Alternative Voices (Asynchronous Session)
Writing a Friendship: The Letters of Sarah Osborn and Susanna Anthony View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lisa Smith
One area in which non-canonical religious writings can play a significant role is in developing and deepening spiritual communities and relationships. In eighteenth-century Newport, Rhode Island, in the American colonies, two female friends produced a collection of letters significant enough to warrant publication of the correspondence several years after their deaths. Sarah Osborn and Susanna Anthony, both evangelical Protestant Christians, communicated by letter for almost forty years on topics such as their faith, their families, and the joys and tragedies that befell them. Published as a collection in 1807 by the wife of their pastor, their letters reveal the intimacy, support, instruction, and encouragement that can be offered through shared letters within a religious society. Once the letters became public through publication, their influence extended even to the larger Protestant community. The advertisement for the collection notes the goal of the publication: “They [the letters] expect not the attention of the Learned, nor the notice of the Gay. If they obtain the approbation of the Pious; and, in any degree, promote the Redeemer’s Interest; the end of their publication will be answered.” This paper looks at how Osborn and Anthony created spiritual community and friendship through their non-canonical familiar letters.
Life and Death in the Gospel of Thomas: Existence and Esotericism in Early Non-Canonical Groups View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session William Bowes
The Gospel of Thomas represents some of the earliest attested non-canonical sayings attributed to Jesus, some of which bear a resemblance to canonical gospel sayings and others which are entirely different. Particular thematic emphases in the document, such as secrecy and knowledge, have long been recognized as reflecting division in the beliefs of second century Christ groups arising from various ideologies often placed under the banner of gnosticism. Such differences between this gospel and the canonical gospels help to illustrate the shifts that Christian communities underwent in the second century, and provide valuable insight into not only how beliefs changed over time but how syncretism and adaptation took place between belief systems gives rise to such change. One area of difference between the Gospel of Thomas and the canonical Gospels is related to concepts of living and dying, which appear frequently in sayings attributed to Jesus. This paper explores the sayings of Jesus related to life and death in the Gospel of Thomas, elucidating how these compare with the canonical sayings, reflect changes and syncretistic adaptations in the beliefs of second century communities, and how such insights help to illuminate early Christian ideas of existence, whether orthodox or heterodox with respect to the earliest tradition.
The Possibility of Immediate Spirituality : A Study on Masnavi's Circles in Tehran View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zahra Naghshband
We began this study by an inquiry about the today importance of Rumi, not only as a poet but also as a mystic, and the generalization of his presence in important spheres of the religious and spiritual existence of the Iranian society. The frequency of the presence of Rumi in religious and spiritual circles reinforces the assumption that in the religious life of a large portion of the Iranian society, he plays the role of a medium in the road towards guidance and salvation. To analyze the role and the position of Rumi, this essay explores the constructed image of Rumi in Masnavi‘s circles which are guided by an commentator of the text. The final purpose is a thick description of the semantic system which is produced through these circles. The findings of this study shows that the spiritual current that Rumi represents is in contrast to the official and mediator-oriented religion in which “Shariah” plays a central role and jurist and cleric are its exclusive mediators. Rumi's audience sees him as a liberating way to achieve a kind of immediate spirituality to allow them the possibility of “subjectivity”. However, the findings show that the semantic system produced has created just a kind of satisfactory “perception of subjectivity" given to them by the commentator of Masnavi, rather than turning these audiences into active subjects. The attempt to achieve the immediate spirituality, has not led to the elimination of the traditional intermediaries, but has reproduced a new system of intermediaries.
Religious Texts and Industrial Standards: A Case of Transcription in the Malaysian Halal Industry
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sean Dolan
MS1500: Halal (Food General Guidelines), published by the Malaysian Department of Standards, establishes criteria used by the Malaysian government to determine whether foods are halal—that is, whether they are permissible for Muslims to consume. While grounded in the authoritative literature of Islam—the Qur'an and the Hadith—this document transcribes religious rules to make them relevant to industrial production and markets. Products certified as halal are directly governed by these standards and only indirectly by scriptural texts. Transcription, then, is significant for the practice of Islam in Malaysia and, generally, for religious practice in neoliberal societies—societies that valorize market rationality (judging value according to principles of optimization [Stephen Gudeman 2008]). This paper explores the codification of standards in MS 1500 as an example of the extension of market rationality into a religious domain that creates the possibility for people to become consumers as part of their religious practice. It also creates the possibility for injecting religious values that are not strictly tied to maximizing calculations into practices of consumption. By examining MS1500, I explore what is involved in transcribing religious rules into the sphere of industrial production. I also consider who has the authority to undertake this transcription and why it is deemed necessary. Drawing on fieldwork in Malaysia among halal-industry professionals, I also consider voices of dissent and discomfort about such transcriptions.
The Divine Feminine: Revising Gender in the Reality of the Rulers View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Philip Abbott
Ancient Platonists gendered their dualistic structure of the universe, associating the soul with masculinity, and the body with femininity. This system was incorporated into Judaism by Platonizing Jews, most notably Philo of Alexandria, who mapped this gendered dualism onto the two creation accounts of humanity in Genesis 1-2: the first, spiritual creation (Gen 1) became associated with masculinity, whereas the second, physical creation (Gen 2) became associated with femininity. Early Christians inherited this discourse and structured their theology within this gendered framework. The Gnostic text Reality of the Rulers, however, challenges this gendered system. The book rejects the association of femininity with mere mortal flesh by filling its divine realm with feminine deities. These feminine gods are active agents who serve as catalysts in primeval and salvation history. In other words, heaven is a feminine space run by feminine deities. What is more, as the narrative describes primeval history, it distinguishes two types of femininity: a divine femininity associated with the soul and a fleshy femininity associated with matter. By bifurcating the feminine, Reality of the Rulers troubles the simple categories that traditionally aligned the soul with masculinity and the physical with femininity. Instead, femininity is multivalent and cannot simply be associated with the realm of the flesh. It can also be divine.
Experiences of Awe: A Bridge between Secular and Religious Spirituality? View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session John D. Copenhaver
Experiences of awe are a universal human emotion. Two of the most common sources of awe are nature and religion. Experiences of nature awe are a key feature in some accounts of secular spirituality and are frequently an element of religious spirituality. This paper explores the experience of awe as a bridge between the increasing number of 'nones' [those who identify as spiritual but not religious] and those rooted in faith traditions. What the German theologian, Rudolph Otto, identified as the 'numinous' in religious experience has remarkable similarities with secular experiences of awe. Exploration of awe as bridge will be enriched by recent scientific studies of awe in positive psychology. The burgeoning scientific studies have identified a number of common characteristics in experiences of awe as well as a number of psychological benefits that overlap with spiritual values such as generosity, gratitude, and a sense of connectedness. Developing this bridge may help each group better understand and appreciate the other as well as cross fertilize the cultivation of awe as psychological and spiritual benefit.
Evidence of Entheogens in Christian Art: Does Christianity Have a Psychedelic History? View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jerry B Brown
This paper provides iconic evidence of the role of sacred visionary plants in early and medieval Christian art, based on field work conducted by the author at abbeys, chapels, churches and cathedrals in Europe and the Middle East. In this context, it re-evaluates the pioneering work of John Marco Allegro and R. Gordon Wasson on the role of entheogens (plants that generate the divine within) in religion and explores the question "what is the significance of psychoactive mushrooms images hiding in plain sight in Christian art?" This study is based on completed research presented in The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity (2016) and Entheogens in Christian Art (2019).
