Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Religion: Religion is a system of beliefs and practices that relate humanity to spirituality and moral values. Many religions have organized communities of believers and some have sacred texts or scriptures. Some religions have no formal organization or sacred texts. See also Religious belief, Theology, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Word of God, God, Bible, Bible criticism._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Mark Lilla on Religion - Dictionary of Arguments
Lilla I 66 Religion/Lilla: (…) there is one aspect of it about which the Bible is nearly silent, and that is religion. There is no biblical teaching about the human sources of religion. That may seem an eccentric claim, but consider the matter. The Hebrew Bible describes God’s covenants and his laws; it prescribes ceremonies, rituals, and holy days. It speaks of faithfulness and faithlessness in the history of God’s people; it warns of punishment and makes promises of reward. The New Testament speaks of those who drop everything to follow Jesus, who are called to imitate his example; it also speaks of those who betray him, of Judas and even of Peter, who weakened before the cock crowed. Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray, and they do. The Bible does not ask why they do, just as it does not ask why Abraham chose to trust God and nearly sacrifice Isaac. In fact, it does not ask any of the questions we take to be natural when thinking about religion today. >Christianity/Lilla. Lilla I 67 Why is man religious? What sort of role does religion play in human society? What are the varieties of religious experience? How have they developed over time and across cultures? Our assumption seems to be that the more we understand religion, the more we understand man. That is not the Bible’s assumption. Modern man poses these sorts of questions about religious sentiments and practices, but they are not new questions. The philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome were the first to look into the matter systematically and develop rival theories explaining religion as a human phenomenon. Whether or not they themselves believed in gods, they did think it possible to study what came to be called “natural religion” as a social fact. They were curious about the diversity of religious practices in ancient cities and empires, how those practices changed over time, and how they might be linked to the exercise of political power. And so they asked themselves, what is it about man that makes such a phenomenon possible? >Bible, >Bible ciriticism. Aristotle: Aristotle made the influential suggestion that religion was born of wonder, which was then given expression through myth. >Aristotle. Epicurus: Another school, the Epicureans, speculated that religion arose from ignorance and fear of suffering, expressing hopes that the gods might protect us. >Epicurus. Some, the so-called Euhemerists, remarked that many nations turn their heroes into gods and reasoned that many traditional gods probably began as human heroes. Lilla I 68 Stoicism: And then there were the Stoics, who emphasized the fact that, whatever role ignorance and fear may play in belief, basic religious notions across cultures are remarkably similar. They laid out the genial theory that a magnanimous force (spermatikos logos) plants divine seeds in all human souls that blossom into roughly similar moral and religious ideas in all nations. >Stoicism. Paganism: The pagans did not know, or would not hear, the word of the true God, and therefore their analysis of religion did not apply to genuine faith and obedience. God revealed his word in the Bible to help man overcome his tendency toward such “religion.” Judaism: Judaism has a long theological tradition of thinking about idolatry, which plays a central role in the biblical narrative, and also about the distinction between genuine and false prophets. Judaism.Maimonides: Maimonides, for example, laid down strict rules for judging prophets and speculated that idolatry developed out of the decay of an original monotheism, which was eventually recovered by Abraham. Lilla I 69 Islam: Muslim theology had reached many of these same conclusions before Maimonides. But neither tradition asks itself the anthropological questions: What makes man religious at all? And is there a link between genuine and idolatrous religious behavior? >Islam. Idolatrism: At the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans Saint Paul offered the classic account, explaining how God manifested himself to all the gentile nations, which recognized him not and bowed instead before graven images. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” preferring the works of their own hands to those of their creator (Romans 1:18–25). Augustine/Bonaventura: A different approach was opened up by Saint Augustine and later Saint Bonaventure, who borrowed the Stoic thought that God illuminated souls from within; they suggested that the nonidolatrous religious instincts of Christians arose from this inner illumination. Catholic church: Consensus on this matter appeared in the Catholic Church only with Saint Thomas in the thirteenth century. Tomas Aquinas: Relying on Aristotle’s moral psychology, Thomas found a way to portray Christian religiosity as a kind of moral virtue, lying midway between the vices of superstition and disbelief. Religious practice is no means to salvation, he taught; it cannot substitute for grace. But it can be a moral aid to those who believe, yet need help in their unbelief. >Thomas Aquinas. Lilla I 70 Calvinism: (…) during the Reformation Calvin had suggested that man has a natural awareness of the divine (sensus divinitatis) planted in him by God, though it is corrupted by sin. But not until the seventeenth century, with the revival of Stoicism and Epicureanism, did a complete anthropology of religion become a central feature of Western thought again, including political thought. >Political theology, >Political theory, >Political philosophy, >Calvinism._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Lilla I Mark Lilla The Stillborn God. Religion, Politics, and the Modern West New York: Random House. 2007 |
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