Agentive Names and Posthuman Ontologies: Onomastic Invocations of the "More-than-Human" in Early Christian and Medieval Tibetan Artifacts
In recent years, posthumanist arguments regarding ontology and agency have played a significant role in reshaping the contours of the so-called humanities. Whereas this reshaping has focused heavily on the impact of technology (e.g., artificial intelligence) on the meaning of "being human,"...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2023
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| In: |
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Year: 2023, Volume: 91, Issue: 2, Pages: 430-448 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In recent years, posthumanist arguments regarding ontology and agency have played a significant role in reshaping the contours of the so-called humanities. Whereas this reshaping has focused heavily on the impact of technology (e.g., artificial intelligence) on the meaning of "being human," as well as on the agency of nonhuman others (e.g., nonhuman animals), typically invisible beings (e.g., gods, spirits) have received significantly less attention. This article addresses this lacuna through a close and comparative study of the role of the invocation of particular divine names in the canonical Acts of the Apostles and a tenth-century Tibetan spellbook. After examining how each text presents the onomastic invocation of divinities as an efficacious method, under certain conditions, for accomplishing particular goals, this article elucidates how such texts both challenge posthumanist thinkers to articulate much more robust accounts of agency and ontology while also providing a means of doing so. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4585 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfad083 |