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Mellon Fellows |
Project
Andreas Andreopoulos Courses: The
Symbol, the Icon and the Body (Fall) Closer consideration of iconography from the Comnenian and Paleologian periods, as well as the theology of the divine light, starting with Symeon the New Theologian and culminating with Gregory Palamas in the 14th century, grounds this study. In the 14th century, Transfiguration iconography undergoes a dramatic change characterized by three things: emergence of the complex “hesychastic” mandorla, which consists of a concave square and rhombus inside a circle; the triple representation of Thabor; and the overall tone of the synthesis, quite different from the earlier 10th and 11th century icons. Ultimately, hesychastic Transfiguration iconography will be explored as one of the most striking expressions of the theology of the spiritual senses, the energies of God and the experience of the Uncreated Light, and the paramount expression of faith-as-experience in sacred art. |
Andreas Andreopoulos |
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Project
Michael
D. Bailey Courses : Magic
and Witchcraft (Fall) The concept of superstition has always been a key component in debates about the nature and meaning of belief in human cultures. Religious, philosophical, and scientific authorities have condemned as superstitious those beliefs that have challenged, opposed, or simply not conformed to their doctrines. Such a characterization carries with it a simultaneous connotation of power and illegitimacy, importance and irrationality. Hence, in most contexts, the concept remained ambiguous. Over time, the notion of what exactly counts as superstition has shifted. Dr. Bailey explores this process of defining superstition, the concerns driving this process, and the underlying cultural conditions that informed these concerns. He takes as his case study Western Europe in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, a period literally plagued by the plague, famine, war, and religious schism. Given this historical context, it is by no means surprising that a crisis of belief and widespread superstition emerged. Those concerned were largely clerical authorities who directed their efforts to the common, or “illiterate,” classes. As a result, the former produced a number of treatises "de superstitionibus" to explain the current perceived surge in superstition. Focusing on these texts, Dr. Bailey's work sheds new light on late-medieval religious beliefs among the clerical elite and other classes of medieval society. He will also investigate how concepts of superstition may have fed into the later phenomenon of witch-hunting and contributed to other, even more long-term developments in basic western structures of belief. |
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| Project PhD 1999, Duke University Field: Music (Composition) Courses: Music
and Christian Worship(Fall) What is the nature of the relationship between music and faith? In this research, Dr. Boquiren will extend the dialogue on Belief beyond the material text and into the realm of the aural and experiential. To do so, he will compose a musical work Misang Walang Salita (Mass Without Words), which encourages listeners and performers to reconsider commonly held assumptions regarding the practice of faith and the experience of music. The musical composition in question is not intended to be performed in an actual religious service. Dr. Boquiren therefore is also faced with the challenge of conveying notions of faith and spirituality. Inherent to both faith and music are belief systems that span from being individually held to being institutionally and communally maintained. The tension between these two polarities and the range of beliefs within the continuum they form provide ample and interesting subject matter for analysis. By aurally suggesting and referencing sacred and spiritual notions through musical means, Mass Without Words, becomes a catalyst for the critical reconsideration of individually held as well as communally maintained beliefs on the dynamic and arguably synergistic relationship between music and faith. |
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Project Yaakov
A. Mascetti Courses: Francis
Bacon and the Interpretation of Nature (Fall) The contemplation of nature entailed, for men of the 17th century, the investigation into the will of God, and the understanding of the first cause that brought about the existence of things. Knowledge of nature was for contemporary philosophers an epistemic tower of Babel, at the peak of which the individual could apprehend the Divine essence hidden in things. For occult natural philosophers like alchemists and magi, the epistemic work inherent in contemplation was one of pentration into the secrets of nature and the extraction and apprehension of the Divine presence in things. For new philosophers like Francis Bacon, on the other hand, the sole realm of human investigation was that of second causes. While the material and the spiritual were irreparably driven asunder by the new philosophical search for objective truth, traditional conceptions of belief, providence, gnostic communion, and ascent were re-elaborated or dismissed. Knowledge was possible only with respect to the natures of creatures and not, as occultists claimed, with respect to God himself. The contemplation of nature could not lead the individual to a "knowledge of God," but could only produce a sense of wonder, or as Bacon calls it, a "broken knowledge." Dr. Mascetti seeks to recover,
in his research, the possible meanings and intentions of contemporary
alchemic responses to the dichotomizing force of Bacon's arguments.
Alchemy, that is, appeared to be a mediating cast of mind between the
analytic mind of Baconian philosophers and the synthetic proneness
of occultists, acknowledging the former in order to recreate the latter. |
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Project PhD 2002, Columbia University Field: Anthropology (Sociocultural) Courses: Magical
Modernities Penal laws in the Caribbean republic of Haiti prohibited popular religious practices from 1835-1987 as a means of enforcing “civilized” modernity. Over this period of time, these laws were imposed to inconsistently – a continuum from indifference to violence. Nonetheless, even today these laws maintain a spectral force on the country’s religious politics. Despite their impact, they have received little scholarly attention. Dr. Ramsey’s concerns are twofold. First, how has this penal regime constrained, and thereby shaped, the religious beliefs and practices of the Haitian peasantry for nearly 170 years? And, reciprocally, how has popular belief critically shaped the nature and application of this penal regime? To answer these questions, Dr. Ramsey focuses on Haitian peasant and urban working class communities’ interpretation of these laws, as well as their practice of popular religious beliefs often glossed as “Vodou.” The criminalization of popular ritual practices as “spells” and “superstitious practices” contributed to the political marginalization, social stigmatization, and everyday economic exploitation of the subaltern majority in Haiti. However, Dr. Ramsey asserts that practitioners of Vodou have by no means always opposed the existence and perpetuation of these penal laws. Instead, there has been popular support for their enforcement against those believed to harness supernatural powers towards malevolent ends. Thus, laws that were intended to function as a sign of political modernity have been, and continue to be, applied in ways that ultimately reinforce belief in “sorcery.” |
