Raffaele Pettazzoni

Raffaele Pettazzoni(3 February 1883, inSan Giovanni in Persiceto– 8 December 1959, inRome) was anItaliananthropologist,archaeologist,professor,andhistorian of religion.He was one of the first academics to propose a historical approach to thestudy of religions.He was editor-in-chief of the academic journalNumenpublished byBrill Academic Publishers,and president of the International Association for the History of Religions from 1950 to 1959.

During his career as a historian of religion andscholarofReligious studies,which spans more than thirty years, Pettazzoni conducted several extensive researches on thePrehistoric religion of the ancient Italic peoples,GreekandRomanpolytheism,Iranic religions,and theevolutionary origin of religions.

Biography

Raffaele Pettazzoni was born 1883 inSan Giovanni in Persiceto,province ofBologna,graduated inItalian literature,studied at theUniversity of Bolognaand specialized there in 1905 with a degree inarchaeologyat the Italian School of Archaeology. In 1909 he was appointed Inspector to thePrehistoric and Ethnographic MuseuminRome.

In 1923, he became professor of history at theRoyal University of Rome,and in 1924 presented his first university course in thehistory of religion.Pettazzoni introduced this discipline in the Italian academic world and went on to become one of the most important figures in his homecountry.He became renowned as one of the firstscholarsto apply the methods ofcomparative historyto thestudy of religions.Among his students in Rome there were also Angelo Brelich and Dario Sabbatucci, two other major historians of religion that have founded the so-called "Roman School"(Scuola di Roma).He served as director of the History of Religions and Folklore for theItalian Encyclopedia(Enciclopedia Italiana) from 1925 to 1937, in 1933 he was named Academic of Italy, and in 1938 signed the "Manifesto of Race"promulgated by theFascist regime of Italy.

Following the end of World War II,he became a member of the nationalAccademia dei Lincei,President of the International Association of History of Religions in 1950, and editor-in-chief of the academic journalNumen.He retired from teaching at the end of the 1952–1953 academic year, having reached retirement age. He died in Rome in 1959.

Influence

Pettazzoni was among the first to propose a historical approach to the study of religion and helped institutionalize thehistory of religionas an autonomous historical discipline in Italy.He founded theRoman School of history of religions(1920s) and the academic journalStudies and materials of history of religions(1925). Comparison of different forms of religion are not limited to a single field, Pettazzoni writes inGod's omniscience.His seven-hundred page work was the culmination of a lifetime of research that fundamentally challenged and undermined the speculative theories on theevolutionary origin of religionspropounded by the Catholic priestWilhelm Schmidt.During his studies of theology, he struggled against theCatholic Church's monopoly on Religious studies in Italy and against anti-clerical secularist academics, such as the Italian professor of philosophyBenedetto Croce,who held the study of religions to be an academically lazy and uninteresting discipline.

Thought

A significant part of Pettazzoni's work on thestudyofancient religionswas devoted to refuting the speculative theory of "primordial monotheism" (Urmonotheismus) previously developed by the Catholic priestWilhelm Schmidt,and the study of the conceptions of theSupreme Beingin so-called"primitive" religions.Schmidt believed to have found evidence ofmonotheismintribal societies,and argued that all human societies recognize the Supreme Being as a non-exclusive spiritual entity which is paramount but also opposed by other spiritual entities.Pettazzoni challenged Schmidt's concept of a Supreme Being as necessarily entailing monotheism.Rather, Pettazzoni writes that monotheism is a recent religious development over the course of a slow revolution inpolytheismand perhapshenotheism.In theHebrew Bible,this debate is carried on by the narrations on theOld Testament prophetswho wrangle with theCanaanite gods,which serve to re-affirm both theethical monotheismof theIsraelitesin opposition to the Canaanite religion and their belief in one exclusivetranscendentdeitycoexisting with lesser divine beings.(See also:God in Abrahamic religions).

According to Pettazzoni's analysis, Schmidt confused science and theology, as he writes in the bookletThe supreme being in primitive religions(1957). For Pettazzoni, the idea of a god in primitive religions is not ana prioriconcept independent of historical contexts; there is only the historical context, and arises from varying existential conditions within each type of human society. It is only within that societal context that the idea of God can satisfy, hence the Supreme Being does not exista priori.Therefore, one finds the Supreme Being defined variously as the one who sends therain,the protector of thehunt,or even as a life-giver associated with thesoilandharvestinagrarian societies—unique historical contexts that give rise to their own particular conception of the Supreme Being. Pettazzoni argues that religion must be conceived first and foremost as ahistorical product,conditioned by historical, cultural, and social contexts, with unique influence on other social and cultural realities within the same human society that produced it.

As a historical product conditioned by variable socio-cultural circumstances, Pettazzoni noted that a plurality of stories corresponds to aplurality of religions:every nation has its own history and thus their religion and their answers to the great problems of humanity. What makes religion different from other social and cultural phenomena is its significance in therites of passage:the religion, therefore, concerns the important moments of life of the individual.

For Pettazzoni it is important in the study of religion to preserve a religion's specificity as acultural product of human societies,and therefore requires a particular method of study. Specifically, Pettazzoni adoptedcomparative history,which shared much in common with the comparative method inclassical anthropology,favored by British scientists studying affinities and analogies between cultures.

Works

• Primitive religion in Sardinia,1912
• The religion of Zarathustra in the religious history of Iran,1920
• Religion in ancient Greece until Alexander,1921
• God: training and development of monotheism(Vol. I:The heavenly beings in the beliefs of primitive peoples,1922)
• Mysteries,1924
• The confession of sins(3 vols., 1929–1935)
• Essays on the history of religion and mythology,1946
• Myths and legends(4 vols., 1948–1963)
• Essays on History of Religion,1954
• The omniscience of God,1955
• The supreme being in primitive religions,1957
• Religion and Society(posthumously in 1966)

External links

• Official website(in Italian)