Embodied Practice and Materialist Phenomenology

2021 ◽  
pp. 127-146
Author(s):  
Richard B. Miller

This chapter critically examines the Materialist-Phenomenological Method for studying religion and the work of the sociologist of religion Manuel A. Vásquez. This method focuses on the study of embodied religious practices, visual cultures, vernacular idioms, and particular locales as these are studied according to historical and often ethnographic methods of analysis. The chapter interrogates Vásquez’s work More than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion, which proffers a “somatocentric” theory that aims to escape the legacy of Cartesian dualism. The chapter raises questions about Vásquez’s philosophical anthropology and shows how he repeats and reinforces the firewall separating the study of religion from reasons for studying it. In More than Belief, the chapter shows, one encounters the fact-value dualism that underwrites the ascetic ideal in religious studies, one so thoroughgoing that it prevents Vásquez from grasping the need to provide philosophical reasons to justify his theory.

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 479-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blair Alan Gadsby

AbstractTeaching religion in public education can benefit from the discourse in Religious Studies (rs) around the problem/problemof defining religion. This is nowhere truer than in community college (cc). However, the notion that the term ‘religion’ is of limited value (represented here asproblem) is of not-much-use inccdue to religion’s perceptible nature. It is evident to citizens that there is ‘religion’, and while not-much-clear about it by way ofrsdefinitions, it is anidentifiable and operative category. I cite the incident of Frank Roque the “9/11 Revenge Killer” to show that there is such a category in the minds of the public and utilize Stark and Bainbridge’sA Theory of Religionto focus the discourse beyond theproblemto the pedagogic and heuristic potentials of the problem for educators and ultimately citizens. The challenge forrsis to find ways for its analyses of religions to have a better effect in society. Otherwise, the categorywillbe shaped by other forces as revealed in the words of the murderer regarding his Sikh victim, “I just viewed them all as just hateful Muslims.”


Author(s):  
Arie L. Molendijk

Abstract This article explores Gerardus van der Leeuw’s view of phenomenology of religion. The phenomenological method he defended is basically a hermeneutical approach in which an observer relates personally and even existentially to the “phenomena” (s)he studies in order to determine their essence (Wesensschau). In his anthropology (that reflects on the basic structure of human beings) a similar way of relating to the world is discussed: the “primitive mentality” that is characterized by the “need to participate” (besoin de participation). Both phenomenology and mentalité primitive imply a critique of modern scholarship. This fundamental criticism of the prevailing (historical) approach in the humanities including religious studies explains the growing distance between van der Leeuw and the majority of scholars of religion in the decades after his death in 1950.


2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 430-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Scheper Hughes

Abstract This review essay engages Manuel Vásquez’s new book, More than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion, from the perspective of Latin American religious practice and thought. Vásquez’s materialist theory of religion is shaped by Latin American intellectual strands, including liberationist intellectual concerns and commitments. While Vásquez’s focus remains primarily on the body, his work allows for and invites a more extended theorization of material religion (or material culture)—bringing new attention to the “objects,” the “things,” that so often anchor and define religious practice in Latin America and across the globe.


Author(s):  
Ruslan Mokhnyuk

The purpose of the article is to analyze the factual and practical experience of creative unions of Ukraine in the context of cultural creation of civil society. Methodology. General scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, generalization, induction, deduction allow to present the material in their cultural and historical integrity, to outline the features of the functioning of creative unions and to trace their impact on the development of civil society. The study of cultural mode is based on the use of the phenomenological method. Scientific novelty is to highlight the cultural aspect of the activities of creative unions for the development of civil society. The research can be used by creative unions in planning, implementation of cultural and artistic projects, development of thematic scientific and methodological materials, as well as in reading cultural disciplines in higher education. Conclusions. Factual and practical material on the activities of creative unions in Ukraine exists in a separate, non-systematic manner. Creative unions are basically charged with a cultural approach to the search for and implementation of modern projects, which are mostly clustered in nature. The cultural mode of creative projects, combining content and form with their aesthetic and artistic reproduction of reality, value-semantic dominants, innovative discoveries, identity, are decisive in the development of civil society.


Author(s):  
Adair Aparecida Sberga ◽  
Marina Massimi

ResumoO artigo apresenta o conceito de formação da pessoa concebido por Edith Stein a partir da sua investigação de base antropológico-filosófica sobre a constituição da pessoa. Seguindo o método fenomenológico, Stein descreve a estrutura do ser humano para poder apresentar o conceito de formação. Explica que, pela análise da origem da matéria, o corpo humano é preenchido por uma forma interior, a qual tem a propriedade de atualizar as potencialidades contidas no ser da matéria. Essa atualização acontece por meio de um processo formativo, o qual plasma o material até fazê-lo assumir uma forma, segundo um arquétipo. No caso do ser humano, a forma que ele deve assumir é a que está inscrita no seu núcleo pessoal. Por isso a atividade formativa tem que penetrar na alma da pessoa e chegar ao seu núcleo, no qual está sua originalidade pessoal. A partir dessa constatação, chegou-se a uma aproximação com o Sistema Preventivo de São João Bosco, que afirma que “em todo jovem há um ponto acessível ao bem”. Esse “ponto acessível” não é outra coisa que a alma humana, e, assim, os princípios pedagógicos propostos por Bosco se fundamentam na antropologia filosófica de Stein e podem ser descritos como itinerários educativos para a formação de crianças, adolescentes e jovens.Palavras-chave: Formação. Pessoa. Edith Stein. Sistema Preventivo de Dom Bosco.The formation of the person Edith Stein, educational principles and approach to the preventive system of Don BoscoAbstractThe article introduces the concept of the formation of the person understood by Edith Stein from her anthropological-philosophical-based survey about the person’s constitution. By following the phenomenological method, Stein describes the structure of the human being so that she is able to introduce the concept of formation. She explains that, through the analysis of the matter origin, an inner shape, which has the propriety to update the potentialities held in the matter being, fulfills the human body. That updating occurs through a formative process, which molds the material until it makes it adopt a shape, according to an archetype. In the human being case, the shape that he must adopt is that one that is registered in his personal nucleus. Therefore, the formative activity has to penetrate the soul of the person and reach its nucleus, where his personal originality is. From that verification, naturally, an approach to Saint Giovanni Bosco’s Preventive System was reached, which affirms “in every youth there is a point accessible to good”. That “accessible point” is not other thing than the human soul and, thus, the pedagogical principles purposed by Bosco are justified on the philosophical anthropology by Stein, and they may be described as educational itineraries for children, adolescents and youths’ formation.Keywords: Formation. Person. Edith Stein. Dom Bosco Preventive System.La formación de la persona Edith Stein, principios educativos  y aproximación al sistema preventivo de Don BoscoResumenEl artículo presenta el concepto de formación de la persona diseñado por Edith Stein de su investigación base antropológica y filosófica de la constitución de la persona. Siguiendo el método fenomenológico, Stein describe la estructura del ser humano para poder introducir el concepto de la educación. Se explica que el análisis del origen del cuerpo humano en bruto se llena con una forma interior, que tiene el potencial para actualizar está contenida en el campo. Esta actualización ocurre a través de un proceso de capacitación, lo que da forma a la materia para que sea en una forma, de acuerdo a un arquetipo. En el caso del hombre, la forma en que debe tomar es la que se introduce en el núcleo de personal. Por lo tanto, la actividad de formación tiene que penetrar en el alma de la persona y llegar al núcleo, donde es su originalidad personal. Sobre la base de este hallazgo se llegó a un acercamiento con el Sistema Preventivo de Don Bosco, que establece que “todo joven hay un punto de buena accesible”. Este “punto de acceso” no es más que el alma humana y por lo tanto los principios pedagógicos propuestos por Bosco se basan en la antropología filosófica y Stein se pueden describir como itinerarios educativos para la formación de niños, adolescentes y jóvenes.Palabras clave: Formación. Persona, Edith Stein. Sistema Preventivo de Don Bosco.


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