Do Thor and Odin have bodies? Superperception and divine intervention among the Old Norse Gods

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dc.contributor.authorTaggart, Declan
dc.contributor.funderIrish Research Councilen
dc.date.accessioned2019-10-06T20:45:36Z
dc.date.available2019-10-06T20:45:36Z
dc.date.issued2019-08-06
dc.description.abstractIn Old Norse mythology, gods like Freyja, Odin, and Thor are usually characterized as human-like creatures: they walk and ride animals, eat, grow old, and even die. Was there more to conceptions of Old Norse gods than those anthropomorphic representations? This article presents evidence that the gods of early Scandinavia were sometimes thought of as superperceiving and able to act in ways that defied the limitations of a physical body. It engages with and challenges theological correctness, a prominent theory in the Cognitive Science of Religion, to elucidate the sources of Old Norse religion and the cognitive and contextual foundations of the representations of gods encountered there. Following an examination of the mechanisms through which Old Norse gods’ superperception and disembodied action were narrativized and rationalized, the article concludes with a discussion of the consequences of non-anthropomorphic representations of the gods for understanding Scandinavian worshippers’ everyday religious life.en
dc.description.sponsorshipIrish Research Council (GOIPD/2017/1171)en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.articleid468en
dc.identifier.citationTaggart, D. (2019) 'Do Thor and Odin Have Bodies? Superperception and Divine Intervention among the Old Norse Gods', Religions,10(8), 468. (21pp.) DOI: 10.3390/rel10080468en
dc.identifier.doi10.3390/rel10080468en
dc.identifier.eissn2077-1444
dc.identifier.endpage21en
dc.identifier.issued8en
dc.identifier.journaltitleReligionsen
dc.identifier.startpage1en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/8698
dc.identifier.volume10en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherMDPIen
dc.relation.urihttps://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/8/468
dc.rights© The Author(s) 2019. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citeden
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectOld Norse mythologyen
dc.subjectOld Norse religionen
dc.subjectTheological correctnessen
dc.subjectAnthropomorphismen
dc.subjectMonitoringen
dc.subjectCognitive Science of Religionen
dc.subjectThoren
dc.subjectOdinen
dc.titleDo Thor and Odin have bodies? Superperception and divine intervention among the Old Norse Godsen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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