i think i'd like to do a religion thread on here some time. a way to whet my writing, which i've put off for too long. i'd want it to be opening up some of the repetitions i see in the discourses of ostensibly left critics (like anarchists)
i wonder how the Brent Nongbri book "Before Religion" would be received
@exiliaex
I have only just read Before religion's blurb and I don't see why I would object to the few lines that I read.
On a related note there is a book by Paul Veyne called "did the greeks believe their myths - essay on constituting imagination" that might interest you. The thesis is that our concept of belief, this idea of believing something to be true does not apply to how ancient religions were practised. It was about adhering to shared narratives which in turn felt powerful enough to influence reality. Like people would invoke Athena to be imbued by her knowledge as if we tried to think of superman to feel stronger. There's a lot more than that of course but that was the main idea I remember from 25 years ago when I read it.
If you look for the book the title might be translated differently in English, I just translated literally from french.
@exiliaex
There is a translation on the internet archive.