Do Mushrooms Have Religion, Too?
Issue: Vol 46 No. 3-4 (2017)
Journal: Bulletin for the Study of Religion
Subject Areas: Religious Studies Buddhist Studies Islamic Studies Biblical Studies
DOI: 10.1558/bsor.33142
Abstract:
I argue in the paper that Donovan Schaefer’s inclusion of animality in the realm of religion via affect rests on the exclusion of non-animal bodies. This exclusion, moreover, is wrapped up in the type of affect theory that Schaefer deploys, specifically phenomenological and psychological approaches over-against Deleuzian and Spinozistic models. Drawing on the latter, among others, and recent studies concerning plants and various fungi, I argue for the inclusion of non-animal life within the discussion of the relationship between affect and religion. I also suggest that such an inclusion may be grasped through investigation into the use and effects of hallucinogenic substances, or “ecodelics,” as Richard Doyle refers to them.
Author: Hollis Phelps
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