Papers by Ramón Soneira-Martínez
Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, 2022
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Arys, Dec 14, 2020
Denying the existence of God or gods is a common modern phenomenon in different places and religi... more Denying the existence of God or gods is a common modern phenomenon in different places and religious contexts. This paper explores the possibility of its applicability in antiquity. The last decades have witnessed considerable growth in the study of atheism in antiquity. Analysis of atheistic positions in ancient societies, especially in Classical Athens, has foregrounded new development in the study of unbelief. The term “unbelief” has been defined as a broad category to study the diverse irreligious positions not merely as the opposite of religion but as part of the religious field. This conceptualisation allows us to understand religion and unbelief as two intermingled phenomena. In recent studies on Plato’s Laws, scholars have identified atheistic groups within Athenian society. This paper aims to apply recent analytical frameworks on religious “individuation” in ancient religions to understand the role of unbelief in religious individualisation in Athens during the last decades of the 5th cent. and the first half of the 4th cent. BCE. //
La negación de la existencia de Dios o de los dioses es un fenómeno moderno presente en diferentes lugares y contextos religiosos. En las últimas décadas, hemos podido observar como el estudio del ateísmo en la antigüedad ha crecido enormemente ampliando los limites históricos de las posiciones irreligiosas. Los trabajos sobre las ideas ateas en las sociedades pretéritas, especialmente en la Atenas clásica, han consolidado el estudio de la increencia como fenómeno histórico. El término “increencia” ha sido definido como una categoría amplia para estudiar las posiciones irreligiosas no únicamente como opuestas a la religión sino como parte del campo religioso. Esta conceptualización del término permite entender la religión y la increencia como dos fenómenos entremezclados. Estudios recientes sobre las Leyes de Platón han propuesto la existencia de grupos de ateos en la Atenas clásica. Debido al incremento en el interés del estudio del ateísmo en la sociedad ateniense, el presente trabajo propone la aplicación de los estudios teóricos sobre la “individuación” religiosa en las religiones antiguas con el fin de analizar el papel de la increencia en los procesos de individualización religiosa en Atenas durante la segunda mitad del siglo V y las primeras décadas del siglo IV a.C.
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'Ilu. Revista de Ciencias de las Religiones, 2018
Resumen: En este trabajo se busca analizar el fragmento DK 88, B25 como fuente del ateísmo y la i... more Resumen: En este trabajo se busca analizar el fragmento DK 88, B25 como fuente del ateísmo y la increencia en la Grecia Antigua. Tras una breve descripción de los distintos debates que ha suscitado el fragmento, se analizan las distintas ideas y posiciones filosóficas que aparecen en él. Un análisis pormenorizado del texto nos permite observar muchas de las teorías filosóficas vigentes que componían el pensamiento de la segunda mitad del s. V a.C. Una gran mayoría de ellas provienen del desarrollo de la llamada teología natural que se construye en oposición teísta a la teología de los poetas. En el s.V a.C., concretamente en Atenas, dicha teología natural se extiende por los círculos intelectuales, lo que desemboca en una puesta en tela de juicio de la práctica ritual y la existencia de los dioses. Esto da lugar a posiciones irreligiosas y ateas, al menos ateas estrictas, como las que se pueden apreciar en el fragmento DK 88, B25.
Abstract. In this paper is analyzed the fragment DK 88, B25 as a source of atheism and unbelief in Ancient Greece. After a description of the different studies that have been done of the fragment, we should focus the analysis in the different ideas and philosophical positions of the fragment. A detailed study of the text shows us many of the philosophical theories that compose the thought of the mid-fifth century BC. Those ideas are developed from the natural theology that is constructed in theistic opposition to the theology of the poets. In the mid-fifth century BC, specifically in Athens, this natural theology is expanded towards the Athenian intellectual circles that relativize the ritual practice and the existence of the gods. This is the cause of the irreligious and atheism positions that we can see in the fragment DK 88, B25.
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Panta Rei. Revista digital de ciencia y didáctica de la Historia 2018, Sep 21, 2018
El presente artículo presenta una discusión histórica en torno a los límites conceptuales e histó... more El presente artículo presenta una discusión histórica en torno a los límites conceptuales e históricos del fenómeno irreligioso del ateísmo. Se busca presentar las líneas metodológicas del estudio del ateísmo y proyectarlas en el contexto histórico, cultural y religioso de la Grecia Antigua. Se analizarán las características formales de la religión griega para comprender la existencia de posiciones filosóficas que defendían una postura escéptica sobre los dioses. Se realizará una exposición de las fuentes históricas que nos han permitido analizar estas posturas ateas, desde el inicio de la filosofía con los autores presocráticos hasta el desarrollo de la obra de Platón, cubriendo así un amplio periodo histórico cargado de acontecimientos y complejidad cultural, entre ellos el fenómeno de la increencia.
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Edited Books by Ramón Soneira-Martínez
De Gruyter, 2024
(Open Access)
In interdisciplinary projects and research collaborations, participants face mul... more (Open Access)
In interdisciplinary projects and research collaborations, participants face multiple demands. However, these expectations encounter a reality that is characterized by time pressure, high demands in one's own discipline, and often increasingly administrative tasks. What can meaningful interdisciplinary work look like in an academic environment? What tasks and constraints do researchers face? And, considering the range of disciplines involved, how can interdisciplinary research projects be designed in a successful way? How does one meaningfully bring different disciplines, their methods, and theories into conversation with each other across the spatial and temporal distance of their subjects? And all that in a way in which the yield is effective and visible in all subprojects?
This publication sheds light on this issue by way of example. It reflects on and formulates the experiences and outcomes of interdisciplinary work of a humanities and social science research training group with disciplinary breadth as well as historical depth. The disciplines involved are ancient history, archaeology, art history, music didactics, North American history, patristics, philology (Latin/Greek studies), religious studies, sociology, and theology with the subjects Old and New Testament. In pairs of advanced and young scholars, individual experiences and identifiable results of interdisciplinary work in the respective contributions or research projects are recorded; on a next level, discipline-specific outcomes, but also problems are pinpointed; on a third level, collective experiences with interdisciplinary research displayed. The contributions take a variety of forms: reflections, dialogues, experience reports as well as perspective observations.
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Contributions in Collective Works by Ramón Soneira-Martínez
Practicing Interdisciplinarity A Bottom-Up Approach, 2024
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Atheism in 5 Minutes, 2022
Historical studies on atheism have opened the debate to analyse atheistic positions in "pre-moder... more Historical studies on atheism have opened the debate to analyse atheistic positions in "pre-modern" historical contexts. This chapter continues that path by questioning whether we can observe "atheists" in the Greco-Roman context. This exercise cannot be carried out without questioning the concepts we currently have associated with atheism. Having discussed the differences between modern and ancient terms, we can now venture to analyse atheistic positions in the ancient world. Did the word "atheist" exist in the Greek and Latin language? Were there people who identified themselves as "atheists"? Were there movements that questioned the existence of gods in the Greek philosophical schools? The chapter gives a succinct answer to all these questions.
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Discurso, espacio y poder en las religiones antiguas, 2021
In this prologue, I present the reasons behind the foundation of the "Asociación de Jóvenes Inves... more In this prologue, I present the reasons behind the foundation of the "Asociación de Jóvenes Investigadores en Ciencias de las Religiones", the organiser and editor of the book. Along the prologue, I discuss the discipline of History of Religions in Spain mentioning the professor Ángel Álvarez de Miranda (1915-1957) and his great contribution to the scientific study of religions.
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Conference Presentations by Ramón Soneira-Martínez
The change of the Christian paradigm in modern culture has turned the attention of specialists an... more The change of the Christian paradigm in modern culture has turned the attention of specialists and the broad community of researchers in the humanities and social sciences to the philosophical, linguistic, and cultural contexts of the roots of European religious and philosophical culture. The study of the ancient religion in the Greek world as well as in other ancient cultures of the Mediterranean, with a strong emphasis on their fundamental importance for understanding the religious phenomena of modernity, seems to be a flourishing and dominating area of research on antiquity. On the other hand, recent discussion in the field of the academic study of religion on the key categories draws our attention to the need for redefinition and re-description of the main theoretical concepts used in the field. Ritual is one of the best examples of the concept which were borrowed and adapted from classical language and introduced in our theoretical toolbar in the late 19th century. But at the same time the concept of ritual has undergone a deep change in the new context of modern scholarship. Now, ritual is the subject of a separate discipline, the ritual studies, but it is also the research topic in other disciplines such as performance studies, academic study of religion, or anthropology of religion. Since “ritual” as a modern concept is used for a classification of phenomena from an outsider point of view, it should be approached also from an insider perspective. The best way to achieve the goal is the complex analysis of emic terms concerning various performative practices regulating the relationship between humans and super-human beings. Discussions of the meaning of sacrifice, mysteries, rites of passage, funeral and wedding rituals, oath, prayer and other forms of religious worship focus on an awareness of paradigm shifts, the negation of established theories and an opening to cognitive science, narratology, anthropology and comparative approaches. The lexicographic description provided by standard dictionaries is insufficient to describe, understand and also render in translation the phenomena and concepts related to ritual and religiosity. In this perspective, the development of a professional lexicographic tool taking into account interdisciplinary anthropological, comparative and religious studies is a pressing need. Rituals as a communication event fulfilled a number of tasks: in addition to attracting the attention of the recipients of the action, they highlighted the intentions of social actors and articulated social order, ascribing the roles according to political status, age and sex, thus determining the boundaries of social groups.
The Greek technical terms of the language of ritual require linguistic, semantic, philological, and historical explication in conjunction with religious studies, anthropological, and cross-cultural descriptions. The first phase of the study, of critical importance, includes the methodological preparation, clear consideration and evaluation of the status quaestionis of the research on Greek ritual terminology and setting of further research directions, integration of researchers and students dealing with technical language of ritual.
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"Wo sich religionsgeschichtliche Darstellungen nicht auf einzelne Orten (local religion), Motive ... more "Wo sich religionsgeschichtliche Darstellungen nicht auf einzelne Orten (local religion), Motive oder Texte in ihrer jeweiligen Vielfalt konzentrieren, bilden "Religionen" (oder "Kulte") oder Prozesse des Wettbewerbs zwischen solchen Systemen die typische Darstellungseinheit, klassisch im deutschsprachigen Bereich in den "Religionen der Menschheit", aber auch in anderen Forschungstraditionen, und zwar nicht nur in Handbüchern und Überblicksdarstellungen. Kapitel über Ursprünge, Einflüsse oder Rezeptionen und Diffusionen versuchen dann einen weiteren Kontext herzustellen. Wie aber können Darstellungen der "Dynamik von Religion" als Religionsgeschichten aussehen, wenn sie "Religion under construction", "Religion in the making" oder "lived religion" diachronisch und nicht nur in Mikrogeschichten und Fallstudien schildern wollen? Die Beiträge des Panels (oder aber Podiumsdiskussion, s.u.), für die nun Vorschläge erbeten werden, wollen die methodischen Fragen der Tagung mit Überlegungen zu möglichen Praktiken von Religionsgeschichtsschreibung unter solchen Prämissen ausloten, indem sie Versuche vorstellen und kritisch beleuchten oder eigene Vorschläge präsentieren."
- Contributors:
Jörg Rüpke - Einleitung: Wie schreibt man eine Geschichte von "Religion under construction"
Ramón Soneira-Martínez - Silences and “detunements” in religious construction. The study of unbelief in the framework of lived religion
Anne Beutter - Religious practices as construction work and the dynamics of normative orders
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"La sacralidad de la tierra como vértice ecológico. Una propuesta relacional en el estudio de las... more "La sacralidad de la tierra como vértice ecológico. Una propuesta relacional en el estudio de las transgresiones político-religiosas en la Atenas clásica."
Este trabajo propone observar los límites de la materialización de la sacralidad religiosa desde la perspectiva de la transgresión en el contexto de la Atenas clásica. Para ello se tomarán dos ejes de estudio. Por un lado, se apostará por la aplicación de los trabajos ecológicos en la antigüedad, cuyos resultados han probado ser muy interesantes en la comprensión de las relaciones entre las sociedades pretéritas y el mundo, incluidos los espacios naturales y los lugares sagrados. Por otro lado, se utilizarán los estudios referidos a la alteridad religiosa enfatizando aquellos que se han dedicado al análisis de la desviación religiosa y la “impiedad” (asebeia) en la segunda mitad del siglo V en Atenas. Ambas perspectivas desembocan en el concepto de “triángulo ecológico” (Hunt y Marlow, 2019) que nos permite comprender la interrelación de sus tres vértices: la tierra, los seres humanos y las divinidades (agentes especiales). Esta propuesta teórica ha demostrado ser una herramienta de primer nivel para estudiar y analizar los discursos normativos atenienses sobre los espacios sagrados, su “especialidad” (Taves, 2011) y los patrones de conducta que debían seguirse para evitar cometer actos “impíos”. Como veremos a lo largo de la comunicación, estas narrativas relacionales normativas pueden apreciarse en diferentes fuentes literarias desde la oratoria hasta el drama pasando por la historiografía y la filosofía.
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The religious tales concerning doubt and unbelief are embedded in the religious narratives of dif... more The religious tales concerning doubt and unbelief are embedded in the religious narratives of different traditions. In many myths, the characters are presented as homines dubitantes who question the sacrality of the world and the divine agents. Different religious traditions present in their religious discourses individuals who doubt divine justice and even dispute the existence of divinities. These accounts of unbelief embedded in the religious literary tradition could be analysed as strategies whose aim is to establish a “resistance to doubt”. In this sense, these stories would be a narrative “compass” that, through accounts of unbelief, try to guide the individual at the crossroads arising from doubt. Such narratives can be observed in multiple historical contexts.
In the Bible, one of the most prominent examples is the passage concerning the unbelief of Thomas as the figure of the apostle who doubts the resurrection of Christ (John 20:24-29). We can also quote the verse in Mark 9:24; “I believe, help my unbelief!”. In the Old Testament, we can point out the Book of Job in which it is depicted the model of the homo dubitans who questions divine justice. However, such stories whose function is to resist to doubt can be observed in other religious contexts. For instance, in the last verses of Book IV in the Bhagavad-Gītā when Krishna warns Arjuna that the path of knowledge does not come from doubt (BG IV, 39-40). In Ancient Greece, we can stand out the myths about the theomakhoi, those characters that question or even fight the gods, such as the titans Prometheus and Sisyphus. There are examples also in Greek drama such as Pentheus in Bacchae.
This panel aims not only to identify these narratives of unbelief but also reflect on how these tales influenced individuals in a particular religious “chronotope”, both ancient and modern. How did individuals interpret these accounts of unbelief? Did they serve to appease individuals’ doubts, or did they increase them? What artistic representations were made based on these homines dubitantes? Is it possible to compare the role of these narratives transhistorically? Which theoretical approaches would improve the analysis of these narratives on unbelief? Papers interested in discussing these and related questions are cordially invited. There is the possibility of publishing the results of the joint discussion.
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Identities shape everyday life. They are not a fixed thing, but adapt according to situation and ... more Identities shape everyday life. They are not a fixed thing, but adapt according to situation and circumstance. Multiple factors contribute to the facets of an identity: religiosity, music, nature, sports, carnival, literature, etc. are parts of and shape this identity. In appealing to certain aspects, sub-identities are activated and items which could or should be considered rationally are emotionalized in appealing not to reason, but to that part of a subject’s identity, thus posing (in the worst case) a threat to that very identity; see for example the question of man-made climate change and the highly charged and emotionalized debate, as well as religious practices to which the subject feels a strong adherence. These identities are established by resonant self–world relations, i.e. relations that shape and support the individual, that offer spaces or relations that can be relied upon to counteract alienation with the environment. The more resonant these spaces or relations, the more resilient they are to threats that may question their content or form. One person may find that resonance in long hikes through the mountains, in cooking parties with friends, in listening to Mozart and woodcraft; another finds it in painting, in attending Sunday mass, in spending their holidays in a certain place; a third in soccer games, in their work, in meditation practices – all these aspects shape the individual’s identity and create networks, as these resonant relations are not only related to the individual, but must, in that individual, be negotiated with one another.
What happens, however, if these sub-identities come into conflict with one another? If, for example, the practice of established rituals, of culturally determined and long-established religious practices come into conflict with acute political questions in a politically engaged person? Can second-order resonance, i.e. culturally determined relations or spaces, produce the same kind of resonance and possibility for resilience as resonance that is constituted by peak moments? How do power relations influence and contribute to resonant self–world relations and their resilience in a changing, accelerating or shifting environment?
Our papers address these questions from various disciplines and cultures, considering ancient and modern phenomena in a diachronic perspective.
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The St Mary’s School of Divinity at the University of St Andrews is hosting this interdisciplinar... more The St Mary’s School of Divinity at the University of St Andrews is hosting this interdisciplinary conference dealing with questions of belief in the ancient world and in the biblical texts. The conference will consist of both plenary sessions and breakout sessions in which both postgraduate students and professional scholars will have the chance to present and discuss their research. Plenary speakers include: Dr. Brent Strawn (Duke University), Dr. Erin Darby (University of Tennessee), Professor Thomas Harrison (University of St Andrews), Dr. Madhavi Nevader (University of St Andrews), Dr. Matthew Novenson (University of Edinburgh), and Dr. Theodore Lewis (Johns Hopkins University).
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“Resonancia y repulsión en la esfera religiosa: el caso de Abel Azcona”
El desarrollo en las ú... more “Resonancia y repulsión en la esfera religiosa: el caso de Abel Azcona”
El desarrollo en las últimas décadas de la llamada sociología relacional ha influenciado enormemente la manera de estudiar el fenómeno religioso. La religiosidad del individuo se entiende como parte indispensable de la relación y comprensión que establece un sujeto con el mundo que le rodea, pero ¿qué ocurre cuando lo definido como “religión” se vuelve negativo y repulsivo? ¿Cómo establece su relación con el mundo (Weltbeziehung) un increyente antirreligioso? En esta comunicación se busca analizar uno de los casos mas controvertidos sobre la relación entre arte, representación y critica religiosa: la obra del artista Abel Azcona. Bajo el prisma de la llamada teoría de resonancia (Resonanztheorie) del sociólogo alemán Hartmut Rosa (2016) 1, analizaremos dos obras de Azcona basadas en la repulsión hacia la “religión”. La primera de ellas es “Eating a Koran” en la que el artista ingirió partes del Corán durante nueve horas. La segunda obra es la llamada “Amén” o “Pederastia”. Esta performance tuvo gran impacto mediático en España debido a la querella que presentó Abogados Cristianos contra el artista en 2018. Esta obra consiste en la colocación de 242 hostias consagradas para escribir con ellas la palabra pederastia. Sin entrar en el extenso, aunque fascinante, debate sobre los límites de expresión artística, el objetivo de esta propuesta es ahondar en la manera en la que las personas que sienten indiferencia o repulsión hacia lo religioso establecen su visión del mundo y su relación con este. En otras palabras, discernir, mediante el ejemplo de Azcona, el papel de la increencia (unbelief) en las relaciones sujeto-mundo.
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Ritual practices have always been a crucial element of cultural research, for they provide the ke... more Ritual practices have always been a crucial element of cultural research, for they provide the key to understanding the differences in cultural belief systems. Thus, the differences and changes within antiquity have been reconstructed as the differences between polytheistic and monotheistic rituals and beliefs. However, a closer look shows that many pivotal elements of those practices – ancient as well as modern – cannot be accounted for by reference to belief systems. Ritualistic elements have too easily been interpreted as expressions of specific "alien" belief-system or purely symbolic communication, in ancient as well as modern societies. They often stand in blatant contradiction to the actors’ belief systems, such as teddy bears for dead children or atheist weddings in sacred places. In this context, we consider the question of the conceptualization of religion in the context of its contribution to resonant self-world relations. How do socio-religious practices establish highly significant and particular relationships between the self and the world? How do ritual practices, persons, objects or places become endowed with a power that sacralizes these relationships and makes them resonant? The research presented in this panel draws on Hartmut Rosa’s concept of “resonance" as sociology of self-world relations with a particular focus on religious practices throughout the ages. In the proposed panel, the participants will look at the way in which self-world relations build up, contribute and amplify religious communication/religious action or make it repulsive. The way in which actors thus conceptualize their religious practices in accordance with or in contrast to their professed belief systems allows for glimpses of religious practices "on the ground“ of lived religion.
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As the global population of religious ‘unbelievers’ continues to grow, the Cultures of Unbelief c... more As the global population of religious ‘unbelievers’ continues to grow, the Cultures of Unbelief conference brings together leading academics, leaders of religious and nonreligious groups, journalists, educators and many others to understand what it really means to be a religious ‘unbeliever’. Cultures of Unbelief will explore how ‘unbelievers’ engage with religion, their diverse existential, metaphysical and moral beliefs, and prospects for dialogue and collaboration between believers and unbelievers.
Cultures of Unbelief also marks three significant anniversaries in the academic study of ‘unbelief’: the 50th anniversary of the Vatican’s pioneering ‘Culture of Unbelief’ conference in 1969; the 10th anniversary of the Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network’s (NSRN) 1st conference (Oxford University, 2009); and, the work of the landmark $3m research programme, Understanding Unbelief, funded by the John Templeton Foundation (University of Kent, 2017-20).
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Workshops by Ramón Soneira-Martínez
The present workshop aims to bring together different researchers to discuss methodological and t... more The present workshop aims to bring together different researchers to discuss methodological and theoretical problems in the study of scepticism, doubt, unbelief and atheism in the dynamics of ancient religious contexts. The goal is to establish a dialogue between diverse scholars, disciplines, and historical religious backgrounds in order to develop a comparative and transhistorical perspective focusing on different chronotopes.
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The workshop aims to examine, explore and discuss the theoretical and methodological problems tha... more The workshop aims to examine, explore and discuss the theoretical and methodological problems that exist in researching religion. To this end, the workshop will address not only the way in which religion has historically been understood but also current theoretical debates about its analysis and understanding. The workshop welcomes all students and researchers interested in the academic study of religion
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Rituals have long been a well-established part of sev-eral disciplines such as religious studies,... more Rituals have long been a well-established part of sev-eral disciplines such as religious studies, sociology, history, and archaeology, to name but a few. Follow-ing Catherine Bell, we define ritual as a form of refer-ential and social activity deeply rooted in cultural frameworks. Rituals are always situated in a specific social context and thus have a specific function for that very social context. The aim of this workshop is to look at the construction of a feeling of (shared) memory within a group, and at the same time how rituals can subsequently change and transform themselves through this practice. In order to obtain a comprehensive view, various case studies will be pre-sented, not only from different disciplines, but also from completely different historical periods, from antiquity to modernity. In this multidisciplinary framework, various approaches and theories will be put up for discussion that make it possible to look at the phenomenon of 'memory construction' within rituals.
Important questions of this workshop are: In which rituals is a 'shared memory' created? Which structural elements of such rituals are designed to create a 'shared memory'? Do such rituals create so-cial cohesion through evoking a sense of 'shared memory'? How do rituals create social cohesion by generating 'shared memory'? Do art and literature use such rituals to evoke certain 'answers' from their recipients?
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Papers by Ramón Soneira-Martínez
La negación de la existencia de Dios o de los dioses es un fenómeno moderno presente en diferentes lugares y contextos religiosos. En las últimas décadas, hemos podido observar como el estudio del ateísmo en la antigüedad ha crecido enormemente ampliando los limites históricos de las posiciones irreligiosas. Los trabajos sobre las ideas ateas en las sociedades pretéritas, especialmente en la Atenas clásica, han consolidado el estudio de la increencia como fenómeno histórico. El término “increencia” ha sido definido como una categoría amplia para estudiar las posiciones irreligiosas no únicamente como opuestas a la religión sino como parte del campo religioso. Esta conceptualización del término permite entender la religión y la increencia como dos fenómenos entremezclados. Estudios recientes sobre las Leyes de Platón han propuesto la existencia de grupos de ateos en la Atenas clásica. Debido al incremento en el interés del estudio del ateísmo en la sociedad ateniense, el presente trabajo propone la aplicación de los estudios teóricos sobre la “individuación” religiosa en las religiones antiguas con el fin de analizar el papel de la increencia en los procesos de individualización religiosa en Atenas durante la segunda mitad del siglo V y las primeras décadas del siglo IV a.C.
Abstract. In this paper is analyzed the fragment DK 88, B25 as a source of atheism and unbelief in Ancient Greece. After a description of the different studies that have been done of the fragment, we should focus the analysis in the different ideas and philosophical positions of the fragment. A detailed study of the text shows us many of the philosophical theories that compose the thought of the mid-fifth century BC. Those ideas are developed from the natural theology that is constructed in theistic opposition to the theology of the poets. In the mid-fifth century BC, specifically in Athens, this natural theology is expanded towards the Athenian intellectual circles that relativize the ritual practice and the existence of the gods. This is the cause of the irreligious and atheism positions that we can see in the fragment DK 88, B25.
Edited Books by Ramón Soneira-Martínez
In interdisciplinary projects and research collaborations, participants face multiple demands. However, these expectations encounter a reality that is characterized by time pressure, high demands in one's own discipline, and often increasingly administrative tasks. What can meaningful interdisciplinary work look like in an academic environment? What tasks and constraints do researchers face? And, considering the range of disciplines involved, how can interdisciplinary research projects be designed in a successful way? How does one meaningfully bring different disciplines, their methods, and theories into conversation with each other across the spatial and temporal distance of their subjects? And all that in a way in which the yield is effective and visible in all subprojects?
This publication sheds light on this issue by way of example. It reflects on and formulates the experiences and outcomes of interdisciplinary work of a humanities and social science research training group with disciplinary breadth as well as historical depth. The disciplines involved are ancient history, archaeology, art history, music didactics, North American history, patristics, philology (Latin/Greek studies), religious studies, sociology, and theology with the subjects Old and New Testament. In pairs of advanced and young scholars, individual experiences and identifiable results of interdisciplinary work in the respective contributions or research projects are recorded; on a next level, discipline-specific outcomes, but also problems are pinpointed; on a third level, collective experiences with interdisciplinary research displayed. The contributions take a variety of forms: reflections, dialogues, experience reports as well as perspective observations.
Contributions in Collective Works by Ramón Soneira-Martínez
Conference Presentations by Ramón Soneira-Martínez
The Greek technical terms of the language of ritual require linguistic, semantic, philological, and historical explication in conjunction with religious studies, anthropological, and cross-cultural descriptions. The first phase of the study, of critical importance, includes the methodological preparation, clear consideration and evaluation of the status quaestionis of the research on Greek ritual terminology and setting of further research directions, integration of researchers and students dealing with technical language of ritual.
- Contributors:
Jörg Rüpke - Einleitung: Wie schreibt man eine Geschichte von "Religion under construction"
Ramón Soneira-Martínez - Silences and “detunements” in religious construction. The study of unbelief in the framework of lived religion
Anne Beutter - Religious practices as construction work and the dynamics of normative orders
Este trabajo propone observar los límites de la materialización de la sacralidad religiosa desde la perspectiva de la transgresión en el contexto de la Atenas clásica. Para ello se tomarán dos ejes de estudio. Por un lado, se apostará por la aplicación de los trabajos ecológicos en la antigüedad, cuyos resultados han probado ser muy interesantes en la comprensión de las relaciones entre las sociedades pretéritas y el mundo, incluidos los espacios naturales y los lugares sagrados. Por otro lado, se utilizarán los estudios referidos a la alteridad religiosa enfatizando aquellos que se han dedicado al análisis de la desviación religiosa y la “impiedad” (asebeia) en la segunda mitad del siglo V en Atenas. Ambas perspectivas desembocan en el concepto de “triángulo ecológico” (Hunt y Marlow, 2019) que nos permite comprender la interrelación de sus tres vértices: la tierra, los seres humanos y las divinidades (agentes especiales). Esta propuesta teórica ha demostrado ser una herramienta de primer nivel para estudiar y analizar los discursos normativos atenienses sobre los espacios sagrados, su “especialidad” (Taves, 2011) y los patrones de conducta que debían seguirse para evitar cometer actos “impíos”. Como veremos a lo largo de la comunicación, estas narrativas relacionales normativas pueden apreciarse en diferentes fuentes literarias desde la oratoria hasta el drama pasando por la historiografía y la filosofía.
In the Bible, one of the most prominent examples is the passage concerning the unbelief of Thomas as the figure of the apostle who doubts the resurrection of Christ (John 20:24-29). We can also quote the verse in Mark 9:24; “I believe, help my unbelief!”. In the Old Testament, we can point out the Book of Job in which it is depicted the model of the homo dubitans who questions divine justice. However, such stories whose function is to resist to doubt can be observed in other religious contexts. For instance, in the last verses of Book IV in the Bhagavad-Gītā when Krishna warns Arjuna that the path of knowledge does not come from doubt (BG IV, 39-40). In Ancient Greece, we can stand out the myths about the theomakhoi, those characters that question or even fight the gods, such as the titans Prometheus and Sisyphus. There are examples also in Greek drama such as Pentheus in Bacchae.
This panel aims not only to identify these narratives of unbelief but also reflect on how these tales influenced individuals in a particular religious “chronotope”, both ancient and modern. How did individuals interpret these accounts of unbelief? Did they serve to appease individuals’ doubts, or did they increase them? What artistic representations were made based on these homines dubitantes? Is it possible to compare the role of these narratives transhistorically? Which theoretical approaches would improve the analysis of these narratives on unbelief? Papers interested in discussing these and related questions are cordially invited. There is the possibility of publishing the results of the joint discussion.
What happens, however, if these sub-identities come into conflict with one another? If, for example, the practice of established rituals, of culturally determined and long-established religious practices come into conflict with acute political questions in a politically engaged person? Can second-order resonance, i.e. culturally determined relations or spaces, produce the same kind of resonance and possibility for resilience as resonance that is constituted by peak moments? How do power relations influence and contribute to resonant self–world relations and their resilience in a changing, accelerating or shifting environment?
Our papers address these questions from various disciplines and cultures, considering ancient and modern phenomena in a diachronic perspective.
El desarrollo en las últimas décadas de la llamada sociología relacional ha influenciado enormemente la manera de estudiar el fenómeno religioso. La religiosidad del individuo se entiende como parte indispensable de la relación y comprensión que establece un sujeto con el mundo que le rodea, pero ¿qué ocurre cuando lo definido como “religión” se vuelve negativo y repulsivo? ¿Cómo establece su relación con el mundo (Weltbeziehung) un increyente antirreligioso? En esta comunicación se busca analizar uno de los casos mas controvertidos sobre la relación entre arte, representación y critica religiosa: la obra del artista Abel Azcona. Bajo el prisma de la llamada teoría de resonancia (Resonanztheorie) del sociólogo alemán Hartmut Rosa (2016) 1, analizaremos dos obras de Azcona basadas en la repulsión hacia la “religión”. La primera de ellas es “Eating a Koran” en la que el artista ingirió partes del Corán durante nueve horas. La segunda obra es la llamada “Amén” o “Pederastia”. Esta performance tuvo gran impacto mediático en España debido a la querella que presentó Abogados Cristianos contra el artista en 2018. Esta obra consiste en la colocación de 242 hostias consagradas para escribir con ellas la palabra pederastia. Sin entrar en el extenso, aunque fascinante, debate sobre los límites de expresión artística, el objetivo de esta propuesta es ahondar en la manera en la que las personas que sienten indiferencia o repulsión hacia lo religioso establecen su visión del mundo y su relación con este. En otras palabras, discernir, mediante el ejemplo de Azcona, el papel de la increencia (unbelief) en las relaciones sujeto-mundo.
Cultures of Unbelief also marks three significant anniversaries in the academic study of ‘unbelief’: the 50th anniversary of the Vatican’s pioneering ‘Culture of Unbelief’ conference in 1969; the 10th anniversary of the Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network’s (NSRN) 1st conference (Oxford University, 2009); and, the work of the landmark $3m research programme, Understanding Unbelief, funded by the John Templeton Foundation (University of Kent, 2017-20).
Workshops by Ramón Soneira-Martínez
Important questions of this workshop are: In which rituals is a 'shared memory' created? Which structural elements of such rituals are designed to create a 'shared memory'? Do such rituals create so-cial cohesion through evoking a sense of 'shared memory'? How do rituals create social cohesion by generating 'shared memory'? Do art and literature use such rituals to evoke certain 'answers' from their recipients?
La negación de la existencia de Dios o de los dioses es un fenómeno moderno presente en diferentes lugares y contextos religiosos. En las últimas décadas, hemos podido observar como el estudio del ateísmo en la antigüedad ha crecido enormemente ampliando los limites históricos de las posiciones irreligiosas. Los trabajos sobre las ideas ateas en las sociedades pretéritas, especialmente en la Atenas clásica, han consolidado el estudio de la increencia como fenómeno histórico. El término “increencia” ha sido definido como una categoría amplia para estudiar las posiciones irreligiosas no únicamente como opuestas a la religión sino como parte del campo religioso. Esta conceptualización del término permite entender la religión y la increencia como dos fenómenos entremezclados. Estudios recientes sobre las Leyes de Platón han propuesto la existencia de grupos de ateos en la Atenas clásica. Debido al incremento en el interés del estudio del ateísmo en la sociedad ateniense, el presente trabajo propone la aplicación de los estudios teóricos sobre la “individuación” religiosa en las religiones antiguas con el fin de analizar el papel de la increencia en los procesos de individualización religiosa en Atenas durante la segunda mitad del siglo V y las primeras décadas del siglo IV a.C.
Abstract. In this paper is analyzed the fragment DK 88, B25 as a source of atheism and unbelief in Ancient Greece. After a description of the different studies that have been done of the fragment, we should focus the analysis in the different ideas and philosophical positions of the fragment. A detailed study of the text shows us many of the philosophical theories that compose the thought of the mid-fifth century BC. Those ideas are developed from the natural theology that is constructed in theistic opposition to the theology of the poets. In the mid-fifth century BC, specifically in Athens, this natural theology is expanded towards the Athenian intellectual circles that relativize the ritual practice and the existence of the gods. This is the cause of the irreligious and atheism positions that we can see in the fragment DK 88, B25.
In interdisciplinary projects and research collaborations, participants face multiple demands. However, these expectations encounter a reality that is characterized by time pressure, high demands in one's own discipline, and often increasingly administrative tasks. What can meaningful interdisciplinary work look like in an academic environment? What tasks and constraints do researchers face? And, considering the range of disciplines involved, how can interdisciplinary research projects be designed in a successful way? How does one meaningfully bring different disciplines, their methods, and theories into conversation with each other across the spatial and temporal distance of their subjects? And all that in a way in which the yield is effective and visible in all subprojects?
This publication sheds light on this issue by way of example. It reflects on and formulates the experiences and outcomes of interdisciplinary work of a humanities and social science research training group with disciplinary breadth as well as historical depth. The disciplines involved are ancient history, archaeology, art history, music didactics, North American history, patristics, philology (Latin/Greek studies), religious studies, sociology, and theology with the subjects Old and New Testament. In pairs of advanced and young scholars, individual experiences and identifiable results of interdisciplinary work in the respective contributions or research projects are recorded; on a next level, discipline-specific outcomes, but also problems are pinpointed; on a third level, collective experiences with interdisciplinary research displayed. The contributions take a variety of forms: reflections, dialogues, experience reports as well as perspective observations.
The Greek technical terms of the language of ritual require linguistic, semantic, philological, and historical explication in conjunction with religious studies, anthropological, and cross-cultural descriptions. The first phase of the study, of critical importance, includes the methodological preparation, clear consideration and evaluation of the status quaestionis of the research on Greek ritual terminology and setting of further research directions, integration of researchers and students dealing with technical language of ritual.
- Contributors:
Jörg Rüpke - Einleitung: Wie schreibt man eine Geschichte von "Religion under construction"
Ramón Soneira-Martínez - Silences and “detunements” in religious construction. The study of unbelief in the framework of lived religion
Anne Beutter - Religious practices as construction work and the dynamics of normative orders
Este trabajo propone observar los límites de la materialización de la sacralidad religiosa desde la perspectiva de la transgresión en el contexto de la Atenas clásica. Para ello se tomarán dos ejes de estudio. Por un lado, se apostará por la aplicación de los trabajos ecológicos en la antigüedad, cuyos resultados han probado ser muy interesantes en la comprensión de las relaciones entre las sociedades pretéritas y el mundo, incluidos los espacios naturales y los lugares sagrados. Por otro lado, se utilizarán los estudios referidos a la alteridad religiosa enfatizando aquellos que se han dedicado al análisis de la desviación religiosa y la “impiedad” (asebeia) en la segunda mitad del siglo V en Atenas. Ambas perspectivas desembocan en el concepto de “triángulo ecológico” (Hunt y Marlow, 2019) que nos permite comprender la interrelación de sus tres vértices: la tierra, los seres humanos y las divinidades (agentes especiales). Esta propuesta teórica ha demostrado ser una herramienta de primer nivel para estudiar y analizar los discursos normativos atenienses sobre los espacios sagrados, su “especialidad” (Taves, 2011) y los patrones de conducta que debían seguirse para evitar cometer actos “impíos”. Como veremos a lo largo de la comunicación, estas narrativas relacionales normativas pueden apreciarse en diferentes fuentes literarias desde la oratoria hasta el drama pasando por la historiografía y la filosofía.
In the Bible, one of the most prominent examples is the passage concerning the unbelief of Thomas as the figure of the apostle who doubts the resurrection of Christ (John 20:24-29). We can also quote the verse in Mark 9:24; “I believe, help my unbelief!”. In the Old Testament, we can point out the Book of Job in which it is depicted the model of the homo dubitans who questions divine justice. However, such stories whose function is to resist to doubt can be observed in other religious contexts. For instance, in the last verses of Book IV in the Bhagavad-Gītā when Krishna warns Arjuna that the path of knowledge does not come from doubt (BG IV, 39-40). In Ancient Greece, we can stand out the myths about the theomakhoi, those characters that question or even fight the gods, such as the titans Prometheus and Sisyphus. There are examples also in Greek drama such as Pentheus in Bacchae.
This panel aims not only to identify these narratives of unbelief but also reflect on how these tales influenced individuals in a particular religious “chronotope”, both ancient and modern. How did individuals interpret these accounts of unbelief? Did they serve to appease individuals’ doubts, or did they increase them? What artistic representations were made based on these homines dubitantes? Is it possible to compare the role of these narratives transhistorically? Which theoretical approaches would improve the analysis of these narratives on unbelief? Papers interested in discussing these and related questions are cordially invited. There is the possibility of publishing the results of the joint discussion.
What happens, however, if these sub-identities come into conflict with one another? If, for example, the practice of established rituals, of culturally determined and long-established religious practices come into conflict with acute political questions in a politically engaged person? Can second-order resonance, i.e. culturally determined relations or spaces, produce the same kind of resonance and possibility for resilience as resonance that is constituted by peak moments? How do power relations influence and contribute to resonant self–world relations and their resilience in a changing, accelerating or shifting environment?
Our papers address these questions from various disciplines and cultures, considering ancient and modern phenomena in a diachronic perspective.
El desarrollo en las últimas décadas de la llamada sociología relacional ha influenciado enormemente la manera de estudiar el fenómeno religioso. La religiosidad del individuo se entiende como parte indispensable de la relación y comprensión que establece un sujeto con el mundo que le rodea, pero ¿qué ocurre cuando lo definido como “religión” se vuelve negativo y repulsivo? ¿Cómo establece su relación con el mundo (Weltbeziehung) un increyente antirreligioso? En esta comunicación se busca analizar uno de los casos mas controvertidos sobre la relación entre arte, representación y critica religiosa: la obra del artista Abel Azcona. Bajo el prisma de la llamada teoría de resonancia (Resonanztheorie) del sociólogo alemán Hartmut Rosa (2016) 1, analizaremos dos obras de Azcona basadas en la repulsión hacia la “religión”. La primera de ellas es “Eating a Koran” en la que el artista ingirió partes del Corán durante nueve horas. La segunda obra es la llamada “Amén” o “Pederastia”. Esta performance tuvo gran impacto mediático en España debido a la querella que presentó Abogados Cristianos contra el artista en 2018. Esta obra consiste en la colocación de 242 hostias consagradas para escribir con ellas la palabra pederastia. Sin entrar en el extenso, aunque fascinante, debate sobre los límites de expresión artística, el objetivo de esta propuesta es ahondar en la manera en la que las personas que sienten indiferencia o repulsión hacia lo religioso establecen su visión del mundo y su relación con este. En otras palabras, discernir, mediante el ejemplo de Azcona, el papel de la increencia (unbelief) en las relaciones sujeto-mundo.
Cultures of Unbelief also marks three significant anniversaries in the academic study of ‘unbelief’: the 50th anniversary of the Vatican’s pioneering ‘Culture of Unbelief’ conference in 1969; the 10th anniversary of the Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network’s (NSRN) 1st conference (Oxford University, 2009); and, the work of the landmark $3m research programme, Understanding Unbelief, funded by the John Templeton Foundation (University of Kent, 2017-20).
Important questions of this workshop are: In which rituals is a 'shared memory' created? Which structural elements of such rituals are designed to create a 'shared memory'? Do such rituals create so-cial cohesion through evoking a sense of 'shared memory'? How do rituals create social cohesion by generating 'shared memory'? Do art and literature use such rituals to evoke certain 'answers' from their recipients?
Questions addressed in papers may include:
• What modern theoretical frameworks are useful in the study of ancient unbelief?
• How can anachronisms be avoided in the historical study of religious doubt and atheism?
• What are the most accurate analytical concepts for discussing atheistic positions in historical perspective?
• Are unbelieving positions in the Greco-Roman context similar to those in other historical and cultural contexts such as India or the Near East?
• Is it possible to draw analogies between sceptical positions in the polytheistic context with monotheistic religiosities in ancient religiosities such as Judaism or early Christianity?
• Is it possible to write a “universal history” of unbelief?
• How does the study of ritual deviation and heterodoxy help to understand the dynamics of ancient religiosities?
Please send title and abstract to Ramón Soneira-Martínez until July, 15, 2024.
This study analyses the relationship between political history and the history of Greek religion around two elements: Eleusinian Mysteries and the ancient polis of Athens. To do that, the study is focusing on the historical development of Athens, the Eleusinian cult, and their relationship in the political and religious identity. This study is based on the sociological principles of Pierre Bourdieu and in the comparative method to analyse the Athenian aristocracy and its relationship with religion as essential element of the Athenian religious evolution. Finally, the study concludes with the relationship between the concept of asebeia and the Eleusinian Mysteries.
El sustrato religioso de época neolítica, común en el Mediterráneo, junto al papel de la élite y como esta actúa en el control del comercio y en la redistribución de la riqueza serán clave para entender cuáles son las razones de la evolución del mundo religioso ibérico, el cual adopta elementos foráneos de las culturas mediterráneas. La élite en una posición de poder ejerce control también en la cultura y en los elementos que se introducen en el mundo ibérico dando lugar a la transformación de la religiosidad ibérica.