Revue de Sciences des Religions d'Ottawa // Ottawa Journal of Religion

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10393/23686

La RSRO est une revue annuelle de travaux d'étudiants aux cycles supérieurs publiée par la Département d'études anciennes et de sciences des religions à l'université d'Ottawa // The OJR is an annual journal of graduate student work published by the Department of Classics and Religious Studies, University of Ottawa

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Ottawa Journal of Religion // La Revue des sciences des religions d’Ottawa
(2010) Vallely, Anne
2010 Full issue. Volume complète de 2010
Ottawa Journal of Religion // La Revue des sciences des religions d’Ottawa
(2011) Saucier, Mélanie
2011 Full issue. Volume complète de 2011
Pourquoi ne plongerais-je pas mes yeux dans les siens encore et encore? : Du regard puissant à la dévotion aveugle dans l’hindouisme
(2011) Blanchard, Marie-Josée
L‟expérience du religieux au coeur de la dévotion hindoue est indissociable d‟un contexte purement sensoriel : les sens y représentent le support de la communication entre les humains et les divinités. Parmi ces sens se démarque néanmoins la vue, arme puissante pouvant autant tuer que transmettre des qualités sacrées. L‟échange de regards devient conséquemment essentiel à l‟expérience hindoue, passant du darśan et du mauvais oeil jusqu‟au regard destructeur des dieux. Cette exploration du rôle de la perception visuelle dans l‟hindouisme, appuyée par divers exemples tirés du film Jai Santoshi Maa, nous révélera comment ce regard puissant et perméable peut provoquer un déséquilibre entre les rôles de l‟acteur actif et de l‟acteur récepteur dans cet échange visuel; ce déséquilibre peut toutefois être rétabli par une dévotion « aveugle » de la part de l‟acteur récepteur. Abstract: The experience of Hindu devotion is intrinsically linked to a purely sensorial context where the senses represent the support to communication between humans and divinities. Yet the sense of sight leapfrogs the other senses by representing a powerful tool that can transmit sacred qualities as well as literally killing beings. From darśan to the evil eye or destructive divine gaze, the exchange of gaze thus becomes essential to the understanding of the Hindu experience. This exploration of the role of sight in Hinduism, supported by various examples from the movie Jai Santoshi Maa, will reveal how this powerful and permeable gaze can threaten the power balance between the actor and receiver; we will however see that this balance can be regained by a “blind” devotion from the receiver.
The Illusion of the “Slippery Slope”: How Religion and Culture Shape Canadian Doctors’ Attitudes toward Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide
(2011) Chambers, Stuart
From 1988-1995 the majority of physicians within the Canadian Medical Association supported the prohibition against an intentionally hastened death for the terminally ill. Their main concerns entailed the “slippery slope” of the Dutch medical model and a possible return to Nazi eugenics. However, empirical evidence from this time period did not support physicians’ fears of decriminalization. Therefore, it is important to understand why doctors, known for their reliance on empiricism and rational thought, reverted to uncritical and profoundly held beliefs when it came to discussions over statesanctioned euthanasia and assisted suicide. This paper suggests that two motives were pivotal in shaping Canadian doctors’ attitudes toward prohibition: the influence of religion and a lack of exposure to cross-cultural perspectives.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Nothing: Einmal ist Keinmal in Otto And Nietzsche
(2011) Kandler, Renate Anna
Using void as a starting point this article provides an Ottonian and Nietzschian reading of ‘nothingness.’ Nietzsche’s Dionysian Worldview describes the path laid out by “saint and tragic artist” while Otto’s Das Heilege provides the parallel path of mystic and artist. Both cases lead to a discourse on emptiness and no-thingness. These categorical types (mystic/saint and artist) are localized through mystic St. Faustina Kowalska and minimalist sculptor Fred Sandback. Where Faustina interiorizes an abyss of nothingness, Sandback exteriorizes nothingness in his artwork. Her hidden, spiritualized void is paralleled in his exposed aesthetic display. An analysis of each reveals the ways in which Nietzsche and Otto engage with nothingness, respectively affirming and denying the sentiment that einmal ist keinmal (once is not enough).
History as the Rise Of a Modern Jewish Identity
(2011) Gareau, Paul L.
History has always held an important place in the forming, inflection and reflection of Jewish identity. The emancipation movement and subsequent Jewish enlightenment in nineteenth century Germany brought about a major crisis in Jewish identity regarding issues around integration to modern German society. From this emerged both an intellectual and a religious movement that sought different ways to negotiate Judaism within a Christian hegemony. But these movements were in conflict with one another, each vying to support the correct means of social participation and integration without assimilation. History, more precisely historiography, became the central element of delineating one form of modern Jewish identity upon which this conflict was waged. In this article, I will outline the important role historiography took in the rise of the scientific study of Judaism or Wissenschaft des Judentums in modern Germany, the emergence of the Jewish Reform movement and its impact on Jewish socio-religious identity, and conclude by delineating the second-generation of Wissenschaft des Judentums and its negation of the Reform movement. This essay underscores the connections between historiography and identity.
Legal Words are Latent Thoughts: Understanding Discourse Around Aboriginal Religion in Delgamuukw v. British Columbia
(2011) Forbes, Lauren
When Aboriginal issues involving Aboriginal religion come up in Canadian courts the religious aspects are avoided and pushed to the margins of the case and freedom of religion is not addressed. This article focuses on the Supreme Court case of Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, a land claims case where religion is again in the periphery, in order to determine how Aboriginal religions are being framed and conceptualized in court (by both the Court and by Aboriginal peoples). It will do so by examining the legal text surrounding the sacred oral traditions and histories of Aboriginal peoples, by investigating references the Court makes to Aboriginal religions, and by discussing the implications of the Aboriginal title discourse for Aboriginal religions. More generally, this article brings to attention some of the issues that Aboriginal peoples’ religious traditions face in terms of freedom of religion in Canada.
Ottawa Journal of Religion // La Revue des sciences des religions d’Ottawa
(2009) Vallely, Anne; Sylvestre, Julie
2009 Full issue. Volume complète de 2009
The Star in the Banner: Studies on North American Black-Jewish Communities
(2009) Boafo, Kwaku
The elaboration and development of black- Jewish identities are a multilayered and complex dynamism that does not take to one particular shape or form. Black groups in America have amalgamated Jewish traditions, thoughts, and cultures creatively upon their initial encounters. This bibliographic review paper seeks to ask “in what ways has Jewish identity been appropriated amongst black groups in America?” and “what role has Christianity played in developing these black-Jewish identities?”
Running From Olympia to the Isles of the Blessed Sacrifice, Athleticism and Cosmology in a Panhellenic Hero Cult
(2009) Quinlan, Stephen
This study explores the ritual features of the Pelops cult at Olympia from roughly the sixth century BCE to the second CE. It attempts to arrive at a sense of the meaningfulness of the sacrificial operations the cult contained, as revealed in the writings of Pindar and Pausanias. Of concern is how the ritual sacrifice, the blood offering, discloses a sense of mortal, embodied existence as it was experienced by the Greeks. Additionally, it seeks to explore the relationship between athletes and heroes within this context. The historical sources already noted are informed by means of comparative description with relevant material drawn from the poetry of Homer and Hesiod.
Veganism and Punk – A Recipe for Resistance: Symbolic Discourse and Meaningful Practice
(2009) Sylvestre, Julie
This study explores the construction of meaningfulness through an analysis of food – a powerful conveyor of meaning which, in many traditions, serves as an indicator of religiosity and identity. Food can be viewed as a mechanism through which humans define, understand, and experience themselves as authentic individuals; it serves as the interstice where the “sacred” and “profane” can be demarcated, and through which the desires, passions, hopes, and fears of the individual (i.e., the key ingredients to seeking meaning in the world) are expressed. My paper examines the role food plays in the day-to-day lives of Vegan Punks. In particular, it seeks to explore the way food is used ideologically in the creation of distinct beliefs and practices among a community grounded in a sense of ethical righteousness.
Ecology of Love and Avoidance Negotiating the Boundaries Between World-Affirmation and World-Renunciation
(2009) Saucier, Melanie
This study examines the intersection between religion and environmental ethics in South Asian traditions, namely that of Jainism. Religious traditions, as they confront the challenges of modernity, are redefining their traditional mores and narratives in ways that are contemporary and relevant. One of the most striking ways Jains are accomplishing this is by interpreting the self as inherently “ecological”, and applying “Western” animal rights discourse to traditional Jain doctrine. This study will explore how such new understandings are being established by members of these “living” communities, and argue for the reevaluation of such reified concepts as “ecology” and “religion.”
The Madman and the Spider: Sacrifice and Metaphysics in Nietzsche and Girard
(2009) Chiles, Paul
This article examines René Girard’s claim that Nietzsche foreshadowed Girard’s scapegoat mechanism in his famous aphorism 125 on the death of God called The Madman. The role of rhetoric and interpretation in competition between ideas is explored through examining the ambiguity of ‘sacrifice’ and ‘violence,’ words which can be metaphorical or literal. Through a comparison of the views and contexts of Girard and Nietzsche I argue that their ideas spring from similar sources of human metaphysical need. However, Nietzsche has no literal conception of metaphysics; rather metaphysics exists only as experienced or constructed as conventions. Girard, on the other hand, tries to banish the metaphysical foundations of other religions as superstition while refounding the metaphysical certainty offered by Christianity. Girard ‘sacrifices’ Nietzsche as a rhetorical mechanism toward reestablishing this foundational truth and I place the sacrifice in the broader context of scapegoating that Girard’s own theory demands, in the context of sacrifice as rhetorical tool, and in the German theological context from which the death of God as a metaphor springs.
Gianni Vattimo and Nihilistic Christianity: Creating Open Concepts of Truth and Knowledge in the Age of Interpretation
(2009) Chambers, Stuart
Borrowing largely from the Nietzschean and Heideggerian heritage, the works of Gianni Vattimo have been instrumental in promoting a nihilistic approach to Christianity. Vattimo’s method entails the weakening of metaphysics (absolute foundations) by exposing the violence so often associated with it. As a consequence, truth and knowledge are maintained as open concepts within the dialectical process. This does not mean that “strong relativism” now prevails as a legitimate philosophical viewpoint. What it does mean, however, is that Truth has simply been transformed into some intelligible form of truth. Moreover, Vattimo emphasizes that in the post-metaphysical (postabsolutist) world both secularism and nihilism are imperative to expanding truth and knowledge. As a result, it is argued that both philosophical positions are actually complementary to the roots of Christianity. Furthermore, I suggest that nihilism – in its positive form – not only expands the Christian message of charity, but also transforms it into its endless human potential.
To Find a Priest and His Priesthood: Caiaphas and the Thomasine Community
(2009) Wright, Erin J.
The Jewish high priest Joseph ben Caiaphas is best known for his central role in the Passion stories. As the root of the anti-Semitic charge of deicide against the people of Israel, the negative portrayal of Caiaphas and the Jews in these critical scenes of the Gospels has proven itself a source of eternal struggle within New Testament scholarship. In order to uncover a more historical understanding of this problematic figure, the Gospel of Thomas presents itself as a source for Caiaphas which is both removed from the Jewish- Christian conflict of the first centuries of this era, but still sharing in the Jesus tradition of the New Testament. Using a historical-textual approach, the sayings of Thomas are ‘canvassed for Caiaphas’ by applying historically-based search parameters. From this search a distinct anti-Pharisaical polemic, likely preserved from an earlier tradition, is detectable in Thomas. As a text which is theologically indifferent to the death of Jesus, Thomas’ unique contribution to the study of Caiaphas gestures towards an early tradition of negatively portraying Jewish authorities, which may be independent of the canonical Gospels.
Snakes, Sacrifice, and Sacrality in South Asian Religion
(2010) Jones, Gabriel
Ritual sacrifice associated with snake veneration is not uniformly expressed. The snake figures prominently in the art and narrative of contemporary Saivism, Vaisnavism, Jainism, and Buddhism in addition to the myriad of popular devotional practices of rural village and peripatetic peoples of India. Drawing on the evidence within the many traditions that have accommodated or rejected the snake as a subject of veneration, this article theorizes its associated sacrifice(s) as a tripartite phenomenon reflecting divergent cultural valuation of the snake across the Indian sub-continent.
AIDS and Sacrifice: A Discussion of René Girard’s Scapegoat Theory of Sacrifice, Jean-Luc Nancy’s Unsacrificeable, and Giorgio Agamben’s Homo Sacer
(2010) Pump, Andrew
This paper seeks to build upon René Girard’s scapegoat theory of sacrifice and group cohesion by considering post modern theories of sacrifice and society. It will explore the difficulty in applying a discourse of sacrifice when discussing contemporary political issues, or politically charged issues effecting minorities. By critically examining these theorists, I hope to distinguish between a religious theory of sacrifice and a modern theory explaining the relation of the ‘post-political’ subject to society and the state.
De Hubert et Mauss à Valeri : le sacrifice védique, son public, sa violence
(2010) Blanchard, Marie-Josée
L’étude détaillée du sacrifice védique par Hubert et Mauss possède une lacune, en ce qu’elle n’explique pas le rôle du public lors de ce rituel. Grâce à la superposition du modèle hawaiien de Valeri sur cette théorie du sacrifice védique, nous nous rendons vite compte que le public possédait à l’ère védique le rôle hautement significatif de la validation du rituel qui venait de prendre place. À cette découverte, nous ajoutons une analyse symbolique de la violence inhérente au sacrifice védique, qui était pourtant niée au sein du rituel ; par là, cette violence acquiert le statut de non-violence.
My Name is Sacrifice: An Interpretation of Power in Saint Faustina
(2010) Kandler, Renate Anna
Nineteenth century phenomenologist Gerardus van der Leeuw studied human phenomena as it relates to power. He identified gift giving in sacrificial traditions as the locus of power; donor and recipient are bound to each other, giving of themselves, and enabling the continual flow of power. This essay applies van der Leeuw’s schema to consider the case of the Christian mystic, Saint Faustina (1905-1938), whose life was characterized by sacrifice. Faustina mimicked Christ as sacerdos et hostia through the embodiment of self-sacrifice. Through van der Leeuw’s understanding of the sacrificial, Faustina is re-conceptualized from a figure of humility and meekness to an individual of great power; subject and object become blurred as Faustina and God participate in an exchange of power, leaving Faustina powerful, but ultimately without agency and locked into a life of servitude.
War is Peace: Analyzing Sigmund Freud’s and René Girard’s Theories of Violence and Sacrifice
(2010) Hartley, Todd
This essay will compare and contrast the theories of Sigmund Freud and René Girard, particularly those aspects dealing with religion, culture, and violence, to decipher the role both Freud and Girard allocate to religion in controlling societal violence. Although both theorists offer socio-cultural narratives, their conceptions differ considerably, offering antipodal viewpoints on the topic of religion and sacrifice.

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