Philosophy and living religion: an introduction

Hewitt, Simon; Scrutton, Anastasia Philippa

doi:10.1080/21692327.2018.1475106

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In ignoring so many traditions, the questions philosophers of religion ask (and the answers they offer) reveal a degree of religious illiteracy that throws doubt on its relevance to the academic study of religion and on whether it even deserves the name philosophy of religion. However, even within its narrow confines, the traditional philosophy of religion has been slow to move beyond a highly intellectualized and abstract "theism" that bears little resemblance to how religions are practiced and lived (Hewitt and Scrutton 2018). One sees this conspicuous intellectualism in the almost unswerving focus on belief and doctrine at the expense of all other practical aspects of religious life.…”

Section: Afro-brazilian Religionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Afro-Brazilian Religions and the Prospects for a Philosophy of Religious Practice

Porcher

Carlucci²

2023

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper, we take our cue from Kevin Schilbrack’s admonishment that the philosophy of religion needs to take religious practices seriously as an object of investigation. We do so by offering Afro-Brazilian traditions as an example of the methodological poverty of current philosophical engagement with religions that are not text-based, belief-focused, and institutionalized. Anthropologists have studied these primarily orally transmitted traditions for nearly a century. Still, they involve practices, such as offering and sacrifice as well as spirit possession and mediumship, that have yet to receive attention from philosophers. We argue that this is not an accident: philosophers have had a highly restricted diet of examples, have not looked at ethnography as source material, and thus still need to put together a methodology to tackle such practices. After elucidating Schilbrack’s suggestions to adopt an embodiment paradigm and apply conceptual metaphor theory and the extended mind thesis to consider religious practices as thoughtful, we offer criticism of the specifics of his threefold solution. First, it assumes language is linear; second, it takes a problematic view of the body; and third, it abides by a misleading view of the “levels” of cognition. We conclude that the philosophy of religion should adopt enactivism to understand religious practices as cognitive enterprises.

show abstract

Section: Afro-brazilian Religionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Afro-Brazilian Religions and the Prospects for a Philosophy of Religious Practice

Porcher

Carlucci²

2023

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Not all agree with this analysis (Ruether 1983;Coakley 2002;Haynes 2014a), and I suggest something of the possibilities of religion for shaping liberating forms of life as we proceed. Recent work in the philosophy of religion suggests the need to reflect upon 'living religion' (Hewitt and Scrutton 2018), locating analysis of religion in the lived experience of religious communities (Burley 2020), rather than solely in assessment of accounts of God that can appear overly abstracted from the living out of a religious faith. The desire for more nuanced engagements with the phenomenon of religion is, similarly, reflected in what follows, and, here, the reflections of black feminist and women theologians are most helpful for the development of a feminist philosophy of religion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feminism, Religion and Practical Reason

Clack

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pamela Sue Anderson's A Feminist Philosophy of Religion (1998) and Grace Jantzen's Becoming Divine: Towards a Feminist Philosophy of Religion (1998) set the tone for subsequent feminist philosophies of religion. This Element builds upon the legacy of their investigations, revisiting and extending aspects of their work for a contemporary context struggling with the impact of 'post-truth' forms of politics. Reclaiming the power of collective action felt in religious community and the importance of the struggle for truth enables a changed perspective on the world, itself necessary to realise the feminist desire for more flourishing forms of life and relationship crucial to feminist philosophy of religion.

show abstract

“…An overemphasis on intellectual, doctrinal, or doxastic components of religion at the expense of other aspects has been notable in philosophy of religion. It is in an effort to counteract this overemphasis that some contemporary philosophers working in this area have sought to refocus attention on 'lived religion' (Clack 2018;Knepper 2021), 'living religion' (Hewitt and Scrutton 2018), or 'the priority of practice' in religious traditions (Cottingham 2005, 151;Burley 2018). Unwittingly echoing earlier figures such as Marett, Kevin Schilbrack identifies 'intellectualism' as one of three cardinal problems with what he calls 'traditional philosophy of religion ' (2014, xi-xii), the other two problems being 'narrowness' (in the sense of a narrow preoccupation with only a small subset of religions) and 'insularity' (in the sense of a lack of engagement with other branches of philosophy and with other disciplines involved in the study of religion).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Not so much thought out as danced out’: expanding philosophy of religion in the light of Candomblé

Burley

2024

Rel. Stud.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When the anthropologist R. R. Marett affirmed that certain forms of religion are ‘not so much thought out as danced out’ (1914, xxxi), he was, in effect, anticipating a criticism that has been levelled at philosophy of religion in recent decades – namely, the criticism that this branch of philosophy has frequently underplayed the extent to which religions often prioritize ritual activities (including dance) over intellectual matters. Taking Marett's observation as a point of departure, this article reflects philosophically on the Afro-Brazilian tradition of Candomblé as an exemplary case. Special attention is given to the themes of (a) dance as a mode of ‘gestural language’ (Wafer 1991, 178) and (b) ‘embodied knowledge’ (Daniel 2005). It is argued that these themes supply opportunities to enrich our understanding not only of a significant dimension of religion – that is, the dimension of dance – but also of what communication and knowledge can amount to in both religious and non-religious contexts.

show abstract

Philosophy and living religion: an introduction

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Afro-Brazilian Religions and the Prospects for a Philosophy of Religious Practice

Afro-Brazilian Religions and the Prospects for a Philosophy of Religious Practice

Feminism, Religion and Practical Reason

‘Not so much thought out as danced out’: expanding philosophy of religion in the light of Candomblé

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About