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There is no existing collection focusing on religion and secrecy.
This is a cutting-edge handbook that will be the go to volume in
the area. Topics discussed are engaging and incredibly relevant to
society today. The Handbook includes contributions from leading
figures in the field.
What distinguishes humans from nonhumans? Two common answers-free
will and religion-are in some ways fundamentally opposed. Whereas
free will enjoys a central place in our ideas of spontaneity,
authorship, and deliberation, religious practices seem to involve a
suspension of or relief from the exercise of our will. What, then,
is agency, and why has it occupied such a central place in theories
of the human? Automatic Religion explores an unlikely series of
episodes from the end of the nineteenth century, when crucial ideas
related to automatism and, in a different realm, the study of
religion were both being born. Paul Christopher Johnson draws on
years of archival and ethnographic research in Brazil and France to
explore the crucial boundaries being drawn at the time between
humans, "nearhumans," and automata. As agency came to take on a
more central place in the philosophical, moral, and legal
traditions of the West, certain classes of people were excluded as
less-than-human. Tracking the circulation of ideas across the
Atlantic, Johnson tests those boundaries, revealing how they were
constructed on largely gendered and racial foundations. In the
process, he reanimates one of the most mysterious and yet
foundational questions in trans-Atlantic thought: what is agency?
Ekklesia: Three Inquiries in Church and State offers a New World
rejoinder to the largely Europe-centered academic discourse on
church and state. In contrast to what is often assumed, in the
Americas the relationship between church and state has not been one
of freedom or separation but one of unstable and adaptable
collusion. Ekklesia sees in the settler states of North and South
America alternative patterns of conjoined religious and political
power, patterns resulting from the undertow of other gods, other
peoples, and other claims to sovereignty. These local challenges
have led to a continuously contested attempt to realize a
church-minded state, a state-minded church, and the systems that
develop in their concert. The shifting borders of their separation
and the episodic conjoining of church and state took new forms in
both theory and practice. The first of a closely linked trio of
essays is by Paul Johnson, and offers a new interpretation of the
Brazilian community gathered at Canudos and its massacre in
1896-97, carried out as a joint church-state mission and spectacle.
In the second essay, Pamela Klassen argues that the colonial
church-state relationship of Canada came into being through local
and national practices that emerged as Indigenous nations responded
to and resisted becoming "possessions" of colonial British America.
Finally, Winnifred Sullivan's essay begins with reflection on the
increased effort within the United States to ban Bibles and
scriptural references from death penalty courtrooms and jury rooms;
she follows with a consideration of the political theological
pressure thereby placed on the jury that decides between life and
death. Through these three inquiries, Ekklesia takes up the
familiar topos of "church and state" in order to render it strange.
Ekklesia: Three Inquiries in Church and State offers a New World
rejoinder to the largely Europe-centered academic discourse on
church and state. In contrast to what is often assumed, in the
Americas the relationship between church and state has not been one
of freedom or separation but one of unstable and adaptable
collusion. Ekklesia sees in the settler states of North and South
America alternative patterns of conjoined religious and political
power, patterns resulting from the undertow of other gods, other
peoples, and other claims to sovereignty. These local challenges
have led to a continuously contested attempt to realize a
church-minded state, a state-minded church, and the systems that
develop in their concert. The shifting borders of their separation
and the episodic conjoining of church and state took new forms in
both theory and practice. The first of a closely linked trio of
essays is by Paul Johnson, and offers a new interpretation of the
Brazilian community gathered at Canudos and its massacre in
1896-97, carried out as a joint church-state mission and spectacle.
In the second essay, Pamela Klassen argues that the colonial
church-state relationship of Canada came into being through local
and national practices that emerged as Indigenous nations responded
to and resisted becoming "possessions" of colonial British America.
Finally, Winnifred Sullivan's essay begins with reflection on the
increased effort within the United States to ban Bibles and
scriptural references from death penalty courtrooms and jury rooms;
she follows with a consideration of the political theological
pressure thereby placed on the jury that decides between life and
death. Through these three inquiries, Ekklesia takes up the
familiar topos of "church and state" in order to render it strange.
What distinguishes humans from nonhumans? Two common answers-free
will and religion-are in some ways fundamentally opposed. Whereas
free will enjoys a central place in our ideas of spontaneity,
authorship, and deliberation, religious practices seem to involve a
suspension of or relief from the exercise of our will. What, then,
is agency, and why has it occupied such a central place in theories
of the human? Automatic Religion explores an unlikely series of
episodes from the end of the nineteenth century, when crucial ideas
related to automatism and, in a different realm, the study of
religion were both being born. Paul Christopher Johnson draws on
years of archival and ethnographic research in Brazil and France to
explore the crucial boundaries being drawn at the time between
humans, "nearhumans," and automata. As agency came to take on a
more central place in the philosophical, moral, and legal
traditions of the West, certain classes of people were excluded as
less-than-human. Tracking the circulation of ideas across the
Atlantic, Johnson tests those boundaries, revealing how they were
constructed on largely gendered and racial foundations. In the
process, he reanimates one of the most mysterious and yet
foundational questions in trans-Atlantic thought: what is agency?
"I'm extremely impressed by Johnson's book. "Diaspora Conversions"
offers an outstanding combination of theoretical acuity, erudition,
and ethnographic prowess. It is bound to become highly influential
in the study of religion in motion."--Manuel A. Vasquez, co-author
of "Globalizing the Sacred: Religion Across the Americas"
"Johnson's work bursts through the present conversations on African
diaspora and brings us onto entirely new ground, shattering
simplistic ideas and replacing them with critical distinctions.
This smart and talented ethnographer succeeds in combining detailed
and rich ethnographic fieldwork with an unrelentingly critical and
sophisticated analysis. Johnson's work brings to life one of the
most central, perhaps the most central, classic question of African
American anthropology: "How is Black culture constituted, even
through dislocation and displacement?"--Elizabeth McAlister, author
of "Rara! Vodou, Power, and Performance in Haiti and Its Diaspora"
""Diasporic Conversions" convincingly breaks new ground by showing
how the meaning of 'homeland' is fundamentally a product of
historically situated and contested forms of collective
imagination. What will make Johnson's book a benchmark in the study
of the African diaspora, and diasporic situations more generally,
is that it is not just a richly documented and rigorously argued
ethnography, but a genuine anthropology of historical
consciousness."--Stephan Palmie, author of "Wizards and Scientists:
Explorations in Afro-Cuban Modernity and Tradition"
In this wide-ranging book Paul Christopher Johnson explores the
changing, hidden face of the Afro-Brazilian indigenous religion of
Candomble. Despite its importance in Brazilian society, Candomble
has received far less attention than its sister religions Vodou and
Santeria. Johnson seeks to fill this void by offering a
comprehensive look at the development, beliefs, and practices of
Candomble and exploring its transformation from a secret society of
slaves--hidden, persecuted, and marginalized--to a public religion
that is very much a part of Brazilian culture. Johnson traces this
historical shift and locates the turning point in the creation of
Brazilian national identity and a public sphere in the first half
of the twentieth century.
His major focus is on the ritual practice of secrecy in Candomble.
Like Vodou and Santeria and the African Yoruba religion from which
they are descended, Candomble features a hierarchic series of
initiations, with increasing access to secret knowledge at each
level. As Johnson shows, the nature and uses of secrecy evolved
with the religion. First, secrecy was essential to a society that
had to remain hidden from authorities. Later, when Candomble became
known and actively persecuted, its secrecy became a form of
resistance as well as an exotic hidden power desired by elites.
Finally, as Candomble became a public religion and a vital part of
Brazilian culture, the debate increasingly turned away from the
secrets themselves and toward their possessors. It is speech about
secrets, and not the content of those secrets, that is now most
important in building status, legitimacy and power in
Candomble.
Offering many first hand accounts of the rites andrituals of
contemporary Candomble, this book provides insight into this
influential but little-studied group, while at the same time making
a valuable contribution to our understanding of the relationship
between religion and society.
In this wide-ranging book Paul C Johnson explores the changing, hidden face of the Afro-Brazilian indigenous religion of Candomble. Despite its importance in Brazilian Society, Candomble has received far less attention than its sister religions Vodou and Santeria. Johnson seeks to fill this void by offering a comprehensive look at the development, beliefs, and practices of Candomble and exploring its transformation from a secret society of slaves - hidden, persecuted, and marginalized - to a public religion that is very much part of Brazilian culture. Johnson traces this historical shift and locates the turning point in the creation of a Brazilian public sphere and national identity in the first half of the twentieth century. His major focus is on the ritual practice of secrecy in Candomble. Offering many first-hand accounts of the rites and rituals of contemporary Candomble, Gossip and Gods provides insight into this influential but little studied group, while at the same time making a valuable contribution to our understanding of the relationship between religion and society.
The word "possession" is trickier than we often think, especially
in the context of the Black Atlantic and its religions and economy.
Here possession can refer to spirits, material goods, and, indeed,
people. In Spirited Things, Paul Christopher Johnson gathers
together essays by leading anthropologists in the Americas to
explore the fascinating nexus found at the heart of the idea of
being possessed. The result is a book that marries one of
anthropology's foundational concerns - spirit possession - with one
of its most salient contemporary ones: materiality. The
contributors reopen the concept of possession in order to examine
the relationship between African religions in the Atlantic and the
economies that have historically shaped-and continue to shape-the
cultures that practice them. They explore the way spirit mediation
is framed both by material things-including plantations, the
Catholic church, the sea, and the telegraph-as well as the legacy
of slavery. In doing so, they offer a powerful new concept for
understanding the Atlantic world and its history, creation, and
deeply complex religious and political economy.
The word "possession" is trickier than we often think, especially
in the context of the Black Atlantic and its religions and economy.
Here possession can refer to spirits, material goods, and, indeed,
people. In Spirited Things, Paul Christopher Johnson gathers
together essays by leading anthropologists in the Americas to
explore the fascinating nexus found at the heart of the idea of
being possessed. The result is a book that marries one of
anthropology's foundational concerns - spirit possession - with one
of its most salient contemporary ones: materiality. The
contributors reopen the concept of possession in order to examine
the relationship between African religions in the Atlantic and the
economies that have historically shaped-and continue to shape-the
cultures that practice them. They explore the way spirit mediation
is framed both by material things-including plantations, the
Catholic church, the sea, and the telegraph-as well as the legacy
of slavery. In doing so, they offer a powerful new concept for
understanding the Atlantic world and its history, creation, and
deeply complex religious and political economy.
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