Gintaras Beresnevičius - šventybės fenomenų tyrinėtojas ir autentiškos religinės patirties ieškotojas
Gintaras Beresnevičius: the Investigator of the Phenomena of the Sacred and the Searcher for Authentic Religious Experience

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses some aspects of scholarly and literary legacy of the prominent Lithuanian intellectual gintaras Beresnevičius as well as the relation of that legacy to the scholar's personality. The author emphasizes the importance of Beresnevičius as the first professional Lithuanian scholar who worked in the field of the phenomenology of religion, also highlighting some of his achievements in the field of baltic mythology, the history of ideas, and the philosophy of religion. It is argued that the works of Beresnevičius investigating the general theoretical aspects of religion as such are, contrary to the present opinion, more important than his works on baltic mythology. The author notices some signs of evolution in the works of Beresnevičius from the empirical investigation of the phenomena of the sacred towards the original philosophy of religion which tries to reveal the nature and essence of the sacred and divine as such, bypassing the level of phenomena. The article also focuses on the literary activity of Beresnevičius, his extraordinary creative potential, radical political views, and the relation of his ideas to some tenets of postmodernism. The facts of rich and sometimes turbulent personal life of the scholar are interpreted as his search for authentic religious experience. This search is viewed as complementary to his theoretical investigations. The conclusion is made that the importance of scholarly and political activity of Beresnevičius to academic and cultural life of Lithuania is extraordinary and worthy of a deep analysis in the future.

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