power
metaphysics of presence, and other undesirable things, like authority, the
scientific worldview, hierarchy, hegemony, and grand narratives.
Postmodernists stress the present over the past and future, reflecting their
convictions that the future offers little hope for realizing utopian dreams
and that the past is associated with authority, hegemony, and ideology.
Postmodernists desire to be free of tradition to view indifferently the play
of heterogeneous discourses.
Further reading: Derrida (1976); Lyotard (1985)
POWER
The concept of power is a ubiquitous feature of religions viewed cross-
culturally, although it appears under different names with distinct mean-
ings. In Japan, the kami are spiritual forces vaguely associated with
various types of natural and supernatural powers. Chinese Daoism holds
Dao to be a mysterious power because of its invisible, inaudible, and
subtle nature, and De (virtue, power) is a force within things, which dif-
ferentiates one thing from another. The major monotheistic religions of
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam agree that God is all-powerful and the
source of power. The Qur’an, for instance, affirms that Allah is all-pow-
erful and possesses power over everything (6.17). Moreover, the Arabic
term barakh, which means literally blessing, is a mysterious power pos-
sessed by the prophet Muhammad and to a lesser degree by Muslim
saints. Among North American Native Indians, power is associated with
the manitou among the Algonquian people, orenda among the Iroquois,
and wakan among the Sioux. Numerous other examples could be recited
from other past and present religious traditions. The possibility of a pre-
cise definition of power, however, is a challenge for scholars.
In Religion in Essence and Manifestation, Gerardus van der Leeuw
(1890–1950), a Dutch phenomenologist of religion, argues that power
belongs to both the subjective and objective aspect of religion. He stresses
the impersonal, potent, and dangerous nature of power. When a powerful
person or thing is revealed it is set apart and distinguished from every-
thing else. This distinguishing indicates that the powerful person or thing
is dangerous and thus taboo, a warning that the powerless person should
maintain his/her distance and secure protection. When power is revealed
in a person or thing it is being authenticated. Power can become collec-
tive in the sense that actions, thoughts, and principles of human beings
can represent a collection of power, even though it may be independent