Deconstructing Religion: Some Thoughts on Where We Go From Here — A Hermeneutical Proposal
This paper overviews contemporary debates on the deconstruction / historization of the category ‘religion’. It argues that a hard deconstruction which seeks to suggest the term is an empty signifier and analytically useless is unfounded philosophically and empirically. However, a soft deconstruction...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Brill
2018
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In: |
Exchange
Year: 2018, Volume: 47, Issue: 1, Pages: 5-24 |
RelBib Classification: | AA Study of religion VB Hermeneutics; Philosophy |
Further subjects: | B
Religion
hermeneutics
deconstruction
epistemology
Gadamer
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Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
Summary: | This paper overviews contemporary debates on the deconstruction / historization of the category ‘religion’. It argues that a hard deconstruction which seeks to suggest the term is an empty signifier and analytically useless is unfounded philosophically and empirically. However, a soft deconstruction which accepts the problems of employing the term, especially as found in the World Religions Paradigm, but suggests that ‘religion’ remains a useful tool to describe a specific social reality, is well founded. The article extends current debates by showing how philosophical hermeneutics, especially as exemplified by Hans-Georg Gadamer’s work, supports the soft deconstructive approach and further shows the conceptual inadequacy of hard deconstruction. |
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ISSN: | 1572-543X |
Contains: | In: Exchange
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/1572543X-12341465 |