Department of Religion and Culture
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Browsing Department of Religion and Culture by Author "Britt, Brian M."
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- Biblical curses and the displacement of traditionBritt, Brian M. (Virginia Tech. University Libraries, 2011-12)Brian Britt discusses his book: Biblical Curses and the Displacement of Tradition. Brian Britt offers an intriguing perspective on curses as the focus of debates over the power, pleasure, and danger of words. Biblical authors transformed ancient Near Eastern curses against rival ethnic groups, disobedient ancestors, and the day of one’s own birth with great variety and ingenuity. Transformations of biblical curses proliferated in post-biblical history, even during periods of ‘secularization’. This study argues that biblical, early modern, and contemporary transformations of curses constitute displacements rather than replacements of earlier traditions. The crucial notion of displacement draws from Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, Nietzsche’s critical philosophy, and Benjamin’s engagement with textual tradition; it highlights not only manifest shifts but also many hidden continuities between cursing in biblical texts and cursing in such ‘secular’ domains as literature, law, politics, and philosophy. The tradition of biblical cursing—neither purely ‘religious’ nor purely ‘secular’—travels through these texts and contexts as it redefines verbal, human, and supernatural power.
- Death, Social Conflict, and the Barley Harvest in the Hebrew BibleBritt, Brian M. (Journal of Hebrew Scriptures , 2005)Some recent scholarship characterizes violent biblical narratives, such as the killing of Saul’s descendents in 2 Sam. 21, as evidence of ancient ritual sacrifice. Yet 2 Sam. 21 has more in common with Ruth 1 and Judith than with stories of sacrifice. By their common reference to the barley harvest, untimely deaths, famine, and social conflict, these texts represent reality through literary means. Drawing on René Girard’s theory of religion, I suggest how the narratives of 2 Sam. 21, Ruth 1, and Judith, as well as a set of narratives about sheepshearing, address social conflict as literary texts rather than as transparent windows onto ancient practice.
- The Highest Poverty: Monastic Rules and Form-of-Life [Book review]Britt, Brian M. (Journal of Religion, 2015-10-01)
- Psalm Recitation and Post-Secular Time: Augustine, the iPod, and Psalm 90Britt, Brian M. (The Whitestone Foundation, 2012)Psalm 90 accommodates multiple understandings and experiences of time, but its compositional coherence balances this diversity with unity. Practices of recitation, reading, and reflection on the Psalms accommodate this unity in diversity, naming but not resolving perennial questions about time. In the end what we have are complex selves, complex traditions, and complex texts interacting with each other. If there is any coherence in this complexity, it has to do with fictions and metaphors of coherence: spatial unity of the text, continuity of tradition, and unity of the self. Like all reading, the recitation of psalms is ultimately an aesthetic, subjective experience, though traditional instruction and ritual give this aesthetic a social dimension. As embodied recitation, the psalm affords an aesthetic not of private escape or disinterestedness but of embeddedness in history and social practice. The structure of Psalm 90, particularly with the framing repetition of terms “return” in vv. 3 and 13, along with the four imperatives in vv. 12-14 and the three jussives in vv. 14-17, lends the text unity without certain closure. Augustine’s Confessions contains abstract discussions of time, but this abstraction arises within a tradition of biblical reading and recitation. Secular philosophy, religious studies, and biblical scholarship commonly overlook biblical reading and recitation in Augustine’s thought and in biblical traditions more broadly. This oversight reflects a modern tendency to separate religion, typically construed as “faith” or belief, from the secular domains of reasoning on the one hand and aesthetics on the other. The modern reception of Psalm 90 splits in these two directions, one reading the text mostly as a meditation on human and divine time, and the other as an object for musical expression and enjoyment. The Psalms and their history, particularly traditions of recitation, resist both extremes of abstract thought and embodied desire. Beyond the false dichotomy of sacred and secular time, practices of recitation were always already post-secular.
- The Schmittian Messiah in Agamben's The Time That RemainsBritt, Brian M. (The University of Chicago Press, 2010)For Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Zitek the New Testament writings attributed to Paul have much to say on contemporary debates over politics and religious tradition. Taking the measure of this new intellectual trend calls for careful readings of books on the subject, among the most interesting of which is Agamben's The Time That Remains, a series of seminar lectures that explores the influence of Paul's letters on messianic thought. Here, Britt reveals that his primary concern is not Agamben's reading of Paul but his reading of Walter Benjamin as a Pauline thinker through the lens of Carl Schmitt's political theology. Agamben claims that Benjamin's writings on messianism can be shown, through a set of allusions and quotations, to depend directly on Paul's writings. He argues that Agamben misreads and misunderstands Benjamin's messianic thought, projecting a Schmittian model of religion onto Benjamin's conception of tradition.
- Secularism and the Question of the ‘Judeo-Christian'Britt, Brian M. (Relegere, 2012)This essay comments on the papers in this special issue, paying special attention to "Judaism," "Christianity," and "Judeo-Christian" in relation to discussions of secularism and civil religion. It attempts an explanation of why "Judeo-Christian" has become a term we take for granted, suggesting that the term derives from a tradition of naming and group identity that combines obvious and subtle expressions, habits, and patterns. Finally, it poses questions for further research into the meaning and use of the terms "Judeo-Christian" and "civil religion."
- Snapshots of Tradition: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in GeorgiaBritt, Brian M. (University of California Press, 1998-10)On the thirteenth of each month, from October 1990 until May 1994, Nancy Fowler appeared on the porch of a farmhouse in Conyers, Georgia, to deliver the message she had received from an apparition of the Virgin Mary. On apparition days, up to 80,000 people brought rosaries and cameras to the grounds of the farm. This essay analyzes the use of traditional religious discourse and modern technologies such as photography by participants in the Conyers gatherings. Participants have also employed electronic mail and electromagnetic wave measurements to verify and legitimate the monthly apparitions. My analysis suggests that Conyers brings together traditional Marian discourse and modern technology to create a dynamic and popular religious setting.