedichotomy
of being and non-being. The notion of the nothingnessof Hades was
subsequently also repeatedly emphasised: the dead encounteredby
Odysseus were completely powerless, immaterialshadows without a
speck of wisdom,23while the cap of Hades gave its wearerthe guise
of invisibility.24This consistent immaterialityof Hades indicates an
actual notion of inspatialityin the land of the dead. This quality of
non-being was also reflected in an actual timelessness in Hades, as
indicated by the way "the psyche of the dead" was thought to be
"frozenin time at the moment of death"(Keuls 1974, 14) - or more
precisely:the immaterialform of the deadremainedforeverin the state
that it was at the moment of the final transposalto Hades. Men who
had been slain in battle continuedto wear theirbloodstainedarmour,25
3.44-45). In his Pythianodes (10.27-30) Pindarwrote of the land of the Hyperboreans
as a similarmetaphorfor the utmost limit (tepaCvel ppog
s aoaxzov)of the athlete.
21Iliad 8.478-79,
14.200, 14.301; Odyssey 4.563, 9.284; Homeric Hymn to
Hesiod
Aphrodite227;
Theogonia 334-35, 518, 622, 731; peiratha pontoio in Iliad
6keanos
in Odyssey 11.13.
8.478-79; peirath'
22This same point is arguedby PierreBonnecherein the context of humansacrifice
(Bonnechere1994, 242-43).
23
Odyssey 10.494-95.
24Iliad 5.844-45.
25Ibid. 11.40-41.
363
while the ghost of Clytemnestracould still display the fatal wounds

that her son had given her.26Jan N. Bremmer emphasises how the
same kind of situationis depictedon vases, "wherethe dead [in Hades]
are regularly shown with their wounds, sometimes still bandaged"
(Bremmer1983, 84). Someone who died or otherwiseended up in the
land of the dead as an infantwould subsequentlyalso foreverremain
this way.27This timelessness of death relates also to the notion of a
"beautifuldeath":the good fortuneof dying while still young and the
absoluteimportanceof keepingthe body intactfor the obsequies.28
Having found how the two existential human opposites of life
and death had been projected onto the ancient Greek world map,
we see that the Greek eschatia becomes the spatial reflection of the
interstructuralor liminal period a person goes throughat the point of
dying. This was also recognised by both Homer and Apollonius of
Rhodes as they let respectivelythe Odysseanand the Argonauticcrew,
at the moment when they consideredthemselves to be foreverlost in
the liminal space of the eschatia, imitate the ritual drawing of a veil
over one's head.This was an act performedat the momentof death,for
example by Hippolytusand Socrates.29Also Alcestis, as she returned
fromdeath,would keep herselfcoveredwith a veil.30This customwas,
moreover,intimatelyconnectedto initiatoryrites, such as those at the
Eleusian mysteries:just as Demeter sat on a fleece with a veil over
26
ischylus Eumenides103.
27Cf. Homeric
Hymnto Hermes256-59.
28Cf. Vernant1991, 50-74. Even the
gods recognised this and would sometimes
see to it that the corpse of someone who was especially dear to them not in any way
would suffer harm(e.g. Hector'sbody in Iliad 23.184-91).
29Odyssey 10.179; Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica4.1294-96; EuripidesHippolytus 1457-58; Plato Phaedo118a; cf. EuripidesHercules Furens 1159-1231. The
crew of Odysseus drew theircloaks over theirheads as they arrivedat Circe's island,
the samereactionas thatof the Argonautsto theirendingup in the formless landscapes
of Libya.
30
EuripidesAlcestis 1006-1125.
364
Dag 0istein Endsj0
her face,31the neophytes would do this also, imitatingthe goddess.32

Probablynot unrelatedeither is how the Greek bride at her point of
transitioninto womanhoodwould be sportinga veil.
Located betwixt and between the land of the dead as the realm of
absolutenon-beingand thepolis as the place of ideal being, the Greek
eschatia was sandwichedbetween two stable geographicalconditions.
As can be seen in the ritualcarryingout of the deceased, the eschatia
was the areawhere the dead and the living could go togetherin a way
impossiblenot only in the city,but also in Hades. Only the superhuman
heroes Heracles and Orpheuscould successfully returnfrom the land
of the dead, while the more human Odysseus never actually entered
Hades but stayed on its borders.If he had gone furtherhe would most
probably,like Theseus and Perithoos,not have been able to return:his
entrancewould have been the geographicalequivalentto his physical
death.
As most versions of Heracles'sjourney to Hades indicate,this horizontal view of a geographicalland of the dead was often complemented by a concept of Hades as a lower realm:Homer artfullycombines the two notions as he has the slaughteredsuitors of Penelope
led by Hermes "downthe darkways," and then, "past the streamsof
Oceanus [...], past the gates of the sun and the land of dreams."33
If we look closer at the idea of the chthonicHades, we find thatwe
are led to considerotherstablecategoriesof the Greekworldview.Just
as this worldviewhad its humandimensionthatdividedit horizontally,
it also had its divine dimension that divided it vertically.Ideally one
may expect to find the divine Hades underthe earth,and Hades as the
land of the dead beyond the edge of the earth,though in fact it would
be hardto find any ancientGreekwriterwho would make such a clear
distinctionbetween Hades's humanand divine aspects.
This ideal duality of Hades neverthelessnecessitates that the line
going frompolis to the ultimateend of the world, on which the notion
31Homeric
Hymn to Demeter 196-97.
32As for
example depicted on a Neapolitanfreeze. Cf. Bianchi 1976, fig. 49.
33Odyssey24.10-13; cf. EuripidesHercules Furens 23-25, 426-28.
365
of an interstructuralstate is found midway,has to be redrawnso as to

form something like an astructuralcrossroadsbetween four different
stablegeographicalconditions.The realmoppositethe chthonicHades
was, of course, the Olympianheaven as the place of the celestial gods.
Thus four distinct realms of the cosmos limiting the eschatia in all
directions may be identified:the humanpolis in the middle, Hades,
which is both the land of the deadbeyond the polis's utmostperiphery,
and the abode of the chthonic deities below the earth, as which it is
counteredby the fourthrealm,the celestial realmsabove. The areathat
we originally saw as being mythicallyand rituallycorrelatingwith the
interstructural
phase of the Greekrites of passage- the eschatia - is
thus found to exist not only betwixt and between the notion of human
being and non-being, but also betwixt and between the two different
divine spheresof the Olympiansand of Hades.
Even though neithervan Gennep nor Turneroffered an elaborated
definition of a liminal space that may be applied directly to the
ancient Greek context, the term is neverthelessnot totally unfamiliar
in ancient Greek studies. I shall here discuss three uses of the term.
However,even though all these examples offer interestingdefinitions,
I do not consider any of them to offer a viable explanation of the
intimate relation between the ancient Greek rites of passage and
the geographical periphery.Stephen Scully, for example, describes
a "liminal, suburbanspace" existing between "polis and apolis, city
and mountain [...], human and naturalorder"(Scully 1990, 10; 13).
Regardlessof the fact that this ignores the initiatoryconnotationsof
all of "apolis,"Scully never supportshis use of the term by trying to
link the areathathe has in mind, directlyor allegorically,with specific
rites of passage. We are left only with an expression "liminal space"
meaningnothingbut a "pointof transition"which refersto going in or
out of town (Scully 1990, 13).
Damien P. Nelis writes about a similarly placed "liminal stage
between the city and"a not very precise "landoutside it" (Nelis 1991,
99). Nelis, however, identifies this area as "the realm of Artemis"
(1991, 99), and it is because of the goddess's close association with
Greektransitionalrites from childhood to maturitythat he labels this
366
Dag 0istein Endsj0
areaas liminal.This is an interestingperspective,butNelis does not

pursuethis idea, eitherby pointingto furtherrelationsbetweenthe
areain questionanddifferentritesof passage,orby lookingforliminal
qualitiesin the landscapeitself. His "liminalstage"placed"between
the city andthe landoutsideit" also appearsas a somewhatlimited
circlearoundthepolis, andis actuallyseveredfromwhathe himself
refersto as the"unknown
whereany"longanddangerous
territories"
journey"wouldtakeplace(Nelis 1991,99).
The most interestingapproachI have come acrossso far comes
from NannoMarinatosin her analysisof Circe as a liminalfigure
andherislandas "aliminalplace"(Marinatos1995, 134).She refers
to severalincidentswherethe experiencesof Odysseusandhis crew
mirrorGreektransitional
rites,especiallyfuneraryrituals.Amongher
examplesare the guidanceof Hermes,the funerarymeal of honey,
barleyand dairy productsofferedto the unfortunatecomradesof
Odysseus,andhow thecrewaremadeintopigs, animals"appropriate
to chthonicgoddesses:the transformation
of the men can thus be
seen as a kind of symbolicdeathor sacrifice."34
She also suggests
thatcertainnaturalphenomenaindicatethatthe areaitself possessed
a certainliminalqualityandmoreoversupportsher interpretation
by
to
to
that
Circe's
island
for
be
a
necessary
pointing
Odysseusappears
geographical
stopoveron thejourneyto andfromthelandof thedead.
Thus,Marinatosargues,Circefunctionsas "thegate-keeperof the
underworld"
1995, 137;133).
(Marinatos
Marinatos
seemsto regardCirce's BEaea
as a
However,
apparently
ratheruniqueplacein the Greekworldview.ThroughgivingCirce's
islandthisuniquelyliminalpositionas "abridgebetweentwoworlds"
(Marinatos1995, 133),Marinatosputseverythingthatbelongson the
otherside of this enchantedisland- from the humancities to the
- intoone
wondrouslandscapesof the Cyclopesandthe Phaeacians
in
andthesameterritorial
In
this
makes
several
category.
wayshe, fact,
nonsensicalandfantasticpartsof theeschatiathe spatialequivalent
to
34Marinatos 1995, 134; for the funerary meal see Odyssey 10.234-35; cf. ibid.
10.516-21 and ibid 11.26-28.
367
the polis - defining them all as the land of the living. She disregards
the vast numberof liminal references in so many other places in the
Greekperiphery.
LiminalSpace and the InterstructuralConfusion:TheIntermingling
of Humans,Gods, and the Dead
The many differentways the eschatia and the intermediateperiod
of the rites of passage seem to be interrelatedindicate that from the
ancientGreekpoint of view, thereexisted a structuralparallelbetween
the two phenomena. They both representedstates lacking structural
stability,and also were placed betwixt and between culturallyrecognised stable conditions.As I have pointed out, the way Victor Turner
defined the liminal state of the rites of passage as one "of ambiguity and paradox,a confusion of all the customarycategories"(Turner
1967, 97), is a good way of describingthe intermediatestateof the ancient Greekrites of passage. This confusion was often describedwith
terms of the ultimateparadoxof life and deathas these two states represented the startingand the ending points of the most radical of all
humantransitions.Apuleius even called the ritualinitiationa "voluntary death."35
The liminalexperiencewas neverthelessnot comparableto the state
of death, but to dying: death in its ultimate form was the realm one
reached at the very other end of this interstructuralexperience,just
as Heracles's encounterwith Persephonewas only the climax of his
ordeal. Also Plutarchor Porphyrydrew an intimateparallelbetween
dying and the experience of the great mysteries: the two phenomena
"correspondword for word and thing for thing."36Thus, accordingto
WalterBurkert,for the ancient Greek "realdeath"seemed "no more
than a repetition"of a passage already ritually performed(Burkert
[1972], 296).
Returningto the interstructurally
placed eschatia, we find the same
sense of ambiguity and confusion as in that which I argue was its
35
ApuleiusMetamorphoses11.21.
36Plutarchor
Porphyryaccordingto Stobaus 4.52.49.
368
Dag 0istein Endsj0
ritual counterpart.This confusion is again the confusion of elements

properly belonging to the stable states bordering upon the liminal
sphere.Following in the trailof the ancientheroes, one would discover
thatvariousaspects of deathagain and again might appearlong before
one reachedthe ultimatelimit of humanityand the borderof the land
of the dead: elements of non-being seem somehow to have trickled
into the eschatia. The vast area betwixt and between the two defined
boundariesof the city walls and the end of the world, was, in fact, a
broad border zone where neither of the two existential opposites of
being and non-being dominated and where they thus paradoxically
coexisted (if one may use such a term also with the notion of nonbeing). Immediately as he left the polis and its defined order of
civilisation, the prototypalGreek traveller would therefore enter an
area where being symbolically mingled with non-being, and life with
death. In an ancient ship, the passengers would in this way never be
furtherfrom deaththanthe thicknessof the side of the vessel.37
The mythical examples of how the eschatia was perceived as an
areawhere life was paradoxicallyjuxtaposedwith death are manifold.
Those who left for the eschatia were repeatedly considered dead
though they were still alive, as, for example, Pindar's Jason as he
grew up in the cave of Chiron.38Apollonius of Rhodes similarly let
Jason's mother moan the second departureof her son - now as a
young man - as if all hope of her being buried by him now was
gone.39Abandonedin the desertedlandscapesof Lemnos, Philoctetes
was consequentlyboth "apolis"and"acorpse amongthe living."40The
ancientseer,Phineus,was apparentlyalso veering somewherebetween
life and death, as he in his isolation was able to neitherlive nor die.41
The geographicalmarginscould in this way offer a possible existence
removedfrom both life and death.
37Anacharsisaccordingto Diogenes Laertius1.103.
38Pindar
Pyth. 4.111-15; cf. also Apollonius of RhodesArgonautica 1.247-91.
39Apollonius of RhodesArgonautica1.268-91.
40
Sophocles Philoctetes 1018.
41
Apollonius of RhodesArgonautica2.446-48.
369
This connectionbetween deathand the eschatia is also seen in how

mythical figures on the very point of death were literally removed to
the geographicalmargins:Menelauswas promisedan eternalexistence
after his normal lifespan, in the Elysian plain at the end of the
world,42while many of the heroes fighting aroundThebes and Troy
were offered an existence at the equally peripheral islands of the
blessed, away from both Hades and the normal human realm.43In
the fifth centuryB.C. mannerof making the barbariangeographythe
equivalentof mythical places, Pindarand Euripidestransformedthis
most otherworldlyplace to an island in the Euxine Sea, where they
conveyedboth Achilles andhis father,Peleus, in theirafterlives.44It is
to similarmarginalareas that Iphigeniaand Phrixuswere transported
at the very point of their death.Just as they were being sacrificed,they
wereboth miraculouslytakenaway- Iphigeniaby Artemisto the land
of the Taurians,Phrixusby an immortalram to the land of ~Eetes.45
Also the awful sphinx apparentlybroughther victims to some bright,
distantplace.46None of these figureswho were removedto the world's
periphery,were, however,really dead. Not having enteredHades, they
would remain in an ambiguous state betwixt and between life and
death, a state equivalent to the geography to which they had been
transported.The geographicalmarginsin this way offered a possible
existence beyondboth life and death.
One may arguethat these mythical examples have little to do with
the real life of the ancient Greeks, but then one forgets how these
stories representthe very foundationupon which the various rites of
passage were based. The eschatia was, for example, the space that
offered the adolescents access to adulthoodthroughinitiatoryordeals
"onto death" or "of which the end may be death."47RichardBuxton
42
Odyssey4.561-65.
43Hesiod Operaet Dies 161-69.
44PindarNem. 4.49-50; EuripidesAndromache1259-62.
45EuripidesIphigenia Taurica26-31; EratosthenesCatasterismxe19.
46EuripidesPhoenissce807-11.
47EL KaXL
OavaxT, PindarPyth. 4.186.
370
Dag 0istein Endsj0
accuratelyexpresses this connection between the prototypaleschatia

reflected in the myths and in the ritual context of "real life": "Myth
translatesritual:to leave one's city is - if you spell it out - to die"
(Buxton 1994, 153). When asked who were the more numerous,the
living or the dead, the legendary sixth century B.C. Graeco-Scythian
sage Anacharsiswas said to have retorted,"wheredo you place those
who are sailing the seas?"48The tales of actual,historicalevents could
follow the mythical patternvery closely, as can be seen, for example,
in the case of the fifth century B.C. Lydian king Croesus.Just as he
had put himself alive on his own funeral,the king was believed to have
been snatchedaway by Apollo and broughtto the distantlands of the
Hyperboreans.49
The way the travellerof the eschatia was thought to suffer death
while still alive emphasises how the polis representedthe only space
whereproperhumanlife was possible. However,by statingthatproper
man was found only in the context of the polis, one must at the same
time also allow that the eschatia reflected a human potential. Even
thoughthe statementof Aristotlethatmanwithoutthe polis was "either
a beast or a god,"50may be regardedas somewhatof an exaggeration,
the ancientGreeks' view of the peoples surroundingthem was that of
a humanitythat had not come to fruition.This attitudecan be seen in
the way these peoples often were considerednot to have achievedthe
properseparationfrom eitherthe sphereof the animals,the gods, or the
dead. Accordingly, the inhabitantsof the eschatia did few or none of
the things thatwere deemed as essential for defining anyone as human
- or at least they did not do them properly.
As we recall how life and death were placed on the ancient Greek
world map, it is importantnot to forget the other two stable geographicalstates on either side of the eschatia - the chthonic and the
Olympian spheres of the gods. The intermediatestate of the ancient
rites of passage reflected also a confusion of these two spheres, as
48Anacharsis
accordingto Diogenes Laertius1.104.
49Bacchylides 3.48-62.
50AristotlePolitica 1253a.
371
can be seen in how, for example, Lucius in Apuleius's Metamorphosis duringhis initiationmet both chthonic and Olympiandivinities.51
The Roman depictions of the Greek Dionysian rites in the Villa of
the Mysteriesin Pompeii suggest the same idea, mixing initiatesboth
with Olympian deities and with figures clearly belonging to Hades.
The uncitylikemadnessof the Dionysian mysteriescould accordingly
be causedjust as much by a numberof different Olympian gods, as
well as by the dead or some chthonicdeity.52
Just as in ritual liminality,it was not only the mixed elements of
humanbeing and non-beingthatfaced those travellingin the eschatia.
Therewere repeatedencounterswith divinities belonging to either of
those two stable conditionsborderingthe intermediateterritory.This
was recognised by Creusa - one of Apollo's many human lovers.
Having exposed her infant son in a mountaincave, Creusa spoke of
this cave as being both synonymous with Hades as well as a place
where Apollo could reach the boy child.53The eschatia was also the
region where Odysseus spent his time with both Circe and Calypso,
and where Hermes and Athena advised him along the way. The
heroeson the battlefieldsjust outside the walls of Troy were similarly
interruptedrepeatedlyby the Olympiandivinities, while both Hermes
and Athenaassisted Heracleson his trip to Hades.54Apollonius in his
Argonauticepic had Jasonmeet the chthonicgoddess Hecate in a field
in Colchis.55
Even more numerouswere the many encountersbetween mortals
andimmortalstakingplace in the mountainsidesrightoutsidethepolis.
Anchises madelove to Aphroditeamidthe pines of MountIda,56while
Peleus marriedThetis on Mount Pelion.57Again, the mythicalthemes
51
ApuleiusMetamorphoses11.23.
52Cf. Schlesier 1993, 100.
53EuripidesIon 1494-96, 965.
54
Odyssey11.620-26.
55
Apollonius of RhodesArgonautica3.1212-20.
56Iliad 2.820-21; Homeric
Hymnto Aphrodite53-291.
57Cypriaaccordingto Schol. Hom. II. 17.140.
372
Dag 0istein Endsj0
are also reflectedin events taking place in historicaltimes. The divine

Muses, for example, taughtHesiod on the slopes of MountHelicon,58
while as late as in the fifth century B.C. an Athenian messenger
Pausaniasreportedthateven
encounteredPan by MountParthenium.59
in the second century A.D. people could still hear Pan piping on a
mountainin Arcadia.60
Living in all respects on the very margins of the human world,
the eschatoi andron, or the peoples of the periphery,were repeatedly
said to be closer to the gods. The Ethiopiansand the Phaeacians,for
example,would both have the gods participatedirectlyat theirfeasts,61
while the Hyperboreanswere frequentlyvisited by Apollo.62
We must be awarethatthe gods repeatedlyappearedalso inside the
polis, even within the very homes of its citizens. These appearances,
however,were restrictedeither to the context of rites of passage or to
times when the structuresof the city hadbeen so completelyobliterated
that the city, in fact, had ceased to exist.63Otherwise,since the polis
was the proper realm of the mortals, the gods could come only in
the guise of ordinaryhumans.64This differs sharplyfrom how, in the
nonsensical and essentially uncitylikepolis of the distantPhaacians,
the gods always showed themselves in theirmanifestform.65
Reflecting the natureof this confused space, the endless number
of nonsensical, reversedor negated situationsexemplifies how in this
realm the elements of non-being encroachedupon, intermingledand
even mergedwith the elements of being. These featuresprovidea pre58Hesiod
Theogonia22-23.
59Herodotus6.105.
60Pausanias8.36.8.
61
Odyssey 1.25-26, 7.200-6.
62Pindar
Pyth. 10.34-36.
63In a numberof
Euripides'stragedies differentgods appearin their true form as
the rulingking has been killed and the civic ordermore or less annihilated.Cf. Thetis
in Andromache1231ff, Dionysus in Bacchce 1330ff, the Dioscuri in Electra 1224ff,
and Apollo in Orestes 1625ff.
64Cf.
e.g. Iliad 3.121-22, 3.385-88.
65
Odyssey7.200-6.
373
cise manifestationof the liminalcondition"of ambiguityof paradox,a

confusion of all the customarycategories"(Turner1967, 97), a definition thatalso fits the ancientGreekrites of passage. This general confusion between aspects of being and non-being, chthonic and divine
elements experiencedby travellersof the liminal space of the eschatia
accuratelyreflected the experience of those who venturedinto ritual
liminality.
As one left the polis, the centre of the Greek world, one consequentlyencountereda completeblur of the distinctionsbetween gods,
living men, and the dead. This confusion with its ultimateparadoxof
simultaneousbeing and non-being was also reflected in instances of
paradoxicalrecombinationsof human,divine and animalelements, in
the context of both spatial and ritual liminality. Parallel to how the
space of polis representedsuch an all-encompassingframeworkthatno
aspect of civilised society was left unaffected,the eschatia was an area
with a paradoxicalessence thatwas reflectedin the existence of those
peoples who permanentlyinhabitedthe area.The humanoidPhaeacians
and the Cyclopes were, for example, all "nearkin to the gods,"66and
even the not so distantEgyptianswere to some extent seen as a people directlydescendedfromthe gods.67The blameless Ethiopianswere
also definitivelysuperhuman:afterhaving reachedan age of 120 years
or more,theirdeadbodies were free from decay andwere kept in transparentcoffins among the living.68Not properlyhuman,these peoples
were free from the mortalrestraintsof the normalexistence of man in
the polis.
Accordingto both mythical and historical accounts, the eschatia
was also teeming with all kinds of zoomorphichybrids like centaurs,
satyrs,sirens, and sphinxes.In distantLibya and India,men with dogheadswere notuncommon- at least accordingto the fifth centuryB.C.
All structuralrestrictions
geographies of Herodotusand AEschylus.69
66Ibid.5.35-36,7.205-6.
67Ibid. 4.232.
68Herodotus3.24.
69Ibid 4.191;
accordingto Strabo1.2.35.
AEschylus
374
Dag 0istein Endsjo
were disregardedin these accounts,just as with the descriptionsof the

ecstatic maenadswho had followed Dionysus out to the mountainsides
outside of Thebes, where Euripidesdescribedthem as sucklingfawns
and wolf-cubs.70Similarintimate scenes between humansand beasts
can be found in the fresco in the PompeiianVilla of the Mysteries.
Whoeverenteredthe liminal state could neverbe sure withinwhich
category he or she would end up. Accordingly, the nuptial rites of
passage could not only be characterisedby the participatorssometimes
donning the guise of satyrs, but also by a temporarynegation of the
categories of gender.71In the mysteries at the shrine of LycaeanZeus
takingplace in an Arcadiancave, the participatorsriskedbeing turned
into wolves,72not unlike some of the more unfortunatetravellersof
the eschatia. Actaon, Callisto, and the hapless comradesof Odysseus
all ended up as animals,73while the Neurian inhabitantsof Scythia
regularly shifted between being humans and wolves.74 Having been
transformedinto a heifer roaming the periphery,it is not surprising
that Io should be called a "menad of Hera."75The occasional mortal
could on the other hand also be turnedinto a god in the periphery,as
happenedto Heracles, Iphigenia,Ino and her son Melicertes,76and as
was offered as a possibility to Odysseus by Calypso.77
70
EuripidesBaccha 699-700.
71 Cf. Burkert
[1977], 259; Plutarch Quaestiones Grcecce304cd; Plutarch De
mulierumvirtutibus245ef.
72Plato Respublica565d.
73Eschylus Prometheus 663-76; Pseudo-ApollodorusBibliotheca 3.4.4, 3.8.2;
Odyssey 10.234-40.
74Herodotus4.105.
75 Eschylus Supplices 562-64.
76Heracles became immortal after his body had been burnt on the pyre at the
ThracianMount (Eta (Pseudo-ApollodorusBibliotheca 2.7.7). According to Hesiod
(Pausanias1.43.1) and the authorof the Cypria (Proclus Chrestomathy1), Iphigenia
was made immortalby Artemis on her transferalto the geographical margins.Ino
and her son Melicertes were transformedinto the sea deities Leucotheaand Palaemon
upon throwing themselves into the ocean (Odyssey 5.333-35; Pseudo-Apollodorus
Bibliotheca 3.4.3).
77 Odyssey7.256-57.
375
The UltimateConfusion:TheDeconstructionof Timeand Space as

SeparateCategories
The confusion found in both the intermediateperiod of the rites
of passage and in the intermediategeography was nevertheless not
restrictedto a confusion of the characteristicsof those who normally
inhabitedthe culturallyrecognisedconditionsthatlimitedthe eschatia.
It also implied a confusion of the absolute opposites of being and
non-being, which entailed that all aspects of the understoodreality
were negated, even those of time and space. This, however,is not the
same as saying that notions of time and space were not at all present
in the ambiguous, liminal sphere, as what seems to have been the
case in the land of the dead. The years Odysseus spent on Calypso's
island were real years, long and enduring,just as ordeals like the
straitsof Scylla and Charybdisand the Clashing Rocks were nothing
but extremely physically tangible. Also the mysteries had defined
geographicalsettings,like Eleusis or Samothrace,and stricttimetables
as well.
Since Hades, as the absoluteantithesisof polis and its propertime
and space, was perceivedas an area void of both time and space, the
liminal state placed betwixt and between those two culturallyrecognised states would representthat ultimate paradox of simultaneous
space and non-space, time and non-time. Such interstructuralconfusion with regardto time was manifestedin phenomenasuch as evening
touching dawn -
as in the land of the Lastrygonians78 -
a negation
of the very structurethat form time throughthe division of night and

day.On the islandof the Phaeaciansthe cycles thatdefinedthe seasonal
changes of the year had been eliminatedaccordingly- a mere look
at the gardens of the island would demonstratethis. Different fruits
were found to be simultaneouslyin all stages of ripeness,from merely
sproutingto being ready to pick.79That Herodotuscould reportthat
in Libya summer was eternal is an accurateobservation,but it nev78Ibid 10.86.
79Ibid 7.116-26.
376
Dag 0istein Endsjo
ertheless fits perfectly with the Greeks' perceptionof the periphery.80

The normalconcept of time was similarlyconfused in the mysteries:
Apuleius's Lucius could describe how "the sun shines brightly about
midnight,"81while Plutarchor Porphyryexperienced swift shifts between utterdarknessand the brightestof lights duringinitiation.82
The sense of space within the liminal state was accordinglyjust
as confused. The huge rocks which representedan initiatoryordeal
for the heroic Argonauts,were, for example, said to be "moving"or
It is also obvious thatthe originalroutesof both Argo
"bewildering."83
and Odysseus went far outside any of the Mediterraneanitineraries
ancient and modem rationalistslater have tried to straitjacketthem
into, far off into nonsensical landscapesthat can never be put on any
map.84As Nanno Marinatospoints out, on Circe'sisland Odysseusand
his crew areunableto tell west from east, "norwhere the Sun [...] goes
underthe earthnor wherehe rises."85It is no straightforward
landscape
either, which the Eleusian initiate of Plutarch or Porphyry had to
navigate through:"In the beginning there is straying and wandering,
the weariness of running this way and that, and nervous journeys
throughdarknessthatreachno goal, and possible terror,shiveringand
Apuleius, in his rendering
tremblingand sweating and amazement."86
of later Hellenistic rites could tell about similar experiences, as the
initiatewas "ravishedthroughthe elements."87
The most radical implicationof this absence of properspatial and
temporalstructureswould be that nothingcould be distinguishedfrom
anything else. The eschatia offered accordingly several examples of
how everything thus ceaselessly floated together. The Odyssey, for
80Herodotus2.26.
81
Apuleius Metamorphoses11.23.
82Stobaus 4.52.49.
83Planktaiin
Odyssey 12.59-72.
84Cf.
Endsj0 1997.
85
Odyssey 10.190-92; Marinatos1995, 133.
86Plutarchor
Porphyryaccordingto Stobeus 4.52.49.
87
Apuleius Metamorphoses11.23.
377
example, describes the dramaticland of the Cimmeriansat the end

of the world, where darknesswas never-endingand where everything
was eternally "wrappedin mist and cloud."88This seems to relate
to how Hesiod talked of the furthestland beyond Oceanus as either
"darkandconcealed,""towardsNight,"or simply "cloudy"or "dim."89
Aristophanesoperatedwith a landscapeof "darknessand mire"close
to the gates of Hades,90while Herodotus, on his part, believed that
there were areas in the ultimate north where the air was so full of
either snow or feathers that one could neither see nor travel any
further.91
Similarto these confusinggeographieswas the realmbeyond
Heracles's pillars where a dark fog forever cloaked the air and the
water.This is, at least, how the fifth centuryB.C. Carthaginianexplorer
Himilco described this region according to the fourth century A.D.
LatinwriterFestus Rufus Avienus.92If one travelledfar enough, even
the water would be so viscous that the progress of any ship would
be impeded - shallows and masses of seaweed would eventually
renderimpossible all movementand thus furtherindicatethe absolute
confusion of the elements.93Apollonius of Rhodes had the Argonauts
strandedin a similar astructurallandscape of the Syrtes, which he
placed allegorically in "the furthestends of Libya."94This confusion
is even more obvious in the travellog of the fourthcenturyB.C. Greek
captainPytheas of Massalia who, on his journey to the world's edge
in the ultimatenorth,encountereda complete negationof all separate
88
Odyssey 11.15-16.
89Hesiod
Theogonia334-35, 275, 294, cf. 729-31.
90AristophanesRana 273.
91Herodotus4.31.
92Festus Rufus Avienus OraMaritima386-89. This
may soundsomewhatremoved
from a context of ancient Greece, but Avienus assumably based himself on a
Greek version of Himilco's story that probablyhad more in common with Hellenic
presuppositionsthan with the original secret Carthaginianlog: "Almost all scholars
consider it unlikely that Avienus had direct access to Himilco's account of the
northwesternsea" (Murphy1977, 29).
93Festus Rufus Avienus Ora Maritima 120-26.
94
Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica1.81, 4.1227.
378
Dag 0istein Endsj0
basic entities of the physicalworld:he was checkedby a formless mass

comprisingof "neitherearth,nor sea, nor air,but"at the same time "a
kind of mixtureof these."95
Aspects of Primordiality
Examining all these amorphous experiences of both ritual and
geographical liminality, we are struck by another aspect if we try
to perceive this experience from the context of the ancient Greek
worldview.As everythingwas confused, it appearsas if no separation
had ever taken place. This, however, is exactly the point! With its
continuousconfusion of human, divine and all other elements of the
Greekcosmos, the space of the eschatia andeverythingthatit enclosed
had apparentlyescaped the primeval separationof the elements into
propercategories.While variousaspects of the cosmos once had been
sortedout of the originalflux, this areahad remainedas somethinglike
a primevalrest, foreverambiguousand paradoxical.
Describingthis areaof confusion as simply "thepast"would, however, be to simplify the matter.The state of the eschatia was distinct
bothfromthe propertime of thepolls and the staticnon-timeof Hades.
Therefore,to say thatthe time of the eschatia simply reflectedthe time
"before"the time of the properhuman life of the city would be contradictoryto the very natureof the eschatia, since the term "before"in
itself belonged to the temporalcategories of the polis. In the liminal
state of the ancient Greeks the past, the present and the futurewould
all float together- the aspects of time had not been structured.The
knowledge possessed by the half-dead, interstructurallyplaced figure
of Phineus,was accordinglyin no mannerlimitedby the usual temporal and spatialrestrictions:his "mind"(noos) knew "everything"that
had happenedand thatwould happen.96
How the geographicalliminalityof the ancient Greeks represented
a confusion of the past, the present, and the future, was also the
way the state of the primordialchaos was perceived by the Greeks.
95 Strabo2.4.1.
96
Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica2.212.
379
As the primordialstate was one of total undifferentiation,the proper

categories of time had not been defined either. In consequence, the
depictions of the liminal state frequently contained allusions to the
primordial.This, for example, was quite literally the case with the
motley ensemble of variouscreaturesfollowing Circe, as describedby
Apollonius of Rhodes. These figures consisted of limbs apparentlyso
haphazardlyassembledthatthey resembledneitherbeasts nor humans.
The poet himself connectedthese creatureswith autochthonousforms
of life that appearedautomaticallyout of the first formless substance
- an idea that Apollonius seems to have taken from Empedocles's
theories on the creation.97The amorphous landscapes of Himilco
and Pytheas may similarly be associated with the primordialstew
Anaximanderconsideredto have precededeverything.98The apeiron,
Anaximander's"boundless"matter,may also linguistically be tied to
a term used on the geographicalmargins. James S. Romm points to
how both Homer and Hesiod frequentlyuse the adjectiveapeiron to
describethe "boundless"state of both land and sea outside the polis.99
Moreover,just as these apeiron landscapes of Homer and Hesiod
can be considered to have represented something like a primeval
leftover, Anaximanderthought the primordial apeiron lingered on
in the periphery,surroundingall the worlds or series of right order
(kosmoi).10Anaximander'sapeiron encompassed "the known world
in time as well as in space" (Kahn 1960, 237). This continuous
existenceof to apeironis also reflectedin how Hesiod's mythicalchaos
"survived"the act of creation.101
This structuralidentificationof the uncivilised geographywith the
original,primordialflux out of which no autonomousrealm ever had
97Ibid. 4.672-81; Aetius 5.19.5. For a more extensive survey of the fragmentson
Empedocles'szoogonic theoriescf. Kirk,Raven & Schofield 1957, 302-5.
98Aristotle
Physica 203a.
99Cf. Romm 1992, 10. Apeiron gaia in Iliad 7.446; Odyssey 1.98, 5.46, 15.79,
17.386, 19.107; Hesiod Theogonia 187. Apeiron pontos in Iliad 1.350; Hesiod
Theogonia678. Cf. Odyssey4.510, 10.195; Hesiod Theogonia 109.
100HippolytusRefutatioomniumhceresium1.6.1-2.
101Cf. Hesiod
Theogonia813-14.
380
Dag 0istein Endsj0
been separated,is probablyagain what was hinted at by Apollonius of

Rhodes when, at the moment of the Argo's departurefrom the polis,
he had Orpheussinging about "how the earth,the heaven and the sea
once mingledtogether."102
The idea thatthe inhabitantsof the eschatia,
as previously demonstrated,reflected an unfulfilled human potential,
is also an aspect that may be interpretedas an allusion to an earlier
stage in humanevolution:at least, such an identificationwas positively
made by Thucydides.103The very absence of the polis was in itself a
featuretypical of the distantpast,14 just as the lack of propersacrifice
reflected the original state not only before the schism between man
and god,105but also before the invention of cooking - the art that
distinguished man from the wild beasts.106The eating of raw meat
was subsequentlya custom found both in the rites of the Dionysian
mysteries and in numeroussocieties of the eschatia, as the mythical
Cyclopes and the non-GreekEurytaniansin tEtolia.107
TheRitualImitationof the Eschatia
After consideringthe vast numberof ritual,mythical and structural
parallelsbetween the two phenomenawhich I have defined as ritual
and geographical liminality, the only major difference we were left
with initially was that the intermediatestate of rites of passage represented a liminal periodof time, createdritually,while the eschatia constituteda liminal space. The many examples of how even the proper
notions of time and space are negatedboth in the rites of passage and
in the eschatia, remove even this last differencebetween the two phenomenaas they were perceivedby the Greeks.
102
Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica1.496-97.
103Thucydides 1.6.
104Iliad
20.216-18; HomericHymn to Hephaestus3-4; Plato Leges 677a-81e.

105Hesiod
Theogonia 535-57, cf. Vernant[1979], 24. Plato wrote more generallyof
his ancestorsliving "nearerthe gods" (Philebus 16c).
106Atheneus 660e-f; cf. Hesiod
Opera et Dies 276-78.
107Thucydides3.94.
381
Were ritual and geographicalliminality thus actually one and the

same phenomenon?Here, the answer seems to be both yes and no.
Regardlesswhetherone enteredthis liminal statethroughritualmeans,
or spatially through going into the eschatia, the experience should
ideally be the same. The eschatia, however,representedin all its flux
an enduringentity reflecting an actual everlastingprimordiality.The
liminality of the rites of passage, on the other hand, was in spite
of its primordialaspects only a passing moment when the structures
of human civilisation were reversed. In this way it is not surprising
that there was a clear notion of the various rites of passage actually
representingan imitationof the geographicalstate outside of the city.
And as an imitationof these areas, these rites would also frequently
involve encounterswith the prototypaldenizens of the eschatia, such
as satyrsandsileni, nymphsandpans. One could also withinthe setting
of the transitionalritualsbe transformedinto one of these ambiguous
just as was always the extremepossibility in the eschatia.
creatures,108
As the polis representeda set of positive structuresreflecting the
humanexistence, the state of primordialliminality could be recreated
by explicitly bringing in some aspect of absolute negation, symbolically representingeither the non-existence of the dead, or the divine
elements of either the Olympianor the chthonic gods. Such juxtaposition would automaticallynegate all given structures,even those of
propertime and space. As the liminal state of the transitionalrituals
thus reflectedan imitationof the eschatia, the myths accordinglyrefer
to how the variousrites had originatedin the periphery.The founders
of the rites were, for example, repeatedlythought to have journeyed
throughthe landscapesdistantfrom the Greekpolis. Dionysus and his
ecstaticfollowers travelledthroughthe marginallandscapesof Bactria,
Persiaand Arabia,109while Persephone,in the myth that renderedthe
very patternfor the Eleusianmysteries,was transportedover a variety
of landscapes,all the way to the land of the dead.l10Apartfrom such
108 Plato
Leges 815c; Strabo 10.3.10.

09EuripidesBacchce13-20.
110HomericHymnto Demeter 33-37.
382
Dag 0istein Endsj0
divine origins, the Greeks could at times also consider the mysteries
to have originatedwith the peoples who inhabitedthe distantgeography.11 Barbarianwords were, for example, said to be centralcomponents of the secret sayings utteredduringthe rites,112and non-Greek
musical instrumentswere importantelements in the Dionysianmysteries. While the actualhistoricalorigin of the Greekrites of passagewill
probablyforeverelude us, the way the ancientGreeksthemselvesconsideredthese ritualsto have developedthus agreecompletely with van
Gennep'sview thatthe physicalpassage representedthe very origin of
the variousrites of transition.113
The ancient Greek notion of the peripheryrepresented,of course,
no objective view of these distantlandscapes,but was the result of an
extensive culturalprocess. Leaving his city, the ancient Greek would
bring with him a mythical map, a map that would describe the landscape with the nonsensical structuresreflectingthe liminal state. The
subjectwould thus possess a detaileddescriptionof even unknownterritorieslong before he would enter it - a map that would presentthe
maincategorieswith which one organisedwhat one would experience.
As the variousmythical, historicaland geographicalsources indicate,
there were no clear boundariesbetween a perceived rationalunderstandingand a perceived mythicalunderstandingof the eschatia. The
mythsrenderedin this way the most extremepossibilities,butas the series of historicalincidentswould demonstrate,the peripherycould still
be seen as reflectinga primordialexistence, and,with this in mind,one
could neverrule out the chanceof neithera hierophanicexperiencenor
a theranthropictransformation.
Living in small communities surroundedby such wondrous and
mythical landscapes, why did the Greeks want to imitate this liminal
state in their rituals? Despite the conceptions of how the prototypal
hero nearly almost would enduresome fantasticordeal every time he
ventured into the eschatia, most people would neither experience a
11
EuripidesBacchce64-67; Diodorusof Sicily 1.22.23.
112IamblichusDe
Mysteriis 7.4.
113Cf. van Gennep [1909], 22.
383
primordialunion with gods every time they took a walk in the uncultivatedwoods, nor would they have their social statuspermanently
altered.We must allow for a certainmythical exaggeration.Whereas
the denizenof the polis going into the apolis in historicaltimes always
could happento meet some deity or to be turnedinto a wolf, such serious consequenceswere always an imminentpossibility for the ancient
hero of the myths. The ritualcontext, however,could assurethatthose
who were initiated in some sense would have that experience which
the eschatia always ought to be reflecting.
Havingin this way gone throughthe extensive parallelsbetween the
ancientGreekrites of passageand theirview of theirown geographical
periphery,I have triedto demonstratehow the ritualtheoriesof Arnold
van Gennep and Victor Turnermay help us come to terms with the
logic of what at first seemed like a very odd suggestion of Heracles.
Having defined the eschatia as a liminal space not only through
its location betwixt and between all stable and culturallyrecognised
geographicalconditionsof the Greek world view, but also throughits
intrinsic quality of general confusion, I have argued that behind the
intimateties between this area and the intermediatestate of the rites
of passage lay a notion of synonymy.Liminal time and liminal space
were, in fact, only two facets of the same phenomenon.This is why
Heraclescould proposeto put an end to the Eleusianrites, recognising
that the mysteries were only the human imitation of the ideal view
of the geographical peripheryfound not only betwixt and between
the city of human life and the land of the dead, but also betwixt
and between the Olympian sphere and the chthonic Hades. Having
completed that ultimatejourney through the eschatia all the way to
the realm of Persephone,and back, Heracles had indeed "experienced
far truermysteries."
Departmentof CultureStudies
Universityof Oslo
Boks 1010 Blindern
N-0315 Oslo, Norway
[email protected]
DAG 0ISTEIN ENDSJ0
384
Dag 0istein Endsj0

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THE HOLY MAN'S HUT AS A SYMBOL OF STABILITY IN

JAPANESE BUDDHIST PILGRIMAGE
MARK W. MACWILLIAMS
Summary
In this paper,I examine the way holy men's huts are portrayedin eighteenthcenturyBuddhisttales fromthe Saikokuand Band6 JapaneseBuddhistpilgrimageroutes.
These stories suggest thatholy men's huts are ultimatelylocated in places beyond the
ordinaryhumanlife of suffering,markedas it is by impermanenceandinstability.That
the hermit'shut transcendsthe transientworld is indicatedin two importantways in
these tales. First,the holy men's statuesof the Buddhistcelestial bodhisattvaKannon,
which they carryor carve while on the road, display a preternaturalmobility or immobilitywhich force the ascetics to stop their peregrination.Second, the places they
build their huts to enshrine the statues are revealed as spiritualplaces (reij6), Pure
Land paradiseswhere the living Kannon has a permanentabode. These holy men's
huts were the prototypesof the Saikoku and Band6 temples that continue to attract
multitudesof Japanesepilgrims who travel there even today seeking freedom from
the sorrowsof transmigration.
Why is pilgrimage so important in Japanese Buddhism? The simple answer is that it offers a chance to step outside of every day life
by traveling to a sacred center "out there" that is extraordinarily powerful and meaningful for people's existence. A good example of such
a Japanese Buddhist pilgrimage is to temples that enshrine spiritually
powerful icons of the bodhisattva Kannon. Kannon is a great being
(Mahasattva) of mercy and compassion who saves beings from suffering. According to the Lotus Sutra, as well as a variety of other short
esoteric Buddhist sutras detailing the merits of specific devotional
forms, Kannon offers many thisworldly benefits (genze riyaku) to alleviate various woes, such as suffering by fire, drowning, execution,
barrenness, murder, curses from poisonous snakes and dangerous
NUMEN, Vol. 47
388
MarkW.MacWilliams
ghosts.1Moreover,in otherimportantsutras,suchas the Shinkegongyo, Kannonsecuresthe rebirth(ojo) of sufferingbeings into the

ownPureLandparadiseonMountPotalaka(Fudaraku).2
bodhisattva's
Giventhesesalvificpowers,it is no wonderthatKannonfaithspread
rapidlyamongthe Japanesepeople.ManyKannontemplesoriginated
as "wonderretreatsin thewilderness"(reigenno aranya),foundedby
wandering
holymen(hijiri),whoenshrineda spiritually
powerfulicon
of Kannonthere.By the end of twelfthcentury,the numberof these
templesformedsuch an impressivearraythatthe famousKofuku-ji
priestJ6kei(1155-1212)notedthat"fromnearthecapitalto as faraway
as the landof the easternbarbarians,
locatedon high mountainsand
in deep valleys,thereare manyspirituallocales (reij6)dedicatedto
Kannon."3
Theirnumberonly increasedin succeedingcenturiesas
Kannontemplesspreadthroughout
Japan,especiallyin theKantoarea.
By the 18thcentury,these templeshad become organizedinto two
famouspilgrimage(junrei)circuitsthatattracted
manypilgrims- the
Saikokuthirtythreetempleroute(centeredin theKinairegion)andthe
Band6thirtythreetempleroute(centeredin the Kant6region)routes.
Whatwas it thatattracted
pilgrimsto theseKannontemples?
This questionis importantbecause,at least from one perspective
withinthe JapaneseBuddhisttradition,the idea of travelto a sacred
centeras a way to find releasefrom sufferingis open to question.
In medievalBuddhistliterature,one often findsa radically"utopian
vision"to borrowJonathan
Z. Smith'sphrase,a view thatemphasizes
in the strictsense "thevalueof being in no place."4In the texts of
this period,thereis no place humanbeingscan go in this worldto
(mujo).Thereis nowhere
escapethesufferingcausedby ephemerality
1 Leon
Hurvitz, trans., Scriptureof the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma (The
LotusSutra) (New York:ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1976), 316-19.
2 Thomas
Cleary, trans., The Flower OrnamentScripture:A Translationof the
AvatamsakaSutra, 3 vols (Boston: ShambalaPublications,1984-87), 3:155.
3 Nakamura
Hajime, KasaharaKazuo, and KanaokaSh6yt, eds., Ajia Bukkyoshi
Nihonhen,9 vols (Tokyo:K6sei Shuppansha,1972-76), 3:225.
4 JonathanZ.
Smith, Map is not Territory(Chicago:University of Chicago Press,
1993), 102.
TheHoly Man's Hut as a Symbolof Stability
389
we can go in this life to escape from the reality of sickness, old age,
and death.Transienceas the fundamentalsource of sorrowfor human
beings is often representedby the metaphorof travel.It is an obvious
association since, as people pass their lives, they also move through
space. Buddhists saw life's passage as a "course"or "road,"which
divides into six paths of rebirthavailablefor sentientbeings (rokudo);
one can be reborn either as a god, titan, human, ghost, animal or
denizen of hell. Transitin the rokud6is the key spatial metaphorfor
muj6,from Kyokai'searlyninthcenturytale collection, the Nihon koku
genpo zenakuryoiki,to the itinerantholy man Ippen Sh6nin's famous
thirteenthcenturywork, A Gist of Empty Words(Hyakurikugo),with
its bleak opening verse: "While transmigratingthroughthe six paths
(rokudo),there'sno one for company;alone we are born,alone we die:
full of sorrow this road of birthand death."5Looking at texts such as
Ippen's,it is clear thatthe historianof travelEric Leed is correctwhen
he argues that "travelis the most common source of metaphorsused
to explicate transformationsand transitionsof all sorts.We drawupon
the experience of humanmobility to define the meaning of death (as
a 'passing')..."6 Since everythingin the world is muj6,humanbeings
who are "transients"have no fixed or final resting-placethat they can
call theirspiritualabode. Such a view of space is utopiansince thereis
no place to escape the roadof birthand death.
By the twelfth century, as William R. LaFleur has convincingly
argued, the rokudOas a literary topos for impermanencehad been
combined with a second metaphorin the writings of the period. Not
only humanlife, but also the space within which living "takesplace"is
transient.The second majormetaphorfor muj6is the humandwelling.
The classical exampleappearsin the poet holy man Kamono Ch6mei's
(1153-1216) essay, The Account of My Hut (Hojoki).Chomei's essay
5 Dennis Hirota,No Abode: The Record
of Ippen (Honolulu:Universityof Hawaii
Press, 1997), 7. See also MatsubaraTetsumy6, Saikokujunrei no tabi: Kannon no
kokoro(Tokyo:K6sei, 1986), 1.
6 Eric Leed, The Mind the Traveler
from Gilgamesh to Global Tourism(New
of
York:Basic Books, 1991), 3.
Mark W. MacWilliams
390
begins by noting how the built-to-lastpalaces of the capitalare in fact

not what they appearto be:
The flow of the riveris ceaseless and its watersare never the same. The bubbles
thatfloatin the pools, now vanishing,now forming,arenot of long duration:so in
the world are man and his dwellings. It might be imagined thatthe houses, great
and small, which vie roof against proud roof in the capital remain unchanged
from one generationto the next, but when we examine whetherthis is true,how
few are the houses that were of old. Some were burntlast year and only since
rebuilt;great houses have crumbled into hovels and those who dwell in them
have fallen no less. The city is the same, the people are as numerousas ever,
but of those I used to know, a bare one or two in twenty remain.They die in the
morning,they are born in the evening, like foam on the water.7
Not just life itself, but also the homes "greatand small" in which
people live are characterizedby "instability."In the Hojoki, the "permanent"palaces of the capital,which arebuilt on "solid"foundations,
are all destroyedby the unpredictablecatastrophesof fires, typhoons,
earthquakesand famines that strike the capital in rapid succession.
They cannotlast because nothing stays the same no matterhow much
one tries to keep it so in this world of muj6. Indeed, the houses are
doomed to destructionbecause they are foolishly made. They cannot
be moved out of harm'sway andthereforeareinevitablyswept awayin
time. By contrast,Chomei's "littleimpermanenthut"is ideal precisely
because it is makeshift,it is intentionallynot constructedto standfor
eternity:
It is a bare ten feet square and less than seven feet high. I did not choose this
particularspot rather than another, and I built my house without consulting
diviners. I laid a foundationand roughly thatcheda roof. I fastened hinges to
the joints of the beams, the easier to move elsewhere should anythingdisplease
me. What difficulty would there be in changingmy dwelling? A bare two carts
would suffice to carryoff the whole house, and except for the carrier'sfee there
would be no expenses at all.8
7 WilliamR. LaFleur,TheKarmaof Words(Berkeley,Ca: Universityof California
Press, 1983), 62.
8 Ibid., 63.
391
If the need arises, Chomei's hut can easily be taken down and
carted away whenever the vagaries of life take him on his lonely
journey.Ch6mei's itinerantlife with his movable hut offers a spiritual
response to muj6 that is "utopian."According to LaFleur, this very
mobility makes possible being "in harmony on all levels with the
laws of impermanenceand instability."And, from a Buddhist point
of view, it also offers a way of spiritualdiscipline for the "unparalleled
practicefor dying and being reborn,"analogously pointing ultimately
"to moving with facility through a series of incarnationstowardthe
goal of nirvana."9The impermanenthut (iori, s6an), therefore,offers
a life of spiritualfreedom because it mitigates the negative effects of
transmigrationby flowing with change ratherthan strugglingagainst
it, as the travelinghermitfollows the path of least resistance.
LaFleurargues that Ch6mei's movable hut is "the most representativeof the medieval view of the hermitage."Indeed, there are many
storiesof holy men like Chomei who were itinerants,some of themusing the pilgrimagecircuits(meguri)as theirprimarymeans of practicing austerities(shagyo). An example is Gy6oki,who is known as "one
night hijirF'in the eleventh centuryBuddhist tale collection, the Dai
Nihonkokuhoke-kyokenki,because of his penchantfor never staying
in the same place more than one night "while travelingand practicing the way."l However, travel is not only understoodas metaphor
for transiencein JapaneseBuddhism.A second way of envisioningthe
structureof life is as a pilgrimage,or a journey to a sacredcenter"out
there."It is this lattermetaphoricalusage of travelto an ultimatespiritual goal or destinationthat applies to the hermits who founded the
Kannontemples along the Saikokuand Band6 routes.
Whatwe see in the storiesabouthow these hermitsfoundedKannon
templesis a differentnotion of space and place thanfound in Ch6mei's
Hojoki.Saikokuand Band6holy men traveleddeep into the mountains
to places that were revered as sacred areas from ancient times. It is
9 Ibid., 65.
10Yoshiko K.
Dykstra, Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutrafrom Ancient Japan
(Kansai,Japan:KUFS, 1983), 5.
392
MarkW.MacWilliams
in these sacred places, like Yoshino and Katsuragi of Yamato and

Kumano of Kii, that holy men build their huts as permanentabodes
for spiritualpractice. It is their "wonderretreatsin the wilderness"
that eventuallybecome the goal of pilgrimagefor monks, aristocrats,
and even ordinarylay people who follow. In these holy men's stories,
we find a new vision of the hut that is built on a sacred site, one
that is based on a locative understandingthat emphasizes the value of
place. The storyof the wanderingascetic Sh6ku(909-1007) or "Shosha
Shonin,"who built his hermit'shut on Shosha-zanin 966, is a case in
point. Accordingto the Hoke-ky6kenki:
For difficult ascetic practices,he lived in a hut in a deep mountainwhere not a
single birdwas heard.He spent days withoutmeals and monthswithoutfire.The
marvelouspower of the H6ke-ky6and of his priestly robe protectedhis physical
self, which was as transientas the overnight dew. Sometimes he dreamedof
having a tray of delicacies. Even after he awoke, his stomach felt full and his
mouth held a delicious taste. At anothertime he dreamedof beautifulwhite rice
appearingfrom the sutra.... On a severely cold night, Sh6ku's unclothedbody
became as cold as ice, but as he recited the sutraand withstood the coldness, a
thick quilted robe descended of its own accord from the ceiling of the hut and
covered his body. Someone concealing his identity came and asked questions.
Might it be a bodhisattvaor a buddha?
Such extraordinaryincidentsfrequentlyhappenedto Sh6ku.11

By staying inside his hut, which becomes a ritualspace for reciting
andcopying the LotusSttra, Sh6kugains freedomfromthe deleterious
effects of mujo. He no longer suffers from the ordinarybodily pangs
of hunger and cold that are the lot of anyone living in this world
because in his hut "beautifulwhite rice" pours from the sutra, "a
thick quilted robe" fluttersdown from the ceiling, and even buddhas
and bodhisattvascome to serve as Sh6ku's companions.By practicing
austeritiesin his hut on Mount Shosha, his every need is met without
steppingoutsideinto the ordinaryworld.His religious needs are met as
well. Sh6kubecomes spirituallytransformedsuch thatpeople feel that
"they had met a Buddha"when they meet him. Here, the important
11Ibid., 71-72.
393
feature of Shoku's hut is its immobility. Mount Shosha is Sh6ku's

mountainas his alternatenameShoshaShoninsuggests. MountShosha
is a stable and permanenthome in a second sense as well. Sh6ku
is credited as the carver of a spirituallypowerful image of Kannon,
and as the founderin 970 of Engy6-ji, the temple that houses it. For
these reasons recountedin the temple's origin legend (engi), Engy6ji, in later centuries, became temple twenty-seven of the Saikoku
pilgrimage.
In the foundingof the temple tale, the hermit'sgoal is to escape the

negative effects of the mujo. This is done is by traveling to spiritual
places that have a strong karmic connection (uen) with Kannon. In
the Saikokuand Band6 engi, found in the mid-eighteenthpilgrimage
guides called reijoki (or, records of spiritual places), which draw
from narrativetraditionsdating much earlier,the hermit'sjourney is
best describedas an exit off the rokud6.While this can be seen, for
instance, in Sh6ku's tale from the H6ke-ky6kenki discussed above, it
is even more clearly depicted in the later Saikoku reij6ki account of
the origin of Engy6-ji. According to this text, after spending twelve
yearspracticingthe hokezanmaiin a cave on MountSeburiin Echizen,
Sh6ku perfectedhis spiritualpowers and gained fame as a monk.
One night a heavenly child came (to his cave) and told him, "I am a messenger
from the heavenly kings Bonten and Taishaku.If you want to serve Kanzeon,
Mount Shosha in Harimaprovince is a KannonPure Land reij6. That is where
you should go for austerities."After that,Sh6ku climbed Mount Shosha andbuilt
a thatched hut (shiba no iori o musubu).He never stopped reciting the Lotus
Sutra.One night a heavenlybeing descended,and with handsclasped in worship,
chanted Buddhistquatrains(shiku no fumi) before a cherry tree beside his hut.
When Sh6ku saw this he asked him, "Why are you just worshippingthat cherry
tree?"The heavenlybeing replied,'Thankfully,this tree is a spirittree (reiboku)
of Kanzeon. Quickly take this tree and make (an image of) Kanzeon. If you
enshrine it on this spot, it will become a reijo with a karmic connection (uen)
that can give benefits (riyaku)to sentientbeings living in the Final Age. This is
my wish, Sh6nin, that (a temple) should be quickly built."He carved the main
394
Mark W.MacWilliams
image from the cherry mentionedby the divine messenger and, with help from
otherpeople, made his hut into a Buddhahall. This was Shoshadera.12
Here, Sh6ku's hut is not just anywhere, but is located, as the

heavenly messenger from Bonten and Taishakutells him, at a Pure
Land reijo of Kannon.The image is made by him from a "spirittree"
on the site which, accordingto the divine instructions,is enshrinedon
the same spot. The hut of thatchthat serves as the holy man's hut in
the H6ke-ky6kenkitale is transformedhere into a Buddhahall where
the main image of Kannonis enshrinedso that pilgrims living in the
Final Age (massei) can worshipit.
In what follows, I wantto look more closely at two importantspatial
motifs in the Saikoku and Band6 pilgrimagetales. They suggest that
the holy man's move is ultimately to a place beyond impermanence
and instability.That the hermit's hut stands outside of this world of
muj6, and not within it, is indicated in two importantways in the
tales. First, the Kannon statue that a holy man carries with him or
carves displays a preternaturalmobility or immobility, which results
in his building of a hut/templeon the site in which it is permanently
enshrined.Second, the hut itself serves as a restingplace for the ascetic
wherehe can performausteritiesfor the greatergood of those suffering
in this world of muj6.Both motifs suggest thatthe holy man'shut (and
later pilgrimagetemple or reijo) with its spirituallypowerful Kannon
icon is a conduit for moving humanbeings off the rokud6- from a
life of painfulinstabilityto the J6do, the PureLandparadiseof Amida
and Kannon.
PreternaturalImmobilityand Mobilityof KannonImages
In the Saikoku and Band6 pilgrimage tales, holy men are not
portrayedas aimless wanderers.They travel for a purpose:to find a
suitablesite to build a Kannontemple. A key indicationthatthey have
discoveredthe right spot is when the Kannonstatue they are carrying
suddenlybecomes so heavy that it cannotbe carriedany further.With
12K6y6 Shun6 and Tsujimoto Kitei, Saikoku sanjfisansho Kannon reijOki,in
SaikokuBandOKannonreijoki,ed. by KanezashiSh6z6 (Tokyo:Seiab6, 1973), 184-5.
395
the preternaturalimmobilityof the statue, the ascetic realizes that the

bodhisattvahas chosen the site for a new temple.
An example of this is the origin tale of the Rokkaku-d6(SR-18).
After travelingfor some time in the hot sun, Shotoku Taishi decided
to stop and rest in the cool shade of a forest. He put his small Kannon
statue on the branch of a willow tree while he washed himself in a
pure streamnearby.When he tried to take the statue off the branch,
however, it had become so heavy that he could not lift it. In a later
dream oracle, the statue notified him that it would stay there to save
the many people who will pass by "in the final ages." The Kannon
commandedPrince Sh8toku to build a six-sided temple there. After
this, an old woman appearedwho led him to a large cedar tree. It
was a sacred tree (shinboku),she told him, which he could cut down
to build Rokkaku-d6.13A similar tale appearsin the lizumi Sh6fukuji engi (BR-5). After the empress K6ken's death, the famous priest
D6ky6 was exiled to Shimotsukeprovince. He took along a statue of
the eleven-headedKannonthat had originally been made in India by
the god Bishukatsumaten(Visvakarman),and had been broughtfrom
T'ang China to Japanby the monk Ganjin. It was initially presented
to the empress Koken, who enshrined it in her palace.14The exiled
D6ky6 passed throughthe distantstationsof the T6kai searchingfor a
"yuenno reichl' for the statue:
He reached here, Sagami province, Ashigara district, Chiyo village, when
suddenly the Kannon in the pilgrimage pannier (oibotoke) became heavy. It
seemed as if it were pushinghim down, and he could not move one step further.
D6ky6 thoughtit was strangeand wondered, "Is this the yuen no reichi for the
statue?"He sincerely prayed, "Namu Daiji Kanzeon, if you have some innen
with this place take pity on this being's doubts and confer some precious sign."
13Ibid., 127.
14D6ky6 had acquiredshamanistichealing powers by undergoingascetic practices
at Mount Katsuragi,first opened by the hijiri, En no Ozune. During the reign of
empress K6ken, he was involved in political intrigues,and was eventually appointed
"king of the law."His plans to usurpthe thronewere foiled, however,and he died in
exile in Shimotsukeprovincein 772. See Joseph M. Kitagawa,Religion in Japanese
History (New York:ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1966), 44.
396
Mark W.MacWilliams
Thereupon,the statue which had been set down on a small table flew into the
branchesof a tree along the roadand, perchedthere,emitting light.15
The tale goes on to say that afterwardlocal villagers helped to

make a grass hut to enshrine the deity.16In both Prince Sh6toku's
and D6ky6's cases, therefore, the journey ends with the holy man's
unexpectedstop at a numinoussite that is karmicallyconnected with
Kannon(yuenno reichi).Comingin contactwith this place meansthey
must build a temple for the Kannonicon. This denouement,of course,
is precisely the reason for why the story is told.
Talesof preternatural
immobilityhave a long historyin the Buddhist
tradition.In CentralAsia and China, for example, Hsiiang-tsangtells
about a Buddhaimage in the town of Po-chia-i west of Khotan.The
statue had been broughtfrom Kashmirby a CentralAsian king: "He
broughtit home in all reverencewith his army;when the image reached
this spot, it could not be moved any farther,so a monasterywas erected
aroundit."17Art historianAlexander Soper arguesthat these miracle
15
Ryosei, Bando reijoki,237-38.
16Otherstories of
preternaturalimmobility include the Kegon-jiengi (SR-33), the
Iwadono Anrakujiengi (BR-11), the Ishiyamaderaengi (SR-13), and the Hasedera
engi (SR-8). In the Ishiyamaderaengi, we have an example of a rock seat for the
statue.R6ben found the rock dais (describedelsewhere as an eight petaled Lotus) for
his Kannonstatuewhen he saw the kami, the old man HiraMy6jin, sitting on it. The
statuewould not budge afterhe set it upon the rock. See K6y6 and Tsujimoto,Saikoku
reij6ki,88-89.
17AlexanderC. Soper, LiteraryEvidencefor Early BuddhistArt in China (Artibus
Asiae Supplementum19), Ascona, Switzerland:ArtibusAsiae Publishers,1959, 247.
TheKao Seng Chuantells the story that,"in the [326-334] era of the Chin, the Prefect
of T'an-yang, Kao Li, had a gilded image dug out of the bay near the Chang-hou
Bridge. It lacked aureoleand pedestal,but was fashionedwith the greatestskill.... Li
carriedthe image back to the Ch'ang-kanlanding; but there his oxen refused to go
farther,in spite of all that human strengthcould do. In the end he gave in, and went
straightto Ch'ang-kan-ssu[with it]" (9). A laterentryfrom the same sourcestatesthat
in 394, "all at once an image appearednorthof the city, its radiantbody-signs shining
skyward.The brethrenof Pai-ma-ssuhappenedto be the firstto go out to welcome it,
but they were unable to set it in motion. [Tan]-i then went to adore it, saying to his
followers: "This must be a royal Asokan statue, vouchsafedto our Ch'ang-sha-ssu!"
The Holy Man's Hut as a Symbol of Stability
397
stories of "preternatural immobility" are the clearest examples of a

motif that is rooted in the Indian Buddhist tradition:
The statuethat could not be moved at the wrong time, or in the wrong direction,
or by the wrong people, must have had its prototypein the body of Sakyamuni
himself. Several relatively early sutra accounts of the ceremonies that followed
the Buddha's parinirvana agree that until the divinely established conditions
were properly met, it was impossible for the mourners of Kusinagarato stir
his coffin. in addition, the Chinese learned from Fa-hsien's travel record that
the Buddha's alms-bowl had once been immobilized in an even more dramatic
fashion, at the Gandharancapital,Purusapura.A Kushanmonarch,arrivingas a
conquerer,had tried to carryit home with him. First one elephantand then eight
proved totally unable to move the holy object; and the monarchrealized with
deep sorrowthat"he had as yet no karma-relationshipwith the bowl.'18
However, there is also another possible source for these tales

than the immovable body of the Buddha after his parinirvana. The
Rokkaku-do and Iizumi Sh6fuku-ji stories also resemble Japanese folk
tales of the kami, such as can be found in the early Japanese gazetteers
and chronicle literature. As Yamaori Tetsuo and others have noted,
kami wander (yuko, shink6) until they find a support (yorishiro) that
allows them to be (or sit, za, imasu) at a fixed spot. The "god seats"
on which they rest in these tales are usually a stone or group of stones
(known as iwasaka); a tree, pillar or flower often marked by a sacred
rope (himorogi). By manifesting their spiritual presence at these seats,
the kami were venerated as local deities who ensured fertility (ubusuna
kami) or tutelary guardians (chinja no kami).19
He directedthree of his disciples to pick it up, and it rose as if buoyed on air. It was
takenback to his temple, where clerics and laity hastened[to see it] until the rumbling
of carriagesand horses was everywhere"(23).
18Ibid., 245.
19YamaoriTetsuo,Kamito hotoke(Tokyo:Kodansha,1983), 25-26. See also Allan
Grapard,"FlyingMountainsandWalkersof Emptiness:Towarda Definitionof Sacred
Space in JapaneseReligions,"History of Religions 20 (1982), 197. On the descent of
the mountaindeity to occupy the village shrine as an ujigami, see Ichir6 Hori, Folk
Religion in Japan, eds. Joseph M. Kitagawaand Alan L. Miller (Chicago:University
of Chicago Press, 1968), 153-4.
398
MarkW.MacWilliams
In the Hitachifudoki,for example,a mountainkamiTachihayawono

mikoto descendedfrom heaven to sit (za) on a pine tree in Matsuzaha.
The villagers were unawareof his presence until they were afflicted
with curses (sui, tatari) when they used the place as a toilet. Eventually,
they propitiatedthe deity, and enshrined him in a sacred area high
in the mountains, where he guarded the source of the streams that
water their fields. To this day, birds fly by the mountain quickly
and never pass over the top.20 Similarly, Kannon statues enshrined
at Rokkaku-d6,lizumi Sh6fuku-ji,and other sites set themselves on
trees androcks, becoming permanentfixturesof the place. As a further
indicationof their localized character,the statues are often known by
their place names, such as the HasederaKannon, Kiyomizu Kannon,
and so on, just like a chinju no kami.21In other words, Kannonas a
Buddhistdivinity does not remainan abstraction,but is understoodas
a permanentspiritualresidentat the temples.
Since the road accents the transient nature of reality or mujo,
conventionalimages of stability,such as temples, houses, palaces and
so on often take on a negative value in Buddhistliterature,as we saw
20See Akimoto
Kichir6, ed., Fudoki, Nihon koten bungakutaikei, vol. 2 (Tokyo:

IwanamiShoten, 1974), 85-87. MurayamaShfiichi arguesthat this is also the case of
the iwasaka-likerock dais of Ishiyamaand Hasederathat become, in effect, the god
seats of the Kannonstatuesthat the holy men enshrinethere. See his Chfsei Nihonjin
no shfkyo to seikatsu (Tokyo: Mokkoku Shoten, 1948), 26-46. Another example of
an early jinja engi is the mid-Heian Ichininomiyaengi of Wakasaprovince. In this
story, in 715, during the reign of empress Gensh6 (680-748), the deity Ichinomiya
WakasahikoDaimyojinappearedon a white rock at the source of the divine streamin
the county of Onyu. Later,at the place the deity chose for a shrine, a thousandtrees
miraculouslygrew in one night, enough to use as raw materialsfor the construction
of the shrine.After the shrine was built, the kami, Ninomiya WakasahimeDaimyojin
appearedon the same rock. See HagiwaraTatsuo, "Shingi shis6 no tenkai to jinja
engi," in Jisha engi, ed. Miyata Noboru, Hagiwara Tatsuo, and SakuraiTokutar6,
Nihon shisOtaikei, vol. 20 (Tokyo:IwanamiShoten, 1975), 479-80.
21In the Nihonshoki,the Fudoki, andthe Engishiki,many examples of kaminamed
after a locality can be found, such as the deity of Kii province (Kii no kuni ni imasu
kami), the deity who resides in Kumano (Kumanoni imasu kami), and so on. See
Yamaori,Kami to hotoke, 24-34.
399
in the Hojo-ki. The most important Buddhist scriptural source for this
is found in the parable of the burning house in the Lotus Sutra:
[The Buddha] creates the old and rottenburninghouse of the three worlds and,
in orderto save the beings from the fires of birth,old age, sickness, death,worry,
grief, woe, agony, folly, delusion, blindness, obscurity,and the three poisons, he
teaches and converts them, enabling them to attain anuttarasamyaksambodhi.
He sees blindness, obscurity,and the three poisons, he teaches and convertsthat
the beings are scorchedby birth, old age, sickness, death, care, grief, woe, and
anguish. ... It is in the midst of such various woes as these that the beings
are plunged, yet they cavort in joy, unaware,unknowing, unalarmed,unafraid,
neither experiencing disgust, nor seeking release. In this burninghouse of the
three worlds they run about hither and yon, and, though they encounter great
woes, they are not concerned.22
Nothing is safe from the flames of samsara. As we have seen, the

H6j6-ki alludes to this parable when Ch6mei describes the fires that
destroy the palaces in the capital during the great Heian-ky6 fire of
1177. His response to the uncertainties of mujo is to live in a mobile
hut that can quickly disassembled and transported in times of need. By
contrast, the tales of Kannon ascetics and their reijo display a different
response to the vagaries of samsara.
Interestingly, we find Kannon spirituality's locative faith in a second group of stories that deal with the preternatural mobility of Kannon statues. When temples catch fire, the enshrined Kannon statues are
never destroyed. Instead, they miraculously escape the burning building by magical flight. What is important to note here, however, is that
they do not fly away. They land on trees within the temple precincts,
safe from the conflagration. An early example of this is found in the
Muromachi period Kiyomizudera engi. After a dispute over the hanging of funeral tablets at an imperial memorial service in 1165, monks
from Enryaku-ji temple on Mount Hiei attacked Kiyomizu temple. The
defense of Kiyomizu did not go well:
When,before long, the flamesand smoke coveredthe main hall (hondO),a certain
old monk enteredthe reardoor,and removedthe nails [securingthe zushi?].Just
when he was about to take the main image out, the treasurecurtainsat the front
22Hurvitz,
Scriptureof the LotusBlossom, 61.
400
Mark W. MacWilliams
opened by themselves, and a great golden light burnedbrightly. He was dazed
and could see nothing,even thoughhe tried.And then, the brilliantlightjumped
out, flying about five cho to a high spot in the west, among some fallen old pine
trees. It rested in plain view on the trees. They eventually mended the brocade
curtain,covered the statueagain, and lodged it within a temporaryhall.23
While the Kannon statue flew from the temple, it was only a
temporaryevacuation.After it landedon a nearbypine tree, it allowed
itself to be re-enshrinedin a new hall at Kiyomizu. It stayed where it
had always been. In this case, the statuewas autochthonous;according
to the temple's engi, it was carvedfrom willow log from the mountain.
The mysterious ascetic Gyoei Koji, who had waited three hundred
years at the holy spot, gave the log to the monk Enchin who found
Kiyomizu after he followed a golden colored streamto its source on
the grounds.24
23
Kiyomizuderakana engi, Zoku Gunsho ruijt (Tokyo:Zoku Gunsho Ruiju Kanseikai, 1959), 26b:30; Kiyomizuderaengi, KokubunTohoBukkyososho (Tokyo:T6h6
shoin, 1926), 6:61-62. This text is corruptin many places, including this section. The
story also appearsin the Heike monogatariin book one, chaptersix, "DisputeOver
Hanging the FuneralTablets."See Hiroshi Kitagawa and Bruce T. Tuschida, trans.,
The Tale of the Heike, 2 vols (Tokyo:Universityof Tokyo Press, 1975), 1:37-39. This
tale does not appearin the Saikokureijokiversion of the engi. See K6y6 and Tsujimoto, Saikokureijoki, 105-118.
24Examples of preternatural
mobilitycan also be found in earlierChinese Buddhist
tales. In another entry from the Kao Seng Chuan, "In [616] the miraculous image
sweatedseveraltimes, thatbeing the year when ChuTs'an was ravagingthe provinces.
When he reachedthe metropolisof Chinghe campedin the temple grounds.The great
hall was so lofty thatit overlookedthe northcity wall, andhis banditsclamberedup on
top of it to shoot into the city. The defenderssuffered so much from this thatthey set
fire [to the building] that night with burningarrows.Clerics and laity within the city
were greatly distressed [at the prospectof] losing the miraculousimage; but thatvery
night it crossed over the city wall, unbeknownstto anyone, and made its way to Paokuang-ssu;where it [was discovered]standingoutside the gate, on the morrow,to the
joy of the whole city. After the banditshad been dispersed,when the old emplacement
of the image was examined, it was found that it had neither burned nor even been
touchedby ashes. The hall is being rebuiltat the presenttime, though not at its former
scale" (Soper,LiteraryEvidence,27). For an early Japaneseexample, see tale 2:37 of
the Nihon ryoiki.
401
Other similar examples can be found in the later collections of

Saikoku and Band6 Kannontemple tales.25However,two exceptions
should be noted. In the Shokokuengi (BR-8), the temple's Kannon
image, after it flew out of the fire and landed on a tree, then flew
southto anotherplace thatwas karmicallyconnectedto Kannon(yuen
no chi), where the priest Riken built a new temple for it. Why, in
this case, does the statue move off the temple's sacred precincts?
The answer lies in a southerlydirectionof the statue'smagical flight.
Kannon's scripturallyacclaimed permanentabode is on Fudaraku,a
sacredmountainlocated on an island off the southerncoast of India.26
The second exception is found in the Mount IwadonoAnraku-jiengi
(BR-11).Accordingto the old records,once, duringa fire,the temple's
main image escaped from the flames by flying back to the cave in
which it was originally enshrined.The cave is now called "okuno in"
(the inner sanctum).Here, the statue simply returnedto the original
place thatit was enshrinedin at the site.27
What is the point of these tales of preternaturalmobility? Besides
revealingthe miraculouspowersof the mainimage, the tales show that,
despite the fires that periodicallydestroy the temples, Kannonstatues
escape destruction.Not only do they remainunscathedby the fires of
samsara,but they stay put at the temples in which they are enshrined.
WhatCauses Stability?
What makes Kannon statues remain at their temples rather than
flying away to other locales? One reason is that the sites have an
inherentsacrednessthatmakesthem magnetic,attractingthe statuesto
remainon the spot. Kannontemples are often located at kamicult sites
on mountains,ponds, lakes, falls, groves, and caves. Mountainswere
25 See, for
example, the Sugimotoderaengi (BR-1) and the MountKinryuSenso-ji

engi (BR-13).
26
Ry6sei, BandOreij6ki,249.
27Ibid., 265.
402
Mark W. MacWilliams
long considered to be shintaizan or abodes of the kami and therefore

were natural sites for a Buddhist celestial divinity like Kannon.28
The origin legends of these temples sometimes suggest that the
sites were previously abodes of the kami. As Katata Osamu, Yamaori
Tetsuo, and Murayama Shuiichi have noted, the kami of these sites often
appear in the Buddhist tales disguised as either old men (okina) or
women (r6ba).29 For example, in the Rokkaku-do engi, the wandering
prince-ascetic Shotoku Taishi found a kami tree (shinboku) to build
the temple only after a mysterious old woman showed it to him. In the
Yoshimine-dera engi (SR-20), which we will discuss in greater detail
below, an old man visited Gensan in his retreat on Mount Yoshimine,
and asked him to find a reibutsu for the place. After he told him about
a kami tree to make the statue, the old man changed into a white
nusa, and flew to the top of the mountain.30 Stories such as these show
how that the local god assists the holy man in installing the Buddhist
Kannon image at what was hitherto a kami site.
A second reason that is often given is that the site has a unique
karmic connection (yuen) to Buddhism. It is a special place that was
originally a sacred place of Buddhism in the remote past. Since Japan is
a country that was far away from the center of the Buddha's historical
propagation of the Dharma in India, it was impossible to claim a
28Hori, Folk
Religion, 202-5. In the Saikoku reijoki and BandO reij6ki, famous

mountaintemples on the routes are Ishiyamadera(SR-13) (Mount Sekk6), Hasedera
(SR-8) (Mount Toyoyama), Engy6-ji (SR-27) (Mount Shosha), Chfzen-ji (BR-18)
(Mount Fudaraku),KamakuraHasedera (BR-4) (Mount Kaiko), Sh6b6-ji (BR-10)
(Mount Iwadono), and so on. Kannon is especially associated with water at sites
such as Seigento-ji (Nachi-san, SR-1), and Mimurodo-ji(SR-10) (where the statues
emerges from a falls andpond respectively),Hasedera(SR-8) (driftsfrom lake Biwa),
KamakuraHasedera(BR-4) (driftsin from the ocean); in groves, such as at Rokkakud6 (SR-18), Shokoku-ji(BR-8), Jik6-ji (BR-9), Gumy6-ji (BR-14); and caves, such as
at Ganden-ji(BR-2), Anraku-ji(BR-11), and Mangan-ji(BR-17).
29Katata,"Jiinengi," 82 ff. See also Murayama,Chasei Nihonjin, 2-53. The most
complete study on okina and kamiin general has been done by YamaoriTetsuo,Kami
kara okina e (Tokyo:Seidosha, 1984).
30K6y6 and Tsujimoto,Saikokureijoki, 140. Otherexamples include the Miidera
engi (SR-14), Chomei-jiengi (SR-31),and the KamakuraHasedera engi (BR4).
403
temple's importance as a place where the historical Buddha had given

a sermon. However, this did not preclude stories that attempted to
show the temple's association to earlier buddhas from previous kalpic
periods.31 Former buddhas had left their marks at Japanese temples.
Evidence for this is the discovery of ancient Buddhist artifacts that
were buried on the site. In the Ishiyamadera engi, for example, after
installing his Kannon statue on the rock seat of the local divinity, Hira
Myojin, the monk R6ben leveled the ground for the temple precincts.
At that time, he discovered a sacred bell (hotaku) about 5 shaku in
height that had been buried in the ground.32 In the Saikoku reijOki
version, all that is said further is that, after the discovery, Roben
realized that "certainly the place was a spiritual site (reichi), and built
the temple hall."33 Why he would conclude that the bell is evidence
for the sanctity of the site is explained fully in the earlier (probably
fourteenth century) version of the Ishiyamadera engi. This text states
31Stories aboutthe miraculous
discovery of buriedtemples and theirbells, statues,
and othersacra from previous kalpic eras are found in Chinese temple traditionsas
well. In Tao-hsuan'sTao-hsuanLu-shih Kan-t'ungLu, for example, the story is told
about the origin of the stone image of PrabhutaratnaBuddha at Ch'eng-tu in I-chou
[i.e. Szechwan]: 'The statue had been carved long, long ago, in the age of Kasyapa
Buddha, by a man who 'imitated all the distinguishing attributesof Prabhutaratna
Buddha'sbody.' This was done at a now extinct monastery on the West Ear River,
Hsi Erh Ho, called the VultureHead or VultureMountain Temple, which may still
be traced (the god claims) 'through its remaining column bases and a stupa that
continuallyemits light.' The statue was admiredby a man from Ch'eng-tu, who got
permissionto carryit back to his city by boat. Unfortunately,he happenedto mortally
offend a marine deity on the returnpassage; and the latter stamped so furiously on
the boat that he sank it with the image and donor together.During the Chin dynasty
- by which time what had once been a sea bottom had risen to become a mountain
- the earth over the spot began to push upward, and finally burst open. When an
excavationas undertaken,they found, at a depthof ten feet or so, a boat containingan
image and some humanbones. 'The skull, forearm,and shin bones were huge, several
times [normal]human size; and so must have belonged to one of the inhabitantsof
Jambudvipain the age of KasyapaBuddha, when the life span was 20,000 years'"
(Soper,LiteraryEvidence,34-35).
32That is, it was approximatelyfive feet in height.
33K6y6 and Tsujimoto,Saikokureijoki,88.
404
Mark W. MacWilliams
that the excavated temple bell proves unequivocally that the site was
"truly a [hitherto] unknown ancient site of a temple precinct for the
manifestation (suijaku garan) of an ancient Buddha."34As a site of a
prehistoric Buddha, Ishiyama, therefore, is different from the ordinary
space of the rokud6. No matter how much the world is in flux, the
sacred sites of Buddhism persist unchanged throughout the aeons as
abodes of the Buddha.35
However, the most important reason that Kannon temples are stable
centers is because they are the bodhisattva's paradisiacal abode. That
these places mark the entrance to the other world (ano yo) is claimed
explicitly, for example, by King Yama in the preface of the Saikoku
reijoki. He tells the monk Tokudo, the founder of the thirty-three
temple Saikoku route, during his legendary "three day and three night"
spirit journey to the underworld in the Yo6r era (717-24), that the Guze
Kannon had "divided into the thirty-three bodies" which now abide
at temples along the Saikoku (or "Western provinces") route. These
thirty-three temples are Pure Lands (J6do), where Kannon appears to
save, according to their conditions (en), sentient beings who live in the
final age (masse). In some cases, the temples are considered locales
on Kannon's island paradise of Mount Fudaraku. Examples of this
34Ishiyamaderaengi, Zokugunsho ruiju, 28a:98.
35The Ishiyamadera stories give no explanation concerning the bell's sacred
persistenceover time. However,one can turnto anothertemple traditionrecordedby
Hsiian-tsangfrom the Buddhisttemple at Nagarahara,near modernJalalabadthat is
suggestive. This site was famous as the place wherethe Buddha,in a formerexistence,
met DipankaraBuddha, who honored the future Buddha by spreadinghis deer-skin
mantle and hair for him to walk upon. After he heard this story, Hsiian-tsangasked
the old monk in charge how the place where this event happenedcould still be in
existence: "Severalcosmic cycles had passed since then, and it is well known that at
the end of every cycle the whole universeis destroyedby fire. Even Mount Sumeruis
completelyburntout. The vergerwas equal to the occasion. 'No doubt,'he said, 'when
the universe was destroyedthis holy site was also destroyed.But when the universe
came into being again, the site reappearedin its old place. We all know that Mount
Sumeruis still there; so why should this holy site not also be in its old place? Bear
thatin mind, andyou won't be botheredwith any furtherdoubts' " (ArthurWaley,The
Real Tripitakaand OtherPieces [London:George Allen and Unwin, 1952], 26).
405
are Seiganto-ji (SR-1),36Chizen-ji (BR-10), Chikubushima(SR-30),

In othercases, the temples are
Hoshinoya(BR-8),and Ishiyamadera.37
mandalizedin differentways. They are representedvariously as the
Kannon-inin the rengebuof Shingon's taizokai mandara (Sh6b6-ji,
in BR-10),38which is supposedly the abode of the shichi Kannon;
the western Sukhavatiparadise of Amida; the bejeweled palace of
Kannonin Miroku'sTosotsuten(Jiko-ji BR-9); and the Spirit Vulture
Peak of Sakyamuni(Grdhrakuta)(NakayamaderaSR-24). Generally
considered,however,Kannontemple sites aredescribedas PureLands,
drawingupon depictionsfrom Buddhistscriptures,such as the Larger
Sukhavatt-vyuhaSutra. Such scripturaldescriptionsof the Pure Land
were popularizedin Japanin the tenth centuryin the priest Genshin's
discourseon the subjectin his )joyoshu.
In the Saikoku and Band6 tales, Kannon sites are easily recognizable as spirituallocales (reijo) by the various "auspicioussigns"
(zuigen) of the Pure Land that catch the itinerantascetic's attention.
Holy men, for example, are able to recognize spirituallocales by their
"auspiciousclouds" (zuiun).Peculiar clouds are a typical zuigen that
distinguishesa site as qualitativelydifferentfrom the uncleanworld of
the six courses surroundingit. Depending on the tale, they can be fivecolored clouds (goshikiun),miraculousclouds (kiun),or purpleclouds
(shiun), like those floating aroundAmida and his retinue, when they
descend to the nembutsureciterat death,as illustratedin the many extant raigo paintingsof the medievalperiod.The five-coloredclouds, in
36For a detailed
analysis of Fudarakusymbolism at Nachi, see Elizabeth ten
Grotenhuis,Japanese Mandalas: Representationsof Sacred Geographies(Honolulu:
Universityof HawaiiPress, 1999), 181-82.
37The temple's connection with Mount Fudarakuhas a long history. See Ishiyamaderaengi, Zokugunsho ruijti,28a:97. It is importantto note, however,that,unlike
other pilgrimageroutes in Japan,the Kannonroutes are not systematizedas a whole
into a mandalizedframeworkaccordingto their engi. A possible exception to this is
found at Ishiyamadera,where there is a "Fudaraku-sen"hill near the main temple,
with a routeto Kannon'sthirty-threeincarnations(keshin)markedoff.
38 See ten Grotenhuis,Japanese Mandalas, ChapterThree, 'The Womb World
Mandala"58-77.
Mark W MacWilliams
406
particular,reflect the pristine colors of GokurakuJ6do, and are associated particularlywith the Senju Kannon.39Examplesof these clouds
abound in tales of hijiri ascetics who reach the site of a future Kannon temple. In the Rokuharamitsu-jiengi (SR-17), for example, when
the nembutsuhijiri Kfiya saw a strange purple cloud hovering over
Sanjo Kushige, he quickly realized that, "it was really a good reij8,"
and built the temple, Gokuraku-jior ParadiseTemple on what was
now called Mount "Shiun"there.40In the Rokkaku-d8engi, Sh6toku
Taishi's"kamitree"was girt with purpleclouds.41In the first scroll of
the Ishiyamaderaengi, the eight-petaledlotus rock before R6ben was
bedecked with "auspiciousclouds,"42and in the Yoshimine-deraengi,
the monk-founder,GensanShonin, a disciple of Genshin,realizedthat
the Yoshi peak was a reijo when he saw the purpleclouds.43
Often the hut/temple area is scented, like Amida's Jodo, where,
according to the Larger Sukhdvatf-vyuhaSutra, Amida's Tree of
Awakeningexudes a fragrancethat if smelled will bring one to the
"sereneacceptance of the Deepest Dharma."44In the IzuruMangani
engi (BR-17), the valley of the future temple "emitted a strange
In the YoshimiIwadonoAnraku-jiengi (BR-11), "within
fragrance."45
the undergrowth,was a place that emitted a strange fragrance."This
was a hidden reij6.46In the Katsuo-ji engi (SR-23), Kaijo, the son
of emperorK6nin, was undergoingausteritieson the peak when two
mysterious monks arrivedand locked themselves in his hut. After a
39Bukkyogodaijiten, abridgeded. (1981), s.vv. "Goshiki,""Shiun."
40 K6y6 and Tsujimoto,Saikokureijoki, 122.
41
42
Ibid., 128.
Ishiyamaderaengi, Zokugunsho ruija, 28a:97.

43 Ibid., 139-40.
44Luis O. Gomez, trans.,The
LargerSukhdvattvyuhaSutra, in his Land of Bliss:
The Paradise of the Buddha of ImmeasurableLight (Honolulu:Universityof Hawaii
Press, 1996), 180.
45Ry6sei, BandOreij6ki,289.
46Ibid., 263.
407
month, Kaij6 smelled a strangefragrancewafting from the building,

and enteredit, discoveringa statueof SenjuiKannon.47
In the Pure Land, accordingto the Sukhdvatt-vyahaSutra, one can
also hear celestial music and the sound of its rivers, trees, and the
birds resoundwith the voice of the Buddha.The Buddhatells Ananda
in this sutra that "[i]n this realm there are ten thousand varieties of
spontaneous music. Furthermore,these musical tones consist only
of the sounds of the Dharma heard in a clear, soft, and exquisite
symphony,which is the firstand foremost among all the sounds in all
world systems in the ten regions of the universe."48Often the descent
of Amida and Kannonfrom the PureLandto meet the faithfulat death
is accompaniedby this ethereal music, which is played by celestial
attendants.In the Kamakuraperiod work, The Hymn to the Twentyfive Bodhisattvas,this celestial music is describedin great detail: "the
twanging of the strings of the lyre of Kong6z6 resounds with the
oneness of the TenWorlds,the strummingof the lute of the Bodhisattva
K6my6-6 lightensthe perplexityof oppressivenon-knowledge:each of
the instrumentsadds to the symphony of the Buddha's law."49Holy
men usually hear this celestial music, not at the moment of death,
but upon entering the site of their future hut. In the Sugimotodera
engi (BR-1), the famous ascetic Gy6gi was wanderingthroughoutthe
provinces spreadingthe dharmawhen he rested under a tree. During
the night, he heard excellent music coming from the tree above. He
looked up and saw a purple cloud with an eleven-headed Kannon
In a note appendedto the
accompaniedby his forty-sevenattendants.50
Chuzen-jiengi (BR-18), the compiler Ryosei suggests that Chuzen-ji
is a Pure Land because of the rokuji(six periods) bird inhabitingthe
47 K6y6 and Tsujimoto, Saikokureij6ki, 158. This fragranthut is a gandhakutior
perfumedchamberof the Buddha.
48 Gomez, TheLand Bliss, 181.
of
49J6ji Okazaki,Pure LandBuddhistPainting, trans.ElizabethGrotenhuis(Tokyo:
KodanshaInternational,1977), 115. This hymn, known as the Nijugobosatsuwasan,
is traditionallyattributedto Genshin.
50Ryosei, Bando reijoki,218.
408
MarkW.MacWilliams
mountain.This rarebirdis similarto the variousfowl mentionedin the
Suitra,thatsing aboutmercyandcompassion
LargerSukhcvattvyuha
duringthe six daily recitationperiodsfor the nembutsu.51
The PureLand also emanatesa mystical light from the buddhasand
bodhisattvasresiding there. Amida Buddha, according to the Larger
Sukhavatt-vyuhaSatra, is called "the Buddha of Measureless Light,
the Buddha of Boundless Light, the Buddha of Unimpeded Light,
the Buddha of Unopposed Light, the Buddha Monarch of Flaming
Lights, the Buddhaof PureLight, ... and the Buddhaof the Light that
Surpasses Sun and Moon."52According to the sutra, "[w]hen living
beings come in contact with this light, the three kinds of defilements
disappearin them. Theirbodies and minds become supple and gentle.
They become full of joy and enthusiasm and good thoughts arise in
them."53Kannon is also described in the Lotus Sutra's "Gatewayto
Everywhere"chapteras a "spotlessly pure ray of light."54In just the
same way, holy men discover that the places where they build their
huts emit mystical light. In the Jik6-ji engi (BR-9), when meditating
on a mountain,Jikun Washo saw an "ascetic forest emitting light of
lapis lazuli, and when a perfumedwind blew throughthe leaves and
branches, there was a sound of the tinkling of jewels and magical
incantations."55
In the Sugimotoderaengi (BR-1), the eleven-headed
Kannon that Gyogi saw at the top of a tree emitted a brilliantlight.
The local villagers called it the "nightlight tree"(yakomoku).56In the
Yoshiminederaengi, Gensan carved a Senju Kannon, which emitted
a spectacular display of light that could be seen throughout the
province. Like a beacon, it attractedpilgrims, including an imperial
51Ibid., 295; cf. E.B. Cowell, Max Muller, Junichir6 Takakusu,
eds., Buddhist
York:
New
61.
Texts,
Dover,
1969,
Mahdayna
52Gomez, Land Bliss, 177.
of
53Ibid., 177.
54Hurvitz,Scriptureof the LotusBlossom, 318.
55Ryosei, Bando reijoki,253.
56Ibid., 218.
409
messenger who visited the site from the capital as the first patron.57
The luminescence of the site, and particularlyof the Kannon statues
enshrinedthere,is found in almost every engi.
In the Lotus Satra and the Larger Sukhivati-vyuhaSatra, the Pure
Landis describedas a land where there is "no Mount Sumeru,or any
othermountainsor land featuresof a world system down to the ring of
It is a flat place, "level on every side, lovely,
DiamondMountains."58
like the palm of a hand, with districts full of jewels and treasures
of every kind."59In the AvatamsakaSutra and the various pictorial
representationsof MountFudarakuas well, a "plateau"is shownon the
summit.60This is where Kannonhas his palatialtemple and gardens.
When holy men discover that a potential reijo is on a rough, steep
terrain,something happens to transformit miraculouslyinto a level
area suitable for a temple compound (garan). In the Yoshiminedera
engi, for example, Gensan meditatedon a rocky crag until one night,
a herdof wild boar and deer stampedon the grounduntil there was a
level spot for his temple.61
In short,these and otherauspicioussigns (zuigen)markthe hermit's
hut as a heterogeneoussoteriological space, a Pure Land beyond the
everydayspaces of the six courses.
Ascetics and Restingoff the Rokudo
As entryways into the Pure Land, Kannon reijo allow those who
entera place of rest from the ceaseless ebb and flow of mujo.A major
motif in Kannonengi is the ascetic's exit off the sufferingfilled roadof
57K6y6 and Tsujimoto,Saikokureijoki, 138-45.
58Gomez, Land Bliss, 176.
of
59Cowell, BuddhistMahayana Texts,36; Hurvitz,Lotus, 186.
60Thomas Cleary, trans., The Flower OrnamentScripture:A Translationof the
AvatamsakaSutra, 3 vols (Boston: ShambalaPublications,1984-87), 3:151. See also
the fourteenthcentury "MountPotolakaMandala"owned by the Sh6rinjiTemple in
Nara.A reproductionis found in Okazaki,Pure LandPainting,77.
61Zensh6 Shimizutani, Kannon no fudasho to densetsu (Tokyo: Rekishizusho
Shuppan, 1976), 78; PatriciaFrame Rugola, BuddhistArt in Context: The Saikoku
KannonPilgrimage Route (Ph.D. Diss., Ohio State University,1986), 148.
410
MarkW.MacWilliams
birthand deathto the qualitativelydifferent,sacred space of the reijo,

where his wanderingends.
Most of the tales begin with the founding journey of a holy man
and end with him as the first Kannon devotee worshipingat the site.
For example, in the Rokkaku-d6engi (summarizedabove), Sh6toku
Taishi rested from his journey in a cool forest grove. It is only after
he refreshedhimself in the nearby pond that he discovered that his
statue will not move and that here was the place of a new Kannon
reij6. In some cases, as in the Kokawaderaengi, the ascetic's hut may
look "temporary,"
as can be seen in the Kamakuraperiod emakimono
of
it.
However,the ascetic's hutis not a symbol of muj8.The hut
picture
is the initial structureto enshrinethe deity62to be replaced,eventually,
by largertemple halls.63
The clearest example of the hut as a sacred place of rest off
the rokud6 is seen in the Yoshiminederaengi (SR-20). The story is
aboutGensan Shonin, the famous scholarmonk from Mount Hiei and
disciple of Genshin,who founded Yoshiminetemple in 1040.64 Since
no women were allowed on Mt. Hiei, Gensan had left his mother
behind when he went to become a monk. They had only exchanged
62In the case of the Rokkaku-do,that structural
permanenceis emphasized in an
miracle
The
does
move
later.
When the capital was being
interesting
story.
temple
built aroundthe temple, it lay right in the middle of a plannedroadway.One night a
horriblestorm struck at the area. The next morning revealed that the temple, during
the night, had moved itself out of the way of the construction(p. 128). If necessary,
the temple can move itself with divine power.
63 Sometimes a founder's hall (kaisand6) marks the site of the hut. The original
kaisando of Kiyomizudera,for example, was supposedly moved from the old capital
of Nagaoka to Kiyomizuderato honor Gy6ei the ascetic and the priest Enchin. The
first patron, Saka no Ue Tamauramar6was responsible for this. See Kiyomizudera,
Kiyomizudera(Kyoto: Benrido, n.d.). This is a contemporarycolor picture guide of
the temple in English.
64The tale recorded in the Saikoku reij6ki varies from the dates given by other
sources. Sawa Ryfken has it founded in 1029. The temple's own pamphletmakes
the same claim. See Sawa, Saikokujunrei: sanjisankasho Kannon meguri (Tokyo:
Shakaishis6sha, 1970), 192. See also Yoshiminedera,"Nishiyama Yoshiminedera"
(Kyoto: YoshiminederaPublishedPamphlet,1987).
411
letters. Then one day a letter came from her begging him to see her
one last time before she passed away. He took off his priestly robes,
dressed himself in an ordinary haori, and descended the mountain.
Now calling himself by his childhood name, he went to his mother
as a devoted son, and took care of her until she finally died. Then, he
put on his Buddhist robes again, and performed her funeral service. On
his return to Mount Hiei, "on the road," he reflected:
"It's really a floating world (ukiyo) of impermanence(muj6). Up until now,
for months I have received letters from my mother. Despite the fact that she
correspondedwith me then, from now on, that will no longer be. Oh, even my
mother,where could she be among the six courses and four existences (rokudO
shisho)? Now I'll nevermeet her again,and my fate will also be like this. It's hard
to know whatthe futureholds, even on the morrow.Now I am returningto Mount
Hiei. Even if I am called a greatchief prelate(dais6j6), what's it all for anyway!
The only thing that'sreally importantis the next life." He felt the impermanence
of life keenly, and felt no inclinationto returnto Mount Hiei. He immediately
built a thatchedhut (shiba no iori o musubu),chanted only the nembutsu,and
contemplatedthe world. One time when he was looking up at [Yoshimine]peak,
he noticed the strangeappearanceof a purplecloud floating aroundit. When he
climbed up to see, therewas neithera buddhanor a hall. However,because of the
auspicioussign (zuigen)of the purpleclouds, he thought,"This,then, is a reichi"
and he lived at thatplace.65
In Gensan's case, he found a permanent refuge from the rokudo at

Yoshimine. It is an abode of Kannon where he could directly attain salvation. The ambiance of Kannon's place is emphasized in the didactic
exegesis of Yoshiminedera's pilgrimage poem-prayer (goeika):
No o mo sugi/yamaji ni mukau/Ameno sora
Yoshimineyorimo/haruruyuudachi
Passing throughthe fields, I head towardthe
mountainpath,underneatha rainysky
65K6y6 and
Tsujimoto, Saikoku reij6ki, 139-40. It is interestingto note that this

versionof the engi is completely differentfrom thatrecordedby ShimizutaniZensh6
in his Kannonnofudasho to densetsu.In this version,his mother,who gufferedterribly
duringthe birth, abandonshim by the roadside, where he is found and rearedby a
monk (77-8). Many otherexamplesof coming to rest can be cited, such as the Katsuoji engi (SR-23), the Nakayamaderaengi (SR-24), and the Jion-ji engi (BR-12).
412
MarkW.MacWilliams
The evening shower clears
from the good peak (Yoshimine)66
Tsujimoto Kitei, the eighteenth century compiler/redactorof the

Saikokureijoki,interpretsthis poem-prayeras a Buddhistallegory for
existence:
Although "passing throughthe fields" is passing throughthe fields on the path
to Yoshimine, that's not really what it means. As for us human beings - the
place at the end of our lives when we move towarddeathis an empty road.It's an
empty field where one knows neither east nor west. There are black mountains
on this overgrownplain. This locale is called the mountainleading to the other
world (shide no yama). It is a mountain five hundredyojanas in height. From
behind you, bull- and horse-headeddevils chase afteryou up this mountain.The
mountainwith its swords pierces your body. Of the people passing throughthis
plain and mountain,those who are extremely good or extremelyevil do not pass
through. The fate of extremely good beings is to meet instantly with Amida,
Kannon, Seishi, and the thirty-fivebodhisattvas.They climb onto the lotus of
Kannon,and instantlyare takento paradise(gokuraku).Furthermore,evil beings
who have killed othersandparentsare instantlymade to ride the fire wagons that
the bull- and horse-headed-devilshave broughtthere.They shove them head first
into hell.67
The site of Gensan's mountain hut has a paradoxicalsymbolism

in this passage. It is on the dark road of death to the next life, a
shide no yama.68Doubtless this image partakesof the pre-Buddhist
image of the realm of death as a place like the "pass of Yomi"in the
Kojikiand the Izumofudoki, a view that Steven Heine suggests "was
characterizedby a sense of spatialityin seeing the land of death as a
spatialextension of this worldthatis accessibleby crossinga boundary
66 K6y6 and Tsujimoto,Saikokureijoki, 141.
67Ibid., 141.
68The notion of mountainsas abodes of the dead has a
long historyin the Japanese

For
a
discussion
the
tradition.
of
shide
no
religious
yama, see Hori, Folk Religion,
151-2. An example of a descent at death (raigo) of Amida and Kannon,without any
mention of the shide no yama, is given in Genshin's 6j6y6sha, in Ishida Mizumaro,
ed., Genshin,Nihon shis6 taikei, vol. 6 (1970), 53.
413
in an actualplace."69But thereis also an opposite image of Yoshimine

here as the "Good Peak,"girt as it is with its purple clouds that lies
above the evening storm.Yoshimine'sflat garan spatially symbolizes
that escape from the steep, and dangerousmountainpaths that all in
samsaramust pass through.It is a place of light above the darkness,a
place of transcendenceabove the plain of life and death in which we
normallymove. It is a place where one can meet Amida, Kannon,and
Seishi, and rest on Kannon'slotus, to be spiritedoff the path of death
and rebirth,particularlyin one of the lower hells. Here the mountain
takes on "such divine qualities as eternity,power, or stability, as in
the case of Mount Sumeru,representingthe stability of the Buddha's
body" which becomes immovablewhen the EnlightenedOne entered
the deeperlevels of meditation.70
It is also importantto note thatthe sacredstabilityof the hut/temple's
location reflects not only Buddhistcosmological and paradisiacalnotions, but also reflects an essential trait of Kannon,a trait that marks
the bodhisattvaoff fromthe sufferingsentientbeings traversingthe six
courses. In the poem-prayerof the Tsubosakaengi, for instance, the
site of Hoon Shamiis describedas,
Iwa o tate/ mizuo tataete/ Tsubosakano
Niwa no isago mo/J6do naru ran.
Standingrocks, filled with water,Tsubosaka's
Sandgardenis the PureLand!
The didactic section explains that "'standing rock' means that

nothing is so superior, harder, or as immovable as a rock. Even
large trees and houses are moved by the wind. Kannon'svow is like
a rock. It does not sway even a little. 'Filled with water' means
Kannon's vow is deep. If so, then, the sand garden at Tsubosaka
looks like the Pure Land."71Here the immovable rocks and still
69Steven Heine, "From Rice Cultivationto Mind Cultivation:The
Meaning of
in
30
397.
Impermanence JapaneseReligion,"History of Religions (1991),
70Ichiro Hori, Folk Religion, 144. See also, The Buddha-Karitaof Asvaghosha,in
E.B. Cowell, BuddhistMahayanaTexts,162.
71
K6y6 and Tsujimoto,Saikokureijoki,48.
414
Mark W.MacWilliams
cool waters of Tsubosakabecome a temple garden according to the

Buddhist perspective. Moreover, this garden space - and I would
argue any Kannon temple's space describedin the tales - discloses
the steadfastnessand depthof Kannon'svow of compassionto save all
beings. This eternalvow to free us fromthe terrorsof the rokudoin the
Final Age is what makes Kannontemples a pilgrim's goal according
to the eighteen centuryKannontemple tales.
It is significantthateven Ch6mei, in his "Accountof My Hut,"finds
himself abandoninghis transienthut on occasion to take a "longer
walk." On these occasions, he visits the temples where the itinerant
ascetics Roben and Daikoku had built their huts centuries earlier to
enshrine their miraculousicons. Even Ch6mei gets off the sorrowful
road of birth and death by stopping at "the temple of Kannon of
the ThousandArms" at Iwama and "the famous temple of Ishiyama
by Lake Biwa," temples twelve and thirteen on the Saikoku route.
It is these temple sites, which became the popular focus of Kannon
JapaneseBuddhistpilgrimagein Ch6mei'stime, thatcontinueto serve
as stable centers of the bodhisattva'ssalvationfrom transmigrationto
the presentday.
Department of Religious Studies
MARK MACWILLIAMS
St. LawrenceUniversity
Canton,New York 13617-1475, USA
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BEGINNING OF RELIGION
INA WUNN
Summary
In the last two decades, the study of Palaeolithic religion has come to be of increasingconcern to both scholarsof the history of religion and archaeologists.In this
paper the appropriatenessof some recent views in the interpretationof the archaeological findings is re-evaluated.The conclusion of this study is that neither evidence
of early ritualpractisesnor of belief in an afterlifecan be endorsed.All relevantconceptions of thatkind are either productsof a certainmental climate at the time of the
discovery of the fossils, or of ideologies. The resultsof palaeanthropologicalresearch
prove that none of the early representativesof the genus Homo was capable of developing a complicatedsymbol system. Only in the middle Palaeolithicperiod Homo
neanderthalensishad developedadvancedintellectualabilities.But neitherin connection with his huntingcustoms nor with his domestic activities can any traces of cult
practicebe found. Only the rareburialscan be interpretedas a first sign of religious
feelings. But there are no funeralritualsor funeralgifts. All assumptionsthat Neanderthalman alreadybelieved in an afterlife, are mere speculation.Theories of rituals
duringthe lower and middle Palaeolithicbelong to the realmof legend.
The search for the origin of religion was one of the main topics
of discussion during the first half of the twentieth century. It was
Johannes Maringer who interpreted the archaeological findings of
stone-age cultures as a possible indication of early belief in supreme
beings.1 Whenever the question of prehistoric religion arises in recent
publications, authors still refer to Johannes Maringer or one of his
contemporaries2 to emphasise their particular point of view.3
When Johannes Maringer initially set out to portray the belief
system of prehistoric man, he was well aware that knowledge about
Maringer1956.
2 James 1957, Narr 1966: 298-320.
3 See for example Verkamp1995: 5, and Dickson 1990.
Koninklijke
NUMEN, Vol. 47
418
Ina Wunn
early hominids was hardly sufficient to attempt a reconstructionof

theirreligion.4Since then, however,a vast amountof literaturedealing
with early religion or the origin of religion has been published.
Whereas Johannes Maringer carefully interpretedthe findings and
criticised the documentationof the excavations, his successors are
convinced that religion came into being with the birth of the first
hominids several million years ago. Their theories are based upon
rare archaeologicalmaterial,interpretedwith the aid of ethnographic
analogues. The use of ethnographicanalogues in prehistoricresearch
is, however, a source of heated debate. The archaeologist Andr6
Leroi-Gourhanemphasises the difficulties encounteredin tracingthe
religion of a society of which only material remnants remain. It
is even more complicated to gain insight into the mentality of a
people whose cultureis hardlydocumentedand only scarcelyknown.5
On the other hand, scholars such as Peter Ucko and Lewis Binford
extensively discuss the value of ethnographicanaloguesto explainthe
behaviour of early hunter-gatherercommunities.6They have failed,
however,to develop a set of mutuallyagreed-uponresearchguidelines
and definitions that will clarify analytic approachesto the subject.7
Thereforescholars continue to use ethnographicanalogies to explain
possible belief systems of early man without the necessary critical
distance. As a result, the presumed religion in Palaeolithic times
partlyresemblesthe mentalityof arctic peoples, and partlyresembles
the belief of Australianaborigines, according to the experience and
researchinterestsof the scholar.8The sparse archaeologicalmaterial
itself hardlyallows precise interpretation.Sometimesthere are several
possible ways to explain the remains, sometimes nothing can be
said about the context of the archaeological findings. Despite the
4 See Maringer1956: 298.
5 Leroi-Gourhan1981.
6 Binford 1984, Ucko 1977.
7 For a
recentlydeveloped guideline, see Wunn2000 (in press).
8 MirceaEliade,for
example, is convincedthatarcticshamanismwas as muchpart
of the Palaeolithicbelief system as the rites of pygmies; see Eliade 1978: 19.
Beginningof Religion
419
controversialdiscussions among archaeologists, it seems to be an

acceptedfact in the field of History of Religion that Palaeolithicman
had a specific religion.9 They performed rituals related to hunting
and believed in a master of animals. They buried the dead and
acknowledged a life after death. On the other hand, due to traces
of cannibalism, they are assumed to have been wild and primitive.
Modem archaeologistsand palaeanthropologistsare more cautious in
their interpretations.They describe only fossils and excavations and
hardly ever venture to comment on the mentality of their object of
research.10
1. Religion of Australopithecus,Homo rudolfensisand Homo
habilis
While scholars such as Ioan Couliano or MarijaGimbutasassume
thatthereis no actualproof of religious activity before 60 000 B.C.,11
Mircea Eliade is convinced that even the first hominids had a certain
spiritualawareness.For him it is essential that the uprightpostureof
Australopithecuswas the decisive step beyond the status of mere primates.Thereforethis early genus of hominidsis believed to have had a
sense of consciousness which differsonly slightly from thatof modem
humans.For MirceaEliade it is proventhatbothAustralopithecusand
the first species of the genus Homo were successful hunters.He takes
for grantedthatthese early hominidswere alreadyfamiliarwith rituals
communities.12
thatare typical of recenthunter-gatherer
The commonly accepted startingpoint for prehistoricalreligion is
believed to have been about 6 million years ago, when the common
ancestor of modem apes and human beings lived somewhere in the
African bush. The fossil remnantsof this common ancestor, a true
missing link in the evolution of man, has not been discovered until
9 See, for
example, Gimbutas 1987: 505-515, Heyden 1987: 127-133, RipinskiNaxon 1995: 43-54 and Otte 1995: 55-75.
10Henke and Rothe 1994.
1 See Eliade and Couliano 1991: 27, and Gimbutas1996: 3f.
12Eliade 1978: 15.
420
Ina Wunn
recently. However, the finding of a new African hominid species

in 1994, considered to be at least 4.4 million years old, is closest
to approachingthe roots of the human phylogenetic tree. This new
species was firstidentifiedas Australopithecusramidus,but according
to the latest anatomical studies it seems to belong to a different
genus, Ardipithecus.13Ardipithecusramidusis probablythe ancestor
of the so-called australopithecines,who lived in wooded environments
of eastern and southernAfrica.14During the following two million
years, the australopithecinesdeveloped into several species, which
disappeared in part after a comparatively short period. Only one
species, most probablythe Australopithecusafarensis, developed into
the first member of the Homo lineage. Even the first membersof the
early genus Homo show considerablevariabilityin size and shape, so
that they now have been classified as three different species, Homo
habilis, who is at the beginning of the phylogenetic tree of the genus
Homo, H. rudolfensis, and finally H. ergaster, the ancestor of the
modem human.15
As a result of the latest researchin palaeoanthropology(morphology and anatomy) it is impossible to maintainthat Australopithecus
and the early representativesof the species Homo pursuedthe nutrition strategyof hunters.When Raymond Dart published his biological analysis of a childlike skull found in the area of Taung in 1925,
he discoveredcertainanatomicalfeatureswhich made it necessaryfor
him to classify the unknownspecies as a new biological taxon.16AustralopithecusafricanusDART 1925 held, in biological terms, an intermediate position between the well-known apes and the genus Homo.
These anatomical features of the skull, and thereforethe brain, are,
however,not linked to intellectualabilities, meaning that the bipedalism of the younger Australopithecuscould lead to a change of con13Henke and Rothe 1999: 143ff.
14The
phylogenetic tree of Austalopithecusand Ardipithecusis still a main topic
of discussion among scientists. See Henke and Rothe 1999: 143ff.
15Straitet al. 1997: 17ff.;Henke and Rothe 1999: 177.
16See Henke and Rothe 1994: 248.
421
sciousness. First assumptions,thatAustralopithecusknew how to use

fire, were based on a false interpretationof the facts. The blackish
patches, which were originally interpretedas traces of fire, were attributableto manganicdiscoloration.The hypothesis that these early
hominidsmainly fed on meat, had to be revised. The fossil accumulations of bones found in certainplaces of the South African savannah
were causedby lions andhyenas.Froma palaeanthropologicalpoint of
view it is impossible thatthe differentspecies of Australopithecuswith
their low brain volume of 310 ccm up to 530 ccm were able to think
in abstractterms. It is true that early hominids pursuedthe strategy
of progressive brain developmentand therefore managed to occupy
a new ecological niche as carrion-eaters.This strategyproved to be
quite successful duringthe firststeps of the evolutionof man, but does
not mean thatAustralopithecus,Homo rudolfensis,Homo ergasterand
Homo habilis had necessarilybetterintellectualfacilities thanmodem
day chimpanzees.17From a differentpoint of view, the archaeologist
StephenMithencomes to the same conclusion:He pleads for a certain
model of the mind's developmentduringevolution,deducedfrom evolutionaryand developmentalpsychology.18Hominidsas well as young
childrenseem to have intuitiveknowledge in four fundamentalbehaviouraldomains.Content-richmental modules provideyoung children,
andprobablyour ancestors,with certainabilities, such as social intelligence,19intuitivebiological knowledge,20technicalintelligence,21and
linguistic intelligence. Those domains of the mind determinethe way
a young child starts learningabout language, other minds, and their
naturaland physical surroundings.Duringindividualdevelopmentand
evolutionthe multiple,specialisedintelligences startworkingtogether,
so that knowledge and ideas can flow between the formermodules.22
7 Grzimek 1972: 517, and Goodall 1990.
8 Mithen 1996: 42ff.
19Whiten 1991.
20Atran 1990.
21
Spelke 1991: 133-168.
22Mithen 1996: 64.
422
Ina Wunn
But the ancestorof AustralopithecusandAustralopithecushimself still

had a primitivemind with only powerful general intelligence, a specialised domain of social intelligence and several minor mental modules comparableto the mindof recentapes andmonkeys.23This means
thatAustralopithecuswas absolutelynot capableof performingrites or
developingany religious ideas.
A further crucial step in the direction of hominisation was the
preparationand use of tools by the earliestrepresentativesof the genus
Homo, as Mircea Eliade emphasises. He is convinced that the very
slow advancementof the first lithic cultures is not connected to a
low intelligence.24Eliade takes for grantedthat early humans of the
lower Palaeolithic made their living mainly by hunting. As a result
those early huntersshouldhave developed a referencesystem between
hunterandkilled animal,which firstled to a kind of mythicalsolidarity
between hunterand game and was the origin of religiosity.25
The hypothesisthatearly hominidsalreadywere successful hunters
is attributableto Raymond Dart, who suddenly found himself at the
centre of general critical interest due to his exciting discovery of a
new species.26 Since humans, according to Raymond Dart, are the
only meat-eating primates, his biological conclusions regardingthe
classification of the skull of Taung would be supportedby evidence
of similar behaviour of this early hominid species.27 Therefore, he
looked specifically for fossil bone beds, which he interpretedto be
the remnantsof the prey of Australopithecus.In this context he also
discovered densities close to the bone beds, which he thought to be
traces of fire. Today it is known that those dense areas are merely
manganese discolorations. Dart's thesis seemed to be confirmed by
23Ibid. 94.
24Eliade 1978: 16.
25 Eliade 1978:
16, 17.
26
Many argumentsagainstDart'sclassificationof the "Baby of Taung"are due to
scepticism and envy. Henke and Rothe 1994: 248.
27Also the
hypothesis of Joseph Campbell is based on Dart. See Campbell 1987:
359f.
423
Louis Leakey in the TanzanianOlduvai Gorge, where the famous

anthropologist found remnants of an early hominid, classified as
Zinjanthropus,along with primitivestone tools. Although there were
substantialdoubtsaboutDart'sthesis - how could a delicate creature
weighing approximately45 kg be able to kill the large ungulates
of the African savannah?- Dart's point of view became generally
popularand acceptedin the sixties.28Only intensiveresearchregarding
the behaviour of carnivores and taphonomic and sedimentological
processes made it clear that the fossil bone beds were the results of
differentforces in an ecological system seen as a whole.29The layers
of the findingswere by no means the resultof the activitiesof only one
species and certainlynot of the weak and delicate Australopithecus.
As a result of these investigationsit is certain that the first humans,
includingHomo habilis, fed on fruit, vegetables and carrionand were
not at all able to hunt.30On the contrary,the so-called "Baby of
Taung"had itself become the prey of a predatoryanimal. The first
stone tools, the so-called choppers, did not serve to kill the prey, but
to crack nut-shells and split open the bones of ungulates killed by
lions or hyenas, in order to obtain the precious marrow.That was
the single partof the prey that was left for Australopithecusor Homo
habilis/rudolfensis/ergaster.31
NeitherAustralopithecusnor Homo habilis nor Homo ergaster fits
into the category of a hunter.The mythical solidaritybetween hunter
and victim, claimed by Mircea Eliade for the humans of the lower
Palaeolithic, results from false assumptions.Eliade assumes that intelligence, imagination, and the activity of the subconscious of the
early hominids differedonly slightly from the intellectualabilities of
the modem Homo sapiens. The results of modem palaeoanthropology
28Even in the late seventies and
early eighties the archaeologist Glynn Isaac
advanceda hypothesisconcerninghumanevolutionbased on the assumptionthatearly
Homo consumed a largequantityof meat (Isaac 1978).
29See Binford 1984: 28-57, and Henke and Rothe 1994: 355f.
30Binford 1984: 57, and Schrenk 1997: 49 and 72.
31Henke and Rothe 1999: 187.
424
Ina Wunn
and evolutionarypsychology indicatethatthe intellectualcapabilityof

those early forms of hominids is in no way comparableto that of recent Homo sapiens. As stone tools and remains of meals prove, the
first memberof the genus Homo had developedonly a very small domain for technical intelligence and several tiny mental modules for
interactionwith the naturalworld, but had not yet full naturalhistory
intelligence.32The discrete domain of social intelligence, which the
ancestorof early hominidshad alreadyacquired,developed duringthe
first steps of human evolutioninto a more powerful and complex part
of the mind. Probablyeven a primitivekind of linguistic intelligence
had startedto develop. As Steven Mithen emphasises, the intellectual
capabilityof the Homo habilis group was alreadyhigher than that of
Australopithecus,but nevertheless"little more than an elaborateversion of the mind of the common ancestor."33
ThereforeAustralopitheHomo
and
Homo
cus,
rudolfensis
habilis/ergasterwere at the origin
of a developmentthat encouragedthe growthof hominids by forcing
them to occupy the niche of meat-eaters.They were competitivelysuccessful because they developedthe intellectualfacilities allowing them
to use stone tools to serve theirneeds, butnot to thinkin abstractterms.
Mircea Eliade also assumes that early hominids were able to hunt
successfully.There is no archaeologicalevidence for this assumption.
It is certainthat both Australopithecusand early Homo occupied the
niche of carrion-eaters.Eliade himself was absolutely convinced that
even the first of the hominids had a kind of religion that resembled
in one way or the other the religion of recent hunter-gatherercommunities. He called upon his critics to present evidence on the nonreligiosityof early hominids.34The palaeoanthropologyandevolutionary psychology has since providedthis evidence.
32Mithen 1996: 104ff.
33Ibid. 112.
34Eliade 1978: 17.
425
2. Religiosityof Homo erectusand his Contemporaries

Homo erectus and his immediate descendants were the first hominids who succeeded in leaving the African continent and to settle
almosteverywherein the Old World.35One of the oldest known European fossiles is a jaw of the genus Homo, discoveredamong the pebbles on the banksof the Neckarriverat the village of MauernearHeidelberg. This jaw of Homo erectus heidelbergensisis approximately
650000 to 600000 years old.36Geologically the find belongs to the
periodof Cromer.This is a period between two long-lastingice-ages,
the Giinz- and the Mindel-periods,when a relativelywarmclimate enabled humansto occupy new habitats.Primitivestone tools from the
NeuwiederBecken and the latest excavationsat Burgos in Spain prove
thatthe Europeancontinentwas inhabitedat least 800 000 yearsago, or
even earlier.Informationon the life style of Homo erectus could only
be gainedfromexcavationsat Bilzingsleben, where an early settlement
of Homo erectus could be found. Geologically Bilzingsleben belongs
to the Holsteinperiod.This means thatthe findingsat this place are not
only 200 000 years youngerthan the jaw from Mauer,but completely
independentof the firstappearanceof a specimenof Homo erectusas a
resultof an entireice-age. This periodled to a characteristicchange of
floraand fauna,which formedthe landscapeand ecosystem duringthe
35The oldest humanfossil of
Europe was detected in 1994 in the Gran Dolina of
in
These
humans
are about780 000 years old. These hominids,
Atapuerca Spain.
early
named Homo antecessor, seem to differ significantly from the well known (Asian)
Homo erectus and the AfricanHomo ergaster, which means that the early hominids
of Africa, Asia and Europebelong to differentspecies. Several scientists emphasise
the following phylogenetictree:Homo antecessor developed from the AfricanHomo
ergaster and succeeded to settle in Europe. Here he became the ancestor of Homo
heidelbergensis,who himself developed into the EuropeanHomo neanderthalensis.
See Henke and Rothe 1999: 204-217.
36The remnantsof four individualsof the species Homo antecessor, which were
detected at the excavation site "La Gran Dolina" near Burgos, belong to the eldest
membersof the genus Homo in Europe. An isolated skull, found near Isneria, Italy,
is nearlyas old. Earlytools from Francehave an age of between one million and two
million years and prove thatEuropewas inhabitedvery early.
426
Ina Wunn
first conquest of Europeby a hominid. The distance in time between

the findingsof MauerandBilzingslebenis reflectedin the development
of the culture.While the tools of Homo erectus heidelbergensiswere
still simple handaxes, the Homo erectus bilzingslebensis was already
capableof manufacturingdevelopedweapons andtools. Theoretically,
this made him capableof huntingfor game.
AnatomicallyH. erectus bilzingslebensiswas more developed than
his predecessor.Thereforethe way of life of H. erectusheidelbergensis
must have been even simpler and less advanced.37The excavationof
the settlement at Bilzingsleben provides insight into the way of life
of the younger Homo erectus. The archaeological findings of early
manprove the following facts: At Bilzingsleben a small groupof early
humanscamped at the shore of a small lake in not more than two or
three tents. Here they seemed to have occasionally hunted a beaver
or other small animals. Their stone tools were suitable for hunting
smaller prey, whereas no weapon was found which would have been
effective enough to kill an elephantor a bison. The distributionof the
elements of the fauna supportsthis point of view.38Additionallythey
may have fed on the corpses of dead animals which were probably
foundfrequentlyalong the shore of the lake. Surelyelephantandrhino
bones, which were found at the working sites and served as support
or work material, originatedfrom dead animals that were not killed
by H. erectus bilzingslebensis. One could conclude that they also ate
fish, eggs and vegetables, and that the food was most likely cooked.
The people of Bilzingsleben were alreadyaware of a certain code of
social behaviour and it is also clear that there was some degree of
emotionalexchange between certainmembersof the group. Thereare
no indications of any religious activities. The comparison of Homo
erectus bilzingslebensis with recent hunter-gatherercommunities is
not convincing due to the following facts: The popular belief that
H. erectus successfully huntedlargergame, has been disproved.Many
of the findings of fossil bone beds which were said to be due to
37See Henke and Rothe 1994: 407f.
38Mania and Weber 1986: 20ff.
427
the hunting activities of the H. erectus are in the near vicinity of

watering places. Here the ungulates frequently became the prey of
predatoryanimals. Analysis of the individual age of the bones of
fossil mammalsat Bilzingslebenand otherPalaeolithicsettlementsled
to the conclusion that many of those animals died naturally.39The
first evidence that at least the younger Homo erectus was capable of
huntinglargerprey came from Schoningennear Helmstedt,Germany,
where a wooden spear about 1.5 meters long was found in a hunting
camp inhabitedabout 400 000 years ago.40Homo erectus had a brain
volume which was still quite small compared to the brain of recent
Homo sapiens. Only the younger H. erectus is supposed to have
been capable of verbal communication,as anatomicalinvestigations
have proven. Though there is no direct relationship between brain
volume and intelligence, behaviour or certain abilities, scholars are
convincedthatH. erectuswas quite primitivecomparedto H. sapiens,
as the archaeologicalfindings related to his culture have revealed.41
The results of evolutionarypsychology seem to prove the following
facts: Obviously technical skills increaseddramaticallyover those of
H. habilis. Natural history intelligence and social intelligence were
also well developed. On the other hand the technical conservatism
of Homo erectus over a period of about one million years is striking.
The only explanationfor this contradictoryevidence is to assume that
the well developed multiple intelligences of the H. erectus were still
committedto specific domainsof behaviour,with very little interaction
betweenthem.42Thinkingandcommunicationin abstractterms,which
are essential for religious awareness,probablydevelopedquite late.
Though excavationslike the camp of Bilzingsleben, Markleeberg,
Karlichor Bad Cannstadtand the resultsof archaeologicalpsychology
do not supportthe hypothesisthat early man performedany religious
rites, and though the discussion of palaeanthropologicalfacts prove
40Thieme 1997: 807-810.
41 See Henke andRothel994: 424.
42Mithen 1996: 115ff.
428
Ina Wunn
that H. erectus was not at all capable of performingcomplicatedrituals, it is still the opinion among scholars of the History of Religion
and severalarchaeologiststhatritualcannibalismwas common among
earlyhumanpopulations.Thus AlfredRust writes:"Uniquefindsfrom
Asia prove that cannibalismwas exercised in the whole world."43Alfred Rust refers to finds of Homo erectus in the caves of Zhoukoudian
which reveal many similaritiesto Bilzingsleben.44While Alfred Rust
is convinced that the presence of several "smashed"human skulls is
a clear sign of ritual cannibalism,JohannesMaringerpresumesthat
skulls andlowerjaws are the remnantsof the deceasedwhich hadbeen
kept and worshippedby their family. Similarcustoms are still evident
amongmembersof primitiveculturesin Africa or Asia.45The palaeanthropologistsWinfriedHenke and HartmutRothe express strongand
justified doubt about this assertion.The analysis of several craniums
of early man gave evidence that the destructionof the skulls was due
to the activities of ancienthyena and normaltaphonomicprocesses.46
The archaeologistAndr6Leroi-Gourhanhad alreadynoted in the sixties: "Theconditionsof the formerexcavationsof ChouKouTienmake
it difficultto even find a map of the site of skulls. The skulls were extractedfrom solid limestone and not even one of them is near to being
complete. After decomposinginto tiny sections, they enteredthe generalcategoryof the animalremains.It is difficultto understandhow the
myth of head-collecting Sinanthropuscould have assumed a definite
form."47Anothervictim of such prejudiceis KarlDietrichAdam with
his hypothesis that the skull of Homo erectus steinheimensisshows
traces of having been subjected to postmortalmanipulations.48The
destructionof the base of the skull is his only criterionfor the hypothesis that stone-age man was frequentlythe victim of ritualprac43Rust 1991: 175.
44Ibid. 178.
45Maringer1956: 64-71.
46Rust 1991: 178f., and Henke and Rothe 1994: 428.
47Leroi-Gourhan1981: 49.
48Adam 1991: 218.
429
tices. Between the death of the individual and the later recovery of
the fossil, a numberof taphonomicprocesses take place, which have
significanteffects on the later fossil. One of those effects is the modificationof organicmatterand its decay, the assortmentor destruction
of hard sections as well as sedimentologicalprocesses. Andr6LeroiGourhanwas able to show thatthe craniumand lowerjaws are usually
well preserved.Thereforeit is only due to taphonomicprocesses that
these individualbody parts survive, and not at all due to human acIn this connectionit is necessary
tivities or postmortalmanipulation.49
to emphasise that scholarscan only come to a decision based on a series of complex investigationsusing a scanning electron microscope,
as to whetherscratcheson fossil bones are due to violence caused by
a stone tool or the teeth of a predatoryanimal. Since there are no archaeological findingsfor the entire Palaeolithicor Neolithic period to
prove the opening of the skull by humans, none of the speculations
about possible cult practiceconnected with human skulls is based on
facts.50
3. Religion in the MiddlePalaeolithic
From an anthropologicalpoint of view, the Europeanmiddle Palaeolithicis characterisedby Homoneanderthalensis.51This earlyformof
Homo sapiens or descendantof Homo heidelbergensislived over a pe49Leroi-Gourhan1981: 45, 55.
50
Experimentswith animal bones have shown that scratches made by stone tools
are absolutely equal to scratchescaused by sand. Those scratches occur frequently
during the process of embedding.It is still difficult to distinguishbetween traces of
humanactivities and traces of animalbites. An examinationis only possible with the
help of a scanning electronmicroscope.See Henke and Rothe 1994: 20-24.
51The so-called
Neanderthal-problemis, however, a source of heated debate.
Only ten years ago many palaeanthropologistswere convinced that Neanderthal
man belonged to our species H. sapiens. His characteristicfeatures were supposed
to be due to the extreme climate of the ice-age. In the meantime most scientists
have been convinced that Homo neanderthalensisdeveloped directly from Homo
heidelbergensis, while the moder Homo sapiens developed during the same time
in Africa and conqueredEuropeabout40 000 years ago. See Henke and Rothe 1994:
433ff., and Henke and Rothe 1999: 272f.
430
Ina Wunn
riod of nearly 100 000 years, duringwhich the landscape,climate and

living conditionschanged dramatically.These environmentalchanges
might have contributedto the special anatomicalfeaturesof the Neanderthalman. Surely the need to adaptto a frequentlychanginghabitat
forced H. neanderthalensisto develop socioculturalabilities thatwere
closely relatedto the progressiveevolutionof intelligence andpsychological abilities.52The frequentenvironmentalchangesto whichH. neanderthalensishad to adaptmade life immensely challenging. In the
warmerand humid periods of the Eem period, dense forests covered
the landscape.Populationmigrationwas only possible in the valleys.
The fauna consisted of elephant,deer, stag, aurochs,bear and others.
Sufficientfood-supplyin the direct surroundingsallows one to believe
thatNeanderthalman was relativelystationaryduringthis climaticperiod. The excavated settlementof Weimar-Ehringsdorfwas inhabited
during this time. During the initial phase of cooler climate the flora
changed.Fir and pine trees were common andformed largeandhumid
forests. The winters were cold and snow was plentiful; even in summertime the temperatureremainedlow. Not only non-migratinganimals were huntedby Neanderthalman; herds of reindeer,wild horse,
bison and mammothprovidedsufficientopportunityfor hunting.During the coldest periods the forests disappeared,and made room for
52 Steven Mithen
emphasises that natural history intelligence, technical intelli-
gence, social and linguistic intelligence of Neanderthalman were all well developed,
but there was still a lack of interactionbetween the four domains of the mind. Cognitive fluiditytook place only between the domains of social and linguistic intelligence
(Mithen 1996:143 and 147ff.) The authorof this articlehas a differentopinion.In general the lithic cultureof Neanderthalman is the Mousterian,which is still simple comparedto the technology of the upperPalaeolithic.On the other handthe lithic cultures
are not strictlyrelatedto the one or the other humanspecies. Homo neanderthalensis
too was found togetherwith the more advancedtools of the upperPalaeolithic,while
Homo sapiens was found with the simple tools of the Mousterianculture.Therefore
direct connections between a certain human species and its lithic culturecannot be
proved.The technical skills of the younger H. neanderthalensisand early H. sapiens
obviously did not differ.Thatmeans thatthereis no palaeanthropologicalevidencefor
the assumptionof fundamentaldifference between the minds of H. neanderthalensis
and H. sapiens (Henke and Rothe 1999: 275, Reynolds 1990: 263ff).
431
prairiesand tundra.The climate became dry with extremelycold winters and relatively mild, but short summers.The prairieswere full of
game which migratedwith the seasons.53
The Magic of Huntingin the Middle Palaeolithic
The huntingactivities of the Palaeolithicman, which MirceaEliade
and otherscholarstake for granted,are only able to be provedwith reference to laterperiods of ice-age. At the town of Lehringennear Verden an der Aller the skeleton of an elephant had been preservedthat
had been killed with the aid of a wooden spear,found between the ribs
of the animal.This is impressiveevidence of the fact thatHomo neanderthalensiswas able to successfully hunt big game. Thereforeit can
be assumedthatMirceaEliade'sprecise conceptionsof religionduring
prehistorictimes may at least be correctwith regardto the people of the
Mousterian.He describesthis religion as "magic-religiousconceptions
of Palaeolithicman" as follows.54The documentsregardingthe religion of the Palaeolithicman are obscure,he says, but available.Their
meaning can be decipheredif the scholar succeeds in inserting these
documentsinto a semantic system.55This semantic system is already
commugiven by the resultsof investigationsof recenthunter-gatherer
nities. Their similarlifestyle offers sufficientcertaintyfor identical or
very similarreligions of recenthunter-gatherersand Palaeolithicman.
ThereforeHomo neanderthalensisbelieved that the animal is a being
quite similar to man, but talented with supernaturalforces. He was
convincedthatgods such as the "Masterof the Animals"or "Supreme
Being" existed. The kill of the animal took place after a complicated
ritual. On the other hand rites must have existed, which were linked
with a skull-cultand deposits of long bones. Similarly,Ioan Couliano
argues that, "either similar models of well-known primitivepeoples
are referredto, or one dispenses with any model. The Historyof Religion can only use the first option, as imperfectas it may be. Scholars
53See Henke and Rothe 1994: 525.
54Eliade 1978: 15ff.
55Ibid. 18.
432
Ina Wunn
have to endeavourto decipherthe mental horizonof the people of prehistoric times by using the results of ethnographicand archaeological
studies."56JohnCampbellconcludesfrom the mythsof known peoples
that there must be close connections between the religions of Palaeolithic man and recent hunter-gatherers.The following conviction is
both preconditionand result of his investigations:"I find that its main
resulthas been its confirmationof a thoughtI have long and faithfully
entertained:of the unity of the race of man, not only in its biology but
also in its spiritualhistory."57He proves his assumptionwith the help
of a comparison.Underthe title "The Stage of NeanderthalMan"the
readerfinds the detaileddescriptionof the life habits of the small and
delicate Negritos of the AndamanIslands in the Gulf of Bengal, but
Campbellfails to provethe connectionsbetween the habits of a people
of recent tropicalAsia and an anatomicallydifferentprehistoricpeople which lived in boreal climates 100 000 years ago.58Anotherargument of JohnCampbell'sis foundedon archaeologicalfacts. The stone
blades of the Mousterian(the materialcultureof Neanderthalman is
mainly Mousterian)are still very similar, a wider range of different
tools was unknown at that time. This means, for Campbell, that the
custom of tool-makingwas carefully handed down from one generation to another,comparablyto customsof recentbushmanculture.This
extraordinaryattentionis due to a certain feeling of the holy, which
was connectedwith the manufacturingand use of the tool.59The passing on of Palaeolithicreligion to religions of recent hunter-gatherer
communitiesserves as a proof that the myths of recent peoples originatedin the Palaeolithicandhave been handeddown till today without
any changes. This means that Joseph Campbellconstructeda typical
circularargument.Today's behavioursand myths are taken as proof,
in order to postulatethe existence of the same behavioursand myths
as practisedby Palaeolithicman. Then the postulateitself is taken as
56Eliade andCouliano: 1991: 27.
57Campbell 1987: v.
58Ibid. 365ff.
59 Ibid. 364f.
433
a voucher to prove the unchangedexistence of those myths from the

Palaeolithicup to now.
The opinion that Palaeolithicman alreadyhad a complicatedreligion, with certainnotions of the holy and variousrituals,can be found
in nearly every religious reference work. Fritz Hartmannwrites for
example:"Themagic of the huntbelongs to this typically humanconception of the world."60
Even if the consequencesdrawnfrom the archaeologicallysecured
facts in the past seem frequentlyexaggerated,several sentences in the
volume of JohannesMaringerexplain the intentionof the authors.It
was the commonstatementthatprehistoricman was a merebeast without a developed mind that made the opponentsof this point of view
which are no longer defendablein the light
look for counter-arguments
of modem researchresults.61The use of ethnographicanalogies to reconstructprehistoricreligion is based on a specific understandingof
the evolution of religion. In the nineteenthcentury CharlesDarwin's
theory of biological evolution influenced nearly all branchesof science. In the fields of the study of religion and anthropology,scholars
like EdwardBurnettTyloror James George Frazerdevelopedconceptions of religious evolution which have strongly determinedresearch
until today. Tylor as well as Frazer were convinced that they could
prove an ascendingdevelopmentof religion from primitiveorigins to
the modem religions of the industrialage. Accordingto this theorythe
religions of recent hunter-gatherercommunities can be classified as
relics from ancienttimes.62This means, on the contrary,thatit is possible to reconstructthe consciousness of ancientpeople with the help
communiof knowledge aboutthe religion of today's hunter-gatherer
ties. However, only a brief insight into the multiplicity of so-called
primitivereligions revealsthattheircontentsand symbols are not similarby any means.Accordingto Max Raphael,the faith-conceptionsof
60Hartmann1957: 403. Among the latest literaturesee, for example, Grim 1998:
1107-1108, and Hultkrantz1998: 746-752.
61
Maringer1956: 59ff.
62Michaels (ed.) 1997: 41-60 and 77-89.
434
Ina Wunn
communitiescannotbe consultedin orderto derecenthunter-gatherer

rive from them a certainbelief of prehistoricman. Even people living
on a relativelyprimitiveeconomical level up to the present day, have
been affected by their past, which has influencedtheir state of mind.
As a result their ideas and religious conceptionschanged in the same
manner as the belief system of modem communities did.63The anthropologistWilhelmEmil Miihlmannacknowledgesthe argumentsof
Max Raphael when he emphasises that all known primitivereligions
are younger than theological religions.64Even if ecological and economical prerequisitesof differentsocieties are the same, they do not
necessarily have the same or a similar belief system, identical rituals,
symbols and practices. HermannSchulz emphasises: "Kulturellauf
das engste verwandteGruppenk6nnen einen religi6s-symbolischund
artefaktreichenRitualismusentwickeln (Sepik-Gebiet)oder innerhalb
der elaboriertenritualsymbolischenMedien tendentiellnichtreligiose,
artefakt-armeProgrammeelaborieren(Kapauku)."65
The argumentsshow that it is by no means sufficient to find proof
for the huntingpracticesof Neanderthalmanin orderto imply any kind
of religion and especially not a definite and well-known religion.
Bear-cult
The existence of the cult of the bear in the middle Palaeolithicperiodis takenfor granted.Ake Hultkrantzwrites:"Die Kulturendes ark63Max Raphael writes: "Man hat diese Schwierigkeit umgehen wollen durch
Heranziehenvon Aussagen sogenannterprimitiverKulturv6lker.Diese nur in sehr
engen Grenzenm6gliche Analogie iibersieht,daBauchdiese Stammeeine Geschichte
gehabt haben - eine regressive statt der progressivender Kulturvolker.Es liegt ein
unberechtigtesVorurteilin der Annahme der Einfrierungdes Gewesenen; denn die
'Primitiven' finden sich, selbst wo sie auf dem Stadium der Jagdwirtschaftstehen
geblieben sind, mit den alten Werkzeugen und Waffen einer anderen Umgebung
gegeniiber:die starken,den Einzelmenschenan MachtigkeittiberragendenTiere sind
ersetztdurchwesentlich kleinereund schwichere" (Raphael1978: 78).
64Mihlmann 1957: 1198.
65 Schulz 1993: 189.
435
tischen Raumes sind Bruchstiickeeiner palaolithischenJagdkultur."66

FriedrichHeiler67refers to similarideas as those expressedby Joseph
Campbell, who describes the cult of the bear in an interesting,but
hardlywell-groundedmanner.First Campbellrefers to a bear-festival
among the Ainu. After the killing of the capturedbear and duringthe
ceremonies,the skull of the animal is put at the top of a long stick.68
In a second step Campbell portraysNeanderthalman in impressive
terms: "... when the remains of a strangely brutish yet manlike skele-
ton were found in a limestone quarrynot far from Diisseldorf, in the

The following descriptionsshortly mention the
Valley of Neander."69
caves of the Alps, where the remains of the bears were detected. The
excavatorshad the impressionthatthe arrangementof the fossil bones
could hardlybe due to nature,so they attributedthis to the activities
of H. neanderthalensis,who were assumed to have killed the animals
and arrangedtheir bones during certain ceremonies.70It is true that
nearly everywherein the Arctic primitivepeoples know certain rituals connected with the hunting of the bear.71The excavatorsof the
caves, Emil Bachler and KarlHormann,took these ceremonies of circumpolarpeoples to prove their hypothesis of an ancient bear-cultin
prehistorictimes.72In the following years several discoveries of similar bear-cavesseemed to supportthe hypothesis of cave bear worship.
Emil Bachler himself discovered bear bone deposits at the Wildenmannlislochin Switzerlandand in Slovenia's MornovaCave. In 1946
Andr6Leroi-Gourhanexcavatedseven cave bear skulls arrangedin a
circle in FurtinsCave, Sa6ne-et-Loire.In 1950 KurtEhrenbergsecured
66Hultkrantz1998: 751.
67See Heiler 1979: 78.
68Campbell 1987: 334ff.
69Ibid. 339.
70Ibid. 341f.
71Edsman 1957: 841.
72
Maringer1956: 95ff.
436
Ina Wunn
a deposit of long bones arrangedtogetherwith cave bear skulls in the

Salzhofen Cave in the AustrianAlps.73
The latest find of supposed tracesof prehistoriccave bear worship
was published in 1996. In the RumanianBihor-MountainsChristian
Lascu et al. discovered a cave rich in palaeontological cave bear
deposits.74Scholars such as Johannes Maringer or Ake Hultkrantz
refer to the reportsof the excavatorswhen they interpretthe deposits
as the remainderof cult practice.The historianKarlNarralso gives an
accountof the deposits of cave bearskulls and long bones, but remains
sceptical.75
A detaileddiscussionof the findsof cave bearbones from a palaeontological and ethnographicpoint of view led to completely different
results.76The careful and critical use of ethnographicanalogues, on
which the theories of a cave bear cult is founded in the end, leads to
even contraryresults.If H. neanderthalensishad knowncave bearworship, its traces would have been found inside the settlements.The remains of such a cult would havebeen the bone deposits of Neanderthal
man's favourite and most dangerousgame, among which, however,
the bear did not rank. Recent peoples, who know the bear cult, catch
or kill a bear in his winter accommodationand bring it to their settlement. There it is killed and eatenby the villagers underdifferentritual
regulations.The bones of the dead game are put into a holy place or
are carefully buriednear the village, but never broughtback again to
the dwelling of the bear.
The most impressive argumentsagainst cave bear worship come
nevertheless from the bone deposits itself: Crucial palaeontological
objections are to be stated first of all. Both the cave bear (Ursus
spelaeus), which was extinct at the end of the last ice age, and the
brown bear (Ursus arctos), which spread all over Eurasia since the
Eem period, show a strongpreferencefor cave accommodation.There
73 See Lascu et al. 1996: 19-20, and Maringer1956: 91-96.
74 See Lascu et al. 1996.
75Narr 1957: 10.
76Wunn 1999a: 3-23.
437
they hide duringwintertimeand give birth to their young. The caves

where the relics of alleged bear worship were found are the natural
habitat of the animals, where they spend the long winters and hide
their young. At those places the bears sometimes died for several
reasons, for example age, illness, lack of food. Therefore their bone
fossils are bound to be found in those places, if they were not carried
off by carrioneaters or removedby sedimentologicalprocesses. The
occurrenceof cave bearbones in the caves of the ice age, which served
generationsof bear families as shelter,is just what a palaeontologist
would expect.
The proponentsof Palaeolithicbear worship did not only think the
mere occurrence of bear bones in the caves to be remarkable,but
also their alleged assortmentand arrangementin which they were
found. However,therefirsttakes place an amassmentof bear bones in
certainplaces by the activitiesof the bearsthemselves,as Andr6LeroiGourhancorrectly noticed. The parts of skeletons of the deceased
animals, which originally are in their anatomical order, are thrown
in disorderor scatteredby later generationsof bears. Sometimes they
are pressed to the walls, where they are relatively protected against
furtherdecay.77Also the outweighing of skulls and long bones is a
result of a process of naturaldecay and not due to human activities.
The mentionedpartsof the skeleton are relativelyheavy and compact,
so that they are more able to resist decomposition processes than
the small vertebrae,ribs, foot-bones or hand-bones.A result of those
processes is the natural selection of the bone material.78But not
only decomposition influences the state of the bones. During their
history the caves were flooded several times, as the accumulated
sediments prove. Such floodings do not remain without influence on
the fossil material.Withhigh waterlevel and strongercurrentall loose
material is either rinsed away or carried for a certain distance and
then droppedat a place where there is a weaker current.During these
processes the anatomicalbone order is radically altered. Therefore
78
Ziegler 1975: 44-45.
438
Ina Wunn
the accumulationof several skulls in one place and the absence

of otherbones is due to geologicaland sedimentological
processes
andnot to humanintervention.
The floatingabilityof sedimentscan
be reducedby prominentpartsof the walls or unevennessof the
floor,resultingin some bone partsbeing depositedin the proximity
of obstacles.A concreteexampleof this effect is the discoveryof
severalskulls depositedin a crosslikepatternin the Cold Cave of
theBihorMountains.
Theobstacle,whichreducedthetransportability
of the skullscrucially,was a stone, at whichthe fossil skullswere
Just as little as the assortmentof the bone materialis
deposited.79
proof of humanactivities,so the adjustmentof the fossils is an
unnatural
medium,be it wind,
process.Themovementsof a transport
sedimentor water,are transferred
to the materialto be transported,
so thatthe movementin a specialdirectionleads to its assortment.
Thereforethe assortment
of bearskullsis not dueto humanactivities,
but to the flowingwateror othertransportmediumsin the caves.It
cannotbe said clearlyenough:Therewas no cave bear worshipin
the middlePalaeolithicperiodat all. The bearcaves show exactly
whata palaeontologist
wouldexpect.Nothingsuggeststhatthenatural
of
and
sedimentationwas at any time interrupted
or
process decay
disturbed.o8
Combinedburialsof manandcavebear
In connectionwith assumedbear worshipthe opinionwas held
thatsometimesmenandbearwereburiedtogetherin one grave.81
As
evidenceservedtheexcavationsatLe R6gourdou
nearLascaux,where
undera hill of debrisboththeremainsof a bearanda Neanderthal
man
werepreserved.
TheFrencharchaeologist
FabienneMaydemonstrated
that the remainsof the bear bore no connectionwith the human
79See Lascuet al. 1996:30, plate3.
80Wunn1999a:6ff.
81Rust 1986: 15.
439
skeleton, and questionedwhethertherewas a funeralat Le R6gourdou

at all.82
Skull deposits and skull worship.

Just as the bear worshipwas regardedas irrefutablefact, there was
hardly any doubt that Neanderthalman subjected the heads of the
deceased to a special treatmentand set them up for ritual purposes.
Other scholars are convinced that Neanderthalman hunted fellow
humans to kill and eat them.83It is said that the skulls of the killed
later became the focal point of a ritual.This hypothesis is suggested
by loan Couliano: "Einige Schaidelsind in einer Weise verformt,
die den Gedanken an ein Herauslosen des Gehirs nahelegen."84
Alfred Rust expresses himself absolutely clearly: He is sure that the
finds of isolated lower jaws and craniumsare closely connected with
religious customs.85Detailed and criticallyJohannesMaringerargues
the question of the skull cult. He discusses the finds which were
considered as proof of the presence of the alleged practices. There
is, for example, the crushed childlike skull from Gibraltaror the
finds of human remains at Weimar-Ehringsdorfand particularlythe
outstandingfind of the skull of Monte Circeo, which is mentioned
by every authoras evidence of the describedritual practice. Finally
he comes to the following result: "Das Fundbildder Guattari-Grotte
sprichtklar fiir einen Kult, in dessen Mittelpunktder Schiidel stand.
Urspriinglich scheint er auf einem Stock aufgesteckt gewesen zu
sein... Einem heiligen Bannkreisgleich umgab ihn der Kranz von
Steinen.Der ganze H6hlenteilerwecktden Eindruck,als habe er den in
der vorderenH6hle wohnendenUrmenschenals Heiligtumgedient";86
and further,"Die Schiidelsetzungendiirftenaller Wahrscheinlichkeit
nach eine Art Schidelkult darstellen, in dem das Gedaichtnisder
82Ibid. 15.
83Ullrich 1978: 293ff. See also the overview in Henke and Rothe 1999: 277.
84Eliade and Couliano 1991: 28.
85Rust 1991: 194.
86
Maringer1956: 80.
440
Ina Wunn
Verstorbenengepflegtund ihre Hilfe wie auch ihr Schutz fur die Sippe
erflehtwurde."87Even Andre Leroi-Gourhanagrees that the skull of
Monte Circeo is an intentionaldeposition of a skull, but he refuses
to drawany conclusions concerningreligious customs.88On the other
hand he can prove that all other finds of isolated heads or jaws are
the result of taphonomicprocesses.89After a careful re-examination
of the original reports of the excavations, Fabienne May states that
none of the descriptionsof the excavationsis sufficientto confirmor
disprovethe hypothesisof a ritual.90The discoveryof a supposedcult
site at Teshik-Tashin Uzbekistan,where the skull of a child was set up
between severalskulls of ibex, does not prove the hypothesisof a cult.
In this case the remnantsof ibexes and the skull of the child have no
connectionat all.91Since it could be shown thateven the skull deposit
of Monte Circeo was not the result of human activities, but that the
damagesof the skull were due to the work of hungryhyenas, the last
argumentin favourof a skull cult is disproved.92
Cannibalism
Cannibalismhas already been mentioned in connection with the
deposition of human skulls. Andre Leroi-Gourhanexpresses himself as follows: "Die Existenz eines religiosen Kannibalismusim
Palaolithikummag wahrscheinlichsein, doch laBt sich dies bei der
gegenwartigen Materiallage absolut nicht beweisen. Und dennoch
spricht kein Autor von der palaolithischenReligion, ohne fiir oder
gegen die KannibalismustheseStellung zu beziehen, wobei in grolerem Umfang auf ethnographischeBeispiele zuriickgegriffenwird."93
But particularlythose ethnographicanalogies give strong arguments
againstthe hypothesis of prehistoriccannibalism.The anthropologist
87Ibid. 85.
89Ibid. 54-56.
90May 1986: 17.
91Ibid. 33-34.
441
GabrieleWeiss and the archaeologistHeidi Peter-Rocherdiscuss the

topic of cannibalismcarefully.94They state that the ethnographicmaterialitself is frequentlynot convincing,because it is based mainly on
sensationalreportsof past adventurers.Thereare no assertionsby eyewitnesses, but stories of man eaters were always reportedby writers
who only stated that they had heard about those customs. The custom of cannibalism itself was always stated to have been given up
just several years before the arrivalof the traveller.95Frequentlythe
assumptionthat a certainpeople was guilty of cannibalismwas used
propagandisticallyin orderto be able to lead a war against this people or to force them into slavery.96On the other hand it was a well
knownrumourin Africa even up to the beginning of this centurythat
Europeansfed on the flesh of Africanchildren.97It is arguedby Heidi
Peter-Rocherthat there is no evidence of cannibalismamong recent
peoples at all.98This meansthatit is nonsense to searchfor the reason
andthe origin of thatcustomin prehistorictimes. It cannotbe decided
to what extent SigmundFreud,with his hypothesisof the origin of human society, must be blamedfor evoking the idea of early man-eaters.
In his Totemund Tabuhe made several statementsabout the origin of
humansociety, claiming thatat the beginningof prehistorya groupof
humanswas ruledby a despoticpatriarch,until he was killed and eaten
by his sons.99The subtitleof his book, "EinigeUbereinstimmungenim
Seelenleben der Wilden und der Neurotiker,"10
reflects, however,the
94 Weiss 1987: 142-159, and Peter-Rocher1989.
95Volhard1939: 369.
96GabrieleWeiss
(1987: 152) mentionsthe example of a decree of Queen Isabella
in 1503, who gave permission to enslave the CaribbeanIndians because they were
said to be man-eaters.
97Ibid. 150.
98Peter-Rocher1998. On the contrarythe AmericananthropologistChristyTurner
is convincedthat the Anasazi, an Indianpeople who lived in the southernpartsof the
United States duringhistoricaltimes, did humanhunting.See Turner1999.
99See Weiss 1987: 44-45.
100Weiss 1987: 44.
442
Ina Wunn
opinion of manyof his contemporariesand colleagues, and contributes

to the pictureof the mentalityof Neanderthalman until today.101
The facts on which the theory of prehistoriccannibalismare based
are usually poor. Frequentlyit was sufficient to assume cannibalism
existed, if a skeleton was found incomplete or not in anatomicalorder.102It is still considereda strongproof for cannibalismwhen split
human bones occur, as were excavated at Krapina.The defenders of
the cannibalismthesis argue that the remnantsof human bones look
absolutely similar to the scatteredanimal bones at the same excavation site. Thereforethey come to the conclusion thatNeanderthalman
treatedfellow humansin the same way as he treatedgame. This argument is still stressedby the anthropologistsTim White and Alban Defleur:Scatteredbones of humanbeings and deer in the cave of MoulaThis argumentpresupposes,howGuercyshow the same scratches.103
the
as
well
that
humans
as
the
animals
were killed by Neanderthal
ever,
man. Both the humansand the animalscould, however,have been the
victims of carnivores,for example hyena or cave lion, or the scratches
on human and animalbones may be due to taphonomicprocesses.04
This thesis would explainthe remainsof Krapinaas well as the findings
of Moula-Guercy.In any case, the identical treatmentof human and
animalbones and the missing of any traces of a ritualdo not promote
the hypothesis of a religious custom. In this case Krapinaand MoulaGuercy would prove that Neanderthalman hunted other humans for
meat. This seems, however,to be unlikely, because the huntersof the
Mousterianlived in a habitatfull of game, which was for sure easierto
kill thanhumans.
101
Campbell 1987: 339.
102
Maringer 1956: 81f. In the excavation report of the site Weimar-Ehringsdorf
cannibalismis not mentionedat all. See Feustel 1989: 391-393.
103Defleuret al. 1999: 128-131.
104It is still more than difficult to decide whether scratches on bones are due to
humanactivities, to carnivoresor to taphonomicprocesses. The topic is still debated
among scientists. For an overview,see Henke and Rothe 1994: 19-25.
443
The archaeologist Heidi Peter-R6cherscrutinisedthe theories of

alleged cannibalismin early history.In this connection she discussed
the finds of Krapinain detail. In her conclusion, she points out that
the human fossils of Krapinado not stem from a group of humans
killed duringa single event, but stem from frequentusage of the cave
over a period of 40000 years. One of the main argumentsin favour
of the hypothesis of cannibalismwas the bad condition of the bones.
Since, however,the excavatorsoperatedwith dynamite,the condition
of the bones hardlyallows any conclusionsaboutthe cause of death.105
Scratches on the bones, supposed to be traces of stone tools, have
not been examined with the help of a scanning electron microscope.
Without such an examination the cause of the scratches cannot be
detected at all. In the long run there is not a single point of reference
which could prove the theory of ritualcannibalismin the Palaeolithic
period.
Funeralsand cult of the dead
An intendedfuneralis considereda clear indicationof conceptions
of a life after death.106Although the archaeologist Fabienne May
remains sceptical - archaeology can probably prove the facts, but
hardlyfind the intellectualbackground- funeralscan at least serve
as indications of possible religious conceptions, if not as proof.107
Thereforereportsof alleged funerals always cause attention,even if
cautiousarchaeologistswarnaboutoverinterpretingbadlydocumented
105Peter-Rocher1998: 41.
106Heiler 1979: 516, and WiBmann 1980: 730. WiBmanexplains: "In der Religionsgeschichte begegnet eine Vielzahl von zumindestteilweise religi6s motivierten
Verhaltens-und Vorstellungsformen,die - hier dem Begriff Bestattungzugeordnet
- den Umgang der Lebendenmit dem Leichnamdes Verstorbenenkennzeichnenund
die darinimplizit enthaltenenVorstellungenoder explizit geaiuBerten
Anschauungen,
die dessen Existenzformim Tod oderjenseits des Todes, das Verhiltnis des Toten zu
den Lebendenoder dem Leben selbst betreffen."
107May 1986: 3.
444
Ina Wunn
excavations.108Ioan Couliano and Mircea Eliade are convinced that

Neanderthalman buriedhis dead.109Eliade not only takes the funerals
for granted,but believes thatthe position of several skeletons indicate
that Neanderthal man feared the return of the dead or hoped for
rebirth.10Both conceptionsare well known in the history of religion.
Many funeralceremonies among primitivecultures show that the kin
of the dead tried to preventthe returnof the deceased. In doing so,
the corpse was bound or struck.Wholes were cut into the shouldersor
the belly and the sinews were destroyed.These precautionaryactions
were supposed to preventthe dead body from rising and returning.111
Ake Strom and HaraldsBiezais mention an example of the belief in
rebirthfrom historicaltimes. They interpretfuneralsof the Germanic
people as follows: The corpse was buriedin a mannerresemblingthe
position of a child in its mother's uterus, so that the dead could be
rebornaftera certainperiod.1l2JohannesMaringeris convincedof the
existence of funerals since the Mousterian,too. As proof he describes
the excavations at Kiik-Koba,the Mountain of Carmel and TeshikTash.He also mentionsplaces in WesternEuropesuch as Le Moustier,
La Chapelle-aux-Saintsand La Ferrassie.113The excavation reports
seem to prove that the hunter of the Mousterian already believed
in life after death. The young man of Le Moustier was buried, as
JohannesMaringerbelieves, in a sleep posture. "It is difficult to say
whetherhe understoodthis sleep as temporaryand expected to wake
108A commentof AndrdLeroi-Gourhan:"So ist das Problemder
PaliioanthropinenGriibernur sehr unvollkommenerhellt; die Verantwortungtrifft voll und ganz die
Ausgriiber,die nicht dem Wunsch zu widerstehen vermochten, 'das Fossil ihres
Lebens' zu finden"(Leroi-Gourhan1981: 67).
109Couliano specifies as follows: "Die unter dem Namen Neandertalerbekannte
Menschenrasse... glaubte zweifellos an eine Art von Uberleben Ihrer Toten, die,
auf der rechten Seite liegend und den Kopf nach Osten gewandt, begrabenwurden"
(Couliano 1991: 28).
10Eliade 1978: 20-22.
"' WiBmann1980: 733.
112Strom and Biezais 1975: 65.
113
Maringer1956: 71-76.
445
up in anotherworld,"Maringerexplains.114The foetal position of the

human skeletons found at La Ferrassie and Carmel is strong proof
for the hypothesis that Neanderthalman bound his dead because he
feared their return.115Traces of fire in those caves, which served
as temporaryshelter, he interpretsas remnantsof funeral customs.
"Vielleicht hielt der Urmensch die Aschenschicht fur eine Decke,
die kein Toten zu durchdringenvermoge, die ihn also an sein Grab
banne.Der Abwehrkraftdes Feuers steht wiederumseine wohltuende,
wairmendeWirkunggegeniiber.Moglicherweise sollte das Feuer den
erkalteten Leichnam erwarmen, ein Zug der Totenfirsorge."116In
JohannesMaringer'sopinion, the excavationreportsdo not prove the
existence of funeral gifts. But the bones of ungulates, which were
frequentlyfound in close proximityof the tombs are, Maringerthinks,
the traces of meals to honour the deceased.117All documents of the
excavations which Johannes Maringerused to prove his opinion of
funeral rites in the Palaeolithic period were recently examined by
FabienneMay.118She comes to the following conclusions: Not all so
called funerals deserve that name. Neither at Le Regourdou,nor La
Qina, or Le Roc de Marsaldid a single funeraltake place. Many nonEuropeanexcavationsdo not supportthe idea of Mousterianburials,
for exampleplaces like Carmelor Teshik-Tash.At otherplaces, e.g. La
Chapelle-aux-Saintsor outsideEurope,in Shanidar,the circumstances
at the excavationsites allow us to assume thatintentionalfuneralstook
place. Nearlyall gravescontainonly a single corpse,with the exception
of La Ferrassie,where two childrenwere buriedtogether,and Qafzeh,
where the skeletons of an adult and a child were found together.The
grave of Shanidarcould probablybe a collective burial site as well.
14 corpses out of 34 alleged funeralswere found in cavities or graves,
all without additionalinstallations.Fabienne May states that natural
114Ibid. 76.
115Ibid. 77.
116Ibid. 77.
117Ibid. 77-78.
18 May 1986: 11-35.
446
Ina Wunn
the
recessescouldbe selectedconsciouslyin orderto accommodate
were
All
be
verified.119
can
not
graves
corpse,butthatthishypothesis
of settlements- thatis the main
foundin the directneighbourhood
reasontheyweredetectedatall.Theremainsof firewerefoundatsome
burialsites, butFabienneMaypointsout thatthosefireswerelit by
latergenerationsin thecavesandsettlements,andhaveno connection
the
InthemiddlePalaeolithic,
orkin.120
withfuneralritesby mourners
be
This
can
slabs
of
stone.
covered
deadwereoccasionally
proven
by
in six cases.121
In connectionwith assumedfuneralsites as for exampleKrapina

or Kebara,the questionariseswhetherNeanderthalman may have
i.e. whethertheytook
subjectedhis deadones to a specialtreatment,
off the flesh from the corpsesand only buriedthe bones. Thereis
In the case
firstevidencefor this customin the Neolithicperiod.122
of the excavationsite at Krapinathe causefor this assumptionis the
bad conditionof the bones.This,however,is morelikely due to the
activitiesof predatoryanimals.Laterin the upperPalaeolithic,the
other single reasonto assumesuch funeralrites was the presence
of ochre at the bones. Consequentlythe excavatorscame to the
conclusionthatthe bones themselvesmusthave been coloured.On
thatthe bones
the otherhandan inquiryinto the facts demonstrated
is
if
it
take
on
the
ochre
colouring
presentin the direct
quickly
whichwas oftenthe case in campsites of Neanderthal
environment,
man.123
Tracesof cremationarenot foundin the middlePalaeolithic.
with the help
All skeletonswhose positioncould be reconstructed
of the excavationreportswere buriedlying on theirback or their
side with bent, but not extremelybent, legs. This means that the
119Ibid. 149.
120Ibid. 150.
121These are two burial sites at La Ferrassie, and the ones at

Rdgourdou,Monte
Circeo (which can no longer count as funeral), La Chapelle-aux-Saintsand Qafzeh
(ibid. 152).
122Peter-Rtcher 1998: 41.
123May 1986: 162.
447
corpses were not bound before the burial. There was no evidence of
funeralgifts. FabienneMay comes to the following conclusions:There
is scarcely any evidence for intentional funerals in the Mousterian.
Frequentlythe excavatorspreferredto interprettheir archaeological
findings instead of describing them carefully. Nevertheless it seems
certainthat Neanderthalman buried very few of his dead by putting
them into a naturalcavity or covering them with slabs. Ochrewas not
yet used in connection with funerals during the middle Palaeolithic
period. Fireplaces in proximity of the grave bear no connection to
the latter.Many caves were inhabitedlater, so that the traces of daily
activitiesare frequentlyfound on and nearthe graves. Thatmeans that
knives and other items found there cannot be interpretedas funeral
gifts.124
The only fact which remains of Johannes Maringer's extensive

considerationsis the mere existence of only few funerals during the
Mousterian.It seems naturalthat Neanderthalman must have known
feelings such as mourning,rage,despairandincredulityat the finalloss
of a beloved person. Obviously those feelings induced Neanderthal
man from time to time to handle the corpse of the deceased in an
affectionateway. This does not mean that he had to believe in a life
afterdeathor that he was capableof religious feelings. Especially the
lack of any funeralritesprovesthe absenceof a certaincommonbelief.
On the other hand those rare funerals can be a first hint of an initial
feeling or hope that there might be a certain form of existence even
afterdeath.
Conclusion
For the whole lower and middle Palaeolithicthereis no evidence of
any religious practice.All such notions are eitherproductsof a certain
mental climate at the time of the discovery of the fossils, or of ideologies. The resultsof palaeanthropologicalresearchshow thatneither
Homo habilis nor Homo erectuswere capableof developinga complicated symbol system. In the middle Palaeolithic,the time of Homo ne124Ibid. 211-212.
448
Ina Wunn
of the
anderthalensis,
thingsweredifferent.This earlyrepresentative
genusHomohadalreadydevelopedadvancedintellectualabilities.But
neitherin connectionwithhis huntingcustomsnorat his settlements
couldany tracesof cult practicebe found.Firstsigns of a beginning
of religiousbelief in a formof existenceafterdeatharegivenby the
rareburials.But thereare no funeralritualsor funeralgifts. All asmanalreadybelievedin an afterlife,are
sumptionsthatNeanderthal
merespeculation.
Theoriesof ritualsduringthemiddlePalaeolithic,
of
cannibalism
orbearworship,belongto therealmof legend.
The questionof the originof religionis still unsolved.The origin
andthedevelopment
of religiousfeelingcanbe readfromarchaeological findsof burials.It is only in the middlePalaeolithicperiodthata
firsthesitationto abandona belovedis provable.Properfuneralsand
possiblefuneralgifts can be madeout duringthe upperPalaeolithic.
Onlythe EuropeanMesolithicandthe earlyNeolithicof Asia Minor
knowregularfuneralcustomsandrituals,a certainspectrumof funeral
An increasingcarefor the deadduring
gifts andsecondaryburials.125
the last 100000 yearsis neverthelesseasily to detect.It can be supposedthatthe developingfuneralcustomswereclosely connectedto
thebeliefin an afterlife.Obviouslyreligion,whichmeansthebeliefin
a supremebeing,in supernatural
power,in an afterlife,the feelingof
the"Holy"in thesenseof RudolfOtto,wasnota partof humannature
fromtheverybeginning,as MirceaEliadeassumes,buthadto develop
overa periodof thousandsof years.126
Klingerstrasse1
INA WUNN
D-30655Hannover,
Germany
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1987 Elementarreligionen.Wien, New York.
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Ziegler,Bernhard
1975 AllgemeinePaldontologie.Stuttgart.
BOOK REVIEWS
ANTOONGEELS,Subudand the Javanesemysticaltradition(NordicInstitute
of Asian Studies Monograph Series, 76) - Richmond: Curzon 1997
(262 p.) ISBN 0-7007-0623-2 (hc.) 30.00.
Subud, an acronym of Susila Budhi Dharma, means "to follow the will
of God with help of the Divine Power that works both within and without,
by way of surrenderingoneself to the will of Almighty God" (p. 127). This
mystical movement, which was founded by RadOnMas MuhammadSubuh
Sumohadiwidjojo(1901-1987), is one of many of its kind in Java,Indonesia.
Togetherwith similar groups, like Sumarahand Pangestu,it is well-known
and highly successful, attractingmany people and spreadingto about eighty
countries.
Although Subud leaders deny any relation with Javanese mystical traditions, the greaterpartof Subud'sconceptualapparatus,so the authorclaims, is
neverthelessfirmlyrootedin them. Thereforethe authorfirstwantsto analyse
Subud'sconceptualframeworkagainst its Javanesebackground.The historical study, however,is by far the weakest section of the book. The first part
(p. 21-78) is a long-windedintroduction,which is uninterestingfor specialist
readers.A phraselike "Indonesiawas finally liberatedfrom three and a half
centuriesof colonial rule" (p. 18; repeatedon p. 84) could impossibly flow
from the pen of a serious scholar. Not being a Javanisthimself, the author
is forced to drawheavily upon secondaryliteratureby a few (Western)writers. Consequently,he can only echo the opinions of others and is unable to
give criticalassessmentshimself. Following De Jong, for example, the author
adopts Pigeaud's historical division of Javaneseliterature(p. 22), including
Pigeaud's so-called renaissance period. The idea of a literary "restoration"
or "a new period of flowering"in the Surakartaperiod (after 1745) has indeed taken firm roots in older Javanesescholarship,but has long since been
abandoned,even by Pigeaud himself. In his discussion of the Serat Cabolek,
Geels again simply summarizesthe views of its editor, Soebardi(p. 49-54),
apparentlyunawarethatthey are not generallyacceptedby all Javanists.
The second part,entitled "Mysticismin Post-WarJava"(p. 81-179), is of
a more interestingnature.The authordiscusses the life of Subud's founder,
( KoninklijkeBrill NV, Leiden (2000)
NUMEN, Vol. 47
454
Book reviews
its early history, basic concepts, spiritual exercises and membership.This

descriptivesegment is precededby a brief chapterabout the rise of mystical
movements in Java (p. 81-92), and a presentationof three other mystical
movements in contemporaryJava, viz. Sumarah,Sapta Darma and Pangestu
(p. 93-112). In the initial chapter of the second part the author assumes
that the numberof mystical movements has increased dramaticallyin Java
since independence in 1945. The reasons for this, however, are not given
a full consideration;they certainly deserve more space than the mere ten
pages which the authordevoted to them. The immediate pre-independence
years are furthermoreneglected, whereas in my opinion the occult religious
organizationsin this period (such as the Theosophical Society, Freemasonry
or the Muslim brotherhoods)might have inspired the blossoming of many
mystical movements afterthe war of independence.
The final part of the book, which the authorhas simply given the title
"Analysis,"has the characterof an appendix,containingan attemptat relating
Subud theory and practice to 'the' Javanesemystical tradition(p. 183-195)
and, finally, quite out of the blue, a psychological interpretationof Subud's
spiritualexercises (p. 196-205). In this last chapterthe author,who is in fact
a specialist in the field of the psychological study of mysticism, at last turns
to a subjectwith which he is best at home.
In sum, this book is interestingas a case study of one particularmystical
movementin contemporaryJava.The second part,fortunatelycontainingthe
bulk of the book, is the most valuable because of its descriptive account of
the Subud movement. The first part, however, should have been abridged,
whereasthe thirdpartmoreproperlybelonged in a specialistjournal.
ResearchSchool CNWS
School of Asian, African, and AmerindianStudies
Universityof Leiden
P.O. Box 9515
NL-2300 RA Leiden
EDWINWIERINGA
PETERSCHALK(Editor-in-Chief),and MICHAELSTAUSBERG
(Co-Editor),
and
the
Studies
in
Eyes."
Religious
"Being Religious
Living through
Iconographyand Iconology.A CelebratoryPublication in Honourof Professor Jan Bergman,Facultyof Theology, Uppsala University,Published
on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday,June 2, 1998 (Acta Universitatis
Koninklijke
NUMEN,Vol.47
Book reviews
455
Upsaliensis. Historia Religionum, 14) - Uppsala 1998 (423 p.) ISBN

91-554-4199-8 (pbk.) SEK 293.
This rich volume contains22 essays, collected in honourof Jan Bergman,
the well known historian of religions from Uppsala, who passed away on
the 27th of August, 1999. The previous year he had retiredfrom his chair at
Uppsala- the famous chairheld by NathanSoderblomand Geo Widengren.
Jan Bergmanwas an expert on Egyptian and Hellenistic Religions (See his
doctoraldissertation:Ich bin Isis. Studien zum memphitischenHintergrund
der griechischen Isisaretalogien, Uppsala 1968). His scholarly interests
coveredChristianity,Islam and Judaismas well. In his academic work, both
in writing and teaching, he gave special attentionto religious iconography.
This wide area of interests is reflected in this collection of essays, written
by colleagues from differentcountriesand disciplines. A bibliographyof Jan
Bergmanis includedin this volume (p. 27-33).
The religions referredto in the 22 papersare Archaic EgyptianReligion,
Buddhism,Christianity,Gnosticism,Hinduism,Islam, Judaism,NorthAmerican IndianReligion, Old Norse Religion, Sulawesi Religion, Zoroastrianism.
As the editor, Peter Schalk, indicates in the introduction,there is "no uniform use of the word 'iconography"' by the contributors.So the volume is
of special interestfor every scholarworkingin this field and reflectingon the
meaningof this concept. Apartfrom the variouscase studies referringto one
religious tradition,as e.g. "A Hajj Certificatefrom the Early 20th Century"
(JanHjirpe, Lund),thereare some comparativeand generalstudies which deserve to be mentioned,as e.g. "Divine Visualisations.Mystical Techniquesin
JudaismandTantricBuddhism"(Antoon Geels, Lund)and "ReligiousArchitectureand Religious Experience"(Nils G. Holm, Abo). Anotherinteresting
aspect of this volume is that it shows the interplay of different disciplines
engaged in the scientific study of religion, as e.g. a New Testamentscholar
writingon Hellenistic and Jewish philosophy (Lars Hartman,Uppsala:"The
HumanDesire to conversewith the Divine. Dio of Prusaand Philo of Alexandria on Images of God") and a historianof religions writing on a text from
the New Testament,the legend of "thethreekings"in the Gospel of Matthew
(Anders Hultgard,Uppsala: "The Magi and the Star - the Persian Backgroundin Texts and Iconography").
It is hardlyimaginablethat there is a scholar of religion who will not find
in this volume at least one essay which is relevantand inspiringfor his or her
own work.
456
Book reviews
Universitit Bayreuth
Lehrstuhlfur Religionswissenschaft
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz3
D-95440 Bayreuth,Germany
ULRICHBERNER
JOHNF.A. SAWYER,Sacred Languages and Sacred Texts(Religion in the

First Christian Centuries) - London/New York:Routledge 1999 (190
p.) ISBN 0-415-12547-2 (pbk.) 16.99.
This book is a most welcome contributionto the aim of the series, which is
to surveyparticularthemesin the historyof religion acrossdifferentreligions
of (late) antiquity.That is especially needed when it comes to Jewish and
Christiantraditionswithin the Graeco-Romanworld which are often treated
as if they were religions of a differentnature,somehow exempt from general
conceptsof the historyof religionor comparisonswith "pagan"contemporary
traditions.One has only to consider how the use of such a basic concept as
"myth"is carefully avoided by almost all scholarly work when it comes to
the study of Jewish, Christian,or Muslim traditions.
Sacred Languages and Sacred Textssurveys such topics as the language
situationin the firstcenturiesof the commonera;the differentsacredor quasisacred languages such as Hebrew, but also Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Punic
and Avestan;litteracy;canonization;translation;beliefs and controls;names
and numbers;styles and strategies;and finally, interpretations.The book is
completedwith a lenghty bibliographyand a thematicindex.
Since the contributionof this book is clearly aimed at a popularaudience,
it is not expected to enterinto scholarlydebate.Nevertheless,a more prudent
stance would have been expected on such disputed issues as the "Qumran
community" and its "scriptorium"whose very existence is challenged by
not a few scholars nowadays,to say nothing about the relationshipbetween
this hypotheticalcommunityand the Dead Sea scrolls ("the hereticalJewish
monastic community at Qumranhad its own scriptoriumwhere the bulk
of the Dead Sea Scrolls were copied, conspicuously outside the control of
Jerusalem,"p. 86). A similarobservationcould be made aboutthe acceptance
withoutdiscussion of the commonly- or once commonly - admittedview
aboutthe historicityof the enigmaticfigureof Ezraandof his religiousreform
in the fifth centuryBCE (p. 51).
Koninklijke
NUMEN,Vol.47
Book reviews
457
Finally, given the very topic of the book, it would have been of great
interestto extend the period underconsiderationto the third century CE in
order to take into account the birth and growth of Manichaeism;it would
certainly have provided significant data in connection with sacred texts,
sacredlanguages,canonizationand translation.
Notwithstandingthese minorreservations,this book is certainlya good example of a scholarlywork much needed by those who seek to understandthe
manifoldreligious influencesat work in the formationof westerncivilization.
Writtenfor a largereadership,its contentis accessible to any educatedreader,
while the more specialized ones will also find profitin the bringingtogether
of mattersgenerally set apartby the artificialdelimitationof scholarly fields
which have more to do with religious beliefs or confessional creeds thanwith
scientific scrutiny.
Facult6de th6ologie et de sciences religieuses
Universit6Laval
Sainte-Foy,Quebec, G1K 7P4 Canada
LouIS PAINCHAUD
Periodicals
MonumentaNipponica, 54 (1999), 3,4.
HISTORYOF RELIGIONS, 39 (1999), 2
CHRISTIANITYIN INDIA
Joanne Punzo Waghome,Chariotsof the God/s:Riding the Line between
Hindu and Christian
Eliza F Kent, Tamil Bible Women and the ZenanaMissions of Colonial
South India
Corinne G. Dempsey, Lessons in Miracles from Kerala, South India:
Stories of Three "Christian"Saints
MathewN. Schmalz,Images of the Body in the Life and Death of a North
IndianCatholic Catechist
Book reviews.
Books
(Listing in this section does not preclude subsequentreviewing)
Jordan,David R., Hugo MontgomeryandEinarThomassen(Eds.), The world
of ancient magic. Papers from the first InternationalSamson Eitrem
Seminarat the NorwegianInstituteat Athens,4-8 May 1997. Papersfrom
the NorwegianInstituteof Athens, 4 - Bergen, The NorwegianInstitute
at Bergen, 1999, 335 p., ISBN 82-91626-15-4 (pbk.).
Harvey,Graham(Ed.), IndigenousReligions. A Companion- London and
New York,Cassell, 2000, 302 p., US$ 85.00 ISBN 0-304-70447-4 (hb.);
US$ 26.95 ISBN 0-304-70448-2 (pbk.).
Braun, Willi and Russell T. McCutcheon (Eds.), Guide to the Study of
Religion - London and New York, Cassell, 2000, 560 p., US$ 85.00,
ISBN 0-304-70175-0 (hb.);US$ 24.95, ISBN 0-304-70176-9 (pbk.);
Weinberger-Thomas,Catherine,Ashes of Immortality.Widow-Burningin India. Translatedby JeffreyMehlmanand David GordonWhite- Chicago
and London, The University of Chicago Press, 1999, 322 p., 31.50,
ISBN 0-226-88568-2 (cloth); 11.50, ISBN 0-226-88569-0 (pbk.).
NUMEN,Vol.47
459
Lincoln, Bruce, Theorizing Myth. Narrative,Ideology, and ScholarshipChicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 1999, 298 p.,
41.50, ISBN 0-226-48201-4 (cloth); 17.00, ISBN 0-226-48202-2
(pbk.).
Seneviratne,H.L., The Worksof Kings - Chicago and London,The University of ChicagoPress, 1999,358 p., 34.50, ISBN 0-226-74865-0 (cloth);
15.50, ISBN 0-226-74866-9 (pbk.).
The essential Jung. Selected WritingsIntroducedby Anthony Storr.With an
updatedbibliography- Princeton,NJ, PrincetonUniversityPress, 2000,
447 p., US$ 16.95, ISBN 0-691-02935-0 (pbk.).
Wasserstrom,Steven M., Religion afterReligion. GershomScholem, Mircea
Eliade, and Henri Corbinat Eranos- Princeton,NJ, PrincetonUniversity Press, 1999, 368 p., US$ 65.00, ISBN 0-691-00539-7 (cloth); US$
19.95, ISBN 0-691-00540-0 (pbk.).
Roth, Harold, OriginalTao. InwardTraining(Nei-yeh) and the Foundations
of TaoistMysticism- New York,ColumbiaUniversityPress,New York,
1999, 268 p., US$ 29.50, ISBN 0-231-11564-4 (cloth).
Seager, Richard Hughes, Buddhism in America - New York: Columbia
University Press, New York, 1999, 314 p., US$ 35.00, ISBN 0-23110868-0 (cloth).
Hall, John R., with Philip D. Schuyler and Sylvaine Trinh, Apocalypse
observed.Religious movementsand violence in North America, Europe
and Japan- London and New York,Routledge, 2000, 228 p., 14.99,
ISBN 0-415-19277-3 (pbk.).
Gregory,Peter N. and Daniel A. Getz, Jr. (Eds.), Buddhism in the Sung Honolulu, Universityof Hawai'i Press, 1999, 646 p., US$ 47.00, ISBN
0-8248-2155-6 (cloth).
Heine, Steven, Shifting Shape, ShapingText. Philosophy and Folklorein the
Fox Koan - Honolulu, University of Hawai'i Press, 1999, 295 p., US$
31.95, ISBN 0-8248-2197-1 (pbk.).
Hirota,Dennis (Ed.), Towarda ContemporaryUnderstandingof Pure Land
Buddhism. Creatinga Shin Buddhist Theology in a Religiously Plural
460
World- Albany, NY, State University of New YorkPress, 2000,257 p.,
US$ 21.95, ISBN 0-7914-4530-5 (pbk.).
Gier, Nicholas F, SpiritualTitanism.Indian,Chinese, and WesternPerspectives - Albany, NY, State University of New YorkPress, 2000, 302 p.,
US$ 21.95, ISBN 0-7914-4528-3 (pbk.).
Zockler,Thomas,Jesu Lehrenim Thomasevangelium.Series:Nag Hammadi
and ManichaeanStudies,47 - Leiden, New York,Koln, E.J. Brill, 1999,
385 p., US$ 79.00, ISBN 90-04-11445-9 (cloth).
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209 p., 27.50, ISBN 0-7619-9359-2 (cloth); 13.99, ISBN 0-76199360-6 (pbk.).
Spengen, Wim van, Tibetan Border Worlds. A Geohistorical Analysis of
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REVIEWFOR THE

Mario Vitalone (Ed.), The Persian Revdyat "Ithoter".Zoroastrian

? Copyright2000 by KoninklijkeBrill NV Leiden, The Netherlands

JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN ASTROLOGY IN LATE ANTIQUITY

following is a summaryof my Ph.D. thesis' results (1999). Each line of

1. Researchinto MonotheisticAstrology:a Critique

Ancientastrologyhas been studiedby a lot of famousscholars

Jewish and ChristianAstrologyin Late Antiquity

consequentlyandradicallyrefutedby the biblicalprophets,so thatlater

Kocku von Stuckrad

The modulations of this criticism have been intensively discussed in

Jewish and ChristianAstrologyin LateAntiquity

time within Jewish and Christianmonotheism?What differences are

describwouldreadas follows:Astrologyis a conceptof interpretation

Fromancienttimes therehas survivedan abundanceof astroloThe sources,stemming

Jewish and ChristianAstrologyin Late Antiquity

to 'findout' the generalor evenconsensualmonotheistic

Jewish and ChristianAstrologyin Late Antiquity

structuresmirrorthe essence of quite differentdocumentsand have to

Thus,the disputesdid not touch upon the notion of correspondences

the stars as semeia -

or are they responsible for them -

the stars as poietikoi? And if there is a sympatheticcorrespondence

throughthe accuratelaws of temple duties -

for each group

The culticorderwas considereda binding

Jewish and ChristianAstrologyin Late Antiquity

of cultic thinking within the Zadokite perspective of the Qumran

way."This probablyrefersto the planets'turningpointsthatwereof

strong reasons to assume that the Songs are not a peculiarQumranic

Jewish and ChristianAstrologyin Late Antiquity

at least the priestly oriented ones -

avoidedthe worshipof astraldeities. The biblical prophetshad fought

Jewish and ChristianAstrologyin Late Antiquity

other heroes of Jewish traditionguaranteedthe revelationarystatusof

Jewish and Christian Astrology in Late Antiquity

the figure of Solomon. The Testament of Solomon is its most important

To unfold his magical power, Solomon, after having prayed to God,

The seven stoicheia - heavenly bodies, planets,orjust evil entities

Whether this passage refers to our Testament of Solomon, the

Eph. 6:12; cf. also Col. 2:4.20; Gal. 4:3.9.

Jewishand ChristianAstrology in LateAntiquity

assures the reader that a quincunx is irrelevantfor interpretation.41

It is importantto note that the astrological techniquesare not blamed

understandingof futureevents (cf. TestSol. 2:3; 20:12). To obtainthat

504-506; Ptolemy Tetrabib.1:17.

The followingpassageis very interestingbecauseit indicatesthe

The defeatof the planetsandtheirsubsequentinstrumentalization

Jewish and ChristianAstrologyin Late Antiquity

was full of a constant exchange of religious ideas and practices.

by Markosand Theodotus,both Valentinians,by Bardaisan of Edessa

mainly among stoic philosophers -

Jewish and ChristianAstrologyin Late Antiquity

everythingis controlledby the heavenlybodies?Does prayerand piety

simple and highly theoretical dichotomy of determinism/astrologyand

because it correlates, as I have already mentioned, exactly to the

which was his own, too -

into the Heilsgeschichte of the

Jewish people. Josephus argues that heimarmeneis to be regardedas

Jewish and ChristianAstrologyin Late Antiquity