The Axial Age and Its Consequences

561 Pages·2012·4.85 MB·English

by  Robert N. Bellah

Th e Axial Age and Its Consequences

Th e Axial Age
and Its Consequences
Edited by
Robert N. Bellah and
Hans Joas
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, En gland • 2012
Copyright © 2012 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Th e Axial Age and its consequences / edited by Robert N. Bellah and Hans Joas.
p. cm.
Rev. papers delivered at a conference held July 3– 5, 2008 at the University of Erfurt.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 674- 06649- 6 (alk. paper)
1. Civilization, Ancient— Congresses. 2. Comparative civilization— Congresses.
3. Philosophy, Comparative— Congresses. 4. Religions— Congresses. I. Bellah,
Robert Neelly, 1927– II. Joas, Hans, 1948–
CB311.A885 2012
930—dc23 2012008329
To the memory of Karl Jaspers

Contents
Introduction 1
robert n. bellah and hans joas
Fundamental Questions
1. Th e Axial Age Debate as Religious Discourse 9
hans joas
2. What Was the Axial Revolution? 30
charles taylor
3. An Evolutionary Approach to Culture:
Implications for the Study of the Axial Age 47
merlin donald
4. Embodiment, Transcendence, and Contingency:
Anthropological Features of the Axial Age 77
matthias jung
5. Th e Axial Age in Global History:
Cultural Crystallizations and Societal Transformations 102
björn wittrock
6. Th e Buddha’s Meditative Trance:
Visionary Knowledge, Aphoristic Th inking, and
Axial Age Rationality in Early Buddhism 126
gananath obeyesekere
7. Th e Idea of Transcendence 146
ingolf u. dalferth
viii Contents
A Comparative Perspective
8. Religion, the Axial Age, and Secular Modernity in
Bellah’s Th eory of Religious Evolution 191
josé casanova
9. Where Do Axial Commitments Reside?
Problems in Th inking about the African Case 222
ann swidler
10. Th e Axial Age Th eory: A Challenge to Historism or
an Explanatory Device of Civilization Analysis?
With a Look at the Normative Discourse
in Axial Age China 248
heiner roetz
Destructive Possibilities?
11. Th e Axial Conundrum between Transcendental
Visions and Vicissitudes of Th eir Institutionalizations:
Constructive and Destructive Possibilities 277
shmuel n. eisenstadt
12. Axial Religions and the Problem of Violence 294
david martin
13. Righ teous Rebels: When, Where, and Why? 317
w. g. runciman
Reevaluations
14. Rehistoricizing the Axial Age 337
johann p. arnason
15. Cultural Memory and the Myth of the Axial Age 366
jan assmann
Contents ix
Perspectives on the Future
16. Th e Axial Invention of Education and Today’s
Global Knowledge Culture 411
william m. sullivan
17. Th e Future of Transcendence: A So cio log i cal Agenda 430
richard madsen
18. Th e Heritage of the Axial Age: Resource or Burden? 447
robert n. bellah
Bibliography: Works on the Axial Age 469
Contributors 539
Index 543