Table Of ContentUniversal- und kulturhistorische Studien –
Studies in Universal and Cultural History
Mait Kõiv · Märt Läänemets
Kerstin Droß- Krüpe
Sebastian Fink Editors
Crisis in Early
Religion
Universal- und kulturhistorische Studien.
Studies in Universal and Cultural History
SeriesEditors
AlbertoBernabéPajares,Madrid,Spain
SebastianFink,Innsbruck,Austria
AnnC.Gunter,Evanston,USA
DanT.Potts,NewYork,USA
RobertRollinger,Innsbruck,Austria
KaiRuffing,Kassel,Germany
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(cid:129) (cid:129)
Mait Kõiv Märt Läänemets
ß (cid:129)
Kerstin Dro -Krüpe Sebastian Fink
Editors
Crisis in Early Religion
Editors
MaitKõiv MärtLäänemets
UniversityofTartu EstonianOrientalSociety
Tartu,Estonia Ülenurme,Estonia
KerstinDroß-Krüpe SebastianFink
Ruhr-UniversityBochum UniversityofInnsbruck
Bochum,Germany Innsbruck,Austria
ISSN2524-3780 ISSN2524-3799 (electronic)
Universal-undkulturhistorischeStudien.StudiesinUniversalandCulturalHistory
ISBN978-3-658-36988-0 ISBN978-3-658-36989-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-36989-7
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Contents
CrisisinEarlyReligion:AnIntroduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
MaitKõivandSebastianFink
TheCrisisofAuthenticBuddhavacanainTipiṭaka:IsEarlyBuddhist
Sangha’sPoliticsResponsible?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
SiddharthSingh
PrajñāpāramitāasaCrisis-MarkerinBuddhism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
SergeyYuLepekhov
TheInvolvementofBuddhistMonksintheCourtIntriguesinChina
andJapanDuringtheFourthtotheEighthCenturies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
ElenaLepekhova
TheUgariticCombatMythandEgypto-HittiteRelationsintheLate
BronzeAge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
JoannaTöyräänvuori
CrisesintheHittiteReligion:ExamplesofthePrayerofKantuzili
andPlaguePrayersofMuršiliII. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
VladimirSazonovandJaanLahe
DivineJusticeandHumanCompetition:SignsofCrisesinArchaic
Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
MaitKõiv
WhenOraclesDon’tComeTrue:OedipusTyrannusandOracular
Crisis. . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. 119
TimWhitmarsh
‘TheAthenian‘Plague’:Religion,‘Rationality’,andEthics’. . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
ElizabethIrwin
v
vi Contents
ACrisisof‘Atheism’inAncientRome?OnthePerceptionofNonreligion
asaThreatintheRomanEmpire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
AlexandraEppinger
CrisisandTransformationofGnosticChristianityinLateRoman
andEarlyByzantineEgypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
PrzemysławPiwowarczyk
Crisis in Early Religion: An Introduction
Mait Kõiv and Sebastian Fink
The introduction to this volume was written in a time when people were already sick of
hearingtheterm“Corona-crisis”thatoccupiedthenewsandmindsetsofthewholeworld.
Evenifitwillstilltakesometimetogetthisbookprinted,everyonewillsurelyremember
this exceptional time as an example of a collective, global crisis. At the time of our
conference,andevenayearago,theideathatthewholeworldwillbeafflictedbyaplague
wouldhaveseemedaridiculousideatomostofus,maybesimplybecausewegrewupina
time where such a thing never occurred. Eventually we learned to adapt to the new
‘normal’, the new reality of checking statistics, the latest daily numbers of cases,
hospitalizationsanddeathslocally,nationallyandglobally,andevertighteningrestrictions
on all kinds of activities. All across the world we are on familiar terms with it, calling it
CoronaorCOVID,dependingonthelanguageweuse.
As far as‘plagues’ go,this onehasnotseemed,atleast untilnow, asevere one.With
highlydevelopedmedicine,identificationofthevirusandscientificexplanationofhowthe
plague affects the body has allowed us to understand how to avoid contagion, treat the
infected, and even create vaccines against it. In earlier days, however, diseases occurred
that killed a substantial part of the population. Unaware of the causes, people attributed
themtotheevilmachinationsofwitches,sorcerersordemons,thepoisoningofwellsorto
the anger of the gods. If there is one basic rule for every crisis, then it would seem to be
M.Kõiv(*)
UniversityofTartu,Tartu,Estonia
e-mail:[email protected]
S.Fink
UniversityofInnsbruck,Innsbruck,Austria
e-mail:Sebastian.fi[email protected]
#TheAuthor(s),underexclusivelicensetoSpringerFachmedienWiesbadenGmbH, 1
partofSpringerNature2022
M.Kõivetal.(eds.),CrisisinEarlyReligion,Universal-undkulturhistorischeStudien.
StudiesinUniversalandCulturalHistory,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-36989-7_1
2 M.KõivandS.Fink
this one: crises demand explanations and explanations should come with some means of
resolution. Whether it is chasing witches and sorcerers away, exorcising demons, or
praying for forgiveness and trying to placate the wrath of the gods, these means can all
beseenasapartofcollectivestress-managementintimesofcrisis.
Nomatterhowirrationalsuchbeliefsmightseemtous,theyfulfilledafunctionintimes
ofcrisis,whetherthecrisisiscollectiveoronlypersonal.Theyaccountforthebadsituation
andreturnsomesenseofagencytothesufferingsocietyorindividual.Onemightelaborate
on this. As human beings we like the world to be an orderly and well-structured place, a
stablesystemwithafuturethatis(atleasttoacertainextent)predictable.Therearemany
regularities in the world that human beings can predict quite accurately today, and could
predictquiteaccuratelysomethousandyearsago.Theseareforexamplethealternationof
dayandnight,thepathofcertaincelestialbodies,thechangeofseasons,seasonalrainfalls,
andmanymore.Thisknowledgeaboutregularitiesintheworldisofutmostimportanceto
ourexistenceasinthecaseofagriculture:humansurvivalliterallydependsonthem.
Ifsomethingiswrongwithwhathasusuallybeenreliablypredictable,actionneedstobe
taken on a practical level, but mostly, and this holds true for all times, we will also find
somekindofattempttorestoretheoldorderbysomekindofreligiousexplanation,which
isusuallyfollowedbyreligiouspractice.Thereasonbehindthisissomethingthatbecomes
clearly visible in Platonic philosophy but goes back to much older ideas and intellectual
traditions. Behind this world full of change, there exists an unchangeable, eternal world.
ThisworldistherealmofthePlatonicideas,theSumeriandivineconceptsorthehighgods
ingeneral.Stabilityisnotsomethingthatisinherentinthisworld;itcomesintoexistence
due to the ordering activities of the gods.1 If something went wrong in this world, this
reflects some problem in the relationship between this world and the other world, or in
more personalterms:between thehumans andtheirgods. Therefore, action needed tobe
takenonthesidesofthehumans.Theyprayed,lamented,andtriedtocalmdownthegods
withsongsandritualsinordertorestoretheearlierbalance,orthegoodwillofthegods.In
order to prevent such problems different ways of establishing the will of the gods by
prophecy and various kinds of divination were established, which aimed at preventing
disastersbytaking(ritual)actionbeforetheytookplace.
OneofthemostinfluentialideasinthehistoryofreligioniswhatErstTopitschcalled
“theintentionalviewoftheworld.”2NearlyallofthemythsTopitschanalyzedinhismajor
study on the rise and decline of metaphysics demonstrate the world to be what he called
‘sociomorphic’.Heusedthistermtodescribethebeliefthatthewholeworldisgoverned
byastructuresimilartosociety.Thatis,someoneisouttherepresidingovereverythingthat
1Wemightmentionatthispointthattheideathatthegodshavetointervenefromtimetotimetokeep
the worldstable isnot restricted toantiquity, as itwas still defendedbyIsaacNewton, oneof the
heroesofmodernphysics.Hewasconvincedthatgodhastointervenefromtimetotimeinorderto
keepthecoursesofthecelestialbodiesstable(Leibniz-Clarkeletterexchange).
2Topitsch (1958), see especially the chapter “The Involvement of Buddhist Monks in the Court
IntriguesinChinaandJapanDuringtheFourthtotheEighthCenturies”.
CrisisinEarlyReligion:AnIntroduction 3
happens in this world. Usually this governing entity is imagined as having a mindset
somewhatsimilartohumanbeingsand,commonly,thisbeingiscalledaking,ashepherd
or a father, what makes the comparison to human societies obvious. While others had
observedthisfactlongbefore,Topitschmasterfullydemonstratedthatthesameintentional
worldview found in creation myths can still be found at work in most of the great
metaphysicalsystemsfromClassicalAntiquityuptonineteenthcentury.
Notwithstanding the success the intentional worldview had in imposing order on the
world, it also created its share of problems. Foremost was the problem of theodicy,
otherwise known as the problem of the righteous sufferer. If a benevolent father governs
theworld,howthendidpainandsufferingcomeintothisworld?Theforemostintellectuals
of all times have racked their brain with this problem—or sought to quell believers’
doubts—inordertoupholdthebeliefinawell-orderedworld.Oneoftheearliestanswers
might have been that suffering is a punishment for bad behavior, something easily
analogoustowhatisknownfromthedomainofthefamilyandinsociety.Thisexplanation
seemstohavebeenquiteconvincing,butalreadyinancientMesopotamiawecanhearthe
voiceofcriticalintellectualsthatquestionthejusticeofthisnotionofretribution.Thereare
peoplewhosufferalthoughtheydonotappearwhetherintheirowneyesorthoseofothers
tohavecommittedanyoffenceagainstgodorman.Others,however,whohaveobviously
sinned,enjoywithimpunitythefruitsoftheirbaddeeds.Theseproblemsarediscussedin
theBabylonianTheodicy,adialoguebetweenapiousmanandhissufferingfrienddatingto
thelatesecondorearlyfirstmillennium:
Those who do not seek (the) god (i.e., do not honour gods) go the way of success, (while)
someonewhothinksof(the)goddesscouldbecomepoorandimpoverished.Inmyyouth,I
searchedforthereasoningof(the)god,withthemarkofrespectandbenedictions,Isought
(the)goddess.Ibearayokeasacorvéewhich(brought)nogain(v.:wisdom),(but)(the)god
has imposed (on me) poverty instead riches. A cripple went up above me; a fool moved
forward away from me: (while) rascals have moved up (in society), I have fallen (so) low
(insociety).(Sufferer,70–77)3
Theodicy can radically question the intentional worldview. If the system is not working
alongthelinesthatweexpectittowork,itseemspossiblethatthereisnosystematalland
thathumansshouldnotcareaboutthegods.Evenifthegod’sexistenceisnotquestionedin
many texts, the possibility is discussed that the gods are simply not interested in human
affairs.Ifsomeoneorawholesocietyarrivesataskingthesequestionsthisisarealcrisisin
religion as the whole worldview teeters on the verge of collapse, its replacement a
non-intentionalworldview,aworldlesspredictableandlesssafe.Realizingheisnolonger
apartofaholisticsysteminwhicheveryonehashisassignedposition,thatthereisnosuch
metaphysical system, the individuals may suddenly release themselves of the burden of
religiousandsocialconventions.Againwefindanimpressivedocumentofsuchanattitude
3Oshima(2013,20).
