Semiotics of Religion: Signs of the Sacred in History (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781441142825)

Following the heyday of Lévi-Straussian structuralism in the 1970s-80s, little attention has been paid by scholars of religion to semiotics. Semiotics of Religion reassesses key semiotic theories in the light of religious data. Yelle examines the semiotics of religion from structural and historical perspectives, drawing on Peircean linguistic anthropology, Jakobsonian poetics, comparative religion and several theological traditions. This book pays particular attention to the transformation of religious symbolism under modernization and the rise of a culture of the printed book. Among the topics addressed are:

- ritual repetition and the poetics of ritual performance
- magic and the belief in a natural (iconic) language
- Protestant literalism and iconoclasm
- disenchantment and secularization
- Holiness, arbitrariness, and agency

Building from the legacy of structuralism while interrogating several key doctrines of that movement, Semiotics of Religion both introduces the field to a new generation and charts a course for future research.

Author: Robert A. Yelle
ISBN-10: 1441142827
ISBN-13: 9781441142825
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Language: English
Published: 12/20/2012
Pages: 224
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2013