Jason Ananda Josephson Storm's Books

The Invention of Religion in Japan

By: Jason Ananda Josephson

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The Invention of Religion in Japan

By: Jason Ananda Josephson

A study of how Japan once had no concept of “religion,” and what happened when officials were confronted by American Commodore Perry in 1853. Throughout its long history, Japan had no concept of what we call “religion.” There was no corresponding Japanese word, nor anything close to its meaning. But when American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in 1853 and forced the Japanese government to sign treaties demanding, among other things, freedom of religion, the country had to contend with this Western idea. In this book, Jason Ananda Josephson reveals how Japanese officials invented religion in Japan and traces the sweeping intellectual, legal, and cultural changes that followed. More than a tale of oppression or hegemony, Josephson’s account demonstrates that the process of articulating religion offered the Japanese state a valuable opportunity. In addition to carving out space for belief in Christianity and certain forms of Buddhism, Japanese officials excluded Shinto from the category. Instead, they enshrined it as a national ideology while relegating the popular practices of indigenous shamans and female mediums to the category of “superstitions” —and thus beyond the sphere of tolerance. Josephson argues that the invention of religion in Japan was a politically charged, boundary-drawing exercise that not only extensively reclassified the inherited materials of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto to lasting effect, but also reshaped, in subtle but significant ways, our own formulation of the concept of religion today. This ambitious and wide-ranging book contributes an important perspective to broader debates on the nature of religion, the secular, science, and superstition. Praise for The Invention of Religion in Japan “The Invention of Religion in Japan is truly revolutionary. Original, well researched, and engrossing, it overturns basic assumptions in the study of Japanese thought, religion, science, and history. . . . This book will absolutely reshape the field.” —Sarah Thal, University of Wisconsin-Madison “Written with remarkable clarity, this book makes an excellent contribution to the study of the interface of traditional Japanese religions and politics. Highly recommended.” —Choice “The range of Japanese primary sources consulted in his book is prodigious, as is his familiarity and usage of multidisciplinary theoretical works. . . . Josephson’s book is erudite, informative, and interesting. It should be a worthwhile read for Japan scholars as well as scholars and students interested in religious studies theory and history.” —H-Shukyo

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402

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University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226412350

ISBN 13

9780226412351

Metamodernism

The Future of Theory

By: Jason Ananda Josephson Storm

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Metamodernism

The Future of Theory

By: Jason Ananda Josephson Storm

Opening -- Part I. Metarealism. How the real world became a fable, or, The realities of social construction -- Part II. Process social ontology. Concepts in disintegration & strategies for demolition ; Process social ontology ; Social kinds -- Part III. Hylosemiotics. Hylosemiotics : the discourse of things -- Part IV. Knowledge and value. Zetetic knowledge ; The revaluation of values -- Conclusion : becoming metamodern.

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375

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University of Chicago Press

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ISBN 10

022678665X

ISBN 13

9780226786650

The Myth of Disenchantment

Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences

By: Jason Ananda Josephson Storm

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The Myth of Disenchantment

Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences

By: Jason Ananda Josephson Storm

A great many theorists have argued that the defining feature of modernity is that people no longer believe in spirits, myths, or magic. Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm argues that as broad cultural history goes, this narrative is wrong, as attempts to suppress magic have failed more often than they have succeeded. Even the human sciences have been more enchanted than is commonly supposed. But that raises the question: How did a magical, spiritualist, mesmerized Europe ever convince itself that it was disenchanted? Josephson-Storm traces the history of the myth of disenchantment in the births of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, folklore, psychoanalysis, and religious studies. Ironically, the myth of mythless modernity formed at the very time that Britain, France, and Germany were in the midst of occult and spiritualist revivals. Indeed, Josephson-Storm argues, these disciplines’ founding figures were not only aware of, but profoundly enmeshed in, the occult milieu; and it was specifically in response to this burgeoning culture of spirits and magic that they produced notions of a disenchanted world. By providing a novel history of the human sciences and their connection to esotericism, The Myth of Disenchantment dispatches with most widely held accounts of modernity and its break from the premodern past.

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428

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University of Chicago Press

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ISBN 10

022640336X

ISBN 13

9780226403366

The Invention of Religion in Japan

By: Jason Ananda Josephson

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The Invention of Religion in Japan

By: Jason Ananda Josephson

Throughout its long history, Japan had no concept of what we call “religion.” There was no corresponding Japanese word, nor anything close to its meaning. But when American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in 1853 and forced the Japanese government to sign treaties demanding, among other things, freedom of religion, the country had to contend with this Western idea. In this book, Jason Ananda Josephson reveals how Japanese officials invented religion in Japan and traces the sweeping intellectual, legal, and cultural changes that followed. More than a tale of oppression or hegemony, Josephson’s account demonstrates that the process of articulating religion offered the Japanese state a valuable opportunity. In addition to carving out space for belief in Christianity and certain forms of Buddhism, Japanese officials excluded Shinto from the category. Instead, they enshrined it as a national ideology while relegating the popular practices of indigenous shamans and female mediums to the category of “superstitions”—and thus beyond the sphere of tolerance. Josephson argues that the invention of religion in Japan was a politically charged, boundary-drawing exercise that not only extensively reclassified the inherited materials of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto to lasting effect, but also reshaped, in subtle but significant ways, our own formulation of the concept of religion today. This ambitious and wide-ranging book contributes an important perspective to broader debates on the nature of religion, the secular, science, and superstition.

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404

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226412334

ISBN 13

9780226412337

The Myth of Disenchantment

Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences

By: Jason Ananda Josephson Storm

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The Myth of Disenchantment

Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences

By: Jason Ananda Josephson Storm

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Page Count

428

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022640336X

ISBN 13

9780226403366

Metamodernism

The Future of Theory

By: Jason Ananda Josephson Storm

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Metamodernism

The Future of Theory

By: Jason Ananda Josephson Storm

“Not only an astute diagnosis of the confusions and contradictions of contemporary thought; it also offers compelling alternatives.” —Rita Felski, author of Hooked: Art and Attachment For decades, scholars have been calling into question the universality of disciplinary objects and categories. The coherence of defined autonomous categories—such as religion, science, and art—has collapsed under the weight of postmodern critiques, calling into question the possibility of progress and even the value of knowledge. Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm aims to radicalize and move beyond these deconstructive projects to offer a path forward for the humanities and social sciences using a new model for theory he calls metamodernism. Metamodernism works through the postmodern critiques and uncovers the mechanisms that produce and maintain concepts and social categories. In so doing, Storm provides a new, radical account of society’s ever-changing nature—what he calls a “Process Social Ontology”—and its materialization in temporary zones of stability or “social kinds.” Storm then formulates a fresh approach to philosophy of language by looking beyond the typical theorizing that focuses solely on human language production, showing us instead how our own sign-making is actually on a continuum with animal and plant communication. Storm also considers fundamental issues of the relationship between knowledge and value, promoting a turn toward humble, emancipatory knowledge that recognizes the existence of multiple modes of the real. Metamodernism is a revolutionary manifesto for research in the human sciences that offers a new way through postmodern skepticism to envision a more inclusive future of theory in which new forms of both progress and knowledge can be realized.

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375

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022678679X

ISBN 13

9780226786797

The Invention of Religion in Japan

By: Jason Ānanda Josephson,Jason Ananda Josephson Storm

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The Invention of Religion in Japan

By: Jason Ānanda Josephson,Jason Ananda Josephson Storm

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

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Page Count

402

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226412342

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9780226412344

Book's by Jason Ananda Josephson Storm

The Invention of Religion in Japan

The Invention of Religion in Japan

Metamodernism

Metamodernism

The Myth of Disenchantment

The Myth of Disenchantment

The Invention of Religion in Japan

The Invention of Religion in Japan

The Myth of Disenchantment

The Myth of Disenchantment

Metamodernism

Metamodernism

The Invention of Religion in Japan

The Invention of Religion in Japan

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