B8021 - RELIGIONE E RELIGIONI NELL'EUROPA MEDITERRANEA (1)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students possess the necessary knowledge to locate, question, and critically analyze the connections between particular and local phenomena of communication with superhuman beings and the transcultural category of religion as a modern academic construct. Through a selection of ancient sources and contemporary texts that raise the most relevant issues concerning the relationship between religion (singular) and religions (plural), they are able to determine whether, in what circumstances, and for what reasons the modern Western concept is functional to understanding past and non-Western religious worlds, or, conversely, if it generates misunderstandings and anachronisms. Students are able to formulate and solve theoretical problems by identifying the categories of contemporary critical reflection most suitable for an unbiased and non-distorting understanding of religious phenomena from other eras and cultures. In oral communication, they demonstrate good reading and critical comprehension of the basic literature on the topics addressed in the course and are able to use the technical terminology of the discipline.

Course contents

The Anatomy of Enchantment: Investigating “Enchanted Worlds” between Anthropology and the History of Religions

What is an enchanted world? How different is it from our own, and in what ways does it resemble it? Who inhabits it, how do they inhabit it, and in the company of whom? How does one enter or leave it?

The recent publication in Italian of two important books - one in anthropology and the other in history - provides an opportunity to reflect on the meaning, ambiguities, and scholarly uses of a highly successful expression that Max Weber employed more than a century ago to characterize an overall premodern way of seeing, acting in, and inhabiting the world. The expression is encapsulated in the notion of the Entzauberung der Welt, conventionally translated as the “disenchantment of the world.”

The two recent volumes that serve as the point of departure for this course explicitly evoke Weber's category and diagnosis through their titles: The New Science of the Enchanted Universe and An Enchanted World. The former is by Marshall Sahlins, one of the leading anthropologists of the second half of the twentieth century; the latter is by Michael Satlow, a scholar of Judaism and historian of ancient Mediterranean religions.

Despite their shared label, however, the two books encompass societies that differ profoundly from one another, separated by vast distances in both time and space - from a Melanesian cosmogonic myth to a Late Antique Christian amulet, from a Kwakiutl fishing prayer to a Roman domestic libation. Sahlins regards enchanted worlds as posing a radical ontological and epistemological challenge to Western rationality as such. Satlow, by contrast, uses enchantment to describe the shared religious atmosphere and practices of Jews, Christians, and pagans, which, when viewed "from below," blur and undermine the boundaries imposed "from above" by the learned, text-based theorizing of intellectuals.

What, then, is this enchantment? Is it a non-Western way of thinking and inhabiting the world, or a popular one? Is it synonymous with radical religious otherness, or with lived, everyday religion? Is it a normative and provocative category of the exotic, prompting us to reflect on the limitations of our own mental horizons? Or is it instead a neutral, descriptive historiographical concept, useful for reminding us that religion is imagined and practiced below—and often despite—the prescriptions of intellectuals in every age?

Moving across the social sciences, ancient history, and the history of religions, this course will seek to break the spell—or rather, to take enchantment apart, contextualize it, recategorize it, and redescribe it—in the hope of arriving at a clearer understanding of what it actually is.

Readings/Bibliography

For attending students

In addition to the materials provided in class by the teacher, attending students are required to read:

1) Marshall Sahlins, The New Science of the Enchanted World: An Anthropology of Most of Humanity, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2022.

2) Michael Satlow, An Enchanted World: The Shared Religious Landscape of Late Antiquity, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2026.

For non-attending students

1) Marshall Sahlins, The New Science of the Enchanted World: An Anthropology of Most of Humanity, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2022.

2) Michael Satlow, An Enchanted World: The Shared Religious Landscape of Late Antiquity, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2026.

3) Max Weber's 'Science as a Vocation', edited by P. Lassman, I. Velody and H. Martins, London, Routledge, 2015 (or other editions).

 

Recommended bibliography for further reading (not required for the examination!):

Giacomo Maria Arrigo, "Origine e fortuna dell’idea di epoca assiale: da Jaspers a Habermas," in Intersezioni. Rivista di storia delle idee, 43/2 (2023), pp. 245-261.

Philippe Descola, Beyond Nature and Culture, Chicago, Universty of Chicago Press, 2014.

Marcel Gauchet, The Disenchantment of the World: A Political History of Religion, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1997.

Jörg Rüpke, Pantheon: A New History of Roman Religion, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2018.

Alan Strathern, Unearthly Powers: Religious and Political Change in World History, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2019.

Teaching methods

Lectures; discussion of texts. During the course, the possibility of assigning group projects and/or in-class exercises will be considered. Their assessment will contribute to the determination of the final examination grade.

Assessment methods

Attendance. Students are considered attending if they participate in at least 75% of the lectures.

 

Oral Exam. The exam consists of a limited number of questions aimed at assessing the student's knowledge of the topics covered in class (for attending students) and in the required textbooks. Evaluation will consider the overall solidity of preparation, the ability to analyze, synthesize, and argue critically, clarity of presentation, use of appropriate language, and the ability to establish connections between different parts of the course. Students are therefore expected to carefully read the required texts.

• Achieving a comprehensive and synthesized understanding of the topics, combined with critical analysis skills and precise, appropriate language, will be assessed with grades from 28 to 30 cum laude.

• A fair but not in-depth knowledge of the subject, limited analytical and synthesis skills, and imprecise language will result in grades from 24 to 27.

• Poor knowledge of the course topics, inaccurate terminology, and lack of familiarity with the course bibliography will lead to grades from 18 to 23.

• The exam is not passed if the student fails to answer even one of the exam questions.

Exam sessions are scheduled in the following months: June, July, September, January, February, April, May and are open to all students.

For the purposes of assessment, the use of AI is prohibited. Any use of AI constitutes a violation of academic integrity.

Teaching tools

Images, PowerPoint presentations, selections of texts uploaded by the teacher to Virtuale.

Students with disabilities and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students with learning disorders and/or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible ( [https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students]) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Office hours

See the website of Emiliano Urciuoli