Phenomenology of Religion

Phenomenology of religion is a branch of philosophy that studies the everyday experiences we have in relation to religion: this means everything from prayer to attending church to giving sermons to religious visions. This branch of phenomenology may have begun with the work of late-nineteenth century philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), whose theories were further developed by Rudolf Otto (1869–1937) and Mircea Eliade (1907–1986), among others. The goal of this form of scholarship is to determine the source, individual perception, and relevance of religious experiences, with the idea that all such experiences, regardless of their magnitude, are worthy of study.

The Basics of Phenomenology

It would be inappropriate to specifically discuss the phenomenology of religion without offering a grounding in the more broad ideas of phenomenology itself, particularly as presented by such philosophers as Edmund Husserl, Jena-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), and Martin Heidegger (1889–1976). Their essential tenets, briefly stated, were as follows.

These phenomenologists asserted that we should study the experiences we have as physical, observable experiences, and that we should try, where possible, to set aside ideas of symbolic importance in everyday experience. They felt that it was possible, if viewing certain experiences from the wrong perspective, to reduce the importance of an event to its psychological stature, and to disregard other aspects of the experience that might also have meaning. The phenomenologists were also interested in the idea of intentionality, meaning that to be conscious of some stimuli was to intend to be conscious of it. Additionally, phenomenology concerns itself with the essences of things rather than their surface particulars. This interest is often called the eidetic vision; the word "eidetic" describes a quality certain thoughts acquire in the mind, in which—when remembered later—they seem as vivid as when they were first experienced.

The Basics of Religious Phenomenology

The phenomenology of religion grew out of the work of a number of philosophers. The earliest thinker to address this discipline was Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834); in his Speeches on Religion, he indicated that the thinking of his time (the late 1700s) on religion did not sufficiently take into account what people who were having religious experiences might be aware of—as with their senses, for instance.

The work of P.D. Chantepie de la Saussaye (1848-1920) would further help to put a label on the phenomenology of religion, with his efforts serving as a foundational basis of thinking for the later work of Otto, Eliade, and others.

One important principle in religious phenomenology is that the individual undergoing a religious experience should try to describe rather than interpret religious phenomena. Instead of trying to determine what the relevance or potential repercussions of such an experience might be, the goal becomes simply describing what is occurring in as detailed a fashion as possible. The more elaborated and complete the description, the better.

The general position of the religious phenomenologist is one of empathy, where every effort is expended towards understanding what the worshiper experienced specifically, as well as what led to that experience, e.g. the reasons behind such phenomena—such as confession booths, the taking of Communion, etc. Coupled with this empathy is a certain impartiality, as well. The problem, whatever it might be, is not solved but understood within the phenomenological approach; a distinction is made between understanding a problem and explaining it, as explanation implies interpretation, and interpretation implies judgment.

In the process of developing an understanding of religious phenomena, different religions have to be studied, and within a religion, the varieties of religious experiences have to be looked at side by side. As they do this, phenomenologists are very conscious of not making gradations among religions or considering one phenomenon to be of greater significance than another. Instead, they try to develop a sense of the vast system of religions, placing each religion within it; similarly, they try to analyze where each type of phenomenon fits within the boundaries of an individual system of religious belief.

Moreover, it is important to the religious phenomenologist that, as explorations are made of these phenomena, these experiences not be reduced by describing them, for instance, as the result of a sociological pattern or a psychological need—this sort of approach diminishes their importance. The phenomenologist, in getting "under the hood" in his or her rumination on religious experiences, is trying to give a view from the inside of the experience, telling what it's "like," rather than simply providing an overview.

To get this sort of information, it's not outside the realm of possibility that a phenomenologist might actually undergo one of the experiences being described, the thinking being that first-hand knowledge can only make the exploration of the experience more meaningful for the explorer as well as increasing the depth of the ultimate description. What complicates the work of the phenomenologist is that emotion inevitably plays a central role in most religious experiences, from the smallest to the grandest.

As a result, maintaining the kind of impartiality necessary for a complete understanding can be very difficult—perhaps impossible. Additionally, the compilation of data required to meet the strictures of religious phenomenology has to lead towards a specific end—which would, most logically, be a judgment of some kind as to whether the religious experience in question is genuine. Ultimately, given the intangibility of faith itself—which, at its core, motivates and shapes all religious phenomena—the phenomenologist's claims of a lack of personal judgment or evaluation when assessing a religious experience may be difficult to accredit.

Bibliography

"Folk Religions—Phenomenology of Religion." Instituto Antropos. Agência Presbiteriana de Missões Transculturais. Web. 20 Sept. 2015. http://instituto.antropos.com.br/v3/index.php?option=com‗content&view=article&id=497&catid=35&Itemid=3

Murphy, Tim. "The Phenomenology of Religion." In The Politics of Spirit: Phenomenology, Genealogy, Religion. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2010. 3-27. Web. 20 Sept. 2015. http://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/62071.pdf

Wynn, Mark. "Phenomenology of Religion." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University. Web. 20 Sept. 2015. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology-religion/