Interpreting and explaining Transcendence : interdisciplinary approaches to the Beyond / edited by Robert A. Yelle and Jenny Ponzo. (Text)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

How to talk about transcendence / Robert A. Yelle, Jenny Ponzo -- On the physiology of transcendence / Gustavo Benavides -- Reconceptualizing the Axial Age as the re-emergence of transcendence: Why religio-cultural entrepreneurship matters / Seth Abrutyn -- Talking (and arguing) with transcendence / Ugo Volli -- Transcendence without difference? Reflections on the Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā / Martin Lehnert -- Transcendence and imagination: Some thoughts on two related concepts in the context of spirit possession / Katharina Wilkens -- Beyond meaning: Prospections of Suprematist semiotics / Massimo Leone -- The immanence/transcendence distinction at work: The case of the Apostles' Creed / Volkhard Krech -- Adveniat regnum tuum: Revolutionary paths toward religious transcendence in Italian contemporary narrative / Jenny Ponzo.

"In this volume, an interdisciplinary group of scholars uses history, sociology, anthropology, and semiotics to approach Transcendence as a human phenomenon, and shows the unavoidability of thinking with and through the Beyond. Religious experience has often been defined as an encounter with a transcendent God. Yet humans arguably have always tried to get outside or beyond themselves and society. The drive to exceed some limit or condition of finitude is an enduring aspect of culture, even in a "disenchanted" society that may have cut off most paths of access to the Beyond. The contributors to this volume demonstrate the humanity of Transcendence in various ways: as an effort to get beyond our crass physical materiality; as spiritual entrepreneurship; as the ecstasy of rituals of possession; and as a literary, aesthetic, and semiotic event. These efforts build from a shared conviction that Transcendence is thoroughly human, and accordingly avoid purely confessional and parochial approaches while taking seriously the various claims and behavioral expressions of traditions in which Transcendence has been understood in theological terms".