The phenomenological method revisited: towards comparative studies and non-theological interpretations of the religious experience Cover Image

The phenomenological method revisited: towards comparative studies and non-theological interpretations of the religious experience
The phenomenological method revisited: towards comparative studies and non-theological interpretations of the religious experience

Author(s): Åke Sander
Subject(s): Theology and Religion, Comparative Studies of Religion, Religion and science
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie
Keywords: philosophy of religion; sociology of religion; phenomenology of religion; religious studies; comparative studies; comparative methodology; secularization

Summary/Abstract: In recent last decades, two major and interrelated themes have dominated the study of religion: (a) the theme claiming that the long taken-for-granted so-called “secularization” thesis was all wrong, and (b) the theme of the so-called “return” or “resurgence of religion”. This global revival of religion has been chronicled lately in a number of important books, referred to in this paper. Nowadays, comparative religion can, very broadly, be conducted using two types of data: texts or living human beings. In this paper I will argue that the best way to conduct comparative studies of lived religion is the method of a Husserlian based phenomenology of religion in the sense of a “de-theologized” interpretative approach to religious consciousness and experience, which make no claims concerning the sui generis or the essential nature of religion.

  • Issue Year: IV/2014
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 9-34
  • Page Count: 26
  • Language: English