Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Tweed - CH 3

    Uploaded by

    Mario Orospe
    5 views14 pages

    Original Title

    Tweed_Ch 3

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    5 views14 pages

    Tweed - CH 3

    Uploaded by

    Mario Orospe

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 14
    THOMAS A. TWEED CHOSSING AND OWELLING A Theory of Religion BL él 119 2006 Chapter Three Ts ae war aml hs oni infin 3 fowin a (Gi eae ane Gon A hwnd lea No single wor, nicer ubsae or eho domain, recy sane ‘racers alas or te momen, mis my woos See ‘eatnships. For tbe momen, es be conten wih sng fos ener ‘hey of ltions." Ora pssophy of pepostons CONFLUENCES a ‘Toward a Theory of Religion In this chapter, I meet my roleepecific obligation to refet on the fel’ constittve term by offering a definition of religion, a positioned sighting that highlights movement and relation. This definition, which | draws on aquatic and spatial ropes, is empirical in the sense that tila. | ines what observed among Cubans in Miami and stipulate in that 1 ‘think it might prove usfl for interpreting practices in other times and places Religions are canuencs of organiccutural flows that intensify joy and confront sufering by drawing on hansen aed suprahuman force to make homes and cos boundaries. ‘This definition, ike most oer, is hardly transparent. I doubt that, ‘pon reading it, you thought yourselé Wall thanks fr clearing that ‘up. Offering a dense definition ofthis complex term doesnt end any profesional obligations or sete the issue, There is mach more to sy, 5 and I ty tos iin these lst thre chapter. Attending to each word tnd phrase, here 1 explain my choice of tropes and ley out some ofthe ‘heoretcl commitments inscribed inthis definition, so ary no ee et aed Sieber papers heer creette naan eal a Fe ee Contre. As move back and forth between defiition and theory, {pondered which ocenting tropes might be mos luminsting 1 con sidered the dozen Youle in Chapter 2 aswel as many oes. To ‘oak sense of what enemuntered athe Mim sine Hooked for met- aphors, and philosophical and religious frameworks, that highlighted ‘ovement and reaton. There ome resources for raping sion as doamic and seasonal Philosophical reflections iepied by religious tralions, or ample, Buddhism, offer some hp in the Maha the Bada tr that al elt is eonstany changing or impermnent (are) tnd empty of any ending and saben rely (antimen). Other odds nosions—indding dependent c-xgnaton and nda eve Net—provide source fo thinking about the intereltednes ofall things The doctine of dependent organ (Praia semua), ich might be decribed ae iter becoming, trace a cle of twee intrtelted factors thet sustain the ongoing ux of human exisence ‘through birth, death, and rebirth. The Jewel Net of Indra has been s fa- conrivences «55 vorite metaphor for some Buddhists, specilly the Chinese Huayan School, wto emphasize the *motualiterausality” among all things in the cosmos. Francs Cook, «Buddhist studies scolay, describes the im- {ge and recount the story about Indra, the Hindu god of rain and hunger, who also appears asa character in Buddhist myth: ‘at away the every abode ofthe great god Inde, hee ea wonder- fal et which hasbeen hung by some cunning artifice a such a maner ‘hat itstretches out infinite in al directions. In acordance withthe ex ‘wavagat tastes of dies, the ricer has ng litering jewel in each “eye of the net and since the net isi nite in mension, the j= als are inten number. If we now arbitrarily select one ofthese jewels for inspection and lok closely tit, we wil discover that in it polished surface thee ace reflected alte he jewels inthe net infinite in number. Not only that, but each ofthe jel elected inthis one eel ial electing all the other jel 0 that tere isan nine re Aecing proces occurring” In the West, the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus did not high- light interrelation, but he has beon celebrated for hi emphasis on movement. Later Gree ters atribute to him two provocative aser- ‘tions tat have served afl and inspiration since then "it isimpoeible to sep into the same viver twice” and “al things ate in fix” Behoing Feraltu, and cing Buddhism too, philosopher Friedrich Nietache observed tht the work is “in fax as something in 2 stat of becom Ing” In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a8 evolutionary models that foregrounded linear progressions in nature and culture took hold, other interpreters ia a number of fields traced temporal ‘movements through “ages” or “stages” And as some contemporaries notice this meant thet scholars had begun to challenge static model ‘Noting changes in his own Geld by the p10, James Leuba observed “2 most consequential change of point of view in contemporary paychol- ‘ogy—namely, the adoption of the ewhtionry,dynamie conception of mental life as opposed to the pre-Darwinian, stati conceptions"* 56 + CROSSING AND pwattiNG Inthe twentieth century several othe thinkers who turned to mathe- sates and physics at much at to paycholgy, biology, and geology rooted their philosophical systems in sir insight, The mathemat- cian and philosopher Alted North Whitehead, who dtecty endorsed eras’ view by sogeting that “the Mx of things is one ultimate generalization around which we must weave our philosophical systems” produced new lexicon of technical erms—acraloeason prehension And nero replace satie and eientit notions of “substance: quay” with “desription of dynamic process” Whitehead acknow- ged his debt to another philosopher, Henri Berpon, the Nobel Prze- inning French hiner who proposed dan vitals the central etegory in his dynamic scheme and argued “ther sno frm since form is m- robile andthe realty is movement” “What is eal” Bergion suggested, “isthe continual change of form: form i onl snapshot view of tran- sion” Later in the twentieth century Whitehead and Bergson were joined by ther theorists with very diferent interests who aso empha Sized dynamism and interdependence, including Michel Serres, Bano ato, Giles Delete and Pix Gata, ommnication sadies pe Gils and cultural eheorist rian Massumi,an interpreter of the wri ings of Deleuze and Guattari also ha advocated a "Bergsonan ev tin that woul! emphasize “movement” and “relaton”> ining to terms sucha fel foree and cos Masui as sug rested thatthe most wsefl concepts for a dynamic and elation philo- sophical perspective are “almost without exception products of math- ‘matics oF the sciences” Yet other contemporary theorists from the soil sciences and humanities have come to celebrate movement and relation fr different reasons—becsuse thy have red o make sense of transnitionlism, The anthropologist Asjan Appadura has pointed to “Joba cultural flows” Marcus Doel has noted that geographers “now routinely speak of spaces of flows to interpret “the ows of money, desire, capital, pollution, information, resources, ideas, images, people, stoetera” Anthropologist Anna Ting has proposed we speak of move- meni the sese ofboth Social movements and the movement of conrtusnces - 57 products, ideas, and people. king ravling as a root metaphor and highighting the movement of peoples, anthropologist James Ciford Js suggested we talk about rarslcal culture. Historian Pal Carter hat proposed a migrant perspective na similar wy culture] studies scholar Jain Chambers has sugested migrancy a8 a useful metaphor, since it “involves @ movement in which neither the points of departure nor ‘hose of arrival are immutable or certs. I calls fr a dweling in lan- usp, in stores, in identities that re consantly subject to mation” Jn Chapter, as explored the nature of theory, Iemphasied a rested theme, tinerancy, and here [have in mind that image, as well a these ‘other Asin and Western resources for puting religion in motion ‘There are other posible metaphors that signal movement. For exam- ple some ligon scholars have turned tothe metaphor of «system a ‘have noted. And in mathematics and the natural siences, stem does tefer to disorder and dynamics as well sto order and stl. In shat idiom we can tlk about dynamic systems. Yet the underying image sal one of distinc parts coming together to form a coherent whole. ‘And, a anthropologist Silly Engle Merry noted about the erm culture, “lusc conceptions of bounded, coherent, sable, and integrated sy ‘ems clearly are inadequate” To avoid those possible misunderstandings of religion, then, I searched multiple academic fds for alternatives ‘0 sytem, Bruno Latour’ proposal, fr instance, has much to offer: "To shutle back and forth, we rely on the notion of translation oF network” That term is Latour argued, “mmoe supple than the noon of system, more historical than the notion of structure, more empirical shan the notion of complexity” As Mark C. Taylor hae persuasively argued, this image is especialy compelling in interpreting conterpo- ary culture, what Taylor and others al "network culture” renchsoc- ‘logit and social theorist Michel de Certau ha fered an even more compeling akernasve, one that resonates with scientific idioms but more clearly marks religion as dynamic. “Generally speaking, the ctrl operation might be represented as 2 trajectory relating to the ples that determine its conditions of possibility” “Thus Certeau con- 58» cnossine AnD pwaLLING tinue, “cltural operation are movements” The English word relates tothe Pench ject, conveying though or over” Ie takes its met ing here from usage in phys (he path of wave or body moving n- der the seton of fore) and mathematics (a curve or surface passing though a space. James Clifford ried to make 2 simile point when he twmed to travel end roues as orienting metaphors for understanding theory and culture. The term trajectory, however fol int it hese o- rence othe movement of peoples across houndares bt isa bit more asic ast expends to more easy include the artifacts, practices, nd forces agency changing the momentum ofa body) tht cross temporal and spatial boundaries? “These intesprctiecategores—network system, movement, migrancy, and trael—each have some advantages, and I use Certs trajectory {5a synonym to point ocligions’ dynamism. decided, however, that ‘to other orienting metaphors are most useful for analyzing what sion is and wiat it doer spatial metaphors (dweling and crossing) sg- hal hat religion is about nding eplace and moving across space, and aguatic metaphors (#nfuences snd flows) signal that religions are not refed substanecs but complex processes. I ay more about those spatial metaphors below. Here I analyze the first key term in my definition: confueces. ‘The metaphor, taken fom physics, suggests that religions ae flows— analogous to movements of electric charges, solids, gases, or liquids. IF ‘we are trying te formulate «theory that accounts forthe dynamics as ‘well a the statis of religion, T sugges, it canbe especially helpful to ‘umm to fluid mechanics end aquatic metaphors, applying what Gils ‘Delewte and Felix Guttr alle a “hydraulic mode!” from the iiner- ant ambulant sclnces” Ae with scientists who study hydrodynamics, interpreter of religion “follow a flow in a vectorial fla" Or to turn to Bruno Latour’ explanation of his actor-network theory, which he de- ‘signed to interpret both natural frees and cultural forms, we need “2 theory of space and ids circulating” So the pictre of religious his- tory that Im drawing isnot that of sf contained traditions chugging coneLunncns - 59 slong parallel tracks To return to the aguatic metaphor, each religion is a lowing together of eurrents—eome enforced st “orthodox” by ins tutions—traversing multiple fields, where other religions other trans- verse confluences also cross, thereby creating ne spiritual reams If this aquatic metaphor avoid eseniliving religious traditions as stati slated, and immutable substances, and s0 moves toward more satisfying answers to questions about how reigons relate tone an- other and transform each othe through contac, it slo allows x prelim- inary answer to the question about how religion relates to economy, s- ciety. and politics. Tis question has attated scholar’ attention since the nineteenth century: i igion sui generis Ie elgion “of is own, kind"? As with most questions the answer depends on what we mein. 1 we are oskng if scholars ar justified in marking religion's boundaries by defining and theorizing thee fla’ consticutive term, then religion i sui generis in that weak sense ofthe term, as ate other constivtire terms—eulture, space, mui, and litertute. However | reject song versions of the sui generis argument humans do not hav & distinct “faculty of faith as Ma Moller aimed: "special revelation” does not set some rcligons apart, a Hendrik Kraemer argues the feng of the “numinous” a Rudolf Otto proposed, does not make religion “qualita tively sui generis” At the same time, religions cannot be reduced to economic forces social relations, or politcal interests although the ‘mutual intereausaity of religion, economy, society and polities means that religious traditions, asconluencs of organic-cltural ows, always ‘merge from—to again use aquatic images—the swiel of transloval ‘currents, The transfuence of religous and aonreligiowe scams propels ligios flows? IF this tak about conlumce and ransfuence opens new angles of ve sog-—and [thnk it does—itis important w acknowledge that there ae limits tothe imterpretivelasticiy ofthe metaphor lo Teng hs ug gested that we replace flow with movement, because the former doesnot seem to call our attention to the personal, and she wants to highlight socal moverents.Sopethap here isa bind spot, oat esta siteslong 60 - cxossine AND pwriLixe the theoretical trail where the wind blows up 2 doud of sand and rain, While ters tke confluence encourage interpreter o offer ight- ings dat ated carflly to the movements of artifacts and instiu- tions—impersonalforees—we need to continealy remind ourtees to ts keep ou eyes fixed on the human forms crossing the landscape, Whether they ae lity noon’ slow or obscured in cloud* ‘Arjun Appodura, who has tled about “cultural flows” introduced he term “lhnoscape” to highligh the movements of human forms cross the landcape, and we can pay with his theoretical terms to introduce another etegory tht can be hepa in the analysis of reli son's dynamis, Appadurai understood the “five dimensions of global cultural flow as distinct and dynamic “imagined world": ()ethno- scapes (o)-medisepes, (9) technoscapes (4) fnncescapes,() ideo is scheme to interpret recent globalizing patterns, and to challenge Immanuel Wallestcns less complex and ‘more static notion of “world systems” These ive terms imine the transnational ow of peoples, echneogies, media, and capital, butefler lide ai in interpreting religions, unless we suggest that eligion is ‘nothing more han ethnic, economy,or ology. So, agg apa- lel image that points to religious flows might be sel we can cake about religions ssacrascapes Those who think definitions grounded in notions ofthe sacred are vacuous or cca shoul be relieved to ind thetit isnot central term in my acount. The pref "sacro” does not limp any metaphysical dams. doesnot imply, with Bae, that ele sion involves “herophanies” that mark some spaces a distinc. And it docs not fanction—a sacred des in some defnitions—to distinguish religion fom other cultura forms. As wll nate below other phrases in sy account—suprahuman forces and uikimarehorzon—do that inter retive work? Yet using this tem sacrscapes only helps if we have aquatic and not terrestrial analogies in mind, Sacroscapes, as I understand thee religious confuenes, ae not static. They are not fed, built envi- ronments—as the allison to landscape inthe era might ienply—al- ‘ough religions do transform the built environment. Ihave in mina much more dynamic images. Imagine the wispy smoke lft by s ky- write, the trai of an eletron, the path of snowball down a step icy hill or the ripped wake left by a speeding boat. Whatever ese eliions ‘do, they move cross time and space. They are not tats, And they have dicts. They leave traces. They leave tas, Sometimes those tals are ‘worth celebrating not only Bash's Narew Road nthe Dep North but also the annual dancing procession to honor Sent Wilibrord that has ‘wound through the cobblestone streets of Echternach, Luxembourg, at least since the mid-iteenth century, or ABO ‘Abdali ibm Battt's ‘ourteenth-cemury wanderings from Fee to Peking and the tracings hae left bend in his rfl, the malivlume account of that Miim's ‘enry-nne years of travel Sometimes trails re ites for mourning the paths worn away by Jews feng the medieval Spaish Inquisition o the CCherokee's westward “Wal of tars” prompted by the United State? policy of forced “removal which was supported by a taxonomy of res tins that lassie indigenous peoples a8 “lower” a heathens and bar- barans (Figures) So this term, sacrosapes, invites scholars attend to the multiple ways that religious flows have let traces, transforming eoples and places, the social arena andthe natural trai.” Onganiccuttrl flows. I rigions can be imagined a lows, what kind offlows suggest that these flows ae spatial and temporal and—ae this Phrase in my definition signals—organic as walls cultual, These lows ‘involve, a1 wil explain, both neural pathways in brains and ritual per formance in festival, Religious fows—and the traces they Iese—move through time and space. They are horizontal, vertical, and traneversal movements, They ste movements through time, fr example, 2s one generation passes on religious gestures to the next: this show we do it this it how we offer at Vishou or make the sgn ofthe cross, And religious flows move cross varied “localities” simultaneously local and global spaces, = for example when missionaries carry their faith from one land to 3n- 62+ cnossine anw pwattine 5-Jrome Teron) "Ute, Tl of Tears" 167 Oo anes. 7 Sy ince A epeetaon ofthe ocd removal ofthe Cheah ation ‘ab 9 by a tweet centary Ce Seminl as. 63 other In other words, ows, or racroscapes, ate historical at well as ‘eographical, They changeover time and move acrose spac. To sign ‘this [turn to adjectives I coined in Our Lady ofthe Eele—traslocative snd ransemporal—and a teem I have borrowed from trary theo- ‘xt Mikhail Baktin,chronotpi. Sacred flows cross space-time. Lathe snabyssthat follows there i lay he implied hyphen, even if appeal ‘mare to spatial than to temporal rapes." Religions also are simultaneous individualistic and collctive. We should combine the perspectives of for example, William James and Emile Duckeim. As philosopher Charles Taylor noted in his analysis ‘of “the Jamesian view of religious life" James claimed that “there are people who have an orignal, powerful religious experince, which then sets communicated through some kindof isiution; it gets handed fon to others, and they tend to live it in kind of secondhand way? In this view, insttations playa “Sesondary roe” Andy at east in his Varieties of Religious Experience, James acknowledged but minimized the ways that culturally shared linguistic categories and intationally ‘wansmitd practices shape individual experience. Inthe same way 8 reviewers began to note soon after Flementary Forms fist appeared the DDurkeimian view “pejudices the investigator in vor ofthe social ele rents in religion and a the expense ofthe individual elements” Here too an inclusive definition answers an ciher-or question with a both- ‘aad, We, once again, invoke the hyphen. Religions ae always both so tary and social And there aze other hyphens to invoke: mind-body and natur-cul- ‘ure. To say that religions ae individual as wel as collective does nt go far enough, since that formalation does not highlight the ways that thote individual processes are biological s well cultural, To signal this I talk about religions as organie-eulbural lows, but that doesnot sean T agree with accounts that reduce religion to only neurons firing Religions and other cultural forms, are about neurons fring, but no satisfying account of what they are and wit they do ean stop there. So ‘heanthropologit Dan Sperber was right when he suggested that inter 64 + CROSSING AND owentING pretatons of cultural uajecories Ike rlgion cannot ignore "thee cro-mechansms of cognition and communication” At te same time, interpreters cannot obscure or minimize the ways that macro-caltora process area work inthe religious ves of women and men, For tht ‘reason, while I think we can learn a great del from reent theories that raw on ncuzorsiense and cognitive slence—some of them secon- sciously exending Sperber’ insights—sometimes they shift the focus too mach toverd indvideal neurophysiological process associated ‘with, for example, perception, inference, and memory. Many of those ‘theorss—inciuding Harvey Whitehouse E, Thomas Lawson, and Rob- ‘ert MeCauley-shar a presupposition found inthe work of some ext- Jie interpreters lke. B. Tylor. Iti «premise thats been ucily articalated by a contemporary cognitive theorist, Pascal Boyer: "The ex- planation fr selgious beliefs and behaviors is tobe found inthe way all Thurman minds work" As corectve to theories that obscure thos indi ‘idual micro-processes, this perspective is hepfl, ut I think we need to find ober ways to emphasize that religions involve both biological and cultura processes. Itisimpossble to disentangle the threads that embed persons incu tures, As anthropologist Clifrd Geert has argued, we eannot expect to produce a"snoptial view" of mind and culture. Drawing on werk In 4 wide range of disciplines, we can contin to ponder the “seal Fabitaton of thought” and te "personal foundations of significance” “The best we can Sy is that mind and culture co-evoled and that they sre—to ute Geert apr phrase— "reciprocally constructive” Religion Scholars, in turn, can ony do their best to acknowledge the complex in- teractions of orgone constrains (neural, physiological, emotional, and cognitive) and eutural mediations (Linguistic topic, ritual, and mate- il). The cognitive anthropologist and psychologist SottAtrn turné tothe metaphor flandscape to make a similar point. He suggested that ‘ve imagine humankind’ evolutionary history "as 2 landscape formed by diferent mountain sdges” Thre are some “wel trodden, cros-cul- turily recurrent pth in the basin ofthis evolutionary landscape” Re- conruunnens + 65 Tigon, as one set of paths in the landscape's drainage basin, “results fiom a confluence of cognitive, behavioral, bodily, and ecological con- straints that neither reside wholly within minds nor ae recogaizable in & world without minds.” This model s useful in sme ways. For exam- ple, tran signaled che importance of emotional procesesa& wel as cognitive processes and social interaction, by proposing that we con- ‘sider each of those as a mountain ide that channels human experience toward religious paths. Aso, for Atran, the landscape “eanalies” but oes not determine :ligious development * ‘Yet because the rate of rligous change an be mach greater than the long, slow geological altecations in "vies" and “basins? think iti ‘mare help to turn again to aquatic metaphors and consider the inter- action between containing organic channsle and sifting cultural eur rants. Tie surfaces two important presuppositions of my theory (1) ‘humans ae bipedal mammal with embodied physiological cognitive, and emotional processes that limit—bat do not determine~—the range of interactions with other humans and the envconmens end (2) de- spite notable continuities across cultures and period, rligons haved ‘verge in important ways, jst a other cultaral trajectories (for exam ple, music and art) have varid. So religions can be imagined as Confluence of flows in which organic channels det cultural curcents. ‘This way of putting it, howeves, seems to make the orginie more pri= mary But metaphor fa don't intend that. mean to make ony this ‘modes, but ofen overlooked, point: as embodied beings produced ‘by organic process as much as by cltural practices, humans have cer- ‘ain neurological and physiological constants on how they interact, and how they transform thir environment. However mllesble urna brains might be they work in certain ways Human eyes are positioned inthe font of the body. And so on. Organic and cultural processes, ‘combine in complex ways. will return to this point in the next chapter 38 discuss organic and cultural proceses work in spatial and tempo- ral orientation; fr now it might help to strate by refering to gate ‘and dzaw on the cae of Cubans in Miami, We might ey then, that re 66 + CROSSING AND DWELLING rosy orp ‘Gane stint cur rn vers aie lee 6 The conan of gna uta fos in gins ligions ae processes in which social institutions (the shrine’ confates- nity) bridge onganic constraints (hippocampal neural pathways and ep- ‘node memory processes) and cultural medations (the symbol of Mary and the metaphor of ele) to produce eeference frames (the Cuban American community as diaspora and the shrine as dlasporc center) ‘hat orient devotees in time and space. As igus 6 signals, those refer- ence frames yield a wide range of verbal and nonverbal representations ‘ha in turn, are institutionally, ritually, and materially transmitted snd enflded back nto the complex bio-cultural process. ‘0 I not only reject theories that fail to acknowledge the role of bodily processes, but alo eect definitions that identify religion witha single pychi capacity. Instead, on this point align mel with Jastrow sand James, who identify multiple opacities. eelnowledge that religion conriunnces » 67 Shapes and is shaped by cognitive eligi, moral (valu), and affective {emetion) proceses. In mentioning afetve proceses I acknowledge that religions help determine wiat humans want and how they fel Be- lieving and valuing are part of religions to, asthe devout offer esser- tions about the nature of things and prescribe moral codes to guide ‘conduct. In adding ropes 1 suggest tat religions, ike theorists of rei- sion, provide orienting tropes—incuding metaphors, smiles, myths, allegories, personifiations, and symbols—that function as figurative tools for making and remaking imagined worlds. tis not thatthe reli> ‘ious are privy to some inacesible or hidden meaning through their ‘se of topes or that tropes ae unique to the religous reaim. Tropes ae pervasive in many areas of human life, fom poetry and ar to scence and technology. Yt itis not surprising tat the religious would turn to tropes, espeilly analogical utterances, ttle about suprabuman forces and ultimate horizons, since those defining features of religion axe at least as dificult to represent as sentiments like love or concepts like relativity. Further, 28 pat of religions shifting cultural cures, ‘ropes ean alto function a one source of change inthe history of i= sions, 25 new metaphors redirect the atention of adherens In some as, institutions can function as agents of change aswel, Like many antheopologsts and sociologists, I note that religions take soil form in one way or another and are pase on to future generations by insti- tutions lik the family, the schoo, the monastery, the eure, and the temple: They transmit—and transform—traditions. Although this i not explicitly noted in the most influential definitions, I also suggest that rifts anchor the tropes, values, emotions and beliefs that insti tutions transmit, and thatthe religious crete actifiets and prescribe procedures fr ther use—fom domestic furnishings and ordinary dress to ritual objects and sacred buildings. Making and sing artifacts are practices and as many theorists have noticed, religions are performed. ‘The religious prescribe and enact wide range of embodied pratces, Including culturally patterned practices oF rtuals—for example, pray- ing bowing, reading, singing, fasting dancing, meditating, o chanting. 68. cRossina Axo pwaLLING “To say that eign are organi-catrl ow, then isto sugges they are confers of eran chal and carl currents that anon to crea instatonal networks hatin tar, pesrbe, transit and censor tropes belief values, emotion atacand ita But wy hese rou Sows exert such a old on devotees and how are ctcrscaps disingnshble fom other ealturaltnjecorie? “The next vo phase i the dentin inten jy and ono {iring snd human and supraoran forcer—propos answers to those uestions. Intensify joy acd cont sufering. Thi phrase rears what I ave suggested above in my analysis of religious flows-—that religion ia solves emotion. Recent reach on emotion in a numberof felds— foes neuroscience to anthropalogy to philosephy—varis on the ques- tion of whether it is an organic universal processor a culturally rave practice. Scholar who tend toward the view that emotions at cross- ‘cultrl universal have identified sentiments that seem to be labeled and expresed in mutpl times and places, Building on Chasis Dar- ‘wil ati study The Expresion of Emotion in Man and Ania, Paul Ekman has claimed that there ares common human emotions using ‘an analysis of language, Anna Wieabicka has counted eleven “emo- ‘ional universls” Scholars who lean toward the other end of the con- tinuuen point (othe cultutl and historical variations in the ways that ‘humane label and experince emotions They emphasize the variety of ‘culurally constueted and historically variant “eling rues: for exam- ple, Jean Briggs’ echnography of the Uku Eskimo suggested they do not have an equivalent of anger and studies of the flak ofthe Careline |slands proposed that ag, an emotion that combines compassion lov, ‘and cadnes, as no obvious parallel in other cuurs’ ‘My own view aun invokes the hyphen. Although a convincing syn- thesis has no yet appeared, it sems that emotions are organcculural procasies that have a biological basis but vary across cultares. Neuro- logical and physological proceses st certain constraints, but cultura coNFLUENCES - 69 practices~including religions pratices—generate emotions idioms and rules tha fame aflectve fe, Religions label, prescribe, and cul ‘vate some emotions and obscure, condema, and vediec others. For ex maple in some forms of Chitanity regret framed a gui for iis valued asa necessary condition for any genuine turning ofthe heat to Godson the other hand, St Zen Buddhists might be told to notice the arising of regret—and al other emetions—but exhorted 1 put it out of ‘mind by returning to focus on the breath. So even wher traditions name similar emotions they encode them diferent. Affect alo varies within religious traditions and aro time It would not be too much of sn exaggeration to sy that Cuban American Cathoiiem atthe Miami shrine during the 19908 wae most fundamentally about sadness. As many devotes signaled to me as thelr eps fled with tezs or a5 they actly began to cry thee piety was about the naming and overcoming ‘ofthe sadness prompted by the dislocation of eile In that sense, the ‘emotional coding of religious practices among Cuban American Catho= lice might have more in common with the piety of other disgporic ‘groups than with chat of ter Catholics nother times and places. And religions mediate a wide rane of emotions—not only sadnets an joy ‘bur also Schleermacher’s absolute dependence and Kongai seni- ments as wll as shame Jove, anger, contentment, awe, and far. To sug- ttt religions intensify jy and confront suring then, i shorthand or saying his they provide the lexicon, rules and expresion for many Aferen sorts of emotions, including those famed as most postveand ‘most negative, most cherished and most conderened" Im that sense, this phrase not ony reaffirms tat religions ae about «emotion as much a cognition, eling as much as thinking, but i also points to wity religions are ssistying to adherents I don't speculate about the “origin” of religion, a long-standing preoccupation of reli ion’ interpreters. we mean by that term a teporal artng pint, Tasiduovsly resis all attempts to speculate about origins. am ux- spologetially agnostic on that historical issue, and leave i to archeo- ogists, evolutionary bologit, and others with longer memories and 70+ CROSSING AND DWALLING ferent sl, nsteag Lamm concerned here only with what grips the selgiou. I wantto know why devotees turn t religion and what it does for them. There ate some answers from within traditions, ofcourse ‘What do you mean what grips uss Pentecostal might ask? Its the sav ing power ofthe Holy Sir. And that i an answer that interpreters _nsed to conser, As theorists move beyond that tele of Petecostals to ‘consider other religious women and men, however, they are driven t0 frame the queston—and the answer—in ways tht erss traditions and caltures. So why do reigions—not only Christan Pentecostalsm but ‘other traditions as well—exert ther power in the lives of adherents? My ‘hort anner religions intensify joy and confont suffering. “This deceptively simple phrase enters a conversation about religion's function and it offers no and a yet. On the one hen it conditionally Mfrs the long traditon of interpreters who have suggested that rl- sane ae responses to el. The philosopher David Hume, for example, propoied that nligione—at ls poytheinictraitons-—apring fom “ondinary affections of man lie” They deal with humans incessant hopes and fears” What kindof hopes and fearst For Hume, those in- clude “the dread of Faure misery” and “the ter of death” Many ‘Western interpreters who followed the eightesnth-century Scottish philosopher have concored, including Freud. Max Weber, who put 2 slighty mote positive spin oni, suggested that religions deal withthe “imperfection of the worl” Using a term taken from Christian theo ‘ogy the German sociologist propose that religions offer theodliies, or ‘explanations for evi Following Weber, the American sociologist Peter Berger has made a smi point. He has suggested that in religions “he sacred order ofthe cosmos is elfirmed, over and over again in the face ‘of chaos” These incrpreters, and others, are right in suggesting tbat re ligions interpret and ease slerng: eae, disaster, and death." “However asthe feminist philosopher of religion Grace M. Jantaen has argued, thie Western tradition of theoriing has overemphasized ‘hese imperfections in accounting forthe meaning and function of reli ions. antzen ha suggested that “mnuch of traditional philosophy of r- cowrtvenees + 72 ligion (and western culture generally) is preoceupied with violence, su fering and death and built upon mortality not ony as «human fact but asa fundamental philosophical category” But, she asks, “what if we were to begin with bet, and with the hope and possibilty and wonder Implicit ini” So, for Jantzen, natality is as important «category a8 ‘mortality. Confirming Janizens reading of Westen theorising, Berge suggests that "the power of eligion depends, nthe ast resort pon the credibility ofthe banners it puts in the hands of men a they stand be- fore death or more accuratlyas they walk inevitably toward it” Yetbe- fore men—and women too~started to walk toward death, they had to rah and before that they were born t mother. The birth proces in volved pan a wel oy but itis important to recall hat religions fane- tion to name and intensiy those joy, even if that isnot all they do, ‘There i some trth in Hiac’s claim that hugmans ace “mmach oftener thrown on their knees bythe melancholy than by the agreeable pa- sions” When good things happen, we are jas geting our dus owes, ‘when bed things happen, hat seems to require some explanation. Fur ‘ther, some humans have more suffering 9 confront: the poor, the il, the abused, ané—remembering the Cubans journeying to Misa and the Cherokee along the Trail of Tears—the displaced. Yet even if Max aller went too fa in emphasing humans encounter withthe sun and the stars natural wonders—comets, raabows, and birth—alo are pat of the experience ofthe world. Religions provide ways for humans to imagine and enhance the joys associated with th encounter with the ‘vironment and the transitions in the lifespan. Humans want some- thing to say and doin the face of wonder Religions provide that idiom and transmit those practices They celebrate not only bie bet also marrage, harvests, and the rising and setting of the sun. Religions do ‘confront “the terror of death” as they also interpret and ese the ster. ings of lif, from tsunamis and plagues to famines and dizese, But 5 most theorists have filed to emphasize, religions confont—to re. vise Weber terms—the word’ pefactions at well as its impectsc- ions. Religions are about enhancing the wonder as muchas wondering about eid” 72 + eROSsiNG AND DWELLING Hua and suprahuonan forces, Although there can be no intansent ‘boundary between the religous and the secular since that borde shits ‘overtime and across regions, sting theories of eligion say some- ‘thing about what distinguishes religion fom other cultural forms. For ‘tha reas, I add another phease—uman and suprahuman forces—t0 not that aderents appesl not only to their awn powers bt o supra: ‘human forces, which can be imagined in varied ways, a they tyro i ‘easily joy and conftont suffering. Concurring with Durkheim but not Spzo, use the term suprakuman to avoid narrower aleratives—such 15 Gee gods or spiritual beings—and to respect the multiple ways that those forces are imagined. The clase example is Buddhism, which ia ‘most formations doesnot firm theim—the bei in a personal cre aor ofthe universt—but in devotional ife does appeal to human and suprabuman beinge—bodhisattas and buddhse—for aid in treading the religious path. 1 include reference to hema forces because some teudtons imagine the suprebuman as imbedded in the human in ome way and to some extent: for example, in some Christan interpretations of tmago dei (the image of God) and some Buddhis views of zathiata- _gartha (the embryo of the Tathigata, or Budha-natare). Sot include Budahe-nature—as well asthe Neo-Confocian li (principle) and the Daoist dao (way)—L tak about forces rather than beings, since not all lineages in all eligions personify the suprahuman, despite some intr- preter’ arguments forthe ubiquity of anthropomarphismn.* ‘Make homes and ross boundaries. Shing from aquatic to spat tropes this phrase, which isthe heat of my theory, sys more about how the religious dra on human and syprehsman forces to intensify joy and

    You might also like