RT Article
T1 Magic between Europe and India: On Mantras, Coercion of Gods, and the Limits of Current Debates
JF Religions
VO 12
IS 2
A1 Fárek, Martin 1974-
A1 Horák, Pavel
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2021
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1750246910
AB Several scholars have criticized the efforts to explain Indian mantras as spells, but much is left to clarification. Why do submission-versus-coercion characterizations keep reoccurring, albeit disputed? Why does the difference between this-worldly and other-worldly goals also keep its important role in discussions about mantras? Furthermore, how are these ideas tied to analyses of the beliefs of practitioners? We identify three main positions concerning mantras: They are explained as spells, prayers, or both at the same time. However, the criteria for determining whether mantras are magical practices or religious practices apparently allow for characterizing the very same mantra as either of the two or even as ‘magico-religious’. The general theories of magic are not able to explain this problem. In the last part of this article, we analyse the role that the concept of supernatural powers plays in the debates. It was a whole structure of interconnected ideas, deeply rooted in Christian belief in a biblical God and fallen angels, which formulated the dominant characterization of magical practices in modern scholarship on India. We propose a three-step scheme which shows how the originally coherent account of Christian theology gradually dissolved into a set of problematic ideas that have typified discussions of Indian mantras over the last six or more decades.
K1 Christian Theology
K1 Indian Religion
K1 Coercion
K1 Magic
K1 Mantra
K1 Prayer
K1 Spell
DO 10.3390/rel12020087