Narrative Cultures and the Aesthetics of Religion

391 Pages·2020·3.445 MB·English

by  Dirk Johannsen, Anja Kirsch, Jens Kreinath

NarrativeCulturesandtheAestheticsofReligion
Supplements to Method & Theory
in the Study of Religion
EditorialBoard
AaronW.Hughes(UniversityofRochester)
RussellMcCutcheon(UniversityofAlabama)
KockuvonStuckrad(UniversityofGroningen)
Volume 14
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/smtr
Narrative Cultures and the
Aesthetics of Religion
Editedby
DirkJohannsen
AnjaKirsch
JensKreinath
Coverillustration:Lappiskoffermål,colorizedcopperprintfromKnudLeem,BeskrivelseroverFinmarkens
Lapper,København1776.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Johannsen,Dirk,editor.|Kirsch,Anja,editor.|Kreinath,Jens,1967-editor.
Title:Narrativeculturesandtheaestheticsofreligion/editedbyDirkJohannsen,AnjaKirsch,Jens
Kreinath.
Description:Leiden;Boston:Brill,2020.|Series:Supplementstomethod&theoryinthestudyofreligion,
2214-3270;volume14|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2019053862|ISBN9789004421660(hardback)|ISBN9789004421677(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Storytelling–Religiousaspects.|Narration(Rhetoric)–Religiousaspects.|
Aesthetics–Religiousaspects.|Sensesandsensation–Religiousaspects.|Religionandculture.
Classification:LCCBL628.7.N372020|DDC208–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019053862
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ISSN2214-3270
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Contents
Preface vii
DirkJohannsen,AnjaKirschandJensKreinath
ListofIllustrations xi
NotesonContributors xii
NarrativeCulturesandtheAestheticsofReligion:AnIntroduction 1
DirkJohannsenandAnjaKirsch
Part 1
Encounters:VernacularReligiousStorytelling
1 OneRitual—ManyStories:OnMakingSenseofaHinduRitual 17
BrigitteLuchesi
2 NarratingSpiritPossession 45
KatharinaWilkens
3 HowtoSenseaGhost:OntheAestheticsofLegendTraditions 66
DirkJohannsen
4 StudyingReligionsasNarrativeCultures:AngelExperienceNarrativesin
theNetherlandsandSomeIdeasforaNarrativeResearchProgramfor
theStudyofReligion 91
MarkusAltenaDavidsenandBastiaanvanRijn
Part 2
Identities:NarratingandCounter-NarratingGodsandPeople
5 FeelingNarrativeCultures:AnalyzingEmotionsinReligiousNarratives
withExamplesfromOld-BabylonianNinurtaMyths 125
LauraFeldt
6 AztecPictorialNarratives:VisualStrategiestoActivateEmbodied
MeaningandtheTransformationofIdentityintheMapade
CuauhtinchanNo.2 155
IsabelLaack
vi Contents
7 TransmedialNarrativeCultures:UpanishadicSpiritualityintheIndian
Tele-Serial“UpanishadGanga” 185
AnnetteWilke
8 StorytellingandMediation:TheAestheticsofaCounter-narrativeof
AtheisminSouthIndia 219
StefanBinder
Part 3
Arts:NarrativeCraftBeyondWords
9 BraidingRopes,WeavingBaskets:TheNarrativeCultureofAncient
Monasticism 249
IngvildSælidGilhus
10 ImmersingintheWorldofRadhaandKrishna:VisualStorytellinginthe
ContextofReligiousPractice 270
CarolineWidmer
11 FoundationalNarrativesinChan/ZenBuddhismandtheObservationof
theIneffable:Two“PublicCases”(gong’an/kōan)oftheGatelessBarrier
ofChanLineage 293
MartinLehnert
12 PoeticImaginationinScientificPractice:GrandUnificationasNarrative
Worldmaking 314
AriannaBorrelli
WhatHappensWhentheStoryIsTold?ReflectionsontheAestheticsof
NarrativeWorldmakingandAestheticSensation—Afterthoughts 345
JensKreinath
SubjectIndex 371
Preface
DirkJohannsen,AnjaKirschand JensKreinath
Thecoverillustrationof thisanthologyshowsacircumpolarwasteland.Five
peoplegatheraroundafireplacewithnoshelter.Scatteredstones,sticks,and
bones complete the composition. Without context, the picture allows for a
rangeofinterpretation.Foraconferenceonnarrativeculturesandtheaesthet-
icsofreligionheldin2016attheUniversityofOslo,Norway,thepictureserved
toevokeastorytellingsituation.Thepowerofnarrativeimaginationmakesthe
worlditscanvas,andamiraculoustalemaycapturepeople’sattention—even
whentheyareexposedtoNorway’sharsh,icyweather.
Ofcourse,thisisnotthepicture’sstory.ItisacopperplateprintfromKnud
Leem’seighteenth-centuryDescriptionoftheLaplandersofFinnmark,theirVer-
nacular,LifestyleandIdolatry,IllustratedbyManyCopperEngravings(1767).So-
calledDescriptionswereanimportantgenreintheabsolutistDanishmonar-
chy. Their purpose was to chart peripheral territories by providing detailed
accounts of both the natural and human resources and of the obstacles one
could expect when trying to exploit them. The copperplate illustrates what
Danishauthoritiessawasthemajorobstacletoasustainablesettlementplan
fortheFinnmark:theindigenousSamipopulation.Discussing“theLaplanders
idolatroussacrifices,”LutheranpriestLeemallegeshowtheSamiconductsac-
rificialmealsasacoreelementoftheir“pagancult”(Leem1767,428–50).Since
OlausMagnus’DescriptionoftheNorthernPeoples([1555]1996–98),earlymod-
ernethnographicliteraturehaddepictedthereligionoftheSamiasademonic
cult with a strong leaning towards weather magic, making them immune to
the cold and empowering them to conjure snowstorms and walls of ice. In
hisinfluentialdemonologicaltreatiseOntheDemon-ManiaofWitches([1581]
1995),FrenchpoliticalphilosopherJeanBodinimaginedthatcontrollingthe
borealiswouldgivetheSamithepotentialtoharmallofEurope,anargument
echoing throughout the intense seventeenth-century Finnmark witch-hunts
(Hagen2015).
Leembaseshisaccountof theSamireligionontherecordsof thesewitch
trialsbutprovidesadifferentinterpretationof thenatureof theallegedcult.
Thesacrificialmealisnotademonicact,heargues,butananachronism.Rein-
deer,cattle,orsealswereslaughteredandcooked;theirbloodwasthensprin-
kled on some stakes, both single and crossed ones with a hidden meaning,
as seen in the front of the picture (Leem 1767, 428–29; 437–38). The bones
werecarefullycollected.Afterthemeal,theywouldbeleftbehindfortheidol
viii Preface
torevivetheanimal.Intheguiseof ethnography,Leemtellsamigratoryleg-
end.The“resuscitatedeatenanimal(Ananimaliseaten.Whenhisbonesare
reassembled, he revives)” is listed as narrative element or script E32 in Stith
Thompson’sMotif-indexof Folk-literature(1955–1958)whereitisdocumented
withreferencetoIrish,African,Swiss,English,Jewish,Indian,NativeAmeri-
can,andOldNorsetraditions(Thompson1956,408).Itisthelattertradition
thatLeemhadinmindwhenimaginingSamisacrificialpractices.Helocates
theSamiinanalternativenarrativeculture,rootedinOldNorsemythology.In
collectingthebones,hesuggests,theSamirevealthemselvesfollowersof the
OldNorseGodThor,eventhoughtheymaynolongerrealizeit,havingforgot-
tenhisname(Leem1767,438).InSnorriSturluson’sthirteenth-centuryEdda,
ThorslaughtershistwogoatsTanngrisnir andTanngnjóstr everyevening.As
longasthebonesremainintact,hecanrevivethegoatstotheirformercon-
dition(Sturluson[1220]1964,70).Theirpaganpractices,priestLeemtriesto
convince his readers, were not dangerous acts of magic but a sign of being
stuckinanobsoletemythology.Notwitch-huntersbutmissionarieswerere-
quiredtocontroltheFinnmark.Itwasabouttimetobringanewnarrative,the
gospelofChrist,totheremoteregions.
IntheDescriptionoftheLaplandersofFinnmark,thecopperplatepictureil-
lustratesanewcolonialapproachtotheSami’sreligionbyliterallydisenchant-
ingit.Leemrejuvenatedalearnednarrativeculturebasedondemonological
imaginariesbyreframingthemasmythologicalimaginaries.Magicturnedinto
myth,andthepoeticsof romanticismsooncultivatedtheenchantedviewof
storytelling,accordingtowhichtheworldwasbutacanvasforthenarrative
imagination(Thoreau1849,306).Inromanticreadings,earlyscholarsofcom-
parativereligiondiscoveredLeem’saccountof therejuvenatedanimalasev-
idence that already the Old Norse religion had roots in timeless “shamanic”
practicesandauniversalmagicalmentality(Daa1869,149–70).Withthero-
mantic chronotope (Bakhtin 1981) used to emancipate the study of religions
fromboththediachronicstudyofhistoryandchurch-centeredChristianthe-
ology,geographicalandsocialperipherytrumpedchronology.Inthescholars’
re-configuredstoryworld,thecopperplateillustrationof aritualisticpractice
of eighteenth-century indigenous people seemed more authentic and inti-
matelyconnectedtothecoreofreligionthanthirteenth-centurypoems,writ-
tendownbythelearnedChristianSnorriSturluson.
Theconvolutedstoryofthepictureshowsthecomplexityanddynamicsof
narrative cultures. It illustrates that stories are never “merely expository, but
rather,partisan”(Bruner1990,85).Theycanbeshared,borrowed,orstolen.It
matterswhotellsthem,wholistens,andwhoisexcludedfromthestorytelling
setting—inthiscase,theprotagoniststhemselves.Italsoillustrateshowanew
Preface ix
framing,genre,orchronotopechangesastory’sdisposition,makingevencon-
tradictory conclusions seem natural. Where people are entangled in stories
(Schapp2004),everyreiterationconnectstonewnarrativestrandsintheweb
of stories that shapes their thinking and their perception. In the way it was
recounted by Leem and retold by later scholars of religion, the myth of the
revivedanimalisnotevencomplete.Thedramaticpotentialof thenarrative
scriptE32remaineddormant:Whatifthebonesbreak?Inevitably,thisiswhat
happens toThor when a peasant child cannot resist eating the marrow.The
animalsenduplimpinganddisfigured,andtheutopiaofanever-endingsup-
plyof foodisforsaken.Breakingthescriptmakesthestoryandaddsanother
layer of storytelling dynamics. The myth of a God reviving slaughtered ani-
malstoprovideanabundanceof foodwasobsoletefromthefirstmomentit
wastold.Still,itinspiredreligiousdiscourseandthediscourseaboutreligion
forcenturies,turninggenerationsofscholarsintoco-narrators.
This anthology results from a multi-year collaboration of scholars of re-
ligion who convened in the Aesthetics of Religion network (AESToR.net),
funded from 2015–2018 by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The in-
ternational conference “Narrative Cultures and the Aesthetics of Religion,”
held June 16–18, 2016 in Oslo, brought together members and friends of this
network to discuss religious storytelling practices in aesthetic terms (Koch
& Kreinath 2016). From the organization of the conference to the prepara-
tionof thisvolume,manypeoplecontributedtoourexplorationof narrative
cultures. First and foremost, we are grateful to KatharinaWilkens and Anne
KochforinitiatingtheAestor.net,allofitsmembersforengaginginthetopic,
andourscholarlynarratorswhoattendedtheNarrativeCulturesconference.
WearetremendouslygratefultoAmandaOlsen,MAinCulturalHistoryfrom
the University of Oslo, who accompanied the conference project at an early
stage,andtoKai-ErikWestergaard,MAinHistoryof ReligionsfromtheUni-
versityofOslo,whojoinedherinconductingthethreedaysoftheconference.
Fortheconferenceanthologytakingshape,wethankAnnetteWilkeforhost-
inganauthor-workshopattheUniversityofMünsterandMelanieMöllerand
AnneWahlforco-organizingthisworkshop;AdrianHermannfororganizing
anAestor.netmeetingattheUniversityof Bonn;KirstenBerrumforhelping
with the graphic design of the cover illustration; Alexandra Grieser and Hu-
bertMohrforvaluableinput;LaurenVardimanandBaileyFimreitefortheir
languageediting,andBaileyforindexingthevolume.Wealsowanttothank
all those who further supported us directly or indirectly in transforming the
NarrativeCulturesconferenceintoananthology.Wewouldalsoliketothank
theGermanResearchFoundationforgrantingtheAESToR.netprojectandthe
Departmentof CultureStudiesandOrientalLanguages(IKOS),Universityof
x Preface
Oslo,forfinancialandadministrativesupport.Finally,wethankTessaSchild,
editorof theReligiousStudiessectionatBrill,forpatientlyguidingthepubli-
cationprocessofNarrativeCulturesandtheAestheticsofReligion.
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