Krawcowicz/Thinking, 13. Orphism

Lech Trzcionkowski, builds on Smith’s reflection on classification, taxonomy, and comparison to investigate the genealogy of “Orphism”—a name ostensibly referring to a Hellenistic mystery religion. Trzcionkowski traces the history of the term created in the 19th century in an atmosphere of a quest for deeper spirituality and purporting to refer to a kind of pagan mystique church The concept, he points out, was built on arguments used in the polemics between Catholic and Protestant scholars and, as with other –ism formations, suggests a whole that actually never existed, but was created out of existing fragments.