Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Scientology, scripture, and sacred tradition
- 2 “He may be lying but what he says is true”: the sacred tradition of don Juan as reported by Carlos Castaneda, anthropologist, trickster, guru, allegorist
- 3 The invention of sacred tradition: Mormonism
- 4 Antisemitism, conspiracy culture, Christianity, and Islam: the history and contemporary religious significance of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
- 5 The invention of a counter-tradition: the case of the North American anti-cult movement
- 6 “Heavenly deception”? Sun Myung Moon and Divine Principle
- 7 “Forgery” in the New Testament
- 8 Three phases of inventing Rosicrucian tradition in the seventeenth century
- 9 A name for all and no one: Zoroaster as a figure of authorization and a screen of ascription
- 10 The peculiar sleep: receiving The Urantia Book
- 11 Ontology of the past and its materialization in Tibetan treasures
- 12 Pseudo-Dionysius: the mediation of sacred traditions
- 13 Spurious attribution in the Hebrew Bible
- 14 Inventing Paganisms: making nature
- Index
- References
14 - Inventing Paganisms: making nature
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Scientology, scripture, and sacred tradition
- 2 “He may be lying but what he says is true”: the sacred tradition of don Juan as reported by Carlos Castaneda, anthropologist, trickster, guru, allegorist
- 3 The invention of sacred tradition: Mormonism
- 4 Antisemitism, conspiracy culture, Christianity, and Islam: the history and contemporary religious significance of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
- 5 The invention of a counter-tradition: the case of the North American anti-cult movement
- 6 “Heavenly deception”? Sun Myung Moon and Divine Principle
- 7 “Forgery” in the New Testament
- 8 Three phases of inventing Rosicrucian tradition in the seventeenth century
- 9 A name for all and no one: Zoroaster as a figure of authorization and a screen of ascription
- 10 The peculiar sleep: receiving The Urantia Book
- 11 Ontology of the past and its materialization in Tibetan treasures
- 12 Pseudo-Dionysius: the mediation of sacred traditions
- 13 Spurious attribution in the Hebrew Bible
- 14 Inventing Paganisms: making nature
- Index
- References
Summary
In the 1790s Iolo Morganwg produced a set of “ancient texts” that presented the lineage, organization, cosmology, and rituals of Druidry. He was part of a movement that was asserting the vitality of Welsh language and culture as a contribution to the contemporary form of British multiculturalism. Or rather, perhaps this was the first modern attempt to counter the hegemony of English language and culture over the peoples of the British Isles, and the first experiment in celebrating the plurality of British identity and culture. Rituals were performed on Primrose Hill in London as well as at other locations of alleged significance to ancient Druids and their descendants in every generation, especially in Wales. Some of these rituals (re)claimed for Druidry the henge monuments and stone circles that decorate the land; others required the erection of new standing stones and the construction of new venues for the performance, display, and improvement of bardic arts. Iolo was not alone; his traditions and liturgies found ready acceptance not only among Welsh groups but also among English, Cornish, and Breton celebrants of antique and noble rites and poetry. Perhaps the acceptance of his texts and his Druidry was facilitated (among the Welsh at least) by their fit with the pervasive nonconformist Christianity of Wales, and (among some of the English at least) by their intersections with aspects of contemporary esotericism.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Invention of Sacred Tradition , pp. 277 - 290Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
References
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