TEMENOSPub Date : 2010-01-01DOI: 10.33356/TEMENOS.6942
Tiina Mahlamäki, Tomas Mansikka
{"title":"Remarks on Swedenborgian Elements in the Literary Production of Johan Ludvig Runeberg","authors":"Tiina Mahlamäki, Tomas Mansikka","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.6942","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.6942","url":null,"abstract":"This article sets out to trace possible influences of Emanuel Sweden borg, the Swedish theosophist and spirit-seer, in the production of the Finnish national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg. We argue that the influence of Swedenborgianism on nineteenth-century culture in Finland was greater than has generally been suggested by literary scholars. The first part of the article provides a historical background of Swedenborgianism in the country. The latter part indicates a larger epistemic and religious accord between Swedenborg and Runeberg, to be accounted for in greater detail in terms of influence. Both au thors subscribed to an emblematic worldview within the Classical discourse of nature as a book, ultimately supported by a framework of logocentrism and theism. Runeberg’s discussion of words and things,and his use of the metaphor of light, places him within a mainstream nineteenth-century spirituality, which may be juxtaposed, in addition to general Romantic views, also with Swedenborgian sources.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2010-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69655126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
TEMENOSPub Date : 2010-01-01DOI: 10.33356/TEMENOS.6939
James R. Lewis
{"title":"The Science Canopy: Religion, Legitimacy, and the Charisma of Science","authors":"James R. Lewis","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.6939","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.6939","url":null,"abstract":"Academics usually think of religion as legitimating other social institutions. However, one often finds apologists appealing to the authority of science as a strategy for supporting the truths of their particular tradition. In a social environment where diverse religious claims compete with each other, it is probably inevitable that different groups seek alternate sources of legitimacy. Science is an attractive legitimator because of its prestige and because of the popular view of science as an objective arbiter of ‘truth’. After examining the notion of ‘legitimation strategies’ derived from Max Weber’s discussion of the legitimation of authority, the article analyzes the specific ways in which religious groups appeal to the authority of science.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2010-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69655461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
TEMENOSPub Date : 2009-09-01DOI: 10.33356/TEMENOS.7900
Siv Ellen Kraft
{"title":"Sami Indigenous Spirituality: Religion and Nation-building in Norwegian Sápmi","authors":"Siv Ellen Kraft","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.7900","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.7900","url":null,"abstract":"In March 2008, the university library in Tromso celebrated the opening of what they referred to as an ‘indigenous room’. A collection of Sami literature was moved from its previous geographical and cultural context to what is today considered the more relevant company of American Indians, Australian aborigines and African peoples. Indicative of the increasing institutionalisation of the Sami as an indigenous people, the debate over what it means to be ‘indigenous’ is today important to Sami research, political strategies, cultural activities and religious creativity. In an attempt to take such innovations seriously, the article discusses some of the religious dimensions of Sami nation-building resulting from the ongoing processes of indigenisation. More specifically, I deal with a project structured by the international grammar of nation-building, which shares in the qualities of a civil religion and is at the same time shaped by ‘indigenous spirituality’. Although a fairly recent construct, what I refer to as ‘indigenous spirituality’ is nevertheless a significant global discourse, developed primarily through the UN and international law. According to this perspective, indigenous peoples are the children of Mother Earth, and as such are opposed to and differentiated from the religions and worldviews of the ‘western’ world. Keywords: Sami, nation-building, indigenous, nature spirituality, Mother Earth","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2009-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69655755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
TEMENOSPub Date : 2009-09-01DOI: 10.33356/TEMENOS.7901
A. Pessi, Olav Helge Angell, Per Pettersson
{"title":"Nordic Majority Churches as Agents in the Welfare State: Critical Voices and/or Complementary Providers?","authors":"A. Pessi, Olav Helge Angell, Per Pettersson","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.7901","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.7901","url":null,"abstract":"Nordic Majority Churches as Agents in the Welfare State: Critical Voices and/or Complementary Providers?","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":"45 1","pages":"207-234"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2009-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69655798","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
TEMENOSPub Date : 2009-09-01DOI: 10.33356/TEMENOS.7899
Craig Martin
{"title":"On the Origin of the ‘Private Sphere’: A Discourse Analysis of Religion and Politics from Luther to Locke","authors":"Craig Martin","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.7899","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.7899","url":null,"abstract":"This essay supplements the recent literature on the social construction of ‘religion’ by demonstrating that liberal discourses on the ‘private sphere’ and the ‘separation of church and state’ originated in a rhetorical slippage between different uses of the word ‘religion’ in early modern Europe. However, contrary to much of the recent social constructionist literature, this essay demonstrates that the implemen- tation of the so-called ‘separation of church and state’ resulted not in an actual separation, but, rather, that this discourse masks the very real circulation of power from one institution to the other. Keywords: Social Construction of Religion, Early Modern Political Theory, Privatization of Religion, Liberal Discourses on Religion, Liberal Political Theory, Separation of Church and State","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2009-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69655669","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
TEMENOSPub Date : 2008-09-01DOI: 10.33356/TEMENOS.4592
Timo Muhonen
{"title":"Something Old, Something New: Excursions into Finnish Sacrifical Carins","authors":"Timo Muhonen","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.4592","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.4592","url":null,"abstract":"The article approaches the archaeological phenomenon known in Finland as 'sacrificial cairns' by examining the scholarly history and by placing these cairns in the context of the recent theoretical discussion concerning the essence of ritual and secular in prehistoric socities. 'Sacrificial cairns' are traditionally considered to have been Iron-Age altar-like constructions for the worship of various supernatural powers. This view started to develop already in writings on the Finnish 'ancient religion' (Fi. muinaisusko ), and was made explicit in antiquarian and then archaeological scholarship. The grounds for identifying sacrificial cairns were sometimes very slight, but they nevertheless influenced future research. Later, secualr perspectives were added to ritual ones. I argue that the scholarly tradition and the consequent archaeological attributes of sacrificial cairns are an over-simplification, and that there is thus reason to re-examine the old interpretations. Although the existence of prehistoric cairns as places of sacrifice is implied by the ethnographic record, the same evidence also suggests that the relationship between cairns with sacral and secular functions is far less straightforward than has previously been thought. Following the recent discussion, some of the cairns traditionally identified as sacrificial might perhaps better be defined as structured depositions, possibly resulting from practices in which the ritual and the secular were inseparable.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2008-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69640719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
TEMENOSPub Date : 2008-09-01DOI: 10.33356/TEMENOS.4587
R. Bradley
{"title":"Midsummer and Midwinter in the Rock Carvings of South Scandinavia","authors":"R. Bradley","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.4587","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.4587","url":null,"abstract":"The article considers the light shed on ancient religion by comparative linguistics and the analysis of visual images. Its starting point is the Bronze Age 'Sun Chariot' from Trundholm in Denmark, which is considered in both Flemming Kaul's book Ships on Bronzes and Martin West's Indo-European Poetry and Myth . The ideas of these two writers are discussed in conncection with the evidence of prehistoric rock carvings in South Scandinavia. The article considers how such places were used and draws attention to the distinctive practice of depicting pairs of footprints in this medium. The footprints may mark the positions of people engaged in rituals at these sites, for in many cases the drawings are oriented towards the solstices. Perhaps these events were observed from the decorated outcrops. Although the field evidence is limited, it supports the idea of a solar cosmology postulated by Kaul and West.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2008-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69640900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
TEMENOSPub Date : 2008-09-01DOI: 10.33356/TEMENOS.4590
P. Petra
{"title":"From Polis to Borders: Demarcation of Social and Ritual Space in the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia, Greece","authors":"P. Petra","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.4590","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.4590","url":null,"abstract":"This article focuses on three interrelated themes in the study of ancient Greek religion, looked at through the mateiral evidence from the sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia on the island of Poros, Greece. First, I look at the so-called polis model and its applicability to an interpretation of Kalaureian material related to the cultic life of the sanctuary from the point of view of the 'historiography' of Greek religion. I then discuss the historical context of the archaeological material, with particular emphasis on the topic of the sanctuary as a known place of asylum particularly during the Hellenistic period. Thirdy, I examine the archaeological material related to eating and dining and its potential connections to the demarcation between sacred and profane activities and between sacralised and profane space in the sanctuary, with special interpretative attention to the significance of border(s) and boundaries. Drawing attention to these issues may help us understand the dynamics and interplay between 'official' and 'private' aspects of ancient Greek religion, within both the tradition of the scholarship of ancient Greek religion and the so-called 'archaeology of cult'.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2008-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69640919","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
TEMENOSPub Date : 2008-09-01DOI: 10.33356/TEMENOS.4591
Nora Kivisalo
{"title":"The Late Iron Age Bear-Tooth Pendants in Finland: Symbolic Mediators between Women, Bears, and Wilderness?","authors":"Nora Kivisalo","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.4591","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.4591","url":null,"abstract":"In the article I discuss the different functions and meanings of bronze bear-tooth pendants in the Finnish Late Iron Age (800-1150/1300 CE). I first focus on an analysis of the pendants in terms of archaeological methodology: chronology, typology and find context. The second focus on attention, and in this article the most important one, is on the interpretation on these pendants. They are usually interpreted as magical items, amulets. In my opinion this is not the only possible interpretation. I suggest that the pendants can be interpreted as magical or religious, but that their possible protective use as amulets does not exclude other functions, such as a decorative and/or social one. I emphasise the possibility that bear-tooth pendants may be linked to a symbolic form of expression involving the idea of control of the forest and wilderness. Finnish folk tradition and mythology point to a metaphoric and metonymic relationshiop on the one hand between the bear and the wilderness, on the otehr the bear and women. The bronze bear-tooth pendatns - possibly worn only by women - may have carried a symbolic message of control over the wilderness; this control could have been mythology-based and practised by ritual acts; at the same time it could also take the form of concrete acts, such as utilization of the wilderness: a fur-based economy and control over the fur trade.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2008-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69640669","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
TEMENOSPub Date : 2008-01-01DOI: 10.33356/TEMENOS.4595
G. Flood
{"title":"Dwelling on the Borders: Self. Text and World","authors":"G. Flood","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.4595","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.4595","url":null,"abstract":"In spite of secularist predictions, religion on a global scale has not gone away and shows little sign of dimnishing. Within the context of the renewal of interest in religion and the assertion of religion in the public realm, I seek in this article to explore the ways in which the self has been (and continues to be) formed in religious traditions. Drawing on substantive examples from my work on textual traditions in India and Europe, the article argues that 'religious reading' is central to the formation of religious traditions and the formation of the religious person, and that this has an impact upon discourse in the public realm. The process of religious reading itself occurs in a borderland between text and world and between self and world. Through 'religious reading', or more precisely textual reception, we can understand the ways in which forms of inwardness are constructed in tradition-specific ways and such inwardness too has an impact on public discourse. I therefore attempt to examine three traditional borderlands - between inwardness and externality, between text and world, and between private religion and public governance - in the light of religious reading.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2008-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69640826","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}