The politics of spirit : phenomenology, genealogy, religion / Tim Murphy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Murphy, Tim, 1956-

Series:

SUNY series, issues in the study of religion.

SUNY series, issues in the study of religion

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Phenomenology--History.

Phenomenology.

Religion--Philosophy--History.

Religion.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (409 p.)

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

A penetrating critique of the dominant approach to the study of religion, The Politics of Spirit explores the historical and philosophical scaffolding of the phenomenology of religion. Although this approach purports to give a value-free, neutral description of religious data, it actually imposes a set of metaphysical and evaluative concepts on that data. A very harmful ethnocentrism has resulted, which plagues the academic study of religion to this day. Analysis of the history, core texts, and discursive structure of phenomenology of religion reveals how this ethnocentrism is embedded within its assumptions. Of particular interest is the revelation of the extent to which Hegel's ideas—over those of Husserl—contributed to the tenets that became standard in the study of religion.Tim Murphy argues that the poststructuralist concept of genealogy, as derived from Nietzsche, can both describe religion better than the phenomenological approach and avoid the political pitfalls of ethnocentrism by replacing its core categories with the categories of difference, contingency, and otherness. Ultimately, Murphy argues that postmodern genealogy should replace phenomenology as the paradigm for understanding both religion and the study of religion.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction, Background, Methodological Issues

The Phenomenology of Religion

Discourse, Text, Philosophemes

Readings in the Discourse of the Phenomenology of Religion

Geist, History, Religion

Religion in Essence and Development

“Experience, Expression, Understanding”

Geist, Nature, and History

Phenomenology as Empathetic Taxonomy

Experience, Expression, Empathy

Overcoming the Foreign through Experience, Expression, Understanding

The Total Hermeneutics of the New Humanism

Poststructuralist, Postcolonialist Analyses

“The Center Does Not Hold”

The “End of Man” and the Phenomenology of Religion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438432892

1438432895

9781441686985

1441686983

OCLC:

704275342