Beginning with metaphysical debates in the sixteenth century over the nature of Christ’s presence in the host; the distinguished historian and scholar of religion Robert Orsi imagines an alternative to the future of religion that early moderns proclaimed was inevitable.The question of “real presenceâ€â€•the Catholic doctrine of the literal; physical; embodied presence of Christ in the host―coincided with early modern global conquest and commerce and shaped how Europeans encountered the religions of others. The gods really present; in the Catholic sense; were translated into metaphors and symptoms; and into functions of the social and political. Presence became evidence of superstition; of magical thinking; of the infantile and irrational; the primitive and the savage. History and Presence radically confronts this intellectual heritage; proposing instead a model for the study of religion that begins with humans and gods present to each other in the circumstances of everyday life. Orsi then asks what it would mean to write history with the real presence of special beings restored. With reference to Marian apparitions; the cult of the saints; relations with the dead; and other Catholic instances of encounters with the gods really present; Orsi elaborates a theory of presence for the study of both contemporary religion and history.The unseeing of the gods was a foundational requirement of Western modernity. Orsi urges us to withhold from absence the intellectual and spiritual prestige modernity encourages us to give it; and instead to approach history with the gods fully present.
#1032728 in Books imusti 2009-03-31 2009-04-30Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.30 x 1.10 x 5.80l; .95 #File Name: 0674032934256 pagesBelknap Press
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Below expectationBy bookwormI did not have high expectations of the book after reading the reviews here but still decided to buy one. I am interested in learning about the history of scientific discoveries in general and the history of mathematics in particular. After reading it; I felt it did not even meet my lowered expectations. There are some life histories and personal stories of a number of mathematicians who made important contributions to set theory. But the link between their personal histories and their mathematical thinking is not clear at all. Though the authors make repeated assertion that the links are there and important; there is simply no substantial evidence or any in-depth analysis in the book to back them up. Those assertions remain hollow throughout the book. I would not say it's a bad book; to me; the personal histories of those individual mathematicians and the historical and political contexts of their lives are worth the reading. But it is unfortunate that the book does a poor job of illuminating the connection between those stories and the mathematical discoveries.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Close but no candyBy Alexander Don-DoncowThis book attempts to dwell on a fascinating mathematical challenge; a profound philosophy; a bit of history and a bit of biography. Unfortunately; it succeeds in none.Its historical context is cursory; its mathematical treatise very superficial; its biographical effort incomplete and its understanding of the mystical issues practically nil.Curiously; the cover of the book shows Pavel Florenski and Sergei Bulgakov neither of whom had any significant involvement in the issue and consequently are mentioned only sparsely.But mainly; it fails to explain or even illustrate the connection between the specific mathematical problem and the mystical movement.I got the impression that in choosing these extremely complex subjects; the authors bit a lot more than they could chew and in the end just did not know how to handle them.This book is not a treatise of the subjects but rather a cursory preview; its only redeeming quality is that it may encourage the reader to look further into these fascinating and worthwhile subjects.12 of 13 people found the following review helpful. Exciting Intellectual HistoryBy SwiftyMy abilities in mathematics are decidedly pre-Euclidean. A scientist friend of mine used the visual metaphor of an established tree to explain mathematics: arithmetic; geometry; algebra and trig are the roots; the many developments in modern math are the branches and leaves. The trunk connecting roots and branches and supporting the tree is the calculus. Given this metaphor; I'm still scrambling among the roots for acorns of understanding from the top of the tree; because I never climbed past calculus. This limited my capacity to understand the math concepts Graham and Kantor describe in "Naming Infinity". Other reviewers have commented on the book's lack of equations to demonstrate the math propositions discussed in it. I wish some simple clear definitions of the building blocks of set theory had been available in an appendix. Beyond the few figures which elucidate Cantor's discoveries in the second chapter; and a discussion of the conflict between Platonic and Aristotelian notions of mathematics and how these played out in both the French and Moscow Schools of math in the early XXth century; there are precious few tools to help the untutored reader develop a more profound comprehension of the subtleties of set theory and the mathematical continuum. It's also true that I sometimes wished for the authors to return to topics briefly discussed in earlier chapters: did the religious practices of the Name-Worshippers persist through the post-Stalin era; for example? What was Luzin's life like in his later years; after the discontinuity event of his pardon by Stalin? (Beyond his caustic insult to Kolmogorov; and his lover Bari's suicide after his death; there is precious little here about Luzin's twilight years.)These are minor cavils about a book which illumines an exciting time in European intellectual history. The history (indeed the existence) of the Name-Worshipper sect was unknown to me in Russian culture. The authors are to be thanked for their concise description of this movement's history and its leading exponents. I am very fond of the Silver Age in Russian cultural history--- and of the work of Symbolists like the remarkable Andrei Bely. Bely makes an appearance here; naturally; because he was the son of Nikolai Bugaev; the professor of mathematics at Moscow University who was the teacher of the trio of Russian mathematicians/name-worshippers considered in this book. The influence of the ideas propounded by the Name-Worshippers on Bely was another subject with which I was unfamiliar. Their obsession with "naming" does more to explain the numinous appeal of Bely's difficult works than that author's equally eccentric connection with the anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner. The excerpts quoted from Bely's "First Encounter" bring to life the cruelly extirpated world of Russia's pre-revolutionary intelligentsia.Finally; this excellent small history vividly describes the lives of the protagonists of the Moscow School of Mathematics; especially those of Egorov; Luzin and Florensky. The film historian Herbert Marshall wrote a book a few decades ago called: "Masters of Soviet Cinema: Crippled Creative Biographies." The second part of that title describes the lives; trials and deaths of these three great Russian mathematicians equally well. So many creative Soviet lives were crippled during those bloodthirsty backstabbing years under Stalinism. Graham and Kantor deepened my understanding of how advanced ideas in modern mathematics were developed by Russian men and women who sometimes bravely; sometimes timidly; sought simply to stay alive and work freely in their chosen field under one of the most despotic regimes in human history. Their lives were all crippled because of the Stalinist meat-grinder; and the creativity of their ideas is made greater by the poignancy their individual life stories present in this fine book.
