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Vocabulary for the Study of

EDITED BY ROBERT SEGAL & KOCKU VON STUCKRAD Preview 2 Vocabulary for the Study of

Edited by Robert Segal, University of Aberdeen, and Kocku von Stuckrad, University of Groningen

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This booklet is a preview of Vocabulary for the Study of Religions. The format and paper used for this preview are not indicative of the final, printed version of the dictionary. 3 Vocabulary for the Study of Religions

Edited by: Robert Segal Kocku von Stuckrad 4 TITLES FOR PREVIEW

Action Biography Death and Burial Adaptation Blasphemy Deconstruction Blessing and Curse Deconversion Body / Embodiment Definitions of Religion Agency Boundaries Demography Agents (superhuman/ Bricolage Demythologization counterintuitive) Calendar and New Year Deprivation Aggression Canon / Canonization otiosus Capital, Forms of Deviance Agriculture Capitalism Dialectic / Dialectical Materialism Alchemy Cargo Dialogism Alienation Catharsis Diaspora Allegory Causality Différance Alterity Chance Differentiation (Social) Altruism Charisma Diffusion and dispersion Amulet Charismatic Movement Disclosure Analogy Cinema Discourse Ancestors and Ancestor Cinematography Disenchantment Androcentrism Civil religion Dissociation Androgyny Civil society Dissonance (Cognitive) Angel Class Animal Classification Divine Kingship Clothing Do ut des Anthropocentrism Cognition Dogmatism of Religion Colonialism Drama Commercialization / Dream Antinomianism Commodification Dualism Apocalypse Commitment Dying and Rising Communication Economics of Religion Apollonian and Dionysian Communism Economy Community Ecstasy Apostasy Comparison Ecumenism Archetypes Concept of Religion Education Art Conflict Effervescence Asceticism Conflict Theory Elective Affinity Astrology Congregation / Congregationalism Elite Conscience Emotion Attitude Empathy Attribution (theory) Conservatism Enlightenment Authoritarianism Contingency Environment Authority Coping Epoché Authorship Cosmos / Cosmologies Equality Baptism Covenant Esoteric / Esotericism Behavior Ethnicity Behaviorism Critical Theory Ethnocentrism (s) Criticism and Critique (in, among Ethnography Belonging and of Religions) Ethos 5

Euhemerism Heresy Martyrdom / Martyr Everyday Life Hermeneutics and Interpretation Masks Evil Hero / Heroism Material Culture Evolution / Evolutionism Hierarchy / Exchange Hieros Gamos Meaning Exclusion History Measurements of Religion Excommunication Homo Religiosus Media Human Rights Medicine Memory / Memorization Humor Mentalities Explanation and Interpretation Hunting Metaphor Extremism Hybridity Migration Fairy tale Icon / Iconography Millenarianism / Millennialism Iconoclasm Mimesis Fatalism / Fate Identity Minority (Religious) Festival Ideology and Wonder Fetish / / Fetishization Idol / Idolatry Mission Implicit Religion Modernization / Modernity Fieldwork Indexicality Money Financing Indigenous Religions Ineffability Food and Diet / Transformation Mourning Founder / Foundation Innovation Museality Framework (Conceptual) Insider / Outsider Music Framing Institution Mystery Freedom Intellectuals Function / Functionalism Interreligious relations Functions of Religion Intertextuality Narrative Intoxication Nation / Nationalism Funeral Intuition Nativism Geisteswissenschaft Invisible Religion Gender Nature Genre Journey Gestures Justice New Religious Movements Ghost Kinship Nomads Gift / Giving Knowledge Numinous Globalization Landscape Object Relations / Language Objectivity Group Law Occult / Occultism Guilt Legitimacy / Legitimization Oceanic feeling Hallucinogens and Liberalism Oedipus complex Happiness Liminal / Healing / Disease Literature Orality Health Orientalism / Occidentalism / Origins of Religion Hegemony Marketplace Model Orthodoxy and Marriage Othering 6

Other-Worldly and This-Worldly Reductionism / Anti-Reductionism Sublimation Pacifism Sui Generis Relativism Suicide Pain System / Systems Theory Participant Observation Rhetoric Taboo Peak Experience Rhythm Teleology Performance / Performativity Rites of passage Texts / Textuality Person / Personality Theater / Theatricality Phenomenology of Religion Role Philology Routinization Theogony of Religion Sacred (the); Sacred and Profane Pilgrimage Theories of Religion Pluralism and Plurality Time Polemics Sanctuary / Shrine / Temple Tolerance Politics / Political Science and Savior Religion Scapegoat Tradition / Schismogenesis Trance Popular religion Science and Possession Scripture Translation Postmodernism Secrecy / Secret / Secret Societies Transmission Poverty / Sectarianism / Cult Transnational / Transnationalism Power Trauma Secular, Secularism Trickster Predestination Secularization and De- Trope Prejudice Secularization Truth Priest / Priestess Semiotics Typology Primitive / Primitivism Senses Unconscious Private and Public Religion Sexuality Universals Privatization Shaman / Urbanization Progress Shame Utopia Projection Sign / Symbol Values Property Social Movement Violence / Socialization Virtuality Proselytism / Proselytization Society Vision Protestant Ethic Visual Arts and Culture Votive / Votum Purity/Impurity Sound War / Warrior Qualitative Research Space Wilderness Quantitative Research Specialist Wisdom (Literature) Race / Racism Speech Acts Witch / Witchcraft and Sorcerer / Radicalism Sorcery Rapture State Rational Choice Theory Stratification Worship Rationality Structuralism Reading and Writing Structure Reception Theory Subaltern 7 Apologetics

Apologetics has traditionally been linked to fragments) and Flavius Josephus (Contra Apionem) , , and one strand of the as its prime exponents. A century ago Johannes ancient Greek rhetorical tradition. In scholarly Geffcken argued that the Christian apologetic lit- parlance the notion designates ancient Jewish and erature was the heiress of the Jewish tradition. In Christian works formally addressed to an external recent years, however, the existence of such a audience and undertaken in defence of the monolithic Jewish apologetic tradition has been authors’ worldviews as response to external accu- called into question. It was neither a uniform liter- sations having been made against them by non- ary tradition, nor were the majority of works tradi- Jewish and non-Christian authors of the tionally subsumed under the heading especially Greco-Roman world. The phenomenon, however, defensive in tone. Additionally, scholars have— has greater prevalence. From a comparative per- following a ground-breaking article by Victor spective it designates a wide array of works and Tcherikover from 1956—increasingly come to strategies within any religious tradition which are acknowledge that the primary audience of many produced as a defence of one’s own tradition of these texts was Jewish. A work—like the Letter against real or imagined threats stemming from of Aristeas dating to around first century B.C.E.— rival worldviews. may as part of its rhetorical staging make use of an explicit external addressee, but it is unlikely that this panegyric of Judaism ever succeeded in Research History achieving a wide ‘pagan’ audience. Nor is it evi- dent that the main target of the author was to Although the phenomenon of apologetics is found reach a non-Jewish public. On the contrary, the in an array of religions across the world, the con- majority of these writings seem to have had a pre- cept has traditionally been closely linked to the dominantly internal purpose, serving the continu- , Judaism, and one particular ous forging and maintenance of a Jewish identity strand of the ancient Greek tradition. The schol- by encomiastically documenting the superiority arly concept ‘apologetics’ is of modern origin, but of Judaism, while using Hellenistic cultural it has a firm grounding in Greek culture ( canons. apologētikos, “speech suitable for defence”) and Recently, a similar shift in scholarship has taken partially in Latin with the title of ’s place with regard to Christian apologetic litera- famous Apology (Apologeticum) derived from the ture. A growing number of scholars hold that Greek term. The notion traditionally designates although some of the Christian apologetic writ- those works of Jewish and Christian provenance ings may have circulated among a ‘pagan’ audi- formally addressed to an external audience and ence, their primary aim was the internal worked out in defence of the authors’ respective identity-shaping among Christians. This is not to worldviews as responses to previous external deny the apologetic function of these works, but it accusations having been made against them. is important—against time-honored tradition— The emergence of Christian apologetic litera- to acknowledge that apologetics cannot be con- ture from the second century onwards is often said fined to the external persuasion of one’s opponents to build on a Jewish apologetic tradition dating only. It also has an important internal function back to the Ptolemaic Alexandrian period, having both at the level of the individual and at the level Philo of Alexandria (Hypothetika, extant only in of the group. In order to convince the external

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world of the legitimacy or truth of one’s worldview speech and as a distinct type of the forensic genre (or, more likely, aspects of it), one must also per- (1.3.3; 1.10.1). Similarly, in the Rhetorica ad suade oneself. Alexandrum—from the early third century B.C.E.—apologetic is emphasised as a distinct genre connected with forensic oratory. It is the Apology as Genre “refutation of errors and offences of which particu- lar persons have been charged or suspected” (1426b, Even though ’s Apology—in contrast to the 27–29). In the subsequent tradition of rhetorical later apologetic works of the Jewish and Christian handbooks by Hermagoras, Cicero, Quintilian, and tradition—represents the defence of a single per- the author of the Rhetorica ad Herrenium, apolo- son and not the defence of an entire worldview it getics was mostly concerned with forensic oratory. has frequently been taken to be the epitome of an It designated those forms of judicial speech in ‘apology,’ and thereby to constitute the generic which an orator spoke in defence of a case brought matrix for the emergence of the later Jewish and before a court responsible for ruling on matters Christian apologetic literature. Traditionally the belonging to the past. In addition to the informa- discussion of apologetics has been closely related tion gained from the handbooks, a number of to the concomitant debate about the existence of apologetic speeches have been preserved. They a distinct, literary genre, i.e. the apologia. Recently give an impression of the range of apologetics as the existence of such a genre has been called into well as examples of how defensive speeches were question with respect to the Christian apologetic held in court. One of the most prominent exam- literature. A majority of scholars is now prone to ples of the genre is the extensive literature occa- deny the existence of a distinct apologetic genre. sioned by the court case against . Apart Averil Cameron is representative of this change of from the extant apologies of Plato and Xenophon view when she encourages scholars to examine several works—now lost—are known to have apologetics as a mode of writing in terms of tone been composed by other authors. In addition to or method of argument rather than as a distinct apologetic oratory as a subspecies of the forensic genre (Cameron 2002: 221–227). The persuasive- genre, Pseudo-Demetrius’ On Epistolary Types ness of this view notwithstanding, it is hard to (first century B.C.E. or C.E.) makes it clear that deny the existence of a genre that was continually apologetics also occurred in the context of letters. undergoing transformations as cultural and social The constitutive element is once again the repu- contexts changed. Although there is only a paucity diation of charges raised. of evidence in the rhetorical and epistolary hand- books there is enough to substantiate the exis- tence of an apologetic genre from the end of the The Jewish and Christian Background fifth century B.C.E. onwards. It has been obvious for scholarship to examine the forensic rhetorical tradition in order to find the Apologia in the Greek Tradition background for the later Jewish and Christian apologetic writings. This attempt has been even The term apologia and the corresponding verb more apparent with regard to those Christian apologeisthai appear for the first time in the ora- works which—whether fictitiously or not—have tions of Antiphon of Rhamnus (480‒411 B.C.E.) been formally addressed to the Roman emperor in who wrote speeches in defence of persons being his role as judge, since they are rhetorically situ- accused. In his Rhetoric Aristotle refers to apology ated in a court setting. However, not all works tra- as the counterpart of charges made in forensic ditionally subsumed under the apologetic umbrella

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rhetorically employ the court setting. And those the term’s traditionally intimate connection with that do are strictly speaking not forensic speeches scholarship on ancient Judaism and Christianity, in the sense of being reproductions of actual the focus on apologetics in the narrow context of speeches held before a panel of judges. This calls Judaism and Christianity and the Greco-Roman for another explanation. Jonathan Goldstein has rhetorical tradition has been detrimental to a pointed to the importance of the apologetic greater acknowledgement of the phenomenon. If demegoria, which unlike the forensic speech is we take apologetics to constitute an intrinsic ele- directed towards the assembly and is concerned ment in the continual forging of identity—both at with the expediency and future course of its audi- the level of the individual and at the level of the ence (Goldstein 1968, 102–117). Numerous apolo- group—we may reasonably extend the use of the giae have been preserved which document how term to a general concept in the comparative study apologetic elements can be used both in the con- of religion. text of propaganda and self-apology. Although From an evolutionary point of view, apologetics forensic features were instrumental to the forma- is likely to be found in those religious contexts in tion of the apologetic demegoria, it represents— which different groups compete with rivals about similar to Plato’s Apology—an extension of the the legitimacy of their worldviews, i.e. in the con- genre. This extension can account for the fact that text of secondary religions, or in cultural contexts we do not only find salient protreptic elements in which religious groups are faced with challenges (pertaining to the genre of protreptikoi logoi, i.e. from competing worldviews—whether in the hortatory literature) in the later Jewish and form of direct accusations, or as challenges against Christian apologetic writings but also that the one’s worldview stemming from the existence of a works which are not of a strictly forensic nature competing worldview that by virtue of its alterna- could still be classified as apologetic, even from a tive casting of calls for a response. In addi- generic point of view. The continuous modula- tion, apologetics is more likely to be found in tions of the genre and the fact that an apologetic religious contexts that place emphasis on the doc- tone and method are found in other types of trinarian mode of religiosity, since it is commonly Jewish and Christian literature point to the preva- controversies over basic tenets of the worldview lence of the phenomenon. that are being attacked. Apologetics is therefore often also closely connected to polemics, although the two phenomena do not necessarily constitute The Prevalence of Apologetics two sides of the same coin. Polemics may appear as an aggressive form of self-defence, since it The pervasiveness of apologetics is also evident implies a reaction in the form of a direct attack on from the fact that as a particular type of literature traditions held to be external. Apologetics, in con- it reappeared in the Christian tradition from the trast, presupposes that one is responding to accu- seventeenth century onwards. Similar to the sations or challenges previously raised against ancient literature, modern apologetic Christian lit- one’s worldview. It is, for example, not coinciden- erature is a response to challenges posed by the tal that the emergence of particular Jewish and existence of rival worldviews—be they, for Christian apologetic works is inextricably con- instance, threats thought to emanate from the nat- nected to external accusations having been made ural sciences, direct attacks on Christianity from against the two religions from representatives of , or alternative world- Greek and Roman culture. At the same time, how- views prompted by other religions. The prevalence ever, it is significant to acknowledge how the of the phenomenon in contemporary Christianity response to these external accusations is also— calls for a wider comparative perspective. Despite and perhaps more importantly—a response to

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oneself whereby one strives to overcome the chal- held to exist in the works between explicit address- lenges being raised against one’s worldview. ees (i.e. critics from the ‘outside world’) and actual recipients (i.e. fellow believers). The tension, how- ever, disappears if one takes the argument to be of Defining Apologetics a quantitative and not a categorical nature. Some readers of the ‘outside world’ may, in fact, have From an emic point of view, we may define apol- read apologetic works, but the majority of recipi- ogy in the narrow generic sense to designate a par- ents of this kind of literature have always been fel- ticular number of works within the Greco-Roman, low believers seeking support for their worldview Jewish, and Christian tradition that were directly in a seeming defence of it against rival and fre- formulated against explicit accusations from the quently more dominant worldviews. outside world and which share a number of dis- cursive properties with regard to content, form, and function. As such, apology is inextricably con- BibliographyAnders Klostergaard Petersen nected to the genres of forensic and deliberative [This article has been shortened for the preview.] speech. From an etic perspective, however, we Barclay, J.M.G., “Apologetics in the Jewish Diaspora,” J.R. may take apologetics in the broader sense to desig- Bartlett (ed.), Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman Cities, nate a wide array of works and strategies within 129–148, London, 2002. any religious tradition which are produced as a Berger, K., “Hellenistiche Gattungen im Neuen defence of one’s own tradition against real or imag- Testament,” H. Temporini and W. Haase (eds.), ined threats stemming from rival worldviews. Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt: We may further distinguish between two forms Geschichte und Kultur Roms in der neuren Forschung, of apologetics, one developing as a response to Religion 2.25.2, 1031–1432, 1831–1885, Berlin, 1984. competing interpretations within one’s own Cameron, A., “Apologetics in the —a worldview and held to be incompatible with it (cf. Genre of Intolerance?” J.-M. Carrié and R.L. Testa the use of terms such as orthodoxy, heterodoxy, (eds.), “Humana Sapit”: Études d’Antiquité Tardive and heresy), and the other prompted by the exis- Offertes à Lellia Cracco Ruggini, Bibliothèque de tence of a competing worldview. A further distinc- l’Antiquité Tardive 3, 219–227, Turhout, 2002. tion can be made with respect to the latter Collins, J.J., Between Athens and Jerusalem: Jewish category. Apologetics may develop as a response to Identity in the Hellenistic Diaspora, The Biblical direct attacks on one’s own worldview, but it may Resource Series, Grand Rapids, 2000. also occur as a response provoked by the sheer Edwards, M., M. Goodman, S. Price, and C. Rowland existence of a competing worldview. Defined in (eds.), Apologetics in the Roman Empire, Oxford, this broader manner, apologetics cannot be con- 1999. fined to ancient Judaism and Christianity. It is a far Fiedrowicz, M., Apologie im frühen Christentum: Die more prevalent phenomenon characteristic of all Kontroverse um den christlichen Wahrheitsanspruch strands within secondary religions that place in den ersten Jahrhunderten, Paderborn, 2001. emphasis on the doctrinarian mode of religiosity. Fredouille, J.-C., “L’apologétique chrétienne antique. Since the onset of modernity, apologetics is also Naissance d’un genre littéraire,” REAug 38: 219–234, found in a number of other cultural realms such 1992. as, for instance, politics where single actors or ———, “L’apologétique chrétienne antique. Metamor- groups are responding to accusations or chal- phoses d’un genre polymorphe,” REAug 41: 201–216, lenges formulated against their worldviews. 1995. Finally, our overall understanding of apologetics Friedländer, M., Geschichte der jüdischen Apologetik als may appear paradoxical by virtue of the tension Vorgeschichte des Christentums: Eine historisch-kri-

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Any theist who takes God to be the Creator and mitted to the design argument rejected everything else to be a creature, could be consid- evolutionary explanations. Thus, from its very ered a creationist. Some theologians and histori- beginning creationism is marked by a strong oppo- ans of science have argued that a generic sition to evolutionary explanations, and a desire to creationist perspective implies that one should preserve a design argument. However, creationism expect the world to be orderly (reflecting God’s was also a response to nineteenth-century mod- trustworthiness) and contingent (reflecting the ernism, with its social and theological dimensions. Creator’s free choices), and thus justifies the com- Whereas modernists appreciated biblical criticism bination of mathematics and experimentation (which had, among much else, noted the presence that has become characteristic of modern of two different and mutually-inconsistent cre- science. ation stories in the early chapters of Genesis) and “Creationism” has come to refer to a far more the discovery of other ancient literature from the specific cluster of beliefs. This more specific cre- Middle East, the anti-modernists emphasized the ationism flows from the natural of the historical accuracy of scripture and the impor- seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Natural tance of doctrine. theologies were replete with arguments from “Creationism” has thus come to refer to a family observations of intricate and purposeful natural of positions that share most of the following fea- phenomena to the conclusion that there must tures: (a) as creator of the natural have been a Designer. Discerning agency behind world; (b) the rejection of the idea that God has natural phenomena is a useful and common created by natural, evolutionary processes (an human propensity, which makes the appeal of cre- alternative position that is called “evolutionary ationism quite intelligible (e.g., Recker 2010). ”); (c) and thus belief in the insufficiency of However, with the work of Charles Darwin (espe- evolutionary, natural, evolutionary processes to cially On the Origin of Species, 1859), preceded by have brought about all adaptations in life forms on the expanded time frame and uniformitarian Earth. Furthermore, (d) belief in the truth and explanations of the geologists (e.g., Charles Lyell’s inerrancy of Scripture; (e) a view of religion that Principles of Geology, 1830–1833) there came the gives cognitive claims a prominent place in reli- rise of an effective evolutionary understanding of gion (in contrast to liberal believers, who might natural history. Natural explanations of adapta- stress morality over doctrine; and (f) various other tions in nature made the design argument super- anti-modernist elements were all part of the cre- fluous. In Darwin’s context this was to a large ationist package. extent a debate with scientifically respectable As an illustration of the larger package, one opponents such as Richard Owen, as the design might turn to a debate in the American House of argument had served science for a long time. The Representatives, after the shooting at Columbine early stage of the debate was more about science, High School in April 1999. Officially, this debate on whereas later creationism is more about the Bible. June 16, 1999, was about juvenile offenders and In Darwin’s time, some religious believers were measures to control the possession of guns. Tom not troubled, as one could always consider God DeLay, a leading Republican, claimed that the the designer of the process as such rather than of availability of guns was not the issue. Juvenile vio- individual outcomes. One could also hold that lence was a consequence of broken families, day belief in God is not dependent upon such argu- care centres where children live according to the ments. However, many of those religiously com- law of the jungle, TV and computer games, small

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families due to sterilization and contraception, presented itself as arguing for “,” abortions, and “because our school systems teach without explicit references to scripture. In the children that they are nothing but glorified response to the various waves of creationism aim- apes who have evolutionized out of some primor- ing at science education in public schools, others dial soup of mud.” The driving issue is modernity have organized themselves against creationist with its social practices and values. Explaining claims (e.g., the National Center for Science evolutionary insights, providing new data, refuting Education). apparent counter-examples will not tame the “Creationism” in the more specific sense is not antagonism, because science education does not to be equated with orthodoxy, though its adher- address the real concerns involved. The basic ents would like to see it thus. It is rather a move- opposition is one pitting religious views that reject ment that combines a view of meaningful religious modernity against religious and secular outlooks language as descriptive with an anti-modernist that accept and appreciate modernity. For both social and religious agenda. Advocates of such cre- opponents and adherents the rejection of evolu- ationism profit from the association with the tion is part of a much larger package, though a part generic meaning of creationism, but classic with major symbolic importance. Christian authors such as Augustine (fourth and Creationism takes various forms. The major his- fifth century) were far more open to a non-literal- torian of creationism, Ronald Numbers (2005: 10f.) ist understanding of scripture and a more complex distinguishes two varieties in the late nineteenth understanding of God’s creative activity through century that both could be called “Old Earth natural or “secondary” causes (e.g., McMullin 2011). Creationism.” Some took the days of Genesis to Creationism in its more specific forms has been refer to much longer periods. Others took it that copied elsewhere, and for many evangelicals, the six days of Genesis describe a restoration of a being against evolution has become a standard of creation that had fallen into . A third, minor- true faith. It has also been appropriated in other ity, position was the “Young Earth Creationism” religious traditions. For instance, the Turkish cre- that considered the days to be days of twenty-four ationist Harun Yahya makes extensive use of the hours, and attributed fossils to the flood that came work of young earth creationists, while drawing on many generations after Adam and Eve. It was only their anti-modernism as an anti-Western around 1960 that Young Earth Creationism gained vocabulary. prominence, presenting itself not only as the bet- ter interpretation of the Bible but also as the scien- tifically stronger position. Thus, from that time on BibliographyWillem B. Drees we also have “scientific creationism.” In the cre- ationists’ self-understanding, they do not reject Kitcher, P.,[This Abusing article has Science: been shortened The Casefor the Againstpreview.] science, but rather argue for a better science, Creationism, Cambridge MA, 1982. which would be biblical rather than naturalistic. McMullin, E., “Darwin and the Other Christian In this period, their understanding of the Bible has Tradition,” Zygon 46: 291–316, 2011. become more rigid and literal, e.g., with respect to McMullin, E. (ed.), Evolution and Creation, Notre Dame, the “days.” 1985. Subsequent developments were often triggered National Center for Science Education, → www.ncse by legal situations, as the issues tended to focus on .com. the teaching of biology and understandings of the Numbers, R.L., The Creationists: From Scientific separation of church and state in American public Creationism to Intelligent Design, Expanded Edition, schools. In the 1990s there emerged a variant that Chicago, 2006.

VSR_Creationism.indd 2 4/22/2014 12:47:53 PM 13 Disclosure

Derived from the Latin dis-clausis, disclosure key examples to illustrate each of these four forms refers literally to the exposure or opening of things will be given. that have been hidden or concealed. In a religious context disclosure is the exposure, opening, or rev- elation of some unseen sacred presence. Disclosure Divine Disclosures: Apocalypse, can be understood as the flipside and the neces- Hierophany, and Vision sary counterpart to secrecy, or the intentional clo- sure or concealment of knowledge. As Georg In its broadest religious sense disclosure refers to Simmel famously observed in his sociological the exposure of things believed to be superhuman, study of secrecy, disclosure or betrayal is the logi- , or transcendent. The literal meaning cal opposite of the secret, which is hidden knowl- of “apocalypse” is the revelation of unknown edge that is awaiting being made known to things. ’s famous concept of hiero- another: “The secret contains a tension that is dis- phany, or the manifestation of the divine, refers to solved in the moment of its revelation. This the sacred as it appears to burst forth into the moment constitutes the acme in the development human and material realm. In the case of the Book of the secret: all of its charms are once more gath- of Revelation, apocalypse refers to the revelation ered in it and brought to a climax, . . . The secret, of events to come, and specifically events relating too, is full of the consciousness that it can be to the end of time. Similar divine disclosures are betrayed; that one holds the power of surprises, recounted by later Christian saints and mystics. turns of fate, joy, destruction. . . . For this reason, of Norwich recounted her “Showings” from the secret is surrounded by the possibility and the year 1373, when she experienced a series of temptation of its betrayal” (1964: 333–34; see intense visionary encounters with the hitherto Urban 1998). Disclosure lies close to the heart of unseen presence of Christ (Colledge and Walsh what is meant by “religion” itself. As Michael 1977). Examples from other religions are Joseph Taussig observes, religion is a matter of a powerful Smith’s visions of the angel Moroni and the Hindu yet invisible presence, the power of what is unseen saint Ramakrishna’s intense series of visions of or concealed. Religious myth, textual revelation, Kali and other (Kripal 1998). and ritual practice are often precisely about the disclosure of that concealed presence: “Above all, religion is the secret, carefully concealed and Secret Disclosures: Esoteric Knowledge revealed” (1998: 357). and Transmission This entry will discuss four key kinds of the rev- elation of hidden knowledge: first, divine disclo- If disclosure can refer to from the sures, or revelations from the spiritual world to divine realm to the human, it can also refer to the human recipients; second, secret disclosures, or transmission of secret knowledge from one human the intentional communication of esoteric knowl- being to another. In this sense disclosure is central edge among initiated members of a closed com- to various esoteric traditions and secret societies, munity; third, aesthetic disclosures, or the ranging from to Hindu and Buddhist revelation of concealed knowledge through sacred Tantra to and indigenous communities art and other forms; and fourth, scandalous disclo- (Wolfson 1999; Urban 1998). Perhaps the most sures, or the revelation of hidden facts about a reli- famous example of secret disclosures in the mod- gious community by ex-members or critics. A few ern Western context is Freemasonry, particularly

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in its most elaborate forms such as the Scottish the Church of Scientology, established in 1953 by Rite. As Albert Pike puts it in his class work, Morals American science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. and of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Since its inception, Scientology has been sur- Rite of Freemasonry, “Secrecy is indispensable to a rounded by intense controversy, particularly Mason of whatever degree. It is the first . . . lesson because of the secrecy surrounding its advanced taught to the Entered Apprentice,” and the great- levels of training yet, there has been disclosure of est commandment of the initiate is “I will always these secret teachings by a variety of ex-members, hail, ever conceal and never reveal” (Urban 2008). media sources, and websites. Indeed, from the Ironically, the entire hierarchy of and early 1950s down to Janet Reitman’s 2011 book, grades that makes up the Masonic brotherhood Inside Scientology, much of the debate surround- center precisely on the disclosure of secret knowl- ing this movement has centered on its claim to edge. The very point of this indispensible secrecy powerful (and expensive) esoteric knowledge and is the concomitant revelation of ever more pro- the claims of various critics to expose the scandal- found pieces of esoteric knowledge as the Mason ous “true secrets” of Scientology (Urban 2008; 2011). ascends through the increasingly elaborate thirty- three grades of the Scottish Rite. Hugh Urban Bibliography [This article has been shortened for the preview.] Aesthetic Disclosures: Manifestations of Colledge, E., and J. Walsh (trans.), Julian of Norwich: the Secret through Art Showings, New York, 1977. Collins, J.J., The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction One of the most important forms of disclosure in to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature, New York, 1998. many traditions is the use of art and other forms of Kripal, J.J., Kali’s Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the visual culture to conceal and simultaneously to Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna, Chicago, 1998. disclose esoteric knowledge. As Mary Nooter sug- Nooter, M.H. (ed.), Secrecy: African Art that Conceals gests in her study of African traditional art (1993), and Reveals, New York, 1993. masks, emblems and other works are used to draw Reitman, J., Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s attention to the very secret knowledge even as Most Secretive Religion, New York, 2011. they serve to conceal its actual content. Simmel, G., The Sociology of Georg Simmel, ed. Kurt H. Wolff, New York, 1964. Taussig, M., Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of Scandalous Disclosures the Negative, Stanford, 1999. ———, “Transgression,” in M.C. Taylor (ed.), Critical Finally, there is the revelation of information Terms for , 349–364, Chicago, 1998. about religious traditions that was never intended Urban, H.B., “The Torment of Secrecy: Ethical and to be disclosed and that is considered embarrass- Epistemological Problems in the Study of Esoteric ing, threatening, or illegal. The last decades of the Traditions,” History of Religions 37(3): 209–248, 1998. twentieth century and first decades of the twenty- ———, “Secrecy in New Religious Movements: first centuries have seen numerous examples of Concealment, Surveillance and Privacy in a New Age such scandalous disclosures. Perhaps the most of Information,” Religion Compass 2(1): 66–83, 2008. infamous was the revelation of child sexual abuse ———, The Church of Scientology: A History of a New and cover-ups by an array of priests and bishops in Religion, Princeton, 2011. the . But arguably some of the Wolfson, E.R., Rending the Veil: Concealment and Secrecy most fascinating cases of secrecy and disclosure in the History of Religions, New York, 1999. have centered on the controversial new religion, Hugh Urban

VSR_Disclosure.indd 2 4/23/2014 9:37:53 AM 15 Functions of Religion

The functions of religion can be imagined as of the functions that have been appropriated by answering the question “What does religion do?” the state during the past fifty years. As McGuire notes, “A functional definition of reli- also considered the function of reli- gion emphasizes what the religion does for the gion, characterizing religion as an opiate that individual of the social group. Accordingly, reli- dulled the senses and kept the oppressed from ris- gion is defined by the social functions it fulfills” ing up. In a famous passage he states that “Religion (2002: 11). The perennial problem with functional- is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a ism is that it makes religion into an actor itself. But heartless world, and the soul of soulless condi- in fact, religion does not act by itself. Rather, it tions. It is the opium of the people” (Marx 1984 requires human actors, and they must be under- [1843]). His as false conscious- stood in terms of the power relations that inform ness is part of his criticism of society generally: the very construction of religion. Furthermore, “Religion is the self-consciousness and self-esteem religion serves individuals as well as the group, of man who has either not yet found himself or and the functions of religion for individuals, such has already lost himself again” (Marx 1984). as providing meaning, are different from the func- Yet subsequent history has shown that religion tions of religion for the group, such as keeping the can also be harnessed in the service of emancipa- group together. tion. Liberation theology is the most frequently Let us first briefly revisit some of the founda- cited example against Marx’s thesis. Emerging tional thinking on the functions of religion. The from Latin America in the 1960s, liberation theol- classic starting place is Émile Durkheim’s The ogy combined Christian with Marxist ideas Elementary Forms of Religious Life (2001 [1912]), about the redistribution of wealth (see Gutierrez which presents religion as serving the positive, 1988). There are many other examples of religion social function of strengthening social cohesion. functioning to emancipate rather than to subju- Influenced by Durkheim, Talcott Parsons (1954, gate. For example, George Elliot Clark argues that 1967, 1970), for example, stresses the integrative the hymn “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” so often function of religion in society. sung as a Christmas favorite, was actually embed- A contemporary expression of the Durkheimian ded with coded messages about escape for black and Parsonian approach to religion is being played slaves in the American South (Clark 2011). Women’s out in the United Kingdom, where the government spirituality groups and have created reli- has recognized the potential of religion for unify- gious spaces in which women have been able to ing the state and has attempted to harness this fea- create their own and alternative narratives as well ture in the service of the state. James Beckford as escape from patriarchal beliefs and practices. documents this process in his discussion of reli- In The Protestant Ethic and the of gion in the public sphere, noting the shift in state Capitalism (2003 [1958]) Max Weber, another discourse from “religion” to “faith communities” as major “founding father” of social science, studied a means of using shared values to build cohesion the link between Protestant theology and the rise (Beckford 2010). As governments throughout of capitalism. Weber noted that , Western Europe grapple with increased religious especially , sought worldly signs of cho- diversity and economically challenging circum- senness, notably the accumulation of wealth. stances, they are seeking to mobilize religion to Religion functioned to support the capitalist sys- reinforce social bonds and, more, to perform some tem. In the Sociology of Religion (1963) Weber

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shifted his focus to the individual, noting that reli- Boyarin goes further and argues that Judaism itself gion served to provide meaning in the face of, was a Christian invention. Here “religion” func- above all, suffering. tions to demarcate Christianity from Judaism. The Often missing from analyses of the function of notions of orthodoxy and heresy were used by religion, whether positive or negative, is the recog- both Christians and Jews to construct the bound- nition that religion can both effect and impede aries between these religions, where “religion” was change. For example, religion functioned to - actually a non-existent category prior to the need ate slaves but also to oppress them. If liberation for its invention. Geography and ethnicity, not reli- theology uses Christianity to emancipate oppressed gion, were used to differentiate groups of people people in Latin America, Christianity had long until religion was successfully demarcated. Jews been used to colonize the same people. There themselves did not regard being Jewish as religious are always tensions within religions. Where the until after the Middle Ages. Metropolitan Church in Toronto espouses the The fluidity of the functions of religion reflects legal recognition of same-sex marriage in Canada, the human agency involved in the process. Religion other Christian groups in Canada oppose that rec- itself does not act. Persons do. Following the work ognition (Dickey Young 2012). Similarly, the same of McGuire (2008), Heelas and Woodhead (2005), religion that is mobilized to support the abuse of and Orsi (2005, 2003), religion as lived—that is, women through submission can be mobilized to the mundane, day-to-day ways in which persons combat violence against women (see Nason-Clark act religiously—must be considered. Religion can 2009). The view that religion functions either wholly serve multiple functions. It can provide a source of positively or wholly negatively is simplistic. identity (“I am an evangelical Christian”), motiva- One leading contemporary topic is the relation tion for action (“therefore I am called to witness”), of religion to violence. The so-called new atheists, an interpretive framework (“It is God’s will”), and most prominently (2006), see comfort as well as anxiety and discomfort. religion as so inherently violent that the only hope Similarly, the functions of religion can also be for humankind is to eliminate it altogether. An understood as being related to political action and only mildly less polemical view of religion identi- the state, which, as mentioned above, can deploy fies “good religion” and “bad religion,” a distinction religion in its service. The recent rise of values talk that recently is used most often of , which is and the transformation of religion into “cultural deemed a bad religion. But again, this classifica- heritage” bear witness to some of the ways in tion is simplistic and ignores the complexity of which religion functions at the service of the state. real, lived religion (see Orsi 2003). Religion can form the basis of state identity—“we In Social Theory and Religion James Beckford are a Christian nation”—to create a sense of “we” adopts what he calls moderate constructionism. in the face of “them,” or, in other words, to estab- The basic premise is that “far from being a fixed or lish or mark the boundaries between us and them. unitary phenomenon, religion is a social construct The state can reshape and recreate these narra- that varies in meaning across time and place” tives of “we” by partnering with religion, especially (Beckford 2003: 7). The functions of religion with the historically religious majorities of a depend on the context. Religion is thus not a nation. Of course the very creation of a “we” neces- stand-alone category with an otherworldly func- sarily creates a “them,” which in turn subverts tion. Rather, religion is a part of the social context the possibility of the social cohesion that is the in which we find ourselves. state aim. In Borderlines (2004) Daniel Boyarin argues that A careful analysis of religion requires a consid- in order to create itself, Christianity had to con- eration of the various areas in which religion and struct the notions of both religion and Christianity. society mix. Linda Woodhead (2011a) points out

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that these spheres are not neatly differentiated but strictly a women’s domain and as one that exploits rather blend into one other, relate to one other in women. no particular order, and shift in importance. The exploration of welfare and religion also Woodhead’s stress on complex spheres is useful reveals the extent to which the realms mentioned for thinking about the functions of religion. One overlap. In each case studied by Bäckström and caution offered by Woodhead is that religion is Davie, the functions of religion shifted, depending entangled in domains that vary from society to on the function of the state. Thus there was sym- society. Domains also need to be adjusted to the metry between the amount of welfare support historical context. As Boyarin argues, the function provided by the state and the amount engaged in of religion in the early years of Christianity dif- by religious organizations. Moreover, the func- fered from the function of religion today. tions of the family were also tied to religion, the To grasp the functions of religion, we need to state, and welfare, most obviously in Italy but else- study the many areas of social life: home and fam- where as well. In France there was little awareness ily, health and death, education, media, culture, by state officials of the function of religion in wel- the market, the state and law, leisure, violence, fare provision, yet the Catholic Church provided public spaces, welfare, and service organizations significant services to the community. It is not that (see Woodhead 2011b; Casanova 1994). We may the state causes religion to provide welfare or that also want to consider a temporal perspective— religion causes the state to do so but that there is ideally, the lifespan of an individual, a group, or an integral relation between them, and between even a nation. We may likewise want to consider a them and other spheres like the family, that results spatial perspective, beginning with a street, a vil- in a certain configuration. lage, or even a website (Knott 2005, 2008). Both The example of welfare raises the question not Woodhead and Knott offer tools to take the vary- only of what the functions of religion are, but also ing locations of religion, both social and material, of what they should be. The answer varies with the more seriously. As an example, let us consider context, as again illustrated by the research of welfare. Bäckström and Davie. In Italy the Church sees its In Welfare and Religion in 21st Century Europe role as superior to that of the state and sees reli- (2010) Anders Bäckström and Grace Davie et al. gion as the backbone of society and as intertwined present the results of their eight-country Welfare with the state (Frisina 2010). In the two and Religion in a European Perspective Project. kingdoms doctrine of Lutheran theology (which They show how religion functions in so-called grants autonomy to the state from the church) sees welfare states. In Finland and Greece religion the functions of religion and of the state as distinct, offers welfare services that are personal, engaged, even though the Church of Norway is a state church. and direct, in contrast to the more bureaucratic Finally, the work of Bäckström and Davie et al. approach of the state. The editors ask whether reli- illustrates the contested nature of the functions of gion functions as a safety valve to support the . The ways in which religion functions in a and, if so, whether this role is appropriate. In Italy society are fully implicated in power relations. The religion functions to reinforce a patriarchal order contraction of the functions of religion in one that places women at the center of service provi- domain may mean not the withdrawal of religion sion through expectations of their roles in the from the public sphere but a regrouping. So family. At the same time it is nuns who have chal- religion must be studied—as dynamic rather than lenged the traditional responsibility put on women fixed. in caregiving. They propose an alternative, radical The study of religion in the case of welfare voice to welfare provision, challenging its status as illustrates the complex nature of the function of

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religion. The study of religion in the case of educa- Knott, K., The Location of the Sacred: A Spatial Analysis, tion or family life would show the same. What London, 2005. must be recognized is the array of domains in ———, “From Locality and Back Again: A Spatial which religion operates and also the blurring of Journey in the Study of Religion,” Religion, 39(2): the domains. In examining the functions of reli- 154–160, 2008. gion, one must recognize the shifting, local, and Marx, K., “Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right,” trans contingent nature of social life. A. Jolin and J. O’Malley, http://www.marxists.org/ archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/index.htm, 1984 [1843]. BibliographyLori Beaman McGuire, M.B., Religion: The Social Context, Belmont, 2002. [This article has been shortened for the preview.] Bäckström, A., G. Davie, N. Edgardh, and P. Pettersson, ———, Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Welfare and Religion in 21st Century Europe, Volume 1: Life, Oxford, 2008. Configuring the Connections, Aldershot, 2010. Nason-Clark, N., “Christanity and the Experience of Beckford, J.A., Social Theory and Religion, Cambridge Domestic Violence: What Does Faith Have to Do UK, 2003. With It?” Social Work & Christianity 36(4): 379–393, ———, “The Return of Public Religion? A Critical 2009. Assessment of a Popular Claim,” Nordic Journal of Orsi, R., “Is the Study of Lived Religion Irrelevant to the Religion and Society 23(2): 121–136, 2010. World We Live In?” Journal for the Scientific Study of Boyarin, D., Borderlines: The Partition of Judeo- Religion 42(2): 169–174, 2003. Christianity, Philadelphia, 2004. ———, Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds Casanova, J., Public Religion in the Modern World, People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them, Chicago, 1994. Princeton, 2005. Clark, G.E., The Sunday Edition, CBC Radio, December 11, Parsons, T., Essays in Sociological Theory, New York, 2011. 1954. Dawkins, R., The God Delusion, New York, 2006. ———, Sociological Theory and Modern Society, New Dickey Young, P., “It’s All About Sex: The Opposition of York, 1967. some Canadian Churches to Gay and Lesbian ———, Social Structure and Personality, New York, 1970 Marriages,” in Religion and Canadian Society: [1964]. Contexts, Identities, and Strategies, Toronto, 22012. Weber, M., The Sociology of Religion, trans. E. Fischoff, Durkheim, É., The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Boston, 1963 [1922]. trans. C. Cosman. Oxford, 2001 [1912]. ———, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Frisina, A., “What Kind of Church? What Kind of trans. T. Parsons, Mineola, 2003 [1958]. Welfare? Conflicting Views in the Italian Case,” in Woodhead, L., “Five Concepts of Religion,” International A. Bäckström, G. Davie, N. Edgardh, and P. Pettersson Review of Sociology 21(1): 121–143, 2011a. (eds.), Welfare and Religion in 21st Century Europe, ———, “What do you get when you spend millions on Volume 1, 147–166, Farnham, 2010. collaborative research on religion? Reports from two Gutierrez, G., A Theology of Liberation, trans. M.J. major programs,” paper presented at the Society for O’Connell, MaryKnoll, 1988. the Scientific Study of Religion Annual Meeting, Heelas, P., L. Woodhead, B. Seel, B. Szerszynski, and Milwaukee, October 29, 2011b. K. Tusting, The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion is Giving Way to Spirituality, Malden, 2005. Lori Beaman

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Robert A. Segal is Sixth Century Chair in Religious Studies, University of Aberdeen. He writes and teaches on modern theories of myth and on modern theories of religion.

Kocku von Stuckrad, PhD (1999), is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Groningen. He has published extensively on the cultural history of , with a focus on pluralities of knowledge systems (including science, esotericism, astrology, shamanism, and nature-based spirituality), as well as on methodology and theory in the study of religion.