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Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives
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Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2023) | Viewed by 32150

Printed Edition Available!
A printed edition of this Special Issue is available here.

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Benoît Vermander

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Guest Editor
School of Philosophy, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Interests: Chinese religions; spirituality and Chinese art; hermeneutic of Chinese Classics; comparative Classics; cross-cultural theology; anthropology of reading practices; ritual studies; cereals, rituals and social structure
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue crisscrosses three theoretical questions that it articulates into a whole:

  • Do religious narratives follow models of emplotment (the ones identified by Northrop Frye, or, in a different fashion, by Hayden White) strictly similar to the ones found in novels and historical accounts, for instance, or do they tend to privilege some modes of emplotment over others, or yet, do they sometimes craft specific arrangements that defy current categorization?
  • In parallel, do these narratives preferentially follow rhetorical patterns such as the “ring composition” discussed by Mary Douglas (Thinking in Circles) and by the School of Semitic Rhetoric (https://www.retoricabiblicaesemitica.org/en/)? How do modes of emplotment and rhetorical patterns interact in the crafting of narratives loaded with religious/theological content? Do specific traditions privilege some patterns over others, or are rhetorical patterns evenly distributed among the various religious traditions?
  • Additionally, can other religious manifestations, such as ritual performances or architectural designs, obey compositional models identical to the ones followed in the production of writings, specifically of religious narratives?

We hope to gather contributions discussing religious writings—as well as artefacts or manifestations related to them—that originate from a number of traditions. As specified above, the focus needs to be on the unearthing of narrative and compositional models. If religious stories are located at the heart of our subject matter, we will be greatly interested in rapprochements made between modes of storytelling, on the one hand, and the rules governing architectural patterns, paintings or ornamental motives, or yet ritual sequences, on the other. The corpus gathered should help scholars in religion and literary criticism to determine further the criteria that explain the use of such narrative/compositional structure, taking into account (a) belief systems, (b) cultural/historical contexts, and/or (c) modes of perception and imaging, as studied and described by cognitive sciences.

Prof. Dr. Benoît Vermander
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • plot/emplotment
  • textual patterns
  • structural rhetoric
  • ring composition
  • religious narratives
  • religious artefacts
  • comparative classics
  • discourse analysis
  • narrative theology
  • cognitive sciences

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Published Papers (11 papers)

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Editorial

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4 pages, 684 KiB  
Editorial
Introduction to the Special Issue “Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives”
by Benoît Vermander
Religions 2023, 14(9), 1159; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14091159 - 11 Sep 2023
Viewed by 838
Abstract
This Special Issue crisscrosses three theoretical questions that the ten contributions gathered here integrate into a unified subject of investigation [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

15 pages, 304 KiB  
Article
Metaphors as Knowledge in Mystical Writings
by Cécile Xie
Religions 2023, 14(8), 1039; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14081039 - 14 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1639
Abstract
Writers anchored in the Christian mystical tradition generally present their spiritual experience as loaded with cognitive content bearing on things divine. The nature of this mystical knowledge, the way they receive it, and its effect on their existence can be fruitfully approached only [...] Read more.
Writers anchored in the Christian mystical tradition generally present their spiritual experience as loaded with cognitive content bearing on things divine. The nature of this mystical knowledge, the way they receive it, and its effect on their existence can be fruitfully approached only by elucidating the way their language and discourse make use of metaphors. Accordingly, starting with references to the early modern period, this article investigates a set of classical mystical metaphors so as to gain insight into the unique mode of metaphorical cognition, highlight the epistemological status proper to mystical experience, and distinguish the latter from other theological cognitive modes. Metaphors borrowed from daily life endow the mystical experience—of which the object is described as being beyond senses and reason—with a perceptible, comprehensible, and communicable configuration. At the same time, metaphors should not be regarded as being merely an approximate expression of an ineffable experience. Through the “gestalt” or structure of a metaphor, mystical experience locates itself and develops in spacetime, thus laying out the path of the spiritual journey. The way various metaphors naturally associate allows the expression, intensity, and self-understanding of spiritual experience to “grow” from one image to another. Thanks to the metaphorical operation, mystics are able to describe their journey and give spiritual direction, providing disciples and readers with concrete directions for reforming and renewing their lives. Furthermore, the connection that metaphor establishes between everyday routines and things divine allows for a two-way exchange of meanings: the objects or events met in daily life are “sanctified” as they become metaphors that convey spiritual understanding and allow an ever-growing number of people to “seek and find God in all things”. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives)
14 pages, 944 KiB  
Article
The Globalization of Catholicism as Expressed in the Sacramental Narratives of Jiangnan Catholics from the Late Ming to Early Republican Period
by Liang Zhang
Religions 2023, 14(6), 731; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060731 - 31 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1648
Abstract
From the Late Ming to the Republican period, Chinese Catholics living in Jiangnan (present-day Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Anhui) progressively appropriated the sacramental doctrine and practices of the Church. This study examines the implementation and evolution of the sacraments of baptism, marriage, and extreme [...] Read more.
From the Late Ming to the Republican period, Chinese Catholics living in Jiangnan (present-day Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Anhui) progressively appropriated the sacramental doctrine and practices of the Church. This study examines the implementation and evolution of the sacraments of baptism, marriage, and extreme unction, and it focuses on each of them at a different moment in the process of acculturation. The latter can be analyzed in terms of both localization and globalization: on the one hand, the religiosity displayed by the grassroots communities integrated elements proper to Chinese tradition and sensitivity. On the other hand, local believers developed a consciousness of their participation in the global Church through active sacramental practice. Sacramental acculturation and identity building were mediated by a “ritual rhetoric” that provided communities with topoi through which to endow their existence with accrued meaning and blessings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives)
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10 pages, 783 KiB  
Article
Water in the Mencius: Correlative Reasoning, Conceptual Metaphor, and/or Sacred Performative Narrative?
by Boxi Fu
Religions 2023, 14(6), 710; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060710 - 26 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2325
Abstract
The way the water metaphor is mobilized in Mencius 6A.2 has been interpreted and assessed from a number of perspectives. While several commentators find the analogy developed by Mencius comparing water and human nature intrinsically weak, others see it as partially effective in [...] Read more.
The way the water metaphor is mobilized in Mencius 6A.2 has been interpreted and assessed from a number of perspectives. While several commentators find the analogy developed by Mencius comparing water and human nature intrinsically weak, others see it as partially effective in its use of analogical reasoning or of conceptual metaphors, especially when related to a yin-yang-based cosmology. This contribution develops an alternative perspective: it locates this metaphor in the corpus of references to water found first in the Mencius and second in the works of Chinese antiquity until the early Han period. This survey allows us to highlight three important features: (a) a quasi-sacred status is attached to the aquatic element; (b) water’s characteristics are developed according to a narrative model, causing the reader to circulate from one level of reality to another, such that the communication between the heart–mind and Heaven opens up; and (c) finally, as they mobilize a sense of contemplation and wonder, water narratives are meant to be transformative of the disciple’s consciousness and behavior. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives)
11 pages, 849 KiB  
Article
Animals, Sages and Saints: Alfonso Vagnone’s Rhetorical Strategy in Chinese Context
by Sha Liu
Religions 2023, 14(6), 702; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060702 - 25 May 2023
Viewed by 1442
Abstract
Around 1632, while stationed in Shanxi Province (China), the Italian Jesuit Alfonso Vagnone published a pedagogical treatise entitled On the Education of Children (Tongyou jiaoyu) on which he had worked for several years. The book achieves a carefully crafted synthesis between [...] Read more.
Around 1632, while stationed in Shanxi Province (China), the Italian Jesuit Alfonso Vagnone published a pedagogical treatise entitled On the Education of Children (Tongyou jiaoyu) on which he had worked for several years. The book achieves a carefully crafted synthesis between Confucian educational principles, European Humanism, and Jesuit pedagogy. This is achieved through various rhetorical devices, one of them being the extensive use of animal simile, which prepares considerations about behavioral models to be found in (Pagan) Sages and (Christian) saints. This study focuses on the rhetorical and narrative methods through which Vagnone grounds a gradation and continuum between Nature and Grace, inserting his pedagogical considerations into a carefully crafted apologetics. Vagnone’s work is also remarkable by its implicit openness to various Confucian schools, while Matteo Ricci was drawing a sharp distinction between original Confucianism and the School of the Principle. In more than one way, Vagnone’s work is “ecumenical”. It makes the love for one’s offspring, found in all living species and in all nations, the ground of moral reform, itself conducive to greater openness toward revealed truths. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives)
16 pages, 1721 KiB  
Article
Hakkō Ichiu: Religious Rhetoric in Imperial Japan
by Ziming Wang
Religions 2023, 14(1), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14010021 - 22 Dec 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 6400
Abstract
The wartime propaganda slogan Hakkō Ichiu 八紘一宇 (“Unify the whole world under one roof”) was loaded with historical meaning: Japan was glorifying the aggression and colonization of war by fostering a specific interpretation of the narrative about how Jimmu, the first emperor, founded [...] Read more.
The wartime propaganda slogan Hakkō Ichiu 八紘一宇 (“Unify the whole world under one roof”) was loaded with historical meaning: Japan was glorifying the aggression and colonization of war by fostering a specific interpretation of the narrative about how Jimmu, the first emperor, founded the nation in State Shinto mythology. In this article, I consider this slogan as central to a religious rhetoric with nationalistic overtones and I analyze it in terms of etymology, connotation, and rhetorical devices. First, the expression Hakkō Ichiu originated in ancient East Asian cosmology, before becoming one of the rhetorical expressions of State Shinto, emphasizing the extent of the imperial reign. Second, the Nichirenist activist Tanaka Chigaku rediscovered it and gave it an expansionist connotation, fostering a syncretistic approach mixing Buddhist and Shinto features. Finally, during wartime, in official documents, lyrics, trademarks, etc., the slogan gave way to a number of graphic and monumental expressions, reinforcing its connections with militarism and ultranationalism. The most notable of these material expressions was the Hakkō Ichiu Tower, erected to commemorate the 2600th anniversary of the foundation of the nation and perpetuate the State Shinto rhetoric. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives)
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12 pages, 855 KiB  
Article
Jesuit Rhetoric and Language Studies in Modern Shanghai
by Wei Mo
Religions 2022, 13(12), 1129; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13121129 - 23 Nov 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1926
Abstract
From the sixteenth century onwards, the Jesuit educational model, as well as the method of evangelization propounded by the same religious Order, have been relying on the mastery of certain rhetorical techniques and, notably, in strong linguistic competency. This contribution examines how the [...] Read more.
From the sixteenth century onwards, the Jesuit educational model, as well as the method of evangelization propounded by the same religious Order, have been relying on the mastery of certain rhetorical techniques and, notably, in strong linguistic competency. This contribution examines how the Jesuits in modern Shanghai understood and put into application their traditional focus on rhetoric in the semi-colonial context of the time. After having recalled how Jesuits engaged with Chinese language and discourse in the Ming and early Qing dynasties, we take the 1923 Catalogue of the Jesuit publications in the missionary enclave of Zi-ka-wei as a reference point so as to describe and assess a number of trends that we summarize as follows. A privileged relationship was maintained between Latin and ancient Chinese and a growing interest in the “margins” and the way to address them efficiently triggered a renewal of ethnographic and linguistic studies; specifically, the expertise developed in dialectology testifies to the change that was occurring in the way to rhetorically address hearts and minds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives)
15 pages, 1014 KiB  
Article
The Reading of the Mencius by Korean Confucian Scholars: Rhetorical Exegesis and the Dao
by Min Jung You
Religions 2022, 13(10), 976; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13100976 - 17 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2040
Abstract
When Joseon Korea scholars were interpreting the Mencius (孟子: K. Maengja or Mengzi), they were focusing on its content and on its rhetorical elements at the same time. For a given commentator, selecting various rhetorical features (such as grammatical and lexical specificities) meant [...] Read more.
When Joseon Korea scholars were interpreting the Mencius (孟子: K. Maengja or Mengzi), they were focusing on its content and on its rhetorical elements at the same time. For a given commentator, selecting various rhetorical features (such as grammatical and lexical specificities) meant to read the dao 道 (K. do) of the Mencius in a fashion different from the one expounded by other scholars. In this article, I examine the relationship these commentators were establishing between the textual patterns of the Mencius and the encompassing reality, dao, as understood by this latter work. Specifically, I focus upon the works of two Joseon scholars—Yi Hwang 李滉’s Maengja seogui 孟子釋義 and Wi Baekgyu 魏伯珪’s Maengja chaui 孟子箚義. Through their reading, I notably attempt to (a) describe how rhetorically oriented exegeses had been maturing throughout this era; and to (b) elucidate how Korean commentators, through their rhetorical commentaries, put forward interpretations that differed from the ones propounded by the orthodox tradition as exemplified by Zhu Xi. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives)
23 pages, 8105 KiB  
Article
Representing and Experiencing Islamic Domes: Images, Cosmology, and Circumambulation
by Shunhua Jin
Religions 2022, 13(6), 526; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13060526 - 8 Jun 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4498
Abstract
Lindsay Jones developed the concept of “ritual-architectural event”, according to which the meaning of a sacred building depends upon the participant’s experience of it in the course of the rituals they perform. Starting from such approach, and taking the Islamic dome as my [...] Read more.
Lindsay Jones developed the concept of “ritual-architectural event”, according to which the meaning of a sacred building depends upon the participant’s experience of it in the course of the rituals they perform. Starting from such approach, and taking the Islamic dome as my subject-matter, I examine the correlations that link architectural forms, ritual performance, and participants’ experience into a whole. I first survey a corpus of images related to domes in two types of manuscripts (poetry, and pilgrimage narratives), showing how these images suggest cosmological patterns. The second part unfolds these representations, proceeding from cosmology to ritual. The third and last part focuses on circumambulation as the ritual experience that best embodies the previously identified cosmological patterns. The connection between the three dimensions discussed here is ascertained by the fact that the combination of circle and square structures relates both to Islamic graphic representations and ritual practices. An aesthetic/spiritual experience is awakened both in the mind and in the bodily senses of the viewer/practitioner: When Muslims stand under a dome, in front of the mihrab, thus facing Mecca, and when they behold the dome under which they stand, the view of this circular space possibly translates into a kind of mental and spiritual circumambulation. The conclusion suggests that the meaning attached to sacred architecture places is triggered by a complex of interactions between patterns referred respectively to the mind, bodily actions, and cultural settings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives)
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18 pages, 485 KiB  
Article
Jesus, the Anthropologist: Patterns of Emplotment and Modes of Action in the Parables
by Benoît Vermander
Religions 2022, 13(6), 480; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13060480 - 25 May 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2107
Abstract
This article uses a typology of action framework to analyze a selection of the gospels’ parables. It does so by connecting these parables to A. G. Haudricourt and C. Ferret’s research on the “anthropology of action”. After summarizing Haudricourt’s and Ferret’s results, I [...] Read more.
This article uses a typology of action framework to analyze a selection of the gospels’ parables. It does so by connecting these parables to A. G. Haudricourt and C. Ferret’s research on the “anthropology of action”. After summarizing Haudricourt’s and Ferret’s results, I relate modes of action to types of emplotment. I select four parables as the basis of my analysis, using J. P. Meier’s findings as a guide for selection. I discern in these four parables four modes of emplotment, which enables me to insert them into larger narrative networks found within the gospels. I locate the corpus of narratives determined this way in the context of Jesus’ time so as to better appreciate how the four modes of emplotment combine into a typology of action shaped by a specific social and cultural context. Within this typology of action, I put a spotlight on the way our corpus’ modes of emplotment make use of “discontinuous actions” (coined by Ferret). “Discontinuous actions” decisively initiate or correct a specified course of events. The stress on this dimension of action applies to the relationships occurring between humans and the natural world, within the social world, and between humans and the supranatural world, thus connecting one order of reality with another. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives)
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33 pages, 10105 KiB  
Article
The Religious Plot in Museums or the Lack Thereof: The Case of Islamic Art Display
by Valerie Gonzalez
Religions 2022, 13(4), 281; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13040281 - 24 Mar 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5680
Abstract
During the last decade, the curation of Islamic art and artifacts has been crossed by tensions at both the theoretical and practical level. Not only has it been continuously grappling with the Orientalist legacy, but it has also been operating in a global [...] Read more.
During the last decade, the curation of Islamic art and artifacts has been crossed by tensions at both the theoretical and practical level. Not only has it been continuously grappling with the Orientalist legacy, but it has also been operating in a global contemporaneity affected by multiple conflicts engendering a misperception of Muslims and Islam by non-Muslims. With this heavy background, this curation has been pursuing three main objectives: educating the public, decolonizing the museum, and reaching out to the Muslim communities and refugees living in non-Muslim societies. However, in the West, which remains worldly influential in the domain of heritage management, the first two objectives drove curators to engage in problematic practices, most notably the suppression of what we may call the “religious plot” in the exhibits’ narrative. Moreover, while the educational impulse led to a secular didactic scholasticism erected as the supreme exhibitory norm, the decolonizing enterprise took on an ideological turn in the form of a neo-postcolonial discourse at odds with a reality that has considerably changed since the seventies. Contesting the “being Islamic” of the material curated, this discourse separates religion from culture, thus relegating the faith to a theme among other multiple themes in the museum displays. That this state of affairs is problematic appears in crude light as, in the last decade, a new Muslim-led curatorship has been challenging this secularist curatorial politics. Re-centering Islam in the representational emplotment regarding Islamic culture in the exhibitory space and experimenting in the installations’ design to this effect, this curatorship, this essay’s author believes, holds the future of Islamic museology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plots and Rhetorical Patterns in Religious Narratives)
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