W1 Reading.1 -- Natural/Supernatural Conceptions in Western Cultural Contexts

Context & Article Metadata

  • Article: “Natural/supernatural conceptions in Western cultural contexts”

    • Author: Michael Jindra

    • Journal: Anthropological Forum 13:213:2 (2003), pp. 159!–!166159!–!166

    • DOI: 10.1080/006646703200012982410.1080/0066467032000129824

    • ISSN: 0066!–!46770066!–!4677 (Print), 1469!–!29021469!–!2902 (Online)

    • Published online: 9 June 2010

  • Central question: How stable or useful is the natural/supernatural dichotomy once the category of “religion” itself is problematized?

  • Method: Comparative synthesis of historical theology, Western intellectual history, anthropology of religion, & case‐study material on new religious movements (NRMs).

Key Aims & Claims

  • Not calling for abolishing the word “supernatural,” but showing that its boundary with “natural” dissolves in many modern & non-modern contexts.

  • Stronger case exists for abolishing “religion” as a universal category (per Timothy Fitzgerald).

  • Western “modern ideology” (Louis Dumont) hinges on fact/value, nature/relativism splits → these splits are historically contingent, not universal.

  • Diverse cosmologies (Hindu, Japanese, African, Native American, Indonesian) contain beings/powers that violate any rigid natural–supernatural border.

  • Even Western folk culture, popular media, science fandom, & therapeutic movements blend “naturalistic” frames with “superempirical” elements.

Historical Trajectory of the Dichotomy

  • Early Christianity: Creator–creation model → logical space for “natural law” vs “miracle.”

    • Catholic canonization delays show difficulty adjudicating intervention vs lawlike order.

  • Scientific Revolution: Natural/supernatural split crucial; God dropped by later secularists, yet the framework remained.

  • Enlightenment & Hegelian progress‐ideologies: Secular ideals (progress, liberty, nationalism) became functional equivalents of deities.

    • e.g., Jules Michelet: “France should take the place of God”; Comte/Frazer → Science as utopia engine.

Concept Drift: Ideals as Quasi-Supernatural

  • Iconography uses personifications (Liberty, Progress).

  • Stewart Guthrie finds no art-historical boundary between gods & idealized abstractions.

  • State mottos blend God, Providence, People, Progress, etc.; Wisconsin’s Capitol statue “Forward” facing East as 19th-c. progress icon.

Why Boundaries Blur in the Modern West

  • Charles Taylor: Exclusive naturalism is existentially unsatisfactory; humans hunger for meaning.

  • “Cold rationalism” → perpetual NRM ferment; mix & match ontologies; overlapping natural/scientific & spiritual registers.

New Religious Movements & Quasi-Religions

General Traits

  • Often “mythological fragments” (Hexham) under the “New Age” umbrella.

  • Borrow scientific rhetoric → parascience / pseudoscience: belief in science–spirituality convergence (Lambert).

  • Global, not merely Western: evidence in Africa, Asia.

Illustrative Clusters

  • Human Potential, Scientology, Transcendental Meditation, Christian Science → instrumental reason + transcendence.

  • Neo-paganism / Wicca / Astrology / UFO faiths integrate ritual magic with evolutionary or technological idioms.

  • Macintosh devotion (Lam): Mystical bond among users; gnostic & utopian overtones; Eastern & Western syncretism.

  • Star Trek fandom (Jindra 1994):

    • Secular humanist canon (Gene Roddenberry) but fans build quasi-religious structures: pilgrimages, sacred texts (technical manuals), charity, mythic utopia.

    • Blurs natural (science, fact/value split) & supernatural (time travel, Q-continuum).

  • Star Wars & The X-Files: hybrid narratives (“The Force,” conspiratorial paranormal) straddle science & magic.

Theoretical Insights

  • Malinowski: Boundary between common sense & magic always fuzzy.

  • Swatos: Science morphs into magic when mastery fails; modern enchantment.

  • Dawson: NRMs mix pre-modern, modern, post-modern elements; focus on “little transcendences” (Beckford).

Case Study: Unitarian Universalism (UU)

  • Origins: 19th19^{th}-c. rationalist revolt against Protestant supernaturalism.

  • Historical Tension:

    • Rationalists vs. Transcendentalists/Spiritualists (e.g., Emerson).

    • 20th20^{th}-c.: Humanists/Atheists eclipse Theists; anti-supernatural modernism peaks in 1950s–60s.

  • 1980s on: membership decline → spiritual revitalization: meditation, healing rituals, Neo-pagan, Zen, Native elements.

    • Core idea: each human “embodies a spark of the divine.”

    • Older humanists feel marginalised; yet many members integrate both science & mysticism seamlessly.

  • Lesson: Even highly educated, reason-oriented bodies cannot maintain a strict natural/supernatural firewall.

Terminology Debate & Proposed Solutions

  • Supernatural problematic in both non-Western & Western pluralist scenes; often emic-specific.

  • Need for an etic term “superempirical” (Yinger):

    • Defines phenomena by methodological inaccessibility rather than ontological status.

    • Compatible with cases where unseen & seen are both called “natural.”

    • Used to map paranormal rise in Sweden (Sjödin).

  • Anthropologists should avoid importing Western theological binaries into analysis except when those binaries are themselves native categories.

Philosophical & Ethical Implications

  • Fact/value & nature/supernature splits are cultural artefacts; questioning them destabilizes secularist self-image.

  • Meaning-making (Bellah, Taylor) is indispensable; hence “faith” can be placed in humanity, science, ancestors, ideals.

  • Secular science frequently reaches for theological language (Einstein, Hawking).

  • Social science may itself be a narrative or theological discourse (Milbank, Postman, Smith).

Practical Take-Aways for Exam Preparation

  • Be able to trace the genealogy of the natural/supernatural distinction: Early Christianity → Natural Law → Science → Secularism.

  • Memorize key scholars & works: Dumont, Fitzgerald, Saler, Guthrie, Hexham, Swatos, Dawson, Taylor, Yinger, etc.

  • Prepare examples that collapse the dichotomy: NRMs, Star Trek, UU, Mac fandom, New Age therapeutics.

  • Understand “superempirical” as a recommended etic replacement.

  • Anticipate essay prompts asking whether modern ideals (progress, nationalism) function religiously.

Glossary of Core Terms

  • Natural: Realm of objective, law-like facts (in Western modernist sense).

  • Supernatural: Realm beyond or outside “nature”; divine, miraculous, spirit interventions.

  • Superempirical: Phenomena posited by actors that lie beyond current empirical verification.

  • New Religious Movement (NRM): Recent, often syncretic group challenging mainstream religious categorization.

  • Parascience: Movements borrowing scientific aesthetics while proposing unverifiable claims.

  • Reflexive spirituality: Practice blending critical rationality with the search for transcendence.

Reference List (for further study)

  • Aragon 2000; Beckford 1992; Bellah 1970; Besecke 2001; Braudel 1994; Casanova 2001; Chilver 1990; Dawson 1998; Dumont 1986; Fitzgerald 2000; Greil & Robbins 1994; Griffin 2001; Guthrie 1993; Hexham 1994; Jindra 1994; Kapferer 2001; Klass 1995; Kopytoff 1971; Lam 2001; Lambert 1999; Lee 1995; Lewis 1995; MacIntyre 1984; Malinowski 1979; Milbank 1990; Postman 1988; Pouillon 1982; Rieff 1966; Roof 1999; Saler 1977; Shearer & Shearer 1994; Sjödin 2002; Smith 2003; Stewart 2001; Swatos 1983; Taylor 1989; Yinger 1970.