| FB-50335-04 | Research Programs: Fellowships for College Teachers and Independent Scholars | John E. Cort | Idol Worshipers and Their Critics | 7/1/2005 - 6/30/2006 | $40,000.00 | John | E. | Cort | | | | Denison University | Granville | OH | 43023-1100 | USA | 2003 | Nonwestern Religion | Fellowships for College Teachers and Independent Scholars | Research Programs | 40000 | 0 | 40000 | 0 |
This project is a book-length manuscript on discourses, ritual practices, and attitudes concerning the appropriateness of religious temple images within the Jain tradition of South Asia. Portions of this research have been presented in conference papers and printed articles, and I have a detailed outline of the projected book. Funding would allow me freedom from the heavy teaching responsibilities of a small liberal arts college in order to finish the manuscript. The book will contribute to the specific field of Jain studies, more broadly to our understanding of the religious history of South Asia, and most broadly to an enhanced understanding of the tensions and contestations at the intersection of art and religion. While it is important to understand how religion and art have overlapped and reinforced each other throughout history, the power of this connection is fully perceived only when we recognize that throughout many people have also critiqued the connection as problematic and even fundamentally wrong. |