Eating and drinking with gods: a comparative workshop

Nar­ra­tives and prac­tices of offer­ing hos­pi­tal­i­ty to the divine have a place in numer­ous reli­gions past and present. Across geo­gra­phies and periods,gods and oth­er invis­i­ble beings are offered human food and drink in human settings.Buddhism, Hin­duism, Judaism and Chris­tian­i­ty today, and Grae­­co-Roman, Hit­tite and Egypt­ian reli­gions in antiq­ui­ty, are just some of the reli­gions that offer instances of hos­pi­tal­i­ty for, and even forms of com­men­sal­i­ty with, the divine.

Eat­ing and drink­ing with gods involves com­plex forms of belief. On the one hand, such hos­pi­tal­i­ty holds out the promise of inter­ac­tion with the divine in a know­able human con­text, in the hope of anchor­ing divine pres­ence in the here and now. On the oth­er hand, many of these prac­tices and sto­ries are marked by a sense of lim­i­ta­tion. They respond to a need for prox­im­i­ty with the divine, yet often also reflect the uncer­tain­ty of divine pres­ence and the chal­lenge of imag­in­ing gods and invis­i­ble beings eat­ing in a human set­ting.

The work­shop will bring togeth­er experts in dif­fer­ent reli­gions, geo­gra­phies and peri­ods with the aim of explor­ing hos­pi­tal­i­ty for the divine from a com­par­a­tive per­spec­tive. The pri­ma­ry focus is the reli­gious imag­i­na­tion. We are invit­ing pro­pos­als for papers on prac­tices, nar­ra­tives and visu­al art in any con­text, on top­ics includ­ing:

-How do wor­ship­pers imag­ine com­men­sal­i­ty with the gods?

-How are abstract beliefs anchored in con­crete man­i­fes­ta­tions of the divine? To what extent, and how, is abstract divine pres­ence made con­crete through var­i­ous sorts of divine anthro­po­mor­phism?

-How do myth­i­cal nar­ra­tives and visu­al rep­re­sen­ta­tions of human hos­pi­tal­i­ty for gods relate to rit­u­al prac­tice?

-How do humans expe­ri­ence divine pres­ence dur­ing rit­u­als by anchor­ing it in objects and spa­tial configuration?How do prac­tices of host­ing gods that use props and spaces help wor­ship­pers expe­ri­ence divine pres­ence in the here and now?

-How does offer­ing human-style hos­pi­tal­i­ty to the gods com­pare to blood sac­ri­fice and to prac­tices of leav­ing food­stuff such as cakes for gods? How is human pres­ence and human-divine inter­ac­tion imag­ined in each?

-The his­tor­i­cal devel­op­ment of these prac­tices as anchored inno­va­tions. How does hos­pi­tal­i­ty for the gods arise in dif­fer­ent cul­tures? To what extent is it based on ear­li­er prac­tices and dis­cours­es of hos­pi­tal­i­ty for (dis­tin­guished) humans?

Con­firmed speak­ers: Simon Gold­hill, Ute Hüsken, Rita Langer and Tanya Luhrmann.

Please send an abstract of ca. 250 words togeth­er with a biog­ra­phy of up to 100 words to Sask­ia Peels-Matthey (s.peels@rug.nl) and Felix Budel­mann (f.j.budelmann@rug.nl). Papers will be 25 min­utes, the dead­line for abstracts is April 1st.