Einleitung
Is the concept "religion" a European invention? In recent decades influential scholars have suggested that the concept is an idiosyncratic product of Western intellectual history which Western scholars have imposed on non-European cultures. In those cultures, they argue, the concept "...
| Published in: | Religion in Asien? |
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| Authors: | ; ; |
| Format: | Electronic/Print Article |
| Language: | German |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Uppsala Universitet
2013
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| In: |
Religion in Asien?
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Religion
/ Conception
/ Asia
|
| IxTheo Classification: | AA Study of religion KBM Asia |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Is the concept "religion" a European invention? In recent decades influential scholars have suggested that the concept is an idiosyncratic product of Western intellectual history which Western scholars have imposed on non-European cultures. In those cultures, they argue, the concept "religion" never existed prior to their first contact with the modern West. Rather, what we call "religion" had been an integral part of the respective culture, and Western scholarship artificially and illegitimately isolated it in order to create entities that are comparable to Western religions and thus comprehensible. This thesis is interesting and compelling, but it seems conspicuous that few of its proponents are experts in pre-modern, non-European cultures. The essays in this volume, written by such experts, discuss a variety of specific contexts in Asian history. They show that, contrary to the thesis, Asian cultures did indeed identify, sometimes in very specific ways, segments of culture that we would classify as "religion." This happens most commonly in situations where religious agents see themselves confronted with a certain "Other" with which they are competing. Clearly, the ways in which these segments are being identified in the sources are not fully identical with a Western definition of religion, as the emic terms have different semantic ranges, but the essays show that studying such specific differences can expand and enrich the subject of religious studies. Even more, some authors in this volume note that the idea of "the" Western concept of religion is in itself flawed; never in Western intellectual history has there been agreement on how to define religion. Rather than promote European or Western exceptionalism, the essays in this volume suggest to study the sources carefully and to reclaim the concept "religion" as a controlled metalinguistic and heuristic term whose semantic range and depth can (and should) be modified by constantly integrating new sources from the history of religions. |
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| ISBN: | 9155484271 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion in Asien?
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.15496/publikation-34989 HDL: 10900/93603 |