Review of Anthropology and Philosophy of the Sacrum
RAPHISA, journal of Anthropology and Philosophy of the Sacrum is a journal edited by the research groups: HUM 394 of the University of Málaga, and HUM 925 of the University of Seville. In its printed version it is published by Thémata publishing house in Seville (Spain). It is a biannual journal of research, reflection and dialogue on culture, anthropology, philosophy and religion in the field of the Three Cultures of the Mediterranean and East Asia, aimed at the exchange between academics. It invites all scholars in these fields to submit original texts for review and publication. RAPHISA publishes only original and unpublished articles; its official languages are Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German and English and it is structured in six sections - not all of which will be present in all issues:I. STUDIES; II. NOTES; III. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REVIEWS; IV. REPORTS; V. TRANSLATIONS; VI. CREATION; VII. INTERVIEWS; VIII. OBITUARY. The reception of articles is open all year round. Issues close on September 1st and April 1st. Issues are published in June and December in order to comply with the indicated periodicity. If in an exceptional case, RAPHISA, delay the publication of the selected articles to a later issue, authors would be informed. ISSN-L: 2530-1233 Legal deposit: SE 1467-2016
License permitted by the journal: Public Domain. Authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights without restrictions.
María Eugenia Manrique (2024). Mano de mujer. Método y arte de la caligrafía japonesa. Barcelona: Kairós.
Copyright (c) 2024 Review of Anthropology and Philosophy of the Sacrum https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
El Descenso del Logos y la belleza en el pensamiento estético de Johann Georg Hamann
This paper aims to provide a first approach to the aesthetic thought of the theologian Johann Georg Hamann, starting with the recognition of figures contrary to his philosophical ideas—those thinkers who left an imprint on Hamann’s philosophy. The main reference point for this exploration is his principal work: “Aesthetica in nuce. A Rhapsody in Cabbalistic Prose”, along with the analysis and interpretations of the philosopher Hans Urs von Balthasar in his work on aesthetic theology, “Gloria.” This approach helps identify the key concepts in Hamann’s aesthetic thought. It serves as a prelude to the issues revealed in the relationship between beauty and the Descent of the Logos proposed by the German theologian.
Japanese Buddhist monk Ikkyū’s life and poetry: a goliardic invective against the clergy and a soteriological sublimation of sex
This article attempts to show how the Japanese Buddhist monk Ikkyū Sōjun (1394-1481) uses poetry to criticize the moral corruption of his fellow Zen members in the turbulent last years of Japan’s Muromachi period and to display sex as a worldly tool to reach enlightenment. First of all, we shall explain the historical background that led to the emergence of a critical voice such as Ikkyū’s, and thereupon we shall explore some excerpts of his work, especially passages from the poetic collection Kyōunshū, in order to illustrate the denunciation of the clergy and the sublimation of carnal knowledge.
Therapists as a Jewish Monastic Philosophical Community in Current Historiography.
Abstract: After a long historical period in which De vita contemplativa was considered a work dedicated to Christian asceticism, embodied in the community of the Therapeutae of Alexandria, historical research managed to dismantle this stubbornly maintained fiction, and to situate this congregation in the Jewish sphere to which it belongs. Even the doubts about the authorship of the work have gradually turned into certainties, and scholars no longer doubt that Philo is the creator of this remarkable treatise, which describes for the first and only time the daily life of a philosophical group in antiquity. In recent decades, De vita contemplativa has continued to be the object of interest and analysis for numerous researchers who have been able to provide different approaches to its purpose and significance, as we shall see in this article, for despite its brevity, the work has the quality of being very rich in meanings and consequently in interpretations.
Palabras clave: terapeutas, De vita contemplativa, Filón de Alejandría, judío.
The representation of empty space as a return to the origin
Nothingness and emptiness are concepts that we can recognize as fundamental in Eastern philosophy, however, unlike the conceptions adopted in the West, in ancient Chinese thought –emphasizing Daoism (??)– nothing was not thought as something with an ontological character, but as an indefinable previous state. In a similar way, empty space manifested itself in the arts as the representation of the place where changes and transformations of reality occurred, pointing to the ideal of the artist in allowing himself to flow during the creative process. In this way the absence was made present, approaching the origin of all things.
Copyright (c) 2022 Review of Anthropology and Philosophy of the Sacrum
Elements for a semiotic reading of the Islamic ṣalāt
This paper is an aesthetic-semiotic reading of the Islamic ṣalāt. Often considered as prayer due to the influence of intellectual colonialization, several current works have questioned this definition. This paper aims to show this practice from an aesthetic, ethnoscenological and semiotic perspective to highlight other anthropological elements of the performance such as energetic transfers, the link with nature or the deep use of the senses.
Trascendencia, naturaleza y tradición. Filosofías y modelos de pensamiento al sur del Sahara. Antonio de Diego González (Ed.)
Copyright (c) 2023 Review of Anthropology and Philosophy of the Sacrum https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The eco-spirituality of Michel Maxime Egger: a Trinitarian and panentheistic metanoia
In recent years, interest has grown -both in academia and in different forms of environmental, social and political activism- in the phenomenon of the spiritualization of ecology and the greening of religion. In a French-speaking context, ecospirituality has become a topic addressed by studies in contemporary theology, as well as in sociological and anthropological research. This article analyzes the theological implications of the concept of ecospirituality developed by Michel Maxime Egger. For this, the main epistemological and ontological bases on which this concept is based will be briefly addressed: Raimon Panikkar's trinity, the mystical theology of the fathers of the Orthodox Church, pantheism and ecopsychology.
Pilgrims and Converts. Researcher(s) of Afro-Religious Phenomenon in Colombia: A Neccesary Theoretical-Methodological Discussion
This paper is the result of theoretical-methodological considerations about the study of religious phenomenon. More specifically, I interested in the research of Afro-inspired religious systems in Colombia; the argument emphasizes several contradictory and tense situations for ethnographers-researchers, who are involved in academic world and in their fieldwork. Thus, these problematic situations are derived, for instance, from the same research topic, the theoretical-methodological approaches, and the narrative form or kind of writing selected by the researchers. Scholars of religious phenomena are seen by their peers suspiciously, and it is a consequence of an ancient controversy within the social science that persists in opposing issues such as objectivity/subjectivity, science/religion or thrut/belief. Finally, these discussions involve an ethical challenge to the way of doing research about these sociocultural dynamics that become relevant in Colombia, and the contemporary world.
Islamophobia, blackness, gender and misogynoir: living on the margins of social invisibilisation
Islamophobia towards Black African and Afrodescendent communities is difficult to address due to orientalism and processes of stereotyping what is imagined to be a Muslim person as well as the racialisation of a spiritual status. This negative and reductionist perception of Islam and of Muslims as a homogenous and monolithic entity reinforces and configures power dynamics. In the Spanish state orientalism reduces the Muslim person to the ‘Arab’ subject, racialising a religious identity due to the fear and terror held towards particular historic and structural races, encouraging a social racist signaling that surveils and follows. This has erased other communities who also are subject to Islamophobia and who are not included in the canon of the othering of ‘Arabs’. This article holds a clearer notion of the reality of Muslims, allowing for an improved identification of Islamophobia in Spain.
Copyright (c) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Richard Shusterman (2021). Ars Erotica: Sex and Somaesthetics in the Classical Arts of Love. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Reseña Richard Shusterman (2021). Ars Erotica: Sex and Somaesthetics in the Classical Arts of Love. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
What is the so-called “mystique sauvage”?
In this article, I intend to show that the concept of wild mysticism (mystique sauvage) as it was developed by Michel Hulin—in a book published exactly thirty years ago—points to a key dimension of the religious phenomenon that must be taken into account by the disciplines dedicated to its study (philosophy, theology, anthropology, etc.), especially if the question studied is what we call “mysticism” (or “contemplation”). I also try to show that Hulin uses the concept of wild (or sauvage) in three interrelated senses: the psychological (the one that opens all this reflection), the existential and the hermeneutic. On this basis, I finally argue that Hulin's contribution justifies a broader reflection on the concept of wild (sauvage) in mysticism that extends to considerations about a certain type of religious conversion and about the idea of grace as divine spontaneity and event, addressed here in the context of Christian mysticism.
interpretation of the mystical experience
Confucianism and Shamanism in the middle Koryŏ period: dynamics of a clash
This article analyzes the situation of Korean folk native religion, commonly described by the umbrella term "shamanism," during the middle and second part of the Koryŏ period. The study attempts to expand and correct some basic assumptions of the work of Lee Seog-Ju (2010), who described the dialectic existing between the Confucian elite, the royal house, Buddhism and shamanism in the Koryŏ, correcting as mentioned some of the author's historical assumptions. Specifically, consideration will be given to: the pervasiveness of the doctrine in the external help of bodhisattvas in medieval Korea as noted by Yung Sung-chan (2016); the existence of syncretism between Confucian and Buddhist doctrines, noted by Kim Jongmyung (2016) and Vermeersch (2020); the syncretic nature of shamanism in relation to Buddhism, noted by multiple authors such as Grayson (1992) and McBride (2007); and finally, the importance of shamanism in pre-existing national rituals such as the Assembly of Eight Prohibitions, emphasized by Vermeersch (2007). The thesis of this article is demonstrate how the clash with shamanism by Koryŏ Confucian intellectuals was due not so much to a supposed deviation from Confucian orthodoxy by the native religion, but to its non-adherence to the canons of the rituals of State Buddhism. The paper will proceed according to the following pattern: first, the society of the Koryŏ kingdom will be briefly analyzed in its religious, cultural, social and political aspects, then a description of the relationship between the two actors in the field, namely shamanism and Confucianism in relation to Buddhism, will be given, and finally the conclusions of the study will be provided.
Religión, Discriminación, Inclusión y Liberación en Corea. Eun Kyung Kang y Antonio J. Doménech (eds.)
Religious Thought in Korea as a Path (dao) of Inclusion and Liberation
This article takes a journey through the history of the Korean Peninsula through the paths traveled by the main religious traditions present in it. We will analyze the role they have had in the way of understanding social relations and the creation of mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion within Korean society. The interrelationships established between them are a factor that has contributed to the progress of society and that different groups were accepted or rejected throughout history. We study how the thinking of these religious traditions and the way of understanding them has promoted or hindered the processes of inclusion and liberation throughout the different stages of Korean history.
Considerations on the biblical notion of Jehoiakimah-Sophia
This article defends a vision of biblical Wisdom as an intellectual and noetic reality. To this end, several quotations from wisdom books are argued and the derivations and transformations that Wisdom has undergone in its historical trajectory are alluded to. historical trajectory. Special reference is made to the influence influence it has had on Shi'i anthropology. As a consequence of all this a philosophical reading of the Wisdom of Solomon is defended.
The Historiographical Debate around the Nobi System
There is currently a debate surrounding the nature of the nobi system throughout Korean history. We can find historians who define the nobi system as a system of slavery and the nobi as slaves, and historians who prefer to define it as a system of serfdom and the nobi as serfs. This article exposes the interpretation that the American historian James B. Palais offered about the nobi system in the Joseon dynasty of Korea based on his intellectual production, placing greater emphasis on the interpretation offered in his work Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions: Yu Hyongwon and the Late Choson Dynasty, as well as exposing the intellectual influences that motivated this interpretation by Palais. Palais's interpretation of the nobi system would revive the debate surrounding the nature of the nobi system and lay the foundation for the interpretation of the nobi system for future historians of Korea.
World-making and making ourselves in the world through aesthetic experience
Due to the quest for objectivity and universality of philosophical aesthetics as an academic discipline, aesthetic experience has been confronted with everyday life, losing the enrichment of a context and its relation to moral and cultural values and utility. As a consequence, the lack of recognition of these values by the academic discipline has led to a fragmentation of aesthetic experience that has resulted in ignorance of the role aesthetics plays in everyday life. In the following paper, the need to reconcile aesthetic experience with everyday life will be presented through Yuriko Saito's concept of world-making, which is an understanding of the world as a common project to which we all contribute through the choices we make in relation to aesthetic experience. On the other hand, it will also try to show why becoming aware of the place of aesthetic experience in everyday life would help to understand the relationship we have with the world, as a consequence of aesthetic experience, through our action; and how, ultimately, the impact of our action on the world reverts on ourselves because the world is the sustenance of our opportunities, and ultimately, of our life.
Christovao Ferreira (2021). La superchería al descubierto. Navarra: Laetoli
Reseña del tratado anticristiano elaborado por el apóstata portugués Christovão Ferreira a partir de la edición anotada y prologada por Bernat Castany Prado.
Koizumi Yakumo: Spanish Translation of "The eater of dreams"
"The Eater of Dreams" is a short story by Lafcadio Hearn, also known as Koizumi Yakumo, published in 1903 in Kott?, a collection of legends from Japanese folklore compiled from oral sources and traditional books. Here, Hearn introduces us to the creature known as the Bakú, a mythological being created by the gods using leftover parts from other animals after the Creation. Its origin can be traced back to China, where it was believed to feed on evil spirits. Upon arriving in Japan, it maintained this role, gradually transforming into a malevolent dream devourer, protecting dreamers from misfortune. The Bakú is a yokai that has left a clear imprint on Japanese culture; lullabies are still sung about it before bedtime, and carved amulets featuring its figure can be found. Without further ado, we present this remarkable story by Hearn, whose purpose was to introduce Western readers to the sacredness of the Bakú, its relevance and influence in everyday Japanese life, and the deep spiritual connection between the Japanese and gods, spirits, and supernatural beings.
Copyright (c) 2018 Review of Anthropology and Philosophy of the Sacrum
THE IMAGO TEMPLI OF THE INVISIBLE CHURCH: IDEALISM AND ABSTRACT ART.
Two events, apparently distant one from the other and without any direct link between them, but nevertheless strictly connected by a common spiritual legacy, constitute the subject of this paper. The first one, took place in 1971, when a very special «ecumenical chapel» opened its doors to the public. It is known under the name of «Rothko Chapel», due to the general project, undertaken by the painter Mark Rothko. Since that time, it has become one of the most precious artworks that represent the contemporary religious aesthetics. The black Rothko’s paintings, the Greek-cross building designed by the architect Philip Johnson, the Broken Obelisk of the artist Barnett Newman standing right out of the Chapel and the music composed for this ambient by the composer Morton Feldman, have replaced what traditionally has been called an «imago templi»; but contrary to all Christian tradition they represent (literally) no-thing. The second event, took place in 1795, when two young friends, Hegel and Schelling, were making a kind of oath under the sign of an Invisible Church, actualizing an ambiguous concept that, even if rooted in the Holy Scriptures, it had been condemned for its consequences as heretical. The relationship between these two events is given by contemporary art historians which have established that modern abstract painting, from a formal point of view, is rooted in the Romantic tradition. With this paper I would like to contribute to the establishment of this connection, not only by formal means, but by showing a common spiritual attitude towards images. Christianity, essentially figurative in its religious aesthetics, has always had to deal with the Jewish prohibition of image-making. This difficulty has been inherited to contemporary debates in which artist with classical readings and education, often of Jewish origins but active in Christian societies, try to create a new kind of art, above all traditions and free of dogmas. According to my suggestion, Rothko Chapel should be considered as the realization of a fragile balance in which both «aniconism» and «need of images» have simultaneously sublated their one-sidedness, producing a higher spiritual stage. Thus, such a chapel would not be a simple space where all religions could only meet and undertake a dialog, but should be considered as something more surprising: a unique realization of what logically appears as a pure contradiction: the realization of an Imago Templi for an Invisible Church.
Copyright (c) 2018 REVISTA DE ANTROPOLOGÍA Y FILOSOFÍA DE LO SAGRADO
THE PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE OF THE FRENCH CIVIL CODE OF 1804: THE CONSTITUTION OF A «RELIGIO CIVILIS»
Abstract: The preface to the French Civil Code of 1804 announced a New Order based on Right Reason and the political-legal values of the French Revolution, in an attempt to replace the role which churches had traditionally played in the morality of society. Moreover, the new civil law was presented as a substitute for moral law and religion with the aim of taking their place in that burgeoning society. One-dimensional law came into being in order to regulate all aspects of life and was ultimately to do away with the sin/crime dichotomy..
The village of the therapeutai of Alexandria: Houses and other constructions
Philo in the treatise De vita contemplativa tells us about the daily life of a philosophical Jewish community composed of men and women, who live in retirement in a village on the outskirts of Alexandria, next to Lake Mareotis: the Therapeutai. In this article we intend to analyze the buildings of the mareotic village, the type of constructions that housed this congregation, its characteristics and its possible location. This study will provide us with a better understanding of the environment in which the Alexandrian Therapeutai developed their contemplative and philosophical activity, and the relationship of these buildings with their ascetic and philosophical vocation.
Norito, translation and analysis of the Japanese shinto prayers
'Norito, traducción y análisis de las plegarias sintoístas japonesas' contemplates the study of the prayers that so faithfully represent the spirit of Shinto 'the Way of kami', the religion of the County of the Rising Sun; through a drtailed translation in Spanish of four of them. That way, they can be easily read while serving as a vehicle to begin to understand Japanese spirituality. The norito are amazing pieces of Japanese literature, designed to be recited and sung in honor of the divinity to which they are adressed, often even in the name of the Emperor himself during the great festivities, so that they reach both the heart of the officiant and that of the kami. It will means all kind of blessings for the Japanese people, the 'sons of the Great Deity' and that at the same time allows, without a doubt, that there is a relationshipof such intimate coexistence with the Nature of the Japanese islands.
Cultural Synonymy: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective on Comprehending Sacred Spaces
This study explores how people with different cultural backgrounds comprehend diverse sacred spaces all over the world, from a cross-linguistic perspective. The challenges surrounding intelligibility relate to spatial resemblance, complexity of religion, as well as many obscure proper names. With the lexicalization of relevant religious concepts, “cultural synonyms” are generated. Through surveying the vocabulary within the domain of “TEMPLE” as an exemplification, the cultural synonymy of the Chinese lexicon in demonstrating spiritual intricacy has been elucidated. Based on the theory of “multi-competence”, a reasonable hypothesis on cross-culturally understanding the sacred space is proposed: Multicompetent individuals can have other comprehensions about sacred spaces when compared with monolinguals of either the native or the target language; A monolingual or a cross-cultural experiencer without knowledge of the regional language depends on translation to apprehend the sacred space, which may result in confusion; Deficient translations may also interfere with multicompetent individuals, while their linguistic awareness allows them more chances of differentiating cultural synonyms and accordingly clarification of any misguided perceptions.
The "accommodation policy" of the Society of Jesus in the Ming Dinasty: The first cultural communications between Europe and China
The "policy of adaptation" was a peaceful way of spreading the doctrines of God. However, that strategy was not supported by all the missionaries in the East. In the specific case of China, Catholic Evangelization encountered enormous difficulties in the initial stage of the process. The main reasons of those difficulties were the uniqueness of Chinese culture and mentality and the complexity of ideological diffusion in such an immense country - a country with an absolutely centrist power. It should be also noted that the Jesuit missionaries who arrived in the land of Ming played a pioneering role in the scientific communication between China and the West.
Nature as a sacred place of taoist philosophy. Its presence in Classical literary words and commonly used Chinese linguistic expressions
The sacred character that according to Taoist way of thinking is given to nature is the central axis of this investigation. We analyze the context in which this philosophy was developed and we present some of its fundamental principles, all this will be useful to understand how the sacralization process took place. We deal with all this in relation to paradigmatic cases of classical literature through allusions to nature and certain Chinese linguistic expressions of a Taoist nature that we also explain throughout our presentation.
The art of traditional Chinese gardens is based on the rigorous and intelligent composition of architectural and natural elements in order to create a beautiful environment which integrates the different artistic disciplines harmoniously. Culture is the most important pillar that supports the conceptual basis of these gardens. Thus, it is reflected in the general design of the garden as much as in the details of the elements that shape them. We can say that traditional gardens hold within themselves all the millenary wisdom and culture of the Chinese people. In this article we will analyze the traditional Chinese garden through the cultural exposures about the conception of the cosmos, the basis of harmony between man and nature, the occultation, and the symbolism of the different elements of the garden.
Courtesy expressions in Mandarin Chinese and Peninsular Spanish: Intercultural analysis
From a pragmalinguistic and linguo-cultural perspective, this paper aims to analyse the strategies and expressions of courtesy in Chinese and Spanish in various daily communicative contexts. To this effect, it carries out a contrastive description of the linguistic performance in different speech acts, such as greeting, making and receiving visits, apologizing, thanking, and saying farewell. First of all, it examines different definitions of “courtesy” in Spanish and Chinese. Then it introduces some key concepts related to verbal politeness, including face, mianzi (??), high/low context culture, etc. After that, it focuses on analyzing in depth the linguistic forms of courtesy in various contexts in Chinese and peninsular Spanish. Lastly, it presents the main conclusions, pointing out the similarities and differences in the employment of verbal politeness between these two languages, as well as the possible peculiarities of courtesy expressions in different regions of the same country.
Copyright (c) 2021 Review of Anthropology and Philosophy of the Sacrum
SHINTO: A DOORWAY THROUGH JAPANESE CULTURE AND AN APPROACH TO JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY
The article introduces one of the ways of approach and a visualization door of Japanese culture knowing its methods and customs. One of our objectives is to show how Shinto intervenes in a reliable and practical way within the customs and culture of Japanese society, and how it has transcended from its most remote origins to the most contemporary news in that society and how it has been extrapolated to other cultures to reach deeper knowledge about them. Our article points out how a religion can enter or remain outside the limits that are marked by a society with deep roots in the mythology that makes them up.
The influence of Taosim and Buddhism on Chinese landscape poetry: The cases of Tao Yuanming, Wang Wei y Feng Zhi
This article analyses the relationship between poetry and nature through Chinese landscape poetry. The study focuses on three Chinese poets from three different periods of Chinese history: Tao Yuanming, Wang Wei and Feng Zhi. Through the poet Tao Yuanming, the influence of Taoism on landscape poetry, the influence of Buddhism on Wang Wei's poetry and the influence of both Taoism and Buddhism and modern European thought on Feng Zhi's poetry are analysed. In short, this article aims to highlight respect for nature in Chinese poetry, both in classical and modern poetry.