Abstract
Philosophical phenomenologies, in their multifarious versions, have bloomed in Europe and North America for many decades. Phenomenologies of religion have developed independently in the same regions and more or less at the same time.1 The interaction between philosophical and religious phenomenologies has been mutually beneficial in some sense but problematic in others. For example, Paul Ricoeur, who has been dissatisfied with the “perceptualist” philosophies which include “both Husserlian and existential phenomenologies” in dealing with the understanding of symbols, raises the question of inadequacy.2 Thus he proposes a “hermeneutic phenomenology” to meet the question.3
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Notes
Cf. J. D. Bettis, ed., Phenomenology of Religion (London: SCM Press, 1969);
J. Waardenburg, Classical Approaches to the Study of Religion: Aims, Methods and Theories of Research, vol. 1 ( The Hague: Mouton, 1973 ).
D. Ihde, Hermeneutic Phenomenology: The Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur ( Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1971 ), p. 4.
Ibid.
Cf. H. W. Bartsch, ed., Kerygma and Myth: A Theological Debate, trans. R. H. Fuller, 2 vols. (London: S.P.C.K., 1962–64). Ricoeur’s criticism on this point can be found in The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics, ed. D. Ihde (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 191 A), pp. 381–401.
E.g., J. W. Rogerson, Myth in Old Testament Interpretation ( Berlin: Walter de Gruter, 1974 ).
P. Ricoeur, pp. xxii, 402–24,468–97.
P. Ricoeur, p. 404; and J. Moltmann, Theology of Hope, trans. J. W. Leitch (London: SCM Press, 1967). Moltmann engaged in a dialogue with Ricoeur in The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology, trans. J. W. Leitch, (London: SCM Press, 1974), pp. 6, 296, 315 f. on the problem of Freud’s unconsciousness symbol.
P. Ricoeur, p. xxii. Cf. W. Pannenberg, ‘Eschatology and the Experience of Meaning,’ in Basic Questions in Theology, vol. 3, trans. R. A. Wilson (London: SCM Press, 1973), pp. 192–210,
‘Future and Unity,’ in Hope and the Future of Man, ed. E. H. Cousins (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972), pp. 60–77.
J. M. Kitagawa, ‘Humanistic and Theological History of Religions with Special Reference to the North American Scene,’NVMEN 27, Fasc. 2, (December 1980): 198–221.
Ibid., p. 212.
P. Tillich, Christianity and the Encounter of the World Religions, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963). Cf. also Kitagawa, pp. 213 f.
Kitagawa, pp. 215–19.
Ihde, p. 11.
W. Pannenberg, ‘Toward a Theology of the History of Religions,’ in Basic Questions in Theology, trans. G. H. Kehm, vol. 2 (London: SCM Press, 1971), pp. 65–118., esp., pp. 80–96 on the problem of the unity of history of religions.
Cf. O. E. Costas, Shattering Critique From the Third World (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1974). On the black theological movement, cf. J. H. Cone, Black Theology & Black Power (New York: Seabury Press, 1969 ), and A Black Theology of Liberation ( New York: Lippincott, 1970 ).
For a general Asian contextual theological movement, cf. E. P. Nacpil and D. J. Elwood, eds., The Human and the Holy: Asian Perspective in Christian Theology (Manila: New Day, 1978),
C. S. Song, The Compassionate God (New York: Orbis Books, 1982 ). On the problem of Christology, cf. J. Sobrino, Christology at the Crossroads, trans. J. Drury ( London: SCM Press, 1978 ).
Pannenberg, Basic Questions in Theology, 2: 73 f; Quotations are from G. van der Leeuw, Religion in Essence and Manifestation, trans. H. H. Penner, 2 vols. (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1963), 1: 100–114.
Ibid., p. 74. Quotations are from M. Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, trans. R. Sheed ( London: Sheed & Ward, 1958 ), p. 26.
Cf. also J. Needham, Science and Civilization in China, vol. 2 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1956), pp. 33–36;
Wang H. C., The Concept of Nature in Tao-Teh-Ching and Its Theological Meaning (in Chinese), ( Tainan: SEA Graduate School of Theology Press, 1978 ), pp. 31–62
Ihde, p. 7. Cf. Ricoeur, Symbolism of Evil, trans. E. Buchnan (Boston: Beacon Press, 1967), esp. pp. 3–24, 347–57.
Ricoeur, The Conflict of Interpretations, p. 6.
Ibid., pp. 381–401.
Ibid., pp. 11–24.
Ibid., p. 17.
Ibid., pp. 17 f.
Ibid., p. 22.
Ibid., p. 23.
Ibid., p. 24.
Cf. G. von Rad, Old Testament Theology, trans. D. M. G. Stalker, 2 vols. ( Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1966 ).
R. Bultmann, History and Eschatology: The Presence of Eternity ( New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1962 ).
W. Pannenberg et al., Revelation as History, trans. D. Granskou (London: Collier- Macmillan, 1968), and his Basic Questions in Theology, vol. 2.
Ricoeur, pp. 484 f, 496.
Ricoeur, The Symbolism of Evil, p. 182.
Ibid., p. 187.
For a more thorough treatment of this theme, cf. Wang H. C., pp. 121–30.
Cf. Wang H. C., ‘The Role of Confucianism, Taoism and Folk Religions in Shaping Some Perspectives of Chinese Political Vision,’ paper read at the Asian Consultation on Faith, Ideology, Culture and Political Vision, Hong Kong, 11–15, May 1982.
M. Eliade, Cosmos and History, trans. W. R. Trask ( New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1959 ).
Ricoeur, The Conflict of Interpretations, p. xvii.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. xix.
Ibid., p.xivf
Ibid
Ibid., p. xx.
Ibid., pp. xxi, 417.
Ibid., p. 406.
Pannenberg, Basic Questions in Theology, 2: 82.
Ibid., pp.87 f.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 113
Ibid., p. 117
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Wang, HC. (1984). A Critical Reflection on the Methods of Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, and the Idea of Contextualization in Religious and Theological Studies . In: Tymieniecka, AT. (eds) Phenomenology of Life in a Dialogue Between Chinese and Occidental Philosophy. Analecta Husserliana, vol 17. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6262-0_18
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