Gods and Demons, Priests and Scholars
Critical Explorations in the History of Religions
Bruce Lincoln is one of the most prominent advocates within religious studies for an uncompromisingly critical approach to the phenomenon of religion—historians of religions, he believes, should resist the preferred narratives and self-understanding of religions themselves, especially when their stories are endowed with sacred origins and authority. In Gods and Demons, Priests and Scholars, Lincoln assembles a collection of essays that both illustrates and reveals the benefits of his methodology, making a case for a critical religious studies that starts with skepticism but is neither cynical nor crude.
“Bruce Lincoln is a rara avis. His combination of precise technical analysis of ancient religious texts, allied to a grand, comparative vision of religion in society, past and present, informs a reflection, at once anxious and radical, anchored in the predicament of our own times. This combination produces a humanistic approach, devoid of grandiloquence, and this strikingly original book will be of great importance to all students of ancient religions and to historians of religion in general.”
“Bruce Lincoln has a gift for selecting persuasive examples, engaging them with creativity, and linking them to broader themes and scholarly debates. His cogent and provocative arguments in this book range across the scope of religious history, from the ancient world to twentieth-century Latin America, and engage with a number of significant topics, including religious violence, nationalism, definitions of religion, and religious innovation. Eminently teachable, Gods and Demons, Priests and Scholars is a book that invites critical analysis and reflection and will be a valuable addition to discussions about theory and method in the study of the history of religions.”
Theses on Method
CHAPTER TWO
How to Read a Religious Text
CHAPTER THREE
Nature and Genesis of Pantheons
CHAPTER FOUR
The Cosmo-logic of Persian Demonology
CHAPTER FIVE
Anomaly, Science, and Religion
CHAPTER SIX
Between History and Myth
CHAPTER SEVEN
Poetic, Royal, and Female Discourse
CHAPTER EIGHT
Ancient and Post-Ancient Religions
CHAPTER NINE
Sanctified Violence
CHAPTER TEN
Religious and Other Conflicts in Twentieth-Century Guatemala
CHAPTER ELEVEN
In Praise of the Chaotic
CHAPTER TWELVE
Theses on Comparison
with Cristiano Grottanelli
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The (Un)discipline of Religious Studies
Notes
Bibliography
Index
History: Ancient and Classical History
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