{"id":2050,"date":"2010-11-29T17:21:05","date_gmt":"2010-11-30T00:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2050"},"modified":"2010-12-01T15:09:09","modified_gmt":"2010-12-01T22:09:09","slug":"idolatry-as-a-category-in-pagan-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2050","title":{"rendered":"Idolatry as a Category in Pagan Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have spent all afternoon squeezing out a thousand words on the topic of idolatry, a sort of cross between an encyclopedia entry and a summary of four essays appearing in the upcoming issue of The Pomegranate<\/a><\/em> <\/a>(which is almost finished, thanks be!).<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/a>

Michael York<\/p><\/div>\n

In a paper given during one of the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group’s sessions during the 2009 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Michael York summed up the issue:<\/p>\n

The corporeal spirituality that distinguishes Pagan religiosity from the approaches of other religions supports both idolatry or the adoration of physical images and a love of nature that merges into veneration as well as efforts towards ecological restoration as a sacred mandate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That paper, slightly revised, will appear in the forthcoming issue.<\/p>\n

There is a bit of tension between those practitioner-scholars who want to reclaim and redefine the word, in the same manner as “witch,” “pagan,” and so forth.<\/p>\n

Others, such as Amy Whitehead, a PhD candidate at The Open University who published on the topic two years ago in Pomegranate<\/em><\/a>, think that trying to reclaim the word is a tactical error\u2014and also that it fails as a discursive category:<\/p>\n

[Idolatry is] one of the most loaded and problematic terms in contemporary Western discourses and … is continually understood (and misunderstood) in Abrahamic and modern discursive contexts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She likes “materiality” as a neutral substitute. “Material sacrality” has also been used. Both differ from any discussion of material culture within a religious tradition, since here we are talking about objects\u2014or nonhuman nature\u2014that serve as “windows” into sacred dimensions.<\/p>\n

Speaking of tactical errors, I now think that we on the Contemporary Pagan Studies steering committee made one last year. We were so happy with the lively discussion and attendance at our idolatry session that we scheduled an immediate follow-up\u2014a panel discussion\u2014at this year’s AAR meeting a month ago.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this year’s session was more uneven. One presenter had to cancel for medical reasons, which further diminished it.\u00a0 Now I think that when you have a great session and want a follow-up, you should wait at least two years for people to reflect and write and build up new material.<\/p>\n

Since I have just agreed to serve a term as co-chair of Pagan Studies<\/a>, I can have more say in how sessions are planned, and hence enthusiasm will be tempered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have spent all afternoon squeezing out a thousand words on the topic of idolatry, a sort of cross between an encyclopedia entry and a summary of four essays appearing in the upcoming issue of The Pomegranate (which is almost finished, thanks be!). In a paper given during one of the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-2050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-scholarship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-x4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2405,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2405","url_meta":{"origin":2050,"position":0},"title":"The Pomegranate 12:1","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I have let weeks go by without mentioning the latest issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies! Here is the table of contents. All book reviews and article abstracts are free. Articles \"Franz S\u00e4ttler (Dr. Musallam) and the Twentieth-Century Cult of Adonism\" Hans Thomas Hakl \"Walk Like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"scholarship\"","block_context":{"text":"scholarship","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=scholarship"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1244,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1244","url_meta":{"origin":2050,"position":1},"title":"Contemporary Pagan Studies in the New York Times","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The upcoming sessions of the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group at the American Academy of Religion's annual meeting are mentioned in the New York Times.Some of us have been joking about \"the I-word\" (idolatry). I wondered if that would catch some journalist's interest.","rel":"","context":"In \"Canada\"","block_context":{"text":"Canada","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=canada"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7450,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7450","url_meta":{"origin":2050,"position":2},"title":"Khalid al-Asaad and the War on Pagan Idolatry","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Wouter Hanegraaff, professsor of Western esotericism at the University of Amsterdam, has written a moving blog post on larger implications of the death of Khalid al-Asaad, the Syrian archaeologist recently beheaded by the Muslim fighters of the so-called Islamic State. (He was a Muslim too, of course.) We are told\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6519,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6519","url_meta":{"origin":2050,"position":3},"title":"Around the Blogosphere: A Pagan Cat, Multiple Souls, and Idolatry","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 \"I don't want to be rude, but what religion are you?\" A Pagan pet's name produces confusion at the veterinary clinic. \u00b6\u00a0\u00a0 \"The Three\/Four Souls and Their Afterlives.\" Heather at Eaarth Animist\u00a0looks at different traditional accounts to learn what might explain her own experiences: \"It has baffled many Western\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"animals\"","block_context":{"text":"animals","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=animals"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1260,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1260","url_meta":{"origin":2050,"position":4},"title":"Pagan Studies Call for Papers, AAR 2010","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This post is for anyone who has not already seen the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group's call for papers for next year's AAR meeting in Atlanta posted on some e-list or other.For details on paper submission, see the AAR's page for that meeting. Note that some information will not be posted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"scholarship\"","block_context":{"text":"scholarship","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=scholarship"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3475,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3475","url_meta":{"origin":2050,"position":5},"title":"The I-word: Idolatry","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Two years ago at the American Academy of Religion, we had a Pagan Studies session with \"idolatry\" in the title. Sessions are described by posters on easels outside the meeting rooms, and I heard a few snickers from people passing in the corridor. Inside the room, people were talking about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2050"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2068,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050\/revisions\/2068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}