J.R. Watson (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198269731
- eISBN:
- 9780191600791
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198269730.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
This is an anthology of 250 hymns plus one, with a foreword by Timothy Dudley‐Smith, one of the greatest living hymn writers (the two hundred and fifty‐first hymn, which is a postscript to the ...
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This is an anthology of 250 hymns plus one, with a foreword by Timothy Dudley‐Smith, one of the greatest living hymn writers (the two hundred and fifty‐first hymn, which is a postscript to the anthology, is by him). It is intended in part as a sequel to the editor's The English Hymn (1997): some of the ideas in that book are here exemplified in hymns taken from the earliest Christian times to the present day. Each of the 250 hymns has a textual, critical, and historical annotation, indicating the circumstances of publication, the church history of the time, and the development of the text, and then drawing attention to special features of the work. The hymns are divided into sections, beginning with ‘Ancient and Medieval Hymns’ (in translation) and continuing through the centuries to the final section, ‘The Mid‐Twentieth Century, and the Hymn Explosion’. Some attention is also paid to the tunes to which each hymn has been set, and their composers, although the tunes are not printed. The foreword and the preface introduce the subject of hymns and hymn singing as a part of worship, and discuss hymns as sacred poetry. The conclusion of the introduction is that hymns are a valuable and underrated art form. The 250 hymns that follow attempt to demonstrate the truth of that argument.Less
This is an anthology of 250 hymns plus one, with a foreword by Timothy Dudley‐Smith, one of the greatest living hymn writers (the two hundred and fifty‐first hymn, which is a postscript to the anthology, is by him). It is intended in part as a sequel to the editor's The English Hymn (1997): some of the ideas in that book are here exemplified in hymns taken from the earliest Christian times to the present day. Each of the 250 hymns has a textual, critical, and historical annotation, indicating the circumstances of publication, the church history of the time, and the development of the text, and then drawing attention to special features of the work. The hymns are divided into sections, beginning with ‘Ancient and Medieval Hymns’ (in translation) and continuing through the centuries to the final section, ‘The Mid‐Twentieth Century, and the Hymn Explosion’. Some attention is also paid to the tunes to which each hymn has been set, and their composers, although the tunes are not printed. The foreword and the preface introduce the subject of hymns and hymn singing as a part of worship, and discuss hymns as sacred poetry. The conclusion of the introduction is that hymns are a valuable and underrated art form. The 250 hymns that follow attempt to demonstrate the truth of that argument.
Brian Murdoch
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199564149
- eISBN:
- 9780191721328
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199564149.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
This book examines the development in medieval European literature of the story of Adam and Eve after the expulsion from paradise. The gaps in what the Bible records of their lives were filled in ...
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This book examines the development in medieval European literature of the story of Adam and Eve after the expulsion from paradise. The gaps in what the Bible records of their lives were filled in early and medieval times to a great extent by apocrypha or pseudepigrapha such as the Latin Life of Adam and Eve (which merges at some points with a series of legends of the Holy Rood). It describes their attempt to return to paradise by undertaking penance whilst immersed in a river, Eve's second temptation, and the ways in which Adam and Eve cope with the novelties of childbirth and death. The Vita Adae et Evae is part of a broad apocryphal tradition, but is not a unified text, and there are very many variations within the substantial number of extant versions. It was translated and adapted in prose, verse, and drama (as tracts, in chronicles, or as literary works) in virtually all western and some eastern European languages in the Middle Ages, and survived sometimes beyond that. These adaptations are examined on a comparative basis. There is a limited iconographical tradition. The book argues that the study of the apocryphal tradition demands examination of these vernacular texts; and also brings to light a very widespread aspect of European culture that disappeared to a large extent—though it did not die out completely—at the time of the Renaissance and Reformation, with their renewed insistence on canonicity and on the establishment of a foundation text for works of antiquity.Less
This book examines the development in medieval European literature of the story of Adam and Eve after the expulsion from paradise. The gaps in what the Bible records of their lives were filled in early and medieval times to a great extent by apocrypha or pseudepigrapha such as the Latin Life of Adam and Eve (which merges at some points with a series of legends of the Holy Rood). It describes their attempt to return to paradise by undertaking penance whilst immersed in a river, Eve's second temptation, and the ways in which Adam and Eve cope with the novelties of childbirth and death. The Vita Adae et Evae is part of a broad apocryphal tradition, but is not a unified text, and there are very many variations within the substantial number of extant versions. It was translated and adapted in prose, verse, and drama (as tracts, in chronicles, or as literary works) in virtually all western and some eastern European languages in the Middle Ages, and survived sometimes beyond that. These adaptations are examined on a comparative basis. There is a limited iconographical tradition. The book argues that the study of the apocryphal tradition demands examination of these vernacular texts; and also brings to light a very widespread aspect of European culture that disappeared to a large extent—though it did not die out completely—at the time of the Renaissance and Reformation, with their renewed insistence on canonicity and on the establishment of a foundation text for works of antiquity.
Charles M. Stang
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199640423
- eISBN:
- 9780191738234
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199640423.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies, Religion and Literature
This book argues that the pseudonym, Dionysius the Areopagite, and the influence of Paul together constitute the best interpretive lens for understanding the Corpus Dionysiacum [CD]. This book ...
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This book argues that the pseudonym, Dionysius the Areopagite, and the influence of Paul together constitute the best interpretive lens for understanding the Corpus Dionysiacum [CD]. This book demonstrates how Paul in fact animates the entire corpus, that the influence of Paul illuminates such central themes of the CD as hierarchy, theurgy, deification, Christology, affirmation (kataphasis) and negation (apophasis), dissimilar similarities, and unknowing. Most importantly, Paul serves as a fulcrum for the expression of a new theological anthropology, an “apophatic anthropology.” Dionysius figures Paul as the premier apostolic witness to this apophatic anthropology, as the ecstatic lover of the divine who confesses to the rupture of his self and the indwelling of the divine in Gal 2:20: “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Building on this notion of apophatic anthropology, the book forwards an explanation for why this sixth‐century author chose to write under an apostolic pseudonym. It argues that the very practice of pseudonymous writing itself serves as an ecstatic devotional exercise whereby the writer becomes split in two and thereby open to the indwelling of the divine. Pseudonymity is on this interpretation integral and internal to the aims of the wider mystical enterprise. Thus this book aims to question the distinction between “theory” and “practice” by demonstrating that negative theology—often figured as a speculative and rarefied theory regarding the transcendence of God—is in fact best understood as a kind of asceticism, a devotional practice aiming for the total transformation of the Christian subject.Less
This book argues that the pseudonym, Dionysius the Areopagite, and the influence of Paul together constitute the best interpretive lens for understanding the Corpus Dionysiacum [CD]. This book demonstrates how Paul in fact animates the entire corpus, that the influence of Paul illuminates such central themes of the CD as hierarchy, theurgy, deification, Christology, affirmation (kataphasis) and negation (apophasis), dissimilar similarities, and unknowing. Most importantly, Paul serves as a fulcrum for the expression of a new theological anthropology, an “apophatic anthropology.” Dionysius figures Paul as the premier apostolic witness to this apophatic anthropology, as the ecstatic lover of the divine who confesses to the rupture of his self and the indwelling of the divine in Gal 2:20: “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Building on this notion of apophatic anthropology, the book forwards an explanation for why this sixth‐century author chose to write under an apostolic pseudonym. It argues that the very practice of pseudonymous writing itself serves as an ecstatic devotional exercise whereby the writer becomes split in two and thereby open to the indwelling of the divine. Pseudonymity is on this interpretation integral and internal to the aims of the wider mystical enterprise. Thus this book aims to question the distinction between “theory” and “practice” by demonstrating that negative theology—often figured as a speculative and rarefied theory regarding the transcendence of God—is in fact best understood as a kind of asceticism, a devotional practice aiming for the total transformation of the Christian subject.
Tova Hartman and Charlie Buckholtz
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199337439
- eISBN:
- 9780199362370
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199337439.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism, Religion and Literature
This volume offers a rereading of several canonical stories in Jewish texts and Greek tragedy using devoted resistance as the interpretative lens. These include the stories of Isaac and Iphigenia who ...
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This volume offers a rereading of several canonical stories in Jewish texts and Greek tragedy using devoted resistance as the interpretative lens. These include the stories of Isaac and Iphigenia who were used as exemplars of a total and unyielding commitment to the values of God and country, the Talmudic “Snake Oven” story, which is considered by many as a triumphant source-text for human autonomy as a Jewish religious value, the iconic Talmudic figure Beruriah and the biblical figure of Hannah, who was elevated by the Talmud into a central paradigm for Jewish prayer. These stories highlight the ways in which cultural heroes can distort key parts of themselves and their traditions in the name of tradition itself. This volume explains the tendency of carriers of culture to enshrine authoritative voices in the collective imagination through their selection of canonical stories and to stigmatize and marginalize traditions seen as standing in opposition to the dominant system. It also discusses the effectiveness of devoted resistance as a literary interpretative tool in allowing us to hear the voices of people who have been marginalized, and yet ultimately preserved, by the often brutal mechanisms of cultural authority.Less
This volume offers a rereading of several canonical stories in Jewish texts and Greek tragedy using devoted resistance as the interpretative lens. These include the stories of Isaac and Iphigenia who were used as exemplars of a total and unyielding commitment to the values of God and country, the Talmudic “Snake Oven” story, which is considered by many as a triumphant source-text for human autonomy as a Jewish religious value, the iconic Talmudic figure Beruriah and the biblical figure of Hannah, who was elevated by the Talmud into a central paradigm for Jewish prayer. These stories highlight the ways in which cultural heroes can distort key parts of themselves and their traditions in the name of tradition itself. This volume explains the tendency of carriers of culture to enshrine authoritative voices in the collective imagination through their selection of canonical stories and to stigmatize and marginalize traditions seen as standing in opposition to the dominant system. It also discusses the effectiveness of devoted resistance as a literary interpretative tool in allowing us to hear the voices of people who have been marginalized, and yet ultimately preserved, by the often brutal mechanisms of cultural authority.
Arthur Kirsch
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300108149
- eISBN:
- 9780300128659
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300108149.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
One of the twentieth century's most important poets, W. H. Auden stands as an eloquent example of an individual within whom thought and faith not only coexist but indeed nourish each other. This book ...
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One of the twentieth century's most important poets, W. H. Auden stands as an eloquent example of an individual within whom thought and faith not only coexist but indeed nourish each other. This book explores in detail how Auden's religious faith helped him to come to terms with himself as an artist and as a man, despite his early disinterest in religion and his homosexuality. It shows also how Auden's Anglican faith informs, and is often the explicit subject of, his poetry and prose. The book discusses the poet's boyhood religious experience and the works he wrote before emigrating to the United States as well as his formal return to the Anglican Communion at the beginning of World War II. It then focuses on Auden's criticism and on neglected and underestimated works of the poet's later years. Through insightful readings of Auden's writings and biography, this book documents how Auden's faith and his religious doubt were the matrix of his work and life.Less
One of the twentieth century's most important poets, W. H. Auden stands as an eloquent example of an individual within whom thought and faith not only coexist but indeed nourish each other. This book explores in detail how Auden's religious faith helped him to come to terms with himself as an artist and as a man, despite his early disinterest in religion and his homosexuality. It shows also how Auden's Anglican faith informs, and is often the explicit subject of, his poetry and prose. The book discusses the poet's boyhood religious experience and the works he wrote before emigrating to the United States as well as his formal return to the Anglican Communion at the beginning of World War II. It then focuses on Auden's criticism and on neglected and underestimated works of the poet's later years. Through insightful readings of Auden's writings and biography, this book documents how Auden's faith and his religious doubt were the matrix of his work and life.
Karla Pollmann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198726487
- eISBN:
- 9780191793295
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198726487.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies, Religion and Literature
With the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, increasing numbers of educated people converted to this new belief. As Christianity did not have its own educational institutions, the issue of how ...
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With the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, increasing numbers of educated people converted to this new belief. As Christianity did not have its own educational institutions, the issue of how to harmonize pagan education and Christian convictions became increasingly pressing. Especially classical poetry, the staple diet of pagan education, was considered morally corrupting (because of its deceitful mythological content) and damaging for the salvation of the soul (because of the false gods it advocated). But Christianity recoiled from an unqualified anti-intellectual attitude, while at the same time the experiment of creating an idiosyncratic form of genuinely Christian poetry failed (the sole exception being the poet Commodianus). This book argues that, instead, Christian poets made creative use of the classical literary tradition, and—in addition to blending it with Judaeo-Christian biblical exegesis—exploited poetry’s special ability of enhancing the effectiveness of communication through aesthetic means. It seeks to explore these strategies through a close analysis of a wide range of Christian, and for comparison partly also pagan, writers mainly from the fourth to sixth centuries. The book reveals that early Christianity was not a hermetically sealed uniform body, but displays a rich spectrum of possibilities in dealing with the past and a willingness to engage with and adapt the surrounding culture(s), thereby developing diverse and changing responses to historical challenges. By demonstrating throughout that authority is a key in understanding the long denigrated and misunderstood early Christian poets, this book reaches the ground-breaking conclusion that early Christian poetry is an art form that gains its justification by adding cultural authority to Christianity. Thus, in a wider sense this book engages with the recently emerged scholarly interest in aspects of religion as cultural phenomena.Less
With the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, increasing numbers of educated people converted to this new belief. As Christianity did not have its own educational institutions, the issue of how to harmonize pagan education and Christian convictions became increasingly pressing. Especially classical poetry, the staple diet of pagan education, was considered morally corrupting (because of its deceitful mythological content) and damaging for the salvation of the soul (because of the false gods it advocated). But Christianity recoiled from an unqualified anti-intellectual attitude, while at the same time the experiment of creating an idiosyncratic form of genuinely Christian poetry failed (the sole exception being the poet Commodianus). This book argues that, instead, Christian poets made creative use of the classical literary tradition, and—in addition to blending it with Judaeo-Christian biblical exegesis—exploited poetry’s special ability of enhancing the effectiveness of communication through aesthetic means. It seeks to explore these strategies through a close analysis of a wide range of Christian, and for comparison partly also pagan, writers mainly from the fourth to sixth centuries. The book reveals that early Christianity was not a hermetically sealed uniform body, but displays a rich spectrum of possibilities in dealing with the past and a willingness to engage with and adapt the surrounding culture(s), thereby developing diverse and changing responses to historical challenges. By demonstrating throughout that authority is a key in understanding the long denigrated and misunderstood early Christian poets, this book reaches the ground-breaking conclusion that early Christian poetry is an art form that gains its justification by adding cultural authority to Christianity. Thus, in a wider sense this book engages with the recently emerged scholarly interest in aspects of religion as cultural phenomena.
Yuki Miyamoto
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823240500
- eISBN:
- 9780823240548
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823240500.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
This monograph explores the ethics and religious sensibilities of a group of the hibakusha (survivors) of 1945's atomic bombings. Although the atomic bombings of 1945 have been studied from the ...
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This monograph explores the ethics and religious sensibilities of a group of the hibakusha (survivors) of 1945's atomic bombings. Although the atomic bombings of 1945 have been studied from the points of view of various disciplines, the survivors' ethic—not retaliation, but reconciliation—emerging from their experiences and supported by their religious sensibilities, has never been addressed sufficiently in academic discourse. Rather their ethic has been excluded from the atomic bomb discourse or nuclear ethics. In examining Hiroshima city's “secular” commemoration, Hiroshima's True Pure Land Buddhist understanding, and Nagasaki's Roman Catholic tradition, I argue that the hibakusha's ethic and philosophy, based upon critical self-reflection, could offer resources for the constructing ethics based upon memories, especially in the post-9–11 world. Thus, this monograph, responding to this lacuna in scholarship, invites readers to go beyond the mushroom cloud where they encounter actual hibakusha's ethical thoughts.Less
This monograph explores the ethics and religious sensibilities of a group of the hibakusha (survivors) of 1945's atomic bombings. Although the atomic bombings of 1945 have been studied from the points of view of various disciplines, the survivors' ethic—not retaliation, but reconciliation—emerging from their experiences and supported by their religious sensibilities, has never been addressed sufficiently in academic discourse. Rather their ethic has been excluded from the atomic bomb discourse or nuclear ethics. In examining Hiroshima city's “secular” commemoration, Hiroshima's True Pure Land Buddhist understanding, and Nagasaki's Roman Catholic tradition, I argue that the hibakusha's ethic and philosophy, based upon critical self-reflection, could offer resources for the constructing ethics based upon memories, especially in the post-9–11 world. Thus, this monograph, responding to this lacuna in scholarship, invites readers to go beyond the mushroom cloud where they encounter actual hibakusha's ethical thoughts.
Norman Vance
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199680573
- eISBN:
- 9780191761317
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199680573.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature, History of Christianity
This study seeks to develop a new context for reading later Victorian fiction, specifically the work of George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Mary Ward and Rider Haggard. With Eliot and her successors the ...
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This study seeks to develop a new context for reading later Victorian fiction, specifically the work of George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Mary Ward and Rider Haggard. With Eliot and her successors the Victorian novel acquired greater cultural centrality, just as the authority of the scriptures and of traditional religious teaching seemed to be declining. The book considers whether serious, allegedly secular novelists supplanted the Bible or whether they anticipated some of the insights of contemporary theologians and writers of fiction by reimagining and reformulating rather than abandoning essentially religious themes and insights. The history of Bible reading is reviewed to stress the relatively late insistence on biblical literalism which eventually precipitated loss of confidence in the Bible in the light of modern knowledge. The novelists discussed, all of Anglican nurture though unconventional in different ways, are shown to have continued older traditions of reading the Bible for underlying moral and religious significance rather than just the literal meaning. The novels considered demonstrate new ways of imagining biblical concerns such as the sublime, the messianic and pilgrimage. The conclusion suggests the novelists discussed as pioneers of the pot-secular and proposes connections between their work and the subsequent emphasis on religious experience rather than religious dogma.Less
This study seeks to develop a new context for reading later Victorian fiction, specifically the work of George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Mary Ward and Rider Haggard. With Eliot and her successors the Victorian novel acquired greater cultural centrality, just as the authority of the scriptures and of traditional religious teaching seemed to be declining. The book considers whether serious, allegedly secular novelists supplanted the Bible or whether they anticipated some of the insights of contemporary theologians and writers of fiction by reimagining and reformulating rather than abandoning essentially religious themes and insights. The history of Bible reading is reviewed to stress the relatively late insistence on biblical literalism which eventually precipitated loss of confidence in the Bible in the light of modern knowledge. The novelists discussed, all of Anglican nurture though unconventional in different ways, are shown to have continued older traditions of reading the Bible for underlying moral and religious significance rather than just the literal meaning. The novels considered demonstrate new ways of imagining biblical concerns such as the sublime, the messianic and pilgrimage. The conclusion suggests the novelists discussed as pioneers of the pot-secular and proposes connections between their work and the subsequent emphasis on religious experience rather than religious dogma.
Susanne M. Sklar
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199603145
- eISBN:
- 9780191731594
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199603145.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
William Blake says Jerusalem is written to move readers from a solely rational way of being (called Ulro) to one that is highly imaginative (called Eden/Eternity), and that each word in it is chosen ...
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William Blake says Jerusalem is written to move readers from a solely rational way of being (called Ulro) to one that is highly imaginative (called Eden/Eternity), and that each word in it is chosen to suit ‘the mouth of a true Orator’. Rational interpretation is of limited use when reading this multifaceted poem. But considering Jerusalem as visionary theatre — an imaginative performance in which characters, settings, and imagery are not confined by mundane space and time — allows readers to enjoy the coherence of its delightful complexities. With his characters, Blake's readers can participate imaginatively in what Blake calls ‘the Divine Body, the Saviour's Kingdom’, a way of being in which all things interconnect: spiritually, ecologically, socially, and erotically. This two‐part book first discusses the theological, literary, and historical antecedents of the poem's imagery, characters, and settings before presenting a scene‐by‐scene commentary of the entire illuminated work. Jerusalem tells the story of a fall, many rescue attempts, escalating violence, and a surprising apocalypse — in which all living things are transfigured in ferocious forgiveness.Less
William Blake says Jerusalem is written to move readers from a solely rational way of being (called Ulro) to one that is highly imaginative (called Eden/Eternity), and that each word in it is chosen to suit ‘the mouth of a true Orator’. Rational interpretation is of limited use when reading this multifaceted poem. But considering Jerusalem as visionary theatre — an imaginative performance in which characters, settings, and imagery are not confined by mundane space and time — allows readers to enjoy the coherence of its delightful complexities. With his characters, Blake's readers can participate imaginatively in what Blake calls ‘the Divine Body, the Saviour's Kingdom’, a way of being in which all things interconnect: spiritually, ecologically, socially, and erotically. This two‐part book first discusses the theological, literary, and historical antecedents of the poem's imagery, characters, and settings before presenting a scene‐by‐scene commentary of the entire illuminated work. Jerusalem tells the story of a fall, many rescue attempts, escalating violence, and a surprising apocalypse — in which all living things are transfigured in ferocious forgiveness.
Linda Hess
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199374168
- eISBN:
- 9780199374199
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199374168.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
This book studies the poetry and culture of Kabir—a great and still popular fifteenth-century religious poet of North India—through the lens of oral-performative traditions. It draws from ...
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This book studies the poetry and culture of Kabir—a great and still popular fifteenth-century religious poet of North India—through the lens of oral-performative traditions. It draws from ethnographic research conducted over a ten-year period, mainly in Malwa, Madhya Pradesh, as well as on the history of written collections. First it focuses on texts—their transmission by singers, the dynamics of textual forms in oral performance, and the connections between texts in oral forms, written forms, and other media. Second, it attends to context, reception, and community. Chapters 1 through 4 draw a portrait of a leading Kabir folksinger of Malwa; demonstrate how texts work in oral-musical performance; analyze discourses of authenticity; and present a typical Kabir singer’s repertoire in Malwa in the early 2000s. Chapter 5 is transitional, considering theories of “orality.” Chapters 6 through 8 emphasize social perspectives, examining communities of interpretation including a religious sect, the Kabir Panth; a secular educational NGO, Eklavya; and urban fans of Kabir. Kabir’s poetry lends itself to rich discussions on topics that range from cultivation of subtle inner states to political argument and activism. A persistent theme is the relation between religious-spiritual and social-political dimensions. An iconoclastic mystic who criticized organized religion, sectarian prejudice, caste, violence, deception, and hypocrisy, Kabir also speaks of self-knowledge, deep inner experience, confrontation with death, and connection to the divine. Ambiguously situated among Hindu, Muslim, Sufi, and yogic traditions, he rejects religious identities and urges fearless awakening.Less
This book studies the poetry and culture of Kabir—a great and still popular fifteenth-century religious poet of North India—through the lens of oral-performative traditions. It draws from ethnographic research conducted over a ten-year period, mainly in Malwa, Madhya Pradesh, as well as on the history of written collections. First it focuses on texts—their transmission by singers, the dynamics of textual forms in oral performance, and the connections between texts in oral forms, written forms, and other media. Second, it attends to context, reception, and community. Chapters 1 through 4 draw a portrait of a leading Kabir folksinger of Malwa; demonstrate how texts work in oral-musical performance; analyze discourses of authenticity; and present a typical Kabir singer’s repertoire in Malwa in the early 2000s. Chapter 5 is transitional, considering theories of “orality.” Chapters 6 through 8 emphasize social perspectives, examining communities of interpretation including a religious sect, the Kabir Panth; a secular educational NGO, Eklavya; and urban fans of Kabir. Kabir’s poetry lends itself to rich discussions on topics that range from cultivation of subtle inner states to political argument and activism. A persistent theme is the relation between religious-spiritual and social-political dimensions. An iconoclastic mystic who criticized organized religion, sectarian prejudice, caste, violence, deception, and hypocrisy, Kabir also speaks of self-knowledge, deep inner experience, confrontation with death, and connection to the divine. Ambiguously situated among Hindu, Muslim, Sufi, and yogic traditions, he rejects religious identities and urges fearless awakening.
1895
1929
1971
1989
42
“A Gentleman and an Officer”
‘A Nation of Beggars’?
The A Priori in Philosophy
A. J. Appasamy and his Reading of Rāmānuja
