Abstract
The text was elaborated after some debate about the usefulness of academic study of religions in the Religions and Ideologies Research Seminar which took place in Iaşi and also by participating in la Summer Contact Session «Paradigms of Cohabitation, Tolerance and Interreligious Dialogue». The present study aims to analyse three scenarios for the academic study of religion in the modern context. Basically, we want to show that regardless of the manner of approaching the religious element (the foundation of all natural sciences according to O. Spengler, a variation in a mental computerized construction, based on the theories of IP Culianu, a complete science encompassing fundamental changes that can operate thanks to “creative hermeneutics”, according to M. Eliade) there are sufficient reasons to believe that the academic study of religion has an “use value”. Although no spectacular mutations would be obtained at cognitive and behavioural level, the simple religious familiarity and knowledge of the religious field allows a more profound approach of reality. Moreover, the academic study of religion could offer young people the chance to discover, know and respect the other person’s values.
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- 1.
Karl Popper, for example, said that a scientific theory should not claim to state a definitive truth. Instead, it should be subject to criticism and permanent adjustment. The conclusion is that any scientific knowledge proposes and deals with relative truths. This tendency, opposing universalist discourses and omniscient claims, is also present in the case of philosophers such as Michel Foucault or Jacques Derrida.
- 2.
In the context of modernity, some authors point to a crisis of reason. Thus, Jürgen Habermas, in his Theory of Communicative Action proposes a real dialogue between individuals, based on common argumentation principles. The American philosopher Richard Rorty, in an essay suggestively titled Hoffnung statt Erkenntnis (Hope in Place of Knowledge) proves to be a supporter of critical discussion. This, he author claims, is much more important to knowledge than researching the ultimate, absolute truth.
- 3.
Weak thought can be connected to Heidegger’s notions of Andenken (commemorative thinking, recollection), Verwindung (distortion), Überwindung (overcoming, convalescence, resignation). In other words, “weak thought” suggests a methodological weakness, which leads to the acceptance of other views.
- 4.
The fractal analysis model can also be applied successfully to sociological analyses concerning social time. A binary-fractal model of research is proposed by Nicu Gavriluţă in Fractalii şi timpul social (Fractals and social time), Cluj-Napoca, Dacia Publishing, 2003.
- 5.
Ioan Petru Culianu, in Arborele gnozei. Mitologia gnostică de la creştinismul timpuriu la nihilismul modern (The Tree of Gnosis: Gnostic Mythology from Early Christianity to Modern Nihilism—translated from English by Corina Popescu, Nemira Publishing, Bucharest, Romania, 1998) shows that mind games, through the choices they operate, can determine the route of our existence. “But life is, almost by definition, a type of operation we call analogous: it gives the impression of a continuous flow because the decisions it requires from us are too swift to be perceived as «digital», that is as sequences of binary commutations” (p. 343).
- 6.
We believe that the events on the international political stage (the Gulf War, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, other social movements) are also grounded in the idea of religious views. This could be a strong argument in favour of considering the study of religion as a form of education towards knowing and accepting the Other, different from a religious point of view.
- 7.
It is the idea postulated by Max Müller at the middle of the 19th century, the “second Renaissance”, following the Italian Renaissance, capable of bringing about an unprecedented cultural and spiritual renewal. Unfortunately, the encounter with the Eastern culture and spirituality only manifested itself in the specialists’ spheres and did not bring about the expected acculturation phenomenon.
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Gavriluţă, C. (2017). About “The Using Value” of Religion in the Academic Studies. In: Maturo, A., Hošková-Mayerová, Š., Soitu, DT., Kacprzyk, J. (eds) Recent Trends in Social Systems: Quantitative Theories and Quantitative Models. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol 66. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40585-8_11
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