Metamorphoses of the Divine Absolute in the Light of Religious Studies Vision (by the Work of Kyiv Theological Academy Professor Yakym Olesnytskyi “From Talmudic Mythology”)

The article continues the series of investigations that demonstrate the experience of religious reading of the significant works of prominent Kyiv professors-academics of the last third of the 19th – early 20th century. These works have accumulated a powerful array of empirical material relevant to the history and theory of religious studies. Accordingly, the reconstruction of the field of theoretical positions important for the formation of the “science of religion” in the domestic intellectual tradition is currently being updated.The work of the Hebrew scholar and biblical scholar Yakym Olesnytsky is represented. This researcher was one of the first in the domestic humanities to analyze the “aggadic” layer of Talmudic writing through the prism of comparative-religious and religious-historical approaches. Metamorphoses of biblical images and plots, events of the ancient history of the Hebrew people, which arose under the influence of various mythological, philosophical, and folk traditions, were revealed. There was a real demythologization of “aggadah” from the standpoint of historical and literary criticism.On the basis of a religious reading of J. Olesnytsky’s text, this article traces some metamorphoses of theistic ideas in the process of the rise of Talmudic Judaism. They are analyzed from the point of view of the categories relevant to the philosophy and phenomenology of religion: Religious Experience, the Supernatural, the Another Reality as Sacred, the Absolute. A number of cognitive situations initiated by Olesnytsky, valuable from the point of view of a wider range of disciplines: philosophy and phenomenology of religion, history of religion, sociology and psychology of religion, religious comparative studies have been identified. This experience will be used in further research on the materials of the work of a well-known Kyiv academician.

建構道教器官捐贈現代教義詮釋

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English. 道教以不老不死成仙為終極關懷。隨著科學發展和宗教互涉，部份道派已放棄今世肉體永活的基要信仰，轉而信奉輪迴轉世，但是道教生命觀仍然重視身體的保養和修煉，如何在古老成仙終極關懷和現代器官捐贈議題中取得平衡，需要重新詮釋教義。然而，道教教義縱向有時代轉變，橫向有派別不同，必須整體綜觀才能抽取其中必要而共通的元素，繼而以之思考器官捐贈的議題。因此，下文將梳理歷代道經文獻，應用宗教現象學的概念，系統分析主要道派對器官捐贈的可能態度及成因，並提出器官捐贈的教義現代詮釋以供參考：現今道教普遍依然相信人生是樂，追求延壽消災，正一道全真道等主要派別均信奉星斗信仰經典，因此其中《太上玄靈斗姆大聖元君本命延生心經》的身體觀可視為共通教義，它將輪迴主體定位於人體中心，按現代醫學大可定義為腦髓，活體或遺體器官捐贈， 因此均不會對捐贈者或受贈者的轉世投胎有負面影響。而且，道教善於向社會主流道德倫理價值觀屈服，現今維護人權和同理心均是全球主流道德倫理價值觀。活體器官捐贈可利益他人活命或有善功以助成仙，但也或會阻礙自身修行進程，如何抉擇應尊重個人的主動性意願。 The ultimate concern of the Daoist religion is becoming an immortal with eternal youth. Yet with the influence of modern scientific development and increasing interactions between different religions, some Daoist sects have given up the old doctrine of immortality and replaced it with the Buddhist tenet of reincarnation. Nevertheless, Daoism is facing a moral dilemma between its deeply held idea of the somatic cultivation of the body and the modern idea of organ donation. In this paper, the author interprets Daoist texts through the lens of phenomenology of religion and explores the possible reconciliation between traditional Daoist practice and the practice of organ donation. The paper shows that different Daoist sects hold different opinions, but that in general, Daoism grants agency regarding the decision to the individual practitioner.

Joachim Wach and the Phenomenological Tradition in the Religious Studies

Целью статьи является определение места Иоахима Ваха (1898-1955 гг.) в феноменологической религиоведческой традиции. Для этого проводятся реконструкция концептуальных основ его религиоведческой системы и философский анализ его теории религиозного опыта, анализируются социологические и религиоведческие элементы, наследие Ваха сопоставляется с трудами классиков немецкой феноменологии религии Р. Отто, Ф. Хайлером. В результате исследования доказывается, что теория Иоахима Ваха близка к идее концентрической схемы Ф. Хайлера, но система Хайлера была препарирована и использована им в угоду модной тенденции социологических исследований. Отмечается, что важный момент в учении И. Ваха составляет его представление об отношениях мастера и ученика. Анализируя эту концепцию, можно заключить, что для социологии Ваха важно не то, что общество воздействует на религию, а то, что религия создаёт общество. Описывая центр религии, И. Вах полностью полагался на концепцию нуминозного Р. Отто. Вах убежден, что в самой сути человека заложено нуминозное чувство, которое активизируется при встрече с тем, что он именовал предельной реальностью, Святым или нуминозным. Диалогические отношения человека и предельной реальности - фундамент религиоведческого метода Ваха. В то же время сам процесс религиозного опыта, его характеристики, значение для жизни индивида больше напоминают не Ahndung Я. Фриза, воспринятый Р. Отто, а чувство, описанное У. Джеймсом. The purpose of the article is to determine the place of Joachim Wach (1898-1955) in the tradition of phenomenology of religion. For this purpose, the reconstruction of the conceptual foundations of his religious system and the philosophical analysis of his theory of religious experience are carried out, the sociological and religious elements are analyzed, the legacy of Wach is compared with the works of the classics of the German phenomenology of religion, R. Otto and F. Heiler. The article shows the proximity of this theory to the concentric model, proposed by F. Heiler, but Heiler’s system was dissected and used by Wach in favor of the fashionable trend of sociological research. In his description of the center of religion J. Wach completely relied on the concept of numinous by R. Otto. Wach is convinced that there is a numinous feeling inherent in the very essence of man, which is activated when man faced with Ultimate reality, Holy or Numinous. The dialogical relations of man and Ultimate reality are the foundation of the Wach’s method of religious studies. At the same time, the process of religious experience itself more closely resembles with religious experience in the terms of W. James.

Religious and heuristic meaning of sacred places of memory: «Arasan-Korasan»

In general science, the concepts of "sacred" and "sacred" are comprehensively considered by the phenomenology of religion. The phenomenology of religion, analyzing these concepts, gives the following definitions. A saint is a value, or an action, given or created by the creator. In other words, it means sanctity, sanctity. And the concept of holiness is used in the implementation of these divine values, or actions. This concept is usually used in religious rituals and Customs. Sanctification is often characterized by the process of purification, removal, for example, exhalation, removal with a healing plant with adraspan, etc. The article provides a definition of the broad meaning of the concepts of" sacred "and" sacred " for the Kazakh people. Based on this, the research paper presents the results of the study of the history of the sacred place "sacred Arasan – Korasan" in Besmoynak village of Zhambyl District of Almaty region, the ways of religious and ritual pilgrimage of pilgrims, the sacral nature of springs, their importance in healing and healing, their place in the development of tourism, the name of the sacred place in general. The publication in the scientific literature of information about the sacred place of Arasan, about the properties of underground springs in it, contributed to the fact that this place was included in the list of sacred objects of interregional Kazakhstan, including Semirechye, and was protected by the state.

“Being-Placed before God”: Reading the Early Heidegger’s Phenomenology of Liturgy with Jean-Yves Lacoste

This article aims to demonstrate, by means of a comparison with Lacoste’s proposal, that we can find a particular phenomenology of liturgy in the early Heidegger’s phenomenology of religion, centered in the structure of “being-placed before God”. His examination of this structure manages to go deeper than Lacoste in order to account for the essence of human existence. With this purpose in mind, in the first section of the article I will the present the basic features of the liturgical experience, as it is introduced in Experience and the Absolute. In the second section, I will analyze the early Heidegger’s phenomenology of religion and its interpretation of Christian factical life experience. Finally, in the third section, I will bring the insights from both sections together to establish the particularities of Heidegger’s phenomenology of liturgy.

The Knowledge of God: Realism as Natural Theology in Max Scheler’s Phenomenology of Religion

Max Scheler’s phenomenology of religion aimed at a renewed philosophical approach to the problem of God, willing to unify the modern need for a personalization of religion with the traditional objectivism and realism which, ever since the days of Thomas Aquinas, had been basic for Catholicism. For this purpose, Scheler argued for a return to an original level of the experience which could enable a new approach to the religious phenomenon, which could consider it at the level of a «living evidence», answering to the exigence of realism for which phenomenological philosophy was calling, thereby founding an original natural theology.

The Religious Studies System of Mircea Eliade: The Phenomenology of Religion or the Politics of Myth?

Задача статьи состоит в сопоставлении религиоведческой концепции Мирчи Элиаде с традицией феноменологии религии. Устоявшаяся идея существования так называемой «чикагской школы», понимаемой обычно как форма феноменологии религии на американской почве, вызывает большие сомнения. Современные исследователи утверждают, что между лидерами этой «школы» (И. Вахом и М. Элиаде) нет никакой научной связи, а само понятие «чикагская школа» - конструкт, созданный учеником И. Ваха Дж. Китагавой. Чтобы проверить эти утверждения, в статье последовательно анализируются центральные концепции системы Элиаде: представление о центре религии, иерофании, крипторелигиозности, его идеи сопоставляются с системами классиков феноменологии религии - Р. Отто, Ф. Хайлера, И. Ваха. В заключении статьи делается вывод о том, что Элиаде не принадлежал к феноменологической традиции изучения религии ни в её голландском, ни в её немецком вариантах. Концепты illud tempus , ностальгии по истокам, иерофании, а также систематика через архаизацию проявлений священного пространства и времени, составляющие ядро системы Элиаде, не имеют параллелей в творчестве феноменологов-классиков. Показывается, что религиоведческая концепция Элиаде была укоренена не в феноменологической традиции, а в его внутреннем психологическом опыте. Не проблема систематизации и описания религиозной жизни и не дискуссии о «Святом» лежали в её основе, а поиск противоядия против исторического редукционизма, желание сбежать от необходимых процессов старения, изменения, экзистенциальной неуверенности в идеализированный образ вечного прошлого. Эта психологическая ориентация Элиаде роднит его с направлением, называемым «политикой мифа», пытавшимся реабилитировать мифологическое сознание, к которому принадлежали К. Г. Юнг, Дж. Кэмпбелл, А. Корбен. Но тем не менее, проект Элиаде схож с феноменологией религии, поскольку религия понимается им как suigeneris . The aim of the article is to compare Mircea Eliade concept of religion with the tradition of the phenomenology of religion. The well-established idea of the existence of the so-called Chicago school , usually understood as a form of phenomenology of religion on American soil, raises great doubts. Modern researchers argue that there is no scientific connection between the leaders of this school (J. Wach and M. Eliade), and the very concept of Chicago school is a construct created by a student of J. Wach, J. Kitagawa. To verify these claims, the article has analyzed the central concepts of Eliade’s system: the idea of the center of religion, hierophany, crypto-religion, his ideas are compared with the systems of the classical phenomenology of religion - R. Otto, F. Heiler, and J. Wach. The article concludes that Eliade did not belong to the phenomenological tradition of studying religion, either in its Dutch or German versions. The concepts of Illud tempus , nostalgia for the origins , hierophany , systematics through the archaization, manifestations of sacred space and time, which form the core of the Eliade’s system, have no parallels in the work of classical phenomenologists. It is shown that Eliade’s religious concept was rooted not in the phenomenological tradition, but in his inner psychological experience. In its core lay the search for an antidote to historical reductionism, the desire to escape from the necessary processes of aging and existential uncertainty into an idealized image of the eternal past. This psychological orientation of Eliade is related to the so called the politics of myth , which tried to rehabilitate the mythological consciousness, to which C. G. Jung, J. Campbell, H. Corbin belonged. Nevertheless, Eliade’s project is similar to the phenomenology of religion, since religion is understood by him as sui generis .

Hacia una filosofía fenomenológica de la religión

La fenomenología de la religión es una de las ciencias de las religiones surgida en el siglo XIX. Tras una época dorada, las dificultades epistemológicas y los debates suscitados en torno al estatuto del saber la abocaron a una profunda crisis interna. En la actualidad, existen dos formas de entender la fenomenología de la religión: la primera, como historia comparada de las religiones, centrada en la descripción y clasificación de los fenómenos religiosos; la segunda, como fenomenología hermenéutica, centrada en la comprensión del fenómeno religioso. Ambas corrientes constituyen dos visiones divergentes de la fenomenología de la religión. Sin embargo, podrían concebirse como dos fases fenomenológicas convergentes que apuntan a la consolidación de una antropología filosófica de la religión. En este artículo, analizamos el objetivo, los principales representantes, las dificultades epistemológicas y los logros de cada una de estas for-mas de comprender la fenomenología de la religión y su posible conjugación en la configuración de una filosofía fenomenológica de la religión.The phenomenology of religion is one of the sciences of religions emerged in the 19th century. After a golden age, the epistemological difficulties, and the debates about the status of knowledge led to a deep internal crisis. At present, there are two ways of understanding the phenomenology of religion: the first, as a com-parative history of religions, focused on description and classification of religious phenomena; the second, as a hermeneutical phenomenology, focused on the understanding of religious phenomena. Both currents constitute two divergent views of phenomenology of religion. However, they can be conceived as two convergent phenomenological phases that point to the consoli-dation of a philosophical anthropology of religion. In this paper, we analyze the goal, main representatives, epistemological difficulties and achievements of each of these ways of understanding the phenomenology of religion and its possible conjugation in the configuration of a phenomenological philosophy of religion.