Religion and Innovation: Antagonists or Partners?

321 Pages·2015·2.376 MB·English

by  Donald A. Yerxa (editor)

Religion and
Innovation
Also available from Bloomsbury
Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, edited by Halvor Eifring
Religion, Material Culture and Archaeology, Julian Droogan
Secularization and Its Discontents, Rob Warner
Religion and
Innovation
Antagonists or Partners?
Edited by
Donald A. Yerxa
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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First published 2016
© Donald A. Yerxa and Contributors, 2016
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4725-9101-2
PB: 978-1-4725-9128-9
ePDF: 978-1-4725-9102-9
ePub: 978-1-4725-9100-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Religion and innovation: antagonists or partners? / edited by Donald A. Yerxa. – 1 [edition].
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4725-9101-2 (hb) – ISBN 978-1-4725-9128-9 (pb) – ISBN 978-1-4725-9100-5
(epub) – ISBN 978-1-4725-9102-9 (epdf) 1. Religion and culture. 2. Civilization, Modern.
3. Technology–Religious aspects. I. Yerxa, Donald A., 1950- editor.
BL65.C8R4445 2015
201’.7–dc23
2015017884
Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
Acknowledgements x
Introduction Donald A. Yerxa 1
Part 1 Religion and Innovation in Pre-Columbian Societies
9
1 Innovation, Religion and Authority at the Formative Period
Andean Cult Centre of Chavín de Huántar John W. Rick 11
2 Religion and Political Innovation in Ancient Mesoamerica
Arthur A. Joyce and Sarah B. Barber 27
3 Religious Innovation at the Emerald Acropolis: Something New
under the Moon Timothy R. Pauketat and Susan M. Alt 43
Part 2 Religion and Innovation: Naturalism,
Scientific Progress, Enlightenment and Secularization
57
4 The First Enlightenment: The Patristic Roots of Religious Freedom
Timothy Samuel Shah 59
5 Religion, Innovation and Secular Modernity Peter Harrison 74
6 Religion, Scientific Naturalism and Historical Progress Peter Harrison 87
7 Religion, Enlightenment and the Paradox of Innovation,
c. 1650–1760 William J. Bulman and Robert G. Ingram 100
8 Remembering the Reformation, 1817 and 1883: Commemorating the
Past as Agent and Mirror of Social Change Thomas Albert Howard 113
9 Secularization and Religious Innovation: A Transatlantic Comparison
David Hempton and Hugh McLeod 126
10 Christian Transnationalists, Nationhood and the Construction of
Civil Society Dana L. Robert 141
Part 3 Religion, Progress and Innovation
in the Contemporary World
157
11 Sin, Guilt and the Future of Progress Wilfred M. McClay 159
12 Religious Innovation and Economic Empowerment in India:
An Empirical Exploration Rebecca Samuel Shah 176
13 Century of Progress? Chicago after Daniel Burnham Philip H. Bess 194
14 Technologies of Imagination: Secularism, Transhumanism
and the Idiom of Progress J. Benjamin Hurlbut 213
Afterword: Innovation and Religion, Today and Tomorrow Adam Keiper 229
Notes 237
Selected Bibliography 285
Contributors 295
Index 299
vi Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
1.1 Artist’s reconstruction of Chavín de Huántar at its maximum extension,
between 850 and 500 BCE. A human figure serves for scale in the
large square plaza on the left. Drawing by Miguel Ortiz 16
1.2 Examples of Complex Stamped Chavín pottery, the end result of an
intricate Chavín innovation; item in lower right is a fragment of one of
the stamps used to create these designs 17
1.3 Example of low-relief granite plaque from Chavín’s Circular Plaza,
showing feline design and, particularly, the inset right angle cuts
bordering the main figure and the raised frame around the figure 19
1.4 Part of one of Chavín’s underground canals, with right angles
interconnecting segments, and formal entrance staircase (far left) 20
1.5 View showing major risk factors at the site of Chavín (lower central
area), including pathway of major landslides (narrow descending white
arrow), constantly slipping hillslope (wide white arrow) and original
direction and energy impact of the Mosna River (white arrow entering
from left); directions of site’s architectural growth are shown by smaller
black arrows 23
2.1 Map of the Lower Río Verde Valley and the Valley of Oaxaca showing
sites mentioned in the text 27
2.2 Religious objects from the Terminal Formative in the lower Río Verde
Valley: (a) Carved bone flute found with a burial at Yugüe (after
Figure 6.12 in Arthur A. Joyce, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Chatinos:
Ancient Peoples of Southern Mexico [Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell,
2010]); (b) Rain Deity mask from an offering at Cerro de la Virgen 32
2.3 San José Mogote Monument 3 (after Figure 1.3 in Javier Urcid,
The Zapotec Scribal Tradition: Knowledge, Memory, and Society in
Ancient Oaxaca (Coral Gables, FL: Foundation for the Advancement
of Mesoamerican Studies Inc., 2005) www.famsi.org/zapotecwriting/;
redrawn with permission from Javier Urcid 35
2.4 The Main Plaza of Monte Albán (after Figure 5.3 in Joyce, Mixtecs,
Zapotecs, and Chatinos) 36
2.5 Late Formative period carved stone monuments from Monte Albán’s
Main Plaza: (a) Young adult from the first rank in the lower row of
Building L-sub (after Figure 5.5c in Joyce, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and
Chatinos; redrawn with permission from Javier Urcid); (b) Elder with
beard from the upper rank of Building L-sub (after Figure 5.5b in
Joyce, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Chatinos; redrawn with permission
from Javier Urcid); (c) Rain god impersonator from the upper rank
of Building L-sub (after Figure 5.5d in Joyce, Mixtecs, Zapotecs,
and Chatinos; redrawn with permission from Javier Urcid); (d) Slab
depicting a possibly revered ancestor (after Figure 41 in Alfonso Caso,
‘Calendario y escritura de las antiguas culturas de Monte Albán’,
Obras completas de Miguel Othón de Mendizábal 1 (1947): 116–43);
(e) Monument J-41 (after Figure 5.6d in Joyce, Mixtecs, Zapotecs,
and Chatinos; redrawn with permission from Javier Urcid) 37
3.1 Plan map showing location of Cahokia’s three precincts 46
3.2 Plan map of the Emerald acropolis showing mound locations; white
dashed lines indicate uncertain mound locations while black dashed
lines indicate confirmed mound locations (based on airborne LiDAR
scan, used with permission of Illinois State Archaeology Survey) 48
3.3 Graph showing the numbers of early Cahokia-Mississippian sites
documented in the Emerald Archaeological Project survey with
distance from the Emerald acropolis 50
3.4 Plan map of excavation block 2 section, showing temple F157 and
adjacent building outlines (F157 short axis azimuth is 067.01 degrees) 52
3.5 Plan map of council house F110 in excavation block 1
(northwest to southeast azimuth is 120.0 degrees) 53
13.1 Classical Humanist Urbanism: Left: The Ghent Altarpiece
(1432, detail), Paradise as New Eden and New Jerusalem. Centre:
The World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago (1893). Right:
Proposed City Hall and Plaza, Plan of Chicago (1909).
All images in the public domain 196
13.2 Chicago 2109: Land Use, existing and proposed. Courtesy Philip Bess 208
13.3 Chicago 2109: The Once and Future Civic Centre. Three images
courtesy Philip Bess 209
13.4 Chicago 2109. Left: Civic Axis/Sacred Axis Crossing, plan diagram.
Right: Preliminary perspective study. Courtesy Philip Bess 210
13.5 Chicago 2109. Top: Columbian Exposition Boulevard, partial elevation
looking west. Bottom left: Civic Axis/Sacred Axis, aerial perspective
looking northwest. Bottom right: Columbian Exposition Boulevard/
Sacred Axis, perspective looking north. Courtesy Philip Bess 210
viii List of Figures and Tables
Tables
3.1 Inventory of Buildings in Emerald Archaeological Project Excavations 51
12.1 Percentage of Micro-Entrepreneurs Who Tithe/Give Zakat According
to Frequency and Religious Tradition for 2011, 2012 and 2013 185
12.2 Percentage of Micro-Entrepreneurs Who Own or Rent Their Homes 187
12.3 Percentage of Micro-Entrepreneurs Who Sought Help to Stop
Domestic Violence Source 190
List of Figures and Tables ix