Postulations for Safeguarding Preconceptions

Abstract

The study of religion in an academic/scientific setting is in need of close philosophical scrutiny. It is unfortunate, therefore, that philosophy of religion has for the most part been seen as an activity continuous with the religious life itself. It has usually been understood, that is, as a rational explication of the import of religious experience; or, perhaps, in a more critical vein, as an examination of the doctrinal/dogmatic contents (whether explicit or implicit) of religious traditions. Although I do not wish to argue that such activity is either unwarranted or of no value at all, it does seem to me that there are more pressing matters regarding religion for philosophy to attend to — namely, ‘the study of religion’as a possible discipline, and the claims made on its behalf.¹ That kind of epistemological concern, with its ‘turn to the subject’, so to speak, will, at least in some senses, bring the philosophy of religion into the modern period and give it a relevance it seems to have lost in our own times.² Given the claims that students of religion have made regarding the scientific character of that undertaking, one might have expected the philosophers of science — and in particular the philosophers of the social sciences — to turn their attention in that direction. But they have not. It is quite appropriate, if not imperative, therefore, that the philosopher of religion take up precisely that task. Indeed, that kind of philosophy of religion, I venture to suggest, may have more to tell us about religion and the religions than can philosophy of religion as traditionally understood. This chapter, then, is intended as a first step in changing the focus of attention for the philosopher of religion, and in that process, to rejuvenate the philosophy of religion so as to make it, once again, an interesting and significant philosophic activity. In taking up the issue of the nature of the study of religion here, however, I shall pay particular attention to that study as it is undertaken in the North American academic setting.