Philosophy of religion: Taking leave of the abstract domain

Wilson, Philip (2025) Philosophy of religion: Taking leave of the abstract domain. Religions, 16 (2). ISSN 2077-1444

Preview

PDF (religions-16-00204) - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (283kB) | Preview

Abstract

John Cottingham argues that traditional university modules in the philosophy of religion take us into a ‘very abstract domain that is often far removed from religion as it actually operates in the life of the believer’. This paper makes four moves based on Cottingham. First, it argues that the application of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s methods supports and facilitates a shift to the anthropological in the philosophy of religion (as evidenced in the work of Mikel Burley). Second, literature is examined as a tool for doing the philosophy of religion, following Danielle Moyal-Sharrock’s notion of the literary text as surveyable representation. Three works are investigated, namely Silence by Shūshaku Endō, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the Gospel of John. It is argued that, far from being merely illustrative of religion, story is (in its widest sense) constitutive of belief. Third, it is shown how Wittgenstein’s remarks on mysticism in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus can be read as a transmutation of literary writing that creates a non-abstract mysticism of the world. Wittgenstein’s remarks are placed in dialogue with Angelus Silesius’s poetry and Leo Tolstoy’s The Gospel in Brief. Fourth, the relevance of Wittgenstein to the current debate on cultural Christianity is brought out. Philosophers of religion must take leave of the abstract, if only to return to it and to view it differently. Wittgenstein’s thought is too important to ignore in this venture.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data Availability Statement: No new data were created or analysed in this study. Data delivery is not applicable to this study. Funding Information: This research received no external funding.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	philosophy of religion,wittgenstein,literature,mysticism,cultural christianity
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Media, Language and Communication Studies
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Area Studies Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Philosophy Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > British Centre for Literary Translation Research Group
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	11 Feb 2025 12:30
Last Modified:	16 Feb 2025 06:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98449
DOI:	10.3390/rel16020204

Downloads

Actions (login required)

View Item