Wilderness in mythology and religion
Subtitle: approaching religious spatialities, cosmologies, and ideas of wild nature
By: edited by Laura Feldt
Series: Religion and society -- v. 55; Religion and society (Hague, Netherlands) -- v. 55.
Publisher: De Gruyter
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 341
ISBN-13: 9781614512240; 9781614511724; 9781614511731
Subjects: Wildnis; Nature; Religious aspects; Wilderness areas; Cosmology; Religion; Sacred space; Mytologi
Description: Wilderness mythology is one of the most abiding creations in the history of religions, and yet it has not previously been subject to scrutiny or theorizing from a cross-cultural, "study-of-religions perspective". This book addresses the need for cross-cultural anthropological and history of religions analyses by offering in-depth case studies of the use and functions of wilderness spaces in diverse religions. It offers new theoretical perspectives on the study of religious spatialities, cosmologies, and ideas of wild nature that challenge previous dichotomizing approaches.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Wilderness in mythology and religion  -- Laura Feldt; title: Greek demons of the wilderness: the case of the centaurs  -- Jan N. Bremmer; title: Wilderness and Hebrew Bible religion: fertility, apostasy and religious transformation in the Pentateuch  -- Laura Feldt; title: "The mountain, a desert place": spatial categories and mythical landscapes in the Secret book of John  -- Ingvild Sælid Gilhus; title: "The truth is out there": primordial lore and ignorance in the wilderness of Athanasius' Vita Antonii  -- Dag Øistein Endsjø; title: Wilderness as a necessary feature in Hindu religion  -- Marianne C. Qvortrup Fibiger; title: Notes on the Qurʼānic wilderness, and its absence  -- Thomas Hoffmann; title: Wilderness, liminality, and the other in Old Norse myth and cosmology  -- Jens Peter Schjødt; title: Making a garden out of the wilderness: landscape, dwelling and personhood in the encounter between European settlers and the Mi'kmaq in "New France"  -- Anne-Christine Hornborg; title: William Robertson Smith on the wilderness  -- Robert A. Segal; title: The taiga within: topography and personhood in northern Mongolia  -- Morten Axel Pedersen; title: Ritual is etiquette in the larger than human world: the two wildernesses of contemporary eco-paganism  -- Graham Harvey; title: Wilderness, spirituality and biodiversity in North America: tracing an environmental history from Occidental roots to Earth Day -- Bron Taylor.