Book: Inventing Superstition

Open for discussion and exchange of views.
Caterpillar
Posts: 445
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 4:11 am

Book: Inventing Superstition

Unread post by Caterpillar »

Inventing Superstition: from the Hippocratics to the Christians (2004) by Dale Martin, Woolsey Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University.

http://www.yale.edu/religiousstudies/fa ... artin.html


This looks like an interesting book. Has anyone read it?


Preview of book:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Vx_Ivp ... q=&f=false


Editorial Reviews:

Martin calls upon the teachings of thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Galen, Hippocrates, Plotinus, and Porphyry as he defines nature and the divine, monotheism and polytheism, and earlier definitions of superstition. The book's peak is a wonderful discussion of Celsus's attacks on Christianity as impious and Origen's successful Christian response in Contra Celsum. The perfect mind opener for readers desiring a better understanding of the religious climate of antiquity.
--Gary P. Gillum (Library Journal 20041226)

Many ancients and moderns have seen religion as superstition, yet the world overflows with people who reject superstition generally yet accept it in the context of religion. Yale professor Martin explores the origins of that contradiction in perhaps the finest historical study ever of superstition and its delineation from religion.
--Carlin Romano (Philadelphia Inquirer 20050601)

Martin wrote this work partially to support his contention that, contrary to modern readings, "superstition" in Gr?co-Roman texts could not refer to belief in the supernatural, which was not a concept at the time. He maintains that reading discussions of superstition prior to the eighteenth century as references to the supernatural seriously misrepresents the thoughts of people using the term. His history and arguments in pursuit of this endeavor provide a wealth of data that can be mined and interpreted by scholars in classics as well as many other fields, including religious studies and folkloristics...Martin does an excellent job of highlighting the social tensions at play in discussions of superstition in antiquity. Particularly intriguing is Martin's discussion of how charges of superstition were traded between early Christians and their pagan opponents...Martin's work is one that anyone interested in worldview, vernacular religion, or the history of intellectual activities will find useful and engaging. He shows that many of the scholarly issues we grapple with today are hardly of new mint, but rather were literally millennia in the making. His deft analysis of the Pagan/Christian debates on superstition are particularly relevant at a time when new religions like Wicca and Neo-Paganism are forcing scholarship to reconsider basic assumptions about the nature of religion, belief, and worldview.
--Arie Lommel (Journal of Folklore Research )


Product Description

The Roman author Pliny the Younger characterizes Christianity as "contagious superstition"; two centuries later the Christian writer Eusebius vigorously denounces Greek and Roman religions as vain and impotent "superstitions." The term of abuse is the same, yet the two writers suggest entirely different things by "superstition."

Dale Martin provides the first detailed genealogy of the idea of superstition, its history over eight centuries, from classical Greece to the Christianized Roman Empire of the fourth century C.E. With illuminating reference to the writings of philosophers, historians, and medical teachers he demonstrates that the concept of superstition was invented by Greek intellectuals to condemn popular religious practices and beliefs, especially the belief that gods or other superhuman beings would harm people or cause disease. Tracing the social, political, and cultural influences that informed classical thinking about piety and superstition, nature and the divine, Inventing Superstition exposes the manipulation of the label of superstition in arguments between Greek and Roman intellectuals on the one hand and Christians on the other, and the purposeful alteration of the idea by Neoplatonic philosophers and Christian apologists in late antiquity.

Inventing Superstition weaves a powerfully coherent argument that will transform our understanding of religion in Greek and Roman culture and the wider ancient Mediterranean world.

http://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Superst ... 0674024079
Vanilla
Posts: 586
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:51 pm
Location: Rome, Italy

Re: Book: Inventing Superstition

Unread post by Vanilla »

No, but RSE is definitely superstitious.

The students all tell tales of levitating tarps, trucks that appeared on the field. The stories about JZ are even crazier that she cant have any disease, and scientists all over are fascinated with her..that Bill Clinton came to see her and she refused, trolls appear sitting on the field gate..
ex
Posts: 857
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:18 am

Re: Book: Inventing Superstition

Unread post by ex »

the best thing still is the 30000year old warier who only jz can see. diden't josef smith pulled a stunt like this? with the tablets only he could read?
Vanilla
Posts: 586
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:51 pm
Location: Rome, Italy

Re: Book: Inventing Superstition

Unread post by Vanilla »

Speaking of superstition, I heard that Kenny could see Ramtha's shadows about JZ speaking. That the more he does his discipline, he can now work in Ultraviolet, instead of just infrared..and that Ram said, Kenny would be the only student to see him.

I believed that, I heard it from someone who heard it from someone.

I also heard while everyone was on the field, Ram went to a tree and all these Military guys came down, that the military is so fascinated with us, they spy on us, in trees!
ex
Posts: 857
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:18 am

Re: Book: Inventing Superstition

Unread post by ex »

disguised as squirls?
Vanilla
Posts: 586
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:51 pm
Location: Rome, Italy

Re: Book: Inventing Superstition

Unread post by Vanilla »

You cant hide from RAMTHA
User avatar
Dove
Posts: 62
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 10:10 am

Re: Book: Inventing Superstition

Unread post by Dove »

I remember being on the field doing field work, blindfolded & hearing a military helicopter hovering above us. The general consensus from students was .... the military is watching us, they don't like change, they're worried about what we're learning in the school, you know becoming powerful & masterlike :oops: LOL, now I can guess they were hovering over the field having a good laugh at all of us ridiculous Ramsters hissing, stumbling around blindfolded & crashing into each other in our ridiculous cloaks LOL :lol:

Thanks for your posts Vanilla. I have enjoyed reading them. I left RSE 2 years ago. Finding this site was a Godsend, I couldn't believe it that other people had doubts like me, reading other people's experiences was fascinating and very healing for me.

It's great to have you here, hope you keep posting.
Another Dimension60
Posts: 291
Joined: Sun Jun 15, 2008 7:28 pm

Re: Book: Inventing Superstition

Unread post by Another Dimension60 »

ps - for posters who don't live in Yelm/area -- we're next to one of the largest military bases in the country - there are always helicopters and other aircraft flying about!
Perceiving the activities around us as ramtha related seems to be a consistent 'condition'/pattern- whether it be hovering helicopters or some synchronistic event in our life.... We attributed every 'good' thing to ramtha, and every 'bad' thing to our inadequacy.....
Vanilla
Posts: 586
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:51 pm
Location: Rome, Italy

Re: Book: Inventing Superstition

Unread post by Vanilla »

:sad: We attributed every 'good' thing to ramtha, and every 'bad' thing to our inadequacy.....

Well said.
Post Reply

Return to “Tips, Links and Book Reviews”