Jonathan Z. Smith (1938–2017)

Smith stresses the importance of place—in particular, constructed ritual environments—to a proper understanding of the ways in which "empty" actions become rituals. He structures his argument around the territories of the Tjilpa aborigines in Australia and two sites in Jerusalem—the temple envisioned by Ezekiel and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The first of these locales—the focus of one of the more important contemporary theories of religious ritual—allows Smith to raise questions concerning the enterprise of comparison. His close examination of Eliade's influential interpretation of the Tjilpa tradition leads to a powerful critique of the approach to religion, myth, and ritual that begins with cosmology and the category of "The Sacred."… (más)

This fairly slim book consists of five lecture texts:

* "On the Origin of Origins" begins the discussion, using the Jefferson-Adams correspondence on religious topics as a point of departure. It also orients around the writings of Priestly and Dupuis, and pinpoints the question of Christian origins in "Protestant anti-Catholic apologetics."

* "On Comparison" is a largely methodological piece, that incisively outlines the gambits of uniqueness and genealogy that have served the agendas of Protestant polemic and Christian supremacism in previous work on the topic.

* "On Comparing Words" discusses the philological arguments to date, and their subservience to theological efforts. Quite happily for me, Smith chose to use the term mysterion for illustrative purposes throughout this section. Among other things, I learned about the ancient Greek pun attributed by Athenaios to Dionysos Tyrannos: mysterion = mus terein, "mouseholes!" (p. 56 n)

* "On Comparing Stories" has a quick survey of "pagan Christs" literature, before focusing in on Frazer's 'dying and rising' god motif, and its application to Christianity in the work of Pfleiderer; then a discussion of the problems of data for historically-oriented comparisons.

* "On Comparing Settings" applies all of the foregoing to the question of comparing early Christianities (note the significant plural!) to other religions of antiquity, also bringing in Smith's locative/utopian distinction. Smith's confessed appreciation for and dependence on the Christian origins work of Burton Mack is clearest in this section.

Smith writes, "The Protestant hegemony over the enterprise of comparing the religions of Late Antiquity and early Christianities has been an affair of mythic conception and ritual practice from the outset." Aleister Crowley's Gospel According to St. Bernard Shaw (a.k.a. Jesus sub figura 888) still deserves that same valuation, despite its opposition to the Protestant hegemony, as he was fighting fire with fire. It was not "a thorough revaluation of the purposes of comparison" in service to "the scholarly imagination of religion," as Smith would prefer. But Crowley's tack adds an additional dimension to the history of the enterprise, and for those who wish to soldier on in the mythic and ritual battlefields, Smith's book is a stone that will sharpen any sword that can hold the edge.… (más)

The "place" of the title and of Smith's theory is not merely location, but also the "place" in sequence and the "place" in rank or value. He theorizes ritual as a "mode of paying attention," which creates and affirms distinctions and differences, rather than contents or essences. He thus draws comparisons between the "places" established by Tjilpa dreamtime narratives, ancient near eastern temple architecture, the system of the Mishnah, and the Christian liturgical year.

As always, Smith is rigorous and thorough in his treatment of his illustrative cases, and he applies a critical sensibility to the history of the scholarship of religion. Not only does he take Eliade to task over the universality of the "sacred axis," he dissects and addresses the abiding legacy of Protestant anti-Catholic polemics underlying the conception of "ritual" in academic discourse.… (más)