Naslov
Meeting the Others in their Differences Toward a Christian Approach to the Scientific Study of Religions

Autori
Brassard, Francis

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija knjige
Autorske knjige, monografija, znanstvena

Izdavač
Ekpyrosis Press

Grad
Kalamazoo (MI)

Godina
2021

Stranica
166

ISBN
978-1-7350576-7-5

Ključne riječi
Comparative religion ; Christianity ; Islam ; religious discourses ; pluralism

Sažetak
This is a book of comparative religion from a Christian perspective. Firstly, it offers a brief survey of the motivations for the development of the major approaches to the modern study of religion. It will be argued that those approaches are the outcome of a specific understanding of man’s fundamental problem and what ought to be its solution. This discussion leads me to the second part of the book where I present the notion of problematics. This notion allows me to assess the similarities and differences between religions especially when they appear to share similar symbols. To illustrate its application, Islam and Christianity are compared. Because the notion of problematics may yield a relativistic view of religion, it is completed with a model whose function is to restore the specificity of the major religious discourses. For example, it is shown that the relativistic nature of such a discourse is also relative to a particular aspiration. Four categories of aspiration have been identified, each corresponding to a specific mode of resolving a distinct crisis. The first mode is called the ritual mode of resolution and it encompasses all the traditions whose purpose is to predict and control the forces of the world. We find here the rituals of sacrifice, all forms of divination, the practice of magic, etc. The second mode, the mystical mode of resolution, comprises all mystical traditions aspiring to liberation from this world. Buddhism and the various Yogas of Hinduism are good examples of traditions articulated by this second mode. The discourses of the third mode, the relational mode of resolution, are based on the idea that this world has been created by a transcendental Being who has directly revealed as His Will a code of laws regulating the relations between the members of a given community. Here, we predominantly find Judaism and Islam. The fourth mode is called the mode of the cross. It is specific to the Christian discourse of reconciliation between mankind and God as brought about by the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Although these four modes of resolution establish the uniqueness of the discourses they respectively articulate, they do not exclude each other and as such, like science and ethics, are reconcilable.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Religijske znanosti (interdisciplinarno polje)

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