Voices from Beyond

The voice is a fleeting medium. As the primary means of human communication, it also plays an important role in religion. And yet it is difficult to grasp and seems to elude discussion. But a research project at the Cluster of Excellence has nonetheless approached the voice in a religious context: scholars from various disciplines have studied the voice as a medium of religious communication, and have discovered in historical testimonies, as well as in literature and artwork from various religions and cultures from antiquity to the present day, what can be called "voices from beyond". Literature scholar Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf explains: "Whether in texts or images, radio programmes or films: in numerous works from various ages and religions people have heard voices they regard as divine. There is, for example, the conversion of Saul at Damascus, as narrated in the Acts of the Apostles: Saul hears a voice from heaven together with an apparition of light, and the voice says to him: 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me'' When demons are exorcised, spirit beings can also be heard. These occurrences of voices link this world with the beyond".