Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis is a publication series published by the Donner Institute for research in Religious and Cultural History in Åbo, Finland. The aim of the institute, which is attached to the Foundation of Åbo Akademi University, is to conduct and promote scholarly research in the field of religion.
Vol. 2 (1967): Fatalistic Beliefs in Religion, Folklore, and Literature
Religions are often thought to help human beings to adjust themselves to the realities of life, to give them an understanding of what happens – i.e. to enable them to relate in some way to what they regard as their fate or destiny. This volume strives to analyse attitudes towards destiny in a systematic way, focusing on the interrelation of fatalism with other aspects of faith and belief in several religious traditions.
Some of the articles show how the alternatives God, fate, and chance overlap in a series of blended forms. Other texts focus on the spectrum of beliefs regarding destiny and their place in different religions: ranging from a feeling of total dependence to the proud conviction that man is the architect of his own fortune, from pessimistic resignation to heroic defiance or positive acceptance of one’s fate.
The volume is based on papers read at the Symposium on Fatalistic Beliefs held at Åbo on the 7th-9th of September, 1964. Ed. by Helmer Ringgren. Stockholm : Almqvist & Wiksell, 1967.
Published:
1967-08-01
