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...
| Published in: | Exchange |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2018
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| In: |
Exchange
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| 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 |