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Book: Thinking with J. Z. Smith

Chapter: 13. Orphism: The Whole Created of Fragments - The –ism and the Formation of Religious Categories

DOI: 10.1558/equinox.39937

Blurb:

Lech Trzcionkowski, builds on Smith’s reflection on classification, taxonomy, and comparison to investigate the genealogy of “Orphism”—a name ostensibly referring to a Hellenistic mystery religion. Trzcionkowski traces the history of the term created in the 19th century in an atmosphere of a quest for deeper spirituality and purporting to refer to a kind of pagan mystique church The concept, he points out, was built on arguments used in the polemics between Catholic and Protestant scholars and, as with other –ism formations, suggests a whole that actually never existed, but was created out of existing fragments.

Chapter Contributors

  • Lech Trzcionkowski ([email protected] - ltrzcionkowski) 'Jagiellonian University, Cracow'