Conjuring (divine) authority: the myth of the 'found' text

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dc.contributor.authorPatrick, Heather
dc.contributor.examiningcommitteeMarx, Heidi (Religion)en_US
dc.contributor.examiningcommitteeIves, Peter (Political Science)en_US
dc.contributor.supervisorColorado, Carlos (Religion)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2018-09-17T16:05:55Z
dc.date.available2018-09-17T16:05:55Z
dc.date.issued2018-08en_US
dc.date.submitted2018-08-24T23:14:24Zen
dc.degree.disciplineReligionen_US
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts (M.A.)en_US
dc.description.abstractIn this study, I classify and examine a literary device that I term ‘the myth of the found text’ so as to explore how such stories operate to authorize and reinforce, especially religious, authority. Here I contend that individuals or groups in specific socio-historical contexts construct stories of found texts as a kind of conjuring trick, one that functions to confer the storyteller’s power and stature. By appealing to the authority of an ancient text allegedly newly recovered, these mythmakers are able to situate social programs and religious reforms in an imagined, ideal antiquity—an exemplary past. The creation and telling of such myths can thus be seen as a political manoeuvre, a manoeuvre that constructs an authority (the ‘found’ text) that is then cleverly protected from contestation. While we may be quick to impugn such strategies, they have much in common, I argue, with ‘religion’ and with scholarship itself.en_US
dc.description.noteOctober 2018en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1993/33411
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsopen accessen_US
dc.subjectComparative mythologyen_US
dc.subjectAelius Aristidesen_US
dc.subjectMargaret Atwooden_US
dc.subjectConstructing authorityen_US
dc.subjectBook of the lawen_US
dc.subjectTimaeusen_US
dc.subjectRecovered documentsen_US
dc.subjectSocial memory theoryen_US
dc.subjectHistory of religionen_US
dc.subjectMethod and theory in the study of religionen_US
dc.subjectFabrication and forgeryen_US
dc.subjectInvented religionsen_US
dc.titleConjuring (divine) authority: the myth of the 'found' texten_US
dc.typemaster thesisen_US
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