Magic between Europe and India: On Mantras, Coercion of Gods, and the Limits of Current Debates

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F68378076%3A_____%2F21%3A00539293" target="_blank" >RIV/68378076:_____/21:00539293 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/46747885:24510/21:00008610

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/2/87" target="_blank" >https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/2/87</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel12020087" target="_blank" >10.3390/rel12020087</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Magic between Europe and India: On Mantras, Coercion of Gods, and the Limits of Current Debates

Original language description

Several scholars have criticized the efforts to explain Indian mantras as spells, but much is left to clarification. Why do submission-versus-coercion characterizations keep reoccurring, albeit disputed? Why does the difference between this-worldly and other-worldly goals also keep its important role in discussions about mantras? Furthermore, how are these ideas tied to analyses of the beliefs of practitioners? We identify three main positions concerning mantras: They are explained as spells, prayers, or both at the same time. However, the criteria for determining whether mantras are magical practices or religious practices apparently allow for characterizing the very same mantra as either of the two or even as ‘magico-religious’. The general theories of magic are not able to explain this problem. In the last part of this article, we analyse the role that the concept of supernatural powers plays in the debates. It was a whole structure of interconnected ideas, deeply rooted in Christian belief in a biblical God and fallen angels, which formulated the dominant characterization of magical practices in modern scholarship on India. We propose a three-step scheme which shows how the originally coherent account of Christian theology gradually dissolved into a set of problematic ideas that have typified discussions of Indian mantras over the last six or more decades.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60304 - Religious studies

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Religions

ISSN

2077-1444

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

12

Issue of the periodical within the volume

2

Country of publishing house

CH - SWITZERLAND

Number of pages

23

Pages from-to

87

UT code for WoS article

000623129400001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85100258174