The Jesuits and Globalization

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Jesuits and Globalization THE JESUITS AND GLOBALIZATION Historical Legacies and Contemporary Challenges THOMAS BA CHOFF AND JOSE CASANOVA, Editors Georgetown University Press Washington, DC b f 20lb Gt:'O~"C'I()\\ U UPI\ ('''11'1 f)f AU ngbl rC'K'f~d ~o PJrI of Ihl1. ~l: m,lY be rc:p,OfJuu·J Of uUlltC'd In .In) form or by ,n)'IlK'.uu. declroPic or me h.ltu II. IndudlO~ pholU< If''Int: .and I't' cwdll1g. Of b)' an)" In(orm'Cl(m I n~e'~nd R'cnC',1I, 'I('nt, wuhout J"C'fmlcon In \Hllmg from the pub!"hcr. JOles: O~nchofT.ThonuJ F. 19(too$cdllor l ~n(J\.;I.}<Kc.ah(l;)r T1UC'ThCJC'iUlb .1Odg1ob.tJlZ'Jflon hl\umuJ lep In.and CiPmC'mf'Ur.lI")' challenges I [edued by) Tholtw I3mchofT ;and J<hi C;l.\.1J}O\o~ Dcscripoon:W.3 hll1lt't n,l Ce()'lteIO" n UfU'",",If)' Pft-U.201f. I Includes blbllog~phlC;tI referen ., and mdex. ldenufiers: L N 20150242231 I 0 978162bJ62t177 (lunk",,«.ill paper) 1 I ON 9781626162860 (pbk. ,Ik p.lJ'<') II 0 9781626162ll1U (ebook) ubjects: l H:JesulI:S. I)c:5uJb-Edu ucn. I .Jo~huuon. I GlobabZJtlon-Rellgiow.:lspe ($- thchc burch. Iassificarion: L 8X3702.3 .J47 2016 I DO 271 .53-<14:23 LC record available at htrp:/lkcn.loc.govI201 5024223 e This book is printed on acid-free paper meenng the requirement of the American National tandard for Permanence 111 Paper for Pnneed Library Materials. 16 15 98765432 First printing Printed in the United States of America Cover design by Pam Pease The cover image is a combination of rwo public domain images: a quasi-traditional version of the IHS emblem of the Jesuits by Moransk! and the inset map Grbis Terramm NO'I{l et Accuratissima Tabllia by Pierer Goos (17th century). 13 THE JESUITS THROUGH THE PRISM OF GLOBALIZATION, GLOBALIZATION THROUGH A JESUIT PRISM JOSE CASANOVA Each chapter in this volume has addressed two core questions from a specific thematic, historical, or regional perspective: What doe the ex- perience of globalization tell us about the jesuits? And what doe the expe- rience of the jesuits rell u about globalization' In this concluding chapter, Illy aim is to address the same two questions from a broader synthetic perspective, drawing upon some of the most important lessons offered across the chapters. The Jesuit through the Prism of Early Modern Globalization As a point of departure. taking what in the introduction we call the "sub- jective" dimension of globalization-the increased awareness of the unity of the world as a whole as a focus for human activities-one couJd argue that the Jesuits were the first organized group in history to think and to act globally. I What were the conditions for the possible emergence of such J nongovernmental organization (NGO) of globaJ missionaries and global educators alla//£ fa fertre-that is, before the existence of globa.l structures that could sustain such practices? Of the small group of companions that gathered around Ignatius of Loyola at the University of Paris in the early 1530s, three interrelated his- torical developments shaped the opportunity structures that made possible its rapid transformation into a prodigiously successful global missionary, educational, and sociopolitical enterprise: the Iberian colonial expansion into the newly discovered "Indies," the early modern Catholic revival, and 262 Jose Casanova Renaissance Christian humanism. All three evolving manifestations had been operative for more than half a century by the time Pope Paul HI's bull Regiwifli mititantis ealesiae in 1540 certified, through the "Formula of the Institute" contained therein, the official foundation of the Society of Jesus. All three helped shape the institutional development and the global expansion of the new Society in the following decades, and rhe jesuits, in turn, became primary global carriers of the three processes in the early modern phase of globalization. The Iberian Colonial Expansion The Iberian colonial expansion made possible the connection of the Old World and the "discovered" New World, linking the East and West Indies, thus forming for the first time one truly global world in novel tran atlan- tic and transpacific exchanges. In this respect the early modern phase of globalization constitutes literally the "first globalization," a form of proto- globalization that can rightly be distinguished from earlier "archaic" and later "modern" forms of globahzation.! In this newly connected world the Jesuits emerged to become pioneer globalizers. Indeed, no other group as eagerly took the entire globe as the focus of its activities. Jeronimo Nadal-one of Ignatius's closest collaborators and the man who, in the words of John O'Malley, "more than any individual ... instilled in the fir r two generations their esprit de corps and taught them what it meant to be a Jesuit"-coined the famous phrase, "The world is our home."} The Jesuits sailed around the world in the same ships with conquis- tadores. traders, migrants, and colonial administrators. Antonio Vieira. the great Jesuit missionary of Brazil, put the matter most succinctly in his His/aria do Futuro: "If there were not merchants who go to seek for earthly treasures in the East and West Indies, who would transport thither the preachers who take heavenly treasures? The preachers take the Gospel and the merchants take the preachers."! The vast Jesuit Portuguese Assisrancy, which included not only the kingdom of Portugal and its maritime empire but also portions of the Indian subcontinent, Japan, China, Southeast Asia. and African territories, undoubtedly constituted the core of the global Jesuit enterprise in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.J That enter- prise was largely sponsored by the Portuguese padroado regia and by the Spanish patronato real (royal patronage). lt would thus be anachronistic to view the Society of Jesus as an NGO in the modern sense of the term. As Aliocha Maldavsky makes clear in chapter 4. Jesuit missions in colonial lbero-Arnerica were irremediably embedded in colonial structures of co- ercion and political control. -----------+-- From Il\ mccpr ron. rhcrclorc, the J"""uu lUI lun,u) c;JUcrpn\.C could nor aVOId .In,rulIlg.1 vrrv "worldlv" .Ind sc ul.Jr C()1U10(JIIOIi. IJU( 41' be- ing 31 0 :111cconomu dtlll poluu ...1entcrprrw The hl~.orl ..n ( R. Uu er ha clauncd tll.ll tilt' JC.-'llll' l ould he convrdcred "the h • J11uhulJClonJI corp rauon '.. In l:ll.lpu:r 5 \ ..htlu P.l\onc\ til U\'Ilon 0' .anu-Je Ultl III how how. frum the he~lIltlll1J;t. the )C\Ult order w our pol)' viewed as poilu al .wd .1' "J '(JCe WHlull rhe IJle" but .llw nl.lhg,ncd J\ Ihe lil"\. and parnulgl1l.ltJl" mrc.·rnJuolul veer I 0"lt.lnll.lCl0t1 bent on e\l.lblldHI1J: "a w rid empire." Yc; the J~,t11l glob.ll ,.dVl'u; cntcrprl\e CJ"nC)1 be; reduced 10 the ceo- nomic impcrauvc- of 0111 crucrgcnt t-t1ob;d c.1pll.Jh m or (0 the pohucal dynanucs of [he new WC\lphdho-lt1 yucm of nauon- ()Ce In scarcb of (0· lonial domamv It...prll11.1ry 11I1\\lon and 11 ulumoltc end \\,J\ the unrvcrval salvation of "soul," ad III",orr", Da ,\!lct,iam. 1\ c rding: to . bile)'. no other expressIOn "occur) iliOn: rrcqucnd)' III Je utt do umentatlon n prncrically e"ery pJ~e-than 'to help' ul : ... 0 reduce theJe,ult ml" n co omerhl ng ehc Iii nOl only l IIII what de'Hly mOllvatcd Ignauu ~nd the members of the 'oClety he r. unded but.1 0 t ml unde land the very SOurce of the ~loballZlI1R dynamIC fthe Je ult enretptl e. By "soul:' however. IgnatJu and the Je ult meant lhe wh Ie pcrc;on: therefore, to help souls became a univer .1 and gl b.1 minI try pracnc.lIy without sublicantlve or geographical InuiLS. Without ever losing Ight of their primary salvational 11115 Ion. Jesuit mllti trie encompa sed 311kinds of activities and spheres that today may be con idored so ular but that they regarded as an !ntrinsl part ofcheir religi u mission.'1 The revised "F r- mula ofche Institute" of 1550, after Cilumernting a long list ofclI [Omary religious pastoral ministries to which the Jesuits ought co dedicate them- selves, adds "according to what will see III expedient for the gloty f God and the common good"-the first time in history that expedient consid- eration of the worldly (ommOIl good appears in the foundarional chareer of a religious ordeLlo Its inclusion was to have unforeseen consequences in the Jesuits' sustained professional dedkation not only to the humanities but also to science, technology, and the artS, Following the Ignatian instruc- tion, Jesuits were to find God in all tnings. The Early Modem Catholic Revival Ignatius's spiritual journey and the foundation and dramatic e~..pansion of the Society of Jesus need to be viewed in the context of the broad and widespread manifestations of the early modern Catholic renewal that flourished in Italy and the Iberian Peninsula well before the Protestant 264 Jose Casanova Reformation of the sixteenth century. In this context the Jesuits appear as contributors to a much broader reality going well beyond what the term "Counter-Reformation" suggests and to say nothing of the narrow Euro- centrism that the term connotes." Whatever name we give to the changes in Catholicism during early modernity, in this era Catholicism attained its global reach from East Asia to North America, from the Philippines to South America. R. po-clua Hsia has argued that "the centuries of Catholic renewal formed the first period of global history" in that the early modern era was shaped by "the encounter between Catholic Europe and the non- Christian world.'?" It was in this era, as Simon Ditchfield has shown, that Catholicism became a "world religion."!) The Jesuits were neither the only nor the first global missionaries.
Recommended publications
  • From Fetishism to Sincerity
    CAMBRIDG E UNIVERSITY PRESS From Fetishism to Sincerity: On Agency, the Speaking Subject, and Their Historicity in the Context of Religious Conversion Author(s): Webb Keane Source: Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Oct., 1997), pp. 674-693 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/179364 Accessed: 10-08-2017 16:57 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend D access to Comparative Studies in Society and History JSTOR This content downloaded from 142.103.160.110 on Thu, 10 Aug 2017 16:57:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms From Fetishism to Sincerity: On Agency, the Speaking Subject, and their Historicity in the Context of Religious Conversion WEBB KEANE University of Michigan Central to much recent work in both anthropology and history is the concept of agency. This essay examines some problems with this concept that arise when we look for it across historical and ethnographic contexts. This study focuses on how agency is expressed in differences among the powers that people impute to spoken words and the kinds of subjects to which they attribute the authorship of words.
    [Show full text]
  • Conversion to Modernities: ZONES of RELIGION the Globalization of Christianity
    SERIES: Conversion to Modernities: ZONES OF RELIGION The Globalization of Christianity Edited by Peter van derVeer Edited by Peter van derVeer ROUTLEDGE White, G. 1991. Identity through History: Living Stories in a Solomon Islands Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Young. M. W. n.d. "Commemorating missionary heroes: Local Christianity and 10 narratives of nationalism." In N.Thomas andT. Otto, eds., Narrating the Na- tion in the Pacific, ts. under review. COMMENTS ON CONVERSION Unpublished Sources Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, consulted on microfilm at Mitchell Library Sydney. PMB 52 Roman Catholic Mission New Hebrides. Records Account of Mission Talal As ad at Pentecost by Father J. B. Jamond, SM. PMB 53 Roman Catholic Mission, New Hebrides. Journal of the Mission at Port Sandwich, Malakula, 1889-99 by Father]. N. Pionnier, SM. PMB 57 Roman Catholic Mission, New Hebrides. Records, 1894-1932 (Letters of Father Z. Strock, SM etc.). So What Is Conversion? PMB 58 Roman Catholic Mission, New Hebrides. Records, 1898-1932 (Letters of Father J. B. Suas, etc.). Why do people convert? This seems an innocent question. Anthropologists have not only raised it but responded to it with interesting answers. In his edited volume Conversion to Christianity,1 R. W. Hefner provides a useful overview of many of these answers. Populations become Christian or Muslim for different personal reasons and under a variety of social conditions. Hefner has outlined the debates about the proper explanation of such conversions. But the question is not entirely innocent. At any rate, it is based on as- sumptions that are at least as interesting as the answers.
    [Show full text]
  • Colonization of the «Indies». the Origin of International Law?
    LA IDEA DE AMERICA 25/10/10 12:15 Página 43 COLONIZATION OF THE «INDIES» THE ORIGIN OF INTERNATIONAL LAW? MARTTI KOSKENNIEMI It is widely agreed that international law has its origins in the writings of the Spanish theologians of the 16th century, especially the so-called «School of Sala- manca», who were reacting to the news of Columbus having found not only a new continent but a new population, living in conditions unknown to Europeans and having never heard the gospel. The name of Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1492- 1546) the Dominican scholar who taught as Prima Professor with the theology fa- culty at the University of Salamanca from 1526 to 1546, is well-known to interna- tional law historians. This was not always the case. For a long time, international lawyers used to draw their pedigree from the Dutch Protestant Hugo de Groot (or Grotius) (1583-1645) who wrote as advocate of the Dutch East-India company in favour of opening the seas to Dutch commerce against the Spanish-Portuguese monopoly. Still in the 18th and 19th centuries, the law of nations —ius gentium— was seen as a predominantly Protestant discipline that drew its inspiration from the natural law taught by such followers of Grotius as the Saxon Samuel Pufen- dorf (1632-1694) and the Swiss Huguenot Emer de Vattel (1714-1767), followed by a series of professors at 18th century German universities1. It was only towards the late-19th century when the Belgian legal historian Er- nest Nys pointed to the Catholic renewal of natural law during the Spanish siglo de oro that attention was directed to Vitoria and some of his successors, especially the Jesuit Francisco Suárez, (1548-1617), who had indeed developed a universally applicable legal vocabulary —something that late— 19th century jurists, including Nys himself, were trying to achieve2.
    [Show full text]
  • Legal Imagination in Vitoria : the Power of Ideas
    Legal Imagination in Vitoria. The Power of Ideas Pablo Zapatero* Professor of Public International Law, Carlos III University, Madrid, Spain 1. A Man’s Ideas Legal progress is often propelled by concepts first envisioned in academia. In this light, the present article explores the ideas of a fascinating intellectual figure: Francisco de Vitoria (1483-1546),1 a man broadly recognized as one of the “founding fathers” of international law. The writings and lectures of this 16th century Dominican friar formulated innovative legal doctrines in an age of uncertainty and profound social change; an age that gave birth to the modern States that, with their centralized power, signalled the demise of medieval pluralism, the dismemberment of Christendom, and the erosion of imperial and papal aspirations to universal power. Medieval Europe, before then, had defined itself as a cultural, political and religious unity: the Res Publica Christiana. The first half of the 16th century witnessed the final breakdown of that order, the emergence of the modern sovereign state and the subsequent development of the European state system. It was also in this age that a singular event transformed con- ventional conceptions of the world and consolidated anthropocentrism: the discovery of America.2 A ‘stellar moment’ of literature, political and legal * For correspondence use [email protected]. Unless otherwise indicated, translations in this paper are by the author. 1) See Getino, L.G. El Maestro Fr. Francisco de Vitoria: Su vida, su doctrina e influencia, Imprenta Católica, 1930 and de Heredia, Beltrán. Francisco de Vitoria, Editorial Labor, 1939. 2) Pérez Luño, A.
    [Show full text]
  • V49 No 1 2013
    1 Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia Vinod Raina (1950–2013) Eduardo C. TADEM and Katrina S. NAVALLO Introduction Eduardo C. TADEM and Janus Isaac V. NOLASCO ARTICLES From Cádiz to La Liga: The Spanish Context of Rizal’s Political Thought George ASENIERO Rural China: From Modernization to Reconstruction Tsui SIT and Tak Hing WONG A Preliminary Study of Ceiling Murals from Five Southeastern Cebu Churches Reuben Ramas CAÑETE Bayan Nila: Pilipino Culture Nights and Student Performance at Home in Southern California Neal MATHERNE COMMENTARIES Identity Politics in the Developmentalist States of East Asia: The Role of Diaspora Communities in the Growth of Civil Societies Kinhide MUSHAKOJI La Liga in Rizal Scholarship George ASENIERO Influence of Political Parties on the Judicial Process in Nepal Md. Nurul MOMEN REVIEWS LITERARY WRITINGS Thomas David CHAVES Celine SOCRATES Volume V4olume9 Number 49:1 (2013) 1 2013 2 ASIAN STUDIES is an open-access, peer-reviewed academic journal published since 1963 by the Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman. EDITORIAL BOARD* • Eduardo C. Tadem (Editor in Chief), Asian Studies • Michiyo Yoneno-Reyes (Book Review editor), Asian Studies • Eduardo T. Gonzalez, Asian and Philippine Studies • Ricardo T. Jose, History • Joseph Anthony Lim, Economics • Antoinette R. Raquiza, Asian Studies • Teresa Encarnacion Tadem, Political Science • Lily Rose Tope, English and Comparative Literature *The members of the Editorial Board are all from the University of the Philippines Diliman EDITORIAL STAFF • Janus Isaac V. Nolasco, Managing Editor • Katrina S. Navallo, Editorial Associate • Ariel G. Manuel, Layout Artist EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD • Patricio N. Abinales, University of Hawaii at Manoa • Andrew Charles Bernard Aeria, University of Malaysia Sarawak • Benedict Anderson, Cornell University • Melani Budianta, University of Indonesia • Urvashi Butalia, Zubaan Books (An imprint of Kali for Women) • Vedi Renandi Hadiz, Murdoch University • Caroline S.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction Negotiating the Religious and the Secular in Modern German History Rebekka Habermas
    Introduction Negotiating the Religious and the Secular in Modern German History Rebekka Habermas In August 2016, the New York Times published an article under the headline, ‘From Burkinis to Bikinis: Regulating What Women Wear’. The article is illus- trated with two photographs. The first one shows a very formally dressed po- liceman on the beach of Rimini, on the Adriatic Coast of Italy, in 1957, writing a ticket for a woman wearing a bikini. Wearing a bikini (a swimsuit named af- ter the Bikini Atoll Islands in the Pacific, which had become famous after the American nuclear bomb tests of 1946 in that region) was prohibited. At that time, the Italian government as well as most Italians argued in favour of the bikini ban on religious grounds. Following this line of argument, the bikini offended the Christian, in this case Catholic, religion. The second photograph shows three French policemen, dressed just as neatly as their Italian colleague decades before, forcing a woman sitting on the beach of a French town to remove her long-sleeved shirt. This photo was taken in August 2016, and the policemen are enforcing a ban on ‘inappropriate clothing on beaches’, colloquially referred to as the ‘burkini ban’, which had been issued some days earlier. Those who are supporting this ban argue that they are defending the secular, which is violated by religious, particularly Muslim, clothing habits. There were neither bikinis nor burkinis in the German Empire, even though the most common bathing suits at that time were very similar to what is under- stood nowadays as a burkini – nor had there been major conflicts about Muslim or Catholic clothing habits.
    [Show full text]
  • Continuities of Change: Conversion and Convertibility in Northern Mozambique
    Continuities of Change: Conversion and Convertibility in Northern Mozambique The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Premawardhana, Devaka. 2014. Continuities of Change: Conversion and Convertibility in Northern Mozambique. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13064926 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Continuities of Change: Conversion and Convertibility in Northern Mozambique A dissertation presented by Devaka Premawardhana to The Ad Hoc Committee in Religion and Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Religion and Anthropology Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts September 2014 © 2014 Devaka Premawardhana All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Jacob Olupona Devaka Premawardhana Continuities of Change: Conversion and Convertibility in Northern Mozambique Abstract Recent scholarship on Africa gives the impression of a singular narrative regarding Pentecostalism, that of inexorable rise. Indisputably, Pentecostalism’s “explosion” throughout the global South is one of today’s more remarkable religious phenomena. Yet what can we learn by shifting attention from the places where Pentecostal churches succeed to where they fail? Attending to this question offers an opportunity to reassess a regnant theoretical paradigm within recent studies of Pentecostalism: that of discontinuity. This paradigm holds that Pentecostalism, by insisting that worshippers break with traditional practices and ancestral spirits, introduces a temporal rupture with the past.
    [Show full text]
  • International Congress
    Copertina_Copertina.qxd 29/10/15 16:17 Pagina 1 THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF INTERNATIONAL SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS CONGRESS SOCIETÀ Christian Humanism INTERNAZIONALE TOMMASO in the Third Millennium: I N T D’AQUINO The Perspective of Thomas Aquinas E R N A T I O N Rome, 21-25 September 2003 A L C O N G R E S …we are thereby taught how great is man’s digni - S ty , lest we should sully it with sin; hence Augustine says (De Vera Relig. XVI ): ‘God has C h r i proved to us how high a place human nature s t i a holds amongst creatures, inasmuch as He n H appeared to men as a true man’. And Pope Leo u m says in a sermon on the Nativity ( XXI ): ‘Learn, O a n i Christian, thy worth; and being made a partici - s m i pant of the divine nature (2 Pt 1,4) , refuse to return n t by evil deeds to your former worthlessness’ h e T h i r d M i St. Thomas Aquinas l l e n Summa Theologiae III, q.1, a.2 n i u m : T h e P e r s p e c t i v e o f T h o m a SANCT s IA I T A M H q E O u D M i A n C A a E A s A A I Q C U I F I I N T A T N I O S P • PALAZZO DELLA CANCELLERIA – A NGELICUM The Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas (PAST) Società Internazionale Tommaso d’Aquino (SITA) Tel: +39 0669883195 / 0669883451 – Fax: +39 0669885218 E-mail: [email protected] – Website: http://e-aquinas.net/2003 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS Christian Humanism in the Third Millennium: The Perspective of Thomas Aquinas Rome, 21-25 September 2003 PRESENTATION Since the beginning of 2002, the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas and the Thomas Aquinas International Society, have been jointly preparing an International Congress which will take place in Rome, from 21 to 25 September 2003.
    [Show full text]
  • Anthropological Conceptions of Religion: Reflections on Geertz Author(S): Talal Asad Source: Man, New Series, Vol
    Anthropological Conceptions of Religion: Reflections on Geertz Author(s): Talal Asad Source: Man, New Series, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Jun., 1983), pp. 237-259 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2801433 Accessed: 04-04-2020 05:41 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Man This content downloaded from 42.111.2.239 on Sat, 04 Apr 2020 05:41:07 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONCEPTIONS OF RELIGION: REFLECTIONS ON GEERTZ TALAL ASAD Untiversity of Hull This article examines Geertz's well-known definition of religion, with its emphasis on meanings, and argues that it omits the crucial dimension of power, that it ignores the varying social conditions for the production of knowledge, and that its initial plausibility derives from the fact that it resembles the privatised forms of religion so characteristic of modern (Christian) society, in which power and knowledge are no longer significantly generated by religious institutions. A critical evaluation of Geertz's text is accompanied by brief explorations of some of the ways in which power and knowledge were connected in medieval Christianity.
    [Show full text]
  • Critique As Care
    Critique as Care MAYANTHI FERNANDO Saba Mahmood be gins the ac knowl edg ments in Politics of Piety by thanking her men tors and teach ers. Talal Asad’s think ing, she writes, per me ates “prac ti cally ev ery page of this book: there is no greater gif that a scholar can be stow. If I am suc cess ful in re­cre at ing even a mo di cum of the acu men and cour age that Talal’s work rep re sents, I will be hap py.” Jane Collier, she con tin ues, “has ex tended to me both her in tel lect and her la bor through prac ti cally ev ery phase of this pro­ ject. This is a debt that I can never hope to repay ex cept per haps by extending to my own stu dents the same gen er os ity that Jane has of ered me.”1 Rereading these words now, I am struck by how what Saba valued in her men tors mir rored her own life as a scholar and teach er, how her work ex em pli fied both in cred i ble acu men and un com mon cour age, how she ex tended an ex traor di nary gen er os ity to her stu­ dents, how much her think ing per me ates our own. For as much as she was a bril liant schol ar, Saba was an equally bril liant teach er, and in writ ing this essay, I was moved to read what some of her stu dents had to say about her in their own ac knowl edg ments.
    [Show full text]
  • Islam As a Lived Tradition
    Islam as a Lived Tradition: Ethical Constellations of Muslim Food Practice in Mumbai Een verklaring van Islam als een Levende Traditie: Ethische Constellaties van Moslim Voedsel Praktijken in Mumbai (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. G.J. van der Zwaan, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op woensdag 10 mei 2017 des middags te 2.30 uur door Shaheed Tayob geboren op 28 juni 1984 te Kaapstad, Zuid Afrika 1A_BW proefschrift Shaheed Tayob[pr].job Table of Contents Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ iv Abstract ................................................................................................................................................. vii Chapter One: Islam as a Lived Tradition: The Ethics of Muslim Food Practices in Mumbai .................................................................................................................. 1 From Bombay to Mumbai: The Shifting Place of Muslims in the City .................................................. 3 The Anthropology of Islam: A Discursive Analysis ............................................................................... 11 Talal
    [Show full text]
  • The Sea Within: Marine Tenure and Cosmopolitical Debates
    THE SEA WITHIN MARINE TENURE AND COSMOPOLITICAL DEBATES Hélène Artaud and Alexandre Surrallés editors IWGIA THE SEA WITHIN MARINE TENURE AND COSMOPOLITICAL DEBATES Copyright: the authors Typesetting: Jorge Monrás Editorial Production: Alejandro Parellada HURIDOCS CIP DATA Title: The sea within – Marine tenure and cosmopolitical debates Edited by: Hélène Artaud and Alexandre Surrallés Print: Tarea Asociación Gráfica Educativa - Peru Pages: 226 ISBN: Language: English Index: 1. Indigenous Peoples – 2. Maritime Rights Geografical area: world Editorial: IWGIA Publications date: April 2017 INTERNATIONAL WORK GROUP FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS Classensgade 11 E, DK 2100 - Copenhagen, Denmak Tel: (+45) 35 27 05 00 – E-mail: [email protected] – Web: www.iwgia.org To Pedro García Hierro, in memoriam Acknowledgements The editors of this book would like to thank the authors for their rigour, ef- fectiveness and interest in our proposal. Also, Alejandro Parellada of IWGIA for the enthusiasm he has shown for our project. And finally, our thanks to the Fondation de France for allowing us, through the “Quels littoraux pour demain? [What coastlines for tomorrow?] programme to bring to fruition the reflection which is the subject of this book. Content From the Land to the Sea within – A presentation Alexandre Surrallés................................................................................................ .. 11 Introduction Hélène Artaud...................................................................................................... ....15 PART I
    [Show full text]